Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible
*~*~* flashback
*~* dreamscape
The Assassin: Nemesis
Chapter 10
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Hot sand whipped at the two people sitting on the dune, a sandstorm was brewing. Anyone else would think that they were crazy, the winds in a sandstorm were strong enough to blow sand with such force they it would literally rip the flesh from your bones. But not the two who were sitting with their legs crossed and hands folded on their laps. Green and purple trench coats whipped around with the winds that ounded them, but no sand was touching them.
"Concentrate your energy, focus it into your palms and form a bubble," Nate said as he easily formed the simple shield.
"Right," Bonnie said, though it was a bit strained, she was having trouble with this method of training.
A few specks of sand passed through her shield, stinging her face, but most were kept out. It was hard for her, and her face was scrunched in concentration, her eyes closed, her teeth gritted and grinding. She chanced a glance at Nate, who was looking as if he were lounging at the beach. Unfortunately, it's not good to get distracted while meditating, and her shield almost fell.
"Keep your mind only on the bubble, envision it in you mind, blocking out all foreign objects," he continued, "listen only to my voice, clear your mind of everything else."
"It's kinda hard to concentrate with you talking."
He stood and extended on hand out in front of him, the shield he'd set up expanding outward, becoming a wall almost fifty feet high. The wind pounded against it, being forced around, along with the sand. He glared down at her, eyes following as she stood up, and brushed off her coat. They had been at this for roughly a month, starting in mid November, and she hadn't progressed as far in the mental training as she had in the physical training.
"You need to be ready for the trials in four months, and if you're not, then you can't be an assassin," he lowered his hand, and the shield stayed where it was.
"What's in four months?" she asked.
"The reunion, Jinai is going to evaluate your skills, and if you don't have these techniques down..." he left her to figure out the rest for herself, needless to say, she got the point. "Well, it's about seven AM in Middleton, we should get back."
"Yeah, it's Friday after all," she said as she brushed the sand from her hair.
A circle formed around them, littered with runes with began to glow with an unearthly light. The circle of light lifted from the sand and settled a bout a foot above Nate's head. It then lowered back to the ground, and as they passed through it, they disappeared.
*****
There were still a few days till the holiday vacation, so, until that day came, the students continued to file into the school. Nate took off his leather coat, a birthday present from Bonnie, and slipped it into his locker. The locker was still pretty bare, just a picture of Bonnie stuck to the door, and a few books. After grabbing the appropriate books, he shut the locker and spun the lock. Something felt off today, but he wasn't sure what; when in a crowd, the number of minds tended to dull his senses, especially around the holidays. He just shrugged and walked off to his first period class.
Upon reaching the English room, he found Bonnie in the back, saving him a seat. He sat next to her and proceeded in closing his eyes, to catch up on the sleep he'd lost the previous night. Bonnie did the same, the training taking more of a toll on her energy than the lack of sleep. Before drifting off to the land of dreams, Nate slipped some sunglasses over his eyes, and handed a pair to Bonnie. Now no one could tell if they were sleeping or not (a friend told me about this, it was a rather funny story). English class this year was boring enough as it is, besides, they could just find out what happened from, and copy notes off of, Kim.
*~*
"Focus your energy, place it in your palms!" Nate's voice bellowed in Bonnie's head.
"I know, I know," she shouted back.
"Then why aren't you, there is less time now than ever," his voice was deafening, then became rather soft and comforting, "you can do this, I know you can."
Bonnie was floating in a very large, very black expanse, and there didn't seem to be anyone else there. Nate's voice had been coming from everywhere and from nowhere at the same time. It welled up from within her, and screamed from the very limits of the expanse. Needless to say, she was complying. Her legs were crossed, and her hands folded in her lap, palms up and thumbs touching, forming a circle of sorts. She concentrated as hard as she could, pouring all her energy into her palms, and was rewarded with a small ball of light. With some focus she was able to expand the ball, forming a bubble around herself, a complete sphere.
Then, out of nowhere, a green blast of energy was fired and struck her shield, it buckled and shook, and threw her around a little, but it did not break. The shield continued to expand, absorbing the energy of the blast to reinforce itself. Bonnie did see it, but she knew that Nate was smiling. And with that smile came a torrent, literally a hailstorm of green blasts, each one hit its target, and each was absorbed into the shield.
