Week Two, Day Two

It was Monday, and the day of the dance. I was ready and waiting for that final bell to ring so I could rush home and get ready. I was ready for this God-forsaken day to be over and done with.

I was a nervous wreck.

It was almost five when I started getting ready, and my dad was at work and would be until ten the next morning. I pulled on the tux that he had given me, and – after a bit of serious contemplation – put on the watch that Terry had invented. At fifteen after, I was pacing around the living room, waiting for Terry to show up so we could go pick up his date and Sal. When we had talked on the phone, he had told me that he was bringing a surprise – and God only knew what he meant.

I paced the floor for thirty minutes, occasionally checking the window to see if my best friend might be standing beyond it. After a while, I perched on the couch and rested my eyes. Another ten minutes passed when I heard a car horn from out front. I jumped up, dashed to the door, flung it open, and gazed in awe at what I saw in the driveway.

TERRY HAD RENTED A LIMO!

I turned off the light, locked and closed the front door, then ran over to the back of the limo as Terry rolled down the window. “Terry, how in Heaven or Hell did you afford this?” I shouted.

“Keep your voice down,” he responded with a sly grin. “You’ll scare the neighbors.” Moving over, he motioned for me to get in. I gladly obliged.

“Well?” I asked as the driver pulled out and drove for Sal’s house. “How did you afford to rent a limo?”

“Did I say I rented it? I built it, you moron!”

“I should’ve figured. I guess that means the driver’s…”

“That’s correct,” Twelve’s voice cut in. “He dumped my personality in here while he’s building my new body.”

“So…no limo fees, no driver fees, did you pay for anything tonight?”

“I paid for the tux…”

“And I get it all for free.”

“Heh. And you say I never do anything for you.”

“I say that? When have I ever said that?”

“Well…never, I guess. By the way, you ever tell Sal you can’t dance?”

“Nah. I figure I’ll tell her tonight when we pick her up.”

“I suppose that’s all right, although you should’ve told her yesterday. She’s gonna be pissed.”

We pulled up the house of the woman in question and we both stepped out of the car. I took lead and rang the doorbell. Sal’s mother answered; she was an older version of Sal, with longer, graying hair. “Hello, Law; hello, Terry. Come in, Sal’s still getting ready.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Glazier,” I said, and the two of us took seats on their couch.

“So, Terry,” Mr. Glazier said, folding up his newspaper in lieu of idle chitchat, “do you have any hobbies?”

Terry and I shared a glance at each other and I gave a slight nod. Terry said, “I’m something of an inventor.”

“Really? What kind of things do you build?”

“Nothing much. Everything from children’s toys to weapons that rival the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb.” Sal’s parents laughed slightly uncomfortably. I could tell they didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Grinning ear-to-ear, Terry followed up with, “Yeah, remember the ‘Tickle-Me Elmo’? I created that. That’s how I got the cash to build a functioning lightsaber.”

“You have a lightsaber and you never let me mess around with it?” Sal asked as she came down the stairs. I stood and turned to get a look at her. My jaw hit the floor when I saw what she had turned into.

Her dark, normally tied up hair was down, flowing freely on her back. She was wearing a white silken dress that started just above her bust line, and went all the way down to her feet. She wore long white gloves that went up to her shoulders, and her face was adorned with no lipstick or makeup; she relied on natural beauty alone and pulled it off extraordinarily.

“You look amazin’,” I breathed.

“Positively enchanting,” Terry supplied.

She reached the bottom of the stairwell and took my extended hand. We kissed quickly, feeling a bit awkward in the prescence of a set of parents and a best friend, and then posed for the inevitable photo that Mr. Glazier was going to take. He took two pictures: One with Terry in it and one without him.

And then, after picking up Terry’s date, we arrived at the dance. It was a loud thing; the pulsing rhythm of the loud music rang like gigantic bells in my ears. I looked at Sal as we walked in, we locked eyes, and I leaned in to give her a quick kiss as if to say, “We’ll get through this.”

She smiled widely at me. Inside the hall, however, that smile quickly disintegrated, only to be replaced with a gigantic grimace as she held her hands over her ears. “LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” she shouted over the music.

“WHAT!?” I shouted back.

She rolled her eyes, grabbed my arm, and pulled me out into the lobby. “I said,” she repeated, “let’s get out of here.”

“What d’you wanna do?”

“Let’s go for a walk or something.”

Terry hop-skipped into the lobby with us and asked, “What’s up, kiddos?”

I laughed. “We’re just goin’ for a walk, Terry.”

Sal looked at him strangely. “Terry, where’s your date at?”

“She’s dancing with some other guy. I guess I was too busy keeping tabs on you two to pay her any attention.”

“You wanna come with us?” I asked.

“Nah, I should stay here and watch out for anything unusual. The Reds might try and hit here; they’ll think you’re still at the dance.”

“I thought you were only worried about us,” Sal said.

“This thing’s bigger than just us,” I replied.

