Hey guys. Still up and kicking.
Sorry about the delays, everyone, things in Baton Rouge have been tough these days.
The heat's been rising, finally got some rain a few days ago, and not too long ago, we've been dubbed the worst state to live in this year.
I'm just glad you guys are still reading my content. It's one of the many things that're keeping me going.
I'm also glad to know that there's a handful of artists that are interested in my work and want to reach out to me.
While I'm glad, I just want to know if it's the right call.
Artists, if you're reading this, and I know you are or eventually will because you followed me, I'm glad you've shown interest in my work, it's just if our conversations lead to wanting to make cover images or fanart of/for my stories, and I have to pay for it, I'll have to decline.
I'm not trying to be cheap or anything, it's just that I don't have excess money to spend.
If the prices are like 5-25 dollars or something else reasonable and I do get my hands on some money, I'll think about getting in touch with you guys.
Also, hurricane's coming to Louisiana. I live in about higher North from where it's supposed to hit, so, best case scenario, it just brushes past.
If you guys don't hear from me for a while, and I mean if I haven't uploaded anything, followed or favorited anything, or anything else, y'all now know why.
Wish me well, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
#125: H.O.P.E.-ful
The next morning, just outside H.O.P.E...
Mornin' y'all. Just on my way to get back to work.
When I walked into the building's homeless shelter, I looked around. Let's see what's first on the agenda.
I pulled out my tablet and went through a list on it to see what I can do today-
...Huh, that's weird. Almost everything's done already.
I planned to check our inventory, help make some flyers, help with the Cruzes in the shelter, check on the Pam's plants, and check on the map for anything off before I head out to meet up with Garth.
All but the last three's complete.
Oop, make that two.
I checked the tablet...I'm not seeing any glitch in the system. Guess someone beat me to my tasks.
But who?
"Oh, Aaron!"
I looked and saw Pam coming. She looked a little different. A good little different.
She had a pair of glasses on and her hair was tied in a ponytail. If it wasn't for her usual clothes, I'd mistake her for a secretary.
And is it just me, or does her hair and face look a small shade brighter? Eh, it's probably just me.
"Good morning." she said when she stood in front of me.
"Uh, morning." I greeted back, "Hey, you know who went through my tasks today?"
"Oh, I did." Wait what?
"That was you?"
"Well, yeah. I woke up early and had nothing else to do, so I thought I'd see if there was anything here I could do. I hope you don't mind that I did your chores."
"Honestly, I don't mind at all." I said, feeling grateful. "Thanks, Pam. You just gave me a lot of free time."
Pam looked away, and it might've been the lighting, but I thought I saw her blush a little. "You're welcome..."
I put my tablet back in my bag. "Okay. Well, I gotta head back out to meet Garth by the docks. Think you can check the map for me?"
"Sure. I'll see you later." Pam turned around and made her way to the map room."
Huh. Not what I expected to see today. I wonder what got into Pam?
"Yo! Billy!"
I walked over to one of the helpers here at H.O.P.E.; a teenage boy who was playing with two children.
The boy has short black hair, also fair skin but a bit of a shade darker, has on a red hoodie with a marigold shirt underneath, some dark blue pants and red sneakers. His H.O.P.E. badge was sitting right on the right center of the hoodie
This is William Batson. Well, everyone calls him Billy.
He heard me and made his way to me. "Morning, Aaron. What's up?"
"Morning. Say, you noticed that Pam seems more...bright today?"
"Yeah." he briefly looked in the direction she left in "Now that you mentioned it, I thought I noticed something different. What do you think it is?"
I shrugged. "Beats me. Hey, I'm off to see Garth. Catch you later?"
"See you soon." I left, leaving Billy to continue playing with the kids.
Later...
I'm now with Garth by the docking yard's waters.
"Okay, Garth. The problem here's with marine life."
"What's wrong?" He asked, now wearing a H.O.P.E. badge on his shirt.
