Wooo lots of reviews! Man if all of ya'll anon reviewers had accounts I would probably be close to 100 follows haha! Jokes, it's all good, that's not what this is about. If you want a tailored response then please comment with a unique name, otherwise don't be offended if I don't address your comment. Please note that I will put individualized reviewer responses at the end of the chapters so those who want to get going with the story can do so without interruption.
Re: the whole g!p drama, here is the last time I will address it: I appreciate everyone who left a comment regardless of which side of the coin you are on. As a whole, I thank you all for your time to leave your thoughts. That's the beauty of the review section – it creates a dialogue between us and I love it! Please know that I am not some 15 year old writing mindlessly; I have a post graduate education and have been brought up to think critically about my decisions. I mention this because I want to clear the air that I did not subside to the 'hate' comments so don't worry. I saw that they had a point, and it was in parallel with how I wanted my story to be portrayed originally so I chose to change it predominantly based off of me, but with the 'hate' comments as a spark. I understand that if comments are not worth it, I won't listen but if it does have merit, I respect it and will take it into consideration as I have with this situation. Maybe I'll compose a g!p in the future but for now, my heart is with this story. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for providing me advice and telling me to stay true to myself. I find that so beautiful because after all, that's what the show Glee is all about :-) All of your opinions are valued and I love all of your support. I would like to move forward and continue on with writing and this situation can serve as an example to everyone that I do read reviews and if they are worth it, I can take action. This is the last time I am going to address this drama on my fic and for anyone who would like to, I would be happy to continue this conversation only through PM as I want to redirect the focus back to the story :-)
Let's keep going.
Ch 10: Awakenings Pt. I
You're staring at an unconscious Lopez who's in the healing pod right now. It looks like she's sleeping while standing up but you know from experience that she's out cold from the serum that the medics inject into us to put you into sort of a hibernation mode, so to speak.
Right now, her body is shut down with the exception of the vital organs, enabling all of her body's energy to couple with the excess flow of dark energy in the pod, to concentrate on healing the titan back to his or her full state.
Platinum straps hold her in place while dark purple energy flows freely around her gentle sleeping face in the pod. She looks like she's on display, and how you wish you could take her down from there. She shouldn't be out in the open likes this; she should only be admired by you.
You're not sure how much time has gone by but with the hovercraft being repaired over the last week, you've had nothing to do all week long and have been spending most of the time here.
Normally, the healing process takes a couple of days after combat training. Lopez has been in here for the whole week. Although Lopez was able to fight Carl for a substantial amount of time, you have concluded that the human body's natural hormone, epinephrine or otherwise known as adrenaline, was the very molecule that kept her going in the fight, otherwise, her injuries wouldn't have enabled her to fight for that long.
Carl's blasts were abnormal, and you're racking your brains as to how having more energy could cause the beams to be exponentially stronger. Normally, having more energy just meant you could last longer with whatever you were doing, like having more food to replenish your body's source of fuel.
The accumulation of hits on Lopez and her lattimus did little to her physical body, but energy wise, she probably wouldn't be strong enough to even will her armour on. Injuries to your lattimus were often strange. The pain you felt wasn't visible, but you could feel it as if large bruises were where the hits were.
As soon as you saw her stand up from her crouching position after Finn died, you saw her sway and crumple to the ground. It was not a millisecond later that you were by her side to carry her to the medic center.
Ever since then, you've been in the medic center so often that you decided to bring your own chair to sit in front of her pod so you can keep her company.
Today, you brought a holographic pad to draw or write your thoughts down on, just to help pass time.
You're drawing a cartoon picture of poop and underneath, it's labelled "Carl".
Footsteps approach you but you don't turn around to acknowledge who it is.
You don't really care to be honest.
Thoughts whirl in your mind about Carl and the energy, and of the sleeping red soldier in front of you.
The footsteps have stopped and you know that whoever it is, they're also looking at Santana.
Moments of silence pass between you two as you continue to shade in the poop.
"You know, it's going to take her a while to come around." It's Tina who has crept up beside you.
She and Mercedes have had you as a frequent visitor over the past week and have given up on shoo-ing you out of the center.
It's some time early in the morning and the HQ is normally completely dead by now but times aren't normal.
