I stared at the piece of pie in my hand. I'd folded up Homicide, and... now I had pie? I held it up to my face and stared at it. Every part of it, from the golden brown crust to the dollop of whipped cream looked exactly like what you'd imagine a perfect piece of pie to look like. Where had it come from? Was it a reward from Lorgiaia for defeating a bad guy? Or was it... I looked around the room for any sign of Homicide, then back at the pie. I couldn't have actually... Could I?
I looked over to Alele to ask what she'd seen, and her scared and sick expression told me everything I needed to know.
"Holy shit..." I whispered. "I think I can turn people into pie?"
"That's- that's not a real power, no. It's got to be something else, maybe he teleported or something, and swapped places with a piece of pie?" Galora said, lifting Lucy up onto her shoulder.
"We need to find someone still alive to transfer Lucy's wound to. You and Alele see about finding that video and deleting it."
I nodded, still looking at the pie.
"Yeah, we'll figure it out..." I said, distracted.
"Uh, Candy, I- I watched him turn into that piece of pie, I'm pretty sure that's him..."
Alele said as the other three left the room.
"Uh huh, yeah, I know I don't get it though, I folded him, why is he pie now?" I muttered, turning the pie left and right to see if there was anything odd about it.
"I'm going to look at the computers, just... help when you're ready, I guess." Alele said, her voice still scared and confused.
I picked up Homicide's gun and shoved it into my dress pocket. The pocket was under most of the fluff, so the gun was mostly hidden to anyone looking on. I didn't want him turning back and instantly grabbing his gun again. I found his right hand man's gun too, and tossed it away down the hall outside the room. I didn't think there'd be a reason for me to have two guns, but I didn't want him grabbing it either.
"Candy? I need you..." Alele said from inside the office.
I stepped back in. "Yeah? What's up?"
"I can't even get past the log in screen, do you know computers?"
I shook my head.
"No, I'm a farm girl, remember? I barely know how to use my smart phone."
"Uuugh, I was hoping it'd be like, me assuming stuff again, and you'd actually be great at computers..." She moaned.
"Well... I know who can help us..." I said, holding up what I was presuming was Homicide.
She wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, but how do we know he'll help us once you turn him back?"
"Because," I said "if he doesn't, I'll just turn him into pie again, duh."
She nodded slowly. "Ooook, but if I say to stop, something bad happened, ok?"
"Got it, ok, let's just..."
I set the pie on the desk, and poked the side of it. I could feel the spark, the same something I'd found in him before, and I tried to grab hold of it. I pulled, and focused, but I just couldn't get a good grip. It was almost like it was inside a jello mold, and I could see it, but I couldn't reach through the goo, all I could do was paw at the sides, feeling the shape of the thing inside, but not reaching it. I tried harder, closing my eyes and straining at the tiny sparkling thing, if I could touch it, I could unfold it, and he'd be out, I just couldn't quite get to it...
"I... um... can't quite turn him back." I said, leaning back.
Alele's eyes widened. "What?! That's- that's not right, that's... not a power someone would have, right? Just make people into pie without being able to make them people again?"
I shook my head. 'I mean, powerful magic users can turn people into rats and frogs and stuff, right?"
"No, that's different, they're perverting the powerflow, our powers come from the gods, and they manage that shit for us, Lorgiaia wouldn't just make that a real power..."
I frowned, and held my finger against the edge of the pie. "I can... I can still feel him, he's still there, still alive. It's just like he's coated in something thick that I can't reach him through..."
Alele pointed. "Yeah, he's coated in pie. He's a pie, Candy."
I blinked, thinking of something "Oh... Oh! What if the reason I can't reach him is the pie?"
"And... what would that mean exactly?" She asked.
"It means... Ugh, I hope I'm right..." I picked up the piece of pie and held it in front of my mouth.
"Oh gods..." Alele whispered. "Oh that is sick. I'm not watching this..." She turned away and covered her face.
