Post by Kay-El on Mar 24, 2016 0:12:37 GMT
Heavyweights ON
The small bedroom she shared with Nana offered comfort after the long day in the Spinach Wastes she’d had. Kay-El Coliflo had a lot to think about after meeting her brother for the first time. After all that time looking forward to it, it finally happened. He didn’t meet or fall short of her expectations. Having known almost nothing about him, he was perfect the way he was, she just hoped he’d accept her, too. She lay down and wished for sleep. It eluded her these days, plaguing her with nightmares of her last morning on Shilkk. When she finally did fall asleep, she didn’t even realize, slipping into the vast dreamscape.
Eyes screwed shut, the dream began around her. Loud noises made her open those dark orbs of midnight blue curiously and she saw her home as she’d left it: under attack and mostly on fire. Arcosians came for them just like they did for her father so long ago. True, her father’s death a year a half prior to the attack happened far away, but this still felt related even if it wasn’t. Another explosion rocked the world around her and she shook with it, rolling to avoid flying debris that landed on the grass where her face used to be.
At first she struggles to even rise and then a war zone erupts around her. “I found one!” a gruff voice said and she looked up, surprised to find herself face to face with a nameless Arcosian. She didn’t remember actually running into any Arcosians during the attack, but she pictured them often enough since and the stuff of her nightmares came to life in the dream. The thing aimed a hand in her direction and a beam came out of it. Kay rolled out of the way as it singed her shirt. Jumping up, she made a run for it. Even though she knew the dream messed with her reality and everything she saw had to be fake, it didn’t help her see through it. All she saw, heard, smelled, touched and felt immersed her completely.
Wings sprouted from the tattoo-like image on her back and the five year old took to the air, dodging attacks for the most part, searching the area for a good place to hide. And then she thought of the cave. She couldn’t make a beeline for it, she needed to lose her pursuers first, she reasoned. Checking behind her three still gave chase to the hybrid and she bit her lower lip, diving down and around a sharp turn. The streets of her town were as familiar to her as the webbing between her fingers and even here they hadn’t changed one bit. Well, except for some of it being in ruins, but mostly it remained the same.
And energy ball hit a wall of stone as she passed it by and she looked back, almost flying into another wall as a result. Just run, she thought. If you look back, you’re done for! She swerved out of the way, another blast of energy striking her arm. Kay flinched but kept moving, checking behind her only after she left the sounds of war far behind her. Out over the ocean, she either lost them or they considered her not worth the chase. Either way, she doubled back towards the little cave on the shoreline which witnessed her birth.
In reality, she tossed and turned on the bed, unable to wake no matter how hard she tried inside her head. Adrenaline spiked as she searched for a way to safety. Running from her problems, not the best solution, but it worked in the past, right? The mouth of the cave welcomed her with darkness and walls of stone naturally made by the ocean’s weathering. If she expected solitude in her cave, Kay-El looked up at the surprising sound of footsteps approaching.
Mary, the Shikkian woman who worked in their kitchen, walked toward her at a shuffling, dragging pace. Her normally heat-reddened skin from exertion and heat from the ovens and stoves was as pale now as Kay saw it lying on the floor of the hallway as she fled. “How could you leave like that? How could you let me die?”
“I, uh…” Kay stuttered, watching as Mary stepped closer and closer. With each step, more features came into focus. The flat, glassy eyes as she saw them staring open in eternal surprise at death’s face. “It wasn’t...not my fault,” she whispered, taking a step back.
“You lied to me that morning, you weren’t going on a picnic - you needed all that food because you knew the strike was coming and you wanted to run away. Without warning any of us. This is all your fault, all your fault.” Mary’s voice took on an echo in the cave, her words drilling into Kay’s head over and over until it was all she could hear. “How could you look me in the eyes and lie to me about something like that?”
“I didn’t know!” Kay screamed, tears forming unshed in those big, dark eyes. Suddenly she remembered the bedroom and that this had to be a dream; she shuddered. “You’re not real, you’re not real, you’re not real,” she chanted over and over and over again as Mary stepped closer with each passing moment.
