A/N: I've had this idea thought up and this chapter written up for years after an amazing dream I hadn't but never wanted to post it until I had time to do so. Well I have time and the inspiration. This will be the shortest chapter though because it's just a prologue. I'll be finishing up my old Kigo fic first though and if this gets any attention then I'll give you guys the best that I have. Also I typed this on my phone so sorry about any mistakes and weird formatting I'll fix it when I'm by a computer.
We were seven, or at least now we were, and the world was in chaos, or at least that's how I saw it. What was once the thriving Go City had now swallowed the surrounding areas of Middleton and Lowerton and transformed into the squalor that it is today. The streets were overrun with people and trash, smog filled the once crisp clean air, and a stench of desperation hung off of everyone who lived within it's borders. This was no place to live. No place to raise a family. Yet here we were. Here we all were and here we would stay. There was nowhere else to go. This life had spread throughout the country and no matter where you turned you could see the sins of our lives manifested. Admittedly, my opinion is a bit warped. I have always seemed to have a bitter sense of life. Once I was a happy child. I had a family and friends, but that all changed with the accident. No longer was I the precious brunette who daddy would lift into the air and call princess. My skin was now hued a light green from the rays of the comet that struck our family tree house affecting both me and my four brothers. The privileged protective lifestyle I was once used to slipped right through my fingers when at ten I was labeled a freak. Six years later I was labeled a runaway and never looked back.
That's how I found myself here in the slums of Go City. I left the lavish upbringing that came with the Go name and wandered lost within a part of the city that I had never been. That was when I met him. Drew "Drakken" Lipsky. He was eight years my senior and looked nothing more than a corn-fed momma's boy, but he was looking for a hand and I was looking for work. That was the day I became Four.
Drakken, or One as we called him when out, was the first person in our little group. He was also the oldest. At six feet tall, the would-be imposing man ruined it all with his slight gut and slicked back mullet, not to mention his maniacal laughing. When I met him, he had just dropped out of grad school and was looking for someone to do a job for him so he could get back on his feet. I don't know if it was destiny or just pure chance that his real contact had missed the appointment, but either way it went I was there, I did the job, and with that I did my first stint at breaking and entering. From that moment on I was a part of the team. Drakken had given me a bed to lie in, a meal to eat, and some change for my services. At the time I thought it was due to my skill, but even I can admit he pitied me. I was alone, young, and desperate for a place to stay and he probably knew that had he not given me a hand I'd be one of the many teenage prostitutes scooped up on the corner once hunger consumed my every thought. Lucky for me, although walking the straight and narrow line of all that is good and righteous in this world isn't his main concern, Drakken still had standards. He still had a soul. Plus, he had done this before.
Slinging my duffel bag over my head and onto my shoulder, I followed cautiously behind Drakken as we walked through a maze of alleys. He was rambling on about some research he was conducting, but none of it reached my ears. I was on an adrenaline high. My blood pumped rapidly through my veins and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. All rational thought was gone as I let the excitement flow over me. I had just broken into a store. No, a pharmacy. I had just broken into a pharmacy and deleted all other applicants besides Drew Lipsky from their database. I don't know how he had gotten the passwords needed to access their system, but this was the strangest crime I had ever heard of and Drakken the strangest man I had ever been around. His skin was tinted a slight blue and, though some may have found it repulsive, the oddness of it comforted me reminding me of earlier days when my older brother would hold me when I cried upon returning from school. Maybe that was the reason I was following him. Or maybe because he promised me a meal. Or maybe it was because of his simple unimposing nature. Whatever the reason, I was starving and with only five hundred dollars to my name I knew that I wouldn't last long without help, so I drew my bag closer and quickened my steps.
The wind started to pick up as we moved out from the cover of an alley and into a main street. Drakken slowed down enough to walk beside me as we strode passed a neighborhood pawn shop. I tried slowing in return to keep some distance between us but a hand on my lower back prevented my attempts. "Stay close to me. This isn't a good neighborhood. Keep your head low and stay quiet. If asked, you're my little sister who lived with our father but now you're staying with me," Drew whispered lowly as we passed a group of men playing cards on a porch. I could hear curses shouted from behind paper-thin walls and music blaring in the distance. Gone were the manicured lush lawns that I had been so used to and replaced with dirt yards and gravel driveways. The sun was beginning to set as we strode down the street, stopping only once when an elderly woman called out with a cry of "Is that that Lipsky boy?" causing Drew to talk animatedly with her from behind a broken down picket fence for a few minutes before informing her that he wanted to get me, his apparent sister, home before it got too late.
"You don't talk much do you?" Drew asked as we entered a shabby apartment complex. "That's okay," he replied without giving me time to answer. "That'll be a good quality here. I know you must be on the run, not many people walk around with duffel bags you know so you're pretty obvious. You did good today though and with practice you could be even better, but you're too young for that life. Sadly, you're not the youngest I employ." Stopping once we had climbed three flights of stairs and arrived in front of a door only slightly cleaner than the others, Drakken paused before turning the knob in his hand. "We'll just get you something to eat to celebrate our first job. You can leave whenever you want you know? I won't force you to stay, but if you're so dead set on not going home then I can understand that and you can stay here. It's not much but trust me its better than what's out there. You'll have to work for it though. Everyone has to contribute. I may pay the bills but if my mom knew I was using school loan money for this I'd be dead so this has to be worth it." After that he opened the door and walked inside, leaving me standing alone for the first time in an hour.
He was probably crazy. Or a mass murderer. Or a rapist. Something told me if anything, he was crazy but definitely not a bad guy. He was also an out of shape momma's boy that was for sure, so I could definitely take him if worse came to worse, besides I had nowhere else to go and he seemed to care. I wasn't used to that. I hadn't been used to someone caring if I was out alone or had eaten for years now and it sort of felt good. With that last thought, my decision had been made and I slipped cautiously out of the cold of the hallway and into the apartment of the strange man I now call boss.
