Needle and Thread

From Under the Cork Tree

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Lyra looked at Benny blankly. "What?"

"Um. Well..." He said.

"All the humans are arguing while you're gone, and I'm guessing he wants you to clean up their mess."

"Hey, it's not just the humans," Benny snapped.

"Whoah, there," Lyra interrupted, grinning. "Jeez, y'all really fall to pieces without my pretty self. Where are the others?"

"They're getting together Winter's weapons and Roxy's spells so we have a more defined arsenal. We're headed to them now," Benny said.

"Coolio." Lyra held on as the TARDIS was buffeted through time and space by some invisible force until the time machine ground to a halt.

She stepped out the door, not paying attention to Andesine's asking her to please talk to him, he had something that they really needed to address if she wasn't going to be a piece of schist and walk away just like she was doing now.

"Guys!" Lyra yelled, corralling Winter, Roxy, and Ananda into a bear hug. "What's up? Andy said y'all were fighting!"

"We'll be fine now," Roxy said happily. "I'm glad you're back."

"Yeah, it's really weird that you got me so easily," Lyra replied. Then, "Whoa! Check out this sweet pike!" With some difficulty, she lifted the massive weapon. "Do you know how to use this, dude?"

Winter looked uncomfortable. "I haven't tried."

"Oh. That's cool. Hot dang though. So do you think that I--" Lyra stopped, feeling ill. "Ow," she muttered. She leaned over, then sat down.

"Lyra!"

"Are you okay?!"

"She looks like she's going into shock."

"Oh, schist."

Lyra smiled weakly. "Ha ha, I feel like I'm going to suddenly give birth to an alien child," she said. "Ow."

"She's fading," Andesine said. Lyra held up her hand only to see that it wasn't there.

"Oh," she said. "That's great.

She looked around and sighed. Welp, here I am again.

I hope they aren't arguing.

[$^$]

Winter sighed as he watched the others argue. He was pretty sure that this is exactly the opposite of what Lyra would have wanted.

What was it about her that pulled them together? She wasn't exactly the most diplomatic person.

As he mulled it over, the argument escalated until finally Ananda was driven to shouting again. Winter jumped a little as she said, "Winter! Assign weapons, I refuse to be stuck doing nothing as everybody around me continues to argue."

Winter nodded. "Okay," he said, looking at the range of people before him. Without thinking about it, he sized them up, taking in their possible fighting styles, dominant hands, weights, and heights. Then he added, "Which of you already have weapons? Can you bring them out?"

Immediately, what had previously been a group of grumpy-looking teenagers bristled with blades, except for Andesine, who smiled and held up his fists.

Winter walked up to Benjamin, who was holding a mixture of knives and throwing stars. "I had a sword," Benny said apologetically, "but I lost it during Trickster Mode, I think."

"Okay," Winter said. "Um, give me a second. You throw those, right?" He added as he rummaged through a few dozen different types of swords.

"The knives? Yeah."