(( Takes place during the summer of 2000. Coile aka Andre Kraft is almost 16.
By a coincidence Andre's robot mother is called Nadia as his first girlfriend in paragon City would be, in a few years. Despite same name they are not the same person. ))
Enemy Mine
It was a dark year for humanity. Mankind's bleakest hour had fallen two months before when the alien invaders had struck.
The assault had been unprecendented in history. One day ominous glowing discs had grown out of nowhere all around the world. Their nature had remained hidden save that they were dangerous. Anything that passed through them disappeared and was never seen again. This had happened in world's hero capital Paragon City as well as in various metropolises around the globe.
For three hours it had been calm before the storm. For one evening the Earth stood still, daring almost not to breath. Then they came. The Rikti.
They poured through the portals like a lethal rain. They fell into the cities by the thousands and tens of thousands. No military could quell their tide. Even the mightiest heroes could just fight a losing battle. In one night the nations of the Earth took an almost shattering blow. The war had started.
All around the world superpowered heroes fought and died. Even the premium groups like Freedom Phalanx and Midnight Squad took heavy losses. Headquarters destroyed, ranks decimated but unyielding in the face of oblivion. Scores of old heroes fell against the vicious Rikti invasion. What the humanity needed was a surge of new heroes to take their places at the vanguard.
And they came. All around the world new heroes rose up to the challenge when duty was calling. Many were not ready, many lost their lives despite the training that they received when they enlisted into the frontline battle. That did not stop them. The true measure of a hero is not risking life when survival is probable. The very measure of a man is to stand fast in the face of a certain death.
"But mom, I am ready!", said Andre in a voice that was best described as whiny.
"Ready for what, exactly?" ND-2 did not bother to turn around while arranging spare parts on the shelf. This discussion was nothing but a rerun. She had long since recognized that Andre's tactic was to reiterate the same discussion over and over looking for a loophole he had previously missed.
Andre was standing near the doorway letting the sunshine in into the gloomy storage shed. "I am ready to fight the Rikti! They need new heroes, Nadia."
This was a new angle. ND-2 set the parts in her hands back on the shelf she had just picked the from and turned to look at the boy. "You are no hero, Andre. You can't control your powers, you don't have a license and you are nowhere near ready to be a fighter of any kind. Now, where did you hear about heroes being needed?"
Zirgei had ordered a news blockade in the house. That coupled with the children being taught at home exclusively had been supposed to guarantee that the bleak truth of the situation remained hidden. They were slowly and meticulously groomed towards a heroic future but it all had to happen under control.
For some youngsters getting attuned with their new abilities came with ease but such was not the case with Andre and Andrea. In the early days Zirgei's colleague had constructed regulators that prevented a fatal buildup from occurring. Both kids wore them on their faces, a metallic plate that ran from under the right eye to the hairline. It connected through the temple and cheekbone with nerve clusters and made sure that the body would not have to deal with more energy than it could take. It was hoped that in time they would be able to survive without the plates.
This was exactly the reason why Zirgei had wanted to suppress the grim news that poured in, to create a bubble where the war did not exist. It would have been hard to instill a heroic mindset on the children while preventing them from acting according to it. ND-2 held her gaze waiting for a reply.
Andre squirmed but could not evade giving an answer. He was not very good at lying and just in case that he got better his robot mom was equipped with quite effective lie detection system. Giving untruths would backfire immediately. The answer came out in bits and pieces as he tried to stall but it formed a whole. "I met this guy from school and he said that we're losing the war and that most of the heroes are dead."
ND-2 assumed the sternest possible mode. "Since you have not been going to school for two years and it is summertime I must conclude that you have met this said friend during your free hours. With the curfew it means exactly these early evening hours. It is regrettable as it has been beneficial for you and your sister to have some personal time off from the farm but under current situation that can no longer be allowed to continue. You are both confined to the farm at least until this on-going Rikti threat is over. Concurrently your friend Kitia must accept these same rules and their spirit if she is to be allowed to come here again."
There was no softer tones involved. Andre was being lectured at the full capacity of his robotic mother. "In practice it means that you and Andrea are not allowed to wander beyond the farmland without me or your father personally present, not to meet any people without prior and specific approval and not to try to access any information that is not being clearly distributed to you either by me or your father. Do I make myself clear?"
