A Freakalicious Time, Ch. 13

Hello peeps! Natha here ^_^ Hope ya’ll had a good Valentine’s Day! Mine was semi-okay =/ Not much of a holiday for me, all my friends despise it with a burning passion.  Speaking of despising… *glances at the chainsaws in the corner* I’m keeping a watchful eye on you guys, Steff is suffering enough already at the hands of the main character of another fandom of mine. *hears cackling laughter in the basement* Ah, Beej does his work well, don’t you think?
So, the point of view switches many times in here, and if you find it disorienting, I apologize =/ I am still trying to figure out my own style of writing, after all.  And I decided to go more into that now.  Usually, I try to keep the chapters long yet short (if that makes any sense…) and try to get things done.  I’ve been holding back on details and emotions and descriptions I know that I could do better if I just took the time to do it.  I’m going to actually take that time now, if I can, and try and make these better, longer, more full chapters.
Demonic – You know, you reviewed like, not even half an hour after I posted the last chapter, right? Haha.
Lillith – It’s cherry pie actually, but chocolate brownies!  Yes, the Mask made a cameo appearance in the episode ‘The Freakazoid’.  It was like, the Freakazoid version of The Godfather.
Entity – O_o *is on the look-out for Char* By the way, when are you going to update?
GaruAlpha – Glad you liked it ^_^
Spiderwriters – Don’t worry, all will be revealed ^_^ Your welcome! Hmm… nice idea, I’ll keep it in mind.
Now, on to the episode! Beej, if you will? Come up and leave Steff for a moment.
BJ: *mumbles* “Disclaimers, ya know I hate ‘em.”
Natha: “C’mon Beej, I thought you were the Ghost with the Most!”
BJ: “Yeah yeah yeah, I know.  Nath doesn’t own anything here.”

.:I love my poltergeist, almost as much as I love my boyfriend and my Swede ^_^:.

Onyx stepped into the bathroom of the house, and looked in the mirror.  It was Monday night now, Dmitri had gone home already, and Dexter was going to leave within the half-hour.  Just after dinner, Clera had helped Onyx take the bandaging off of her eye to replace it with a plain black eye patch.  Now, looking in the mirror, she lifted her hand up, and gently pulled the eye patch off.

Her left eye, where it had once been almost black because it was so dark a brown, was now a striking light blue and silver, with a dark outline fading in.  It looked almost as if shards of ice were formed into the shape of an iris, the points facing in to her pupil, and placed over a black silk cloth.  But the eye was blind, how could she have a black pupil?

Taylor had told her earlier that he had met people before who were blind, and you wouldn’t be able to tell, because their eye-color did not change.  Maybe this was another one of those cases, she thought.  Sighing, she took one last glance at her blind eye – it really did look like many icicles and shards were placed over black cloth – and gently slid the eye-patch back in place.  

The Lobe would not like this.  She was to report to him tomorrow at noon, and he would give her instructions as to what to help out with in transporting the Lode Stone.  With her depth perception out of whack (she had already had a migraine because of it) and her arms still bandaged up and frail, she would seem pretty much useless.  Well… maybe should could use that… no.  She knew that was the reason her burns were not worse, but still, she didn’t want to come to rely on it like her aunt did.  Onyx finished up her business in the bathroom and left it to go sit on the couch by Dexter.

They had, again, watched movies all day.  Onyx wasn’t drawing this time, like she did two days before; her fingers stung a bit every time she moved them very much, and her arms seemed to take objection to laying on anything that wasn’t soft and cloth-covered.  Onyx solved that problem by putting a pillow on her lap and laying her arms on it.  Dexter looked over at her as she sat down.

“You sure you’ll be okay?” He asked for the hundredth time.  Onyx sighed and rolled her good eye.

