Tobias seemed to become oddly alert as the sun was beginning to set, around 6 PM. He was scanning the forests with an oddly keen eye, which Alice noticed right away in the rearview mirror.
"See something interesting?" Alice asked in English, glancing at her son as he seemed to smirk in reply.
"I saw two bears, a moose, and a hunter up in a tree." Tobias smirked. "Dumbass was using a bow."
"I used rifles when I was still human." Alice nodded. "But, like I said, I preferred to fish over hunting."
"Got a fishing rod stashed in the cottage?" Tobias asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.
"I have three." Alice nodded as she turned onto a long dirt road, with Serenity's Civic quickly following suit. "I've got the best dock for fishing, believe me."
"Might take you up on that claim, won't we?" Kaneki looked up from his book, his interest clearly piqued as he regarded Tobias, who nodded once in agreement.
"It sounds like a plan, and it's right about now that the fish would start to be biting the most." Alice commented as they pulled to a halt outside a darkened building situated in the forest near the lake's edge. "Alright, everyone out! We're finally here!"
She hadn't even finished the sentence when the three teens jumped out of the back seat and checked their surroundings.
"Is there any housework we need to do before we can do anything?" Kaneki asked curiously, but Alice and Dakota both shook their heads.
"The place is good to go, just need to unlock the door before Tabitha knocks it down." Alice held up her keys as she got out of the SUV. "So grab your bags, and we can get everything settled, alright?"
With that, everyone grabbed their respective bags, even as Serenity, Tabitha and an oddly sleepy Hinami joined them. Tabitha was clearly excited, but a glance from Tobias warned her that the wrong move would end very... suddenly.
"So, long story short... The place is small, but it has wifi, an Xbox 360, and satellite TV. There's some human food here, but not enough to feed us all weekend. Me and Dakota will head into town for groceries in the morning, so Serenity gets first pick for food, understood?" Alice's tone darkened as she said the last word, and even Tobias got the hint. She unlocked the door as she spoke, and clicked on the light switch, visibly at ease after driving for several hours.
"Well, if that's the case, I'd better take a look." Serenity joked as she followed the two adults inside. Tabitha sneakily gave Hinami a small, but quick jolt to wake her up, which earned a surprised yelp from the brunette.
In all of fifteen minutes, everyone was sitting around a campfire - courtesy of Rize and Kaneki's Pyrokinesis - each with some sort of drink in hand, which included Tobias' vodka and Serenity's cases of sodas and beers. Hinami and Dakota were supplied with some G-Serum each, and were enjoying the lighthearted company.
Tobias had fashioned himself a rather ornate skull themed gothic throne out of ice, situated a few feet away from the campfire, while everyone else - save for Alice, who had clearly used her Telekinesis to make an invisible seat for herself - was seated on folding camp chairs from inside the cottage.
"So... who's up for a bit of manhunt?" Serenity asked as she finished off her first beer, her eyes glinting at Tobias in particular as he gently swirled the vodka bottle in circles on the armrest of his throne. She leaned forward as everyone's interest was suddenly piqued, especially Tabitha.
"Our definition of 'manhunt' is a bit different, Sere..." Tobias commented as he drank some vodka straight from the bottle without so much as a flinch. "Care to elaborate?"
"It's like... an older version of tag." Serenity explained. "The only difference is it's best done at night, like this."
"I may be drinking... But I'm pretty sure that my hair, eyes, and my tattoo stand out in the darkness." Tobias commented, his face deadly serious. "But I'm game. Anyone else care to join us?"
"I can confidently say that your eyes are the first thing that stand out in the dark, babe." Rize was sitting beside Tobias in her camp chair, and her eyes were reflecting the red glow of the fire, giving her already scarlet eyes an eerie glow.
"I second that." Serenity held up a hand, since it was the blue glint of Tobias' right eye that was most visible for her - the only human - to detect. His throne was creating a rather deep shadow because of the darkness and the angle it was facing, plus he was sitting the furthest from the fire.
"And how would you know that, Miss Rize?" Dakota asked, gently holding a can of beer in one hand.
