Taylor's King Crimson
Pictures of a City 1-1
I walked quickly out of the building, dodging through the students milling about. I figured that Emma and the others would be looking for me, but I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of finding me. I still couldn't believe how she had turned on me, becoming best friends with some girl named Sophia, and using every confidential thing I'd ever told her against me.
I managed to get out of school without bumping into any of the girls, which was nice for a change. On the bus ride home, I sat in silence, looking over the little bit of homework I'd gotten today in my classes and debating whether or not to actually do it. It wasn't like I'd be able to turn it in; my work always seemed to disappear before being graded in any class I shared with the trio.
I held back some tears as I thought about the incident earlier in the year, the locker. I had the right to get back at them for what they did, but I felt so powerless when around them. Emma always knew exactly how to push my buttons, and I always ended up a mess whenever Emma, Sophia, and Madison confronted me.
When the bus arrived home, I hurried in and up to my room. Dad wasn't home, so I would have the house to myself for a little while. I dug through the clothes in my closet and found the box I had hidden in the back. I pulled out my nearly finished costume from it. I'd wanted to wait till the summer, but with the trio just continuing to work on ruining my life, I needed to do something to let off some steam and not go crazy.
The costume wasn't all that special. I had been discretely ordering parts to it, some light Kevlar here or there, some elbow and knee pads from different websites, all trying to be discrete about it. I wasn't all that happy with it, but it was my first job and I knew I would get better as time went on.
I still had a bit to do on the costume, before I could go out in it. The knee pads and elbow pads needed to be worked into the outfit itself, not just sitting on the outside. I also needed to find a way to get some good armor type material for my things and chest, but that didn't give up too much mobility.
My power was a bit… odd, to say the least. When I first woke up in the hospital, I kept experiencing constant déjà vu. I finished doctors' sentences, I somehow knew when a nurse would drop something, or knew when my dad would show up. It was almost too much to bear for a while, constantly being bombarded with what was about to happen. I drifted in and out of consciousness for the next day or so, until abruptly the future seeing stopped. I decided not to say anything to my dad, he was worried enough as it was and I didn't want to upset him anymore.
After getting out of the hospital, I found I slept weirdly sound for the next couple weeks. I figured it was just the shock finally wearing off. Over the course of those weeks, I worked every afternoon after school to find a way to get back the power. It was a way for me to actually do something with my life, and I wasn't going to let that slip out of my grasp.
Finally I managed to activate it again, but it was different than before. A little head shaped thing formed on my forehead, and what seemed like a screen appeared in my bangs. Whenever I activated it, the head appeared and the next 10 seconds rapidly played in front of my eyes. It didn't seem to matter how much information was displayed, I remembered it all.
I figured that, it still was a pretty powerful thing to be able to do. Seeing the future, that was cool. I went out to woods near the south of town every couple days after school and worked on honing it. I found that if I sat still for a while and let some birds and stuff land near me, I was able to accurately catch each one of them once I saw the future. In my head, their movements all mapped out perfectly formed lines and curves, the trajectories all instantly coming to mind.
It was exhilarating to feel myself twisting and turning, moving fast enough to catch birds as they took off. I loved it. Pretty soon I moved on to running through the woods, with my hair completely over my eyes. I dodged every tree, every fallen limb, made every turn. That was when I decided I was ready to start working on becoming a hero and fighting the criminals in the city.
From there, I had decided to start unobtrusively picking up the pieces for the outfit I was wear. I liked the color red for it, since it matched the color of the little head that appeared on my forehead, but red would have been way too flashy for an outfit. I didn't want everyone to try and hit me. I finally settled on a crimson and grey mottled Kevlar weave, that was subdued enough as to not draw too much attention to itself in the dark, but also gave the outfit a bit of personality.
I looked at the outfit, then put it back in the box. Not tonight, Saturday night, I would go out Sunday. That would give me time to mentally prepare myself and make sure I had everything covered armor wise before I went out.
Sunday night arrived, and I nervously waited for my dad to go to bed before I went out. The suit fit alright, though the elbows and knees were a bit tight from the pads there. I snuck out through the window and got down to the ground without making too much noise.
As I'd been preparing for tonight over the last several weeks, I'd taken to running nearly every afternoon to build up my stamina and endurance. My parents had always told me to "stay on the Boardwalk," the good part of town. For the most part I kept there, but every so often I would move my run a little ways into the docks. The difference between the Boardwalk and the Docks was painfully obvious.
The Docks were rundown, broken, cramped and crowded streets filled with trash and dilapidated houses. The Boardwalk was filled with people, safe, and generally clean and up to date with its safety and building permits. I stopped at the edge of the Boardwalk, where the lights got dimmer and the people got more withdrawn and jumpy.
