A TONI Who Empowers Others In… A Very Unique Way
At first glance, and most subsequent glances, the building appeared to be a little more than a game hobby shop. The sign outside advertised it as a place to buy and play an assortment of card games, board games, and tabletop games of both the roleplaying and wargaming varieties. The front room of the place was full of everything such players could need to buy, including a wide assortment of snacks. There were also several private rooms for running various games.
Most people who knew the place only referred to it as ‘that game place,’ though it did have a name. Officially, it was known as ALotl Games, as shown by a banner behind the counter that was half-covered by stacks of sealed card booster packs and a large chalkboard with the dates and times that the various rooms in the back had already been reserved for scrawled across it.
It was so convincing of an ordinary game store that the two teenagers who stood outside had remained there, staring uncertainly at the place for several long minutes. Both of them were around twelve or thirteen years old, and appeared similar enough to be siblings. The slightly older one was the boy, with shaggy dark hair that fell to his shoulders and an olive complexion. He wore baggy shorts and a shirt advertising a very popular basketball player. In one hand, he held a crumpled up piece of paper with the address and name of this place written quite neatly. It was his own handwriting, which he had always taken great pains to make as legible as possible.
Next to him was his slightly younger sister, whose hair was actually shorter than his, though equally dark. She was holding a hefty gym bag over one shoulder, which she kept shifting around. Despite its weight, she had repeatedly denied her brother’s offer to take it, wanting to prove she could help too. Now, she asked yet again, “Are you sure this is the right place?”
The boy offered a helpless shrug while continuing to stare that way. “That's what the message said, I dunno any more than you do. Maybe it was just a stupid prank after all.” His voice cracked a little with that suggestion, making his feelings on the subject clear. He could barely let himself admit that they might have come all this way for nothing. It was an exhausting thought, both physically and emotionally. After everything they had been through, to come this far and find out it was all a joke would most likely be enough to break the boy. He had been keeping it together for his sister's sake, but there was only so much he could take. Already, his shoulders had slumped.
Left to their own devices, both of them might have stood there indecisively even longer. It was hard to say how long it would’ve taken them to actually step inside. But then, without any warning, a voice spoke up from behind the pair, “Oh, it’s certainly not a prank.” As they jumped and spun, the owner of the voice continued, “We do play many games here, but not that sort. Our games are fun.”
After spinning that way, the siblings found themselves staring at a very large (in every sense of the word) Samoan woman wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt and parachute pants, with an equally large smile. “Hello there!” Spreading her arms wide in greeting, she added, “I am Heilani, though some call me Sky Princess. The name means Crown of the Sky, you see. And you are Landry and Kelsey?”
She had looked first to the boy, then the girl with that. But they both shook their heads and reflexively corrected her. “I’m Kelsey,” the boy informed her in a tone that made it clear he was very much accustomed to needing to do that when the two of them were introduced together.
“I’m Landry,” came the addition from his sister. “But you--uh…” She shifted from one foot to the other with a rather uncertain glance toward the boy. They exchanged lingering looks, both clearly debating with themselves before she pushed on with a very hesitant, “You know who we are?”
Heilani beamed even more brightly, her smile threatening to make the sun itself seem positively dim by comparison. It was like the moon itself was smiling at them from on high. “Well of course I do, sillies! We’re the ones who sent you the message, after all. So sorry to make you travel by yourselves, but ahh, the boss said you’d be safer that way, and he tends to be right about that sort of thing. But come on, you must be positively famished!” With that, the enormous woman (she stood almost six and a half feet tall) ushered them toward the doors leading into the shop. “We’ll all grab a snack on the way to meeting him.”
“Uh, meeting who, exactly?” That was Kelsey, the boy already starting to move along with his sister as they were swept to the shop. “We’re still not--uh, exactly sure what’s going on. It’s just--well the message said that if we came here we could get some help with stopping our--”
His words were cut off by the woman, who gently shushed him. “Now now, let’s not confuse and startle the regular customers.” She was holding the door open, gesturing for them to go ahead. “We can talk properly once we’re in the basement. And yes, I do know how that may sound. But I promise, nothing untoward will happen to either of you while you’re with us.” A brief pause followed that before she winced visibly. “And I know how that sounds too. There really isn’t a good way of promising that this is safe without sounding like it’s very much not safe, is there?”
