Post by sailornull on Jul 29, 2020 16:29:35 GMT -5
“Mom! Mom! OW MOM!”
Ow? It was a Saturday. As far as Nicole Lange knew, Hilde didn’t have anything on the calendar for this morning, so she should still be in bed. “Ow” should not be coming from her.
“She’s at it again.” Drake, Nicole’s fourteen-year-old son, looked up from his Switch and rolled his eyes, revealing the shiner he’d acquired from teasing his little sister a couple days earlier, when she was raging about the sunlight being too loud.
“Attitude like that’s what got you that black eye, you know,” Nicole said. “Stay right there.” She set her knife down, pushed the bowl of rhubarb away from the edge of the table, and stood. “And don’t touch the rhubarb. That’s for tonight.”
“Like I want raw rhubarb? Yuck!”
Nicole shook her head and headed upstairs. Sure, living in a townhouse put them at the far end of the island from Fritz’s job at Portal Corp, but after living in barracks for six years, Nicole wanted a place of her own, even if it was just a townhouse. She stopped at the top of the stairs and put a hand on Hilde’s door. “Hilde?”
“Mom! Ow! You didn’t tell me it would feel like I have a charley horse in my crotch, on top of everything else! Ow fuck! Can I get an ice pack or something?”
Nicole frowned. A charley horse? Her cramps were never that bad, although her sister’s had left her bedridden for two or three days a month. God, I hope Hilde isn’t like Jennie.
“I’ll get you a heating pad and some Motrin, hon. Ice packs don’t work.”
“OK, just… hurry? Please?” Hilde whimpered from the other side of the door.
“I’ll be right back, hon. Don’t worry.” Nicole took the heating pad from her bedroom, grabbed a bottle of Motrin and a glass of water from the bathroom, and returned to Hilde’s room. “Ready, hon?”
“Oh god yes, yes, please.”
Nicole pushed the door open, set the Motrin and water on Hilde’s bedside stand, and plugged in the heating pad. Hilde was curled up under the covers. Not surprising if she was hurting as much as it sounded like. “Honey, you’re gonna have to at least come out long enough to take the Motrin.”
Hilde groaned and worked her way from under her blanket. At least, a three-dimensional silhouette in the shape of Hilde did. The silhouette reached for the bottle, shook out three gel caps, and washed them down with the water. “Uh, Mom? Why are you looking at me like that? Where’s the heating pad?”
Nicole couldn’t find words. She just held out the heating pad. Then, when the silhouette reached for it, she grabbed a hand and stared at it, turning it over.
“Ow! Careful, Mom! You’re gonna twist my wrist if you keep doing that!”
“But… it’s really you?”
“Believe me, Mom…,” the silhouette slid the heating pad under the blanket and turned it on. “If I could be anyone else right now, I would. When you were giving me the talk, why didn’t you say anything about how much it would hurt?”
“Uh…” Nicole shook her head. All black or no, this was still her daughter. “Because I didn’t think it would? I mean, for me, it’s not any more uncomfortable than right after a good run.”
Hilde’s eyes began to glow, and she sounded exasperated. “Mom! Your idea of a good run is five miles! With Council chasing you!”
“Actually, it was Fifth Column this morning.” Nicole shot back with blandest tone she could manage.
“GAH!” Hilde picked up one of her pillows and hit her mother over the head with it. “My. Mother. Is. Insane!”
“OK. Now that we have established that you are definitely my daughter, when did this happen, honey? You looked perfectly normal when you went to bed.”
“I don’t know. I was like this when the cramps started. Wish I could keep the black and ditch the cramps, honestly.” Hilde held up her hands and turned them as if admiring them. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“Pretty terrifying, you mean.” Nicole shook her head. Only you, Hilde. Only you would think this is pretty cool. “When I first saw you, I was afraid you’d been stolen away and replaced by some kind of shadow fiend.”
“So I coulda got away with punching Drake’s other eye if I hadn’t been up here wanting to rip my organs out?” Hilde made an exaggerated snap of her fingers. “Damn! Missed my shot!” She paused, and Nicole could just imagine the gears turning in her head.
“No. Just no.”
“But Mom! It’ll be so cool! He’ll need his brown pants!”
“No, Hilde. You can’t terrorize your brother by pretending to be a shadow fiend.” Shit. I left that too open. “Or any other kind of shadow creature, either!” She shook her head. “I never should have let you two see that movie.”
“But Wade’s so cool!”
“Wade is insane. And very definitely not safe for children.”
Hilde gasped and curled up. “Fucking ow, Mom. I don’t think.. I qualify.. any more.”
“You stay in bed. I’m bringing you ice cream. Keep that heating pad where it works the best. Come Monday, I’ll make an appointment with my doctor for you.” She stopped, then shook her head. “No, I think it’s going to take a little more searching than that. If you’re black everywhere, then my doctor won’t be able to examine you.”
“Mom, even my blood is black.”
“Yeah, this is going to take some specialized help, I think. Don’t worry, hon. We’ll find a doctor who can help. Meanwhile, if it gets too painful, try soaking in the tub. Use my bathroom and take as long as you like.”
“Your bathroom?”
“So your brother doesn’t complain about you tying it up all day.” Nicole smirked. “I know how boys get when you need to soak. They can be so whiny.”
Fritz Lange, just another faceless researcher at Portal Corp – at least, that was the way it felt most days – arrived home after his monthly Saturday shift, to find Nicole and Drake hunched over a laptop at the kitchen table, with nothing that resembled dinner either on the table or in the kitchen. A bowl of rhubarb looked as if it had been sitting in sugar all day, but that was the only food to be seen. Even the coffee pot was empty, and that never happened.
Fritz stopped just inside the kitchen, scanned the room, then asked gently, “Nicole, honey? Who died?”
