Black Lightning

Chapter Two: Bearing Sickness

It's the middle of the night when Zhen wakes up to the sound of her door sliding open.

She's already moving, grabbing for the handles under her pillow and rolling into a crouch as the door slides shut again, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark. There's only one Techno she'd let into the place without a fight, but her apartment opens to anyone who has the right magic. She can't trust anything until--

The lights turn green. Fluorescent green, burning through the darkness like Greek fire. Zhen lets out a soundless sigh of relief as she straightens up, glancing at the clock as she does.

"It's 1, Argent," she calls into the silence. "What do you have to say for yourself, disrupting my sleep schedule like that?"

There's a snort from her kitchen. "Oh no, you don't get your beauty sleep. How can you ever face anyone now?" A pause, and then: "Get in here, brat, I've got something for you."

Zhen tilts her head, already lifting her hand to the doorknob. "A present? For me?"

The room is still dark when she opens the door, but there's a purple light from where Argent's cracked a glow stick by the fridge. Zhen grabs one from the cup next to her door, cracking it and shaking until the white insides are bright enough to see by.

"You know, normal people just use lights," Argent remarks. Zhen grins.

"Yeah, well, normal people don't usually live surrounded by Technopaths," she responds, walking over to where Argent's sitting at her table. "So, whatcha got for me?"

It's hard to see solely from the light of the glow sticks, but Argent's smile drops from her face and she straightens up. Zhen reflexively mirrors her, quirking an eyebrow.

"I cheat," Argent says into the quiet between them. "That's how I got here."

Normally, when she says something along those lines, what Argent means by "here" is "running a faction that could take down one of the Immortal King's advisors and put me on the throne", but...that's not what it feels like, this time. Argent's eyes are unfocused for a second, like she's seeing something that's not here. Zhen doesn't wait for her to come back. Usually, Argent getting trapped in her mind is not something to be allowed.

"Yeah, you cheat. Steal people's Monopoly money when they're not looking, don't you?" Zhen taps her fingers against her glow stick impatiently. "Get to the point, old woman."

Argent blinks a couple times before narrowing her eyes into a faux-annoyed glare. "Brat," she responds, and then flicks the lights on as she tosses something at Zhen. The sudden brightness leaves spots in her eyes, but Zhen still catches the thing anyway. She'd be a shitty operative if a little blindness put her out of commission.

It's about the size of her thumb but as thin as a sheet of paper, shining with rainbow circuits as she tilts the thing back and forth. Pretty, but fragile. She'd probably break it if she dropped it a centimeter off the ground.

"So you gave me tech? To...cheat Interfacing?" She frowns. "I'm going to fry this thing the moment you try and get me to use my magic on it. It's going to explode. It's so tiny, too, it's not built to handle anomalies."

Argent whacks her upside the head. Zhen makes a show out of it, skittering backwards and hissing. Goddamn, she did not wake up this early to be abused like this. "You aren't meant to use your powers on it, idiot," Argent says, and holds out a hand for the thing. With a touch more reluctance than perhaps warranted, Zhen passes it back over. No matter how much it's going to explode when she really gets going, it's pretty, and she likes pretty things.

"So if I'm not meant to Interface with it and blow it to high heaven, what exactly do you want me to do with it?" Zhen leans back against the kitchen table, raising an eyebrow at Argent. "Ask it nicely to open secret doors for me?"