It's about Time
Chapter 6
Kate flew in and landed on what looked to be a dark dock area of a city. Since being on fire was rather obvious to the naked eye she became human again. "That was different but way cool!" Her new form was really something.
First she had to figure out just where she was so she started to look around and spotted something straight away. "The Statue of Liberty? …I'm in New York. Why couldn't they have invaded Berlin?" Why did she have to spend time in the United States? "On second thought, yes, invade America." It meant her beloved city and country were not presently in trouble.
"I need a place to live." First she needed to get off the dock and into the city. Since she knew she didn't have any money she was going to have to take everything which was fine with her. There had to be a rich decadent couple or family somewhere close by from whom that she could take their home.
Getting off the docks was turning out to be a bit of a pain. It was like walking in a maze; the second she made what she thought was the correct turn, it turned out to be the wrong one. Then things went even more off the rails the second she reached the gate that in this case was locked.
"What are you doing, Miss?" the guy in uniform with a flashlight in one hand and his other hand on his weapon asked. Not far away was a mostly white car that had NYPD in big blue letters on the side.
"Looking for you since you have a car," Kate replied as she shifted into Dark Phoenix and raised a hand just as he started to pull his weapon. However, he was far too slow as five fire darts hit him squarely in the chest and came through his back. He stood there for a moment before collapsing to the ground. Kate walked to the gate, melted the lock, and shifted back to her human form, pulling the gate open. "Thank you for the car." She left his dead body lying there along with his weapon and flashlight that was still on, shining out into the night.
Getting in was easy. It was just after she sat down that things became more of a challenge. She was used to cars but those cars were from the 1940s. This car didn't look anything like them. It was full of buttons and had dials all over it, it seemed. At least the basics were still there.
"Keys?" They weren't in the ignition. She groaned as she got back out to search the dead man's body. "HA!" They were in his right pocket which was her first guess.
Starting the car was straight forward, seat belt was different and so was turning on the headlights. Putting it into gear was more familiar but there was no clutch. She was curious about what the thing was that was on a tray to her right. When she lifted it up she found what sort of resembled a typewriter's keyboard then a screen came to life. "What the hell is this thing?"
Then she saw something tiny in one of the corners. "May 12, 2012. 2012!" She hadn't really gotten all that far and put her foot on the brake. She looked first at the ceiling then at the floor. "YOU COULD HAVE FUCKING TOLD ME! …AND WHO WON THE DAMN WAR?"
She was back to groaning but she was also back to driving. Actually driving was the same as was getting around. Stop at the red lights and go at the green ones. She also spent some time looking around all over for a nice place to live while she accomplished her task.
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Kate had abandoned the stolen car in some side alley and had begun walking. She needed something that she could reach easily and get rid of the owners with ease as well. Since it was still dark outside, seeing places was a little difficult.
She was on East 61st street and thought she saw something so she entered an alley, hid behind a dumpster, and changed forms then flew up to it. It was likely someone saw a dash of fire going up but what could they do about it?
She landed and became human once again. It was an outdoor patio area that had a large seating area that looked really nice. There was also a small dining table that seated four. Looking in through the wall of windows to the interior told her that she hated it.
While the floors were really dark, the walls and ceiling were white as was the fireplace. Even most of the seating was white. She was tempted to just burn it all down for being so ugly. The entire place had no soul. She shifted forms and flew back down, only this time she went a lot farther down before landing.
She was still walking when she spotted another option. Since it was really late she just stepped off the street, shifted, and flew up.
The wall around the outside space was all wood slats that was kind of orange in color. There was seating for six using wicker chairs, a dining table that seated eight, and two lounge chairs to just lie on and soak up some sun.
She found what she took to be a BBQ grill, however it was the all glass room piqued her interest. Inside was a small table that seated four people but it was the old dirty-looking long cabinet that held her interest. Red curtains and blue curtains could be pulled to enclose the space. Save for the glass roof.
So far it was a real mishmash of things that didn't really go with everything else. That was the part that she liked most.
Deeper inside the glass room was a large seating area. It had a large, white, L-shaped sofa and two orange chairs. "What's this?" It was behind the seating and it was all glass and open. "Open to below. …Interesting." There was also another set of glass doors that went out onto another outside terrace.
Finding the door that went down had her going back to the BBQ area and opening that door.
