In This Country Act 01 Ch. 04

*****Hey guys! Here's the fourth chapter of ITC. Things are starting to get frosty between our two lovers as their passion begins to take the wheel. I'm sorry it took me this long to get the ball rolling, but I had to make sure everything was set up just the way I liked it. Remember to leave your comments and thoughts below, and thanks for reading! --DM23*****

*****Special thanks to Decal_last for proofreading this story. *****

In This Country

Arc 1: Brutal Beauty

Chapter 4: The One Month Trial

"Keep up with him Crystal!" Osprey yelled through the earpiece. "Don't lose him!"

Crystal scoffed as she travelled along the water, following Mad Master. It was one of the villainous strategies over the past few days to remove Crystal from the fight early on, seeing as how she would focus on the task at hand with such intensity. And since Mad Master had already put Jasper down, even temporarily, Crystal had to take his place. While it wasn't her cup of tea to play chase, the villain did have a bunch of civilians in his telekinetic grasp, so it wasn't an option.

But what made the problem worse was the distance. Mad Master had been high up in the air, even when Jasper fought with him, and because Crystal depended on the water to travel, she couldn't just reach up and just grab him. Not to mention, he saw all of her water attacks coming, so it wasn't hard for him to dodge an ice chunk or worse . . . use a hostage as a shield.

"Where's the Committee?" Crystal demanded into her earpiece. "I need someone to care for the civilians when Mad Master drops one of them."

"They can't spare any vehicles at the moment since Carbon sabotaged them last week," Osprey replied. "I'm coming to help but I don't think there's much I can do."

"It's better than nothing," Crystal grumbled.

It wasn't that she didn't know what Carbon had done, everyone knew. But the problem was that they were still coming across vehicles that had been sabotaged. And not just their vehicles, but weapons, a few outposts, and tech had been tampered with. And Carbon wasn't alone on his sabotaging spree. Later last week, the heroes found out Target had been taking out individuals who were getting suspicious of the ones Carbon had been possessing so as to not raise an alarm. As a result, until the CCC could repair the damage, they were taken out of the fight.

It was a well coordinated attack.

Or more accurately, a very detailed coordinated attack.

Apparently, the Committee said the attack was so well orchestrated that it was as if their database had been hacked. From the report they told Commander Shinobay, the villains would sabotage a base and then escape through the weakest points of the Committee's defenses . . . on multiple occasions. The heroes would've been able to help, but without the Committee pinpointing their location, all the heroes could do was search and come back with no results.

That's what everyone, Crystal included, was doing since last week. However, it was this week that they actually managed to halt their sabotaging campaign. As good as that news sounded, it still got worse as Replica and Mad Master joined in on the fray and causing a panic, which lead to where they are right now. As it stands, the odds of them winning, in this skirmish at least, was like the weather: grim and gray.

Gray . . . Gray . . . Grey with E . . . Grey.

"He's getting away!" Osprey yelled through the earpiece.

"I know!" she yelled back. "I'm coming up with a plan!"

She was trying to come up with a plan, or something of that nature. The problem was that she wasn't used to fighting villains like Mad Master; he was Hyper's main villain. But Hyper had been concussed by an explosion last week, which Dr. Walton, the war nurse turned heroine, ordered her to stay in the Recovery Wing of the Headquarters to recuperate and heal.

Thinking about her injured friend spurned Crystal on and she came to an unfortunate realization. She was never going to capture Mad Master by chasing him and missing her attacks. Instead of doing ground to air attacks, she needed an air to air attack . . . and a whole lot of luck to make it work.

"Osprey, get Mad Master to turn around!" she shouted.

"Do you see how far ahead he is from me?" he asked.

"The people are slowing him down, he just doesn't know it!" Crystal relayed the information. "Turn him around and send him back towards me! I'll fight him head on!"

"This had better work!" Osprey yelled back before he increased his speed.

Crystal was hoping it'd work too. Spreading her hands, she clenched them into a fist then thrust them both into the air. Simultaneously, a huge column of water blasted into the sky, rising higher and higher until it seemed as if they reached the clouds. Then, she crossed her arms and separated them, making the water dissipate and become one with the clouds.