"There's a bacterial infection in the fish, and it's diseasing them really badly. We might wanna take care of this before the rest of the marine food web's contaminated."
"Tell me what to do." Garth said, sounding determined all of a sudden.
"Love that attitude. Firstly, we go through this water and find out what's making it so toxic. Then the drones can release a medicine that'll heal the fish when they swim through it."
I tossed Garth a small device that looked like a test tube attached to a miniature screen cybernetically.
"Put some of the sea water in the tube part." I pulled out my own device. "The screen'll show us what's mucking up the water, and triangulate where exactly we need to add medicine so that it'll spread throughout the sea. Let's split up; we'll cover more ground- uh, sea that way."
"I got this side!" "I got that side."
Garth rushed to the left while I walked towards the right.
#126: Water working
We cut to Aaron scooping up some sea water into his device before looking at the screen.
The monitor showed a close up visual of a molecule structure surrounded by water molecules.
He pointed the device towards the ocean, and the screen showed color marked areas.
He deducted where the drones should drop the medicine and marked them with Xs by pressing on the spots on the screen.
After a couple of minutes of marking, Aaron poured the water out and picked up a new sample.
When he checked this sample, he noticed something off about what was in the water.
A selected few of the bacteria in the water were being destroyed. That's weird, the medicine wasn't even added yet.
Aaron looked at the sea water with his Techno Vision to see what was going on.
When he checked he noticed that there was something else in the water.
He deducted what it was. "Is that...saliva?"
For those who don't know, it's been scientifically proven that saliva can kill certain bacteria.
Aaron pondered as he looked farther out into the water.
And to his shock, he saw a young figure far out under the water, struggling to free their feet.
He looked about to make sure no one was around before glitching his hero wear on and dived into the water.
He blasted his hands and feet behind him, boosting himself through the water towards whoever was stuck.
When he made it, he saw who it was.
It was a tween age blonde girl with blue eyes and wearing a grey shirt, beige cargo shorts and gloves.
The girl's face was strained as she was struggling to get her feet off the sandy floor.
Techno swam to her and waved his hand in front of her to get her attention and she stopped what she was doing.
Aaron made a force field around them, allowing her to finally breathe when the water was separated from where she was standing.
"You okay?" he asked.
She irritatedly said, "No! My feet won't move!"
Tech looked down and to his surprise, he saw that her feet were petrified; they were turned to stone.
"How on...?"
The girl exasperatedly groaned. "I hate these powers!"
Techno immediately understood. She had powers of her own and had a problem with them.
He remembered when he was twelve and first got his powers. Sometimes he'd glitch and spark uncontrollably when he was mad.
He reached out to her. "Hey, maybe I can-" The girl suddenly lost her irritation and flinched back on instinct.
Aaron saw the fear in her eyes as ankles and lower shins started to turn to stone.
Yup, she reminded him of himself alright; she didn't want her powers to hurt anyone or anyone to get hurt by her. He knew exactly how she felt.
Techno knelt down and looked at her.
"Hey, it's alright." He slowly moved his hands to her shoulders. "I'm going to help you, but I need you to trust me."
She was hesitant.
"We'll both be okay. My name's Techno. You got a name?"
It took a while for her to speak. "...T...T-Tara."
"Okay, Tara. I'm gonna help you out on this. First, what I need you to do is relax; completely clear your mind."
Tara didn't do anything and nothing happened.
"Trust me, you can do this. Close your eyes."
She slowly shut her eyelids.
She heard him say. "Okay, now completely clear your head. Don't think about anything, just listen to my voice."
She did so.
"Alright, now picture yourself somewhere relaxing outside, walking down a path."
She saw herself in a calming forest walking along a stream.
"Alright, now...stop." She stopped. "Now open your eyes."
She did, and when she came back to reality, she was up close against Techno's force field.
"Look down."
She looked down, and saw that her feet were back to normal.
Awestruck, she turned to Techno.
