Potentials-8 The Start.

Chapter 8

*Samantha Chase…

I sort of see the puff of Cody reappearing out under the bridge area and then another puff of him vanishing again. “Okay…I hope he’s okay and not getting himself in too deep.”

I feel a Zzzt feeling off in the distance. I say feel that because as a TM or Telemechanic I’m sensitive to electricity this was a serious discharge, and another and another. I hear a scream that goes along with it.

“Shit, shit, shit…that can’t be good.”

I know that I shouldn’t be doing this but I patch myself into the streetlight cameras. Yeah something new for here that dad came up with even more concealed cameras and I try to pan in to where the screen might be and I see some guy in a hood and over that a red long coat and he’s frying Vana?

I think that’s her name and she’s in this divot in the ground with this big black mother-effer pounding on her only she’s seriously she right now and has this big round energy disc shielding herself and she’s screaming as she’s getting double teamed.

“Great, all we need is some Meta’s stirring shit up while the haters are running full force idiot today.”

I look around and see a construction exo-suit. I’m without my actual gear so I guess it’s time to Ripley up this bad boy and get into the fray.

I hop inside and buckle in and power everything up and take off running towards Vana and the things that she’s fighting. “Hang on Vana, just hang on.”

*Karma/Quinn…

~Sigh…oh shit that was close. ~

Mark’s looking around freaked but calming down. “Holy shit, holy shit! We made it? We’re alive?”

~Not quite out of the woods yet, look. ~

I turn our head to the power armor coming in on an attack pass and he’s raising the machine gun he’s carrying at the glowing red woman that towed us to safety. I don’t feel the fear in her like the others, I could jump to any number of them but I’m already in mark and he’s hurt…I think I’m hurt at home maybe…like some of the strain carried over to me?

“What do we do?” he asks.

~She’s not freaking like we are I think she’s okay, let’s get…~ We look around again and I see police and fire department but their too far down the ramp. ~Let’s get everyone to stay here and stay down the bus is our best cover right now. The last thing we need is to try to run for cover or that FD-PD line and catch some stray rounds.

“They won’t listen to me will they?”

~Mark, they don’t know about me in here so they thing it was you that saved a whole bunch of them. They’ll listen because you did something. ~

“But I didn’t.”

~You did, I couldn’t do squat without you helping me do it and it was your body, it was you. You can do this! You’re a lot tougher, smarter and braver than you think. ~

“Really?”

~Hey, I’m the one who’s been in your head…I’ve seen some of the stuff in there and there are a lot of great qualities that you just can’t see in yourself because you’re too close to it.~

“Uhm, okay.” We stand a little and rewind our stretched out limbs and stuff. “Hey, Listen I’m Mark…we’re going to be okay we are we just got to stay calm and stay here. It’s the safest place we’ve got right now so let’s just stay low and not give these guys a reason to shoot our way.”

I’ll be damned it’s working…

I’m pulled out of Mark seconds later…

*Faith/Drew…

I open my eyes and Cody’s there and the protestors and somehow we’re on the beach and there’s police and NHDF soldiers with their guns pointed at all of us. I jerk my hands up. “Shit, shit don’t shoot! I’m a student!”

Cody has his hands over his head even though he’s flat on his back panting like crazy. “Mesa give ups.”

One of the protestors scrambles from Cody like he’s the devil himself. “Get that thing away from me!”

Cody hocks a loogie on his leg. “There you go there’s some mutie-cooties for ya.”

The guys actually shrieks and he’s trying to wipe in off while the soldiers are restraining him. They’re not being gentle. One get’s in front of me with a tablet. “Palm.” It’s not a request either.

I place my palm on it and he looks at something coming up on the screen. “Funny boy with you?” he jerks his head at Cody.

“Yeah, he is can we go.”

“Yeah take the path off the beach there marked with the police tape and get the heck out of here.”

“Sure…Cody?”

He’s watching things upstairs. “Yeah…the AA’s are on scene and I don’t want to get in the way either. Let’s get back and find Samantha.”

