Chapter Shackles

[The following chapter contains strong language. Reader caution is advised.]

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Friday 15th April 2000

 

 

Orange Painter and wonder-lady-extraordinaire reporting in! I’ve been having a whale of a time hanging out with my fellow heroes for the past week, buuuuut I’d arranged to have Rin over and I didn’t have the heart to turn her down. Just the thought of her sad little face…! Plus it meant going back home and sleeping in my bed instead of on the sofa at Dakota’s for once. I love being around the Painters but I love my bed too. Gotta share the love, y’know?

 

Soooo I got back home in the afternoon and then I was waiting, like, an hour and a half for Rin to show up.

 

“Sorry, the buses are running late…” she told me while getting her shoes off. I looked down at her from the stairs, mainly because I was sat halfway up but also because I was judging her.

 

“You could’ve just teleported here,” I said. “Oh, wait, no, only I can do that!”

 

“Yeah, sorry, I had to go the long way like normal people…”

 

“Imagine being normal people,” I shuddered. Rin tucked her shoes away, and I leapt down the stairs and grabbed mine.

“Right, let’s get going!”

 

I looked up just in time to see her confused face.

“What…?”

 

“We’ll go hang out in town! Do some shopping, eat some pastries, talk about boys! Girl things!”

I got my shoes on super-quick and already had the front door open.

 

“But… I just took my shoes off…!” she whimpered behind me.

 

I just laughed and headed out. She finally caught up to me when I was halfway down the street.

 

“I wish you told me…”

 

“I’m glad I didn’t!”

 

“You’re like a 7-year-old…”

 

“Nah, I’m too mature,” I argued, thrusting my chest forward.

 

“Being lewd isn’t the same thing as being mature…” she sighed.

 

“You’ve met some weird kids then.”

 

“That isn’t what I mean…”

 

“But you said 7-year-old!” I pointed out, and she got all huffy.

 

“I’m saying you don’t act mature! I know you’re not a kid but you act like one…”

 

I hugged her as we walked.

 

“You loooove it!” I cooed at her, giving her a big grin.

 

“It’s exhausting,” she grumbled. “I’m gonna go grey before I’m 25 at this rate…”

 

“Awww, we’re gonna be friends at least that long?”

 

“If you’re good,” she said and suddenly I got what she meant about me acting like a kid.

 

So I just said “yay!” and she sighed again.

 

We walked to town and spent a while shopping. Woolworths, Debenhams, HMV, the doughnut place, all the best shops! We ended up settling on a bench in the little park area to eat our doughnuts.

 

“You’ve really spent the past week with the Painters?” Rin asked me between nibbles of hers.

 

“Of course! Us Painters have to stick together!”

Mine was already almost gone, because it had icing and sprinkles so like hell was I gonna take my time eating it!

 

“I just thought… maybe you wouldn’t want to be around Kendal…”

 

“Hey, everybody needs a little Lucy in their lives,” I remarked. “That’s why we’re here, I’m making sure you get your monthly top-up!”

 

“I know you keep dodging Nathan’s calls,” she continued, the rascal. “Have you… chosen Kendal, or…?”

 

“Rin, sweetheart, baby,” I began, “my love life is top-secret and you don’t have the clearance to get all the juicy details.”

And I stuffed the last bit of doughnut into my mouth.

 

“That’s a no, then…” my buddy decided.

 

“Hey, this isn’t the place for speculation!”

 

“It’s not speculation. We lived together for four months. I-”

 

“You’re psychic and you synced up with my brain!” I wailed, grabbing my head with my honestly still kinda sticky hands.

 

“No, but thank you for confirming that I’m right,” she smiled cutely at me.

 

“… I’ve been underestimating you, haven’t I?” I asked her while giving her an accusing stare.

 

She giggled a bit and I knew I was right.

 

“So why are you okay being around Kendal but not Nathan?” she asked me, her eyes all concerned and thoughtful.

