~Don't do it!~
Jack's pant leg had already hitched itself up as Jack reached down to grab the holdout twenty two he kept in an ankle holster. He resisted the urge to have it fly into his hand as he waited for Adam's explanation.
~She has to handle this! If you step in and fix her problems for her, she'll lose confidence! If you want this relationship to work, you've got to let her take the lead!~
Jack let his cuff drop back into place, and instead forced himself to pull his hands up and fold them on the table. As non-threatening as he was trying to appear, he couldn't help but look like he was coldly trying to calculate the best way to drive a steak knife into someone's throat.
The three in front were standing in a triangle with one in front and the other two flanking her back. The one of the left looked like a furry. A fox furry to be exact. Her fur was a deep red and she had an outfit to match. A large and fluffy tail waved behind her as she flexed and retracted the claws in her fingertips. On the right was a woman with blond hair, orange eyes, and an orange outfit with a big old sunburst on her chest. On her hips were two funky looking guns that appeared to have pressurized cylinders attached.
The one in the center was just dressed in red from head to toe. She had black hair, dark eyes, and the only thing that made her stand out were the red gloves she wore and the metal studs along the back of her knuckles.
Ivy looked a combination of pissed off and intimidated. She clearly was not expecting, nor prepared for this confrontation. She was quiet for a few seconds while she contemplated how to handle this. She finally spoke in a monotone voice, "Hello, Scarlet."
Scarlet leaned forward to put her hands on the table, "It's been a while, Ivy. You know, when you up and quit like that, the rest of us had to pick up your slack. Kinda annoyed about that. You should at least give two weeks notice." She turned to look at Jack, "Nice suit. What? You here to conduct a job interview of something?"
The fox girl chuckled, "Sure as hell isn't a date."
The girl with the sunburst laughed, "Especially not with a bull-fag like this."
Jack's eyes narrowed a millimeter. He blatantly tilted to the side to look past the three over towards the bar. He noticed that the bouncers all looked rather 'busy' and pointedly not looking in this direction. Scarlet noticed and glanced in that direction. As she did, Jack straightened up and fixed a well-practiced smile upon his face, "And you would be?" As the same time, he slowly moved one hand to come to a rest on his spoon.
Scarlet looked back at Jack then straightened up, "We're from the Errants." She jogged her head over each shoulder in succession, "That's Foxy. That's Sunburst." She gave Jack a wink, "I'm Scarlet, of course." She looked Jack up and down and leaned in to give him a lear, "Pity yer batting for the wrong team. I'd be more than happy to show you what you are missing."
Ivy abruptly stood up to get in Scarlet's face. The three backed up a step to properly face off against Ivy. The rest of the restaurant went quiet as it looked like there was going to be some sort of confrontation, "I quit for a reason. It just wasn't working out. So what's your problem?"
Scarlet just stared at Ivy for a moment before looking at Jack, "Thinking of hiring her? There's a reason she was third string." She pointed at Ivy, "She can only use her full power in direct sunlight." Scarlet looked back at Ivy, "Who needs a cape who can only fight crime on a bright and sunny day?"
~Crud! The sun's already setting! I wish I could take over just long enough to buff her. There's gotta be something we can do.~
However, Jack was way ahead of Adam. He had already kicked off one shoe, pressed his foot against his hamstring on the other leg to make a dent in his sock between his toes. With the means to grasp, he moved his foot over to find and grasp the power cord of the fake electric candle. With that, it was child's play to channel his ability to boost objects causing it to flair brightly with the exact same wavelength as sunlight.
The effect on Ivy was nothing short of miraculous.
Ivy's hair instantly went from dark green to a lighter, more verdant shade. It started to twitch and move on its own as it reached for the light. Ivy blinked and looked quite surprised at the invigorating sensation. She spared Jack a glance, before she turned back to the confrontation. Well, 'turned back' might be the wrong phrase to use.
Ivy grew to a height of about twenty feet. Her sudden increase in size forced her to stoop over and go down on one knee to keep from putting a hole in the ceiling. Fortunately the room was rather high, what with the place being a converted warehouse. A nearby table that fortunately had nobody sitting at was abruptly shoved to the side as she expanded sideways as well. So, she didn't really 'Turn to face the confrontation'. More like...
'Turned Into A Giant Floral Nightmare' might be a more fitting phrase.