“Who?”

“The girl in the jogging gear.”

“Oh, Barbie.” I’m not being catty, I’m not into this whole damned change I’m going through enough…I’m not. It’s just she looks like one of them. You know, little miss perfect, silver platter life and all of that.

“Drew, chill she’s nice.”

“You’ve known her how long?”

“About an hour less than you. She’s nice she didn’t even blink twice about the way I am…actually I think that she might have been checking me out.”

“Oh now we get to the “root” of it all.”

“Yeah so, the last girl I was with was pre-mutation and she literally had her self cleaned…like sterile clean to get the mutie off of her.”

“Sorry Cody I didn’t know…okay let’s go find her and catch her up on things.”

I’m biting my cheek to keep the urge to hug him away. Dammit I’m not a girl…grr, shit, shit, shit…

Cody and I head up the path and I have to sort of trot to keep up with him, he’s got that animal way of moving.

And me…I’m tired and sore…I really should have my costume with me…having my powers relying on how people believe in me really sucks when nobody recognizes you.

But some one was believing? Some one knew without me being in costume.

*Cody St. Pierre…

Drew and I get off the beach apparently we’re on a list of some kind. Me I’m not surprised I’ve sort of got a record and all of that stuff. Drew? I can’t see her getting caught up in things but there’s also the whole thing that people say that Victory and The Ark are running the show on the whole planet really.

Honestly I don’t really believe that.

I mean if I was doing something like that I’d be a like supervillain and things would be really different with like the protestors for one.

Harsh? You get run out of town hunted and hated and chased and see how charitable you feel to assholes like them. Me, I’ve no problem with the normals as long as they don’t have a problem with me. But the haters…I’m not sure I’d do what Drew did and save them.

I take us through the woods a few times taking shortcuts to the building where we left Samantha at. She didn’t look too great when I left her and all so I hope she’s alright. Drew’s bitching. “Dammit Cody I can’t move through the woods like you, ease up and what’s wrong with the roads?”

“Sorry, I guess I just move by homing instincts and stuff besides what are you talking about? You can flipping fly.”

I almost burst out laughing at the…oh duh I can look on her face…she’s actually pretty and kind of sexy for an Emo girl.

I stop when the wind shifts and I smell blood on the air and it’s Samantha’s and Vana’s.

“C’mon1 something’s happening! Vana and Samantha are in trouble!”

I start to run and Drew flies down beside me. “Hop on!” I hop onto her back and crouch surfer style as she pulls up getting height. “Cody if you can see there poof us there.”

“Okay…and it’s not poofing!”

I see them after a few minute and do the black circle thing and take us there.

*Vanir/Vana…

There’s a lot of things in the world that are wrong.

White shoes after Unification Day.
Taking the lords name in vain.
Non-grape jelly.
Hot pink if your IQ is over seventy.

And getting fried like a June-bug in a yard zapper.

The first shot hits me and the kick is that violent it bounces me backwards on the ground and “Grendle” is on my butt just like a wolf on a rabbit.

I barely get my blade up in time to block his blow and his arms shift into those evil hammers with the spikes on the back like on the ruskies flag. That’s the S.S.B. or space ruskies not the ones on Earth.

But you know the kind of hammers that I mean. I get a swing and a hit in his guts with my sword and I get hammered for my troubles. The force pounds me into the door and the last time I was hit by this was when Blair blasted me at school.

Then the hammers are coming down!

I shift and throw my shield up and all my feelings sort of shift with it and I’m scared, I’m screaming as “Grendle” is pounding at my shield like the way that a baboon when it’s losing it and beating someone to death.

Only it’s laughing like a hyena and that hyena sounds like a synthisized one.

I can feel my shield giving and I’m getting scared.

Then the ground starts shaking and I see this ten foot tall construction orange and black Servo-suit. It’s more of less a robot frame that you use instead of a forklift because it’s so mobile. It looks like a big giant football player with a person inside the chest and the driver where the head should be is a glass-steel dome thing.

That Samantha girl is in there. It’s so strange seeing a girl doing that because it’s just…not done at home.

