Home » The Crystal Hall » Fan Fiction » A, vol. 3 and up
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| Re: A, vol. 3 and up [message #34538 is a reply to message #33630 ] |
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 Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 9
Thursday, October 5th – Evening
After Maria left, I got back into the yearbooks and scrapbooks. The bad news is that the yearbooks were pretty useless. All I found out from them was that Mr. J had been a pretty regular-looking kid, not really striking like some of the other students around. That and he was fairly active in martial arts, and it looked like he worked with the grounds crew for his student job.
The good news is that the scrapbooks were much more helpful. It showed that Mr. J had been in Emerson, like me. He was also a member of the Future Superheroes of America, which made me cringe. He sat around the cafeteria in a cape? Sure enough, I found him a picture of him sitting in what must have been the old cafeteria – wearing his costume, along with a bunch of other kids.
I rolled my eyes and kept reading. Just like in the yearbook, the scrapbook said that Mr. J was really involved in martial arts, only the scrapbooks said that he was one of the top guys in the brackets. It even had a few photographs of him fighting some guy who looked like a cross between a dragon and a giant. Mr. J was in battle-mode, so he was some 8 foot monstrosity of a thing, mixing panther and wolf parts in a humanoid form. He looked scary but _awesome_.
After that, I didn't really find anything more. Another trip into the archives would have to wait because the closing bell dinged after I finished reading through what I had. Once I put stuff back where I found it, I gathered up all my printouts and books and left. Chills jittered through my body the second I stepped outside, so I decided to jog back to Emerson. I was there a few minutes later.
I got inside, expecting to find Max reading on his bed, but he was nowhere to be found. For a minute, I thought about using the opportunity to work on bringing back some more Imprints, but I was just too tired for it. I yawned again, and I was ready for bed and under the covers in just a few minutes. As soon as I put my head on my pillow and closed my eyes, I was out.
Friday, October 6th
My eyes opened at first light. I blinked a few times, trying to make sense of the dream I had been having, but I couldn't remember enough details to get anywhere. I shrugged mentally and sat up before yawning. Eight hours hadn't been enough to catch me up on my lack of sleep from the Penny thing on Tuesday night, but I was feeling the better than I had the day before, so it was a start.
I got out of bed and put on my running clothes before jogging down the hall and out the door. Cold blasted my entire body once I stepped outside, but I was mostly used to it by the time I was around to the front of the building, where Zack was stretching in his usual place. We went through the warm-up routine and didn't really say much before we took off on our circuit. After that, we split up and went to take our showers.
I got back to my room, where Max looked like he had had a _rough_ night.
"Did you have trouble getting sleep last night?" I asked.
He gave me a wide smile. "You could say that."
I was about to ask what he meant by that, but then I remembered what he had scheduled for Thursday night. My cheeks flushed and I clammed up for a minute.
"Uh, why don't we go to breakfast?"
"I already ate," Max said, waggling his eyebrows.
I was about to ask, but my face went hot as I realized what he meant. Speechless, I stared at him, then down at the floor, then just turned and left the room, any plan of having breakfast gone with my appetite.
Thankfully, the rest of my day was pretty normal, with regular classes, a normal lunch, and a normal afternoon. Imagine that! A normal, peaceful day. Not that I was complaining. Not at all. I even got a few extra minutes when Flight class let out early, which meant that I had some extra time, so I gave Maria a buzz over the walkie after I dropped off all my stuff at my room.
"Oh, hey bear!" Maria said from the other end. "What's up?"
"I'd like to see the stuff in your room that you told me about, if you still want to show me."
"Yeah, I still do! I'll meet you by the main door in about 10?"
"Sure."
"Great! See you in a few."
A couple minutes later, I was by the main entrance to Dickinson, but I was earlier than Maria. After a while, I caught sight of her, and she was wearing her school uniform, but over it was a white lab-coat. To complete the nerdy outfit, she had on a set of super-techy goggles, and they looked even more complicated than the ones I'd seen her wear when she helped in the fight with Chasm. I couldn't help smiling at all her gear.
"Hey, bunny!" I called, waving.
"Hey, bear," she said.
I looked over her widgets again. "Was I interrupting something?"
"Nope! I was just in the Workshop messing with a new version of my auto-legs."
"How's that coming?"
"Good! I'm adding another pair for increased stability."
"Sounds good," I said. "So, you wanted to show me your room?"
"Right! C'mon." She took my hand and led me through the main door and pulled me down the hall to her room. She walked in and took off her goggles, putting them on her nightstand. While she fiddled with some things, I got to looking around at her and Penny's room, paying attention to everything for the first time, and I chuckled at the almost real line dividing Penny's half from Maria's half. Penny's half was perfectly neat, and all her books were arranged, and her bed was made and wrinkle free.
Maria's half was a wreck. Wires, plating, and half-finished gadgets were everywhere, and her bed was a pile of anime plushies and a tangle of comforters and sheets. I saw her beat-up robe hanging on a rack in the far corner of the room, along with a spare blazer. Right beside the rack was a full-body mirror, and there was a complicated-looking gadget on the ceiling above the mirror. When I finally looked back at Maria, she was wearing this chrome collar with a few green lights on it.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing at the collar.
She got a huge smile on her face. "It lets me do this!" she said, and then the lights dimmed and the temperature dropped. "With this on, I can control everything in the room!"
"You get cyberkinesis with that?"
She frowned a little. "Well, no. It only works with the stuff I've made. What the collar does is solves the problem of the body's electrical fields."
"Problem? Electrical fields?"
"Well, your body generates a small amount of electricity all the time, and all nerve and brain activity has a signature. That's what my auto-tech responds to. Normally, those electrical signatures aren't strong enough to reach across a room. With this, though," she said, pointing to the collar. "I can broadcast up to 10 meters."
"Neat. What else can you do with it?"
"Let's see . . ." she closed her eyes, and an unseen stereo came on, playing something that sounded J-poppy and vaguely familiar. She kept her eyes closed, and then the window opened and the blinds raised, lowered, and changed angles. After that, an alarm blared and even some of the half-finished parts on her desk moved around a little.
"That's so cool!" I said.
She smiled. "I'm still making the collar shielded, and everything, but I think I'm pretty close to having a final version. Eventually, I should be able to make it so that people will never have to leave their chairs and operate everything in their houses!"
"Sweet. And I saw that," I said, pointing to the gadget on the ceiling. "What's that do?"
"That's Armstrong, my auto-style!" she said.
"Armstrong? Auto-style?"
"Watch."
She walked to the full-body mirror and stood in a circle that had been taped-off on the floor. She closed her eyes for a second, and then the gadget sprung to life, a couple of spidery limbs popping out of the center. One held a comb, and the other had a scrunchy, and the third one was empty. The empty arm reached down first, taking Maria's hairtie off, letting her pony-tail down into a cascade of honey-blond hair. I stopped paying attention to the arms for a second, just staring at my bunny.
When I came back to myself, the comb-arm was already going through her hair, combing a good bit of it back. Once that was done, the scrunchie arm put the scrunchie on the freshly-made pony-tail. After that, the arms went back into their dome-thing. When Maria turned back to look at me, I gasped a little. The pony-tail was only partial, leaving a couple strips of hair to frame her face. The effect? She was very, very cute.
"Do you recognize the hair style?" she asked.
I didn't have to think long.
"Winry!" I said. "But it looks even better on you."
She blushed a little a gave me a sweet smile. "That's not all it can do, either. I have a bunch of different hair styles saved, and it can even dress me if I want it to. It still can't do make-up, though."
"It's still really cool," I said. "And I saw these," I said, walking over to her desk. "What are they all about?"
"Those are prototypes," she said, picking up one that looked like a regular arm instead of a spidery one. "I'm trying to get a fully-functional humanoid limb to work, but I haven't had much luck yet."
"Why are you trying that? Aren't your auto-hands good enough?"
"No," she said, "they're only the first stage of the design. Eventually, I want to have a full humanoid structure that you can operate by thinking it."
"Why would you want that?"
"Why _wouldn't_ you?" she said, sounding a little annoyed. "It would allow baselines and more vulnerable mutants to withstand things they couldn't normally: pollution, radiation, water pressure (once I make them airtight) . . ."
"Oh. I didn't think about that way."
"Besides that, you could have an exoskeleton that would be easy and intuitive to use, providing for a wide range of uses in construction, combat, rescue operations . . ."
"All right," I said. "I'm sold! How much?"
She giggled. "Well, it's not ready yet. I still have a lot of work to do before I'm there. Oh! I forgot. I still have one more project."
"Yeah?"
She looked around like she expected to catch someone peeping on us. "Power armor," she whispered.
"Power armor? Why's that such a big – "
"Because it will respond to what you want to happen!" she whispered, loudly. "Anyone could use it with minimal training!"
"Ohhh. Yeah, that makes sense."
"Yeah, but I'm stuck," she said, frowning.. "I just can't get an idea for the main theme. I've been working on it for the past few weeks, and I have the basic specifications and circuitry figured out, but I can't get past that. I need some . . . inspiration, I guess."
"Did you try looking through your manga and anime?"
"Yeah, sure have," she said, sighing. "Anime stuff is almost always 100% in Devisor territory."
"Hmmm. Wish I knew what to tell you."
"It's OK, it's just frustrating. I've never hit a snag before."
I lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "You'll figure it out, I know you will."
She grinned a little. "Thanks. Hey, why don't we go ahead over to the Hall? We'll be a little early, but that means better quality food."
My stomach grumbled almost on cue. "Sounds good to me!"
We held hands as we walked over to the Hall. Even though we still had a few hours of sunlight left, the afternoon air was incredibly cold and crisp, nipping at my nose and ears. Heck, it even _smelled_ cold, like the inside of a walk-in freezer. I looked up at one point to see that a stormfront was headed our way, which probably meant some really nasty rain mixed with freezing cold. Not fun.
By the time we got to the Hall, the cafeteria workers had just gotten the stuff out for supper, which meant that everything was as fresh as it could be. I smiled real big and helped myself to a couple of whole rotisserie chickens and few shovel-fulls of baked beans. Maria got a salad, a baked potato, and a small pork chop. Then, we headed over to our table, but none of the rest of the guys were there, yet.
I ripped into my meal as Maria talked more about her projects, including a new design on the communicators (walkies) that would make them more portable, something wrist-watch size, maybe. She said that the ones we had were clumsy, and that having something small and easy-to-access would be better. I just nodded and went back to eating. Maria talked a little while longer while I finished up, and then the guys came up one by one in the next few minutes.
"He~y!" Penny sang as she sat down. "Just couldn't wait for us, huh?"
"Oh, we just came here a little early after Maria showed me her stuff."
"Yeah, that sorta thing works up an appetite," Max said. Maria went three shades redder, and I punched him in the shoulder.
"You set yourself up for that one, bro," he said, chuckling.
"Set himself up for what?" Ray asked as she sat down.
"He saw Mari – "
"Not. Another. Word," I said.
Max just smiled and Ray looked confused for a split second before she shrugged. Inspira sat down soon afterward and looked around.
"What happened here?" she asked.
"Nevermind," I said.
"But – "
"Nevermind."
"OK, OK, sheesh. Forget I asked," she said before her eyes got big. She smiled knowingly before dipping into her potato soup. I gave her a look. She just smiled sweetly.
//_Psis._//
After that, Maria brought up martial arts. A few minutes later, something occurred to me.
"Hey, Ray, you've never mentioned what martial arts class you're in," I said. "Are you in BMA? AMA?"
She put her utensils down and folded her hands in her lap. "I am in neither."
"I didn't picture you being in Survival," Inspira said.
"I am not."
Penny stopped eating. "If you're not in BMA, AMA, or Survival, what do you take for self-defense?"
"Currently, I'm in a personal study course."
"Personal study?" Penny said, her voice gaining an edge. "Why are you taking personal study?"
"My schedule was especially full, due to my needing Powers Theory and Lab, as well core requirements, all in addition to Introduction to Mystical Concepts."
"Wait a sec, though," Max said. "I thought that all the MA personal studies were, like, sophomore classes."
"They are."
"And how did you qualify?" Penny asked, her voice quiet.
"I am apparently . . . very advanced, and already demonstrating the lessons of introductory martial arts courses."
"You're, like, a master, or something?" Max asked.
"I am not."
"But how did you get so good?" I asked. "Did you have training since childhood, or something?"
"No. I have only trained for the past year, but my abilities have allowed me to advance much faster than most students."
"How's that work?" Spira asked, then she got excited. "Do you have an Esper trick you haven't told us about?!"
Ray shook her head. "Nothing like that. I simply have more time than others do."
"More time?" Penny asked, quieter still.
"You are all aware that I only need to sleep once every week?"
"I wasn't, actually," Penny said.
"That means that I have 48 extra hours every week. In the end, this means that I have almost 100 more days every year to pursue whatever I want than others do."
"100 extra days?! That's awesome!" Inspira said. "So, what, you practiced in the middle of the night?"
"Yes. I would sometimes not stop for days."
I was about to ask another question before I saw Penny, her face pale and stiff, with a look in her eyes that I couldn't describe.
"Penny?" I asked. Ray stopped mid-sentence.
She glared at me. "Yes?"
I looked down at her hand. She looked down too and relaxed her grip on the fork she had just mangled.
"I have to go," she said.
I couldn't think of anything to say as she left, so I just sorta watched her go.
"What was that all about?" I asked, once she was out of earshot.
Ray looked down, not saying anything.
"Spira, any hints?"
"Uh . . ." she said. "If you wanna know, ask her."
"Um, OK."
All of us but Ray nibbled at dessert while we talked about classes. Before too long, she left without saying anything. I watched her go, feeling like I was missing something. After supper was finished, I gave Maria a quick peck before she left for her cottage.
I was about to go back to my room, too until I remembered my appointment with Dr. Woodrow. Just thinking about asking her about all the Mr. J stuff made my stomach tie in a knot. All of it came back to me right then, everything that I had felt that night I found out, and all the questions I had asked in the months since then.
I took a deep breath, trying to sort through all of it. Even as hard as it all was to face, I knew that it would be best to get it over with, so I marched for Dr. Woodrow's office. By the time I walked into Schuster, most of the overhead lights were off and some of the janitorial staff were working their way through the floor. Some low lights were on in Dr. Woodrow's office, which I walked up to before knocking twice.
"A, right on time."
I went in and settled into my usual chair before sliding it back, careful not to mash any books or DVD's..
"So, A, what brings you here tonight?" Dr. Woodrow asked.
"I, uh, well, I have a question, and I figured you might have an answer for me."
"OK. What do you want to know?"
"When Circe did the revelatory circle spell on Monday, what all did you see?"
She gave me a searching look for a second. "Are you worried about your privacy?"
I shook my head. "That isn't it. God . . . couldn't you just grab it out of my head?"
"I think you should tell me. Voicing concerns helps you deal with them."
"Oh, uh . . ." I said, then whispered what I wanted to know.
"What was that? Could you say it again, please?"
"I want to know who my dad is," I said, feeling tears pushing out of my eyes.
Dr. Woodrow walked around her desk and pulled up a chair right beside me, looking into my eyes. "A. I understand, I do. And I know the answer to your question. But this is the sort of thing that can't be unlearned. If you know the answer, it will change everything. Are you sure you want to know?"
I tried to say something, but I couldn't manage it. Instead, I just nodded.
Dr. Woodrow took one of my hands in both of hers before looking back in my eyes. ". . . Mr. J is your biological father."
Looking down, I felt tears roll down my cheeks. I couldn't stop myself that time. Dr. Woodrow had me wrapped in a hug a second later, warm and strong, just like one of Mom's. Remembering Mom threw some kinda switch, and a sob broke out, and I really started in. All that time – all that guessing, all that confusion – it all came out in one big burst. I lost track of the world after that, and there was only Dr. Woodrow, her arms wrapped around me, and me, just going and going.
Sometime later, I pulled back, sniffling. "Th – thanks. I'm . . ."
She gave me a warm smile, still holding my hand. "The shock will fade in time, A. It will be hard to deal with for a while, but it will get better."
I nodded, wiping my eyes.
"I know tomorrow is the start of the weekend, but I'd really like you to pay me a return visit in the afternoon, all right? By then, I'm certain that you'll have a better grasp on all of this." She got to her feet. "For tonight, I'd like for you to do something fun, like maybe watch a movie. After that, get a good night sleep, and we'll tackle this tomorrow after you've had some time to come to grips with everything.
"However, if, at any point, it feels like you're being overwhelmed, don't hesitate to call me." She flicked her wrist, and she pulled business card from nowhere and handed it to me.
"OK." I said, getting up and slipping the card in my pocket. "Thanks again. Really."
"Naturally. Are you ready to go for now?"
"As ready as I will be, I guess."
She gave me one more hug. "Goodnight, A."
I hugged her back. "Goodnight, Dr. Woodrow."
I let go and she gave me a smile and a wave as I left. I turned and faced her door for a minute once I was out in the hall. Then I left the building.
[Updated on: Sun, 05 April 2009 16:05]
A's story is now complete.
The beginning: Volume 1
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| Re: A, vol. 3 and up [message #34979 is a reply to message #34538 ] |
Tue, 07 April 2009 17:59 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 10
Friday, October 6th – Evening
I took my time getting back to my room. It was freezing cold, but I just didn't care. Max wasn't in our room when I got there, but I didn't really care about that, either. Everything was just . . . away. I ended up on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I kept thinking about the revelation over and over, and I felt like I should talk to someone about it, or something. I couldn't call Mr. J, I _really_ couldn't call Mom or Dad, and I really didn't want to offload my problems on any of my friends.
But before I could get really down, Dr. Woodrow's advice came back to me. I didn't feel like doing something fun, but I knew, logically, that it would be a good idea, so I reached into my pocket, pulled out my walkie, and pressed Maria's silver button.
"Hey, bear!" she said.
"Hey, bunny. I was wondering, would you like to watch a movie or some anime, or something?"
"Yeah, sure. Did you have anything in mind?"
"Nah. Just bring some stuff, we'll pick something, and then we can watch it here in my room, since Max isn't here tonight."
"OK. I'll be over in about 10 minutes."
The main hall had a few guys around when I got there, and I gave waves to the ones I knew. I paced back and forth while I waited for the 10 minutes, which seemed to crawl but blur together. Then, there was a knock at the main door, and I walked to it and let Maria in. She was in civvies, and she had a thick ski jacket over a baby-doll T.
"Hey, bear!" she said, pulling me into a hug that I didn't feel up to. She stepped back with a frown on her face. "Are you OK?"
"Uh, kinda, I guess. I really just want to watch something for a bit, okay?"
"K. Lead the way."
We walked back to my room, and Maria set up her laptop on my desk, and we pulled Max's chair over to my side of the room.
"We have a few excellent choices," Maria said, fanning out a few boxsets in front of me. "We have Excel Saga which is weird and funny, Inuyasha which has demons and stuff, and Sailor Moon, about a blockhead girl who fights moon-aliens."
"Um. The funny one, I guess."
Maria's bottom lip puffed out a little. "I have some others in my room, if you don't like the ones – "
"Nah, go ahead with Excel Saga."
"If you say so."
She queued up Excel Saga and we started in. Sure enough it was really, _really_ weird. I couldn't even follow the plot, or anything, but I was kinda sure that was the point. But like Maria said, it _was_ pretty funny, even if I didn't feel like laughing. Instead, I just smiled a little in places.
"We can switch to something else, if you want to," she said during a pause between episodes.
I just shrugged.
Maria fixed a look on me, one that _actually_ looked stern. "What did I tell you yesterday?"
"'We help each other.'"
"Exactly," she said, her look softening. "So, tell me what's bothering you."
I couldn't look at her while I tried to say it. ". . . he's my dad."
"What?"
"Mr. J, bunny, he's – he's my dad, my biological father."
"Oh, A," she said, sitting down in my lap and wrapping me in a hug. "I'm so sorry you had to find out like this."
"I trusted my parents to – to love each other, to be faithful, I guess. She's only supposed to, to – with Dad. But she went to Mr. J. And he did it with her! He didn't even try to stop her, and he knew that it was wrong! And all that time he lived next to us, he knew! He was my dad and he didn't say ANYTHING for 14 years! What kind of friend is that?! He said he was my buddy, but it was all a, a . . ."
//. . . big damn lie,// I wanted to say, but I just couldn't. Not in front of Maria. It took a while for me to pick back up, but she didn't interrupt.
"I want us to be friends again. I wish I could go back and never learn about it. But I can't. We're stuck this way. It's all just . . . screwed up."
She leaned up and gave me a soft kiss for a minute. "It's okay, bear," she said, pulling back. "It's okay."
I tried to say something more, but I couldn't manage it. Maria understood, though, because she didn't ask any questions. She just smiled a little and cuddled with me and held my hand, stroking my cheek every now and then whenever a tear got out.
After a while, we moved to my bed and spread out some, her laying next to me and nestling under my left arm. It all felt right and my trouble didn't seem so bad. She just kept snuggling into me, and, after I started feeling better, I'd pull her closer and make it so that she could fit against my body a little better. We sat like that for the night, my mind drifting, neither of us saying anything, just being there together.
I eventually noticed that Maria was snoring lightly. Time had gotten away from us, and a quick check of my watch told me that it was past 11:00.
"Bunny," I whispered.
She snuffled and moved a little. I couldn't help but smile at her. I nudged her, and she cuddled down into me.
"Maria," I said, a little louder.
Finally, her eyes fluttered open. "Did I fall asleep?"
"Yeah, but it's cool. How about we get you back?"
"You sure? I could, um, stay here tonight," she offered, looking a little nervous.
I blinked. "No, you don't need to do that. I think I'll be OK."
"All right, if that's what you want to do." She stretched and yawned. "Yeah, maybe I do need to get to bed."
We gathered up all her stuff and left my room a few minutes later. I actually carried her over to Dickinson, letting her doze for a few minutes on the trip over. I was actually a little sad at having to put her down once we got there.
"We're here," I said, softly.
She opened her eyes again. "Oh, OK."
I put her down and handed over her stuff. "Good night," I said. "I love you, Maria."
She smiled dreamily. "I love you, too. Night."
She closed the door behind her, and I just stood there, rolling the words around in my mind. I love you. It made me feel all tingly inside, and it made my problems fade just a little. Before I got ready to walk back, I realized that I still had some thinking to do, and there was one place where I could get some space for that.
"To defend the defenseless," I said.
A few seconds later, I was transformed and airborne, going up in a steep climb. A little while later, that coppery feeling buzzed across my tongue, and I stopped. I looked down at campus, admiring the soft glow of the lights all over, on the buildings, along the sidewalks, and at the gates. I looked back up, and if only the clouds had been a little thinner, then I would've looked at the stars, maybe losing myself in them.
Instead, for a good while, I just hung there, enjoyed the frost-edged wind blowing against my skin, my whole body breaking out in goosebumps. I couldn't hear the wind, and everything else, as clearly as I could when I was Raptor, but flying was a lot easier as Megadeus, and the whole point right then was to just relax. Which I did. I didn't even try to think things through, either. I just drifted.
Eventually, though, everything hit me again, and I got the urge to pace. I tried flying around in small ovals for a while, but it just didn't have the same effect, so I decided to get to the ground. The little knob I had settled on the other night was nearby, so I settled on it. I paced for a few minutes, but then I realized how silly it must look for a big superhero to pace, so I downshifted and went back to walking.
I didn't get very far before I heard a rustling in the trees again, like an animal or something was moving around in the woods. I stopped and dropped into combat stance, straining my ears for any sound. That was when I felt a sharp pain across my head and everything went black.
Saturday, October 7th – Early Morning?
Sometime later, the blackness broke. I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see anything through the rough material wrapped around my head. I couldn't move my arms or legs, and the bristle of worn rope grated against my skin when I tried.
//What's going on?!//
I still didn't know what was going on or where I was, so I stopped moving and listened. I heard rain pounding down on the ground, but the weird thing was that the sound echoed over and over, sounding like I was in the middle of three rainstorms instead of just one. I felt the air ripple as the heavy drops fell, making me shiver all over and forcing a deep breath that pulled in the spongy scent of moss along with the deep smell of rock.
//No use trying to figure it out, really. I'll have the blindfold off in a sec, anyway.//
I opened my mouth to say a catchphrase – only to find that my mouth was taped shut. Butterflies started fluttering through my stomach and I started sweating. There was one person that came to mind almost immediately. The butterflies doubled as his face popped into my head.
//Silverwing?//
Nothing. There weren't any sounds in the cave at all except for the steady sound of rain.
//I figure he'd let me know if it was him. He's not exactly the subtle type. But . . . who else could it be?//
My breath caught in my chest and the butterflies came back with friends.
