ALEXiThymiA: Interlude XI (Part I) (Patreon)

Interlude XI (Part I)

Julie Swinton

The interview was going well, all things considered. While Alexa had ended up missing most of the ‘Media Faux Pas’ classes and extracurricular sessions, she was still giving a clinic on how to shut down media with short concise answers.

Still despite having gone through the wee hours of the morning into full on rays of the sun, the entire pack was still together, still watching and experiencing this moment with Alexa, if not in person, at least they could share this moment in spirit.

The journalist ever cordial had been trying to get Alexa to bite on any response, but Alexa had shut her down at every turn, until finally one question seemed to cause her to awaken.

“Now, I have to ask, there are many bike manufacturers in England, is there any model or company that you would like to provide a bike for you?”

“A Triumph Rocket in black.” Alexa answered, quick.

“What is that?” ‘Lecia asked, as she pulled out her phone and began searching for said bike.

“I don’t know.” Rachel responded.

“Oh, that is pretty.” Kylie said, already having the picture up on her phone screen. With that everyone began glancing over her shoulder, meanwhile the interview continued.

“So you are a bike enthusiast?” Florence the reporter asked.

“Who isn’t?” Alexa responded. Her words causing everyone to chuckle at the way Alexa could somehow add excitement to an otherwise dry delivery. This was something else the reporter had a hard time understanding, whether Alexa was mocking her or not. By now it seemed that Florence just understood this was Alexa being Alexa, but it had brought no end of enjoyment to them as they listened at first.

Once again there was a momentary pause, as Florence seemed to desperately wait for Alexa to provide more information, but sadly none came.

“She does look good in her uniform, almost as if she was made for such a role.” Luke said, trying to whisper lightly to Julie, but given that he was a human speaking in the middle of a pack of cured werewolves everyone heard him, and everyone seemed to nod their heads in unison.

“Oh right…” Florence began, as she clearly began moving away from the camera to seemingly do something off stage. Those were the only two words that were recorded, before the feed was abruptly cut off.

SQUELCH!

A high pitched screech could be heard, and suddenly Julie along with every other Lykanthropy survivor of the pack all began wincing in pain, as they all instinctively tried to lower their heads in pain. At the same time the video feed of the event died, presenting the rainbow screen showing that the broad cast was having issues appeared.

Even with enhanced reflexes, people controlling the sound were too locked up by the sudden high-pitched ringing to be able to turn down the terrible sound. Then just as quickly as it had started, the whole thing ended.

Whipper-woosh!

A quick burst of wind rustling across the open microphone could be heard. Simultaneously, the rainbow pallet of colors ended, as the feed seemed to go back to a live showing, except for the fact that the screen was only black.

“What happened?”

“What was that.”

The girls of the pack began speaking one after another.

Rustling.

“Shh!” Julie said, for the first time trying to strain her still ringing ears to try to identify the sounds of what was happening.

“Gah!” The intense sound of someone sucking air into their lungs could be heard.

“Jim!” The high pitch cry of agony could be heard.

“Mom?” Luke asked, knowing instantly who that voice belonged to. His face suddenly went pale, as he could only hear his mother cry out in pain. Then realization hit him, “dad?”

“Dang it Jim!” The same female voice called out, this time her voice was unmistakable. “Wake up!”

The more she spoke, the more everyone in the entry room to the girls hall grew quiet. Everyone waited with bated breath, trying to understand what happened.

Gina, who had been sitting back in a chair hugging her well used and over loved stuffed bear came forward, and began tilting her head as if she was able to get more out of what was going on. Remembering her class, that was exactly what Julie thought was happening. Wanting to ask her what she saw, but then before she could say anything, before anyone could say anything, Judy’s voice could be heard again.

“Alexa! Can you save him?” Judy Thyme asked, pain and anguish evident in her voice. Something was wrong, something was really wrong.

A silent pause.

During the pause no one stirred, no one so much as breathed. Despite how high the volume still was, at this moment no one wanted to say or do anything that would distract from finding out what happened. Then they all heard the three words that sent chills down their backs.

“ALEXA! No…NOO!” Judy began screaming, pain filled her voice as she screamed in near delusional panic.

Rustling.

The sound of people moving in the distance could be heard, well only to people who had their hearing enhanced by the Lykantrhopy virus. For people like Luke and Gina, they just stared on, not quite understanding why every werewolf slowly tilted their head to the left, as if trying to hear the direction that the silent footsteps were coming from.

“Go…” Alexa rasped out, her voice so low and so weak that it sent chills down all the werewolves spines. Julie looked to Gina, but the words seemed to have been uttered too silently for Gina and Luke both to have heard.

More rustling.

“You need to stay back.” The deep grumbling voice of Bullford said, his voice easily identifiable to every member of the pack. Mainly because he was the first voice of a master werewolf who worked with them all to learn to gain control of their animal instincts. He was a good man, and secretly Juile, along with other members of the pack, had been meeting with him, trying to figure out how to deal with the changes that were happening to her, especially after she managed to awaken her class.

