LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 4 – Job Description
It was good for me, then, that the knight got in between the mist creature and me, throwing it back with the help of their -- spear? I figured I’d call it a spear until I got corrected -- far enough to have more than enough time to knock on the window. I rolled it down, and yes, Mom’s car was old enough that you had to roll the windows down with a crank. She was a reliable girl Mom kept alive and taken care of. The knight spoke up. “Hey, you the new girl?” they asked, and I gulped.
“I’m, I’m supposed to be a boy--” I began, but the knight waved her hand at me.
“Alright, gender stuff to get through, something for later, understandable. I’m Clara; anyways, you should transform and help me out here.” I shook my head to reply to her. “Scared to fight?” I nodded.
“And of, of my form when transformed; it’s confusing.” I used my words at last, which earned me a hair ruffling courtesy of Clara.
“Eh, I should be able to take down this one without difficulty, it’s person-sized.” She shrugged and charged towards the Nightmare, who had started running off. The Nightmare seemed a bit far away to catch up with, even with Clara’s incredible speed, but she thrust her spear forward and a purple blast shot out of it, the color draining from her cape and armor. It traveled past the Nightmare and stopped, turning into a purple-tinted mirror image of Clara. She then appeared to blink from where she was standing to her mirror, who had all the colors now. This surprised the Nightmare, and so Clara thrust forward once more, but the Nightmare jumped back, sneering. It tried slashing at Clara, but she deftly deflected the blows with the back of her spear, while she continued thrusting at it when the opportunity presented itself.
I turned my gaze from the fight for but a moment to check on Mom. She was clutching the steering wheel hard, grinding her teeth, her muscles all tensed up. I reached out and grabbed her shoulder, which made her ease up just a little bit. “I have no clue how old she is,” Mom began “but she shouldn’t be doing this. You really want my child to be doing this? Every night? Instead of sleeping? And for what?” Her gaze fell on Potato Bun, who was sitting on the dashboard, awkwardly fidgeting with her hands. Or paws? I couldn’t really see fingers at the ends of her arms; it was like she was a Powerpuff Girl in shape. I supposed paws was more accurate. She was being quiet, contemplative, not responding currently.
There was a screech right next to me, of metal scraping against concrete. I turned to the source to find Clara sliding back, her spear in the ground to slow her down. “Alright, you shitty boogeyman, you can hit back huh?” she said, a smirk on her face, her teeth bared. “Well, let’s see if you can take this!” She unstuck her spear and launched forward, flying through the air towards her target, the Nightmare getting ready to move out of the way. As she got closer, she began splitting, a blue copy of her moving to one side while she moved to the other. The Nightmare jumped up, intending to dodge them that way, but the blue clone leapt into the air, piercing the Nightmare with its spear. Or rather, it appeared to do so, without there being any damage. The nightmare grinned, satisfied about its perceived invincibility, and that’s when Clara blinked, her real spear now buried in the Nightmare’s chest. It tried clawing at her, but she kicked it in its face, making sure the spear was still sticking through it as she dove down with her prey. The impact of the landing basically forced her foot through what could be considered the Nightmare’s skull, and with such critical damage, the Nightmare melted away into a fine mist, which spread over the area. Any damage that had happened in the fight got reversed. Which, sure, only amounted to a few impact marks and a deep cut in the road, but it was still impressive.
Clara, after digging her spear out of the road once more, began making her way over to the car. On her way over, I could clearly hear her say “Rainbow Spear Powers, Dull.” Which earned me an outsider's perspective on transforming back. Her gear glowed for a second and then poofed away, and in place of her spear Clara was now holding a rainbow-colored pencil. As far as her outfit went, it was a pretty casual affair of ripped jeans, a blouse, and a long cardigan, weather-appropriate and comfortable-looking. “Alright, newbie, I must have missed your name during the whole kerfuffle there. So what is it?” she asked as she leaned on the car door. I hadn’t really had time to look at her face properly. She was brown-skinned; her hair was black and tied back into a high ponytail. There was a scar on her lower lip and through her right eyebrow, and her nose looked crooked, from being broken and not healing correctly. All those things only added to her charm though.
