A look of anguished frustration comes over Kylie's face as Shin carries her away. Her tortured eyes never reach his face, instead staying locked on Kayla's as Annabelle spits venom into Shin's ear.
"Solte-me, vilão! Seus poderes profanos não me enganarão, e você não vai me manter longe do meu amor verdadeiro."
Before the onrushing waters from the hull breach can engulf Annabelle, Horizon dives into the hold and carries the possessed Psyche out of harms' way. However, in her possessed state, she cannot see the action for what it is, and the spirit within her only sees Shin as another threat trying to keep her away from her beloved.
Praetoria, seeing somewhat through the haze of the Portuguese captain invading her, sets herself between Captain Trenchard and Annabelle. She jumps/flies up to the yardarm that the pirate is on, issuing a challenge.
Trenchard's rotted lips peel back to reveal stained, dirty teeth -- many of them set with gold. His cat lashes and coils like it is a living thing. His cutlass glints with an otherworldly fire. He advances...
And is suddenly struck by a long-ranged shot from Isaiah. The impact of the Aetherlance crystal knocks him off the horizontal beam, but his cat o' nine tails reaches out and snags the rigging. He spins in a wide loop, his momentum almost carrying him back to where he begins.
Scorch throws some fire blasts at Trenchard but misses him as he swings past her. Her flames do manage to catch some of the rigging on fire, and the reddish glow of flame begin to illuminate the ship.
Trenchard catches hold of the yardarm and begins to haul himself back up to the deck, but sees that Filipe is standing over him.
The other two back on land, Frostbite and Gallowglass, stand helplessly while the others fight possession and the villainous pirate captain on the Blinded Banshee. Are they out of the fight, or is there something else they can do? Rory, seeing his cold powers not working great against the churning waves, runs and dives off the cliff!
What do you do??
Filipe steps over top of Trenchard, hanging below him on the yardarm, and raises his cutlass to attack the vulnerable villain. However, another strange flying person whisks by, causing him to reel and focus to just maintain his balance!
__________
"Rory, noooo!! You were sooo close to a much better idea!"
Gallowglass and Bear work together, launching one of the longboats the pirates rowed to shore. As she rows past Rory she hollers, "Climb in. We'll get there faster if we row together."
From the boat, Ness sees the flames starting to spread on the pirate ship and hollers, "We're coming for ya, in case it's getting a little hot over there."
Scorch circles round ready to make another attack. Seeing Praetoria/Filipe standing above the pirate captain, however, she shifts her focus to the remaining crew and arcs downward towards them, intent on using her momentum to bowl them overboard. Once again, her recklessness causes her to mistime the attack.
"Dammit Kylie, snap out of it!" Shin shouts at her as he struggles to keep flying while holding onto her. He doesn't know why she isn't lightening his load, but he doesn't have much time to consider that with everything going on. Kayla in her weird seafarer's gear and Psyche in some kind of old fashioned dress, it was chaotic.
Seeing Scorch flying by, he tossed Kylie to her, thinking she'd probably be happier being rescued by her girlfriend than just some guy she fooled around with today. No, his focus was protecting the rest of the group and Inquiry from those damn pirates!
He keeps his distance and picks off what's left of their long ranged weapons, but the last cannon he realizes almost too late is aimed at the longboat heading to the ship - one manned by Rory and Gallowglass!
He blasts the cannon, but before it fires. He doesn't think, only reacts as he flies at wind stinging speeds, before his vantablack blade swings out and slices the iron ball in half, both pieces crashing into the waters next to them, spraying them but keeping them safe!
He breathes relief, his heart lightening and guilt fading away, as he turns to the ship again to help them.
As Scorch flies past Horizon, supported by jets of flame shooting from her hands, he hurls Psyche/Annabelle towards her. Thinking quickly, she extinguishes the flames from her left arm and grabs at the other girl's hand as she sails past, catching hold of it and doing her best to maintain her flight with just one arm.
Inquiry noticed a couple major problems within its reach. One being the battle between Praetoria and Trenchard, and the other being a ballistic, possessed Psyche, apparently unaware of her ability to fly and haphazardly tossed at someone covered in fire. With a strange slithering, a couple of tentacles retracted from where they were chained, and re-sprouted out of sight, before reaching out to aid.
