#my guess is getting rolled over by a flying submarine

[frostythelawfullchaotic]

✨💕~Spoiled Milk~💕✨

[bakulova]

Immortal She,

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Namor The Submariner X Reader-

When I first wrote this it didn't save my progress at all and now I have to start all over and the immense rage that I feel rn is too much. Let's see if I remember anything that I just wrote. I'm gonna kms. Also, I should preface that any Yucatec Mayan words are taken from a translator so if it's wrong please be kind and recommend a better source. Let's go!

Centuries ago there was a young boy, born and raised in the waters. By the time he was about 10 years old he had pierced ears and a pierced nose. It made him look intimidating, unlike the other younglings.

One day when his mother had just finished plucking seaweed from the ocean floors to make room for water crops, she tiredly sat on the floor, pleading for him to gather her some sapodilla fruits from the surface world.

" Much paal, úuchij tanto k'iin." ( Please son, it's been so long.")

He agreed immediately thinking of her hard work. If he denied then what kind of son was he? Not a loyal and loving one. He pushed back the negative thoughts and quickly gathered his worn-down satchel from previous surface-dwelling adventures. He swam up, breaking through the soft yet rough waters, exiting and getting straight to work, cutting down the fruit from their branches and enjoying the silence until he got to the last bunch.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Namor snaps his head to the left and sees 3 aggravating men charging toward him with whips in their hands ready to strike. He sighed jumping down from the tree, giving them one last glance before sprinting the other way. Due to his stamina from swimming and mutant strength he got away pretty easily and quickly. He couldn't risk flying because it would out his people. He had to protect and care for his family.

After losing the men he found a village, quickly hides behind one of the huts and starts catching his breath. His eyes flitter between faces and activities. One person truly caught his eye, it was a girl around the same age as him braiding a younger girl's hair. The girl seemed to be enjoying the moment with those around her. He noticed how everyone's faces were lit up with joy around her like she was the sun. He continued to watch her, who is unaware of the fact that she is being admired.

He looked up at the real sun and guessed it was time to leave. To venture on back to his deep blue home. He gave the girl one last glance before running back to the ocean. Once he got back his mother quickly greeted him by grasping his face and checking all over his body for any injuries. Once she found none she sighed contently and gave a cheeky smile,

"Ku ki'imaktal in wóol ti' u etés ma'alob futuro Ajaw." (Glad you're ok, future king).

Namor playfully rolls his eyes and hands her the fruit. She yelps with joy and takes hold of the bag but not before giving him a quick forehead touch and a couple kisses on the face. He is her baby after all.

Even with all the love his mother and his people could give him, his mind wandered back to the girl he was admiring earlier. Who is she and why was he pulled to her?

Taglist:

(If you want to be added please contact me saying, " IS, RTM Taglist")

@violet-19999 @blushsage

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, here is a rec list of bottom Louis fics with cocky Harry. If you enjoy our rec lists, please be sure to like and reblog this post to help spread the word. Happy reading!

1) Zip Your Lip (Like A Padlock) | Explicit | 4151 words

Louis is a brat. Harry goes to watch him dance. Can you blame them?

2) Your Apathy’s Like A Wound In Salt | Explicit | 5312 words

“What a fucking ass!” Louis shifts his body so he’s completely facing away from the scene. “I asked him last night to fix my car and he said he would accept a payment in the form of me sucking his dick. I guess he’s really desperate, I can’t believe him.” Louis rolls his eyes, finishing off his drink in one go.

Niall shakes his head and shrugs, “I told you to ask any other mechanic in town but you didn’t listen to me.”

“Well, I didn’t think he would fucking say that now did I, Niall?”

“Louis,” Paige rests a manicured hand on his shoulder, “So, you’re saying you still wouldn’t hit it?”

“My ex?” She nods. “Yeah, I’d still hit that. Except this time it would be with a car or a baseball bat.”

Suddenly, Niall spits out his beer all over the table as Paige bursts out laughing. “Fucking ruthless, you are.” Niall runs a hand through his styled hair.

3) Anything Goes | Not Rated | 10275 words

Harry probably shouldn't be amused that Louis has a death grip on his hand and is dragging away from an event that, you know, they should be at. And he still probably shouldn't have that god awful smirk plastered to his face when Louis shoves him into the bathroom and steps in before locking the door.

4 Don't Hold Back Now | Mature | 11103 words

Harry gives Louis everything he asks for except for the one thing he wants the most. If only Louis knew who Harry truly was.

5) Rapture In The Dark | Teen & Up | 13153 words

Harry Styles is a breakout musician who has shed his boyband label in favor of embracing his inner brooding rockstar. His PR team think that his rebrand is the perfect time for Harry to come out of the closet and have devised the perfect plan for doing so. Enter Louis Tomlinson, up and coming (and very openly homosexual) model whose public image as America's Sweetheart is the perfect foil for Harry's new edge. From a PR standpoint, it's a dream come true - a power couple that can slowly coax the public into accepting Harry's altered image. The only problem? They hate each other.

6) Works Like A Charm | Explicit | 18088 words

Ever since Louis joined the team in fifth year, a few facts have become set in stone.

One: Louis is the best chaser in Hogwarts.

Two: Harry is the best beater in Hogwarts.

Three: They do not get along.

So it’s really unfair of Liam to think that forcing them to spend time together as Louis recovers from his injury will make them the best of friends. The last thing Louis would do is get along with that git.

7) Up To No Good | Explicit | 26525 words | Part 2 | Part 3

Harry doesn’t think of himself as a womanizer, not at all. Sure, he enjoys sex, enjoys how women feel underneath him, and by some people’s standards he has sex with quite a lot of people, but that’s no reason to tell him that he can’t have a female PA anymore.

It’s especially no excuse for giving him a male PA who’s possibly the most gorgeous boy in the world who won’t even let Harry look at him for too long.

Sometimes Harry hates his life.

8) Nicotine | Explicit | 32345 words

“We’re two different types of people, Liam. He likes sex and drugs, I like theater and tea. Trust me, we’d never date.” Except they would, they do, and neither of them plans on letting go anytime soon.

9) When Our Worlds They Fall Apart | Explicit | 42228 words

Harry put his hand over his heart as if Louis had wounded him. “You’re so harsh, my liege! Perhaps you need to relieve some tension…” He let his voice trail off suggestively.

“The day I ask YOU to relieve tension is the day I lose all my wits and join the Imperials,” Louis said. “It will never happen.”

10) Submarine From Hell | Mature | 76049 words

Louis and Harry are the first omega and alpha, respectively, to become submariners, they have to find a way to survive lethally too strong suppressants while being forced to live in confined quarters with each others. In a submarine among betas, they decide to risk their blind noses by stopping all suppressants, but eventually, they must find a way to survive their heat and ruts, all while not getting killed in combat.

11) Waiting On You | Explicit | 76576 words

“Vampires,” Louis says with disgust, glaring over at the vampire who is noisily slurping from the woman’s neck nearby.

Zayn gives the neat fang marks on Louis’ neck a meaningful look.

“Can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” Louis finishes, ignoring Zayn when he rolls his eyes.

Louis takes a long sip of his milkshake, presses his fingers against the marks on his neck, and definitely doesn’t think about the vampire who left them there.

12) The Entertainment | Explicit | 94799 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

For Harry's upcoming album release, his team dreams of hiring him a PA to help assist with the burden that comes with a launch. Louis Tomlinson is a highly sought-after PA who's worked with many A-listers.

13) Tainted Sights And Velvet Vices | Explicit | 126082 words

A self-fulfilling Hogwarts AU in which Louis is new to seventh year and Harry is the resident devil-may-care Slytherin set to make his entire experience a living misery. Due to less than favourable circumstances they're forced to forge an unwilling, tentative relationship for their own survival. Repressed emotions, decidedly unromantic ballroom dancing, Triwizard Tournament tasks, creative jinxes and twilight flying above the Forbidden Forest ensue.

14) Collision | Explicit | 226294 words

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[funky-boat-zone]

can this be a “pilot episode” if it’s a fic—

(the first fic for my salty’s lighthouse au is finally done! enjoy (or don’t). also it’s not going on ao3 because there’s no tag for this show and i don’t wanna clog the tugs tag.)

It was 6:30 in the morning, with the sun just starting to cast its light over Snugboat Harbor. All twelve tugs (plus Grampus) waited in front of Captain Star’s window for their orders. No one knew what they were waiting for besides the fact that Star had specifically asked the Zero Fleet to wait at her window instead of his.

Ten Cents yawned. “Why’d Captain bring the Zeroes here instead of just waiting for Zero to come to work?”

“What, do you have a problem with us staying at your dock?” Zorran snapped, Zug glancing apologetically at Ten Cents on his behalf.

Ten Cents sputtered in irritation. “No, of course not! Sheesh, are you sure you’re not the one with a prob—“

“Have some respect! If she called all of us over, it must be something serious!” Top Hat protested.

“D’ya think somebody sunk?” ZB tactlessly wondered aloud to Zak, earning him a few horrified looks from his fellow tugs.

“Well if the Coast Guard’s not here, it probably wasn’t someone that important.” Zak replied, only to spot Zorran glaring at him. “… What?”

“Shh, here she comes!” Hercules ordered, which promptly stopped the boats’ chatter.. for the time being, anyway.

Sure enough, a blue and white-striped megaphone popped out of the window. “Star Fleet, Zeroes, Boomer’s owner wants to know if Snugboat Harbor has the right kind of jobs for him and he’s coming to assist you all with work today! Whether or not he decides to stay, I expect you all to be on your best behavior!” With that, she returned to her office, closing the window on the way and leaving the tugs to talk amongst themselves until Boomer inevitably arrived.

Ten Cents groaned. “Oh no, what’d we do?”

“What do ya mean?” Zip asked.

“He’s jinxed! Cursed! No reasonable captain would make their tugs work with Boomer unless it was some kind of punishment!” Big Stack cried.

Ten Cents’ sighed. “I remember when he wanted to ‘help us out’ with a liner.”

“How’d that go?” Sunshine asked, although she quickly realized her mistake when she saw how Ten Cents’ face fell. “… Too soon?”

���Lighten up everyone, it’s not like he means to bring bad luck.” Warrior chided.

“And it’s not like Sunshine means to run bow-first into other tugs because she can’t take two seconds to look where she’s going, what’s your point?” Zorran argued, ignoring Sunshine’s cry of “Hey!” from across the jetty.

“Can’t we at least try to be nice to him?” Sunshine suggested. “Who knows? Maybe his luck will turn if we stop acting like everything he does is bad luck, just saying.”

The dead silence from both fleets indicated that they weren’t feeling inclined to take her suggestion.

—

Roughly an hour later, ZB spotted a tug in an orange worker’s cap and matching livery entering the harbor. What stood out to him the most was the tape and bandages covering the vessel, no doubt covering the cracks, dents, and holes from his countless accidents. “Must be Boomer.” He thought aloud to himself, pulling his barges out of the way so he could pass by. From how far away the other tug was, there was almost no way Boomer would actually hit the barges, but better safe than sorry, right?

Almost as soon as the tug in the orange cap was out of sight, ZB heard Zero cry “Watch the dock, watch the dock— I said *watch the dock!*”, which was in turn followed by a loud thunk and Zero lamenting the damage to his newly-repaired dock.

“Yep, has to be Boomer.” ZB corrected himself.

—

Much to the dismay of everyone, including the captains, Boomer’s first job for the day involved helping Warrior and Big Stack transport explosives. Both fleets were ordered to give them plenty of room, which they gladly did, excessively so: Not just because it was captain’s orders, but because no one wanted to be hit with flying shrapnel in case this job went wrong.

“C’mon, I’m pretty sure we don’t need to give them that much room.” Hercules sighed, noticing how both fleets were stationed almost a liner’s length apart from each other. Despite his reassurance, no one made a move to get closer.

“Well, I may end up in a museum someday, but that day will not be today and my exhibit will not be one on shipwrecks!” Top Hat argued, earning a few eye-rolls from the rest of his fleet.

“Really, you guys need to stop assuming the worst of him! He’s not even the one towing the explosives, there’s no possible way he could—!“ Hercules was interrupted by an explosion, followed quickly by Big Stack proclaiming “I’m okay!” in the distance. He looked to his horrified fleet. “O-Okay, that was just a fluke! Besides, it doesn’t sound like all the barges exploded—!” As if on cue, there was another explosion.. And another. And another. Warrior, Big Stack, and Boomer met up with their fleet and were thankfully all still afloat and intact, albeit covered in soot and understandably shaken.

“… Did you manage to save any of the barges?” Top Hat squeaked out, looking at the smoke rapidly rising in the distance.

“Some of them! Well, I don’t know how much good they’ll be, since they’re.. kinda-sorta—well, very much on fire now.” Boomer stammered. “But we tried!” Almost immediately after Boomer stopped speaking, there was a bright orange light in the distance, with all the tugs recognizing it as a fire.

Sunshine winced as her fleet scattered and passed her to find the Fire Chief. Ten Cents sighed.

At the very least, the blaze was only the second worst fire he’d ever seen in port.

—

“Who needs the Star Fleet? Zero’s been looking for another tug anyway.” Zorran noted as Boomer and the rest of the Zero Fleet prepared to pull down a group of old buildings. “Now, all you have to do is secure your line to these buildings, sound your whistle to make sure everyone gets clear, and pull them down.” There’s no possible way Boomer could mess this up, it’s so easy that even Zip and Zug can do it!

Boomer did as he was instructed, sounding his whistle as soon as he got his line on the building’s superstructure. The rest of the Zero Fleet stayed back, shut their eyes, and waited for the sound of the building to come down.

… And waited. And waited.

“I’m not hearing any…” Zug stammered to try and find the right word before settling for just poorly imitating the sound of a building falling down. “Y’know, any of that.”

“Zorran?” Boomer called. “It’s— Uh, the building’s not coming down!”

“… What?” Zorran asked incredulously.

“I think I made myself pretty clear, I’ve been—“ Boomer stopped to catch his breath, “I’ve been at it for at least a few minutes and it hasn’t budged.”

Zorran steamed over to where Boomer was struggling, wondering how he could fail such a simple task. “Move over and let me see that!”

ZB cringed as soon as he saw his boss head toward Boomer. “D’ya think the building’s gonna collapse if he—“

Zak quickly wrapped his line around ZB’s towbitts, making sure he stayed put. “Nah, let Zorran figure that out for himself.” He said. ZB stayed out, failing to notice the smirk on Zak’s face.

Zorran approached the building, having pushed Boomer out of the way. “I don’t see any reason why it hasn’t fallen yet—OH NO!” Shrapnel and dust flew everywhere as the building finally collapsed as the Zeroes had hoped.. right on top of Zorran, who sunk to the bottom with a terrified yelp.

Once the dust cleared, the rest of the Zero Fleet hesitantly steamed over to check if Zorran was okay. Thankfully, he wasn’t fully sunk, since the water near the abandoned buildings was too shallow to let that happen. In fact, he seemed relatively fine for a tug who’d just had a small building collapse on top of him.

“You—“ ZB coughed, “You okay?” he asked nervously, turning carefully to avoid hitting the debris in the water and coughing from the still-lingering dust.

Zorran just shook his wheelhouse resignedly, his eyes unfocused. “At this rate, those kids will go blind if they keep talking to that lighthouse.” He muttered.

The Zeroes exchanged a nervous glance with each other.

“I’ll get him to Lucky’s.” Zak sighed.

—

Zorran returned from Lucky’s good as new, although he looked just as irritated as usual. With the Zero Fleet done with their jobs for the day, he planned to meet up with them near a set of old docks, hoping the Star Fleet wouldn’t come by. “So, who do you think is going to be the oh-so-lucky fleet who gets stuck with Boomer?”

“Probably the Star Fleet, I’m calling it now.” Zak said. “They’ll take anything! I mean, look at Grampus! What’s Captain Star gonna do with a submarine, make him check the docks for barnacles?”

“Hey, he could check boats for barnacles too!”

“Not my point, Zug.”

“Sorry.”

—

Unbeknownst to the Zeroes, the Star Fleet were having a near-identical argument at their own dock.

“I don’t wanna say I don’t want him around—“ Sunshine began.

“I do.” Top Hat said snootily, causing the rest of the Stars at the dock to glare at him.

Sunshine ignored Top Hat and went on. “—But Captain just got Grampus, and I didn’t hear her talking about buying another tug.”

“Ah, so Zero wants him, then.” Big Stack sighed. “Never thought I’d say this, but I feel bad for the Zero fleet.”

—

Both the Stars and the Zeroes apparently had the same idea, because Warrior, Big Stack, and Zorran all found themselves gathered in front of the Star Dock in hopes that they’d get Captain Star to change her mind.

“What’s the problem, Star Fleet.. and Zorran?”

“Well, it’s not that we don’t like Boomer..” Warrior began, only for his brother to cut him off.

“We just hate working with him! I keep telling you, every time someone works with him, they end up crashing, sinking, or getting set on fire! Unless you put something into place to keep this from happening, he can work alone!”

Zorran cut in. “Or at least get someone more expendable to—“

“Zorran!” Both brothers snapped, prompting the Zero Fleet’s leader to shut up.

Captain Star sighed. “I guess now’s a good time to tell you that Boomer likely won’t be working with either of your fleets. Zero and I have thought it over and talked it out, and he doesn’t need a new harbor tug and the Star Fleet has plenty of tugs as is.”

“… Oh.” Big Stack and Warrior responded awkwardly. As much as they didn’t like working with Boomer, it wasn’t as if they wanted to drive him out of the harbor.

“Yes!” Zorran cheered quietly, though not quietly enough to keep Warrior from hearing him and shooting him a disapproving glance.

Captain Star ignored the tugs’ reactions and continued. “Star Fleet, I’d like you to say goodbye to him once you’re all done with work. Snugboat Harbor wasn’t the right fit for him, but let’s wish him luck.”

“Aye aye!” The Star Fleeters agreed before leaving to help the rest of their fleet finish work for the day. Zorran just turned around, headed for his own dock, and prepared to go to sleep.

—

The sun was just beginning to fall as the Stars and the Zeroes gathered to say goodbye to Boomer. The Zeroes arrived twenty minutes late, because Zorran refused to leave his dock and it took the rest of his fleet to drag him to the meeting spot.

“Goodbye Boomer! We wish you the best of luck!” Sunshine cheered.

The Zero Fleet looked to Zorran, only to realize he was falling asleep where he was floating. Hoping Boomer wouldn’t notice, ZB bumped his leader, jolting him awake.

“Uh�� what she said!” Zorran shouted as his fleet sighed disappointedly behind him.

Thankfully, Boomer took no notice. “Thanks guys! I’ll be sure to write or visit or something once I find my new job!” He shouted before sailing off toward the horizon.. But not before accidentally sinking a buoy on his way out.

“Should we tell—“ Otis wondered aloud before Hercules cut him off.

“Nah, Captain doesn’t have to know.” Hercules said, wanting to just enjoy the moment.

But once Boomer passed under Snugboat Harbor’s bridge, a small piece of infrastructure came loose and crashed down onto his bow. While it wasn’t enough to collapse the bridge, it was certainly enough for Boomer to notice as he yelped in pain.

The Star Fleet froze in horror, wondering if they should go and help before Boomer’s voice broke the silence. “I’m okay!”

Realizing the rest of his fleet was staring at him with an expression that could best be described as “We told you so”, Hercules sighed and turned around to head to his dock. “I know, I know, I’ll go tell Captain.”

[polypocketpussy]

I made a Wandavision playlist that’s also part comic Wanda lmao 

Out Of It- Fallulah  “I'll never know what I'm capable of If I don't go where I'm scared to be lost Hope will find my way when I'm going through the night Somebody gotta tell me that I'm gonna be alright” 

Invincible- Ok Go “When they finally come, what'll you do to them Gonna decimate them like you did to me? Will you leave them stunned and stuttering When they finally come how will you handle them? Will you devastate them deliberately? Cause I'm gonna guess they won't be Prepared for the thousand Fahrenheit hot metal lights behind your eyes” 

Cruel- Tori Amos “So don’t give me respect Don’t give me a piece of your preciousness Flaunt all she’s got in our old neighborhood I’m sure she’ll make a few friends Even the rainbows down let us pray As you cock-cock-cock your mane” 

Control- Poe “So this is how it feels To breath in the summer air The feel the sand between my toes And love inside my ear All those things that you taught me to fear I've got them in my garden now And your not welcome here”   

Supermassive Black Hole- Muse “I thought I was a fool for no one Oh baby, I'm a fool for you You're the queen of the superficial And how long before you tell the truth?” 

Don’t Wake Me Up- The Hush Sound “Don't wake me up I am still dreaming The story's undone Unraveled at the seams Don't wake me up Death is misleading And when I fall asleep Sleep with a ghost” 

Make It Forever- George Clanton “Holding back the tears from falling That's what I do Holding back the tears so long When you come back again We can convene make it forever”   

Ilomilo- Billie Eilish  “Hurry, I'm worried The world's a little blurry Or maybe it's my eyes The friends I've had to bury They keep me up at night”

Hospital Flowers- Slow Hollows “How you gonna get 'em back home Are you gonna wear the same clothes Touch upon a memory A future that is evergreen Does it feel wrong to you? Doesn't feel right to me at all Does it feel wrong to you?”

  A Pearl- Mitski  “It's just that I fell in love with a war Nobody told me it ended And it left a pearl in my hand And I roll it around Every night, just to watch it glow Every night, baby, that's where I go” 

Clementine- Halsey “'Cause I don't need anyone, I don't need anyone I just need everyone and then some I don't need anyone, I don't need anyone I just need everyone and then some “ 

 Happy House- Siouxsie And The Banshees “It's safe and calm if you sing along This is the happy house -- we're happy here in the happy house To forget ourselves -- and pretend all's well There is no hell” 

Los Angeles- X “She gets confused Flying over the date-line Her hands turn red 'Cause the days change at night Change in an instant The days change at night Change in an instant”

1940- The Submarines (AmpLive Remix)  “Something's wrong when you regret Things that haven't happened yet But it's a glorious day when morning comes Without that feeling of alarm”

Bones- MSMR “Dig up her bones but leave the soul alone Let her find a way to a better place Broken dreams and silent screams Empty churches with soulless curses We found a way to escape the day”

Noid- Yves Tumor  “They call it a sickness PTSD, depression Safe in the hands of them That's where I feel the pressure 911, 911, 911 Can't trust them” 

On Spotify! Enjoy!

[rattyarts]

Huge-ask post (I am VERY funny)

Because I have so many questions that can be answered with just text, and I have mentioned my dislike of filling my art blog up with Words Words Words... let’s get them all done in one go!

(You guys can blacklist #rattytalks if you’re just here for the draws, btw)

A shit ton of asks under the cut!

Anonymous said: So for the center of the world, what with it being forcefully PG and all Bad Thoughts TM being prevented, how does having kids happen? Do parents just black out and wake up holding a child in their arms and vague memories of the last 9 months?

Ever seen a movie where they do that “and one day... a baby was born!” thing and a kid just appears offscreen with no explanation?

(This is how it works everywhere, Edgelands included; no one does the do or gets pregnant in this setting.)

Anonymous said: Hello! Quick question, and sorry if you’ve answered this before, but can other elves see the “intangible” bits of one another? Big fan of your work btw!

Nope! And thank you!

Anonymous said: Leopold was in my dream last night but I sadly cannot remember any of it.

I am SO sorry. I will try to keep my stinky murder men out of your head in the future.

Anonymous said: are the floaty bits stuck in one spot, or could the one they are attached to learn to move them around their body as long as its still within a certain distance? like, someone with the Floaty limbs, lets call him Ray, can move his limbs all over his body, allowing him to do all sorts of neat things that others with their attached limbs probably couldn't?

Whatever you want, honestly. As a general rule of thumb I don’t like putting down TOO many hard rules that prevent people from having fun with this setting. (Please ignore and scrap anything you think is stupid, I do this all the time and enjoy keeping this setting inconsistent and contradictory)

Anonymous said: Do elf names work off of Death Note rules, or is it like, if you know one elf’s name, all elves with that name are now unable to harm you? So if all the elf brothers are named Martin, for example, does it only work with blue?

I think it’s prolly just the one! Probably? Idk, might change if I think of something funnier.

Anonymous said: Can elves do magic on themselves or does thst go against the knowing name rule

Most people tend to know their own names, lol. So in my opinion, no, but don’t let me stop you if you got a fun idea.

Anonymous said: Could an Elf stitch on parts from another elf and have them work? i.e an Elf's finds the arm of another Elf. "Hey, free arm, might as well put it to good use", so they attach the arm and now they can give three high fives at once!

Same deal as previous questions, I personally would say no, but I also encourage people to do whatever the hell they want. It’s more fun that way!

Anonymous said: I bet elves are greasy to the touch.

They’re very powdery! Like if you rolled them in flour. And by flour I mean nasty glowing elf dandruff.

Anonymous said: Can elves fly or are their wings just for show?

No flying!!! (Unless you’re a mousefly)

Anonymous said: Something tells me that the elves would LOVE Obatzda.

Had to look that up, but definitely!

no1fan15: Not sure if someone asked already- Does Edgeworld have any equivalent to demons and angels? Like the old rubberhose cartoon kind?

Demons, yes! That’s what imps are: basically any demon, devil, or generic monster, but tiny! Even a couple of pop culture critters in there, there’s probably a very small gillman or robot monster running around there somewhere.

Angels, not so far. 

Anonymous said: How come Margaret hasn't yeeted George's jar into the Edge yet

I’d say being locked in a closet is good enough! (and also I need him for plot reasons, don’t tell anyone)

Anonymous said: If elves have knees bulges in the front then do they have butt bulges in the back?

i do not want to think about elf bulges

Anonymous said: So if you find a baby Therewoof and you say "aw you're so cute", their true name is So Cute?

Yep!

Anonymous said: Since a Therewoof's true name can be something like "cutie pie" or "dingus", does their name have to be spoken with "intent" for it to doggo-fy them? Or do they just have to live with the reality that any casual conversation/flirting can make them lose up to a month to Doggy Mode? My mom has little terrier dog named "Sweetie" so that got me thinking 'bout Therewoof names. & Anonymous said: here's a good question: If someone says a therewoof's true name, but not reffering to them, does it still affect them?

Just saying it will do! It’s based on those old werewolf stories where calling out the person’s name will change them back into a human/cure them, and a lot of the time it was by accident.

(My favorite is the one where they slam the door on the wolf’s tail and then say his name, and the dude ends up with a wolf tail for the rest of his life.)

Anonymous said: Would Seeing eye Therewoofs be a thing?

I... guess? Probably? Since regular dogs can turn into woofs, yeah. You might have to start paying em once they turn into a person tho. 

Anonymous said: Was ChalkZone ever an inspiration for you? Because I just love the silly world of ChalkZone and I noticed getting that same warm feeling when thinking about Edgeworld.

Maaaan, I wish. I’ve only seen about three episodes or so, but it seems really fun!

Anonymous said: So I saw your mimic post, and even though I don't think I've seen any other of your art before I was absolutely HAMMERED with an indescribable sense of slightly unsettling strangeness and comfortable familiarity. Your art feels like something from like, an old point and click computer game I would have had formative memories of before accidentally losing or scratching the disc therefore making me unsure if it ever REALLY existed. Sorry for being weird but I love the wacky nostalgia feel here

Aaaaaah, THANK YOU! That is SUCH a cool comparison and I appreciate!!!

Anonymous said: If the Edgeworld is based on cartoons then is there a Reverse Edge-world that’s based on anime?

Lol, I mean I DID have an anime phase for a while there, so...

caydebug: Man I’d love to see this as a cartoon some day

Honestly, same. Best you’re gonna get is the occasional animatic or gif, tho.

Anonymous said: Does anyone..."go" in Edgeworld? or is it like Pleasantville where bathrooms exist but there are no toilets in them because acknowledging it is yucky?

Oh god I keep getting asked this and have been avoiding it like the damn plague. But... Uh. No. No they do not. I am begging you all not to send any followup questions.

Anonymous said: Have you considered putting computer viruses or illnesses in with the buggymen? Since those are typically called ‘bugs’

Sure!

Anonymous said: are there any limits to what an Animimic could posess? i.e if they were in a costume of a Buggieman with multiple arms, could they control all of them? what about a small Mousefly costume? can multiple fit into one costume like a clown car? and what about in pitch black darkness, where you can only see the lights of their eyes and not their bodies? could one fit inside the pocket of a jacket you are wearing and help you steal things/wield a gun like a living turret?

Since clothing fills into the body type of the intended wearer, they would indeed be able to control all arms/legs in buggieman clothes.

Size restrictions is one of these things I wanna try to be vague about: I personally have been imagining them sticking to hiding in things no smaller than, um. Maybe imp sized, but really, whatever. It’s a cartoon eyeball critter!

You can put multiple animimics in one outfit!

They can move around just fine in darkness without being off screen, yeah!

And sure why not. lol

Anonymous said: I know you have been asked this once before, and you said nah you don't, but with a few more months of worldbuilding, do you have an idea for what could be down the edge now? 🤔

Not really! It’s not super important, honestly. I’d say any fan theory is about as valid as anything else I can come up with.

ps2polpo: I doubt you’ll ever elaborate on The Edge but I like to imagine there’s just one dude there like the Nowhere Man from the Yellow Submarine movie. Mostly cause the thought of someone accidentally winding up there being like “where am I?” And there’s just a guy casually waving at him like a friendly neighbor is funny to me & Anonymous said: The implication that the Edge is the physical manifestation of edginess so there’s probably like, Trevor Henderson monsters hanging out down there.

See above question! Valid! I also accept falling forever, getting erased from existence, ending up in another universe, getting stuck in limbo with thousands of other people, whatever you want, really!

Anonymous said: " he has very few bones and weighs basically nothing, " "Fastball special" trope, but with Leo?

YEET THE NASTY MAN

Anonymous said: did you ever watch dragon tales as a kid? because george and margaret make me think of murderous zak and wheezie from that show, and i love it to bits

I did not, but I would have loved it. Definitely up my alley!

(watched Quest for Camelot a loooot, though!)