Her voice lowered, becoming barely audible as they stood there in the doorway. “Kelsey and Landry, I know you have both been through quite a lot. You’re tired, afraid, desperate to find someone who can help. You have come to the right place. We will help. He will help, I promise. You are safe here. No one and nothing will harm you in this building. You have my word on that.”
The siblings still hesitated slightly, but the truth was that they had no better place to go, no other prospects. This was the best opportunity they had to deal with the problem they had found themselves facing. Yes, there was a risk that it was all a lie and they were being led into a trap, but the alternative was to try to handle the situation by themselves, and they didn't stand a chance at that. Walking into this place might have been dangerous, but staying on their own would have been even worse. At least this way they might actually have some sort of actual hope.
So, they followed Heilani through the busy store. A few people waved and greeted the cheerful woman, before turning back to their shopping or games. She led them all the way through the main floor, stopping briefly to pluck a couple ham and cheese sandwiches from a cooler, which she thrust at them. As Landry fumbled with the heavy bag, the woman gently took it from her, easily holding the thing with only a couple fingers despite its weight.
With the bag held loosely that way, she led them onward while they quickly scarfed down the food, taking the pair past a dozen other rooms before guiding the pair down a set of stairs in the back that had been locked behind a heavy metal door with a camera and what appeared to be a very advanced biometric scanner that gave all three of them a thorough onceover. It all looked rather out of place in this gaming shop, but then, obviously few customers came all the way back here.
The stairs led them down into the basement. It appeared to be a large, oval-shaped room, but a sort they had never seen before. The walls were all made of glass, with water beyond. Water that was full of fish of all types and colors. There were also various decorations like toy sunken ships and treasure chests, along with colorful coral. It was like being at a very fancy aquarium.
But it didn't stop at simply having glass walls leading to all that water. There was also a glass structure running through most of the room. It was like a long aquarium itself, standing about eye level with the teens and snaking seemingly randomly through the room, curving here and there. It was a five and a half foot tall, three foot wide glass tube of sorts, full of even more colorful fish and decorations. And it led to a large, orb-shaped aquarium in the middle of the room that was about six feet in diameter, with several large televisions and a rather fancy computer arranged around it, with cords leading from the bottom of the round aquarium to the devices themselves.
With some urging from their guide, the siblings cautiously walked that way. They looked at one another once more before stepping right up to the glass orb. And that was when they saw the small, pink figure perched on what appeared to be a tiny beach chair in a miniature underwater version of a fancy patio. Most of the orb was taken up by a doll-sized house, though it was clear that this one was not meant for any sort of toy. It was a real, working home that just happened to be very small and underwater. A tiny house meant to be a home for that figure on the chair.
“Holy shit,” Landry found herself blurting reflexively as soon as she processed what the two of them were looking at, “it's an--uhh, wait, what are those things called again? Adoble? Alixili?”
“Axolotl,” her brother corrected reflexively while staring that way with just as much surprise and confusion written across his face. The two of them certainly hadn’t expected to find this here.
Sure enough, the figure already jumping up from the chair was one of those tiny axolotl creatures. He was only about thirteen inches long and a couple inches tall, an aquatic salamander with pink skin and six tiny, feather-like external gills that spread out from just behind his head. His expression, like so many of his kind, was already spread into the broad, vaguely goofy-looking smile that so easily endeared the axolotls to those who knew about them. Yet in this case, there was obvious intelligence behind those eyes. This was not a simple creature in any sense of the word. The small figure looked at them with recognition. His smile was not the ordinary, unintended expression his species gave that humans simply anthropomorphized. He was truly smiling at them. And, if that wasn’t enough of an indicator of his true intelligence, the fact that he raised one tiny foot like a hand to wave at them probably would have done the trick.