This all was so farout that Andre did not know where to begin. Confined to the farm! Not to meet anyone! And if Kitia did not comply she would be banned. This had to be some sort of sick joke. "But mom!", he exclaimed. ND-2 did not budge one bit. "None of this is negotiable. I will take measures to ensure compliance if I have to. Is this understood?"
He was rendered speechless. She meant every word she said! Within a minute his secluded existence had changed into imprisonment. Until the Rikti threat was over. "But the war can continue for ages! Years!" He was soon sixteen! He knew for a fact that there had been younger heroes than that. It was an outrage!
ND-2 towered over him, stepping closer. "The conflict will come to an end soon enough but it might be really the best if you both would remain here until your respective eighteenth birthdays." Andre felt like complaining but something in Nadia's demeanor made him just shut up.
"No further than our lands, young master. Now, I believe Andrea is over at Kitia's. I want both of you back inside this house by nine. Kitia will come to have a little talk with me tomorrow morning. After that it will be decided if she can continue seeing you." This one struck home. Andre and Kitia had been involved for a year now, starting a year after their powers were discovered. It had not progressed beyond some kissing but unless Kitia conceded to these insane conditions it never would, either.
Having said what she had needed to ND-2 turned away again. She had no wish to act as a jailor and according to her basic programming as well as emotion mimickers she would have preferred not to but as circumstances were there was little choice. The children had to be protected until they were truly ready, apt enough in handling their abilities.
Some spark of defiance made Andre mutter, perhaps to himself, "But I am ready." and this launched ND-2 into action. A lesson was clearly needed, a lesson with undeniable proof, something that no words had a hope of delivering through this thick skull. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled with her out of the house and to the training range behind the robot barn. Only there did she release her hold.
Andre rubbed his arm. Not because it hurt as ND-2 had applied just the right amount of force but because he was annoyed, still partially in shock and just a little scared. Nadia seemed to be acting somehow agitated. She pointed at a man-shaped and -sized target ten meters away. "Ranged bolt, left shoulder, enough to knock the target down."
It was nothing new and nothing fancy. In fact it was a piece of cake. He set the other foot further back leaning on it, bent the knee of the frontmost leg, aimed with the right hand with the left one at the same time providing support, checked the line of sight and let go a decisive blast of concussive energy. It hit the exact mark sending the target swinging around and to the ground. If this was all that he needed to do to prove himself he could have done this months ago. Andre looked at his mom and smiled. "See mom, nothing to it."
ND-2 stood still and sent new activation signals to the training equipment. The model sprang back up and it was holding something. A knife. Andre froze where he was standing. This was new. A defeated opponent stayed down. This was not how it was supposed to work. Just as he decided to show his mom and blast the model down again it started at him at a fast speed.
He did an equivalent of shooting from a hip. An energy blast left from his hand but went well past the charging model and then the time ran out. The model was upon him and slammed the knife to his side. Andre screamed. He recoiled and fell to ground holding to his side in sheer disbelief.
The model stood there, motionless now. ND-2 spoke. "It's a theater knife, young master, quite non-lethal in nature. However this shows how badly you are prepared for an enemy that is attacking back. Do you need more proof?" Fury was building inside him. He wanted to prove himself so badly. "It surprised me! It won't happen again. I'm ready for anything!"
She would have sighed if she assumed it did any good. Stubborn, reckless, unfocused, obsessed. That's what he had always been but it was growing worse by the age. A further demonstration was required, an example that he would remember for months to come. "Fine.", she just said and activated two new targets further down the training field.
Andre jumped back up and was already finding a bead on the closer target. However ill-prepared he still was he had also learned something during the two year long hard training. Something blocked his view for a brief moment. When he could see again the targets were moving but he could still aim and blast with reasonable accuracy. It was a direct hit and the target was slammed to the ground.
This was shooting! Yeah! The thrill of the combat whispered to him and he felt alive, ready to blast the next target down, and the next and the next if they came. An energy load was gathering in him, drawing from every cell and building up someplace in his chest, looking for a way out along his arm and through his hand. It swelled and churned and was suddenly bristling in every fiber of his being.
Something was horribly wrong.
ND-2 stood motionless holding his faceplate in her hand. His powers were out of control. The levels doubled and tripled without check and he was starting to hurt. Every spot in him was pleading for a release. The target was closing in. The blast that was released ripped the model in two sending the upper half flying fast over twenty meters away. ND-2 was caught in the blast and thrown to her back despite the massive frame that she was sporting. Andre fell to the ground feeling cold and numb.
