Alright! Here's chapter two! Ledian wrote the parts with the 'Bolts, so I can't take credit about those parts.
Chapter 2
Little kids. The bane of humanity sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, Katie was (or should I say, IS) a nice girl. Although at that age, they tend to....overreact.
Buffy was a pretty woman in general. From her floppy brown hair that seemed to be always in a ponytail in the back, to her soft hazel eyes, to the charming smile that seemed to be always on her face. She was what we would call a natural beauty, although she never relished in false admiration. Her favorite romps were with a good book not a handsome man; not like her twin, who was the mother of little Katie.
Holly was the sister of Buffy and was no less beautiful. Though when it comes to wit and restraint, Holly came in last. She was what Buffy liked to call a “lost cause”. For the knowledgeable person, Holly was like Crystal Arronfeld of the Starbolts used to be. They were of a like occupation; both were heroes and well, just leave it at that. Crystal however did not start out selling herself unlike Buffy’s twin sister.
Katie herself seemed to inherit the brown hair and hazel eyes from her mother, Holly, although whether her temperance came from her unknown father was not yet tested. Buffy wished with all her might that the girl would not follow the path of....Brothel girls. The careful aunt just did not want to lose her niece like how she lost her twin those years ago.
Buffy sighed as she heard the cries of her niece. The fretful girl had interrupted her reading. Katie meant well but little children often got the wrong impression; Buffy knew this but....The woman had been curled up in the comfy armchair with a copy of Gaston Leroux’s “Phantom of the Opera”. The light on the night stand was just so, just right for late night reading.
Although now, Buffy highly doubted that Katie would let her be. The girl would yell and yell ‘till she got her way. Katie’s aunt knew the girl was excited and worried, but the aunt herself felt no anxiety. Little children of Katie’s age tended to do that.
“Auntie! Auntie!”
Katie was a bundle of energy, aimed right at her aunt. The seven year old’s mind was set on one thing: panic! It was true some girls were calm at that age, but oh no! Not Katie! The girl would panic ‘till doomsday if Buffy did not do something!
“Katie,” the aunt with the frazzled nerves said. “Please be a dear and be quiet for a moment so I can think.”
Katie, however, would not calm down. Buffy’s head sank down to her rather large chest in defeat. She would check on Angela just to shut up Katie.
***
There’s something about chess...It’s about strategy, not beating your opponent senseless. This lesson I’ve learned many times....
The room was cold and dark. A single light shone on a map on the rough wooden table. The map seemed to be a map of a great city. Every building seemed to be drawn exactly to some unknown plan.
There should have been more than seven pieces on that map, but there wasn’t. It just made it more empty. A vast map with only seven pieces... Why just seven? There was not a plausible answer.
Each figure was different, each a model of a human being. Was this some sign of the future? Or maybe a game board of a cosmic being?
A hand, wrinkled with age, moved a piece into a building. It was a female figure, the hand laid it down on it’s side.
“Heh. They don’t know what’s wrong with you Acedia, eh? It’s odd, ain’t it? Heh, my game’s not done, Acedia. Hehehe.”
The hand moved towards another figure. “And you, Ira! Ha! You want to taste blood, eh? Well! You will, heh. You will, Ira.”
The voice was cracked and withered. It did not seem to belong to any one person. Who was the game master of this “game”?
***
Angela’s breathing was shallow. Buffy knew this when she leaned down over the woman. Katie yelped from the doorway. Buffy glared at her niece, this was no time for her childish whimpers.
“Angie” was clearly NOT dead but...Something was still odd about this. The awake woman leaned in close, putting an ear close to the mouth of the other woman. To check Angela’s breathing, of course. It was shallow but there. The pulse was erratic, there but it was not Buffy had suspected. It was odd and frightening.
“Katie, go to your room and stay there. I’ll be there in a moment.”
Katie glanced at her aunt nervously. She would do this, why? Mainly because little girls didn’t know very much and got frightened easily. “Why, Auntie Val?”
Buffy did not answer but just straightened up. She would not say, it was just too weird. The woman had little medical knowledge but she was sure that the pulse of a sleeping person was not that erratic.
“Katie, just do it. I believe the ‘Bolts need to be called.”
“The ‘Bolts? But Auntie Val...Prime won’t like it.”
“He’ll live.”
“Auntie Val...He’ll kill us all.”
“No...That’s M’anta who will kill us all.” Val replied sarcastically.
“He will? Is that blue skinned frog evil?”
“No.”
“Velvet says he is.”
“Katie....Velvet hates the Starbolts.”
“Why?”
“Because Velvet hates Jenna.”
“Why?”
“How should I know?”
“I don’t know, Auntie Val.”
“Oh, shut up will ya? I’m tryin’ to sleep!” Angela moaned.
“Ah! Angie’s back from the dead!”
With this comment, Katie ran screaming from the room. Buffy sighed. Katie just didn’t know her aunt could throw her voice. Good thing too, although the woman loved her niece, little girls could be so tiresome.
