Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #37 (Patreon)

Waterborne, Part 4

Willy didn't leave immediately. Instead, she waited an hour, then watched another weather report and, after determining that the illustrated shape of the area of the rain had changed, compared it to the previous picture she'd taken, then began to measure the area's dimensions to figure out the average center of the area. It was difficult doing it on the small screen of her phone, but she persevered.

Then Willy waited another hour and did it again.

Outside, the rain continued to come down, a repetitive noise that could easily be confused for an electric fan, or an old air conditioner, and she occasionally heard Sanny roar in challenge. She sounded like she was moving around the area, or possibly flying, their roars muffled and distant. Around her, Willy felt the cold waters churning, but she kept the turbulence away from her with long practice. Her days in school and the regular commutes there exposed her to much greater, more varied and persistent intrusions. Compared to that, the mere seven people conscious who were actively making a disturbance was nothing. It helped that Milo and at least one other person managed to keep calm and enforced stillness on their waters.

Occasionally, Milo would come to check in on her, but didn't interrupt her. He was one of those who kept his waters still, keeping his turbulence to a minimum even as his water kept filling with more and more slush. He didn't bother her with pointless questions beyond asking if she needed anything, and she'd simply asked for some paper and pencil to try to work out the probable center of the rain, because she'd needed it, and thanked him as Tammy had told her she should.

Five and a half hours later, after Willy had turned down the offer of lunch, she put down the last sheet. On it was the bare map of Metro Manila, using lines to define the major roads that stood out to her on the online map she'd referred to, with the shape of the rain's area drawn over it. She'd have preferred to just print out the map, but this was the best she could do. Tammy said they shouldn't waste resources, and that printer ink was expensive.

The shape of the rain's area had changed subtly over time, but it had remained roughly the same size. The news had commented repeated about how it had stalled despite no high and low pressure areas pulling at it and with wind blowing at it, but of course it did. The rain wasn't bound by meteorology, but by whatever monster was causing it. She had drown the shape of the area of the rain according to the weather reports, then trimmed it do to the area that where all the shapes intersected, marking the rough center of that shape as the epicenter of the rain.

On her rough map, the epicenter lay over the area of Pasig. Not the relatively affluent, expensive and developing side west of the Pasig River famous in song and environmentalist screeds, but the poor, struggling side on the west of the river, where the roads were narrow and tight and houses were packed together. At least, that was what it had looked like from the time they'd passed over the area when Sanny had been carrying them.

Willy stared at her drawing, and the map of the area on her phone. It was… well, it was very little to go on. But if nothing else, it gave her something to do to try to wake up Tammy, and it was tenuously supported by what little they understood of the nature of these strange powers in general. The mushroom forest in Baseco, the growth Tammy had named the Thorn Thicket, the way Jas emanated heat, Kim affected space, her own water output… they all emanated outward from a single source, whether that was their own persons or independent pieces of themselves they'd detached for that purpose. At the very least if she was correct, she had narrowed the source of the rain to that area.

It was still a large area, but it gave her a place to start, and the rain itself likely gave her a means of narrowing down what was responsible. If it was awake, mobile and displayed abilities thematically congruent with either rain or sleep, then it was likely what she had to destroy utterly to awaken Tammy.

Willy had never devoured before, as everyone else seemed to refer to the process, but for Tammy's sake she was willing to do so.

Nodding to herself, Willy memorized the location, the cross streets in the area, then neatly stacked up her papers and put her pencil over it for her to refer to later when she came back for Tammy. She stood up and was about to begin undressing when she paused, remembering something Tammy had told her—Tammy told her many things, most of it situational and easily overlooked unless she was reminded—and settled her clothes back down. "Mang Milo?" she called out to her host, walking towards where she felt there was little turbulence in the water. "I'm leaving."

She found Milo in the dining room, putting down his phone as he looked up to her. "Leaving? Where are you going?" he asked.

