Another thank you goes out to those who read and especially those who left a review for my story so far! I really appreciate it. Please continue letting me know how I'm doing. :) 333
Wrote this very late at night so forgive any weird spelling/grammar/logic problems. :)
Chapter 3
Out of Sight
Hope and Snow both stood frozen in their places, mouths gaping open in surprise at what Seann had just revealed – his Pulse l'cie brand. Seann rolled his sleeve back down, once again hiding his mark, but the silence and staring continued for several moments before Seann folded his arms and cleared his throat with a soft *a-hem!*
The other two tried to regain their composure. Hope literally shook his head from side to side as he tried to get himself together from that surprise. His silvery-blonde hair waved as if being hit by a strong wind as he shook his head.
"Seann, wha-..when...where..wh-.......HOW?!!?" was all Hope could manage to say to his friend. How could he be a l'cie as well? More curiously, how did nobody else know about it?
How did you manage to get caught up in this too...?
Seann retracted his hands into his bright-green sweatshirt which was apparently a size or two too large for him. It was a nervous tick he had always been partial to doing and Hope had noticed it before. Seann raised his left sleeve-hand to his neck and rubbed it softly as he began to spoke.
"I..don't know! I mean, I do know but I don't know how it happened.." he said while staring at the socks on his feet. "A few days ago my dad and I got into a fight and so I..stole his jetbike. I wanted to come see you and..I-I knew you and your mom had gone to Bodhum to see the fireworks festival...and so I headed that direction."
Seann leaned against his wall and slid down his back, slowly sinking into a sitting position.
"I was distracted by the explosions when I got close and.. I sort of, well, flew into the vestige.. I mean more like I crashed into..it.. so I got knocked out for a little while on this platform thing and suddenly these like..tentacle things, attacked me and wrapped around me, and well.. I-I don't.. I don't remember what happened then..."
Hope raised his eyebrows as he heard the story. "How did you get back home?! Why didn't you come find me in Bodhum?" he asked.
Seann sighed somewhat loudly and shrugged as he spoke.
"I don't... I-I just wanted to come home and hide. I know what happens.. I know what happens to l'cie who are caught by the Sanctum." he said.
Seann had his arms folded on his knees and he buried his face in them. His voice had gotten shakier by each word as he spoke and he was surprised at himself that he had gotten through it without completely breaking down. Hope turned around to look at Snow who looked just as surprised by the story as Hope did, not to mention a little fascinated. They made eye contact and gave each other a look of sadness, neither of them knew what to say. After a minute Snow cleared his throat quietly before speaking.
"You had a dream, didn't you?" he asked Seann, who raised his head and looked at the man with complete shock and confusion on his face.
"Yeah.. how'd you know that?" he asked quietly.
"It's your focus as a l'cie. You see it when you become one. We saw a vision as well when we became l'cie a couple days ago," Hope said, crossing his arms and frowning. "I wonder if we had the same vision. What did you see?"
Seann shook his head softly.
"I don't really know. It was all very quick moving and kinda blurry. I saw a lot of people who looked really..happy. Like, celebrating you know? A big party.. I don't really get it, but it made me kind of happy just to see it.. you know? After I woke up.." he said with a little shrug.
Hope and Snow looked at each other with concerned looks on their faces. Hope recalled the terrifying visions he saw during his transformation into a l'cie -- seeing some beast completely destroy Cocoon. It was horrible.
That's definitely not what we saw.
It had been at least five minutes since anybody had talked. Seann sat on the floor with his chin resting on his arms which lay across his knees, brought up close to his chest. His face was hard to read, it was almost expressionless. Hope had sat down on the bed and Snow had grabbed a rolling chair from the desk on the other side of the room. He sat in it backwards and rest his forearms on the back of the chair and stared to the floor. Snow then decided they had been quiet for too long.
"Hey, so you're a l'cie like us, huh? Got any cool, uh, tricks?" Snow asked Seann with a little smirk. Seann raised his head and looked at Snow, his expression still remaining very straight, when he suddenly raised his right hand, worked it out of the long sleeve he had it covered with and he snapped his fingers.
*snap*
A small black-colored spark appeared between his thumb and middle finger as he snapped them, and suddenly he completely faded out from sight. Hope and Snow gasped simultaneously and stood up from their respective seats.
"SEANN?!" Hope cried out, a little louder than he meant to. With another snap of his fingers, Seann then reappeared sitting in the same spot, looking up at both of them.
"You can..you can turn....inVISIBLE?!?!" Hope cried out, his eyes seemed as wide as small plates. Snow stood behind him clearly not believing what he just saw. Seann just nodded back at him.
"Yeah, that's..all I can do. I can't do any crazy magic spells like other l'cie are supposed to be able to," he said with a slight hint of jealousy that Snow picked up on.