“Not real?” Mary stalked toward her, a hand raised and Kay noticed the weapon in it for the first time. Until now, with her hands at her sides, the large kitchen knife hidden behind folds of Mary’s skirt went invisible to Kay’s eyes. Besides, Mary’s supposed pseudo resurrection consumed all of Kay’s attention. And then the lady took a swing at her and all Kay managed was another dodge. How could she attack Mary? Mary, the same woman who always greeted everyone with a smile and a kind word and never uttered a nasty one about anyone. Mary who never hurt a fly now raised a knife against someone she once spoke to in friendship. “I’ll show you not real,” Mary whispered, now close enough a hard breath might make them touch.
Kay-El screamed, a bone-chilling, high-pitched scream of a terrified five year old girl, and ran for it as the blade swung down again. This time it nicked her arm and fresh blood welled in a shallow cut. Kay-El took to the air, knowing Mary lacked that skill. But the dream only mimicked real life so far - after all, this was meant to be a challenge, right? Mary flew into the air wielding that knife like she knew how to use it and that, more than anything, helped convince Kay-El that this wasn’t real.
Kay-El crossed her arms and touched each shoulder with the opposite hand. If this wasn’t real, then she could do what she wanted but still she couldn’t quite bring herself to actually hurt Mary. Putting the woman to sleep, though, that she could do. Kay began to sing, channeling her Ki through her voice in a soft, dreamy tone as she raised her hands up above her head, palms pressed together. When she opened her eyes Mary hesitated and then broke free of the spell, hurtling the knife straight at Kay-El. Kay went on the defensive again as Mary’s speed picked up to the point of the impossible. Kay focused on just surviving each attack, dodging and moving at near blurring speeds, herself.
Dodge, dodge, punch, dodge, kick, the fast paced battle raged on and Kay moved through the small cave like she had somewhere to be or something to prove. Mary kept hard on her tail and Kay knew deep inside that Mary wouldn’t hurt her or attack her or be able to fly and move like this, it was the dream making her think and feel these things, but still her heart ached at the thought. Mary who packed her a veritable feast before she’d left the woman, and so many others, to die in that attack. No, Kay hadn’t known the attack would happen but she still felt like she should have done more to save them somehow instead of running away like a coward. Nana told her she wasn’t cowardly when they spoke together at length about their abrupt departure, but Kay-El struggled to accept Nana’s version of the truth sometimes.
When she thought no one was looking, she let herself cry just a little. Remembering home hurt enough without the added imagery of its destruction and Kay-El definitely felt the least emotion she ever thought she’d feel about her home on Shikk: homesickness. Like a hole in her heart, or gut, Shikk had its faults but was still home. In the end, she’d grown accustomed to its monotony and sameness. Yes, having wound up on Earth instead of her intended destination of Namek was jarring, to say the least but now she was here and she’d found Pin by happy accident, she loved everything about it. In fact, if she could go gallivanting across the galaxies that would be just fine with her, the travel bug struck her hard now.
Although she hadn’t had a chance to tell him yet, she would soon. As her half-brother he had a right to know. She just wanted to take his measure, first, to soak it all in before she risked making a fool of herself.
Thinking of Pin, she zoomed faster through the cave and started to sing, channeling her Ki through her voice so fast she started to vibrate with it. She had to get stronger, had to impress Pin and everyone else that looked at her and only saw a weak little girl, a five year old with something to prove. And Kay did have something to prove, not just to others but to herself, as well.
Putting on a sudden burst of speed, she moved so fast while channeling her Ki she left an afterimage of herself behind, completely dodging Mary. Surprised, Kay stopped and turned to face her opponent who looked equally surprised. Well, that was new, she thought and when Mary charged, she did it again, leaving behind that blurred image once more and excaping completely unharmed. And just as Kay smiled a little triumphantly, Mary said those eight words that made chills run down her spine all over again.
