Kat slid down the stair banister, cut through the kitchen that nobody ever seemed to use, grabbing an apple and a handful of nuts from the pantry and stuffed them in her jacket pocket, picked up her skateboard, tucking it underneath her arm as left the brownstone residence and breathed in the fresh city air. Her eyes skipped over the common city pigeons and landed on a group of crows. She had always had a connection with crows. They liked her and she liked them, maybe they recognized a kindred spirit in her, it was hard to tell exactly why. They were beautiful, with oil slick rainbow black feathers and uncanny black eyes that belied their intelligence. Unlike other city birds, crows weren't stupid, they recognized those that were nice to them and those who were not, and they passed on the word to the other crows they met. They collected shiny things, they liked nuts and fruits, and they would do Kat favors in exchange for either one, never far in case she should need something.
"Corvus," Kat called up to one particular crow. He was a very friendly bird that stuck so close to Kat that not only could she recognize him among the group of crows, but he also responded to the name she had given him. Despite his apparent domesticity, Corvus was a wild bird, and he would follow her anywhere in the city so long as it was outside, the closest he got to being in a building was the edge of a windowsill. Probably for the best, Corvus was almost as much of a troublemaker as she was, happy to help with any mischief she might have cause to make and even a little of his own. "I've a favor to ask."
Kat held out her arm, offering it as a perch to the crow who eagerly accepted, eying the pocket she kept a handful of nuts in. "You and a few of your fellows, follow me tomorrow and send a warning to my principal when I give the signal. There are nuts in it for all of you who participate. Pass on the message, will you?" Kat offered a few cashews to the bird, who cawed in appreciation and launched off her arm, startling the others into flight in a whirling cyclone of eerie black feathers. Asking the crows for help in sending the warning was more aggressive than she'd usually start with but she wanted to make this one obvious so he wouldn't bother her during her senior year. Her goal was to make this one her most extraordinary year yet, which would be delightful good fun . . . for her, not so much anyone else.
Her mischievous smile broke through her lips as she watched the crows circle overhead a few times before flying off. They had just left her sight when she was pulled back by a vibration in her pocket. Taking out her phone, an entirely different sort of smile crossed her face, one that was anticipating and energizing at the same time. It was a text from Aaron, one of her only friends, at school or otherwise. On my way, c u soon. She had no idea why such an insignificant message made her smile, he was just a friend, but he had remembered her birthday and made plans for them to hang out together, curfew be damned. She couldn't help but picture his mixed-Asian face, handsome in a way that should be illegal, eyes so vibrantly blue they almost glowed, laugh lines around his near-permanent smile, messy hockey hair that had just a little curl to it.
To be completely honest with herself, Kat had absolutely no idea how they became friends. He was so different from her in almost every way that it was hard to believe that he had been the one to approach her the first time they met. Aaron was the captain of the hockey team, life of the party, extroverted jock type of person while Kat was a troublemaking loner with authority issues and crows following her. Not ominous at all. She had never cared about the opinion of others, and she would always tell them exactly where to shove it if they started trying to push them on her, but Aaron was different. He had never tried to change her, he hadn't cared one lick about their differences, he just . . . went with it. When she'd asked what he thought of crows, he had shrugged and said, "they're intelligent, they know who the good people are, and good people are worth knowing. So, if they're following you, then you must be one of the good people."
He was honest, Kat could just tell those sorts of things, and from that moment, she hadn't questioned his motives, opening the possibilities of trust which had eventually formed into one of her most cherished relationships. Aaron, her best friend, it was inconceivable just how lucky she had gotten with him. Kat sighed at the thought and typed out her own message: Leaving now, be there in 5.
She put her phone back in her pocket and fingered at the other to make sure her cards hadn't slipped out. There was a smidge of unconscious relief at feeling its presence, almost like it was a living thing. Her mother hadn't thought the limited-edition deck was worth the irrationally expensive price, so Kat had planned for days on how to obtain money to pay for it and worked tirelessly to fulfill her plan. By the time she'd had the deck in her possession, she had set up an entire pyramid scheme of lunch money that somehow traced back to the playground bully once it had been uncovered. That had been the first time she had played into her talent for mischief to get what she wanted; it hadn't been quite as meticulous as she would have wished, but it had gotten the job done. She had planned how the next five years of her life would go, had accounted for the different schools, the disciplinary issues, the time it would take for her to become a legal adult, down to the fliers miles she would need to travel to her preferred university. She had not predicted people. People were the hardest thing to anticipate, that's why she preferred being a loner.