Going inside only got better. "WOW!" These people had some really peculiar tastes. Two seating areas. One had a fireplace and the other had a horizontal slice of tree with a live edge for a coffee table.
To her left was a tremendous dining room table that seated twelve people. It had two different types and colors of chairs. And there was a skylight directly above the table. The floors were bare wood save for large area rugs.
The walls appeared to be divided into two sections. Though it was all wood to the top of the doors. Above that was a light blue color and the blue area was filled with paintings or posters.
The kitchen to the right had upper cabinets that all had glass fronts showing everything that was inside them. There was an island that had orange-colored stools. A huge refrigerator, double ovens, and something else that she didn't recognize above it. The range was in the island and at first she couldn't figure out where the smoke went until she saw something in the ceiling.
"Nice, I like it. Now to find everyone and make this place mine." She went down a hallway and opened doors.
The first door on the right turned out to be a small room that had a long caramel-colored leather sofa that faced the wall with the entrance door to it. It was facing a large black screen that felt like it was made of glass. It didn't make any sense to her but she could figure it out later. To the right was a little half bath that was really weird. It was dark red and black and had a multicolored bowl sitting on a counter with a faucet that was gold or a bronze color that looked like bamboo. Two of the walls were red and black mini tiles, the cabinet was black, the counter top was a dark gray, and the toilet was black. One wall was wood.
Next on the right was a massive sliding barn door. Opening it revealed a water heater and washer and dryer. At the end of the hallway were two doors. To the right was a bedroom.
This bedroom had a really tall bed that you were going to have to almost climb to get into. It was up against an exposed brick wall and the place was filled with colors, fabrics, and wood. As nice as it was it left her wondering what was behind the other door.
The door on the left was another bedroom. This room had an equally large bed, the colors were mostly shades of red and orange with different types and colors of wood.
The bed had two people in it and they had to go. She started with the man who was closest. She shifted forms, reached out with her fiery hands and grabbed his head, and lifted it up. Kate put all her power into her hands. She watched as his mouth opened but nothing came out. The look of pain was obvious on his face. His head turned to ash quickly and his body fell back down dead. The fire had sealed the neck so no blood escaped. The body was still alive and the heart was still beating.
Kate went around the bed and did the same to the woman who had the same reaction. Still in this form she picked her up and went up and outside to one of the terraces and flew away. She had no real destination in mind so she simply increased her power and felt the woman's body disappear into ash until there was nothing left to hold onto.
She flew back to get the man and got rid of his body using the same method. There weren't any bodies to actually find since they were now ash floating down onto the city.
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Kate had no intention of sleeping on the same sheets that the previous owners had so she chose to sleep in the spare bedroom. After she slept in until almost noon she found out that the bedroom had its own bathroom that it shared with the room with the large black screen.
Since these were her only clothes she chose to strip and figure out how to use the washer and dryer then started to do a more thorough search of her new home while naked.
The woman had a number of clothes that for the most part didn't fit Kate. There were a few things that she could wear, which included most of her shoes. Her panties which actually did fit her were not her style. Her bras didn't begin to fit her. She searched for IDs and money.
She found some cash in his wallet and in her purse. She also found a number of credit cards. So long as no one asked her for her photo ID, that she didn't have, she thought she might be able to use them and simply sign using that woman's name.
Since she was starving by now she began searching the kitchen. She found the pantry was full and so was the refrigerator. There were even some perishables. They must have gone grocery shopping lately which was a good thing. One less thing for her to worry about.
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Kate spent a couple of hours searching the entire place to find everything she might need. She had cash, credit cards, keys and had worked out just what floor she was on. Deciding that she was ready she went down to go shopping for clothes.
"HOLY SHIT! You have to be shitting me! $230! It's just a damn top." She glared thoughts of murder at the sales lady that had come over to see if she needed help. For a second Kate actually considered shifting and burning her into ash. Instead she stormed out of the store and stood outside looking the shop over. "Maybe a late night fire will teach you something."
Kate kept looking and ended up in a vintage clothing store. Everything was used so the cost was at least acceptable, though all of it was really old. Being different didn't bother her so she did some searching and realized that the sales lady was watching her like a hawk. But she also didn't bother her until Kate actually began selecting items. That was when she asked Kate what she was looking for. A bit later, as anticipated, the sales lady took her credit card, watched her sign a name, and let her walk out. Now she had something but she still needed bras, panties, and a few other things. She sighed and kept on searching.