Imma go ahead and stop here! There’s more but I’ve been writing for well over an hour and I have things to do. If your question is missing I’m either saving it for later, wasn’t entirely sure how to answer, or it’s spoilery.

Will probably do another one of these at some point!

[paranetics]

hiya could you do a kiadam for 17. and 22.? if your not too busy. thanks !!

17.  “Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while…” 22.  “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.”

He’s completely minding his own business, being friendly with his physics textbook, all pressed up against the end of the bookshelf in the library, successfully having a love affair with headache-inducing math equations, when Mira ambushes him.

“Hiya,” she says, suddenly right in his face.

“Aisghls!” he gurgles, in a completely manly way, thank you. She sits back on her heels and laughs at him, loud and mocking. He scowls at her.

Her braces are blue now, matching the streaks in her hair. She looks nice, he decides, all neon green and blue. The loudness of her wardrobe suits her -- she’d be strange to him if she ever tried to tone it down.

“Oh, man, you should’ve seen your face.”

“Fuck you,” Kai snaps, smoothing out the pages of his book. “I am busy learning how to destroy the AP Phys exam. Stop being a distraction.”

She pouts at him. “Come on, you're seriously not still mad at me about the ceramic pig.”

“I’m always going to be mad at you about the ceramic pig,” he says primly. Then he sighs, unable to resist. “What’s up?”

Her smile turns bright, and his heart does that familiar little stutter. Kai has always, always loved her. Sure, she’s Adam’s best friend and has inclinations more Reeve-based, but there’s always going to be something about her that just catches him in the right spot. He’s over it now, and he has erm, other areas of interest, but she’ll always be special.

“Nessa’s having a party--”

“Ugh,” Kai interrupts.

“--with alcohol--”

“Double ugh.”

“And cute boys will be there,” Mira wheedles, whipping out her best puppy-eyes.

“I don’t care,” Kai says, shuffling away from her and looking back at his textbook. The particles will... he reads.

“Adam will be there,” she tries. Obvious trump card. Goddammit.

He cuts his eyes toward her, calculating. She’s grinning, triumphant, confident that she’s got him. He groans internally, because it’s either that he goes to this party and enjoys at least twelve percent of it, or Mira and Adam will wake him up from a dead sleep sometime in the AM, drunk and needy.

Part of his resistance is a lie, he always likes parties. He doesn’t like Vanessa, but she’s Reeve’s friend, and by proxy, Mira’s friend. He can pretend to like her for one night, especially if he gets to hang out with people. What can he say, extroversion. It’s a disease.

It’s just, recently, there’s been this trend. It’s like he’s been cursed.

Kai pretends to think about it.

“Fine,” he grits out.

“Yay!” Mira says, standing up and doing a little celebratory wiggle. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and unlocks it. “I’ll add you to the group text. Also, I want Reeve to drive me so you’re taking Adam alone okay bye.”

“Huh,” Kai says as she speed-walks away from him. “What? Hey!”

But she’s gone, vaguely eucalyptus-scented-shampoo left in her wake. Alone? With Adam? Fuck.

His phone buzzes.

-

Group: party 🎉🥂🥳🎊 time

mirakat added humantorchkai to the group

abeaverdam: Oh he’s coming?

lochnessa: Damn I didn’t know he left his house anymore

mirakat: ya i cornered his ass in th library

mirakat: hes a total slut 4 skool

mirakat: kais my bitch tho lol so ya hes comin

mirakat: dam hes drivin u

abeaverdam: Is that ok kai?

humantorchkai: yeah

humantorchkai: when?

lochnessa: Friday.

-

Kai’s late to first period on Wednesday, which Reeve notices, and bugs him about for ten minutes straight. He rolls in twenty minutes after the bell, wearing the clothes he left on his bedroom floor, all rumpled up and disorganized, and without a note. He drops into his seat and makes it approximately two minutes before Reeve leans over, into his space, and starts the interrogation.

“Oh my God,” Kai says to the ceiling. “For the last time, my alarm didn’t go off.”

“My Spidey-senses tell me you’re a liar,” Reeve says, and seriously, what does Mira see in this complete dork? He’s so nosy.

Kai drags his gaze from the ceiling to stare at him. “I think your janky-ass ‘spider-sense’ needs a psych eval.”

Reeve crosses his arms and sniffs at him. “Rude. I thought we were friends.”

“We are--” Kai scrubs his hands through his hair violently, frustrated. He catches the smirk on Reeve’s face. “Hey! That doesn’t work on me anymore. I’ve evolved.”

The smirk doesn’t leave Reeve’s face.

The truth is, Kai’s late because he had a nightmare. Or a wet dream. Depends on your definition of either thing. It’s been reoccurring pretty consistently, and Kai always wakes up from it breathing hard, adrenaline in his veins, and a hard-on. Today just happened to be shittier, and he couldn’t get back to sleep right away, so he overslept when his alarm went off.

It’s pretty much the worst, been happening for almost a month, and Kai is slowly losing his mind. But. whatever, the important part is this: he’s with Adam, and Adam kisses him. They could be in space, or in a submarine, or whatever Kai’s subconscious feels like cooking up. They could be anything, pirates, elven rebel warriors, it doesn't matter. In every dream, Kai’s with Adam, and at some point Adam leans over, the smell of Hennessy whiskey on his breath, and kisses Kai.

It’s why Kai’s been so rigid lately, avoiding his friends and refusing to go to parties, because of what happened Last Time he’d gone.

Mad Libs! Fill in the blanks, Sherlock.

He’s so totally, totally, totally screwed. And no one is allowed to know, not even Reeve, who knows Adam’s a flirty drunk and that Kai’s pathetic, and hasn’t even told anyone any of Kai’s other secrets, because this? This is world-ending levels of FUCK.

So, when the bell rings, Kai basically sprints out the door to avoid Reeve.

-

Group: party 🎉🥂🥳🎊 time

speedyskeet: should i bring da weed

reever: ohhh shiiiit hell yeah

lochnessa: No LSD though

speedyskeet: :O

speedyskeet: um ok MOM

reever: wtf ness

reever: psychedelic rights!!!

speedyskeet: let me get us fkd up!!

mirakat: wait didnt we hav 2 call an ambulance 4 coop last time u brought more than weed to a party

mirakat: or was tht a different school

speedyskeet: .........

speedyskeet: ok so im assuming edibles and my bong right

-

Kai takes his lunch to Mr Tucker’s room.

Mr Tucker is the APUS history teacher for the senior class, and he is the only non-STEM teacher that Kai likes. Mira is also his favorite student, so he lets them eat lunch in his room. It’s better than fighting for a spot in the crowded cafeteria, and Kai likes hiding from the rest of the student body.

Adam, Reeve, and Mira are sitting at one of the table groups when Kai walks in with his plate of chicken nuggets, Vanessa and Skeet nowhere to be seen. They’re probably getting high in the parking lot.

Mr Tucker is scrolling through youtube, his computer desktop displayed on the projector screen.

“Why’d you look up Nyan cat?” Kai asks, tilting his head as he watches Mr Tucker scroll.

“It’s stuck in his head,” Mira pipes up, helpfully. 

Mr Tucker grunts confirmation and apparently selects the version he likes. Reeve groans when it starts playing, slumping forward over his tuna salad. Mr Tucker picks up his normal vegetable-based salad, his bushy mustache wiggling in that way that means he’s smiling.

Kai sits next to Reeve, across from Adam. Mistake, Kai realizes too late. Big mistake. Because now they have to make eye contact, and Kai’s belly catches fire at the memory of drunkAdamhe’sKISSINGMESOMEONEHELP when he looks down at his plate of chicken nuggets. It’ll be obvious on his face in a few moments, he’s never been able to fight off a blush well, and then there’s going to be Questions. Capital-Q Questions.

But Reeve’s talking about, like, whatever drama majors talk about, and when Kai chances a peek up, Adam’s not looking at him. So.

Kai can’t help it, okay? He’s creepy. Sue him. No wait, that’s not-- ugh.

Kai studies the contours of Adam’s face while he’s not looking. His high cheekbones and his sharp chin. His heavy eyebrows that are shaped perfectly (”Ugh, you’re so fucking gross,” Reeve had said when Kai had voiced this thought aloud. “His eyebrows? I think you need to ask him out. Get it out of your system.”) and his eyes are that warm shade of brown, almost gold, soft and kind.

His hair is longer now, and errant curls flop over his forehead and around his ears. Kai watches the long line of Adam’s throat when he tilts his head back from the force of laughing at something Reeve said. Kai’s transfixed by the inviting stretch of dark skin, entertaining a thought of leaning over and just biting down so it’s not his fault he doesn’t see it coming when Reeve violently jabs him in the rib.

Kai jumps. “Ah! What the fuck?”

“Language,” Mr Tucker says in the toneless inflection of someone who doesn’t really care but responds on reflex. He’s now scrolling through Seasame Street videos.

Reeve shrugs, unrepentant. “You were gone there, dude.”

“Yeah,” Adam agrees, eyebrows raised in polite curiosity. “Planet Zenon gone.”

Kai ducks his head. “I’m, uh, stressed about AP physics?” he tries.

“Uh-huh,” Reeve says, “and are you asking us to confirm that for you?”

“Leave him alone,” Mira interrupts mildly. “Only, like, a hundred people a year get above a three on that exam.”

“Wow, how is that class still funded?” Adam asks.

“Elitism?” Mira guesses. “Maybe it’s like, a torture thing. Like, a test within a test.”

“What,” Reeve says, “like, if you pass you can become a super-secret spy?”

“Or I can, like, do another Chernobyl. Or I’m allowed secret access to government secrets. Ooh, maybe they’ll tell me the moon is a projection into the sky.” Kai says, warming to this idea.

“Then how would they explain waves?” Reeve asks.

“Uh, giant wave pool,” Kai answers.

“Hot take: the world is in a giant wave pool,” Mira grins at him.

Adam blinks almost in slow-motion, the sweep of his eyelashes against his cheeks, a smile growing on his face, and Kai is once again caught like a fly in honey. Just like that, all the saliva is gone from Kai’s mouth, and he’s completely lost the thread of whatever’s happening around him.

Okay, so, recap: totally, totally, totally screwed.

-

adam: U sure you’re ok driving me?

kai: dam i swear its fine

kai: i’d say something if it was a problem

kai: my parents have been trying to kick me out basically every weekend, this’ll make them so fucking happy

adam: Lol

adam: [A stock photo of two white parents sitting on a beach towel in a tropical location, smiling adoringly at each other. In the blurry background, a toddler with similar skin color and hair is being attacked by a seagull.]

-

“There is a PROBLEM!” Kai announces, flopping heavily onto his bed, tossing an arm dramatically over his forehead. Mira doesn’t even look up at him.

“Hm?” she says from the floor, knees drawn up to her chest, eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration. She’s looking more at her iPad than at him.

“Oh my God,” Kai groans. “You don’t even care. I’m nothing to you. You enjoy my suffering.”

“Die white man,” Mira says tonelessly. “I’m trying to beat my old high score in Tetris. What’s your damage.”

“I have nothing to wear on Friday,” Kai moans, pained.

“What? Why do you even care? Your regular clothes are fine.”

“Oh my God, Mira! It’s a party,” Kai breathes the word like its holy, a precious thing nestled in the crook of his tongue, not to be defiled by people who wear school clothes to special events. “And I want to get hit on.”

“I’ll hit on you,” Mira promises. The iPad makes a wah-wah-wah sound. She sighs, setting it aside and looking up at him, expression thoroughly unamused, clearly blaming him for her high-score loss.

“I did not do that,” Kai says. The blood’s started rushing to his head, so he sits up and blinks away the black spots as they dance in front of his vision. “I just wanna be hot,” he whines. 

“Okay, so, wear that stupid blue button-up with the tigers on it, and the black skinny jeans. It brings out your eyes,” she elaborates. “And tucked-in button-ups are hot on dudes. Oh, and--”

“If you’re gonna Queer Eye me, I swear to God,” Kai complains.

“Will you just... I was gonna say you should wear a tiny bit of eyeliner. It’s like, accentuating your features or some shit.”

“Why should I trust you?” Kai asks playfully. “I’ve never seen you go anywhere near a make-up in my life.”

Mira shrugs. “I saw it on Instagram. Anyways, Reeve said I have ‘good bone structure’, what does that even mean?”

“That he’s an idiot and I can’t believe you’re into him?” Kai ventures. Mira glares at him, so Kai leans back on the bed, rolling his eyes up to the bedroom ceiling at the glow-in-the-dark stick-on stars that have been there since he was seven. “Okay, okay. He was probably trying to compliment you, but since he’s a robot sent by aliens to infiltrate the earth he did it in a really bizarre way.”

Mira perks up. “You think?”

“He said ‘good’.”

“What should I say back?”

“Erm, that you’ll have his babies?”

Mira throws one of her glittery highlighter pens at him. It bounces off the center of his forehead and onto his lap. He laughs, picking it up and tossing it back.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “Maybe say that you like his bones, too.”

Mira takes out her phone.

-

adam: [A picture of a pina colada sitting on a kitchen counter in a pool of sunlight.]

adam: Winky face

kai: you could just like, use the emoji keyboard instead of typing it out

adam: Don’t make me frowny face

-

Kai spends fifteen minutes messing with his hair in the mirror. He gels it sticking up, twists his mouth critically at his reflection, and wets his hands to wipe it out. Nothing’s working for him today. It’s just one of those things, his clothes seem to hang off him awkwardly, and nothing looks right.

He makes a sound of frustration, and his mom pokes her head into the bathroom.

“Oh,” she says. “I thought you were going to a party?”

“Mom,” he growls. “I’m getting ready!”

“Hm.” 

She pushes the door all the way open, surveys him from head to toe, and reaches over to run a hand through his hair, leaving parts sticking up in her wake. Kai looks in the mirror. Now, instead of awkward ‘trying-too-hard’, he looks artfully tousled. He unbuttons two top buttons of his tiger shirt, and messes with the collar to make it look like someone had grabbed it and reeled him in for a kiss. He grins at himself.

“That’s better, I think,” she says.

“Thanks Mom,” he says, shuffling past her and out to the hallway.

“Limit yourself to three drinks!” she calls as he stuffs his feet into old converse. “If you get too intoxicated to drive, spend the night! Just text! Don’t forget to wear condoms and--”

Kai shuts the door in her face.

His car is a silver Prius, owned five times prior to him. The interior always smells a little bit like shamrock shake and in the winter requires a prayer and three engine turnovers to start. Kai loves it.

He pulls up to Adam’s street and texts without looking that he’s close. He parks in the street, and jogs up to Adam’s front door. He raps his knuckles on Adam’s door, the red one with caterpillar decals, and a blue handprint on the doorknob.

Adam throws open the door. “Gimme a sec, gotta grab my jacket.”

He’s wearing a white shirt and Kai’s favorite jeans of his (do Not judge him, okay, liking your crush’s ass is basically a given and is no longer considered a sin under the New Testament, so really Kai’s not weird for liking this pair of Adam’s jeans because it accentuates his butt.), the ones with rips in the thigh and at both knees, because Adam lives reckless and dies reckless.

He jams his feet into vans and grabs the heavy olive jacket off the coatrack and follows Kai out to the Prius.

“You look nice,” Adam says, offhand. Kai feels how hot his face immediately gets and hopes it isn’t ugly, sometimes his blushes look like a rash.

“Thanks,” he says, rubbing his neck, right hand fumbling for his keys.

They slide into their seats, and Kai is hit with the violent-sense memory of Hennesy whiskey, and dark streetlamps, and Adam’s soft voice and brown puppy-dog eyes imploring Kai, look at me. Look at me, please. And. And.

His phone buzzes.

“Oh, Vanessa wants us to pick up some soda,” Kai says through the rock in his throat.

“Ooh, ooh. Cherry 7-Up, Jarritos Lime, uh like, a ton of Mountain Dew... and Coke! We’ll need Coke,” Adam rambles as Kai pulls away from the street and heads toward the local general store.

-

mira: WHERE

mira: R

mira: U 

mira: 2

mira: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kai frowns at his phone. They’re in the check-out line, waiting for their turn with about three tons of soda on the conveyer. Kai’s got a fifty dollar bill from his parents, because they’re stupidly open-minded, but he’s still gonna make Vanessa pay him back. Adam’s inspecting the tabloids, making comments about all of the covers and whatever he thinks about them.

kai: WE’RE

kai: FUCKING

(Not sent !) kai: GETTING

(Not sent !) kai: DRINKS

mira: FUHDUK WHATTTT!!!?????????

Kai groans.

-

The party’s already alive by the time Adam and Kai get there, music thrumming against the walls of the house, the glass panes of the windows shaking with the vibrations. Weighed down by plastic bags full of drinks, and a little bit anxious, Kai fumbles with the door handle three times until Adam reaches over him and opens it.

The crowd is huge. He didn’t even know that Vanessa and Skeet knew this many people. There’s a wall of heat that hits them when they step inside, the difference between the inside and outside must be a solid ten degrees. Most people are crammed in the living room, near the speakers, where a sort of impromptu dancefloor has evolved. There are plenty of people lining the hallways, sitting on the stairs, and spilling over into the other places of the house. 

Vanessa has changed the lightbulbs to fuschia, cobalt, and teal colors, so the house looks almost like a club from a TV show. There’s this haze over everything - and, yep, definitely Skeet’s weed - that makes it seem smoky and mysterious. Adam kicks the door shut behind them as they begin to navigate the crowd.

Skeet’s leaning against one of the walls, talking to a tiny girl with piercings and too much eyeliner. She tosses her head, her hair flying up like a halo for a moment, luminescent in the multicolored lights of the house, and leans closer to Skeet. She’s holding a red solo cup, Skeet’s holding weed, and Kai’s arms are starting to hurt from all the soda.

“So, your, like, real name is Skeet? What kind of name is that? I mean, like, who does that to their kid?” she’s asking, valley girl accent and everything, even twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

Skeet shrugs, unbothered. “My parents are hippies.” he spots them, then, and lifts his joint in a get over here gesture. Kai and Adam shove some people to stand in front of him. He grins. “Oh, dudes, nice. You got drinks. I wasn’t sure if you would, since Mira told us that you, uh, made a pit stop.” he waggles his eyebrows.

Kai groans, flushing.

“Uh, yeah,” Adam says, lifting up his bags. “for drinks? Hello?”

Skeet leers, grin stretching bigger. Kai scowls. He’s going to eat her one day, all Hannibal-Lecter style.

“Where is Mira, anyway?” he cuts in before Skeet says anything weird. “Where should we put the drinks?”

“Oh, just, you know,” Skeet makes a vague gesture with his hand that doesn’t really mean anything. “I think I saw her in the kitchen?”

“Thanks,” Kai mutters, shoving through the crowd and deeper into the house.

Mira and Vanessa are leaning against the sink, Reeve’s standing at the counter, completely covered in bottles of alcohol, thumb and forefinger at his chin like he’s surveying fine art. 

“Oh! You made it! I hate vodka without coke,” Mira says, striding forward and grabbing the bags from Adam.

Kai followers her back to the counter, and shoves the receipt into Vanessa’s limp hands without looking at her. Together, Kai and Mira start to set up the drink line, stacking up all the empty red cups at the edge of the counter as they try to make sure all the soda and alcohol are equally accessible. How Skeet even gets this stuff... he shudders to think. 

Kai waits until Adam and Reeve have wandered out of earshot to lean into Mira’s space. Vanessa had vacated the premise the moment it looked like any physical work would be happening, so he doesn’t worry about her particular brand of nosiness. He takes his phone out of his pocket and tilts the screen so she can see it.

“My texts didn’t send,” he tells her in a low voice. “We weren’t actually, you know.” he flushes violently.

Mira shoots him a grin. “No, I guessed that something had happened. It was just funny. You look nice.”

He smiles at her, genuinely, which means his gums are probably showing. She looks nice too, in her little black dress with a flared skirt and combat boots. The neon green streaks in her hair glow in the weird light of the house.

“I like your outfit,” he says. The din in the background is starting to grow. More people have probably showed up.

She nods at his jeans. “Cuffed jeans. The true mark of a bisexual.”

Kai nods very seriously. “I can’t leave my house without announcing every aspect of my sexuality to the entire world.”

Adam’s talking to a group of people at the other end of the kitchen, his smile is blindly white in the pink light, skin pitched a shade darker, a stark difference against the glow of his white shirt. Staring, unable to look away, Kai steals Mira’s cup and takes a swig. It’s straight vodka, so Kai coughs immediately when it hits his tongue.

Mira laughs at him.

-

Group: party  🎉🥂🥳🎊 time

speedyskeet: do any of u know anyone named travis montery

mirakat: no

lochnessa: No

abeaverdam: Nope!

humantorchkai: no

reever: nah

speedyskeet: fucking L lmao

speedyskeet: im kicking this fool out then

-

Kai’s wandering around, pleasantly buzzed from two Cherry 7-Ups with a tiny bit of vodka, looking for any familiar face. Mira and Reeve had abandoned him pretty much straight away, he’d left Adam alone in the kitchen, and he’s actively avoiding Vanessa. 

He stumbles around, moving his shoulders a bit in time with the music, his body gone languid and loose from the heat and the alcohol and the atmosphere.

His phone beeps at him again. He really hopes it's not Skeet checking with them before he bounces a guy again. It’s just Mira, he sees, when he’s fumbled his phone out of his back pocket. He has to squint to read in the pink light amid the thrumming bodies of people all around him.

Eventually, he escapes the crowd and heads down the stairs to the “game room” and finds another living room, with a soft white carpet and a couch in front of a big flatscreen. There’s a group of about a dozen kids, plus Kai’s friends, sitting on the carpet in a circle by the couch, with a beer bottle laying on a Monopoly game board. Kai blinks, the lights here aren’t fun colors, and everyone in the circle raises their arms and cheers when they see him.

He walks over to them. Mira grabs his arm and begins to drag him onto the carpet beside her. The group begins to chant.

“Spin the bottle! Spin the bottle!”

Oh, no fuck, Kai thinks, beginning to resist Mira’s grip on his arm. His drink is sloshing about, and Kai holds it away from his shirt and pants as he tries to reverse his crouch and pull his arm back. Skeet reaches up and confiscates the cup, downing the rest of it in one go.

“Spin the bottle! Spin the bottle! Spin the bottle!”

But he’s buzzed and his coordination is spotty, so when Adam reaches out with his hand and spins the beer bottle, Mira tugs once, hard, and Kai crashes onto the carpet, and the bottle spins,

and spins,

and spins.

And points the neck straight at Kai’s disheveled spot in the circle.

So, let’s revisit that cursed theory, shall we?

Kai looks at Adam, and Adam looks at him. He’s got that dopey half-smile on his face, and his pupils are blown wide, iris a thin gold ring around them. Kai knows when Adam’s drunk, or blackout, and he’s tipsy right now, just like Kai. And... oh no. But the kids in the circle are jeering, giggling delightedly.

“Uh,” Kai says.

Adam licks his lips, and Kai tracks the movement of his tongue helplessly. His eyes are moving on Kai’s face, like he’s cataloging everything, like he can’t keep them still. Kai’s mouth is very, very dry, and he misses having the cup in his hand.

“So, uh,” he says, and the tension buzzes even harder. “Is this, like, a kissing thing?”

Skeet grabs him by the arms and manhandles him up. Reeve and Vanessa grab Adam and start frogmarching them down the short hall toward some rooms and closed doors.

“No,” Skeet says, “This is more like a seven minutes in heaven thing.”

“Wait,” Kai says. Skeet reaches past him and opens a door. “Wait.” Skeet pushes him in, and Adam follows behind. “Wait.” The door clicks shut, then there's a clunk, then the sound of something heavy being pushed against the door.

Kai tries the knob, but it's locked. He jiggles it, but his muscles won’t cooperate and yank hard enough. Adam could probably break it open, but Kai has the vague thought of Vanessa’s parents and property damage, and underage drinking.

“Guys!” Adam yells. He pounds on the door with his fist. “Guys! This isn’t funny!”

But they don’t answer.

Evil. Mental note: make sure your friends aren’t evil next time.

“Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while,” Kai sighs, giving up on the door.

They’ll just have to wait out the seven-minute sentence. It’s simultaneously worse and so much better than the alternative. This way, Adam won’t have to kiss Kai if he doesn’t want to. But also: he won’t have to kiss Kai if he doesn’t want to. It’s a testament to how drunk all of them really are.

Kai turns, presses his back against the door, and slides down it, pulling his knees to his chest, wrapping his hands around his shins, and resting his cheek on his knee. He surveys the room. It’s small and dark, Kai doesn’t have the wherewithal to search for the light switch, but from what Kai can see it looks like a guest room no one ever uses and has accumulated with old junk. There’s a tiny window at the opposite wall that leads up to the lawn. Adam groans and drops onto the ground beside Kai.

The night is clear the moonlight is touching the window and peeking into the room. Adam’s shirt is glowing against his skin from the moonlight, his eyes a bright point in the semi-dark of the room. Kai locks eyes with Adam, and the tension from earlier crops back up tenfold.

This situation is... stupidly pointed. Kai’s pretty sure Reeve is the only person in the world who knows Kai thinks Adam is kinda hot, but he’d also have to be massively stupid to ignore the strain in their friend group lately.

Adam’s looking at him the way he does right before he reaches out to touch Kai’s hair, or brush his fingers against Kai’s freckles, or leans over to kiss Kai’s cheek. He’s looking at Kai like a hungry man, like he’s about to make the stupidest decision of his life and never look back. Kai can feel the pull of that look drawing him in, the temptation to run his hands against Adam’s chest, touching his shoulders or his mouth.

So Kai does the only thing he can think of.

“What did you think of that new Hey Arthur episode?”

Adam blinks at him. “Uh. You mean that kids show?”

Kai bites his lip and nods vigorously. 

Totally. Totally. Totally screwed.

-

reeb: [A video of Mira on the dancefloor among a huge throng of teens. The song in the background is completely drowned out by people attempting to sing along drunkenly. She’s grinding against Vanessa, who’s wearing Skeet’s sunglasses and drinking a mimosa with a cocktail umbrella in it.]

(Not sent !) kai: let us out of here!!! its been like 15 mins!!!! guys!!! dam’s phone is dead!!!!!

(Not sent !) kai: goddamn it COME GET US

(Not sent !) kai: NOTHING IS SENDING!!

reeb: lol wya we cant find dam either

(Not sent !) kai: YOU LEFT US IN THE BASEMENT

-

“Ugh,” Kai says, flopping back down onto the pillows beside Adam. At some point during their imprisonment slash debate on the ethics of twenty-three seasons of the same children’s cartoon, they’d moved from the floor to the twin bed. “I’m pretty sure they forgot about us.”

“Well, it’s been like thirty minutes. And they’re drunk.”

Kai’s starting to sober up. He has to pee, and his mouth tastes like cherry coughdrops. He stands up on the bed, bouncing a bit on the mattress. He reaches up and touches the seam of the window and the sill.

“What are you doing?” Adam asks, trepidation in his voice.

“Uh, escaping?” Kai says.

Kai presses his foot onto the upside down elliptical that’s propped precariously against an old wardrobe. He puts some of his weight on it, testing. Satisfied that it won’t give, Kai lifts himself up onto it, closer to the window, and pushes against the glass pane. The window opens out suddenly, making Kai wobble. The wardrobe groans.

“Careful!” Adam barks.

Kai glances back at Adam, his worried eyes watching Kai from the bed, sitting up on his knees in a half crouch. Kai sticks his head out the narrow window, then his shoulders, and manages to drag himself up and out.

He turns back around and offers his hand to Adam.

“Come on,” he says. “I’ll help you out.”

Adam climbs up onto the elliptical like Kai had, reaches his right hand to Kai’s left and uses his left to leverage himself closer to the window. The wardrobe and the elliptical make that sound again, like they’re scraping together.

“Hurry!” Kai says, afraid of the whole makeshift apparatus falling apart. Adam’s left palm slaps against Kai’s right and Kai pulls.

The elliptical falls over as Kai yanks Adam up, a great big crash resounding in the room they just escaped. Kai’s momentum and Adam’s weight makes Kai step back once, then twice, then his footing goes and he sprawls onto his back, Adam on top of him, in one big undignified heap.

Adam looks down at him. He looks more sober, too, like he hasn’t had much to drink. Kai should really be pushing Adam off of him. Or trying to sit up. But his hands are on Adam’s waist, and Adam’s looking at Kai’s face like he can’t quite look at anything else, and Kai cannot, for the life of him, break this moment.

Adam’s hands are on either side of Kai’s face, boxing him in. His breath puffs against Kai’s mouth over and over as he breathes shallowly. His eyes flick all over Kai’s face, and Kai’s thinking kiss me, please so hard he’s pretty sure NASA catches the brainwaves.

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice,” he says, voice soft and vulnerable, like Kai has the power to hurt him with whatever Kai says next.

Kai’s hands tighten on Adam’s waist. He’s thought about this a lot. Like, a stupid amount. Who doesn’t daydream about confessing to your crush? But Kai cannot dredge up any words to say. He’s dry, completely dry, and he can only think about how good Adam’s weight feels on him. He dips his eyes to Adam’s mouth and thinks This is where I kiss him, right? and Adam’s eyes slide shut as he leans in, towards Kai, and Kai loses his mind.

The backdoor opens, the sounds of the party spilling out into the night air, pink light washing over them. Adam scrambles off Kai so fast that he’s pretty sure he breaks the world record for speed, and stands up.

Kai props himself onto his elbows and squints at the silhouette in the doorway.

“Vanessa?”

“Oh my God, there you guys are!” she leans back into the house to yell, “Guys! I found Adam and Kai! They were fucking around in the backyard!”

“Hey!” Adam snaps indignantly. “You locked us in the basement! We had to escape!”

Vanessa rolls her eyes at them.

-

adam: hey uh

adam: sorry about what i said when i was drunk lol

adam: i didn’t mean it

-

Kai turns his phone off and stuffs it into his bag, frustrated. He hadn’t meant to not talk to Adam all weekend, he’d just needed to think things through, and then his dad had asked him to help paint the deck, and he’d had to finish up some code for robotics and time had kinda slipped away from him without really meaning to.

