Chapter 6 Part 1
I made it to the stop, food in hand. A girl with a huge jacket, scarf covering her face, and curly hair waved at me.
Wow.
Panacea was actually harder to spot than I thought she would be. Especially without the taste of antiseptics.
We paired up and walked where she wanted to, getting off the end of the boardwalk and heading further south along the shore as much as we could. The shake didn't last me very long. Once we left the crowd of lunch-goers scouring the walk for places to eat, she got a lot more talkative.
"So, uh, I, uh, might have lied to you about my sister forgetting about what happened last night." She began.
Oh? I had to work to keep the smile off my face. She continued as we walked further south out of reach of the most busy parts of the city. Eventually, we came to some old docks. Probably a place the Ferry stopped before Leviathan began to show.
"Yeah, I told her you weren't exactly in the right mind, and that you thought you could take her on." a flicker of a smile on her lips, then, almost forcibly, she frowned.
A bench was there, so we sat down. I gave Panacea the bag and let her sort it out, handing me the receipt.
"She felt bad for you, Beast, so she was the one who called in and bought the food." She said, tearing off the receipt and handing it to me. I looked at it for a second and smiled while she looked down at the food and pulled it out.
"But, and this is a big but- she
did tell me she would be totally happy to
train and
lightly spar with a happy fan come Sunday night."
I was beaming as I lifted up the burger she indicated as mine. Triple decker cheeseburger.
Thank you so much, Panacea and Glory Girl.
"Said fan should beware that Panacea will be out of town that night and unable to help in case her sister gets a little rough."
We ate our burgers in silence for the next couple of minutes. So much better than that fast food crap. It was, oddly, the same Ketchup, but the onions were night and day. The bread still had some preservatives, but the high quality sesame seeds made the bread actually good. The salt in the air added a really unique flavor. It was awesome.
The fries were the classic potato wedges. Nothing super special and Panacea didn't want any.
When she was done with her burger, she looked at me, sizing me up. She was so small, so timid. Trying to hide in plain sight. Not a threat. A friend, a companion. Not worth agitating. Not worth eating, either.
"Thanks for coming out here to help me, Panacea."
"Please, call me Amy for now." she said.
"Oh. Well, thank you, Amy. I appreciate you letting me use your real name. I'm Madison, by the way."
"Thank you Madison. I'm glad we could talk in the hospital the other day, honestly. Even when you made my sister mad, you helped me realize things about myself I was subconsciously hiding."
The hunger was a slight pang for now, I could deal for the moment while we talked.
"You know, Amy, part of the reason why I attached to you so quickly there, was because you're kind of everything I've ever wanted to be."
She was frowning again.
"You know, the
ideal. Selflessly healing others while at your own risk all of the time. By that, I'm trying to say you're able to respond to problems in a way no one ever could, or ever will be able to. You're probably the first,
and last person to have that exact ability. And the principle of it you're trying to live is what's interesting. I love that about you, Panacea! You're
trying."
She wasn't looking at me any more, sitting on the bench while staring down at the decaying dock wood.
"Thank you, Madison. But I don't feel like I deserve the compliments. I don't want to do just healing any more. I'm bored and I'm frustrated, but I can't get away from it. There's always someone else to help. Always someone who needs to be healed."
"...And you hate yourself for it?"
She didn't respond, merely keeping quiet. I paused for a second, seeing if she would speak up.
"What would you do with your power if you never healed directly again?"
She thought for a second. "I'd probably be out creating viruses and killing people or something."
Not creative. Mental note: She's either healing people or killing them. Got it.
"What if you're not doing either?"
"I'd probably be dead."
Mental note: Needs therapist.
Badly.
Let's dial it back, then. I might be able to work with this.
She put her scarf back, covering her lower face again.
"Okay, Amy. Let's approach this differently. Remember the question you asked me at the hospital?"
"The one where I asked if it's possible for me to
not heal?"
"Right. While you're at hospitals Amy, have you noticed about the way they're run?"
"Like with managers and administration, or the doctors and nurses?"
The hunger subsided, but was coming back. I did need to use the restroom though.
"The doctors and nurses. There's EMT's who go out and do basic first aid, then bring the people in. Nurses who are slightly above which do stuff like change patient's clothes, set up rooms, keep the patients stable. Then there's doctors who are to handle the longer-term patients and prescribe medication. Then there's surgeons who handle the truly difficult cases."
"What does that have to do with me? My powers far surpass any of those positions."
"That's what I'm saying, Panacea. I realized while we were talking that your powers are meant for so much
more."
She was smiling now, and let out a sigh.
"That settles it."
Huh?
