Pt. 089.f— Day 10 Naomi Challenge

The floor of a moving train lurched beneath Naomi before the light had finished clearing. She caught a seat back while Van struck the edge of the opposite bench with his thigh and steadied himself against a hanging strap. Beyond his shoulder, the windows flashed with daylight, concrete pillars, and the black shapes of passing signals.

One ceiling panel hung by its wiring. The seats beneath it had been slashed open, spilling yellow foam across the aisle, and a child's red shoe lay beside an overturned suitcase. Naomi checked the nearest doors. Van was looking past her toward the front of the car.

“There's something in the—”

She caught the reinforced front of his uniform and pulled him down behind a partition. A heavy shape moved beyond the glass of the connecting door. Naomi brought one finger to her lips, waited for his nod, then leaned close.

“Don't give away our position.”

In the car, just forward of their position, a claw scraped slowly down the other side of the glass. Naomi held still until the shape withdrew. Another passed behind it, low enough that she saw only the ridges along its back. She counted the movements, trying to distinguish two creatures from three, then abandoned the attempt. There were too many to get past in the narrow car.

She pointed toward the rear of the train and they moved between the seats in a crouch. Van kept one hand near her shoulder, ready when the carriage swayed. At the rear door she could see the rear car had been opened from outside.

Metal curled inward around a ragged breach in the wall. Two benches had come loose from their mountings, and the luggage rack above them was bent nearly to the floor. Through the hole Naomi could see the city sliding past beyond a shallow cutting. Claw marks scored the edges. Some kind of scorch marks covered the walls and floor.

Van looked from the breach to the door behind them. “They came in here. Do we keep going back?”

Naomi checked the adjoining rear car through its shattered windows. More empty seats and damaged luggage lead to a rear passage that had been blown open. There were no cars further back.

A scream reached them from the other direction, causing Van to turn. Another voice called something Naomi couldn't distinguish, followed by the rapid, uneven pounding of several bodies against metal. The people were ahead of the Alters.

She followed the torn window frame upward with her eyes. A bent section of wall projected far enough to offer a foothold beneath the roof.

Van looked up too. “You think we can go over?”

“We'll have to stay low, but it’s the only way to reach those people.”

He climbed onto the fallen bench and braced a hand beneath her boot. Naomi checked the edges before reaching higher; one section shifted under her glove, but the next remained solid. She pulled herself up until the wind caught her face, flattened against the warm roof, and searched for a seam she could grip. Her knee scraped over the edge. For several seconds she could do nothing but cling there while the train swayed.

When she could turn safely, she reached down. Van took her gloved hand and climbed after her, his boots scraping against the torn wall. They lay side by side until he had both legs clear. Naomi pressed her palm low against the metal and pointed forward.

Together they began to crawl.

---

The first gap between cars looked much wider from above. Naomi crossed with her weight kept low and one hand locked around a roof fitting. Van waited until she had turned to face him before following. She caught his forearm as he reached her, and they eased away from the edge.

They crawled over the car where they had arrived, then crossed onto the one containing the Alters. An impact beneath Naomi's hands stopped her. A second blow came farther forward, followed by a furious scramble and the sound of claws losing purchase.

Through a damaged ventilation cover she could make out a bent seat frame and the twitching end of a dark limb. Another creature passed beneath it. They moved in short, impatient bursts, throwing themselves at obstructions, retreating, then attacking again. Naomi waited until the nearest had moved away before continuing.

At the forward edge of the roof, she lay flat and looked down into the gap. The Alter car's exit door was bowing outward beneath repeated blows. Opposite it, across the coupling, faces crowded the glass in the next car's door. A woman held a little boy against her. An older man had both hands braced against the frame, while passengers behind him crouched between the seats.

Naomi drew back and caught Van's wrist.

“There are people in the next car,” she whispered into his ear. “The Alters are nearly through. We need to get onto the passengers' side.”

