Tink: A Strange Fairytale 5

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“So did you get into trouble for this morning?” Thad asked, as they sat beside a big window in the library enjoying a bit of peace and quiet, his eyes looked almost exactly like the brilliant sun shining on them.

“Nah,” Teri answered, waving away the thought. “They mostly wanted to know what happened, and that I was alright. India on the other hand is in big trouble.”

He looked at her incredulously. “Her name is India?”

“Yep. But she'll always be Sasquatch Girl in my heart,” she put a hand to her chest and looked longingly upwards for a second. “She's confined to her cottage for a while, and has to write out a full page apology to me and every student she pushed out of the way. Apparently they thought she had her strength and stuff under control, but seeing how pretty I am made her forget she doesn't have the body of a seven year old little girl anymore.”

“What cottage is she in?”

“Hawtho- Dammit!” she yelled.

“What's wrong?”

She hid her face in her hands. “I have to go to Hawthorne after lunch for my second day of detention. I'm going to be seeing her everyday for three weeks. I'm doomed!”

“What if you go ask security to change your detention?” Thad suggested.

She flew up and kissed his forehead. “You're a genius! Come on!”

“Wait, why do I need to come?” he asked, as she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the tunnel entrance.

They reached security and walked right up to the front desk. She remembered the officer there from the other day. “Hi Mr. Harris. Um, can... can I talk to Chief Delarose about something really important?”

He gave her and Thad a cautious once over. “He's rather busy right now dealing with the problem from this morning, Ms. Mouser. Maybe I can help.”

“Well, you see, um... Thad you explain!” she said, jumping behind him.

“Um, right,” Thad said, his voice cracking. “Teri was saying that the girl this morning, India? Uh anyways, she's in Hawthorne where she... Teri I mean, is doing her detention. So, well Teri is wondering if she could not do her detention.”

“Not, not do my detention, just not do it at Hawthorne!” Teri shouted over his shoulder.

Harris, shook his head. “I'm sorry but I can't switch your detention assignment. But I'll tell Ms. Cantrel about your concern. Don't worry, she'll make sure if you see India that there will be someone there to keep anything like this morning from happening. And if something does happen or you don't feel safe after trying it today, Chief Delarose will get you something a bit more appropriate.”

“Ok,” she said, draping herself over Thad's shoulder in defeat. “Thanks anyways.”

“Where to now?” Thad asked as they walked away.

“Anywhere,” she said into his shirt. “I'm going to be crushed to death by a hairy seven year old kid this afternoon.”

Picking her off his shoulder by her feet he held her up to his face. “What happened to the girl who yelled at the MCO? Who pretended to be a pigeon in front of the Headmistress? Who hung a person who was like fifty times your own size from her bra in Crystal Hall?”

“She was attacked by a Sasquatch, and now has to get ready for round two,” Teri replied swaying in the wind.

He gave her a good shake. “With that attitude you're doomed. You just have to be clever about it and you can keep her off your back.”

“Oh yeah? What would you do against a hundred foot tall giant who can run as fast as you and jump as high as you can fly?”

“I don't know. Find something to get it's attention away from me, I guess.”

There was some nasty laughter. “Oh, is the little baby talking to his dolly because he misses his mommy.”

Teri turned around still upside down. “Sorry nope, I don't have any dolls. And I think you need glasses, I'm obviously a girl.”

“Oh, crap,” Thad whispered, looking at the very strong looking teenager in front of them. “Hey Legbreaker, I've heard about you, you're a PDP. You're like one of the coolest kids in Twain.”

The boy smiled a little. “Flattery will get you pretty far. Tell you what. Throw your friend away and I won't beat you up.”

Teri looked at Thad, who looked like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Very quietly, Thad said, “Uh, Legbreaker, that might not be such a good idea.”

“PDP, that means you have a forcefield right?” Teri asked.

Punching the wall hard enough to leave a crack in it, Legbreaker took a step forward, an evil smile on his face. “Yeah, there's not a thing you can do to hurt me. So you're not going to throw her away? I guess I'll get to pound two idiots today than.”

He took another step, raising his foot high to really stomp the ground. Teri moved into action, slipping out of Thad's hand, she grabbed the bullies shoe, coming in from the side to put him off balance. He started to spin and she went with it, her PK field grabbing the boy and making him seem almost weightless to her. This did nothing for his actual mass however. With just one spin she was thrown off her feet still flapping her wings, and the began flying down the hallway, just like an out of control top.

