Filia took a big bite out of a pink brick of gummy candy as she poured over the pages of notes in front of her. The pile of brightly colored wrappers next to the desk was almost as high as the stacks upon stacks of notes she'd been taking on movie monsters and mythological beasts. Since hearing Yu-Wan's request two nights ago, Filia wanted nothing more than to know exactly what a Skullgirl was, and has been sitting at a writing desk in the loft, firing off a non-stop barrage of questions at Samson for two days now, only breaking to use the restroom, sleep, and ask Minette for more of that strange Dagonian candy. Sugar and rabid curiosity was all that was keeping Filia going, but if she was tired, it didn't show yet. "Okay, let's back up a little Samson. You're trying to say it transforms like a werewolf? As in, it gets stronger at night or just takes on a new form?"
"Skullgirls are NOT werewolfs! I said it's a person that gets transformed by the skullheart. And they don't do anything special at night! I thought we cleared that up when you were going on about if they're really vampires or not!" Samson was struggling not to tear his and Filia's hair out. He knew this was mostly his fault. He'd been giving cagey answers, comparing the skullgirl to all kinds of normally creepy monsters to try and scare Filia away from this idea that they could somehow fight one and win, but all he'd done is dig his own grave. Filia was more interested then ever and the only person in the room who was tired from his drawn out explanation was him.
"Well, it does act sort of special at night." Filia flipped through one of the many stack of papers and pulled out one with a heading: Skullgirl Behaviors Part 52, "If you'll recall when we were going over nocturnal behaviors you said it was common for them to steal bodies after dark in a ghoul-like fashion, but only because there's less witnesses around at that hour, not due to an animalistic instinct or-"
"I know. I know! Why are we going back to this!?" Samson's voice was a pained whimper.
"Well, you were a little flakey on nocturnal behaviors. You previously said Skullgirls were Frankenstein-y grave robbers before switching over to ravenous corpse-hungry beasts so I thought it would be worth clarifying again since… Samson are you hitting your head against the back of my chair?"
"Why do you ask?" His voice was flat and lifeless.
"Because we share a head, and mines bobbing back and forth against the back of my chair." Samson didn't respond. Filia's head just kept bouncing against her seat's wooden headrest, the repeat impact cushioned by Samson's face. "Maybe it's time we breaked for a little bit?" Filia suggested.
"Sweet mother above, FINALLY!"
"We'll get back to it in half an hour."
"Come ON KID! Just go read a book on Skullgirls or something! They're a threat to all life on the planet, you can't flip through five tv channels before finding a documentary or a movie or some jackass who says he was abducted and probed by one! Fuckin, pervs."
"But you've fought a Skullgirl!" Filia practically jumped out of her chair in excitement, "You have a first hand account. How could I not want to learn about them from you?"
"Well, I guess I have fought more than one…" Samson timidly admitted.
"You WHAT!? And you're just telling me now!?" Filia began gesturing excitedly as she went on. Waving her hands around in front of her as if Samson had an imaginary body in the middle of the room, "This is what I mean! Your experience is going to be super important when we fight out Skullgirl. Going in I'll already know about weaknesses and what powers to avoid-"
"We are NOT fighting one!" Samson yelled furiously, "Why would you even want to do that? Last bout we were in, you lost an ear and passed out. You wanna repeat that?" Filia bit her lip as she rubbed the side of her head, fingers tracing around her ear. Maybe more accurately, her new ear. Thanks to Samson's abilities it grew back completely indistinguishable from her old one. It looked, felt, and could hear the exact same, but the memory of buckshot scraping along the side of her head was too vivid for her to just pretend nothing happened.
"That... wasn't a great experience, but I don't think we can just cross our fingers and hope we don't get into another fight again. If you're even half as powerful as you say you are,"
"And I abso-freaking am!"
"then I'm sure plenty out there, not just the Medici's will want to catch us and, well…"
"Rip your head off and me with it?"
"Yeah... That..." Filia shuddered, "But on the flip side, once you're back up to full power, you can trounce all those guys no problem! And this evil, mythical sounding Skullgirl thing sounds like a good place to start. After all, only you can kill a Skullgirl permanently, right? That's what Yu-Wan said?"
Samson made a sort of animal-growling noise, "That's sorta true. I ain't no magical chosen one or any of that crap. Any parasite could do it. I guess outta all of us I'm just the only one pissed-off enough to ever try." "Are there a lot of parasites?"
Samson sighed long and tired, "At one point, I guess you could say that."
"What happened?"
"I like to think it was just time, like with any ol' family of geezers, but for most of us our mistakes just caught up with us. They couldn't stand living in hiding among normal folk, or they fell into some weird alchemy shit." Samson could feel Filia's forehead shift as she raised an eyebrow at him.
