Hello, and welcome to the collaborative fanfiction of Sailor Myth, an online role-playing game based on Sailormoon, but with different senshi and a different location. Our game takes place in the city of Roanoke, Virginia, and our senshi are named after everything from Greek and Roman deities to stars, constellations, and angels!
Our purpose in posting our chapters up here on ff.net is twofold. First, we'd like to get some feedback on our writing, and second, we're always looking for new players to join us! If you're a writer, we'd love to have whatever senshi is running around in your head join our menagerie.
For more information, please check out our main page, or send an e-mail to Emiko, our GM. She'll be glad to answer any questions you may have! Thanks for your attention. We hope you enjoy the show!
Chapter Three:
Again for the First Time
"So we down for tonight?" the blonde young man asked mildly. He and a girl stood in the middle of an empty hallway.
"Yeah. I have to work until six, but call my house around like ... a quarter to seven," the raven haired beauty before him nodded and smiled.
"No doubt," he promised, and sighed. "And now it's time for practice."
"Not looking forward to it, wimp?" the girl teased.
The blonde boy scoffed. "Not at all. Shit, I'm tired. I wanna go home and take a nap."
"That too bad, Zachy. Get your ass poolside." She lightly shoved him away. He looked down at where she had touched him with mock disgust, and hastily wiped his sweater. She scoffed and pushed him harder.
"Yo, stop pushing me, or you will get no sex tonight, Selena," Zach yelled.
"Oh, you really know what a girl wants, stud," she replied dryly, and began walking away. "Call me later."
He promised once again, and broke into a light run toward the gym. Practice was sure to take forever today. It always did when he looked forward to something. He then suddenly remembered that he promised Phaeton he would patrol tonight. Senshi business?
Not till after my date, lizard.
Suddenly, he heard the footsteps of someone running up behind him...
I'm late, late late late late late late late LATE!
Wade Salter was distressed, nervous, and had a watch accidentally set ten minutes early. Swim practice apparently started five minutes earlier; in such a state as he was in, he noticed too late a very surprised-looking guy whip his head around in the hallway.
It was too late to change course, and Wade had far too much accelerating body to stop or even valiantly try to slow down - the result of which being that he launched himself directly into the poor boy, knocking both flat onto the ground.
Both landed to the ground, wind knocked out of them. "Ugh," Wade grunted, mortified. "Hell - " he rolled off the much smaller figure underneath him, landing on the tiles of the corridor. "Crap, I din't mean nuthin', I was late, so damn sorry..." he tried to apologetically wheeze.
"Damn, yo!" Zach pushed off the floor, springing to his feet. He whipped around to face the wheezing giant in front of him. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" the blonde boy screamed, looking up at his assailant. He was fully ready to throw down with this guy, but from the pathetic look on his face, he decided against it.
"Yo, you're so friggin' lucky I got swim practice, Lurch. Watch your back." Zach warned, and turned to start running again...
Pulling himself off the ground, Wade mentally kicked himself for being clumsy as WELL
as being an incredible dumbass, but his mouth split in a smile, showing a dimple. At least
someone else was horribly late. "I have pract, too, Shorty," he said comfortably
to
Zach's back. "R'we on time?"
Zach came to a dead stop, just outside the gym lockerroom.
"Shorty?" he snarled. "Just because you were born for Ripley's Believe or Not, doesn't mean that I'll hesitate to beat your sorry ass." He stared into Wade's grinning face. "You're on the swim team? Jeez, your knees must hurt. The coach's office floor is hard."
Wade gave him a blank look, which Zach missed.
With a smirk, he turned and went to change. There was something about this kid that he inherently just didn't like. He irked him somehow. He seemed cool... why is my hostility cranked to seventeen? Zach wondered as he opened his locker...
