Returning Laena to the dorms after a long day of fun training, Ravela drove into the city. Her day was far from over. She stopped at a jewelry store. She would require gold for what she wished to construct. As she strolled into the store, her eyes wandered to the many small amber gems on the cheaper products. It was insulting how little value humans put on something so powerful. There was a wave of mixed feelings rumbling in Ravela. She once was human and couldn’t quite understand where this resentment originated. Like so much of her knowledge, the feelings she had, at times, didn’t seem to belong to her.
The moment she had stopped by a display, a salesman was right on her case. It wasn’t a custom she was fond of.
“Ah, hello, sir. How may I assist you?”
Ravela smiled. “Hm, I wonder,” She said, trying to maintain her line of thought despite the interruption. Maybe she shouldn’t overcomplicate things. Just use a small gem to power the wristband and make the detection device a receiver for the outgoing energy. “I am in search of two pieces.” Her eyes scanned the display. “There should be two of these gems.” Ravela pointed at the amber gem in one of the lockets on display. “I always forget their name. What are they called again?”
“The Ambitrine. However, I don’t think that particular stone goes well with gold.” The salesman immediately started on his mission to sell him some expensive glittering gem that held no worth to Ravela.
Compared to the Ambitrine, as they called it here, these other precious stones might as well be gravel on the roadside. She smiled at the salesman, “I will take that golden bracelet and this golden necklace,” While pointing at two plain pieces without a gem. “I also wish to buy these four silver rings. That will be all, thank you.”
Ravela declared it with such finality that the salesman didn’t even try to change her mind.
After she got the essential ingredients for her project, Ravela drove back home. In her mind, she mulled over many things she had to build just to make the wristband for Laena. Once again, Ravela has gotten more work because of an antic she pulled spontaneously. She ought to stop with random provocations and eccentric behavior before she created trouble for herself that she could shake off that easily.
Eventually, she entered the barn, still in chaos from the shenanigans she put Laena through. Floating sacks of cement with holes in them from being thrown in the path of Laena’s punches, Ravela restored order to her barn.
She put together a makeshift table, got one of the building lamps to hang from the beam overhead, and began collecting materials—the wristband she wished to make required that she’d have to build some new tools.
Ravela got to work, constructing crude tools that wouldn’t pass any safety check but produced the proper electric arc to work with. Using copper cable and a copper pipe, she formed a long spiral. Provisionally, she’d use this to melt down gold.
It took her till late into the evening, but Ravela stepped back to marvel at her little makeshift workshop once she had everything set up.
From a few steps back, it looked like the workshop of a madman about to build bombs, Ravela had to admit.
Ravela pulled out the jewelry she had bought and started her work by cracking the Ambitrine from the silver rings. Putting the materials on the table, she floated a crate under her while sitting down.
Energizing the copper spiral with her energy, Ravela broke off single chain links from the golden necklace and floated them into the spiral. The induction made the single chain link slowly change from a solid into a droplet of molten gold.
More chainlinks followed, and Ravela began weaving. Her mind became enthralled by the warm glow of the liquid gold. Before her inner eye, a design took form. It would be late into the early morning hours before Ravela snapped out of her trance.
Looking down at the wristband she had created, Ravela noted that she would not be taking any criticism from Laena. She wanted to keep the wristband for herself the longer she looked at it. On the other hand, her locator card looked almost dull.
It became a much more refined product than she had prepared Laena for. Silver threads webbed the isolating cable, and the snake’s head and golden rattle were the only outwardly visible gold. She even bothered to stamp a little flag of the Unified States on it. Ravela wasn’t sure whether Laena would like that, but she couldn’t wait to show off her little project.
Checking her wristwatch, Ravela sighed. Tonight, she would just sleep on the backbench of her car. Ravela wrinkled her nose at the prospect. She had to make the house livable before she tore that motel room to shreds.
Ravela turned off the loud gas generator, got into the backseat of her car, and closed her eyes.
It was a rough night of sleep. She stirred in the cold car. Her fingers and muscles twitched. Mumbling and even shouting, Ravela woke up multiple times with her heart beating in her throat, a deeply unpleasant experience.
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Ravela woke up with a hiss, her skin cold and her muscles shivering.
The fog of sleep pealing away, she groaned.
“Not again,” She lamented the spoiled sleep, cracking open her eyes wide enough to look outside, half expecting to be blinded by the noon sun.
It would have been fine if it had been noon. Instead, Ravela looked at a beautiful sunrise, painting the sky in a soft variety of orange, slowly going over into rosier clouds and a blue sky. Ravela shook the lousy sleep of last night and sat up, her eyes fully opening, letting in the entire picture before her. No matter how often she saw it, the sunrise still mesmerized her.
