Fiction: Stormwolf and Basalt
Aug. 3rd, 2010 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI had him on a clock. I could set up a lightning strike in a couple of minutes, but he looked stronger and faster, I'd have to last out till then. I'd been tweaking the air pressure down bit by bit as fast as I'd dared since Magmae suggested the match, and as soon as the match started. That felt fair, and more to the point, felt dramatic.
He was doing some basic stretches, and as he moved, his flesh seemed to flex and boom like stone. I expected he'd be that hard underneath. I recognised some of the stretches; I expected he'd had some training.
I clapped my fists together a few times, and little sparks shot out. He didn't notice, but Magmae smiled, and I smirked back. Maybe I couldn't take him, but that had to be impressive. For that matter, even if he got me down, and I might be able to draw out submission long enough to nail him. It wouldn't be pleasant if I was lying under him when the lightning struck, but I thought I could survive it.
I glanced at Magmae. "Full out. You're sure? I might not be able to touch him" -- a bit of modesty -- "but I might kill him in a second if I get the right shot."
Magmae smiled. She hadn't asked exactly what my powers were, but she had to have some idea, and she had to know it couldn't always be safe. She glanced at doc, the skinny green-skaled man in a dark robe.
He cocked his head. "It's fine," he said, and patted the shoulder of a middle-aged man in a sky-blue jump-suit a gold ring high on its chest. "Go all out. We can avert it before it becomes fatal, even if there's no warning. My word."
"And--" added Magmae, "even if it is, someone here may still be able to fix it. Worried, James?"
I shook my head, declining to be further distracted. "Call it."
She strode into the middle of the ring, and Basalt looked up. "All ready?" She barely waited for us to nod, then called quickly "OK. Three-two-one-ready-GO!" There was an enormous crash and the island lurched, and she leapt gracefully backwards out of the improvised ring.
It shook me for a moment, and something whistled past my ear. Maybe I should have seen it coming, I knew Magmae flew the island, and I could see at a glance she had a flair for the dramatic. Basalt had taken the opportunity to project... something at me from a dramatic martial-arts strike, but now he was settled into a stance and circling slowly.
I'd lost the big moment, but made the move. The air pressure dropped like a stone. Eveeryone felt it, a shivery premonition, and ears popping, and the air suddenly chilled. Clouds would be forming above, even at these altitudes. Basalt looked gratifyingly respectful. Even if he didn't know what it was, he could see it was something big.
I tried to think without losing concentration. Everyone else had staggered, but no-one seemed surprised. They must bolt down an awful lot of things around here, but I guess they probably had to anyway. If Magmae stubbed her toe, would the whole island lurch? I didn't really want to know.
Basalt might have been able to nail me in that first moment, if he knew it was coming and I didn't, but he had as much of an eye on the dramatics as I did. He wanted to--
He'd feinted forward, blurring forward with no warning, in a classic fighting pose, but with a fist still a foot outside my reach. I'd tensed, but not moved, ready to block and try a foot-sweep or stomach blow if he came in close enough.
I continued circiling. He wanted to see what training I'd had, if I'd have dodged before I needed to. He probably could have won in the first half-second, but he didn't want to, any more than I did. Learning was the name of the game, and putting on a good show. He wanted to test me, and I him. Something doc said came back to me. _Could_ he take a lightning strike, or more than one?
Clouds were forming overhead, though there was definite mist in the air and a definite breeze. I flexed the air pressure, and the breeze came and went. I didn't think rain would help -- the stone floor would get slippy, but not muddy, and I might be able to move better than him, but it wouldn't help me stay clear of him, quite the opposite.
But wind might help, depending what exactly he'd thrown at me. If it could be deflected, or even if he could just be joslted as he threw it, it might help. If I stayed clear.
He must have been wondering. Stay clear, and hope to blast me, or close, and hope he could subdue me quicker. He must have seen something in my face, and wanted to move things along. That was wise of him.
I felt the air pressure, and to hell with it. There was a crack, and some sheet lightning. Only faint, I'd not wasted much of the build up, but it felt dramatic. I also let a slight rain start to fall. It didn't help, but I liked it.
Basalt glanced at my face, and I moved. Now I lunged forward, step slide step STRIKE step and I was flying backwards. He'd parried on pure instinct, barely clipping my arm, but was strong, really strong. He wasn't bluffing with the stance, he was't just strong, he was trained as well.
I pushed away the urge to feel my arm. It had felt like striking brick, or rock, which was something like what I thought.
I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Maybe I didn't want to close with him, but if he knew that, he'd definitely want to close with me. In a clench, or worse groundwork, I thought he'd pulverize me in seconds. But on the other hand, it felt like most people would have lost half their arm just from that block, and if I hadn't then for all he knew, maybe I was even stronger than I looked. Who knew?
He studied me, and I felt sure he was going to try a long range strike again. I brought the wind up a bit, and got ready to surge it. If he really wanted to win, he'd probably close hard and fast, whatever the chances were, but if he wanted to learn, he'd try a bit of one thing, then a bit more of the other.
And a long-range strike was safer for him. Well, apart from the incipient lightning, but I hoped he'd forgotten about that.