*~*
Bonnie awoke when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and heard the bell ringing. Nate was standing over her, his bag slung over his shoulder, and a wry smile on his face. She smiled back as she stood up, almost feeling like skipping.
"You finally did it," he said as they walked up the aisle.
"But that was only a dream, it was in my head," she looked at the floor, suddenly depressed.
"Bonnie, that's the first step, once you believe you can do something, anything is possible," he placed his arm around her shoulder and held her close, taking off the sunglasses. "I'll prove it to you after school."
"Ok."
*****
The last just rang, and students were all filing out of the school, talking and laughing about the coming vacation. Among them was a group of five seniors: Nate, Bonnie, Ron, Tara, and Kim were all chatting happily. As they walked it seemed to Nate that they were being watched, and with a quick look around his suspicions were confirmed. A tall, burly man in a black trench coat was watching them. His hands were in his pockets, sunglasses covered his eyes, and a scarf and hat hid the rest of his face. Nate's eyes narrowed as he stopped laughing at the joke Ron just told.
"Bonnie."
"Hm?"
"Go to the jeep, I'll meet you there," he said still looking at the man.
"Um, okay," she said and lightly kissed him before leaving him in the crowd.
He stood still, and the crowd of students unconsciously moved out of his way. The man moved towards him, slipping through the mass of teenagers as if he didn't even exist. He stopped about ten feet away from Nate, and up close looked even larger than Nate had previous thought. The stranger stood almost seven feet tall, and the outline of two guns, a 9mm and an SMG, the coat obscured the outlines enough, though, that he couldn't tell exactly what kind they were. They spoke once all the students were gone.
"So, what do you want?" the green eyed assassin asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"We have someone you want," he said in a raspy voice.
"Natsumi? What does it matter, she's just reanimated flesh," Nate replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
The man simply smiled, or scowled, Nate couldn't tell through the scarf, but there was something about him that he didn't like. His hand slowly drifted back behind him and began to push his leather jacket up, grasping the hilt of the kunai (ninja throwing knife) he had stored there.
"Oh, not her, I mean the other girl," the part of his face Nate could see was crinkled slightly, confirming he was smiling.
"Not likely," Nate smiled openly this time, revealing his fangs. "Whoever you brought with you is probably dead or in serious pain right now."
"What do you mean?"
"Apparently you haven't been keeping a close enough eye on me," his ear twitch with the sound of crunching bone and screams of pain. "Hall, why do you insist on working for them?"
"The power that I get for my services is more than enough," he said, the crinkle disappearing as he heard the sound too.
"Too bad," Nate said with a slight smile and turned away, exposing the kunai to Hall.
This gesture was meant to show the Pitch Black assassin that he could have been killed at any time. He felt rather than saw Hall reach for the 9mm, whipping it out, then screaming in pain as the kunai stuck through hand, preventing him from holding anything. Nate's hand was raised over his shoulder, his hand holding a small cord, which he jerked to bring his knife back to him. Then he simply faded away.
"Damn him," Hall said and turned around to be face to face with the last person that he expected to see. "Chaos?"
Kyle smirked as he leveled the gunblade at Hall's chest, discharging a single round into his heart. Hall fell to the ground, looking up with a look of confusion in his eyes; why was Chaos doing this.
"I guess you weren't informed of Chaos' untimely death," Kyle said as he shot another round into Hall's head. "Too bad."
The slabs of concrete beneath the Pitch Black assassin opened and swallowed him up. When thye closed back up, there wasn't a single sign that he had even been there. Kyle looked up at the roof of Middleton high school, and saw Nate standing there, arms crossed and a look of slight amusement on his face, then he was gone.
"So, still watching over me, like I need it," he said then started to walk the other way, pulling out the locket he'd taken from the graveyard. "I have someone else to do that."
*****
Nate arrived in the parking lot not long after Hall's death; Bonnie was sitting on the hood of the Jeep Wrangler, that was the only vehicle in the lot besides the one's belonging to teachers. Snow was piled up in large banks all over the lot, one in particular was stained with blood. He noticed this, and also noticed how Bonnie was hiding her hands in her coat pockets. When he got to the jeep, he sat on the hood with her, laying his arm across her shoulders.
"What happened?"
"He got away," she looked disappointed and pulled her hands out of her pockets. Two long gashes covered both of her palms.
