The Brockton airport flight tower stood in silence on Monday evening, the morning flights had come and gone, leaving the two-man team with nothing to do until their shift change came along. A completely ordinary day for the radar technician, who, with no new flight coming till after his shift, laid back in his chair and played with his phone. Green glowed against the black screen in the same shade for the last fifty years, a single streak of florescent green gliding over the bay, missed by the technician occupied by his phone.
The phone rings, the lead operator answers it casually. "Yea?" 'PRT radar here, confirm reading at 270 degrees, unknown object flying at near sonic speeds.'
"Jameson! Radar reading, 270 degrees." The lead shouts at his counterpart before returning to the phone with practised diligence. His companion scrambles over to the radar screen, his phone clattering down at his feet, ignored by the sudden instruction.
"270, heading 56. Speed, come-on, about… 600 miles an hour. Subsonic speeds, no tag or signature." The younger turns around and picks up his headset, tuning the frequency of his radio to include all known bandwidths of the US air services.
"Unknown plane, identify, you're heading to restricted airspace, please change heading to 330. I repeat." He continued to try and communicate with the unknown object as it hurtles towards the bay. Jameson repeats his message, staring at the screen while the object continues in the decidedly dangerous direction.
The senior grabs a pair of worn binoculars and stares out of the windows of the twenty-storey tall air tower.
A crimson flare at the head of a smoke trail. A glint of steel shimmering in the sky.
"PRT radar, unknown is heading your way, my visual… I don't know what it is. Might want to raise your alarm, we're not getting a response from it." He looks back at Jameson still trying to breach the airwaves with stern instructions to the unknown flying object. Unfortunately, no response came to be heeded as the smoke trail barrelled closer and closer to the floating fortress in the bay.
The blue shimmer of the shields sprung up around the platform, the four missile turrets tucked in their corners swivelled to track the ufo, eager to unleash their payload on the approaching target. The smoke trail continued on, unabated by the glow emanating from the bay.
Tense seconds pass, "Ten miles. Five miles. One mile." The semi-automated defence turrets of the PRT HQ opened fire as the glare crossed the threshold, a missile raced across the sky. It had never happened before and the two operators in the tower held their breath alongside whoever watched alongside them in the city. Watching as the crimson flare and argent jet of the rocket intercept one another above the silent waves.
A flash, a screech. The crimson comet continued on, unabated. The missile's explosion crashed across the city, halting it as eyes turned to the sky. Another missile screamed in vengeance, the zealous engine spewing fire and smoke to vanquish the demon hurtling above.
A second before impact, the ufo twisted away from the incoming warhead, disorienting the radar and throwing the missile out across the city. Another missile fired, the third scream captivating the rest of the city. The wayward missile turned with a mechanical vengeance, its radar directed by commands from headquarters re-establishes a deadly lock.
The crimson streak twisted, its body curving to dodge death from the front, but the missile gets a manual adjustment from an unseen force, its radar maintaining the silvery image on its retina and twists alongside the flying monster.
An explosion. Six crimson bolts intercepted the missile, five firing wide but one finds the mark and shears the front clean off. Without guidance, the missile decided to take a dive and plunges down into the bay.
The missile coming from the rear had a hard time tracking the agile monster, its bobbing and weaving outclassing every suspected jet fighter and tinker plane recorded. Yet the missile still honed in on the flying creature, an explosion lit up the sky. The trail of red smoke jumping from the white cloud flees from the glowing bubble in the bay.
The adrenaline of the situation left the man a bit woozy on his feet and taking a second to centre himself, responds to the PRT operator still clinging to the phone. "PRT radar, confirm, the object is heading away from you."
'PRT radar confirms, object leaving.'
Several eyes tracked the monster as it crossed the skies. One pair owned by a young hunter.
"PRT radar, confirm, the object is heading away from you."
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A bow, larger than any it had any right to be, stood with its tip in the ground while its crown loomed over me. The arrow weighed close to twenty pounds, the square head expanded into a long tip with several concentric barbs angrily jutting out as I notched it against a finger-thick black string that groaned as I pulled with inhumane strength. Valstrax's black smoke trail covered the sky and I patiently waited for the monster to cross the horizon before letting my missile loose. The PRT might have injured it, but my missile would cripple it brutally. I pulled back further, strength beyond ten men forcing the string to stretch and the bow to bend.
