Sang the Stray (Completed)

18. White Lightning

I woke awhile ago, but decided to linger in Kota's bed, tucked firmly underneath the covers. It was so much more comfortable than the ones in MedBay and, of course, it held the sweet, spicy scent of my new friend. He had left sometime before I awoke and the roll-away bed was back in place. I heard the woosh of the door sliding open and then a baritone voice call out for Kota.

Oh, no. What should I do?

Before I could decide, a body landed on mine and wrestled my wrists above my head.

"Tare is spinning on without you," declared the voice, playfully. Kota's scent was now being overpowered by moss and berries.

"Victor." Kota's voice rang from the doorway.

The person atop me released my hands to rip back the covers. I scrambled to cover my face from an onslaught of bright light. I peeked through my fingers. The stunned newcomer remained astride, pinning my legs. He was clearly as stunned as I, mouth agape and muttering some nonsensical words. I blushed profusely, as he stared on with confused, but beautifully intense, whiskey brown eyes. I suddenly understood the phrase "fire in his eyes". He was built slighter than Kota, brown hair combed back out of his face, and just like all the other Setari I meet so far, exceedingly handsome. I mean, I assumed he was Setari, being here in Kota's apartment, though he wore what looked like formal civilian clothing, instead of the black uniform.

"This is Sang Sorenson, from the unknown planet Earth, " Kota said, drawing the attention to himself. "Sang, this is my suitemate and another Fourth Squad member, Tset Victor Morgan."

"Uh..." Victor moved off the bed and stood. "What are you doing here? In his bed?" he asked, baffled.

"She spent the night," Kota replied, casually, like this was completely normal. I was grateful that he was answering, feeling so awkward myself.

Victor spun towards Kota, arms akimbo, asking, "Are you kidding me?"

Kota was nonplussed. "Look, don't get weird. We have a lot to do today. Go get into your nanosuit. I'll explain more later."

Victor moved to obey immediately, casting a questioning glance back at me as he exited the bedroom.

Kota turned back to me saying, "I wasn't sure if you would be up for the dining hall, so I brought breakfast back for us. I also retrieved your clothing and personal items from MedBay and left it in the bathroom." The smile he flashed was fast becoming familiar and warmed my insides. He turned and left so I changed quickly and hurried out to the main room where Kota and Victor, now in the black uniform, sat eating. Both were employing impeccable manners, but still appeared to be devouring their weight in food.

"We are testing and training today, Sang. Eat up. You will need the extra energy," Kota encouraged as he waved me to a seat between them and Victor heaped a pile of bacon-looking foodstuffs onto my plate. Did he really expect me to eat that much? Kota poured me a glass of klavi juice and dug back into his own meal. I ate as much as I could, but barely finished half of the amount Victor had portioned to me.

Victor finished and offered to take up the plates. "I apologize for my earlier behavior, [unknown Taren word]. Kota explained how you came to be here," Victor said as he placed the cutlery into the cleaner. The Interface translator was only giving me some sense of the term that Victor called me. Something about female descendant and leadership. I opened the Taren dictionary for some help. Apparently, the Lantarens on Muina had some sort of nobility and Victor had called me what equated to a princess. I felt the heat in my cheeks, once again.

As a distraction, I looked at his rank stripes. Two white stripes graced his arm. I knew the rank was Tset, but not what abilities the white represented. "What white chevron mean?" I asked pointing.

He glanced down at his arm then looked back up at me. His eyes flashed, like actual lightning across his pupil, and he replied, "Electrokinesis. Today, we can see how your ability affects me and really light up the elementals test room." Maybe that description of "fire in his eyes" needed to be reassessed.

At the training wing we met with Tsee Blackbourne and Ista Green, who had a bright smile and wink for me. Tsee Blackbourne merely said they would be watching from the observation room. So three of us entered the elementals room, which was outfitted with a blast door and various technology for extinguishing, redirecting and protecting us from any abilities that got out of control. I was starting to get nervous, but then Kota said we would start with testing speed first. He ran across the room and back to set a baseline, his unenhanced speed quite impressed me.

The black uniforms, or nanosuits as Kota had called them, could be adjusted at will by wearers. Hands could be covered or the glove segment retracted. Kota had adjusted his to expose his hand and I gingerly placed my palm against his, while Victor eagerly watched on. Kota took a deep breath then disappeared. It almost seemed as if he had teleported, but moving all around the room was a black blur. A few jodan later the enhancement must have worn off and he slowed to the previous speed, returning to where we waited, Victor with jaw dropped and eyes wide.

We stood for some time while the Setari participated in some sort of virtual Interface meeting. They looked excited despite the faraway gazes. For me, it was fairly boring. When they were dismissed, our trio moved behind a blast shield with a viewing window.

Kota, still in-channel for mission recording, stated, "Enhancement test - electrokinesis, Subjects - Morgan and Sorenson, Baseline."
Victor reached out from behind the shield and shot several lightning bolts from his hand. Then he stepped out fully from behind the shield, and flicked his wrist, producing a light whip that cracked and sizzled as he struck a target nearby. He extinguished the whip and stepped back next to me.

Kota said, "Enhancement test - electrokinesis, Trial 1 - bolts." Now, Victor practically vibrated with anticipation, a few sparks dancing across his eyes, but like Kota, offered his hand and patiently waited for me to place mine in his. I guess they decided to go back to hand holding, since he didn't let go. His hand felt different, a bit more slender, the fingers longer, and just as nice to hold. Again, he reached around the edge of the blast shield taking aim at a target halfway across the long room. Instead of bolts, however, a huge ball of lightning formed, travelled across the space, obliterated any targets in the way, then dispersed in a spectacular display when it hit the far blast wall. For several joden everyone was frozen in awe. Then Tsee Blackbourne, Ista Green and two grey-suits entered the room. While the others discussed this "impressive distortion", Ista Green checked me over, mentioning that my heart rate had gotten a bit high. At least Victor got a brief check up too.

Once again, we went through various trials that proved the distortion was consistent each time Victor was enhanced. Eventually, we moved in to enhancing the lightning whip, which only changed colors, but seemed to work about the same.

I was feeling a bit tired but relatively fine, until Kota placed his hand on the back of my neck and Victor grasped my hand at the same time. That's when everything went black.

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A/n: Sorry for a cliffy....Will post update asap.....and a shout out to my beta reader...