Ravela had only slept a few hours. She exited the car, stretching, enjoying the freedom of being in an open space.
Walking into her barn, she got the wristband and the locator chit. It was still too early to pick up Laena at the school. There was still time to drive back to the motel to wash up. Reluctantly, she returned to the car, leaving behind the barn in the state she had left it in.
Back in her motel room, Ravela didn’t waste time and got into the bathtub. Her mind was on Laena and how enthusiastic she was yesterday while training. The more active and practical part of hand-to-hand combat seemed to inspire her. She wanted to keep up the upbeat energy that Laena had during their little spar.
Maybe there was room for her to plan what she needed to succeed in a fight against the odds, she pondered as she dried herself with a big towel. If the girl was interested in learning to craft things by herself, there was a lot of utility and versatility she could gift to her.
Maybe she’d crack out the paper and pen after training and let her have some input on what she wanted her suit to look like. That was the carrot of the day, Ravela decided.
On the way to the school district, she passed, once again, by a billboard promoting the new exhibits of Rome. This time with a big picture of a tomb with withered engravings on it, her lifeboat, Ravela noted. The lingering feeling that this was a message meant for her began to settle in, but she dismissed the idea.
How would Dr. Ito possibly track her down to this city? Ravela laughed but started to consider the possibility with grim seriousness. Being unmasked or confronted by Dr. Ito would be unpleasant, to say the least.
As she came to a halt near the main gate of the school district, Ravela shoved the gloomy thoughts aside. To her surprise, Laena arrived half an hour late and looked like she had come out hurriedly, letting out a sigh of relief when she spotted Ravela’s car.
After they ate breakfast at Xialong again, they arrived on her property a bit earlier than yesterday.
“You look like you won’t be up for sparring today.” Ravela teased the teenager while getting out of the car.
Laena rotated her shoulders and began stretching and warming up.
“I don’t think you should wear the armor suit today.”
Ravela raised her eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“It just seems like you’re doubling up on your advantages over me,” Laena complained.
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“Oh, only doubling up? You overestimate yourself, Laena. I’d say the armor, at the very least, quintuples my advantages. Not to ruin your mood, my armor is just that good.” Ravela said, swelling with pride.
Laena just kept stretching. “Yeah, it is amazing. I’ve wondered what gear you planned to make for Safora and me.”
Ravela only smiles but does not comment. She instead focuses on the first half of the sentence. They even thought about the same things at times. “I was thinking of rewarding you with some input on the design if you did well during the training today. If you think it through, you should clearly understand what you need to protect yourself effectively,” Ravela pulled the wristband from her pocket. “Before that, I think I outdid myself with the device I promised you.”
Dangling from her hand was the device she had constructed for Laena.
The girl jumped over the car and to her side, completely distracted from the mystery of the armor. “Uuuuh, that doesn’t look clunky at all!” Laena said, her eyes growing big.
“Before I hand this to you,” Ravela said, pulling it away from Laena’s already reaching hand. “I will explain how this works.”
Laena retracted her hand, a bit of a pout on her face.
“First things first. This is a one-time-use item. It will work for two days before the safety I built stops the energy flow.” Ravela started to explain.
“Two days? And what happens if you don’t find me in those two days.” Laena said, already panicking.
Ravela looked at the girl thoughtfully. “Allow me to explain the device fully before you get a panic attack over an impossibility, please.”.
The girl shifted her weight, wanting to complain more but holding back.
“If you activate this device, it has to be an emergency. I am talking about an emergency that involves Michael Manus or another Superpowered attacking you or Safora.” Ravela continued her explanation. “Don’t use this thing because somebody gets mugged before you! Don’t use it because you see Micheal Manus and want to interfere! Don’t use it lightly because once activated, I will come running to the location of the wristband as fast as I can.” She pulled out the locator chit. “I will be able to find your exact location using this.”
Laena put her hands on her hips, looking at the card that would fit in a wallet. “How would that even work?”
Ravela paused momentarily, thinking of a reasonable equivalent. “Do you know how a compass works?”
Laena raised a brow at her. “I sure do.”
“Splendid. If you activate the wristband, this,” Ravela said, holding up the locator. “will give me directions to your location just like a compass points north.”
“And how does that work?” Laena asked curiously, looking from the wristband to the locator in Ravela’s other hand.
“Magic,” Ravela stated with a neutral face. “Look, this is far too advanced to explain to you just yet. Can you just trust me?”
Laena sighed, “Fine, I suppose. How would I activate it.”
