One more character joins us!
So, I've recently joined a great group of people in playing BeSM. For those of you who don't know what that is, Big eyes, Small Mouth is an Anime tabletop RPG that focuses more on storytelling rather than combat. This is the first game of this nature that I've played, and thus, the first character I've created. And what do I do when I have a character boys and girls? That's right! I write 20 page stories! ^^;;
And so, under the cut is Rosalind/Ariel's backstory. And no, I didn't write this after my bike accident, that is an irony completely unto itself. -_-;;
WARNING: This story is 14 pages in 12-point Times New Roman in Word. Don't read this if you have four minutes and are expecting three paragraphs. XD
Universal Acceptor
My blood type is AB. Universal donor, universal acceptor, universally forced upon. Story of my life, as everyone around here says.
I live in Philastrate, the capital of the biggest country, Timandra, on this God-forsaken planet. There’s no other way to describe Philastrate than sweet, straight anarchy. We’re all part of it. We all sleep, eat, and breathe it. Broken windows, abandoned buildings, unregistered pistols, bootlegs, squatters, whores, and gangs. We accept it all-we have to. Where else would we go?
I wish I could say I wasn’t part of the shadow that’s covered this city, and the ‘I had no choice’ excuse fell through around my fourth citation for street racing. Even I gave up on it when I realized I was trying to join the Faolan.
Arguably the biggest set of jerks and screw-ups I’ve ever come across. Jerks and screw-ups on hoverbikes. I don’t even know what I saw in them-it was what they saw in Prospero that pulled me to them, I guess.
Prospero is my partner-my hoverbike. He originally belonged to Corin-“the Sage”. Prospero was my dad’s hoverbike. But that, the apartment, and his money were the things given to me when Corin the Senator left to whip Timandra into shape. He honestly doesn’t care what I do anymore. If he did, he wouldn’t have left me to those Faolan wolves with nothing but a hoverbike and a wad of cash. That’s what got me into trouble, I know it. The cash… and Prospero.
And that’s also how I got my name. Ariel, Prospero’s changeling servant. Neither female nor male, Ariel is able to cause all kinds of trouble, but is dependent on the master. I hate to admit it, but I’m nothing without that bike. It’s my life. It’s what gets me out of the black hole I call my apartment. At home, I’m Rosalind, the senator’s daughter. When I step out with Prospero, I am feared. I become Ariel the speed demon.
At least, it used to be like that, before being a universal acceptor came in handy.
---
That morning, it was brighter than usual. Industrial smog had blocked out much of the sunlight ages ago, but it was bright enough to wake Ariel. She groaned and pulled the comforter over her head, rolling over. It couldn’t have been time to get up already. Then, her worst fears were confirmed.
Her cellphone rang.
“Jeez…” Ariel growled, searching blindly for the source of noise on her nightstand. She pulled it into the comforter sanctum she had created and opened it. “It can’t be later than 6, Nat.”
“Close,” Nat said, his English accent making the morning sound that much brighter. “It’s 9:37.”
The blanket-sanctum exploded and a shock of fire-engine red hair and pale, thin limbs burst forth from the comforter. “Don’t screw with me Nat, what time is it?”
“Well, 9:38 now,” He replied. “I thought you wanted to test the new belt I put in Prospero before this afternoon, but if you’re too concerned with the bags under your eyes…”
“Oh shut up. Be down in five.” She closed the phone without waiting for a response then fell back onto the mattress. Ariel held her right hand above her, looking at it intently. “Seven hours before the show… huh…”
She rolled off the bed, looking for her shirt and pants. Nat always said that Ariel slept like a guy-underwear only. It was more convenient that way. No extra clothes to take off. She pulled her tank top and pants on, then her boots, then her gloves, and finally her racing goggles.
Prospero was sitting in front of Iris Lucio’s portrait, in compact state. For easier storage, Prospero folded down into a box closely resembling a backpack with a sling strap. Ariel hoisted her bike onto her back and looked up at her mother, smiling down at her.
“Wish me luck, mom. Today I’m going to join the pack, stop this lone wolf business.” She smiled, “Watch over me.”
Grabbing her racing jacket, scarf, and some money, Ariel left her apartment. That was the last time she would leave that apartment unmarked and unafraid.
---
“You said five minutes, it took eight!”
“Screw you too, Orsino,” Ariel raised her eyebrow at Nat, calling him by his street-name.
Since Rosalind was Ariel, her living, breathing partner Nathanial was the Duke, Orsino. It was all carefully planned out by both Ariel and Nat-even though ‘Orsino’ preferred Nat to his nickname. Nat suited him better anyway. Orsino was an ostentatious and whiny rich boy, and Nat was nothing like that. If anything, he was a commoner. With unkempt short auburn hair and clothes that were meant to be more comfortable than flashy, he was the epitome of normal teenaged boy. Except for the oil stains and absolutely revolting workboots, which he always seemed to stain while tinkering with some junk that he found in one of his carefully mapped junk heaps. His beyond baggy cargo pants were always black at the knees, and stuffed to capacity with random odds and ends, bits of paper, pencils, and gloves. On his belt, he proudly wore three various screwdrivers, two wrenches (small and big), a ruler, and a mini-sledge hammer. Strangely enough though, he always kept his screened t-shirts and hands clean-save for the occasional smudge on his face, which made his efforts rather ironic.
Underneath the slightly off, yet typical exterior, gears and pistons were always running, even when he was trying to focus on something else. As a result, Nat always seemed to be both better organized and strangely distant at times. He had a habit of diving into the depths of his mind, forsaking all outside communication, in order to sort out a problem. These came frequently when he would work on improving Prospero. Ariel actually thought that he looked rather adorable with such a serious look on his boyish face.
“Where are we test running Prospero?”
Nat consulted a list on his phone as the pair started to walk, comparing the list with a scrap of neon pink paper which, apparently, had notes to himself on it. “Well, since your race starts at the roundabout on Fifth, that was ruled out. It’s probably crawling with Ookami thugs looking for Faolan blood.”
“I’d rather like to avoid open fire,” Ariel sighed. “Guess it’s the scrapyard as usual then, huh?”
“Guess so…” Nat sighed and closed the file, pocketing his phone and stuffing the scrap into a bag on his toolbelt. “It’s nothing like the route for this afternoon, but it’ll have to do for a warm-up.”
“Oh, it’ll do.” Ariel grinned, nodding to Nat, “I’m going to leave the Faolan in the dust, warm-up or none.”
“A-ah… Ariel are you planning on racing today?”
Before she even turned around to confirm, Ariel held in an exasperated sigh. She didn’t need to look to know who the voice belonged to. Three high school senior girls, obviously on their way to classes were staring at Ariel in awe-typical. Ever since Ariel had announced that she wouldn’t be attending a university, these three girls had thought she was the greatest thing since the electric power source. It was kind of annoying. Ariel didn’t even know their names, yet they showered her with reverent stares and the occasional small gift-usually hand-made.
Ariel couldn’t figure out if they just weren’t able to break out of their sheltered lives or if they had some kind of crush on her. Did they even know she was a girl? She wasn’t exactly well-endowed and had insisted on wearing the boy uniform to school since it favored pants instead of what Ariel referred to as, ‘a micro-mini-skirt meant to liberate more than she’d like’. Nevertheless, even though these girls had no gender-consciousness and thus annoyed the hell out of her, Ariel enjoyed messing with them as a kind of revenge.