He hadn’t meant to ignore everyone else, either, but they weren’t in a Situation with Kai on Friday night, and he’s not in love with them, and they didn’t seem to mind so much. 

Kai had spent all weekend staring at the texts, in between being too busy to answer them, but he can’t figure out what to say back. He’d gotten them Saturday morning after the party, probably because he hadn’t stuck around long enough to be left alone with Adam again.

Kai had left because.

Well, because.

Because he feels played.

Is that it? He can’t tell. He just feels so hollow about it. Adam doesn’t mean to, Kai knows that, but it still feels like he’s being led on. Adam has kissed him once while black out and almost kissed him while tipsy and flirts pretty outrageously, and it’s all too much for Kai’s head, which is designed for building robots and lying to his English teachers.

So at lunch, instead of going to Mr Tucker’s room, he lets Freddie from Calc drag him to the auditorium to help build the drama department’s Spring play set.

He’s not avoiding anyone. He’s just... helping his friends.

Fuck.

-

reeb: ok i give

reeb: wtf is going on

kai: ?

reeb: don’t “?” me mfer

reeb: adam is sulking n shit and u’ve been sorta MIA

kai: i’ve been busy, sorry

kai: i am the captain of a team u know. its not personal. i’ll hang out with you guys soon

reeb: spidey sense says there is something u are not telling me

kai: i really do think your spidey sense is actually overactive bladder syndrome

reeb: [An image of the caveman spongebob meme.]

-

He’s in the library, sitting in his favorite spot nestled in the bookshelves, brow furrowed over The Great Gatsby, his English journal, the notes Hannah lent him, and the Sparknotes page for the novel, surrounded by every color highlighter and pen, just trying to get his homework done, when Adam ambushes him.

“You’re avoiding me,” he says, out of nowhere.

Kai jumps, sending his highlighters and books flying. Adam is standing above him, eyebrows furrowed and his arms crossed. He looks a little bit light a superhero, all righteous indignation at injustice, his muscles buldging slightly. You’re dead. Goodbye. his brain supplies.

“Holy shit,” he says, gathering his stuff back up slowly. “You scared me.”

Adam’s eyes soften. “Sorry,” he murmurs.

Kai shrugs. “Don’t worry about it.”

The silence hangs there as Kai avoids his gaze, reshuffling Hannah’s notes back into their correct order. He’s lost his page in the book, so he opens it to the middle and starts looking for the correct page number. There’s no sound in this corner of the library except for Kai’s over-loud breathing and the turning of pages.

Go away go away go away, Kai prays, wanting the world to end so he won’t ever have to face this moment. He thinks about the echo of Adam’s voice in his memory, Kai, look at me, the feeling of Adam’s weight in his lap, the ache Kai feels when he looks at Adam, and wishes that he could just stand up and run.

Adam clears his throat. “You’ve been avoiding me,” he says again, only this time it comes out more like a question.

Kai keeps his face as blank as possible, schools it into something politely curious unlike the shattered glass mosaic he feels like. “Am I?”

Adam rubs his hand across the back of his neck. “Look, I’m sorry,” he says haltingly, sliding his hands into his pockets. “I shouldn’t have... come on to you like that. It was inappropriate, and we were both drunk. And I didn’t mean it.”

Kai looks at him for a long moment. He can feel it, a rock on his chest, crushing him. He feels the ball in his throat, the hot prickle against the backs of his eyelids. “I know,” he says eventually. His voice comes out steady, even though he feels like he’s falling apart.

“So... we’re cool?”

Kai forces himself to nod. “Okay.”

“Really? Because I still feel like I fucked up somewhere here.” Adam takes his hands out of his pockets to open them, palms up, like he’s pleading. “Tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it.”

And it’s now or never. As much as Kai abhors the idea of talking about his feelings in the school library at 4 PM, as much as he wants to just lie through his teeth and stitch this all back up into one big internal bag of FUCK and pretend like nothing happened, he’d be leaving Adam hanging, and Kai’s not a dick.

He takes a deep breath. Then another one. He tries to channel his internal Reeve, but decides against it because Reeve’s kinda an asshole.

“I just... wish you did,” Kai says eventually. If he wasn’t himself, he’d slap him. Adam stares at Kai like he’d just spoken another language, like he’d just spat out part of a puzzle to piece together.

“Wish I did... what?” he asks slowly.

“Mean it,” Kai grits out, the words dragged from him. He feels ridiculous. This is stupid.

“Mean...?” Adam says, like he’s stupid. Kai scowls at him.

“Do you remember the St Eve’s party?”

Adam shrugs, looking helpless and confused.

“I drove you home that party. I drive you home every party. And every time we’re alone, you say that you like me, that you want me to go inside with you, that you think about me all the time,” Kai’s stomach is churning and Adam looks like he’s about to faint.

“I didn’t...”

Kai can’t hear him say it again. “And I know that you’re just drunk, and that’s just what you’re like when you’re drunk, but I just... I just wanted it to be true so bad. Part of me kept driving you home because I wanted you to be like that with me, part of me just wanted to pretend. But then you kissed me, and I just...” Kai makes a helpless gesture with his hands.

Adam licks his lips. He’s breathing a bit hard.

“...Fell apart,” Kai finishes.

Adam’s looking at him, wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look, pure panic. Kai’s fucked it up, ruined their friendship, destroyed their friend-group, and will probably be unable to look anyone in the eye for a very long time. 

Adam didn’t want to hear this. Kai should’ve just lied, shut it all up and let himself wither up inside. He should’ve avoided Adam harder, or refrained from falling in love with him in the first place. He should’ve just dated Jesse when she’d asked and made himself get over Adam.

 “How long?”

Kai blinks. “Huh?”

“How long have you wanted...?” he shrugs.

Ah. The million dollar question.

“Officially? Middle of junior year. If I’m honest with myself? Probably since middle school.”

Adam’s mouth opens and closes nonsensically. Kai asks God to strike him down, just so this can end, just so Kai can go back to trying to figure out what the fuck is up with Gatsby and Jay, just so Adam will stop looking at him like that, like Kai’s killed his puppy.

Adam drops to his knees in front of Kai.

“Okay. Since freshman year. And I’m a liar. I did mean it. I kept thinking, you know, maybe you’d like me back, because I could see you looking, but I just couldn’t make myself say anything. And I meant it. I mean it. I do. I want to kiss you.”

Kai swallows. He’s feeling that dangerous thing again, like there are snakes in his chest, or his feelings are in a bucket that’s about to overflow.

“Okay,” he squeaks out.

Adam leans down and fits their mouths together. It’s chaste, and Kai’s lips are a little bit chapped, and he didn’t close his eyes, but when Adam pulls back Kai smiles so hard his mouth hurts. 

And he leans up to kiss Adam, insistent, insistent, tasting Adam without Hennessy whiskey (and he does taste fantastic), and something electric happens to Kai’s spine when their tongues touch. He feels like he’s going to burn up, burst into stars, create a fissure in the earth that goes down to the core, or all three at once.

Adam licks along the roof of Kai’s mouth and yeah - that’s the one thing he’d like to never, ever, ever forget.

He’s about to be totally, totally, totally screwed. 

-

Group: dandilyin hoes MFERsssss!! skeet DONT CHANGE CHAT NAME

mirakat: omfg

mirakat: k & a suckin face in library

mirakat: [A blurry creeper picture of Kai pressed against the bookshelves, Adam leaning over him. Their silhouettes are blacked out against the sunlight streaming in through the window, so they almost look like one body. It’s taken at an angle and half of a wooden shelf is in frame.]

speedyskeet: arent they in this GC too

lochnessa: Lmfaaooooooo

speedyskeet: they r gonna see this.....

reever: WTF ADAM’S INTO KAI???

reever: ?????

lochnessa: What planet do you live on

speedyskeet: fuckin jesus christ reeb

locknessa: Literally no one knew KAI was into Adam. EVERYONE KNEW ADAM WAS INTO KAI

reever: WHY AM I THE LAST ONE TO KNOW STUFF

mirakat: s2g i tld u this whn we were @ fortescue’s u nvr listen 2 me

-

“I hate them all,” Kai announces.

Adam looks up at him from where his head is pillowed on Kai’s thighs, Pride and Prejudice held aloft. 

“Don’t worry, I set all their ringtones to Maroon 5.”

send me a ship + a prompt and i’ll write you a drabble!

[katehuntington]

Title: In Bad Waters - part four Word count: ±2800 words Episode summary: Still in possession of the Winchesters’ belongings, Zoë meets up with the hunters on her next case. When it turns out to be a little more complicated than anticipated, she accepts their help in order to make an important deadline. Part four summary: After Dean takes a girl home, Sam goes to look for the huntress who is keeping the brothers’ belongings hostage. Episode warnings: Dark! NSFW, 18+ only! Descriptions of domestic violence/child abuse. Drug use/addiction. Angst, gore, violence, character death. Description of blood, injury and medical procedures/resuscitation. Swearing, alcoholism. Supernatural creatures/entities, mentions of demon possession. Descriptions of torture and murder, drowning. Illegal/criminal practices. Mentions of nightmares and flashbacks. Music: Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd Author’s note: Beta’d by @winchest09​ and @deanwanddamons​. Thanks, girls!

Supernatural: The Sullivan Series Masterlist

S1E02 “In Bad Waters” Masterlist

     The nights are mild this November. The moon is almost full and stands high in the dark blue sky. This time it’s not the sun which shines a light on the hundreds of tombstones, neither does the cemetery have a peaceful feel like it did this morning. Trees create long shadows, so black that one would be afraid to walk through its darkness. At this hour the statues of angels and other Biblical figures don’t seem sacred, the figures looming over those who dare to disturb the dead.

     Anyone who would walk around the stretched out lands of Linwood Cemetery, would be rather sure the place is deserted. Nevertheless, someone is present. Not a grieving widow or a relative who got left behind, but a person who is, quite literally, digging up some dirt.      In a steady rhythm, scoops of soil fly through the air and land on a pile next to a hole in the ground. Down in the grave, Zoë is working like a miner. Even though it’s night, all she’s wearing is a thin Lakers basketball shirt, sweat shimmering on her body as her muscles move under her skin.

     For a moment she pauses; she reckons she’s almost there. Out of breath, she listens to her surroundings and scans the area like a periscope of a submarine, popping her head just above ground level.      Not a sound, nothing to see, yet she senses something. She can’t really put a finger on it, but glances at the loaded shotgun next to her in the grave nonetheless. She picks up the shovel instead, continuing to dig. Her senses grow stronger and the huntress freezes, picking up the smallest sound. Making a split second decision, Zoë goes for her shotgun, aims on pure gut instinct and fires. The slug demolishes half a gravestone and barely misses the person hiding behind it.      “Jesus Christ!” a startled voice cries out.      “Friends call me Zoë,” she responds, skillfully discharging the empty shell and reloading her rifle.

     She stays low to the ground and focuses on the tombstone from the hole, prepared for a possible counter attack, but nothing comes.      “Show yourself,” she commands.      A tall figure rises from behind the tombstone, his hands up.      “It’s me,” he says.      The man steps into the moonlight and Zoë instantly recognizes him.      “Sam...” She scoffs, actually not that surprised to see him. “Seriously man, there will come a day that I will kill one of you fucking Winchesters if you keep sneaking up on me like this.”

     “How the hell did you even notice me?” Sam questions, disappointed with his own ambushing skills.      “Are you kidding me? I can smell you from a mile away after your dive in that septic tank,” she nags.      Sam stares at her for a moment and smells himself.      “I showered!” he exclaims.      Zoë smirks; she can’t believe he actually fell for that. Sam also realizes she is deliberately messing with him and shoots her a deadly glare.      “What if I was the night guard?” he tests.      “If the night guard enters, I’ll notice it the minute he sets foot in the cemetery.” Zoë puts away her shotgun and picks up the shovel again. Before she continues digging, she looks back up. “What the fuck are you doing here anyway?”      Sam approaches the grave. “Looking for you.”      “Well, you found me. Now get lost,” the huntress scoffs.      “I’m not going anywhere without our stuff, Zo,” Sam states.      She stops what she was doing, leaning on the handle of the shovel.      “Sure. Just a sec. I’ll just pull your laptop case out of my back pocket and I think I stuffed the two duffel bags in my bra,” she responds, smartly.      He glares at her. “Ha-ha.”      Zoë continues shoveling dirt, while Sam halts on the edge of the hole in the ground. It’s not the first open grave he has seen, but that’s not what he’s looking at. Zoë has captured his attention, and Sam can’t stop watching.      The fabric of her shirt is drenched in sweat, a darker tone between her shoulder blades and down her chest. The moonlight distinguishes hardened arms and shoulders. She might be a lean built woman of no more than 5’8, yet clearly she is well trained. Even though Zoë has been working the soil for some time now, there is no sign of fatigue and every scoop is powerful. Just like that moment in Rochester, yesterday morning, she captivates him in such a way that it seems impossible to keep his eyes off her. When she walked by naked to turn up the radio she meant to get his attention, but apparently this time she feels uncomfortable.

     “What do you think this is? BustyAsianBeauties.com?” she remarks, glancing up at the hunter annoyed.      “Excuse me?” Sam returns, puzzled.      “Don’t get all innocent with me, perv. I happened to stumble on some browser internet history on your laptop, which is full of viruses because of that shit by the way,” she notifies.      Sam stares at her staggered, then the light bulb switches on. Rolling his eyes skyward, he huffs. “Dean.”      Zoë shrugs, continuing her job at hand. “I don’t really care which of you two can’t get laid enough. Your harddrive was a fucking mess.”      “You’ve been on my computer?”      It’s not so much a question. The tall Winchester eyes her from under his brown bangs, clearly not happy with her snooping around through his stuff. Zoë has the feeling that this would be a good time to lie, but just to rile him up a bit more, she doesn’t.      “I did, actually,” she comments. “Got a problem with that, college boy?”      Sam averts his gaze and grinds his teeth, which draws a reaction from Zoë.      “Hey, don’t be mad at me. I didn’t fuck up your computer with a dozen porn sites, videos, pi--”      “- I’m gonna kill him,” Sam growls.      “Oh, don’t wanna miss that.” Zoë turns up the speed, now that she has some extra motivation to hurry up.

     The youngest of the Winchester brothers glances down at her again. “So, this is your case?”      “I’m not digging up dead people for fun,” she retorts, without pausing.      “What’s the story?”      Zoë peers at him for a moment, but doesn’t stop with what she’s doing. Not seeing any harm in it, she gives him a brief summary. “Young girl got beat up by her father. One strike killed her.”      “Let me guess, what goes around comes around for the dad?” Sam assumes.      “Yep. Died yesterday,” she confirms.

     Whoa, she’s quick, Sam realizes. It’s not often that he has run a case that fast.      “How did you figure it all out in that short period of time?” Sam asks, genuinely interested.      “You guys have your methods to pick out cases. I have mine,” Zoë responds curtly.      The younger Winchester brother knows better than to continue the interrogation. A silence follows and Sam glances over at the gravestone.

     Laura Emily Shire      Beloved daughter and sister      01.22.1995 – 09.21.2005      Rest in Peace

     “Apparently not,” Sam comments on the last sentence, before he redirects his attention to the huntress. “Need help?”      “Do I look like I need help?” she counters.      He shakes his head and goes quiet, not daring to contradict her. He should have known Zoë wouldn’t accept a helping hand. So he watches, awkwardly, not sure what to do with his hands. Not for long, though, because three swings later, Zoë hits the coffin.

     The sudden difference in sound when the steel shovel collides with the wood draws Sam’s attention. He glances over the edge as Zoë wipes the dirt away. A hardwood beech coffin is exposed once again. Zoë busts the hinges with her shovel and opens the coffin, after which she quickly backs out. It’s one thing to burn just bones, but this little girl is still in the process of decomposition.      “Argh… man, that’s bad.” Zoë covers her mouth and nose with her hand and turns at Sam, who hands over her backpack.

     Trying not to inhale as she takes out a bag of salt and a small jerry can filled with gasoline, she continues to cover the remains with both.  She climbs out of the grave and takes a matchbox out of her pocket. With a smooth strike, Zoë lights a couple of matches and drops them down the hole. Almost immediately the fire spreads out and shines an orange light on their faces as the heat reaches for them. The body burns for a while and when the fire almost dies out, she shovels the dirt back in the hole. Sam wants to help, but she only brought one shovel, so there’s not much he can do.

     “How did you find me by the way?” Zoë wonders, as they saunter back to the main gates of Linwood Cemetery twenty minutes later.      “I drove by and saw your Harley in the parking lot of the Hampton, asked for you at the desk. They called up to your room, but you didn’t answer. Since your bike was still there, I just figured you were at the cemetery across the street,” he explains.      “I could have been having a bite and a drink somewhere,” she suggests.                          “Could have, yeah,” Sam admits, a small smile on his lips.      “Lucky guess, huh?” Zoë grins as they amble through the gate.      “More like a coincidence,” he expresses.      “Let me tell you one thing, Sam.” Zoë looks over her shoulder, an all knowing grin on her lips. “There’s no such thing as coincidence.”  

     They halt in front of the Hampton Inn as Zoë shakes off the cold and shrugs on her jacket. Grave digging can be quite intense, but now that she’s not busting her ass, she’s freezing. Before the huntress moves inside, she throws her backpack over her shoulder and turns around at Sam.      “What are you doing tonight?”      “Not much, actually. Dean has a girl over at the motel,” he sighs.      “Ah, I was wondering where the fucker was. Another one, huh? Not a shifter this time?” The huntress winks, remembering the joke she pulled on him.      Sam laughs too. “Not this time.”      “You didn’t tell him that we don’t know what sex that thing was, right?” Zoë checks.      “Nope.” Sam’s eyes sparkle for a moment, in the same way Dean’s eyes do so often. It’s probably a Winchester thing.      “I bet he has nightmares about it,” Zoë grins, enjoying the idea, but then turns to Sam as her amused facial expression changes into something more serious. “You have any last night?”

     Sam looks her in the eye and the sparkle disappears. He forgot about the fact that he opened up to the huntress about the strange dreams he’s been having and for a second he feels uncomfortable. He’s happy to shake his head.      “No, I slept quite well, actually. First time in three weeks,” he returns.      “Well, I didn’t.” She yawns and quickly covers her mouth with her hand. “I’m gonna catch some sleep. Night, Sam.”

     Zoë intends to stroll inside and leave the hunter at the entrance, but he clears his throat.      “Aren’t you forgetting something?”      Sleepy and confused, Zoë halts and looks at the younger Winchester. “You’re not getting a kiss, if that’s what you’re waiting for.”      Sam eyes her. “Our stuff.”      “Oh right,” she remembers, entering the Hampton Inn, Sam in tow.

     They take the elevator up to the second floor, where the huntress turns left, expecting Sam to follow. The younger Winchester seems impressed with the luxury of the hotel; he’s used to hunters settling for a much cheaper accommodation. As she slips her keycard through the lock, she yawns again.

     “That bad, huh?” Sam chuckles.      “I haven't had much sleep lately. Too many cases,” she replies and walks directly to the bathroom. “Let me freshen up, one sec.”

     One sec turns out to be five minutes, because after that amount of time she walks out of the bathroom, fresh and showered. She’s wearing a Nirvana shirt and pajama shorts, not even bothered to put on a bra, even though she has company. She’s going to turn in for bed soon anyway, the aftermath of her high this morning seriously kicking in. She carelessly beckons at Sam, pointing at the other end of the room.      “You can find your shit in the closet.”

     Sam crosses the space and opens the double doors. He lets out a sigh of relief when he sees the duffel bags, but he can’t spot his laptop.      “It’s on the table, still hooked up to the server,” she answers before he can ask.      He walks over and notices the USB cable. “Why is it hooked up?”      “Don’t get all emotional about it, but I’m copying my supernatural database to yours,” she tells him. “Since you guys are still going on what’s in that old book.”      Sam’s eyebrows perk up, surprised. She actually did that, something nice without him asking? Maybe she’s not so bad as his brother would have him believe after all.      “Thanks,” he expresses.

     She looks aside, able to tell that his gratitude is sincere. Touching the mouse pad, she triggers the screen to light up; it’s still copying. To pass the time she opens ITunes, starts one of her favorite playlists and the first tunes of Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd come from the speakers.      “Don’t mention it, but I'll tell you what.” She straightens her back and walks over to her bed. “It’s still transferring files, which might take another hour or so. If you don’t have a place to stay anyway, why don’t you hang out here? You can crash on the sofa if you want.”

     Another unexpected act of kindness; she just invited him in. Not that she would want anything from him, though, or does she? For a second the Winchester wonders why she’s so interested in him all of a sudden. She’s being nice, and that’s just off.      “Sure, if you don’t mind,” Sam accepts, masking his suspicion.      “As long as you shut your piehole, I don’t mind. I really need to sleep,” she clears up as she crawls into bed and pulls the covers up till her nose. “Remote is on the TV if you want to watch anything, as long as it isn’t porn,” she mumbles, fitting her eye mask over her face.      “Thanks, I’m good,” he assures, sitting down behind the table and glancing at the screen.      He watches the bar move slowly, the percentage going up with each passing minute.      “Hey Zo, is it alright if I--”      But he doesn’t finish his sentence. Zoë is already far away, curled up in fetus-position, wrapped in her covers. She seems so peaceful and vulnerable, so unlike the Zoë Sullivan he got to know these past couple of days. He smiles at the endearing sight. She’s quite a peculiar woman.

     It only takes a moment, though, before guilt settles on his chest and memories cloud his mind. Because every time when he thinks of Zoë, his thoughts wander off to Jessica as well. As if a voice in the back of his mind is mocking him for taking an interest in the new huntress. That it’s ‘not done’ since he’s in a relationship. But he isn’t. Jess is gone forever.

     Sam swallows apprehensively and glances at his laptop again. He sees images transferring, of ghouls and werewolves, wendigos and demons. Honestly, he can’t wait to get his hands on that thing that killed his former girlfriend and his mom. Never has he felt the urge to kill something so strongly, never has he felt so much anger and hatred towards anything. Of course, he has ended the lives of creatures and burned the bones of the souls that stayed behind, but never out of hate. He did those things for opposite reasons; to save people and help spirits to move on.

     The frustrating part about his attempt to find the creature that was responsible for the death of his loved ones? He has no idea where to start. Their dad has disappeared from the face of the earth and he and his brother have no leads whatsoever. They need to get back on the road, find their father and make progress fast, before that thing disappears off the radar again. Sam is going to make sure that he and Dean leave this town tomorrow first thing in the morning.

     When the time comes, when they finally find their father, the next step is making the bastard pay that murdered Mom and Jess. That thought right there is what drives him, disturbing yet thrilling, but that’s what everyone is after. The death of that monster, the ultimate revenge.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to like or reblog my work, shoot me a message or buy me coffee (Link to Kofi in bio at the top of the page).

Read part five here

[fic-for-fic-sake]

A Mermaid Tail

A/N: Yes this is because I’ve been watching a lot of H2O during this pandemic

Pairing: Bucky x reader

You had been working with the Avengers for about two years now and never in that time had you got to use your powers, what you were recruited for. Yes you had punched bad guys in the face and thanks to Nat knew how to strangle someone with your thighs but you were made for more than that. 

Your chance came one summer day when Tony called a meeting. You all filed into the conference room and took your respective seats around the large glass table. There was a hologram on the table, the image blue and slightly fuzzy. You guessed that was the reason for the meeting. 

Nervous glances were exchanged back and forth and murmurs were whispered across the room as you all tried to figure out just what exactly you were looking at. Then, thankfully, Tony walked in, shut the door, and asked FRIDAY to kill the lights. The image came to life, a recording. You all watched as what looked like a submarine moved through the water only for something to go terribly wrong. The ship started to sink before it was nothing more than flotsam at the bottom of the sea. 

“What the hell was that?” Sam asked, vocalizing everyone’s shared opinion. The others, yourself included, had been too stunned to speak. 

“That, Wilson, was something called a narco-sub. Top of the line in drug smuggling and currently at the bottom of Lake Superior.” 

“Michigan? Why would there be drug smuggling in the middle of Michigan?” You asked, confused. You had been there numerous times, it didn’t seem like the type of place you would think about when you thought about drug trafficking. 

“Well, Canada’s right there, it does kind of make sense. Strictly in terms of import and export.” Bucky answered you from your left. You glanced over your shoulder to look at him but his eyes were looking intently at the narco-sub. 

“Thank you Barnes, at least someone has their head screwed on straight today.” Tony said, rubbing his temples. “Fury thinks there might be something else in the narco-sub, weapons of some kind. He thinks this was Hydra.” 

With the sudden revelation, a chill went through the room. Nobody spoke and you swore Bucky tensed up next to you. Tentatively, you placed a hand on this thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze. Without saying a word he took your hand and covered it with his. 

“Barnes, I know this may be hard for you but nobody knows Hydra better than you do so I’ll need you to go on this mission. Y/N you’ll also be going, for obvious reasons.” Tony said while switching on the lights and shutting the hologram off. You knew you should’ve felt upset or pissed about Hydra but all you felt was giddy. You were finally going to use your powers and you had to work hard to suppress the smile on your face. 

“When do we leave?” You asked, your body already tingling in anticipation. 

“Two hours, pack what you need and get on the jet. Wilson, you’re flying them.” 

You learned you would be gone for two days so there wasn’t much to do in terms of packing. FRIDAY had transferred the mission details to your iPad per Stark’s request. You thanked her as you looked over everything. The sub was apparently in the middle of the great lake and sank all the way to the bottom. There was no way to be sure what exactly was on the sub but intelligence reports said drugs and dangerous weapons. So the usual. 

Exactly two hours later you had your duffel bag in hand and walked onto the jet to find Bucky and Sam waiting for you. Bucky looked you over and gave you a wary look. 

“Aren’t you gonna wear a tac suit or somethin’?” He questioned. 

“Usually I would, but I don’t need it for this mission.” You said with a smile, looking down at your casual beach going clothes. Cut off jean shorts and a black tee-shirt. You even wore sandals on your feet. Bucky simply shrugged at your reply as the jet took off and you made your way towards The Great Lake State. 

Sam dropped you off and told you there was a car waiting that you could take the rest of the way to the beach. Once you got there, there would be a boat that you could take out on the water to the drop site. You both thanked him before leaving the jet, promising to meet at the same spot in two days time for pick up. 

Once you got to the beach you and Bucky made your way towards the water, spotting the boat almost instantly. It was nothing special, just a small pontoon. To the unsuspecting eye, you and Bucky just looked like a young couple about to enjoy a day out on the lake. As you got closer to the water you could feel your energy spike, a surge of renewal wash through you. That was only slightly dampened when you realized there was no dock and the boat was just moored out in the shallows. You would have to get in the water to get to the boat. You hesitated and Bucky turned around, noticing your sudden change of pace. 

“Um...Bucky. You’re gonna have to carry me to the boat.” You said. Not a question, but a statement. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head when your statement registered in his mind. 

“What?” Was the only reply you got. 

“I can’t step into the water this close to civilians and you have the coordinates to the drop site. So unless you want me sprouting a tail early, you need to carry me to the boat.” You spelled it out for him, calmly. You had been with the Avengers for two years but none of them had ever seen you as a mermaid. They knew what you were but no mission ever required it of you and you made a habit of making yourself scarce from any pool party they might throw. 

“Oh, uh, right.” Bucky agreed, albeit slightly confused, as he walked back to you and picked you up bridal style. Now you /really/ must look like a young couple in love. Bucky stepped into the shallows and walked towards the boat. Your arms, which were wrapped around his neck, tightened as the water level rose. But before anything bad could happen, Bucky deposited you on the deck before he climbed aboard as well. 

You handed him a fluffy towel that had been waiting on board so he could dry off as he drove to the drop site. About ten minutes later you were at the destination. It was hard to believe you were on a lake and not in the middle of the ocean because everywhere you looked, as far as the eye could see, was water. Beautiful blue water that you thought complimented Bucky’s eyes nicely. He looked comfortable behind the wheel of the boat and you thought that maybe he could’ve been a fisherman in another life. His pale skin would turn golden in the sunlight and his black locks would get streaks of honey brown in them. Although you couldn’t imagine Bucky being any more gorgeous than he already was, but you kept your thoughts to yourself. 

You stood up, preparing to dive to find the narco-sub, and Bucky stood up behind you. You went to stand on the back ledge of the boat, ready to dive off, but Bucky’s hand around your wrist stopped you. 

“What?” You questioned, looking back at him. 

“Aren’t you gonna take your clothes off?” He asked, eyeing your outfit that you had worn on the jet. 

“Excuse me?” You balked, tearing your wrist free from Bucky’s grasp. His eyes seemed to go wide as he realized how his question sounded and a slight blush colored his cheeks. 

“I, I didn’t mean it like that.” He stammered, rubbing his neck with the back of his hand, “I just meant won’t your clothes get all wet.” 

“Oh...well the simple answer is no. When I hit the water my clothes disappear and they reappear when I’m dry again.” 

“Disappear? Where do they go?” Bucky asked, curiosity oozing out of him like a small child. 

“I promise I’ll answer all your questions when I get back but we really need to find the sub, so can I go now?” You replied, body itching to be in the water again, to feel your tail return to you. Bucky gave you a nod and you were off, you dove into the water and headed down towards the sub. You relished in the feel of a fin instead of feet, how fast you could go underwater. You saw a few fish swim past you and you smiled at them, it had been way too long since you had done this. 

About ten minutes later you began to swim back to the surface. As you got closer you saw Bucky’s legs kicking lazily in the water and you realized he was sitting on the back ledge of the boat, waiting for you to come back. You resurfaced to the right of his feet and leaned your arms against the ledge. 

“So what’d you find?” Bucky asked, squinting in the mid-afternoon sun out on the lake. 

“Half of the drugs and weapons are gone. I guess they took what they could when they realized they were compromised before letting the rest rot at the bottom of the lake.” 

Bucky nodded his head in agreement but he seemed distracted by something. It was only a moment later when you realized he was distracted by you. Or rather, your tail that flapped lazily in the water. He noticed that you had noticed him staring and quickly averted his gaze, a pink blush once again decorating his features. You hadn’t pegged Bucky for a blusher but you thought it was cute every time it happened. 

