Just Hangin' Out (open)

[Aaron Walker]

His uncle was totally to blame.

A few weeks ago, AJ had received a package from his favorite uncle containing a few superhero comics. Although most books couldn’t keep up with AJ’s attention span, he had discovered comics in the past year or so. Even if he couldn’t always follow the stories, mostly from skipping pages or forgetting where he had left off, he loved the graphics. Everything just seemed so…epic.

The comic he had looked at the day before and shown a man using sound waves…to fly. AJ didn’t stop to think about the fact that it was a comic and not a traiing manual. He didn’t consider that fact that he was just starting to get some sort of handle onto his ability. Instead, he stayed up the whole night thinking of the perfect place to launch himself from in the morning.

In the end, he convinced himself to start with something small. It was a long conversation in his head, but luckily some sort of common sense had kicked in and won the fight eventually.

He stood half-way up on the of the trees in the courtyard, carefully examining the page in his hand. It looked like the guy just focused some waves at the ground and somehow that process kept him afloat. Seemed simple enough. He was sure he remembered something in science about every action causing an equal reaction. Easy as eating chocolate cake.

Stuffing the comic into his back pocket, he leaned forward on the branch and let himself drop to the ground. When he felt his feet leave the branch he had been standing on, he shot a sound wave at the ground.

And didn’t receive the reaction he’d expected.

The wave did come back towards him. But most of the energy was lost in creating a dust cloud at the foot of the tree. Instead of keeping him in the air, the sound wave spun him around and then he continued to fall headfirst toward the ground.

About five feet away from smashing his head, his right pants leg got caught onto a branch. He tried to reach up to free himself, but he was laughing to hard. And things kept falling out of his pockets to smack him in the head.

“Uh?” he said, twisting around to see if anyone was in the courtyard. “A little help over here?” Not that he was scared, just eager to try again.

[Katurian Arsov]

Kat had only been at Hammel one day, and he had already realised a fundamental truth:

Americans were all crazy.

The whole place was full of people – people running, people laughing, people yelling. Kat had had about enough of it after the first half hour, and had watched in bemusement all day as everyone rushed past him. They were all trying to get somewhere, apparently. And they weren’t afraid to bang into people while they did it.

Katurian wasn’t used to that. At home, you didn’t collide with someone unless you wanted to start a fight. America was a very different place. (A place full of crazy people.)

Finally – finally – he had managed to get some time to himself. Everyone else seemed to be in class, but he was excused for today until he was ‘properly oriented’ (Kat doubted that he would ever feel ‘oriented’ in this place. He didn’t really know what the word meant, but he gathered from the tone of the teacher who had used it that it was something comfortable and desirable). During the course of the day Kat had made a mental note of every outdoor space in the school, and so he had headed for the Courtyard, hoping that it would be empty enough for him to get some peace.

He’d barely stepped out into the sunlight before he heard a voice, and now he was standing stock-still, staring at the sight in front of him.

There was a boy hanging from a tree.

Hanging.

From a tree.

And what was more, he was laughing about it.

Sure, Kat was a meta. He’d seen things that normal people didn’t usually see. But it wasn’t every day you walked outside to see a fellow student doing his very best bat impression on school grounds.

Katurian blinked, and the boy’s second call brought him back to himself – he paused for a moment, wondering how best to proceed. In Odarennyi, someone who had got themselves into a situation like this would be expected to get themselves out of it, and anybody who helped them would be held accountable for their actions. His aunt Yulia had warned him that Hammel was a very different place, but still…did that apply to basic rules, too? Katurian stepped cautiously closer to the boy, a frown creasing his brow. He was asking for help, but didn’t they always? Kat had no intention of getting into trouble on his first day, and helping this boy could lead to a detention, at best.

Moving so that he was facing the upside-down AJ, Kat looked him over. ‘You are…okay?’ he asked in his still-faulty English, frown still firmly in place. There were no obvious injuries, as far as he could see.

Other than, you know, the whole ‘hanging from a tree’ thing.

Yep.

All crazy.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ turned a little in the air, well as much as he could seeing that he was kinda stuck the way he was, so that he could get a look at who the voice was coming from. For a moment, AJ mistook the other boy’s frown for a smile before he remembered that he was upside-down. “This is great,” AJ said, meaning his new perspective. He started giggling again.