While the siblings watched in awe, the diminutive aquatic figure swam to the top of the dome, disappearing from sight for a moment as he passed through what looked like a metal box of some sort attached there. Before they could ask what was going on, a round section of glass in front of that metal box slid out of the way, and what looked like a long metal bridge, only several inches wide, extended toward them. Once it was in place, the metal box within the aquarium opened, allowing the axolotl to come out into the open air. He wore a small diver’s helmet full of water around his head to ensure that he could continue to breathe with his feathery gills.
“Hello!” His voice boomed out from the helmet, as bright and cheerful as Heilani’s. It also sounded a bit… bubbly, like someone talking through water, or running their finger rapidly over their lips. “I’m very sorry to startle you like this, but it is very nice to meet you, Landry and Kelsey! My name is Oodles. Oodles Alotl, the Axolotl. This is my home, my store, and you’ve met my very best friend!” His tiny paw raised to indicate the Samoan woman in the background. “What’s your favorite game? I do so love games, they’re the best way of knowing someone.”
Heilani gave a soft coughing noise, raising an eyebrow at him in what was clearly a gentle reminder.
The axolotl looked abashed. “Oh, sorry, I get ahead of myself. Please, how are you?”
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Both teens were left gaping at him for several long seconds, before Landry managed a somewhat weak, “We… we’re okay, I guess. But you--you’re a TONI, a real live TONI.”
“Ayup, that’s what they tell me,” Oodles confirmed. As he said that, the axolotl reached out one tiny foot to touch a button on the side of the metal bridge, prompting a couple holes to appear in the floor nearby before a pair of comfortable chairs rose into place for the two of them. “I know this is quite a lot to take in, but you’re safe here. We want to help you stop your uncle from his… plan.”
“You know about all that for real?” Kelsey blurted, the boy giving his sister a quick look before adding, “I mean, obviously you knew about something. We got that much from the letter you sent with the bus fare to get here, so like, thanks. But--but how did you… how much do you know?”
In answer, Oodles held a tiny paw out to one side. As he did so, a glowing crystal orb about the size of a baseball appeared, hovering in the air. “Part of my power allows me to get… warnings through this orb, about bad things that are going to happen in the future. I saw the two of you attempting to expose your uncle. I saw what would happen if you did that. You found out he was responsible for your parents’ accident a year ago, because they learned about his experiments on homeless people. I saw a vision of you sneaking into his warehouse to take pictures and video to the police. But you were captured, and.. and it did not go well.” His tiny head shook, the diver’s helmet going back and forth. “I saw all of that happen in your near future. That is why I extended the invitation, to come here so that we can help you stop your uncle.”
“You… you can really stop him?” Landry stammered haltingly. “He has a whole bunch of guys helping him, with guns and everything.”
The axolotl lifted his head, letting them see that beaming, goofy smile behind the visor. “Actually, as it happens, you can both stop him. You just need a little help. That’s the other part of my Touched ability. I can gift people like you with powers of your own. Powers you can use to bring your uncle to justice.”
Both siblings stared at him, making soft noises of uncertainty together. Finally, Kelsey managed a weak, “You can give us powers? What sort of powers?”
It was Heilani who responded, the large woman’s voice booming cheerfully. “Oh, you guys.
“That’s the fun part.”
*********
“This is not the fun part,” Landry muttered, the girl’s head shaking rapidly as she and her brother stood just down the street from their uncle’s warehouse in Minneapolis. It was two days after their trip to see Oodles and Heilani in Milwaukee. “I can’t believe this is how his powers work. I think he’s making that part up.”
“It does seem awfully specific,” Kelsey agreed with a shrug. “But if it helps us stop Uncle Asher, whatever. Besides, I think we really pull it off. Me better than you, but hey.” He winked cheekily.
Before Landry could respond to that, the sound of running footsteps filled the air as a half-dozen men and women wearing dark green clothing and carrying assault rifles came into view. “Hey!” The man at the lead lifted his rifle as he shouted at them. “You’re Asher’s nephew and niece, right? Come on, he’s been looking for you.”
