It wasn't really red, but I thought it would be a good title for a post.
Heron's are black and white.
Anyway, me and my sister went along the Clyde Walkway today, starting from my house. We intended to go all the way to Hamilton, but we gave up at the Garrion Bridge. We managed to catch a bus back; which was lucky!
We managed to frighten a heron as we walked along, what with our rustling of the grass. It took off and flew upriver, out of the way of danger. It was a pretty impressive sight!
At Crossford, we came across a huge spider. My wee sister was stepping over it when she noticed it. She is very scared of them. She gave a skip and a scream and scared the hell out of me. When I looked for the spider, I thought, that looks rather plasticky. So I bravely touched it with my foot. It moved. Rachel nearly jumped out of her skin!
"It's plastic," I said. "It only moved cause I moved it with my foot."
That was the funniest thing ever!
Can't wait till Thursday - more Red Dwarf will be bought!
You should see my Bebo page... I have eventually changed the skin...
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Friday, 26 June 2009
Party time!
It's not really a party, but I do have a box of alcohol I haven't opened yet. 24 bottles of Blue WKD in a box. I don't quite know why I presauded my parents to buy it from Costco.
I got my results for my exams in. I passed them all, even one I was exempt from. Odd really. The other odd thing was that I got 45% in Physics in the Open Air - and I still passed. I thought you had to get 50% to pass in these uni exams. I was obviously wrong.
My wee sister is at her last day of school just now. She phoned Mum and asked if she could dog a class, cause no-one else was going and she'd be "nigel-ed". I don't know why she's complaining, she's only got one hour and twenty minutes to go.
Then we can have lunch. In the Woodpecker. Mum's started this thing where we go to the Woodpecker for a cheap three course meal at the end of every term. It's a tradition, apparently. Since last year.
Just like it's apparently tradition to go to China Sea at Christmas time. Which I was unaware of till I had missed it, thanks to Hazel's party I went to.
I got my results for my exams in. I passed them all, even one I was exempt from. Odd really. The other odd thing was that I got 45% in Physics in the Open Air - and I still passed. I thought you had to get 50% to pass in these uni exams. I was obviously wrong.
My wee sister is at her last day of school just now. She phoned Mum and asked if she could dog a class, cause no-one else was going and she'd be "nigel-ed". I don't know why she's complaining, she's only got one hour and twenty minutes to go.
Then we can have lunch. In the Woodpecker. Mum's started this thing where we go to the Woodpecker for a cheap three course meal at the end of every term. It's a tradition, apparently. Since last year.
Just like it's apparently tradition to go to China Sea at Christmas time. Which I was unaware of till I had missed it, thanks to Hazel's party I went to.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Things I have done from my to do list
- I "fixed" my CV.
- I printed off ten copies, but one was used by me in an attempt to usher a buzzing bee out of the room and it got a bit crushed. I wasn't very successful; I would jab at the bee then run away before it had moved. I must have screamed more than I have done in my entire life. My dad eventually had to come and save us.
- I did go on the WiiFit. On Monday and Tuesday. And I walked up and down the brae yesterday. My legs were in agony. I tried to do the push-up and thingy rep; I can't do push-ups, so I was more falling over than exercising. But I still managed to get more points than Rachel...
- I did begin to figure out some kind of programme for the Beavers; not done very much of it, though.
- I went "job-hunting". Kind of. Lisa had told me about a job going in Peacocks. It's for four hours in the weekend. I only went there for a job, cause I had a list of things to buy for my mum, and I thought I'd better do that and get the stuff down the road.
- I haven't actually started panicking about re-sitting an exam yet, cause the results aren't up on PEGASUS yet and this is annoying me more and more, shoving any panicky thoughts out of my head. Also, I've been watching a lot of Red Dwarf and I think it's fried my worrying parts of my brain.
- I have completely forgotten about the other club; I have had other things to think about and it's driven all thoughts of it out of my head.
Other Things I have to do
- Phone SAAS and find out how to do this stupid application thing. There is no option for what I need to get (apparently) and I have no idea what to do. I e-mailed them but those smegheads haven't replied yet. Even though it's been more than 15 working days.
- I am definitely too much Red Dwarf.
- I should probably write more stories.
So I have 7 things to do during the holiday. And after that, I will have nothing to do for weeks on end. It will probably be a good idea to read some of the backlog of books I have yet to read.
Monday, 22 June 2009
The End of the Beginning
The wall of pain hit Rick so suddenly that he nearly passed out from the shock alone. He had never felt anything like it; he had been quite fortunate in his life to not have any major injuries.
He fell to the ground, his ineffective ice receding back to his hand. He heard Angie scream hazily as though she was screaming into a pillow at the other end of the street.
Rick couldn’t quite believe he had been shot; he couldn’t quite believe he was going to die. He looked down at his shirt. It was soaked in blood. He remembered the letter. He really wished he had the strength to read it. He could feel his life flowing out of him.
He closed his eyes, welcoming the darkness.
Rick died.
***
Angie screamed.
“Oh my God! They’ve killed Rick!” she shouted at Roger who was white with shock. Today, he thought, is not going well. He tuned back to the present in time to hear Angie’s shriek of desperation.
“Go back in time and stop him from being killed!” She was near to tears, wringing her hands and looking at Roger.
“I can’t!” gasped Roger. “Something terrible might happen if I see myself!”
Ignoring the men with guns who were hurrying towards them, Angie strode towards Roger and slapped him. Then she began to kick and punch him while shouting at him to do something.
But Roger had seen the men coming. He pushed Angie away and tried to lift Kitty. But he wasn’t strong enough. He had never been strong enough.
He had to drag her instead.
A shocked and grieving Angie grabbed Rick by the shoulders and dragged him away.
Roger stopped out of sight of the corner, behind a low wall of someone’s spotless garden. There was a pond surrounded by different gnomes.
Roger placed Kitty gently down on the well-kept lawn before running back to help Angie with Rick’s body. When he thought of Rick like this, he nearly let loose a sob. However, Angie looked as though she was on the brink of tears and even as though she might faint, so he swallowed it and helped her place Rick beside Kitty.
Angie looked at Rick and Kitty. “Oh, what are we going to do, Roger?” she wailed.
Suddenly, the sound of boots coming closer put a stop to Angie’s grief and anguish. Roger grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. He put his hand over her mouth and he held his breath. They both went utterly still.
The footsteps came closer. They sounded in front of them before becoming quieter. Angie made to get up, but Roger held her down.
A light swept the lawn. Then they heard a voice try to whisper, “They can’t have gone that far. If they’re not in these two gardens, then that kid must have teleported them away.”
“The boss won’t like this,” a second voice replied.
Footsteps approached then two sets of footsteps faded away into the distance.
The two friends stayed absolutely still for a minute before Roger let Angie go. She sat up, white as a sheet and looking terrified.
“Are you ok?” asked Roger as he sat up himself. She nodded, then shook her head and put her head in her hands. She began to sob as silently as she could.
Roger watched her, concerned but not knowing what to do.
Behind him someone gave a gasp.
Roger spun round in fright, though his brain was already telling him that it was probably Kitty.
He watched in complete shock as the gasp became a cough.
“Angie…” he whispered. “You have to see this.”
Angie looked up through her tears and gasped.
“Rick!” she exclaimed.
Rick was coughing and spluttering. Suddenly, he leaned sideways and threw up. When he finally looked up at his surroundings, he was surprised to see them in a garden. He saw Roger and Angie and smiled at them. They knelt there with their mouths open in shock.
“How did you- How did you- How did you do that!” stuttered Angie in surprise.
Rick looked around again. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe I have more than one power like Kitty has! Where is Kitty, anyhow?”
“You knocked her out!” hissed Roger, trying to keep his voice down. “She’s over there.” He gestured at Kitty’s motionless body.
“Do you think she’ll be alright?” asked Angie, beginning to wring her hands with worry.
“I don’t know,” sighed Roger. “Why don’t you pray for her?”
Angie looked at him blankly for a moment before putting her hands together. “Dear Father. Please help Kitty…”
***
Kitty woke up.
She immediately realised that she had been sitting up when she had fallen asleep; her neck was extremely sore and her head was hanging.
She groaned as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was expecting to be on her couch in front of the TV where she had probably fallen asleep. She was expecting to find that her adventure had all been a dream. A nightmare.
But that is not what she found.
She was in a room with brown walls and no other features bar the chair she was sitting on. It was dimly lit by a hanging bulb.
She tried to stand up and found she was actually tied to the chair. When she looked down, she saw that it was the classic rope and wooden chair combo. She was slightly reassured by this fact.
“Hello!” Kitty called out. “Any particular reason why I’m here?”
A door opened. A man stepped into the room.
He was balding and wearing a fading suit. His eyes were dark and narrowed, squinting in the dull light. His hands were slightly occupied by the black gloves he was putting on.
“Ah,” he said, softly. “You have rejoined us at last!”
Kitty felt a shiver of fear down her spine as he spoke. This man was evil, she thought. He could kill me. I have to be really, really careful.
“What do you want from me?” Kitty bravely asked.
“We want you to tell us where your little friends are going,” he replied, his evil expression not changing.
“No way!” exclaimed Kitty. “I would never give up their hiding place! Not even if you were to torture me!”
Straight away, Kitty knew she had said the wrong thing. When you’re dealing with someone as evil-looking as this guy, he could be capable of anything, even torture. Besides the fact that she had read too many books and watched too many films to know it was not a good idea to claim this fact to anyone who has gone slightly psycho.
The man grinned. He flexed his fingers. He swung his arm back as Kitty watched, alarmed and frightened.
He hit her.
It was a back-hander and she had never felt pain quite like it. She could taste something like iron in her mouth and knew she was bleeding. She could feel tears in her eyes but she didn’t want to show this man her pain. She bit back the tears.
Kitty turned to the guy, her hair covering her face, anger written across her hidden visage. “I will never tell you what you want to know. You will never find them. Kill me if you want, but it won’t help you find them.”
“Talk, bitch!” shouted the guy. He appeared to have lost control. He raised his hand to slap her again.
Kitty flinched.
***
Kitty felt no pain. She was rather confused. She couldn’t taste the blood. What was going on?
She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back, staring at a starry sky.
She sat bolt upright. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand came out of nowhere and covered her mouth. She panicked slightly and struggled against the hand. She tried to scream, but it came out muffled.
“Ssh!” whispered a voice she recognised. “It’s OK.”
The hand came away from Kitty’s mouth and she turned towards Rick. “What happened?” she asked as she took in her surroundings. She appeared to be in a garden with a well-kept lawn. In the middle of the lawn was a small pond. Surrounding the pond was three or four different gnomes, each with a small fishing rod. Behind this pond, the lawn was home to several different gnomes. One wheeled a miniature wheelbarrow, another held aloft his bounty of carrots he had proudly grown. A path travelled from the gate set in the wall she was lying behind to the steps of the front door. On either side of this path were flowers. It was too dark to name these flowers, but the wind blew a beautiful smell to Kitty’s nose.
“Sorry,” said Rick, sheepishly. “I knocked you out.”
“I kinda meant, why are we here?” she elaborated.
Roger crawled over to her, Angie following him. “Rick was shot and we had to get you out of there. We wouldn’t have got very far, so we hid here.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. She turned to Rick. “You were shot?!”
“Yeah, it’s OK. I managed to heal myself somehow.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. “How?”
Rick shrugged. “Must be a secondary power, or something.”
“Come on,” said Roger. “We need to get out of here.”
Kitty nodded and they all stood up. They had lost their bikes and skateboards, so they began to walk along the street. They walked in silence, each worrying about different things. Finally, Angie broke the silence.
