Chapter Two: Blending
Rovor stood in front of a large holographic screen. He was in a slightly darkened metal-walled room, with Arma-9 guards around him. On the other side of the screen there were images of various mutated mobians, a giant robot, and a few unidentifiable creatures.
"And these are the only ones to have escaped?" Rovor asked calmly.
"Correct." An unidentifiable voice replied from the screen.
"And how many of these are ours?"
"Twelve."
Rovor looked down a bit. His locked-hands tensed a bit from behind his back. He looked back to the screen and continued "How many are the Guardian's?"
"Seven."
"Then let him take care of them."
"No." The voice denied. "It could be used against us if they are reformed, or tracked back. We do not know the extent of what others could do to reform their memories of our organization. We must capture them as quickly as possible."
Rovor nodded, "Very well, but I hope you know that it won't be easy. And what of the teenagers?"
"The HYBRIDS will continue to be under supervision by our agent. We are NOT to allow them harm or suspicion."
"Understood." Then the screen went black.
Meanwhile…
It was now Sunday Evening. Kal had invited both Jesse and Talon over for Dinner, which they both agreed to immediately. When Talon asked how she liked her new "relative", Kal simply hung up.
Talon knocked on the door of Kal's house, with Jesse right behind him. Rin opened the door. "I'm STILL A KITTY!" She chuckled, her blue eyes turning to a light turquoise for a moment. She was wearing a grey T-shirt, with red fire-shape-like collars and bottom, and dark blue skinny-jeans, with red fire-shape-like ends. Her kitty-paws were faded to red, her ears had red lines at the tips, and her dark red hair was longer at the back than normal.
"One, your eyes just changed color," Jesse announced calmly, then energetically he finished, "and TWO, that look is NICE!"
"Thanks." Rin smiled squinting her eyes a bit then letting the boys inside. Talon did not speak his opinion on the outfit, and decided to talk about the eye-changing. "So your eyes change to turquoise when you're really happy?"
"I… guess so." Rin replied with a shrug.
"You didn't know that already?"
"Nope. I wasn't like this before… well… it's a long story."
"I like long sto-"
Kal shoved past Rin, interrupting Nick, and scorned "THERE YOU ARE!"
"Yes… here… we are… you called us only like… ten minutes ago." Talon reminded.
"Yeah sorry, I'm just- I don't like this idea."
"Well has Rin given you trouble?" Talon questioned.
"While I'm in the room." Rin noted. "And no I haven't, thank you very much. I've been in my room standing on my head for three hours." Talon would normally think this was a joke, but he had a feeling she was telling the truth.
"Until my DAD walked in to talk to you about what happened to your parent's 'tragic accident', and you were STILL upside down!" Kal reminded. "You're lucky you fell in time."
"What did you use for your story?" Jesse asked curiously.
"I said my parents and I were going on a road trip, because we were supposed to be off the grid to avoid technology because they hate it but they found me online, and we ended up crashing and the car exploding, with me being the only survivor." Rin paused to make sure everyone was still paying attention. Kal seemed to be the most oblivious, mainly because she already heard the story, but the other two were still awake, so she continued. "And my positive attitude is denial or something. I'm guessing I'll have to start crying or something at some point as a sort of mental-breakdown and whatnot. ACTING!" She pumped her arms in the air.
Kal sighed, "And cue my parents walking in after hearing all of that in three, two, one… heh, worth a try."
"Where are your parents, Kal?" Talon asked.
Kal shrugged, "I don't know. Backyard maybe. Anyway, you guys like casseroles? With those shell noodle things?"
"You are my new best friend!" Jesse squeezed Kal in a tight hug. Kal squeaked a bit out of surprise, then sighed and patted him on the shoulder, "You're welcome."
After seeing this, Rin gave Talon a large hug as well. "Um…" was all Talon said. Rin let go, and they walked into the Dining Room. "Did the experiment stuff make you… different or something?" Nick asked Rin while they walked.
"Not that I know of, why?" She replied calmly.
"You seem really energetic… and random."
Rin looked a bit offended, but only a bit, "What's wrong with that?"
"Well you didn't seem that way when we- er… talked… psychically."
"I can be calmer if you want I… guess…" Rin's eyes darkened slightly, while her ears dropped a bit. Talon took this emotion as sadness.
"I didn't say it was a bad thing." Nick assured, trying not to offend more. "I was just a bit confused is all."
"… Alright." Rin's eyes went to normal again. The teenagers sat down at the large rectangular table and prepared to eat.
"I think we'll need to get your eye-changing thing under control though." Talon noted.
"Agreed." Kal added. "No offense, Kitty, but people are bound to notice."
"As soon as I figure out how to NOT change them, I'll let ya know." Rin answered with a slight sassy tone, looking down at the table while leaning her chair back.
The parents walked in, with Mrs. Siets carrying the casserole, and Mr. Siets walking over to a cupboard to get a pot-holder. By their expressions, Nick could tell they were nervous. Having a new child in their house would be a difficult task, and not even knowing about the child's existence for so long was worse.
"So did ya get the legal papers filled out?" Kal asked bluntly.
Mrs. Siets looked a bit more nervous, but answered "Yes, Kal." While trying not to stare at their new niece.
"Yay!" Rin cheered happily. No one else said yay. "… Um… the… casserole looks good." She continued, trying to un-awkwardize the moment.
"Thank you…" Mrs. Siets replied.
"Well I would hope so." Mr. Siets chuckled as he sat the pot-holder down for his wife. "Took her long enough to make it look pretty. Shame we have to ruin it." He scooped out the casserole and served it.
Rin was about to take a bite of the savory dish, but Kal pushed her fork down. Rin looked a bit confused, as well as a little ticked. "Hey!" She exclaimed.
"Wait till we're done." Kal scolded.
"Done what?" Rin asked testily.
"Dear Lord," Mr. Siets began.
"Oh… that." Rin thought to herself. After a quick prayer they began to munch down.
"How is it?" Mrs. Siets asked Rin, who seemed to show no sign of enjoyment in the meal.
"It's good." Rin answered with a smile then continued to eat. Talon looked over and noticed that Rin's eyes seemed to be purple-colored now as she ate. "… I'll figure out what that means later." He thought.
"So… Rin… that's an interesting name." Mr. Siets began, "Where did your parents get the idea for it?"
"Uh," Rin glanced over to Talon in hopes of support. He shrugged. Her eyes changed redish, then pale blue. She turned to Mr. Siets and answered "A flower… type? Th-they really liked flowers, and this red one was called a, Rinzel. Rinzel sounded too weird so I got Rin."
"Oh… I take it you know about flowers then?"
"No, not that much. I wasn't that interested. They're… fun to smell though." Rin chuckled weakly and quickly took another bite of the meal.
"How do you like your room?" Mrs. Siets asked.
"It's nice." Rin replied after swallowing. "How did you make room for it anyway?"
"It was…" Mrs. Siets trailed off.
"It was going to be a nursery for our next… child." Mr. Siets finished forcefully.
"O-oh…" Rin looked down a bit. "I'm… sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it," Mrs. Siets put a hand on Rin's shoulder, "it wasn't for a while anyway, and it's not a bad thing. Kal has a sibling her age now."
"Oh… yeah." Acknowledged Kal slowly, who quickly took a bite of her food. She had just realized that technically that was what was happening… and still it felt off.
"This is really good!" Jesse complimented. "Oh! Where did you get the clothes for Rin? It looks just like her normal outfit only a T-shirt and all."
"We thought she brought them with her." Mr. Siets informed.
"I-I did!" Rin lied. "I-it was a birthday present from last year."
