Jump to content

ABERRANT: WEIRDER STUFF - SLOW BURN


Lilly Pryor

Recommended Posts

Lilly grasped the top edge of the heavy bag with both hands and rested her forehead against it, panting heavily in an attempt to catch her breath as she stood there in her black sports bra and boyshorts, with her ankles and wrists taped up, fingerless MMA gloves on her hands and her dark hair pulled back in a tight, high pony. Every bit of bare flesh, which was most of her finely toned body at the moment, glistened with a sheen of sweat and more beaded on her forehead only to collect and run down her face and neck, some even dripping from her nose. She always pushed herself a bit in her daily workout, but she had been gong even harder than usual.

The relative silence ended as the next tract in the playlist started. With a sigh she pushed off the bag and immediately blasted it with a side body kick and high kick with the same leg which, flowed right into a combo of jabs, hooks (each with a Mike Tyson-esque elbow follow through) and capped off with an uppercut. She then grasped the top of the bag in a muai thai clench and unleashed several knees into the bag before pushing off with an elbow as a parting gift. She then dropped low and shot in, locking her arms around the bag and twisting, the force causing the magnets on the chain to release, allowing her to slam the bag into the ground to her side where she swiftly mounted it and began to punch and elbow the 'face' of the bag, each strike harder than the last. The sound of her striking the bag startled some in the gym and caused others to look over at the teen as she shifted position to a push-up with her toes atop the bag, shifting between double foot, single foot, and T elevated push-ups.

 

Across the base gym, two airmen were standing side by side, each curling barbells and watching Lilly from time to time.

"Who in the hell pissed her off?" the newly reassigned Airman Willis mused to his workout partner, Airman Utley.

"Who knows. Teen drama, PMS, hormones and all that shit." Utley shrugged.

"Still though.. a bod like that? The angry sex would be awesome. I'd totally hit that." Willis remarked as he contemplated his chances.

"You know who that is, right?"

"No clue. She's gotta be some boot. Maybe an MP?"

Utley laughed and shook his head as he continued pumping the barbells. 

"Dude. Okay. Firstly, that's Lilly Pryor, as in 'General Pryor's, the base commander's, one and only daughter'. So, that right there makes it a no fly zone."

Willis winched a bit, sucking some air through his teeth. 

"Hmm. Well, it's still doable. It just takes some... finesse."

"And second, that's mutherfuckin' Lilly Pryor.. You know... the fucking Vanguard."

"Wait. What? Seriously? Her?"

"Yeah dude."

"So she have been the one that left seven hundred pounds set up on the bench press. I didn't even know that much weight could fit on the bar." Willis said, correcting his friend.

"Yeah. Thankfully she's powered down. When she's powered up, she benches in the hundreds-." Utley tried to explain before being cutoff again by Willis.

"Yeah. I told you. seven hundred pounds."

"Nah man. When she's powered up, she lifts in the hundreds, or even thousands, of tons." Utley clarified.

Willis' eyes went wide for a moment before he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Her? I call bullshit on that. That's just exaggerated rumors and shit. I mean, I know she's supposed to be super strong or whatever, but that's just... pffft." Willis scoffed.

"No. I'm serious. She'd bitch-slap the Hulk. She casually juggles tanks and shit. if she were powered up, she'd demolish that bag with just a jab." Utley tried to explain, which caused Willis to only shake his head.

"I thought she was supposed to be like Captain America or some shit?"

"Yeah. she kind of is, I guess. But more like Cap to the tenth power. I mean, we thought she could teleport short distances for a while there, until they realized she's wasn't teleporting, she's just so fucking fast that our eyes can's even see her movements."

"Seriously?" Willis asked as he looked back over at Lilly. "So... what? She got her powers and they made her all cut?"

"Naw. From what I hear, she looked like that before she got her powers. Like, crazy hardcore athlete. They say she holds pretty much all of the records in any sport she did in school. She was even the quarterback and got the school its first state championship."

