by I'm Not Mister Mxypltk and T5
"Good bye, guys," Shirley Francis said, waving from the rooftop of the MBL Consulting building at the plane that just left the airport.
"G'bye, birdie..." Mick Harrison said, waving at the plane as well.
"Hey..." Shirley said, turning to him, "...are you still stoned? Or are you, uh, M'xy right now?"
"No, heh..." Mick said. "I was just joking... though I'm still thinking kinda dizzy and a little confused."
"The root's probably still in your system," Shirley said. "Just wait a few hours, and you'll be okay."
"Let's go downstairs. I wanna try on that uniform," Mick said.
"Hmmm... Can I try it on too?" Shirley said.
"Noooo way!" Mick said. "Since when are you a metahero, huh? I'm the only metahero here."
"Please?" Shirley asked in a soft voice.
"Not until you get yourself some powers, my friend," Mick replied.
Mick and Shirley headed for the rooftop elevator. Suddenly, she stopped walking. He turned to her.
"You know what I just realized?" she said.
"What?" he said, almost afraid.
"That we're all alone here," she said.
"Well, Lance and Kit are still here," he said.
"Yeah, thirteen floors under us," she said, putting his arms around him.
"Uh..." he began, "...you sure it's a good idea?"
"As long as you don't say M'xy, why not?" she said, softly placing him against a wall. "Why the hell not?"
As they kissed, they let themselves fall to the floor. Suddenly, Mick felt all the dizziness inside his head increasing, followed by a revolt in his stomach, until...
"BAAAAAAAAARGH!"
"Oh... my..."
"See, that's why the hell not..."
"...GOD!"
"Okay, okay, you can try on my uniform," Mick said, breaking the silence after a long pause, "...at least until we clean my breakfast off your clothes..."
The hours ticked by while the heroes, now in the airplane heading for Uruguay, prepared themselves for the upcoming mission in their own ways.
Naecken meditated. It was strange. He could feel an aspect of him struggling to get out, the more logical side of him. It felt young, but at the same time cold and logical like a machine. It wanted to go back to the new home on La Perdita.
At the same time he felt a familiar pull out across the Atlantic. Something or someone was getting closer, something that had been following him since the days of his emergence.
And in the far corner of his mind, he felt the growing darkness that was centered in Europe, a darkness that hungered for more.
Two days ago:
Crasher's clothes were in rags, and the stone in her shoe didn't make her running any easier. They were very close; she could hear them farther down the tunnel, calling for her with taunting voices. She ran.
She thought of her stupidity in following the word of a street bum. His words had led her close to a group of beings with nothing but evil in them, and she came too close. They had discovered her and captured her. She had managed to escape with a bit of pure luck, since they had taken away her Gaia unit.
So here she was, running through the subway tunnels of Berlin, with no hope or anyone that could help her. Looking for an access door or any side way out of the subway tunnel for escape proved useless.
Then she saw a light farther ahead, and she picked up her pace. Escape at last.
But something was wrong; the man in front of her smiled with an impossibly wide row of teeth.
"Hello, darlin'. Got some for me?"
She looked around in panic and could sense the others coming around the bend, when suddenly a darkness loosened itself from a shadow.
It came closer, until she could feel its warm breath upon her face. She screamed.