“That was so much fun! I can fly inside that thing, not just levitate. It looks like I might not be able to keep up with you, but at least you can pull me along safely now. Score!” She grabs Theo’s face and kisses him on the lips.
“I hate to interrupt this beautiful scene of young love, I really do. There is nothing I would rather do than watch my grandson be happy, but we are on a bit of a timetable right now. I have a few more things I need to tell you about before you pop out of here,” Meg is grinning a mile wide.
“Sorry Po Po, we’ll refrain from our antics until we get back into the training hall. Tell me what I need to know,” Theo and Kat both look a bit sorry, but their grins betray them, it was nice to let loose after all of that heavy stuff.
“I’ll keep this as brief as I can. Search for the Children of the Dragon in the Hollers of Appalachia, there is a village hidden among those fog covered hills, Tennessee if I remember properly, and I do. Go to my Villa, your DNA should disable the security system, and grab a box with your name on it, it should have all the other information you might need. It also has a final gift from Lizzy in it.”
The world they stand in starts to shake, “We’re running out of time, how can I find you?” Theo asks, his previous uncaring look destroyed at the thought of losing his grandmother after all this time.
“I go by Meg Long, I live in New York most of the time. I’m probably there, especially if I left you in Riverside City, it would be unsafe for me to be too close. Kat dear, I have one more thing to tell you…” Meg’s form, along with the rest of the garden, starts to fade, “You have such a pure Draconic Soul, a Mind like you should beware those who would…”
The world devolves into a swirl of pinks and golds before they wake up on the couch.
___
“Damn it! She couldn’t have finished that sentence?!?!” Kat sits up from Theo’s lap and slams her hand into the coffee table in front of them.
Theo pulls Kat into a bear hug, “Hey, no sense in breaking something over nothing. We can just go to New York and talk to her in person. At my top speed it would take less than an hour to get there, plus, we might be able to borrow a transport pod at HQ if that doesn’t appeal to you. It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’m not going to let the first blood relative I’ve ever even heard of slip through my fingers.”
Kat sinks into Theo again, her small form snuggled up as close as possible, “I know, but we were so close! Now I have to wait…”
“Patience is a virtue, one which I am an expert in the tenets of,” Theo stares into her beautiful eyes before giving her a kiss.
They sit and make out for a while on the couch before checking the time, “It’s already 9:00 at night? It was only noon when we came in here, that’s so weird.” Theo sits scratching his head after checking the time on an old school clock with flipping plastic cards.
Kat stands up and walks over to take another look at the library of books in ancient Chinese, “Time moves differently in here, why would it be any different in there? No use crying over spilled milk.” She bends over to look at a book on the bottom shelf and gasps, “Did you ask Cinder to translate the books?”
“No, she said it wasn’t her wheelhouse. You should pick it up pretty quick though,” Theo yawns as he settles into a lotus position to meditate on the couch.
“I thought it might be that way, seeing as all the covers are the same. I can read these now! I can’t wait to get started,” Kat wastes no time, pulling a large tome from the top shelf. “This one is called ‘Minds and Water, a Primer’, it’s as good a place to start as any.” She sits up next to Theo on the couch and suspends the book in front of her with her powers as she gets into her own lotus pose.
A few hours later, Theo stands up from the couch and stretches, “Are we going to talk about what you saw in the memory Cinder showed you?”
Without taking her eyes off of the book in front of her, Kat replies, “I watched my mother try and sell her body and soul for drugs. I actually heard her have sex with, then kill, someone who worked for my father, who I think is some kind of Cartel boss now, so that’s awsome. That’s not even the worst of it, after that she went to Twitch and made a deal for a massive load of drugs, she just had to commit a few felonies,” Kat’s hold on the book in front of her shakes as she speaks.