I looked into his eyes. Should I try taunting him? He was good enough, if I seemed to be baiting him, he'd probably not rush me when he thought I was expecting it, and I might be able to keep up a steady stream of moments when he ought to rush me.
Suddenly I saw a tiny movement in the corner of my eye. I shouldn't even have noticed, but I did. Doc had just twisted his scaly head a little in his hood. Was that a shake of the head? His chin dipped. _Doc_, I thought, _can you hear me?_
I strained to keep my eyes on Basalt, and keep moving, but flick my eyes to doc as well. He nodded. I shouldn't bait him? Pause. Shake. Wait, that was ambiguous. Damn, I needed to keep my eyes on Basalt.
I should talk to him? Nod. I looked away from doc. "Hey, Basalt," He didn't react.
What could I say? I wanted to play this straight. No trash-talk. No talk about powers, probably. Chit-chat probably wouldn't help. The air pressure was dropping fast, I'd be able to hit him in another minute. Well, I'd roll the dice. "I'll have you in another minute. You should probably try to finish me first."
There. Straight-up. Chivalry always played well to the crowd. It was the perfect line, perfectly true, but I bet it'd make him hesitate.
I paused, circled the other way. "We should try it in a dojo, later. No powers, and go easy on me. Straight-up judo. You can probably still beat me."
Hah, there. Lulling him. He wasn't reacting, which made me like him better. He was good. He was going to-- There. Duck, side, leap. Stance. He'd thrown another punch from where he was, and a quick two more, each a bolt of air seemingly gone solid like rock.
I couldn't quite tell what it was, as I'd dodged it, and couldn't see it, but momentarily it seemed the air had turned to rock the same way his flesh did when he flexed. One at my head, and I'd ducked, and then leapt to the side as another had gone straight for my centre of mass. If I'd not kept my weight balanced I might not have been able to move. The last bolt had gone to the side, but the other side than I'd jumped. I moved further round and glanced behind me, briefly. A bunch of people had astutely moved aside from directly behind me. In front of one, some sort of energy shield still glimmered slightly as it faded away. And in the middle, on the floor, there was a small crater where a bolt had hit the floor.
Ouch. And he hadn't even tried to avoid the crowd.
But it suited me. I'd let him take the first shot to see what he could do, confident I could dodge it, though I hadn't expect three bolts. I expected more now, probably one, and then when he saw which way I'd dodged a barrage of as many as I could manage.
I paused. I was in front of the sun, though it was behind the clouds. He probably didn't think it mattered, but I shifted the pressure, and a gap in the clouds opened up, and closed, and openened, and I saw the light on his face, and knew it made me just that bit harder to see.
And with that, maybe he wouldn't see the next thing. I raised the wind a little more, and waited. Feign a distraction? No, that was too much at this point. He'd do it, any second, I just had to be ready. I watched his arms, and tried to relax, ready to react.
There. Poised, I sprang forward and to the side, giving the wind the biggest gust I could manage, a true howling gale for just a moment, forward and down. It threw his aim of slightly, and hurled me forward. I'd barely missed the bolt, and rolled as the wind helped my back down to earth. I didn't see the next bolt, but it cracked over my head, and I was rolling to the other side, and then running forward again. That had me off balance if he could dodge, but I had to show some offense or my big finish would look really weak.
Another pair of bolts came right at me, but I saw how he had his hands, and twisted. One clipped me, a brick of pain, and I bounced off the other, but in the moment when the wavefront had passed it felt solid, but not moving. It really was solid air.
I staggered, but leapt forward. I really didn't want to close with him, but it was definitely the best thing to do. He'd brought his hands together for a wider, stronger bolt, and paused for a fraction of a second, lining it up on me and waiting for the point in my stride when I had the least balance to dodge. He'd really practiced this.
I didn't move, hoping he'd swing it wide one way or the other. He did, a little, but it was still pretty centred on my centre of mass. I blocked, knocking it aside. I still didn't know if that was possible, but it worked. I caught the massive bolt right on the cusp, and there was a big crack, and it ricoched away and up.
My forearm was pulverised, but I didn't feel that until later. I was still moving forward right into the bolt as I deflected it and I had a small window as Basalt recovered from his big push. I came straight in, closing with my body, then lunging forward with my fist, aiming for a spot on his stomach not covered by his arms.
He blocked, but not quite fast enough. I don't know why, hitting his stomach was like hitting a brick wall. It broke half my hand. But I had the initiative. I had another blow with the other elbow, above the smashed forearm, into his inner thigh, and it met soft flesh for a moment before hitting rock underneath.
He wasn't _all_ rock, if I hit him fast enough he'd still be vulnerable. His fist swung down at my head, and I knew it'd crush it like the pavement. He probably didn't even have to connect, it'd be another bolt coming out when the fist stopped. I twisted to one side, and surged upward, striking again with my mangled hand into his stomach, and the side of my foot into the back of his knee.
Both met soft flesh and I felt him grunting, but I was still in too close, way too close. I brought another elbow round, but the other fist caught me in the side and I was hurled back across the ring again, harder than any human could possibly throw me. Which gave me my only chance.
