Neo Chronicles: Nexus
Episode 47: Just Call Them
Table of Contents
My face is on fire! Can't believe that wolf girl scratched me like that! It hurts to move my cheeks. It hurts to open my mouth. It hurts to do anything!
I look around an' see Noah's gettin' his butt kicked by Mr. Mayer right now. Got half a mind to be done with this an' leave, but I know better. I clench my fist an' charge in yellin'. Tameka decides to come outta nowhere and act like some spinnin' ballerina of doom.
I raise my arms an' block her flyin' spinnin' kicks as they come at me. I try to throw a punch her way, but she grabs my fist like a kung-fu master, an' palm hand strikes my chest. The attack's backed up with a mini-hurricane, so of course I'm blasted back.
Got me floppin' over all sortsa desks an' tables until I finally hit the wall by the window. I'm mad. Usually when that happens, there's a stream of fire that ignites around me, but for some reason, that ain't happenin'.
I look at my hands an' notice a distinct lack of fire. This is the weirdest feelin' in the world. Why can't I use my ST? Did I forget? For the longest time, it's always been second nature. Now it feels like –
Tameka's in my face again. Catches me by surprise. I get backhanded across the cheek. My glasses get knocked off. I regain my footing an' come at her with a left hook. She's gone with the wind. I try punching at her again, and, again, I end up hittin' nothin'.
Next thing I know, I'm caught up in some whirlwind. My clothes are flappin' every which way. I'm in the eye of it. I stretch out my arm an' try to touch the forceful wall that's closin' in on me. The sharp pain I feel instantly makes me pull it back. If I had my powers, I'd ignite everything around me, but I don't think that'd help.
I definitely need to do something, though. The wind is sharp an' fast an' closing in. I can see the tears start to form on my jacket and jeans already. And with each breath I take, it gets harder an' harder to breathe.
Not much time to think, so I'm just gonna do somethin' stupid an' rush it. I cross my arms in front of me, an' just jump at the wall.
That wall isn't there anymore. It disappears at the last second, leavin' me to throw myself right at the floor. Hurts like a mug—me hittin' the ground—but I'll live.
I look up to see what Tameka's up to, but she ain't nowhere to be seen. Then she appears in a flash, right out of thin air. She an' Octavia. They're flashing in and out of existence. Disappearin' in one place, then reappearin' in another. Each time, a new hit lands from one of them to another.
Since when did Octavia have super speed?
Since when did she have fire powers? I see her shoot a blast every so often.
“Crud!” I hear Chris shout out. Rayne's goin' in on him. He's gettin' his butt handed to him. Rayne claws at him, punches at him, kicks at him. Then outta nowhere, Octavia appears next to them and kicks at Rayne. Then she waves her hand and a wall of ice appears shielding her from Tameka comin' in an' punchin' at her.
Mr. Mayer's left Noah's broken tail on the ground an' joined in the dogpile on her, too. The four of them disappear again. Me, Chris, an' Noah are at a loss. We look at each other, shruggin' our shoulders an' shakin' our heads.
Then in the next instant, Octavia appears next to me, slidin' on her back like she just got knocked back hard. I feel my arm ignite. My powers are back. I open my palm an' get ready to blast the next demonic freak I see, but I'm hit from behind.
I turn around an' fire, but the blast doesn't hit a mark. It makes a mark. That desk top is incinerated. But no demon.
I see Chris appear in front of me, tacklin' Rayne. They then both disappear.
“What the heck is goin' on!?!” I shout out.
“We're gettin' torn apart!” Noah shouts back at me.
“We're still in one piece,” Octavia adds on, holdin' her forehead.
I look at Noah. He's tryna pull himself together. His clothes are in about the same shape as mine: all torn up on the edges, loose threads danglin' about, a coupla rips an' tears from where Rayne an' Octavia an' Mr. Mayer came close to killin' him. He looks pathetic, but he manages to chuckle at Octavia's last remark.
Speaking of, “Are you stealing our powers?” I ask.
Octavia looks up at me. Then her eyes trail to the side away from me as she shrugs her shoulders.
“I guess?” She finally answers.
“I thought you were an empath.”
She sighs and responds with a “Me too.” Her expression turning into one of annoyance, which is weird, because I'm the one who's standin' here annoyed at it all. Not havin' my powers in a fight against demons is somethin' I'm really annoyed about. I could go as far to say that I'm even mad about it.
Without thinkin' about it, I grit my teeth. I can feel my face scrunchin' up in a sour matter. The more madder I get about it, the madder I see Octavia get about – Wait a minute. What's she got to get mad about? I know she ain't mirrorin' me? I see her grit her teeth, let out a frustrated groan, an' roll her eyes at me. Is she for real? Is this girl bein' serious right now?
Oh my God! The nerve of her!
Just as I'm about to open my mouth an' call her on it, she disappears right in front of me.
Then Chris shows up, stumbling in completely exhausted. He's panting heavily, all hunched over with his hands over his knees. “Guys, I think we're gonna die here,” he says.
“What else is new!?” I snap at him with all my anger now directed at him.
