Chapter 63: 3.01 – Cool heads and hot bodies

In the first week of school, Leona was having trouble getting used to a schedule again. In the intervening time she became accustomed to transforming into Aurora to practice, patrol, or just take a flight for pleasure, and then she’d get together with friends or the exploring club.  Sometimes visiting Sarah for some frustratingly supervised hangout time. 

 

She tried the schedule with the buses, but quickly was frustrated and got tired of it. In the end she decided that leaving a little early to get to school as Aurora and then finding a hidden place to change back was a lot more fun and that gave her a lot more ‘me’ time.

 

She’d gotten it down so well that she could wait until nearly the start of school to head over and not be late.  She dialed it back a little to be sure she had enough time to find a place to change and preserve her identity, but it was the quickest and most efficient way to get to school.

 

When she told Quinn, she reassured her sister that she was helping to save the planet by reducing emissions as well, because after all, wasn’t saving the planet what superheroes did?

 

She became accustomed to actually flying to and from school, but this Monday, things were a little different. On the way, she spotted an eight-foot tall humanoid body seemingly made from stone with a three-foot tall squid head blackened and was glowing a sinister red.

 

It lashed out with tentacles, smashing and melting everything it touched, while its powerful body smashed cars as it crossed the street.

 

Two officers hopped out from their car and drew on the creature, calling for it to get on the ground.

 

It responded by flipping a car over onto them. Sweat drops.

 

// San Isidro :: Monday, September 14th //

 

Aurora swept in and released several focused and strong blasts after calculating how much it would take to send the car sailing into an open area of the street.  She halted the car and pushed it to the side. When it fell to the side, the monster lost interest, since the cops had ceased to fire.

 

Well, the thing wasn’t a giant monster, at least. It was just… comparatively giant.

One of the cops she saved spoke, “I’m more worried about that thing, rather than getting people out,” one of the cops said, levelling his gun at the monster again. 

His partner put a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, man, give her her shot, let’s try and get people back. We can always break out the shotgun if she fails.”

The other man frowned, but nodded. “All right, we’ll see what we can do,” he said.

The monster growled and postured, starting to smash its way down another streetway.  People were abandoning their cars and fled while the cops near were keeping the other people back.

Aurora flitted after it and after some consideration, she unleashed an experimental blast on the back of its squiddy head.

Her blast struck true and it spun, feeling the force of the light strike.  It roared at her, tentacles flipping and flopping wildly. It reached out and grabbed a metal pole where the crosswalk lights stood nearby. 

It started to smoke and melt as it tried to pry it up and with a creak it started to fall over. Two tentacles grabbed the light pole and it flung it up into the sky, roaring loudly again.

Ready to move, having some time to prepare due to how ponderously it moved, she folded her wings to let the object pass over her, falling towards the street.  She threw them out and pushed herself into the air after it passed.  Classic stall out maneuver.

Aurora paused and spoke. “Alright, so you can see just fine, Squidward.  How about your ears?  Can you talk or is all you can say is ‘Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!’?” Aurora yelled loudly.  She wondered if this was one of the monsters created by Padua.  Or was it one of the monsters that actually lived off in the Pacific Ocean?   If it was one of those kids or a Councillor, it was a particularly nasty mutation.  She waited for a response and prepared to defend herself. She needed to know how much of a mind the thing had, if any.

“HHAAAAAAAAAAHT! AAAARRRRRRHHHAAAAAHT!” it yelled and hugged itself, the tentacles still whipping about.

Aurora understood intuitively.  That thing was hot… maybe it was looking for water. “I’ll take you to the water. Will you trust me to bind you and carry you there?” she yelled. “I won’t harm you. If you need something else, tell me, but I get the feeling you’re hot and uncomfortable right now. Did I guess that correctly?”

 

It seemed to quiver at that moment, and then tried to grab its own tentacles. They seemed to have a mind of their own, halfway, but some were resisting.  It howled, holding on to the majority of them, but they were wriggling and whipping around, causing a ton of damage.  It was literally fighting itself.  Trying to be free.  It shook its head slowly, almost losing its grip on some of the tentacles again.

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Aurora knew she had a huge problem here.  She swooped in and formed a ball construction around it using her halo power, and focused on constricting it around its bulbous form, but she left its head uncovered, decided that it had the most control there.

“I can tell how much you’re struggling.  It’s hard to restrain those tentacles.  I appreciate the effort.  It might be a bit stuffy, but I’ll fly very fast.  We’ll be over to some water in no time flat!” Aurora grit her teeth, feeling the tentacles thrashing against her halo.  She held it firmly against the failing.  She focused on the stability of it as she applied her aura to the whole mass and lifted off, making a beeline for the ocean, first.  It was the most obvious body of water in the vicinity, and the one that would trouble fewer people. She was almost unable to lift it, but she grit her teeth and forced it.

