Episode 70: A Sparkling Gem
It was unbelievable. Impossible. Unthinkable.
Emma was ahead on her homework. For a while now, she'd been splitting into two bodies to get things done quicker whenever Beryl wasn't around, and that had been exactly what happened the night before. So now everything was done! She then spent a little time experimenting with her powers, just playing and relaxing, went to bed and did even more of the former until Amory showed up. Now it felt like she was out of things she needed to do, tired of everything in her apartment that she wanted to do, and...ready to go out and get some new things to do.
The only problem with that was that today was a Saturday, so there
were no classes, no scheduling obligations to force her
outside. Neither she nor Amory had said anything about a second date
lately, and...she was feeling too nervous right now to make the first
move on that. Besides, in its own weird sort of way...what they'd
done together the past couple of nights was a better form of being
together than just going to a restaurant and talking for a
while or something. It didn't mean she didn't want to go
somewhere with him in the waking world, soon, but...it also didn't
really remedy her present problem.
She'd already slept as much as she was going to sleep, and she didn't
want to pace around her apartment any more this morning. Only after
Emma was halfway out to her car did she really begin to think of
where she was going to go in it. That was: There was no
telling when today's monsters were going to show up. That new vixen
was definitely a student, so maybe lived in the apartment complex or
on campus or something; that meant that between Light and her, this
area was probably protected enough. But Mr. Nelson...Ning was almost
certainly in his shop with his granddaughter, alone (as far as people
with superpowers went). He'd offered the day before to have them
meet, too. So she stopped awkwardly in the middle of the hallway to
fire off some texts to check whether that was okay. He took a long
moment to answer, which could be for any number of reasons, but
seemed to generally agree with the plan. Good! Especially since...she
was already most of way to the car, and it'd be kind of awkward to go
right back to her apartment from there.
As soon as he was finished eating breakfast, Clark got up and went
back to the living room. Not done herself, but curious, Rory leaned
over to get a view of him through the doorway—digging through the
contents of a bookshelf. Said contents didn't exactly look like
books; more like some kind of thin boxes for holding something? She
felt an unaccountable association between them and the big screen in
the living room that was...probably relevant.
After a little while, her curiosity got the better of her. "Um,
what're you looking for in there?"
"Well." He turned half-around toward her. "I thought it might be time to get out the big guns." When this obviously confused her, he continued: "Rowan thinks that, ah, very emotional memories are the easiest to get back. Maybe, the key to getting everything back. And I know, in here somewhere, is a DVD of our wedding ceremony. The whole thing, from start to finish. It's just, ah, we've never actually pulled it out since we moved in, so..."
"Well." He turned half-around toward her. "I thought it might be time to get out the big guns." When this obviously confused her, he continued: "Rowan thinks that, ah, very emotional memories are the easiest to get back. Maybe, the key to getting everything back. And I know, in here somewhere, is a DVD of our wedding ceremony. The whole thing, from start to finish. It's just, ah, we've never actually pulled it out since we moved in, so..."
One of Rory's ears folded down. "...Isn't it in the bottom
left?" Why did she know that?
"Hmm." He knelt over to try that area. "Oh! So it is," he said, pulling out a particular not-book (DVD, she guessed) with a triumphant expression. "You must've remembered!"
"Yes, but. I don't actually know what that thing is?" she said.
"Hmm." He knelt over to try that area. "Oh! So it is," he said, pulling out a particular not-book (DVD, she guessed) with a triumphant expression. "You must've remembered!"
"Yes, but. I don't actually know what that thing is?" she said.
"Ah, er. I'll explain it first. And go on and finish eating
before that!" he said, waving to her while going over toward the
screen—reinforcing her impression that they were related.
"Lessee here. Hmm..." Zeno hummed softly, thinking
about making a wall of light without actually making one. "..Yah!"
Finally, it went up: A thicker, stronger wall than her usual sort,
vertically placed straight in front of her. "Hit it."
"Sure." Hugo came up and punched hard into the wall, making
a spiderweb of cracks form centered on her fist—but the wall held.