 

“Because she doesn’t keep bugging me about making a decision,” I shrugged. “Maybe she’s being patient.”

 

“Hrm.”

She didn’t say anything else for about ten minutes and then right before I finally said something…

“Are you ever going to sort all this out with them?”

 

“Sure! Probably!” I beamed at her.

 

“That’s not very convincing…”

 

“It’s my issue to deal with, so let’s shelve it…”

I did a hand motion like I was putting something onto a shelf just to emphasise it.

“And talk about something else. Like your love life!”

 

“I don’t have a love life, and it’s not fair to talk about it if we can’t talk about yours-!” Rin spluttered with her eyes wide as saucers (flying ones).

 

“If you don’t have a love life, why’re you so worried about talking about it?” I grinned back at her.

 

“B-Because!”

 

“That’s a terrible argument, my dear Miss Watanabe! Or should I say Mrs Clay Baker…?”

 

“Oh my god, Lucy-!”

 

“Are you gonna be that red on your wedding day?”

 

“Just because I’m the only one who knows how to talk with him…!”

 

“Yeah, that’s why you loooooove him!”

 

“Your imagination could power the country…” she sighed.

 

“Damn right it could, but I know what I see and I’m not imagining it,” I concluded, standing up and having a biiiig stretch. “Hey, y’know what?”

 

“I feel like I shouldn’t ask, but… what…?” my buddy asked.

 

“It really feels like a monster should show up right about now.”

 

“Lucy, you sexy young woman,” you’re probably thinking, “why on Earth would you say such a thing? You don’t want to fight a monster, right?” Well firstly, sure I do! I want a monster fight all of my own! I wanna test my mettle! And secondly, I just had this feeling like something was coming. Must be one of my special monster abilities, or some kind of Painter-sense. Or maybe I’m just sharp enough to know the kind of moment Harmony makes a monster!

 

Place your bets now, was lovely Lucy the Orange Wonder right, or was she right?

 

A sort of cuddly robot marched into view across the park, looking pretty angry. So, I mean, you tell me who was right!

 

“You had to go and say it, didn’t you…?” I heard Rin grumble beside me.

 

I started doing some warm-up stretches while the padded robot-monster made a steady beeline for us.

“It’s fiiiine, I’m ready to rumble!”

 

“This is serious!”

 

“Lucy’s ready to rhumble! Lucy’s ready to rhum-ble!” I sang while doing star jumps.

 

I did just like Alex taught me before and teleported my Lokon daggers into my hands.

 

“Watch this!” I told Rin, and then I held one of the daggers in front of my chest.

“Paint Up!”

 

A wave of orange splashed over me for a second, decking me out in my sweet Painter threads, and I posed dramatically with my daggers at the ready.

 

“Bring it on, buster!” I challenged the robot, and I figure he understood because he launched a cuff from his wrist and it shot out on a chain and grabbed my wrist tight. He made a weird noise kinda like a chuckle, and the chain reeled in fast, dragging me over to him before I even got the chance to cut through the chain.

 

“Crap…!” I heard Rin yell, but not in a panicked way. It was more “I’m trained in combat but I left my battle suit at home, my sexy best friend is on her own here!”

 

The chain fully retracted and my wrist was held right next to his like he had me handcuffed.

“Hey hon, sorry, had my share of being shackled, that’s so last century,” I told him, and then I stabbed him with one of my daggers.

 

He didn’t like that, which was good. Didn’t know if robots cared about being stabbed.

 

While the cuff-bot was busy jolting around in probably-pain, I tried to hack through his arm to free myself.

 

“Lucy, more!”

 

“I can’t give much more, he’s made of metal!”

 

“No, more robots!”

 

I didn’t even get to look up before I felt cuffs grab hold of my ankles. I was yoinked off my feet and suspended in the air with the right side of my body hanging down (cos I wasn’t cuffed with my right arm). Thinking super-fast, I span my right dagger around and threw it blade-first into the grass. I waved the left dagger like a wand and directed a surge of orange through the ground, expanding out like when you throw a pebble in a lake and the ripples fan out. Each of the three robots got zapped by it once it reached them, shuddering and freaking out and finally falling to the ground. Which meant I fell too.