This is far from normal.
HQ is now buzzing with life, having titans here and there, most of them suffering the same insomnia that you have.
Lopez is the only one who needed healing because the only other titan who would've needed it would've been Finn… Great, now Finn is in your mind.
You can't bear to think of it.
You refuse to even remember it.
Yet you can't shake the image out of your mind.
Every time you try to go to sleep, all you can picture is your titan team and the Narpollians all huddled around the tunnel exit of the hovercraft, staring in awe at the giant lattimus with four arms that was attacking Finn's black and grey lattimus armour.
You remember clearly how he didn't even last a minute, facing Carl alone.
You remember how the titan was fighting off two arms that were swinging at him but missing the other two arms that stretched underneath to release a deathblow energy beam that consumed the titan completely.
"It's okay, I know. I'll wait here for as long as I have to," you quietly say, not taking your eyes off of Lopez.
You hear Tina sigh.
"I wasn't talking about her getting out of the pod."
You look over to Tina, whose eye bags are prominently showing, probably due to her having to keep Lopez on the healing cycle day and night.
"What do you mean?" you inquire with fatigue.
"Physically she'll be okay. She'll have no problem, I can guarantee you that. But mentally… she just watched her friend die," she says with her lips quivering.
You have to look away and close your eyes to hide the moisture forming in your eyes. Seeing her like this is hard enough, but knowing that Tina is right and that this event will change Santana for good? You can't stand the thought of it.
You register the pain for losing Finn, but at the same time, you didn't know who he was. You know Lopez, and you know that she's going to have to live with the loss, and you don't know how someone could live with that pain.
Whatever Lopez feels, you'll feel. It's inevitable.
Tina senses your inner turmoil and gives you some space, patting you on the shoulder.
"She's going to need you now, more than ever," she says.
Sniffing a little, you wipe your eyes with the back of your hands and nod.
"I know."
/
Section 1.5 – BLAM (Tale of the Two Bros)
It's funny how well the Narpollians fit in with your crew.
Sure, the first couple of days were brutal, trying to get them settled in and not knowing how to talk to them while they dealt with the loss of their fellow titan, but it's been a week and now we're all functioning as if they lived here all along.
Your Predastar HQ is the perfect size to host this many people and to be honest, it's kind of fun to have so many friends around.
You're not sure how Brittany dealt with talking to so many reporters or the government officials regarding the assimilation of Narpollo titans here, especially the ones who were publicized to have attempted to destroy Metropolis (which is true but the news reporters never could confirm that – thank goodness).
If it were you, you would've just blabbed the whole truth out and slammed the doors in their faces but you guess that's why Britt's the captain.
Your hands are skilfully and carefully shaving off your blonde shadow of facial hair, but your mind is not concentrated on those well-practiced movements. You can't stop thinking about how down Britt is.
You can see that she's holding it together when in front of people but you haven't missed how she's been disappearing far too often to the medic center. You only know that because it's normally your "thing" to wander off to the medic center to keep Mercedes company and have seen Britt there every, single, time.
Wiping your face with a towel, you run your hands through your hair and put some deodorant on.
The sound of air being released at the doors gets your attention and you turn to the right to see who's coming into your room.
"Hey Sam," greets Blaine.
"Whaddup man?" you respond, giving him a fist bump.
Although HQ is big enough to host the additional titans, there aren't enough individual rooms seeing as Lopez took the last open one so everyone has to share rooms with people. Blaine is your bunk buddy and you two have been inseparable since.
From late night bro talks, you've discovered that Santana was the equivalent of Brittany back on their planet.
Ever since her disappearance, the group had been looking to Blaine but Carl never sent them out on any more missions after the failed attack on the Metropolis so most of the time, Blaine held group dinners but that's about it.
You couldn't really picture Blaine as a leader at first.
Blaine is shorter than you, but you're a pretty tall guy to start with and you guess leaders don't all have to be physically dominating.
He's also got a really slick, gelled hairstyle that must take a while to do every morning. It's clean cut, unlike your shaggy hairdo.
One thing that stands out though, is his confidence and use of big, big words.
You remember that one conversation where he was ranting about something and used the word 'ideology' three times in one breath.
