Tensions Pavillion

"shfhdfdhfushghdshghsdgiaifhshaifajiidghdhiafjsaiiahfsjg...."

"I think the pot roast is in the oven..."

"I wanna check if my fly is down but, she's still watching..."

It wasn't just people and their emotions anymore. It was the animals and the insects too. The smaller and less intricate the brain, the louder the base impulses and emotions that broke through made themselves.

Of course, dogs and ladybugs don't speak any language that Angie understood, so when she tapped into their heads, it was more of a flood of emotions and commands that racketed her brain like static. The need to hunt and kill came through like a natural feeling, and it was. . .subtle.

Creepy.

"Do we have to drive down the busiest street in the city!?!" Angie groaned, futilely blocking her ears from the cutting clangor around her. "Unfortunately, we do. This is where the lab is, so there's not much I can do there." Kai turned the corner, drowning Angie in a new wave of hell as the voices continued.

"Don't you have a backroad or something we can use?" She snapped. Kai tapped his finger on the steering wheel as he considered every possible route they could have taken. "Nope," he declared, "this is the best way I could have gone. If we had gone up Main street, you would have died." Kai chuckled to himself but, Angie sunk into her seat, the possibility etching itself in her head.

"Hey, umm...I've been wondering something..." Kai's eyes passed Angie over, so she knew she had his attention. "Pick my brain!" The man's eyes darted away as he caught himself. "Oh, right, you can actually do that now...my bad."

Angie rolled her eyes so hard the whites of her eyes consumed her. "Forget about that! I wanna know about Maven!" The direct line of questioning caused Kai to tighten his grip around the steering wheel. His chest heaved as though he were about to say something but, silence dominated the car.

"Yeah," was all that managed to break through. "Us too." Angie couldn't read his mind in the torrent of voices. "Come on, you, have to know something about him! He's all you've been thinking about since last night." Angie cowered before Kai's glare.

"There's a lot of anger when you think about him too..." Kai turned on the morning radio. "Well, he's someone to be angry about." "Why!?" She snapped. "What about him makes you angry? He has something to do with these powers of mine I know he does!"

Kai shuffled under the seatbelt. "Look, you've got enough troubles as it is. All you need to worry about is the here and now and right now-" Amethyst arcs of energy began to dance across the dashboard every, current of lightning crackling as it slipped inside the radio.

"Here and now? Give me a break! You are thinking about him right now!! What is it that you're trying to hide? Whatever it is about these people you want to keep from me, forget it! It's too late! I'm already involved!"

As Angie spoke, she spoke with clearness and emotion unimpeded by the noisy world around her. In her moment of anguish, her abilities muted themselves and gave her an avenue to speak.

"These assholes came for MY LIFE! MY body, and now they've got some sick power running through my body!" A high-pitched sonic interference ran through the radio, stabbing fresh nausea into Kai's unprepared body.

Despite sitting, Angie still managed to look down on Kai. "If anyone gets to, know it's me. So give me what you got!" Kai gazed stoically at the road before him intending to stay quiet until they reached their destination.

Sweating under Angie's unforgiving gaze, the Hero had no choice except to spill if he desired respite. "Maven is not a man I can beat. If he comes for you or any of us, we lose, plain and simple."

Angie frowned at the confidence Kai bolstered. How could he say that!? He's Kai Ken, The Legendary Hero! He has more keys to the city than hairs on his ass! Could Maven honestly be such a dangerous foe that he would cower before him?

"But I still don't get it. Who is he exactly? If he's so dangerous, why is he still out there?" Angie scooted closer to Kai, her face like that of a child longing for an answer. "H-How do I begin this...in this world...there are two types of criminals. One's who buck against the system and the ones who keep it turning. The murderers, muggers, and rapists are the former."

Kai scowled his, eyes turning dark and his hair standing on its ends. Angie didn't need psychic powers to tell what he was feeling. "The ones who do all three and get away with it are the latter. If we arrested every criminal on the streets right now, we wouldn't have a city...because some of those criminals keep the trains moving and the cash flowing."

Angie slammed her foot against the dashboard. "What a crock of crap! So what? You just let those guys go free?! What bullshit!" Kai chuckled at Angie's declaration but, the humor stripped itself away. "Angie, don't be so naive," he sighed, "I'll put it candidly. A city where good people are good and bad people are bad doesn't run."

Kai stopped the car before a small laboratory-like facility his, gaze fixed firmly on Angie. "Listen to me." Kai gripped Angie firmly by her bare shoulders a, familiar mixture of fear and admiration cutting across his lips. "These new powers of yours have put a target on your back. Wherever you go, he will be watching and...I don't want that for you."

Stepping out of the car, the facility came into full view with its white porcelain paint and transparent dome roof that housed a forest worth of vegetation inside. The front door appeared high-tech and metal with some futuresque keypad sealing it shut. It was like some highly advanced greenhouse that doubled as a bunker.

"So I'm going help you lose it. Well, WE are going to help you but mostly me." Angie raised an eyebrow at Kai, perplexed by his motives. "Kai. Seriously where is this?" Kai pulled Angie into his chest and stepped toward the front door a, small camera emerging at his approach.

Kai leaned forward and stared into the small camera, allowing a red digital pane of light to gloss over his eye.

"KAI KEN. LEGENDARY DOUCHEBAG." The machine retched.

"Son of a-" Angie put a hand over her mouth forcing, the laughter to break through her fingers. "I get the feeling someone doesn't like you!" She giggled. "I get the feeling that someone's going to have a fist in their face..." Kai mumbled as the chromium door slid open, allowing the pair access.

Angie looked on in marvel at the size and variety of the greenhouse she entered with botany of all kinds and colors sprouting from the ground. Deep within the purple and orange foliage, the flora seemed to look back at her with thorned leaves and a myriad of aromas and pheromones. "This place is amazing! It's like something out of a national geographic!"

The floor was of dirt, and irrigation systems ran through it and into the exhibits around Angie, supplying them with life. She had stepped into another world and found herself compelled to continue as if pulled by some unseen force. The plants had whispers within their stems like thoughts unfinished and emotions unhoned. Someone could cut the human psyche into pieces and achieve this effect but, the power to do such a thing remained an enigma to her.

To know so much about the power she's barely tapped makes it feel more natural than it really is. Is it the power of men and life to understand others so thoroughly?

Angie ran her fingers down the golden pedals of a strange bush she'd yet to see in her lifetime. It smelled exquisite, and it tugged at her, begging her to liberate it from its domed prison. Perhaps she should? Just one leaf. Just...one...leaf. Just two leaves.

'Wait a second! What's going on here?!' She thought.

"Oi! Oi! Oi!" From beyond the foliage, a figure wrapped in a beekeeper's suit emerged from the bushes. The visor was tinted, so her face remained hidden, but from the way her hands glued to her head, Angie knew she was unhappy. "Kai, what the hell! You can't just bring people in here! C'mon you know the rules!"

Sternly the beekeeper stormed over to Angie and slapped her hand away from the fauna with surprising viciousness. "Back! Back!" Angie scowled and pulled her hand away, burning fury buzzing in her chest.

"You know what happens when people smell the flowers! Why if she had gotten any closer...Kai! Seriously what were you thinking!?" The botanist leaned in closer and whispered into Kai's ear, her voice soft and hidden from Angie.

It didn't matter. With these new powers of hers, whispering was ineffective.

'What the hell is he thinking?!' She snapped. 'He could have KILLED her!!'

Well, that's daunting.