“I’ve texted Ash, she said she’ll drop by in an hour” Judy shivered. “Its bloody freezing in here.”
“I wouldnt call it cold, but i can turn the heating on. That gives us an hour for you to show me what you can do” Eve watched Judy with expectant eyes.
“I suppose I’ll start by explaining what i know i can do. I can teleport, sort of? I can kinda fade from the world and move through it, its not really teleporting but i can do it very fast. Its not instant, but it can definitely look like it from short distances. I call it Dislocating and Relocating. Dislocating is when I ‘fade’, Relocating when i return to, errr, substance i guess?” Judy punctuated this by Relocating behind her friend before she could register what had happened, Eve jumped out of her skin and swore at Judy, who was in hysterics.
“You're an asshole”
Judy took a breath and composed herself, crease lines reappearing. “Ah, what else, i can change things? Like transmutation? No?” Eve just looked at her blankly. “All right I’ll just show you, hand me that mug” Judy stared at the mug for a couple of seconds before relaxing and then the cup shimmered seemingly dissolving. It pooled before reforming into a crude, ceramic likeness of Eve’s face. Eve studied it, an almost conflicted look appearing on her usually sunny face, but Judy wasn't done. The mug quickly reformed back to its original shape, the same stylized graphic of the moon looking up at Eve. The mug then disappeared, Judy pointed to the counter where what seemed to be the same mug resided. With a thought she used the Imprint she took earlier to make another copy of the mug in her waiting hands, pausing only long enough for Eve to register the two mugs. Judy’s brow then furrowed, her face constricting in concentration, and she gestured grandly to her surroundings, making Imprints before absorbing energy. Objects from the kitchen started to flit out of existence, a lamp, the curtains, a knife block, a cupboard door, the blasted takeaway, they hadn't eaten yet! Eve started to move back, edging to the door of the room. With a final motion Judy splayed her fingers. Eve shrieked and turned away. A statue of gleaming gold stood in the centre of the kitchen, an almost exact one to one likeness of Eve. She slowly lowered a hand from her face to find lifeless, yellow orbs in level with her eyes. “What the f-. The, the? Damnit Judy what the hell!.” Judy sheepishly looked around to see the kitchen in violent disarray.
“Judy, why is half the kitchen missing.”
“Ah, well....” Judy motioned wildly to the statue.
“I can see that.” Eve turned a flat stare.
“Maybe i should have ah, warned you?”
Eve just grunted in response. Then looked at her. “You gonna clean this up?” Judy had the sense to look chagrined.
“You also realise that I don’t understand what you just did right.” At this Judy looked thoughtful, then moved to presumably perform another demonstration, “No, stop. Whatever you're doing, stop, please, just don’t do it.” Eve sighed, “Look, just clean this up and we can figure out what were gonna say to Ash.”
“You mean you don’t want me to explain anything else I can do?”
“Not if it’s as destructive as that.”
“No, no I can control myself, I ah, just got a bit carried away.” Eve was about to give her friend another flat look before she noticed the over eager tone in Judy’s voice. Something told Eve that despite everything, Judy wanted to show her everything she could do, her abilities, magic, whatever the hell it was, seemed to be a big part of her. Maybe the earlier teasing was her finally being comfortable with herself enough to interact. Maybe having someone who knew her secret was a relief, so instead of disapproval Eve just gave Judy a short nod, which elicited an uncharacteristic display of emotion in the form of a massive grin infecting Judy’s usually passive face.
“Ok, ok so ah. I can ah, sort of sense stuff, or most stuff anyway, anything yknow, non-living, But I can kinda sense living stuff cause of it anyway, if i try at least, cause they leave a pocket of non-sensing? A void where i should be able to sense it, cause i can sense the air when i really focus.” At this Judy opened up herself to the current of energy, settling into the ebb and flow, searching for a way to show Eve what she could do. She stretched herself further, until she encompassed the whole apartment then beyond. There! There was, wait? “Errr Eve? There’s kinda someone at the door, I think they're just standing there but I'm not fully sure, it's kinda fuzzy, inexact.”