I didn't blame her... This was a risky move, and a little gross, but I needed to try. It's not like it'd kill him I'm sure, it'd just be a test, right? I opened my mouth and took a bite, the tip of the pie. I braced for something gross, and... I chewed. It was... pie. Just pumpkin pie. Granted, it was the best pie I'd ever had, better than my grandmother's even, but it still just tasted like pie. I swallowed, and reached out to the spark again, trying to see if the shell around Homicide's soul had faded. It really hadn't, it was still just as thick, but the spark itself was going crazy now. Jittering, shaking, and flickering. I sighed, it was worth a try. Hopefully that bite hadn't done too much damage to him when he turned back, but even if it did, Drizti could fix it.
Alele turned around and uncovered her face. She was glaring at me. "You really should have told me it didn't work faster..." She said, crossing her arms.
"Really? Why?" I asked.
She pointed to the pie again, and I looked down. The pie was dripping blood from the bite, oozing and flowing out in sticky, thick strings to the floor.
"Oh, ew!" I yelled. "Why didn't you warn me?"
"I tried, this is round two, you told me it failed too late."
I groaned. "Uuugh, I don't- I don't understand... Why is it bleeding?"
"Uh, I don't know, maybe because it's a fucking person?" She snapped. "Now we can't get into the computer, AND we have a bleeding piece of human pie to take care of."
"No, there's got to be a reason why I have this power, it's gotta be... Something..." I said, pacing back and forth. "Wait, let me see if I can guess the password, maybe eating him gave me part of his memory?"
She shuddered. "GODS, Candy, don't just talk about eating people like that... That's disgusting..."
"Well..." I mumbled. "I already did it, so..."
I type away, trying the obvious words first, then the weird stuff that popped into my mind, then just typing at random. Nothing worked, I hadn't absorbed anything...
"Godsdamnit..." I said, smacking the desk. It dented inward, and buckled. I stared at the indent of my palm in the metal and then back to my hand.
"What the fuck was that?" I asked.
"Could you do that before? You mentioned beating your brothers-"
"No no no, nothing like that. Here, you punch it now." I said, cutting her off.
"Ok, uhh..." She smacked the desk, and it made a clanging noise, but it didn't dent.
I hadn't been that strong during training, and I didn't think my power involved super strength, unless... I eyed Homicide sitting on the desk next to me.
"Alright, so, I'm going to take another bite-" I started.
"Candy, NO. That's a person!" Alele squealed.
"No- listen, ugh. I'll take a bite, and punch the desk again, then you rewind, and tell me what happened, ok?"
"Cannibalism still counts even if you time-travel it away, you know..." She said, but she didn't protest past that.
I took a breath, and lifted the pie to my lips again.
"Ok, ok stop!" She yelled. "The desk crumpled and was totally smashed, it's definitely eating Homicide that made you strong."
"Ok, ok... ok..." I said, thinking "So now, what if you-"
"Candy, it is bleeding." She hissed. "I am not doing that."
That was fair. I wondered how my future/past self had handled the blood. The idea of biting into a bleeding, living thing made me want to gag just thinking about it... I still felt strong though, just from the one bite, if we couldn't get into the files... We could destroy them, right?
"So, I think... I think I'm going to start trashing the place, before my strength wears off, before he changes back, if it's on a timer or something." I said, flexing my arms.
"Wait, what if there's a backup somewhere? He could just-"
"He could just what? Try and cross the only girl in town who's power effects him? Once I turn him back, he'll be way too scared of me to try anything" I said smugly.
"Ok, fine, just... I'll be outside." She said, moving to leave.
"Hey, could you hold this then? I need both hands." I handed her Homicide.
"Ew, ew ew ew.... uuugh, fine, what if it is on a timer and he turns back? I can't fight him..." She said, her fingers splayed as she held him.
"Then you rewind time, and tell me he's coming." I said, annoyed. Gods, it's like she didn't remember she even had a power.
She left, and I set to work. I smashed the monitors first, tearing them off the walls, then started on the racks of data storage behind them, punching through them and ripping them out of the walls. The lights flickered, and the servers sparked as I tore through them, but it didn't seem to hurt me much. I moved to the other walls of the room, pulling the panels off and smashing the strange machines behind them too, before climbing on top of the desk and smashing my way into the ceiling, breaking the electronic boxes up there as well. I kicked through the ceiling in a different spot, and dropped down to the ground, right in front of an angry Galorna.
