This fear of mine
December 4th 2006 15:13
This fear of mine
Thursday, 5 November 2054, 0200
Mission Monitor Board, Gteams Heartland Division
Denise wheeled in slowly, wearing her black zip uniform into the monitor room. Immediately the tech turned and addressed her.
“DarkStarr? You're off duty, ma'am. Are you taking someone's place?” Lieutenant JG Hawkins, so his name badge read, said.
“No. Mark me as out of facility, and give me airspace in twenty minutes.” She said.
“Yes ma'am. I'll clear you for helipad six, which is clear now, ma'am. Do you need some, um, assistance?” He asked, attempting to be tactful.
“No, I'll take the passenger elevator. Make sure it's unlocked.” She said.
“Yes ma'am, I will. Have a good flight ma'am. Do you have an ETR ma'am?” He asked.
“Probably before reveille, but I'm unsure.” She lied. She hoped to be in in a couple of hours. If she had timed it better, the mission monitor board lead would have been out to lunch, but she was impatient and had to act now while her courage was high.
He tapped keys at the terminal, as the passenger elevator down the hallway came down to the main level. She backed in, and looked at the six key. The lift doors closed and she began to rise. She never really liked elevators, even though she understood how they worked. They were too small for her. She liked open spaces. While not completely closterphobic, she had made special requisition to have a larger than normal quarters.
Crone had literally beaten the closterphobia out of her during their training. For her final test, she had to hunt down a series of people in a dark, wet, sewer system. She didn't speak to Crone for a week after that. She never, ever, however, let Crone onto her deepest fear. She knew better.
Denise wheeled out of the elevator, and tilted her head slightly. The elevator would stay locked to the sixth floor until she released it, which would be when she got back. This would be a clue, she thought, if something went wrong.
When yesterday she took to the hot tub, she looked at the pool and it caused her to shiver. The mere smell of chlorine was enough to give her nausea, just shy of retching. Denise was very, very hydrophobic.
She scooted toward the edge of the chair, and opened up the foot pedals, swinging them away, and locked the brakes. She thought for a moment, and made it a bit of a challenge, closing her eyes. She extended her sensations around her and could now sense the magnetic and energy lay lines around her. The lights of the helipad were like sparklers, displaying both light, and heat in her mind. She went deeper and started to sense the metal around her. She stood up, and staggered drunkenly, away from her chair. There was pain, excruciating pain as she buckled, but did not fall.
Her mutation gave her some control over metallic particles and fibers, and her specially designed flight suit was a woven metal mesh. By using one of her abilities, magnokinesis, she lifted herself up into the air. She drew upon the ions in the air around here and created a small, blue static based halo around her, and soared into the air.
Denise smiled, and took deep breaths. She had to watch how fast she flew, for her body did not actually change form, like other mutants. She often wished it did, and then at times was glad it did not. She felt an odd throbbing at her leg joints, where the incisions were and tried to ignore it.
As Crone had taught her, she had to use her hands like ailerons and feet like flaps. By assuming a more aerodynamic stance and focusing on her power, she was able to cut along at a good eighty miles an hour. Her flight suit protected her from most of the cold, but her face was unprotected. She wasn't wearing her helmet, either. Crone would have let her have a good what for.
After about an hour or so of moderate flight, she was circling around in the heart of Gigopolis one. It's huge, cubical base, topped by a myriad of buildings was a welcome sight. She was born in Gigopolis one, and here was where her heart was.
She circled one of the larger education buildings and there, exposed to a building she saw her quarry, and her fear. A large, double Olympic sized swimming pool. With her magnetic powers holding herself steady, she studied the electric lay lines of the building and found several windows that were both alarmed and moveable. She turned off her static based field, and like a firefly without its glow, was all but invisible in the darkness.
She put a hand against the building, and reached out with her mind. Softly, she saw the various electrical conduits, the lines, the security systems. Using her knowledge of these systems, she began to systemically shut them down, or reroute them, one by one. It took her some time, for this was a government building, as all educational buildings were now. The redundancy for security was incredibly high, even in this, a middle school.
After the external security was defeated, she then turned her mind deeper, disabled all of the internal security cameras, and began to affect the environmental controls, turning the pool's temperature up as high as it would go. This pool had no Jacuzzi, so she wanted to be as comfortable as she could be.