“Yes Dex, I’ll be fine.  The burns will scar over soon, I’m a fast healer, and I can just take Tylenol for the headache until my eye adjusts to the depth of things, which shouldn’t be more than a day or so.” She told him.  Dexter frowned though, not convinced.  He put his arm over her shoulders, giving her a sideways hug, before standing up to gather his coat and gloves to leave.

In his head, Freakazoid was fuming.  He had been this way since the fire, not really knowing what to do.  He was mad, he knew that much.  He was mad at Stephanie for not leaving with the rest of the crowd, otherwise Onyx wouldn’t have tried to go back for her.  He was mad at whoever or whatever caused the fire.  He was even mad slightly at Onyx herself, for not listening to him and leaving the burning theatre when he told her to.  But mostly, he was mad at himself, first for having left her there to check on the man in the projectors box, and secondly for not reaching her in time to stop the beam from hitting her in head and causing her blindness, for not catching her before she hit the ground, and for not pulling her fast enough from the burning material to stop the boiling skin.

He knew he shouldn’t, that it was all just misfortune of the time, but Freakazoid blamed himself for Onyx’s pain.  Every grunt or squeak of pain he heard through Dexter’s ears, every grimace or wince he saw through Dexter’s eyes, hurt Freakazoid considerably, emotionally.  Just as bad as it hurt emotionally when Steff was turned to stone by the Medusa watch, or when he learned that the boat rides from Disneyland were gone.  No, this was no time to be silly, it hurt more than the boat ride’s disappearance.  

Her arms would heal and become horribly scarred, they wouldn’t be the pretty smooth pale he had seen, but blotchy and rough.  To avoid ridicule, Onyx will forever have to wear long-sleeved shirts or elbow-length gloves.  Until they do heal, every brush against something solid, every caress of air or change in the currents while the bandages are off, will cause her excruciating pain.  And she will have to deal with that twice every day until they do heal over, as well as the pain from the antibiotics she cleans them with to prevent any kind of infection.  There was another thing – if it got infected, a whole new world of hurt would be upon the poor girl.

Then there was her eye.  He hadn’t seen it yet under the bandage – no one had other than Onyx, Clera, and Taylor – but every time he looked at the eye patch or the bandage, he would feel a tear come to his own.  She would never see out of that eye again, only half of the world visible to her gaze.  Depth perception is an important thing in any creature’s life, until she gains it back to some degree with her one eye, Onyx could easily fall down any kind of decline or run into something.  It sounds funny at first, even to watch maybe, but not when you truly think about how much the person is suffering.  The migraines Onyx will get too will put her on edge, make her mood waver.

Even as Freakazoid thought all of this through, Dexter knew it too.  No one should have to go through something like this.  But it does, and it is now with Onyx, and all they could do is encourage her and help out best they can until she can deal with it herself and tells them to back off.

.:I really hate the name ‘Stephanie’ now.  Some chick at the high school is trying to steal my boyfriend, and her name is Stephanie.  She’s not a blond bimbo though, she’s fat and has brown hair, and looks like she’s 30 years old.  No worries though, I am currently in the process of teaching her where her place is, which is NOT hanging off my boyfriend like a whore:.

The next morning, Onyx woke up a little later than usual.  Taylor was letting her sleep in, instead of hanging her upside down each morning like usual.  Well, at least it was spring break, she didn’t have to worry about being later to school.  Onyx glanced at the clock on the VCR, it was about 9:30am.  Yawning, she sat up and stretched, then looked around for her family.  They were not around.  Curious, she went into the bathroom and dressed, decided to push the futon back into a couch later, and walked around the house.

She could hear bumps and the sound of scraping wood in one of the rooms, as well as music from… was that the song they sang at the end of Lazy Town?  Onyx shook her head slightly, smiling, and walked into the room.  Taylor and his friend Novak were in there, as was Clera.  Taylor was mixing paint, Novak was putting mud over any tack and nail holes from the previous tenants, and Clera was sitting on a twin bed that was covered in plastic, humming with the music and reading a book.  She looked up as Onyx stepped in.

