For the Record – Gamble

Olivia curled up on her beanbag, her thick, sound cancelling headphones firmly secured around her ears. The booms and pops of fireworks surrounded her, occasionally accompanied by cheers and whoops. “Make it stop,” she mumbled to herself. Though she couldn’t quite hear the deafening booms of the fireworks under her reggae music, she could still feel the shockwaves. They just keep coming. They’re just a bunch of bombs and everyone shoots them around and loves them for some stupid reason.

In the week since Amanda and Rob had escaped their kidnappers, everything returned to a semblance of normal. Beth occasionally stopped by, and Red kept to herself. In preparation for the Fourth of July, Ben hung up a large American flag over the center garage door of the lair, and Rob hammered together a charcoal grill.

Olivia winced as she felt another round of particularly loud fireworks. I liked it when we grilled things. Can’t everyone just do that some more instead? Everyone else sat up on the roof, whooping and cheering with each round of explosions. Olivia reached for her third burger, sitting on a paper plate beside her. At least Rob knows how to make food.

After about half an hour, the finale began. The whole lair vibrated nonstop for a full minute. Olivia simply frowned and tried to tune it out. Eventually, the shaking stopped and the back door opened, letting fresh air with a slight hint of gunpowder waft into the room. Olivia looked up to see the others stumble in, beers in hand and smiles on their faces. She lifted her headphones from her ears, pausing for a moment to make sure the fireworks were well and truly over.

“Don’t love America, Little Bird?” called out Rob, arm around Amanda’s shoulders.

“What? No, I just don’t like fireworks,” she replied.

“What’s wrong with fireworks?” asked Amanda.

“Too loud,” she murmured. She stood up from her beanbag, keeping her clawed feet on the concrete floor and away from the beanbag, and headed to join them.

“Of course! Celebratin’ the goddamn US of A!” cried out Ben, raising his bottle.

“Yeah!” replied Rob, tapping his glass against Ben’s. So?

“How about you two sit down?” said Amanda, guiding Rob towards the center table. She turned around to see Miya still standing by the door, swaying on her feet. “You too, Miya.”

“Are you OK, Amanda?” asked Olivia

“I only had a few drinks, I’m fine. Unlike these idiots, I know about this little thing called moderation,” said Amanda. “It’s wonderful.”

“Because she’s boring!” called out Miya, following after Amanda and Rob.

Rob collapsed on the chair Amanda pulled out for him, Miya following suit soon after. What’s so great about getting drunk? That just looks terrible. “How did you guys get down from the roof?” asked Olivia. All you guys have is a ladder to get up and down from there.

“Very slowly and carefully,” replied Amanda.

“You know what we should go out and get?” Ben asked his brother. “Some fuckin’ flag shirts. Or ones with eagles on ‘em. Whatever. Let’s go!”

“No, Ben,” said Amanda. “You’re in no shape to drive.

Ben chuckled and raised a middle finger towards her, teleporting to Rob’s workbench and grabbing his keys. “See, I’m fine.”

Amanda’s eyes widened. She pointed to Olivia, closest to Ben, and said, “Stop him.”

Olivia took one long step forward and wrapped her arm around his waist just as he turned around before he could teleport again. “No,” she said, ignoring his uncoordinated flails as she lifted his feet from the ground. They stood for a moment, Olivia waiting patiently for Ben to give up. Rob and Miya burst into laughter.

Finally, he dropped the keys to the ground. “You two ain’t fun,” he grumbled.

“And you’re an idiot,” replied Amanda. I’m sorry, Ben, but she’s right. “Olivia, could you bring him over here where we can keep an eye on him?”

Olivia carried Ben underarm to the table, where she sat him between Miya and Amanda. He rested his head on the table and slurred, “I can walk you know.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” said Amanda. “You all drank way too much.”

“She’s right, I think I’ve had more…” Miya trailed off, a queasy look on her face.

Uh oh. Are you OK? “Do you need a bucket?” asked Amanda. Is she going to throw up?

“I’m OK, I’m OK,” said Miya, taking in a shaky breath. “I’m good now.”

Amanda exhaled deeply, leaning back in her chair. In the lull in the conversation that followed, Olivia took her own seat, curling her tail around so that it lay under the table and out of the way. She rested her arms on the tabletop, checking on the others. Amanda seemed fine, fingers flying over the screen of her phone. The others either stared off into space or focused on keeping their dinners in their stomachs, drinks forgotten. Miya’s smile had vanished, replaced by a frown and drooping eyelids.

Olivia cast a sidelong glance at a sixth, empty chair. Chris and Ben never finished that bottle of absinthe. Ben swayed slightly as he tapped his fingers on the plastic table. Although maybe he has now.

“Did you guys have fun?” asked Olivia.

“Yeah. You should have been there with us,” replied Amanda. “The more the merrier.”

“It’s OK.”

“If it’s just the noise you don’t like we can just get you some heavy duty earplugs or something,” commented Amanda. “The fireworks are still fun to watch.”

Olivia shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re OK, I guess.”

“Just OK?” asked Ben with a crooked grin, his words a bit slurred. “It’s a fuckin’ American tradition!”

“Please calm down, Ben,” said Olivia, her voice level. Please stop shouting at me. She heard a soft snore from Miya. See? Miya’s not shouting.

Amanda covered her mouth as she laughed. “It’s only ten.” She looked over to Rob, who’d been staring off into space since they’d gotten back into the lair. “Are you alive?”

Rob blinked a few times before responding. “What? Yeah, just tired. And we started at five, right? Am I remembering right?”

Amanda said, “That’s true. How about we get you all to bed.” She punched Rob in the arm and said, “Besides, we need to get to work on our cars again tomorrow. Come on, I’ll grab you a drink of water.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Feels too early, though.”

“We haven’t slept for the past two days,” said Amanda. “Things kept going wrong with that damn truck of yours, and I expect that trend to continue.”

Rob sighed in defeat. “You’re right. I’m out.” Olivia scooped up the snoring Miya and carried her over to her bed, following after him.

“That was dumb of them, right?” she asked Amanda, once she heard Rob lay down. I’m not misjudging, am I? Back at the table, Ben moved from tapping his fingers on the table to tapping them on his brown glass bottle.

Amanda laughed and said, “Let’s see how they are tomorrow. That’ll be your answer. Don’t worry.”

“I think I’ll going to head out for the night. Do you want me to take Rob’s keys?” I don’t trust Ben when he gets stupid.

“No, I was going to lock them up in my desk” said Amanda. “Oh, and be very careful out there. You never know when someone is going to shoot more fireworks off.”

Olivia frowned. It’s not over? “Maybe I’ll just visit Red then. Or I could read.” She stood up straighter. “Oh, yeah! I’m almost done with this one book. I could read that!”

Amanda shrugged, a small smile on her face. “It’s up to you, I’m going to bed. Good night.”

Olivia waved as Amanda left. “Good night.”

***

The night passed uneventfully. Olivia curled up with a couple books until the early hours of the morning. Then the early hours of the morning passed to noon, when Amanda, Rob, and Ben finally woke up. Everyone seems fine. Ben still looks tired, though. But what about Miya?

“Do you think we should wake up Miya?” asked Olivia.

“Hey Miya!” called out Rob at the top of his lungs. Olivia heard a whimper from where Miya lay.

“OK, that was low,” said Amanda.

“Don’t be mean,” added Olivia with a frown. She’s still alive, at least.

“I regret nothin’,” said Rob with a grin. Beside him, Ben snickered.

They ambled about with their breakfasts. Rob sighed as he shook his box of dry cereal. “We need a kitchen in here,” he said.

“What? No we don’t,” scoffed Amanda.

“Just cuz you eat nothin’ but noodles and carrots don’t mean the rest of us can’t have nice things. Besides, I like cookin’,” he replied. “Think about it. Real food.” That does sound good. We eat too many burgers.

“We don’t got the money for a whole kitchen,” said Ben.

“Yeah, I’m saying me and Amanda could make it.”

Amanda choked on her cereal for a moment. She caught her breath and said, “Our armors aren’t done yet. We just tore out my car’s engine again. We’ve barely even touched your car. We don’t need any more projects.”

“So are you tellin’ me you can’t handle this? Just makin’ a simple kitchen?” Amanda’s eyes narrowed as Rob grinned.

“New question,” she said. “Where would we put it? We’re running out of room in here. I don’t see where we could put one.”

“We just make a small one. Don’t have to be big an’ complicated.”

“My god, they’re already domestic,” said Ben, eyes widened in mock horror.

“No, I’m tryin’ to come up with a new project,” replied Rob, flipping him off.

“I’ll think about it,” said Amanda. “Let’s get at least one of our other projects done first. How about that?”

Rob shrugged. “Sure. Just an idea.”

At that moment, Miya climbed out of her bed and stomped over, eyes only half open. “Why does everyone think it’s so fucking funny to wake people up. And why is it so fucking bright?”

“Good morning to you, too,” said Olivia. I’m sorry Rob is mean.

Miya grunted in response, taking a seat one over from Rob. “Hey Rob,” she called out. The moment he turned towards her, her hand shot out in a quick jab to his nose. “Fuck you.”

Before Amanda or Olivia could react, Ben and Rob burst into laughter. Rob held a hand to his bleeding nose and said, “Worth it.” He stood up and reached for a roll of paper towels to staunch the blood.

“Maybe we need to move outta here,” said Ben. “Gettin’ kinda claustrophobic.”

“What do you mean?” asked Olivia. I thought this was home.

“We got no runnin’ water, we got all five of us livin’ here, we got no more room, we got almost no privacy. This place is probably gonna get stupid cold come winter.”

“Yes, but this place is free,” said Amanda. “We don’t have that much money, we haven’t done a job in forever.”

“We need something to do,” grumbled Miya. “If we’re bored enough to start drinking at four or five in the afternoon, we’re doing something wrong.”

“I’m with Amanda. We need a job or somethin’,” added Ben.

“Do you want to be a little more specific?” asked Amanda.

“I don’t fuckin’ know. Just tell me what to shoot and I’ll shoot it.” Hasn’t there been enough shooting? Can’t we do something else?

“The Company always needs shit done,” said Rob. “Hell, I think they want someone to take out some Bratva dude. He stole from them or somethin’, an’ I’m thinkin’-”

“No,” said Olivia, cutting him off.

Rob blinked in surprise. “What?”

Sorry. “Can we do something where we don’t have to hurt people instead?”

“But money,” said Miya.

“I know, I’m sorry. But if we go with that one I think I’m going to have to, you know, not do it.”

“I don’t think we can afford to be picky,” said Miya.

“Yeah, it’s not as though we got jobs rollin’ in every day of the week,” said Rob. “The Company can have a dozen different people do that. They’re payin’ pretty well, too.”

“I know. And I’m not stopping you guys. But I think I’ll pass,” replied Olivia.

“Yeah, but I really don’t like the idea of fuckin’ with the Russian mob without you havin’ our backs,” said Ben. “That could go ugly really fast.” I know, I’m sorry.

“Alright. How about this?” broke in Amanda. “A friend of mine from college needs some help. She asked for my help a couple days ago, I haven’t gotten back to her yet.”

“Help with what?” asked Rob.

“She’s worried the wrong people have interest in her research. It’s something to do with biology. She sounded pretty spooked over the phone.”

“Why didn’t she just go to the cops?” asked Miya.

“She did. They shrugged her off, apparently. She just wants us to guard her lab while she goes out of town for a couple days.”

“She just askin’ for you?” asked Ben.

“No, it’s more just a general ‘help me in any way’ kind of deal. We don’t have to kill anybody, or attack or anything like that. She just needs some guards. Does that sound alright, Olivia?” asked Amanda. That doesn’t sound bad. Olivia nodded. “Anyone else? Questions? Concerns?”

“Sounds good,” said Rob and Ben simultaneously, Miya nodding in agreement.

“OK,” said Amanda as she produced her phone from her desk. “I’ll let her know so we can get details.”

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Mercenary – Innocence

Olivia stretched her tail out behind her, leaving it hanging off the side of her dark blue beanbag. Beside her, Beth giggled at the video playing on the tablet. “She just keeps chasing her tail!”

“It’s been an hour. Ain’t makin’ those little squealin’ sounds gettin’ old? Wanna, you know, preserve your dignity or somethin’?” called out Ben from across the lair. The pieces of his pistol lay in front of him on Rob’s desk as he scrubbed them down with an oily rag.

“Shut up, these are great,” shot back Beth with a smile.

“Let’s watch another!” said Olivia, before Ben could say anything else.

“That one,” said Beth, pointing with a clawed finger. “It’s got three puppies instead of one.”

Olivia nodded in agreement and tapped her knuckle against the video’s thumbnail on the screen. Just as it began to buffer, a critically low battery warning flashed over the screen.

She looked around at the bare, oil stained concrete surrounding them. “Darn it, there’s no outlet.”

Beth sighed and said, “It’s OK. I should probably get going.” They both stretched their wings as they rose from the beanbag. “Do you know what time it is?”

Olivia checked the dimmed tablet. “Seven thirty, almost.”

Beth’s eyes widened in alarm. “Oh crap, I’m super late,” she said. She rushed over to the back door and opened it a few inches. Morning sunlight streamed inside. “I’m not going to be able to fly home now.”

Beth took a deep breath and paced a few steps in either direction. Why are you freaking out so much? “Are you OK?” asked Olivia.

Beth nodded. “Let me think. Oh! I’ll just ask my parents to stay over today. If that’s OK,” she said.

“Sure!” replied Olivia with a smile.

“Let me text them.” She fished a cell phone, different than the one Amanda had given her, from her pocket and fumbled with the keys for a moment. After a moment, she said, “There. Forgiveness is easier than permission.”

“Forgiveness? What’s wrong with you staying here?” asked Olivia as they headed for the center table. Olivia took her seat with the backrest sawn off, while Beth spun a normal seat around to make room for her own wings and tail.

Beth’s smile vanished. She shrugged and said, “They don’t really want me leaving their sight. But they’ll be mad and I’ll get over it. It’s not like I can just fly around in broad daylight.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s alright. Your parents sounded way worse,” said Beth.

“It’s OK. At least I know now,” said Olivia, voice subdued. At least I know.

“I’m sorry they were assholes.”

It was Olivia’s turn to shrug. “I don’t know. I only saw them for a couple minutes. I guess I can’t blame them.”

“Hey! Don’t say that,” broke in Beth with a frown. “They had a posse point guns at you and told you to get out. That’s bullshit.”

Olivia studied the tabletop. It was dumb. I was dumb. They were dumb. It’s done now. Her tail curled around the leg of the chair. “Well, how is everything at home for you?” she asked.

“It’s OK. I’m figuring stuff out. My little brother is nice! He’s been patient and helping me relearn stuff. Apparently we went to England a couple years ago. The pictures were pretty cool.” Beth laughed. “There was one with me and my brother, next to this guard guy with this huge fuzzy hat. It looked great.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it was huge. It stuck up another foot or two in the air. It was great. I kind of want one.”

“That sounds cool,” replied Olivia. Why hats? They don’t stay on when you fly. I guess if you’re not flying they make sense.

“I found out I have a couple other fun hats hiding in my closet. I have this big pirate hat and a fez with this little tassel hanging off of it. They’re great. But there are some other things I found where I just have to ask myself ‘what I was thinking?’”

“Buyin’ shit, an’ a week later wonderin’ why you ever did?” called out Ben.

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Happens to everyone, don’t worry.”

“OK, good.” She turned back to Olivia and said, “Apparently I have these white shoes with the most obnoxious bright green stripes on them you’ve ever seen. It’s not the fact I can’t wear shoes, they’re just hideous. So hideous.”

“I’m kind of glad I don’t have to worry about shoes,” said Olivia. “They just sound annoying.” I guess if you have to worry about rocks and stuff cutting up your feet they make sense. But flying is so much better.

Beth flexed her wings. “We already have enough annoying things. I swear I’m going to hit my head on a doorframe and break it soon.”

Olivia laughed. “You’re telling me.” I have a whole two extra months of experience on you.

Beth’s smile wavered for a moment. “The spike things on your back. Is that going to happen to me?”

“Has your back been itching and stuff?” Beth considered for a moment, then nodded. “That’s how it started for me.”