"I thought all the Irregulars were supposed to be, like, super, insanely, you-dick-will-shoot-right-off-your-body hot or something?"

"The rest of them are. Just not her. Dunno why." Utley shrugged. "She's actually pretty nice, but today she seems... I dunno. I'd just leave her alone for now, and give up on that white whale, Ahab." Airman Utley chuckled.

 

Lilly stood up, shouldered the heavy bag and clips it back into place, only to grasp the top of it and jump it, wrapped her legs around the bag. She held herself in place by her legs as she inverted and began doing sit ups, twisting to tap each elbow to the bag each time to she came up. When she decided she was done with that exercise she dropped back to her feet and walked over to the weight sled. She quickly added weight to it and slipped on the yoke that was attached to the sled by large, semi-elastic bands. With the yoke secured she began single and double leg wrestling drills, crouching low and exploding forward, stretching the bands and pulling the sled along with each dive forward, using the resistance build the speed and power of her wrestling takedowns.

The entire time Lilly worded out her anger grew within her. It had been stewing for some time, even if she did not want to admit it, but the recent events finally stoked it until it was undeniable. Now matter how hard she worked, how mush she tried to use and push herself, it just seemed to remain, and even grow. She had put on a confident face for the team back in Canada, but now she had to address it, and was doing so the only way she knew how, even if it was failing her now.

Lilly nearly growled as she threw off the yoke and walked back to the heavy bag, not even fully realizing she was crying as she began to unload on it once again with a brutal flurry of punches, knees, elbows and kicks, each blow making her grunt and grimace more and more as tears found their paths down her cheeks.

 

Spoiler

This fic is open, so any of the Irregulars are welcomed to join in if you like.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kia didn't spend a lot of time in the gym.

Despite her background in school athletics, she wasn't really an athlete. Not in the sense that she desired or wanted to achieve physical perfection of her body or an activity. It had always been about the social aspect for her. The team, the fans, the general popularity. She'd worked out to keep in that game...and now that working out didn't really do anything for her, she'd stopped doing it.

Lately she'd been rethinking that position though. Kind of. Exercise wouldn't build muscle mass or tone her or anything now, but it might be good to have a way to practice using different shapes and forms and stuff. They seemed to come with a sort of instinctive mastery, but even a non-athlete like Kia could appreciate the difference between going on sheer instinct, and practicing a honed skill.

She wasn't prepared for what she saw though. Lilly was going at it hard. Kia knew that Lilly expressed herself physically, and figured she still exercised and worked out because that's what she was used to from before. It was one thing to sort of 'guess' that though, and another to see it in action.

"Hey guys," the Key said, approaching the guys talking in hushed tones, "Would you mind giving us some space? Like..." she looked around, "the gym's worth of space? Just for a little while."

The airmen glanced at one another. Of all the Keys, Kia looked the most normal...usually. Even Lilly, who was able to 'power down,' still had that super-toned, athletic Olympian thing going on. Kia you could pass on the street and never notice. Unless she got mad.

"Yeah," one said, a little nervously. "Sure, we can do that. Come on." Utley motioned and started for the door. In a couple of moments Kia and Lilly were alone in the gym, with just the echoes of her workout to fill that cavernous volume.

Kia walked over to where Lilly was going at it and watched for a second before she realized Lilly was actually crying even as she slammed the bag harder and harder.

Devin. Her dad.

"Lilly," she said, getting in closer, but trying to respect her space in the process. "Are you okay?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly didn't even hear Kia at first. She was so deep in her own, little world of anger and pain, and the heavy bag as she tried to unleash her frustration, anger and hurt into it, that she did not even notice her friend's arrival, much less addressing her.  Kia could note Lilly's style slowly breaking down, her finesse and variety slipping in exchange for more of a repetition of more and more devastating strikes until Lilly unleashed a side thrust kick into the bag so hard that it swung up and slapped the ceiling with a sound so loud and reverberating that it would have made anybody else working out in the gym jump.