He followed her pointing hand to the narrow platform outside their door. Beside it, a recessed panel bore the outline of a control panel.

“I can try the emergency release,” she continued. “But we'll be in view while I do it. I need you down there first to help me off the roof.”

Van checked the handholds and the short distance between the platforms. “All right.”

They crossed the final gap together. He lowered himself over the passenger car's rear edge, boots searching until they found the deck, then held up his hand. Naomi swung her legs down.

A creature saw her through its damaged door.

Its shriek brought the others forward. The whole panel jumped in its frame. Van caught her at the waist and guided her onto the platform beside him; she landed harder than she intended, one shoulder against the passenger door.

“Stay back,” she told the older man through the glass.

She pulled open the coupling panel. The display woke beneath her fingers.

EMERGENCY RELEASE

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

Naomi brought her wrist transponder against the reader. A soft chime sounded.

VELVET

EMERGENCY ACCESS ACCEPTED

She had used those credentials at relief shelters and supply depots, usually with someone waiting to direct her to a reception room. Her thumb hovered over the confirmation. The machine had accepted her authority without hesitation, and now the older man was doing the same, drawing people away from the door because she had told him to.

Metal tore behind her. She pressed the release.

A heavy clunk sounded beneath their feet. At first the other car remained close enough to touch. Then, cut off from the powered front of the train, it began to fall behind. A strip of daylight opened between the platforms.

The damaged door burst outward.

Van seized Naomi's arm and flattened her against the passenger door as the Alter leaped. Its claws struck the deck where they had been standing. One hand caught the outer lip, and its body swung beneath them, slamming against the underside of the platform.

Naomi looked down into a snarling face. Van stamped on its fingers, tearing one claw free with a shriek of metal. The other hand tightened. She brought her own heel down beside his.

The fingers slipped and the creature fell away. It struck the trackside gravel and rolled out of sight beneath a cloud of dust.

ALTER DEFEATED

+1 VP

Van remained pressed against the door, breathing through his mouth. Several more shapes crowded the retreating car's broken exit, but the gap had grown too wide. One clawed at the frame while another shoved against it.

“Open the door, please,” Naomi said.

The older man fumbled with the lock.

---

Everyone tried to speak at once. Naomi stepped clear of the doorway so Van could get inside, then raised one hand.

“Please. One person.”

“The driver is dead, we think.”

The woman who had spoken stood beside a seat with her coat wrapped tightly around her. The sleeve beneath it had been eaten into uneven strips. As the others fell quiet, she looked toward the next car.

“They hit us coming into the city. Some other Empowered fought the bigger ones off, but they all fell out of the rear during the fight. Everyone else ran forward. We thought if we could reach the driver, he could call somebody, but something got there first. It was still in the cab when we went to look.”

Naomi kept her voice even. “Is it still aboard?”

“Outside now. It goes along the windows.” The woman swallowed. “It’s vile, I think it’s enjoying this. I get the impression it is just waiting.”

Naomi counted as she listened. Several dozen people, with children clustered in the middle and injured passengers seated where there was room. Bags had been piled against the windows.

“Has anyone been able to call the station?”

“Signals are down all over,” someone said.

“The conductor had an older radio,” the older man replied. “It stopped working.”

“But you can stop us?” The woman with the scarf leaned into the aisle. “What is your power? Telekinesis or something? Please?”

“No. That isn't what I do.” Naomi crouched enough to meet her eyes without making her crane upward. “I'm Velvet. This is Van. We're going to look at the cab and see if we can stop the train. Until then, I need everyone away from the windows, with room for us to get through the aisle.”

The woman nodded and began shifting her bag.

Naomi had was familiar with refugees and their needs. Her practical disaster experience was almost entirely helping panicked survivors. They always felt better with an Empower heroine in the shelter. They never knew that she had never fought one of these monsters before.

But helping the defenseless feel a bit better, a bit more like the world made sense? There was comfort in having a task she understood. She chose a teenager kneeling beside a little girl and asked her to gather the children in the central seats.