“Oh yeah, she brought me along both to try and sell her body for drugs to Twitch, as well as to the actual site of the felony. That’s where I learned about my bubble power, Twitch was going to blast my mother, who was Steel Scorpion by the way, and Femme-Fatale. Three year old me dove down and bubbled the three of us individually, but Femm Fatale’s and my bubbles smashed together, we made it, she didn’t. I think that’s how I ended up in Riverside City, I ended up in the back of the Gentle-Mobile and Gentle-Man took off like a bat out of hell. They must have thought Iris would be able and willing to take care of me.”
“Kat, I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do for you? I’ll do anything,” Theo walks over and catches the book as it starts to fall to the ground. When he looks at Kat, she’s staring him in the eyes.
“Remind me that sex can be more than a bargaining chip, show me how much you love me,” Kat holds up her arms and Theo pulls her up into a princess carry.
“That I can do,” he purrs as he walks into the bedroom and closes the door.
___
The next morning Theo sits on the couch while Kat leans her head back toward him as she sits on the coffee table.
“I hope you’re as good at braiding as you say you are, I don’t want Cinder to laugh at me,” Kat sternly says up into Theo’s face.
Theo grins, “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, I even used an ultra hard diamond hair pin to hold it together. That thing isn’t coming out unless you want it to, I formed it around the only loose part of the braid, so you should be good to go. Walk around and tell me how it is.”
Kat straightens up and shakes her head, the braid clings to her back and the back of her head like magic which, in a way, it is.
“You outdid yourself on this, if I wasn’t touching it right now, I wouldn’t even remember I had such long hair. Even if the braid is still shoulder length, I can’t feel it, so this should work great. Your hair however is awful, sex-head looks good on you, but probably only to me and others you’re not related to,” she teases Theo as she tries to fix his hair.
“I’m just going to be training all day, hopefully Cinder is merciful, Theo says with false hope in his voice. “When we get out of here, you owe me an explanation about your father, you didn’t give any details besides that he’s a cartel boss. I get that now might not be the right time, but I want to know, it’ll make it easier to protect you.”
Theo walks over and hugs Kat. She breathes deeply, “Fine, but I’m not promising all the nasty details about my mother and her affairs, my skin still crawls when I remember those.” She shivers a bit at the thought.
“That’s all I can ask for,” Theo responds, then kisses her on the top of the head.
___
“Hahahaha, your hair is so fucked up! Did you forget how to shower? You know what? Go shower now while I inspect your shoddy work on this braid,” Cinder floats over to Kat as she waves Theo away to shower.
“Fair enough, though you’ll find that my braiding work is like the rest of my work, perfect,” Theo shoots over his shoulder as he walks back into the dome shaped domicile he shares with Kat to shower.
Cinder starts poking and pulling at Kat’s braid, completely ignoring Kat’s attempts to stop her. “I’m almost done, quit bitchin’!” Cinder tugs and inspects the braid looking for something to call Theo out on. “Really, he even did that,” Cinder mutters disgustedly under her breath.
“That hair is still attached to my head, even if it doesn’t feel like it now! Your pulling and prodding better be finding something good in there,” Kat replies, her tone short.
This actually hurts, she’s really going at it right now. My scalp aches so ba
d!
“Well, that was disappointing,” Cinder grumpily says as she floats back over to her cushion.
Kat’s face falls, “How badly did he do? Can you tell me how he can improve it so I can impress him?”
A laugh bursts free from Cinder’s mouth, “Badly? I wish. His is even more effective than mine, that damn diamond clip is holding about half of the usual weight for you by itself. It’s ingenious, I’m actually jealous, I can’t make a clip like that. Your boyfriend there is clever.”
A few minutes of small talk pass until Kat mentions that she can read the books now, “Yeah, so last night I started on ‘Minds and Water, a Primer’ and I have a few questions. Can you help?”
Cinder looks at Kat, “Wow, he has it bad, reading a primer to you about something he can’t even do. I can answer a few basic questions, but as a Fang I can’t tell you much about how things in there actually happen.”
