10:33 PM
Cranston Residence
Tommy has been observing Zack, Aisha and Rocky engage in a vigorous pillow fight. Billy left for the kitchen a few minutes ago and Adam has been standing near the door since they came in. Tommy’s eyebrows draw together, tension lines defining his face sharply. He clenches the armrests, trying to reconcile the exuberance in one part of the room with the gloom of his guilt and the dankness of Adam’s tightly clenched pain. He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up into a pair of familiar, soft-blue eyes.
“Is it something you want to talk about?” Billy asks quietly, very familiar with his leader’s moods after all this time. ‘If Tommy isn’t exercising his guilt muscle with a thousand pound weight, then I am a prima ballerina.’ He chuckles internally and turns his attention back to his friend. Tommy’s brown eyes are projecting a whole spectrum of emotions, all of which Billy refuses to decipher.
“I think I’ve done enough talking for today,” Tommy replies, smiling mirthlessly. Billy narrows his eyes and does a quick check of the room. Adam’s stiffly held form seems to spark something in him and Tommy leans back, away from all the possible guesses the genius could make.
“Well, well, well,” Billy says, wincing. “I’m not going to push you, but whatever happened, work it out.” He straightens up and walks over to sit in Rocky’s former seat, determined to enjoy the view. A second later a pillow hits him in the side of the neck.
“Told ya I was going to pay you back,” Zack yells, vainly trying to protect himself from Aisha. Billy snickers and barrels into the tangle of bodies on the couch. Tommy allows a tiny smile to soften his lips before tamping all wisps of amusement down, determined to punish himself. He looks back at Adam, who is striding out into the hallway briskly.
Adam unlatches the door to the basement stairs and descends down into the dark space. He clicks on the light and finds Billy’s secret entrance into a tiny hideaway. Before he can close the door behind himself, he is stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
“Adam…” Tommy chokes out his name, his voice vacillating between tight control and rough emotion. Adam doesn’t respond, just stares intently into his teammate’s face. “I’m sorry.” Still, Adam doesn’t react in any way. Tommy drops his hand off his shoulder and backs away to allow his, possibly former, friend his space. “I never meant any of it. I swear.”
“Not now.” The door slams behind Adam’s limber form. Tommy sighs in defeat and climbs back up to the main level. He enters the living room hesitantly, having heard the pillow fight all the way from the basement. His caution goes un-rewarded as a pillow thunks into his chest. This time, he does not allow himself even a hint of a smile and simply tosses it back into the tussle. Rocky catches it and bashes Zack over the head. Tommy sits down in a corner, back ramrod-straight, eyes closed.
~*~
Time Unknown
The Path
Phaedos
Katherine Jayne Hillard allows herself one last look at her companion, knowing it may be the last time she will see her alive. Kim has jumped over the hedge and is yelling at the Beast, using words that she probably shouldn’t even know. Then again, teenagers aren’t supposed to be saving the world from alien super-villains. Kat sucks her lips into her mouth, biting on them, and sneaks away to take her post at the meeting place.
Kimberly doesn’t dare to check if Kat is gone as she tries to force the Beast’s attention on herself. “Come on ugly, catch me if you can.” This final taunt reaches the creature and It comes barreling at her. She yelps and does a tight somersault straight over It, lands on her feet and sprints in the opposite direction from Kat. She hears Its grunting breaths behind her and forces herself to fall into a rhythm, trying to remember exactly what Trini taught her about long distance running. ‘Keep it steady, Kim. Increase speed slowly and never forget to breathe deeply.’ She obeys her friend’s phantom voice and slowly pushes her muscles faster. Her skin burns with exertion as well as fever and she tries to circle back around so that she can lead the Beast in the direction that she and Kat had chosen earlier. Her fists clench tightly, short nails digging into her callused, scratched-up palms. Her arms pump back and forth, mimicking her legs, and she is bent forward, allowing gravity to work for her. Her soles bleed within her ragged boots and the various scratches and gashes re-open, with new ones forming as she tries to pass through some dense shrubbery. The Beast roars behind her, Its frustration echoing for miles around. Sweat rolls over her forehead and drips into her left eye. She blinks frantically, trying to keep track of her location and direction as well as stop the burning in her eye. She plunges, half-blindly, into another patch of bushes, which turn out to be thorn. Kim keens like a wounded animal as the sharp points tear at her defenseless skin. She clutches her fists tighter and her heart beats like a small bird against the walls of its cage. The slow burn in her muscles becomes a throbbing fire and she can’t hold off the wild shriek that erupts from her throat. She can feel the creature’s heat behind her and vaults into the air, using a branch like one of the parallel bars, spins and lands smoothly, gaining a few feet again. ‘Breathe, Kim, breathe. You have to keep going.’ Trini’s phantom voice comes to her again and since she would do absolutely anything for her friends, she does as she is instructed. She breathes and she keeps on running.