One tentacle deftly caught Psyche, carefully decelerating her at a safe rate. The possessed woman probably thought she was still in trouble, but it was better than falling into the churning sea below.
The other tentacle reached out to the battle, conveniently steadying the off-balance Praetoria as it grasped hold of the yardarm.
The overall display of helpfulness really helped alleviate Inquiry/Isaiah's guilt over their previous bad call.
The fall took much longer than Rory had anticipated, about half way down he realized he made a poor decision. Once he resurfaced he climb into Gallowglass's longboat.
Frostbite uses his powers to form an icy rope connected to the ship, He arm over arm pulled while Ness rowed allowing them to easily cover the distance.
Annabelle's stomach whirled along with the rest of her as she found herself passed from glowing apparition to soaring elemental to, finally, a kraken.
Her first thought was to fight back, but the monster didn't seem to be trying to eat her...
But she had to get back. Filipe needed her.
"Sr. monstro do mar, eu te imploro, me traga para o lado do meu amor." Then with a deep breath, she added, fire in her eyes, "Se você procura me manter longe dele, eu te aviso que esta arma de fogo está carregada e mortal."
Praetoria (Filipe) takes a step to bring his cutlass down on Trenchard, but his back foot slips off the yardarm, and for a moment looks like he'll lose his balance. However, his foot lands on a convenient tentacle from the Kraken below, keeping him steady. He slashes and Trenchard looses his grip. He plummets back to the chaos of the deck. Even as he falls, though, his cat o' nine tails lashes out and wraps around her boot. She also slips and falls to the deck!
The ship is rocked as a cannon blasts at the longboat containing Frostbite and Gallowglass. The attack is foiled by Horizon, swooping in and using his powers in a swordlike form.
Scorch flies around in and through the rigging, having trouble blasting her targets with accuracy. She catches Psyche (Annabelle) briefly before passing her off to Inquiry. Her indiscriminate fire is catching more and more of the sails and rigging on fire!
That's caught the attention of Trenchard, who looks up and sees the destruction she's wreaking. "Stop setting fire to me ship!" he shouts as he draws a flintlock pistol from his side and fires it.
Inquiry manages to successfully protect Psyche from falling, and helps Praetoria on the yardarm, but he overextended himself. A team of pirates chop away at the ropes lashing a number of barrels stacked on the deck, which frees them to start rolling toward the kraken! They slam into Inquiry, knocking him off the deck and back into the churning sea.
Psyche, you're still in the clutches of the kraken as it's pitched backwards! What do you do?
Frostbite and Gallowglass row/pull themselves and the longship up to the side of the Blinded Banshee, just as Inquiry topples back into the ocean. The ship's rigging and sails are in flames, and the battle seems to be raging still on the deck.
What do you do??
Filipe reaches for the yardarm to not fall as well, but slips and Plummer’s alongside his foe! He lands with a thud, feeling as if all was lost, but as he rolls his head, he sees Trenchard also reeling but distracted by the strange flying fire girl. Filipe slowly stands and makes their way to the distracted captain...
Filipe lunges at Trenchard, bringing his cutlass down hard at him. Trenchard turns at the last moment to see the approaching sword, his eyes widening with terror...
__________
Seeing Psyche in the clutches of a Kraken, Gallowglass shoots three arrows in quick succession into the tentacle that's clutching her, attempting to get it to let go.
Waving (and with Bear woofing) she hollers "Psyche, it's Bear and Frostbite and me. The ship's on fire! Jump about our longboat!"
Frostbite climbs aboard the ship just as an oddly dressed Praetoria falls to the deck and to witness Scorch getting shot at. He charges at the pirate who fired at his sister.
Rory soccer kicks the captain in the ribs and dodges the counterattack.
Scorch circles round and angles herself back towards the ship. Off balance for a moment, she hears a loud bang and feels a sudden searing pain as the captain's musket ball buries itself in her arm and her blood begins to seep through her uniform. Cursing, she yells out at Horizon. "What the hell do you think you're doing? You could've killed her!. Somehow, she manages to maintain her flight just long enough to reach the kraken's tentacle next to Annabelle/Psyche as she feels herself becoming lightheaded from the loss of blood.
I'm no good in this fight, we need Psyche!.
Looking up at Annabelle/Psyche, pale with the loss of blood, she somehow manages to gasp out a few words in Portuguese, a remnant of which has stayed in her mind since her own possession. "Annabelle Você sabe que pode confiar em mim. Você tem que me dar seu anel. É a única maneira de derrotar Trenchard!"