"And it still fits?" Mrs. Siets asked.
Rin shrugged in reply, "I guess I haven't growth-spurted enough yet?"
"I guess not." Mr. Siets shrugged. The meal finished silently. Afterwards Kal dragged all three teens to her room.
"Okay we need to-" Kal paused. She opened her door, looked out, then closed it again and continued, "we need to discuss everything that went on with Rin and such."
"Oh! I have something to ask!" Rin waved her hand in the air.
"What?" Kal allowed.
Rin stopped waving and turned to face Talon, "What made you think to name me Rin?"
"I-I uh…" Talon gave a shrug, "It was the first thing that came to my mind. Do you not like it?"
"Like it? it's fine, I was just wondering." Rin replied. Jesse chuckled.
"On to what actually matters," Kal put in, "ONE, how do we fix her eye… thing?"
"I have NO idea how to keep my eyes from changing." Rin noted.
"Well how can you make eyes anyway?" Talon questioned.
"I have to use the chaos energy through my Nanites like a-"
"STOP!" Jesse interrupted. "Hold on! Chaos energy? Nanites? How do you have these things?"
"It's a REALLY long story." Rin replied in a stressed tone. "Let's just say that the Nanites let me change shape, and the chaos energy is my power. Please? I really don't want to recite the whole thing right now."
"Okay, awesome, anyway-"
"Why not make it so you have mood-bracelets to flow that energy into instead?" Talon suggested.
"Genius!" Rin gave Talon a quick hug. "Wait," She let go, "Let me see if it works first." Rin materialized two bracelets on her wrists, and began redirecting the energy. "Whoa… I can't see!... wait, yes I can. THROUGH, MY, HANDS!" Rin walked around bonking her head on the door-roof, and fell to the ground.
"NOT, gonna work." She answered as if it was not obvious. Rin re-materialized her eyes and got back up. "You owe me a hug." She said to Talon.
"How about you practice trying to configure that specific energy from your emotions into the bracelets?" Kal suggested. "It won't be too long till my parents notice what's up with your eyes."
"Ooooooooooookay. TILL then, WHAT do I do?"
"It's Seven. In two hours you sleep. You know sleep right?"
"Yes captain, the concept is familiar to me." Rin replied in her best spock impersonation. "I just don't sleep. Too much energy for me to relax enough." A few seconds later, Jesse said "That's awesome! PARTY ALL NIGHT!"
"Ha! No." Kal retorted grimly.
"I was joking." Jesse replied with an annoyed stare. "But seriously, what will she do in the meantime?"
"I have an idea!" In a bright red light Rin vanished.
Everyone's eyes bulged from their sockets, with a bit of Nick falling backward. "Find her!" He yelled from the floor.
The three teens rushed out of the bedroom and darted around the house. Kal personally was hoping not to run into her parents… she did. "Kal, slow down!" Mrs. Siets scolded. She grabbed Kal's arm to stop her from running into a vase. "Why are you running around?"
"I- I-" Kal cleared her throat to make it sound as if she was not nervous but more so well… clogged, "bathroom!" She tugged free and darted into the restroom.
Meanwhile Talon was looking in the front lawn, as he assumed Rin had left the premises completely. "What was that all about?" He mumbled. Nick looked around a tree or two, the garage, and was about to go through the neighborhood when Rin's voice called out "Hey! Up here!"
Talon jerked around and saw Rin sitting on the top of the roof. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP TEHRE!?" He called out.
"Stargazing!" She replied.
"You could have told us that first! We were kind of in the middle of something in case you forgot!"
"Well," Rin hopped down and landed in front of Nick, "I was going to just stay up there all night and wait till you guys woke up."
"You'd…" Talon turned his head downward a bit, causing his hair to flop in his eyes slightly, "all night? Just… looking at stars? You know that we won't be awake for about two or so hours after the stars are gone, right?"
"I could wake up Kal early." Rin chuckled, her eyes turning yellow briefly.
"Then there's that!" Talon noted. "We need to write down what all those color-changes mean."
"Okay, be right back." Rin ran inside the house.
Talon stood in the yard, chilling up a bit from the night's temperature. "I wonder if she'll run int-"
*THUD* "OW! HEY!"
Talon sighed. Rin ran out holding Kal in one hand and a pen and paper in the other. Kal was glaring angrily at the identity. "Hey look… I found her." She informed sarcastically.
Rin dropped Kal, who landed quickly on her feet, then tossed the writing material to Talon. "Okay we know that turquoise means… really happy?" Nick guessed.
"How about humored?" Rin suggested. "I'm happy right now, and my eyes are blue… I think. Are they blue?"
"Yes, they're blue." Nick replied with a groan before jotting down the information. He looked up and asked "Is blue happy then?"
"Sure why not?" Kal approved. Talon jotted that down.
"And what was the yellow thing about?" He asked. "You talked about waking Kal up early-"
"Oh she did, did she?" Kal hissed at Rin. Rin moved away a bit. "Well I know what that means; Mischievous… I think."
"Hm… let me test that out." Rin said. She then threw her arms out and let out a loud maniacal laugh. Her eyes turned green.
Kal jerked backward, and Nick jumped backward. Rin stopped laughing and asked "So did that do it?"
"Nope, turned green." Kal informed. "I'll go with evil on that one."
"Uh… I don't think Evil is a mood, Kal." Talon noted. "Maybe… devious?"
"Isn't that the same as mischievous?" Rin asked.
"Close, but devious sounds more evil."
"Okay that works." Rin grinned. "So what do we have so far?"
"Uh…" Talon looked at his list while quickly writing the last two, "Normal blue means happy, turquoise means humor, yellow means mischievous, and green means devious."
"OH! When I got mad at the Mr. Wolf dude, my eyes were red I think!" Rin added, jumping a bit.
"… Okay…" Talon wrote that down as well. "So red means angry-"
"BOO!" Jesse jumped from behind them. Talon was out of range and facing him, but Kal fell forward, and Rin, eyes now white, jumped behind Talon for a hiding place. Jesse began to fall on the floor as well, cracking up from the looks on their faces.
"And white means scared." Kal smirked. Talon wrote it down. When Jesse resurfaced Kal shoved him to the ground and held him while Rin began to tickle him to death. Talon stood watching with non-amused tired eyes. After a bit though he could not hold back a smirk at Jesse's expense.
"UNCLE!" Jesse yelled between laughs.
"AUNT!" Rin yelled back, laughing a bit as well.
"Alright, alright, that's enough." Nick said, walking up to move the girls off Jesse. Kal and Rin helped Jesse up.
"What about the wolf guy?" Talon asked. "If he survived, we're probably in trouble."
"Well he hasn't attacked yet, so I doubt he did." Rin noted. "I mean, why wait?"
"Maybe he's… recovering?" Jesse suggested. "I mean, that explosion was epic; I doubt I'd be able to survive it, and if I did, I'd be in the hospital for quite a while."
"Okay and what about anyone else?" said Kal.
"Anyone else?" Talon repeated.
"Yeah, you were captured, and Rin was captured, what if they had more captured people, like villains or something?"
"Like villains?" Jesse questioned. "What makes you think of those specifically? Last time I checked it was the good guys who were captured."
"But we don't know what else was in there." Kal turned to Rin. "Did YOU hear anything about other captives?"
Rin shrugged, shaking her head no, "The closest I heard was that there was another one of me here once. Did you guys ever hear about that?"
"I think I did." Talon pondered. "It was… eight or nine years ago I think. I was eight at the time, and I saw the crash on the news… before the thing destroyed the reporters."
"Oh yeah. I heard they killed that one though." Jesse remembered. He froze a bit thinking that what he had just said would offend Rin. He turned to face her and apologized "Sorry. That came out wrong."
