There was a Pirates of the Carribean character in the last chapter, just so you know.
X-overs for this chapter: Young Justice
"I have a mysterious cooler! I have a mysterious cooler! And guess what's inside it!" Bree chanted as she pulled a wheeled cooler that was chained shut down the hall.
"I have a mysterious cooler! I have a mysterious cooler!" She opened the door to the room Bane was being kept in. "And guess what's inside it."
She pulled the cooler into the room and put it in front of Bane. Something was obviously trying to escape. Bree sat down on the cooler.
"I got bored after leaving you alone with the dubstep so I went out about six hours ago. I found this awesome market. Hagrid would love it. So would snake face, come to think of it… Anyway, I bought this thing." Bree patted the cooler and grinned. "When I got back one of the henchmen told that they caught the guy that was sneaking around outside so I figured I'd leave it with you for safe keeping."
Bree got up undid the chains in place before fleeing the room and slamming the door shut behind her.
Bree stared, and stared, and stared some more.
"Uh boss, are you alright?" one of the henchmen asked.
"Batman is going to punch me in the face." Bree muttered.
"What?" the henchman questioned.
"Batman. Is going. To punch me. In. The. Face." Bree repeated, turning to glare at the henchman. "You've kidnapped Batman's kid. Batman is going to come here and he is going to be furious." She growled.
"So we just use the kid for leverage." Another henchman suggested. Bree slowly turned to the man, catlike eyes wide and unblinking.
"You want to use Batman's kid for leverage." She stated in a voice devoid of any emotion.
"Yes?" the henchman replied uncertainly.
"Bane wanted to use me for leverage, and you remember how that worked out." Bree said.
The henchman cringed.
"Yeah. That was a terrible idea and you should feel terrible." Bree chided. She turned back to the captured sidekick who had been watching the conversation.
"You already got out of the cuffs, didn't you?" She asked.
"No." Robin replied just a bit too quickly. Bree sighed and rubbed her temples.
"I am foreseeing a lot of pain in my immediate future. That's how these things go for me. Really the only reason I stuck around after Bane nabbed me was for the convenient meat shields between me and the outside, but if Robin's here that means things are about to get exciting. Last time things got exciting for me I woke up on a smugglers ship as the cargo." She stated.
"So what are you going to do?" a henchman asked.
"I quit." Bree answered.
"You can't do that!" Another henchman protested.
"You guys only follow my orders because I scare you. Are you really going to stop me?" Bree asked. No one replied.
"That's what I thought." Bree stated. "Right, so, that's it then. This is no longer my problem. I don't know whose problem it is, but it's not mine. So have fun beating up the henchmen, Bane's down the hall duct taped to a chair and trapped in a room with a thing." She told Robin.
"Is that were the screaming is coming from?" he asked.
"Yeah, but it's a baby so it's not like it can do anything lethal, just extremely traumatizing and psychologically scarring. Hopefully that'll teach Bane not to abduct someone that came to Colombia to escape danger. Good luck getting the thing back in its cooler. Bye." And with that Bree turned at ran out of the warehouse.
There was something in the woods and it was watching Bree. It made it difficult for her to hotwire the truck she intended to steal since she had keep looking over her shoulder to make sure whatever was watching her wasn't about to attack. At first she had thought it was nothing, there were a lot of animals in the rainforest making noises that Bree wasn't familiar with but were probably commonplace in that area. That wasn't it.
Once someone has mastered their animagus form they tend to shift from human to animal form ignoring the in-between phases they had to master first, which is unfortunate since the in-between phases could be useful. Bree's animagus form was a cat. A Cheshire cat but that's not really important right now.
Cats have much better night vision than humans and have a larger field of view and a superior sense of smell. A human at the edge of a rainforest at dusk would benefit from these senses. Bree was smart enough to take advantage of this. She modified her eyes and nose. Her pupils became catlike and her nose flattened out a bit. There was a side effect of claws and pointed ears. The claws made it harder to deal with the wiring of the vehicle Bree had selected and the ears were pretty much useless since the big advantage of a cat's hearing came from the ability to swivel its ears to pin point the location of a sound and human ears were in the wrong place for swiveling.
Even so, Bree was able to take advantage of the other improved senses available to her and from there she was able to determine that there was something in the rainforest that didn't belong there. It didn't smell like the other creatures in the forest. They all smelled like they belonged there. Whatever was watching her had picked up a lot of different scents as if it had been traveling, but beneath it all its base scent was… home. That was probably the most unnerving part. A strange being watching you from the forest should not smell that familiar.
