Peace and Quiet (Foxface and Honest)

Ignite was surprised that little Ava was able to reply so smoothly and with such profound knowledge, too.

“Th... thanks,” Ignite managed awkwardly, still taken aback by the fact that this young girl didn’t seem bothered at all by the pyro’s strikingly strange appearance.

Maybe she's not as young as I thought? Ignite pondered, then wished more than anything to be able to see her new companion. And, granted, the gift of clearer communication would be another thing to be longed for. I don’t even know what my accent is. Do I even have an accent? Oh, jeez... if only my actual speech were as clear as the words in my head... she had thought time and time again, but then: a revaluation! Wait, maybe Foxface is even more than a metahuman? Maybe stronger than an elemental being, like an all-knowing telepath? Maybe I’d sound clearer than way... It was a very long shot, but Foxface obviously already knew that she had powers. Why not she, too?

"Ava," Ignite began again, but was stopped by the sudden downpour of nature, that thing the she had once been able to love but now could only fear. "Rain..." she tried the word on her tongue as if to confirm it was really happening. A strange feeling of déjá vu overwhelmed her, and in the tiny little images of scattering specks invading the sky flooded into her mind, cleansing the idea that she had never felt it before. If only I could remember where I lived before...

But those thoughts made Ignite angry, and frustrated, but not because of the issues she was complaining about; it was the fact that her non-existent knowledge of her past was keeping her from the present and what her future held. Her future, now intertwined with a girl called “Foxface.”

The rain was an enemy to both of them, but by the way Foxface had moved so quickly, she knew it had to be more. And with all her senses occupied on trying to understand what was going on around her, Ignite failed to seek cover from the rain herself. It came as a shock, cold and piercing, but in the most queer fashion, every single droplet seemed to melt right off of her skin! In fact, they were being converted to steam the moment they landed, just like rogue water from a pan sizzling from the surface of a heated stovetop.

“What...?” Ignite inquired; this had never happened before. After washing up on the shores of Jump City, she hadn’t felt any water again until now. Although memory was something that came in scarce proportions at the moment, it had been only about a day. “It is only rain,” she told her friend, “you are becoming veak because of it? Even I have power of fire, but it not stop me enjoying sensation. What is your power, Foxface?”

Ignite’s lantern-like eyes stared at the remote location of her new friend, just a tad bit off center to where Ava actually was.

At first, Ignite was confused as to what had just happened with the sound of cracking lightning, some sort of heat density change, silence, then... another crack of lightning? She was so confused, but something told her that what Ava had just done, or rather revealed, perhaps was better not to have been seen. Ignite had a mixed churning in her stomach that made her wince and look away. To eyes that could see, the gesture could have been translated as disgust or repulsion at Foxface’s fox form, but to eyes that could understand, the pyro was simply bewildered and even ashamed to not have seen the splendour. Ava had just shared a deep secret... was it wrong to not understand what the secret was but still give Ava the idea that she did?

I cannot remain in my fox form...

“Fox...” Ignite repeated quietly after she caught what Ava had just said and looked at her more quickly than she had turned away. Her bright orange eyes were warm and kind, but still hazy and seemingly distracted, but her words were not, “you turn to fox... it is beautiful, even if only last few seconds. Zhat is beautiful, rain or in day, but turn into fox...” she marveled, then became truly excited, “you seem most comfortable! Vee get out of rain und zhen rest und eat, maybe even tell story or memory abou––”

Ignite paused at the strange word of “memory.” She knelt down beside Foxface and put a light had on the girl’s shoulders as a weary smile formed upon her coal-coloured face, then mustered up the courage to continue even though sharing a memory of her own would be impossible.

“...about zhing zhat explain vhoo made us vhoo vee are zhis day now or maybe vhat make us happy,” she continued, but speaking English was becoming increasingly difficult for her, so she just put it simply: “I guess vhat I am mean to say is you are not alone! You are not alone, und you vhill not be alone ever in life or death. I know people vhoo are like us, people vhpo have powers more zhan normal human. Come, I know vee just meet, but I promise you zhat even zhough I know only little about you und vhat you are like, I know vhat you are feeling, und I love you because of it. Zhat is promise, und I not break any promise.”

The words were filled with longing as Ignite poured droplets of her soul that made the rain look like mere flecks of the sky.

“I just need friend, und I zhink you need friend, too... und Ava, I need ask you somezhing. Vhill you... give me name? I cannot remember vhat it vhas. It is been strange time for me lately. It is like I came into new vorld und new... life... und... friends.”

The JCPD Captain had jumped just a bit when Ignite had caused the gun to explode on itself and the young trainee, and was apparently unfazed by the fact that his hands now had explosion and ash marks, was now howling in pain, and running around like a chicken with its head chopped off. “Go out in the rain if you’re going to cry, son. This is an entirely different matter than I first presumed,” he said flatly, but with a strange sense of shame. The reckless officer virtually ran happily back into the street, his tail between his legs. After this little incident, he would most likely be seeing the police headquarters from the other side of the bars.

In truth, seeing the scars the littered the white-haired girl’s frail frame sent familiar pangs that attacked his heart; he had a daughter who would always fall and scrape her knees, or run through the alleyways and accidentally cut herself on the broken glass of menacing beer bottles. She was already off to college now, a single mom with three kids of her own. Ava looked like a ghostly image of his daughter, and that both made his head swell with frustration and fear. Fear of the unknown, fear that this superhuman would remind him too much of the day he found out that his own flesh and blood, his daughter, was a superhuman, too. It came as a complete whack to the backside, and he could admit now––albeit only to himself––that he resented her for a bit afterwords.

That resentment made him bitter, even pushed his wife away.

He sighed, “Ugh. All right, I better not catch you two out on the streets here again––ever. I’ll let you off this time, but only because I’m feeling generous today, and the underling is, admittedly, hopeless. But, before you go...” the Police Captain turned to Ignite. “You better get a walking stick, kid. It’s not right for a blind girl to go walking around these streets, especially in dark alleyways.”

With that, the man with the mustache, bowler hat, and authoritative badge turned heel and hopped after his regrettable partner.

* * * * *

“Uh... uh...” Ignite stammered, “how... how you could tell zhat?”

But before she could be gifted with a reply, he had disappeared into the mist.

“Foxface! I... I izh sorry not tell you, I svare it! I izh... I izh just... anger, und I don’t know vhy... vhy I am blind, you know. Blind, like hopeless snake. I zhould have told you, but I scared you vould not like me for anymore. I vahnt... I vahnt sister... no vohn vant blind creature!”

OOC: Sorry it's short. I just typed up an English essay so I'm all worded out. xD

BIC: Ava watched Cara with a vaguely blank expression, one that did not indicate anger or resentment. The small girl tipped her head to one side. "Why are you apoligizing? Being blind isn't a sin, and it certainly isn't your fault." With that she stepped foreward and took Cara's hand into her own smaller one.

"We should go, which way is it to these people that you said could help us?" She considered how strange it must have looked to the officers. A white haired girl leading a blind, ashen skinned teen. She shrugged that off, knowing that she had no reason to give a hoot about what others thought,