Disclaimer: Again, me no own copyright things…
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Sunrise.
The light from the sun crept slowly inside Nick's bedroom eventually touching his brow and warming his head which caused him to wake. His eyes fluttered with sleepiness until eventually they were fully open and Nick finally greeted the new day. His eyes turned towards the bedside clock. It read 6:14 AM. Not too early or too late for a weekend, he thought.
He tried to get up but he felt a weight on his chest. He looked down to see that it was Tara's arm that was on his chest. He looked to her side of the bed and saw that Tara was still sleeping soundly in her borrowed pajamas. A faint smile crept across Nick's face when he saw how she looked when she slept.
He carefully moved her arm off of him so that he could get up. She stirred slightly as he left her side and sat at the edge of the bed. He stood up and stretched his arms. He moved to wards the window and peeked through the curtains. He didn't want o wake up Tara yet so he didn't open the curtains wide as he usually did. It was in deed morning. Already the hustle and bustle o the city was getting into gear.
He turned around from the window as he heard Tara stir on his bed again. In Nick's absence she seemed to have found some comfort in hugging the pillow Nick used to sleep on.
It had been a pretty hectic night last night.
After the incident at the mall cooled down and the Red X's meeting with the stranger on the rooftop was over, Nick took Tara home. His home. He kept his word and told her everything about that fateful night he acquired the suit and how it's become part of his life since then.
Tara expressed great interest in the subject. She knew from before that Nick himself did not steal the suit from wherever it came from. That was an almost preposterous notion in and of itself. She would've also guessed that there's no way the original owners of the suit would have simply left the thing lying around for just anyone to grab.
The conversation dragged on so long that both teens got too tire to go anywhere but bed. They called Tara's place first to say where Tara would be staying tonight then Nick, being the gentleman that he was offered Tara his bed and that he would take the couch. Tara, of course, politely tried to refuse Nick's offer. Eventually, it was decided that they would both use bed when the two couldn't decided
So with blushing faces, the teens went to bed and did nothing more than that.
Nick seemed to take a bit of humor in that memory. He looked back out into the new day and admired the sunrise for another moment before his thoughts turned to that guy he recently met. That guy who was related to the Kapre. That tracking device was still on him.
The tracking device he used on Perudo was one of a set that he managed to steal away from another bunch of professional thieves he encountered when trying to nab a certain item of value which apparently wasn't just on his Christmas list. Nick moved towards his bed again and reached out under it to the duffel bag that he used to stash the Red X suit. From one of the side pockets of the bag, he took out a plastic case. He opened it up to reveal other similar tracking buttons on one side of the case and a GPS locater on the other.
He took out the GPS locator and turned it on. It displayed a digital map of the local area. A second later it displayed the exact location of the tracking device he planted on his new acquaintance. It was still transmitting. Good. It was also moving. He'd have to follow it. Nick put down the locater on the bed and moved to his bathroom to perform his morning routine. Later he got dressed in day clothes and picked up the locater to turn it off and put it back in the duffel bag.
He took one last look at Tara's sleeping figure as he walked out his bedroom door.
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Parasol's hidden conference room.
"Gentlemen," started Annette Ashford, "this is unacceptable!"
She slammed her fist down at the table and the bang resounded in the mahogany walled boardroom. The rest of the men were taken aback and looked nervous. Ms. Ashford drew her hand back onto her lap and seemed to calmed down a bit. She gave each of her five cohorts a once over to make sure they were listening.
"Can any of you guess why this is unacceptable?" she asked.
The youngest member of the board raised a palm. "Because of the incident at the mall, perhaps?"
"I did not hire you to answer rhetorical questions Mr. Carlson."
Mr. Carlson shut up.
"What is the latest report?"
The Hispanic gentleman, Mr. Lopez , spoke up. "Perudo has submitted that the Kapre has gone into hiding after failing an apparent attempt to destroy the Red X at the mall."
Ms. Ashford raised an eyebrow. "Apparent, you say?"
"Well, ma'am we aren't sure exactly who the Kapre was attacking at the mall. We assume with reasonable conclusiveness that the creature was going after the Red X while he was out of costume."
"Damn the luck. I was afraid of this." Ms. Ashford rubbed her temples with her hands. "As the Kapre increases it's combat levels, it looses it's already limited sense of logic. Back at level D configuration at least it had the sense to not go after the Red X until he was actually in the suit. It's reverting back to animal instincts."
"We're doing our best to solve that problem ma'am. Mr. Johnson's department has been working on that problem for the past few days now."
