"Just put the girl down. This doesn't need to be ugly." A tall, rather dishevelled young woman said calmly. The girl's tanned and scarred face was covered with a sheen of sweat, from both the thick, humid heat that was Brazil, and from the stress of the situation. And, let's be honest, the combat boots and armor didn't help to stop the sweat, either...
Sirens screamed. Police cars circled the woman, and the trembling teen who held a little girl by the neck with a gun pointed at her head, swallowed thickly. Officers screamed for the woman to leave, but she ignored them as she locked eyes with the local. A short, scrawny teen who was suffering from extreme withdrawal symptoms.
"I just need a fix! Just one!" He rasped shakily, tightening his hold on the girl before pointing it at the woman who was twirling a trident in one hand. "Just give me some money! I-I need it!" His voice cracked, "Please..."
Doing her best to seem at ease, she put her free hand in her jeans pocket. "Just take it easy, alright? One step at a time. You don't wanna get shot, do you...?"
"N-no," He rasped, eyes flicking from side to side, searching for an escape that wasn't there. His hands trembled, "Want... want a fix. Just one more. The-then I'll kick it. I swear! Just one more! I don't want to hurt the child, but I will if I have to!" Said kid sobbed.
"Calm down," She said gently, "Just take it slow. Ignore everyone else; it's just you and me, okay? Baby steps. We'll get things worked out - you just need to stay calm and not hurt the girl, and everything will work out." She inched closer as she stretched before idly scratching her hair.
She tapped her fingers against her bronze trident as she looked up at the blaring sun. "Sure is hot, today," She muttered, more to herself than him, before continuing. "So what's your name, buddy?"
"B-Bruno," He mumbled, shifting in spot as he studied her cautiously. "You speak my language, but are foreign...?"
She nodded as she continued to slowly, carefully make her way over. "Yeah... How did you know?"
"You're hair," He answered, suddenly grimacing and bending over, letting out a groan of pain before straightening up and putting the small pistol against the still-crying little girl. "Enough of this! Give me money, or she dies!" The armored girl stiffened, and her brows furrowed; partially in exasperation, partially in concern.
"You know who else is going to die if you pull that trigger?" She asked dryly. "You. I don't want anyone to die today, so you'd best take it easy, Bruno."
Bruno scowled and bit back another groan of agony as he pointed his gun at her. "I already feel like I'm going to die... I just need my fix. I-I swear, I'll quit after this last one!"
The girl heaved an exhausted sigh and looked up at the clear blue sky. "Are you a religious man, Bruno?" Of course he was. He was wearing a crucifix for fuck's sake! Bruno gave a tentative nod and she hummed as her light brown eyes met his dark ones. "I am as well, you know. Now let me ask you a thing: do you really think this is the path the Big Guy in the sky wants you to go down...?"
He hesitated. All the movement in the area seemed to still, and it became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. "I... no, but-but just one more fix! T-Then I'm done!"
"There's no time like the present." She reminded him, eyes locked with his as she boldly stepped closer. "Do you really think God would want this...? He cares about you. Your family cares about you-"
"I don't have a family."
She paused and blinked. "Family doesn't always have to be blood. It can be someone who cares-"
"No one cares about me." He muttered bitterly as she took another small step closer. "No one's ever cared about me! I'm a fucking nobody! A street rat!"
She gave a small smile, testing the waters before taking another painstakingly small step. They were only five or six feet apart, now. Progress. "Well, there's a first for everything." The tired young woman straightened up and dusted off her jeans. "Hi. I'm Ashley. Ashley Catherine Edgewood. And... I care."
The teen froze, eyes widening as he stared at her. His lower lip trembled. "You... You're lying. Why would you lie about that?"
"I wouldn't. And I didn't. If I didn't care, I would have kept walking and ignored this whole thing. I care about that little girl you're threatening to shoot. I care about her family. I care about the cops surrounding us..." She finally right in front of him, putting her trident in a specially designed holster on her back. "But most of all, I care about you. You have your whole life ahead of you... If you stop this now, if you let the girl go, you won't be in as much trouble. People will help you. It'll be so much easier if you let them help you... But if you keep going down this path..." She made a face as sweat trickled down her forehead. "It never ends. And it'll only get harder... Please, let the girl go, Bruno..."