Time to do it again, she thought.

She moved as fast as possible, going from making one large column at a time, to making smaller columns that merged together. It didn't matter how she got them up there, all of it was to help her accomplish one thing: changing the weather. This was one of the things that, even with her powers, Crystal had never done before. Obviously, it took too long getting ready when she could just make ice gauntlets, throw ice chunks or water spurts, or just fight with her fists.

But she had to adapt if she wanted to rescue those hostages.

The clouds were now a darker shade of grey, swirling in a mass of thick hair on his head with eyes sharp and clear, a sturdy nose, and a pair of lips that she'd want to --

"He's coming your way!" Osprey yelled into her earpiece. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah!" she yelled, shaking her head to clear her thoughts of a certain someone.

Raising her hands, Crystal felt for the water molecules in the clouds. As she felt them respond to her, Crystal tightened her hands into fists and thrust them in Mad Master's direction. This had better work, she thought.

Mad Master was completely unaware of things changing. Having not seen Osprey when Crystal was chasing him, the villain believed Crystal had given up and passed the responsibility to someone else. It didn't matter to him who was coming for him; his job was to just keep them distracted.

So, that's why he didn't see a streaking object hit him on his head. For a brief moment, everyone started to fall, screaming all the way down as if their lives were ending right then and there. But, he snapped back to his senses and took hold of all the hostages, maybe, and kept flying around.

In his defense, he was flying at high altitudes at high speeds, even with the extra weight of his hostages. Plus, the sun was blocked by the clouds, so it was dark. That's why it wasn't his fault that he couldn't see clearly. But he knew he needed to change tactics himself as another object came hurtling through the sky and smacked against his shoulder.

It left a sharp ache in his shoulder, but it dulled after a few minutes. Looking down, he scanned the water until he saw Crystal's silhouette. Whatever she was doing, he knew he had to stop it. With a flick of his finger, he threw a hostage straight at her to distract her.

"Osprey, get the --!" Crystal started to shout.

"I'm on it!" the hero yelled as he dived for the civilian.

As he caught the civilian, Crystal raised her arms one final time before bringing them down hard. And to his dismay, Mad Master saw realized why she was doing all of that: hail. The little chunks of ice were merely falling with no wind, but since they were higher in altitude, Mad Master realized he was going to have to fight on all side to even escape.

He quickly raised his hostages above his head and used them as a shield in the form of a sphere, but Crystal started to take control of the hail and sent them flying around, hitting him through the cracks of his human shield. And if that wasn't enough, Osprey was slipping through as well, dishing out kicks to his back and sides whenever the opportunity was available as well as saving any hostages that Mad Master was unknowingly dropping.

To counter this problem, or Osprey attacking him at least, Mad Master started throwing his hostages away from him. Osprey immediately switched gears, from fighting to saving civilians in danger, leaving Crystal to deal with the villain on her own.

However, for Crystal, she had her own problems. The idea to use hail as an attack was an ingenious plan on her part but the repercussions were already starting to show up. For starters, the wind started to pick up, one thing that she had absolutely no control of whatsoever. Because of that, her accuracy was starting to waver, although not by much.

The second reason was because the hail had started to get out of her control. It was starting to take some serious concentration to keep the civilians from getting hurt by her actions. It wasn't just them either, Osprey and even herself were in danger if they weren't careful. And if there was one thing Crystal knew, she'd never hear the end of it if someone got hurt because of her.

Fortunately, Crystal could tell the Mad Master was waning in stamina. He had reverted back to the old tactic of use the hostages as a shield, albeit a much tighter one, but that allowed Crystal and Osprey to revert back to their original tactics as well. While Osprey couldn't hit Mad Master this time, he was able to pull a few hostages away and allow Crystal a chance to hit the villain.

And Crystal couldn't wait to put him down. The joy she'd feel would be indescribable. She could see how everything played from now: finishing this battle, putting the villain away, relaying the fight to the Commander, and spending as much time with Grey as possible. And it might not be much, but it'd be more time than what she'd spend since last week, because since last fucking week, Crystal spent no time with Grey at all.

