AN: Yay new chapter. Thanks to every one who viewed and reviewed.

Chapter 2

Hide-away

[Walk it off- Angus & Julia Stone]

In an instant, I found myself back at the Hide-away. The Hide-away was a place where kids like me, from the poorer districts could find shelter and relative safety from the extremes; water and above all food. But it wasn't free, it came at a price, all children had to earn their keep by doing errands and tasks for the man we called 'Kizu', he was the boss around here, the guy that kept things running, if it weren't for him this place wouldn't exist. What Kizu says, goes. There was also one more requirement, any kids with special abilities, or any one that got hungry, was to work with Kizu directly. These kids—that included me—were sent on elite missions, such as stealing or finding large quantities of food and sometimes special tasks.

I was breathing hard and I felt weak, this is because I had teleported three times, teleporting was very taxing and there were only so many I could do a day. Around me were compacted dirt walls and ceiling, I was walking in one of the underground tunnels of the Hide-away. Several children passed me; they were carrying baskets of supplies and other necessities. One of them stopped and openly stared at me, another child gawked along with him.

"Look, it's Jinx." They said in hushed whispers, one even went so far as to point.

How rude. I thought, although I guess I should be was used to this by now.

I continued my way down the tunnel for a while longer until I came to an opening, and beyond the opening was a huge cavern. The top of the cavern was at least 50 metres high and almost three times as long, the whole place was lit up with lights hanging from the roof, it gave very clear view what was actually in it; rows upon rows of I guess you would call them cubby-houses, filled the space on the cavern floor, they were all arranged in neat rows and blocks with small pathways between them. The largest pathway was the one I was walking on; it came down the centre of the space and led from the entrance to a small building built into the wall at the other side of the cavern. A child sleepily crawled out of one of the many cubbies, this cubby, made from assortments of junk, was the boy's home.

I continued on until I was just in front of the building, the entrance way was only covered by a thin drape of cloth. With all the valuables I had pickpocketed earlier in hand, I hastily pulled the cloth aside trudged into the room.

"Well look who finally decided to show." Said Slick giving me his signature grin, while running his fingers through his glossy black hair. I rolled my eyes and gave a cheeky sigh.

"Well wha' da ya expect? I still got the stuff didn't I? It's not my fault I got a little, side-tracked."

"Side-tracked?" He asked with a fake innocent smile, he knew exactly what I meant.

"I just took a break for a while; I can't help it if the opportunity for a little fun arose…" I grinned openly.

"And this fun was…?"

"Basically two men set up a trap for me, I didn't fall for it. One of them decided to grab me," Everyone flinched when I said that. "So I decided to go skydiving. I give him some well-earned flying lessons. When we reached the ground, he was crying so hard he peed himself!" I cracked up laughing so did some of the others.

"But that's not all. The second man tried to charge at me, but I tripped him over and then nipped his stuff while he was down."

Most of them were red in the face and howling with laughter.

"Typical Jinx." Chuckled the soft spoken girl, Ringo.

"What's going on here." Demanded the gruff voice of our leader, Kizu.

Everyone immediately stopped, the smiles wiped from their faces, no dared move an inch. Well except me.

"Oh hey, boss. We were just talking. Anyway I got the stuff you wanted." I chucked the goods in my hands onto the centre table, passively ignoring the bewildered expressions that everyone in our small group was giving me, the thing was, nobody spoke to Kizu like that, except me, I was the only one who could get away with it.

Kizu was a tall fully-grown man with dark brown hair, he had cold black eyes that seemed to unkindly analyse you, but his distinguishing feature was the long scar that ran down from the left side of his face to the right. It made him look uncanny and almost everyone was scared of him, well a contributing factor was the intimidating katana he wore on his left hip.

Kizu sighed before turning to the rest of the small group. "How did all your missions turn out? Did they run smoothly?" he asked.

Ringo was the first to speak up. "Yes sir, I did run into a little trouble. While I was collecting the requested herbs, a soul reaper showed up, but I disposed of him quickly."

Ringo may be a soft caring girl, but when the time came, she would do what needed to be done without hesitation. Kizu nodded in understanding then turned to the twins, Kara & Karo. "What about you two?"

Kara, the grey haired twin spoke up. "Nothing of concern." She said simply with a completely emotionless voice. Her brother Karo didn't speak. Without even being asked, Slick rudely put his say in. "Nup, I didn't run into any trouble either… but—" In an instant his form seemed to blur, then he flashed behind me and placed his lanky arms over my shoulders, he did this in under a second. "—Jinx did."

I gave an irritated growl. "Get off me, idiot." I shoved him aside then grabbed hold of his nose, pulling hard.

"Owww, oww, OWWW! Wat urts! Wet oh!" He shouted, I think it translates to this, "Owww, oww, OWWW! That hurts! Let go!"

Still not letting go, I calmly told Kizu what I had told the others, but with a lot less humour and sarcasm. Boss listened carefully but did not make any comments. After I was done my recount I let go of Slick's now very red nose.

"All right you five, settle down. I've got a new mission I need you all to complete. I'm sending you all to certain districts to spy on the soul reapers activities there. Ringo, I'm sending you to the outer districts 80 to 90, Kara, Karo, 55 to 79. Slick since you're the fastest, you take 11 to 54, that just leaves…" he paused and looked at me.

It finally sunk in, he was making me do…

"Jinx, because of your unique skills, you will take the inner districts 10 to 1." My mouth dropped open.

"What!? You can't make me go there. The whole place will be crawling with soul reapers!" I complained, didn't he know sending me there would most likely me caught?!

"That is exactly the reason why you are going. If you get in any particularly sticky situations you can get out of there quick." He replied.

I guess he was right as always, his logic made perfect sense.

"Right. I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning. Everyone get some sleep for tomorrow. With a grumble I teleported away.

My sleeping area as such, was a small alcove, or cave, hidden away at the top of the central cavern, just about level with the large lights; the only way to get up here was to teleport. The space in the alcove was barely four metres in any direction, I was 4'3 and just barely could stand up straight. Off to one side was an old wooden bed with a patched quilt to cover it; in a corner near the back was a small table with all the precious stuff I had collected over the years and my only other kimono.

With a sigh I undid the faded green yukata I wore and neatly folded it then placed it on the floor; with only my underwear on I climbed into bed, pulled up the covers, then closed my eyes wondering about the risky mission I was to go on in the morning.

Well how'd you like the second chapter?

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Rainbowrunner01 ridin her rainbow out a here!