A thwush! Sent the arrow on an intercept course with the comet flying above me. A trail of compressed blowing behind the arrow as Kushala's power hastened it beyond what the bow itself provided.
A screech, that echoed out across the city followed the impact. The smoke trail descended as my arrow pierced the chest of the monster, too crippled to fly.
My footfalls led to more and more speed, almost as fast as a car I ran down the streets to chase the still falling monster, the glint of steely scales a beacon in the glow of the evening sun. My blood pumped, the hunt was on and this time would be interesting. Valstrax was about twice the size of anything I had killed previously and the extra weight would be spent on methods designed to kill me.
Valstrax's violent landing choked the street with dust, making it impossible to see anything further than ten feet. I scaled a building with a winded kick and spotted the monster leaning against the ruined remain of a stonework building. Wheezing but finding purchase on the ground beneath it and piercing Valstrax's shiny silver coat hosted my arrow. Standing on the edge, ready to jump down, Valstrax's shuddering cry interrupted me. Valstrax clamped down on the arrow shaft and viscously pulled on it, blood torrented out of the wound as the monster regained use of the crippled wing.
It reared up and roared, the scream buffed the windows and sent a few bricks flying around. It towered over the street at almost four storeys tall, and its curved beak with razor teeth sent the remaining civilians running. Four legs with three front claws left gullies in the asphalt of the road. Two massive wings or what could be wings, more like jet engines, sprung up from its back. The red glow and wispy trails bared a biology far beyond anything mother nature would ever conceive of.
My bow disappeared into motes of light, replaced by the sword Lunastra had lost limbs and life to. The steel glinted with a rainbow and begged to be used, I gripped all seven feet of monster cutting steel with firm determination, with my power and the ridiculous edge, we would rend whatever opposed us.
The hawk-faced monster eyed me in my red plate armour, recognised the damage I inflicted on to it and cawed a baleful sound, the shaped beak darkening and red flames emanating from the jet nozzles as the scream lasted for several moments. Further angry red fumes spilt out from its chest and the wingtips darkened with crimson fury.
Rage, boiling. Anger, hatred. A cunning mind, the apex of the sky. A clawed wing leapt towards me, stretching far beyond what should be possible and shattered the road with uncaring ease. The spear tipped wing sped past with blistering speed, arcid smoke spewing out of the ports the crimson-silver claws protected.
I sidestepped, my blade whistling as it cut the air. It struck the outstretched wing, cleaving a horizontal wound on a nozzle; the finger-thick gash spewed inky red blood onto the street. Valstrax retracted the wing with the same unnatural speed as it had flashed out with, an angry snarl with the gnashing of its beak conveyed the beast's disappointment at my survival.
Ears pumping, adrenaline rushing. I screamed, a vicious cry filled with anger, resolution and hate. The pavement broke beneath my foot as I leapt, my blade cleaved air and struck an extended paw that batted me aside. I spun roughly into the half-destroyed brick building, dust covering my ragged attempt to stand up.
Coughing and spitting blood onto the dust layered tiles, I found my feet and not a second to soon. Blue eyes with spotted-red iris welcomed me with another extended wing. A flick of my blade and some good power-enhanced footwork left me unscathed and the monster missing a nail.
I rushed forward, mindful of the monster's quick movements and dodged a clawed swipe. Another flick of the blade and a masterful dodge left another nail missing. Keeping the relentless pace against the monster, I brought my blade up to strike at its exposed chest. The curved edge gladly carved a chunk out of the silver chest. Bones were exposed to cool air and blood dripped from the wound, staining the ground.
I stepped back, my blade cutting across the space for another slice at its torso. Another carve, another wound. My leap backwards left me trailing in the air and yielded an opportune moment for the monster to punch me, but a gust of Kushala's wind forced me out of the way.
Rage filled the beast, it pounced back, leaving a long trail of blood on the ground, and screamed at me, outraged that I had dodged a perfectly good deathblow with unnatural powers. Valstrax pointed its wings at me, the ports glowing a furious red and as the half seconds ticked by, filled with red lightning until it released with a deafening roar. With no shield and no cover, the red blots would incinerate me.
