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BadLifeguard [A Superhero Story]
Pierce 6.03: I fought a super villain.

Pierce 6.03: I fought a super villain.

I didn’t really understand, I was frozen right outside the entrance to the bank, staring into the doorway.

I thought about going in, but there wasn’t any point.

That woman, See-through Girl, she’d already pulled it off, what was in that bag was obvious now.

I started wondering what ability would let her just walk in there and walk out. Nobody was chasing her or anything, she had time to leave that calling card.

There’s no way that x-ray vision would be much help, right?

Unless, you were dealing with somebody who hid their face behind a piece of fabric. Unless you somehow knew who that person was.

Maybe it hadn’t really hit me immediately, that I’d finally been found out.

I told myself, ‘no, no, no, there’s some kind of mistake. I’ve been hit in the head too many times.’

I was trying to ignore that problem.

“Excuse me,” a voice rang out to my left, it was clear even over the now gathering crowd.

I turned a hand still grabbing my head.

“Oh fuck,” It was actually like clockwork.

My biggest concern wasn’t that somebody would take a person hostage to get to me, the problem with exposing my identity was that it made Sam a criminal.

I’ve broken laws, if you haven't noticed. Assault, destruction of property, reckless endangerment, arson, those are the ones I know about.

So when a man wearing a high-visibility jacket and a black cap walks up to you, what else am I supposed to do but run?

That was probably the worst thing I could have done. If I had I leapt into the air, I’m sure the ignorance affect would have made him think twice about actually seeing a bright green and brown man.

Explaining what had happened probably would have worked better for me, I could lie about being a performer, that would be believable, and tell that cop that I was passing by when I noticed a girl covered in silver spray painting at the side of the building there.

Maybe I was looking for her, no, I was, despite the fact it was pretty much hopeless. I’d given her more than enough time to get into a car, to throw on a coat, to do anything to get away from me.

I twisted about madly, for maybe ten minutes, until I was a good distance away from where that girl had been.

“Shit!”

I felt like hitting a wall.

I didn’t. Though I was angry, I realised there was a clear solution to all of this.

She was wearing a mask. And she robbed a bloody bank. She doesn’t want her identity to get out either.

All I have to do is level the playing field.

.

.

.

“Glad you could drop by. Looks like we’ve got some thing’s to talk about. Grab a chair.”

She hadn’t cussed yet. Slightly off, given who I was speaking with.

Clover’s old room, the one behind the red door, sort of paled in comparison to this one This one was lavish, the same reddish-pink walls, but the skirting board around the roof and ceiling were golden, and there was a counter off to the side. A few glasses were sitting out with various drinks, mostly alcoholic.

She noticed me staring over at it and asked, “Maybe you’d like a drink first?”

My head shook focusing back on the drug lord, “No, I can’t get drunk. Not with that volume.”

She shrugged, “Maybe I'll get some ethanol. Just for you.” That was the first joke one of us had made. It was supposed to ease my mood, but it didn’t help either of us.

She wasn’t asking me to hook her up with a billionaire, and I wasn’t coming to check how she was.

We were here, in this room for Units, to discuss our war plan.

“Clover, what can you tell me about See-through Girl?”

There was a smile on her face, though she kept it slight, “Apart from her being a ‘super villain’? Well, she’s working for Belfast. One of their five Units, including the man himself. She was active here before they came to town though, she’s from here. A native. They recruited her.”

“I know that,” I leaned forward on my chair, “though this Belfast guy isn’t my enemy, not yet at least, that girl’s picked a fight with me. She’s teasing me.”

“Not with that figure, I hope-” the humour was getting old, maybe she noticed my disdain, “-anyway, I think you’re going to have to be more specific. To have my support”

“You’re the one with a vendetta against the North,” not to mention, they’ve all but halted your buisness-”

“In this area,” she emphasised, “I have places all across the Irish republic, major cities. The only reason this place is important is because it’s where you are.”

I was about to make my point on that, but she went on.

“You should have seen Bastard when that man shot me. His grief. Usually, he’d turn that into action, but with this situation he’s been... slow. Decisive. It would be wise to follow his example.”

She looked away, “He’s even engaged in non-interference talks with him, guaranteed that the Mountain won’t be acting against the enemy, not on their territory. And not against their men.”

A sigh escaped me, “I’m not asking for you to go to war. Not yet at least. I just want to know where she is. Where are their headquarters?”

