Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls]

by VanDerHeyden, Paul C.

  “Now what the fuck is wrong with you two?”

  ___

  Theo and Kat reflexively exchange a glance before Kat looks away quickly.

  “Nothing, it’s personal, you wouldn’t understand Iris,” Kat says, though she doesn’t look Iris in the eye while talking.

  “Oh, enough of that teenager bullshit, I’m getting the truth out of you two or you’ll be trapped in this room all weekend, including Monday,” Iris says in her most “Mom” tone. “Any more lies and I bust out indigo, trust me, you don’t want that.”

  Kat’s face blanches, though Theo just nods.

  “No lies here, we went through some more stuff regarding my lineage, Mom.”

  “Jolly told me all of that, no worries here, I’m still your mom, even if you’re three years older than the last time I saw you. The same can’t be said of Jolly, he’ll be walking funny for a while, leaving you to take care of a prison break on your own, that idiot.”

  “I didn’t lie, you wouldn’t understand what happened to me Iris, no one does. That’s the problem! I can’t…” Kat breaks down in tears and slides to her knees. Theo moves to help her up but she yells, “NO!” After yelling she scoots to the corner and rocks back and forth.

  “What happened Kitty?” Iris’s tone is full of concern. “Talk to us, even if we don’t know what you’re going through, we’re willing to listen. Right Teddy?”

  Theo nods. “Love, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, you know that. Let me help you, even if it’s just letting you vent to someone.”

  Iris nods in agreement.

  “Ever since that night...touching anyone reveals their most intimate thoughts and memories. No filter, the most intimate details of people’s consciousness laid out in front of me like a video gallery, except I can’t stop the videos from playing. It’s horrendous, the things some people have done, let alone want to do. I can’t even forget them anymore!

  “It’s more than I can bear, I’ve taken to avoiding physical contact with anyone. I even got a pair of gloves from Professor Tenzi to block it out, they worked for a while, but now it works through them too.” Kat’s voice grows ragged as she rants.

  “What night?” Iris asks.

  Theo replies, “This isn’t the best time to discuss it, but it looks like Jolly can keep a secret when it matters. Kat’s one of us now, a Child of the Dragon. Don’t ask how, I won’t tell you, but she is. On the 15th she Awakened to Water. It was bad, I ended up taking the brunt of the pain heading her way so she wouldn’t die. I had to, I couldn’t lose you Kat!” Theo stares Kat in the eyes.

  Iris looks shocked. “Both of you? Does that mean you can’t…?”

  “Not the biggest concern right now Iris, but no, we’re fine to be a couple. At least we would be if I could even hold his hand without risking knowing the depths of his soul!” Kat replies snippily, while pulling her hands through her hair.

  “Katrina Navarra,” Theo says, waiting to continue until Kat looks him in the eye. “Take my hand, I’ve already shared my deepest memories with you. I hope my wants don’t drive you away, but I don’t think they will. Lots of them include you,” he smiles and winks.

  “Kitty, you’re going to have to learn to deal with your new abilities eventually. Teddy is about as safe a bet as you’re likely to find, why not try it if he’s willing to lay his soul bare to you? That’s not something to take lightly. Trust me on this, my powers let me know more than I want to know on occasion as well, indigo is a scary color for even me,” Iris says as she takes a seat in the chair facing her desk, she turns in it to face Theo and Kat. “I’m here if you need me, but I’m not leaving until you figure this out.”

  Kat’s face goes through a gamut of emotions: despair, fear, grief, and anger before settling on determination.

  “Before that, I have to tell you one thing, I know more about Dante and Paul than I ever wanted to, Paul was my first trainer after my awakening. He clapped me on the back, but his finger touched my neck. I fell to the ground as I saw everything.” Kat shudders.

  “His brother Tyrone, better known as Firebird, is coming back...and this time he’s not going to be on our side. He’s pissed and is going to take it out on the world at large.”

  It’s Iris’ turn to have her face drain of color, she gasps, “Are you sure?”

  Kat nods. “I watched Paul fight him off through his portals dozens of times, each time he gets closer to escaping the hell he’s trapped in.”