Beth groaned as she hung her head. “It’s like some terrible version of puberty.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” I think mine have finally stopped itching, at least.

Beth managed a smile as she raised her head again. “It’s not like backrests weren’t already the worst thing in the world.”

“I know, right?”

“Backrests are great,” called out Ben as he leaned back in his chair.

“Shut up, they’re not,” shot back Beth.

At that moment, Olivia heard an exasperated sigh from the sleeping area. She and Beth turned towards Miya, knowing smiles on their faces, as her small form wrestled with her sheets for a moment before she stomped out into the rest of the lair.

“Good morning!” said Olivia with a small wave.

In response, Miya grumbled, “Why are you talking so much? I thought you guys wanted to kill each other.” You know, it’s not that hard to wake up in the mornings.

“Well, not anymore,” replied Beth.

“I think we just needed space,” added Olivia. And Red and Hank aren’t here. I need to check on him and make sure he’s OK with Cyrus.

Miya grunted in response. With bleary eyes, she scanned the rest of the lair. “Where are the nerds? They’re the ones that usually wake me up.”

“I don’t know.” Olivia’s eyes widened. “Oh no, where are they? What if-”

“Relax. They probably just got a hotel room or somethin’,” said Ben. He finished reassembling his pistol and teleported over to the food cupboards. Beth cast a worried eye at the metallic sounds. Miya, in the meantime, stumbled over to the central table and collapsed on a chair next to Beth, head resting on the tabletop.

“Why would they do that?” she asked. Don’t you have to pay for hotel rooms? What’s wrong with here?

“Ain’t a lot of privacy in here,” he said, grabbing a slice of pizza out of the fridge. He shut the door and leaned against it, facing the rest of the group.

“So?”

“They’re boning,” said Miya. What… oh. Oh.

Ben snorted and said, “Yeah, that.”

They both watched Olivia carefully, fighting back smiles. “Well, as long as they’re happy,” said Olivia. But bad things always happen to us. “You don’t want to give them a call, make sure they’re OK?”

“No,” replied Ben.

“Does that mean no, you don’t want to? Or no, that statement is wrong and you do want to?” asked Beth.

“That second one,” replied Ben.

“Don’t worry, English is weird,” said Miya.

“OK, you’re Aztec, you don’t get to talk about language weirdness,” said Ben with a grin.

“Bitch please. Nahua isn’t that hard.”

Olivia blinked. I’ve heard you speak Aztec before. I had no idea what any of it was. Ben burst into laughter and said, “Sure about that? Say your name. Full name.”

Miya rolled her eyes and said, “Miyahuatl.” Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about that. Cool.

“Miya-waddle?” repeated Ben.

“Close.”

“OK. Now spell it out.” Once she spelled her full name, he said, “You see, to me that’d be Miya-who-ah-tell. There’s no w in there. An’ you got that crazy tl thing goin’ on at the end.”

“Why do you think I just go by Miya? Damn yankee. And there’s a rule about the w thing, I’m trying to think of what it is,” said Miya.

“You don’t just, you know, know what the rule is?” asked Olivia.

“No, I don’t have to think about it, I just look and know. That’s like looking at a silent e. You just don’t think about it. Nahua just has different little rules like that.”

“OK, is it Nahua, Aztec, or Nahuatl?” asked Beth. “I’ve heard it as all three now and I have no idea which is which.”

Miya bit her lip, then said, “Technically Nahuatl is the language, Nahua is the people, like European or Asian, and Aztec is a group of people, like English. The thing is with Nahuatl, the Aztecs the last major speakers of it because genocide isn’t just the white man’s game. All three work, but Nahua is easier to say.” Miya’s eyes lit up. “I remember that rule now. I think if there’s a hu followed by a vowel, the hu is a w. So Nahua is like n-a-w-a. Jesus, that was bugging me.” I learned something today!

“The fuck is Aztec? Who came up with that shit?” asked Ben with a grin.

“It’s just spelled weird and dumb because Europeans tried to take a completely different language and hammer it into their alphabet.

“Sounds like they fucked up real bad,” said Ben as his phone began vibrating in his pocket. He stood up straight and took a few steps away from the fridge as he raised it to his ear. “Hello? Who’s this?” Olivia couldn’t hear the exact response on the other end. Stupid guns.

“Hey, Rob. The hell happened to your phone…” Ben’s smile slipped from his face. “Oh shit. Where are you?” Olivia frowned. I knew it, I knew it. Something bad happened. Something bad always happens.

“Yeah, combo is 02641, keys are in the second drawer. Got it. See you in a few.”

Miya had finally wiped the sleepy expression from her face, now sitting up straight and alert. She and Olivia exchanged glances.

“Amanda an’ Rob ran into some trouble last night, need a pickup. Sounded spooked, too,” announced Ben as he teleported back into the workshop.

Olivia felt her claws uncurl. “Where are they?” she asked as she stood.

Ben raised a hand. “Don’t worry about that, I’m takin’ Amanda’s car to get ‘em.” he said as he punched a code into a keypad on Amanda’s desk. He tore open the second drawer and rifled through it for a moment before Olivia heard the jangle of keys.

“Should we come?” asked Miya, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.

Ben shook his head as he teleported to the door. “You guys sit tight, keep an eye out. It sounded like someone was after ‘em, they might come here.” Out of the corner of Olivia’s eye, she saw Beth’s wings spread out a few inches, face tinged with fear. Why can’t people just leave us alone?

Ben left, leaving Miya, Olivia, and Beth in apprehensive silence.

***

Olivia paced back and forth by the head of the table, ears tuned to any movement outside. Plenty of cars had driven by in the half hour since Ben had left, none of them Amanda’s. Miya scarfed down breakfast nearby, gun close at hand. Beth tried to go to sleep in the meantime, though Olivia could hear her tossing and turning.

She perked up the moment she heard Amanda’s car return. “They’re here!” she announced.

Miya dropped her spoon into her bowl of cereal and stood, heading for the door. She shot a look at Olivia. “You sure? Not just their car.”

Olivia sniffed the air. “It’s them,” she said. From the curtained off section, she heard Beth stir.

The door opened not long after, Amanda and Rob stumbling in after a relieved looking Ben.

“No problems?” asked Miya as she set her pistol aside.

“Nothin’,” replied Ben. Behind him, Rob and Amanda collapsed at the chairs at their workshop, dark bags under their eyes and clothes in disarray. Oh no. Olivia hurried over, nose wrinkling at the reek of sweat.

“Are you guys OK?” she asked.

Amanda nodded as she massaged her forehead. “We’ve been hidin’ all night, tryin’ to get back here,” explained Rob, running a hand through his hair.

“Do you know how hard it is to break into a landline payphone and use it? Super fucking hard,” said Amanda.

“Who kidnapped you? Where are they?” asked Olivia.

“Don’t know,” replied Rob. “Probably gone by now. They were in panic mode, tryin’ not to get arrested. Cops were lookin’ hard for ‘em.” The police are being helpful for once?

“Hold on. What exactly happened?” asked Miya.

“Sure. Pass me a water bottle,” said Rob.

“Me too,” added Amanda.

Beth joined the group as Amanda and Rob explained what had happened, from the kidnapping in the parking lot, the car chase, and their eventual escape.

“So the door opens, an’ I’m thinkin’ ‘fuck, we’re dead,’” explained Rob. “These two bots come in, rifles pointed right at me. I thought for sure we were gonna die, but Amanda pulled some fuckin’ black magic in that fuckin’ box thing just in time, an’ the bots just froze.”

“That’s it, they just froze?” asked Ben in the silence that followed. Nothing else?

Amanda and Rob nodded. “Yep.”

“It was a slightly educated guess. There were so many redundant systems in that thing,” added Amanda.

“How did they know you were there?” asked Beth.

“I must have triggered some sort of alarm for the robots when I got into the brain in a box,” said Amanda. “They didn’t bother to tell the mercenaries anything. We literally just walked out the doors once the robots were taken care of. I couldn’t believe it.” Why are all our parents so mean? Only Beth has nice parents.

“Hey, Ben. There was a little more,” said Rob, voice low. “Mercenary leader guy. He knew Sam.”

Ben’s eyes widened. “Shit. What’d he say?”

“That the unit he was with in Iraq was wiped out. He said he’s probably dead.”

“That ain’t right,” Ben said with a frown. “He sent us a text right after that freaky guy, Taauth showed up. Guy wearin’ our fuckin’ masks an’ everythin’.”

Rob shrugged and said, “That’s just what he told me. He didn’t know for sure.”

“Well, when we got some free time, we gotta figure this out,” said Ben.

“Yeah, yeah, absolutely,” said Rob. Olivia wrapped a wing around Ben’s shoulders. I’ll help.

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Mercenary – Whiplash

Rob ran, mindful of the mercenary leader who would no doubt gun him down if he faltered. The driver had to half carry Amanda behind them; the injured rifleman bringing up the rear of their little group. The grassy flanks of the canal rose to either side. The pursuing MHU officers fired a few times to their right, herding them away from the houses that lined the east side of the canal.

The leader grabbed Rob’s shoulder and tugged him towards a concrete path cut into the opposite side. More police cars drove towards them ahead of them, hoping to cut them off. As the leader hesitated for a moment at the sight of them, Rob twisted his head around, checking on Amanda. She stumbled along behind them, propped up by the driver. A few bullets hit the ground just shy of their heels. Fuck.

Before Rob could rush over to her, the leader snarled, “Move,” and shoved him off the sidewalk, towards the strip mall on the opposite side of the street. They sprinted, sirens on their heels. Any time Rob tried to check on Amanda, the leader shoved him again, keeping him moving. They ducked through fences and passed through a park, gaining distance between themselves and the plodding armored MHU officers.

Finally, Rob heard the sirens recede into the distance, searching the wrong area. A helicopter with a spotlight passed in the distance. Too late for that. Though maybe the cops would be a better option than these guys.

“Keep your head down,” the leader hissed to Rob, following it up with a metallic click from his pistol. They huddled out behind an old brick office building, between a dumpster and the rear entrance. The night air around them was thick with the smell of sweat and residual adrenaline.

“I think we lost them,” said the rifleman, rifle hanging from one hand as he probed his injured face with the other.

The mercenaries let out a collective breath of relief. The driver left Amanda’s side, clasping his hands behind his head. Rob eyed the leader. Go for the balls. Gives me time to get up. When he reaches for his gun, twist his arm. Put him between you and the others. What about Amanda? Rob glanced past the rifleman to see Amanda curled up, back against the wall off the office building they hid behind. She’s in no shape to run. Fuck, I’m not just leaving her. What if she’s just faking it? That’s a damn big if.

“That giving you any problems?” asked the leader after a moment for the group to catch their breaths, tapping his own cheek where the rifleman’s cut was. As the rifleman shook his head, he turned to the driver. “How is she doing?”

“Not good,” said the driver, hovering over Amanda’s shoulder.

“I was shot, you asshole,” growled Amanda, arms over her stomach.

The driver muttered, “Shit. Let me see.”

She shrugged his hand off of her shoulder. “No, no, a month ago. It hasn’t fully healed. It just hurts.” Rob had barely taken a step towards her before the leader lightly elbowed him in the upper arm. He shook his head. Jackass doesn’t even want us talking. Paranoid.

“You’re not going to die on us, are you?” the rifleman asked Amanda, a weary expression on his face. Rob felt his hands tighten into fists for a moment. You don’t actually give a fuck, do you?

“Painkillers would be great.”

The rifleman laughed. “They would.”

“Think you can keep carrying her, or do you need me or John to?” the leader asked the driver. Rob glanced at Amanda again. She grimaced and sat up, as straight as she could, refusing to meet Rob’s eyes. Now isn’t the time to get stubborn.

“I can, but where are we supposed to go?” asked the driver.

The leader ran a hand through his greying, short cut hair. “I’m calling it in.”

“What if they’re listening?”

“What?” asked the leader as he reached into his pocket.

“How did the cops know where we were going? What if they were listening into our phone calls?” asked the driver, Amanda totally forgotten behind him.

The leader shook his head. “We can’t spend all our time coming up with what-ifs. We’re not losing anyone else.”

OK, fuck it. Rob shouldered his way past the distracted rifleman and took a seat next to Amanda. “How you doin’?” he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“Get back over there,” ordered the leader before she could reply, pistol leveled at the two of them. Rob felt a smile forming on his own face as he met his gaze. Fucking really?

Amanda spoke up, “If you shoot him I will-”

“Save it,” said the leader, cutting her off.

Rob shook his head. “What, gonna fuckin’ shoot me over this? After all that nonsense? Look. The fuck’s the problem with this?”

Silence fell over them, the leader’s glare boring holes in Rob and Amanda. “Fine,” he growled. “Just shut the hell up while I make this call.”

The leader turned his back on them as he dialed a number and held the phone to his ear. The rifleman kept watch on Rob and Amanda, face impassive, while the driver was torn between nervously watching the leader or them. Maybe Amanda could do some crazy techie thing? I know I’ve got no ideas. These guys know what they’re doing. They knew to keep a phone out of her hands.

“How you holdin’ up?” Rob asked again, voice low.

“Fine,” she replied. “It just hurts a little bit. I’m not about to die if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Hell of a first date, ain’t it?”

Amanda cracked a smile. “You could say that.”

“Dinner good? What’d you get, the gnocchi?”

“It was good. Although…” She trailed off, struggling to keep a straight face. “Though not as good as the terrifying murder bot we could have been making.”

Rob burst into laughter. “Fuckin’ romantic right there.”

“I try.”

They both leaned back against the wall, observing the mercenaries. The leader paced back and forth, shoulders hunched over. “Ideas?” asked Rob. The rifleman, still watching them, raised an eyebrow.

“Well, beyond hoping for Cyrus or Olivia to drop from the sky, not really,” replied Amanda. She raised her voice above a murmur and said, “My parents must be desperate, they’ve never sent a team of jackboots to kidnap me before.”

If she was trying to provoke a reaction from the mercenaries, she didn’t get one. The driver and rifleman didn’t so much as blink. The leader wrapped up his call and hung up.

“They’re taking off now,” the leader announced, turning to face the others. “We’re taking her to the Riverside safe house and work on getting her out of the country.”

Amanda managed a choking laugh. “On the run, serves them right. Why the hell are you still working for them?”

“Shut up. They write the checks,” said the leader. That was a little defensive.

“Used to,” muttered the rifleman.

“What about him?” asked the driver, motioning to Rob. “We taking him with us?” I ever mention I like living?

The leader sighed and said, “He’ll come with us if he’ll cooperate.”

Rob shrugged. “Sure.” Don’t know why you’ve put up with me for so long, but sure, why not?

“Then get back on your feet, we’re leaving.”

Despite their earlier bitching, the mercenaries didn’t seem to mind when Amanda leaned on Rob instead of them when they got moving. The leader led the way, on the lookout for any cops or other witnesses. Across the street they found a row of small houses.

“This one looks good,” said the rifleman when the leader turned to him, leading the way to an old, beat up car. He smashed in the window with the butt of his rifle, then reached in to open the door. No alarm sounded. Soon enough, he’d hotwired it, and the leader took the spot of the driver. The old driver was crammed in the back with Rob and Amanda. This again. This didn’t work last time, jackasses.

They drove without incident this time. No one felt like talking, and the leader kept the radio off. The roads were empty, as always. Can’t blame people. Freedom Fighter starts riots, Overlord and Cyrus make a tornado, people like us are always dicking around this time. Best to just stay in at night nowadays.

Twenty minutes later, the leader pulled into a mostly empty parking lot behind a club. He motioned for everyone to get out. “We’re walking the rest of the way,” he said. Dumping the car somewhere else. Won’t stick out here. Hell, I’ve done that once or twice.

Another hurried five-minute walk, and they found themselves in front of a large metal door of what looked to be an old video rental store. The leader pounded his fist against the door a few times. A slot in the door opened and a pair of suspicious eyes peered out. “What?”

“It’s me, Brian,” replied the leader. “We need in.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Change of plan,” said the leader.

“Yeah, a lot of that going around. Define ‘change of plan’.”

“The police intercepted us. We’re still in custody of the boss’ daughter.”

“Shit.” The slot closed in their faces, leaving them in silence. Just as Rob was about to let out a laugh, the door creaked open. “In.”