“Any move against them, made by you or me, invites confronta-”

I stood up, “I don’t have time to wait. I need to deal with her now, as efficiently as possible.”

Suspicion came over her face, “What did she do?”

My jaw was locked. It took some effort to open it. Around Clover, Saoirse, this was a delicate subject.

“It’s what she knows.”

The Bastard-crowned understood, “What do you mean by ‘deal with her’?”

I understood what she was getting at, and I shot the stray thought down, “Exactly what I said. I’m going to make a deal with her. Or more accurately, I'm going to force it on her”

Clover waited for me to say more.

What I was thinking in my head was probably something that I shouldn’t have said.

“Clover... We’ve helped each other. I’ve defended you from monsters and Units, sometimes out of sight. I’m sure you’ve used your power to keep me standing, and I’m sure you’ve done it without me knowing about it too.”

I sat back down, going limp, trying to not come across as hostile.

“But the information that girl has- It's enough. I’d go against my word to preserve that secret.”

There was a hostility coming from Clover now; now I needed to choose my words carefully.

“I promised to help you combat Belfast when the time came, but she could very easily use that info, dangle it over my head- And I'd ally with them, not join them, not go against my morals for them-”

“-but I'd help them destroy this. Your business. I’m sure they wouldn’t be satisfied with Tralee, all across Ireland-”

She spoke over me, “You’d have to be one stupid son of a bitch to go against the only one protecting you from the Mount-” I spoke over her, shouting defensively, “That’s why I’m trying to prevent that. I want to be on your side. We have history-”

I was about to say we were friends, but I didn’t push my luck.

“- but if push comes to shove, then I’ll protect the man under this mask.”

Her poker face was chipping, she looked down her nose at me.

“Is that really worth it? Is you fantasy worth what little connections you have?”

I paused.

“It’s the only thing allowing me to connect...”

She didn’t follow up.

Just incase that was enough to give her any clues, I destroyed the mood.

The skin on my face was forced into a grin.

“Well?”

She sighed, “She doesn’t operate out of their hideouts. They have three facilities in town. My guys didn’t just sit on their asses while I was away. Thy gathered intel, observed how they operate. She only makes appearances for jobs, like that little stunt she pulled this morning.”

“So how do I find her?”

“She only works in the city centre. If she kept to the outskirts, it wouldn’t get any attention at all. She’s a show off, all for the theatrics. She wouldn’t leave a calling card if she was just in it for the money.”

Clover rested her head on her fist, “I could just make it so that you to will run into each other.”

She flicked an eyebrow, “You get lucky for once.”

“No,” I got serious again, “I won’t ask that much from you. If I find her without some clear logic, then they’ll know you were involved. I’m not ready for a big fight.”

She nodded, “But soon?”

I looked her in the eye. It made sense that she’d be getting something out of this, of course.

“You want to go against them? Didn’t you say-”

She waved a hand, “I have a vendetta.”

I confirmed, “We handle the north. After I handle her.”

“And after August 1st. That’s a given.”

“Right.”

See what I mean by a lot on my plate? My attention was divided between two breaches in secrecy.

It just made sense to chase after the one that was most pressing.

I picked myself up, fixing my cape. It hung over me nicely, half covering the balls of my shoulders in a bright green.

“Hey Rocky,” I looked back to her as I was leaving, “nice costume.” She gave a thumbs up.

I wish I could take pride in it.

.

.

.

Day time. I wish I could get out under the sun more often, but with school I never really got the chance.

Well, it was my second day back, and I'd been up for over twenty-four hours, so the brightness wasn’t even appreciated.

I’d been waiting for her.

See-through Girl.

It was like Clover said, she wanted the attention. If she was planning to use the info against me immediately, she would have relayed it to her boss, she wouldn’t have given me any reason to go looking for her, and she certainly wouldn’t have told me what one of her powers was.

I get a kick out of this too, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t like the theatrical side of it.

But from my profiling, that’s what she lived for. I was partially right.

It was five hours after I'd met with Clover, evening was starting to set in, though it wasn’t going to be getting dark anytime soon. I’d been perched around the city centre, looking for someone who matched her profile, or any cars or vans that the drivers had been sitting in for quite some time.

Clover said she wasn’t a ‘boss’, but if she was doing a job, I'm sure she’d have some guys close by, just in case things got hairy.

