Theanimedude: And this chapter's winner is- NUDGE!
Nudge: Hello! Hi! How you doing? Hope you're good.
Nick: Hey, Nudge.
Fang: Hola.
Theanimedude: Nudge, how does it feel like to be in this author's note?
Nudge: Like I've been dragged miles away from home by Nick.
Nick: You said you didn't want to come, I told that to him, he said feather, and so I went back so I could bring you here.
Nudge: Feather? What kind of feather? Is it Fang's feather? Or is it a flamingo feather? You know flamingoes are pink because they eat shrimp and stuff? I love shrimp, especially popcorn shrimp. I mean, it's like a little ball of fried goodness wrapped around a tiny shrimp. I like jumbo shrimp, too. That's an oxymoron, you know? Jumbo shrimp? Kind of like hot chili. Hot chili is good spicy, but not too spicy. Not like that salsa I tried at Moe's. Speaking of restaurants, I really like Applebee's! I mean, you know they've got all this great music-
Nick: D8 How long can she go?
Fang: ...
Theanimedude: Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
Nick: On it!
Theanimedude: Owns Nick and Sara. Reviewing saves kittens. Vote for next chapter's character appearance.
P.S: SwiftslashxLeafstorm (excuse me if that's spelled wrong) is this character of yours Ella, or somebody very nearly the same as her? Because if she's not Ella, I'd like to have permission to use a different name in order to avoid confusion. And some backstory'd be nice, too. And a question- Could you say that Ella Phantom was, ahem, "Going Ghost?"
Nick: DUCT TAPE!
Nudge: (squeals) (muffled screaming)
Fang: Kind of a nice look for you...
Nudge: (muffled enraged screaming)
Nick the Eraser chapter 25
You wouldn't believe what happened that night at the beach even if I told you. I'll go ahead and tell you anyway though.
So I morphed into full arctic tundra wolf form, and I ran out to the water just to watch it avoid me. Sure enough, it receded when it looked like it was about to touch me. No matter where I went, the water avoided me.
So eventually, I got a little daring, and ran full speed towards the water. I didn't see the wave coming until I was almost in. I gasped, skidding to a halt- as the wave passed right over my head. It crashed down, and there was water all around me, but it was like there was a Nick-shaped bubble of oxygen around me. Not a drop of the water hit me, and it just popped into the air and joined the rest of the water when it got near me.
So I could even do... I thought to myself, turning around and trotting a fair distance in my four-legged body, before turning back around and thinking this!
I ran towards the water and leapt into the air when I ran out of land. I had gotten a good amount of speed, so my jump carried me about fifty feet. And when I got near the water, it literally parted so I wouldn't touch it. I fell and fell until I reached the ocean floor, landing with a thump on the sand, which seemed to even be sacrificing its moisture so that I wouldn't get a drop of water on me.
Okay, so now I'm literally under the water, a bubble of air around me, and if I look up I can see everything in the ocean above me. There's water everywhere around me, but wherever I go, it makes way for me. Do you believe it? Didn't think so.
Oh, and here's a funny thing- whenever I got near a fish, it would fall into my bubble and start flopping around. I'd put them out of their misery- by eating them. They weren't wet at all, and whatever water they were coated in seemed too flop out of my oxygen bubble.
So I made a game of chasing fish on different levels of water, and then scooping them up in my lupine mouth and devouring them whole. Holy crap, it was so good! So much better than eating erasers.
While I was in the water, I thought of something. I'd been able to have my hair washed and drink water in the past, but now it all stayed away from me. But both times I had been empty of electricity. So apparently I was only able to repel water if I was charged. Hm. I could see why the whitecoats wanted so badly to study me. Learning about me was interesting.
I played my fish game for a little while before I heard Max in my head a few minutes later.
Nick!
Hi, Max. What's up?
Where are you? We've looked for you everywhere!
Oh, geez. Max, I am SO sorry.
Why?
I'm underwater. You could've searched for me for years, but you probably never would've found me.
I'm just glad you're safe. Sara's gone into hysterics up here, though! Come up here and comfort her.
Yes sir!
Excuse me?
Um, yes ma'am. Sorry.
This is where I say d'oh! What a stupid mistake! I should've told them where I was. I ran back up to shore, and the flock look startled when they saw me rise out of the parted waters like Moses, completely dry. I demorphed quickly (don't ask me how I morph into my clothes every time) and ran to Sara, who was running to me.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," I whispered, wrapping her into my arms as she sniffled. "I'm so, so, sorry..."
"I thought you were gone!" she sobbed. "I thought you were dead!"
"No," I told her. "I'm here, I'm fine. I'm not leaving you." She continued to sniffle and cry into my chest as I kneeled down to her level. I knew it then. Sara needed me just as much as I needed Max. We both had pathological fears of losing somebody.
Sara hiccupped as her cries finally were silenced. She just leaned against me, holding me to her with a viselike grip. I sat down in front of her, holding her as well, stroking her hair and ruffling it, making her giggle again.
"Did I miss anything else?" I asked, looking up to the flock from the sandy ground.
"I have gills!" Angel told me excitedly. Well, who saw that one coming?
