Me: first of all, thank god to my mom helping me figure out a name for something. Just keep an eye out for something called Vovi.
Mushra: for a writing, you're not always that creative.
Me: I can creatively do a lot of cruel things to you, hot head, don't push me.
Mushra: okaaay okaaaay….touchy touchy.
Me: I do hope you all enjoy! *looks at the title* ….just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
Chapter 3- Just Keep Moving
We made it back to the house without much regard for the time. We weren't pushing ourselves, but I was thankful when we arrived. I had first closed the space between us and the porch and took a seat there for a moment, breathing in the familiar air and looking at the familiar scenery.
"What's that..?" Alex asked, and I looked to her, and then followed her gaze, spotting the claw marks on the ground made by Grandora's hind claws. Giving a shiver, I stood. Well, there goes the comfort of outside.
"Remnants of one of the negatives that is now nonexistent." Winter told her, as I opened the door. It was unlocked, of course. When we'd all ran out to greet the roaring three headed dragon, none of us were really thinking to lock the door. Luckily we've never had to worry about any crimes or theft, so I barely regarded the fact.
Entering, I took another breath and took in the comfort of home. It had been home for some time now, even if it was neglected do to Enterra trips. It was still ours; the home me, my friend, and sister claimed for ourselves and kept up with. That we made our own.
"Nice place." Alex commented, and we all said thanks in unison.
Heather shut the door once we were all inside and we all stood in a little huddle, observing the living-room, and the kitchen and dining room just extending from it. But soon, we were just standing and staring.
"…Well, I say we take turns with showers, how about you guys?" Winter suggested then.
I sighed. "That sounds really nice." And nodded, but thought I'd wait for the others to call it. One of us would have to wait, as we had one bathroom in my room, one in Heather's, and the guest bathroom which Winter usually used.
Winter stepped forward then, waving and Alex followed her. "You can use mine and I'll get you some clothes, okay?"
Alex nodded, giving a smile in thanks. Winter lead her from the foyer and down the hall to the guest bathroom that was claimed as hers. I continued to stand there, just slowly observing the room and taking it in. I felt Heather graze my upper arm when she passed, and I realized I was hugging arms.
"You feeling okay? You're a bit warm." She noted calmly, looking to me.
"I think it's my power—emotions, too. I'll probably be fine." I assured her, trying to relax my grip on myself. I looked straight to her. "How are you feeling..? I'm still not sure what your power is.."
"Me either, completely, but I have an assumption. Just not ready to test it." She told me, her gaze wandering in consideration.
"And?"
"..Maybe dark…?" she offered.
I considered that, thinking of her attack on Parasite, even the way she seemed to faintly emanate dark energy back at the apartment when we were all reeling and arguing. I gave a slow nod as Winter came out of the bathroom, and headed our way, though she half turned towards the stairs as she addressed us.
"I don't know what size she is perfectly, or what clothes she likes, so do y'all mind if I just take an outfit each from all our wardrobes?" she asked, hand on the railing.
I shrugged. "That's fine with me."
Heather nodded, and with that, Winter hurried up the stairs. I sighed and rolled my head, popping my neck in places.
"We should probably head to take a shower or something ourselves, shouldn't we." I stated/sort of questioned.
"Yes. I smell like chemicals, spices, and just too many other dirtier smells." She said, and headed up before me and I followed after, finally releasing myself as I ascended up to the second level of my home. Heather went ahead of me to her room, as I round the stairs railing and went to my room just across from Winter's.
The familiarity and non-Enterran-ness of it all came over me as a soothing wave, even if somehow a bit lonelier. I looked around the room and headed to my dresser to begin checking through to pick out some sort of decent clothing. I ended up choosing pajama's, because fuck it. The clothes slung over my forearm, I went into the bathroom, flipping the light on.
Taking in the room, I noticed there weren't as many towels as I tried to keep stocked, but then again there was a big enough one and that's all I needed. I laid down the clothes and went to start the water, then considered if I should wait—all of us showering at the same time, we'd run out of hot water. And I needed that water pelting over me…
After sitting for nearly ten minutes on the lidded toilet, I finally decided it was a good enough time to start my shower. Once I got it to the right temperature, I started working off some of my clothes, removing my shorts first. I tossed them into my laundry spot, and happened to look up briefly and catch myself in the mirror.
