whitemage: (The Great Electro Bird)
Well Aimed Chaos ([personal profile] whitemage) wrote in [community profile] rainbowfic2013-08-04 09:15 pm

Fever Red #10, Angel Cake #19, Fire Opal #17

Name: Ardy
Piece/Story: Powers That Be/Storm Wings
Colors: Fever Red 10 (sore throat); Angel Cake 19 (sky); Fire Opal 17 (like a hurricane)
Styles/Supplies: Graffiti (Fever Red and Fire Opal for Summer of Whump); Yarn (August 3)
Word Count: 1323
Ratings/Warnings: PG - language; fighting. No standard warnings apply
Notes: I have a little collection of previous pieces for this universe, but they are scattered all over my journal and another writing comm; so this is sort of somewhere in the middle of the story with no context - sorry. :D;;; Also, a tag for Storm Wings, please and thank you?

My eyes opened, and the stars of the night sky spread out overhead. I think my groan was audible--at least to my ears. It was a kind of experimental breath, an attempt at making a sound. Was I still alive? Should I be dead?

Over me was the Bear--Ursa major. I close my eyes again and I can hear my grandmother softly weaving a story for me. There is a bear before me as she speaks, each joint a point of light, but it melts into nothing more than two galaxies trapped in each other’s gravitation. And the twins fought, she says, and still fight to this day.

‘This day,’ I was in an airplane. And we didn’t land: we crashed. That’s why I’m in this damned uncomfortable position. That’s why everything hurts.

I can remember take off, growing unease--turbulence.

Concerned faces from the flight attendants.

“Hey.... Inez?” Joelle never used my given name, and that made the fear in her voice hit harder. “What... exactly was your premonition about this flight? I don’t think you told me...”

I gritted my teeth, gripping the seats as we spun, sending some flying and everyone screaming. “We’re going to crash.”

She shot me a look of teenage disapproval. “And you booked us passage on it?”

“Hey, you said you wanted to be a superhero.” I forced a laugh, still scrambling for a plan. Lightning flashed past the window, but I didn’t hear the customary screech I was searching for. Where was the bird?

I could feel the eye rolling. She gripped her laptop. “From now on, I’m the brains and you’re the brawn. Got it?”

I never did answer her. Come to think of it, where was she? I was laying across our entire row of seats...

Rolling up, I was quickly back down on my knees. Pain spiraled around me then came to a point, where I heaved what was basically water. I hadn’t eaten since I had the dream: a plane being crushed by a python...

Not important: where is Jo? Shit. “Joelle!” I raised up as best I could, my ribs protesting. “JOELLE!’ I buried urgency under the tone of a drill master.

Wow, that took you long enough...” A feminine voice slithered into my ear like a serpent’s tongue: Kyla. “I’ve been waiting.”

I cracked my neck, fighting a host of injuries to focus the slow burn of growing anger. I stayed silent as angry recognition grew. So the Serpent hadn’t been a ploy to keep me compliant.

Kyla chuckled. “How does it feel knowing you couldn’t save them?” I could see her now, gesturing at the wreckage. Something in my mind let know it was more horrific than twisted aluminum and vinyl cinders, but my eyes wouldn’t confirm it. Instead, they tracked the figure in front of me, still in her black security uniform, but with a strange badge over where the research lab’s insignia had been ripped off. “How does it feel knowing you can’t save her?”

She held up Jo’s laptop--open--running, twisting it around into a tablet. She held it out to me, and I couldn’t understand at first, until the code started running. She’d uploaded herself right before we hit. Suddenly the screen blanked to scroll words: up, trick, storm

Where had the storm gone? The night was so clear.

Kyla’s smile faded. Heels crunched smartly to a nearby exposed rock where she let the laptop hang from one hand. “Aren’t you going to answer? Aren’t you going to plead? Do you think I won’t do it? Look around you, at how many I’ve already killed tonight.”

Hey, self? Get the laptop. Find Jo’s body. Get Jo back in her body.