"Candy, what the fuck?" She asked.
"I, uh, broke the computers, now he can't leak anything when he turns back." I said, slightly unsure of myself now.
"What do you mean turn back? I really don't think he's that piece of pie you had, Candy." She said, shaking her head.
"Uhh, nooo? He's absolutely the pie, look at this..." Drizti said from behind her. I looked around Galorna to see her and Lucy standing by Alele.
The pie had bled all over Alele's fingers, and was dripping onto the floor. She was looking away, covering her face with her other hand.
"It's stickyyyyy" She moaned
"Oh, what the fuck..." whispered Galorna "Wait- there's a bite missing, Candy, what the fuck?"
I shook my head "No! No, see, I could feel his soul inside it, so-"
"So you just chowed down, nice. I'd do the same." Lucy said, laughing. Her bullet wound must be better now, she wasn't in any condition to laugh last time I saw her.
"No, look, there's a shell around his soul, so I can't get through it to turn him back, I thought that meant I'd need to eat him to change him back, but- it didn't work..."
"It did make her crazy strong though, like, Galorna strong. If she ate more of it, she'd be like, full on troll strong or maybe more." Alele offered, pushing the pie back at me.
"I can't believe you just ate part of one of the city's biggest crime lords, that's..." Galorna shook her head.
"Well..." I said. "I was trying to fix him. I don't know what else to try at this point."
She sighed and looked around at the wrecked office. "We need to get out of here, I called an ambulance with one of the guard's phones for the guys we beat up and the one we gave the gunshot to, they'll be here any minute. We'll... bring Homicide with us, I guess? And try and think of something as we head home."
I nodded, and we headed out. I looked down at Homicide in my hands as we left the building, there had to be something I was missing, something I could change... He couldn't be stuck like this, right?
~~~
We walked down the street, all of us un-transformed. I had hoped Homicide would shift back once I did, but no luck there. It was past 2AM, and the streets were mostly empty, with the sounds of hero fights off in the distance. I was getting a creeping feeling of dread that I just... might not be able to change him back to human form, and I was starting to feel a little sick about it.
"Hey, Galorna?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence "Can I ask you a huge, huge favor? I understand if you don't want to, but-"
"What is it, Candy? I can't agree unless I know what it is." She said tiredly.
"Uh, well... Saara was a sorceress, and... they can turn people into things, right? So... I was wondering if maybe she could help me un-turn him from... this..."
Galorna groaned. "Ugggh... I really don't want to see her. Or ask her for anything, seriously, can't you just try something else? Maybe like, you're doing it wrong?"
I shook my head "No, my power is like, I can take hold of something, and fold it up. I could un-fold him into a person if I could get ahold of him, I just can't get a hold of him. I think I need help..."
"...Fine, whatever. She seemed calm enough earlier, I'll see if she's still up." She dug in her pocket for her phone and dialed.
She held it to her ear for a moment, and then sighed as Saara answered.
"Yeah, it's me.
"No, I'm fine, it's-
"Listen, it's one of my teammates, the one who got the reading?
"No, she's still alive, gods...
"She had a problem with her power, it's a transformation power, and-
"No, she transformed Homicide, and she can't turn him back.
"...Uh, a piece of pie...
"Yeah, she did, he's bleeding now.
"I don't know, pumpkin or sweet potato I think? Is that important?
"Ok, yeah.
"Ok. We can do that.
"Thank you, baby- uh, Saara. I'll see you soon."
She slid her phone into her pocket, and stared at the ground. I waited, but she didn't say anything.
"Um... Are- are you ok Galorna?" Drizti asked.
"Yeah, I just really didn't want to do this," she said. "I really wanted to cut ties clean with all my past life stuff, and now it's getting mixed into my new life."
She looked up and gave us a once over. "This is a one time thing, ok? We're not using my connections and my ex for anything else after this, ok? I want to separate from all that."
