Beginning: Part Two

Day Two I

Alisa awoke around 10:00, and climbed out of bed. She left her room, and padded into the living room where she found L was still snoozing on the couch. Alisa smiled a bit, and decided she would let her sleep as long as she'd like. She moved silently into the kitchen, and started to prepare breakfast.

However, as delightful as the thought of sleeping until noon was, the desire for food was stronger and won the battle for L's consciousness. Upon hearing Alisa rustling in the kitchen she sat up, wrapped the sheet around her shoulders and shuffled in to join her. She had no idea what she was having for breakfast but suddenly the need for coffee was apparent. Exactly one minute later a cup of instant coffee with entirely too much sugar and creamer sat in front of her at the small table.

"Morning," she finally mumbled.

Alisa turned to her, and smiled. "Good morning. I hope I didn't wake you."

"Nah. It's okay." L waved it off.

Alisa went back to tending their breakfast. "So what would like you to have?"

L thought a minute but didn't really come up with anything. "I dunno. Food. Preferably edible food but I'm not feeling overly picky." She paused. "Not that I'm saying you'd make food that wasn't edible or anything... 'cause I'm not."

Alisa chuckled quietly. "Pancakes okay then?"

"Sounds good," L answered.

Alisa soon had a stack of pancakes cooked for each of them. She brought their plates to the table, fetched the condiments, and then sat down to eat.

"Mmmmm pancakes!" L stuffed her face merrily, occasionally stopping to take a drink of coffee or to breathe. "So what're we doing today?" She eventually asked through a mouthful of fluffy goodness. "'Cause I'll be damned if I'm sitting around here ruining a perfectly good day off."

"Whatever you want to do." Alisa took a drink from her glass of milk, then spoke again. "We could always go to the park for a while."

"That works, as long as I get to throw rocks at the stupid children who decide it's fun to bother grownups they don't know. I swear don't they have leash laws in this city?" She finished her pancakes and dropped the plate off in the sink. Since they didn't have a dishwasher one of them would have to do it later and L was a big fan of later. "I'm gonna go get dressed. The sheet look is sexy and all that but I don't think I wear it well."

Alisa only smiled, and stood up with her own empty plate and glass, placing them in the sink. She followed L out of the kitchen, and then walked to her bedroom. She changed out of her pajamas, and into a green baby doll top and jeans. She put plain white socks and worn sneakers on her feet. She headed towards the living room again where L was nearly finished changing herself.

Far less feminine than her friend, a tank top and jeans were L's normal attire, finished with an old grungy pair of boots she'd owned for longer than she cared to think of. She was lacing up her second boot when Alisa entered the room.

"I'm ready when you are babe, and don't worry about the rocks I'll just find some when we get there."

It wasn't really a very assuring statement.

"You are not throwing rocks at anyone."

L pouted, but Alisa shook her head firmly. Alisa walked to door, and unlocked it. She opened it, and she and L stepped out into the cool morning air. Alisa closed and locked the door again, pocketing the key. The two girls made their way down.

"Y'know, no rock throwing, no hamster... I'm really starting to feel denied here."

"We can't afford a hamster," Alisa reasoned. "Would you rather eat or have a pet?"

L pouted once more, but offered no argument.

"Thought so." Alisa looked both ways before they crossed the street, and continued down the opposite sidewalk towards Central Park.

Quickly growing bored with pouting, L began to skip slightly ahead of Alisa.

"You're slow!" She taunted, knowing full well if Alisa wanted to she could speed right past her. Alisa however was a little smarter than that, and had the frame of mind to grab L's shirt and yank her out of the way of an oncoming bicycle. "Oh... thanks."

"You have to be careful, L. Some people aren't, so you have to be." Alisa started walking again, and L fell in step beside her. "We're in no hurry to get to the park. We have all day."

Feeling somewhat like a child, but not really being too put off by it L walked the rest of the way in silence. She was damn sure to watch out for rogue bicycles though!

Because silence can only last so long, she spoke once they reached their destination. "It's a nice day... rare really. I mean how did we manage a nice day and a day off at the same time? It must be a sign! Something good is going to happen to us today!"

"Maybe too good." Alisa then spied the small group of Purple Dragons ahead blocking the path through the park they were walking on, and stopped in her tracks, 'causing L to do the same. "Because this looks like trouble."

"Fan-freakin'-tastic. They better not ruin our day off." She looked at Alisa and then back at the Purple Dragons. "Y'think there's any chance they don't want to bother us? We're not exactly intimidating, nor do we look like we have much in the way of cash."

"Doesn't matter. We're young ladies, and these men are pigs. We can try to get around them tho

ugh." Alisa started walking again, her gait strong, and proud. She wouldn't let these punks intimidate her. "Excuse me, gentlemen. May we pass?"

One of them gave her dirty, somewhat toothless grin. "Where ya going, pretty thing?" He reached out for her arm, but she quickly side-stepped him.

"Nowhere that concerns you."