Kat stares right back at Cinder, “Theo isn’t reading the primer to me, I’m reading it myself.”
“Shut up, how long have you known ancient Chinese?”
“Since last night? Maybe I should wait for Theo to talk about this,” Kat says as a hand lands on her shoulder from behind.
“Were you talking about me?” Theo asks while standing behind Kat shirtless, his muscles rippling, he rests a hand on Kat’s shoulder.
“She says she can read ancient Chinese as of last night, what did you do? She shouldn’t get that for a least a year of mating with you every night,” Cinder accuses Theo, her arms crossed.
“Theo didn’t do anything, I got it all on my own,” Kat huffs.
“What weirdness happened last night? First you saw that memory, nothing weird there. Then you two shut yourselves in your house. Now you say you can read languages.”
“Hey, I can read the book now, too,” Kat exclaims.
“Well, that answers that, she can indeed translate like we can. That was in Russian. You two are quite the handful. Now tell me about last night.” Cinder settles into her cushion for a story.
“Well, you see…” Theo explains the events of the previous night, leaving out only the night of passion after meditating.
“Well shit, that explains a bit, you’re a Heart, but more pure than any I’ve ever seen. I wonder if she has…” Cinder mutters and flashes toward Kat.
Theo flashes in front of Kat, but not before Cinder has put a hand on her chest. More specifically, on her sternum.
“What kind of…” Theo begins before Cinder cuts him off.
“Holy shit, she’s a pure Mind now, looks like at least Water affinity, like your Po Po, though most likely much more pure. Her Draconic Soul only formed yesterday and yet it looks like she could Awaken at any time. Chaos would erupt if something like this were to go out into the community.” Cinder’s easy going nature slides away for a moment, leaving a very worried trainer standing before the two of them.
“Why is that such a big deal? My powers Awakened in one night, why would this matter?” Theo asks, holding Kat protectively.
Cinder sighs. “Your Draconic Soul was with you from the moment you were conceived, it grew in power until you Awakened, hers did that much in less than a day. This would be a game-changer if it got in the wrong hands. The Darkswarn can never learn of how her Draconic Soul developed. If they did, neither of you would get another night’s rest, and yes, I know that neither of you really sleep. That’s irrelevant here.
So, here’s the play: Kat had a weaker Draconic Soul that was going to fail to Awaken, you just enhanced and purified it, that should be a good enough explanation for most people.”
“I’m going to trust her on this Theo, I think we should do as she says.” Kat looks up to see Theo’s eyes glowing deep red.
“Fine, we can lie about that, but if someone comes for her, they’re going to have to go through me first.” Theo’s voice drops two octaves to deliver this warning to the universe.
Interlude
Somewhere deep in a mountain conclave a small black scale begins to glow bright gold against a wall of black stone. A hooded figure starts at the pop of light in an otherwise pitch black room and runs out of the room.
A few minutes later a deep, satisfied, cackle can be heard.
“It’s almost time!”
Chapter 46: Game Nights with Cinder
Over the course of the next few months Cinder started coming over for game nights, first traditional ancient games like Go, Mancala, and Shogi, but after a while the trio got bored of those duels of wits.
“How much control do you have over this space Cinder?” Theo asks while sprawled out in a small hammock Cinder set up 15 feet over the table in his and Kat’s house for the person who wasn’t playing to wait for their turn.
Cinder stares at the Mancala board, seeing that she only has a few turns before Kat gets an insurmountable advantage if she doesn’t do something drastic now. Hearing Theo ask her a question she looks up at Theo. “Pretty total, within reason, why?” She goes back to looking at the board, anxious to figure out how to get out of the pickle she got herself into.
“If Kat and I were to share a memory with you with her powers would you be able to recreate the items in the memory here?” Theo’s hopeful voice bounces off the ceiling as he lays on his back.
