A Strengthening Bond

It was morning again, just like how the day started yesterday, and all the days that came before. Get up out of bed, be subjected to whatever the day had in store, go back to sleep, then wait to be subjected to tomorrow. Everyone must wake up, face the day, then go to sleep, all must go through the cycle of life.

This was of course if the person was not Mira Petrov. Twenty two years of silent suffering. She had done everything in her own power to avoid being subjected to the day over the years. She went many days without sleep over the years. Her routine was different to the routines of many. Her cycle of life was not of life, but pain.

But yesterday, a day that could fit in a dozen days tenfold, forced a deviation from that routine, it forced Mira into deep sleep. She barely entered deep sleep these days, and when she did, she never dreamed of anything. She was doing all the things she should NOT be doing to fight her nightmares and night terrors. No one can know how she stays up or why she stays up. No one can even know the fact she pulls all-nighters four times a week.

Yet, for a brief moment in time, as quick as a human eye could blink, Mira had a dream. It was at most a split second-long, but she did dream, and it flipped her carefully crafted routine upside down. That split-second-long dream tore her mind apart. Only during that split-second she understood what she saw. But she no longer understood what she saw. That’s what was driving her mad, awareness of something beyond her understanding.

Blink.

Mira flinched.

That one blink specifically, echoed, literally. Mira was given another split-second of the understanding within that one single blink, the understanding she lacked after the first split-second dream had ended. It was almost as if it knew she carved understanding, and it listened. But once again, like before, she no longer understood what she saw. She remembered and understood. She still remembered, but no longer understood.

“What was it!?” Mira thought to herself, screaming inside of her mind, the screaming that was not heard by outside ears. Was what she was seeing yet again something that was to add onto all the other horrors from the past she was still dealing with.

Sven and Time Steve teleported to Mira’s house with the greatest urgency. The entire village cluster was exposed to a dreamy vision, by an entity that they only know as the name Hypno Steve gave it. They know nothing about this entity, and it was causing chaos in the village cluster. Mira, already having a fragile mind, if exposed she would be psychologically melting down.

The small but very tall boxy wooden house of four floors that stood at the top of an overarching mountain, was separate from the rest of the village cluster. But it did have a very nice view, a view that most will never see in their lifetime if they never lived near or on mountains.

“She does appear to trust you from what I've seen.” Time Steve said to Sven. “You should probably knock.” He then suggested.

Sven nodded. “Alright, wait behind me.” He responded, then walked up the small flight of steps, then went left with one side-step before fully turning to face the left, where the front door was. He began knocking carefully, with a very specific rhythm, a ‘safe key’. Mira wouldn't answer unless her door was knocked with that specific rhythm.

“Mira? Mira!?” Sven yelled, his tone being of someone very concerned. “Mira!?” He raised his voice, knocking harder with more force.

“Yeah uh- sorry but you'll destroy the door the way you're knocking-” Time Steve pushed Sven out of the way. He put his right hand over the lock, and reversed the state of the lock back in time, to a moment in time when it was unlocked.

“Oh shit- MIRA!” Sven pushed Time Steve out of the way and dove onto the wooden floor, next to Mira who was unconscious. “Mira!” He exclaimed, shaking her with both of his hands.

Time Steve crouched down and in his right hand was a golden chronometer watch, which he held over Mira’s head.

“She's been out for ten minutes.” Time Steve stated. “My dimension is in ruins, but I'll see if I can find anything that's still there that could help.”

“You reversed a whole fucking landscape in time-”

“Profanity!” Time Steve exclaimed, impulsively interrupting Sven.

“Sorry but I'm worried as she's my best friend- but what I was trying to say is- can't you just reverse the state of her back in time!?” Sven yelled, panicked for Mira.

“Yeah but she may be seeing or has seen something that'll help us whatever this all is- reversing her state back in time could make it so she never even experienced any of this-” Time Steve explained his reasoning for not reversing Mira’s state back in time.

Then outside, a flash, followed by two Red Steves appearing in front of the overhang’s stairs outside. One of them looked like just one of the regular inhabitants in the village cluster. The other Red Steve had a set of black goggles with orange lenses above his eyes, and wore a black shirt with white overalls on top.

“We detected a massive psychic attack. From my data, it came from under this mountain.” The Red Steve wearing scientist clothing stated aloud, loud enough so Sven and Time Steve heard them from inside.

While the one with scientist clothing waited outside, the other Red Steve entered Mira’s house.

