Chapter 10.5
(Part 13)
***
You give Missy about a minute to get her mushy stuff outta the way, but eventually you get bored and make a joke about what her folks would think about havin' another girl in bed with her. And then you're suddenly on the other side of the room, face-down on the floor.
"Dick," you snort, hopping up to your feet with a bounce as Missy sits up on her bed and makes a shushing motion with a finger on her lips. Quirking an eyebrow, you pad back to her bed and sit down next to her, then lean your head down to meet her disappointed glare as she quietly mutters behind her black bangs.
"It's not funny, Aisha. They're…
nice, but they'd be really angry if they found out you're here," she sighs, holding out her left hand. "And give me my knife back."
Smirking, you reach into the pouch on the front of your sweatshirt and sorta…
reach for the right magic pocket with both your mind and your fingers. Just as it settles in your hand, you smoothly withdraw it with a stylish flip and start rolling the collapsed four-inch collapsed blade between your fingers. Though… looking at it more closely, it looks like a pretty generic camo-covered hunting knife- oh, there's no button? Huh. You put a little pressure on the thumb stud at the base of the blade to pry it open a bit… nope, no spring either. Lame.
"Man, you flipped this out so fast I thought you'd scored a switchblade somehow," you sigh, tossing it to her casually only for her to fumble it a bit. "'S still pretty hardcore that you're rollin' around with this thing, but not as hardcore as havin' an
illegal blade."
She blinks, her frustrated response interrupted for a split-second before she frowns again and looks down at the knife that looks waaay bigger in
her tiny hands. "W-what? This isn't illegal?"
"Nah, though pretty sure the PRT'll still throw a shitfit if they find out you're carryin'," you grin, but tilt your head in confusion at her disappointed tone. "Wait, you had it even though you thought it
was?" You smirk even more. "
Nice. Where'd you even get it?"
Despite her teeny white fingers, she flicks the knife open and closed a few times
almost as easily as you managed it, though she has a frown of concentration on her face as she goes. Huh. You knew guys in school that liked to look hard with knife tricks, but they had to practice a
lot.
"I… found it in one of the sheds on the ranch," she sighs, staring at the blade sadly before picking at some of the tiny spots of old dirt and scratches still on the handle. "They didn't like me bringing my taser everywhere, so I... started looking around. They had a lot of old hunting and fishing equipment from when Molly and her brothers were younger, and
this was in one of the tackle boxes."
You nod in and thump her arm in approval. "And even thinkin' it was breakin' the law, you kept it anyway? Damn, girl. Guess I shouldn't'a worried 'bout you goin' all soft on us ridin' horses and livin' it up in the surburbs with these wimps."
She blushes and fidgets, but she looks like she doesn't know whether to be happy she's been keepin' it real or not.
"They're not-..." she sighs, growing quiet for a few seconds before trying again. "They're-… Dan and Molly are…
nice. They want to help out more kids that need foster homes, but they just wanted to start with
one to see…" she squirms again, flicking the knife closed and tucking it away under the lip of her skirt at the small of her back. Bringing her hands back to her lap, she stares at them while lacing her fingers together awkwardly. "I don't want-... I need to make a good impression so they'll help more kids, but they just want me to be…
happy with being normal."
You give her a hard stare and raise an eyebrow, crossing your arms over your chest to make it clear how dumb
that idea is. "Man, we've got
powers! 'Normal''s for bitches that don't kick ass, take names, and look
damn good doin' it."
She smiles, but… you can tell it's fake by the way she hunches a little.
"...Yeah. I guess."
… the fuck.
"You
'guess'?"
She flinches at your hiss, nervously reaching up and tucking some of her long, black hair behind her ear.
"I don't
know, okay," she sighs, glancing sideways to meet your eyes for a split-second before looking back to her hands as she fidgets. "I thought I'd
hate it at the ranch. No phone, no TV, no talking with anyone from the team or the PRT, just… me and Dan and Molly and Molly's family on the ranch, doing ranch things: cleaning stables, feeding animals, riding horses, picking weeds, going camping…." she shakes her head again as she hesitates for a few seconds. "But everything was just so…
simple."