"Lilly?" Kia asked again in the moment of relative silence as the bag began it's swing back down toward Lilly. 

Lilly's head snapped to look at her friend with teary eyes, Kia's voice having pulled her back to reality. She instantly closed her eyes and turned back to the bag, catching it with both hands, halting its swing with ease. She lifted her arms, grasping the top of the bag with both gloved hands and partially hiding her face as she rested her forehead against it, eyes closed. The room, for the first time in some time, was quiet, the silence punctuated by Lilly's heavy panting and the patter of drops of sweat ,and the occasional tear, falling from her onto the mat below, each with a little *pat*. 

Lilly inhaled sharply and deep, trying to mask a sniffle before she spoke,

"Hey Kia. What, uh, *cough* what's up?" she said to her BFF, trying to compose herself, but her voice clearly betrayed her.

"Are you okay?" Kia asked, though the answer was pretty evident.

"Oh yeah. F-fine. Just, you know, working out." Lilly answered, shrugging her shoulders as she nearly hid behind them and her biceps, closing her eyes even tighter, trying to stifle her tears.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly sighed and lowered a gloved hand to rest atop Kia's. The simple act of quiet compassion made her cry audibly, though she tried her best to hide it for a moment before turning to face her friend and hug her back, in a sweaty embrace. They stood in relative silence, for who knows how long, before Lilly attempted to speak.

"It's..." she managed to get out, but the though of her word only caused her to cry more before she could compose herself enough to try and speak again.

"It's just.... Devin's gone, maybe for eternity, fighting Pandora, for all of us.... Mari's left, but not before dropping her big drama bomb," she said, resting her forehead on Kia's shoulder, "so I am sure Sean and Laurie are pissed at me, but it's not... it's not like that.... It's not what you think.... We just..." Lilly sobbed. "What does it even matter now... I'm just a..." she stammered before stopping herself.

"My own dad faked his death, putting my mom and me through the hell of thinking he dead, supposedly was murdered by Devin.... but I knew, I fucking KNEW Devin wouldn't 'go bad', or do that, even when everybody else had convicted him, I believed in him. I know him better than,..." she shook her head, which in the current position amounted to rolling her sweat forehead along Kia's shoulder, "What's it matter..."

"And then there is Kyle. I mean, not him. He's not a problem, but all the unethical SHIT they did there, and to him... It makes me so fucking ANGRY. He's just an innocent little boy, he risked himself to fix Sara even... "

"And then Sandy.... he didn't deserve this..." Lilly stammered out.

"I've been through hell, and more importantly, everybody around me... everybody I love or care about... I just end up hurting, or they end up getting her because of me. Hell, that's all I am good for, even with my powers. Hurting things, you know?" she said as she shook her head again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kia just hugged her harder at that, then finally let go and backed up a step.

"Lilly...all these things, they don't happen because of us. They just happen. Even with super powers, all we're ever really doing is riding waves in a storm, trying to stay on our feet. We feel like we have control, but most of the time we don't. It wasn't you that hurt your dad," she said, her own eyes dripping now. "He made his own choices. So did Devin and Kyle and all of them."

The former-cheerleader smiled tearfully at her friend. "You have a good heart, and you're brave and strong. Those things make you good for all kinds of things. Your powers don't even matter for that. They won't tell you who you are."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"If it weren't for our powers, things would be different with Sandy and me, Devin would have probably never said a word to me, so nothing would have happened there, Mari would still be, well, Mari, me and my mom wouldn't have had to go through thinking my dad was dead, and none of that unethical shit with Kyle would have happened." Lilly said, her anger, especially about about the lab where they found Kyle, still very evident.

"These powers... I mean, they have been a dream come true for Sean, in so many ways. Abel too, to a degree. And then Sean and Abel are going to change the world with their brains and tech. All my powers did for me was deny me my dream and, let's face it,  make me a thug. They have brains that can change the world for generations to come, and me? I can punch things really hard and take a punch. You can even be anything you want to be." she sighed.

