Last Night
"Okay, look, you two obviously have some things to work out from earlier, so I suggest you do it without us watching," said Marian. Taking Kami's keys to her apartment and Billy by the ear, dragging him away down the stairs giving them their privacy.
"hey, easy, I'm still recovering," protested Billy as he was pulled away
"Honestly, did you really have to ruin their moment," berated Marian as she pulled him inside Kami's apartment
"Relax, I was just messing with him; besides, he needs to loosen up, and so do you," he joked
"Whatever; you need to be a little more considerate of Jimmy and Kami's feelings when it comes to their crushes on each other,"
"Okay, mom, but seriously you really think Jimmy has a crush on Kami?"
"I know these things,"
"Wow, didn't think he had it in him,"
"How so?"
"ever since we moved in with sensei, he's always acted like the weight of the world was on his shoulders alone; sure, it was mild, but as we got older, he put more time into his training than socializing, granted the only people he spoke to regularly was sensei and me, but Jimmy never seemed like he was into making friends that much, even when we met people during training trips,"
"well, maybe he's starting to see that it's better to build bridges than walls,"
"I hope so,"
Suddenly Kami came in very excited; much to Marian's surprise, Billy saw that it was time for him to head out since Jimmy was waiting for him,
"we'll see you guys later,"
"Billy, wait, if you're not busy, could you pick me up and come with me to my house? I could use your help,"
"Sure, why not," said Billy leaving, heading back to the roof
"thank you; see you later," said Marian
Marian happily closed the door and locked it before turning to a still excited Kami, who was pulling out her extra futon.
"Okay, spill, what happened?"
"Jimmy agreed to teach me how to fight,"
"he's gonna teach you self-defense?"
"yup, this time I won't make a fool of myself,"
"Kami, you didn't make a fool of yourself; I told you, you just need to be more confident in yourself,"
"I know; just hope these don't embarrass me again," said Kami pointing to her chest,
"c'mon, Kami, my boobs are big too, and that doesn't stop me from kicking ass,"
"you're right,"
"Good, now let's get some sleep
Later
Marian had woken up a half-hour after Kami had left; as she got up, she knew Billy was on his way and got to work getting ready. After cleaning up and heading to the roof to wait for Billy, he later landed on the roof, happily greeting Marian.
"hey, Marian,"
"Hey, Billy,"
"you ready to go?"
"Sure, I'm ready,"
The two of them headed off; Billy offered to take Marian leaping through rooftops, but she decided it would be much more fun to walk.
"We'd get there faster if I just carried you,"
"Relax, Billy; taking things slow won't kill you,"
As the two walked, they found themselves walking through a neighborhood that instantly felt familiar to Billy.
"This place seems familiar," said Billy
"it should be; I used to live here, remember?"
"Right, I think I do,"
"To be honest, we didn't move to the suburbs until I was 14, a few months before Anna was born, and Marc was already living with us by that time."
"why'd you move out there?"
"before Anna was born, it was just me, my parents, and Marc, but after mom found out she was pregnant, and the gang violence kept getting worse, my parents realized we needed to be in a safer area, so they bought the house we live in now, so we'd be away from the gang violence, but I still like visiting this neighborhood so many good memories still live here,"
Despite the feeling of nostalgia running through her body, Marian could still see that the neighborhood had suffered damage from the gangs treating the city as their playground. Seeing the damage done angered Marian, and she uttered one word under her breath.
"bastards!"
Billy and Marian kept moving until they stopped at the bus stop that would take them to the suburbs; moments later, the bus arrived, and the two were on their way out of the city. The ride was quiet until they got off outside the suburbs, where they had to walk the rest of the way. Arriving outside Marian's house, she told Billy to head around to the back while she went inside to get ready. Running up the stairs, she ran into her dad, who was coming downstairs while holding Anna, who was rubbing her eyes.