The truck Bree was working on whined and sputtered before the engine roared to life. Bree grinned. Just as she was putting the truck in gear someone popped up next to the driver's side window, then she looked at the sky and went pale. It wasn't dusk anymore, in the night and the full moon was out. A wolf's howl resonated from the forest. Bree felt chills running down her spine as she ran back into the warehouse and sealed the door.
The henchmen were now tied up on the floor. Bane had been brought out and the thing had been put back its cooler. Bane took one look and Bree and began cursing at her in Spanish. Of course Bree could understand every word of it that's to the translation key.
"I thought you left." Robin stated. Bree noticed that he had been joined by Aqualad and Miss Martian.
"You should untie them." Bree said.
"What? You're not going to help them now are you?" Robin asked incredulously, readying himself for a fight.
"No. But their current position brings the term "fish in a barrel" to mind." Bree answered as something slammed itself against the door. "Actually "lambs in a slaughterhouse" would be more accurate."
"What new evil have you brought here?" Bane demanded.
"Oh it's not a "new" evil. It's an old evil. An English werewolf to be precise." Bree replied, looking serious. She could almost swear that she could see her breathe. No, not almost, definitely. The temperature had dropped rapidly and Bree was feeling a sense of dread. She pulled out a knife and began freeing the henchmen.
"Stupid conscience." She muttered to herself.
"You can't just let them go!" Miss Martian protested.
"The choices are let them go or let them die." Bree responded as the lights began to flicker out.
"Don't let it bite you and avoid any cold spots." She instructed. "The bastard brought a friend you won't be able to see."
"An invisible werewolf?" one of the henchmen questioned.
"No. A soul sucking phantom. But there could be another werewolf." Bree answered. "Now if you're going to run, stay out of the way, if you're going to fight, shoot to kill."
"According to legend werewolves are cursed humans. By killing one wouldn't you be killing a human?" Aqualad inquired.
"Yes. A human that would like to torture me to death." Bree growled as she finished cutting Bane loose.
The last light went out, plunging the warehouse into darkness. The door finally gave way and the werewolf burst in, backlit by the moonlight. Bree was glad her eyes were still transfigured.
"It really is a werewolf!" someone exclaimed. Bree felt like smacking the man but there was really no time for that. Most of the henchmen turned and ran. The few braver ones fired the guns they had picked up after Bree had freed then at the werewolf. The wolf dashed forward and began flinging the henchman across the room.
Robin threw a bolo which momentarily tripped up the wolf, but it quickly tore through the bolo. Miss Martian levitated a few crates into the werewolf's path while Aqualad assisted the injured henchmen. Bree pulled out a Glock which was preloaded with silver bullets.
The wolf bashed through the crates, spilling the contents to the floor. It wasn't just drugs kept in the warehouse. There were other items as well. Some were to make the warehouse look legitimate and others were supplies needed to keep the operation running.
Bree fired her gun and the wolf let out and angry snarl. One of its arms was virtually useless since a bullet had lodged itself in one shoulder and it was forced to limp after another bullet ripped through its thigh.
Bree noticed that Robin had frozen up. She saw what the problem was and cursed.
"Expecto Patronum!" she shouted as she rushed forward and pulled the Boy Wonder away from the Dementor that was attacking him. The Patronus from of Bree's dog, Roman, tackled the Dementor. Robin was obviously out of it so Bree shoved him toward Miss Martian just in time to be blindsided by the werewolf.
She crashed through one of the crates, dropping her gun in the process, and found herself in a pile of bottles, some of which were leaking fluid either from the impact or from stray bullets. Bree picked up one of the bottles. Motor oil, and now she was covered in it.
She quickly uncapped the bottle as the werewolf began lumbering toward her. She flung the liquid into the wolf's face. The wolf roared in anger and wiped at its eyes. Bree scrambled away. She slipped in the oil. As tried and failed to get up, since she was covered in oil, someone grabbed her and pulled her up.
"We should run now while it's distracted." Bree told her savior.
"Agreed." Aqualad replied.
Once outside Bree had to dodge a bone breaking hex aimed at her legs. There were two Death Eaters, one was the Grimsley woman from the ship and the other as an unfamiliar male.