The blue-haired boy managed to open his locker a discreet distance from the blonde one. Bad vibes, he thought seriously. Vibes stinkin' to high hell. Something about that guy made him want to pick him up and shake him until what was wrong came out of his pockets - the mere feeling of him made his hair stand on end, yet he was as attracted to his presence as a... as a... magnety thing. Oh, well; he'd tried to be friendly, but the feeling had just gotten worse with each passing look!
What is this guy looking at? Zach thought as he felt the blue-haired boy's eyes on him. I don't like this. I got a bad feeling.
Maybe I shouldn'tve called him Shorty. Maybe I'm jus' feeling guilty.
Wade changed quickly and sped out to warm up in the pool with the other guys. As always, the water made him feel clear-headed and confident, safe within it's grasp; he mildly disliked chlorine, but hey, bodies of water were bodies of water.
Zach soon followed, meeting up with his friends, standing at the edge of the pool.
"Yo, who's the new kid, MJ?" he asked the taller boy next to him.
"I don't know. I never seen him before," MJ answered.
"That kid's a freak." Zach sneered, looking at the kid glide past him.
"Shit, as long as he's fast, I don't give a damn. Since Keith is out for the season, we need fast people."
Zach shook his head, and continued to watch the boy swim. He WAS fast; his form and technique were flawless. Not better than his own, of course, but good enough.
A shrill whistle pierced the chlorine-filled air, and the swim coach barked the order for everyone to do thirty laps. Zach sank into the pool, making sure he was next to the blue-haired boy. He wanted to prove to himself that this kid was beneath his attentions.
Inky, dark-blue eyes met a pair of sun-bright green, and in a heartbeat Wade had pushed himself off powerfully from the wall into the water. The pounding rhythm filled his ears, but it was all lost in the feel of the churning his arms made making powerful, cutting strokes, and the deep, quiet bubbling of the water below him. Body forgot that it was not up to proper form, having not swum for the previous year; soul remembered how to embrace the waves. Wade dimly felt the presence of the blonde boy beside him, as light and as quick in the water as a sunbeam, mere feeling an unspoken challenge. The water bubbled with their combined, repelling force.
This guy was no joke. Zach would've doubted there was someone even swimming, save for the powerful trail of bubbles that his adversary left behind. He's like a wave, Zach thought, a tinge of fear creeping into his body. He combated it with a turn of his head, swallowing as much air as he could. You may be the water, but I am the light. He quickly curled forward, whipping his legs upward and shoving with all his might against the pool wall, twisting into form once again.
People in the bleachers began whispering and twittering as the two figures slammed off the side, one blonde head bobbing in the water as the other's pale blue practically disappeared in it. Soon the two were both neck-and-neck as the spectators - and the coach! - began watching intently.
Wade slammed his arms into the water, arcing through it like a blue bolt of electricity. The boy did the same; wonderment and not a little adrenaline buzzed throughout him as he realized that the other was good - quicker than anything he'd ever seen. Wade could normally outdistance anyone with his powerful, scooping strokes and kicks, but the other was matching him with his light, sharp quickness. He'd never met somebody who he thought might beat him! Rather from being jealous, Wade practically beamed.
Hope I don' go so fast my shorts fall off, his mind added as an afterthought.
Chlorine water burned his eyes, and seemed to be doing the same to his lungs. I... won't... lose, he thought, devouring a bit more oxygen. His calves were lead, and threatened to surrender. Through the bubbles, their eyes locked, and rage fueled Zach's body. The dumbass is smiling.
His eyes weren't even remotely hostile. That made Zach even madder. What do I have to do to piss this guy off? The thought blazed through him. I know...I'll just swim past him, he thought confidently. Amazingly, his body obeyed. His arms slashed through water, propelling him forward at fantastic speed, and his legs rippled, sinew and muscle melded together to create a human propellor. And slowly but surely, Zach edged past him, and the wall was in his reach.
Wade noticed the boy managing to race in front of him with almost superhuman strength, water churning into foam as they both approached their goal. His smile grew wider and he would have laughed had he wanted to disturb his breathing; could he win this over?