“You new?” he asked, trying to figure out if he had seen the other boy around the halls. “Well, ya look new, but maybe everyone looks new this way. Maybe I should test it out.”

He tried to turn himself to get a better look around the courtyard and see if there was anyone around that he knew, so he could compare. But his movement only caused a few more things to fall out of his pockets. One of them, a large piece of blue sidewalk chalk, hit him in the head on its way to the ground.

“What th’?” he yelled, rubbing the sore spot on his forehead. “Oh wait! I’ve been looking for that. I was gonna draw some chalk outline outside of Jared’s window. See if I could convince him there was a war with aliens while he was in class.” He reached out for the chalk on the ground, but couldn’t get to it.

“Um…hey…” he tried to remember the other boy’s name before realizing that he hadn’t asked it yet.

That set off another fit of laughter.

“What’s….your…name?” he asked when he’d caught his breath once more. “Could ya hand me that chalk? I don’t wanna loose it again.”

[Katurian Arsov]

Almost despite himself, Katurian found a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He had to hand it to the guy – anyone who could remain that cheerful while hanging upside down from a tree was definitely a force to be reckoned with. When asked if he was new, Kat nodded. ‘First day,’ he offered with a slight shrug. It wasn’t a grammatically correct answer, but quite frankly? He didn’t give a damn.

He was interrupted by the falling chalk, and looked down at it in brief puzzlement – it was then that he noticed the growing collection of object gathering on the floor, and glanced up at AJ with a brief flash of amusement. This boy collected an interesting assortment of things, that was for sure. The explanation of what AJ had planned to do with the chalk was largely lost on Kat, and he regarded the other boy with interest when he started laughing again.

Again, Kat’s lips twitched. ‘Katurian,’ he answered AJ’s first question, holding up his hand as if to offer it to the other boy to shake – but then he realised that AJ was still hanging like a monkey, and handshakes were probably not the most convenient things to offer in this position. There was a sudden moment of awkwardness, and then the full absurdity of the whole thing hit Kat – he grinned quickly at AJ and held out his hand again, laughter threatening in his expression. ‘Your name?’ he asked.

‘I give to you now…’ Kat reached down and picked up the hunk of chalk, inspecting it carefully. He looked at AJ with a perfectly deadpan expression. ‘You just drop it again.’ His tone was entirely reasonable, but his grey eyes definitely held a hint of mischief.

Kat paused for a moment. And then, because there had to be a good story in there, somewhere. ‘Why…’ He didn’t quite have the vocabulary to ask the full question, so instead he gestured to AJ and his interesting position. ‘Why?’ He made the word a whole question, brow furrowed again in a slight frown.

[Aaron Walker]

“First day,” AJ repeated. “Awesome! You’re gonna love it here. Well, I hope ya do. I think it’s a pretty cool place and all. I mean, something is always going on.” AJ continued to grin at the other boy and was glad to see him starting to return the expression.

“Katurian,” he said, slowly trying to pronounce it the same. “Wow, that’s a mouthful. My folks named me Aaron James. Well, actually, James is my middle name,” He paused to dodge the harmonica that had slipped out of his pocket. “But still I think AJ is so much easier to say. And remember, ya know?”

He laughed at the Katurian’s joke. Between all of his giggling and being upside-down, his face was starting to look like a ripe tomato. And the blood rushing to his head was starting to pound in his ear drums. “So, ya think you could -?” he started to ask, before getting distracted by his classmate’s question.

“Check this out,” he said, reaching behind him and pulling the comic, which still hadn’t fallen, out of his back pocket. He flipped to the page that had inspired him and handed it to Katurian. “I almost had it. Maybe next time. I’m thinking I need the be higher up, or use –“

AJ was cut short again as his pant leg finally ripped from the stress of holding him up. Luckily, he didn’t have much more to fall before landing in a heap on the grass among half the things that had been in his pockets. “Ouch!” he said, jumping up and rubbing his elbow. He leaned over and picked up small flashlight. “Remind me not to land on that again.”

[Katurian Arsov]

Katurian took the comic when AJ held it out to him, grateful to avoid having to answer the question that the other boy clearly wanted to ask him: would he help him get down from the tree? Kat looked down at the paper, expression changing from puzzled to interested – then he heard the fabric of AJ’s trousers rip, and looked up to see the other boy tumbling towards him.

