Chapter 72: Marks in the Coffee Table
This chapter isn't the most exciting or action packed, but it does explain a few more things concerning fusion and stuff. A little bit of backstory never hurt. And I figured this would be a nice, chill piece for Halloween. What with all the excitement and fear this holiday causes, a mostly calming chapter may be appropriate. (Though I do wish I created a special Halloween chapter... this is my favorite holiday, after all. Oh well.)
Also, I'm not lying in this chapter about California not being very diverse. According to 2011 US Census Bureau estimates, California's population was 74% white, 6.6% Black or African American, 13.6% Asian, 1.0% American Indian, 0.4% Pacific Islander and 3.6% of two or more races. While California did boast the largest minority population in 2011, it's only 39.7%. So when I say California is predominantly white, I have the research to back it up.
Not only that, but AF/UA isn't very diverse. When you look at group shots of aliens, they all look like carbon copies of each other. You can look this up on the wiki, I'm not just pulling this out of thin air. The same goes for the human population; sure, there might be some altercations, especially concerning skin color, but everyone looks so similar to each other that it doesn't really count. Granted, this was a problem in the original series as well, but still, it's annoying. This is why I'm glad that the animators of Omniverse put so much detail into their backgrounds- all the aliens and humans are so diverse, and it's wonderful. Don't believe me? Then go ahead and check out the wiki.
Also, this chapter is set just a bit after the final scene from last chapter, by maybe a few hours or so. We'll get to that vampire slaying in a few weeks.
Anyway, on with the chapter!
The single light bulb was blinking. It dangled from the ceiling, its harsh light searing across the room when it wasn't swamped in darkness. A flash of light revealed a bare metallic room, empty except for an old mahogany desk and one person slumped over in a chair. The next flash revealed damp walls with bits of water dripping down from the ceiling. One could vaguely hear the sounds of rainfall just outside the room. The third flash revealed the person slumped in the chair: a rumpled cheap suit, rope tied around his person, and a rough bag over his head.
High heeled shoes clacked across the room, just barely puncturing the sounds of rainfall. The man in the chair didn't stir. The girl sighed, her shoulders slumped in exhaustion, as she quietly put some folders on the desk. Her eyes skirted over the bloodstains that never seemed to go away and the scars of blade marks that scuffed the surface.
Fixing her red mask over her face, Sam flipped through the pages of the folders, using one fiery hand as a proper reading light. She gave a low growl the more she read. This bastard had been cheating families out of their mortgages for years, forcing them to either live thousands of dollars in debt for years on end or to foreclose their homes. Quite a few of victims were either dead or living in poverty with no hope of getting out. And the guy had gotten away with it, pretending to be an employee of different real estate companies and going by a different name for each victim. He had even moved his family to a different location every couple of months to make it harder for the authorities to find him.
Sam smiled underneath her mask. That was all about to change.
The door slowly slid open, its hinges well oiled. Evan walked into the room, his heavy boots drowned out by the sound of rainfall. He stretched and yawned, his green mask slowly becoming askew.
"Rough night?" Sam said quietly as he fixed his clothes.
"Something like that," Evan mumbled tiredly, rolling his head from side to side. His turtleneck slid down to reveal bruise marks on the tanned flesh of his throat.
Sam made a disbelieving noise. "You know, you can just say you were out late with a girl. I won't judge much."
Evan rolled his eyes. "You would if I told you where I was."
She put her hands on her hips. "And where were you?"
"High school party."
"And you didn't think to invite me?" Sam asked in mock astonishment.
Evan chuckled. "You were with Kevin last night. And don't give me that look, you know I wouldn't judge much," he added as joke. The two of them snickered.
"But you do have a point, high school parties don't seem like Kevin's thing," Sam admitted. "But I'm assuming you went with someone. It's not like you to go to a party by yourself."
"I do enjoy hanging out with friends," Evan agreed, his voice brightening. "You were out on a date with Kevin, wild teenage parties aren't Gwen's idea of fun-which makes perfect sense, they can get pretty rambunctious- Carter's in no condition to be out partying, and Ben's been down for the last couple days, more so than usual."