The blue-haired boy crunched himself up carefully and then lunged, hand practically extending his arm inches longer in his effort to reach the wall. Water and body were one, muscles rippling in power so intense it was sweet agony, a wave of water splashing onto the tiles from the pool as he and the blonde reached their goal. Both their hands smashed onto the wall at the same time, maybe Wade a microsecond behind, maybe the other. Who cared? He wouldn't dispute anything; the swim had more than made up for any shallow humiliation gained by losing.
Spectators broke out in piercing whistles and applauding as Wade and the other grabbed the wall. Wade stretched and looked at his knuckles, bleeding from the force at which he'd slammed his fingers to the tile; he gave the boy a rueful, friendly grin. "Hurts." He brushed a lock of hair away, plastered on his cheek; somewhere along the way his hair tie had come out and his pale hair was now plastered down his neck. Extending the damp, blood-trickling right hand, his eyes sparkled like the water that was swirling around them.
"Good swim, eh?" Wade asked gently.
Using the last of his strength to push his pride aside, he took a firm hold of his opponents hand, ignoring the blood that gushed between them. "Yeah...you're pretty swift. No hard feelings... I guess."
They turned toward the crowd, and Zach made a victorious gesture, flopping around the water before emerging. The coach grabbed a handful of both of their shoulders, and excused Zach and Wade from practice, with the promise that they would kick ass at the meet on Saturday.
Zach started back to the locker room, when a sharp pain made him yelp in pain. He looked down at his hand, and the splotches of fresh blood on the top of it burning it. He ran into the bathroom, and quickly washed the blood off. What the hell was that supposed to be? I knew it, Zach thought, all feelings of comradiery vanishing. Something's up with that kid. And something tells me in runs a little deeper than swimming. Wade himself hurried back to the locker room quickly, pleased at the way things had gone. I shoulda race more often with that guy if it'll get me out of pract so early.
Pulling another hairtie out of his bag, he tied up his sodden blue hair and rubbed his face with his towel. Getting dressed in his jeans and t-shirt in record time, he slung his pack over his shoulder and squeezed on his sneakers.
Hope Livvy doesn't try ta make me patrol jus' cause I came home early; I'm beat!
After arriving home, Zach immediately consulted with Phaeton.
"You say his blood burned your flesh?" the iguana asked, peering at Zach through the thin wall of glass before him. His charge didn't immediately answer; he first finished tying a gray bandana around his head, tucking the fold behind the knot. He stepped toward his guardian's tank, and presented his hand. Four red patches of burned skin marred the top of it. Phaeton flicked his tongue once, and his tail jerked, a sure sign that the lizard was deeply pondering.
"What could've done this, P?" Zach said finally.
"I have a pretty good idea," Phaeton answered.
The blonde gestured toward himself. "You gonna share, or am I supposed to phone a friend?"
The iguana made a low guttural sound. "Legend has it that the hatred the Senshi had for their enemies ran so deep, even the blood of their foes caused their body harm," Phaeton explained. "It is possible that this boy could be..."
"A Roman Senshi?" Zach gasped.
"A RomaNUS Senshi. Not all of them are necessarily from Rome."
"That explains why that kid bothered me so much," the blonde contemplated. "So what's the move?" Zach asked, turning away, and flopping onto his bed.
"The move, Zachary, is you going on patrol in one hour."
Zach huffed. "No way, P. That kid wore me the hell out. I'm thinkin' eight hours unconsciousness is the ticket." The lizard slowly crawled forward, peering across the room at him.
"One hour."
"Hour and a half."
"One..."
"NO! SO SORRY SO SORRY NO SPEEKE DE ENGLEESH!" Zach yelled, burying his head beneath his pillow.
Back on his own bed, trying to eat his dinner, Wade Salter was having similar problems. "I don' wanna go tonight, Liv!" he almost wailed, stabbing a meatball with his fork.