Rin shrugged in reply, "I never met her. Though I guess her not dying would have helped figure out my powers and emotion things more."
"Well we don't know if she's really dead." Talon noted. "She could have been in that base for all we know, and escaped."
"Well if she did, we'll probably hear about it in the news pretty soon." Said Kal. "Either way I have a question; what do we do about tomorrow?"
The others looked confused. "… Is something happening tomorrow?" Jesse asked.
Kal looked around at her friends, still waiting for someone to know what she was speaking about. Finally she gestured out with her arms saying "SCHOOL!"
"Oh… right." Nick knocked himself on the head. "Um… we could bring her I guess."
"To a high-school?" Rin questioned. "… Okay."
"I don't think that's such a good idea." Nick said. "Until she knows how to use her powers completely she'll probably be figured out before our first classes."
"Hey, my powers are fine!" Rin snapped. "It's just the emotion thing I'm not used to. I'm not gonna explode or something!"
"Well then you should probably get to work on figuring out how to fix your emotions to the bracelets for now, or just keep your hood on at all times."
"… I'll take the former. I do NOT want to look emo… well… too emo at least." Rin chuckled.
"Well I don't think it's a good idea because she doesn't know any history about our planet or anything." Kal noted. "What if someone tries to talk to her about sports or rulers, or the Blue Legend days."
"Actually," said Talon, "I think she might know about the last one already."
Rin paused for a moment, not knowing it was her turn to say something. "… Uh, if the Blue Legend means Sonic then yeah I know that part."
"How do you know about those again?" Jesse inquired.
"I'm from a different Mobius, but mine is almost exactly the same as yours when it comes to the past, or at least I think it is."
"You think it is?" Talon asked.
"Well I don't really remember EVERYTHING. And the stuff I remember about my own time is kind of distorted. But I'm pretty sure the Sonic parts are still the same as yours."
"So… you're from a different dimension?" Added Kal.
"E-yup." Rin confirmed.
"… The… Ninth dimension maybe?" Kal hoped.
"Uh… I don't think so. According to the Zone cops that popped up at some point they called my zone Prime-7 or something along those lines."
"Hey here's another thing," Jesse chimed, "don't you want to go back to your own world?"
"What? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. Uh-uh. No, thank, you, sir. It like this world fine."
"… Okay, cool." Jesse gave no more thought.
"That still doesn't give us a reason to let you stay at our school." Kal reminded.
"Oh c'mon!" Rin whined. "Can we at least try it for a day? If it goes well I get to stay- THAT RHYMED," She waved her arms a bit, "and if it doesn't… I stay at your house the whole time talking with your parents or being alone or unguarded."
Kal eventually figured out that this was a hint, but how Rin said it sounded mostly like she was simply rambling. "… Okay, well I'm guessing my parents will let you go to school anyway-"
"That rhymed too!"
"SO…" Kal paused angrily, "… yes you can come."
"Yay!" Rin overtook Kal in a tackle-hug, and was pulled off by Talon, who she also hugged.
It turned out that Rin would not be able to go to the school for two more days; the reason being that Kal's parents had to meet with the principal, get her classes ready, her supplies ready, and well, convince the principal of Rin's story. This was not a bad thing though, as it gave Rin more time to control how her emotions acted.
On the second morning Rin was kept closely-held by Kal while they made their way to the school. On the way, Kal went over the list of things Rin should know if someone struck up a conversation, while Rin decided to toss her school-bag back and forth. "Okay, "Kal began, "Your full name is-"
"Rin Diane Siets." Rin finished.
"Your address is-"
"6744 Almond Grove."
"Your Uncle's full name…"
"Aren Jordan Siets."
"Your Aunts…"
"Diane Selena Siets."
"Go-"
"Implying that my mom named my middle name after my aunt whom she missed and loved before her tragic death."
"Uh… yeah. Anyway, and your cousin's is-"
"Kal Nyra Siets."
"Okay, good. Now," Kal continued as they took a turn around a block, "If anyone asks you about sports, you know who the North Revin Rockets are in football, the Mas Sopain Knights are in baseball, and the Mas Sopain Blazers are football."
"Why do I need to know about the Rockets?" Rin asked confusedly.
"They're the current three-year winners."
"Oh… okay. Anything else?"
"Yes, if anyone asks you to join a club or something, say no."
"Bu-"
"This is just testing remember? We have to make sure this actually works first. If things don't go well for this or the next day, you have to stay home, so we don't want to complicate things."
Rin stopped playing with her bag. Her bracelets turned purple and she gave Kal a tired-eyed stare. "You know that it's not your decision, right? It's your parent's."
"I'm sure you could convince them."
"But I don't want to convince them!" Rin's bracelets turned red and she threw her arms into the air as she trailed behind her "cousin". "I can act like a normal teenager in a normal school! You don't have to assume I'll jump around like I'm an awkward person just making everyone look bad!"
Kal halted, making Rin almost crash into. Rin expected Kal to flip around and scream at her, but Kal did not move for a while. Then she answered "You're right… sorry." And continued walking. Rin was a bit surprised with Kal's reaction. She half wanted to say thank you but assumed this would anger Kal more and simply followed silently.
"Eleven… Ten… Nine…" Nick counted from inside the school. He was leaning against a door near the front entrance, while Jesse was using a drinking fountain next to him.
Once Jesse was refreshed enough he gasped slightly to regain his breath and said "You know, you can back out now."
"… seven…"
"It's not like I care that much."
"… five… four…"
Jesse sighed, "Fine, but don't get mad at me afterwards. I warned ya."
"-wo… On- OW!" The door Talon was leaning against decided to take up karma, and have someone open it, making the bottom of the door bash into the heel of Talon's shoe, causing it to get stuck, and pinch his foot underneath.
"Sorry!" The student from the other side yelled; closing the door quickly. A moment later, Kal and Rin walked into the school.
Nick's eyes widened for a moment, then he turned and glared at a laughing Jesse. "H-hey! I warned ya!" Jesse reminded in between laughs.
"You set that up, didn't you?"
"Nope." Jesse denied, smirking triumphantly. "And you know what that means…"
Talon covered his face in one hand, his hair ruffling around. "Ugh…"
Rin and Kal had noticed their friends and quickly walked over to meet them. "Hellooooooooooo." Rin greeted cheerfully. "I got my bracelet thing working!" She held up her hand to show her now turquoise-colored bracelets."
"Yeah… great…" Nick mumbled grimly.
"Did… something happen here?" Kal asked curiously, looking back and forth from Nick to Jesse.
"Oh something happened all right." Jesse confirmed, still smirking.
"Can you tell us?" Rin asked, trying to get Talon to look her in the eye, which he found himself having a hard time doing.
"Uh… n-no." Talon turned around and started to walk off.
Jesse, noticing how awkward the situation had come suggested "Could you give us a second, Rin? I just need to tell Kal something really quick."
"… Alright…" Rin walked off looking a bit saddened but not too much so.
"What is it?" Kal asked.
"Well Talon and I had a little bet." Jesse chuckled. "He bet that he could time when you guys would enter, and I said he couldn't. If he was right I would have to go up to Rin and say something like 'You are the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on. I wuv you soooooooooooo much!', and since he was convinced that he would win the bet, I made him promise that if he lost, he would have to randomly go up to her, in front of everybody and-"
"Kiss her? Kal guessed.
"Co-rrect." Jesse nodded. Kal wanted to be cross, but she found herself trying to hold back a bit of laughter herself. "That… was clever. He lost I'm assuming?"
