Grind 3.4
I bolted from where I stood, grabbing a nearby trooper by his shoulders and shaking him. "My dragons, where are they?"
The man obviously taken aback only managed to stutter out his response. "I-wha, I don't know. Please I'm supposed to de- hey wait!" The trooper called out as I ran from the room. If he didn't know where my dragonets where then I would just have to look. Besides Dennis could fill the people in on what had happened.
A quick look at a wall clock reveled that it was early, a little after three in the morning. We had left late Friday after the press conference, around seven if memory served. I was certain that we had spent more than just one day in Pokemon. That would make this Monday morning.
Part of me realized that school today was going to be a miserable experience given I hadn't slept. The rest of me was more concerned with the fact I couldn't sense the empathic link I shared with my friends. Normally if they were nearby I could catch at least of hint of their emotions, and they mine.
The fact that my friends had not already jumped between to find me was worrying to say the least. If I was being honest with myself it chilled me to the bone. I needed to find them quickly and I was less than sure where to start. I had told them to stay on the base, that way the PRT and my fellow Wards could keep an eye on them. The secretary I had met during my initial visit and Missy being the first to jump at the chance to keep my little darlings company.
Thinking about it logically, there are only three places I might find my dragonets. They could be at the front desk where the woman worked, the kitchen in hopes of getting fed first thing in the morning as I had arranged, or most likely the Wards common room.
Making my decision I took off for the elevators, the shouts of the trooper and Dennis following me. For the first time since I had joined I was grateful for the wasteful tinker tech elevator. It was certainly an obscene waste of resources, but it was fast, right now that was all that mattered to me.
As the doors slid open I sprinted for the door to the common room and the retina scanner built into the wall. The two second delay between the scan and the door opening seemed to last an eternity, but finally the last obstacle between me and where I hoped to find my friends slid away.
They were there, slouched together in a piles of wings, claws and leathery hides in the topmost 'room' of the cat castle the PRT had installed for them. I could even hear the little snuffling snort Diver made in his sleep.
The tension drained out of me like physical wave as I slumped with my back to the cold metal wall. They were safe. They were still here. I wasn't going to be left alone again. They had not left me.
I spent the next few minutes just watching their sides rise and fall as they slept. Still something was wrong. My friends had always responded to my emotions in the past. With how panicked I had been they should have woken up.
I did not want to get up and check on them, I just wanted to sit right where I was and pretend that everything was alright. I could not though. These were my friends, the fact that I had not accidently killed them was a relief that words were unable to express, however they were still my responsibility and I owed it to them to make sure that no real harm had been done.
Standing up I tentatively walked across the room. Stealing my nerves I reached out and picked up Beauty. She didn't even fidget in my hands. "Beauty, wake up my darling, please wake up." Nothing. Bouncing the little dragon in my arms the way one would sooth a crying baby also failed to achieve anything.
"Beauty please, I need you to wake up, please?" my voice was pleading but I could not stop to worry about that now I needed to fix this. Taking a deep breath I tried to calm myself down. They are alive, they are OK, just asleep. I could work with this, they did not seem to be in any danger, I just needed to get back to the black room and swap them back in as one of my active powers. Then they would be just fine, they had to be.
The quiet sound of the door sliding open on well oiled rollers alerted me to Dennis's arrival. "Are they OK?" the red head asked.
Taking another deep breath to steady myself I nodded. "They're alright, but they won't wake up. I need to get back to the black room and swap something out for them."
Dennis nodded as he crossed the room and ever so gently lifted Beauty out of my arms, cradling her to his chest he tickled at her exposed tummy with one finger, too no effect. "OK, so we need to get you back there then. Have you ever tried to just go back to the room before?"
That had not occurred to me. I'd never had any reason to try before but I could not take the time to run through another book just to get my dragonets back, not without pissing off the director anyway. I needed to make this work, right now. "It's worth trying." Closing my eyes I focused on the tugging sensation that always accompanied entering the black room. This has to work, please let it work, I need this to work.
Then my imagination gave way to reality, the memory of the tugging sensation became a real physical sensation. My breath caught in my throat. I was afraid to open my eyes, if I opened them only to find out that my mind had played a cruel trick on me I would be crushed. What else could I do though? I needed to move forward, for them and for me.
Opening my eyes I, sagged for the second time in less than ten minutes, my wall of options was in front of me, I could fix it.
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Almost an hour since Dennis and I had left the Pokemon game we found ourselves sitting in front of a rather grumping looking man that Dennis informed me was responsible for running the PRT during the third shift hours. Beauty was curled up in my lap, Rocky was sitting on my shoulder and Dennis held Diver. Swapping out Mario for Menolly had indeed woken my friends.
Unfortunately my own chaotic emotions had driven them into a frenzy the moment I came back. It had taken the better part of a half hour to calm and reassure the fire lizards.