Then, with a deft gracefulness, she gently activated a computer controlled window vent and flew in. The room was huge, easily twenty meters tall, with circular sound baffles hanging from the ceiling in a red, white, and blue American flag motif. The pool was equally huge and although she'd been here many times in her youth, never, ever as an adult. She circled around and lowered herself onto the concrete, standing upright. Knees still wobbly, she nearly collapsed.
“Fool.” She said to herself, and magnetically drew a reclining deck chair toward her, making a loud skittering sound, which echoed in the room.
“Well Denise, now what?” She said aloud, knowing no one was there.
She closed her eyes and went back to a day, about ten years before.
She was all of twelve, and a promising young member of the girl's swim team. Like every day, she went into the gym, dressed down. She had a cute one piece in black, and her body was developing nicely. She liked swimming; she aspired to be the captain. She wasn't the fastest, or the strongest, but she did well. Her mom would come to all her meets, and cheer her on. Her grandmother would show up too, and they would take her out for ice cream afterward.
One day, one fateful day, she had forgotten to take her cross off. It was a silly thing to do, she knew better, but on this day, she forgot. After the meet, she realized it wasn't there, and panicked. She scurried out to the pool and looked around, and, somehow, caught a glimpse of it in the lit depths of the deep end.
The deep end of the pool was ten meters deep. She'd swum in that side many, many times so that wasn't an issue. The dive was the issue. To get that far down, she'd have to use the high dive. In between classes, there was no lifeguard, and no security person to tell her no.
Fearlessly she climbed the ladder. If she could do a dive off of a four-meter board well, she could dive off this one, she thought to herself. In no short order, she scurried up the ladder to find herself many, many meters up. She thought it was odd, at the time, that she could see the cross. In retrospect, of course, she knew it was one of her mutant powers coming to bear, the one that allowed her to sense Ferro magnetic metals.
She prepped herself by taking in lots of oxygen into her lungs. She got a good bead on the cross, merely a spec in her eye at this distance, and dove. The dive, she admitted to herself, was very good. She knifed correctly and cut the water cleanly with a minimum of splash her body slicing down toward the cross, which by now, was like a beacon in her mind. She knew, almost immediately she was moving too quickly, to track the necklace at the same time, but reached for it immediately.
Then, the necklace moved of it's own accord, toward her outstretched hand. Her mind reached for it and as it hit her palm, she clutched it, eyes open, panicking, having no idea what was happening. She drew everything ferromagnetic toward her at once, the lifeguard's whistle on the tower, the screws in the diving board, the metal ladder that let students climb out. They all tugged toward her.
She didn't know any of this, though. Her world was now nothing but a blinding shock, as another part of her power, the ones that governed electricity kicked in.
She convulsed as an arc of direct current went from her, out to the water, and back. Her mind couldn't comprehend what was going on, and the shock, while small, was substantial enough to knock her cold.
She floated toward the surface, cross magnetized to her hand.
By sheer luck, another student had come out to get something, and found her. That student called the lifeguard, and rescued her. She wasn't breathing, and after they gave her CPR they began to use an electro cardio stimulator to attempt to start her heart moving.
The Paddles went on her chest, and when the power came on, her eyes opened, as she drained the device's batteries dry, shorting it out, and shocking everyone working on her.
Within forty-eight hours, her life at Gteams began. It took her close to eight months to be able to control her electrical and magnetic abilities to even function.
Denise realized that she was crying. Sobbing, and shivering.
All she had was her faith. God had said that she should come back to life, and as a mutant. She had to do good works, and, to do those works, she had to overcome her fear. She read in a book somewhere that fear is the mind killer, and she believed it.
She wasn't going to let a little thing like having her legs chopped off scare her, and she sure as hell wasn't going to limit herself.
Gracefully, she levitated herself up again. She went toward the deepest end of the pool, and unclasped her cross. Her magnetic control was so very good at this point, that she could isolate individual items. The cross dangled free.
She dropped it into the pool, and watched it sink. She could feel it with her mind. Slowly she sat on the high dive, and then found herself in a quandary. She had no swimming suit. Instantly she fought against herself, she could just pick up the cross now, go home. She'd faced her fear, she came here. She could go wading back in the Gteams pool. It was no big deal at this point.
“Bullshit” she said. She unzipped the front of her Gteams flight suit, and then squirmed a bit on the high dive, wriggling out of it. She shed her panties and bra, and wobbly stood on the high dive, and magnetically levitated her suit onto the pool's edge.
She stood, until her legs ached, and then crouched, and sprung.
The dive, she thought, needed work, but she did manage to cut the water. Instantly a flood of memories, her heart stopping, and her brain surging with power hit her. She convulsed once, twice, and then reached out with her power. The cross came to her hand, and she surfaced, spewing water.
