Whether his defence didn't show up because he wasn't wearing his suit, or if it was because he's been glowing for the past thirteen days and all his juices have run dry, I still gawked at him as if he were an alien.
He had brown disheveled hair, thick eyebrows of the same colour, a sharp, square jawline, and freckles running up the bridge of his snub nose. His eyes, which I could swear we're brown when I last saw him, were the electrifying gold I'm so used to seeing behind masks.
"Ashlyn?" He said again, my face remained frozen, trailing over his features. Two dimples appeared when he smiled awkwardly.
He looked towards the floor, pausing when he saw that his hands weren't glowing anymore. He held them up, as if he were trying to get a better look at them. "Oh." He mumbled, then looked at me, his eyes wide, "oh."
He blinked.
I blinked.
"This was not supposed to happen!" He exclaimed, "I was planning to invite you out somewhere and then," he squinted his eyes and scratched his neck, "okay, I didn't really plan it yet, with the Cyrus thing going on, but it was going to definitely going to happen, and then I'd say something like hi I'm Golden Sparkler. Then show you incase you didn't believe me, because you've been fed lies."
"So Graham really is-"
"A mind reader?" He scowled, "yeah."
We stood in silence for a few more minutes, until he reached out, grabbed my hand, and shook it. "Hi, I'm Skyler." He said casually, "wanna go get some pizza sometime? No olives?" He wiggled his eyebrows, then frowned. "Sorry." He apologized, "I don't like awkward silences very much, and I tend to ramble if I'm nervous." He nibbled on his lower lip, and peeked up at me through his dark lashes.
"You're nervous?" I asked.
He let out a breath of hot air. "Very."
"Then why aren't you glowing?"
He lifted up his hands again, "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest."
"Do you think it'll come back?" I asked; he shrugged.
"I don't want it to, to be honest." I said, and reached over to hug him. "I'm just glad I know." I said into his shoulder.
Skyler relaxed, "yeah. Me too." He wrapped his arms around me, and we stayed that way for a few minutes.
A knock on my window made us jump apart, before it opened wide, and Sterling came crawling in, landing on his head and breaking yet another screen. He wasn't dressed in his Redux costume anymore, but dry crusted blood was still smudged on his face.
"Fucking Cyrus." He panted, dragging his other leg through. "Too much of a coward to face me himself. I mean, how dare he dart me?" Only after he was fully inside, did he see Skyler in the room.
"You didn't tell me you were having company." Sterling narrowed his eyes, noticing we weren't very far apart, "Gold goes missing for two weeks, and you're already cheating on him."
For the first time ever, I saw Skyler blush instead of glow.
"Sterling, what kind of sleeping pills did you give Gold?" I asked, still mesmerized by this new found discovery.
"Uh- propofal, I think." He said, "I nicked it from the the operating room, so I thought it would be safe enough."
"That's the drug doctors use for medically induced comas." Skyler mentioned, looking a little pale.
Sterling paid no attention to him. "Why do ya wanna know?"
"Something seems," I looked at Skyler, "a little different about him."
Sterling snorted. "You're just realizing that, now? He's a class A oddball." Skyler narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
"Speaking of, I don't think Graham is Nightlight. He's so fake, even Barbie is jealous."
"I figured that out, too." I mumbled.
Sterling scoffed, "well aren't you little miss smarty pants." He said, "how did you find out, did Graham call you asshole as well, or what?"
I made eye contact with Skyler, "it sort of happened accidentally."
"Mhm." He took a look at Skyler again, and narrowed his eyes. "Who the fuck are you, anyway?"
"Skyler Brie." He answered.
"Okay, Skyler, c'mere and lemme get a good look at you."
Skyler and I exchanged looks before he reluctantly followed Sterlings orders. As soon as he was in arms reach, Sterling grabbed him, lifted him over his head, and tossed him out of the window." I rushed forward to make sure he was okay, and luckily, he seemed to catch himself just as he was about to make contact with the ground.
"I knew it!" Skyler jumped, pointing towards the window, "I fucking new it!"
"And if he wasn't?" I asked, "what if he was just some guy I invited over, with no powers whatsoever?"
"You'd have to make friends to do that. Besides, I figured second time's a charm, right?" He shrugged.
"Second times a- "I placed a hand on the bridge of my nose, and sighed. "Who did you throw out of a window?" I asked; Skyler was just climbing back in.
Sterling smirked. "Graham Samson. I don't think he'll be sitting with us anymore, by the way."
"I thought you found out when he called you asshole..." I trailed off.
"He called me asshole after I threw him out of a window."
"How high?" Skyler asked.
"Third floor at school."
Skyler guffawed, "that's amazing!"
"And that's weird." Sterling turned his attention back to Skyler, who was about a head taller than him, "I thought you were shorter."
"My hair adds an inch." He nodded.
"Mhm. And were have you been? Ashlyn was going crazy. I swear she was about to pull some Romeo and Juliet shit, if you didn't turn up soon."
"We found Cyrus' base." I said, before Sterling could embarrass us more.
"Oh, damn." Sterling looked giddy, "let's attack. Tonight."
I shared a worried look with Skyler. "That's not a very good idea," I said.
"We've had plenty of training." He said, then he turned to me, "only ten things hit you yesterday." Skyler tensed behind me.
"I don't know." I said.
"I want to take revenge on him, for what he did to Alden." Sterlings' hands bunched into fists, "and I know you do too. We have the upper hand. He doesn't know we know where his base is."
"Maybe we should ask Anderson first," I said.
"Screw Anderson."
"How are we supposed to get past the forcefield?" Skyler asked.
"Andy said that if you manage to get your lasers hot enough, it could probably disable it." Sterling explained.
"Okay. And what do we do if we manage to get his forcefield down?"
"Kill him."
"Sterling!" We both exclaimed.
"Only kidding." But I could tell he wasn't. "We'll knock him out, then bring him to Anderson."
"And what about Momentum?" I asked.
Sterling shrugged it off, "You and I will manage him." He said to me. "C'mon guys! Think of all the dairy bars we'll save, taking him out? And, we'll save that kid Cyrus has trapped in there," Sterling shuddered, "Cyrus is like the fucking puppet master, expect instead of a doll, it's a human being." He shuddered again, "the human puppet, good name for a horror movie, don't you thing?"
I looked at Skyler, "what do you think?"
He shrugged, "I'll do whatever you do."
"How romantic." Sterling muttered, but we ignored him.
"Okay." I said, "I'm in."
"Then so am I." Skyler followed.
"Good. Let's take this fucker down."
Short chapter, I know.
Next one will be up soon-ish?
Idek.
Did you like my pick for Gold?