"You grabbed the blade?" he asked absentminded probing her open memory.
She nodded was about slip her hands back into her pockets when Nate grabbed them and held them in his own. Bonnie winced at the pain radiating from her hands, and then sighed when the pain dissipated. Looking down at her hands, the blood and gashes were gone, and they sat serenely in Nate's hands. He slid off the hood and gently pulled her with him, leading her to the passenger side door. She got in and he walked around to the other side and slid the keys in the ignition.
"You okay?" he asked before turning the key.
"Yeah, I just feel bad that I let him get away," she looked out the window at the red snow, he may have gotten away, but not without a broken nose and a few missing teeth.
"Did he say what his name was?"
"Crow."
'Hm, so Raven's brother want's revenge,' Nate thought as he shifted the jeep into gear and took off through the parking lot. 'It won't do him much good.'
*****
"Now, now, now little Natsumi, struggling won't do you any good," the woman said from outside the barriers. "It just drains your life more. Would you rather die than have a chance to get him back?"
"What?" Natsumi looked up at her tormentor, who she now knew as Mor, a slight look of curiosity. "What do you mean?"
Mor smirked as she said, "If you would just trust me, I can help you get Nate back. I know what's in your mind, no matter how hard you try to be happy for him, you can't get over that he found someone else. It eats you up inside, doesn't it?"
She stepped forward through the barrier, practically pressing herself up against the now terrified girl. Brushing a few strands of hair out of Natsumi's face, blue eyes held by bottomless black pools. Right before the Asian's very eyes two small tendrils began to extend from Mor's eyes, waving lightly in the air as they covered the distance between them.
The tendrils began to touch Natsumi's eyes, sliding along her cornea and across the white expanses (I forget the scientific term for it) to the edge, and slowly began to burrow into it. They circled around her eyes, and continued through the holes behind her eyes into her skull to touch her brain.
Through all this Natsumi stayed completely still, not even daring to breathe as Mor's tendrils touched her brain. The tendrils disconnected from Mor's eyes and continued to burrow into her eyes until they were gone, completely absorbed into the young girl's brain.
"There, now we're like sisters," Mor said with an evil smirk as she pulled the cadaver into a hug, which she whole-heartedly returned. "How do you feel?"
"I feel good," Natsumi said as she laid her head against the taller woman's chest. "Free."
*****
"Concentrate all available energy into your palm, form it into a ball," Nate said walking around Bonnie, checking her posture and her levels.
They stood, in their trench coats, in a secluded section of the park, away from everyone else. Bonnie stood in the middle of a clearing, one hand held out in front of her, palm up, her other hand holding the forearm of the one that was up. They were practicing launching and blocking energy attacks, and Bonnie was moving much faster through the offensive stage than the defensive stage. Nate stepped in front of her and held his hand up, one finger pointing forward.
"On three," he said as a small green ball, about the size of a BB, appeared at his fingertip. "Three."
The ball flashed outward, striking Bonnie's shield and throwing her back across the clearing, into a tree. Snow fell from the branches, covering her. Nate stood there, waiting patiently for her to get up and continue. He knew that she was beating herself up inside to get through this, it was hard for someone emerging so late. It was his fault, if he hadn't been so blinded by other things he might have seen this power growing in her a long time ago.
"Get up, we're not done yet," he called to her as she began to stir.
"I'm up, I'm up," she said as she wobbled to her feet, almost falling, but caught herself; it had been a while since she learned he wasn't going to baby her, that blast of energy was proof of it. "Again?"
"Of course," he held his hand up again, the tiny ball of energy forming again. "Now remember to clear your mind and concentrate, you aren't doing that."
"But, what about the others?"
"They can take care of themselves," he snapped as he fired, and she evaded. "Don't dodge, you have to learn to block, if you wear yourself out physically where is the mental energy going to come from to fire back?"
He fired again and again, and again she dodged, this only served to make him even more irritated than before. If she would not embrace her powers, then she would never realize her full potential, she would just be a fumbling little girl for the rest of her life. This was getting old, so instead of firing from a distance he...
"Hello," he said as he suddenly appeared right in her face, his hand an open palm a few inches from her abdomen.