The sudden increase in Ivy's size was nothing compared to how large the eyes of her three adversaries grew when she suddenly transformed and in the process grasped Foxy and Scarlet in hands that were more like a swarm of slithering vines than fingers. Her hair became a living nimbus of green locks that gave more than a passing resemblance to Medusa.
In short, one might be forgiven for assuming that Gaia herself just showed up.
Ivy held both her captives up to her face and spoke clearly, "I am only going to say this once-"
That was when Sunburst whipped out a pistol and pointed it in Ivy's face.
~Oh my god! Jack-~
Jack pumped energy into the spoon under his hand and flicked it at Sunburst. Glowing with a red aura, it flew at her gun and didn't so much hit it, as merge into the end of it, with the end of the spoon molding itself to cover the end of barrel just as Sunburst pulled the trigger. Thanks to Jack's modification, the gun shot a blast of flame in a cone and not in its usual line.
Backwards.
Sunburst's arm was awash with flame. Fortunately, she reflexively took her finger off the trigger and dropped her weapon, but her arm was still on fire. Jack grabbed a fork and sat up to look around. Nearby there was a very surprised waiter who was bringing their requested pitcher of water. Jack imbued the fork with a reddish aura and flung it at the pitcher. When it glanced off it, the aura jumped from the fork to the container. Jack reached out, made a fist and yanked. The now aura imbued water responded to his hand gesture and a second later, the fire was out.
Also, Sunburst was soaked with ice cold water.
~Oh. Hrmm. Looks like you got it under control.~
Ivy looked surprised by all this and was about to say something when the bouncers seemed to finally notice something was going on and came rushing over, "WHOA! HOLD IT!" Batons were waved about as it seemed like they figured out this was about to get out of hand. Ivy stared at the two people in her grasp, then slowly put them down while she returned to her normal size.
The head bouncer, a large Russian woman who looked like she spent her free time bench pressing cattle, stepped up to take charge of the situation, "I'm going to have to ask all of you to leave."
Jack scowled, "Why would we do that?" He got out of the booth to get in her face, "We didn't start this!"
The Bouncer towered over Jack and pointed to the table shoved to the side, "But they aren't the one making a mess and breaking everything."
Jack narrowed his eyes at the bouncer, then turned back to his table to grab the salt. He screwed off the cap and poured a bunch into his hand. Squeezing it, he imbued it with energy and tossed it at the upended furniture. As the salt settled over it, Jack held his hands up like he was leading an orchestra. The red aura quickly spread over the mess. For the next minute, Jack gestured and swept his arms around causing everything to slowly float back into place. Where there were broken dishes and glasses, Jack had to walk up and touch them. One by one the shattered tableware was mended before astonished onlookers.
With no small amount of sweat on his brow, Jack finished by gathering up the original salt into a small ball and snatching it out of the air. He offered it to the bouncer, "You want it back?"
The bouncer eyed it, then eyed Jack with a snort. She looked around the room and was about to speak then Jack said, "One final trick!" He stepped up to the bouncer and pulled her off to the side while leaning in close. He appeared to be holding up the ball of salt for her to look at.
At the same time a fifty dollar bill leaped out of his pocket and into the bouncer's hand.
The bouncer paused, eyed the money, then slipped it away as she stepped back from Jack, "Alright Alright Alright. I get it." She turned to the three Errants, "Alright, you three beat it. You're banned for a week." Scarlet started to open her mouth, but the bouncer obviously had a rep, because she shut Scarlet down with a glare.
Daggers shot out of Scarlet's eyes towards Ivy, but she said nothing else, merely hitting her two friends lightly in the shoulders before all three walked out. In short order, the place settled down, as if this sort of thing happened on a regular basis.
Ivy and Jack found themselves alone in their booth. Ivy just stared at Jack. Eventually Jack asked, "What?"
Ivy jogged her head towards the fake candle, "That was you, wasn't it?"
Jack looked at it, then at Ivy, "Yeah. Hope you don't mind."
She let out a single 'HA' and shook her head, "No. No I don't mind. What I want to ask is... how? I've been to quite a few gear heads. They can copy the same wavelength, but they can't seem to create actual 'sunlight'. Not the essence of sunlight, at least."
Jack blinked, "Uh... I dunno. I just... copied what sunlight... felt like?" He scratched his head, "I didn't know it had an essence."