“Hello sleepy.” She said, putting her book down.  She scooted over and pat the space beside her.  “Come sit with your sister while the men do all the work to children’s music.” She giggled.  Onyx smiled and took the offer.  Taylor and Novak glanced up momentarily.

“Hey squirt.” Novak said in his usual chipper voice, before returning to his work.  Onyx smiled.  Novak was Taylor’s best friend, they grew up together and both went into the military.  It was a miracle that they managed to stay in the same unit.  He was kind of short, really easy to get along with, and always looked on the bright side of things.  And his cooking was phenomenal.  Onyx would swear that even microwave popcorn popped faster and tasted better just because he put it in the microwave.

“So uh, what’s all this?” Onyx asked, pointing at the two guys.  Clera giggled like a school girl who just caught wind of a juicy new rumor.

“Weeelll, Novak heard what had happened, and wanted to help a little bit, so he talked to Taylor and I, and now here we are, working on your room for you.” She told her, smiling wide.  Onyx looked at her, blinked, then looked over at Taylor and Novak.

“Thank you.” That was all she could say.  She didn’t want to try to say anymore, with the influence of the pain medication she was on, her mood changed swiftly, and she felt like crying right now.

Screw it, she was going to cry.  Onyx leaned over to hold onto her sister, and let the tears finally fall.  Not just because of the drugs affecting her mood, but all of it.  The medicine, her family’s kindness, her friends’ worrying, the accident, her eye, all of it.  She cried and cried and cried.

When her tears finally dried up, and her nose was under control, Onyx crawled off of the bed and walked over to both Taylor and Novak, giving them each their own hug, before sitting down by the paint cans.  But it wasn’t paint, like she had thought.

“We only have the primer right now, didn’t know what you wanted your walls to look like.” Taylor explained.  Onyx thought for a moment, then got up and left the room.  When she came back, she was holding a few of Taylor’s D&D books.  She sat down and started rifling through the pages, looking at some pictures.

“You can’t possibly expect us to paint one of those pictures, do you?” Novak asked, sitting down by her.  Onyx shook her head.

“No, I’m looking for something in particular… ah-ha.” She raised up the picture to show Taylor and Clera.

“The castle?” Clera asked.

“Not exactly, just the walls.  Can we do that? Paint the walls to look like an old stone castle?” Onyx asked.  “Then we can paint arches over the window and the door, or something like that.  And the ceiling, make it look like the night sky from back home, with the Milky Way streak visible, and the greens and purples from the little nebula’s, and the stars be silver paint so it reflects whatever bit of light is in the room!” She was getting excited now, her right eye glazing slightly as she looked up at the currently white ceiling.

.:So maybe I don’t hate the name Stephanie any more.  The girl trying to steal my boyfriend hit her head and lost her memory XD And, Stephanie is the name of a girl you can’t help but like from the show Lazy Town, which I am momentarily obsessed with:.

The closer it got to noon, the more anxious Onyx became.  She was with Dexter now, sitting up on top of the high school again.  Because of her coat, you couldn’t tell that her arms were bandaged up, except for what you could see on her hands.  Even then, they just looked like fingerless gloves.  She had an eye patch on though, one of those square ones with the two straps like she had seen one cool character wearing in Air Gear.

Dexter, sitting next to her, and Freakazoid, in Dexter’s head, were both a little anxious, and even a little hopeful.  They didn’t like dealing with the Lobe in this way, especially now that Onyx had been so badly injured.  All reports should say that Onyx shouldn’t even be allowed outside, let alone very far from the couch.  But here she was, feeling good for the most part, a bag in her pocket full of Tylenol for the headaches from her vision.  Dexter knew he healed fast, but this girl next to him was just tough, no other way he could explain it.  He was pretty sure that if Steff was in her position, she would be doped up on pain killers and still crying, moping over her loss of sight and complaining about every little thing.  But Onyx.. she was just… silent.