“Where are we going to go?”
Everyone stopped. Kitty and Rick glanced at each other, then they looked at Roger. He stared back, wide-eyed, not used to being made the leader. He thought about it for a minute, then said, “Do we have money?”
“Yeah, a bit,” answered Kitty. “Why?”
“We should get to a hotel,” was Roger’s reply. “Stay the night before figuring out what we are going to do.”
They nodded and continued to walk into the unknown.
***
Rick gratefully sank onto the bed. He was still in pain from the bullet. He had realised pretty quickly that although he could heal, he could still feel the pain. He needed to catch his breath.
Suddenly, the door to the room banged open. Opening his tired eyes, Rick glanced towards the door and saw Roger backing in, his arms full with “supplies”. He dumped these assorted food and items on the other bed.
“What’ve you got?” Rick asked.
Roger glanced up at him. “Torches, batteries, rope, pen-knives, sleeping bags and food. I still need to get a couple of tents, but I’ll get that after some sleep. I’m exhausted!”
“How are the girls?” asked Rick.
“I knocked on the door. No answer. I’m presuming they’re asleep. They’ve both had an exhausting night. And they’ve both had bad knocks to the head.”
As Roger busied himself with the sorting of the pile, Rick laboriously pushed himself onto one elbow to look at him.
“So…” he began.
Roger glanced at him again as he put the individual piles on the floor. “So what?” he asked, puzzled.
“Do you like Kitty?” blurted Rick.
Roger stared at him for a moment before saying really slowly, “Well… That is why she is my friend, Rick. I think you may need some sleep.”
Rick snorted. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “No. Not like that. She’s a great friend, and a brilliant leader, but to be perfectly honest, I like someone else.”
“Ooh!” Rick brightened up. “Who?”
Roger reddened. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s not as if we’ll be going to see them ever again, if this carries on.”
Rick decided not to comment. Roger already had a lot on his mind; there was no point in pressing the matter. It would only make him more upset.
Rick lay back on the bed. He listened to the strange noises coming from Roger’s side of the room as he drifted off to sleep.
***
Rick woke to hear voices. Two girls, one guy. Slightly disorientated, it took him a while to realise that it was Roger, Kitty and Angie.
He focussed on their voice, trying to decipher what they were saying.
Roger was saying, “… may not help us.”
“We should ask him to read it out to us,” came Kitty’s voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we asked politely.”
“But we can’t wait for too long. They’ll find us,” said Angie.
Rick opened his eyes and looked over to the other bed. Kitty and Angie were both sitting on the bed. Angie was picking at a loose thread on the quilt. Roger was pacing up and down. He looked rather harassed; his hair had a ruffled look, as if he had been running his hand through it.
On the bed beside Kitty was the letter his father had given him.
“Hey!” protested Rick, sitting up. “What are you doing with my letter?”
Roger jumped and turned towards him. Kitty and Angie turned their heads towards him.
“We were wondering if there would be anything in the letter to help us,” explained Kitty. “Here,” she continued as she handed him the letter, “read it out to us.”
Rick reluctantly took the letter as his anger dissipated. He slipped his finger under the flap and opened the envelope. He took out several sheets of paper.
“Dear, Richard,” he read. “Please do not be alarmed, but if you are reading this I am either dead or taken. Taken by the monsters who created you. Not that I am saying you are a monster or something equally unnatural; you are still and forever will be my son. But I must explain everything. You see, you and your three friends are the results of some risky experiments. Experiments that I was actively involved in.”
“You’re dad’s a scientist?!” exclaimed the other three.
Rick nodded. “Until my mum left him. Then he quit and took up a ‘respectable’, boring job. Anyway…
“I worked with an organisation called Sdaehgems; this stands for Scientific Development and Experiments on Heroes who are Great and Extraordinary Movement and Society. They couldn’t decide whether it was a ‘movement’ or a ‘society’ so they decided to adopt both words.
“This organisation specialised in studying superheroes who had been outlawed in the 1960s. In this country, they had been rounded up and imprisoned, simply for being alive. The government granted us access to these people to see if we could ‘cure’ them, but there was never going to be any way for us to eradicate them. Instead we decided to see if we could control who received the super powers.
“After lengthy experiments, we decided to see if children of two superhero parents could acquire super powers, having already established that one such person as a parent could give birth to a super powered child. The government would not allow the superheroes themselves to bear the child so we started searching for a couple who were already trying for a baby. However, these children would die in a miscarriage when born by the people we had captured.”
“You mean that your dad was kidnapping people?!” exclaimed Angie.
“That’s awful!” gasped Kitty.
Rick looked sadly at the shocked faces of his three companions before continuing with the letter. “Yes, son. I am afraid we resorted to kidnapping. But our experiments did not work, and we left many people distraught.
“One of our excellent scientists concluded that our experiments had not worked due to the women’s body rejecting the ‘foreign body’. We needed someone who was willing to have someone else’s baby, he decided.
“So we set up shop outside hospitals and doctor’s surgeries. Listening in to find people who were having trouble bearing children. That is how we found Kitty, Roger and Angie’s parents. They agreed to the experiment readily. I also volunteered, along with your mother, for this experiment. Of course, no-one but me knew the origin of the sperm and eggs…
“You were created and you were born. In the hospital, people inserted chips to ensure that your uncontrollable powers would not manifest when you were too young to control them. This chip was inserted into your intestines. It excreted chemicals into the blood which had a negative effect on the manifestation of your powers. They were all programmed to ‘detach’ from your intestines at the exact same time, thus controlling when you were to manifest. The scientists could come and observe you all secretly until that point in time when you would be asked to come in for scientific observation.
“However, none of the parents were told this, apart from me as I already knew what was happening. Nonetheless, one of the parents noticed that one of the children had blue eyes while both parents and their immediate family had brown eyes. Little Angie didn’t belong with them.”
Angie gave a gasp and Rick glanced up to see her beginning to tear up. Kitty put her arm around her and nodded at Rick to carry on.
“They were rather confused to say the least. They asked at the company’s office.
“When they were told they spread it round the other families. To say your mother was a bit annoyed with this arrangement would be an understatement. She left me.
“And as you already know, I gave up on that life.
“However, when the four of you were aged four and were all innocent about the world, something happened which drew me back into that world, if only for a few months.
“Angie’s powers manifested.
“You see, her mother was having an affair with her boss’ son and Angie heard her thoughts as she covered it up from her husband. She told her father about it and he was rather surprised to say the least. They brought her to the lab and I was there when they inserted a chip into her brain. This chip would prevent her reading the parents thoughts and would prevent the other chip from leaving her body at the allotted time. Thus, every one of you shall not be able to use our powers till an operation is undertaken to remove the chip.”
“And that’s what game me those fucking headaches!” exclaimed Angie.
Rick nodded and continued. “It gave the poor girl headaches and her mother made her religious by blaming Angie. Angie’s father, however, left them, disgusted that-”
Rick looked up at Angie who appeared to be listening intently. She stared at him miserably as he glanced up. “I think I’ll skip this part,” he muttered before continuing.
“A year ago, the scientist who had been heading the operation died in a tragic car accident and the attitude of the operation has changed with the change of head scientist. I have infiltrated the society to find out what day they will be taking you, for they will no longer ask permission. I will find this out and warn everyone’s parents. We have to make sure you are all out of the house on this day.
“You have a cousin in Glasgow. I have inserted her address into this envelope. Go to her; she will make sure you are safe and continue your education. Hide yourself away from the world.
“Save yourself.
“Lots of love, your Father.”
Rick glanced up at the silent room. “There’s a postscript.
“P.S. They’ve changed the day; Kitty and Roger’s parents won’t have time to escape!”
There was silence for a moment. Then Roger said, “We should go to Scotland.”
“What? Why?” exclaimed Angie.
“Well, his dad seems to have known what he was talking about…”
“But we can’t just go! We wouldn’t be able to go to school unless we told them where we came from and they would ask our school to confirm it. They’d find us!”
“Well, we’ll just not go to school, then.”
“We can’t not go to school! How will we get into university?”
“I don’t think it quite matters any more…”
While this argument was happening over her head, Kitty was watching Rick. After reading the letter, he had looked absolutely miserable. But while Angie and Roger argued, his expression had changed to anger and now it was set in determination.
“No,” he suddenly whispered. He looked up at Kitty, who nodded, knowing what he was going to say.
“No,” he repeated loud enough for the other two to hear.
“No what?” asked Roger, confused.
“We’re not going to Scotland,” said Rick.
Angie was quicker on the uptake than Roger. “Oh, no. We can’t! I may not want to go to Scotland, but we just can’t! I mean, we don’t even know where they are!”
“Where who are?” asked Roger.
“We can ask Google,” said Kitty, smiling. “And we’ve got all our powers, so it’ll be easy enough to break in.”
“Oh,” said Roger, as he caught up. “But your dad wants you to go away! He doesn’t want you to rescue him!”
“I don’t care!” snapped Rick. “We’re going to get our parents out, and that’s the end of it! All we need to do now is find a computer…”
Roger sighed. “The library?” he suggested.
Kitty and Rick glanced at each other. “Excellent!” they grinned at a disapproving Roger.
He fell to the ground, his ineffective ice receding back to his hand. He heard Angie scream hazily as though she was screaming into a pillow at the other end of the street.
Rick couldn’t quite believe he had been shot; he couldn’t quite believe he was going to die. He looked down at his shirt. It was soaked in blood. He remembered the letter. He really wished he had the strength to read it. He could feel his life flowing out of him.
He closed his eyes, welcoming the darkness.
Rick died.
***
Angie screamed.
“Oh my God! They’ve killed Rick!” she shouted at Roger who was white with shock. Today, he thought, is not going well. He tuned back to the present in time to hear Angie’s shriek of desperation.
“Go back in time and stop him from being killed!” She was near to tears, wringing her hands and looking at Roger.
“I can’t!” gasped Roger. “Something terrible might happen if I see myself!”
Ignoring the men with guns who were hurrying towards them, Angie strode towards Roger and slapped him. Then she began to kick and punch him while shouting at him to do something.
But Roger had seen the men coming. He pushed Angie away and tried to lift Kitty. But he wasn’t strong enough. He had never been strong enough.
He had to drag her instead.
A shocked and grieving Angie grabbed Rick by the shoulders and dragged him away.
Roger stopped out of sight of the corner, behind a low wall of someone’s spotless garden. There was a pond surrounded by different gnomes.
Roger placed Kitty gently down on the well-kept lawn before running back to help Angie with Rick’s body. When he thought of Rick like this, he nearly let loose a sob. However, Angie looked as though she was on the brink of tears and even as though she might faint, so he swallowed it and helped her place Rick beside Kitty.
Angie looked at Rick and Kitty. “Oh, what are we going to do, Roger?” she wailed.
Suddenly, the sound of boots coming closer put a stop to Angie’s grief and anguish. Roger grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. He put his hand over her mouth and he held his breath. They both went utterly still.
The footsteps came closer. They sounded in front of them before becoming quieter. Angie made to get up, but Roger held her down.
A light swept the lawn. Then they heard a voice try to whisper, “They can’t have gone that far. If they’re not in these two gardens, then that kid must have teleported them away.”
“The boss won’t like this,” a second voice replied.
Footsteps approached then two sets of footsteps faded away into the distance.
The two friends stayed absolutely still for a minute before Roger let Angie go. She sat up, white as a sheet and looking terrified.
“Are you ok?” asked Roger as he sat up himself. She nodded, then shook her head and put her head in her hands. She began to sob as silently as she could.
Roger watched her, concerned but not knowing what to do.