"And I might not hurt my friends physically, though I was ready to kick Mari to Neptune, but I still hurt them. I tried to let down Sam to go with Sandy, and he ended up throwing his lot in with the Deviants. Sean, I am sure, is pissed at me. Laurie too probably, if Sean told her. Who knows that the rest of you even think..." Lilly said, lowering her head and closing her eyes tightly. 

"But it's not what.. I didn't...  I mean, I wouldn't do that to Laurie..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"A thug?" Kia reached out to take hold of Lilly's hand. "If someone's a thug hasn't got anything to do with powers. That's all about attitude. I've seen six year old thugs. If you don't want to be a thug, then don't be. It's really that easy. And yeah, okay, our powers aren't going to blow up the planet or lead everyone into some golden age of super-technology, but that doesn't really matter. Who cares about that? That's their game. And all that stuff about hurting people...I mean...I don't want to sound like I don't care because I super-do but that's just people being people, Lilly. We...fuck up and we hurt each other's feelings and we feel bad and that's normal. That would happen no matter what."

"So we can totally go hit a mall or eat some ice cream and watch Netflix or whatever you want to do to deal with it, but just please don't start feeling like it's part of you, or something you're doomed to do, because it really isn't. You're like one of the nicest people I know. You're always thinking about what other people feel, and you always want to do what's right. And even when you have to choose a bigger right over a smaller right, you still feel guilty because you couldn't do both. You're way better than I am. The power stuff we can work out, or whatever, but please stop being down on yourself as a person because if you're bad, I don't even know what that makes me."

She smiled and gave Lilly another hug.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"We are more responsible than you think. Our existence is what started this KEY-based arms race. Kyle exists and all of that unethical shit was going on at that lab because of us. People were, and I am sure still are, afraid of us and what we can do. So they started doing everything they could to understand us, what we do, and even make their own KEYs, ethics be damned. Hence, Kyle and the big brain. And they are getting him back over my dead body."

"And if it weren't for these powers, I'd probably be very happy with Sandy. But because them, my life is different and he's, well, boring. Super sweet, thoughtful, caring, loyal and all of that, but now, at least to me, really boring. Any other girl in Shelly would be blessed to have him as their boyfriend or husband, but he wants to be with me, and I just find him so boring. I thought he might be what I wanted or needed, you know, some normalcy or whatever, but I guess after battling aliens, kaiju and punching (for lack of a better word) a god in the face, he's just so... milquetoast. I mean, it's totally me, and not him, and I know that. But.. I dunno."

Lilly grabbed the top chain of the heavy bag, separating the magnets, and dropped the bag onto the floor with a heavy thud and the collected her towel from the mat and took a seat on the makeshift bench, easily big enough for the booth of them. She raised the back of her gloved hand to her mouth and bit at a strap, tugging the velcro free and then did the same with the other glove, working them off her hands.

"But Devin was... " she sighed as she rests her towel around her shoulders and wiped her forehead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The bag shifted slightly as Lilly moved, the sand inside sttling due to her weight she supposed. She was about the continue when the door to the gym swung open with a crash

"There you are! Don't you know how to answer your texts?"

The voice was biting and full of sarcasm and it belonged to Rosa Garcia. Doctor Rosa Garcia that is, the Woman who had replaced Dr. Rashoud after her arrest following the discovery of her involvement in the Illegal experiments being run by a shadow section in the government. Lilly and Kia both Looked at the young woman bustling into the gym holding her own phone up showing them the number of texts she had been sending. She was 5'5" weighed about 112 pounds wet and had short bark brown hair cut rather unflattering. She wore thick lensed black framed glasses to correct her nearsightedness. Underneath her wrinkled lab-coat she wore a Bunnies Burgers T-shirt and faded well worn blue jeans, an off brand she had bough at a dollar store years ago. Her bare feet were tucked into a pair of  black and white sneakers which were obviously a keds knock off. She looked like she was only a year or two older than they were which was true, she was 19 and had gotten her first PHD at the age of 13. At 19 she held five PHDs and was arguably the smartest non Key human alive.

