Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #42 (Patreon)

Waterborne, Part 9

Willy had left a bit of herself near Tammy. A drone, a part of her she still controlled, to watch her cousin while she went away. When she turned her attention to it, she found it still wrapped around her cousin like a thick, viscous slime. Willy asserted control over the water she had left behind, flowing off and almost sinking and joining the floodwater beneath her she turned her body to ice.

Around her, the garden was flood and looked… different. Bigger, for one thing. The water filling the lawn was flowing oddly, and there were strange repetitions in the air. A strange glowing pink glass broccoli rose out of the water, strange lights and ripples between its fronds, while off to the side what looked like a miniature volcano with lava oozing from its slopes rose out of the water, the flame at its peak vibrating to a wordless song… no, none of that was important. TAMMY!

Willy turned back to her cousin. Her trunk had doubled in girth, and the roots at her base had grown massive. Vines trailed down from some of her branches, and some of them had actually rooted when they touched the ground, which were littered with chest-high piles of fruits and nuts. Hesitantly, Willy raised her arm and pushed at the trunk. It felt old and solid, with no give. The tree didn't even move.

"Tammy?" Willy said hesitantly, then chided herself. That weak vibration wouldn't have been audible over the rain, much less rouse a sleeping person. She vibrated louder. "Tammy? Wake up… please wake up now! Please?" She tried to push the trunk again, but it still didn't budge. Willy felt for Tammy's water, for turbulence that meant she was waking, but there was none. Only the still, placid surface of deep sleep, without warmth or cold, currents or bubbles. She wasn't waking. Why wasn't she waking? "I made the rain stop! You can wake up now! Please wake up…!"

Her vibrations warbled, and Willy realize she was on the edge of another tantrum. No, no tantrums, good girls didn't throw tantrums…!

Vibration. Wait…

No ears. Tammy had no ears. She had no way to hear Willy, that was all! trees had no dedicated auditory organs, and Tammy had been asleep, so she hadn't made any…

Willy stepped back, claiming the floodwater beneath her. The flood easily fell under her sway, and she pulled water from all around the yard as she turned the fluid beneath her into ice. It became a part of her, and she claimed more and more water from the yard, making it part of her ice. The ice crept up the tree, sinking into every wrinkle and crevice, wrapping tightly around it. Willy could feel thorns and roots start growing in response, but she simply reformed her ice to wrap around them. Soon the trunk of the tree was covered in a thick layer of ice.

Hesitantly, Willy spoke, and the ice vibrated with her words, causing droplets of water to fall from the leaves and more fruit to break off their stalks and come crashing down on the fruits already pilled below. "Tammy," she said, sending ripples outward across the water still only the ground. "Please wake up. It's time to get up. Please Tammy. Please wake up. Please…"

The tree shook, every trunk shuddering, sending the branches about shaking violently.

Willy waited.

Then, from Tammy's waters, shallow tangled currents began to flow sluggishly. They were filled with bubbles, growing the currents becoming more and more tangled, before suddenly freezing into ice.

"Tammy, it's okay," Willy said, letting her ice vibrate to conduct her words through Tammy's being. "It's okay, you're waking up and I'm here."

The whole tree shuddered, the major branches that had split off from the main trunk creaking, as if some invisible force was pulling on it, or like the whole tree was trying to move. the shudders grew strong and stronger, until…

Every fruit on the tree fell off, and Willy had to throw herself forward and partially fuse with the ice around Tammy to not get knocked down as fruits and nuts of various sizes fell around her. The trunk of the tree seemed to convulse, and sheets of cracked bark seemed to peel off, falling from the surface of the tree, revealing new, fresh bark that was smooth and green as bamboo. That green bark began to shudder, black spots appearing on it. The spots seemed to crawl along the surface of the wood.

A crack appeared on the wood, parting open. "Wi…lly…?" a voice like a dry rasp said, the gash-like lips barely legible as they shaped air flowing between them.

Despite the shallow, tangled currents, despite the bubbles, despite some ice still floating on the edges of increasingly turbulent water… Willy felt warmth bloom.

Tammy was awake. Tammy was here, with her.

A mountain of ice that had simply been floating in Willy's waters, one that had kept growing despite the frustration, the anger, the impatience, the steaming stress, and all that had happened to her finally melted in that warmth.

Tammy was here. All was as it should be. The world was rightonce more. Everything was going to be all right.

"Willy? Wha… what happened?" Tammy asked, and Willy could feel the way her waters whirled, confused and disoriented.

"The rain put you to sleep," Willy said, basking in the warmth. It would get warmer, and it would be wonderful and it would be better… but there was warmth, and that was enough. "I stopped the rain and woke you up."

"The rain…?" Cold suddenly shot through the warmth, fear and concern that made the warmth seem warmer. So warm… so warm… "A monster… Are you all right?-!"

Willy nodded. "I'm fine. I stayed water, so I didn't get hurt."