Behind him someone gave a gasp.
Roger spun round in fright, though his brain was already telling him that it was probably Kitty.
He watched in complete shock as the gasp became a cough.
“Angie…” he whispered. “You have to see this.”
Angie looked up through her tears and gasped.
“Rick!” she exclaimed.
Rick was coughing and spluttering. Suddenly, he leaned sideways and threw up. When he finally looked up at his surroundings, he was surprised to see them in a garden. He saw Roger and Angie and smiled at them. They knelt there with their mouths open in shock.
“How did you- How did you- How did you do that!” stuttered Angie in surprise.
Rick looked around again. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe I have more than one power like Kitty has! Where is Kitty, anyhow?”
“You knocked her out!” hissed Roger, trying to keep his voice down. “She’s over there.” He gestured at Kitty’s motionless body.
“Do you think she’ll be alright?” asked Angie, beginning to wring her hands with worry.
“I don’t know,” sighed Roger. “Why don’t you pray for her?”
Angie looked at him blankly for a moment before putting her hands together. “Dear Father. Please help Kitty…”
***
Kitty woke up.
She immediately realised that she had been sitting up when she had fallen asleep; her neck was extremely sore and her head was hanging.
She groaned as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was expecting to be on her couch in front of the TV where she had probably fallen asleep. She was expecting to find that her adventure had all been a dream. A nightmare.
But that is not what she found.
She was in a room with brown walls and no other features bar the chair she was sitting on. It was dimly lit by a hanging bulb.
She tried to stand up and found she was actually tied to the chair. When she looked down, she saw that it was the classic rope and wooden chair combo. She was slightly reassured by this fact.
“Hello!” Kitty called out. “Any particular reason why I’m here?”
A door opened. A man stepped into the room.
He was balding and wearing a fading suit. His eyes were dark and narrowed, squinting in the dull light. His hands were slightly occupied by the black gloves he was putting on.
“Ah,” he said, softly. “You have rejoined us at last!”
Kitty felt a shiver of fear down her spine as he spoke. This man was evil, she thought. He could kill me. I have to be really, really careful.
“What do you want from me?” Kitty bravely asked.
“We want you to tell us where your little friends are going,” he replied, his evil expression not changing.
“No way!” exclaimed Kitty. “I would never give up their hiding place! Not even if you were to torture me!”
Straight away, Kitty knew she had said the wrong thing. When you’re dealing with someone as evil-looking as this guy, he could be capable of anything, even torture. Besides the fact that she had read too many books and watched too many films to know it was not a good idea to claim this fact to anyone who has gone slightly psycho.
The man grinned. He flexed his fingers. He swung his arm back as Kitty watched, alarmed and frightened.
He hit her.
It was a back-hander and she had never felt pain quite like it. She could taste something like iron in her mouth and knew she was bleeding. She could feel tears in her eyes but she didn’t want to show this man her pain. She bit back the tears.
Kitty turned to the guy, her hair covering her face, anger written across her hidden visage. “I will never tell you what you want to know. You will never find them. Kill me if you want, but it won’t help you find them.”
“Talk, bitch!” shouted the guy. He appeared to have lost control. He raised his hand to slap her again.
Kitty flinched.
***
Kitty felt no pain. She was rather confused. She couldn’t taste the blood. What was going on?
She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back, staring at a starry sky.
She sat bolt upright. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand came out of nowhere and covered her mouth. She panicked slightly and struggled against the hand. She tried to scream, but it came out muffled.
“Ssh!” whispered a voice she recognised. “It’s OK.”
The hand came away from Kitty’s mouth and she turned towards Rick. “What happened?” she asked as she took in her surroundings. She appeared to be in a garden with a well-kept lawn. In the middle of the lawn was a small pond. Surrounding the pond was three or four different gnomes, each with a small fishing rod. Behind this pond, the lawn was home to several different gnomes. One wheeled a miniature wheelbarrow, another held aloft his bounty of carrots he had proudly grown. A path travelled from the gate set in the wall she was lying behind to the steps of the front door. On either side of this path were flowers. It was too dark to name these flowers, but the wind blew a beautiful smell to Kitty’s nose.
“Sorry,” said Rick, sheepishly. “I knocked you out.”
“I kinda meant, why are we here?” she elaborated.
Roger crawled over to her, Angie following him. “Rick was shot and we had to get you out of there. We wouldn’t have got very far, so we hid here.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. She turned to Rick. “You were shot?!”
“Yeah, it’s OK. I managed to heal myself somehow.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. “How?”
Rick shrugged. “Must be a secondary power, or something.”
“Come on,” said Roger. “We need to get out of here.”
Kitty nodded and they all stood up. They had lost their bikes and skateboards, so they began to walk along the street. They walked in silence, each worrying about different things. Finally, Angie broke the silence.
“Where are we going to go?”
Everyone stopped. Kitty and Rick glanced at each other, then they looked at Roger. He stared back, wide-eyed, not used to being made the leader. He thought about it for a minute, then said, “Do we have money?”
“Yeah, a bit,” answered Kitty. “Why?”
“We should get to a hotel,” was Roger’s reply. “Stay the night before figuring out what we are going to do.”
They nodded and continued to walk into the unknown.
***
Rick gratefully sank onto the bed. He was still in pain from the bullet. He had realised pretty quickly that although he could heal, he could still feel the pain. He needed to catch his breath.
Suddenly, the door to the room banged open. Opening his tired eyes, Rick glanced towards the door and saw Roger backing in, his arms full with “supplies”. He dumped these assorted food and items on the other bed.
“What’ve you got?” Rick asked.
Roger glanced up at him. “Torches, batteries, rope, pen-knives, sleeping bags and food. I still need to get a couple of tents, but I’ll get that after some sleep. I’m exhausted!”
“How are the girls?” asked Rick.
“I knocked on the door. No answer. I’m presuming they’re asleep. They’ve both had an exhausting night. And they’ve both had bad knocks to the head.”
As Roger busied himself with the sorting of the pile, Rick laboriously pushed himself onto one elbow to look at him.
“So…” he began.
Roger glanced at him again as he put the individual piles on the floor. “So what?” he asked, puzzled.
“Do you like Kitty?” blurted Rick.
Roger stared at him for a moment before saying really slowly, “Well… That is why she is my friend, Rick. I think you may need some sleep.”
Rick snorted. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “No. Not like that. She’s a great friend, and a brilliant leader, but to be perfectly honest, I like someone else.”
“Ooh!” Rick brightened up. “Who?”
Roger reddened. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s not as if we’ll be going to see them ever again, if this carries on.”
Rick decided not to comment. Roger already had a lot on his mind; there was no point in pressing the matter. It would only make him more upset.
Rick lay back on the bed. He listened to the strange noises coming from Roger’s side of the room as he drifted off to sleep.
***
Rick woke to hear voices. Two girls, one guy. Slightly disorientated, it took him a while to realise that it was Roger, Kitty and Angie.
He focussed on their voice, trying to decipher what they were saying.
Roger was saying, “… may not help us.”
“We should ask him to read it out to us,” came Kitty’s voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we asked politely.”
“But we can’t wait for too long. They’ll find us,” said Angie.
Rick opened his eyes and looked over to the other bed. Kitty and Angie were both sitting on the bed. Angie was picking at a loose thread on the quilt. Roger was pacing up and down. He looked rather harassed; his hair had a ruffled look, as if he had been running his hand through it.
On the bed beside Kitty was the letter his father had given him.
“Hey!” protested Rick, sitting up. “What are you doing with my letter?”
Roger jumped and turned towards him. Kitty and Angie turned their heads towards him.
“We were wondering if there would be anything in the letter to help us,” explained Kitty. “Here,” she continued as she handed him the letter, “read it out to us.”
Rick reluctantly took the letter as his anger dissipated. He slipped his finger under the flap and opened the envelope. He took out several sheets of paper.
“Dear, Richard,” he read. “Please do not be alarmed, but if you are reading this I am either dead or taken. Taken by the monsters who created you. Not that I am saying you are a monster or something equally unnatural; you are still and forever will be my son. But I must explain everything. You see, you and your three friends are the results of some risky experiments. Experiments that I was actively involved in.”
“You’re dad’s a scientist?!” exclaimed the other three.
Rick nodded. “Until my mum left him. Then he quit and took up a ‘respectable’, boring job. Anyway…
“I worked with an organisation called Sdaehgems; this stands for Scientific Development and Experiments on Heroes who are Great and Extraordinary Movement and Society. They couldn’t decide whether it was a ‘movement’ or a ‘society’ so they decided to adopt both words.
“This organisation specialised in studying superheroes who had been outlawed in the 1960s. In this country, they had been rounded up and imprisoned, simply for being alive. The government granted us access to these people to see if we could ‘cure’ them, but there was never going to be any way for us to eradicate them. Instead we decided to see if we could control who received the super powers.
“After lengthy experiments, we decided to see if children of two superhero parents could acquire super powers, having already established that one such person as a parent could give birth to a super powered child. The government would not allow the superheroes themselves to bear the child so we started searching for a couple who were already trying for a baby. However, these children would die in a miscarriage when born by the people we had captured.”
“You mean that your dad was kidnapping people?!” exclaimed Angie.
“That’s awful!” gasped Kitty.
Rick looked sadly at the shocked faces of his three companions before continuing with the letter. “Yes, son. I am afraid we resorted to kidnapping. But our experiments did not work, and we left many people distraught.
“One of our excellent scientists concluded that our experiments had not worked due to the women’s body rejecting the ‘foreign body’. We needed someone who was willing to have someone else’s baby, he decided.
“So we set up shop outside hospitals and doctor’s surgeries. Listening in to find people who were having trouble bearing children. That is how we found Kitty, Roger and Angie’s parents. They agreed to the experiment readily. I also volunteered, along with your mother, for this experiment. Of course, no-one but me knew the origin of the sperm and eggs…
“You were created and you were born. In the hospital, people inserted chips to ensure that your uncontrollable powers would not manifest when you were too young to control them. This chip was inserted into your intestines. It excreted chemicals into the blood which had a negative effect on the manifestation of your powers. They were all programmed to ‘detach’ from your intestines at the exact same time, thus controlling when you were to manifest. The scientists could come and observe you all secretly until that point in time when you would be asked to come in for scientific observation.
“However, none of the parents were told this, apart from me as I already knew what was happening. Nonetheless, one of the parents noticed that one of the children had blue eyes while both parents and their immediate family had brown eyes. Little Angie didn’t belong with them.”
Angie gave a gasp and Rick glanced up to see her beginning to tear up. Kitty put her arm around her and nodded at Rick to carry on.
“They were rather confused to say the least. They asked at the company’s office.
“When they were told they spread it round the other families. To say your mother was a bit annoyed with this arrangement would be an understatement. She left me.
“And as you already know, I gave up on that life.
“However, when the four of you were aged four and were all innocent about the world, something happened which drew me back into that world, if only for a few months.
“Angie’s powers manifested.
“You see, her mother was having an affair with her boss’ son and Angie heard her thoughts as she covered it up from her husband. She told her father about it and he was rather surprised to say the least. They brought her to the lab and I was there when they inserted a chip into her brain. This chip would prevent her reading the parents thoughts and would prevent the other chip from leaving her body at the allotted time. Thus, every one of you shall not be able to use our powers till an operation is undertaken to remove the chip.”
“And that’s what game me those fucking headaches!” exclaimed Angie.
Rick nodded and continued. “It gave the poor girl headaches and her mother made her religious by blaming Angie. Angie’s father, however, left them, disgusted that-”
Rick looked up at Angie who appeared to be listening intently. She stared at him miserably as he glanced up. “I think I’ll skip this part,” he muttered before continuing.
