Crystalline Constellations

S1 E8: Flight of the Phoenix [Part 1/2]

Since the Keates incident at the weekend, things had been normal (well, as normal as life can be for anime characters and girls with kinetic abilities), with the season finale of Doctor Who ending and Jenny and Eleanor having to undertake the slow, agonising wait until the New Year's Day special. And since that Sunday when the mad doctor was arrested, 3 more days had passed, making it now Wednesday, December 12th.

On a side note after this madcap adventure, the four of them had been discussing what Jen and Ells' species name could be, because they still counted as human beings but were nonetheless technically aliens now, before, after a lot of discussion and long amounts of time thinking about it, deciding to call their race the Zensairans (pretty much simply because it was a random thought and it sounded good). They'd then settled on the idea of naming the crystalline substances which the 2 gemstones were made of as Zensairium in correspondence. 

Sandra had, only about a day beforehand, sent a message to Jen on Discord saying that she'd just arrived in England at Heathrow Airport and had moved in to the flat she'd rented in another tower block, so her younger friend was indeed excited about this. They'd known each other for 4 years now and she'd been imagining many times in this entire years how they'd end up meeting face to face. In that time they had, in addition, eventually exchanged face reveal photos, so they both knew what the other looked like in real life.

That Wednesday in particular, the young hydro/cryokinetic girl was just on her way back to her flat after dropping off a rented DVD of the film called Lucy at the shop it came from, pulling her neck in ever so slightly further into the collar of her duffel coat and watching as her breath froze on the air. This was highlight of her sight range in amonst all the comings and goings of cars only a few feet away on the road next to all the shops lining the street and the mass of humans passing by, as well, but in closer proximity. 

Although, as she still had the very top parts of her coat wrapped around her neck and stared down at her phone in her gloved right hand every now and then, one thing, one person out of all the other dozens or maybe even hundreds of people, caught the attention of her pale orbs.
A woman maybe 2 or 3 inches taller than her, with long wavy dark brown hair in a similar style to her own encircling her face and wearing a dark red winter coat with a fake fur lining on the hood. The colour of her eyes was difficult to say exactly, as it was a blend of pale blue, like Jenny's, and also emerald.

She recognised, with an internal leap of joy and nervousness in her gut, who she was immediately. Jen noticed that she was across the street from her, so she anxiously waited a few seconds for the traffic to go down, worried that the other female would walk by and soon be gone without noticing her at all, until the clear space grew wide enough for her to run across quickly without getting ran over, so she made her way across the road as quickly as possible, approaching the woman whom she'd just noticed.

After taking a moment to prepare herself, as she was usually nervous when it came to social interaction, before coming up right alongside her and gently tapping her on the shoulder to gain her attention.

This startled the older girl somewhat, but she nevertheless turned around to see who had tapped her, and just like the other female had when she'd seen her, the brunette recognised the other instantly, and soon both of them were smiling simply at the sight of each other. 

"Jenny." She said in this recognition.

The younger one nodded. "Sandra." She had to almost cover her mouth because of how much she was beaming. "Could you just stand right there, just for a second? Because I'm just gonna hug you." She requested. 

"Alright, go ahead!" She gave a nod of her own. And just like that, they did move to the side of the pavement so that they weren't blocking anyone's path, but the Briton flung her arms around her Internet friend, glad that they'd finally managed to meet face to face like she'd been imagining. 

"I can't believe it mon ami I really can't!" She told Sandra, adopting the lingo they spoke with on Discord as Hetalia references. "I mean I can't believe we met each other after all these years so soon after you arrived in the country! I know it's only been a day, but what do you think so far?" Her voice was higher-pitched in excitement. 

"It's great! The U.K really is as brilliant as I imagined. Well, except for the weather." The American joked in reply, trying not to wince when Jen inadvertently ended up, during the hug, having a part of her arm on Sandra's right shoulder, as it provoked fresh stinging sensations from the marks that had only recently been embedded in that area of her skin. Her English friend also recognised her voice, which contained a mixed accent of Canadian, English and a mild dash of Southern on the side. 

"Yeah. I'm thinking of perhaps twinning this place with Antarctica at this rate." The other retracted her arms after a few more seconds, making the green-blue eyed girl relieved a tad as there was now nothing pressing down on her right shoulder except for the fabrics of the clothing she was wearing. "So then, how are you? Anything been going on lately?" 

"I'm fine, in fact I'm great now that I'm finally here! Why...?" 

"It's just because a couple of weeks ago you were absent on all social media and places on the internet for a fair few days, so I was just wondering what might have kept you busy. I'm sorry, we've literally only just met in person, I shouldn't be prying..." 

"No, no, it's quite alright!" The older of the pair held up her hand. "I understand you'd be worried about me. And you definitely would be..." She diverted her gaze just a few degrees, simultaneously staring into space and looking at her friend, becoming distant and showing perhaps a mysterious nature. Something never shown before. 

"Did something happen? What's wrong, buddy?" Jenny noticed where her eyes were pointed and asked worriedly, her hair blowing softly in the breeze on the back of her head and nearly flowing like it was submerged in water. 

Sandra looked around briefly in all directions in this same air of mystery. "Here isn't the right place for me to tell you. We need to go somewhere we won't be overheard or seen." 

Now, growing up and living in an age of advanced media technology, Jen had been warned numerous times as a child and in her teen years about people on the internet who aren't who they say they are and what they'll try to do, so she was a little wary of this. 

"The area behind the tower block I live in. That's a place where we won't be watched." She answered, still remaining cautious because if this aforementioned factor. 

"Alright. That sounds fair enough." 

Within about 10 minutes, the pair had at last reached the tower block, chatting along the way about the fandoms they were into and about life in general, until they then went around the back of the building, to the area where barely any soul ever went, kinda like the field Jenny first trained her own abilities in, and ducked down behind a neglected skip, full almost to the brim with discarded cardboard while the skip itself had some tiny areas of frost on its corners. 

"So, what's up? What did you want to tell me in a private place like this?" She asked her overseas comrade, partially wishing in the back of her mind that they wouldn't have to be knelt down like this outside in such cold weather for too long. 

In reply, Sandra took one of her hands out of her coat pocket where it had retreated because of the wind, making Jen think that it was because she had something in her pocket to show her, but, to her surprise, her hand was completely bare. And, just with a snap of her fingers, what appeared to be a pure, shimmering, bright orange flame wavering just an inch above her palm as if it were dancing, bringing warmth and lighting up their faces. All the younger girl could do was stare in amazement that she seemed to be controlling fire with nothing but her bare hand, perhaps with her mind. This was better known as pyrokinesis. 

"Wow..." 

"Yeah. I know." Chuckled Miss Kohnka at her reaction. "I reacted pretty much the same way when I first found out, too." Her mysterious and perhaps even distant aura showed itself again because of the memories currently resurfacing in her head. "But anyway, let me tell you how and why I can do this. And what happened to me because of it."