His mother got up, came to him and gently placed the plate back in place. Slowly he began to come back to his senses, the energy flow back under regulation. "Young master, Andre, you still have a distance to go before it is safe for you to take part in fighting the good fight. You still need to learn more about your powers. In combat a lot of things can happen in split second and you need to be ready for all of it." She waited for a comprehending nod and added then. "You can't watch your sister's back otherwise."
She helped him up. "Now go get her, and remember to ask Kitia to come over tomorrow. Don't be too late out, you both really need to be inside before the dark." Andre missed it but there was concern present and Nadia's sensors kept scanning the surroundings. There was some real reason for worry but inside the defence perimeter they should have been reasonably safe.
All this had set Andre enough back so that arguments had ceased. Sure Nadia had her point, and of course he should still practice. It was just that the Rikti war was going on now and despite what she said there was a call for every capable superpowered being to join the fight before it was too late.
Surly he walked from the farm and along the road towards where Kitia lived with her aunt. His mom and father would never let him join the war effort, that much was clear. On the other hand he knew that was the right thing to do. If he could not do it permission he would do it without.
He diverted his path to the woods. It was a shortcut that bypassed the big hill altogehter, all he had to do was cross a stream by hopping on a few slippery rocks.
Tomorrow morning it would be too late. If he tonight returned to home he knew that that was where he would spend the remainder of the war, or possibly until his coming of age.
This was it then. He would have to run away tonight but first he had to go see Kitia and Andrea. Ask them to come with him. Andrea would put up a fight about it and he was not too convinced that he could actually talk her around. Of Kitia he was more confident but still not a hundred percent certain. They were both a year younger than him and sometimes so immature. This was their chance to show that they were not kids anymore.
He would go alone then and show them all. He would go to Andros City and catch an eastbound bus all the way to the coast. When there the trip to Paragon City would not be too big a deal. He would look Statesman up and offer his skills to the war effort. He knew that he could fight the Rikti if he wanted, he had trained two years for it already.
He came to a clearing. And stopped, still hidden in the shadows. There was a weird creature in the middle of the clearing. A Rikti. Two meters tall, wearing a long helmet and full body armour. It was crouched over a man who was still struggling.
Andre had never been that scared in his life.
The man was pinned to the ground by something like a pitchfork with only two forks. They were pressed into the ground leaving his throat in the middle and rendering him unable to get up. The Rikti was cutting away his clothes, methodically and calmly as it had all the time in the world.
This was it, the first real chance to use his powers, to strike at a live enemy and even a deadly one. On top of that he would save a life since surely the man was in danger here. Andre was frozen still.
When the clothes had been removed the alien invader pressed its heavy hand on the man's chest and set the tip of the blade on the stomach. The man was screaming. there were no words that Andre could make out, it was just gibberish. The shrill voice carried all the terror a man can have inside. Andre knew that he would have to intervene now. Soon it would have been too late. His limbs did not work.
The knife cut long and the scream rose in pitch to a shriek. Andre felt warm wetness spread in his pants. In front of his eyes a man was cut open and he did nothing. Nothing at all. He could not move his hand to help, he could not even look away.
The Rikti pushed its hand inside the man and when it pulled it back out it held a lump of something wet that was supposed to be inside a human. It smelled the lump and then set it on the ground pushing the hand again in to get another lump, and then another. The shrieks first grew in volume but started to weaken and finally died out completely. The Rikti seemed to pay no attention at all to the sounds that the man had made. It just picked the gut clean of all the lumps smelling each of them.
Andre stood in the exact position that he had stopped at when he first spotted the alien. He reeked of fear and pee and wanted to do something, anything but yet again did nothing. The alien got up, having completed whatever it was that it had done. The dead man lied there his innards spread around him in a neat half-circle. Then the Rikti simply walked away never once looking back.
Finally the all-permeating fear released its hold so that he could feel other things. Andre vomited, time and again. He was furious. He hated the Rikti. He hated them with all of his little might and he would train as long and hard as he needed and then he would rid the world of them, to the last. He clutched his arms around himself and succumbed to his knees.
He felt cold and dead and empty and please feel empty but then the tears started to roll and there was no hiding anymore. The bitter tears tried to wash away his despair and disappointment and guilt but they were now embedded into his being. He cried until he finally ran out of tears and felt no better at all.
Then he slinked back home, slipped into his room and talked to no one. Andrea had returned by then on her own.