God, I was a wreck. My hair was a mess, the only reason it wasn't a mass of tangles was because every other day at some point I'd run my fingers absentmindedly to straighten it as much as I could. But even so…I could notice traces of rubble dust, burns and tears in my clothes. This shirt was very ruined; jeez, there was a gash on the side where you could see my bra. I was almost embarrassed to think the others had seen that the entire time, but I pushed the thought away. I looked to my eyes then, and I just…looked like someone else. I could see the features that were still mine; the full cheeks, the sometimes naturally tired looking eyes, the full lips. But…I looked wilder now, with an edge of fierceness in my eyes now and again, when they didn't become over coated with weariness. And the red hair. It wasn't bad, especially considering I'd wanted, and once tried, to die my hair a shade of it before. But it was still strange. My hair still had a brown tint to it in places, but it was like it was naturally this red shade that was just a few shades lighter than blood red.
Eventually, I just couldn't look anymore. I rid myself of the rest of my clothing and hopped in the shower, wincing at first before becoming increasingly soothed and some weak sort of blissful at the feeling of the warmth on my back, my arms. I stood in the falling, warm water for a little while before I put forth much effort for anything. But soon my arms began to remember how to work with the soap and cloth, and eventually I was bathed, my hair washed. I was already feeling cleaner. I stayed in the pelting heat a bit longer, though, it was so soothing. I was almost reluctant to stop it and then be hit by the cool air. But I also didn't want to stand for much longer. I hurried in drying and dressing as fast as my tired and weak limbs would allow, and I just brushed my hair and put it in a ponytail to keep the wet hair from completely drenching the back of my shirt. Then I felt the need to brush my teeth, smelling my breath and just…not pleasant, man.
Coating the brush enough, I started brushing, but I stopped as soon as I did, really taking a look at what I could only call my fangs. It was just…weird…almost wrong.. I don't know… I stared at them with my mouth open, almost barring my fangs, before I shook my head and continued cleaning my teeth.
Once I was all finished, dressed and cleaned enough that I could deal with myself, I made my trek out the room and down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, I found the others were in the kitchen and I went in to see what they were up to; were any of us really even hungry?
"Cups up here," Winter said, opening a cabinent, "plates in here, and bowls too, but then there some more in this extending part, with other bigger cooking bowls and stuff. Silverware here."
Alex was nodding along, and I realized she was getting a brief tour in case she needed to go in there for something. Smart. Who knows how long we're going to be here.
Heather spotted me and made her way over and past me to the living room, which I followed her into. She plopped onto the ground, as I took a seat on the couch just beside/behind her. I looked over the TV stand, saw the few cases that held the DVD's we'd burned of the show. I ran a hand over my pulled back hair. Passing my ear, grazing it, I noticed it was pointed… Shaking my head, I sighed.
"Should we….set up the show while they're in there…?" I asked.
Heather shrugged with her back to me, but she seemed to be looking in the similar direction. "I don't know—dunno if she even knows it's a show yet, maybe we should wait until Winter tells her that. If she does agree to watch, though…what do you think it's going to be like?"
"Watching again?"
"Yeah."
I took a moment to consider my answer. "I think…it'll be…just weird. I mean, it's going to be cheesy, nostalgic, funny, heart-wrenching… But something else I can't put a name to. We've lived in that world; we've interacted with those people, even grown a little bit with them, even if only a little…"
"And now we're a part of it." She stated, moving a hand to the jewel on her chest. "This thing was hard to wash around. I feel very uncomfortable with the fact he decided to put it there—why didn't I have it in the arm like y'all?" she looked back to me.
I shrugged. "No idea.."
"Well… On the subject of this thing," she tapped the jewel, which looked as if it were some sort of opal-like stone with its white tainted with golden oranges and greens and pinks, "we've got power to get a handle on."
