Chapter 13

Lucy was in a panic. Her knees were trembling, her breathing ragged not just from the hot air around her, but also from the overwhelming disadvantage that she and her friends were at. The last time she was up against someone with powers like hers, she became incapable of moving, and resorted to screaming like a baby at a vaccination and sheer reflexes and instinct to knock out her opponent.

This time, she wasn't going to let her fear shut her down. How could she when her friends were fearlessly standing up to a near-invincible power? Lucy had to help, she had to redeem herself.

But, what could she do?

Looking at what she had to work with, it was really just sand with the occasional bush. She bent down to touch the sand to see how her bearings would interact with them, only to regret her decision after feeling how hot the sand had gotten.

How was she supposed to make bearings on the sand if she can't touch it? She had just watched Aminah's cunning plan fall to pieces with the kick of some sand. Even if Lucy were to have control over the sand with her bearings, how was she supposed to attack someone who could just negate all forms of aggression?

She had to help. She couldn't let her friends lose their power and memories, who else would stop whoever's doing all of this then? Lucy took off her shirt and began frantically using it to fan the sand near her feet, maybe then it would cool down enough for her to touch it and stick a bearing on it, to help in whatever way she could. The hot air began to sting her bare skin without the protection of her shirt, and she began to sweat harder than she ever had before.

"Hhahh!" Lucy was now panting like she had run a marathon at world record pace, but she did not let up her fanning.

She would protect her friends, because without them, she'd be lost.

"Lucy, what are you do-" Tabitha began to yell at her friend for being weird, but something stopped her "..."

"Is your friend okay?" Diana asked "shouldn't she be fanning herself?"

"..." the two said nothing.

"She's not an exhebitionist or a perv or anything like that, is she?" Diana continued.

"Aminah, I have an idea, listen carefully..." Tabitha whispered into her ear, ignoring Diana.

"Theyre ignoring me…" Diana mumbled to herself "well, I doubt they'll even be conscious in a few minutes."

Meanwhile, Lucy was on the brink of passing out, fanning the ground shirtless in a hotter-than-average desert took its toll on her much quicker than she had anticipated. She dropped the shirt on the sand, defeated, and used it to kneel onto so she wouldn't touch the floor directly.

Then, it came back to her. The feeling that she got before while touching something, her ability - the bearings - they spoke to her.

Her shirt.

Of course! Her shirt! How did she not see it before? She could put bearings on her shirt, then she might be able to do something! She tried to place a bearing on between her shirt and the sand, to see what would happen.

The bearing appeared. She could do it! She had no clue what she could do with a sand bearing, but it had to do something, right? She willed the bearing to spin, fast. Her shirt was beginning to get hot from touching the ground, but Lucy barely noticed. She heard a loud grinding sound coming from the underside of her shirt, she lifted it up to investigate. Much to her dismay, the bearing that was on the shirt was attached to a bunch of sand. The grinding was caused by the sand on the bearing rubbing against the sand on the ground. She'd be lying to herself if she said she didn't expect it, and she was now even more upset than before.

This was not good. She could feel the heat of the sand travel through her shoes and into her feet, and the hot air burned the inside of her lungs, pretty soon, she'd pass out and faceplant onto the boiling sand, which could give her serious burns.

She looked over at Tabitha and Aminah, who were whispering into each other's ears.

"You got it, Aminah?" Tabitha asked her.

"How is it supposed to stay on her back, though?" Aminah asked.

"Remember how you flew that plane behind the baseball?" Tabitha explained "It's sorta like that, the moving water moved around the ball, but couldnt go fast enough to completely cover the rear of the ball, leaving a little air bubble for the plane to settle into."

"But this time, it's with air instead of water?" Aminah asked.

"Exactly!" Tabitha confirmed "Can we get this going now? I don't want my shirt to go to waste."

"Let's do it." Aminah said.

With that, Tabitha and Aminah took off their shirts, Aminah closed one between her hands, and it turned to paper. She rolled up the newly-formed a-3 sheet and turned it into...a glass bottle? Lucy had no idea what these two were up to, but she hoped they could do something she couldn't.

Aminah gave the bottle over to Tabitha, who threw it at Diana, it hit the floor next to her and shattered into dozens of tiny pieces, which were picked up by the gust of wind from Diana's ability and scattered around the landscape.

"Are these two idiots?" Diana asked herself "now they can't move around with as much confidence because of the broken glass that'll easily melt through their shoes!"

The shirtless Aminah then took Tabitha's shirt, and turned it into paper again, then she rolled it up into what looked like a megaphone. Tabitha buried her hand into her pocket and grabbed Aminah's arm. Suddenly the two were gone from Diana's view.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" she heard a deafening scream coming from her left, followed by a swift pain in the side of her face, moments later, she lost consciousness.

Lucy had seen it all. Tabitha had somehow teleported with Aminah directly next to Diana and taken the megaphone to stun Diana, Aminah then punched her in the face. Diana had no time to react or to change the sound of the punch. A swift victory.

Suddenly, the ground had returned to normal temperature, and the air was now breathable again.

All three girls were panting heavily and sweating like crazy. All three could use a well deserved shower.

"LuLu!" Tabitha screamed "Are you okay!?"

Lucy looked up from her shirt on the floor to see Tabitha and Aminah running at her, megaphone no longer in hand.