"Kind of." Jesse waved his hand a bit, "He was at one when someone slammed the door on his foot. He didn't finish, and then about ten seconds later, you guys popped in."
"That poor boy." Kal was still trying to sound sympathetic, but she was grinning from ear to ear.
"Yep, so do you want to go find them? I wouldn't miss this for the world."
"Definitely."
The two ran off in search of their friends, while the student who was behind the foot-killing-door walked out looking quite confused by what he had just heard.
The kissing would have to wait however, as class was now starting. Kal found Rin, and Jesse found Talon.
Kal led Rin to their first class, history. The teacher, Mr. Reyes directed Rin to one of the seats at the back of the room, while Kal sat at her own seat in the second row from the front. Once the other students got to their seats, Mr. Reyes quickly scanned them over to see who would be tardy and began the day's announcements.
"Good Morning everyone." He greeted in a forced cheerful tone. The students replied in a broken chorus of good mornings, ranging from tired to semi-energetic, and more so, groans and mumbles. "So glad we all got a good night sleep. We have a new student."
The students looked around curiously, not knowing who exactly to look for. Some eventually noticed Rin in the back just before Mr. Reyes continued, "Rin Siets?"
Rin got up from her seat, assuming she was meant to stand upon being called. None of the students seemed to chuckle or give her awkward stares so it seemed she hadn't done anything wrong yet. "Uh, Hey!" She gave a small wave to the other students, who waved back with a few tired "Hello Rin…"'s. She sat down.
"Since our new student is not from our country-" This piece of information caused some murmurs among the students. Rin thought up if she should start talking in a foreign accent, but a student thought to speed up the process.
"Which country?" A brown echidna boy cross from Rin's seat asked.
Rin had no idea what the countries were called on this specific Mobius, and quickly answered with the only country she could think of "Mercia?"
"Why don't you have an accent?" Another student asked.
"I-I do, I just wanted to blend in more is all." Rin fibbed, though thankfully pretending to have a Mercian (Scottish, Irish) accent would not be hard. "I didn't want to distract anyone."
"What do-"
"Pamela, you can all ask questions later, and not overwhelm her on her first day in class." Mr. Reyes pointed out, noticing how uncomfortable the questions were making the new student.
"You never told me you had a cousin in Mercia." A student whispered to Kal.
"It's a long story." Kal groaned, hiding herself under her book.
"Going back to the topic at hand," Mr. Reyes continued, "since Rin is not from here, we will be doing a review of our current book so far."
"But we've only gone through four chapters." A student noted. "Can't she just catch up at home?"
"If we were to have her do that, what would be the point of having her here today?"
"It's fine, I can catch up." Rin assured. "… Would that mean I should start studying now?"
The teacher took a bit to think on this, but agreed eventually. "Alright. If you need help just ask."
Rin nodded and quickly began reading through her history book, as Mr. Reyes instructed the other students on what they should be reading.
"So what accent do you have?" A student asked again, causing both Kal and Mr. Reyes more grief.
"… I-Irish… should I go to a separate room?" Rin asked Mr. Reyes cautiously.
"You're fine, Rin." Mr. Reyes assured, "Though Miss Heckmin may need to." The student went back to her studying.
Halfway through the class's time Rin had finished catching up, which was quite easy due to how quickly she could process the information. She thought of informing Mr. Reyes, but assumed that would only get more unwanted attention from the other students, and some negative feelings from Kal.
When the class ended relief shot through both Rin and Kal, and before any of the other students could chase after them, they both quickly, and casually, left the classroom. As soon as they entered the next one, the first thing they heard was "We have a new student, class."
It was the same process a second time, aside from Rin now talking in and Irish accent, as she did not want the different students getting confused. This also backfired, as it caused even more students to become interested. Rin could tell this was annoying Kal, and could only hope her "cousin" was not mad at her.
Finally, at lunch, they were free. Kal lead Rin to where she, Talon, and Jesse normally sat, where Talon and Jesse were waiting.
"Hey I know you." Jesse greeted teasingly to Rin with a wave. Rin waved back before sitting down.
"How was your first day?" Talon asked.
"Uh… well… I'm… popular." Rin informed, as if it was a bad thing.
"The other kids kept trying to talk to her, and she got a lot of attention." Kal groaned from underneath her arm, which she was using to brace her face against the table top.
"I wasn't trying to; Really." Rin defended.
"I know… it's not your fault." Kal sighed. "People just like new people a lot."
"Why don't you two have your lunch?" Jesse after swallowing a bite of his own.
Kal shrugged, "Forgot. I'll get it now." She got up and started to walk to get her food, but paused for Rin, "Aren't you coming?"
"Uh… I… don't eat." Rin informed.
"But you ate last night." Talon noted.
"Yeah… actually I just kept the stuff inside then I buried it later on."
"… Why?"
"I don't have a digestive system. It was hard enough making eyes, being able to talk, and being able to hear things. I'm still working on being able to feel things."
"Well there's another thing to work on." Said Jesse. "Hey maybe we can design some weapon stuff for you to morph into!"
"Cool!" Rin said excitedly.
"NOT here." Talon ordered. "And I really don't think it's safe talking about this stuff at school. People are already watching her every move. Which come to think of it, you probably should get some food anyway, just to make things less weird."
Rin didn't answer at first, looking a bit stressed by the suggestion, but sighed and agreed before walking off with the still waiting Kal.
"Where would we do all that, anyway?" Jesse asked.
"…Junkyard?" Talon shrugged. "I don't really know."
"Oh yeah, and are we gonna become some kind of super-hero team now?"
"We don't have powers."
"RIN does. We can all be like Alfred and do all the tech-stuff!"
Nick could tell Jesse was getting quite into the idea, and he had to admit, it sounded really cool, but there were reasons to be cautious about this sort of thing. If we did that, Talon thought, we would get found out and killed… This was not just some comic book where everyone is extremely oblivious and the good guys always won. People would die, probably his friends. And having Rin around at all was dangerous. He was not going to just give her back to Arma-9 (if he could figure out how to do that in the first place), but if she did stick around, and if Arma-9 was still running, which it probably was, they would come after them.
We could have her leave without turning her over to them. Talon pondered. Either way, I'll have to talk to Jesse and Kal about it fir-
"Mobius to Talon!" Jesse called loudly, jerking Nick from his thoughts.
"Dah! What?!" Nick snapped.
"What's your say on the Rin thing?" Jesse asked in an annoyed tone.
"I… I'll talk to you guys about it… after school."
"Got food!" Rin yelled from behind them as she ran over with a covered tray, followed slowly by Kal. Rin plopped her tray on the table next to Talon and quickly sat down. "So I was thinking," She explained between rapid and large mouthfuls, "I could also try to hide my energy so it can't be found with scanners and stuff. Then if we run into trouble, I could just mess up the people that attack us!"
"Yeah…" Nick sighed lowly.
"Something wrong?"
"Just stressing over the Arma-9 thing."
"Does anyone have a plan about that by the way?" Kal joined in. "I'm surprised there hasn't been an all-out attack on us yet."
"Well the cops aren't an option." Jesse noted. "They're the ones who took Talon after all."
"I think we should talk to them about why they took me." Said Talon. "If they know anything about Arma-9, we'll at least be somewhat prepared."
"Sounds fine to me… we're doing this after school?" Rin guessed.
"Sadly." Kal sighed. "So you think you can do a good Irish accent?"
"Aye. Like a wee leprechaun." Rin answered in a slightly high pitched Irish accent. "Should I talk like this all the time, or just do the whole normal voice thing?"
"… I… I don't care." Kal groaned. At the same time she collapsed her face in her arms again, apparently overly stressed by the problem.
