Fenris Perrywinkle: The Great Galactic Duel

Oh, How the Lizards do Mock Me

Morning hits me in the face and I begrudgingly open my eyes. Amanda is still loudly snoring beside me. Her bra is wrapped around her head for some reason. She’s still wearing her tank top thingy, so everyone can just get their minds out of the gutter now, thank you.

I lay my shirt and trousers over her to try and make up for the fact that I need to leave and find a makeshift little boy’s room.

The sunrise is beautiful as I give back to nature. You’re welcome nature. There’ll be more to come later, promise.

It’s odd – I can see my breath a little and there’s a wee bit of frost here and there, but I feel completely fine. It’s like the cold isn’t touching me somehow. In fact, I feel kind of… good? Tingly even?

My lovely doctor continues to snores as I pop my morning meds. I hope she’s warm enough. I won’t lie – I had to summon all my discipline to remain a gentleman last night. Talk about temptation! What? You’re going to snuggle up to me and ask me to wrap my arms around you to keep you warm? Okay. No problem. No problem at all. My pleasure. My extreme pleasure.

If she hadn’t knocked off like thirty seconds later… who knows what might have happened? I wonder if we’re going to do the same thing again tonight! Is it wrong that I kind of hope we remain lost in the desert together for like… a couple of months? That’s not wrong – is it?

My stomach says ‘good morning’ in a rather loud fashion. I love Amanda for feeding me cactus flesh all yesterday, but today, Fenris needs some meat!

My stomach roars an approval for that idea. I wonder if Amanda knows how to catch and cook lizards or scorpions or something. I wouldn’t be surprised at this point. She’s seven different kinds of amazing.

I watch her snore a little longer. She’s so beautiful in the morning light. Kind of like the afternoon and evening light. I wrap my shirt around her shoulders a little tighter. Sleep on, my princess. Sleep on.

I step out a little further from our rocky shelter and squint at the horizon. There is nothing but peaceful morning desert as far as the eye can see. Not a hint of any malicious military movement.

My thoughts turn back to Amanda’s previous comments regarding my apparent latent abilities. Could those be the powers that Little Green’s scan said were inhib… inhabi… inhabidid… turned off?

I hold up my hands and study them. She did say something about me projecting energy, didn’t see?

I see an unsuspecting rock twenty yards away and decide it’s going to be my first victim. I narrow my eyes, and try to concentrate on ‘building up a charge’.

“Hai-yah!”

I thrust my hand toward the rock. Nothing happens. I will try again.

“Wah-cha!”

Nope.

“Muah-la-la-la-la-la!”

Nothing.

“Come on. Shoot! Lightning that rock! Zap it!”

Squat-diddly.

I try whipping my hands in the air. Nothing. I try the Spiderman finger thingy pose. Nothing. I do the whole ‘Street Fighter throw the energy ball attack’ action. Nothing.

Nothing at all.

I grunt in despair and cover my face with my hands. Maybe the meds haven’t had any effect on me yet? I don’t know.

Someone giggles behind me and I nearly jump out of my skin. Amanda stands behind me fully dressed and holding my clothes. Not sure why she’s grinning like that. It’s like the sight of me standing in the desert in my tighty-whities and black socks is hilarious or something.

“Aren’t you freezing?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No, actually. I feel perfectly fine.”

She cocks an eyebrow like she isn’t sure if she believes me or not, then tosses me my shirt and trousers. “Whatever you say. Have you taken your medication yet?”

I nod as I pull my clothes on.

“Feeling any different?”

“Warm and kind of tingly -- not like I’m sick or anything though. I’m quite comfortable.”

Amanda frowns a little and crosses her arms in front of her. “If we’re going to survive this, we’re going to need your abilities back. I’m no stranger to the outdoors, but I’m not prepared to spend an extensive amount of time hiding out in the wild.”

“We need some meat!” I say with kind of a wild look in my eye.

She pauses for a moment, then asks, “Like the meat about to nibble your sock?”

I give her a confused expression, then look down at the ground. A small lizard is sniffing my foot.

“AGH!” I leap back in surprise. A blue blot of electricity arcs from my foot and strikes the little creature. It flops onto its back with its little legs sticking straight up in the air. Its flesh makes a sizzling sound.

Amanda’s eyes open wide. She stares at the crispy little critter, then nods and seems pleased. “I understand why all those prison guards died now. Your emotional state is tied to your abilities on a subconscious level.”

“My what is tied to my what?”

She clears her voice a little. “Have you ever heard of fight or flight? It’s baked into our survival instincts. When we feel threatened, we automatically want to fight off whatever it is that’s causing us stress, or remove ourselves from the situation.”

I nod my head desperately hoping that I look like I’m understanding.

She continues, “It appears that your survival instincts can access the abilities you possess even though your conscious mind can’t yet. I think we can work with that.”

“Awesome,” I say as I continue to nod my head in a faux-confident fashion. “Now are you going to eat that little lizard thing? Because it smells delicious.”

The afternoon sun beats down on us. I count at least a dozen little lizard thingies lounging in the sun all around us. I’ve decided they’re mocking me.

“Dammit, Fenris, I said concentrate!”

“I can’t concentrate when you’re yelling at me like that!”

I stand in a crane stance with one hand pointed toward a desert weed of some sort. I’ve been doing this for over twenty minutes now. Amanda is being uncharacteristically pushy at the moment.

“Concentrate!” she screams and whips the back of my neck with a long stick.

“OW!” I shout and turn to her with an angry look. I don’t like being cross with my Amanda, but she’s really getting on my nerves.

She suddenly looks pleased with herself.

My emotions bubble to the surface and I find myself yelling. “What? You’re happy that you get to whip me with a stick?”

She shakes her head and motions for me to look at the weed. There’s a small crater where the weed used to be; the sand all around it is charred.

“I… I did it? Did I do that?”

Amanda smiles and nods her head. “Now you can do it when your emotions are heightened. We’re re-establishing the latent neural connection to your abilities. Soon, all you’ll need to access them will be intense concentration.”

“So…” Did she always have to talk like a scientist? Like, I get it. She is a scientist or doctor or whatever, but would it kill her to just have a normal conversation with me?

“So… I did it… and this is good?”

I watch her eyes intently. They usually start rolling around her skull at this point. Ah yep – there they go.

Amanda nods. “Yes, Fenris. This is progress. This is go—“

She’s cut off by an explosion thirty yards away. The blast is enough to knock us off our feet. My ears are ringing a little bit, but I manage to stand and spot the source. A military vehicle is charging toward us at full speed.

Amanda is writhing in the dirt trying to shake it off and get her bearings still. She’s still disoriented as I toss her over my shoulder and run behind one of the rocky outcroppings nearby.

“F… Fen…ris…” she sputters.

Another explosion a ways off to the side knocks us back against the rock.

Amanda screams.

I suddenly feel my heart pounding in my ears and everything goes red.

I awaken with a start. Amanda is kneeling over me. I feel like my body is going to explode.

“Calm down. Calm down,” she whispers in a soothing voice as she runs a hand through my hair. “Calm down. There you go. There you go. We’re safe now. You did it. We’re safe.”

“Dr. Vincent?” I whisper back. “Amanda? What happened?”

I sit up and survey the carnage all around us. Men in uniform lie dead in the desert -- their bodies partially burnt or dismembered. Pieces of burning wreckage are strewn about as far as the eye can see. It’s a war zone.

I look back at the beautiful doctor with fear in my eyes.

“What did I do?”