With Teri in the very center, Legbreaker hit the walls of the tunnel, trying to grab something, anything to stop the spinning, leaving head size dents in the stone. Then the vomiting started.

Teri was finally able to let go, staggered a few steps, and then fell to her knees throwing up. Legbreaker, was on his belly, gagging and spitting, clutching the floor and moaning for it to stop moving.

Thad ran over, grabbed Teri and took off.

“Whee! Stop the world! I want to get off!” Teri shouted.

“I am so dead later,” Thad gasped, not slowing down in the slightest.

**

Teri flew into Hawthorne, carrying a plastic bag. She, Thad and Serena had went shopping at the school store earlier getting school supplies, things for their room, and for Teri a few survival items.

Louis was waiting for her. “Teri, how are you doing?” he asked.

“Pretty good. Um is India around?”

“Don't worry she's in the common room, with Slab and a few others, she won't go near you and if she tries we can keep her from overreacting,” he assured her.

Biting her lip, Teri said, “Actually, I kind of want to see her. But yeah, keep the big guys around her, just in case.”

“If you're sure, I think that would be good for both of you. Follow me.” Louis walked up the stairs, leading her to the common room.

India was sitting hunched over a table, the big black guy from the day before was talking to a bone white girl with metallic silver hair and a lot of tattoos. A few people she saw briefly the day before were there as well, one girl wearing a sweater was sitting beside India, pointing something out to her.

“India,” Louis said, “there is someone here who wants to talk to you.”

The enormous girl turned around, her eyes were red probably from crying. When she saw Teri her bottom lip started to quiver. “I'M SORRY!” she shouted, causing Teri to fly behind Louis. “I just saw you and you were so cute, I just wanted to give you a big hug.”

Peeking out of Louis' chest, Teri watched the big girl for any sign of a hugging. When the girl didn't do anything except play with the hem of her dress, she flew towards her. “Ok then. I don't mind hugging, but you have to at least ask first, and not hold me for like twenty minutes. And if you REALLY want to hug me and can't control yourself, I got you this. You can hug it as much as you like,” Teri said holding out the bag.

Gingerly, India took the bag and looked inside. She grinned, showing off teeth that were almost as large as Teri. “Oh, she's so nice,” India said, pulling a large stuffed butterfly from the bag. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“India aren't you forgetting something?” the big guy asked.

“Oh yeah, sorry Slab.” India turned to grab a piece of paper from the table.” I have to give you this, the principal said it was part of my punishment. Frostbite helped me. I'm really, really, really, really sorry.”

Teri took the paper which was covered in childish printing. It was a full page apology and basically begging for forgiveness. Looking at the sad, tear filled eyes of the hairy, little girl who was like a hundred feet tall compared to her, Teri felt her heart melt. “Awww, I forgive you!” flying up to kiss the girls pudgy nose.

India squealed with joy, and reached out to give Teri a hug, stopped and then squeezed the butterfly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Alright India, you still have a lot more apologies to write, and Teri still needs to work for her detention,” Louis said.

“Ok,” India and Teri both said, with a groan.

“So am I cleaning your pool again?” Teri asked. “Because I seriously think that's cruel and unusual punishment for someone my size.”

“Don't worry, no more pool cleaning unless you do something really bad,” he said, with a chuckle. “We're actually hoping you could help out some of the residents, with settling in. Once classes start tomorrow we'll most likely have you helping out some of the students who need help in English and math, as well as a few classes you might share with them.”

Whispering a prayer of thanks to whoever was listening, she followed Louis to a door with the name Dr. Heavy written on it. Someone had taped a piece of paper in between the two words, with 'NOT', written on it. In black marker.

Teri knocked on the door. A boy shouted for her to wait, and a minute later the door opened, also the gravity seemed to disappeared. This was bad, because she'd been flying and with the sudden disappearance of gravity her wings sent her flying into the ceiling.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” she cried, standing upside down, rubbing her head.

A boy who looked to be all of eight years old, but with an adult size head, grabbed the top of the door frame and looked at her. “Hey Fubar, you found someone smaller than me!”

“Dr. Heavy, this is Teri, she'll be helping you get everything organized in your new room,” Louis said.