“Nobody died, Dad. Mom and Drake have been helping me.” Hilde’s voice came from the living room, where the TV was playing Stromberg, and a dark figure was huddled under an afghan. The afghan moved, and a silhouette, the size and shape of a young teenage girl, stood. “It’s kind of hard to find a doctor who can help me when everything is black, you know?”
“Ich glaub mich knutscht ein Elch!” Fritz gasped, staring at the black figure with his daughter’s voice.
“I sure hope not, dad,” Hilde laughed. “Don’t elk have bad breath? And ticks?” Then she bent over and whimpered. “Owfuckow.” She sat back on the sofa and planted a heating pad on her lower abdomen.
Heating pad on her… Oh Scheiße. So it finally happened.
“So… how long have you been ….”
“Schwarze? I woke up this way.”
“You woke up this way?”
“She woke up this way.” Nicole looked up from the laptop. “We’re working on a form from the FBSA. There’s just one problem. Hilde’s obviously changed, but unless she develops some kind of powers, all they can do is suggest support groups for other kids who’ve changed but don’t have powers.”
“No powers?” Fritz looked into the living room. “Is that right, hon? You didn’t get any powers?”
“No, Dad.” Hilde picked up a bowl of ice cream and began eating. “I just look really cool.”
Nicole nodded, then looked up from the laptop. “Just to be sure, we have an assessment scheduled for Monday afternoon in Atlas Park.”
“Good.” Fritz considered a moment, then looked into the living room. “Willst du, dass ich mit dir komme, Schatz?”
“Nein, Vater. Mama und mir wird es gut gehen.” Hilde turned toward him, and her eyes glowed. “Du hast mir nie gesagt, wie lustig Stromberg ist. Es ist gut, dass es auf Netflix läuft.”
“Ich habe es nie gesehen. Es ist wirklich lustig, oder?”
“Oh ja. Viel besser als das Büro.”
“There they go again,” Drake grumbled. “Dad and Hilde, chattering away in German like the rest of us aren’t listening.”
“Yes,” Nicole laughed. “Yes, they are. Now what do you want on your pizza?”
Between the ferry and the T, it took half the morning to get to Atlas Park. With all the metas running around, no one gave Hilde a second look when she and Nicole stopped at El Super Mexicano for lunch, then walked to City Hall
They were half way to the plaza when some guy in a ragged hoodie grabbed Nicole’s purse and tried to pull it off her arm. Nicole spun to face him and swung with her free hand, punched his bicep, and forced him to let go. A moment later, another one stuck a pistol in her face and yelled something at her, that she was too angry to hear clearly.
“You! Leave! My! Mom! ALONE!” Hilde’s eyes glowed, and shadows gathered around her. She punched the guy with the pistol, and he flew back about six feet, landed on his ass, and scrambled back up, shooting wildly. Most of the bullets flew off, but two of them hit the shadows around Hilde and stopped, then fell to the ground. “Ich sagte, lass meine Mutter in Ruhe!”
Hilde rushed him, punched him again, and he fell down, unconscious.
“NO ONE threatens my mom!” Hilde chased the one who’d tried to steal Nicole’s purse, and punched him as well, knocking him out like his friend with the pistol. Then she turned to Nicole and jumped up and down, laughing excitedly. “Mom! Mom! I’ve got powers!”
Nicole looked from the unconscious thugs to Hilde and nodded, still trying to process it. “Yes honey. Yes, you do.”
“All right,” the FBSA official said, looking up from his terminal. “We just need to make a few minor changes to her registration, and determine the source of her powers. Given that they’re shadow-based, I’d suggest you start by talking with Azuria in the MAGI office. That’s downstairs, first door on the right.”
Hilde was still bouncing excitedly, so Nicole nodded. “First door on the right. Got it. Anything else we need?”
The FBSA official printed out a form and handed it to her. “Here you go. Take this with you, so she knows you’re already registered. You might want to consider a good school to help her learn how to master her powers, too. I’d recommend the Daybreak Academy… just a second….” He looked through his pamphlets and offered one to Nicole. “Here you go. They’re associated with the Dawn Patrol, so you can count on them to be responsible.”
“Thank you. I’ll call them once we’re done here.” Nicole turned to Hilde and chuckled. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s go downstairs and find out what Azuria has to say.”
Azuria put Hilde through a battery of magical tests, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Her powers are not magic based. As far as I can tell, your best bet is to talk to Mr. Nash, in the GIFT office. You’ll find him at the end of the hall.”
“Thank you, ma’am. We appreciate your help.” Nicole nodded, then took Hilde’s hand. “Come on, hon. One more office to visit, then we can go get a burger.”
“Oh good. I’m starved!” Hilde nodded. “That was exhausting!”
“It looked it.” Nicole led Hilde down the hall and stopped in the GIFT office. “Hello? Is there a Mr. Nash here?”
“That would be me. Can I help you?” The man was just inside the doors. He looked up from his paper and smiled. “I take it your daughter is the reason you’re here?”
“That’s right. Azuria said you were the best person to talk to.” Nicole offered her hand. When he shook it, she continued. “I’m Nicole Lange, and this is my daughter Hilde. She just got her powers… about two hours ago. Azuria put her through all kinds of tests and said they’re not magical, so we should talk with you.”
“All right. Let’s go over to my desk and sit down.“ He chuckled. “After all she put you through, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I just have a few questions to ask.”
Mr. Nash’s questions only took a few minutes, leaving them plenty of time to get to the Daybreak Academy campus before five.
Nicole chuckled as she watched Hilde looking around with wide, glowing eyes as she led her to Dr. Crawford’s office. “Dr. Crawford? My name is Nicole Lange. I’m here to discuss enrolling my daughter Hilde in your school.”