Primal Passions: Issue #2- Memories
As Erica brooded on the couch, she mentally berated herself for her stupidity. Primal was the only person in the world that she could call friend, the only person that she trusted entirely, and she had endangered that for a kiss. She had been brash. She had been bold. She had been...
"...so stupid." She gritted her teeth. She did not want to lose control. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend that it never happened, that she had not messed up, that Primal was not upset. It did not matter. The tears came anyway.
Primal had never shown any kind of interest in her other than devoted friendship. These feelings were purely hers and hers alone, and she knew how quickly an unrequited love could ruin a friendship.
Things would be awkward now. The cat was out of the bag. She had feelings for him, feelings which he did not share. She knew him. He would not embarrass her. He would pretend that it never happened and go on being her friend no matter what. Yet, this incident and the knowledge of how she felt would always be there at the back of his mind gnawing at him. He would know that his rejection had hurt her and he would begin to wonder if he was still hurting her. That fear would eat up that empathetic soul of his. That would cause him pain, and a relationship that causes pain to those in it does not last very long. Even if they tried again later, things would never be the same.
Erica sighed as she thought back on their entire relationship and everything that had brought them to this point. She vividly remembered the first time she ever saw him.
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He was sitting sullenly beside her in the conference room of the GDF's headquarters, The Citadel. He did not appear to be any happier than she was about being there. His dirty-blond hair was in need of a trim. He had dark circles under his slate colored eyes. He obviously had not shaven in several days. He wore a slightly wrinkled blue button-up shirt, khaki pants, and sneakers which seemed too big on his feet. It seemed to Erica that he had let his appearance go. She also noted that he did not look entirely human. His ears were pointed and his fingernails were long, curved and sharp. She would later learn that his toenails were the same, necessitating the loose fitting sneakers. When he spoke he revealed his prominent canine teeth.
They were there as part of the GDF's "Next Generation" project. Officially the program was intended to group new and inexperienced superheroes into teams which would then be sponsored by a member of the GDF in order to help them discover their untapped potential. Unofficially, everyone knew the real reason. The program was intended to draft reluctant superhumans, such as Primal and Thorn, and reign in the loose cannons like BlastZone. After orientation with nearly two dozen other candidates, they had been grouped into teams based on their similarities and differences in order to create a "balanced" team dynamic, ensuring that no one team had too many brains, boy scouts, or renegades. Eventually they were summoned into the conference room to meet with their sponsor GDF member Watchdog in order to familiarize them with the layout of their new base and the backgrounds of their teammates. Their leader was first.
Jason Shepherd, a.k.a. Guardian II or G2 for short, was the former apprentice of the first Guardian and heir apparent to his legacy. Rumor had it that he was Guardians adopted son. His golden techno-armor granted him flight, hand-borne power blasts, limited invulnerability and wireless access to most machines. He had no actual powers to speak off. "Just a rich prettyboy with toys," as BlastZone put it.
Tyler Germane, a.k.a. BlastZone, was a former juvenile delinquent turned human bomb. He had the ability to ionize his skin in order to attract the particles in the air around him. He would then break their molecular bonds and release all their potential energy as heat and friction in an outward blast. Although he could limit the reaction to certain parts of his body such as his hands and feet, he typically released a full body blast which decimated everything within the desired radius of his body. Erica suspected that he was only in the program to make sure that he did not become a full fledged supervillain.
Natasha Korsachov, a.k.a. Grace, had been a Russian ballerina diagnosed with a degenerative nerve condition. In order to save her career, she opted for an experimental procedure which involved placing a nano-processor into her brain and injecting neuron enhancing drugs into her system. Her enhanced nerve control made her faster, stronger and more agile than any mere human. She defected to the U.S. during an international competition, in hopes of realizing her dreams of becoming an American movie star. The GDF found her waiting on tables at an Applebee's.
Monique Coel, a.k.a. T-Port, was born with the ability to teleport herself and others at will, be it across the street or across the country. As a little girl, her stepfather had forced her to use her powers to help him steal everything from jewels to automobiles. When he eventually became too greedy, she left him stranded inside of a bank vault. After that she became sort of an urban Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to feed the poor and needy in her neighborhood. The GDF had convinced her to put her powers to better use in exchange for giving her neighborhood a much needed leg up. Being the only African American member, she joked that she was on the team simply due to affirmative action.
Erica's data had obviously been edited. Watchdog discussed her powers more than her vague background. A sad little goth girl walked into an antique store, purchased a cursed rose bracelet which permanently bonded with her wrist and acquired the ability to sprout giant thorns from her skin and project barbed vines to bind and attack her enemies. End of story.
