I remembered watching the bright flames lick out the windows, as if reaching for purchase on a new piece of the house. I clutched Summer, who was trembling from crying so hard. It wasn't her fault, our foster mother was a horrible lady. Even still, they had to try us as adults. Five lives were lost in the fire. In the investigation, they had found the piece of cybernetic technology I had installed into my brain stem through the back of my neck. That was illegal. I tried to plead with the judge, the ice that I could control came from inside. I was cold. I needed something to alert myself and to keep my body from freezing. It didn't make a difference. We were exiled to a little planet called Earth. It was inhabited by beings that looked a lot like us, but they were rude and didn't want to help out two poor girls dumped here by their planet. They didn't even seem to know that other planets held life. They looked at us like we were crazy when we explained our situation. We camped in the woods, constantly avoiding human life.
From the trees, we watched the group, waiting for an in on the fight. I tensed up as the beast's huge hand came down hard on the little green shapeshifter. I darted out and breathed ice cold air on the creature's arm, freezing it instantly. I kicked it, shattering the ice. Summer ran up behind me spitting white-hot fire at the beast, boiling the gelatinous body. It shreiked and fell to the ground. In it's wake it left a young man, quietly snoring.
"FUCK YEAH! Kickin' ass and taking names!" I shouted, high-fiving Summer. She was older by about a year, but she was much shorter. She grinned, but it fell suddenly as we were surrounded by the group of five. The one in the cape, I'm assuming the leader, walked foreward.
"Who are you? I mean, you really saved our butts back there." He smiled. "I'm Robin by the way." he introduced the rest of the group. Raven, the goth chick in the cape. Starfire, with Jersey-Shore orange skin and a sunny disposition. Beast Boy, an all-green shapeshifter. Cyborg, who was mostly robot on the outside. My eye caught the one named Cyborg. He was tall, and I mean he was mostly robotic on the outside, but he was still kinda handsome.
"I'm Shayla." I said smiling.
"Summer." Summer smiled shyly.
"Nice to meet you. How can we repay you guys?" Robin asked.
"I mean, we could at least give you a ride home. Where do you guys live?" Cyborg asked, smiling. My heart sank into my stomach. We lived in the woods. What was I gonna say? 'Oh, we'll just walk, we're homeless anyways' or 'Nowhere.' didn't work. I turned beet red.
"We can walk... we like the exercise." Summer piped up. I breathed. Saved.
"Come on, ladies," Beast Boy, the shapeshifter, said, putting his arms around our shoulders. "It's the last we can do." He winked at Summer. She smiled, looking at the ground. "Unless you two are homeless!" He laughed.
I pursed my lips.
"You aren't... are you?" He asked.
"Well... um... kinda..." I stammered. Starfire, hovered over to us.
"Come on new friends! You must have a place of living!" She grabbed our hands. Robin looked at us.
"You're not actually homeless... are you?" He asked.
"Uh... well... you see... yeah. Yeah we are." I looked at my dirty shoes.
"Robin! We cannot let these two girls live out of the doors! We must let them stay with us!" She whisked us away and pushed us towards the car.
"Well, shotgun, I guess." I smiled and slid into the passanger seat of the car.
"So, how did you guys... uh... start living in the woods?" Cyborg asked. I looked at my lap.
"We were exiled from our planet." I said. I itched at the machinery on the back of my neck. Cy looked at it.
"Neuro-enhancer, huh? Cool piece of machinery." He asked.
"Yeah!" I said, brightly. I babbled on throught the car ride about the thing on my neck. When we finally got to the tower I gaped. It was huuuuuge, and T-shaped. I smiled. We hadn't ever seen the inside of any place so nice. WE WERE GONNA LIVE IN THIS SHIT.
"SHIT MAN LOOK AT THIS PLACE!" I yelled. Cyborg, Robin and Beast Boy looked at me, appalled. "What, y'all never heard someone swear before?" I asked.
"Uh... well... not really..." Robin said.
"Get used to it. She has the mouth of a trucker." Summer said. I grinned.
We walked intothe living room and I gasped. IT WAS HUGE. I flipped out.
"WHOOP! I'M MORE EXCITED THEN I REALLY SHOULD BE!" I yelled. Summer laughed.
"Right? This is the nicest place I've ever seen!" She said. I couldn't wait to see the rest of this goddamn place!
After getting settled in my room I skipped down the hall towards the living room. I was so happy. I stopped, and backtracked. I'd passed Cyborg's room. I knocked on the door frame and smiled as he looked at me.
"Can I come in?" I asked.
"Sure!" He said. I walked over and stood next to him at the computer.
"You know, it's really generous of you guys to let us stay here." I smiled. "You're the only people on this god-forsaken planet that were ever nice to us. It means alot." I hugged him. We'd just met but fuck this, he was cute and I was hitting on him. He patted my forearm and turned bright red. Success.
Summer sat on the soft couch, melting into the cushions. Beast boy hopped over the back and sat next to her. He waggled his eyebrows.
"So, gorgeous, how's about you and me go grab some pizza later? It's on me." He grinned. Summer rolled her eyes.
"We JUST met." she said. "You don't even wanna get to know me?"