Ravela smiled, “It’s quite brilliant, if I may say so myself. See, to prevent others from accidentally activating it, I used the fact that you have super strength. If you need to activate it, you just press in the teeth of the snake's head through the rattle tail it is biting, and once the eyes of the snake go from silver to golden, you know it is working. Use your strength; don’t be afraid to break it.”
Laena nodded along, waiting for the rest of the instructions. “What then?”
Ravela blinked, “That’s it. Then it works.”
“Ooookay, good then.” The teenager said, skepticism in her eyes.
“It is a rather simple device,” Ravela said, placing it in Laena’s hand. “But it will help keep you safe, so that’s fine, right?”
No sooner had she turned and walked a few steps toward it than the locator in her hand beeped once, and one of the sectors started to glow.
Ravela closed her eyes for a moment, trying to be understanding. She took deep breaths before turning to the teenager behind her.
Holding the locator between them as she turned around with an exasperated sigh, Ravela showed her the device glowing in the teenager’s direction. “You really ought to trust me by now, you know.”
Laena looked at her almost apologetically, but just almost. The girl’s curiosity got the better of her, and Ravela had trouble blaming the girl for it. “Alright, give it here, I’ll reset it. Please, don’t misuse it now that you know it works.”
After taking the wristband from Laena, Ravela entered the barn and was glad she left it a mess yesterday. It made fixing the device much more manageable without taking away time from Laena’s training.
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Laena walked to the dorm building, feeling her muscles ache. She hadn’t tired herself like that ever since gaining her powers. Not even after the change, Ramiel “showed them how to fight”.
She scoffed, thinking about the training Ramiel had shown her the last two days. As she walked upstairs, she felt her exhausted legs barely making each new stair.
“Training us, my ass. He’s been coddling us,” She muttered. Then again, maybe she shouldn’t have tested the device moments after he had asked to trust her. She felt that had played a significant role in how hard the sparring was.
Entering her room, Laena wobbled over to her bed and plopped down, ready to fall asleep the way she was.
But her nose picked up something unusual. Her little nose wiggled as she tried to place the smell in the room, her eyes still closed and her mind ready to call it a day. It smelled like Ma Stone’s apple pie, but that couldn’t be. She remained like that for a few minutes, just sniffing and remaining in a half snooze just about to fall asleep.
“There she is.” Her best friend's voice said in an even voice. “Where have you been, young lady?”
Laena sat up fully awake. “You’re back!”
“Been here since noon,” Safora said, sitting cross-legged on the ceiling.
Laena laughed at her friend. “Is that your way of saying you’ve been bored?”
“Kinda ran out of things to do when my friend skipped town without me. Couldn’t exactly just fly over to Ramiel’s place, right?” Safora huffed.
“If that isn’t the pot calling the cattle black!” Laena said, laying back on her bed. “As I remember, you took a home vacation without me. Besides, you totally could have flown over there.”
Safora floated over. “Could not! I can’t just fly through the city all the way to someone's private house! What if someone sees?!” Her friend flew back to her bed and flopped onto it. And what are you doing with this newspaper? You know there isn’t even a crossword riddle or a funny comic on the last page? The Tribute is a heap of steaming hot boring! Ugh, anyway, I visited Ma Stone before leaving, and she gave me a fresh apple pie just for you.”
Laena looked at her friend, throwing a tantrum over being left to her own devices. True to her words, however, there was a whole pie sitting on her desk together with a closed envelope.
A mean little idea formed in her head while she opened the foil cover, revealing the marvelous baked good hidden beneath. ‘You wanna guilttrip me? Oh, I will give you something to cry about.’ “If I could direct your attention to page one,” She picked up a slice of the pre-cut pie with a devious smile. “I am in that picture. It was taken when Ramiel took me on a mission.”
“SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, HE DIDN’T!” Safora exploded after she checked the front page and spotted Laena in the crowd, whispering, “No way.”
Laena picked up a slice of pie. “Wait till you hear what else you missed. Oh, you going to hate all of it!” She said while stuffing half the pie slice in her mouth, intentionally showing off her new accessory.
Safora’s eyes honed in on the wristband. “Where did you get that?!”
The girl grinned broadly, chewing on the pie, and gestured to her full mouth, leaving her friend standing there waiting, staring at her smug expression.
“Oh, you discovered table manners while I was gone, too? Just great!” Safora started floating in irritated impatience. “Well, guess I won’t be telling you about that new mystery guest Ma Stone has managed to rent a room too. Hmph.”
Laena stopped chewing, measuring her best friend, weighing her juicy gossip against Safora’s news from home. “Arw thu swogeshing a twad?”
