Storms
By Chibi Hime
The back alley was dingy and devoid of human life.
But that didn't mean there wasn't anything there,
Suddenly, an explosion of fire and a hail of tiny crystals.
A wild eyed Kevin 11 dove like a crazed animal at the target of his rage, a boy with a gargantuan spider where his face should be. He managed to catch hold of one of the creature's arachnid legs. Kevin snapped it easily and its owner hissed inhumanly screeched out its agony. Kevin punched the creature in the stomach with a vulpimancer fist several times. He seized its human legs and slapped his opponent into a brick wall repeatedly. He grabbed one of its slender, weak, human arms and snapped it easily in his upper left hand. When it screamed again, he punched it hard in the stomach, knocking the air out of it. He smiled with his crooked mouth when he dropped the thing and it did not get up.
Kevin pulled back and thrust his razor sharp arm down upon the dazed spider boy.
"Now I'm gonna stick you like the bug you are! I just got out of the NULL VOID after being in there for almost three years! You think I'm going to put up with your crap?!" he shouted.
There was a flash of pink and seemingly out of nowhere, a young woman threw herself between the arachnid and his hand.
"No! Stop!" her shrill voice pierced Kevin's ears.
It also pulled him out of his battle lust. There actually was a girl standing there, it wasn't a hallucination. Her arms were spread, so as to cover as much as his inhuman opponent as possible. Her blond hair was disheveled and her large blue eyes were wide with terror. Those eyes seemed to pierce right through him. They were afraid...but they weren't afraid of him. He could tell. Well, what was she afraid of then? Why shouldn't she be afraid of him? Wasn't he ugly enough? Wasn't he scary enough?
With a jerk, Kevin managed to come to a halt, the point of his arm blade pressing against her forehead.
For a few moments, neither of them moved. Kevin could hear her breathing, deep and quick. Her slim chest was heaving heavily.
A small river of crimson ran down her face, trailing from where the point had pierced her skin, but she never looked away from him or moved.
"No...please don't do it," she managed, sounding much less annoying than before.
Who the hell was she and where did she come from? What did it matter to her what he did? Not only that, but why on earth would she care for something as vile as his enemy?
"Who the hell are you?" Kevin demanded, irked twofold that she had gotten in his way and that he had cut her. While mercy and compassion weren't his strong points, he tried to keep his number of accidental injuries to a minimum, especially after he'd mutated into a hideous amalgam of randomly assorted creatures from across the galaxy. He wasn't certain why he cared at all, but he did. Not knowing made it all the more frustrating. The fact that he had hurt her, not meant to, and didn't know why he gave a damn in the first place made him snarl more harshly than normal.
The girl cringed.
"Kitten..." he heard the young man behind her manage to whisper.
The way he said her name made Kevin's blood boil. Despite being beaten within an inch of his life, the spider boy had managed to fit so much emotion into one little proper noun. He sounded concerned, fearful, and...tender? He spoke her name like a lover.
The girl, Kitten turned and looked at him for a moment. She nodded and turned to face Kevin again.
"I don't know how this started...but please...please stop," Kitten begged him.
Kevin felt his rage swell within him. The way the girl spoke...she sounded the same way. It was that disgusting blend of compassion and understanding.
"No..Kitten. Get out of here! You don't know what he is or what he can do. Go!" Fang managed to sputter.
He tried to get up, but gave an inhuman cry of pain and fell back to the ground. Kitten gave a shriek of horror and for the first time since her appearance on the scene, she looked away from Kevin for more than a few seconds. She quickly dropped to her knees and took the horrible monstrosity that was his opponent's head into her lap. Her hands gently caressed the fur on the arachnid's face. Her eyes were full of care...concern...love.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. That...that thing had someone who could love it! No one had ever loved Kevin, not even when he had at least looked human. There was no one who could! It had to be a lie! A facade! No one could really love such a thing. She was lying! She was lying just like the rest of them! She had to be!
She wasn't...
There wasn't anything artificial about any of it.
Kevin felt ill.
He suddenly lost all inkling to fight. What was the point? He'd given that bug the beating of its life. He no longer wanted to end it...not with her there.
Why?
Why did her being there make a difference?
I DON'T KNOW! Kevin's inner mind screamed so loudly, he could swear those outside his head could hear it too.
Because she gives you hope.
Someone somewhere could love you.
If that thing has someone who could love it...so could you.
You have a very specific someone in mind.
She hates you. She's always hated you.
But...but that thing has someone...someone soft and pretty...just like..NO!
His thoughts carried on without his consent...carrying themselves from innocent banter to ridiculous suggestions.
"SHUT UP!" Kevin screamed aloud.
He felt their eyes on him and he turned around.
"Stop! Stop staring at me! It isn't like you've never seen a freak before. One of you is one and the other one MAKES OUT with one! " he snarled cruelly.
Kitten scowled, her petite face souring.
"Let's go, Fangie Poo. The company here is far too low class for my liking," Kitten sniffed.
The spider boy took her in his arms and sprung into the air, leaping from window ledge to flag pole to roof in a series with ease and grace that a creature of his nature should be incapable of. Once again, Kevin was left alone with his freakish self in the darkness.
Lighting flared and thunder crashed.
Rain began to pour down, soaking the mutant.
He hated it. He felt alone and ugly. Unlovable and disgusting.
Kevin felt the need to run. To get out of there. To get far and away from anything remotely human. It hurt too much. Cities and their inhabitants...their coffee houses and happy conversations.
It was all too much to bear.
With a shriek of inhuman agony, he took off into the air, thin wings carrying his immense bulk higher and farther than they should have...than they were physically able too. In a display of colossal awkwardness, he crashed into the side of a house.
Kevin slammed into the muddy ground, wings torn ragged from the elements, the air was knocked out of his massive chest and he was certain he heard a few bones snap. It all hurt so much, he couldn't feel it. He didn't even try to move. Where was he going to go?
He just lay there in the mud, a twisted pile of nothing and everything. Rain pounded down on him in the darkness and he felt as if he could just die there. He could if he hadn't felt rain suddenly stop falling on his face...if he hadn't felt someone standing over him...and most of all, if the sudden flash of lightning hadn't illuminated a very familiar face.
Kevin was glad the thunder that followed the flare of light was deafening and that it drown out his gasp of surprise that Gwen Tennyson was standing over him with an umbrella.