Duplex looked to her right, where Natalie slept under the clean, pristine white sheets in her hospital bed. Having been through so much, she had earned her rest. The room was quiet, the sun outside had set, and the twilight was setting in. The vital monitors beeped away at a steady, healthy pace. The lights in the room were bright and clear, but Duplex had elected to turn them off and instead turn on Natalie’s bedside lamp. The yellow-tinted light from it cast a warmer glow on the room, and the door had been closed so that the light from the hallway couldn’t get in and break that up. Duplex had kept the room that way for the last hour, thankful that the power had been restored in the past few hours to even allow for it.
What she had made certain to do was close the curtains on the window; for if she opened them, Epheral’s spire loomed in the distance. It had warped the horizon over the ocean into an alien negative space. The crystalline monument to her presence was the only thing she had left behind in her transformation, and that it warped into a strange white, almost prismatic piece set against a blackened sky of silver-lined clouds mixed with a gasoline-swirl of colours, it served as a clear declaration. That was where she had gone, that was where Arus had been taken. She was maintaining the open invitation to battle.
An invitation Echelon could not answer, not anymore. Duplex sighed, placing her hands in her lap and curling her feet back under her chair, adjusting her position to get more comfortable. She closed her eyes. Her mouth formed a small, blue, tired line. She looked as if she were sleeping as well, or perhaps meditating. A lot was on her mind, but she insisted on staying with Natalie alongside Carrie while she rested. Their friends had already come and gone, there was so much to do, they couldn’t afford to stick around. Samantha had so many people to help, Max had to check on “Gropey,” whatever that was, and Erwin had set out with the task of trying to find a way to even reach Epheral and then devise some plan they could hatch before time simply ran out.
Daxton, Laila, and Kenny had been pushed very far by giving what they could to Natalie so that Duplex could be saved. They needed to rest as well, and they had people of their own to see. Daxton’s parents had been saved by Casey, who had sheltered them in long-forgotten tunnel systems from the early days of Locksmouth that joined some homes’ cellars together in the event of a storm. Kelvalde and Gerald had holed themselves up in the deep workshops of the Fabricatory, and Laila’s family had finally gotten the freedom to take Valyrie to the hospital. Quincey could have checked in with her parents as well, but they had dedicated their time to the care of the patients in the hospital. They had more work with Dr. Masterson to perform, on more people than Quincey wanted to think about.
So, Duplex stayed. It was the least she could do.
She opened her eyes when she heard the door. In stepped Carrie, followed by Natalie’s mother. Duplex had never actually seen Natalie’s mother, but their resemblance was unmistakable. Like Natalie, the woman was a black-furred wolf, only older, a little taller, and had brown eyes as opposed to Natalie’s ruby red ones. She had brown hair almost just like her daughter’s, except she wore it in a tight pony tail and kept it slightly shorter in the front. They were so identical, even their builds were the same. Natalie’s mother only showed more signs of age, though she didn’t even look that old. She stopped as she entered, giving Duplex a careful look, considering her.
Duplex just meekly waved as Carrie moved to the empty bed next to Natalie’s and jumped up onto it. The cat sprawled out and sipped from a bottle of juice. “So, hey, this is Nat’s mom,” She said, “Nat’s mom, this is Duplex.”
“Hello,” The woman said, “You must be that girl I’ve been hearing about. I don’t think that was quite the name I first heard, though… Inkling name?”
Duplex nodded. “Y-Yes, Duplex is the Inkling, Quincey is the host.”
“Ah, Quincey,” The woman said, “Right. I’m Lorna; nice to finally meet you.”
As she approached Natalie’s bed, she looked over her daughter, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. “I’m starting to think I got my doctorate in the wrong field of study,” She said, “Clearly, I should have gone medical. If I’d known my daughter would one day get up to antics like these, I’d have done it in a heartbeat.”
“I’m sorry,” Duplex said, “It was… kind of my fault.”
Lorna lowered the adjustable guard at the side of Natalie’s bed, taking a seat at the edge of it. “I heard,” She said, “I heard she pulled a stunt to save your life. I wouldn’t say you’re entirely to blame or anything. Natalie’s a big girl, she makes her own choices.”
Duplex turned her head to watch Natalie stir slightly, but being too weak to move much, she stayed put. So much of her had been put into what she did. An IV drip was pumping lost nutrients back into her body. Ones she needed badly after the fact.
“M-Miss Grayswift, your daughter…” Duplex spoke.
“Is an inspiration, right?” Lorna cut in, “You’re right about that. So much like her father. She’s so strong. I just wish she wouldn’t get wrapped up in such crazy things… They said she was in a really bad state afterward.”
Duplex nodded honestly. “What she did… shouldn’t have been possible,” She explained, “It was only because of Epheral’s power that it worked, and even then… it was unorthodox. There was no way to know.”
Lorna leaned over and passed her fingers through Natalie’s hair. “So reckless,” She said, “Well… I’d say it runs in the family, I suppose. Taking big risks is what us Grayswifts do. I’m just happy that she gets to whine about it afterward. I suppose you’re pretty happy for it, too, huh?”
Duplex smiled, her mouth lighting up. “Yes,” She said, “Without Natalie and Echelon… there’s no denying it. My life would have ended. I wouldn’t be here.”
“Well, she has talked about you quite a bit since you first came bouncing into our lives,” Lorna said, “I’d say you’ve got a fan.”
Carrie nodded as she swiped her thumb over her PET’s screen, looking up from it. “It’s true,” Carrie said, “She’s stupid excited that this whole Inkling super hero thing goes beyond Locksmouth. She says it’s like an ‘Ink Inc.’ You know, incorporated.” She took a drawn-out sip of her drink, not breaking eye-contact with Duplex, the expression on her face making her feelings on that name obvious. It was somewhere between giggly and disappointed.
Duplex wasn’t sure how to take that news – it was both amusing and daunting to think about. Lorna groaned. “That name is so cheesy…” She said, “That’s my girl.”
“Mm…” Duplex looked forlorn over Natalie. “And now there’s no way she can put up a fight against Epheral… I’m not sure what to do.”
“It’s kind of obvious what we have to do,” Carrie said, “This is all Epheral’s fault, so we have to go and punch her lights out!”
Duplex fretted. She fidgeted nervously in her seat as she regarded Carrie, who seemed to remain dead serious. “But didn’t you… u-um, what I mean is… n-not that you’re not strong! You are! But…”
Carrie looked all too offended. “I get it, I know,” She groused, “Epheral managed to hit Arus enough to knock her down. It was one time! She caught us by surprise!”
“But that attack, it seemed so… s-so powerful! Are you sure you’re alright?” Duplex asked.
Carrie rolled her eyes. She slouched against the back wall and frowned. “Yeah, I’m fine,” She said, “I could take it, but she just went right through you. You can’t just ignore a person like that and just fudge around inside of them. Stupid bitch is playing on a whole other level.”
Lorna listened with some interest, the gears in her head turning. “Epheral, she doesn’t interact with the physical world the same way Inklings do?” She asked, “That does sound problematic.”
Duplex couldn’t have frowned any harder than she was. She twisted her index finger in her other hand, lowering her head. “It has to be…” She spoke, “… Epheral has to have… I mean…”
The Inkling paused in frustration and looked up to see Lorna and Carrie hanging on her words. She facially conveyed her apologies. “It’s difficult to explain, but Epheral always was able to do so much with prana, but it wasn’t like she could do it exactly. Her power was always different than just using energy… it was touched by her and changed… and she could change it in almost any way she wanted, to behave any way she wanted. I… I think what she’s done is go full… um… Aprana?”
Lorna and Carrie’s faces reflected their utter confusion. It only made Duplex more nervous. “A-As in she’s… just… opposite of prana. And since everything has prana, she’s… acting outside of the normal rules?”
Lorna racked her brain, closing her eyes and pushing her fist against the side of her head, grinding her knuckles in as if to physically churn out some sort of explanation. “Particles have positive and negative charges,” She said as she opened her eyes again and relaxed, “If we imagine prana as a positive charge of positive life energy… ridiculous as it sounds… then what you’re saying is that Epheral can change the charge? She can turn it into negative, harmful energy?”
Duplex nodded. “It’s how you would hurt a being that exists on prana. It wouldn’t make sense to simply use prana on an Inkling. All you’d do is make it stronger. Epheral, herself is… or, was, an Inkling. Kind of. She existed off this energy the same as any other, but when she wants to hurt other Inklings, she must warp it into something harmful. It would become a sort of energy that every living thing does not have.”
Carrie pursed her lips into a duck-billed face. “What kinda… stuff… would that be if nothing on Earth has it?”
Lorna snapped her fingers. “Exactly,” She said, “If she’s on an entirely negative charge, then she’d just push through that. That’s how she, as you say, got right through you. She doesn’t have to respect your prana… presence.”
“And given that she can still manipulate prana, she can still touch it whenever she wants,” Duplex said, “And, I believe she would still require prana energy to exist, but she would have to forcibly change it into negative… er, Aprana. She won’t find that sort of energy anywhere in existence. It’s not natural. It’s not sustainable unless she deconstructs prana to do so.”
“Prana isn’t finite, is it?” Lorna asked, concerned.
“I don’t think so,” Carrie shrugged, “Inklings just… recharge off it. I think people just… make it naturally, or something.”
“Renewable, but the extents of which one human is able to generate prana can only be so much,” Duplex explained, “It’s possible that no two living creatures generate it at the same rate. It is a natural process.”
“So, she’s gone nuclear,” Lorna concluded, “In order to fight you guys, she’s become the polar opposite of you. Possibly to her detriment.”
“Possibly,” Duplex agreed, “But it would give her a considerable advantage, even if she risks destroying herself in the process.”
“Wow,” Carrie said, “Bitch move.”
Lorna nodded. “Very.”
Carrie turned her attention on Duplex and sat up. She threw her legs over the side of the bed, so she could sit on the edge of it. “Hey, you sure know an awful lot about this,” She said, “Did Echelon rebirthing you not mess with your memory or anything?”
After what felt like hours being mopey and worried, Duplex smiled. Her mouth lit up to a warm shade of yellow when she did. “No, in fact. Echelon’s efforts to keep… me… intact, seems to have taken the memories of both Dormence and Tranquil and patched them together. Some things are fuzzy still, but the pictures that are there are much clearer than before.”
“Wait,” Carrie said, “So you’re aware that you are the spooky mad science monster of two Inklings being slapped together?”
“Yes…” Duplex nodded, “Though, I don’t want to think of it quite like that.”
“Sorry,” Carrie said, throwing up her arms in a shrug, “So do you have anything we can use, or what?”
Duplex crossed her arms, dipping her head down to think back as far as she could…
-
--
-
Epheral had always needed to strike a balance.
She learned how to do this quickly, as a means of survival. After Osoth had thrown her away, casting her and Dormence and Tranquil into the void to die, Epheral needed to take in prana energy from anything she could. She managed to do just that from the primordial life energy of the stars and the suns themselves. It was a desperate bid, however, and wouldn’t have lasted too long. If they hadn’t latched on to a meteorite hurtling through space and soon found themselves on a habitable planet, it was possible they wouldn’t have made it.
Perhaps it was something about that which made it difficult for Epheral to transition. At first, she was horribly toxic to the very land she touched. The first planet she landed on, she created a Dead Zone, like the one she then carried with her – an Aprana field of power, set on sucking the life out of everything around her so that she may live. Once again, it was a desperate need that saw her change, carefully and meticulously changing her prana needs and cycles to something more akin to what living creatures shared. After obliterating almost 1/10th of a world, she finally crafted herself out of shared life energy, which she set to wielding in ways that were both helpful to her and to those around her.
That was the potential that Duplex once saw in her. She could remember the swelling feeling of hope in her heart when Epheral made that first connection to the world. It wasn’t exactly perfect, but she had found the means to share what power she could take in with others. She shared it with Dormence and Tranquil, allowing them to survive as normal Inklings would. Even without a host, Epheral kept them going. In the end, though, hosts were the most optimal way of doing things. Dormence and Tranquil sought hosts out and bonded with them for convenience’s sake, and they used that to start building their dream – a world where Inklings would be independent. No Osoth, no conquest, and perhaps even no need for host bodies. It was a lofty goal, but Epheral seemed willing to go along with it.
It became clear early on that to accomplish this, Inklings had to be free of Osoth. Epheral had no problem moving on to reverse Osoth’s work wherever she could. She couldn’t understand why Osoth would have thrown her away, and she resented her for it. She set out, from one world to the next, to free the worlds conquered by the Empress, and to free the Inklings under her command, giving them an alternative to living as a war machine. It was within her power, so long as she tried her best to match what Inklings needed to live. Her power wasn’t exact, but she hoped it would be close enough that it wouldn’t matter.
Back then, Epheral was a young idealist. She wanted to make things better, truly, under the guidance of Dormence and Tranquil. The two Inklings acted as her friends and mentors. They raised her. Every step Epheral took was a lesson about life; a lesson about people, places, and feelings. She was learning new things every day, going from naïve to careful and well-travelled over the span of decades, maybe even centuries.
What they didn’t anticipate was just how tightly Osoth gripped the Inklings. Epheral was met as if she were selling snake oil and empty promises from the very beginning. They didn’t believe that she could make things better. They believed that she was simply moving to usurp Osoth and take control. Relying on Osoth’s benevolence seemed no different than relying on whatever means Epheral offered them to live. Very early on, they had made their choice. They would have rather lived with the devil they knew, than the devil they didn’t. They rejected her outright, and the more she pressed and insisted, the more violent that resistance became.
Duplex couldn’t remember when it was exactly that Epheral first broke. The grays struck her down. They made their marks on her heart and gave her scars to learn from. She had learned defeat, and at first, she only felt compelled to carry on. After the second time, the third time, the fourth time… time after time, again and again, over and over, she was pushed away, struck down, and beaten. Duplex had watched every crushing defeat from the very start, and every time it happened, a little bit of Epheral’s youthful hope waned away.