Eve looked up. “That’ll be Ash then, just remember what i said, don't go scary.” She finished with a glint in her eye. Eve moved to the door and opened it, and stilled. Judy moved to try to see who it was but Eve was blocking her view, dead as the statue in the kitchen. Then, jumpstarting to life she violently slammed the door, spun on her heel and promptly collapsed onto the sofa. “Hey, Judes” She called, “Vodka, now.” Judy’s feet carried her to the bureau before she could protest, pulling out the half empty bottle she handed it to her friend before framing a question. “You want a glass or? Nevermind.” Eve just took a large swig before grimacing and setting it down next to her. There was a knock at the door. Judy looked to Eve, a question in her eyes, but her friend just shook her head fractionally, looking defeated; she fixed a dead set stare to the beige wall. Unsure of what to say, Judy moved to the other side of the sofa and placed a hand on her friends shoulder, causing Eve to flinch away. She tried again, more slowly. Eve turned to look at her, knowing she had her attention Judy spoke, softly, the worlds only just carrying to Eve’s ears. “Who was it?” Then, the obvious guess, what else would have sent Eve into a spiral? “One of your fathers men?” Eve shivered, then nodded, a weak pitiful movement, before taking another lengthy swig. Unsure of what to say Judy made towards the door, slowly. Before opening it she turned to look at her friend; Eve was immobile, vacantly staring at a thoughtless void. In the hallway was a pale, athletic man in an asphalt black suit. His short, muddy red hair seemed meticulously combed to a sharp point on one side. With a dismissive glance he moved to peer past Judy, through the portal and into their apartment. When Judy moved to block him he sighed, flicking his sunken gaze to her before speaking in a clipped voice. “You are aware of who I work for I presume.” When Judy failed to respond he tutted. “If you would be so kind as to step aside, i have business with the young heiress.” Judy put her hand in her pocket and fiddled with Ash’s card, but otherwise remained silent. “This does not concern you, I will be walking out of here with Miss Terce. Now, step aside.” Another pause, she only set her jaw.
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“I am warning you child, Step Aside.” She felt stuck, sure that letting this Wolf of Wall Street henchman get to Eve would be a very bad idea and sorely regretting her decision to open the door. Then she saw Ash, somehow gliding her way down the hallway without making a sound, she caught Judy’s unusual eyes and started mouthing words. Judy just frowned, unable to read her lips, realizing this she pointed at the man and started tapping her wrist, three quick taps, three more spaced out and another three quick taps. The man, seeing her hesitation as a refusal, let out a final sigh. “Any means necessary indeed.” He made a curt gesture, and Judy was thrown backwards into wall, eliciting a violent crack. Eve jerked from her seat and tripped backwards over it, scooting backwards as the man approached her, smoothing out his suit. An unpleasant grin spreads his face. “You Father wishes to speak to you”. He said, grabbing her shirt and pulling her up, just as pale hands wrapped around his sallow neck, jerking it to the side with a second, bone deep crunch. Eve fell to the floor with a thud, as did the richly dressed stranger, revealing the rest of a lithe figure. Ash brushed loose, arctic hair from her searching eyes before offering a hand. Time seemed to stretch as Eve simply stared at short, black painted nails until a groan broke her out of her reverie.
“Shit Judy, how the hell did you survive that, that guy is the single most powerful telekinetic of our age, the force he threw at you looked like it could kill an elephant.” Ash withdrew her hand and peered at the cracked wall, concrete littered around Judy’s injured form, several pieces of rebar were visible, distorted from the impact, one of which was jutting out of her side.
“ ‘That guy’ is the man you just casually murdered. Ash, you need to give us answers, like, now.”
“Ok I get it, you have questions, but we need to get Judy to a healer, the very fact that she survived that is insane.” She gave a short chuckle. “She has to have some kind of powerful innate”. Musing, Ash moved over to Judy’s side, Judy tried to get up but failed and only managed to punctuate the room with another groan. Eve let out a heavy sigh, silently remarking that she seemed to be sighing a lot lately. “And I suppose you know of a place where she can be healed? One that were gonna blindly follow you to?”
“Sounds bad when you say it like that, but that was my intention”
“What reason do we have to trust you”
“Well, the very fact that only one of you is, you know, conscious, means that only *you* have to trust me and well, I take it you want Judy to live on account of the fact that she just got thrown into a wall.”
Defiance flickered in Eve’s eyes as she met Ash’s dispassionate gaze. “There's this thing called a hospital y’know, and i just so happen to be rich.”
“No princess, you father is rich. And need I point out that the man who just tried to kill your friend with little provocation and abduct you works for your father” She hisses. “Oh and not to mention, even if your father doesn’t own the one hospital you manage to find he just about owns everything else in the country, fuck at this point he owns most of the world, I am your only option right now. I couldn’t care less about your friend, but I’m not stupid enough to think you'll let me protect you if I leave her to die here; I’m not about to let you run off into your fathers clutches when it is my one fucking job to keep you out of them. Do I make myself clear?” Eve glared, but after a short pause gave a similarly short nod.
“Good, now help me bring her to my car, she’ll be better off where we’re going than at a hospital anyway.”