What is Love?

"When will you arrive?"

"NO! PLEASE NO! I'M PREGNANT! PLEASE!" screamed in despair
He felt his heart strong in his chest, thick tears running down the side of his face. She couldn't explain it, but now she no longer thought about her, but about that little being that she had just realized she could be carrying.
He heard laughter behind him, Einar looked like he couldn't believe what had just happened.
"Of course she's lying, she can't take a few lashes! But if you don't want to take it, it's simple, princess. We just need the place where you hid!" He raised his arm again to strike, but was stopped by the leader's hand that cut the air. She stared at Lavagirl. I saw the despair on her face
"Einar, go get Lumen" He ordered
"Ma'am, she's lying!" protested Einar, frustrated.
Just her cold gaze made him flinch and obey her. Silence took over. Lavagirl was breathing heavily, she couldn't believe they stopped, to be honest, it didn't make sense, she didn't look pregnant. When he read the date in his notebook he realized that it was almost two weeks late. Which meant she could be expecting a baby, but she wasn't completely sure. However, just imagining that she and Sharkboy would have a child and that this reality was closer to happening filled her with a joy she never imagined she would have. Einar returned moments later with a man, Lavagirl thought he looked like a turtle. He had more wrinkles than anyone she had ever seen, he was bald, he walked leaning on a dark wooden cane and was wearing a black tunic, on top of which was a burgundy poncho with black arabesques, similar to the other men's clothes. He, with difficulty, positioned himself in front of the leader. She spoke softly, in fact, she spoke with a shell-shaped utensil that he had to put in his ear. The man shook his head in agreement, he said something that Lavagirl couldn't understand. "Everyone get out!" Said the woman with authority. Moments later it was just her, Lavagirl and Lumen in the room. Lumen walked in front of the hero, the boss followed him and placed a chair behind him so he could sit down, she also placed a leather bag beside him with several objects inside. "Let her go" The old man said for the first time, his voice was low but comforting. The pale woman drew a sharp, ornate dagger from her sheath and cut the ropes binding Lavagirl. When she saw her hands free she tried to massage her wrists calmly, her hands burned with the contact, she almost couldn't close her fingers, she felt his cold hand holding hers so as not to force the movement. She stood still, saw that the man began to look for something in his suitcase, he took some kind of ointment and began to apply it to the area irritated by the paddles, she felt relief as her hands absorbed the medicine he applied, there must have been some type of painkiller. . Then, he looked intensely into her eyes and she lowered them with shame.
"No," he said firmly, "I need to evaluate your eyes:
He placed his hand on her chin and lifted her face to look at her.
The depth of his gaze was so intense that Lavagirl felt embarrassed. He had brown eyes, but they could barely be seen due to the wrinkles. He pulled back some of the skin to see under his blue eyes. He placed his cold fingers on her neck, feeling the beat of her heart. He told her to stick out her tongue and so on. The pale woman just stood next to the two, completely still and silent, letting him do all his work. Lavagirl obeyed all the commands the master gave her. He assessed her flat stomach, giving small squeezes in some areas, noticing how the young woman's body responded to his touches, in some places it hurt when he applied pressure. He made her take a few deep breaths, placing her hearing aid on her chest and finally he sat down in front of her again. He took a parchment and a quill with ink. "When was your last blood?"
"Almost 6 weeks ago" you saw that he wrote down the information.
"Did you have any sexual relations with a man during this period?" She was embarrassed to answer that kind of thing to two strangers "It wasn't with a dog" She never loses her mockery
"Please Lavagirl, respond!" Axel asked
"Yes" He replied softly, rolling his eyes.
"How many?" Was this serious? She thought
"I don't know"
"An average"
"I'd rather be whipped than answer that question!" His hair lit up, it was regaining its strength.
"No one will whip you on a pregnant woman! If you are pregnant, think about your child, how bad it could do him"
"Every other day..." Your temperature begins to change
"Does she change her temperature? Does she have a fever?" Lumen asks, addressing Axel who returns his gaze to her "Can you help Lavagirl?" In response, Lavagirl lowers her temperature. You saw that he scribbled a few more things on the paper.
