Rifts (12) : Maybe it’s a trick of the eye. Maybe it’s a firework, or it’s too hot and you’re seeing things. Maybe something is actually just wrong. Strange tears are appearing throughout the city, as though something has clawed right through reality. Maybe you can’t exactly see it, but you definitely feel it. There are strange, cold pockets, and random air currents even in closed rooms. These strange rifts either appear transparent or, if you are close enough, you might see a strange blackness inside. Sometimes you can make out a strange sound, like a croak or a wail, but nothing ever comes out. There’s something magnetic about these weird rifts and it’s almost as if they’re trying to suck you up. They appear and disappear randomly, and quickly, and never show up on film.
Alright, so this had been pretty stupid.
Sawtooth threw a quick glance behind his shoulder, trying desperately not to be conspicuously agitated in front of his little girl, but he couldn't help it. Something in the air felt wrong. He kept seeing something out of the corner of his vision, kept feeling a dense, cold gust in the middle of the summer afternoon, kept hearing an uncanny sound that he couldn't identify. Maybe Zero heard, saw, and felt it, too, and she just didn't know yet which things were 'normal' to feel while powered and which weren't.
This wasn't, and Sawtooth immediately felt a little stab of frustration for the Mauvian who kept impressing upon him and his husband that they simply couldn't deny Zero the ability to power up! They were scared for her; Miros understood that, but giving her access to her senshihood now would better prepare her for later, if she ever needed to fight.
Thad insisted she wouldn't need to fight.
Eli wasn't sure how much he agreed.
Maybe that was what made him the teeniest, tiniest bit belligerent and subsequently more amenable to the guardian's suggestions. Zero wanted to power up, and it was good for her to be prepared! Sawtooth might just be a page still, but he could protect her (because man stuff, man things, do fight, overpower, win! He wasn't some weakling) from anything that might come at them! He'd be able to feel the danger before he saw it, giving him an edge in getting away from it.
And Zero should learn what to sense and when to flee. Sawtooth told himself he just wanted to help her learn, and this definitely wasn't him trying to prove to Squire Regal that he was more than capable of protecting their daughter.
So Eli and Teyla had gone out and powered up into Sawtooth and Zero.
It wasn't late, yet. The sky was hardly even dark, so there wasn't much to sense by way of Negaverse or youma auras, but Sawtooth was still happy to let Zero run and jump and play among the trees in the little forest at the edge of their neighborhood. It wasn't hurting anything, and she was having a good time! It was just when he started to feel something he didn't recognize that Sawtooth got anxious.
"Zero, Zero." His voice was a quiet growl at first, as if trying not to attract attention, but once her focus was on him, it dropped even farther. "Do you want to do a secret?" He whispered, trying to impress upon her the seriousness of his question while hopefully being playful enough to not frighten her. "If you can promise not to tell Daddy, we can go to Papa's world, okay?" A cool gust blew, and his teeth clicked together, aqua eyes scanning the shadows in the trees. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
But whether there was or wasn't anything here, it would be safer on Sawtooth.
"Don't you want to see it? We can practice spells there, okay? And you won't have to be quiet like you gotta be here. But you can't tell Daddy because he'll be very mad at us, for- Because he wants to go to, and he'll be sad we didn't invite him, okay? Sound good?"