I laughed. "Yeah, that'll be easy."
"Easy or hard or medium or expert—we still gotta do it." Heather responded.
I dropped my head back. "I know. I just hope we don't destroy the house in the process."
Heather looked back at me like I was crazy. "Of course not. We have the old mansion for that." Then she smirked. I couldn't help but smile seeing it. Our spirits, slowly but surely, were showing themselves once more.
"Alright! Now that I've showed you all that, you ready?" Winter spoke passing the foyer then. She and Alex joined us in the living room, Alex wearing a pair of Winter's jean's and one of my shirts, her hair up in a ponytail and I noticed the white streaks and layer to the lower strands, and I couldn't help but wonder what exactly caused that.
"Yeah, I think so; but, can you elaborate on what your source of information is again? I don't think you ever did." Alex said, coming to the couch, inclining her head to me and the couch to ask permission. I adjust and nodded with a look that said of course and she came and sat in the middle of the couch.
"Yes, I can…but bear with me, okay? It's gonna seem like a joke." Winter told her, sitting on Alex's other side and facing her. Out of my peripheral, I saw Heather sliding and crawling to set up the DVD's and DVD player and TV, but I focused on Alex and her reaction as Winter began to explain. "Alright, so…before we came across that portal, and that world, and across all those people I told you are our good friends… Well, we knew about that world. Not perfectly, but decently well. And how we know about it, and those people too…was through a TV show. Specifically, an anime."
Alex stared at Winter in silence, took a breath like she was about to say something, but stopped. Then she opened her mouth. "…A…show..? You're… Well, you're not kidding.. But you gotta be. I mean, really? A TV show?" she laughed a bit, and Winter just nodded. "…How is that even possible? Like… Okay, that just doesn't make sense." Alex dropped her head in her hands. "Worldception, giving me a headache."
"Yeah, it'll do that." I told her, and she looked to me. "We still don't have answers. But we watched the show at a young age, and were fans for years, it's how me and Winter met Heather, actually. Believe you me, when we arrived there, and realized the connection—that it was the world and creatures and people from that show come to life, we went through many theories, for the whole first year before we just gave up trying to figure it out. Was it a portal that took inspiration for a world from our minds, and picked Shinzo from it?"
"Shinzo?" Alex asked.
"American name of the anime." Heather interjected and Alex slowly nodded.
"We also considered the possibilities of fate and all that jazz." Winter stated. "I mean, us just HAPPENING to witness a show, and become obsessed with it, and want it to be real—"
"Oh, I've had those fandoms." Alex interjected.
Winter laughed and went on. "Yeah…but imagine that fandom actually BEING real. Tangible, and ongoing, and growing. It was…crazy at first, but…it was something (by fate or not) that we'd ALWAYS wanted…so we just stop questioning it, and enjoyed it for what it was, a dream come true. So…would you like to watch it? It could fill in blanks and questions, and you could get to know the world a little without having to be directly involved."
Alex took a breath and sat back a bit more into the couch, considering this, and looked to the TV stand, where Heather sat, with her forefinger hovering over the play button. After a few moments of thought, Alex ended up nodding. "Yeah… Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
"Don't worry, no creepy girls from wells will climb out of our TV." I stated.
Alex sighed, "Oh thank god."
With that, Heather pressed play and came quickly crawling back, where I almost kicked her because I hated when people crawled like that, too reminiscent of horror scenes. But as the episode eventually began, I felt like I was taken elsewhere. Not to Enterra, but I wasn't in our living room anymore. I was in one of my old homes with my parents, in my childhood living room, and I was a child again. I remembered all I'd been in awe of.
Of course we had to inform Alex of the repeat, and extended episodes in the first few. And apparently it had been too long since we'd actually watched; sooner than we thought, we saw a familiar scum; Dr. Parasite. I was curled a bit as I watched. It didn't help, with Kiri 'escaping', looking a mess.