Something prickled along the back of my neck. Finally, something was headed this way.

“Gee, that’s humble.” New plan: kill Kyla.

“Hey, if you’ve got it....” And I used to think that smirk was cute.

But I’ve got it. The storm is coming from my own heart. I can feel power flooding through my veins, reconnecting sinew, knitting bones, healing muscles. There is a building rumble, and it doesn’t surprise me that, this time, the Thunderbird’s shriek comes from my own throat. I scream, and the blast kicks dust, shakes the wreckage. Kyla stumbles, fumbling the laptop. I wipe dried blood off my face onto an already ruined flannel sleeve.

“Oh, good: we get to play.” She gently sets down the laptop, watching me like a cat. I didn’t realize how close to the river we are until she gestures, and something uncoils itself in a rush over her head. It is large, it is horned, it is serpentine: it is death given a mouth.

Her control is perfect. The bond she has with the Serpent further pisses me off, because I’m jealous. And a little guilty, for all the times I’ve pushed the Thunderbird away. She doesn’t have the fear I have towards this power.

Rumbling, it rolled its weight, rocking the river and shaking the ground back at me. A wave doused me, and I dropped low. Time to lose the last of my reverence, or end up with my ass kicked.

My enemies held still, glancing around at the odd tension. I drowned my worries, set fire to my fears. Nothing else existed except gathering clouds at the sizzle of colliding air fronts. I tensed and flexed, and the sky moved with me.

The Serpent swooped down to shield Kyla, and I jumped, stomping down hard in my steel-toed boots. The ground shook in rippling circles. She shouted. It was powerful, being a fixed center that radiated chaos.

Again, I focused my strength, this time more easily. I only had to set my foot down for the same effect. Boom.

My face crackled in a thin smile.

They got their bearings and struck. I ran into their path, throwing a bar brawl worthy punch. Just before it connected, I felt the presence of the great bird catch the attention of its old foe. The clouds rolled in, and Kyla laughed in a way that was hysterics.

I silenced her when my fist slammed into her cheek. Time had been crawling, but now it ran, with us fighting on the river bank as the spirits fought above our heads, each of their blows a bolt of lightning.

I managed to grab her throat and squeeze, but she went limp, pointing upwards with a fierce smile. Stupidly following her gaze, I watched the Serpent grab the Thunderbird by the neck, dragging it towards the water. “No!”

Yes.” The voice was a hiss in my ear as she wrapped around me. My own throat burned as the giant snake clamped down, and I couldn’t get a breath or make a sound. She was pulling me to the river through sheets of rain. The storm raged, but I had still failed.

As my thoughts grew darker, the rain came down heavier. It felt like Kyla let me go, but I was still falling. Suddenly, a feminine brown hand appeared in front of me. I reached out to it, and our fingers looked like the trailing arms of galaxies before we locked grip. I was jerked onto the back of the Serpent, where a young woman in a blue jingle dress was dancing. The rain kept time with her turns. The Serpent roared. When Kyla attacked her, I moved to defend, but the girl struck her with a fan, then grabbed my waist.

There was the image of the Thunderbird beating the Serpent back down in the water with a final call, but we were solidly on land again. The storm broke, rain stopped, spirits and Kyla disappeared. I stared at the stranger.

“Heyo!” Her manner was downright bubbly. “Was that all you needed? I’ve got somewhere to be, coz.”
kay_brooke: Stick drawing of a linked adenine and thymine molecule with text "DNA: my OTP" (Default)

[personal profile] kay_brooke 2013-08-05 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, interesting battle! And interesting outcome...who is this new person at the end?
finch: (Default)

[personal profile] finch 2013-08-07 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
I love this for obvious reasons. And also for the way you wrote her despair.
bookblather: A picture of Yomiko Readman looking at books with the text "bookgasm." (Default)

[personal profile] bookblather 2013-08-10 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
*wibbles*

I love the way that you wrote this, moving from the plane crash to this fight to someone entirely new showing up, and keeping the tension high every time. Can't wait to see what's next.