  “I’ll have to talk to Jolly and Paul after this, that’s right, I’m not letting you get out of this so easily. Take his hand, just like you always do.” Despite her confident tone, Iris’ face tells a different story, she’s terrified.

  “I’ll stay right here,” Theo says before sitting down in a full lotus against the wall next to, but not touching, Kat. “You initiate contact when you’re ready.”

  Kat takes a deep breath. “It can’t be any worse than Mr. Anton right?”

  Eschewing the idea of taking his hand, Kat sits down on Theo’s lap with her back against his chest. Instinctively, Theo reaches around Kat and hugs her.

  Kat gasps as she takes in the contents of Theo’s soul.

  Chapter 56: Soul Searching

  Unlike the dark confines of Paul Anton’s soul, Theo’s soul glows a radiant gold.

  The “video gallery” playing before her shows a lot of moments she was there for, albeit from Theo’s perspective instead of her own. None of those give her pause, though she does smile at Theo trying to work up the courage to ask her out, including all 135 times he tried to do so and gave up, along with the split second decision to kiss her the first time.

  He’s as pure as I hoped he would be, though those draconic impulses are a bit worrying. I’ll have to help with those over time. Now on to the wants and soul itself. What the hell is that?

  As Kat looks over Theo’s soul, she sees that there are six distinct regions. It’s shaped like a circle with five equal portions, but about a third of each piece was taken by another circle in the center. Three of the regions are lit up, red and a yellowish-tan in the outer ring, and in the center is a yin yang symbol with a small golden ball embedded in the center of it.

  Deciding to move past the giant wheel, Kat ends up viewing Theo’s deepest desires. As he said, most of them did indeed involve her. Some make her heart flutter, while others make her gasp.

  Wow, all those years as a young frustrated boy left him with some creative ideas, I may just have to surprise him with some of those.

  Kat cackles a bit and turns to look more closely at the golden ball in the center of Theo’s soul. In response to her increased scrutiny, it pulses with a white gold light and Kat finds herself in Theo’s embrace again.

  “Wow, you are a total boy scout!” Kat exclaims. “I mean wow, like 70% of that was PG-13 or lower, though the rest was not as family friendly, it was still totally benign.”

  “I’m glad to hear it, it’s good to have you back to normal. While you were out I was thinking. We should take that out of town trip we talked about so much, remember which one?” Theo asks.

  Nodding, Kat answers, “Yeah, I forgot all about Granny, maybe she can help me?”

  “She probably could, though it might be dangerous.” Theo hugs Kat tighter.

  Kat turns and gives Theo a kiss on the lips. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

  “Granny?” Iris asks, obviously confused.

  Theo and Kat exchange glances before sharing a laugh.

  Theo nods and Kat begins, “Well you see…”

  Chapter 57: Off to See Granny

  The sunrise over Riverside City is something to be seen at least once and the best place to view it is from the crater ridge created by the blast that wiped out St. Louis and paved the way for Riverside City. The clean air lets the sun beams glint off of the glass and steel skyscrapers, shining in all their glory, the look of “The City of Tomorrow” or at least the look of a city on its way to this utopian vision by Ford or
Disney.

  Theo and Kat stand on the Southwestern portion of the ridge, above New Cahokia, and look toward Riverside City with wistful looks on their faces.

  Theo offers his hand out for Kat to take, after a moment’s hesitation, she grabs his hand.

  Cracking his neck, Theo looks down at Kat. “Well, are you ready to go? We have today, tomorrow, and Monday to get as many answers as we can. Hopefully we can get you some help with your sensitivity issues, I hope so at least.” He leans down and gives Kat a kiss on the forehead.

  A gasp escapes Kat’s lips. “Meanie, calling out my sensitivity issues like that. We’re going to find your family, why didn’t you mention that?”

  Theo raises his free hand. “Fair enough, I yield to your point. We’re also going to meet my family for the first time in the real world. I’m a bit nervous.” He chuckles a bit, all the while rubbing the nape of his neck.

  Kat slaps Theo on the butt. “Well, no time like the present Stud, let’s get going.”

