Blood Obsidian

Issue 7

Fear response - Part 1

Alaina was wearing glasses. Where she got them from, and why, were not the most pressing questions in Caitlyn's mind. Why they were here, on this derelict wasteland awaiting redevelopment by the river, was something Caitlyn thought a little more pressing. The text to meet Alaina here had arrived that morning with a link for directions. Of course Aunt Mary had wanted to know where she was going, but Caitlyn was a teenager, she knew all the best white lies.

"Shopping? What kind of an excuse is that? Think, newborn hero! Think!" Alaina tapped Caitlyn's temple a little too hard. She scowled as Caitlyn made a sharp intake of breath at the taps. "Interesting. You felt that, right? Subject suffers minor discomfort at temple tapping."

Those last words she mumbled into her phone, pushing her, fake, glasses back up her nose. Once done, Alaina shrugged a backpack from her shoulder, dropping it to the wasteland ground and Caitlyn heard several clinks and rattles as it fell. Now, with a notebook in hand, that appeared from nowhere, Alaina tapped a pen against her lips, deep in thought as she studied Caitlyn.

"Look, what's happening here? I have an essay on geology that I still haven't started and Aunt Mary wants me to repaint the living room while I'm not at school and, like, a million others things to do and you still haven't said why you wanted me ... here." She looked around at the bleak, desolate landscape, far away from civilisation. Several burned out cars sat abandoned around them and an old building looked about ready to collapse. "This is weird, Alaina. Even for you and you know that's saying something."

"How much weight do you think Black Staff could lift? I read that he once held a building from collapsing, but the best photographic evidence is a photo of him lifting a car." Alaina used her pen to point to one of the derelict cars. "Hop to it. Best give it some oomph, just to be sure. Ooh! What's that?"

Caitlyn's head whipped around, so much had happened that she doubted she could relax ever again. She had slept in fits overnight, visions of hordes of super-villains taking it in turns to beat her up, tossing her broken body between them. When she had dreamed of one of them threatening Aunt Mary, Caitlyn had awoken with the suit fully covering her, the black staff in her hand. Where Alaina had pointed, Caitlyn saw nothing unusual. She did, however, feel something hit her on the back of the head.

"What the hell, Alaina!" She rubbed the back of her head, noting to herself it felt more uncomfortable than painful, and also noting the umbrella in Alaina's hand. "Did you just hit me with an umbrella?"

"Subject manifested protection on the back of their head faster than expected." Again she spoke into her phone, putting it away and making scribbled notes in the notebook. After a second, she looked up, over the fake glasses. "Car. Lift. Oomph."

Caitlyn didn't even consider that. All the cars looked rusted and filthy, and who knew what people had used them for before now. There wasn't a chance in hell she was going to touch any of them. Visions of thousands of dirty needles and other, more personal, things showering down on her almost made her heave. She touched the back of her head, but couldn't feel any 'protection' that Alaina mentioned.

She knew, of course, what Alaina was doing. She was doing what she always did, living vicariously through others. Alaina had done the exact same thing when Caitlyn had won the Science Fair prize and she had taken it so far that she had contacted several scientific institutions, crowing about Caitlyn's achievement. Caitlyn had never tried to win the Science Fair again. That wasn't the only time Alaina had latched on to the achievements of others and Caitlyn wished her best friend could find something of her own that she excelled at.

"This isn't happening. This ..." She looked around and then lowered her voice, even though there wasn't another soul within a mile, as far as she knew. "... superhero thing. It nearly got me killed, and Aunt Mary, and not at the same time, either. That was two near deaths in a day! Three if you count the thing with Black Staff and Doc Blood. It's too dangerous. All I want to do is get rid of this thing."