~*~
10:47 PM California Time // 7:47 AM Geneva
Zack Taylor & Jason Scott’s Room
Trini watches the seconds shift on Zack’s alarm clock. The precise red digits morph smoothly and she is reminded of when he got it. It was a going away present from Billy, made especially by the genius for his friend, with two displays, one for Geneva time, the other for California. The alarm is special too. Billy had it programmed to play Eric Clapton’s ‘Layla,’ which was a favorite of the usually cheerful, young man since he had first heard it at a barbeque at Kimberly’s house. She smiles ruefully and hides her face in Jason’s shoulder.
They had been dashing all over the campus until a few hours ago, vainly searching for their stubborn and incredibly idiotic friend. His absence was an inescapable fact, but they continued to try and convince each other that he had simply gone out or something of the sort and would be back soon. However, by around 5AM, they finally saw the truth. Zack was on his way to California, if not already there. They climbed onto Jason’s bed and decided to wait for the inevitable phone call. Soon, Jason’s exhaustion caught up with him and he dozed off, unconsciously drawing Trini closer. She leaned onto his arm and stayed painfully awake.
The seconds continue to march on and on and finally she grabs his shoulder and shakes it.
“Huh? Hmm?” he slurs sleepily. She sighs tiredly and tugs on his t-shirt. He opens his eyes into tiny sits and peers at her with a bit of dismay. “What happened?”
“Let’s call them,” she asserts, quite forcefully. He frowns, raising a hand to rub his head, exacerbating his already tragic case of bed hair. She lightly bats his hand off his head and reaches for his shoulders, trying to get him to sit up.
“Trini,” he whines, “why are you trying to torture me?” She makes a face, her forehead wrinkling in frustration. He pouts slightly but as her eyes narrow in warning, he props himself up by an elbow and reaches for the phone. He passes it to her and collapses back onto the pillow with a quiet groan. She shoots him a baleful look and hits the speed-dial.
“Hello?” Zack’s voice comes on the line.
“Zachary Peter Taylor,” she grounds out, “I am very vexed with you. Why didn’t you tell us you were going directly against the team’s requests and flying home?” Jason shrinks back sluggishly. Trini’s tone may be mild, but when she’s mad, that mildness is dangerously deceptive.
“Hi Trini,” Zack replies nervously, noticing Billy nod knowingly and sympathetically out of the corner of his eye.
“Don’t you hi-Trini me,” she retorts quietly, “You’ve had Jason and me scouring every dark corner of the campus for you, worried that something had happened. How could you?”
“I’m sorry…?” he offers hesitantly.
“I’m really disappointed in you, Zack,” she adds softly, delivering the heavy artillery attack with pointed precision. Jason draws himself up, visibly more alert and very amused at Trini’s ‘parent-tone.’
“I really am sorry, sis,” Zack whispers, his left hand trying to choke the life out of the couch cushion. Trini’s disappointment is never a thing taken lightly. She can forgive almost anything, except when someone close to her does something she deems dishonorable.
“I know you are,” she says, “But this is something you have to fix on your own and a simple sorry really doesn’t cover it. You know that.”
“I know,” he replies, cringing.
“Everyone okay?,” Trini asks, after allowing a small pause to let Zack contemplate the consequences of his actions.
“More or less I guess.” He gives a short, almost humorless laugh. “As okay as we can be considering... well, just considering.”
Jason shivers as a small, pained look flitters over her face. He rarely sees Trini allow her emotions to become obvious. Trini leans back, her head resting on Jason’s side and her thick, dark hair spreads out over him. He tugs on a strand, hoping to distract her from her dark thoughts and grimaces, knowing that to do so he’d probably have to do something along the lines of dying his hair purple, putting on some clown costume and doing a somewhat true-to-life impression of the Lord of the Dance.
“Yeah…” she sighs. “Let me talk to Billy?”
“Sure,” Zack agrees. “Here he is.” He hands the phone to his blonde friend, who takes it, smiling a little.
“Greetings, Crimson-Vixen,” he utters, eager to hear Trini’s familiar voice. Aisha raises an eyebrow and bounces over to Zack to nudge him into explaining. He bats her hand away.
“Why hello, Fighter-Whip,” Trini replies, in a slightly catty tone, having quickly slipped into her alter-ego persona. Jason grins.
“Everything ok?” Billy checks, a wistful smile on his face.
“It is now that I hear your voice, darlin’. Thank you,” she purrs and hangs up. She beams in a satisfied manner and curls into Jason’s side, preparing to doze off.
~*~
Time Unknown
The Path
Phaedos
The burning feeling in Kimberly’s eye finally abated, but that only made the sharp stabbing pains in her torn-up skin all the more pronounced. She winces as she miscalculates a turn and bumps into a tree, jostling a large, bleeding cut. Her breath comes in short, uneven gasps, her second wind come and gone. She zips by the exotic scenery, unheeding of any of it. Her hair flops into her face as it suddenly comes undone. She growls in frustration and smacks it back, not able to spare even a moment to tie it. The Beast isn’t far behind, the heat of It permeating throughout the area. Its aggravated roars force a permanent frown onto Kim’s face, and she grunts as she feels her strength ebb lower and lower. If this task were only for her benefit, she’d have given up long ago, but it’s not and she doesn’t give up. She can never give up. Her right foot lands wrong and her ankle, already injured several times during her Pan Globals training, creaks, thudding pain flowing up into her calf. She yelps and continues rushing to the rendezvous point.