“A year ago, the scientist who had been heading the operation died in a tragic car accident and the attitude of the operation has changed with the change of head scientist. I have infiltrated the society to find out what day they will be taking you, for they will no longer ask permission. I will find this out and warn everyone’s parents. We have to make sure you are all out of the house on this day.
“You have a cousin in Glasgow. I have inserted her address into this envelope. Go to her; she will make sure you are safe and continue your education. Hide yourself away from the world.
“Save yourself.
“Lots of love, your Father.”
Rick glanced up at the silent room. “There’s a postscript.
“P.S. They’ve changed the day; Kitty and Roger’s parents won’t have time to escape!”
There was silence for a moment. Then Roger said, “We should go to Scotland.”
“What? Why?” exclaimed Angie.
“Well, his dad seems to have known what he was talking about…”
“But we can’t just go! We wouldn’t be able to go to school unless we told them where we came from and they would ask our school to confirm it. They’d find us!”
“Well, we’ll just not go to school, then.”
“We can’t not go to school! How will we get into university?”
“I don’t think it quite matters any more…”
While this argument was happening over her head, Kitty was watching Rick. After reading the letter, he had looked absolutely miserable. But while Angie and Roger argued, his expression had changed to anger and now it was set in determination.
“No,” he suddenly whispered. He looked up at Kitty, who nodded, knowing what he was going to say.
“No,” he repeated loud enough for the other two to hear.
“No what?” asked Roger, confused.
“We’re not going to Scotland,” said Rick.
Angie was quicker on the uptake than Roger. “Oh, no. We can’t! I may not want to go to Scotland, but we just can’t! I mean, we don’t even know where they are!”
“Where who are?” asked Roger.
“We can ask Google,” said Kitty, smiling. “And we’ve got all our powers, so it’ll be easy enough to break in.”
“Oh,” said Roger, as he caught up. “But your dad wants you to go away! He doesn’t want you to rescue him!”
“I don’t care!” snapped Rick. “We’re going to get our parents out, and that’s the end of it! All we need to do now is find a computer…”
Roger sighed. “The library?” he suggested.
Kitty and Rick glanced at each other. “Excellent!” they grinned at a disapproving Roger.
I lied
Well, I didn't really. My dad changed his mind about what we were doing on Saturday, so instead of going to Fingland Bothy, we ended up shopping in Glasgow.
Which meant I bought more Red Dwarf. Series 2, 3 and 4. I've already managed to watch the whole of series 2. However, there are some bonus features and I love to watch them.
They have these featurettes such as the "Drunk" one in the first series DVD and the "Alternate Personalities" one on the second series DVD. Basically, they put small clips together from all the serieses with music. It's made me really want to do nothing but watch them.
But I know I have more important things I should be doing, such as finding a job, making up a programme for the Beavers, getting some exercise.
Things to do
Which meant I bought more Red Dwarf. Series 2, 3 and 4. I've already managed to watch the whole of series 2. However, there are some bonus features and I love to watch them.
They have these featurettes such as the "Drunk" one in the first series DVD and the "Alternate Personalities" one on the second series DVD. Basically, they put small clips together from all the serieses with music. It's made me really want to do nothing but watch them.
But I know I have more important things I should be doing, such as finding a job, making up a programme for the Beavers, getting some exercise.
Things to do
- Fix CVs
- Print them off.
- Go on the Wii Fit before mum comes home and demands her TV.
- Begin to figure out some kind of plan for the programme for Beavers.
- Tomorrow, I shall attempt to go job-hunting. It will quite probably end in disaster or embarrassment for me where I won't get a job, anyway.
- I should perhaps start panicking about the possibility of having to re-sit an exam or two. I don't care if this sounds negative; I'm a Scout and I have to be prepared. True, I'm preparing for the worst, but I worry about everything. No need to stop now.
- Then I shall stare into space and wonder what the hell I'm going to do about the club I am now president of. I think what will end up happening is that I will have no idea what to do with them and come up with really horrible "fun" ideas which would be best suited for kids. And the Beavers will end up with "fun" things more suitable for older people. I keep forgetting their so young. I said to them, "Read this," and they replied, "We can't read."
- Then I will do something else.... I don't know what, cause I haven't thought that far ahead yet.
I finished that story yesterday. It's the next chapter/sequel/call it what you will for the one I put on here earlier. You know, Exciting Life.
Friday, 19 June 2009
I think there is something wrong with me - I'm tired all the time. It's rather annoying.
Anyway, forgetting that comment, I'm going to have something to do tomorrow. My dad is going to Fingland Bothy tomorrow to chop wood for the fires which will be had in the future. It's actually really fascinating watching the fire lat at night in bothies. It's kind of hypnotic. And makes you sleepier than you actually were when the fire was first put on.
Me and my sister are going to help. I'm not going to be much help; I'm not very good at chopping wood. I'm OK at the sawing, but the chopping scares me: Gavin put an axe in his foot when he was but a Scout in a camping competition I was helping out at.
Actually, that scares me as well. He was a Scout when I was in the Explorers! He seems older than me, but he is actually two years younger!
However, many people seem older than me, cause I am very childish!
I haven't seen Dumbo in ages. I am actually listening to a CD of Disney songs.
I have never seen Song of the South. I wonder what it's about...
A line from the song "You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!": It's easier than pie! I would think so; pi being 3.14... whatever.
I uploaded a whole load of Lanimer pictures for my Bebo page.
One of them is of me and I don't look half bad. The only problem is I look like I'm blind due to my glasses under the eye mask - they shine so it makes my eyes look white.
All credit goes to my sister who took the pictures, which, if any of them are squinty, is the reason they are; she always takes them at a weird angle.
For some reason she can't spell Dalek. She spells it Dalect. That would be rather confusing:
Anyway, forgetting that comment, I'm going to have something to do tomorrow. My dad is going to Fingland Bothy tomorrow to chop wood for the fires which will be had in the future. It's actually really fascinating watching the fire lat at night in bothies. It's kind of hypnotic. And makes you sleepier than you actually were when the fire was first put on.
Me and my sister are going to help. I'm not going to be much help; I'm not very good at chopping wood. I'm OK at the sawing, but the chopping scares me: Gavin put an axe in his foot when he was but a Scout in a camping competition I was helping out at.
Actually, that scares me as well. He was a Scout when I was in the Explorers! He seems older than me, but he is actually two years younger!
However, many people seem older than me, cause I am very childish!
I haven't seen Dumbo in ages. I am actually listening to a CD of Disney songs.
I have never seen Song of the South. I wonder what it's about...
A line from the song "You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!": It's easier than pie! I would think so; pi being 3.14... whatever.
I uploaded a whole load of Lanimer pictures for my Bebo page.
One of them is of me and I don't look half bad. The only problem is I look like I'm blind due to my glasses under the eye mask - they shine so it makes my eyes look white.
All credit goes to my sister who took the pictures, which, if any of them are squinty, is the reason they are; she always takes them at a weird angle.
For some reason she can't spell Dalek. She spells it Dalect. That would be rather confusing:
"Doctor, what is it?!"
"It's a Dalect!"
"A Dalek?"
"No, a Dalect. Something quite different, my dear."
For some reason, my Doctor has become the Tom Baker version.
I wonder what Matt Smith's Doctor will be like. they all have different personalities. i hope he's as fun-loving as David Tennant's Doctor and not grumpy like... one of the older ones... There is one described as being grumpy; it said so in the exhibition in Kelvingrove.
It's very, very windy here. My door has banged shut a couple of times but I've shut it now so I won't be jumping out my skin any time soon.
Talking of Lanimers, they've decided that next year's theme for the Kirkfieldbank Community will be the circus. Which basically means clowns. But Kirkfieldbank Primary did that ages ago! And I was in it! I don't want to be a clown again! No offence to clowns or anything, but I just don't want to repeat myself... Although i do that all the time anyway, so I'm being rather hypocritical with that comment. And can't think of a way to get out of being onr of the clowns. What else do they have at the circus? All I can think of is what my mum said, which is the strongman. That and elephants and horses and acrobats. I do not want to be any of them. Hey! Wait! Maybe they'll let me be the ringmaster!
I highly doubt it, though...
I really wish they would do Star Trek...
Or Star Wars, even.
I need to stop taking new paragraphs every five seconds...
I actually found my journal which I started last summer the other day. I'd written the last two entries in code as my friend had written something in it and I was worried about Rachel reading it. Unfortunately, my memory decided not to grant me permission to know what I've actually written and I will need to decode it. It says it's a need to know basis. It did hint that whatever it is, I am now embarrassed by the entry and I don't want to decode it...
I could get it out right now, but I want to finish a story I've started. It's a second chapter of one I've written, but every time I start it, or come on here to start it, I get distracted by something. Mainly the Internet. For instance, I found something on YouTube called "Bill and Ted's Excellent Hallowe'en Adventure". I had only just started watching it when I had to come off the computer. Now I want to know what it's all about. It actually looks like a school put on a play of some sort, but I'm gonna check it out anyway.
Then I'll do this damn story.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Party on, Dudes!
The movie day, in brief was excellent! Definitely not bogus!
Terminator Salvation is awesome!
And my verdict on the third Terminator, whatever it's called, is that it's rather weird... It's a good concept in the killing the generals part - damn, I mean lieutenants - but it's not as exciting as the first two.
I'm talking to a friend of mine on MSN. The last time we were on MSN, we had a... discussion... on psychics. Apparently she had been at a seance or palm reading or whatever with her cousin and the woman was telling them a lot of things people apparently didn't know. I tried to defend knowledge by saying she had investigated thoroughly beforehand, but Kirsty wasn't convinced. And she started convincing me...
I'm actually a hypocrite on several levels. On the subject of ghost, etc. I know there is usually a perfectly logical explanation but at the same time the could be real and it would be really cool if they were. However, I'd be rather scared if they decided to turn round and kill me.
I don't know why me, as I've never done anything to the ghosts, but you never know...
There's a funny story about Peebles, as I remembered while I was replying to a comment.
We were on our way to Auchope bothy, it was dark and we were driving through Peebles. I was absolutley bursting so I asked my dad if we could stop in Peebles. He conceded and we went to the car park of the public park where there are public toilets. He told me to be quick and, not realizing the car hadn't completely stopped yet, I threw open the door and put my foot out.
It got dragged along the ground.
I was lucky that I didn't break my leg. My dad thought I had but all I broke were the eyes down one side of my boot. (Full name: eyelets. Just in case there was some confusion...)
The irony though, was that the public toilets were closed there and at the other public toilets and I ended up having to go into a pub.
I have realised that my title has no significance whatsoever to this post.
Except for the movie day. We watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
It was a most excellent film...
Terminator Salvation is awesome!
And my verdict on the third Terminator, whatever it's called, is that it's rather weird... It's a good concept in the killing the generals part - damn, I mean lieutenants - but it's not as exciting as the first two.
I'm talking to a friend of mine on MSN. The last time we were on MSN, we had a... discussion... on psychics. Apparently she had been at a seance or palm reading or whatever with her cousin and the woman was telling them a lot of things people apparently didn't know. I tried to defend knowledge by saying she had investigated thoroughly beforehand, but Kirsty wasn't convinced. And she started convincing me...
I'm actually a hypocrite on several levels. On the subject of ghost, etc. I know there is usually a perfectly logical explanation but at the same time the could be real and it would be really cool if they were. However, I'd be rather scared if they decided to turn round and kill me.
I don't know why me, as I've never done anything to the ghosts, but you never know...
There's a funny story about Peebles, as I remembered while I was replying to a comment.