(( Takes place during the summer of 2000. Coile aka Andre Kraft is almost 16.
By a coincidence Andre's robot mother is called Nadia as his first girlfriend in paragon City would be, in a few years. Despite same name they are not the same person. ))
Enemy Mine
It was a dark year for humanity. Mankind's bleakest hour had fallen two months before when the alien invaders had struck.
The assault had been unprecendented in history. One day ominous glowing discs had grown out of nowhere all around the world. Their nature had remained hidden save that they were dangerous. Anything that passed through them disappeared and was never seen again. This had happened in world's hero capital Paragon City as well as in various metropolises around the globe.
For three hours it had been calm before the storm. For one evening the Earth stood still, daring almost not to breath. Then they came. The Rikti.
They poured through the portals like a lethal rain. They fell into the cities by the thousands and tens of thousands. No military could quell their tide. Even the mightiest heroes could just fight a losing battle. In one night the nations of the Earth took an almost shattering blow. The war had started.
All around the world superpowered heroes fought and died. Even the premium groups like Freedom Phalanx and Midnight Squad took heavy losses. Headquarters destroyed, ranks decimated but unyielding in the face of oblivion. Scores of old heroes fell against the vicious Rikti invasion. What the humanity needed was a surge of new heroes to take their places at the vanguard.
And they came. All around the world new heroes rose up to the challenge when duty was calling. Many were not ready, many lost their lives despite the training that they received when they enlisted into the frontline battle. That did not stop them. The true measure of a hero is not risking life when survival is probable. The very measure of a man is to stand fast in the face of a certain death.
"But mom, I am ready!", said Andre in a voice that was best described as whiny.
"Ready for what, exactly?" ND-2 did not bother to turn around while arranging spare parts on the shelf. This discussion was nothing but a rerun. She had long since recognized that Andre's tactic was to reiterate the same discussion over and over looking for a loophole he had previously missed.
Andre was standing near the doorway letting the sunshine in into the gloomy storage shed. "I am ready to fight the Rikti! They need new heroes, Nadia."
This was a new angle. ND-2 set the parts in her hands back on the shelf she had just picked the from and turned to look at the boy. "You are no hero, Andre. You can't control your powers, you don't have a license and you are nowhere near ready to be a fighter of any kind. Now, where did you hear about heroes being needed?"
Zirgei had ordered a news blockade in the house. That coupled with the children being taught at home exclusively had been supposed to guarantee that the bleak truth of the situation remained hidden. They were slowly and meticulously groomed towards a heroic future but it all had to happen under control.
For some youngsters getting attuned with their new abilities came with ease but such was not the case with Andre and Andrea. In the early days Zirgei's colleague had constructed regulators that prevented a fatal buildup from occurring. Both kids wore them on their faces, a metallic plate that ran from under the right eye to the hairline. It connected through the temple and cheekbone with nerve clusters and made sure that the body would not have to deal with more energy than it could take. It was hoped that in time they would be able to survive without the plates.
This was exactly the reason why Zirgei had wanted to suppress the grim news that poured in, to create a bubble where the war did not exist. It would have been hard to instill a heroic mindset on the children while preventing them from acting according to it. ND-2 held her gaze waiting for a reply.
Andre squirmed but could not evade giving an answer. He was not very good at lying and just in case that he got better his robot mom was equipped with quite effective lie detection system. Giving untruths would backfire immediately. The answer came out in bits and pieces as he tried to stall but it formed a whole. "I met this guy from school and he said that we're losing the war and that most of the heroes are dead."
ND-2 assumed the sternest possible mode. "Since you have not been going to school for two years and it is summertime I must conclude that you have met this said friend during your free hours. With the curfew it means exactly these early evening hours. It is regrettable as it has been beneficial for you and your sister to have some personal time off from the farm but under current situation that can no longer be allowed to continue. You are both confined to the farm at least until this on-going Rikti threat is over. Concurrently your friend Kitia must accept these same rules and their spirit if she is to be allowed to come here again."
There was no softer tones involved. Andre was being lectured at the full capacity of his robotic mother. "In practice it means that you and Andrea are not allowed to wander beyond the farmland without me or your father personally present, not to meet any people without prior and specific approval and not to try to access any information that is not being clearly distributed to you either by me or your father. Do I make myself clear?"