Needless to say, you had no idea what that conversation was about.
You titans were raised up well though, and judgement is not something you hold. Of course, you're human and had thought all of those things, but you quickly accepted it about Blaine and now you're in a beautiful bromance.
"Nothing but hey! I've been waiting for you to get up because I've got a brilliant idea. It's going to help us get to know each other," he says, walking towards you in his Narpollo uniform consisting of tight tank tops and black cargo pants.
Ever since the team landed, you've found yourself taking charge in integrating the Narpollian titans while Blaine took the lead on acting as the bridge between the two groups.
Together, you and Blaine have managed to host bonding time and discussion groups for everyone to get to know one another and basically to hang out.
No one has brought up Finn yet, it's far too painful and you can see it in their eyes.
You also know that whenever you see one of them looking up in silence, they're thinking of him.
"I'm in, what's the plan?" you ask, walking over to him, already excited for whatever he's got in store.
/
"OH. MY. GOD. AHHHH!" shrieks Sugar. She's standing but has both arms shielding her face as you all throw explosive paintballs at her.
"THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER."
You smile wickedly as you chuck one more at her head.
It hits one of her elbows that are shielding her face and an explosion of colour covers her arms.
"Annnnd… TIME!" shouts out Blaine.
The assault ceases and everyone is laughing at Sugar who has both of her arms crossed and looks infuriated.
"I look like lemon meringue pie filling," she pouts.
"I think you look delicious," says Karofsky, who's clearly hungry again.
"Why did I have to go first?" whines Sugar. "How is colouring me with powdered bombs making me feel more close to the Predastar titans, huh? And why'd you have to throw so hard?!"
You walk up to her, breaking apart from the line of titans who are armed with paintball balloons.
"Sugar, we wanted to welcome you to the titans," you say, putting your arm around her newly coloured bright yellow shoulders and face the rest of the team.
"But as we thought about it, it would be unfair to choose one titan species over the other," chimes in Blaine. He walks up to the front and faces the row of titans too.
"We're now upgraded. A new and improved era of titans where light and dark energy doesn't matter!" you say proudly.
"By colouring our uniforms with our lattimus colours, we'll become one unit, but still remain individuals, and it's also a bonding game hidden within this new initiation," says Blaine, clearly proud of his own idea.
"How are we all one unit if we're all different colours?" questions Jake.
"We'll all have splotches of colour on us and it's easy to see that all of our clothes were attacked the same way! No more black and no more tan army clothing!" you say.
You raise your hands in the air.
"Alright, who's next?! Let's keep on making some memories!"
/
Section 1.0 – Awakening continued
You're not sure how much time has passed by while waiting for Santana to wake up today (Tina told you that she is scheduled to wake up today), but this time has allowed you to make a lot of progress with your brainstorming.
On a holographic pad, you've come up with several questions and a 'what to do next' section. Okay, maybe it's not that impressive, but considering you've been doodling poop on your screen for the whole morning? It's pretty good.
One of the biggest questions on your list is that Carl is a now a monster, but where is he?
How did he transform and how is he so powerful now?
What are his next steps?
Under your 'next steps' section, you have written down: sleep.
You sigh, putting your holographic pad down on the floor and cross your legs, trying to find a more comfortable position.
You heard mayhem a couple of hours ago when the titans all ran towards the elevator to go down to the training simulator to do something. They invited you to tag along but you are in no mood to converse with anyone.
You close your eyes for a second before hearing a female voice come from behind you.
"Can I join you?"
You turn around and see Lopez's friend who has the jet black lattimus armour. She's poking her head through the medic center entrance doors, looking unsure of whether she's allowed to come in or not.
"Yeah," you respond, beckoning her towards you. "Sorry, I don't have another chair."
Her short blonde hair outlines her face perfectly. Like all other Narpollian titans, she's wearing her black tank top uniform and tight black pants in black combat boots. You're betting that she either didn't bother joining the other titans or just left early. Dark green eyes stare past you and at the unconscious titan.
"I don't mind," she vacantly says as she walks towards you.
"Quinn, right?" you say, jogging your memory. She nods.
"Nice to meet officially meet you, Captain," she says.