“Mam, you need to step back.” The fiery voice of Captain Johnston said, her words brokering no room for argument.

Scuffle.

The sound of two people wrestling could be heard, though they were far less than one would expect from two high level Supers going at it.

“You need to stop. We are trying to remove you from the area.” Bullford said, his voice calm and compassionate. Of course, his words only seemed to heighten the sense of fear everyone was experiencing.

“Girl! You need to focus and do whatever it is you are doing, but do not close your eyes. Don’t you quit on me. You hear me!” Captain Johnston said, her voice showing an odd sense of compassion, something Julie never thought she would hear from the firecracker of TSI Captain. Her words and sudden care, a sign of just how dire the situation was over there.

“Yes.” A faint rasp of a voice responded. Only after a second, did Julie realize that the voice belonged to Alexa.

“Good, now listen to me, and do exactly as I say and you will make it through this.” Captain Johnston said, with that, the entire sophomore class watched on, staring at a black screen image on a wall as audio was their only link to what happened.

“How long do you think they were out?” Alison asked, her question was to Yulia who had been right beside her, but Gina was the one that answered.

“Four point two seconds.”

“Four point two?” Allison asked, clearly trying to understand how long the feed went down.

“Yes.” Gina responded emphatically. Normally people would question such precise measurements of time, but Gina’s class allowed her to do so much.

“Do you know what happened?” Julie found herself asking.

Gina shook her head no, but then seemed to realize she was mistaken. “An attack of some kind. Likely an explosion. Given everything, it seems that only the supers who were on scene are alive.”

“JIM! Don’t you dare die on me JIM!” The mad desperate wails of Judy could be heard, crying out in pain. The deep seeded pain of someone who was experiencing deep seeded personal loss could feel.

“What is going on?” Luke asked, his face going pale as sympathetic tears sprung to his eyes as all he could do was cry in pain at hearing his mother’s wail.

Seeing him, Julie went over and hugged Luke, not knowing what else to do, or to say. Almost immediately Julie felt cold wet drops falling onto the nape of her neck. The sensation was so odd, that it sent shivers down her spine and nearly caused her to pull away, but she fought against that initial impulse. Luke never cried, never let his emotions get to him, he was always the rock of their relationship. Julie had been through a lot recently, well throughout her life really, but Luke had always been there. Despite how much she picked on him, despite how angry she had been with him for his initial breakup, he never took anything personally. Instead, he always seemed to have his own Super suit that helped protect his emotions from getting in the way. So that fact that he was here, obviously distressed in front of so many possible people who could hold it against him, made Julie realize two things. First, and likely the most important thing, was that she loved him. Madly and truly, she loved him. At first he had been that redemption date, the one you go on to prove that the person who dumped you made a mistake, but despite how many times she had tried to push him away, he stayed. This thought of course led her to her second major discovery, that she was willing to deal with wet tears, embarrassing moments, and so many more things to be with Luke. Mainly because for the first time since they started dating she could finally see one thing, she could see herself staying with this man, just as he had doggedly stayed with her.

Julie’s private revelation would be short lived however, as a small Gina sized tackling ball smashed into the two of them and began hugging.

At first, Julie wanted to protest, thinking that Gina was there trying to steal her moment with Luke, but glancing out of the corner of her eye, Julie finally relented as it appeared that Gina too had tears in her eyes. Seeing her reddening eyes and features, it was clear that whatever Gina was able to deduce from her class was not good.

Blip.

The sound of the feed being cut off and transferred abruptly could be heard. At this everyone turned to the black wall that had suddenly gone oddly bright, as an elder but still pretty female reporter sat behind a news desk.

“I am sorry, it seems that there has been a slight news feed problem. As you could hear, we had audio, but for some reason we lost visual of the scene. At this time, we do not know what has happened. From telemetry data it appears that there was a large burst of energy, some of our analysts are claiming this is likely a residual burst that is known to happen around otherworldly rift closures.”

“That is BullSTICKS!” Gina said, turning and shouting towards the projection wall.

At first people looked like they wanted to confront her, but seeing the absolute look of rage on her face, no one commented.

Click.

Someone, looked to be Erin the person who set up the whole projection, cut the feed.

“What?”

“I will turn it back if they go back to Alexa, but I’m not going to listen to that.”

Silence.

Everyone turned to look to the quivering Gina. Everyone’s eyes were drawn to her shaking form as generally hunters are drawn to such actions, as it generally shows fear. Yet, there was something off about the way Gina was standing. She was shaking and trembling violently as if she was barely holding back her rage. As if she could wolf out at any time. Seeing her Julie wondered if she had somehow caught the Lykanthropy virus just by being in such close proximity to everyone, herself included, for so long.

“What is it?” Julie finally asked, trying to find out what got the normally happy go lucky girl so intensely angry.