“I remember one time…” Duplex explained to Carrie and Lorna, “It was on an alien planet, and the people there were right in the fight against Osoth. They put up a valiant effort, but Osoth was too powerful, too numerous… all they could do was delay their fate, but they delayed it with everything they had. They lost everything, until the few who remained lived in but a single settlement to stand against the storm. Epheral may have been too late to save them, but she wanted to try. She had taken up in a mountain near that city, and she had fought for so long against Osoth and the people both, that she had become a legend.”
“One day, a girl fell right into our lap,” Duplex remembered, “Almost literally. She came falling from the sky, landing in our subterranean home. Epheral wanted to heal her, but we were uncertain. We wanted to simply set her on the right path and let her find her own way, but Epheral wouldn’t listen. She personally helped the girl find her way back home, hoping that if she did, the girl would help her get through to the people, and assure them that we meant no harm. It was a long trip back, but after one day and one night, we reached the mouth of the mountain, and were going to bring the girl back home.”
“Laibon was waiting for us. He and many of the city’s last survivors.” Duplex frowned again. “He sent her down there to find us – not under Osoth’s control, not even under his. He promised them that they would be spared if they brought us to him… and, of course, he lied. Dormence and Tranquil were dragged out, punished, beaten. I don’t think Epheral had ever felt more betrayed, more hurt than she had in that moment. She didn’t hurt quietly, and she brought that back on every one of them tenfold. She unleashed her power against them all and began to simply… wipe them out.”
“Everyone??” Carrie asked.
“Everyone,” Duplex affirmed, “Laibon, the Inklings, the people… everyone. She had grown tired of her struggling. She had been beaten and broken so many times, she just couldn’t take another failure. That was the first world she had just erased in its entirety. Laibon had escaped… Osoth had managed to weasel away, and that only made Epheral more determined to find and end her. From that day forward, Epheral’s methods became crueler and more heartless, until Dormence and Tranquil learned to fear her… exactly as they had with Osoth. That was why they stepped in to try and change her course. That was why she destroyed them. That’s how I ended up coming to Earth, and how I ended up being remade thanks to Echelon.”
“I think Epheral has undone all she did to benefit others. She no longer cares if her power harms others. She allows her power to create Aprana. She no longer wishes to save us, or anyone from Osoth, or even from her. All she wants is to make a new world where this doesn’t happen. A world where no one betrays her, no one hurts her, and she doesn’t have to care about anyone.”
-
--
-
“Well… you know what you have to do… don’t you?”
Duplex jumped, she was so startled to hear Natalie’s weak, tired voice. She stood up from her seat and looked down over the girl, nervously worrying. “N-Natalie! H-How long have you been awake? Are you okay? D-Do you need anything? I’m sorry this happened, it’s all my fault, I…”
Natalie put her hand over Duplex’s, making sure to smack it when she did. It wasn’t hard – Natalie barely had the strength to lift her arm – but she let gravity do all the work. “… Nah…” She said, her eyes darkened around the outside, heavy, her skin paled beneath her fur and her lips dry. “It’s not your fault… Epheral’s the one who gave up…”
“Natalie,” Lorna said, leaning over to physically enter her daughter’s sight, “You had me worried sick. Next time you choose to almost die to save someone else’s life, can you at least call me first?”
“Sorrrrrry mooooom…” Natalie smiled, but with the way her ears wilted, it looked pathetic.
Carrie imposed herself, squishing in between Lorna and Duplex. She dug around in her top, between her breasts, pulling out an entire small bottle of juice. “I got you juice!” She said, “Do you want juice? You should drink something! You’ll feel better quicker!”
Natalie made something that could have been a giggle, if she had the strength and energy to make the right tone. It sounded more like an amused whine in her current condition. She shifted, barely, and then just laid slack in her bed again, closing her eyes. “Feels even worse than when Echelon left…” She murmured tiredly. “So empty…”
“Natalie?” Duplex said, trying to keep her from falling back asleep. Natalie seemed to boot back up, having lapsed for just a moment back into slumber. She clapped her hand down over Duplex’s again rather suddenly.
“You gotta shade, Quincey…” She said, “Epheral’s stupid magic can’t beat that…”
“Shade…?” Duplex asked, “B-But I don’t know how to do that! I… can’t do that!”
Natalie closed her eyes again and rolled her head aside. “Sure, you can,” She said, “S’easy… Just… give allll the prana. Er… take it… or… whatever. Become one with the jelly…”
“What…?” Duplex inquired further, but Natalie wasn’t having it. She didn’t entertain the Inkling with any elaboration.
Lorna stood from the bed and ushered the girls out of the way. She slipped in and tugged Natalie’s covers back up over her. “Alright you,” She said, “That’s enough vague super hero stuff. You’re beat, and you’re going back to sleep. Doctor Natalie’s Mom’s orders.” Natalie whined and squirmed about weakly and defiantly, but Lorna ignored her and tucked her sheets under her like a cocoon, tucking it under her one arm so her IV wasn’t disturbed. This pinned Natalie in place, and Lorna briefly placed the back of her hand against Natalie’s forehead, checking her vital monitor for confirmation. “Burning up… Carrie, give me that juice.”
Carrie handed Lorna the juice and Lorna sat down, busily opening the bottle, and pouring out small amounts of it into the cap, holding it up to Natalie’s mouth for her to drink. Duplex turned to Carrie for answers, the cat giving her a suspicious side-eye. “What?” She said, “Oh, shading? It actually is kinda easy. Look, all you gotta do, Duplex, is give Quincey everything you have. And I mean everything. You gotta let her use all your power, unfiltered, raw, no holding anything back.”
“Everything?” Duplex asked, “That’s… not an easy thing to do.”
“No, it is, you just might not want to,” Carrie crossed her arms and grinned as she turned to face Duplex, “It’s scary. I get it. Even Arus didn’t wanna do it right away, but you trust Quincey, right? You don’t think she’d ever try to hurt you on purpose or anything, right? It’s a two-person effort! Quincey’s gotta let you do it, too. She’s gotta take all that power and use it. I bet she’d be as scared as you are. She’s kind of a wuss.”
Duplex stuttered, fumbling over her words. Carrie leaned forward, giving the Inkling a stern look. “You heard Natalie,” She said, “I know you don’t really like getting rough, and we both know I’m not giving you crap when I say you wouldn’t be my first choice to throw down against Epheral; but Natalie’s all outta Save The World Juice. We have to go.”
“We? B-But…” Duplex said, “I-I couldn’t do that, n-not like you can! And you took that attack, you can’t be feeling one hundred percent…”
“Tch, sure I do. Besides, we can’t pussy-foot around right now!” Carried argued right back, “Me and you and your friends can do this. More importantly, you gotta. You’ve all gotta Shade up and go in there and force-feed that Grim Reaper Wannabe her own teeth. It’s kind of really important! You can’t wuss out this time. You’re huge and you’re gonna crush her, remember?”
“I-I, I mean… B-But…” Duplex stuttered.
“Carrie,” Lorna cut in, “That’s enough.”
Carrie thrust herself at Lorna. “But Doc, she…!”
“That’s enough, Carrie,” Lorna said, “You’re terrifying the poor girl. We’ll just… have to figure something out.”
“Oh no,” Carrie said, grabbing Duplex by the shoulders and pulling her along. “You’re going to do it, even if I have to drag you there myself! You beat a big ol’ dragon on top of a moving train! And you already beat the crap out of a whole bunch of Epheral’s goons. Now that Natalie’s put you back together, you’re probably stronger than ever! So, you have the power to help, you just have to use it.”
She hauled Duplex to the door, and opened it up, pushing her on dragging heels outside. “So get out there and help! I can take care of Natalie. She can’t stay passed out forever when I’m around to bug her.” She said. Duplex quivered, her body shaking all over. She whined, overtaken by her nerves.
“Go see how the others are doing,” Carrie suggested, “It’ll be fine, don’t worry. I’ll be there when you’re ready to go, so go sort your stuff out.” She closed the door then, leaving Duplex out in the hall.
Duplex retreated into Quincey’s body, leaving the girl to fret and worry just as she had been doing. Quincey stepped away, then stopped, turned back, and then stopped again. She paced in place for several, frantic moments, before tugging on her own ears in frustration.
“Ohhh…!” She stomped her feet on the floor, left and right. She just couldn’t get a hold of herself. “I… I… I’ll…” She stopped and took several deep, fast breaths. She flattened a hand against her chest, feeling for when her heartbeat slowed down again. “I-I need to check on the others… I just… That’s what I’ll do. J-Just check on the others…”
-
--
-
Erwin yawned. It wasn’t that it was getting particularly late, even if the sun had gone down. That last attack had him running all over Locksmouth’s commercial sector trying to keep eyes on everything, while also doing his best to avoid Epheral’s soldiers. He was lucky that Carrie was the one who opted to stay behind, because when compared to Phactys, Arus was by far the bigger threat. If it was anyone but her, he’d already deduced that he’d have been caught several times. That was why it was part of the plan, giving them the greatest odds of fighting back while keeping him safe. It was a bit of a selfish angle, but Natalie had been nothing but supportive. If Erwin needed a bodyguard, he was going to get one.
To that end, the Harbington team had surprised him. He wasn’t sure what to expect at first when they came back and all had their own Inklings, but after hearing what they had accomplished on the way to Locksmouth after Harbington’s fall, Erwin couldn’t decide whether to chalk it up to dumb luck or not. They had proven that it wasn’t luck. Daxton, Kenny, Laila, and even Quincey had all proven that they were strong and resilient. For a tactician like Phactys, this was important knowledge. Measurements of power could only be drawn from first-hand experience, and the more data he could pull from, the easier it would be to build strategies around their presence. It was obvious that they had a good fighting force on their side, so it came down to Team Reference to pull their own weight.
Erwin had set out to determine the best course of counter-attack. He walked out to the beach and looked out across the water at Epheral’s spire of prana, watching it transform into an inverse-pocket of negative energy. He noted that doing so caused the massive, mountainous structure to collapse. Jagged edges would slide inward as the power thrummed out. It seemed that Epheral’s continued force-exertion was creating structural weaknesses in the spire’s shell. He made notes as he observed, marking down the places where the integrity seemed to be at its weakest. The danger of Epheral’s attack had gone, so he sat on the sandy shores with his heavier overshirt tucked under his bottom to use as a cushion.
A call from Kei interrupted his work, but he was more than happy to take it. He answered it to the sight of Kei’s narrowed, sharp features and he smiled. “Hi Kei,” He said, “What’s up?”
Kei’s concern was visible on his face. “I was just calling to check up on you,” He said, “Are you feeling well?”
“I’m fine,” Erwin imparted with a drawn-out sigh, “It’s been a long day.”
“And Natalie?” Kei asked.
“I hear she’s out like a light at the hospital,” Erwin answered, “Carrie’s with her.”
“Good. Good…” Kei said before changing the topic, “What are you working on?”
Kei accessed Erwin’s PET remotely, as Erwin trusted him to do so and allowed it. He looked at Erwin’s pictures and notes and caught on quickly. He didn’t need Erwin to answer the question. “I see,” Kei said, “You mean to attack the monster. There aren’t many points of entry. Your best chance is the small cluster of spots near the left side there.”
A circle drew itself onto the image, focusing on the area mentioned. While in the image it didn’t appear to be any different than any other jagged, crystalline spot on the then bright white spire, Erwin had watched parts of it shrink away and cave in, creating what could have been called a dent. Erwin nodded in agreement. “True, that would be the spot. But that’s a frontal assault. We can’t even be sure that attack angle matters, but going on basic strategy means we wouldn’t want to go head-on unless we can be sure that we’re not going to get blasted on the way in.” Erwin rubbed his head, pausing a moment to let him think. “Let’s just assume we’re going to get shot at by weird prana energy on the way in,” He said, “We’d need something to get us out there fast. Some vehicle or transport that would be able to withstand the attacks and pack enough punch to get through the outer wall of the crystal. I assume that’s a wall, anyway. If Epheral’s inside of it, there must be space in there.”
“You want to ram your way inside?” Kei asked innocuously. Erwin couldn’t help but exhale a stifled snicker.
“That’s the idea,” Erwin said, “But something like a PeTra isn’t going to do it. It wouldn’t have enough mass or be able to build up enough speed to force its way through. We’d just get squished.”
Kei squeezed around his lips as he kneaded his jaw, studying the image on his screen. He sat back in the corner-frame he’d taken up, and it was obvious that he pulled up the image as a three-dimensional graphic to study. Erwin could just barely see some of it at the edge of Kei’s frame. It was rolling out the estimates on how much height, width, and depth the structure had. “The dimensions suggest that this is an island,” He said, “You would need something very big, I think.”
“Something big, something strong, and something that can dig,” Erwin said, “Construction?”
Kei mulled it over. “No,” He said, “Though… I believe I may have one idea…”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Erwin said, “What’s your idea?”
“We do still have several decommissioned mining and excavation machines,” Kei suggested, “They are not doing much more than just sitting in their yards waiting to finally be put to rest. Perhaps if you could use one, you could reinforce it and use it to quite literally dig your way inside.”
Erwin hadn’t thought of that. Locksmouth’s Diggers had been out of use for a very long time. “That could work,” He said, “Do those things even operate? I thought they were gutted.”
“Well…” Kei became somewhat bashful, averting his gaze, “I enjoyed spending some time alone among the old machines… I would sneak in at night and study them.”
Erwin raised his eyebrows. “Kei, that’s trespassing.”
“I know,” Kei confessed, “It’s shameful, but I… felt at home among the old, forgotten relics.”
“Aw, Kei…” Erwin frowned, but then he smiled. “You’re my most precious thing, better than any antiquity or artifact. You’re not old, and you’re definitely not forgotten.”