A challenge, a roar. Flame, hot, blue and red flowed forth from me, the roar of twin monsters accompanying me as my eyes ignited in red and blue. The will to survive beckoning summoned flames to my aid, flames that I commanded to shear the leading bolts into nothing. They clashed against my overpowering will to dominate and sputtered into nothing as my fire overpowered the crimson lances.
"I am no hunter! I am your death! I am your master!" I declared; a wind-powered leap letting my sword carve a chunk out of its beak. And the follow-up strike blinded an eye. It spun around in pain, its tail tearing through masonry and leaving a trail of dust as it thrashed around, hoping to eviscerate me with the razor-edged tips.
I batted the wing aside, the 'pling' of my sword on the hardened bone echoing through the street. The monster turned to face me but found an empty spot where I was a mere moment before. A sting in its chest indicated that I moved further forwards to strike at the vulnerable centre.
It retreated on top of the opposing building, its fevered withdrawal earning it a massive gash on a hind leg. The wound made the monster fumble in its accent but its fear kept it from falling, nothing but dust and death and red blood was down here. Its wings pointed down towards the ground, red crimson energy gathering at the tips to bath the street in annihilating power, I began to run.
Six shots, then twelve, then eighteen. It kept firing into the street, the dust hardly stopping the massive discharge of the monster. If I hadn't retreated, I might have died, my flame power was recovering and it wouldn't have stopped a continuous barrage; I had to stop it somehow before it destroyed more than just asphalt.
My eyes sparkled blue, the rims glowing in yellow light. A lightning bolt from the cloudless skies impacted Valstrax, the strike lashing out involuntary spasms and a pained scream at the sky as a Kirin mega bolt writhed over it.
Another burst of air had me six-storeys high, my blade cutting sideways to nick at the throat of the monster, halfway through the action my blade lost moment and buried itself in the neck muscles. The edge, continuously used against hardened bone, lost its razor sharpness at the critical second; I needed a second to remake it before I could kill Valstrax.
A flash, a scream. My flashbomb incapacitated the monster, its bulk, wounds and crumbling footing throwing it to the street below.
My hand dipped into my pocket and retrieved a small stone, the whetting stone was another part of my powers and had not seen use before, a lance didn't need to be sharpened, a hammer didn't need an edge. Two strokes to each side of the blade and with each pass the blade became whole, chips and nicks disappeared, dents and bents straightened out.
I turned to face Valstrax, it was still dazed and scrambling to find which way was up and which way was towards me. I slowly, slowly for me, ran towards it, intent on finishing it off. A ploy, a trick. Its beak snapped the air just in front of me -it had waited for me to get close- my sword battered it aside. It shook its head twice, dodged my follow-up swing. Blue eyes sharpened and survival paramount in the monster's head
let it leapt back, the caw of a house-sized falcon blasted me down the street.
The whine of turbines, the smell of ozone, the monster initiated its launch. The black smoke trailed behind it. Valstrax disappeared into the sun and my eyes burnt as I tried to track it. A roar of defiance, a final desperate move to finish the fight.
It rocketed towards the Earth, intent on blowing me to smithereens.
A flick of my sword, a thrust of my blade. The explosion of crimson energy around me licked my body but amounted to nothing as I executed a parry Valstrax would never have seen coming. Screaming, I deflected the assault with unnatural strength, my blade screaming in protest as I drove it deep into the chest of the enemy. I took a bounding step off the chest, heaving me into the sky, the monster rose to meet me in the air, a final clash. I gripped my sword in both hands and dived upon it.
The edge cut into the neck, slicing it roughly as I performed the helm-split on the weakened monster. Blood spurted over me, the inky red goop soaking into the chainmail and padding. The last faltering gasps left the nostrils of the flying Valkyrie.
I stood before it, its blue eyes enraged at me, but its body failed to respond to its commands. An ungloved hand sat on the beak, almost scalding to the touch.
"Bravely fought, crimson phoenix, now return to the one who made you, let us grow stronger together." A flash of purple and red motes. Collapsed into me and filled me with steely determination.
