Neko-laus 2 : Toy Tiger

Chapter Eleven: Testing, Testing

I had never hated a color before but grey was getting there. I was in grey. The walls were grey. The furniture was grey. Even though Mack had flaming red hair, he was washed out by grey. It was as if these uniforms were designed to fade the wearer out. To make them seem like less than a person. Fuck, I hated this lack of color.

“Greetings Neko-laus.” Mother’s voice was calm and pleasant

“Yeah, breakfast.”

“Follow the lighted squares to the dining hall.” Mother’s voice was soothing.

“’Kay.”

I could feel Mack’s eyes on me. Considering how adversarial I was to the computer yesterday, I guess I could see why he was waiting for me to have a little freak out. I’d save my freak outs for later. Right now, I was hungry.

Just as much food materialized before me. I was able to see the actual power up of the table by the increase in energy. Not that I don’t enjoy food, hell I love to linger over a good meal with good friends and good booze but right at this moment. It was fuel. I was going into battle at a disadvantage. I’d been down how many weeks with space sickness. I’d been down in a drug induced stupor as part of the cure. I’d been assaulted latency wise and sleep was a forgone conclusion once I had Maggie’s engine primed. A quick smile crossed my face as I downed my coffee. Once he got over his fear, I think I might have myself a natural catcher.

“Sarah and Conrad are here. Mage Daw is on her way.”

I finished shovelling the things I took to be eggs into my mouth then stood. “Thank you Mother. It was delicious.”

“Neko-laus one de-merit point has been removed from your record.”

Hmmm? That was interesting, but not something I really gave a shit about. I swiped at my mouth with the napkin then headed for the training room. I needed to try this out with Sarah first. This Daw would just interfere if I wasn’t ready.

Sarah was standing in the middle of the room looking down at the pylon that we all ended up scattered around the day before. Her Groom wasn’t pacing physically but I could feel his agigation energy from the entry way. Sarah must have felt me because her head popped up and she turned towards me. I shifted my vision and saw the color of her aura easily but the spectral girl wasn’t there. This just solidified my theory.

“What do you think your doing? You were sanctioned, Neko-laus!” Conrad didn’t like me. He was very protective of his charge which was a good thing, but he was part of the reason that she was the way she is.

I lifted my hand, palm out and Sarah easily slipped passed Conrad’s late grab. As soon as we were physically connected, the true Sarah overlaid the physical form like a transparent sheet.

“Greetings, Sarah.”

“Nicky. I’m sorry. You look like a raccoon.”

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s a rodent.”

“Well, thanks, I guess.”

“I mean your two black eyes. How’s your nose?”

“Tender.”

“I heard you have to battle today.” Sarah’s face saddened. “You’re first one is always hard.”

I shook my head. “It’s not my first. Mags and I did a little dance back in...on my planet?”

“You didn’t fade?”

“That’s why I asked you here. I don’t think that any of us Latents need to fade. Sarah, can you see my colors?” I watched as she cocked her head then blinked.

“Pretty.”

“Every Latent and every Mage has their own color, their own power. When Latent and Mage work together, their colors blend. I see all of the latents colors and every single one of you has...faded. I think it’s because you gave your Mage your personal power, your personal color instead of drawing it from another source. You did that yesterday. You combined all your powers and tried to give it to me.”
“I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay. I think you showed me how to battle without the fear of fading. I want to show it to you. If you don’t want to...”

“Show me, Nicky.”

“Yesterday, you gave me all your power and it was too much for me. I gave it to the pylon and the pylon is connected to an energy grid.” I turned Sarah around, our hands were now clasped together at her breast and I stepped up tight against her back. “That is just like my aura – it has its own color and it’s like water in a flowing stream.”

I pointed to a line across the floor.

“Red?”

“Yes. Look around the training room. Follow the stream.”

Sarah began tracing the power grid with her hand. She was pretty accurate so I sure that she just wasn’t trying to make me proud of her. I leaned over her shoulder close to her ear. “Watch what I do. This is why they call us Latents.”

I didn’t need any hand motions or arm movements to draw the energy towards me but this would be the first time that she was seeing something like this. I moved my hand in a simple conjuring basic move and pulled energy to us. It was a thin thread less than 1% of what I could call. I drew it to us and slowly allowed it to circle us. “We can call energy streams. Natural and Manmade. We can turn things on or off if it is a direct current. If it is a switch, then that is Mage work. Hold out your hand. I’m going to give this to you.”

“It tickles.”

I stepped back slightly and moved around until I was standing beside her, our hands still clasped. “Can you send it to me?”

“Send it?”

“Push it to me, make it flow through your body.”

“I can’t”

“It’s the same thing that you did yesterday. Only this time, you know you are doing it. It’s just like water. Push it toward me, make it a wave.”

Sarah was a little more talented that I expected. She slapped me hard with her wave of power and it wasn’t her personal talent that staggered me. She was drawing directly from the grid. So, yes. This meant that all Latents could do this but this just pointed out that what my Mom had taught me and what I had learned on my own was way beyond what the Mage Division understood.

“Nicky?” There was worry in her voice.

“I’m good. You’re just better than I thought. I’m going to push it back towards you. Let it flow back to the grid.” I slowed the flow and made it a gentle rise. I could feel her struggle for a moment as the power built up within her then it was like a plug was pulled and the power began to drain off.

“I’m doing it!”

“Yes you are. I’m going to let go of your hand now. I want you to throw me that strand of power. I don’t want your personal aura. When you use your aura, you fade. Pick up a power source. Let it flow through you to me. Okay?”

Sarah’s hand tightened around mine then slowly she unclenched her fingers. As soon as our hands separated it was as if I fell into the middle of a bar fight. All my concentration had been with Sarah so I didn’t know that Conrad and Mack were shoving each other back and forth. Elway was there in all his massive glory looking rather amused at the whole thing.