“Sorry.” He apologized, making it a point to look everywhere but at you. 

“It’s okay, I told you I’d answer your questions, remember?” You replied, teasing him gently. But another part of you really meant it. Not many people got to see you like this so you never had to talk about it, much less answer curious questions from your teammates. Especially teammates as attractive as Bucky Barnes. 

At your words, Bucky brought his head back down to get a proper look at your tail. You turned around so your back and elbows were leaning against the deck. You let your deep violet tail breach out of the water so Bucky could see it better. You heard him gasp as your scales caught in the sunlight, changing the violet color to resemble fuchsia instead. Bucky’s eyes raked over your tail before taking in the top half of your body as well, resting on the flesh colored webbing that wound its way over your chest. 

“What, no seashell bra?” He teased. You simply rolled your eyes in annoyance at the question. 

“Is that the only question you have for me?” You bantered back, rolling along in the water to face him once more, forearms resting on the ledge. Your wet hair cascaded down your back, it didn’t matter how long or short you cut your hair, in the water the length was always the same, stopping just above the small of your back. 

“How, um, how long have you been like this?” 

“Well I wasn’t born a mermaid if that’s what you’re wondering. When I was sixteen I went on a trip with my parents to the beach. One night, something pulled me out of bed, almost like a strange sensation. I followed it to a cave and into the water that was there, like my own personal pool. I waded into the water just as the full moon rose above and then the strangest thing happened. The water started to bubble and fizz around me and it felt more like a natural hot spring than a cold pool. I got out of the water not long after that and I didn’t think much about it until the next day when I went swimming in the water early in the morning and sprouted a tail.” 

“What did your parents say?” He questioned, leaning his elbows against his thighs to get closer to you. 

“They didn’t believe me until I showed them. They’re biologists so they tried to find a natural explanation for it but all their tests came back inconclusive and I accepted that there are some things in this world that you simply cannot explain.” You told him, having spent countless nights yourself trying to figure out what happened to you to make you what you are today. 

“So this” He started, gesturing towards your purple tail, “happens every time you touch water.” You simply nodded in response. 

“My hydrokinetic abilities can be accessed any time but they’re stronger when I’m in the water.” 

“You’re not gonna make me drown myself by singing to me are you?” He questioned, half teasing but with a wary look in his eyes. 

“No, there’s no chance of that, but weird things do tend to happen each full moon which is why I try my best to avoid them.” 

You and Bucky talked for a little while longer, him asking questions and you answering them to the best of your abilities. Bucky saw that the sun was setting and made his way to stand up. 

“Okay, it’s getting late. We should probably head back to the beach house for the night.” 

“You go ahead, I haven’t been out in the water in the longest time. I’ll meet you back in about an hour.” 

“You sure?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at you from his place behind the wheel. 

“I’m sure.” You replied before diving into the depths of the lake once again. You treasured the feeling of the freshwater in your hair and how your tail whipped through the water making you the fastest thing around. You hadn’t felt this exhilarated in two years and you didn’t intend to get out of the water any time soon.

[kimistorm]

X-Men First Class: Reader Insert || Part 11 || Doom

Masterlist

It wasn’t very long until you noticed the plane circling over the two lines of battleships on either side of the embargo line.

“It looks pretty messy out there.”

“We are literally moments away from a whole out nuclear war.” You mentioned and then the brunt of the situation finally landed upon yourself, “oh my gosh. We are literally moments away from a nuclear war.” You put your face in your hands and looked wide-eyed at the ground.

“Don’t think about it, it’ll make things all the more terrifying.” Erik remarked.

Charles was off in his own little world as he read the minds of  the Russian soldiers below, “the crew of the Aral Sea are all dead.” He informed the rest of you, “Shaw’s been there!”

“He’s still here!” Erik yelled and looked through the window, “somewhere.”

“He’s set the ship on course for the embargo line.” Charles elaborated and pointed to the ship that was continuing to move forward, even though the rest of the Russian fleet had stopped.

“If that ship crosses the line, our boys are gonna blow it up.” Moira explained, “and the war begins.”

“Unless they’re not our boys.” Charles declared defiantly. He focused and you could tell he was controlling the actions of one of the russians. It was confirmed moments later as one of the russian ships launched a missile into the air.

“Hold on!” Beast yelled and the plane did spins in the air to avoid the missile rising into the air and then falling down to explode the Aral Sea. “A little warning next time, Professor.” You nodded and you noticed the other passengers nod along with you.

“Sorry about that. You alright?” Charles asked in concern.

“Yeah.” Hank confirmed.

“That was inspired Charles.” Moira applauded once it was clear that the Russians weren’t approaching the embargo line anymore.

“Thank you very much.” Charles acknowledged, “but I still can’t locate Shaw. (Y/n)?” he turned to you.

“No can do.” You shook your head, “he has a helmet on, and if you’re encountering it, I can’t get past it either. It works against telepaths and empaths.”

“He’s down there.” Erik insisted, “we need to find him, now!”

Charles looked towards the cockpit, “Hank?”

“Is there anything unusual on the radar or scanners?” Hank asked Moira.

She shook her head, “no. Nothing.”

“Well, then he must be underwater.” Hank concluded, “and obviously we don’t have sonar.”

The plane fell into silence until an eager voice shouted,“yes, we do!” Sean’s face brightened and you noticed the determination coursing through him.

Charles looked at Sean and nodded as well, “yes, we do!”

The two of them got up from their seats and Charles shouted to Hank, “Hank! Level the bloody plane!”

You noticed Erik’s anger getting the better of him which was causing the plane to crumple. You sent your mind out to him and tried to smother his anger with calming emotions. Moments later, the plane righted itself.

“Beast, open the bomb bay doors!” Sean yelled and the doors opened.

“Remember!” Charles shouted over the wind, “this is a muscle. You control it!” Sean nodded and jumped out of the plane. He dove into the water and you could only guess as to what he was doing. You sent out your mind to keep tabs on him, and when he was filled with joy, you knew he found Shaw’s sub. “He found them!” you called out.

“Are you ready for this?” Charles asked Erik as the two of them waited near the open doors.

“Let’s find out.” Erik replied evenly.

“Remember, the point between rage and serenity.” Charles coached.

Erik nodded and used his metal powers to lift the submarine out of the water. You inwardly laughed to yourself, you wondered how the sailors on the ship must’ve thought of all of this. A giant submarine being levitated in the air underneath an unknown plane.

“Yes!” you cheered Erik on, “you can do it Erik!”

The hatch on the submarine opened and you recognized the guy with tornado powers, “oh no.”

“Erik, take my hand!” Charles shouted as he grabbed onto Erik to keep him from flying away as the tornado ripped it’s way towards you.

“Hold on guys. It’s gonna get bumpy.” Hank warned as he attempted to keep the plane from going completely out of control. You desperately grabbed onto the various handles along the walls and hoped with all of your might that the plane wouldn’t get torn to pieces.

Hank was able to maneuver the plane from landing in the water, but instead of that, the plane was sent rolling onto the beach with fire and flying pieces of metal. You let out the breath you didn’t know you were holding when the plane stopped rocking and unbuckled yourself from the seatbelts holding you in.

“Moira? Moira, are you alright?” Charles asked as he helped said woman get out of her restraints.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” She replied.

“I read the teleporter’s mind.” Charles filled the rest of you in to what was happening, “Shaw is drawing all the power out of his sub. He’s turning himself into some kind of nuclear bomb.”

You gasped, “we have to stop him!”

“Moira,” Charles turned to her, “this is what we’re gonna do. Get on the radio and tell them to clear both fleets out immediately.” She nodded and ran to find the radio on the plane.

“I’m going in.” Erik declared and stepped out of the wrecked plane.

“Beast, Havok, back him up.” Charles ordered, “Erik, I can guide you through once you’re in, but I need you to shut down whatever it is that’s blocking me, then we just hope to God it’s not too late for me to stop him.” You frowned, the plan was banking a lot on chance, and Erik, but what other choice did you have?

“Got it.” Erik nodded and the three men darted out of the plane towards the submarine’s wreckage.

“Good luck!” you called out after them.

Raven made her way out to follow them but was halted by Charles, “Raven, stop!”

“I’m going to help them.” Raven proclaimed.

“We don’t have time for this.” Charles shook his head in denial, “if anything comes in that entrance, you’re taking care of it, yes?”

Raven harrumphed, “fine.”

“What about me?” you asked suddenly.

“I need your help to make sure Erik doesn’t do anything rash, we could completely lose him and start world war three.” He answered somberly.

“You know, you trying to control everything isn’t going to result in something good.” You murmured. Charles looked at you, but decided against refuting it.

“Erik, make for the middle of the vessel.” Charles lead Erik through the maze of the submarine. Even after knowing him for nearly your whole life, it still amazed you the extent of his powers. “That’s the point my mind can’t penetrate. We have to assume that that’s where Shaw is.”

You raised your eyebrow, you thought it was his helmet that was keeping Charles out, apparently it was a room. You sent out your mind through the ship to see if you could locate Shaw yourself. Sure enough, there was a big blank hole in the middle of the ship. You groaned, right when you thought you could’ve been helpful.

“There’s the nuclear reactor.” You heard Charles next to you, “disable it.” There were moments of silence as you assumed it was action going on that didn’t require step by step instructions from Charles. “Erik, you’re there. You’ve reached the void.” There was a silence and then Charles’ voice had an edge of panic in it, “what? He’s got to be there! He has to be! There’s nowhere else he can be!”

You took this as your cue to delve back into the sub to try and calm Erik down. A panicked mind can’t think clearly, and for the plan to work, you needed Erik to be able to think rationally. You latched onto his mind and gave him some calming emotions. He still needed his anger to keep him motivated, but it was a delicate balance he needed to be in.

“Erik? Erik.” Charles was calling out to the man who went into the sub.

You noticed Shaw flicker in and out and you grabbed the chance to try and change Shaw’s emotions. “No!” you shouted and Charles’ eyes flicked to you in surprise, “I can’t do anything against Shaw.” You explained, “darn it!” you shouted and punched the side of the plane.

“He��s gone.” Charles tried to refocus onto Erik.

“What?” Moira looked at him in concern.

“He’s gone into the void! I can’t communicate with him there.” Charles explained. You and Charles met blue eyes with (e/c) eyes. You were doomed.

“Darn it!” you shouted again and kicked the metal wreckage, “I could’ve done something about it, but I was too wrapped up in trying to get Shaw.” You spun around angrily and looked at Charles in shame, “I’m sorry.”

“Wait, yeah! Yes!” Charles cheered and you looked over to him, “he’s back!” he elaborated, and you quickly took a seat next to him, “Erik, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. It’s starting to work.”

“Can you see him?” you demanded.

“It’s working! I’m starting to see him. But I can’t yet touch his mind.” Charles continued.

“Charles! I need you to send the image of him into my mind.” You took hold of his shoulders, “I can’t do anything without it.”

Charles looked torn between keeping tabs on Erik, and helping you which would in turn help him. Charles nodded and quickly established a mental connection with you. You closed your eyes and the image of Shaw appeared. “Got it, thanks Charles.” You confirmed and the connection broke.

The two of you turned towards the sub and you searched for Shaw. Now that you knew what he looked like, you were able to create the emotional connection with him. You ferried calming emotions into Shaw, ‘you don’t want to do this. You don’t want to hurt anyone.’ You thought in your mind. Shaw froze and you knew Charles was able to get into Shaw’s mind.

“Erik! No!” Charles shouted and he screwed his eyes shut in concentration, “(y/n)! Help Erik!”

You turned your attention towards Erik and got into his emotions. Once again, you were ferrying calm emotions into Erik. ‘Don’t turn against us Erik!’

“Erik, please! Be the better man!” you heard Charles shout next to you. You shut your eyes and your hands clenched as you tried even harder to get Erik to stop. “Erik, there will be no turning back!” there was a pause, and your connection broke off. You and Charles shared scared glances, once again you had lost him, and you were certain this time that there was no return from this.

Charles turned back towards the ship and you could tell he was holding onto Shaw, “No! Please, Erik! No!”

You couldn’t just sit back and let it happen without knowing what was going on, so you sent your mind back to where Shaw and Erik were. What you saw made you want to throw up. Fear was coursing through Shaw and only gleeful pride was found in Erik. “Charles let him go!” you shouted when you noticed Shaw was still frozen.

“I can’t! I can’t!” Charles shouted in a panic.

You decided you didn’t want to witness what was going to happen and retreated while still hearing Charles pleading for Erik to stop. It went silent, and you looked to Charles who shook his head. “It’s over.” Him, you, and Moira picked your way out of the ship, encountering a bored Raven on the way out.

You gasped when Erik led Shaw’s dead body out of the sub using his powers. You saw the trickle of blood coming from the wound in his head and you turned away to gag. It was horrible, and the shocked and disgusted emotions from those around you didn’t make it any easier to bear.

“Today our fighting stops!” Erik called out triumphantly and dropped Shaw’s body to the ground. You felt like a little kid again and hid your face behind Charles’ body. “Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there. I feel their guns moving in the water. Their metal, targeting us.” You gasped and turned towards the ships out in the water. You looked at Charles in a vain hope that it wasn’t true, but Charles shook his head. Erik wasn’t lying. “Americans, Soviets, humans. United in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants!” Erik turned to Charles, “go ahead Charles. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Upon seeing no denial from Charles Moira took it upon herself to frantically call those who were on the ships, “the beach is secure. Call off the attack!” there was no answer and Moira frantically cried out, “hello? Hello!”

“No!” you shouted and clapped your hands onto the sand. You focused and used all of your energy to send out a wave of emotion through the water and to the ships. “Stop it!” you shouted, “we’re no threat!” You were only able to send a few waves of the strongest power you’d ever felt towards the ships, until you collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. A moment later missiles flew into the air. You could barely keep your eyelids open, but you were determined that you were going to spend your last moments awake.

You felt Alex grab your fallen body to bring you back to the others, “stay awake, okay (y/n)?”

“That’s the plan.” You let out a dry laugh that took more energy than you believed was warranted.

The missiles stopped in midair as Erik halted any progress through the air, you let out a sigh of relief, “thank goodness.” Then, the missiles did a one-eighty and turned back towards the ships, “oh no no no no no! I hoped I was wrong. Erik!” you shouted

“Erik, you said yourself, we’re the better men.” Charles cautiously dictated, “this is the time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships.” Charles angrily pointed towards said ships, “good, honest, innocent men!” he shouted, “they’re just following orders.”

“I’ve been at the mercy of men just following orders.” Erik replied with an upturned nose, “never again.” He let the missiles fly back towards the ships where they had come from.

“Erik, release them!” Charles screamed.

“No!” Erik shouted in response.

“Alex, put me down.” You urgently hushed into his ear, “you’re a lot more help when you’re not being weighed down by me.” Alex hesitated, then nodded as he gently placed you down into the sand.

In the meantime, Charles had launched himself at Erik in an effort to stop him. “Erik stop!” he continued to yell.

Moira grabbed a gun and had it pointed at Erik, ‘it won’t help!’ you tried to shout using your mind. You cursed at yourself for not being able to master telepathy.

“Stand back!” Erik shouted and Moira refused to listen as she shot off multiple rounds. Charles ran to restrain Erik again as he was thrown off of Erik but let out a pained scream as a bullet Erik had deflected shot into his back.

“Charles!” you shouted. Immediately Erik turned around to cradle Charles’ head in his lap.

“I’m so sorry.” Moira ran to help Charles.

“I said back off!” Erik roared, he then glared at Moira, “you. You did this.” He noticed the dog collar around her neck and used it to hold her up in the air, thus choking her. You cursed in your head, if only he didn’t have that helmet on.

“Erik, please.” You heard Charles wheeze. “She didn’t do this, Erik. You did.”

Erik seemed to bite down whatever he was going to say and let Moira take his place in holding Charles.

“Charles! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She rushed over while profusely apologizing.

“Us turning on each other. It’s what they want.” Erik talked mournfully to Charles, “I tried to warn you, Charles. I want you by my side. We’re brothers, you and I.” You wanted to scoff, he was a psychopath, Charles, was not. “All of us, together. Protecting each other. We want the same thing.”

“My friend, I’m sorry. But we do not.” Charles denied, and you still wanted to groan aloud. Charles was too soft.

Erik looked somewhat offended and then turned towards the rest of you, “the society won’t accept us. We form our own.” He continued with his speech, “the humans have played their hand. Now we get ready to play ours. Who’s with me?” he held out a hand and you wanted to burn holes in it with your eyes. You were human too, just, well, as Charles liked to put it, more evolved. “No more hiding.” Raven started to walk towards him and you felt a crushing feeling of despair. However, it quickly turned to hope when she kneeled down next to Charles’ fallen body.

“You...you should go with him.” Charles breathed, “it’s what you want.”

“What? No!” you shouted. You couldn’t believe that Charles was breaking your little family apart.

“You promised me you would never read my mind.” Raven smiled wryly and continued as if your little outburst never happened.

“I know. I promised you a great many things, I'm afraid. I'm sorry.” Charles croaked. You couldn’t believe your ears. Everything that you thought you knew was falling apart faster than you could comprehend.

Raven looked towards you sitting in the sand many feet away, “take care of him.”

“R-Raven?” your voice cracked on the verge of tears as she turned away from Charles and joined Erik.

“We all knew it, you always got along with Charles more than me.” She smiled, “sorry (y/n). And Beast?” Hank looked up when she called his name, “never forget, mutant and proud!”

“No! Raven!” you screeched and you were miraculously gifted with the energy to lunge towards her. One moment she was there, the next she was gone with a whiff of red smoke. “Raven!” you choked on your own saliva as you fell onto the ground where she was just moments ago. Sure, you had your differences, but she was practically your older sibling. Raised up from nothing, she kept the two of you alive, and now, she was gone. “Raven!” you wailed up towards the sky.

“Help me out, come on.” Hank immediately rushed to Moira’s side, “I’m gonna get you to a hospital.” Charles started to move and she gently put him down, “wait, Charles.”

“Charles, don’t move. Okay?” Hank asked.

“I won’t.” Charles grimaced. “Actually...I can’t feel my legs.” You spun your head around to look at your fallen brother.

“What?” Moira asked in surprise.

“I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel my legs.” Charles repeated the mantra and you found yourself shaking your head. No, it couldn’t be.

Masterlist

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 23 - Presents and Portals (Part 2)

Hiro, Varian, and Fred stood inside BH6's headquarters and watched surveillance footage of a recent robbery with Sirque. She threw the metal balls into the air and then jumped through a portal that appeared between them.

"It's an interesting idea," Varian mused as he cupped his chin in thought,"but it doesn't look very practical. You'd eventually run out of those magnets like that."  

"It's also not very stable." Hiro added. "Remember this is based off the Silent Sparrow project, same as your work. Every time Krei's portal tech has been used, it's resulted in either a blow back or someone getting trapped in the void. If Sirque keeps using these portals it's going to cause another implosion, even bigger than the last one."

Fred picked up one of Hiro's electromagnet gloves and began to play with the magnetic balls. They strung together as if on some invisible string. "So what's your idea?" He asked them.

"I could use my electromagnetics to stabilize the portal but that requires finding a way to follow her." Hiro replied.

"I might, could whip up my own portable portal, but I'm having trouble getting the coordinates right on just the stationary one. I doubt she has any directional controls on hers either." Varian said.

"So no way to track it then, and no way to reliably follow her using our own portals." Hiro hummed in thought. "I guess I could follow after her directly if I added rocket boosters to my suit."

"What!?" Fred dropped the magnets in shock. "You can't go back in there!" He protested.

"Why not?" Asked Varian.

"Look with rocket boosters I could maneuver through the void." Hiro argued. "Not unless you got any better ideas."

"The void? You mean where Abigail got trapped?" Varian started to understand Fred's protests.

"I am receiving a call from Gogo." Baymax interrupted.

"Put her on." Hiro answered.

Baymax casted a video call to the viewing screen upon the wall.

"Guys, we have a major problem." Gogo said with deadly spaciousness.

"Wasabi and Karmi's gone missing." Honey Lemon cried over Gogo's shoulder.

Hiro's stomach dropped. "What do you mean?"

"We found the destruction of another implosion. We asked around and someone caught the event on their phone." Gogo held up a phone, the screen facing her own phone. The guys could just make out the blurred images of a green car being sucked into a portal.

They all stood still as fear gripped them.

"I'm going ahead and building the rocket attachments." Hiro finally said in determination.

"And I'm going to study these portal magnets to reverse engineer them." Varian added.

"And I'll… I'll…" Fred faltered as he couldn't think of what to do.

"You'll keep watch of the viewing screens as you and Baymax scan the city for any odd energy spikes or anomalies." Hiro told him. "Gogo, you and Honey Lemon keep patroling the city and be on the lookout for Sirque. When she shows back up, notify us. She's the only hope we have of saving Wasabi and Karmi right now."

With their orders known the team dispersed to take care of each of their tasks.

                                                ---------------------------

"We got an energy spike in front of the art museum...wait no...hold on…it's now in front of the bank in downtown." Fred announced.

"It must be Sirque. She's using the portals again." Hiro replied as he screwed in the last repulser onto his suit.

Gogo called in.

"Sirque just appeared at the first national bank. She's busy robbing the place, so if you've gotta a plan, now's the time to come on over."

"We'll be there shortly, but don't engage Sirque until we get there. Only intervene if she starts to leave before we arrive." Hiro ordered.

"Got it." Honey Lemon confirmed and the two girls ended the call.

"I wish we had more time to field test this stuff." Varian said irritably as he scooped up the portal magnets and placed them in his coat pocket.

"I know, me too, but we gotta take this opportunity while we have it,"and with that said Hiro began to put on his new rocket suit.

                                               ---------------------------

Hiro and the rest of the guys joined Gogo and Honey Lemon on top of the roof of the bank. Varian rode on Baymax's back while Hiro took the opportunity to test out his rocket boosters.

The flight over had been easy enough, after some quick adjustments to the stabilizers, but the landing was a little trickier. Hiro couldn't stop himself from falling flat on his butt after cutting off the replusers.

"Ooof."

Fred was seconds behind him and helped to hoist him back up. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Hiro answered.

"Well you better be," Gogo chimed in, "cause Sirque just scared off the last of the police. She's about to leave."

They all peered over the edge to see Sirque throw her customary magnets into the air and then jump through the writhing window that appeared.

"Okay. Here I go." Hiro steadied himself and with a deep breath, turned the rocket boosters back on.

"Be careful!" He heard Honey Lemon call after him as he flew down and dove into the portal before it closed.

                                               ---------------------------

The first thing Hiro noticed was not the void, but a shop sign. Sirque's portal had cleaning transported them on a street corner. Where, he didn't know.

Sirque turned around and gave an annoyed scowl upon seeing him. She threw another hand full of magnets into the air and jumped through yet another portal.

And so the chase began. Portal after portal, Hiro flew after her. However, each subsequent gateway was less stable than the last. After about the fourth or fifth jump, Hiro finally found himself inside the void that haunted his nightmares. The exit portal rushed up to meet them and Sirque flew through it, barely registering the change. But Hiro kicked back his thrusters to halt his momentum. He desperately looked around.

Fortunately he spotted Wasabi's car floating nearby. He flew over to it hoping against hope that his friends were alright.

They were. Wasabi had the forethought to convert his vehicle into its submarine mode once it flew into the void. It was air tight, and while no doubt uncomfortable, he and Karmi remained safe. He waved to Hiro through the windshield and excitedly woke up the sleeping Karmi seated next to him.

Hiro sighed in relief and thanked the stars that he and Gogo had installed the sub feature months ago. He used his electromagnet whips to latch onto the car and used his rocket boots to pull them towards the exit.

It was slow going but ever so surely they inched their way along. However, to Hiro's horror he saw the portal shrink and then close.

                                               ---------------------------

Sirque wound up right back where she started from, in front of the bank. She looked back to see if the annoying superhero had followed her yet again, but he made no appearance.

Confident that she had finally managed to shake her pursuer, she turned around only to be greeted by more armoured vigilantes.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. She just couldn't catch a break today.

"Hold it right there, circus lady!" The one dressed like a lizard yelled.

She took a defensive stance, but soon all were distracted by the tall armored girl who let out a scream.

"Noooo! The portal!" She yelled.

Sirque looked behind her and saw the portal close. She didn't understand what the big deal was about the portal shutting down. It'd be more of a problem if it hadn't done that.

She shrugged and while they were still fretting over the lost gateway, she attempted to make her escape.

She cartwheeled away and threw some more magnets into the air. Once again, she made herself ready to jump into the portal, but this time something went wrong.

The swirling blue vortex turned red and the electricity that connected the magnets twisted and writhed. The wind picked up and started to suck things into the portal. Soon she felt her own feet give out from under her and she was lifted off the ground.

She would have been sucked into the void if not for the yellow suited girl who tackled her and then pulled her out of the way of the gaping maw.

                                               ---------------------------

Hiro saw a second portal open up just to the right of him and he turned and started heading towards that one instead. Only something was wrong.

Debris was flying through the opening and Hiro felt a strong force of wind push him and the car back. He tried to divert power from the lights of his helmet to give the rocket boosters on his boots more thrust, but it didn't help.

They were still being pushed back. Hiro had to pull them out of the way of the portal or risk being swept away into the void for good.

"What'll we do?" asked Honey Lemon frantically. "Can Hiro make it through the other portal?"

"No," yelled Varian over the howling wind,"that portal is too unstable. It's sucking everything into it. He'd have to fight the current to get out."

The portal crackled and fizzled and the gang felt the earth tremor underneath them.

"Okay, that didn't sound good." said Fred.

"It is the portal." Sirque warned with a heavy French accent. "It's deteriorating. If it does not close soon, the portal will implode. We must leave."

"Not without Hiro." Gogo said, still holding tight to Sirque so that she couldn't run away.

"But… but I do not have a way to shut it down!" She protested.

"You mean you didn't build an off switch!?" Fred yelled incredulously and all Sirque could do was look sheepishly at him. She had been so sure of her skills and her tech that she hadn't anticipated this problem.

"Fortunately, I did." Proclaimed Varian as he finished fishing out the last of the portal magnets from his coat pocket. He threw them into the air and then pulled out a controller that he'd built for them. He pressed the button on the remote and the magnetic balls began to spin in the air as they linked up with one another.  He adjusted a dial and a portal began to open.

At first the portal showed only the other side of the street, at the stoplight just a block away. The gang could see it's mirroring window shimmering off in the distance. Varian turned the dial once more and the scene changed again while the exit portal at the end of the street disappeared. This time the portal showed a cafe, they couldn't tell where exactly,  but sunlight streamed through the opening out into night filled street, as the cafe's patrons scattered away in fright of the strange sight.

Varian readjusted the dial once more and finally the formless colors of the void appeared. And there was Hiro pulling along Wasabi's car.

"You did it!" Honey Lemon cheered.

"You used centripetal force to steady the portal." Sirque said, clearly impressed. "What did you use for navigation?"

Gogo shut her down. "Save the physics questions for another time."

                                               ---------------------------

Hiro glanced back over his shoulder desperately to see if his friends were still alright. Karmi silently met his gaze. Her eyes wide with worry and fear. He gulped as he racked his brain for a plan.

Just then Hiro spotted another portal opening off in the distance. He quickly changed course and started yet again to pull them all out.

While it remained quite a distance away, the new portal held a steady shape and offered no resistance winds. Hiro couldn't help but give a smile when he looked up ahead and saw Varian on the other side intently looking at a remote control. This was his work, Hiro knew, and he'd never felt so relieved to see the goggle-wearing teen.

"There he is! I see them!" Fred joyously yelled.

Baymax ignited his thrusters and dove into the portal to assist. It took a minute, but the robot finally reached them and went behind the car to help push it along faster. Though they still had a ways to go.

Just then the controller in Varian's hands began to admit smoke.

"Oh no. This is bad." He warned.

"What is it?" Gogo worried.

"The device is overheating. The magnets can't stand the friction much longer. They need to get out of there quicker before the portal breaks."

Honey Lemon ran up beside him and pushed some buttons on the side of her purse. Out popped two red balls. She smashed them together and when they pulled apart they created a goopy, sticky, stretchy rope like substance. She threw one end to the ground and hurled the other end into the portal. It attached itself to Hiro's waist. She then repeated the process two more times, attaching those ends to the car. Once secured, she grabbed the ropes and started to pull.

Fred joined her in her efforts. While Varian tried his best to keep the portal going, desperately fiddling with remote. Soon Gogo let go of Sirque to help her friends.

Sirque paused for a moment. She was free to leave, and that would have been the smartest course of action, but she found herself running over to help the struggling group of heroes anyways.

Never let it be said that she didn't pay her debts, Sirque thought to herself as she grabbed hold of the rope as well.

Finally, after much effort, Hiro flew out of the portal followed closely by Baymax who carried the car that held Wasabi and Karmi.

"They made it!" Varian whooped which then quickly turned into an "ouch" as the controller he held caught fire. He tossed it to the ground and the magnets sparked, slowed, and then fell away as the portal died.

Baymax and Hiro gently lowered Wasabi's vehicle, which was now out of its submarine mode, onto the ground below. As soon as the wheels touched the pavement, Wasabi jumped out of the car, got on his hands and knees, and kissed the street, just thankful to be out of void and finally on solid ground once more.

Karmi's reaction was far less dramatic. She stumbled out of the car and simply stood there, reassuring herself that there was ground underneath her feet and that she was indeed back. She looked shaken but otherwise unharmed.

Hiro couldn't rush to her to comfort her in that moment though, for as soon as he touched ground himself the earth began to tremble violently.

There was still the other portal to take care of.

Hiro rushed over to the gaping maw that hung the air. It wiggled and writhed, the electric currents that connected the magnets twisting into erratic shapes. Hiro launched one of his electromagnetic whips to latch onto one of the magnets, then another and another, until all four 'corners' of the portal were secured. He then started to pull with all his might realigning the magnet balls into their proper positions.

As he did this the portal slowly changed from its angry red to a more calm blue. Yet the wind only picked up more speed and Hiro found himself lifted off of the ground. His friends rushed to him to grab him. Together they formed a human chain holding him in place as he finished fixing the portal. Even Karmi and Srique joined in.

Finally, with great struggle, Hiro pulled the last of the magnets into place and the portal calmed down once more. The wind died and Hiro found himself falling to the ground in a heap. His friends closest to him following after, suddenly losing their balance without any wind to fight against.

Sirque took this opportunity to break away from the group and ran towards the portal. She only stopped long enough to give a little wave and yell "Au revoir" before backflipping through the shrinking window. Once through, the portal disappeared and the deactive magnets fell to the ground.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, Sirque had gotten away, but everyone was safe and the deadly portals had been dealt with.

As Hiro picked himself up and dusted himself off he heard Karmi yell his name.

"Hiro!" She shouted before rushing to him and flinging her arms around his neck.

Hiro just stood there in shock. She'd just called him by his actual name, not 'Captain Cuite', not 'Big Hero Six', but Hiro .

He pulled away from her embrace and stared at her. She stared back in equal surprise as if suddenly realizing what she'd just done.

However, before either could say anything to the other, they heard sirens blare as law enforcement and other emergency vehicles began to arrive.

Everyone scattered. Varian hightailed it back to the car, dragging Wasabi along with him. Gogo and Honey Lemon frantically skated away while Fred bounced his way up the side of a building. Hiro hopped on to Baymax's back and held his hand out to Karmi. She took it and crawled onto the robot's back as well, sitting right behind Hiro.

"Hang on tight." He told her and off they flew before the police could stop them.

                                               ---------------------------

Hiro flew Karmi back to the dorms. His mind was racing. He couldn't wait to land and get some answers from her. Yet he also didn't want to face the inevitable awkwardness that would follow.

So he took his time, sweeping across the city's rooftops. He couldn't help showing off just a little bit; making sure to take a more scenic route that displayed the beautiful cityscape. Nor could he resist pulling a few trick maneuvers with Baymax.

He felt a giddy thrill whenever Karmi would gasp in awe or giggled with surprise as he took her past a towering landmark or pulled off an impressive dive. He also couldn't help but notice that every time she did this she would also grip his waist just a little tighter. Which only furthered encouraged his antics.

Finally the dizzying flight came to an end and Hiro landed them on the grass within walking distance of the dorms. Karmi slid off and made a show of smoothing out the bottom of her skirt, refusing to look at Hiro.

Hiro also dismounted and steeled himself for what was to come.

"So how long have you known?" He asked.

Karmi paused in her preening but still didn't look directly at him nor did she give an answer.

Hiro removed his helmet and continued his prodding, "about me being with Big Hero Six."

She finally looked at him unable to ignore him now that he had his helmet off, as if he had removed the last vestige of whatever fantasy she'd held in her mind. But still she wouldn't answer, only biting her bottom lip in response.

Hiro gave a deep sigh. "Did Wasabi tell you?"

"No." She said and she turned her head away from him, hugging herself with one arm.

"Then, how?"

"You told me; remember?"

Hiro did remember. Karmi had taken his photograph while he had been fighting some supervillain or other. He had agonized over it until confessing to her the truth, but she had only scoffed at him and refused to believe he was the famous superhero.

"I didn't want to admit it." She continued."I mean, I saw the photo and I know you told me outright, but I was just too embarrassed and angry to accept it. You'd seen my notebook, with my drawings, and...and well….sometimes you're just the most annoying jerk, not superhero like at all."

She stamped her foot at that, as if it was all his fault for not living up to her imagined expectations. Yet, she couldn't hold on to her anger. She sighed and continued on.

"But you also saved me from Liv, or Di, or whatever she calls herself. I could still hear you fighting with her. I just couldn't control what I was doing.. When she… when I was… like that ."

Karmi grimaced as she remembered how her former employer had turned her into a monster. A freakish science experiment, just to lure Hiro into a trap.

"Hey, no. You weren't responsible for what she did to you." Hiro placed a comforting hand onto her shoulder and Karmi finally looked him in the eye.

"I still didn't want to admit it even then, but here you are saving me yet again." She gave him an apologetic smile. "You may be a jerk sometimes but you really come through whenever I need you to."  

With that she gave him another hug. He returned it this time.

"Hey no problem. What would Capitan Cutie be without Lab Lady ." He teased into her ear.

She backed away quickly as her cheeks grew beet red and she covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. She then peeked through her fingers and groaned.  "Oh my gosh. You must think me soooo stupid. My fanfiction is total cringe."  

"Ehh..a little cringe," He admitted, "but no, I don't think you're stupid at all. You're a great writer, and for what's it's worth, I enjoyed your essay at least, and the other research papers you've posted."

"You...you read those? I thought no one saw them. I just threw them up on the student website."

He nodded, "Yeah, you should try submitting some of them to like a science journal, or something. They're really good."

Karmi finally lowered her hands from her face and looked at him guiltily. "I promise no more fanfiction. I'll take it all down. I..I didn't mean to … I didn't.. It's not like I actually thought of you, when writing that… well I mean sort of you.. But not you , you."

Hiro had to smile and shake his head at seeing the normally so self-assured Karmi fumble with her words. He interrupted her ramble by pushing a stray strand of her bangs out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. He then immediately stopped and jerked his hand away as soon as he realized what he was doing. He feigned a cough and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head as she looked back at him in surprise.

"You don't have to stop writing fanfiction completely, just maybe a different subject." He suggested. "Like, I don't know, something not real life related. I know Honey Lemon will appreciate not being called 'Tall Girl' anymore." He joked.

Karmi rolled her eyes at that. "Then why does she wear those platform heels all the time?"

"Who knows." He shrugged and they both broke into snickers.

Once the laughter subsided Hiro spoke again. "You..you won't tell anybody else, will you? About us being Big Hero Six?"

"No, of course not!" She scoffed. "What do you think I am? A snitch?"

"No.. I didn't mean it that way." Hiro tried to protest but Karmi interrupted him.

"Hiro Hamada, you're really the most aggravating person ever. Like I'd tell anybody that I wrote fanfiction about you of all people. You know, for a genius you sure are dense sometimes."

With that she turned on her heel and started to storm off, leaving Hiro utterly confused as to what had just happened.

She'd only made it halfway across the yard though, before stopping. She turned around and flashed him a huge grin.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow." She shouted before sprinting the rest of the way to the dormitories. She paused again once she had reached the front door, smiled, and waved goodbye to a dumbstruck Hiro before leaving for good.

Hiro stood there for a few moments looking at the place where she had stood. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and his mind tumbled with confusion. What the heck was that? Did she just flirt with him or did they have another fight? And why was his cheeks feeling flushed again?

To his embarrassment, Baymax answered that last question for him without any prompting.

"You are experiencing an increase in heart rate. A scan indicates that this is being caused by a sudden release of hormones, including testosterone…"

"Yes, Baymax! I know!" He interrupted the robot. "Let's just get home."

He climbed upon Baymax's back again, but he couldn't help but steal another glance at the door Karmi had entered through and smiled to himself as they took off.

                                               ---------------------------

Hiro finished hooking up Baymax to his charging case and the robot powered down for the night. Hiro stretched and yawned. He'd had a long day and was ready for bed himself. However, before he could crawl under the covers Varian showed up at the door carrying several presents in his arms.

"You didn't get a chance to open these." He said as he came in.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Hiro remembered the implosion from earlier today and how his party had been interrupted. "I guess I could open them now real quick."

"Well you were in the middle of opening this one first." Varian handed him a half unwrapped gift.

"It's from Karmi." Hiro sat on the edge of his bed, tore the rest of the package open, and pulled out a phone case. It was solid white but she had drawn the image of Baymax on the front with a black marker. It was kind of cute, he thought. "I'll have to thank her later."

"And this one is from me." Varian announced with a confidante smile as he handed  Hiro the next gift.

Hiro opened it to find a spray bottle full of some sort of light purple goop.

"What's this?" He asked as he held it up to the light to inspect it.

"Magnetic spray paint! I invented it myself. It's made of an adhesion of iron, and other pliable ferromagnetic metals that should, once sprayed upon any surface, adhere to the electromagnets in your suit. I call it… Hironite!"

"Why not just call it metal paint?"

"Cause Hironite is cooler."

"Yeah, I'm not ever calling it that."

Varian placed his hands upon his hips in a huff. "Fine, don't appreciate having a cool new compound named after you."

Hiro laughed. "Well I'm sure I'll appreciate it more when I'm out in the field actually using it. Thanks, man. This should come in real handy."

He went back to inspecting the strange substance but was interrupted when Varian spoke back up.

"Oh, and...there's one more gift."

Hiro looked at him confused as Varian handed him a small package with an envelope attached that read 'Happy Birthday Hiro' on the front. It was Tadashi's handwriting.

"I found it a couple of weeks ago when I was moving in. It was hidden in the bottom drawer of the dresser. I held on to it and was just going to put it with your other presents on the table."

Hiro didn't answer him, he was too busy staring at the gift in his hands. Varian went on, apologizing for not giving it to Hiro sooner.

"I didn't know who it was from until you mentioned looking for it earlier today, and by then I didn't know if telling you about it would've helped or not." He sheepishly admitted. "I figured you'd rather open it without everybody else looking on so I kept it and figured I give it to after the party. But then all this happened and.. and well…"

Varian sighed in frustration, feeling like he had once more intruded upon Hiro's grief and accidently trampled all over Tadashi's memory without meaning too.

"It's okay." Hiro assured him, but his own voice sounded far away and his eyes never left the package in his hands.

Varian stood there for a few moments more, swinging his closed hand against his leg unsure what to do.

"Well, I'll…give you some privacy then." He suddenly said and then turned to leave, but was stopped by the sound of Hiro's voice.

"I don't know if I should open it." He whispered, eyes still never leaving the gift.

Varian paused and looked at Hiro questingly. Hiro looked back up at him, finally tearing his gaze away from the present.

"If I open this, it'll be the last thing I'll ever get from him." Tears filled his eyes. "That'll be it. He won't come back. I'll never see him again, or hear from him, or … or … he's gone I know, but for a while there I could pretend like he was just on a trip or something. Like the presents and video footage he left behind, or the delayed messages that would pop up on my phone or his Twitter account were just gifts he sent from wherever he was." He swallowed hard. "But opening this makes it all real, somehow. I won't be able to just go on ignoring it like I have been."

Varian didn't know what to say to that. He could on some level understand Hiro's grief. He knew what loss felt like, but he'd never had the luxury of pretending as if things were still normal. Not with his father's corpse displayed in the middle of his laboratory constantly reminding him of what was at stake if he failed. Accepting that his dad was gone for good was just not an option to Varian's mind, and so he couldn't imagine what kind of pain Hiro must be going through in this moment. All he knew was that he hated being left alone when grieving; so he stood by patiently, hoping that just being near would be of some help.

"You open it." Hiro suddenly said and Varian was taken aback.

"What? I can't do that. It's meant for you"

"I can't do it on my own." He pleaded. "But I also can't leave it lying around unopened. It'd drive me nuts."

He held the gift up for Varian to take it. "Please, just unwrap it for me?"

Varian sighed in defeat. "Okay, but you gotta be the one to read the card."

Hiro nodded his agreement and Varian took the present from him. He unwrapped it and the lid to the box fell away. Varian peered inside confused.

"Well, what is it?" Hiro asked with baited breath.

"Well, it'll go real well with the gift I got you." Varian stifled a snicker and held the box up for Hiro to see. "It's a magnet."

It was a simple hand made device made from a large battery and a long iron nail. There was copper wire wrapped around each and attached to a simple switch made of plywood and a misshapen paperclip.

Hiro looked at it in surprise before bursting into both laughter and tears.

"That sentimental dork." He laughed through his sobs."That's the first magnet I ever made. Tadashi showed me how to build it when I was like, five. He probably meant it as a joke gift."

He broke down into more giggles and even Varian could help but chuckle.

"Sounds like a funny guy." He quietly said.

Hiro wiped his eyes as he tried to gain his composure. "Oh boy, he'd be so smug right about now. I wasn't expecting that. He got me good." He laughed again and went to open the envelope.

He pulled out a birthday day card and started to read it out loud.

"Dear Hiro, happy 15th birthday. I'm so glad that you decided to make something of yourself and to further your education. So assuming you don't do anything stupid and land your butt in jail again between now and me writing this, you should undoubtedly be finishing your first year in college. Never mind, we both know you'll do something stupid anyways, but hopefully is won't mess with your grades. You're super smart. The smartest guy I know, and I'm sure you'll make it into the program. So to commemorate the occasion I dug up your very first invention from the attic. That way you can look back and see how far you've come. I'm proud of you. From your best brother ever, Tadashi. P.S. There's probably a real gift for you as well. I just don't know what yet, as I haven't bought it. Just nag future me for it instead of getting mad, okay?"

Hiro gave one more breathless laugh which quickly turned into a sob. Oh how he missed Tadashi's stupid irritating face and dumb jokes. But mostly he wished his brother could really see him now, see how well he was doing, see how much he had accomplished, see how he had done something truly worthwhile with his life.

He cupped his hand over his mouth as he stared out into the distance while silent tears rolled down his face.

Finally he inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled as he tried to let go; let go of the tension in his body, let go of the pain, let go of the distant fading hope that one day Tadashi would suddenly appear as if he had never left. He sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. Then he turned to look back at Varian who just stood there with worry in his eyes.

Hiro couldn't help but chuckle dismissively. "It's okay. I'm okay. You don't have to look at me like that."

Varian straightened as if caught doing something wrong. "Well if you don't need me for anything else, I guess I'll go on to bed. I got a test in the morning."

He laid the gift on the bed next to Hiro and started to leave once more. Hiro chased after him.

"Hey, thanks." He said. Varian paused and turned to look at him. "Thank you for finding Tadashi's gift and thank you for helping me open it. And just...thank you for just being there. I know people mean well, but so often they just stumble over themselves trying to be comforting and it just makes you feel uncomfortable sometimes, you know. Like you feel guilty for being sad and making other people upset. But you never do that. You're just... well you're just there, you know, and I'm really glad you came to stay with us."

Varian blinked in surprise. He didn't know how to respond to that. He had always thought that Hiro was annoyed with him for living with them. He sniffled back his own tears and gave Hiro a small smile.

"Well, I'm..glad I could help."

Hiro returned the smile, also unsure how to carry on the conversation.

"Well, good night and good luck with your test in the morning." He nervously said, now feeling self conscious about his recent confession.

"Night." Varian relplied and turned around once more, but stopped at the top of the stairs, "Oh, and happy birthday, Captain Cuite." He smuggly called afterwards before dashing down the stairs as Hiro half heartedly threw a pillow at him.

                                               ---------------------------

Sirque stood nervously inside a well furnished room. The large office space was decorated in expensive decor from around the world. Ancient artifacts and historic weaponry lined the walls and display shelves. From the vaulted ceiling hung decorative tapestries and the desk at the front was placed upon a raised dais. So that it’s occupant could better look down upon its visitors.    

“As you can see, the tests were not fully successful, but I’ve learned a great deal from the experiment and was able to procure some interesting stuff for your collection, no?” She smiled hopefully as she placed an ornate dagger on the desk that she had stolen from the museum. Her employer was known to enact harsh punishment for failure, but Sirque hoped that the offering would appeal to the crime lord’s expensive tastes and buy her some lenacy.

The figure behind the desk was shrouded in shadow, save for a withered and gnarled hand that impatiently drumed its fingers upon the desk.

Sirque gulped. Flanked behind her were two muscled guards who stood at attention next to the door, blocking her escape. They were smartly dressed in business suits and wore sunglasses to help hide their eyes. They looked unarmed, but Sirque knew better. She might, could out maneuver them, but not a bullet.

“So my dear patron, if you could afford me a little more time and resources I’m sure I could have a working portal for you as per your request.” She shifted her weight from foot to foot and gave a small nervous laugh when her boss failed to give an answer. “Hee, you wouldn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of being the owner of the world's first working portal would you?”

The ageded hand paused in its drumming and then gestured for one of its guards to come forward. Sirque stiffened with fear. The muscled bound goon loomed over her and she backed away quickly. He reached into his jacket and Sirque closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. But it never came. Instead of a weapon the bodyguard pulled out a stack of money and roughly shoved it into her chest which she adjusted quickly to catch from falling.

“My master would like for you to continue with your experiments, and so long as you’re able to fulfil your lofty promises there will be more payment forthcoming.”

Sirque looked down at the pile of cash cradled in her hands in surprised delight.

“Why, yes, but of course!” She gained composure long enough to give a respectful bow towards the podium and it’s resident.”Merci, patron. I shall not disappoint.”  

Smiling to herself, she counted the dollar bills as she left. Yes, her tech hadn’t worked as well as she had hoped, but it had worked; and her run in with Big Hero Six had only given her some even better ideas. The next time she met with those meddlesome heroes, she’ll be able to show them up instead.

[onebourbon-oneshot-onetear]

Aquatica

Chapter 4- The Enemy Below

I do not own D.C Comics, and I only own my OC and my versions of the plots.

BEEP BEEP BEEP I rolled over and slapped my hand on my alarm clock. I opened my eyes and looked at the numbers flashing on the screen, 9:15 pm. While most people are going to bed at this time, I was getting up to run around the rooftops of Gotham.

Doing my nightly patrols was actually pretty fun. It gave me a chance to exercise and use my powers in a less stressful situation than I would while with the Justice League. Usually when I work with the League, it's always an Earth-ending-life-and-death situation. That's not always the best time to test new stuff out with my powers. While patrolling Gotham, there wasn't a real sense of urgency. Most of the crimes that I stopped at night was robberies and small acts of vandalism by rowdy teens, no big deal.

I groaned and rolled out of bed. Usually I fall asleep in the early afternoon, but due to a flood in India that I had to help Superman with, I had only gotten about three hours of sleep. I went and turned on my coffee machine and headed to the bathroom to go take a shower and get changed into my leggings, leotard and jacket. I dried my hair and pulled it up into a half ponytail. I walked into the kitchen, poured myself some coffee and grabbed some leftover food from my fridge. I wolfed it all down, tied up my black combat boots, and climbed out of my fire escape onto my building's rooftop.

Since my building was in the middle of Gotham, I could see practically everything that went on. Usually I looked for the flashing lights of police cars in order to find a crime that I could help with. So far they have seemed grateful for my help, and nobody has had any problems with me helping them catch their criminals.

Tonight I didn't see any police lights, so I decided to go along the rooftops and find the criminals myself. Most of the time while jumping or flying from building to building I would catch a robbery happening in an alley. It was pretty easy from there to freeze the robber to the ground until the police got there. I could usually catch about twenty robbers a night, and a dozen more than that on the weekends. Yeah, that's how bad the crime in Gotham was. You would think people would learn not to do such stupid things, especially when Batman and I were out. Then again if these guys were smart they wouldn't be robbers.

I patrolled for a couple of hours catching about fifteen robbers, when a jet hovered above the building I was next to. I recognized it as the League's jet and I flew up to meet it. Inside was John, Diana, and Superman, and from the looks on their faces, I knew something was wrong. "What's up guys?" I asked.

"Evie, we need your help." Superman urgently said. "We have a sunken military submarine with officers trapped on it and we need to get them out." My eyes widened and I wasted no time hopping in the jet and strapping myself in.

"Do we have any idea what caused the sub to sink?" I asked.

"No, not yet." Diana said. I have only seen her a couple times since she joined the League, and I still wasn't a fan of hers. She had never been mean to me at all, so I really didn't have any reason to dislike her. As childish as it sounds, I just wasn't a fan of her personality. She thought men were beneath her, at least from the way I had heard her talk about the beliefs of Themyscara, the land she was from. Apparently the Amazon warriors thought men were not to be trusted and they were weak. Considering how Diana had never met a man up until about a month ago, I didn't think it was right for her to be so judgmental about them. But either way, I decided to act professional around her and be nice. Well as nice as I can be.

We had already left the city and were heading to the location where the sub was when Superman turned towards me and handed me something. "Here, I haven't given you a com link yet. This is one you can keep with you at all times, that way if you need something you won't have to find your own way up to the Watch Tower." I took the earpiece and stuck it in my ear. It was small and discreet so I could get away with wearing it all the time.

"Thanks." I said to him. He turned back around and started pressing more buttons on the jet. I felt the nose of the jet pitch forward and I assumed we were going to land. I wasn't expecting the whole jet to go underwater. I jumped in my seat as the jet crashed into the water and started diving down.

Superman must have sensed my uneasiness because he turned back around and looked at me. "You didn't know this thing could go underwater?"

I looked out the window at the dark water and looked back at him. "No, no clue." I weakly said. Superman just chuckled, but he grew serious when a beeping started going off on the monitor up front.

"I've locked on to their distress beacon. We're getting close." Diana said.

Superman had gotten up and looked out the front window. "We're not the only ones." He said pointing out a ship that was facing us underwater. It appeared to be a submarine, but it was sleeker and didn't look like anything our military used. We flew under it and we saw that their submarine dwarfed our ship. "We've got company." Superman said sitting back down and getting buckled back into his seat. We came back up over their ship, and they shot two missiles at us.

"Not for long." Green Lantern said, steering us out of the way of the two missiles. We rocked to the side as we dodged the missiles, and when we righted ourselves we flew past the submarine and over a rock structure that had different canyons carved through it. If we weren't being shot at I would have loved to stay and look at the view.

The sub followed us and kept shooting missiles at us, which we continued to dodge and block. Up ahead of us were two arches made of rock.

"G.L go through there! They won't be able to fit through." I told him. Their sub was way too big to get through both arches. G.L went through both arches and I turned around to see if the other sub did too. They hit the first arch and got stuck.

"Lost 'em." Green Lantern smugly said, before two more subs came up from the bottom of the sea floor and stopped in front of us. I just rolled my eyes. You never say stuff like that, it's only an invitation for more crap to come our way.

"You were saying?" Superman asked sarcastically. Green Lantern continued to dodge the missile attacks, but Superman had had enough. He stood up and opened a compartment on the ceiling of the jet. He took out a mask to wear underwater and handed me one. "Those sailors won't have a prayer if we keep playing cat and mouse, come on." I took my staff off my belt and put it on my seat so I didn't lose while fighting and it sunk so I couldn't find it ever again. Besides, I would have all the water I would need out there.

We left the jet just before a missile hit it. Lantern put a bubble over us and we went over to the subs to find a way to take them out. Now instead of missiles being shot, they were now individual beams. I was going through the water faster than I had ever gone before. I quickly zipped over to a sub and completely froze their guns, leaving them defenseless. I looked over and watched Superman punch the other subs guns so hard that the metal completely crumpled. Green Lantern went underneath and tore a hole straight through with his ring.

Superman and Wonder Woman each took a sub and pushed them together making the windows to the subs explode, while Lantern tore off the nose of one of them. I floated back through the water to make sure that no other guns were intact. The two subs were completely dysfunctional and they both sunk to the bottom. Once they hit each other the force created an explosion.

I looked back at the sub and failed to notice that a small army had come together in front of us until someone told us to halt. I looked over and saw two more submarines, two men on what looked like underwater jet skis, and another man who held a trident and wore gold plated armor with dark green pants and accents on it. One look at them and I knew who they were.

"Those are Atlantians…" I whispered to myself. The man in the gold must be Aquaman, king of Atlantis. He may not be on dry land all the time but I definitely knew who he was. Seeing as I'm a girl who can control water, it was absolutely awing to meet the man who can practically control the seven seas, and talk to sea creatures. Talk about meeting a role model. I wanted to swim right up to him and ask a million different questions about different ways I could use my powers, but judging by the glare he was giving us he wasn't too happy to see us.

"Man, that glare can compete with Bats' glare." I said.

"You've violated the sovereign borders of Atlantis. Leave at once or you will be destroyed." Aquaman said pointing his trident at us. Oookay, guess I'm not getting those questions answered.

Superman was in the front of the group so he spoke for us. "We apologize for the intrusion." He said, putting his hands up in surrender. "We were responding to a call for help."

Aquaman looked over to the sub, which was now sitting on a bunch of rocks. "They should've stayed on the surface where they belong."

"Please. The men on board, they'll drown." Diana pleaded with him. Aquaman raised an eyebrow, and thought for a second.

"Take the crew. But the vessel stays." He commanded.

"No way. That's a nuclear sub." Green Lantern said. I looked back at him like he was crazy, which I'm pretty sure he is. He pushed past Superman and made his way closer to Aquaman. I noticed that all of the guards had now tensed up and had a hand on their weapons.

"G.L, not now." I quietly said to him, but he brushed me off.

"If you think we're just going to walk away and leave it…"

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Aquaman interrupted. He did have a point, we were at an unfair advantage, seeing as the Atlantians were in a completely natural environment down here, and the only one of us who was feeling mostly comfortable underwater this deep was me. And I know that I probably wouldn't be able to stand up to a whole Atlantian army.

G.L's eyes glowed bright green and he went to go swim forward even more, but thankfully Superman stopped him. "He's right. Time's running out." He looked over at me. "Aquatica, do you think you can make an air bubble to get the crew out of the sub?" At first I forgot that he was talking to me since he used my hero name, but I guess since we were in front of people we didn't know he just wanted to be safe.

I remembered the question and I didn't even have to think about whether I could do it. "Sure, no problem." I shrugged. I swam over to the sub and separated the oxygen molecules from the hydrogen ones in order to form a huge bubble where the outside was made of water, but inside was made of air. I looked over at Aquaman and I was happy to see he looked impressed. I didn't get to think about it too long because soon enough the crew was put in my bubble and we were getting ready to leave.

"That's the last one." Superman called up to me. I closed off the small tunnel I made from the hole in the sub to the main part of my bubble, and started moving it up to the surface slowly. I couldn't go too fast for risk that I, or anyone else inside the bubble, would get the bends. That wouldn't be fun to deal with.

I broke the surface and saw that we were in the middle of a bad storm. Thunder and lightning were everywhere, the waves were choppy, and it was pouring down rain. The rain didn't bother me, in fact it made me stronger. The part that worried me was the thunder and lightning. The last thing I needed was to risk these people getting electrocuted. "Hey G.L, think you can take over here?" I asked him. I explained what I was worried about and he agreed with me. He put everyone in a giant green bubble and I went over and hopped in the jet.

Superman decided to stay outside and speak with Aquaman so it was just Diana and I in the jet. We sat in comfortable silence and I drew some pictures on the condensation that had formed on the windows. Childish, I know but hey, I didn't have anything else to do.

Green Lantern took the crew of the sub to the hospital in Metropolis while Superman, Diana, and I went back to the watchtower. I went to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee. Since I didn't have much sleep last night I needed some help staying awake now. I walked back to the main floor with my mug in my hands. J'onn, Diana, and Flash were standing in a huddle talking, while Superman was on the phone. Judging by the way he was standing and the tone of his voice I assumed it was someone important on the other line, and that someone wasn't happy.

I walked over to the group just as Diana said "Aquaman's no madman. He's a king. He only wants to preserve and protect his own kind."

"So, who's gonna protect us from him?" G.L asked.

"I don't know, I kinda like the guy." I said.

"How can you say that?" G.L turned to me and asked. "He has one of our nuclear submarines!"

I fully turned towards Lantern. "He just wants to protect himself and his people. I can totally understand what he is thinking. Everybody up here on land doesn't think twice about polluting the water and going wherever they want, not caring about whose area they are invading. As someone who deals with water quite often, I can completely understand why Aquaman doesn't like us. It infuriates me every time I see garbage floating in the ocean, or dead sea animals killed because of plastic and toxins. That is his home, imagine how he feels." I said. "Do I agree with him keeping nuclear subs? No. But I can understand where he's coming from." I said taking a sip of my coffee. Apparently he didn't like my answer very much, and G.L stormed off, fuming.

I watched his retreating form and shook my head. "That guy needs to loosen up a bit." I said. I downed the last of my coffee and went back to the kitchen to clean my mug. I didn't have anything else planned for the day, so I figured I would go downstairs to my pool.

Did I not mention that the Watchtower has a pool? Cause it does! It's more of a giant diving well, you know, one of the really deep ones. It's awesome because I can sit in it and recharge my powers, or I can work on new things with my powers. It's also my hiding place. I can make an air bubble and hide down there for hours without anyone finding me. It's worked so far, so hopefully nobody will catch on to what I'm doing.

I went down to the pool and just floated on my back, listening to the water lap against the edges. I could feel the water repowering me and it woke me up a little more than the coffee did. J'onn said he thinks he understands why being in water helps me rejuvenate so much. Apparently there is more water in my system than that of a normal humans. Normal people are made of about 60 percent of water. I'm made up of 80 percent. It's not a problem, in fact it actually helps me when I'm sick or hurt. Instead of using medicine for minor stuff like scrapes or colds I can just sit in water for an hour and the symptoms are gone. The only downfall of being made up of this much water is I am more sensitive to the heat. Being outside on a hot summer day isn't life threating, but being in extreme heat for a long period of time can deplete my powers completely, or worse, kill me.

I was laying in the pool when I got called up through my earpiece. "Evie, you may want to come up here." J'onn said.

I sighed, hoping I was going to get a little more peace and quiet. "Sure thing J'onn, be right up." I pulled myself out of the pool, evaporated all the water off of me and headed upstairs. Not surprisingly, Green Lantern was ranting about something again.

"I knew we couldn't trust that fish man. The sub's been stripped and the plutonium is gone."

"And you think Aquaman's responsible?" Diana asked him.

"Who else princess?" G.L asked her sarcastically. "We've got to go back to Atlantis and get some straight answers."

I looked over to Superman. "If it's Aquaman you want, he's not in Atlantis." He said. I saw the news was on and the usual anchorman was reporting from what looked like the World Assembly building.

"According to eyewitness accounts Aquaman then forced his way past the guards and into a closed session of the World Assembly." The reporter said. "But as to why he's here or what he wants, we'll have to wait for further developments."

"Well that's one way to make yourself heard." I said, crossing my arms. "Maybe this is a good thing, it sounds like he wants to talk things over."