“Keep them low, and leave the doors clear. What's your name?”

“Anika.”

“Thank you, Anika. Ask one of the adults if you need help moving anyone.”

Van had crouched beside the boy from the door. The child was staring at the reinforced chest of his uniform.

“Are you a superhero too?”

“No,” Van said. “I'm just helping Velvet.”

The boy leaned forward. “But can boys have powers now? Did they find a way?”

He asked it with such immediate hope that Naomi glanced toward his mother. The woman lowered her eyes.

“I don't have powers,” Van told him. “I'm her assistant. We still get to help.”

“Do you fight?”

“When I have to. Today I've mostly been trying to keep up.”

The boy looked toward Naomi with a new interest. She touched the reinforced fabric at Van's shoulder before the questions could continue.

“Would you excuse us for a moment?”

Van stood and followed her toward the forward door. Naomi kept her voice low.

“I don't know whether I can stop this train. I can use emergency access, and I know the evacuation procedures. But I’ve never had to do this before. I need you to watch for that creature while I figure it out.”

He looked through the door's small window. “I can do that. And if there's something heavy to move or a door to hold, tell me. You don't have to work it all out before you ask.”

She glanced back at the passengers. Anika was moving a suitcase while the boy's mother helped a child climb into a seat. They had begun making room because Naomi had given them a reason to believe there would be a next step.

“We can't leave them here,” she said.

“I know. Let's see what we've got to work with.”

She rested her hand against the latch for a moment, listening. Then she turned to the passengers.

“We're going forward to the driving cab. Stay low and quiet. If you hear something outside, don't go to look.”

The older man came to secure the door after them. The little boy waved to Van, who raised a hand in answer before following Naomi through.

---

The smell reached her before she opened the connecting door fully. She covered her nose with the back of her wrist. A cloudy substance coated the floor of the front car, gathering beneath seats and along the wall, where plastic fittings sagged into soft, uneven shapes.

Van leaned close. “That's bad.”

Naomi pointed to a dry strip beside a row of seats. They entered one at a time, careful where they placed their hands. The windows had lost their glass, and pale residue clung to frames melted far enough to expose the layers inside the wall. Near the rear of the car, a table had come loose and toppled into the aisle.

She stepped over its leg as daylight vanished.

The wheels' rumble became a hard, enclosed roar. Emergency lamps swept past the empty windows, briefly illuminating the car before leaving it dark again. They were underground.

Something scraped along the outer wall.

Naomi dropped behind a seat and caught Van's belt to bring him down with her. Claws clicked against the window frame above them. A head lowered into the opening, its lambent eyes visible even between the passing lights. They moved over the ruined seats. A thread of viscous fluid fell from its mouth and struck the overturned table.

The surface hissed.

Van went rigid beside her. When the head lifted and its claws moved toward the next window, he bent close enough for her to hear him.

“Mine looks like somebody left a stuffed frog in the wash.”

Naomi looked at the smoking mark on the table, then back at him.

“I know,” he whispered. “I'm still staying out of its way.”

She pressed Van's forearm through the reinforced fabric. They slipped past two rows of seats as the creature moved toward the next window. A hand reached inside and caught a hanging strap, wrenching it free with a crack that made Naomi flinch.

She kept to the dry patches, measuring the distance to the cab while the creature tore at the window frame behind them.

Once Van caught a loose armrest before her knee could knock it down. He lowered it so slowly she could barely see his hand moving. She gave him a brief nod and led him past.

The cab door stood open. Beyond it, a uniformed arm lay motionless beside a console that had collapsed over the driver's lap. Naomi stopped at the threshold. Then she moved close enough to get a good look at the console.

The central screen had sunk into its housing. Switches stood in a fused mass, their labels lost beneath melted insulation. She searched the lower console for a protected control or access cover while Van tried the red emergency handle beside the door.

He pulled once, then harder. Nothing changed. The housing shifted beneath his hand.