Ivy nodded, "Yeah. In fact, that was better than normal sunlight. That was..." She looked thoughtful, "I dunno what to call it. Sunlight... crack?" She shuddered a bit, "I don't usually..." She trailed off, "Sorry you had to see that. I didn't leave my old team on speaking terms. I might have... said some things on the way out the door that were less than flattering."
Jack glanced towards the exit, "If those three were typical co-workers, I would have quit a long time ago."
Ivy smiled and nodded, "Yeah... maybe I should have."
~Compliment HER!~
Jack rubbed his temple for a second then cleared his throat, "By the way, thanks for standing up for me." He gestured to the space next to the table from floor to ceiling, "That was impressive as hell. I can't believe that you could get so big. I mean, seriously. That was just incredible."
Ivy looked embarrassed, "Heh. Well, I can only do that in direct sunlight, but yeah, I got a few tricks up my sleeve."
"I don't care if you could only do that on alternate Sundays. I've never seen anything like it." Jack leaned in a little closer and gave her his best 'I Want To Fuck' stare as he looked her right in the eye, "I do not understand how you are single."
All of Ivy's confidence and swagger that she had been showing off for the whole date crumbled away under Jack's gaze.
"Oh?" She squeaked and looked not unlike a deer caught in an on coming car's headlights.
Jack dug his hand into his pocket to pull out a red aura imbued quarter. He rolled it along the back of his knuckles before balancing it on the back of his thumbnail. With a single flick he sent it flying through the air, sailing across the room to land in the slot of the jukebox. The device became covered with the same aura as Jack slid out of his seat to stand next to Ivy. From the speakers issued a song that was completely new to this world. It was a deep, sensual, old time swing song.
As the music began, Jack offered his hand to Ivy, "May I have this dance?"
Ivy, as well as most of the room, looked rather surprised. Ivy mustered a rather cocky smirk as she took his hand, "How did you know I dance?"
Jack abruptly pulled her close and took the lead, "I didn't." With that he started to spin with her through the rows between tables. Both their footwear took on a reddish tint as they started to move along an inch off the floor, literally floating as they waltzed through the dining area. Ivy looked surprised at Jack's boldness as they wove in and out through the room to the open area between the restaurant and bar. As the music came to a pause, he pulled her in to whisper into her ear, "Shall we make everyone jealous?"
Ivy didn't respond, but instead abruptly spun around with him faster than he was expecting and swept him off his feet, resulting in her holding him in her arms as she leaned over him. She gave him a little head nod before she pulled him back upright and took the lead. At this point, they were the center of attention. Not just because dancing was so unusual at Kirby's, nor because no one had never heard this song before.
But because everyone was curious as to who would win.
It was clear that both Ivy and Jack had some skill at dancing, but more importantly, this was a contest of wills. As they spun and twirled through the room, literally flying about, they would periodically switch up who was taking the lead. Jack would twirl Ivy around for a few bars, then she would slide up behind him and drag her hands up the sides of his body making him shudder, and thus resume the lead. It was utterly fascinating.
As the song started to reach it crescendo, who was taking the lead constantly exchanged from one to the other as they twirled faster and faster. You could see some of the crowd really getting into it. Some going so far as to mutter, "C'mon... you got him!" Griffin, from the men's room, had a shit eating grin as he called out, "Reel her in!" As the song reached its height, Jack had the advantage, right up until Ivy went in for a kiss. This derailed Jack and he froze. She swept him back and leaned over him, her lips almost touching his. And as the song came to its conclusion...
Ivy just smiled and slowly pulled away.
The two settled to the floor as Ivy gave him a half smirk, "I think our food is ready." Then turned her back to him as she returned to their table, "We should eat it while it's hot." The room in general came to the agreement that she had, indeed, won.
Jack stood there for a few moments, just flexing his jaw as he tried to re-center himself. He muttered under his breath, "Let's hope I don't get burned." He reached up to unbutton his collar and loosen his tie.
Jack followed her and stared at her behind as she confidently walked back to their table. "But..." He paused to clear his throat.
"It'd certainly be worth it."
Announcement In case you are curious, this is the song playing on the jukebox at the end.