 

“My back…!” I whined. I probably broke it, but it stopped hurting pretty much straight away.

 

I grabbed my dagger’s handle and yoinked it back out of the ground, then swung around and stabbed through the chain holding my right arm. Had to use a little Lokonessence boost to make it work, but I managed to bust the chain!

 

“One down!” I sang, but when I sat upright to see to my ankles, the two robots started hoisting me in. As in, dragging me along the ground towards them. And then they swung me up into the air.

 

I wailed and screamed because who wouldn’t?!

 

“Lucy!” Rin cried out from waaaay below.

 

Anyway, y’know how Lokonessence is all about imagination and stuff? Well, even though I didn’t know which way was up and which way was down, I made my daggers spit out orange needles in every direction. I mean, I don’t think any normal people got hurt by them or could get hurt by them, so it’s all good!

 

Then gravity was like “sup?” and I started falling back down.

 

I just about managed to make a parachute of orange and landed back on the ground gently, but also kinda doing the splits because of how far apart the two robots were. Their silver armour had loads of orange splotches now from my attacks.

 

“Come on, you idiots! Take your shackles off my feet so I can dance!”

Love that song.

 

I turned to check on the first robot, and of course, he was back upright. I waved at him. He didn’t wave back.

 

With just a thought, I turned the parachute into a guillotine, and swung it forward, cutting the ankle-chains just as they began retracting. Even though they didn’t get to pull me much before I sliced them, they still tugged me enough for me to fall on my butt right after.

 

“I’m meant to be the Orange Painter, you’re knocking me black and blue…!” I growled at the robots.

“You’re no fun, why can’t you be like cartoon robots! Quip back! Gimme some banter!”

 

“Priorities, Lucy…!” Rin called out to me.

 

“I am prioritising!” I yelled back.

 

Still not a word from the robots.

 

So, priority no.2: fight!

 

I burst the guillotine, letting shards fly across the park and hit the robots, before turning back to the first cuff-bot and sprinting for it with my daggers ready to attack. My thinking was, if I take him out quick, then I can deal with the other two without having to worry about him behind me.

 

Great idea, right?

 

Okay, now I’ll give you five seconds to notice the problem.

 

Did you get it?

 

I turned my back on two robots!

 

So sure, I made it to cuff-bot #1, but cuff-bots #2 and #3 snared my wrists before I could stab him and pulled me back.

 

“God damn it, guys!”

I thought of trying to throw one of the daggers, but I couldn’t move my arms properly to even try.

 

And I mean, what else could I do? I was being dragged backwards, by the arms. Not really an ideal fighting position, y’know?

 

Then again, they had hold of my wrists, and the wrist bone’s connected to the hand bone!

 

I charged up my daggers and sent surges through the chains, super-zapping the two robots behind me. I didn’t get to see, but I heard two explosions, and then I fell backwards because the tugging had stopped. From the ground, I tilted my head back just in time to see the blown-up bits of cuff-bot fading away. The shackles on my wrists did the same, like an invisible hand was using a giant rubber to rub them out. (Eraser, not condom, obviously.)

 

I leapt back to my feet and grinned at the last-but-first bot.

“Let’s tango, baby. Show me what you’ve got.”

 

The bot launched another shackle, and I dodged it as I sprinted towards him. This time I actually got to stab into him, feeling the dagger’s blade dig through hard armour and into whatever was underneath, and then I pulled back, slashed at his legs with the other dagger, and sprang away again.

 

His shackle snaked through the air and grabbed my left wrist.

 

“You’re so clingy, jeez!” I laughed.