"Hey," Snow said, smiling and walking towards the boy. He crouched down and placed a hand on Seann's shoulder. "You shouldn't wish that you could fight. Being able to stay hidden like that is incredible. You should consider your ability a gift. Leave the fighting to the grownups," he said with a smile.
Seann just shrugged. Snow's words meant little to him. If he could fight than maybe his parents wouldn't be dead right now. Or, at the very least, maybe some PSICOM soldiers would be as well.
Hope had his arms crossed again and looked at Snow, secretly wishing that his mother had been able to use an invisibility technique.
Maybe if she had been invisible she would still be alive. Snow wouldn't have been able to get her to help him out..
Hope shook his head, once again trying to clear his thoughts by physically shaking them out as he had done before upon first learning of Seann being a l'cie. Now wasn't the time to get angrier at Snow about his mother. His friend needed him.
"So...how does it work?" Hope asked, looking away from the crouching Snow and to Seann. Snow stood up and walked back to his chair and sat down in it backwards once again.
Seann looked at him with his eyes narrowed and a confused look.
"I mean, can you do it..forever?" Hope added, raising his eyebrows as he said the last word.
Seann shook his head no. "It seems to go away after a few minutes. I wish it didn't.." he sighed.
About two minutes later, another awkward silence in the upstairs bedroom was interrupted by the sound of a harsh knocking at the front door. All three of them stood up at the same time looking worried. Had PSICOM found out where they were? It couldn't have been Lightning and Fang, they had no clue who Seann was, not to mention where his house was and the fact that Hope and Snow were currently inside of it.
Another knocking on the front door echoed throughout the walls of Seann's room.
"Citizens! This is PSICOM patrol. An evacuation order has been issued. Please open your door or we will enter with force!"
Seann gasped as he recognized the speech of PSICOM troops.
"Why are they back?!" he said in frantic desperation.
Snow formed a fist with his right hand and punched his other, open palm. A little smile formed on his face as usual when he was prepared to fight.
"Let 'em come. We'll make them sorry they picked this house to check!" he said in the most heroic way possible.
Suddenly a loud bang and the sound of the Rescha residence's wooden front door splintering and flying open after a swift kick flooded the entire house. Seann jumped in fright at the loud noise as Snow and Hope dashed into the hallway. Three PSICOM soldiers were walking in to the living room, directly below where they stood. Snow turned to Hope and gave him a thumbs up before grabbing the rail and leaping over it.
Snow landed with a loud thud behind the soldiers. The three troops turned around in surprise and the rearmost one caught a powerful punch from Snow that sent him flying 10 feet through the air into the wall, causing a large crack to form on impact. The soldier fell to the ground unconscious. Another soldier tried to swing at Snow with the butt of his rifle, but Snow leapt backwards just in time to avoid the concussive blow.
The third soldier cocked his gun and aimed it at Snow, but Hope saw him first and threw his boomerang weapon at the soldier, disarming him of the submachine gun. Before the gun had even hit the floor, Hope cast a fire spell at the soldier and a large fireball about two feet in diameter flew at him, directly hitting him and causing the soldier to fall to the ground instantly.
Snow avoided another attempt at a melee swing by the last remaining soldier by jumping out of the way. The PSICOM troop let out a yell of rage and charged at Snow. But he was ready for it and dodged the soldier's attempt at another swing, countering it by punching him extremely hard in the ribcage. His amazing strength sent the soldier flying into the large flatscreen TV in the living room, completely shattering it upon the impact of the flying victim.
Snow let out a swift exhale and rubbed his right hand's knuckles. He looked up to the 2nd floor hallway at Hope, putting away his boomerang, and Seann who stood in his doorway.
"You boys okay?" Snow called up to them.
"Fine." Hope answered back, looking to his friend. Seann was slightly shaking and breathing quickly, the after effects of being frightened and the adrenaline rush of seeing the big brawl. Hope walked over and patted Seann on the arm.
"Come on, let's get going to my house. It will be safe there," Hope assured his friend, although he had his doubts about the truth in that last statement. How safe would they actually be? If the Sanctum found out where they were it was all over.
Hope and Seann walked down the hallway and down the stairs, meeting Snow at the bottom. Hope approached Snow and looked up to his face to meet his eyes.
"Seann is coming with us, okay?"
Hope's question was 100% rhetorical. Snow knew that any answer other than 'okay' would not suffice. It didn't matter though, as Snow had no intention of abandoning the boy.
"Of course! Let's get going to your house, kiddo," he said to Hope as he winked and grinned. Hope looked down and frowned to himself. He had momentarily forgot how angry he was at Snow for his mother dying. Seeing him smile like that triggered Hope's memory of how much he hated seeing him do it. Snow wasn't allowed to smile now that his mother was dead.
The three of them started walking towards the kicked-open front door when Snow pointed at the broken TV laying in pieces on the living room floor.
"Sorry about the TV. Hope you didn't want to watch anything before we left!" Snow said with a chuckle.
For the first time all day, Seann let out the faintest hint of a smile.