Kei’s face went so red, even his red fur couldn’t hide it. “Erwin…” He spoke, “I… I could show you the machine I believe may still work. If… perhaps, you do not mind coming with me to a very secluded place. Alone. At night.”
Kei’s shy words were loaded with implication inappropriate for the situation at hand. That made Erwin very antsy. “Kei, right now, I’d love nothing more.” He said, “I’ll meet you at the old construction yards?”
“Yes!” Kei said excitedly, “Just, do not forget to get permission to use the machine. That is what we’re going there for.”
“We have almost twenty-four hours, Kei.” Erwin smiled, rising from his seat and snatching his hoodie up as he started a hurried march toward the yards. “It won’t take long to fix it up, and this battle has a lot riding on it. I’m going to take some time with you before the fighting starts. I want that very much.”
“M-Me too,” Kei said, “Alright. I’ll see you there, Erwin.”
-
--
-
Valyrie opened her tired eyes to the sight of her sister, and she couldn’t stop a brief well of excitement from spilling forth from her. It came in a sudden widening of her eyes and a smile across her lips. She sat up in her bed to say hello, but it took a while to do so. Moving made her legs hurt, and she was just so… tired.
Laila sat attentively at Valyrie’s bedside. She stared at her sister’s legs, their shapes outlined visibly under the covers of her bed. They were shortened. They ended somewhere around the knee. She stared in morbid desire to draw the covers back and see that Epheral had burned her sister’s legs away and left stumps behind. Instead, she swallowed and pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and met her sister’s gaze with a forced smile. “Hey honey-bear,” Her voice waivered slightly, “How’re ya feelin’?”
For a second, Valyrie had forgotten that she had wound up in the hospital. She was momentarily distracted when she looked around the room wherein someone else, someone she didn’t recognize, was bedridden as well. The room was white, cold, and unfamiliar. Her smile faded, and Laila could tell by the dark circles around the girl’s eyes that she must have been struggling to rest. Valyrie stared at her legs, barely moving her thighs. “I’m tired…” She said, “And I… I don’t have feet any more.”
Laila clenched her teeth and her heart sank. “Darnit, Val…” She lamented, “I…”
“It doesn’t feel good…” Valyrie complained, “I feel like I’m dying.”
“No,” Laila said, “No, Val, you ain’t dyin’. Ya’ll’re just prana sick. Just means you’re gonna be tired a while.”
Valyrie rubbed her eyes. “I don’t wanna have robot legs, Laila…”
Laila was beside herself, speechless and despondent. She stared at her sister, angry and afraid and saddened that all she could do was sit there unable to even comfort the girl. Valyrie’s voice cracked when she spoke sometimes. She must have been crying so much that she’d strained her vocal chords. Laila was desperate to offer something, but what could she do? Sylph wasn’t going to cut it. Even Mhend wouldn’t have been able to undo the hideous damage that Epheral had done.
She placed her hand over her sister’s. “Val… don’t worry, okay? It’s gonna be fine. Yer gonna be fine.”
Valyrie didn’t look reassured. For a moment, she simply frowned and turned her head away. She was quiet for a while, but she was certainly thinking. She returned her gaze to her sister’s soon enough, though, and asked a question. “I’ve never seen your super powers now that you got them,” She said, “Are they good?”
Laila sat back in the chair set up at Valyrie’s bedside, and she considered her answer carefully. “Well,” She said, “Actually, I reckon you oughta meet Sylph. So, here we go.”
Right then, Laila inked. Valyire gawked. The cloud-blue Inkling stared back at the little giraffe, her sky-blue eyes unblinking. “Um,” Sylph spoke, “Howdy?”
“Whoa,” Valyrie said, “Wow… you look like a cloud.” The girl shuffled awkwardly on her backside to swing her body around to face Sylph proper. She was only just learning how difficult this was without calves, shins, or feet.
“Thanks?” Sylph squinted at the girl. The Inkling didn’t seem to know what to make of her. She sat up straight and tried to present herself well. She seemed to have difficulty knowing how she should act. “So… I’m me. Sylph. Howdy. Nice to meet ya. I’m the Inkling.”
Valyrie regarded her with endless, albeit tired curiosity. “What do you do?” She asked.
“Well I live in yer sister, sorta.” Sylph answered, which made Valyrie smile wryly. Sylph blinked her eyes, and clued in. “Oh, unless ya’ll mean my powers, which are wind-based.”
“You make wind?” Valyrie asked.
Sylph rubbed her face, narrowing her eyes at nothing in particular. “When ya say it like that,” She said, “It don’t sound quite right. I don’t… make wind. I just… make air move in ways that’re like wind. I can make it blow real hard or make vortexes. It’s a more localized manipulation of atmosphere, really, than it is makin’ wind. I can fly, too.”
The stars in Valyrie’s tired eyes could have lit up the room, were it not already perfectly lit by the bright white light from above. “Whoa, you can fly?”
“It’s handy,” Sylph said with a shrug. “Gets you away from things faster, anyway.”
Valyrie paused for a moment, shyly withdrawing from the conversation to fidget, playing with her fingers, tugging on them aloofly. “Um,” She said, “Sylph?”
“What’s up?” Sylph asked, watching her with no small sense of curiosity.
Valyrie let her hands drop, gripping the sheets on her bed to squeeze clumps of it tightly. She seemed nervous. “Are you gonna fight Epheral?” She asked, suddenly seeming afraid. “If you do, aren’t you going to get hurt? Wouldn’t Laila get hurt? You’re going to make sure my sister’s okay, aren’t you? I mean… I don’t want what happened to me to happen to her too.”
Sylph opened her mouth, but words didn’t come out. She closed it again and sat burdened by the weight of having to answer such a question. Her inky eyes shifted as she looked around the room, suddenly somewhat nervous as well. Meeting Valyrie’s inquisitive, innocent, yet pained expression made answering that much more difficult. “Uh…” Sylph hesitated, “Well, yeah! I mean, sure! Epheral’s as much a threat to me n’ all Inklings as she is to you n’ all humans. She’s gotta go, one way or another. People gettin’ hurt when they fight, well… s’just how it goes, y’know? Just… comes with the territory, I guess.”
Valyrie’s expression changed, and it was clear she wasn’t buying all of what Sylph was selling her. “Why do you seem scared?” Valyrie asked, “You aren’t lying, are you?”
“What?!” Sylph was taken aback by the piercing accusation, “Of course I ain’t! I was a soldier once, y’know, for the Inklings. Just… s’been a while since I fought somethin’ like this, that’s all!”
“Is that because your bad queen lady is gone now?” Valyrie asked, “Is that why you didn’t have to fight?”
“Uh…” Sylph smiled somewhat, “Not… exactly… I mean, ‘course her bein’ gone makes the whole not-fightin’ thing easier, but it’s more… I just avoided fightin’ if I didn’t have to do it. If ya’ll’re just a lone Inkling all by her lonesome, there ain’t much reason to be fightin’. I’m just along for the ride in wherever I end up. Their battles… just ain’t my battles, y’know? I just kept outta the way.”
Valyrie gave her a look of intense judgement. The young girl was figuring her out one little bit at a time, much too bright for her own good. “Well, you better not do that this time,” She said, “As you said, Epheral’s bad for everybody.”
Sylph looked somewhat struck by her words and huffed indignantly. “Well, I never!” She said, “Alright, well, ya’ll need to get yer rest. Little girls ain’t supposed to be up so late, let alone ones sick n’ hurt.”
Sylph stood up and urged the little one to lay back. Valyrie did what she was told, getting comfortable back into the bed. Sylph threw the sheets over her, a gentle breeze sliding underneath to soothe the girl’s discoloured, bruised, half-gone legs with a cool, soft caress before the sheets draped down around her. It offered the briefest glimpse of Valyrie’s bruised thighs and the fabric cappings over her stumps. Sylph receded back into Laila, allowing the girl to kiss her sister on the forehead, gently brushing her fingers through her hair again. She caught one of the ribbons that kept Valyrie’s long chocolate tresses tied into pig tails, and it came loose in her hand. When Laila withdrew, she herself clutching the little violet strip.
She thought to return it to the girl, but the weakened, younger giraffe had already dozed off. Laila thought better than to bother her any more. She decided to hold on to the ribbon for a while. She turned away to see her parents standing nearby. They had simply stood aside and observed, having been watching over their youngest daughter for hours. Eden’s angelic gold locks were frazzled and her amethyst eyes were red and puffy; Gunther did his best to remain stoic, but his face had never looked so old, and his beard had never looked so gray.
“I still can’t believe it,” Gunther said as Laila approached him. She was so tall, even he had to look up to her; but she seemed so much bigger in his eyes than before. “My daughters, caught up in this mess.” His voice held equal parts disdain and sorrow. Laila knew he would have rather she stayed out of trouble.
Seeing her parents in that state gave Laila pause. It was as if she only then realized she couldn’t remember the last time she had ever seen them that way.
Gunther kept his arm around his wife and pressed his other hand against her shoulder. He rubbed her arm calmingly. He was looking right past Laila at Valyrie instead, his mind distracted and grave concern dressing his face.
“I didn’t work this hard to have some alien what’s-it come by and just… take it all away. My farm, my life’s work, my family… I spent my whole life working those fields, getting food out to our city, filling bellies and giving people good, honest, important work. Now Harbington’s a mess, I don’t even know if the fields are still standing…”
“… It took my baby’s legs... I might have had the good graces to have two children of my own, but I don’t want to lose a single one to this… thing.”
Laila nodded in understanding. She felt much the same. “I get’chya, old man.”
“Laila, I know you haven’t been one for rules or the like, but this time…” Gunther spoke in a very careful, very controlled tone to keep his seething anger from getting the better of him.
“I know,” Laila said, “I’ll be careful.”
“No,” Gunther said, “This time… go ahead and break them. We got one rule in this world, and that rule is to get along and not hurt people. Well… you lay the hurt on that alien monster, and you make her think twice before ever showing her face back around here again. You do that, because hell, I wish I could. That goes double for your mother.”
Laila never thought she’d ever hear her dad encourage her to break a rule. Not in her entire life. If ever it were to happen, Laila always thought she’d be tickled, or thrilled. Instead, she felt cold. “That’s… a mighty tall order, dad.” Laila said, “I’m gonna be darn sure to do that, I promise. When I can, I reckon. We still gotta figure a way to get at ‘er in that… big crystal out there. I’m told I oughta get some rest, get somethin’ to eat…”
“Oh, let me make something for you!” Eden sprung into action, straightening out her dress and her hair. Laila stopped her.
“Hold yer horses,” Laila said, “Ya’ll stay here with Val. I’ll handle it.”
“Honey, it’s no trouble,” Eden said, “I just…”
“Stay here,” Laila repeated, “Please.”
Eden stopped, swallowed her pride, and stood back. “Alright,” She bowed her head in surrender, “Alright. Fine. You… run along and do whatever it is you super hero types do in this situation. But… please… be careful, Laila.”
Laila dipped her head in a polite cowpoke nod before turning to leave. She walked almost stiffly to the door where she stopped only to take up her rifle that she had left propped there. Taking it in her arms, she gripped the weapon to sling it over her shoulders. Valyrie’s ribbon pressed against the grip where Laila’s palm rested flush against it. The contrasting colour of the dull, gray plastic-rubber shell of the weapon against the vibrant, violet ribbon couldn’t have been clearer. In that moment, Laila tied the ribbon to the trigger guard before pushing the weapon around behind her so it hung off her back.
She stepped out into the hallway to see all sorts of people just hanging around. They tried to look casual about it, but it had been obvious that they had been following Laila around for a while by then. It had started shortly after Epheral’s departure, and it was clearly because Laila was inked. She knew their expectations of her well. After all, she had experienced that first-hand with Quincey when she had set up the meet on Skyships of Conquest. They expected her to be a hero, and it was the first time that thought had made her nervous. She had no idea how Quincey felt back then, and now that she was accustomed to it, she sympathized with her friend that much more.
Laila adjusted her weapon and tried to go on like things weren’t as dire as they could possibly be. She wasn’t very convincing. Outwardly she was tense, and the added stress of what was going on with her family was getting to her. It wasn’t even the same sort of irritation or discomfort that would drive her to seek release; this was something new entirely. OC was the furthest thing from her mind. Any other avenues of relieving herself of the situation came to dead ends. It felt like her mind was spinning with nowhere to go.
Being a head and shoulders over most everyone else allowed her to see Quincey coming down the hall. Without a thought, Laila sprung to meet her. It was everything she could do not to run straight at her.
“Laila…!” Quincey greeted her, but Laila gave her no chance to engage normally. The giraffe stepped in and pulled Quincey into a sudden, forceful embrace.
“Just the person I was wantin’ to see,” She said, “What’re ya up to right now?”
Quincey was pulled tightly against Laila’s chest, contending for space with her rifle’s new fibre strap. She was flustered, but the urgency put her on the offensive. “N-Nothing, is something wrong?”
“Let’s go to the cafeteria,” Laila suggested, “Let’s get some food in our bellies.”
~(_)~
The hospital’s cafeteria was so similar to the high school cafeteria. The resemblance was uncanny. The tables were exactly the same, and there were just as many of them to sit at based on a quick estimate. The colour of the construct plastic they were made from was the same off-cream, the legs were the same metallic-shine silver, and the chairs were the same shade of green and the same style. The layout was nearly the very same, save for the placement of some things, like where people got their trays and where the garbage cans were placed. The food selection was almost identical as well – everything from little pizza squares to pre-made sandwiches and pasta options were available. The nutritional programs in place that determined the menus of either institution followed the same guidelines and principles, both for health and convenience. That being the case, it was little wonder that so many of the displaced teenagers from Harbington High were hanging around there. It was the closest thing just short of invading Locksmouth High’s cafeteria that would be familiar surroundings. Quincey, too, felt a nostalgic longing for the days of school she’d been missing from the moment she entered the communal eatery. She’d only had a little over a two weeks of regular school life between returning from Locksmouth after Vor’s defeat, and Epheral’s sudden but inevitable arrival. Even then, it wasn’t very normal when she was the only known Inked in Harbington.
