Blood For Blood, Babe
By: Aubrie1234
The sun rise never seemed so sweet
Entranced by the final ocean breeze
As the world beneath him starts to shake
- The Grand Finale, Set It Off
"Nothing." Wheeler shook his head as they met up, "Whoever attacked Smirnov last night isn't going to make another appearance."
"It's been a few hours." agreed Gi, "Then sun will be rising soon."
"I suppose that marks out our vampire theory." said Kwame, but Linka wasn't willing to believe that was the end of it.
"Maybe they were filled last night and not hungry tonight." she argued, "Gaia asked us to come for a reason, and though an attack like this is unusual, we cannot give up so easily!"
"We are not." Ma-ti assured, then rubbed his tired eyes, "With nothing happening, maybe we should sleep for the night." This was accompanied by a few yawns and the others agreed, where they bedded down for the night at a nearby hotel, the boys in one room with the girls in another. Wheeler, of course, was one of the first asleep, but his roommates were not. As his snores interrupted the otherwise quiet night, Kwame read and Ma-ti tried to get sleep. Emphasis on 'tried to.'
"...Kwame?"
"Yes, Ma-ti?" The dark-colored man had expected the boy to speak up, mainly because of Wheeler, and wasn't disappointed by Ma-ti's answer.
"How can you stay focused like this?"
"It takes practice. In my village, elephants used to roam by and sometimes roaring lions could be heard in the early morning. You must have heard the rainforest all the time at home."
"Yes, but not like this." Ma-ti covered his head with a pillow to help block out Wheeler's snoring. Kwame smiled and tried to go back to his book, but he couldn't because something he had seen suddenly bugged him. Putting down the book for a second, he looked over to Wheeler's bed (they all had their own single beds) and frowned. Wheeler had the bed farthest from the window and from Kwame, making him only able to be seen in the lamplight, but there seemed to be something off about him, now that the Earth-wielder thought about it. He wasn't sure what it was, so, even though he was bothered, there was no way for him to know, and he left it be. He did keep an eye on Wheeler, however, until he turned the light out. And that's when he saw what was wrong: Wheeler's skin was pale, and Kwame didn't think he'd ever seen the Fire-wielder's skin so white before. But Wheeler was snoring just fine, he had been fine all day, so maybe Kwame had just never noticed Wheeler's exceptionally pale skin? Kwame shook his head and turned away to get some sleep, but his instincts were not settled by the revelation.
In the morning, realizing that they had an entire day to waste before going on the hunt again that night, the Planeteers decided to try to relax for the day. It was hard, though, not because there wasn't much to do, but because they had no idea what to do.
"We could go see that giant statue on the hill." suggested Gi, taking a look at a map of the city they had bought a day previous, "I think it's named The Motherland Calls and it's part of the monument to the Battle of Stalingrad, along with the museum."
"There's also the Volga River that's near the city and the Musical Instrument Museum." Ma-ti added as he also examined the map.
"I believe I would prefer to stay in my room and read today." Linka said, "I know the history of Volgograd already, I do not need a reminder of it."
"I think I want to stay behind, too." Wheeler agreed, "There's not really anything interesting to go see."
"Not even the statue? It's supposed to be taller than Lady Liberty." Gi said. Wheeler raised an eyebrow.
"I'll believe that when pigs fly." Kwame was quiet and thinking as the others discussed their plans for the day until Ma-ti spoke up.
"What do you want to do today, Kwame?" The leader of the group looked up from his mental musings to find the others starting at him, wondering what his decision would be, and he tried to come up with something.
"...I do not know." he said at last, "I am not really in the mood to go sightseeing today."
"I guess it's just you and me, Ma-ti." said Gi, "Well, I hope you guys have a good day staying at the hotel." After a while longer of discussing where they would like to go, Gi and Ma-ti soon left, leaving the rest of the Planeteers behind.
"Why didn't you go? You weren't bothered by this place all that much, unlike everybody else." Wheeler asked Kwame as Linka searched through her things for a book to read. Kwame also wondered why, and thought it might be because of what he found out last night, that he secretly wanted to know more. His instincts were still not settled after last night and he had been wondering more about Wheeler's 'condition' (he didn't know what else to call it), so he had a chance to ask. That is, if Wheeler was not offended. Who knew how the other would react?
"As I said, I was not up to sightseeing today. And Wheeler..." Kwame wondered if he should mention it aloud, with Linka around, and decided against it.
"Yeah?" Wheeler was giving him a questioning look, wondering what he wanted, so the Earth-bearer dropped his voice so that only the two of them would hear. He didn't mind if Linka knew, but he wasn't sure if Wheeler wanted to keep this a secret or not.
"What is wrong with your skin?" Wheeler blinked.
"What do you mean?"
"Last night, I saw something..." Kwame trailed off, then shook his head, "Nevermind, it was most likely nothing." Kwame made to get up but, quick as a flash, Wheeler had a hand on his arm, keeping him seated.