"Você me pede para confiar em você, mas sua confiança em mim brilha claramente em seus olhos. Se vai salvar o Filipe..." With a look of discomfort on her face, she pulled off the ring.
"Você precisa ter essa ferida tratada...otherwise you're going to... pass out. Mattie?"
"Oh my God... It didn't work. Fine, being careful didn't work. Let's if they can handle me when I don't hold back.
Her skin split open in a fierce glow as she rocketed up into the sky, lowering Mattie to the longboat with a fragment of her attention.
"Take care of her, Ness. I'm going to put an end to this."
Going in wasn't the solution.
Trenchard's just a symptom.
I have to stop this at the source."
She'd had some luck piecing the veil back together earlier.
She just had to hope her friends could survive long enough for this to work...
Inquiry noticed the approaching boat when Gallowglass' arrows pinged off of its tentacle. Before it could get around to putting Psyche/Annabelle down, thought, Scorch had already somehow resolved it via taking on the possession, and Psyche no longer needed to be held, so it let go. Scorch had also clearly been shot. They'd need to work on that soon, but now was not the time. Trenchard looked like he was being handled by Rory and Praetoria. But the ship seemed to be as much a part of the spirt, if less concentrated. It was time to bring it down.
Inquiry submerged, tentacles latching on to the Blinded Banshee, weaving through its cracked, split, and holed hull. And then it began to pull down, hard, aiming either to split the ship completely, or simply drag it beneath the waves.
He hadn't considered that there were other things that pirates had that they could use besides cannons. He was so concerned about saving Gallowglass and Frostbite that as he tried flying back to the ship, he'd missed the pirate holding a whaling spear.
He only noticed when that spear was slicing through his side, crying out in pain as he lost concentration and fell into the churning waters below, swallowed by the sea faster than anyone could react. His last thoughts were pained, anguished - Why? Why? before everything faded to black.
The Blinded Banshee shudders and groans under the weight of its own bulk, heaving and pitching against the waves and the force of the metallic kraken heaving at one end.
Through this, Captain Trenchard stands defiant on the deck of his ship, smoking flintlock in one hand and cat o' nine tails in the other. Praetoria, fully absorbed into the persona of Filipe, drops from the yardarm and strikes him hard and fast as she lands. The dread captain's eyes widen, but not in fear. It's in astonishment that he hasn't beaten Filipe yet and his foe still stands! The two again clash, the continuation of a fight that started three hundred years ago.
Frostbite climbs up onto the deck from the longboat he'd managed to secure to the side of the ship, and races across to dive at the pirate who shot his sister. He slides in and kicks Trenchard off-balance while Praetoria continues her brutal assault.
The combined assault drives the undead pirate captain back. He takes several steps back, being driven by the furious attacks, and he steps into one of the giant rends in the deck his ship. The villainous pirate plummets into the churning waters below decks!
Just then, a horrible cracking sound echoes around everyone as Inquiry pulls the Banshee further apart, using its grip on the masts and its own weight to pull the port side from the starboard. Already cut and weakened, the planks of the deck start to separate and break.
In the air, Scorch sees Psyche still in the grips of possession via the ring of Annabelle, even as she's shot by Trenchard's pistol. She manages to persuade Psyche to give up the ring, taking on the possession herself and freeing the Nova from its influence.
As Scorch's flames die down and she floats to the pitching and heaving deck, Psyche draws deep into her power and unleashes a psychic storm to counter the one pouring into this realm from the astral plane.
The noise is cacophonous; the chaos and confusion deadly as pirates are swept up into the spinning vortex above the wreck of the Banshee. At the center, Psyche puts all her efforts into sealing the breach.
The pirate ship shudders and cracks with an echoing groan that sounds almost human. It starts to sink beneath the waves, threatening to take those on the deck down with it!
But Gallowglass is there, firing off arrows to keep the whipping rigging from snaring anyone, and coaxing them on the longboat.
Once Scorch (Annabelle), Praetoria (Filipe) and Frostbite are on board, Gallowglass busts the ice tethering the longboat to the Banshee and pushes them off.
With Trenchard defeated, Psyche restores the astral plane's barriers and seals off the breach between realms with her powers. Horizon flies out of the ensuing tumult after being struck with a whaling spear, falling into the ocean! His world goes black, and he later wakes up, sputtering, on the sandy beach near the shipwreck.