//Chasm!//
I started really sweating just as panic started to set in, but I didn't get a chance to really lose it, 'cause someone ripped the blindfold off, and light burned my eyes, but only for a few minutes. When they adjusted, I saw that the pale light spilling out of an electric lantern on the rock floor.
But that wasn't the most important thing. No, there was a man standing next to the lantern, a TALL man, probably more than 6'5''. Most importantly, though, he wasn't Chasm, and some of my fear faded with a sigh. That still left whoever that was, though, so I got as good a look at him as I could. Even in the low light, I could tell that he was ripped, like Exemplar-level, maybe 4 or 5, and he was wearing a flannel shirt with rolled-up sleeves and some heavily beaten jeans. I looked to his face next, dominated by very prominent, rounded cheekbones. Then, I saw his eyes. They were green, but they were mirroring the light like a cat's.
"You're awake," he said, a smile spreading wide enough to show all his teeth, all white, all sharp. My heart skipped a beat, then thundered madly in my chest as he walked between me and the lantern, shadows swallowing everything but his gleaming teeth and inhuman eyes. He knelt in front of me, eyes locking onto mine and flaring his nostrils as he took a deep breath. He swallowed, hungry excitement shoving his pupils wide, and I whimpered, feeling like a rabbit who needed to run for his hole.
"Can't fly away now," he said, spit flicking onto my face. He swayed back and forth, eyes trailing along my body, and I couldn't help but struggle against the ropes as my heart thundered louder. He watched my reaction, smiling a little wider and licking his lips.
"You don't look a thing like him," the man said, getting back to his feet. "But the smell? Oh, yes, just like him . . . so close to being right that it screams how wrong you are."
//What the heck is he talking about?//
He laughed at the confusion on my face. "Not following, Freak? Looks like your father has never mentioned Luke, has he? And now it's going to cost you," he said, his words sounding like a promise. My eyes went wider and so did his smile.
"But your father never told you the story, did he? No, of course not. Too ashamed."
He got back to his feet and walked to the mouth of the cave, which looked like it was just a quick sprint away. //If I can just get free . . .//
"Your father came to us when he was practically a cub," Luke started, his words edged with bitterness. "He could do something that we had never seen: make our gifts a part of himself. But he was never one of us, he was a aberration, someone who could still be human somehow even when he was with any of his animals."
I listened enough to follow what he was saying, but my focus was really on pulling against the ropes on my hands, straining until the fibers cut my skin open and dug into my open wounds.
"I knew that he was a Freak, but none of my tribemates listened. They treated him as an honored guest. But I knew, I _knew_ that he would only bring us trouble. And I was right. One night, our cubs were kidnapped . . ." he drifted off, sadness mixing in with the bitterness. "And this freak, this 'Nine,' was so sure that he could go in and handle the situation. But our leader advised caution, that we wait while she formed a plan. But Nine was so sure that we didn't have time."
Revenge. That's what Luke was after. With that I mind, I really _pulled_ my legs, but the ropes didn't give at all, and my muscles throbbed afterward.
"He went into the enemy's lair," Luke continued, the quiet sadness giving way to anger as he raised his voice. "And do you know what happened?" He stalked back to me and crouched, leaning in till our faces almost touched. "My girl died!" he roared, and I shuddered at the smell of raw meat on his breath.
"Nine fucked it all up! And, then, when he came before the council, do you know what they decided?! EXILE! FUCKING EXILE! He deserved to die for what he did! MY DAUGHTER'S BLOOD WAS ON HIS HANDS!"
I was a trembling wreck when Luke stopped and got back to his feet. He walked back to the mouth of the cave again, drawing a huge knife from a sheath at his waist.
"But tonight," he said quietly. "Tonight, old debts are settled."
He turned back, walking very, very slowly. I looked up at him, and it was like time slowed down as my heart drummed in my ears.
//I can't transform, but if I don't do something, I'm dead! No one can help me, no one's around, he's coming this way, oh God, I'm DEAD! I can't do anything, I'm out of options, I'm . . .//
And, then, it hit me. There was something that I had only just learned about, something that I hadn't ever used on purpose. But it was all I had.
I closed my eyes, thinking of everything I possibly could that had made me mad: Silverwing, Maria transferring to BMA, Penny's kiss, and everything with Mr. J. I pulled it all together, and red sparks popped through the black behind my eyelids. I snapped my eyes open, looking out a world made of reds. I looked up at Luke and mixed in the anger of being vulnerable, and I exploded like cluster of TNT. My Juice went from a song to a trill and I screamed, loud enough to be heard even from behind the duct tape.
Luke stopped and looked at me. "What in Garand's name . . .?"
Strength and power, raw, boundless power blew through my body, coursing along my nerves, blazing through my muscles. Ropes sliced into my wrists and legs as I pulled with everything I had, finally tearing the ropes, hearing them snap like gunshots before I stood, blood running down my abused hands and legs. I ripped the tape off, the pain feeding my Fury as I locked onto Luke, and all my confusion, anger, and fear shot out of me into a warcry that made Luke flinch.
In a heartbeat, I was across the rocks and ramming my fist into Luke's head, his eyes going out of focus as his jaw snapped like a dry twig. He lost his knife as he went airborne, the weapon clattering on the rocks as he flipped onto his feet in the grass outside. I ripped out another scream, equal part Fury and joy and rushed him, but he snatched one arm and slung me through a tree branch that exploded as I hurtled through it, blunt pain shooting through my ribs. I smacked into hard earth as I landed, pain jolting through my joints.
I threw myself back to my feet, ready to charge again, but I shivered and stopped the second I laid eyes on Luke. He grew into a nine-foot, musclebound nightmare made of equal parts man and cougar, talons springing from his fingers like switch-blades. He fell to all fours and tore the night air with a monstrous cry, the wavering sound setting my teeth on edge.
I mixed the fear into the Fury and screamed as I charged, his claws ripping into my chest. The injury drove me even higher, and I slammed forehead into his nose, smiling at the blood that spattered on my skin. He screamed and impaled my stomach, the agony unreal, making me stagger back, and he swiped at me again. Something in my mind snapped, and Luke moved in slow motion, so I ducked under his swing before I clenched my fist and drilled into Luke's arm, his bones breaking, smiling at the new angle his arm made.
He roared, charging me, but he was too slow to hit me. I went to punch him again, but he caught my arm and twisted it, unbelievable pain assaulting my wrist then arm as he through me, sending me blowing through branch after branch, each one mounting the pain in my ribs. A wall of wood stopped me, and I screamed, the bruises, cuts, and battered bones flaming my Fury even higher. I threw myself to my feet just as Luke came bounding at me with explosive jumps. He flew upward, arms extended, mouth open, saliva flying, and I jumped out of the tree, punishing his ribs with every bit of force I had, them snapping under my elbow a great sound.
We both tumbled to the ground before I popped up to my feet and Luke jumped to his. All the anger parted for a just a second when I saw Luke's jaw slide back into place. The Fury came back, my mind focused on one thing: hit him a lot and hard. I tore out another battlecry, ready to feel more of his blood on my hands, and charged, and Luke did the same, running to me with another blurring swipe, but I ducked below it and dug into his guts with my hardest punch, smiling at the feel of his muscles strands buckling. He was off-balance, and I jackhammered his abs and ribs with a series of fast, hard punches, each one making him grunt and scream.
He fell to the ground, and I went to batter his face with a cross before I stopped, barely missing his freakishly long teeth as he snarled and chomped at me. I crunched into his jaw with my knee, and he cried again, but could only manage a whimper with a broken mouth. My smile spread even wider as I got into brutalizing his face with one driving cross, then a backhand, over and over, my fist a wrecking ball demolishing his face, each crunch spattering the ground with blood, each beautiful bit of blood and gore sticking to my hand.
I gave one more cry, all joy and satisfaction, ready to snap his spine, when some force wrapped around each of my arms. I screamed again at the unforgivable delay, thrashing, but I couldn't get free.
"You're safe, he's down, you don't have to fight anymore," rumbled a deep voice from behind me.
I felt someone's body behind me, and I started driving my heels into their shins. They wouldn't let me go! And Luke was right there! He was even in human form! I could finish him off! All the sudden, a lithe lady appeared from nowhere and knelt beside Luke. When she went to touch him, I lost it.
"BITCH! HE'S _MINE_!"
I _had_ to get free before she did something! I buried my heels into the legs of the person behind me, feeling bones crunch, but the guy only grunted, keeping his hold on me while talking in soothing tones. Those reached something in me, and the Fury thinned out bit by bit, until my vision was back to normal, my thinking was clear, my Juice gone back to its steady hum, and my adrenaline levels bottomed out. All my pain shrieked into my consciousness right then, and I would've fallen to the ground in tears if the person hadn't been holding me.
"Can you understand me, kid?"
"Yeah, oh, God, please don't drop me. It hurts so much."
"What hurts?"
"Wrists . . . legs . . . chest . . . stomach . . ."
"Here, let's have a look at you," the voice said. My view shifted around as the guy carried me and set me under a big, old tree. I felt the ground beneath me as he laid me down, and I yelped in pain. I gasped and would've wriggled away when I saw the face of the guy who'd been talking: it was a bear – or, really, a mix of bear and human.
"It's all right," he said, responding to my gasp. "I'm not gonna hurt you." He closed his bear eyes and the snout and the fur sucked back into his skin as his ears moved back to human spots on his head. When he was finished, he still had shaggy black hair, but it was on his face and head instead of everywhere. He went around me, gently lifting each of my limbs. My right arm was the worst, the one with the broken wrist. Once he was finished, he walked away.
He started talking with the lady, I think, but I didn't listen very close. My attention span went weird, and the pain dropped away, and all I could focus on was the rain hitting the ground. Eventually, the lady came over to me and got my attention.
"You'll be all right, kid," she said after she knelt beside me. "We've called the school, and they're sending someone out to get you right now. You'll be fine."
"Thanks," I said, barely managing. "Who . . .?"
"I'm Eloise," the lady said, her short black hair shining under a bolt of lightning. "And this is Ben. We're the leaders of the tribe here."
My tired and hurting mind couldn't follow what she was saying. It must have showed on my face.
"Don't worry about it for now," she said, kneeling down beside me and stroking my hair. "We're gonna stay here until the medical people get here. You rest."
I did. It wasn't darkness after that, but it was all blurs. Flashing lights showed up sometime later, blue and white, and a couple guys lowered a cot under me and carried me toward the lights. Everything was muffled and removed from me, like there were cotton balls on my ears and gauze over my eyes. Eloise was talking with one of the EMT's, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. I looked over to see Luke's body – but his eyes suddenly shot open.
Then, Luke blurred from his possum position and snapped, sharp pain lancing up my arm as his teeth stabbed into my hand. Eloise was there a moment too late, a sharp crack echoing around us as she snapped across his head with balled up fists. As his eyes glazed over and he collapsed Eloise grabbed the nearest EMT by the shirt and screamed, "You need to knock him out! The strongest sedative you have!"
All the sudden, my body felt like I had just walked into a sauna, but as I started to complain, a sharp pain plunged into my arm, and I fell into a deep, unending darkness.
[Updated on: Thu, 16 April 2009 21:40]
A's story is now complete.
The beginning: Volume 1
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| Re: A, vol. 3 and up [message #35575 is a reply to message #34979 ] |
Sat, 11 April 2009 18:57 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 11
Tuesday, October 10th (Not that I knew it at the time)
I was BURNING ALIVE. I bolted upright in my bed, or tried, but I found out that I was strapped down again, and that the bed was even more sturdy than the one I had been belted to last time. The heat stayed on full force, and I thrashed to try to get my arms free or toss the blankets off me. It wasn't working, and my body felt like someone had lit a bonfire under my bed.
"Anyone?!" I screamed. "I'm burning up! Anybody, please!"
Some doctors in heavy-duty gear came rushing in. They spouted out some medical babble and one ran to my bedside and shoved a syringe in an IV that I saw was fed into my arm. My question stopped in my throat when I blacked out again.
Wednesday, October 11th
My eyes came open sometime later. The heat was still there, but it had been dialed down to "bake" instead of "charbroil." I closed my eyes again for a few minutes, trying to make sense of what was going on. It took me a while, but I got my memory going, looking back for the most recent things I could remember.
//The cougar-man, Luke, had knocked me out. We fought, and he screwed me up pretty bad, but I screwed him up worse. I blacked out, the EMT-people came, and then . . .//
The scene flashed by in slow motion in my head. I was on the cot. Luke was over by the trees. And then . . .
//Oh, no,// I thought, dread sinking into my stomach. //A were-cougar bit me. If the legends are right, then . . .//
More dread plunked in my gut and I closed my eyes, trying to keep myself from going into full-out panic.
//Just look down. If you've got claws, then . . .// I couldn't finish the thought. A few deep breaths later, I still wasn't ready to check over my body, so I just kept my eyes closed, trying to screw up the courage. It worked after a few minutes, and I craned my view down, having to strain my eyes and neck to compensate for the bad positioning from being buckled down.
What I saw was not comforting. All around my body, like some sort of twisted halo, was a ring of hair piled a half an inch thick. I rolled my head back, my view going to the tiled ceiling.
//No, no, no, no, no . . . //
I kept that thought up for a while before something clicked. The hair had been _out_ of my skin, not _in_ it. What did that mean? Was I a were? Was I not?
. . . but black swallowed me again, and I was out.
My eyes opened later, and I saw one of the doctors in a full-body medical suit standing beside my bed, taking notes. I looked closer at the outfit and realized that it wasn't just a medical suit – it was medical armor.
"You're awake," a female voice said from behind the mask. I could actually hear her smiling. "How do you feel?"
"Still pretty rough."
"I'm not surprised. How's the fever?"
"I still had it when I woke up this time, but it's gone now."
"Good," the doctor said, checking my IV stand.
I tried to sit up so that I could get a better look at my surroundings, but I was still strapped down nice and tight.
"Hey, doc?"
"Yes?"
"Could you let me up? I'd like to move, if I could."
"Sure thing, just a second."
She bent down and adjusted the straps. The buckles grinded and clicked as she worked them loose, maybe meaning that they had been high tension, or something. After a few minutes and a few straps, she took them all off of my bed.
"All righty, you can sit up now. You can't really get around and walk until we remove the catheter and colostomy."
"What . . .?" then, I looked down and did a check of my lower regions. As soon as I paid attention, I realized that it was more than a little uncomfortable down there. Heat flooded my face and I did my best to keep my sheet on my body.
"Don't worry about your modesty, Aspect. None of your friends have seen anything they shouldn't have."
"Friends?" I asked, my face heating even more. "My friends have been here?"
"Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, we've already threatened Neuramail with detention if she keeps showing up outside of visiting hours. Not that it helps." The doctor chuckled.
"Ma – Neuramail's been here a lot?"
"Every day, right after classes."
I couldn't help but smile. Maria, gotta love her. I was about to ask her more about the gang, but I happened to look down, and I saw the hair around me. And that brought it all back to me. I gulped and made myself ask the question.
". . . am I were, doc?"
"There it is," the doctor said, pausing thoughtfully. "No. No, you aren't."
A deep sigh of relief just whooshed out of me and I fell back. "Oh. Oh, thank God."
"I would tell you sit down and get comfortable, but I figure you're already there. As much as you can be, anyway. First, you need to know a little background about how the condition is spread."
I pressed the button on my bed, raising it to a sitting position. Sitting up was just a little too hard right then to do by myself.
"Just like the popular legends, the condition of lycanthropy is transferred through biting. What is not commonly known, however, is the reason behind this. The bite transfers a virus, but not of any mundane variety. This virus is mystical in nature."
"A magical virus?" I asked.
"Yes, that's right. Normally, a human immune system is powerless to affect the Lycan-virus because the germ is practically invisible to both antibodies and white blood cells."
"Mutants are vulnerable, too?"
The suit's head section moved slightly, which I took for a nod. "Yes."
I gulped. "What happens, then?"
"The person usually retains his mutant powers, or some version thereof, but mixed with the lycanthropic template's abilities, such as shapeshifting, super-strength, and regeneration."
"So, why am I not growing claws and whiskers and getting those extra powers?"
"That's a little complicated. Remember that I said that the Lycan-virus is typically invisible to the body's defenses?"
I nodded.
"Your body is different. Your body's immune system recognizes the virus for what it is, a foreign invader, and fights it accordingly."
"What?"
"That was my response, too," she said, a smile back in her voice. "It's practically unheard of, to the point that there's only ever been one mutant to exhibit an immune response even *remotely* similar to yours."
"Who is – "
Then, pieces fit together in my head. Mr. J was a were-shifter thing. Luke had said that he had stolen their gifts, made them a part of him, but while still being human. Then, that had to mean –
"Wait. Can I guess?"
"I suppose?"
"Nine. The guy who was on the Prometheans in Milwaukee, and was a student here in the late 70's."
". . . that's right. How did you know?"
I couldn't help but sigh as the shipwreck, and all the baggage with it, came right back to the surface. "He's my biological father."
After that, she asked me some pretty uncomfortable questions, but not as bad as they could've been, I guess. While she was around, she got a nurse and they took care of my, uh, bathroom needs. I'll spare you the details. I got up and walked around some after that, but only for a few minutes. After that, I fell into my bed, my energy run dry just like that.
"Take it easy for a while," the doctor (Ophelia Tennent, as it turned out) said. "you got hurt pretty bad, and your body as been working overtime to keep up with the virus."
"Don't have to tell me twice," I said before taking another deep breath. The doctor excused herself after that, saying that I should take the opportunity to get some rest. Following her advice, I nodded off for a while.
Later, I opened my eyes and sat up, and what I saw was a good thing: Maria, who stood on the opposite side of the huge window separating the hall from my room. I gave her a timid wave, and her eyes flew wide open while a huge smile spread across her face. She ran one way, then another, then hit herself on the head and pulled her communicator out of her bag. She clicked a few buttons and chattered into the walkie, her smile staying wide. Right after that, Max and everyone else bamfed in before giving me waves and smiles. Maria jammed something on the other side of the glass.
"Bear! How're you feeling?"
I gave her a weak smile. "Okay."
"We came as soon as Maria told us," Ray said. "It is good to see you awake."
". . . how long have I not been?"
"More than 3 days."
"3 days?!"
"Yeah, bro," Max said. "The doctors said you were passed out fighting off a virus, like, a bad one."
I was about to mention the were-virus, but then I realized that the doctors had kept quiet about it with my friends, which probably meant that I should, too.
"But A can't tell us anything more," Inspira said. Everyone looked at her. Spira's eyes darted back and forth. "What? He doesn't know any more, and he's saying so nice and loud in his head."
Everyone seemed to take that explanation.
//Gonna have to talk with her about that.//
"So, when're you getting out?" Penny asked before rolling her eyes. "And just let him answer, Spira."
"Dunno. Dr. Tennent hasn't told me yet."
"Well, let us know as soon as you do," Spira said. "and we'll help you get back to your room. Maria can let us know."
"Sounds good."
"Well, A, hope you feel better soon!" Penny sang. "All right, guys, let's split." She smiled and winked at me as she ushered everyone but Maria away. They all waved again before the girls walked away and Max bamfed elsewhere.
"Are you really okay?" Maria asked quietly.
My whole body slumped as I relaxed. "Not really, bunny. I'm really sore, I still have a fever, and I don't have any energy at all."
"Oh, bear," she said, frowning. "I'm sorry. Why did someone do this to you? Was it Silverwing, or something?"
"It all has to do with Mr. J . . . again," I said, sighing. "I'll have to tell you the whole thing later, OK?"
She nodded. "I wish I could do something more . . ."
I smiled. "You being here is good, bunny. It's good to see you."
"I'm glad. But I still feel like I should be doing something more to help."
"Actually, bunny, the best thing you could do right now is give me some time to sleep. I love seeing you,but I just don't have _any_ energy right now, and I can hardly keep my eyes open."
"I see," she said, frowning a little. "I'll be here later tonight, K?"
"Okay. I'll see you later."
She gave me a little wave, and I gave her one back. She stood and watched me for a minute before she walked down the hall away from my room. Once she was gone, I closed my eyes, wondering how long it would take me to get back to sleep.
Thursday, October 12th
//Not long, I guess,// I thought as my eyes came open. I didn't know what time it was until I checked the medical computers hooked up to me. They told me that it was 1:32AM, Thursday, October 12th. Even though it was the middle of night, I couldn't get any more sleep. I was exhausted, but sleep just wouldn't come. Instead, I looked at the ceiling, letting my mind drift through recent events.
I twinged with pain, and that reminded me of the fight with Luke, so my mind went straight to it. I shivered when I remembered the feel of the Fury coming over me. It was so . . . good. It was one of the best things I had ever felt. Letting it out was satisfying in a way that I still have trouble explaining. Then, I remembered something about it: I had _enjoyed_ causing pain. All at once, all the smiles and all the excitement at beating the crap out of Luke came back to me. Guilt pressed down on my mind and body, making everything feel so heavy. I just couldn't get over it. I had really hurt someone, and I had loved every minute of it. Was it the Fury that had made me that way? Or was it something else? I didn't know, but I just couldn't get away from the memories and how they weighed on me.
But that wasn't the worst part, not by a long shot. If Ben hadn't stopped me, I would've _killed_ Luke. I was just about to when Ben's arms wrapped around me. The weight got worse at the realization, and my entire body felt twice as heavy as it normally did. I wasn't a killer . . . was I?
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I didn't get any more time to think about, as I passed out again.
The guilt was still with me when I opened my eyes later on. The computer monitors told me that it was 4:03PM, which meant that classes had just gotten out for most people a few minutes earlier. I wondered if the guys would come by for a visit after classes, and that reminded me that Maria had said that she would visit later in the night the day before. I guess I had just slept through it.
After I laid back down, I took a quick stock of my body, of all the pain and discomfort. It felt like my ribs were mostly back to normal, as they hurt a little but not as bad as if they were broken. Next up, my chest and stomach were just tender, but didn't feel like they had dressing on them anymore, which meant that my body had already mostly healed Luke's slashes. The skin on my legs and wrists didn't hurt at all, and a quick feel showed me that not even scars were left over from where the ropes cut into me.
Out of all the pain and tenderness, though, my right wrist was still the worst, but even it it wasn't bad. Oddly enough, it itched under the plaster, but I couldn't get to it. I could only guess that meant that the healing process was mostly finished there, too.
It took me a second to sort it out, but I felt like an idiot for not noticing sooner. My fever had finally broken. I didn't feel any warmer than normal, and, if anything, I actually felt a little chilly. And that was a very, very good thing.
When I realized that I was almost all the way back to normal, I couldn't help but smile. Can't really complain about Exemplar-3 regen. Not at all.
"What's got you in such a good mood?" Dr. Tennent asked. I hadn't even noticed that she came in.
"Just glad to be in one piece and almost back to normal."
"That is good news. The fever's gone, then?"
"Yep. I'm a little chilly, even."
"Good!"
She went through the usual motions: taking a blood sample, checking my chart, adjusting the controls on my IV stand, and looking at the monitors and making notes.
"Doctor Tennent?"
"Yes?" she replied, leaving her notepad alone for a minute.
"When will I be able to leave?"
"If the virus continues to decline at the rate it has, then you should be able to leave by this time tomorrow evening."
"Awesome. This bed isn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world."
She chuckled a little. "I didn't know you were one for understatement, Aspect."
I smiled back at her while she finished up her routine.
"Mrs. Carson needs to talk with you, by the way. I was told to notify her as soon as you were ready for company."
I gulped.
"If you're not up to it, then I just won't tell her."
I gulped but steeled myself. "Uh, no. Might as well get it over with. Go ahead and send her in."
"Taking things head on. I like that. I'll let her know you're awake, then."
I nodded weakly and laid back in my bed.
//What could she need with me? Am I going to get detention for this?//
Stewing was the thing to do while I waited, and I felt my heart start skipping beats every now and then as I imagined looking into Mrs. Carson's face. Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, I heard an older female voice buzz through the intercom at the glass.
"Mr. Morris."
I raised my bed into a sitting position. "Hello, ma'am. I would be standing up to greet you, and all, but I still don't have much energy."
"Don't worry about it, Mr. Morris." She gave me a look for a moment, but it wasn't judgmental. It was more . . . caring, maybe. "You've been through a lot."
I nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I got torn up pretty bad."
"Yes, you did," Mrs. Carson said, her tone softening a little. "I am proud of you, Mr. Morris. Not every student would have found the mettle to fight, or even try to fight, in a situation like yours. You've proven that you have steel, Mr. Morris, something that will serve you well your entire life."
I blinked. Mrs. Carson had given me a straight compliment. "Thank you, ma'am."
She nodded. "But that isn't the main reason I'm here today. Do you remember meeting Benjamin and Eloise?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Do you remember what they told you?"