"And ai do not want to eat generic fish food! You must go, dahling!"
"Hai hmn wimmingh mnknm..." Wade swallowed his mouthful. "Liv, I'm tired. I had swimmin' practice. I swear, there was this guy there, an' he went like a shot, even if he did give me the wiggies - "
"... the wiggies?"
"Made me feel funny."
"Well, then!" she practically screeched, her voice reaching flawlessly into squeaky soprano range. Livia would have done well as an opera singer. "You MUST go, my dear! It could be an Angelus! Or an Astronomiah! Or worse, a Graikos! If you cannot go for duty, go for me, dahling!" Quite proud of her speech, Livia swooned.
Wade swallowed his last forkful of spaghetti and put his plate down on his desk, sighing deeply. "Hokay, Liv. But I gotta be back at twelve, see? Mom's gonna be home then, an' the twins'll wonder where I am - "
"That should be sufficient, dear." Livia smiled placidly, having got her way. "Would you be a dahling and place me back? I need my beauty sleep."
Shrugging on a jacket morosely, Wade scooped up the black and orange turtle and plopped her into her tank. He shut his door carefully and strode into the corridor down from his room. "Danny! Simon!" he shouted. "I'm gonna go out for a coupla hours, hokay? Jus' gettin' some stuff!"
Agreeing grunts were heard from a bedroom and the TV, respectively. The blue-haired would-be knight of Neptune left his house and began strolling down the sidewalk to find a private place to transform. His muscles ached, and sometimes he really, really, REALLY wished that they'd picked someone else.
A yellow circle with four tendrils on each side of it appeared on his forehead, and Zach spoke. "Hyperion Titan Power...Suit UP!"
In a cascade of white and yellow light, the boy stood ready in a shining suit of red armor, seething with energy.
"Keep your eyes open, Hyperion Knight," Phaeton warned. Hyperion nodded, and made his way toward his terrace. The moon was full in the sky, and a few scattered stars shone down. He easily hopped over the railing, falling ten feet down and landing in the backyard without a sound. His aunt and uncle were downstairs in the den, watching a movie. It would be safe to be out for at least a couple of hours, he thought as he sped on foot. He pushed off the ground suddenly, and he was airborne.
Hyperion landed on the high roof of one his neighbors as softly as possible, and proceeded as so, bouncing from roof to roof. He thought he would start downtown, and work his way back up.
Neptune-Knight had already made it downtown, crouching on the roof of a tall building; his triton was gripped in one hand as he surveyed the area for anything that looked even remotely suspicious. He'd transformed in a quiet grove in the park, scaring quite a few birds, and was now armoured up in his silver guards, tunic and bodysuit. The sunset gleamed off his bright silver armguards and greaves.
There wasn't anything suspicious for almost an hour, except if you counted passers-by and a fight between two sparrows. Neptune was crouching in a slight stupor, almost asleep on his feet when a bright streak of red appeared on the opposite roof. The hair on the back of his neck prickled.
Picking up his triton, he stood to his full height and began speeding after the shiny red blob.
Let it be Romanus, he almost unconsciously prayed. Please, let it be Romanus.
The sinking feeling in his gut told him that it wasn't likely.
Am I being followed? Hyperion asked himself as he glanced back slightly over his shoulder. His legs were pumping faster than he had intended; almost like he was being...chased? "Hell no," he whispered, diving headfirst into the alley below him, his arms spread and legs together. The littered ground came rushing at him quicker than he could've imagined. Instinctively, he twisted his body, his armored hand shooting toward a windowledge. His fall averted, Hyperion gave a worried glance upward, and pulled himself onto the ledge, crouching into it.
Hidden, the senshi's ominous white eyes watched the sky above. Let's see who my new friend is, he thought sarcastically. He already knew that whoever it was, they were anything but.
Neptune began to panic. Suddenly the red blob had disappeared, right before his eyes!