  The pair walk down the path toward a small copse of trees, “Better safe than sorry, I don’t want to get any more nasty emails from Jolly or Brigid,” Theo jokes, “We should both get changed, did you bring your Nightmare outfit? I don’t think I saw it in with our clothes in my bag.”

  “I have a bit of a surprise for you, close your eyes until I tell you to open them. Promise?” Kat blushes despite her cheerful tone.

  After taking a comfortable stance leaning against a nearby tree, Theo answers, “I promise.” Immediately afterwards, he closes his eyes and focuses on his tremorsense. However, he still can’t see anything, there’s no sign of Kat. He sighs, “Floating? Really?”

  The tinkle of Kat’s laughter flows over Theo from above and behind the tree he’s leaning on, “You forget I know about your tremorsense, no way I’m going to let you spoil this surprise. Now, look straight ahead and open your eyes.”

  Theo tilts his head back from the craning he was doing to try and pinpoint Kat’s position, he opens his eyes and is unable to speak for a moment.

  Kat floats about an inch above the ground about ten feet in front of Theo. Gone is her old Nightmare outfit, replacing it is a set of black amethyst scales, a very dark purple with some black accents. Her scales sparkle in the morning sunlight, highlighting her curves, and accentuating her form. Gone is the black domino mask, replacing it is a mask that covers the upper half of her face, it ties into the strips of material holding her hair braid in place.

  “Well, what do you think?” Nightmare blushes again, hiding her face behind her hands.

  After he takes a moment to collect himself, Theo does his best to take in the new costume. He circles Nightmare like a shark does a swimmer who falls in the water, just taking her new outfit in. Finally, he stops about a foot in front of her.

  “You are beautiful, powerful, and I’m slightly jealous that other people are going to get to see you looking like that,” with that Theo shifts into Jinlong and gives her a big hug and then pulls her in for a kiss, banishing his face shield just before contact. After the kiss he pulls back, “If we didn’t have somewhere to be…”

  Nightmare smiles and gives Jin a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll take you up on that after this is all over. I don’t have to read your mind to know we’re both thinking the same thing.” She steps back and twirls a bit, “I love how it works with the braid you did! You should try and customize your scales Jin, it only took me a week to get them to look like this from what you have.” She indicates Jin’s full body suit with helmet.

  Jin groans. “Well now I have to. I can’t make you look bad being all basic like this, I’ll get on it later. Now, let’s get going. Are you ready for me to pick you up, or are you going to bubble behind me? Either works, but I need to know now,” he walks toward the patch of stone and dirt in the center of the copse of trees, cognizant that he might actually damage his surroundings during takeoff if he’s not careful.

  Nightmare floats over in front of Jin and settles between his arms. “Floating is best for conserving your power, but being carried is best for my power levels. We both know you’re the one with the stamina in this relationship.” She leans back against Jin for a moment before sidling forward a bit.

  Jin coughs a bit. “All right, carrying it is. We’re heading toward the Mark Twain National Forest, keep a lookout for wards and things. I don’t want to crash into one of those at speed. JEN, list Nightmare and I on a long range patrol for the next 12 hours please.”

  “Report filed Jin,” JEN replies.

  “Ready to go?” Jin looks down at Kat in his arms.

  After a bit of snuggling in, Nightmare nods, ‘Ready when you are, though we should probably converse like this while flying.’

  Jin gathers Nightmare up in his arms and jumps straight up off of the stone platform, which only survives due to the reinforcing Jin did while waiting for Nightmare to be ready. At 30 feet in the air Jin’s HUD shows a red flame at the bottom, “Excellent.”

  Jin engages his flight and rockets up into the air.

  A whoop escapes Jin as he accelerates, ‘Sorry about that, I’m just excited that I didn’t break anything when I took off today. Unless it’s something designed for it, I have an issue with the energy I use during takeoff damaging things unless I jump like that. That was the first time I reinforced my takeoff location myself, which worked! I’m just a bit excited about that.’

  ‘Makes sense, I was excited when I engaged my bubble shield on purpose for the first time,’ Nightmare’s tone implies that she finds it a bit humorous, but Jin is too excited to care.

  ___

  ‘How fast are we going?’ Nightmare asks a minute into the trip as she and Jin jet along toward the Mark Twain National Forest and Jin’s grandmother’s house. ‘I can’t see any details on the ground, it’s just a blur.’