"Alright," the man drawled, "the director wants a report every time you pick up new powers so let's get this over with." Dennis and I nodded as the man typed away at his keyboard. "Media entered: Pokemon Fire Red. Persons that entered: Player and Clockblocker. Time spent in media: 49 hours 36 minutes. Is that all correct?"
Again Dennis and I nodded.
"Alright that just leaves a few details. Clockblocker you initially estimated that the game would take you about two days to complete. Your estimate was close but you went over your estimated max time schedule by more than seven hours. I'm going to have to ask what lead to the delay."
Shrugging Dennis responded. "Well we had to backtrack a few times which cost us a few hours, so that didn't help. Then we got to almost the end of the game and could have pushed ahead but we needed to stick around to get the most out of this particular trip by evolving a few of the Pokemon and getting them some powerful moves." The man nodded and typed away quietly for a few moments.
"Anything too add to that assessment Player?" Looking up from Beauty who I had been idly scratching I shrugged. "We didn't get physically tired, but the game was really repetitive. After awhile we got a bit of mental fatigue. We stopped off in a few of places to just relax and unwind. I think we must have spent at least an hour at the hot spring on that island." Dennis laughed quietly.
"Right I almost forgot about that. The hot spring was fantastic! Best part was being able to walk in and out without our clothes getting wet."
The trooper made another note. "OK last question then, any idea what power this resulted in, and did you learn anything new about your power?"
Grinning under my cowl I nodded my head emphatically and started to explain the latest developments about my power.
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School was, surreal. All anyone wanted to talk about was the new Ward, Player. The rumor mill was buzzing like crazy. I, and a half dozen other girls who had all been transferred in recently all fell under suspicion. My readymade and true excuse that I had gotten the transfer in order to keep Winslow highs biggest screw up ever quiet was readily accepted and people decided I probably wasn't the city's newest cape. A few people managed to connect the dots with the rumor going around about a girl from Winslow being trapped in a locker full of toxic waste.
That was not something I was happy about. It guaranteed that the whole school knew I was telling the truth about why I had been transferred, that made my cape identity safer. On the other hand the whole school now knew what had happened to me. I was much less alright with that.
Dennis stuck by me all through lunch shooting glares at anyone who tried to approach me. Jack and Jill mercifully decided not to comment on the rumors circulating about me and instead focused on speculating about my power.
"I'm telling you it has to have something to do with those little dragons she had with her! She's obviously a master. I bet they can breathe fire, or ice, or something! They have to if she actually plans to fight with them, otherwise they're nothing but dead weight!" Unfortunately even with this slightly safer topic Jack was hopelessly wrong and made me want to punch him.
Seriously what kind of idiot would I have to be to take my friends into a fire fight! If anything now that I know I can swap Menolly's power out for another without hurting them I planned to swap them out whenever I went out in costume, and leave them safe back at base.
"Jack you are forgetting to think, again." Jill chided her boyfriend. "What makes you think they are alive? They could be a projection, or an illusion, or she could have thousands of them and only brought three to the press release. You cannot just assume that they breathe fire or whatever."
Dennis laughed, throwing his head back. "She's got you there man. Or maybe she isn't a fighter at all and the little dragons have a stealth mode and turn invisible. She might be strictly recon or something." Unlike me, Dennis actually enjoyed adding to the pile of crazy guesses about my powers.
"It's really pointless to speculate." I chimed in. I had to be careful, ignoring the topic would be strange but I could not afford to tell them anything concrete about my power, without giving myself away. "The Protectorate is keeping her power quiet. The actual information on her PHO page just says 'powers unknown'. That means one of two things." I paused to bite into my sandwich.
The other three turned to look at me, I didn't often contribute in the conversations they had. I guess I surprised them.
"OK, I'll bite," Jack said, "what are the two things it could mean?"
I swallowed my food. "Well, it could mean she has a really weak power and they don't want the villains to realize what an easy target she is, or it could mean she has a really powerful or diverse power and they want the villains to underestimate her." That was close enough to the truth and it did make sense. Even without having the girl in charge of PR explain it to me I could have figured out that much.
"That makes a lot of sense." Jill said.
"But if the Protectorate is keeping her power quiet how do we find out what it is?" Jack asked.
"Don't know. After awhile the clues will start to pile up and then it'll be easier to guess." There, I effectively ended the conversation without giving anything away. I think I might be getting the hang of this.
"Well I still think they'll breathe fire!"
Or not…
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Once school got out I found myself being shuttled off to meet and learn from one of the most powerful healers on the planet, Panacea.
"Hi, you must be Player right? I'm Panacea, or Amy out of costume. Follow me, and just do your best to keep up. We are going to test out your power on a variety of types of injuries and illnesses to see how it works and interacts with different problems. Just stick close."
Just like that we were off. Panacea is direct, and brief. Not exactly what I had expected, but it seemed like she has a very professional attitude. Considering how long she has been doing this it made sense for her to have picked it up.