With Sirens in the distance, I fled.
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"Mover powers confirmed, she's accelerating!" The Hunter was leading the Protectorate, PRT and cops on a trans-city chase and the only way they kept up with the red plated parahuman was with the help of the police helicopter gliding over the skies. Its camera tracking the red blur as it shot down streets and over rooftops, Velocity, the protectorate's own red blur kept pace by dodging around buildings and over streets in mere seconds. His powers didn't lend to combat with brutes, but his breaker form left him impervious and years of training merited a strong offensive capability by switching between physical and non-physical states.
Armsmaster sped along the streets atop his blue bike, following just behind the red-suited hero, his predictive software lighting up the path he travelled down, dodging cars and pedestrians as he chased the Hunter through the city. He wanted to keep his promise to Militia from their talk the morning, ordering the heroes to follow, and when they cornered the woman, to talk calmly to her. It would be a boon if the hunter came peacefully with them, it might just lead them to recruit the woman to the good guys.
Another street whizzed by at the breakneck pace the hunter set, the tell-tale signs of red jets and white gusts of wind leaving a trail above Brockton as she made her manoeuvres. Her signature red armour flashed in his vizor before disappearing behind another building.
His research had concluded that she was a local, her use of tight streets and hidden corners to throw them off indicated as much and it hampered them to a degree but didn't truly stop the chase as their eyes in the sky kept track of her. Armsmaster took another corner and spotted the black-haired, plated warrior jumping over a building. Velocity bounded up half a second behind her.
The chase only increased in size as the trifecta of government agencies corralled her into downtown, each time she went down an alleyway, another mover would step in to dislodge her from her hole. Battery, Assault, Velocity and Armsmaster, the movers of the protectorate orchestrated the chase with the help of thinker support. Aegis and Kid-Win rode the air, the two wards acting as spotters for their grounded compatriots, helping in corralling her further and further towards the docks.
She dived into a strip mall just before downtown transitioned into the dockside, her hair flashed above the mostly Asian populace as she stood half a head above most of them. The China-town section of the mall crushed with bodies as the afternoon approached and the food vendors and restaurants packed the locals tightly into small booths and tight corners. Velocity lost track of his target as the crowd stared and whispered amongst themselves while the government capes tried to locate the red hellion. Velocity tried to move through the crowd, but the sea of faces squeezed tightly against him, unwilling to part before the red warrior, not everyone was hostile and a few upstanding citizens pointed in the direction the red devil went.
Velocity waited for Armsmaster, they'd make more progress as a unit while PRT vans and cop cars surrounded the entrances, cordoning the area and waiting for the heroes to dislodge the Hunter. Together the two entered store after store, searching for the red clothed, black curled woman.
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I ditched my armour in a puff of smoke as I rounded a corner, my baggy clothes fighting against my skin as I tried to hide away from the heroes chasing me. 'Why were they hounding me? Nobody got hurt and I didn't leave the street a ruin... maybe I did.' The grey hoody and billowy pants covering me stood out like a sore thumb amongst the early spring attire of the China mall, a few heads turned to look at the white girl trudging across the gritty tiles. I kept my head down, hoping that the awkward mannerisms of a lanky teen would give me some cover.
Armsmaster blue armour poked into the hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant I took refuge in, the corner booth giving me cover to spy on the entrance without drawing attention. I had a second to see him slowly scanning the store before the waiter arrived. My hand's sweat made it hard to grab onto the laminate paper and my attempt to blend in with the patronage burst into flames as I switched from watching Armsmaster to my waiter, who refused to hand me the menu. To no one's surprise, it was the kid that confronted me outside of Winslow, the one I had punched in the jaw. The welt from the morning's brawl was an ugly reminder of my careless and unbound anger making things difficult.
"Didn't I tell ye, you'd be dead if I saw your face again?" He harshly whispered to me. His head swivelled to stare at Armsmaster in his blue armour, I could feel, hear and see the gears turning in the kid's head, a nasty snarl covering his face that turned into a vicious grin when he turned back to me.
"Please don't." I begged; this would make things difficult.