"You're like a two year old with all your 'why's and questions. Don't you ever stop?"
"I didn't ask anything else!"
"But you were gonna! You were gonna keep going for freaking hours!" He was right and Filia knew it, but she still pouted indignantly, "Listen, If you want more than that out of me, then do us both a favor and go downstairs and grab some real grub. Eating all this sugary crap isn't going to help either of us get any stronger."
"Yeah, your right. I need to ask Minette for more candy anyways." Filia said as she got up and stretched, the buttons on her school uniform just a smidge tighter then they were a few days ago, thanks to her new candy diet.
"Like hell you do! Are you even listening? Besides, I'm pretty sure she gave you that crap specifically so you would leave her alone."
"Wow, rude! I can manage my own diet, thank you! And Minette's a friend, she doesn't mind seeing me!"
Samson rolled his solid yellow eyes as Filia headed down the stairs to Yu-Wan's restaurant, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid. Maybe she'll know where Nadia's gone too. Hope that nosey furball didn't get iced by some other killer-mobster-robot."
"Don't joke like that Samson! I'm sure she's wherever she's needed most."
Two pale men sat at a table in Yu-Wan's restaurant. They were already a little odd, coming in at an awkward afternoon hour before the dinner crowds, but the shifty way they glanced around and muttered under their breath made them look all the more suspicious.
"So where do you propose they'll find Ottomo and Tom? Off partying again? Tch." The stocky man scoffed before taking a swig from the teacup on the table. He hadn't actually put any tea in it, instead it was full of whatever cheap liquor he kept in the flask in his chest pocket. "Those slackers. Ya know, I heard a rumor he was on some secret assignment for the boss." He leans in closer as he whispers, "They say he was after a parasite! And then, halfway through the chase he just does his usual cut and run schtick. Crazy! Right Riccardo?"
The lanky man across from him chuckled. He didn't even look up from his reflection in the table, stroking his curly mustache as he replied, "You'll believe anything Lawrence. I'd sooner buy that Tom and his bot tripped over a pile of gold bricks then found an honest-to-trinity parasite. Abandoning his post to get slammed though? Yeah, that much makes sense."
"It pisses me off." Lawrence said, "How are guys like us supposed to slack off when you've got a big shot like that being such a problem, that management has to come down on everyone? Ugh, I wouldn't want to get too drunk in fish-town anyways. This place always gave me the willies, even before a bunch of our dealers got iced and pinned to those signs." Despite not wanting to get drunk, he took yet another long drink to calm his nerves, this time straight from his flask. "Did ya hear from the guys that the boss has had them scoping this crap district for the last two days? What's going on all of a sudden?"
"Maybe boss really wants that gem that got nicked a few years back." Riccardo guessed, not really caring about it as he admired his own face.
"But why now? And why so secretive-"
"Shh," Riccardo looked up from his own upper lip's reflection to see Minette coming towards them. "Here comes our target." He said, eyes narrowing.
"That scrawny little minnow has the boss's gem?" Lawrence said, not so subtly gawking at her over his shoulder.
"Boss thinks she at least knows who does. Now watch closely Lawrence, as I work my devilish charms." Across the table from him, Lawrence wanted to vomit.
"Hi, welcome to Yu-Yan's Dim Sum. How may I help you sirs?"
"Yeah, heh, see, you can help us," Riccardo slid one hand up Minettes arm to grasped on her shoulder, "By helping yourself," he licked his lips wet and loudly, "to a night on the town with us." His eyebrows hopped up and down on his head as he gestured between himself and his fat friend.
"W-wow… That's…" Minette was going to say flattering, but the lie was too much for her, so she just took a step back, pulling away from this weirdo's grip and said, "No." very plainly. She's been badly flirted with by stupid tourists before, but this was a completly new level.
"You know, she isn't half bad for a scaly bitch." The fat one was leaning towards her now. "Wait, they don't do something weird like eat worms or something do they? I will not be dealing with worm breath."
Minette slowly griped around the handle of a carving knife in her apron pocket. Her breathing quickened as she took another step back, when without warning a third person came out around the corner, and it was probably the last person she wanted to see right now.
"Hi Minette!" Filia said with an ignorant grin. Her uniform buttons were beginning to strain against her middle and Minette wondered how on earth someone could get that fat so quickly, "Me and Samson were wondering if you had any more of those pink gummy bars." Ah, that explained it. Minette grimaced as she realized that the old crate of candy that they couldn't even give away was now half empty thanks to this girl. Filia then finally began to look around and take in the two men staring bug eyed at her, "Am I interrupting something?" She said confused.