“You didn’t think I came alone, did you?” From seemingly out of nowhere, the others appeared. She recognized most just in passing but the one that stood out the most from the newcomers was Grady, dead and glaring at her like he blamed her, too. Grady, their butler, who looked after ever since she was born in this very cave. He helped her blood mother, the Saiyan witch Kay-El hoped she never met for her ‘mother’s’ sake, to give birth to Kay and then brought the kicking and screaming baby up to the Coliflo holdings because he knew the two wanted a child of their own and couldn’t have one. Kay knew now that it all got planned out by someone else, but still Grady didn’t know that and just did what he thought was best because he’d always been that kind of person.
Five in total, she sped off and tried to hit one, but they dodged and she almost hit a wall. Managing to stop just in time, she turned and they all faced her, hovering in a row across the cave from her. “Why did you leave us?” Grady asked, and another said. “We loved you, we always cared about you and looked after you…” Kay recognized her as one of the maids, feeling bad for not recalling more of their names - maybe that was why they’d come calling. Because she knew so little about them, it hurt more somehow, and the two she’d cared most about aside from Nana gathered, too. A hot mess of a mix of feelings brewed and stewed inside her small body and her shoulders shook with the effort of holding back both anger and tears and, yes, grief.
Grief over everyone she lost that day which, strangely enough, included some lingering innocence in herself. With everything going on, she hardly had a chance to grieve and when the feelings did pop up she leaned towards distraction to rid herself of them. The faces haunted her at night, of course, and she slept little as a result these days. But faced with them here and now her chest felt tight and it got harder and harder to breathe. Was the air thinner in here or was that her imagination? Probably her imagination...it did tend to get the better of her a lot.
They pressed closer, talking in that weird, echoing way of theirs and Kay-El backed up until she hit a wall, heart thudding in her chest so hard she feared it was trying to escape. “How could you,” they repeated over and over and over again until she lowered to the ground before she realized it. Huddled in on herself, eyes shiny with tears and more making fresh tracks down her cheeks, Kay looked up at them all and cringed. How was she supposed to defeat all of them when she could barely fend off just one before? Five felt like five too many in that moment and they crept even closer, whispering their dire words that cut deeper than any sword.
“We were under attack, we needed you, we needed your protection just like we protected you all those years,” Grady said and the others echoed the words. Like a strange game of copycat whenever someone said something, the others repeated it with vigor. Their expressions, grimmer than Kay-El ever saw them in life, stared down at her from above.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she rocked back and forth repeating it like a broken record. Her whole body trembled from a cold that didn’t exist, a bone-deep, inner cold that began at the heart of the problem. “No, no, no, no please, please don’t, I didn’t...it’s not my fault I’m so sorry…” Her voice came out barely more than a whisper as they huddled ever closer, leering down and throwing insults and grief in her face with their words of acid. Come to think of it, being fed acid might actually be better than this, instead she found herself pleading and crawling, begging for forgiveness on her knees.
Something broke inside of her but it also felt like freedom and forgiveness all at once. The things Nana said, they all made sense. She didn’t let anyone down and what happened to them wasn’t her fault. She found herself mumbling all of this, that if she stayed she might have ended up nothing more than a corpse, herself. If she stayed she’d never have found Pin to tell him about herself, to learn about him, to join his White List Operation and potentially see more of the world than her little corner of Shikk ever provided. “Just leave me alone!” she screamed.
Silence fell for a brief few seconds as they stared at her and fire replace the cold, an anger so hot it burned at her very core. Rising up, she put her feet to the wall and flew, barreling towards the nearest ghost. The maid, who shrieked and vanished in a puff of smoke. That was a bit too easy, she thought, and the others all screamed. And then they attacked and she dodged and punched, able to ignore their words now. The ghosts of her past could stay there, for all she cared; the lot consisted of angry, inner demons poking their ugly faces out in front of her. She finally saw them for what they were and dodged and attacked right back.