The next moment he fired and there was a flash of purple that deflected his bast up into the sky. Then Bonnie hit the ground, rolled, and flipped to her feet, breathing heavily. She was ready for his next attack, but it never came, he just stood there smiling. Her head cocked to the side a little, wondering what he was smiling about. The answer came as the energy blast he fired exploded about a mile up, looking for all the world like a burst of fireworks (think of something like the end of MIB 2).
"See, your mind was clear and your energy focused," he laughed a little. "Now we just have to work on doing it not in the heat of battle."
"What time is it?" Bonnie asked as she relaxed her stance.
"About...two AM," he looked down at his watch. "We should probably be getting back."
"Yeah."
*****
"Here it is, the Arch of Algonius," Sashna said pointing to a structure that looked like an ordinary garden arbor. "If the person stepping under it is pure of heart, then it will grant their souls deepest desire."
"R-really," Aeris asked stepping around it, looking the arch up and down. "I'll finally be cured of this hunger?"
"Mmhmm," the cat-girl nodded vigorously. "But if there's taint, it'll kill you."
"I see," she eyed the arch a little more and then turned to girl next to her. "Do you mean carnal taint, or pure evil taint?"
"Um...the second one I think, I'm not entirely sure," she shrugged.
"Oh," Aeris looked again at the arch, hoping that it would work. "Well...no way to know but to try."
She took one more step into the unknown.
*****
"Sam, could you pass me the flour?" Dr. Possible asked.
"Sure," she grabbed the bag out of the cabinet and handed it to her. "Anything else?"
"The yeast, please."
"Here you go."
Kim's mother thanked her and added the yeast to the breadmaker. Shego, being slightly awkward in the kitchen, was taking lessons from Dr. Possible. She would have asked her own mother, but she wasn't in at the moment.
"I don't know why you didn't ask Ron," she said while adding some sugar and then starting the breadmaker.
"I can't do that, asking someone younger than I am for pointers on cooking just isn't me," Shego said with a slight whine to her voice.
"Asking for help wasn't beneath your mother," Anne (I'm just going to call her that) half-scolded. "But, then again, you aren't your mother."
"Exactly."
*****
Nate sat in his chair by the fire, a sword held across his lap. The handle was in one hand and the blade in the other, sharp edge down. It pressed lightly into his skin, not enough to break it, the sword wasn't the heavy, but it would leave a mark. His eyes were closed as he slowly mouthed words that were meant to calm him, and his mental reach was quite evident; as he calmed down, as did the fire little less than a yard away.
"Nate?" Bonnie's voice asked from the kitchen door.
"Yes?" he cracked an eye open and swiveled it to look at her.
"Um...I was wondering...when will I get my own weapon?" she asked rather hesitantly, like it was something else she wanted to ask, but changed her mind at the last minute.
"Well, I suppose all you have to do is choose one," he gestured to the wall across from him, which still held its fair share of weaponry; a week ago he returned most of it. "Take your pick."
She walked over to the weapons, looking at each one carefully. It was a tough decision, there were so many to choose from. Finally her gaze settled on a chain in the corner. It was pretty long, almost ten feet, but she knew better, she knew it could extend itself to almost any length. At one end of the chain was a kama, and at the other end was a weight, to balance it out. She flicked her wrist and the chain coiled itself in her hand. The chain then disappeared, and the ball was fixed to the bottom of the kama.
"The nebula chain, good choice," Nate smiled a little as he got up, sheathing the sword as he went. "If you twist the ball, the kama will extend into a sword."
Bonnie twisted the ball and the blade turned so it faced upwards, then extended to a length of roughly 30 inches, as opposed to its previous ten inches. It was double edged, the outside edge sharpening itself as it grew. Her eyes lit up when she saw that with another flick of her wrist the blade broke up and the sections were connected by the chain that had disappeared.
"Oh I love it," she said as she retracted it to its kama form and hooked it to her belt.
"I thought you might."
TBC
I have to end it there, this is taking way too long to get done. I know I've told you all that I prefer my chapters to be between eight and ten pages on Microsoft Word (font size 10). And this one comes just short of that, the last line of dialogue is two stupid inches short of eight pages. Well, I hope I get a few more reviews for this story than I have. Don't expect the next chapter anytime soon, I'll be helping Felicia get her next chapter finished, the girl cannot keep her mind on one thing long enough to finish it. Well...that's not exactly true...there are some things she can keep her mind on (**wink wink nudge nudge**). That's it from me for now, look for an update on "The Mutant" by the end of April, hopefully.