"What the crap is on her head?" Riccardo called out.
"Oh, good dagon…" Minette sighed. Keeping her head covered was the one responsibility Filia had while living with them, and she couldn't even do that much.
"Holy trinity's tits, that's the parasite!" Lawrence called out, grabbing the machete on his belt as he stood up.
"Heh! I knew we were forgetting something when we came downstairs." Samson said, "Guess it's too late to grab a hat, eh?" the parasite grinned to himself, even as Lawrence swung his machete at Filia's neck.
Samson caught the blade, of course. He figured he could have even if the guy didn't do the laziest, most predictable haymaker swing in existence. He formed the end of one of Filia's locks into a small "v" shape and once the blade landed inside he wrapped around the middle of the machete and squeezed.
"Nice knife." Samson said as the force of his grip shattered the blade at the hilt. "You want it back, I suppose?" Samson grinned as he took the largest chunk of the blade and threw it downwards, right through the stocky man's leather booted foot and into the floor. It didn't even occur to the goon to scream at the searing pain as he stared down at his blade-pinned foot, mouth frozen wide in pure shock. "You know, I think I'm getting back my old skills already. What do you say we dig up old Ottomo for a rematch, eh kid?" Samson smiled so wide he looked like a toothy bonnet on Filia's head.
"Look out!" Minette cried as a gun fired off, narrowly missing Samson and Filia and putting a hole in the restaurant's wall. The pair turned to see the lanky goon crying out in pain as he clutched his hand, trying to yank a carving knife out of it while the pistol he was holding now clattered to the ground.
"Smooth moves girl!" Samson called out to Minette as Filia picked up the firearm somewhat timidly.
"Alright, um, you!" Filia said without a hint of confidence. "Hands where I can see them!" She closed one eye as she shakily aimed the gun at the mustached creep, whether shaking from nerves or the actual weight of the gun wasn't clear.
The creep had now pulled out the carving knife with a weak yelp and was staring down Filia, lips pulled into a snarl. He didn't drop the knife, but he didn't lunge towards her yet either.
"Excuse me," Minette said walking carefully over to Filia, "could I uh, see that gun for a second?" Not at all sure what she was doing, Filia awkwardly handed the gun over to the small fish-girl, who promptly fired a round into the thinner crook's leg, sending him screaming and sobbing as he fell to the ground, clutching the wound. Without batting an eye, she turned to the other, stocky goon as he still tried to pull the machete blade out of his foot, and fired a shot through his leg too before handing the smoking gun back to Filia. "Thank you. You were uh, just taking too long, was all..." She said with nothing more then her usual shyness as two grown men writhed around on the ground sobbing just a few feet away. Filia stood there looking between Minette and the handgun, bewildered by the cold brutality of the little girl. Minette yelled towards the back of the restaurant, "Yu Wan! We got more work for the carpenters up here!"
"Need anything besides the bags?!" The restaurant owner called back.
"Lemmy check!" Minette turned back to Filia and Samson, "You two uh, okay? That shot didn't, um, it didn't hit you, did it?" Filia gave a slow shake of her head. "Do you need anything?"
"Uh," Filia stuttered just as bad as Minette as she said, "the candy, I guess?"
"Two of those shrimp flavored gummy bars!" Minette yelled towards the back room. Filia pulled out an empty seat and collapsed into it, trying to get her thoughts together over the sounds of the two crying, cursing men on the floor. "You're uh, sure you're okay?" Minette asked.
"I think she's fine." Samson said, "Probably just shocked that those candies she's been eating were all made of shrimp."
"Oh, yeah, hehe. That does tend to weird out most Meridians for some reason..." Minette said with a smile, the first one she'd had in the presence of Samson and Filia.
Filia, meanwhile, was still too shell shocked to appreciate Minette's smile. Watching her and Yu-Wan casually and methodically chloroform and bag the two injured men didn't help either.
"You know, you can't do this every time someone shows you up in a fight." Samson said as Filia anxiously nibbled on her candy, "I mean, I got an ego too, but you won't save face by shutting down like this."
"It's not an ego thing." Filia said, "It's like, Minette is just supposed to be Minette. All small and sweet and now she's…" Filia gestured ahead of her where the little fish girl had wrestled the panicking goon with the mustache into submission and was now shushing him as she held a drug laced rag over his face, the sobbing man rapidly losing consciousness.
"You can't claim to know someone after barely a few days around 'em." Samson said.
"I know, but…"
"Would you rather Handsy and Fattsy down there nabbed her without contest?"
"No! It's just, something about this feels really fucked up."
"The world's really fucked up kid. Sooner you get that, the sooner you'll have a chance at getting by in it."