"Well, if we have access to resources..." Alele said
"No, I agree, we need this to be the last time, that's a good call." Lucy said, nodding.
"Yeah, anyway. Her apartment is this way, it's not too far." Galorna said, heading off down a side street.
We walked for about twenty minutes before coming to a nice brick building. Galorna walked up to the doors, and pressed a button next to them. A moment later, a ding sounded, and she pushed the door open.
"Ok, she's up a floor, room 207." She said.
"I wasn't expecting such a nice apartment complex..." I said as we walked in.
"Well, crime does pay after all, and she caters to criminals, so..."
We walked in silence until we got to her door and Galorna knocked. It swing open to reveal the same lady as before, but... Much less impressive. Gone were the leather straps and scary cloak, now she was just a sleepy lady in bike shorts and a t-shirt that was much too big for her (Galorna sized). She smirked, and waved us in. Her apartment was cozy; a big couch (also Galorna sized), a fluffy rug, browns and tans everywhere, and every square inch of the walls covered in symbols, cards, animal parts, and other magical items.
"That's not your shirt, Saara. I was hoping to get my stuff back while I was here, I can't do that if you're wearing it." Galorna said, sitting and folding her arms.
"Aw, well, if you want, I can take it oooooff?~" Saara said, pulling the shirt up halfway.
"No, just- damnit, just keep it. And stop flirting,you broke up with me." Galorna growled.
"I wasn't about to quit my job- the job that got you off the streets might I add- and move into a smaller, shittier apartment without you even in it,just so you wouldn't get in trouble for dating a 'villainess'."
"You didn't even try to find a compromise, you just dumped me as soon as I told you I got chosen, before I even started the team, I wanted to make it work, you decided it can't." Galorna bit back.
She looked embarrassed to be having this conversation in front of us, but it sounded like she'd wanted to say it for a while.
Saara shook her head. "I can see the future, Lorna, and we would have ended up broken up either way. I keep my business? You get called out for it when we're seen together and it ruins your life. I get brought on as an independent contractor for your team? It draws attention and I get targeted by the fallen who used my services because they assume I'm going to tell their secrets. I stop working fully, and just live on your pay? I end up depressed and lonely because you're never around and I can't do what I love best. I tried, Lorna. I ran the predictions over and over for weeks before you told me. I already knew, gods leave so much power behind it'd be hard to not notice one had been here, but I waited until you told me before I said anything, hoping all that time that you'd reject it, that you'd choose me. But I still love you, so, yeah, forgive me if I flirt a bit with the love of my fucking life, ok?"
I swallowed hard, I could see Galorna was trying her best to hide her tears. We shouldn't have been here for that, but this was probably the last time Galorna would ever see her again, so... If it had to be said, it needed to be now, in front of anyone around to hear it. Lucy reached out to touch Galorna's shoulder, but she tensed up, and Lucy lowered her hand again, and sagged. Some things just needed to be left alone.
"Well." Saara clapped her hands and took a shaky breath "I want to move on to something else. Let's see this pie of yours. Come on, girlfriend stealer, into my kitchen."
I followed her in, and Drizti followed behind me. I set Homicide on the table, and sat down, Drizti climbing up on the chair beside me.
"I can feel his soul inside, and it's alive and moving, but... I can't reach it to turn him back..." I offered as she looked closely at it, holding her hands over the top.
"Uh huh, yeah..." She said "I can see something under this pie... This is... more like a magic curse than a chosen power. Most chosen use powers by using their own energy to draw off their god's energy, and have to keep drawing energy from both sources at a steady rate to use their powers."
Drizti nodded. "Yeah, that's why we can't hold our transformations, it takes something out of me, and it takes a while to recharge."
Saara laughed. "Yeah, that 'something' is the entire source of my power, it's magic. Everyone has at least a little, and I've trained myself to have a LOT."
She poked the pie on the bleeding part and licked her finger.
"Oh, even the blood tastes like pie, interesting..." She said, thinking.