Mr. Johnson, another old white man, spoke up in response to this. "It would seem that the problem stems from too much hormone concentration, as the result of the transformation, blocks out the logic receptors in the Kapre's brain. We're on the way to finding a method to control this flooding."
"That's not good enough, Mr. Johnson," said Ms. Ashford. "I need results fast."
"We're doing our best ma'am but under these time constraints…"
"You have to do better than that, otherwise the project, every bit of it, is in jeopardy."
"Ma'am, we know that the incident at the mall was bad. But we have faced worse before. Something like this will be simple enough to cover up by Mr. Delaine's department. So we needn't worry so much."
Incompetents, every single one of them. "Don't you see what just happened?"
There was a slightly awkward silence that followed. The five men looked at each other with inquiring looks. Every second the silence dragged on, Ms. Ashford lost more and more of her patience.
"The Kapre attacked the Red X out of costume…and FAILED!!"
The men were taken aback by the sudden loudness of her voice. Ms. Ashford's expression drained the blood from their faces. They could almost see her teeth.
"Let me spell it out for you gentlemen," she said in a much calmer (by comparison) voice. "The Kapre was already in the Level B configuration when it attacked the suit's owner without the suit on and still managed to make a complete mess of the situation. How could that be possible? We know for a fact that the owner of the suit is no one particularly special in any way! Taking care of an ordinary should not have been a problem!"
She let that last sentence linger in the air so that she could make sure her point sank in. And evidently it did. The men were quiet. She continued.
"Gentlemen, we must turn this situation around. I had better see results that I can appreciate for my own satisfaction and for this company's reputation. We cannot afford a failure now."
With that, Ms Ashford got up from her chair and gracefully walked out the door leaving the men inside to themselves. Outside the conference room and in the hallway Ms Ashford walked with slightly hurried steps to wherever she was going. As she walked she passed by Perudo who was leaning against the wall playing with a rubric's cube.
Ms. Ashford took about four steps past Perudo, who didn't react to her presence, before she stopped.
"And do you have anything to say?" she asked without looking at him.
"Maybe it's not the Kapre that's the problem," he answered without looking at her. "Maybe we're just underestimating the Red X too much."
"You said yourself that the person was nothing special without the suit."
"Appearances can be deceiving. Besides, who's to say he didn't get stronger since the last time we met?"
"What do you mean exactly?"
"Our little pet is not the only thing that can level up…in a manner of speaking."
"Tsk…you and your games. Just make sure you keep monitoring the Kapre and report back any news."
With that, Ms. Ashford resumed her trek and eventually disappeared from the hall. Perudo, meanwhile, has solved his rubric's cube for about the hundredth time in the past hour. He grinned.
"The only thing left to do now," he said, "is to wait and see which will reach their limit first…"
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Back at the Davenports' place.
Tara walked out of Nick's room with groggy, sleep-filled eyes, a mess of disheveled hair, and a long groaning yawn. She stretched out her arms to get the blood flowing in her muscles again. She stood there for about half-a-minute unconsciously scratching an inch at the side of her neck. Watching her from the dinning table and sipping from a cup of hot green tea, Tomoyo wore an amused smile on her face.
Tomoyo was not supposed to be home that day. The plan was that she would spend the night at her friend's place. That friend of hers also happened to be her publishing agent. They were working on the paperback contract for her book and had expected to take all night. However, they had a break when the publishers decided early on their terms and thus they avoided extra work.
Not wanting to be away from her son, Tomoyo decided that she would just head home that night. She was home way after the two teens had called it a night and gone to bed so she got quite a bit of a surprise when she found her son in bed with a girl. Most Parents would promptly wake up their child and demand an explanation. Tomoyo, however, decided against that and let the two to their dreams.
The fact that the teen girl was in someone else's house was all but forgotten. This became apparent when Tara moved to the wall immediately to her left expecting to find a door. Tomoyo assumed that Tara was looking for the bathroom door in where it would be if she was at her home. Tara's probing hand found nothing but wall and that prompted the girl to open her eyes and look for the door. She was slightly surprised to find the door missing.
"The bathroom is the door behind you, sleepyhead."
Tara literally jumped at the sound Tomoyo's voice. The teenager turned towards Tomoyo with eyes as wide as dinner plates. Tomoyo simply sat there with an amused expression on her face. Tara's lips moved up and down but no words came out of her mouth.
Tomoyo kept smiling at her. "Don't worry. I don't mind you using the bathroom. It's that door right there."