Sam pursed her lips. She had been meaning to talk to Ben after the Vulcanus incident, but a few days had passed since then with no excuse to bring it up. Ben had always been with someone, and Sam had wanted to talk to him when he was alone so as not to bring too much attention to the issue.
Still, there was no reason to go into 'what-could-have-been' scenarios. Sam asked instead, "So who did you go with?"
"DJ and Newt, once I was able to pry him away from his cousin," Evan answered blithely. "Ship came over to keep Carter company, so after that it was easy."
"I bet he was the life of the party," Sam joked, knowing full well what Newt thought of his fellow high schoolers.
Evan knew too, if the snort he gave was any indication. "He found some kids who agreed with him and they spent the night snarking at each other."
"And DJ?"
"He goes to that elite art school out of town, so people were all over him asking him about it," Evan told her. "And he's one of the few black kids in Bellwood, and you know how kids love diversity," he added in a somewhat bitter tone.
"Considering this show white washes background characters, I'm not surprised." Sam thought for a moment. "And I'm pretty sure Bellwood is located in California; it isn't exactly racially diverse."
"Really?" Evan shook his head. "Wait, no, don't answer that, I already know from movies that were filmed in Hollywood."
"And you can just look it up," Sam pointed out.
"But how did you find out that Bellwood is in California?" Evan asked curiously. "The writers of the show never revealed anything besides it being in America."
"Bellwood is a city in a desert with access to the ocean and isn't too far away from a forest area," Sam explained. "That type of geography can only mean one state."
"That does make sense," Evan conceded, shrugging.
"So, do you know who bit you at the party?" Sam smirked as Evan groaned.
"It was someone who I thought was just a friend," he muttered as he face palmed.
"That doesn't really narrow it down."
"The party was full of local high school students."
Sam blinked. "You made out with that tennis girl?"
"Yeah, we were both a little buzzed," Evan admitted sheepishly. "We didn't get very far, thank god, and I was able to get a friend of hers to take her home."
"It's rare for an honor student to cut loose like that," Sam mused.
Evan scratched the back of his head. "Well, I mean, the two of us only had a few cups. Neither of us were actually that drunk. And everyone's allowed to party hard when they want to."
"Well, at least nothing bad came out of it," she said before arching an eyebrow. "Right?"
Evan groaned again. "We made out when we were just friends! And I'd like to stay 'just friends', thank you very much!"
"How does tennis girl feel about this?"
"I'm pretty sure she feels the same way!" He slumped against the desk and threw his head back as dramatically as he could. "Everything is ruined forever!"
"Oh, shut up," Sam chided him. "Have you actually talked to her since last night?"
Evan blinked. "Uh, well, no. I figured her headache might be stopping her, along with the embarrassment." He took off his mask, revealing red rimmed eyes and a washed out face. He rubbed his forehead. "Hell, it's bothering me a lot."
"You're going to have to talk to her about this sooner or later," Sam told him bluntly. "The sooner, the better." Evan groaned loudly. "Especially if you just want to stay friends." He mumbled something at that, and it sounded incredibly rude. Sam pursed her lips, thinking. "Though, the whole 'friends with benefits' thing could be an option, if the two of you agree to it."
Evan's eyes widened before they narrowed. "I'm pretty sure that's not a good idea," he thought out loud. "Isn't that usually a recipe for disaster?"
"Only in the movies," Sam pointed out. "We don't know about real life."
Evan pursed his lips. "I'd rather not think about it right now." He put his mask on. His voice muffled, he asked, "Don't we have someone to dispose of?"
Sam turned to the man in the chair. She hadn't noticed him stirring. "How do you want to do this?"
"Well, he did put a lot of people out on the streets, especially in this economy." Evan mulled it over. "We could torture him."
"That's what we usually do," she said, shrugging. "You wanna do the honors? It could help distract you from everything."
"It probably won't," he mumbled. "But yeah, I'll do it. Wanna make this brutally ironic?"
"Definitely, especially considering when this chapter was posted," Sam said, smirking.
"This is going to piss people off," Evan sang cheerfully.
"I love doing that."