The mercenaries ushered them in, and the metal door slammed shut behind them. Inside loitered half a dozen other mercenaries, as well as four Overlord robots. Son of a bitch, don’t start screaming and trying to murder us.

“The hell are those doing here?” demanded the leader, anger seeping into his voice. Huh? Weren’t you guys working with Overlord? That’s the whole reason the cops are gunning for you. Rob glanced at Amanda, who looked just as confused as he felt.

“Bosses told us to take them,” said the man who’d opened the door for them.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. They came with this big ass metal box. Bosses told us to protect it at all costs while we figure out a way out of here. Cops been around here sniffing since they showed up though.”

The leader eyed the impassive robots distastefully before turning to the rifleman and saying, “Get yourself cleaned up.” To the doorman, he motioned to Rob and Amanda and said, “We need a place to put these two for the night. Can you do that?”

The doorman shrugged. “Lemme check.” The small crowd dispersed.

“Are we going to get out of the city in one piece?” asked the driver.

“We will,” the leader replied. “Go get some rest, I’ll take them from here.” The driver hesitated for a moment, then nodded and left, heading for the rifleman. “Fucking knew Overlord was a bad job. I fucking knew it. Going to get killed for them again,” muttered the leader once the driver was out of earshot. What was that?

“Hey,” called out the doorman, catching the leader’s attention. “We got two rooms. Secure as we can get them. Down the hall, second left.”

“Good. How is the situation here?”

“Bots are covering the outside. They don’t sleep or anything. They probably kept me from blowing your head off. Been real jumpy, lots of cops making sweeps. But we’ve been good so far. Just waiting for word from the bosses.”

“Anything?”

“Nada.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Oh, and we’re only a third of the people in our operation. Have you heard anything about the others?” Others? What? You mean those other mercs you were with? You left them to the wolves.

“Nope, sorry.”

“No problem. Thanks.” The doorman nodded and left to rejoin the others.

The leader murmured to himself under his breath as he led Amanda and Rob to where the doorman had indicated. He stopped them just before a pair of heavy doors, checking over his shoulder a couple times. “Rob, right?”

Rob nodded. Me now? I thought you cared about Amanda.

“Look, I’ve never been any good at this. Your brother’s probably dead. Overlord had us protecting a dig of his, out in Iraq. He said something about a gold knife, that it was the key. But the fucking rag heads, they hated him, hated everything to do with him. The moment they found out, they fucking wiped that whole place out. It came out of nowhere. I was pulled out to oversee a different job maybe five days before it happened. And fuck. Your brother and most of the guys had no idea what they were really there for. None of them knew what they died for: some fucker’s delusions of power.”

Rob stared at him for a moment. The leader looked dead serious, almost pained. He isn’t dead. Amanda pressed up against Rob, a thoughtful frown on her face.

The leader shook his head and said, “I’m fucking sick me and my friends being some fucker’s battle fodder. I’ve had to tell four women they’re widows. Might have to do that again. Those cops weren’t fucking around. Can’t use a paycheck to make that go away.”

Rob jabbed a finger at him. “Hey, buddy, you were gonna gun me down, probably the moment Amanda was outta sight. You’re tellin’ me my brother is dead. You want sympathy now?”

“No, I wasn’t going to shoot you, not unless I had to. I was going to let you go the moment she got on that plane. Believe me or not, I don’t care. They got fifteen years of damn good work out of me, and they tell me to die for their little family squabble. Fuck your parents, fuck Lock Corp, and fuck their secrets. I’m done”

“What’s your name?” asked Amanda.

The leader sighed and stared at the wall. His fists unclenched. “It doesn’t fucking matter.”

“You don’t have to do this,” she said.

He snorted and said, “Just get in your cells. I’ve got a job to finish.”

He shoved Rob into a room and slammed the door behind him. Thick iron bars, set deep within the wall itself, covered the tiny window near the ceiling. The door locked behind him. OK, how am I getting out of here. The only thing in the room, beyond Rob himself, was an old mattress.

He circled around the room, tapping his knuckles against each one of them. Solid, solid, solid. Can’t just punch through drywall here. Rob came to a stop by the door and stared at the lock, then at the metal wire bed frame in the room. Is that a keyhole? Seriously? I don’t just make metal armor, jackasses. I can get this jimmied open in five seconds. He felt a wide grin form on his face. You fucked up!

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Mercenary – Ward

Amanda felt her shoulder press into Rob’s as they eyed the people surrounding them. No, no, no. What the hell? Not now. Not tonight. The man with a goatee and calloused hands, who’d first spoken to them, repeated, “Please keep quiet and come with us. This is the last time we’ll ask.”

The other people in dark suits moved in, faces cold and impassive.  They didn’t have any guns out at the moment, though that could change in a heartbeat. She glanced past the man’s shoulder. The parking lot was completely empty, save for them.

“What if we don’t want to?” asked Amanda, now back to back with Rob as they were fully encircled. Her hand reached for the empty space at her hip where her stun baton usually hung.

“Then we put a bullet in your boyfriend here and you come with us anyways. Now move.” He stepped to the side and held out his hand, indicating where Rob and Amanda should go. “I ever mention I like livin’?” muttered Rob to her.

Amanda heard laughter from across the parking lot. Another young couple exited the restaurant, hand in hand. Their laughter died down when the noticed the people surrounding Rob and Amanda. They looked away and hurried to their car. If I scream for help, they’ll kill Rob. And maybe those people over there.

I’m not seeing a way out of this. Rob nudged her and shook his head. You don’t see one either, do you? Amanda grimaced and walked by the goateed man and towards a large idling SUV. The small group flanked them on either side, leaving no room to make a break for freedom.

The leader stopped them as they reached the car. A man and a woman held out their hands, palms up. “Your phones.”

Well fuck you too. Rob pulled his phone from his pocket, while Amanda withdrew hers from her purse.

The man raised an eyebrow at the single phone she’d produced. He nodded to the woman next to Amanda and said, “Take her purse. Pat her down.”

Another man coughed and tapped his wrist. “Time.”

The leader barely spared him a glance. To the woman he said, “Do it.”

Rob’s jaw jutted out for a moment as he narrowed his eyes at the man. Don’t pull out some stupid protective boyfriend instincts now. The woman grabbed her purse, set it out of reach, and quickly patted down Amanda’s torso and legs.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Good. Get in,” said the man, opening the door to the car.

Rob climbed in, followed by Amanda. The kidnappers behind them dispersed, heading to two other cars. There was a driver in the SUV already, along with a man in the rear of the car, keeping an eye on Rob and Amanda. The moment the leader took the shotgun seat, he put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking lot. Their car took center in the three car convoy.

“You alright?” asked Rob under his breath.

“Yeah, for now,” said Amanda with a grimace. My meds won’t wear off for another couple of hours. We have some time. She blinked a couple of times, testing her contacts. Some with these things. Damn it, I should have brought my glasses.

OK, OK, think. They said something about shooting Rob. They’re here for me. God damn it. The dinner went fine, too. I only babbled about sweatpants for a little bit. No, focus. This has something to do with my parents. It has to be. Bounty hunters? I doubt they’re the police, they probably wouldn’t be using all the cloak and dagger. I could just ask. If they wanted to beat us up, they could have already.

“Hey,” spoke up Amanda. “Do you mind telling us what this is all about?”

“Your parents have requested your presence,” responded the leader, glancing at her through the rearview mirror. Amanda’s heart sank. Why don’t they just give up?

“Requested?” she asked.

“Their words, not mine.”

Well, at least they won’t touch me unless absolutely necessary. But Rob they’ll kill in a heartbeat. Amanda rested her head against the heavily tinted window of the car for a moment, before a bump in the road reminded her that was a bad idea. They’re keeping him around because they need my cooperation, she realized. If I were in their shoes, I’d be pragmatic about that, though. My cooperation is a nice to have, not a necessity. I can’t push that very far.

“So, Mom an’ Dad ain’t happy with you?” asked Rob, breaking her train of thought.

“Looks like it,” she replied.

Rob laughed and said, “They got a hell of a way of showin’ it. You know, if they can get all these guys to stick with ‘em when the government is huntin’ ‘em down, they gotta have a lot of money. You workin’ with the cops before you met us, right?”

“Yeah,” replied Amanda. Where are you going with this?

“Why work for the cops, then? Coulda done anythin’. Hell, probably had a nice cushy job at Lock Corp all lined up.”

“Fuck that. If I get a job it’s because I’m the best at it, not because of who I just happen to be related to.”

“Didn’t wanna go corporate?” Amanda stared at him for a moment. Did you miss the Corp in Lock Corp? “You know, some other company,” clarified Rob.

“Why? Money? No thanks. I wanted to do something with my life.”

“I hear you. But you dropped the whole police thing real quick when the opportunity came, same as Chris.”

“Working for the police sucked. I guess I was just trying to piss my parents off.”

“How’s that whole ‘pissin’ ‘em off’ thing workin’ out?”

“Not now,” she said with a shake of her head. He chuckled to himself. “What could you possibly be laughing at?”

“This,” he said, waving his hands around. “We can’t have nice things, can we? We’re just sittin’ there, mindin’ our own business, when John Doe comes outta nowhere. Then we’re tryin’ to lay low, an’ Overlord decides to take over the country. We try to go for a bit, an’ this happens. The hell?”

Amanda shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Silence fell over the car. The man behind Amanda and Rob kept watch on both of them. They passed under a highway. If that’s I-25, then we’re heading east. Where are we going? Their house is to the west, in the mountains.

We’ve got to get out of here before we get any further. Amanda nudged Rob’s leg with her foot. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Her hand drifted towards the lock of the car door, in full view of him. He gave her a barely perceptible nod, his own hand on the handle to his own door. Please have forgotten to child lock these. A large hand came down on their shoulders.

“I wouldn’t do that,” said the man behind them. Damn it, how did he see that? Once they pulled their hands from their doors, he released them.

Rob leaned forward in his seat and said to the mercenaries, “You know, my brother works for you guys.”

“What?” asked Amanda. Ben? The mercenaries barely spared him a glance.

“The other one, Sam,” said Rob. Oh, right, I keep forgetting about him. “Yeah, he mentioned somethin’ about a feral. He an’ his buddies were in Teresina, huntin’ it. I think it was half cat, half beetle or somethin’ crazy like that.” That got their attention.

The mercenary leader tapped the driver on the shoulder. “Hey, you hear that?” he murmured.

The driver, a younger, clean shaven guy, twisted in his seat for a moment to take a look at Rob. “Sam?”

“No, that’s my brother. Triplets.”

The driver turned back to the road in front of him, though Amanda could see him stealing glances at Rob in the rearview mirror. “Worked with him for a while in Teresina. He’s a good kid. Hell, everyone in that unit was.” The driver sighed. “You know we’re not going to just let you go for that, right?”

“No, no, I get it. Got a job an’ all. Know where he is now? Last he told me, he was in Iraq somewhere,” said Rob.

“Then you know as much as I do. Sorry.”

“No worries. Tryin’ to figure out where he is. Hell, not sure if he’s even allowed to talk, I know he took a real sketchy job for Lock Corp in Iraq, an’ that’s the last I heard. All three of us never really tried to hide before.”

The driver snorted and said, “That truck of yours is very obvious.” The mercenary leader coughed. In the rearview mirror, Amanda caught sight of the driver snapping his mouth shut with a rueful grimace.

She sat back in her seat as Rob chatted on about his brother. OK. I can work with that. If that’s true, they’re not watching the whole city, otherwise they would have found us much earlier, because there’s no hiding that truck. I don’t know how to use that yet, but any information can be helpful. I guess the question is how they were able to monitor all of that area effectively.

“Whoa, what’s this?” said the driver as they turned a corner, cutting off whatever Rob was saying.

Amanda craned her neck to see a blur of police lights ahead of them, MHU vans blocking the road. As they came to a stop behind the lead mercenary car, a blur of officers moved up to either side of them. Some stopped at the first car, while others moved on to Amanda’s car.

“The others will keep them occupied. Go,” the leader said to the driver.

The driver threw their SUV into reverse and hit the gas, just as the officers reached them. Though muffled, she could hear shouting from outside. Gunfire erupted around them as the driver put the car in gear and gunned the engine, heading away from the police blockade. They ducked as a couple bullets glanced off the car. Sirens filled the air. Amanda twisted around to see half a dozen police cruisers in pursuit, as well as what looked like an MHU van bringing up the rear.

“Keep your head down,” the mercenary leader barked at her. He held a pistol in his hand, keeping an eye on the pursuing police in the side mirror. The SUV’s engine roared as they barreled down the road, the police right behind them. A few more bullets headed their way, most missing or plinking harmlessly off the frame of the car.

“Look at the time,” said the driver. “I can’t lose them that fast.”

“We came prepared,” said the leader with a nod to the man in the back. The man ducked below Amanda’s seat for a moment, before rising back up with a long rifle that looked suspiciously like Ben’s in hand. He leveled it at the back window and fired, shattering it. A few more squeezes of the trigger, and two of the police cars jerked to a stop, lost in the distance shortly thereafter. The driver took a hard turn, tossing Amanda into Rob’s lap.

“We need to get out of here,” she said into his ear, just loud enough to be heard over the sirens just behind them. I don’t know how the police found us, and right now I don’t care.

The rifleman fired again, and another police cruiser careened off the road. The remaining two backed off, letting the MHU van take the lead. The incoming fire picked up.

“Next turn,” Rob murmured back. Right. High profile vehicle. He has to slow down a lot for a turn. His hand fiddled with the lock, then came to a rest on the handle.

“Don’t you fucking think about it,” said the leader, pointing his gun at Rob.

Amanda hauled herself up, placing herself between the leader’s pistol and Rob. “Fuck off,” she spat. The leader scowled and opened his mouth. The MHU van rammed into the backside of the car before he could respond, sending them skidding. How is that thing keeping up? The driver wrestled control back with the steering wheel. The rifleman fired a few more shots at the front of the pursuing van. It kept coming.

“We don’t have time for this!” shouted the driver.

“I know.” To the rifleman, the leader shouted, “John, aim for the tires.”

“Trying,” the rifleman growled back. “Brace!”

Rob and Amanda ducked down just in time, as the van slammed into the SUV again, sending them hurdling off the road and down a drainage ditch. The impact sent Amanda hurtling into the seat in front of her. She kept herself curled up, arms covering her head until the car came to a stop. The brakes of the van screeched behind them.

“The hell?” muttered Rob. “You OK?”

“Get the door.” A lance of pain struck her in the gut as she tried to get off the floor of the car. Fuck. Rob frantically yanked on the car door handle. It didn’t budge. Fuck everything.

“Out of the car.” ordered the leader. He and the driver climbed out of the car, smoke rising from the engine where it had rammed directly into a large rock. The rifleman groaned as he pressed a hand to his bloody cheek.

The leader pulled the door open and dragged Rob out of the car with a gun pressed to his head. Once they were clear, the driver wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to her feet. Behind them, the rifleman crawled out, blood pouring from a nasty gash on his cheek.

“Move!” barked the leader, leading them away from the advancing MHU officers above them on the road. We can work with this. We’ll have to.

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Mercenary – Suit

“How is Olivia holdin’ up?” Rob asked Ben.

“Not bad,” he replied. “Think she went out flyin’ with Beth last night, once she finally got in the right headspace.”

“Good, good,” said Rob. She’ll shake it off. He returned to the back plates of Amanda’s new armor, screwdriver in hand. He tightened a screw between two plates, then tested the range of motion between the two of them.

“How’s that goin’?” asked Ben.

“Alright. Just doin’ the bare bones right now, we gotta sit down an’ design the full thing here soon.” Rob didn’t bother to explain further, it would simply go right through Ben’s ears like it always did. “Just gotta get this done soon. We’re goin’ to an Italian place tonight.”

“Mmm, pasta,” said Ben, swinging his legs beneath him, seated on the workbench next to Rob.

“That was my thinkin’. I ain’t met someone who hates Italian.” One less thing to fuck up. Rob moved onto the next pair of plates. Miya and Amanda had left the lair together earlier, while Olivia snored softly from her beanbag.

“Good thinkin’. Hey, just remembered, heard anythin’ ‘bout Sam?” asked Ben.

“I fuckin’ wish. Dead silent, like always,” replied Rob, tightening the screw harder than strictly necessary. “Think Cyrus was tellin’ the truth? All that shit ‘bout some old timey god takin’ him over?” I wanna call bullshit, I really do.