She floated face up, for a long, long time, crying tears of happiness to herself.
Thursday, 5 November 2054, 0200
Mission Monitor Board, Gteams Heartland Division
Denise wheeled in slowly, wearing her black zip uniform into the monitor room. Immediately the tech turned and addressed her.
“DarkStarr? You're off duty, ma'am. Are you taking someone's place?” Lieutenant JG Hawkins, so his name badge read, said.
“No. Mark me as out of facility, and give me airspace in twenty minutes.” She said.
“Yes ma'am. I'll clear you for helipad six, which is clear now, ma'am. Do you need some, um, assistance?” He asked, attempting to be tactful.
“Yes ma'am, I will. Have a good flight ma'am. Do you have an ETR ma'am?” He asked.
“Probably before reveille, but I'm unsure.” She lied. She hoped to be in in a couple of hours. If she had timed it better, the mission monitor board lead would have been out to lunch, but she was impatient and had to act now while her courage was high.
He tapped keys at the terminal, as the passenger elevator down the hallway came down to the main level. She backed in, and looked at the six key. The lift doors closed and she began to rise. She never really liked elevators, even though she understood how they worked. They were too small for her. She liked open spaces. While not completely closterphobic, she had made special requisition to have a larger than normal quarters.
Crone had literally beaten the closterphobia out of her during their training. For her final test, she had to hunt down a series of people in a dark, wet, sewer system. She didn't speak to Crone for a week after that. She never, ever, however, let Crone onto her deepest fear. She knew better.
When yesterday she took to the hot tub, she looked at the pool and it caused her to shiver. The mere smell of chlorine was enough to give her nausea, just shy of retching. Denise was very, very hydrophobic.
She scooted toward the edge of the chair, and opened up the foot pedals, swinging them away, and locked the brakes. She thought for a moment, and made it a bit of a challenge, closing her eyes. She extended her sensations around her and could now sense the magnetic and energy lay lines around her. The lights of the helipad were like sparklers, displaying both light, and heat in her mind. She went deeper and started to sense the metal around her. She stood up, and staggered drunkenly, away from her chair. There was pain, excruciating pain as she buckled, but did not fall.
Her mutation gave her some control over metallic particles and fibers, and her specially designed flight suit was a woven metal mesh. By using one of her abilities, magnokinesis, she lifted herself up into the air. She drew upon the ions in the air around here and created a small, blue static based halo around her, and soared into the air.
Denise smiled, and took deep breaths. She had to watch how fast she flew, for her body did not actually change form, like other mutants. She often wished it did, and then at times was glad it did not. She felt an odd throbbing at her leg joints, where the incisions were and tried to ignore it.
As Crone had taught her, she had to use her hands like ailerons and feet like flaps. By assuming a more aerodynamic stance and focusing on her power, she was able to cut along at a good eighty miles an hour. Her flight suit protected her from most of the cold, but her face was unprotected. She wasn't wearing her helmet, either. Crone would have let her have a good what for.
After about an hour or so of moderate flight, she was circling around in the heart of Gigopolis one. It's huge, cubical base, topped by a myriad of buildings was a welcome sight. She was born in Gigopolis one, and here was where her heart was.
She circled one of the larger education buildings and there, exposed to a building she saw her quarry, and her fear. A large, double Olympic sized swimming pool. With her magnetic powers holding herself steady, she studied the electric lay lines of the building and found several windows that were both alarmed and moveable. She turned off her static based field, and like a firefly without its glow, was all but invisible in the darkness.
She put a hand against the building, and reached out with her mind. Softly, she saw the various electrical conduits, the lines, the security systems. Using her knowledge of these systems, she began to systemically shut them down, or reroute them, one by one. It took her some time, for this was a government building, as all educational buildings were now. The redundancy for security was incredibly high, even in this, a middle school.
After the external security was defeated, she then turned her mind deeper, disabled all of the internal security cameras, and began to affect the environmental controls, turning the pool's temperature up as high as it would go. This pool had no Jacuzzi, so she wanted to be as comfortable as she could be.
Then, with a deft gracefulness, she gently activated a computer controlled window vent and flew in. The room was huge, easily twenty meters tall, with circular sound baffles hanging from the ceiling in a red, white, and blue American flag motif. The pool was equally huge and although she'd been here many times in her youth, never, ever as an adult. She circled around and lowered herself onto the concrete, standing upright. Knees still wobbly, she nearly collapsed.