Of course, she had her duties to attend to and she didn't have a problem doing that. But ever since these strategic attacks against the Committee happened, she hadn't seen him once. If it wasn't bad enough, their one month trial was going on, which meant they had already lost a week and they hadn't even done anything or gone anywhere yet.

That pissed Crystal off even more.

And it was all the villains' fault. Now, she has to save the hostages, who Mad Master dropped in favor of taking hold of Osprey. Muttering beneath her breath, Crystal created a steep, icy slope for the hostages to land on that gradually changed into a slide that she brought towards her.

"Get off," she ordered to which they readily complied.

Thankfully, the hailstorm was short lived, so she could leave them there on the ground without worry. She morphed the slide into a canon, aimed it, and blasted a chunk of ice right at the villain. Mad Master blocked the first one, but that took his concentration off of Osprey, who shrieked in his face, forcing the villain to release him.

With a clear aim, and without remorse, Crystal fired more chunks of ice at the villain who, even with his telekinetic abilities, was unable to block the shots, and ended up falling into the water below. The battle finished, Crystal froze his body in a chunk of ice then made a raft for everyone to ride on as she powered it back to the city.

To which she hoped she got a chance to see Grey.

*****

The villains stood in a line, looking anywhere but ahead of them. The week long skirmishes had finally ended in the final battle between Mad Master, Osprey and Crystal, the latter winning and taking an important piece of the villains' game plan with them. Of course, it was a handicapped battle against Mad Master, but then again, the heroes had been out all week long fighting to restore order, while Mad Master had been out just this one day.

And there was no one more pissed than Dr. Genie.

"Is it that hard to follow the simplest instruction?!" she yelled, as she paced back and forth. "I said, 'Stay away from the fucking water! It's why the plan has been going so well this whole fucking week! It's why we've been winning these fights this whole fucking week. Because if you take Crystal out of the fucking picture, then we can continue the plan as long as we want! But NO, somebody didn't want to listen, as if they're exempt from the rules, and they can do whatever they want!"

"You should've sent me," Asphalt suggested. "I wouldn't have wasted my time --"

"I'm talking so shut your fucking sinkhole!" Dr. Genie bellowed.

He shut up real quick.

"I don't want to hear about what you would've done if you went out, Asshole," Dr. Genie hissed in his face, "because everyone knows what you would've done. All you'd do is go out, cause a ruckus, get Crystal's attention, fight her for thirty minutes or less, and then run, coming back here, boasting about how you beat on women and weak men as if no one else's done that before. Even in his disobedience, Mad Master lasted three times longer than you ever did and Crystal had fucking help! She had fucking help over the fucking water! Crystal can fight you with her own two fists!"

"He was running away half of the time!" Asphalt pointed.

"That was the plan, you groveling bag of fertilizer!" Dr. Genie screamed. "If someone even sees your face, Crystal is on the fucking scene. Crystal may be the only one who can take you on, but you're not the only one who can take her on. Ruthless, Replica, Carbon, Acrobat, Target, Mad Master can put on a more valiant fight than you ever could. Hell, even Yellow Jacket can do more damage than you and he's sick! The only reason why you're the one who's fighting her is because they have a fucking brain in their head, so there's a lot more I can do with them. If you really want to show that you're a better piece of shit than the rest of us, take a loss like a real villain and don't run away like a fucking coward!"

From his position, even the lookout could feel the burn in Dr. Genie's rage. Even if his only job was to watch who comes and who goes, he makes sure every day not to give her a reason to blow up at him like she does to Asphalt.

"Look," Dr. Genie continued once she calmed down, "the plan was simple. Keep the Committee out of the fight, keep Crystal at a distance, and keep terrorizing the islands. If things had stayed like that, these islands would've been paying us not to attack by the end of spring. Hell, we even injured a hero, so if things had stayed like that, they'd have paid us by the beginning of spring. But now, I have to come up with a new plan, one with instructions so simple, if any of you break them then you're asking to be experimented on. Now leave, and don't any one of you dare to rescue Mad Master out of prison."