We were on our way to Auchope bothy, it was dark and we were driving through Peebles. I was absolutley bursting so I asked my dad if we could stop in Peebles. He conceded and we went to the car park of the public park where there are public toilets. He told me to be quick and, not realizing the car hadn't completely stopped yet, I threw open the door and put my foot out.
It got dragged along the ground.
I was lucky that I didn't break my leg. My dad thought I had but all I broke were the eyes down one side of my boot. (Full name: eyelets. Just in case there was some confusion...)
The irony though, was that the public toilets were closed there and at the other public toilets and I ended up having to go into a pub.
I have realised that my title has no significance whatsoever to this post.
Except for the movie day. We watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
It was a most excellent film...
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Not where I was expecting...
So, we got up late and eventually went out. We were heading for Linlithgow, but drove straight through it and ended up in - Bo'ness.
I'd never heard of it.
My dad wanted to see what it was like.
It was quiet. And nowhere was open. This may have been due to the fundraising going on for a fun day which is next Saturday or something. Anyways, we walked to the harbour which is obviously not being used. How do you know that? says someone. Because of the half-buried in the mud trolleys and half bicycles.
We did see the pretty cool steam train. We were on the footbridge above it when it went underneath. Boy, did it shake that bridge! I was clinging on for dear life! But both me and mum want to go back to go on the steam train! That'll be fun!
Stopped in Linlithgow for a toilet stop before going to Torphicen to see a campsite. Which turned out to be the one we went to when I was in the Brownies! So I saw Andrew and watched the cubs trying to fire catapults. Some of them didn't work.
But it was a lovely day out nonetheless.
I'd never heard of it.
My dad wanted to see what it was like.
It was quiet. And nowhere was open. This may have been due to the fundraising going on for a fun day which is next Saturday or something. Anyways, we walked to the harbour which is obviously not being used. How do you know that? says someone. Because of the half-buried in the mud trolleys and half bicycles.
We did see the pretty cool steam train. We were on the footbridge above it when it went underneath. Boy, did it shake that bridge! I was clinging on for dear life! But both me and mum want to go back to go on the steam train! That'll be fun!
Stopped in Linlithgow for a toilet stop before going to Torphicen to see a campsite. Which turned out to be the one we went to when I was in the Brownies! So I saw Andrew and watched the cubs trying to fire catapults. Some of them didn't work.
But it was a lovely day out nonetheless.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Lanimers and Beavers and going away!
I haven't told anyone about the excitement of having two new Beaver Scouts in my care! (Mwahahaha: my plan to create a new army of miniature Fire Bears is in progress!) I was all excited when I was told. They've now been coming for a few weeks... and I'm sick of them. Well, only one of them: she talks too much! (She is a girl; this explains it.)
Lanimers was great fun! It always is. I was Zorro this year. My sister got a picture of me and it actually looks pretty cool!
Hazel and Dave were there. They seemed to like it and even said that they would be in next years one - if it is a Star Trek theme! I bought Silly String and sprayed Hazel and Dave with it. I actually missed and got it in some kids pram. The woman pushing it was not happy! I did apologise, but I'm not sure if she heard me. I hope she did. I feel quite bad about it... Hazel certainly didn't appreciate it, though! Oh, dear!
I am such a big kid.
There were birds of prey there as well. We got our pictures taken with some. I say "we", but it was mainly Hazel. She got hers taken with Edward the European Eagle Owl, Kenny the Scottish Kestrel and Percy the Peregrine Falcon. My bird of choice was a barn owl (again!) called Vanessa. She was lovely!
Beavers (and Cubs and Scouts) were on tonight. We had a "mad night" and a BBQ. (I am not entirely sure how to spell it, so, to save hassle, I am putting the shortened version down!) The BBQ ended up being cooked mainly on the grill as the BBQ wouldn't stay lit for very long.
The "mad night" consisted of the messiest games ever. Firstly, the two groups had to race to get the most water from one bucket to the other using only a sponge - and passing it over their heads. They got rather soaked! Next, came the bowls filled with beans and spaghetti. Mixed into this concoction (which hadn't been cooked, by the way!) were different coloured wine gums. They were almost invisible in there. Both teams had to come forward one by one to find one. Afterwards, they had to eat the tomato-sauced wine gums, without spitting them out! Moving on, and they had to make trifles using custard, scooshy cream (Which ain't how you spell it, but if anyone can, they're welcome to comment and actually tell me.) and rice crispies - on their faces! Photos were taken and a mess made. Finally, balloons were placed on a chair for each team, and each individual had to sit on them to pop them! However, these balloons could be innocently filled with air, filled with water or with flour! At one point someone burst a water balloon and the water squirted sideways into someones face. Afterwards, someone sat on a flour-filled balloon and exploded it in my face! My glasses got it full on!
Tomorrow, I may be going somewhere for a day trip with my family. My wee sister wants to Moffat. I suggested Peebles, but someone said no, so I suggested going to Fingland or Auchope Bothies. When these were turned down I suggested Glentress Forest for a walk. Mum agreed, cause they have gentle walks there and she could probably manage these. I think that's where they have that giant squirrel... it might actually be somewhere else, now I come to think about it... Hmm, yeah, it is. No, wait... hmm. Yeah, it is somewhere else.
However, Dad's the driver and he mentioned going to look at a campsite near Linlithgow. When I heard that, I got rather excited - we could go to Linlithgow Palace! Perhaps we could even get to see the fountain when it was turned on this time!
However, if we don't go out, I'll have to force myself to dust the top of the chest of drawers and the windowsill. Perhaps wash the windows. Then I'll have to sort out what clothes I don't need and throw them out...
Then I shall throw myself on a bed somewhere, probably my room, and die of exhaustion. Failing that I'll sleep.
There's a "Terminator Day" at Hazel's on Sunday where we'll watch all the original Terminators before going to the cinema to watch the latest one.
I will then sleep over for "Movie Day Tres" (or Movie Day the Third as I like to call it, as it is a reference to Shrek the Third). I'm a very busy girl by the looks of things!
Lanimers was great fun! It always is. I was Zorro this year. My sister got a picture of me and it actually looks pretty cool!
Hazel and Dave were there. They seemed to like it and even said that they would be in next years one - if it is a Star Trek theme! I bought Silly String and sprayed Hazel and Dave with it. I actually missed and got it in some kids pram. The woman pushing it was not happy! I did apologise, but I'm not sure if she heard me. I hope she did. I feel quite bad about it... Hazel certainly didn't appreciate it, though! Oh, dear!
I am such a big kid.
There were birds of prey there as well. We got our pictures taken with some. I say "we", but it was mainly Hazel. She got hers taken with Edward the European Eagle Owl, Kenny the Scottish Kestrel and Percy the Peregrine Falcon. My bird of choice was a barn owl (again!) called Vanessa. She was lovely!
Beavers (and Cubs and Scouts) were on tonight. We had a "mad night" and a BBQ. (I am not entirely sure how to spell it, so, to save hassle, I am putting the shortened version down!) The BBQ ended up being cooked mainly on the grill as the BBQ wouldn't stay lit for very long.
The "mad night" consisted of the messiest games ever. Firstly, the two groups had to race to get the most water from one bucket to the other using only a sponge - and passing it over their heads. They got rather soaked! Next, came the bowls filled with beans and spaghetti. Mixed into this concoction (which hadn't been cooked, by the way!) were different coloured wine gums. They were almost invisible in there. Both teams had to come forward one by one to find one. Afterwards, they had to eat the tomato-sauced wine gums, without spitting them out! Moving on, and they had to make trifles using custard, scooshy cream (Which ain't how you spell it, but if anyone can, they're welcome to comment and actually tell me.) and rice crispies - on their faces! Photos were taken and a mess made. Finally, balloons were placed on a chair for each team, and each individual had to sit on them to pop them! However, these balloons could be innocently filled with air, filled with water or with flour! At one point someone burst a water balloon and the water squirted sideways into someones face. Afterwards, someone sat on a flour-filled balloon and exploded it in my face! My glasses got it full on!
Tomorrow, I may be going somewhere for a day trip with my family. My wee sister wants to Moffat. I suggested Peebles, but someone said no, so I suggested going to Fingland or Auchope Bothies. When these were turned down I suggested Glentress Forest for a walk. Mum agreed, cause they have gentle walks there and she could probably manage these. I think that's where they have that giant squirrel... it might actually be somewhere else, now I come to think about it... Hmm, yeah, it is. No, wait... hmm. Yeah, it is somewhere else.
However, Dad's the driver and he mentioned going to look at a campsite near Linlithgow. When I heard that, I got rather excited - we could go to Linlithgow Palace! Perhaps we could even get to see the fountain when it was turned on this time!
However, if we don't go out, I'll have to force myself to dust the top of the chest of drawers and the windowsill. Perhaps wash the windows. Then I'll have to sort out what clothes I don't need and throw them out...
Then I shall throw myself on a bed somewhere, probably my room, and die of exhaustion. Failing that I'll sleep.
There's a "Terminator Day" at Hazel's on Sunday where we'll watch all the original Terminators before going to the cinema to watch the latest one.
I will then sleep over for "Movie Day Tres" (or Movie Day the Third as I like to call it, as it is a reference to Shrek the Third). I'm a very busy girl by the looks of things!
Monday, 8 June 2009
For Every Complaint I ever made!
I complain an awful lot! Like today, I could have gone to the Movie Day, but my dad wanted me to stay in for the Autoglass man to come; he came early, so I could have gone! :(
And I complained when I couldn't get home a week ago!
But here's a sweet little poem that has been used at Scouts' Own for years!
God Forgive Me When I Whine
Today, upon a bus,
I saw a girl with golden hir,
I envied her, she seemed so gay
When she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg, and used a crutch,
But as she passes, she smiled.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two legs, the world is mine.
I stopped to buy some candy,
The lad who sold it had such charm,
I talked with him, he seemed so glad,
and as I left he said to me,
"I thank you. You have been so kind,
it's nice to talk to folks like you,
you see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two eyes, the world is mine.
Later, when walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play,
I stopped a moment, then said,
"Why don't you join the others dear?"
He looked ahead without a word
and then I knew he couldn't hear.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two ears, the worl is mine.
With feet to take me where I want to go
with eyes to see the sunset's glow,
with ears to hear what I would know,
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I'm blessed indeed.
The world is mine.
You gave me eyes to see and I see,
but yet I see so little.
You gave me ears to hear,
and I listen not enough.
You gave me a mind to think
but so many times I don't.
You gave me hands to reach out to others,
but so many times I don't reach out far enough.
You gave me a heart to be filled with love,
but so many times it doesn't show.
Help me Lord to use to the fullest,
the things You have given me.
And I complained when I couldn't get home a week ago!
But here's a sweet little poem that has been used at Scouts' Own for years!
God Forgive Me When I Whine
Today, upon a bus,
I saw a girl with golden hir,
I envied her, she seemed so gay
When she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg, and used a crutch,
But as she passes, she smiled.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two legs, the world is mine.
I stopped to buy some candy,
The lad who sold it had such charm,
I talked with him, he seemed so glad,
and as I left he said to me,
"I thank you. You have been so kind,
it's nice to talk to folks like you,
you see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two eyes, the world is mine.
Later, when walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play,
I stopped a moment, then said,
"Why don't you join the others dear?"
He looked ahead without a word
and then I knew he couldn't hear.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two ears, the worl is mine.
With feet to take me where I want to go
with eyes to see the sunset's glow,
with ears to hear what I would know,
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I'm blessed indeed.
The world is mine.
You gave me eyes to see and I see,
but yet I see so little.
You gave me ears to hear,
and I listen not enough.