And one of the rudest.

"I have been trying to get a hold of you for the last twenty minutes. For fucks sake Vanguard, the world could be burning down and your not answering your phone?"

Spoiler

images.jpg

Doctor Rosa Garcia

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly looked up at the doctor attempting to lecture her, totally and utterly un-phased. Normally, Lilly would probably be content to let Kia handle the situation, as she was so aptly already doing, but given her current mood, Lilly felt that some things had to be made clear, now, before the doc for some ideas too firmly embedded.

"It's a phone, not a leash." she said dryly to the doc, though the simple sentence expressed much more. 

Lilly rose up off of the bag to her full height, wiping sweat from her forehead and neck. With one hand and a slight grunt of effort, she pulled the bag back up and reconnected it to the chain.

"Besides, when I am here, pretty much the entire base knows it and where I am. Kia, or any of the others, could get a hold of me too." she added, not even looking at the doc as she stuffed her gloves into her bag.

Mentally, Lilly relaxed a bit and stopped holding back, letting the quantum surge through her body, replenishing and restoring it. The ache and fatigue in her muscles vanish, she caught her breath fully, and the sweating stopped, though she was still covered in a glistening sheen off it which she began to eradicate with passes of her towel.

"So like Kia said, what's the matter?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosa stares at the sweaty, super fit, and oh so sexy Key and makes a little 'O' with her mouth as the quantum flows back into the young woman's body. Regardless what some of them say the difference between powered down and fully powered is noticeable and very much so to anyone with a heartbeat.

"Umm...okay... whatever. You told me to call you and only you as soon as I received any results on the tests we ran on the child. Remember?" Rosa holds up the phone again, "Well I called."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly wiped the sweat from her exposed flesh and caught Dr. Garcia's expression as she watcher her for a moment.

< Is it just me, or is she seriously checking me out? And I don't mean the usual kinda gawking and KEYs, but like, you know, checking me out, checking me out. > Lilly mentally asked Kia privately as she went about her business.

Then what the doc said caught her attention instantly.

"Really? And what do they say?" she asked with a mixture of eagerness and concern, looking at the doc as she stuffed her things into her gym bag and then pulled out a small jacket which she slipped on before hoisting the bag over her shoulder effortlessly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pulling her eyes back to...somewhere else Rosa felt a heat in her cheeks as she blushed and hoped neither of the two noticed.

"Well at first we were getting what amounted to trash data but then i noticed that several of the anomalous readings were repeating and deduced that the problem wasnt the data but rather the software we were usin gso I had to do a complete rewrite of the the algorithms were using. First i started..."

Kia coughed and bit her lips to keep from saying anything as Lilly balled her fist and glowered at the young scientist. Rosa paused eyes darting back and forth between the two Keys. "Yeah I just had to do some software stuff, which is what delayed the results. But I got them back and they are really out there."

She swiped at her phone, behind them all Lilly and Kia heard a rustling and a slow jingle like metal clinking on metal, both of the Key's glanced back at the empty gym and at each other as Rosa continued.

"We have no less than Eleven DNA strands only one of which is terrestrial combining to make up Kyles DNA. We have only encountered two of them before this. T'tauri and the Asheen. The other nine are a mystery...!?!"

RIIIIIIIPPPPP!!!!!!!!

Rosa's eyes grew huge and her voice stuck in her throat. Lilly and Kia were already moving taking a defensive stand in front of the human and beside each other.

What they saw would have defied reality anywhere else!

