xp_logs | When It All Goes Wrong Again

Angel also has a strange encounter. This time, with a seagull.

Angel gave her dad a brief wave before shoving her hands back in her pockets. It was cold here, but considering how cold home got you'd think she'd be used to it. Normally she'd be home, going her regular routine. But she had a swim meet tomorrow morning and her dad had an assignment so they just decided to go together. She kicked at the ground and wondered what it would have been like to live in New York if her dad had taken that job.

Weird, she thought. Really weird.

"And normal is fine by me!" she announced, wondering where the nearest hot dog stand was at.

"Pfft, normal."

Startled, she jumped slightly and then turned around. A bum eyed her before scurrying off and she shrugged. "Great, I'm the weirdo magnet today." Turning, she paused when she noticed a seagull staring at her. "Shoo."

The bird cocked it's head at her, and then pecked at a piece of donut in the sand.

"Whatever, you flying rat." Turning her nose up, Angel headed off again, only to hear "Normal?" right behind her. She twisted quickly, nearly toppling over but didn't see anyone but the stupid bird again.

"Oookay..."

It tilted it's head at her, then emitted a squawk before flapping it's wings and lifting itself to the fence in front of Angel. It shook itself and then said "You heard me, normal?" The accent was absurdly Brooklynish.

There was a cold breeze on her tongue and it took Angel a few seconds to realize that's because her mouth was hanging around her knees. She closed it with a snap and then reached out to poke the seagull. "Oh man. Dad always told me that eating that many CoCo Puffs in one sitting would turn my brain too mush but I thought he was kidding."

"Your father is a smart man," the seagull said, preening himself. "But you're brain's already mush," he looked back up at her, feathers sticking out of the corner of his beak.

"Hey now, you don't have to be insulting!" There was a long pause. "Aw, man, I'm arguing with a seagull. Should I pinch myself, is this a dream? Because, hello, talking seagull here. At least you should say "Mine, mine, mine"."

"Go ahead and pinch yourself if it'll make you feel any better," the seagull said. "Nice and hard. And when you're done with that, you can follow me." He flapped off the fence and landed several feet in front of Angel.

"I'd rather pinch you." Hesitantly, she followed and then paused, grinning. "What's the matter, Lassie? Is Timmie in the well again?"

"More like Timmy is stupid in the head, keep up girlie!" The bird flapped, bounced once, and took off. "Follow the birdie!"

There was a moment of hesitation and then Angel shrugged, running after the bird. In-between dodging people and wishing she could grab a hot dog, she managed to dig out her cellphone from her pocket. Wryly, she left a fairly apologetic text message to her dad--knowing he wouldn't get it for another hour or so--and then sped up.

"Wait up!"

The boys have made it to San Diego, and they spot someone very familiar. However, convincing her to come with them may be a little tricky.

Julio leaned on the railing of the pier, and stared not out at the ocean, but at the city behind him. It was all there, nothing wrecked or ruined, all the buildings were standing and the roads were clogged with traffic and not debris. He'd expected himself to feel more pissed off or upset, but he felt nothing but slightly incredulous a the whole situation. The loss of his power was bothering him way more than the fact that he was standing in the city he'd destroyed 6 months earlier.

The flying rat, Angel discovered, could move pretty quickly. Stupid wings. "Wait up!" she called, not out of breath as much as afraid that she'd lose sight of him. They were on a pier after all, seagulls bred faster than rabbits apparently. "Man, my dad is so going to kill me. I've got a meet tomorrow and I'm following you all around!...okay, so maybe this is better than staying in the hotel room but stiiiiill."

Forge looked out at the ocean, marveling at the odd feeling of newness and familiarity at the same time. Julio was being all introspective about the city, which made sense, but it was starting to get too whiny for his tastes. They were here to find someone, what were they expecting, just randomly running into one of their friends in a city of a few million?

Turning to ask Julio for ideas, Forge's jaw dropped as he saw a familiar shock of red hair running along the pier chasing seagulls. "Julio!" he gasped, poking his friend in the shoulder. "Juliojuliojuliojulio! Look! Look look look!"

