Chapter 6

By: Fidget

A/N: Yeah, I know it's been forever. Sorry about that. I think I just couldn't stand writing any more of Tempest's awkward attempts at catching Fidget's attention. Plus, there was all this S4 stuff going on for ReBoot... So anyway, I'm sorry, and I hope you enjoy this as an apology.

Alex, Grinder and Rikki had tried to go back to a regular life. A new camera-woman had been appointed, a scrawny, freckled girl named Darla who was overly excited about her new job. She had taken a bit to Grinder (taken a bit in the sense of growing on him), who's never-ending patience was put to the test with his new appendage. Rikki and Alex often exchanged pitying glances at her ignorant statements. Life had changed, and it was time to accept it.

Rikki found Alex in the kitchen area one day about two months after Fidget's fall and leaned casually against a cupboard door. Alex continued in his activities of stirring something until Rikki's persistent silence drew his attention.

"What's up, Rik?"

"Oh, nothing much," Rikki replied casually. "Say, Alex," He added too suddenly for it to be a revelation. "I had an idea. They never found her body, right?"

Alex eyed him again, suspicious. "Right..." He agreed slowly.

"So, maybe that one thing that happened to you happened to her."

Now, Alex was definitely curious. "What thing, Rikki?"

"Well, you know, that one time when you fell on X's blimp. Maybe she fell on his blimp and was okay!"

"Rikki, don't you think we would have gotten some sort of threat from X by now if that were the case?" Alex held his friend's shoulders as Rikki looked about to crumple.

"Well, yeah. But maybe...maybe he doesn't know she's there, either!"

"Rikki-"

"No, but think about it! Maybe she's been hiding out this entire time! Alex, I think we should go and see!"

"Rikki! You're just getting excited chasing wild geese. Calm down and look at the real deal here. You're getting your hopes up."

Rikki looked back and forth, literally searching for an answer. "It's not me, it's...Vinnie!" He grabbed the disgruntled reptile off the table and held him up in Alex's face. "Alex, I'm worried about him. He's taking the loss very hard, he hasn't been himself since!"

Vinnie yawned, blinked, and tasted the air.

Alex pushed Rikki's hands down. "Rikki, you need some help."

Rikki tossed Vinnie down on to the table again, the latter making a anxious noise as he flew. Rikki grabbed Alex's shoulders and looked very serious. "Just say we can go in there. I'll go with you! Alex, I could never live with myself if I thought she was in there and we didn't help."

Alex sighed. "Fine. But I really think this is crazy, Rik. If it'll help you, I'll do it."

Rikki smiled, and grabbed Alex around the arms in a hug. "Thank you!"

"Uh, no problem."

*

Fidget had become almost accustomed to her new home, and her new 'team'. Asazi had somewhat lost her venomous edge and accepted Fidget as much as she had accepted anyone else. Verbal battles took place often, but they were nearly in good humor. Tempest had begun to train a somewhat reluctant Fidget to use her newfound powers when and how she wanted to.

"Ya' know, I thought it'd be a little more difficult." She commented one day, looking over the lightning rod he had loaned her. It was too large and heavy for her to use effectively, she had to wield the steel pole with both hands to aim it. If I were in a fight, I would probably just club someone with it, she thought, a mental image springing into her head.

The most difficult part had been learning to not use her full force of electrocution. She hadn't wanted to be trained to efficiency in her power because of the pain it brought, but Tempest had explained to her how to avoid it.

"Your body isn't built to handle large amounts of electricity. Neither is mine. It's just the way we're composed. True, the strange effects of our mutation has equipped us to stand a higher voltage than the normal human, but for whatever reason, we can conduct energy faster from the storm than we can really handle. At any rate, the flickering skin is a side effect of too high a voltage. When you or I get feelings of strong emotion, we summon energy from the storm. We can do it on purpose, too, but it happens involuntarily. If you don't check yourself, it goes too fast through you, you get too much voltage and it causes pain. Get it?"

Fidget blinked. "Uh, I think."

Tempest sighed. "Good." He walked off for a moment, and she threw a few crackles of electricity at the wall. When he returned, he was holding two smaller staffs. He held them out to her, and she set his on the table and took them. "I got these for you. You looked a little unbalanced with just one bigger one."

She looked down at her odd little gifts. "Um, thanks." She held them up, experimentally swinging them around and pointing them at various objects without firing. Tempest watched her approvingly. While spinning 180 degrees, she stepped on the back hem of her pants and slipped, sitting down hard. She sat, stunned, for a moment before looking up and grinning at him. "Guess I should rest a little, then." She said, and carried herself and her new toys off to her room.

It was odd, the way she was embracing her powers like this. Such a short time ago, she would have run away and tried to forget they existed. Now...She looked at her gifts again. They reflected the light beautifully, casting odd shadows on the walls. As she stared at them, it occurred to her how she used these would put her definitely on one side or the other. If she fired on Asazi, Dr. X, or Tempest, she was the same old Fidget. If she fired on Alex or the others...

She dropped her lightning rods and frowned. Alex and the others. Were they really the 'good guys'? She had fallen down here, been trapped for more than a month. Nobody ever showed up to save her. They didn't care, didn't care at all! How could she have ever sided with them? Tempest was right; Alex was nothing but a jock, obsessed with the public’s view of him. As bad as Masters ever was. Well, she would give the public something to dislike him about...

She tingled with energy and took a deep breath. All she needed to do now was fry her radio, her only source of entertainment. A knock on her door startled her out of her thoughts.

"Uh, come in." she said, glancing around to make sure nothing embarrassing was out before realizing she didn't own anything embarrassing. The door opened and Tempest looked in.

"Um, hey." he said, leaning against the door handle. Fidget waited for it to snap off and wondered in the back of her mind how she would open her door without a handle. She decided not to risk it.

"Here, sit down." She scooted over and made room on the little cot, the only surface suitable for sitting or relaxing at all in the entire room. He did, and she pulled the door mostly closed behind him with her foot.

"I just wanted to tell you, you're doing a great job with your powers. You seem to have a natural talent for it." Tempest said lamely, smoothing her polyester sleeping bag with one hand.

Fidget rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks." She waited for him to say anything else, then snorted. "For god's sake, kid! Have you ever been attracted to anybody before in your entire pathetic life?!"

Tempest jerked and looked at her with wide eyes and a puzzled face. "I...uh..."

"I mean, you can't hide it properly, you can't show it properly! You're stuck in your own little dilemma. I can't stand your half-assed little attempts at conversation, so cut it out or get it right!"

Tempest stared. He took a breath as if to say something, but stopped with his mouth open and no sound coming out. Fidget grabbed his head in her hands suddenly and latched her mouth over his, intending to befuddle him and make him go away. But instead, he kissed her back, and his arms crept up her sides until he was holding her against him. She backed up a little, leaning her head against the back wall, and things may never have stopped if the nylon sleeping bag hadn't suddenly slid off and dumped them both violently on the floor. Fidget's eyes popped open and she stared at Tempest, who stared back with surprise and almost fear. She felt she needed to say something to win back her dignity.

"Well, then...get out of my room!" she said suddenly, waving an arm at the door. Tempest stared a moment longer.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me!" she yelled, frowning. "Leave!"

Tempest retreated, still looking horribly confused, and left Fidget sitting on the floor and rumpled sleeping bag, along in a former storage closet.