Naomi shook her head before he could tear it free. Outside, the claws had stopped moving.

They crouched without speaking. A lamp swept past the window, drawing the creature's shadow across the cab entrance. Naomi saw the only part of the console that wasn’t melted. An analog radio mic. She reached up and turned the volume to the minimum, then stretched the cord and whispered into the hand-set.

“This is Velvet aboard the inbound train,” she whispered. “Can anyone at the terminus hear me?”

Static answered. She tried again, and a man's voice emerged beneath the noise.

“Velvet? You're on the train?”

“Yes. The cab controls are destroyed, and the emergency handle isn't responding. Can you stop us remotely?”

“Central operations can send an emergency braking command,” the man said. “The backup panel is on the upper concourse and Alters are everywhere. One of the Empowered is here, but there’s no way of knowing if she can get you stopped in time.”

Naomi closed her eyes for one breath. Something dragged along the side of the car.

“How long before we reach you?”

“Tracking's intermittent. Maybe ten minutes? Perhaps less.” His voice took a pleading note. “It’s not looking good, but we’re holding it together.”

Naomi glanced at the ruined console. That amount of time didn’t leave her with many options. There was no way to repair the console and it was only a matter of time before the Alter got bored and went to find victims.

“Tell your crew we're still moving and the cab's destroyed,” she whispered. “We're going to try to find a solution on our side, but have your people stay as far from our line as possible. If we don’t stop this train, I want you as far from the crash as possible. At the very least, we’ll separate the cars from the engine to reduce the size of the crash.”

“Understood. We'll stay on the channel as long as we can—”

A claw clicked against the nearest window frame. Naomi muted the receiver and lowered herself until the console hid her face. Van followed her down.

The creature lingered. She could hear fluid gathering in its throat. When it finally moved away, Van put his mouth near her ear.

“That was close. It’s time to leave, I think.”

Naomi looked down the aisle. “Stay close. We have to get the passengers clear before we run out of track.”

---

The Alter was searching near the middle windows when they left the cab. Naomi watched its shadow and waited for it to pass the overturned table at the rear of the car. Van stayed immediately behind her. They had almost reached the dry strip beside the seats when her boot slid.

She caught a seat back. The softened fitting tore loose, and her hip struck the floor. One leg went into the pool beneath the bench.

Fabric parted against her skin.

The injury she expected never came. Verena's replacement effect hit instead, abrupt enough to break her concentration completely. Instead of burning her skin, the fall made a heat blook in her core, spreading down between her legs and sending a bolt of pleasure racing up her spine. She lost a vital second trying to understand the response of her own body.

She gasped involuntarily and the scraping outside stopped. Van caught the back of her uniform and pulled her upright as the Alter came through the nearest window. Its shoulders folded to fit the opening. One claw struck the floor, then another, and its head rose toward them.

“Run!”

Naomi shoved Van toward the rear door. The creature's spray struck the seats behind them and splashed across the aisle, eating through fabric and plastic. Droplets caught her back. Van stumbled as several struck his exposed upper arm.

MASTER PROTECTION COMPROMISED

Protection Award Remaining: 2/3 VP

She hauled the connecting door open. Van tore a loose maintenance panel from beside the partition and lifted it behind them as they backed onto the coupling platform. The next spray struck metal.

“Get the release,” he said.

Naomi ducked behind his shoulder and reached the control housing. Through the passenger door opposite, the older man stared at her. She motioned him back, pressed her transponder to the reader, and waited.

Nothing happened.

She wiped the panel with her glove. Acid had run across its upper edge; beneath the cover, the display was blistered. The release button sank into softened plastic when she pressed it.

Behind her, the Alter struck Van's shield. Metal banged against the frame of the front car's open doorway. He shifted his boots on the narrow platform and pushed back, holding the creature inside.

“Naomi?” His voice was a rising cry.

She tried the control once more. A corner of the display broke beneath her thumb.