*~*~* flashback
*~* dreamscape
The Assassin: Nemesis
Chapter 10
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Hot sand whipped at the two people sitting on the dune, a sandstorm was brewing. Anyone else would think that they were crazy, the winds in a sandstorm were strong enough to blow sand with such force they it would literally rip the flesh from your bones. But not the two who were sitting with their legs crossed and hands folded on their laps. Green and purple trench coats whipped around with the winds that ounded them, but no sand was touching them.
"Concentrate your energy, focus it into your palms and form a bubble," Nate said as he easily formed the simple shield.
"Right," Bonnie said, though it was a bit strained, she was having trouble with this method of training.
A few specks of sand passed through her shield, stinging her face, but most were kept out. It was hard for her, and her face was scrunched in concentration, her eyes closed, her teeth gritted and grinding. She chanced a glance at Nate, who was looking as if he were lounging at the beach. Unfortunately, it's not good to get distracted while meditating, and her shield almost fell.
"Keep your mind only on the bubble, envision it in you mind, blocking out all foreign objects," he continued, "listen only to my voice, clear your mind of everything else."
"It's kinda hard to concentrate with you talking."
He stood and extended on hand out in front of him, the shield he'd set up expanding outward, becoming a wall almost fifty feet high. The wind pounded against it, being forced around, along with the sand. He glared down at her, eyes following as she stood up, and brushed off her coat. They had been at this for roughly a month, starting in mid November, and she hadn't progressed as far in the mental training as she had in the physical training.
"You need to be ready for the trials in four months, and if you're not, then you can't be an assassin," he lowered his hand, and the shield stayed where it was.
"What's in four months?" she asked.
"The reunion, Jinai is going to evaluate your skills, and if you don't have these techniques down..." he left her to figure out the rest for herself, needless to say, she got the point. "Well, it's about seven AM in Middleton, we should get back."
"Yeah, it's Friday after all," she said as she brushed the sand from her hair.
A circle formed around them, littered with runes with began to glow with an unearthly light. The circle of light lifted from the sand and settled a bout a foot above Nate's head. It then lowered back to the ground, and as they passed through it, they disappeared.
*****
There were still a few days till the holiday vacation, so, until that day came, the students continued to file into the school. Nate took off his leather coat, a birthday present from Bonnie, and slipped it into his locker. The locker was still pretty bare, just a picture of Bonnie stuck to the door, and a few books. After grabbing the appropriate books, he shut the locker and spun the lock. Something felt off today, but he wasn't sure what; when in a crowd, the number of minds tended to dull his senses, especially around the holidays. He just shrugged and walked off to his first period class.
Upon reaching the English room, he found Bonnie in the back, saving him a seat. He sat next to her and proceeded in closing his eyes, to catch up on the sleep he'd lost the previous night. Bonnie did the same, the training taking more of a toll on her energy than the lack of sleep. Before drifting off to the land of dreams, Nate slipped some sunglasses over his eyes, and handed a pair to Bonnie. Now no one could tell if they were sleeping or not (a friend told me about this, it was a rather funny story). English class this year was boring enough as it is, besides, they could just find out what happened from, and copy notes off of, Kim.
*~*
"Focus your energy, place it in your palms!" Nate's voice bellowed in Bonnie's head.
"I know, I know," she shouted back.
"Then why aren't you, there is less time now than ever," his voice was deafening, then became rather soft and comforting, "you can do this, I know you can."
Bonnie was floating in a very large, very black expanse, and there didn't seem to be anyone else there. Nate's voice had been coming from everywhere and from nowhere at the same time. It welled up from within her, and screamed from the very limits of the expanse. Needless to say, she was complying. Her legs were crossed, and her hands folded in her lap, palms up and thumbs touching, forming a circle of sorts. She concentrated as hard as she could, pouring all her energy into her palms, and was rewarded with a small ball of light. With some focus she was able to expand the ball, forming a bubble around herself, a complete sphere.
Then, out of nowhere, a green blast of energy was fired and struck her shield, it buckled and shook, and threw her around a little, but it did not break. The shield continued to expand, absorbing the energy of the blast to reinforce itself. Bonnie did see it, but she knew that Nate was smiling. And with that smile came a torrent, literally a hailstorm of green blasts, each one hit its target, and each was absorbed into the shield.