“Recon?”

With both hands, the Red Steve that was wearing the commonplace saturated-red clothes was holding an item that vaguely resembled a handheld signal jammer, just that it was bigger and looked like an old-fashioned radio. With a single press of a button, the device began beeping on repeat like an alarm. Within seconds, Mira awoke, springing up off the floor like a jack-in-the-box. She was very dizzy as she got up, visually obvious by her misplaced steps.

“Quick- get out!” Sven ushered, grabbing Time Steve and the Red Steve, pulling them out of the house through the door. Mira had always been a bit funny with letting people into her house. The only person she felt comfortable coming into her house was Sven.

Very quickly, the two Red Steves didn't teleport away, but walked off. They walked down the mountain’s steep incline terrain.

“Pretty sure that wasn't Recon… something about their energy signature seemed… off.” Time Steve picked up on something about the Red Steve that Sven thought was ‘Recon’.

“Their body felt metallic too.” Sven pointed out. “I don't know, but something didn't seem right when I felt that.” He then shrugged.

“It's like… they're mimicking energy signatures. We need to keep an eye on that guy.” Time Steve said with great concern in his voice.

Sven nodded. “I know the Red village sector has a professor aspiring for the Professor Red generational title. But no one really knows much about him, even the village. Perhaps he's just a robotic assistant.” He then shrugged.

“I don't know.” Time Steve shook his head. “Something tells me that ‘Red Steve' is more than just a robot.”

“Is it okay for you to go for now?” Sven requested. “I think she's more likely to talk if it's just me around.”

“Yeah, sure.” Time Steve nodded. “I'll go and check with Recon and Rose while you do that.”

With a deafening orchestra of lightning, Time Steve disappeared, he teleported. Sven turned around and found Mira sitting on the sofa in the far right corner of the living room, opposite to the front door.

“What happened?” Sven asked calmly. “According to the Time Steve guy, you were knocked out for ten minutes.” He gently spoke. He could see in Mira’s eyes that she was horrified. She didn't need to speak, he knew.

“B- boat… s- s- sea…” Mira stuttered, in sync with her trembling. “B- beyond under- s- sh- st- a- and- anding…”

“Yep- okay, you did dream what… pretty much everyone else did last night.” Sven immediately worked out. The boat, the sea and something beyond understanding, something everyone in the village cluster had been talking about.

At the bottom of the hill that Mira's house sat on…

The Red Steve that wore the clothes of a scientist, the Red Sector’s professor and the other one that actually wasn't a Red Steve, were discussing the psychic phenomenon that had gone down. Thanks to the ‘Red Steve’ by the Professor’s side, they knew what they were dealing with based on the descriptions of the dream everyone had. The two of them, after they made it to the bottom, walked with haste, so they could discuss matters in a more private environment.

“It was innovative of you to make this fake device.” The ‘Red Steve’ stated. “That has allowed my cover to remain intact.”

“Yep. I knew you Cyberdrone guys had psychic disruption mechanisms built in your metal suits. So all I had to do was make a simple device that beeped lol.” The Professor nodded.

“This entity is one we have encountered before. We used a powerful weapon against them, but they split themselves into two, escaping with one half. Since then, they have run amok.” Said the Cyberdrone Steve in disguise as a Red Steve.

“Is there anything you can do to completely destroy this entity for good?” The Professor asked.

“No.” The Red Steve-disguised Cyberdrone Steve shook their head. “The moment where destroying them completely with the weapon I speak of is no longer there. Any chance to completely destroy the entity without resorting to cosmic omnicide is nigh-impossible.” They explained.

“But.” The Cyberdrone Steve raised their left hand, butting in before the Professor could get a word out. “We can implement measures against avatars of this entity.” They then stated, and continued. “We can at the very least weaken any avatar they make to a point, where the means your world yields, can respond to and destroy it at a later appropriate time.” They added. Meanwhile, the Professor was writing down notes about this entity.

“Yeah Mira is fine now. She's with Sven- those two appear to be very close.” Time Steve had gone back to Recon and Rose’s house, letting them know Mira was okay. “Luckily your village’s professor and their assistant had the answers… although, something is off about them, especially their assistant.” He added as he, along with Recon and Rose, sat on the long sofa opposite the ladder to the bedroom.

“Oh the Professor is always up to all sorts of things. He is always looking at inventing new things or upgrading things in ways no one expects.” Recon assured Time Steve.

