Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #16 (Patreon)

On the Madness Of Mountains, Part 3

"Let him finish his introduction first," Sanny said, then frowned. "Wait, let me finish my introduction first. I still haven't said my favorite ice-cream."

"Which is?" Tammy prompted.

"Mocha fudge," Sanny said.

Kim gave her a skeptical look and he wasn't the only one.

"I've never heard of that flavor," Katherine said, actually looking interested.

Sanny sighed. "They discontinued it years ago," she admitted. "That and chocolate marble, and there used to be a strawberry ice-cream with real strawberry bits… all gone… stupid ice-cream company…"

"Your favorite ice-cream is a flavor they don't make anymore?" Kim said.

"You don't stop loving something just because it's gone!" Sanny said fiercely. "This yearning is that love enduring! Besides, ice-cream flavors cycle. We said good bye before… someday, we might say hello again!"

"Now, that reference, I got," Katherine said.

"That was a reference?" Kim said, confused.

"Right, right," Tammy nodded. "Come on kuya, your turn!"

Kim was vividly reminded of the first day of school. Every level of school. Even in college, there were still professors that did stuff like these, even in the engineering department, where you'd think the classes would be too big. Generally he just said his piece and blended into the crowd again, but…

Tammy was giving him a polite, attentive smile, and Sanny was just looking at him, less the glare in her eyes. He supposed that was polite. Willy was looking at Tammy, but she'd been doing that the whole time. He suspected it was normal for her.

Kim coughed nervously, then chided himself for it. "Well, I'm Kim," he said, "and I'm in the electrical engineering course, and planning to minor in mechanical engineering. Er, sorry, force of habit."

"No, that's fine!" Tammy said. "It means we know more about you! Ooh, does that mean you can fix cellphones?"

"Not yet," Kim said. "Though these days, fixing is more a matter of replacing parts anyway. So it's all just soldering. UM, my powers…"

Kim was aware of how the two women leaned forward at that. "I can turn into and control rock," he began lamely. "Pink rock. Pink rocks, pink sand… I can also manipulate my hardness, crystal structure, lines of cleavage…"

"Any specific kind of rock?" Sanny said. "Quartz, feldspar, obsidian, Himalayan salt?" Was she writing on the cardboard box the brownies had come in?

"I… don't know?" he shrugged. "I'm in the engineering department, not whatever department has geology."

"College of Science. It's hidden behind Arts and Letters."

Everyone looked at her.

"What?"

"You were an art student?" Tammy said.

"No," Sanny said, very firmly and flatly. "Do your rocks actually glow, or is it reflective? Does it generate piezoelectricity?"

"Definitely not a Fine Arts student," Katherine muttered.

"That's a stereotype!" Sanny said. "But no, I'm definitely not."

"Um, it's a little of both?" Kim said. "It does glow, but it can also be reflective. I can change the properties of my rock into anything I want, so it can be anything. And I don't actually know if I can generate piezoelectricity." He frowned. "I really should have thought of that. Um, I can also… affect space. That is, I can make spaces bigger and I can make straight lines… not straight?"

He was pretty sure he wasn't explaining it right, but to his surprise both Tammy and Sanny nodded. "Dimensional alteration fuckery," Sanny said, "Are you limited to expansion, or can you make spaces smaller too?"

"Oh, I can make it smaller," Kim said, relieved they seemed to understand. "And affect its contiguousness as well."

"It's what?" Tammy said.

"I'm guessing wormholes," Sanny said. "Or possibly one of those 'trapped in a room', 'endless corridor' looping things."

"Wait, does this mean you can trap us in this house and keep us from ever leaving?" Tammy said, alarmed.

Kim frowned. "I… think I can?" he said. "But I'm not sure what shape that would have to be…"

"You haven't gotten a lot of practice with your powers, have you?" Sanny said.

"I'm been trying to keep it secret," Kim said, trying not to feel defensive. "Just go to school, and try to be normal."

"Conceal, don't feel," Tammy said, nodding in understanding.

"Don't let them know," Sanny said with a smirk.

Mercifully, they didn't continue from there.

"One last question," Sanny said. "Can you control the states of your rock? Can you make it molten or vapor?"

"Oh, like lava?" Tammy said, eyes lighting up. "That would be so cool!"

"Er, no?" Kim said, confused. "It's rock. The best I can do is make sand out of it."

For some reason, the two frowned.

"Huh. That's weird," Sanny said.

