Down Time

[The Future Warrior]

The early morning, artificial sunlight (something that was still a puzzle as to how that worked, exactly) filtered in through the window, barely managing to find a way to make themselves known through the shuttered blinds. Thin ribbons of amber poked through, falling over the floor under the window, across the bedside table, the (very messily-made) bed, and the small, blue creature sprawled haphazardly across it.

Despite having been back ‘home’ for quite a while now — all through the night, and a touch of the previous afternoon — after finishing her last assignment and parting company with her partners, she was still covered in dust, grime, and scorch marks from the rough and tumble events she had been wrapped up in. Thankfully, her unkempt appearance was the worst of it. Mercifully, she had gotten through the entire ordeal without much in the way of lasting injuries. A few scrapes, and a few walls with a little blue alien-shaped dent in them, a few blaster shots, but nothing that was any worse than what she’d already been put through in the past.

Despite that, it was all quite tiring, once the thrill and adrenaline had worn off. She had been a little out of it and had trouble making an accurate report when she went back to the EPD office where she had first gotten the assignment. Her boundless energy had lasted right up until they were returning to the upper tiers and she parted ways with Zedd while he went off to make sure his stormtrooper friend was alright after getting injured down below. And with the lack of energy came a profound feeling of just being tired. And with that pervasive feeling came the stern reminder: ‘You’ve been shot, kicked, punched, crushed, smacked into walls, electrocuted, and horribly abused and knocked around by aliens. That generally hurts.’

And once that thought clicked in her mind, she realized something: it did hurt. A lot.

It was lucky that she was used to fighting through a lot worse, so she could manage just fine. But wow, it was pretty telling that even something like the whole mess with the Vorticons down below could leave her so beat up. Back home, she wouldn’t even have broken a sweat about something like that! Though...that wasn’t saying much. Back home, she was pretty sure she could have just blown the whole Vortilaser and all the Vorticons away with one shot.

….and she was pretty sure she couldn’t sweat anyway, so couldn’t break one anyway. Whatever that meant. She’d just heard it around.

But now, here she was. Laying in bed, eyes only half-open as she stared blankly at the opposite wall. She didn’t really need sleep, so had spent the night more or less just sort of...there. Resting and letting the lingering aches and unpleasant pain from the scuffle ebb away. By the time the morning ‘sun’ jabbed at her night-sensitive eyes and forced her to blink and roll aside with a whine to shade her eyes from the glare, she was more or less all healed and pain free. A little stiff, from twelve or so hours of just lying just about completely still, and still covered in dust and grit, but injury and pain free.

Awkwardly she rolled over, first onto one side, then onto her back, to get out of the sunlight. Unfortunately, she overestimated how much more bed she had to roll over on, and ended up tumbling off the side with a surprised yelp. A rapid windmilling of arms, a rustling and flailing of dislodged sheets in a frantic effort to find purchase on something, and then gravity won out. There was a solid thunk and a dull “Oooow….” that followed shortly after. Bright pink (or maybe dull red, depending on who you asked) cracked open again, staring across the room toward the doorway of the bedroom, from the awkward vantage point of resting upside down, head-first on the floor.

“I miss flying…” she whined, as the sheet slowly drifted down and settled on her face.