“Yeah, I’m going to prove to those Faolan bitches that I’m the fastest thing on a hoverbike.” She struck what she thought was a very pretentious pose-but not too pretentious. Such a pose would require her sticking her chest out.
“Wooow…” One of them breathed. “Isn’t it dangerous though?”
“Oh yeah, totally.” Ariel shrugged, “Hairpin turns, evacuated buildings, not to mention the other racers. It’s the intelligent things I’m worried about.”
“Ariel you have to be careful!” Another one squealed. “If something happened, we’d all be devastated!”
“Don’t worry,” Ariel cupped the girl’s cheek in her hand, looking into her eyes softly. “I promise nothing will happen.” Ariel smirked and turned to go, enjoying the resulting ‘kyah!’s that chorused behind her. Nat caught up to her, blushing a little.
“That’s really unfair to them Ariel…”
“So what? I like to have a little fun once in a while.”
“Is that what this,” Nat tapped the backpack, “is for?”
“Whatever,” Ariel sighed, crossing her arms, “It’s their fault anyway. If they read the papers, they’d figure it out. I hate stupid girls.”
“What if they actually like you? You know, as Rosalind?”
“They just like to think I’m a bad boy looking for trouble,” She retorted. “Isn’t that what you like to think of me as?”
Nat looked down. Ariel thought for a moment she had crossed some kind of line. “One of these days, you’re going to pay me back for all of this hell by wearing a dress for me.”
Ariel started laughing, “You’re so full of it!” She slapped him on the back, continuing to laugh at his joke. Nat glanced at her from the corner of his eye, smiled and shook his head.
“You’re just hopeless.”
“What was that?!”
---
Back then, whenever I was on Prospero, the whole world was a blur. The junky city that held me was nothing but a mess of gray streaks, struggling to catch up and pull me back to reality. But it never did-I was the one who let it catch up with me. I was always in control.
---
Ariel and Nat arrived at the roundabout six hours later, sufficiently warmed up. Faolan thugs in faux leather and studs milled about in a clump, chomping at the bit and surveying the abandoned buildings for stray Ookami. Ariel’s fangirls stood off to the side. It was still baffling to Ariel how the high school yuppies managed to stand being around all the muscle and hoverbike noise-but she always managed to credit it o the fact that these girls had been watching Ariel race ever since she started riding Prospero home from school.
“Oi,” Ariel and Nat, hearing something (at last) that wasn’t a grunt, turned to see who was addressing them. Naturally, the voice had issued from inside a ring of bodyguards. Ariel smirked, amused by the shield of stupid.
“Well, if it isn’t the man of the hour,” Ariel nodded to the biggest guy, her tone dancing on the edge of sarcasm. It didn’t help that her smirk never left her face. “Long time no see, Jakoh. You need a hand out of all that red meat?”
“Move, move…” Jakoh had obviously waved his cronies away, because they all moved to clear a path for him. She couldn’t help but snigger when he finally came into view-she always did.
Ariel had always secretly referred to the Faolan leader as ‘Pretty-Boy Jakoh’, and for a very good reason. He was more brains then brawn, much like Ariel was. He had a slight figure, and a slim, pale face. His eyes were also small, and always looked like they were half closed. Why Jakoh carried them that way, Ariel never knew. Most thought that it was because Jakoh had one blue eye and one brown eye, but during a staredown with the gang leader, Ariel made out the telltale faint lines that confirmed contact lenses. That wasn’t the only thing he’d altered about his appearance either-his long hair was dyed silver, held back in what was meant to be a ‘careless ponytail’. But as a girl, Ariel could tell that he spent time on it. For crying out loud, the boy wore the most obviously plastic pants. How Jakoh could ride in tight vinyl pants was beyond Ariel, but she wasn’t complaining. In fact, she was surprised that the Faolan hadn’t refused her bid to join the gang on the basis of her being ‘gay’. Even she had caught herself staring at Jakoh’s butt. And now, he was surveying Ariel as though he were a wolf surveying its prey. Finally, he matched Ariel’s conceited smirk. “So, have you come to back out?”
“Why would I do that? You afraid that I’ll steal all your flunkies away?”
“Hardly-I’m just scared you’ll scar your pretty little face.”
“For someone who can’t ride without his hair being in place, you sound very sure that my natural look is an issue. You scared of falling for me, wolf?”
“There’s no harm in enjoying pretty things, Ariel. It’s true that I’m very interested in you… in more ways than one…” He poked Ariel’s chin up with a leather-gloved finger, squinting intently as though studying her for something he may have missed. She began to sweat.
“Hey.” Nat slapped his hand on Jakoh’s wrist, pulling it away from Ariel’s face with more force than was really necessary. The posse grunted their disapproval and advanced, but their leader stopped them by raising his free hand, never leaving Nat’s gaze. He looked coolly livid. “Ariel’s not interested in being studied or owned by you. You’re impressed with Prospero’s speed, my expertise, and Ariel’s ability-and that’s that. Don’t make this personal.”
“Agreed, Orsino…” Jakoh said stiffly, pulling his hand back and holding his wrist as though injured. He glared at Ariel, “Your seme is calling.”
“You want to say that again?!” Ariel grit her teeth and started after Jakoh. Nat held her back as Jakoh was swiftly covered by a curtain of brawn.
“Easy Ariel, easy!” Nat muttered in her ear. “Don’t play his game, okay?”
“I know,” Ariel shook Nat off, slinging Prospero off her back and setting it down.
“Hey, you sure you want to run with him?” Nat tossed his head in the direction of the horde that surrounded Pretty-Boy Jakoh. “He’s an idiot… and a perverted idiot at that.”
Ariel paused then nodded after a moment’s consideration. “No more of this lone-wolf business. We need a pack.” She stomped on a panel in the middle of the backpack marked with a wing decal. A low ‘vwee’ signaled the assembly startup. Forty-five seconds later, on the dot, Prospero let out a burst of steam and was ready to race. She pulled a key out of her boot and held out her hand to Nat, her gaze a bit distant. “What shall I do? Tell me, what shall I do?” She offered him a sheepish smile. He sighed and smiled back. He pulled a key out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
“Do what thou wilt, spirit.” Ariel took the key and squeezed it in her fist. She nodded to him, trying to assuage her doubts.
“I promise I’ll win this-I’ll earn our comfort somehow.”
Ariel stuck her own key in the first ignition, Nat’s in the third. Then, carefully, she pulled the last key from the choker she had on, drawing it from her neck to the ignition. It stayed attached to her necklace by a magnetic ball chain which could be stretched about three feet. The second key was her safety. If it pulled out of the ignition, not only would the bike not run, but the electric source would be cut off to the main engines. Ariel carefully inserted the final key and turned it. Prospero hummed to life the instant the key was turned and hovered obediently a foot off the ground. Ariel mounted the bike with ease.
“Hey Jackal,” Ariel shouted, allowing Nat to help her into her thick canvas riding jacket. The mob shifted so that Jakoh could let Ariel see his annoyance. “Let’s get this party started.” She pulled her goggles down over her eyes, her glare visible through the green plexiglass. “I’m sure you want to give those pants back to your rent boy before he starts charging you the hourly fee.”
---
Pretty much the only thing I remembered after the fact was the beginning and the end. Everything else is pretty fuzzy. Can you blame me? I’d been in a thousand street races before-I wasn’t about to memorize this particular course. But looking back, maybe I should have at least kept my eyes open.