Later that day…
The small group was walking back home from school, with Rin hopping about, rambling about how cool the school was, aside from the awkward moments involving the attention given by the students. "I've never been to one of those before, that was really awesome, I don't see why you guys hate it so much- then again you don't remember stuff like I do, and the gym was really fun, and everyone was really nice, an-"
"You don't need to breathe air, do you?" Talon interrupted, halting the group for a moment.
"Um… no, no I don't." Rin tilted her head a bit, confused by the question. "What made you ask that?"
"No one could talk for that long without taking a breather if they needed air." He replied in a somewhat humored tone.
"Let me try." Jesse started breathing in and out slowly, each time going deeper and deeper.
"… Do it already." Said Kal in an impatient tone.
"I think he's warming up." Rin noted.
Jesse kept breathing in and out, and in and out, and in and out, till finally… he passed out. *plop* Kal quickly caught his head while the rest of Jesse's body slammed to the concrete sidewalk. She looked over to Rin, who smiled nervously, "Sorry." She apologized.
"There's a drinking fountain about three blocks from here. We can use that to wake him up." Talon noted He picks up Jesse, and started off, with the others following. Kal quickly ran up, and held Jesse's head upright, so that it did not fall back, hanging off his body.
"What are you doing?" Nick asked.
"His head just hanging there grosses me out." Kal replied.
"… Oh… kay." Talon continued walking, though a bit slower now, so that Kal could keep up, while Rin continued to talk about how cool she found the school.
Once they arrived at the fountain, Rin was still talking, "…I mean if I did that maybe it would get harder, but I don't know how to lower my memory abilities, so I guess I'll just remember everything all the time, which isn't too bad I'd say, because it's like cheating, only it's not, and it makes me feel all happy inside… and kind of cheatish, but oh well. I'm getting the feeling talking so long might be annoy-"
"You think?!" Kal snapped. "We're here…" Kal and Nick put Jesse down then scooped up some water and splashed it in his face.
They watched closely for a reaction of some sort, but none came, so they dumped it again. This time Jesse twitched a bit, then began sputtering as he coughed himself awake. "Guh… Hi?"
"Let's keep the deep breaths to a minimum in the future, okay?" Nick suggested.
"Wha do- oh! Yeah, got it." Jesse wobbled upward, holding his head dizzily. "So this is what a hangover feels like. Care to remind me what we were going to do?"
"We were going to go see if the cops could give us any info about Arma-9."
"Oh… How close are we?"
"Not very close." Talon sighed.
"Well my house isn't too far." Kal informed. "We could head over there then drive over."
"Alright then."
Once they arrived at the station, Talon took it upon himself to personally see if any of the officers recognized him. He glanced about in hopes of a raised eyebrow, widened eyes, a gape, anything; So far nothing. The small group walked over to the front desk.
"Hello?" Nick greeted to the officer at the desk.
"Good afternoon." The officer greeted with a cheery tone of voice. "Can I help you?"
"You don't remember arresting me?"
"Um… No." The officer answered in, looking a bit worried now. "We're the police; that doesn't mean we don't remember every person we arrest. What's your name?"
"Nick Falon." Talon answered bluntly.
"Uh, Talon," Kal whispered, "I don't think this is such a good idea."
"Let me check the records." The officer started going through a bunch of files.
"Just go with it." Talon whispered back.
"Oh, alright it says here you were wrongly accused of Arson, by officer Rickman." The cop informed, reading off a file.
"When did you figure out it wasn't me? I wasn't even here to defend myself."
"Kid, are you wanting to go back in jail? … Or Juvie?"
"Just trying to figure this all out." Talon replied defensively. "I talked with the lady who lived at the house, and then she gets blown up; I don't think that's a coincidence."
"Well the Chief isn't here to give you any more information about i-"
"Could you tell us where we can find Officer Rickman?" Kal intervened, pushing past Talon, to the desk.
"Sorry, unless you have your parents here with you I can't give that type of information out." The officer looked a bit puzzled, scanning the group by head-count, "Um… wasn't there four of you?"
Kal, Jesse, and Nick looked around themselves and noticed that Rin was no longer with them. "She… must've gotten bored." Jesse guessed.
"Well… I guess we'll be going now." Talon motioned for his allies to follow as he exited the station. At first they stood around the front door, scanning around for any sign of Rin.
"She's going to be vanishing a lot, isn't she?" Kal sighed to Talon.
"Well I might be able to still talk to her through my head." Talon suggested. "… I did tell you guys about that, right?"
"I don't think so." Kal answered with a slightly surprised gape.
Rin appeared between the two mobians in a bright red light. "I GOT IT!" She announced triumphantly, pumping the air with her fists.
"… You… got the address of the officer?" Nick guessed while regaining his composure; Kal was looking around to make sure no one had seen the teleportation.
"E-yup!" Rin replied with a nod, and whispered it to Talon.
Kal screwed up her face a bit, "Why did you have to whisper it to him?"
"… I dunno, more dramatic?" Rin replied. "We goin now?"
"Shouldn't we call our parents first?" Jesse suggested.
"You can if you want, I don't think it would take that long," Kal began, "that is I'm guessing that the house isn't too far seeing how someone only whispered the location-" And Rin whispered it to Kal as well. "STOP THAT! Just… STOP IT!" Kal yelled, pushing Rin off.
Twenty minutes later…
Officer Rickman, Carl Rickman, had a green and pale tan, one-story house, with a pleasant-looking garden in the front yard, and a nice car as well. He was currently sitting on his porch when the group arrived.
"Wait…" Talon held an arm out to stop the others. "If he's in on it, he might recognize Rin."
"Won't he recognize you too?" Rin reminded.
"Yes but they don't know you're with us, and he won't think there's a threat if it's just the three of us."
Rin looked down a bit, eyes darkening from normal blue a bit. She sighed, nodded, then jumped onto the roof to hide.
"Didn't… think she'd get so upset so quickly." Talon said. "Weird."
"Well she doesn't seem to like being alone." Kal noted. "Anyway let's get this over with." Kal walked past the garage of the house, and towards the man on the porch. Carl Rickman was a brown chipmunk with combed red hair, and brown eyes. He was wearing an orange button-up collared shirt, and jeans. "Officer Rickman?" She greeted.
"Yes, do I kno-… know you?" Carl Rickman knew he knew her, and that one pause of surprised proved it, and Kal heard it.
"You know me, and him." Kal pointed at Talon, who was walking up as well.
Meanwhile…
"Sir, one of ours is being approached by the hybrids." One of the agents walked up to Rovor, who was inside a central control room. He took a while to think over the information just given to him. "What location, and which operative?"
"Rickman, and his home-base."
"… Okay…" Rovor waves his hands about the dozens of computer screens,
"Sir, what are-"
"I'm looking for the closest escapee…. Ah- There we go!" One screen lit up with what appeared to be a mutated crocodile mobian. It's teeth covered its entire face, even the eyes, it was a dark grey instead of green, with scales shielding certain parts of its backside, oversized palms, and an oversized tail. "Time for an assassination!"
"I… I don't know who any of you are." Rickman pathetically fibbed.
"You forgot what someone you met less than a week ago looks like?" Kal asked with a smirk. "Why aren't you at work anyway?"
"Off-day, now get off my property." The officer got up from his porch and pointed towards the way out.
"Mm… Nah." Kal remained still, as did Talon and Jesse.
"Get out or I'll arrest you then." Rickman produced a gun from the back of his pants and held it up, not yet pointing at the teenagers, as to show he was not completely threatening them yet.