Michael Bublé - Feeling Good
https://youtu.be/Edwsf-8F3sI
~Don't do it!~
Jack's pant leg had already hitched itself up as Jack reached down to grab the holdout twenty two he kept in an ankle holster. He resisted the urge to have it fly into his hand as he waited for Adam's explanation.
~She has to handle this! If you step in and fix her problems for her, she'll lose confidence! If you want this relationship to work, you've got to let her take the lead!~
Jack let his cuff drop back into place, and instead forced himself to pull his hands up and fold them on the table. As non-threatening as he was trying to appear, he couldn't help but look like he was coldly trying to calculate the best way to drive a steak knife into someone's throat.
The three in front were standing in a triangle with one in front and the other two flanking her back. The one of the left looked like a furry. A fox furry to be exact. Her fur was a deep red and she had an outfit to match. A large and fluffy tail waved behind her as she flexed and retracted the claws in her fingertips. On the right was a woman with blond hair, orange eyes, and an orange outfit with a big old sunburst on her chest. On her hips were two funky looking guns that appeared to have pressurized cylinders attached.
The one in the center was just dressed in red from head to toe. She had black hair, dark eyes, and the only thing that made her stand out were the red gloves she wore and the metal studs along the back of her knuckles.
Ivy looked a combination of pissed off and intimidated. She clearly was not expecting, nor prepared for this confrontation. She was quiet for a few seconds while she contemplated how to handle this. She finally spoke in a monotone voice, "Hello, Scarlet."
Scarlet leaned forward to put her hands on the table, "It's been a while, Ivy. You know, when you up and quit like that, the rest of us had to pick up your slack. Kinda annoyed about that. You should at least give two weeks notice." She turned to look at Jack, "Nice suit. What? You here to conduct a job interview of something?"
The fox girl chuckled, "Sure as hell isn't a date."
The girl with the sunburst laughed, "Especially not with a bull-fag like this."
Jack's eyes narrowed a millimeter. He blatantly tilted to the side to look past the three over towards the bar. He noticed that the bouncers all looked rather 'busy' and pointedly not looking in this direction. Scarlet noticed and glanced in that direction. As she did, Jack straightened up and fixed a well-practiced smile upon his face, "And you would be?" As the same time, he slowly moved one hand to come to a rest on his spoon.
Scarlet looked back at Jack then straightened up, "We're from the Errants." She jogged her head over each shoulder in succession, "That's Foxy. That's Sunburst." She gave Jack a wink, "I'm Scarlet, of course." She looked Jack up and down and leaned in to give him a lear, "Pity yer batting for the wrong team. I'd be more than happy to show you what you are missing."
Ivy abruptly stood up to get in Scarlet's face. The three backed up a step to properly face off against Ivy. The rest of the restaurant went quiet as it looked like there was going to be some sort of confrontation, "I quit for a reason. It just wasn't working out. So what's your problem?"
Scarlet just stared at Ivy for a moment before looking at Jack, "Thinking of hiring her? There's a reason she was third string." She pointed at Ivy, "She can only use her full power in direct sunlight." Scarlet looked back at Ivy, "Who needs a cape who can only fight crime on a bright and sunny day?"
~Crud! The sun's already setting! I wish I could take over just long enough to buff her. There's gotta be something we can do.~
However, Jack was way ahead of Adam. He had already kicked off one shoe, pressed his foot against his hamstring on the other leg to make a dent in his sock between his toes. With the means to grasp, he moved his foot over to find and grasp the power cord of the fake electric candle. With that, it was child's play to channel his ability to boost objects causing it to flair brightly with the exact same wavelength as sunlight.
The effect on Ivy was nothing short of miraculous.
Ivy's hair instantly went from dark green to a lighter, more verdant shade. It started to twitch and move on its own as it reached for the light. Ivy blinked and looked quite surprised at the invigorating sensation. She spared Jack a glance, before she turned back to the confrontation. Well, 'turned back' might be the wrong phrase to use.
Ivy grew to a height of about twenty feet. Her sudden increase in size forced her to stoop over and go down on one knee to keep from putting a hole in the ceiling. Fortunately the room was rather high, what with the place being a converted warehouse. A nearby table that fortunately had nobody sitting at was abruptly shoved to the side as she expanded sideways as well. So, she didn't really 'Turn to face the confrontation'. More like...
'Turned Into A Giant Floral Nightmare' might be a more fitting phrase.