"How have you been feeling?"
"Is this question serious?" Her tone of voice showed that she was indignant, after all she had been tortured in the last few days. He just looked at her seriously.
"Did you have any dizziness?"
"Try"
"Headache"
"Try"
"Vomiting and retching?"
"Try"
"Tiredness?"
"Try"
“I’m going to need a sample of your urine.”
"Hey?"
"Your pee."
"I know what urine is! What for?"
"Just one last test" He said and handed him a bowl. She looked from side to side, as if
wait for them to explain what she had
what to do. He saw that the woman pointed to a corner of the room. Lavagirl staggered to her feet and walked to the indicated location. I couldn't believe what was happening. What madness is this? After a few minutes, she came back, placing the bowl on the table and sat down again. I was blushing with embarrassment at that. Lumen went back to looking for something in her bag. He took a dark pot and, with a spoon, put a white powder in the girl's urine. After a few seconds, a reaction turned the light yellow color into a bright red. He heard the leader snort beside him. Lavagirl looked at Lumen waiting for an answer, her face was
indecipherable. He began to put away his utensils and got up to leave the room.
"What does that mean?" she asked before he left. The leader who helped him squeezed his arm a little and together they left the room. She found herself alone staring at the red liquid without quite understanding what had just happened.
***
Sharkboy assessed the fleet in front of him. It would be a challenge to attack them, they had at least twice the amount of people they had. I needed to think of something, maybe the best idea wouldn't be to attack, would they be open to a conversation? But what could he offer?
"Phenomenon!" called Sharkboy
"Hi, Shark," he said, approaching.
"I want to go there and talk to them"
"I don't think they're open to a conversation"
"We don't have much of a chance if we face each other. Look at the number of ships they have!" he commented, running his hands through his brown hair, messing it up.
"Maybe we can make a trade"
"Like this?"
"Some information we can negotiate. So far we only suspect the motive. We're not sure what they want or if she's okay"
"It's going to be okay! Lavagirl is the only one of us who could handle something like that!" Received an annoyed look from Sharkboy
"What? I'm just telling the truth!"
"I want you to take care of the ship. Take care of them and be prepared for anything. If you see signs of a fight, attack immediately, understand? Call my father, Anitta, Vox, Marcos, Max and Obfuscante." Phenomenon listened carefully and nodded, he knew that Phenomenon liked to be in a leadership position, he always said he was number two. He left your side to start his chores, Sharkboy closed his eyes and sighed. What could he do? His chest had been tight for days, he slept poorly, he had deep dark circles under his eyes and was unshaven, further demonstrating the internal nervousness he had. He felt that everyone he sent Phenomenon to call were behind him, he called them and they went to sit at a table so he could think of some strategy. He had to have better ideas, the ones that were going through his head would only make the situation of the Heroics and Lavagirl worse. "Well, I called you to advise me on what I should do. We know that militarily we will lose to them, the number of ships in the enemy fleet is much greater than ours. And we assume that this was because of our new powers, but nothing has been confirmed"
"Son, being Axel we're talking about, it's safe to say that what she wants is to know where the heroics are so she can kill them" James says
"But could it be something else too?" Sharkboy asks
"I don't think it's likely, son" James replies
"Okay...so how should we proceed?" Shark asks
"Well dear, their numbers are actually more favorable, but they don't know the strength of this new heroic generation" Anitta expressed with a smile "We could attack them at night" she added
"They already know we're here, Anitta" Vox comments
"We weren't at all subtle in showing up. I believe the best strategy is dialogue" Your father said, holding your hand.