"Yes, ma'am. That they were leaders of the 'tribe' here. But I didn't really understand what they meant by 'tribe.'"
"You see, Mr. Morris, Whateley Academy and all of its grounds are on the lands of the Mediwhalla tribe."
"Mediwhalla? I haven't heard of them before."
"I would suspect not. They are a tribe of lycanthropes, what you would term 'were-people.'"
My jaw fell open. "An entire _tribe_ of shapeshifters?"
"That's right. And we're here on their lands. Their home settlement isn't far from here, as a matter of fact."
It started adding up. "That's where Luke came from, then?"
She nodded. "Yes. He was a member of the Mediwhalla. What do you know of him?"
"Only what he told me. He said . . ."
And I repeated the whole thing as best as I could remember it, and I had to tell her who my dad really was, which sucked in some ways but was good in others. Every time I told it, it was like it became a little easier to believe.
"I was afraid of that," Mrs. Carson said, sounding a little softer still. "During your father's – during Nine's time here and afterwards, he made friends with as many of the tribes as he could, partially to gain their powers, but mostly because he truly enjoyed their company. As you can see, though, his relationships didn't always end well."
"There are other tribes, though? More than just the Mediwhalla?"
"Yes, though they're spread all over the world."
"Oh."
"But enough sidetracking. I have spoken with Benjamin and Eloise, and they told me that you have their apologies for all of this. The matter should have been settled many years ago, and their council had ruled that no more action was to be taken against Nine or his descendants. Luke was acting outside of the rulings of the leadership."
"I didn't even know that there was a tribe to blame," I said, feeling a little lost. "But, yeah, I can see that it wasn't their fault. What happened to Luke, though?" I had to know, though. The bastard had hurt me. "Did he get punished for going against the rules?" I asked, gritting my teeth.
"They tell me that Luke has 'been dealt with,'" she said, her voice dropping as her face became grave.
It felt like the temperature in my room had just dropped 10 degrees, but that sounding like good news. I nodded.
"While you're here, Mrs. Carson, may I ask you a question?"
"Certainly."
"Why did Luke bite me? That's the part that I don't get. Why not just try to rip me up one last time?"
"Ah," Mrs. Carson said, nodding. "I spoke with Eloise about that. She believes that Luke believed it the surest method to get back at Nine."
"How does that work?" I asked.
"You see, if Luke had infected you successfully, you would be of his line and belong to his tribe. In a way, he would be supplanting Nine's line with his own, a final act of spite."
"Wow."
"Yes. From what Benjamin and Eloise tell me, Luke has harbored this grudge for some time, but they didn't think he was foolish enough to defy their elders."
//If he couldn't kill me, then it sounds like infecting me was the next best thing.//
"Finally – if you feel you need it, then counseling is available at _any time_. I spoke with Dr. Woodrow, and she has said that you can give her a call, day or night, week or weekend. In addition, if you feel that you need time off to deal with this, then I can make sure that your teachers excuse you."
"Thanks, ma'am, but no thanks. I think that getting back into everything would help a lot. I like having something to keep me occupied."
She gave a small grin, and I felt like I had just won the gold at the Olympics. "I'm very glad to hear it, Mr. Morris. One can't wait for the perfect circumstances to go ahead with life. If you need any more accommodations or arrangements pertaining to this, come straight to my office. Do you understand me?" she asked, her tone almost all soft.
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."
"Of course. Now, I believe your friends are here to see you. Rest well, Mr. Morris."
There was something that I never thought would happen: a visit from Mrs. Carson actually _cheered me up_. Yes, that's right, miracles still happen. A few minutes later, the guys came in, all of them still dressed in their uniforms. Maria walked over and buzzed the intercom, and we all caught up for a few minutes, and Inspira had gotten my assignment lists and Max had brought my books. Max said that they wouldn't let him port them in, and that one of the nurses would bring them in after a while. I thanked everybody for stopping by, and they split again, leaving Maria.
"So, are you really better today?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah. I feel about as good as I can, I'd say."
She put a hand to her chest, closed her eyes, and breathed a sigh of relief. "That's really good to hear."
As I looked at her, I remembered the . . . awful fight with Luke. The memories of violence came back to me, and the guilt with it, and I suddenly knew what I had to do.
"Bunny – Maria," I said, cutting her off from getting started again.
"What is it, bear?"
"I . . . This is hard for me to say."
Her bottom lip puffed out a little as she tilted her head for a second.
"I'm, uh, I'm dangerous, bunny. When I fought off my kidnapper this weekend, I used my Fury for the first time. I really cut loose. It," I said, shivering all over. "it, scared me, bunny. It scared me bad. I really hurt – no, hurt doesn't do the job. I _battered_ the guy. I beat the crap out of him. And the worst part . . .? I enjoyed it. I _loved_ it."
Maria's bottom lip quivered, and there was something else in her eyes, something I didn't recognize.
//Fear?// I asked myself. If it was, I decided, then I would definitely do it.
"Oh, A," she said, sounding more concerned than afraid. "I'm so sorry. But . . . why are you telling me this? Right now, I mean?"
I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself. "I'm not safe to be around, Maria. I can't, I can't afford to think that I could put you in danger if I ever let myself go like that again. I just, I just can't. It's too much. So, I . . ."
Tears glistened in her eyes and she shook her head, whispering "no's."
". . .I'm breaking up with you."
Her face fell and shoulders sunk. "But, A, I love you, and . . ."
"I love you, too, bunny. I always will. That's why I can't do this. I don't want to hurt you. Or even run the risk. I'm sorry. You have to go."
She took her finger off the button and looked down, tears tumbling out of her eyes onto the floor. My heart broke into a thousand pieces when I saw her face, so I had to look away. I kept my eyes to the floor, absolutely refusing to look back up for a long, long time. When I eventually did, Maria was gone. I had to keep myself from losing it, and it only kinda worked, as tears slid down my face anyway.
//But it's the right thing to do,// I told myself. It wasn't comforting at all.
Thankfully, Ms. Sterling came in with all my homework and books, and I lost myself in the work. Maria only crossed my mind a few times, and the fight with Luke only came back to me once. I was bound and determined to do my work and not think of anything else at all. That took what energy I had after just a few hours, though, and I passed out into my history book.
I woke up later, starving, and they brought me a few trays of hospital food, which was pretty disgusting, but I ate it anyway. After I finished my food, I went back to my homework, and I kept at it until right around my regular bed-time. Then I went to sleep again.
Friday, October 13th
For once, I actually slept all the way through the night. It was a great feeling, and I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to face the day. Until I remembered that I had just broken up with my girlfriend because I was a violent psychopath. My stomach sank at the memory, and I pulled my work back over to me and dug into it again. I kept at that until mid-morning, when my stomach wouldn't leave me alone any longer, and I got some mildly unpleasant breakfast food, courtesy of Ms. Sterling.
I spent the rest of the day like that, studying, then eating, then studying more, until, by the time that the school day had finished, I was almost all the way caught up. Something clicked in my head and I stopped and thought about it.
//I just finished 5 days worth of work in a day and some change . . . maybe I've been selling myself short?//
The thought that I could kick butt at my schoolwork made me smile, the first time I had since the day before. So, yeah, it wasn't much, but I was taking what I could get. Fortunately, though, I had even more good news not too long after that, as Dr. Tennent let me know that I was more than disease free and that I that she was going to be taking off the cast. That done, I was free to go whenever I wanted. I had had more than enough of the food, so I got my clothes and left.
I strolled out of my room, through the main hall, and down toward the lobby. I was more than ready to get away from the smells of disinfectant and hospital cleaner, so I had to resist the urge to jog. I did burst through the lobby doors with a little too much force, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw who was there.
"Hi, A," Maria said, standing up from a chair. She was wearing civvies, a long-sleeved t-shirt with a hoodie, along with beat-up jeans. She looked cute.
"Uh . . ." was what I said. Yes, I know, amazing and insightful. Really blew you away, didn't it?
She walked up to me, her brows and jaw set. "Before you say anything more, I want to say something. I love you. I do. And what you told me . . . it's scary. I'm not gonna say it isn't. But I can take care of myself, so even if you did lose it, or whatever you think could happen, I'd still be okay. I could run from you if I had to. I have some other things that I could do, too.
"But here's the thing I _know_ A," she said, pointing to her heart. "In here. You would never hurt me. Even when you're mad, even when you're in this Fury thing, you wouldn't hurt me. I know it."
"But, Maria, I . . ." She leaned up to me and cut me off with a kiss. Her tongue slipped between my lips, wrestling with my tongue gently, insistently, just letting me know it was there, that _she_ was there. I dropped all of my stuff, hardly noticing it thump as it hit the floor, and I pulled her up to me, wrapping her in a tight hug like she might slip away from me if I let go. She pulled tighter around my neck, and our mouths opened to one another, sharing sweetness while our tongues met and caressed each other.
A door slammed shut nearby and we both jumped an inch, ruining the moment. I couldn't help the laughs that rolled out of me, and Maria joined in, too, giggling, her laugh like chimes to my ears. We laughed for a good, long while, and we eventually had to settle down into a nearby chair until we stopped.
"Maria . . . thank you. So much."
She just smiled in response while she snuggled into me. I leaned back and sighed, happy, for once, that things hadn't turned out like I had planned.
[Updated on: Thu, 16 April 2009 21:42]
A's story is now complete.
The beginning: Volume 1
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| Re: A, vol. 3 and up [message #35984 is a reply to message #35575 ] |
Tue, 14 April 2009 18:21 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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This section contains sexually explicit material. This material will be contained in a "Spoiler" box. If you find such material offensive, then you may forgo reading it by not examining the contents of the "Spoiler" box.
Epilogue
Saturday, October 14th
By the time I got back to the room from breakfast (which was phenomenal, by the way), I was thinking about Maria again. Specifically, how I didn't feel safe about having her around, even with her saying she'd be OK. I thought about it for a while, and I decided that I would break up with her again. For good. It was the best thing to do. With that in mind, I grabbed my communicator and pressed the silver button.
"Bear?" Maria asked. "What's up? Everything okay?"
"Uh, yeah," I said, hoping that I sounded convincing. "I just wanted to let you know: I'm coming down to the Workshop here in a second."
"Really? Neat!" She paused. "Can you get here?"
"Yeah, I think. Just follow the signs, right?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"All right. See you soon."
I put the communicator in my back pocket, and walked, no, marched, over to Kane and caught the nearest elevator. I pushed the secret panel, and the car glided down to the tunnels. When the doors opened, I wandered around until I found the signs that pointed to the Workshop. I followed them and got there in a few minutes, but I stopped outside some doors when a pair of security guards held up their hands.
"What kinda business you got in here?" the taller one asked.
"I was coming to talk to my girlfriend," I said. "I told her I was coming."
"Sorry. No escort, no pass, no entry."
"But – "
Right then, Maria came out. "Hey guys. He's with me."
They both nodded and let me pass. I ran up to Maria's side and smiled when I saw that she had on her goggles and lab-coat. She moved with a steady, rhythmic pace that I'd never seen her use before. Pretty quickly, we came over to a sorta-room dipped in the wall, and all around the inside were chrome plates of all sizes, tools of all varieties, lots and lots of wires, and, on the table was something that could only be described as an Auto-person, only it was half-finished.
"This is just a working model," Maria said, lifting and dropping an arm for emphasis. "I can work easier if I do the whole model, then make the parts based on what works and what doesn't. Besides, it's good practice."
I nodded and ran my hands over the skeleton of the right hand. The rough workings hurt my fingers a little.
"Anyway, what brings you down here, today, bear?"
Down there, that hint of ammonia that was on Maria all the time was out in full force, probably from her keeping her parts clean, or something. Memories of her flooded in, keyed to that tangy scent. That and having her right there, made it a lot harder to say what I needed to say.
"Maria, I . . . I think we really should break up. I'm serious this time."
She took off her goggles and looked me square in the eye. "A. I thought we decided on this already."
"Well, I've had a little longer to think about it, and . . ." before I could say anything more, she was up on her tiptoes and she had her tongue between my lips, my next word turning into"hurmurgle." I started to pull away, but she really roped me in and pulled me down toward her, almost knocking me off balance. All the sudden, my heart almost ached with my love for Maria, and I wanted her close and in my arms. I picked her up, supporting her weight, while her tongue glided over mine, then my cheeks . . .
. . . but then I remembered why I had come down.
"Maria," I said, my vision misting a little with tears as I put her down and pushed her away. "I'm serious . . ." she pulled in even tighter than before, knocking me off balance that time, and the two of us crashed into her toolbench. My love for her welled up and begged to be expressed, so I shoved into her mouth that time, and we wrestled with our tongues even more, me pressing as hard as I could, and her pressing back just as much.
Then, though, she pulled away.
"Maria . . . we can't . . ." I said, barely managing to.
In response she gave me a devilish smile that made my knees wobble as she took off her labcoat. She fastened her fingers around my wrist and started walking off. I resisted at first, but then she locked onto me with her eyes, full of unspoken promises, and my stomach did a little flip-flop as Buddy started getting into gear. I let her pull me along, not caring where she was taking me, just knowing that I had to follow her.
Maria led me to a part of the Workshop that was covered in cobwebs and smelled kinda musty. She stopped, did a double-check around her, then turned back toward me and started walking backwards toward what looked like a closet. It took a her a second to find the knob without looking, but she kept that sexy smile going the whole time.
"Maria," I said, feeling my face heat up. "Like that? In there?"
She raised one eyebrow and smiled in a way that I had only seen her do in my fantasies. She opened the door and threw me inside before she closed the door behind us. I stumbled a little and clanged my head on a shelf.
"Ow."
"Here . .. I'll make it all better," she said, her voice dropping as she walked over to me with deliberate steps.
Explicit ContentShe shoved me back, gently, and my heart fluttered in my chest and Buddy really got going, and he even jumped a little when my back hit the wall and I gulped. Maria pressed against me, and I suddenly became aware of how _hot_ the little closet was, how hot _I_ was. She pulled me down to her, and I pulled her up to me, and our tongues met before we had a wrestling match, taking our time as I pressed onto every surface of her mouth, and her tongue shoved against mine.
The dark of the room filled with scent of her pear bodywash and her strawberry kisses all swirled together like a beautiful, unnamed color. I took another breath of her . . . and Buddy was in gear – all the way. I couldn't help but think of my favorite fantasies, of all the things I did with Maria in them, and I tried to turn away from her before I could do something I'd regret, but she stopped me with the lightest touch of her fingers, smooth and delicate, leaving tingling trails as they glided across my abs.
"Maria . . ." I whispered. "We shouldn't . . . not in here . . ."
I saw her teeth sparkle in the dark. "Relax," she whispered. "I want to do this. For you."
I went with a weak nod, the best thing I could manage. She ran her finger in circles around my belly button, each loop tingling a little more than the one before it. She traced trails and squiggles down my abs to my thighs, where she teased my skin just above the hem of my boxers. She shoved her fingers down into the elastic, and she eased them down around my manhood, and it jumped at her lightest touch.
Even in the dark, our eyes met, and I saw the look in her eyes as she licked her lips and gave me the sexiest smile. I wanted to take her in my arms and make her a woman, but I knew that she wasn't ready. Instead, I unbuttoned my jeans, and then she helped me unzip them and pull them down. Then, I pulled my boxers down over my shaft, and she pulled them down the rest of my way to my knees.
My lungs and heart nearly stopped in my chest when she finally wrapped her hands around it, feeling like her fingers and palms were made of electricity. Breathing and bloodflow returned as she ran her hands down its length once, twice, then again and again, each movement stoking the pleasure higher, until there was nothing left but the rising pressure and the growing _need_ to release it.
My breathing came in ragged gulps as I curled my toes, and I groaned softly. Maria quickened her pace, her hands becoming a blur of tension and motion. The pressure in me built to an unbearable high, and I _had_ to have release. I grunted, loudly, and then it happened – my abs tensed, and the pleasure burst, then flowed out in a steady, spectacular rhythm.
I slumped to the ground, but Maria kept up her unbelievable efforts, and my body matched her enthusiasm, each of her tight, tingling pumps making a little more pleasure and a little less pressure. She didn't stop for a sweet while, until I was spent.
"Maria . . ." I said, out of breath.
She gave me a wide smile and took her hands away. My face heated up when she brought her hand up to her nose and took a deep breath.
"Smells weird," she said. "And it's pretty gross. Penny said there would be a lot . . . but wow." She looked around, then crinkled up her face when she moved her fingers. "Wonder if there are any paper towels in here?"
When she got up, her hips wiggled, and I couldn't help but feel like I was back in gear, ready to take her and make her mine, right then, tackling her to the ground . . . I didn't, but that thought reminded me that she had made me feel good, but I hadn't returned the favor. I got to my feet and pulled my pants back up, and I looked at her as she moved around. Everything I felt for her was right there on the surface, and I went with it, grabbing both of her thighs and rubbing gently.
"Maria," I whispered, leaning in over her shoulder. "You were good to me. I want to be good to you. But only if you want to. We might get caught in here, but . . ." I stopped, listening to what she might say, hearing her breathing come in deep and slow. She turned and looked in my eyes, desire clear in them, but she worried her lower lip. "Just . . . just my hands," I told her, not saying what I really wanted to do.
She nodded gently. That was all I needed. I went with my heart and slammed into her, tackling her into the closet door with a thump, and I pushed my tongue into her mouth with just as much force. She pushed back at me with everything she had.
"I need to take off your shirt," I whispered.
"Do it."
I was as gentle as I could be as I reached down to the hem of her shirt. She raised her arms up and I pulled quickly, the soft cotton sliding off of her in one motion. I moved to throw her shirt to the ground, but I knocked stuff off the shelf in the process.
"Crap!"
"Are you okay, bear?"
"Yeah, I'm fine,"I said, smiling before I dropped my voice. "Let's worry about you." She shivered all over and took in a deep breath, and I couldn't help but smile a little wider. I traced my fingers around her bra-strap, drawing circles on her skin. Her breathing got faster while her face flushed and her eyes went out of focus. I reached around to her back and fumbled with the clasp, no idea how to get it undone.
"Let me," she breathed, reaching around, under my hands, and undoing the thing. I pulled at it and slid it over her arms, which she held up toward heaven. She shivered all over with her breasts exposed, and her nipples were hard and pointed, but not just from the cold. I ran my fingers over her breasts, appreciating them, admiring their size, loving how perky they were.
I remembered something I had read, once, so I didn't grope them like I wanted into. No, I traced spirals over her breasts, going in tighter and tighter circles, her breathing becoming fast and shallow. Then I got to her nipples, which I massaged softly with my fingers, making my bunny groan.
"More . . ."
I wasn't sure what else I could do with my hands, so I kept massaging one nipple while I brought my mouth down to the other. I kissed it, gently. She sighed at that, so I opened my mouth and used my tongue like I would if we were making out. She took another sharp breath in and moaned louder. That set Buddy back in gear all the way, and I'd do anything to make her make that sound again.
"Oh . . ." she breathed. I smiled and kept at my work, switching breasts, and she moaned again as my tongue met the opposite nipple.
"A . . ."
I kept massaging the one nipple and brought my other hand up to replace my mouth.
"What is it, Maria?"
She shuddered and moaned again. When she looked into my eyes, need was plain on her face. "I need you to, to . . . I need to . . ."
"Okay. But, I . . ." Heat flushed into my face. "I don't know how."
"I'll show you!" she said, dropping down and throwing off her shoes. She pulled off her pants, partway, and I grabbed the legs and tore them off of her. Her panties came next, and I could smell their dampness – something sweet and a little tangy. She shivered again when I looked at her womanhood, a simple slit below a mound covered in soft hair. I wanted to drop my pants and take her, but instead I shook my head and dropped to floor.
"Show me," I said.
"Right here . . ." she said, taking my hand and putting it at a little bud, the perfect color of pink, at the top of her lips. She moved my hand in a circle a few times, until I got the idea. I started in, rubbing slow at first, making sure that I wasn't hurting her. She moaned again, still louder, and me getting harder than I had ever been in my life, but that wasn't the most important thing right then – she was.
I noticed that she was making some kind of fluid, the love juice, and I dipped my fingers in it before I rolled her bud around. She shrieked, once, and I went faster, my motions and caresses more insistent, more forceful, and every change made her scream louder and louder.
"Oh, god, oh, god!" she said, and I went faster, leaning in to pick up on her nipples where I left off. As soon as my tongue made contact, she cried out.
"Oh, god!" Her back arched and she shuddered all over, her juices shooting out of her onto the floor and onto my fingers. The sweet smell made me want to do things to her, so I kept up with my tongue and hands, and she screamed a second time, arching even more, all of her body's muscles tensing in one crazy knot. I felt my boxers getting moist at the sight and the sound, but I kept them on.
Finally, she relaxed, sort of crumpling to floor. I couldn't let her just lay there, so I swept her into my arms, and she nuzzled into my chest, making my muscles tingle.
"That was . . . awesome," Maria said, her breathing slow and deep again.
"Yeah, it was."
We both laid there for a while, Maria not wearing anything but her socks. As I looked down at her, at her body, at _her_ with nothing hidden, I felt something. It made me feel like I could sass Mrs. Carson. It made me feel like Chasm was a pushover. It made me feel like I could fight Luke five times, back-to-back.
She snuggled all the way into me. "I love you, A."
And, then, I knew what I was feeling. "And I love you, Maria. Always."
I thought I could see her eyes sparkling with tears in the low light as she looked up at me. "Always," she said, smiling softly.
We sat like that for a long time, in the dark, pressed against each other. "Always" hung in the air, and we didn't move for the longest time, afraid to disturb that promise.
[Updated on: Thu, 16 April 2009 21:44]
A's story is now complete.
The beginning: Volume 1
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| A, vol. 4.5 [message #35986 is a reply to message #35984 ] |
Tue, 14 April 2009 18:24 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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A, volume 4.5 (Interlude):
A's Real Team
A and friends make their relationship official.
Sunday, October 15th
"You are not gonna believe what I just heard!" Penny said, clanking her dinner tray on the table and dropping her bag before sitting down with the rest of us.
"You said that you would not gossip to us," Ray said.
"Oh, shut up," Penny said, Ray raising her eyebrows. "Oh, uh . . . sorry. No, this is news, this isn't gossip!"
"Yeah, yeah, tell us!" Spira said. Everyone looked at her. "What? Her enthusiasm's catchy."
Penny slung her hair back with a quick flick of her head and gave us all expectant looks. "Team Kimba just took down the Children of the Night yesterday."
Max's eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. "The Children of the Night?!" I said. "Nightgaunt, Archfiend, and the Necromancer?! Those guys?!"
Penny nodded. "Yeah."
"There's, like, no way," Max said. "Kimba doesn't have the guns to take on top-class supers like those guys. It's gotta be a lie, Pen."
"It isn't! Check this out," she said, producing her laptop from her bag. She clicked a few times, opened Media Player, and queued up a video, and there was a shorter, shapely girl with firey red hair firing off spells at someone who was returning fire with searing black energy. The girl couldn't be anyone else.
"That's Nikki," I confirmed. "And that black energy . . . the Necromancer!"
"Exactly! I've found video or two of Tennyo, too, taking on the Arch-fiend."
"Wow," Max said. I had to agree.
"Now, I didn't just show you this to prove to a rumor to you. Really, that's not the point, anyway. What *is* the point is that we don't have a name."
Everyone paused and looked at her.
"I do not follow," Ray said.
"Put it this way," Penny said, her eyes sparking with enthusiasm. "All of the best students at Whateley have been in teams. You look in the scrapbooks, and all the people who've been in teams have done the most amazing things! I mean, take the Bruiser Brigade that graduated in '96. They were one of the only groups with a name that they had since Freshman year, and they beat down a major Class X entity. Class X! Those things are unreal, but *students* were able to take it out!
"And then, you take Team Kimba!" Penny said, her excitement ramping up. "They've beaten ninjas, the Alphas, and full-out supervillains!"
"And?"
"Annnd we should have a name. And costumes, too. Not even TK has costumes."
We all looked at each other.
"C'mon, guys! We hang out all the time anyway! We might as well make a team."
"Let's do it," Maria said. "I'd like to."
"I guess it kinda makes sense," Max said. "Sure, why not."
"I've always wanted to be a part of a super-team – count me in," I said.
"If we can beat up villains? Yeah, definitely!" Spira said.
"I am for it," Ray said.
"Awes~ome!" Penny sang. "First up, we should all have code-names. I have mine . . ." Penny trailed off, maybe in the hopes of building tension? "Panoply!"
"Oooh, I like it," I said. "Has a nice ring to it."
"Thanks!"
"Everyone uses my codename, anyway," Spira said. "So you guys already know it."
"Mine's Tesser," Max said. "In case anyone needed a reminder."
