"It's not like you didn't see this coming," Fetch said, and prodded the clusters of fresh bullet holes in Delsin's denim vest. "You had to see this coming. It was kind of inevitable."
Yeah. He did not, in fact, see this coming.
"Sure," he said, and batted her hand away. Usually he liked the neon highlights she added to his designs, but right now he prefered she didn't realize exactly how many holes there were. "Totally."
She dropped next to him onto the ratty green couch - the single piece of real furniture they'd managed to sneak into their squat. It made a splintering sound as she squirmed, trying to find a position that didn't risk tetanus from rogue springs.
"That means he didn't," Eugene said, gingerly sitting on the other end and sounding muffled around a mouthful of cheetos. Or "breakfast" as they'd started calling whatever food they'd managed to scrounge or lift the night before.
See, it turned out that Conduits and normal humans could manage a peaceful co-existence for roughly zero seconds and when, inevitably (according to some smart asses), it all went to hell, the poster boy was the first one fingers (cameras, guns, turrets, freakish fish-based powers, whatever) pointed at.
So should have stayed back in Salmon Bay.
Except that hell would have rained down on the tribe. On Betty. And there were these two losers. Fetch wouldn't leave Seattle, Eugene wouldn't leave Fetch, and Delsin had promised Reggie he had it handled. Seemed like that was the one pinkie swear he should keep.
No other reason.
"I just figured. I don't know." He gave in to Fetch's efforts and allowed himself to be arranged into her pillow. "But, wow, I'm never going to Pike Place again. The cops? Shot me. Military? Shot me. Hey, you know that tiny old lady, hits the place up for her terrifying cat army every evening?"
"Nana … something," Eugene said, more clearly this time. "She gave me a kitten when I was a kid. I gave it to my brother. He called it Ana. For Anaphylaxis. You know. After."
"Shot me," Delsin said, staying determinedly on track. "And the conduits zapped me. And I have squid in places..."
Fetch abruptly stopped outlining the bullet holes in pink, or playing the world's most morbid game of connect the dots - whatever she was doing. "Euw."