She charges in really fast for one of those things and she yells over the things loudspeaker.

“Hey you; laughing boy!”

Grendle looks up at her, grins and drools hot demon spit on my shield. It hisses and she drives the thing right at us and she swings a great big punch at it.

Grendle blocks and it swings both hammers to squash her head and somehow she drops to her knees under the swing. These things don’t move that fast? Do they? The she’s coming up off her knees and hit’s Grendle with a full on uppercut with her right.

“Pucker up buttercup.” I heard her say and he goes flying ass over tea kettle and lets out an almost piggy angry freaky squeal.

I get up and jump in front of her as the magic man guy does his lightning trick again. I scream as it hits but not the scared scream but an angry one. I’m getting really tired of people just throwing their weight around doing whatever they want to because they thing that they can.

I start to take steps forward even taking more blasts to my shield. I’m not some smart magic person or even the Meta thing but he’s going to run low on energy at some point…

Samantha is trading blows with Grendle she looks like she’s boxing like serious boxing at one point and then doing wresting like I seen the boys do in their gym class back home that mat wrestling stuff. Her construction exo-is getting beat to hell but she’s really not holding back at all.

And there’s part of me is really all…oh wow over this.

I turn and I push again as more lightning hits and I yell and charge him and bash him off his feet with the shield.

He drops the pearl and snarls at me pointing.

“Noth-Nostre-Dedaimis-Este-Necros!”

Or something and I feel something invisible hit me and cold, cold and hurt and pain like I’ve never felt is sinking into me and I can’t breath…black mist is coming out of my mouth and I’m turning pale and blue…can’t breathe…

I drop to my knees and he gestures with some words I never caught and a shiny black samurai sword is in his hand and he’s walking toward me…I can’t see his face even this close…all that’s there is this blackness in there and something red and swirling in the center like a nebula? If the inside of the hood could be called space.

He goes to swing at me and he’s tackled by Drew and Cody?

I see Sam on her back as Grendle rips off the head protection and she closes her eyes as he leans and leers in over her.

I hear her say to Grendle. “C’mon big boy give me a kiss.”

Eeeww…

She reaches up and grabs him with the servo-arms and then she does something I never expected and kind of scares me. She holds him in place and then her eyes go this glowing solid white with blue then she screams like Blair did…but at point blank range.

Grendle’s head explodes in a burst of busted glass and molten glass and she keeps screaming and using the exo-suit to pull on its shoulders. He reaches a point where he’s all out of give and instead of ripping to shreds Grendle just kind of blows up.

I’m slowly starting to cough this stuff up out of my lungs.

It’s killing the grass though.

Mage-guy is cursing in several different languages as he’s trying to fight off Cody who’s really thumping him good and so is Drew but he’s a better fighter and landing way more effective hits too. I’m not sure what he’s doing style wise but I see and hear him dislocate Drew’s shoulder with a punch and she drops screaming.

He say’s something and he blows Cody off of him with a touch of his palm to Cody’s chest and he smashes through a tree.

I feel better though…it’s like his spell’s wearing off and he turns and he goes to take Drew’s head off and I shift and jump…slide over the grass with my super strength in this form and I swing down hard and shatter his samurai sword before it hits Drew.

He staggers back from the change in weight and momentum.

“How…? You should be dead right now.”

I stand up straight and I point my sword at him straightening my shoulders. I make a fist in the other hand so tight my knuckles are crackling….the knuckles but light shimmering too?

“The Federation government couldn’t kill me you think you can?”

I’m staring into whatever he has for a face.

It’s staring back the red swirly thing’s more agitated…Pissed?

“Vaku-Tr’vailous-Azazel…” I move doge left and swing but he turned into that red misty stuff in the hood of his and the mist sucks in on itself until there’s nothing left.

Samantha’s lying on her back in the exo-suit that’s smoking and giving off sparks she so can’t move… “Guys…little help?”

I take two steps before… “Drew! Help Samantha!” I run heading for where he blasted Cody.