Willy considered it, but technically until she left the premises she was still his guest. "Pasig," she said. "It's where I suspect the source of the rain is. I'm going to kill it and wake up Tammy."

Milo frowned. "Pasig… have there been any monsters reported in Pasig?"

Willy paused, then growled in frustration. The news had been reporting sightings of monsters, hadn't they? She had ignored it, focusing on the weather reports because that was what had been relevant to her, but in retrospect… "I don't know. I wasn't paying attention."

Most people would have grown impatient at that, their waters growing hot and swirling at what they perceived as a failure on her part, but Mang Milo only grew little heated for a moment before his waters cooled and he nodded. "Why don't you go speak to Loretta upstairs?" he said. "I asked her to keep an eye on the situation. She might be able to tell you what monsters are there, and possibly what monsters ae between here and there you'll need to deal with."

A good idea. Willy nodded in acknowledgement. "Thank you for the suggestion," she remembered to say. "I will speak to her."

Willy passed by her and Tammy's bag in the hallway, still where she had left it, still dripping wet. Apparently, no one had been willing to risk touching them with the rainwater on them. Willy paused, then picked them up. Water dripped from the bags, and when she claimed them, there was still the slight resistance. That probably meant that the water would put someone to sleep. Willy vent water vapor mist from her skin, using that to claim the water on the bags and the moisture that had seeped into the material. She hesitated, then did the same to the water on the floor, vaporizing the water after claiming them. She took the bags back to the sala and put it next to her papers so that they were out of the way.

Then she headed upstairs.

She knew where Kim's room was, and so knew not to go in there, so she followed the turbulence of the water. Or rather, the lack thereof.

Loretta was the other person in the house whose waters were mostly still, even though there was a little cold slush, and a quick, narrow currently flowed tightly. The girl was inside a room with a closed door. Willy drew back her foot, paused, sighed, and raised her hand to knock. Inside the room, there was a ripple in the water, letting her know the person inside had heard.

She waited to a count of five, then knocked again. There was another ripple, as well as a burst of hot water as the door was wrenched open. Kim's younger sister Loretta looked up at Willy with a scowl. "What?"

"Mang Milo told me to ask you about what monsters have been sighted," Willy said.

The other girl's scowl deepened, the waters inside her water starting to get hot and churn slightly. "Well, come in," she said. "Pay attention, I'm not going to repeat myself."

Willy nodded, following after her. The room was well-organized, all the surfaces clear and clean, the walls bare. There was a desk with a laptop, with a cable connecting it to another monitor to the side. Both screens were showing pictures from social media sights and various discussion forums. Willy even recognized one the site on one of the screens, a sub-reddit page for monster sightings and discussions. Tammy used it to find out what the public thought of them, and to try and choose targets for them to deal with, even if Sanny's factfinding tended to be more informative. Tammy said it as her responsibility as a leader to try and do her own research. The specific thread in question was labeled 'Monsters in the Rain', and there vague pictures that were likely to have been taken by cellphone cameras through the thick, obscuring rain. "What monsters are there between here and Pasig?" That was where she was heading, after all. she didn't care about monsters anywhere else.

"All right," Loretta said, her voice clipped, her waters still save a fast, narrow current cutting through the cold slush. "Here's what I've found. Closest to us in our immediate are is some kind of flying shark that seems to be shooting lightning. People have been able to identify it as a catshark of some kind, probably escaped from an aquarium. I've seen it out the window, and it seems to be what's causing the lightning, since the rain doesn't seem to be a thunderstorm. It hasn't been attacking anything, so it probably won't be a problem. There's also a giant bird, which seems to be a giant sparrow. It's causing a lot of turbulence, and seems to be flying low to avoid the lightning. It seems to be staying in the rain and people have seen it attacking other monsters, though it runs as soon as it encounters resistance. It moves fast, so there's a chance it might be near the area of Pasig at some point."