L sighed, following her friend. Just running was never an option with her, something about honor or some such... or just the general fact that they probably would have been caught up to regardless. Maybe it was a little of both.

"Look, we want to go to the park. We don't want trouble; we just want to enjoy our day off. Can we please just go? Is there any chance-"

L realized she was being stared at, no more like leered at by a heavy and rather pungent smelling man that had waddled up to her side.

"Hey! You leave her alone!" Alisa ran to her friend, and placed herself between L and the rotund man.

"Seriously guys it's better for everyone if you just let us go peacefully."

L knew she'd said something stupid the minute the words left her mouth, as the half wits took her words as a challenge and began producing forth from their clothes and in at least one instance fat, various weapons.

"Well at least it's a small group," L said dryly. "Could be worse, eh?"

Alisa clenched her teeth together, and slid into a stance. The Purple Dragons laughed.

"Oh, look, she's going to fight," one taunted, "I'm so scared."

He didn't know what hit him as Alisa swiftly delivered a double phoenix punch to his jaw. While the goons were busy being stunned at Alisa's sudden attack, L knelt down and pulled a knife from each boot. Alisa may have never cared for the fact that L took them everywhere but they came in handy.

As she regained her standing position the tub o' lard that had been standing entirely too close to her made an attempt at wrapping a fat gooey arm around her waist.

"Huh uh, no way fatty." She twisted towards him, slashing out with the knife in her left hand, easily cutting into a layer of the doughboy's arm blubber. He merely stood there for a second but that's all it took for him to get really pissed off really quickly.

Alisa dodged an attempt made to slash at her chest from the assailant's knife, and gave him a roundhouse kick to the legs. L was holding her own against tubby. Alisa back flipped away from another attacker, and executed a dragon punch to his stomach in the next instant. Suddenly, her assault was halted as another punk grabbed her hair, and yanked hard enough to get to her knees.

"I'm going to have fun with you," he hissed in her ear, "I like a woman with some fire in her."

Alisa struggled against his grip, but he was too strong. She called out to L "Run, L! Go get help!"

L snarled, hating the idea of leaving her friend but knowing that the odds were against them. Before making a run for it she crossed both arms in front of her chest and lashed out at the fat man's face, leaving deep cuts along both cheeks. They'd need stitches at the very least. This left him out of commission long enough for her to haul ass across the street and towards one of the buildings. What she hadn't counted on was the door being locked, and one of the other goons following her.

"Shit! Shit shit shit!"

She bit her lip as she ducked down an alley. The thing about New York was that there always seemed to be an alley handy and it always seemed to be dark and dank no matter what time of day. This could either give her an advantage or a horrible disadvantage.

Luckily she'd made a wise decision. From out of the shadows came a flurry of movement and she watched in astonishment as the man following her was easily taken down. For her it would have taken a decent amount of time but for this guy, and it had to be a guy, it was over in an instant.

"Serves you right," said the shadowy figure, proving that it indeed was male. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, peachy. Thanks..." Suddenly she remembered why she was there in the first place. Alisa! "My friend! She's across the street and there're more of them!"

The figure laughed. "Don't worry, they're being taken care of."

L ran closer to her rescuer who didn't seem too keen on the idea of being seen. Luckily for him she was preoccupied with what was going on across the street.

Alisa appeared to be down for the count, no doubt knocked out by the jerk who was now getting the shit kicked out of him by none other than the hockey mask wearing vigilante they'd been discussing earlier. There was no sign of tubby, and L just assumed that he'd bolted after her last attack, but one thug was on the ground and the last was well on his way to being unconscious.

Forgetting completely that trying to find out her rescuer's name would probably be a good idea, L pushed past him, briefly putting her hand on his shoulder before dodging traffic to check on Alisa. If she'd stopped to think she would have realized that something wasn't quite right with that shadowy guy but now wasn't the time for thinking.

"Alisa!" She rushed to her friend's side and was relieved to find that she was still breathing. She'd wake up soon enough and though she'd have a nasty bruise and one hell of a headache she'd be otherwise fine.

"Hey! Hey hockey guy!" She called out to the man who now seemed satisfied with his dispatching of justice. "C'mere!"

He seemed reluctant at first but he did in fact come over to her. After all he couldn't help but notice that they were two lovely ladies, and damsels in distress were quite often very gracious for his services.

"Could you help me? I mean I know you've done your job and everything but I need to get her back to our apartment and... well there are crazier things than asking a hockey mask wearing weirdo to help carry someone to your apartment."

"Weirdo?" He sounded offended. "Lady, I'm no weirdo! I just saved your butts if you didn't notice."

"Yeah I know and I'm grateful but... wait... hold on a second..."

"Uh... what?"

She squinted. She stared. She smiled. "Casey?"

"Aw shit."

"Well this is weird now isn't it?"

"Hey Lee."

"It's just L actually."

"Alright. So I guess you want me to carry her, huh?"

"Ooooh yeah."

The shadowy figure in the alley watched as Casey Jones carried the girl he'd just saved away from the park. Annoyed that he was to simply stay in the shadows he cursed before returning home.