Ben threw up his hands to the air and said, “I don’t fuckin’ know. Ain’t like anythin’ I’ve ever heard of. That shit just don’t sound possible. An’ what the fuck was the dude’s name again? Taauth? That a real word?”

“Think Cyrus was bullshittin’ us, then? Cuz that means we got no idea where Sam is.” He was working for Lock Corp. That’s the only lead we’ve got.

“Cyrus has always done alright by me. An’ hell, you saw that tornado thing he killed Overlord with.”

“That just means he can make a tornado, not that he’s thousands of years old. Two separate things right there,” said Rob. He stood up from the armor and grabbed a rag, wiping off the lubricating oil from the armor joints on his hands.

“Never heard of someone that powerful, though. An’ besides, the Mother and Cuauhtémoc are both ancient. Can’t deny that. Gotta consider if it’s true, cuz then we gotta beat down a god to get Sam back.”

Fuck, forgot about those two. “Fuck, I don’t know. We’ll deal with that when we get to it.”  Rob spun the armor stand, now facing the chest plates.

“It’s be nice if we had a little more info to go on.”

“Then you wanna grab the thing?” asked Rob.

“What thing?”

“You know, the thing,” he said, waving his hand towards his desk where his laptop sat

“That don’t help.”

“My laptop.” Come on, wasn’t that obvious?

“Coulda just said that,” said Ben, reaching over and grabbing the laptop. He opened it and asked, “What’s your login again?”

“Type notapassword. All lowercase, no spaces,” said Rob, not looking up from the armor.

Ben laughed and said, “That’s probably not the best password in the world.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what Amanda said, too,” grumbled Rob. I’ll get around to changing it when I get around to changing it.

He focused his work on the armor as Ben began typing away. The armor’s a bit thicker over her stomach, right? He tapped a knuckle against the plates in question. Yeah, good. I don’t think she can take any kind of injury there again and keep breathing.

“Well this is interestin’,” said Ben after a minute or so. “Was lookin’ up anythin’ with Lock Corp. The feds are tryin’ to dismantle ‘em. Sayin’ they were workin’ for Overlord.”

Rob looked up. “Say what?”

“Lock Corp. was workin’ for Overlord.”

“Shit.” He set his screwdriver aside and looked over Ben’s shoulder. Hold up, what’s this? “Quit scrollin’. Look at that. List of wanted people. An’ Lafitte. Lafitte. Shit, that’s Amanda’s last name.”

“Really? Oh right, yeah. Totally forgot about that.” When Amanda had finally gotten back to them after the severe bullet wound in the stomach she’d received in Arizona, she’d given them a brief explanation of where she’d been and why.

“Yeah, an’ remember when she went missin’ for a bit? We couldn’t find her?”

“Of course. Didn’t she have you pick her up in a…” Ben trailed off as realization dawned. “A super nice car, right?”

Same last name as some people super high up a massive corporation. She had a really expensive car, like the kind owned by people super high up a massive corporation. She didn’t offer that many details about her parents. Hell, I just assumed they were able to dictate her because she was hopped up on painkillers. “Shit. Her parents are wanted for treason.”

“Think she knows?” asked Ben.

“Think she cares? Might be a better question.” Ben just shrugged. “Well, I’ll let her know, see what she wants to do with that info.”

***

They didn’t manage to find much on Taauth beyond conspiracies and calls for his death by various Islamic militant groups fighting against him as he cut his way through the Middle East. The fact that he came out of nowhere and that he was commonly seen on the front lines as his armies advanced had people throwing out all sorts of speculation as to who he might be. But his first documented appearance was only a week before both Rob and Ben received some strange, garbled texts from Sam.

As for Lock Corp. and Overlord, Amanda didn’t so much as blink when they told her, once she returned about an hour later with Miya. She simply shrugged and said, “That’s nice.”

Note to self, don’t bring up her parents, thought Rob, finishing the last button on his shirt. “How do I look?” he asked Miya and Ben as he turned around.

“Exactly like me, just in a nice shirt an’ pants,” said Ben with a grin.

“Haha, you fuckin’ jackass.”

Miya looked up from her phone and gave him an appraising look, biting down on her lower lip in thought. After a moment, she nodded and said, “Good.”

“Thanks.” Rob turned to Ben and said, “See, that’s what I was lookin’ for.”

“You two are making way too big a deal out of this,” commented Miya. “Relax. Just let it happen.”

“It ain’t like she’s a piece of metal or somethin’. If I fuck up I can’t just hammer her back into shape.”

Miya stared at him for a moment, concern on her face. “I would hope not.”

“OK, bad example. But you get what I’m sayin’, right?”

“That you’ve been workin’ too long with machines an’ get a little scared when you’re outta your comfort zone, cuz you don’t know how to fix this if you fuck it up?” said Ben. Miya looked up from her phone and stared at him.

“Well, I wasn’t thinkin’ of that before, but now that you say that…” Now you’re just being a dick.

“What the fuck did I just say about relaxing?” said Miya, turning her attention on Rob.

“Sorry?”

“Good. You should be.” She focused on something over his shoulder. “Now get out there and have fun.”

Rob spun on his heels to find Amanda approaching, Olivia looming behind her. “Ready?” she asked, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Sure.” He turned to the others and said, “See you guys later,” with a wave as he and Amanda left the lair.

By some unspoken signal, they both headed to his truck, his keys jangling in his pocket as they walked side by side. Is she wearing perfume? That smells nice. Wait, shit, am I supposed to say something about it, then? He shot her a sideways glance. She wasn’t studying his expression. I guess not. Saying, ‘I like how you smell,’ is kind of creepy.

“You ever been to Mario’s before?” he asked as he climbed into his truck.

“Once or twice,” she replied, shutting her own door. “It’s pretty good.”

“Good. The internet didn’t lie. I’ve only been livin’ here for a month, gotta find all the good places to eat again.” They pulled out of the lot behind the lair, heading towards downtown.

“Yeah, I can see that,” said Amanda. “I keep meaning to bring everyone to this awesome little pizza place near my old house. But I keep forgetting to grab some honey at the grocery store. That places pizza is just made for honey.”

Rob held up a hand. “Wait, hold up. Honey?” Who came up with that? Who looked at pizza and said, ‘This needs honey.’?

“Yeah. Don’t you put it on pizza crust?” asked Amanda, with a genuinely confused look on her face.

Rob shook his head and said, “No. I’ve never heard of that.”

“Seriously? That’s just a thing you do. Huh.” Amanda sat back in her seat, confusion on her face.

“You’ve never lived outside of Colorado, have you?” he asked.

“No, I’ve lived in Colorado all my life.”

“Good skier, then?” he asked with a grin. It must be nice to have real mountains here, not a bunch of little Appalachian hills.

Amanda snorted and said, “Not so much. When I was eight I crashed and broke my arm. I haven’t been since.”

“You get a lot of bad injuries, don’t you?” asked Rob with a shake of his head. Ow. That hurts just thinking about.

“I know. Trust me, I know. When I was about ten I got a really bad case of pneumonia. I was coughing my lungs out for a week.”

“Damn. We’re probably gonna get E. coli or some shit from this place.”

“Don’t worry, only I’ll get it, knowing my luck. But I’m pretty sure I’m immune to food poisoning, somehow. Have you ever been to Turkey?”

“Nope. Never been outta the US.” Why the hell did you go to Turkey? Isn’t that a Muslim country? I’d have thought that would be kind of shitty for a woman, but what do I know?

“They have these huge kabobs of lamb or chicken rotating next to a heater kind of thing,” she said with a smile. “You can find them anywhere on the street in Istanbul. They’re delicious, I went to one every chance I got. But this one I went to, I ordered a chicken plate thing, I forget the exact name, and started wolfing it down. But then halfway through, I stopped. The chicken was cold. The meat was totally uncooked.”

Rob burst into laughter. “Holy shit! Bird food poisonin’ is some bad shit. Right up there with shellfish, right?”

Amanda nodded and said, “Yeah, but that’s the thing. I was totally fine. Not even a hiccup. Moral of the story is, if I can take undercooked Turkish poultry, I can take whatever Mario’s can dish out.”

“Speak of the devil, here we are,” said Rob, as the sign for Mario’s came into view. Packed, too. They parked at the far end of the lot and began their walk to the restaurant. Shit. Do I put my arm around her? Or is that not something to do. Or… No. Relax. He slipped an arm over her shoulders. Some tension in his shoulders eased as she put her arm around his waist. You know, this is nice. I think I can live with this.

They walked in together. “Reservation for two,” said Rob to the host, who led them to a small booth by the wall at the far end of the building. Just as they sat down, a waiter appeared to order their drinks. Rob ordered a Coke, Amanda a water, and the waiter was off, leaving them alone. Now what?

“What were you an’ Miya up to today?” Women like talking about their day, right?

“Just shopping. Olivia’s starting to grow out of her clothes again, we were looking for anything that might fit, and it wouldn’t hurt if we found some things for ourselves.” Rob smiled and nodded mutely. Oh god, I’ve made a terrible mistake. Amanda continued, “Miya had this great little saying from a friend of hers from Arizona. Sweatpants love you for who you are, not who you want to be.

Rob laughed, though Amanda just took a sip of water, a slight blush spreading up her cheeks. Shit, what did I fuck up? We were doing so well in the car. Talking, that is.

The waiter returned with their drinks and took their orders. They killed the time with idle chatter while they waited for their food, not really discussing anything substantive. Rob did everything he could to steer the conversation away from family. Me and Ben’s problem, not hers. And she hates hers. Probably not good first date material. He wiped his sweaty palms against his pants under the table as the food arrived. They dug in.

His eyes scanned the table after a few silent minutes, looking for a distraction, or anything to break up the sound of chewing. Dinner was a terrible idea. Shit. Should have thought of something fun. “You see that new movie?” he asked.

She blinked. “Which one?”

God damn it. “The new Superman movie?”

“No, sorry.” Shit. What else is there to talk about? In the awkward silence that followed, she set down her fork in her half finished dish, looked him dead in the eye, and asked, “Do you want to get out of here and work on the armor designs?”

“Oh thank god. I was hopin’ you’d say somethin’ like that.”

They rushed to split the check and leave, leaving their waiter blinking in confusion. “I’ve got the bare bones of the armor pretty much done,” explained Rob as they headed out the door and back to the truck. “Now we gotta figure out what we’re puttin’ on it. If we’re goin’ the power armor route, it’s gonna need reinforcement. We ain’t half assin’ anythin’ if we do that.”

“Absolutely. I was thinking-”

“Excuse me, Miss Lafitte?” spoke up a man behind them, cutting Amanda off. She stiffened at the sound of her last name. Together, they spun around to see a man in a suit, hands hidden behind his back. Two more men and a woman, all in similar cheap dark suits, appeared from between the cars in the parking lot, surrounding them.

“We need you two to come with us,” said the man who’d first spoken. Who the fuck are these guys?

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Mercenary – Steel

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. What was I thinking? That everything would just magically work? Ben took a sharp right to get back on the highway, squishing Olivia’s wing between herself and the car door. ‘No place here.’ Some of those people wanted to shoot me. My own mother wouldn’t even look at me. Stupid, stupid, stupid monster thing.

Amanda and Ben were both quiet, even the radio of the truck was turned off. The only sounds Olivia heard, beyond the roar of the engine and the whooshes of other cars passing them on the road, were Amanda’s fingers tapping on her phone. So stupid. My own family doesn’t want me. Stupid wing, stupid claws, stupid tail. Stupid. The whole drive back to the lair passed without a word spoken between the three of them.

They pulled into the gravel lot behind the lair. “Sorry for dragging you two out there,” mumbled Olivia as they climbed out of the truck. Her head bumped against the roof of the cab as she angled herself and her wings out. Leave me alone.

“No need to apologize,” said Ben.

Amanda nodded in agreement and said, “If you need to talk, we’re here.” They both watched for Olivia’s reaction, concern all over their faces. Sorry. I’ll get out of your way.

Olivia mutely nodded trudged over to her curtained off bed, her tail scraping along the concrete floor. Her heel claw left a small gouge when she walked over an oil stain in the floor. She pulled the curtains shut behind her and collapsed face first onto her bed. Her claws dug into the mattress as she buried her face in it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The others, Rob and Miya included, left her alone for a few hours. Olivia tried to tune out the sounds of them going about their day. Miya and Ben left for the gym, while Amanda typed away at a keyboard. Olivia only realized she’d drifted off to sleep when Rob dropped a wrench, the loud metallic clatter waking her up again.

She couldn’t think of a reason to get out of bed. I could probably just stay here. No one would notice. Not hungry. Don’t feel like reading. Flying is too much of a pain. Footsteps approached. A small figure plopped down beside her on the mattress. Go away. Something plastic pulled on her hair with a thousand tiny fingers. Olivia turned her head, looking up at Miya sitting beside her, hairbrush in hand. What do you want?

“Jesus,” said Miya in a matter of fact tone. “This is so tangled. When is the last time you brushed your hair?” What? Where did this come from? After waiting a few silent moments for a response, she continued, “And it’s matted in a couple places. I know flying makes your hair all messed up, but this is basic cleanliness. If you want to keep it neat, just use a ponytail. Here, watch.” Miya put the brush aside and pulled a hair tie out of her pocket. In a flurry of hand motions and flicking hair, she pulled her long black hair back into a ponytail. “See? Ponytails are great. You can do anything with them without your hair getting all tangled up.”

“OK. Um, thanks” said Olivia.

Miya returned to brushing her hair. “We’ll get into braids and stuff later. Or you could just do what Amanda does and keep it cut really short.”

Olivia shrugged and said, “I like my hair, I guess.” I haven’t had a reason to complain about it, at least.

“Alright, once I’m done here,” said Miya, pausing to pull on a particularly tangled bit of hair, “I’ll give you a couple hair ties and clips.”

They beat Olivia’s hair into some semblance of organization, though it was mostly Miya. She had Olivia sit up and show her that she could get her own hair under control before leaving her with the brush and some hair ties. She dangled one from a claw.

I guess if it keeps everything neat. It does feel better now, actually. I’m sure it looks better, too. Miya kept muttering something about a crazy cat lady. I didn’t look crazy though, did I? I guess I did. My parents sure thought so. She sighed. Maybe if I’d just… I don’t know. Maybe if I’d called them on the phone instead. They wouldn’t have had to see me. Maybe that would have worked. I bet Chris would have known what to do.

“Hey, Olivia, got a sec?” called out Rob from across the lair, breaking her train of thought. “I need a hand.”

She climbed to her feet and brushed the curtain surrounding her bed aside. “What?”

Rob waved her over to his armor stand. “Hold this. I’m makin’ part of Amanda’s new armor, need to adjust the stand.”

“Oh, um, OK.”

Together, they lifted Rob’s suit of armor off of its stand. “Hold up a sec,” he said. “Need to fix up somethin’ real quick.”

He left Olivia standing with a massive set of metal slabs that constituted his armor while he darted over to his desk to grab a screwdriver. He knelt down in front of Olivia and the armor and opened up a plate.

“How you doin’?” he asked, head halfway into the torso of his armor. “Is it heavy?”

Olivia readjusted her grip on the back plates and said, “Kind of. It’s not bad.”

“Alright, now we should hear a click.” There are a lot of clicks. You mean a louder one? “There it is. We’re good. Set it down gently.”

“Where?”

“Any open space on the floor. There’s good,” he said, pointing to a patch of floor by the end of his workbench. As she set it down, he said, “Thanks. It’s a pain in the ass to move it on my own without gettin’ in an’ out of it.”

Olivia nodded. “Yeah, it’s big.”

“Gotta make sure Amanda’s armor fits an’ all. That’s somethin’ you want fittin’ perfect, but she ain’t Ben, so she’s got different measurements than me. She’s also goin’ for a less bulky design than mine. Sleeker, more techie lookin’ that that monstrosity,” he said, jerking his head towards his own armor. “I wish she’d been around when I was makin’ mine. Hell, been thinkin’ about tonin’ it down once we get her armor done. It’d be nice to have reflexes an’ shit. She can probably put in a couple cool things to. Think she can put in a kickass lightin’ gun on my wrist?”