As we stepped into our first room a man in a cast looked at us, surprise clear on his face. As Rocky landed on the man's chest and chirped inquiringly our patient grinned.
"Hello sir, I'm Panacea and this is Player." My instructor began, before our patients cut her off mid sentence.
"Pleasure to meet you both, I'm Tom, and who is this little guy?" Tom scratched along the spine of a grateful Rocky.
"Oh, that would be Rocky." I shot the man a smile from behind my mask. Panacea, to my surprise seemed a bit annoyed at being interrupted. That is of course unless she was making that face because she had just bitten into a lemon.
Rolling her eyes she powered through the rest of what I was assuming to be a modified version of her normal speech. "Right well, Player here is a new cape and she has a healing power. We aren't sure how her power works just yet so we are looking for volunteers. Should there be any negative side effects caused by her healing I'll be here to correct them immediately, if her healing does fix the problem I still need permission to touch you so I can observe how her healing works. Should you feel uncomfortable with being healed by an untested power I can heal you outright. Do we have your permission to heal you?"
"Oh sure, go right ahead, I don't mind playing guinea pig." The man smiled cheerily and waved with the arm not stuck in a cast.
"OK then, first customer!" Walking forward I drew the water out of the container strapped around my waist. I personally was offended by how much it resembled a fanny pack, but that was a battle to have out with PR another day.
Focusing on the water it started to glow. Taking that as a good sign I pressed the water up against Tom's cast, and watched in fascination as the water seeped around the edges of the cast and into contact with his skin. From there… I just focused on the idea of healing. It really wasn't an exact science, but I could feel the bones in Tom's hand and arm knitting back together.
Panacea hummed contemplatively for a moment. Then shot me a genuine smile. "Congratulations, you have now healed your first patient, welcome to the club." Turning her gaze onto our patient she gave the man a smile that failed to reach her eyes. You are good to go sir. A nurse will be along in a few minutes to cut you out of that cast."
Panacea started to sweep out of the room and I made to follow, but then Tom called out. "Hey, hang on a sec! Player, could you sign my cast? If I'm the first one you ever healed I'm going to need some proof to show my friends." The man shot me a big toothy smile.
"Sure thing!" Someone wanted my Autograph! No one had ever asked for my autograph before!
Pulling out the sharpie PR insisted is included in every utility belt I quickly jotted down a message on Tom's cast.
'To Tom, my first patient and autograph! Stay healthy, Player.'
Giving Tom a big grin from behind my cowl I waved and all but skipped out of the room. Panacea, with a bemused expression, shook her head a bit and set off toward our next patient.
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An hour later Panacea and I stood on the roof of the hospital leaning against the railing as we watched Rocky and Diver chase Beauty through the air.
"Your power is interesting, you can't seem to do much for any kind of sickness, and the less said about the poor guy with cancer the better, but any kind of break, cut, burn, and even internal damage your power seems to be able to handle."
I nodded along I felt terrible about the guy from the cancer ward. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected my power to accelerate the cancer growth. Luckily Panacea had fixed the mistake immediately.
"Basically what your healing is doing is just accelerating cellular regeneration to an insane degree. What I don't get is why you even need the water, or what happens to it after you use it."
"Well powers don't really have to make sense right." I shrugged and hoped that would be enough. I was not supposed to reveal how my power worked to anyone not even other hero groups. Luckily Panacea did not seem at all concerned with the fact that I got healing and baby dragons.
Grunting Panacea pointed of across the skyline. "Looks like my ride is almost here, stick around a minute and you can meet my sister."
"Sure, sounds good." I turned my attention to watch the rapidly growing dot that is Glory Girl. As the girl approached a warm feeling started to hit me. This is Glory Girl, one of the heroes of New Wave. She was impressive, beautiful, strong, fashionable, and dear god she was hot.
My mind felt a little fuzzy.
As the blond bombshell landed on the roof I was overwhelmed. Just her presence was making me weak in the knees, I felt short of breath and I was overcome with a longing that I could not name or control. In the back of my mind I realized that Panacea was saying something to her sister but I didn't really care. I couldn't think.
Before I knew it I was standing inches in front of the beautiful hero, my mask pulled down to my neck, my arms wrapped around her shoulders and my lips firmly planted against her own. It was bliss, it was euphoria it was, it was…
In the blink of an eye the lust I felt was gone. In its place was fear, unspeakable, unimaginable fear. Just like that I let go of her and crumpled to the floor. I curled up in a ball on the roof crying, begging, pleading with the avenging angel that floated above me to have mercy, to spare me. I wailed out an incoherent apology I knew could never be enough. Then as the crushing weight of how horrible I truly was sank in, I settled for rocking back and forth on the roof as I gripped my head in my hands, and sobbed.
A million miles away I could hear Panacea shouting something.