The longship hits the beach with Rory and the two possessed heroes on board. They stare wide-eyed and amazed at the wreck, then turn to each other. Their long nightmare of being apart finally over, Filipe and Annabelle embrace each other and share a passionate kiss. The true image of the two lovers from the past superimposed over Praetoria and Scorch shimmers, then begins to fade. The two rings leap from the two heroes and fuse together, entwining into a bond that cannot be severed. With the rings finally reunited, the spirits fade away, leaving Mattie and Kayla locked into a passionate kiss as they come to their own minds.
What do you do???
As Mattie comes back to her own mind, she finds herself locked in a the embrace of Kayla, once again kissing her passionately. However, faint from the loss of blood, she feels her consciousness begin to slip away and her mind going foggy. As she slumps in the other girl's arms, she looks up and, in a daze says "I like kissing you, its always so nice." before she finally loses consciousness in a dead faint, a crimson stain spreading across the arm of her uniform.
Kayla returned the kiss from Mattie with vigor and enthusiasm, and even as the spirit of Filipe faded, so too did his physical persona. His trench coat was replaced with Kayla’s own armor. And the realization that she was kissing Mattie and not that this was Filipe and Annabelle came too, but even so, Kayla’s lips remained locked with Mattie’s and her hands slid along her back and shoulders.
When she starts to say a reply to her, but then she begins to faint! ”Mattie! MATTIE!!!” she cries out before lifting off with the young girl in her arms and jetting off straight for the house to get the staff emt on hand! She lands crying out for Isabella, knocking things aside on the kitchen table to lay Mattie out for the woman to work on her!
She was a little jealous. Which was ridiculous. It had been ghost-possession. And you just told her you weren't her girlfriend anyways. But she'd heard what Mattie said, and she knew that delirious as she was, she'd meant it.
She didn't like it.
Shin needed help anyways. Kayla was already taking Mattie to the EMT, and she'd left a tendril of herself in Kayla's mind to make certain she could be there if she was needed.
"You guys should follow Kayla; Mattie's going to want everyone around her when she wakes up. I'll get Shin."
***
She stretched out her mind, searching for his thoughts. It would have been easier if she'd just been linked with him already, but that wasn't really an appropriate thing to do when you were on a date with someone else...
But now she couldn't hear him. He should be thinking about the fight, or if someone was hurt; a lot of times he was just thinking about her.
But nothing.
He couldn't be dead. She was sure she'd have known if that happened, even if they weren't linked.
So that meant he was hurt. Really hurt. Maybe I shouldn't have sent everyone else along. No, I can do this.
He wasn't thinking thoughts, wasn't dreaming, so she just had to find the deepest core of him. The lizard brain everyone had that got filtered through their higher impulses. She normally stayed much higher in people's minds, especially when she was sending or tampering, too easy for things to go terribly, terribly wrong. Even listening was unpleasant, at best - no one had control of themselves down there. But for Shin she could do it.
All he felt was pain.
She rocketed down the beach towards him. Shin was just a bedraggled lump of seaweed and agony. Agony that spiked around a thin, razor thin line of vantablack scar tissue on his left side.
He wasn't breathing,
but he was alive.
She dropped to him in a rush, sand exploding out away from her landing in a perfect circle, and started performing CPR. A part of her mind kept time on precise telekinetic compressions, another part kept her body moving as she provided mouth-to-mouth. Everything else just worried.
"Shin? Can you hear me?"
Pain.
Pain meant that he wasn't dead yet. His lungs burned. His whole body burned that he could feel. Pain as something squeezed his chest. Even pain as someone pressed their mouth to his and breathed in air his own lungs protested, seized up from taking it water.
Pain meant life. Pain meant survival, as his body kicked in finally as salt water was pushed out. He coughed and sputtered, turning over on his side and expelling all he could into the sand. His whole body felt pain - except one place. Instead of pain, all he felt from the new scar on his body was nothing at all. Like it no longer existed as a part of him.
That was extremely terrifying, a worry about his powers. Would it happened every time he was injured using them now? He didn't know. It wasn't something he wanted to experiment with at any rate. He managed to lean back, staring at Kylie - no, Psyche, with her tendril like costume - and felt a mix of gratitude, relief, and simmering anger still left over from the fight.