The sudden increase in Ivy's size was nothing compared to how large the eyes of her three adversaries grew when she suddenly transformed and in the process grasped Foxy and Scarlet in hands that were more like a swarm of slithering vines than fingers. Her hair became a living nimbus of green locks that gave more than a passing resemblance to Medusa.
In short, one might be forgiven for assuming that Gaia herself just showed up.
Ivy held both her captives up to her face and spoke clearly, "I am only going to say this once-"
That was when Sunburst whipped out a pistol and pointed it in Ivy's face.
~Oh my god! Jack-~
Jack pumped energy into the spoon under his hand and flicked it at Sunburst. Glowing with a red aura, it flew at her gun and didn't so much hit it, as merge into the end of it, with the end of the spoon molding itself to cover the end of barrel just as Sunburst pulled the trigger. Thanks to Jack's modification, the gun shot a blast of flame in a cone and not in its usual line.
Backwards.
Sunburst's arm was awash with flame. Fortunately, she reflexively took her finger off the trigger and dropped her weapon, but her arm was still on fire. Jack grabbed a fork and sat up to look around. Nearby there was a very surprised waiter who was bringing their requested pitcher of water. Jack imbued the fork with a reddish aura and flung it at the pitcher. When it glanced off it, the aura jumped from the fork to the container. Jack reached out, made a fist and yanked. The now aura imbued water responded to his hand gesture and a second later, the fire was out.
Also, Sunburst was soaked with ice cold water.
~Oh. Hrmm. Looks like you got it under control.~
Ivy looked surprised by all this and was about to say something when the bouncers seemed to finally notice something was going on and came rushing over, "WHOA! HOLD IT!" Batons were waved about as it seemed like they figured out this was about to get out of hand. Ivy stared at the two people in her grasp, then slowly put them down while she returned to her normal size.
The head bouncer, a large Russian woman who looked like she spent her free time bench pressing cattle, stepped up to take charge of the situation, "I'm going to have to ask all of you to leave."
Jack scowled, "Why would we do that?" He got out of the booth to get in her face, "We didn't start this!"
The Bouncer towered over Jack and pointed to the table shoved to the side, "But they aren't the one making a mess and breaking everything."
Jack narrowed his eyes at the bouncer, then turned back to his table to grab the salt. He screwed off the cap and poured a bunch into his hand. Squeezing it, he imbued it with energy and tossed it at the upended furniture. As the salt settled over it, Jack held his hands up like he was leading an orchestra. The red aura quickly spread over the mess. For the next minute, Jack gestured and swept his arms around causing everything to slowly float back into place. Where there were broken dishes and glasses, Jack had to walk up and touch them. One by one the shattered tableware was mended before astonished onlookers.
With no small amount of sweat on his brow, Jack finished by gathering up the original salt into a small ball and snatching it out of the air. He offered it to the bouncer, "You want it back?"
The bouncer eyed it, then eyed Jack with a snort. She looked around the room and was about to speak then Jack said, "One final trick!" He stepped up to the bouncer and pulled her off to the side while leaning in close. He appeared to be holding up the ball of salt for her to look at.
At the same time a fifty dollar bill leaped out of his pocket and into the bouncer's hand.
The bouncer paused, eyed the money, then slipped it away as she stepped back from Jack, "Alright Alright Alright. I get it." She turned to the three Errants, "Alright, you three beat it. You're banned for a week." Scarlet started to open her mouth, but the bouncer obviously had a rep, because she shut Scarlet down with a glare.
Daggers shot out of Scarlet's eyes towards Ivy, but she said nothing else, merely hitting her two friends lightly in the shoulders before all three walked out. In short order, the place settled down, as if this sort of thing happened on a regular basis.
Ivy and Jack found themselves alone in their booth. Ivy just stared at Jack. Eventually Jack asked, "What?"
Ivy jogged her head towards the fake candle, "That was you, wasn't it?"
Jack looked at it, then at Ivy, "Yeah. Hope you don't mind."
She let out a single 'HA' and shook her head, "No. No I don't mind. What I want to ask is... how? I've been to quite a few gear heads. They can copy the same wavelength, but they can't seem to create actual 'sunlight'. Not the essence of sunlight, at least."
Jack blinked, "Uh... I dunno. I just... copied what sunlight... felt like?" He scratched his head, "I didn't know it had an essence."