“They attacked her! They attacked her on live TV, and then they tried to cover it up by saying it was a mana burst? From a dimensional rift gate closing?” Gina spat out.

Hearing that everyone paused, then Luke posed, “could it have been a mana burst?”

Gina was about to shout, but then realizing it was Luke that she was about to yell at, the person who likely had the most to lose from this, she took a second to calm herself. Then tapping her right foot down angrily, she began. “Let us begin with the facts. We saw Stonehenge. The distant footage of the attack was shown to us, we know it happened in Stonehenge.”

Gina said all that, laying out the true facts of the case as if she was some type of trial lawyer. Which, in this case didn’t seem like it was that far off, as she was clearly trying to show the idea that something nefarious happened. After a moment Luke, Julie, and the other members of the pack all nodded in agreement.

“Good. Then we saw how the coverage stayed with Alexa, her parents, and the TSI team for hours. During that time there was no escalation of lights, no visible sign of anything happening, right?” Gina asked.

At that everyone once again nodded in agreement.

“Okay, the interview went long, but that is how covering Supers goes. You spend more time with them, trying to let government officials come, but for some reason no government officials came. Now one could say that they were at such a remote place that it would have been impossible to get there in such a short time. But again, they were there for two and a half hours. You are telling me not one official could have made it out to there, even to a place like Stonehenge within that time?”

Silence.

“Then there was the fact that the camera woman just so happened to go off and get something, right at the time that the feed ends. Now what many of you might not realize is that there is an eight second buffer of time between something that is happening, and when it is shown on live tv.”

Another pause as she let this fact sink in, before she continued.

“Now, I couldn’t hear it, but judging by the way all of you winced in pain there was likely a high pitched sound that you all heard, right at the same time that the screen went dark.”

Again Julie found herself nodding at the facts and just how smart Gina was at being able to put all of this together so quickly and efficiently.

“Then after a short time, four point two seconds, the feed is dropped and then subsequently picks back up with only audio. I think what you heard was a remote command meant to kill the entire broadcast. Then what we heard after that, was the remains of the camera still working. The squelching sound was likely made to destroy the camera entirely, but for whatever reason it wasn’t completely successful. Meanwhile, the people that were in charge of dropping the feed if anything vulgar was said, killed the live feed during the attack.”

“An attack?”

“An attack. There was no mana burst, no sign of anything increasing in pressure. No sign that the ground behind Alexa and the others was rising or reacting to the sudden build up of pressure. All we have is an attack on the camera feed itself, then the sounds of what has to be…” She trailed off as she tilted her head to the side, as if trying to see something. “A bomb or something…”

“A bomb?”

“Yes, a bomb…” Gina said nodding her head as she seemed to get more and more confident in her analysis of the scene. “A bomb would likely explain why they chose the flimsy excuse of a residual mana burst to cover the tracks. Yet, we can prove that is not the case, one by seeing where this explosion took place, and two if feeds of Stonehenge are completely the same. If it is only where Alexa and the others were standing, then it had to be a targeted attack in some way, the most likely explanation would have to be a bomb, of some sorts.”

Silence.

There was a brief period of silence as everyone contemplated what was said. Everyone tried to find fault with what was said, but could not, the details and explanations as pointed out by Gina and her impressive Analytical class were hard to refute.

“So if it was an attack, then who did it?” Erica asked.

“Who do you think, it was obviously…” Kylie began, but was quickly cut off.

“We do not know at this time, and anything we say beyond this would clearly be speculation.” Gina said, then with her arms pointed around the giant room they were in and began pointing out all the different runes that Mr. Mackie had set up around the place.

Seeing them, Julie paused, as she had never noticed them being there before. Yet, now that they were pointed out, it was like a blindfold had been removed from her eyes, as they were clearly written all over the room. Some of the markings blended in with the different shadings of the room. The dark corners where light couldn’t fully reach, the areas just above the door hinges, a seemingly random scuff on the floor that was a little too perfectly placed in an impossible spot. Everything was just so perfectly placed that they had to be runes. Only after a moment of staring at the runes in disbelief did Julie realize that one, or likely multiple runes probably dealt with making it so the runes were nearly impossible to remember unless they were being pointed out in just such a way. Still, this a lot to take in.

Finally after the shock of finding so many runes was dismissed ‘Lecia spoke first.

“So what should we do now?”

“Two things,” Gina began. “Pray for their safety, while we plan for revenge.”

At that a shiver went down Julie’s spine as she saw the fire that Countess Rojas was so known for. Also seeing that rage, and focused intensity, Julie realized that Gina too was perfect for Alexa. Or at least she was a far better match for the stoic warrior than she could ever be. At first that revelation would have been tough to swallow, but she meant it when she realized she had somehow fallen completely for Luke. Realizing that, Julie turned to Luke and asked the eight words that all guys want to hear from their partners.

“Do you want to go to your room?”