You shake your head. "Brittany is good enough."
She offers you a smile in return.
"I've noticed that you've been in here for a while. Were you two close?" she carefully asks.
Looking back at Lopez, you ask yourself that question.
You were definitely inside the walls of the Lopez, but you also knew that you meant a lot more to each other than just friends.
"Yeah, you could say that," you shrug.
Quinn raises her eyebrows, but doesn't probe any further.
Silence passes by as you both stare at the healing pod. The only sound comes from the gentle humming of the pod's energy distributor, shooting out slow, swirling energy around her body.
Feeling the need to get to know Santana's friend, you force yourself out of your stupor and talk some more.
"Were you?" you ask. "Were you and Santana close?"
Quinn nods. "You could say that," she says laughing. "More like enemies who had no one else to turn to. We have a hate love relationship."
Intrigued, you continue to question her. "What do you mean?"
"Santana and I…" she struggles for words and places a hand on the back of your chair to take on a more relaxed pose. "We are the most powerful titans on our side. Santana is physically and skillfully dominant, even more so than the guys, and especially during her later teen years. I however, am neither," she laughs. "I am powerful, but uncontrollable. I can't choose when I unleash my power. So naturally we were always stuck together in training because Santana was the only one who could fight me. Santana would get pissed off because I would randomly explode and would win by sheer luck so when the next round came along, she would take a cheap shot to win and then I got pissed off… it became a cycle… you get the gist of it," she says chuckling.
You grin because you can totally see Santana getting hot-headed and gloating as she takes a cheap shot to Quinn.
"So your power is random explosions?" you ask.
"Sort of. I randomly use my powers when I'm under stress. The thing is, I've got multiple powers too."
You widen your eyes at that. That's totally not what you were expecting.
"I can shoot out paralyzing electric force fields a certain distance around me, I can absorb my opponent's physical combat skills when they're around me, I can fly at super speed, and the last one that I know of is weird. For some reason, I'm connected to Santana emotionally and can feel her emotions if they expand beyond what she normally feels-"
"-which is probably not very much," you joke.
Quinn laughs. "Totally. But yeah, I feel it when I am sleeping and in the past, if I got too stressed out, I sometimes even triggered her super power because of this connection, regardless of where she is."
"She broke my bed!" you exclaim, twisting around in your chair to face Quinn who is standing beside you. "She shot my bed with her glowing eyes while I was sleeping! That explains it… but what were you stressed out about?"
Quinn's lips tighten.
"I'm not surprised. There were a couple of nights where I was worried sick about her and was convinced she was dead somewhere…" she trails off.
"Yikes. Well, you sound pretty powerful," you say, trying to redirect the conversation. "Why didn't I fight you during the Metropolis force field attack though?" you ask.
She sighs. "I accidentally hurt my own team really bad on one mission. I exploded with an energy force field so powerful that it also knocked me out in the process and so I basically paralyzed myself and my whole team while trying to take life-energy from a planet full of wild blue looking coyotes. I unofficially resigned from taking on any combat missions after that."
"Whoa, how did you escape?" you ask.
The conversation with Quinn lasts for another hour or so, with you enjoying her company and laughing about things you have in common.
You find her really easy to get along with.
"You know, the three of us would make a totally killer team, me you and Santana," you say.
"Oh man," she chuckles. "We would be so bad for each other, but so good too," she responds smiling.
"Well we're all awesome so I think we should all hang out once Santana wakes up," you say.
"We would be an unholy trinity," Quinn jokes.
"Oh my god. Love it," you say. You find yourself actually smiling at this point.
A high pitched beeping sound starts to sound from behind you and the pod surrounding Santana's body starts to glow.
Excitement and nervousness fill your body as you jump out of your chair, eyes wide and running over to press the medic button on the other side of the room where the holographic controls are.
"SHE'S DONE!" you exclaim to Quinn.
Surges of hope rises in your chest with each breath and you stand beside Quinn, waiting to help Santana down from the pod.
Seconds later, Mercedes and Tina come rushing into the center. They take one look at the glowing pod and immediately get to work.
Tina presses some buttons on the holographic control panel and you see Santana's vitals screen pop up.