"You haven't heard us at 2 AM?" Rize arched an eyebrow, her voice laden with sexual innuendo. "I know I'm rather vocal..."
Alice cleared her throat, poking at the fire with a stick in her free hand, the other subtly indicating the two youngest girls that were sharing a camp chair together. A can of beer was floating around her head as she stared at Rize.
"Speaking of which..." Serenity spoke up, turning to Dakota. "I don't recall your name, babe."
Dakota's eyes widened in utter shock, and everyone was rather confused by Serenity's words, only for Dakota to speak up after a stunned silence.
"How... did you know?" Dakota stared at Serenity, the beer can briefly slipping from Dakota's fingers, only to be quickly recaptured.
"I'm a lesbian... There's no fucking way I'd even be looking at you if you were a man." Serenity winked with a huge cheeky smirk on her face, to which even Tobias gave a surprised start, nearly spitting out a mouthful of vodka in the process. "Try all you want, you can't fool me."
"Dear god, you're a woman?!" Tobias caught himself in time to stare at Dakota in shock.
"Well... yeah! What did you think I was?!" Dakota's face went bright red from embarrassment, unsure of how to handle the situation.
"A guy..." A few of them mumbled, to which Dakota's jaw dropped.
"To be honest, I myself had absolutely no idea which gender you were, Dakota..." Tobias commented as he took another long drink of vodka. "Mostly because you have an androgynous appearance."
"Can we get back to our original conversation please...?" Dakota was clearly uncomfortable with the change in topic, and her grip on her beer visibly tensed.
"Oh yeah, manhunt." Serenity put her empty can beside the leg of her camp chair and regarded the teenagers. "So who else wants to play a game of manhunt?"
"Serenity... It wouldn't exactly be very fair." Kaneki pointed out. "Me and Rize can detect body heat, Tobias has his insanely sensitive sense of hearing, and Tabitha would effortlessly outrun everyone." He glanced at each of them to determine their reactions. "We can also sense each other's locations at all times, which ruins the whole point of the game."
"Well that's not fun, is it?" Serenity asked, her idea ruined, but her curiosity piqued about their abilities as the Super Ghouls. "So, what's it like to have these powers?"
Alice's eyes narrowed the instant Serenity asked the question. "We can't exactly tell you as much as you'd like, Serenity."
"Understandable." Serenity knew that her question was brazen, so she expected no less in terms of being restricted. "But I was more asking what you guys experience, not about the secretive aspect."
"I get a lot of headaches, but other than that, I have no real issues." Alice gave a nod of understanding.
"I used to burn things accidentally, and we both have this thing called 'hot flashes' that are rather... debilitating..." Rize indicated Kaneki as she spoke, both of them sharing a grimace when she mentioned the hot flashes they experienced.
"And what about you Toby?" Serenity opened her second beer, since manhunt was out of the question.
"My sense of hearing, for one, is annoying at times... I can currently hear all of your heartbeats, plus a wolf just howled... that way." Tobias pointed the index finger of his hand holding the vodka in the direction of the distant howl. "I also have to avoid high heat sources, since I'm rather susceptible to burns."
"Tabitha?" Serenity waited for Tobias to finish speaking before turning to Tabitha, who shrugged.
"Static, magnets and I have problems getting to sleep sometimes."
Off to the side, Rize silently nodded with a faint smile on her face when Tabitha mentioned her sleep issues.
"So, even though you've all got great powers, there's a few drawbacks, right?" Serenity concluded with a nod and a swig of her beer. "Sounds like fun."
"Speaking of which..." Alice glanced at Serenity for a moment before asking everyone. "Anyone have any ideas for what you'll be doing this weekend?"
"Fishing, for one thing." Kaneki glanced at the dock that was across the grass to his left. "But other than that, I don't have anything planned, per se."
"I'd like to see what's on that Xbox, myself." Tobias commented as he finally finished off half of the remnants of the vodka bottle's contents in one go. "But yeah, I'm also considering to go fishing."
"Sounds like a plan, boys." Serenity gave a nod. "I was planning to swim, myself. Might do a bit of sketching too."
