Chương 40: Disco Infernabeest

Penelope had the misfortune of meeting me in elementary school. Four boys pulled her pigtails and pushed her to the ground. One boy had to be pulled away from the teacher. She cried that day, and her red dress was ruined. When I saw what happened, I I told her, "Those guys suck at bullying. I could bully them way better," And I did. I terrorized them. I got in big trouble for pummeling them to a pulp. More trouble than they got. Which I was happy with because it proved me correct.

I told her to let me know if they ever bothered her again. And what did she say?

"They were just playing. They didn't mean to hurt me." Penelope Melissa Hall got her first job at 13. Her parents never asked her to, but they had their fourth on the way and money was already tight. She mowed lawns. Being the first of five meant less that she was the first child and more so that she was the third parent. At the least, she got first crack at the clothes everyone wore. That was where the perks ended. Each new child meant new responsibilities.

At 21 she had become a prodigious child rearer, although never having had time for a relationship herself. When Penelope got touched by the gods, she thought someone had slipped her a molly. The powerful rush of bliss came with a name she had never heard before. Sirid. When the puzzle pieces fell into place and she learned more about the unicorn goddess, she felt there had been a mistake. Penelope wondered why she was chosen. Why I wasn't chosen. She wondered if she could give the powers back somehow.

Explaining to me that she would be happy to return the powers, unless there was some invasive surgery that needed to take place. She settled in though. Still determined to do the Champ work part time while she went to school for nursing. Nelo still used her champ money to help support her parents with the bills, or her younger sisters with school supplies, clothes, gear for swim club. Nelo turned to the right and spewed the water that had been stuck in her lungs.

She took in deep breaths as the swirl of chaos continued around her. Glass shattering. Car horns blaring. A downed electric line sparking. Nelo found her shield just down the way from her. It was in front of an abandoned horticulture shop with signage in both English and Mandarin. She grabbed it and mounted it just as she felt a gust of heat on her back. Nelo turned around to be greeted by a stampeding infernabeest.

"Can I at least get my bearings??" The infernabeest did not understand her or did not care. It went at her horns-first. It slammed into Nelo's shield. It sent her back, but she kept her footing. Nelo pumped her backfoot and tilted her center of gravity forward. Using her shield as protection, she rolled atop the creature's back and slipped off. Nelo stood up. She looked at the blade sticking out of the center of her shield. It was glowing red. It had absorbed some of the fire energy of the infernabeest.

I need to use this soon, Nelo thought. Another trio of ominous moos came from her left. Three aquabeests had come to finish the job. They stamped their wet hoofs and charged at her. A great big smile settled on her face as she realized how she could best use that fire.

"I was looking for you three!" She cried as she pointed her shield and released the energy. The three aquabeests attempted to halt as the fire spread to them. Two shrunk away and ran in opposite directions, but one kept charging. The fire entered its water body. It mooed as it bravely took on the attack. The fire collided with its wet hide. It enveloped the aquabeest. The fire attacked its water cells, turning them into something new. The fire from Nelo's shield ran out.

The beast began to lift in the air, it's ultra-adaptibility giving it a new form. It had become a vapabeest. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I… like the new look?" The vapabeest blew toward her.

"Crap!" Nelo ran across the street, leapt and slid along the hood of a car. She hid behind it, but that did not stop the vapabeest. It floated toward her like a ghost. It passed over the car and settled on top of her. Nelo's skin was on fire. It was like she had been trapped in a sauna for hours. She attacked with her shield but the beest was no longer corporeal. Over an over again, she attempted an attack but it was like striking at air. The steam entered her eyes and she ran in a random direction.

Her foot hit an open grate and she fell, her head knocking on a building wall. The vapabeest approached her again. She saw the distorted flames of the other monster behind the steam. Nelo lifted her shield up and called out, "Gallant Strike!" A small tuft of energy pulsed from her pike and pushed the steaming cow away from her. She used the opportunity to wipe her eyes and gain some distance from the vapabeest. As she did, she slammed her shield on the ground. The clanging, loud and obnoxious.

"Come on!" She cried to the infernabeest, "Come on! Where's the anger!?" The infernabeest had stopped attacking her temporarily to eat some bamboo leaves. Each bite roasting them to a crisp in its mouth. Nelo slammed her shield over and over again as she ran away from the vapabeest coming to haunt her.

"Hey! Mr. Fire cow! Over here!" The infernabeest was done with the branches on the bamboo and was ready for a bigger bite. This one needed to be approached from the side. It turned its head and attacked the center stalk. The fire at the tip of its horns caught onto some of the plants and began to set fire to the shop. But as its head was turned, it saw Nelo banging her shield, and it got angry once more.

"There we go!" Nelo said, "Come get me! People say I'm reeeeally annoying!" The infernabeest abandoned the bamboo, stamped its hoof, and attacked. Nelo stopped running from the steam monster. She held up her shield ready to take a direct attack. A deadly roar erupted from the north east direction, nothing like the bleating and mooing she had been dealing with. Nelo turned her head.

"A roar!?" The steam monster was about to overtake her again, but the infernabeest slammed her out of the way. Nelo got caught off guard and lost her breath as he fiery goliath collided with her, charging her into the side of an escalade. Nelo's back crunched against the door way. She yelped in pain. Then, she dipped downward, releasing the horns from the lock it was in with her shield. The horns went through the window and she propelled the pike at the end upward.

The blade entered through the neck and up into the cow's brain. It moo'ed one last time and closed its eyes. The fire quelled, only leaving the red body of the beest left. Nelo's plan had worked. The fire from his attack had charged her shield once more. There was a rule for Nelo's weapon, the Shimmering Shield. It could disperse most magic or nonphysical attacks with little expenditure of Nelo's mana. It would even allow you to amplify and redirect that energy through the spike in the center.

The catch was the user had 10 seconds to disperse the energy or else the blast would be turned against them. Nelo didn't need 10 seconds. The vapabeest attacked her again, but she knew that if this fire didn't kill it, it would only turn the beest into something else. So… she pointed the spiked shield slightly to the left. The vapabeest charged at her, getting closer and closer to the stream of fire. Each trek toward her became harder for the vapabeest.

The surrounding heat of the fire did not infect the vapabeest's cells but did disperse the water that made up its being. Slowly, the creature shrunk and shrunk as it got closer until it finally dissipated into nothingness. Nelo dropped her shield and took a big breath. She wiped the sweat off her brow as she picked herself back up to head in the direction of the roar. As she moved away from China town, she made it to exposition park with little trouble. It was a mix of growling and laughing.

She made it past Exposition to the California Science Center. She walked past the giant purple fulcrum and lever in the parking lot. The 13 year old Toyota Tundra still firmly strapped one side of the lever. The other side of the lever held three ropes at different sections of the lever. With signs up top over each rope. One saying '4x effort' the other saying, '2x effort' the last saying '1x effort.' She continued until she saw the leonids. They were draped in darkness, huddled together.

Nelo crouched and slowly worked her way to them. They were standing over someone. Someone Nelo recognized.