Zombie: Well good day to all!
Johnny: It's night time…
Zombie: Do you HAVE to contradict everything I say!
Johnny: Why yes, yes I do
Zombie: ; forget I said anything
The smile dropped from the blue eyed teen's face like an anvil. "But I thought it was gone…" He trailed off.
"Obviously not" Kai ran a hand back through his slate colored hair, only for it to spring back into place.
Totally ignoring the serious conversation going on behind her, Hannah poked the white haired girl on the cheek. "Ne, Ghost? Why are your lips all red?"
Ghost's hand immediately flew to cover her mouth, without realizing. "No reason" She said quickly, her words slightly muffled by her hand.
Hannah pouted, "But there must be a reason for it" She insisted, poking Ghost again.
Ghost removed her hand from her mouth and brushed the smaller girl's intruding hand away. "Didn't anyone ever teach you to mind your own business?"
Hannah just shook her head with a grin, Ghost rolled her eyes. "I'm not telling you anyways" She stuck her tongue out at the dark haired girl.
Hannah just stuck her tongue out in return. "Fine. I don't need you to tell me, I'll find out myself"
Ghost nodded, holding a smile back. "You do that"
"I shall"
"Have you two been listening?" A new voice broke into their conversation, causing both girls' heads to spin in the direction of the voice.
Kai was stood looking at then, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Yes?" Ghost asked, clearly she didn't have a clue what they were talking about.
"Really?" A smirk tugged ever so slightly at the corners of Kai's lips.
Hannah's voice spilled out in one long stream, her eyes staring blankly ahead as she reeled off all of the information the two teens had been talking about during her and Ghost's conversations.
"We're going to go out tonight and try to track the creature, but we have to be sly and pretend that we aren't looking for it because otherwise it won't appear. We're then going to follow it and find out where it hides all the time and try to find out some more information about it"
"Is that right?" Hannah asked, looking upwards at Kai.
Kai blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. He nodded slowly, not being able to think of what to say.
"I'm not even going to ask how you did that…" Tala said skeptically.
Even Ghost looked surprised at Hannah's outburst; she hadn'tpaid any attention toa word the two boys had said.
Hannah just grinned at the other teens. "Just because I don't look like I'm paying attention, doesn't mean I'm not"
"Ok" Tala just nodded, "I'll keep that in mind for future use"
"What time are we going out?" Hannah asked off handedly.
"'Round midnight"
"Wait a second," Ghost intervened. "How come we are involved in this? Isn't this your mission?"
"You saw it didn't you?"
Ghost turned to face the slate haired boy. "…yes? What's that got to do with it?" She answered slowly.
"It allowed you to see it"
A frown pressed itself on Ghost's face. "It didn't know we were there…"
"If it didn't want you to see it, you wouldn't have" Kai answered shortly.
"That means you are involved somehow" Tala finished.
"Oh…Ok then" She'd rather not be involved at all, but things seemingly weren't going her way. Stupid luck.
"You don't have to go if you're afraid…" Kai said softly, even with her back turned the white haired girl could feel his smirk burning into the back of her head. She whirled her head around, white and green locks spreading out around her head.
"Who are you called afraid, Nemo!" She hissed, obviously pissed off.
"Resorted to name calling have we?" His smirk seemed to broaden.
Hannah and Tala stood on the sidelines, watching the insults being bounced back and forth like ping pong balls, neither teen gaining any head way. A fleeting glance passed between them, Hannah shook her head and smiled, rolling her eyes
"Just answer the question!"
"You..."
She growled at him, taking a step forwards. Hannah hastily intervened and stepped between the two.
"Stop" She said warningly, "No fighting today"
Ghost reluctantly stepped back again, silently agreeing with Hannah.
Kai just nodded and stepped away from the girls, "Save it for later, Ghost"
The white haired girl nodded, "Same to you"
Hannah face faulted, "Everyone likes fighting…" She looked downcast for a moment. "Anyway! I have a question Kai!"
The slate haired teen looked up from the stunner gun he was reloading, "Hm?"
"What's this creature?"
After a few hours sleep, Hannah was up and wandering around the warehouse, exploring. She'd found many unused rooms, mostly empty, or full of empty cardboard boxes.
She stuck her head around the door of Daichi's room on her way past. The young red head was sleeping peacefully, a smile on his face and his balled up fist resting against his chest, the small fragment nestled inside his hand.
She smiled a little; just glad she'd gotten through to him.
She pulled her head back out from the door and stepped backwards. Her back connected with something that wasn't there before and she swiftly spun on her heel with a gasp.
"What are you doing wandering around at this hour?" A familiar voice said softly, speaking in low tones as not to wake any one sleeping in the rooms nearby.
Hannah breathed out a sigh of relief, "Oh it's only you, Tala" She said in a soft tone, he looked a little different but she couldn't quite point out what it was. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Who did you expect it to be?" His voice sounded a little amused, having startled her.
"I don't know…" She admitted, glancing to the sides.