Cinder stops to ponder for a moment, taking great care to keep an eye on the psychokinetic with a penchant for cheating across from her.
“That should be doable, though if it requires anything electronic, it will be hit or miss here. I barely figured out how to get the TV’s to work, and those are mostly magic to be honest, just a few technological components left in there.” She snaps her fingers and scoops up a large number of Mancala beads from one of the cups on the board. “I got you this time!”
When she finishes depositing the last bead in its cup Kat grins like a cat that got the canary, “Thanks, I thought this was going to take another turn, I’ll just end it here.” With a flourish, Kat releases the mental illusion she placed over one of the cups to reveal that it is full of beads, using that she runs most of the board. “Good game, you almost had me.” Kat reaches out for a hand shake.
“You cheated!” Cinder exclaims. “You blocked my view of the board with your powers.”
“I did no such thing, the rules of the game were that neither of us were allowed to directly interact with the board, I didn’t. I messed with your perception of the board. Theo?” Kat calmly explains and then looks up at Theo.
A sigh can be heard from above before Theo answers, “She hates to lose, she did exactly what she said she was doing. She tried the same thing on me last week, I just figured it out before she beat me with it.”
“Not fair!” Cinder pouts. “You can forget me helping you with whatever creepy sex thing you want me to pull in here, I’m not going to do it!”
Theo laughs so hard at that statement that he actually falls out of the rafter hammock. As he falls, still laughing, he uses his hands to adjust and ends up hovering about two feet off of the ground. Kat laughs just as hard, though when Theo falls she stops for a moment. That only lasts a second when she realizes that even if he hits the ground, the ground is more likely to be damaged than he is.
“What’s so damn funny! I got cheated and then you guys make fun of me? Training is going to be hell tomorrow, just you wait.” Cinder gets up and starts stomping to the door, her braid bouncing as she stomps.
Kat collects herself before Theo does. “Wait, Cinder! We don’t want or need anything like that. We want to play a game with you, not against you. We were thinking about a game called Pandemic, you play together to try and stop the world from being overrun by a virus. Though in that world, there are no Capes to help, so it’s a lot harder than in real life.”
Cinder looks back at Theo and Kat, both of them have collected themselves and are standing side by side while smiling at her. “You two want to play with me, no one has ever wanted to do that before. That’s one of the reasons I never joined the Fire Legio
n, I didn’t know how to work as a team with others. This ‘Pandemic’ game is fun? Even for someone new?”
Theo’s smile widens. “We teach each of the kids at the orphanage to play when they turn seven, it helps them build problem solving and teamwork skills. Kat and I must have played that game a thousand times, do you agree Kat?”
“If not more, we also taught Dante, that took quite a few games in itself, though Mr. Anton picked it up pretty quickly while watching. The games with the four of us are some of my favorites, we should have her use those memories to build the board, pieces, and cards. They’ll be informative and I’d like to relive them again,” Kat wistfully replies, her mind obviously somewhere else, likely remembering those games.
Cinder turns around and walks back toward Theo and Kat before shooing them toward the couch. They comply, though their faces show that they’re a bit confused at the movement.
“What are you doing?” Kat finally asks as she sits down on the couch opposite of Theo, where Cinder put her.
“I didn’t want to have to stand while living your memories, so I moved us to the couch.” She plops down in between Theo and Kat. “Well, get to sharing the memories, I want to try that new game now. If I like it, I might even do another one some other time.”
“You’ll want to slide over where I am then, I need to be able to touch you and Theo at the same time to make this work.” Kat levitates up and over Cinder who slides into Kat’s previous seat.
After Kat gets settled in the middle, she takes a deep breath, “Let’s get our Pandemic on!” With that she reaches out her hands and touches both Theo and Cinder on the head.
All three of them end up in the happiest memory of playing Pandemic she and Theo have, Dante’s 12th birthday.
A few hours later Theo, Kat, and Cinder wake up laughing hilariously.
Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls] Page 24