The Sound of Wind
Page 97
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Hugo knocked lightly on Crysta’s door. He knew she was up, he’d asked her to text him when she was. He wanted to get in the apology before she had a chance to talk to CJ. The door opened a crack, and then all the way with a smile. Crysta stepped out of the doorway, motioning him inside, “Come in.”
“How are you feeling?” Hugo pushed his hands into his pockets.
“Much better, thanks. What’s up?”
“Well…” Hugo glanced around the living room, chewing on his lip. Ok. Just explain and get it over with so she can be pissed at you, “Me and CJ went to see Thoth. And uh…well…in his weird, time-travellery way he’d already talked to you and knew you had abilities, and he may have mentioned it at some point while CJ was standing there and then I had to explain, and I’m really really sorry. I didn’t mean to, and after I promised. Please, I’m really sorry!”
Crysta stared at him, blank-faced for several moments as she tried to process the entire apology, and then she smiled a little, “It’s ok.”
“I’m really sorry!”
The doctor laughed, “Really, it’s ok. This kind of makes things easier for us, doesn’t it? I suppose I should tell Clem,” she grimaced slightly when she said that last bit.
Hugo decided to leave it, when he saw them together Crysta always looked just a tad uncomfortable. “I’m still sorry. I promised…” Crysta shook her head, lightly touching his hand. She was screaming his name. She was in a lab full of shattered equipment that shook as Vitaly strode towards her. The ceiling was raining, arcs of lightning scorching the ground. CJ was arching around as lightning, absorbing the bolts that reached for the crumpled woman. There was a large crater in the wall behind her, and he was limp in her arms. Dead. The inhibitor wasn’t strong enough. Hugo blinked a few times, clearing his vision. Crysta paused as if she were going to ask him what was wrong. He didn't want to talk about it. “Ok…everyone’s waiting for us. I should explain what happened, and Thoth got you a present.”
She raised her eyebrows, “Oh? What is it?”
“You’ll see. Come on.” Hugo opened the portal and they stepped through. CJ and Clem were already waiting at the table in the small conference room.
CJ jumped up, her eyes lighting up, “Dr. McFadden! Why didn’t you tell us you had abilities! They’re pretty cool too! You’re like a healy-Magneto!”
Crysta froze, her face instantly reddening, “I’m…well….I’m not evil. It’s not quite the same,” she responded haltingly. Hugo noticed that Clem didn't seem surprised by the information at all. It was possible that CJ had told him already, unable to contain her excitement, but he had a feeling the telepath had known already. Luckily Crysta didn’t seem to notice this lack of revelation on Clem’s part.
Crysta's embarrassment just seemed to encourage CJ, “Oh man, you would be sooooooooo awesome evil! All glaring and flinging cars and then healing someone so that you can fling more cars at them!” CJ shivered at her own imagery, taking delight in disturbing herself. “So why were you hiding your awesomeness anyway?”
Crysta looked at her hands, “It’s….complicated. I just felt I needed to do it.”
CJ pressed forward, “Why didn’t you tell us? We could have kept it a secret. We did that for Hugo’s…thing.”
“I…” Crysta trailed off.
Hugo quickly spoke to cover CJ’s next question, “Ok, let’s get down to business, we have a lot to go over.” Before CJ could object, Hugo started recounting the conversation they’d had with Thoth. CJ got caught up in that and quickly forgot her inquisition.
He paused for a moment when their recounting was done. When he spoke again, he tried to sound as casual as he could manage, “Oh, and Boris invited us to his birthday party.” Everyone did look genuinely surprised at that, “Well, actually, he invited me, and said I should bring three friends.”
Clem raised an eyebrow, “I see Boris has taken an interest in the Foundation,” he sounded remarkably proud of the idea.
Hugo threaded his hands together in his lap, “I’m concerned what the party is really about. I’m far from being a friend of his, so he must want us there to see or do something. I just haven’t worked out what that could be.”
Clem shrugged, “And I doubt we’ll know until we get there. So no point in worrying about that.”
Hugo chewed on his lip, “Yeah, I suppose that’s true. I guess it’s time for presents then.” Hugo opened a portal to his office and grabbed the two remaining bundles Thoth had given them.
Clem put on the gold necklace with a Celtic knot surrounding a drop of amber, before Hugo had time to explain what it did. He didn’t even put it under his shirt. He thought CJ was going to die from laughter.
Crysta stared down at the spear tip, her expression a mixture of shock and awe. She carefully folded the cloth around it once she’d seen enough.
“So what do we do now?” Clem asked, fingering his gift.
“I wanna test this thing out!” CJ nearly exploded with excitement. Hugo was a little surprised she’d been able to sit on it through the entire conversation. “Do you think they’ll let me go to the labs?”
“I’m pretty sure they’d be delighted,” Crysta responded with a small smile turning up the corners of her mouth.
“Wanna watch? It’s going to be awesome!”
“Sure,” Hugo said, curious as to how much of an increase in power the scepter gave her.
Clem brought them back on task, “Ok. So after that what are we going to do?”
“Well, if Crysta will help me, I want to work on a much stronger version of the inhibitor, I think we’re going to need it.” Hugo turned his attention to the doctor and she nodded her acceptance, “And then we wait for the party. I want to see what’s going on before we decide what to do.”
Clem shrugged, “Ok, I’m going to wrap up a few things here. You guys go on.”
The rest of them headed over to Gideon Enterprises. And while Hugo felt a little bad using their facility after they’d recently been attacked, the lab techs were happy to have CJ as a distraction. She destroyed their lab. All of the lightning rods they’d placed in the room to ground her turned to slag. Hugo had to put out the fires. CJ was pleased.