I staggered to my knees, and he was rushing me, but slightly more cautiously than he might. I slumped back, and he hesitated, seeing me not ready to fight.
"Ready?" I called, and he nodded warily. That was all I needed. I concentrated, and the sky smashed, and there was a lightning flash right there, afterimage burned on my eyes, outlining Basalt.
He looked to be stone all over for a moment, but clothes and skin charred and ashy. I remembered doc's advice. No-one seemed to be stopping the fight, and I'd thought he might be able to take more than one. But I could give him more than one.
I waited to see if he moved, and as soon as he began to take a step forward I concentrated again, and another lightning bolt cracked down, and then another and another and another, all in rapid succession. The reserve only had a couple more, but the second had been enough.
He was toppling over, smoking, and looking like cracked rock and singed flesh. I felt momentarily sick, but then Magmae was shouting "over" and blue-jumpsuit was running into the ring to touch Basalt.
There was some crackling and an egg of blue sparks surround the guy, and he started to keel back _up_ again. Bit of sand jumped in the air and started to join back onto him. It was silent, but there were more flashes from inside the sparks, and each healed his costume a bit, and in a second he was standing up, swaying slightly, looking just as he had after the first bolt.
"Doc," called blue jumpsuit. "Shall I undo the first bolt?"
The little green lizard man skittered over to him. "No, that seems about right. Don't push it too far, he has to know he lost." Doc looked at him. "I think he took that one ok."
Basalt was still swaying, but I squinted at him. He wasn't swaying as such: the same fraction of a second when he'd started to step forward was replaying, forward, then backwards, then forwards again.
"Can I let him go? I don't want him to pound me," said blue jumpsuit.
"You know I can't--" Doc paused and cocked his head. "Yes, it's ok, let him go."
Blue jumpsuit stepped back, and Basalt stepped forward, ready to continue the fight, and then blinked, seeing doc in front of him, and Magmae walking up to me, and the crowd generally milling forward with excitement.
I had to act fast. I strode forward and grabbed his hand in a firm shake. He hesitated a moment, and then looked down at my hand.
"Man, I was about to squeeze, but it's busted, isn't it." Good point, I'd almost forgotten. But I didn't want a grudge, I wanted a friend. But he was going right on. "Chronegg," he addressed Blue Jumpsuit and nodded to the hand. "Can you?"
Chronegg looked at me. "Yes, yes, I think so. Hold it out, quickly now. Be very still." I did it, and suddenly a corona of blue sparks enveloped it. It felt really, really weird.
Chronegg shifted his hands about, and seemed to be concentrating. He was muttering helpfully. "Even a few seconds longer, and it's really difficult." I suddenly had a queasy vision of blood running the wrong way around my veins, and nerve impulses running the the wrong way down my arm, and suddenly wasn't sure if this was a good idea. But Basalt was smiling, and it had to be worth it.
Then, Chronegg stopped, and I looked at my hand. It was whole. I took a deep breath. I turned to Basalt. "Hey, can he do my arm and ribs as well?"
"Oh, no, no," began Chronegg. "I'm sorry. The hand was difficult enough. The arm is older, it's probably too long, and the ribs, no, no." He shook his head. "Right around your heart? It would be--"
I cut him off quickly. "Well, thank you so much, doctor." Why doctor? Medical or scientific? I don't know, but it felt right. "Doc" was a much spread acclamation among mutants, though there was only _one_ "doc". I turned to take in Basalt. "Thank you, both of you."
"Not at all!" cried Chronegg. "In fact, I'm sure there's a healer somewhere in the crowd. There normally is. Doc would probably have stopped the fight earlier if there wasn't." I gave doc a hard look. But Chronegg was right, if my arm could be healed, I didn't care, and I wouldn't have liked to wimp out earlier. "A healer for both of you," he added, looking at Basalt's slightly charred form.
I smiled, and held his charred forearm briefly. "Are you alright, man? It _was_ lightning."
He smiled back. "Yeah, I can take it." Faux-tough-man. I liked it.
We strolled back over to Magmae and Doc, dragged Chronegg in our wake.
She was clappig girlishly. "Oh, magnifique! Magnifique! James. Adam. You see, James? Our enforcer is where it's at." I thought I'd won, but I wasn't going to quibble. There'd been a dozen points where either of us might have overwhelmed the other even sooner.
"Uh, Magmae," I coughed, and gestured weakly with my weak arm. "Do you have a healer of any sort round here?"
"Oh, my boy, I'm sorry. Adam, why didn't you say something?" But she didn't wait for an answer. "Doc, who's on duty this evening? No, wait. Petra, Sampai, can you bring Chrystalline over here?"
The crowd parted, and two people helped heft a giant dodecahedral green crystal and carry it towards them. They set it gently on the ground, and Magmae squatted down and tapped it gently.
"Chrystalline? Are you awake?"
The crystal shook, and started to crack. Each fissure was accompanied by a single-pitched hum, until it steadied, and the whole thing sounded like a ethereal bagpipe. A face formed in front, and arms and legs, until it was half-formed into a crouching androgonous figure, still formed entirely from crystal.
