Author's Note: I own nothing.
7 Someone to Teach
"Very nice Kevin." His art teacher said making him jump. He'd been so focused he hadn't heard her coming up behind him. It was his last class of the day, and definitely his favorite. They were currently doing a project where they had to pick a character from literature and draw them how they see them. He'd picked a character from his favorite play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and settled on Titania the Queen of the fairies. But up until last night he hadn't quite figured out what he wanted her to look like. He hadn't been able to put down his pencil that night until the sun peeked over the horizon. Now he was working on the colors.
She was elegant, standing as though stretching after a long sleep, a nod to one of the scenes in the play, flowers spilled across her bare arms and up her neck, nearly every bit of exposed skin had a floral design draped across it. They were woven into her long hair too, wild curls twisting around blossoms and berries. She wore pants that looked as though they'd been fashioned from butterfly wings, that were echoed in a small shawl that covered her shoulders. Her top was made of flowering vines that curled around her hip. Wings sprouted from behind her, diaphanous but ragged at the edges. Green eyes looked down at the corner of the page. He ran the tip of his colored pencil over the petal of one of the flowers in her hair, staining the paper bright purple.
A timer on the teachers desk went off and she clapped her hands.
"Alright everyone, I want you to set down your projects and step away, walk around the room, take a look at other people's projects but don't touch." Kevin stood and stretched. This was a pretty regular practice in this class, though it was the one drawback to the course. He made his way around the room glancing at the other projects that had been left on the art tables. It didn't really surprise him to see that JT and Cash were redesigning Batman and Robin as themselves. But the fact that the two bullies had stopped at his sketchbook worried him a little bit. He stepped back over to his seat and frowned as he heard Cash speak.
"Never seen a fairy with facial piercings and tattoos before." Cash said in a mocking tone. Kevin stepped up behind him.
"Problem?" Cash jumped and set down Kevin's sketch book. Despite the bully's reputation Kevin was a large figure. His father had been teaching him to defend himself, with and without his powers, since he was seven, well before he found the Omnitrix. It made for a bit of a contradiction, a well built nerd, and Cash had never really known what to make of him.
"Nah Levin. I don't have a problem." He and JT walked away, and Kevin frowned down at his drawing. He hadn't even noticed he'd added the facial piercings. They were in the exact same spots Jay wore them, two studs on either side of the bridge of her nose, two in her left eyebrow one in her right, and two in her bottom lip. All but the ones in her bottom lip were tiny blooms on the page. The ones in her bottom lip still weren't colored in, He hadn't decided what he wanted them to be yet, vines or metal. There was no metal anywhere else on the page. He frowned. He wasn't sure why he'd made her into the fairy queen. He sighed sitting back down at his spot as the rest of the class settled back down too. He shook his head, thinking about balling up the drawing and trying again.
The bell rang and he flipped the sketchbook closed and headed out of the building. Cooper and Glen would both be in school for another half an hour. Their fancy prep school started half an hour later than Kevin's public school, something about it being better for students. Kevin couldn't help but agree bit as he stepped over to the bike rack someone called out his name.
"Levin." He looked up and blinked at Jay who was leaning on her car, which looked freshly washed.
"How did you know where I go to school?" Jay shrugged.
"There's only two schools in town. You don't go to the fancy prep school so you had to go here." She didn't elaborate on why she knew he didn't go to the prep school. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. She jerked her head at her car. "Ditch the bike, we got shit to talk about." He relocked his bike and stepped over to the McLaren. He couldn't help but look back up at the school. JT and Cash were standing at the entrance looking starstruck at the car and the girl driving it. Kevin couldn't help the smirk on his face as he set his bag down at his feet and the door closed behind him. Jay took off down the road to a small coffee shop. It was a chain, Mr. Coffee, Kevin had seen it in passing but he'd never been a big coffee drinker. Jay though seemed to come here often. The teen behind the counter grinned at her.
"Usual?" She nodded, paid, and sat down not offering to get Kevin anything. Kevin frowned stepping up to the counter and ordered a hot chocolate. He stepped over to Jay's table and sat across from her. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Hot chocolate? What are you six?" He rolled his eyes at her.
"I don't like coffee, it's bitter." She snorted at him. He looked her over as her name was called from the counter. She stood to retrieve her coffee and stepped over to the small bar of sugars and creamers to doctor it. She had forgone the clothes she'd worn last night and today looked almost ordinary, less of a semi medieval badass, and more a punk teen skipping school. She wore fishnet stockings that disappeared into black boots and under black cut off shorts. There were more tattoos on her legs. Her top was a deep purple and sleeveless, it too cut off a bit sooner than one might expect, allowing yet another tattoo to peek through, though he couldn't make out what it was. She wore a short jacket, though it had to just be to complete the outfit, since there were no sleeves on it either. It was black leather, silver glinted in all her piercings, around her wrists and at her neck. She made him feel underdressed in his jeans and Star Wars t shirt. He pulled himself out of his revery as she stepped back over and sat down. She reached into an inside pocket on her jacket and pulled out what looked like an I-pad.