Mom groaned. “I would much prefer you get in, since I’d like to have a talk with you as well.” Clara shrugged at Mom’s request, and got in the back seat. “Seatbelt, please,” Mom commanded, and Clara complied. I got to rolling up the window, but before I fully closed it, something zipped right by me. “For fuck’s sake, another one,” Mom sighed, and I looked back at Clara, who had a Bun sitting on her shoulder. This one had a red ribbon on their tail. And Potato Bun was excited to see them.
“Beef Bun! So nice to see you again! You’re a sight for sore eyes.” Potato Bun sighed in relief, and flew over to Beef Bun, who was frowning, of all things.
“So that’s the newbie, Potato? Why didn’t she help out Clara?” Beef Bun asked, only to be answered by my Mom.
“Because David is a bundle of anxiety that I will not allow to be recruited for some shitty secret war, and if you try to coerce him by teaming up, you’ll get the same treatment as Miss Potato Bun next to you there.” Her glare was intense, I was fully expecting Mom to blast a hole through the back of the car.
“No, listen here, civvie, you’re not supposed to know about this, the fact you do means Potato Bun screwed up her mission. And if you’re hurting her you’re gonna have to deal with--” Beef Bun didn’t get to finish their sentence, since Mom grabbed them and put them on her seat, face down to prevent biting of course, and sat back down.
“Hey, David’s mom, that one’s mine, you can’t do that!” Clara complained, and Mom relaxed.
“I do not tolerate military recruiters. At all. The fact there are none at David’s school is purely my responsibility. And these two fuckers are military recruiters, plain and simple.” Mom started the car. “What makes them worse is that they recruit kids, kids that shouldn’t be putting their lives in danger.”
Clara huffed in an amused tone. “I’m already in danger as a second generation immigrant and queer woman; I tell the wrong guy no and I get shot. This way, I at least get to fight back, and I keep the Nightmares from actually hurting people.”
“There’s others that could fight, adults with experience, adults that have lived a life they don’t feel sorry giving up; why does a kid have to be the one to fight?!” Mom shouted, pain in her voice. With a long exhale, she rested her head on the steering wheel. “I don’t know whether you fighting these Nightmares is the right thing. But I don’t want to see the faces of young people beaten to a pulp because they’re doing the right thing.” I held Mom’s shoulder, and she gave me a sad smile, followed by her raising her butt to let Beef Bun fly out. Mom straightened herself up, and reached a hand over to Clara for a shake. “I forgot to introduce myself. Doctor Pamela Cloudton.”
Clara returned the gesture. “Clara Everest. And there really aren’t any others that could fight.” She let go, and stretched. “Whatever damage happens to our transformed forms doesn’t transfer to our untransformed forms.”
“Oh, okay, so you can endure getting your bones broken over and over again, getting stabbed, beaten, and the only scars you have are the mental ones which don’t heal, that right?” Clara nodded to answer Mom, and Mom just growled. “I have some more questions, and David probably has some too, so if it’s alright with you, I think I’ll drive this car back to my and David’s home and offer you a cup of something.”
“While that offer sounds lovely, there is a chance of more Nightmares popping up, something I should be ready to tackle.” Clara reached to unbuckle her seatbelt, when Beef Bun grabbed hold of it.
“The other three can deal with whatever else might pop up. You’re the leader, you should talk with the new girl to explain things in a way she might get,” they said, rubbing the back of their head. “So just go and do that, Clara. Maybe you’ll convince the nutcase to let her daughter fight.”
“I’ll eat an entire pot of bean and meat chilli and patiently sit on you if you call me a nutcase again, Beef. I might even throw you in the pot as it cooks, and that is a promise.” Mom raised her finger to nail her point home as she turned the car around and started driving home.
