Chapter One: Objector
He was suddenly very aware of how out in the open he had been all day. How long had this girl been following him?
"Who are you?" He asked carefully.
"That's not important, not yet," She shook her head, "What have they told you?"
"I'm not telling you anything until you put that thing away," He replied, feeling defiant. Looking down at the file and looking back up at her, even under the white hair and hoodie, he could tell this job would be easier than he thought.
The girl sighed, figuring she wasn't getting anywhere, "Fine." She put her weapon on the table, where he could see it. It looked like a toy revolver from a costume store.
He eyed it, "Is that a B.B. Gun?"
"As a matter of fact, it is," She nodded, "Got you good."
"Who the hell are you?" He reiterated.
The waitress came back with a pad of paper, "Oh, hello Mae! Is this that boy you were talking about?"
The girl smiled sweetly, "Yes, it is. The usual for me and whatever he wants."
He laughed uncomfortably, "Just coffee."
"He's being shy," Mae smirked, "He'll have what I'm having."
"If you say so!" The waitress said cheerily and went to the kitchen.
Now Toad gave her a strange look, eying her warily, "How long have you been here?"
"Couple months," She shrugged, "I'm Mae, by the way." She held her hand out for him to shake. When he refused it, she put her hands in her lap awkwardly, "I guess I should explain myself. I know you're from the Brotherhood. I also know you were supposed to be dead. So why are you here?"
"I'm here on vacation," He snarled, sick of her games, "Why have you been stalking me? And why did you think pulling a gun on me would work?"
"Well, the answer to the second question is that because you're supposed to be dead, if I cornered you, you wouldn't have attacked out in the open," Mae explained, "And as for the first question...it's kind of hard to explain. Maybe after lunch we could go back to my place and talk..."
"I hope talking is all you'll be doing," The waitress had returned with two plates, placing them carefully in front of the two.
"Shelby!" Mae blushed five shades of red.
"You're too young to be a mother, Mae," Shelby said, then went off to grab another patron's order.
He gave her a look that said he wasn't amused, "You told the waitress?!"
"Not everything," Mae shrugged, then pointed to his plate, "Eat up!"
Mae's apartment was above the diner, and though it was small and sparsely decorated, it still managed to seem dingy and messy.
"I didn't think you'd be here this soon, hence the mess," Mae smirked.
"So...," He slowly got the words out, "You said you wanted to talk to me...about the stalking thing?"
"Right!" She said excitedly, "See here's the thing. I need to get out of the country. And I don't have time to explain why." She kept glancing at her watch and eying the window nervously, "I need someone like you to smuggle me out of the country. My first stop is Maine."
"Why Maine?"
"I have a friend up there," She replied. She did it again, looked at her watch and looked out the window, this time very quickly, like some kind of nervous tick, "He's got a way for me to get out without
"Well, I'm already here doing a job, so..."
She glared at him, "You said you were on vacation."
He looked amused, "And you pretended to pull a gun on me."
"It was to get your attention!" She sounded offended. She was definitely nervous...but why?
"Well, you got it and I said no," He shrugged.
"Damn it, Toad," She sighed angrily, "What are they paying? I'll double it."
"Why do you think I'm getting paid?"
"You said 'job,' that implies payment."
Well, she was wrong in that respect.
Technically he was supposed to be looking for her. Yeah, he figured it out. He would rather go along with her story and pretend than explain the whole thing to her, but boy he enjoyed watching her squirm. She deserved it after scaring him to death.
"Sort of," He shrugged, exhausted by Mae. Now he just wanted to take her home so this would be all over. When she looked at her watch again, he shouted at her, "Why do you keep doing that?"
"Doing what?" She replied.
"Why are you so nervous?" He felt something in the pit of his stomach. If it was so easy for her to track him down, would it be so hard for someone else to find her?
"No reason," He didn't believe her. She immediately ran to her bed, grabbed a backpack and threw every item of clothing in her vicinity into it.
"Now, what the Hell are you doing?" He was beginning to feel as though he was in danger.
"Nothing," Sure as hell didn't look like nothing. He looked at the window, getting an eerie feeling when he did.
"You might want to hide somewhere," She said, matter of factly.
Suddenly, there was a loud banging at the door.
"Leave her alone!" He could hear Shelby shouting.
"We know you're in there!"
"Who are they looking for, exactly?!" Toad shouted at Mae.
"Well, I promised those guys I'd pay them to help me track you down and...They don't seem to like you," Mae replied.
The door burst open. She flung the bag on her back and ducked behind the couch, he followed her, just as they opened fire on them.
"What the hell are we waiting for?" Toad tried to yell over the gun fire.
There was the sound of glass breaking, and Mae pointed to the window, "Let me distract them, first." She rose to her feet, and moved her arms in a lifting motion. The couch floated upward, bobbing slightly in the air. It still covered them, and she yelled, "Go down the fire escape!"
"Not without you!" He shouted back.
She growled and motioned, throwing the couch toward the trio of thugs.
He helped push her through the window and the two made their way to the ground. They didn't stop running until they were well away from Mutant Town.
After catching a subway to anywhere other than there, the two sat down and looked at each other.
She bore a goofy grin, "So that was fun, huh?"
He only glared in response.
At the last stop, they got off the subway and made their way to the surface. They managed to make it to Brooklyn.
"So from here, we can take a train to Massachusetts," Mae said, looking at a map she had found in the subway.
"Until then, we should find a place to sleep."
She was right, it was getting late, "We need to get as far away from New York as possible." Besides, if they made it to Massachusetts, he could convince her to go home. She seemed to have other plans.
"And how do you plan to do that?" She asked.
"Do you know how to hot-wire a car?" He smirked.
"No," She glowered at him.
He looked around for a decent car, preferably older, "Looks like you don't know everything, then do you?"