"Anyway when, I use my power to start a change or fuel a spell, I put all the energy into it at once, and then it goes by itself, no more energy from me needed. That's how magic transformations usually work; you give the spell enough energy to do the change, and set it off. A chosen, on the other hand, isn't using magic, they're just streaming energy from their god, they can't build it up, it's just 'whatever their god is offering them in that moment'. That means you should have to be constantly putting power into whatever you changed, but there's not an energy flow between you and this pie. It's fully stable, like a sorcery transformation would be."
I felt a bit sicker and shuddered. "Ok, so... What does that mean? How do I undo it?"
"Well..." Saara said. "You're still connected to the person via a spiritual link, you can still feel them inside, right? There should be a trigger or catalyst to make the change. Can you feel any kind of fluctuations in them?"
I nodded "Yeah, when I took a bite, the little spark went crazy, but the shell around it didn't move."
"I still can't believe you ate it..." Drizti said. "I can't imagine eating a pie I found in a bad guy hideout, even if it wasn't actually a bad guy..."
"I thought it'd help me change it back..." I said, sadly.
"Ok, that aside, can you do me a favor?" Saara asked. "I want you to pick him up, and focus on the spark, ok?"
I picked up the pie, and focused. The spark was still there, twinkling, sitting, not doing anything.
"Ok, now..." She said. "I need you to take another bite."
I shuddered, but if it would help... I'd apparently already taken a second bite once, it couldn't be too bad... I lifted the pie up, and the spark inside went crazy again, flickering, shaking, and bouncing inside the shell. Just as the pie touched my teeth, Saara held up her hand.
"Ok, stop. Did anything change with the spark?"
"Uh, yeah, it got scared, or I guess Homicide did..." I responded.
"Oh, ew, he's like, aware?!" Drizti said, recoiling.
"Sounds like it." Saara agreed. "That means one thing, he's not actually a pie. That's what I was worried about. See if he was physically turned into a pie, we just undo the magic and rewind so he's the same him as before. A piece of pie has no brain, no organs, nothing to support life, so that stuff is inside the magic spell, not the object. If that were the case, he'd be fully unaware of everything around him."
"But he can still see and stuff?" I asked.
"Yup, and that's because he's not actually a pie. How did it feel when you changed him?"
I looked for the right words. "Well, it was like I held his spark, and I pulled it, and turned it inside out, and folded the rest of him on top of itself?"
"And that's the 'shell' stopping you from getting to him. That 'shell' is him, his body and mind. You almost had the right idea about eating him, but you'd have to break him fully, body and mind to be able to actually reach the spark, and... the pie isn't real."
"No, what? That's stupid, the pie is right there in front of us." Drizti said, pointing.
"Yeah, I don't understand..." I said.
"Ok, so like," Saara said "you folded him in on himself, but not really, right? He'd die if you actually did that. So you just folded him conceptually, and now he's pie, right? So that means..." Saara looked at us expectantly.
"That... he's inside the pie?" I asked, more confused than before. "How does this help me turn him back?"
"No- ugh, I hate talking about magic with normies, look. He's not inside the pie, because there is no pie, there's just Homicide. What you did is to take him and his whole existence, and contain it within the conception of a piece of pie. You tricked the universe into thinking he's pie"
"But... She ate a bite, you can't eat bites of people like that, right?"
"Ohhhhh, gods, ugh." She moaned "Ok, so... He's contained within the conception of a pie, right? And pie is something we can eat, so if he's conceptually a pie, despite him not being a pie, as far as the universe is concerned, because remember, the universe thinks he's pie, he can be eaten."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but how the fuck does that help me?" I asked laying my head on the table.
"It means that he might still count as human for some things. Now, I'm guessing you have a healer on your team?"
Drizti lit up. "Oh! Me! I can heal him to normal!"
"Ok, maybe, how does your power work?" Saara asked.
"I can transfer wounds from one person to another!" She said proudly. "Oh, wait... then someone else would be pie..."
"Ok... Does it have to be a person?" Saara asked.
Drizti shook her head. "I'm not sure, I've never tried it with anything but people, why?"
Saara got up and headed into the room off the kitchen. She came back a moment later holding a white mouse.
"This is a feeder mouse, I was going to feed it to my snake earlier, but she wasn't interested. I want you to try transferring the curse to this mouse, ok?" She said.