“Hi,” she said, still rubbing her head. “What happened to the gravity?”

The boy did a backwards somersault, grabbing a rope that hung from the ceiling of his room. “It's my power, I stop gravity around me. It's pretty cool, and this term they gave me a little jet pack so I can fly around the tunnels and buildings, I can even go to class now.”

Carefully, Teri flew into the room, grabbing another rope to stop herself. Lying on her back in midair, with her hands behind her head, she grinned at him. “This is a lot easier than flying around all the time. Are you really a doctor?”

“Yeah, I got my doctorate in computer science when I turned fourteen, just before manifesting.”

“Wow, I'm still struggling with high school. So what exactly do you need?”

“I need to unpack my bags, but I can't really get a lot done when everything keeps floating away,” he said pointing at the clothes and things that were floating all over the room.

“It's all clean?” she asked, eyeing the underwear nervously.

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” With that, she started going around the room, quickly learning how to control herself with her wings, and bouncing off of different things in a controlled fashion. They talked a bit as she worked. He told her how he used to give off 8g's of force, and that was how he got his name, until a girl from Poe, reversed it. He called it the best day of his life.

She told him about her own manifestation, which had him turning green for some reason. And then they started showing off what they could do in 0g. After ten minutes of twisting, turning, and bouncing off of everything in the room, Louis popped up. “Teri, it's time to get to work in another room.”

“By Heavy, keep working on your triple backflip, you almost have it,” she said, flying to the door. “Ok, Louis what next?”

She spent the rest of the two hours helping a girl called Jello, who could barely work up the energy to do much more then watch a video on her laptop, and point at where her clothes and stuff were suppose to go to. Followed by mopping the floors again, and finally fetching supper from Crystal Hall for India, and a few other Thornies who couldn't leave.

Then she was finally released and after a quick shower under the faucet at Whitman, and a fast supper alone, Teri was able to sit in the common room with fabric and sewing supplies.

“Whatcha doing?” a girl with paper for skin that was covered in strange symbols, and long ink black hair asked.

“Sewing myself a gi, for martial arts. They don't have any in my size,” Teri answered, using a claw to cut some fabric. Grabbing a two inch piece of thick thread with marks placed regularly along it, she measured the thick cotton again, and marked it with the nub of a charcoal pencil, and cut it again.

“You could just go to Cecelia, and save yourself all this trouble,” the girl said.

“Who?”

She seemed amazed that Teri didn't know who she was talking about. “Cecilia, she has a clothes shop in Dunwich. She can make clothes for anyone in a few hours. No one told you?”

“No. So thanks for letting me know, I'll try to see her this week. I'm Teri.”

“Page. That's my code name. I never thought I'd have a code name like a superhero,' she said, her cheeks became black, like someone had coated them in ink.

“My code name is Tink. I don't use it much, I don't really see the point,” she said, spreading her wings.

Page nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, that would be hard to hide. You're really good at sewing, how can you do it so quickly?”

“I don't have any trouble with the thread and needle being too small,” she explained. “So it's really easy for me. And I had to make my own clothes for a while.”

“That's neat. My mom tried to make me learn how to sew, but I kept poking my fingers and finally gave up.”

“What are your powers?” Teri asked.

“I'm a psychic and a low level wizard. I can read minds and emotions. But don't worry I know how to stop it, and I wouldn't dream of using it on people,” Page hastened to add.

Teri stopped sewing the pant leg, and eyed the girl. “That is... COOL! What am I thinking right now?”

“A-are you sure you want me to read your mind? Most people freak out when they learn what I can do.”

“Yeah, go for it.”

Page took a deep breath and closed her eye. Her skin became pure white, and than words appeared on her face and arms. Teri flew up to get a better look at them. She started singing what she saw, “This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my-”

“Ok, enough! I don't want that song stuck in my head all night,” Page shouted. The words on her skin coalesced back into the mix of symbols and patterns.

Teri fell back to the cushion. “That was so cool! I could read what I was thinking!”

“Yeah, that makes using my power really, really awkward,” the girl moaned.

“Can you control what your skin shows?”

Page nodded. “A little, but its pretty hard.”

“Oh man you can make it look like you have really bad ass tattoos. Or embarrass someone by pretending your reading their mind, and writing down some really embarrassing stuff, like he's worried about his tiny penis, or a girl is still sore from a wild night with her boyfriend,” Teri said, thinking of all the things she would do with that.