Valentine made her way to her room, almost running into Slowfire in the process and quickly sat at a videophone, a gift from the Starbolts that the Twilight Crew could use to maintain contact with the various heroes of Earth. After a quick dial, a blonde woman wearing a navy blue uniform with gold trim and a distinctive golden star-like insignia on her chest appeared on the screen flanked by a few of her teammates.
“Val?” The young woman asked. “What--?”
“Jenna, where’s Tk?” Valentine asked with a concerned tone in her voice. “Something…odd happened to Angela. We don’t know what’s wrong!”
“All right, calm down a sec. Tk, can you come here a second?” The Starbolts’ leader motioned off screen and soon a tall Japanese youth appeared.
“What’s going on?” Tk started. “Buffy, if Prime Gun has hurt Angela…so help me I’ll-“
“He doesn’t know I’m calling.” Buffy shook her head. “In fact, he and a few of the others are out. Angela was substitute teaching and when she came home, she went straight to bed.”
“How’s that odd?” Tk asked. “She probably-“
“Takashi, there was something erratic with her pulse.” Buffy interrupted. “It’s almost too slow. You and Kevin should get here quick because we don’t have the medical gear you have there. She’s become unbearably lethargic.”
Tk’s brow furrowed with concern as he looked to Jenna for a possible solution to the problem and in response, she smiled with compassion as she turned from him to Buffy. Jenna knew that the Twilighters were a good group despite being lead by a wrathful man and she decided that she’d send a few members of the team to Maxiville and tend to Angela Garvie.
“I’ll be sending Tk and Kevin to see if they can help.” Jenna began. “We’ll be in touch and hopefully Angela’ll come out of whatever’s causing her slowness.”
“Thanks, Jenna.” Buffy smiled as she ended the transmission.
***
After the transmission ended, Jenna turned to Tk once again, who was joined by a brown haired man with red ocular implants named Kevin, a man with a large pair of blue and white wings named Mateo and his wife, Aquita. Aquita, unlike the others was an alien with light-blue skin, webbed hands and emerald hair. She was the princess of her world, Aquarius and she and Mateo had just returned from their honeymoon.
“Jenna, give us the fastest shuttle you can find.” Tk clenched his fists. “We need to get to Maxiville!”
“Tk, it’s going to be all right.” Kevin reassured his friend.
“We’ll get one of the jets ready but I’m thinking you and Kevin should take back up.” Jenna explained. “If the situation worsens, we’ll need someone else to help the Twilighters.”
“So, who’s going to go?” Mateo asked. “I mean ‘Quita and I just got back from our honeymoon and all.”
“Angela still needs our help and some of the others are on a mission with M’anta.” Aquita explained. “If it’s okay, maybe the two of us should go with Tk and Kevin.”
“’Quita, you’re gonna have to take it easy.” Mateo explained. “I mean, you could lay the egg soon.”
“I know but I should be okay.” Aquita rubbed her belly. “Little Sirak’ll be just fine for a while. Besides, what could happen in Maxiville?”
“I guess you’re right, but I’m going with you to provide back up if needed.” Mateo hugged his wife.
“Then it’s settled, Agents.” Jenna nodded. “Get to Maxiville and help the Twilighters with Angela.”
“Angela better be okay.” Tk’s fists tensed.
The quartet made their way from the war room of their headquarters to an elevator, which lead to the hangar and soon the four heroes would arrive in Maxiville to see what the trouble with Angela was. As Kevin prepared to launch the jet, Tk thought about his girlfriend as he took the window seat. The small four person craft would reach the city within hours but for Takashi, that was too long.
***
Jonathan usually didn’t hang around football players. They weren’t his type, normally. But the two broad shouldered twins at the booth were special. They were called Leon and Phillip Kringe. Both of them had the distinct floppy brown hair cut to their shoulders, strong jutting chin and lazy green eyes.
Phillip had glanced up at the track star; Leon was too busy playing with some loose change to notice. The glance soon turned into a glare. Jonathan shrugged it off and sat down beside his friends. This was their normal meeting place, the local ice cream parlor.
“So glad you could come,” growled Phillip as his eyes roved around the parlor. Jonathan shrugged, he was feeling too good to get down. Leon finally noticed Jonathan and stopped playing with the money.
“I’m not paying,” said Leon in a matter of fact tone. “I’d rather keep my money today.”
Jonathan raised his hands to his face in a shrugging gesture. “Don’t worry fellas,” he said. “I got it all planned. Leon wants a chocolate cone, Phillip wants a vanilla, and I get the butterscotch sundae. Like normal. I pay.”
Leon nodded, it was always the same. Been the same since their freshman year. “Nah,” interrupted Phillip. “Today I WANT a butterscotch. See those two over there? They have one. I want one. No, I NEED one!”
Leon sighed deeply. He didn’t want to pay the extra but his twin would insist. “Hey, pal,” Leon said to Jonathan. “We can get the extra if you pay. I...want to save my money.”
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders. “Fine with me. Right, Phillip?”
Phillip was glaring at a couple across the parlor. His skin had a slight greenish tint to it but the other boys either didn’t notice or just didn’t care..