"Hm, lookit that," she said, rubbing her knuckles with the
other hand. "Don't look like it could take two, but.."
"Yeah, you'd go straight through a normal one." It was almost unbelievable that such a simple trick had been missed, by everyone, until their 'test subject' stumbled face-first into it just by virtue of how he thought magic would work in the first place. She dismissed the shield then, clapping her hands. "Well, I've gotta go. My other job's got something urgent coming up today." Rowan had asked everyone to try it out at least once, and most had some measure of success. Tora could 'jump' farther and faster, Fay could make a bigger, longer-lasting explosion...Hugo here, of course, had always been able to make sound-blasts in varying intensity, but reported making a stronger one to be much less effort this way. Too bad they didn't realize how generally applicable the concept was the day before.
"Yeah, you'd go straight through a normal one." It was almost unbelievable that such a simple trick had been missed, by everyone, until their 'test subject' stumbled face-first into it just by virtue of how he thought magic would work in the first place. She dismissed the shield then, clapping her hands. "Well, I've gotta go. My other job's got something urgent coming up today." Rowan had asked everyone to try it out at least once, and most had some measure of success. Tora could 'jump' farther and faster, Fay could make a bigger, longer-lasting explosion...Hugo here, of course, had always been able to make sound-blasts in varying intensity, but reported making a stronger one to be much less effort this way. Too bad they didn't realize how generally applicable the concept was the day before.
"Sure. I got somethin' to do, too," she said.
The one to realize it was Gemma, reportedly. Not everyone knew that,
but of course Zeno was privy to things Rowan sent upstairs that were
then deeemed to be pertinent to the research department. Maybe it was
time to reach out to the person whose power let her literally
examine magic with a job offer or something. Plus (oops, a pun,
ha ha), she was supposed to be visiting later today. The research
heads needed to request a brief audience, if nothing else.
Dr. Brand had been hard at work on their second prototype. He wanted
to isolate the traits in a "key" and/or its user that would
result in a fox-girl form (or even fox-man, for that matter), in
hopes of developing something else and finding a third
test subject which, together, would produce powers devoid of that
particular trait. That meant they were eventually going to try and
make a second "artificial" vixen, this time on purpose. He
was also, possibly, overworking himself a bit, which was part of why
his partner-in-crime wanted to get back to their office so soon.
Maybe Ezekiel could do the heavy lifting for a while. And
maybe—hopefully—today's attack wouldn't be so exhausting
that he collapsed into a coma in his chair for half of the afternoon.
Amory got up around the same time as his roommate, and even though
each of them was making his own breakfast this morning, they still
just sort of wound up sitting at the tiny little kitchen table across
from each other. "So, uh, how'd last night go?" Blake said.
"Just fine. Turns out the dream-space translates for us, at
least between English and Japanese. No reason I think it would fail
for any other language pairing." He paused to take a sip
of juice. "Plus, Emma learned Shuriken's power."
"Sure-ickenz power," Blake repeated blindly. "...Oh, the, Tenpo's partner," he said after a second, waving vaguely, to which Amory nodded. He'd been trying to pay a little more attention to the news himself lately, but was still only vaugely aware of the vixen-related goings-on in other countries. "...Wait, I thought our powers didn't work in the dreams."
"Sure-ickenz power," Blake repeated blindly. "...Oh, the, Tenpo's partner," he said after a second, waving vaguely, to which Amory nodded. He'd been trying to pay a little more attention to the news himself lately, but was still only vaugely aware of the vixen-related goings-on in other countries. "...Wait, I thought our powers didn't work in the dreams."
Amory squinted for a second, thinking that couldn't be right.
His power certainly worked; Emma's did last night and the
night before and...wait. She'd specifically said it didn't
work the night before that. "Night before last, Emma was using
her powers just fine," he said. "But..not the night before
that? So the rules must've changed for some reason."
"I'm guessing nobody can attack anyone else, still."
"Rrright. She could throw a thing at a wall though...hm. The
other thing about night before last that was different from before
was, she was able to go there on purpose, without my help. But she
didn't even seem to notice that her powers suddenly working
was a new thing."