The cold faded. Not completely, but the warmth strengthened. "Good… good…" The tree shuddered, and Tammy pulled back her ice. Before her gaze, the tree seemed to start growing in reverse. Branches were pulled back into the trunk, leaves fused to the branches they were on, limbs bent down. In front of Willy, on the smooth green surface with the black spots, a bulge appeared. It extruded, vaguely taking on the shape of a featureless head, black spots in a bond where the eyes should be.

Tammy stepped out of the tree, moving stiffly, her limbs curling instead of bending. Willy reached out to help her, savoring the warmth and contact. And as soon as her cousin had completely separated from the still-shrinking tree, she pulled the small girl into a hug. Hard ice and hard wood clunked together, and there was no softness, no pressing completely against each other, but Willy didn't care.

Tammy was back. She wasn't alone any more.

––––––––––––––––––

"The entire city is going to hell."

Wearing borrowed clothes—the clothes she had been wearing that morning had been too soiled and crushed to wear—Tammy sat with Willy on her lap. Her cousin's face was serious, the warmth of her waters dimmed a little as Tammy concentrated on what the other girl was saying, her turbulence calm regular waves that Willy recognized as her cousin trying to control herself. Tammy's fingers dipped reassuringly into Willy, absently balancing the bowl that their host had quietly insisted Willy be put in. The water in the bowl was still a drone, but it let Willy collapse and just… be, basking in Tammy's warmth, even if the main part of her body, the part that could become flesh and blood and bone, was still so very far away.

"How bad is it?" Tammy asked.

"It's been raining all day, and it never got weaker. The usual places are flooded, the rivers all overflowed their banks, parts of Marikina are submerged—again—and because the rain had been causing people to pass out on contact, no one was able to react to this save to report what was happening out their windows. Most information has been deciminatiing through social media, and groups on several platforms have already started compiling what they could. I started one of them myself. Attempts to try and brave the water in waterproof gear met with failure as soon as a little water leaked. Now that the rain has stopped and people can wake up, the news is reporting that a surprising number of people managed to stay alive even though they were floating unconscious in floodwater. But however much the media are trying to emphasize these stories, the death toll is catastrophic. Actually catastrophic, not like having twenty people die and calling it a disaster—"

"Loretta."

"… yes, dad. Estimates are putting the number of dead in the hundreds of thousands, and that's just from those who drowned. Many more are being harmed and killed by monsters who have somehow been awakened by the rain and are stalking the streets, devouring the unconscious and dead. Several adjacent barangay in Pasig were leveled by pillars of water falling from the sky and spreading out like a storm surge or tsunami. With the rain gone, the military and emergency responders can finally mobilize, but their numbers have been severely depleted, since their initial mobilization when the effects of the rain started rendered over 65% of those stationed in Manila unconscious. Many of them survived and are being treated for exposure, but it will leave very few able to respond to this emergency."

"Then we need to do what we can," Tammy said, her voice determined. It was the voice she had used when she had argued for letting Willy live with her, now matured and even instead of halting and hesitant. She turned towards the other people seated nearby. "Only we can deal with the monsters, so we need to go out there and do so. Getting help to people will be bad enough with the floods, but if people have to worry about running into any of those things… we need to help."

"Do we… contact the authorities and offer assistance?"

Tammy opened her mouth to reply, paused, and visibly changed what she was going to say. "Mang Milo? What do you think? You'd have a better idea of how the authorities will react than I do." Tammy smiled weakly, her fingers trailing circles on Willy inside the bowl. "I only have ignorance, suspicion and paranoia to rely on."

"… I think… that you would all be able to do a lot of good if you came forward to work with the authorities… however… I understand very well why you would wish not to take that step. I know a lot of good people in the military, and many decent people… and people who I trust to work for the common good… but… many of the stories you hear aren't completely wrong…"

Tammy nodded sharply. "All right. We do our thing and make contact on a case by case basis. Lori, do you know where Sanny is?"

"According to the most recent report, fifteen minutes ago, they were still fighting the giant wind bird."

Tammy frowned. "We need her. She's best at controlling several drones at once, and… and she's the best at fighting among all of us."

"Killer instinct, you mean."

"Yes," Tammy said flatly. "I think we'll need that right now, don't you?" Tammy looked down, straight at Willy. "Willy, where are you? The rest of you, I mean."

Willy made ice form, careful not to trap any of Tammy's fingers. "Pasig," she vibrated through her ice. "That's where the rainmaker was."

"So all that super-flooding was because of you?"

Willy felt Tammy's water burn, but it didn't flash to steam, and quickly cool back to waves. "Willy does not have the ability to make water fall from the sky," she said tersely, voice clipped, fingers shaking slightly where they dipped into Willy. "Given the description, it's far more likely it was a product of the monster Willy calls the Rainmaker." She sounded like she was talking to a school administrator. Willy stayed quiet. She knew better to volunteer anything unpropted when Willy used that tone. School administrators always had confirmation bias, so any information they got out of you only made things worse, unless Tammy was there to tell her it was all right to say something.