Olivia had been nodding mutely along.  “Oh, um, I don’t know. Probably. I mean, why not?”

Rob laughed. “Ain’ that the real question. ‘Why not?’” He set his tools aside and

“Do you need any more help?” she asked.

“I’m good here. Thanks,” replied Rob.

Olivia nodded and turned to walk away. “Hey, ‘liv’, got a favor to ask,” called out Ben, just before she could return to her bed.

“What?” she asked as she walked over to where he was cleaning his rifle. Why does everyone need something from me all of a sudden?

“Can you go check on Red? Make sure she ain’t been abducted or somethin’.”

“Oh. Does she need something?”

Ben shrugged. “I dunno. Ask her. An’ you might wanna talk to her, too. She’s all alone out there, gets kinda borin’.”

“OK. I can do that.” What time is it?

Ben grinned and said, “Thanks. Don’t wanna spend any more on gas for the BAT. She’s still in your old apartment. Just knock, she’ll know you.”

“OK, I’ll go.” I haven’t talked to Red in a while. Olivia poked her head out into the night. Wow, I slept all day. She slipped out and took flight, circling a few times to get up high enough to get out of view, in case someone on the street happened to look up. She headed back to her old apartment building, a couple miles to the southeast of the lair.

Familiar rough roofing scratched against her clawed feet as she landed on the roof of the apartment building. She sniffed the air before heading for the stairs. Smells like her now. I never thought I’d be here again. Eventually, she came to her old home. Red, however, had added some touches of her own. Intricate flowing patterns, carved by claw, covered the entire wooden door.

“Whoa,” said Olivia, leaning in to get a better look. The richly detailed carvings didn’t depict anything specific, though they swirled together beautifully, even making up for where the paint on the door had chipped off. Right, I’m here for Red, not the door. She tapped the door with the back of her hand, not willing to put her claws anywhere near the carvings.

She heard a couple heavy footsteps beyond the door, then Red opened it. “Hey,” she said, resting her shoulder against the door frame.

“Um, hi,” said Olivia. “I’m just stopping by, making sure you’re OK.”

“I’m good for now.”

Olivia fidgeted. I’m just standing here being weird. “I like these carvings,” she said, more to fill the silence than anything else.

Red shrugged. “I was bored. It looked cool.”

“So you don’t need anything?”

Red shook her head and stepped away from the door. Olivia followed her into the apartment. “I’ll probably need some more water soon, but I’ve got enough food for the next month,” said Red, gesturing to the kitchen as she passed.

“How are you doing, though?” It’s just you here.

“I’m bored. Don’t get me wrong, I love having this whole building to myself. It’s way better than being cooped up in that little auto shop. But there’s no one else here.

“It’s quieter. That’s nice.” Ben, Amanda, everyone, I love you but you guys are always making noise.

“That is a definite plus,” said Red, her expression thawing. She crashed onto the old couch in the living room. “I’m kind of surprised, a lot of the stuff in here was untouched. Didn’t you live here for a couple weeks?”

“I didn’t spend that much time in here. I was flying around and stuff,” said Olivia. She sat beside Red, twisting her tail away from her.

“Yeah, I’ve been flying around too. I’m starting to think I’m not very good at it. I hate falling. And just taking off is a pain.”

“I can give you some pointers if you’d like.”

“Like what?” asked Red, a slight tilt to her head.

“Well, if you’re ever falling, don’t panic,” said Olivia. “That’s the first thing I learned.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring,” said Red, doubt written all over her face.

“It’s worth it. The first time I flew, I panicked and folded a wing. I fell a long way. But once you get used to it it’s so much better than walking around.”

“I can’t argue with that,” said Red. She crossed her legs and flexed her long, clawed toes. “This claw where my heel should be is a real pain in the ass.”

“I know, right! Getting down stairs is the worst.”

Red pointed to her and said, “Yeah! When you can’t tell if the stair is wide enough to get your whole foot on it or if your heel is going to catch.” Red smiled and said, “Last week, a day after I moved in here, I was heading for the roof. I’d forgotten something, it was probably my phone, back here, so I spun around and just tripped over my own tail. Did a total face plant.” She rubbed her jaw, a rueful smile on her face. “I’m just lucky no one saw that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. The first time I ever sat in this couch, I’d forgotten about my wings. So I sat, and it twisted my wing in,” said Olivia, bending the wing as far as she could in demonstration.

Red winced. “That sucks.”

“It was just surprising. I think I jumped halfway across the room. That was the first day I’d, you know, woken up. I just wasn’t used to everything.”

Red laughed. They settled into silence for a moment. She hit her face on the ground? That can’t be fun. “Where the hell did you get food?” asked Red.

“What?”

“When you first woke up, where did you get your food from? I’m kind of sick of just waiting for deliveries.”

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Olivia. “It’s better than stuff from dumpsters.” Anything is better than food from a dumpster, trust me.

“I know. But it’d be nice to be self-sufficient, you know?”

Olivia frowned and ran a hand through her hair, thinking. “You know the Rocky Mountain Shopping Center?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” replied Red.

“Um, it smells like donuts?” Maybe we could get some donuts! Well, have one of the others get some donuts. Still!

Red’s face lit up in recognition. She knows what I’m talking about. They smell so good. “Right, that one. What about it?”

“The drug store there. If you go there when they get a delivery, there’s only one guy unloading the stuff, and he’s super slow. And they don’t have any cameras either. You know, if you want to get food on your own.”

“How do you know that?” asked Red.

“Because I got a lot of my food from there,” explained Olivia. “Before, you know, I met the others.”

“What, you just took it?” Olivia nodded. “Damn, advocating robbery. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Food is food.”

“True, true,” said Red. Her wings relaxed, spreading out a bit.

“Have you heard anything from Hank?” asked Olivia.

“That asshole? No. Why?” He wasn’t… OK, he was kind of mean.

“We haven’t heard anything from him, and I just wanted to make sure he was OK. I was just wondering if you’d heard from him.”

“Nope, sorry.” Red pulled the tabled Amanda had given her out from under the couch. She fumbled with the screen for a moment before saying, “And no, still nothing. You have one of these too, right?” Olivia nodded. “How do you use it without scratching it up?”

“Oh, Amanda explained this to me once.” Olivia leaned in to get a better look at the tablet. “The touch screen of this detects heat, not touch. So if you used the eraser end of a pencil, it wouldn’t work. It’s meant for, you know, people with fingertips. I use my knuckles.”

Red examined her own fist for a moment. “Really?”

“No, not like that. Extend a finger, then bend the first two little bones until your claw almost touches your palm. Yeah, like that. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.”

Red smiled as she tapped on her tablet. “Alright. This is a lot better than what I was doing.”

“What was that?” asked Olivia.

“I was just using the side of my finger. It was a huge pain in the ass. I think I can finally use this without the urge to break it in half.”

“Amanda would kill you.”

“And it would be worth it.”

Olivia laughed. A few minutes passed, Red engrossed in her newfound tablet prowess. I missed this couch. But I could be getting donuts right now. Olivia stood up and said, “I’m heading home now. You just needed water, right?”

Red looked up from the screen. “Yeah, and no rush on that. See you later.”

Olivia nodded in goodbye and left the apartment, heading straight back to the lair. Donuts! She landed between Rob’s truck and Amanda’s car.

Ben waved to her as she entered the lair. “How’s Red?” he asked.

“Good. She said she needs more water. But I think she’s bored.”

“Yeah, I’d recommend she get a job or a hobby or somethin’, but I ain’t sure what for her.”

“She’s carving a lot.” She looked around the lair. By the soft, slow sounds of three other peoples’ breathing, the others were asleep. She sat at her chair at the table, a few seats over from Ben.

“We’ll that’s somethin’ to do. You got any plans for tonight?”

Olivia shook her head. Wait a minute. “Why do you guys all suddenly have stuff for me to do? Are you just trying to distract me?”

“Yep.” As Olivia frowned, he said, “Hey, don’t give me that look. Better up an’ movin’ than sittin’ an’ wallowin’. Amanda said you get all quiet when you’re sad, an’ I never see you try an’ avoid people like you did all today.”

You guys were just tricking me? All the sorrow and self-loathing she’d forgotten about for the last hour or two came crashing back. “I don’t know. I just wish it’d worked, you know?”

“Hey, hey, listen. Fuck ‘em,” said Ben. “You did absolutely nothin’ wrong. If they don’t want you ‘round, they ain’t worth havin’ ‘round. You choose to be a feral? No, course not. If you’d chosen to, I dunno, eat twenty heartwarmin’ orphans, then yeah, I’d see where they were comin’ from. But you didn’t. You wanna get mad, get mad at them, not yourself.”

“But they’re family.”

“Family? Same deal. Can’t choose who you’re related to. But you can choose who you hang out with. Beatin’ yourself up over somethin’ completely outta your control is a real good way to make yourself miserable.” He moved over to the chair next to her and nudged her in the ribs. “It’s up to you. But you heard Amanda. We’re here for you.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

Ben just laughed. “Don’t mention it.”

After a moment, she asked, “Do you want to get some donuts?”

“I got no idea where we’re gonna find ’em this time of night, but you’re goddamn right I do.”

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Homecoming – Truth

“Where’s Olivia?” asked Miya. She, Amanda, and the brothers had scattered around the lair, waiting for Olivia to come back. She and the brothers had tapped into the various security cameras around where she had first woken up, while Miya and Amanda had gone up north of the city to check the family of a girl who might have been Olivia.

“Said she’d be flyin’ out an’ about for a bit,” replied Ben, balancing on the two back legs of his chair. I can’t blame her. It’s good to have something to focus on, thought Amanda.

“You know, we need a couch in here,” said Rob, fidgeting in the hard plastic folding chair.

“Kinda runnin’ outta room now, aren’t we?” replied Ben. “Can’t even park a car in here anymore.”

“We already have that beanbag,” said Amanda, nodding towards the massive dark blue lump between the table and the workshop. I can’t believe I completely passed out on that thing. “That thing is super comfortable.”

Just then, the back door opened, and Olivia ducked through. “Hi,” she said to the group at large with a small wave of her scaled hand.

“Hey!” said Rob. “Have fun?”

“Yeah!” She glanced between Rob and Amanda. “And, um…”

“We have something,” said Amanda, answering her unspoken question.

“We don’t think Maria is the one we’re looking for,” said Miya.

Olivia frowned as she took her seat with the sawn off backrest between Ben and Rob. “Why not?”

Miya leaned forward and said, “The main reason we thought Maria might be you is because she is the same age as you, roughly, and vanished a day before you showed up.”

“Her parents could barely speak any English,” said Amanda. “From what they told us it was the same with Maria. You don’t have that problem. Ferals have memories removed, not added.”

“Oh. Well, maybe that’s why other ferals can’t talk. They just forgot how,” said Olivia.

“Could be,” said Miya. “I mean, I don’t know. But that could be it.”

Amanda continued, “They had a couple family pictures of her as well. That one picture the police had must have just been a weird angle or lighting or something, because she and Olivia looked nothing at all like each other in the others.”

“Hold up,” said Ben. “If they couldn’t speak English how’d you talk to ‘em?”

Amanda tapped her phone on the table. “Real time translator. It’s not 100% perfect, but it gets the message across.” Maybe I could… no, not the time. Later.

Silence fell over the group as they mulled over the information. I don’t know about anyone else, but I have no idea what else to do now. “We can’t just leave her to die, wherever she is,” said Olivia.

“I hate to say it, but there’s a reason these kinds of cases go unsolved. There’s almost nothing to go on,” said Amanda. “We don’t have a police force. We have the five of us and whatever databases I manage to tap into.

“Findin’ her is gonna be real complicated,” said Ben, smile nowhere to be found. “Three reasons to kidnap a kid: ransom, labor, sex. I ain’t even countin’ just the straight up loony killers. She ain’t been ransomed, an’ she’s a she. I hate it, but she’s been gone two months. She’s long gone. Could be in fuckin’ Thailand for all we know. Hell, for all her kidnapper knows. Not like they’d keep tabs on her.”

“But we can’t just-” began Olivia.

“No,” said Ben. He paused for a moment before saying, “You seen a kid get shot before? Too small, too much blood. No. This is a real dark place we’re talkin’ ‘bout. This ain’t the time or place for it. Leave it.”

Amanda caught sight of Rob nudging Olivia in the ribs as she opened her mouth to argue. He shot her a warning look and mouthed, “Later.” What’s up with Ben? Olivia frowned and shut her mouth.

“The last thing we have then are the tapes you guys collected,” said Amanda, bringing the conversation back to its original purpose. “I’ll start going through those, see if I can find anything.”

“Hey, Ben, let’s go get some food,” said Rob. “I’ll drive.”

“Sure,” said Ben, still with a sour look on his face. We hit something personal.

The brothers left together, the deep rumble of Rob’s truck left the back of the lair. Miya and Olivia watched as Amanda turned her attention to two of her computers in her workshop. In the MHU, her last task had been to make a facial recognition program. The concept for cars was the same. Easier, in fact, cars couldn’t be packed as close together as a mob, which was what the old program was for.

“Do you need any help?” asked Olivia.

“No, I should be good. It’s mostly automated. If the computer sees anything, it’ll tell me. If we don’t find anything, then yes, help would be good,” replied Amanda.

“But we could get started early,” said Olivia.

“No need to rush it,” cautioned Amanda. “Whoever left you there did it two months ago. Another day or two isn’t going to hurt at this point. It’s best if we take out time and get it right.”

“Is Ben OK?” she asked. Oh, you picked up on that too.

“He’ll be fine,” said Miya.

Amanda nodded in agreement. “Rob didn’t seem that concerned. They’re not exactly reserved when it comes to saying what they’re thinking.”

“Speaking of which, it looks like you and Rob are a thing now,” said Miya, a sly smile playing on her face.

“What? No. We’re just going to dinner.”

“That’s called a date. He asked you on a date, and you said yes. You two are a thing.”

Oh shit she’s right. Oh shit. It’s been four years since I last went on a date. How do you date? “I don’t know. What does a guy want from a date anyways?” asked Amanda.

“Sex.”

Well aren’t you helpful. Amanda rolled her eyes at Miya and said, “Oh please, we’re not taking it that fast. We’re not sixteen anymore.”

Miya raised an eyebrow. “Fast? You two are already practically glued to each other whenever you’re working on something together.”

“Because we’re working on something. It takes a lot of concentration to-” She cut herself off at Miya’s knowing look. “You know what? No. I’m not going to justify myself to you.” Miya smiled and said nothing. Amanda glanced at Olivia, who struggled to keep a smile off of her face. Not you too. “Do you have something to say?”

Olivia composed herself and said, “Sorry. But don’t worry. Just be you. Why else would he have asked you?”

“A date is so much different than just hanging out.” Right?

“You’re overthinking it,” said Miya with a laugh.

Olivia wrapped a wing around Amanda’s shoulders and said, “Relax. You two will do fine.”

Amanda took a deep breath. “Right. Right. Relax.”

“Besides, you two don’t even know where or when you’re going yet,” said Miya.

“Well, yeah. We’re just trying to find some free time, and figure out a good place to eat.” I mean, with a full menu there’s got to be at least something that won’t piss off my stomach.

The rumble of Rob’s truck returned. A moment later, he and Ben walked back into the lair, laughing about something with fast food bags in hand. There’s the Ben I know.

“What’s up, party people?” said Ben.

“We figured you’d be hungry, Little Bird,” said Rob, passing her a bag. No kidding, she’s always hungry. I have no idea where she puts it. “Triple burger for you.”

“Oh, thank you,” said Olivia with a smile, opening the top of the paper bag.

“Everything alright?” asked Miya.

Rob and Ben exchanged glances. “Yeah,” said Rob.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” asked Ben.

“No reason, just asking.

Olivia covered her mouth and let out a loud squeak as her whole body shook. What the… “Are you alright?” asked Miya.

She blinked a few times. “I was going to sneeze, but I also had to cough, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I’m OK now.” Ben and Rob burst into laughter.

The group dispersed not long after. Miya wandered off to bed, Rob following not long after, once he’d finished his food. Olivia paced restlessly for a while before laying out on her beanbag to read. Ben played around on his phone. Amanda went over her plans for improving her armor, while keeping half an eye on the computers running through the security footage. Two hours passed before it found anything, but it immediately commanded Amanda’s full attention.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said to Ben and Olivia. “This is something.”

