The Girl From The Middle Of Somewhere
Part 6
The Intermission
"So basically you can slow down time with your mind? Gotta admit, that's a neat trick." Tyra's interested voice was heard all around the table in the restaurant they had gathered to celebrate. Despite the festivities, Kinessa looked a bit uneasy talking about her newly discovered skills.
"It's not that simple. I'm not really familiar with it yet, but yeah, that's the nutshell," she responded. Tyra seemed impressed nonetheless.
"So, its duration is limited by your endurance, but it slows down your sense of time to a crawl and lets you do some things that even I admit are pretty badass. Cool. So what if I do this?", she asked and to everyone's dismay, grabbed a steak knife from a nearby table and proceeded to throw it towards Kinessa. She barely even had time to comprehend the absurdity of the situation. One of her mentors flinging a knife towards her? That just didn't fit in her mindscape. Luckily, Kinessa's instincts were always ready. Without even trying, she felt the time slow down all around her, the shocked features of Strix, Viktor and other patrons frozen to their faces, with only Tyra sporting a curious look. The knife itself had been spinning in the air towards her, but its movements slowed down, until its advancement towards her face were hardly noticeable. The knife's movements in the slow-mo state would have been almost hypnotic, if not for the fact that it was slowly but surely making its way towards her. With a shaking hand, she grasped the knife by the handle, and calmly put it down as time started to flow normally again. Only then did she start shouting. "What in the Abyss were you thinking! I could have died!" Tyra only chuckled, as if risking the life of her pupil was a thing she did daily. Well, actually it was, but that's beside the point. "Oh, don't be such a drama queen, 'Nessa. If had full faith in your abilities. I just wanted to test it out. The way you just took it from mid-flight in the blink of an eye? Worth it." Kinessa herself wasn't convinced. "And HOW exactly did you know that I could react in the blink of an eye, even when I didn't even know it myself and couldn't even realize what you were doing at the time?"
Akward silence fell over the table as Tyra opened her mouth, the gulped and slowly closed it and fell back further into her chair.
"Well, I think that you just exceeded your daily murder attempt quota." Viktor told her. "Have you all decided what you want to eat?" "Well, I think I'll have a steak after all the trouble today. And maybe some cat on the side, because it appears they have some at the moment," Kinessa said and grabbed a pink-haired girl sneaking past the tables from the hair. "OWCH! Zat hurt!" the girl in question yelled. Kinessa dragged her for everyone to see. She was quite a sight. She was very young, maybe a bit under 15, and she had a slim frame. Most of her body was hidden under a long jacket, which upon closer examination housed multiple knives in holsters and secret compartments. She had skintight pants and long boots. Her most striking features were her messy, bright-pink hair and catlike eyes. She certainly stood out from the other children on the streets she had grown up in. "Well, hello, Maeve," Kinessa said with a tone so menacing it might as well have belonged to a serial killer. "What brings you here except for my wallet?" Maeve looked around, trying to find a way out, but her captr's iron grip didn't yield. "Well, you know me, I just cannot rezist a pouch like that when you have flaunt it all over the room," she said at last. Just then did the others notice Kinessa's utility pouch had relocated to the girl's hand, without any of them noticing despite her striking appearance. They watched as Maeve, sighing in defeat , handed it back to its owner. Only then did Kinessa release her. "You know, I could arrest you for that," Kinessa told her with a smirk. "I'm now a part of the army." "Well, actually you're not just yet. You still need to complete specialized training. Only then you will get your lisence," Viktor corrected her. "Details!" Kinessa snorted. "The thing is, in theory, I COULd arrest her, but it would be done on your permission, and when we get back…" Kinessa's voice faded away as she noticed Maeve grabbing one of her daggers. She tried to snatch it, but the pickpocket just smirked. "Goodnight…" she said melodiously while spinning the knife. Suddenly, everyone in the proximity lost their eyesight almost completely. And of course everyone panicked at the sudden blindness. Everyone except Kinessa, who was already used to it, but even she could help the momentary confusion. In that instant, she felt her grip loosen as Maeve pried herself free. Receding footsteps gave away the fact that the delinquent had ran away. Accepting defeat, she sighed heavily as everyone's eyesight began to return. Tyra was the first one to recover. "What in the gods's name was that?" She asked with a hint of panic seeping into her voice. "Oh, that? Just a detour from one of her trips," Kinessa answered. "She told me she swiped that cool-looking coat from one of Magistrate's barracks. Turns out it was enchanted, and since then she has been able to inflict temporary blindness to those around her. Quite troublesome when you're trying to have a conversation and then cops walk past. She panics easily." "So you've met her a few times already? Why havent you arrested her? That coat belongs to the Magistrate!" Viktor was furious, but Kinessa held her ground. "Oh, please. It's nothing. She usually only steals from some snobs with too much money, she's really no problem. Remember that white-haired noble chick who just arrived this morning with that scary-looking guy? She stole one of her crystal hairpins. Now she gloats of how she has broken the record for most wanted posters in one city." Silence fell upon the table once more, with others trying to take in the new information and Kinessa waving at the waiter to come take their orders.
1,5 hours later
"So, what now?" Kinessa asked enthusiasticly as the group was making their way out of the restaurant. The others had been surprisingly silent the whole evening after Maeve escaped. Only Strix mumbled something, which when ran throught Strix-Kinessa-Strix translator meant roughly: "We sleep. You get your stuff out of my house. You go to barracks." Kinessa smirked. "Talkative as always. Got it, see you tomorrow." She darted off, impatient to pick her bunk. The others looked as she went ahead. "Should we tell her that Maeve tied one of her scrunchies to her hair?" Tyra asked groggily. ""No. Let's wait until she figures it out. The sight will be worth it," Viktor replied.
A few moments later an extremely loud "MAEVE!"-shout could be heard from a distance. Viktor, Strix and Tyra looked around and spotted Maeve, whose face had drained of color, on a nearby roof. In the blink of an eye, she was gone. "Well, this is going to be a long night," Tyra stated.
9 hours later
Kinessa met the others at noon. Her eyes were bloodshot, indicating she had barely gotten sleep. Her murderous face seemed to repel anyone trying to congratulate her as she made her way to her team. "So, how did it go?" Tyra asked. "That blasted half-tigron made me run around the city thrice before I cornered her. And then some stray cats tried to claw my eyes out as I approached, allowing her to run away again. At that point, I just didn't care anymore. How's the situation?" Just as she asked, something in Viktor's pocket beeped. He picked it up and Kinessa noticed it was a crystal-powered communication disc, developed just a few weeks ago. "Where'd you get that? I heard they're super rare," she asked. Viktor smirked. "The army gets all the latest toys. You'll get to test out the new intercom in a few hours." Excitement creeped through her. "So you mean…" "Yep, your first mission is here. Grab your camo suit, we're going hunting tonight."
Hi, author himself here. I don't usually talk myself in this story, but I think it's time for a little update about the state of the fic. This chapter and Part 8 (Now Ch 7) have been in the making for a few months now, but they were both stuck. This was originally going to be a full chapter, but I decided not to torture myself anymore by writing two chapters at once, so this just became a short filler instead. I'm going to get back to chapter 7 now. I'm going to complete this story, so don't give up on me just yet. It might just take a while. Peace!