Chapter 1
Little Bees
It is the fourth day after Morgan and Nikolai, the man that saved Morgan, fell from the tower. During that time, he feels weak as he lays down on a soft cushion...a bed, Morgan reminded himself.
Try as he might, he could not fathom how he and Nikolai survived the fall. He can remember hearing a lady with rough edges around her voices practically shouting "You've got to be kidding me! Some fuckin miracle."
Miracle...Morgan likes that word. He doesn't know why, but he likes it for some reason.
He didn't get much time to pondered on the meaning as the door opens to rveal a girl about 17 years old of the lean build wearing a tank top similar to Nikolai, beige cargo pants which are held by at least two belts with...stuff that Morgan can't figure out. and that weird weapon called a gun strapped onto her left thigh. She seems to be in a foul mood as indicated by her threatening expression while she whips her brown ponytail away. She exhales black smoke out as she lights another roll of paper.
"Here ya go kid…" she was holding a tray of what Morgan believes it is food. Now while Morgan lost a lot of his memories, he does know what food should look like.
This...looks like an experiment went horribly wrong. The flat round things are almost black, he is almost positive that this apple got some sort of wriggly thing and it is browning, and the milk, he is sure of, is rotten.
Morgan can hear the loud sigh as the lady rubs her forehead. "Freaking Axel. Sure it isn't the tastiest, but that doesn't mean he should eat at Cafe Chelsea…"
Morgan, for the first time since he arrived in this building, said something. "Do...do you need help?"
The lady turned around to look at Morgan strangely and shouted "So you can talk a-hole? Since when?!"
Morgan tries to think about what she said, and said "...Just...now?"
Sighing the lady takes another roll of paper and lits it. "Well we're making SOME progress I guess." as she puffs out the same black smoke she said "I'll be mighty happy to see you eat though."
Morgan is looking at what is suppose to be breakfast. Common sense, rational thought, and his tastebuds are screaming not to eat it. However, he thinks that lady wants him to eat this. Nervously Morgan picked up a fork as he eats the burnt object.
His tastebuds agonized in pain as the blackened food impacts the defenseless sensors while he found it tough to swallow. The lady looked at him horrified as Morgan tries to finish his entire 'breakfast' and actually succeeds.
Once the lady sees that Morgan finished every last crumb, the only thing she could say was "What. The. Actual. Fuck?"
Morgan starts to clutch his stomach as it builds up the defense it needs to prevent the monstrosity from entering. He rolls around on bed in agony until the lady comes back with a cup of darkish brown water with steam rising. Without hesitation Morgan gulped down the liquid as he nearly doubles over from how bitter it was.
Thankfully his stomach feels much better.
"Geez you must have been hungry as hell to eat crap like that." critted the lady's teeth.
"Actually...I thought it would be better if I eat it. You made it right?"
"...Are yo fuckin insane?! There's a reason Axel and Nikolai doesn't eat the crap I served!"
Morgan shrugs as he coughs.
"So...what's your name?" asked the somewhat scary, but not scary lady.
"M...Morgan…"
"Finally we got a name. About fuckin time if you ask me. Know where your parents are?"
"My...parents?" mumbled Morgan. Try as he might, he is only drawing a blank.
"Forget it. We got a name now." sighing the lady walks away "Name's Rain by the way, and I hate to babysit."
Morgan can only nod, not knowing exactly what it is about.
…
Later on mid-day, a young man of 19 dropped from the ceiling. Unlike Nikolai and Rain, he does not wear a tank top and cargo pants. Instead, he is wearing a black leather jacket over a gray t-shirt. His blue jeans are slightly ripped, but his brown boots look like they're in really good condition. Like Rain, he has a belt for all sorts of items. He has short, wavy black hair that was slicked back as he exclaims, "Hey there kid! Sorry about dropping by. Got to make an entrance."
"...I'm not 'kid'. I'm Morgan." he said "And...you must be Axel."
Axel's jaw dropped when he heard Morgan say some words. "Don't know what it is more surprising: the fact you can talk or the fact you know my name."
"It wasn't that...hard." Morgan sometimes have difficulty finding the words he want. " I heard from Rain...that you and Nikolai weren't going to eat breakfast. I know how Nikolai looks like, so by...by…" hence Morgan is finding trouble with his words.
"Process of elimination?"
"Yeah, that!" exclaimed Morgan "By doing that, I figured you have to be 'Axel'."
