Ace in the Hole

Eurwen de Vrill

Chapter One: The Beginning

Yin looked grumpily at her bottle of root beer. "I dislike being here."

"Shush, you." Kaiya flapped a hand at the scene before them, smiling widely. "It's exactly what we needed, Yin - a day off from stress, and other people."

Her friend squinted. "You count as people," she pointed out. "And why is watching Talin raid the fridge something to celebrate? She does it everyday."

"Because - wait. Talin, get away from the fridge! No, don't you dare eat that cake. Drop it - drop it - Talin, get back here!"

Yin hunkered down in her seat grouchily. "Stupid Frenchie. Stupid sun." She glared balefully up at the sky, shielding her eyes from the light. "Why am I here?"

"Because you're antisocial and you need to get out more," said Bentley in a matter-of-fact tone. She dropped down next to her friend and ignored the blistering glare, instead opting to pop her soda. She took a long sip. "Besides, you'd never deny Kaiya anything, and she's the one who organized this thing."

Yin's scathing reply died as she turned to look at the brunette. "What the hell are you wearing!?"

"What?" Bentley looked down. "My bikini?"

"But why?"

"Well," Bentley said dryly, "it's summer, and it just so happens to be a pool party we're at. Party of four, but we had to work with what we could, since if there were any more people you would have bitten their heads off or stabbed them with a pencil or something."

Yin completely ignored the jab at her misanthropic nature and scoffed. "I have nothing against bikinis, but the one you're wearing is an atrocity. Pink? Ugh." She shuddered. "When you're not looking, I'm going to burn it."

"Pyro. And that just warned me to keep it under lock and key."

The teen sniffed haughtily. "As if anything could keep me out."

As loathe as Bentley was to admit it, what Yin had boasted was true. The sixteen year old was dangerously proficient in what Kaiya called her "criminal skill set," which was a long list that included lock picking, manipulating and infiltrating. Her fondness for setting things on fire could count, considering how no matter how many times they took her toys away she kept coming back with more. Bentley still wasn't sure what she was going to do with the small mountain of confiscated matches in her closet.

A tremendous crash dragged their attention to the pool. Yin grumbled and smashed a throw pillow to her face while her friend watched the scene in a sort of horrified fascination. Talin, whom they had long agreed to be absolutely crazy, had just cannon-balled into the pool and was repeating the process with dogged determination, laughing wildly even as she resurfaced spluttering and coughing. Kaiya was trying to stop her before she hurt herself - again - but the crazy French girl was deaf to all pleas.

"Why do we keep her around," Yin grumbled from under her pillow.

Bentley watched the crazy girl in question flail madly before gravity pulled her into the water. "Entertainment? And we all know she's a genius." Yin snorted. "Don't deny it, she's a mad genius. It's okay for her to be a bit off."

"I caught her licking my mirror last week."

"… Talin's unique."

"Unique. That's cute." Yin pushed the pillow away and frowned at the pool. "What's she doing now?"

Talin resurfaced with something blue and glowing in her mouth. With a look of resignation, the two girls made their way closer to the pool, where Kaiya was trying (and failing) to convince the mad genius to let go of the orb.

Yin crouched down at the edge of the pool and looked at their insane friend. "Alright, wondergirl, whatcha got for us?"

Talin dropped the glowing orb in her outstretched hand and grinned dizzily. "I found it at the bottom of the pool," she informed them. Kaiya made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat and even Bentley made a face. Yin just looked on in boredom, turning the ball over and around in her hands. "It called to me."

"Right." Yin dangled the orb between her thumb and pointer finger, looking at it in distaste. "Well, it's nothing worth selling, so I'm gonna chuck this. 'kay? Yeah, cool." She reared back to throw it.

Then she stopped.

"Yin?" There was a strange expression on her face, and if Kaiya had to put a name to it, it would be... panic. Which was impossible, because Yin never panicked, not even when facing down an angry mob. "Something wrong?"

"… It's not letting go."

"Okay, this is officially getting creepy."

An hour later and the girls were still at a loss. The glowing ball that had attached itself to Yin's hand like a leech was refusing to let go, and no matter what they did it wouldn't budge. Bentley had just barely managed to convince the ill-tempered girl not to chop off her hand and now they were sitting in a loose circle, staring at the source of their problem.

Yin smashed her hand against the wall, but the orb didn't so much as crack. She stared down at it with narrowed eyes. "My belief that the world hates me has been justified."

"Dramatic much?"

"Silence, madwoman."

Bentley rolled her eyes and pulled the brush through her hair for the hundredth time. "We can't do anything about it now," she reminded them. "We're supposed to be having a sleepover. I for one vote that we sleep on it before we do anything more."

Yin gave her an incredulous look. "I never thought I'd say this, but right now there's something more pressing than sleep."

Just then, Kaiya bustled in with a bundle in her arms. She distributed one lump of cloth to each of her friends. "Pajamas," she said. "Worn, comfortable yukatas that double as pajamas, but who cares? Yin, let me help you with that."

Yin jerked her arm away with a scowl. "I'm fine."

"Yin Fei, you stop being pigheaded and let me help you change - you can't do it with a glowing ball stuck to your hand."

Seeing their grumpy friend be bullied into acquiescence, Talin turned to Bentley. "Bentley Gladstone, you stop being a monstrous purple toad and give me back my cupcakes!"

"That's a new one," Bentley muttered. Slightly louder, she replied, "You know you're banned from too much sugar, Talin. So no cupcakes for you. Here, have a carrot."

Talin gave the proffered vegetable a dirty look and batted it away.

"Oh, these are nice." Bentley ran an appreciative hand down the fabric of her sleeping wear. "Yin, do you have clothes like these?"

