Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #24 (Patreon)

The Statement Of Jaselle Alhambra, Part 1

Jaselle Alhambra had always considered herself a heavy sleeper, even if she'd always woken up early so she could do her chores and get ready for school in the morning. When she'd slept, she had slept, dead to the world and not to be roused until the stars were right and it was time for her to wake.

That had changed.

And so, as Jas jerked awake in the middle of the night from dreams where she stood alone in darkness, supreme and unchallenged and singing in the music of the spheres carried on the solar winds, she found that in her sleep she had begun to turn into the raging fires of hell.

Her skin was glowing, and she hurriedly threw herself off the bed and onto the carpet next to it, scrambling for the open door of the bathroom and onto the tile to keep anything more from burning anything. She'd already told her Uncle Carlo a candle had fallen while she was praying the last time she'd accidentally set the carpet on fire, and that wouldn't work again. Jas was sure he suspected she was smoking, given how he had casually mentioned the benefits of e-cigs and vaping over actual cigarettes, and how they didn't lead to tar and lung cancer…

The bathroom light was turned off, but she provided enough light to see by, even without the glow of the streetlights coming in through the windows. Her skin glowed with heat, patches of it burning with an orange, molten light, while strips flared into plasma that thankfully caused more light than heat. Frantically, she pulled off her clothes so they wouldn't burn, even as she tried to take control of her body from the urges surging through her, tried to pull the heat she was radiating back into her. Jas could feel her insides shifting, surging with heat hotter than the house could safely hold. She felt nauseous and hollow as her stomach turned to lava, burning inside her, lungs filling with fire before they turned to sunfire. She felt the heat and dense burning gas rising from her and she clamped her mouth shut, closed her throat. She felt like she was going to throw up, but she didn't move towards the sink. There was no point. She had to hold it in, because it would come out as either lava or solar plasma, and both would set her uncle's house on fire.

Even as she kept her body from burning, in the back of her head, her power raged. Enthusiasm, wonder, curiosity, eagerness, a restless energypressed against her, a familiar feeling of excitement as if she were waiting for Christmas morning or her birthday, only a hundred times more intense. If her teeth weren't already grit to help her keep down the heat trying to sure up her throat—her throat was gone, it was lava now, and what had been her stomach roiled like a shaken soda bottle—she would have clenched them tight as she pushed down those urges, slowly taking back control of her body's state. It wasn't that she couldn't move, but her body kept changing. Jas felt her eyes start to burn—literally start to burn, filling with a scorching heat—and she had just enough time to squeeze her eyelids shut before her vision disappeared, becoming the true darkness of blindness and not just closed eyelids as her eyes ceased to exist, becoming small, burning balls of hot gas.

She had literal stars in her eyes.

Growling slightly, Jas took control of body, hardening herself. Her eyelids sealed, fusing together as she turned them into obsidian, and suddenly she could see again, even if there were strange distortions and odd angles in her eyes from the facets. In the mirror, it looked like she had glowing red eyes as the light of the burning plasma was filtered through the volcanic rock. She saw by her own light as her obsidian eyes saw from both sides and she found herself looking at the stars that burned within her…

She stood tall, glaring at her reflection, at the dark shape with burning eyes and skin that glowed in patches as she imposed control. That was her adversary, that dark monstrosity, a burning demon that—

There was a burst of confusion, and then the rush of enthusiasm and excitement faded, leaving only a strange hollowness, and she was finally able to push the urges back. She made her annoyance and nausea known as she forcedher insides back into order, as she made her lungs and stomach and esophagus and her eyes and everything else come back with force of will. She pulled in the heat she'd been radiating despite herself, and the bathroom suddenly chilled.

Panting, Jaselle stood there, both hands on the thankfully marble countertop of the bathroom sink, getting herself under control until the counter felt cold under hear hands. Her glow was gone, and what little diffuse glow from outside barely let her make out her outline. She patted at the wall to the left of the sink until she felt the row of light switches under her hand and flicked on the switch in the middle of the three.

A soft, warm golden light from the panels on the ceiling lit the bathroom gently, and Jas winced at her reflection. Dark, glassy eyes stared back at her as obsidian shone on her face, so like the monster she had killed and devoured to get them. She didn't close her eyes to concentrate, since they were already close, but she concentrated, and the volcanic glass began to recede as if they were being stabbed deeper into her flesh, sinking into dark skin and settling and dissolving to become eyelashes before she was blind again. Or at least, standing with her eyes closed, with a dim, indistinct glow from the light still passing through her eyelids.