The blue-suited boy jumped over the alleyway, giving his unseen attacker a flash of
blue and silver and Neptune another case of
wiggies so hard his palms began to hurt. Standing on the building above, he stared down at
the crack between the the two, knowing there was something down there... something...
something that definitely didn't like him.
Filled with dread, Neptune approached the end of the building, triton clutched tightly within his grasp, and stared down...
After waiting for an eternity, Hyperion breathed a sigh of relief. I must've given them the slip, he thought, sneaking close to the edge of the ledge. I played that asshole, whoever he was. He hopped down effortlessly, landing with a wobble into the dank alley. Hyperion felt the eyes on him before he looked up. His head slowly tilted upward, and locked eyes with him. He snarled, springing upwards once again, descending back onto the roof, and face to face with his ancient enemy.
Neptune's heart was pumping so fast that he was half-afraid the red-armoured knight could hear it. The other knight's eerie white eyes made him want to almost turn-tail and run screaming back home to Livia, but...
The blue-haired knight tried to get a hold of himself and slipped back into the Neptune consciousness, knight of the oceans, king of the sea. He took his trident and banged the butt of it three times on the ground, steadfastly facing the knight in front of him. "I am the knight of Neptune, Romanus Senshi of the sea," he proclaimed, his deep voice whispery-soft. "Who are you?"
Oh boy, Hyperion swallowed. This guy was no joke. The night wind blew his long blue hair around his shoulders, and the raw power of the ocean flared around him. Okay, Zach, it's time to turn on the dramatics. "I am the Knight of the Raging Star, Harbinger of Dawn...Hyperion of the Graikos Senshi," he growled, a colorful fiery aura exploding around him on his last spoken word. In a flash, he leapt toward the stars. Like a comet overhead, he rained down destruction. "Shining Dawn!" he screamed, rays of light falling from his aura towards his opponent.
Struck by the powerful beams, Neptune reeled back, stunned. He fell back onto the roof, completely surprised as well as hurt - things had happened so quickly! A few words, then bang bang bang and his head was pounding like crazy and his arms were burnt...
Luckily, his armour and his triton had absorbed most of the blow; the attacks HAD been light, but not fire, so they had not done as much damage as they might have. Stumbling to his feet again, eyes slightly crossed, Neptune shuddered at the pain coursing through his body. Lord knew he didn't want to fight.
Tumbling expertly just before hitting the ground, Hyperion quickly whipped around, assessing how much damage he had done from behind. The guy was still standing, but he didn't look as regal. That's the ticket, he thought. I gotta attack him from all directions; I can't let him even breathe. His aura flared once again as he thrusted both hands in front of him, sending another barrage of light beams towards his opponent.
Why are you doing this? The question kept gnawing at his brain, and kept him pulling his punches. This wasn't right; why was he attacking someone he didn't even know? His instinct had taken over as soon as he had faced the spear-wielder. No...not instinct...something deeper. Something older.
Neptune held on in vain for as long as he could, until he was stumbling from the blows
and until the hands that held his triton
were trembling. He fell to his knees, finally, burnt and broken, unable to stand up any
longer. A slow whisper was building up inside him until it became a roar, until he could
no longer stand to face his attacker.
Attack him!
He's innocent, he thought desperately. Innocent. Human. Innocent. Human.
HE IS GRAIKOS! ATTACK HIM! his instinct screamed.
The ocean roared violently in his eyes, storming deep suffocating blue. Neptune stood shakily to his feet, then let out a wail, keening and as deep as the churning deep below the sea.
"Neptune Crashing Tidal-Wave!"
The triton flashed silver as it dug into the cold concrete of the roof, not reaching
into it's rooms below, but rather the magical
current that bound Neptune to all things. Eagerly the saltwater responded to his plea; it
gushed up powerfully, raging, destroying!
The wave grew in the blink of an eye until it was double Neptune's height, and double that, and double that - and then it engulfed the hapless Hyperion in it's choking, watery hand. Saline spattered Neptune's cheeks; tears or spray?