“Define something,” said Ben.

“One moment. Here,” she said, pointing to the screen. “Truck drives by, bed covered in a tarp, heading for where Olivia woke up.” She fast forwarded the tape. “Here it is again, six minutes later, no tarp, heading in exactly the opposite direction.”

“Shit. You got the plate number?” asked Ben.

Amanda rewound until she got the best view of the truck’s plates possible. “It’s pretty blurry,” she said.

“I can read it,” said Olivia as she kneeled beside Amanda to get a better look at the screen. She read off the plate number for Amanda to search for.

Barely a minute later, with the whole group waiting in awkward silence, the search result returned. Amanda’s eyes flew over the screen. I think this is is. “Here we go. That truck belongs to a member of the Return to Christ Temple. They’re an anti-metahuman cult up in the mountains. One of their members, Judy, was on that short list of possible people for you.”

Olivia’s eyes widened. “Membrane,” she murmured.

“What about him?” asked Amanda.

“When I saw him. He started laughing, and asked if I’d read the Bible,” replied Olivia.

Amanda rested her hand on her forehead. I’m an idiot. “Holy shit. Holy shit, I totally forgot about that. That makes sense. How did I miss that?” Oh no, and it’s the anti-meta–human people, too.

“He was screaming, too,” murmured Olivia, just barely loud enough to be heard.

“I think this is it,” said Amanda.

“It’s worth checkin’ out,” said Ben. “Keep in mind, ‘liv’, these people ain’t gonna take you back with open arms?”

Olivia tilted her head to the side. “Why not? They’re family.” Oh honey…

“Were. Before you triggered,” said Ben. “These are pretty irrational folk. They’d murder the shit outta me if they could get away with it. Same with any of us here. Hell, Miya ain’t white. They probably hate her too.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t,” he admitted. “Not for absolute certain. These kinda fuckers make the news every so often an’ it’s never pretty.” Olivia frowned, which Amanda began to recognize as her stubborn expression.

“He’s right,” said Amanda.

“I still want to try,” said Olivia, showing no sign of backing down. “They’re my family. I really think so. And I haven’t known who they are for so long. I can finally figure out who I am, really. I want to try.”

“I didn’t say we shouldn’t,” said Ben.

“We just want you to be prepared, mentally.” Amanda’s voice wavered. Are we just setting her up for heartbreak?

Olivia took a deep breath. “Thank you. And, well, um, well…” She trailed off.

“Go on,” urged Amanda.

“I… I guess I’ve known you guys the longest. And, um, I was… I was hoping you guys could come with me.”

“Of course,” said Amanda.

“Right behind you,” said Ben.

Olivia smiled and wrapped her arms around Amanda and Ben in a bear hug, lifting both off their feet. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

She released them after a moment and set them back on the ground. Amanda winced and asked, “When did you want to leave?”

“Right now! Is that OK?” replied Olivia. If I say yes will you try to break my spine again? Because I’d like to keep my spine intact.

Ben checked his phone. “That’d work. We’d get there sorta early, but that ain’t a huge problem.”

“Yeah! Let’s go,” said Olivia, leading the way to the back of the lair.

“You wanna drive or me?” Ben asked Amanda.

“You, I’m not really feeling up for a two hour drive.”

“Sounds good,” said Ben as he teleported to Rob’s desk to grab his keys.

Olivia flew overhead as they drove through the mountains. The road crews had finally cleared the rubble from I-70 from Freedom Fighter’s bombings. Amanda gave Ben directions, eventually leading off of the main highway and onto the twisting back roads of the mountains. Amanda looked out the window the whole drive, taking in the scenery. How long has it been since I came out here, just for fun? Oh, right, I had a job with the MHU. Fuck being an adult.

Eventually, the pavement stopped, replaced with the pale brown dirt of the valley they found themselves in. After another twenty minutes, they came to a beat up old wooden sign that arched above the road that read Return to Christ Temple. Here it is. They drove up the hill just beyond the sign, overlooking a large whitewashed ranch house. Amanda could make out the distant specks of cattle in the distance, on the sparse grassland of the mountain valley. Olivia landed beside them as Ben exited the truck.

“How you wanna play this?” asked Ben.

“Can you… can you guys stay here?” asked Olivia after a moment, eyes fixed on the ranch.

Amanda and Ben exchanged glances. She’s not dumb. If she can handle a legion of Overlord robots, she can handle some farmers. Even if they are basically cultists. “We’ll be right here,” said Amanda. Ben nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” replied Olivia. She climbed down the hill, balancing on her clawed feet.

Amanda spotted a long gun in someone’s hands. Don’t you dare shoot her. After a moment, the two men stepped aside and let her into the ranch house. Then, silence beyond a few songbirds passed overhead, shrieking in hatred at the rising sun.

Twenty minutes passed, with no movement in the ranch below beyond a distant figure raking out the stables. “Maybe we shouldn’t have just let her walk in there on her own,” said Amanda.

“Gotta stop babysittin’ her,” said Ben, pacing back and forth beside her door. The loose dirt and rocks of the road crunched beneath his shoes. “It’ll hurt. We warned her. But she’s hopin’. She’s takin’ the chance. Can’t fault her for that. An’ hell, maybe it’ll work out. Did for Beth.”

Amanda chose not to respond, instead leaning back into her seat and taking in the surroundings. The Rocky Mountains loomed all around them, vast swathes of evergreens on their slopes brown from pine beetles. The untouched groves of aspens rustled in the light breeze. Come fall, they would explode in a riot of color, and Amanda would take her usual one self allotted day of vacation to enjoy them and the fresh mountain air. If my stomach is up for it, may as well go for a hike. My skin is only getting paler.

“Judy’s a shit name,” said Ben, breaking the silence. “Hope she sticks with Olivia.”

Amanda gave a quick laugh and said, “Yeah, no kidding.”

She jolted upright when the front door of the ranch house opened a minute later. The unmistakable figure of Olivia began trudging back up the hill, unaccompanied by anyone. A few people from the ranch watched her leave, guns in hand. Oh no. Olivia’s gaze was fixed firmly on the ground, even when she approached Ben and Amanda.

“Everythin’ alright?” asked Ben once she reached the truck.

Olivia gave a tiny shake of her head. She climbed into the back seats of the cab, rather than the bed or taking flight, and buried her face in her arms. “No place here,” she whispered.

Ben started the truck for the long drive back home.

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Homecoming – Needle in a Haystack

“Stores have security cameras, right?” began Amanda.

“Ideally,” replied Miya.

Everyone had clustered around Amanda’s workspace in the lair. Amanda had taken the center position, with Miya lounging in a folding chair next to her. Ben and Rob leaned against the desk, leaning forward to get a good look at Amanda’s screen. Olivia herself hung back, looking over the top of Amanda’s head. Where are you going with this?

“So, we can check their cameras, see what kind of cars pass by. They haven’t changed their systems, so I still have access to most of what the police have. It won’t be perfect, but it might give us something, like the car of a human trafficker or someone,” explained Amanda. “We don’t have any real information on who Olivia could be, other than that old government list thing.”

“Three problems,” said Ben. “What time we lookin’ for? An’ more importantly, they ain’t gonna let us random dudes walk in an’ take a look at their security. An’ third, those cameras are gonna be lookin’ in the store, not the streets.”

“I know. One, I’m just about to get that. Two, they probably won’t. We’re going to have to break in. And third, yes, but there’s a chance we might catch something. We’ll have to take any chance we can get. Do you have any other ideas?”

“Breakin’ in, you say?” asked Rob with a grin. Olivia frowned. Isn’t there anything else we can do? “Weren’t you a cop?”

“Yes, but you’re vastly overestimating how much I actually gave a damn about that job. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And besides, it’s not like we’re stealing anything. We’re just going to be looking at their tapes. If we do this right they won’t even know we were there.”

“Just the tapes?” asked Miya. “I mean, we’ll be in there already.”

“Yeah, ain’t been a safe I couldn’t crack,” added Rob. Ben burst into laughter.

Are they talking about robbing people? “Guys, please don’t,” spoke up Olivia. Don’t make me be responsible for a bunch of break ins.

Amanda shot them a dirty look. “Absolutely not. Unless you want the police to come down on us, hard. They have their hands full right now, but we’ll get on their radar.”

“An’ we’ll be goin’ into shops all next to each other. They’ll pick up on that pattern real quick,” said Ben.

“Shit, didn’t think about that,” muttered Rob.

“Alright, enough distractions,” broke in Amanda. She turned to Olivia and said, “Now, I need you to think. When did you wake up?”

Olivia folded her arms and glanced at her feet for a moment. When was it? Oh, right, that first  newspaper I saw. “Um, April 13th? No, that was the next day. April 12th.”

“OK.” Amanda typed something on her computer, then asked, “When that day? Can you remember anything about that?”

“Well, it was raining. And there was lightning. But I saw the sun going down.” Olivia frowned. Am I messing this up? “How does that work?”

“One of those quick storms,” said Ben. “Rolls in, dumps rain, leaves in ten minutes.”

“I’ve seen rain on sunny days before, but not often,” added Amanda. Good, I can remember. “OK, sundown on April 12th. Hang on, is this online?” A few quick keystrokes later, she said, “Holy shit it is. You can look up ‘sundown April 12, 2013’ and it gives you the time the sun went down.”

“Seriously?” Miya leaned over to get a better look, then said, “Oh my god she’s right.”

“Damn right I’m right,” said Amanda. “So we’re looking at around seven thirty, maybe about ten minutes before.”

“She wouldn’t have been layin’ out there that long,” said Ben.

“Someone woulda noticed,” added Rob. “We ain’t lookin’ at a huge window.”

“That worked out really well,” said Amanda. Olivia shot her a small smile. Progress! “Do you remember exactly where you woke up?” she asked her.

It was the alley by the dented door of that apartment building. Red’s building now.Olivia replied, “No, not the street or anything, but I can go and check.”

“I know where it is,” said Ben. Oh, that’s easy enough.

Amanda nodded. “That sounds good. Now, last thing. One of the girls on the list, Maria, has a pretty good chance. She’s your age, and went missing the day before you showed up. That seems like a pretty good indicator. Her parents are migrant workers on the farms out east. They’re probably not going to be the most forthcoming people in the world.”

“Where from?” asked Ben.

“Columbia, I think,” replied Amanda. “I’m guessing they’re here legally if they were willing to go to the police when their daughter went missing.”

“Legally?” asked Olivia.

“Yeah, people sneak into the country,” said Ben. “Met a bunch of ‘em. People movers dick ‘em over all the time, even in Baltimore.”

Miya let out a snort. “You basically have to get in the country by water now.”

“What?” asked Rob.

“Oh, I heard all sorts of awful stories out of Mexico. Like the emperor’s soldiers opening up a shipping container full of people and just gunning them down. Or border guards on both sides of the border setting up minefields.”

Rob let out a low whistle. “Shit,” he murmured.

Olivia covered her mouth with her hands and stared at Miya with wide eyes.“Why would they do that? Why would anyone do that?”

“Why would they care about those people? Those people weren’t Aztecs, or Mexicans, whichever you prefer. If you aren’t from Mexico City you’re nobody. Mexico is still an empire. Empires aren’t built out of love and kindness.” Miya was ranting in a bitter voice now. “And it’s not like Cuauhtemoc is going to kick the bucket anytime soon. The dude’s old, like Cyrus. Except he said, ‘fuck it, I’ll just be an iron fisted dictator. Let the human sacrifices commence!’ He keeps all the old bullshit, changing nothing but the guns he uses. And everyone just uses that to shit on Aztecs outside of the country.”

Silence fell over them once Miya finished. Olivia glanced around at the others. Wow. What are we supposed to say? Ben arched an eyebrow and said, “Got some pent up anger outta your system?”

Miya shrugged, her expression stormy. “Forget about it. What were we talking about?”

“Oh, right, tracking down Maria’s family,” said Amanda, turning back to her computer. “The file here says where they were last employed. The police didn’t look to far into her case when it first appeared, and the feral people didn’t make much headway into investigating last time I checked. And I think Overlord has given them other worries. So we might be able to make some more headway than the police did. If we track down Maria, we can either figure this out or cross her off the list.”

“Sounds good,” said Rob. A buzzing sound filled the room. “That yours, Little Bird?”

Oh, hey. Olivia pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Oh, it’s Beth!” She used the side of her claw to accept the call. “Um, hi?

“Hi, Olivia,” replied Beth over the phone.

“Are you OK?”

Beth laughed. “I’m fine. Just letting you guys know I’m alive.”

“Oh, that’s good. Is everything going alright, then?” At Olivia’s question, the tension in the others receded.

The line went quiet for a moment. “I think so,” replied Beth. “I’m in my old room now. We’re giving each other some space. I think they finally went to sleep.” You only got your daughter back three hours ago. Olivia checked the clock on the phone. Four AM. Right, normal people. “I think they were a bit frustrated. But happy, you know?”

“But they’re OK with everything?” asked Olivia as she walked over to her beanbag.

“They’ve been pretty understanding. I think. They weren’t happy, but they weren’t angry, you know?”

“That’s good. That’s very good.”

“I’ve just been going through my old things. Didn’t you mention something about The Sleepless Ones? I have the first couple books on my bookshelf.”

“Oh! You have that? You need to start reading. It’s so good! There’s one character, and she-”

“Whoa, hey, are you going to tell me the plot of the book?”

“No, sorry. But you have to read it,” urged Olivia.

Beth laughed. “OK, I’ll take a look. I guess I should sleep or… something. It was good talking to you. Thanks for listening. I’ll call you tomorrow, if that’s OK. I tried texting earlier but it’s kind of a pain with the claws.”

“I know, right? That sounds good. Bye.” Olivia slipped her phone back into her pocket as the line went dead. The others had dispersed. Rob and Amanda, as always, had their heads together in their workshop. Miya and Ben both had their phones out at the table. Ben looked up and nodded as Olivia approached.

“How’s Beth doin’?” he asked.

“Good. She said she’s been talking with her family. They’re doing OK.” Miya and Ben exchanged glances. “Why are you guys so doubtful?” asked Olivia.

“I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Miya.

“She’s changed. They remember a different Beth,” said Ben.

“That’s why we made it clear to her she’s got a place here if she needs it,” said Miya.

Olivia frowned. “She hasn’t changed. She just can’t remember stuff. They’ll work through it.”

“What if her favorite food was some weird veggie thing?” asked Miya. “Is she going to be able to eat that? Because they’re going to expect her to.” Why would they want her to? They should know she can’t.

“It’s gonna be a thousand different things,” explained Ben before Olivia could speak. “Old family in jokes, old references to people she don’t remember. She can’t go meet her old friends. The neighbors see her there’s gonna be trouble. That’s all just more stress for ‘em.”

“A thousand little things, all adding up,” added Miya. It won’t be like that.

“They can work through it. Beth said they were,” said Olivia.

Ben shrugged and said, “Maybe, maybe not. If they do, great. If not, don’t be surprised.”

“Why wouldn’t they make the effort?”

“You guys get scary when you’re angry, you know that, right?” asked Miya. “You’re huge, you spread out your wings to look even bigger, you start hissing, you have claws.”

Olivia tilted her head to the side by a few degrees. “But… they’re family. Why would she get angry?”

Miya shrugged and said, “They’re people. People get angry. Sometimes for stupid reasons, sometimes for good reasons.” Olivia frowned and looked down at the table.  Miya broke the silence. “That book you were squeeing about to Beth, is that one of those vampire things?”

Olivia looked up. “Yeah. It’s so good. Have you read it?”

Miya nodded. “The first couple. They lost me after the third book. It got a little too weird. That and the author had no idea how magic works.”

“Oh.” Olivia turned to Ben. “Have you?”

Ben snickered. “Nope. Readin’s borin’.

“No it’s not,” replied Olivia. How could you say that?

“Why read when I can hike up a mountain myself? Live my own damn life.”

“Well I like it,” mumbled Olivia.

“I ain’t judgin’. I’m just sayin’ what I like. To each their own. Speakin’ of which, food sound good?” asked Ben.

“A burger sounds good,” said Olivia, back straightening.. Mmmm, food.

“Have I ever mentioned I hate you sometimes, Olivia?” grumbled Miya.