Three dimensional images of her heart pop up and you are able to see it beating with the heart beat values floating beside it.
Mercedes grabs a large silver blanket and heads over to you.
"You want to do the honours?" she asks.
Quinn looks at you quizzically.
"We need to warm her up after healing sessions. The body is shut down so she's going to be super cold," you explain.
You smile and take the large silver blanket with both hands, unfolding it and opening it up.
"Shutting off the energy," says Tina.
The flow of purple liquid-gas energy slowly stops swirling into the pod.
With a click, the platinum straps open, releasing Santana's wrists, waist, and ankles.
You watch her with adoring eyes, waiting to see her brown ones stare back at you.
You've waited a week to see them.
You've waited a week to hear her voice.
You've waited a week to feel yourself again.
Slowly, you see Santana groggily open her eyes. They flutter, eye muscles remembering how to contract.
She takes slow, deep breaths, allowing her eyes to focus and adjust to the change of light.
Looking a little dazed, you see her eyes start to search the room, staring at the other empty pods, Tina and the holographic controls, and finally at you.
You're not sure what you were expecting, but you do know that it wasn't this.
What you see staring back at you is complete sadness.
Her face doesn't say anything, but you have learned how to read her.
Her eyes say it all, and she seems to know that you can see right through her so she closes her eyes.
"Could you help me get down?" she whispers.
You nod, "of course."
Quinn takes one side while you take the other, holding her arms and steadying her as she hops out of the pod and lands on her two feet.
"Welcome back," you softly say.
You open up the blanket and wrap it around her, careful not to linger too long in her personal space.
"Can you give us a minute?" you ask of everyone in the room.
Quinn reaches for Santana's shoulder and gives her a sad smile.
"We'll catch up later, okay?"
You see Santana nod in response, returning a small smile that doesn't reach her eyes.
Tina and Mercedes silently head out the doors as well.
It's just you and her, and for once in your life, you don't know what to say.
You don't know where to start.
You gaze into her eyes for a moment, trying to read her.
Just as you're about to open your mouth to say something, she speaks.
"I… I just need to be alone for a bit," she says without looking at you.
You won't deny that the dull pang in your chest hurts, but you also know that she probably needs to think things over, and have some time to process what's happened.
"Okay," you softly say.
Her hand finds yours and gives it a gentle squeeze.
"I'm sorry, I just- I need to be alone."
She lets go of your hand and walks towards the doors.
You're left alone with the picture of poop you drew on the holographic pad you brought.
That's certainly how you feel right now. Shitty.
/
The day passes by as you try to keep your mind off of the Red soldier who's locked herself up in her room. You've tried to bring her food and snacks a couple of times but was only met with a locked door.
You're left sitting in the control center watching Artie work endlessly.
You would be in the simulation arena right now but some of the Narpollo titans were using it to blow off some steam. That tall one with the Mohawk and the other darker skinned one.
Not only are you extremely bored and unmotivated to do anything, you're also really tired.
You don't feel like yourself. You feel like an empty shell, moving around, just waiting to be brought back to life by Santana.
You want to help her but you don't know how, and you want to understand what she's going through yet you know that it's impossible to do so.
You decide to let yourself swim in this pity party for one more minute and then you're going to stop.
You need to be somewhat productive.
"The ship, is, DONE!" cheers Artie.
You look up.
"What? For real?"
"It's done," he says with a smile. "Now we wait on your command."
Suddenly realizing how hungry you are, you decide to go get some snacks and figure out what to do next.
Thinking on an empty stomach is the worst.
"Nice going little B! Air high five!" you say, offering him a pretend high five from your side of the room. He returns it and goes back to work.
Entering the lounge, you see that it's occupied by a big burly guy who's eating some goldfish from a big bag. He sees you coming in and sits up straighter, offering you a smile.
"Hi captain," he says. "Name's Karofsky, also known as the duke stud of Narpollo."
You start to laugh because of what a dork this guy is.
"Hi, could I have some?"
"Oh you can have all of this, beautiful."
You grin. "I meant the goldfish, Karofsky."
"Oh," he says, ears going bright red.
He fumbles and hands you the big bag and mutters a "here you go" without looking at you.
You plop down beside him on the lounge couch and begin to eat.