"Well isn't that what a date's for?" he asked. She smiled. What do I have to lose? she thought.
"Alright." She smiled. He hopped up, smiling like an idiot. He's cute... in an awkward sort of wayshe said to herself. She had to shower. She walked out towards the ladies designated bathroom. He snuck a peek at her butt as she walked away.
"God I LOVE denim shorts, man." He said quietly, gawking a bit.
I sat on the roof of the tower. When Summer and I first got here we were swept up in a small gang of kids. They were just normal humans, but we left when we found out that they were into hard drugs. I came away with a pretty bad smoking habit. I lit up a cigarette and sighed. The view of the sunset was gorgeous.
"You know that's bad for you, right?" I hard Cy's voice from behind me. My stomach did a backflip.
"Yeah, it's a bad habit." I said sadly, watching Summer being dragged out of the front of the tower by Beast Boy. I could hear her laugh. Already had a date. Damnit. "I've been too stressed about living on the street to quit." I looked up at him. He sat next to me. I smiled sadly at him. Totally just ruined my chance with him. He was staring at my hand, at the cigarette in my fingers.
"Want one?" I asked, he looked at me like I'd asked if he wanted to scoop his eyes out with tiny spoons so I could lick them.
"No. Uh... yeah no thanks." he said, awkward. "So, why exactly do you have that thing on your neck?" He asked.
"Well, the only reason I can freeze stuff and shit is because I have an extra organ that mutated from my appendix. My father apparently was a scientist that did radiation tests on me. He was a douche. Anywho, I had to constantly be in the hospital as a child because my appendix kept trying to freeze me from the inside. I was learning engineering in school on my home planet, as well as taking a history course on bionics, and why they were outlawed. I ended up breaking into the restricted section of the library and finding old plans for bionic parts and pieced together my temperature control divice." I smiled. I absent mindedly itched it.
"Is it itching you?" he asked.
"Oh, I have it hooked up to my nerves so it acts like skin." I said. His eyes bugged out of his head.
"So, do you think you'd be able to hook up my remaining nerves to the metal pearts of me?" he asked. I looked up and smiled.
"Yeah, I mean, you got nano-bots?" I asked. He nodded. "Sweet. Yeah I can totally do that!" I grinned like an idiot.
Back in his room, I typed out the script for the nano-bot commands. I hadn't done this in a while, so I had to go back and insert paragraphs of script for a good hour and a half before I got it right. I pulled off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. I rolled back in the chair and smiled at him. He'd dosed off.
"Cy, I'm done, just need to let the nano bots work their magic!" I said. He opened his eye and sat up.
"Sweet, let me have em." He said.
"Just, let me know day-by-day how you feel so I can edit the script if need be. I handed him the jar and he stuck a finger into it. The nano-bots crawled up his hand and dispersed evenly over his body. He sat down hard. He grimaced.
"It hurts a little, but only for a second." I said, smiling slightly at him.
"It burns." He said. He laid back and breathed heavily, sweat beading on his forehead. After about five minutes, he relaxed.
"Done?" I asked.
"I think so." he said. I walked over to him and touched the side of his face softly. He gasped, reeling back.
"That's AMAZING!" He said. He swept me up in a hug. "This is incredible! I can feel everything!" He laughed. I smiled as he squeezed me. Crisis averted, still got a chance.
Summer giggled and pulled a slice of pizza from the platter. Beast Boy was such a cut-up. He was telling her stories about old missions, probably to impress her and seem macho. She told little bits and pieces of funny stories from the foster home. He was brimming with questions about her. Where were her parents? What planet was she from? What was her foster mom like? Why could she control fire? He settled for asking only the last one. The others were too prying, and they had only just met.
"Well, I mean, there are some people on my planet that have been given the power to control flames. In the beginning of recorded history, there were monastaries of people who worshipped the gifted as gods, but I've had every test known to man and it seems like I just have and extra section of my brain and about every organ that helps control it. All of them have a resiliance to high temperatures, and my brain and thyroid have an extra, kind of a section for being able to work it to my advantage. I can locally sweat a combustable liquid, and my skin sends a bit of like an electric current in the area so I can like basically have my skin on fire and shoot it an whatnot. My lungs can produce a flammable gas so I can breathe it too, and my teeth can spark if I click them together." She said, happy he wasn't prying on her past. She didn't like talking about it. He bounced up and down.
"That's so cool!" He exclaimed. He beamed at her. She smiled, shyly. She took a minute to just take in his appearance. He was lanky, but kinda muscular. He had short, green hair all over his body, kinda like a shorthair cat. He had this one fang that hung over his lip, and HUGE emerald eyes. He was really really cute. She smiled to herself and giggled as BB launched into another story.
I looked up from my book as Summer walked into our room. She sighed happily. I smiled and closed my book.
"So how was the date?" I asked. She grinned and went to change into pajamas.
"Awesome! He's really sweet, and such a goober." She said, laying down in her bed and smiling. I turned to face her.
"I really like it here. It's like we got a fresh start. I know this sounds really corny but I hope we can stay here forever." I smiled and curled the covers around me. Summer smiled and nodded. This was gonna be good for us. I knew it.