Chris raises an eyebrow, but doesn't pay me any mind an' goes on, “Naw, think about it. Can't run from 'em. Can't overpower 'em. We was doin' a lil' sum'm when they weren't possessin' folks, but now we can't really try for a killshot, an' even if we could, they can jus' stop time.”
“They can stop time!” Noah interjects, throwin' his arms up in the air. “They can stop time! They can possess people! They can get into our heads! Dang it, Nexus. You're absolutely right!”
Chris folds his hands behind his head as he stares up at the ceiling. “Don't even know how we still alive, now. Is they still playin' with us?”
“I think it's because of Octavia,” I say.
And as if on queue, she pops back up next to us. Across the room, the three demons she was fighting stand there in wait. Might be something to that playing thing Chris brought up. At any time, we could all get killed in an instant, but these demons haven't felt like it. Their playing with their food.
I'm not complainin' about it, though. They can play all they want.
“I'm ready t'go home now,” Octavia says. She to Noah for some reason. Noah probably takes that to mean that he needs to come up with a plan or something.
Noah looks across the room at the demons. They're still standing there. Rayne paces across the room, still keeping her distance, but definitely circling around us. Like a wolf on the prowl. Tameka's levitating. She's off the floor, floatin' in the air, upside down. Mr. Mayer's got his arms folded. His harsh features are scary enough to look at as it is, but the glowing red eyes he has while being possessed makes him look exceptionally menacing.
“Does anyone have Lynn's number?” Noah asks, turning to us. “Nexus,” he calls out, pointing to Chris. “I know you've told her about demons bein' here at the school. Why ain't she here?”
“I don't know, dude!” Chris responds throwing his arms out to the side. “It ain't like her t'be skippin' school like dis, but she ain't here!”
“No, she's here,” Octavia adds in. The three of us pause and look in her direction.
“She is?” Noah asks. Octavia nods her head. “Nexus, call her! She's the only one who can actually put a stop to this.”
“She is?” Octavia asks.
“Yeah,” I answer. She's the only one of us who can actually send the demons away.”
“Really?” she smugly chuckles at the notion, for some reason. I press her on the action, an' ask, “Why is that funny?”
“It's not,” she responds. “Jus'—I dunno, if Nickie were here she'd have a field-day –” An' then with a sly smirk, she goes on to say, “White savior complex?”
The rest of us look at her blankly for a moment. Then Noah breaks that short silence with a, “Well, maybe. She does seem ta be gung-ho about tryna save the world from everything, even though there're other people out there already doin' it better. Strikes me as weird, but, hey, if that's her thing, I say let her have it.”
“Speaking of those other people,” I say, “Why don't we call the Mystics?”
“I don't know Kai, why don't we call –” he stops mid-sentence. “Y'know, that's actually a good idea. You got their –”
“Done and done,” Chris interjects as the holographic projection from the cell phone he's holdin' turns off. “Lynn an' Hiro are both in the know.” Then he puts the phone in his back pocket.
“Great!” Noah says smacking his hand an' fist together. “Now all we gotta do is stay alive until one of them shows up, and we'll be good,” he says enthusiastically.
“Oh sure, yeah,” Chris says. “Who cares if at any moment they feel like it, they can freeze us in time, then rip our hearts out.”
“Let's just hope that they're still havin' enough fun ta keep us alive a lil' longer.”
“Their time thing don't work on me,” Octavia adds in.
“Oh,” Noah says.
We all look at Octavia again. No one's really sure what to make of her right now. Outta nowhere, she shows up, able to see demons, fight demons, an' survive encounters with them. It gets me to wonder if there're any other people we know who're like her. All day, we was thinkin' that the demon thing was jus' somethin' we had to deal with. All because of that Jabari guy accidentally leadin' us on this whole fate-of-the-world destiny stuff.
Doesn't look like that's the case.
“Well that explains that” Noah goes on. “And the power thing? You're stealin' our STs?”
“I guess?” Octavia answers. “This whole thing is super new to me.”
“That's fine. Take 'em. Take 'em all. Matta fact, if you can take out these demons before the calvary gets here, that'd be even better. And how about your TP? If the demon's time stuff isn't affectin' you, is their telepathy?”
“I don't think they're in my head.”
“That could be them tellin' you that they ain't,” Chris responds. “If they wanted t'mind zap you, they prolly could, so be on yo toes.”
And then, without a moment's notice, she disappears. We look over to the other side of the room to find that the demons have vanished as well. My mind wonders who's power she's using right now. I look out at my open right palm an' try to create a small flame. For the first half second, nothin' lights up. But in the next instant, an ember burns.
Then Octavia reappears in front of us on her back. She ain't movin'. We crowd around her, tryna help her to her feet, but there's nothin'. Chris an' Noah are knelt down on both sides of her. I'm standin' in the background.
She don't look like she got beat up that bad. I see some scrapes here an' there, but nothin' that shows she got the tar beat outta her. It was three against one, though. Still, my mind goes back to that TP thing. If the demons could get in her head, it wouldn't take much effort to just put her to sleep.
“Oh thank God,” Noah sighs. “She's still breathing.”
“Alright guys,” Chris says standin' to his feet. Then turning to the other side of the room, he sees the three demons in all their menacing demeanor. “We're screwed. Plain and simple.”