"I know, me too." Evan summoned a knife into his hands and walked over to the bad guy. He was yelling now, demanding where he was and who did this to him.
"We know when you're asleep, we know when you're awake," Sam sang as Evan stuck the knife into the man's arm. He screamed in pain, nearly drowning out Sam and the rain.
Sam began to bellow: "We know when you've been good and bad, so be good for goodness sake!" Evan slashed him on the legs, the arms, the shoulders in unimaginably quick succession.
"So you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why, the Slayers are already in town," Sam sang in her terrible voice. It was practically a light form of punishment, especially considering Evan was now stabbing the bad guy in the stomach. A stab wound to the stomach was extremely painful, but the teenager was really digging in there, aiming for arteries to really make it hurt.
The screams nearly overtaking her singing, Sam repeated: "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better now pout I'm telling you why, the Slayers are already in town."
Later that day, in the Valentine Manor
"Welp, I'm bored," Evan stated as he laid sprawled on the love seat. One of his legs touched the floor, the other over the armrest. His hand grazed the carpet and his head was lazily thrown back on the other armrest.
"Well, I'm not," Gwen retorted smartly. Evan stuck his tongue out at her, not that she noticed. She was sitting in front of the coffee table, tapping a pencil to her cheek. A cheap, black composition notebook was open right in front of her. One of the pages Evan could see was bursting with Gwen's artfully messy handwriting. The page Gwen was staring down at was clean and waiting to be filled.
"What are you writing anyway?" Sam asked curiously, peering over her. She was sitting behind Gwen, her legs crossed pretzel style on the couch. Gwen looked up at her before answering.
"I can't remember everything about this Slayer stuff, so I've been writing it down."
Sam was taken aback. "Isn't it dangerous to keep a file on us?"
Gwen thought for a moment. "It is, but who's going to believe any of this anyway?"
"An excellent point," Evan murmured, bringing his hands up. "Applause for Gwen, clap, clap, clap," he added, enunciating the last three words by smacking his palms together.
"You sound like a jerk when you're bored," Gwen pointed out moodily.
"I do not."
"Do too," Sam told him.
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Settle down, children!" Gwen snapped, effectively shutting the two up. Taking a calming breath, she continued. "So, about you guys and fusing."
"Ask away," Sam told her, smiling slightly.
"When you fuse with the deity in your head, it's exhausting and…painful?" She looked worried. "Is it safe to assume that?"
"I don't know," Sam told her honestly. "For us, it's only ever been exhausting."
"And a huge pain in the ass," Evan muttered sullenly.
"Especially when you're not very compatible with the god in your head," Sam added.
"But isn't it convenient?" Gwen asked. "The two of you basically share a head, but when you fuse you share a body, and you get even more power…"
"Not exactly," Evan admitted. "We share a brain, but they let us do our own thing. I mean, they've been stuck with thousands of vessels, generation after generation. After a while, it just becomes annoyingly repetitive."
"And it's two minds trying to control one body," Sam explained. "Only one of us can be in control at all times, but the other can take over at any given moment. Honestly, it's such a headache."
"But only if your personalities aren't compatible," Gwen mused. She quickly wrote the information down. "Do you guys always faint after each fusing?"
"Just in extreme cases," Evan said before letting out a huge yawn and stretching.
"Why are you so tired?" Gwen questioned him, arching an eyebrow. "You texted me last night that you had to go to bed early."
"I text about a lot of things," Evan replied, closing his eyes.
"You had more questions?" Sam asked her quickly.
Gwen blinked. "I do. Why is it that the end product of yours and Evan's fusion so monstrous-looking? Shouldn't the same logic apply to your fusion with a deity?"
"Logic and gods don't always mesh well, Gwen," Sam told her bluntly. "As for the monster thing… no one actually knows."
Gwen gave her the most incredulous stare. "Really. No one knows. After every vessel, every generation, for nearly five thousand years, and no one knows."
Sam scratched the back of her head and gave an awkward smile.