Lucy tried to respond, but she couldn't. Something was stopping her. It was almost as if she didn't feel like she should be allowed to respond, at least not to someone like Tabitha.

"We did it!" Tabitha kneeled down in front of her, sweating all over "Did you get hurt?"

Tabitha's question was innocent enough, but there was no way she could be aware of the impact that it had on Lucy's mental state. She was helpless, she couldn't help her friends, she couldn't defend them, she couldn't even defend herself if not through sheer luck and reflexes. While Tabitha and Aminah were out there risking their abilities in a battle of wits and ingenuity, Lucy stood shirtless batting her shirt at the ground in a desperate attempt to be of use.

"...LuLu...?" Aminah looked concerned "...What's wrong?"

Lucy could feel herself begin to whimper quietly at her own uselessness.

"I know it's hot, but eyeballs aren't meant to sweat…" Aminah joked unhelpfully.

"Cut it out! LuLu needs our help." Tabitha crawled around behind Lucy and began her pinching routine "Cry not, mine friend, for I am here to ease thine troubles!"

Tabitha tried to lighten the mood, but it didn't help. It was at this point that Lucy broke down into tears, causing Tabitha to pull back.

"LuLu, what's wrong!?" Aminah asked.

"I...I can't!" she spoke through her sobs "Can't…!"

"...?" Aminah and Tabitha looked at each other in confusion.

"I'm...not…" Lucy continued, her cries intensifying "...useful…"

She had said it, the thoughts that plagued the back of her mind had entered the ether to be acknowledged by those closest to her. All Lucy wanted right now was to be needed.

"Oh, come on now," Tabitha said in a low, but tender and inviting voice "you know that's not true."

"*sniff*...but...I just…" Lucy's crying decreased in intensity slightly "just…sat here…*sniff*"

It was true, Lucy did nothing while her friends fought, she stood there and became unimportant like an urn blended into a wall. Tabitha moved around to her front and looked her dead in the face.

"Look at me." she demanded.

Lucy's shoulders shook as she cried.

"I said look at me!" Tabitha put her hands on Lucy's shoulders to stabilize them "Look at me." her voice was shakier than before

Lucy sniffled and raised her gaze to see into Tabitha's determined face. Except, her face wasn't determined. In fact, she couldn't even see her eyes, Tabitha was staring at Lucy's knees or the ground. Tabitha's shoulders began to vibrate and her grip on Lucy tightened.

"Don't…" Tabitha said, almost a whisper "Don't even think about thinking that."

Aminah was extremely confused.

"If...i-if you aren't here…" Tabitha began "w-who's cheeks…can I pinch?"

"..." Lucy was too shocked to continue crying.

"If you aren't here…" she continued, slightly louder "who's gonna cry over blood tests?"

"..." Lucy said nothing, incapable of forming words.

"If you aren't here…" Tabitha said "Who's gonna let me be strong?"

Tabitha needed Lucy. Without Lucy, Tabitha could not be herself. She needed someone to be there, someone to want to help. She'd been doing it for so long, it only felt natural to come and wake her up in the mornings when she forgot to set her alarm, it only felt natural to console her after a jumpscare in an internet video, it only felt natural to make sure there were no balloons near them.

It only felt natural to want to protect Lucy. That is what Tabitha wants.

"...T-" Lucy started to speak.

Before she could even utter a syllable, Tabitha had buried her face into Lucy's chest and wrapped her arms around her waist in a tight hug. Even though it was over 40 degrees celsius in the hot desert, Tabitha quivered like she was in a Canadian winter.

"I...need you…" Lucy could make out Tabitha's speech despite it being muffled by her own body and Tabitha's sobs "I need to…"

"..." Aminah was beginning to understand as well.

"I need to need you!" Tabitha screamed into Lucy's chest and further tightened her grip "...or...or else!"

Or else Tabitha couldn't be herself. Aminah initially was flabbergasted at seeing her two best friends break down in tears so suddenly. Though she could somewhat comprehend that Lucy was upset at herself for being incapable of helping, she had no idea as to why Tabitha, the most headstrong member of their friend group, would lose her composure so quickly.

But in hindsight, she'd seen the clues all along, all from the very beginning when Aminah joined their class at the beginning of highschool. Lucy was shy, when she and Aminah met, Lucy was incapable of starting a proper conversation, it was always Tabitha who kickstarted it by complaining about something or making a joke. Lucy would never walk directly next to her, always slightly behind. Aminah knew nothing of Tabitha before she and Lucy became friends, but every time they spoke together and every time she pinched Lucy's cheeks, a sparkle entered her eyes that reminded her of the pride that a mother takes when looking at her newborn child.

Just as Lucy needed Tabitha to be confident in herself, Tabitha needed Lucy to accomplish the same. This reaction was fear. Fear that Lucy would mature beyond needing her any longer.

She knew it was inevitable, but Tabitha couldn't accept it quite yet. That hug was a plea, that hug was Tabitha begging Lucy to stay with her until she could accept that her friend was becoming an adult.

Aminah could not share in the emotions of the two, but seeing them both cry their eyes out for different yet surprisingly similar reasons made Aminah feel like she had to do something. Aminah joined into the hug. All three girls, topless, sweaty, tired, and teary, were engaged in a group hug in the middle of the desert.

All the while, a doorway towards the future was calling them to itself.