"I'm such an idiot, I'm sorry," he says.
"No, it's okay. I thought it was funny," you say.
"Man it's just, I don't know how to act around girls. Narpollo is full of dudes and when I see a pretty one like you, I become a douche. I mean, I don't even like girls," he says shyly.
You swallow down some goldfish and almost choke in surprise. You were not expecting this turn of conversation.
"It's okay, I like Santana," you state.
He takes a look at you in confusion.
"Really? Damn, I really would've have no shot with you then," he jokes, grinning.
"Nope."
"Santana was my bro. My secret bro. I've missed talking to her," he says.
"Is she, is she normally like this if something bad happens?"
He looks down and shakes his head.
"I've never seen her this down. She wouldn't even let me into her room!" he says.
"I know, same," you say worried.
"She probably thinks that Finn died because of her."
"I know. No one should have to bear that weight alone," you say. You notice his uniform is dusted and splattered with paint the colour of his lattimus.
"What happened to you?"
He smiles and pulls down his tank top to get a better look at it.
"Oh Sam and Blaine wanted us to get rid of our old uniforms so we can feel more like a team so we paintballed each other."
You laugh.
"That's so awesome."
"Britt, get to the control center." Artie's voice resonates throughout the HQ on speakerphone and immediately you are awake and alert.
"Hold my fish," you say, tossing the bag at Karofsky and bolting out of the door.
Reaching the control center, you see Artie talking to a holographic Schuester by the 3D hologram podium where you draw maps. Kitty, Holly, and JBI are over at the lab bench hunched over something.
Schuester's eyes catch yours and open up wider.
"Brittany, so glad you came. I've got some news for you. These guys have just updated me on what happened."
"What's going on?" you ask as you jog over to join the rest of them.
"I'm sorry you guys had to fight Carl like that. I think I know what's going on right now."
"Where are you?" you ask.
"I'm still on my way to Odom. I've tried several places I thought would be the spot to connect but so far no luck. There's one more spot, it's an old legend about a floating iceberg in the district next to Predastar. But, I didn't come away empty handed all of this time. I found a scroll of sorts on one of the areas I landed on. It's got ancient markings on it and Artie tells me so did Carl's lattimus. I can't read them because that language was from a millions of years ago. It's been a long time since I've even seen it. So I sent it over to your lab and now those guys are trying to decipher it," he says, pointing over to the three scientists.
"Okay…" you say, waiting for him to go on.
"Now, I know you've been through a lot and sitting around probably hasn't helped much but I want to tell you this and I want you to handle it with a level head and with caution," he says.
"I think I know what the scroll says, and I just need them to confirm it. Carl is trying to become a god again, this we know. How he's doing it is through old, old powers. He's trying to become a demi-god, so a god that is only half of a god because only Odom can allow that if he deems the being worthy. I think that Carl is in the process of becoming a demi-god. He's absorbed all of the energy that the Narpollo titans have helped him collect over the past years and it's given him power unlike anything you or I have seen before and that's simply because we used to be gods and we react differently to the life energy."
"So now what?" you say, trying to process everything.
"That's not enough to become a demi-god though. So his next logical step would be to absorb all of the pure life-energy and then Odom would not be able to deny him power to be a god again once he's got so much."
"The Bavarian Planes…" you say.
"Precisely. He's going to go there and try to take the energy directly. I need confirmation that that's true and if so, I need to get to Odom before he does. The problem is that I don't know where Odom is so I'm really hoping I can find this iceberg and connect to Odom and talk to it."
"IT'S RIGHT!" shouts Holly. "The scroll talks about a legend where a human becomes a god through transformation into a demi god."
Your heart beat picks up and you can feel action needing to happen.
"We gotta go," you say.
"NO Brittany, you can't," says Schuester, raising his voice. "You can't go, that's why I came here to tell you myself that you must not go face him again. You're not strong enough and it will only end worse than last time I'm afraid," he says looking right at you.
"I care about you guys, I don't want you to get in the way of my battles, and I can't stand the thought of losing one of my own titans," he says. "You know you won't be able to fight him and so I need to get to Odom as soon as possible to find a means to an end."