---
“Okay Ariel,” Nat stood up and put one of his wrenches back into his belt. Ariel looked down at him from atop Prospero, listening intently. “The belt I installed will give your accelerations more kick, but you need to watch your curves. He won’t turn on a dime.”
“I know, I know. I felt it during the warm up.” She sighed, “Who are you, my mother?”
Nat gave her a sad smile. “With both of your parents gone, someone has to make sure you don’t kill yourself.”
“Racers to the line!” Jakoh barked. Ariel turned around to survey her opponents while inching Prospero forward. There were three of them. Hardly fair odds, but Ariel wasn’t impressed. Two of the Faolan riders were big and heavy-their bikes were whining in protest at the excessive weight, hovering dangerously close to the asphalt. The third might be a challenge, though.
From what Ariel had heard, the guy was named Mikael. Underneath what seemed like seventy pounds of gear, he was short and lean-the computer geek type. His bowl-like helmet kept slipping forward and obscuring his vision, and the dozens of belts packed with spare parts and tools made it difficult for him to maneuver while walking. These two factors might’ve caused any other experienced biker to question Ariel’s judgment. But something bothered her about Mikael. He looked too confident. He looked like he was hiding some delightfully horrible secret, and Ariel wouldn’t find out until the worst possible moment.
All four of the riders were in position, hovering silently, squinting down the deserted street as though imagining themselves there the second the signal was given. Jakoh strode nonchalantly in front of the hoverbikes, pulling off his jacket. As he passed in front of her, Ariel revved her engine, hoping to scare him. Much to her displeasure, he laughed.
“I don’t think hitting on me will incite me to stop the race, Ariel.” The gang laughed as Nat looked on helplessly.
“What are you doing Ariel…” He groaned, head in his hands.
“I’m impatient, let’s go already!” Ariel shouted back, arms crossed.
“Fine by me,” Jakoh smirked and dropped his jacket on the ground. The other three racers took off. “Go.”
Startled, Ariel quickly put her hands back on the steering handles and hit the gas, swearing as she sped down the street. “Hey!” Nat yelled, incensed, “Couldn’t you have at least said ‘Ready’?!”
Jakoh shrugged, “He said he was impatient. Now he gets to catch up.”
---
I was always in control. Nothing could catch me when I went that fast. Not the Faolan, not my father, none of my problems. Everything that wanted to bring me down couldn’t catch me. The world couldn’t catch me.
---
“Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Ariel cursed as she pushed Prospero forward, chasing the taillights of the Faolan riders. “Your boss plays dirty!” Ariel shouted. Just as she predicted, the two bigger riders looked back, pulling their steering handles back ever so slightly. Their bikes began to rise. When they noticed this, they panicked and slowed down. Laughing, Ariel zoomed past them. “See you at the finish line!”
She looked forward, gasping. Fallen building façade. She hit the breaks, pulled her left handle towards her and the right one away. Prospero turned, but just nearly missed the façade by a few inches. Unfortunately, the bigger riders had the advantage in this situation, and managed the u-turn with no problem. Once she was headed straight again, she hit the gas and crept up between the two. The one to her right grinned nastily and side-swiped her, nearly sending her into the second rider.
“Hey thanks!” Ariel shouted. “I was almost falling asleep there!”
“Son of a…” The first rider grit his teeth and veered away, ready to break Ariel’s right leg. Not a bright idea, but he was angry. Ariel waited for him to come, smirking. Finally, he dove in for the kill. She covered her mouth in a mock-yawn and cut the gas the second before impact. Dropping behind and leaving a huge gap, there was nothing for the rider to hit except his fellow gang member. The nose of the bike dug into the front-side panel. There was a nasty grinding noise-almost like metal being cut with a buzz-saw-and the two bikes couldn’t pull apart from each other. Later, Nat guessed that something from the first bike got hooked on the second bike’s fan, dragging shards of metal into the engine. A couple seconds later, the second bike was on the pavement, the first bike stuck to it. Ariel waved politely, taking another turn, and disappearing from sight.
“Now… where are you Mikael?” After another straight strip of road and another sharp turn, she had made it to The Pileup-otherwise known as the area with too many abandoned and wrecked cars to count. Ariel zigged and zagged her way through the jumble of vehicles and fallen lampposts, all the while looking for a trace of Mikael. Finally, she noticed the green glow of his hovercells. Funny, Ariel thought, he seems to be moving rather slowly. Pulling back on her steering handles, she arced over a fallen semi and then accelerated to match Mikael. The finish line was in sight.
“If that’s the best you can do Mikael, you’re out of luck!” Ariel laughed and began to pull away. A few seconds later, she was an entire bike-length ahead of him.
“No!” Mikael shouted, standing up in the stirrups of his bike and holding something over his head. “You’re out of luck!” He lobbed something at her. Ariel ducked and the thing clattered into her dashboard. She looked down at it. Whatever it was, it was very odd. It almost looked like a can with some kind of lever on it. Suddenly, Ariel put two and two together. It was flash grenade.
“YOU BAS-!” A flash of light exploded in Ariel’s face, turning the gray world completely white. Swearing, she blinked as rapidly as possible, trying to regain her sight. Instinctively, Ariel raised a hand to massage her eyes to life again.
“ARIEL!!” Nat screamed, his eyes on the abandoned car Prospero was headed straight for.
---
And suddenly… it caught up to me. It pulled me back and broke me in half.
---
He had time enough to realize she was going to hit it before she actually did. Both Ariel and the bike went flying. Prospero spun out of control, the hovercells still functioning. Ariel flipped over at least three times in the air, jerking the ignition key out. She was falling in an arc now, headed for a collection of dumpsters at no more than 170 kilometers an hour. Ariel was jerked to a stop by a mound of spare parts, broken machinery, and garbage. Prospero hit the street and scraped to a stop on top of his rider.
The undercarriage sparked a stack of ancient newspapers and the garbage began to burn. Mikael crossed the finish line and looked back just in time to see the fire spreading to the dumpsters. Nat tore over to where Ariel had landed and began trying to pull Prospero away. He wasn’t able to lift the bike off his best friend. His arms couldn’t take the weight.
“C’mon Orsino!” Nat looked over, his eyes widening at the voice. Jakoh nodded to him, gripping one of the steering bars. “Let’s get this off him! One, two-!” Together, the pair managed to pull Prospero to where Nat could get at the ignitions. He pulled the other two keys out, hit the winged panel, and Prospero began to collapse into itself.
“SOMEONE CALL A MEDIC!” Nat shouted to the Faolan and the students. They all looked around at each other as though questioning the order. Jakoh pulled out his cellphone with a growl.
“You’re all hopeless!”
“Ariel, c’mon, speak to me!” Nat threw Prospero to the side and began dragging Ariel out of the garbage that was slowly becoming an inferno. He covered his mouth once he got a good look at her. She was covered with cuts, her left leg and arm were both broken, her right shoulder was blistering from being burned, and she had a giant piece of glass in her side.
“R-Ro-Ro…” Nat spluttered, his hands gripping his cheeks in shock. Jakoh put his hand on Nat’s shoulder.
“They should be here soon… I’m sure he’d want you to be with him until then, though,” Jakoh offered, trying to be uplifting.
“THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” Nat screamed, throwing Jakoh’s hand off his shoulder. “If you hadn’t pushed her, and PUSHED HER TO RACE…! IF YOU HADN’T WANTED PROSPERO FOR YOURSELF-!!”