"Neuramail," Maria said, then paused. "Or does that sound kinda dorky?"
"I think it's great," I said. "That's the five of us. Ray? You know, I don't think I've ever asked if you have one. Do you?"
She nodded.
"What is it?"
"Five Times Favored."
I blinked. "Five Times Favored?"
"Not exactly snappy, is it?" Penny asked.
"It suits my abilities," Ray said. "I am blessed by all Five Phases."
"Makes sense to me," Max said. "Plus, it sticks out. Originality's a good thing."
"Well, that's taken care of," Penny said. "Now, we need a name."
"Hmmm," I said. "It depends on what you want to focus on. Some groups have names about their purpose. Others are about their nature, you know, what makes them who they are."
"Names about purpose?" Maria asked.
"Yeah, sure. You've got the Justice League of America in DC Comics. You've got the Avengers in Marvel. And you've even got the Changers in Wildstorm."
"And, like, the Empire City Guard up in New York," Max added.
"Exactly."
"But what about those 'nature' groups, or whatever?" Spira asked.
"Let's see . . . you've got the X-men, the Fantastic Four, Gen13. Here in school, we've got the Grunts, the Alphas, the Outcast Corner . . . "
"Where would Team Kimba fit in?" Penny asked.
"They don't. Like, at all," Max said.
"Yeah, I'd say he's right. I don't even know where they pulled their name from."
"Wait a sec," Spira said. "There was an old cartoon called Kimba the White Lion. I've seen it a few times on TV."
"So, how does work with the Kimbas?" I asked. "Or their powers?"
Spira shrugged. "You got me."
"So, anyway, you have purpose names, nature names, and, I guess, mascot names," I said. "I guess we just need to pick which one we wanna go with."
"We don't even _have_ a mascot," Max said. "So we can skip that."
"Definitely," Penny said. "How about a purpose name?"
"Like what?" Maria asked. "What do we do? Or want to do?"
"Oh, I know!" Spira said. "We can be 'The Guardians!'"
"The Guardians?" I asked.
"Well, sure! We're always guarding you!"
I clammed up and felt my face heat. Everyone laughed for a while, and Spira looked confused.
"Ohhh," she said, once the laughing had died down. "Sorry. Uh . . ."
"The Defenders?" Ray suggested. "We have not done much defending, but it is a noble goal."
"Maybe," I said. "But we can't do it. Marvel already has that one. Their Jersey team, if I remember right."
"The Whateley Guard?" Maria suggested.
"Eh. We're not really doing much defending," I said. "So let's get off that idea."
"I would suggest the Cultivaters," Ray said. "I have my greenhouse, A tries to encourage friendships in his dorm, Maria hopes to make homes more comfortable, Penny has her tutoring, Heather has her assisting job, and Max . . . 'helps' certain girls." I snickered at that and Max gave me a look. "We all do a small part to improve the the world around us," Ray finished.
"It's true, but with a name like that, people might expect us to have plant powers."
"So, then, let's move on," Penny said. "How about a nature name?"
"Well, we're all mutants . . ." Maria said. "The Mighty Mutants?"
I had to choke off a laugh. "That's a start, bunny, but I don't think it works, exactly."
"Our powers are all _totally_ different," Max said. "So we can't go with that."
"We should stay with something simple," Ray added. "Perhaps incorporate 'Six' into the name."
"*There's* an idea!" Penny said.
"If we wanted to go old-school, we'd need alliteration," I said. "So, something like the Singular Six."
"Singular Six?" Spira asked. "That almost sounds like we're single-minded. Or we have really crappy teamwork!"
"How about the Inseparable Six?" Maria asked, a hopeful look in her eyes.
"Doesn't really strike fear into the hearts of villains," Max said. Maria pouted at him.
"Why not even simpler?" Ray asked. "What if we were just 'The Six?'"
"Hmmm. Got Modern/Iron Age sound to it," I mused. "Has a nice ring to it. 'The Six.' I'm for it."
"Agreed," Ray said.
"Not really any other group like it," Max said. "Sounds cool. Totally! Let's do it."
Maria was still pouting a little. "I guess," she said. "If you guys like it."
"Yeah, let's go with it!" Spira said. "It's short, sweet, and to the point."
"It's settled, then," Penny said. "I'll get us registered first thing tomorrow! Now, it's time for costumes!"
We spent the next hour or two deciding on basic designs. Penny already had a _lot_ to choose from, some really lame, but some really awesome, too. In the end, we decided to go with a black base, and then make each costume a little different, but have some the same design elements.
The thing that really tripped us up for a minute or two was colors, but then that was quickly solved when Maria pulled out her communicator. She had already color-coded everyone, and all of us liked the colors she had. So, I was white (from one Megadeus' main colors), Max was black (because of his bamf-smoke), Maria was silver (because of her chrome), Penny was purple (because of her eyes and powers), Spira was red (for her hair and eyes), and Ray was jade-green (because of one of her eye colors, plus the heavy use of jade in Chinese ceremony).
"There!" Penny said. "I'll have our costumes done as soon as I can. Thanks a bunch, everyone! This will be awesome, I know it."
[Updated on: Thu, 16 April 2009 21:46]
A's story is now complete.
The beginning: Volume 1
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| A, vol. 5 -- Part 1 [message #36824 is a reply to message #35986 ] |
Mon, 20 April 2009 02:42 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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A, volume 5: A's Battles
Vendettas are brought to a close and friends grow closer.
Part 1
Sunday, 0ctober 15th, 2006 Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
It feels like it's been a while, doesn't it? I've been keeping up with things, just not this. Anyway, as for what happened that next week . . . ?
For starters, my art class was just up and canceled. All of Mrs. Hoben's students got notes in their mailboxes saying that the class was axed, just like that, something about a personal emergency. I was kinda ticked about it, honestly, as I'd finally made some headway on what she was teaching us, but with the class canceled, I'd never have a chance to do anything with it. On the upside, I wouldn't have to deal with that Savant jerk, which was nice.
That wasn't the only thing that was canceled, though. As it turned out, they needed Dr. Nellens (remember her, the bald lady who was a doctor in psycholinguistics?) in some newly discovered ruins in Cambodia somewhere. That meant that I didn't need to worry about any more language stuff, probably for the rest of the semester. Well, not as much, anyway. Dr. Woodrow still had some stuff for me to do, but nowhere near as much as what Dr. Nellens had planned.
Besides that, I brought back all the old Imprints for Powers Lab, you know, the Aces -- Megadeus, FTL, and Cobalt. But I wasn't gonna just bring 'em back, no. I was gonna adapt how I used 'em. Like with Cobalt, for instance, I was _not_ gonna use the Tiamat Array, you know the big superbeam weapon? Mostly because it kicks me out of form every time, which had nearly gotten me killed the first time it happened. With FTL, I was gonna use his Speed-Spheres more like armor, which would help a lot with defense and overall usefulness. Besides them, though, I still had Raptor. Mrs. Bohn was glad to see all of them and made lots of notes as I described how I brought them back, and all. Once her assignment was finished, I thought that I was gonna get rid of them, like I had originally planned, but I realized that I really knew my way around them, so it was a good idea to keep them around.
There's a good reason, too: I was pretty obviously a trouble magnet. First, there was Chasm. Then, there was Chasm _again_. After him was Silverwing, and after Silver was Luke. No matter what I did, it looked like I was going to get in fights. (Yes, I know that third one was at least halfway my fault. Still!) All that together -- I should have forms I know how to use, not ones that I have to test, and everything, in the middle of a fight. That could only end badly.
Speaking of fights and things ending badly, I decided to scrap that whole "bully busting" thing. Mostly, it had to do with all that trouble I'd been having. I mean, I could get into another fight with someone big and mean at just about any time (Chasm was still waiting for me somewhere out there, after all), so it was a bad idea to take any chances getting injured. Besides that, detention _blew_.
And that still leaves all the Fury and Echo stuff. All that week, I didn't dream anymore, and the couple times I talked with Circe, she seemed to think that all of the dreams were pretty much done for me since the Dreamwalker from _way_ back had only left that one, uh, recording, I guess you could call it. Only one etching. In the end, it meant that I wasn't going to have any more dreams that I'd wake up from smelling ash. Which I definitely wasn't complaining about.
Besides that, TK was all the buzz those days, and even we didn't stop talking about them. I mean, how can you _not_ talk about a bunch of teenagers that take down the _Children of the Night_. Seriously. It even looked like they had gotten a new member, too -- a Chinese girl named Chou who had come to school on foot. On foot. Anyway, she had actually gotten into Poe the day before Luke put me in the clinic. Then, she had gotten in a fight, then she got mixed up in the big one in Boston with the Necromancer and crew, and it looked like she was some kinda crazy-good martial arts master. The thing about her was, though, she had a sword, one that Ray told me was a jian. I took that and the girl and used it for the Pride, making a serene-seeming swordsman for the team, mixing it together with my Toni pastiche. Yes, I know it doesn't sound like it would work, but it did. I think.
There's still a little more TK news on top. Sara had landed herself in the clinic when she had gotten into with some other kids, a group called the Goobers (really stupid name, right?) who had really beat her up something fierce. Last anyone had heard, she was still in the clinic.
But enough about injuries and stuff!
All that week, I had worked on the Pride, and I took my sweet time doing everything, but I had just about finished it up by the time the week was out. That was definitely faster than anything I had ever managed before, and, if anything, it looked like I wasn't slowing down at all -- just the opposite, in fact. It was something that I wished I could know more about, but that would mean that I'd have to mention it to Dr. Hewley, and him and Dr. Shandy would get in arguments, and . . . ugh. No thanks. Speaking of those crazy guys in white coats, they still hadn't managed to find anymore time to test me anymore, either my language trick or anything else. They said that they were pretty much booked solid all the way through the rest of the month, and even a little bit into November. But, hey, that was fine by me.
As for the guys . . . Penny did her usual thing, ya know, practice, practice, practice. Inspira was more or less doing her usual thing, too, hosting our little study sessions. Ray was unusually quiet that week, but she wouldn't answer any of us if we asked her if something was wrong. We all kinda shrugged it off and went on, which wasn't such a great idea.
Then, there's that whole thing with Max. Well, I still hadn't found anything, mostly because Penny said that she was still "getting the whole story," which didn't really explain much at all, but I took it anyway because I really did want to know. Wait, no, that's not right exactly. More like I really did _have_ to know. If my room-mate had done something really bad to someone, even a jerk, then I felt like it was a good idea to know.
Last up in the Six is Maria. We were getting along great, and the, uh, "Closet Episode" was just the start. That sorta thing happened a few more times during the week after that, which was _awesome_ let me tell you. But none of that stuff had gotten any heavier, so we still hadn't gone all the way yet. Both of us were more than a little uneasy about it, Maria because she was just flat-out scared of, well, you know, and me because I didn't want to have a pregnancy scare. I talked with Max about the thing a little, and he told me that I'd probably need some "Brick Condoms," which do pretty much what you think they would.
On the night of the 22nd, I actually stopped by a big thing called the "Weapons Fair," which, despite its name, didn't have just weapons. There was even one kid selling honest-to-god utility belts! I wanted to buy one really, really bad, but that would've tripped the flag on my spending account, and I didn't feel like explaining why I had just dropped thousands of dollars just so I could be like Batman. Oh, well. Anyway, I got what I had gone down there for: the condoms. I didn't know if or when I'd get the chance to use them, but at least I'd be ready whenever my Bunny was.
Besides all the -- intimate stuff, I had given her my comics for her to look into. She'd really only read manga, so she didn't know what she was missing, let me tell you. Manga's not bad, or anything, but Western comics have such more mature writing and better art. All that week, she said she'd been reading them, but she wasn't sounding too happy about it. I just couldn't get it.
And that brings us up to Monday night. Class had been done for a while, and the guys were over at Spira's. I had an appointment, you know, Monday nights, therapy, blah, blah. But it was a little different because Dr. Woodrow had transferred the time over to Circe starting the 23rd. She said that she had plans for me to work on my Fury, or whatever, which was good -- but also _really_ scary.
Here we go . . .
Monday, October 23rd, 2006 -- Evening
I followed the directions that Circe had given me, going down through the tunnels below Shuster, ones that smelled of dust and water and echoed like crazy. Besides that, they weren't the best lit, only having a few white lights here and there, and I wanted to run for it when I got to one section where the lights weren't working right.
Me and close spaces don't get along, if you remember.
Once I got over that and got going again, I started paying closer attention to the tunnels. As far as I could tell, no one had used the tunnels in a _long_ time. Matter of fact, I would've called them abandoned. It kinda made me wonder how Circe knew about them, but then again, she is a goddess/witch . . . person. Who knows what all she might know?
Within another minute or two, I came to the end of the directions for the tunnels, and I stopped at a huge steel door that looked like it could take a punch from the Hulk and not even budge. Once there, I looked back down to the paper.
"'Touch the door . . .' -- right -- '. . . it will open by itself.'"
For whatever reason, I couldn't just come out and do it. Something about the whole situation weirded me out on some level that was just a little below consciousness, or something. It wasn't fear, not exactly, just . . . discomfort, I guess? Without even meaning to, I thought back to my fight with Luke, how everything in the world was painted red and everything was something that I had to attack, to kill . . .
And I shivered again, even though the tunnel was plenty warm.
Huffing when I finally got tired of waiting, I raised my hand to touch the door, and then jumped when an orange spark flew from the steel to my finger. The door shrieked and squealed as it swung open, showing a mostly empty room on the other side. Well, empty except for a statuesque lady with a commanding presence and swaying, really long auburn hair.
"A, good evening," Circe said. "Please, come in."
Following her directions, I walked inside and the door immediately boomed shut behind me, making me flinch a little. Out of habit, the second I got a few feet from Circe, I bowed.
"Oh, A," she said, laughing softly. "How many times must I tell you such pleasantries are unnecessary?"
"Just feels like the right thing to do, I guess," I said, standing up. "So, ma'am, I was wondering: what is this room?"
She raised an eyebrow at me. "I suspect you could answer that question. Take note of your surroundings, A."
The room wasn't much, I gotta admit. It was just concrete roughly shaped like a bowl, with tier after tier leading up from the floor. At the bottom, where the two of us were standing, it was flat and wide, with enough space for a wooden platform, maybe.
"It's a classroom?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, nodding. "One of many such rooms constructed when the tunnels were built into the earth. Engineers and teachers both wanted to make sure that there were a surfeit of rooms to use should the buildings aboveground ever suffer destruction. Such has never happened on the scale they feared, so many of these rooms go unused."
"Yeah, that makes sense. But why are we down here?"
"Because of you."
"Me?"
"Yes. Your Fury state is quite dangerous; thus, we need to take due care not to risk the other students' safety. Even if you lose control and escape my wards, you could not escape this room."
"Wards," I said, looking around but not finding anything, "Magical shields, right?"
Instead of saying anything, she just swept her hands over smudges on the floor. When I looked closer, I found out that they weren't smudges but writing. Something that looked like Greek, to be specific, and I tried to read it with my knack -- and that got me a massive headache very quickly.
"Ow."
"My apologies, A. I should have warned you -- the characters appear to be Greek but are otherworldly, the tongue of the Olympians, script beyond the ken of most mortals."
I nodded, pain drilling into my temples.
"The pain should subside. While we bide our time, please seat yourself in the center of the ring."
After I shook my head again to clear the pain up some, I sat down in the middle of the floor in the ring of not-Greek letters, going straight into seiza, mostly out of habit. Circe walked around the circle, the writing going bright with orange light more and more with every step, the ring itself almost . . . humming? The feeling was so intense that my joints vibrated a little. She stopped in front of me and the light faded.
"Now, A, this will be a new exercise for you. The Fury is a raging fire smoldering even now in the depths of your heart. When awakened, it quickly flares into a blaze so potent that heeds no direction. But even the mightiest flames can be directed, quenched, and, ultimately extinguished. Yet this flame's kindling and fuel are within you, so for you the fire is not a force to be studied, it is something far more personal. Far more intimate. Thus, you cannot stop at just studying the fire or even mastering it. You must internalize its lessons, make it part of you until the blaze is as your thought and its smoke as though your breath."
Despite concentrating as hard as I could, most of what she said to me right there was pretty much lost on me.
Right then, anyway.
"The first step in mastering, though, is witnessing it action. To that end, I need you to waken the Fury."
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head at her.
"Fear not," she said, looking down her nose at me. "No matter the force you wield against the wards, they will hold."
A few memories of the Fury flashed through my head, and my stomach sank.
//This _is_ something I gotta do, right? Right?//
No one answered me, so I sighed and closed my eyes. To get things going, I thought of all the things that had ticked me off and _really_ ticked me off. Chasm making me feel like a helpless little girl. Silverwing generally being a prick. Luke hurting me and making me feel like a little kid stuck in a dark room in the basement. Every time I thought of something more, another cluster of red sparks went off in the dark of my vision. Juice started screaming in me, and I smiled at the pleasure that bolted through my nerves. I took a deep breath, mixing in frustration with Max and everything else, and my Fury _exploded_ like a cannon shot. My eyes flew open, and everything had changed into a world of crimson, rust -- and fire.
In a blink, I was on my feet and shrieking, beating on the wards, each hit making a red flash.
"Excellent, A," she said, perfectly calm. "This is the Fury. Feel it, _know_ it."
That bitch was just gonna stand there! I was gonna tear her apart!
"Yes, I feel it. That murderous intent that is turning all other thought to ash."
Another shriek tore out of me. "I'll kill you!"
"Now, let us see your mettle. Make your bid for control!"
//That stupid bi -- !//
-- but it worked. For just a second, I let my arms relax, even when I still wanted to break every bone in her body. My heart beat once, though, and I was back at it. But she didn't look worried. Circe just nodded as I made the wards flash over and over. Something registered in my thinking, and I realized that just beating on the ring wasn't gonna get me anywhere.
Right then, something bad, something _dark_ whispered in my mind, something that sounded like words but weren't. I focused in on that, and a cruel smile came to my lips as I realized what it meant. Circe raised a single eyebrow at me as I took a deep breath, as deep as I could.
"Cleanse the world with flame!" I screamed.
White fire roared around me an inferno, and I floated off the floor, the flames burning like a sun around me. Pain shot along my nerves and joints, burning as my body changed into that of Pyre. I looked down at Circe, my smile growing wider, but she just waved a hand at me, and everything went black.
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 -- Midnight
When I opened my eyes, my mind refused to process what I was seeing. I blinked, shook my head, and double checked. I was laying on my back, staring at the ceiling. But not the ceiling of the empty classroom, no, it looked like the ceiling of one of the offices. Once I sat up and got a better look around, it was pretty obvious what had happened. Circe had brought me to her office while I had been out.
"Ah, A, you're back with us. My apologies for the sleep spell. Believe it or not, I overestimated the amount of energy it would take to incapacitate you." Circe was sitting at her desk, a tea set sitting next to a few open books on her desk. "Tea?"
I shook my head. "No thank you, ma'am. How long was I out?"
"A few hours. It's a little past midnight."
"Dang it. I was supposed to tell Maria good night," I said to no one in particular.
"Your lady?" Circe said, taking a sip of her tea.
"Yeah," I said, sitting up and swinging my feet over the floor. As it turned out, she had set me on her couch, which was actually really comfortable. After I got up and stretched for a moment, I decided that I wanted to know something. "So . . . how did I do?"
Circe sighed and put her cup down. "Well enough. I had held out hope for better performance, but we must deal with the reality of our situation."
"So, uh, what's the reality, then?"
"That your Fury's intensity far outstrips your control, something intensely dangerous, especially with your villainous Imprints," she said, standing. "But I have developed a stopgap measure."
Instead of saying anything, I just watched her walk to her bookcase. She reached around a Greek-style bust (you know, the kind with no eyes) and undid a necklace that was hanging on it before bringing it to me.
"Your hand, A."
As I held it out, she let the chain fall into it. It wasn't much to look at really, just a simple silver thing.
"What is it?" I asked.
"A spell woven into a material shell. A minor artifact, in other words."
". . . what does it do?"
"Place it around your neck and I'll show you directly."
Despite being sorely tempted to ask another question, I just put it around my neck and clasped it. Oddly enough, it felt sorta warm.
"Now, try to kindle the Fury."
"But . . . !"
She gave me a perfectly confident smile. "Do it," she said, her tone not brooking any opposition.
Even though I thought it was a bad idea, I closed my eyes and thought of things that had made me mad . . . and nothing.
"No sparks. No Fury. Wow!"
Her smile grew a little wider. "Of course not."
"Wow," I said, holding up the chain to look at it. "I bet the Rager kids would pay an arm and a leg to get ahold of this!"
"It would do them no good, actually."
"It wouldn't?" I asked, looking up at her.
"No. As I've said before, the Echo and the Fury still reflect arcane laws in their operation. Which means that measures designed to work against magical effects can work against them. Those who suffer from the Rage trait benefit from no such thing."
"Oh. So it only works for me, huh?"
"Just so. As long as that is around your neck, then you will be entirely unable to access the Fury."
"So . . . do I just leave this on forever?"
"No, A. You will learn control, but such mastery will take many months. So that you do no harm to yourself or others," she said, motioning to the chain. "You will keep that on."
I nodded. "Okay."
"Leave me, now," she said, sitting down. "I have matters to attend to."
"Yes, ma'am," I said, moving to the door. "Same time and place next week?"
She nodded. "Good night, A. May the gods bless your efforts."
"Thank you, ma'am. Uh, may they bless yours, too."
She smiled at me for a moment then turned back to her work and gestured, her office door shutting and locking in front of me. I stared at the door for a bit, then lifted the chain to get another look at it. It still felt warm, and the weight of it in my hand was reassuring somehow. With it on, I wouldn't be losing control, and . . . I wouldn't have to worry about Pyre or Soleil. I took a deep breath, trying to grin a little, then walked back to Emerson.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 September 2009 02:18]
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| A, vol. 5, Part 2 [message #37038 is a reply to message #36824 ] |
Tue, 21 April 2009 23:48 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 2
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 Early Morning
My body bolted up, my skin cold with sweat. Images from the nightmare were burned into my head, my friends being eaten by Chasm's power because I wasn't strong enough to protect them. Luke was there, too, and he had mixed in with Chasm, and . . .
And I was still breathing hard as my heart beat like crazy.
A quick, rough sound nearly sent me jumping through the ceiling before I realized that it was just Max snoring hard. Once I had gotten calmed down, and all, I laid down, trying to get back to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw Chasm holding Maria by her throat, her color draining away . . . With another shiver, it was pretty much definite that I wasn't going to be getting any more sleep, so I got out of bed and walked over to my easel and worktable.
When I turned on the low-powered white light, a soft glow spilled over my work, showing all the pencils I'd done over the past few weeks. Sorting through them confirmed that I had come every bit as far as I thought I had: all of the pencils for the first volume of the Pride was done. Even the finale, which took a _lot_ of work because I wanted to get every frame just right. When you're closing something out, you need to get it just right, you know what I mean? I booted up my laptop and opened Corel Draw, pulling up the last file. It was the final issue, and I was only halfway done with the lettering. Since I didn't want to get started and have to stop halfway through, I took a look at my clock to check the time.
3:03AM.
//Okay, I'll just stay up to finish this, then I'll go to bed. Shouldn't take me too long, right . . . ?//
With a shrug, I set to work. Unfortunately, I didn't really get lost in it like I do with my drawing because there was a lot of places where I had to stop and check and position and think . . . you get the idea. But I finally finished, and I smiled as I clicked the "Save" button. When I checked the clock, it had been a little more than hour.
//It's done! Sweet. Now what to do with it . . .//
I thought about it, drumming my fingers on my desk, but nothing came to me. Both DC and Marvel had rejected me already, so it didn't look like going with any big publishers was really the way to do it. Right then, in the middle of the night, though, I couldn't really think of anything else. After that, I decided to try to get some more sleep, but I wasn't really any more successful then than I had been just a little bit before. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling, thinking of some way I could bide my time until I could sleep or until it was time for my morning run with Zack, whichever came first.
After thinking about it for a bit, I figured that I'd try the communicator, see who was awake. If someone was asleep, then they wouldn't answer the little paging sound, and I didn't _think_ it was loud enough to wake them up, either. That in mind, I pulled the communicator out from the top drawer of my desk and went with Maria's silver button first. Nothing. Next up was the red button, Spira's. No answer. Third was Ray's green button -- no luck. The answer to whether Max was even awake was answered when he snorted loudly, once, then rolled over, mumbling something about Brianna. That only left one button, so I pressed it. I didn't get any response, so I started to put it back into the drawer, until I heard the gadget beep.
"Yeah?" I said.
"What are you doing up this late?" Penny asked, breathing deeply.
Smiling, I said, "I could ask you the same question."
