Superboy / Kon-El (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
matchmadeinhell) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ya_assemble2015-01-27 03:04 am
matchmadeinhell) wrote in ya_assemble2015-01-27 03:04 am
Entry tags:
[LN] Thank Goodness We're Well-rounded Characters
Kon was reading at relative superspeed. It wasn't at his usual brisk pace, because he found that the limitations of his powers meant he couldn't retain the knowledge for more than a few minutes at his usual speeds, so he had to slow it down a little, but he was still thumbing through far faster than some of the others were taking just to go through the study guides they'd quickly procured.
"Is it just the fact I'm reading this as superspeed or does this story make no sense?" Kon said, as he thumbed through page after page.
Another reality shard had fallen away and now that their brands had signaled it, it was time to go dimension-hopping. Fortunately, it was a very small shard in the middle of the wilderness in Siberia and the area of effect was spreading slowly, so they had time to prepare.
With his otherworldly wisdom, Manny had managed to help out on this one, communicating some clues about the world they were about to enter by flashing the image of a cover of a book.
A fairly terrible book. Apparently they were entering the world it was based on.
So they were doing their homework as they geared up to go and trying to make sense of the senseless.
"So what I'm getting from this is this is a world where you're not allowed to have more than one personality trait? I think? Under pain of death, you have to be a one-dimensional character."
"Is it just the fact I'm reading this as superspeed or does this story make no sense?" Kon said, as he thumbed through page after page.
Another reality shard had fallen away and now that their brands had signaled it, it was time to go dimension-hopping. Fortunately, it was a very small shard in the middle of the wilderness in Siberia and the area of effect was spreading slowly, so they had time to prepare.
With his otherworldly wisdom, Manny had managed to help out on this one, communicating some clues about the world they were about to enter by flashing the image of a cover of a book.
A fairly terrible book. Apparently they were entering the world it was based on.
So they were doing their homework as they geared up to go and trying to make sense of the senseless.
"So what I'm getting from this is this is a world where you're not allowed to have more than one personality trait? I think? Under pain of death, you have to be a one-dimensional character."
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She wanted to be back at the Pole. She wanted to be back home. She wanted to be anywhere but here, but none of that was an option right now, so she was just going to have to stay here and hold herself together with grit and a prayer.
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As the group left practice to take a break and went across one of the rickety bridges, Eric edged closer to Nico from behind.
"Feeling a little better?" he asked her. His voice sounded perfectly amicable. Not overly amicable, just like maybe he'd unclenched a bit.
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Raph wanted to get right up next to her but Eric wasn't crazy enough to do anything right out in the open, right? Yeah, he'd done some crazy shit, but he wouldn't just shove her or something when that would most likely kill her, would he -
Eric shoved her off the bridge, grabbing her by the wrist as she fell so she wouldn't fall all the way off.
"NICO!" Raph cried out, rushing forward.
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"Kon's on this," she reassured him in a whisper, her mouth right next to his ear. The illusion of an ear over the membrane that served as his ear. Whatever. "We've got this. She's going to be okay."
And she was going to find another opportunity to punch Eric.
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Yes, he would break cover and fly to get her if she fell.
That other gesture towards Eric was a bit more violent. Like...snapping a neck.
Yes, he'd make Eric pay for making them have to break cover, too, if he had to.
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Nico would have very much appreciated both gestures if her world hadn't narrowed down to the hand on her wrist keeping her from falling that long way down beneath her feet. Even Raph shouting her name had only reached her faintly, as though through a couple feet of water.
It was a really long way down.
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He let go of her hand, but fortunately she'd been given time to grab on.
"You've got three options: Hang there and I'll forget your cowardice. Fall and die. Or give up. But if you give up, you're out."
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"I'm gonna kick him off, I'm gonna kick him off -" he muttered so only she could hear, struggling futilely against her arms.
He didn't care. He didn't care about their cover, he didn't care about the stupid mission, he didn't care that Kon wouldn't let anything happen to her.
All that he cared about was the look on her face and knowing that he could tell her a million times that they wouldn't let anything happen to her and she'd still have trouble believing it.