*~*
Bonnie awoke when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and heard the bell ringing. Nate was standing over her, his bag slung over his shoulder, and a wry smile on his face. She smiled back as she stood up, almost feeling like skipping.
"You finally did it," he said as they walked up the aisle.
"But that was only a dream, it was in my head," she looked at the floor, suddenly depressed.
"Bonnie, that's the first step, once you believe you can do something, anything is possible," he placed his arm around her shoulder and held her close, taking off the sunglasses. "I'll prove it to you after school."
"Ok."
*****
The last just rang, and students were all filing out of the school, talking and laughing about the coming vacation. Among them was a group of five seniors: Nate, Bonnie, Ron, Tara, and Kim were all chatting happily. As they walked it seemed to Nate that they were being watched, and with a quick look around his suspicions were confirmed. A tall, burly man in a black trench coat was watching them. His hands were in his pockets, sunglasses covered his eyes, and a scarf and hat hid the rest of his face. Nate's eyes narrowed as he stopped laughing at the joke Ron just told.
"Bonnie."
"Hm?"
"Go to the jeep, I'll meet you there," he said still looking at the man.
"Um, okay," she said and lightly kissed him before leaving him in the crowd.
He stood still, and the crowd of students unconsciously moved out of his way. The man moved towards him, slipping through the mass of teenagers as if he didn't even exist. He stopped about ten feet away from Nate, and up close looked even larger than Nate had previous thought. The stranger stood almost seven feet tall, and the outline of two guns, a 9mm and an SMG, the coat obscured the outlines enough, though, that he couldn't tell exactly what kind they were. They spoke once all the students were gone.
"So, what do you want?" the green eyed assassin asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"We have someone you want," he said in a raspy voice.
"Natsumi? What does it matter, she's just reanimated flesh," Nate replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
The man simply smiled, or scowled, Nate couldn't tell through the scarf, but there was something about him that he didn't like. His hand slowly drifted back behind him and began to push his leather jacket up, grasping the hilt of the kunai (ninja throwing knife) he had stored there.
"Oh, not her, I mean the other girl," the part of his face Nate could see was crinkled slightly, confirming he was smiling.
"Not likely," Nate smiled openly this time, revealing his fangs. "Whoever you brought with you is probably dead or in serious pain right now."
"What do you mean?"
"Apparently you haven't been keeping a close enough eye on me," his ear twitch with the sound of crunching bone and screams of pain. "Hall, why do you insist on working for them?"
"The power that I get for my services is more than enough," he said, the crinkle disappearing as he heard the sound too.
"Too bad," Nate said with a slight smile and turned away, exposing the kunai to Hall.
This gesture was meant to show the Pitch Black assassin that he could have been killed at any time. He felt rather than saw Hall reach for the 9mm, whipping it out, then screaming in pain as the kunai stuck through hand, preventing him from holding anything. Nate's hand was raised over his shoulder, his hand holding a small cord, which he jerked to bring his knife back to him. Then he simply faded away.
"Damn him," Hall said and turned around to be face to face with the last person that he expected to see. "Chaos?"
Kyle smirked as he leveled the gunblade at Hall's chest, discharging a single round into his heart. Hall fell to the ground, looking up with a look of confusion in his eyes; why was Chaos doing this.
"I guess you weren't informed of Chaos' untimely death," Kyle said as he shot another round into Hall's head. "Too bad."
The slabs of concrete beneath the Pitch Black assassin opened and swallowed him up. When thye closed back up, there wasn't a single sign that he had even been there. Kyle looked up at the roof of Middleton high school, and saw Nate standing there, arms crossed and a look of slight amusement on his face, then he was gone.
"So, still watching over me, like I need it," he said then started to walk the other way, pulling out the locket he'd taken from the graveyard. "I have someone else to do that."
*****
Nate arrived in the parking lot not long after Hall's death; Bonnie was sitting on the hood of the Jeep Wrangler, that was the only vehicle in the lot besides the one's belonging to teachers. Snow was piled up in large banks all over the lot, one in particular was stained with blood. He noticed this, and also noticed how Bonnie was hiding her hands in her coat pockets. When he got to the jeep, he sat on the hood with her, laying his arm across her shoulders.
"What happened?"
"He got away," she looked disappointed and pulled her hands out of her pockets. Two long gashes covered both of her palms.