Through the passenger door, Anika was gathering the children away from the glass. The little boy kept looking back. His mother caught his hand and pulled him behind the seats.

Naomi turned to Van. A thin hole had opened near the center of his shield. He angled it away from his face, but the next spray would come through.

The coupling release was ruined. Behind the glass Anika drew the last child away from the door, but the Alter was already eating through Van's shield. Naomi could not take the creature into that crowded car.

She pulled off one glove with a frantic motion.

“What are you doing?” Van asked.

The second caught at her fingers. She dragged it free and dropped it. The Alter lowered its head and began drawing breath.

“Stay down Van!”

“Naomi, wait—”

She slipped past the edge of his shield, crossed the threshold into the front car, and charged.

The spray caught her before she reached its arms. Her uniform gave way across the front. The filter kept her skin intact, but its accumulating effect made the aisle tilt in her vision. She nearly lost her footing. Behind her, Van shouted her name.

Naomi drove forward before she could stop and locked both hands against the creature's sides.

Her power opened. That ready hunger that had been so long denied roared with delight as she unleashed it on the Alter.

The Alter struck her shoulder and tried to wrench her away. She held on, fingers slipping against its skin, and worked one arm farther around its waist. The first seconds brought scarcely enough energy to help. Its hand closed over her wrist, and she had to lean her whole weight into the hold to keep it from breaking her contact.

The Alter’s confidence was caught in the gravity of her hunger. Its own strength began to flow out like her delicate fingers had punctured all the way to its heart. Her own breathing steadied. The effort in her arms eased. She braced for its next movement and kept her feet when it tried to throw her sideways.

The restored stamina let her hold tighter. She still had to force her attention back to what she was doing. The rushing vitality flowed through her hands into her body, fighting against the strain and fatigue caused by the thrashing monstrosity. Her body, tender skin pink from the gout of acid, thrummed with increasing lust.

The building need was entirely divorced from the slime coated inhuman thing in her grasp, but built steadily every second she held on. The creature dragged her into the overturned table near the rear windows. One of its legs scraped across the floor. Naomi wedged her boot against a seat mounting and held its waist while it clawed at her wrist. Despite her growing strength, the seemingly inexhaustible vitality of the Alter wasn’t low enough to let her overpower the thing.

Van slammed into it from the side.

He had dropped the shield on the platform and followed her back through the doorway. One arm hooked beneath the Alter's raised limb; his other hand drove against its shoulder, turning it toward the empty window beside the table.

“The window,” he screamed.

Naomi tightened her grip and pushed with him. They moved it a step. When it tried to wrench free, Van leaned farther in, pressing his bare upper arm against her exposed shoulder.

A second current entered her, smaller than the first.

Van's breath caught. Naomi tried to separate their skin without loosening her hold on the creature, but its hand was still locked around her wrist. She could move with it or let go.

MASTER PROTECTION COMPROMISED

Protection Award Remaining: 1/3 VP

“I know,” Van said through his teeth. “Keep moving.”

His voice had lost some of its force, but he held his footing. Naomi pushed again, making the creature stumble far enough to break its grip on her wrist. She shifted her shoulder clear of Van as its hip struck the sill.

The Alter clawed at the wall. Its movements had grown uneven, and the effort beneath Naomi's hands was dwindling.

“On three,” Van said. “One. Two. Three.”

He drove upward beneath its arm while she shoved from the waist. The creature tipped through the empty frame. Naomi released it and stumbled back. For a fraction of a second one claw scraped along the inside wall.

It let out a shrieking wail as it fell beside the train, then it was gone.

ALTER DEFEATED

+1 VP

A chime sounded above them.

“Emergency braking command received. All passengers, remain seated. Emergency braking is engaging.”

The wheels changed pitch. Van caught an upright pole with one hand as deceleration carried them toward the front of the car. He guided her down behind the overturned table, keeping its solid edge between them and the empty window.