Loretta paused and sorted through the windows on her screen. "All right… between here and Pasig… someone reported a giant dog in Cubao, and it's a video instead of a picture. There's no reported powers of any kind, just a giant dog."

"That doesn't matter," Willy said dismissively. "Powers aren't always obvious." She remembered the plague dog…

"You would know, I suppose," Loretta said, but Willy felt the sudden burst of steam in her water before the ripples were suppressed. "A giant bayawak was also reported in the vicinity of San Roque, but people are already lambasting that for being an edited photo of a monitor lizard. Someone also reported a rat the size of a car that made sounds in its vicinity louder, but that might have moved on to Marikina, since a giant rat was seem swimming in the river. Although there's a distinct possibility that was a different rat."

"Another thing you might encounter is this giant snail," Loretta continued, scrolling down the web page to show a picture. It was a snail with a dark-brown shell, on what appeared to be a bridge. Willy blinked, and realized she recognized that bridge. That was the bridge over the Mangahan Floodway leading to Rosario church. From the scale… "It's estimated to be fifty meters long, and was seen in Rosario. And Mandaluyong. And Parañaque. And several other places around Metro Manila. It appears and disappears, and has already been reported to eat people, parts of buildings, garbage, cars and the road. Aside from what seems to be a clear ability to teleport, it has been reported to not move very fast. It might not be relevant, but given how it just appears and disappears, you might encounter it. People have also reported to have found strange debris where it's appeared, but because of the rain, no one's properly checked what's strange about it, only that it looks strange. There are other monsters, but they're not in the area of Pasig, and no one has reported any more in the area. Of course, that might change, or one of the monsters in the other areas might find themselves there."

Willy nodded. "Thank you for the information. I'll be going now." She rose to leave.

"Thank you for brining my brother inside," Loretta said, and Willy paused. Her waters… for a moment, they'd changed to an achingly familiar warmth.

"He was in my way," Willy said dismissively as she opened the door.

"Well, when whatever is doing this gets in your way, give it a few kicks from me please," Loretta said, her water boiling violently for a moment before the turbulence settled again, and there was only the narrow current.

Willy didn't reply, simply seeing herself out.

She found Milo still in the dining room, talking on the phone. He looked up when he heard her approach and nodded towards her. "Sorry Bong, I have to call you back... Yes, good luck." He finished the call. "You're leaving?"

Willy nodded, a quick bobbing movement of her head. "Yes sir, Mang Milo. Loretta told me what she knows."

He nodded. "All right. Are you sure about where you're going?"

Willy considered the question. "No. But I'm as reasonably certain as I can be based on what I know."

He nodded. "Sometimes that's the best we can hope for." He looked out the window. "Do you need a ride?"

It was tempting, but… "No," Willy said. "The roads are probably impassible from all the unconscious people on the road. I'll move faster by myself."

"Is see. Very well then. Good luck. God be with you."

Willy turned to go, then paused. She looked down at her clothes, then turned back to Milo. "Can I leave my clothes here with you? I don't want them getting ruined in the rain." Tammy had bought these clothes for her. She had bought most of Tammy's clothes, except for the clothes she got as gifts on her birthday or Christmas. She needed to take care of them.

"Ah… I'll get you a towel to cover yourself up with. Just leave it outside the door, we'll get it when you make it stop raining."

Willy nodded. "Thank you, sir."

––––––––––––––––––

Katherine was there when Willy stepped out of the bathroom. "Your clothes?" the college student said, and Willy handed her the items in question, then bent down and picked up her shoes with her socks stuffed into them. Katherine reached for them, then hesitated.

"There's no rainwater," Willy said flatly. "I already dried it."

Katherine pursed her lips, her waters churning, but gingerly took the shoes. She tensed, as if expecting to fall unconscious, but Willy just walked past her, heading for the front door.

"Are you sure you can't wake up babe? Kim, I mean?" Katherine said.

