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<02/03/2011 - 14:31 | Saffrin Middle School (Music), Austell, GA, USA>

"It's really coming in now. The storm is about three or four hours past our effective range..." I was seeing through Lumina's world once more, only after giving myself another short break. When my third period class came in, I checked to see the storm outside the window with Lumina. But because it was only the very head-end of the storm, not a lot was visible. I saw some crazy white swirly horizontal clouds from the nebula, but nothing too intense or scary, and they were thin enough to be difficult to spot too.

That's why right now, I chose this class to be the one I would ignore the most. Lumina was just telling me that she was essentially drifting into the worst part of the storm itself; the center zone. "Boost the connection then. I want to see this for myself." Maybe the appearance of the storm has changed since it rolled in deeper. On my command, Lumina boosted the connection again, instantly allowing me to see into her darkened world again. Even with her impressive night vision, it was somewhat difficult to see around in the main room of her ship. < >

"Wow..." My eyes went wide with wonder once Lumina glanced out of the window again, revealing something far more breath taking than what I imagined earlier. The entire nebula going by was somewhat transparent, since the dissipation of the white clouds moving around made it seem that way on the other side. But there were darker greyer patches as well. During my view of it all, I suddenly noticed one distant bolt of plasma, and was blown away by its beauty. The bolt itself mimicked the appearance of a lightning bolt, but with major color and vibrancy differences. The orange bolt of energy carried a lightly purple aura around it when it struck off like that, and that same purple light illuminated the entire interior of the room with its radiance. I've never seen anything like it before.

"I know..." Even Lumina waited until she saw another orange bolt of energy, said to be pure plasma. "It's a moving sight."

"... It's so beautiful."

"Some of the deadliest things can be. We'll have this view for several more hours."

"I can't believe what I'm seeing. The bolts of plasma are a bright orange, and the fog around us has this pale coloration."

"Hard to believe such storms exist in space?"

"I want to know what powers that freak of nature... I don't even hear any sound from it."

"Uhm, that's normal. Sound can't exist in the vacuum of space."

"Right. I knew that." I really did know it, I just forgot given the sight before me. "It looks so incredible..."

"Reed!"

"Ah, yes?" The sudden interruption from my teacher forced Lumina's entire world in my view to melt away, and Lumina abstained from holding the amplification until I figure out what is going on back in my world.

"Play the first five lines of assignment 2-A." My teacher waited on me to pick up my guitar and play, surely picking on me only because she could tell my mind was far off in some other place.

"They just can't leave you alone today." Even Lumina was getting annoyed by this.

"I don't even know what she's talking about, and now is a really bad time!" Of course I had no idea what lines I was supposed to play. It's already going to be obvious that I've let the assignment go.

"Then just play really badly. They'll leave you alone after that."

Something like that would have been funny to me as well, but I was in too much a serious mood to get it over with. "Okay. Here goes." I prepared to play the guitar, taking Lumina's advice on this, even if she was just kidding. The reason for that is, I'm sure she won't ask me to play again after what I'm about to put down. < >

Thanks to my performance, the entire class was laughing at me, with Malica laughing the hardest, but I didn't feel any embarrassment about it whatsoever. What did the teacher expect me to do?

"No good Reed. You're going to have to improve that sample by tomorrow, or your grade will slip."

"Fine." "Stupid idiot. Can't she see that I'm busy with other things?"

"Nobody can see that." I didn't need Lumina to remind me. I knew already that everything about her world is invisible to others. Only I can sense it. Only I can see through her eyes, hear through her ears, and feel everything that's going on around her body as if it's happening to me.

Of course, it was that last detail that partially explained what happened to us so abruptly. Following a loud and deep quake of low pitch noise and resonating vibrations of metal from all over the ship, Lumina and myself were both suddenly shoved directly into the ground, falling in synch to the same physical disturbance that pushed us down. As soon as I could try and figure out what just happened, I felt the continued aggravations and quaking within the ship, the severe shift in external activity being the cause of loss in balance.

