A loud laugh rips out of Theo. “Sorry about that, I mean you have flight, fire, and healing abilities. Sounds like a phoenix to me, you forget I grew up playing RPGs. I bet if you’re lucky, you might even be able to regenerate from death, though I hope you never need to.”
“All right, with that humiliating reveal/intuition, I bid you good day. Go grab a bite with Kat. After checking on Dante please?” Brigid gets up and dusts herself off.
“Will do,” Theo answers as he gets up and walks to the portal.
Brigid waits until Theo leaves the room and stumbles back to sit on the bench, gasping for air and clutching her chest.
The pressure he was putting out was unreal, I’m not sure I could have attacked him if he was an imposter. I’ll have to do a session with Magenta, that should help with the after effects. That kid’s going to be scary when he gets older. I can feel the winds of change flowing off of him, hopefully they’re blowing in our favor, because they are INTENSE.
Chapter 51: Date Night
“JEN, is there any way I can test into becoming a Class 3 Cape?” Theo asks as he gets ready for dinner in his room. He steps into the shower and waits for JEN’s response.
JEN’s mildly robotic female voice comes from the other side of the shower door, “Moving from Class 2 to 3 Cape is not as simple as going from 1 to 2. It requires the station director’s sign off, as well as your handler’s approval, though in your unique case those two are the same thing. Would you like me to put in the paperwork requesting a class review? Be aware, if it fails, you will have to wait a year before you try again.”
Welp, there goes that idea.
“No thanks, JEN, I’ll wait for Jolly to take care of all that. He’ll know when I’m ready.” Theo shakes the water out of his eyes. “JEN, play some a cappella music.”
“Playing a cappella music,” JEN replies.
Theo finishes up his shower, gets dressed, and then tosses on a pair of headphones. He heads for the door, but before he can grab the door handle it rattles and the deadbolt shoots open.
Theo steps back and settles into a defensive stance behind where the door would open, he pauses the music on his headphones and slides them down around his neck.
“Theo! I brought food up for you! Where are you?” Kat’s voice is unmistakable.
Theo laughs and closes the door behind Kat, flicking the deadbolt shut again. He steps out from his previous position to grab Kat in a hug from behind. “You almost scared me, you know that?”
Kat jumps a bit when Theo grabs her and drops the bags of food in her hands, or she would have if she didn’t catch them with her powers. She deposits the bags of food on the coffee table and turns to face Theo. “You scared me, too. What were you doing behind the door?”
“I go to open the door and see it opening up in front of me. You usually let me know you’re letting yourself in, so I prepared for the worst.” Theo pulls Kat in closer, until she is pressed tightly against him. He looks down into her beautiful blue eyes. “Sorry I scared you, Kat.”
“I know how you can make it up to me,” Kat says seductively, batting her eyelashes at him.
Theo is a bit taken aback at that. “Are you sure? We just got out, I haven’t had time to prepare.”
A snort escapes Kat before she collects herself. “I have all of that stuff ready, but I was talking about you warming up the food. The line for our ice cream was really long, so the Japanese food is all cold.”
“Ah, using me for my powers, I get it.” He releases Kat after giving her a kiss on the forehead. Grabbing one bag, he finds it cold. “Put this in the freezer please,” Theo asks Kat.
“Okay, but I really want nice hot food, so take care of the other bag please.” Kat grabs the cold bag from Theo and puts it into the freezer.
Kat comes back over to see a table full of steaming hot Japanese food, though the container of sushi and sashimi was set aside and left cold.
“Good job, I forgot about the sushi. Let's dig in!” Kat says as she grabs a seat on the couch and a set of chopsticks. “I still can’t believe that Iris made us learn how to use these things. Forks are so much more efficient.”
Kat’s speed when picking up sushi and rice makes Theo doubt that fact.
“Mom wanted to make sure we would be ready if we wanted to go to an Asian country. Though after I got my powers, I figured out that she must have been doing it for me. She wanted me ready in case I ever had to go to China, which I appreciate.” Theo grabs a set of chopsticks and tucks in, sticking mostly to the sashimi and hibachi meat and vegetables.