This all was so farout that Andre did not know where to begin. Confined to the farm! Not to meet anyone! And if Kitia did not comply she would be banned. This had to be some sort of sick joke. "But mom!", he exclaimed. ND-2 did not budge one bit. "None of this is negotiable. I will take measures to ensure compliance if I have to. Is this understood?"
He was rendered speechless. She meant every word she said! Within a minute his secluded existence had changed into imprisonment. Until the Rikti threat was over. "But the war can continue for ages! Years!" He was soon sixteen! He knew for a fact that there had been younger heroes than that. It was an outrage!
ND-2 towered over him, stepping closer. "The conflict will come to an end soon enough but it might be really the best if you both would remain here until your respective eighteenth birthdays." Andre felt like complaining but something in Nadia's demeanor made him just shut up.
"No further than our lands, young master. Now, I believe Andrea is over at Kitia's. I want both of you back inside this house by nine. Kitia will come to have a little talk with me tomorrow morning. After that it will be decided if she can continue seeing you." This one struck home. Andre and Kitia had been involved for a year now, starting a year after their powers were discovered. It had not progressed beyond some kissing but unless Kitia conceded to these insane conditions it never would, either.
Having said what she had needed to ND-2 turned away again. She had no wish to act as a jailor and according to her basic programming as well as emotion mimickers she would have preferred not to but as circumstances were there was little choice. The children had to be protected until they were truly ready, apt enough in handling their abilities.
Some spark of defiance made Andre mutter, perhaps to himself, "But I am ready." and this launched ND-2 into action. A lesson was clearly needed, a lesson with undeniable proof, something that no words had a hope of delivering through this thick skull. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled with her out of the house and to the training range behind the robot barn. Only there did she release her hold.
Andre rubbed his arm. Not because it hurt as ND-2 had applied just the right amount of force but because he was annoyed, still partially in shock and just a little scared. Nadia seemed to be acting somehow agitated. She pointed at a man-shaped and -sized target ten meters away. "Ranged bolt, left shoulder, enough to knock the target down."
It was nothing new and nothing fancy. In fact it was a piece of cake. He set the other foot further back leaning on it, bent the knee of the frontmost leg, aimed with the right hand with the left one at the same time providing support, checked the line of sight and let go a decisive blast of concussive energy. It hit the exact mark sending the target swinging around and to the ground. If this was all that he needed to do to prove himself he could have done this months ago. Andre looked at his mom and smiled. "See mom, nothing to it."
ND-2 stood still and sent new activation signals to the training equipment. The model sprang back up and it was holding something. A knife. Andre froze where he was standing. This was new. A defeated opponent stayed down. This was not how it was supposed to work. Just as he decided to show his mom and blast the model down again it started at him at a fast speed.
He did an equivalent of shooting from a hip. An energy blast left from his hand but went well past the charging model and then the time ran out. The model was upon him and slammed the knife to his side. Andre screamed. He recoiled and fell to ground holding to his side in sheer disbelief.
The model stood there, motionless now. ND-2 spoke. "It's a theater knife, young master, quite non-lethal in nature. However this shows how badly you are prepared for an enemy that is attacking back. Do you need more proof?" Fury was building inside him. He wanted to prove himself so badly. "It surprised me! It won't happen again. I'm ready for anything!"
She would have sighed if she assumed it did any good. Stubborn, reckless, unfocused, obsessed. That's what he had always been but it was growing worse by the age. A further demonstration was required, an example that he would remember for months to come. "Fine.", she just said and activated two new targets further down the training field.
Andre jumped back up and was already finding a bead on the closer target. However ill-prepared he still was he had also learned something during the two year long hard training. Something blocked his view for a brief moment. When he could see again the targets were moving but he could still aim and blast with reasonable accuracy. It was a direct hit and the target was slammed to the ground.
This was shooting! Yeah! The thrill of the combat whispered to him and he felt alive, ready to blast the next target down, and the next and the next if they came. An energy load was gathering in him, drawing from every cell and building up someplace in his chest, looking for a way out along his arm and through his hand. It swelled and churned and was suddenly bristling in every fiber of his being.
Something was horribly wrong.
ND-2 stood motionless holding his faceplate in her hand. His powers were out of control. The levels doubled and tripled without check and he was starting to hurt. Every spot in him was pleading for a release. The target was closing in. The blast that was released ripped the model in two sending the upper half flying fast over twenty meters away. ND-2 was caught in the blast and thrown to her back despite the massive frame that she was sporting. Andre fell to the ground feeling cold and numb.