"Oh, Marian, I wasn't expecting you home this early,"
"I waited till it was safe, and an old friend escorted me back; he's waiting for me in the backyard. Good morning to you, Anna,"
"he? Who is this he?"
"his name is Billy Lee; he's one of mom's best friend's sons,"
"you mean he's one of Jonathan and Marika's twins?:
"Yeah, dad,"
"I haven't seen those boys since they were little,"
"Yeah, well, they came back with their grandfather; they're reopening their restaurant,"
" That's good to hear; mind if I say hello?"
Sure, I gotta change,"
Her dad and Anna went downstairs as Marian went upstairs, seeing Billy leaning against Marian's workshop in the backyard. Sitting Anna down, officer Kelly walked outside to the backyard to greet Billy while Anna hid behind him.
"Hello, son, I'm Marian's father; do you remember me?"
"I sure do; good to see you again, Mr. Kelly
"you've certainly grown. I remember you and your brother being shorter than my knees," joked Mr. Kelly
"thank you, and who's this little lady?" said Billy noticing Anna peeking out behind her dad.
"oh, this is Anna, Marian's little sister, say hi sweetie,"
"hi," said Anna with a slight squeak
"Nice to meet you, Anna,"
Anna looked up at Billy; seeing his cheerful smile put a smile on her as she became less shy. Suddenly the door to the back opened up, and Marian stepped into the backyard, dressed in dungarees and a tube top with a pair of goggles and a backward cap.
"Okay, guys, Billy and I have work to do,"
"c'mon, Anna, let's go get breakfast started," said Mr. Kelly picking up Anna and taking her inside.
"bye-bye," said Anna
Marian headed to her workshop once the two were back inside; unlocking the door, she invited Billy inside. The workshop had several work tables, all of them covered with what appeared to be small machine parts, and one had what seemed to be a chemistry set.
"pretty cool," said Billy.
"Thanks,"
"so this is where you build your equipment?"
"not all of it, just stuff I like to work on,"
"Oh, I see; hey, what's this?" asked Billy picking up what appeared to be a gun that had a dial on the side"
"one of my failed works, it was supposed to be a grappling gun,"
"It didn't work?"
"well… yes and no,"
"what?"
"I'll show you,"
Taking the gun, Marian looked around until she found two needed items. One was a grappling hook/claw. The other was a small cartridge that resembled a magazine.
"Okay, first you load the cartridge, which contains the lines into the bottom of the gun, then you load the hook," she explains, loading the two. "next, you turn this dial clockwise until you hear a click that signals that the line and hook are now connected and secured, and finally you aim and fire your line, I'll show you,"
Watching Marian take aim, Billy watched as she aimed at the farthest wall, firing the hook it shot out with the line attached, embedding the claw into the wall.
"wow, that is pretty cool, so what happens next?"
"you squeezed the trigger again; this time, it activates a pulley system that pulls you forward; it was meant to be a way to scale buildings. If you need to get from one building to the next building, then you press down on the dial that will eject the other end of the line, and you then secure it, You can climb or zip-line across, but there's one problem I can't fix,"
"what's that?" asked Billy
As hard as she could, Pulling on the line, Billy watched as the line began to fail before snapping.
"the lines are worthless; they can't hold anything beyond Anna's weight, so I gave up on it,"
"Seems like a waste of a good invention because of one problem. Have you tried other lines?"
"sure, but they all failed; hey, what about those energy tendrils that you and Jimmy make? Those seem like they could make good lines,"
"not a good idea,"
"why not they seem versatile,"
"well, they are. I can even mold it into a net; however, once it's detached from me, the energy I used to generate it will run out, and it will disappear.
"so it's like Spider-man's webbing,"
"pretty much,"
"well, that plan died quickly,"
"have you tried monofilament wire?"
"I wish I could, but that's not easy to come by,"
"why not?"
"that's not something you can find in you're local stores, and even if we tried searching through Guisman's Mall, it would draw too much attention, and it would be too expensive."
"Guisman has a mall?"
