Unicorns DO Exist! [The Ray]

[Gia Stevens]

Ah, thank goodness, school was over. She hated the darn place, honestly, and half the time, she wished she wasn’t there. The other half of the time, it was break, or she was in Chemistry class, and neither of those two really counted with her as the rest of school, in her opinion. Especially considering that they were actually fun.

But she waited for her friends, bag clutched in her hands, and as Brittney stepped up to her, brown cheeks dimpled, she smiled. “Hey!”

Her friend, ever smiling, nudged her. “Hay is for horses, remember?” she stated, the horrible pun easily rising to her lips, and Gia groaned mock-playfully, though part of her actually found it personally.

“My peeps!" Katie called them, swinging an arm around each of them as the redhead pushed her way between them, grinning. “What cool convo did I miss?”

“Horsetalk,” Gia deadpanned, before she and Brittney exchanged a look and burst into laughter at the utterly bemused expression on their friend’s face. Out of the three of them… Katie wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But they loved her anyway.

Shaking off the laughter, but still grinning, the blonde of the three spoke up. “So, any plans today? I was hoping we could do a study date for the math test tomorrow…” Simultaneously, they all pulled faces at the thought of working at their least favorite class.

At the moment, that was their biggest worry. Which, unfortunately, would change.

[The Ray]

Ray was never a teenager. It was one of the few things he lamented in his life, other than the passing of his father. He always knew it was 3:30 by the way a choir of girl voices rose to his bedroom window. Even behind blacked panes and drapes so thick that they could double as a pool tarp, Ray could hear them talking. This was back when Avril Lavigne was a thing and girls were rocking spaghetti strap tank-tops with striped ties. Ray watched a lot of T.V with the brightness on dimmed and listen to C.Ds that his dad would bring home by the box from the record store (when record stores were also a thing). This was in the two summers before Ray got an Imac for Christmas, where music was still something he listen on his old Panasonic eight-CD changer with the subwoofers. It was a halcyon days when he envied the normal kids, who could go out to school and hang out with their friends. This was the salad days of dreaming about girls his age and new converse sneakers.

Man, was he glad that those were gone.

The sun was a tangerine hue and a breeze rolled in from the sea that smelled of sea-spray and pickling. Ray had been standing underneath the Pegasus statute that dominated the outer quad of the campus, pack in hand to avoid the suspicious gaze of students and faculty. It was a little weird. Ray was young, but not young enough to pass for a seventeen year old. As he watched some Lettermen jackets cross east towards the parking lot, where their Audis and Sedans stood gleaming in the sun, Ray wondered if some of the seniors were old enough to be his boss.

He started with out asking around when they first emerge, but after a few rebuffs and one joke about his "man purse", Ray gave up. He would get the delivery or not, but at the end of the day, he would still get pai-...

The phone shimmied in his pockets. He pulled it out and read the text inscribed up on it.
GET TO WORK it read in a style so cold that it made him start looking around for camera. An image appeared in the next text and then the answering service went dead. He looked at the text than looked at the name on the package. "Katie Hearth." He said and then looked around.

She wasn't far, just coming out from under the H-shaped building to his right. She was walking with friends, chatting and laughing as they headed toward the corner. Ray caught them at a trot and then steadied on into a walk, waving the package in the air and calling out to the trio. " Hey! Over here. Yoo-hoo. Delivery and whatnot." Ray put the package in redhead's hand and pulled a stylus and his phone pocket. " Katie Hearth, right? Got a delivery for you. " He said, holding out the mock pen towards her, his phone's screen swiveled around to face her.

" Sign here. ", he said.

[Gia Stevens]

“I might be able to, I’ll have to call my parents first,” Brittney informed her, and though there was the usual pang that she felt when one of the others reference their parents, she smiled, nodding, and then turned her eyes upon Katie. The other opened her mouth to answer, probably about to completely slaughter the English language as she did so, before they were interrupted by someone running over to them, speaking to them.

A delivery? Katie blinked in surprise at the package placed in her hands, looking up at the strange man, and nodded. “Um, yep, totes me,” she told him, nonplussed, before handing off the package to Brittney to take the stylus, and with a quick flourish, she signed her name, incomprehensible as it would be to anyone else (Gia found herself feeling that green of jealously, as she didn’t have her own name down enough for her own signature).

The darker girl of the trio, meanwhile was inspecting the package, flipping it over in her hands. “Who’s it from?” she asked curiously, glancing between her redhead friend and the strange man, before resting on the former, dark eyes alight with intrigue.

The girl in question shrugged, and Gia took the moment to speak up, smiling. “Are you gonna open it now?” she asked, wondering if that was even allowed. Should Katie open a package from a stranger, whom they had no idea who sent it to her, without permission from her… parents? Maybe it was paranoia kicking in, which she felt was justifiable to have, considering her past, or lack thereof, but she didn’t want the other to open it.

Her silent doubts went unnoticed as Brittney passed back the package with a “Here,” and Katie looked down on it for a moment, before she glanced back up at her friends with a grin.