"She's right, Lori. I've seen Willy fight. If she could make water fall from the sky, I'd have seen it already."

"Ah. Then I was incorrect, then. I apologize. Regardless, Pasig is currently the most devastated area of the region, with flooding being the major hindrance to relief efforts in the area. As Willy is already there and has abilities affiliated to water, perhaps she could do something there?"

"We'll see," Tammy said, voice still mildly curt, but clearly calming down.

"I think it would be best if Tammy can get to Willy as soon as possible. Most of my sand's been moved, but I think I can get you close enough to Pasig that the two of you can meet up."

Tammy hesitated, frowning in thought and looking down towards Willy in the bowl. Willy tried to make a smiley face on her ice, to reassure Tammy, to make her laugh, but she didn't think it worked very well. It was transparent ice in transparent water, so it all just looked like glass. "All right. With all the water around, Willy will let me be mobile. Willy, stay where you are and do what you can to lessen the flooding to clear the roads so that cars and people can get through. I'll get to you. Kuya Kim, try to re-establish your portal network. Maybe you can use your power to drain the water to an expanded space or something? Ate Jas, I need you to get up high. It's about to become night, and with a lot of places out of power and the clouds not clearing, we need light. You'll have to be that light. It will also put you in a position to deal with any of the flying monsters, in case your urges starts acting up. Go for the Lightning Shark and the Gale Bird. With how cold a lot of people are going to be, a little controlled heat will help a lot of people. We all keep a drone here to communicate and hope that Sanny thinks to send one here."

"What about you?"

Tammy glanced down at Willy again. "We might have a lot of hungry people soon. I hope they like fruit. Lori, can I ask you to stay by our drones and be our girl in the chair? We need someone to keep us updated, and usually that's Sanny, but…"

"All right, but I hope you understand I am not a hacker. I can only relay what is available on the public internet, and with the internet outages we've started getting, I don't know how viable that will remain. I will compile what I can. Is there anything you wish for me to prioritize?"

"Monsters," Tammy said. "Locations, what they're doing… and whether they're being an active threat."

"Understood. Please understand that I am only doing this because of the emergency circumstances. I have no intention of becoming a permanent supporting member of your cast. This cameo is sufficient."

Tammy blinked and turned towards Kuya Kim. "How does your sister know about references but you don't?"

"That was a reference?"

"My kuya is a normie, and is far from maidenless. His lack of good civilization is understandable."

"My lack of what?"

"It's a game reference kuya. I'll explain later."

"Is there anything else?" Tammy interrupted. She looked around, then nodded. "All right. Let's transform and roll out everyone. We might be too late to save the day, but we can keep things from getting worse. Let's go." She hesitated. "Ate Jas, you can use the bathroom first."

There was a flurry of movement and more words, but Willy ignored them. Tammy had picked up her bowl, walking away somewhere darker, quieter.

"Willy?" her cousin said quietly. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Tammy," she said promptly. "I'm all right."

Tammy hesitated, then nodded. "We'll talk about what you did later, all right? You can tell me everything that you did, step by step."

"Yes, Tammy."

"Do you think there's anything I'll be mad about?"

Tammy thought about it. "There was someone… a very obstreperous person." She didn't get to use that word often. "She hit me and bullied me, but I tried to be a good girl… I tried, Tammy…"

"Tried?" Tammy prompted her gently.

"You said that… that I should walk away if… if there's someone that won't listen, right?"

"Yes," Tammy said, nodding. "Very good, Willy. You walked away?"

Willy hesitated. "No Tammy. I couldn't. I… You never told me what I should do if I couldn't walk away, so… I… I might have done something… bad."

Willy felt the ice fill Tammy. Felt her water grow colder and colder, turning to slush, to ice, felt waves grow cold, felt the warmth…

The warmth…

In the midst of all that ice, the depths were warm.

"Willy…" Tammy said quietly, hesitantly. She closed her eyes, and the water moved. Thought still ice, they moved like waves, calm and regular. "We'll… we'll talk about it later, Willy. When it's just the two of us, all right?"

"All right, Tammy."

Tammy nodded, then looked over her shoulder. "I need to go get changed. You turn into ice and I'll come get you, all right?"

"Yes, Tammy."

Tammy nodded again. "Were you scared?" she asked, her voice quiet.

"No, Tammy. I had to do it. If I didn't, you might never have woken up."

For some reason, Tammy smiled sadly. "Well, even if you weren't afraid, I think what you did was very brave, Willy."

Brave. Tammy had never said she was brave before…

"We'll talk more later. I love you, Willy."

"I love you, Tammy."

And then Tammy was walking away, so Willy dutifully turned the rest of her mass into ice, using the bottom of the bowl as a mold for a flat surface so she wouldn't roll around.

They'd do things, and then when they were alone, when it was just then, Willy would tell Tammy what happened. Willy would tell her everything, and Tammy would tell her what she did wrong, what she did right, and how a good girl should have acted in the situation she'd found herself.

She settled down to wait.