And if she couldn't believe it then right now this was real for her. It was real for her and he wanted to hurt the person who'd made it that way, yet another horrible monster that made her afraid after so many things had made her afraid before.
Eric was now a dead man walking and all that was left was waiting for the right chance to strike.
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Eric turned to glare at him.
"Don't you even try to help her or you're out."
"It's not like I can fly or anything," Kon said, as if arguing that he couldn't help her but the words meant the opposite. "Because if she fell I'd totally fly and catch her but it's not like I can fly."
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How dare he do this. How dare he do this to her.
Even with the Staff of One stored away in an unusual manner and the rules being different due to getting hauled through holes in reality and transformed, there were some times when Nico's magic didn't need the usual accoutrements.
If anyone caught a glimpse of a faint corona forming around Nico, or thought that there was something odd about the way she moved as she pulled herself up while Eric was distracted, it was instantly forgotten when she tore her way up the trainer's nearer arm like a cat up a tree, bracing a booted foot against the bar she'd just been hanging off so that she could shove him against the railing on the other side of the bridge and go for his face with both hands.
"YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT TO ME!" she howled, furious and spitting and revelling in the blood, someone else's blood, under her fingernails. "NO ONE GETS TO DO THAT TO ME!"
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If they just let her keep clawing at the guy chances were she'd claw his eyes right out of his face or even knock him off the bridge and kill him and he didn't want her to have to be pushed into that, to look back on it with the same regret and self-loathing she'd felt when he'd seen her memory of what she'd done to her great-grandmother.
This was for her, not for Eric.
If he died, it wasn't going to be by Nico's hand. That was what Raph could do about this, what he could give her.
"Sshhh. Shhh," he said, as he held onto her, tightly, keeping her from just running after Eric again.
He wasn't going to tell her it was okay. It wasn't. So he just made comforting shushing noises.
And then he realized something, something he probably should have realized the first night he'd had that terrible dream where he'd killed all his enemies - and ones he didn't recognize - and died atop the heap of their broken bodies, and then had woken up in a cold sweat.
He realized he was able to kill someone.
"He's done," he whispered, a truth, a promise, "He's done."
The moment would come. He just had to wait. It was always about timing and patience, that was one of the things Splinter had taught him. Just like the other thing he'd taught him - that a ninja did no harm.
...Unless they had to do harm, then they did lots of harm.
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She snarled again like a whole host of haunted houses, her voice plunging from its earlier shriek toward the sooty growl of her spell-casting. If he wouldn't let her go, she'd just have to make him--
--No. No. This was Raph, she wasn't going to hurt Raph. He was trying to help her, he'd promised to keep her safe, he was trying to keep her safe...
Nico stilled abruptly, then latched onto Raph's arms, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to break his skin. She needed to anchor herself in place in case it came back, that feeling that she had to make Eric hurt, make him pay for scaring her with blood and screaming, oh God, her hands were covered in his blood...
She started to shake in Raph's arms, adrenaline and horror and the strain of trying to force herself not to tremble nearly enough to shake her bones apart.
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"You're safe. You're safe. We'd never let anyone hurt you." No, he should be honest. "I'd never let anyone hurt you. Never."
Eric could posture all he wanted but he'd kill him before he got to cause any real damage. Cut him down right where he stood.
In a heartbeat.
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She tore her eyes away from her bloody hands, seeking out the bridge where she'd been torn off the older man. Even with her uncontrollable shaking, her wild-eyed refusal to cringe probably looked more like defiance than the fear it actually was.
"...'kay." she managed, barely a whisper in response to the reassurances Raph was murmuring into her hair. "'kay."
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He looked at Nico, taking in what he thought was defiance.
"Well done, recruit," said Four, "Most wouldn't have had the strength to hold on, let alone pull themselves up and go on the attack."
Even Eric, despite his bloody face, actually looked delighted with Nico's reaction. "That's what you need to show in the ring, Minoru," said Eric. "Instead of that cowardice earlier. Keep it up and you might not wash out."