"No, go ahead, tell me what you saw." Wheeler seemed curious, but there was something about the look in his eyes that told the African man that the New Yorker already knew what he was talking about.
"This may sound ridiculous, but I was sure, last night, that your skin... It was so white in the moonlight." Kwame gave a sigh, "But I could have been wrong." Wheeler was quiet for a moment, and then his face changed and Kwame got the alarming feeling that he had stumbled onto something he shouldn't have. The redhead was smiling, just a hint of teeth, but it was not a kind smile, and never had the dark-skinned man seen his friend so...dark as he was now.
"I'm sure it's probably nothing." Wheeler assured, but Kwame did not feel that way, "It's not something weird if it does look like that." The redhead shrugged, "And I'm sure Linka looks like that too, if the moonlight's at a good angle. Maybe even Gi. But you might not want to mention it around the others, okay? It might make you sound a little silly with them." The younger man put a hand on Kwame's shoulder, and he got the distinct impression he was being threatened without actually being threatened, if that made any sense.
"Of course." he agreed and Wheeler let go, hiding his teeth and Kwame felt a little better at that.
"Good." The New Yorker nodded and moved away from Kwame's side to go bother Linka, who had been wondering what they had been talking about but now was trying to fend off cheesy one-liners while forcefully asking Wheeler to go away. Kwame would have laughed if he wasn't so disturbed by the previous events. It was obvious that whatever he had stumbled upon was something that Wheeler wanted to keep secret, to the point he was willing to underlyingly threaten one of his best friends. He hadn't actually threatened Kwame aloud, but the feeling and implication was clear that if the African man talked about it, Wheeler was going to do something unpleasant. But what was it about Wheeler's exceptionally pale skin that he wanted to keep it a secret? And why was it so important he was willing to threaten his friends to keep it that way? Kwame knew he had to look into this, if only for himself so that he would know what he was keeping a secret, because he knew it didn't just stop at the look of Wheeler's skin.
But just what had he gotten himself into?
Eventually night was almost upon them and they were out searching again, but stumbled upon nothing. It was beginning to look like nothing was going to happen in Volgograd, until later that night, where morning was just about to break. They had almost given up the search when a firetruck sped by, its sirens wailing, and they followed, just in case there was something they could do. They followed it all the way to an apartment building on a street near the attack, finding it on fire. Had this been why they had been called, not for the vampire but for this? Even if it wasn't, they had to do something to help.
"Heart!" Ma-ti searched the building for anyone left and found someone, a young man who was trapped inside, and so the Planeteers went inside together to help. Gi doused the flames in the closed spaces while Ma-ti guided them and Kwame and Wheeler helped break down or burn whatever was in their way, Linka following for in case they had need of escape. The Earth-bearer even had to create a new staircase of rock when they found the stairs to the second floor gone, but luckily for them, the other floors still had stairs, and they had to get all the way up to the fourth floor to save the man Ma-ti had sensed. Upon breaking down the door, they found the young man surrounded by a wall of fire, pushed against the wall. He had taken the precaution of getting on the floor and covering his airways with a piece of cloth, but he didn't look too good.
"Water!" coughed Gi, and the pipes in the walls burst to douse the flames as best they could. Wheeler and Kwame pulled him up and they began their way back, until they realized that the fire had burned down the third floor stairs. It was too high up for Kwame to call upon the Earth for another staircase without damaging the building even further and possibly destabilizing it, so they turned to Linka.
After a few events where they had had to land the Geocruiser without power, Linka had practiced to become stronger in holding things up and lowering them with Wind. Everyone hoped that this would work as they climbed back up to find a free window, and the only available one was not facing the street. An alley below with no soft place to land was not an ideal area, but they had no choice and so Linka began lowering people one at a time. To the Planeteers' surprise, the plan worked and soon they were all on the ground again, where they ran from the fire and tried to find an ambulance to treat the man they had found, not to mention themselves.
"How did you get stuck up there, anyway?" Gi asked the man, once they were in the care of the Russian paramedics. She had asked without asking if he even knew English, but to her surprise, he was able to speak it well with a slight accent.
"Arson." he said, "Someone trapped me there and lit the place on fire."
"Why would they do that?" asked Ma-ti in shock, the Planeteers finding something like that horrible but unfortunately not unbelievable.
"I-" he coughed, "I don't know, but thank you."
"We were glad to help." Linka said, "Hopefully you will feel better soon."
"I hope so too." He got a good look at his saviors for the first time and gave them small smiles, until he landed on Wheeler. When he saw the other, his eyes widened slightly and his smile twitched, as if trying to change to a different expression, and the redhead's eyes narrowed. Even though they were all focused on making sure he was okay, they also noticed the slight change in his expression and wondered what had gone through his mind upon seeing the Fire-bearer.
"Here, why don't some of us go talk to the authorities and tell them about the arson?" Wheeler spoke up, "And maybe you could help them put out the fire some more, Gi, and Kwame, you could help them get to higher floors from the outside."