"Let's be fair," Blake said, "missing a detail like that really isn't out of character."
"Let's be fair," Blake said, "missing a detail like that really isn't out of character."
"..Eeh, yeah, I guess it isn't. Well, if she made up the
rules for that place then I guess she can change those rules when she
wants, huh."
After a moment of silent agreement, he continued: "So what I was
gonna say, though, is that apparently she isn't the only
person who can adapt her weapon to look other ways. And Rowan said
sh...he'd spread the whole 'channeling' idea around to the rest of
the VI."
"Hmmn. Guess I should try it, huh?"
"Yeah, but. Rowan couldn't do it. Said something about how everyone's powers have different degrees of 'flexibility', and maybe the same thing is true for the weapons?"
"Yeah, but. Rowan couldn't do it. Said something about how everyone's powers have different degrees of 'flexibility', and maybe the same thing is true for the weapons?"
"Let's check." Without so much as a second thought, Blake
spoke the phrase to turn into Light—giving Amory just enough time
to recognize what was being said and shield his eyes from the
resulting blinding flash—and formed her sword, holding it out to
one side where the tip nearly touched the wall. She spun it around
slowly until it was upright in her hand, then squinted at it. It
faded in and out of visible existence for a moment before stabilizing
back to the same form it always had. "...No good. Maybe I spend
all my 'flexibility' using the 'magic' creatively," she
suggested—and then immediately turned back.
"To be fair, you can do some crazy stuff with it already,
like make a bunch of copies...at least while 'powered up',"
Amory said. "And I know I've seen you taking advantage of
the ability to make it vanish and reappear to pull off some moves
nobody could do with a normal sword."
"Yeah." Blake went back to eating.
"Yeah." Blake went back to eating.
"Magus wanted to know what we're all doing today," he said
after a while.
"Yeah? Wha'd you tell her?"
"Yeah? Wha'd you tell her?"
"The truth, more or less. I'm staying at home to catch up on
work. Just wait for the alarm and go to the closest reported
mist-thing." He shrugged. "She said she'd try calling the
VI later today asking about finding us a 'home base'. Or, more like
asked whether that was okay. I said that's fine, maybe ask Dr. Quinn
to do it if she's not sure she's the right person to make that kinda
request."
"Dude, you think he'd want to do that? Prolly still busy trying
to help his wife remember who she is," Amory said—keenly
feeling the surreality of seeing the confident, overbearing professor
he knew acting so hesitant and uncertain for the past two days.
Blake just shrugged again. "I was half-awake and didn't really
think about it before I sent it. To..be honest, I was thinking about
her like she was still..." He shook his head.
"But you just said 'Dr. Quinn' in the text?"
"Yeah. So, not a complete disaster at least. He's still 'more of an adult' than any of us, right?"
"Guess so."
"Yeah. So, not a complete disaster at least. He's still 'more of an adult' than any of us, right?"
"Guess so."
"Look, I solemnly swear that I will test it out in my backyard.
Pick up a large pile of dirt or something," Simon said into the
phone. "Pleeease. This is one of only two days a week
that I promised I would spend doing my original job instead of
hanging around the VI all day. Fine, fine. Yes, okay. I'll be ready,
don't worry at all about that." The conversation over, he
placed the phone on a tiny table next to him with somewhat more force
than was strictly necessary.
"Now dear...I just overheard you making a promise," Karis
said, walking into the upstairs studio with two cups of coffee in
hand. "Might I ask what it's about?"
"Caffeine!" He rushed to take the one that wasn't hers off her hands. "Oh, just some new technique they've worked out." He took a long, loud sip while waving his free hand dismissively. "Charge up your magic attack by thinking about it longer. Bigger effects cheaper. Pfft, like I ever get tired in the first place."
"Caffeine!" He rushed to take the one that wasn't hers off her hands. "Oh, just some new technique they've worked out." He took a long, loud sip while waving his free hand dismissively. "Charge up your magic attack by thinking about it longer. Bigger effects cheaper. Pfft, like I ever get tired in the first place."