He stopped and stared at Ashley for the longest time, before finally letting his arms fall to the side.
This boy, Bruno... He was scared. Ashley had had that figured out when she first saw him. And now that she was standing right in front of him, she knew what he was scared of.
His addiction. He was afraid he would never manage to kick it. He feared he would never have a home. Never have a family. Never have anyone who cares about him or his well-being. He was also afraid of going to jail for the rest of his life, and, despite his earlier words, of dying.
Man, she had hit the nail right on the head... Getting unconscious premonitions about people's fears was seriously a nice perk when it came to being the Spirit of Courage...
As the girl scampered into the line of police, Ashley held her arms out. It only took Bruno half a second to respond and lean into the hug, sniffling into her shoulder as she rubbed his back."I didn't mean for it to get this bad... I'm sorry."
"I know you didn't, kiddo," She sighed, "I don't think anyone ever really does..." As the police officers swarmed around the two, Bruno hid his face into her shoulder. She ruffled his hair. "Don't be scared, Bruno."
Ashley yawned as she trudged through the streets of New York. She got a couple of looks which, really, was kind of understandable. She was carrying a trident around, as mentioned before. And her face was pretty scarred up, too.
Not only that, but she was also in armor. The girl had been in armor since she first became the Spirit of Courage two years ago, and it became like a second skin she would only shed on the rare occasions she slept. A leather cuirass hugged her torso, and her left arm was covered with a thick, durable cloth held in place by leather straps. A battle-scarred bronze shoulder guard went over her left shoulder, with faint symbols and pictures lining the edge, and a small shield with a tribal bear snarling on the front was strapped to her forearm. A thick leather and bronze-plated bracer covered her other forearm, and a raggedy, dull-red, and hooded cloak covered her right shoulder.
With a gladius hanging from her belt, greaves strapped to her shins, and metal-toed combat boots donning her feet, she could understand why she always got stared at when she decided to be visible to the large population of people she protected and guided.
And that, as a guy dressed in a Master Chief cosplay suit complimented her 'costume', was also why she decided that she loved Comic-Con. She was still getting looks, but instead of cautious and befuddled stares, they were looks of admiration and a light-hearted curiosity.
Someone bumped into her as she stopped to look at one of the signs advertising Comic-Con, and Ashley mumbled an apology before nudging them and pointing to the billboard with a proud smile, "Hey, you see that guy...? I saved his life, once, before he got famous."
The person, a Homestuck cosplayer, glanced up, only to snort. "That guy...? Suuuuureeee you did, crazy lady." He rolled his eyes before continuing on his way. "You know, I've met a bunch of other people who supposedly 'saved Charlie Thickett's life'..."
If he only knew. A tired, grim smile crossed her face as she remembered how close Charlie had come to ending his own life. After a few seconds, she shook herself and pushed her way into the large building.
Now, Ashley wasn't very familiar with Comic-Con, but she knew enough that most of the people behind the booths were really friendly and helpful and, after taking a few pictures with random people on their request (Hell, she certainly didn't mind), found the place she wanted to be. The double doors were opened, but the insides were packed. The excited chatter of people filtered out of the large room, and the Spirit of Courage braced herself for the excruciating sound of screaming fangirls that was sure to come before putting her trident into the specially made holster strapped to her back, and stepping into the maw of the beast...
To put it simply: it sucked. A lot. She had to squeeze, shove, elbow, and at two points, crawl through the hot and sweaty mass of bodies on her way to the front. And half way through, the cast came out and piercing screams that faintly reminded the girl of fearlings filled the air and that may or may not have made her partially deaf.
Her eyes saw her target, and she gave a brief prayer before hopping over the barrier and up onto the stage.
The second she stood up, screams erupted from the crowd again and security guards sprinted up, only to stop as the star of the cast screamed into the microphone for them to stop. Charlie stood up and walked around the table, a dazed look on his face as he stared at Ashley. The whole stadium went still.