"Beast, I agree. I hate healing, I hate people, I hate my patients, I want to do so much more, it's
so boring, stuck in a hospital just pretending to be a doctor, a surgeon, a nurse. I'm none of those things! I'm done."
She was looking me in the eyes.
"Kill me." she said.
What?
"Please."
"No."
"I don't want to be a villain, but I-"
I cut her off with a light slap.
"You're totally missing the point! No wonder you're so frustrated!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah! You think that if you stop healing people you're
instantly a
villain?"
"But those people
need me. If I don't heal them..."
"FUCK THOSE PEOPLE, AMY! THIS ISN'T ABOUT THEM. THIS IS ABOUT YOU. IF YOU FUCKING KEEP HEALING PEOPLE YOU HATE, YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE."
She was stunned.
"You don't understand, Amy! Think about the number of people you've cured of some kind of disease that would have lasted them their entire lives. Now think about all the years of research ten minutes of you touching them and healing said people throws out the window! Here you are, running on empty, trying to keep going forward and saying that any, even the slightest deviation in the path, makes you a villain! You don't realize how wrong you are honey! You need to broaden your horizons a bit, babe."
It took a second before she spoke up.
"If I'm not healing people, my powers aren't really good for anything but being a villain though…"
"Not true, and you know it! You helped me get physical symmetry when my power hadn't."
"That's different..." she protested weakly.
"I'll give you that. It was a special case. How about your plan that brought us to the docks? What was the idea there?"
She shrugged. "I… I wanted to see if you could fish."
"...?"
She looked down, halfheartedly shrugging. Everything about her indicated insecurity and smallness.
What if she doesn't actually want help? What if she's just complaining? She was so weak. I could just… break her before she ever became a problem.
She does want help. She doesn't want to struggle. The fact that she was willing to come meet me shows that she's willing to change something. I should meet her halfway.
"Well, the conversation was a bit over the top anyway. Give me like five minutes, I'll be back in my swim clothes. Just promise me something here."
I was approaching it wrong. She's a person. Looking for a friend. Someone to be with. Someone she can complain to, a shoulder to cry on.
Her face was lighter, happy to be away from the conversation at least, I imagined.
Weak.
"We can talk about that stuff later, but Amy…"
I sighed, the tasted of the sea salt in the air entering my lungs. She had the capacity to be a
lot stronger than she currently was. I knew it. She was one of those girls who screamed that she had potential.
"Follow the rules you want, but be more creative. Try to do some
interesting stuff in the meantime. Nothing that'd get you in trouble. Just, you know, try to have some of your own fun."
She just nodded. Her body language told me enough. It was time to drop it.
"All right, I'll brb."
I was really getting hungry again, but not as bad. Not nearly as bad. I could feel it. The bulk of the ravenous hunger was ending. She wanted to see if I could catch some fish? Well, it was worth a shot. We were so far south that we were out in the boonies. A dangerous place for any but me.
Three minutes later I was back, wearing the suit bottoms with dad's trunks on top and his t-shirt. It sucked not having a fitting bra but I'd deal.
I gave Panacea a smile as I said "Well hon, what's the gameplan?"
"You said I should experiment, and that's the plan now. Here's the game. I set up the bait. You catch the fish. Alive. I change the flavor. If you guess wrong, I win. If right, you win."
"That's the spirit!"
A different kind of competition. One where the only true failure was losing a chance at being her friend.
Or you could just end her and stop her endless problems.
"You ready, Beast?" She said. Her body was tense, but at the same time as relaxed as I've ever seen her.
"Uh I guess?"
"I just dropped the bait in the water. Follow the seaweed down." She pointed to a piece of green which seemed attached to the dock.
Here I go, swimming again. I thought, diving off the dock for a four foot drop into the deep water. The water was cold. But…. More like a cold swimming pool I could get used to.
I kicked my feet, opening my webbed hands as I swam downwards. It was a super long piece of seaweed. She must have been working on it the whole time we were talking. Wow. The light from the early afternoon sun beaming down the modestly-clear bay water. I needed to breathe, but I was still holding it. Found the end of the seaweed she had made, indicated by some kind of bulbous thing.
It was releasing tiny little silver flakes, which floated down to the bottom, glinting in the sun that was left. I was rising. Despite all I had eaten I wasn't that dense.
Must have gone to fat, I mused.
I needed to breathe, I felt it. But, my instinct was to hold breath… Then I realized, I had breathed in water only a day or so ago. So, trusting my power I opened I opened my mouth and breathed in. Bubbles of air forced themselves out of my nose as I inhaled, the cold water entering my body.
When vision returned, there were
fish. Lots, and lots of ocean fish. Reminiscent of bass. And I was hungry. They circled lazily, slowly drifting upwards, following the shimmering pieces falling from the bulbous thing suspended from the hijacked plant. The taste of my tongue was filled with so much salt and the taste of fish oil I couldn't discern anything extra. Oh well.