"You might, if you ever stopped drowning yourself in espresso.
Which you still haven't said 'thank you' for, by-the-way," she
said cheerfully.
"Thank you," he said, not insincerely but certainly
perfunctorily. "Anyway, what does 'stronger' even mean
for my powers? I pick up big rocks and concrete effortlessly all the
time, it's my thing. I mean, did you see me two days
ago?"
"Nevertheless, you do have a job to do," she pointed
out.
"I have lots of jobs to do right here!" he said,
waving around his studio in a sweeping motion, at twelve paintings
all in varying stages of completion, plus a stack of photos piled on
top of one of the little end tables in the room. "About half of
the reborn let me take photos, I'm still not done with
everyone from our own home base, and I've started getting commissions
from the out-of-town teams. Besides some obligations I took on before
becoming PR consultant for the world's first organization of actual
superheroes." Halfway into this rant he began pacing, coffee in
hand, over to one of them, lifting a brush with his free hand and
dipping it in the paint at the same time as taking another big sip of
the coffee.
"Pffheheh," Karis half-chuckled; this manic sort of energy
he had was part of what attracted her to him in the first place.
"Careful dear, you're gonna choke doing that. Or spill your
drink on a painting."
"I'd be tempted to make an experimental technique of it, if I
didn't need the caffeine in my body," he replied, setting the
drink down anyway. "Don't you have some papers to grade or
something?"
"Astoundingly, I still do not take my work home over the
weekend," she said. "But you're right, I do have
some binge-watching to catch up on."
Karis headed back to the doorway, stopping to turn and wave goodbye. "You go on painting, then, dear—just don't get so caught up in it you miss the auditory bat-signal."
"I would never!" he said, turning dramatically toward her with the brush raised high in the air like a hero's sword.
"And test the charge-up thing! You promised!" she said as a parting shot, ducking out to the stairwell before he could retaliate.
Karis headed back to the doorway, stopping to turn and wave goodbye. "You go on painting, then, dear—just don't get so caught up in it you miss the auditory bat-signal."
"I would never!" he said, turning dramatically toward her with the brush raised high in the air like a hero's sword.
"And test the charge-up thing! You promised!" she said as a parting shot, ducking out to the stairwell before he could retaliate.
Nico knocked on the door to Rowan's office—though it was already
open—and he waved her in. "Uh, hey boss."
"I told everyone not to call me that yesterday."
"Oh, sorry. Anyway, just ah, wanted to let you know I got back safely. Reporting in, and all that."
"Thank you. You probably could've just sent some messages once you got home."
"Yes, but, I like the personal touch of conversation. Anyway, I'm sorry I wasn't here for what went down yesterday."
"I told everyone not to call me that yesterday."
"Oh, sorry. Anyway, just ah, wanted to let you know I got back safely. Reporting in, and all that."
"Thank you. You probably could've just sent some messages once you got home."
"Yes, but, I like the personal touch of conversation. Anyway, I'm sorry I wasn't here for what went down yesterday."
He waved it off. "If anyone has a right to the occasional
vacation day, it's us. You only had one father."
"Y-yeah," she nodded, getting briefly misty-eyed and sniffing. Something about the way he said it brought some of the emotion from the funeral rushing back for a second or two.
"Y-yeah," she nodded, getting briefly misty-eyed and sniffing. Something about the way he said it brought some of the emotion from the funeral rushing back for a second or two.
After waiting long enough for her to compose herself, he said, "Have
you seen the messages I sent out this morning?"
"Mm-hm," she nodded. "That's, kinda another thing I wanted to talk about real quick. See, uh, concentrating for a longer period is already what my power does. Like that's how I make bigger trees and stuff. I guess I just thought that made sense, 'cause..plants, like normal ones, need lots of time and patience and care to grow. I've never tried 'forcing' a tree to grow faster, it'd just feel wrong."