"DNAliens." He blinked taking the offered device. "The ones we fought last night, well the little ones anyway." Kevin looked down at the data pad. There was a file open on it. "Not too much info on them. They started showing up a couple months ago, they've been going through the black market for tech deals. Selling mostly weapons tech, asking mostly for cash, but they've gotten a few rarer pieces of tech. None of it links up yet though. Can't tell what they're making yet anyway. Also no idea where they came from, no planet of origin." Kevin frowned flipping through the file. Jay sipped her coffee, then continued. "The other ones are the Highbreed. There's almost no info on them and that's a bit disconcerting. They never deal with the black market directly, only through the DNAliens, only a few dealers have seen them. A few of those haven't been seen since."
"How did you get all of this?" He asked flicking through the file, there were lists of what the DNAliens had been selling and what they'd gotten in return.
"I have my sources." She left it at that and Kevin kept his mouth shut about it. She reached into her jacket again. This time she pulled out a small book. It was bound in purple leather. "I have one more thing to do today on my own, then I'll meet you, Glen and Blondie here to figure out our next move. Give that to Glen." She said setting down the book on the table. "It's sort of baby's first spell book. I'll meet you here in an hour, shouldn't take me longer than that." She stood, took her coffee, and left. Kevin shook his head and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Cooper was stuck in Robotics Lab, he was the head of the team and couldn't duck out so he texted Glen instead.
'Met with out new friend, got some info and something for you. Meet at the Mr. Coffee on third ASAP.' He got a confirmation text in a few minutes and nodded sipping his hot chocolate.
Jay made her way outside of town. There wasn't much out this way but the coastline. On that coastline sat a very large house, though no one lived there permanently it never grew dusty. She parked in front of the house and stepped through the front door, the wards buzzing lightly. They let her through without a fight though and she quickstepped to the top floor and up into the main room here. It had at one point been a ballroom in this old style house, but it had long been converted into a library with books from floor to ceiling. Jay scaled up the ladder and ran a finger down the titles. She shook her head, eyes flashing pink, sending the ladder further down the row.
"Why are the simple compendiums always on the top shelf?" She muttered stepping a few rungs higher.
"Because you should have to work for your knowledge." A voice echoed to her from the doorway. Jay laughed looking down at the white haired sorceress who had just walked into the room.
Five Years Ago
Charmcaster screamed as the Null void projector went off, sucking her and several other members of the Negative Eleven into the Void. When she woke she was on an asteroid floating in a void of space. She was also alone. She screamed and beat her fists into the ground. How could they have been beaten? The plan to control the Sub Energy had been so good and yet they'd been beaten by three kids and a retired Plumber. Her screams of frustration only stopped when a roar drew her attention. She gasped as a creature scuttled towards her foam leaking between its lips. She scrambled for her bag but before she could get it open a blast of power knocked the creature off the asteroid. As it went sailing off into the void Charmcaster looked about wildly for her savior.
She spotted her easily enough, she literally glowed from cracks in her skin. Power poured forth and she was shaking, the tips of her hair bright pink as she sat down, pulling her knees to her chest. She was a few years younger than Charmcaster, or at least she was pretty sure she was. It was hard to tell beyond the cracks in her face. Her eyes were slightly creepy, there was no pupal, just pink iris, that almost seemed to blend into the whites of her eyes. Whoever this was she was incredibly powerful.
"Thank you." Charmcaster said pulling herself to her feet and stepping carefully towards the small figure. The girl pressed her hands to her ears.
"Not real. You're not real. Too pink, you can't be real." Charmcaster blinked. This creature saw her aura. "Nothing here that pink." The girl was still muttering.
"I promise I'm real. I'm not from around here though." She stepped closer like approaching a tiger. Slowly gently she reached out and touched the girl's shoulder. She jumped and blinked, a pupal appeared in her eyes and they focused on Charmcaster fully for the first time.
"You're real?" Charmcaster nodded.
"I am. You can call me Charmcaster. What's your name?" The girl frowned looking down, like she was trying to remember.
"Jay!" She eventually found the name and smiled slightly, looking back up at Charmcaster. "You're like me." It wasn't really a question.
"Maybe not exactly but maybe I can help." The girl looked up at her with hope in her bright eyes.
Present Day
"You know what my Uncle always said." Charmcaster said to Jay who lifted the finger of her free hand.
"One must always be ready to suffer for their art." She said it in an exaggerated voice and Charmcaster laughed.
"He's always been big on that." Charmcaster frowned as she stepped over to the ladder, looking up at the books Jay was gathering. "What are you doing? You don't need the basic primers." Jay shrugged.
"Not for me." Charmcaster rolled her eyes as Jay slid down the ladder with a few books.
"Helping baby witches now are we?" Charmcaster teased.
"Oh, like you're one to talk about that. I seem to recall a certain silver haired charmer helping me when I had no one." Jay tucked the books under her arm. Charmcaster frowned lightly.
"You're not gonna take the Leabhar Dorcha?" Jay shook her head.
"No. I'm not gonna make them use that the way Hex did." Jay said it with conviction. Charmcaster subconsciously reached up and rubbed her lip, which like Jay's was stained black.
"Fair. Hex won't notice those ones missing, but be careful if you get them to the upper levels." Jay nodded, pulling Charmcaster into a side hug before leaving the house and speeding off in her car.