Polishing off that impressive spread of food takes almost no time at all for the pair. Kat sits snuggled up against Theo, dozing gently as she digests her food. Theo flicks his fingers in a pattern, enabling holographic display of his news feed from his aPhone. Nothing interesting in the news besides an article about Steaming Betty taking down Adorable Tiger again.
Scoffing at the article, Theo starts, “Adorable Tiger is a terrible Cowl name, though it is apt to describe her. JEN says that she’s a cat feral Super with enhanced pheremonal powers. Claws and the cute cat effect make her strangely effective. It sucks that she keeps escaping custody, guards just can’t say no to her.”
Kat laughs and puts her hand over Theo’s mouth. “You talk too much about work, let’s do something more fun.” Removing her hand, she plants a kiss firmly over his protesting mouth, silencing him. He returns the kiss with vigor, all the while pulling her onto his lap.
They do just that, eventually moving from the couch to the bedroom in a flurry of clothes and plastic wrappers.
___
The next morning Theo and Kat hear an alarm clock telling them that their post-intimacy movie marathon had to draw to a close for now, 5 a.m. rolls around so fast when you're watching bad rom-coms. Both of them groan as they roll out of bed and shut down the TV, which is more like a viewscreen built into the dresser across from Theo's bed. Theo stretches, standing naked as Kat watches him.
“That view never gets old, I promise you that,” Kat says as she sneaks up behind him and gives him a swat on his ample behind.
Theo just turns and grins at her. “Years of practice, you know I was a mess when I went from an overweight kid to become the Adonis you see before you.” He laughs and shivers. “Okay, I’m done with the smug routine, it doesn’t feel like me, though I know you enjoy it.”
She pouts. “Party pooper, I like overconfident Theo, he’s hot,” she grabs her clothes from the floor and piles them up on the edge of the bed, “You and I both know I like the nerdy, caring, and smart Theo the best though, he’s the one I fell in love with all those years ago.”
“Better get over to the girl’s dorm Kat, we don’t want to get kicked out for bad behavior,” Theo winks cheekily at her as he steps into the shower.
She stares at him in shock. “Not nice, you know I’m waiting on permission to get a pet of some kind over there so I can teleport back in the morning. Stupid hypo-allergenic rules, I want a cat to snuggle up with when you’re not available.”
Over the sounds of the water Kat hears Theo’s joking reply. “I think you’d like a fish, they stare all the time too!”
“Like I said, NOT NICE!” Kat laughs, then bags up her clothes from the bed, slips into some pajamas, and sneaks out of Theo’s room.
‘Love you,’ Theo sends.
‘I love you, too, you goomba!’ Kat replies.
Chapter 52: No Pain, No Gain
The rest of the first month of school passes by quickly. Theo, Kat, and Dante spend their time split between hanging out and training, with homework and tests as a distant afterthought, though all of them keep straight A’s.
“You know, it’s strange that after your powers showed up, you started caring more about school,” Kat says one evening near the end of the month, her tone light and airy.
Theo laughs, “Opportunity costs.”
Kat almost falls out of her chair at Theo’s answer. “What do you mean ‘Opport
unity costs’.”?
“I used to have to decide whether I was going to spend time with you, Dante, or the littles at the orphanage or do homework. My choice was always to spend time with those I loved, I knew I was going to ace the tests, so my grades were always okay anyway. Now I can just do homework after everyone but you and I are asleep, that means I get the best of both worlds, especially with super speed. Good grades and a good social life. Plus, you like to come over, hang out, and do homework with me at night now, which makes it more fun, even though we’re doing something boring. Most of the time at least,” Theo winks.
Kat throws a pillow at Theo, who lets it hit him in the chest. “Jerk.” She fake pouts before laughing.
Theo feels the pillow and inside he feels a sharp rectangle, pushing his hand inside the pillow case he feels the unmistakable feeling of an Awakening envelope, at least that’s what Theo decided to call them.
“Kat, did you bring this pillow with you tonight?”
Kat thinks for a minute. “Yeah, I just got the pillowcase off of Amazon, isn’t it nice?”
Shaking his head, Theo tosses the pillow back to her. “Feel along the center of the inside of the pillowcase, there’s a second panel of fabric in there.”
