Vigilante (Under Construction! Please Excuse the Dust!)

Chapter 13: sickly sweet apples.

Rain Maker:

        By the time I made it to where the Socket was, the encounter was already over, much to my disappointment and shame. To make it safe for Dawnwalker to transport her, I discharged all the electricity she had stored up inside of her, acting as a sort of lightning rod and guiding the electricity to the ground under my feet. Because I could control lightning, I had a sort of immunity to it.

        If Sunny hadn't been there at the fight, Charm wouldn't have been able to hold his binding spell as long as he had and-thanks to her specialized lungs and a clean-up team from LockDown-a majority of the smog had been cleared up.

        However, by the end, she looked horribly exhausted. Dawnwalker made it a point to chew out Charm, telling him that if we weren't careful, we would speed up Sunny's deterioration even faster than its current rate, which had slowed considerably because of the restraint Dawn made her take. Charm was less than hospitable towards the Time Hero.

        "You think I don't know that? I had no choice," he hissed, well out of earshot from Sunny, who was attending someone near an ambulance. "Without her, that Socket would have broken my spell within minutes, then where would we be? And did you see that girl, the one the Shapeshifter won't leave alone? Sunny saved her. That girl tackled the Socket right to the ground and nearly died from it. Without Sunny, she would have."

        "Do not put her at risk, Charm," Dawn practically barked at him, then turned away briskly, walking curtly towards where I sat, a hand on the Socket's bare arm. With her energy drained by me, she had passed out, but if I removed my hand for very long, the energy would quickly replenish. So, I needed constant contact with her to keep that from happening until Dawn would take her to the holding cells that were designed specifically for Sockets. They were miles away from the city and Dawn was the only one who could get the Socket there quickly enough.

        The Socket was... painful to look at. Without any haze obstucting her face, I could see just how messed up it was, like she had been punched repeatedly. Her cheeks puffed out and mouth pinched, eyes swollen and purple. Luckily, her long, unkempt bangs fell over some of the damage.

        "Ready?" I asked Dawn as she approached. She nodded once.

        "Ready."

        With that, I removed my hand and Dawn replaced it with her own. Without any warning, they both vanished. Even though I had seen Dawn Time Leap before, it was still disconcerting to just watch someone blink out of existence like Dawn did.

        Feeling a little guilty about not getting there on time to prevent the whole ordeal with Sunny, I went to speak with Charm. His shoulders were slumped in defeat, a hand rubbing over his forehead in exasperation.

        "This is crazy," he sighed, turning to face me as I approached. "Maniac Sockets, unstable Shapeshifters, suicidal people, and now Dawn is ready to throttle me. What are we going to do here, Charlie?"

        It was rare that Charm referred to anyone besides Sunny as their formal names, especially in public. Calling me by my name was a loud warning sign that he needed to recollect his sanity before dealing with anymore problems.

        "Keep fighting the good fight?" I offered with an apologetic smile. Charm didn't reply, studying the ground with half-closed eyes. I pressed my lips together in a tight line, my eyebrows knitting together.

        "Y'know," I began, reaching out and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It could be worse."

        "How so?" Charm almost snapped, his voice losing its sharpness.