"You grabbed the blade?" he asked absentminded probing her open memory.
She nodded was about slip her hands back into her pockets when Nate grabbed them and held them in his own. Bonnie winced at the pain radiating from her hands, and then sighed when the pain dissipated. Looking down at her hands, the blood and gashes were gone, and they sat serenely in Nate's hands. He slid off the hood and gently pulled her with him, leading her to the passenger side door. She got in and he walked around to the other side and slid the keys in the ignition.
"You okay?" he asked before turning the key.
"Yeah, I just feel bad that I let him get away," she looked out the window at the red snow, he may have gotten away, but not without a broken nose and a few missing teeth.
"Did he say what his name was?"
"Crow."
'Hm, so Raven's brother want's revenge,' Nate thought as he shifted the jeep into gear and took off through the parking lot. 'It won't do him much good.'
*****
"Now, now, now little Natsumi, struggling won't do you any good," the woman said from outside the barriers. "It just drains your life more. Would you rather die than have a chance to get him back?"
"What?" Natsumi looked up at her tormentor, who she now knew as Mor, a slight look of curiosity. "What do you mean?"
Mor smirked as she said, "If you would just trust me, I can help you get Nate back. I know what's in your mind, no matter how hard you try to be happy for him, you can't get over that he found someone else. It eats you up inside, doesn't it?"
She stepped forward through the barrier, practically pressing herself up against the now terrified girl. Brushing a few strands of hair out of Natsumi's face, blue eyes held by bottomless black pools. Right before the Asian's very eyes two small tendrils began to extend from Mor's eyes, waving lightly in the air as they covered the distance between them.
The tendrils began to touch Natsumi's eyes, sliding along her cornea and across the white expanses (I forget the scientific term for it) to the edge, and slowly began to burrow into it. They circled around her eyes, and continued through the holes behind her eyes into her skull to touch her brain.
Through all this Natsumi stayed completely still, not even daring to breathe as Mor's tendrils touched her brain. The tendrils disconnected from Mor's eyes and continued to burrow into her eyes until they were gone, completely absorbed into the young girl's brain.
"There, now we're like sisters," Mor said with an evil smirk as she pulled the cadaver into a hug, which she whole-heartedly returned. "How do you feel?"
"I feel good," Natsumi said as she laid her head against the taller woman's chest. "Free."
*****
"Concentrate all available energy into your palm, form it into a ball," Nate said walking around Bonnie, checking her posture and her levels.
They stood, in their trench coats, in a secluded section of the park, away from everyone else. Bonnie stood in the middle of a clearing, one hand held out in front of her, palm up, her other hand holding the forearm of the one that was up. They were practicing launching and blocking energy attacks, and Bonnie was moving much faster through the offensive stage than the defensive stage. Nate stepped in front of her and held his hand up, one finger pointing forward.
"On three," he said as a small green ball, about the size of a BB, appeared at his fingertip. "Three."
The ball flashed outward, striking Bonnie's shield and throwing her back across the clearing, into a tree. Snow fell from the branches, covering her. Nate stood there, waiting patiently for her to get up and continue. He knew that she was beating herself up inside to get through this, it was hard for someone emerging so late. It was his fault, if he hadn't been so blinded by other things he might have seen this power growing in her a long time ago.
"Get up, we're not done yet," he called to her as she began to stir.
"I'm up, I'm up," she said as she wobbled to her feet, almost falling, but caught herself; it had been a while since she learned he wasn't going to baby her, that blast of energy was proof of it. "Again?"
"Of course," he held his hand up again, the tiny ball of energy forming again. "Now remember to clear your mind and concentrate, you aren't doing that."
"But, what about the others?"
"They can take care of themselves," he snapped as he fired, and she evaded. "Don't dodge, you have to learn to block, if you wear yourself out physically where is the mental energy going to come from to fire back?"
He fired again and again, and again she dodged, this only served to make him even more irritated than before. If she would not embrace her powers, then she would never realize her full potential, she would just be a fumbling little girl for the rest of her life. This was getting old, so instead of firing from a distance he...
"Hello," he said as he suddenly appeared right in her face, his hand an open palm a few inches from her abdomen.
The next moment he fired and there was a flash of purple that deflected his bast up into the sky. Then Bonnie hit the ground, rolled, and flipped to her feet, breathing heavily. She was ready for his next attack, but it never came, he just stood there smiling. Her head cocked to the side a little, wondering what he was smiling about. The answer came as the energy blast he fired exploded about a mile up, looking for all the world like a burst of fireworks (think of something like the end of MIB 2).