"I run and they follow. Sometimes I regret not renegotiating the price." Bree muttered. She evaluated the situation. Two Death Eaters, one temporally blinded in a warehouse, a Dementor was lurking around somewhere, there was still something in the forest and Robin was still sort of out of it.
The best thing to do in this situation was to run. The Death Eaters would follow her. They always followed her, but just in case.
"Your boss will be pretty upset once he finds out you let me get away again!" she shouted before running towards the forest. A cutting curse grazed her shoulder and the Grimsley woman apparated in front of her. Bree disarmed her, punched her in the face and sprinted into the rainforest.
Predictably, the Death Eaters followed. Bree had an advantage over the Death Eaters. With her eyes still transfigured she could avoid branches and tree roots that would otherwise impede her. One of the Death Eaters got in a lucky shot that got Bree in the back and sent her tumbling across the forest floor. She scrambled to get back up and barely avoided getting hit by the Cruciatus curse.
The Death Eaters began firing spells at Bree. She dodged, deflected, and countered them while moving closer to her attackers. She got the woman in the solar plexus and swept the man's feet out from under him then stupefied them both before they had time to recover.
"Wizards really are useless when it comes to alternate means of fighting." She told them. There was a howl in the distance. Bree shifted into her animagus form and disappeared into the forest.
Bree injuries amounted to splinters from the crates, a shallow cut across her shoulder, and bruises and scratches from her tumble. She managed to treat her injuries on her own and finally made it to Puerto Ayora two days after leaving the warehouse behind.
Puerto Ayora was the largest town in the Galapagos and was located on Santa Cruz Island. Bree spent most of her time as the cat. Being a cat was great. She could loiter wherever she wanted and it never looked suspicious and sometimes people would give her free food or scratch behind her ears. Best of all, no one minded if cats rode the tortoises. They just gawked and took pictures and videos. Bree had to hide her excited grin since she didn't feel like drawing attention to her and cats should not grin.
She visited the beaches and explored nooks and crannies and tide pools that weren't normally assessable to humans. She battled with a few large crabs and poked at the smaller ones. At one point she gave into her instincts and caught and ate a small fish that had been trapped by the tide.
The stray cats she encountered were all somewhat wary of her. They seemed to notice that she wasn't an ordinary cat. The kittens, however, didn't treat her differently from other cats and would often try to catch her twitching tail when she was napping or would try to get her to play. The mother cats seemed to warm up a bit when it became apparent that Bree had no ill intentions but they still kept an eye on her, ready to act if she tried to harm one of the kittens.
On the few occasions she did shift to human form while in Puerto Ayora she bought a few small souvenirs, swam, and ate at a restaurant. After a few days she left the island and headed toward New Zealand. It was really a beautiful country with rolling green hills, crystal clear waters, and sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men used sheep to escape from a Cyclops. On a Tuesday Bree used a herd of sheep to hide from Death Eaters.
She got away and examined the list of relatives Wes had given her. There were a few that lived outside of the USA. She decided to go back to Japan. She had a cousin who had moved to Japan in sometime after the last family reunion and Bree hadn't known about it.
Blaire Andrews had moved to Tokyo to be an English teacher. She had light brown hair and blue eyes and had taught linguistics in America but had decided to move for the cultural experience. Her husband, Aaron, was a robotic engineer that had been fired since he would often move ahead on a project without waiting for approval from his bosses so he now worked out of a shed in the backyard.
"I'm so glad you could come visit us, but I thought you were too young to be out of school." Blaire stated as she led Bree to the guest room.
"Well, technically I'm not out of school. There was a clerical error so I'm registered as the founder, headmistress, and only student of my own school that I've been attending for the last two years." Bree explained.
"What do your parents have to say about that?" Blaire inquired.
"Well, up until a few months ago I was still going to my old school but then the Headmaster was murdered and his murderer became the new headmaster. He got off due to some technicality because the investigators fumbled up, so they really didn't want me going back there." Bree replied.
"That's terrible!" Blaire exclaimed.
"Yeah, but now I have this great opportunity to travel. It's been a great learning experience." Bree said.
"I suppose." Blaire muttered.
The next morning Bree found herself at the breakfast table with Aaron after Blaire had gone to work. They had already finished eating and Bree was watching three small robots wash the dishes.
"Why haven't they shorted out?" Bree inquired.
"They're clockwork." Aaron explained, running a hand through reddish brown hair. "People are always looking for the next new technology but sometimes you just need to be creative with the old ones. These are a few of my simplest designs. The first one washes the dishes and passes them to the next who dries them and passes them to the final one who stacks them."