I let out a painful groan trying to pick myself off the floor, realizing that I was only shoved out of my seat because Lumina was first shoved to the ground by some unknown turbulence on her side. At the same time, I had to try and ignore the commotion I just made. All of the students were pointing and laughing at my spectacle as I made my way back into the disconnected chair. "I sure as hell felt that one. What was that?" I had to wait on Lumina to tell me what that was, because she was trying to figure it out herself. Whatever force knocked her to the ground took her by total surprise, and I could see Junko now struggling with the same issue.

"Damn! It's a deep pocket of the plasma storm. Deep pockets are small areas of severe shift within the plasma storm's waves, accompanied by quick speeds from its cosmic wind. It's right on top of us!"

I started breathing a little faster now. For one, that shove still mystified me. Only sensation of force is transferred between us, so I should not have been shoved out of my own chair, but I guess the sensation was strong enough for my brain to register its own similar spasm. What bothered me even more was how unhappy she sounded to be in this deep pocket thing. "I can't believe you have turbulence to deal with in the vacuum of space over this storm. This isn't good anymore. Get out of there Lumina!"

"You have to relax Reed. It's really annoying, but we'll handle it. Being in this section won't raise the chances of us being hit by a bolt, but we can't power up and flee either. If we try it, our chances of taking a hit will be one hundred."

That's what bothers me the most! She's trapped in a dangerous deep pocket of a deadly space storm! Even as I thought that just now, I could feel the sudden turbulence and quaking from inside her ship again, though with less intensity. "You want me to be calm while that storm is shaking your ship to pieces?"

The turbulence outside became totally frequent, to the point it was constant. It was jarring to me, but Lumina had a worse time, trying to concentrate on her balance while talking to me. "The ship will survive this, but the exterior might suffer an unhealthy intake afterwards. We'll just have to dock at the temple afterwards to maintenance everything."

Before I could agree or disagree with her, the turbulence from the deep pocket increased greatly, forcing me to tightly grip the back of my chair. I knew I couldn't hide my expression of terror, so I turned my gaze to the door before letting my vision shift back directly though hers. I've never felt an earth quake before, and I wasn't sure if this was the exact same feeling, but it was rough enough to mess with my personal sense of balance. I tried standing up out of the seat to see if I would handle myself better this way, and ignored all the attention I attracted from my surroundings. No matter what was going on around me, the situation with Lumina is finally something I can call critical! "Fuck that! You have to find some way out of there!"

"I can't turn the ship back on right now Reed! I know this is scary, but you can't panic in a situation like this."

"But the shaking is getting worse."

"That only means the storm is starting to speed up, which will be better for us in the long run..." Lumina crouched down on her knees again, placing her arms and feet apart as if she were about to do some weird exercise, though it was only a means to keep her position for what is about to come. "Junko! Hold onto something! The disturbance will worsen soon."

"What?!" How does she know it will worsen soon? How soon is soon?

"I'll be fine," Junko replied aloud. "But I'm staying right here to the control and readout system just in case."

"Good. Reed? Behave!" She spoke to me like a dog, a dog that needed to be punished for acting out.

"You expect me to behave at a time like this? I can't tell if you are going to make it out of this alive or dead." I really started panicking too, my pulse and breathing rapid while half the eyes turned to me, and the teacher wondered why I was standing up staring at the door in silence, but I was truly in fear this time. I've always been calm in situations, even that one time our apartment went ablaze in a cooking accident. In any life threatening situation, I'm always so calm and chilled out, but it's not my life that's on the line here. It's Lumina's life!

"I won't die Reed! Not like this."

"Then I'm staying here with you full time, no matter what happens, until this storm is over."

"The storm won't be over for several hours..." The turbulence started to degrade slightly, making Lumina guess that she was wrong in her previous prediction. "The disturbances might quit much sooner than that. Deep pockets are rare since they are so small." But as if to poison her good faith of optimism, a series of three loud beeps echoed out in our ears, coming from Junko's general area. Both our eyes widened with nervousness.

