The Boy Who Could Shape The Air

-=Chapter Six - Everyone Is Real Angry=-

  A small crystal sat in the box, dancing with light, a kind of shimmery blue with veins of bright green running through it.  It was translucent- you could vaguely see the back of the box through it.  Mark whistled.

  "What's that?" said Aaron, raising one eyebrow.  "Is it going to bite off our faces?"

  "No, it's not," said the woman, giving a halfhearted smile.  "It's a Crystal of Proximity."

  "What's that?"

  "While you have it on you, you can use it to detect the positions of the other crystals.  It also detects the general presence of- enhanced people, such as yourselves.  When a lot of you are together, it'll get hot and shine orange."  I noticed that it was kind of orange now.  "Constructs can also trigger this, although not as strongly.  So watch out for that."

  "What other crystals?"  Aaron looked into the box again.  "I only see one."

  "Touch it," said the woman.

  It shimmered, wiggled, and flared with light.  Once the glow died away, we could see that there were two crystals.  They were more or less identical, with only slight variations in coloring and pattern.  "Whoa!  Cool.  Thanks- er, what's your name?  I can't keep thinking of you as the woman," said Aaron.

  "It's Alana," she said.  "Alana Fulvio.  You can look that up in the SIM records," she said, an edge creeping into her voice.

  "It's okay," said Aaron.  "We forgive you for whatever-"

  "Do we?" said Ethan.  His gaze was dark.  "What if she sent out the fricking patrol that got Ella k- well, you know.  How long were you in the Sociopathic Insane Mo-"

  "Ethan!" said Haley.

  "I'll call them whatever I want," he said.  "How.  Long?"

  "O-only six months," said Alana, twitching.  "I had nothing to do with that patrol."

  "You probably worked with whoever did, though," Ethan said.  "Don't bloody lie.  You still think it was a good-"

  "Ethan!  That's not fair," said Aaron.  "Can't you see that she's trying to help?"

  "Not really.  She showed us some dumb crystal and then told us a sob story about how she worked for murdering-"

  "That's enough!  Listen to what she has to say!  She just gave us a powerful magic item, and she- well, it sounds like she can help us find more."

  "Yes," she said.  "I know where at least two artifacts and a map to many more are."

  "Well, where is that?" said Aaron.

  "The New York City base."

  "Wait.  Hang on.  You're saying we have to raid a SIM base?" I said.

  "It's where I worked before.  I can provide you with some backdoors and get you to level ten.  That's where the stuff is-"

  "Wait.  Didn't you say there were others like us there?  Other kids with powers?" said Aaron.

  "Yes.  At least five, maybe more.  But-"

  "So why don't we rescue them if we're already ten levels into a fricking SIM base?" said Ethan.  "You haven't changed at all, have-"

  "Rudeness aside, Ethan makes a good point," said Haley.  She locked eyes with Aaron.  "We will rescue them, right?"

  "Yes," said Aaron.  "Of course.  Once we're in, we can save them all.  If we end up going.  Want to vote?"