A Light in the Dark 3

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This is fanfiction set in the Whateley Universe, and does not follow canon. I'm just using their sandbox.

Detroit, Michigan,
July 1st, 2007

The city street was noisy and smelly, assaulting Caroline's brain with such a wealth of information that she couldn't quite handle it all. The auras of the people and occasional animals were easy to watch, she was used to the riot of colours that outlined everything. But after the peace and quiet of the health spa, where she knew all the sounds and smells, the roar of cars, dozens of conversations, echoes, screeching of brakes, the smell of garbage, perfume, unwashed bodies, exhaust fumes and more, was giving her a headache.

She now regretted not having a conventional white cane. She hadn't used one in months, relying on her extendable staff that let her feel her way along when she wasn't quite certain about what was ahead of her, but relying on it more for self defense. The firm staff wasn't nearly as convenient for gliding, which would let her notice garbage, small ledges, and other obstacles her aura sight found impossible to see. Trying to find the shoreline, the edge of the curb or building, with the staff was possible, but again it was harder than at the spa where flowers and plants lined the paths, so she could simply walk between them to stay on the path with almost no effort. She was forced to dodge out of the way of people who didn't see her white staff, while trying to not fall onto the street, run into a lamppost, building, or newspaper stand, all the while counting steps to reach her destination.

Her destination today was a coffee shop two blocks away from the Detroit Supers Union Headquarters, where she and Dr. Chance were staying while the superheroes tried to make sense of the X class entities that had attacked them. So far they hadn't discovered anything except rumours.

Still they hadn't found any sign of the creatures near Detroit, and with so many superheroes around she was feeling safe enough to do things on her own. For the first week, she'd been terrified to leave her room, and this was the first time she'd gone outside on her own since the attack. She wished she had Dawon with her, but they'd found out that while the kitten was peaceful and playful when everything was calm, when Caroline was surprised or scared by something, it had certain reactions that could easily get someone killed. It was safer to leave it back in her room, she could still feel the kitten anyways, the last time she astral projected she'd seen a hairlike silver cord stretching from her to Dawon. How it had happened no one knew. Just like Mr. Marvelous and Dr. Chance couldn't tell what was in the kittens aura. All they knew was the kitten obeyed Caroline, and separating the two was probably dangerous, not just for Caroline or the feline, but whoever tried to do it.

She finally smelled coffee, and heard the jingling of a bell as a door opened up. She judged it was a few yards ahead, dodged around a group of laughing girls, and took a few seconds to pinpoint the door. Stepping inside and off to the side, she looked for the familiar aura of Dr. Chance.

“Caroline, over here!” her mentor yelled from across the crowded room.

Holding her cane a little like a pencil so it was pointed almost straight down, she swept it in front of her from shoulder to shoulder, making sure she wouldn't trip over any bags or chairs. The quiet conversations of the coffee shop was so peaceful after the noisy street. She wasn't so happy with the fact that she was part of gossip, as people saw her and told their friend how sad it was that she was blind as their auras shifted to be full of pity, or in one case pleasure, tinged with vicious glee.

Dr. Chance was in a corner well away from anyone, sitting with a man who was outlined in muddy brown and a bit of black, he was shy and very nervous, a little angry to. Caroline felt her cane tap against a chair and sat down turning the cane into a baton and putting it in her large purse. “Hello,” she said.

“Caroline this is Luke, I hope you don't mind him joining us,” Dr. Chance said.

“Hi Caroline,” Luke said, in his husky voice.

“Luke, it's great to see you,” she said honestly. The guy was a mutant, with Bit that made him look like a cross between a rat and a rock, he smelled like leather and fur. His aura looked nice though when he relaxed and he was always willing to talk, at least when he wasn't doing his job as an IT intern for the Supers Union.

“I got you a chocolate smoothie, it's at twelve o'clock, ten inches from the edge of the table,” Dr. Chance said.