Evan cracked open one eye. "That, I can answer for you." Gwen turned to him expectantly, pencil poised over the paper. "You see, things were pretty chaotic after the original Immortals lost their home world. They had to build a new city, reestablish roots, bury their dead, all that fun stuff. No one had time to discover all the secrets of vessels and Slayers, and no one was saying anything if they had another voice in their head, so for some time everyone thought the gods had abandoned them."
"Or were destroyed by that Lovecraftian monstrosity," Sam interjected helpfully. "And this kind of thinking went on for a couple hundred years, give or take."
"Seriously?"
"They're called Immortals for a reason. Change doesn't come easy to them." She gave a defeated shrug.
"History gets kind of murky at that point," Evan went on to explain. "I honestly only ever paid attention in that class when it brought up military victories, so don't ask me."
"I won't," Gwen vowed, smirking slightly.
Evan huffed. "Anyway, at some point the Immortals got wind of some of Earth's religions and were affected by it. They got some puritanical views on how men and women were to behave and stuff. Long story short, the whole fusing thing between two vessels became synonymous with marriage and sex."
"I can sort of see why," Sam admitted. "It's technically the combining of two people to become one entity, but it's more mental than physical."
Evan snorted. "We lose our bodies when we fuse. Of course it's more mental."
"You know, Ben's still in the kitchen, I can probably get him to throw ice water on your face."
"Don't bother," Ben said from the doorway. "I've already left."
Everyone turned their head to face him. "When did you get here?" Gwen asked curiously.
"When you started to explain fusing," Ben answered. He bit into the apple he brought.
"Anyway, back in archaic times you could get stoned to death for fusing, so vessels just didn't do it with each other," Sam explained.
"But the gods were another story," Gwen noted.
"Naturally."
"It wasn't until the sixties when vessels started to fuse with each other again," Evan told them.
"The sixties?" Ben sputtered out, accidentally spraying bits of fruit. "As in, the 1960s?"
"Yep."
"Oh my god."
"You mean, oh my gods."
"Oh shut up, you never say that."
"Focus!" Gwen snapped as she finished writing down everything. "So, you don't start experimenting with fusing-"
"Among other things," Sam quipped dryly.
"-until the 1960s. And you still don't know why that earth and fire fusion was so monstrous?"
"Nope," Evan said, popping the 'p'. "Fusing between vessels looks different for everyone. Sam and I make a magma dragon thingy, Sam and Carter make this bitchin' smoke and fog thing-"
"The fog alternates between freezing and boiling you with no in between, and the smoke fills up your lungs," Sam interjected helpfully.
"Oh yeah, it's freaking sweet," Evan agreed, grinning.
"Doesn't sound like it," Ben muttered.
"That's because you've never seen it in action," Sam retorted childishly.
"What can Carter and Evan do? What does their fusion look like?" Gwen asked curiously.
"Don't know, we've never tried it," Evan told her.
She raised an eyebrow. "Really? Not once?"
"We told you, fusing's a pain in the ass," Sam said, shrugging. "We don't do it unless it's an emergency."
"Though I'd imagine a fusion between me and Carter would probably involve plants," Evan thought out loud, furrowing his brow.
"How about between you and me?" Ben asked, interested.
"I don't know, earth tornado?"
"…Lame."
"Okay, last question," Gwen said, turning a page in her notebook. "Why did you change clothes and genders afterwards?"
"Oh, that I can answer." Carter's voice rang out from the other side of the room, where the other doorway was. She was in her normal attire, walking on her own two legs. Kevin was behind her, a voluminous book in hand. He was reading the back while occasionally flicking his eyes towards the people in the room.
"Yay, Carter's alive!" Evan cried, waving his arms in a half-hearted manner.
"Are you sure you're supposed to be up?" Gwen asked concerned.
Carter shrugged. "Even if I'm not, I'm in my own house. I'll be fine one way or another." Still, she walked over to the couch and sat herself down next to Sam. Kevin stood in the door frame, flipping to the first page of his book. Ben stood still, his hand nearly crushing the apple he'd been eating.
"So, about that whole switching problem…" Gwen trailed off, pencil tip hovering over blank paper.
"The thing with fusing is that it's hard to do," Carter explained, leaning back. "Two people have to let their normal physical forms dissolve and combine into a new form. Once you're in your new form, everything's fine and dandy, but when you want to un-fuse, it's even more difficult."