With that, she stomped back to her private lab as everyone returned to their own business. For the lookout, he just went back to watching videos, since there wasn't a chance the heroes would come and find the hideout anytime soon. It's what he's been doing since he first opened his home to Dr. Genie and it's what she'll have him do until she finds a better use for him.

*****

Grey was making lunch when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Fingers dirty, it took him a moment to find a towel and wipe his hands off and get his phone. As he turned it on, one notification brightened his whole day: a text from Crystal.

4:22 PM Crystal -- Meet me at the bench. I want to see you.

4:24 PM Grey -- Can't. Busy.

4:25 PM Crystal -- I'll wait.

4:29 PM Grey -- I'm actually cooking lunch. Are you hungry?

4:32 PM Crystal -- I'm salivating! Do you have enough for two?

4:34 PM Grey -- It's a date! Let me send you my address.

Using the map app, Grey took a picture of his apartment, front and back, and sent it to her along with his address. Once finished, he resumed cooking the meal. It may have just been for him, but he was making a lot to have leftovers for the next few days. And since Crystal was now coming over, that gave him a chance to let her taste his cooking and see his place.

In that joyous moment, he realized his apartment was overdue for a makeover. And there was no better time than now. In less time than it has ever taken him, Grey removed every piece of trash from his floor, placed every article of clothing in his hamper, and removed every speck of dust from the furniture. It wasn't exactly spotless, but it was definitely better than what it looked like earlier. As he returned to the kitchen, he noticed the girl of his dreams standing outside on his patio.

"Crystal! How --," Grey managed to get out before Crystal kissed him.

He closed the patio door as he found himself multitasking three different tasks at once: backing towards the couch while trying to keep Crystal from stepping on his toes and kissing her all at the same time. The result: his toes were aching, his back was against the wall instead of the couch, but he still had his lips on hers so he thought he did a pretty good job.

"Not seeing you for a week was driving me nuts," Crystal said as she stretched, giving Grey a good view of her body. "From now on, I need to see you at least once a week or else I'll go insane."

"You're exaggerating," Grey smiled.

"I was ready to kiss the clouds earlier today," Crystal replied, "because I thought they looked like you. What about you?"

"I shrunk my clothes in the dryer," Grey answered.

"No way," she giggled.

"Yeah, they're for middle schoolers now," Grey said as he pulled out his phone. "Take a look."

She looked through his photos and burst out laughing once she saw them. In the picture, Grey had placed them on his chest to measure just how small his clothes had shrunk. And in every picture was grim look on Grey's face.

"How did that happen?" Crystal grinned.

"I was hoping to get a text from you and didn't remove my clothes from the dryer," Grey sighed. "When I did get a text, not from you, I mistakenly restarted the dryer with my dried clothes still in it."

"You didn't shrink all of your clothes, did you?" Crystal asked.

"Nope, that was just one load of clothes," Grey replied.

"That's good," Crystal sighed. "I wouldn't be able to stop laughing if you were wearing shrunken clothes right now."

"I certainly wouldn't have cooked, that's for sure," he told her.

"Oh yeah, what'd you cook?" Crystal inquired.

"Let me show you," he said as he led her to the kitchen. "I do want to say, it's not a masterpiece or anything, so I'll know if you're lying about how good it is."

"I'll be the critic of that," Crystal grinned.

"Voila!" Grey said as he uncovered the pot he was cooking with. "I made beef stew."

"It smells wonderful," she commented.

"Go ahead and take a seat," Grey gestured towards the table. "I'll set everything up for you to eat."

As she sat, Grey took out the plates and utensils, setting down a set for each of them to eat with. Then he dished out the beef stew, making sure to give them both equal amounts of meat and vegetables.

"Would you like some potato wedges too?" Grey asked. "They're a couple of days old, though."

"Sure, I'll have some," Crystal replied as she began to eat. "Wow! This is really good!"

"You're lying," Grey told her as he heated up the wedges.

"Fine, it's nice," Crystal smirked.

"That's more believable," Grey said as he brought over the wedges. "And would you like something to drink? I have juice, soda, milk, coffee, and water. I'm sorry, but I'm not a tea person."

"I'll take water," Crystal replied.

"Okay," Grey said. Jokingly, he asked, "Would you like the jug?"