You gave me a mind to think
but so many times I don't.
You gave me hands to reach out to others,
but so many times I don't reach out far enough.
You gave me a heart to be filled with love,
but so many times it doesn't show.
Help me Lord to use to the fullest,
the things You have given me.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Character notes for "The Back Up Crew"
Yorkie: an Explorer Scout who once hefted up this huge mallet to hammer in gigantic pegs for the marquee.
Dyson and Henry: two really thin boys who eat a lot.
Ice Bear: my wee sister, though she prefers "Owl": tough!
Invisible Banshee: a friend of mine I have seen little of since coming to uni! :(
Dyson and Henry: two really thin boys who eat a lot.
Ice Bear: my wee sister, though she prefers "Owl": tough!
Invisible Banshee: a friend of mine I have seen little of since coming to uni! :(
The Back Up Crew
It is very disconcerting, losing your memory.
Perhaps some people have experienced the feeling, even in normal circumstances. Such as, coming across someone you have no memory of ever meeting, but who could tell you the date and time of when they saw you last.
Now take that feeling it and multiply it by having, say, several different people coming up to you all through the day, all of whom you don’t remember. A whole day of feeling like that.
Well, I woke feeling like that on the Tuesday morning, luckily in my own room. I silently got ready and my dad gave me a lift to the train station. In the relative privacy of the train, I read my texts.
The memories came flooding back. But only half a day’s worth. Up to getting ready for a night’s superheroing.
The rest was blank.
So, rather worried that none of my allies were texting back, I texted my back-up crew and asked me to come and help me find them later that night.
By the time I was coming to Writers, I was also rather worried about Hazel, who hadn’t turned up for any of the lectures in the morning and hadn’t answered her texts. I walked slowly up the stairs, feeling like it was still Monday.
Only Emma was there when I turned up. I sat down and we chatted a bit. We fell into silence as Emma, worried about Jenna, texted her once again.
Pete turned up. He sat down, asking the obvious question, “Where is everyone?” I shrugged in reply.
We waited a while longer. Finally, at five, James joined us, and, a couple of minutes later, Ross joined us. Five minutes late, but obviously not by his clock, Tom walked in.
Rather embarrassed by the hospital antics, I glanced away from him, just as Emma clicked her fingers. Not expecting this, I started, my heart hammering as she exclaimed, “Have you seen the paper?”
The previous conversation with Hazel popped into my head. Pleased I could remember something, I replied with, “No.”
Emma went into her bag as the others shook their heads. She handed us the Metro. The headline bore the affirmation: HEROES IN TROUBLE!
On the front cover was a picture of a large warehouse. In the middle of the floor were several chairs. These chairs each held a person; my allies. My team.
At the far end of the room, in the distance stood, from what I could make out, Curly Emma, McBain and the Overlord. A figure lay on the ground; another superhero.
They were wearing the same red as I usually do.
It took me a while to realise that it was me.
This realization came with an influx of memories. The previous night’s events came back to me.
Something also came to me in a flash. Most of the regular Writers were missing and most of the superheroes were tied up in a warehouse. The same number.
And three super-villains, one of which was Tom. The other two could equate to the only other two regular Writers who were here.
I tried desperately not to think about it, instead focussing on the few pieces which were there.
Afterwards, we separated; no point taking a trip to the Union tonight, said Pete, who could also be known as McBain.
I rushed along the streets of Glasgow, making for Argyle Street station. Halfway there, I slipped into a phone box to change into my costume.
Someone hammered on the door. Startled, I wondered if Tom had heard I could remember Monday again. Hesitantly, I opened the door.
I was immediately assaulted with several different greetings. For there stood Ice Bear, looking chilly. There was Yorkie, raring to go with her super strength. There was Dyson and Henry with their power over air.
I assured them all that I would be with them in a minute and turned back to the problem of my bag.
I had quickly learned, back when I started out, that I would need a safe place for my bag; I couldn’t leave it hanging around. Luckily, Doctor Zaze invented something for all of us – a device which sent our bags home. A mini-teleporter in essence. I asked her once if she could build a bigger version, but she said no in that squeaky voice she does.
I pressed the button and my bag disappeared. It would reappear in the hall back home.
I turned back to my crew. There was someone missing.
“Where’s the Invisible Banshee?” I asked.
“I’m here!” said a voice reproachfully from behind me.
I jumped and span round. No-one was there.
“Show yourself, IB!” I said, exasperatedly.
A tall, slim girl my own age appeared before me. She had long, straight, white hair. Her grey eyes surveyed her white nails which poked through her fingerless white gloves. These matched her white dress and her white heels. (Sorry for this description being so detailed. It’s just that I hardly ever see her and she’s been prompting me to be specific.)
“Sorry to scare you, Fire Bear!” she grinned, flicking her gaze to me, before disappearing again.
I rolled my eyes and led them towards the bus stop.
When we reached the warehouse, it had been put back to normal.
“What the-?” I gasped. I had spent the whole bus journey debriefing my troops about the plan of attack and it had been largely based on the fact that the grille would be off.
It was, in fact, on.
Extremely peeved, I turned to my colleagues. “They’re obviously expecting us to be going in that way. We’d better find another way in…”
“Do you want me to break down the door?” asked Yorkie, flexing her muscles.
“No!” I snapped. “Don’t be stupid! They’ll hear that!”
“Well, do you think Ice Bear will make a lot of noise?” asked Dyson.
“What on Earth are you talking about?! Don’t be daft!” I paused. “Unless, of course, she was to freeze the door before smashing it in.”
“You’d better stop her, then,” said Henry, simply.
I frowned at him before spinning round. Ice Bear had her hand against the garage door. I called out to her: “Wait!”
I was too late. The ice spread from Ice Bear’s hand until the whole door was covered in icicles. Then she drew back her hand. She balled up her fists, preparing to strike.
Her hand tapped the door lightly.
The door crumpled delicately.
Ice Bear turned to me. “What?” she asked my stunned expression.
We entered the compound cautiously. A few moments later, we came across a junction. We could go first left, second left, straight on, second right, or first right.
I decided to take charge. “Right. Yorkie; you go straight on. Dyson; second left. Henry; second right. Ice Bear; you take the right. I’ll go this way,” I indicated the left passageway. “IB…” I paused as I looked round for her. “You can go anywhere you want. If anyone finds anything, give us a bell and don’t do anything! We all need each other to take them all down…”
They all acknowledged my orders and hurried off.
My passageway was devoid of open doors. None of them budged as I pushed and pulled at them. The silence and emptiness of the warehouse began to creep me out.
Suddenly, after rounding a corner, I saw a door at the end of the corridor. Hurrying towards it, I saw that another corridor joined to my current one in front of the door.
Upon reaching the door, I noticed that the door was slightly open. I peered through it.
On the other side was my team. They seemed to be unconscious, tied to the chairs. McBain and Curly Emma were arguing.
“But I still don’t understand why we can’t just kill them all!” Curly Emma was exclaiming.
“I think the Overlord wants to get as much information out of them as he can,” was McBain’s reply.
“What information?” I muttered as Curly Emma asked the same question of McBain. He just shrugged.
Suddenly he glanced at the door I was behind and I ducked away. “Just keep watching the doors,” he said.
I couldn’t see how I was going to get in the room. If they were watching the doors, they weren’t just going to let me untie all my allies. Torn between just calling everyone and rushing in or making a plan, I didn’t notice the ice forming around my feet.
Suddenly, an arm grabbed mine and Ice Bear brought herself to a halt. She nearly banged into the wall, but I caught her before she did so.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped.
She looked at me reproachfully. “Going around quickly. What’s going on? What have you found?”
“The heroes are in there. We just need a distraction to get-”
I was interrupted by a yelling down the intersecting corridor. We both turned to look and watched as Yorkie ran past our small field of vision, followed closely by Dyson and Henry. While we gaped at the space where we had just seen them. A distant crashing told us what they were up to. I rushed to the door and peered through.
On the other side, Yorkie was shaking rubble off herself, while Henry and Dyson were clambering through the hole that had been created.
“I reckon that’s our distraction…” muttered Ice Bear. I glanced at her smiling face before pushing the door open and walking quietly through it.
Unfortunately, the movement caught Curly Emma’s eye and she turned towards us. “Ah, so we have the whole gang now!”
“Let them go,” I simply said, joining the rest of my back-up team. I muttered to them, “Yorkie, Ice Bear. Untie them, please. Dyson, Henry. Help me out, please.”
Yorkie and Ice Bear moved off among my allies as the rest of us confronted the two bad guys.
Curly Emma cracked her whip threateningly. McBain drew his gun. He glanced at Curly Emma and she struck.
I dodged the whip and caught it on its way back up. Gripping it tightly, I willed it to go on fire. It did.
Beside me, unfortunately, Dyson and Henry were taking deep breaths, sucking in the air around them. I was unwittingly close. They sucked in all the gases in the room, even the oxygen.
McBain lifted his gun.
I tried to fire a fireball at him but it never reached him. There was no oxygen left in my vicinity and my fire was going out. Curly Emma snatched her whip back. The fire went out. My breath caught in my throat.
“Guys?” I said, hoarsely. “This is not cool!”
A sudden crashing distracted me. I looked round at the other heroes. Ice Bear was strategically freezing the team’s bonds and waking them up by melting ice over their heads. Yorkie, however, was taking a less subtle approach.
Obviously, she had tried to untie Time Travelling Hero and Captain Formal whose chairs were tied together for some reason. Giving up on that, she had ripped the chairs apart, but had left the heroes tied to the backs of them. She then left them to wake up, stand up and wobble around, before landing in the remains of the chairs.
I tried to sigh but realised I couldn’t. I turned to Henry and Dyson at the same moment as McBain pulled the trigger twice. That was when they released the air they had stolen from me. I could breathe again! (Idiots.)
The bullets flew backwards and McBain ducked just in time. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t reckoned on the table being behind him and, as he twisted round and simultaneously ducked; he hit his head off the table and knocked himself out.
Curly Emma had been surveying her hands, not getting involved. Now she looked up and sighed. Before she could move, I knelt up and threw a fireball at her hand. She dropped the whip.
Sighing, she brought something from behind her back. It appeared to be a whip’s handle. I frowned as she moved her hand around in quick circles. Then she flicked her hand.
Suddenly, something struck me in the face so hard I was sent skidding sideways.
I swore and looked up, my face raw.[*]
Curly Emma grinned and flicked her wrist. A crack sounded above me.
“She has an invisible whip!” I exclaimed. How did she make one of those? I thought.
“What should we do?” asked Dyson, looking worried and backing away.
I stood up and looked at the revived heroes; they looked a bit dazed, certainly not ready to fight.
“I could help,” said a voice by my ear.
“How?” I asked the Invisible Banshee.
“I can see the whip. I can dodge it and knock her out; she can’t see me or the whip.”
“How can she use a whip she can’t see?” I queried, exasperatedly.
There was silence for a moment before IB answered. “I dunno.”
I felt a small rush of wind and the Invisible Banshee was gone. We stood and watched. Curly Emma seemed to sense something was wrong, slowing down with her whip cracks, which really weren’t doing anything.
Suddenly, Curly Emma seemed to fall violently to one side, smacking her head off the desk. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The Invisible Banshee reappeared standing over her, grinning in triumph.
“Well, done, IB!” I grinned at her before she disappeared.
“What should we do with them?” asked Dr. Zaze. She had come up behind me and seemed to be back to her usual alert state.
“I don’t know…” I mumbled. I hadn’t thought we would ever defeat them, so I never planned this far. “Take them to the police station?”
“We should just kill them!” cried Floppy. I frowned at his suggestion.