There were times when all his training came in useful. Kat moved closer and did his best to try and brace AJ with his shoulders as he fell – and ended up sprawled next to him on the grass. He grinned as he sat up, looking up at the tree and then over at AJ. There was a moment’s pause, and Kat reached behind himself to pull a large lump of blu-tack from the back of his sweater. ‘Yours?’ he asked, holding it out to the other boy – and then realising that the uncomfortable thing underneath his right leg was a bunch of keys. He retrieved these as well, and offered them over as he got to his feet.

The comic had flown from his hand, and Katurian picked it up again, looking down at it thoughtfully. He’d seen people lift up light objects with this kind of technique, so with the right method… ‘You should start small,’ he said after a moment, holding it up to point at one of the panels. ‘Is not right,’ Kat told AJ, tapping the picture of the man flying. ‘But can work, I think.’ He looked back down at it, then raised his head to scan the courtyard.

His eyes lit on one of the benches – he pointed at it. ‘Try that, maybe?’ he said, stepping up onto it and pretending to lean forward. ‘You fall, I catch you. No jumping.’ It was low enough to the ground that AJ probably wouldn’t do much damage to himself.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ continued to grin as he brushed himself off and started filling his pockets with the items scattered on the ground. “Thanks!” he said, taking what Katurian handed him. “Sorry for landing on ya.” He was pretty sure his knee had connected with some part of the other boy’s body, although it could have just been the impact on the ground that he had felt.

He brushed himself off, moving his limbs around to check that everything was still in working order. Over the years, AJ had gotten pretty well educated at falling. “You’re a good guy to have around,” he said, patting Katurian on the shoulder. “Ya do any bodyguard work where you’re from or something? Cuz ya seem pretty quick on your feet an’ all.”

“Start small?” AJ asked, cocking his head to one side. It was an unfamiliar concept for him. In his mind anything worth doing was worth doing with a risk factor the first time around. Even if it meant a higher chance of failure, or a few extra bruises.

He followed his new friend (anyone who said more than a simple “Hello” to AJ was immediately considered a friend) over to the bench, still trying to grasp the concept of taking things slow. “I dunno,” he said. “I was thinking bigger would be better. Like maybe the roof kinda bigger.” He gestured to the top of one of the dorm buildings. “But ya might not wanna try to catch me from that high up I guess. Cuz ya probably wouldn’t be able to find the infirmary. Being you’re first day and all.”

He grinned, shoved Katurian playfully, and hoped up on the bench. “Ya might wanna cover your ears,” he said. “I can get kinda loud.”

Taking a deep breath, AJ started to lean forward and let out another sound wave as he fell. Unfortunately, the last try had left him a little unfocused and he discharged the sound wave in the opposite direction of the ground. The effect sent him shooting towards the grass at high speed.

[Katurian Arsov]

‘Is fine,’ waving away AJ’s thanks, Katurian busied himself with helping to collect the rest of his fallen possessions. Kat stiffened when AJ touched his shoulder – for a moment he wondered if he had been out of turn, whether the other boy was about to start a fight with him. But it seemed to be harmless contact, so he let it slide. He couldn’t quite understand what Aaron was saying to him, but he could tell from his tone that he was expressing admiration for Kat on some level: Katurian smiled a little and shrugged his shoulders.

Luckily, he was spared having to answer any specific questions – AJ was too busy proving his ‘All Americans were crazy’ theory by attempting to persuade him that the roof was where they needed to be, rather than a bench. His expression made it clear what he thought of that idea, and he was grateful that AJ seemed to have a similar grasp of how wrong things could go.

He was also grateful that the other boy rarely seemed to require an answer to what he was saying – Kat was taciturn by nature anyway, but the language barrier was making it even more difficult. He could guess that AJ was joking, and it was that which stopped him from reacting with violence when AJ shoved him. The concept of a ‘playful’ shove was not something Kat was very used to – but again, AJ didn’t seem to mean anything by it, and Katurian watched him hop up onto the bench in minor confusion.

He felt distinctly wrong-footed by the whole exchange, if he was honest with himself. They both had ‘offensive’ abilities, rather than ‘defensive’ ones – in Odarennyi, Kat reflected that they would probably have been encouraged to show off against each other by now, rather than this apparently friendly exchange.

It was indeed loud – Kat reached up to cover his ears when he realised just how loud AJ’s ability was – but there was no time for that: AJ seemed to hurl himself at the floor, and Kat held out his hands to catch the other boy’s shoulders. They fell together onto the grass, avoiding any real injury.