"_Well_, I didn't feel like sleeping, so I figured I'd use my time for something useful."
"Which would be?"
"Gymnastics," she said.
"Gymnastics at . . ." I said, checking the clock, "at 4:20 in the morning."
"So?"
"Just kinda weird, that's all. Listen, mind if I join you? I can't sleep, and I could use some company."
All I heard from her end for a bit was her breathing.
"Yeah," she said. "Why not?"
"Cool!" I said, Max jumping a bit in his sleep. Once I was sure I hadn't woke him up, I said, "Where are you?"
"There's a practice space under Laird Hall," she said. "Just go to the tunnels and follow them over here."
"Right."
"Oh! And watch out for Security, since we are totally breaking curfew."
"K. I'll see you soon."
"Bye!" she sang.
Once the communicator beeped to show me that conversation was over, I got dressed in my warmer jogging clothes and dropped the thing in my pocket. I walked to the door, opened it quietly, and tiptoed outside before I eased it shut. Turning into the hallway, I didn't see anyone, which was good, so I went on outside, shivering as the night air hit me. It wasn't cold, exactly, but it was a good bit chillier than my room had been, so it took me a few minutes to get used to it. While I did, I made my casual way over to Laird Hall, making sure to stay _far_ away from any security crews.
When I got there, the place was completely empty, which was weird, but I made my way onto the elevator and clicked the hidden button, which started the car down to the tunnels. Sure enough, finding the place where Penny was wasn't very hard at all. Matter of fact, there were even signs -- "GYM THIS WAY." After a few turns, I heard a series of girly, sexy grunts. I could only assume that it was Penny. As I got to the doorway, I confirmed it by getting a look at her. And I'm ashamed to say it was good, _long_ look. Sorry Maria!
Penny was in the middle of a thing that I think gymnasts call a "floor routine." At the second I saw her, she was in a long series of back-handsprings, and I couldn't help but watch her, her purple spandex outfit hugging _everything_ as her long, lithe body danced through every move. After grunting over and over, hands smacking into the padded floor, she launched in a high arc, twisting around and around before she landed gracefully again on the floor, the force setting all of her, well, jiggly bits to jiggling. After that, she walked over to a nearby bench, and I suddenly became aware I was very, very . . . excited.
Penny closed in, and I did my best to reposition everything.
"Heya!" Penny sang, toweling herself off. I stopped dead, giving her my best impression of a deer in headlights. She laughed and looked down.
"Happy to see me?" she asked, grinning wickedly as her purple eyes sparkled with mischief.
"Er, um, this isn't what it looks like."
She grinned wider and raised her eyebrows. "What's it look like?"
"Well, you see, you might think, well . . ."
Penny laughed. "Just teasing, A. I know you and Maria totally retarded for each other, and I'm not gonna mess with that," she said as she walked back to her bench. My body still hadn't given up the idea of ogling her yet, so I watched her butt sway back and forth for a second before I made myself look at the ceiling. I didn't want to make the whole thing any worse, so I made sure to get myself under some sort of control. It took a while, but I got there, then I walked on over to her.
"So, do you do this a lot?" I asked.
Nodding, she took a swallow of water. "Yep! At least three nights a week."
"Oh. Um . . . why?"
"Duh! To keep my edge. I used to be real big into gymnastics, and I still like doing it. Besides, it helps me keep flexible, too."
"Hmmm. Doesn't the Exemplar Effect take care of all that for you?"
While taking another drink, she waggled her hand. "Sorta. It will keep you in good shape, but I don't think it will make you flexible. I could be wrong."
I shrugged.
"Anyway," she said, "what brings you down here tonight?"
"Oh, that," I said, sighing. "I can't sleep."
"Max snoring too loud?" she asked, smiling.
"Uh, no. Nightmares."
"Oh, that blows. What kind of nightmares?"
"Ehhh, I'd rather not get into it."
"Fine. Forget I asked," she said, bending down and giving me another view which I had to look away from. When she stood back up, her naughty smile was back, and she had her duffle bag slung over one shoulder.
"Anyway," she said, the smile disappearing. "I was about to go back to my room, wanna walk with me?"
"Definitely!" I said, glad to do anything to get out of that very, um, tense? situation.
"Awe~some," she sang. "Let me get some stuff out of the locker room, then we'll head out."
Nodding, I made a point of _not_ watching her walk away, her outfit hugging every curve, every muscle and every . . .
//Stop it! You've got a girlfriend!//
To try and get myself onto other subjects, I thought of really ugly or disgusting things. I immediately regretted that, as I pictured Mondo naked. I nearly puked right then and there, but at least I was out of the mood.
"You okay, A?" Penny asked, dressed in a jacket.
"Yeah, fine!"
"Right," she said, grinning. "Let's go."
We both got in the elevator, and I made sure to not look at her even once. And I definitely didn't imagine the elevator breaking down, leaving us trapped with nothing else to do but . . . Just to be on the safe side, I moved as far away from her as the elevator would let me. She just watched me shimmy and grinned again, pretending to watch the indicator tick the floors. Not that it really needs to be said, but I was _very_ thankful when tick hit "1" and the elevator let us out topside. I was even more thankful when Penny decided to keep quiet most of the way, but I figured that I needed to say something. We were friends, after all.
"So . . . " I said, then I went with the first thing that came to mind. "Did you ever find out what Max did to Silverwing?"
Penny stopped in her tracks and nodded. "Yeah, just finished earlier tonite."
"How . . . how bad is it?"
She raised her eyebrows and blew out a breath. "It's bad, A."
That wasn't what I had wanted to hear. Not even close. But if it was really that bad, if my room-mate was, well, capable of something like that . . . then I needed to know.
Right?
"Tell me."
Penny paused. "You sure you want to know?"
". . . yeah."
"Ah, well . . . okay. If that's what you want," she said, drawing a deep breath, closing her eyes, then letting it out. "He kidnapped him, A. Then stuck him in a cage."
My breath stopped in my chest. "What?"
Penny pursed her lips, considering. "Okay, you know how there are a lot of rooms in the tunnels?"
I nodded.
"He 'ported Silver down there and left him there."
I blinked.
"Over a whole weekend, A. For days. He didn't leave him any food, any water."
My eyes fell to ground, and chills ran down my spine. "You . . . you're sure?"
Penny was looking down, but she nodded. "Double-checked it every way I know. I even had my Psi friend take a peek in Silver's head. When she did, all she got was pain and darkness and cold. I had to check around with some other kids to see how long he was gone . . . That's what happened, A. Max is . . . it's not like him. I checked around, and he hasn't ever done this to anyone else. So maybe it was just the one time, I dunno."
I looked at her again, trying to say something. But nothing came out. What could you say to that? How are you supposed to react to getting that sort of news?
"C'mon!" she said, trying to sound chipper. "He had good reason, right? I mean that Silver bastard nearly gutted you."
". . . but that makes this sorta thing okay?" I asked, feeling sick.
She shrugged. "I dunno. What I do know is that we're gonna get caught if we stay out here, so we need to get going."
I nodded weakly and followed her to her room. Before she went inside, we hugged each other.
"Thanks," I said as we let go. "It's bad news, but I feel like it's good that I know." My stomach didn't really agree, though, and I just felt even sicker.
"Sure thing! I'm the one stop shop for all your gossip needs! Night, A, take care."
I nodded again and watched her walk into the building, feeling like my stomach was getting ready to erupt. Sick or not, though, I didn't think that getting detention would help anything, so I made my way back to my room, taking a bunch of paths that security didn't normally patrol. It paid off since I didn't run into of them and made it back to my room without any trouble. When I got to my door, I stopped. Max was in there, the person I _thought_ I knew. My best friend . . .
//How am I gonna deal with this?//
No answers came to me no matter how long I stood in the hall and thought about it, so I decided to just go in and do my best with the situation.
In the end, what else could I do, you know?
In a lot of ways, walking in was something of an anticlimax. There wasn't a fight, there wasn't an explosion, or anything like that. Max was still sleeping and snoring, and I was just standing there. And that was pretty much it. I sighed and went back to my desk, where my light had gone on the fritz while I was out. Instead of its normal white light, it was kinda bluish, and it was blinking sorta on and sorta off.
//Crap, gonna have to get that fixed.//
But I wasn't gonna fix it right then. I turned off the light and went to bed, sure that I wasn't going to be getting any sleep. It came as a real surprise, then, when I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 September 2009 02:19]
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| Re: A, vol. 3 and up [message #50126 is a reply to message #20364 ] |
Tue, 25 August 2009 08:02 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 3
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 -- Morning
I had the nightmare again, only this time Max and Silver got all mashed together with Luke and Chasm, and . . .
Not really wanting to think about it anymore, I just got started. As a matter of fact, I was already outside and stretched out before the sun was even up. It was a little overcast that day, and a little chilly, but fine otherwise.
"Morning," Zack said, as he came up, overwhelming me with his chattiness.
"Heya," I said.
"You're far ahead of schedule today," he said, reaching for his toes. "Any reason?"
"Ohhh, yeah," I said, nodding. "I had awful nightmares all night last night, and I got some bad news."
Zack's eyebrows raised. "Family business?"
I shook my head. "Friend stuff."
"Ah," he said, sitting down on the ground and splitting his legs. He didn't say anything more as he went through his routine, which gave me time to think. That was actually a bad thing, as my imagination went straight back to my nightmares, making my skin feel all clammy as a ball of dread plunked in my guts. Of course, with that dread came memories -- Chasm, Silver, Luke . . . All in all, it was pointing to something, something I'd been thinking about ever since I got out of the clinic. I felt like I wasn't doing enough. I felt like I needed . . . more of an edge, maybe. More intensity. Something.
Then I realized that there was someone who might be able to help with that. He was, after all, the most intense person I knew.
"Hey, Zack."
"Yes?" he said, looking to me as he got to his feet and bounced a few times.
"This is gonna sound kinda weird."
He swirled his right hand in a "go on" motion.
"Do you think you could, um, coach me? Or something?"
He raised an eyebrow at me. "What did you have in mind?"
"I really don't know," I said, shrugging. "But you seem like a really tough guy, and you seem to really know your ins and outs about things, so I was hoping you could teach me some of what you know."
"Ah. What brings this on?"
"Well," I said, sighing. "It's like I keep getting in these really intense fights. The stuff that Sensei Ito is teaching is great, and all, but it just isn't doing the job, you know what I mean?"
"Yes," he said, doing some shoulder rolls. "Fine. If you want me to teach you, then meet me at Laird Hall after classes. I'll arrange for an official match between us."
"Waaait a second," I said. "Match? We're gonna fight?"
He nodded. "Trial by fire. But we can worry more about that later."
I watched him leave, but I felt a little uncomfortable at the idea of fighting him straight-out. I didn't even know his powerset! Well, aside from PK-powered flying. Was he a PK Superman? I shook my head and put it out of my mind, sprinting to catch up. Our run was quiet, and he didn't say anything more after we were finished, just waving in his usual way before running off toward Twain. I wondered again about what I had gotten myself into, but I decided that worrying about it wasn't going to get me anywhere at all, so I went inside to my room. The crappy thing was that Max was fully awake and getting dressed.
"Heya, bro!" he said, toweling off his hair. "'Sup?"
Knowing what I knew, I just couldn't come out and say "hi" like usual. The really awesome part, the part that makes me the most suave person on the face of the Earth? I didn't say anything at all. (Oh, yeah!)
"Uh, bro?" Max said, walking up to me and waving his hand. "You, like, okay?"
"Uh, sorry . . . long night," I said. (Hey, it _was_ the truth.)
"Duuude, that sucks."
I nodded, resisting the urge to wriggle from the discomfort.
"Anyway, man," Max said. "You want me to wait for you so we can walk over to the Hall?"
"Uh, no, that's cool. Just head on over, I'll see you there?"
He gave me a bit of questioning look. "Sure thing."
The good thing was that he went back to getting ready, and I swept up my shower stuff before heading out, having to resist the urge to bolt. Not that I was afraid of him, it was just . . . awkward. Leaving that behind, I went for the bathroom, seeing the Stratosphere twins, who stopped arguing about something long enough to wave at me -- in unison. I just smiled and went on.
//Weird kids.//
Plenty of stalls were open when I got there, so I didn't have to wait to get my shower. I whipped through my routine mainly because I didn't feel like standing around, and then I went back to my room. A sigh of relief slipped out of me when I saw that Max wasn't there, then I got dressed and headed out. By the time I had gotten to the Hall and gotten my mountain of grits, sausage, and bacon, Spira and Ray were already there, but Max, Penny, and Maria were nowhere to be seen.
"Heya, girls!" I said, sitting down.
"Hi," Spira said.
"Greetings," Ray said, not looking up from her food.
"You guys seen Maria or Penny?"
"Nope," Spira said, "Penny's probably skipping breakfast today."
"And Maria is likely late," Ray added.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
No one said anything after that, and the silence got really, really uncomfortable really, really fast. To try and make conversation, I decided to go with Spira, who was looking a little frazzled. Matter of fact, her flame-red hair was sorta less "spikey" than usual.
"So, uh, Spira," I said, biting into a piece of bacon, "rough night or something?"
"Yes, big yes," she said, huffing. "I was up almost all night, and when I actually got to sleep, I had really . . . !" she said, looking at me, then she blushed so hard her skin nearly matched her hair and eyes. "Really, um, intense dreams," she said, almost at a whisper.
"Really . . ." I said, then I got it.
//Sexy dreams?// I thought, trying my hardest not to imagine Spira in . . . uh, you know.
"Oh. Uh, sorry?"
"It's okay," she said, picking at a bagel and still bright red. "Every time I think I'm used to having this power, it just gets worse."
"I sympathize," Ray said, her five-colored eyes sorta out of focus. "My powers are also quite taxing."
"Oh, right, because you get to feel it whenever anybody has a fantasy!" Spira said, "or whenever anyone wants to really get bloody! Yeah, I bet you get that all the time!"
Ray just fixed Spira with a glare. "I am going," she said, gathering up her collection of fruits and nuts.
"Ray, I -- " Spira said, reaching out and watching Ray go. Once she was gone, Spira slumped. "Some friend _I_ am," she said.
"It's okay, Spira," he said, giving her a reassuring smile. "You had a bad night, these things happen. I'm sure she understands."
She heaved a sigh and pouted. "Yeah, maybe."
Before I got a chance to say anything more, Maria sat down and plopped a pile of comics on the table.
"Why didn't you tell me!?" she said, sitting down and fixing me with an intense look that was out of place on her cute face, especially framed by that Winry hairstyle.
"Uh . . . tell you what?" I asked.
"About the Iron Spider suit!" Maria said, my finally seeing that she was excited, not ticked. "It's just the thing I've been looking for!"
"Yeah, she -- !" Spira started, a smile blooming on her face, but then she stopped, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry, I'll let her tell you."
"Uh, go ahead, Bunny."
"Okay, so you know about the Iron Spider suit, right?"
Grinning, I said, "Well, yeah, they're in my comics after all."
"Don't you see what makes it so significant!?"
"Well . . . it has a cool color scheme?"
"No, no, no! It supplements his abilities instead of creating new ones!"
". . . come again?"
Sighing and grinning, Spira got up. "I'll leave you guys to it."
"Go ahead, Honey Bunny."
"Right! Okay, you know how regular power armor works, right?"
I nodded. "Sure, it makes the person wearing it tough and strong. Well, some models, anyway."
"Yes, that's exactly right. But almost every suit of power armor eats up gross amounts of energy! The most powerful models require microfusion reactors or cosmic particle gatherers, and that's strictly Devisor gear."
". . . which no one but the Devisor can really use."
"Exactly! I could kiss you!"
"So, then . . . ?" I said, blushing lightly.
"Later! And then I realized, Devisors were doing it all wrong! So, I'm thinking . . . what if you make something that extends and strengthens abilities already present? It would require so much less energy!"
As the idea hit home, I took deep breath. "Oh, that's cool."
She smiled, and her eyes and teeth sparkled. I had to keep myself from kissing her right then and there.
"So, it can make you tougher if you're tough, or smarter if you're smart or make your blasts more powerful, or . . ."
". . . and since it's like the abilities people already have," I said, "not only will it require less energy, but people will get used to it a lot faster."
That time, she really _did_ jump across the table and kiss me deeply, and our tongues played for a couple very sweet seconds. We both sat down a second later, a little woozy and disoriented.
"So, uh," I said, shaking my head to clear it but not really succeeding, "when do you think you'll have some test armor up and ready?"
"Hmmm," she said, her inner nerd shut off everything else. "I already have extensive data on my own powerset, but refitting it to new powersets will take lots of data collection, calibrating, field testing . . ."
She was so cute, I couldn't help but smile. "Okay, just yours, then."
"Oh! Oh, right! Hmmm. End of this week, I think. It depends if She-Bot can help me and if Stalwart will let me borrow his servo diagnostic kit, and . . ."
"Just let me know when you're done. I'd love you see you give it a try!"
She nodded and smiled. "Deal."
We were about to get down to cuddling and whispering to each other . . . \(Yes, in public, get over it.) . . . when Max sat down with a big bowl of cereal, a serious scowl on his face.
"Hey, guys," he said.
Maria immediately scooted back a few feet and I did my best to keep my expression neutral. "Hey," I said.
"Good," Maria said, a little flushed. "Uh, why'd you come in late, Max?"
He sighed. "Oh, Dawn wanted to 'talk,'" he said, putting as much bitterness in that word as he could..
"Talk?" Maria asked. "What about?"
Max just looked at her, taking abig bite of cereal and chewing angrily. "Relationship stuff. Apparently, I'm not giving her enough attention, or whatever."
I was about to say something more, but Maria beat me to it. "So, why not spend more time with her? And call her more?"
"It's not that simple," Max said, taking another bite. "I've gotta spread my time around with Brianna and Lyn, too."
"Three girls?" Maria asked.
//Ohhh, boy.//
"Well, Maria," I said, "you see, um . . ."
"I have three girlfriends," he said, his tone saying that that sorta was very normal.
Maria blinked, trying to process this information. "Like Tenchi?"
"Eh, sorta," Max said, and I breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't going to get into more detail.
"So, are you gonna pick one?" Maria said.
"I dunno," he said. "What's it matter to you, anyway?"
I was getting ready to try and wrap things up, but then Maria cut me off again.
"I think you're just gonna end up getting feelings hurt, yours or somebody else's," she said, nodding to herself. "You should pick one, the one you love the most!"
Instead of saying anything, Max just looked at her before he just left, not bothering to take his breakfast stuff with him. Maria watched him go, looking confused.
"What'd I say?" she asked.
"Max's relationships are, um, complicated, I guess. He doesn't really do them like other people."
"What do you mean?"
Before I said something that might cause Maria to a suffer a meltdown, I just shook my head.
"It's too complicated to explain right now, Bunny. Maybe I could tell you after classes?" I asked, hoping she'd forget.
"Uh, sure! Wanna get giong to first period, then?"
Happy to get out of the situation, I nodded. "Sure, let's go!"
After we dumped our trays, I walked with her to Kane Hall and gave her a five second Frenchie (which was awesome, by the way). We split up after that and I headed over to Geometry.
I'll spare you the details. The day was pretty usual, or, in other words, pretty boring. All the classes were pretty much the way they were every day, including Flight. Once that wrapped up, I went straight over to Laird and changed into my gi. I left for the mats then, where I started stretching out like I was going to be having a normal class of Basic Martial Arts, but I wasn't halfway through before Zack joined me, dressed in a gi with a red belt.
"Afternoon again," he said as het got down to stretching.
"Hey," I said. "So, how's this work?"
Zack didn't say anything, but he did raise his eyebrows once and look toward the doorway. Sensei Ito was standing there -- I hadn't even heard him come in!
"Ito-soke," I said, bowing.
"Aspect," he said to me. "Zone." Zack bowed in response. "I expect the both of you to obey all the rules I have laid down in class. I am happy that the two of you wish to further your development, but we will not cut any corners in the process, understood?"
"Hai, sensei," we said in unison.
"Good. When you're both ready, assume sparring positions. The first one to hit the floor outside of the mats loses."
"Hai, sensei," we said again. After that, we both finished stretching and went where we needed to.
"I won't take it easy on you," Zack said, stretching his neck to one side then another.
"Fine."
Ito took his place and looked at us both for a second. "Hajime!" he yelled, chopping the air with his hand.
"To defend the defenseless," I said, and my Juice hummed to life, buzzing along my nerves and skin, my clothes disappearing as I gained a foot in height. When it was all done, I was Megadeus, costume and all. Zack just watched me with calm eyes before he went airborne, hovering afoot off the ground, silver spots appearing all around his hands, about an inch out.
//Is that his TK field? Maybe -- //
But I didn't have time to finish that thought, as Zack rushed me, me ducking in barely enough time for him to wing me across the shoulder, but even that sent me flying to the edge of the mat. Blinking in surprise, I spun to see him closing in for the hit that'd knock me to the floor, but I shot up, avoiding his charge, only to counter a hard right cross -- that hit nothing but air.
"Crap!" I said before he hit me with a hook, straight-on in the head, so hard that I _felt_ it -- it hurt! When I went to slug him back, though, he was already gone, looping above me, upside-down, and he upper-cut me -- sending me flying down to the floor. I was able to stop myself a bare inch from the tile, but Zack wasn't going to let me recover, as I felt blunt force ram into my back, driving me into the floor, where a web of cracks shot out from the point of impact.
It took me a bit to realize that I had already lost. I huffed and started getting up and I saw Zack standing there, offering me his hand, but I knocked it away, getting up by myself.
"Match to Zone!" Ito said. "Will there be anything else?"
"Yeah," I said, clenching my teeth. "Remat -- !"
"No, sensei, that's all for today."
Nodding, Ito walked out in that smooth, silent way of his.
"What was that all about, huh? I wanted to get a rematch because you were cheating, you stupid ba -- !"
Sharp pain shot into my face, breaking me out of my rant and sending my vision spinning. Once I shook my head, I turned to see Zack, his arm at the end of a slapping motion, the air around his hand shimmering with silvery light.
"I wasn't cheating, and I won because you're still thinking in two dimensions!" he said, sounding like a drill sergeant. "When you use TK like us, you have access to all 3! Up is any way you damn well want it to be!"
Even though I wanted to pummel him, I didn't.
"If you want to get ahead, then start thinking in 3D, Aspect. If you're not a bitch then be here tomorrow."
Without another word, he just walked into the locker rooms, me glaring at him the whole way. It helped some, as my temper cooled off after a little bit, and then I realized that I was an idiot. He was a sophomore, for crying out loud (or at least I thought so), so of course he'd be better than me. I just -- I just hadn't been expected to get so badly creamed like I did. I mean, I wasn't able to get one good hit in!
Rather than stew about it, I just followed Zack into the showers.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 September 2009 02:20]
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| A, vol. 5 -- Part 4 [message #51579 is a reply to message #50126 ] |
Wed, 09 September 2009 14:06 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 4
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 -- Night
I don't know what I had done to deserve it, but my mind seemed bent on really screwing with me. When I woke up from the nightmare (again), Zack had been mixed in with everyone else, so now the person I was fighting was some sort of bizarre fusion of Max, Silverwing, Chasm, and Zack. It sounds stupid, I know, but the truth is I was still shaking about it when I came to, not to mention being covered in fine coating of cold sweat (yes, as gross as it sounds).
The absence of Max's snoring bothered me just as much as his doing a chain-saw impression, and I was quickly reminded that he was with one of his girlfriends that night. Brianna, I think. Either way, I had the room to myself, and with the fear of the dream still wriggling through my guts, I kinda wished that I didn't. Then I remembered that Max was some sorta supervillain wannabe . . .
//. . . do I really want that kinda person around me when I feel like crap?//
It couldn't have been more obvious, really.
//No, I really don't.//
Sighing, I got out of bed and turned on my work lamp. As soon as it flickered on, I forgot that the thing was busted, and it was still showing the kinda-blue light, and it looked it like it was flickering to another color. It was impossible to tell what yet, but the fact remained that I still needed to get a replacement bulb. Sleep felt like it was still a long way off yet, if it was gonna happen at all, so I decided that I'd head over to the c-store.
//If I hurry, I should be able to make it over there before curfew's up.//
My clothes weren't even out of the drawers yet when I heard a tink. Then another tink. The one more. The weird part? It sounded like it was coming from the window. I walked to it and pulled open the blinds, and I saw a girl a little bit away, throwing pebbles at the glass. We both looked at each other for a moment, not sure what to do, then I opened the window.
"Uh, hi?" I said.
She walked closer, the mulch crunching under her sneakers. Before she was even most of the way to the sill, her eyes shone in the dark, brass like a cat's. Her slow steps matched that as she glided into view, sensuous and predatory. The motion was well-suited to her figure, especially the sashay of her hips.
