I Refuse

 “I refuse.” June’s thoughts imbed into her consciousness. In the intense moment just as it feels like time slows down, watching her friend fall into the abyss below, her subconscious becoming full conscious thoughts, The memory jolting in her mind, like a hellish deja vu.

Year 2225

Earlier This Morning

Peewee sits on the bed, watching June work at the computer, pinching and moving files and rewriting certain programs. “I’m not sure I’ll have time to work out all the formulas exactly how I need them, but I’ll get them close enough so that this new feature is functional,”.

Peewee leaps over onto the floor with their pillow in their mouth, carries it over, and sits it next to June's feet before lying back down on it. Looking down at Peewee, June smiles bittersweetly. “That pillow was a gift from one of the very few people I hold close to my heart. I’m glad you like it so much, buddy.”

Year 2210

Months Before New Year's Eve

“Hey June, I got ya something!” Penny pulls out a massive pillow with a bright red case on it that has a little embroidered slingshot in the bottom corner of it. “Woah! Where’d you get this sis?” June examines it, starstruck.

“The pillow I managed to scrape together a few coins and buy it from a store in town. I also bought the case there but the little slingshot was all me!” Penny smugly looks at the pillow, oozing with pride. “You put the slingshot art on there? I didn’t know you could do that!”

Penny pats June on the head, kneeling beside her and sitting. “I do a lot more than just running around with you all day!” She smiles and giggles. “It’s called embroidering, mom taught me how to do it when I was really young. She also taught me how to make paint!”

June looking now, awestruck by Penny and her mother, exclaims, “I wanna learn how to do that stuff! That’s so cool!” Both girls laugh and begin to fantasize about the thousands of things they’re going to do someday.

Year 2225

Planet Bonnie

Noticing the pillow barely hanging off the edge of where the rocks fell off, June grabs the pillow in one hand and clutches the slingshot in the other. “Please work, please please please.” June begins to mutter under her breath.

With one, extremely fast motion, June grabs her slingshot, then the pillow, and leaps off the edge of the cliff. As soon as June is airborne, She pulls back on the slingshot and uses the force from the blank shot the burst her back, making her descend incredibly fast.

Swiftly pulling through the holo-interface of the slingshot, she adjusts a few of the slingshot’s properties, and seconds later, the whole slingshot widens several feet wider. June then looks down to try and spot exactly where Peewee is.

Locking eyes with Peewee, she uses the slingshot to direct herself over to them. “Peewee!” She shouts as she passes by, shooting a momentary smile at them, “Sorry, this might hurt just a wee bit!”.

As June falls below where Peewee is in the air, she loads the pillow into the band, pulls back, and aims for the cliff edge. The feeling of losing her sister and missing the shot that day fills her with anxiety. Her stomach turning. “I REFUSE!” Her words echo throughout the abyss.

June’s mind falls quiet, only hearing the wind in her ears, as she takes a deep breath in, and releases. A blue energy pulsing from its base all the way up the band as she pulls back the pillow. A purple flash follows the release, as the light consumes the clouds, reflecting all around her. Seeing off in the distance as the light subsides, a purple shifts into red for only a moment, before then shifting to blue.

June’s eyes follow the light, not taking her next breath. The blue light floats up and disappears as it passes back up and onto the cliff. She releases her breath and starts breathing.

“PEEWEE! WE’LL SEE EACH OTHER SOON! I PROMISE!”. Her voice booming all the way to the top of the cliff edge. She falls for a moment, turning to look below. While she still has some time, she doesn’t have forever to figure out what to do. The ocean only just barely became visible below her.

“Look at me Penny, I’m just like you now,”. Her face, solemn. A moment passes and her demeanor shifts. “But, you died. I know you tried to live, and that’s what matters. But in the end, you broke our promise. I forgive you for that, but right here, right now. If I break my promise, I’ll never forgive myself!”.

June's hands rush to maneuver her body a bit to look below her for places to go. As she does, her eyes spot a large grotto tucked away in the side of the rock face. Protruding from, are large branches hanging over the ocean below.

“I have no idea what could be waiting in that water, and I definitely don’t think I have the amount of juice left in these crystals to keep me alive if I hit the water, especially not with how fast I’m going. It’ll be like hitting a freaking brick wall!”.

Looking over at the branches, June looks at her slingshot, “Alright Mr. Slingshot, DOn’t let me down here! If I don’t do too much all at once it should conserve me with enough energy, but it’ll be down to the last drops of energy in these things,”.

Turning around, she goes to pull back the band. “If I conserve the low gravity energy, I’ll have enough to help me not splat on the ground when I get there. But this band is really tough to pull back so I’m gunna burn through the high gravity energy really fast, AGHHHH, This is too bloody close!” Her frustration rains out into the mist.

June pulls back, and fires, bursting her back. As she does so, the lessened energy from the low gravity takes its toll even more and she feels minor aches pulse through her whole body. “Ooooo, that is not a good feeling.” Shaking her head, she focuses and fires another shot, the pain getting even worse in her body.

“This does not feel good at all!” June looks over and sees that she's closing distance. “Ok, not too bad. One more shot and I’ll be in the hanging tree line, and then one more and I’ll be able to pretty safely get onto the grotto floor,”.

June pulls back and fires again, skin on her body not tearing from the shockwave. “Aghh, Bloody hell that hurts!” She looks over and sees herself start passing in between the trees, quickly going to pull back and shoot herself through the trees.

“I can’t mess up my timing here. I need to hit this perfectly”, June pulls back the

slingshot, Looking towards the trees, trying to time everything exactly right. Searching intently for an opening, June spots one. “Found ya!” June whispers as she takes a deep breath and goes to activate the delayed activation of the low-gravity barrier on her suit.

June pulls the trigger back, and releases, only to feel the slingshot spark out and use up the last of it’s energy. “Oh, bloody hell.” June says, more irritated than anything. The energy was enough to blast her close but, because falling short in distance, June smacks right into a massive bundle of dark brownish-green leaves and tiny branches, Knocking her completely unconscious.

Eventually, June opens her eyes and looks around. Dazed and confused she sees heavy, Lush greenery all around her. An unusual amount of Dark green and brown color all around her.

Certain parts scattered with large, colorful wildflowers and plants taller than her. June sits up and feels an ache all over her body. Her low gravity barrier seemed to make her fall slow enough that the fall didn’t hurt her too much, but the pain of using the slingshot really started to set in.

June rubs her eyes for a second and gets up to her feet. As she starts to feel her consciousness come back, a voice from behind catches her off guard, sending her into a momentary confused panic as she a voice with familiar inflections and an accent similar to her own.

“Hey, June. Look at you. You really did it. I always told ya you were a genius.” The voice familiar but, not quite the same.