She carefully grabbed it, letting the cold drink cool her hand. “Thanks, it's too hot outside.”

“How was your walk over here?”

Taking a sip of her smoothie to buy some time, Caroline tried to think of the best way to respond. “Confusing. I really don't like cities anymore.”

“Why?” Luke asked.

“Too many things going on. Too many people. After staying at a spa and even my hometown, it's disorienting.”

“Just think of it as training. You're going back to school soon, so you'll need to get use to all of the noise and jostling,” Dr. Chance told her.

“So what did you want to talk about that I had to brave these dangerous streets without my hellcat?”

“Well,” Dr. Chance said, “since you will be going to school soon, I thought you should talk to an alumni of it. I have to go to some appointments so you and Luke can talk together and then do something fun afterwards. You've got your phone and credit card?”

“Yeah,” Caroline said quietly. She hadn't felt comfortable being away from Dr. Chance or her father when he came down for two weeks to see her, since the attack.

“Um, are you sure?” Luke asked. “People might get the wrong idea if I'm here with her all alone.”

“You've got your employee badge, if anyone says anything just show them that and phone me. You both need to get out and blow the stink off after being inside for so long. Have fun,” the doctor said, leaving before either of them could object.

“So... what do you want to know about the school?” Luke asked.

Caroline could hear him shifting uneasily, his fur rubbing against his clothes, the tapping of his claws. She concentrated, sending out a thread of her aura to touch his, calming him a little. “What's it like?”

“It's really good. I was there a couple of years ago so it's probably changed, but the teachers are really good. They're all at the top of their field, so you'll probably get a better education than you would at any other school. If you're an exemplar or really good, you can take college level courses in almost anything. And there are tons of groups. I was in the computer group, and the martial arts club. That's a really good one to get into because of the combat finals at the end of the term,” he said, getting excited.

“Combat finals!”

“Oh,” he audibly winced. “I shouldn't have said that, it's suppose to be a surprise. Don't tell any of your classmates, it's not the same if the freshmen know what's going to happen.”

“All right. But with the combat finals, what will I be doing, fighting a war? Shooting a gun?” she asked.

“Nothing like that, unless your opponent has a gun,” Luke said quickly.

Caroline gave a little eep.

“There's nothing deadly about it, they're very careful about that. You just have to achieve an objective, and you can do it anyway you want. Some use powers and weapons, other use distraction and tricks. When I had to face a guy who could blow up a car with his mind, I ran for it and still passed,” he assured her.

“Right, so keep practicing my fighting. What about the students? Are there a lot of ragers?” Caroline had watched enough shows and news reports about mutants to know some of them went nuts sometimes.

“A few, but they have UV bands that let you see if they're dangerous.”

“Right, not very useful,” she muttered.

“Uh, I guess not. The cafeteria is really nice, it's a giant crystal, so the sun shines right in and it has a waterfall, you can look- er listen to it as you eat. And the tunnels are...”

Caroline listened to everything he had to say, making mental notes of the important parts as they drank their drinks. Eventually she flipped open her watch and touched the hands they'd been talking for over two hours and her stomach was letting her know it was suppertime. “Want to go somewhere to get a bite?” she asked.

“We can eat at the cafeteria at headquarters,” he said. “Or there's a fantastic sandwich place down the street.”

Caroline really wanted to get back to the headquarters where she felt safe, but she realized that for her own emotional healing, as Dr. Chance would say, she had to push herself. “Let's get some sandwiches.”

Taking his arm, they walked through the crowded street, Luke talked about the city, some places she should visit now that she was getting out more, places to avoid and his job, which currently involved making the heroes webpage more interactive, with videos, a forum, and other things.

Caroline's cane was moving before she realized it, knocking a brick out of the air that would have hit Luke in the head. Even with her arm shaking from the impact, she was twisting around, cracking the hard plastic on a persons shoulder, who's aura was bloody red of anger and muddy green of resentment and an ugly blue of fear. The man screamed, his aura twisting around, her trained eye showed that something was broken.