"Oh, sorry, friend, did I wake you up?" she asked, an Irish lilt to her speech, making that last word almost 'oop.'
"No, I was already up and moving . . . Listen, I hate to be rude, but -- who are you?"
"Where are me manners," she said, putting her hand on her yellow hoodie that went with her golden-blond hair. "I'm Evey, Max's girlfriend."
"Evey, right . . ." I said, not wanting to get into any more than that.
"Which makes you A?" she asked as she flipped her head, causing her hair to sway over her cute, freckled face.
"The one and only. Either A or Aspect, whichever you like."
"Never did like the show-names, me'self. Would A be all right for ye?"
I couldn't help it, there was something about her . . . "Yep," I said, smiling.
"Now that we've met one another, do you know where I might be able to find yer room-mate? He's not been answering his mobile."
"Mob oh, his cell! Uh," I said, then paused. It wasn't really that long, but it seemed like it was. Right then, right there, I had a golden opportunity to really screw Max hard. But would that really solve anything?
I made my decision.
"I think he's staying with a guy friend over in Twain," I lied. "Studying for some big test coming up tomorrow."
"Feck," she said, blowing out a long breath while she closed her eyes. "Next time ye be seein' him, tell him to give Evey a call, will ye?"
I nodded. "Sure thing."
"Night, then."
I waved as she went and closed the window when she was out of sight.
//Max, Max, Max . . .//
Shaking my head, I decided that I'd go on to the c-store since it wasn't like the lightbulb was gonna fix itself. Once I popped on some civvies, I threw on my jacket and went through a short set of stretches. I went outside, and cold air laden with the earthy smell of damp, decaying leaves hit me like a wave, making me shiver. Thankfully, I was distracted pretty quick by my running effort because I was going at a pace somewhere between "back-breaking" and "insane," just to see what I could manage. The end result was pretty impressive, if I do say so I made it across campus in half the time it took last time I tried it.
As I walked through the outside door, the bell jingling softly, I couldn't help but smile even as my breath was coming in hard and fast. The runs with Zack were definitely still working. Before I did anything else, I went straight over to the housewares/lightbulbs section. I checked through the racks, but even after I went over every last lightbulb they had in the place, I didn't find the one for my lamp.
//Stupid c-store!// I thought, growling and kicking the shelves, leaving a good-sized dent. I huffed and looked, checking to make sure that no one had seen me put another bit of damage into the shelves which already seen more than their fair share. Thankfully, I was the only one in the aisle at that particular moment.
After I'd cooled off the rest of the way, I decided to make my way around the store. I hadn't ever really just seen what there was to see, and I hadn't even been in there for more than a minute since I had come in on a mission to get stuff for Maria. And I can't say that I was really paying attention to anything that wasn't romantic in some way or another. Anyway, when I finally got to looking around? I was really surprised. There was body armor, spell implements (I only really knew that from little bits I'd picked up from Ray and Spira), art supplies, groceries . . . just about everything you can imagine and then some. The things that really blew me away were the full supply of guns, even some really heavy things!
//Whateley,// I thought, smiling.
Eventually, I found my way over to the book section, and there were all the textbooks, of course, and some novels, but then there was something there that _really_ caught my eye: comics. By the boatload. Wildstorm, Marvel, DC . . .
//. . . they even have Midnighter #1! And it's not due out till November! And Iron Man #12! Wow! How'd they get their hands on these things!?//
I kept flipping through all their shelves, seeing that they had specialty editions I hadn't seen anywhere else, issues two or months in advance, and everything! It was awesome! Before long at all, though, I hit an imprint I didn't recognize. "MP Comics," it said, and the series in question was Titanus, showing some super-cyborg on the main cover. A quick flip-through showed me the art was good, well, no, great -- Bryan Hitch level at least, but not quite Alex Ross. Definitely better than what I could manage. Scanning the credits didn't help me much, other than telling me that "MP Comics" was short for "Miskatonic Press Comics."
//Miskatonic . . . wait, we're in the Miskatonic Valley. Does that mean that's its headquarters is nearby?//
It was all news to me, so I didn't really have any idea. After I'd dismissed the whole thing for later, I picked up a bunch of comics and TPB's and checked them all out.
//_This_ outta keep me busy for a while,// I thought as I walked back to my room. The second I was inside, I turned on my music and laid back, ready to enjoy a fine evening of comics, something that I hadn't done in a good while. I started off with the Civil War issues I'd missed, went on to Green Lantern: Rebirth (which I had missed) . . .
. . . and I'll spare you the details.
By the time I was finished, I felt thoroughly satisfied. There's nothing like going on a bender, let me tell you. I looked over at the clock, expecting half the night to have gone by while I was in fictional worlds . . . but it was just past 2:00. And I still didn't feel like sleeping.
//Crap!// I thought, slamming back into my bed, the thing bouncing a bit with the force. //Maybe I can get some drawing in?//
But that thought didn't last past me turning on my lamp. Instead of blue, it had shifted over to some sorta pale yellow . . . or something. I sighed, not sure what else I could do, but then I remembered that we had two resident night owls. Trying Penny proved to be pointless, and it looked like Ray wasn't gonna answer, either. I put my communicator back on my night stand -- when it beeped again, Ray's jade-green button flashing.
"What?" she said.
Instead of responding immediately, I just blinked, trying to figure out what was off about her.
"What did you need, A?"
"Just wanted to see if I could stop by and hang out for a while. I can't sleep."
". . . I suppose."
"Cool, I'll see you in 10?"
". . . yes."
My communicator beeped, telling me that we were done. I dropped it in my pocket and slid the window open quietly, mostly out of habit. When I remembered how cold it was, I started to go back to get something warmer to wear before I remembered that I wouldn't really notice the temperature, anyway. Mulch crunched underfoot as I stepped outside, and the sound of the window closing was the only sound in the night, aside from the air conditioners. After trying to walk as quietly as I could across the flower bed, I went to my usual spot and grinned a little, looking at the few stars out in the night sky, the rest hidden behind featureless gray clouds.
"To defend the defenseless," I said, and the familiar tingling sensation swept over me as my body reformed and my costume appeared. Without another word, I took off into the night sky. Instead of the cold being something irritating, to my Megadeus body, it felt refreshing, like walking into the AC during a hot summer day. It felt like that all the way over to the roof of Dickinson, where I saw soft light filtering through the panels of the greenhouse. Once I had settled down (with a completely silent landing yeah, that's right), I downshifted and walked over the door before knocking softly.
Ray's face appeared in the glass almost immediately. I waved as she opened the door.
"Hello," she said, standing in the doorway.
"Hi! Suppose I could come in?" I asked, me shivering as the cold hit me all the sudden.
"Oh? Of course," she said, stepping aside and waving her hand at me. She closed the door behind us, and we both walked over to her corner of the greenhouse. It was a little warmer there, and I soon saw why: she had inscribed kanji in a perimeter around her sitting area. If I was looking at them right, they were all the same copies of the "Fire" character.
"So, does this take up a lot of Essence?" I asked as we both sat down in the circle.
"No," she said, rearranging her books and reading one. Since I didn't want to interrupt her, exactly, I just waited for her to finish up that paragraph. Then I waited for her to finish up that page. Then that chapter. When she was still going on, I decided to interrupt, after all.
"Are you okay, Ray?"
Her eyes found mine, and I lost myself in the swirl of red, yellow, white, blue, and green, but as soon as my attention shifted, I saw how -- tired she looked.
"I have been unable to sleep," she said, heaving a sigh.
"You mean your once-a-week thing?"
She nodded. "If I cannot focus, then my Essence escapes my control. If my Essence escapes my control, then it will continue to energize me. If it continues to energize me, then I cannot sleep."
I frowned as she went on, then I pulled her into a hug. She just seemed . . . vulnerable?
"Oh, Ray, I'm sorry. Have you been having nightmares or something?"
For a minute there, she didn't do anything but sit there awkwardly, then she relaxed into the hug and pulled her arms around me.
"No . . . something else," she said, actually getting a little choked up. "I I I am so confused."
"What about, Ray? I don't get what you mean."
". . . I cannot say right now. Just . . . stay here for a while. Please?"
What kinda friend could turn down a request like that? Not that I was thinking about it anyway. So we sat there for a while, propping up against a pile of pillows she had sitting around. We didn't say anything, and she just cuddled up next to me, and I held her. We didn't, um, do anything else, if that's what you're thinking. I was just there for her. That's all.
After we'd been there a while, I was sure that she was asleep. I got up, trying to move as smoothly as possible. Before I was even halfway up, though
"I am not asleep," she said.
"God! Don't scare me like that. Sorry, I thought you were. You hadn't moved or anything."
"I know," she said, looking down. "I was just . . . at peace. For the first time in a long while."
"I'm glad," I said, then shuffled my feet. "Think you could keep this quiet, though? I'm not sure how Maria would react. Don't want another Penny episode, right?"
Ray turned toward me, her eyes not as tired as they were even just a little while earlier, but then she looked a little worried, or something.
"I suppose she has no need to know about this."
"Yeah," I said, nodding, even as my stomach sank. Ray was in trouble, and I didn't really want to get her in _more_ trouble. But I still felt like a total jerk for keeping something from Maria.
"I will be fine, now," Ray said. ". . . but you could stay longer, if you like."
Even as I was about to say something, my body just went and ripped out a huge yawn. "Uh, I think I'll see if I can get to sleep, actually. See you tomorrow?"
"Yes."
Just as I was about to walk out of her corner . . .
"A?"
"Yeah?" I said, turning back to her.
"Thank you."
I smiled. "Sure thing. You have a good night."
"You, as well."
With that, I left the greenhouse.
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| Re: A, vol. 5 -- Part 5 [message #52542 is a reply to message #51579 ] |
Thu, 17 September 2009 23:19 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 5
Wednesday, October 25th -- Morning
It hadn't been very long at all, really, but I had managed to mostly forget about it. But sometimes, just after I'd wake up, usually, it'd hit me.
Mr. J was my dad.
When my eyes opened that morning, it all came at me, and this really nasty mix of guilt and anger and disappointment and pain all came storming into me and settled in my stomach. Add to that nightmares and a villian-y room-mate, and I had the recipe for a craptacular day.
Max still wasn't in the room when I got up and got my jogging clothes on, which was just as well. I still didn't really want to see him, especially with Evey stopping by just the night before. What was I supposed to say? "By the way, one of your screw-buddies stopped by?"
Man, the whole thing was just super-awkward. Obviously, staying in my room wasn't going to help anything, so I went ahead and got the rest of the way ready for my jog with Zack. I got outside not too long after that, and it turned out that a fog bank had covered the grounds, making everything gray except for a little bit of yellow provided by the sun, which looked like it was burning with half the intensity it usually was. Worse was the how the mist made the cold worse: with so much dampness the cold would stick to your skin and really sink in.
It sucked.
"Morning," Zack said as I came out to the Emerson statue.
"Hey," I said, starting into my stretching routine.
"Coming to the session after classes?" he asked, rolling his shoulders.
"Yeah."
"Good."
And that was it. Say what you want to about Zack, but he lets you have your quiet. The run was just as quiet and pretty standard, us doing the full circuit around campus a little faster than we had the day before. Once we were done, Zack and I waved at each other and split up, him heading off for Twain. Max still wasn't in our room when I went in to get my shower stuff and a fresh outfit, and he still wasn't there by the time I finished washing up. For just a second, I was tempted to imagine what might be keeping him busy, but I decided against it and finished putting my uniform and jacket on.
I got outside and started jogging to the Hall, but a girl stopped as we passed each other.
"Oh, hi, are you A?" she asked.
"Yeah, I am," I said, stopping too. "I'm sorry, but have we met?"
"What? No, no. We haven't," she said, her long, auburn hair shaking back and forth. "But Max has told me a lot about you."
//Ohhh, boy.//
"I'm Dawn," she said, extending her hand, showing off her long fingers and slender arm. I couldn't help but wonder if she played guitar or piano.
"I'm A, but I think you knew that already," I said, shaking her hand and doing my best to grin. "What can I do for you?"
"Oh, it was about Max," she said, brushing her hair back behind her shoulder with her hand. "Have you seen him lately? He wasn't picking up his phone last night, and I'm kinda worried about him."
It took a _lot_ of restraint not to roll my head back and groan.
"He was over at a friend's room in Hawthorne, as far as I know," I said. "They've got a big physics test today, so I'd guess that they spent most of the night studying."
"Oh," she said, frowning, her luscious lips pulling her strong-featured face into a pout that made me want to do _anything_ to make her problems go away.
"When you see him, could you tell him to give me a call?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, I'll do that."
"Thanks! Have a good day."
I watched her go, and I couldn't help but appreciate her long, sculpted legs. After she was out of sight, though, I sighed again. The whole Max situation was just heading for some kind of train wreck. I could just tell. I thought about it as I went the rest of the way to the Hall, but I didn't really come up with a good course of action. My mood dipped a little further when I saw that the place was at the worst of the breakfast rush, which meant that I had to wait for a pretty goodly while to get my food. What really made it awful was that I was pretty dang hungry already, and I could smell _all_ the food at the bars: the sausage, the hashbrowns . . . when my turn came to get something to eat, I slopped whatever I could get on my plate, got a huge cup of Coke and rushed to our table, where I paid exactly zero attention to everyone else and just started wolfing down my food in huge gulps, like it was gonna vanish into thin air at any moment.
Maria's giggle broke me out of my trance. "Hungry, bear?"
I looked up to her with a half a sausage patty hanging out of my mouth. She giggled again, and I swallowed the patty in one big gulp.
"More than a little, yeah," I said. "Oh, sorry, morning guys," I said, waving to the other girls. Ray grinned a little in response, not saying anything.
"Heya, A," Spira said. "How's it going?"
"Eh, decent," I said, looking around to make sure that Max and Penny weren't anywhere close. "Last night and this morning both, I ran into Max's other girlfriends."
"You mean, the others besides Dawn?" Maria asked.
"No, actually, she was the one I ran into this morning. I met Evey last night. In the middle of the night."
"What was their purpose in speaking with you?" Ray asked, curiosity showing in her eyes.
"Max hasn't been calling them back or answering their calls. Both of them wanted to check on him to see if anything was wrong."
"Wrong with who?" Penny asked as she sat down with her breakfast of yogurt, strawberries, and toast with a bit of butter.
I looked around at the other three girls, and Spira just shrugged at me.
"Max," I said, biting into another sausage patty. "He's having girlfriend problems."
"Oh, with Brianna, Dawn, and Evey?" Penny asked, spooning out some yogurt and taking a bite.
"Uh . . . yeah. How'd you know?"
She grinned around her spoon. "I have my sources. What's up with all of them?"
"Not sure, actually. I've met two of the three of them, though."
"Huh, I'm not surprised, with what I've heard," she said.
Ray put down her fork and stared at a pile of pecans on her plate. "I believe you had given your word that you would stop gossiping."
Penny took another bite. "I said I'd stop gossiping around _you guys._ I never said I was gonna stop."
"It is distasteful," Ray said, locking eyes on her. "It is a habit that you should give up."
Penny blinked then smiled, but there was no warmth in the expression. "And why should I do that?"
"It poisons the opinions of those around you, leading to discord in your community."
Penny laughed. "And why should I care about that? There's gonna be 'discord,'" she said, throwing exaggerated finger quotes around the word, "no matter what _I_ do."
"You should still not contribute to the problem," Ray said, sounding . . . angry?
"I don't just give a fuck, about people's problems, Ray."
I knew things were _bad_ when Ray's right eye twitched. "Self-centered bitch," she said, starting into her dates.
"What did you say?" Penny asked, her voice _too_ quiet and steady.
"I said that you are a self-centered, dog-copulating, viral-ridden genetic throwback!"
All at once, Penny's face twisted into a snarl and her arm lashed out, slugging Ray across the jaw.
"You . . . hit me," Ray said, touching her lip to find blood there.
"Sure did, bitch," Penny said, baring teeth in a non-smile. "What're you gonna do about it?"
In one smooth motion, a red light bloomed over Ray's body and burned in her eyes as she launched from her chair and buried her fist in Penny's stomach a heartbeat before Penny went flying into a planter that shattered under her. Penny got to her feet, sagging a little, and Ray stood in place, her fist held in it position before she fell back into stance.
"I'm gonna kill you!" Penny said, standing up as a purple plates of translucent armor snapped into place around her body, looking exactly like an old Roosevelt class suit. As soon as she stood all the way up, a charge mace appeared in her right hand.
"Guys, please don't!" Maria said, running between them and holding up her arms, one pointed at each girl. "You guys are friends, c'mon!"
Penny snarled and batted Maria aside a backhand and Maria toppled to the floor.
"Bunny!" I yelled, running to her.
She shook her head and sat up. "I'm fine, but -- " she pointed to Penny, who snarled again and charged at Ray, screaming and holding her club above her hand, ready to crush Ray with a mighty downward swing.
"Penny, d -- !"
I didn't get a chance to finish, as there was a mighty rush of wind, and it drowned all the other sound around us. I looked up to see Spira floating in front of Penny, her face not just ticked, not just furious, but . . . _livid_. Spira snapped her hand open at Penny, and Penny went arcing through the air, crashing into a food bar and flinging gravy and grits everywhere. Spira spun to Ray and snapped her other hand toward her, but Ray only moved backward a few feet as she crossed her arms in a block, but that didn't last long -- Spira _screamed_ and the air distorted between her hand and Ray in a quick shimmer, then Ray's block broke and she fell the ground and launched in a rough skid along the floor before slamming into the legs of table, sending the thing spinning backwards.
My breath had caught in my chest, but I couldn't help but look at Spira. Anger still shone in her eyes, but it faded as she fell to the ground. It disappeared as soon as her feet touched the floor, and then she collapsed to the floor, crying.
"Not ag -- gain," she managed, her whole body shaking.
"A," Maria said, getting up. "I'll go to Penny. You go to Spira. Once I see how Penny is, I'll go to Ray, k?"
I nodded and Maria ran off to check on her roomie. With slow, quiet steps, I walked over to Spira.
"Spira?"
Nothing.
" . . . Heather?"
She threw herself into my arms and started sobbing.
"Shhh," I said, stroking her hair. "It's okay, shhh . . ."
"I can't t-t-take it A, it's too much," she said.
"It's okay, it's okay . . ." I said, then I looked up. A golden-skinned girl stood above me, concern clear in her burning orange eyes.
"Corona?" I asked.
"I saw what happened. Are you okay, Heather?" Corona asked, kneeling beside Spira. She looked up at Corona and shook her head, her bottom lip quivering while tears shined on her face. Spira threw herself onto and Corona and started going again, really bawling. Corona took Spira in her arms like she was a little girl.
"I'm here," Corona said softly and gently. "It'll be okay."
Spira didn't say anything.
"I'll get her to her counselor," Corona said. "Why don't you check on your mage friend?"
I nodded, and the two of them left, Spira still going, but a little quieter. When I turned to check, Ray was still on the floor, the kids scattered from the impact point, and I ran to her, kneeling right beside her.
"Ray?"
She blinked her eyes and groaned softly, sitting up.
"I am fine."
"But you don't usually -- "
"I am fine!"
Instead of saying anything, I just stood up and offered my hand to Ray. She took it and then I pulled her up.
"Listen, is this all because your sleep thing?" I asked.
She didn't make eye contact with me but nodded slowly.
"Ray, I'm not trying to get into your business, or anything, but you should take care of this thing. You can't keep going on like this."
". . . I know."
Both of us just kinda stood there in an awkward silence.
"I must go to class," she said, slipping in between the people in the crowd in a way I couldn't follow.
"Ray!" I said. "Crap."
With her gone, I decided to go check on Penny, and I ran over to where she landed. Maria was helping her up, and Penny was soaked with gravy.
"Penny, are you okay?"
"Do I look okay, you son of a bitch!?" she asked, shooting me a glare. I did my best to bite my tongue, and it worked. While we stood there, I noticed for the first time how dark the circles under her eyes were. They were black, like she'd been punched.
"It's just too much stress, I bet," Maria said, trying to smile while she wiped some gravy off Penny with some napkins. "You guys don't hate each other, after all."
Penny's mouth opened for a second, then she closed it. "I guess not," she said between gritted teeth. "I'm gonna change then get to class. Later."
Without another word, she left.
". . . wonder what's up with them?" Maria asked, frowning.
I pulled her under one arm. "I dunno, bunny. But we should probably get to class."
She sighed. "Yeah, you're right, let's go."
The walk to Kane Hall was especially quiet that day, and I noticed that some clouds had rolled in while we had been inside, making the sun look even weaker, making the day grayer. We kissed for a second outside of Kane, then we split up for our first period classes.
[Updated on: Thu, 17 September 2009 23:55]
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| Re: A, vol. 5 -- Part 6 [message #53116 is a reply to message #52542 ] |
Wed, 23 September 2009 07:30 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 6
Wednesday, October 25th -- Afternoon
Classes were worse than usual thanks to all the tension between us. Instead of talking and joking around like we normally did, we just stayed quiet and barely even paid attention to each other.
It was depressing.
World history was the worst by a long-shot, and I was more than glad to get out of there, let me tell you. That relief lasted all the way through flight class, but then I got that sinking sensation once I remembered that I was due in the dojo to meet for another "training session" with Zack. Just like last time, he was there before I was, and Sensei Ito appeared, walking to the mat without making a single sound, like he didn't weigh anything.
"Aspect, good to see that you're maintaining your interest in your defense," he said, his mix of British and English accents making his emphasis on certain words a little weird.
"Hai, sensei. The people I have to fight are something else, and I want to be as prepared as I can be."
"Good. Zone, are you ready for the match to begin?"
Zack nodded once.
"Aspect?" Ito asked.
"A moment, sensei," I said, then I took a deep breath. "To defend the defenseless."
A tidal wave of tingles swept over me, and when they were gone, I was Megadeus.
"The same rules as last time apply," Ito said. "First to hit the floor outside the mats loses. Ready?"
We both nodded.
"Hajime!"
Without a word, both of us were airborne. Neither of us charged, instead circling one another in the air. Zack's face twitched a little, and I tried to keep my expression as neutral as I could. Surprisingly enough, he made the first move, flying straight for me, his arm cocked to deliver a rocking punch as silver lit up above his fist. Rather than moving all the way out of his way, I just swung like a pendulum so that my head pointed at the floor, and he flew right under me.
"Good," he said, and he spun to match my orientation, coming at me again, but I caught his fist and hammered him with one closed fist. He spun a bit, then stopped himself, facing directly down at me and the floor. I charged him, but he just pivoted backward in the air so that his body pointed straight up and down.
"Nice try!" I said, and I took all my force, flipped feet-over-head and jammed a knee in his stomach, sending him flying backward. A massive vibration shook the dojo as he stopped himself with a clap of thunder, his sides not quite perpendicular to the floor.
"You've learned quickly," he said, righting himself. "That's goo " he started but didn't finish because I came flying at him with a huge right hook, but he saw it coming and bent back just enough for me to miss him. Growling in frustration, I followed it up with a knife hand, but he caught it, the space just in front of his hand glowing silver. I snarled and followed up the punch with a kick, but the jerk caught that, too!
"You can't hurt me like this," he said, a little smirk on his face.
"Wanna bet!?" I said, then I swung my head forward in the hopes of braining him. Instead, light exploded in front of my eyes, and my balance went funny as pain shot through my head. Before I could even get moving again, I felt myself flying through the air, and then I bounced off hard tile. It didn't hurt, but the tile shattered and cracked where I hit it.
"Zone wins! Better, Aspect, but you still have room for improvement," he said, and just like that, he was quiet. When I looked over to where he'd been standing, no one was there.
"Gonna whine about losing this time?" Zack said, sneering as he landed near me. I got up and dusted tile dust off of me.
"No," I said, straining to keep the anger out of the word. "But why didn't you tell me that your defense was so frickin' good? It kinda makes all of this pointless, doesn't it?"
Zack peered at me. "So you can only learn from all this if you can hurt me?"
". . .I guess not? But I like things to be fair, and me not able to hurt you? Not exactly fair."
"You could learn new approaches," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Brute force isn't always the best way."
My jaw opened and I tried to say something, but he had me there.
//I could stand to do with a little less charge and smash . . .//
Zack nodded in approval. "You're thinking. Good. You've got to keep an open mind in order to find the most effective tactics."
I nodded.
"Well, we're done. See you tomorrow morning," he said, walking off for the showers.
Sighing, I downshifted and followed him. We didn't say anything as we washed up, and then we went our separate ways afterwards. As I walked outside, I saw that the clouds were still out in force, and the sun still looked much paler than it should, which made the day pretty chilly. Out of habit, I turned toward Emerson and started walking, but then I remembered that Max might be there, and I really didn't want to chance running into him. I stood there for a few minutes, considering my options. Once I thought of Spira, I smiled.