"We can think about deceiving them too" Marcos said
"I suppose they are very clever for that. But I need to know if she's okay, if she's alive" "Then let's find out, son"
°Meanwhile...°
She had returned to her cell a few hours ago. I walked back and forth, frustrated, I hated not knowing what was going on. I didn't know if she was really pregnant, if Sharkboy was coming, if they were still going to try to get any information out of her. The hours dragged by, she had already reread some of her notebooks, tried to open the cell, but nothing calmed her down. His thoughts were no longer focused. Instinctively, he placed his hand on her belly, stroking the area. I believed that they confirmed the pregnancy, it was the only reason to leave her just trapped, if she didn't
If I were, I would still be in that torture room. But what also doesn't make much sense, why spare a pregnant woman? She heard noise on deck, men screaming, things being dragged, noises she couldn't identify. She snorted loudly, she was very bored and wanted answers! With the sounds upstairs she didn't hear as a pale figure walked into the darkness. He only noticed her when she was very close. He remained silent until the woman was in front of him, completely upright and silent. The two were facing each other, Lavagirl had her arms crossed in front of her chest, while the woman had her hands clasped behind her back.
"Then?" Lavagirl asked
"Your suspicion is correct"
Her heart skipped a beat and one of her hands automatically returned to her belly, as if she could feel that
little being forming inside her, just knowing
that it was real, Lavagirl would do anything to get out of that situation. She felt that his eyes were teary and a weak smile appeared on his lips. Trying to control himself, she blinked a few times and looked firmly at the woman in front of him.
"What are you going to do to me?"
"You know, Lavagirl, I like you, I liked your attitude from the first moment I saw you. I noticed your strength as a woman and, you and I know, how difficult it is to be equal to men" She just nodded.
"But the situation has changed so much for you,
like for me. I managed to get where I am
being very tough, strong and determined. But one
One thing I promised back in my early 20s was that I would never hurt a child."
"Why?"
"They are children, that is reason enough"
"But there must be some story behind it" Lavagirl continues to wonder. The pale one was silent. Lavagirl knew she had some past trauma.
"Well, now we have a problem. You are pregnant, that is, there is a child involved in the story. I cannot take the necessary information from you, which I want so much, through violence. Even all my allies think that my decision It's absurd. Everyone wants to continue the interrogation, but I can't do that to your son"
"Thank you, I appreciate you thinking about him" He saw that she just gave a slight nod.
"You know, I can identify a lot with you, because you remind me a lot of myself at your age. You were the best hero in my generation, we had constant attacks from villains, we lost a lot of people. I killed an enemy when I was 14, I just dropped the heroic career for personal reasons. I could achieve much more with that. I wanted more, then when I was older, with children, I decided it was time to leave my life and start a new one, that way I could help them more" Lavagirl just looked at her , she didn't know much about the woman who had kidnapped her and, deep down, she found her fascinating and wanted to know more. "Killing the heroic would be revenge. Can you understand the impasse I'm experiencing?"
He saw that the flaming girl just nodded.
"So, what I propose is a truce, as you can see, I am being very understanding of your situation, so I would like you to cooperate with me" He looked at her with intensity.
"I can't give you that information" replied the girl
"Come on, don't be naive, as I said, your situation is delicate and we are being understanding"
"I can't give this information because I'm one of them" he confirmed
She saw that the leader evaluated her, she needed her to believe in her. "The house is extremely protected"
His heart was racing, he put on his best innocent face and looked into his captor's eyes.
"Lavagirl, Lavagirl. I know he shares everything with you. You know, I've read all of Shark's notebooks. And, I must say, he's a pretty eccentric guy. He's interested in things that no Hero I know has ever thought about liking. What surprises me is that you fell into his good graces, how did you get such a special woman?"
"He's my best friend! We grew up together on another planet"
"What planet?" won the woman's interest
"He lost his father in a storm, was taken care of by sharks and ended up on the planet Baba looking for his father. During one of his expeditions, we met. Since then, we haven't been apart" The woman looked at her with intensity, I could see she wanted to know more. The woman assessed her, unable to interpret her appearance. It took a few minutes and just as she was about to open her mouth, the two were interrupted by a truculent man who was quickly coming down the stairs. "Lady Axel, Sharkboy came to negotiate! He came, some more heroics and his father! And they are waiting for you to reach an agreement!"