Tara was still frozen for a few moments. Tomoyo made a look as is to ask what she was waiting for. Tara got the hint and, with a nervous grin, entered the bathroom and used it. Tomoyo went back to her cup of tea and the small breakfast she had in front of her. Tara took all of two minutes to use the bathroom and exited in a hurry.
"Welcome back, sweety," said Tomoyo.
Tara giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "I…um, I…Sorry if I made a mess in there or something."
Tomoyo got more humored. "I'm sure you did just fine. C'mon, I made breakfast."
Tara made her way to the dinning able where she took a seat parallel to Tomoyo. When she sat down she looked at her breakfast: an ordinary bowl of oatmeal and a similar cup of hot tea that Tomoyo was drinking. Tomoyo liked to start the day healthy. Tara took a spoon and tried the oatmeal. She liked it.
"Is it good?" asked Tomoyo.
Tara looked up with a smile. "Yes, Mrs. Davenport," she said. Tomoyo giggled a bit at her formality.
Tara continued to eat some more and Tomoyo returned to her own breakfast. The silence drew on and Tara was feeling uncomfortable about eating breakfast at someone else house like this. Tomoyo wasn't looking at her. Tara was now wondering what she could be thinking with regards to her. She thought of last night and how she ended up on the same bed as Nick. She blushed at that thought and immediately felt embarrassed at what Tomoyo might be thinking about her because of it.
Tara felt compelled to say something. "Ummm, Mrs. Davenport," she said, catching Tomoyo's attention. "Just so you know, nothing happened between me and Nick last night."
Tomoyo flashed her a wry smile. "You act as if I would mind if something did."
Tara froze and had a huge blush on her face. Tomoyo got a laugh out of that. She took a sip of her tea and set the cup down..
"I'm kidding," said Tomoyo. "And even if so, I know I can entrust my little Nicky to you."
Tara blushed a bit more. "Um, thanks…I think."
"By the way. Nick must've left early 'cause he was gone when I woke up."
Tara's face turned serious. "Really?"
"He left a note or you. He said he 'was going to finish something'. Do you know what he mean's by that?"
Tara looked back down at her bowl of oatmeal with a thoughtful expression. There were a few feelings going through her when she heard that.
Finish something, he said. She expected that he would've done something like this, after all that happened last night. She expected to feel worried as well. Strangely though, she wasn't worried. Maybe she was confident in Nick's abilities. She had never seen them first hand. Last night was just a taste of what nick was capable of. What more with the suit on. But it wasn't just that. It was an odd sense of security that she couldn't explain.
"Yeah, I think I do," relied Tara. "Don't worry, he'll be alright."
"You sure?"
"Definitely." He had a promise to keep, she thought.
"Great. Then I get you all to myself."
"Eh?" Tara was caught off guard by that response. Already she didn't like where this was going.
"You and I haven't really gotten to know each other. I would really like to get to know more about you."
Tara sweat-dropped nervously. "Um, what's there to know?"
"Don't feel so awkward. I believe parents should get to know the people their children are dating."
Tar was inclined to disagree with that remark. "Well, it's not really a usual thing."
"Either way I still want to know you. Tell me about you're family. About your home."
"My Home?" Tara doesn't usually talk about her home and her family. "Well, I live with my dad. He's the only family I have now. We live in a place just like near the bay."
"What about your mom?"
"I don't have one. Or at least I just don't remember."
"How about brothers and sisters?"
"I don't remember any of those either, I'm afraid."
"What do you mean you don't remember?"
Tara didn't answer right away. She stared at her reflection in her tea. "…Well, it's because…You see, I have retrograde amnesia."
Tomoyo's eyebrows narrowed in great curiosity. She knew what amnesia is and the two general classifications of it: retrograde and anterograde. The former usually entailed that the sufferer couldn't remember past events in their life while the latter entailed that the sufferer couldn't retain any new memory.
Tara continued. "I remember only as far back as the hospital. I woke up knowing only my name and my age. I didn't remember anything beyond that. The doctor who was taking care of me told me that I was found by police near the outskirts of the city. They couldn't find out why I had amnesia. I mean, I didn't have a concussion or anything. Plus they even scanned my brain to make sure. Physically, all that was wrong with me was small case of starvation but that wasn't too serious. They tried to look up may name on the official records but they told me that they couldn't find anything. I was a regular Jane Doe. I did my best to try and remember anything but in the end, nothing ever came back."
"…What happened after that?"
"You know that doctor who took care of me in the hospital? Well, he's my dad now. He adopted me and took me into his home. Even put me through high-school. I owe him big time so I do my beat to make him proud."
"What's he like?"