"Lumina! There's a problem with the power routing network. The turbulence is disrupting the flow of energy to the AGCR systems!"

"But don't we need that to make it through this?" Lumina's question was fully rhetorical, a command to Junko to prioritize all emergency options and ensure the power to the AGCR does not fail.

At last, I could feel the fear in her body trickling its way into mine, proving to me that the situation was getting worse over time. "Fuck." This won't work at all. Even if she's going to be fine, I can't calm down. I need to be sure she'll make it. "Lumina! Just hang in there. Everything's going to be okay." Despite my attempt to console her, my physical voice made it clear I was the one needing the assurance.

"Reroute the energy to increase voltage and amperage levels by ten percent. We can't afford to have this problem right now." Lumina sounded much calmer than I did, and she gave proper commands to Junko, who was already at the control systems performing the action. I think she must have ignored what I said, but I was now glad to have been ignored if it lets her concentrate better.

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Malica addressed her question to me, which was only enough for me to register what she said, though my senses were still in perfect synch with Lumina. It made me realize that in my own panic, I was beginning to talk to Lumina using my mouth instead of telepathy. With no phone in my and no other visible person speaking back to me, it was confusing to everyone, not just Malica.

But I didn't even have time to consider anything beyond that. Without any warning, everything including the ground just seemed to fly and tilt upwards violently! A sudden surge in the turbulence from the deep pocket launched Lumina into the air, while I felt the shocks and tremors in the ground flowing through me like electricity. The sudden onset of this quake slamming into the ship's hull had the effect of knocking me back onto the ground backwards, as I barely caught myself with my own back before sustaining a head injury.

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I made the mistake of standing up in all of this. Now I was on the ground again, pushed down by the most intense physical sensation of shifts and quakes I've ever felt before. If the turbulence in her ship was strong enough to knock me down just through telepathic sharing, then it must be twice as bad on her side. "Lumina!" I shouted as loudly as I could, hoping that she was okay after what just happened. I wasn't certain if Junko got her job done before that massive spike hit them, and I needed to know right now.

I had to pull myself back up first, which wasn't as easy since the heavy turbulence wasn't dying down at the moment. I felt like I was inside of some enclosed capsule, being jostled around randomly and wildly with intense force. Glad I didn't get motion sick, I had to deal with a few additional details this caused for me. For one, the students that laughed at me before were all staring at me, their faces filled more with confusion and concern this time, since they realized by now this wasn't some random accident. Not to mention, my shout to Lumina was once again done without telepathy, and done loudly enough for people outside the room to hear. The panic and fear that I would lose Lumina carried in that single breath, and I was sure it did not go unnoticed by anyone.

"Reed! Quiet down!" Even Ms. Patterna didn't approve of my class disruptions. She didn't seem to question me on what I said or whose name I blurted out earlier, but she did suddenly change her reactions based on what she saw going on with me.

I did the best I could to stand up and stay standing. With my connection so strong to Lumina, the strong tremors pushing and shoving Lumina around were doing the exact same thing to me, but I learned to better control my balance since the intensity on myself was a little less. This had the consequence of making my struggle to stand without wobbling, shifting, or swaying wildly become obvious to everyone who looked at me. The building questions of my odd behavior disrupted the class activity much more than I would have wanted to. I totally ignored all of this in favor for what was more important to me right now. Lumina is in danger! She needs me now more than ever, and I have to be with her no matter what! That stupid storm is threatening to destroy her...

"No!" I chanted in a tense pose. "I won't let this happen!" Realizing my current options, I dashed in full sprint for the exit of the classroom, caring not about what would come of it later, or who could hear my physical voice now. "I won't lose you like this!"