“Slow down Orsino, slow down!” Jakoh looked a bit scared of Nat, holding his hands between himself and the screaming young man. “Who are you talking about…? Who’s ‘her’?”
“Move,” A medic shoved Nat out of the way and put two fingers to Ariel’s neck. “Bring me the pads.” He said to another medic. Nat watched in horror as the medics brought back a stretcher and a defibrillator. The medic cut open Ariel’s shirt and exposed her bare chest to the blackening sky. Jakoh and the rest of the Faolan grew quiet as Ariel was hooked up to the machine.
“He’s… a girl?!” One of the high school girls screamed, obviously incensed at being lied to.
One of the Faolan thugs shoved Mikael, “You threw a grenade at a woman?! You bastard!”
“I can’t believe it…” Jakoh muttered, staring at Ariel in thought. “Can’t believe it…”
Ariel’s body tensed lightly as the electric current ran through it, restarting her heart. The medic felt for a beat, then nodded. “Move her to the stretcher, let’s get her to an ER.” Carefully, the men and women moved Ariel onto the stretcher and began moving her to the van. Nat picked up Prospero and started after her.
“W-wait, I’m coming with her!”
“There’s no room. You’ll only jeopardize her shot at living, and let me tell you,” The head medic pushed Nat back from the van. “It isn’t looking good.” He shut the doors as though to punctuate the statement and the vehicle began to move. Nat pounded on the doors, running with the van as fast as he could.
“WAIT!” He considered activating Prospero and chasing after them, but he realized Ariel had the third key around her neck. “WAIT, STOP! ROSALIND!!”
---
It hurt, but at the same time, I don’t remember feeling pain. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. I wasn’t in unbearable pain, and I wasn’t even scared when they said I was losing enough blood to soak the gurney I was on to the core. They argued, too. Some intellectual crap I couldn’t care less about. ‘Where’s her ID?’ ‘She wasn’t carrying one.’ ‘How are we supposed to know what blood to give her then?’ So, it was my fault I was going to die then.
I had my ID though. It was in Prospero. Nat knew that, and the bastards had pushed him out. Nat could’ve told them my blood type, but because of these jerks, it was curtains. I was going to kick it. I wasn’t going to let them have that power. The only one who controls my life is ME.
---
“H-hey… hey, she’s writing something!” All of the medics huddled around the gurney, looking intently at Ariel’s hand. Her finger was moving slowly, but deliberately. The grime and blood on her hands left a faint, dirty mark on the white sheet:
AB.
Well, the ‘B’ looked more like an ‘E’ and the ‘A’ looked like an ‘I’ with a line through it, but the medics got the message. “Hey!” The head medic barked into his cellphone. “I’m going to need about four pints of blood for an AB receiver on arrival, you got that?!”
“B-but sir…” The emergency receptionist stuttered, “AB is very rare… we don’t have that much…”
“Stupid!” The medic yelled back. “Did you get your medical degree in a cereal box?! AB is a universal acceptor!”
Heh… Ariel would’ve smirked if she’d had the strength. Lucky me…
---
Ariel cracked open her eyes with a groan. It was hard to open them. Sleep had nearly sealed them shut. But even before she managed to lift her heavy eyelids, she heard Nat’s voice.
“Don’t move around so much Ariel…” She turned her head slightly to look up into his face, and then smiled sadly.
“You look awful.” Nat had bags under his bloodshot eyes. He was pale, and his face looked thinner. “What the hell are you doing in this horrible place anyway? And while we’re at it, what the hell am I doing in this horrible place?”
“You had an acci-”
“I know that, Nat.” She snapped, her voice wavering. “I know… I know I screwed up. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with that stupid gang.”
“Jakoh sends his best wishes, by the way,” Nat said quietly. “He sent that bouquet on your table.”
She turned her head to the other side-red roses with a few stalks of snap dragon. Glowering at the message, she turned back to Nat. “When can I leave here? I want to go home.”
“They say not for at least six weeks…”
“And who is ‘they’?! The guy who shoved you out of the ambulance? I swear…”
“Ariel,” Nat began, looking apprehensive, “After what happened… I would understand if you wanted me to sell Prospero. A couple people have already shown interest and-”
“Are you trying to turn me into a girl, Nat?”
“Ariel! Like it or not, you ARE a girl!”
“SHUT UP!”
“The problem with you is that you equate being a girl to being dependent on someone, okay?! You claim you aren’t a ‘girl’, but you’ve been trying to join the Faolan for months now!”
“That’s diff-”
“NO IT’S NOT! ALL YOU WANT IS FOR JAKOH TO PROTECT YOU WHILE YOU GO ON LIVING AS A FAÇADE!” Nat blinked at Ariel’s dumbfounded expression.
“Get out… GET OUT!!” Ariel screamed, grabbing her pillow and throwing it with her non-broken arm. She yelped in pain, holding her right shoulder as Nat swatted the pillow away.
“Oh, and I forgot to mention! You probably won’t be able to work your right arm very well anymore because of damaged muscle tissue!” Nat was practically raving, “And you probably popped at least seven of your stitches in you stomach by doing that, so let me call the nurse and they’ll just sew you back up like a little rag doll! Then you can go back onto the streets and get thrown around again!”
“Nat, shut up! Stop it…!” Ariel half-yelled, half-sobbed.
“Why bother talking to you anyway?! Nothing I say will do any good! Here!” He dropped the two ignition keys and Ariel’s choker on the bed. “Go drive into oncoming traffic for all I c-care!” His voice breaking, he wove towards the door, his hand searching for the handle.
“Nat!” He stopped, leaning on the doorframe. His shoulders jerked in an audible sob. “Nat…” Ariel swallowed, “Nathanial… you’re being absolutely ridiculous. Come here.” He wove back towards her, tears in his eyes. She took his hand, her own eyes on the brink of tears.
“Wh-when I s-s-said I wanted to see you in a d-dress, I didn’t mean a hospital gown!!” Nat sobbed, clutching her hand tightly. She squeezed back.
“I didn’t mean for things to go this awry, Nat. You know that I have too many things left to do before I die-better than anyone.” He nodded in between sobs. “And… what you’ve said makes a lot of sense to me, whether I want to admit it or not. I was looking for protection. I wasn’t trying to prove I was the best on a hoverbike, or that I could live alone and independent like a man. I was scared, and I turned to what I thought could make me safe.” She shook her head. “But not again. That’s never going to happen again. I’m going to find out what it is I want.”
Nat nodded, “I’ll help!”
“No…” Ariel sighed, “I need to leave. I can’t be somewhere where people will ridicule me for trying to strike a balance between masculine and feminine. I don’t want to be tempted to give up because it’s easier. I’ll go to another city, maybe another continent, and figure out just what Ariel is.” Nat gripped her hand tighter and sobbed even louder. “But, if you could make a few adjustments to Prospero before I leave, I can promise you that I’ll be back.” She grinned, trying to get a smile out of him.
“As the n-new Ariel?”
“No, probably as… Rosalind.”
---
Nat fixed up Prospero just like I asked, and we did a test run. My stamina was low, and I couldn’t push myself to go over 170 kilometers. I was scared of losing control again. The first time it happened, I broke down crying. I felt like my wings had been chained together by the unspeakably strong bonds of fear. And I wasn’t willing to challenge my fear to break free-not yet, not even now.