He wanted to yell. He wanted to cry. He wanted to kiss her and take things as far as he could right there in the sand. But bigger than all of that, he wanted to know why. The deepest pain that he felt was that of broken trust and betrayal, from someone he'd allowed to get so close to him.
He was so stupid not to see it. Stupid to think he was more than a passing fancy. Stupid for not noticing how Mattie had reacted, gotten close to her as well. Stupid for hoping, stupid for believing. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
He knew she knew what he was thinking. It was petty, but he was glad she knew just how deep he hurt right now, the scar on his side the least of it. It hurt because he still cared so much about her. It hurt because he knew he'd step aside for her happiness. It hurt because she had a future and his was doomed.
Now he was stuck on a beach, exhausted and unsure of how to get back to the resort. Not feeling up to fly again either. He sat in the surf staring at her, head trying to compose what to say to her and her reading it like he was typing and deleting and retyping it all over in his head.
"...How are the others?" He settled on those words. Think of the team. Worry about all of them. Compartmentalize this. Shove it in a shoe box and tuck it under his bed like his baseball cards. It was so raw right now he didn't think he could have that conversation. But that was really up to her, with him Psyche's captive audience.
The boat hits the shore and Rory hops out to moor it to the beach. He looks at the vessel back seeing the superimposed visages embrace, an embrace that lingered after the ghosts faded away. Next thing he knows his sister if fainting, and his girlfriend is yelling her name while flying away from him. He was frozen.
I kissed someone today. I won’t be naming names, so please don’t ask. Those words spoken by Kayla were echoing throughout his mind.
No, I'm good. Great actually, but um. Look, can we talk about something a bit later on? Scorch's words pounded in his hears.
An US us thing. No one else. Pained confusion whirled about inside his head. Mentally Recapping the past few days, he saw images of Prae in his bed and in the grove. Then Mattie sitting on the beach; then Mattie playing house with Jade...
I like kissing you, its always so nice. WHAT THE...
Mattie! MATTIE!!! ...F%#@!
He was frozen. The tears were hot, almost searing, on his face.
The pain rising from his mind cut into hers like a knife, and she severed their connection with a muted gasp.
Oh... Shin.
"They're fine. Well, mostly. Mattie took a bullet, or something, while I was in Annabelle's head. Kayla's got her to the medic though. I'm keeping tabs on them from here, so...
"Clearly we need to talk. I'd like to do that now, clear the air, but we don't have to get into it if you're not ready. But either way, I do need you to know..." Her face creased in concentration as she braved his mind again, needing to say this with her true voice, "I really do care about you. What Mattie and I have shared isn't any more meaningful to me than what you and I have. And whether I share in it or not, I intend to have a say in your future. I won't let you just give up."
He hoped that Mattie was all right. He hoped that everyone was doing all right, as he struggled to convince himself that Kylie was being true. That she cared for him. No, compartmentalize it, hold it back, don't open up to that pain again...
He just wasn't that strong, his anger towards her, if not the pain she caused, slipping from his grasp.
It would only hurt him more if he tried to keep this going with her. That was the voice of Dusk in his head.
You saved her so that she could save you, the old Shin of the lighthouse seemed to say to him.
"...I'm just so confused, and tired, and wondering how long I missed this. I don't...I don't understand," He weakly says. The urge to stall this conversation by embracing her is strong. "...But I want to try. You want to try. That's a start. So..."
A dozen questions fluttered in his head. How long / how far / love her more / love me less / am I not enough / are there more / because of your powers / why hide it / why her / what do you want / need / feel?
He knows she'll pluck them out of his head and make sense of them. He wants the distance between them to close up, reaching out and grabbing onto her hand, squeezing it softly. He felt bad now for letting her feel his pain, wishing he could do something for her.
"...I want you to do what makes you happy, even if it means...we're not together. If Mattie makes you happy," He says as he sucks up the envy in his heart, "Then I won't try to get between you. She's like my sister Yukiho, always getting into scrapes." Except when she was really trying to kiss you. Not sisterly then. "...I can promise, whatever you decide, I'm not going to stop being someone who sticks with you. Even as just a friend."
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Isabella and a few other panicked staff come bursting into the room as Kayla tries to hold pressure on Mattie’s arm. ”Kayla! What happened! Let me see!” Isabella says as she steps up. When Kayla steps away, a spurt of fresh blood sprays out and Isabella quickly slams pressure down on the arm herself.