Finally, they were both jerked out of their thoughts at the sound of the Lobe’s voice floating up to them.  Looking down over the edge of the building, they saw him down on the ground by a black car, Medulla and Oblongata down there as well, waiting for them.  Dexter with his hand on Onyx’s shoulder again, they went down the fire escape, dropping down that last eight feet that the stairs were raised.  Onyx winced slightly when she had used her hands to brace herself, but said nothing otherwise.

“You okay?” Dexter asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Was her only reply.  Nevertheless, she let him help her up and keep his hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong with you?” The Lobe asked as they got in the car, crossing his arms.

“Depth perception has been thrown off, resulting in migraines and occasionally tripping over my own feet.” Onyx told him.

“Can’t you just take that silly eye patch off? Depth perception is usually thrown off when you only see through one eye.”

“Yeah… see, due to recent events, taking this eye patch off isn’t going to do anything other than show off to the world that there is no longer a brown eye, but a blue eye there.”

The Lobe looked taken aback for a moment.  “You mean to say that your left eye is now blind?” he asked, surprised.  Onyx nodded.  “But how did that happen?  You weren’t in the theatre that burned down on Friday, were you?” he asked accusingly.

“Actually, yes I was.  I was unlucky enough to be, excuse the pun, but blind-sided by a swinging iron beam that hit me on the left side of the head, sending me flying across the room.  I’m now half blind, and my lower arms look like raw beef under the bandages.”  Hey, just telling him the truth would be best, Onyx thought.  No need to sugar-coat it.

“This better not affect your duties, missy.  I’ve decided that you are to escort Longhorn as he retrieves the Lodestone and moves it to its new location.”

“This will not affect me in the slightest, so long as no one grabs my arms.  Speaking of which, how is the other villain with the eye patch?” She asked then, trying to move from the subject of her pain.  Dexter sat listening.

“Armando is not doing well, he is now officially bed-ridden.”

“Have you or Jeepers been able to figure out how to counter the sickness?” Dexter asked.

“Not exactly.  Jeepers and Vorn are still trying to find a cure, and I spend my time monitoring Armando.  I have only been able to stop his condition from worsening.”

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?  At least he won’t become any sicker.”

“But he is also now a vegetable until we can cure him.”

“But at least he has hope for a cure.” Onyx cut in.  “He knows that he won’t be like this forever, right?”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.  But we are not here to discuss Armando’s hopes. Okay you two, get out of the car, this is your stop.  Jubal is stocking up some snacks in the convenience store over there, meet up with him, then you two will load up in his semi and retrieve the Lodestone.”

Onyx and Dexter looked out the window, they had driven to a truck corral on the outskirts of D.C.  Looking at each other for a moment, they shrugged, and got out of the car.

“And don’t mess this up! It’s your first assignment, I expect a good review of your actions from Jubal!” Lobe yelled at them over the sound of the many semis that were at the gas station.  Onyx raised a thumb up to show she understood, before Oblongata put the vehicle in reverse and pulled out.

“Well, looks like it’s time to get this show on the road.” Freakazoid said to Dexter, as they turned towards the truck corral.

.h my bahjeebees, I have a job now! :.

Natha’s Notes: YES! I have a job! I am a housemaid at an inn ^_^ And before you ask, no, I do not where those ridiculous (but cute!) black and white dresses and aprons that the Japanese anime usually portray (even though that would be awesome).  I wear old jeans and a t-shirt or sweatshirt, sneakers, and have to put my hair back.
Oh, that reminds me! I am going to dye my hair electric blue soon! I know, right? Seeing me, who has red hair that is so long it reaches past my butt, suddenly show up with electric blue hair instead? Crazy, huh?  Lol.
So… I hope y’all enjoyed this chapter.  Took me forever to write, I know, but I have been letting my attention wander so much, so… And now that I actually have a job, I have money, so I can go buy things, like DDR, haha. Peace!