Ivy nodded, "Yeah. In fact, that was better than normal sunlight. That was..." She looked thoughtful, "I dunno what to call it. Sunlight... crack?" She shuddered a bit, "I don't usually..." She trailed off, "Sorry you had to see that. I didn't leave my old team on speaking terms. I might have... said some things on the way out the door that were less than flattering."
Jack glanced towards the exit, "If those three were typical co-workers, I would have quit a long time ago."
Ivy smiled and nodded, "Yeah... maybe I should have."
~Compliment HER!~
Jack rubbed his temple for a second then cleared his throat, "By the way, thanks for standing up for me." He gestured to the space next to the table from floor to ceiling, "That was impressive as hell. I can't believe that you could get so big. I mean, seriously. That was just incredible."
Ivy looked embarrassed, "Heh. Well, I can only do that in direct sunlight, but yeah, I got a few tricks up my sleeve."
"I don't care if you could only do that on alternate Sundays. I've never seen anything like it." Jack leaned in a little closer and gave her his best 'I Want To Fuck' stare as he looked her right in the eye, "I do not understand how you are single."
All of Ivy's confidence and swagger that she had been showing off for the whole date crumbled away under Jack's gaze.
"Oh?" She squeaked and looked not unlike a deer caught in an on coming car's headlights.
Jack dug his hand into his pocket to pull out a red aura imbued quarter. He rolled it along the back of his knuckles before balancing it on the back of his thumbnail. With a single flick he sent it flying through the air, sailing across the room to land in the slot of the jukebox. The device became covered with the same aura as Jack slid out of his seat to stand next to Ivy. From the speakers issued a song that was completely new to this world. It was a deep, sensual, old time swing song.
As the music began, Jack offered his hand to Ivy, "May I have this dance?"
Ivy, as well as most of the room, looked rather surprised. Ivy mustered a rather cocky smirk as she took his hand, "How did you know I dance?"
Jack abruptly pulled her close and took the lead, "I didn't." With that he started to spin with her through the rows between tables. Both their footwear took on a reddish tint as they started to move along an inch off the floor, literally floating as they waltzed through the dining area. Ivy looked surprised at Jack's boldness as they wove in and out through the room to the open area between the restaurant and bar. As the music came to a pause, he pulled her in to whisper into her ear, "Shall we make everyone jealous?"
Ivy didn't respond, but instead abruptly spun around with him faster than he was expecting and swept him off his feet, resulting in her holding him in her arms as she leaned over him. She gave him a little head nod before she pulled him back upright and took the lead. At this point, they were the center of attention. Not just because dancing was so unusual at Kirby's, nor because no one had never heard this song before.
But because everyone was curious as to who would win.
It was clear that both Ivy and Jack had some skill at dancing, but more importantly, this was a contest of wills. As they spun and twirled through the room, literally flying about, they would periodically switch up who was taking the lead. Jack would twirl Ivy around for a few bars, then she would slide up behind him and drag her hands up the sides of his body making him shudder, and thus resume the lead. It was utterly fascinating.
As the song started to reach it crescendo, who was taking the lead constantly exchanged from one to the other as they twirled faster and faster. You could see some of the crowd really getting into it. Some going so far as to mutter, "C'mon... you got him!" Griffin, from the men's room, had a shit eating grin as he called out, "Reel her in!" As the song reached its height, Jack had the advantage, right up until Ivy went in for a kiss. This derailed Jack and he froze. She swept him back and leaned over him, her lips almost touching his. And as the song came to its conclusion...
Ivy just smiled and slowly pulled away.
The two settled to the floor as Ivy gave him a half smirk, "I think our food is ready." Then turned her back to him as she returned to their table, "We should eat it while it's hot." The room in general came to the agreement that she had, indeed, won.
Jack stood there for a few moments, just flexing his jaw as he tried to re-center himself. He muttered under his breath, "Let's hope I don't get burned." He reached up to unbutton his collar and loosen his tie.
Jack followed her and stared at her behind as she confidently walked back to their table. "But..." He paused to clear his throat.
"It'd certainly be worth it."
Announcement In case you are curious, this is the song playing on the jukebox at the end.
Michael Bublé - Feeling Good
https://youtu.be/Edwsf-8F3sI
