Nova Artino is your Worst Nightmare (littlenightmare) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-07-23 11:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, michael guerin, nova artino |
Who: Nova and Michael
What: Nova and Michael vs. The Earth Giant
When: June 25th, during the Enchanted Fog plot
Where: Out of this World Mechanics and the surrounding area
Ratings/Warning: Low/none, mostly. Language.
Status: Complete
It had been a strange few days in Orange County. And not just because one of the guys he was sleeping with lost his leg from a damn dream. No, on top of all that there was snow. In California. In June. Followed by some strange fog and then the power going out. Michael was not at all pleased. But he still had a job to do so he was at the shop working on cars, luckily he didn’t need power for that.
“You feel the earthquake this morning?” he asked Nova from his position underneath the car. The earthquake was at least the most normal thing to happen lately.
Nova didn't really know what to make of all of this. She had only just accepted the dreams as real a month ago, and now all of this, apparently caused by the woman on the Network.
It was unsettling to say the least, and Nova didn't want to be alone at her own place right now. She had only just moved into the tiny townhouse, and she still wasn't used to living apart from her Family, but she didn't especially want to be with them either. When she'd gone back home, she'd found the entire place in disarray. Honey had been wailing about the lack of power, and Ingrid had been punching things - Nova was pretty sure she'd said something about fire or her explosions not working, though that hadn't made any sense.
Which meant Out of this World Mechanics, which, luckily, was still operating. Maybe if she was lucky, Michael would let her use one of the spare car batteries to power some of her tools so she could work on something. Maybe he'd even let her take one home so she could rig it up as a small generator.
"Yeah," Nova said from where she laid on the cement beside Michael, holding a flashlight to illuminate the undercarriage for him. "Though, if you ask me, that's the most normal thing to happen this week," she added, unintentionally echoing Michael's thoughts.
“Tell me about it,” MIchael said, tightening a bolt underneath the car. “At least earthquakes are supposed to happen here.”
As if on cue he felt the ground move again, just faintly. It didn’t exactly feel like another earthquake but… “You feel that?” he asked, sliding out from under the car.
Nova frowned, and was out from under the car quick. “Maybe we shouldn’t be working under cars while there’s so many earthquakes,” Nova said slowly, though something didn’t feel right about that earthquake. It only lasted for a second. And then the ground shook again, only lasting for a moment then, too. It was almost like footsteps.
But that didn’t make any sense at all, and she shot Michael a questioning glance before making her way to one of the windows of the shop. There wasn’t much to see, just a wall of impenetrable fog, but then, from somewhere in the fog, a large shadow began to emerge, getting clearer with every small earthquake, until a grey mass, nearly indistinguishable from the fog except for the moss that grew on it, appeared.
“Sweet rot,” Nova breathed. “What is that?”
That was probably a good idea. Not that Michael was expecting more earthquakes. But then the ground shook a bit again. What the hell. His brow furrowed, he followed her over to the window, watching as the giant rock thing grew closer, becoming visible from the fog.
“Shit,” Michael commented. “We should probably get out of here.” But where the hell could they even go? Still he felt the urge to keep Nova safe. She was his employee after all and still fairly young.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Nova muttered, except she didn’t move. Partly because it looked like the giant was headed straight toward Out of This World Mechanics. Surely it would veer off at any moment and go crush some other building. One where Nova hadn’t already started feeling like she belonged. She’d only worked for Michael for a couple weeks, but already the shop felt like a place of her own - somewhere away from her Family, but not as lonely as her townhouse.
But it didn’t look like it was turning aside, and Nova’s mind was already running through every possibility. “It looks like it’s headed straight for us,” Nova muttered.
“Shit,” Michael said again. That thing would surely plow through the shop, ruining one of the only things he had in his life. The garage and his trailer. That was all that really mattered to him. He couldn’t imagine losing it.
He rubbed his hands over his face trying to think of something he could do. A way he could save the garage but nothing was coming to him. “Fuck,” he said the distress clearly evident on his face.
Nova grimaced at the sound of the giant crushing one of the cars at the edge of the lot, trying not to think too hard about the fact that the giant’s foot easily covered the entire car. She had to do something.
The giant seemed slow moving enough. It was difficult to calculate its leg span, or what distance it could cover with a single step, but as the giant crushed a second car, she quickly abandoned her calculations.
She ran out the back of the garage, picking up exhaust pipes, wrenches, and other tools as she went, and once she was close enough that she thought her aim would be true, she hurled them at the giant. Her first couple throws bounced ineffectually off the giant’s broad chest, but her third throw somehow managed to hit it in the face.
It paused, mid-step, and Nova jumped on top of a car and screamed, waving her hands until it looked down at her. Then, she threw the last wrench in her arms, nailing it in the eye.
It let something like a roar, one that shook her right to the bones, and Nova wondered if this was a smart idea. It was too late for that now. She took off, jumping from hood to hood, until she reached the fence at the edge of the lot and jumped over it.
She stumbled a little when she hit the pavement on the other side, but then she was off, running with all her might, hoping that she was faster than the giant, though she didn’t dare look behind her to check for sure.