"Girls?" Alice looked at Rize and the two younger girls, who shrugged in kind.
"Right now, I want a drink." Tabitha squirmed out of the shared chair, but a smirking Tobias suddenly stood up, speaking Russian to Alice.
"Do you have any objections if I give Tabitha the rest of the vodka?" He asked before adding. "I've pretty much reached my limit."
"Y'know, if that were a sober thought, I'd have slapped the bottle out of your hands." Alice replied sternly. "Don't even think about it, just finish it off."
Tobias chuckled before shrugging, finishing off the last mouthful of booze and taking a soda can from the case as he went inside the cottage.
About an hour later, Kaneki wandered into the cottage to see what Tobias was doing, only to see him playing a game on the Xbox. "What game?" He called over the apparent battle he was currently in the middle of with a rather large enemy in heavy armour.
"Bioshock."
"What's that thing you're fighting?" Kaneki sat on the couch beside him, rather curious about the game, since he'd never heard of it before.
"It's called a Big Daddy." Tobias replied, equipping his submachine gun and loading some Armour Piercing ammo into it. "It protects the Little Sister, which is what I'm supposed to get right now."
"Uh huh... If you die, I'd like to give it a try." Kaneki sat back to watch, oddly aware that he'd be in for a wait. Tobias was rather skilled it seemed, so the fight quickly ended and Tobias proceeded to pick up a young girl with bright yellow eyes... and turn her into a normal girl with some sort of ability.
"Any why did you do that?" Kaneki asked, unaware of the game's story or mechanics.
"I removed the drug inside her body, called Adam. I need it to upgrade my abilities." Tobias' response gave Kaneki an inkling that he'd played it before.
"You've played this before, haven't you?"
"Not drunk, but yeah, I have." Tobias replied, smirking as he progressed in the game. "It's sequel is a piece of cake compared to this one. And the third game is a mindfuck... And I played that one stone cold sober. Can't imagine what it'd be like if I drank."
"Huh... That Little Sister looked a lot like Tabitha, wouldn't you agree?" Kaneki spoke up for the sudden thought he'd had. "It'd be funny if you cosplayed as a Big Daddy and had Tabitha as the Little Sister."
"Maybe... I'd have to build the armour."
"Build what armour?"
It was Tabitha, and both boys glanced back to see her peering curiously at the game.
"A cosplay idea, for this game." Kaneki began, then explained the idea, which made Tabitha very interested.
"We could do that for Halloween!" She exclaimed, and Tobias actually paused the game entirely to stare at her.
"I don't think that's enough time, honestly... I have a job, remember?" Tobias frowned.
"But you have a metalworking class, and Rize has her fashion class, plus Javier, obviously..." Tabitha listed the points off with her fingers. "We could manage, if everyone pitches in something."
"We'll handle that after we get back home, deal?" Tobias returned to the game after Tabitha gave a nod. "Now, ironic as it sounds... I need the fire ability to actually get anywhere in this game."
Near midnight, after Tobias completed his entire - speedrun - playthrough of Bioshock, he shut if down and turned to the room that he and Rize would be sharing, only to find her suddenly pinning him down to the bed by pouncing onto his back.
"Privjet." Tobias stared at her over his shoulder, already aware that she was having a hot flash, just by the raging heat of her legs and hands on his back.
"Are you still drunk?" Rize panted for breath, a single bead of seat trailing down her forehead.
"I don't feel drunk anymore, if that's what you're asking." Tobias no longer felt the sluggishness of the booze, so chalked himself to be in proper cognitive function and capability.
"I may be having a hot flash right now..." Rize began, but suddenly Tobias twisted his torso around and managed to reverse their positions, and was now holding Rize down by the wrists, situated above her head, with a grin on his face.
"And I may have a fun idea in mind for tonight." Tobias whispered as the final arctic chainlink snapped closed around Rize's wrists, holding them to the sturdy bedframe. "Feeling... adventurous?"
"I'm fucking horny as hell right now. I'm more inclined to feel... kinky." Rize replied, her eyes and expression full of intense arousal. "So shut up, and fuck me already!"