You blink at the relief in her voice, but you don't even get a chance to open your mouth as she straightens up and turns to you, looking and sounding almost confused as you are.
"People weren't trying to be nice to get away with something, they were just…
actually nice. They didn't have fancy equipment or lots of helpers, so they had to work -
I had to work and clean if I wanted to ride the horses and it was
hard and I was sore
all the time but… I still felt
good? And I didn't have to worry about school or trying to get more hours on patrol and no one was fighting with each other and they let me have my space when I wanted it but-..."
She trails off, looking down at her hands...
You grunt. "So… what? You wanted to stay there?"
Missy shakes her head, but doesn't say anything more...
Uuuuugh. And now she's gettin' all weepy again.
...
Fuck. What is
up with everyone bein' such buzzkills lately? You just wanna run around and beat faces, not deal with everyone's
baggage. This is supposed to be
Saki's job!
You heave a huge sigh and hop off the bed.
"A'ight, Lil' Missy Mope. Let's go."
Surprised, she jerks her head up and opens her mouth- only for a wet gargle to come out, forcing her to cough and sniffle as she reaches up and clears her eyes. After a few seconds of gettin' her shit back together, she looks up at you again with a frown. "'Go'? What-?"
Cutting her off, you reach over and pull her to her feet. You have to steady her as she stumbles at the sudden movement, but you ignore her surprised yelp and grab her shoulders in order to start marching her towards the window as you grin. "I know the perfect way to make you feel better: kick some supervillain ass! And a whole bunch of gang chumps, if they get in the way."
Missy tries to plant her feet and struggle, but she just slides on the carpet as you keep pushing the pipsqueak. "N-no! Aisha, stop! I can't just leave! My-... Molly is cooking dinner! They'll know-!"
"Not while you're under my Power-Charm they won't," you scoff and keep pushing with your left hand, while shifting your right hand to shoot out your
PTB towards the window. With a quick flip of the invisible rope's tip, it curls around the latch and slides both the lock and the window open in one motion - letting the cat-sized-again Mr. Pinchy hastily float in out of the rain on his tiny little cloud.
"
Finally," he scoffs in his weirdly-accented English, waving his pincers and tail dramatically to shake the water off onto the deep blue carpet. "Is there a
reason you left me out in the rain, Miss Memory?"
That stops Missy's bitchin', though she reels back in shock at the glitzy robobug slowly floatin' up to her. She even makes a cute lil'
eeep noise-... aaaand now she's on the far side of the room. You both turn to look at her and… she looks a little pale and has her knife out…? Huh?
… oh. Right. Fuck.
"Shit. Sorry, Missy," you hastily curse, slapping a hand down on Mr. Pinchy's face to shut him up and kinda cover him up too. "I didn't mean-... uh… I mean-"
The floating robobug squirms under your palm. "Now see here-!"
"Dude, shut
up!"
"What-" Missy gulps, making both of you turn back to her as she nervously points her knife at Saki's annoying Familiar. "What...
is that...?"
You open your mouth to respond-... then snap it closed. And grin.
"Yup."
Both Mr. Pinchy and Missy pause at your amazing joke. Then Mr. Pinchy groans, and Missy starts to look more confused than scared.
"W-what?!"
You nod, givin' a silent fist-bump to Godbot in your head once again for gettin' in on the joke. "Mmmhm."
She stares as Mr. Pinchy sags even more under your hand, then looks between him and you and him and you…
"You…" she trails off, having a hard time believing how awesome you are. "You named it
'What'?!"
"I am no
'it'!" Mr. Pinchy recoils, zipping out from under your palm to float just out of your reach and point angrily at you. "And
she is
What!"
"What?!"
"Yeah?"
Missy makes a strangled noise as she waves her knife at you. "Oh no you don't! Not again! You're '
Who'!"
Mr. Pinchy is offended on your behalf. "No,
she is
'What'!"
You nod at both their statements. "Yup!"
"Argh!"/"Argh!"
***