Still, it was easy to slip back into habit. Quincey had always loved lunch time at school. Not that she didn’t like learning, but food always beat most things on her list of interests. Laila seemed to be more at ease as well as they both took their trays and made their orders with the staff. Laila had gotten herself a garden salad, a yogurt parfait, a stuffed steamed bun, and a tall lemonade. Quincey had opted for putting as many food groups of a hero sandwich that she could, taking a cold water, a warm ginseng tea, and a cinnamon Danish for dessert.
They sat together in the best place they could find space away from everyone else. It was only a short time that people crowded them, and when they got the picture that the girls wanted to be left alone, they were given that space.
“I dunno how ya’ll do it…” Laila said. She barely waited a minute when they were alone to unload her problems.
“Do what?” Quincey asked.
Laila stabbed her fork through her salad multiple times distractedly. “Mmn… How do I put this…?” She mused, “Well, reckon I’ve been thinkin’. Y’know before we met? When I caroused ‘round with Jimmy?” Quincey nodded along while Laila took a big, stacked bite of her salad. Settling into the thought fully, the giraffe waved her fork in the air in a circular motion, spinning the figurative yarn. “It was obvious I was barkin’ up the wrong tree, but the way I figured it, I didn’t have nothin’ to think about. Had everything all laid out for me nice n’ pretty-like. I’d grow up into an even better-lookin’ lady and inherit the farm n’ I’d run it good.”
“Having an Inkling now wasn’t what you were expecting…” Quincey deduced, “Me neither. It feels like nothing will be the same anymore.”
“Nah, it won’t, but at the same time… it ain’t all that different.” Laila said, gesturing to her friend. “See, I spent all that time bein’ ugly n’ muddin’ in my truck, ‘cause I was so busy thinkin’ about myself that I ain’t never had a mind to nobody else. You, on the other hand…”
“You didn’t do nothin’ yer whole life but think about others. Ya’ll thought about me when I finally got it in my thick skull that I ain’t got no right goin’ around bein’ an idjit just because I had everything handed to me on a silver platter. If it weren’t for that, I’d be sittin’ somewhere else right now, probably without a pot to piss in, and no friends neither, startin’ an argument in an empty room.”
Quincey lowered her tea slowly, flushed with embarrassment at Laila’s words. “Well, I…”
“And ya’ll’re gonna say that it ain’t no big thing, I know.” Laila cut her off with a saucy rise of her eyebrow. “But that’s just it, ain’t it. Even right now ya’ll’re more concerned about everyone else than you are about yerself. Meanwhile I’m sittin’ over here like…”
She paused. Laila set her fork down and sat back, taking a moment to wipe off her face with a napkin even though there was nothing on it. She tossed the crumpled thing down onto her tray and didn’t look up from it. “Well… The thought of just runnin’ off crossed my mind once or twice through this whole kit n’ kaboodle. Because I ain’t the type to be responsible for other people. If I inherited that farm today, it’d go up in flames. All I can do is the physical work. I ain’t never bothered with management. Val was always the one who paid attention to that stuff. Now she’s sittin’ in a hospital bed with nothin’ you can see to Homeshare. N’ she’s just one outta hundreds of folks I gotta worry about because I got this Inklin’ power and I’m supposed to use it to save everyone.”
“Sylph, too,” She went on, “She’s been wantin’ to bail ever since Epheral touched down, but we’ve gotta stay because if’n we don’t, what then? We all just get swallowed up by Epheral anyway? Runnin’ ain’t doin’ a lick of good. So what do we get? Now we gotta fight some super-powered nightmare with Natalie down on her butt?”
Laila sighed and resumed eating. Quincey sat in silent contemplation, the very same thoughts and reservations weighing heavy on her mind as well. “I’m scared of it too…” She confessed, “But…”
“It just ain’t easy,” Laila said, “When both me n’ my Inklin’ are both thinkin’ we’d rather just get outta here while the gettin’s good. It’s too easy to think that I don’t need to worry about nobody but myself. But my sister ain’t got no legs, Quincey… I can’t just… not do something. So? How do you do it?”
“Me?” Quincey blinked, “How do I… do it?” She hesitated to even think, turning her head slightly. “I… I don’t know.”
Laila bit into her steamed bun, awkwardly chewing it as the hot steam within burned the inside of her mouth. She washed it down with her drink, swallowing hard. “Duplex falls outta space, gets in you, threatens you… n’ you help it. People get all up in yer business, hatin’ you and stuff, n’ you help them. Natalie n’ Echelon bring Duplex back from death’s door, n’ you’re the one sittin’ at her bedside. Ham-hog, whatever it is you got goin’ on in that heart of yours woulda turned me gray n’ killed me years ago. I ain’t thinkin’ very far outside my own life, n’ you’re over there just pilin’ it on. Should be that you’d buckled years ago, but here ya’ll are, just listenin’ to me go on. After this, we’re gonna have to go fight Epheral n’ yer gonna be there too, ain’t’chya?”
She sighed, rubbing her hands over her face with a groan. “I can’t even touch ya, Quincey. Yer a gosh darn saint.” She dropped her arms across the table limply, wrists up, looking exasperated at the pig and shaking her head. “Feels like I’m bein’ torn in two. On one hand I got the Inklin’ side of me just wantin’ to get out, but then the human side of me just wants to protect her family. I just wanna do both.”
Quincey lowered her eyes to the spread of food laid out on the table, thinking for just a moment that she’d just die if Earth and all of its food was gone. Duplex agreed. It would be an absolute waste.
She reached out and took hold of Laila’s hand. “In a way… that’s good.”
“Eh?” Laila asked, “How?”
Quincey concentrated on putting her thoughts into words. She furrowed her brow and stared at her and Laila’s hands holding one another. “Being an Inkling’s host is… a process,” She explained, “And at first, I was just afraid of Duplex. I hated her and resented her and I just wanted her to go away. The thing is… Duplex was just as scared and desperate as I was. The more I realized that, the closer we got to just… working. So, it’s good that you and Sylph have things to work out together. I think it’s an important part to bonding as a host.”
“Huh. Never thought about it like that before.”
Quincey nodded. “If Sylph and you are both struggling to find reasons to put yourself after the needs of others, it’s something that you can work toward together. It helps you become closer. When I started focusing on how Duplex and I are alike, it felt like things were becoming healthier. I think maybe the best part about it is that with an Inkling, you never have to do something like that by yourself. Like a pack, they’re not just there to support you. They’re learning with you, and growing with you. When I got back to Harbington after we left Locksmouth for the first time, I tried hard to show Duplex things about my life and tried letting her into things with me. I think it helped her grow attached to things, and to me. And… I think that’s just important. For anybody. It’s scary sometimes, and it hurts sometimes, but… well, you always taught me that hard work pays off, even if you have to take a risk to get it done. The worst thing to do would be to do nothing.”
Laila solemnly nodded her head, having listened intently to Quincey’s every word, joining the girl in staring at their interlocked hands. “Yup… Can’t just sit around and do nothin’,” She agreed, “Do nothin’, and nothin’s all that gets done.”
Quincey smiled crookedly. “I say that, but…” She took a breath and sighed, “I’m afraid to fight Epheral. I don’t know if I can do it.”
Laila inked over. Quincey found herself holding the smooth hand of Sylph instead. The Inkling leaned forward, staring at Quincey with interest. “I ain’t never thought of it before,” Sylph said, “But y’know, yer right. I ain’t never thought of hosts that way, n’ they ain’t never thought of me that way. I don’t really have nothin’ going on, y’know? Ain’t had no reason to stick around nowhere. I sure didn’t want to hang around Osoth n’ do her biddin’. I guess I did feel pretty bad that fox I was with before got hurt. Now that Val girl is all laid out. It ain’t right, all that happenin’ because of one weird Inklin’ boogieman.”
“No, it’s not…” Quincey considered, “I don’t think anything could justify the things she’s done.”
“Well,” Sylph said, “If what you’re sayin’ is true, then I guess you don’t gotta stand up to her by yerself, huh? You got Duplex helpin’ ya… n’ I guess you’ll have me helpin’ ya too. I dunno if there’s much we can do, and it would be easier if I just high-tailed it quick like a bunny, but… Do nothin’, and nothin’s all that gets done. If that’s all we do, Earth’ll be gobbled up, so… I guess I can’t let that be happenin’.”
“That’s good,” Quincey said, “I’ll need your help, for sure.”
Sylph smirked. “Ha, well, if it’s you askin’ me for help… well shucks, I don’t think I can say no. I never was much good as a soldier, but by your will, I’ll be right there with ya. Me and Laila both. If we live through it, maybe I’ll try learnin’ about vegetables n’ stuff.”
Quincey couldn’t help but smile. “I know you two can work together. I believe it with all my heart, and I’ll be with you every step of the way. I promise.”
“Now that I ain’t used to,” Sylph said, “But… it’s an oddly comfortin’ thought.”
Sylph receded, and the girls sat back to finish their food. They were in no hurry, taking their time to enjoy the tastes and textures of every little savoury bit. Once they were finished, Laila stretched her arms up and out, arching her back, working the kinks out of her sore muscles. Quincey yawned. A full belly always made her feel a little tired.
“Have you seen Daxton or Kenny?” Quincey asked. Laila shrugged.
“Daxton’s off getting’ some rest. Said he was feelin’ a little woozy.” Laila explained, “As for Kenny, I ain’t got the slightest. He just wandered off, ain’t seen him since.”
Quincey gathered her tray and took Laila’s as well when she stood up. “Well, maybe I’ll try calling Ed or Eddie. Thank you, Laila.”
Laila chuckled and shook her head. “Nah, ham bone, thank you. Wish I could tell ya not to be scared, but… this is the end of the world we’re talkin’ about. One that specifically wants to kill us before getting’ to everyone else.”
“Yes, that’s… that’s very right.” Quincey offered a nervous smile. “A-And… not at all very comforting.”
-
--
-
It may have been the spotlight blinding him to the world around, or perhaps it was just a void. Daxton sat in nebulous space, at the edge of a stage, one leg hanging down even though there was no visible platform upon which he was suspended. He tapped and beat his hands on the tough ground beneath him, drumming along with an acoustic guitar and bass at a mellow, easy-listening tempo. He shut his sight off to everything, and let his head sway with the rhythm and the sound, absentmindedly reaching up to touch his ear and draw his finger across the roughly-cut edge where the tip used to be. His hands felt barely together, his legs stung with lacerations, his knee throbbed where it had been pushed back into place. It was all more uncomfortable than it was painful, and each thump of his heart made his injuries throb in time with the tune.
Bouncin’ around at the speed of sound
I’m all alone, I’m all alone
Can you see me?
No lights are on
Hello, hello?
Hello, hello?
His voice echoed into the empty expanse, played along the acoustics of a space he couldn’t see, and reverberated around. He paused to catch his breathing, where every inhale made his ribs crack if he breathed in too deep. He cracked them time and again, on purpose, getting used to the feeling of his bones and muscle straining under his injuries. A pain in the root of his pack settled into his tailbone, making him grit his teeth.
You’re so light
But your battery might die
I am beyond words
And I don’t know why
GOD could you deactivate
Deactivate
My heart made of stone
Of stone
What is my life?
(Ohh~)
Am I doin’ this right?
(Ohh~)
I just realized I might
Not know what the hell is going on
Fool me once
Fool me twice
We’re still gonna try!
(Oh!)
We’re gonna carry on!
(Oh!)
If you could break these bones of mine
I’m still the champion!
What is my life?
(Ohh~)
Am I doin’ this right?
Am I doin’ this right?
What is my life?
(Ohh~)
My life, my life
(Ohh~)
My life
During a pause, he winced. The sound of clapping caught his attention. He peered out into the dark, pushing his bangs out of the way of his sunken, deformed eye sockets to squint. The act was crooked and wrong without the ability to actually move his eyelids, but his brow furrowed. The spotlight blinked, being closed off into a closed-eyed smile of Lumina’s face. She likewise had her hand pressed up to her forehead to push her inky bangs away from her face, to shine her eyes down on him unimpeded. “Let me guess,” She said, in a plucky, doting grandmother sort of way, “There’s something on your mind.”
Daxton smirked and exhaled past his lips in a dismissive huff.
How do I play?
Ay, ay
And I’m here to say
I’m gonna smack your ass in a major way
This game
Game, game
Is designed to play badly
And that’s not what a game should be
Down, down
Into the winding river we go
The angsty teen should know
All about being in the shadows
What if this is reality
And out here is the dream?
I don’t even know
Just be the best you can be!
What is my life?
(Ohh~)
Am I doin’ this right?
(Ohh~)
I just realized I might
Not know what the hell is going on
Fool me once
Fool me twice
We’re still gonna try!
(Oh!)
We’re gonna carry on!
(Oh!)
If you could break these bones of mine
I’m still the champion!
What is my life?
(Ohh~)
Am I doin’ this right?
Am I doin’ this right?
What is my life?
(Ohh~)
My life, my life
(Ohh~)
My life
Lumina’s fingers gently pressed against his temples. She knelt behind him, and let him sit back against her body. Tenderly, she rubbed, lights dancing around his head. “What’s the matter, dear?” She asked, smiling to herself. “As if I don’t know.”
Daxton sighed. “I am out of my league. I’m out of my mind.”
“I could have told you that,” Lumina chided, “But perhaps you would like to elaborate.”
“Quincey and Duplex have come back from the dead, like, three times.” Daxton said, “All I’ve done is get beat up, cut up, bashed up, and fucked up. I passed out, I couldn’t keep going, and I’m disappointed in myself for it. I know she’s out there right now needing someone, and I’m unconscious somewhere because all I could do is get hit so she doesn’t have to. But she always ends up getting hurt anyway… I can’t stop it.”
“Now Natalie’s on her ass, and what we did… should it have even been possible? She’s gonna get pulled into it again, and if I take another shot for her, I might just collapse.” Daxton pushed his tongue into the gap where one of his molars used to be, taking a moment to rub his face, and just come to terms with what was going on. “But I’m gonna have to.”
Lumina lowered her head, looking down at Daxton as he peered up at her. Gently, she brushed aside his bangs to look at his face. “Why is it you feel you have to always stand between her and the world?”
“Because I owe it to her. Because it can chew people like her up and spit them out. That’d be a waste.” Daxton grinned in spite of himself, raising his hands in hopeless surrender. “And that’s what I do, y’know? She pulled me up, and I do everything I can to be the guy she sees when she looks at me instead of the guy I am. Throwing myself at problems is all I know how to do, and it’s all I’m good at. At least with her, it has purpose.”
“You poor, sad puppy.”
“Tch.” Daxton scoffed. He stifled a little laugh and rolled one of his shoulders in a shrug. “It’s been a hell of a time though. I don’t think I’d ever be able to bust myself up on stuff like this if it wasn’t for her. It’s fun. She can’t take it though. So if playing the hero gets me in the way of that, then I’ll fake it ‘til I make it. I’m no hero though. Heroes don’t get so scared over what would happen if their girlfriend wasn’t there to hold their hand.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Lumina said, “But you’re not wrong. You’re woefully dependant on her. However, what if I told you that the answer to your problems has been staring you in the face the entire time?”
Daxton bared his teeth in a confused sneer. “What do you mean?”
Lumina slid her hands down and around to embrace the boy from behind. She extended one hand forward to present a number of images playing out before Daxton’s eyes, one after the other, overlapping each other, all of Quincey and the things she had accomplished. Daxton had trouble following them all, there were so many. Several were from when they were younger, and she was there with him to support him and help him get over his fears and insecurities. Several more where the times he’d simply stood by and watched as she brought that to others. There was when she inducted Kenny into the pack. There was when she wouldn’t stand to have Laila be bullied, despite Laila being a bully herself. There was Duplex, and the seemingly countless struggles the girl had gone through to bridge the gap between them. There were so many more, too. Other kids at school had been graced by Quincey’s endless altruism, and some adults, and many younger kids. She had always been good with kids.
“She’s been setting an example for you,” Lumina said, “She’s been setting an example for everyone. She doesn’t stand in their way. She stands beside them.”
“You need to stop getting in her way and start being at her side.”
Lumina’s words struck him, and he needed several seconds to absorb and process them. He ran through several emotions, tensing up. “I try,” He said, “But she always…”
“You’re not trying hard enough. You get impatient and just throw yourself at her problems and take the brunt of it for her.”
“But she’ll get hurt,” Daxton argued, “She’s not good with stuff like that. She gets hurt, and she cries, and I just…”
“And if you stopped putting yourself ahead of her, you may feel less indebted to her, and less isolated. She’s your partner, not your charge.”
Daxton reached up and the Inkling’s arms away from him, breaking free of her embrace and quickly standing up. “I know that!” he argued, “What kinda idiot…”
“And despite what you may think, Daxton…” Lumina said, calmly standing up, “… You don’t deserve to hurt. Your weaknesses, your darkest moments, your mistakes… none of them call for your pain as penance. Your life is not to be a series of trials by fire, of which you will inevitably fail some day, in the end.”
“What the…” Daxton caught his words in his teeth and clamped down on them to stifle their exit from his mouth.
Lumina somberly lowered her head. “You do not need to fight yourself to death. We’ve tried that, and all it serves is to cut you off from the things that truly matter. Conquest by blood was not to be our way. A life of battle is a life not lived.”
“You have been potentially the pushiest host I have ever encountered. You have an ability to spur me into action, no matter how I feel about the situation. If I am to be with you in this manner, I will recuse myself if I feel that the risks you are taking are less in the interest of others, and more in the interest of hurting yourself. You will receive no help from me. I will not be an accessory to your murder.”
“What?!” Daxton clenched his fists, “Are you saying you’re gonna abandon me?!”
“Does that frighten you?” Lumina cut back, making Daxton choke on whatever he was going to spit out next. “Or, is it perhaps that you believe that’s exactly what I should do? That you can press on yourself in spite of that? That you deserve as much?”
Daxton eyed Lumina warily. “… What do you want me to do, then? If someone can’t fend for themselves, I’ve gotta do it for them. That’s just the way it is.”
“Help them fend for themselves.” Lumina calmly replied, “It’s what Quincey has done her entire life. You should try it. That is how victory is truly seized. Anything else is hollow. At the very least, help her. She has such a strength, such a light… you must reach in and draw it out, just as she has done for you.”
The boy fell silent, his teeth grinding. He cursed in frustration and spun himself around to pace away from the Inkling. He paced back after a short few circles, and looked her in the eye after a lengthy consideration of his next words. “… And you’ll help me with that? If I throw down for that, you won’t back off?”
“I would give the entirety of my being to this cause,” Lumina said, “As I always should have from the very beginning during Osoth’s reign. It was my frailty and cowardice that prevented me from taking a stand and acting in the better interest of my people. My only apology is that you’re the one that has to put up with it now that I refuse to back down. Perhaps you’re rubbing off on me.”
Daxton stared at her, his expression unreadable. Then, he jutted a finger out to point at her, and he cracked a wry smirk. “You… I like you.” He waved his finger, bobbing it a few times before it drummed invisibly along with a beat. He swung his hand to spin him around, and he paced away again.
Come along
Run away with me
The more I fail, the better I feel
Come at me gravity!
Just can’t make sense of it
That’s me, that’s me
Young, dumb, and ridiculous
That’s all I’ll ever be
She makes sense of it
She’s fuckin’ beautiful, by the way
I need her to make sense of it
Every day, every day
Make sense of it
Make sense of it
Make sense of it
At the end of the day
We’re all just tryin’ to
Make sense of it
What is my life?
~(_)~
“Ugh…” Daxton awoke, rising and rubbing his head. “I’m never gonna get used to that drain thing…”
He activated his STOP, finding that the tough surface he was laying on was a bench in the hospital’s emergency waiting room, and that the moisture around his face had come from a small puddle of his own drool. He quickly wiped it off and pushed up to sit proper, stretching his arms and back, grunting and groaning. He felt anything but comfortable, but the little shut-eye he had gotten was still nice. He yawned widely, and then his posture deflated. He looked around to see people staring at him. That’s what he got for falling asleep in a public place, he supposed.
“Why are you just sleeping?” Someone asked, their tone terse, “Shouldn’t you be doing something?”
Daxton looked at the woman. A ferret, if he had to guess at a glance. “Lady, I’ve had a concussion, snapped my wrist, dislocated my knee, bruised my kidneys and my ribs, and taken more shots to the face than you have in your entire life,” He responded harshly, “Lay off me, will ya?”
He didn’t await a response, rising from his seat and leaving her to be flustered and embarrassed. He kneaded his neck as he departed deeper into the hospital, tilting his head at a firm angle to crack it, just trying to work the kinks out of himself. “Now… ngh… if I were Quincey, where would I be…?”
-
--
-
Shelly came to her front door in a sleepy haze. She yawned big and rubbed her eyes, trying to straighten out her hair. Her antennae flexed somewhat and stretched as she did.
“Whoa!” Kenny practically squeaked, flushing with embarrassment.
She wasn’t wearing anything but her stickers! The orange interrobang motif slapped over her enormous bosom played a stark contrast to her rubbery grey complexion; and was most unexpected!
“Uwaaah…!” Shelly yawned, her voice pitching as she did. She then looked down at Kenny, still rubbing the sleep out of one eye. “Wut?”
Kenny felt sweat break out over the back of his neck. “Ah, uh, I guess I’m bothering you at a bad time, huh?” He asked nervously.
Shelly checked a watch she wasn’t wearing. “Four in the morning’s a bad time yeah,” She said, “After a day of alien crud and running my butt off… Did you wake me up to yell at me? Because I guess I deserve it…”
While Kenny was having a difficult time keeping his eyes on her face, he was following her words perfectly fine. He paused when she suggested that he’d only come to her house to yell at her. He squinted somewhat, looking her in the eye. “Yell at you…?” He asked, genuinely confused.
The butterfly seemed to have finally collected herself, and so she finally frowned. She looked sheepish and uncertain. “Well, like, I said that totally rude thing about you guys not being able to fight the bad guys and stuff,” She explained, “And, I know you totally hate my guts. Soooo, I guess this is when yelling happens?”
“Wait,” Kenny said, “What?”
Shelly appeared confused as well. It practically beamed from her golden-orange eyes like a spotlight as she blinked at him. “Um, when we met? You totally hated me then. Like, I know you’ve been tryin’ to give me a chance not to be a total doof, but I guess I messed it up… Right?” She furrowed her brow suddenly, and canted her head to the side, “I’m… thinking by the look on your face that I’m totes wrong again, aren’t I?” She almost seemed to hunch as she nervously twisted and pulled on her fingers. “Crap… Well, that’s me! Bad at social Shelly!”
She laughed, kind of.
Kenny just stared at her, not sure of where to even begin. It didn’t help that he kept looking at her body. His eyes flitted up and down, torn between her face and the rest of her. “I, uh…” He struggled with his thoughts for a moment before just shaking his head furiously, and getting right to it. “No, hold on a second, that’s backwards! You’re supposed to be the one giving me a chance! I was the jerk when we met, not you.”
“So… you weren’t mad because I, like, tried to grab you?” Shelly crossed her arms under her bust and leaned against the frame of her front door, settling in for a long, undoubtedly confusing conversation.
The first thought to enter Kenny’s mind was to jokingly imply that he’d be all too happy to let her grab him. Instead, he carefully considered being entirely honest. “No, Shelly, I… Well at the time, I was just in a bad place. Like, emotionally. And mentally. And a little physically. So… I said some stuff and did stuff that I kind of regret now. Well, more than kind of. I a lot regret it now. So, I’m sorry about that. I don’t hate you.”
“Oh,” Shelly said, looking genuinely surprised, “I guess that makes sense. Like, Natalie said you were basically having a breakdown? I know that’s a total brain-strain but, like… I didn’t really get it? She just said I had to be nice, so… I did.” She shrugged her shoulders at him.
Kenny had to process that and try and determine the right emotion to react with. He decided upon just ignoring that he was being treated with baby-gloves at the time. “Right, so… Okay that’s a good thing to segue into why I even came here in the first place. I kinda just wanna do that all over again.”
“Have a mental breakdown?” Shelly cocked a brow, “Why?”
Kenny shook his head in frustration. “No! Not that! Agh, I mean like…”
It just popped into his head. The thought to just do it. There, standing before the mostly-naked Shelly, at her front door at four in the morning, with the spire of Epheral looming in the distance and painting the horizon a sickened hue, the armored young man stuck his hand out in greeting. “Hi, I’m Kenny,” He said, “I like cars, mechanics, old tech, roshu, and uh…”
He blushed. “Butterflies are… really… pretty cool.”
Kenny’s reflection was apparent in Shelly’s eyes as she focused on him. She stood up straight once again and gawked at his outstretched hand in confusion. “Uh…” She reached out and shook it, incredibly awkwardly. “Hey?”
“I wanted a do-over on the whole meeting you thing,” Kenny said, “Because I like you. I think you’re… u-uh… you’re… um… neat.”
“Okay?” Shelly played along, “But, like, you know time is a linear concept wherein events that have occurred cannot… un-occur, right? We totally met already.”
Kenny flustered. “I know that!” He almost shouted, but he caught himself, and it only made him more embarrassed. His face was awful red then, and he felt even sweatier. “N-No, I, uh… I mean, okay… so… when I almost died I got to thinking that I’d been kinda just letting things pass me by and like I was missing out on a lot of stuff with my friends and I was really regretting acting the way I did toward you guys when I came here, but that was because of the Inkling stuff and it was kind of understandable but even so I mean I just have a lot to make up for you know? So, like, because I think you’re really pretty and interesting and neat and stuff I wanted really to get to know you better and I just felt the best way to do that was to just wipe everything off and start new. Except for the part where you helped save my life, that was good, and thank you a lot for that by the way; it’s just weird to say now I guess because maybe you didn’t actually save my life but you carried me out of there so that’s good, I’m really glad you did. A-Anyway, I…”
“Whoaaaa,” Shelly thrust a hand out at him to stop his rambling dead in its tracks, “Whoa there, wow. What the heck. Are you freaking out right now?”
Kenny winced. “A little?”
“Did you call me pretty? Wow. Nobody’s ever called me that before.” Shelly said, tapping her lip.
“I like your hair!” Kenny flustered, “I love the colour! And your piercings are awesome, and…!”
“Like, people have called me smokin’ hot, and told me they’re DTOC, and like, all kinds of stuff,” Shelly continued absentmindedly, “But pretty? That’s so grade-school!”
Kenny choked on his words.
Shelly laughed, and seemed to relax a little. “Wow, I thought I was in biiiiig trouble,” She said, “Turns out you just think I’m hot! Sweet.”
“Uh, well…!” Kenny practically shook. He’d really messed up this confession!
“So, like… don’t tell me you came all the way here just to tell me that?” Shelly leaned toward him, putting on a saucy look, “Boys don’t just come to girls’ houses in the middle of the night unless they totally wanna do it! Is that what you want? One super rad hurrah before going to fight the big bad? That’s so classic.”
Kenny felt like sweat was just pouring down his face then. When Shelly leaned forward, clasped her hands together in a darling gesture that shoved her elbows against her boobs and made them just blow up toward him, egging him on with mile-long cleavage. “Ha…” His voice cracked, “Y-Yes that would be good, and, uh…”
“Awright, we can do that,” Shelly said, taking Kenny’s hand, “Just don’t clang around with all that armor, you’ll wake my parents up. Well, again. Be super quiet.”
“Wait, uh…!” Kenny said, only to be ignored as Shelly turned and pulled him inside. He stumbled along behind her, nearly tripping over his boots several times. His feet were heavy-footed in his plated combat boots, and even though he was swept up in a situation he hadn’t intended to initiate, he became incredibly conscious of trying to tip-toe, even though the metal inlayed heels of his boots click-clacked and clopped on the hardwood floors of Shelly’s home.
“Shelly…!” he whispered.
“Shhh!” Shelly giggled, “Gawd, are you that excited? I said shush!”
She wasn’t listening! Kenny was beginning to panic. His mind was racing with all the ways he’d managed to completely screw this up. He even started to drag his heels a little, but it didn’t stop Shelly from practically dragging him into her bedroom.
Her bedroom! Kenny’s mind stopped trying to fold on itself for just a while once he stepped inside of her room. It looked like some kind of cross between a pre-modern penthouse and a library. The window looking out over her pool spanned the entire wall, with only some accents breaking the glass wall into separate panes. It seemed she’d collected a lot of books – or, looking more closely, a physical library of PET files done up to look like bookcases that stood off-the-wall, at seemingly random, yet carefully positioned locations at made walking through her bedroom similar to walking through an actual library. The décor was something else – old scientific apparatus, some even functioning in perpetual motion, were hung or set on display among the ‘books.’ The files she kept spanned through several eras of science and philosophy.
At the end of it all was her bed – a big, flat bed with more space than she needed. A bed that expected company. And seemed to have gawdy, zebra-striped sheets of violet hue. There was of course her closet – open and displaying scores of outfits, with a holo-projector to help her coordinate and pick each one. A dresser – no, more than one dresser – and a vanity were almost expected there. The vanity looked to be set up as a sort of personal space. It seemed she burned incense there, with a chair to sit in, and had more jars of ‘sand’ and ‘goop’ than she did make-up. It was an all-in-one ‘sit and read’ and ‘get pretty’ spot. It seemed she had a second spot among the stacks with a big, comfortable-looking beanbag chair to sink into as well.
The lighting was warm and gentle, like the room was set to be on eternal sunset, even though the view outside was dark and gloomy past the back-lit pool and wide-open veranda area.
Shelly let his hand go, and threw her arms out. “Bam! My bedroom!” She announced before she turned to Kenny with a spin. “Nice, huh?”
“… Yeah,” Kenny said, taking his time to soak it in. Standing there for five seconds taught him more about Shelly than he’d learned in the weeks he’d known her. It raised more questions than not, though. His mind snapped back to the matter at hand, however, and he shuffled in closer. “Shelly, this…”
“Is pretty awesome, huh? Yeah!” Shelly stepped back to her bed and plopped down on it, sitting down almost casually. She bounced on her mattress with a giggle, with all the intention of making her breasts bounce up and down heavily. “So? Did ya bring your PET? What setting do ya like?”
Kenny grit his teeth, fighting the instinct his body so desperately wanted to act on. Aroused and excited as he was, he sucked in a breath. “Shelly, I didn’t come here for that!”
Shelly stopped bouncing. “Huh?”
Kenny hung his head. “Shelly… when I said I like you, I don’t just mean that I like you. I LIKE you! Like… like-you like you!”
“Like-me like me…?”
Kenny smacked and dug his palm into his forehead. “Agh, god damnit…”
“A crush, Shelly!” He blurted out, “I have a crush on you!”
Kenny froze when his outburst clued Shelly in, and her expression turned to one of surprise, and her lips puckered into an O shape. “… Oh.” She said, her entire tone shifting to be calmer and more serious.
Kenny hung on that for several seconds. He repeated her, “Oh.”
“Oh, like that.” Shelly said, “Really? Why?”
Kenny blinked his eyes. “Do… Do I have to have a reason?” He asked, “Does it matter? I just… when we got together at that milkshake place after the last time, I… liked talking to you. You were… smart. Kinda weird. Quirky, I guess. And you’re… beautiful! Like… boobs aside, I mean, you’re tall and… and you look good.”
Shelly looked away. “Uh…” She seemed to be struggling with this confession, and she reached aside suddenly to grab her PET. Almost ignoring Kenny, she started tapping on it, opening programs.
“Is it weird?” Kenny flustered, stepping closer, “I mean, I guess maybe it is, I know we’ve had a bit of a fucked up time, but even so…”
“Umm…” Shelly tried to stall for more time, but eventually gave up and set her PET face-down on her thigh. She looked at him and shrugged her shoulders, kind of scrunching up cutely. Kenny stared dumbstruck at her, speechless for a while.
“What does that mean?”
“Well…” Shelly pondered aloud, “I dunno. Um… how am I supposed to feel?”
“How are you… what?”
Shelly sighed, feeling very uncomfortable. It was written all over her body language. She was turning away, trying to remove herself from the situation. “Like… I don’t know you very well, dude.”
Kenny felt his heart jump up into his throat, but he swallowed it back down. Stupid, was all he could think. He remembered back to his time on the cheer leading squad when he’d jumped at the chance to go out with the captain. Because he liked her. Because he liked her that way. He could have just OC’d with her, but he just couldn’t settle for that. It could have been casual, but he’d gotten all hung up on things being serious. He pushed it. Then, the insecurities began to bubble up. He’d completely destroyed their relationship all because he’d wanted it to happen in the first place.
Dee hadn’t spoken to him ever again after that. It was playing out in front of his eyes all over again.
“Fuck,” He said, a bit breathless, “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Shelly looked extra confused.
“I didn’t mean to just spring this on you! God damnit…” Kenny groused, clutching at his own head in worry, “I… I don’t even know what I’m doing here. I shouldn’t have come. This was just me being stupid again.”
His heart felt strange. His panicked mind told him that he shouldn’t have been getting so emotionally worked up after being resuscitated like he was, but he wasn’t sure if it was just heartache gripping at him. He thought he’d felt it before, but it snuck up on him completely by surprise.
“Look, uh…” Kenny said, his voice wavering, “F… Forget it.”
Shelly sat up, blinking her big, beautiful eyes at him. “Do you not like me?”
“N-No,” Kenny answered too fast for his mind to process, “I-I mean yes! B-But… uh…! I’m… just gonna go! Uh, goodnight! I’ll see you, uh… if… I don’t die tomorrow, I guess! Ha… heh…”
“Whoa, hold on a sec…!” Shelly said, but Kenny had already turned and run out. He didn’t even try to be quiet. It was just his heavy footfalls thumping all the way down the hall. “And he’s gone,” She said, “Huh.”
She sat there alone in her room for a while, falling into deep contemplation. She curled up on her bed and looked out her window, able to see Epheral’s spire way off in the ocean. The words ‘if he didn’t die tomorrow’ didn’t sit right with her. She felt suddenly rather distraught. In just a few minutes he’d given her way too much to think about, and it was stressing her out.
“Why?” She asked herself, “How did he…? I don’t get it.”
Focusing on Epheral’s spire, she glared at it. “Well…! She’d better not! Again! That would totally suck if… small guy in shining armor who… likes me… just totes died. Bummer. Super bummer.”
She threw herself back onto her bed, sprawling out. She stared at the ceiling in her room for a short while before lifting her PET to look at the screen. “Confession of love,” it said on the screen, “Appropriate responses: reciprocate, reject.” It went on to read “panic,” “stressed,” “possible emotional baggage.”
“Still has feelings for you.”
Shelly squinted at the screen. “But, like… why?”
The app had no answer for that.
-
--
-
Laila’s nerve had given way to exhaustion. She wanted nothing more than to find somewhere to sleep, and it seemed as if Kelvalde’s apartment was going to be the place by virtue of just being the usual place to stay. She’d have to get on a trans and head that way. Last she heard, they were running again after being totally offline during the attack. They don’t stay down long, those Locksmouth folk. Crazy, as far as most people from Harbington were concerned; but for right then? She was thankful for how crazy Locksmouth could seemingly be. What better place to host an alien invasion?
As she rounded a corner, she had to stop. She blinked her eyes, squinted, and made sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. She hadn’t noticed how quiet it was around that specific spot. There wasn’t anyone else around. Nobody but Abigail, anyway, who was obviously doing something very suspicious at a vending machine. She seemed far too interested in what was inside – she pressed her hand to the glass and practically rubbed her face against it, peering in. Laila approached her slowly, not even really trying to be quiet. Abigail was so distracted, there was no way she was even paying attention.
Abigail flattened her often-morose expression out a little more, extending the line of her mouth as she concentrated. Inside the machine, her hand was maneuvering around; detached from her arm, of course. Groping with her fingers and ‘crawling’ around inside, she inched her hand closer and closer to her prize – Wonkies. Her favourite malt chocolate bit-sized snack. With her fingers hooked into the compartment’s edges where the treat sat, Abigail used her middle finger to flick the package, trying to pull it loose from its slot. Laila stood back behind her and watched her for several seconds, shaking her head in disappointment. She probably should have reacted differently to a girl using her own disembodied hand to rob a vending machine, but it hadn’t even been the strangest thing she’d seen in the last half hour.
“Abby, what the heck’re you doin’?” Laila asked, taking an authoritative pose and canting her hip.
Abigail, impressively as always, didn’t even flinch or jump. She answered simply and bluntly. “Stealing, obviously.”
“Seriously?” Laila asked.
Abigail finally knocked the package loose and it fell into the reception slot. She allowed her hand to drop after it, and reached inside with her other hand to acquire both. “Hungry,” Abigail answered, “Can’t sleep.” She attached her hand and turned to Laila. She didn’t hesitate to open the candy and pop one of the chocolatey morsels into her mouth. She chewed it slowly. Defiantly.
“Well, fortunately for you, I am more keen on Epheral than I am on you right now,” Laila said, stepping forward and prodding Abigail’s shoulder to give her a little shove, “But if ya keep it up, I’ll make a citizen’s arrest and bust yer butt with my super hero powers. Or whatever. Point is I reckon super wind powers beats fallin’ apart powers pretty easy.”
Abigail shrugged off the shove, rolling her shoulder, baring it from the stretched, wide neck of her sweater. “Neat,” She said, dismissively, munching on another treat. She paused and looked around slowly, seemingly searching her own thoughts. “Hey… your sister okay?”
Laila was surprised. “My sister? She’s… well…”
“I’m the one that pulled her legs off.” Abigail said with a cheek stuffed with milk chocolate and crunchy malt, “You’re welcome.”
“You did what?!” Laila shouted, grabbing Abigail by her sweater and hauling her off her feet to be closer to Laila’s imposing height. Abigail barely blinked. She instead just struggled to get another piece of candy out of the wrapper she was indulging in.
“Pulled her legs off,” Abigail repeated, “Pulled lots of people’s stuff off. Part of my powers, I guess. Jim, too. Epheral was eating him from the arm up, so I had to pull his arm off before it ate all of him. Same with Valyrie. So, yeah. You still have a sister because of me. I’m pretty neat like that.”
Laila felt a wash of embarrassment come over her. “What? You… saved ‘er life? You?” She dropped the jellyfish girl, who landed wobbly on her feet. As soon as she could right herself, she dug out a piece of chocolate and crunched it.
“Yeah,” She said, “Kinda scary. I thought everyone was totally gonna die.”
The way she sounded didn’t sound like she was overly upset about it.
“So… are you gonna say thanks or what?” Abigail asked, that passive indignation plucking at something deep in Laila that just… annoyed her, tremendously. It was only made more annoying because, technically, Abigail had done something good. Still, Laila couldn’t just let that go.
“Most people don’t need a pat on the head whenever they do somethin’ good, Abby,” Laila scolded her, “And just ‘cause you did somethin’ nice once doesn’t take away all the stupid crap you do the rest of the time.”
“What?” Abigail asked past a mouthful of candy, “Like those other kids? Sorry about that.”
“Eh?” Laila was taken aback, “Sorry? Did ya’ll just say you were sorry? I must have somethin’ in my ears, or Wonkies started puttin’ mood juice in their chocolate.”
“I did,” Abigail shrugged, “I mean… obviously if they got hurt like Valyrie did, then the same thing could have happened to them. And that’s bad.”
Laila put her hands on her hips, her expression somewhere between utter disbelief and exasperation. “Well slap my ass n’ call me Sally, you do have a decent bone somewhere in your body. If ya’ll even got bones.” She said, “Guess it’s good ya’ll draw the line at straight murder.”
“Didn’t mean for them to get hurt or nothing,” Abigail said, “Stealing from a vending machine? That’s okay. Convincing them to give me food and stuff? That’s fine. Locking them in a closet? That’s just a Tuesday. Letting them die? I am a person with deep thoughts and feelings, Laila. I’m a paragon of morals.”
Laila sighed as Abigail dodged even taking a complement, back-handed as it was. Being difficult was just her modus operandi. “Well, whatever,” She said, “Good on ya, jelly-belly. Even if it was just one time outta fifty bajillion, n’ the hardest decency test to fail.”
That was about all of Abigail Laila wanted to handle. The disinterested and flat way that she stared at her made Laila just want to shake her around, it was so frustrating. “Anyway, Val’s doin’ alright. Gonna have to get some prosthetics, but at least she’s livin’. Reckon there’s worse things in life than havin’ some tin legs. You stay outta trouble, n’ make sure the boys do too. If I gotta turn around and come back tomorrow to haul off and tan your hide, don’t think I won’t. And no more stealin’.”
Laila turned to leave, but Abigail stopped her just by speaking up. “Haven’t seen my parents, have you?” She asked. Laila stopped and turned around, honestly surprised. Abigail wasn’t the type to worry about her parents very much.
“Ain’t seen ‘em,” Laila answered, “Why? Somethin’ wrong?”
