Ch8: Hi.
Letreduslac: Yeah, sorry about the length, but I usually try to stop in a place that feels right, rather than trying to lengthen or shorten a chapter to fit into a predetermined space. If only more people had that greedy need to read good writing (or felt the need to tell me about it) like you. Oh well, a guy can dream.
jylamz: Responding to your reviews is really the least I can do to show my gratitude. I'm very pleased to hear you liked Casting Shadows. Again, like I said last time, I don't put that much thought into the dialogue for my stories beforehand (although it may be a good idea to try and do that at some point) but this time I can say that I will probably address that. Actually I probably would have over looked something like that had you not mentioned it, so thanks! Therein lies the true value of reviewers, I'd say.
I just realized you all probably think I'm bipolar or something at this point. What with the way my mood tends to shift all over the place in these author notes…
Anyway, here is chapter 8.
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As Tech lay on his back and slowly came back into consciousness he clung to the faint hope that the events of the previous day had all been a particularly vivid and unpleasant dream. As the sun began to shine in his eyes he gradually sat up and began rubbing the sleep from them. Once he had done so he saw that he was, indeed, still laying in the dirt next to a burnt-out campfire in the middle of the strange clearing. He gave a little sigh and proceeded to stand up and stretch his acing muscles. As he did this he noticed something was 'off' about himself that morning. Inspecting his person he quickly found that he was wearing Johnny's jacket. Before he could begin to puzzle over this he heard someone approach him.
"Nice to see you awake." Johnny said as he walked up behind Tech. Taking notice of how Tech had been looking at his jacket he decided to fill him in. "You looked a little cold last night, what with your uniform being little more than rags by now, and I wasn't really needing it, so I went ahead and gave it to ya."
Tech was a little taken aback by this. "Oh, thank you." was all he could think to say. He looked behind Johnny to see all the creatures they had killed the previous day in a large pile. Apparently he has been keeping busy, Tech thought.
This seemed to be enough for Johnny, as he simply smiled and clapped Tech on the shoulder firmly and said, "Don't mention it." He then turned away from Tech and continued talking, "Now, I think we should go and see what sort of things we can salvage from our wrecked ship. I poked around it some yesterday, but, as I'm sure you remember, I was interrupted by other things."
Tech followed after him listening and looking at the wreckage at the same time. As they drew closer he decided to ask one of the many questions he still had for Johnny. "So Johnny, where did you get this jacket and those clothes and your knife?"
Johnny just looked over his shoulder and said, "They were my personal effects, you know, all the stuff I had on me when I was arrested."
Tech was a little surprised by how offhandedly Johnny talked about his own arrest. I would think that something like that would be more of a sore spot. I suppose this man is just full of surprises. They had both reached the ship's remains now and Johnny started nudging the debris on the ground around while Tech began looking for a way into the ship itself. He soon came upon the area that would have been the rear loading area of the shuttle. Unfortunately the door appeared to have fallen off and was now stuck in the dirt, still blocking the way into the ship. Without much thought Tech started using his powers to lift the obstruction out of his path and move it behind him.
"Well aren't we special." Johnny said suddenly, causing Tech to drop the piece of metal to the ground with a loud clang. "Sorry, I just don't remember ever seeing anyone else with any powers." He said with a chuckle.
"Somehow that seems unlikely." Tech said as he walked into the ship; Johnny following behind. "You must not have gotten around very much."
"It's more like I wasn't really aware of the world around me for a while. I was a little preoccupied with trying to figure out who I was, or what I was, to pay much attention to the local news." Johnny replied as his gaze lazily drifted over the interior of the ship, looking for anything interesting.
"That makes more sense." Tech said as he surveyed the ship more carefully than Johnny.
"So your some kind of super hero back home?" Johnny asked, trying to make idle conversation.
"More or less, along with the rest of my team." Tech answered as he made his way to the cockpit.
"So where is the rest of your team then? They didn't think I was worth their time?" Johnny asked as he looked out a gaping hole in the wall of the vehicle.
Tech laughed in spite of himself. "Something like that. Actually it was the prison warden who told us that he only needed one of us. Besides that, Ace, our leader, decided it wouldn't be a good idea to leave the city unprotected, even for a few hours." As he recounted this Tech began to pick apart the dashboard, using his powers to unscrew the bolts and screws, so he could get at the internal wiring and see if there was anything he could use. As he busied himself with this a thought struck him. "Say Johnny, do you think you could just teleport us back home?" he asked as he turned around to look at him.