With her basic training, she’d learned from the best, she kicked and punched at them and let out all the suppressed grief and rage built up over the past few weeks out into the room. “You’re wrong!” Kay shouted into the face of one of the ghosts, punching him in the stomach. “It’s not my fault you died, and it’s not my fault I didn’t!” With a high kick, another went poof and Kay fell through it almost landing flat on her bum on the hard floor of stone.
She didn’t stay down long. Only three left, and of the three there was only one whose name she didn’t know. Someone she’d wave to and smile at, maybe even exchange pleasantries with back on Shikk, but she’d never learned his name. In all that time, she’d lived in solitude for much of it, and not because she’d wanted to. Her adoptive mother always kept strict tabs over those with whom Kay associated with even going to the extreme of sending any Pea Coliflo deemed unworthy off to the mines or other awful place if Kay got too close to them. After a while, she stayed away for their own good because making friends only led to heartbreak for her and potentially worse for them.
The three rushed her again and she used her new dodge ability, skating around them and coming up behind Grady. A well-aimed kick to the back of his skull missed completely and she frowned, turning around as she sailed past them and fending off an attack from Mary. Like a light bulb turning on inside her head like in all those silly cartoons, inspiration struck and she fell back to the floor level. It didn’t take long until the three almost collided in an attempt to rush her once more, leaving them wide open for attack, especially the one she couldn’t remember the name of. Pushing up, one fist out, she rocketed at a new speed and landed one heck of an uppercut to the ghost’s jaw.
He turned into smoke upon contact, like the others, and then it was her, Grady and Mary left to fight. Two against one was a lot better than five to one, even if these two were the toughest. At least she took out the support, as Nana would say, because not being distracted by the other three would help her immensely now. The three hovered in the air, the air felt charged between them, before Kay began to sing.
Bringing her hands up and out, she held them in ‘gun’ positions and pointed them at Grady. The ghost fell to his knees mid-air, something Grady never could have done, and started to plead for his life. Well, he may have pleaded but he couldn't have floated like that. “No, I - I didn’t mean it, you’re a good kid and never would have done those thing.” Kay-El continued to sing but her concentration wavered as Grady begged her to spare him. Grady, who changed her diapers when she was small. Grady, the same Grady that always snuck her extra sweets under the table, foregoing them himself so he could give them to her at times. Grady, the very same man that taught her to swim while her adoptive father was away on business so she could surprise Wiz Coliflo for his birthday. That Grady died the day she left Shikk, she reminded herself, and then took her shot.
The ghost vanished into smoke and all that remained was her and Mary, much like how it began. Mary cackled, actually, wholeheartedly cackled in a way Kay never heard before. The sound was enough to make her forget her doubts about who they actually were, but it only lasted a moment before Mary charged and knocked Kay back with a punch to rival even one of her own. Her back hit the wall and it felt as though the cave itself shook upon impact.
Kay raised her arms and barely managed not to scream as Mary swung that knife at her again, the point of it digging deep into the wall as she barely dodged. The woman’s other hand connected as a fist against her stomach and a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her for just a moment. Kay-El pushed her away, slipping down and aimed a kick at Mary’s head which the ghost dodged.
If only her stun worked earlier. And then she frowned, wondering at the last time she’d stunned someone. Wondering if there was a way to boost the power she began to sing once more, tat slow lullaby and brought her hands above her head, palms pressed together again. Bringing them down until they sat in front of her chest, she poured everything she had into it, dark eyes focused on Mary as she channeled her Ki into a mighty stun. Letting the burst of energy go she looked up to see Mary disappear in a cloud of smoke.
Kay woke with a start, sweating through her sheets and looked over at Nana’s empty bed. Her afternoon nap hadn’t even been long enough that Nana came home from work yet. With a sigh, she got up and headed over to the shower. It seemed another distraction was in order, and maybe some attempts at mastering those techniques she dreamed of. Now, more than ever, she also wanted to tell Pin who she was. Shower, and then head to Pin, and maybe practice those techniques along the way...