  Jin clenches a bit. ‘You don’t want to know. Suffice to say, we’re almost there.’

  ‘What!?’ Nightmare exclaims. “JEN, two questions. One, how far from RAINBOW in Riverside City to the Mark Twain National Forest? Two, how fast am I going right now? Oh, and patch Jin and I in for team comms.”

  JEN’s soft tone enters both Jin and Nightmare’s earpieces. “The distance between RAINBOW and the Mark Twain National Forest is 72 miles and you are currently traveling 1125 miles per hour. You should arrive in less than two minutes.”

  “Thanks, JEN, you were helpful as usual.” Nightmare grimaces. “Jin, I felt this was better heard with your ears, what the actual fuck are you thinking going supersonic this low to the ground?”

  A sigh escapes Jin. “We’re exactly 30,500 feet up, it just looks closer due to your recent transformation. I’m not going to break the law while on a patrol, I’m not stupid.”

  “Oh, nevermind that part then. Why didn’t you warn me? What if my scales couldn’t take the friction at this speed?”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem, especially after Cinder taught me an old trick. I release a small amount of heat forward along my path, it heats the air up and makes it less dense, letting me travel faster and easier.”

  “Fair enough, are we there yet?” Nightmare asks petulantly.

  “Yeah, let me slow down though, then we can take a look around for the villa,” Jin replies, all the while doing his best to subtly release the tremendous amount of force forward it takes to slow him and Nightmare down.

  Eventually they slow to a stop, Nightmare pushes off of Jin and floats beside him. “I’m better at floating than you are, lots of practice before I could actually fly. What do you think this villa will look like?”

  “I’m imagining an Ancient Chinese shrine, but I’m probably wrong,” Jin muses as he scans the edge of the forest, dragging Nightmare along by the hand as he goes slowly.

  “Stop here. Well, I hope you’re not going to be disappointed, I think I spotted it and it’s nothing like you imagined. Look over there.” Nightmare holds up her hand and points down to the edge of the treeline.

  Jin shakes his hea
d. “I just see trees, what are you talking about?” He continues to look where Nightmare is pointing, but still can’t see what she’s talking about.

  Nightmare grabs Jin by the shoulders and pulls him around to look at her. “You can’t see the massive castle down there? The thing has to be five stories tall and at least as wide as a football field is long.”

  “Nope, but I trust you. You’re the one in this relationship with the sensitivity, magical and otherwise. Maybe it’s some kind of illusion blocking me from seeing it? You being a pure Mind might make you immune.”

  “That makes sense. JEN, mark where I point on the ground on Jin’s HUD, we’re landing.” Nightmare points at the villa below and JEN marks it for Jin.

  Jin starts slowly lowering them toward his grandmother’s villa. ‘I wonder if she’s there? I can’t decide if I want that or not. I can’t wait to see what’s in that box. I wonder what my mother left me?’

  ‘No matter what, we’ll deal with it together.’ Nightmare gives Jin a hug.

  “Thank you for helping,” Jin says out loud.

  ‘Oh, and I forgot to tell you, my draconic name is Zi Jing, it means amethyst.’

  ‘A fitting name for a woman as alluring as you, I’ll refrain from using that unless you want me to.’ Jin holds his free hand over his heart.

  ‘Maybe only when we’re alone, or when we’re in a heated battle and I get confused? I have a sneaking suspicion that you calling me by that name would pull me out of a funk.’

  ‘Got it.’ Jin hugs Nightmare a bit tighter as they descend.

  1000 feet off of the ground Jin and Nightmare pass through the illusion, revealing the villa for Jin to see for the first time. “Wow, it’s awesome, if a bit gaudy.”

  Spread out before the pair is a full blown castle made out of what appears to be a light grey or off white stone. Towers mark the corners of the castle, instead of medieval weaponry on top of the towers Jin can see the telltale signs of anti-aircraft weaponry, including spent brass. The rest of the castle is two or three stories with a large promenade and courtyard in front of it. The grounds are impressive, with a garden evident behind the smaller manor house in the back of the castle.