Avoiding Armageddon

4. Avoiding Herself

Loni's POV:

The mark on my arm burns with horrible memories that continue to poke at my mind as I sit in the airplane. The closer we get to France, the larger my anxiety gets.

"Would you stop biting your nails, girl? You're makin' me nervous," a man with chocolate skinned muscles sitting next to me says while reading a book.

"Oh... Sorry." I lower my hand from my mouth.

"Our departure for Paris France has begun. Please buckle your seatbelts and turn off all electronics," the voice from the speaker says with a French accent.

I sit back as butterflies fill my stomach not just from descending, but from knowing I'm twenty minutes away from my nightmare.

I stare at all the canopies of lights and the Eiffel Tower that stands just above the rising sun.

Suddenly a large bump comes from the airplane touching the runway. The man next to me pukes in the bag and looks back at me.

"See? This is what your nervousness made me do. Yeesh woman," he hands the flight attendant the white bag. She holds it as far as possible from her.

I laugh and apologize.

"Thank you for riding on United International," the flight attendant curtsies as the plane slows to a stop on the runway.

Walking into the airport, I immediately see a familiar face.

"Loni!" Jane runs at a sprint to hug me.

"Jane... Hugging... Too... Tight," I barely get out under her weight.

"Oh... Sorry, come on," Jane takes my hand, leading me to two Vespas sitting side by side and both pink.

"This is what we're riding?" I point to the Vespas.

"Hey the scientists have a small budget," she gets on her mini motorcycle.

"I wonder why..." I comment snidly as Jane throws a bracelet at me that I catch midair and wrap around my wrist. The Vespa scans the bracelet and starts up. We zoom off, out of the parking lot.

Jane's brown hair whips back and forth as we zoom through traffic and go straight to a large dome with a fountain in front portraying a large atom.

"Loni, I wanted to apologize, for what we did to you," Jane gets off the Vespa, straightening out her butterfly shirt and buret. (French hat)

"Its okay, let's just go see what happened," we trudged onward to the building.

A large amount of people in lab coats stand around a terrarium ive seen before and loathe. I couldn't see what now occupies it, so they cleared a path for me, Jane hooking her arm in mine.

What I saw I could have never prepared for.

Kirsty's POV:

"Want some French Toast?" Sam asks me.

"Yeah, sure," I twirl a piece of my blonde hair.

"Here you go," he hands me a delicious smelling and colorful plate of berries and khalla bread(Halla).

As I chew on the tasty food, I say, "What changed Loni?"

"I already said one long sort is enough-" he begins, but I finish his sentence.

"For today. Today is a new day, spill it," I say.

"You really want to know?" Sam asks.

"Yes! Tell me already!" I get impatient.

"Alright, alright. So Loni and Jane were the best of friends-"

"Were?" I interrupt.

"Yes, but do you want to hear the story or not?" he pauses, and I nod enthusiastically, "So one day, Jane is suddenly cast out of America. Loni had no idea why and decided to visit her in France. Jane and Loni had a fun time laughing and drinking until it happened. Jane had suggested that she could make Loni a superhero. Loni laughed even though Jane was completely serious. Loni played along in her drunk state and followed Jane back to a science lab. In that science lab they hooked Loni up to a machine and injected her with a special serum-"

"How do you know all this?" I interrupt again.

Sam grimaces, "I was one of the scientists," he pauses, waiting for me to interrupt again, then starts the story again, "Jane was using Loni like a lab rat. Though Loni didn't know, she could tell something was up, so before the whole dose of the serum left the shot, she tore it out and crushed it on the ground. Jane had to calm her down, but no one could. She was stronger than anyone had seen her and she was vicious. Anyone who crept near her bubble wasn't safe. I kick myself for doing this and never will forget it, I grabbed Loni from behind, spun her around and kissed her. During this someone knocked her out, letting her fall into my arms. I carried her to a terrarium like the lab rat she was to me," he rests his head on his hand, rubbing his temple.

"How could you?" I ask, pitying Loni.

"I know. It was horrible. The person I was before is gone now because of Loni. But back when she was still there, retested her to see if the serum worked. So we gave her a bow and she instinctively grabbed it, pulling it back and releasing the arrow perfectly on a small animal. Being cured from her drunken state, she looked at all of us, mortified and said, 'What have you monsters done to me?' I felt horrible.we were monsters. So one night, when all the scientists were resting in their quarters, I snuck into the lab while Loni was crying. When I approached her terrarium, she turned on me, arrow in hand and it flew. It flew towards me and got stuck halfway through the glass, creating cracks. She spat at me as I started to talk to her, 'Listen, Loni. I can get you out of here, but we have to do this quick,' as soon as I said it, her face softened. I released her and we immediately took a plane back to her old home, a log cabin. Since then she's built it to this mansion with her bare hands. Though, ever since then, Loni has been clouded and has kept many things to herself. The serum made her an instinctive predator and a living breathing lie detector. It was who she was that she wanted to escape from."