"Don't you arrest people with handcuffs?" Kal quipped in her head. "Okay," She said aloud, backing off a bit. Carl now had the gun pointed at Kal's forehead, looking both ticked and a little worried.
Talon stepped forward sternly, attempting to look intimidating, showing his long claws at the officer. "We're not going to just leave without s-" The officer shot twice at Talon. Nick's reflexes saved him barely. He raised his hands to block the shot, causing the bullets to hit his claws instead of his chest. However instead of breaking his claws, or bouncing off, they seemed to burn up in a small black flame.
Nick felt a strange pulse in energy from the shots, and quickly looked at his hands, which remained unharmed. He was utterly stunned, and a bit frightened, but this was not the time to marvel at one's supernatural being.
He lifted his face in a cold stare, acting tough though not feeling so tough. The officer, if he was really ever one to begin with, was quite startled and a bit intimidated; his gun shook in his hands a bit, and his feet shuffled slightly back. Talon could tell Rickman was going to run, so as soon as Carl turned around, giving Talon a safe way of attack without getting shot, Nick pounced on him.
Jesse got the idea quicker than Kal, and dashed over to help hold Rickman down. Kal walked up and yanked the gun from his hands. As soon as Talon was in a more preferable position to question, mainly glaring at Rickman while Jesse held the man to the wall (And Jesse quite enjoyed feeling stronger than an adult), he began the interrogation.
"Where i-"
"WHERE WERE THE OTHER DRUGS GOING!?" Jesse said aloud in a dark gargling voice. The others, even Rickman, shot a startled and confused stare at him. "Someone had to do it." He chuckled in normal voice.
"Ugh," Talon sighed, returning to whatever dignity this intervention had, "Tell us everything you know about Arma-9."
"Not here…" Rickman whispered in a pleading tone. "My wife and my kids are inside. They have nothing to do with this."
The three teenagers, Rin still hiding on the roof, looked to each other, deciding the next move. *crack* Jesse knocked Rickman out. He then picked up the unconscious man and turned to Talon, "Where do we go from he-" Talon ignored Jesse and walked out to the front sidewalk. "…What's… with him?"
"You didn't see his claws practically absorb those bullets?" Kal asked, thinking Jesse would remember such a recent event. By the expression on Jesse's face she assumed he hadn't, and decided to walk over to Talon, who was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk looking either glum or terrified.
"I… h-have no idea how that happened…" Talon stammered when he saw Kal approach. "I think I'll… keep my claws retracted for now."
"Do you want to stay here for a while? Y'know… to recover?"
"… N-no… we're wasting time. C'mon." Nick got up slowly.
"Nick, it's alright if you want to wait a bit. There's no rush… well yeah we shouldn't be here too long, but you can still take a breather."
"… I'll be okay. I guess I'd be more freaked out if we hadn't bumped into-"
Rin hopped down next to them, "Are you okay? Need a hug?"
"Yeah I guess so." Kal was referring to Talon, but Rin did not know this, and promptly hugged the feline, who gasped briefly in surprised, then sighed and waited till Rin had let go, which she eventually did.
"Rin, we were kind of having a conversation." Kal informed.
"Oh… sorry, I just thought Talon was all upset about superpowers, and wanted a comfort hug."
"You didn't even hug him ye-" And then Rin hugged Talon, who groggily hugged back.
"Did you have to butt into this?" Kal asked in an irritated tone. Rin took a step back, a bit hurt by the remark. "Sorry, I just wanted to help…"
"It's okay, Rin, we're just a bit startled is all." Talon intervened, attempting to sound assuring. "Anyway, we really should get going."
"Where? Your house?" Jesse questioned in a sarcastic tone as he lugged the unconscious man along. "And what happened with your claws!?"
"So NOW he reacts." Kal noted.
"Well… we could… uh… We don't really have any good places to do this, do we?" Nick asked.
"Well we don't normally kidnap officers of the law."
"Maybe we could try the junk yard?" Jesse suggested.
Kal and Talon looked at Jesse strangely, "Do we even have a junk yard?" Kal asked.
"Don't all cities?"
"I… actually don't know."
"We could do it," Rin began, getting hyperactive again, "In the SKY!" she pointed at the air with a large derpy grin on her face, eyes now turquoise. When she noticed no one was amused, the smile faded, "No really! Like a building roof or somethin!"
"What on Mobius gave you the idea to use a building?" Talon asked quickly.
"I dunno, it just popped into my head is all. You got a better idea?"
"Give me a minute…" Talon bent over a bit, resting his chin on his fisted hand, and began thinking up options. Unfortunately the process of this was constantly interrupted by the reoccurring thought of "THE GUY'S FAMILY MIGHT SEE US, ANYONE MIGHT SEE US, WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!"
Finally he replied, "Let's figure it out later, we need to get out of here. Someone will see us, or this guy will wake up."
"Well we can't just walk off," Jesse informed, "people will look over at the unconscious man and go 'Hey what's going on?'."
"True… wait, Rin!" Talon quickly turned to face the identity, who instantly perked up again upon being called, "you teleport."
"Eyup." Rin replied cheerfully. "Waaaaaaaaaay ahead of ya. TO THE BUILDING!"
"Wait no I just wa-" Rin grabbed hold of the group, and Rickman, then teleported everyone and herself to the roof of a skyscraper. Talon himself assumed she knew where she was going because she had been there before.
Kal and Jesse fell backwards, landing on their rumps then backsides, looking both stunned, and pained. The feeling of teleporting, going from one point to another in such a short time, felt… sadly disappointing. To Kal because she had read books about science fiction, and since the areas of science fiction existed, she expected perhaps seeing everything pass by quickly, or actually feel Rin's energy when they left. Jesse wanted to feel something tingly. The reality was that while Rin's energy did go through them, it was more like feeling electrocuted only not as painful, but just as unpleasant.
Talon felt the pain, but aside from finishing his sentence with a "-nted you to- ugh!", the other thoughts did not cross his mind… yet. He would later note in his head about how strange it felt to be in a completely calm area, then suddenly end up in a windy one, but not at the moment.
"So let's start getting the info outa this dude." Rin ordered, as she began to morph out chains around Rickman's hands and legs, as well as a seat below him.
"Hey, color and everything." Jesse noted, "Nice… who's going to interrogate him?"
"I'll do it." Talon nominated with a sigh, then turned to Rin, "Rin, he still doesn't know you're here so-"
"Yeah yeah, got it." Rin walked off to hide behind a fan system on the roof.
"Alright then," Talon picked Rickman's face up to face him, holding as good an intimation stare as he could, then shook him a bit, "HEY! WAKE UP!"
Jesse thought to himself "I don't think that would wake him up if us talking this whole time didn't." but said nothing aloud, and simply laid his ears back a bit from the sudden loud noise, as did Kal. Rin was currently having a sword duel with her two sword-morphed fingers.
After the screaming did nothing, Talon gave the good officer a nice slap to the cheek… twice. "Slowly the man groggily awoke.
"Hey, he's up, wonderful." Talon announced in a dark low tone, keeping his glare and frown still, and his eyes fixed on Rickman's. A previously normal teenager, trying to intimidate an adult officer. Normal.
"When did…" Rickman got a good look at his surroundings as his memory came back to him. "Oh gre-"
"Oh no would be more accurate." Talon interrupted. Rickman gave the teenager a short huff with a smirk, as one would give to a child, then yanked a bit attempting to grab Talon, not knowing he himself was chained, causing poor Rickman to lurch forward, almost falling on Nick, who retaliated with shoving him backward, and having the chai fall backward, giving Rickman's backside a nice crack-sounding pain.
"Ugrl…" Rickman focused back in again while Talon stood over him still, slowly extending his claws outward to increase whatever intimidation he was going for.