"You feed your snake live mice?" I asked. "I thought that was bad or something..."
"Nature is nature, she likes live mice, I provide." Saara dismissed me. She set the mouse on the table, holding it down with her hand.
"I won't accidentally get hurt myself, right?" She asked.
"Just... don't touch the green part..." Drizti said nervously.
She held out her hands, and formed a bar with her lights. She lowered one end to Homicide, and moved the other towards the mouse. If this worked, I could finally breathe easy. I wouldn't have doomed a person to a life as a dessert. If it didn't, I... might not have a place on the team anymore, and I cursed someone to a hell on earth. I really, really wanted it to work. I reached in my hoodie pocket for the gun I'd picked up in case he came back mad, not that it'd do much against him, but it wasn't there... I guess it was stuck in my magical girl form's dress. I'd have to change later to get it out of my pocket, but for now... I braced myself.
The light touched the mouse, and it instantly squealed, kicking and shaking, writhing under Saara's hand.
"Oh- what the fuck?!" She said, moving her hand away. I gasped. The mouse's hind legs were missing and bleeding, and it shook and twitched as it tried to get away from us. I looked at Homicide, and saw that once again, the pie was perfectly whole, no bite missing.
"Well... shit." I said, feeling worse by the minute. I couldn't fix it, I'd ruined someone's life, I'd essentially killed him. I'd bitten his legs off. This was worse than killing him, I couldn't fix it, he was like this now, I could never-
"Yeah, I'm out of ideas. I got nothing, girls." Saara said, holding the mouse up by its tail. "But hey, if you ever decide you want to go fallen, I know a few people who'd really like to have that power on call. Good luck finding whatever triggers the change back."
"Yeah, t-thank you." I said, picking Homicide up. I was reeling, I felt like I was floating, and I couldn't think right. Was this what Galorna felt when she'd killed that guy? I walked back into the living room, and felt something being pushed into my other hand by Saara. It was a disposable plastic box for food. I put Homicide into it and closed it up. I heard Saara and Drizti talking to the others, and I felt Lucy pulling on my arm, leading me out. I walked behind the others, Lucy pulling my hand as we went home.
Somehow, I got back to the building. Willa wasn't waiting for us this time, and we all went upstairs to our rooms. Alele helped me into mine, and took Homicide from me. I was happy to see him go, I just wanted to not worry about him for a while. I walked into my bedroom to lay down on the bed, on top of the covers and I closed my eyes and tried not to think about my power.
~~~
I woke to my alarm going off, and I moaned. It was Saturday, why did I have an alarm on? We weren't even official yet... I dug my phone out and checked it. It was the alarm for the meeting this afternoon. The meeting... I rolled off the bed and looked up at the ceiling of my room. Everything was too dark in here... I know they were trying to match it to my color, but deep red is a horrible color to paint the walls with. Who's idea was it to color code our bedrooms anyway? I tried to think back to the planning emails, but I hadn't know the girls then, so it was hard to remember who said what.
I stood up slowly. I had less than ten minutes to get to the meeting, the past me that set the alarm must have assumed I'd be out of bed long before now. Jokes on you, past self, I spent the whole night-
I got a chill as I remembered what I'd done, and I slowly exited my room, looking for the container with Homicide in it. It wasn't on my table, or in the kitchenette... I walked over and opened the fridge, and sure enough, sitting on the shelf, all alone, in a plastic box, was the piece of pie. I stared at it for a long while. Should I say something? I couldn't hear a response anyway, so would it even matter if I did say anything? Would talking to him make it weirder, or make him feel more human? Eventually, I did nothing. I closed the door, and left my apartment. I might as well head down to the meeting room, I was already dressed after all.
~~~
I sat in my seat, staring down at the screen but not really reading it. It didn't seem right, something was off, no one else had a power like that, why did I? I hadn't even heard of a power like mine before. There had to be a way to fix it... I heard my name and I looked up.
"Candy? Candy are you with us?" Willa was asking, looking as sharp and perky as ever.