Johnny stopped and thought for a moment, bringing a hand to his chin and rubbing it. "I suppose, in theory, I could. Though there are a few problems with that." As he spoke he leaned against the wall of the ship, his expression becoming more serious than normal. "First off: I haven't really got that much practice with it, I've never done it with another person, doing that sort of thing, along with that fire trick, tends to really wear me out, not to mention how it turns my stomach inside out, and, to top it all off, I need to have at least a general idea of direction and for it to work properly. But I'd say the biggest problem would have to be that last one." Johnny admitted, some of the confidence he seemed to radiate dissipating as he revealed some of his own shortcomings.
Now it was Tech's turn to stroke his chin in thought. There must be a way of determining where are home is. After only a minuet or two, he had an idea.
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After scavenging in and around the ship for a few hours Tech had all the necessary components to put his plan into action…well, almost all the components he needed. He motioned for Johnny to come over to where he was so he could inform him of his plan. "Well, Johnny, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that enough of the communications equipment was left for me to cobble together a sort of receiver that should be able to pick up on the GPS signal that the tower, my base of operations that is, is constantly sending out. Once we have that information hopefully you will be able to take us back."
"And the bad news?" Johnny asked with a surprising lack of humor as he looked up at the dark clouds that had covered the sky shortly after the sun had rose that morning.
Now Tech seemed a bit embarrassed. "I…I don't really know how we can power it." he said with a small grimace. Despite all his searching he had been unable to find anything that would give him the power he would need to run the little machine he had made even for a short time.
Suddenly Johnny didn't seem so gloomy as he had been just moments before. He adorned another grin and said, "Naw, I don't think something like that will be a problem. I'm sure we can figure something out."
His confidence is encouraging, Tech thought, but I'm still not sure what we'll be able to do about this. As he pondered this problem he too looked up at the dark gray clouds that stretched over the horizon in every direction. I hope it doesn't rain, he thought absentmindedly.
Just then there was a loud thunderclap that almost seemed to echo around the empty landscape. Both Johnny and Tech looked around but didn't see any lightning or rain. "I wonder if this place has the same sort of weather that we're used to." Johnny said. Just then, as another thunderclap sounded, something caught his eye. He looked over to his left and saw a small mountain off in the distance that he had not noticed before. As he looked at it a third thunderclap rang out, but this time Johnny saw where the lightning struck. "Hey, Tech, look over at that mountain." he said, pointing to it.
As Tech turned his attention to the mountain he saw several lightning bolts strike the peak. "That mountain must be made of some highly conductive material, but I don't see what that has to do with…" he trailed off as the realization came to him.
Johnny's grin grew wider. "Good to see your catching on." he said as he started walking off.
A startled and confused Tech followed after him. "You can't be thinking what I think your thinking." he said worriedly.
"We need power to run your little gizmo, and if this lightning is anything like what we get back home than it should be nothing but pure power, and we got ourselves a natural lightning rod. So I'd say we got lucky." Johnny replied, trying to hold back a chuckle after seeing Tech's horrified expression.
"But that's insane! It will never work!" Tech tried to talk some sense into his companion as they both continued walking along.
"Oh come on, it couldn't hurt to try." Johnny said as he entered the long grass.
"I disagree actually, getting struck by lightning could hurt very much." Tech said, growing more and more frustrated.
"I don't see what your worried about. From what I can tell you're essentially immune to damage, and even if I die, well you know how that goes," Johnny replied playfully then turned around suddenly to look back at Tech and continued, "But if your that scared than I'll just go and take care of it myself, and you can stay here and hope no more of this place's local inhabitants show up to say 'hello'." After saying this he turned around once again and continued of his way.
Tech stood still for a moment, trying to decide what the best thing to do in this situation was. This is not good…this is ridiculous! As he saw Johnny walking further and further away he finally began running after him muttering to himself, "I must be crazy."
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A few hours after had passed and the clearing was now empty, but only for a short time.
Soon a long, slender creature walked out of the tall grass on its five pairs of legs and began sniffing the air.
She was a magnificent creature, both majestic and deadly. She had been drawn by the scent of death and had tracked it down to this area. She looked around as saw a pile of dead things that she recognized. They were the small creatures that she usually stole prey from or killed one or two of them for herself, but now it seemed that something had killed an entire pack of them. She was disappointed that they were all already dead because this meant there was nothing for her to eat. She was no lowly scavenger after all. She was a predator; the proud and feared queen of her domain.
As she continued to sniff the air she caught the scent of something she didn't readily recognize. But it smelled enough like pray for her tastes. And the thought of some new kind of pray intrigued her.
So she began following the smell back into the long grass, heading toward a mountain in the distance.
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Lot's a stuff going on now (sorta). I thought it was good, not great, but good enough. Please tell me if you saw anything wrong that I missed though. I'd greatly appreciate it (but I'm sure you wont, you guys and girls are too sweet for that).