“I couldn't do that!”

“Fine, fine. What classes are you taking?”

**

It was lights out by the time Teri finished her gi. She'd have gotten it done faster but she'd talked to a bunch of different girls, while sewing and cutting.

The gi wasn't great, the edges were barely hemmed, one leg was shorter than the other, it was a little loose in the top, and the holes for her wings were a bit too wide. But it would do until she could make a better one, or get to Cecilia. It wasn't like someone would look at her closely enough to notice the problems, they'd need a magnifying glass.

Heading off for bed, she wondered what her first day of classes would bring.

**

The campus was a lot more crowded and full of amazing sights, that had freshmen looking around in awe as they headed to the Schuster Hall auditorium for the opening day assembly. Teri was flying over the crowd, trying out do a cloud boy who was changing his body into steadily stranger things, as she did aerial gymnastics. They were joined by a boy and girl who looked like twins, and began flying circles around them. This got a lot of other students who could fly, or at least jump joining in, showing off what they could do.

The bell rang informing them it was time for the fun to end. With a wave to her fellow fliers, Teri flew to where her fellow cottage mates and landed on Serena's shoulder.

“I don't think that's the school uniform,” Serena said, looking at the mouse dress Teri was wearing.

“It's my uniform, and a part of my fairy heritage. Both of which are perfectly acceptable according to the student handbook,” she said, smoothing the black fur.

Page reached out to stroke the fur dress. “Is that real fur?”

“Yep. My dad taught me how to tan leather, so I made a few dresses out of mouse skin after I manifested, since I didn't want to wear dish clothes or doll clothes all the time.”

“I thought a costume had to hide your face.”

Teri put her braided hair through a hole in the dress as she pulled up her hood made from the mouse head, which covered her upper face. Some hastily sewn on loops of strings to hidden buttons on her shoulders, kept it in place and she was able to peer out of the eye holes, which gave her a mouse like appearance. “How's this?”

“Disturbing,” Serena said.

“Excellent!”

They filed in, Whitman was the second of the cottages, so they were near the front. Teri waved at a few of the kids from Hawthorne, as her cottage found their seats. Seeing that there was no way to see the stage, and not being interested in the speech, she pulled out a small piece of cloth she'd folded and stitched together to make a pillow.

“What are you doing?” Page asked.

“Catching up on my sleep. You height advantaged people have to look awake, not a problem for me. Can you make sure no one sits on me?” she asked.

“No. If I have to suffer through this, so do you,” Serena said, giving her a light poke in the ribs.

“Hey that's not fair, this is like the one advantage I have over you guys, and you won't let me abuse it for all it's worth?”

Serena glared at her. “I don't think I've seen you walk more than five feet since I met you. You're always getting rides in backpacks and shoulders.”

“Five feet for you is like five miles for me. Look at my tiny little legs! And it's not like I weigh much more than a pencil case,” Teri said.

“You're staying awake, Teri. I have a bottle of water, and I'm not afraid to use it,” Page said, pulling out a bottle that was big enough to hold Teri inside.

“Fine. But I don't have to pay attention,” she insisted.

“No problem, we won't either.”

The speech finally started, and within the first minute Teri had fallen asleep. No one poked her or tried to drown her.

**

After the assembly, they filed out for their classes. Teri flew to her locker to grab her child size backpack she'd stashed there the day before. Throwing her change purse inside, she headed for the first class of the day, Japanese.

Able to fly over the crowd, even with her backpack hanging down, she made it to class with plenty of time to spare. Strangely, as she was going along, she saw an Asian girl wearing a vest covered in gadgets, who couldn't be older then eleven or possibly twelve, walking through the crowd, and a lot of much bigger kids were getting out of her way.

Wondering why the kid would get be walked around so carefully, while other much bigger students were struggling to move at more than a snails pace, she found a seat at the front of the class. Putting her shoes on the side of the desk, she struggled to pull out her notebook, flipping it to the part she'd marked for Japanese. To save space, considering her small writing, each class was going to be written down in the book. A single book would probably cover her for the term.

More students filed in, including the Asian girl. The girl scanned the room, and zeroed in Teri, with a squeal of excitement. “Hi, you're sssooo cute. I'm Generator, what's your name?”