I was thinking about the logistics of x-ray vision, things like how far she could see, how ‘deep’ into something she might be able to see. Did light levels affect what she could and couldn’t see? The fact she could see my face under the mask implied that it didn’t matter whether something was in the dark.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Did thickness matter? Or rather, density? Now that I think about it, I'm not actual physically dense. I guess my cells or atoms, or whatever, are just harder to tear apart. So she could probably see into me. She’d be able to read my every move, before I make it, read my muscles. That is, if she’s good at using her ability. Which, given it’s a relatively ‘weak’ one, I’m sure she spent time trying to improve it.

There was always the fact that I didn’t know her second ability, on top of everything else.

I stood up from my hunched position, turning around.

“Seems pretty stupid to come up here, you know, I can probably break the sound barrier.” I eyed her billowing silver straps of cloth. The one tied around her head and the one around her waist. If I were in her shoes, I'd be thinking how cool I looked.

If she was in mine, she’d think differently. She clearly didn’t specialise in design, not like yours truly. The colour palette was consistent, but the outfit didn’t complement her much.

She had stick like figure, and though she tried to strike a bit of a pose, she looked like a pole in the ground.

That would have been a good thing to say out loud, to screw with her a bit. But that wasn’t my goal. I was completely confident that I could just beat her up, she was nothing compared to Creh-umha, to Chandler. The only thing she had in common with Handmade was a pension for tight grey clothes.

She was wearing a light denim jacket, her hands hidden away. I was starting to wish I had x-ray vision.

“You’re a pretty hard guy to find information on Sam- sorry, no names in costume, huh?”

There was a sadistic delight she was taking from this.

The objective was to divide her attention long enough for me to jump in and rip that stupid excuse for a mask off her face. “I’m pretty sure I know the answer, but why are you here?”

She shrugged, “Fun. And money. That’s basically the same reason you do it, right?”

I laughed; a grin stretched out, “I wish I could make money from cleaning up trash like you. I’m a nice guy, I give all proceeds from pantsings to charity.”

I had my arms splayed out, allowing for my cape to whip in the wind.

“So,” the girl stretched her speech, “we’re the same? We’re at the bottom of the pecking order, just trying to fuel or selfish desires.”

A twinge in my face, the smile held, “And how do you figure that?”

There wasn’t a single motion of her head, it was uncanny how still she was.

“Well,” she spoke quietly, awkwardly, “you are having fun. You wouldn’t be so excited otherwise. I can see your heart pumping.”

Could she?

“Secondly, I have a pretty terrible family condition. Just to survive, my family’s had to beg others for money. Like we’re dogs. I used to just put my head down, I'd excepted it, Mr.Superhero. I could see how my life was going to play out: I’d make a wage to live until like my mother, I marry someone richer than me. For a couple years, I’d keep working, getting nowhere. Not just because I’m a below average person, but because I’m a woman.”

“I’d stay stubborn, my husband would tell me that I didn’t have to work, and he’d be right, he was the bread maker. When our first child comes around, I’d take maternal leave off. And because I’m a woman, because it was expected of me, I wouldn’t go back to work. I’d stay at home, raise the children till they don’t need me anymore, I'd clean the house until I get sick of it and use my husband's money to get a maid. Eventually, I'd lose any attraction to him. He’d probably feel the same. Then, my body would get sorer and weaker, until I finally died.”

“You put a lot of thought into it,” I joked, “Can you see through time too?”

She didn’t laugh. Her thin lips were straight.

“No. I can just see through anything.”

Her head tilted up a bit, like she was looking at the sky. It was hard to tell if she actually was with that mask on.

“My life would have played out just like that. But then, one morning, I woke up, and I couldn’t see anything. At first I thought I'd gone blind, or that I was dead. I didn’t scream, or cry out for my family that morning. I just looked around me. I now understand that I was seeing through everything. There was no house or bed, though I searched for it, my body was gone. There was no land, or sea. No sun or stars.”

“Do you know what there was, Sam?”

I was getting sick of her saying it. I’d have been content if she was saying ‘Sam’, if she’d found that name on these posts, but she wasn’t using that fake name.

It was my real one.

“I could only see the sky. The clouds, and the blue. I think it was because they were gases. The nitrogen blue and water vapour. When I got a handle for it all, I realised-”

“I don’t have to follow a pre-set path anymore. I could do whatever I wanted. I could be completely self-centred. Guess that’s why they call us Units, huh?”