“No. That’s good.” Abigail said, “They’re just gonna yell at me when they see me anyway. The longer they stay gone, the better. Anyway, I’m out.”
Abigail abruptly turned and stepped off. Laila turned away, racked with curiosity. She’d have to push that to the back of her mind for the time being, however. Epheral was a greater concern. As she moved to step away though, a sharp impact on her backside startled her. She yelped and jumped, turning around quickly to see Abigail just turning away again.
“Seeya, Sally.”
Laila huffed. “That’s just a sayin’…!” She caught herself, because she knew full well that Abigail was fully aware of this, and that was the point. It was a joke. Frustrated, Laila groused, “Aw, never mind. I’m fit to sleep through winter.”
They parted ways, and while Laila left to catch a train, Abigail continued deeper into the hospital. Unlike the others, she had the liberty of being a lesser-known person of import. A few people here and there may have recognized her from the hotel but compared to the others she was practically unknown. Not that she would have paid anyone any mind anyway. She barely paid any attention to them when she was walking into them and brushing past, not bothering to step out of the way. Even when travelling, she seemed intent to make herself as unpleasant as possible. After bumping into a handful of people and ignoring their nagging over the matter, she returned to Jimmy’s room and stepped inside.
Jimmy was still there in bed, and Lincoln was still by his side. Lincoln had fallen asleep for the first time in days, it seemed like. Abigail only briefly glanced at Lincoln as he slept arms-folded on Jimmy’s thigh, still seated at the side of the bed. Jimmy regarded Abigail, one arm behind his head. He likely would have had both arms back behind him to rest his head on, but he made do. “You’re back,” He said, “Get your food?”
Abigail held up the half-eaten package of Wonkies. “Saw Laila, too,” She said, “She’s as big a dingus as ever.”
“Mm,” Jimmy said, looking forward at nothing in particular, “Yeah. With her super powers and stuff. Man… that’s gonna make running the school tough, what with that goody-good pig and her band of merry jackasses all souped up.”
He looked at Abigail, appearing cross at the idea. “Guess we’re pretty screwed, huh?”
Abigail shrugged, nonchalant. “I got powers too.”
“Ehh, nah… Yours suck compared to theirs, honestly.” Jimmy said, “Not that they’re not useful, we can pull off all kinds of stuff with that. But when Baxter has a sword? Forget it. We’re finished.”
“You never won a fight against them before anyway,” Abigail commented, “So what’s the big deal?”
“It’s not even fair now!” Jimmy complained, “People used to respect me. I was the only guy who wasn’t afraid to throw down on Kemberge. Even if I didn’t beat him, it didn’t matter. I was tough enough to try and keep getting back up, and that was good enough. Now people’d just think I’m crazy. If we’re gonna keep charge, we’re gonna have to try a different approach. I mean, we’re still gonna live our lives the way we want, nuts to anybody else; but in this new weird Inkling climate, I guess it’s best that we don’t do anything that’s gonna put us on their shit-list. Fighting Kemberge is pointless now.”
Abigail stepped closer to his side, looking down at him. “So, what do you wanna do?”
“Well, even if he’s got super powers, he’s still gonna give us all kinds of opportunities to make him look like an idiot,” Jimmy grinned, “So we do that every chance we get. Knock him and his pack down a peg whenever the opportunity arises. Keep them humble. As for everyone else, well… let’s just keep doing whatever we want. We’ll figure it out when we’re sure the world isn’t ending. After that, we’ll find some way to prove to everybody that we’re still near the top of the food chain.”
“Well,” Abigail said, “Good thing losing an arm is just something you can… shake off, I guess.”
“Damn right,” Jimmy said, gesturing to himself with his thumb, “And don’t you forget it. Nothing’s gonna stop Jimmy Ret from being on top. And no super hero bullshit is gonna keep us from living the way we wanna live. Let’s just… not endanger kids’ lives for no good reason.”
Abigail reached down and pat Jimmy’s fluffy pompadour. “Good boy.”
“Hey!” Jimmy barked, “Don’t! I don’t need two arms to smack you silly!”
Abigail withdrew her hand, set her candy down, and then very casually placed her hand on her arm and pulled it off at the shoulder. She slid it out of her sleeve and handed it to him. “Here, you big whiner. Have a hand with that.”
Jimmy smacked her offered appendage away. “Har har.” He scoffed, “Anyway, with all these super hero things around, I think ‘Jimmy’ isn’t very threatening. I think from now on, people can just call me Ret. And I’ll have a metal arm and be a badass.”
“Ret?” Abigail raised an eyebrow at that, and the slightest hint of a smirk spread across her face. “Seriously?”
“Yeah!” Jimmy insisted, “Kemberge was always going on about people being able to be strong, so I’m gonna do that! I’ll be the strongest regular person Harbington’s ever seen, no alien powers or cheap stuff like that! Then, the next time something like this Epheral thing comes around, I’ll be able to go toe to toe with them too! The second I get outta here, I’m gonna start training for real!”
“… Alright… Ret…” Abigail humored the boy, “You do that.”
Jimmy settled down, and after a moment of calm introspective, he looked to Abigail. “What about you? What happens when your parents find out you have powers?”
Abigail frowned. “Tch. Who cares?” She huffed and lazily rolled her eyes to look at the far side of the room and away from Jimmy. “Like, whatever. Not like I’ll be able to hide it now.”
“Yeah? No big deal?” Jimmy smiled again, “Good. But I guess you’ll get examined or whatever, won’t you? They’re gonna stick you with needles and take tissue samples and crap.”
Abigail’s stare narrowed slightly, and her glum expression turned into more of a concentrated glower. “… Like I said… whatever.”
“…” Jimmy studied her expression for a little while, then closed his eyes and sat back in his bed. “Well, I can totally crash your place if they get to be too much,” He said, “I’ll be coming by sometimes, just in case they take away your PET again. We’ll smuggle you out the window like that one time, if we gotta.”
Abigail distracted herself, tugging on her jelly box-cap, stretching it down at the front somewhat. The act didn’t hurt, and her jelly-like skin was malleable to a point, allowing her to ‘style’ her cap whichever way she wanted. It wasn’t grown in very much, so she could only pull on it so far. Just barely enough to cover her eyes at the front. She exhaled past her lips, causing a trill. “Assuming we’re not all dead tomorrow,” She commented, “But if we are, then that makes it easy. Problem solved.”
“Hrm…” Jimmy hummed, “I’m not worried. They may be a bunch of dorks, but for some reason I think if anyone’s going to smash that thing to bits, it’ll be them. If Kemberge screws it up, I’ll have been wasting my time all these years.”
“What about the fat girl, though?” Abigail snorted, “What’s she gonna do, cry on it?”
Jimmy tapped his chin in thought. “Y’know, somehow I think that sow’s gonna stick around.” He shrugged, “Dunno how or why, but… call it a hunch. I mean, I’ll eat my own shoes if she’s the one that pulls this thing off somehow, but still. She basically wields Kemberge like a hammer. She’ll probably hide in the back and get everyone else to do the work.”
Abigail stepped around Jimmy’s bed and moved toward the window in his room. Looking through the blinds, she could see the darkened, discoloured sky caused by Epheral’s spire and aprana aura. “… I kinda hope you’re right.”
-
--
-
Stepping out of Natalie’s room at the hospital, Jacent sighed in relief. It was good to see that not only was she doing well – all physical weakness and exhaustion aside – but she was doing well enough to crack the usual Natalie jokes and act… silly. That girl never ceased to amaze him.
“Oh, Jacent!”
And there was the second girl of the hour, Quincey. Jacent looked up from his sullen thinking to see Quincey approaching him. She stepped up sheepishly, fidgeting with her hands and tugging on her fingers. Jacent presented her with a calming smile, turning to face her properly. “Hello Quincey,” He said, “Are you here to check on Natalie? She seems to be doing very well.”
“N-No, I already did…” Quincey said, “Um, actually, I was looking for Daxton and Kenny, but… since you’re here, can I… talk to you?”
Jacent sensed the tension in her voice, and it worried him. This was serious, and why wouldn’t it be? With only a day to prepare for the fight, it was natural that she might have been feeling nervous. Jacent nodded. “Of course,” He said, “Tell me what is on your mind.”
Quincey looked around the hall, mostly empty as it was. “Um, somewhere people can’t hear us… if that’s okay.”
“Of course,” Jacent nodded, “Anywhere you want.”
The two of them walked to the rooftop access and stepped out into the dark early-morning. It should have been much darker than it was, but the night sky was illuminated by the strange, eerie energy emanating from Epheral’s prana spire – a spire she seemed to be steadily consuming. It was shifting, condensing, and spreading back out in such a way that made it obvious to Quincey and Duplex that she was altering the make-up of that solidified prana, changing it to its opposite in order to fuel her new, twisted power. For every moment they waited to rest, Epheral was also gathering strength. Both Quincey and Jacent’s eyes were drawn to the spectacle in the distance. Neither of them even tried to pretend otherwise.
Quincey stepped ahead of him, still staring out. “I… I don’t know if I can fight Epheral.”
Jacent considered her words carefully. “It is natural to be afraid,” Jacent said, “Your fear is understandable. Epheral is a frightening enemy, now so than before. I, too, hesitate in the face of her newfound sway over the forces of life and, I suppose, death. That is not an enemy anyone has ever faced before, not even since Osoth.”
Quincey looked back at Jacent, her hands clasped together and pressed against her chest. “It’s… not that. Well, not only that…” She said, “It’s just that…”
“… I feel kind of bad for her.”
Jacent blinked his eyes. That wasn’t something he expected to hear. “Is that so?”
He watched as Quincey’s body momentarily shifted, shining with the newborn vibrancy of Duplex’s new colours. Then, in a smooth transition, Duplex stepped free of her. Their bodies split apart, but rather than simply take the form of a second Quincey, Duplex stood as a singular, whole entity apart from her host. Jacent had seen Natalie and Echelon do the same thing and again, he was surprised, as this suggested that Quincey shared some sort of connection with her Inkling that resembled theirs. It was something he didn’t fully understand, accrediting it to a sort of spiritual oneness that was impressive in its own right.
“You don’t know the things Epheral has been through,” Duplex explained to Jacent, stepping forward in a bid to have him understand, “She wasn’t always like this. I… or, rather, Dormence and Tranquil… they did their best to guide her in the right direction. And she walked that, for a time, but…”
Jacent listened along, before cutting Duplex off. “She was tested,” He concurred, “… And she failed.”
“And in that moment, I abandoned her.” Duplex frowned, lowering her head, “… I shouldn’t have.”
“You were only thinking of your own safety,” Quincey came to Duplex’s side, resting a hand on the Inkling’s shoulder, “N-No one can blame you for that. Honestly, it seemed as though Epheral went too far.”
Jacent flicked his eyes back and forth between the two of them and posed a question. “What happened? What caused this?”
Duplex lifted her head to look morosely at Quincey, and then to Jacent. “She was supposed to be a hero,” She said, “Epheral had the power, the ability to save Inkling-kind. Truly, we’d never seen anything like it before. But just as that power could have saved us, it could have doomed us all the same. I believe that is why Osoth cast her away. It’s… almost impossible to believe after all this time, but Osoth may have been acting in the better interest of us all by not taking the risk.”
Jacent nearly shuddered at the thought. Could it have been possible for that blackened heart to do such a thing? He closed his eyes and rubbed his chin in thought. No, it aligned with her goals. Something like Osoth never acted without first thinking three moves ahead. If Epheral’s power could have negated her campaign of conquest, she most certainly would have crushed it. She had saved herself from Epheral’s possible destruction of her and everything she had worked so hard for, plain and simple. Still, Jacent wasn’t going to crush Duplex’s optimistic outlook like that. He decided to just keep those thoughts to himself.
“We had convinced her that she was going to save everyone, and she wanted that with all her heart,” Duplex continued, “But the people she was meant to save… fought her at every turn. There’s only so much that one person can take before they just can’t take any more. She fought so hard, but in the end…”
“I understand,” Jacent said, “This is why she believes that no one is worthy of her… salvation.”
“She’s twisted the whole thing,” Quincey added, “And now she wants to undo… everything. It’s not something I haven’t heard before. In the Neo-Medieval era, there were many strong beliefs that anything remaining from the Pre-Splice era… from your time… should have either been left buried or just destroyed. Ultimately, these feelings were ignored in favour of learning from the past, as those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, but many believed that the only way to be rid of the world as we knew it before the Splice was to just let it vanish.”
“… But it lives on in the hearts of men,” Quincey continued, “Some beliefs, some fears, some traditions… to this day, they carry on. Many of the Naturalist Settlements subscribe to the old ways of thinking, the traditions. Theocracy, hierarchy… I don’t think there was ever any way we could forget the Pre-Splice world entirely, no matter what we did. In a way, Epheral is right to believe that nothing will ever erase what Inklings or anyone else has done. Not truly. Some humans believe this too. There have been attacks on the Library, and strong movements to strike down anything that resembles our race from the past.”
Jacent tried not to glower. It was difficult to listen to someone talk as if his life was antiquated and wrong, even if during the time he sometimes felt that way in the moment. “Where there is darkness, it is merely where light casts its shadow,” Jacent said, “That would be ignoring all the good in favour of all that is wicked.”
“Precisely!” Quincey and Duplex exclaimed in unison, startling Jacent out of his own head.
“And Epheral is doing the same thing!” Quincey said, “She’s ignoring everything good, because all she knows is everything that went wrong. And she’s alone with that. Humans together, we can move on past our histories and make something new. But alone, none of us could have ever accomplished this. If we hadn’t come together as an entire planet, we’d still be fighting wars. The world would still be divided, right down to the dome cities we live in. Of course, we don’t get along all the time, but as a society we can overcome these problems together!”