Axel claps his hand as he says "bravo! Bravo! Give it up for the master sleuth, ace detective, Morgan!"
Morgan does not respond when Axel praised him...mainly due to confusion and not realizing it was praise. Axel clears his throat as he says, "Listen...I know you're not all there, but mind if I ask a few questions?"
"...okay?"
"Great. First question...why were you up in the Chandelier area?"
"Chan...delier?" repeated Morgan as he repeated the word.
"You know...level 3 of Basel?" asked Axel as Morgan can only give a silent response "Basel? The giant ass tower we're all living on? Any of it sounds familiar to you?"
Morgan frowns as he tries to recall these terms, but is now drawing a serious blank. Axel can only groan as he says, "This...will be harder than I thought...can't recall a thing about your parents?"
Morgan frowns again as he FEELS he should know this. He focuses as much as he could, conjuring up very VERY faint outlines of people. As soon as something comes up, he quickly winds up drawing a blank.
"Kid...forget it. Don't strain yourself." said Axel "Go wash yourself in the restroom okay?"
Morgan only nods as he fumbles around in his oversized white shirt that Nikolai gave him. He can see his black and purple cloak on the share along with what he presumed were his belongings. He thankfully knows where the restroom is in this building. Take down the stairs, turn a right, and there.
He sees his reflection on the mirror as he sees most of his bruises from the fall gone, his navy blue hair uncombed, and looks a little pale.
These people say he has amnesia, that he cannot remember a thing. Morgan can agree since everything is new to him, and he has yet to recognize anything.
"Come on Morgan!" shouted Nikolai, who must have learned Morgan's name through Axel "We're going to see some people who might know who you are!"
Hopefully that is true.
… …. …..
The strange group of four passed through a bridge that is perpetually raining, some people who threatened to give them money until Rain points her SMG at point blank, and finally to the Basel elevator. During the elevator ride, Morgan learned that they all live on this tower called Basel due to the outside world being too toxic for everyone. Morgan wants to ask who made Basel and all its intricate gear work, but figures no one knew.
"Hey kid," said Axel as Rain takes another roll of paper as black smoke comes out "Want to see something cool?"
"Er...'cool'?"
Axel gets off from the railing as he pulls out his handgun as he spins around, tossing it to the air, grabbing it with his other hand behind him, and points it to air. "Cool, huh?"
"I...guess?"
Nikolai chuckles as he says, "Don't worry Morgan. Axel just LOVES to show off. Especially with some, admittedly, neat gun tricks." He can see Morgan eyeing on said gun. "You...uh...do know what a gun is right?"
Morgan shakes his head as he has no recollection of an item like that.
"...This amnesia thing is way worst than I expect." said Axel.
… …. …..
After giving Morgan a crash course on what a gun is, they finally arrived on the third floor, the Chandelier levels or the high class ones. The four of them stop at an impressive manor as the presumed stewart greets them in.
Morgan has to rub his eyes as the dazzling glare caught him off guard. The three of them are in a rather spacious hallway with glittering chandeliers, priceless vases, and large windows to see the view. He can see a rather large, middle aged woman wearing a black long sleeve shirt, a long skirt, and a brown fur coat accompanied by two men wearing armor of some kind , a helmet with tinted visors, and are holding assault rifles and a rapier.
"Nikolai! How wonderful it is to see you." said the woman.
"A pleasure...Cardinal Eve."
"Cardinal?" asked Morgan.
"Top bitches of Basel." grumbled Rain as she lights another roll of paper "You could say they're the leaders of this joint."
Eve seems to prance around to Morgan as she gives him an uncomfortable stare. "Hmm...yes...yes! That's the boy! That's one of the children who went missing!"
Morgan, in his mind, cannot trust that woman. He doesn't know why, but he rather stay with Nikolai, Axel, and Rain.
"I'm afraid you can't do that dear." Apparently Morgan spoke his thoughts out loud "These people are bounty hunters, agents of war so to speak. This is no place for a child like you."
The word 'war' sprung something in Morgan's head, but as usual, only drawing a blank.
"Now come along dear. We should get back to our little happy adobe."
Morgan turns his head to the only three people he knows, Axel just shrugging his shoulders, Rain looking a little listless, and Nikolai being deep in thought. The oldest member then says, "I assume you're going to wash off the blue dye from Morgan's hair?"