Standing up, she did a little twirl in the air and curtsied. “Thank you, I'm Teri.”

Pulling something from a pocket, Generator pressed a button and three elf like fairies appeared. “Hi,” they said.

“OH! I'm not alone anymore!” Teri said, giving them a hug group hug. “Are you being enslaved by this horrible child?” she asked glaring at Generator.

“Yeah!” the blonde one cried. “I'm Trixie, and I've been locked up forced to server her since she kidnapped me.”

“She kidnapped me to! Right from my magic tree! She makes me wash her underwear! BY HAND!” the redheaded fairy cried.

“And we're kept in her pocket until she needs us! Do you know how boring that is?” the third one asked.

Generator began pressing buttons on her bracer. “Stupid AI. Definitely need to reprogram it later.”

“Don't worry sisters, I'll protect you. Just stick with me, and we'll overthrow our giant oppressors!” Flying to Generators desk she landed on the book bag, so she was eye to nose with the girl. “You've got a pretty nice set up here, using fairy slave labour, Generator. But things are going to change starting now. You can start washing your own underwear.”

There was a little cheer from behind her.

“No more shoving these poor, innocent little creatures in your pocket. They need fresh air and sun.”

“And ice cream!”

“And money! We've been wearing the same clothes all year”

Teri nodded. “Right, ice cream and money to.” She started muttering to herself, making numbers in the air. “Let's see, fairy minimum wage is fifty dollars an hour. Room and board is... You owe these fairies one million dollars. And of course my fee as their negotiator is 50% of the outcome, so that will be 1.5 million dollars payable by the end of the month.”

“HA!” Generator laughed. “Fairies don't exist, so I don't have to pay you anything. Nice try though.”

“Do I have to get the dwarf police and centaur lawyers after you? You won't like them when they're angry.”

“Bring them on! My roommate will eat them for breakfast.”

“She'd better bring a big appetite then. And a lot of water, I don't go down easily!” Teri paused. “Wait that doesn't sound right.”

There was a cough from the front of the room. “Maybe you can discuss this labour dispute after class,” the teacher, a handsome Japanese man said.

With a little eep, Teri jumped back to her desk, where she and her three fairy friends sat down on her book.

The teacher, Professor Shizuki, took attendance, and went over what would be expected in class, before going over some basic characters and words. Teri wrote everything down, with the help of the three fairies who corrected her characters. Brunhilda, the brunette fairy, whispered that Generator had been studying Chinese all last term, so they'd been programmed to know it as well.

At the end of class, the freshmen were given their school laptops. Teri could just fit it into her backpack, and unlike the others, hers had a little booklet taped to the shell, saying that it was voice activated so she wouldn't have to type on it.

As they got ready to leave class, the three fairies gave Teri a hug and jumped back into Generators pocket. “It was really nice meeting you Teri,” Generator said.

“I liked meeting you to. I was afraid this class would be boring.”

“So what class do you have next?”

“Powers Theory,” she said.

Generator rolled her eyes. “I hope you have coffee. Dr. Quintain can put anyone to sleep.”

“Hurray! I didn't get enough sleep during the assembly. Glad I brought my pillow. What class do you have?”

“Martial Arts. If you want to defend yourself, you have to take Sensei Ito's class.”

“I have that in third period. I have a gi and everything made up.”

They realized the classroom was empty when the warning bell rang. “Crap, gotta go! Bye Generator, see you tomorrow!”

By flying at top speed she made it to class just in time, the only seat left was right in the front row. That suited Teri fine, and she quickly pulled everything out, and was ready to go when Dr. Quintain started talking. Within the first minute she felt her eyelids drooping, to the monotone recitation of the book.

Looking around in a desperate bid to stay awake, Teri saw a few girls she knew from Whitman, Thad's roommate Sap sitting with a group of boys who ranged from looking baseline, to having see through skin, to being covered in rusty metal. There was a girl sitting off by herself, who seemed to be weaving and bobbing as she sat in her chair. Her hand wrote in her book, while her head rested on her wrist, two feet away. A group of baseline students who looked like high class models sat in the corner, eyeing the obvious GSD students warily.

Bored of staring at the students, she began doodling in her notebook. Even if the teacher saw her doodling, he couldn't say anything, he wouldn't be able to make out what she was writing.

**

Martial Arts, started off well. Emphasis on started.