“Chillawesome ‘prise, right homies?” she asked, slaughtering the language and dumping its pieces all over the nearby graveyard, before she pulled on the flaps of the package, using her knee as a resting place. Surprisingly, it opened easily, and the whole trio crowded around, totally uncaring if the man was still there or not. The inside was… black, for lack of a better word, as if there were something shadowing the whole thing, and after an exchange of confused glances, Katie reached in, clearly intending to try to feel for it. It was when her whole arm up to her shoulder was in the box that they all paled. “It’s got no bottom!” Katie cried, eyes wide as she pulled her arm out, her slaughtering to a minimal.

Gia was about to turn and demand an answer from the man, if he was still there, when the box exploded in a flurry of white, horn, and horse, and the next moment, Katie was on the ground, bleeding from a cut on her arm and knocked out, and there was a giant horse standing in front of the two conscious girls.

No, scratch that, there was a horn on its head. THERE WAS A FREAKING UNICORN THERE OH MY GOD.

[The Ray]

Job done, headphones on, Wilco playing on the earbud speakers. Ray began to walk away.

He was turning his mind to where on his rout was he going. He had a delivery to make at 6 before he clocked out but that was hours away. He needed to keep busy to whittle those combination of minutes down to their appropriate length. Inevitably, his thoughts turned to food and he thought about going to that French restaurant in Belize or that Mexican place in San Fransisco. His stomach gurgled and a burp welled up in his throat, a hunger-bubble that popped as it reached his lips. He glanced to ensure that no one caught this particular gross humiliation just in time to catch sight of the unicorn as it emerged.

Someone scream. People began to run. The sudden sounds spook the pale white steed and it kicked out violently, coming up on it's front hooves and shooting back it's heels with the snap-back quickness of a thin switch. It's horn was copper-color, marred slightly with blood from where the point dashed up along the back of the girl's arm. Ray watched as it shook it's head, reeled about, let out a penitent wind and than charged down the campus with the sound of a boxful of coconut shells hitting the ground. The clomp-clomp-clomp of it's hooves followed behind it as it headed toward the football field.

"Crap sandwich." Ray said as he turned the light away from him, allowing him to change unseen amongst the gawking gaze of the students that still roamed the triage. He sprang out of the shroud of camouflage like the stream of a flashlight, his form consistent of pure gold luminescence that gleamed like a person-shaped sun. Ray rocketed down the field as the Unicorn crashed into the chainlink fence that surrounded it and swung his body in front of it just as the Unicorn jammed his horn thorough. The creature didn't lose a beat. " Whoa big fella! " was all Ray manage to get out before the thing speared clean thorough him.

Ray watched as he hung in a state between energy and matter, unharmed by the horn and yet somehow transfixed by it. He smelled chrysanthemums and the air tasted like warm cotton candy and suddenly...

...he was near the statute again. It took him a second to realize where he was. The sounds of screaming hadn't subsisted, but were simply farther away. The Ray slipped that switch in his mind that changed him from flesh and bone to light and thought. Without a second to spare, he went into the sky and right back into the fray.

[Gia Stevens]

Oh god oh god oh god oh god what should she do? Her thoughts were borderline panicked, especially as the unicorn charged away, and all she could think of was the fact that she wished she had that communicator that Beast Boy had wanted to give her, so she could call him. What superhero would think that anything was going on at a school of all places?

But something in her, some sixth sense, some remnant of her forgettable past, perhaps, reared its head, yelling at the frantic part of her to ‘Shut up, damn it! We’ve got people to save!’ and though it was likely the vulgarity that brought her out than anything more, something that would usually at least lend a pink tint to her cheeks, Gia felt herself calming, if ever so slightly.

Right. Just do… something, until the superheroes got here. She could do that.

“Brittney, take Katie to the nurse’s office,” she instructed her friend, and maybe it was the surreality of the situation, maybe it was the fact that Gia was standing up and taking charge for once, instead of letting herself be pushed around, and maybe it was the fact that the other was just numb from shock, but the brunette just nodded, picking up the limp Katie and swinging one of the redhead’s arms around her shoulder, and proceeded to half-drag, half-carry her.

It clearly wasn’t going to be quick, and Gia bit her lip slightly, wondering if she should help, as Brittney probably thought she should, when something, like a giant flash of light, sped by her, and she blinked, startled. What… was that?

Well, whatever it was, magic, hero, villain, who knew what the heck, it could be a danger to the school, and despite the fact that she wasn’t Terra, wasn’t a hero, and Beast Boy was wrong… she had to do something.

So, kicking off her mary-janes (which weren’t the best to run in), she sprinted in the direction that the unicorn had gone, sock-clad feet running quickly over the ground. She wasn’t a long-distance runner, no way, but she could sprint, and that was all that Gia needed right now.

And there it was! The monstrous unicorn, that was honestly terrifying the crap out of her, and making her wonder what kind of insanity she had, to do something so stupid like this… When it stabbed someone. A man, a glowy man, likely the light from earlier, but it had just freaking killed someone. Alright, that was it. Even though over half of her brain was freaking out so much.