The robot had run out of dishes to clean and Bree picked one up.
"They keep going until they run out of power." Aaron stated. "I have a few more advanced ones for setting the table that stop once the job is done."
"They're kind of cute." Bree said as she but the robot down.
"Our neighbors have bought a few as toys for their children. The kids really enjoy them and the parents like that they don't need to buy batteries." Aaron said. "I wish more people could see the appeal of this kind of technology. It could help with the energy crisis since it doesn't rely on an outside energy source for power."
"I think you'd have to create more than dishwashing robots before anyone would consider that." Bree replied.
"I've been working on that along with other technologies that have been left behind. If I could make it comparable to current technology it could change everything! No longer would we be at the mercy of big oil and the power grid!" Aaron declared. Bree stared. Aaron coughed awkwardly.
"The first step would be to make systems that can act as a backup in case of power failure and then slowly phase out the devices they're meant to be a backup for." He continued, regaining his composure.
"So… You want the whole world to be like one of those fictional steampunk worlds?" Bree questioned.
"Well… yes." Aaron replied.
"Cool." Bree replied.
Bree visited Nerima as a cat. She sat on the fence of the Tendo Dojo and saw something rather odd, even by Nerima standards. Ranma was in is girl form, going by the name Ranko and Genma was pretending to be Ranko's pet panda and there was a woman Bree hadn't seen before staying at the dojo.
Bree leapt off the fence and into the yard, time to find the source of this insanity. Kasumi and the mystery woman were hanging laundry outside which meant that Bree was free to speak to anyone in the house without being overheard.
She transformed a stretched. This time she hadn't chosen any particular style, she had just seen clothes she wanted and bought them and made an outfit. Her hair was blue with black tips and she was wearing dark blue sleeveless turtleneck with a high and wide collar the she could easier hide her face in if she wanted to and her pants had more zippers than they really needed to. She had decided to wear her favorite boots, black arm warmers with blue accents, and had folded up the red bandana she had gotton from Mama and was wearing it like a headband to cover her scar.
"Hey Ranma." Bree greeted. Ranma jumped and whirled around. He- she covered Bree's mouth with his hand.
"Shh! Do you want her to hear you?" she hissed. Bree bit her.
"Ow! What was that for?" she complained, rubbing her hand. She glared at Bree for a moment before her eyes widened with realization.
"Eris!" she exclaimed.
"Hi." Bree replied dryly.
"But what hap- I mean- where did- who were-" Ranma struggled to form a question.
"Try again when you can form a sentence." Bree replied. "Now, who is the new lady and are you pretending to be a real girl?"
"She's my mother." Ranma mumbled.
"That explains everything. No wait, I meant nothing, that explains nothing." Bree replied.
"When I was really little pops and I signed a contract that said he would turn me into "a man amongst men" and if he didn't we'd both commit seppuku. That's why I can't let her find out about the curse. She thinks that I'm Akane's cousin from the countryside." Ranma explained. Bree stared blankly.
"And other people know about the seppuku contract?" she questioned, keeping her voice even.
"Yeah, Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki, and their dad." Ranma replied.
"And they haven't done anything about it?" Bree asked.
"They've been helping-" Ranma began but Bree cut him off.
"Have they done anything other than help you lie to your mother?" she inquired.
"No." Ranma replied, not really understanding what she was asking. Bree squeezed her eyes shut, pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed in and out slowly and deeply.
"Are you okay?" Ranma asked.
"No. I'm not okay." Bree answered. "I shouldn't have come back. I'm not supposed to do this. I'm not supposed to- I'm not supposed to- I'm not supposed to-"
"Not supposed to what?" Ranma questioned.
"Care. I'm a debt collector; I'm not supposed to care about the people I'm collecting from. I'm not supposed to care about you, your screwed up childhood, your screwed up life, or your abusive parents." Bree snarled.
"My parents never hit me!" Ranma protested. "Well, not outside of training anyway."
Bree opened her eyes and let her hand fall to her side. "I meant emotional abuse." She stated looking Ranma in the eye. "The best word I can think of to describe your father is "unfit." He is a perfect example of what not to do as a parent. All of the problems in your life can be traced back to him."
Ranma got denfesive. "You can't talk about" Bree cut him off.
"Would you raise your children the way he raised you?" she asked. Ranma faltered.