"I am entirely aware, as always." The crystal shook a little. "Stormwolf, I am" -- a humming noise-- "pleased to meet you. Stormwolf, Basalt, congratulations on your mano a mano." The crystal shuddered again, and then the face and left side collapsed back into a crystal, which rocked a little.
Magmae reached forward impatiently again, but doc grabbed her arm and she drew back. "Chrystalline? Are you ok? We'd really like you to heal James and Adam if you can."
I leaned towards doc, and whispered "What's, uh, with Chrystalline?"
Doc spoke clearly so Chrystalline could hear. "Chrystalline brings things back into physical alignment. They can knit your ribs together the way they go most naturally -- which with a little skill and a small amount of luck will be the way that supports your nice chest. And as long as they don't go too far and turn you into a crystal like that. A crystal, a regular lattice of atoms, is the greatest, simplest form of order. Chrystalline can, with sufficient effort, become a _different_ crystal lattice: square, octahedral, dodecahedral--" he hesitated. "That is, cubical, eight-sided, et cetera. But they can only temporarily assume any _other_ form."
There was another eruption from Chrystalline, and their face and arms formed again, at the expense of their lower half becoming a squat octangonal pillar. "Please desist from tapping me." But, as far as I could tell, Chrystalline really liked Magmae, and didn't mind when she did it.
"Thank you, doc. James, please demonstrate? Give me your arm." Basalt stepped forward and held his upper arm out to Chrystalline whose two green-crystal hands reached forward in a series of sharp angular movements, and clasped the arm carefully.
There was a sudden series of gonging sounds, and a wave of stone-texture spread out from Chrystalline's hands down Basalt's arm and up across his chest. The skin looked the same, but suddenly looked as if it were covering only rock, which hardened and hardened into broken-hexagon pattens like cooling lava, and chrystalline quickly took their hands away. The skin quickly flowed back to normal, but looking clean and fresh and healed.
Basalt shook himself. "Man, that feels good. He added formally, "Thank you," and expectantly held out his other arm. Chrystalline repeated the procedure, and then did the same on his legs, and then a number of small touches on any parts of still unhealed skin, obviously keeping the effect clear of internal organs.
When they seemed to be done, I stepped forward. "Chrystalline? You can do that to me? You can mend my ribs without--" I hesitated-- "stopping my heart?" It sounded stupid to ask like that, but I couldn't just do it without asking.
Chrystalline looked straight-forwardly at me. "Yes."
It was obviously an effort for them to speak, and I didn't try to chat further, but said "Thank you," and stepped forward. Chrystalline put their hands carefully on my chest, and I tensed, and a moment later my head was ringing, and my chest felt sore and stretched, like it had a week of intense massage in a second. But the worrying pain had gone, and I stopped worrying I'd had anything worse than a crack.
Chrystalline repeated the procedure on my bad arm, and then the crowd generally began to feel the show was over, and that it was time for Important People Talk.
Crystalline waved to the people who'd carried them before, one muscled, one slim, and both with slightly scaled, snakey skin. "Kind assistants, I need to retreat to my room soon. Would you mind assisting me? Rolling me is quite sufficient." And with that, Chrystalline shuddered and collapsed back to the dodecahedral form.
The others began to drift away, leaving Magmae, Chronegg, doc and Basalt with me. I turned forcefully to doc. Should I conceal that he'd spoken to me during the fight? I didn't want Basalt to know exactly what I'd thought, but I didn't think hiding it would be good either. I wasn't exactly sure what doc did. "Did you read my thoughts during the fight?"
He cocked his head. "No. Not exactly. I had a..." he paused, "a feeling, what you wanted." I'd later learn this was an exaggeration. He'd had a feeling that nodding would produce the _result_ he wanted, but didn't know what I was actually thinking.
I pressed. "_Can_ you read thoughts?"
"Oh, no. Not really--"
Magmae cut in. "He can see the future."
Doc coughed ostentatiously. "Now, dear. I like to maintain at least a little mystique." He cocked his head and glared at me, as best as I could tell with the lizard-eyes, and said "So don't tell anyone, ok?"
I got a bad feeling that he knew I wouldn't, ever, and felt queasy. But I didn't say anything. Then I realised something, and looked in confusion at Chronegg, still slumped on the floor in the middle of the conversation. "But..."
He looked up at me. "Oh, yes. Time is _my_ power. But doc can harness it so much better than me. He cloned some neurons from me, and managed to recreate some of the power." He glanced at doc. "Under the hood, there's an earbud. It doesn't change time, but it gives doc a quick line into the future."
I'd later learn of the massive machines doc constructed elsewhere in the fortress, half-ton beasts of metal and cloned flesh, that stretched his influance decades and even centuries into the future, each one churning away on molding a different aspect of the future. But no-one mentioned that right then.
Looking back, I felt doc must always be playing a role. Shaping people's actions a bit here and a bit there, but knowing that anyone he wanted to _keep_ on his side, anything he said would be examined with minute scrutiny later, if not at the time. He'd been manipulating me every time he spoke to me, but striving to do in a way that I couldn't object to.
Now, he glanced at Magmae, and said, "Maybe Basalt would like to continue showing you round?"