"That's... wow," I said, shaking my head with surprise and wonder. What's next, scales all over your back?"
"I'd be like a snake," Gazzy said, imitating a snake's hissing perfectly. "That'd be awesome.
"Yeah," Max whispered, rolling her eyes. "Awesome."
"Cookie?" Iggy asked me out of the blue, holding one out to me.
"Nah," I said, surprising everyone. "I'm kind of full."
"But you haven't had hardly a thing to eat," Nudge said with bewilderment.
"Actually, I did eat a lot of fish," I said, looking out to the water and grinning.
3-3-3-3-3
Later that night after sunset, I began to experiment with my guitar. It turns out it wasn't tuned right when I bought it, so I tuned it. How I knew how to do so, I have no clue. I was sitting a pretty fair distance from the flock, and they were all getting ready to sleep, so I'd be able to play without waking them up.
At least I thought so...
"Nick," Sara whispered, startling me. She'd been right behind me for a couple seconds and I'd somehow never noticed.
"Yeah, sweetie?" I whispered, hooking an arm around her and pulling her to me.
"When the erasers attacked us earlier today," she continued to whisper. "I was reading their minds. And I was seeing what they were seeing and hearing what they were hearing." I nodded, looking her in the eye.
"And, well," she said. "They want us to leave the flock. They said they would kill us if we didn't leave 'cause you were making so they couldn't save the world."
"They can't kill us," I told her reassuringly. "I've got both of our backs."
"But they can," she said firmly. "They've got a team that they're gonna use on us if we don't leave the flock tonight. They're all really strong. Stronger than us."
I didn't believe it. No way did they have mutants more powerful than me.
"Are you scared?" I asked her. She nodded, burying her head in my coat.
I don't want you to die," she sobbed. "I love you. Why don't they understand that?" I hesitated before speaking again.
"Sara," I whispered. "If somehow, I do die, I'm sure that they'll leave you alone. I'm going to try very hard not to let them kill me, but if they do, you have to stay strong, okay?" She was crying softly, but she nodded in response.
"Want me to play you a song?" I asked her, holding my guitar up with one arm. She nodded before settling herself on the ground in front of me.
Max POV
I know we looked like it, but we weren't asleep. We were listening very closely to Nick and Sara, but not letting them know we were.
"I have to play kind of quiet so that I don't wake the flock up, okay Sara?" he asked her, and she nodded, her tear-stained face gleaming in the moonlight. Poor baby.
Nick held his guitar up to his stomach, sitting cross-legged in the sand. Somehow I knew we all wanted to hear this. The last time we'd heard Nick sing, it had been beautiful. And now he was accompanying his voice with his guitar. It was like we had our own private performer.
He began to strum his guitar in a quick, steady rhythm, and Sara smiled a little bit. And then he began to sing. His voice was pure, at a perfect pitch to a song he never had time to learn.
Come stop your crying For one so small, 'Cause you'll be in my heart You'll be in my heart Why can't they understand And you'll be in my heart Don't listen to them When destiny calls you 'Cause you'll be in my heart Oh, you'll be in my heart
It will be all right
Just take my hand Hold it tight
I will protect you
from all around you
I will be here
Don't you cry
you seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart, always
the way we feel
They just don't trust
what they can't explain
I know we're different but,
deep inside us
We're not that different at all
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
'Cause what do they know
We need each other,
to have, to hold
They'll see in time
I know
You must be strong
I may not be with you
But you've got to hold on
They'll see in time
I know
We'll show them together
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on,
Now and forever more
No matter what they say
You'll be in my heart, always
Always
He stopped singing and sat his guitar on the ground beside him before wrapping Sara in his arms.
"Don't ever forget that I love you, Sara," he whispered. "Because I always will."
"Okay," she said quietly. There was a pause as he held her close to him for a few minutes before she piped up once more.
"What about the flock?" she asked. "Do you love them, too?" He was silent once more before he looked up to the sky, turning slightly. He then looked back down, his eyes right on me.
Crap, I thought. He knows!
"Yeah," he said finally, smiling. "All of them. Like siblings." His smile turned into a frown though as he stood up and walked to the shoreline.
"But how could they love me?" he asked himself. "I'm practically the embodiment of their enemy. I'm an eraser. No matter what, no matter how much I love them, they'll never love me." He picked up a rock in the sand and threw it into the water, watching it skip far into the distance.
"I wish," he said, so quietly that I could hardly hear him with my raptor-hearing. "I wish that I could make them love me." He chuckled harshly to himself. "That'll never happen."
With the way he was talking, I realized that he hadn't noticed we were awake.
"Maybe..." he whispered to himself. "Maybe I really should leave the flock." I almost stood up and jetted to him right then, but I stayed there. He shook his head.
"No," he decided. "If they didn't at least care about me somewhat, Max wouldn't have made me promise to stay. For now... I guess I'll make do with loving them and letting them care about me."
I smiled, rolling over so that I faced the flock, moaning to make it seem as though I was asleep. Fang smiled at me slightly before closing his eyes. I sat there and thought after that, wondering if what Nick said was true. Did we really just care about him, or did we love him?
Did I love him?
3-3-3-3-3
Phil Collins- You'll Be in My Heart