“Yeah,” Terry added. “It’s about the whole world. We don’t want the Communists to take any innocent lives, do we?”

“I guess not.”

I took Sal’s hand. “Shall we, milady?”

She smiled serenely. “Of course. Have fun, Terry.”

“Be careful, you two. And I don’t necessarily mean that you should look out for trouble.”

“Pervert.”

“You’re damn right, girl!”

The first thing Sal did was pause to exchange her high-heels for the sneakers in her purse. “For shit-kicking purposes,” she said.

“Where do you wanna go?” I asked, holding her hand.

“Through the park,” she whispered.

“Through the park it is, then,” I responded.

Flies buzzed around the lampposts along the narrow pathway, seemingly knowing to stay away from us. The trees and foliage were, at best, dimly lit by the lights and less effected by us. We walked slowly along, taking it all in, basking in each other’s prescence. As we walked, we passed by a stranger; he was dressed for colder weather than what it was, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. He smiled in our general direction and nodded his head. When he was behind us, however, he started laughing. It was insane laughter; I immediately tensed and squeezed Sal’s hand, warning her to be ready for anything. I heard the heavy coat being shed and heard him running toward us. I wheeled around, putting myself back-to-back with Sal, and blocked the kick.

My watch took most of the impact of the blow.

The man landed a few yards away from me; upon getting a good look at him, I realized that the coat had been concealing some gigantic muscles. He rushed us with astounding speed; in mere moments, he was too close to be hit with an energy round and not far enough away for me to use the sword…so I did the next best thing. Watch still transformed, I backhanded him with it. It spun him around, and he staggered backward; instantaneously, however, he had composed himself for another try. “What the hell are you?” I asked quietly, my voice barely more than a low whisper.

“He is the perfect soldier,” said a heavily accented Slavic voice from behind me; the words were accompanied by Sal squeezing my hand. I turned to face the newcomer, keeping my gun trained on the attacker. There was a tall guy with greasy brown hair in a dark suit, along with a man in a white lab coat.

“Devino,” I growled. “I thought I smelled something.”

“Who the hell is that?” Sal whispered in my ear.

“Just some prick that doesn’t know when to quit.” Gathering my wits about me, I said to my true opponent, “Call him off, Devino.”

The tall man snapped his fingers and the muscular one complacently hobbled over to him. “Ingenious, isn’t it? He’s blindly faithful, blindly obedient, and blindly stupid; brilliantly strong, too. And he answers only to me.” He smiled devilishly. “Would you care for an explanation?”

I switched targets from the soldier to the commander and responded, “Not really, no.”

“Too bad. My colleague will explain.” With that, he shoved the smaller man forward, right into my line of fire. I hastily retracted the weapon.

The man was obviously nervous. He was visibly shaking, he was fidgeting with his hands, and he kept adjusting his glasses. “Wh-what we d-d-did is t-take a c-common s-s-soldier and-and pump him full o-o-o-of s-steroids,” he stuttered. “B-but the ‘r-r-roid-r-rage’ that c-came w-w-with it m-made them un-un-hard to control.” He took a deep breath at this conjuncture and continued. “S-so, to keep them in l-line, w-we a-al-also f-filled them w-with sedatives.”

At that point, Devino took over, speaking from behind the scientist. “The result? This – a superhuman idiot.”

“That’s terrible,” Sal gasped.

“I suppose it is, isn’t it? Oh, well. Whatever it takes to bring me victory. Speaking of which, I believe someone just betrayed his country.” There was a gunshot, and the scientist fell over, dead.

I let go of Sal’s hand and charged, yelling, “SON OF A BITCH!”

But before the punch I was throwing could connect, I felt something hit my chest; I landed quite disgracefully in front of Devino’s feet. “Thank you, Father,” I heard him say. I tried to stand, but found that I couldn’t move.

“Come,” a new voice said, it too in a heavily Slavic accent. “There is still much to do in the way of preparations, and the Skyknife is almost ready.”

“What of the boy?”

“Leave him. He carries the blood of a traitor, and traitor’s blood is always weak.”

“Very well, Father…but first, I must do this!” The final word was accompanied by two hard kicks to my facial region.

“You bastards!” Sal cried and tried to strike Devino.

“Sal, no,” I managed to croak.

Devino caught Sal’s arm and held it. “Such a pretty little bitch. If I weren’t afraid of catching whatever disease you inevitably have, you filthy whore, I would have some fun with you.”

He shoved her to the ground next to me. On my back, I could see the hate and fear in her eyes, mingling with the love she felt for me, a complicated dance of fiery passion, each emotion vying for control. The three men left; Sal knelt over me, weeping. I tried to hold her hand, I tried to caress her, I tried to tell her I would be fine, but nothing happened. I still couldn’t move; I had a black eye; I had a broken nose; I had several cracked teeth. I eventually gave in to the pain.

“I love you, Law,” Sal whispered as I blacked out.