“Fool.” She said to herself, and magnetically drew a reclining deck chair toward her, making a loud skittering sound, which echoed in the room.
“Well Denise, now what?” She said aloud, knowing no one was there.
She closed her eyes and went back to a day, about ten years before.
She was all of twelve, and a promising young member of the girl's swim team. Like every day, she went into the gym, dressed down. She had a cute one piece in black, and her body was developing nicely. She liked swimming; she aspired to be the captain. She wasn't the fastest, or the strongest, but she did well. Her mom would come to all her meets, and cheer her on. Her grandmother would show up too, and they would take her out for ice cream afterward.
One day, one fateful day, she had forgotten to take her cross off. It was a silly thing to do, she knew better, but on this day, she forgot. After the meet, she realized it wasn't there, and panicked. She scurried out to the pool and looked around, and, somehow, caught a glimpse of it in the lit depths of the deep end.
The deep end of the pool was ten meters deep. She'd swum in that side many, many times so that wasn't an issue. The dive was the issue. To get that far down, she'd have to use the high dive. In between classes, there was no lifeguard, and no security person to tell her no.
Fearlessly she climbed the ladder. If she could do a dive off of a four-meter board well, she could dive off this one, she thought to herself. In no short order, she scurried up the ladder to find herself many, many meters up. She thought it was odd, at the time, that she could see the cross. In retrospect, of course, she knew it was one of her mutant powers coming to bear, the one that allowed her to sense Ferro magnetic metals.
She prepped herself by taking in lots of oxygen into her lungs. She got a good bead on the cross, merely a spec in her eye at this distance, and dove. The dive, she admitted to herself, was very good. She knifed correctly and cut the water cleanly with a minimum of splash her body slicing down toward the cross, which by now, was like a beacon in her mind. She knew, almost immediately she was moving too quickly, to track the necklace at the same time, but reached for it immediately.
Then, the necklace moved of it's own accord, toward her outstretched hand. Her mind reached for it and as it hit her palm, she clutched it, eyes open, panicking, having no idea what was happening. She drew everything ferromagnetic toward her at once, the lifeguard's whistle on the tower, the screws in the diving board, the metal ladder that let students climb out. They all tugged toward her.
She didn't know any of this, though. Her world was now nothing but a blinding shock, as another part of her power, the ones that governed electricity kicked in.
She convulsed as an arc of direct current went from her, out to the water, and back. Her mind couldn't comprehend what was going on, and the shock, while small, was substantial enough to knock her cold.
She floated toward the surface, cross magnetized to her hand.
By sheer luck, another student had come out to get something, and found her. That student called the lifeguard, and rescued her. She wasn't breathing, and after they gave her CPR they began to use an electro cardio stimulator to attempt to start her heart moving.
The Paddles went on her chest, and when the power came on, her eyes opened, as she drained the device's batteries dry, shorting it out, and shocking everyone working on her.
Within forty-eight hours, her life at Gteams began. It took her close to eight months to be able to control her electrical and magnetic abilities to even function.
Denise realized that she was crying. Sobbing, and shivering.
All she had was her faith. God had said that she should come back to life, and as a mutant. She had to do good works, and, to do those works, she had to overcome her fear. She read in a book somewhere that fear is the mind killer, and she believed it.
She wasn't going to let a little thing like having her legs chopped off scare her, and she sure as hell wasn't going to limit herself.
Gracefully, she levitated herself up again. She went toward the deepest end of the pool, and unclasped her cross. Her magnetic control was so very good at this point, that she could isolate individual items. The cross dangled free.
She dropped it into the pool, and watched it sink. She could feel it with her mind. Slowly she sat on the high dive, and then found herself in a quandary. She had no swimming suit. Instantly she fought against herself, she could just pick up the cross now, go home. She'd faced her fear, she came here. She could go wading back in the Gteams pool. It was no big deal at this point.
“Bullshit” she said. She unzipped the front of her Gteams flight suit, and then squirmed a bit on the high dive, wriggling out of it. She shed her panties and bra, and wobbly stood on the high dive, and magnetically levitated her suit onto the pool's edge.
She stood, until her legs ached, and then crouched, and sprung.
The dive, she thought, needed work, but she did manage to cut the water. Instantly a flood of memories, her heart stopping, and her brain surging with power hit her. She convulsed once, twice, and then reached out with her power. The cross came to her hand, and she surfaced, spewing water.
She floated face up, for a long, long time, crying tears of happiness to herself.
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