I'm home. The thought bought an unimaginable happiness that sang within him. It was just a weird dream. I'm home, surfing back in New York. I must've just wiped out hard. Where's my board? The water rushed through his lungs. Dark and cold and unforgiving. Even more, unfamiliar. HIS ocean would never treat him this way. Suddenly, he was slammed into the deep sea floor, his head flashing with fresh pain. Sand wasn't supposed to be that hard.
It was when the water subsided that the harsh reality set back in. His eyes burned, and when they finally agreed to open, the moon stared back down at him. I'm on the roof...and that asshole just hit me. Hard. His body rocked forward as he rose shakily to his feet. Dripping from head to toe, not even the wet hair flopped over his eyes could hide the seething rage.
"I eat those for breakfast..." Hyperion spat. Before Neptune could take in the sight, his enemy was upon him, hammering him with a flurry of kicks and punches...
With as much force as he could muster, with a blackened eye and a split lip, Neptune pushed the armoured knight off him with the butt of his triton. He staggered backward and held it out defensively, prongs bright and sharp in the moonlight.
"I don' wanna fight you," he started, and set his jaw firmly. "but Lord help me if I don' use dis on ya if you don' run home."
"Run? From you? Unless you got something better than an overgrown fork to deal with me, I ain't goin' nowhere," Hyperion retorted, settling into a fighting stance. His bravado was purely external. He had almost zero juice left for another Shining Dawn, and that wave attack had knocked him worse than he thought. He was struggling just to stand. Still, the question nagged at him. "I don't know why I'm fighting you," he said suddenly, surprising even himself. He stood tall again, looking down at the tar.
Slowly, Neptune's triton lowered itself, until he was standing with it flat against him. "Because yo'r Graikos," he said, trying to keep the quaver out of his voice, fear inciting him to keep his grip on his triton in case the other made a sudden move. "An' I'm Romoma - Romanus," he corrected himself. "S'what my Guardian said I had t'do. My duty. She screams at me if I don'," he added as an afterthought.
"Damn, your guardian's got you whipped."
"Don' I know it."
Hyperion laughed a bit, and then went sullen again. "We're supposed to be ancient enemies, as far as I know. I won't lie," he explained. "There's a part of me that wants to reduce you to ashes." Hyperion looked up at the sky, the shame overtaking him for a moment.
"An' there's a part of me, screamin' for your blood," Neptune whispered, then threw his triton down in an uncharacteristic show of rage. Hyperion jumped back a bit, hoping that the blue-haired boy didn't notice.
"Damn it all! I don't wanna fight you - don't want to fight anybody! I wasn't cut out for this fightin' bis. I mean, I go to school nearby an' everything," he pleaded desperately, more to himself than anything else. "I don't even think I'm able to leave you bleedin' without bandaging you up. As for killin' - " Neptune gave a great shudder and turned away. "Can't handle it. Not you. Yer... too young," he explained feebly.
"Dude, I can't take this... I want answers," Hyperion explained, coming to a sudden conclusion. "And I'm gonna find 'em." He locked eyes with the sea senshi. "But I promise you this...if I get a good reason to take you down...then kiss your ass good-bye. Meantime, I'm gonna concentrate on finding the others that...that are MY kind." He turned away.
"Wait a sec!" Neptune called out.
Hyperion turned.
Staring at his triton, seeing his reflection in the bright depths, the blue-haired senshi didn't dare to look at the other knight. "There's a lot of senshi," he began slowly, searching for the right words. "They might try t'kill you right away, hey? You might find the wrong ones. Like some Romanus, or those other ones... Ack... As... Oh, I forget," he muttered. "Anyway, we're both alone. Maybe if we tag along together, we can...?" Neptune's awkward speech ended on a despondently hopeful note.