The small bedroom she shared with Nana offered comfort after the long day in the Spinach Wastes she’d had. Kay-El Coliflo had a lot to think about after meeting her brother for the first time. After all that time looking forward to it, it finally happened. He didn’t meet or fall short of her expectations. Having known almost nothing about him, he was perfect the way he was, she just hoped he’d accept her, too. She lay down and wished for sleep. It eluded her these days, plaguing her with nightmares of her last morning on Shilkk. When she finally did fall asleep, she didn’t even realize, slipping into the vast dreamscape.
Eyes screwed shut, the dream began around her. Loud noises made her open those dark orbs of midnight blue curiously and she saw her home as she’d left it: under attack and mostly on fire. Arcosians came for them just like they did for her father so long ago. True, her father’s death a year a half prior to the attack happened far away, but this still felt related even if it wasn’t. Another explosion rocked the world around her and she shook with it, rolling to avoid flying debris that landed on the grass where her face used to be.
At first she struggles to even rise and then a war zone erupts around her. “I found one!” a gruff voice said and she looked up, surprised to find herself face to face with a nameless Arcosian. She didn’t remember actually running into any Arcosians during the attack, but she pictured them often enough since and the stuff of her nightmares came to life in the dream. The thing aimed a hand in her direction and a beam came out of it. Kay rolled out of the way as it singed her shirt. Jumping up, she made a run for it. Even though she knew the dream messed with her reality and everything she saw had to be fake, it didn’t help her see through it. All she saw, heard, smelled, touched and felt immersed her completely.
Wings sprouted from the tattoo-like image on her back and the five year old took to the air, dodging attacks for the most part, searching the area for a good place to hide. And then she thought of the cave. She couldn’t make a beeline for it, she needed to lose her pursuers first, she reasoned. Checking behind her three still gave chase to the hybrid and she bit her lower lip, diving down and around a sharp turn. The streets of her town were as familiar to her as the webbing between her fingers and even here they hadn’t changed one bit. Well, except for some of it being in ruins, but mostly it remained the same.
And energy ball hit a wall of stone as she passed it by and she looked back, almost flying into another wall as a result. Just run, she thought. If you look back, you’re done for! She swerved out of the way, another blast of energy striking her arm. Kay flinched but kept moving, checking behind her only after she left the sounds of war far behind her. Out over the ocean, she either lost them or they considered her not worth the chase. Either way, she doubled back towards the little cave on the shoreline which witnessed her birth.
In reality, she tossed and turned on the bed, unable to wake no matter how hard she tried inside her head. Adrenaline spiked as she searched for a way to safety. Running from her problems, not the best solution, but it worked in the past, right? The mouth of the cave welcomed her with darkness and walls of stone naturally made by the ocean’s weathering. If she expected solitude in her cave, Kay-El looked up at the surprising sound of footsteps approaching.
Mary, the Shikkian woman who worked in their kitchen, walked toward her at a shuffling, dragging pace. Her normally heat-reddened skin from exertion and heat from the ovens and stoves was as pale now as Kay saw it lying on the floor of the hallway as she fled. “How could you leave like that? How could you let me die?”
“I, uh…” Kay stuttered, watching as Mary stepped closer and closer. With each step, more features came into focus. The flat, glassy eyes as she saw them staring open in eternal surprise at death’s face. “It wasn’t...not my fault,” she whispered, taking a step back.
“You lied to me that morning, you weren’t going on a picnic - you needed all that food because you knew the strike was coming and you wanted to run away. Without warning any of us. This is all your fault, all your fault.” Mary’s voice took on an echo in the cave, her words drilling into Kay’s head over and over until it was all she could hear. “How could you look me in the eyes and lie to me about something like that?”
“I didn’t know!” Kay screamed, tears forming unshed in those big, dark eyes. Suddenly she remembered the bedroom and that this had to be a dream; she shuddered. “You’re not real, you’re not real, you’re not real,” she chanted over and over and over again as Mary stepped closer with each passing moment.