Willy scowled down at her. "If there was anything I could do, I'd have already woken up Tammy."

Katherine scowled up at right back. "Well, excuse me if I don't understand this weird superhero powers bullshit like you do. How are you awake, then?"

"It's sleeping in my place," Willy said.

Katherine frowned. "What?"

"I already told you, pay attention," Willy said, reaching for the door. Katherine stumbled back, presumably to keep from getting splattered by any rain as Willy opened the door just enough so she could slip out, closing the door behind her. The rain pelted her bare legs instantly, and Willy felt the tainted slime, thick and vicious, intruding over her waters. Her teeth greeted in anger, but she restrained the familiar feeling. No tantrums. Good girls didn't throw tantrums…

She undid the towel, letting it fall on the floor. Then she hesitated and sighed, then picked up the towel, which was slowly getting wet from the rain, and carefully folded it, placing it in front of the door. Then she stepped fully into the rain, and changed into water and ice. Her limbs became hard, clear and frozen and her visions expanded to let her see in all directions around her, perceiving all light that passed through any point of her body at any angle. The sound of the rain became truly pervasive as her entire body perceived the vibrations in the air as rain pelted her, the droplets trickling down her body before freezing solid.

Willy walked towards Tammy, who had grown significantly while she'd been inside. Her branches rose far above the house now, spreading out over the entire garden. The lawn was completely flooded past ankle height, and various fruits and nuts floated in the water around her cousin, while other, heavier or larger fruits loomed out of the water like model islands. Even as she watched, another fruit—a large watermelon—splashed into the water, sending out ripples. Around Tammy's roots, what looked like fronds of seaweed were starting to wave in the water.

Standing in the shadow of the tree her cousin had become, Willy hesitantly raised a hand and touched the trunk. The bark was cracked and rough and dark, not like the smooth, young bark Tammy preferred. Willy pushed as hard as she could, but that only caused her frictionless feet to slide back through the water. She didn't even manage to make the leaves sway more than the raindrops.

Her cousin didn't wake.

Willy couldn't sigh, but bubbles rose in her waters nonetheless.

She didn't say anything, because she knew Tammy couldn't hear her. Instead, she simply turned and left. The gate was closed, but she was water. she changed state, turning into a liquid, and she melded with the flooding water, flowing under and around the gate, and then she was outside and flowing across the ground. She turned back into ice, reforming her body before she flowed too far, and stood up.

The gutters between the street and the curb were flooded, and most of the street itself was full over water, looking like a river as the water flowed and churned. People were submerged in the water, perhaps dead, perhaps simply unconscious. A few cars still traversed the road, making waves and moving stupidly slowly. Lightning flashed and up above, Willy saw the… catshark?... that Loretta mentioned, floating moving sinuously among the clouds surrounding by a glowing corona of arcing plasma.

There was a roar, and Willy noticed a dark shape on top of a building a little farther down the street. Nightmare Yellow's eyes were tracking the catshark, and there were steam-filled bubbles in the predator's whirling currents. She turned away, orienting on the road so she could navigate to her destination. She'd only done this once before, very briefly. While the theory was sound, she had never had time to practice. Still, the idea was simple enough.

Willy pulled in her mass, compressing her form into a clear sphere of ice, letting her see in all directions at once. She slid along the ground, barely floating as she was pushed this way and that by the water before she followed herself out, creating an icy sphere with a vacuum in the middle, letting her bob up and down on the flowing water.

A jet of water thrust forth at high pressure from her surface, and Willy was propelled in the opposite direction as her water pushed against the waters around her, her relatively lightweight, floating body skipping on the surface of the water as she moved like a rocket. Water burst briefly from her sides to keep her on course as she rocketed down the street, skipping and sliding over water, submerged motorcycles, the sides of cars and the occasional floating body as she headed for Pasig.

Behind her, she head a roar, and a dark, winged shape rose into the air, trailing tentacles…