Charging forward, yelling “Hey, pony!” as she did so, both because it sounded like something a movie hero would say, and just so she would be able to catch its attention, Gia ducked, using her lack of height to her advantage as she just barely managed to dodge the rearing head, skipping lightly away, and holding up her arms in a pitiful fighting stance.

Wait, why the heck was she doing that? Stupid idea!

So she did the sensible option: Began to run crazily around the field, unicorn following, to try and confuse it. It was sure confusing her at any rate.

[The Ray]

He pinged off the radio-spectrum like a celluloid ping-pong ball. Space-time became the table for him to splash-down, hitting particles of string like an errant basses of a cosmic funk band, slapping them down with an near-audible thrum. He needed to get there a little faster so he gave more of himself into the light, felt part of his mind slipping away, hoped that he wouldn't lose anything permanent or cherished. He emerged into the world a blinking, half-stunned man-child, until the sound of hooves shoveling dirt brought him to the circumstances. A few yards away was his prey, apparently in the process of running down it's prey, heading toward the goal post.

Ray leaped into the air, letting his body sink away into the photon highway while he let his mind float over the waves like a tip of an iceberg. He zipped over, arching in high over the steed and then dropping down in a swooping divebomb. He dropped his connection to the string-lines go and dropped bareback on the thing. It felt like someone stuck a hot poker in his coccyx. His spine turned into a post. His hands seized up. He couldn't feel his toes. He got control over himself enough to watch the thing lose it's mind. With him on it's back, it began to buck and stomp and toss it's head, trying to dismounted. It cut the air into ribbons with it's horns and Ray narrowly missed a few lucky swipes from it's aciculated horn. Ray tossed his head, check and arm back trying to steady himself when a sudden wild buck had him biting his tongue. MMFPH!" he screamed thorough closed mouth as the air around his finger shimmered and dance like firefly sparks.

He waved the strains of light thorough his fingers, passing them thorough the filter of his mind. He waved together a muzzle and leather straps out of pure amber luminance and below him he pictured a thick, glowing saddle to ease the chaff between his legs. Ray was almost done when the unicorn let out a shrill whine and finally kicked him off. Ray hit the field with a muffle thud, the grass becoming a piney bed under his neck. The blow rattled him and for a second he lost the hard-light projection of the saddle and reigns, which flickered and faded briefly as he stood up.

He felt drained, tired, bruised, and dirty all over. It would take him a minute to shake off the fatigue while he held on to the projection in his mind. For the time being, it would be up to someone else to climb on that colt and reign it in.

[Gia Stevens]

Her heart was pounding in her ears so loudly that it was a wonder that the Teen Titans hadn’t heard it and gotten here already, and her breath came in short gasps as she zigged and then zagged all over the court, headed steadily towards the goal at the end. Maybe she could do a feint, and then it could get its horn stuck in one of the posts? That was probably her best option at this point, what with the way it was gaining on her, rearing and running, and making those horse-noises that started with a ‘W’.

Gia couldn’t even think straight, at this point. She was pretty sure the only reason she wasn’t skewered was the fact that it was a little disoriented from… the whole ‘whatever’ of the box and stuff. But it was close, too close, and before she could turn around and face what was likely to be her certain doom (and she hadn’t even been able to remember, how sad…), when it suddenly wasn’t right behind her anymore, but making lots of noise.

Whirling around, wide-eyed, the young girl was shocked to see the very same man that she had just seen earlier, dead, on the bucking unicorn’s back. This day was officially the weirdest day ever. It couldn’t get weirder.

…Apparently, she had spoken too soon, however, as reins and stuff made out of… what appeared to be like, light, began to form on the unicorn, along with a saddle. Was the man a superhero? Was that why he wasn’t dead? Hope began to rise within her, because they could get out of this, everything would be fine, because there was a superhero helping them…

When the man got thrown off, and the equipment briefly flickered and disappeared, before it came back. It looked like he wasn’t going to be much help, it seemed, except for a distraction, as the unicorn bucked and roiled, and tried to get rid of the light binding it.

It looked like it was up to her. Taking a deep breath, hands clasped into tight fists, Gia darted forward, on the side of the distracted unicorn, before she leapt (unnoticed to her, her hands flashed, and a small bit of rock protruded under her feet, giving her a bit of an edge in her spring). She hit the side of the unicorn, half on, half off, and it was only the face that she scrabbled at the saddle that she managed to stay on, while one hand lunged for the reigns.

This was hard, so so hard, and Gia erased the thought that she was wearing a skirt when she managed to get her leg over the side, though she was still practically laying on the horned horse, holding on for dear life while her legs clamped firmly into the sides as the thing bucked, and she whimpered, biting her lip so hard it bled in order to prevent herself from shrieking in pure terror, before she realized it might not be a good idea. Didn’t want to bite clean through it, after all.

However, that thought cost her, for the unicorn bucked hard, and she did let out a shriek, shifting as her top half almost fell off it, and she pulled back on the reigns, hard. That’d reign it in, right?

…Right.