"Or he wants to kill us all." Green Lantern mumbled. Diana looked like she was about to retort and I rolled my eyes and walked over to look down at Earth. I didn't need to hear any more arguing from those two. The Earth looked so peaceful from up here, I wish we could get some of that peace here. I continued to stare at it and J'onn walked over to me, apparently now wanting to hear the arguments as well.

"How are you doing, Evie?" He asked me.

"I'm fine J'onn, how are you? Are you getting used to Earth's habits yet?"

"Some customs are strange, as is everything else. It is a lot to get used to." He said.

I chuckled, "I'm sure you'll be fine J'onn. If you have any questions or you just want to talk, you can just ask. I'd be happy to help."

"That is very kind of you Evie, thank you." He turned away from me and spoke to the rest of the group. "I believe we should go down and try to talk to Aquaman. Make sure he does not get into any trouble."

"You're right. Who knows what could happen." Superman said. Diana went to go get the jet ready to go while J'onn made sure everything in the Tower was secure. We were at the World Assembly building within minutes, and there was a horde of reporters outside.

"You guys go in and talk some sense into Aquaman, I'll stay out here and cover crowd control." I told them. They nodded and flew inside. I stayed outside and looked at all the people waiting to hear news from inside the meeting. A few minutes later the reporters swarmed the door just as Aquaman walked out. I made my way over to him to make sure none of the reporters got too close. In his bad mood, I'm sure Aquaman didn't need any cameras in his face.

The reporters had surrounded him and were asking him dozens of questions. He just glared at them and pushed past them. I was about five feet away from him when I called out to him. "Aquaman, wait!" I said. He ignored me and kept walking towards the street. I followed him and was quickly gaining ground when I heard a high pitched noise. I had just enough time to see something heading straight at us before it exploded. I was thrown back a couple feet and hit the concrete wall lining the sidewalk. I couldn't hear anything except a high pitched ringing in my ears and I saw double vision. I tried sitting up but I had the wind knocked out of me from the impact of the blast.

I looked up to see what the damage was, when I saw Aquaman laying on the ground struggling to get up. I sat up straight and a sharp pain shot through my ribs. Great, they're probably cracked or broken. I groaned and was able to stand on my feet, albeit I was a little wobbly. J'onn rushed over to me. "Evie, are you hurt?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.

I took a deep breath. "I'm fine, just a little banged up." I saw Superman pick up Aquaman, with Diana's help, and flew away. "How is he?" I asked.

J'onn looked grim. "It is hard to say, he was closer to the blast than you were. His injuries will be much more serious." I took a step and the pain in my ribs flared up again. Sensing this, J'onn said "Perhaps you should go to the hospital as well."

I kept walking. "I'm fine, honestly." From the look he was giving me I knew J'onn didn't believe a word I was saying. I sighed, "Fine, have it your way." I said. J'onn walked over, picked me up and flew me to the hospital they others had taken Aquaman to.

Soon enough I had a nurse checking my vitals and bandaging my ribs up. "These are just bruised sweetie, but make sure you don't overwork yourself for a couple days." She said to me. She was a cute old thing, old enough to be a grandmother but not so old that she you had to worry about her not properly doing her job.

"I'll do my best, but unless the criminals stop working for a few days, it'll be pretty unlikely." I said. She had just finished with the bandages when she lifted my shirt back down and patted my knee in a grandmotherly fashion.

"Well then, those bad guys won't know what hit 'em." She said. I smiled and put my jacket back on.

"Can you tell me where they took Aquaman?" I asked her. I should probably regroup with everyone in case crazier rocket launching people show up.

"He's in a special ward. Take the elevator to the top floor, you can't miss it."

I nodded. "Thank you." I got off the bed and was halfway over to the elevator when she stopped me.

"Here," she handed me a water bottle. "Drink this, you don't want to get dehydrated." I took the bottle and thanked her again. I followed her instructions and when I got off the elevator Diana, John, Superman and J'onn were waiting and watching the doctor work on Aquaman.

"How's he doing?" I asked. Everyone looked over at me and Superman was the first to walk over to me.

"How are you doing? You were pretty close to that explosion." He said.

I shrugged. "Just a couple bruised ribs, and some scrapes. Nothing I can't handle." I said. Just as I finished the door to the operating room opened and the doctor walked out.

"How bad is it?" Diana asked him.

The doctor took off his surgical mask and put his hand to his chin. "Hard to tell. His physiology is not like ours. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." Poor man, he looked so flustered. Superman stepped up.

"But can you help him?" He asked.

"I don't know." He said. I looked past him and saw a movement in the shadows. My muscles tensed and I thought it was going to be whoever shot the rocket at us, but it turns out it was just Bats.

"Then maybe I can." He said, finally stepping out of the shadows. "Get him on a gurney, I'm going to need a water tank." At first the doctor didn't know what to think, but seeing the look from Batman he was receiving, he was practically sprinting into the O.R.

They pushed Aquaman through the hospital and into a room that had a water tank set up in it. Batman had gone ahead to get the tank ready and when the gurney came in the room, Superman lifted Aquaman up and put him in the tank. The rest of us had spilled into the room and watched as the beeping on the monitors evened out.

The doctor turned around. "His vitals, they're stabilizing." He said astounded. Batman walked over to the heart monitor and handed the doctor some papers.

"Maintain saline at 3.5 percent." He told him. He talked to the doctor some more but I had just turned around and watched Aquaman in the tank. Putting him in water makes sense since he lives there anyway, I thought. He must rejuvenate in water just like I do. I turned to see that the doctor had left and everyone had gathered around the tank.

"Same goes to you Evie." Batman said.

"Huh?" I said, coming out of my thoughts.

"Drink the water, it'll heal your ribs." I looked down and in all the commotion I forgot that I still had my water.

"Right, thanks…wait how did you know my ribs were hurt?" I asked him. He hadn't been around when I had gotten here, and my bandages were covered. Bats chose to ignore my question and he turned back towards the tank. I rolled my eyes at his mysteriousness and took a sip of my water. Immediately, the pain in my ribs had faded and I didn't feel the sting from my scrapes anymore. I smiled to myself, this is a major perk.

About half an hour later, I was sitting on the hospital bed, twirling my staff between my fingers, a habit I had picked up for when I was bored. Green Lantern was looking out the window and the rest of them had huddled around the tank.

"He's coming around." Superman said, startling me. It had been absolutely silent for the past half an hour and his voice was really loud. I got up off the bed and walked over to the tank while putting my staff away.

Green Lantern strode forward and went right up to the tank. "Good. Now maybe we can get some answers." He said. Of course he would still be upset. Don't give him a break since he almost died, let's interrogate him as soon as he wakes up. "What did you do with the plutonium?" He asked, literally banging on the glass. I raised my eyebrow, is this guy serious?

"Hey Green Bean, could you not bang on the glass like an impatient child at the zoo?" I asked him. Was giving him an attitude the smartest thing to do? No. But I don't really have a filter. Before he could crush me with the power of his ring, Aquaman woke up and floated up to the top of the tank.

"Plutonium?" He asked. He pulled himself out of the tank and took the suction monitors off his chest.

"From the submarine. You stole it." Green Lantern said. I closed my eyes and smacked my palm to my forehead. Let's not ask the Atlantian how he feels since he almost died, let's ask him if he stole our nuclear devices. Nice bedside manners, John.

"My orders were to leave that vessel where it lay." Aquaman said, sounding quite angry.

Green Lantern getting in his face probably wasn't helping the situation. "And you expect us to believe that?"

"Believe what you want. Someone tried to kill me and I need to find out who."

I scoffed, "Yeah, join the club." He looked up at me and my eyes widened once I realized what I had said. "Not to be rude or anything, I mean you have every right to go looking for them." I stammered out. "I was just collateral damage, it was really you they were after. Not that it's a good thing, cause it's not. I'm just saying you're more important than I am…not that I'm not important, it's just cause you're royalty and I'm not and…" I finally stopped when Batman elbowed me in the ribs. Everybody in the room was now looking at me strangely. "Sorry." I whispered out, looking down at my boots.

"You go by Aquatica, do you not?" Aquaman asked me. I was stunned for a second. I just sounded like a lunatic, why was he talking to me?

"Yes, that's my hero name, but if you want you can call me Evie." I somehow managed to squeak out.

"I'm sorry you were hurt when it was me they were after." He said. "I've seen what you can do with water, it is quite interesting how someone from the land can control the water so fluently."

I almost fainted right then and there. Aquaman, the King of Atlantis, was complementing me on how I control water. I stammered out a quiet thank you, and then I started grinning like an idiot. Somehow, despite how crazy I looked, Aquaman managed to give me a soft smile.

Aquaman grew quite serious again, and he headed for the door, looking to leave.

"Wait, I can help." Batman said, stepping forward. "But you're going to have to trust me." Aquaman paused for a second, then he turned around and walked back into the room. We started discussing a plan to lure the would-be assassin out of hiding in order for them to finish off the job. J'onn would morph himself into Aquaman and be taken out by stretcher. The rest of us would be waiting for the assassin, and before he can do any real damage, we would catch him. Sounds easier said than done.

Night fell and we started our trap. The news crews were waiting outside along with an ambulance, after word had spread that Aquaman was being moved to a different facility to receive treatment. I was on the roof with Wonder Woman while Bats and Superman were on a rooftop across from us. We were all looking for any signs of the assassin. "I hope this plan of yours works, Batman." Diana said into her com link.

"Just keep your eyes open." He said. Not even five seconds later, the doors to the hospital opened and Aquaman was rolled out on a gurney. Immediately the news reporters and photographers were swarming him, trying to get a picture of the Atlantian. While everyone else was busy looking at Aquaman, I glanced down and saw somebody dressed in a parka and snow hat crouching behind a mail box. I believe I just found the assassin. He could have blended in a little more, it isn't December. I thought. Plus, the poor guy has to be dying under that parka.

"Guys, isn't it a little hot for winter clothes?" I said looking down at him. Just as I said it, he pulled out a missile launcher from his duffel bag.

"There!" Wonder Woman yelled out, pointing to the man. I rolled my eyes at that. No. Really? The guy wearing winter clothes in the summer is our guy…and he's right there?! Gasp. I'm sorry, I can't control my sarcasm.

"I see him." Batman said, looking through his binoculars. Or batnoculars as I now call them. I don't know what he calls them but it's probably the boring old name for them. At least my word was more fun.

Just before the assassin could pull the trigger on the launcher, Batman had thrown a batarang and pushed it downward, so the rocket hit the ground and exploded before it could hit any people.

As soon as he realized that his plan failed, the assassin ran away and down an alley. Superman flew after him while Batman went to check on J'onn. I decided to follow Superman to see if he needed any help. Just as I turned the corner, I saw that Superman had bent over to pick up a manhole cover, but as soon as he touched it he was thrown back and electrocuted.

Batman and J'onn ran down the alley as I was bent over Superman checking to see if he was okay. J'onn phased through, and I swore I heard an engine going past even though there was no cars around us. J'onn told Diana that our would be assassin was heading her way.

"Do you have this?" I asked Batman. He looked back down at Superman and nodded. "Alright, I'm gonna go help Wonder Woman." I jumped in the air and a disc was created under my feet. God, I loved doing that! I flew to where Wonder Woman should be positioned at.

There was a giant crash as Diana pounded her way through the ground. I waited to see what would happen, and there was another smaller portion of concrete that crumbled down again. "I don't think that was supposed to happen." I muttered to myself. I heard the engine of the assassin and I flew down into the original hole that Wonder Woman made.

I caught up with him after a few turns and I smirked. Wrong move going in the sewers buddy. I decided to mess with him a little bit. I froze his motorcycle so it stopped suddenly and he was thrown forward into the water. I stopped my disc and just hovered in the air a couple feet away from him. He was groaning and struggling to get up. I guess I threw him a little too hard.

"Next time, don't run from someone who controls water in a giant tube full of water." I said to him. There was a splash behind me and Batman was standing there. I pretended to dust my hands off and turned towards him. "Well, now that that's done would you mind cuffing him? I'm sure you have handcuffs with you, right?" Even from here I could see Batman roll his eyes at me but nonetheless he walked forward.

"Don't move." Batman growled out. I finally got a chance to look at the man, even if it was for a brief second. He wore a red and silver outfit, with what appeared to be a metal helmet that encased his whole head. He had a small red scope over his right eye, I assumed that helped him shoot. Before I was even done looking him over, he had rolled onto his back and threw a small silver circle in the air just above Batman's head.

My eyes widened and before I could do anything gas came out of the disc. The second it came near me I was thrown into a coughing fit so bad that I couldn't breathe. I barely saw through the gas the assassin running away, but I was coughing so bad I never would have been able to go after him.

The gas let up a few second later and I was able to draw a small breath. "What the hell was that?" I wheezed out. Through my watering eyes I could see Batman was doubled over coughing just as bad as I was. I gathered what little strength I had and raised the water levels up quickly until it reached the top of the ceiling and I brought it down just as fast.

The gas was gone and I gulped in some air, and I could hear that Bats was doing the same. "Sorry I got you wet, I had to get the gas off of you." My voice was all raspy from all the coughing.

"It's fine." Batman said, his voice gruffer than usual. He straightened himself up and looked down the pipe in the direction our guy had run down.

"I don't suppose you know where this pipe leads, do you?" I asked him.

"This isn't Gotham, I have no idea." He said. I nodded and started jogging down the path with Bats next to me.

"Wait, does that mean you know the sewers of Gotham too?" I asked him. He only smirked at me and didn't say anything while we continued to run. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. How do you have time to actually go do things when you're memorizing maps of the sewer?"

He was saved from answering when we reached the nearest manhole. Thankfully it was uncovered, but it was still a good ten feet up. Before I could even think, Batman had grabbed my waist and pulled me to him before he used his grapple to get us both out of the sewer.

My cheeks instantly went red after being in such close proximity to him. I'm not saying I liked him or anything, it was just a little unnerving. Plus I could feel his muscles and let me tell you, they felt pretty good. Don't blame me, I may be a hero but I am still a girl. I notice these things.

Once I steadied myself on the ground I muttered a thanks, trying to let him avoid seeing my red cheeks. I doubt he did but like the silent man he is, he didn't say anything. "Come on, Superman is following him." Bats said before using a grapple to get up into the air.

"Oh, right…yeah." I had almost forgotten we were following an assassin. I jumped on a disc and followed behind Bats. We rounded the corner and saw a green van on fire and Superman holding our assassin. "Do you know who this guy is?" I asked Bats.

"His name is Deadshot. He's one of the most deadly assassins out there. He hardly misses a target."

"Well, I hate to mess up his record." I said not sounding very sorry at all. We walked over to Superman just as Wonder Woman and J'onn did.

"Gee, why would a hired gun try to shoot somebody?" he asked, laying the sarcasm on thick. "Could it be that someone paid me to?" If he wasn't a bad guy I probably would have laughed at how sarcastic he sounded. A man after my own heart.

"Who?" Wonder Woman asked him.

"Oh come on babe, you know I can't tell you that. Professional ethics." He said. I could practically hear his eyes roll as he said that.

"Oh please," I said stepping forward. "You have no ethics. Just tell us who payed you already." I snapped out. I didn't feel like standing out here all night just so some jerk can mess with us.

"So you're the girl that can control water." He said. He looked me up and down and my skin crawled. "Tell me, are there any other liquids you can control? Cause sweetheart, I would love to find out." My eyes widened as I understood double meaning behind what he said.

"What did you just say to me?" I growled out. I walked forward and practically ripped Deadshot out of Superman's grasp and held him up by the front of his suit. "Would you like me to freeze that area of your body, sweetheart?" I practically spit at him. "Cause I can guarantee that would get you singing like a song bird."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I whipped my head around. "I'll take it from here." Batman said. I looked back at Deadshot to see that his eyes had gone wide. I shoved him into Batman's grip and took a step back.

I looked down and saw my hands were shaking, that's how mad I was. I'm a woman, not a piece of meat. I got enough of that kind of stuff in the Navy by the guys who didn't think I was worth anything. I certainly wasn't going to take it from some scumbag who shoots people. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Okay. I'll tell, I'll tell." Deadshot said. I was very pleased to hear that he sounded panicked.

"What did he say to him?" I asked Superman, curious of what Bats could have said to make him flip that fast.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Superman said. Well alrighty then.

The pair walked back over to us and Batman pushed him towards us. Deadshot dusted off his shoulder where Batman had touched him. "Who hired you?"

"I don't know. I don't ask questions." He said. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. A whole lot of help this guy was.

"Not good enough. How were you paid?" Batman said.

"In gold. See?" Deadshot looked over to an overturned chest that had an enormous amount of gold coming out of it. With the heated discussion between him and me, no one had noticed it.

"That has to be worth thousands of dollars." I said. Batman went over and picked up a piece and looked at it closely.

"Spanish doubloons." He said.

"Where would they get coins like this?" Wonder Woman asked.

I snorted "I don't know, maybe some pirates hired him." Everyone looked at me a little annoyed, except Deadshot who let out a loud snort. I looked at him furiously. "I don't remember talking to you." I said. His eyes widened and he didn't say anything else. I looked up and everyone was still looking at me. "Sorry." I said looking down at my boots. I really needed to stop doing that every time I get embarrassed, it was starting to become a bad habit.

"Atlantis. That is where you would get these coins." J'onn said. I realized he was right. With all the sunken ships and shipwrecks that have happened, especially during the times of the Spanish conquistadors, they would have plenty of treasure to just give away.

"We've got to warn Aquaman." Superman said.

"Too late." I looked up and Green Lantern was hovering above us before he dropped down onto the ground. "That royal pain in the neck's already gone. And I couldn't stop him."

"Hera help him." Wonder Woman said. I internally rolled my eyes at that, and then a thought popped into my head.

"Wait," I said. "Does this mean we are going to Atlantis?" I asked excitedly.

"It would seem so." Superman said. I squealed inside. Atlantis! The city underwater, where everyone there could control water and were super cool and watery! I wanted to jump up and down, I was so ready to go. "Come on, let's go."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Deadshot trying to nonchalantly creep away. "Not so fast." I said. He tried to run and I decided it was time for payback. I froze him directly to the ground in a giant bunch of ice. "This should hold him until the police arrive." I said. Superman chuckled and walked past me.

Deadshot was struggling to get out to absolutely no avail. We all filed past him, with Bats and I going past him last. "Aw come on sweetie, a little help here?" He shivered out. I just laughed and kept walking.

"Sorry, but you aren't getting out of there. Next time you should watch your mouth." I called over my shoulder.

"That was a little harsh, don't you think?" Batman asked me.

"Nope." I said, popping the 'p'. "He deserves it." I looked up and Batman was smirking again. "By the way, what did you say to him?" I asked.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." He said and quickened his pace so he was walking in front of me. I shrugged my shoulders. If he didn't want me to know, it's probably for the best.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Diana had gone to get the jet when the rest of us stayed behind and waited for her. We started discussing plans for how we would talk to Aquaman once we get to Atlantis. I had noticed that Batman had been very quiet and stood farther back away from the group. I walked over to him.

"Everything alright? You're even more quiet than usual."

"I'm fine." He said, not even bothering to turn towards me. "I'm not going with you guys to Atlantis. I'll stay up here and keep an eye on everything."

I guess I should have known that Bats wouldn't want to go with the rest of us. Even though he had been helping the League with the big dangers, he still preferred to work alone. "Alright, that's probably a good idea." I said. If something were to happen up here than none of us would know. "Let us know if you need anything." I had already turned and headed back towards the group when I heard the familiar sound of Bats' grapple shooting up. By the time I turned back around, he had disappeared in the shadows.

Diana had come back with the jet, so we all had piled in and headed towards the ocean. We dove under the waves and were off to Atlantis. This trip seemed longer than when we came to rescue the ship, and I started to get anxious. Despite working with the League for over a month now, I still got nervous before our encounters with the bad guys.

"We're almost there." Diana said breaking the silence. "Atlantis is just beyond that reef." I pushed aside my nerves and focused more on my excitement. I was going to go see Atlantis! I wondered what it looked like, if the buildings were made of gold, or coral, or old ships; I wasn't sure what to expect. It would be so cool to see a city that is completely underwater.

"Don't expect them to welcome us with open arms." Green Lantern said, and with that my excitement was swept away and my nerves had come back to take its place. Thanks G.L.

"Set the ship down here." Superman suggested. "Maybe we can slip under their defenses."

"Yeah, I doubt that. We are in their ocean. They probably knew we were here five minutes ago." I said. I love being right sometimes because no sooner had I said that, two explosions rocked the ship.

"Evie is right. They've already seen us." J'onn said. We all looked out the front window of the jet to see a giant ship that dwarfed ours, along with dozens of foot soldiers on their underwater jet skis.

"If it's a fight they want, they've got it." Green Lantern said glowing green and heading for the back. What is it with this guy and wanting to fight everyone?

"Wait! Remember why we're here." Diana said, stopping Green Lantern from doing anything too stupid, like start a war. That would be a pretty dumb thing to do. Even though he didn't look happy about it, G.L powered down.

"Good. Let's go talk to them." I said slipping on my air mask. Superman and Diana did the same and we opened our hatch and swam out into the middle of the vessels that were surrounding us.

"Hold your fire! We come with an urgent message for your king." Superman called out to the soldiers. I held my breath to see what they would do. A second later missiles were heading straight for us.

"Scatter!" I yelled out. Green Lantern put a shield around us to protect us from the blast and we headed towards different directions to stop the incoming soldiers. Two soldiers on speed jets were coming my way so I ducked and weaved in between the rocks to try and lose them. Unfortunately that didn't work, so I thought of a different plan. I hid on top of a rock, and when one of the jets came near me, I plunged myself on top of one of the soldiers shoulders and grabbed his neck. I flung him off the jet and he hit one of the rock formations.

However, in my genius plan I never thought about what I would do with the speed jet, you know, since I don't know how to drive it. The jet started plummeting to the ground so I jumped off and floated in the water. The jet hit the rocks below and exploded.

The other soldier following me saw the explosion and started coming in our direction. I pushed myself through the water until I was a good bit ahead of him. I stopped and turned around, looking at the jet. I waited until he was close to me and I took my staff, extended it, and clotheslined him. He flew off of his jet and sank to the bottom. I carefully swam back to where everyone else was trying to stop the larger ship from firing at us.

Superman lifted a rock and ran underneath the bottom of their sub, sinking it. "This way!" he said flying past us. We swam past another rock arch, and we saw the outline of buildings.

"There it is!" G.L pointed out and we swam faster to the buildings and as we got closer, I realized that the city was under a giant bubble. That surprised me, I thought that the city would be completely submerged underwater. I was so curious about the city, once we helped Aquaman I wanted to ask him if he could show me around. That might be a stretch though, considering I had only talked to him for a total of like, five minutes.

Once we got closer to the city, we started letting our guard down. There didn't seem to be any more soldiers following us, so we weren't in immediate danger. At least, that's what I thought. There was a blast behind us and silver spiked balls were floating past us. They reminded me of old Navy mines that you would see in movies.

We each ducked and dodged them, careful not to try and set them off. I dove down deeper and somersaulted myself over an incoming mine. I carefully weaved my way back to the others. "Not even close." Green Lantern said.

I was thrown forward into the rock wall when the first mine exploded behind us. Spoke too soon G.L, I thought. "Depth charges." I heard J'onn say. Each mine that went off caused the nearest one to go off as well, surrounding ourselves in a ring of explosions. I was being tossed against the cliffs from the pressures and forces of the explosions, and I was unable to get myself back up. After one large explosion, a piece of rock fell off the wall behind me, hitting my head and I blacked out.

Why was everything so bright? And what the hell is that beeping? I groggily opened my eyes and saw I was kneeling in a giant room, with marble floors and giant pillars. This must be one of the buildings inside of Atlantis, I thought. There was a man standing in front of Superman, speaking to him about Aquaman.

That's when I noticed the metal sensors on top of everyone's heads, I assumed that's what the beeping was. I thought my headache was because of the rocks, but now I'm pretty sure it's because of this thing on my head. What the hell were they planning on doing to us?

"Where's Aquaman?" Superman asked the man he was talking to.

"I thought your kind already took care of him." The man in the green outfit said.

"No. He came back here." Diana said, just waking up as well.

"We came to warn him about a plot against his life," Superman said, trying to make the guard understand that we wanted peace, and not a fight. "An Atlantian plot." I glanced around the room and noticed that we were surrounded by not only guards, but some civilians as well. They were all dressed in varying shades of green or blue. I wanted to look around some more, but the guard standing next to me didn't look too nice. I certainly didn't want him thinking I was trying to escape.

I noticed a movement on the balcony above me and I looked up to see one of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had red hair, that looked almost purple in the light, and she was wearing a green crop top with gold on the edges and matching pants. She had a sheer cape that trailed down her back and around her legs. Then I noticed the crown that was on top of her head. That has to be the Queen of Atlantis, I thought, perhaps she could get us out of this mess.

"Lies and deceptions!" The man Superman was talking to said. He picked up his trident and shot Superman with an electric beam. My eyes widened, why couldn't these jerks just believe what we are telling them? The force of the beam knocked Superman backwards and he laid on the ground groaning.

"I consider this latest incursion nothing less than an act of war." He said, looking at all of us.

"Yeah? Last time I checked, we didn't shoot first, you just did." I said, giving this man my meanest glare. He looked over at me and I knew I probably shouldn't have opened my mouth.

He walked over to me and knelt down, putting his trident right up against my throat. "You dare speak to me like that, you land dweller? Just because you can handle water as well as an Atlantian can, does not mean you are worth anything here." He pressed the end of the trident in my throat a little harder with enough pressure to draw blood, and then he stood back up and walked to the center of the line we were kneeled in. "You'll be executed as enemies of the crown. Then I will wipe out the surface world forever." With that threat he turned away, and we were all lead to a metal room.

The others were led in first and handcuffed to the walls. Just before I was about to enter a guard grabbed me and pushed me to the side. "This one thrives in the water. Take her to the heat chamber." A not so gentle guard pulled me out of this room and into a smaller one.

I started struggling but the guard only gripped my arm harder, so hard I'm pretty sure I'll have a bruise there tomorrow. "Umm, not to sound rude or anything but where are you taking me?" I asked him, figuring if I knew where I was going, I would be able to get myself out of this situation.

"The heat chamber." He grunted out, obviously not interested in talking to me.

"Oh, now I know where I'm going. Thanks big man!" I said in the most sarcastic tone of voice I could possibly muster at the moment. Suddenly he spun me around so my back was to the wall and my feet off the floor, while he was holding me up by my neck. This guy had a strong grip and I couldn't draw in a breath.

"Listen to me you Land Dweller, I don't like you. Quite frankly, I'm going to enjoy watching you burn up in the heat chamber." My eyes widened and I started panicking. What did he mean I would burn up? He gave me a sickly sinister grin. "That's right girl. The heat chamber is where Atlantians go to die. It's so hot it burns them to a crisp. Who knows what it will do to you when you're in there." At this point I was seeing black spots in my vision and I could feel myself about to lose consciousness, until he released my neck and I dropped to the floor.

The second the pressure was gone I started sucking in air, trying to get the pounding out of my ears and the spots in my vision to go away. I had hardly taken a single deep breath when he pulled my arm and practically dragged me the rest of the way down the hallway. He opened a door and inside was a glass container, with large vents coming into the top of the container.

My heart rate quickened and I started squirming harder. Too long in that heat, and the water inside of me would evaporate, killing me in a matter of minutes, practically burning me from the inside out. My struggles were proven completely pointless as the guard threw me in the chamber and the door locked behind me.

I scrambled onto my feet and started banging on the door trying to break it. The guard looked back at me and sneered before pressing some controls on a table in the middle of the room.

The vents turned on and I immediately felt the heat coming through them. Imagine opening a black car in the middle of the summer on the equator. Then multiply it times a hundred. Within thirty seconds of the vents turning on I could feel myself becoming dehydrated and sweat was pouring off my body. The seconds seemed like lifetimes, and I could feel my skin drying up, literally watching cracks form on my arms. I started coughing and I collapsed onto my knees. The inside of my body felt like literal fire, and I curled up into the fetal position.

I figured that this was the end of my life. The city that I was so excited and willing to see would be my cemetery. I wanted to laugh at the irony but if I did that my lungs might turn to dust. I closed my eyes, preparing for death, when I realized it had gone quiet in my glass box. Then I realized the vents were no longer on.

My eyes fluttered open and I saw a woman on the other side of the glass, the unconscious guard at her feet, pressing the buttons on the control panel. She looked up at me and I realized that it was the woman in the crown that I had seen earlier. The door to my box opened and a cool gush of wind came in.

I still couldn't move, but I felt her drag me out of the box and onto the granite floors in the middle of the room. I probably looked pathetic, trying to draw air into my lungs, but my entire body felt so dry that I couldn't do anything properly. I wondered if this is what fish felt like when they were out of water. "Perhaps this will help." I heard the woman say. Seconds later I felt a splash of water on me, and it was absolute Heaven.

Just from that one splash of water, I felt ten times better. I was able to draw in breaths without sounding like I was dying, and I could start to move my body more without being afraid it would break apart. The woman gave me another splash of water and I felt completely renewed. I sat up and looked up at her. "I don't mean to sound rude, but who are you?" I asked her. She held out a hand and pulled me up from the ground so I could steady myself.

"I am Mera, Queen of Atlantis and wife to our King, Aquaman." She said. I nodded and looked down at the guard lying on the floor.

"Nice work there your majesty." I grinned and looked at her. She also smiled, but it vanished quickly and she looked quite serious.

"We must go now. You're friends are in as much danger as you were in." I frowned, suddenly worried about them. In my whole being turned into a raisin ordeal I had completely forgotten about them being chained to their own chamber. Mera and I rushed out into the hallway and back where the others were. We peeked into the door and I saw that the container the others were in was filling up with water. Now I see why I couldn't have gone in there. It would have been way too easy for me to stop the water. I checked to make sure the others hadn't drowned yet, but they were still struggling which meant that they hadn't been underwater too long.

Mera went in first, slipping through the door and behind the guards. Without warning, she picked up a silver weapon that somewhat resembled Hawkgirl's mace, and whacked both guards on the head with it. They crumpled to the ground in a heap and didn't move. I rushed into the room while Mera was already pulling the lever to drain the water that had filled the container with everyone in it.

