Much appreciation to my regular reviewer NotGiveinAGlub! I do hope some new readers come along and help pick up the slack!

~ CHAPTER 11 ~

Capricious Guile of a Rust Blood

A short girl with shoulder-length caramel hair and warm brown eyes dove out from behind another alleyway looking frantic. She was clutching something small and black in her hand; after spotting the two boys on the ground she skidded to a stop. Dwayne felt it too the moment his eyes met hers, she was one of them. The feeling wasn't so intense for him compared to when he'd first met another of his kind but for her it was the first time and she stared at them widely. Dwayne was startled to see a very burly man about twice her mass bowling around the corner and then swinging a large arm at the poor girl. She ducked under his grab, a lithe little thing, and then pounced forward pressing her open palm into his chest. Half a dozen other fully grown men whipped around the corner as well but the first guy had frozen. Turning around suddenly his fist smacked into another guy's jaw and he went down. The others were shocked by this occurrence and started yelling at him in some European language while he continued to spaz out.

The girl stepped back as a brawl broke out and she sneaked around them, then she jumped at another guy whose back was turned and had to reach up to touch his shoulder. He stiffened, shook and then swung an arm that connected with the nose of the guy next to him. It broke with a sickening sound and blood squirted. The yells got louder and the sound of beating flesh was a lot more awful than Dwayne thought it would be. Bruises were appearing on the gang of men and the sound of bones breaking could be heard along with cries of pain, splashes of red blood amidst the tussle and shirt grabbing. From underneath Dwayne the taller boy wiggled and he realised he hadn't got off him yet. Wesley threw Dwayne off his back and he rolled onto his bottom wincing, the other boy got to his feet just as there were two combatants left standing. A bald man with a busted lip and black eye held the other guy's arms behind his back while trying to reason with him in that foreign language. The other guy seemed to be missing some teeth and merely swung his head back, knocking out his friend with a terrible crunch.

He stood over the limp bodies of his comrades, beaten and bloody with his clothes torn. The small girl stepped over to him and put a hand on his back. He swung a fist into his face and then went down. She looked at him and sighed before crouching down and feeling his pockets. The thing she'd been holding was a wallet and she then extracted another one from the downed guy's pocket.

"What... did you just do to them?" Wesley asked, his stance tense. She looked back and shook a strand of hair out of her face.

"I'm psychic," she stated as if she didn't think they'd believe her and didn't care. She extracted the notes from the wallet and then dropped it to the ground, moving on to the next unconscious guy. Dwayne struggled for a moment to get back to his feet.

"Do you know who we are?"

"Witnesses," she said with a shrug and dug out another wallet from a jeans pocket. Dwayne and Wesley looked at each other briefly.

"You can't feel our connection?" Dwayne tried.

"I..." she stopped and looked at them "I feel like you guys are really familiar. Did we go to school together in Borroloola? Are they still looking for me?"

"No..." Wesley stated "We don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

"Then maybe I should introduce myself properly?" she decided and walked over to him, offering her hand "My name is Camila." she gave him a very bright and cheery smile. Dwayne looked at her hand uncertainly and saw Wesley reach for it.

"Don't!" he tried but the other boy fearlessly gripped her hand and nothing happened.

"Wesley," he stated and her smile fell. She tried to step away and tug herself free but he pulled her closer, Camila suddenly looked very frightened. "What colour is your blood?" he murmured the question.

"None of your business!" she spoke, panicked. He released her hand when she yanked it back again and she stepped away.

"Mine is teal." he stated.

"Wesley stop it! You're frightening her! I knew this was such a bad idea..." the smaller boy turned to look at her "My name is Dwayne. We're like you." he watched her eyes flicker between them nervously.

"Why were you on the ground before... lying on top of him?"

"That was..." Dwayne trailed off awkwardly while Wesley's cheeks coloured.

"You were in trouble, I came to help. He wanted to stop me because we weren't supposed to see you yet."

"Camila..." Dwayne began and she looked at him "You know that you're not human right?"

"What?"

"Why did you think you were such a freak?" Wesley asked.

"I... I knew I wasn't a normal person. I was some kind of experiment. My parents knew I was different and didn't say anything. So I ran away and stayed off the grid. No one knows where I am and I want to keep it that way."

"You just up and left your life like that?" Dwayne asked and she nodded. "For how long?"

"Four months."

"Being psychic woulda helped" Wesley commented. "Using your psychic powers to control humans into giving you money whenever you wanted." his voice had a harsh tone in it for some reason Dwayne didn't understand.

"Were you just going to run all your life?" Dwayne continued anyway. "Was this going to be your future?"

"Well I knew if I stayed where I was whoever made me would have come back for me. For tests and shit," she started angrily, trying to hide the shakes in her voice. "But you found me anyway. So what was it? Microchip?"

"We're not some kind of secret government agency, we're aliens." Dwayne responded.

"Ah... alright then." she answered and Dwayne turned to stare at Wesley. He didn't know what else to say or do. She didn't believe them.

"We didn't come here to force you to come back with us." Wesley stated coldly.

"Really...?" she asked and attempted to step casually back to the pile of bodies. "Then I guess I'll just go then."

"No!" Dwayne sighed in irritation and slapped a hand to his face "You have to hear us out first. Just... have lunch with us or something. I'll pay for it." She looked at him as if deliberating and he continued "It'll be a nice public place where we can just talk. I don't want to let you go knowing you're just gonna sprint through the bushland trying to lose an imaginary government agency squad you think is tracking you down." She took another deep breath. "Please... Camila."

"Fine." she decided with a frown. "We'll go get some burgers. And don't even think I'm going to let you guys touch my food for even a second!"

"Good," Dwayne said with a smile. Wesley's frown never vanished and it looked like he was suspicious of her, for whatever reason.

Alas, a chance meeting with the low blood who doesn't seem willing to believe them. If the mother grub could see them now she'd be face palming with all six of her limbs (or however many limbs a mother grub has, I aint no xenobiologist).