She got a lot of odd looks in the change room, when she came in with her tiny cloth bag holding her gi and underclothes, she got even more looks than the blind girl and her kitten.

“Hey Teri, I didn't know you were in martial arts,” a frog girl from Whitman said.

“Hi Grace. Yeah I'm here, I need to learn how to fight properly,” she said miming some small punches.

“Teri, these are my friends Caroline and Taylor,” Grace said, pointing at the blind girl and a girl with a perfect body and long brown hair. “You guys, this is the crazy fairy I told you about, Teri.”

“Wow, I never saw anyone as small as you before. How do you think with such a small brain?” Taylor asked, leaning in close.

She stuck her tongue out at the girl. “Hey I'm pretty smart, so don't be making fun of my size.”

Caroline put her hand on the girls shoulder. “Taylor, remember people aren't your devises or machines. She may hang you from a light by your bra.”

“OOOHHH, you're that girl. Really sorry about that,” Taylor said, backing away a little. “I just meant that the brain can only go so small before it starts losing functions. It's a miracle you can ta- er, that you're as smart as you are.”

“I'm just awesome,” she said humbly. She quickly changed out of her clothes, putting a tank top on under her gi.

The four of them walked out and found most of the students already lined up along the edge of the mat. Some were standing, some were sitting on their butts, and a few were sitting on their knees. Caroline got on her knees, placing her white baton and kitten in front of her, while Grace crouched down more like a frog, and Taylor sprawled on the floor. Teri knelt down, beside the blind girl so she could be close to the kitten.

They made idle talk about their classes and cottages. Taylor and Caroline were roommates in Dickinson, and seemed to be pretty close. Teri warned them about how boring Powers Theory was, since they had it in the afternoon. And Grace told her about Costume Shop, since she'd had it in the second period.

The talk was getting interesting when a tiny Asian old Asian man came walking in followed by a tall black woman. Teri suddenly felt self conscious about her poorly made gi, as the old man looked over the students with what looked like passive contempt, noting every flaw he saw.

The black woman gave a brief introduction, introducing Ito Sensei, and herself Tolman Sensei , listing the rules of the class, and what was expected, and how skill trumped training. Then the little old man started talking, and things got really interesting when he picked out a girl who looked like an amazon warrior capable of taking out India. Caroline smirked when the girl got to the center of the mat, Teri really wanted to know how the girl knew what was going on.

“I am completely human but trained. You, Brianna, are superhuman, but untrained. You are a level five exemplar with skin capable of resisting high caliber bullets, and strength and agility well above anything a human can hope to achieve,” Ito explained. “I wish to fight you, to demonstrate what proper training can accomplish.

Brianna smiled, slamming her fist into her palm so hard it made Teri wince just listening to it. “Alright, sensei,” she growled.

“If either of us can restrain the other, or place our opponent in the capture cage we have won the fight.” He held out his hand a staff slammed into his hand. He spent another minute explaining the rules about bowing, where to stand at the beginning, and that 'hajime', meant begin.

They took their positions and bowed, then Tolman shouted hajime and the fight was on.

Brianna went on the offensive, swinging wildly but quickly. The way her muscles bulged, she was throwing everything she had into the punches. Not that it did any good. Ito moved almost casually out of the way of the blows, quickly backing up yet seeming utterly calm and relaxed.

The exemplar gave a scream of rage and her fists became a blur, for all of a second.

The staff went between her legs, right at the knees. Using her own right leg as a fulcrum, the staff slammed into her left leg hard enough to make half the class wince in sympathy. Her knew gave way, and she fell on butt.

She bounded to her feet, trying to do a spin kick. Ito raised his staff, letting her hit it with her inner thigh. The wood snapped in half, but Brianna fell flat on her face, much to Caroline's apparent delight, if Teri could judge by her laughter.

Ito backed away from the furious girl. He was sweating and looking nervous, taking his eyes off of Brianna for a second to wipe his brow. She saw the opening and charged him screaming. Some of the students screamed and covered their eyes expecting to see blood.

Teri leaned forward and saw Ito duck and dodge under Brianna's arms. She slammed into the door of the capture cage, bending double halfway in the cage. Ito grabbed her legs and flipped her in one easy motion, closing the door behind her.

“Do you yield, Brianna?” he asked, showing no sign of worry or tiredness.