“Not real?” Mary stalked toward her, a hand raised and Kay noticed the weapon in it for the first time. Until now, with her hands at her sides, the large kitchen knife hidden behind folds of Mary’s skirt went invisible to Kay’s eyes. Besides, Mary’s supposed pseudo resurrection consumed all of Kay’s attention. And then the lady took a swing at her and all Kay managed was another dodge. How could she attack Mary? Mary, the same woman who always greeted everyone with a smile and a kind word and never uttered a nasty one about anyone. Mary who never hurt a fly now raised a knife against someone she once spoke to in friendship. “I’ll show you not real,” Mary whispered, now close enough a hard breath might make them touch.
Kay-El screamed, a bone-chilling, high-pitched scream of a terrified five year old girl, and ran for it as the blade swung down again. This time it nicked her arm and fresh blood welled in a shallow cut. Kay-El took to the air, knowing Mary lacked that skill. But the dream only mimicked real life so far - after all, this was meant to be a challenge, right? Mary flew into the air wielding that knife like she knew how to use it and that, more than anything, helped convince Kay-El that this wasn’t real.
Kay-El crossed her arms and touched each shoulder with the opposite hand. If this wasn’t real, then she could do what she wanted but still she couldn’t quite bring herself to actually hurt Mary. Putting the woman to sleep, though, that she could do. Kay began to sing, channeling her Ki through her voice in a soft, dreamy tone as she raised her hands up above her head, palms pressed together. When she opened her eyes Mary hesitated and then broke free of the spell, hurtling the knife straight at Kay-El. Kay went on the defensive again as Mary’s speed picked up to the point of the impossible. Kay focused on just surviving each attack, dodging and moving at near blurring speeds, herself.
Dodge, dodge, punch, dodge, kick, the fast paced battle raged on and Kay moved through the small cave like she had somewhere to be or something to prove. Mary kept hard on her tail and Kay knew deep inside that Mary wouldn’t hurt her or attack her or be able to fly and move like this, it was the dream making her think and feel these things, but still her heart ached at the thought. Mary who packed her a veritable feast before she’d left the woman, and so many others, to die in that attack. No, Kay hadn’t known the attack would happen but she still felt like she should have done more to save them somehow instead of running away like a coward. Nana told her she wasn’t cowardly when they spoke together at length about their abrupt departure, but Kay-El struggled to accept Nana’s version of the truth sometimes.
When she thought no one was looking, she let herself cry just a little. Remembering home hurt enough without the added imagery of its destruction and Kay-El definitely felt the least emotion she ever thought she’d feel about her home on Shikk: homesickness. Like a hole in her heart, or gut, Shikk had its faults but was still home. In the end, she’d grown accustomed to its monotony and sameness. Yes, having wound up on Earth instead of her intended destination of Namek was jarring, to say the least but now she was here and she’d found Pin by happy accident, she loved everything about it. In fact, if she could go gallivanting across the galaxies that would be just fine with her, the travel bug struck her hard now.
Although she hadn’t had a chance to tell him yet, she would soon. As her half-brother he had a right to know. She just wanted to take his measure, first, to soak it all in before she risked making a fool of herself.
Thinking of Pin, she zoomed faster through the cave and started to sing, channeling her Ki through her voice so fast she started to vibrate with it. She had to get stronger, had to impress Pin and everyone else that looked at her and only saw a weak little girl, a five year old with something to prove. And Kay did have something to prove, not just to others but to herself, as well.
Putting on a sudden burst of speed, she moved so fast while channeling her Ki she left an afterimage of herself behind, completely dodging Mary. Surprised, Kay stopped and turned to face her opponent who looked equally surprised. Well, that was new, she thought and when Mary charged, she did it again, leaving behind that blurred image once more and excaping completely unharmed. And just as Kay smiled a little triumphantly, Mary said those eight words that made chills run down her spine all over again.