“Fascinating,” my smile had all but faded. I’d been looking for some sort of opening, anything for my fighters mind to grab onto- But that was just it. She was completely open.

“Listen See-through Girl, I don’t really see how your changing your life for the better here. Robbery? Drug dealing? Joining Belfast? Whether or not it’s legal, whether or not it’s exhilarating, when you boil it down, there’s no difference between that and a domestic life, right? Whether it’s in self-importance, or self-sacrifice, you’ll live and die all the same. In this world, you’ll die sooner.”

That’s when she smiled, letting out an ugly laugh, “Yeah, so? God, your full of yourself.”

She shrugged, “I don’t blame you. No friends for two years, and suddenly that girl with a nice ass gets all friendly with you. I’m sure that made you feel like the main character. Especially when she’s also your arch-nemesis. How does it feel, not just the fact that she’s lying to you, but to lie to the only friend you have? Maybe I should leave a note, hm?”

There was a sound like grit and rubber rubbing against each other; it was my first time making a fist in those gloves. And it was a tight one.

She saw that she was getting a reaction.

Taking a step back, she kept talking, “I did a little research. Asked a few friends. Hardly anyone remembers who you are. I got the most out of a friend of a friend. He said you were a really sad sack of shit. Horrible to be around. Depressing too. Most people I asked didn’t remember anything about you except the fact that you used to hang out with that one girl years ago, the one who moved up north, hero-”

That was enough. More than enough. With one foot I blasted forward, with little to no concern for her safty as I flew forward at impossible speeds.

She reacted just in time.

She tilted backwards, falling off the side of the roof.

I shot a foot over her, over the drop and skipping across the roof of the building over. It’s not like it was an alley, it was a full street. After rolling down the tiled roof I'd smashed into, I quickly got on my hands and knees, launching off.

I landed in the street, nearly landing in the open road in my haste.

That’s when I found where she’d fallen.

A fucking a cushion. She’d prepared an inflated cushion to land on.

I was surprised for a moment, before resolving myself. I had intended on waiting for her to come to me, so this was always going to be on her terms. No matter where I was, she could see my every move. She’d been observing me, and planning accordingly.

There was a large bell ringing. With an animalistic fury I turned. She was standing at a corner, where she’d placed a large brass bell earlier, I guess.

As soon as she got my attention, she darted away, hiding herself.

I understood what she was going for. A game of cat and mouse. Except, she didn’t want to be the cat. She wanted to run, to live with a fear of being caught. I still don’t get it. It’s deranged. To run yourself ragged, and for nothing?

I jumped up. I figured the best thing to do was to not play her game.

I got back on the roof top, there I could see where her road led, I could cut her off. I wasn’t even considering the fact that she could use her second ability anymore. I was thinking about the physical, what I could reach out and grab, the fact that I could so easily grab the girl that was right in front of me.

The opposite side of the roof was at my foot in a minute, and as I was looking down for where she could have gone, something slammed into my face.

Two of its propellers were whacking away at my face, one had broken, and the fourth was stuck in my open mouth.

It’s blades were lodged between the roof of my mouth and below my tongue. I was gagging as I pulled it out of my mouth with a snap.

A drone? Don’t these cost a lot of money? Even if robbing banks isn’t too profitable, I guess she still has money to spend, but how much crap is she willing to buy just to fuck with me.

I crushed it, tossing the thing to the ground. She was standing out down there, she hadn’t taken the opportunity to hide or run. She held the controller for the expensive piece of equipment up, before casting it into the street.

It was slower getting down, so I stayed to the roof, keeping as close as I could, as she ran out into a high street type area, a pedestrian area that was built spacious for all the people that’d come and go through it.

She was in the crowd, barging into the middle of many groups, her head looking around her as she danced onward.

I couldn’t jump down on her. To many people in the way. So I went over, I took a running start to leap over the area with as little energy as I could manage. I landed atop a building in the direction she was headed. Whatever she had planned up ahead, I wasn’t going to fall for it.

I slid down from the slanted roof, memorising her general location in the crowd, bobbing and weaving past all types of people until I caught that silver colour in the corner of my eye.

I twisted around, reaching out for her blindfold. She hardly saw it coming. Hardly. I pulled up, and she reacted by covering her eyes with her left arm in the same instant.

I threw the fabric away, cursing, scrunching my face in an out of character scowl. I realised I'd need to restrain her as well.

I took a step forward, reaching with my other hand. She pulled something out of her other pocket, pointing it at my face.

Ironically, I thought it was a gun, so I didn’t flinch. Behind my mask, my eyes were wide open. When that light burst out, the new fabric did little to stop it from blinding me.

I screamed out, bulldozing into a stumble. I felt multiple people, I hadn’t charged forward with enough force to do anybody harm, I hope, but I didn’t want to risk it.

I stepped back covering at my eyes, just about bringing an assortment of flashing colours to my attention.

I couldn’t see anything. I’d heard about expensive torches, gimmicky products that are sold on the fact that they’re the ‘brightest in the world’. If hers had that epithet, I'd believe it.

I wanted to rub profusely at my eyes, but that wouldn’t do much good, if anything, there was a chance of me damaging my new mask.

I tried listening out, but all I could hear was the alarm of the crowds around us, or more accurately, me.

I was regaining some sort of vision, as I started to run forward. I’d be able to make out any people if they were in way, so as I saw it, the best thing to do in that moment was to move in direction that the crowd had opened.

I just kept telling myself that there was a chance, that I could still get her.

That I'd win.

Finally, in that open space, I just happened to trip over a spherical limestone seat that was too low down for me to see, my foot wedging beneath it, the rest of my body falling over it like a blanket.

I was right to think she hadn’t strayed too far away, “Incredible. So far, you’ve not only fumbled this capture twice, but you’ve fallen over yourself three ti-”

With a cry I cut her off. I heard where the voice was coming from, and I was regaining a good portion of my vision now.

I managed to grab her arm, the one covering her face. I lifted her by it, making sure she was facing me.

A wicked grin came over me, “What were you saying earlier? That you’d gained the ability to live for yourself? Well, I’ve got news for you, bitch, there are people who can send you to another universe, monsters that can liquify you with their sweat, and I escaped them. Tell me, how does your crappy power scale to being able to survive with sixty percent of your flesh ripped from your bones?”

She wasn’t freaking out yet, “Fuck me, I thought you were a comic fan. You think you’d learn a little about egotism from iron-man. How pathetic. You’re a real loser if you underestimate me after everything that’s just happened.”

“Right, I'm not underestimating you anymore. After all, you know my identity. Let’s make a trade, huh?”

I wanted to give my eyes a rub, but that would only let on that I couldn’t see her face, “I won’t tell everybody who you are, if you don’t tell everybody who I am. Out of the two of us, I think I've got more to lose.”

She laughed, “You pulled off my mask, remember? And right now, on this busy high street, there isn’t anything covering my face-” Her smile was a grey blur, “-right?”

I tried to look around, seeing only black and grey stick like shapes, what I assumed were people, then back to her.

I was blinking. Did she really not care that I'd ripped her mask off? Revealed her to all these people? No. That couldn’t be right, she was a super villain, right? That’s what she’d said. She...

Either way, she was right. I ripped her mask off, I ruined my plan.

I had nothing to bargain with. There was no way for me to stop her from leaking my... secret identity...

“Well? What are you going to do hero? Hand me over to the police? It’d be fun breaking out of prison. But if you want to keep your lie alive... What are you willing to do?”

Somehow, there was still a tease in her voice.

I squeezed harder. I couldn’t help it, it was involuntary. She grabbed at my arm in the same instinct.

“You gutter crawling scum!” My voice came from a deep place.

There was a shake, a horrible type of hesitation... as I flicked her down with my wrist.

She was breathing heavily, my vision was just about adjusting, colour and detail was coming back to me as I looked down to her. She was on her knees, just rubbing her arm. I took the fact she wasn’t clutching it to mean the pain wasn’t unbearable.

“You win,” I said at last.

“I have nothing to offer you. You win.”

Between gasps she said, the tone in her voice slightly changed, “just like that? You’ll just- let me tell them? Clover, my boss, your mother, the school-”

She was talking too much, “YES! Fuck,” I let out a pained chuckle, grabbing at my mask, “fuck... Go ahead, take everything from me. I’ll just start a new life. Somehow, someway. Maybe I'll move to the city. Maybe I'll just do this without a mask from now on.”

The thought sickened me- no, it enraged me, “FUCK!” I screamed out again, “Get your pasty ass out of here before I change my mind!”

She was standing up. Standing still.

My fist tightened again, my sight restored, “Didn’t you-”

My jaw dropped, the muscles on my face exploded down.

Not because I was shocked by her identity, but because her identity wasn’t revealed.

The second sash, the one around her waist, she’d used it to cover her eyes.

With a pant she waved around her face, “This? I shimmied this up my body while you were running around like a- like an eyeless chicken a couple seconds ago. Yeah, I do care about my identity. And from your heart beat, the adrenaline blasting through your veins, so do you. And I need to know what you would do when what you care about is put against morals.”

I was in a daze, half listening, “What are you-”

The crowd had long since dispersed from that area, “I needed to know who you are. Like I said, I found absolutely nothing about you from your real life. You’ve done the same thing. You built a profile on me. Well, I went looking for you to do the same. I needed to know what type of ‘hero’ you were.”

She paced, no charm in her sore stride, “If you were willing to kill, like at all, then I'd be in a bad place, you understand? So I threatened your family and friends. Your life.”

“What the hell is your problem?!” I shouted out in a mixed fury, “Were you dropped as a kid? Jesus Christ, what the fuck are you trying to say?”

She put her hands up, “Alright, alright! Christ, I thought you read comic books...”

She rubbed her arm, “Ok, you know Spider-man right?”

“Don’t patronise me,” I spat.

“Right,” she nodded, “well, your Spider-man, and I’m the scorpion. Think about it, your strong, sure, but you're not the strongest, like Thor, and I'm even weaker, I know I'm not your worst enemy, your venom, your goblin, but you know what? I’m sticking around. You know whose enemies aren’t staying around? The punisher’s. I need a guy like you if I'm going to stay alive in this buisness. A guy who’ll let me run home till next week.”

She flexed her arm, “Just a little hurt, that’s great.”

Was she a masochist?

I wasn’t getting it, “So- what, you're not going to reveal my identity? This was all a- a what, a test?”

She nodded; the smile was clear on her face.

“Don’t fuck with me, I know you're not the one pulling the shots, if Belfast ordered you to, you’d reveal my identity.”

She looked like she’d just remembered something, “That’s right! I wanted to talk to you about that too.”

I readied myself, it was the same feeling I got thinking about Schism, like there was suddenly an eye, far away and powerful, piercing through me.

“Shamrock,” She used my proper name, “do you know about the superior spider-man series? Do you know how it started?”

“Parker got his body snatched by doc Ock, the audience doesn’t find out till the end of the first issue, though it’s heavily implied that something is off about him through the story-” My answer was too specific, she shook her good hand.

“Doc ock, arguably Spider-man's greatest enemy, kills the scorpion. Makes an example out of them.”

It was like a dark sludge had fallen off of me; dark and heavy.

“Are you-” the tension in my body subsided, “-are you asking me to save you?”

See-through Girls nose turned up, “Don’t kid yourself. I just needed to make sure that there was at least one person who’d be able to have my back if I decided to betray them. Until I do, I’m without a doubt, your enemy.”

“Just not my worst,” I prodded.

“But one you’ll never beat!” She turned away from me, taking something from her pocket.

“Hey” I shouted, “If you think I'm going to be satisfied with some weak shit like-”

She pointed it at me, the thing from her pocket, “Belfast has a couple records on you. I was told, if possible, I should test something like this on you. Sorry if this works better than it should, I got a powerful one just for you.”

Then she shot it at me. But it was not a gun.

It was a taser.

A rigor mortis took over my body as I fell backwards. She’d aimed for the open kin of my face, to make matters worse.

She said something, to mock me I’m sure, but I couldn’t hear. It didn’t exactly hurt, but my nervous system was definitely freaking out.

I guess no matter how powerful I am, if electricity is shot at me, there’s really nothing my body can do to stop my muscles from freaking out. It was reminiscent of what had happened to me on Valentines. Though it didn’t take me as long to recover from the shock this time.

At some point, See-through Girl ended up marching off.

I was swearing to myself, that whenever I did go to Belast, I'd make sure that girl get's what's coming to her.

Right now, the me that's typing this, has only one short term focus left to look forward to.

Reading that letter.

And looking through that telescope for whatever Schism wants me to see.