Kat lifted his head. It was difficult to breathe. He fidgeted, then realised what was getting in the way of his lungs – the weight pressing down on him was the body of AJ, who had evidently fallen on top of him. Spitting out a mouthful of grass, Katurian tried to twist around and see if AJ was alright. ‘You okay?’ he asked, attempting to roll himself out from underneath the other boy. ‘What happened?’

[Aaron Walker]

AJ wasn’t an expert on body language, so he easily missed any clues to Kat’s lack of understanding. Even though AJ picked up on the other boy’s accent and understood that he was from another part of the world, he figured his classmate understood what he was talking about. Surely Kat’s silence meant that he simply agreed with everything he was saying.

Besides, AJ talked enough for both sides of the conversation. An occasional shrug or smile was all he needed to keep going.

“That didn’t go exactly ask planned. Train left the wrong end of the runway…or something like that,” AJ said after landing on his personal safety guard. His head was starting to bother him a little, whether from the use of his power or the fact that he kept falling, and he winced a little as he twisted a little to look at the other boy. “You okay down there? How about a rest before we give it another go?” he asked Kat, still lying on top of the other boy.

It wasn’t until Kat started to struggle to free himself that AJ noticed he had trapped him. “Oh!” he said, rolling off to one side. “Sorry about that.” He grinned, still lying on the grass. “Thanks for breaking my fall. Let me know if ya need me to return the favor sometime.”

Propping himself up on one arm, he pulled a pack of gum from his pocket. “Juicy fruit?” he asked, offering a stick to the boy before popping on into his own mouth. “So are you from Russia or something? I think there’s a movie my dad used to watch with a guy who talked like you. I’m pretty sure he was from Russia. Or maybe Germany…one of those..I think.”

While waiting for Kat’s reply, it occurred to AJ that he didn’t know what the other boy’s ability was. He doesn’t act much like a telepath. And I’m pretty sure he looked a little sore after I landed on him, so probably not super strength or something. Wait…Maybe he can…

“Can you fly?” He asked, raising himself up to sit cross-legged on the ground. “Cuz that’s be awesome! If I ever get this whole comic book thing down, we could go for races and stuff!”

[Katurian Arsov]

And…Katurian didn’t understand anything of what was said to him while he was still trapped beneath the other boy. But he was fast learning that things like that didn’t seem to matter when it came to Aaron Walker – a lot was said, but it didn’t appear to require much of a reply. Bemused by the fact that AJ had only just rolled off of him, Kat stared at the proffered gum for a moment before he realised that it was being offered to him. He sat up and took a stick from the packet, nodding his thanks and placing it in his mouth.

Once again, he wasn’t quite sure what the question was, but Kat thought he had understood enough to answer. ‘Russia,’ he told AJ, nodding. ‘Got here – this week.’ AJ was the first American Kat had met of his own accord (many had been introduced to him during his tour of the school, but he would be the first to admit that he couldn’t remember any of their names). Were they all like this?

At least he wouldn’t be bored, here.

Fly? He knew that word from the airport. Kat shook his head and gave another of his rare smiles. ‘I can – ’ The fall had knocked the English words for his ability clean out of his head, and he paused. If he stretched, he could grab one of the twigs that the tree had shed when AJ had accosted it – he picked up a small one and placed it on one of the paving slabs to his right.

He glanced at AJ to make sure he was watching, then turned his gaze back to the twig – which promptly burst into flames. After a couple of seconds, all that was left of it was a pile of ash: showing off, maybe, but Kat was used to having to demonstrate his prowess to new people. He struggled for the word a few moments more, and then it came to him: ‘Pyrokinetic,’ he said at last, relieved. Not once did he consider the idea that AJ would be nervous of his ability – at Odarennyi, pyrokinesis was a cause for nothing but admiration.

There was curiosity in his grey eyes as he looked back at AJ. ‘You are here – how long?’ he asked, hoping that his meaning would be clear despite his lack of vocabulary. ‘You like Hammel?’

[Aaron Walker]

”Russia? Cool,” he grinned, trying to recall the facts he knew about the place. “What’s it like there? Did you live near Moscow? That’s the capital, right?” Although AJ might be at a complete loss when it came to human interactions and conversations, he wasn’t exactly an idiot. When he managed to stay focused he actually enjoyed learning about new things and places, even if only to add to his ever expanding collection of possible adventures and experiments.

