Sky's Crack 5

[kajarainbow]

Sorry for the delay. Had a hard time with this section. Also, I've decided to post only when I have more or less a whole episode's worth of material. That means no more daily posting, just daily writing.

4/17/XX continued

I cleared my throat. "Okay, Azure." I was talking to a talking stuffed animal. Fuck, this was a good time for me to wake up from this dream.

"Yes?" the lizard said.

I looked at it. Then at Jenna. "Uh. My girlfriend wants to know why you guys didn't pick her."

The lizard was silent. I held it up, staring at its plastic eyes. It said, "I supported making the offer to her, but we aren't in perfect agreement on everything. It's a concession we had to make to convince them to select the rest of you."

Sharply, Jenna said, "Some concession."

Azure said, "Not all were eager to grant power to an apparent group of juvenile delinquents, let alone a sadist."

Both Jenna and I flinched at 'sadist'.

"But those're superficial impressions," Azure continued, "You all have far more to you than that, and a goodness that outweighs minor disorderly behavior. We're aware of that. But some have more idealistic expectations of what their warriors should be, and they're also afraid of what might happen if you get targeted with a corruption attack, Jenna."

Jenna stared at her feet. I snapped, "Don't you see what this's doing to her? I see villains taking advantage of emotions like that all the time on magical girl shows! I don't know how your enemies do things-"

I stopped. I wasn't helping Jenna by saying that. Instead, I wrapped her in another hug.

Azure said, "That was a consideration I brought into my arguments," then to Jenna, "I'll continue pushing your case. They might not believe in you, but I do."

Jenna said, "That helps. I can think of it as damn shitty unfair instead of as something I deserve."

She didn't sound really convinced to me, but Azure nodded and said, "Do you need to talk about anything more?"

I paused. My mind was empty. I said, "You better fight for Jenna. And... Uh. What's this about me having innate powers?"

Azure said, "You would have been born with them, but not necessarily manifested them until recently. They attracted our notice."

"But, why?" I said, "Am I some kind of reincarnation or something?"

The lizard climbed up my arm, curling around the back of my neck. "The usual cause is ancestry. Most commonly nonhuman. In your case, we do not know who."

I blinked. "Wait, nonhuman ancestry? Like a missing dad or something?"

Azure said, "That could well be. We do not know."

I sighed and looked up. A quiet sky, few wisps of white and a little breeze. Warmth poured down on me from the sun above. You aren't supposed to look at the sun, something about it blinding you, but I've never had problems.

I said, "Okay, you can go ahead and go. I think we're done for now."

I didn't get any answer, but the stuffed lizard on the back of my neck suddenly went limp. I reached up and patted it, then pushed it back into my bag.

Jenna said, "I wouldn't be surprised if it was your mom. She's a real monster. I like her, but she's a monster."

I blinked at her. "She's just Mom. She's crazy, but she's not anything supernatural. I'd think something'd be noticed if she was. Besides, she never really tells me about Dad. Just makes jokes about who he was."

Jenna giggled. "Just realized I forgot to ask why plushies."

"I selected the forms based on what I judged culturally appropriate. Am I mistaken?" Azure's voice spoke from the backpack.

Jenna said, "Uh, it's perfectly ok." She looked at my face. "It's great, really, you couldn't have picked better." She started to laugh.

I grumbled, "You're the one who likes cute things so much."

The backpack was quiet.

"Hey, let's go to the next class. I'm feeling better now," Jenna said.

---

We met in my house. It's a small thing, just one story and made out of bricks. Best can be said about it's that it's got a very large back yard. But we've got a house which's more than some of my friends've got.

A kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. I sleep in the living room so I don't have to share a room with Mom. I used to, but she thrashes around and makes loud noises in her sleep. So we moved the second bed into the living room and it's been there since.

It's in the living room that we all gathered. Jenna said she wasn't coming if she couldn't say anything useful. I didn't blame her.

"We know Angel's in," Kevin said.

Maggie nodded along. "Fuck yeah."

I looked around. Jon had drifted off, staring dreamily at the wallpaper. It was a bunch of eyeballs lined up in diagonal rows. Sometimes I don't know what Mom's thinking. She said it was for a psychological edge over visitors.

We stayed silent like that. Jon fidgeted with his fingers. Maggie spoke up. "You saved my ass before. I'm not fucking letting you do this alone."

Kevin nodded this time. "You're a good person, Angel." He grinned wide. "I wouldn't mind going on a wild crusade like this with you. Hopefully it's all for the good."

We all looked at Jon. He was still staring at the wall. I said, "This seems unreal. We're agreeing to do this just like that."

Kevin chuckled. "I've been pinching myself. Slapping and punching myself didn't wake me up either."

"Same for me," Maggie said, "I wanna see what's down the rabbit hole."

I said, "How do we know they're the right guys to join?"

Maggie shook her head. "You're still gonna do it. I know the face. I want in so if they dick us over, I can help you make them pay."

Kevin smiled quietly. I nodded. "I have a... good feeling about them."

Kevin said, "I trust your feeling."

Maggie said, "You're usually right, Angel."

I drew in a deep breath. "Right. Don't you do this just for me. Don't fucking line up behind me just because you're my friends."

Jon spoke up. "I want to do it."

We all looked at him. "Why?" I said.

He answered, "I want to." He looked down. "I just want to."

I remembered the times he'd watch those shows with me and Jenna. I said, "Jenna's got the newest Dream Savior Yume."

Jon smiled slightly. "Thank you."

Maggie said, "Gods, that show's so fucking trippy."

She had watched only one episode and then said she wasn't interested. She stopped somewhere at the sequence with Yume running on pink clouds after a frog-headed guy in a kimono.

"Does it have the Star Sisters?" Jon asked.

I nodded. He looked like he was struggling with something. We waited. He said, "I really like them. I, uh, think I'd like to be like them. That's why."

Kevin had his eyebrow raised. I said, "They're cool, sure. But don't you realize this could get dangerous?"

Jon still had his eyes focused down on the sofa. It was a white one with mouths printed on it that looked like they were rabid. Spraying foam all over.

"Where does your mom find this weird shit anyway?" Maggie said for the tenth time.

I shrugged. "She says flea markets."

Not that this seemed the kind of neighborhood you could find that stuff in flea markets. Maggie just muttered to herself over this answer.

Kevin cleared his throat. "You said not to do this just for you. But I think we're all doing it for the same reason. It just feels right."

Maggie said, "You know, fuck it, it feels right. And there's something fucking wrong with that."

"Eh?" Kevin cocked his head at that and I blinked.

Maggie stared at all of us. "I mean, us being in perfect agreement over it. Don't you find that a little weird?"

"You think there's something wrong with that?" I said.

Maggie nodded. "Someone screwing with us maybe." She shrugged. "I'm still up for it."

Jon said, "No one's tried to do anything to our minds than the shrink. They picked us because they knew we'd say yes."
I looked at Jon. "How'd you know?"

He just shrugged. Kevin stood up from the sofa. "I guess all of us're decided."

I said, "it's a little quick, let's give it a couple of days to be sure."

Excitement was going through my spine like electricity, an almost unbearable tingle in my stomach.

Comments

[unisagi.livejournal.com]

I have to say that this episode was worth waiting for. But I want to know what Azure said when Angel asked him about her having innate powers.

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

Oh shit, looks like I had a copy-and-paste error there. I'll fix that.

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

There. Somewhat part of it didn't get in there.

[unisagi.livejournal.com]

Now it is even better!