Noah Williams, a.k.a. Primal, had been part of a family of missionaries endeavoring to reach a remote tribe in darkest India. What they found was a ruthless warlord who had killed of the tribe's men and enslaved the women, children, and elderly. The missionaries tried to liberate the slaves. Their meddling only got them shot. As Noah lay dying, the tribe's shaman had summoned the sacred animal spirits to bestow the power of the "Protector" upon the would-be savior. Noah had been transformed into an avatar, an earthly vessel to carry out the will of the spirits. He tried to save the villager's, but the warlord had been petty. The moment his defeat was assured, he had tossed a grenade among the explosives. The blast killed the warlord, the villagers, and the shaman, leaving Noah alone with the primal spirits trapped inside him. The Indian government had captured him after rumors of a wildman had begun to circulate among certain villages. They turned him over to the custody of the GDF, who named him Primal.
The team started off on small missions at first, mostly bank robberies and gang busts, with the occasional C-list villain thrown into the mix. They improved as they acclimated to each other's personalities and strengths. Jason and Natasha hit it off almost immediately. Although she was slow to warm up to him, Monique eventually became friends with Tyler and often teamed up with him on missions, teleporting him right next to his target before he exploded. Do to the unpredictable nature of their powers, Erica and Noah typically kept to themselves. He breached the subject with her one day, hoping that they might be able to help each other. He made the mistake of touching her shoulder. The thorn sprouted instantly. He had roared in pain when it stabbed into his palm. She apologized adamantly but stated that she did not like to be touched. He did not insult her or give her the angry glares that others had. His expression had been stoic as he apologized. "I understand," he said. That one phrase had spoken volumes. It was nearly a week before she brought it up again. It turned out that he once had a friend who had been the victim of a rape. He recognized the signs. Erica had cried, but he had assured her that he would not tell anyone, that she could trust him. She wanted to but she knew better. They always said that you could trust them. Regardless, everything seemed to be going alright until the team responded to an anonymous tip that an illegal weapons shipment was down at the docks. Naturally, it was a trap.
They weren't major supervillains. Except for their leader, The Leech, Thorn had never heard of any of them. They were mostly just small-timers looking to earn some street credit by taking out the new kids on the block. Big Rig wore some sort of exoskeleton made from a decommissioned tank. The quiet one with the guns, Silencer, was some sort or assassin. Chain Gang had the ability to form unbreakable shackles and chains of psychic energy. He had bound them before they realized it was a trap. Not even T-Port could get escape. After he hissed introductions, The Leech didn't even bother with the typical villain monologue. He skipped right to the torture. He wanted to kill the women while the men watched. Thorn wished that he would try to take a bite out of her but he was not that stupid. He started with Grace. He ripped her costume down the front, exposing her neck and chest. Then he lowered his disgusting sucker-like mouth to her flesh and began to feed. Grace's screams were gut wrenching. Big Rig snickered and goaded the captive audience.
Because they were all struggling, no one noticed what was happening to Primal until Chain Gang cried out. Primal's body was sprouting fur and increasing in size. The supposedly unbreakable bonds stretched and twisted to accommodate the rapid transformation. Chain Gang tried to tighten his hold, but the pressure was too great. As the bond broke, Chain Gang fell to his knees in pain, losing control of the other chains and freeing the team. G2 tackled Big Rig's suit and toppled it over. Silencer raised his guns, one pointing at G2 and the other at Primal. Thorn's vines sliced the guns into pieces easily. BlastZone slammed a charged fist into the Chain Gang's chest, the blast sending him flying. T-Port materialized beside Thorn, clutching a weakened Grace. Everyone turned just in time to see the thing that Primal had become lift Leech into the air and rip him in two.
Nobody moved. Even the villains were frozen in place. The thing turned towards them. It was breathing in great heaves, its fur covered in gore, its yellow eyes fierce. It took a step towards them. G2 pointed his wrist mounted blaster at its head and yelled a warning. The thing stopped, its head turning like a confused dog. Its breathing slowed and its eyes returned to a familiar shade of slate. The creature looked down at its blood spattered body and The Leech's mangled corpse; it began to shake uncontrollably. When it lifted its head, large beads of water started to stream from its eyes. Then it turned and ran.
After G2 called, the G.D.F. responded pretty quickly. Watchdog showed up on his Cerberus Cycle. He carried a military grade tranquilizer gun and electrified-net launcher. He even brought The Indestructible Man as backup. They found Primal down a back alley, curled into a ball. He didn't resist. He simply allowed Watchdog to slip a submission collar around his neck and went quietly.