 

The chain started winding, pulling me across the short distance between us, and I did some gazelle-skipping to keep up and not get dragged along. Once my wrist met his, I span around him so we were back-to-back, flipping my right dagger at the same time, and I stabbed it right into the small of his back. Just like with Melody, I made a little explosion of orange from the blade – smaller than with her, so I didn’t have to deal with any recoil. But then that wouldn’t be enough to finish him off, so I pulled the dagger out, and span back around to face him, switching the dagger so it was the right way around again.

 

“I’m gonna have to cut you off.”

And I stabbed the blade right into his chest and pumped another explosion into him. He tried to swing for me with his left fist, but he froze in place before he could reach me. Like his sisters, he smudged into nothingness. The shackle on my wrist was gone.

 

“That’s what I’m talking about!” I whooped while victory-dancing. Rin watched in some sort of mix of relief and bafflement from near the bench, and when I was done, I went and joined her.

 

“You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days…” she grumbled like Mum.

 

“Nah, that’s what I gave Melody,” I said with a smile. “Now come on, finish your doughnut, let’s do some more shopping!”

 

“Give me a few minutes, I don’t know if I could keep it down right now…”

 

“Awww…” I cooed, giving her back a rub.

 

So, once she finally finally finally ate the rest of the doughnut, we went around town some more before heading home for dinner. And theeeeeeen…!

 

“Ooooh, new PJs, cute!” I purred at the sight of a blushing Rin.

 

“They’re not new, they’re ones from home…” she muttered.

 

“Oh, yeah, I’ve only ever seen you in the ones at Adam’s, huh? I wonder if one of Melody’s people is wearing them now…”

 

“I’d rather not think about that…”

And she began looking around my room. This really was the first time she’d seen it. Her eyes ended up settling on my bed.

“Aww, I like your plushies!”

 

“Thanks! Simba and Nala are the best!” I grinned. She has great taste! “I’ll move them onto the floor, though, don’t want to risk you kicking them off during the night!”

 

“You mean we’re…?”

She brushed her hair back a bit with her hand.

“I thought I was gonna sleep on the floor or something…?”

 

“No way, that wouldn’t be comfortable at all-”

 

“I meant with some bedding or-”

 

“And I wouldn’t get to snuggle you and feel you up!” I finished.

 

“Lucy, please…” she whimpered. Then she bit her lip a little.

 

“Ooooh my goooood, fine… hold on…”

I got my mobile out of my drawer and called one Alex Big Brother Matthews (the Blue Painter).

 

It took him three whole minutes to answer.

“What do you want?” he grumbled at me tiredly.

 

“Good evening to you too, Alex!” I chirped back at him. “Rin doesn’t want to sleep in my bed, can she use yours?”

 

“What?!” Rin squawked in front of me, and she tried to grab the phone out of my hand but I just hopped up onto my bed.

 

“I- it doesn’t sound like she wants to…” my brother observed (or what’s the hearing version of observed?).

 

“Nah, she’s just surprised! I mean it’s not like she has any other options-”

 

“The floor, bedding on the floor, why won’t you listen to me?!”

 

Alex sighed.

“Talk it through with her, and if it’s absolutely necessary to use my bed, then fine…”

He was humouring me. Good brother.

 

“Okie-dokie, thanks!”

 

“And please be nice to her…” he added.

 

“Oh, I will! I think I’ll give her a nice massage… her back or her feet. She deserves it!”

 

“Wh-Wha-?” my friend warbled, blushing even harder now.

 

“Uh-” Alex said.

 

“You have fun with Dakota!” I called down the phone. “Nighty-night!”

And I hung up there.

 

“Lucy, I-I…!”

She was almost squeaking now.

 

“Come oooon, it’ll be nice! And you need to relax, you’re so tense…!” I insisted while bouncing a little on my bed.

 

“Mrrr…”

She thought about it for a minute.

“Okay, look. You give me a massage, and then you sleep in your bed and I sleep on the floor. Deal?”

 

“Deal!” I nodded.

 

But did the deal stick? That, dear reader, I’ll leave to your lewd imagination!

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