”I think...she got shot...ghost pirates...” Kayla stammered. Surprisingly, Isabella just nodded, as if that wasn’t unusual. It probably wasn’t to her, having worked for the Taylors for a while now.
Isabella tried to feel at Mattie’s arm, the despair evident on her face. ”I think...I think it severed the brachial artery...her heart is racing...she’s anemic...lost too much blood,” the nurse mutters to herself.
”Kayla...” she says after thinking and assessing the situation. ”I don’t think she’s going to make it...I’m not a vascular surgeon, and even if you had a teleporter, she’s already lost so much blood, a vascular surgeon couldn’t prep in time to operate...if she only was able to heal from wounds like you...”
Heal like me...
The mana battery. The golden energy.
”Yours is aether-bright-heart-good...”
”Everyone out. Except Isaiah and Isabella.”
The moment it was just the three of them and Mattie, Kayla grabbed Isaiah and slammed him against a wall. ”Listen. Here’s what you are going to do. I know now, Isaiah. I KNOW. So, what you are going to do, you are going to drain my power and give it to her. And you are going to do it right now, real fast, without asking questions. We will settle this up privately later. But right now you are going to drain however much you have to from me to save her life!”
Holly's flight is shaky and unsteady, not nearly as graceful, or controlled as the actual fliers. As Isaiah goes forward in inquiry, she takes a bad turn, and slams into the edge of the hull and cargo bay, knocking herself unconscious, and falling into the ship.
Uh... wuh... What just happened. Holly asks, sitting up in the cargo bay, with a throbbing pain in her head.
Inquiry, upon seeing the battle over, rushed to rescue Shin, who it had seen fall into the water. Still, when it had found him and put him on the coast, he had already inhaled water... and a starship could hardly administer CPR. Psyche could, though, and she was on the way. Inquiry had other problems to deal with, and hurried off to help. Shin would live. Inquiry had seen enough to know that was not in question. Singularities didn't die easily.
Isaiah rushed to help with Scorch, but she had lost a lot of blood. The best he could manage was to staunch further bleeding with carefully-applied pressure, and hold on until they could transport her to a doctor.
Isaiah didn't particularly like being man-handled... but as Praetoria spoke, he quickly realized why.
"...Alright. I'll try to explain later, but right now you're correct. We don't have time to fight. I'm no Doctor Dread, though; it's going to take more than just power. I'll need a...little bit of you, to use it." His eyes flicked to the medical equipment already in the room. "Blood. It'll have to be blood. I really hope you've got a compatible blood type, but rejection issues will be the least of our worries right now. You're also going to have to let me down so I can work."
His words were oddly emotionless. There was no time for emotion right now. They needed to move.
Kayla sat him down. ”Then you better start now and be able to siphon power fast. You won’t break my skin until...well...just hurry!”
The kitchen was hardly the best place to be doing this, but it was all they could deal with at the moment. She grabbed a chair and sat it beside Mattie opposite Isabella, who was also urging for them to hurry whatever they were trying...
”Now Isaiah!”
Gallowglass shakes her head at Holly's question. "It's tough for me to explain too.
"By the time I came across it, Kylie and Mattie and Kayla were all somehow blending in with, I guess, astral ghost pirates and their victims from another time? Rory and I managed to take out a bunch of skeleton-pirates and then took their boat out to the main ship...which was flaming and swirling with Isaiah's mana and Shin's vantablackness...and I guess you'll have to ask them how that really turned out. I just picked up the pieces.
"But the important thing to know is Mattie and Shin both got hurt. Kylie should be bringing Shin back any minute now, I assume. And Kayla and Isabella are taking care of Mattie in the kitchen.
"How're you? Seems like you got a nasty knock too!"
Isaiah quickly went into motion, taking a blood-transfusion rig and starting to make several modifications to it. He reached into his back, and pulled out a small cylinder, one third-full of golden liquid, grimaced slightly at how little was left in that fuel cell, but continued to work, splicing the cell in with a blood-draw syringe, though he discarded the actual needle. Reaching into a hip pocket, he pulled out a new needle, this one made of some kind of dark metal, and its point so unimaginably sharp it seemed to fade into a haze.