The bag Lilly had been punching had ripped and pouring out of it was sand! Sand that moved and coalesced into a semi- humanoid form legs, arms a featureless head the sand kept pouring and kept forming a lot more sand than could have fit in the bag. As it grew it lunged at Lilly arms form into huge hammer like ends which swung at her with terrific speed

sandman_a.jpg

Spoiler

Girls have initiative the sandman is about 6-7 feet tall now and still growing.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly did not have much time to consider what the 'sandman' was; if it was a KEY or a creation of one, an experiment, a new alien, or what. What she did have time to do though was react, and react she did.

As the twin hammers swung at Lilly at blinding speed, she somehow moved even faster. To the doctor, Lilly appeared the flicker here and there as she moved and reacted so fast that the human eye could not even full track her movements. With inhuman grace Lilly sidestepped on hammer, stepping forward and spinning as she dropped down into a sweep, dragging her shin through the 'legs' of the figure, separating it from the rest of the sand. She used the momentum of her spin to rise back up and grasp one of the hammers as it missed right in front of her and grasped the hammerhand, still turning and bringing the thing's arm over her shoulder only to throw it  forward, over her shoulder and away from the doctor. The entire motion happened so fast that the 'sandman' seemed to hang in mid air, its legs severed from the rest of the sand only to then be flung across the gym, exploding against the far wall.

Lilly held an arm out behind her, using her nigh-invulnerable body to shield the doc as she backed her up, using her arm to keep Rosa behind her and herd her toward the exit.

"That's not good..." she said with a sigh as the sand continued to pour from the bag, gradually forming a new pile, while the other sand against the far wall of the gym stirred and swirled, coursing across the ground in little rivers of sand to the new pile forming from the bag, attempting to rejoin with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Omigosh!"

Kia jumped back out of sheer reflexive surprise, and in the heartbeat it took her to adjust to what was happening, Lilly had smashed the sandy thing. Or had she?

When she saw it starting to re-form, Kia asked, "Is this a Key, or is someone, like, controlling the sand? Lilly, I'll handle the sand monster. You take a look around and see if anyone's nearby maybe controlling it!"

Clear liquid pooled out of Kia's pores and hardened on contact with air into thick, chitinous plating covering her. Her transformation saw her grow to a good eight or nine feet tall, though nowhere near the full size she was capable of. They were indoors, after all. A second set of arms thrust out from her lower abdomen, jointed in opposition to her normal arms so they could 'fold' the other way. At the same time, her still growing body sort of fell forward and bent halfway as another set of legs grew as well. In moments she had a sort of 'centaur-like' four-legged arrangement of limbs, though her lower body was much smaller and lighter than that of a horse. More like the body proportions of a preying mantis, perhaps, though still with roughly humanoid head, shoulders, torso, and so on.

She pounced on the congealing sand, scuffing it with all four feet and laying about her with her multiple arms, trying to delay or prevent its reconstitution!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly didn't react or respond to Kia's direction right away she was busy with her own problem. Rosa hadn't follow the command to run that Lilly had called for as her momentary shock was replaced incorrigable scientific curiosity she twsted around and under Lilly's outstretched arm which was guarding her and yanked a sylus off the side of her phone. Only it wasn't a stylus and this wasn't a normal phone. Designed and built by The two senior Keys Sage and Savant what it was was an incredibly powerful computer and the stylus was actually a full spectrum Quantum sensor.

Rosa pointed the sensor at the sand thing which was being ripped into by what had been the small Asian American girl but was now some sort of giant insect animal.

Kia's claw ripped through the sand but it was almost like fighting water the sand flow around the blows and up over and under the Kia-Monster, forgoing it's humanoid form It reformed into a single large mass like a battering ram and pile drives straight into Kia's back!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The doc's scanning of the sandman reminded Lilly of something, a new sense she had squired with the growth of her node. She shifted her vision into the quantum range to examine the thing, much like the doc, as she reached out and and hooked and arm around Rosa's waist, hefting her over her shoulder utterly effortlessly and holding her there, 

"What the hell, doc?! It's not after cuddles!" Lilly exclaimed at Rosa's inquisitiveness, heedless of the danger.