Mage Daw walked in and she immediately jumped into an aura spike. I didn’t expect that hard of a reaction from Sarah’s mage and it took me off guard which then left me wide open when Sarah actually hit me with a power line. I staggered back and collided with a pylon. I ended up flat on my ass. The only thing hurt on me was my pride but I did learn that you could remotely attach a mage to power.

“What the hell is going on here!” Crap Daw was zeroing in on me. I threw Sarah’s line to Daw. I can’t say it wasn’t funny to see Daw get knocked back into the wall and down to the floor. Okay, I can do it too.

I got picked up by the back of my uniform and set back on my feet. Damn Elway is strong. “What are you doing here?”

“A disturbance was reported on Latent level. I figured it was ya. How the hell was I to know two Grooms were bitch slapping each other?”

“When the hell did that happen?”

“Don’t know. Ya and the pretty chickie were staring into each others eyes saying nothing and those two were tossing insults. The Daw goes boom.”

“NICKY!” Mags showed up at the door his face flushed. What the? I’m getting blamed for everything around here. Who the hell took the rap when I wasn’t around?

“Catch.” I drew on the grid, and funnelled it through me then tossed it hard at King Ass. I had secretly hoped that he would do a carbon copy of Mage Daw but he just took on step back. He turned his blue eyes towards me rather surprised. “Release.”

I drew back the energy from him. It was reversing the flow. It was still hard enough that he staggered toward me a few steps. I pushed everything back to the grid. After Daw’s went boom on the floor, Sarah cut the feed and had figured out how to get clear. I bowed my head in her direction and walked up to my own Mage of nightly delights.

“Nicky.”

I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and dragged him down for a hard manly kiss. I kept it up until I got a little moan out of him. “Hey there sweet cheeks. I didn’t get a good morning kiss. How’s your ass?”

“What the hell are you doing?” Mags closed a fist around the front of my shirt and dragged me hard up against him. “What did you just do?”

“I have just figured out a way to make sure you don’t kill me out on the battlefield.”

Mags stilled.

“Say thank you.”

“Nicky...really?”

“Really, really.” I shifted my bangs with a flick of my head enough to give him a wink.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end as mage power began to build. Mags whipped me behind him fast and brought his hands up in a defensive spell. Daws was up and man she was pissed.

“Your fucking stray attacked my Latent, Magnus.” Daw screamed at us. Well at Mags.

“I see your lessons in refinement aren’t working out for you Helena.” Oh that tone of entitlement came back to his voice really quick.

“NO!” Sarah stood between the two mages with her arms open wide. “No.”

One would have thought that a bomb had gone off. The slapfest ended. The sudden build up of Mage bravado evaporated into the ether.

“...Sarah...” Conrad let Mack go and rushed up to her side. The expression on Helena’s face was pained and happy at the same time. Sort of like your friend you haven’t seen in a long time accidently kneeing you in the groin as they came to hug you.

I grabbed Mags shoulder and pulled him after me out into the corridor. Elway gave Mack a head nod to the exit and followed us.

“Nicky what are you...” Mags pulled free and turned to me.

I left Mags talking to thin air. I booked down the hall as fast as I could. I heard footsteps hard on my heels. I have no problem retreating when the getting gets good. One majorly pissed off mage is bad. Mags egging her on wasn’t great either. I hit the elevator button and jumped in when the doors slid back. Elway shouldered me out of the way and I bounced back first off the side wall. Mags jumped in then turned to see Mack running towards us. He barely slipped into the car as the doors closed.

I reached out and turned his face toward me. He had been clawed, badly. Four parallel lines were bleeding on his cheek. “I am going to have to teach you how to fight, Mack. This is just sad.”

“Shut up.” Mack touched his cheek.

“I get a report that there is...”

Mags squeaked as I jumped him. He wasn’t ready for it and bounced off Elway. I wrapped a hand around his neck and dragged a kiss from his lips. When he tried to talk, I plugged my tongue into his mouth. It was shamefully easy to distract him. When his eyes were glazed, I pulled back slightly.

“Good morning.”

“...Nicky...”

I kissed him again. “You never answered my question, Maggie.”

“Question?” My tattoo flared to life. “What was that?”

“How’s your ass?”

Elway groaned and turned to the wall. “There are others in the car here, Sirs.”

“My ass is fine. Now, what you said back there. Is it true?” There was pure worry in his eyes. He had already killed five Latents and I seriously doubted that he was bedding any of them. So much power. So much responsibility. So unsure and unable to express it.

I matched his gaze evenly. “Mags, you and I are not the ones who are going to die today.”

Mags wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “Don’t fade on me. Don’t die on me. I can’t go on alone.”

I knew Mack and Elway heard it but both of them chose to keep silent. Mages are invincible. They are above the general population. They deserve their air of entitlement. They are not supposed to need...what the hell did Daw call me...oh yeah, fucking strays.

“I’m not going anywhere, Mags.” As long as I could find and draw on an energy source, I had no plans on going anywhere.

_________________________________

Next up - the battle

Not kidding this time.

Here's some news for youse. Cake is published! I have also found all the LEVS stories as downloadable pdfs in English and Russian! Not happy with it. I contacted the download host and complained. They said give them legal papers and then they'll do something about it. I tried to email the girl who uploaded the *crappy* pdfs but her email is hidden. I left notes in her reviews section asking her to remove them because for now they are still available here at AFF. Nothing. I guess it's my fault for sharing work; people have said someone would steal it. I guess I should be grateful it's still being accredited to me and they are giving it away, not selling it. I'm leaving it up to the publishers who hold the copyrights to shut them down. Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Cake: Blood Nation is 100x better than the first draft.