“You didn’t think I came alone, did you?” From seemingly out of nowhere, the others appeared. She recognized most just in passing but the one that stood out the most from the newcomers was Grady, dead and glaring at her like he blamed her, too. Grady, their butler, who looked after ever since she was born in this very cave. He helped her blood mother, the Saiyan witch Kay-El hoped she never met for her ‘mother’s’ sake, to give birth to Kay and then brought the kicking and screaming baby up to the Coliflo holdings because he knew the two wanted a child of their own and couldn’t have one. Kay knew now that it all got planned out by someone else, but still Grady didn’t know that and just did what he thought was best because he’d always been that kind of person.
Five in total, she sped off and tried to hit one, but they dodged and she almost hit a wall. Managing to stop just in time, she turned and they all faced her, hovering in a row across the cave from her. “Why did you leave us?” Grady asked, and another said. “We loved you, we always cared about you and looked after you…” Kay recognized her as one of the maids, feeling bad for not recalling more of their names - maybe that was why they’d come calling. Because she knew so little about them, it hurt more somehow, and the two she’d cared most about aside from Nana gathered, too. A hot mess of a mix of feelings brewed and stewed inside her small body and her shoulders shook with the effort of holding back both anger and tears and, yes, grief.
Grief over everyone she lost that day which, strangely enough, included some lingering innocence in herself. With everything going on, she hardly had a chance to grieve and when the feelings did pop up she leaned towards distraction to rid herself of them. The faces haunted her at night, of course, and she slept little as a result these days. But faced with them here and now her chest felt tight and it got harder and harder to breathe. Was the air thinner in here or was that her imagination? Probably her imagination...it did tend to get the better of her a lot.
They pressed closer, talking in that weird, echoing way of theirs and Kay-El backed up until she hit a wall, heart thudding in her chest so hard she feared it was trying to escape. “How could you,” they repeated over and over and over again until she lowered to the ground before she realized it. Huddled in on herself, eyes shiny with tears and more making fresh tracks down her cheeks, Kay looked up at them all and cringed. How was she supposed to defeat all of them when she could barely fend off just one before? Five felt like five too many in that moment and they crept even closer, whispering their dire words that cut deeper than any sword.
“We were under attack, we needed you, we needed your protection just like we protected you all those years,” Grady said and the others echoed the words. Like a strange game of copycat whenever someone said something, the others repeated it with vigor. Their expressions, grimmer than Kay-El ever saw them in life, stared down at her from above.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she rocked back and forth repeating it like a broken record. Her whole body trembled from a cold that didn’t exist, a bone-deep, inner cold that began at the heart of the problem. “No, no, no, no please, please don’t, I didn’t...it’s not my fault I’m so sorry…” Her voice came out barely more than a whisper as they huddled ever closer, leering down and throwing insults and grief in her face with their words of acid. Come to think of it, being fed acid might actually be better than this, instead she found herself pleading and crawling, begging for forgiveness on her knees.
Something broke inside of her but it also felt like freedom and forgiveness all at once. The things Nana said, they all made sense. She didn’t let anyone down and what happened to them wasn’t her fault. She found herself mumbling all of this, that if she stayed she might have ended up nothing more than a corpse, herself. If she stayed she’d never have found Pin to tell him about herself, to learn about him, to join his White List Operation and potentially see more of the world than her little corner of Shikk ever provided. “Just leave me alone!” she screamed.
Silence fell for a brief few seconds as they stared at her and fire replace the cold, an anger so hot it burned at her very core. Rising up, she put her feet to the wall and flew, barreling towards the nearest ghost. The maid, who shrieked and vanished in a puff of smoke. That was a bit too easy, she thought, and the others all screamed. And then they attacked and she dodged and punched, able to ignore their words now. The ghosts of her past could stay there, for all she cared; the lot consisted of angry, inner demons poking their ugly faces out in front of her. She finally saw them for what they were and dodged and attacked right back.