The water was sucked down the drain like an oversized bathtub and the glass lifted up. The others were panting hard, trying to catch their breath and refill their bodies with oxygen. I didn't even bother waiting for a key and I went over to J'onn first and slashed his shackles off with a piece of thick ice. He ripped the headband off his head and sent me a smile.

Mera had already taken the locks off of John and she was making her way to Diana. "Thank you. But why?" Diana asked Mera in a weak voice. Usually I would have something sarcastic to say about the whole thing, but seeing as how she almost died I would give her a break, just this once.

"You believe someone in Atlantis had betrayed my husband. I also fear for his life, but I need your help." She explained. My heart went out to the poor woman. She sounded so desperate and sad, you couldn't help but want to help her.

"You've got it." John said, with Superman and J'onn walking behind him and rubbing their wrists where the handcuffs were. I smiled a bit at that, it was nice to see John so determined to help the Atlantians when twelve hours earlier he hated them. I personally think John needs to let lose a little bit, he's too serious all the time.

Mera had led us out of this torture building and let us walk around Atlantis. The buildings were incredible, they were all sorts of geometric shapes, and the colors weren't too bright or too dark, they resembled natural ocean colors. I was practically bouncing up and down when I was walking I was so excited. Apparently I was too excited cause Superman put a hand on my shoulder in order to calm me down a tad bit. "Sorry." I said shrugging and looking sheepish. He only smiled and shook his head. That's what I liked about him. He didn't take the small things too seriously unlike some people we know. *cough cough* John Stewart *cough cough*. Oh sorry, must have had a tickle in my throat.

Anyway, back to the tour. The best part was the giant waterfall that was in the middle of the city. It had a bridge that circled the whole thing and the sound was so soothing. It seemed like the most fitting thing to have in the center of the city. A place where air can meet water all the time.

"Your kingdom is truly magnificent." Wonder Woman said, reflecting my thoughts. "I see why Aquaman protects it so passionately."

"Unfortunately, there are those whose ambitions would destroy it." She said. I had to hand it to her, for her family being missing, she was holding all of this together very well. I suppose that must have been the Queen in her. Her people looked to her and drew their strength from her.

Mera was right with the whole destroying Atlantis bit, because when we turned the corner on the bridge guards started shooting at us, nearly hitting the Queen herself. Out of instinct, I drew the water from the waterfall and froze it creating a giant block of ice in order to protect us from them.

More guards came from behind us and I heard Green Lantern tell everyone to step back. I was too focused on my ice to really pay attention to what he was doing but I heard a giant boom and the bridge rattled, with the sounds of screaming guards following. Luckily I had jumped and formed an ice disk while everyone else floated above the hole in the bridge, with Diana holding Mera.

"Well that was easy." I said while evaporating the water from the ice into my staff, which was now back on my belt.

"Thank you." Mera said looking up at Diana.

"This fight is far from over." J'onn said looking at all of us. He flew up over the city and we all followed suit. We decided to go back to the palace in order to regroup and think of a plan. We entered the throne room, and we were all impressed. It was made completely of white marble and silver stone. On the far edge of the room sat a platform with Aquaman's throne on it, in between two black marble pillars. I was ogling at the room when my eyes found Mera.

She looked as if she were about to collapse from the stress she had been through these past two days. "Your highness, perhaps it is best if you rest for a minute." I said gesturing to the stairs in front of the throne. She gave me a grateful smile and I led her over to the stairs while the others seemed to split up to look for Aquaman. I sat with her and tried my best to soothe her.

After a few moments neither of us had spoken. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to say to the woman. She was missing her husband and son, even I had no idea what kind of pain that felt like. "You are quite talented with water." She said softly, breaking the silence.

"Thank you." I said just as quietly, not wanting to be so loud in this big room.

"It seems as if you are not Atlantian, yet you have the very powers that we have. How is that?" She inquired. I bit my lip, thinking of a way to tell her how I got my powers without boring her about my past.

"Well, I was part of the military for a little while. One day I had walked into a lab filled with chemicals, and one of them exploded. The next thing I knew when I woke up in our hospital, I could control and manipulate water." I said. I figured that would be the short and sweet version. Mera was looking at me with wide eyes, as if she was surprised that I was not born with this ability.

She seemed to have gotten over her disbelief and she smiled. "When this whole thing is over you should come back here to Atlantis sometime. Perhaps you can learn new ways to use your powers and I could gain a friend." She said looking over at me. "I may be queen, but that does not mean that I have too much time to go out on social visits. It would be nice to do girl things with someone who isn't intimidated because I am their queen." She explained.

I sent her a smile and patted her hand. "That sounds wonderful. I would love to see more of your kingdom." I said. Before Mera could reply J'onn materialized through the floor.

"We've searched the entire palace." He said. Superman and Diana flew in from an upstairs balcony.

"But there's still no sign of him." Superman said. With these words, Mera finally broke. Her strong façade cracked and it was plain as day, the pain that she was feeling. She put her hands over her face and sobs racked her body. I put a comforting arm around her shoulders and my other hand rubbed circles in her arm.

"Mera, it's going to be okay. We'll do everything we can to bring them back to you, I promise." I said to her. Just then, footsteps echoed down the hall and everyone, except Mera, looked up at the doorway. I looked up and my jaw dropped.

Inside the doorway was Aquaman, holding a baby who I presumed was his son. The joy didn't last because my eyes immediately glanced down to the red bandage covering his left hand. That can't be good. Mera must have sensed that someone else was in the room with us, because she stopped sobbing and moved her hands from her face. She finally looked up to see her husband and child in the doorway.

A look of pure joy swept across her features and in mere seconds she was sprinting across the room to get to them. I stood up from the steps and met the others in the center of the room. She tackled them both into a hug and they murmured some words to each other, but as soon as Aquaman let go of his son, we all could see the red stump where his hand used to be.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

While Aquaman wasn't freaking out over missing a hand the rest of us were. Mera immediately rushed him to their version of a hospital so he could get looked at and possibly fixed. From what I understood, the doctors didn't think they could reattach the hand, but they could put on a prosthetic.

We all stood in the operating room while the doctor put something metal in place of Aquaman's hand. The noises of the drills and the sight of all the blood was making me a little nauseas, so I did the best I could not to look over at the doctor working, instead, finding the floor tiles much more interesting.

"His own hand. I can't believe it." Superman said, still not quite believing it.

"I told you he was a madman." John said, crossing his arms.

"Is it madness to sacrifice all for someone you love?" Mera asked him. At least John had the decency to look a little ashamed for calling her husband crazy right in front of them.

"Can't you work any faster?" Aquaman demanded of the doctor. Good grief, if cutting off your own hand isn't enough to keep you down, than what is?

"This is a delicate operation, My Lord." The doctor said. "It can't be rushed." I don't know what kind of doctors they had here in Atlantis, but they freaked me out. Why were they in a full body jumpsuit? It was extremely unnerving to not see any skin at all, and only see a blue suit and some weird looking goggles.

Aquaman continued to sit in the chair, groaning in pain as the doctor attached his prosthetic on. I'm glad I wasn't in that situation, cause they would have had to have given me barrels of anesthesia to make sure I didn't feel a thing.

Suddenly a small beeping noise disturbed the continual zapping of the doctor's instruments. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but then I realized it was one of our com links. "Superman, a situation has developed up at the north pole." Ah, so Bats decided to make another appearance today. How thoughtful of him.

"What, did Santa forget to pay his rent this month?" I said loud enough for Batman to hear. I heard the loud sigh and could practically picture the eye roll and frown that was quite normal for Bats to wear when he was around either me or Flash. What can I say? We are the comedic relief to this team.

"No Evelyn." Bats said. Ouch, use of my full name. "Thermal readings show temperatures increasing rapidly."

"If that continues, the ecological effects could be catastrophic." J'onn said.

"Then let's check it out." John said, always ready for a fight, he is.

"But what about the crisis here?" Diana asked, looking over at the royal family who was gathered around the doctor.

"I have a feeling the two events are connected." I said.

Aquaman looked over at us just as I said this. "It's the doomsday thermal reactor." I blinked, not quite understanding what he was saying.

"Uh, yeah sorry but did you say a doomsday thermal reactor?" I asked. "That doesn't sound like a fun time."

Aquaman ignored me. "We designed it to create a polar meltdown."

"What?" John shouted. Great, and these two were getting along somewhat well.

"I had it built as a weapon of last resort." Aquaman explained. "To protect Atlantis, should the surface world ever attack." We all just stood there in shock, not quite believing that the Atlantians had a weapon that could kill all of the humans in practically a day. "But I never armed it." Aquaman added looking down.

"Oh, well if you never armed it I guess that makes it a-okay then, doesn't it?" I said, getting quite upset. Not only was he prepared to kill us but he would take the rest of the animals down with us? I mean honestly there are better ways to end the world then melting the North Pole. Think about the polar bears people! We need to save them!

Aquaman glared at me, but it faded when he saw just how upset we all were. His glare turned into shame, and my heart started to melt a little bit. I could see he never actually intended to use it. This doomsday device was no different than our nuclear weapons. God forbid those ever have to get used. I suddenly felt bad for snapping at him like that.

"Then Orm must have armed them," John said, interrupting the awkward silence that had settled around us. "Using the plutonium from the submarine."

"If the polar cap melts the world will sink beneath the waves." Superman said. To be honest that didn't sound like such a bad world. I mean, I would have fun, the Atlantians would have fun, but I guess for everyone else it would kind of suck. "Everything will be destroyed." He concluded. Suddenly this plan didn't sound as cool.

"We have to stop Orm." I said.

"And he will be." Aquaman said. His procedure was finally done and he stood up from his operating chair. In place of his left hand was a harpoon, attached by a gold medal holder on his wrist. That was the most metal thing I have ever seen, no pun intended. He was like a cooler version of Captain Hook. Except much hotter. What? I'm not blind. He's gorgeous.

"I'll see to it personally." He said and with the expression that was on his face I believed him. Poor Orm. He's gonna have hell to pay when Aquaman gets ahold of him.

"So, road trip to the North Pole anyone?" I asked.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Soon enough we were on our way to the North Pole. Aquaman decided to swim there while the rest of us flew. Well, I say flew but I guess you can call my version surfing. It was so much fun to skim across the tops of waves, I don't know why I didn't do it more often. Oh, that's right, cause I'm always saving the world and kicking ass.

Aquaman was pretty fast in the water, I had to go my full speed just to keep up with him. He was literally like a torpedo in the water. We reached the shore to the North Pole and he flipped himself out of the water, scaring off some seals that were chilling on the ice cap. And yes, I totally meant that pun.

"Aquaman, wait!" Superman called to him. I got off my ice disk and started walking behind Aquaman, with my staff in hand.

"Why do you follow?" He retorted looking between me and the others.

"We want to help." Diana told him.

"This is my battle." Aquaman said, obviously not budging on doing this by himself. "No one asked you to fight it."

"Well since we all live on this planet, we automatically have to help protect it." I said, flipping my staff over in my hand. "You don't get a say in that matter."

The others hovered beside both of us. "Evie is right." Superman said. "Like it or not, we have a stake in the outcome. We're not leaving."

"Just stay out of my way." Aquaman grumbled out. With all the grumbling this guy does he could rival Batman. Suddenly, a light beneath the ice exploded and we were all pushed back, but we landed on our feet. Here we go again.

The ground beneath us shook and two giant Atlantian ships rose out of the ice and started shooting at us. Superman and J'onn flew towards the closes ship while Green Lantern put himself, Diana, Aquaman and I into a ball and flew us right behind the others.

Up ahead I saw an entire squadron of Atlantian soldiers on jet skis come towards us. "Hope you guys are ready." G.L. said and he reduced the sphere, letting Aquaman land in the ocean while the rest of us flew towards the ship. G.L put up a shield to block the rays from the soldier's guns. I lifted the water up to create a giant wave that lifted all the skis out of the water and flipped them over, sending the soldiers tumbling into the water. That should stop them for a little bit, I thought.

There was a loud cracking noise behind me and I turned to see some of the big glaciers starting to crumble apart, it was getting too warm up here. "Superman, the glaciers are already starting to melt." I heard Batman say through our coms. I looked over my other shoulder and saw his bat jet moving past the glaciers on the other side.

"I know, but we've got our hands full here." Superman said into his com. In the background I could hear the firing of the guns and they were only getting louder. I whipped around and saw another fleet of skis coming towards us. Four were headed straight for me, so instead of flipping them up this time, I decided to get a little rougher. I made a wall if ice right on the surface of the water. When the skis tried to go over it, they got caught and the men were sent dozens of feet up in the air and landed with a smack in the water.

Suddenly there was a huge splash and I looked over to see Aquaman on the back of an orca, jumping on top of a group of soldiers. "That has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen." I said to myself. (And look! Another ice pun!)

I looked back around and saw that everyone else was busy fighting other soldiers, but the glaciers were still melting at an alarming rate. "We need to turn the machine off." I said into my ear com. "Does anyone copy?"

"I'm already on my way over to the machine, meet me there." Batman said. I looked around and saw that one specific glacier had heat waves coming off of it. Looks like I found the hiding place. I jumped on a disc and made my way to the glacier, with Batman catching up to me. "There's not much time." He said looking over at me. "If we can't shut that down the entire world is doomed."

"I suppose this is a bad time to say I told you so." Green Lantern said into his comm.

I rolled my eyes. "Now really isn't the time Green Bean." I said. I turned to Batman. "What do we have to do?" Before he could answer me there was a bigger rumble than before as more ice fell down into the ocean. "Wait, did it just get hotter?" I asked.

Batman didn't say anything, which meant that I was probably right. We both landed and stood at the entrance of the glacier, dodging the falling ice pieces. "Bats, we might be too late." I said, starting to get a little panicked.

"Not yet." He said as he ran into the glacier. I chased after him, right on his heels. We raced in through a side entrance and saw the giant machine sparking and smoking. Great, it's completely fried. I nervously looked over at Batman but he didn't seem to be worrying too much. He picked up a few pieces of the machine and threw them back down.

"No good. I'll have to go inside and manually shut it down."

"That doesn't sound too safe." I said, worriedly looking at the machine which seemed to be sparking even more frequently.

"Your ice, can it protect me?" Batman asked.

I paled a little bit, I wasn't sure if I could put enough ice around him without actually seeing him. "I might, but I would have to be directly with you. I'm not sure if I could do it without a visual." I quickly said, knowing that time was of the essence. Batman seemed to hesitate for a second, but he nodded.

"Alright then." I said. I stood directly next to him and closed my eyes. I imagined a layer of ice covering both of us, but with the consistency of water, so we could move without breaking the ice. To my absolute surprise it held together when we walked forward into the tube we would have to crawl into.

Batman went crawling in first and I followed behind him. We had only been in for a few moments when an explosion rocked the machine back and forth. We both paused and waited to make sure nothing would happen then we continued on at a faster pace. "We might want to hurry, just a teeny bit." I said.

It was hot as hell in this machine, and I could feel myself starting to weaken. I wasn't fully recovered from the heat chamber I had been put in earlier today, and this was only depleting me more. Plus, I was tasked with keeping both Bats and I safe from this machine, using a technique I had never done before. Needless to say, the stress was starting to get to me. "Seriously Bats, how much longer?" I asked through gritted teeth, with sweat dripping from my forehead.

"We're here." He said as we came up on a valve release. He twisted the nozzle and the machine started shutting down. As soon as he said we were safe, I release my hold on the water and it fell onto the ground. I don't even have the energy to soak it all up. I lean up against the wall and put my head back, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I probably look like a wreck at this point but I didn't care.

"You alright?" Batman asked. I opened one eye to look at him and he was staring at me, looking quite concerned.

"I'm fine. It's just been a long day." I said, resting my head back against the wall.

"I could assume that from the bruises on your neck." He said, nodding to them. Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about that.

"Yeah well what can I say, me and security guards don't get along. Especially when they throw you in a heat chamber and try to turn you into a raisin." I said. He nodded so I guess he understood what I was saying. I had finally gotten my breathing returned to normal and I sat up on my knees. "Okay, let's get out of here."

We crawled back out of the tunnel to see Aquaman walking towards us. "Looks like we did it." I said.

"Then the threat is over." Aquaman said. Without another word we left the machine behind and went towards the entrance of the cave where the jet was parked. Aquaman jumped in the water and went back over to the others, presumably to tell the others the good news.

"Do you want a ride?" Batman asked me. I was quite shocked, usually once the mission was finished he would high tail it out and we wouldn't see him for a few days. I was still feeling weak so I nodded and jumped in the back. Bats got in the front and threw me something, which landed in my lap.

"Here, this should help." I looked down, and sitting in my lap was a bottle of water. I arched an eyebrow and picked it up.

"Since when do you keep water in your jet?" I asked him.

"Since the last time I got thirsty." He deadpanned out. It took me a second to realize that he was joking.

"Are you joking around with me?" I asked him. He didn't say anything but I could see him smirking in the reflection of the glass. "You are joking." I gasped. "Mark this down ladies and gents, that on this day in the good year of our Lord, the Batman of Gotham told a joke!" I said in a totally ridiculous British accent.

"Evie, just drink the water." He replied, but I could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. Soon enough we had landed where the others were. He opened the hatch and I jumped out, but I realized that he didn't.

"Are you coming with us?" I asked. He just shook his head.

"I need to-"

"get back to Gotham." We both finished at the same time. "Yeah, I know." I said. I smiled and turned around. "Hey Bats?" I said looking over my shoulder. He looked up at me expectantly. "Thanks for everything." I said. He nodded and flew off.

I turned back around and the others were talking to Aquaman. "I need to get back and fix the damage my brother has done to my kingdom." He said.

"We'll come with you, in case you need anything." Superman said. Aquaman looked reluctant but he agreed. "Very well."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We all stood in the throne room, with Mera standing next to Aquaman who was sitting in his throne. We all were behind the throne in a line. Aquaman said he needed to hear what the guards who had betrayed him had to say about their actions. He sent for them and they were escorted in.

One man was pushed to the front by the others. Poor son of a bitch, I thought. He was going on and on about how they were not to be blamed for their treason. "And surely, you must know, My Lord. Our loyalty belongs to you and you alone. We never believed in Orm's plan. But your brother forced us. The truth is we were only following orders." He said as he finished.

I didn't think for one second that Aquaman believed any of this, and I was proven right. Aquaman stood up and looked down on the guards. "Get them out of my sight." He said. From the look on his face I could understand why he was such a great king. His orders were absolute, but when the time came for it he was kind and caring. He was exactly what people needed.

"I can only blame myself." Aquaman sighed out. "My fear of the surface dwellers blinded me to those I should've feared most, and it cost me dearly." He finished the end of his sentence holding up his new harpoon hand.

"Don't be too hard on yourself." John told him. "Maybe we've all misjudged." He said. It seems that it only caused the world to almost end for these two to see the error of their ways and reach an understanding of each other. Go figure.

"Perhaps. All I want…all I've ever wanted is peace and security for Atlantis." He said, looking out at the silhouette of the buildings that made up his kingdom.

Superman stepped forward. "After what's happened, it won't be easy."

"I know." Aquaman turned around and looked at his son, who was in Mera's arms. "But some sacrifices are worth it."

"Besides, I don't think you're one for doing things the easy way." I said. Aquaman looked over at me and chuckled.

"I want to thank you all." He said, looking at each of us individually."

"It's not a problem. Anytime you need help, just let us know." Superman said. We took that as our dismissal and we started to walk out.

"Evie!" Mera called out. I turned around and she came walking forward and wrapped her arms around me, now that she had handed to baby to Aquaman. I returned the gesture. "Thank you so much." She said. She pulled out of the hug and kept her hands on my shoulders. "You are always welcome to come and visit me and my family." She said.

"Thank you." I said, "I'll make sure to stop by soon." I gave her one last smile and headed for the large doors. I had a strong feeling in me, that even though it has been a rough road between us, one day the Atlantians and the people on the land would one day live together in harmony.

[cheemerthelizard]

Crusader of Life (Kakyoin x Reader) Chapter 14

Finally in Egypt. Dio was so close you could taste him. And since almost all of the Tarot cards had been used up, you should be pretty much done. Right? Right?

“I told you!” you boasted as you all sped through the desert sand in the dune buggy Joseph rented. “I told you we were gonna be attacked by a Stand!”

“We just had a near-death experience,” Joseph groaned, “and you want to brag about it?”

“I’m bragging because I was right,” you told him. “I knew that the submarine was a great place to get us cornered.”

“She has a point,” Avdol added. “She predicted what we didn’t.”

“Well, enough about that now,” Joseph said, trying to change the subject, “we’re actually meeting some Speedwagon guys just up ahead. They’ll arrive in a helicopter.”

“Really?” Kakyoin asked. “After we just wrecked their submarine?”

“They understand that some things may be damaged while we fight off constant Stand attacks,” Joseph explained. “Plus, this time, they’re bringing someone who’ll assist us.”

“Assist us?” Jotaro, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up. “You mean, another Stand user?”

“Precisely,” Joseph said. “But we’ll have to be careful. He has some... personality issues.”

Some time had passed, and everyone had gotten out of the buggy and met the Speedwagon guys in the helicopter.

“Iggy’s in the back,” one of them pointed to the rear door of the helicopter. “But be cautious. The ride here was really rough, so he’s already in a bad mood.”

“Well, where is he?” Polnareff asked, rummaging through the back. “Come on, show yourself!”

“Polnareff, be careful,” Joseph warned. “One of Iggy’s favorite things to do is-“

Just then, a tiny dog jumped out from the blanket on the seat and started attacking Polnareff.

“...chew people’s hair,” Joseph finished.

Iggy... Iggy was a dog? “How does such a tiny little thing have a Stand?” you accidentally thought out loud.

“You’d be surprised,” Joseph replied, then went to talk in private with the two Speedwagon members.

“Iggy!” Avdol prompted, holding up some gum. “I’ve got a treat for you!” Of course, Iggy came sprinting towards the smell of whatever flavor that gum was. You looked at the package, and saw it was coffee flavored.

“Coffee flavored gum,” you muttered. “What a weird dog.”

Still, weird or not, that fur on Iggy’s back was begging to be scratched, and you couldn’t just say no. While the tiny dog was distracted with his chewy snack, you sunk your hands into his back and started to pet it. He jumped a little bit at first, but quickly let you keep going. You decided to use different types of pets, too. You softly stroked him from his head to his rear, used your nails to delicately scratch his skin, and massaged slowly with your fingers. It wasn’t long before Iggy rolled over to let you rub his belly.

“Oh, yes, you’re a good boy,” you cooed. “A good boy with a Stand, that’s all.”

“You’ve already bonded with the dog,” Kakyoin chuckled.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for animals,” you said, still rubbing Iggy’s belly. “It can’t be helped.”

Kakyoin gave a small “hm,” as he started to sit down next to you in the sand. Both of you sat silently next to each other for a minute or two, until you let Iggy go, and watched him run back to chase Polnareff.

“Iggy really doesn’t like him, huh?” you giggled.

“Yeah,” Kakyoin said, almost deadpan. “You know, I overheard from Mr. Joestar’s conversation that there’s more Stand users headed our way. These guys have Stands named after Egyptian gods, and will be much more powerful.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” you replied. “Good thing we know they’re headed our way.”

“That’s not the point,” Kakyoin interjected. “The thing is, well, your Stand... will you be alright? I won’t be mad if you leave now. Don’t get me wrong, Ace of Pentacles is plenty strong, but not... fighting wise. I mean, um,”

“I know what you’re trying to say,” you laughed. “And no, I won’t be leaving. I just have to stay out of trouble, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Kakyoin sighed. “I just don’t want you getting in any unnecessary danger.”

“Isn’t this whole trip just one big case of unnecessary danger?” You were only half joking, though.

“Hey, you two!” Joseph yelled from the buggy. “We’re leaving!”

“Coming!” Kakyoin yelled back. Both of you ran back, and entered the back of the buggy. However, Kakyoin was promptly forced out by a growling Iggy. The dog looked at you, and crawled into your lap, immediately rolling over to expose his stomach. Looks like your ticket to an actual seat would come with a price. And you knew from then on Iggy would know you as “The girl who pets me.”

“It just isn’t fair!” Polnareff pouted. “Why do (Y/N) and the dumb mutt get the full backseat to themselves while we have to be cramped in the trunk?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault he warmed up to me,” you grunted.

“Technically, it is,” Jotaro countered. “You decided to pet him, and so now he loves you. Dogs will love anyone who shows them affection.”

“Okay, maybe it is my fault,” you argued, “but I didn’t know this would happen.”

“Stop bickering back there!” Joseph said from the front. “When we reach a stopping place, we’ll throw some gum in the trunk, and you guys can move to the seats.”

“Fine,” Polnareff grumbled.

For a good while, the only sounds were the rumble of the car and Iggy’s happy grunts. But that nice silence quickly came to a stop as Joseph slammed on the breaks, sending the boys in the trunk flying forward.

“Hey, what gives?!” Polnareff exclaimed.

“Sorry about that,” Joseph replied, “but we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands.”

It didn’t take long for you to notice the helicopter that had delivered Iggy to you. Once the car was stopped, everyone ran out to look at the rubble from the wreck, and see if it was just mechanical failure, or if their new enemy Stand user had already arrived.

“Look at those scratch marks,” Jotaro pointed to the hull of the copter, where beast-like marks were clawed throughout. Subconsciously, your eyes moved down to the man who was right under the helicopter, and you immediately had to look away. That didn’t stop the horrifying image from burning itself into your mind, though. The man’s fingernails were bent unnaturally upward, and his mouth was filled to the brim with water. On top of that, he had a distorted look on his face, similar to the man in the fog town with Enyaba. The whole thing made you want to puke.

“Everyone, I found the second guy over here!” Kakyoin shouted. “He’s still alive!”

Sure enough, when you ran over, the second man was very much alive, but he was so dehydrated, he looked like a raisin.

“W...wa...ter...” was all the man could rasp out.

“Water! Of course! He needs water!” Kakyoin muttered. He quickly found a canteen that still felt somewhat full, and started to slowly dip it down for the pruned man. “Drink slowly,” he ordered.

“N-no! The water!” The Speedwagon Foundation worker suddenly gained the ability to make full sentences. “The water’s going to attack!”

Without warning, the water from the canteen shot forward in the shape of a hand, grabbed the man’s head, and ripped it off, sucking it into the canister from where it came. Nobody wasted any time getting out of the way, and hiding in the sand. Polnareff and Kakyoin were opposite to you, Jotaro, Joseph, and Avdol. And from what you saw, they seemed to be arguing, pointing over to the canteen from time to time.

“(Y/N),” Joseph looked over at you, his eyes barely over his hat, “I’ve gotten word from the Speedwagon Foundation that there are more, stronger Stand users who’ll be attacking us. For your own safety, I suggest leaving now, before you get caught in a situation that you can’t save yourself from.”

“Mr. Joestar,” a smile curled up from your mouth, “I appreciate your concern, but I can fend for myself if that happens. You’ve seen how Ace of Pentacles has gotten us out of tricky situations before. I can always do the same thing to myself.”

“She’s right,” Avdol replied. “Plus, she’s vital to the team. If she wasn’t here, we’d spend way too much money on first aid.”

“Hey,” Jotaro pointed over to Kakyoin and Polnareff. “What’s that thing in between them?”

It looked like a hand with very sharp fingernails, from what you could see. But it was clear...

No. But how? The Stand was in the canteen! When did it escape?

Before you could process what was going on, the water hand swiped at Kakyoin’s eyes, and he instantly fell to the ground.

“Kakyoin!” Polnareff shouted. “It... it got his eyes!”

“Kakyoin!” you screamed. You got up from your hiding spot to run over, but quickly felt a force pulling you back. You looked behind you, and Star Platinum was holding your shirt. Still, you clawed at the loose sand, hoping to make some sort of progress, but no prevail.

“Good grief, (Y/N),” Jotaro sighed. “We don’t even know what this Stand can do. Making sudden movements probably isn’t the best idea.”

Sure enough, right in front of you, the enemy’s Stand had appeared from underneath the Earth. After seeing what it had done to both the Speedwagon worker and Kakyoin, having it right in front of you made a wave of fear roll over your entire body. Was this it? We’re you going to die right here, before you could even save Kakyoin?

Before you knew it, though, the hand dashed over to a beeping sound coming from the Speedwagon member’s watch and swiped off his arm. Of course, that didn’t really matter, since he was already beheaded. But it gave you some insight to what really triggered the Stand’s movements.

“Sound!” Everyone turned to face you. “The Stand navigates by sound! That being said, nobody move!”

However, even with everyone staying completely still, the blood from Kakyoin’s eyes dripped to the floor. It didn’t take long for the water to hear it, and it shot back towards Polnareff.

“Okay, screw the staying still,” Joseph ordered, “everyone to the buggy!”

Of course, the crew obeyed, Polnareff carrying Kakyoin in his arms. Joseph and Jotaro, aided by their Joestar genes, made it first, followed by Avdol, you, and Polnareff, who quickly laid Kakyoin on the roof of the buggy.

“Fix him!” he demanded. “You have to fix him!”

“I’m doing it right now, geez!” you replied, having already summoned Ace of Pentacles.

“Yeah, well, do it faster!”

“If I don’t get this eye anatomy right, Kakyoin’s eyes will be deformed for the rest of his life!” You started to get uncharacteristically snappy. “Now, shut up and let me do this correctly!”

Of course, you couldn’t get into a full-blown argument right now. After all, if your full concentration wasn’t on Kakyoin, his eyes would never be the same. It’s a good thing you decided to take anatomy classes, because they were sure coming in handy.

“Alright, he’s fixed!” You started beaming with joy. “Now we just need to keep him away from danger until he wakes up.”

“Why isn’t he awake now?” Polnareff whined.

“Because, Polnareff,” you growled, driving every ounce of anger out of your body, “since my Stand isn’t instantly healing someone, rather just making extensions of other cells in their body to heal them, the pain from the injury is still there. Also, don’t you think I care about Kakyoin the most? I’m so close to him, he’s dating me! You’re lucky Ace doesn’t have any fighting abilities, or you’d be sent back to the sand, where Water Boy can rip your face straight off of that head with more hair follicles than brain cells! Because it seems like you’d rather me heal Kakyoin quickly, rather than heal him correctly!” After the rant was over, you started breathing hard, trying to calm yourself down.