Safora crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Well, clearly, you have the better story and already got the pie I so generously delivered on Ma Stone’s behalf. So, why don’t you start with what I missed?”
Laena kept chewing on her pie, considering the deal. Once she finally swallowed her pie mouth, Laena said, “Okay, but you can’t get mad at me for being here when all this happened.”
Her friend mustered her with suspicion. “Okay, can do.”
“Alright, then. Where should I start?”
“Why don’t you start all the way at the beginning of this,” Safora pointed at the newspaper. “situation.”
“Oh, right. While your brother was in the hospital, others were ‘awakening’ superpowers all over the place and in our school as well. Beth made the entire school smell like a flower garden.” Laena reported.
“Wait, that was happening while I was still here. Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Safora interrupted her.
“Um, because you cared for Markus in the hospital, and I am not a complete klutz,” Laena responded after taking a small nibble from her slice of pie. “Anyway, so when I went back to the dorm, I met Ramiel outside escorting a wounded police officer together with other officers. He was standing with them on the sidewalk, and I decided I needed to tell him about the situation. I was getting nervous after Beth Nam started to make everything around her smell like a flower shop and was brought here.”
Safora kept listening patiently.
“So, I told Ramiel what was happening and wanted to contact Beth. He agreed to help me out. Thus, I had a mission, and you went home with your brother before we could talk again.”
“Don’t turn this around on me! I was right there. You could have come back and told me.” Safora huffed and puffed.
“Calm down, I didn’t want to bother you with it when you spent time with Markus. Don’t act like you even had time for this.” Laena pointed a finger at her friend while saying that, shutting her down cold. “Moving on. We met late afternoon at the hospital, and Ramiel briefed me on the plan. He was distracting the cops in the hallway, and I went into Beth’s room and checked up on her. Then, I got out just as planned. I jumped from the third story,” Laena excitedly reported. “Anyway, Ramiel stuck around in the hospital to research, as he put it. That’s when all hell broke loose.”
She picked up the newspaper from Safora’s bed and pointed to one of the men in the picture. “Because this man started a massive fight with Major Buster over here. They were duking it out in the park at the end. I was right there. These guys are strong, but Major Buster had this Michael Menace on the run. The guy ran right past me, and, and,” Laena stumbled.
Safora lifted off the ground excitedly. “And then what?”
“I tried to trip him,” Laena said, a bit embarrassed.
“Noooo.” Safora said, both hands over her mouth. “And did you?”
“He noticed and just dodged it,” Laena said dejectedly. “Worse yet, he made direct eye contact with me. It gave me the chills.”
“He looked at you, as in he saw you trying to trip him and then realized you were the one in this crowd who did it? While running from Major Buster?” Safora's eyes couldn’t possibly grow any bigger. She was almost as hooked as on the horror movies in the cinema.
“That is how I got this cool new wristband.” Laena declared, showing off the shiny little accessory. “Ramiel made it so that if that Michael Menace guy came haunting me, I could call for help, or if any other Powered decides to go after me, I suppose.”
Safora looked at the wristband. “How does it work? Did he make one for me, too?”
Laena shook her head. “No? Michael doesn’t know about you.”
Her friend looked closely at the device on her wrist. “Well, maybe I should change that. Did he make that himself? In just a few days? It’s pretty.”
Laena rolled her eyes. “If you do that just to get a pretty trinket, Ramiel might lose his mind. Also, I’m not done. He put on the armor for training this weekend!” Laena reported as though she had just remembered.
“Oh, come on! I was only gone for like five days!” Safora howled, throwing her arms in the air. “Well, this reunion can’t possibly get any worse.”
After that statement, Laena avoided eye contact with her best friend, and Safora instantly picked up on that. “Don’t tell me there is more! You gotta be kidding me.” She looked devastated. “You’re not kidding me…Spit it out, then. How much worse could it be?”
Laena made calming hand motions. “You said you won’t be upset.”
“Oh, it’s bad!?” Safora said, unable to not be mad that she missed all the action. “Out with it before I fly through the ceiling from the suspense.”
“Yeah, so after some very advanced combat training, I maybe got to sit together with him, and he showed me the plans for my suit, and I got to choose color patterns and had some input on the design of my suit.”
There was total silence from Safora. The girl wordlessly floated through the room for minutes, thunderstruck. It wasn’t often that Laena saw Safora entirely lost for a reaction.
Then she floated to her bed, flopping onto it. She buried her face in her pillow and told it how she really felt. “I WAS ONLY GONE FOR FIVE DAYS, GOD DANG IT!”
Laena smiled with a hint of sympathy. Her friend was taking the news rather well.