"Dude, ow, what the-" Julio halted in mid-annoyed swat as the familiar flash of red hair passed both boys. "No way. There is just no way." Both boys traded looks, and then quickly started to follow her.

"Keep up, toots, my Granny can run faster than you, and she's only got one leg," the seagull called, flapping it's wings again to stay aloft. There were so many of these damn flying rats that it had to keep dodging. He looked behind himself again, both boys were now giving chase. Perfect. He flapped again and then landed on a secluded area of the pier, where the only person nearby was some drunk snoozing by his fishing pole.

"Why are you so mean to me?" Angel demanded, stopping in front of the bird in irritation. "I mean, you're so lucky I'm even following you. There's the no talking to strangers rule and, boy, if you aren't the strangest thing I've ever seen I don't know what is." She paused at the sound of footsteps behind her and looked over her shoulder.

"Angelica Jones!" Forge called out, waving to her as he ran along behind Julio. "Angel! Wait up!"

"Wait!" Julio threw an arm out and nearly clotheslined Forge in the process. He grabbed the boy by the shoulder and spun him around so they were facing away from Angel. "What if she does not remember? Like we did not remember until we met up in Nogales?" He looked back up over at Angel, who was staring at them like she was three seconds away from kicking one of them in the shins and yelling for the cops. "Sorry, just a second!" he said, smiling in what he hoped was calming manner.

As for the seagull, he preened his feathers and tried to look his seagully best.

"Ooo-kay." Angel shifted nervously, looking around the pier. It was just the two weirdoes, a bum, and herself.

And, oh, yeah. The talking seagull.

Turning her head, she hissed at it, "What are you trying to do? Get me mugged? Okay, well not by these two. I'm so totally not getting mugged by these guys but still. I'm so going to eat you for dinner if you get my wallet lifted. Mmm, roast seagull."

"Trust me kid, those two couldn't steal your wallet if you threw it at 'em."

Forge pondered, then looked at Julio. "Wait, what made us remember?"

"I have no idea," Julio said, blinking. "How did we do it? I mean, you were standing there talking to me, and I was sitting," he trailed off and scratched his head. "Huh. What do you remember doing?"

"...we shook hands."

"Um, hello?" Angel waved at the two boys. She'd gotten bored and the seagull wouldn't let her poke it. "Is there a reason you two were chasing me down the long and empty pier? Except for the bum. And the talking seagull. I've named it Bob. Say hi Bob. Anyway, what's going on and do I need to run screaming for the cops or something?"

Julio snapped his fingers at Forge. "That's it! We have to shake her hand! ...Er." He looked at Angel. "Uh, you do not know us, do you? Nothing about me--us is familiar? At all?"

She squinted her eyes and took them in very carefully, tilting her head this way and that.

"Nope, sorry."

"No big desire to jump him and go for a piggyback ride?" Forge asked hopefully.

"..." Angel opened her mouth and then shut it. "I don't think I've really got a response to that, you know? Besides no, that is." She shuffled backwards a tiny bit, not glancing behind her because she knew that there was an empty space she could jump and clear, easily getting into the water.

These guys were weirder than the bird.

Julio frowned and smacked Forge on the back of the head. "Hey, you want to scare her off?" He spread his hands apologetically to Angel. "Sorry, you know how he is. Uh, that is, you will know, or you do know but--" he sighed in frustration, "What I mean is. You might not know us, but you do. You really do. I mean, this," he gestured around him, "This is not real. See, this summer I blew this city up. And you set your mother's car on fire and we met in a school in New York and now we are dating and...Damn it, English is not my first language!"

"Ew, boys! Eeeww!" Taking a step back, Angel threw her hands up in the air. "Stay back! I know kung-foo! Hoo hah!!" She waved her hands at them all dramatically, with a few sound affects and then turned towards the water. "To sanity!" she yelped, preparing to dive off. God, she might need to get a shot after this.