Aaron had been an unplanned variable, even more so than most, sticking around even when she had tried driving him off with her unsociable personality, even trying to use the crows at one point. The man just kept coming back, like a fungus you can never quite get rid of, despite whatever nasty thing she said or any actions she took to drive him away. Using the crows had been the worst waste of a jar of nuts she had ever attempted. And now she was going to meet with him for her birthday. Somehow, he had managed to grow on her, a fungus indeed. Kat snorted ironically to herself, smiling at the thought, and laid out her skateboard to meet Aaron at the plaza gateway.
Kat zipped down sidewalks lined with cement blocks separating them from the streets, dodging pedestrians with ease and not bothering to pause when the light turned red, timing the speed of each car and precisely navigating between them. Leaving the residential southside, sailing over the [bridge name] of [river name] and passing through lower downtown, the buildings growing gradually higher into skyscrapers and taking on more absurd shapes and colors the further north and deeper into downtown where all the newest buildings were constantly being built, rebuilt, renovated and re-renovated. Just up ahead, the freeway veered out of the downtown area into the northeastern business district, opening up the pedestrian accessibility into a [number] acre red cobblestone plaza filled with stalls, lounge and sitting spaces, ground fountains, an underground subway station access, and a guarded gateway all surrounded by one of the largest indoor superregional malls in the country complete with half a dozen helipads.
Aaron was waiting for her in their agreed-upon location, a sitting area just outside a touristy 'I love Keywest' stall, and looked up to meet her eyes, seeming to have immediately sensed her presence. Kat flipped up her skateboard with a foot trick, carrying it under her arm as she passed a busking material synthesizer posing as a marble statue of Spartan King Leonidas who held off Persian King Xerxes' army with a comparably smaller force and who was now suspected of being an Enhanced by anthropofortologists in relevant research communities. The busker flexed his marble muscles which Kat couldn't help but appreciate, the guy clearly put work into building his body and finding quality marble to integrate, it made for quite the aesthetic appeal, he probably made a killing from all the admiring gazes.
Kat stopped briefly to catch a selfie with him and upload it to her CityCights page that she updated with all the places and things she'd explored to guide tourists and other such people looking for attractions in Keywest as a hobby that she made a small wage from due to the popularity of her uploads on the website. She scanned the code on the helmet a step away from where the Leonidas busker was set up and sent him compensation for the photo as she walked away. Finally moving on to meet up with who she had meant to meet with, she called ahead, "hey, Apple," while approaching, tossing him the fruit she had grabbed from the pantry before leaving. Aaron hated hospitals, so much so that even when he had broken his collarbone during a game, he hadn't gone in until Kat told his parents, so even if he knew it was a proverb and not sound medical advice, he still ate at least one apple a day—he would need it today if they were going through a gate. Gates and Aaron didn't go so well together.
"Hey yourself," he called back, but only after rolling his eyes. He was smiling, not an excited smile, but something else. No doubt he wouldn't be too impressed by the telekinetic show, he was never impressed by the Enhanced, but he knew exactly how much Kat had wanted to go and had somehow managed to snag last-minute tickets for both of them to see it together for her birthday. She was already practically thrumming with excitement, and it showed. "You ready for this?" Aaron teased.
"Of course, I'm ready, who did you take me for?" Kat sassed back to his teasing. Aaron snorted under his breath and took her hand as they approached the gateway, not wanting to be separated when crossing the imbedded entrance into the Ring, where the telekinetic show was being hosted. The air shimmered as they approached and split like some higher power had knifed a hole in the fabric of the universe. Logically speaking, Kat knew that was exactly what had happened, except the higher power was an Enhanced who had connected this space—and several others—in Keywest and a space unreachable without it, no one knew exactly where or what it was, if it was a different dimension, a space between dimensions, or something else entirely.