"Yeah, it's actually the first five floors of his tower,"
"I thought his shipping company was his main business?"
"it is, but remember what I said before, he's been dipping his toes into other things; every few floors are businesses he started outside of his original, like media, real estate, and banks; right above his mall is the corporate HQ's for business and the offices are spread around the city; the sad part is most of the stores in his mall were once independent stores,"
"How did that happen?"
"simple stores that can't pay his membership fees are seized by his company, then in his great kindness, he "allows" them to reopen in the mall under his guidelines until their debts are paid, which will never happen as now they have to pay to rent that area," explained Marian
"People don't see this monopolization right in front of them?"
"no, everyone only sees him as the savior,"
"damn, he's got this city by the balls financially,"
"pretty much, the Power Corps. mainly use whatever we can find in the salvage yard; it's how we build our computer and war table, but we couldn't power it or our base until you and Jimmy fixed it; hell, these lines were made from bike bungee cords we found,"
"I still think monofilament tension wire would be the solution to this problem,"
"What makes you so sure?"
"we've used it,"
"How so?"
"back when Jimmy and I first moved in with our grandfather, it wasn't easy for us considering that we were young. The temple was high in the mountains, so sensei had a net system set up in case of emergencies, and the nets were made of that wire,"
"interesting, so how many times did you guys fall into them?"
"more times than we can count. Still, the point is if I ask, I think sensei can supply you with the wire, possibly with other supplies,"
"Are you sure that's okay?" I don't want you guys falling into debt paying that jerk's fees to bring stuff for us,"
"We don't need him for that. We've got at least a dozen ways to get our "other" supplies without him,"
"why use him at all?"
"it would raise too many questions if we didn't,"
But every time you order your supplies through him, you might end up like the other stores eventually,"
"We would. Still, I discovered a way to get around that after I started researching how his company policy works,"
"what's that?"
"well, as you know, every store and/or company that uses Guisman's shipping company has a membership account with him, right?"
"right,"
"But I discovered that if the stores are close by and share the same profession, then we have the option to combine our accounts into one joint account,"
"they do?"
"Yeah,"
"won't all those Bullshit fees only increase,"
"Actually, no,"
"how?"
"well, orders would have to be placed on the same day; you would have to use both your personal account numbers and the joint number for the order. The personal account numbers will inform which order goes to which store, and the joint number is for identifying our combined account.
"Okay, then what you'd still have to pay his fees,"
"yes, but not the total amount instead alone, you see, while we would pay for our deliveries and all those extra fees, the cost of that would be divided among us,"
"what?"
It's true, according to his own guidelines, the cost of everything will be divided among everyone in the joint account who ordered something, so instead of paying a lump sum, we each pay a smaller portion, and he can't increase it since it was bought under a joint account,
" that's actually very smart,"
"well, I wouldn't celebrate just yet; we still need to convince the other stores' owners to join,"
"I'm sure they will," "wonder why he would add something like that,"
"probably thought no one would use it or find it,"
"well, now that that's established, how bout we work on other projects I have in mind.
They experimented with Marian's chemistry set; there wasn't much to work with since it's a kids' chemistry. It lacked a few things but had enough materials for what they were working on. Then came afternoon, and they had finished one of Marian's projects. In her hand resembled a fuseless cherry bomb; while Marian was proud of their work, Billy showed a little skepticism.
"Are you sure this is safe? I know this one is a prototype, but maybe we added too much flash powder to the mix," asked Billy.
"Relax, it's okay."
"then let's test it out; once you drop it, the impact should break the shell, causing the powder to explode, creating a flash and a smokescreen,"
"that's the plan; if this works, the corps will have smoke bombs. and a way to escape if things get too hot,"
"Okay, flash smoke bomb on three, 1… 2…,"
"3!" said Marian throwing the smoke bomb.
Present…
As all the smoke cleared and the air became breathable again, everyone headed inside Marian's workshop. Jimmy looked.