Looking at Theo like he’s crazy, Kat shoves her hand inside the pillowcase and rummages around until she encounters the same feeling Theo had. “Shit, is this what I think it is?”
“Most likely, but you’ll have to check to be sure.” Theo slides closer to Kat on the couch. “Though to be safe, I’m going to look away when you open it. I don’t want to accidentally steal your element, I’ve got enough on my plate at this point.”
After taking a deep breath, Kat reaches into the pillowcase and pulls out the dark grey envelope. It looks identical to the one Theo got, right down to the Chinese character 龙, that’s holding the envelope closed.
“Am I ready?” Kat asks as she stares Theo in the eyes.
Theo gives her a quick hug before pulling back, “If it looks like something is going wrong, I’ll absorb the energy, I’m sure I can do it…” Theo smiles sheepishly. “Okay, I’m more like 70% sure, but that’s passing, so we should be fine! You’ll do great, just take a deep breath and open it up.”
The stare Kat gives Theo would curdle milk. “Not helping! I’m going to open this stupid thing just to shut you up. ”
Without further ado, Kat opens up the Awakening envelope and slides the letter out, which is made of the same material as the envelope. On it is 水, the character for Water.
After taking a deep breath Kat looks down and reads the character, “Water.”
With a roar, blue energy starts pouring out of Kat, who is lifted into the air. Instinctively, Theo coats the walls, ceiling, and floor with a mixture of his Earth and Fire energy, protecting them from the flood of Water energy
“Aaaahhhhhhhh!” Kat screams.
‘You’ve got this Kat! Focus on the transformation, don’t worry about anything else, I’ll take care of it,’ Theo sends Kat, along with as much love and affection as he can pack into those words.
Kat’s mental voice shakes. ‘I feel like it’s ripping me apart, I think I might pass out! It hurts so much Teddy!’
Without thought for his own safety Theo hurls himself toward Kat and wraps his arms around her, “Nothing will ever take you from me, I promise. Not this Awakening and not the Darkswarn.” He focuses and grants Kat his healing factor. Almost immediately, Kat’s form relaxes in his arms.
‘What if I hurt you? Take it back, I’ll be fine. I think the worst is over.’ Kat’s shaky tone betrays her fear that he might do as she asks him to.
Theo shakes his head before summoning his golden scales. “You would never hurt me my love. The scales are just to set you at ease.”
‘Okay, I trust you.’ Kat mentally sighs, though her body is still streaming energy from every orifice.
Despite his earlier statements, Jin is in quite a bit of pain, the Water energy is attempting to erase the Fire energy on the outer boundaries of his room. Each time it happens he can feel the energy being destroyed. It feels like a bit of him is ripped away each time a portion of the energy is eradicated.
After around seven minutes the blue Water energy surges back toward Kat and she falls into Jin’s waiting arms. After he sets her down on the couch he passes out and slumps over the couch, his scales retract and reveal a body full of cuts and puncture wounds.
A scream escapes Kat’s lips before she clamps her hands over her mouth.
“Theo are you okay?” Kat shakes him and he doesn’t respond. She reaches over to his mouth to find him still breathing.
Don’t freak out, Kat. Think. Who can help him here? His grandmother could, but we haven’t been able to get in touch with her yet. What about Brigid? She can heal...I’ll call her!
“JEN, call Brigid, priority 1H.” Kat does all she can to remain calm.
Brigid’s voice cuts through Kat’s attempts at calming herself down. “Kat, who’s hurt?”
Priority 1H means that someone needs immediate medical attention, usually a healer, not a doctor.
“It’s Th-th-theo, he was trying to p-p-protect me,” Kat stutters.
“FROM WHAT!? Do I need to call in someone else for support? Was it Ebony!?” Brigid yells into the phone.
“I was Awakening like he did, but I couldn’t…where are you?” Kat’s tone shifts from scared to serious.
“I’m in the operations center doing paperwork, but that’s irrelevant. Where are you?” Brigid’s hands dance across a keyboard in the background.
Kat growls. “Where is Jolly?”