I’m a speed demon without the speed. And somehow, I have to take this in stride. Because I’m a universal acceptor-not a universal challenger. Who am I to defy whatever screwed up laws have landed me in this state of despicable paradox?
And there you have it. ^^ Hope you all enjoyed!
And so, under the cut is Rosalind/Ariel's backstory. And no, I didn't write this after my bike accident, that is an irony completely unto itself. -_-;;
WARNING: This story is 14 pages in 12-point Times New Roman in Word. Don't read this if you have four minutes and are expecting three paragraphs. XD
Universal Acceptor
My blood type is AB. Universal donor, universal acceptor, universally forced upon. Story of my life, as everyone around here says.
I live in Philastrate, the capital of the biggest country, Timandra, on this God-forsaken planet. There’s no other way to describe Philastrate than sweet, straight anarchy. We’re all part of it. We all sleep, eat, and breathe it. Broken windows, abandoned buildings, unregistered pistols, bootlegs, squatters, whores, and gangs. We accept it all-we have to. Where else would we go?
I wish I could say I wasn’t part of the shadow that’s covered this city, and the ‘I had no choice’ excuse fell through around my fourth citation for street racing. Even I gave up on it when I realized I was trying to join the Faolan.
Arguably the biggest set of jerks and screw-ups I’ve ever come across. Jerks and screw-ups on hoverbikes. I don’t even know what I saw in them-it was what they saw in Prospero that pulled me to them, I guess.
Prospero is my partner-my hoverbike. He originally belonged to Corin-“the Sage”. Prospero was my dad’s hoverbike. But that, the apartment, and his money were the things given to me when Corin the Senator left to whip Timandra into shape. He honestly doesn’t care what I do anymore. If he did, he wouldn’t have left me to those Faolan wolves with nothing but a hoverbike and a wad of cash. That’s what got me into trouble, I know it. The cash… and Prospero.
And that’s also how I got my name. Ariel, Prospero’s changeling servant. Neither female nor male, Ariel is able to cause all kinds of trouble, but is dependent on the master. I hate to admit it, but I’m nothing without that bike. It’s my life. It’s what gets me out of the black hole I call my apartment. At home, I’m Rosalind, the senator’s daughter. When I step out with Prospero, I am feared. I become Ariel the speed demon.
At least, it used to be like that, before being a universal acceptor came in handy.
---
That morning, it was brighter than usual. Industrial smog had blocked out much of the sunlight ages ago, but it was bright enough to wake Ariel. She groaned and pulled the comforter over her head, rolling over. It couldn’t have been time to get up already. Then, her worst fears were confirmed.
Her cellphone rang.
“Jeez…” Ariel growled, searching blindly for the source of noise on her nightstand. She pulled it into the comforter sanctum she had created and opened it. “It can’t be later than 6, Nat.”
“Close,” Nat said, his English accent making the morning sound that much brighter. “It’s 9:37.”
The blanket-sanctum exploded and a shock of fire-engine red hair and pale, thin limbs burst forth from the comforter. “Don’t screw with me Nat, what time is it?”
“Well, 9:38 now,” He replied. “I thought you wanted to test the new belt I put in Prospero before this afternoon, but if you’re too concerned with the bags under your eyes…”
“Oh shut up. Be down in five.” She closed the phone without waiting for a response then fell back onto the mattress. Ariel held her right hand above her, looking at it intently. “Seven hours before the show… huh…”
She rolled off the bed, looking for her shirt and pants. Nat always said that Ariel slept like a guy-underwear only. It was more convenient that way. No extra clothes to take off. She pulled her tank top and pants on, then her boots, then her gloves, and finally her racing goggles.
Prospero was sitting in front of Iris Lucio’s portrait, in compact state. For easier storage, Prospero folded down into a box closely resembling a backpack with a sling strap. Ariel hoisted her bike onto her back and looked up at her mother, smiling down at her.
“Wish me luck, mom. Today I’m going to join the pack, stop this lone wolf business.” She smiled, “Watch over me.”
Grabbing her racing jacket, scarf, and some money, Ariel left her apartment. That was the last time she would leave that apartment unmarked and unafraid.
---
“You said five minutes, it took eight!”
“Screw you too, Orsino,” Ariel raised her eyebrow at Nat, calling him by his street-name.
Since Rosalind was Ariel, her living, breathing partner Nathanial was the Duke, Orsino. It was all carefully planned out by both Ariel and Nat-even though ‘Orsino’ preferred Nat to his nickname. Nat suited him better anyway. Orsino was an ostentatious and whiny rich boy, and Nat was nothing like that. If anything, he was a commoner. With unkempt short auburn hair and clothes that were meant to be more comfortable than flashy, he was the epitome of normal teenaged boy. Except for the oil stains and absolutely revolting workboots, which he always seemed to stain while tinkering with some junk that he found in one of his carefully mapped junk heaps. His beyond baggy cargo pants were always black at the knees, and stuffed to capacity with random odds and ends, bits of paper, pencils, and gloves. On his belt, he proudly wore three various screwdrivers, two wrenches (small and big), a ruler, and a mini-sledge hammer. Strangely enough though, he always kept his screened t-shirts and hands clean-save for the occasional smudge on his face, which made his efforts rather ironic.
Underneath the slightly off, yet typical exterior, gears and pistons were always running, even when he was trying to focus on something else. As a result, Nat always seemed to be both better organized and strangely distant at times. He had a habit of diving into the depths of his mind, forsaking all outside communication, in order to sort out a problem. These came frequently when he would work on improving Prospero. Ariel actually thought that he looked rather adorable with such a serious look on his boyish face.
“Where are we test running Prospero?”
Nat consulted a list on his phone as the pair started to walk, comparing the list with a scrap of neon pink paper which, apparently, had notes to himself on it. “Well, since your race starts at the roundabout on Fifth, that was ruled out. It’s probably crawling with Ookami thugs looking for Faolan blood.”
“I’d rather like to avoid open fire,” Ariel sighed. “Guess it’s the scrapyard as usual then, huh?”
“Guess so…” Nat sighed and closed the file, pocketing his phone and stuffing the scrap into a bag on his toolbelt. “It’s nothing like the route for this afternoon, but it’ll have to do for a warm-up.”
“Oh, it’ll do.” Ariel grinned, nodding to Nat, “I’m going to leave the Faolan in the dust, warm-up or none.”
“A-ah… Ariel are you planning on racing today?”
Before she even turned around to confirm, Ariel held in an exasperated sigh. She didn’t need to look to know who the voice belonged to. Three high school senior girls, obviously on their way to classes were staring at Ariel in awe-typical. Ever since Ariel had announced that she wouldn’t be attending a university, these three girls had thought she was the greatest thing since the electric power source. It was kind of annoying. Ariel didn’t even know their names, yet they showered her with reverent stares and the occasional small gift-usually hand-made.
Ariel couldn’t figure out if they just weren’t able to break out of their sheltered lives or if they had some kind of crush on her. Did they even know she was a girl? She wasn’t exactly well-endowed and had insisted on wearing the boy uniform to school since it favored pants instead of what Ariel referred to as, ‘a micro-mini-skirt meant to liberate more than she’d like’. Nevertheless, even though these girls had no gender-consciousness and thus annoyed the hell out of her, Ariel enjoyed messing with them as a kind of revenge.
“Yeah, I’m going to prove to those Faolan bitches that I’m the fastest thing on a hoverbike.” She struck what she thought was a very pretentious pose-but not too pretentious. Such a pose would require her sticking her chest out.