I could hear the protest of the teacher calling after me, in a vain attempt to get me to stop or listen to her, but I was having none of it. I don't care how weird or crazy this looked to anybody! I had to get out of the classroom, so I left, entering the adjacent gym. Right next to the same door is the side exit going to the outdoors. Nobody keeps that door locked, in case people need to get out in emergencies, so I rushed towards that door, nearly slamming into Laura on the way there if it were not for my quick dodge. Once I pushed my way out the door, leaving behind confused students in my wake given my visible panic, I slide my way off to the side, finding a better and more private spot outdoors. As soon as I knew I was alone again, I made sure to handle this as directly as possible. "Lumina? Can you hear me?"

"We're fine Reed. Just calm down! You'll screw us up!"

Ashamed that I made the mistake of thinking I was helping the situation, I quickly covered my mouth, trying not to say anymore. I surely didn't want to contribute to any more problems on her end. The turbulence lightened up only slightly, and I could now see what Lumina was referring to. She struggled her own way over towards Junko, so that they may help each other input the commands needed to keep the AGCR system online during the deep pocket.

But it was a lot of waiting, and by now, I was sweating bullets in a nervous, silent wreck. I felt so horrible, having to just sit here and wait. Despite what I said earlier, I wasn't able to help Lumina even a little. I forgot that I'm stuck down on Earth, watching through her eyes and ears without any ability to do a thing for her... And for the first time, it made me realize what it's really like to be Lumina watching the world through me. I didn't register it too strongly given the situation, but it was so frustrating knowing she might be in trouble, and I can't do a single thing that might help. If I were ever in any trouble myself, the situation would be the same, reversed the roles.

"There." Junko sighed in relaxation despite the ongoing turbulence. "The AGCR system won't fail now."

Lumina agreed with the assessment verbally, but with a minor setback to remind herself of. "True, but this will shorten the timeframe we are allowed to be in the storm from 11 hours to 10 hours." Thanks to the potential wiring damage, the energy from backup will be a little more stressed, which reduces the maximum time the backup power can keep the AGCR running.

"That's a risk we have to take. Those deep pockets are messing with the electrical circuitry of our reserve systems."

I just sat here in silence, listening to Lumina and Junko talk it out with each other. It really made me realize how much of a third wheel I was a situation like this. Lumina and Junko are in trouble, but I can do nothing. They've trained to handle this situation in a variety of ways, and they're calmer than me right now, calm enough to persist through any danger and tough out the most deadly storm I have ever seen in any of my days.

My breathing and pulse wouldn't slow down, even though I realized that the danger was subsiding. The turbulence was totally fading now, almost as if it timed itself to go away when Junko entered her commands into the terminal. I knew everything would be okay then... But I just couldn't calm down. I've never felt such overwhelming fear and panic before. The thought of losing Lumina in that storm, it's unbearable!

"Good. It looks like the turbulence is subsiding now... We're going to be just fine." I couldn't hear it, but while Lumina reported the situation, all of her other sisters were giving her telepathic updates too, to report that they were okay as well.

"Thank god for that!" The air left my body slowly in a relaxing deep sigh I unleashed to calm my nerves. "I can't believe you are okay after that."

"You need to learn to be more calm under pressuring situations. I'm surprised in you Reed. I've seen you unfazed by a lot of crazy things, but you weren't calm this time at all."

"Sorry Lumina. Normally, I am calm in situations, but this is hard for me to handle. I've never seen a plasma storm like this before. I don't know what to expect or think."

"That's okay. I just need you not to worry about me during this storm... Having you worry will make me worry, remember?"

I nearly gasped an instant apology! How did I not realize that my own panic was transferring to Lumina when she needed no such fear? I'm so horrible at this! "I'm so sorry Lumina. I'll try to have more faith that you will make it out of this okay."

"Good... I have to take a minute to relay a report to my other sisters."

"Okay. I'll wait for you." Do what you have to do Lumina. I'll wait as long as it takes again and again.

"In the meantime, you should get back to class. Who knows what the others think of you now?" Lumina referred to the way I abruptly left class and shouted to make sure she was okay. She noticed the same thing despite dealing with a crisis.