The keystrokes stop. “Upstairs, why? I’ll get him and head toward you. Sit tight.”
“No need, I’ll see you in a second,” Kat says as she ends the call with a gesture.
The slumped over form of Theo brings a tear to Kat’s eye. “Don’t worry my love, I’ll make sure you’re okay.” She stoops over and wraps her arms around Theo and focuses on Brigid intensely for a moment.
With a pop and a surge of purple energy Kat appears, clutching Theo’s form, on the floor of the Ops center of the FSA HQ. Above them looms Brigid as she was getting ready to run out of there.
“Get Jolly and show him this.” Kat drops the letter that was clutched in her left hand. With that she passes out on top of Theo.
“JEN, get Jolly here NOW,” Brigid says.
Less than a minute later Jolly is standing in the Ops center doorway in green silk pajamas with silver dragons on them.
“Is it safe to heal them?” Brigid asks while pacing. “Oh, and Kat said to show you this.” She throws the letter through the air like a frisbee.
Catching the letter, Jolly whistles. “If I’m right, I’m going to be taking a bigger interest in this girl from now on. Yes it’s safe to heal her, she just burned out her mental energy supply. Leave Theo alone though. He just needs to sleep it off, he’s healing already.”
“Are you sure?” Brigid asks, obviously reluctant to believe Jolly. “She was sure he was in danger, even called in a 1H before teleporting here. I’m going to have to talk to her about that by the way, she didn’t even mention her ability to teleport to me. I could have put her in touch with a good teacher. That's some crazy range for someone with no training, she made it all the way from RSCA in one shot.”
The chuckle from Jolly makes Brigid growl, “Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll take them up to my suite with me. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they recover.” He waves his hands at Brigid. “It’s 3 a.m., you’re working too hard, go home.”
“I wouldn’t have to work so hard if you didn’t disappear for weeks at a time,” Brigid retorts as she picks up some papers and starts reviewing them.
“That’s an order, go home. In fact, you’re on mandatory leave until after Labor Day weekend,” Jolly’s tone lacks its usual flippancy, he is dead serious. “I can’t have my best worker burn herself out. Take the teleport pad anywhere you want after you go and sleep. I expect
plenty of pictures as proof of your coming vacation.”
“What about the paperwork? If I’m not here…” Brigid starts before Joly cuts her off.
“Do you take me for an idiot? I can do paperwork, I just don’t like to. If that’s what it takes to get you to lighten up? I’ll do all the damn paperwork for the whole RSCHQ until you return, in triplicate.” Jolly’s eyes sparkle mischievously. “Don’t test me Betty. Enjoy your well earned vacation.”
With that Jolly picks Theo and Kat up gently, one over each shoulder, and walks to the elevator,.“Good night Betty, safe travels.”
Brigid, or Betty, slumps into her chair holding her head in her hands. “Where am I going to go? I haven’t taken a vacation in almost 10 years....I know! I’ll ask Professor Tenzi, she travels all over...she must have some great vacation spots picked out.”
Chapter 53: Recovering in Style
Theo wakes up with a splitting headache, Kat held tightly in his arms. They’re lying in their underclothes on a bed covered in silver satin sheets. Despite the fact that Theo can see Kat’s rings and earrings on the dresser, he's still wearing the ruby pendant he brought back from his Awakening.
Theo pulses out his tremorsense and his suspicions are confirmed.
We’re in Jolly’s apartment, his bedroom if I’m right. Kat’s breathing on my chest, safe and sound as far as I can tell. I wonder how long we’ve been here?
Quietly Theo says, “JEN, call Jolly, volume minimum.”
The phone rings once and then Jolly lives up to his name as he answers, “Sleeping beauty! Glad to see you have your faculties about you again. The little girl you fell in love with, she’s something else, she teleported you from RSCA to HQ. With no external power source or use of tech, she’s remarkable.” He sounds genuinely impressed.
Theo stares down at Kat, held tightly in his arms, and marvels at how something so beautiful can be so strong. “That she is, she’s one of a kind. I have a few questions if you have a moment to talk,” Theo runs his hand through Kat’s long brown hair, marveling at how soft it feels.
Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls] Page 27