“Wooow…” One of them breathed. “Isn’t it dangerous though?”
“Oh yeah, totally.” Ariel shrugged, “Hairpin turns, evacuated buildings, not to mention the other racers. It’s the intelligent things I’m worried about.”
“Ariel you have to be careful!” Another one squealed. “If something happened, we’d all be devastated!”
“Don’t worry,” Ariel cupped the girl’s cheek in her hand, looking into her eyes softly. “I promise nothing will happen.” Ariel smirked and turned to go, enjoying the resulting ‘kyah!’s that chorused behind her. Nat caught up to her, blushing a little.
“That’s really unfair to them Ariel…”
“So what? I like to have a little fun once in a while.”
“Is that what this,” Nat tapped the backpack, “is for?”
“Whatever,” Ariel sighed, crossing her arms, “It’s their fault anyway. If they read the papers, they’d figure it out. I hate stupid girls.”
“What if they actually like you? You know, as Rosalind?”
“They just like to think I’m a bad boy looking for trouble,” She retorted. “Isn’t that what you like to think of me as?”
Nat looked down. Ariel thought for a moment she had crossed some kind of line. “One of these days, you’re going to pay me back for all of this hell by wearing a dress for me.”
Ariel started laughing, “You’re so full of it!” She slapped him on the back, continuing to laugh at his joke. Nat glanced at her from the corner of his eye, smiled and shook his head.
“You’re just hopeless.”
“What was that?!”
---
Back then, whenever I was on Prospero, the whole world was a blur. The junky city that held me was nothing but a mess of gray streaks, struggling to catch up and pull me back to reality. But it never did-I was the one who let it catch up with me. I was always in control.
---
Ariel and Nat arrived at the roundabout six hours later, sufficiently warmed up. Faolan thugs in faux leather and studs milled about in a clump, chomping at the bit and surveying the abandoned buildings for stray Ookami. Ariel’s fangirls stood off to the side. It was still baffling to Ariel how the high school yuppies managed to stand being around all the muscle and hoverbike noise-but she always managed to credit it o the fact that these girls had been watching Ariel race ever since she started riding Prospero home from school.
“Oi,” Ariel and Nat, hearing something (at last) that wasn’t a grunt, turned to see who was addressing them. Naturally, the voice had issued from inside a ring of bodyguards. Ariel smirked, amused by the shield of stupid.
“Well, if it isn’t the man of the hour,” Ariel nodded to the biggest guy, her tone dancing on the edge of sarcasm. It didn’t help that her smirk never left her face. “Long time no see, Jakoh. You need a hand out of all that red meat?”
“Move, move…” Jakoh had obviously waved his cronies away, because they all moved to clear a path for him. She couldn’t help but snigger when he finally came into view-she always did.
Ariel had always secretly referred to the Faolan leader as ‘Pretty-Boy Jakoh’, and for a very good reason. He was more brains then brawn, much like Ariel was. He had a slight figure, and a slim, pale face. His eyes were also small, and always looked like they were half closed. Why Jakoh carried them that way, Ariel never knew. Most thought that it was because Jakoh had one blue eye and one brown eye, but during a staredown with the gang leader, Ariel made out the telltale faint lines that confirmed contact lenses. That wasn’t the only thing he’d altered about his appearance either-his long hair was dyed silver, held back in what was meant to be a ‘careless ponytail’. But as a girl, Ariel could tell that he spent time on it. For crying out loud, the boy wore the most obviously plastic pants. How Jakoh could ride in tight vinyl pants was beyond Ariel, but she wasn’t complaining. In fact, she was surprised that the Faolan hadn’t refused her bid to join the gang on the basis of her being ‘gay’. Even she had caught herself staring at Jakoh’s butt. And now, he was surveying Ariel as though he were a wolf surveying its prey. Finally, he matched Ariel’s conceited smirk. “So, have you come to back out?”
“Why would I do that? You afraid that I’ll steal all your flunkies away?”
“Hardly-I’m just scared you’ll scar your pretty little face.”
“For someone who can’t ride without his hair being in place, you sound very sure that my natural look is an issue. You scared of falling for me, wolf?”
“There’s no harm in enjoying pretty things, Ariel. It’s true that I’m very interested in you… in more ways than one…” He poked Ariel’s chin up with a leather-gloved finger, squinting intently as though studying her for something he may have missed. She began to sweat.
“Hey.” Nat slapped his hand on Jakoh’s wrist, pulling it away from Ariel’s face with more force than was really necessary. The posse grunted their disapproval and advanced, but their leader stopped them by raising his free hand, never leaving Nat’s gaze. He looked coolly livid. “Ariel’s not interested in being studied or owned by you. You’re impressed with Prospero’s speed, my expertise, and Ariel’s ability-and that’s that. Don’t make this personal.”
“Agreed, Orsino…” Jakoh said stiffly, pulling his hand back and holding his wrist as though injured. He glared at Ariel, “Your seme is calling.”
“You want to say that again?!” Ariel grit her teeth and started after Jakoh. Nat held her back as Jakoh was swiftly covered by a curtain of brawn.
“Easy Ariel, easy!” Nat muttered in her ear. “Don’t play his game, okay?”
“I know,” Ariel shook Nat off, slinging Prospero off her back and setting it down.
“Hey, you sure you want to run with him?” Nat tossed his head in the direction of the horde that surrounded Pretty-Boy Jakoh. “He’s an idiot… and a perverted idiot at that.”
Ariel paused then nodded after a moment’s consideration. “No more of this lone-wolf business. We need a pack.” She stomped on a panel in the middle of the backpack marked with a wing decal. A low ‘vwee’ signaled the assembly startup. Forty-five seconds later, on the dot, Prospero let out a burst of steam and was ready to race. She pulled a key out of her boot and held out her hand to Nat, her gaze a bit distant. “What shall I do? Tell me, what shall I do?” She offered him a sheepish smile. He sighed and smiled back. He pulled a key out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
“Do what thou wilt, spirit.” Ariel took the key and squeezed it in her fist. She nodded to him, trying to assuage her doubts.
“I promise I’ll win this-I’ll earn our comfort somehow.”
Ariel stuck her own key in the first ignition, Nat’s in the third. Then, carefully, she pulled the last key from the choker she had on, drawing it from her neck to the ignition. It stayed attached to her necklace by a magnetic ball chain which could be stretched about three feet. The second key was her safety. If it pulled out of the ignition, not only would the bike not run, but the electric source would be cut off to the main engines. Ariel carefully inserted the final key and turned it. Prospero hummed to life the instant the key was turned and hovered obediently a foot off the ground. Ariel mounted the bike with ease.
“Hey Jackal,” Ariel shouted, allowing Nat to help her into her thick canvas riding jacket. The mob shifted so that Jakoh could let Ariel see his annoyance. “Let’s get this party started.” She pulled her goggles down over her eyes, her glare visible through the green plexiglass. “I’m sure you want to give those pants back to your rent boy before he starts charging you the hourly fee.”
---
Pretty much the only thing I remembered after the fact was the beginning and the end. Everything else is pretty fuzzy. Can you blame me? I’d been in a thousand street races before-I wasn’t about to memorize this particular course. But looking back, maybe I should have at least kept my eyes open.
---
“Okay Ariel,” Nat stood up and put one of his wrenches back into his belt. Ariel looked down at him from atop Prospero, listening intently. “The belt I installed will give your accelerations more kick, but you need to watch your curves. He won’t turn on a dime.”