A goofy grin crossed her face before she could stop it. "Charlie mother-fucking Thickett. I have been waiting for a year to tell you: I called it!" Charlie blinked as the girl threw up her arms in victory.. "God damn, I should be a psychic! Talent, man. I got it."
He breathed a laugh before stepping forward and engulfing her in a hug. "You know," He spoke into her cloaked shoulder, "I never got your name..."
"Ashley. It's Ashley Edgewood." She pulled away and faced the sea of people, grabbing one of Charlie's arms and throwing it in the air. "This is Charlie Thickett! I don't watch his show much - I don't have a TV - but he is an absolute sweetheart and if you don't love him as much as I did, and still do, YOU ARE WRONG!" As the crowd erupted with screams, questions, and chatter, she pulled Charlie back into a quick hug, kissed his forehead, and flashed him a tired, albeit genuine smile as his cheeks flushed pink before whooping and swan-diving into the ocean of people.
There was a flourish of excitement as the crowd tried and failed to locate the mystery girl, who, by then, was already out of the building and chuckling under her breath to herself.
"That is gonna be one hell of a Comic-Con for fans of the show." She mused to herself, dodging a Pac-Man and jogging down the street before turning into an alley. She stifled a yawn before stretching and observing the cement with a careful eye. Her eyes lit up as she caught what she was looking for and strolled over to the small crack with a flowering plant growing out of it.
Yeah... from time to time, Ashley would use Bunnymund's tunnels to get around (if she didn't feel like hitchhiking, but one couldn't exactly hitchhike to the North Pole.) But, really... she couldn't expect to get where she wanted. The girl just wasn't as good as navigating through the tunnels as Bunnymund was. Why, not too long ago, she tried to use them to get to Florida and she'd ended up in Australia. Where pretty much everything wants to kill you. Luckily, animals tend to have a respect for her, or, at the very least, know not to fuck with her. Australia was no different...
Though... there was that one koala bear. She had nudged the damnedable thing on accident with the back of her boot, and the thing went insane. It chased her around half the goddamned continent, and ended up chasing her off a cliff! She was lucky... Being a spirit meant that you couldn't really die, so she'd just laid at the bottom of the cliff a few days before waking up with a scraped up and sore everything.
Not a great experience, to say the least...
But yeah, point is: she couldn't expect too much from using the tunnels.
So, with a tentative grimace, she tapped her boot-clad foot on the crack and a hole opened up in the ground. She muttered a quick prayer that she wouldn't end up in Australia again before muttering, "Just this once... please, get it right..."
Hopping in and yelping as the dimly-lit tunnel made a sharp turn, she slid for a few minutes before a hole opened up, and the tunnel spit the girl out onto snow before closing back up.
Ashley blinked and looked around cautiously, only to sigh in relief. "I got it right..." She pulled her trident from her back and used it to help pull herself back up. "Hello, North Pole..."
Author's note~
I'M BACK, BITCHES! Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me! HA! Hahahaha! It's five in the morning and I feel great!
Well'p, here we go, guys. Another great adventure for Ash. More action. More friends. Less Guardians, unfortunately. But hey, we're gonna explore the world of spirits n' junk! Anywho... This is the sequel to my other story, 'Courage'. If you're new, you might want to go read that before you keep going on this one, but hey. I don't judge. If you don't wanna, that's chill, too. I'm just hoping I didn't get any worse with writing... because that would suck.
I'm not sure there's many people who care for this anymore... but oh well. I'm doin' the sequel anyways, because I'M A REBEL. Er, at least, I like to pretend I'm a rebel.
I hope this isn't too bad... So, let me know if there's any mistakes or issues in her, other than the caffiene-high author that spazzes in the author's notes. And I hope that this humble, goofy story made you a smile a litte :) Cuz that's the goal. And if you didn't like it, well... Sorry. Thanks for your time...? And I'll try harder next time, if there's a next time.
Bear with me guys! ʕ´ᴥ`ʔ
, Blue