Well, this wasn’t exactly how this whole thing was supposed to go. But on the other hand, they did want to see their uncle. So, the siblings shrugged and allowed themselves to be escorted all the way to the warehouse and inside. They were taken through the main room, where a hundred or so homeless people were being kept in steel cages and fed what amounted to garbage. Neither could stand to look that way too much, instead bracing themselves for what was about to happen.
“Kelsey! Landry!” The sound of Uncle Asher’s voice, booming through the room, made both siblings twitch. He was there, standing at the top of the nearby stairs leading to a walkway overlooking the whole room full of cages. Asher Maswold was a heavyset man in his forties, with dark tattoos covering most of his own olive skin. He wore a gray muscle shirt that was strained to its limits, and green camo pants. When he was twenty years younger, Asher had been in the military. Then he had been dishonorably discharged for running drugs. For a long time after that he had been in and out of various small gangs. But a couple years ago, he Touched, gaining enhanced strength, invulnerable skin, and the ability to make anyone he spoke to trust his words. Anyone who wasn’t a blood relative. That was what led their parents to discovering his horrific experiments, and then to their deaths. And it was why Kelsey and Landry couldn’t take their story to the police or Stars. The moment they questioned him, Asher’s trust power would make them believe him. They’d intended to get proof so they could explain the situation to the authorities in a way they would actually listen to.
Standing there, looming over the pair from on high, Asher smiled. “I can’t tell you kids how much I missed you. Didn’t bother going to the authorities, huh?”
Straightening up as much as she could, Landry glanced around. They were surrounded by twenty armed troops by that point. To say nothing of their uncle’s own abilities. Still, the thirteen-year-old stood tall and retorted, “We thought about it, Uncle Asher, but then we decided to take care of you ourselves.”
The man blinked at that once, then again, then laughed. His chuckle filled the room, echoing across the cages full of whimpering, terrified people. Soon, his assortment of troops joined in, until he cut them off with a sharp wave of his hand. Then he leaned over the railing, staring down at the pair. “And how, pray tell, are you going to do that?”
Well, here went nothing. Exchanging glances with one another one last time, the siblings nodded. Then they turned back to look up at their uncle while abruptly shouting together, “Soldiers of Trust, Armored Stardust!”
As soon as they said those words, a blast of light and concussive force erupted from the pair, knocking the troops surrounding them backwards with an assortment of curses. The light was white at first, before transitioning to a red-gold color as Landry’s voice continued alone with, “Miracle’s Rise, Cross the Skies!”
With that, the light shifted to a purple-silver color, with Kelsey’s voice finishing, “Wonder’s Worth, Rise from Earth!”
Finally, the light faded, revealing a very different scene before Asher and his troops. The siblings were still there, but they had changed. Now, Landry wore knee-high crimson boots with gold trim over black stockings that ran all the way up and transitioned into a pair of shorts under a red skirt with a gold belt. Above that she had a gold shirt shaped like scalemail armor, with a red long tail jacket that seemed to billow behind her despite no apparent breeze. Her features were covered by a red metallic mask that conformed to her face, with gold eyes.
Beside her, Kelsey was wearing a very similar outfit, save for trading the red parts for purple and the gold for silver. Including the skirt, which he made a point of twirling as he spun in a circle. “See, he offered me pants, but I told him I could pull this off.”
Staring blank-faced down at the pair, Asher managed a rather confused, “Buuuuhhh… what?”
Rather than give him or any of his troops more time to react, Landry spun to one side, hand snapping up as she blurted, “Staggering Jolt!” From each of her extended fingers, a red bolt of lightning short forth. One hit two of the troops at once, while the remaining four each hit one. All six of those armed minions were lifted off their feet and sent careening across the room. At the same time, the bolts of energy seemed to wrap around their guns, keeping them in place while their owners were flung away.
Simultaneously, Kelsey pivoted the other way. In his case, the boy lifted both hands, palms upward and fingers spread like claws as he bellowed, “Let’s get right to the root of the problem! Gaia’s Growth!” Which was all the warning the half dozen troops on that side had before the cement floor was cracked apart by an assortment of literal roots pushing their way in from what had been a couple ordinary trees outside. The roots broke through the concrete and grew large enough to wrap around those four men and two women, yanking them down and imprisoning them.