"Armsmaster! It's her!" -My heart sunk and my stomach flipped. - He shouted back to the man. The bucket on the mechanical man turned to face us. Armsmaster was a class A cape and didn't hesitate to walk over, his armoured footsteps echoed inside my skull.
I bolted, throwing the brat into the tin man, "Target is a young Caucasian Female, five foot eight. Leaving Lucky Lue's diner." Carved chunks in my soul as I jumped out the door and bolted down the enclosed space, I barrelled through people, jumped over stands and ducked into whatever corner I could. Some of the braver men and stronger women tried to catch me but they found their strength outmatched and their asses on the floor. A buzzing swarmed my ears, the same buzzing that heralded the fastest man in Brockton. The red blur of Velocity blinked next to me. His breaker state disappeared, grabbed an arm and pivoted me into a concrete pillar.
The impact of a fifteen-year-old, lanky girl shouldn't have summoned a dust cloud from the roof when I impacted, but I did. Dramatics aside, I'd feel that one in the morning. Velocity hovered over me and I eyed him, he wasn't going to take a chance with me, legs wide and arms raised, ready for me to fight my way out of the situation.
Surprisingly the unending rage that marred the previous month was missing, instead, a cold calculating determination filled me. I would escape.
I stood up, dusting my sleeves. "Don't try to resist, you've got most of the Protectorate here to catch you." His voice was rough and manly, dripping with authority.
I took in a deep breath, centring myself for the challenge that lay before me. A flash, a suit. My red armour adorned me again, my powers armoured state unlocked the full potential of my powers and the shift to it took a long second. A medieval helmet hid my face and the tiny slits barely left enough vision for me to see. Now clad in red, I saw the tight fibres rippling over his honed muscles, ready to fight in a split second.
"I don't want to fight, let me go and this won't get messy." A bluff, I didn't want to go to prison, but more importantly, I didn't want to fight the good guys.
"That's not going to happen. You've done a lot of damage to the city over the month, you'll have to own up to it." I didn't know his capabilities as the PRT kept information on their capes top-secret, only speculation about the local capes were available on the internet. I didn't want to fight anyway.
The glass ceiling shattered as I ascended with a jet of crimson energy. I landed on the gravel and immediately noticed the helicopter floating around the mall, opposite it floated Aegis and Kid Win. The two Wards were surprised by my appearance and Kid Win shouted with a finger pointing at me, a breath passed and two guns took their place.
Determination, cold and hard. With the helicopter flying about and the two capes hovering at my side, I knew what I had to do. Force them to land and escape by air. I lifted a hand, the crimson energy of Valstrax condensing in my palm. A shot rocketed off, missing the helicopter by an intentional margin. They didn't seem perturbed by it, another shot came much closer.
The crunch of gravel behind me swivelled me around and I came face to face with three capes. Battery in her black body armour and blue circuitry, Assault, in his red armour and Velocity in his red suit with racing stripes. I had one chance to make them back off and give me an opening.
"Don't make us fight you." Battery's voice rang out. Their lips were drawn in thin grim lines, grim, but willing to fight me. I didn't want to fight them. I looked back at the helicopter, it was starting to descend, the pilot making the smart decision to get out rather than finding out how strong my crimson bolts were.
Aegis and Kid Win still floated and had positioned me between them and their seniors, smart, but it wouldn't even matter. I turned back to the three heroes.
"Big fan, wish you'd do more to save the city. Know how many gang members I had to beat up today to live? At least three." They stepped forward, the ease of my stance conveying that I might be willing to talk it out before this had to get dirty.
"We're trying, with your help we might just be able to." I scoffed at Battery's words, they had what, more than ten capes? And still didn't do jack to stop the drugs from entering or the guns from firing.
"Sure, I'd love to help, but I'm doing it my way. I'll get strong enough to get the gangs out on my own." With five elders down I was probably strong enough to take on the Merchants, wherever they were hiding at the moment.
Another step closer, Battery's outstretched arm inviting me over to talk it out. I wanted to be a hero in my formative years, life had made me more pragmatic. I turned to the two wards floating behind me. A single show of force would keep them in place.
"One cape won't stop entire gangs, teams working together gets things done." If they weren't bogged down by red tape that was.
"The only chains that bind me are my own, I won't take the red chains of bureaucracy as well." A final step.