Stepping through the gateway always felt a little odd. There was a kaleidoscope of colors that moved in four dimensional spirals around the tunnel, and it felt like getting blasted by wind strong enough to lift you off your feet. Most people got some form of gateway sickness, usually either dizziness or lightheadedness. Kat was in the category of people who didn't get gateway sick, though she always had to check to make sure her cards were still in her pocket afterwards—belongings had a way of disappearing in the gate tunnel if you weren't careful. Aaron was not so lucky. He immediately had to sit down in the recovery area and put his head between his knees or risk his lunch coming back up, Kat waited sympathetically for it to pass, a hand on his shoulder in silent support as he took a bite of the apple she'd given him earlier and looking around at the Ring.
Kat had only gone through a gate a handful of times, most events held at the Ring were high level stuff that either needed the Ring's separation from the rest of the world for containment or security. Only the most popular people and acts happened here, and Kat rarely went to any of them so every time she crossed through a gate, it always took a moment to adjust to the new surroundings. The ground was almost completely flat in all directions, made up of some sandy gravel black and white texture layered in all kinds of different patterns that was soft between her fingers but interspersed with larger pieces of almost transparent colorful rocks. There were no hills, no rivers, no gullies, or mountains, or cliffs, it was just this flat grainy half-solid substance as far as the eye could see. All the varying entrances were linked to gates in a circle around the event area, each with their own recovery area and paths leading to the openair stage and seating lined with booths to sell merchandise and concessions along the way. The whole place had almost an eerie vibe to it, each colorful patch of fabric or twisted metal electrical post trying to cover up the remnants of the Rings true purpose. It was named so because it was meant to contain the fighting between the Council and the Faction, superheroes and villains respectively.
Kat had never really liked those terms to describe the two parties of Enhanced, it was tacky and too morally polarizing for her tastes. The Faction was too mysterious to discern their motives or goal, but fighting against the Council and only them seemed to indicate that they weren't entirely evil. Contrary to popular belief, it was the Faction who had created the Ring, doing so to unhinder their fights with the Council and as an unintended consequence also limited destruction to the city and injuries to civilians. But after their disappearance just over a decade ago, the Ring had sat unused and was eventually turned into an entertainment space with access points across the city, but there was still evidence of its original purpose if you looked close enough for it.
Aaron, feeling well enough to stand and move around, pulled Kat along the path toward their seats, his elbow bumping against her arm. She ignored it, assuming it was an accident. A few seconds later when he did it again, she gave him a sidelong glance and found him trying to suppress a smile. Key word; trying, and miraculously failing. The fasterix was doing it on purpose. Elbowing him in the ribs in return, she knew she hadn't hurt him, but he still let out a fake wheeze to humor her. What an . . . "Assterixhat," Kat muttered, childishly pushing at his shoulder though he hardly moved an inch. He was so ridiculously strong, it wasn't fair.
"I'm just playing, KitKat," Aaron teased. Kat snorted in return and shook her head. "I'll getcha some candy floss," he tried tempting her.
She pretended to mull it over, though both knew that she would accept, she was a sucker for anything with sugar. "Blue candy floss and you have a deal." She shifted her skateboard to the other arm as he shot her one of those perfect smiles and pulled her to the side of the walkway. Shielding his bag with his huge shoulders, he opened the zipper just enough for Kat to see the contents. A huge tub of candy floss that nearly didn't fit in the bag. Kat tsked in mock annoyance even as her eyes lit with excitement at the prospect, "you know me too well."
He threw his arm over her shoulder and flashed another smile. "You love me for it." He said with confidence bordering on arrogance that she couldn't help but roll her eyes at. But he was right. It was actions like this that had made him grow on her. Fungus.
A smile crept onto her face, the mock annoyance slipping away. Kat sighed, "yeah, I do." She moved to put her hand around his back, but instead slipped it into the bag and grabbed a tuft of candy floss that she promptly popped in her mouth. "I do love candy floss."
"Can't win, can I?" Aaron chuckled, like he was expecting it. He probably was, to be fair, he had left the zipper open, most likely in anticipation of just such an action, why would he bother trying to stop her, he had brought it mostly for her.
"Nope." She popped the word while licking the sticky bits off her fingers. He shook his head in amusement and took her hand as they approached the lines of stadium seating for the show. That handholding was more of a remnant from childhood friendship than anything else, when they could walk together and hold hands in the playground, his fingers never interlacing with hers. Even now when they held hands six years after meeting, he held her hand like he was afraid that she would slip away and she held on all the tighter for it.