Hyperion nodded solemnly, and pondered. "You might have something there..." he admitted. "We can be partners. Like Batman and Robin...Buffy and Angel...Yogi and Boo-boo!" His face brightened, as he stepped toward the sea senshi. "What the hell. Let's break the rules...partners?" Hyperion held out his armored hand. A smile split Neptune-Knight's face, practically showing off his tonsils as he gripped Hyperion's hand tightly. "Partners," he agreed firmly, then his brows furrowed as his smile turned into a slight smirk. "But -you- can b'Buffy," he hazarded shyly, as if almost afraid to make a joke.
The smile never leaving his face, Hyperion's aura suddenly flared, engulfing the two of them.
"Sucker," he snarled, swinging his free hand around, gathering energy. With a growl, he unleashed three bolts of energy directly into his opponents solar plexus. Neptune careened backwards, off the edge of the roof.
"Phew..." he breathed a sigh of victory. Walking to the edge, he looked down at the dank alley where his enemy lay. "Like I would EEEVER become partners with a Romanus. I'm not that dumb. See you around, asshole." He turned, and leapt into the night, back home. He had alot to tell Phaeton.
Ooh, now that pissed him off.
Not a lot pissed Neptune off. But being lied to? Being attacked, by a handshake - God, it was almost like being stabbed in the back. Hyperion knew nothing, nothing, even less than he about the cause! At least... at least he knew about honour, and, and stuff!
Hurt and burnt and rather in shock, Neptune lay on the cold concrete of the alley until the dawn was showing pink in the sky. Were all Graikos like that? Perhaps they were; perhaps Romanus were fighting them 'cause... because they were the Bad Ones. Livia had told him that. Had Livia been right?
Finally, in more than a little agony, Neptune picked up his triton and began to scale up to the roof, slowly. It had to be later than midnight - man, his mom would be so incredibly worried, it wouldn't be funny, even to the twins. Ouch. That felt like a sprained ankle to him... Getting back was a long, arduous process, and he felt burnt and frizzled and severely beaten up. His only little hope was that Hyperion felt the same, and he still felt guilty about being that spiteful.
Even transforming back to normal form was painful, and the moment he got through the door, there was his mother on the couch drinking coffee and looking as if she was about to burst into tears. She took in his black eye, his split lip, his bruised body with random red burns; Wade was glad she couldn't see the blistered flesh beneath his t-shirt.
As was predicted, she burst into tears, and Wade had to hold her off for half an hour with a story about running into a gang. Then he had to try and stop her calling the police, which was a magnificent feat in itself, but successful he finally tromped off to bed and shut the door.
"Wade," Livia whispered, the blinked. "Wade - Wade, you look awhful! Did yoo - "
"G'night, Livia," Wade said, and slid into his bed.
The world seemed darker, as if there were Graikos hiding behind every shadow, and all he could see in his mind's eye was his so-called ally, smiling as he engulfed them both in burning sunlight.
Tired as he was, it was a long time before he slept.
Slithering through his window, his armor evaporated in a wave of light across his body, illuminating his dark room for a moment. The back of his head hurt...and his shoulder was having a tough time rotating. He had won the fight (by playing the serious asshole card) but he definitely didn't walk away unscathed.
Zach shed his clothes, and crawled into bed with his wifebeater and boxers. A rattling suddenly cracked outside, as he sprung from his bed. The sigil shone bright on his forehead as he glared at his open window, fully prepared to be hit by another tidal wave. After waiting a moment without moving, Zach breathed a sigh of relief, and collapsed back in bed.
"Anything to report?" a raspy voice broke the silence.
"Yeah. I just almost got my ass handed to me by a Romanus," Zach croaked.
"Ah, so you finally encountered one, eh? How did the battle go?"
"I won."
"Did you kill the Romanus?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
Zach sat up quickly, clenching his teeth at the lit tank in front of him. "I don't KNOW. Leave me alone. I'm tired." The iguana fell silent, and sleep finally had mercy on Zach.