“What?” asked Olivia, her voice soft. What did I do?

Miya threw her hands up in exasperation. “You eat nothing but meat and sugar and never exercise, but look like you’re in fantastic shape. If I did that, I’d be a ball of fat and acne.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sorry?”What do you want from me?

Miya folded her arms and grumbled, “You should be. You get to be tall.”

Ben laughed and punched Olivia in the shoulder. “Don’t worry, she’s just jealous. Vertically impaired an’ all.”

Miya glared at him. “No, no, no, don’t give me that. Do you know how many times I’ve needed a stool just to reach something at the back of a counter?”

Olivia stared at her. “I’d love to be short. Do you know how many times I’ve hit my head on doors?”

“Or when I have to stretch my neck way back when I talk to anyone.”

“Same for me, just, you know, down.” Especially for you.

“Or jump around in a crowd, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on?” Olivia fought back a smile of that mental image.

“How about sticking out like a sore thumb?”

“Or how about when I need to climb onto the washing machine just to reach the laundry inside?”

“I can’t find clothes that really fit. Ever.”

“Aw,” said Ben, patting Miya on the head. “She gets so cute when she’s angr-oof.” Miya cut him off with a punch to the ribs.

“What have we learned today?” she asked.

Ben laughed and said, “That Napoleon-” She jabbed him in the ribs again.

“Try again.”

He jumped out of his seat and out of Miya’s reach. “Food is better than punches?” Olivia smiled.

Miya shrugged. “Close enough. Want anything, Olivia?”

Olivia rose from her seat. “I’ll come. It tastes good when it’s fresh. Or fresher. Whatever.”

“Sounds good,” said Ben. “Hey, you had a milkshake before? It’s sugar.”

Olivia looked at him. “Yes. They’re great! Let’s go.”

<- Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ->

Homecoming – Calcified

Over the next several days, things returned to a semblance of normalcy. Miya, Amanda, and the twins drove out once some stores had reopened to restock on food for themselves and Red. Cyrus flew in a couple days after Red had left. He exchanged pleasantries with the others, then flew off with Hank. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief once they were gone. Thank god, so much less hissing now, thought Amanda.

Olivia stood beside Amanda in the middle of the street, watching the night sky. Above them drifted Beth, gliding towards them on unsteady wings.

“Have a nice nap?” asked Olivia.

“It was wonderful,” replied Amanda with a smile. “You find your tablet’s charger?”

“Yes. Thank you. It died and I nearly panicked and, oh, hang on.”

Olivia smiled and gave Beth a thumbs up as she came in for the landing. Let’s see if this goes better than last time. Amanda stepped to the side, putting more of Olivia between her and the incoming Beth. She pulled up as she approached, aiming her feet towards the ground. Her clawed toes scratched against the road as she fought against her own momentum. After a couple paces, she tripped, falling headlong to the ground. Too fast.

“That was good!” said Olivia, walking up and offering her a hand. “You almost stayed upright this time!”

“Yeah, I tried. Asphalt doesn’t taste too great,” grumbled Beth as she stood with Olivia’s help. She rubbed her cheek with her free hand as if there was still dirt on it from her first attempt at landing.

“Give it time,” said Amanda, suppressing a smile. It’s like watching a puppy trying to walk for the first time. Nothing but big feet and awkward stumbling.

“Yeah, yeah,” grumbled Beth, flexing her wings as she headed back towards the lair.

“Done for tonight?” asked Amanda, Olivia and her following after.

“No more. Unless you want to take a shot at it,” said Beth with a mischievous smile. “I’d stick around to watch that.”

Amanda let out a snort and said, “No thanks. I’ll leave any and all flying to you two.”

“You wouldn’t want to fly?” asked Olivia.

Amanda shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t have the build for it. And I’m not a huge fan of heights, either.” It’s not really the height, it’s the falling.

They filed into the lair as Olivia said, “But it’s so fun.”

“Speak for yourself,” muttered Beth.

“I take it you’re not enjoying it,” replied Amanda.

“No, it’s fun. Until I have to land, then I look like an idiot,” said Beth.

Rob was still passed out at his desk. Before him was their disassembled railgun prototype, one of the rails his his limp fingers. He can sleep a bit more, I need a break from that thing. Miya had her eyes glued to her phone. They spread out once inside the lair, Amanda heading for her workspace. She opened up a laptop. May as well run another couple simulations on that railgun. Maybe see what kind of hits the battery can take.

Ben barged into the lair a few minutes later and tossed Amanda’s keys to her. “Everything go alright?” she asked once she caught them. “Red hiss at you when you brought her food?”

“No hissin’. Seemed happy about that bag of jerky, too.”

“Is Red OK?” asked Olivia.

“Yeah, fine. Tried flyin’ on her own a bit. I’m guessin’ she’s a bit bored. Makin’ these cool carvin’s on the walls with her claws.”

“Huh,” said Beth.

Ben looked around. “Oh, Rob’s still sleepin’,” he said with an evil smile. “Where’s a water bottle.”

“Oh, right, forgot,” announced Miya from halfway across the room. “Magic time, if you two are up to it.”

Oh, magic. How do you teach magic, anyways? Amanda put away her laptop and joined Olivia and Beth at the table. Ben grinned to himself and hunted

“Now, the trick is to get it up and keep it up,” explained Miya. Did she just say that? Olivia seemed unfazed, but Beth stared at her. Miya’s eyes widened as she realized what she had said. “That was really poor phrasing, but we’re just going to ignore that. Now, try to-”

Amanda and Beth burst into laughter, cutting her off. “I can’t, I’m sorry,” managed Beth.

“What?” asked Olivia, lost.

“I’ll explain when you’re older,” said Amanda, prompting more laughter.

They settled down, as Olivia and Beth concentrated on what appeared to Amanda as absolutely nothing. Wow. No diagrams. No explaining, nothing. Just staring into space.

“Oh, is this something?” asked Beth, holding her hand up.

Beth shot Amanda a questioning look. “I can’t see anything,” said Amanda in response.

“You can’t?”

“Non-mages can’t see magic. And I didn’t want to ask but what are you here for?” asked Miya.

“Something might explode? Maybe something cool and magical? They don’t teach you much about magic in normal schools,” replied Amanda.

“You’re in for a disappointment,” said Miya.

“Hey,” said Olivia with a small frown. “We’re trying.”

“Now,” began Miya, “I don’t want to say you two are bad at this, but you’re bad at this.”

“It kind of hurts,” said Beth.

“Hurts?” repeated Miya. That’s some thin skin there. “I wasn’t that mean.”

“No, the magic, not your attempt at an insult,” replied Beth, sticking her forked tongue out at Miya.

Miya frowned. “Magic doesn’t hurt. Not this super easy stuff.”

“I don’t know. Not hurts. Aches,” clarified Olivia. “Wrong, kind of.”

“That…” began Miya, trailing off. “What?” Amanda leaned back in her seat. That doesn’t sound good.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Amanda asked Olivia.

“I’ve never used magic before, I didn’t know if I should bring it up. And it wasn’t the most painful thing I’ve felt, I didn’t really think about it,” Amanda sighed and massaged her forehead. What did I say about communicating? You should try it some time.

“Magic is its own thing, like a sixth sense,” said Miya. “But you can definitely classify it as normal, physical pain?” Beth and Olivia nodded. “OK, that’s bad. How about we stop for today until we can figure out what the mysterious pain is. I need to look up what that could be.”

“Motherfucker!” shouted Rob. Their heads whipped around to see him scramble after a madly laughing Ben, half his face drenched in water.

Ben teleported away every time Rob came close to catching him, until Rob came to a stop and said, “Fine. You win.” A similar grin spread across his face. “But you gotta sleep sometime, you little bastard.” Ben just laughed.

“Get that out of your system, you two?” asked Miya. Rob plopped down next to Amanda, breathing heavily. Hey you.

“For now, yeah,” they said in stereo.

“So, Amanda,” said Beth. “Did you, you know, find anything? About me?”

“Give me a moment. I had something for you.” Amanda retrieved her laptop and opened it up. “I found their address and phone number. Here they are,” said Amanda, pulling up a picture of a smiling blond family on the screen.

“Could I have, like, a physical one?” mumbled Beth, after a long moment.

“Yeah, sure,” said Amanda. She passed her the picture once it had printed.

“Can we call them now?” asked Beth, eyes fixed on the photo.

“Hold on,” said Amanda, raising her hand. “Yours is a suspected abduction case. If we call, they’re going to alert the police. We’d rather not get arrested.”

“So how are we going to do talk to them?” asked Beth.

“Just knock on their door?” asked Rob.

“Think they’re freak out?” asked Ben. “Could just send Miya.”

“What?” she asked, suddenly dragged into the conversation.

“Of all the people here, who looks the least threatenin’? I’m not talkin’ who’s actually threatenin’, but who looks it?” Miya glared at him, biting her lip. “You’re tiny,” he continued.

“OK, fine. What do I say?”

Everyone looked at Beth. She mumbled, “I don’t know.”

“How about, ‘Hey, I saw your daughter. She’s…’” Amanda trailed off. She shot a glance at Olivia and Beth. “How would you put it?”

“Um…” began Olivia. “Different? I don’t know either.” None of us do, it looks like.

“Anythin’ comin’ back?” Ben asked Beth. “Any inspiration?”

“No,” said Beth, not taking her eyes off the picture. She tapped the center of the photo with a claw, where she stood between her parents and an older brother. “That’s me. But I don’t recognize anyone else. Just say I’m different. A lot different.”

“Maybe lead with the memory thing,” said Rob.

“Alright, I’ll knock on the door, but then it’s up to you, Beth. This is family shit. Unless you want me along I’ll stay out of it,” said Miya, expression stormy.

“They both work,” explained Amanda. “And keep in mind, you stick out now. There’s no getting around that. We should wait until nighttime. That might give you and your family some privacy.”

“Can we go now, then?”

“It’s three in the morning,” replied Amanda.

“Yeah, they’re gonna be jumpy. And tired as fuck,” said Miya.

“Let’s wait. That’ll give you some time, figure out what to say,” said Ben.

“But I have no idea what to say,” replied Beth.

“Well, let’s stay calm. We got a full day to figure it out,” said Amanda. Panicking is the worst thing to do, always.

“Figure out their names, who they are. Maybe somethin’ comes back, maybe nothin’. But you ain’t gonna wanna meet ‘em as strangers,” said Rob.

Beth nodded silently, eyes fixed on the photo once again.

***

The next evening found everyone gathered around the table, waiting for a good time to head to Beth’s family. I think a crowd would be the worst thing possible for this.

“I need to head to the gym at some point. My metabolism isn’t what it used to be,” said Miya as she passed a pizza box across the table to the others.

“Yeah, same here,” agreed Amanda with a sigh. “I’m getting too old for this shit.” Olivia tilted her head at her in confusion.

“We usually just find a basketball game,” said Rob with a grin, taking a slice.

“Or just go for a run,” added Ben. “Pretty cheap,”

“I hate running, and envy men their comfort.” Miya laughed. She gets it.

The twins exchanged glances. “What?” they asked.

“You don’t have hips or boobs,” said Miya, before Amanda could answer. That’s one way of putting it, yes.

“But those are the best,” said Ben in a quiet voice, he and Rob sharing an identical lost and confused expression.

Amanda’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, OK. Then tell me, when is the last time you worried about going out without a bra on?”

“Never,” replied Rob.

“But boobs,” said Ben.

Miya frowned. “Yes, boobs are great. But you do realize that women have brains, too, right? And opinions? Not just boobs.”

“Yeah,” replied Rob.

“But boobs,” said Ben. “An’ hips. An’ hair. An’ legs.” Rob nodded in agreement. Oh, I see, letting your twin do the talking when I’m right here. “Women are smooth an’ curvy an’ great. Men are just borin’ bricks.”

“We’re just talkin’ physically. When’s the last time we’ve been leerin’ at some chick?” said Rob.

“Never that I know of,” replied Amanda. “But-”

“Oh! An’ butts,” cut in Ben. Oh, I see. Miya narrowed her eyes at him. Beth watched on, gaze darting between the different speakers.

“But that kind of talk, ‘hurr hurr boobs,’ is very much not appreciated,” finished Amanda.

Miya nudged Olivia beside her with a smirk. “You OK there?”

“I’m not here right now,” Olivia muttered to her knees, face buried in her arms on the table. Her pizza lay forgotten on a paper plate in front of her.

“It’s only awkward if you make it awkward,” said Amanda.

“Fun fact, Olivia,” added Ben. “Everyone in this room has a penis or vagina. Everyone.”

“Go away.”

Amanda shot him a look. “Don’t be crude.” You’re right, but come on, there’s better ways to say that.

Ben shrugged and said, “All we’re sayin’ is that women, physically, are great. How’s that controversial?”

“Because that kind of thinking can very easily turn into objectification,” said Miya.

Amanda nodded in agreement. “I got enough of that in college, there’s not a lot of women in engineering,” she said. “If I see it here I’m going to strangle someone.”

Rob cast a glance towards Amanda. She kept her expression neutral. “That ain’t what we’re doin’,” he said.

“Not intentionally,” said Miya.

The twins exchanged glances again. “Yeah, tryin’ to think of how to word this,” said Rob. “We ain’t sayin’ this right.”

“I guess. How ‘bout this?” Ben pointed to Amanda and Miya. Amanda leaned back in her chair. This should be good. “I’m willin’ to bet the statement ‘women’s sexuality should be oppressed’ would get you pissed.”

“Yes, a lot,” said Miya, arms folded.

“But at the same time you’re tellin’ me an’ Rob to suppress our own. See what I’m gettin’ at here?”

“No, no, no, that’s not what we’re saying,” said Miya. “Sex is wonderful and I’d recommend it to everyone. But the healthy kind. Not the ‘it’s all about the man’ bullshit from the last goddamn century.”

“We don’t do that an’ we ain’t tryin’!” burst out Rob. “That’s what we’ve been sayin’. Women are great, we’re makin’ our opinions known. You’re readin’ way more into that than we ever did.”

“OK, it sounded like something much worse at first,” said Miya.

“We know that’s not what you were going for,” said Amanda as the twins opened their mouths. “You’ve made that clear.”

The conversation trailed off, everyone remembering the pizza in front of them getting colder. After a few minutes as everyone finished, Rob checked his watch and asked, “Is it time?”

“Yep.” Amanda turned to Beth. “You ready?”

Beth took a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s go.”

Ben patted her on the shoulder as he rose from the table. “Alright,” said Amanda. “Relax. We’ll be right behind you.”

***

They pulled up to the apartment complex in the eastern part of the city, passing by nighttime crews cleaning up the last of the wreckage from Overlord’s invasion. Amanda stopped beside Rob’s truck. The whole group, plus Beth, piled out of the cars. Olivia landed just beside Amanda’s door.

“You two ready?” Ben asked Beth and Miya.

“Ready when you are,” said Miya. Beth nodded, and they headed off to Beth’s family’s apartment.

“Can you hear them?” Amanda asked after a moment.

Olivia closed her eyes. “They’re talking. The mom said, ‘What do you mean, she can’t remember?’ Dad is angry. He told her to explain. And… they gasped. I… couldn’t hear what that was. I think Beth is crying. And the mom. They closed the door. Miya went in with them.” She reopened her eyes. “I can’t hear them well anymore.”

Amanda took a deep breath. Rob and Ben exchanged grins. “That’s promisin’,” said Ben.

“No screamin’,” added Rob.

They loitered in the parking lot, waiting. Waiting is the worst part. I don’t think they can hurt Miya or Beth physically, at least. Or maybe the wife can melt flesh with her mind. You never fucking know. Whatever. If they let them into their house, that’s very promising. It must be nice to not have sociopaths for parents.

“The door opened,” announced Olivia. They watched as Miya approached, alone.

She bit her lip as she approached. “Well?” asked Amanda once she was close.

“There’s a lot of crying and stuff.”

“So…” said Rob, trailing off to let her finish the statement.

“They just seemed happy to have their daughter back. I’d give it a day or two.”

“They’re not angry? About, you know, the wings and stuff,” said Olivia.

“The dad might have been. They weren’t happy, but she’s not a raving murderer, so they seemed willing to give her a chance. Again, we’ll see.”

