Author's Note: I own nothing. I know I haven't touched this one in a while but hey I had thoughts on what to do.
14 Too Good To Be True
Meeting Micheal Morningstar should have been a good thing. He was a Plumber's kid, he had the tech, and the powers to help them. If he hadn't turned out to be a complete tool. The first clue to his untrustworthy nature came when Jay immediately took a liking to him. Glen liked his cousin but she wasn't the most trustworthy person. When she nearly collapsed amid the battle with the zombified girls that had been terrorizing Michael's town Glen was sure something was wrong. He wasn't sure what it was until Kevin frowned over the dinner at a diner they'd found at a nearby diner and spoke.
"Did Jay say anything to you about getting a new tattoo?" He asked, Glen shook his head.
"No, but I'm not sure we're exactly that close." He paused sipping his soda. "Why?" Kevin sighed.
"Well I noticed something. The girls we were fighting at the power plant… They had these weird marks on their arms, like a star. I think I saw one on Jay's arm when she and Michael left but she's got so many tattoos I'm not sure." Glen stood, tossing down some cash to pay their bill.
"Won't hurt to check. If this bug's going around there's every chance Jay might have caught it from one of the girls at the power plant." Kevin nodded and hurried after Glen. In the parking lot though Glen paused. "Shit, one problem. She never taught me how to track people, and we don't know where they went to dinner. She hasn't exactly given us her phone number either." Glen pointed out, looking about ready to kick himself.
"No, but he wears his badge as a belt buckle. We can track him." Kevin said digging Magister Labrid's badge out of his pocket. They tracked Michael's badge to an old remote building my a small river. Kevin frowned and pointed down the road.
"That highway, where we met Morningstar is less than a mile down that road." He pointed out with a frown.
"Yeah." Glen grimaced. "I'm starting to think the bug going around is named Michael Morningstar." Glen said with a deep frown. They went up to the doors of the building, only to find them locked. Kevin frowned and absorbed the concrete of the sidewalk and kicked the door in. The sight that met them was one that would haunt Glen for the rest of his days. Michael had Jay draped over one of his arms and she had never looked worse. Not only were the cracks back in her face they looked deeper and darker against grey skin.
"Jay!" Kevin screamed it across the room but she didn't so much as move. Michael laughed.
"Oh well I didn't think to be seeing you two here so soon. Though I do have to thank you." His skin was mottled gold. "See those other girls were just a little treat, but none quite taste like the stars themselves." He laughed as Glen snarled reaching into his pocket pulling out a bottle. Glen threw the bottle hard as Kevin dropped the concrete and spun the dial on the Omnitrix. Michael blasted the bottle to shards before it could ever reach him, seeds clattering to the floor. He set Jay down on the ground with a mocking kind of gentleness as Kevin transformed.
"I never knew one person could have this much power." He marveled as he blasted Kevin, currently Jetray, out of the sky. "I really must find some way to thank you!" He cackled, teeth gleaming. Glen lunged and was slapped down to the floor next to Kevin. Michael looked up and a wicked smile came over his face as he spotted an industrial air conditioning unit set into the ceiling above where Glen and Kevin were starting to stir. He barely noticed the doors behind him open, admitting the seven or so zombified girls into the room.
Michael aimed a fist at the ac unit but before the light that chased his movement could ever touch metal something cold snaked around his ankle and yanked him off his feet. His shot went wide debris falling to the ground a good four feet from Kevin's head. He flipped himself over angrily searching for the source of the cold still around his ankle and screamed.
Jay was pulling herself to her feet, but she didn't look quite human anymore. Her eyes had flooded pink, nearly purple and there were shadows pouring from her mouth like a flood of tar. One of them had snaked around his ankle and now held him in a vicelike grip as a second wound around his other ankle. The cracks in her face had widened, revealing deep purple nearly onyx skin beneath and her hair was flying around her face a mix of deep pink and black shadows. He was yanked close to her as he let out another blood curdling shriek.
Kevin came to as a loud scream echoed around the room. He rolled to his feet as quickly as his spinning head would allow. But there was no threat. Instead Jay was back on her feet holding Morningstar by his face as power thrummed around them, nearly sending Kevin stumbling back to his knees. The gold sheen of Michael's skin fled and Jay regained a more healthy tone from the grey paler she'd had when they arrived. That grey was spreading into Michael's skin instead as sparks of light shot off the two of them, striking the Zombified girls that had gathered in a loose half circle around them. With each spark the girls were regaining the life force stolen from them. In a moment it was over, Jay dropped Michael to the ground, shriveled and grey but still alive as the regenerated girls fled. Jay stepped off the raised platform and over to her cousin helping him to his feet. He blinked at her.
"You ok?" He asked and she shrugged. Kevin though was still angry, at himself almost as much as Michael. He'd trusted too quickly and almost lost part of his team for it. He stepped over to Michael and yanked the badge off his belt.
"You don't deserve to wear this." He said absorbing the metal from the badge and crushing it in a vicelike grip. He dropped the remains of the badge next to Michael's face and turned to Glen and Jay. She didn't look as bad as she had after the incident with Vulkanus but there was a crack in her face. It was small, a fissure starting at the outside corner of her left eye and making its way nearly to her cheekbone. Kevin dropped the metal from his hand and absently reached up, gently running his thumb over the split. If he didn't know better he would say she was going for a gothic look with her makeup. "Are you ok?" He asked and Jay shrugged.
"Could have been worse. I need a fucking nap though." She said as she gently pulled out of his grip and turned to the door. She pulled her keys out of her pocket and tossed them to Kevin. "You're driving home." He blinked as he caught the keys. Glen raised an eyebrow at Kevin.
"Are you two…?" He left the question unfinished with another quirk of his eyebrow. Kevin went bright red but a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth.
"Not yet."