“Just hold on tightly!” Aurora yelled. She had to be as quick as possible.

As Aurora carried it, she started to feel its strength and the heat emanating from its misshapen body.  It was already starting to weaken the construct.  There was a massive strain on Aurora’s wings and arms as she twirled and swooped, keeping it as high up as possible, her wings frantically flapping.  And as she flew, the construct continued to weaken.

She did her best to maintain the integrity of her halo, and created ridges around the body, remembering how heat-sinks worked.  She didn’t know if her construct would function, but reducing the heat would help a bit.  She had to find some water. Getting to the ocean might be a pipe dream under the circumstances.  As she struggled, she spotted a fountain, but cursed under her breath. People would be there.  They may be harmed.

The modifications to her construct seemed to help a little, but she still wasn’t sure she’d make it to the ocean.  She continued to give it her best.  The creature wasn’t moaning or screaming, but it was thrashing and fighting its own battle.  She simply had to get him to the ocean. There was little choice, but if she could buy a little time, any water would help.  A backyard pool?  Any body of water of a substantial size would do.  She couldn’t give up, she wouldn’t surrender.

 

As she twirled and moved through the streets, the construction started to crack again. 

She pulled up higher towards the rooftop and when she spotted a water tower, she silently hoped the owner would pardon her.  Slamming the creature into the tower, water poured out onto the creature. It wasn’t enough but steam exploded around. The hiss of steam escaping was like a whistle.  But the brief cooling made it easier to reinforce the construct again.  She spun and used the momentum and released the construct for a moment, sending the monster up into the air.  She chased after it and created another construct, this time a curved wall, changing the monster’s direction, angling it towards the water.

Part of her training had taught her how to maintain several constructions at once. She changed the direction the monster was rolling and angled it towards the ocean.

She shot repeatedly in front of it, creating one after another construct, catching it, guiding it.  The weight and work made her start drooping, but she kept at it.  She slung a tether onto the ball around it and finally, close to the ocean, but not quite at the goal, she let it swing. The momentum carried it around. She spun, wielding it like a morningstar flail.  It swung like a great pendulum. She redirected the momentum and slung it directly to the ocean, clinging to the tether. She was dragged through the air after the sailing creature.

When they neared the ocean, she put on the brakes, so to speak, heaving powerfully with her wings. She reduced their velocity, so when they entered the water it was a gentle and smooth immersion.  

She splashed down with it and the constructions came undone the very moment they made contact.  She hoped it would swim away peacefully as she swam up.  The water around her heated up intensely.  Aurora leapt up into the air, sending a shower of water everywhere around when she breached and her wings spread.  She fluttered tiredly, looking downwards.

There were clouds of steam and bubbles rising from the spot.  She didn’t see it resurfacing.  Aurora cursed softly under her breath.  After having gone to such lengths, she was not going to let it die if it couldn’t swim after all. She formed a capsule-type barrier around herself and dove smoothly.  She saw it underwater. It wasn’t moving. The water was cooling.

Throwing her arms around the thing, pulled its head into the capsule around her while she put an aura around it and flew upwards out of the water.  She flew it to the nearby beach which thankfully was currently empty.  She set down on it.  All the while, the glowing of the creature had ceased, and it was becoming more and more grey as though it was dying.  Aurora worried about whether she’d made the right choice.

It slumped on the sand, unmoving, though its skin started to crack and cool further.  Aurora touched it and sighed softly.  It had completely become immobile, frozen stone.

She sat on the sand sadly, physically exhausted from holding onto the containment around the creature.  She had to catch her breath.  There was something like a cry coming from a long distance away.

Aurora looked at the monster, wondering. It was coming from what seemed like a mouth… a hole really in the stone.

She was shocked and tried healing it, hoping she could revive it.  Her halo went around it but it did not dissipate and the more direct and powerful form of healing she’d mastered didn’t have any effect on it either.

Aurora laid her hands on it and released her healing light on it, imbuing it with as much as she could.  However, she knew it was hopeless.  Midway, she heard something else and she put her ear close to the hole.

“Hlllp… cnt breeev…” It was faint, and yet there.

She surrounded her hands with her field and carefully pounded on the chest of the creature as hard as she could.  The stone started to chip and crack each time she struck.  And the beak of the squid-head cracked completely off the body.  It was actually like quick-hardened ash.

Would anything come of her hard work? Chip by chip the stone crumbled...

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