My eyes flashed red and blue; heat sprung forth with a roar. Flames hot enough to melt glass travelled to meet the three heroes, I controlled it before it would hit, spiralling it upwards into towards the sky. They jumped for cover, Velocity might have been burnt, his thin suit unable to withstand the heat. I spun to the two floating wards, a flashbomb wouldn't penetrate their visors, but a lightning bolt might spook them enough to stay put.
A thunder strike, smaller than the one I'd used on Valstrax, landed between them, the shock of the snap jarred them to dive for cover.
I turned around, a short two step leap had me in the sky, crimson energy flared from my feet and I shot away at near sonic speeds.
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I had lost them; I won't have a chase like that again. I couldn't run from the government, sooner or later they'd find a way to pin me down and capture me, if the PRT was notorious for one thing, it was that when they came for you, they went all out. If I ever was in another chase, a tinker or someone would have a countermeasure to my speed and then I'd be foamed before I could talk.
Why was every flat roof in this city filled with gravel? The crunchy, hard rocks didn't make a good seat as I stared at the setting sun. The building I rested on was a few blocks away from the mess I had left the intersection in. How could I foresee Valstrax falling in a small four-way crossing and how would I know that the monster would rip concrete and asphalt by just walking around. It was with my hand in my hair, ruminating over the fuckup that was today, that the blond found me.
Bottle green eyes and long dirty-blond hair, she was about my height and age but had none of the early teenager pudge left on her face. I watched her with one eye as she climbed up the fire escape, a brown paper bag gripped in her hand. She opened it and fished out a cup of cola, plucked a straw out and stabbed the plastic lid. Took a long sip and smiled at me.
"Hey." Her teeth were white and straight, well cared for and braced in years past, maybe from a rich family, not something I had. Still, why was a girl like that out here in the decrepit north side of the town?
My non-response didn't bother her, she sat next to me, her green jacket and blue denim contrasting against my scruffy hoodie and black pants. "Hungry?" She offered the bag, the smell of oil and cheese wafted into my nose. I hadn't eaten since breakfast. The cheeseburger tasted like processed meat and cheese, just how it was supposed to taste. The fries were over salted and the coke was almost flat. A classic from Brockton.
"I guessed you'd be hungry. I'm Lisa by the way." I gulped down a large bite of the cheeseburger with the help of the flat coke. "Taylor. Thanks. Guess you're a cape too." Her pearly whites shined against the sun.
"Yea, I saw the whole thing, from the automated defence of the HQ to you jetting off into the sunset. Figured I'd be lucky if I found you here." I hadn't talked to a person honestly in a long, long while. I used to be a chatterbox, but now my mouth lacked words. It felt strange.
"You know each missile costs like six hundred grand, and your little beasty took three of them." The blond -Lisa- was terrible at small talk... One point eight million dollarydoos, that's a lot of money and that wasn't even counting the bill I'd get for the street I butchered.
"Yea, they can put it on my tab, totally worth it." I hefted my hand, the small crimson flame I summoned the maximum I could do without the suit. She eyed it suspiciously.
"So, you get stronger with each monster you kill."
"Something like that." Teostra had given me my armour and anger, Lunastra had combined with him to form my flame attack. Kirin had gifted me resistance to attacks and left me the thunder attacks. Kushala had fine control over wind, his power being the reason I won against the crimson comet, abusing the gusts to avoid everything it had thrown at me.
Valstrax was powerful, his crimson jets had given me the mobility that I had only dreamt of since I was a kid, playing with Emma in the backyard. His cold calculating mind had eased the unending anger that I felt since my first day, I was thankful for it.
Thinking of Ems made me clench my hand.
"Bad memories?"
"No, just, good ones turned bad." I didn't have the energy to question her, I just let her sit in my company for a little while longer. We watched the sun after I scarfed down the junk food.
The sky continued to darken, the stars unveiling themselves to the calm of the night. The city's radiance drowning out millions of pinpricks, thousands leaked through anyway. The moon was half full, would there be a monster representing the moon?
"Got a place to sleep? If you don't, you can bunk with me." I nodded, I guess she got my meaning. She dusted off her denim, the gravel sticking to her as she made her way to the fire escape. I sighed and followed.