***
“So lemme get it straight. Angie goes in, slips into some sort of COMA, then you call the idiotic “Starbolts”. Does no one ask me?!!! I own the place and I can kick you all out!”
Buffy sighed. Helen Atlas (A.K.A. Velvet) was a strong woman alright. Same age as Jenna (leader of the Starbolts), Helen was the complete opposite.
Helen looked older than she was, actually. Her face, once unmarked in her teenage days, was lined with sharp edges. Her brow was more furrowed with long contained hatred of the two people she hated most: Jenna and herself. The long black hair that normally was hanging loose was kept in a tight ponytail, Helen’s emerald green eyes were glaring at Buffy, her elegant eyebrows tightened in her frustration.
Buffy had calmly explained to Helen the situation at hand. Helen, as usual, overreacted. “Helen, calm down. They ought to be here in a couple hours. Gun might come in here anyways.”
Buffy’s response made Helen even more angry. She went for the watch that she always wore underneath the sleeve of her shirt. “I think that wouldn’t be a good idea, fighting that is.”
It was Prime Gun, the slightly insane leader of the Twilight Crew. He was a tall man with the grace of a large cat. His rust colored hair always covered his cold hazel eyes; a rust colored goatee covered his chin. Gun always dressed like a cowboy for his own reasons. Today it was a red flannel shirt and blue jeans.
“Helen,” he said in his calculating voice. “We all know of your hatred of the ‘Bolts. Angela is the problem.” Gun sighed and leaned against the wall, running a hand through his hair. “A coma is serious stuff. I haven’t heard of anything like this, I haven’t done anything medical so how would I know?”
Helen growled and stomped out of the living room. Buffy glanced at Gun. The man shrugged his skinny shoulders. The woman slumped into a couch. “Gun...You know it’s not just some coma. Angela is in fit condition.”
The leader nodded. “You can read people like books, can’t you? You are indeed clever, Buffy.”
Buffy blushed slightly. She didn’t know Gun to give comments out like that. “You old windbag, don’t get my hopes up!”
***
(Earlier)
The line for lunch was very long that day. Maria was in the back of it, carrying her purse. The other teenagers in front of her were talking annoyingly. Maria was small boned and many people jostled her out of their way.
One teenager, a rather brash wide shouldered senior, shoved her aside roughly. Maria turned around to face him. “Broad,” the senior said warning her. “Ah don’t wanna hurt ya but if that’s what it takes, I swear, I will hurt ya. Bad.”
This teenager had a reputation as a bully. Maria could feel her heart beating fast. “I don’t want to fight,” she said softly. “Please, forgive me.”
The teenager harshly laughed, he didn’t care about this little girl that much. Maria gripped her purse tight, ready to swing it. By now a small crowd of students had surrounded them.
Maria gulped. Then felt angry. Really angry. More angry than she felt before, it scared her. “No,” she growled. “You want a fight? Then you got one!”
It was really out of character for what she did next. The purse connected to the bully’s cheek; he stumbled back into the crowd and regained his balance. He moved a hand over where the purse hit him. “That’s it, broad. Ya gonna get it now! HURUGH!”
The fight would have continued if the rather large lunch lady hadn’t stepped in-between the two teenagers. Maria gave a little smirk but she was still angry. And she didn’t know why.
***
“Really, I’m like so hungry!”
That was what Bridget had said when the freshman cheerleader asked her why she grabbed the sundae so fast. An older cheerleader shut up the freshman with a glare. They would not argue with the HEAD cheerleader.
The cheerleaders had gathered in the local ice cream parlor after school. Bridget’s treat for a good game the week before. A red headed sophmore cheerleader rubbed a bit of cream from her cheek. “Really Bridget,” she said disgusted. “Chew with your mouth CLOSED! Like, that’s totally gross, anyways!”
“Daniel’s got a point,” piped up the freshman who asked before. “Like, totally! Chew with your mouth shut!”
Bridget did stop eating. The head cheerleader set her spoon carefully down and glared at the two other cheerleaders. “No. I am, like, terribly hungry! G-E-T-Y-O-U-R-O-W-N!”
The two rowdy cheerleaders backed down and went to another booth quickly. They would not face the angry head cheerleader when she was eating. Whoever said all cheerleaders were dumb didn’t meet these two.
***
Sam had watched the fight between Maria and the bully with mild interest as he ate his lunch. Billy, as always, was right there with him. “Maria sure got an arm on her,” piped up Billy.
The sophmore ignored him and continued watching the fight. More correct, he was watching Maria’s lower region. Sam didn’t know why he did, but...It just felt right watching that butt. And when the lunch lady broke it up...Sam caught him staring right at her chest area.
Billy did a boyish giggle and the older brother glared at him. He had far more important things to do. Like have fantasies about women. And girls. And any female around him. A cheerleader who was passing by caught his attention. This one had the reputation of wearing the lowest cut shirts aloud.
“Bro,” Billy said disgustedly. “You are drooling over my lunch!”
So that’s where this chapter ends of this tale. What happens next, you ask. Just wait. Let me catch my breath.