Before Michael could even fully process what was happening Nova was out of the garage throwing whatever she could at the giant and yelling to get it’s attention. Michael wasted no time taking off after her. Only he was a little late, by the time Michael had almost caught up she was jumping over the fence. Something that Michael did as well, only he was yelling louder and running off to the side, yelling even louder in an attempt to draw the giant to him instead of Nova.
The rock giant managed to catch up to him, swatting him aside and sending Michael flying in the air. He landed on his left side, bracing himself with his already hurt hand which was not hurting even worse.
Nova did look behind her when she heard Michael yelling. “What is that idiot -” Nova started, and then grimaced with shock and horror when he went hurtling through the air. He should have just stayed in the shop. She was leading the giant away, they both didn’t need to.
She glanced around her quickly, and spotted an older model car parked on the side of the street. While the giant was distracted by Michael, she smashed the driver’s seat window in with her elbow, gritting her teeth against the numb shock that travelled to fingers as she struck her ulnar nerve, unlocked the door, and pulled it open. It only took her a couple seconds to hotwire the car, and then she was slipping in on the glass-covered seat and gunning it back toward Michael, weaving between the giant’s legs and pulling up next to him. She flung open the passenger side door. “Get in!” she shouted, glancing through the back window at the giant and hoping he’d still be able to move after taking a blow like that. She didn't think she had time to get out and pull him into the car.
Michael didn’t even care that Nova had just stolen a car. He would have done the same if he had a chance. He wasted no time getting into the car. He was not about to get thrown by that thing again. “Thanks,” he breathed once he was safely inside with the door shut.
“Alright, hold on tight,” Nova said, putting the car into reverse. She looked over her shoulder as she ran into the giant, making sure to grab its attention. And then she was shifting the car into drive, and was taking off as fast as she could, hoping the giant would follow her away from the shop.
“Jesus,” Michael breathed when Nova crashed into the giant. But he had to admit leading it away from the shop was a good idea. His instinct to hire her had been spot on.
Luckily, while the giant had a long stride, it wasn’t especially fast and Nova was easily able to outpace it. She wondered if it would keep rampaging, and then realized it really wasn’t her business to worry about that. What could she do anyway, except throw wrenches at it and crash cars into it?
Nova Artino didn’t have her license. Nova McLain did, but it was mostly just a card in her wallet; she’d never taken a drivers test. Leroy had taught her to drive when she was 13, but he’d never had much use for things like driving laws. Stop signs and red lights were more or less meaningless, and speed limits were really just an annoyance. Once she thought she’d put enough distance between them and the giant, she did slow down, but her driving could still have definitely been described as reckless.
“What were you thinking?” Nova asked, turning toward Michael and scowling. “I had it handled!”
“What were you thinking?!” Michael countered though he wasn’t feeling all that safe in the car with Nova. He might have been safer if he stayed and faced the giant himself. “That thing could have smushed you!”
Nova really wasn’t sure where she was going at this point. The giant had lost them and was rampaging off in another direction. For a moment, Nova felt bad about that, before forcing herself to remember that she’d done what she could to protect what was hers, and that was all that could be asked of her when there were giant rock giants wandering around.
She pulled onto the sidewalk to maneuver around some slower traffic, and then turned to head back toward the shop, hoping there wasn’t much more damage than she’d noticed.
“It wouldn’t have though,” Nova said. “I could have lost it just fine on my own. It could have smushed you.”
“You’re supposed to drive on the road.” Michael could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth. When did he become the responsible one? His whole life he had been the trouble maker that no one gave two shits about. And now here he was protecting a kid and lecturing her how to drive.
“Better me than you,” Michael commented, shrugging his shoulders. No way in hell was an employee going to get hurt on his watch.
“There were people in my way on the road,” Nova deadpanned, as if that should have been obvious. And there was the shop, still standing, even if a couple of the cars in the back had been flattened. Once Nova ended up in front of the shop, she slammed on the breaks hard enough that her body lurched forward, though she’d already braced herself against the steering wheel.
“I don’t see how that’s better,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “I can’t run the shop.”
“Yeah,” Michael replied. “That happens sometimes.” He knew she was old enough to drive, though he probably shouldn’t have assumed she was good at it. But whatever, it had been a crazy situation.
There was a look of relief on Michael’s face when he saw the garage was still intact. A few customer’s cars had been destroyed but it could have been worse. He’d just have to figure out what to do about his customers later. “But you’d be alive,” Michael countered getting out of the car, still needing to fully inspect the inside of the shop. “Doesn’t matter now.” It was done with.
Nova frowned to herself, wondering what exactly Michael had meant by that comment? Surely, he wasn’t implying that it’d wouldn’t be any big loss if he weren’t alive. But Nova didn’t really know how to respond to a comment like that. It wasn’t like she had a lot of experience with people in general.
So, instead, she just got out of the car, glad to see that everything seemed to be intact. “Just so you know, I’m not going to be calling the owners of those cars,” she said.
“Yeah,” Michael said with a sigh. “That should probably be something I handle. Why don’t you go check all the cats and get me a list of who needs to be called?” And then Michael would get to make all those fun calls. He was definitely going to need a drink tonight.