“But Epheral has no one… not anymore.” Duplex said, “I was her last hope, and even I…”
“The point is, fighting her… it won’t change her. It’s only going to reinforce what she believes is right.” Quincey said, “I… I would rather help her see that things are different. Inklings may have done some awful things in the past, but we’re actually closer to what Epheral and Duplex believed was possible than before.”
Jacent looked to Quincey. “You wish to heal her.”
Hearing it that way, Quincey’s face flushed red with embarrassment. Even so, she stepped up to Jacent and did her best to stand tall. “Y… Yes. I do.”
Jacent couldn’t help but smile somewhat. “To err is human…”
“To forgive is divine.” Quincey finished. She frowned somewhat and looked bashfully away. “It… sounds nice, but… I’m not trying to be divine or anything… I just would rather do that than fight.” She looked back at Duplex and sighed. “I guess that doesn’t make me much of a super hero.”
“Hm?” Jacent tilted his head curiously. “How do you mean?”
Quincey stepped forward and pressed a hand against Jacent’s chest. He tensed somewhat when she kneaded one of his strong pectoral muscles, just slightly. It wasn’t meant to be an affectionate gesture, he could tell… but even under her study, her soft hands felt nice. “In your comics… you were always so strong…” She said, “You never backed down from a fight. You always stood up to the bad guys and fought them with everything you had.”
“Oh…” Jacent looked down at the girl, and his shoulders eased somewhat. “Quincey, there are two ways of exerting one’s strength. I was always well-practiced in pushing down. Striking down danger and injustice wherever it had taken root was simply my most efficient method. I had always longed to instead do so by pulling up.”
He took her hand off his chest, and instead held it within his own. He pushed against her, making her step back somewhat. “Striking down my foes was the quick, easy solution to any problem.” He pulled back, and had her step toward him, where she stumbled and found herself warmly against his body. He seemed to tense up at that as well, but he swallowed and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders to hold her close. “Pulling them up from the depths in which they found themselves would have treated the root cause of the problem, don’t you think?”
Quincey stuttered. “A-Ah, um, yes, of course.”
“Ralph Salinsky, Lydia Vanzetti… you might know them as Tunnel Vision and The Spidress. Over the years of battling them, I knew them as people. In the battle of justice versus those who would undo it, I was given a glimpse into who these people truly were, beneath their masks.” Jacent explained, “I do not believe that anyone else would have been so… lucky.”
Quincey stared at him in speechless wonder, and so he continued. “However, I knew of their struggles. Through this battle, our kinship went two ways. To know thy enemy is to know thyself, and I knew them well. We imparted upon one another our darkest selves, and the events that lead us to those moments. Even in knowing what turned them to criminal intent, there was nothing I could do to really help them. All I was capable of was foiling their plans and stopping them before they could do too much damage or destroy too many livelihoods. In the end… I believe they perhaps wanted it this way. But I was always frustrated that I could not heal them. I could only treat their symptoms, rather than the disease, as I also was afflicted.”
Quincey seemed to fluster and get emotional. Her eyes were misty and shined in the off-putting light of the night sky. “Jacent, I…”
“In my mind, when I was young, I thought greater heroism lied not in pushing down, but instead in pulling up.” Jacent spoke steadily, and with purpose. “There were community volunteers in my city, police officers, and others who were greater heroes than I had ever been. You must not mistake the strength to fight as the only path. Just as I learned that striking them down was necessary and served a greater purpose, so too must you realize that what may feel like the incorrect path to you serves a greater purpose that simply fighting will never achieve. It is a strength that few possess.”
The girl was in tears that streamed down her chubby cheeks at that point. Duplex leaned in close to Quincey to inject herself into the discussion. “It’s true,” She said, “Osoth did nothing but fight, but Echelon is proving there is another way. Just look at me. Without that, I wouldn’t even be alive right now. Without you, I wouldn’t be alive right now.”
“You are a healer, Quincey,” Jacent said, “From the moment I met you, I could clearly tell that those you surround yourself with were the misguided, and that they do not follow you through some sense of authority that you command, but rather a love that is far greater than that. It is true that at times, fighting cannot be avoided. Not all matters can be resolved by words alone. But there comes a time where the fighting must stop and the healing must begin, or else the dance will never end.”
“But I can’t,” Quincey sniffled, “I can’t fight her. She’s stronger than me. I’m not good at fighting. I… I don’t like fighting. I hate it.”
“Quincey…” Duplex sniffled as well, “It’s okay. Please don’t be afraid. I’ll help you. It’s because of me that a lot of this has happened, and even though what Epheral has become is far worse than anything I could have imagined, it’s my responsibility to put it right. I want to help her too. Maybe if we can just get her to see things differently, everything will be okay. If she could just see that things are different now, she could really be a big help. It’s not too late, I think. If we can convince her to turn back now, she might be saved.”
“But if we’re shaded, that still means I’ll have to fight…” Quincey said, “What do I do then?”
“Well, that’s what I’m for.”
Quincey looked past Duplex toward the door, where Daxton stood. She tore away from Jacent, running to Daxton and jumping at him to pull him into a hug. Her weight and his injuries made it impossible to stay standing, and he went down like a brick, hitting the ground beneath her as she rubbed her face and cheek all over his chest. “Tssh! Ouchie! Ouchie!” Daxton hissed, wincing in pain. Quincey stopped and sat up astraddle him, taking a moment to study his ear, his face, and his hands. Each one was either broken, bruised, or otherwise damaged from all the fighting he had been a part of.
Noticing that she was fretting over him, Daxton held her hands together in his. “Hey,” He said, “Don’t. Enough of that. That’s my way, not your way.”
“Daxton, please,” Quincey begged, “Don’t get yourself hurt because of me anymore. I can’t make you go to fight Epheral like this, I just can’t.”
Daxton chuckled, wincing as the act shot a jolt of pain through his chest. “Ngh… Quincey, I’m not gonna get myself hurt because of you. It’s never because of you. This time it’s not even gonna be for you.”
He pushed himself to sit up, looking her in the eye. “This time, we’ll fight together. If you wanna help Epheral, let’s help Epheral. You leave wearing her down to me. If I can fight and you can help, then there’s no way she’s gonna win this. Whether we kill her with kindness or beat her until she can’t hurt anyone, she’s gonna lose.”
“Daxton…” Quincey said, “I don’t…”
“Look,” Daxton cut her off, “I think it’s about time that we bring that Quincey Abram love of yours to the masses. That includes people like Epheral. If she chooses not to take it, fine, then we’ll have to beat her down. But we can always give them the chance. That’s all I want, alright? Just to give you a chance to do what you do best. Less of a bodyguard and more of a… enabler. Which sounds bad, but I promise that in this situation it’s a really positive sort of thing.”
“I like the sound of that,” Duplex said, “Together, we’ll really be a team.”
Jacent chuckled. “Sometimes it takes one’s opposite to find the whole of one’s self,” He said, “I believe that if the two of you apply your strengths together, there will be little you cannot accomplish.”
He paused briefly and looked out toward the spire. “It makes me regret that I will miss it.”
“Miss it?” Quincey asked, “Why?”
“Well, with Epheral being… aprana, and with me being prana, I am afraid I lack the capabilities to withstand simply being drained.” Jacent explained, “I want nothing more than to offer you my strength, but that bubble she emits, the very aura of it is poisonous to my body. At the very least, I cannot act until that area is clear. By then, she may well already be beaten.”
“What, so you’re powerless?” Daxton asked, “You? What with all the muscles and everything?”
“You missed our discussion regarding strength,” Jacent said, “Sufficed to say, it’s more complicated than that. Natalie agrees, without an Inkling to merge with and form something entirely foreign to Epheral, I am at the greatest disadvantage of us all. It is not a position I am used to being in.”
Quincey looked around at her Inkling and her friends. “Well,” She said, “I suppose I have no choice. I-I’m… going to have to save Captain Comet.”
Jacent was struck, taken slightly aback. “I, ah…”
Daxton laughed. “Weirdest damsel in distress I ever saw.”
Jacent blushed somewhat. Duplex giggled. “He has the hair for it, I suppose.”
“Ahaha…” Jacent laughed, albeit in a way simply to humor them, “I suppose if I must, then I will leave it to you, Quincey. My safety could not be in better hands. You have your friends to fight alongside you, after all, and Duplex as well. You certainly won’t be doing this alone, and that is a step up from what I was used to. As far as beginning points go, you have the advantage over me.”
Quincey took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes to wipe away her tears. “Okay, so…” She looked down at Daxton, “Then… together?”
“I’ll ride with you ‘til I die,” Daxton said, “That’s a fact.”
“Please don’t insinuate in your answer that you’ll die,” Quincey pouted, “Honestly…”
“We’ll do it together, Quincey. Everything. From now on.” Daxton smiled, “Fight or flight.”
“That’s better.” Quincey said, bending down to give him a kiss, “And I’m going to hold you to that then, forever.”
“And me,” Duplex said, moving to be in front of Quincey, taking her hands into her own. This sat her upon Daxton as well, smothering his upper half. “I’ll be with you the whole way, just like you said. All I ever wanted before was to be useful, and special, and appreciated. I have never been more special than I am today, and because of Echelon and Natalie, I feel stronger than ever. No matter what happens, Epheral is going to know that things aren’t the same anymore.”
“Gah!” Daxton grunted, “Okay… please… get off of me!”
Quincey and Duplex stood, the pig and her Inkling holding their hands with their fingers interlocked. Duplex squished their cheeks together, and they smiled pleasantly. “Okay,” Quincey said, “Then… it’s a deal. Now all we have to do is find a way to get out there…”
-
--
-
“You want us to do WHAT? I didn’t think you were serious!”
Sal rubbed his head as he stared at the big, hulking mining laser that Erwin and Kei had picked out for him. He had prepared the requisition form as a joke, not having taken Erwin seriously when he had waltzed on in to his office and told him that he had “a world-saving job for him to do.” That had been amusing enough, but saying it involved an old digger was even more hilarious, because Sal was certain none of them even still worked. Now he was eating crow, and the taste was bitter. Erwin, on the other hand, was chuffed that Sal’s ‘oh yeah sure kid’ routine had turned around and bit him on the ass.
The machine was new-age enough to have gravity skiffs to ride on, but the rest of it looked bulky and archaic. It wasn’t even made from the same construction plastic they made most vehicles out of these days, rather it was made of metal alloy. That said, it had been rusting in the yard alongside other decommissioned vehicles from the past. Just nestled into the industrial sector, it was but one piece of many in the dreary, street-canvas of colours in the junk yard. If it had been up to the people of Locksmouth, every one of those machines would have been deconstructed years ago, but the argument had been made to keep at least a few, just in case. Nobody had imagined that this would be the ‘just in case’ that they were talking about – even the people at the time.
The hulking, rust-tinged behemoth stood far taller than they. One would have had to climb up a small ladder just to get inside, and the back-end was meant to haul equipment, though undoubtedly the trailer had rusted shut. The machinery at the front was a bit more modern – a massive laser waiting to be fired, able to penetrate rock rather easily and in little time. Asteroid miners on the ring, as well as the defense systems, used something similar, but by those standards this was at least three generations out of date. Visibility wasn’t even possible through the cockpit windows any longer.
“I need this functional again, as I said!” Erwin explained, “Well, not just functional, but extra-functional.”
“Whaddya mean extra-functional?” Sal turned with a jerk to Erwin, still messing up his own hair in stress, “How’sit gonna be extra functional?
Kei, sitting in his chair, pressed a finger to his cheek. “We need to ensure it has the penetrative force to reach its destination, as well as enough lift to get it out over the water without sinking. This mobile unit will suffice, but it needs significantly more power and launch in order to achieve the sufficient force necessary to get our Inkling heroes out into that giant crystalline island out in the sea.”
“You ain’t joking?!” The elder moose fellow leaned over Kei’s chair to try and get a read on his face, but it seemed he wasn’t even cracking a smile. “What is with you super-people?!”
“Can you do it?” Erwin pressed.
Sal suddenly got defensive, standing straight up and pressing the tablet he held to his chest. “Can we do it, heh!” Sal sneered, “I could stake my reputation on it! But it’s not like I wanna do it! You have any idea how many people I’m gonna have to bring in, how many favours I’m gonna have to call in, and how many administrative rules I’m gonna have to bend to their limit just to get this done in… what did you say again, by tonight? Like, this bein’ the morning, all the way through the day, to tonight?”
Kei nodded. “That’s correct.”
“Because of Epheral, you see,” Erwin explained, “It’s really her fault that you have to do this.”
“Can’t one of you guys fly?” Sal groused, “Uuugh… if you’re really serious about this, I suppose I’ll have to get started on it right away. I’ll have it hauled out of the yard and have it looked over. I can tell already, the whole body’s gonna have to be replaced, and it’s gonna need some strong-force dampeners so that you kids don’t get squashed. Bet the power’s gonna have to be gutted and replaced too, and that’s not countin’ if the skiffs even still work. It might be less work just to build one from scratch!”
“And I’d be all for that, if we had the time,” Erwin said, “Anyway, thanks Sal.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Sal grumbled, “Just tell your mom she’s going to owe me a whole lot of those pancakes she makes. And I mean a whole lot!”
“I’ll be sure to tell her!” Erwin said, “Come on, Kei. Let’s go. Sal, we’ll come by tomorrow afternoon and see if we can help out.”
“Far be it from me to say the SCI-FI Guy ain’t welcome,” Sal shrugged as he started making things off on his tablet, not paying much attention to the kids. “But stay outta the way and try not to slow us down, or I guess the entire world’s gonna end or something. No pressure on us riggers, eh? Now then, if you will excuse me, I got miracles to make on only four hours sleep. I’ll make sure the coffee bill alone will cost you!”
“It will be worth it,” Kei giggled, “Best of luck.”
“Yeah,” Sal flicked his gloved hand to shoo them away, “Just make sure they spell my name right on the plaque.”