//Yeah, I'll go check in on her. I bet she could use some company, anyway.//
After I got Dickinson and waited at the main doors for a bit, I wedged my way inside and went across the lobby, drawing some glares from the girls in there as I went through, but I didn't let that stop me, and I went on down the stairs to the basement. I passed the gym, and it was empty (which was a little weird), then I went on down toward Spira's room. Before I got all the way there, though, I stopped, hearing something weird. It sounded like someone . . . yelling. Really, really loud. I took a few steps further down the hallway, and I could hear what the person was screaming.
". . . poop-for-brains, soap-eating, dumb-bunny!"
//Wait, what?// I asked myself, tilting my head and listening closer. From what I could tell, it was Spira, and she was . . . cussing. Sorta. More like grade-school cussing.
"Jerk-head, frog-licking meanie!"
I couldn't help but snicker. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, but there wasn't anyone yelling back.
//Phone call, maybe?//
"Dingbat!"
A laugh just spilled out of me that time. She sounded just like a little kid. Had she never learned how to cuss? I tried to choke the laughing down while I tiptoed up to her door. Once I got calmed down, I knocked, but I guess she didn't hear me because she kept going.
"Boy-kissing, pantie-wetting retard!"
My laugh took some of the force out of the knock, but I managed. I jumped when I heard a scream from inside.
"Uh, who is it?" Spira asked, sounding off-kilter.
"It's me, A."
"Oh, uh, hi! Just a second."
While I waited, I looked around the hallway, tracing along the paths of pipes and cables and trying to guess which ones were water and which ones were power. Or maybe some where internet stuff, too. After a while, the door opened, and Spira stood there in sweatpants and a Orlando Suns t-shirt that was huge on her.
"Hi, A," she said, still sounding a little off. "Uh, please, come on in."
"K."
Without a thought, I dropped my stuff at my spot in front of her bed. The mix of sweet and strong scents hit me, the floral presence the very thing that told me I was in Spira's room. I'd recognize it anywhere.
"What's up?" she asked.
I smiled a little. "Came to check on you, actually."
"Oh."
"You sound like you're doing okay, though," I said, grinning. "You were getting really, uh, enthusiastic about something."
Spira's face turned so red it nearly matched her hair. ". . . how much did you hear?"
After I cleared my throat softly and broke eye contact, I quoted, "'Boy-kissing, pantie-wetting retard?"
She turned even redder, and her skin _did_ match her hair! I had to stifle a laugh, not because I thought it was silly. Not at all -- it was unbelievably cute.
"What was all that about, anyway?" I asked.
"Oh, that, well, I . . ." she said, then she mumbled something so softly I couldn't hear it.
"What was that?"
It sounded like she said the same thing again, but I couldn't really tell.
"Sorry?"
"I was playing GEO," she nearly whispered. "And I was getting totally pwned in an arena match."
I blinked. "Pwned?"
"Power-owned."
". . . I'm still not getting you."
Spira rolled her eyes. "Someone was beating me really, really bad, okay?"
"Ohhh. It was bothering you that bad, huh?"
She looked down and shifted her arms around a bit before finally settling for letting them hang down as she sighed.
"Sometimes it does," she said, looking embarrassed but not as red as before. "I was hoping to just blow off some steam, ya know? But I logged in and just got totally pw beat. Really bad."
I sighed. "I know what that's like."
Her eyes widened in comprehension. "You do, don't you."
"Yeah," I said, giving her a look. She wilted a little.
"Sorry," she said, her bottom lip quivering a little. "Forget I said anything . . ."
"No, it's cool!" I said, laughing awkwardly. We just sorta stood there for a minute after I stopped, not making eye contact.
"You, uh, wanna sit down?" she asked.
"Sure."
As I sat down, the bed complained with a metallic groan.
"Sheez. They give you the oldest bed in the cottage, or something?" I asked.
"Not really," she said, grinning softly as she sat down, too. "They actually ran out of new beds, so they gave me the option of taking one of the new ones or having one of the old ones. I figured someone else could use the new one, so I went with the old one."
"Wooow. That's really cool of you, Spira."
"Thanks!" she said, smiling. "Just trying to make the place a little better any way I can."
"That's really cool of you, like I said."
She grinned at me, and we sat there for a bit. Finally, I decided to get down to business.
"So, um, Spira."
"Yeah?" she said, curiosity shining in her eyes.
"Do you . . . do you wanna, you know, talk about what happened at breakfast? If you don't, I can just leave it alone, no problem."
When she breathed out, it sounded a little choked, like there were tears coming.
"Forget I said anything, then! We can talk about something else, I "
"It's hard, A," she said, tears sparkling in her eyes. "I think I said it before, but it is. Super-hard."
Since I couldn't think of anything to say, I just stayed quiet and put my hand on hers, and she grabbed on.
"Back when my powers came on," she said, her voice getting more choked up. "I could feel e-everyone's emotions. EVERYONE's," she said, looking straight at me. I nodded and let her go on.
"It was so hard," she said, looking back down. "I think I nearly went nuts back then. Do you know what it's like to get super, super-angry?"
I gulped and thought about my answer.
"O-oh," she said, looking into my eyes for a second, then she nodded. "You know, don't you? When you're in the Rage, or Fury, or whatever, you get so mad you can't think straight? So mad that you wanna do is hurt someone?"
I sighed and squeezed her hand. "Yeah."
"It's that way for me, in some ways," she said, squeezing my hand back. "You see it's like . . . it's like all this smoke gets into my head, and I can smell the stuff that's burning. But I _hate_ that smell!" she said, her eyes welling up. "I don't want to hurt people. I've never wanted to hurt people, but when that burning smell is everywhere . . ."
Saying anything would've been pointless, so I just wrapped my arms around her. She relaxed her head onto my shoulder and let out a couple sobs, tears trickling down onto my jacket. After that, I just held her there, pulling her a little closer.
"How come you've kept quiet about this?" I asked.
"I didn't want to give you g-g-guys any trouble," she said, sniffling. "You were so n-nice to me, back when we met. I didn't want to turn into a-a w-whiny baby."
"You whiny?" I asked, smiling down at her. "Forget about it! You're talking to the guy who has nonstop problems and talks about them nearly all the time. And nobody's gotten ticked about that. I figure you'd be fine. Besides, you're great to have around! We'd never chase you off."
Spira sat back and wiped her eyes. "Really?" she asked, looking at me.
"Yep!"
Her bottom lip really started going, but I had her wrapped in my arms against before she started back up.
"What did I say this time?" I asked, honestly confused.
"It's j-just, that I, you guys, y-y-you're . . . here."
I kissed her on the forehead. "Yeah, we are. And don't you forget it!"
"Not a chance," she said, snuggling into me.
We just sat there for a while, and I let her go for as long as she needed to.
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| Re: A, vol. 5 -- Part 7 [message #53907 is a reply to message #53116 ] |
Wed, 30 September 2009 05:15 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 7
Wednesday, October 25th -- Evening
I was definitely ready for the Hall that night. No matter how bad or complicated things got with me, people would always be joking, talking, and hanging out. It was a nice thing to think about, sometimes. That night was no exception, and I just sorta blended into the buzzing crowd as I got in line and got a stack of steaks and a few sweet potatoes. As I walked through the cafeteria, I saw some of the kids from Emerson, including Reaver, who I waved to, and I also saw the Kimbas at their table. It looked like Sara was back around again, but she wasn't wearing super-thick black clothes anymore.
//Wonder what's up with that?//
Giving a mental shrug, I made my way over to our table, but there wasn't anyone there except Maria. I paused for a sec, wondering where everyone was, but my stomach eventually told me to stop thinking and start eating, so I went with it and sat down.
"Hey, Bunny!"
"Hey, Bear!" she said, scooting over to me and kissing me on the cheek, which set that whole side of my face tingling. "How's my favorite boy?"
"I'm good," I said, smiling wide. "How about you?"
"Mmm, okay, I guess," she said, frowning a little.
"That face doesn't say you're okay."
"Well . . . it's just that I stopped by Ray's room, but she wouldn't answer the door. I knew she was in there, I could hear her breathing when I put my ear up against her door."
"Oh, yeah? Has she ever done that before?"
Maria shook her head, the braids on either side of her head swinging back and forth. "No. Before, if she was in, and I knocked, she'd just answer," she said, tilting her head to one side. "Usually even before I knocked actually. She'd do that Jedi Master thing she does."
I chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Well, hmmm . . ."
"What is it, Bear?"
Memories of Ray snuggling up to me ran through my head real quick, but I cleared them out and stomped on them a few times. Maria was still looking at me when I was done.
"Bear?" she asked, a little concerned.
"When I stopped by to see her the other night . . . she said that she hadn't been sleeping."
"Oh, no." Her bottom lip puckered as she frowned. "Why can't she sleep?"
"Dunno," I said, shrugging. "She wouldn't tell me anything more than she was confused. And I have no idea what that means, I mean, well, more than that she's confused." I blew out a frustrated sigh. "It's like there's something seriously wrong bothering her, so bad that just 'being confused' doesn't seem to cover it, you know what I mean?"
"Um. I really don't."
Rolling my eyes, I sighed again. "Anyway, let's just keep our eyes on her."
"Deal."
"What about your " I started, but then my stomach reminded me that it was empty, very, very loudly. "Uh, mind if I eat, then we can pick it back up?"
She smiled a bit and shook her head. "Go ahead."
Scents of savory meat and butter-soaked potatoes filled my nostrils as I took a deep breath, and I absently heard Maria scoot a bit away. Then I tore into my food, enjoying every bite even as I wolfed it down in a bare fraction of the time that it would take most people to eat the same amount.
"Sorry about that," I said, wiping my mouth before continuing on a another potato. "Like I was getting ready to say, how's your powerarmor project coming?"
"Oh, that's right!" Her fists flew up and she shook all over. "Eee! I just finished it! You have to see it!"
"Oh, okay, how about I fini "
"Uh-uh! Right now!" she said, hopping to her feet and fastening onto my wrist. She started pulling me out of my chair.
"Marriia," I whined. "I just wanna finish this pot "
She turned and fixed a glare on me that promised terrible, terrible things.
"Yes, ma'am," I said quietly. "Coming right now."
"That's more like it!" With a huge smile on her face, she gripped my wrist even tighter and dragged me out of the Hall, not letting go once while we were outside, still not letting go as she took me into Kane, and her grip was just as firm as ever as we went through the tunnels and over to the Workshop. She was humming to herself the whole time, some J-pop thing, if I was right, but I stopped paying attention when I saw the closet. Yes, _the_ closet, the one where me and Maria . . .
You know.
My cheeks started heating up, and certain parts of me woke up, and fantasies flashed through my head, but Maria wasn't paying _any_ attention to me or the closet. Instead, she had her eyes set on her work table. Instead of the full body of a person sitting there, like before, there was just a shell, a suit. I could tell it was empty because all I saw through the gaps was empty space.
But that was hardly the most interesting part about it. All the armor plates were silver chrome, just like the automail from Full Metal Alchemist, complete with fluted grooves and large screws, but not everything was just like something off the show. For starters, the helmet had a visor and no mouthpiece, with sleek lines and stylized tips extending from the top. Another thing was that pieces of the armor glowed on the inside and outside both, a soft light somewhere between green and blue. The thing that was _really_ different though, was its thickness. I don't know if you're familiar, but most suits of power armor are actually really, really thick. Maria's wasn't. It looked like it was just big enough to house the circuitry, and all, but not really tough enough to stop any heavy hitters. All in all, it was like if someone from the 19th century made an armor suit then time traveled and had someone from the 22nd century spruce it up.
Yes, it was every bit as cool as it sounds.
"Here it is!" she said. "What do you think?"
I ran my hand over the plates meant to protect the abs, the cold metal squeaking under my touch. "It's awesome."
Her head somehow stayed intact despite the huge smile that threatened to split it apart. "You really mean it?" she asked.
I nodded.
"Eee!" she said, flinging her arms around me and roping me into a surprisingly passionate kiss.
"Uh," I said, pulling away, Buddy wanting to wake up and get to work. "Have you gone on any test runs with the thing yet?"
She shook her head, her smile fading a little. "No, I've only recently implemented the augmentary subsystems, and I haven't double-checked to make sure that they've integrated with the weaponry and tracking arrays."
"Oh," I said, pretending to understand what she was talking about.
"Let me check something, though." She walked to her workbench and flipped open her laptop. "Oh, yes! I haven't gotten any errors with this diagnostic check," she said, her fingers blurring over the keys. She grinned a little and took a deep breath. "I think it might be ready for the first field test!"
"Oh, man. Can I watch?"
"Sure!" she said, then her cheeks colored. "But could you step out of my alcove for a minute?"
"Why?"
Her cheeks went from pink to red. "My, um, uh, my interface suit is . . . skin-tight. I have to change."
Swear to god that I didn't mean to think of her naked, but it happened anyway. "Okay, sure!" I said, bolting out before I had the chance to do something that I'd regret. The second I set foot into the wider Workshop, she clicked a button and some shudders closed over her alcove with a clang. I waited for her to suit up, and I looked around, trying to find things to think of that weren't, um, activating. I eventually settled on some grating that was set in the middle of the floor and focused on it. It worked, mostly.
The clackataclack of the shudders opening again snapped me out of my trance, and I turned to see Maria in her powerarmor. Somehow, she looked badass but very feminine at the same time, since the suit highlighted her curves, especially her shoulders and hips.
As it turned out, the grate really hadn't done nearly enough.
"What do you think?" she asked as she did her hair up in a tight bun against the back of her head.
". . . very cool," I said, a little breathless.
She smiled wide. "Awesome! Now, for the last piece." She walked over to her table and grabbed the helmet, which unfolded at her touch, its panels sliding back along the sides of the headpiece. After she wrapped her other hand around it, she nestled it onto her head. As she closed her eyes, plates extended from the bottom of the helmet and slotted into her collar, then the pieces from the sides slid back over her face, covering it, and then the visor's midsection glowed blue-green.
"Still like it?" she asked, the speaker-unit in her suit making her voice sound digital.
I smiled and nodded.
"Yes!" she said, jumping a bit and squeeing, and I had to laugh. Someone in power armor . . . squeeing.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing!"
Even though her face was blocked, I got the distinct impression that she was raising an eyebrow at me. That didn't last long, and then she stood still. A shoop sound came from her helmet for a little while, then stopped.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Memory foam. I've made it so that the helmet is flush against my head. No space for extra injuries that way."
"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense."
"Okay! Let's get out to the test range. You can push some buttons." Her smile wasn't visible, but it was certainly audible. She grabbed me by my wrist, hurting it some, as she dragged me through the Workshop.
"Oooh, buttons . . ." I said, then rolled my eyes.
I stopped as she spun on her heel and stuck an armored finger in my face. "No sass from you, Mister!"
"Yes, ma'am!" I said, smiling and sketching her a salute.
She giggled. "That's better. Come on!"
Before long, we were across the Shop and into the testing area. Even at Whateley, I hadn't seen anything just like it. In some ways, the construction looked like the Arena '99, but there were a lot of devices, devises, gadgets, and other things rigged into the walls that glowed all different colors, some pumped and some chugged, and others were completely quiet. All the styles were mish-mashed, too some had the bulky green-and-gray look of 80's computers, others were so weird that I couldn't really identify what sorta scheme they were using.
". . . that one over there. Bear?"
"Wha?"
The mask gave her huff a digital hum. "Were you even listening?"
"Uh. No, I really wasn't."
"Okay, from the top. When I give you the signal," she waved two fingers in a sharp gesture, "you push this button here." I followed her finger to a control panel about waist-height, laden with buttons. The one she wanted was white, set in a row of others like it.
"Got it."
She nodded and walked to a wide, wide black circle painted into the floor, where she stood perfectly still for a moment, then more lights blinked to life all over her armor. With just the slightest motion, she bounced feet into the air, but she came back down with hardly sound. After she shifted around a little, she gave me the motion. I took a deep breath and stabbed the button, a chorus of hums filling the room a second later.
Without warning, a ball shot out of the wall, heading straight for Maria, but she flowed like liquid out of its way, and her spinning sideways jump put her out the path of two other balls, just like that. She was in the air again, bending over backwards, and two balls shot under her arched back, then she pulled her legs in tight, and another ball sailed through the air where her legs had been. As she landed, she ducked all the way down, and one more ball missed her head by a hair. She started to jump again, but she stumbled and waved a few steps, then a ball beaned her upside the head, then another went for her stomach, then another for her legs, then her butt. She eeped and jumped outside of the circle.
"Test system alpha-8 disengaged," a hard, digital male voice said from an unseen speaker. "Cleaning protocols activated." No sooner had it finished than a small fleet of little robots emerged from little bays in the walls and started sweeping up all the balls. I watched them do their work for a moment, then I looked back to Maria. She was still on her knees, and as far as I could tell, she hadn't moved once she had stepped outside the circle.
"Bunny?" I asked, walking closer to her. "Maria?"
When I didn't hear her say anything, I knelt down beside her. "You're not hurt, are you? It looked like those balls were just bouncing off you."
She still didn't say anything. I leaned forward a little, and she caught my hand, not even looking toward me.
"It's working fine now," she whispered, letting go. "What went wrong?"
"What now?"
As she took a deep breath and let it out, her helmet whooshed again, and all the plates slid back. She took the helmet off and looked at me.
"It was supposed to work!" she said, her face twisted up in anger, almost like a little kid's. "It should've worked without any problems!"
"What was supposed to?"
Even dressed in her armor, her whole form rose and fell with a heavy sigh. "The EAS." Before I could even get out my question, she said, "The ESP-Augmentation-System."
"Oh . . . what's it do?"
"Help me up?" she asked. I stood up and pulled her to her feet. "Thanks. It's designed to stimulate the brain-waves that occur when I'm using my secondary ESP-ability, Precognition."
"So, it's a machine to help you to see ahead?"
"Yeah. But it glitched, and I lost the Precognative Trance," she said, heaving another sigh.
"Waiiit. That's how you were so good at dodging. You could see them coming."
"Right. Well, I could for a minute or two," she said, frowning a little. "I guess I've still got some bugs to work out."
"Yeah, but you'll get there!" I put my finger under her face and tilted it up toward me. "You're the best Gadgeteer I know!"
She grinned softly. "I'm the _only_ Gadgeteer you know."
"You're still awesome, though," I said, and kissed her on the lips. "Just keep it at, okay? You'll do it."
"I'll try." She smiled and put her free hand in mine. "Wanna go watch some anime after I put my powerframe back?"
"Sure, sounds good. Maybe we could watch some more Full Metal Alchemist?"
"Oooh, yeah! And let me tell you, the anime is _so_ different from the manga. The way the homunculi work is different, and the main antagonist is really different, too! Oh, and then there's the way Ed acts, and . . ."
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| Re: A, vol. 5 -- Part 8 [message #54780 is a reply to message #53907 ] |
Thu, 08 October 2009 23:04 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 8
Wednesday, October 25th -- Night
So, that night, instead of going over to the study session at Spira's room, Maria and I just skipped studying and went to watch anime. Penny wasn't in the room, as usual, and Maria said that she was off doing something else. That was good because we got . . . involved, if you know what I mean. And we kept at that for a good bit, but then it was time for Maria to get to sleep, so I headed out.
It looked like another fogbank had rolled in, and almost all the stars were covered behind thick clouds of mist. Besides the mist, though, it had gotten a good bit colder, and my breath puffed out in thick clouds as I made my way back to Emerson, shivering slightly the whole way. That meant that I was more than glad to get into the building, and I sighed in contentment at the wave of warmth that washed over me as I walked inside. I enjoyed the feeling all the way to my door, when I remembered that Max was probably inside. Being around him was still tense, and it was getting annoying, but I wasn't sure when would be the right time to get all of it in the open.
Sighing, I thought, //No point in worrying about it, really.//
My door opened without any explosions, or anything, and there sat Max on his bed, reading some book with a detective-looking guy on the cover, but the detective had a wizard's staff.
Weird, right?
"A, man," Max said, looking away from his book. "Sup?"
"Not too much." I didn't say anything more, and I just closed the door and clicked on my work light. The thing hadn't magically fixed itself, or anything, and I turned it back off with a sigh. Instead of working on my drawing, then, I just got out my schoolwork and started sorting through my history notes. Neither of us said anything for a while, but I guess all the quiet eventually got to Max.
"A," he said.
"Yeah?"
He sat up partway and put his book on his desk. "You okay, man?"
"What do you mean?" I was doing my best to pretend that I didn't know what he was talking about, but of course I did.
"Well . . ." He sat up the rest of the way. "The past few days, you've like, been tense, or something."
". . . yeah?"
He nodded. "Yeah. So what's up? You and Maria having problems?"
"No!" I said, shaking my head hard. "Nope. No problems."
"K," he said, smiling a little. "Penny giving you more grief, or something?"
"Nope."
"Then what, man? C'mon, we're roomies and friends, and stuff. You can tell me if something's like, giving you problems."
Right when I was about blow him off and just go to sleep, or something, a little thing inside of me snapped.
//Going through all this just isn't worth it. Time to do this.//
"Man?" Max was leaned over with his elbows propped on his knees, peering at me. "You gonna tell me? It's cool if you don't, but I just "
"I know what you did, Max," I said quietly.
"What I ?"
"Silverwing." I was getting a little louder, but not much. "I know what you did to Silverwing."
It was the weirdest thing, but I could _tell_ when he shifted, or changed, or whatever. From the fake Max to the real one. "What, precisely, have you heard?"
"That you kidnapped him," I said, going with the rush of releasing all the tension, "that you took him down to some dark room, and that you hurt him somehow."
Max licked his lips. "Oh."
His response made me want to spit on him. "Oh? Just 'oh?'"
"What more do you want me to say?" he asked, looking honestly lost. "He was a problem. I dealt with him. That's all."
"Dealt with him?" Somewhere in there, I had gotten to my feet. "So you 'deal with people' by the Abu Graib method?"
"No. Not everyone."
"But _some_ ones."
Max raised his eyebrows. "Yes. Some."
"And this whole bit about torture doesn't bother you?" I said between gritted teeth.
"Torture?" Max smiled a little and shook his head. "That wasn't torture, A."
"What would you call it, then?"
"Proportionate response."
". . . wait, what?"
"Proportionate response," he said, getting to his feet, "is when you deal out a reply of equal or greater intensity than what was done to you."
It took me a second to find the right word. "Revenge?"
"No, no. It's more like . . ." Max looked up and tilted his head to the side for a second, something I'd never seen him do. "It's more like ensuring that your opponent quickly learns that further action against you will cost him more than he's willing to give."
". . . what are you saying?"
"That Langston had to learn that you were under my protection. That hostile action against me and mine would be . . ." Max's voice dropped below freezing. "Painful."
"Painful? What kind of . . . person are you?"
"I don't like your tone," he said, a little anger edging into his tone.
I took a few steps toward him. "This is something a friggin supervillain does! We're not like that!"
"Supervillain?" Max walked toward me until we were face to face. "You think I'm like Crucible?"
"Yeah! Max, you left someone underground for days! What if he had gotten sick? Or hurt himself trying to get out?"
"But he didn't."
"But what if he did!?"
"Then he would have deserved it!" Max snarled. "No one hurts my friends! No one!"
"That doesn't make it okay!"
"You're just naïve, A! You don't let someone get away with what Langston did! If you don't counterattack, then they'll just do it again!"
"Listen to you! You're not even making sense!"
"You're just too limited to understand what's necessary!"
It was too much. All that tension, all those lies about who he was, and my anger exploded and before I even knew what I was doing, I had balled up my fist and launched into a punch, but Max had somehow seen it coming, and he bent below it before taking the force into a back-handspring.
"A." I'd never heard someone layer that much threat into one word, something that made a shiver run down my spine.
"Just . . . just go, Max." My fists wouldn't unclench, but I didn't run after him. "Just leave."
He looked at me, tension all along his jaw, but he didn't say anything else. As I looked back at him, I thought I saw something like . . . hurt? I didn't get anymore chance to figure it out, though, because he teleported out, the black mist clearing away after a second or two. The whole thing hadn't gone . . . I don't know how I had expected it to go, but not like _that_. The worst part was that I was still weird about how I felt about it. I was glad that he wanted to keep me safe (mostly), but the way he did it . . .
For . . . I don't know how long, I stared over at Max's side of the room. After a while, my palms really started to hurt from my nails digging into them. When I pulled one hand in front of my face and let go of my fingers, I saw that there were four little red marks. I shook my hand a few times and sighed, just not sure what else to do. If nothing else, I could tell that I wasn't gonna be sleeping, so I decided to go for a walk, curfew or not. At that moment, I really didn't care about getting detention. Air was the only thing on my mind.