“You done yet?” Jotaro asked.

“Yeah, I’m done,” you said.

Suddenly, the buggy's wheels sinking into the sand, which had been turned into mud. There was only one thing that could’ve happened. Water Claw was on the attack again. Before you knew it, the buggy had been flipped almost completely around, and everyone fell back down to the Earth, at the enemy’s mercy.

“Well, what do we do now?” Polnareff asked, not moving an inch.

“I guess this is the time to stay completely still,” Joseph answered. “Other than that, pray our souls will be saved.”

“Wait!” Avdol exclaimed. “I have an idea.” He started throwing his bracelet rings, one by one, in a footstep pattern. He was trying to trick the user!

And luckily, it seemed to work. Water started to rise where the last ring was thrown. But as Avdol summoned Magician’s Red, the water diverted its path to attack Avdol instead, leaving him with a huge gash in his neck.

“Avdol!” You wanted to rush over there, but you knew that was suicide. “I’ll heal you as soon as possible, I promise! Just hang in there!”

Of course, as soon as you finished your sentence, the water started to form right around where Avdol was laying. That meant Aqua Hand wasn’t done yet. You wanted so desperately to make it before it was too late, but any movement and you’d be the target instead of Avdol. However, it looked like Jotaro had given you an opportunity to heal the man, as he jumped from his spot and started running, and, luckily, the Stand chased after him.

Quickly, you scrambled over to Avdol, and summoned Ace of Pentacles. As skin is a lot less complicated than eyes (and a lot less delicate), you were able to fix him in ten seconds flat. And, since he hadn’t fully passed out, he woke up immediately.

“That’s the second time you’ve saved my life,” Avdol said, his voice straining a bit.

“Stay still,” you soothed. “Your body’s still feeling the pain from the attack.”

“Guys!” Polnareff shouted. “Guys! Kakyoin’s waking up!”

Nobody wasted any time getting close to the boy’s side, especially you. And, as Polnareff said, his eyes were slowly opening, and his throat was groaning. He had started to get himself to sit up, until you helped the rest of the way and kissed him on the lips.

“What a way to wake up,” he chuckled, rubbing his eyes. “And I see you’ve already healed my eyes.”

You gave a soft “mmmm-hmmm,” before you stuffed your face into his shirt. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m okay thanks to you,” Kakyoin said while he put an arm around your back.

“Okay, you two,” Joseph pried you off of Kakyoin’s grip, and helped both of you up, “let’s go see how Jotaro and Iggy are doing.”

All of you had gotten in the buggy, and had started going the direction Jotaro had. It didn’t take long to find them, though, with a figure laying in the sand beside them. Looks like they found the user. Joseph stopped for a moment to let the two on, and started going again.

“So, he could navigate with sound?” Kakyoin asked.

“He was blind, so he must’ve become an expert at listening for his life,” Jotaro answered. “But we were able to get close enough to beat him before anything else bad happened.”

“(Y/N),” Polnareff said, not meeting eyes with you, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” you responded. “I don’t think you have more hair follicles than brain cells.” After your true apology, you added, in a hushed tone, “They’re at least equal.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

And finally, after seemingly an hour, you had arrived in the city where your hotel would be for the night. With all that had happened, when you fell into your bed, you almost went right to sleep.

That is, until you heard the door open.

“Iggy needs somewhere to sleep tonight,” Joseph explained, “And you’ve gotten along with him the best.” Then he closed the door, and you felt a small creature jump up into the bed with you, and curl its body close to yours.

“Goodnight, Iggy,” you whispered. This time, you truly drifted off to sleep, feeling like every single worry had left your mind.

Except for Dio. The threat of Dio would be constantly looming over your shoulder, especially now that you were in Egypt. But other than that, every care went away, as you slowly slipped into unconsciousness. You were finally here. Egypt.

Dio stood no chance against your team.

[pigeontheoneandonly]

Snowstorm

For Throwback Day of Kaidan Week (@spectrekaidanalenko), I decided to excerpt one of my favorite scenes from my first long fic, Discovery, which was the project that brought me into the ME fandom.  

Set in ME1, Shepard and Kaidan are on Noveria, the day before departing for Peak 15.

“Shepard?” Alenko asked, breaking into her musing.  His brow was furrowed.

She blinked.  “Sorry, what?”

“You were off in your own world there.”  He smiled. “I asked if you wanted to tag along, or if there was somewhere else you were headed.”

Shepard abruptly realized she’d followed him halfway across the port, leaving her rather chagrined and grasping after the conversation.  “Just thinking about tomorrow.  Sure, I’d love to come.”

He was surprised, but pleased.  “Hey, great.”

“Don’t look so shocked.” They resumed walking towards the garage, the location of the service access.  

“You do have strong feelings on weather.”

Which was when she remembered exactly where he was going, and recognized that she’d just agreed to go stand in a full-scale blizzard ‘admiring the view’.  Shit. But now it would be awkward if she backed out, so she mustered what she hoped seemed like enthusiasm.  “Maybe we’ll get a glimpse at this Peak 15.  It would be nice to know where we’re going.”

By the time they reached the service ladder, she was almost enjoying the notion.  He was reminiscing about great storms of the past in Vancouver, and it was hard not to find snowed-in days filled with steaming mugs, cancelled obligations, and neighborly company a little charming.  

“Heavier in the interior, of course,” he said, continuing his rambling monologue without breaking stride. “We usually spent winter holidays at my uncle’s farm.  Well, orchard.  Letting a couple chickens roam through the trees isn’t really a farm.”

She didn’t mind.  She liked listening to him go on like this, about a home he loved and a land-bound culture of sorts she didn’t fully understand. It made her feel warm, almost like some of the heat from his glowing descriptions got inside her despite the cool hallways.

They entered a room no larger than a walk-in closet and found a broad-shouldered man shrugging into one of the parkas lining a rack against the wall.  In cubbies above them sat protective goggles, thick gloves, hats, and scarves.  Boots in a variety of sizes were arrayed below.  All of the equipment was an eye-watering shade of neon orange— the better to see against the snow, she guessed.

“Hey, Owens.” Alenko gave him a wave.  “Got room for one more?”

He glanced back at Shepard. Owens’ face was a stripe of ebony punctuated by two dark eyes between the hat and the coat’s neck flap.  He opened it to speak freely.  “You didn’t mention you were working with the spectre.”

“Is that a problem?” Shepard asked, mildly.  She wouldn’t be sorry to see the excursion canceled, but she felt badly for Kaidan, who was looking forward to it.

Those deep eyes studied her for a prolonged moment.  “Not for me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Your management didn’t send out a persona non grata?”

“They sent it all right. I just don’t give a damn.”  Owens shrugged, his mouth a hard line of disapproval.  “Seems like you’re the only one around here who doesn’t see this war as an opportunity. My brother was a marine on Eden Prime. So if you want a look at the roof— all I have to say is, yes ma’am.”

She paused, and nodded her respect.  “It was hell down there.  I’m sorry for your loss.”

“That means a lot coming from you.”  He gestured at the gear and re-sealed the flap, muffling his voice.  “Get kitted up.  Grab whatever fits— it’s all open season here.”

Shepard sat on the floor, removed her shoes, and started pulling on a pair of snow boots.  “What was your brother’s name?”

“Sergeant Wayne Owens, 232nd Brigade, SAMC,” he recited with a touch of pride.

“I’ve run into my share of 232ers.  Good men all.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  Owens watched them finish outfitting themselves, and made a few expert adjustments to their gear— a few more, perhaps, to Shepard than Alenko, she noted sourly.  Her lack of experience pricked at her ego.

They followed the burly man up the ladder, a significant climb in its own right, and onto a suspended walkway hanging from the ceiling.  It swayed as they walked its length to an access hatch, no more than 150 centimeters tall, and held shut by a vast wheel like on the submarines of old. Owens spun it with the ease of long practice, ignoring its rusty squeal, and shouldered it open against the wind. A gust of snow smattered over the walkway as he held it open.

Both marines ducked through the hatch and out into a world of swirling white punctuated by brief lances of sundown light and glimpses of distant hills.  Shepard had only a moment to wonder at it before the wind smacked her against the wall and scoured a patch of cheek exposed by her climb with razor-sharp ice crystals.

She yelped and tugged the scarf back into place.  Naturally, this exposed a new area, and by the time she was through, the whole thing was altogether too loose and strands of copper hair were flying free of her hood with an electrostatic crackle.  Shepard caught the laughter of her companions on the wind.

“To hell with both of you,” she said crossly, which only invited more laughter, so she ignored them and crossed the scant meter to the catwalk’s railing.  It hugged the side of the Port Hanshan main building like a wedding ring.  If she reached up, her fingers could curl around the lip of the roof, crusted with cakey ice.  

Once she got used to the driving snow and the white film it put over her sight, her curiosity stood up in unexpected awe.  It reminded her of the earthquake back on Therum, if a pale imitation— an ancient and wholly natural, unthinking phenomenon that nonetheless defied every human attempt to tame it.  Their starships could cross the galaxy in a matter of days but they remained as helpless as ever in the face of planetary wrath.  Her feet strayed closer to the guardrail and she shouted over the storm. “This is incredible.”

She couldn’t see any of Alenko’s face behind the goggles and the scarf and the rest of it, but she got the sense that he was grinning as he joined her, looking over the side as much as could be dared in the high wind.  Owens’ chuckle carried.  “We get about ten of these big mothers a year.  It’s not so bad towards the ground.”

“This is my first,” she yelled.  “I’ve lived in space my whole life.  Never been snowed on.”

‘This is a hell of an introduction.”  He withdrew an electronic instrument from his pocket and flicked it on.  “I need to complete my inspection.  Feel free to poke around.”

Owens ambled down the catwalk and was soon lost behind the wall of white, leaving them quite alone in the world.  

She expected it would feel cold and dead and dark, this kind of storm, and certainly through the massive panes of Port Hanshan’s windows this was the case as it thrashed in silent fury.  But out here it was the furthest from dead a thing could be.  The wind rolled her back and forth like an oversized dog sniffing at a new toy, its tendrils tugging at her hood and hair with open mischief. Currents of snow floated on eddies in torrents at turns soft as dew and unrelentingly hard.  The setting sun’s reddish-yellow glow backlit the snowfall and made it all seem warmer than it was, reflecting off the occasional glimpse of the mountainside far below.  And the sound!  It sang and whistled, moaned and screamed, as if it were having a conversation with itself, or perhaps with the square stubborn building it embraced.

It made her want to take readings, capture its playful fury, find new ways to test its strength. Though rationally she was aware it would eat her alive, a part of her could not help but wonder if there was some means, some apparatus, that might allow her to drift on the currents as easily as one of its snowflakes, to really feel it in her limbs and bones…

Shepard could feel Kaidan watching her despite the swirling snow and the massive gold-tinged goggles they each sported.  They stood out like parrots in their orange parkas.  He leaned closer, at once muffled by his gear and loud to compensate for the wind.  The quality wasn’t unlike talking helmet-to-helmet during a comm blackout, touching your neighbor to communicate through vibrations.  “Well?”

At a loss to describe it, she flashed him an elated grin, high on the storm’s own energy, and leaned as far over the rail as she dared, trying to see all the way down the slope. The snow spiraled in one cascade after another down into the depths of the valley.  It was almost dancing.  

A particularly nasty gust tore off her hood and for a fractional second questioned her balance. She felt her stomach drop out even as she knew there was no real danger of capitulating over, and then there were hands at her back and shoulder, pushing her firmly back to the ground. Her face turned towards him, amused, as her rapidly-unraveling braids whipped about her head.  “I’m not going to fall.”

“No,” he said firmly, not removing his hand from the small of her back.  “You’re not.”

The slight show of protectiveness should have grated, but for some reason did not, perhaps because it wasn’t in the least bit patronizing.  She had been gaping over the railing like a lemming in mid-leap. Shepard shifted closer to him and he did not move away.  “Is it like this in Vancouver?”

“Not like this.  Never seen one of these from the top of a mountain.” His tone reflected the same wonder she was feeling, not a thought for the cold and only half of one for the risk of standing so high and exposed.  “You really never felt snow before?”

She shook her head. Crackly bits of ice were beginning to form around the seals of her mask, irritating her skin with cold fire.  “Not a lot of precipitation on Mars.”

“Shame.  No sledding as a kid, no skiing.”  His volume rose with the wind.  “While you’re here, you should eat some of it.”

“Eat it?”  Shepard was certain she hadn’t heard him right.

“No water tastes better than freshly fallen snow.”

“It’s Noveria snow. It’s probably radioactive.”  But she pulled down her scarf and opened her mouth to the wind, feeling the flakes drift onto her tongue and trickle under it in cool streams of crisp water, just warm enough to swallow.  She shivered despite herself as it hit the back of her teeth.

Her omni-tool beeped, a fifteen-minute warning ahead of her strategy session.  She frowned her disappointment, but held it up so Alenko could see.  He nodded, and they turned back inside.

With the hatch shut behind them, the absence of the groaning storm seemed as quiet as a tomb.  Every clanking step against the metal walkway sounded impossibly loud.  Her face and ears burned in the sudden heat, quickly beginning to prickle and itch with the temperature adjustment.  She rubbed them mercilessly.

Alenko raised his mask to his forehead and lowered the scarf clear of his chin, brushing off the snow clinging to the parka.  As he turned towards her, he was unable to keep from laughing.  

She stopped scratching and eyed him.  “What?”

He swallowed, gestured towards her, let out another chuckle, and was finally able to speak.  “You look like a snow witch.”

Suspicious, she activated her omni-tool camera and aimed it towards herself.  It showed an image of a woman with furry snow and the occasional chunk of ice clinging to every strand of hair on her head, streaky red where it began to melt.  There was a snow line clear around her goggles and her cheeks were rubbed raw. Her ears were so bright they were nearly a brick red, no natural color.  

She removed the mask and tried to shake off most of the snow.  Mostly, she succeeded in dislodging a few icicles and striking herself with the remnants of her braids.  Kaidan leaned up against the wall, hands stuffed in the parka pockets and a small smile on his face that made her warm and shy all at once.  

“Thank you,” she said, stumbling, for lack of anything else coming to mind.  “That was… exhilarating.”

“If I’d known you’d like a snowstorm that much, I’d have asked you along in the first place.” There was a hint of teasing, as if he were goading her for her preferences.

“Not that I want to do it often,” she quickly added.  “It’s good to experience new things.  No need to live in them.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who got so carried away that I’m dripping all over the floor.”

“I did not get carried away,” she said, grinning because she had, and it was wonderful.

“Adrenaline junkie,” he grumbled.

She raised her eyebrows. “Are you really that shocked?”

“No, I kind of got that from the way you make bats out of hell look like restrained, conscientious drivers.”  He gestured towards the ladder, allowing her to head down first.

All the way to the ground, she kept remembering that last gust, the brief instinctive fear of falling with all its terrible freedom, the wind singing in her ears, the pressure of his hand against her spine just where it started to curve through all the layers of her parka, and even as sour shampoo-tasting water ran from her hair down her face, she couldn’t keep from smiling.

[gellavonhamster]

family dinner

gen || Fernald Widdershins | Carmelita Spats || background Fiona/Carmelita || post-canon

ao3 link || originally posted in Russian

Fernald grimly dragged the remaining piece of quesadilla across the plate with his hook. It was one of the strangest family dinners within his memory, and he’d had occasion to have dinner in a company which, to varying degrees, could be called ‘family’, while on a submarine, on a supposedly desert island, and in an abandoned house where the air reeked of mold and the oven expelled an army of cockroaches upon an attempt to light it. By now, the house looked much nicer – through Fernald’s efforts as well, among other things. By now, the walls had been covered with new wallpapers, the floorboards weren’t caving in under his feet anymore, and the large heavy table had been cleaned from dirt and set with new, non-cracked dinnerware. It was at that table that their guest was now seated catty-corner from him, engaged in a lively conversation with Quigley, her arm slung around Fiona’s shoulders. Fiona was carrying herself just as resolutely and cautiously at the same time as one would expect from a person who brought her girlfriend to meet her relatives for the first time. Probably. Fernald has never brought a girlfriend home to meet his relatives, for a number of reasons.              

The name of Fiona’s girlfriend was Carmelita Spats.

Isadora, who was sitting next to him, nudged him with her elbow.

“I can’t fucking believe this is really happening,” she whispered, having moved a little closer so that the other guests definitely wouldn’t hear them.

“Language,” he scolded her. Isadora snorted quietly. The triplets didn’t respect him, which was right – after everything he had done and had let other people do, he wouldn’t expect them to treat him otherwise – but all the hardships they’d shared with him over the past couple of years must have made them develop, in their own way, a sort of attachment to him. For his part, he could say the latter about them too. They were growing up distrustful but not jumpy, with a strong sense of togetherness and a dark sense of humour. He liked the girl more than the other two because he could discuss poetry with her, and he secretly regretted that it wasn’t Isadora that his sister was dating. On the other hand, it was quite possible that after everything they’d been through together they saw each other if not as sisters, then as cousins, and any kind of romance was out of the question.      

Still, he liked that possibility much better than the one he was supposed to be putting up with now.

“I don’t trust her,” he muttered, his eyes fixed on Carmelita. He recognized her the very moment she entered the house after Fiona, and would have her recognized with no trouble even if Duncan hadn’t bumped into the corner of the table and spilled his tea upon seeing her, or if Quigley hadn’t exclaimed “You?” with such a look on his face as if he’d just seen a flying saucer. Just like three years ago, she was ginger, freckled, loud, somehow took up too much space despite being short, and favoured clothes in garish pink. On hearing her say “Hi, Hooky”, he almost lashed out at her, stopped only by Hector very promptly, very pointedly grabbing his shoulder.  

“Me neither,” Isadora whispered back. “But, you know, as weird as it may be to admit it, so far she seems a little bit less insufferable than before. She hasn’t said anything nasty to anyone yet, or tried to tap-dance for no good reason.”

“She might have changed. Or she might be trying to worm herself into our confidence,” Fernald wiped his hook with a napkin and got up from the table. Fiona turned to him instantly.  

“Are you going somewhere?” she asked carefully. She was nervous, and the very thing that his sister was being nervous because of Carmelita was enough to make him boil with anger. Fernald shook his head.

“I’ll go have a cigarette. Carmelita,” he shifted his gaze to their guest, “you smoke?”

He had to give the girl some credit: she took a hint at once.

“If someone treats me to it,” she rose and quickly squeezed the hand that Fiona held out to her. “Be right back, babe.”

Fernald clenched his teeth so hard that they started to ache.

Carmelita followed him to the porch. It was chilly outside; the summer was stealthily retreating, and the painfully bright sun wasn’t giving any real warmth. Fernald made a mental note that soon they would have to start sweeping the path leading to the house – the leaves were already getting yellow and ready to fall down. He squinted in the light, and hid his hooks in his pockets. Carmelita leaned on the railing of the porch.      

“So, what were you saying about a cigarette?” she reminded him.

“You’re sixteen. No cigarettes for you,” he stepped closer to her. Perhaps from the sidelines it looked like he was going to threaten her. Fernald hoped it was exactly the way it looked like. “And now you’re gonna tell me what you’re really doing here.”  

The girl peered at him curiously, almost with amusement.

“Came to meet my girlfriend’s family, obviously.”

“Yeah, don’t give me that,” Fernald took one of his hands out of the pocket. The metal of the hook glistened dimly in the autumn sunlight. “Who sent you? The VFD? Or that bitch?”

Carmelita rolled her eyes.

“If you mean Esmé, I haven’t seen her in, like, three years.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re not living with her?”

“Have you even heard what I was saying at the table at all? They stuffed me into a children’s home when she got arrested, and after she was released, she didn’t come back for me,” her facial expression and the tone of her voice made it difficult to understand if that had wounded her back then and was still wounding her now. “I have a new guardian now, and she’s way cooler. An actress. Says I can get far if I work on improving myself,” Fernald couldn’t help noticing that the Carmelita Spats he used to know would have never admitted that she had to improve herself. “And the VFD tried to draw me in – the previous guardian, before Lizzie, was one of their lot. But I ran away. Like I need these… cakesniffers.”  

The familiar word made Fernald grow wary again.

“Yeah, and I’m supposed to believe that you’ve changed just like that?”

“People change. You’ve changed, Hooky.”

“My name is Fernald,” he put his hook on the railing right beside her arm. She didn’t display any agitation or try to back away, but her condescending smile (condescending, hell, like it was him who was sixteen not her!) vanished. Very well, Fernald thought. Perfect. “And I haven’t changed.”    

“Your sister says you have.”

“She tends to see the best in me.”

“And in me, too,” Carmelita jerked up her head and looked him in the eye. “Do you not trust her at all either?”

He looked away – and suddenly saw that the skin on one side of her lower neck was scarred and reddish. A burn mark, apparently spreading down under the clothes. She noticed that he had noticed, and swiftly adjusted the sweater collar, pulling it up even higher than the style intended.  

“A souvenir from the Hotel Denouement,” she explained casually – even way too casually – and Fernald remembered another fire, and how it burned the papers of Gregor Anwhistle and all the furniture in the lab and his own hands, and how he couldn’t even scream with pain properly because he had already lost his voice trying to call for his mother. He took his hook off the railing.

Teenagers often made wrong decisions – especially when pushed by the adults around them. People often did terrible things and regretted it later, or didn’t truly regret it but still tried not to do them anymore, at least for the sake of their own tranquility.

Who was he to reprimand Carmelita Spats, who was, of course, spoiled and selfish, but at least hadn’t killed anyone?

“So you don’t know what Esmé’s been up to, do you?” he asked her to stall for time somehow, so that he could collect his thoughts. Carmelita shrugged.  

“All I know is what was in the papers.”

“And what about…” he stopped short of saying ‘the boss’. Why on earth would he still call Olaf his boss?  

“Countie? No idea. They never found him. Must’ve died in the fire,” Carmelita replied indifferently. He ought to be indifferent too, he reminded himself. “Can we maybe have a smoke after all?”

“As far as I recall, you’re still sixteen. Anyway, let’s go back inside,” Fernald took a deep breath of delicious, cool September air. He couldn’t say that this conversation had eased his mind, but at least now it felt heavy for different reasons. So the VFD tried to recruit Carmelita again – wonder what they’d been at apart from that… and what they knew about the disappearance of the fortune belonging to the missing Quagmire orphans from the city bank. “I guess Hector must be taking the dessert out of the stove right now.”  

“Hector is the other old man who isn’t your father, right?”

“Stepfather. Who isn’t our stepfather. And if you’re planning to become a part of this family, be so kind as to learn all the names.”

His words about becoming a part of their family made her smile in a way that was very different from usual, actually making her look what one would call adorable.

He didn’t tell her that, of course.

[mobius-prime]

120. Sonic the Hedgehog #70

Saving Nate Morgan

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So about that grenade from last issue! Everyone's okay, Sonic tossed it up through the juice bar's skylight before it could explode on top of them. Sally has come back around from her bout of unconsciousness, and everyone is pissed that Nate has been kidnapped - especially Bunnie, whose pride has been severely bruised by losing in the fight. Together they rush to Castle Acorn, where the king and Geoffrey are still discussing the fact that the escaped prisoners are probably super dead.

Yeah, they're not dead. Geoffrey is irritated at Sonic for calling his information faulty, but Dr. Quack emerges at the perfect moment to inform everyone that one of the guards rescued from the island has reported a third missing shuttlecraft, one that didn't crash into the ocean. Elias suggests that they may simply be hiding out on the closest landmass to the Devil's Gulag, which just so happens to be Big Kahuna Island where we've seen them before, and Sonic readies himself to muster the fighting force of the Freedom Fighters when…

…*sigh*

This king, man. Every move he makes has me questioning his fitness to actually rule more and more. See, I get it. You don't necessarily want to breed a future of child soldiers solving every problem in the kingdom when they're supposed to be enjoying their, well, childhood. You want trained adults to handle the dangerous situations. But it's like he doesn't even want to recognize that these individuals all worked together not only to free the entire world of Robotnik's rule, but that they put in the effort specifically to rescue the king's sorry ass as well. Has he given them a single award? Any public recognition of their efforts in the war? He was certainly eager to put them on the task of helping rebuild the city before, but carelessly dismissed Sonic and Tails' success in hunting down a known enemy of the kingdom just a few issues before, and now that their friend has been captured - by people they have direct experience fighting from before, I might add - he's suddenly being a hard-ass. No, not only that - he's unceremoniously disbanding the very group that freed the kingdom and the entire world, without so much as a final thank-you ceremony or anything. Does he not care how crushing such an order would feel to the ones within that group? Just, ugh.

Hours later, the Secret Service approaches the island in a scrap submarine, ready to unleash their tactical strike and rescue the Overlander scientist… but of course, submarines are slow, and someone had a much better idea.

Seems everyone forgot that Sonic is A. stubborn as hell, and B. has a freakin' biplane. As he insists on coming along, the villains inside an abandoned courthouse (though why Robotnik would include a house of law in one of his cities given that he was a pure despot, I can't imagine) have stuck Nate into a very uncomfortable-looking stockade and are trying to force him to agree to provide his scientific services to them. Shockingly, he's not very interested in this generous offer. Outside, Geoffrey keeps trying to order Sonic around, with Sonic really not having it, and when Geoffrey tries to position his troops around the building to try to force the crooks to come out and surrender Sonic challenges him, saying that that will only encourage the group to use Nate as a hostage. Geoffrey shows his racist side by saying he doesn't care what happens to an Overlander, and Sonic, who's obviously here more to save his friend than re-apprehend the criminals, gets up in his face about it. As they get ready to start throwing punches, a nearby soldier yells at them to stop fighting.

How do you like your chain of command now, Geoffrey? Inside, Kodos, infuriated by Nate's continued refusal to cooperate, just straight up gets ready to behead him with his giant axe, because there's no kill like overkill, but at that moment Bomb rolls himself in, getting everyone's attention. He tries, and fails for some reason, to explode, but the distraction works, and at that moment the rest of the fighting force rushes in to rescue Nate.

And then we find ourselves in the middle of our fifth satellite sequence high above the planet. This one doesn't redirect any asteroids, but the mysterious hand that commands the satellite puts down a drink once it's finished with its work, a drink labeled "Robo Cola…" Geeeeeee, I wonder who this could be? I mean, okay, let's break it down. We know that Robotnik got straight up erased from existence in the Endgame finale, no doubts, no maybes, he's gone. But we also know that wasn't the first time he got zapped into another dimension and managed to make a comeback, either. The hand that's been directing all these mysterious orbital goings-on certainly looks like his hand, and with this unit being labeled R-SAT we're rapidly approaching all the letters we need to spell out Robotnik's name. But with how dramatic and intense his demise was in Endgame, I'd wager we're dealing with a situation that's a little more complex than a simple "he survived the explosion." I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

As the battle begins inside the abandoned courthouse, Sonic frees Nate and hands him off to Elias to carry him to safety while he rejoins the fight, but before much else can happen, the building suddenly crumbles around them as a giant mutate squid with a robotic body emerges from the ground beneath them. See, West Robotropolis was once used by Robotnik as a staging ground for all sorts of weird experiments and research, and we're looking at one of the leftovers of that! Snively is caught in one of the monster's tentacles and starts screaming for Sonic to rescue him, and while Sonic considers this, Bomb, who has also been caught by the monster, this time manages to get his fuse to go off properly, blowing the squid up.

Ouch indeed. Snively, interestingly, is nowhere to be seen after the explosion, either among the recaptured prisoners or the escapees in the biplane. I wonder if he's actually…? Naaaahhh, I'm sure he's fine!

Statue of Limitations

Writer: Paul Castiglia Pencils: Chris Allan and Jim Amash Colors: Vickie Williams

So it appears that ever since he and Tails escaped Sand-Blast City, Sonic's been plagued by a strange nightmare. He dreams that he's flying over the city when his plane disintegrates, and he falls toward the statue of himself that he destroyed to escape, which is laughing at him. Every night he wakes up before he can fall into the mouth of the statue, but he recognizes eventually that it's a mental block of his own creation, and so this time, he keeps the dream going, falling through the statue's mouth to find out what's on the other side. And what's on the other side is… incredibly bizarre.

Even the clouds start forming in the shape of his face. He demands to know what's going on, and his fan up there, still somewhat starstruck, leads him through a crowd of Sonic worshippers and through a golden door to the hall of the Sonic Adventure Archivists, a group of people who chronicle his every heroic venture and obsess over the meaning of them.

This is actually a pretty funny nod to the whole thing where Sally was indeed supposed to die and become a martyr in the Endgame arc, as well as the whole will-they-won't-they the comic likes to set up between her and Sonic. Sonic wakes up from this dream in a cold sweat, and calls Tails to his room to have a chat, because if there's anyone who can help you face your inner demons in the middle of the night, it's a ten year old. Sonic admits that he's been feeling guilty over how he rushed out of Sand-Blast City before, leaving it open to attack from the Robians without bothering to try and save the inhabitants. The weight of being a hero is starting to become a little too heavy for him to bear alone, as he's not perfect and can't save everyone. Tails tells him that he doesn't have to be perfect, he just has to do the best he can, and cites Sonic's positive effects on his own life. Sonic, cheered somewhat, says that maybe he "can get used to being gray," a rather unexpectedly deep look on the whole hero thing if you ask me, especially for a comic of this caliber. Certainly Sonic has always been a gray hero - Chaotic Good, if you will - who while devoted to saving people and helping the world, can oftentimes act in selfishness and be a bit of a jerk to those who rub him the wrong way. It's interesting to see how his conflicting personality traits balance themselves out in situations like the one in Sand-Blast City, where the only way for him to escape confinement was to put everyone else in danger. He definitely experiences a lot more shades of gray as well as the comic continues on.

Anyway, the previous story's ending promised an especially bizarre issue coming up next, and while the next issue of this comic is certainly a weird one, we still have an arc of KtE to get through first! This one is particularly intense, and introduces one of my favorite villains in the comic, though not named yet…