Chapter 6: Chapter 6

“Piper, Sev’s acting weird for a long time now.”

Piper nodded her agreement at her sister’s observation, but kept her eyes on the road as she maneuvered the tank around a rather potholed stretch of road.

“Remember what he said,” she replied over her shoulder. “Just leave him be and if he doesn’t look good, let me know.”

“I know.” Nat paused for a second. “Do you think he can hear us?”

“I don’t know, Nat. But we better not disturb him.”

Sev had tried working on more ‘weird stuff’, gazing off for an unexpectedly long time. Usually he just stares blankly for a second or two before whatever weird stuff happens, like cloning or repairing items, but he hasn’t moved to even blink for nearly five minutes now. Piper tried not to be too worried, she told herself it was taking so long because Sev was trying to pull off something spectacular.

She and Nat had exchanged idle talk, though as the seconds wore on her younger sister was clearly getting anxious and the topics of conversation took on more heavy tones.

“Will we go back to see mom and pop?”

“... Someday, yeah. I’m sure… I’m sure they don’t mind us exploring the world and will be happy when we go back to tell them all about it.”

“It’s nice exploring with Sev.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it is. He’s good to us, isn’t he?”

“Uh huh. He keeps the bad people away, and looks after us. He’s like our big brother now.”

That last one made her freeze for a second. Would Nat be ok if Piper wanted him to be more than just a brother? She was starting to get...weird dreams about a different life with him, dreams that she found she didn’t really mind. It’s not even a month and already Piper knew what she wanted her future with Sev to be like.

“I guess he kinda is.” She hoped the dreams wouldn’t add this in. It would be weird having Sev as a brother and being...not so brotherly in her dreams.

“Would mom and pop like him being our brother?”

Another pause from Piper. “I guess so. Yeah, I guess they would. He hasn’t done anything bad right?”

“But he does weird stuff.”

Piper laughed at that, unable to disagree there.

After more than ten minutes, Sev came out of his trance with a loud gasp, startling both girls. He took in several deep breaths before offering an apology.

“Ah shit, sorry. Didn’t realise I stopped breathing while stuck in there… But hey, at least I finally figured out a few things. Pull us over, Piper. I wanna try something out.”

Neither Piper or Nat really understood, but if Sev’s smiling at his discovery it was sure to be something worth seeing. The tank slowed to a stop and they climbed out. Sev was shaking with excitement, checking the skies before he looked around for a slate of rock that he held firmly in his hands. Strange, she realised they hadn’t encountered any crows ever since Whitestone.

“Right. Piper, Nat, see this rock here?” They both nodded, and he gave a blank stare, a sign of him doing his weird stuff again. It lasted the usual one second time and then he let go of the slate. Piper’s mouth hung open and she heard Nat marvelling as the piece of rock remained floating in the air.

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Sev chuckled, the slate shuddering along to his movement. “Hello, PC pickup mode!” The slate rotated slowly in front of him, then picked up speed and whirled so fast that it broke apart and disintegrated.

“Heh, will have to get better at rotating stuff, but I think...”

He turned to face the tank, and Piper’s eyes went wide when the tank lifted a good four feet off the ground. It remained in the air for a second before landing noisily, but it was more than enough for Nat to go nuts once it landed.

“You can make things fly? You made the tank fly! Can you make me fly too? I wanna fly too!”

She wouldn’t admit it, but Piper agreed with her sister. Sev shook his head, almost matching Nat’s sullen look when she saw it. “Not yet, it’s not safe. One wrong twitch and you might end up like that piece of rock just now. I promise we can give it a go once I’m sure you don’t go spinning to pieces, ok?”

“Aww… Ok.”

Sev ruffled Nat’s hair, then gave Piper a mischievous grin. “Now, Piper. Got your gun? Cool, mind I borrow it for a sec?” After handing over her laser pistol, her gave it a look and then casually brought his bare hand to cover the barrel-

“Sev! No!”

Both sisters shrieked in horror when the gun went off. Sev though was laughing, showing off the hand that was undamaged. “It’s ok, I’m fine, see?”

Piper stomped up to him and smacked him in the arm. “Not. Funny. You almost made Nat cry!” And herself too.

After the nasty surprise wore off, Piper was free to appreciate what just happened. She gave Sev a look. “You’re laser proof?”

He nodded, still grinning like an idiot. “Not exactly. Just very, very hard to hurt with lasers, bullets, explosions and pretty much everything else.” He leaned in and gave a conspiratorial whisper. “Wanna join me?”

Of course they did, and Sev laid a hand on Piper’s forehead before going blank-staring for about five seconds. She didn’t feel any different after he said it was done, and when he gently took her hand and brought it over the laser rifle’s barrel, Piper gulped down her fear and apprehension and forced her eyes to remain open.

Piper winced when he pulled the trigger, but other than the flash muted by her hand, she realised she only felt a mild heat on her palm. She brought the hand up and inspected it. No burn marks, not even a bit of pinkness.

“Holy shit, Sev.”

Nat giggled at hearing her sister swear for the first time, and after Sev repeated whatever he did to her, the little girl whooped and laughed as she got Sev to empty the gun’s charge shooting various parts of the body. He dropped a large boulder on himself, and after it did nothing to him, Piper and Nat had their turn too.

The .50 cal rifle was brought out, and a few point-blank shots had about the same effect as the boulder and laser pistol: Nothing.

“So now it’ll be really hard for the two of you to get hurt,” Sev lectured after they had their fun. “But you still have to be careful. We still need to breathe, eat and drink. Plus you can still be captured, and there are other ways to hurt people other than shooting or stabbing them.”

Both girls nodded to his advice, Piper understanding the seriousness of his warning. She remembered the women being dragged into houses by raiders, and remembered what would have happened there if Sev didn’t stop them.

Sev clapped his hands and rubbed them with glee. “Now then. I’m gonna see how it feels like having a tank run over me. Who’s with me?”

Turns out, on the brief moment they’re on you, tank treads are a bit ticklish if they don’t mulch you up.

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