"Mm-hm," she nodded. "That's, kinda another thing I wanted to talk about real quick. See, uh, concentrating for a longer period is already what my power does. Like that's how I make bigger trees and stuff. I guess I just thought that made sense, 'cause..plants, like normal ones, need lots of time and patience and care to grow. I've never tried 'forcing' a tree to grow faster, it'd just feel wrong."
He nodded. "That's good to know. You might still try it, if you
get into another desperate situation."
"Heh, yeah. Anyway—this was my first stop back in town.
Hubby's waiting at home and all, sooo."
"Go on ahead. I think it'll be obvious when you're needed
today," he said.
"Yyyep, always is. See ya!"
It was hard to decide what to watch.
Clark hadn't watched the video of their ceremony himself in years,
and there were a lot of little details and things that he'd more or
less completely forgotten about. On the other hand, there was Rory's
face, shifting between complex and hard-to-read expressions that had
to each be somewhere between recognizing things she didn't expect to
and trying very hard to actually remember them, with a hint of
emotions brought on by the half-memory and the sight of the event.
It hadn't been a terribly elaborate ceremony; Rory obviously wasn't
the "spend a fortune on the perfect wedding" sort of bride.
She was more the "long, semi-expensive honeymoon" sort,
actually. But Clark's family insisted on some bells and
whistles, and her mother had been willing to 'give the bride away',
so to speak. After only a little while, they were almost to the
wedding vows—something the two of them had composed for themselves
instead of repeating the same things everyone else did. But this was
when the shows—both of them—were interrupted by a loud alarm from
Clark's phone.
He instinctively went for the remote to pause it, if only because
they were missing the audio from the bit the alarm blared over. But
he looked at Rory once the video was paused, and she returned a look
that echoed some of the worry he was feeling. "It can wait,"
she assured him, "just a little bit? I wanna know if everyone's
okay, too."
"...All right," he said after a moment, switching everything back over to where they could see the news.
"...All right," he said after a moment, switching everything back over to where they could see the news.
Mr. Nelson's store was busy for the first time Emma had seen. Maybe a
lot of his customers were the kinds of people who had day jobs, so
their shopping time was when they were off work—generally later in
the afternoon than she usually came, or the weekend, as it was now.
Aside from that, the main thing she noticed in the store's window was
a prominent sign that hadn't been there the day before: "Help
Wanted". What that meant was...either he'd figured out a way to
afford someone, or...
Well, there was no point standing around outside speculating. She
came in and looked around absently on the way to the front counter,
watching people carefully picking out fruits and vegetables,
examining some of the more exotic groceries...normal stuff, mostly.
His granddaughter wasn't in sight though; she'd thought the little
girl might be sitting next to him at the counter or something.
"Oh, you're finally here," he said once she came close.
"Here, lemme show you the stock room." He made kind of a
sweeping wave after carefully standing up, indicating she should
follow him toward the back. He opened the door to let her through and
paused to half-jokingly tell everyone, "Camera's watching, so
don't steal nothin' while I'm in the back!" This got a couple of
chuckles from people who Emma suspected to be his regular; he seemed
to trust those onece to seriously prevent theft for that brief moment
he couldn't watch things.
After the door was shut, he said, "She's back here watchin' TV.
Anyone asks, though, you came lookin' for a job but the scheduling
didn't work out."
"Um..oh! Okay," she nodded, realizing that he'd needed to come up with some kind of plausible explanation for why he was showing a random college student the back of the store. While she was busy figuring that out, Gerald strode ahead of her and turned a corner into a small side room which the noise of some cartoon playing was coming from.
"Um..oh! Okay," she nodded, realizing that he'd needed to come up with some kind of plausible explanation for why he was showing a random college student the back of the store. While she was busy figuring that out, Gerald strode ahead of her and turned a corner into a small side room which the noise of some cartoon playing was coming from.
"Nadia dear, I'd like you to meet someone." She followed
him in to find a small girl sitting cross-legged on top of a folding
chair. In response, Nadia turned/climbed around so her arms were
wrapped halfway around the back of the chair to face both of them.
"This is Emma," he continued, waving her way.
"Hi Emma!" she said brightly, putting up a hand at her.