Alex asked a few questions, like if all Enterran's had Hyper Forms, and we informed her that no, not all do. She asked about Yakumo in the middle of the show, remarking that she hadn't met her yet and wondered why. Of course, we told her she'd have to just watch to realize why (we'd eventually tell her Yakumo was a sore subjects she might want to refrain from speaking of).
Thankfully, with no commercials, the two seasons passed in the matter of the rest of the evening, the night, and into the early morning. None of us seemed disturbed by not sleeping, but I was pretty sure if I laid down, I could be taken under.
Every now and again, Alex would remark as to how she felt she must have seen a character with a similar design to Mushra's in another anime, but we didn't think much of it.
Until it came to the last few episodes, and Mushra began his battle against Lanancuras, especially when Mushra's Celestial self was returned. She burst out, even leapt from the couch as the sun was rising outside. "That was him, I saw him before! That was…that's the other design..! I've seen this before, oh my god! These episodes, this battle, I think—I never found it, I looked for it, but I was channel surfing and never figured out what it was… Oh my god… I saw this before…" She slowly sat down, and as Lanancuras and Mushra battled across Enterra, the three of us stared at her. None of us said anything, but I knew we were all thinking along the same lines. There's only so many coincidences you can have…
We gave Alex some time to take it all in once the show finished, and were there to answer whatever other questions she had. Like what we knew of normal animals, not humanoid ones. We told her, to our knowledge, most were used to create Enterrans, and if there were any we've not seen them ourselves, so they're most likely very rare. She asked about how Mushrambo was linked to the boys, and if they really joined to create another person, and we told her that by the Celestial Guardian's doing, they were able to yes. She wondered if she could ever see Mushrambo. She also commented on the fact that dinosaurs somehow made a reoccurrence, and dragons had come to life.
Of course we didn't have CONCRETE answers for that, because we hadn't studied enough about all the experiments done by the humans in that universe/timeline. But Heather's theory was that one of the scientists was a Jurassic Park fan and, with the lengths of science miracles accomplished, they took full advantage of their possibilities. And in finding that dinosaurs could be made, someone else took it further and started manipulating genes to create creatures that had only ever been fantasies before, or perhaps just extinct to us, like dragons and such.
Of course, after that, Winter was finally getting tired, and we took that initiative to go off to bed. We considered just setting up a place to sleep in the living room, but Alex made a good point about wanting a real bad. She assured us she'd be fine, Winter letting her know we'd be just upstairs, and Alex went off to the guest bedroom. Our goodnights were said, the doors were locked. With the comfort of home and my own bed, and my paranoia finally dying out and stopping telling me all would go to hell if I went to sleep, I finally fell under. And thank God or Guardians or whatever the hell, I slept without dreaming. I don't think I could handle what my unconscious mind could cook up at this point in my life.
I I I
The following few days, we spent the first few in bed, or in possibly over-done trips to the showers. And then the kitchens. And then back to bed. I knew if we kept this up, we'd get too used to it, too comfortable with it, and get stuck in a habit of it. But those days, it was as if all our energy for anything other than keeping ourselves clean, and fed, was out of supply.
We got a few calls on my phone that I'd forgotten I'd managed to get back. It had buzzed in my pocket when I was in the kitchen gorging on unneeded-yet-needed ice-cream, which caused me to curse through frozen mush and drop my spoon. The others had hurried in as I swallowed the freezing substance, gaining myself a brain-freeze.
"Ah-aaaah, ahhhhello..?" I greeted lamely.
"Jaden, what's wrong? Somethin' happen?" Binka asked form the other end.
"No, no. All fine." I assured her, and the others who'd joined me in the kitchen. "Something wrong with y'all?"
"Nothing different than our usual gathering of entail from the towns and cities. I just thought I'd check in on you guys. I miss the woman power here when it's just these idiots."
I laughed, and put the phone on speaker phone so everyone in the room could hear. "We're doing fine… Just…recuperating, you know." I leaned against the counter.
"By the way, Alex here—" Alex spoke up then. "Big fan of you and your use of the bazooka." She smirked.
"Oh, well, thank you!" you could hear the pride in Binka's voice. "Trust me; shooting trouble makers to keep them in line is great practice. I can lend you the bazooka to try if you'd like~."