I don't know if that was wise or not, but it was certainly pivotal. At the time, I didn't see anything ulterior in it, and slipped a hand under Basalt's bicep, and led him away to show me the rest of the island.
He was doing some basic stretches, and as he moved, his flesh seemed to flex and boom like stone. I expected he'd be that hard underneath. I recognised some of the stretches; I expected he'd had some training.
I clapped my fists together a few times, and little sparks shot out. He didn't notice, but Magmae smiled, and I smirked back. Maybe I couldn't take him, but that had to be impressive. For that matter, even if he got me down, and I might be able to draw out submission long enough to nail him. It wouldn't be pleasant if I was lying under him when the lightning struck, but I thought I could survive it.
I glanced at Magmae. "Full out. You're sure? I might not be able to touch him" -- a bit of modesty -- "but I might kill him in a second if I get the right shot."
Magmae smiled. She hadn't asked exactly what my powers were, but she had to have some idea, and she had to know it couldn't always be safe. She glanced at doc, the skinny green-skaled man in a dark robe.
He cocked his head. "It's fine," he said, and patted the shoulder of a middle-aged man in a sky-blue jump-suit a gold ring high on its chest. "Go all out. We can avert it before it becomes fatal, even if there's no warning. My word."
"And--" added Magmae, "even if it is, someone here may still be able to fix it. Worried, James?"
I shook my head, declining to be further distracted. "Call it."
She strode into the middle of the ring, and Basalt looked up. "All ready?" She barely waited for us to nod, then called quickly "OK. Three-two-one-ready-GO!" There was an enormous crash and the island lurched, and she leapt gracefully backwards out of the improvised ring.
It shook me for a moment, and something whistled past my ear. Maybe I should have seen it coming, I knew Magmae flew the island, and I could see at a glance she had a flair for the dramatic. Basalt had taken the opportunity to project... something at me from a dramatic martial-arts strike, but now he was settled into a stance and circling slowly.
I'd lost the big moment, but made the move. The air pressure dropped like a stone. Eveeryone felt it, a shivery premonition, and ears popping, and the air suddenly chilled. Clouds would be forming above, even at these altitudes. Basalt looked gratifyingly respectful. Even if he didn't know what it was, he could see it was something big.
I tried to think without losing concentration. Everyone else had staggered, but no-one seemed surprised. They must bolt down an awful lot of things around here, but I guess they probably had to anyway. If Magmae stubbed her toe, would the whole island lurch? I didn't really want to know.
Basalt might have been able to nail me in that first moment, if he knew it was coming and I didn't, but he had as much of an eye on the dramatics as I did. He wanted to--
He'd feinted forward, blurring forward with no warning, in a classic fighting pose, but with a fist still a foot outside my reach. I'd tensed, but not moved, ready to block and try a foot-sweep or stomach blow if he came in close enough.
I continued circiling. He wanted to see what training I'd had, if I'd have dodged before I needed to. He probably could have won in the first half-second, but he didn't want to, any more than I did. Learning was the name of the game, and putting on a good show. He wanted to test me, and I him. Something doc said came back to me. _Could_ he take a lightning strike, or more than one?
Clouds were forming overhead, though there was definite mist in the air and a definite breeze. I flexed the air pressure, and the breeze came and went. I didn't think rain would help -- the stone floor would get slippy, but not muddy, and I might be able to move better than him, but it wouldn't help me stay clear of him, quite the opposite.
But wind might help, depending what exactly he'd thrown at me. If it could be deflected, or even if he could just be joslted as he threw it, it might help. If I stayed clear.
He must have been wondering. Stay clear, and hope to blast me, or close, and hope he could subdue me quicker. He must have seen something in my face, and wanted to move things along. That was wise of him.
I felt the air pressure, and to hell with it. There was a crack, and some sheet lightning. Only faint, I'd not wasted much of the build up, but it felt dramatic. I also let a slight rain start to fall. It didn't help, but I liked it.
Basalt glanced at my face, and I moved. Now I lunged forward, step slide step STRIKE step and I was flying backwards. He'd parried on pure instinct, barely clipping my arm, but was strong, really strong. He wasn't bluffing with the stance, he was't just strong, he was trained as well.
I pushed away the urge to feel my arm. It had felt like striking brick, or rock, which was something like what I thought.
I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Maybe I didn't want to close with him, but if he knew that, he'd definitely want to close with me. In a clench, or worse groundwork, I thought he'd pulverize me in seconds. But on the other hand, it felt like most people would have lost half their arm just from that block, and if I hadn't then for all he knew, maybe I was even stronger than I looked. Who knew?
He studied me, and I felt sure he was going to try a long range strike again. I brought the wind up a bit, and got ready to surge it. If he really wanted to win, he'd probably close hard and fast, whatever the chances were, but if he wanted to learn, he'd try a bit of one thing, then a bit more of the other.
And a long-range strike was safer for him. Well, apart from the incipient lightning, but I hoped he'd forgotten about that.
I looked into his eyes. Should I try taunting him? He was good enough, if I seemed to be baiting him, he'd probably not rush me when he thought I was expecting it, and I might be able to keep up a steady stream of moments when he ought to rush me.