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It took her another two hours to find bras and panties and even a pair of walking shoes. Spending someone else's money was so very easy. If any of the shops had bothered to ask for a photo ID she would have been stopped, but no one did.
Now, though, she was starving and was busy rummaging through the refrigerator for something she could have for dinner. She would worry about where to start her task in the morning. One of the things Lucifer had failed to mention was just how many of them there were. If there were a lot of them they should be easy to find. However, if there were that many of them why did she need to help them? It meant finding them might not be all that easy.
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Kate was standing there with her dinner on her plate. She had her choices of where to eat it. The dining room table that was huge and could seat twelve people. The table inside the glass walls just outside that seated four people. She could go outside and sit. Or she could sit at the breakfast bar. For a house that only had two bedrooms and two bathrooms this place could seat a whole lot of people.
"Where's the TV?" If she was going to catch up to the year 2012 the TV might be helpful. "Maybe that black wall." She went to the room just down the hall.
Once there she put her plate and glass down on the coffee table and moved over to the black wall. It looked to be made of glass but it didn't have any buttons or knobs to turn. No channel numbers to select. She noticed there was a small red light that was constantly lit but pressing it got her nothing. "Who is SONY?" It was the only word on it.
Her dinner was going to get cold before she figured this out so she walked around the coffee table to pick her plate and glass back up. That was when she saw a black device filled with buttons that had the word SONY on it. Next to it was another device that had even more buttons that was more gray in color.
She started with the one that said SONY, picked it up, and sat down on the sofa. Most of it didn't really tell her much. There were the words VOLUME, CHANNEL, and NUMBERS on it. "Power!" Kate pressed it and suddenly the black wall came to life. Except it didn't show her anything nor was there any sound.
She put it down and picked up the other device and looked it over. This device had twice the number of buttons the first one had. "All power." Kate pressed the button at the top and that got her a lot. Suddenly she was watching something called ESPN. "Baseball." She was happy with that and even the sound level was good so she picked up her plate and started eating.
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One team was the New York Mets and from listening the announcers for the game, they had all kinds of reasons why the Mets were losing the game. Something about how they'd missed the Post Season for the past five years and if they kept playing like this they were going to make it six years in a row.
By the seventh inning stretch when someone started singing, Kate had had enough of baseball. The New York Mets were losers and she didn't want to watch and listen to people talking about a loser. That had her picking up the gray device and looked it over.
"Channel arrows." One looked like up and one down so she chose down and got another ESPN channel. Pressing it again and again got her off ESPN channels. Now she was in MLB, NHL, NBA. "Nothing but sports?" There had to be a better way. "What's GUIDE?" Kate pressed it and found the baseball game mostly replaced with a listing of channels on the left and what was presently being shown and when.
Pressing down a number of times got her to see lots of channels. "Just how many channels are there now?" She was already on 231 and it talked about cooking. She found channels that had TNT, TBS, FX, Syfy, Life, LMN, TCM, BBC, A&E, BEST, HIST.
It landed on HIST and she read what was listed. "Hitler's Rise and Fall How do I get that channel?" She made a note of what the number was and pressed the big OK button and suddenly found she was listening to the history about Hitler.
"WE TOOK FRANCE! WOO HOO!" She even got to see Hitler standing somewhere and looking out onto the Eiffel Tower.
Then something about the Luftwaffe making raids on Britain. "What do you mean we didn't invade? Why the hell not?" She kept watching and learned about today's commercials.
"We invaded RUSSIA? You don't have a battle on two fronts. Hitler isn't that stupid. …Is he?" Kate kept watching and listened to how the attack on Russia went really well. They captured hundred of thousands of Russian solders and lots and lots of ground.
There were three groups: Northern, Central, and Southern. "He stole from Central to help the Southern? WHY? Moscow was right there!" Kate held out both hands at the TV and didn't understand. "Okay, conquering the oil fields, I can understand that. But what has Stalingrad got to do with anything?"
The more she listened the more angry she got. The idiot had lost Stalingrad and surrendered an entire army. Then they retreated, retreated, and retreated as the Russians kept advancing.
"Now we're fighting on three fronts? Bloody hell, now it's four? What the hell are we doing in Africa? We're not big enough to conquer the entire planet." Kate was fuming mad now.
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The program was over and Kate pressed the OFF button, ready to throw the remote at the TV, she was so angry.
"WE FUCKING LOST!"