#9.3p1

Ahahaha!

Because he liked pushing the limits and because he saw this all as something fun.  The new Dennis is so angry.  Now I guess I get why.”

“Aren’t you?  Angry?  At everything that’s going on?  At the unfairness of what happened?”

It doesn’t seem like her primary emotional reaction, but there might be some anger tucked away there too.

She shook her head, which amounted to rubbing her head against his shoulder.  “Yeah.  But you can’t let it consume you.  If you really don’t like Weld, you don’t have to force yourself to get along with him.  But don’t stay like this.  Don’t stay angry.”

tfw the 13-year-old with a crush on one of the dead guys has it all more together than you

Seriously, though, I’m really liking Vista. Good kid.

He nodded.  It wasn’t so easy, though.  Letting things go, relaxing, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d fall apart if he did.

LET IT GOOO, LET IT GOOO, CAN’T HOLD ME BACK ANYMOOO’

He couldn’t get his hopes up about Panacea’s willingness to help his dad – and facing any of that head on, without a buffer of smouldering fury?  It might leave him unable to serve and protect the people who really needed it.  He felt his pulse quicken a step at the thought of it.

Um. Trouble? Or is it just patrol time?

“You’re back,” Weld informed them, “Just in time.  Class is cancelled.  We’ve got trouble.”

Trouble it is.

Also, I like the word choice “informed them”, following a statement that should be especially obvious to them.

■

Both of the girls are concerned with how it affected the other, not just themselves. I like that.

“I know.  She said she understood and that it was okay, but I don’t know how true that is.  Before I figure that out and work out how to make it up to her, I want to make sure you’re okay.”

I think it counts for a lot that Clocky actually mentions that he’s not sure how true that is and that he still intends to make it up to her, because I feel like if he didn’t, Vista would absolutely guess that it wasn’t okay and get even more annoyed/angry at Clocky for seemingly having taken it at face value.

She hung her head.

It was a long time before she spoke.  “He was the reason I looked forward to coming here every day.”

:’(

“But you’d better go after that girl and apologize.  Because the way I heard it from Kid Win, you were the one who told everyone else to be extra nice to her, because she was taking it hard.  You convinced Shadow Stalker to play nice, and from what Kid Win said before class started, that was a pretty big deal.

Hoo boy, hypocrisy on top of everything else wrong with what Clocky just said and did.

Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know your team like you do, but I’d guess that if you don’t fix this, your team won’t forgive you for a long time.”

His team, maybe. He himself? I’m not sure about that.

“Yeah,” he swallowed.  Was she using her power?  He was getting a bad vibe from her.  Like he was locked in a cage at the zoo with a murderous jungle cat.

She might be, but she’s kind of intimidating to begin with.

She poked him in the chest with a finger.  “A real apology.  You own up to what you said and did, acknowledge that it wasn’t fair of you to say, and you promise to do better in the future.  That probably means you should cut Weld some slack, because Vista wants you to.”

Okay, so when I first met Victoria and Amy, I liked them a lot. Over time, some of my hype for Victoria faded, though.

But this? She just stuck a jetpack on her back and rocketed back up even higher than before.

...

Rumor has it he eats it sometimes too.

His temper flared.  “What, are you channeling Gallant, here?  Standing up for…” he trailed off before he could finish.  Realized who he was talking to.  “Shit, no, I…”

Aw. Yeah, try not to get too harsh.

Vista just stared at him.  After a second, her eyes got shiny, and she looked down at the ground, an angry expression on her face.   She wheeled around and ran down the hallway.

I suppose that covers the variant of the patient zero theory that I just talked about.

The genetics theory is popular, but has been thoroughly debunked.  We’re going to talk about how it was debunked…”

Hm, interesting.

There’s definitely something going on with regards to genetic relations, but apparently they’re sure that’s not the original cause, at least.

Clockblocker felt a vibration at his wrist.  He reached inside his glove to get his cell phone.  A text.

That’s a handy place to keep it.

Pun most certainly intended.

From: Mom

Dad’s not doing well.  You may want to come by the hospital.

Uh oh.