Power Core Intermission: Leanne

Leanne was a 12 year old girl who was just having a great time playing with her friends in the park. Little did she know that her world was about to be flipped upside down. Tom was slowly walking towards the park, trying to convince himself that there were others who could be more helpful, and probably far less hostile. But he couldn’t convince himself.

There was no one else.

She ran up to him when he entered in through the gate and asked him if he wanted to play, instead he just said that they needed to talk, which she took to be something extremely weird and serious.

                “So you don’t want to hang out with me anymore because I’m a year younger than you? And you are getting made fun of?” she asked quickly as they sat down on a bench.

                “Not quite. But you are probably gonna hate me when I’m done explaining,” he laughed sheepishly.

                “Why?” she asked concerned. “What have you done?”

                “Nothing yet,” he replied simply. “I’m still arguing with myself over whether I should do it or not.”

                “Just do it already,” Naomi snapped as she materialised out of thin air behind them.

                “Shut up,” he retorted. “She won’t want to snap your neck when she remembers.”

                “Why am I snapping someone’s neck?” Leanne questioned, growing confused and increasingly uneasy by the conversation.

                “We don’t have long,” Connie decided running up next to them. “And we still have to wake up Oscar and Ralph.”

                “Fine,” Tom grumbled. “Leanne, I need you to look at the end of my pen for this to work.”

                “Okay,” she stated uneasily, focusing both her eyes on the device in Tom’s hand, allowing Tom to hit a button that shone a nice and bright white light straight into her face  “Ow!”

                “You okay?” Tom giggled.

                “You mean other than the twenty six years of my life suddenly spreading through my head? Oh, and let’s not forget about all of that depression and the desire to commit suicide, and the loss of my son…” she snapped. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

                “So who wants to tell her about Hulo?” Naomi whispered.

                “What happened to Hulo?” Leanne snarled.

                “Um…remember the Vinto ship that went down on top of Morrisons in Panginton?” Tom asked, causing Leanne to nod. “Yeah…he was inside shopping…Although, for the record, it was not a Protector op that took that ship down, that was all UN.”

                “Yep. I’m still going to kill you for inducing that Coma,” Leanne warned.

                “Kill me after we’ve ensured the planet is safe, please?” Tom asked sarcastically. “Welcome back to hell.”