I activated my ability and brushed my hair over the right side of my face. I really needed to get a name for this power, but I couldn't think of a good one. Maybe a song title? Future sight was bland. The word "epitaph" had come to mind earlier when I had been mulling it over. Since I basically lived the future in past tense, that kind of made sense, a sort of eulogy to the present which basically was dead to me when I was using it. Still was a bit clunky, though, I would have to work on it.
I snuck through the Docks, behind buildings and through alleyways, using my power, Epitaph I guess, to avoid confrontations with any people in the area. After a couple minutes of wandering, I heard a group of people heading my way, and I froze. I slunk back into the shadows and worked on calming my breathing.
Several dozen large Asian men came down the street, with a massive, tattooed man in the lead. My heart rate shot upwards when I realized who it was. Lung! I was within 50 feet of Lung himself. Suddenly, this plan to try to fight crime in the Docks really seemed really poorly thought out.
The sound of their voices was just loud enough to carry bits and pieces of the conversation to me, but not enough to allow me to make out complete sentences. Lung was the first one I heard.
Lung was growling, "…the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim... You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure."
I had to suppress a shout. Children, Lung was ordering his men to kill kids? No, I had to do something. There had to be a pay phone nearby where I could use to call the Protectorate or the PRT. Someone there would know what to do. But I realized that I might be too late if I wait. I'd need to figure out a plan. I had some mace with me, and some string, but I had been hoping to go after some low level thugs that I could just punch, not someone like Lung. I really just needed to distract him long enough to keep the ABB from carrying out their plans.
I gritted my teeth. This wasn't going to be easy.
I clipped my bangs down onto my mask to cover my right eye, and then I leapt out at the gang members. The nearest one almost hit me with a punch, but I dodged and gave him a face full of pepper spray. As he flailed I dodged another punch and slammed my first into the back of his neck and kicked the man on the back of his knees.
Epitaph flashed me the next 10 seconds; I dodged another punch from the next man to attack, and then two more from a third gang member. My head began to hurt a little, like it had in the hospital, but I pushed past it and focused on the fight at hand.
Lung regained his composure and leapt at me with a snarl, his men clearing out of the way. Lung was fast, but I had already seen this coming and knew where and how I needed to move to get out of the way. His fist, which was starting to look scaly, flew at me from my left. I dropped to me right knee and turned the movement into a roll, going under Lung and coming up behind him and his men. I shot another burst of the mace into the second thug, and spun my body to the right as the third thug tried to punch me. My sudden motion left the man unable to correct himself, and his fist slammed into the chest of the second gang member, dropping him to the ground. Three down, several dozen more to go.
I saw Lung's following attack coming, but I wasn't able to move out of the way fast enough. His hand grabbed me around the neck and he hoisted me into the air. His fingers were sharp, like claws, and fire and smoke was drifting out of his mouth.
"You should not have tried to interfere, girl," he growled, squeezing my neck tighter as he did. My world started to go black, and that was the last thing I remembered.
Lung was not having a good evening. This girl had overheard what he had been planning, and had taken out several of his men. At least he would get the satisfaction of killing her here, without anyone else getting the chance to interfere. He felt her body go limp as he clenched at her throat, and he smiled. His men needed a spectacle to inspire them, and here one was.
Suddenly, the small face shape on the girl's forehead glowed, and a red humanoid thing emerged from her body. Its face seemed to be a flat, pale yellow mask with gritting teeth and the smaller head planted in the forehead. Its fist lashed out faster than Lung could even see and plunged straight into his stomach, all the way through the back, spilling blood all over the street.
Lung stumbled and fell, dropping the girl. Surprisingly, she landed on her feet, and the red thing vanished. Her demeanor had completely changed. Instead of the minimizing presence she had had before, now she seemed to swagger, her shoulders back and her hips swaying when she walked. She brushed her hair over her eyes, completely concealing her face. Beneath the hair, Lung could make out a faint glow.
"She means well, but doesn't really have the heart to finish a fight like this. You can call me Crimson… King Crimson."
The red ethereal figure flew from her body again, floating around the girl for a second or two. "Time has been erased," the girl muttered.
Suddenly, Lung found himself standing, his wounds slightly more healed than they were an instant ago. The girl was nowhere to be seen. "Time resumes," Lung heard behind him. An impact on his should jerked him through the air and spun him around like a rag doll. The girl was suddenly behind him, he realized, and she had just punched his shoulder hard enough to nearly tear it from his body. Lung hit the wall of the building across the street hard, smashing through the brick and mortar and falling into a heap. He got up and charged at her location, but suddenly found himself where she was, but she was not there. A flurry of blows struck his back and splattered his guts across the ground beneath. He fell, losing consciousness as his body tried to repair itself. His last sight was the girl and her strange energy creation, laughing at his fall. All around them, Lung's remaining men sprinted away from the carnage.