“Fuck you! You cheated!” she screamed, grabbing the door trying to rip it off its hinges. The door rattled a little but didn't budge.

“Of course I cheated. I made you angry, and embarrassed so you would stop thinking,” he told her. Turning to the rest of the class. “In this class you will all learn how to cheat, use the environment, your enemies mistakes, tricks and your training to survive, because your enemies will be doing the very same. Now Brianna are you ready to concede?”

She glared at the Sensei, but nodded. He let her out of the cage and she stalked back to her place.

The class was split into two groups, Teri joined the side that had no training, which was most of the class. Ito Sensei first watched and instructed the trained group of four students, while Tolman showed Teri and the rest some basic moves and blocks.

“This is no good,” Ito Sensei said when he watched Teri go through the motions.

“What?” she said surprised, she had thought she'd been doing pretty well.

“Sensei. Call me sensei or soke.”

“What, Sensei?”

“When you fight, do you stand on the ground or fly?” he asked.

“I usually fly.”

He nodded. “Fly in front of me, brace yourself and use the block you were just practicing.”

Not sure what to expect, Teri did as she was asked. Ito hit her with an open palm right at her block, she went flying backwards out of control. “You're too small for this move. Anyone with any strength can knock you back.”

“I just wasn't ready!” Teri said.

“No you are too small. You must learn to use that to your advantage,” Ito said.

“I'm NOT too small!”

He looked at her carefully. “Tolman Sensei, come here.”

She came quickly. “Yes, Soke?”

“I'm going to demonstrate a basic arm lock Teri, watch closely.” Ito showed Teri how to grab the opponent and slowly went through the movements twice. Teri flew around watching every action. After the second time, he said, “Now lock my arm.”

Teri grabbed his arm, as copying the hold as closely as possible with her six inch arm span. Ito waited patiently as she failed to do anything that could possibly stop him from moving. When she hadn't given up after two full minutes, he flicked his arm like he was throwing a card. Teri flew across the room, cursing and screaming, and hit the wall with a solid thud.

Staggering to her feet, Ito walked over and looked down at her impassively. “You want to learn, which is good. But you have to learn your own style. One that relies on speed, deception, and some basic strength. Watch how the others are moving and think how you can move.”

Ignoring the snickers from some of the students, Teri flew around the class, watching, learning and thinking, but by the end of it, she hadn't come up with any good ideas.

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Never doubt the fairy.

Domoviye's picture

Never doubt the fairy.
She may make a fool out of herself, she may fail, she may fail disastrously, but it will be funny to watch and one way or another the problem will be removed. Potentially by high explosives, or dying of laughter but it will be removed.

Here is the flaw...

"Watch how the others are moving and think how you can move."

Teri hasn't thought yet.

She does to think.

Domoviye's picture

She does to think.
Just the way she handles things goes as follows.
What is the problem?
Can it be solved
a) pretty well, while having fun.
b) perfectly well, but in a boring way.
c) very small chance of success, but it's going to be a wild ride.

If it's really important she'll choose B. If it's kind of important she'll almost always choose a. If it's not that important or it looks REALLY fun she'll choose c.
Typically she'll go with a, simply because she likes to smile and get a laugh.
Remember when choosing classes she did think about them very carefully and is planning for her future. And to avoid a fight on the bus, she just drove Serena to near tears simply by talking. And she thought of a way to get India from attacking her again. That takes some planning and forethought.

Teri's already got some moves...

Given Ito's instructions, then whatever she did in the Crystal Hall that ended up with a fellow student dangling by her bra, and tripping a PK brick (as she did in the tunnels) could count...

Remember, although she's small, her PK field allows her to manipulate 400 lbs, which is several orders of magnitude greater than an entity her size should be able to.

She can't block attacks, but could evade some. Then of course there's the possibility of using her secret weapon: consumption of a certain food substance (no, not spinach!)... but new readers (i.e. those who haven't read the CH version) will soon discover its effects over the next few chapters :)


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Yeah

Domoviye's picture

He heard about her and that's why he gave her those instructions to see what she comes up with. With her strange mind and her powers she'll have a lot more luck discovering unique ways to fight than he will.
And yeah, when she gets her holdouts, that secret substance which will be appearing next chapter gets it's own pouch.

This was a fairly calm

This was a fairly calm chapter and it was nice to meet some of the other students.