"What about you?" asked Ma-ti.
"I'm gonna stay here and keep this guy company."
"Then I will join you." Something flashed in Wheeler's eyes, and though Ma-ti couldn't catch it, he didn't think it mattered much.
"Alright." Wheeler nodded, and when Kwame agreed that it was a good idea, they split up, but he was worried for Ma-ti and the other man. There had been something about the Russian's expression that made Kwame think that he somehow knew Wheeler, even though they hadn't met before. He was finding out so much about the redhead that Kwame wondered if he had ever really known the other Planeteer at all.
"What is your name? I don't think you told any of us." Ma-ti mentioned. The man glanced at Wheeler, who nodded, and he spoke to the boy.
"My name is Dmitri. And what's your name?" Ma-ti had caught the glance and wondered if the two somehow knew each other or something, but that wasn't all. Even when he wasn't using his Heart power, if he was in close proximity to people, he could sometimes feel their emotions, and right, now the most of what he was feeling from Dmitri was a combination of suspicion, fear, anxiety, and exhaustion. And, to his surprise, the fear and suspicion were aimed and himself and Wheeler, though the redhead was the one who got the most of it, but why?
"I am Ma-ti, and this is Wheeler. Our friends are Gi, Linka, and Kwame. It's nice to meet you."
"You too, молодой (1)." Dmitri smiled, but it dropped as Wheeler crossed his arms.
"So, do you have any idea who tried to kill you and in turn almost killed everyone else in the building?"
"No..." Dmitri looked like he wanted to say something else but refrained from it, keeping his mouth shut as Wheeler turned to Ma-ti.
"Little buddy, do you think you could give us a second alone? There's something else I wanna ask him."
"And I cannot be allowed to hear it?"
"Sorry, but it's something kinda private. I'd let you hear it, but then I'd have to kill you." Wheeler gave a wink, but there was something about the feelings he gave off that gave Ma-ti the distinct impression that, though it was a joke, Wheeler wasn't lying, and so the Amazonian boy moved a few feet away so that they could whisper to one another. After a few minutes (and in which Linka had returned), Wheeler left the man alone and he seemed considerably calmer. Maybe the small talk wasn't something bad after all, but it still disturbed Ma-ti.
"Okay, so," the New Yorker began, "Turns out Dmitri here doesn't have a home he can go back to besides this place and from the looks of it, it's probably a total loss, so I said we could house him for a few days until he can find himself a new place to stay."
"What?! We cannot do that!" argued Linka.
"Babe, do you have a better idea?" Wheeler shot back. As they began to argue, Ma-ti joined Dmitri in sitting on the ambulance's back entrance, watching the two go back and forth.
"Do you really have no other place to go?" he asked. The Russian man paused for a moment, contemplating something, and then shook his head.
"I don't, sorry to say." he looked back at the building, "I had just moved out on my own a little over a month ago and look at how my life's turning out."
"That is terrible." Ma-ti agreed, "I am sure the others won't mind if you stayed a few days with us." Dmitri grinned, and though it was kind, there was something about it that made the boy anxious.
"Thanks a lot. You have no idea how much this means to me."
"You are welcome, but... may I ask what you and Wheeler were talking about?" Dmitri's grin dropped and Ma-ti was sure he saw a flash of fear dart across the older man's face.
"It was nothing major, I don't know why he made a deal out of it for you." said the Russian, but Ma-ti was sure he was lying. But then what had Wheeler discussed with him that made Dmitri so scared?
"FINE!" Linka suddenly threw her hands up in the air, "I give up, Yankee! He may stay!"
"Knew you'd come around eventually!" Wheeler cheered as Gi and Kwame finally returned, the fire now out.
"What are you fighting about this time?" Gi asked, amused.
"Well, Dmitri doesn't have a home after the apartments burned down, so I offered that he could stay with us for a while."
"I do not think it is a good idea, but he forced me to agree." Linka muttered darkly.
"If he has no place to stay, I do not see why he cannot stay with us." said Kwame, and Gi reflected the agreement.
"I am fine with the decision." Ma-ti spoke up, knowing that they would ask him as well.
"Then I guess you can join us at our hotel." Gi said, "We're going back there for a long rest after tonight. Can you come or do the paramedics still need to see you?"
"I don't think so." Dmitri stood, "I only had some smoke inhalation, but it's passed now."
"You're lucky we've got a couch in our apartments!" Wheeler teased, slinging an arm around Dmitri, who flinched under the touch. Anything he did that wasn't normal could be considered just not liking to be touched or being shy, but he only acted that way around Wheeler, and both Ma-ti and Kwame noticed. What was it about the American that made him so scary to Dmitri? And, like Kwame, Ma-ti was beginning to think that maybe, he'd never really known the redhead at all, if what was going on with the Russian man was anything to go by.
Notes:
Russian:
1. молодой (molodoy) = young one
So, I've finally got more inspiration for this story again and I hope you guys like it. Please read & review, and also, Happy Halloween!