"You, ARE, going to spill everything, or, you, ARE, going, to die." He threatened in a cold tone.
"A-alr- Okay!" Rickman attempted the pleading-hand-position, but was stopped yet again by the chains. "Arma-9 is connected to a Mobius known as Mobocan. There are two parties. One ran by Rovor, and the other by some scientist overlander on Mobocan." Rickman paused for a bit, to see if Talon was going to give in to the little info spilled. When Talon did not reply, Rickman decided more was needed and continued. "R-Rovor and sometimes others, send in mobians, and other people, as experiments for the overlander. I'm not a high-clearance agent, so I don't know any specifics… but… I'm guessing, you… maybe all of you, were one of Hybrids made."
"Are there any other bases?" Talon kept his stare still, but was having a hard time not twitching from the new information about himself, his friends, and this… scientist.
"Y-yes, a lot of bases, but you can't find most of them here, they're i-"
Death. Rickman had not died yet, but death was what stopped him from talking. As soon as he heard the gurgled, roar of a monster, he knew who had been sent for him, and it was not to save him. His angel of death, his Grimm Reaper, had just arrived.
The crocodile monster stood across from them, having just clawed its way carefully and quietly to the top of the building. It would have been completely quiet, had it not been for one of its overgrown teeth poke through his skin, growing larger in the wound.
"I'm dead alrea-ady, j-just listen," Rickman stuttered, trying desperately to get the attention of the now gaping and distracted Talon, who slowly and nervously looked back over to him. "you have to get his claws off or you can't kill him-"
"GUWAHA!" Talon yelled as he felt the beast grab him by the waist, digging into his stomach before tossing him to the side, then proceeding to slash away at a screaming Rickman. The beast was not going to eat Rickman, he could not even if he wished to. The overgrown teeth and claws on his face would not let him. And while no one was currently wondering this, one would wonder how this mutant replenished itself with food without being able to get it to his… or her, mouth.
"THE-AH! SOMEONE ELS-" Rickman could barely be understood from the destroying, but with one last scream he uttered words that sounded somewhat like "E-IIIIIIC-C…-C…!" Obviously they had come at the end of the message. Rickman, was dead, his corpse, though not able to be seen due to the croc being in the way, was a torn up… everything.
The four… heroes, were utterly stunned, including Rin who had looked over at the action as soon as the creature attacked. "HEY!" She yelled over to the croc, walking over to meet eyes, though the croc's eyes were almost completely covered.
The creature turned to the identity, hissing and flexing his claws. The others would have attempted to help Rin, but they had a feeling she would do alright.
"So…" Rovor noted, seeing the event through a hidden camera, "the identity IS with them."
"Identity…" The creature hissed in a surprisingly fluent Russian sounding accent, minus the hissing. "I have no quarrel with you! All of you, go!"
"Er… Wait you don't work for Mr. Evil Wolf man?" Rin asked, feeling a bit disappointed that she did not get to fight.
The croc turned, gesturing to Rickman, "I was captured like all of you, and disfigured by these monsters; a death of their kind is good enough for now." The creature then turned to leave. Talon noticed that his claws, the ones not on his hands and feet, were still digging into his skin and body. This creature was once mobian. Nick could only assume that whatever Arma-9 did to him, caused these claws to grow longer and longer, and now they were spiking into him, and probably would kill him over time.
No one knew what to do or say. This crocodile had just murdered their only form of information, but… was he an enemy? They doubted he even knew about Rickman helping them, and wanted only revenge it seemed. And from what they could tell, he was not going to harm anyone, aside from tossing Talon to the side.
Jesse looked over the edge of the building and noticed the creature had not even left any scratch marks when he climbed up. He had been careful not to harm the skyscraper. Should they let him just leave?
"What are you going to do now?" Kal asked cautiously.
The creature turned to face Kal with a sigh, "Search… for anyone linked with Arma-9, kill them, and… look for a cure if I can… b-before I die…"
"This is not how it was supposed to go. Well then plan B."
A high-pitched "zeeeeeeeeeeeee" was heard from a distance of the group. Everyone looked about, trying to see where the sound was coming from. The mutant was the first to realize it was the sound of a threat. "DOWN! DOWN NOW!" He yelled before shoving Rin back and motioning for the others to go. Directly after, something blew up on the side of his neck, coaxing a painful scream from the creature as he weakly looked about for his attacker.
The croc collapsed on the ground, supposedly dead or unconscious. Rin walked over to see how bad the wound was on his neck. Strangely there was barely a mark where he was hit, only a small scratch and hole.
"Um… I guess they weren't aiming for him." Rin said to the others, beginning to walk back. The three teenagers however barely acknowledged her, and were more interested in what was happening to the creature.
The mutant's claws increased in size at a much faster speed than before, with more scales appearing, and his tail, arms, and legs, becoming even larger than before. He roared and hissed, slowly rising from the ground, looking about wildy, as if he was now nothing but a dumb animal.
Jesse was first to understand what had happened and yelled out "HE'S GONE RABID!" before grabbing Kal by the hand and darting for the door at the top of the roof.
Talon stayed, he wanted to help, but at the same time, he did not really see what he could do. He had no idea how to use the black-mist-like ability again, and he doubted he would experience a Deus Ex Machina anytime soon. So the fight was Rin's, and by the now green and red glow in her eyes, she seemed to be excited by the challenge.
"Fun time." Rin leapt onto the croc while at the same time morphing her arms into large long triangular-blades, which she used to repeatedly slash at his face. The creature's helmet of overgrown teeth and claws blocked the damage to an extent, with a few cracking off from the impact. He took this opportunity to slam his head to the ground, thus slamming Rin to the ground as well, and began clawing and punching her while she was down.
Sparks flew everywhere with Rin's Nanite body becoming smashed, though at the same time regenerated. The identity spawned a hand from her head, which gave the creature's chin a nice firm uppercut, causing him to fall on his backside.
Rin teleported to a standing position, and morphed her right hand into a giant hammer, three times her size. She slammed down at the creature with this, only to have the creature slam back at it with his claws, knocking it to the side, barely missing him, and making a large dent in the roof's floor.
"RIN! DAMAGE CONTROL!" Talon yelled loudly, noting subconsciously that people would be below them and the roof could cave in if another hit like that came.
Rin acknowledged the advice, which distracted her from the fight for a short moment. The creature sliced at Rin's arms, thus disconnecting her from her makeshift hammer. She quickly countered this by running around him in a circle, while at the same time wrapping him in Nanites, before tossing him off the building, and following as he fell.
Rin attempted to grab the creature so that she could teleport them out of the city, but the creature kept swatting her away, each time leading to her teleporting back. "RA!" Finally Rin had had enough of being batted around, and promptly gave a solid *WAM* kick to the Creature's hand as he attempted to hit her again, causing him to not only loose half the claws on that hand, but also bump into the side of a building, creating more damage to it.
Rin noticed the damage, but the creature was stunned now, and that gave her an edge. She jumped onto his chest, wrapping her Nanites over his entire body if she could before he attempted to push her away, and teleported them to a grass field next to a highway.
The creature ripped Rin off as he fell on his back and head, screaming and roaring, then tossed her into the air. Rin quickly recovered, and kept herself floating in the air, a good twenty-five feet up from the creature. "Okay, ammunition time." She grinned. Transforming her arms into energy pistols, she began firing chaos energy rapidly at the croc from above.
The mutant was struck once in the chest, knocking backward. He grabbed hold of the ground to keep his balance, and took to the defensive, dodging all the fire he could. As he dodged, he began ripping his larger claws from his body and once he was close enough, he jumped into the air, and slammed the claws into the holes of Rin's pistols, causing them to explode in her face, sending both of them up farther into the air.