"Screw that!" I bellowed strongly. "I don't give a rat's ass what anybody thinks about me anymore. I don't care if what I did looked weird just now. You're far more important to me than somebody else's stupid opinion or their perception of my life. And if I drag along such a negative reputation just for having you as a friend, then screw everyone else!" I wasn't trying to be brave or poetic; this strong passionate desire to be this close to Lumina was overriding against anything else I've ever felt before. I refuse to be embarrassed to talk to her. I refuse to be ashamed to associate with Lumina.

I can tell from the tone change in her telepathic voice that my words either made her happy, or sounded cute to her. "Thanks Reed. Knowing you care is..."

Though Lumina was distracted by too many things to stay in full conversation with me, I let it go, reminding her that staying safe is even more important at the moment. "Save your breath now. Just do what you have to do, and I'll wait right here. I want to stay out here, but I probably have teachers looking for me by now. Needless to say, I'm not going back to music class."

"Okay, so you'll be fine if I talk to the others for a moment?"

"Yes! Please, let them know everything is okay!" I didn't want to sound too urgent, but this wasn't something she needed my permission to do. So I'll wait however long it takes.

Without saying anymore, Lumina basically stopped taking in my sensory input to focus on the others. I was glad that she started learning that strange new trick. Apparently, she can temporarily disable the sharing of our senses, even all of them at once without dropping or phasing the connection. Doing that has the benefit of saving the psionic energy that gets used, but with the cost of slightly reducing the connection strength in the process. Since it's still chilly outside, I wasn't worried about that. I wasn't worried at all anymore. Such relief that she will be fine...

It was right on time too, because the moment that happened, somebody else invaded my private sanctuary. Some girl was coming outside, looking around for something, and her vision stopped right on me while I was sitting beside the corner in the grassy terrain. To some surprise, it was Laura. I guess this means she has gym class when I have music. When she noticed me, she did the obvious thing asking what was going on.

"There you are. What happened? I saw you run out the doors like your life depended on it."

I did recall nearly colliding with her on my way out, so I can't hide how desperate I was earlier... Laura. Maybe I can be truthful without being entirely truthful at the same time. I can't sugar code everything that goes on around here anymore. But I also can't expose my secret to anybody. "It's nothing. I thought somebody was in serious trouble, but it turns out that they're okay now."

Laura stared at me with full examination, possibly unwilling to just take my word for it. Despite how much I managed to calm down, I could feel my body periodically shaking ever so slightly, while my breathing was better though still elevated from before. I knew I couldn't completely hide the remaining fear left in my eyes, and because Laura is fairly good at her observation skills, she'll see right through me for sure.

"Oh my god! Should we call someone?" Laura put in that offer only seconds after looking at me to realize how shaken up I still was.

"What? No! It's not that bad." I felt some stress returning, since Laura knew by now that this really freaked me out too much to care about anything else, but I was going to have to sell this better if I didn't want her to involve any authorities. "I promise, everything is under control now. Lumina is safe right now. But I just can't worry about school anymore today, not until I know she'll be okay for the rest of the night." It was now that I realized that I accidentally slipped in Lumina's real name, and I could only wait to see how she would react.

"Okay... Is Lumina a friend of yours? I've never heard that name before."

Yeah, she noticed... But with very little thought, it wouldn't matter too much. There is no way Laura would suspect anything superhuman or extraordinary about myself or Lumina from a mere name. "Yes, a valuable friend."

"That's so sweet," she enthralled. "You finally made a good friend."

She says that like it was totally impossible before! Oh, whatever. As long as this is over with now. "Listen, just don't say anything to anyone about this, about me, or Lumina, or what this was about. The last thing I need today are people asking me more questions."

"Sure, I won't say anything."

I felt so relived hearing her say that. Maybe she knew how tough this was on me already, or maybe she wants to do me this one favor. "Thank you." I'm so happy that Lumina is safe now. If she can just make it out of that storm tonight, we won't have to worry about it again for another thousand years.