"Why is that weird?" Kim said. "I've got rock powers, I make and control rock."

"And space," Tammy pointed out.

"And space," Kim conceded. "Though I just warp that, I don't make it, and I don't become it. Not sure about that. Maybe it's a gravity thing?"

"Why are you asking us?" Sanny said. "It's your power. Wouldn't you know it best?"

Kim shuffled. "I've only ever practiced in my room," he said. "There's an office building nearby that can see into our yard, so I can't practice there."

"Why would that be a problem?" Sanny said.

"Well, my room's not that big," Kim said.

Sanny gave him a look. "You can manipulate and expand space… and the reason you're not practiced with your powers is because your room is too small."

Kim opened his mouth.

Kim paused.

Kim slapped a hand on his face.

"You really haven't had a lot of practice, have you?" Sanny said.

"It's probably from not having to hide it from his family," Tammy said sagely. "Real creativity comes from having something to hide."

"True," Katherine nodded in agreement.

Kim decided to power through that. "Um… apparently that's all I know about my powers. My hopes…" He paused.

"Yes?" Katherine said with a smirk.

"I… hope to graduate?" Kim said. He got an elbow in his side for his trouble. "Ow."

"Kuya, even I can tell that's a cop out answer," Tammy said.

"Seems a good hope to me," Sanny said. "Graduating is hard."

Kim debated taking the out Sanny had given him, but decided not to risk it. "Okay, truth, I hope to have a family one day," he said, to his girlfriend's firm nod of approval.

For some reason, Sanny and Tammy exchanged a look.

"Um, my dreams…" he shrugged. "Honestly, I don't dream of anything, really. Maybe travel the world? I've always wanted to go visit other countries…"

"I think that counts as a dream," Tammy said, nodding.

"And my favorite flavor of ice-cream is ube," Kim finished.

"All right!" Tammy said, then turned to her cousin. "Willy, can you tell us what your hopes, dreams and favorite ice cream is?"

Willy frowned, thinking. "To be with Tammy," she said. "To be with Tammy. Avocado."

"Great!" Tammy said. "Good girl, Willy. Can you think you can tell kuya Kim what your power is?"

Willy turned towards Kim, no emotion on her face. "I turn to water," she said. "And feel things."

Kim blinked. "Um, feel what?" he asked.

"Feelings," Willy said bluntly.

"Wait, she can what?" Katherine said. "She reads people's minds?"

"No, no!" Tammy said. "Near as I can understand, she can tell what people are feeling by… hearing them? Or something? But she doesn't really understand it, so she just ignores it." Willy nodded jerkily.

"How…?" Kim managed to get out.

"My cousin is a special girl," Tammy said, in the tone of someone who would murder anyone who said otherwise. "The world is just not good enough to understand her."

Seated behind her, Willy awkwardly raised her arms gave her cousin a very stiff, awkward-looking hug from the back. One hand awkwardly rose up and patted Tammy on the head.

"Oof. Ah, don't worry Willy, I'm fine, I'm fine," Tammy said, turning her head to give her cousin a reassuring look. And by turn, meaning her neck turned to wood and her head turned around 180 degrees. "Thank you for the hug. It made me feel better." And arm shivered, becoming dark and woody, and it extendedup to pat Willy on the head in return.

Willy nodded jerkily and let go, grabbing Tammy's left hand and sitting back.

There was a beat, then Sanny turned towards Kim. "So, shall I teach you how to make drones?"

––––––––––––––––––

Drones were actually pretty simple. It was similar to how he managed to see, hear and talk through rocks he left behind in certain places, like the border of the property. He hadn't realized he could grow them like he could grow his own body, or reshape it from a distance. Put it together with the sensory abilities he already knew, and he was soon looking up at himself looking down at himself.

Despite her calling them 'drones', Sanny insisted on referring to what he made as a 'knack-off'. It was probably some reference he didn't get. She made a lot of those, he noticed. Still, she'd been a good teacher and very patient with talking him through the principles of making what was essentially a second remotely-operated body. Not bitchy at all. Maybe that had been an uncharacteristically stressed response from her at the time…

"It's so cute!" Katherine said, leaning down at the little turtle-like rock he'd grown legs on to move it around. Like a turtle, it didn't move very vast. "You can really control it? What can it do?"

"At the angle you're leaning at, see down your shirt," Sanny said blandly, the little armored fairy-bug thing she'd made by ripping off her finger as a demonstration sitting on her head. Suffice to say, Kim had not copied her.