~*~
11:55 PM
Cranston Residence
Billy stares at the phone for a moment, pressing the off button, and puts it on the table. Aisha nudges Zack again and he grimaces.
“Ok fine, I’ll explain,” he says. “Crimson-Vixen is Trini’s superhero name from when we were kids. It was Kimberly’s idea. One day, she and Billy were walking from the park to my house and they were jumped by a couple of bullies. They got beat up and their lunch money was stolen, after the bullies emptied their back packs, destroyed some of Billy’s books and Kim’s art project. When they finally managed to get to my place, Billy was really upset and Kimberly was fighting-mad and frustrated. Well, she was upset too, but tried to hide it so that Billy wouldn’t get more distressed. Anyway, after Jason threatened to beat those kids up, Trini came up with some mean revenge ideas and I made Billy laugh a little, Kim had a brainstorm. She turned around and grabbed a stick off the ground and handed it to me and suggested that we form a team of superheroes to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Trini loved the idea and they roped the rest of us into going along with it.”
“Zack,” Billy interrupts, “Don’t lie. You were as enthralled by it as the rest of us.”
“Whatever, Billy-man,” Zack retorts, wrinkling his nose. “Anyway, we decided we would be called the ‘Fabulous Five.’” Rocky snickers. “I know, corny right? And then we came up with names and powers. Kim was Fire-Starter, and she could make fire flame from her hands. Trini was Crimson-Vixen and she could manipulate people’s minds, plus she was pretty mean with a sword. Billy was Fighter-Whip and he was lean, strong and had a magic whip. Jason was Midnight-Avenger and he looked a bit like a cowboy, a modern cowboy with big guns. Me, I was… well I was Lightning-Streak; sorta a mix between Flash and Storm from X-Men.”
“Why’d you call her that now, anyway?” Aisha asks Billy.
“Back then, everything was easy, we always got that happy end and nothing could beat our powers…” he recalls wistfully. “I guess I just wanted to recapture that feeling for a moment.” Zack pushes himself into a standing position and moves over to Billy. He lays his hand on Billy’s and gives him a small, tight smile. They lock eyes and sigh.
~*~
Time Unknown
The Path
Phaedos
Kimberly has been running for what feels like hours. A small strip of pink fabric winks at her from a bush and a rush of adrenaline floods her body. It’s the marker that is supposed to warn her that the trap is only about half a dozen feet away. She sprints, testing her muscles and gulps in the air greedily, preparing for the big finish. She catches sight of Kat’s blonde tail and then her face, as the other young woman winks in acknowledgement. Kim stops dead to allow the Beast to make up some distance. Kat’s face pales even further, her skin a bleached parchment color in spite of her tan. Its scorching presence gets close, very, very close. Kimberly shivers and time seems to move in slow motion as she bends her knees and tears off, her muscles flexing visibly. Step, breathe, step, breathe, step… She races over the next few feet and launches into the air, somersaulting once, twice, pink sparks crackling in the air around her.
Kat watches the Beast barrel after Kim’s tiny shape and tightens her grip on the rough, vine-rope until blood from her scratched palms starts to coat the uneven green surface of it. She panics and relaxes her hands, hoping the rope won’t become too slick to handle. The abrupt howl from the Beast jerks back her attention and she counts the seconds as It falls into a previously foliage-covered hole. She inhales sharply and pulls on the vine with all of her strength, allowing her body weight to work with gravity to assist her attempt. Something slips and a shower of large rocks smash into the hole after the Beast. The collision emits loud, creaking sounds of bones breaking and the slurp of the spikes piercing through flesh smoothly. That’s all she hears as a pink explosion ignites through the air and knocks into her.
Kim lands properly but is thrown back, on top of the already-motionless Kat, when the pink fire reaches her. It flames up and shoots out in one, concentrated direction, leaving the two warriors pale and unmoving on the ground.
~*~
11:55 PM
Unknown Location
The air ripples and the large book seems to blush for a moment. The hulking figure doesn’t notice, engrossed in deciphering a page-long paragraph. A tiny sigh flits just beyond the audible range.
~*~
Time Unknown
Dulcea’s Plateau
Phaedos
Dulcea holds herself frozen, staring at the two limp bodies sprawled on the ground. Her eyes are wide and her sight is obscured by the sheen of gathering tears. A strange pink fog catches the edge of her peripheral vision. She turns her head sharply, her hair flying back, and blinks repeatedly, trying to clear away the tears. Her left hand flutters up involuntarily as the fog coalesces slowly.