Still sitting on the ground, AJ leaned in close to the other boy when he started to explain his ability. His eyes were fixed in concentration on the twig that Kat put on the sidewalk, but that was about the only still part about him. He was starting to fidget and bounce a little from the prospect of a demonstration from Kat. Even though he had seen many of the students at Hammel demonstrate their powers, he had never lost the curiosity and amazement that came along with watching a meta at work.

When the stick burst into flames, AJ jumped to his feet. He had seen pyrokinetics before and the power always left him in awe. Fire had always both comforted and intrigued the boy. When he was younger, his favorite times at his uncle’s summer camp were the evenings spent around the fire. It was just so…

“Beautiful,” AJ mumbled, tearing his eyes away from the ashes to shoot Kat a look of admiration. “That was so cool! Can you burn anything? Have you ever lit up a Christmas tree? I saw my uncle do that once…well he had to use a lighter…but still you shoulda seen it. It was like…WHOOSH!”

“Huh?” AJ asked, already forgetting that Kat had just arrived at Hammel. “Oh, I’ve been here about a year, I think. The days all kinda blend together,” he said, wrinkling his brow as he tried to recall exactly how long. “But yeah, I like it here. I mean sometimes the classes are a little boring, or in the case of training, a little rough. But there is always something happening. Someone blowing something up, or phasing halfway through a wall and getting stuck, or whatever. Ya know?”

[Katurian Arsov]

Kat shook his head at AJ’s question about Moscow. ‘Small village,’ he told the other boy, shrugging his shoulders. ‘The school…not close to cities.’ They had never really been made aware of how much people knew about Odarennyi – meta abilities were seen as fine if harnessed by the army, but there was widespread public distrust of meta humans throughout most of the country, so Kat had always suspected that the school was not officially there.

Pleased by AJ’s reaction to his demonstration, Kat smiled. ‘I have set fire to car,’ he said proudly, not afraid of boasting about the one thing he was really confident in. Normal lessons were not his forte, but when it came to setting things alight he was definitely top of the class. There was something bright in his eyes, and he was more animated than he had been in weeks. ‘Fire, and then..’ He mimed a huge explosion (with sound effects), clearly proud of the memory. It was the most visually spectacular thing he’d done to date – easy, but it had looked pretty damn good.

He nodded at AJ’s description of Hammel. That at least didn’t sound too different for Odarennyi – Katurian was used to finding people doing strange things at all hours of the day or night. Though this place still had a distinctly different atmosphere than Kat was used to – he couldn’t quite get the hang of it. He could only hope that things would become clearer the longer he stayed. AJ himself was also very different from Katurian’s classmates in Russia – nobody there had been this happy-go-lucky, or energetic.

‘I have – not met trainer yet,’ Kat admitted to Aaron. How ‘rough’ were the sessions here? As hard as he was used to, or softer – like everything else here seemed to be?

‘Your power,’ Kat gestured towards AJ. ‘You do – what?’ He knew that he hadn’t asked that question properly, but he just gave a rather sheepish smile instead of being frustrated with himself. The other boy seemed to understand him just fine without his grammar being 100%.

[Aaron Walker]

“Not close to cities is the way to be if ya ask me?” AJ said. He had always preferred small towns over crowded cities. More open air, more room to run free, and more trees all added up to more fun. Although cities did have their pluses too. Like ice cream shops. Luckily, Pilot Ridge had one of those.

“A car?” AJ asked, his face lit up with amazement and slight jealously even. He laughed at Kat’s explosion sound effects. Sound effects were the best part of most conversations. “That’s so awesome! Could ya show me sometime? Maybe we could find a junkyard or something…”

“Well,” he said, pausing as he remembered a few of his first training sessions at Hammel. “The trainers are kinda hit or miss. Some are a little…harsh. Others are a little more laid back. But training is training, ya know? It’s always hard work. But it’s good for you or something. At least that’s what adults say.” He laughed. “But who knows if that makes it true or not?” He laughed again, hoping he had made some sort of joke. It seemed funny to him at least.

AJ was staring at the pile of ashes again when Kat asked him about his power, so it was a little slow in replying. “Oh, you know,” he said, waving the questions away. “Sound stuff.” Looking up at Kat, he finally noticed the sheepish grin. “Wait, you want more of an explanation?”