“How about asking them where the Overlord is?” asked Miss Jen. “He is the most dangerous, after all.”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” exclaimed Ice Bear. We turned to look at her and she added, “Oh, sorry. Got a little over-excited…”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” repeated Zaze. I nodded.
We had a bit of difficulty waking the two evil-doers and when we finally did, they seemed rather confused.
“Where am I?” asked Curly Emma. “What’s going on?”
We looked at each other. “Do you mean you can’t remember anything?”
“No…” replied Curly Emma, hesitantly. “Who are you all you people?”
We got the same disconcerting questions from McBain.
“What’s going on?” I muttered to Zaze. “One bump to the head surely can’t make them forget that much!”
Zaze shrugged.
I turned to Ice Bear who was tugging at my cape. “Yes?”
“Doesn’t the Overlord do that mind thingy?” she asked me. I frowned. “Like read minds?” she continued. I nodded. “Can he do what Matt Parkman does, then?”
I stared at her for several seconds. Beside me, Zaze blinked in disbelief.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I finally exclaimed. “He’s got enough flaming powers without being able to control people as well! That is just totally unfair!”
“Why didn’t he just control the rest of us, then?” asked Zaze. “Maybe he can’t!”
I looked at the two confused villains. “Maybe we could just recruit them, instead of taking them to the police…”
“Are you kidding me?!” exclaimed Floppy, who had been listening in. “After everything they’ve put us through?!”
I looked at him, my expression blank.
“They could be spies,” added Spiky.
I sighed. What was I supposed to do with them? If they truly were innocent, then I would hate for them to be in jail. If they were spies they couldn’t come to our headquarters.
“How about, we let them join, but they aren’t allowed to come to our private places until they have proven themselves to us?” I suggested.
The heroes who were listening looked at each other before inclining their heads in agreement.
“Okay. Time, Formal; help McBain and Curly Emma out of here. Dr. Zaze; go with them and make sure that they’re alright and that they aren’t spies.” I ordered, adding as Zaze seemed about to protest, “Please don’t argue.”
Once they were gone, I told the others that it would probably be a good idea to try to find the Overlord before raising the place to the ground.
“You won’t have to look far,” said a voice from the door.
We all turned to find the Overlord standing there, McBain and Curly Emma standing either side of him.
“What have you done with our friends?” I snapped.
“None of your business,” he said in a sickly sweet tone.
Irritated, I clenched my fists, fire surrounding them.
The Overlord gestured to McBain and Curly Emma. “Take them alive where you can,” he muttered. The two hench-people jerked forward.
“Is he having a power trip, or what?!” called out IB from beside me, making me start.
I gave a small “ha!” before replying. “Power trip?” More like tripping over his own cloak!” This was followed, rather satisfactorily, by the Overlord, indeed, tripping over his own cloak as he tried to take a step forward.
“So what are we going to do about McBain and Curly Emma?” asked Kitty. In answer, I shrugged.
An idea suddenly occurred to me. I called out to the two advancing, bamboozled super-people. “Hey! You don’t have to do what he says! Fight him!”
They stopped and frowned at me before continuing.
“Well, that didn’t work,” said Mojojojoe.
I tried to think of something that would save McBain and Curly Emma while protecting ourselves. I was distracted by several of my allies readying themselves for battle.
Then I realised I probably shouldn’t be thinking.
I gave up at that point and strode forward. Stopping in front of McBain, I clenched my fist – and punched him right on the nose. I then turned to Curly Emma who looked mildly shocked and did the same.
They both fell to the floor again, looking extremely shocked.
“What the hell?!” cried McBain. “What was that for?!”
I looked up at the Overlord, hoping against hope that this meant he was no longer controlling them.
Damn it, said a familiar voice in my head. You may win this time, but I have other plans…
Before I could move, the Overlord disappeared.
“Quick! Search everywhere!” I called to them and they sprang into action. I stayed behind and helped McBain and Curly Emma to their feet.
I led them to the door, asking them which way they had went and where Zaze, Time and Formal had been ambushed. We met them halfway.
I looked around at the old warehouse. “Zaze…?” I said to her. “Could you put a demolition order in for this warehouse?”
“Um, no!” she cried. “I’m a scientist, not a hacker!”
I sighed. “Never mind. I’ll just ask Dyson. He’ll be able to; he’s hacked into a council’s computer before.”
“You mean you are working with a criminal?!” exclaimed Formal, indignantly.
I didn’t argue; the others had come back and confirmed what I feared. The Overlord was nowhere to be found.
“Right, let’s go home. No doubt the Overlord will show his ugly face again,” I told them, wearily. “Come on Ice Bear,” I added to my sister.
“That was a bit of an anti-climax…” muttered Floppy.
“That’s what she said!” exclaimed Bob. Everyone groaned.
As we exited the warehouse and Dyson assured me that the warehouse would be demolished by morning, I slowed and asked, “Has anyone seen the Banshee?”
“When have we ever seen her?” asked Yorkie, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t think she’s been knocked out or kidnapped do you?” I was becoming concerned; usually when you talked about her as though she wasn’t there, she would let everyone know she was by speaking in someone’s ear! “Maybe we should go back and look for her…”
“Nah,” said Dyson. “She’ll be fine! No-one can see her, so she can’t have been caught! She’s probably away home!”
I frowned, doubting this. I glanced over my shoulder. No-one was there.
My wee sister started to enthuse how “amazingly fun” our adventure had been. This was repeated all the way home.
[*] My mask is now only a half face mask, i.e. covers my eyes and nose, but my mouth and cheeks are exposed. Hence my stinging face!
Perhaps some people have experienced the feeling, even in normal circumstances. Such as, coming across someone you have no memory of ever meeting, but who could tell you the date and time of when they saw you last.
Now take that feeling it and multiply it by having, say, several different people coming up to you all through the day, all of whom you don’t remember. A whole day of feeling like that.
Well, I woke feeling like that on the Tuesday morning, luckily in my own room. I silently got ready and my dad gave me a lift to the train station. In the relative privacy of the train, I read my texts.
The memories came flooding back. But only half a day’s worth. Up to getting ready for a night’s superheroing.
The rest was blank.
So, rather worried that none of my allies were texting back, I texted my back-up crew and asked me to come and help me find them later that night.
By the time I was coming to Writers, I was also rather worried about Hazel, who hadn’t turned up for any of the lectures in the morning and hadn’t answered her texts. I walked slowly up the stairs, feeling like it was still Monday.
Only Emma was there when I turned up. I sat down and we chatted a bit. We fell into silence as Emma, worried about Jenna, texted her once again.
Pete turned up. He sat down, asking the obvious question, “Where is everyone?” I shrugged in reply.
We waited a while longer. Finally, at five, James joined us, and, a couple of minutes later, Ross joined us. Five minutes late, but obviously not by his clock, Tom walked in.
Rather embarrassed by the hospital antics, I glanced away from him, just as Emma clicked her fingers. Not expecting this, I started, my heart hammering as she exclaimed, “Have you seen the paper?”
The previous conversation with Hazel popped into my head. Pleased I could remember something, I replied with, “No.”
Emma went into her bag as the others shook their heads. She handed us the Metro. The headline bore the affirmation: HEROES IN TROUBLE!
On the front cover was a picture of a large warehouse. In the middle of the floor were several chairs. These chairs each held a person; my allies. My team.
At the far end of the room, in the distance stood, from what I could make out, Curly Emma, McBain and the Overlord. A figure lay on the ground; another superhero.
They were wearing the same red as I usually do.
It took me a while to realise that it was me.
This realization came with an influx of memories. The previous night’s events came back to me.
Something also came to me in a flash. Most of the regular Writers were missing and most of the superheroes were tied up in a warehouse. The same number.
And three super-villains, one of which was Tom. The other two could equate to the only other two regular Writers who were here.
I tried desperately not to think about it, instead focussing on the few pieces which were there.
Afterwards, we separated; no point taking a trip to the Union tonight, said Pete, who could also be known as McBain.
I rushed along the streets of Glasgow, making for Argyle Street station. Halfway there, I slipped into a phone box to change into my costume.
Someone hammered on the door. Startled, I wondered if Tom had heard I could remember Monday again. Hesitantly, I opened the door.
I was immediately assaulted with several different greetings. For there stood Ice Bear, looking chilly. There was Yorkie, raring to go with her super strength. There was Dyson and Henry with their power over air.
I assured them all that I would be with them in a minute and turned back to the problem of my bag.
I had quickly learned, back when I started out, that I would need a safe place for my bag; I couldn’t leave it hanging around. Luckily, Doctor Zaze invented something for all of us – a device which sent our bags home. A mini-teleporter in essence. I asked her once if she could build a bigger version, but she said no in that squeaky voice she does.
I pressed the button and my bag disappeared. It would reappear in the hall back home.
I turned back to my crew. There was someone missing.
“Where’s the Invisible Banshee?” I asked.
“I’m here!” said a voice reproachfully from behind me.
I jumped and span round. No-one was there.
“Show yourself, IB!” I said, exasperatedly.
A tall, slim girl my own age appeared before me. She had long, straight, white hair. Her grey eyes surveyed her white nails which poked through her fingerless white gloves. These matched her white dress and her white heels. (Sorry for this description being so detailed. It’s just that I hardly ever see her and she’s been prompting me to be specific.)
“Sorry to scare you, Fire Bear!” she grinned, flicking her gaze to me, before disappearing again.
I rolled my eyes and led them towards the bus stop.
When we reached the warehouse, it had been put back to normal.
“What the-?” I gasped. I had spent the whole bus journey debriefing my troops about the plan of attack and it had been largely based on the fact that the grille would be off.
It was, in fact, on.
Extremely peeved, I turned to my colleagues. “They’re obviously expecting us to be going in that way. We’d better find another way in…”
“Do you want me to break down the door?” asked Yorkie, flexing her muscles.
“No!” I snapped. “Don’t be stupid! They’ll hear that!”
“Well, do you think Ice Bear will make a lot of noise?” asked Dyson.
“What on Earth are you talking about?! Don’t be daft!” I paused. “Unless, of course, she was to freeze the door before smashing it in.”
“You’d better stop her, then,” said Henry, simply.
I frowned at him before spinning round. Ice Bear had her hand against the garage door. I called out to her: “Wait!”
I was too late. The ice spread from Ice Bear’s hand until the whole door was covered in icicles. Then she drew back her hand. She balled up her fists, preparing to strike.
Her hand tapped the door lightly.
The door crumpled delicately.
Ice Bear turned to me. “What?” she asked my stunned expression.
We entered the compound cautiously. A few moments later, we came across a junction. We could go first left, second left, straight on, second right, or first right.
I decided to take charge. “Right. Yorkie; you go straight on. Dyson; second left. Henry; second right. Ice Bear; you take the right. I’ll go this way,” I indicated the left passageway. “IB…” I paused as I looked round for her. “You can go anywhere you want. If anyone finds anything, give us a bell and don’t do anything! We all need each other to take them all down…”
They all acknowledged my orders and hurried off.
My passageway was devoid of open doors. None of them budged as I pushed and pulled at them. The silence and emptiness of the warehouse began to creep me out.
Suddenly, after rounding a corner, I saw a door at the end of the corridor. Hurrying towards it, I saw that another corridor joined to my current one in front of the door.
Upon reaching the door, I noticed that the door was slightly open. I peered through it.
On the other side was my team. They seemed to be unconscious, tied to the chairs. McBain and Curly Emma were arguing.
“But I still don’t understand why we can’t just kill them all!” Curly Emma was exclaiming.
“I think the Overlord wants to get as much information out of them as he can,” was McBain’s reply.