"What?" she questioned.
"Assuming you have children in the future, would you raise him the way he raised you?" Bree inquired.
"Of course not." Ranma answered.
"So why do you have such a problem with me criticizing him?" Bree questioned. "Espeacially when you've made similar statements."
"Okay, but Mom never did anything." Ranma mumbled.
"She let your father take you and is holding you to a seppuku contact that you probably signed before you even knew what seppuku was. There's also the fact that the definition of a "man amongst men" is subjective. Seppuku is less social acceptable now that westernization is setting in and if I were to call the police they would come here and arrest your parents." Bree stated. Ranma went pale.
"You can't do that!" he protested. Bree sighed. She didn't want to fight with Ranma.
"I want to talk to your mother. Just give me some time alone to think." She said.
A little while after talking to Ranma, Bree had a plan worked out and left the room she had sequestered herself in.
"Okay. Introduce me to her." She told Ranma.
"Right uh, this way." She said and started to walk away.
"Wait." Bree requested. Ranma stoped and looked over her shoulder at Bree. Bree wouldn't look her in the eye.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." She said.
"It's fine, it's not like you did anything." Ranma replied. The corners of Bree's mouth twitched slightly.
"I'm sorry." She repeated. "Let's go."
Saotome Nodoka was a kindly woman wearing a kimono. He had brown hair and brown eyes and was very pretty. She could have done a lot better than Genma and it begged the questioned, how in the world did the two get together?
She bowed to Bree after they were introduced.
"I'm pleased to meant of friend of Ranma's." she said.
"I'm American. I don't bow." Bree replied flatly. Nodoka straightened up.
"Oh, forgive me, what's the American tradition?" she asked. Bree stuck out her hand.
"Handshake." She replied, expressionless. Nodoka took Bree's hand and Bree moved their hands up and down once before letting go. Nodoka was obviously unsure what do about Bree's behavior.
"I'm only talking to you because I care about Ranma." Bree stated.
"You do?" Nodoka questioned.
"Not in any romantic sense of the word. Humans are naturally empathic. It's what keeps us from indiscriminately killing each other to get ahead in life. It's not really encouraged in my line of work, but in this case it's a bit too late." Bree responded.
"What is your line of work?" Nodoka asked.
"I'm a debt collector. I'm not supposed to empathize with the people I collect from. I'm supposed to be ruthless and accept no excuses, like bills, or having to feed children. I'm not really good at that yet. Actually I first came to the Tendo dojo to collect a debt from your husband. He sold your son to my Aunt in exchange for a meal. I was supposed to send Ranma to England to work for my Aunt. Obviously, I didn't. I saw the family dynamic at work here and I didn't have the heart to break it up so I settled for monetary compensation and a place to stay for a while." Bree explained. Nodoka looked shocked and may have wanted to say something, but Bree kept talking.
"I came back here today on a whim and found out what was going on and I was shocked, I mean, how can you call yourself a mother if you're going to force your son to kill himself?" she asked. Nodoka frowned.
"You obviously don't know much about Japanese culture." She replied.
"I know that Ranma was too young to understand what he was agreeing to. I know that there was no set time limit and I know that the definition for a "man amongst men" is subjective. I know that no sane mother would force their child to kill themselves." Bree paused as the sound of sirens filled the air.
"I know that we're about to find out what your government's opinion about this is, because I called the police." Bree continued grimly.
Nodoka complied with the police but Genma had to be tazed. Many of the neighbors came out to see the spectacle and they cheered when Genma was put in the back of the squad car.
Ranko was clenching and unclenching her fists and she watched the police take her parents away.
"I told you not to call the police." She growled a Bree.
"No, you told I couldn't call the police." Bree replied. "Obviously, you were wrong." The boy-turned-girl was in front of Bree before she could react and grabbed her by her shirt.
"I'm not supposed to hit girls, but I'm a girl now too…" Ranma trailed off threateningly.
"My face would cave in." Bree replied flatly. Ranma let her go and ran off.
"That was a horrible thing for you to do." Akane commented.
"Letting Ranma die would be a horrible thing to do. This, this is just painful." Bree responded tiredly, her shoulders sagging. "I did what no one else would, now Ranma won't be forced to kill himself, even if he spends the rest of his life hating me at least he'll be alive."
Akane stepped forward and slapped her.