"Breaking the skin won't be that much of a problem. With luck, I won't need to draw very much. Otherwise I'm going to have to find some way to cram Inquiry in here to use the big equipment."
He carefully set up the recieving end with Scorch; hopefully rejection wouldn't occur, or would at least be mild enough that it wouldn't overcome the regeneration.
"Here we go. This might actually hurt, but you need to try to stay still as you can."
And then he jabbed the mono-atomic Adamant Alloy needle into one of Praetoria's veins. Blood and power flowed through the tube, red and gold. Now they would just have to see what happened at the other end.
Kayla closed her eyes as she took Mattie’s hand. Pain wasn’t a problem, her nerve endings were not immune to pain, unfortunately. But, after some of the hits she had taken, pain wasn’t something she feared.
Right now, she was just scared for Mattie. And Rory.
However, as power and blood was quickly seeped from her body, her eyes fluttered and her head fell forward as the lights started to go out. She snapped her head back, trying to stay awake. Even so, as her power dropped, so did her Regalia, leaving Kayla sitting naked in the kitchen. But she didn’t care. She was more concerned with other things. Like staying conscious.
Come in, Mattie. Hang in there...
Then, as her own blood volume dropped alongside her powers, the strain was too much, and Kayla’s head rolled back and onto the table, unconscious. The last thing she heard was the muffled sound of Isabella calling her name...
Isabella cried out ”What are you doing to her!?!? You’re killing her!”
Seeing that Kayla was at her limit, Isaiah pulled out the needle, and quickly worked at bandaging both wounds.
"No, she'll live. They both should, now. But that doesn't mean it's going to be fun for either of them. We should get them both to someplace safe for them to rest."
As Holly came to, and Gallowglass started talking to her, Inquiry spoke up.
"Yeah, that was a pretty strange fight. Shin should recover ok, I think, but Mattie is in pretty rough shape. Kayla and I are trying something insanely risky to save her life. Hopefully it will work."
Kayla’s eyes fluttered open, and she groggily looked around the room. She could tell she was in her bedroom, but how she got there or what had happened, or even who was present...
”M...Mattie. Is Mattie okay?”
Her head was really throbbing. She had too much stored up, but a flood wasn't going to help. So she leaned in and rested her forehead on his.
"Mostly it's like you and me. Attraction, a couple of moments that made it clear it could maybe be more than that, and using our time here to try things out. I suppose she's a date ahead, but that's mainly 'cause you and I had set a two date limit, so I haven't been counting our dreams.
"I really wanted to tell you. Just because we aren't exclusive doesn't mean I want to hide things from you, but she just came out on this trip. She hasn't even told Rory, and she wanted a chance to do that before I told you.
"I'm not seeing anyone else. I don't feel like I want to or need to. I just... I really care a lot about both of you. I'd like to keep seeing you, if you're okay with that. But I'm your friend either way too."
"She is fine, or she was the last time I check on her," Rory answered from a chair near the bed. " By the time I got back Isaiah was done and you both were passed out, I carried you to bed and kept watch over night."
"So it was Mattie, you kissed my sister..." everything Rory was saying was tinged with anger and hurt, he wasn't shouting, talking through clinched teeth, or even getting red in the face, but he was clearly upset.
Kayla reaches for his hand, but as he talked, she could feel the icy tone of his voice and stopped before she made it there. When he questioned her about kissing Mattie, she started to sit up, but got dizzy and fell back on the bed.
”Rory...I’m sorry. It...it wasn’t ever meant to hurt you. And I didn’t ever really intend to kiss her. Just one thing...led to another...god that’s so stereotypical. But,” she said, a pleading look in her eyes. ”it wasn’t my place to tell you about her. And it still isn’t.”
She finally does reach out to take his hand and says ”Let’s just make sure we survive this, then we can all three talk. Okay?”
She slowly swings her legs out of the bed, and carefully, slowly stands. Her head spun like a top, but after a few moments, everything settled. ”I’m...I’m gonna change,” she says as she floats over to her luggage. ”Then I’m gonna go check on your sister and then go rest in the sun. Try and recover a bit. Will...will you join me?”
Either way, Kayla changes into a tiger print bikini and then makes her way to check on Mattie. She knocks gently at her door and cracks the door to peek inside...
Rory offers an unenthusiastic, "Yeah," then gets up from the chair and takes Kayla by the hand and kisses her on the cheek as they head to check on Mattie.