Jaselle finally opened her eyes, just because she could, and stared at herself in the mirror. A thin young woman of below average height stood there, the sun darkened skin of her arms, head and neck from helping with the planting season before coming to Metro Manila contrasting sharply with the slightly paler brown of the rest of her. Her uncle's housekeepers-slash-live-in-girlfriends had been cooking all sorts of rich, tasty food in an effort to fatten her up, but beyond being delicious and filling it didn’t seem to be having any effect.

Sighing, she flicked off the lights. With only the glow from the windows, she picked up her sleeping clothes and put them on. They weren't even sweaty, only a little warm and dry, as if fresh from the dryer her uncle had shown her. The air conditioning was off, since it was too cold, but the electric fan in the corner continued to turn. She'd long since gotten over the guilty extravagance of having an electric fan pointed solely at herself without needing to share it, and so there was only a slight twinge that felt like her grandmother's disapproving scowl as she went back to bed.

She woke up two more times to find her body about to catch fire, or turn into fire, but fortunately she'd woken up before anything had gotten too warm and started charring. Ever since she'd started living with her uncle, she'd been waking up outrageously late, and today was no exception, with the sun already starting to peek over the horizon. She couldn't see it, since her room was on the north side, but she could feel it unerringly, feel the distant churning that was the star's burn, the second-hand goosebumps of roiling plasma, so far, so separate but seemingly almost, almost close enough to touch…

Even with interrupted sleep, Jas woke up feeling completely well rested and brimming with energy. There was none of the reluctant sluggishness that she remembered from waking up before the dawn to prepare for the day and her chores and getting her siblings ready, as if she'd had a whole night's uninterrupted sleep. She could feel that most of that eager enthusiasm was coming from the back of her head where the burning power lay, and this time she indulged it, letting the enthusiasm sweep her up as she bathed and got dressed. The bathroom, like the electric fan, was all for her, which she didn't need to share with any of Uncle Carlo's girlfriends. It even had cold AND hot water, although she didn't use the latter. Hot water was for wounds and cooking, and it was wasteful to bathe with it unless you were old and sickly like her grandmother. Still, on the cold, tiled floor, she allowed a little of her heat to glow from her heat, the heat of molten rock rather than a burning star, and feeling the ticklish sensation of the water sizzling and flashing into steam as it washed over her.

When she pulled back the heat, water condensed everywhere, even the ceiling, and Jas took a moment to wipe it all down so that one of the housekeepers-slash-live-in-girlfriends wouldn't need to. It was her mess, after all, and so she cleaned it up. Then she got dressed in the smart slacks and cotton blouse that her family had bought brand new from the second hand store and headed downstairs, where she could already smell tocino and eggs being cooked.

––––––––––––––––––

"Ate Jas!" a voice called out noisily, reminding her of one of her little sisters. "Over here!"

She'd already seen them, and gave a small wave of acknowledgement, adjusting her schoolbag with her notes and papers and notebooks and the expensive secondhand textbooks in it. Her rusty, dented pencil case was in a different pocket so that it wouldn't stain the papers.

To her guilty delight, there was a plate there with a cookie for her, a notion that was confirmed when Ate Sanny nonchalantly pushed the little plate in her direction with a negligent wave. "Thank you," Jas said, quietly and sincerely, tearing off a small piece from the edge and popping it into her mouth, careful to catch all the crumbs on the plate so nothing went to waste. The urges rose to grab the whole cookie and shoved it into her mouth, but she stifled it sternly. This was a treat, she had to make it last!

The blonde-dyed, dark-skinned woman looked like she wanted to say something, but then she always wanted to say something. She was a very talkative person. Whatever it was, she visibly changed her mind before her mouth opened again. "We're not keeping you from anything, are we, Jaselle?" she asked.

Jaselle shook her head, giving in to temptation to pluck out one of the cookies raisins. The fire roiled with glee at the sweetness spread in her mouth. "No Ate Sanny, we've already done all our coursework for next week."

Ate Sanny blinked. "It's Saturday morning," she said disbelievingly.

"Yes?" Jas said, not sure what she meant. She plucked off another piece.

"What's wrong with doing your coursework early?" Kuya Kim said, holding a cup of what was probably very expensive coffee. "I did most of mine last night too."