Emma smiled back, coming up to gently take it in the palm of her own
somewhat larger hand.
"Hey there. I really like your hair," she said cheerfully.
If there was one kind of person she actually knew how to talk to, it
was little kids.
"Yeah, it's pretty, right? Ning did it for me," she said,
half-looking toward her grandfather. "Oh, are you like
Amp?"
"Uh..like who now?" She wasn't sure exactly how many secrets this...what, ten or eleven year old?...could be permanently trusted with.
"Uh..like who now?" She wasn't sure exactly how many secrets this...what, ten or eleven year old?...could be permanently trusted with.
"Amp! One of Ning's friends. She's gotta big floofy tail,"
she said, spreading her hands apart wide to indicate the size.
"Well, d'you see a tail on me?" Emma said, putting a hand on her hip.
"Well, d'you see a tail on me?" Emma said, putting a hand on her hip.
"Noo, but you must be another of grampa's new friends, right? I
can keep a secret," she said.
"Well, uh." She looked toward Mr. Nelson uncertainly; he
didn't seem to be bothered by any of this. "I dunno about
'friend', we've only met a few times. Buuut, 'friendly acquaintance',
maybe?"
"What's 'ack wait ence'?" she said, pronouncing each syllable in turn like it really was a made-up word.
"Oh, that's someone you've only met once or twice, I guess?
Like, a possible future friend," she said.
"Oh."
After visibly thinking about it for a long moment, Nadia said, "Emma, you wanna be my ack-waitence?"
"Heheh, sure! You seem nice enough to me."
"You seem nice enough to me, too! Ack-waitences!" she said excitedly, putting a fist up toward Emma. She returned the little girl's fist-bump, still giggling at the whole thing for the moment.
After visibly thinking about it for a long moment, Nadia said, "Emma, you wanna be my ack-waitence?"
"Heheh, sure! You seem nice enough to me."
"You seem nice enough to me, too! Ack-waitences!" she said excitedly, putting a fist up toward Emma. She returned the little girl's fist-bump, still giggling at the whole thing for the moment.
After this, they started back toward the front. "See what I
mean?" Mr. Nelson said. "Veerry smart for her age."
"Super sweet, too. Most of the kids I've dealt with have way more of an attitude," Emma said.
"You gotta watch her sometimes, though. Can get pretty rambunctious at times." Despite this warning, he was positively glowing at the secondhand praise.
"Super sweet, too. Most of the kids I've dealt with have way more of an attitude," Emma said.
"You gotta watch her sometimes, though. Can get pretty rambunctious at times." Despite this warning, he was positively glowing at the secondhand praise.
This moment was interrupted by Emma's phone playing, at a relatively
low volume, the VI's alarm for a monster attack—echoed by some
louder alarms from customer phones just outside. Seeing that Mr.
Nelson had an expectant look on his face, she got her phone out
quickly to look. "There's one—uh. Right outside?" she
said, turning the screen toward him to show.
He nodded, and spoke quickly: "Tell Nadia to shut and lock the
door 'till I come, and run out the back to the alley to change,
there's no cameras there. I'll tell everyone to evacuate that way
too, so be quick." The front of the store had big display
windows, making it not a very safe place to wait around during the
fight. "Got it!" she nodded, turning to go and do that.
In which I try to patch up a couple of continuity errors I noticed while going back through things. Namely: (1) Where the heck was Nico during "The Swarm", and (2) As mentioned here, nobody could use their powers in the dream-space originally, but then suddenly they could. If I wanted to go back and make major changes to previous episodes, I would probably just add Nico to Zeno and Hugo's team (which would of course require rewriting the parts showing their fight some), and maybe remove the "no using your power in dream" rule. Arguably, though, one reason it was originally in effect was to obfuscate the fact that nobody can hit anyone else in the dream-space, especially not the Giver.
Anyway, the title is a callback of sorts to Episode 20. Nice to get one more light-hearted episode out while we set things up for some action sequences coming up next.
Anyway, the title is a callback of sorts to Episode 20. Nice to get one more light-hearted episode out while we set things up for some action sequences coming up next.
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