It was impossible to tell there was a whole person inside either of the large burlap sacks, and after tying the drawstrings tight, Yu-Wan waddled over to Filia with that unreadable smile on his face, "Good news is, you aren't found out. Minette tells me these two were here for her, and more surprised to see you then you were seeing them. Still, I can talk to my neighbors and try to move you, if you like."
"Oh," The thought was surprising to Filia, "but we just got settled here, and you guys are so nice and-"
"Not worth it." Samson said definitively. "You'd need to ask around for spare rooms and that would let more people know we're here. Even if you trust your neighbors that still creates the possibility they can squawk. I don't wanna do that."
Yu-Wan nodded, "I can respect that. When you meet with my cousin at Lab 8, he will likely offer to house you there as well, if you change your mind. It's odd that Stanley hasn't gotten back to me yet, but I'll give it a day or two more. He may just be absorbed in his work." Yu-Wan said thoughtfully.
Filia nervously cleared her voice, "Um, Mr. Yu-Wan," She pointed meekly towards the two bagged men in the middle of the room, "What's the uh, plan for them?"
"Ah, well, those lovely gents will be waking up over at the Carpenters' store." He replied very matter of fact, "They're sort of the... neighborhood watch, and they deal with hooligans here in Little Innsmouth. Maybe you'll even see Nadia with them."
"Furball works for em?" Samson asked.
"With them, not for them. The Carpenters are volunteers. Just locals looking to give back to Little Innsmouth."
"They sound like suckers to me." Samson said as casually as ever.
"We look after our own here in Little Innsmouth. Most of New Meridian is harsh, its harsher still if your face looks like a squid!" Yu-Wan let out a small chuckle, "We Dagonians try to make it a little more bearable for each other."
"What happens to people brought to the carpenters' store?" Filia asked nervously. She almost asked if the two crooks would be pinned to a signpost, but the words had lodged in her throat. Filia just took another bite of her candy bar.
"They'll be held and questioned, but after that who can say." Yu-Wan said, "It's a strange predicament we're in, able to catch criminals, but not jail them. If the police wouldn't just turn around and let them go I'd happily turn them in, but they're nestled so tight in the Medici's pocket, they might even arrest us instead." Yu-Wan gave a humorless chuckle, "My brother runs the carpenters and I trust his judgment. He'll probably scare what these two know out of them and send them on their way. They don't look like any sort of real threat."
"Whew, that's a relief." Filia said, "So when's your brother coming to pick them up?"
"He's not." Yu-Wan answered, before turning around to Minette who was lifting the thinner goon in his sack over her shoulder, "Have you no manners?" Yu-Wan chastised her, "Let our guest take the lighter one. You carry the big criminal." Minette pouted and let the bag drop unceremoniously to the floor before going for the heavier one.
"Wait, we need to drop them off?" Filia asked.
"The carpenters are understaffed. We can only call thems for emergencies."
"How understaffed?" Samson asked skeptically.
Yu-Wan tapped his chin, "I think there might be five now? That one cuttlefish kid keeps leaving and rejoining, but i think he quit for good last month."
"Wow, that's bad."
"The dinner crowd will be pouring in over the next hour. I need to keep my store open or things might seem suspicious, but you two can handle yourselves, and Minette's done this before. Besides," Yu-Wan smiled in that unreadable way of his, "you've been sitting around upstairs for too long. Go outside and get some sun, meet some people!"
"You know, he's got a point Filia," Samson said. "but still, couldn't you just keep em drugged in the back until later tonight?"
"Hmm, I suppose that's true if you don't care about the high chance of killing them with repeated doses of chloroform."
"That's awful!" Filia said, "We'll help move them out of here, right Samson?"
"Ugh, I mean, if you think it's worth it."
"You'l need this." Yu-Wan said as he tossed a conical straw hat to Filia, who fumbled to catch it, dropping both her candybar and the handgun she picked up from the crooks on the ground with a loud clatter.
"Oh! Oh no, uh Filia," Minette said timidly, "maybe, you should uh, let me have that, please? So you don't um, kill us all accidentally?" she smiled bashfully.
"Uh, yeah. That sounds reasonable." Filia said grabbing the gun off the ground and pointing it towards Minette.
"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Minette cried out, throwing her arms up.
"I-I thought I was just giving it to you?" Filia said confused.
"D-Don't just point guns at people!" Minette snatched it out of Filia's hand and began looking it over, "W-was the safety even on?"
"What's a safety?"
"... You're a bigger threat then those crooks were!" She said actually flipping the safety on and checking the bullets left in the magazine. "J-just go grab you bag and we can both pray to Dagon you never pick up a firearm again."