Suddenly I saw a tiny movement in the corner of my eye. I shouldn't even have noticed, but I did. Doc had just twisted his scaly head a little in his hood. Was that a shake of the head? His chin dipped. _Doc_, I thought, _can you hear me?_
I strained to keep my eyes on Basalt, and keep moving, but flick my eyes to doc as well. He nodded. I shouldn't bait him? Pause. Shake. Wait, that was ambiguous. Damn, I needed to keep my eyes on Basalt.
I should talk to him? Nod. I looked away from doc. "Hey, Basalt," He didn't react.
What could I say? I wanted to play this straight. No trash-talk. No talk about powers, probably. Chit-chat probably wouldn't help. The air pressure was dropping fast, I'd be able to hit him in another minute. Well, I'd roll the dice. "I'll have you in another minute. You should probably try to finish me first."
There. Straight-up. Chivalry always played well to the crowd. It was the perfect line, perfectly true, but I bet it'd make him hesitate.
I paused, circled the other way. "We should try it in a dojo, later. No powers, and go easy on me. Straight-up judo. You can probably still beat me."
Hah, there. Lulling him. He wasn't reacting, which made me like him better. He was good. He was going to-- There. Duck, side, leap. Stance. He'd thrown another punch from where he was, and a quick two more, each a bolt of air seemingly gone solid like rock.
I couldn't quite tell what it was, as I'd dodged it, and couldn't see it, but momentarily it seemed the air had turned to rock the same way his flesh did when he flexed. One at my head, and I'd ducked, and then leapt to the side as another had gone straight for my centre of mass. If I'd not kept my weight balanced I might not have been able to move. The last bolt had gone to the side, but the other side than I'd jumped. I moved further round and glanced behind me, briefly. A bunch of people had astutely moved aside from directly behind me. In front of one, some sort of energy shield still glimmered slightly as it faded away. And in the middle, on the floor, there was a small crater where a bolt had hit the floor.
Ouch. And he hadn't even tried to avoid the crowd.
But it suited me. I'd let him take the first shot to see what he could do, confident I could dodge it, though I hadn't expect three bolts. I expected more now, probably one, and then when he saw which way I'd dodged a barrage of as many as I could manage.
I paused. I was in front of the sun, though it was behind the clouds. He probably didn't think it mattered, but I shifted the pressure, and a gap in the clouds opened up, and closed, and openened, and I saw the light on his face, and knew it made me just that bit harder to see.
And with that, maybe he wouldn't see the next thing. I raised the wind a little more, and waited. Feign a distraction? No, that was too much at this point. He'd do it, any second, I just had to be ready. I watched his arms, and tried to relax, ready to react.
There. Poised, I sprang forward and to the side, giving the wind the biggest gust I could manage, a true howling gale for just a moment, forward and down. It threw his aim of slightly, and hurled me forward. I'd barely missed the bolt, and rolled as the wind helped my back down to earth. I didn't see the next bolt, but it cracked over my head, and I was rolling to the other side, and then running forward again. That had me off balance if he could dodge, but I had to show some offense or my big finish would look really weak.
Another pair of bolts came right at me, but I saw how he had his hands, and twisted. One clipped me, a brick of pain, and I bounced off the other, but in the moment when the wavefront had passed it felt solid, but not moving. It really was solid air.
I staggered, but leapt forward. I really didn't want to close with him, but it was definitely the best thing to do. He'd brought his hands together for a wider, stronger bolt, and paused for a fraction of a second, lining it up on me and waiting for the point in my stride when I had the least balance to dodge. He'd really practiced this.
I didn't move, hoping he'd swing it wide one way or the other. He did, a little, but it was still pretty centred on my centre of mass. I blocked, knocking it aside. I still didn't know if that was possible, but it worked. I caught the massive bolt right on the cusp, and there was a big crack, and it ricoched away and up.
My forearm was pulverised, but I didn't feel that until later. I was still moving forward right into the bolt as I deflected it and I had a small window as Basalt recovered from his big push. I came straight in, closing with my body, then lunging forward with my fist, aiming for a spot on his stomach not covered by his arms.
He blocked, but not quite fast enough. I don't know why, hitting his stomach was like hitting a brick wall. It broke half my hand. But I had the initiative. I had another blow with the other elbow, above the smashed forearm, into his inner thigh, and it met soft flesh for a moment before hitting rock underneath.
He wasn't _all_ rock, if I hit him fast enough he'd still be vulnerable. His fist swung down at my head, and I knew it'd crush it like the pavement. He probably didn't even have to connect, it'd be another bolt coming out when the fist stopped. I twisted to one side, and surged upward, striking again with my mangled hand into his stomach, and the side of my foot into the back of his knee.
Both met soft flesh and I felt him grunting, but I was still in too close, way too close. I brought another elbow round, but the other fist caught me in the side and I was hurled back across the ring again, harder than any human could possibly throw me. Which gave me my only chance.
I staggered to my knees, and he was rushing me, but slightly more cautiously than he might. I slumped back, and he hesitated, seeing me not ready to fight.
"Ready?" I called, and he nodded warily. That was all I needed. I concentrated, and the sky smashed, and there was a lightning flash right there, afterimage burned on my eyes, outlining Basalt.