We just laughed a bit.
"So, it's just you checking in? Anyone else needing to talk, cause if so, you can press speaker." Winter advised.
"Nah… Everyone else is busy. I'm supposed to be, but those boys SHOULD be able to handle themselves for a bit." Binka stated.
"Of course." Winter said, but there was a look on her face. She bit her lip, and then hurried to speak before anyone else could get started. "Is Xavier helping as well?"
There was a brief silence, before Binka answered. "Of course he is. He's back and forth a bit, but he comes around to offer help around the city since we've been preoccupied with getting updates and checking in on other towns. He sits in on some of our meetings on the VoVi," Vovi is their TV/Computer used for communicating in a Skype-like fashion—created and named by some of the New Yora bots and massed produced, named for 'Video Out, Video In', "gives a little feedback."
"Oh, good." Winter nodded, but I noticed the slump of her shoulders. She was obviously disappointed—maybe that he wasn't there to talk to her? But she shook it off swiftly enough, and spoke nothing of it for the rest of the call, or the day.
And that was how it was for some days. We'd get updates throughout our day, sometimes just Binka, sometimes with Kutaal, or the kittens. But never Sago or Mushra, or even Xavier. I had no idea why Xavier wouldn't want to check in other than being too busy. But I was pretty sure the other two were too worried they'd say something wrong, from how Binka spoke.
In time, it was Heather (of course) who pushed us out of our funk-habit. In her own special way.
There I was, lying in bed, thinking about my place in the world. When out of nowhere, I feel my mattress being yanked forward and before I could look down and accuse the yanker of disrupting my thoughts, Heather had jumped on me. After a tangled struggle of sheets and limbs, and a familiar maniacal laugh building up, it eventually became apparent she was 'gathering' me, with the others, whom she'd attacked similarly.
It had begun as a race, just to catch her and pay her back for the attack without reason. But the further we ran, down the dirt road and onto the asphalt, we weren't stopping, but naturally increasing. It became a race of pushing ourselves, our legs, our breathing, our muscles. Just how far and how fast we could go. And we went, and I wanted to go further, but Heather made a detour to the broken down mansion that held our way to Enterra. And that was when I realized what she'd done this for.
"We're something completely other now, guys, there's no denying it, and we gotta push past sulking over it." Heather stated through some huffs, though not harshly. She was right, even if my initial mental voice sassily remarked about how it was easier said than done. "Whether we stay in this world, return to going back and forth, or stay in the other; whatever we choose, we can't change what we've been made into. So help me get better at what I am now."
I looked to my friend, and my sister, and our new friend.
"Let's find ourselves again, together."
In time, our powers were really showing themselves, and we knew for sure each of our powers. I had fire, obviously. Winter had ice, also obviously. Alex had lightning. And Heather, almost contradictory to her jewel, had darkness as she'd thought.
And we learned very soon, we knew nothing about how to use the powers. Which was almost strange to me, at least applied to me, Winter, and Heather. Not that we were experts, but we HAD used the boys' powers when Ryuma had gifted them to us, and we'd handled them well enough. We did attacks, maybe not to the same power and strength, but our attacks still held strength.
And yet now, as we watched, our power either came out in pitiful spurts, or in uncontrollable blasts. Thank god winter had ice, or we would be getting a lecture from a ranger bear. By we, I mean me and Alex.
We were learning a bit about the power, though. Not enough, but some. We saw how far it could go, how dangerous it was, and we knew very well by now how it could be linked to our emotions. But the more trees that fell, especially ones that fell to close to us after we accidently blasted them, I knew I couldn't test much more.
I I I
I found that it didn't take too much time, maybe a week or two, before the comfort of home was only comfort—everything in our home seemed so dull and lonelier, and the practices at the mansion seemed to just become more and more tempting, as we were so close to the portal. By the end of the second week, me, Winter, and Heather were keeping to the house simply for Alex's sake. We weren't going to push her back into a world that scarred her before she was ready, IF she ever even wanted to go back.