You can't believe this. "So you just want us to sit by and not do anything while Carl is tearing up the Bavarian Planes?! He'll become even stronger by then and then we really won't be able to stop him! At least now we've got a shot!" you counter angrily.
"I order you to stay here. That's that."
You clench your jaw.
"I've sat on the side long enough. So has everyone. If we have a chance at making a difference, we will take that part. We are titans for a reason, you can't tell us to stop trying to defend our world," you say.
"You don't get it. I can't lose you guys. If Carl does something to you all, and it's because of me not being able to forsee this lunatic's vendetta, I will never, ever forgive myself."
You sigh. Your mind is set. You're going to do whatever you please because there is no way in hell that you're going to be sitting ducks.
"This is bigger than what you feel," you say, steadying your voice. "We're going. Good luck."
"NO don't-"
You cut off the transmission. Schuester's hologram disappears and the room is filled with silence.
"Did you get enough information from his transmission to pinpoint where he is?" you ask Artie.
"Yes," he responds. For the longest time, you've been trying to figure out a way to contact Schuester and have never been able to because he would hologram himself in but only for a very brief time. You were able to drag out the conversation until Artie had made a slight cough, signalling that he was good.
"He's exactly where he said he was, at the edge of one of the galaxy districts. I think he's not fooling us and is actually trying to find Odom because literally no planets are around there," says Artie.
"No, I believe that he's trying to find Odom," you say. "What I can't believe is the fact that he would tell us to not do anything at all."
"So what's next, sweet cheeks?" asks Holly as she walks over from the lab. She's followed by the other two scientists.
"We're behind you no matter what you decide," says Kitty.
You don't even hesitate. Eyes cold and hard, you stare in the vacant spot where Schuester was standing a moment ago.
All you can think of is how Finn disappeared in in the beam of blazing energy; how Santana crumpled to the ground and spent a week in her healing state; how she couldn't even utter a complete sentence without closing up and shutting out the whole world.
Your voice comes out, but more menacing than you've ever heard it before.
"We're going all-out on Carl. We're going to kill him. We're going to stop him for good, and put an end to this shithole he's put us in."
Artie whoops and nods as he heads over to his holographic control panel.
You see him switch on the speakerphone.
"Titans," his voice booms. "We're moving out in 30."
The scientists are now scurrying to pack up their tools while Artie goes back to pressing buttons.
You can feel the slight tremor and vibrations in your feet, coming from the floor.
The titans are up and in action, running around to get their belongings.
You don't realize that your choice to take action will be like the falling of a little stone, one that starts an avalanche.
"Titans, we are about to destroy."
BOOM. Always the dilemma of waiting to post multiple chapters together (longer wait time?) or to post as I go... Here's the first part. Trying out the latter strategy right now - let me know what you prefer. Second part to come.
Responses :-)
southerncomfortzone: Awesome username btw. Great drink. Anyhow, thanks for your words and support. I agree, it's tough for some people to disregard the g!p concept - my opinion is that stories are meant for you to suspend your disbelief for the journey and enjoy what's going on. But, this world is very lucky in having many individuals who have freedom of thought and opinion so I respect that.
Guest who did not enjoy the surprise: It means a lot to me that the story was a means of an entertaining distraction; I certainly know how you feel as other fics I've read over the past years have served that purpose (being so far from home totally sucks!) too so for this story to be that for you, I feel so special - thanks for the compliment. Everything you've said is noted and I'm sorry you felt cheated. I hope the story will continue to help you cope with being extremely far from home. I will soon be very, very far from home as well so you and I will both take comfort with this story
FC: I know from personal experience that things can be misconstrued over the internet and so I don't take things personally. Thanks for providing your (very opinionated) thoughts because it takes courage to do that. I'm very pleased with my replacement scene. Thanks for the compliments – writing action scenes/translating what I'm picturing in my head into words is difficult so I appreciate the praise! I'm looking forward to hearing from you in future chapters.
As for Guests who like to ponder on what's going to happen… I will give you a hint that things I have written will not be very predictable as those are the stories I tend to avoid. Those stories are boring, so I like to add twists that you don't expect. I love reading your guesses though, keep them coming! As for your questions, they will be answered within the chapters to come, if they haven't been already.