"He's a great guy. He can be a little bit of a geek though. And h had this old habit of being a little overprotective."
"But sound's like you still love him."
"Of course I do…he's my dad."
"No mom?"
Tara snorted slightly. "Dad's not planning finding dates at the moment. The way he sees it, one woman in his life is frustrating enough."
Tomoyo laughed at that as well. "Well, adopted or not, you two seem to be as close as family."
"Yeah, we are. I don't know what I would do without him."
"Do you ever worry about not being able to remember you're past?"
"Sometimes but on the whole it doesn't bother me."
"Why not?"
"A lot of people have trouble getting stuck in the past. At least for me, it means I have everything to look forward to. I try not to think about who I was. I prefer to see myself as who I am now and who I'm gonna be. Am I making sense?"
"Of course you are. I can understand what you mean. Sometimes it's nice to have only a future to look forward to."
"Thanks."
"Nicky is really lucky to have someone like you."
Tara blushed at that. "Wha…What do you mean?"
"Someone like you is what he needs to remind him about what he's got in front of him."
Tara put some thought into that and seemed to get what Tomoyo meant. Tomoyo smiled at her and Tara smiled back with mutual understanding.
"Well," continued Tara. "It's not like I don't need him too."
Tomoyo raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"Being as that I don't have a past, it's kinda hard sometimes to remind myself that I actually exist."
Tomoyo rasied an eyebrow.
"Ok, now you lost me a bit there, hun."
Tara smiled. "I guess you need to be in my shoes to understand me on that. But the thing is Nick reminds me all the time that I exist. And he does it in the ways that matter most. That's why I…"
Tara trailed of with a slight blush on her face. That was all Tomoyo needed.
"I think I know what you mean," said Tomoyo.
Tara blushed a bit more.
Tomoyo spoke up again. "Now…how as last night for you? I hope it wasn't a bumpy ride"
Tara went bug eyed and beet red. "M-M-Mrs. Davenport, what do you mean by--!!?"
"I'm referring to my car. I hope it wasn't that uncomfortable…"
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Parasol headquarters. Out in the hallways.
"I ask you, how can you run a company like this?" asked Mr. Pulaski. "Tha last owner wasn't much of a visionary but at least he had a little more respect for his subordinates."
"What can you expect?" Mr. Carlson replied. "We hadn't been performing up to par lately."
The two men were walking down the halls heading off to work for the rest of the day before going home later in the afternoon. Fresh from the conference room, they were discussing where to go now with the company's latest clandestine project.
"This shouldn't be happening to us," continued Mr. Carlson. "None of our previous projects were this big a failure."
"Are you referring to the products we sold to our last client?"
"Yes. What was his name again?"
"He didn't give us one. Just some alias SW.
"Well, my point is if we can make a 15 foot monster made out of cinderblocks that could take on five super-powered teens, then the Red X shouldn't be a problem."
"The Red X is a totally different case from the Titans. The Red X has too many unknown factors. That plus the tight schedule we were on didn't exactly help in development. Well, there's nothing we can do now except try and push the Red X into a corner. Don't forget the objective of this exercise is to prove the concept of the Kapre to be effective."
"I understand."
Just then they both passed the restroom doors. Mr. Carlson saw it and was reminded that his bladder was bothering him a bit for the last few parts of the meeting.
"I need to use the bathroom," said Mr. Carlson. "I'll see you later."
"Alright. Later."
Mr. Pulaski kept on walking while Mr. Carlson stopped in front of the men's room door. He opened it and entered and let the door close it self. As the squeaky door was swinging back it stopped for the briefest second before continuing again. Mr. Pulaski noticed the pause in the squeaking sound of the door closing and looked back over his shoulder and curiously eyed the door.
He didn't see anything suspicious. He shrugged his shoulders and went on his way.
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Inside the men's room.
The whole room was quiet with just Mr. Carlson inside. Mr. Carlson finished his business and moved towards the sink to wash his hands. The cool water felt nice on his palms and managed to relieve a bit of the stress he was feeling. He looked at the mirror. He saw that his hair was a bit off.
He fixed his hair with his hand still wet from the faucet. After he was done and looked back down at the faucet and shut it off. He shook his hands into the sink to dry them out and looked back up to the mirror to fix his tie. It took him abut two seconds to realize that, as he was looking in the mirror, that there was someone right behind him dressed in all black.
"Mornin' sunshine," greeted Red X. "You and I need to talk."
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Author's note: There's been plenty of school-related things that have been needing my attention so I had a bit of trouble finding time to finish this fic. But rest assured I will see this thing through to the end. Pls. R&R