Eve gives a hearty laugh as she exclaims as she ruffles his hair "Of course dear Nikolai! I know children at his age tend to be a little rebellious, but dyeing one's hair is simply too mu-" She can feel a bullet barely scraping her cheek just in time to move her head to the side.
"Morgan get down!" shouted Nikolai as Rain and Axel gun down the two guards who barely readied their rifles. Eve, from one moment of a person of pure joy to maliciousness, summons more of her guards, each armed as the last two. Furiously she pulls out a shotgun and a cutlass from her fur coat.
"Sorry lady," said Axel as he readies his gun at anything that so much as flinches. "but it's nothing personal. We were hired to take you down since you were the most likely suspect for kidnapping and extorting children."
Eve growls as she venomously shouts, "What the fuck gave me away?"
Nikolai pulls out two pistols and aims both of them at the Cardinal. "It was when you said that you'll wash off Morgan's hair dye."
"AND?!"
"...Believe it or not, this is actually Morgan's natural hair color." said Nikolai as he uses his left pistol to shoot down a guard who was about to take aim. "We figured you wouldn't resist a chance to gain an additional slave in your labor force."
Eve's mouth starts to twitch as she orders to kill every last one of them.
Morgan keeps his head low as he runs towards to Nikolai, as bullets whizz by. Nikolai grabs him by the collar and instructs him to stay close to him. Morgan can see five more guards coming from the far end, this time with their weapons out. Nikolai shouts to Rain to get her ass moving on those guards.
Rain grunts as she recklessly runs towards the reinforcements as she does a backflip to avoid a spray of bullets and slides to take down two of the guards with her SMG. Just as the three guards take aim, Axel leaps about 20 feet to the air as he does multiple frontal flips in mid-air as he first shoots a guard taking aim at Nikolai, then somehow spins around while upside down to shoot the two guards that Rain is dealing with from above while Rain herself gave the poor man a chest full of lead.
Nikolai and Morgan are running from Eve as she viciously fires her shotgun at the two people. With great anger, she shouts, "Be still, you little bees!"
Nikolai pulls out a smoke bomb from his pocket and tosses it to the cardinal. This blinds the Cardinal, but at the cost of not seeing where Morgan is. Nikolai was about to get out of the smoke when he feels a numbing sensation on his leg. He peers down to see a bullet laced with a paralyzing drug as he his right side of his body starts to go limp. Thankfully Morgan got out of the smoke, and is taking cover behind one of those vases.
He checks the battle to see the smoke clearing...with Cardinal Eve pointing her rapier to Nikolai's throat. Morgan doesn't know what to do as his hands are shaking.
"Need...plan...fast!" thought Morgan as he sees both Rain and Axel taking pot shots on the incoming resources. He is not sure if this gun will kill, but he has no choice as he takes aim. He stops when he notices the chandelier hanging just perfectly above Eve.
Gulping, he holds the handgun with both of his hands, closes one of his eye by instinct, takes aim on the chain that is suspending the large and heavy object, and...misses the chain! He attempts to try again, but he sees Eve coming towards with a twisted smile that will frighten even the devil himself.
"Uh uh uh. Naughty boys...like you...mustn't…" she ignores the fact that Morgan's trembling hands has the gun focused on her "...play…" she pulls out her shot gun "...SUCH…" she aims squarely to Morgan's forehead "...DANGEROUS TOYS!"
Morgan closes his eyes shut, trying to recall what he did to make this gun go off. Panicking, he starts to sweat terribly as he finds that he cannot do it. He must though, if he wants to survive.
Then an explosion pierced Morgan's ear...a gunshot, he figured out . Cautiously, he opens his eyes to see that there is a hole on Eve's chest as her blood mixes in with the white fur coat. She collapses, not moving an inch, eyes not focused onto her objective and instead are glass, as more of the red liquid seeps out.
Morgan looks up to see the smoke from Nikolai's handgun, with Nikolai himself looked like he took aim and fired.
When one of the guards noticed the Cardinal lying on the ground, they almost immediately desist. The ones that don't all got a one way ticket to the Underworld courtesy of Axel and Rain.
Morgan cannot help but stare at Eve's seemingly lifeless body. Something tells him that he should freak out over this, but it felt...normal. As if, he saw something like that on multiple occasions.
Alas, the memory will not come as Nikolai walks over to Morgan. "You alright Morgan?"
"...I don't know…"
Sorry for the long wait guys. I am sure there is someone out there who likes to read this.