He looked to be stone all over for a moment, but clothes and skin charred and ashy. I remembered doc's advice. No-one seemed to be stopping the fight, and I'd thought he might be able to take more than one. But I could give him more than one.
I waited to see if he moved, and as soon as he began to take a step forward I concentrated again, and another lightning bolt cracked down, and then another and another and another, all in rapid succession. The reserve only had a couple more, but the second had been enough.
He was toppling over, smoking, and looking like cracked rock and singed flesh. I felt momentarily sick, but then Magmae was shouting "over" and blue-jumpsuit was running into the ring to touch Basalt.
There was some crackling and an egg of blue sparks surround the guy, and he started to keel back _up_ again. Bit of sand jumped in the air and started to join back onto him. It was silent, but there were more flashes from inside the sparks, and each healed his costume a bit, and in a second he was standing up, swaying slightly, looking just as he had after the first bolt.
"Doc," called blue jumpsuit. "Shall I undo the first bolt?"
The little green lizard man skittered over to him. "No, that seems about right. Don't push it too far, he has to know he lost." Doc looked at him. "I think he took that one ok."
Basalt was still swaying, but I squinted at him. He wasn't swaying as such: the same fraction of a second when he'd started to step forward was replaying, forward, then backwards, then forwards again.
"Can I let him go? I don't want him to pound me," said blue jumpsuit.
"You know I can't--" Doc paused and cocked his head. "Yes, it's ok, let him go."
Blue jumpsuit stepped back, and Basalt stepped forward, ready to continue the fight, and then blinked, seeing doc in front of him, and Magmae walking up to me, and the crowd generally milling forward with excitement.
I had to act fast. I strode forward and grabbed his hand in a firm shake. He hesitated a moment, and then looked down at my hand.
"Man, I was about to squeeze, but it's busted, isn't it." Good point, I'd almost forgotten. But I didn't want a grudge, I wanted a friend. But he was going right on. "Chronegg," he addressed Blue Jumpsuit and nodded to the hand. "Can you?"
Chronegg looked at me. "Yes, yes, I think so. Hold it out, quickly now. Be very still." I did it, and suddenly a corona of blue sparks enveloped it. It felt really, really weird.
Chronegg shifted his hands about, and seemed to be concentrating. He was muttering helpfully. "Even a few seconds longer, and it's really difficult." I suddenly had a queasy vision of blood running the wrong way around my veins, and nerve impulses running the the wrong way down my arm, and suddenly wasn't sure if this was a good idea. But Basalt was smiling, and it had to be worth it.
Then, Chronegg stopped, and I looked at my hand. It was whole. I took a deep breath. I turned to Basalt. "Hey, can he do my arm and ribs as well?"
"Oh, no, no," began Chronegg. "I'm sorry. The hand was difficult enough. The arm is older, it's probably too long, and the ribs, no, no." He shook his head. "Right around your heart? It would be--"
I cut him off quickly. "Well, thank you so much, doctor." Why doctor? Medical or scientific? I don't know, but it felt right. "Doc" was a much spread acclamation among mutants, though there was only _one_ "doc". I turned to take in Basalt. "Thank you, both of you."
"Not at all!" cried Chronegg. "In fact, I'm sure there's a healer somewhere in the crowd. There normally is. Doc would probably have stopped the fight earlier if there wasn't." I gave doc a hard look. But Chronegg was right, if my arm could be healed, I didn't care, and I wouldn't have liked to wimp out earlier. "A healer for both of you," he added, looking at Basalt's slightly charred form.
I smiled, and held his charred forearm briefly. "Are you alright, man? It _was_ lightning."
He smiled back. "Yeah, I can take it." Faux-tough-man. I liked it.
We strolled back over to Magmae and Doc, dragged Chronegg in our wake.
She was clappig girlishly. "Oh, magnifique! Magnifique! James. Adam. You see, James? Our enforcer is where it's at." I thought I'd won, but I wasn't going to quibble. There'd been a dozen points where either of us might have overwhelmed the other even sooner.
"Uh, Magmae," I coughed, and gestured weakly with my weak arm. "Do you have a healer of any sort round here?"
"Oh, my boy, I'm sorry. Adam, why didn't you say something?" But she didn't wait for an answer. "Doc, who's on duty this evening? No, wait. Petra, Sampai, can you bring Chrystalline over here?"
The crowd parted, and two people helped heft a giant dodecahedral green crystal and carry it towards them. They set it gently on the ground, and Magmae squatted down and tapped it gently.
"Chrystalline? Are you awake?"
The crystal shook, and started to crack. Each fissure was accompanied by a single-pitched hum, until it steadied, and the whole thing sounded like a ethereal bagpipe. A face formed in front, and arms and legs, until it was half-formed into a crouching androgonous figure, still formed entirely from crystal.
"I am entirely aware, as always." The crystal shook a little. "Stormwolf, I am" -- a humming noise-- "pleased to meet you. Stormwolf, Basalt, congratulations on your mano a mano." The crystal shuddered again, and then the face and left side collapsed back into a crystal, which rocked a little.