Ate Sanny sighed. "I graduated, I don't need to justify my studying habits to anyone," she muttered to herself.

"I'm doing my homework right now," Tammy said proudly. "I locked the door to my room and left another me in there. It's kind of hard concentrating on what's going on here and thinking about my homework too, but I'm managing it!"

"What, really?" Sanny said, surprised. "Being in two places at once is easy. I'm two places at once all the time."

"You have work on Saturdays?"

"No, groceries. I'm almost out of chocolate."

"Maybe it’s the brains," Kuya Kim said. "If each of your body has a brain in it, then aren't you basically working with double brain power?"

Ate Sanny blinked. "Huh. I never thought of that. You might have a point." She frowned. "That probably explains why having more bodies to control isn't hard. Each body has a new brain to help with coordinating and controlling."

"Lucky you," Tammy sighed. "All of mine are just lumps of wood."

"It's still getting your homework done," Kuya Kim pointed out.

"I suppose. Hang on, I have to look up something…"

Tammy fell silent, staring into nothing. For a moment, the five of them sat in relative silence as the music of the stupidly expensive coffee shop played mixed with the buzz of conversation.

"Okay, I'm back," Tammy said suddenly. "Did I miss anything?"

"Why isn't Willy doing her homework?" Ate Sanny asked as Jas nibbled on another piece broken off the cookie.

"Because she's a pro at homework," Tammy said proudly. "All she needs to do is write it down, and she can do that later. Willy's at the top of our class. Of the year, even."

Next to Tammy, Willy shifted slightly.

"Okay, now that we're all here, we can get started," Ate Sanny said. "When it was just the three of us, Tammy, Willy and myself, we tried to deal with that thing in Makati. We failed horribly and got eaten several times." She paused. "Well, I got eaten. Tammy just sort of got melted since the Gagambuhala wasn't a vegetarian, and after that Willy left and went home. But with Jas here, we'll finally be able to deal with that asshole!"

Tammy nodded. "Yeah, with a leader we'll finally be able to fight as a team." She smiled at Jas, who hesitantly smiled back, not understanding.

"Jas can't be the leader Tammy," Ate Sanny said, and Jas nearly choked on the crumb she was eating. Kuya Kim looked at her in concern, but Jas waved him off, swallowing. "For one thing, she's literally the newest person here."

"Rookie reds being in charge is a thing!"

"For another, you're clearly in charge, since being superheroes was your idea," Ate Sanny said. "I can't be in charge, because I'm not a leader, Willy can't be in charge because she'll do what you say, so that's tantamount to you being leader anyway, and Kim and Jas are too inexperienced and don't have the passion you do for this idea."

"But… I'm green!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we really shouldn't imitate everything we see on TV," Ate Sanny said. "Just being the red one doesn't mean they'll be a good leader."

"I don't want to be leader," Jas said quickly.

"There, you see?" Ate Sanny said, gesturing. "She doesn’t want to be leader. She's not that kind of overachiever." Overachiever? Was that an insult? "So it's on you, Tammy. Your idea, your passion."

"But… I don't know how to lead!"

"Just keep doing what you've been doing already," Ate Sanny said.

"Are you sure you're not the leader?" Tammy said, sounding desperate.

"No, I'm the lone wolf independent one who makes sure the leader does their job, while the leader keeps them in line," Ate Sanny said cheerfully.

"Eh? I wanted to be that one!"

Ate Sanny just stared at Tammy.

"All right, I can't pull it off, but I wanted to anyway!"

Jas finished her cookie as Kuya Kim checked his phone, replying to messages.

"Are you two done?" Kuya Kim asked, glancing up from his phone.

Ate Sanny and Tammy looked at each other.

"Yeah, I think we're done," Ate Sanny said.

"Sorry," Tammy said, looking guilty. "I just don't have anyone to talk to about this."

"Well, don't forget we're here too," Kuya Kim said. "About something we can all understand?"

Tamy nodded. "Right. Well, as Ate Sanny was saying, we're going to go kill the giant spider in Makati."

"While we have personal reasons for wanting it stone cold, dead, and eaten," Ate Sanny said, "we're not choosing this for personal reasons, but for the greater good. Namely, that if we kill this thing, the military will finally stop parking their tanks in the middle of the street and open up EDSA again, traffic will go back to more or less normal, and we can stop waking up three hours early to get to work on time!" That last bit was said with gritted teeth and clenched fist.