With her basic training, she’d learned from the best, she kicked and punched at them and let out all the suppressed grief and rage built up over the past few weeks out into the room. “You’re wrong!” Kay shouted into the face of one of the ghosts, punching him in the stomach. “It’s not my fault you died, and it’s not my fault I didn’t!” With a high kick, another went poof and Kay fell through it almost landing flat on her bum on the hard floor of stone.
She didn’t stay down long. Only three left, and of the three there was only one whose name she didn’t know. Someone she’d wave to and smile at, maybe even exchange pleasantries with back on Shikk, but she’d never learned his name. In all that time, she’d lived in solitude for much of it, and not because she’d wanted to. Her adoptive mother always kept strict tabs over those with whom Kay associated with even going to the extreme of sending any Pea Coliflo deemed unworthy off to the mines or other awful place if Kay got too close to them. After a while, she stayed away for their own good because making friends only led to heartbreak for her and potentially worse for them.
The three rushed her again and she used her new dodge ability, skating around them and coming up behind Grady. A well-aimed kick to the back of his skull missed completely and she frowned, turning around as she sailed past them and fending off an attack from Mary. Like a light bulb turning on inside her head like in all those silly cartoons, inspiration struck and she fell back to the floor level. It didn’t take long until the three almost collided in an attempt to rush her once more, leaving them wide open for attack, especially the one she couldn’t remember the name of. Pushing up, one fist out, she rocketed at a new speed and landed one heck of an uppercut to the ghost’s jaw.
He turned into smoke upon contact, like the others, and then it was her, Grady and Mary left to fight. Two against one was a lot better than five to one, even if these two were the toughest. At least she took out the support, as Nana would say, because not being distracted by the other three would help her immensely now. The three hovered in the air, the air felt charged between them, before Kay began to sing.
Bringing her hands up and out, she held them in ‘gun’ positions and pointed them at Grady. The ghost fell to his knees mid-air, something Grady never could have done, and started to plead for his life. Well, he may have pleaded but he couldn't have floated like that. “No, I - I didn’t mean it, you’re a good kid and never would have done those thing.” Kay-El continued to sing but her concentration wavered as Grady begged her to spare him. Grady, who changed her diapers when she was small. Grady, the same Grady that always snuck her extra sweets under the table, foregoing them himself so he could give them to her at times. Grady, the very same man that taught her to swim while her adoptive father was away on business so she could surprise Wiz Coliflo for his birthday. That Grady died the day she left Shikk, she reminded herself, and then took her shot.
The ghost vanished into smoke and all that remained was her and Mary, much like how it began. Mary cackled, actually, wholeheartedly cackled in a way Kay never heard before. The sound was enough to make her forget her doubts about who they actually were, but it only lasted a moment before Mary charged and knocked Kay back with a punch to rival even one of her own. Her back hit the wall and it felt as though the cave itself shook upon impact.
Kay raised her arms and barely managed not to scream as Mary swung that knife at her again, the point of it digging deep into the wall as she barely dodged. The woman’s other hand connected as a fist against her stomach and a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her for just a moment. Kay-El pushed her away, slipping down and aimed a kick at Mary’s head which the ghost dodged.
If only her stun worked earlier. And then she frowned, wondering at the last time she’d stunned someone. Wondering if there was a way to boost the power she began to sing once more, tat slow lullaby and brought her hands above her head, palms pressed together again. Bringing them down until they sat in front of her chest, she poured everything she had into it, dark eyes focused on Mary as she channeled her Ki into a mighty stun. Letting the burst of energy go she looked up to see Mary disappear in a cloud of smoke.
Kay woke with a start, sweating through her sheets and looked over at Nana’s empty bed. Her afternoon nap hadn’t even been long enough that Nana came home from work yet. With a sigh, she got up and headed over to the shower. It seemed another distraction was in order, and maybe some attempts at mastering those techniques she dreamed of. Now, more than ever, she also wanted to tell Pin who she was. Shower, and then head to Pin, and maybe practice those techniques along the way...