By now, Laura nodded and went back inside, insisting on saying nothing to any of the other teachers about my being out here like this. I owe her something for this later.

"Okay. I'm back." Lumina's voice shot into my head while her senses flooded into mine. It wasn't abrupt enough to make me wince, but I could tell she was using her actual voice, since it didn't echo the way it would with telepathy.

"Lumina? I'm going to try and hide out the rest of my minutes outside, since there isn't much school time left anyway. But, is it okay if I stay with you like this again, even after I get home?"

"O-of course Reed. But I don't know if the storm will be gone by the time you get to bed."

I didn't care much about that, but her words made me do my own calculations. The Cy-Stars were about a few hours into the storm, four by my current count. She said earlier that the AGCR system would only stay alive for ten hours, but that time is based on the start of the shutdown of the ship. If it's been four hours including that initial shutdown phase, then it means they have six more hours to get out of that storm safely. Once it's nine PM, I should have a real update, but by then, if they're not out of it, things will really get hairy again. Plus, my bedtime is ten pm, not nine. So she's mistaken to think I'll sleep on this so easily. "You should know by now that I won't sleep until that storm passes."

"Yeah, should have guessed. Once the storm passes, we can power on again. Just so long as we have enough remaining energy to start the chain reaction of our primary reactor, everything will return to normal."

"And if not?" What if there isn't enough remaining energy to jump start the ship again?

"Then we will have a nearby aggressor group team come and rescue us. We are equipped with that situation."

"Okay..." I still couldn't help but worry a little. I wanted to know everything! If I understand the entire situation, I'll feel better about it later. "What about your life support ventilation?" Lumina mentioned that it too runs on backup power, but they've already likely shut that down too for time.

"It's a big ship Reed. If the air gets stale in one area, we can go to another. The air will remain fresh enough to breathe without it for a full rotation. And even if that didn't work, we have emergency air masks attached to tanks. If we got that desperate after the storm passes, we would dock at the temple. We'll have to do that anyway, just to assess any external damages."

"So I really was worried for nothing... Sorry I got so spooked."

"I get it. It's normal to feel that way with something so unknown to you."

Lumina would have been right any other time. That which people fear most is what we don't or can't understand. But right now, that isn't the reason I was so worried. "Lumina..."

"... Yes?"

"It just feels really good to be connected to you like this, to say your name and have you respond... I'm glad we're telepathically linked so strongly." I felt so much better already, especially after saying that. I've been with Lumina for so long now, and I'm getting good at this new secret life of mine. I wondered at first why I would even do it in the first place, why I would accept such a crazy situation and keep calling her back. But we're friends now, and friends don't ever abandon each other. I've somehow gotten used to the constant chatter between us. I miss her voice every time I'm not able to hear it. I'm so attached to this now, that I feel great being connected to Lumina, even if we don't currently have anything to say to each other. This feeling... I'm not too sure what it is, but I'm not letting it go anymore.

"Ah— Sure..." Lumina suddenly sounded so bashful and embarrassed, though with what - never revealed itself to me. "Do you want to just, hang out right now, and head home when the bell rings?"

She asks that while we're both staring into that beautiful cosmic fog of space. Even in this storm, the distant tiny specs of stars were slightly visible through the edge of the storm in Lumina's main room window. I forgot how amazing that deadly storm looked, providing so much natural light from its constant distant flashes of plasma bolts. As Lumina put it, it was a moving sight. "We have to sit through this storm for the rest of the night anyway, right? We might as well pass the time, with something less alarming than the storm. I'll think of something for us to do. I'm getting good at doing that now too."

"Okay."

I've never heard Lumina sound so happy to hear me suggest such a simplistic and incomplete plan, but I'm confident I can come up with something to ease our boredom all day long. I really have gotten better at keeping myself entertained, all for the sake of warding off UAD. If I can make us both happy and calm, I'll do my best.