The other recruits, on the other hand, were looking at Nico as if they'd suddenly realized they'd spent all this time training side by side with a wolverine that could've turned and bitten them in the throat at any time. One of the only ones that had any expression of compassion on her face (other than Kon and Cassie, that is) was Tris.
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How dare he lecture her on cowardice? He wouldn't know 'cowardice' if it ripped his face to shreds like she had just done. How dare he try to make her a monster, and how dare Four praise her for it?!
"Get me out of here," she hissed to Raph, glaring furious holes through Eric and Four to avoid looking at the faces of the Dauntless wannabes. She wasn't sure if she didn't trust herself to stand or if she didn't trust herself not to go for Four and Eric's throats; but she was sure that the longer she stayed here, the more likely she was to do something stupid. Or horrible.
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Then he spirited her off, supporting her with his arm so much that he was almost lifting her off of her feet, leading her down hallways and through tunnels and over walkways, trying to put as much distance between her and Eric as he could.
"We should - why don't we go to one of the bathrooms and get you washed up?" he said, when they were finally a very, very safe distance away.
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Words failed her and she tried to wipe the blood off her hands onto her pants. "Can't you just get me a wet towel or something?" she asked weakly. Let her stay here, where she didn't have to tolerate the staring and the whispering?
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"I'll be right back," he promised her, and he was back so quickly with a warm wet towel that it was clear he'd probably ninjaed his way to where he'd had to go to get it. It was the only way he could've gotten back that quickly.
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"Thanks," she said, taking the towel and getting to work cleaning off her hands. She had to be careful, she was feeling a crawling urge to rub them raw and that wasn't a good idea. Blood-borne diseases might still be a thing here.
She hated this. She hated this and she didn't want to be here, she didn't want to be standing in some dusty alcove trying to clean someone else's blood out from under her fingernails and trying not to cry. She didn't want to have been tapped to save all of the infinite realities out there, she didn't want to have a magic staff that ran off her own blood. She wanted something, anything normal so badly that she could taste it.
...Literally, when she threw the bloodied towel on the ground and dragged Raph clumsily in for a kiss. Screw waiting. Screw 'enjoying the trip for once'. Please God, just let her have something normal today.
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But even if it was clumsy the kiss was filled with need and desire and all the things he wished so desperately that she might feel for him.
And it ignited those feelings he always had for her, of wanting to show her how he felt, of wanting to make her feel special, of wanting to make her feel good. He wanted so, so badly to be something that made her feel good. It made his chest ache and he didn't even technically have one under the plastron.
Strong arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her in close, firmly, one arm sliding up her back so he could cradle the back of her head with his hand. It was his first kiss and it took him by surprise, and he had no idea what he was doing - especially since his stiffer lips weren't exactly ideal for figuring out kissing on the fly - but that didn't stop him from kissing her back.
Not just passionately. Wildly. Ferociously.
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She plastered herself up against his front and cradled his head in her hands and kissed him and kissed him like she was trying to erase the world around them with her willpower alone.
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But today hadn't been a good day. Today was a terrible day. He could feel the little scab on her lip from it being split earlier when she was fighting and bruises were still fresh on her face whenever he peeked open his eyes.
And right now he wasn't wearing his own face. It was a stranger's face, an alien face.
You're just convenient, said the little voice in the back of his head he didn't want to hear. You don't even look like yourself to her, you look human. She's hurting. That's all this is. She's hurting. There's no way she'd ever be into you the rest of the time. No way.
And as much as it hurt to acknowledge that, he couldn't be something else that hurt her, too.
She'd regret this. Look back on it and wonder why she'd made out with the weird mutant boy. Maybe even feel taken advantage of. She was hurting and that was the only reason she wanted this right now and he wasn't going to be someone else that hurt her, too. Even if it hurt to acknowledge that was all he could be, the boy that was convenient. That he couldn't be someone she wanted the rest of the time.
He pulled away enough to breathe, even though he still held her close in his arms.
"Wait. Nico, wait," he gasped. "We shouldn't do this. You're upset right now."
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She couldn't even have this. She'd pushed it too far and ruined it, just like she always did.
"I'm sorry," she choked out. "I didn't mean-- I didn't want-- I'm awful. I'm always, always awful."
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