“What information?” I muttered as Curly Emma asked the same question of McBain. He just shrugged.
Suddenly he glanced at the door I was behind and I ducked away. “Just keep watching the doors,” he said.
I couldn’t see how I was going to get in the room. If they were watching the doors, they weren’t just going to let me untie all my allies. Torn between just calling everyone and rushing in or making a plan, I didn’t notice the ice forming around my feet.
Suddenly, an arm grabbed mine and Ice Bear brought herself to a halt. She nearly banged into the wall, but I caught her before she did so.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped.
She looked at me reproachfully. “Going around quickly. What’s going on? What have you found?”
“The heroes are in there. We just need a distraction to get-”
I was interrupted by a yelling down the intersecting corridor. We both turned to look and watched as Yorkie ran past our small field of vision, followed closely by Dyson and Henry. While we gaped at the space where we had just seen them. A distant crashing told us what they were up to. I rushed to the door and peered through.
On the other side, Yorkie was shaking rubble off herself, while Henry and Dyson were clambering through the hole that had been created.
“I reckon that’s our distraction…” muttered Ice Bear. I glanced at her smiling face before pushing the door open and walking quietly through it.
Unfortunately, the movement caught Curly Emma’s eye and she turned towards us. “Ah, so we have the whole gang now!”
“Let them go,” I simply said, joining the rest of my back-up team. I muttered to them, “Yorkie, Ice Bear. Untie them, please. Dyson, Henry. Help me out, please.”
Yorkie and Ice Bear moved off among my allies as the rest of us confronted the two bad guys.
Curly Emma cracked her whip threateningly. McBain drew his gun. He glanced at Curly Emma and she struck.
I dodged the whip and caught it on its way back up. Gripping it tightly, I willed it to go on fire. It did.
Beside me, unfortunately, Dyson and Henry were taking deep breaths, sucking in the air around them. I was unwittingly close. They sucked in all the gases in the room, even the oxygen.
McBain lifted his gun.
I tried to fire a fireball at him but it never reached him. There was no oxygen left in my vicinity and my fire was going out. Curly Emma snatched her whip back. The fire went out. My breath caught in my throat.
“Guys?” I said, hoarsely. “This is not cool!”
A sudden crashing distracted me. I looked round at the other heroes. Ice Bear was strategically freezing the team’s bonds and waking them up by melting ice over their heads. Yorkie, however, was taking a less subtle approach.
Obviously, she had tried to untie Time Travelling Hero and Captain Formal whose chairs were tied together for some reason. Giving up on that, she had ripped the chairs apart, but had left the heroes tied to the backs of them. She then left them to wake up, stand up and wobble around, before landing in the remains of the chairs.
I tried to sigh but realised I couldn’t. I turned to Henry and Dyson at the same moment as McBain pulled the trigger twice. That was when they released the air they had stolen from me. I could breathe again! (Idiots.)
The bullets flew backwards and McBain ducked just in time. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t reckoned on the table being behind him and, as he twisted round and simultaneously ducked; he hit his head off the table and knocked himself out.
Curly Emma had been surveying her hands, not getting involved. Now she looked up and sighed. Before she could move, I knelt up and threw a fireball at her hand. She dropped the whip.
Sighing, she brought something from behind her back. It appeared to be a whip’s handle. I frowned as she moved her hand around in quick circles. Then she flicked her hand.
Suddenly, something struck me in the face so hard I was sent skidding sideways.
I swore and looked up, my face raw.[*]
Curly Emma grinned and flicked her wrist. A crack sounded above me.
“She has an invisible whip!” I exclaimed. How did she make one of those? I thought.
“What should we do?” asked Dyson, looking worried and backing away.
I stood up and looked at the revived heroes; they looked a bit dazed, certainly not ready to fight.
“I could help,” said a voice by my ear.
“How?” I asked the Invisible Banshee.
“I can see the whip. I can dodge it and knock her out; she can’t see me or the whip.”
“How can she use a whip she can’t see?” I queried, exasperatedly.
There was silence for a moment before IB answered. “I dunno.”
I felt a small rush of wind and the Invisible Banshee was gone. We stood and watched. Curly Emma seemed to sense something was wrong, slowing down with her whip cracks, which really weren’t doing anything.
Suddenly, Curly Emma seemed to fall violently to one side, smacking her head off the desk. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The Invisible Banshee reappeared standing over her, grinning in triumph.
“Well, done, IB!” I grinned at her before she disappeared.
“What should we do with them?” asked Dr. Zaze. She had come up behind me and seemed to be back to her usual alert state.
“I don’t know…” I mumbled. I hadn’t thought we would ever defeat them, so I never planned this far. “Take them to the police station?”
“We should just kill them!” cried Floppy. I frowned at his suggestion.
“How about asking them where the Overlord is?” asked Miss Jen. “He is the most dangerous, after all.”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” exclaimed Ice Bear. We turned to look at her and she added, “Oh, sorry. Got a little over-excited…”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” repeated Zaze. I nodded.
We had a bit of difficulty waking the two evil-doers and when we finally did, they seemed rather confused.
“Where am I?” asked Curly Emma. “What’s going on?”
We looked at each other. “Do you mean you can’t remember anything?”
“No…” replied Curly Emma, hesitantly. “Who are you all you people?”
We got the same disconcerting questions from McBain.
“What’s going on?” I muttered to Zaze. “One bump to the head surely can’t make them forget that much!”
Zaze shrugged.
I turned to Ice Bear who was tugging at my cape. “Yes?”
“Doesn’t the Overlord do that mind thingy?” she asked me. I frowned. “Like read minds?” she continued. I nodded. “Can he do what Matt Parkman does, then?”
I stared at her for several seconds. Beside me, Zaze blinked in disbelief.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I finally exclaimed. “He’s got enough flaming powers without being able to control people as well! That is just totally unfair!”
“Why didn’t he just control the rest of us, then?” asked Zaze. “Maybe he can’t!”
I looked at the two confused villains. “Maybe we could just recruit them, instead of taking them to the police…”
“Are you kidding me?!” exclaimed Floppy, who had been listening in. “After everything they’ve put us through?!”
I looked at him, my expression blank.
“They could be spies,” added Spiky.
I sighed. What was I supposed to do with them? If they truly were innocent, then I would hate for them to be in jail. If they were spies they couldn’t come to our headquarters.
“How about, we let them join, but they aren’t allowed to come to our private places until they have proven themselves to us?” I suggested.
The heroes who were listening looked at each other before inclining their heads in agreement.
“Okay. Time, Formal; help McBain and Curly Emma out of here. Dr. Zaze; go with them and make sure that they’re alright and that they aren’t spies.” I ordered, adding as Zaze seemed about to protest, “Please don’t argue.”
Once they were gone, I told the others that it would probably be a good idea to try to find the Overlord before raising the place to the ground.
“You won’t have to look far,” said a voice from the door.
We all turned to find the Overlord standing there, McBain and Curly Emma standing either side of him.
“What have you done with our friends?” I snapped.
“None of your business,” he said in a sickly sweet tone.
Irritated, I clenched my fists, fire surrounding them.
The Overlord gestured to McBain and Curly Emma. “Take them alive where you can,” he muttered. The two hench-people jerked forward.
“Is he having a power trip, or what?!” called out IB from beside me, making me start.
I gave a small “ha!” before replying. “Power trip?” More like tripping over his own cloak!” This was followed, rather satisfactorily, by the Overlord, indeed, tripping over his own cloak as he tried to take a step forward.
“So what are we going to do about McBain and Curly Emma?” asked Kitty. In answer, I shrugged.
An idea suddenly occurred to me. I called out to the two advancing, bamboozled super-people. “Hey! You don’t have to do what he says! Fight him!”
They stopped and frowned at me before continuing.
“Well, that didn’t work,” said Mojojojoe.
I tried to think of something that would save McBain and Curly Emma while protecting ourselves. I was distracted by several of my allies readying themselves for battle.
Then I realised I probably shouldn’t be thinking.
I gave up at that point and strode forward. Stopping in front of McBain, I clenched my fist – and punched him right on the nose. I then turned to Curly Emma who looked mildly shocked and did the same.
They both fell to the floor again, looking extremely shocked.
“What the hell?!” cried McBain. “What was that for?!”
I looked up at the Overlord, hoping against hope that this meant he was no longer controlling them.
Damn it, said a familiar voice in my head. You may win this time, but I have other plans…
Before I could move, the Overlord disappeared.
“Quick! Search everywhere!” I called to them and they sprang into action. I stayed behind and helped McBain and Curly Emma to their feet.
I led them to the door, asking them which way they had went and where Zaze, Time and Formal had been ambushed. We met them halfway.
I looked around at the old warehouse. “Zaze…?” I said to her. “Could you put a demolition order in for this warehouse?”
“Um, no!” she cried. “I’m a scientist, not a hacker!”
I sighed. “Never mind. I’ll just ask Dyson. He’ll be able to; he’s hacked into a council’s computer before.”
“You mean you are working with a criminal?!” exclaimed Formal, indignantly.
I didn’t argue; the others had come back and confirmed what I feared. The Overlord was nowhere to be found.
“Right, let’s go home. No doubt the Overlord will show his ugly face again,” I told them, wearily. “Come on Ice Bear,” I added to my sister.
“That was a bit of an anti-climax…” muttered Floppy.
“That’s what she said!” exclaimed Bob. Everyone groaned.
As we exited the warehouse and Dyson assured me that the warehouse would be demolished by morning, I slowed and asked, “Has anyone seen the Banshee?”
“When have we ever seen her?” asked Yorkie, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t think she’s been knocked out or kidnapped do you?” I was becoming concerned; usually when you talked about her as though she wasn’t there, she would let everyone know she was by speaking in someone’s ear! “Maybe we should go back and look for her…”
“Nah,” said Dyson. “She’ll be fine! No-one can see her, so she can’t have been caught! She’s probably away home!”
I frowned, doubting this. I glanced over my shoulder. No-one was there.
My wee sister started to enthuse how “amazingly fun” our adventure had been. This was repeated all the way home.
[*] My mask is now only a half face mask, i.e. covers my eyes and nose, but my mouth and cheeks are exposed. Hence my stinging face!
Lack of Commitment
I haven't posted anything on here in a while. Been rather busy and my blog on Bebo has been sufficient to keep me going. Anyways, there's probably been a lot that's happened.
There was the end of the year party for the Writers; that was great fun, though Hazel had to leave early. We ended up singing karoake - including the dirty version of Summer Nights! I can tell you, we laughed.
Exams have come and gone. I don't think I've done very well in my Biology of Organisms, but I think I was OK for Statistics and Physics in the Open Air.
On Tuesday was the AGM for the Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. It was very, very quickly decided that I would be the new president as there was only two other people who turned up. We went down to play pool with Stewart, Andy and Dave. This was all fandabidozi, till Tom, for some bizarre reason, decided to try to find out who I fancy. This apparently required a lot of drink.
I still haven't told him, though, so haha! :D
There was the end of the year party for the Writers; that was great fun, though Hazel had to leave early. We ended up singing karoake - including the dirty version of Summer Nights! I can tell you, we laughed.
Exams have come and gone. I don't think I've done very well in my Biology of Organisms, but I think I was OK for Statistics and Physics in the Open Air.
On Tuesday was the AGM for the Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. It was very, very quickly decided that I would be the new president as there was only two other people who turned up. We went down to play pool with Stewart, Andy and Dave. This was all fandabidozi, till Tom, for some bizarre reason, decided to try to find out who I fancy. This apparently required a lot of drink.
I still haven't told him, though, so haha! :D
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