"Why though?" Gwen had to ask. "If anything, it should be easier."
"It should be," Sam agreed. "But not everything that should be easy always is."
"Very true," Carter said, nodding. "Un-fusing is an even bigger pain in the ass because you have to essentially recreate your entire body from memory. And you've got two different sets of memories in your fused form. Things naturally get mixed up."
"Which is why we were so glad when we only switched outfits this time around," Evan pointed out. "Next time might not be so lucky."
Gwen blinked. "I…wow, that sounds incredibly difficult."
"And it's a pain in the ass," Sam insisted. "Why else do you think we almost never do it?"
"You got all that written down?" Carter asked the redhead. Gwen nodded and closed her notebook. Carter furrowed her brow. "Are you sure it's safe to have all this on file? I mean, I know it sounds unbelievable, but it's still proof."
"Don't worry, I keep this with all my magic stuff, which is under twenty shield and defense spells," Gwen said reassuringly. "No one's getting this anytime soon. Especially Cordelia, if no one tells her." She looked at the Pride knowingly.
"Hey, we've got no intention of telling anyone," Sam reassured her. She then turned to Kevin. "So, when did you become a reader?"
"Around the same time you became a lava monster," Kevin shot back jokingly. "But in all seriousness, I figured I should probably read more."
"What are you reading anyway?" Gwen asked curiously.
Kevin held up the cover. "A Song of Ice and Fire."
"Aw, dude," Evan drawled out happily. "That series is gonna fuck you over and you won't even care."
"Is that why you recommended it to me?" Kevin asked Carter.
"That, and it's an interesting read."
"It's, like, a thousand pages long."
"And that's only the first book," Sam said with a devilish smile.
Kevin grimaced. "You people are going to be the death of me."
As everyone laughed, Evan took out his phone and peered at the screen. A look of disgust crossed over his face, and he scanned the screen again just in case. And then he said to himself, "Yeah, we're not investigating this."
"We're not investigating what?" Ben asked inquisitively.
"Isaac got word on this horse town not too far from here," Evan explained. "They apparently get visitors in the form of these little furry aliens once every fifteen years or so for this Popcorn Festival. Kind of like an alien spring break. Something fishy is going on there or something."
Sam gave him a look. "And you don't want to investigate why…?"
"Take a look for yourself." Evan threw his phone high into the air. It flew in an arc towards Sam. She caught it easily, the device practically landing right into her hands.
"And you couldn't just walk up and give this to me?"
Evan just moaned and burrowed deeper into the loveseat. Sam rolled her eyes and read the text message. Quickly her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Oh, yeah, we are not doing this."
"I'm afraid to ask why, but…" Carter trailed off.
"Apparently, these little aliens can poop gold. Which can also violently explode."
A moment's pause.
"NOPE!" Carter suddenly stood up and walked away. "All aboard the nope train!" She quickly went towards Ben; he gave her a look that was part grief and part confusion. She gave him a soft, sad smile and said, "Wanna come along?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but his throat felt like it was trying to close in on him. Instead he just shook his head.
She shrugged, not meeting his eyes. "Some other time then." And then she walked out of the room.
I realize that I've had a lot of chapters that don't really focus on action. While this is still a very action orientated story, there are elements of emotional drama and romance. Some chapters deal with the aftermath of high-stake missions, including all the emotions and problems that come along with it. And some chapters are like this one.
It's no secret that every now and then I have a 'breather' chapter. It's just a chapter where our favorite characters can just act like regular kids. Sure, they're super powered crime-fighting teenagers, but still teenagers. They're allowed to be lazy and silly, which I hope I conveyed properly here. And I'm not gonna lie, I've been trying to make the dialogue in this story flow more naturally. People naturally go off on tangents while they talk, and Evan's someone who would do that a lot.
Really, I hope no one's mad about this chapter. Sure, it's not as exciting, but sometimes an idle chapter can be just as interesting as an action-packed one. In the end, I think it's all about balance.
So, thoughts anyone? Oh, and have a Happy Halloween! XD