The walk was short and half a block delivered us to a two-storey building with boarded-up windows. She jostled the rusting door and walked over to the stairway leading to the second floor. The door she rattled inside was in much better condition.
Light filtered in, a retort of gunfire and light played off the widescreen television sitting on a hunk of junk table. The shooting game kept the attention of a black bushy-haired teenager lounging on a long white sofa.
"Hey dickwad." The teen shouted out from the sofa; his attention devoted to the game in front of him. He didn't turn around when I entered, too focused on losing to people with more patience and skill than him.
"Hey dork." Lisa retorted I didn't greet him, too tired from the day to try and fit social norms. Lisa walked over to a large double door white fridge. Opened it and retrieved several sauces and a block of cheese. A knife flicked in her hand and she started working on a cheese sandwich. She looked up at me.
"Drinks are in the fridge, water in the taps isn't any good." I moved over to take out a soda, she grabbed it from my hands. "Soda won't make you feel better, here, ice-tea, unsweetened." The bottle lasted a few seconds as I realised how thirsty I was.
Seemed the boy finally lost his game, he turned around. Blue eyes and pretty. Yes pretty, he wasn't handsome, he was rather pale and had almost no fat left on his cheeks. His pointed chin and petite nose made him look strange, not a normal Brocktonight and his almost European features left him with an air of mystery.
"Hey, a friend. Pretty drab clothing if you ask me. Can do much better. Names Alec." He didn't reach out a hand to greet me, just stood there and smiled at me.
"Alec, this is Taylor, Taylor, Alec. She's bunking here for tonight. No funny business got that." I didn't know what the two had going on, but it seemed that he respected her authority, even if just barely.
"Taylor, don't go hanging around with goody-goody here, she'll give you the wrong idea. Now if it's fun you want, I can give you a lot of it." "Eww," "Not that kind of fun. But hey, I'm game. Nah, ever played Heroes and Mobsters before?" He pointed to the screen with a thumb. I shook my head.
"You should try it, lots of fun, might just get a smile on your face." The boy jumped in place, and landed his rear back on the sofa, the barrage assaulted my sense again.
"Alec! Keep it down." Came from a door on the right, a girl, burly and large. Brown hair that seemed to suffer from a lack of attention and brown eyes tracked from the boy flipping her off, and then me.
"The fuck are you?" Didn't seem that everyone here wanted to live in peace with me.
"Taylor, I'm Taylor." My parched throat stung a bit as the words came out. The ice-tea not having sunk in enough to let me speak freely. She eyed me warily, sidelong glances that a normal person wouldn't give in any sort of company.
"Liz?" She called out to the blond.
"Rach, she's here to sleep. Know that girl that's been killing monsters throughout town." The burly girl picked up the implied message. Seemed that she was quick on the uptake. She crossed her arms and stared at me. A dog, light-skinned and in good health trotted to sit next to her, she scratched it behind the ears, the whine of the dog setting her on edge.
"You don't hunt dogs?" I shook my head; I didn't hunt dogs.
"Good. Turn down that fucking thing already numbnuts. You're scaring my dogs." Alec did end up turning down the volume of the tv, but only by a fraction. Rachel returned to her room but not before eyeing me again.
"That's Rachel, a dog lover. Don't do anything to dogs and she's kind of nice, not very talkative." Sandwich in hand Lisa grabbed my sleeve and led me down to a purple door. Inside was a cosy double bed, a desk that was in good condition, a laptop and two extra monitors sat on the desk. A comfy chair centred the room around it and rolled around on the plush carpet covering the decrepit tiling. A purple lava lamp sat in the corner, the goo oozing up and down.
"Me casa. Go take a shower, I've got an extra set of clothes, be careful, I turn a lot when I sleep." The water was warm, and her clothes were comfy if a bit short and revealing. The black tank top felt a bit baggy on me and the white shorts hugged my hips a bit. Still, I didn't speak further and collapsed on the bed.
A tangle of limbs was what I found myself waking to, Lisa was hugging me, her arm crossing over my body and a leg locking me into place. Could be worse. I turned and snuggled up into her, her warmth lending a bit to let me sleep more.