It was a weekend, as I was sitting and checking my phone, Winter looking over one of her last attempts of cosplay work, and Heather snacking on some chips that would be getting gross soon. Alex had come to us, and informed us that she knew we were ready to head back to Enterra. We tried to deny it, but she knew.
"It's alright." She had said. She seemed to be mustering up something, and it wasn't until she looked us in the eyes that I realized it was courage she was mustering. "And I think…I want to go back to. I don't know, by being here, what I'm going to do with my future… I think I need to go back there, face things a bit…more.. To be sure."
Winter was the first to stand and go to her. "Of course. That sounds like a good idea. It could help, now that you've seen all its sides through the show, maybe you can look to that world differently once you're in it again." She put a hand to Alex's shoulder, rubbing it a bit supportively.
She nodded and smiled to Winter. "Yeah. Exactly. So—whenever you guys are ready, I am." She nodded.
"You know what, GROUP HUG YOU GUYS." Heather suddenly exclaimed, and laughing, we followed suit, my friend ramming into us of course, because it's Heather.
Making our way to the mansion the next morning, I was realizing that the travel there was nothing to me anymore. It was more of a brisk walk, and I have to say, that was nice. We were there in a matter of minutes, and having moved aside rubble to make way towards the portal by now, all we had to do was climb down to it and leap through.
Fun as ever, of course. Experimented on, advanced, almost mutant level as I was now (hybrid, I know, I know)…and I still had problems with heights and discomfort with lack of control when floating and/or falling.
Thankfully, this time around, I had a grip on the landing. Right as I felt the oncoming drop, I tried to right myself as much as I could to the position I felt I knew would be upright once I was thrown from the portal. Well, mostly. I landed on my hands and knees, but still, at least not on my side or back, or worse, my head.
I felt achieved by this, but my attention was brought up as I heard Winter whimper.
I looked around, and noticed the scars. That's what I felt they were. Slightly still present marks in the ground where the centipedes had run along and chased after us. Some of the dirt clawed and disrupted. And the trees, broken down and bent and fallen. I thought I even saw some scales of the beasts stuck in some of the bark. I shivered.
"Let's just get down the hill." I stood, and began making my way down first, and I heard the others follow suit. Our travel down to the outskirts of the city seemed faster, as well, but I didn't know if that was an increase like our travel to the mansion, or more of our need to get away from the hill as fast as possible.
"And here we return, to New Yora." I state 'excitingly' as we reentered.
"Oh. Okay, I get it now." Alex speaks as if she'd just had a revelation and it took me a second to realize she'd made the connection with the name and what it was reminiscent of, even if the city wasn't AS big, it was itself also reminiscent of New York in its own Enterran way.
"So, we'll stop by Xavier's and go see the others, sound good?" Winter suggested.
"Actually…" Alex began, and we looked back to her. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind giving me a tour of the city… See the people…?"
Winter slowly began to look excited, and I didn't blame her. I myself was feeling proud of our new friend—she was willing to tour the city, mingle with the people that once struck fear into her. She was trying, so hard. She was a strong woman.
"We'll do it." I answered for Winter, who was nodding excitedly.
"Well, first things first; armory shops! You gotta see their armor and weapon's!" Heather came up to Alex, who laughed in surprise at her excitedness.
"Their clothes, too! Their designs are so interesting, and innovative!" Winter offered.
Alex looked to me as if waiting for me to suggest something and I shrugged. "I like the armor and clothes, too. The food court is awesome, though; they have entertainment of all sorts, battles that are sometimes like boxing, sometimes like wrestling (I.E., one's fake fighting for show, the other is real and it takes volunteers). Sometimes they do elemental shows though, too. Think of it as their version of visual arts with interpretive dance and stuff, except instead of props, they use elements. Then again, that's just for the Enterrans who have their power in normal form as well of Hyper." I told her as we began walking.
She nodded. "Oh yeah, Sago did say that was rare." She remembered what he'd said before we'd left.
"Yup yup." I nodded.
"Do you have a thing for Sago?"