"Uhh, yeah, I'm just- last night went really bad, I-" I didn't know what to say, I couldn't focus.
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, but please try to stay focused, ok? We were talking about the big first day on Wednesday!" She said, smiling.
I looked around, and saw the other girls were in rough shape too. Galorna's eyes were puffy like she'd been crying, Alele looked scared, and the other two were quiet, not making eye contact. Oori looked frustrated, and he looked from girl to girl, leveling his stare at each of us in turn. Right... We weren't supposed to talk about the mission... That made things easier, I really didn't want to discuss that right now.
I looked at the screen in front of me, and saw sketches of cookies and sweets, colored like the other girls. A cookie that was red and and yellow for Galorna, a green and grey pastry roll for Drizti, A blue cupcake with gold and black sprinkles for Alele, a black and tan gummy sucker for Lucy, all the girls but me, all sweets. Was this a prank? A collection of what they'd look like if I folded them? Who would play such a mean trick? Were they trying to make me think about what I'd done? Why would they do that? Didn't they know I was already freaking out?
Alele put her hand on mine "Candy, we're designing our sweets for the-"
I felt her skin touch mine, I felt the connection, the energy activate, I felt her spark, and I screamed. I lunged back over the chair, backing away from her, from the girls, pressing myself against the wall.
"NO! No, don't touch me!" I screamed "Gods, I felt it, I felt you, Alele, I almost did it, I can't, I can't, please, don't touch me..."
The tears gushed out of me, and I curled up, hiding my skin inside my hood, inside my pockets. I couldn't touch them, I couldn't touch anyone. I sobbed harder, I couldn't touch anyone ever again. I couldn't hug them, I couldn't kiss them, I couldn't even high five them.
Alele was crying too, and I heard her run out of the room, the door sliding closed behind her.
"Can anyone tell me what in Lorgiaia's beautiful glory is going on?" rumbled Oori.
"Fuck, it was obviously that stupid fucking mission you sent us on last night, dumbass!" yelled Lucy. "Galorna killed some guys, I got shot, and Candy turned a crime lord into a fucking snack, we're a little fucking upset, ok? And you have us talking about... about... fucking junk food like we're not all fucking broken over this? Gods, I'm surprised Candy was the only one of us to snap..."
She sat back down, hard. The room was quiet, until Oori spoke up, softer but angrier.
"Lucy, what mission are you talking about? I didn't send you on any missions, you're not even close to ready. Did you girls really go out and fight crime last night?"
"Oh, for- Seriously?" Galorna asked, frustrated "I know we weren't supposed to mention it, but it's very clear that we need to talk about it. Candy is a gibbering mess, Alele is traumatized, and I'm still trying to reconcile the fact that I punched two people so hard their brains sprayed out their ears, we clearly are not ok."
I lifted my head and looked around my chair. Willa's eyes were wide, and her smile forced. Oori took off his glasses and shook his head.
"Girls, I honestly would never have sent you out yet, no matter what. I'd hire a team of fallen for-hires before I did that. Now tell me, where did you get the mission from?"
"From..." Drizti pointed. "From the screens, from yesterday's meeting?"
"We didn't have a meeting yesterday, who called the meeting?" He said, coldly.
Drizti slowly pointed to Willa. "She- she did? It was about us accidentally eating at a villain owned restaurant..."
Oori nodded, and asked again, gently. "And the mission was to?..."
"We were supposed to get the video Homicide had of us at his place, and destroy it... It had me getting drunk in it..." Lucy said, embarrassed.
"Ok. I see. Thank you. I'd like you to all return to your rooms, get some rest. I think I know what happened, and I'll take care of it." He said.
I followed the girls out of the room, trailing behind so I didn't bump into them. I looked back at Oori as I walked out the door to see if he was angry with us. He was angry, but not at us. He was glaring at Willa, who was hyperventilating and shaking her head.
"I was acting in the best interest of the girls, Oori, I was just-"
The doors slid closed behind me cutting them off. I took a deep breath, and headed to my room. I took the stairs behind the elevator, to make sure I didn't run into the other girls. I couldn't risk them touching me. I couldn't risk anyone touching me ever again.