His mother got up, came to him and gently placed the plate back in place. Slowly he began to come back to his senses, the energy flow back under regulation. "Young master, Andre, you still have a distance to go before it is safe for you to take part in fighting the good fight. You still need to learn more about your powers. In combat a lot of things can happen in split second and you need to be ready for all of it." She waited for a comprehending nod and added then. "You can't watch your sister's back otherwise."
She helped him up. "Now go get her, and remember to ask Kitia to come over tomorrow. Don't be too late out, you both really need to be inside before the dark." Andre missed it but there was concern present and Nadia's sensors kept scanning the surroundings. There was some real reason for worry but inside the defence perimeter they should have been reasonably safe.
All this had set Andre enough back so that arguments had ceased. Sure Nadia had her point, and of course he should still practice. It was just that the Rikti war was going on now and despite what she said there was a call for every capable superpowered being to join the fight before it was too late.
Surly he walked from the farm and along the road towards where Kitia lived with her aunt. His mom and father would never let him join the war effort, that much was clear. On the other hand he knew that was the right thing to do. If he could not do it permission he would do it without.
He diverted his path to the woods. It was a shortcut that bypassed the big hill altogehter, all he had to do was cross a stream by hopping on a few slippery rocks.
Tomorrow morning it would be too late. If he tonight returned to home he knew that that was where he would spend the remainder of the war, or possibly until his coming of age.
This was it then. He would have to run away tonight but first he had to go see Kitia and Andrea. Ask them to come with him. Andrea would put up a fight about it and he was not too convinced that he could actually talk her around. Of Kitia he was more confident but still not a hundred percent certain. They were both a year younger than him and sometimes so immature. This was their chance to show that they were not kids anymore.
He would go alone then and show them all. He would go to Andros City and catch an eastbound bus all the way to the coast. When there the trip to Paragon City would not be too big a deal. He would look Statesman up and offer his skills to the war effort. He knew that he could fight the Rikti if he wanted, he had trained two years for it already.
He came to a clearing. And stopped, still hidden in the shadows. There was a weird creature in the middle of the clearing. A Rikti. Two meters tall, wearing a long helmet and full body armour. It was crouched over a man who was still struggling.
Andre had never been that scared in his life.
The man was pinned to the ground by something like a pitchfork with only two forks. They were pressed into the ground leaving his throat in the middle and rendering him unable to get up. The Rikti was cutting away his clothes, methodically and calmly as it had all the time in the world.
This was it, the first real chance to use his powers, to strike at a live enemy and even a deadly one. On top of that he would save a life since surely the man was in danger here. Andre was frozen still.
When the clothes had been removed the alien invader pressed its heavy hand on the man's chest and set the tip of the blade on the stomach. The man was screaming. there were no words that Andre could make out, it was just gibberish. The shrill voice carried all the terror a man can have inside. Andre knew that he would have to intervene now. Soon it would have been too late. His limbs did not work.
The knife cut long and the scream rose in pitch to a shriek. Andre felt warm wetness spread in his pants. In front of his eyes a man was cut open and he did nothing. Nothing at all. He could not move his hand to help, he could not even look away.
The Rikti pushed its hand inside the man and when it pulled it back out it held a lump of something wet that was supposed to be inside a human. It smelled the lump and then set it on the ground pushing the hand again in to get another lump, and then another. The shrieks first grew in volume but started to weaken and finally died out completely. The Rikti seemed to pay no attention at all to the sounds that the man had made. It just picked the gut clean of all the lumps smelling each of them.
Andre stood in the exact position that he had stopped at when he first spotted the alien. He reeked of fear and pee and wanted to do something, anything but yet again did nothing. The alien got up, having completed whatever it was that it had done. The dead man lied there his innards spread around him in a neat half-circle. Then the Rikti simply walked away never once looking back.
Finally the all-permeating fear released its hold so that he could feel other things. Andre vomited, time and again. He was furious. He hated the Rikti. He hated them with all of his little might and he would train as long and hard as he needed and then he would rid the world of them, to the last. He clutched his arms around himself and succumbed to his knees.
He felt cold and dead and empty and please feel empty but then the tears started to roll and there was no hiding anymore. The bitter tears tried to wash away his despair and disappointment and guilt but they were now embedded into his being. He cried until he finally ran out of tears and felt no better at all.
Then he slinked back home, slipped into his room and talked to no one. Andrea had returned by then on her own.