Was it possible to have a heart attack without having a heart attack? Moreover, how could I still have that freaking reaction after so many years, and especially recent events? I inwardly told myself I hadn't just had that inner reaction. Though of course, I nearly stopped in my tracks, but did my best not to let myself. I did trip up a little though. "What makes you think that?" I asked, not looking at her and instead, looking ahead and not reacting—not in the face, at least.
"You laughed and smiled a lot at his scenes when we were watching. Just like Heather did with Mushra's." she stated, an amused smirking smile on her lips.
That's what happens when I let myself be reduced to my younger self while watching that show. I sighed and nodded. "I did when I was younger, yeah. Big thing. Heather for Mushra, just as big."
"Hey!"
"What, she already called you out."
"Rude."
I rolled my eyes and went on. "But yeah, just one of those old animated character crushes, you know?"
Alex turned around, facing me as she walked backwards. "Yeah, I know…except, you also know, he's real. So I can't help but be curious as to what that does to that 'old animated character crush'." She was still smirking.
"…Thanks to that smirk of yours, you will never know." I countered, raising my brows dramatically.
"So you're saying you're not thirsty for him at all anymore?"
…Did…did she just make a water Enterran pun? I didn't know if I was embarrassedly annoyed, or enviously giving props as I hadn't thought of that before.
I narrowed my gaze.
"…Alex, take this from Jaden's sister who has experience with that look. You should run." Winter warned her, and rightly so. Alex kept backing up, giggling a little.
And then I stomped my foot, making a charge for her, and she leapt into a run. That's when I stopped and kept with the other two who started laughing, watching with a wide grin of satisfaction as Alex ran further and further away, from nothing.
After the hey of accusation, we moved along, making it to the string of clothing stores and armory stores (some of them side by side, of course, as their fashion and garments, for good reason, consisted of clothing, under clothing, and armor). We had some fun in there. I was beginning to wonder why we'd never bought anything from these stores—we'd been coming here long enough. I know Winter had gotten just a few things of clothing for cosplay and fashion purposes, thanks to Sago helping her out with the money for it. I found myself browsing more than I was showing anything off to Alex. Purple's, blacks, reds, gold's—they all looked so interesting, and promising. Heather, too, was looking at blacks, reds, and oranges. Winter and Alex entertained their eyes with varying shades of blues, Alex leaning towards the darker, Winter towards the lighter.
We were so on the verge of considering purchasing some of these clothes when Heather reminded us of the armor next door, an extending section of this store. And of course, we were there just as long, if not more.
We found we were getting hungry again once we left the promising weapons and nicely flexible armor attachments. So of course, our next stop was the food court, which I was excited to show Alex to. First of course, was the many places for food of varying sorts. Many different goods from different cultures, and some new, and they all seemed to mesh now as the cultures had changed and died out by now, and had been expanded upon.
So many restaurants and venders and spots with chef's cooking openly for show as well as for service. I felt almost sad Kutaal couldn't be among them…he enjoys himself so much here…
The further we looked, I couldn't shake the growing worrying and wondering about the boys and Binka and the kittens. What were they doing? I know we needed to get away, but what if they'd needed us while we were gone? Sure , Ryuma and what allies he'd gathered, mainly just Parasite, had been the only threat, but Mushra…he seemed so sure there was more stirring. That serious side that I was very firm in believing was more his Celestial side of who he was now, it was so constant lately. Just that simple fact was cause for worry.
We ate, Alex and Heather both sampling a few places that were offering a few free meals today (thankfully). We went for a show next. The dancers weren't there, so we had to settle for the wrestling-style fighting. Even if I could see how fake it was, it was better than the ridiculous crap on WWE.
Once people started dispersing from the finished show, Alex took initiative and began talking with Enterran's about the battles. And we caught up with a few of the Enterran warriors that we and the boys sparred with in the training gym who were passing through. I noticed how Alex seemed stiffer, in how she stood while talking, and how nervous her laughs seemed. But she was holding it together so well, especially against the more animal and bug like Enterran's. I had to openly give props to her for talking to an arachnid Enterran, which I myself kept from doing.