"Okay, what were you guys building," asked Jimmy.
"I was trying to make a better smoke with, but the formula I used was a little too strong,"
"I'll say," said Jimmy.
"Hey, do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it is trying to make smoke bombs with a kids' chemistry set?" argued Marian
"well, might I make a suggestion," said Jimmy
"sure, be my guest,"
"add a color dye to your mix, something dark to conceal you better,"
"that's actually not a bad idea. Hey, Kami, is that thing around your neck what I think it is,"
Kami happily nodded, showing Maring that it was, in fact, her long-lost necklace around her neck.
"How did you get that back?"
"Jimmy got it back; he took down all the goblins to get it back,"
"you fought a whole gang?" asked Marian,
"And you didn't invite me; what the hell Jimmy!" said an angry Billy
"relax, they weren't worth both our time; they were down and out in a few minutes along with their Moblin boss; I also smashed their wall and call the ambulance to pick up their beaten bodies, "
"even so, thank you again, Jimmy," said a happy Kami
"seems like you two became close fast over the morning," said Marian
"you have no idea how close," thought Jimmy,
"so, bro, any other reason you came all the way out here?" asked Billy
"sensei is back, and he wants us to go confirm his deliveries tonight; then we're supposed to come back to the Dojo.
"the remodeling will probably start tomorrow; we should probably start looking for a place to stay today," said Billy
"agreed,"
"I might be able to help," said Kami
"Really?" asked Billy
"the apartment right below mine opened today; the building owner is my guardian, and she's looking for a new tenant fast. I'm sure she won't mind renting it to you two,"
"well, let's go check it out," said Billy.
As everyone prepared to leave, Marian got a notification on her phone from Marc telling her to come to the salvage yard fast. While the others offered to go with her, Marian convinced them to see about the apartment first, then meet her there. After leaving but not before telling her dad that she would get Marc. The group headed back to the city, Marian led to the salvage yard, and the rest headed back to Kami's apartment building.
…Later…
Back at her building, the three were now speaking with Tommy, who seemed a little suspicious of the boys,
"so these are the renters you were telling me about,"
"their childhood friends of Marian's, and they moved back to the city,"
"hard to believe anyone who escaped this hellhole would come back,"
"well, we wanted to come back and try doing some good for the city," explained Billy.
"Kami, not sure about this. Are you two even going to afford the rent? Do you have income?"
"Our restaurant isn't open yet, but maybe there is another way we can pay," asked Billy
Tommy thought for a moment; then, an idea popped into her head on what could be arranged.
"Follow me,"
Everyone left Tommy's apartment and headed around the building to the lot behind it with garbage.
"well, here it is, boys; this lot is the backyard to the building that leads to an alleyway.
"you want them to clean the lot?" said Kami
"I know it's asking much, but I'm being bugged by the city to clean up the lot or be fined a slumlord,"
"so until our restaurant opens, you want us to clean the lot?" asked Billy.
"that's the deal," informed Tommy.
"then it's a deal, on the condition we get to keep whatever we want from the pile," said Jimmy.
"why would you want from this pile?" asked Tommy
"We see a few good pieces that are reusable," explained Billy
"Okay, deal,"
"then we should start sorting out what we'll keep, and the rest get rid of," said Jimmy
"then we'll leave you, boys, to it,"
The two left for the front leaving the twins to begin their work; as they walked, Tommy noticed what was around Kami's neck.
"When did you start wearing your mother's necklace again?"
"oh uh, today actually I had it with me during my lessons, then I decided to put it back on,"
"Okay, good, the way you stopped wearing it for almost a whole year, I thought you lost it," said Tommy
"We should do something nice for them as a way to welcome them and thank them for cleaning the lot," said Kami changing the subject
"I'll whip up a batch of my famous iced tea,"
"That sounds great also. Do you have any of that special hair dye you make around?"
"I have some; why?"
"I just decided that it was time for me to make a change inside and out,"
End Of CH'