I must say this chapter had wording issues that weren't evident in previous chapters, but it was still a good story.

Jeri

Jeri Elaine

Homonyms, synonyms, heterographs, contractions, slang, colloquialisms, clichés, spoonerisms, and plain old misspellings are the bane of writers, but the art and magic of the story is in the telling not in the spelling.

Teri deserves some breaks

Domoviye's picture

Teri deserves some breaks occasionally. Don't worry the next chapter will make up for it.
About the wording problems, I forgot to give it a last edit blame on a cold I'm dying from. My daughter was generous enough to give it to me on Friday and it's not making me bedridden, but I don't have nearly the energy I usually do.
I'll edit tomorrow.

Imagination

Tas's picture

I can just imagine the fighting style Tink comes up with, and I find it highly amusing. Speaking of, this little masterpiece had me in stiches:

“How's this?” (Tink referring to her mouse hide costume)

“Disturbing,” Serena said.

“Excellent!”

Also, Jade. Jade is a waiting partner in crime, and if the two ever get together... Whoo man there's gonna be trouble.

Looking forward to more :)

-Tas

Thanks

Domoviye's picture

I liked that line to.
Jade is definitely a side character, they'll do some things together, but since Jade is in another cottage and a year ahead of Teri with her own stuff they won't be doing lots of things together, but I've got a few pranks and jokes for them.

When I was in the Air Force I

When I was in the Air Force I had a roommate who held a Black Belt in Karate. He was teaching me so various kicks, holds punches and the like and then stated "When all else fails, cheat and do what you have to do to win". This was in 1962. So I fully have to agree with Sensei Ito and his comment "of course I cheated". It is like the saying "never bring a knife to a gun fight". You fight to win and most likely that is your very own life; especially for all the mutants who are acosted, attacked and often times beaten to the point of death or even killed.
I believe Teri's fighting ability is going to be that she can lift someone, who definitely will not be expecting that, and then hurl them a distance.
Once doing that, she can then really attack them while they are either out or shaken up to the point they may not wish to continue.

I haven't been in a fight for

Domoviye's picture

I haven't been in a fight for years, but I go by the same logic. It simply makes more sense.
Teri will figure out a bunch of different tricks and tactics. The main problem for her will be bricks, and the system she develops for that is rather elegant, and nasty. In a couple of chapters I think 4, we'll see how she deals with a fairly regular opponent. It's funny.

New techniques

Podracer's picture

Small enough to think inside the box as well as outside. Tink already has an effective technique to demonstrate, but the Mouser Vomit Flip will not be popular in the dojo.

"Reach for the sun."

Definitely too flamboyant for

Domoviye's picture

Definitely too flamboyant for the dojo. The tactic she uses on people who really annoy her will be a great crowd pleaser. Can't wait for the chance to actually write it.

A new fighting style

The flying wedgie! The snot rocket (take hold of nostril hair and fly down). She has already discovered the Brick Bat ;-)

Fun, but too easy. She'll use

Domoviye's picture

Fun, but too easy. She'll use them but sometimes style beats practicality.

Oh no, I just thought of Ito

Oh no, I just thought of Ito having Jade bring in the Fey Faeries to teach their combat techniques to Tink. (Remember that Ito pretty much knows what Jade's real powers are.)

The problem with that is that

Domoviye's picture

The problem with that is that the Faeries usually fight as three, and they don't have to worry as much about dodging or taking hits. Also when they've fought, it's by pulling hair, grabbing weapons and things like that. It can be useful, but Teri needs to think even more outside the box, and Teri has a couple of advantages that the Faeries don't. Razor sharp claws, faster speed, able to lift heavier things, and a minor PK field on her wings that can protect her body a little.
So it's not quite as useful as it seems.
But don't worry, Jade helps out Teri quite a bit with the fighting.

Being accepted as the person she is

Jamie Lee's picture

As others get used to Tink, she's being accepted more and more as the person she is, and not stranger than the strangeness of others.

Tink made peace with India by accepting her apology and giving her a stuffed butterfly, which India loved. She also proved she is willing to help others, as she willingly did as part of her detention.

In the grocery store, Tink did an excellent job putting fear into those who tried to catcher before Mouser. This she needs to do in her martial arts class, think of what items she can use when fighting. And to use her flying speed against her opponents.

Others have feelings too.