"I warp to school now," Kuya Kim said a little smugly. "Saves a lot on gas."

"I agree getting traffic back to normal will be good for a lot of people in the city," Jas said, thinking of the heavy traffic in front of her university. While she didn't mind walking when it was literally faster than sitting in her uncle's truck or sitting in the car with Lila, Uncle Carlo's girlfriend who attended the university with her, it made her sweaty and uncomfortable, making it hard to concentrate on her classes. And her uncle kept telling her that the streets around her school were unsafe and full of bag snatchers and pickpockets, so she shouldn't walk there…

"I just want to wake up two hours before class instead of three," Tammy said. "Sleeping on the school bus sucks." She nodded. "Okay. Let's finally squash that stupid bug and get traffic back to normal levels of terrible instead of hellish!"

Some people probably heard the pronouncement over the coffee shop's music, but Jas doubted it.

"Are we flying again?" she asked.

"Well, traffic is horrible right now, which is exactly why we're doing this, so yes, we're flying."

Jas looked down at her clothes.

"Don't worry," Kuya Kim said. "I've been working on the problem, and I have something to take care of it." He reached down to the floor next to him and pulled up an old-looking briefcase. It was dark brown and slightly scuffed. He lay the briefcase on the table, spun the combination, undid the catches, and opened the lid.

They all stared. Ate Sanny reached inside the briefcase, and her arm went in up to the elbow.

"Ooh," Tammy said. "It's bigger on the inside!"

"I've been trying things out," Kuya Kim said confidently.

Ate Sanny nodded. "Does it affect how much things put inside it weigh?"

Kuya Kim grew still. "Ah. I knew I was forgetting something. You can't fly with this, can you?"

"Not very well, no," Ate Sanny said.

"Well, back to the drawing board," Kuya Kim said. "Not that I use one… Drones? I've been practicing with mine."

"We need to devourit to kill it properly," Ate Sanny said. "Drones can't do that. Only we can." She flexed her fingers, which seemed to move in ways human fingers shouldn't.

The fire roared, and Jas had to stiffen, locking her muscles to keep control of herself as she felt muscles in her legs and arms start to burn and flow, becoming fiery lava. She saw a spot on her arm starting to glow…

The fire wanted to burn. The fire wanted to devour…

"Ate Jas? Are you all right?"

She blinked, her body hot, feverish even, and she could feel her face drooping slightly as the bone beneath began to melt, spreading to the skin above it…

And then her face was firm but she felt hot, so hot, and there was glowing plasma on her breath. Ate Sanny was subtly leaning away fanning her face—

Jaselle pulled in her heat, willed her body to solidify, to cool, to be flesh and nothing softer. The fire resisted, filling her with petulance and hunger, but she focused on. This wasn't the time for this, she needed control, not heat, needed to hold back or else people could get hurt…

Sternly, not wavering, she forced the fire to behave. The petulance remained, stronger than ever, but no heat escaped and plasma and lava was reigned in…

Eventually, when she was sure that nothing was coming out of her mouth that could burn, Jas said, "I'm fine, I'm fine." Her eyes were closed, she realized, and obsidian shards had grown among her eyelashes. She pulled the volcanic glass back, opening her eyes, which felt strangely dry, and she blinked to bring moisture back to it.

"It happens," Tammy said sympathetically. "Maybe we should stop meeting in public places, we seem to have more little accidents when we're together."

"We do. I think we find each other kind of delicious," Ate Sanny said casually. "Jas was looking at me when it happened, and I was talking about devouring… "

The fire surged again, but this time Jas was ready. And this time, she noticed that Tammy stiffened as a slight pale and green sheen came over her and Kuya Kim became slightly… pinker. Only Willy and Ate Sanny seemed unaffected.

"People are friends, not food," Tammy said shakily. "People are friends, not food… people are friends, not food…"

Willy reached down to hold the other girl's hand, and Tammy jerked back as if burned, little brown roots growing on her hand. The taller girl didn't react, but took her hand back and sat patiently.

"So…" Kuya Kim said, and there was a strange vibration in his voice, "We were going out to eat, right?"

"Yes," Ate Sanny said, and Jas saw, for the briefest of moments, triangular shark-like teeth between the woman's lips. "We were going out to eat."