Forge jumped forwards, silently praising the fact that somehow he had two functioning legs. "Julio! Left leg!" he shouted, reaching out for Angel's right ankle.

The boys were able to grab Angel before she took a flying leap off the pier and stumbled backwards, holding Angel upside-down in-between them.

Nearly bashing her head off the pier, her shriek was suddenly cut into a strangled gurgle as a flash of white ate at everything. Angel closed her eyes even though the light wasn't really there. When she opened them they were as wide as they could go as memories played through her mind.

Her dad, this morning, sharing his bagel with her before going off to do the photoshoot, telling her to practice for the meet. Her mom, frantically trying to put out the blue flames that didn't burn her. The bird; looking up at Forge from the lab floor; worrying about the meet; grinning at Julio over the soccer ball.

"Holy crap!" Angel flailed her arms smacking the boys in the legs. "Put me down! Down! I remember! Gah, put me down or I'll set you two on fire! Ooh god blood rushing to head..."

"If you could set us on fire, we all wouldn't be here," Forge replied, letting go of Angel's leg. "What's the last real thing you remember?"

Julio let go of Angel's other leg and held her waist as she steadied herself.

"Dizzy, so dizzy." Angel blinked at them both, feeling...weird. She clutched at Julio's hands on her waist. "I don't...we went on the field trip, whee education stuff yada yada. There was dinner and then, um..." She glanced Julio and blushed. "Stuff. And then I talked with Sooraya a bit before bed. Guys? What's going on?"

Forge pointed over to where the blue Versa was parked. "We're scattered. Clueless. Powerless. And the world isn't right. So we're kind of trying the 'what feels right' approach to solving this mystery. Have you seen anyone else you recognize?"

"I met him right after I crossed the border. The television talked to me and told me to go to San Diego. Five days in a bus across Mexico is a long, looong time." Julio jerked a thumb at Forge. "Something told him to go San Diego, and we met on the way. It is not chance that we met you, I think. Also, we have no powers."

Powerless? Yes...for the first time since the summer, she could feel the weather, feel the temperature and feel her body not respond to it, changing her internal systems. She shivered. "No, not until you guys." Angel frowned. "Just my dad but...I don't think...I think he's a part of whatever this is..." She waved a hand around.

And then she turned her attention over her shoulder, staring at the seagull. "Okay, Bob, spill." She had not, as of yet, let go of Julio.

The seagull had not moved at all as the students talked. It preened itself and then cocked it's head at them, staring blankly.

Forge looked at the seagull, then to Angel. "Riiiight. Okay, we have to figure out where to go next. Who's got an idea?"

"Oh no you don't, you little flying, talking rat." Moving away from the two boys, she suddenly poked the bird in the middle of the chest, forcing it to hop back a few steps. "Talk, you damned bird or I swear I will bite your head off!" Angel yelled, her temper raising its head to make the threat of her biting off his head a very real one.

"All right, all right! Sheesh!" the seagull exclaimed, flapping it's wings and backing further away from Angel. "Try to have a little fun and I get threats of death. No respect. Anyway." the bird turned and tilted its head at both boys. "Salutations, I'm amazed you two idiots made it this far."

Julio stared open-mouthed at the seagull in shock. "There...Angel, your seagull is..talking?"

"Wow, thank you Captain Obvious," the bird snapped. "Yes, I can talk. I've been trying to find a means of viable communication and this was the best I could come up with." He flapped his wings irritably. "Now, as to your predicament, perhaps you should check the yellow pages, hmmm? Supposed to have alla the answers, if you believe their commercials."

"Like, the actual dead-trees edition?" Forge exclaimed. "They still make those?"

Angel looked amused. "Yeah, I know, total stone age, Forge," she teased. She huffed at the bird. "Okay, yellow pages, got it. But you, Bob, are coming with us." There was a pause and she grinned. "A seagull was the best you could come up with? Well, at least whatever this is is going to turn out interesting. Okay, lets go find us a yellow pages."