"So why are you up? You should be getting some sleep; it could be a long night ahead of us"
"Couldn't sleep, and yourself?"
"Same"
"Excited?"
"A little I guess, we might finally be getting somewhere to solving this" He gave her a nervous grin. "What about you, did excitement keep you awake?"
"No…" She shook her head slowly, "Bad dreams…"
"Ah…" He nodded sincerely, "Toshi?"
Hannah just nodded; she didn't trust herself to speak as the aftermath of the nightmares bubbled up in her mind again. Image after image soared through her head, distracting her from the teen stood in front of her.
She rushed back to reality at the sight of a hand waving directly in front of her face. "Hm? Did you say something? I kinda zoned out there…"
Tala let out a low chuckle. "So I noticed, I said you should get some rest, who knows when we'll next get some sleep"
"Oh" Hannah's mouth formed a perfect 'o' at the sound. "Yeh I guess you're right" She skirted around the red haired teen and wandered in the direction of the room that she had been told was hers now.
"You have no intention of sleeping do you?" Tala's voice made her look back over her shoulder.
She turned back around, so her body was facing him. "No, not really…" She admitted, "I won't be able to even if I tried"
"Ok then," Tala nodded and walked towards the door leading into the living room of the warehouse "Care to talk?"
Hannah nodded, smile lighting up her face. "Yeah, I have a few questions for you anyway"
After the two teens had seated themselves comfortably in the living room, Hannah curled up, well as curled up as the restricting bandages would allow, on a threadbare sofa.
Tala, laid sideways over the arms of an old and rather worn out looking arm chair, waved one hand at her lazily. "Shoot"
"How do you know Toshi?" She asked straight away, going straight to the point.
"Everyone knows Toshi"
"But how do you know him?" The dark haired girl persisted, leaning forwards in her seat. "You said before, you recognized the name"
"Yeah…" Tala pushed a hand through his hair; Hannah only now seemed to notice that it was out of its normal style, no gel, so the soft red tresses brushed slightly against his shoulders. So that's what was different, she thought to herself idly.
"We've had a few runs in's with Toshi" Tala stared off into a dark corner of the room, "More than I like to think about"
Hannah watched in silence as the red haired teen continued to speak, the vibrant eyes seeming to darken and mist over as the memories ran deeper.
"I lost team mates to that man" His voice full of contempt, his upper lipped curled back ever so slightly. "This organization was much bigger once, this is all that's left" He ticked the names off on his fingers. "Me, Kai, Rei, Johnny, Kenny, Bryan, Ozuma…Daichi too, but he's too young to fight. Toshi is behind almost every major scheme in the city, he's like a criminal mastermind!"
"Really?" Her voice sounded a little shocked. "But he was always there…he rarely left the house…" Her brow furrowed as she waded through past memories.
"What?" Tala looked straight at her, "Hannah, how often did you see him?"
"Often enough, Papa would spend a lot of time in his library" Hannah's eyes unfocused and stared into thin air as the memories played like amovie in front of her eyes.
"Then how do you if he was there when you didn't see him?" Tala questioned, leaning forwards in his seat.
The dark haired girl fidgeted uncomfortable under the piercing turquoise gaze. "I…I don't" She managed to stutter out, averting her eyes looking everywhere except the turquoise eyes, refusing to meet his gaze.
"Why do you still call him 'Papa'?" Tala tipped his head to one side curiously, "Even after all he's done to you and Ghost"
"I don't know" Hannah shrugged, the brown eyes occasionally flicking up to meet his and then moving away, "Force of habit?"
"Do you want to kill…Toshi?" Hannah asked suddenly, pausing over his name, rolling it around her mouth on her tongue for the first time ever. Tala started, he hadn't expected such a blunt question.
"Yes." He replied, "Yes I do" He looked down at his hands, wondering how the dark haired girl would react.
"Good. Let me help you" Tala's head shot up in surprise.
"What!" He choked out, staring at Hannah gob smacked. "Why would you help me kill the man who raised you!" Confusion raced through the Russian teen's mind.
A frown fixed on her face, Hannah stood slowly to her feet. "Your friend's need avenging don't they?" She said sternly, "Do you want them to have died without a cause?"
The blunt words sent Tala's mind reeling, of course he wanted to avenge them, but why was this girl helping him, what was in it for her? Coming to a decision, he shook his head to clear the confusion and looked up at the vampire standing above him.
"Alright" He grasped the hand that Hannah was holding out to him and shook it firmly. She slipped her hand out of his grasp and moved towards the door, pausing and resting her hand on the door frame.
"It's almost light" She said out loud, not looking at the Russian teen behind her. "You'd better prepare yourself" She made a move to leave.
"Wait!" The girl stopped dead in her tracks, she didn't move from there, just stood in silence. "Why help me?"
She turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I owe you"
Zombie: Ne…that dragged a bit uu
Johnny: A little
Zombie: Sorry it's so late Ghostie
Johnny: Read and Review folks!
Zombie: Yeh. o.o what he said.