Heroes do not play judge and jury. They are just glorified deputies to the real judicial system. They are allowed to operate simply because they can protect society from what the police and the military can't. Battles between superhumans aren't the hyped duels and boxing matches that the media sometimes portrays them as. They are bloody and brutal. Death is a last resort only. Yet, accidents happen. Buildings collapse, weapons backfire, and yes, heroes lose control.
The D.A. was understanding. Primal was trapped with no way out, while one of his teammates was being murdered before his eyes. He lost whatever control he possessed over the forces within him, and, once loose, had slain the arguably inhuman attacker while in a frenzied state. Besides, no one was going to lose sleep over the death of a mutated multiple murderer. The charges were dropped and Primal was released into the custody of the G.D.F. They tried every scientific and mystic means available to them but they could not return him to his previous form. He underwent strenuous experimentation and re-training. He was eventually released on probation. Much of the base had to be retrofitted to accommodate his new body.
It was an awkward homecoming to say the least. No one knew how to act around Primal. As leader, Jason tried to set an example by striving to treat him the same as before, although he spoke slower as if he thought Primal might not understand him. Natasha avoided Primal as if he were dirty or contagious. Tyler made some crude jokes about shedding on the couch, but the digs had a certain nervous tone to them. Monique was less effective at hiding her fear, although she tried to keep a stiff upper lip and make him feel welcome. Erica was the only one who even had a clue as to what he was going through. Even though he no longer had a human face to express emotion, she saw his shame and fear in the way he avoided eye contact and paced the halls at night. She knew those emotions. That was why Watchdog had left her background so vague and conveniently omitted the story of how she had discovered her powers.
The guy had been sleazy but not dangerous. He had been a little drunk and had grabbed her ass as a joke. He barely had a chance to scream before she had severed his arm with a lash from one of her razor barbed vine. The act had been a violent reflex, nothing more. Erica had been so traumatized by the event and the memories that it stirred within her that she had been placed in a maximum security sanitarium. The GDF had requisitioned her from the asylum, insisting that they could help her more than the psychiatrists ever could. Then they stuck her with a costume and the codename Thorn.
Soon after Primal had returned, they had been assigned to investigate rumors of monsters living in Mirror Lake. The monsters turned out to be a race of amphibious aliens, known as Targuns, who had hidden their ship at the bottom of the lake. They appeared to be drilling through the bottom of the lake to reach the large petroleum deposits underneath. While not a threat to world peace, interplanetary theft is still a crime. The New Defenders tried to stop them peacefully but the Targuns wouldn't have it. An aqua- lock was damaged during the fight and water began to surge into the ship, propelled by the weight of the lake above. There was not time for T-Port to teleport the team out one by one. In her panic, she tried to teleport them all back to the shore at once. The results were disastrous.
Thorn and Primal both awoke with splitting headaches, lying in several feet of snow. They were in the middle of a vast sea of white. The others were nowhere to be seen. Thorn did not know where they were but it was freezing. Thorn tried to reach the others with the communicator holstered at her waist, but there was no response. The best she could do was activate the homing beacon and hope for the best. Primal spotted a cliff in the distance. It was the only possible source of shelter in sight. As they trudged through the snow, a harsh wind began to blow. The cold air cut through Thorn like knives. She cursed her sparse costume. It was not long before she lost the feeling in her limbs. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was Primal picking her up in his arms.
When Thorn came to, her teeth were still chattering but she had regained some of the feeling in her limbs. She was lying in the dark, partially enveloped by something warm. As she trailed her fingers across its surface, she recognized the texture of fur. She reached for the communicator and pressed a button. The light from the small screen gave her enough illumination to make out her surroundings. She was in a small cave no bigger than the inside of a dumpster. A wall of snow had been erected against the entrance to keep out the wind. Primal was curled into a tight ball around her form, apparently sleeping. She said his name but he did not wake. Cold and exhausted she laid her head against his arm again and slept. While she slept, the proximity meter of the homing beacon had begun to beep.
It turned out that T-Port and G2 had actually managed to teleport all the way back to headquarters. G2 had quickly used the mainframes satellite uplink to hone in on the others homing beacons. T-Port went to retrieve them although she was drained from such a major use of her power. Grace was in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart twenty seven miles away. BlastZone was on a beach in Fiji talking to a topless sunbather. She retrieved them quickly, although BlastZone took some convincing. G2 tracked Thorn and Primal to Siberia but could not get a fix on their exact position due to a terrible blizzard. Eventually the storm passed and he honed in on the signal.
