Chapter 5, everyone!
And in case people were mistaking my intentions with the last bit at the end of chapter 4, between Elijah and Fetch - I am not a romance writer, nor am I a romantic person in general. I have no intentions of writing a love story, just friends leaning on each other for support.
It had been more than a few days since the boat-raid, and Elijah was starting to get bored.
Sure, it was nice to go out on patrol and Flare Rush from rooftop to rooftop while looking for trouble, but trouble (and thus more opportunities to prove himself) was proving to be hard to find. The worst he'd come across thus far had been an attempted mugging, and the sight of a man-on-fire stomping towards the mugger had been enough to cause the man to flee. It hadn't been hard to catch him, of course, but still. One little bit of excitement across almost a full week of boring patrols.
"Is it always this boring on stakeouts?" He casually wondered, speaking into the earpiece Eugene had provided him after his performance at the docks.
"Pretty much, yeah." The voice of the 'teen angel' (he still had that name, even now) replied. "Lots of criminals know to keep their heads down while we're out and about, and after that lightshow at the harbor? They're being extra cautious. Still, don't let that get you down - trust me, sooner or later they'll start getting lax again, and that's when we hit them."
Elijah had to give the Video Conduit credit, it was certainly a well-thought out argument. And probably not one he'd have considered without quite a lot more thinking.
The sound of raised voices brought his attention back down to street level, where he could see several people harassing someone; it only seemed to be verbal, but they were really giving this guy a tongue-lashing, for whatever reason. Elijah kept watch, just in case it'd turn physical, but sighed in relieved disappointment as they all turned away from each other.
"Hey, chin up E." Fetch's voice broke in. "You'll get some action sooner or later, alright? Just be patient."
"Patient? That's rich, coming from you." Elijah snickered into his comm.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Fetch snapped back, though he could hear the smile in her voice.
God, this really was like having his sister back with him... they used to rib each other all the time like this. Elijah fully sat down now, legs dangling off the side of the building as he looked up into the sky, watching the afternoon sun as it headed down towards the horizon.
The last few days had been huge for his mood - before, he'd been constantly looking over his shoulder, making sure he wasn't cornering himself and ensuring that he had no chance to accidentally harm people again. After coming to Seattle, and starting to run missions with Fetch and Eugene, though, he'd found himself able to actually relax. It was actually a foreign sensation at this point; he'd been on-guard for eight years, after all.
And now... it was like he could be a person again. Like he could have part of his life back - a part of it he'd lost on that fateful day...
Elijah instantly shook his head, burying the memories beneath thoughts about the last few days patrols and what he'd learned during that time. Delsin's visits to Seattle nowadays were rare, apparently, but whenever he did some he always brought some Akomish food for them all to enjoy. Apparently it was some of the most delicious stuff either of them had ever tasted, this 'Betty' lady really seemed to know her stuff.
Elijah, somewhat selfishly, wondered if there'd be enough for him to sample some the next time Delsin came to visit... probably, assuming that they'd sent word to the Bannerman about their new recruit. He had no reason to believe they hadn't, a new recruit onto their team was big news. Several others had apparently tried but didn't make the cut, whether by poor control of their powers or due to attitude problems, though they were kept on standby in case something huge came up. If Augustine, or someone similar, decided to come to Seattle, they'd need all the fighters they could get.
Not that it was likely such a threat would come about, as far as Elijah was concerned - Augustine was locked up, her DUP was dismantled from the ground up (he snickered a bit to himself at that unintentional joke) and while powerful Conduits were still out and about, the vast majority wanted to live peaceful lives. Those that didn't had a tendency to move to backwater towns and the like to try and either take over or build up a powerbase; very few were successful in any way at that, in spite of their powers.
Still, that didn't mean some nimrod with more power than brains wouldn't come strolling in at some point to stake a claim. should that happen, well... Delsin would visit, and his two partners in crime had made a habit of saving up several Core Relays left over by the DUP.
Sighing once more as he stood up, he looked out to the sun - scratch that, the sunset. Apparently he'd been sitting here daydreaming for far longer than he'd intended to. He stretched, some of his muscles stiff from being in that position for so long, before Flare Dashing down to street level and going to look for food.
Fetch grumbled into her burger; this was getting old fast. No, not the food - Olaf's would never get old, not for her - but the calmness of the city. It was... practically unnatural, she would swear by it.
Sure, crime rates had fluctuated since the disbanding of the DUP, but still. For things to be this quiet, for this long...? There had to be something more at play here. Sure, Eugene was sure it was just Elijah's show at the docks with the dealers that had spooked the crooks into the shadows, but... even with Fetch on the case, drug dealers and other criminals were still going out and about like nobody's business. Now? Now the street corners and alleyways were empty, aside from the odd homeless dude.
Something big was coming - she could feel it.
And then an arm reached out from behind and stole some of her fries, prompting her to whirl around in fury, burger still in her mouth. Elijah just grinned at her, munching on her french fries before moving around her and sitting down across from her. "What, it's nice to share~" He teased, already reaching for another with a smirk.
Fetch's very mature response was to burn his fingertips with neon as she yanked her fry basket back towards her. "Nope, you're getting your own. You've had enough of mine already."
Elijah's very mature response to that was to wave his hands in mock-pain (the wounds had already vanished) and to try and give her puppy dog eyes... which did work well enough for her to give him a single fry more before all but shoving him to the ordering window to get his own order.
A minute later, and he was once more sitting across from her, munching on his own burger. "So, patrol was good?" He asked, his mouth full.
"Decent enough, I suppose." Fetch answered, balling up her trash and sticking it into the bag her order had come in. "Nothing to really report, anyway."
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Elijah snorted, taking another bite. "I know Eugene is expecting a swell of criminal activity once everyone gets over their shock, but still... It's so boring when they won't come out to play!" He whined, even as he took a third bite.
Fetch snickered at his expression before changing the topic, the two of them talking for a while before finally tossing their trash and heading back to Eugene's base.
Slightly shorter chapter this time, but I had procrastinated quite a bit in making this; meant to get this up on Friday, but only started writing on Thursday.
Still, a little bit of slice-of-life is a nice little break, no? And again: not a romance piece. It's not in the story tags. The most you'll get is canon relationships, and even those will be rare, if they exist at all.
