Cradle This Moment
Written By Twin Kats
Idea by AnihyrMoonstar
Beta'd By FlyonSilverWings
Chapter One
Five Steps to the Left
Nikolai was, ironically, the first to have found him. The twenty-year old tech-wiz had been out purchasing some new gadget from the local shopping mart. He had been hurriedly walking down the street, refraining from looking over his shoulder in a paranoid manner, when he saw him.
The kid was sitting in a shadowed corner staring at the sidewalk almost knowingly. His eyes were practically a glowing, smoldering violet which on any human's face was a bit odd. His skin was so pale it almost glowed. Nikolai could've sworn the boy was a ghost if he believed in such things, but he didn't. Not exactly.
It was, however, that look that caused him to still and almost drop his pack as his fingers went suddenly lax. For a minute violet eyes connected and Nikolai thought he'd heard something but then, like a breeze, the boy was gone. Shuddering he reaffirmed his grip and moved on, resolving to tell Skulker about the encounter later.
It was too unusual not to at least mention after all. However he got busy and soon the entire thing was out of his mind as he went about tinkering with this or that new piece of technology while occasionally keeping an eye on Andy for his good friend. Sorry, Andrew. The kid was going through that 'stage' now, after all.
Nikolai was just glad that he didn't know the details of his big brother's job. Really, sometimes even he was disturbed by what Skulker did for their friends. Although friends wasn't the term he'd really use for them; cold heartless dicks was more like it. Really the shit they'd put him through…not that he ever complained.
Sometimes Nikolai wondered about him. Especially since Skulker didn't grow up in the lifestyle like he had. Or at least Nikolai was sure he hadn't; it was hard to tell, really. It didn't help that Skulker was closed off about everything even to those he considered close.
Except for Andy—sorry, Andrew—who was his one and only exception; unless you brought up what he did for a living. That was mostly where Skulker drew the line of sharing with Andrew. Now Nikolai on the other hand…well, he got the gory, gritty details even if he hadn't wanted them. Comes with the territory, he figured. After all he grew up in this gang.
Literally; born, bred, and raised by 'em. Wasn't that wonderful? Half the time he wondered how he got to be so smart being around a bunch of thugs. It didn't matter in the end; he was useful and that's all anyone cared about. Even Skulker found him useful for something. Like the fact that he could cook, or that he could watch Andy—sorry, Andrew—without telling secrets that ought not to be told.
Or even that he could formulate a pretty good lie if given the chance to think about it.
Nikolai, however, was used to such treatment. It was his life, who was he to go against it? Besides he had a good life, better than some of the other children who were born, bred and raised by the gang. The fact that he lived to twenty was testimony to that. After all a good majority of the kids died by their early teens; not that a lot were born, bred, and raised by the gang in the first place.
Either way the kid had entirely slipped his mind until about two weeks later when Nikolai had been walking down that same street; this time not as tense nor as nervous (he hadn't purchased anything after all; he was just walking) but still tense and nervous if only because it was dark out and he was alone.
The streets were never kind when it was dark out.
Still he was walking, two weeks later, when he saw the kid again sitting in the same spot as before. The boy was fingering something in his hands and staring down at in with a frown. Nikolai paused and turned to study the boy.
He was wearing obviously the same clothes as two weeks ago; they were a dirtier this time around. His skin was still an almost glowing pale but his eyes were shadowed in the hood of the hoodie he was wearing. Pale lips were pulled into a slight frown as thin, almost wiry, fingers moved around whatever was in his grasp.
Nikolai didn't know how long he stood there but eventually his feet compelled him forward until he was standing just before the boy. Something about this kid drew him in; he wasn't sure what exactly. As he grew closer he could see numerous watches wrapped around his left arm. There was a scar that seemed to go through his right eye but Nikola could remember how vivid those eyes looked so obviously it couldn't have gone through his eye!
The child blinked and Nikolai almost gasped as he saw the dark line of the scar visibly pass through the lid of his eye. Okay so obviously it went through the eye but the eye was fine.
"Move five steps to your left."
Nikolai jumped at the sudden spoken words and actually staggered five steps to his left unconsciously. Seconds later a small television came crashing down right where he was previously standing. Nikolai stared at the contraption in shocked silence.
Was this boy—had he really—were they—was he like him?
Regaining his senses Nikolai turned to address the kid but he was, once more, gone.
This time he didn't forget his encounter with the mysterious child. Instead he speed-walked right down the street about five blocks, took a left at the intersection and continued in that direction for another then. Then he turned right, ignoring the ghostly green illuminated E on the wall, and entered a shadowed door.
He didn't even bother with pleasantries to the guard inside, instead just touched him and let part of himself go for a brief moment. The guard and promptly yelped and leaped aside allowing Nikolai the chance to enter the inner room which he did without any indication that he noticed the guard's fervent glaring.
He was a freak, after all. They all glared at him for one reason or another.
"Hey, hey! Technus!" someone shouted but Nikolai ignored them and walked past; his strides were purposeful and measured as he headed up the metal staircase and into the more personal private rooms. He bypassed about five other guys, and girls, who called out to him in silence until he reached the one door that literally stood out from the rest.
Granted it stood out only because it was covered floor to ceiling in magazine pages of the latest in technology. It was his room, his inner sanctuary at this little safe-point. Nikolai pushed open the door, stepped inside, and locked the door behind himself. He walked right to a corner of the room that was surrounded with computers and other beeping electronic devices and sat down in the chair.
A few deft touches of his fingers and he had the screens powered up and connecting to the one person he knew would want to know about this.
"Well this is unusual; what do you want, Technus?"
"I think I found someone interesting, Plasmius. Someone like me."
Notes:
Summary: If there was one thing he was good at, it was killing. It was not taking care of an apparently accident-attracting man-child. Especially when said man-child had freaky psychic powers. So why was he looking out for this brat again? Oh, right, the guy saved his life. Damn it all to hell. / AU / Clockwork/Skulker
Right. So first off I should say this was inspired by a drawing that AnihyrMoonstar did for the DPSlashCommunity first weekly challenge. I liked the idea so much that, well…I wanted to play in her mental sandbox a bit so to speak.
That and my own major story is…stuck right now. So you get this. AnihyrMoonstar has a good majority take in this; a good majority of the details were forged through hammering details out with her. They're still being hammered even.
For those of you who want to know what this story is, well, it's simple. It's an AU of Danny Phantom focusing mostly on Clockwork and Skulker living as humans. You read that right, they're not ghosts. This story will also be of the Clockwork/Skulker pairing eventually so yeah.
Unfortunately there's not a lot of Skulker in this chapter, but he'll show up much more in the coming chapters. Right now I'm just…introducing this world you could say. I don't like to rush when I'm writing something that's not a drabble and I'm putting thought into.
Right that's…all I can think of to say. Really. Enjoy!