Magmae reached forward impatiently again, but doc grabbed her arm and she drew back. "Chrystalline? Are you ok? We'd really like you to heal James and Adam if you can."
I leaned towards doc, and whispered "What's, uh, with Chrystalline?"
Doc spoke clearly so Chrystalline could hear. "Chrystalline brings things back into physical alignment. They can knit your ribs together the way they go most naturally -- which with a little skill and a small amount of luck will be the way that supports your nice chest. And as long as they don't go too far and turn you into a crystal like that. A crystal, a regular lattice of atoms, is the greatest, simplest form of order. Chrystalline can, with sufficient effort, become a _different_ crystal lattice: square, octahedral, dodecahedral--" he hesitated. "That is, cubical, eight-sided, et cetera. But they can only temporarily assume any _other_ form."
There was another eruption from Chrystalline, and their face and arms formed again, at the expense of their lower half becoming a squat octangonal pillar. "Please desist from tapping me." But, as far as I could tell, Chrystalline really liked Magmae, and didn't mind when she did it.
"Thank you, doc. James, please demonstrate? Give me your arm." Basalt stepped forward and held his upper arm out to Chrystalline whose two green-crystal hands reached forward in a series of sharp angular movements, and clasped the arm carefully.
There was a sudden series of gonging sounds, and a wave of stone-texture spread out from Chrystalline's hands down Basalt's arm and up across his chest. The skin looked the same, but suddenly looked as if it were covering only rock, which hardened and hardened into broken-hexagon pattens like cooling lava, and chrystalline quickly took their hands away. The skin quickly flowed back to normal, but looking clean and fresh and healed.
Basalt shook himself. "Man, that feels good. He added formally, "Thank you," and expectantly held out his other arm. Chrystalline repeated the procedure, and then did the same on his legs, and then a number of small touches on any parts of still unhealed skin, obviously keeping the effect clear of internal organs.
When they seemed to be done, I stepped forward. "Chrystalline? You can do that to me? You can mend my ribs without--" I hesitated-- "stopping my heart?" It sounded stupid to ask like that, but I couldn't just do it without asking.
Chrystalline looked straight-forwardly at me. "Yes."
It was obviously an effort for them to speak, and I didn't try to chat further, but said "Thank you," and stepped forward. Chrystalline put their hands carefully on my chest, and I tensed, and a moment later my head was ringing, and my chest felt sore and stretched, like it had a week of intense massage in a second. But the worrying pain had gone, and I stopped worrying I'd had anything worse than a crack.
Chrystalline repeated the procedure on my bad arm, and then the crowd generally began to feel the show was over, and that it was time for Important People Talk.
Crystalline waved to the people who'd carried them before, one muscled, one slim, and both with slightly scaled, snakey skin. "Kind assistants, I need to retreat to my room soon. Would you mind assisting me? Rolling me is quite sufficient." And with that, Chrystalline shuddered and collapsed back to the dodecahedral form.
The others began to drift away, leaving Magmae, Chronegg, doc and Basalt with me. I turned forcefully to doc. Should I conceal that he'd spoken to me during the fight? I didn't want Basalt to know exactly what I'd thought, but I didn't think hiding it would be good either. I wasn't exactly sure what doc did. "Did you read my thoughts during the fight?"
He cocked his head. "No. Not exactly. I had a..." he paused, "a feeling, what you wanted." I'd later learn this was an exaggeration. He'd had a feeling that nodding would produce the _result_ he wanted, but didn't know what I was actually thinking.
I pressed. "_Can_ you read thoughts?"
"Oh, no. Not really--"
Magmae cut in. "He can see the future."
Doc coughed ostentatiously. "Now, dear. I like to maintain at least a little mystique." He cocked his head and glared at me, as best as I could tell with the lizard-eyes, and said "So don't tell anyone, ok?"
I got a bad feeling that he knew I wouldn't, ever, and felt queasy. But I didn't say anything. Then I realised something, and looked in confusion at Chronegg, still slumped on the floor in the middle of the conversation. "But..."
He looked up at me. "Oh, yes. Time is _my_ power. But doc can harness it so much better than me. He cloned some neurons from me, and managed to recreate some of the power." He glanced at doc. "Under the hood, there's an earbud. It doesn't change time, but it gives doc a quick line into the future."
I'd later learn of the massive machines doc constructed elsewhere in the fortress, half-ton beasts of metal and cloned flesh, that stretched his influance decades and even centuries into the future, each one churning away on molding a different aspect of the future. But no-one mentioned that right then.
Looking back, I felt doc must always be playing a role. Shaping people's actions a bit here and a bit there, but knowing that anyone he wanted to _keep_ on his side, anything he said would be examined with minute scrutiny later, if not at the time. He'd been manipulating me every time he spoke to me, but striving to do in a way that I couldn't object to.
Now, he glanced at Magmae, and said, "Maybe Basalt would like to continue showing you round?"
I don't know if that was wise or not, but it was certainly pivotal. At the time, I didn't see anything ulterior in it, and slipped a hand under Basalt's bicep, and led him away to show me the rest of the island.
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Date: 2010-08-03 05:36 pm (UTC)I've always toyed with mutant worldbuilding, this is one example that actually came out with some prose :)