Katherine paused, and looked down at herself, then glanced at Kim. He looked to one side, not really able to ignore the fact that… well, yeah, his little knack-off could see down her shirt. Raising an eyebrow, his girlfriend picked up the little rock with legs, and—

Kim blushed as she held it to her chest squeezing the rock between… well, between. "So, does that mean you can feel that?" she said with a teasing smile.

"Uh, technically?" Kim said. "My rocks— ah, I mean, the pink… material doesn't process touch the same way my skin does. Its pressure and temperature but not… well, it's different," he finished lamely.

"You're lucky," Tammy said. "I started putting a layer of soft tissue on my outsides because otherwise my body doesn't feel touch at all. Plants aren't very touchy feely."

"Aren't makahiya plants really sensitive to touch?" Kim asked.

Tammy stared at him. Her hand came up and her face fell down to rest in it. "I'll try that," she said, her voice muffled. "Thank you for suggesting it."

"Aw, so you can't feel it when I do this?" his girlfriend said mischievously as she kept rubbing the rock one her… chest.

"I can't feel, but I can't… 'feel' it?" Kim said.

"Please dial it down, there are minors present," Sanny said mildly.

"Yes, no lewds in front of Willy," Tammy said.

Katherine relented, putting down the rock.

"All right," Sanny said. "Why don't you try—"

"Kuya? Kuya? Kuya, you and your gang need to see this!"

Kim, and everyone else, looked up as Ryan's voice—he'd been supposed to stay upstairs—called from the door to the living room. "Excuse me," Kim said, getting up and watching himself get up and walk away as he walked to the door. He opened it, frowning down at his brother, who was holding his tablet pad. "What?" he said.

His brother held up his tablet, which was showing a video. "Taal Volcano just erupted, and a monster did it," he said quickly and succinctly. "I thought you'd like to know."

Kim's first reaction was tiredly asking his brother why he'd want to know about a monster that made a volcano erupt. His second was to stop and remember that he was joining a weird gang that fought monsters and… well, they'd probably want to know. His weeks of hiding made him hesitate still, but he reluctantly said, "Come in and show us."

––––––––––––––––––

Their TV was one of those with Wifi and talked to other devices. His brother, after awkwardly smiling and waving at everyone, went to turn it on and set up the video he'd apparently been watching upstairs.

"Is… that a horse?" Tammy said, staring at the admittedly low-quality image. On the large TV screen, what had seemed a sharp if distantly indistinct image on a tablet screen was… somehow less sharp-looking. The digital zoom the news network had done had made it fuzzier as well, but…

"Yes," Sanny said, nodding authoritatively. "That's definitely a horse. Made of lava. Molten rock, definitely. Though by the scale, it's at least twenty feet tall and about thirty long. So another sonova… ahem, is also breaking the square-cube law. This is so not fair…" She sighed.

"That's what you're worried about?" Kim exclaimed.

"Well, yeah," Sanny said. "Things getting to break the square cube law when I can't means that eventually monsters will be too big for me to fight. I don't know about you, but that's something I want to avoid."

Taal Volcano was a relatively small volcano on an island in the middle of a lake, in the middle of a circular crater lake that was the third largest lake in the country. Technically, the entire massive crater was Taal Volcano, and the little island with the smaller volcano on it was Volcano Island, but since Volcano island was where geothermal activity tended to happen, it was unsurprising the two often got confused. Even the news channel they had rapidly switched to was making that mistake, but since the volcano on Volcano Island was in Taal Volcano and technically a part of the volcano itself, it probably wasn't incorrect to refer to it as Taal Volcano…

"Well, they have been detecting seismic activity from it for weeks," Katherine said, watching as the news channel devoted talking head time to the 'developing story'. "Maybe it's just a coincidence there's a lava horse monster…" She trailed off.

Even as they watched, the monster horse reared, and behind it, lava spewed violently into the air, literally touching the clouds above the lake and lighting them orange. Grey plumes of volcanic ash and steam continued to spew, some lifting into the air, other rolling down the sides of Volcano Island's peaks to paint it's slopes gray, broken only by the burning, glowing equine form cavorting around it…

On TV, they continued to talk about evacuations and how the bee infestation was complicating matters because the bees were spreading from the exclusion zone to get away from the ash, and people were advised to wear long sleeves and long pants and to cover their heads with blankets to protect themselves from bee attacks…

As the news continued on, showing more videos of the volcano and the burning horse that had been posted online, Kim heard his parents coming down and joining them to watch the TV grimly, his sister in tow, looking grim. Manang Beth, Belle and Levi peaked from the kitchen, listening in and watching what they could.