That still left about eight very well-armed, very not-happy gang members already starting to shoot at the pair in retaliation. Fortunately, the bullets accomplished very little. Oodles had promised that would be the case (it was the only reason he let the teens go on this) but the two still jumped a little as the shots simply bounced off them. There was a shield of sorts surrounding each of them, manifested by their new powers. It stole energy from incoming projectiles, meaning that bullets were slowed down, lasers became relatively harmless, and even punches and other melee attacks had little oomph behind them upon contact.
Nor was that the limit of the abilities the two had been gifted with. Which became apparent as both launched themselves at the still-firing troops. They were each quite strong and fast, able to quickly disarm the assorted minions and fling them around. There wasn’t much skill behind their fighting. Not yet anyway. But it didn’t matter in that moment. Soon, all twenty of the warehouse’s guards had been dispatched in one way or another, leaving Asher standing on his walkway alone, staring down at them.
Or he was standing up there. Abruptly, the man growled and jumped off, landing between the pair. “Okay, kids,” he snarled, grabbing Kelsey with one hand and Landry with the other. “That’s enough!” With that, he flung them both in opposite directions. Landry hit the wall while Kelsey collided with one of the cages.
“What’s the matter, Uncle Asher?” Landry called out to him after rolling off the wall and back to her feet. “I thought you planned for everything. Did your troops getting bitch-smacked by a couple Magical Girls not cross your mind?”
“Sorry, what?” the man demanded pointedly while looking toward her brother. “Magical what now?”
“Eh.” Gripping the cage to pull himself back to his feet, Kelsey replied, “I’m not exactly judgy on the gender thing. Haven’t totally made up my mind yet, you know? Besides, how could I argue with someone who was gonna give me superpowers and make me look this fabulous?” He added that while doing another little spin to make the skirt twirl. “And, well, to be honest, if it meant putting you in prison where you fucking belong, I would’ve worn a neon tutu and coconut bra. And I’d rock that too.”
Muttering something about Gen T (Generation Touched, the term for those born since that became a thing) freaks, Asher cracked his neck. “I suppose I’ll have to correct you two on a number of things. But hey, I am up to that task.”
“You’re really not,” both siblings intoned together. With that, even as the man was starting to retort, they each took a step forward and thrust both hands out together.
“Geb’s Guffaw!” Kelsey shouted. “Shake, rattle, and roll!”
“Nut’s Nebule!” Landry added right on the heels of her brother’s words.
In response to the first, the ground under Asher’s feet began to shake violently, the cement cracking apart while he was knocked to his knees. Meanwhile, the latter words summoned a thick cloud that completely blinded him. Before he could recover, both teens landed on top of him. He struggled, but soon they had attached the other thing that their benefactor had provided: a set of stay-down cuffs. The gag was just an old piece of cloth Kelsey had found, but it did the trick.
“Now what?” Landry asked as the cloud cleared.
“Now,” a small yet familiarly bubbly voice put in, “the police are contacted and the situation explained.” It was Oodles, standing on Heilani’s outstretched hand with that same diver’s helmet.
“What,” Heilani intoned easily, “you didn’t think we’d actually leave you to deal with this alone, did you?” In her other hand, the large woman held three separate unconscious guards, those who had still been outside, up by their collars. With a dismissive grunt, she tossed them aside. Then she set the axolotl down and moved to start opening cages by literally ripping the steel doors off with little effort.
“We were behind you the whole way,” Oodles explained. “But it was important that you have a chance to stop your uncle. Now he will go to prison and you can--”
“We wanna do more!” That was Landry.
“Yeah,” Kelsey blurted, head bobbing up and down. “We can still help you, right? I mean, help you help people. You gave us this power to stop him, but we can stop other bad guys too!”
The diminutive, aquatic TONI blinked, head tilting briefly. “Oh. Well, normally we do these sorts of things as one-offs, so our charges can get… ah… back to their lives. But… in this case, maybe we can make an exception. I don’t need my crystal ball to know there are an awful lot of people out there who need help. But first, I really must insist you answer my question from before.
“What is your favorite game?”