“I know, I know. I felt it during the warm up.” She sighed, “Who are you, my mother?”
Nat gave her a sad smile. “With both of your parents gone, someone has to make sure you don’t kill yourself.”
“Racers to the line!” Jakoh barked. Ariel turned around to survey her opponents while inching Prospero forward. There were three of them. Hardly fair odds, but Ariel wasn’t impressed. Two of the Faolan riders were big and heavy-their bikes were whining in protest at the excessive weight, hovering dangerously close to the asphalt. The third might be a challenge, though.
From what Ariel had heard, the guy was named Mikael. Underneath what seemed like seventy pounds of gear, he was short and lean-the computer geek type. His bowl-like helmet kept slipping forward and obscuring his vision, and the dozens of belts packed with spare parts and tools made it difficult for him to maneuver while walking. These two factors might’ve caused any other experienced biker to question Ariel’s judgment. But something bothered her about Mikael. He looked too confident. He looked like he was hiding some delightfully horrible secret, and Ariel wouldn’t find out until the worst possible moment.
All four of the riders were in position, hovering silently, squinting down the deserted street as though imagining themselves there the second the signal was given. Jakoh strode nonchalantly in front of the hoverbikes, pulling off his jacket. As he passed in front of her, Ariel revved her engine, hoping to scare him. Much to her displeasure, he laughed.
“I don’t think hitting on me will incite me to stop the race, Ariel.” The gang laughed as Nat looked on helplessly.
“What are you doing Ariel…” He groaned, head in his hands.
“I’m impatient, let’s go already!” Ariel shouted back, arms crossed.
“Fine by me,” Jakoh smirked and dropped his jacket on the ground. The other three racers took off. “Go.”
Startled, Ariel quickly put her hands back on the steering handles and hit the gas, swearing as she sped down the street. “Hey!” Nat yelled, incensed, “Couldn’t you have at least said ‘Ready’?!”
Jakoh shrugged, “He said he was impatient. Now he gets to catch up.”
---
I was always in control. Nothing could catch me when I went that fast. Not the Faolan, not my father, none of my problems. Everything that wanted to bring me down couldn’t catch me. The world couldn’t catch me.
---
“Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Ariel cursed as she pushed Prospero forward, chasing the taillights of the Faolan riders. “Your boss plays dirty!” Ariel shouted. Just as she predicted, the two bigger riders looked back, pulling their steering handles back ever so slightly. Their bikes began to rise. When they noticed this, they panicked and slowed down. Laughing, Ariel zoomed past them. “See you at the finish line!”
She looked forward, gasping. Fallen building façade. She hit the breaks, pulled her left handle towards her and the right one away. Prospero turned, but just nearly missed the façade by a few inches. Unfortunately, the bigger riders had the advantage in this situation, and managed the u-turn with no problem. Once she was headed straight again, she hit the gas and crept up between the two. The one to her right grinned nastily and side-swiped her, nearly sending her into the second rider.
“Hey thanks!” Ariel shouted. “I was almost falling asleep there!”
“Son of a…” The first rider grit his teeth and veered away, ready to break Ariel’s right leg. Not a bright idea, but he was angry. Ariel waited for him to come, smirking. Finally, he dove in for the kill. She covered her mouth in a mock-yawn and cut the gas the second before impact. Dropping behind and leaving a huge gap, there was nothing for the rider to hit except his fellow gang member. The nose of the bike dug into the front-side panel. There was a nasty grinding noise-almost like metal being cut with a buzz-saw-and the two bikes couldn’t pull apart from each other. Later, Nat guessed that something from the first bike got hooked on the second bike’s fan, dragging shards of metal into the engine. A couple seconds later, the second bike was on the pavement, the first bike stuck to it. Ariel waved politely, taking another turn, and disappearing from sight.
“Now… where are you Mikael?” After another straight strip of road and another sharp turn, she had made it to The Pileup-otherwise known as the area with too many abandoned and wrecked cars to count. Ariel zigged and zagged her way through the jumble of vehicles and fallen lampposts, all the while looking for a trace of Mikael. Finally, she noticed the green glow of his hovercells. Funny, Ariel thought, he seems to be moving rather slowly. Pulling back on her steering handles, she arced over a fallen semi and then accelerated to match Mikael. The finish line was in sight.
“If that’s the best you can do Mikael, you’re out of luck!” Ariel laughed and began to pull away. A few seconds later, she was an entire bike-length ahead of him.
“No!” Mikael shouted, standing up in the stirrups of his bike and holding something over his head. “You’re out of luck!” He lobbed something at her. Ariel ducked and the thing clattered into her dashboard. She looked down at it. Whatever it was, it was very odd. It almost looked like a can with some kind of lever on it. Suddenly, Ariel put two and two together. It was flash grenade.
“YOU BAS-!” A flash of light exploded in Ariel’s face, turning the gray world completely white. Swearing, she blinked as rapidly as possible, trying to regain her sight. Instinctively, Ariel raised a hand to massage her eyes to life again.
“ARIEL!!” Nat screamed, his eyes on the abandoned car Prospero was headed straight for.
---
And suddenly… it caught up to me. It pulled me back and broke me in half.
---
He had time enough to realize she was going to hit it before she actually did. Both Ariel and the bike went flying. Prospero spun out of control, the hovercells still functioning. Ariel flipped over at least three times in the air, jerking the ignition key out. She was falling in an arc now, headed for a collection of dumpsters at no more than 170 kilometers an hour. Ariel was jerked to a stop by a mound of spare parts, broken machinery, and garbage. Prospero hit the street and scraped to a stop on top of his rider.
The undercarriage sparked a stack of ancient newspapers and the garbage began to burn. Mikael crossed the finish line and looked back just in time to see the fire spreading to the dumpsters. Nat tore over to where Ariel had landed and began trying to pull Prospero away. He wasn’t able to lift the bike off his best friend. His arms couldn’t take the weight.
“C’mon Orsino!” Nat looked over, his eyes widening at the voice. Jakoh nodded to him, gripping one of the steering bars. “Let’s get this off him! One, two-!” Together, the pair managed to pull Prospero to where Nat could get at the ignitions. He pulled the other two keys out, hit the winged panel, and Prospero began to collapse into itself.
“SOMEONE CALL A MEDIC!” Nat shouted to the Faolan and the students. They all looked around at each other as though questioning the order. Jakoh pulled out his cellphone with a growl.
“You’re all hopeless!”
“Ariel, c’mon, speak to me!” Nat threw Prospero to the side and began dragging Ariel out of the garbage that was slowly becoming an inferno. He covered his mouth once he got a good look at her. She was covered with cuts, her left leg and arm were both broken, her right shoulder was blistering from being burned, and she had a giant piece of glass in her side.
“R-Ro-Ro…” Nat spluttered, his hands gripping his cheeks in shock. Jakoh put his hand on Nat’s shoulder.
“They should be here soon… I’m sure he’d want you to be with him until then, though,” Jakoh offered, trying to be uplifting.
“THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” Nat screamed, throwing Jakoh’s hand off his shoulder. “If you hadn’t pushed her, and PUSHED HER TO RACE…! IF YOU HADN’T WANTED PROSPERO FOR YOURSELF-!!”
“Slow down Orsino, slow down!” Jakoh looked a bit scared of Nat, holding his hands between himself and the screaming young man. “Who are you talking about…? Who’s ‘her’?”