Luckily, I still had my outside clothes on, so I just turned off my lamp and left the room. Nobody else was in the hallway as I walked out, which I was thankful for, and nobody was in the main hall, either. Since I'd only been inside for a few minutes, the weather hadn't really changed . . . well, except the last of the stars had disappeared behind a big curtain of gray-black clouds. Without moonlight or stars, the only color on campus was the orange from the sodium lights, and it gave Whateley a sorta sickly look.
Cold air rushed at me all the sudden, making me shiver all over, but when I stopped, I saw that there was someone there in a blank spot amongst all the leaves, some of which were still airborne. Even in the low light, I could tell that her hair was almost irridescent: all the colors I could name and then a few more besides. It stuck out in spikes in all directions that waved back and forth when she shook herself, setting her rather . . . impressive assets to jiggling, even through her pullover hoodie. When she looked up to me with a shining eyes and a strong-featured, action-heroine face, I quickly shifted my gaze.
"Hi!" she said, no hint that she'd caught me checking her out.
//Oh, thank god.//
"Uh, hi?" I said back.
"I recognize you, the red eyes really give it away. A, right?"
That could only mean one thing, and it wasn't good. I tried not to sigh and said, "Yeah, I'm A. You must be the last girlfriend?"
She stood straight up and locked onto me with her eyes, and my stomach did a quick, sharp twist in recognition of what I'd just said.
//Oh, crap. Ohcrap. Ohcrap, ohcrap, ohcrap . . .//
"What do you mean by that?" Her tone was quiet. Too quiet.
"Uh, well, that is, he's uh, um . . ."
"He's what?" she asked, taking sharp, forceful steps toward. "He's _what?_"
Her breath hit me, hot but minty. The look in her eyes told me that she'd be more than willing to string me up by my toes and let crows pick out my eyes.
"He's . . ." I gulped, not sure what to do. Then I remembered that Max had lied to me. That he'd hurt another kid "for me." "He has two other girlfriends," I said calmly. "Dawn and Evey."
She didn't say anything, but her left eye twitched. "You're sure?"
I nodded.
"Where is that son of a bitch?" she growled, yanking my collar so that my head was even with hers.
"I dunno. He ported off just a minute ago."
"Are you lying to me?"
"No, ma'am," I said in a small voice.
"K." She let go of my collar and took a few steps back. "I'm gonna _kill_ him." She turned from me and moved her hands in a complex whirl while muttering something. "Thanks for telling me, by the way," she said over her shoulder. Then she finished the spell and the air rippled in a gust of cold and then she was gone.
The night around me was still and quiet after that, not even crickets doing anything. Part of me felt bad about what I had just done, but the other part, the bigger part, was glad to get back at him.
. . . but then why were my insides all twisted up?
I shook my head and walked on, hoping that the nausea would clear up as I went.
[Updated on: Thu, 08 October 2009 23:04]
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| Re: A, vol. 5 -- Part 9 [message #54998 is a reply to message #54780 ] |
Sat, 10 October 2009 21:51 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 9
Thursday, October 26th -- Midnight
Without friends to visit, there's not much to do at night on Whateley, let me tell you. It was mostly me and leaves. I didn't even see any security officers that time, even after I'd gone over the quad. The fourth time I did that, I decided to try something else, _anything_ else, so I went to see if the C-Store was open.
As it turns out, it was, so I walked in and grabbed a shopping basket.
Instead of going to one particular place, I just wandered around for a while, including a stop by the weapons section. I saw that they were having a sale on Makarov 9mm's. Not that I really needed one. I mean, come on, who needs guns when you've got Cobalt's weapons? Anyway, I went on from there into the food section, and I picked up some random stuff: potato bread, Peter Pan peanut butter, a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper . . . and then I wondered around a little more. It wasn't much of a surprise, but I wound up in the comics section. Since it didn't look like anyone was around, I decided to just look through a few of the issues they had on the stands, but with my new reading speed "looking through" turned into "read the whole thing in minutes." By the time I was done, I made sure to buy some, out of a sense of obligation, if nothing else.
I was about to head off to the checkout when I saw that issue of Titanus again, the one with the "MP Comics" imprint. Curiosity really got me, so I picked up an issue and put it in my basket with the rest of the stuff. No one was at the counter when I walked up there, so I rang one of those old-timey bells that they still have in some stores.
"Hello?" I asked, then clanged the bell again.
"Here!" a deep female voice said from behind me. I turned to find a largish lady behind me, one with short, wavy black hair and a friendly grin. "You know, you could have just looked around." She walked around the counter and I saw a nametag that said "Gladys" on her black-and-white apron.
"Sorry about that,"I said, smiling a little.
"Don't worry about it!" Then, so quick that I thought she might be a mutant, she whipped through all the stuff in my basket, ringing it up, and the total flashed up on the screen pointed at me. "Gonna be on your student account?"
I nodded.
"Need your card, then," she said. I took it out of my wallet, and she scanned it.
"Before I go," I started, "I was wondering: do you know anything about MP Comics? I saw some on your guys' shelves, but I've never seen them anywhere else."
"Sure do, hon," she said, punching a few more buttons on the register as she finished our transaction. "MP Comics are made right here on campus."
I blinked a few times and stared for a moment. "Really?"
"Yep!" she said, smiling. "Just go over to the printshop in Kirby. Their rates are very reasonable."
". . . so, if I got these printed up," I said, the gears in my head whirring, "then could I put them on the shelves here?"
"Sure. We'd only allow you a couple shelf-spaces, at first, and we'd get a small cut of every sale you make."
"But I could still put my stuff out where people could buy it," I said with quiet intensity as I leaned in.
"Sure could," she said, smiling a little wider.
"Awesome! Thanks!" I said, scooping up my stuff and running for the door.
"Have a good night, Aspect!" she called a moment before the door shut behind me. I did my best not to drop anything as I ran for my room, but I still managed to lose my jar of peanut butter, and I ran back and picked up and went back to bolting. My time back was probably a personal record, but it _really_ didn't matter right at that moment. No, what mattered was in my room, and I got there, flung the door open, flipped the light on, and dug up every panel I'd drawn and pulled up every file I had on my laptop. I had a crapload of comics finished, but I knew which one I was gonna try to sell: the Pride. It was my best work, and besides, it was a little bit like TK. And as much as people talked about them . . .
I smiled at the rush of finally getting my artwork off the ground, but then I looked over to the empty side of the room, to Max's bed. Everything that had happened before I left the room settled into my gut, and all my good vibes went up in smoke.
//Crap.//
Grumbling, I looked at the screen of my computer, still sure of what I was gonna do, but not as excited about it as I had been only a second or two before. I sat there and stared for a while, then I decided that I'd just go to bed so I could stop thinking about the whole mess. After I changed my clothes, I laid down on the bed, and tried to get to sleep. Getting there took a lot longer than it normally did, and I did my fair share of tossing and turning before I could finally drift off.
Thursday, October 26th -- Mid-Day
As it turns out, using my lunch to go over to the Kirby printshop was a pretty good idea. The place had no one in it except the workers, so I was able to get straight to business. I found out that they wanted what I had in .udf (that new thing that Adobe had come out with, basically like a .pdf2, I think), which was a good thing, because I already had it that way, along with something like 5 other formats, on the jump drive I had on me. I slipped them the drive, and they agreed to run off my first issue for a couple hundred dollars. Yowch! Right then, I saw why every issue of a comic was $3.00. Good grief. Anyway, all my money was gonna go toward a good cause, though, and the issue was gonna look professional when it was done, instead of that crap that I came out with on my own printing stuff.
All in all, I'd say it was worth it.
After that, I swung by the store, and I ran into Gladys. She hooked me up with everything, and I put my full run of the Pride in the two spaces that she had sorted out for me. I had to sign a couple forms, but just like that, I was done.
My business behind me, I grabbed a quick lunch and went on to afternoon classes. Max was absent from all them that he was normally in, and Spira wasn't in Powers Lab or World History, and Ray wasn't, either. I asked Maria if she'd seen either Ray or Spira, and she said that she didn't. I could figure why Spira was missing classes, but what about Ray? Imagining why Max might be missing class brought a little smile to my lips, but then my stomach flipflopped and I got really nauseous.
//What on earth? Am I enjoying getting back at him or not?// I asked, looking down at my stomach. It flipflopped again, and I sighed. Rather than think any more about it, I decided that I'd go check up on Ray, after I did my sparring, training, or whatever you wanted to call it with Zack. Speaking of him, we nodded at each other in Flight class, where we were going over protocols for landing. Not exactly the most exciting stuff in the world, but it was just what I needed to get my mind off everything.
Flight class wrapped up, and I headed over to Laird, where I got changed into my gi and went out to the mat do some stretches. When I was in the middle of the routine, the chain that Circe had given me slipped free of my gi shirt. I stood up and tucked it away.
"What's with the chain?" Zack asked as he walked onto the mat, rolling his shoulders.
"Nothing." I didn't feel like getting into everything with Circe right then and there, so I left it at that.
"Mmm," he said noncommittally as he went through the rest of his stretches. The second he finished, Ito-soke appeared out of the same door he always did, not making any noise as he walked toward, also like always.
"Aspect," he said to me. "Zone."
"Sensei," we both said.
"Do either of you want to change the rules of the match?"
I shook my head.
"No," Zack said.
"Very good," Ito said, his tone neutral. "Whenever you're both ready."
I transformed into Megadeus, and both of us went airborne, just a couple feet off the ground. Ito looked at me then at Zack.
"Hajime!"
Rather than give him any time to do anything, I charged straight for him.
"Hiiii!" I called out, ready to cut into him with a knife hand as hard as I could swing it. Zack banked backwards and to one side, but I flipped heels-over-head, back to the ground, flew underneath him, propped myself against the floor, and cracked into his back with both of my feet as hard I could. He staggered (figuratively speaking) and flew at the ceiling, but he stopped himself with a loud clap that shook bleachers and rattled windows. He spun to face me, and I just flashed him a smile.
"Your move," I said, still smiling. Zack's face stayed neutral, and he just rocked his head back and forth. I put myself into stance, my back still pointing at the floor, ready for Zack to charge, and he did faster than I could react, he slammed into me like a freight train, and all the wind rushed out of me as I slammed into the mat.
"You got cocky," he said, "and now you pay for it." He lifted up his right hand, his index and middle fingers extended with the rest of them curled back, like he was gonna finger jab me. Then his fingers glowed silver, brighter and brighter, then piercing pain shot through me, just above my heart. I looked down to see that he'd somehow managed to get through my forcefield.
"Agh!" I grunted. His two fingers clamped down onto the chain around my neck and snatched it out, breaking the clasp in the process, before my PK field came back up.
"Mine now," he said, smirking as he bounced the chain in his hand a few times.
"Give that back!" I tried to yell, but it came out a harsh whisper.
He balled up the chain in one hand before balling his fist around it and stepping back a good bit. "Make me."
I struggled to my feet and took off, flying at him as fast as I could, before flipping myself around so that I could bury my knee in his face. He held up his free hand, silver light blazing to life above it, and the dojo shook and a window broke when my knee and his hand collided.
"Huh, looks like I hit a nerve," he said, casually snapping his wrist but sending me spinning through the air. I stopped myself a breath before more force crashed into my back, but I held my ground, not moving an inch through the air. The pain radiated up and down my muscles, and breathing was harder. Spinning, I leaned just in time to miss his punch, and I took the opportunity to grab for my chain, but he saw it coming and snapped his fist out of my way before kneeing me in the stomach, doubling me over as pain rocked my body. After he clamped his fingers around my wrist, he slung me down into the mat.
"You want it back," he said, landing. "You're gonna have to try harder."
//Damn him!// I thought, getting to my hands and knees while I ground my teeth. Red sparks started popping up through my vision. //No!// I thought, doing my best to breathe easy. //Control, A. Control.//
But Zack didn't care about my control. Stars blossomed behind my eyes as pain snapped into my head, making my thoughts confused for a heartbeat or two. I rolled over to see Zack standing above me. He stomped on my chest, ripping a grunt out of me.
"I can see the passion in your eyes, A. Use it! If you wanna win, you gotta give everything! If you don't, you're not gonna have a fucking _prayer_ when Chasm comes for you!"
More red sparks snapped and crackled through what I was seeing. "Rargh!" I roared.
"That's it! Fight me!"
"RAGH!" I screamed, throwing him off me with the lightest arch of my back. I slung myself to standing, red covering everything around me, making the world rust and blood and fire. "I'm gonna rip you apart," I growled. Zack's face fell and he actually _shivered_. And that just made me grin.
I took a deep breath and faced the sky. "Cleanse the world with flame!"
My weight eased up off my feet as I went airborne, and bright white fire and blistering heat rolled out of me. Everything went white and hot, a deafening roar of fire filling my ears. I closed my eyes as it ended, and I floated down to the ground, a corona of white flame still burning around my body which had changed a good bit. Instead of bulky, well-cut muscle, my body was all toned and smooth. The black suit with the outlines of white flames highlights hugged every curve of my very sexy body . . .
You'd think that I would be freaking out. I had just turned into a girl! But, no, me, A, I was somewhere else. Pyre was at the front of everything. I . . . I didn't have control anymore. Some very small part of me knew that I should be very, very worried about that, but the part of me that still aware of things only cared that there was an enemy in front me he had to die.
"Perpetrator of suffering," I intoned, pointing a slender hand at him. "I can hear their screams echoing on you. How many have you killed?" Wails blew through my mind like a soft breeze, and they seemed to be coming from Zack. He whitened and quivered. "Did you enjoy it?" I asked, curling my hand as white wisps spun out from him and gathered into my hands. Chills swept through my body even as I felt the flames around me burn hotter. The room was still quiet, and Zack took a few a shaky steps backward.
"How d-did you . . .?" he asked.
"Their pain is my strength," I said, almost whispering. "All of it is open to me." I looked down at my right hand, and white flame blazed to life around it. Power rippled out of me and into the fire, and it grew brighter still, becoming a white sun, one that blotted all the color out from the room and made all shadows stark black. Zack took another step backward, and I felt my lips curl into a cold smile. "Now," I said, pointing my hand at him. "Now, you will sample the cruelty you have visited upon so many." Fire popped and sizzled around my fingers, and I felt Pyre push my will our will into the blast, getting ready to throw the whole inferno at Zack.
Then, sharp pain stabbed through my neck and it all went dark.
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| Re: A, vol. 5 -- Part 10 [message #55786 is a reply to message #54998 ] |
Sat, 17 October 2009 04:53 |
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Aranis
Messages: 724
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US |
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Part 10
Thursday, October 26th -- Evening
When I woke up, the only light nearby was a bluish one. That didn't quite add up with the last thing I remembered, but then I realized that I had been knocked out. Taking a deep breath confirmed it, the smells of cleaner and disinfectant lingering in my nose. I was in the clinic. In a bed. And my neck hurt a little. Checking the spot with my fingers, I jumped when they made contact. It was still a little tender.
"Adart," an oddly accented voice said from nearby. I sat up to find Ito-soke sitting in a chair not far from the bed.
"Sensei?" I asked.
"I used a dart, one with an adamantium tip, to deliver a Deviser-made knockout agent into your system."
"Oh. You had one on hand?"
He smiled a little smile. "Battles are won and lost in preparation, Aspect."
"I guess you're right," I said, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. "May I ask why you're here, sensei?"
"What happened today?" he said, his expression remaining neutral.
"Circe hasn't told you?" I asked.
"Circe." Ito blinked a few times. "What hand does she have in this?"
"Well, she's my . . . mentor, I guess? With all this, I mean."
Ito folded his hands in his lap and regarded me, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking _at all_. "I think it would be best if you told me everything from the beginning."
"It'll take a while."
"I have plenty of time when it comes to my pupils' safety."
"I see, sensei," I said. I took a deep breath. "So, it all started with these weird dreams . . ."
Even with me trying to make it short, it still took a while. I don't know exactly how long, as my room didn't have a clock, and I didn't have my watch on me (it was probably still back in the locker room). The whole time, he just nodded softly at certain points, but he didn't say anything, and his face kept being that unreadable mask thing.
Man, I wish I knew how he did that.
"In short, then," he said. "You become vastly more dangerous when in this rage state, this Fury."
"Hai, sensei."
"And you did not notify me of this?"
My whole body locked up, and I couldn't think of anything to say.
"Well?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I thought my teachers would, um, would "
"Take responsibility for everything in your life?" he asked, his tone taking a slightly reproachful edge. That was all he had to do to make me feel an inch tall. I shook my head slowly.
"Do you remember the opening speech that Headmistress Carson delivered to the student body?"
"Hai, sensei," I nearly whispered. "At least some of it."
"And it's basic theme was . . .?" he asked, peering at me over glasses that weren't there.
". . . that it's 'up to us?'"
"Very good," he said, nodding slightly. "Yes. That, ultimately, the responsibility for your time here lies with _you_. You can't expect the staff and faculty to take care of every loose end. What's more, when it comes to matters directly pertaining to high-stress situations, such as my class, you should be doubly careful."
"Hai, sensei. I'll . . . I'll do better."
"Excellent." He rose to his feet without making a sound. "Good evening," he said, his voice taking a bit more of a British tinge than usual. The door clicked behind him as he left, but it burst open just a bit later, and Maria ran through the room and landed on me before she pulled me in a hug so tight that it cut off circulation.
"Need . . . air . . ." I whispered.
Maria sat up, blushing a little. "Sorry! But I just got word about you being in here! Spira was trying to call me, but she couldn't figure out how to get to the Workshop, and I didn't hear my communicator, and none of the other guys were answering, and I would've been here sooner, but I was working on my suit, and I got it to w "
I kissed her hard, and she squeaked, her whole body getting stiff. Then she relaxed into it, and both of us played at each other for a second, enjoying the sweet taste.
"What was that for?" she asked breathlessly as I pulled away.
"For being you." I grinned at her. "You were worrying too much. I just had a bad match with Zack, that's all."
"But Spira said that it felt like you were really, really mad," she whispered. "And I was afraid that you'd gotten all Fury-y, or something."
I brushed her hair back from her face. "I did Fury, but I'm fine now." Actually, maybe I wasn't, if my chain wasn't there. A quick inspection showed me it was though, with a new clasp, to boot.
//. . . Zack?//
"What is it, Bear?"
"Nothing," I said, shaking my head and smiling a little. "Just a nice surprise."
"You'll have to tell me about it, then," she said, hopping off the bed. "Okay! The nurse said that you could leave as soon as you were awake, so let's get moving! Are your regular clothes back at Laird?"
I nodded.
"Right. Let's go got them, then. And . . ." She grinned sweetly. "I got you supper, since you missed it."
I got up and kissed her on the cheek. "You're the best."
"Thanks," she said, blushing lightly. "Ready to head out?"
"Yep! Wait a sec . . . did you bring any shoes with you?"
Her eyes went wide. "Oh, bear, I'm sorry, I didn't even think about it! I'll . . ."
"It's fine, hon! I've always got some around, anyway." I closed my eyes and said the catchphrase, making me in to Megadeus. "I can even carry you there." Kneeling down, I opened my arms for her. "Your chariot awaits, milady."
"Oh, my prince," Maria said with a giggle. She walked over to me and hopped into my arms. Without another word, I walked us out of the clinic, and Maria waved at Ms. Steel on our way. Waves of cold splashed on me the second we stepped outside, the change in temperature refreshing.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Yes!"
Grinning, I took off, slow at first, moving past the roof after a few seconds. Then I looked toward the gray sky and really cut loose, going as fast as I could.
"Woohoo!" Maria cried out, even as I felt her shiver in my arms. We hurtled toward Laird Hall, but then Maria tapped on my chest a few times.
We slowed to a stop. "What is it, darling?"
"The communicator," she said, clicking a silvery watch-thing on her left wrist instead of the clunky units she'd given us. "It's Spira." She clicked the flashing red button. "Hello?"
"Maria?" came Spira's voice, obviously shaken.
". . . Spira, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, b-but . . . Ray isn't! As far as I can tell, she's out in the woods and she's _freaking out_!"
"Okay, okay," Maria said, breathing a little faster. "Can you give us dir " But she stopped there when our attention was drawn off campus. Somewhere in the woods, there was a flash of red light, and branches seemed to dance in the glow before falling away like they were never there at all. "We see her! Tell Penny to get outside Dickinson! We'll pick her up!"
"O . . . okay! But I can't . . . I can't go," Spira said, guilt clear even over the communicator. "I'm in bad shape, and if I got too close . . ."
"It's fine, Heather," I assured her with my deep superhero voice over the communicator. "We'll handle it."
". . . oh, oh thank you. Okay. Um, let me know how it goes?"
"Right," Maria said, clicking the watch-thing again. She turned her gaze at me. "What are you waiting for? Go!"
"Ma'am!" After a deep breath, I flew for all I was worth to Dickinson, and I saw Penny before I was even close to the ground thanks to a purple searchlight shining up from the ground. I landed and she ran to me.
"Make room!" she said. With a silent apology, I slung Maria under one arm and looped the other around, making a harness-sorta-thing for Penny, and thank god, she slipped into it without even so much as smirking. Both girls safe under my arms, I took off, going as fast as I could in the awkward standing-position flight. As we got closer, a column of fire lashed at the night sky, orange splashing some of the mist that hung over the woods. Really intense cold hit me like a brick as I got closer, and it hit the girls worse.
"Man, it's fucking cold!" Penny said. "What's . . ." She trailed off, looking down at the forest. There in an . . . epicenter, really, was Ray, her eyes blank white, her body splayed even as it hung in mid-air. Some sort of nimbus spun around her, black and red and green and white and yellow, and the ground around her had been ripped up really bad. Pieces of jagged metal stuck out of dirt, like a bomb had gone off, and bits of trees had actually been _frozen_ and broken off. As we touched down, jets of fire spiked out and just missed us!
"What's going on?" Maria asked, and the earth shook, a fissure opening up, swallowing a big tree.
Seeing that made me shiver, I couldn't help it. "It doesn't matter!" I said. "She needs our assistance! Penelope, shield Maria!" Dirt blew apart beneath me as I flew at Ray, and I spun below a chunk of metal that shot from her nimbus then I jerked right to avoid icecicles that were sharper than knives.
"Ray!" I cried as I got closer. "I'm coming!" She didn't seem to hear me, and her body shook as massive wall of heat washed out from her as her nimbus burned angry red. Even with pushing with everything I had, I couldn't make any headway . . . and I felt like she was cooking my skin! I had to fly back.
"I wasn't able to get close!" I screamed over the sound of trees groaning as trees all around us burst into full bloom, grew like crazy, then withered. "I'll attempt it with Coba !"
"No!" Penny said, transluscent purple armor plates snapping into existence all around her, forming a powersuit. "I'm rated for it! I can take it!"
"But . . ."
She spun on me, her mouth drawn in a hard line, her brow furrowed with determination. In that moment, seeing that face, I knew she could do it. That Hell itself couldn't stop her from it.
"Okay," I said, moving myself between Ray and Maria. "Go!"
Penny nodded and took off at a full run. "Ray! I'm coming for you!" Each step covered yards, and she was quickly at the worst of it. Fire lashed her, but she didn't stop. Icecicles broke on her armor, and metal lodged in it. "Ray! Snap out of it!" she said, each step closer more difficult. "Ray!" Her purple arms reached up through the nimbus, and the cloud of energy rippled and hissed, tearing away bits out of the manifestation, but Penny just grunted and kept closing in.
"Ray!" Penny said, concern clearer in her voice than I'd ever heard it.
Ray's head slowly swiveled down to Penny, and she had a blank look of wonder on her face. ". . . Penny?" she said, almost whispering it.
Penny nodded. "I'm right here, Ray," Penny said, just as quietly but with an intensity I could feel even as far away as I was. "Just let me in."
Ray's head tilted the other way, then she seemed to get what was going on. "You're . . . here?"
Penny didn't say anything and just nodded a few times. Ray's bottom lip quivered, and the nimbus faded gradually as she drifted down to the ground. I came closer just in time for Ray to burst out in tears and fling herself at Penny, who dismissed her armor so quickly that it was a blur of motion, then it was gone. By the time Maria and I were close to them, Penny had Ray cradled in her arms, and Ray was just going and going . . . bawling, really. Maria sat beside them, but didn't get any closer when Penny gave her a glare that was, uh, territorial, or something. So, instead, Maria just sorta sat nearby, looking on to the other two. I downshifted and sat beside her, pulling her close while Ray cried out.
Somewhere in there, security arrived, and me and Maria explained everything we could. Once they got what we had to say, they turned to talk to Ray . . .
But she had fallen asleep in Penny's lap.
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