Rose stepped forward, leaning on Recon’s right shoulder, both her hands on his shoulder. “He's not the social type, but I believe the Professor is a good guy.” She believed, adding onto what Recon stated.

“I hope so. Back in my universe, the Professor I knew had… questionable thought-processes.” Time Steve explained. “Perhaps it's just me overthinking.” He shrugged.

“Sometimes when people are quiet, if you don't know them- yeah I understand why some may jump to the conclusion that something's off about them.” Recon nodded.

Time Steve shrugged. “Maybe- again, I could just be overthinking-” Then something came to his mind. “Oh, where's Hypno gone?” He asked.

“He said he's looking for stuff to help regarding this ‘Cthulhu’ thing, apparently- Hypno didn't elaborate further though.” Recon replied and explained.

Time Steve rolled his eyes. “Ahhhh… typical Hypno.” He sighed, then facepalmed. “He’ll either make what he's doing very obvious or very vague...”

Meanwhile...

In Mira’s house, Sven was at the kitchen-looking corner of the living room. He had just made Mira a cup of black coffee.

“You also look really drained. Hopefully this'll help.” Sven spoke enthusiastically as he turned around and walked from the front left corner to the back right corner of the living room, where the table was, as well as the massive right-angle-shaped wooden pink sofa.

“Th- thank you.” Mira yawned as she grabbed the cup with both of her hands and began sipping the piping-hot beverage right away.

Sven chuckled. “Recon and Rose always wondered how I don't feel pain when drinking a freshly-made hot drink.” He said, leaning on the table with his left hand. “Well, I'm not alone on this now I see.” He then smiled.

Mira pulled the cup away from her mouth. “I- I actually h- hate coffee… but I n- need the caffeine.” Mira stated. “I- I have b- bad wake u- up issues.” She shared, then went back to drinking.

Sven nodded. “Fair enough.”

Mira popped the cup down on the table, and looked at Sven. “Y- you still in- interested in m- me t- teaching y- you boxing?” She asked, trembling despite trying not to. Mira felt great uneasiness as she asked the question, which Sven noticed.

“Only if you want to, I know you said that you're not ready before.” Sven carefully and thoughtfully replied. He didn't know what, but he knew from the signs, Mira faced some kind of trauma related to boxing.

“I- I feel… safe…” Mira picked up her cup of coffee with both hands, using her fists and the cup to cover her blushing. “I- I feel safe a- a… around y- you… Sven… y- you taught m- me how t- to play b- better chess…” Mira spoke with an increasingly sheepish tone. “I… h- have to teach y- you something b- back.”

“We can wait until tomorrow… or even later. No rush.” Sven knew Mira deep down wasn't comfortable yet. He saw Mira thought she had to ‘repay’ him. Sven had guessed Mira’s trauma was related to transactional relationships.

Sven thought carefully on how to respond without her knowing that he picked up on that face. “You don't owe me anything Mira. You looking after Buddy while I work, our daily chatting… us together taking Buddy on walks… just being your friend- that's more than enough.” He began assuring her, contrary to what she could be feeling.

Immediately, Sven noticed Mira subtly relaxing. Unfortunately, Mira was very good at masking her exterior. Fortunately, Sven was very good at seeing past the exterior and into the interior.

“I- I can t- teach you now.” Said Mira. “I- I wanted to… see how y- you responded to that… s- so I knew w- whether I'd b- be c- comfortable in t- teaching you.” She stated.

Sven almost stepped back. He did not expect that. “Are you sure?” He sincerely asked, double-checking.

“Y- you double checking h- how I- I feel… m- makes me feel s- safe and comfortable t- to teach you.” Mira explained. Again, this ‘fuzzy feeling' she can't understand came up again. “I'll s- see you outside when y- you're ready!” She rushed to the door, pretending to be excited, which she was to an extent, but mainly didn't want Sven to see her profusely blushing.

"Alright- wait up!” Sven spoke aloud, smiling, excited to learn boxing. “And it'd also be a cool way to take our minds off of earlier regarding that… ‘green squid’….” He added, again speaking aloud. “Also- Don't go easy on me by the way. I won't learn how to fight if I don't get a little beaten up at least.” He smirked. He knew a fight between him and Mira, a fight with or without powers, Mira would dominate.

Mira turned around, and smirked back. “I w- wasn't p- planning going t- to go e- easy.” She stated. “I h- hope y- you're ready.”