"That probably would have hurt more if your opinion mattered to me." Bree stated. "It doesn't. I don't have the slightest amount of respect for you. Ranma I respect, his life has been hell and he's managed to get through it without going insane. You on the other hand are a silly little girl who throws a tantrum when something upsets you slightly. What you do to Ranma could be defined as domestic abuse in most cases. God have mercy on the man you marry because you'll end up on TV someday, and not in a good way." Akane slapped her again and then stormed into the house. Bree rubbed her cheek.
"That really should have hurt more…" she muttered.
"You really know how to upset people, don't you?" Nabiki said from behind her. Bree turned around.
"If I cared about that I wouldn't be where I am today." Bree stated.
"Is that why those men were chasing you before?" Nabiki questioned.
Bree just shrugged. "I think I'll go now." She mumbled and began walking away.
"Wait!" Bree stopped but didn't turn around.
"Going to lecture me too Kasumi?" she asked.
"No. I just wanted to say thank you." Kasumi replied. Bree blinked and turned.
"What?" she asked incredulously.
"What you did hurt Ranma, but in the end it was for the best. I'm sure Ranma will realize it too someday." Kasumi explained.
"If you say so." Bree mumbled.
"Goodbye."
"I'm back." Bree called from Blaire's entryway as she took off her boots.
"In here." Blaire called from the kitchen.
"Is that a rice ball making robot?" Bree questioned when she walked in, pointing at a small copper robot that was forming a rice ball while standing next to a neatly arranged plate of rice balls.
"Yes." Blaire replied. Bree picked up a riceball and found that it was filled with tuna.
"It's good." She stated.
"Yes, I just had to prepare the ingredients and he got right to work." Blaire responded. "It's nice having these little helpers around. It gives me more time to do other things."
"Kind of surprising though, wasn't Aaron working with some pretty advanced stuff before?" Bree questioned.
"Well, yes, but he did suggest looking into older technologies, but since the research was being back by a company looking for advancement, well, it ended up being one of the reasons he got fired. He ended up becoming completely devoted to the older technologies to get back at his old bosses." Blaire explained.
"Ah." Bree said. "Can't even marry into this family without being some kind of screwed up, huh?"
"That's why we love each other. Normal families would take a deeper look into your situation, now wouldn't they? But we trust you enough not to look into it." Blaire stated.
"You mean you trust Wes enough." Bree corrected.
Blaire said nothing.
The next morning the Tendo Dojo was on the front page of the paper. Bree stared at the article until the words translated.
PARENTS FORCE SEPPUKU CONTRACT ON SON! Yesterday Saotome Genma and his wife Nodoka were arrested. Genma already had an outstanding warrant for charges including assault and theft. His sweet tempered wife had no previous record but was found carrying a katana by arresting officers. The arrest happened after an anonymous tipster called the police.
Bree stopped reading. She knew this story.
"Are we really doing this?" Bree asked Blaire. They were sitting in a restaurant and Bree was glaring down at the plates on the table
"It's good to try new things." Blaire replied. Bree scowled at her.
"People are going you two are my parents." She muttered.
"Don't change the subject." Blaire replied. "Anyway, it's not all that different from the rice balls and you like those."
"The fish in the rice balls was cooked. This is raw." Bree pointed out.
"Aaron said the same thing at first and look at him now." Blaire said. They both looked at Aaron who had a piece of sushi halfway to his mouth.
"Please leave me out of it." He requested.
"Just try a piece." Blaire insisted. Bree picked a piece and ate it.
"Not bad." She commented. Blaire frowned at her.
"You have to try more than just a cucumber roll." She stated. Bree sighed and picked up a piece of salmon. She eyed it warily before taking a bite.
"Well?" Blaire questioned.
"It's fishy." Bree replied. Blaire sighed.
Alice wasn't oblivious. She knew damn well that she was being followed. She also knew that the people following her were there to protect her, a fact that was proven when a potential mugger pulled into an alley and beaten up when he targeted Alice. Really, what was the point of running away if your parents were going to send bodyguards/paid stalkers?
At least her parents were getting their money's worth. The longest Alice had managed to ditch her bodyguards was four hours in New York.
Currently Alice was on her way to the west coast. After the Mission city incident things had gotten pretty quiet and Alice felt fairly confident that Bree had left the states. In any case, after the giraffe incident Bree wouldn't be in San Diego and Alice wanted to have her own memories of the city rather than rely on Bree's.
Alice will have her own adventures soon. I just need to get things planned out.