“Alright,” said Rob.

“That worked out,” added Ben. “We good here?”

“Yeah, they were talking about opening up her old room. They didn’t say much when I told ‘em I was heading out.”

“So, she’s OK?” asked Olivia.

“Yes. Let’s give her and her family time. And if something goes wrong, I gave her a phone,” said Amanda.

“Cool, let’s get outta here,” said Ben.

As the others began packing back into the cars, Olivia tapped Amanda on the shoulder and said, “I was hoping we could find my family, too. Before, you know, anything else bad happens.”

“Yeah, we can do that.” Amanda’s back straightened as an idea hit her. “Where did you wake up again? And when?”

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Homecoming – Diffusion

“It’s not just you. Hank’s an ass,” said Miya.

“I think you mean Buddy,” said Ben with a grin.

Red gave an amused snort and nodded. She and Ben looked on as Miya rooted through her pile of remaining cow bones in the back of the auto shop. The early morning light beamed down on them, two days after Overlord and Cyrus had run amok. Ben rotated his shoulder, wincing as it elicited a twinge of pain. The others were still in the lair, either talking or, in the case of his brother and Amanda, working on something beyond his comprehension.

“I have no idea why you’re agitating him,” said Miya, tossing aside a cracked cow hipbone.

“The more serious an’ pissed a guy looks, the more fun it is to make fun of him,” replied Ben. “Yeah it backfires an’ no, I don’t care.”

“But backfiring means he tears out your intestines and wears them as a hat,” said Miya.

Ben replied with a grin. One hand rested on the handle of an iron knife strapped to his back. I’d say I’m ready, he thought.

“What are you doing?” Red asked Miya after a moment.

“I’m getting really tired of losing my golems. So if I can make a core, that would be super,” Miya replied, brushing a few more bone fragments out of her way on the pile.

Red tilted her head at Ben, who shrugged as he leaned back against the wall of the lair. “Don’t look at me, I dunno ‘bout magic.”

“I’m apparently the magic expert here. I’ve been trying to teach Olivia, but she’s just not getting the hang of it.”

“Magic. What the hell?’ Red murmured to herself.

“Oh, yeah, I can teach you too if you like. It’s a bit more involved than whatever the hell it is techies cook up. Can’t just pick it up and use it, you need to know what the hell you’re doing.”

“Techies? Like your brother and Amanda?” asked Red. Ben nodded. “What’s up with those two?”

“I think they like each other,” said Miya, shooting Ben an amused look.

“What’cha lookin’ at me for? I ain’t my brother.”

“You two look exactly the same. If it weren’t for your hand I would never be able to tell you two apart,” said Miya.

“Really?” asked Red.

“What do you mean, really? They’re identical,” replied Miya with a wave of her hand at Ben. “Oh, wait, right. You guys go by smell.”

Red turned to her, eyes wide. “What?” How is this a surprise at this point?

“Yes.”

“I don’t remember Olivia havin’ this many questions,” commented Ben. “Or not questions, just stuff she didn’t know ‘bout herself.”

“She had, like, a week or two to figure it out before she met you guys, right?” asked Red. Ben nodded. “That must be it.”

“Alright, bored now. Think anything is open?” asked Miya, dusting off her legs as she stood.

Ben laughed. “After that superpower slamdown? Give it another day or so.”

“Do we have any food or water left?”

Ben grinned as he nudged Red. “I dunno, after those four, there might not be enough for us little folk.”

Red cracked a smile. “Not my fault you all are so small. I’m hungry,” she said, ducking through the door back to the lair.

“I’ll be right after you,” said Miya, kneeling over half a cow skull. “I need to check this out.”

Ben nodded and followed after Red, who’d headed for where the beds were set up. Hank, by the wall, snapped as Red walked by. Red snarled and took a swipe at his throat. Whoa. Ben teleported over to them. “Hey, hey, break it up!” Out of the corner of his eye, the back of Hank’s hand swung towards him. Ben ducked and backed away a few steps. He eyed the scene, trying to work out a way to separate people much larger than himself.

“Enough,” Olivia shouted behind him. She beat the tar out of Hank, leaving him winded on the ground. “All of you,” she continued, turning on the others. “Stop fighting, I’m tired of it.”

Hey, she’s got a spine after all. The lair had fallen silent, Rob, Amanda and Beth still at the table, watching on with wary looks. Behind Ben, the door opened as Miya poked her head inside. Olivia hissed as she stomped away.

“OK, think we got the picture,” said Ben with a grin. Hank slowly recovered his breath and rolled over, a shaky hiss rising from his throat. Red glared at Olivia. “I think we should all just take a step back, calm down.” Never heard her raise her voice before.

Olivia whirled around to face him, a wild look in her eyes. “Calm down?” she repeated. “I’m calm. They’re just, they just keep…” She trailed off with a frustrated snarl. Never was the best with words.

“Just what?” asked Rob, standing from his chair. “My brother nearly got his neck snapped. Gotta have a better explanation then that.”

“Aw, thanks for noticin’,” said Ben. Rob nodded and grinned.

“Get the fuck out of the way,” snarled Hank, the impact slightly lessened by the wheeze in his voice as he struggled to his knees.

“Shut up, Buddy. Didn’t ask you,” said Ben.

Olivia’s wings and shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. Too close,” she murmured.

“You guys seem very territorial,” chipped in Amanda, still seated across from Beth at the table.

“This is gettin’ outta hand,” said Ben. I like my neck not snapped.

“You guys can’t fuckin’ control yourselves,” added Rob.

“What the hell?” said Beth. “What did I do?”

“Not much. Yet,” said Ben.

“How long it gonna be before one of you slashes a throat open?” Rob asked the lair at large. “How long until an arm or leg gets torn off?”

“Two days, an’ this has happened four or five times already,” said Ben, jabbing his finger at Hank.

Miya smacked him on the arm. “Are you talking about kicking them out?” she asked, hands on her hips. “That would be a really shitty thing to do.”

Rob and Ben exchanged glanced. “I don’t know,” said Ben.

“I don’t see you lot comin’ up with anythin’ else,” added Rob.

Olivia stared at her feet for a moment.

“For fuck’s sake, Little Bird, you look like you’re stressed the hell out. Never seen that from ya before.” Given the choice between the lot of them and you, I’d go with you.

“Leaving sounds good to me,” said Red, her voice bitter. “Air would be great. Not having to fight about everything would be great too.”

“Not kickin’ you out, but this can’t keep happenin’.”

“It’s not kicking me out if I leave, is it?”

Ben chuckled. Miya smacked him in the arm again. “What are you laughing at?”

“She’s got a point.”

“What? No,” Olivia said to Red. “We can’t…”

“What we? We just sit here and glower at each other. I just want some space, alright?” replied Red, squaring her shoulders off against Olivia.

A low hiss began to rise from Olivia. “Olivia,” said Amanda, adjusting her glasses. “Remember what they said?”

“Cyrus,” growled Hank in the silence that followed.

“What now?” said Ben.

“He said he’s recruiting, right? At least he’s doing something, not just sitting around.”

“An’ what kinda experience you have?” asked Rob.

“Yeah, you woke up maybe two days ago,” added Ben.

“I bet I’m stronger than you,” replied Hank, taking a few steps to tower over Ben.

Ben grinned. “I ain’t takin’ that bet. But you’re an idiot if you think you’re invincible. You been shot? Know what to do when a mage is gunnin’ for ya? How ‘bout mind fuckery? Hell, I could slash you open right now. Stomach’s an organ piñata.”

Hank shoved him in the shoulder, sending him stumbling back. “That a threat?” He smirked when Ben came up with an iron knife in hand. Keep talking.

Hank spun around when a hiss caught his attention. Olivia grabbed the base of his wing, baring her teeth and lifting him up until his clawed feet barely touched the ground. They both hissed for a moment before Hank curled his fingers, fighting to keep the pain from showing on his face. Prick. Olivia released him and pushed him away from Ben. She’s like the big little sister I never had.

Olivia turned on her heels and stormed away. “Do whatever you want. Just don’t fight.”

Red folded her arms, purposefully looking towards the back door rather than anyone else. Miya and Beth glared at Ben and Rob, respectively.

“So you’re screwing me over because of what others are doing?” spat Beth.

“You ain’t the problem, you ain’t fightin’ much,” said Ben.

“But this is Olivia’s home. You’re a guest.”

“The internet came back a little while ago. I’ll see if I can set something up with your family,” said Amanda.

“Yeah,” said Rob. “We ain’t gonna kick you out to starve or anythin’.”

“But someone’s gonna get hurt like this. Just a matter of time,” said Ben.

“I still have Cyrus’ number. I’ll talk to him,” Miya said to Hank.

“An’ we can figure out a place for you to crash, if you want out, Red,” said Ben.

A hush fell over the lair. We gotta figure out something.

***

The day passed with tension so thick Ben thought something might catch fire. Hank and Red kept to themselves on opposite sides of the lair. Beth kept shooting him and Rob angry looks, and Olivia refused to talk to anyone. Well this isn’t going as well as I hoped. Though what exactly was I expecting I got no idea.

Ben hovered over Amanda and Rob’s shoulders. “What’s that do?” he asked, pointing to a random part of their railgun.

“That’s the rail,” they replied.

“What’s it do?”

“Makes not speedy thing speedy,” said Rob.

“How?”

Amanda sighed. Rob rolled his eyes and said, “You know you’re not supposed to bother techies during techie time, right? I’ll fuckin’ hurt you.”

“It’s been ‘techie time’ nonstop like nothin’ happened. We nearly died.” Hell, Chris died. Ben grimaced to himself. Shit, probably need to contact his family. Or foster family. Or should we? What the fuck do I know?

“Overlord’s bunker was so freakin’ cool,” said Rob, breaking Ben’s train of thought. “Terrifyin’ then, but cool now.”

“Yeah,” agreed Amanda. “I recorded it all,” she said, pointing to a computer monitor.

“Of course you did.”

“Well, it was worth it, so shut up,” said Amanda.

Ben laughed and wandered off, leaving them in peace. Angry Rob is a scary Rob. He found himself over in Red’s corner of the lair, where she examined an old phone Amanda had loaned her. Ben could already make out a few deep scratches in its casing, even from a few feet away.

“How’s it goin’?” he asked.

She shrugged, her long and slightly greasy dark brown hair falling in front of her eyes. “Fine, I suppose.”

Ben leaned his back against the wall and studied her, a small smile on the corners of his lips. No point in not being direct. “So you don’t seem pissed. Kinda surprised.”

Red slipped the phone into one of the many pockets of the cargo pants Olivia had loaned her. “No, I’m not angry. Not really. I was honestly thinking of heading out on my own anyways.”

Ben felt his eyebrows raise. “Really?” That seems too level headed. Especially from one of you lot.

“Yes. Too loud here. It’s smells off, too.” She sighed. “God, listen to me. What am I saying?”

“Hell, I dunno. Olivia talked ’bout how loud everythin’ was before. Hell, she didn’t really know she should eat a lot more meat than normal for a while, once she wasn’t just scavengin’.”

“Why does it always come back to her?” asked Red.

“Just cuz I’ve known her a while,” replied Ben. “The way I see it, you lot just need space. No fair coopin’ you all up in a little auto shop like that. Lot of people are gonna call you murder machines, but you ain’t that way.”

Red nodded, silent for a moment. Finally, she said, “Yeah, I guess I’m just learning. God, these claws are annoying,” she said, staring down at her hands.

“Wanna learn? Gotta get out there an’ live. Me an’ Rob learned to fight by gettin’ the shit kicked outta us in school. Learned how to shoot a gun from our dad. Learned how to spot a liar, drive, mix a drink, all sorts of shit by goin’ out an’ doin’. No one knows what they’re doin’ when they start, not really. You’ll catch up.”

Red nodded. “Thanks. I just get the feeling sometimes that I would be like this if it weren’t for her.”

Ben felt his smile slip. “One, she heard that” Red’s eyes widened for a moment, before she screwed them shut and hung her head. Yeah, kind of a fuck up there. He let the thought stew for a moment before continuing. “Two, that ain’t for me to say. Ask yourself that in a couple months, once you got your feet under you. Hell, if you’re lookin’ for a place to go, I got an idea.”

Eager for a change of subject, Red reopened her eyes and asked, “Really? Where?”

“Where Olivia was squattin’ before we met her. Cops shouldn’t be lookin’ there, she ain’t returned in months an’ they got bigger problems right now. Most of the fightin’ was outta that area anyways. It ain’t much, but it’s a roof over your head. Can take all the time you need, it’s free, got a couch to sleep on. Hell, you can masturbate to your heart’s content.”

Red let out a laugh, face turning as red as the scales on her hands and feet. “God, no. Just no.” I thought that was pretty good, if I do say so myself. She composed herself and considered for a moment, gaze passing over Beth, Hank, and Olivia. “Could we go? Like, right now?” That was fast.

“Maybe. Hang on.” He walked back over to the workshop, Red following after. Amanda had vanished, though Rob was hunched over the disemboweled chest plate of his armor, gears strewn about. “Hey Rob, Me an’ Red need a ride. Can we take the BAT?”

Rob slapped down a screwdriver on the table and turned to them. “Like hell anyone but me is drivin’ the BAT,” he replied. “Where you headin’?”

“The bat? You call your car the bat?” asked Red.

“Of course,” said Rob with a grin.

“It’s the Big Ass Truck,” finished Ben.

“Wow,” she said, trying her best to roll her eyes.

“Now where we’re headin’, that would be ‘liv’s old place. I can tell you where it is.”

“Right now? You good with this?” Rob asked Red. She nodded in return. He checked his watch. “Middle of the night. Alright. Let’s get goin’.”

They headed outside. Amanda was up to her elbows in the dashboard of her car, a set of wire cutters tucked into the waistband of her jeans. “Ah hell, forgot,” Rob murmured to himself as he passed.. He smacked the roof of her car as he passed. “Hey, you working on the thing?” he asked through the half rolled down window.

“Yeah,” Amanda grunted in response.

“Cool, I’ll get on those supports once I get back.”

Amanda flashed him a quick smile before returning to her work. As Rob climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck, Ben, turned to Red and asked, “Wanna cram yourself in the backseat or go open air in the back?”

She frowned at the cab of the car and extended her wings a foot to either side. “Back.”

Ben laughed. “But we were havin’ such a good talk,” he said as he headed for the other side of the truck. Once inside, and Rob got the truck moving, Ben asked, “Amanda get hold of Cyrus about Hank?” Can’t wait for that fucker to get out.

“Yeah. Cyrus sounded interested. Said he’d stop by tomorrow”

“Hope that works out. Hank is gettin’ kinda scary.”

“If an immortal warrior dude can’t train Buddy, keep him in line, no one can.”

Ben laughed. “Ain’t that the truth. Hell, he’s got Slim Jim stashed away somewhere, right? Maybe Buddy just needs some good old fashioned whippin’.”

Rob jabbed a finger at him. “Now that’s fuckin’ scary.”

The rest of the drive passed in silence. No one passed them on the road, the city still recovering from Overlord’s invasion. With Ben’s directions, Rob came to a stop outside a familiar apartment building. As Ben and Red climbed out, Rob said, “Hey, I’m gonna stay out here, watch the truck.”

Ben nodded as he followed Red inside. He guided her to Olivia’s old room. He helped her dust off the cold couch, and make sure there wasn’t an infestation of cockroaches or anything. They both sat on the couch.

“There you go, should be set,” said Ben. “Though I bet you’re gonna wanna move to a room on the top floor eventually.”

Red shot him a questioning glance. “Why is that?” she asked.

“Gonna start flyin’ soon. Don’t even need a permit for that or anythin’.”

She rustled her wings a bit, as if mentally testing them. “I guess,” she said, doubt creeping into her voice.

“liv’ loves flyin’. You want lessons, ask her.”

“I’ll think about it. I want to try to figure out some things on my own, you know?”

“I hear you. No problem.” Ben stood and stretched. “Give us a call if you need somethin’. I’ll be tomorrow with food an’ water for you, an’ make sure you haven’t been abducted by aliens or somethin’.”

Red snorted. “I’ll try not to. See you in a couple days.”

Ben waved as he walked out the door and headed down the stairs. Sorry, Olivia, sorry Red, it’s best for all of you you stay apart.

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