Finally, though, we were making our way back to the apartments. First heading for Xavier's, we stopped in our trek when we noticed a hover bus being loaded up with a few small crates, and hyper Enterrans. And Mushra was at the end, helping load, and giving orders. We all came over, Heather running up in curiosity.
"Hot head, what's up?" she called, just after he caught sight of her. He seemed happily surprised when he realized we were all back. It was kinda cute.
"Heather, guys, hey!" he greeted, as Heather came to stop just in front of him—like, right in front of him, standing with her hands on her hips expectantly. They stared each other down (up for Heather) for a moment.
She gave him a look that said 'I'm waiting'. "What is up, home dog?" she said slowly.
His brows furrowed at that. "Home..?"
"Ignore it." I advised.
He shook his head, and looked to the men and women climbing into the van, then back to us as we stopped near him, though giving him more space than Heather. "We're sending some Enterrans to each of the towns we're in contact with, so they can spread out and get more thorough, sure entail on what's going on in the cities and towns, without putting the towns people out with extra responsibilities. We decided on this just a few days ago; me or Kutaal will be going with, to get some direct answers, as…well, he, Sago, and I are some of the few who'd really have any sense for what could be unbalanced in this world, since we've seen it all already. I just can't sit by and risk something in this world going wrong as it has before—it's my job to defend it, and I won't turn a blind eye."
Heather nodded understandingly. That made sense, and was a smart move on their part. They weren't going to let anything slip up. They'd grown in so many ways from the boys we watched on a TV screen.
But I noticed Heather watching the hover van. And the longer she watched, I noticed the bouncing. She was bouncing and rocking on the balls of her feet, an impatient habit of hers. She wanted to be climbing on that van, I could tell. Remembering how bad we wanted to learn to fight, to be like those Enterran warriors, just weeks and weeks ago, I could understand. It just wasn't as strong for me right now.
"Do you leave today?" Winter asked.
Mushra nodded. "Yep. The van will be leaving in a few hours, as soon as everything's loaded and me and Kutaal decide who goes."
"With your hand jousting?" I asked with a taunting smile. We'd had fun over the years teasing them, as to us their version of rock, paper, scissors seemed silly. But they felt just the sound about our version.
He narrowed his eyes. "If we choose, yes. Much simpler rules."
"You think there'll be any fights out there?" Heather asked then, bringing Mushra's attention back.
"Maybe, maybe not. If anyone's stupid enough." He folded his arms with a confident smirk (his arms flexing on purpose or not in the process was debatable), but the smirk wavered into a small smile as he watched Heather. "…It'd probably be best that you guys not go…" he stated, and Heather stopped her bouncing, though she still watched with a sad longing as weapons were packed in.
"Yeah, I know…"
"Yet."
She tore her eyes away from the van and looked to Mushra. Even I was surprised and looking to him with confusion. Before any of us could ask what he meant, he went on.
"In the meantime, though—training can be started back at any time…whenever you girls would be ready. We are more evenly matched now, so it should be a more exciting fight, most likely." He taunted, smiling down at Heather.
Who then leapt up with a happy cheer of "YES!" and "WOOO HOO, Heather's gonna kick some Enterran butts!" that just had Mushra shaking his head, and of course we joined in with a few awesomes; even I was excited and could help but smirk thinking of getting another go at showing our strength. We had more strength to show now. It might even help.
"We'll see, short stuff. First spar-off?" he raised his fist to her, smiling with his own excitement and joy that mirrored Heathers' own.
Heather pounding her fist to his, and he surprisingly winced a bit in surprised, which made her even more happy.
"You're on, shrimp."
Mushra: when will it die out… *trying to erase shrimp*
Me: if I have my way, never.
Mushra: I really hate you right now.
Me: I know you do ^^ I hope these chapters are still holding up. I'm just trying to give some proper recovery time, you know? After a few more chapters or more, maybe, we'll get past the recovery-and-extra-stuff and start picking up the pace, so stay with me!
Mushra: you don't have to stay, run while you can—
Me: REVIEW IF YOU'D LIKE.