"I'm Chinese, not Japanese. But yeah, I have a few hanfu lying around somewhere."

"Mulan," Talin said suddenly. Yin gave her a funny look but shrugged.

Kaiya finished up with her own clothes and stood up, stretching. "These aren't very nice ones, actually. We have much fancier ones, but these are for everday wear so they're pretty simple."

And they were. Kaiya's and Talin's robes were a solid light green, while Bentley's and Yin's were a darker, forest shade and patterned with nearly invisible bamboo leaves. It was a novelty to wear Eastern clothing to Talin and Bentley, but Yin just lounged about like a content jungle cat, looking perfectly at home.

Well. Except for the orb attached to her hand.

"Let's watch movies," Talin piped up, sneakily reaching for the platter of sugary goods that rested on the table. Without looking Bentley plucked it up and over her head, placing it well out of her reach. She pouted.

Kaiya brightened. "That's a great idea! I vote we watch - "

"No." Yin glowered.

"But - "

"No."

"… Fine, no chick flicks. But that means no horror movies."

Yin looked disgruntled, but folded her arms and looked away. Taking that as a yes, Kaiya heaved herself up and moved to the movie closet, where dozens of DVDs were filed in alphabetical order. Talin wandered over and browsed through the impressive collection, nibbling on a carrot.

Kaiya leaned back. "Any suggestions?"

"I'm good for some comedy."

"Something with fighting."

"Stop being bloodthirsty, Yin."

"Then stop being a sap, Kaiya."

Talin slyly held up a DVD. "Barbie Thumbelina, anyone?"

There was a sudden burst of violence that was quickly subdued by Bentley, though snippets of swearing could be heard from the bottom of the dog pile that had formed on top of Yin. Kaiya looked thoughtfully down at the offending movie. "I didn't realize I still had this."

"Why did you have it in the first place?"

"I liked these things when I was a kid, Yin. I think my dream was to become a princess." Kaiya frowned. "'Course, that died a quick death once I met you. And don't look so happy about it."

Yin still looked inordinately pleased. "I have saved you from a horrifying fate."

Her friend rolled her eyes. "Yes, because a little girl being a typical little girl is so horrifying. You may have burnt your dolls and methodically took them apart when you were younger, but that doesn't mean everyone else does it."

Bentley gave Yin a sideways look. "You really did that?"

"Yes. I hate dolls. They creep the hell out of me."

"Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Yin Fei, devil incarnated, afraid of butterflies and dolls."

Yin scowled. "You can never tell where butterflies will go next," she said. "They flutter all over the damn place and they can't do it in an orderly fashion. And dolls have those creepy glass eyes and painted smiles and they just look at you like they're about to rip your throat out in the dead of night."

"Paranoid," Talin coughed. She avoided the scorching glare by sidling up to the sweets table and trying to snatch a chocolate bar. Bentley threw a pillow at her and she retreated, grumbling.

"We're definitely not going to watch any Barbie movies," said Kaiya, with a wry glance at her closest friend. Yin sniffed. "Something we all like should do... Harry Potter?"

"We just watched the entire series last month," Bentley pointed out.

Kaiya sighed. "Lord of the Rings?"

There was a chorus of halfhearted "maybe" from the masses.

She threw up her hands. "Well, decide already, or we're going to paint nails for the next hour!" She ignored the tortured "No!" from Yin and settled her hands on her hips, gazing around the room with such a fierce expression that no one dared argue.

"Avatar," said Talin absentmindedly. She was poking and prodding the orb attached to Yin's hand with great interest, peering into its depths with her pale moonstone eyes. Yin sat with a long-suffering look but let her do as she pleased. "Not the blue people, the Last Airbender series."

There was a moment of silence where the other three girls paused and stared at her, as if disbelieving of the fact that she had just handed them a very logical choice to prevent any further bickering. Talin, to her credit, merely blinked and went back to examining the orb with an air of curiosity, shrugging off their admittedly offensive surprise like rain rolling off glass.

Bentley turned to Yin smugly. "I told you she wasn't just crazy."

"Shut up."

"Well," said Kaiya, surveying the room with an expression like she'd been hit over the head with something blunt and heavy, "Avatar it is, I guess."

Just when things were beginning to settle down a bit, Yin yelped.

Talin paused in tossing popcorn at Bentley and looked over. "Ohhhhh..."

"What? What happened?" Kaiya craned her neck to see. "Someone turn on the light, I can't see anything."

"No need." Yin held up her hand uneasily. "You should be able to see this perfectly fine."

The orb was glowing almost violently, pulsing with light at uneven intervals that seemed to be quicken with every passing moment. Where it had rested placidly since Talin had fished it out of the pool, a steady shade of blue, now it was flickering madly with different colors, from a vibrant shade of green to a deep, ominous shade of blood red. The TV was all but forgotten in the background as the girls crowded around it, exchanging anxious looks as Yin's increasingly desperate attempts to detach it from her person proved futile.

"Maybe we should - "

"You're not going to cut off your hand!"

"Well what choice do I have? The thing looks like it's going to explode any minute now!"

"Yin, where are you going? No - Talin, grab her! Don't let her get into the kitchen!"

"Ow - let go of me - "

"Who just stepped on me?!"

"Everyone shut up!"

Silence descended abruptly at Bentley's roar. A few tense seconds passed, and Yin slowly swiveled her head to look over her shoulder. "… Who turned the TV off?"

Blinding light filled the room and suddenly, there was the feeling of plunging off a cliff with nothing to stop their dizzying drop and it was like they were

in

f

r

e

e

f

a

l

l

End.

AN: So I should probably be working on Pick Your Poison, but I kept reading all these A:tLA OC stories and I couldn't resist trying it myself.

Leave a review!

-Eurwen de Vrill