The talking heads on the TV talked about the military being deployed to help with the evacuation and to pacify the monster horse the way they had pacified the one in Makati. There was more than one snort of disdain and disgust at those words.

"We need to go and do something," someone said.

Kim would have wanted to say he had spoken, but he hadn't.

"What can we do?" Tammy said, looking towards the taller woman who had spoken.

"What we always do," Sanny said, looking calm and determined. "Go in. Kill it."

"Just like that?" Tammy said. Strangely, she didn't seem enthused. "Sanny, it's a small kaiju that looked like it's insides are made of molten rock. You're made of meat, and I'm made of wood. If we go in there, we become barbecue and kindling."

They were so calm when they said it. Go in. Kill it. Be killed. How could they be serious?

"Willy's made of water," Sanny was saying. "Maybe she can wrap around use, keep us from getting burned?"

"So we boil instead?" Tammy said. For someone arguing against a stupid idea, she sounded strangely calm. Why was she calm? "Convection is a thing. We learned that it in class. And on the box of our oven."

"I'm aware."

"Willy's the only one of the three of us who can get near that thing, and she can't fight that on her own," Tammy said.

"Fine. We don't fight it. We take care of the bees. I should have done that before this anyway," Sanny said. "At least that way, the people evacuating won't be in as much danger, and we can stop those things from getting loose into the surrounding provinces. Then you take over all the trees around the crater lake, combine them to turn into a kaiju tree, become so big you don't burn in one go, and squash that thing down to size so Willy can smother it and we can kill it."

Tammy slowly nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go." She turned to Kim's parents. "Ma'am, sir. It was nice to meet you, but we have to go in a hurry. Can we leave our food here and we'll come back for it later?"

Kim's dad turned from the news to the two girls who were making crazy talk. "You're leaving?" he said, surprised.

"We have to go do what we can," Tammy said simply. "We're sorry for imposing. We'll try to come back, but if we're not back by tomorrow… well, it would be a shame if the food went to waste. Come on, Willy."

"Wait."

Tammy and Sanny paused.

Kim took a deep breath. "I'm part of this gang now too, right?" he said.

The two looked at each other.

"That's up to you," Sanny said. "We can't force you to do anything."

Kim took a deep breath and reminded himself he chose this. Reminded himself he had still wanted to join these people even after one of them spied on him.

It was time to stop just… being there.

"Dad," he said. "Can we borrow the car? Sanny can fly, but I don't think she'll be able to get all four of us to Taal on her own. Not in time, anyway."

At his words, Tammy smiled widely. Sanny merely nodded.

His dad hesitated only a moment. Then he turned to Kim's brother. "Ryan, go upstairs and get the keys." He thought about it, glanced at the girls and Sanny in particular for some reason. "The ones for the van. Kim's friends will need the leg room."

Sanny's shoulders seemed to relax at this. Kim supposed she hadn't been looking forward to finding a way to fly herself, Tammy, Willy and… himself… to Taal by herself.

Ryan looked between their dad, Kim, and the girls, grinned, and ran upstairs.

"Don't run on the stairs," mom called after him. "Honestly, that boy…"

"You're really coming with us?" Tammy said eagerly.

Stop being there, Kim reminded himself. Be there. "Yeah," he said. "I figure a guy made of rock can do something about a horse made of melted rock."

"If we can find out the melting point of lava," Sanny said, "and if you can turn into a specific mineral, you might be able to be something whose melting point is higher than the lava's temperature. Then you can back up Willy as she thermal shocks that lava horse to death." She frowned. "Tammy, think of a name. 'Lava horse' is boring to say."

"Volcanequine?"

"That's one syllable longer than 'lava horse'."

"Volpony?"

"I'm fine with 'Lava Horse'," Kim said. "It's simple, it's descriptive, and it's easy to say."

The two looked at him, considering that.

"Lava Horse," Tammy repeated with a nod.

Kim smiled. It… wasn't much of a contribution, but it was a start. And a start was what this was as one of the…

He frowned. "Um, what's our group called?"

All he got were blank looks.

"I knew we forgot something!" Tammy exclaimed.