"Attagirl." he praised. "Now, c'mon. Let's get you back up on land."
#127: A Rocky start
I shot out of the water, with Tara in my arms before landing.
"You okay?" I asked her as I put her down.
"Yeah..." she responded.
I had to ask, "So, why were out in the water?"
"I...I was sent away."
...What?
"My dad sent me to live with my mom...I never met her and I don't know who she is...When I went to where she was, she wasn't there...I found myself on a boat and...fell off..."
So that explains it.
Okay, so she was born with powers, her dad sent her off, likely because of said powers, and not once saw her birth mother and has nowhere to go. Fell off a boat, got scared, and got stuck underwater.
Not what I expected to run into today.
Not too long later, I heard Garth call my name. "Aaron! I'm all done! Where are you?"
Might as well catch Garth up to speed while I can.
"One second, Tara."
I took a few steps away from Tara, the way she looked at me step away for a second mad me feel a little guilty.
Garth spotted me saying, "There you are. I finished marking my spots. How about you?"
"Something came up." I briefly glanced at Tara. "Listen to this."
I filled Garth in.
"Whoa." He looked at Tara then back to me. "What're you gonna do?"
"Well, first off, she doesn't have anywhere to go. Let's bring her to H.O.P.E.. Follow my lead."
Garth and I walked back to her.
"Tara, this is Garth. He's a friend of mine." "Hello." "We're gonna take you somewhere you can stay for the night."
Hearing that, Tara took a few steps back.
I understood. She wasn't so sure about us taking her somewhere. We just met today after all.
"It's okay. I know, you're scared. I would be too if I were you."
I walked up to her and knelt down again.
"Can you give us a chance?"
She stared at me. I held my hand out.
"Can you give me a chance?"
She looked at my hand, then at me.
...Slowly but surely, she took my hand. I stood up as she, Garth, and I walked on our way to H.O.P.E..
Along the way, I gave Garth my tablet and ran hi through how to order the drones to drop the medicine in the water.
Later, at sunset...
I'm out of costume, and I'm about to leave H.O.P.E..
Before I did leave, I made my way into the shelter area to check on Tara.
I remember how when I left as Techno and Garth took her in the building, I saw that she didn't want me to leave just yet.
Poor girl doesn't want to be alone, but she's scared of what will happen if she isn't. And Techno was the one she felt the safest with.
When I saw her again, she was in some P.J.s and she was sitting on a top bunk, not even touching the dinner that was brought to her a minute ago.
I got her attention. "Tara, right?"
Her eyes looked at me for a second and she timidly nodded.
"Not hungry?"
She slowly looked away.
"...Hey, listen; I know that you're unsure about this whole thing...but it's okay to be scared. You don't have to open up if you don't want to, but I just want you to know that, we're here to help you. Alright?"
She looked at me for only a second. I could tell she wanted to know why I was telling her this.
As if I could read her mind, I said, "I kinda just don't want you to feel so scared of yourself, y'know? Everyone has things they can do, say, and know that can always hurt someone in some way. You don't have to isolate yourself just to stop it from happening.
Just...know you're not alone. Okay?"
I took my leave...and I felt Tara's eyes on me as I headed to the door.
#128: Blossoming connection
Not to far from the building, Pam let out an exhausted sigh.
"I'll have no idea how he does things like this everyday."
She had a very long day at H.O.P.E.. Having to deal with so many responsibilities was a lot harder than Aaron made it look.
But she just had to keep it up. She had to improve herself. For him.
"Hey, Pam."
She jolted as Aaron came up from behind her.
"Oh. H-Hey, Aaron."
"I just came over to say, thanks again for today."
She smiled hearing that.
"I know things like this aren't exactly your forte, but I'm glad to see you do so much. I'm glad to see you come out of your comfort zone."
As Aaron walked away, he failed to notice the rose growing out of the ground next to Pam.
She couldn't deny it.
She really loved the guy.