Naomi listened to the wheels. The gaps between passing tunnel lamps grew longer. Through the rear connecting doors came several voices at once, followed by Anika telling someone to sit down.

“They made it,” Van said.

She nodded, scarcely trusting herself to answer. The occupied car was still attached, but the crew had reached the backup controls in time. The wheels were slowing beneath them.

Van eased down beside her. His face was flushed, and he was breathing harder than he had before the grapple. He made a show of looking determinedly at the ceiling as she warped her arms around her knees, to cover as much of her nudity as possible.

“I’m sorry I drained you,” Naomi said.

“Don’t be, we beat that Alter together. I have a screaming voice in my head demanding extra curricular activities, but I’ll be fine.” He looked away, embarrassed. “We’ll do better next time.”

Next time. She looked at him, then down at her shaking hands. They had worked together badly in places, well enough in others, and he was already considering how to do it better. She had spent so long ending contact as quickly as possible that she scarcely knew what to say to someone willing to discuss it as a practical mistake.

“How’s the Power Valve?” he asked.

Her first impulse was to reach for the remnants of her uniform, to cover the places another person might touch. She stopped herself. The exposed surface gave her room to spread the pressure; concentrating it behind more fabric would make this harder.

The train shook around her, Van was close enough to reach, and the enchantment kept pulling her attention away. She tested her control. The tattered remnants of her uniform were no real obstacle, the power’s hunger was still unsated but nonetheless responded readily to her commands.

The pressure eased. Naomi held the change through the next sway of the car. When she was certain, she lifted her head.

“Yes.”

Van let out a breath. “Good,” he reached out and took her nearest hand in his. “You were great today, Naomi. Don’t get lost in the parts that hurt.”

The wheels gave one final, prolonged squeal.

For several seconds Naomi heard only the ventilation and the uneven sound of her own breathing. Then the passengers cheered.

---

Van sat with his back against the seat mounting, one knee drawn up. A dark streak crossed his cheek, and the edge of his reinforced chest panel had begun to curl where acid struck it. Naomi shifted away from a cloudy patch on the floor and looked through the open rear doorway toward the passenger car.

The older man appeared at the glass. She raised her hand so he could see her. She stayed hunched on the floor, using the overturned furniture to block the passenger’s view of her barely dressed state.

“The train has stopped,” she called. “Stay inside until station staff reach you. There may still be Alters in the tunnel.”

He nodded, pressing a hand over his mouth before turning to the others.

“Give yourself a second,” Van said.

She reached back out and took his hand again. His fingers settled around hers. She watched their hands for a few seconds, waiting for the familiar need to reappear. Waiting for warmth to become weakness. It didn’t. The new control she was building stayed firm.

“I'd like to sit closer,” she said.

The two of them were struggling with unaddressed needs, their bodies screaming for relief now that the danger had passed.

He shifted to give her room, then paused. “I want to as well. But I can't think very straight right now, and I don't think you can either.”

She looked at his face. The strain she had been trying to ignore in herself was there too.

“Hold me, please,” she said. “I don't want to be on my own for this part.”

“Okay.”

She leaned against him carefully. His arm settled around her shoulders, and she checked the valve once more before allowing her head to rest against him. The powerful arousal still hammered at her senses. Every breath caused stiffened nipples to rub against the tops of her thighs where she still hugged herself. She concentrated on keeping her hand still in his and listening to the voices from the next car, trying to ignore the throbbing need.

A child asked whether they could get off now. Somebody laughed while somebody else cried. The older man began repeating Naomi's instructions, louder this time, until the others quieted enough to hear him.

Gold light formed above the aisle.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

ALTERS DEFEATED: 2

MASTER PROTECTION: 1/3 VP

CHALLENGE AWARD: 3 VP

Neither turned to read it. Naomi was listening to Van explain, in a low, tired voice, that he hoped the others had an easier time of it.

A pale light spread across the floor. By the time Naomi noticed it, the overturned table had begun to disappear. She tightened her fingers around his as the train vanished.