Using a handheld tracer, T-Port eventually found the entrance to the cave and teleported most of the snow away from the entrance. She teleported Thorn back first since she appeared to be in worse shape and then went back for Primal. G2 then ordered her to teleport straight to the GDF's Citadel and bring back Dr. Love. The good doctor needed only one look at Thorn to diagnose her with hypothermia. It took Thorn only moment's to recover while bathing in the brilliant pink light that Dr. Love projected from his hands. Primal was a different matter. No matter what the healer tried, Primal remained comatose. He theorized that Primal's body had gone into some sort of stasis, like hibernation, to defend against the cold. Because it was likely a natural process of Primal's unique physiology, he feared that interrupting this cycle might have an adverse effect on his health. It was likely that his body would snap out of it when it used up its reserves of food and water. He advised G2 to let it run its course.
Erica stayed by Primal's side, in the infirmary, day and night. She slept little and ate less. After three days, Monique finally convinced her that it would be okay for her to go wash up and sleep in her own bed, once she promised that she would come and get Erica if anything changed. Despite what Dr. Love had said, she could not help but worry. Primal had saved her life. If he had not carried her to shelter and kept her warm, the cold would have killed her in minutes. Now it was uncertain if he would ever wake up again. She had not believed him when he said that she could trust him, not really anyway. If he ever woke up, she swore she would trust him completely. He had earned that.
It was near midnight on the fourth night of Primal's condition when Erica awoke. She did not know what had roused her. She listened for the sounds of retreating footsteps thinking that it might have been Monique or Jason checking in on them. All she heard was the beep of the heart monitor and the hiss of the air duct. She looked over at Primal to see that his eyes were open. She quickly jumped up and rushed to his side. He seemed a bit groggy and confused by his surroundings but as he focused on her, his eyes filled with relief. She asked him about how he felt and just about every limb and organ he possessed felt. He silently assured her that everything felt fine. When asked if she could get him anything, he mimed a drinking motion. She quickly poured him a glass of water from the jug on the nearby table. He eagerly emptied the glass before taking the pitcher from her and draining it too. She quickly ran to refresh it from the sink. He drank a little more while she told him about what had happened to the others after T-Port had tried to teleport them all back to headquarters.
Primal seemed uneasy when she described Dr. Loves visit. He did not seem to like the idea that his body had done something so strange purely on instinct. Erica tried to distract him by asking what else she could get him. It took a long time but he finally worked through his embarrassment enough to express his need for a bathroom. He looked so pitiful with his ears pulled back and his finger working an imaginary flusher that Erica could not help but laugh. He looked a little abashed, but he did seem to perk up at the sound of her laughter. Erica realized that she could not even remember the last time that she had laughed.
Erica helped Primal out of the monitoring equipment, making sure to turn it off first so as not to trigger any alarms. She waited patiently in her chair while Primal used the infirmary restroom. She could not help but listen as he released four days worth of urine. She did not know whether to giggle or feel embarrassed. She tried to straighten her face as Primal came out. He stopped midstride as his stomach growled ferociously. Erica smiled and suggested that he go to the mess hall to get him something to eat, while she went to wake up the others and let them know that he was alright. He tried to convince her to let them sleep but she insisted that she should at least tell Jason. He would be mad enough that she had not come for him immediately.
Primal followed Erica out of the infirmary and into "the lobby" before making a beeline for the mess hall. She continued down the hall which housed the men's quarters. She rapped gently on Jason's door but there was no response. Rather than making more noise which might wake Tyler, she pressed the access button. Thankfully, the door was not locked. Not wanting to startle him with the bright ceiling lights, she pulled her communicator from her waist and used the light from its screen to guide her through the darkness. The light played over a table covered in data printouts and cases filled with athletic trophies before finally falling upon an empty bed. Jason was not in his room. Erica had a suspicion as to where he was but she swashed it. It was not her place to speculate.
After returning to the lobby, she headed for the mess hall. She found Primal sitting on the floor of the kitchen in front of an open refrigerator, finishing off the remains of a two day old pizza. As the smell hit her nose, she realized how hungry she was. Going to the pantry, she loaded her arms with cookies, chips, peanut butter and anything else that caught her eye. She returned to the kitchen with her bounty and sat down next to primal who now had a maw full of grapes. She talked as they ate. She talked about little things, important things, and secret things that she had never discussed with anyone else. Primal listened intently and expressed his opinion as effectively as he could. Both of them where happy to finally have someone to talk too but more importantly, they were both happy to finally be understood.
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Erica lifted her head and wiped at her eyes. She had to do something. She couldn't let one stupid kiss ruin their friendship. It was too precious. She needed it too much. She would apologize and then everything could go back to being the way it was, no awkwardness, no guilt, and no hurt feelings.
She quickly strode down the men's wing and stopped outside of Primal's room. Dabbing at her eyes, she tried to pull herself together. When she was convinced that she could speak normally, she knocked on his door.
"Noah," she said calmly. "I need to talk to you."