“Move,” A medic shoved Nat out of the way and put two fingers to Ariel’s neck. “Bring me the pads.” He said to another medic. Nat watched in horror as the medics brought back a stretcher and a defibrillator. The medic cut open Ariel’s shirt and exposed her bare chest to the blackening sky. Jakoh and the rest of the Faolan grew quiet as Ariel was hooked up to the machine.
“He’s… a girl?!” One of the high school girls screamed, obviously incensed at being lied to.
One of the Faolan thugs shoved Mikael, “You threw a grenade at a woman?! You bastard!”
“I can’t believe it…” Jakoh muttered, staring at Ariel in thought. “Can’t believe it…”
Ariel’s body tensed lightly as the electric current ran through it, restarting her heart. The medic felt for a beat, then nodded. “Move her to the stretcher, let’s get her to an ER.” Carefully, the men and women moved Ariel onto the stretcher and began moving her to the van. Nat picked up Prospero and started after her.
“W-wait, I’m coming with her!”
“There’s no room. You’ll only jeopardize her shot at living, and let me tell you,” The head medic pushed Nat back from the van. “It isn’t looking good.” He shut the doors as though to punctuate the statement and the vehicle began to move. Nat pounded on the doors, running with the van as fast as he could.
“WAIT!” He considered activating Prospero and chasing after them, but he realized Ariel had the third key around her neck. “WAIT, STOP! ROSALIND!!”
---
It hurt, but at the same time, I don’t remember feeling pain. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. I wasn’t in unbearable pain, and I wasn’t even scared when they said I was losing enough blood to soak the gurney I was on to the core. They argued, too. Some intellectual crap I couldn’t care less about. ‘Where’s her ID?’ ‘She wasn’t carrying one.’ ‘How are we supposed to know what blood to give her then?’ So, it was my fault I was going to die then.
I had my ID though. It was in Prospero. Nat knew that, and the bastards had pushed him out. Nat could’ve told them my blood type, but because of these jerks, it was curtains. I was going to kick it. I wasn’t going to let them have that power. The only one who controls my life is ME.
---
“H-hey… hey, she’s writing something!” All of the medics huddled around the gurney, looking intently at Ariel’s hand. Her finger was moving slowly, but deliberately. The grime and blood on her hands left a faint, dirty mark on the white sheet:
AB.
Well, the ‘B’ looked more like an ‘E’ and the ‘A’ looked like an ‘I’ with a line through it, but the medics got the message. “Hey!” The head medic barked into his cellphone. “I’m going to need about four pints of blood for an AB receiver on arrival, you got that?!”
“B-but sir…” The emergency receptionist stuttered, “AB is very rare… we don’t have that much…”
“Stupid!” The medic yelled back. “Did you get your medical degree in a cereal box?! AB is a universal acceptor!”
Heh… Ariel would’ve smirked if she’d had the strength. Lucky me…
---
Ariel cracked open her eyes with a groan. It was hard to open them. Sleep had nearly sealed them shut. But even before she managed to lift her heavy eyelids, she heard Nat’s voice.
“Don’t move around so much Ariel…” She turned her head slightly to look up into his face, and then smiled sadly.
“You look awful.” Nat had bags under his bloodshot eyes. He was pale, and his face looked thinner. “What the hell are you doing in this horrible place anyway? And while we’re at it, what the hell am I doing in this horrible place?”
“You had an acci-”
“I know that, Nat.” She snapped, her voice wavering. “I know… I know I screwed up. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with that stupid gang.”
“Jakoh sends his best wishes, by the way,” Nat said quietly. “He sent that bouquet on your table.”
She turned her head to the other side-red roses with a few stalks of snap dragon. Glowering at the message, she turned back to Nat. “When can I leave here? I want to go home.”
“They say not for at least six weeks…”
“And who is ‘they’?! The guy who shoved you out of the ambulance? I swear…”
“Ariel,” Nat began, looking apprehensive, “After what happened… I would understand if you wanted me to sell Prospero. A couple people have already shown interest and-”
“Are you trying to turn me into a girl, Nat?”
“Ariel! Like it or not, you ARE a girl!”
“SHUT UP!”
“The problem with you is that you equate being a girl to being dependent on someone, okay?! You claim you aren’t a ‘girl’, but you’ve been trying to join the Faolan for months now!”
“That’s diff-”
“NO IT’S NOT! ALL YOU WANT IS FOR JAKOH TO PROTECT YOU WHILE YOU GO ON LIVING AS A FAÇADE!” Nat blinked at Ariel’s dumbfounded expression.
“Get out… GET OUT!!” Ariel screamed, grabbing her pillow and throwing it with her non-broken arm. She yelped in pain, holding her right shoulder as Nat swatted the pillow away.
“Oh, and I forgot to mention! You probably won’t be able to work your right arm very well anymore because of damaged muscle tissue!” Nat was practically raving, “And you probably popped at least seven of your stitches in you stomach by doing that, so let me call the nurse and they’ll just sew you back up like a little rag doll! Then you can go back onto the streets and get thrown around again!”
“Nat, shut up! Stop it…!” Ariel half-yelled, half-sobbed.
“Why bother talking to you anyway?! Nothing I say will do any good! Here!” He dropped the two ignition keys and Ariel’s choker on the bed. “Go drive into oncoming traffic for all I c-care!” His voice breaking, he wove towards the door, his hand searching for the handle.
“Nat!” He stopped, leaning on the doorframe. His shoulders jerked in an audible sob. “Nat…” Ariel swallowed, “Nathanial… you’re being absolutely ridiculous. Come here.” He wove back towards her, tears in his eyes. She took his hand, her own eyes on the brink of tears.
“Wh-when I s-s-said I wanted to see you in a d-dress, I didn’t mean a hospital gown!!” Nat sobbed, clutching her hand tightly. She squeezed back.
“I didn’t mean for things to go this awry, Nat. You know that I have too many things left to do before I die-better than anyone.” He nodded in between sobs. “And… what you’ve said makes a lot of sense to me, whether I want to admit it or not. I was looking for protection. I wasn’t trying to prove I was the best on a hoverbike, or that I could live alone and independent like a man. I was scared, and I turned to what I thought could make me safe.” She shook her head. “But not again. That’s never going to happen again. I’m going to find out what it is I want.”
Nat nodded, “I’ll help!”
“No…” Ariel sighed, “I need to leave. I can’t be somewhere where people will ridicule me for trying to strike a balance between masculine and feminine. I don’t want to be tempted to give up because it’s easier. I’ll go to another city, maybe another continent, and figure out just what Ariel is.” Nat gripped her hand tighter and sobbed even louder. “But, if you could make a few adjustments to Prospero before I leave, I can promise you that I’ll be back.” She grinned, trying to get a smile out of him.
“As the n-new Ariel?”
“No, probably as… Rosalind.”
---
Nat fixed up Prospero just like I asked, and we did a test run. My stamina was low, and I couldn’t push myself to go over 170 kilometers. I was scared of losing control again. The first time it happened, I broke down crying. I felt like my wings had been chained together by the unspeakably strong bonds of fear. And I wasn’t willing to challenge my fear to break free-not yet, not even now.
I’m a speed demon without the speed. And somehow, I have to take this in stride. Because I’m a universal acceptor-not a universal challenger. Who am I to defy whatever screwed up laws have landed me in this state of despicable paradox?
And there you have it. ^^ Hope you all enjoyed!