"See, your mind was clear and your energy focused," he laughed a little. "Now we just have to work on doing it not in the heat of battle."
"What time is it?" Bonnie asked as she relaxed her stance.
"About...two AM," he looked down at his watch. "We should probably be getting back."
"Yeah."
*****
"Here it is, the Arch of Algonius," Sashna said pointing to a structure that looked like an ordinary garden arbor. "If the person stepping under it is pure of heart, then it will grant their souls deepest desire."
"R-really," Aeris asked stepping around it, looking the arch up and down. "I'll finally be cured of this hunger?"
"Mmhmm," the cat-girl nodded vigorously. "But if there's taint, it'll kill you."
"I see," she eyed the arch a little more and then turned to girl next to her. "Do you mean carnal taint, or pure evil taint?"
"Um...the second one I think, I'm not entirely sure," she shrugged.
"Oh," Aeris looked again at the arch, hoping that it would work. "Well...no way to know but to try."
She took one more step into the unknown.
*****
"Sam, could you pass me the flour?" Dr. Possible asked.
"Sure," she grabbed the bag out of the cabinet and handed it to her. "Anything else?"
"The yeast, please."
"Here you go."
Kim's mother thanked her and added the yeast to the breadmaker. Shego, being slightly awkward in the kitchen, was taking lessons from Dr. Possible. She would have asked her own mother, but she wasn't in at the moment.
"I don't know why you didn't ask Ron," she said while adding some sugar and then starting the breadmaker.
"I can't do that, asking someone younger than I am for pointers on cooking just isn't me," Shego said with a slight whine to her voice.
"Asking for help wasn't beneath your mother," Anne (I'm just going to call her that) half-scolded. "But, then again, you aren't your mother."
"Exactly."
*****
Nate sat in his chair by the fire, a sword held across his lap. The handle was in one hand and the blade in the other, sharp edge down. It pressed lightly into his skin, not enough to break it, the sword wasn't the heavy, but it would leave a mark. His eyes were closed as he slowly mouthed words that were meant to calm him, and his mental reach was quite evident; as he calmed down, as did the fire little less than a yard away.
"Nate?" Bonnie's voice asked from the kitchen door.
"Yes?" he cracked an eye open and swiveled it to look at her.
"Um...I was wondering...when will I get my own weapon?" she asked rather hesitantly, like it was something else she wanted to ask, but changed her mind at the last minute.
"Well, I suppose all you have to do is choose one," he gestured to the wall across from him, which still held its fair share of weaponry; a week ago he returned most of it. "Take your pick."
She walked over to the weapons, looking at each one carefully. It was a tough decision, there were so many to choose from. Finally her gaze settled on a chain in the corner. It was pretty long, almost ten feet, but she knew better, she knew it could extend itself to almost any length. At one end of the chain was a kama, and at the other end was a weight, to balance it out. She flicked her wrist and the chain coiled itself in her hand. The chain then disappeared, and the ball was fixed to the bottom of the kama.
"The nebula chain, good choice," Nate smiled a little as he got up, sheathing the sword as he went. "If you twist the ball, the kama will extend into a sword."
Bonnie twisted the ball and the blade turned so it faced upwards, then extended to a length of roughly 30 inches, as opposed to its previous ten inches. It was double edged, the outside edge sharpening itself as it grew. Her eyes lit up when she saw that with another flick of her wrist the blade broke up and the sections were connected by the chain that had disappeared.
"Oh I love it," she said as she retracted it to its kama form and hooked it to her belt.
"I thought you might."
TBC
I have to end it there, this is taking way too long to get done. I know I've told you all that I prefer my chapters to be between eight and ten pages on Microsoft Word (font size 10). And this one comes just short of that, the last line of dialogue is two stupid inches short of eight pages. Well, I hope I get a few more reviews for this story than I have. Don't expect the next chapter anytime soon, I'll be helping Felicia get her next chapter finished, the girl cannot keep her mind on one thing long enough to finish it. Well...that's not exactly true...there are some things she can keep her mind on (**wink wink nudge nudge**). That's it from me for now, look for an update on "The Mutant" by the end of April, hopefully.