Kia's own exercise in futility trying to combat the sandman did cause an idea to cross her mind though.

"Maybe we can slow him down or make him stick together better." she thought aloud, as she blocked a crude mace head made of sand, catching it and grasping a fistful of the sand, ripping it from the rest as she focused her strength and squeezed. In nearly an instant there were visible ripples of heat distortion around her first as small pits of molten glass dripping out from between her fingers.

With a flick of her wrist she flung the glob of molten glass up at one of the sprinkler heads, the heat of the glass easily triggering the fire suppression system, filling the air with falling water, soaking the room and it's occupants, including the sandman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The artificial rain soaked them all but seemed to have little or no effect on the Sandman other than making it's bulk smash the gym equipment it came in contact with instead of flowing around it.

Dodging and twisting the two Keys battled or more precisely avoided the flowing sand monster as the maneuvered around the gym room faster than the human eye could follow.

Lilly had opened her sense but all she could sense was her own Quantum Signature and Kia's filling the quantum void of the room.

Lilly became aware of the girl she was holding over her shoulder. Rosa was hitting her, pounding on her back and shouting to be put down...wait ... no, that's not what she was saying

"Shut down! Lilly Power Down!" Rosa shouted as she was held by the incredible Power Girl but still kept her sensor pointed outward collecting all important data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kia concentrated on playing defense for the time being, satisfied that she had its attention and was keeping it from attacking more vulnerable folks in the meantime. It was strong, and hit hard, but shifting more armor, and bones and internal structure more resistant to those blunt impacts, were letting her keep pace with it. The real trick was how to stop it. Was this a Key? Maybe!

"Hey," she said to the 'sandman,' her voice still weirdly human-sounding from such an inhuman mouth, "I'm Kia, and...I don't really want to hurt you? I don't know who you are, or how you got into that bag or why you're fighting." She extended her arms, fingers splayed open, albeit still viciously claw-tipped. "Peace, okay? If you're scared or confused or this is new, maybe I can help. Maybe we all can."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"What?!" Lilly exclaimed in equal parts surprise and disbelief.

Then again, she was not detecting a quantum signature besides Kia;'s and her own, and the doc was pretty adamant.

"Damnit! Fine!" she growled.

"Keep it up, Kia. You're my offensive line. I got the ball." she said, pointing to the doc over her shoulder, and then she jumped away, stopping just short of the far wall, putting as much distance as she could between her (and the doc) and the sandman.

"You better be right about this doc." she warned as she began to focus, turning off the flow of quantum through her brain (while still nearly effortlessly holding the doc over her shoulder like a sac of potatoes).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As Lilly's Power faded and the weight of Rosa settled onto her now mortal, but still powerfully strong shoulders, The sandman also began to slow and seemed confused then suddenly the whole thing simply collapsed leaving the scattered sands all around the gym.

"Jesus girl, I think you can put me down now, please"  Rosa said

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Befuddled, Kia looked from the pile of sand to Lilly.

"That was...you? You made the sand move?"

It kind of made sense, now that she thought about it. Lilly had been angry and spoiling for a fight...hitting the sand, and maybe wanting the sand to hit back. But that wasn't how Lilly's powers worked, was it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"What? No. I don't.. no." Lilly stammered as she cautiously set Rosa on her feet with little effort. Even with the flow of quantum shut off, physically Lilly still met or exceeded maximum human physical potential. Her Wonder Woman-esque physique was toned and powerful, but still feminine and belied her actual 'mortal' strength.

"My powers do not work like that. All my stuff is, like, internal... physical. I can't move stuff with my mind or animate sand or whatever. That's, like, Abel's forte." she said as she brushed and swatted off sand that had clung to her her toned, sweaty body. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Yeah well, science don't lie and neither does the evidence."  Rosa said still waving her wand and watching the face of the tablet, thought of Lilly's strong arms around her body tucked away fro later... referral. "The volume of sand is consitant to what was inside the bag which is not consistant with what we saw."