This happened so fast Luke was still confused, ducking back against a wall. Caroline saw the emotions and the auras flickering, letting her know who was friendly and who was ready to fight.

Four more people came in from behind Luke. He was shouting that was an employee of the Detroit Supers Union, holding up his badge even as he held his free hand up to defend himself. Caroline could tell that that wasn't going to help, the emotions were too raw, too intense. She didn't moved in to meet them, putting power into her sight.

Able to see their individual hairs, she watched how the energy moved to see who was going to punch, who was going to jump on her or Luke, and who was hanging back. Psychic cues she couldn't consciously detect had her dodging and moving constantly, letting her avoid taking hits that would knock her out or at least put her off balance enough that she wouldn't be able to avoid the follow up. Her staff jabbed into a gut, leaving a man gasping, then moved upwards knocking an arm to the side, letting her move forward to stomp as hard as she could on the attackers instep, even as the stuff spun cracking into the mans chin. With two men down, she charged the other two.

In less than a minute, three men were on the knees gasping for air, clutching bruises and broken bones, dazed and defeated, their fellow attackers were fleeing. Luke was on his phone calling the police, his aura full of amazement directed at her. “You shouldn't have done that, you could have gotten hurt,” Luke said.

“They were definitely going to hurt you if I hadn't,” she said, leaning on her staff trying to catch her breath and letting the shakes of the adrenalin rush wear off.

“They couldn't hurt me, my skin and fur is as hard a rock. The best they could have done is damage my clothes,” he told her.

“Didn't know that.” Caroline looked around at the growing crowd. “They're taking my picture aren't they?”

“Yeah,” Luke said with a resigned sigh. “Sorry, this sometimes happens thanks to my looks.”

“So... what now?” she asked, wishing she had a hood or something to cover her face, at least her sunglasses were in place.

“We wait for the police. Don't worry, I'll make sure they know exactly what happened and that it was all self-defense.”

She didn't need to see the resignation in his aura to know he was upset and tired of things like this. Moving beside him, she patted his arm, letting him know he wasn't alone.

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Comments

Training, training.

Podracer's picture

And a set of defensive reactions needing no thought. Has to be good for Caroline's confidence. Once the shakes stop.

"Reach for the sun."

she did well

hopefully, that will boost her confidence

DogSig.png

Thank you both for commenting

Domoviye's picture

This will be a boost for Caroline, and I wanted to show how far her training has progressed. Her powers helped, but if that was all she had she'd have just kept them off balance and avoided injury. Now she just has to enjoy seeing cheap videos on the net about a blind girl who defended a mutant and kicked ass doing it.
Easy.

Demonstration

A good demonstration of Caroline's abilities.

Joanna

Thanks, I thought it was.

Domoviye's picture

Thanks, I thought it was.
She's a good fighter, and her powers really lend themselves to it as well, but if she gets hit she's going to be hurt.
And this isn't just to show off, there are big things on the horizon for Luke and Caroline.

It's nice to see that she

It's nice to see that she learned a lot from the good doctor but practice and action are two different things as she just learned...thankfully her instinct powers are able to save her as her other related powers develop more.

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

Training and powers

Domoviye's picture

She relied on both quite well actually. She let her body move automatically in time with her danger sense, and focused her training and skill on the offense.
Against a group of well trained attackers, a speedster or a brick she'd have a lot of trouble because she's squishy and can only move so fast, and hit so hard, but for most people she'd reasonably meet she's a nasty opponent.

Reaction

Tas's picture

It's always better to be able to react immediately, and I'm glad Caroline has gotten to that point. Looks like her training is really paying off :)

-Tas

She's a fast learner, and Dr.

Domoviye's picture

She's a fast learner, and Dr. Chance is a good teacher. It helps that she's been busy training in lots of different things without much of a real break to.