DM: Digital Mutants: Series 02: Part 1
[A/N: OK, this is the start of my second Series. Just like my Series 02 fics, this is an extremely serious saga. It will involve death, suffering, and tragedy. Don't say I didn't warn you! And on a side-note, all the ages are very screwed up. Just figure them out yourselves!]
[Disclaimer: I don't own.]
Ten-year-old Cody Hida walked silently from school. He stared at the ground as he walked softly on the gray sidewalk. His class had taken a very hard test the other week, and his teacher had finished grading them the night before.
Cody himself got the only perfect score of the entire class.
Questioned furiously at lunch by his friends, Cody had no answer. He had known very little about the test when he looked over his notes and texts. But a few days beforehand, a strange dream entered his restless sleep.
It described, in detail, the test's questions and the things Cody should study to pass.
But that had never happened before. So why now? Hida sighed almost sadly as he walked into the elevator and pressed the button for his grandfather's floor.
His mother and father had died when he was young, just about three. They had died in a car crash. Stepping off the elevator, Cody strode to his grandfather's apartment.
"So, how did you do on your big test?" his grandfather, who he called Grandpa, inquired. "I got a perfect score." Cody admitted, sitting at the table.
"Well that's wonderful!" Grandpa clapped his grandson on the shoulder, "How about we celebrate with some ice cream and prune juice tonight?"
Grandpa led Cody to a little shop down in the city where they served everything Cody liked.
As they sat in the booth they received, Cody looked around and smiled.
"This place is wonderful, Grandpa!" he praised happily. His grandfather smiled in response. They paid no mind to the other people in the restaurant, especially the people sitting up at the counter. There was only one person. They were tall, and drinking something. They wore what seemed like a cloak, black and it curled up around their neck, hiding their face from view.
Twenty minutes later, Cody and Grandpa left the restaurant, Cody holding a ice cream cone in one hand.
Grandpa held Cody's free hand tightly as the two walked back towards the apartment. Even though the place was nice, the city at dusk was dangerous, even for a trained Kendo master like Grandpa.
"Hey gramps, you got any money?" a burly man slurred as he stood in front of Cody and Grandpa. Cody froze, but Grandpa tugged his hand slightly and tried to walk around the drunken man. The man shifted to block the two Kendo warriors.
"I said, you got any money?!" the drunk yelled. He shoved Cody away and yanked Grandpa's collar towards him. Cody stumbled to the ground, his ice cream falling from his hand. The drunk man pulled out a knife and waved it around.
"Gimme all yer money and get outta here!" he snarled.
Very suddenly, a small roll of money appeared in front of the man's face. He blinked and let go of Grandpa. He tried to grab it, but it was pulled away. Cody looked up to see a very tall person holding the roll of bills. Their hand was very pale, almost white, and he couldn't yet see their face.
Then, they shifted and the fading light shone onto them. It was a woman of maybe twenty-eight or so. She wore a long flowing cloak that reached her ankles, and had been following them every since they left the restaurant.
"Say you're sorry to these two, and I will give you the money." she said. Cody shivered at her cold voice. It was like ice.
"No way-" the man began, lifting his knife again. With unseen speed, the woman grabbed his wrist and pointed the knife backwards, breaking the drunk's wrist in the process, back at him.
"Now apologize." she ordered in the same tone. The man's eyes filled with tears of pain. He turned and moaned, "OK, OK! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The woman let go of his wrist, and tossed him the roll of yen bills. He caught them with his good hand and looked at it.
The woman began to turn and walk away, but the man said, "Hey, this isn't even a hundred yen!" He roared and slammed his huge body into the woman's slender figure. She was knocked into the wall and the man dashed to her. He slashed angrily with his knife. Surprisingly, at his distance, he only cut shallowly into her cheek.
She pulled back her fist and punched the drunkenness right out of the stupid man. He hit the ground with a thud, his knife flying from his hand. The woman caught the knife before it even lowered.
"Now, take the money I so generously gave you, and get out of here before I loose my patience." she said without expression. The man whimpered and stood shakily. The woman tossed the knife at him. He shrieked like a girl and ran like mad. The woman chuckled lightly from her cloak.
"Excuse me, miss," Grandpa spoke up, "but it seems that thug injured you. Would you mind if you came with us to clean that up?" The woman turned slightly to Grandpa. "What a gracious offer." she laughed, "Thank you very much."
"So might I ask why you helped my grandson and I?" Grandpa inquired. He sipped his tea a little bit, staring over the rim of the cup at the woman. Cody drank some of his drink as well. His short legs hardly reached the floor from the couch he sat on.
The woman's long legs easily touched the floor, even though she had them slid outwards a bit and was sitting straight up. Now that Cody saw her without that strange cloak, he thought her to be a little bit pretty. She wore what looked like a high-school boy's uniform. It seemed everything she wore was black. It set off her rather pale skin well.
"Well, I believe in peace between all people, and that foolish man was bothering me to boot." she said silkily, taking a small sip of the green tea. Grandpa laughed and remarked, "Yes, that does seem like a wise way of living!"
"That, and I think your grandson is quite cute for his age." the woman said with a small smile. Cody blushed a rather deep red. The woman finished off her cup of tea and stood from the chair.
"Thank you for the tea." she said, "I hope that we meet again… Cody." Grandpa and Cody both leapt up, but the woman was already gone.
"This was certainly an odd night." Grandpa said with a bit of confusion.