She pointed the wand at Lilly "Chica, according to this it was you doing that and nothing else. Lilly, if your powers don't work like that then honey, you got issues."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"If what you are saying is true, and to be honest I did not seen a third quantum signature, then how the hell did I do that?" Lilly asked as she walked over through the falling water to the ripped open bag and squatted down in her skintight boyshorts to scoop up a handful of wet sand and watch clumps of it fall from between her fingers as she squatted there in the 'rain'.

"I've never been able to do anything like this. I mean, this was like creating matter, animating it and so on. If anything, it sounds more like Sara, or what brain in a bottle thing, or maybe even Kyle. And why the hell would it attack me?" she pondered aloud, brushing the hands together to wash off the sand in the falling water..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosa didn't take her eyes off the small tablet in her hand, "Yeah I don't know. Look I need to get back and analyze this with the big computer. I just wanted you to know I had some results on Kyle," said the young scientist. "Why don't you come to my office tomorrow and we can talk about that and I might need to run a few tests on you. About this."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lilly lets out a frustrated sigh, clenching her fists for a moment.

"See?" she said to Kia, looking to her friend. "There is always another problem, another emergency, or whateve, that we have to take care of, so we never get time to ourselves. My life is a damned mess because I never have any time for it."

Lilly unziped her jacket and put it over Rosa's head, trying to protect the doc from the sprinkles. She didn't care herself. it felt kind of good, actually, after the workout she had just finished.

"The last time I took any time for myself was when I went to Australia with De-." Lilly cut herself off, sighing. "I've not even been able to talk to Laurie or Sean about that either. Ugh. Such a mess. But's it's not what you think." she sighed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kia felt a sudden stab of sympathy for her friend, and stepped over to her to take hold of her arm.

"Our powers change over time," she said. "This isn't a bad thing. It's just new. You don't have to do tests or anything. I think you just need practice maybe. What if we take some of that time off? We could go somewhere and just relax. What if we didn't teleport or fly or anything weird either? We could take a plane or a boat like regular people. Just...enjoy the experience of traveling? And then when we get wherever, we can see what you can do. I have some things I can show you too."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

"I would love that Kia. I'd love a road trip. I mean, maybe I am being naive or something, but I think we all need to try to have as much normalcy as possible. But dude, I don't know if that would even be an option now with Kyle."

"and yes, our powers grow, but we've always had control over them. This is something new, like my sub-conscious or something. I don't know. There's always something." she sighed.

Lilly looks back to Rosa, suddenly remember a bit of what she was saying before.

"So what were you saying about Kyle anyways?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosa continued looking at her tablet for several seconds not really registering what Lilly had asked, then she looked up at Lille opened her mouth to speak, shut it looked back at her tablet her brow furrowed then back at Lilly and Kia.

"Um Kyle, Nothing You had just wanted to know when the results of his tests where done and I couldn't get you on the phone. He is fine. I mean there's some things we can go over later, tomorrow, when you come in for your tests. But there's no need to worry."

She smiles at Lilly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosa shook her head slowly "Um... no I didn't. I told you I couldn't reach you on your phone then that sand thing happened."

Lilly Scowled, "You said something about alien DNA after you explained about having to make new software. Then the sand Happened."

Rosa her head "No I didn't"

Kia speaks up "Yes you did. You said there were like eleven different alien DNA strands mixed with Kyle's DNA"

"No I didn't...here my tablet records everything let me play it back." The two Keys step close to Rosa as her tablet plays back the whole of the incident. Kia and Lilly look at each other.

"See?" says Rosa

The Tablet had shown exactly what Rosa had described.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosa steps back away from the two Keys looking at them strangely. "That's because it's complicated Kia, and I don't know what your talking about. Remebering what? I said that Kyle has nine, that's nine different alien DNA strands not found on earth. That is nine more than we have encountered since the portals opened. So where did they come from?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...