The mutant was not going to let her go that quickly however. He kept a firm grip on whatever Nanites he could grab at, and squeezed the identity tightly as they feel towards the ground from forty feet.
"NOT… GOING… TO HAPPEN…" Rin let out spasms of energy blasts repeatedly until the creature's grip was loosened. She would have teleported, but he would have come with her, and it would have done no good. They landed hard on the ground, with the croc still caving over her like a dome.
With one charged up blast, Rin blew the creature off, leaving a crater from the energy in the ground. The mutant fell down once again, dizzily getting up, and looking a bit worn out, vaguely making out the blood-craved, red-eyed, identity standing in front of him. Rin transformed both her hands into a giant energy canon, to fire at him, but then something flew through her head. "He's not himself! Keep him alive!" Talon's voice. He was using the connection to talk to her.
Rin was a bit hesitant; the creature was starting to run towards her again, and it was an easy, perfect, shot. But she faded back to her normal hands. "Fine…" The creature swung at her with rapid swipes and punches. Rin dodged the first three, but was knocked to the left by the fourth. The creature turned to continue, giving a massive punch at the identity.
Rin teleported behind the beast, causing his fist to hit the ground. While his back was still turned, Rin did a 360 while increasing the density in one energy charged hand, and landed one last punch on the back of the mutant's head, breaking through the claws, and knocking him out.
The identity looked over her prized victory with a smirk, then placed a hand on the creature, and prepared to teleport. "He's down, not killed, but down. Where do you want him?" She asked, assuming Talon was still 'on the phone' as it were.
"Y-… U-uh… actually why don't you bring us there?" Talon answered, stuttering even in his thoughts.
"Alright." Rin replied, still grinning from the thrill of the battle.
A short time later the group was together on the highway plain, though they walked a ways away from the actual road, as not to get any unwanted attention.
"This is awesome, this is awesome, this is awesome!" Jesse squealed in delight, hopping in circles.
Talon was still examining the damage done to the mutant, with Rin standing behind him, grinning still. "You sure you didn't kill him?"
"Well I can't be too sure." Rin shrugged, holding her hands out in the regular finger-nail-admiring pose. "There was a large CRACK… before he went down."
Kal was quite concerned, and going over the various risks and things they would have to look out for in her head, as she assumed someone would simply scowl if she started to state them aloud. However she did manage to say "You really feel accomplished, don't you?" to Rin.
"VERY." Rin replied, turning to face the slightly miffed-looking feline.
"You know if he really is dead, you killed an innocent guy. It wasn't his fault."
"Pardon?" Rin scoffed, taken back a bit. "Sorry but I just saved you guys, and stopped this guy from going on a rampage. And I really don't think he's dead."
"Are you sure? He's not waking up."
Rin looked back over to the mutant; he hadn't woken up yet. Her eyes changed to a dark blue for a moment, considering what Kal had said. Sure she was only trying to end the fight, but maybe she went too far.
"Speaking of people not waking up, why didn't anyone try to stop this guy from getting Rickman?" Kal questioned, looking over her allies sternly.
"I was shoved to the side." Talon reminded with a raised eyebrow.
"Alright, good enough. Jesse?"
Jesse was a little out of it but caught on, freezing in mid dance. "I wasn't… close enough?"
"Rin?"
"He got what he deserved." Rin answered bluntly. Kal narrowed her eyes a bit. "When you get captured by these people and they try to kill you with a weird goop," Rin began, giving Kal a glare as well, eyes glowing red, "you can start judging me."
"Both of you, knock it off!" Talon yelled. He looked over to the creature and noticed that he was in fact beginning to rouse. His breathing however was shallow, filled with groans of pain.
"Hmm…" Rin walked over and began bending and yanking the teeth and claws of the mutant.
All at the same time the three teenagers yelled "What are you doing?!"
"He can't breathe; I'm helping him breathe, happy ending." Rin informed bluntly. Some blood poured out from the holes of the mutant's face, but he was breathing easier now.
"First… you try to kill me… now you save me…" The mutant chuckled tiredly. "I think you broke my arm…"
"Is your giant claw an arm?" Rin asked, looking over the claw she hit in the first falling fight.
"I would not be surprised." He replied, slowly getting up. "Oy my head…"
"Sorry for the roughness, you were all like ROAR, so I had ta-"
"I know, I was the one you fought if you don't recall." The mutant reminded in a stern blunt tone. He wiped a bit of the blood off his scaly face, his deep blue eyes showing a bit now, not that they were whimsical or anything like that.
"What is your name?" Kal asked.
"Derin… I think." The mutant answered with a sigh, rubbing his head a bit. "I… have a distorted memory. The many prices one pays for letting people experiment on them."
"Yeah we were kind of about to find out about those before you made Rickman a sprinkler." Jesse informed boldly.
"I… I did not know that. I was led to you. I saw Rickman and thought it was luck… if… it wasn't…"
"Then… we were being watched? Spied on?" Kal guessed.
"Arma-9 knows where we are!" Rin yelled angrily, clenching her fists with chaos energy sparking up a bit around them. "And all that time of hiding wasted!"
"Well we got information." Talon noted calmly.
"And met… Derin." Kal added. She turned to face Derin, "by the way do you have any information you might like to give us? Rickman said something about us all being hybrids, and… well I want to know if I'll grow teeth on my shoulders now as opposed to later on, no offense."
"None taken," Derin replied with a shrug and a half chuckled. "I wish I could help more, but I only remember images, faint ones at that, of my imprisonment; mostly the experiments performed on me. I could not hear their voices usually, due to how much I was screaming, but I don't recall hearing about others. I found out about that later on. And then I was captured again, and you four freed me…" Derin turned to Rin with a slight glare, "more or less."
Rin remembered blowing up the base, and chuckled nervously, "Well you're not dead." She noted, pointing her finger up to add insurance.
"Yes… well," Derin turned to leave, "I believe I'll be leaving now. If I can , I will help you in your war with Arma-9."
"Wait why not just join us?" Talon asked, a bit miffed that the super-powered crocodile chose to leave.
"You all look normal; even the identity can look normal. I… cannot." A sigh followed as Derin began walking away. "I would be too easily noticed. Farewell."
No one stopped Derin, and as soon as he was out of sight, Rin let out an energy blast around the area. It did not seem to damage anyone, but seeing how it came out of nowhere, everyone jerked back in surprise.
"R-Rin? You okay?" Jesse asked nervously, inching towards the identity. Rin simply pointed a finger to the left in the air, where a previously cloaked hover-camera fell to the ground, deactivated. "Who wants to smash it?" She asked with a grin.
The story would be on the news soon about a cloaked figure fighting something that looked like a Batman villain knock-off, on the rooftops. The group decided to quickly make it home, though Rin was a bit nervous about going to her "relative's" house, thinking they might put two and two together. Thankfully they did not even ask where the group had gone, though nothing about them seemed out of the ordinary when they went home in the first place.
Talon… walked to his bedroom, and lifted up his shirt, feeling the scratch mark Derin had given him, which stung badly. It was not serious, but it might have left a scar. That was the least of his worries. The rest of that day, which was about an hour, and that night, he did nothing but eat Dinner, and try to use his power again.
Nick went through everything he felt when it first activated. Fear, no… Protectiveness… no. Determination seemed likely, but he did not recall feeling that in the first incident. But it was worth a go. He flexed his arm out towards a small lamp in his bedroom, and a black stream of energy flowed from his hands, and engulfed it, turning the lamp into dust.