Before leaving her own room, when Rory kisses her cheek Kayla pauses and turns to him, putting a hand on his face and giving him a proper kiss. She looks him in the eyes and adds ”I’m sorry this hurt you. I really am. But what I told you out in the water...it’s till true. But, I know this is hard. You...you take your time with it and tell me what you feel...”
She answered most of his questions, and of course he believed her. He didn't think she'd ever lie to him, but he still felt insecure about himself that she wanted Mattie as well. But he stopped his train of thought and considered if the situation were reversed, if Mattie and he were dating, what would he have done. She didn't want to be tied down to him, and that stung because he'd always assumed that romance meant only two people enjoying each other's company.
The world changed a lot in eighty years. If he didn't try to adapt, how could he be happy here?
This all seems strange and scary to me. I care too much not to at least try. His arms wrapped around her as held her close, wanting to kiss her now. But afraid she'd hate it after he'd heaved out salt water and bile. He was still worried about Mattie, as his friend and now romantic rival, so part of him wanted to impress Kylie. He just knew he'd screw anything up. There was something off with her thoughts as well.
I'd like to fly back with you now. Like when we went to the university. I think I want to give my powers a break...unless you'd rather just walk. You think like you're in pain too. What can I do to help? Will you let me share the burden for you?
They're... Oh god, Mattie? Holly asks as Gallowglass tells her about the injuries.
And, Who the heck Is Isabella? Insanely risky plans? tears are forming In Hollys eyes, if ither character look closely that will notice.
And, yet again, America's favorite Superheroine Is COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS in a fight. Why the hell am Ieven on this team. Maybe Mattie would be okay if I wasn't a darn showoff.
"Isabella is this place's doctor. And as a quick update, it looks like what we're trying here is going to work out alright. Kayla and Mattie will probably both be out cold for a while, but nobody's going to die today."
"You know, this whole thing is making me think that maybe we should issue everyone on the team not already capable of shrugging off a bullet some nice bulletproof clothing. Maybe some helmets, too. If an accidental knock on the head or a stray musket-ball can take one of us down, how are we going to go up against serious villains?"
Kylie gave a sudden jerk in Shin's arms as her attention rocketed away. "Oh no. Kayla was supposed to tell me if something went... wrong." The rest of her body began glowing fiercely, spreading out from the cracks, but her will was divided. There was part of her that didn't want to just instantly be there. So she wasn't.
By then Kayla had undertaken her slightly crazy plan, and a quick scan of Isaiah's whiteboard told her that it was crazy enough to work.
She wished she just hadn't known.
She quickly filled in Shin on the basics, finishing "...sorry. I know that's not the best way to show you that you're important." The bile situation was a real issue, but she gave him a quick smooch nonetheless.
"Honestly, the last thing I want to do is walk back. I drew in more power than I really needed to seal up that rift, and I need to burn it off somehow. A little telekinesis should at least take the edge off of it. If I was confident I could put you back together too, I wouldn't even bother flying."
She grabbed hold of him and took off.
"So... tonight. Could I stay the night with you? Physically I mean. Not to do anything! But I'd like to hold you tonight.
"Before you say yes, I am going to put part of myself in Mattie's head. It won't be a dream-date or anything; it's just to keep tabs on her, but if that makes you uncomfortable, I understand."
She wanted to sleep with him in his bed. That she trusted him enough to believe he wouldn't take advantage of that made him a little happier. But that didn't stop thoughts of ways he could take advantage of that situation that she could easily read. His imagination was probably part of what attracted a telepath like herself, as it could be both a blessing and a curse.
I still don't get the whole 'splitting' yourself thing. But I understand wanting to be there for Mattie. I care about her too. Not exactly how you do, but I hope she's all right. I think it would be okay if you wanted to stay the night with me. I'm going to need some mouthwash and a shower first, though - I smell like a can of anchovies.
When they got to the resort, he went with Kylie into his bungalow, washing up quickly and slipping on some cotton pajamas for bed. Now to see if he could act like a gentleman tonight and not like a brute.
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It was strange, waking up with a girl in his bed that wasn't his younger sister. It was also impossible to remove himself from that situation and deal with morning problems when said girl was practically curled around him. So all he could do was wait for her to wake up, and be a gentleman no matter how uncomfortable it felt.
He'd had such nice dreams though.