After a moment, the fish circled close enough I was able to reach out and grab one. Big fish. Plenty of mass. I stared at it, my hand-claws helping grip it tightly, keeping it from slipping. I could taste the iron in the water.
I tried kicking upwards to swim. I got a little bit of thrust, but my one free hand provided quite a lot more motion. The fish around, snacking on the falling flakes swam away a little bit at my commotion. A couple of moments later, I was on the surface of the water with a fish in one hand.
I threw it onto the dock, then with a great thrust of both arms, launched myself into the air onto the dock with a loud thud. Panacea was there already, touching the fish. A moment later, she smiled and let go of the fish.
"Did you a couple favors on top, go ahead and bite into it." she said. Here went nothing. I bit into the fish. Citrus.
"Wow, this is like a Florida Orange!"
She smiled "Yup."
No bones or blood either. Really took care of everything there. I opened my hand and pulled out one of retractable claws, then sliced off a bit of the meat, handing her a small slice, which she bit into, then let out a satisfied smile.
We played that game with about 2-3 more fish until I was full again. Each time, I shared a little slice. It was really nice actually. By the end though, I really was full. Not that not-starving feeling, no. Legitimately satisfied. Amy got a call from someone who wanted to see what she was doing. Without much discussion other than friendly banter and talking about nothing, I eventually dried off, changed, and walked her back to the stop, where she went to do whatever it was she did.
As a parting gift, she left a couple of bait orbs she made. "Just add water, fish for days!" would have been my tagline if I were to sell it. Well, given my increasing needs, that wasn't gonna happen. After Amy was gone, I added Glory Girl's phone to my contacts list and sent her a message.
"Hi GG. I'm the 'fan' who wants 2 'train' w/ u."
"O Cool. Wanna meet me at the train yard n side tomorrow?"
Hell. Yes.
"Ya."
"K. Just u n me. No 1 else."
"Kk, meet outside the jerry's strip mall. 8 am."
She's skipping school. Heh.
"k, cya then."
The next couple days were basically torture as I took the living lures Panacea gave me and went 'fishing' for food. Better than eating my cat, I suppose. Home was more awkward that I thought. Dad got drunk and aggressive again, but i managed to wrestle him to the ground until he passed out.
If things were going to keep staying bad for me hunger-wise I probably shouldn't be home anyway. Especially with the PRT keeping an eye out for me. I would try to lay low until I got stronger. I chose to hole up in a large freighter at the graveyard in the captain's office or whatever it was called. The only carpeted section of the ship. I thought about holing up in the Ferry on the complete other side but that section of the city was actually used… Being alone would be for the best for now. The last thing I needed were a couple of teens calling the cops/PRT on me because they found me sleeping in the Ferry.
Plus the graveyard was only a short walk from the trainyard. Though close to Nazi territory, I could probably take on a few of them on my own by now.
Also, this was convenient because whenever I got hungry I could drop one of the bait orbs Panacea made me and eat some fish. Better than eating the neighborhood pets I suppose.
In the morning I got up at six, no alarm. Huh. Either way I was ready to go, excited.
A bit of fishing and eating later and I was ready to go. Fish were boring, but the ones in the bay seemed to have a lot of mass to them. Fish kind of blended in after a while, and some new flavors would be nice.
Made my way to the meeting point. The trainyard was pretty damn abandoned too. On a crux between Empire and Merchant operating 'territory'. I doubt we'd get much crap from them with Glory Girl nearby, honestly, unless some villain wanted to take a chance…
I saw her there, just sitting down on a bench, by herself, as I walked to meet her. She smiled, her golden tiara glinting in the wintry sun.
"Hey freak, what's up?" She said, standing up.
I just nodded at the rude comment. I could see the anger in her eyes, which was good. She didn't like me. Probably didn't like me hanging out with her sister either. I offered my hand to shake.
"No thanks. I don't shake hands." She lied. I knew she liked the fame. She shook hands all the time.
"Well then, where do you wanna do this?" I asked her.
"Out by the train yard. I have a spot I use to train and practice in."
"Lead the way."
"Nah, I'll fly us there."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Though, before we go… I want you to apologize to me."
To her?
"For what?"
"For being a bitch?"
So it's going to be like that.
"I'll apologize when we get to the trainyard. Let's just walk there and talk it over."
She looked pissed. "Fine."
----
A/N: Please continue planning, here's part 1. I've been having a bad time writing this, but now that I've got this part up, part 2 will be up soon.
NO VOTING right now.
There would be clawed hands on the end of these tentacles:
