Luckily for Inyssa and Barry, the hail slowed somewhat as the sun advanced through the sky and evening turned to afternoon. It was still cold. Fucking hell was it cold, but it was nothing compared to what they'd had to endure back in the forest, and besides, that was just more incentive to get moving and start training again. They both had left as soon as they'd finished their hot chocolate. Partly because they were eager to get out and stretch their legs, but mostly to give Maylene and Candice some time alone together before the former had to go back to her job again.
"Is that all you got, Enma!?" she cried out, arms folded and a stern scowl on her face. "Put your back into those kicks and punches! If you don't you're never going to hit her, got it!?"
The abandoned dock sprawled all around them, nary a sign of life or vegetation to be seen. That's how she liked it. Sparks, flames and jets of water sprinkled the air as her Pokemon engaged in brutal combat with one another, moving about the snow-covered field with a frenetic speed she hadn't seen in them before. It seemed the return of their long-lost partner had lit a fire under them, appropriately enough.
Said long-lost partner let out a blood-curdling howl as he threw himself forward with a flame-coated fist, which was deftly –almost effortlessly– parried by Shadi's scythe, a tiny yet clearly smug smile forming on her lips.
A few hours ago when Inyssa had told Enma he didn't stand a chance against the Kricketune, her words had been mostly fueled by spite and a desire to see him cringe at such a statement. The fact that it was actually true was a welcome surprise.
She's surprised me time and time again, she thought, a proud sigh leaving her lips. I really should stop underestimating her.
Uxie's voice emerged from inside her head. "You seem very good at instilling that fiery, almost feral determination of yours into your Pokemon, for better or for worse."
She couldn't help but laugh. It was a matter of time before Uxie brought the matter up, she knew that.
"That's me, the 5 foot tall, 110 pound girl that never gives up. It doesn't matter how desperate a situation is, as long as you're reckless enough to go for people's eyes like a crazed fucking Rattata."
"A fearsome beast, for sure," said Uxie, no hint of sarcasm in its voice. "Perhaps not as regal and honorable as previous heroes, but I had started getting tired of that kind, if I must be honest. You're a pleasant change of pace, Inyssa."
She looked over her shoulder, grinning. "Well just you wait. You haven't seen the height of my stupidity yet, I can assure you." She looked down at her hands, feeling a tingle run through the length of her scars. "Though I got pretty close last night, huh?"
There was a short pause and, whether due to Uxie's power or not, memories of that moment flashed across her eyes once more. Lightning curling around her arms. The roar of the coming thunder looming above her, ready to be unleashed. A single moment of mercy, responsible for saving everyone's lives.
"First time I actually harness your powers, and I almost kill us all with it," she said, eyes narrowing in frustration. "Blasted hero I am."
"It… is a step in the right direction, at least," said Uxie. "I doubt such dangerous circumstances will repeat; the only reason you would have been able to summon thunder was because a storm conveniently raged above you. You just need to keep practicing."
She nodded absentmindedly, grabbing onto her wrist with her other hand, glaring down at it.
It was… more than that, she thought. I could've sworn the lightning was cursing through my scars, but why would…?
"I guess you're right," she said. "Not used to being so bad at something, but that's not an excuse. I might be the shittiest hero of all time but if history has showed us anything is that all you need to do is be the right person at the right place in the right time to change things."
She felt a sense of pride coming from Uxie, though it didn't say anything like 'That's the spirit!' like she expected. Maybe that pun was too bad even for Uxie.
"In the meantime," she said, curling her hand into a fist. "I'll hone whatever tools I already have at my disposal."
"Are you referring to that remote teleport trick you used against Pyxis?" asked Uxie. "I must say, I'm impressed by your application of it during your confrontation."
"I've always been good at turning my weaknesses into strengths," she said. "Though… are you really telling me no one before me had ever used that power offensively? It's pretty fucking useful."
"Hmm. There might have…" Its voice trailed off for a moment, before returning with a sound like a gasp. "Ah, yes! One of my previous companions made good use of that trick, now that I think about it. Poor girl. It's been so long since I've thought about her…"
"Really!?" asked Inyssa sharply turning toward Uxie. "Who was it? Maybe I heard of her!"
"I… sincerely doubt it. She was not the kind of hero people wrote stories about." There was a bit of hesitation in its voice. "She was known as Vera, the Thread of Fate."
Just then, a multitude of light motes appeared in front of Inyssa, merging together and taking the form of a lean, olive-skinned young girl with flame red hair and eyes of the same color. The first thing that caught her attention was how delicate her features were. The second was that the skin on all of her fingers was flayed and torn as though someone had carefully and thoroughly carved at them with a knife.
"She, like most other humans who bonded with me, was a warrior, though a very unusual one."
The girl's eyes flashed golden and in an instant about a hundred dark figures materialized around her, floating lifelessly in a formation that made it seem as though she were in the middle of a wall made of people. Thin threads of light tied her fingers and each individual figure together.
"After each fight, she would take the corpses of those she'd slain and turn them into taxidermy puppets, the insides of which were full of hidden blades, bombs and other such clever contraptions." Inyssa's eyes went wide at that, mouth gaping. "During battle, she would deploy these puppets and control them with threads made of psychic energy so that they may fight her opponents in her behalf. Her personal army, you could say."
"I… that's…" Inyssa gulped, feeling her stomach turn. "But how did she…?"
"Additionally, she would use my powers of illusion to make every single puppet look like her," explained Uxie. "Then, if anyone managed to locate the real her, she would use that teleport trick to switch places with one of her booby-trapped puppets. A simple, yet deadly strategy."
Inyssa stared at the girl –now the aloof look in her face much less attractive to her– and couldn't help but shiver at the thought of a hundred of her rushing at her, ready to kill her in cold blood and turn her corpse into a puppet.
"Right, so…" She swallowed. "I'm not… gonna do that."
"Yes, I imagined the idea wouldn't strike your fancy."
She shook her head in disbelief.
"How… did she even fucking bond with you in the first place?" she asked. "She was a psychopath!"
"Ethics have varied broadly between different ages of…"
"She desecrated corpses!"
"Mere husks without a soul," argued Uxie. "I apologize, Inyssa, but I've never understood your kind's obsession with dead bodies. It is something no other species possesses."
She must've made one hell of a face at that, judging by the way Uxie attempted to explain itself further.
"Additionally, being a good person has –unfortunately– never been a requirement to bond with one of us. Make of that what you will."
Well… she'd figured that much out, at least. After all, as tragic a figure as Nyss was, no amount of sad backstory would change the fact that she'd killed hundreds over the course of her life and Azelf didn't seem to have thought badly of her for it. But then, if the only standard to bond with one of the Lake Trio was to embody their aspect…
Can't even take pride in that anymore, she thought bitterly. I'm sharing the podium with a bunch of monsters.
She looked toward the open field, where her Pokemon took a small break in between their sparring matches. They looked completely exhausted. And still, the look of determination in their eyes hadn't gone out one bit. The sight of them brought a smile to her face.
True, she might not have been the best of heroes, but at least she didn't string up corpses and used them to f–
A thought came to her. She turned to Uxie again, frowning.
"How could she swap places with the puppets? I thought that… ugh, calling it teleport trick is really annoying, I'll come up with something shorter." She bit her lower lip, her foot tapping against the snow for a few seconds. "Spirit-Magnetic Teleportation, S.M.T for short."
"You seem to have a knack for coming up with… interesting names for things."
"Anyway, I thought you could only use S.M.T. to pull yourself toward an object, or vice versa."
"Ah. Yes, there is another way. I suppose I…"
"You forgot," she spat out, poison in her voice. "Yeah. Figured."
"I sincerely apologize. It is just that I have lived for so long that sometimes I forget certain things."
She shrugged. "It's fine. Over the past few months I've come to the realization that not only is the world run by total morons, but not even gods themselves know what the fuck they're doing. It's… relieving, if a bit worrying."
Walking a few steps, she knelt down and picked up a small stone from under the snow, cleaning it off with her thumb as she rotated it on her palm.
"How does it work, then?"
"It's rather simple. Remember what I told you before; that body and mind are intrinsically linked together?" Inyssa nodded at that. "The principle still applies when only part of the mind is separated from the body. Any part. It doesn't matter how small or insignificant."
"A small part of…" She blinked a few times, mouth slightly agape. "Memories?"
"Yes. I would take a single memory from Vera, something she wouldn't miss, like the last meal she ate, and then forcefully sever it from her mind. Then, I would insert that memory into one of the puppets. This way, she wouldn't have to summon herself to the mind-scape in order to use the tel… er, I mean, S.M.T." It was clear from its tone that it wasn't much of a fan of that name. "As for the second part, I would simply release both sides at once. They would immediately teleport toward each other's location, effectively switching places and allowing Vera to escape harm."
"Right… Then you can do that yourself if you want to," whispered Inyssa. "That's a much faster and practical way to go about it. And you clearly don't seem to have a limit, seeing as you did that with more than a hundred of her puppets at once." She looked up at it, an excited look on her face. "For how long can you separate a memory from someone's mind?"
"I… well, I doubt there is a time limit, really," said Uxie. "At full power I am able to completely erase a human's memories. Holding a few at bay is nothing, in comparison."
Inyssa closed the hand holding the stone, a rush of energy bursting from her belly and spreading all throughout her body. She couldn't help but grin. All this time, she'd felt as though she was the worst legendary hero in history, and maybe she still was, but at least now she could do something about it. Finally she had a way to improve, a way to develop her powers like Barry did.
Sure, it was just developing the shittiest power at her disposal into something only marginally less useless, but it was a starting point.
"Alright!" she yelled, balling both hands into fists. "Let's do this, Uxie! We can start with my belt!"
"I… start? What?"
"Like this," she said, un-clipping her belt and raising it in front of her chest. Six gleaming Pokeballs adorned both halves. "Take a memory from me and insert it into this belt. Any one is fine."
"But you…" There was a moment of confusion, followed by realization. "Ah, I see! That way you could teleport it to yourself or vice versa in case it is taken from you again. Brilliant!"
She felt her eyes spark to life. Crackling energy rushed from her head down through her arm, setting on the leather belt, which glowed for a moment before returning to normal. Still, she felt it. If she concentrated and squinted her eyes really hard she could see a thin strand of ethereal energy connecting her to it.
You're not getting the better of me again, Team Galactic, she thought, smiling confidently.
"I took the memory of you eating lunch from 230 days ago," explained Uxie. "It was rather unremarkable."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Now let's do it with each Pokeball individually. Just in case they're separated from the belt."
They spent the following ten minutes attaching memories to every object Inyssa figured she might desperately need if forcefully separated from it. The hat came first, obviously. Her Poketch and Pokedex followed soon after, as well as her backpack and coat, just in case.
"Alright, I think that's…" She frowned, looking down at her balled fists. "Uxie, could this work on a person?"
"I'm afraid not. There is a reason Vera used corpses exclusively; this power cannot interfere with actual living beings."
She sighed. "Bummer. Guess I couldn't…" She froze for a second. "What about clothes? Could I put a mark on Barry's jacket and teleport to it if I needed to?"
"I suppose, though the opposite would not be possible. You would just teleport the jacket to yourself instead."
She shrugged. "That's good enough. Okay, now…" She began nibbling on the side of her finger, eyes narrowed. "I think… there's one more experiment I'd like to conduct. Just in case."
"I see… And what kind of experiment would this be?"
"Did you and Vera ever test the limit of the markings' distance?" she asked. "Like, if I left one on an object and put it very far away from me, would the link break?"
"I… Well…" She could perfectly imagine the thoughtful frown that formed on Uxie's face. "That is a good question."
"Thanks. I'm full of them." She turned to look at her Pokemon, lifting her chin so she could locate… "Hey, Enma! Come here for a sec!"
The Infernape shot up like a spring from where he was sitting, the sudden burst of heat coming from his crown forcing Inyssa to squint slightly. He'd been sitting alone. The rest of her Pokemon weren't too far away, perhaps as to not discourage him too much, but also make it clear that he wasn't fully part of the group yet. Shadi, however, sat a lot farther. Her point was just as clear.
At least I can make him feel useful with this, thought Inyssa.
He approached with a controlled, casual strut that didn't do well at hiding how excited he was to be addressed by her.
"Do me a favor," she said, placing the stone she'd been holding on his palm. "Chuck this with every ounce of strength you have in that direction, toward the outskirts of town. Throw it as far as you possibly can."
Enma raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting an explanation, though he was given none. After a moment he simply shrugged and turned around, rotating his right arm with his other hand on his shoulder, flames starting to lick at the outline of his body.
Inyssa took a few steps back, bracing herself. She'd left a mark on that stone. Now it was time to see how far the link could hold.
Taking in a deep breath, Enma leaned as back as he could, left leg lifted into the air, then howled as he threw himself forward with all his strength. The back of his hand left behind a trail of flames. There was the sound of an explosion and the next thing Inyssa saw was the stone, a miniscule dot in the horizon which fully disappeared a moment after.
"Nice throw," she whispered, tensing her body in anticipation. "Alright Uxie, release in 3…2…1… Now!"
The air around her vibrated for a moment before she vanished. All sensation left her body.
A gust of fresh air hit her face as she materialized again, stone in hand. Her feet weren't touching the ground. But then again, she didn't expect them to.
Two thoughts came to mind, in that infinitesimal moment where she opened her eyes and looked down.
The first was Yes! There is no significant range on the markings!
The second, as she noticed what lay beneath her, was less a thought than a panicked scream inside her own mind.
SHIT, LAKE!
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Barry took his time strolling through the city once he and his Pokemon finished their training.
It hadn't been a long session. Niss' would probably last twice as much and he didn't even need to be in the same place as her to know that. But that was just fine. It wasn't like he disliked training, but he'd always been one to prioritize instincts and going with the flow instead of slowly and meticulously planning his every move like Niss did. He was fine with that.
His body shivered as a sharp gust of wind ruffled the back of his neck. The streets were almost empty. Very wide and covered in thick snow, it gave Barry the impression that the two rows of houses were oddly divided, pushed aside by the hazy white of the blocked-off horizon. The sky could barely be seen. It made him feel as though he were inside an enormous tunnel full of diamond dust.
A middle-aged woman passed him in the street and he gave her his best smile. She did not respond in kind.
Geez…
It wasn't the first time that had happened. While the architecture and feeling of the town reminded him strongly of Celestic, the small-town friendliness was completely absent from Snowpoint. It felt like the opposite, almost. These were a reserved people. Close amidst each other but wary of outsiders, possibly due to whatever history the town had and how the local culture had developed.
Niss would probably feel right at home here. He, not so much.
"At least the Gym fight will probably be exciting," he sighed, holding the back of his neck with his hands. "I can look forward to that."
"Curb your enthusiasm, my liege." Mesprit's voice resounded inside his head. "I wouldn't want you to overflow your emotions or anything of the like."
"Oh har, har har. Did you hear that, Mesprit? That was me laughing at your amazing joke!" He rolled his eyes. "Also I told you to not talk to me when I'm in public! Everyone's gonna think I'm hearing things."
"I doubt I could make the people of this town care about you any less. Additionally, you're doing a good job of being suspicious yourself; you've been levitating those small stones for a few blocks now."
He frowned, then looked down at his feet where three pebbles danced around his feet, their outline coated in a pale purple light. As soon as he noticed, they fell to the ground.
"That's been coming to you easier with every day that passes," said Mesprit. "And while I am proud, I'd advise against wasting your power reserves unnecessarily."
"I… didn't even realize I was doing that. Sorry." He shook his head, folding his hands into his pockets. "Oh well."
He made it to the end of the block before Mesprit decided to talk again.
"I have been thinking…"
When aren't you? thought Barry. Everyone always thinks too much.
"You have felt… off recently, Barry."
"Off? What do you mean?"
There were a few seconds of silence. "Often, when I bond with a human, I can feel as our shared power develops and evolves. But lately…" It stammered for a moment. "That flow of power has felt… stagnated."
Barry stopped on the side of the street, eyebrows joining together. He looked over his shoulder at Mesprit.
"Your psychokinetic abilities have been developing at an acceptable pace. The other side, however…"
"I already told you I don't know how to get better at that," he snapped back. "And what about what just happened with Team Galactic? How did nothing develop there?"
"That's just the thing. You see… last time you faced them, I felt a burst of determination and righteous anger from the very depths of your heart. It made the power bloom inside of you. But this time…" Barry immediately cringed, knowing what was coming. "All I felt was fear… and regret. Commonly known as the mind killers, yes, but they don't do the heart any favors either."
Pain sprouted from his lower lip as he nibbled on it, the stagnating energy in his body making it feel as though ants ran under his skin.
"Niss was in danger. Of course I felt those things, I wanted to get her out of there."
"You wanted to run," Mesprit told him. "Never, not for one moment, did the desire to fight back valiantly burn inside you. That is not very hero-like, you see."
"What could I have done?" he asked, heat rising to his voice. "That whole emotion wave thing? That thing that paralyzed Niss and pretty much tortured her?"
"If it could have saved you both…"
"What do you want me to say!?" he snapped, fulminating the empty air with his glare. "I was scared, okay!? I didn't think of it. It was super cold and there was blood running down my forehead and I could feel Niss being scared even from that far away, what did you want me to do!? I can't be as brave as her." He shook his head. "No one can."
Surprisingly, Mesprit did not yell back, as he expected it to do. That was almost worse. He could feel the weight of its gaze on the back of his neck and every second of silence made his skin itch more and more. When it finally spoke again, he was a shaking mess.
"Barry. Your decision to fight back against Galactic… to help me free my siblings, are you… regretting it?"
He frowned, grabbing onto the fabric of his sleeve with his other hand, unconsciously holding himself.
"I want them to go down. And I know someone has to do it, and we said we'd help, but…" He sighed. "Sometimes… it gets a little too scary, you know? I wish Niss and I could go back to just having fun and being dumb and only have to worry about our journey and taking on the Gym leaders. Just… be kids. You know?"
He remembered all the trouble they'd gotten in every single time they had interfered with Team Galactic's plans. How proud he'd felt, nonetheless. And how that feeling had completely evaporated after last night.
A sad smile formed on his lips. "Mom was probably right," he said, letting his shoulders drop. "Sorry if I'm disappointing you, Mesprit. I'm sure… I'm sure I'll get my groove back soon."
Yet once again, the legendary Pokemon surprised him. Instead of sounding offended or put off as he expected, there was a certain warmth and amusement present in its voice as it spoke.
"Ha! Can't be helped, I suppose. You Galehearts are all the same, deep down." Laughter boomed in its voice, for the first time in so long. "You remind me of Synn, you know?"
Barry mumbled for a moment, unsure of how to react. "I… how?"
"He had that same wimpy mentality. 'Oh, why can't everyone get along? Why must I hurt people in order to be a hero; can't everything just be black and white? Boo-hoo-hoo'." That impression sounded in a different voice than usual, one he didn't recognize. "Too much of a softie, if you ask me. Still, he was a good man, and it never really hurts to wish for less conflict, as useless as the sentiment is. So you shouldn't worry so much."
Laughter rose from his stomach, making his lips quiver. "That was… an impression, alright." He hesitated before asking his next question. "I… do I really remind you of him? Synn, the greatest hero of all time…?"
"I told you, all you chumps are the same," said Mesprit dismissively. "Fickle and oblivious like the wind. You get carried along by anything that crosses your way and you listen to everyone unless what they say happens to be for your own good, in which case you adamantly ignore them. You despise being chained to a single mission or purpose. You'd rather breeze through life getting into as many miscellaneous adventures as you possibly could, instead of actually accomplishing something big and important."
Barry pursed his lips, cheeks reddening slightly. He wished he could protest at that, but deep down knew that it was one hundred percent true.
"Your friend, on the other hand, could not be more different." At that point, the tone in Mesprit's voice made it clear it was talking mostly to itself. "Friendship. Family. Duty. Bonds. They all serve as shackles, keeping her grounded, focused on the practical and unimaginary. Truly tragic. Her spirit will never know the freedom yours does."
He considered that for a moment. It was true, mostly, that Niss tended to get way too attached to… pretty much anything that struck her fancy, whether it was a person, a Pokemon or a concept, but Mesprit was definitely giving her too little credit. After all…
"You're a real pessimist, you know that?"
Now he felt it. Confusion, anger and indignation rushed him one after the other, followed by its voice booming in his head.
"Excuse me? I believe I told you I am the original optimist, you half-wit."
He shrugged. "Well, you're underestimating us."
"How so?"
"Can't count the number of times Niss brought me down to earth," he said, looking up with a smile. "Whenever I was being too oblivious or was getting too carried away she'd yank me down and remind me what was at stake and what I could to to help."
"Yes, well…"
"And I'd do it for her whenever she needed me, too," he interrupted it. "Every time she's sinking into her murky thoughts and stuff I'd grab her and pull her up as high as I could so she could look at the big picture from afar and stop being so… deep into all that. Just because you're chained up doesn't mean you can't make the chains as long as you need, right?"
Mesprit seemed out of words for a few seconds.
"I… suppose that is one way to look at it, yes," it said. Barry could feel it frowning. "Sometimes I forget that no human exists in a vacuum, but I am grateful for your reminder of that."
"Heh. No problem." He threw up both hands into the sky, stretching with a smile on his face. "Thanks to you too. I feel a lot better after this t-"
His Poketch rang. Barry frowned, looking down at his wrist and pressing on the screen only to see a message from Niss.
Back in the house, it said. Fell into a lake. Almost got hypothermia. Long story.
Barry stared at the message for a few seconds, blinking slowly.
"...What?"
----------------------------------------
The book wasn't there.
Shadi stared up at the empty space in the shelf for almost a minute, eyes wide in shock and disbelief. Darkness pooled at her feet. The pale flames of all the Litwick in the library shone at the very end of the hallway, every one of them pressing against the edge of the room with looks of utter terror on their face. The temperature of the place had dropped a few degrees ever since she'd walked in.
Finally, after what felt like minutes, she closed her mouth and swallowed. Her lips felt dry. The exhaustion she'd been carrying in her shoulders felt twice as heavy as usual, though that was nothing in comparison to the cold rage bursting from her stomach, spreading throughout her veins like poison.
"She's got you."
Darkrai's voice brought her back to reality. She blinked a few times, her breathing fast and shallow, and tried to compose herself before answering.
"It's fine," she said, her tone too neutral. "This isn't a problem. I'm sure Cynthia was the one to point her toward the book; she showed it to me in the first place after all, but it's not a problem."
She took in a deep breath, then another. Calm. She needed to stay calm. Anger wouldn't fix this, no matter how tempting it was to give herself to it.
"She won't learn anything useful from it unless she awakens her powers," she whispered. "Which she won't."
"If you say so."
Now… for the other book. The really important one. She pressed a hand against the shadow of a nearby pillar and began to sink into it, tendrils of black hungrily licking at her arm as she phased through.
Darkness swallowed her. She felt herself traveling at a high speed, her whole body weightless.
It would be fine, she assured herself. Niss finding that book was always a possibility, but there was no way in hell she could have stumbled upon the diary. She'd coated it with a layer of Darkrai's essence, after all. No one but a fully developed legendary hero would be able to find it, and she knew neither of those two were anywhere close to that.
A silver of light broke through and she emerged into another hallway, a few floors up.
"There."
Disregarding any semblance of poise, she practically ran down the hallway toward that bookshelf, feeling her heartbeat in her ears. It had to be there. There was no possible way anyone could have taken–
There was an empty space, high up in the bookshelf. The red of the diary's cover was nowhere to be seen.
It had been a long time since Shadi had felt anything close to fear. The last person to instill such a feeling in her had paid dearly for it.
"Darkrai…"
Eyes appeared on her shadow. The air around her began to shake, layers of dust flying off the rows of books, forming a cloud all around her. Darkness licked up at the walls, hungrily. As though wanting to swallow the entirety of the library.
"How long until we can enter Snowpoint?" she asked, voice shaking with fury. "How long until the moon is on our side?"
No response came. She could feel his hesitation.
"How long?" she repeated, voice on the brink of breaking.
"…A week. Once that moon rises, I will be more powerful than my partner."
Shadi closed her eyes tight, her breathing slow and deliberate. High above, cracks began to spread through the stained glass, small pieces breaking off by the sheer pressure exuding from her.
"A week," she repeated, eyes gleaming with cold fury. "Send a message to your partner, Darkrai. Tell her she has a week to deliver Inyssa to me peacefully, because after that, I'll be coming for her with everything I've got."
----------------------------------------
Inyssa thought cuddles were already nice in everyday life, but they really showed their usefulness after almost catching hypothermia by idiotically teleporting herself above a frozen lake.
Which, okay, wasn't an epiphany she imagined anyone had ever had but her, but whatever.
She'd been about to fall asleep when yet another chill overcame her. The sudden shaking woke up Barry, whose arms she was currently smuggled between.
"Ah, shit. Sorry." She gave him an apologetic smile. "I'll try to stop doing that."
"N-nah, it's…" He stopped to let out a big yawn. "It's fine. About time you surpassed me in stupidity."
She head-butted him slightly in the chest.
"Agh!"
"Serves you right," she whispered. "I've been training with my powers all day, and sometimes experiments…go wrong, you know?"
"Oh yeah?" He rested his chin on the top of her head, letting out a tired sigh. "Think you're making progress?"
"…Kind of. I was thinking of trying my hand at that book tomorrow, see if I c–"
A clicking noise reached her ears from downstairs. She froze, eyes going wide.
"What was that?" she whispered, voice thin.
"Huh? What d'you mean?"
"Didn't you hear it? It was like…"
A delicate slam, followed by the same clicking sound, only slightly louder.
"There! I think someone… hold on."
She jumped out of the bed, leaving behind a very sleepy and confused Barry.
"Niss… what are you doing?"
Ignoring the question –and the sudden cold coming over her muscles– she walked over to the room's window and looked down, squinting her eyes.
She let out a tiny gasp.
"What?" asked Barry, pushing himself up. "What is it?"
"Here, quick!"
Both of them huddled in front of the window, looking down at what looked like a figure exiting the house, heading north through the dark street.
"Is that…"
"Candice," she whispered, brows furrowed. "Where the hell is she going so late in the night?"