The next morning, Ashton put on her hat and sunglasses, and went out to get breakfast for her and the others. As she came out of the backstreet manhole, she felt the warm sun pour over her, and smiled.
She closed the manhole back, then turned to walk out to the busy sidewalk. People hurriedly walked up and down the street, cars honked their horns impatiently, people yelled across the street to each other, and smog and smoke filled the air.
Ashton coughed as an old car shot out of the intersection, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. "Man, and I thought New York was bad!" she complained. She then looked around, and crossed the street to Dunkin Donuts.
Inside the Dunkin Donuts, Ashton stood in the long line.
When it finally came to her, she glanced at the menu, then turned to the cashier.
"Can I help you?" the man asked.
"Yes, I'd like 5 plain bagels with cream cheese, a tea with cream and sugar, and a coffee with cream and sugar." said Ashton.
The cashier typed in the cash register. "Anything else?" he asked.
"Yes. A plain bagel with bacon and cheese."
The cashier entered it into the cash register.
"Raw, bacon."
The cashier looked up. "Excuse me ma'am?"
"Raw bacon. I don't like the way it tastes when its cooked." said Ashton.
The cashier looked at her funny. "Ma'am . . . "
Ashton folded her arms stubbornly.
The cashier gave Ashton a funny look, and reluctantly entered the odd sandwich into the total.
Ashton paid the man, got her food, and left the restaurant. She then continued on to get back to the lair.
As she was about to turn a corner to go to the street where the manhole was, she heard someone call her name.
"Ashton." a calm, male voice said.
Ashton quickly turned to the side and began looking around.
As the crowd walking down the sidewalk thinned, Ashton saw a guy casually leaning against a light pole. He was somewhat pale for L.A. at this time of year, young, wore black pants, a black sleeveless top, and dark sunglasses. He stood looking at her with his arms folded.
Ashton looked at him with curiosity, as well as apprehension; something about him wasn't right.
The guy then smiled at Ashton, but it was no regular smile. His smile revealed two sharp fangs as part of his set of front teeth.
Ashton looked at him in shock as he stood there smiling at her. Nothing else seemed to exist to her except this strange young man leaned against a light pole.
Suddenly, just as quickly as he had appeared to her, he vanished. Ashton looked around, but no longer saw him; as if he vanished into thin air.
Ashton then quickly turned the corner to go to the manhole. She looked around frequently, making sure that he was no where around her. Then she opened the manhole and jumped in.
Her heart pounded as she walked to the lair.
"Who was that guy?" she thought to herself as she walked back to the lair.
At the lair, Ashton set the food down on a table, and sat down on a chair, looking distant.
"Ashton? Are you all right?" asked Venus.
Ashton looked somewhat startled. "What?"
Venus looked at her with concern.
"Oh, I'm fine." she lied. "Its just that, that . . . . my hat almost flew off. Yeah, my hat almost flew off. Wouldn't want that to happen." she said, faking a smile.
Venus gave her a disbelieving look.
"Food!" exclaimed Mikey as he came over to the table.
Ashton leaned to the side, and touched the table, then looked at it. "Wait a minute, we didn't have a table when I left." she said. Then stood up. "We didn't have these chairs either."
"Oh, me and Raph found those." said Donny. "We went out to look around and found an area where there was a lot of old furniture."
"So we took some." said Raph, opening one of the bags of bagels.
"Oh." said Ashton.
Leo opened a bagel. "Raw bacon? Yech."
Ashton took it. "That'd be mine."
"They actually gave you one with raw bacon? Wow." said Leo.
"Surprised me too." Ashton then bit into it. "Mmm . . ."
She soon dismissed the strange incident earlier as she ate.
