Night Six

Everyone, meet at the base.

“So what did everybody find?” Gary asked the team.

Jake dropped the Essences he had picked up, and the rest nodded at his loot and shook their heads in reply to Gary.

“Well, I’m actually more surprised by Jake,” Gary said as he dumped his Essences on the ground too, “I found the fallen tree. Did anyone else find anything interesting?”

All members present shifted uncomfortably except Frank who looked at Gary with a half-inquisitive, half-apologetic expression.

“Did you find anything interesting, Frank?” he repeated.

“Well, sorta… I found a weird thing out there which helped me to more properly use my time powers. I’ve actually seen him around. I’m not fully sure what he is. But I wound up saving myself while I was unconscious. It was cool, man, but Jake looked a little uncomfortable. Hey, has anyone seen CH?”

“That’s all right, Frank!” Gary interjected, realizing he never really talked to Frank before. “Anybody else?”

“Well…” Jake and Tabitha both began at once. Jake quickly followed with a slight bow and the words, “Oop, sorry. Go ahead.”

For a moment Tabitha hesitated, but she took a deep breath and spoke. “I am sorry. To you, Ski--er… Jake… and to you, Gary.”

“What is this?” Gary began before he was stopped by Jake who put a hand on his shoulder.

“I was wrong. I’ve already talked to Jake, but I need to say it to Gary. And everybody else. I got into my head the notion that Jake was lying, but…” Tabitha’s whole body shook. She swallowed a lump and tried to hold back tears. She looked to Alexis who bore a supportive, happy expression. Then she glanced at Frank, who was still looking around. Then to Gary and Jake. The former glared hard at her with a face that wanted to optimistic-- no. That doesn’t make sense! His face is like cold metal. But she’s certain he wants to be optimistic? Anyway, Jake more evidently wants this encounter to end all right. Poor kid’s grinning like a fool! Or well, he’s not. His face is definitely happy and softer, but he’s not grinning… but at the same time he’s grinning like a fool. Dang, girl, just spit it out already! She took another deep breath. “Gary, I understand that Jake only told everybody at your, probably wise, advice. You’ve always been wise. And y’know, I don’t really care anymore if you forgive me. I certainly don’t deserve it. Well… OK, I do care. I really want you to forgive me, but you don’t have to. I just had to apologize. To everyone. So there. I’m sorry.”

Jake started to walk towards her, but Gary spoke coldly, “You don’t expect me to forgive you? Good. I might’ve felt some momentary remorse otherwise.”

“Gary…” Jake sighed, looking apologetically at Tabitha.

“Yeah. That’s all right.” Tabitha nodded awkwardly, glanced at Frank who was rummaging through the brush outside, and walked to Alexis who hugged her.

“Seriously, guys, has anyone seen CH?” Frank's tone was more urgent this time.

“Frank,” Gary sighed, “I’m sure she’s… somewhere…” Gary’s countenance grew more concerned as he looked around and failed to see her. Suddenly he began to see again. He saw into Frank’s mind. The fear. The worry. The… chaos?! It looked like every emotion was warring for control. Every emotion and every thought. Flashes of happiness for Tabitha finally talking about what must have been the thing that was preoccupying her for so long, flashes of Jake’s immense power, various pangs of guilt for various reasons, and a clear train of thought about CH not being there. There was fear, love, and feelings he’s not sure either of them understand. Then his powerful eye fell upon CH who was still running in the open field. A thunderstorm followed her as she was sped by the wind which flattened the grass and blew the cold (he could tell it was cold) rain far ahead of the clouds.

“She’s run off!” he cried.

“What?!” Frank shouted in reply. “Where! Can we find her?”

“She’s in the middle of a field. We can find her, I’m sure, but as we are now, we stand no chance. We’ll make some weapons and go find her.”

“Yeah… we’ll go on a Hunt hunt!”

After a moment was spent giving Frank an odd look, they set to work crafting weapons, asking Jake to bring them supplies. After asking Jake for a feather and a dramatic coat, as per Gary’s instructions, he used it with a Pure Essence to create a pair of wings which he strapped on his back and flew around with while the rest made their weapons. Alexis also took a dramatic coat and a Base Essence that definitely has a reasonable explanation for its presence and absolutely was not retconned in. Alexis neither knew nor cared whence it came, but she used it to make another coat. This one, however, rendered her invisible as well as kept her warm. Gary shrugged at Tabitha and honestly told her he knew nothing for her, so Jake made a dagger for her. They were all ready to embark on the Hunt hunt, but they realized it was late and decided it would be wise to sleep first. Frank took some convincing, but he agreed it would do CH no good if they were overpowered by Aliens because they could hardly stay upright.

End Night Six

Author's Note

I'm sorry. I'm having trouble getting this part to format correctly. I'm working on fixing it, and if you know how to make it work, I'd appreciate the help. As a more temporary fix, you can copy the text from here to a Word document or other rich text editor and read it there. Still working on a solution.