The twins had known what they were looking out for. Had even expected it, but they still couldn't stifle their disgust at the sight of the van as it pulled into the driveway. The same van that had originally dropped them off at Junior's. The windows had been blacked out, to avoid curious onlookers discovering too much, and blended almost seamlessly into the black paint job. It had been nigh invisible in the distance where there hadn't been any streetlamps, seemingly slipping from the shadows but a few hundred yards down the road. The sight was nightmarish to the twins, bringing back too many dark memories too quickly. The nightmare realised further as he stepped out of the driver's side door.
It was taking all of Miltia willpower to restrain herself from lashing out at him, giving into her blood-lust would be so easy and she wanted it, but her actions affected Junior too and she couldn't bring herself to sully his name knowingly. Melanie had no such reservations. Her hand began to reach for the handgun Junior had given her for self-defence, as she stormed over to him. He saw her coming and donned that malicious grin that haunted them in their sleep, only finding solace in the fact that it wasn't real, only now it was.
"Well, if it isn't the Malachite twins. My, how you have grown." His words came out in a mocking tone with a small chuckling escaping at the end. Melanie gritted her teeth letting out a growl as she did so. She swiftly drew her handgun with practised ease and aimed it to his forehead. He didn't even flinch as the cold metal pressed into his skull. His smile never faltered as he continued to speak. "It seems you aren't so happy to see me. I can't blame you after all, even I admit I might have had too much fun with you two." He emphasised the word in a hushed whisper that only they could hear. Melanie flinched, a memory playing in her head, it was all he needed.
Suddenly Apep's hand shot to her stomach forcing her to double over, the gun tumbling to the floor with a metallic clatter. Melanie was sent sprawling, coughing and spluttering as she did so. Apep reached out with his other hand causing the part where he had struck her to glow and her body to fly towards him. He drew back his fist for another strike on the white themed twin, only to meet air as he swung forward. He stumbled off balance slightly as he noticed Miltia ducked low where her sister had previously been. She drove her knee into his stomach causing him to take a few steps back, winded but otherwise fine. The fury in the red twin's eyes spoke volumes of her self-control as she spat her message at him.
"Give us the children and leave! The boss will be back in an hour and I don't want to have to explain to him why there is a body on the road outside." The threat didn't intimidate the man, but he seemed to resign himself to her demands. He may not have feared the twins themselves, but he wasn't willing to make Junior and by extension most of the criminal underbelly of Vale an enemy just for a little fun.
"Alright, alright, just know I won't be so forgiving next time one of you attack me." He messaged his stomach for a moment before heading towards the back of the van. Miltia turned to look at her sister who was slowly picking herself off of the floor and glaring daggers at the trafficker. Using her semblance, she spoke.
'We could have beat him' The statement was a lot more confident than she looked but Miltia decided it best that she not prod her sister's pride in her current state. She rested a hand on her shoulder in her best effort to comfort her sister.
'I know, but we have got to think about June too. We don't want him getting caught up in our mess after everything he has done for us.' Melanie nodded at her sister's words. Truthfully, both of them knew that they probably wouldn't have been able to beat him if the fight had continued. Apep may have been thin in build but still had years of experience of street fighting over them, and unlike the average club brawler her possessed an aura just like they did. Miltia seemed to notice her frustration and continued. 'Look I know you want to get our revenge, but we have to think about what is at stake here and now. We have years to get stronger and we have to comfort the newbies too. Besides, I'm sure they want a chance to pay him back too.'
Before either could say anything more their mental conversation was interrupted by a rough clearing of a throat. The twins looked round to a sight that almost broke their hearts. They had grown accustomed to men and women being hurt on a daily basis, but what they saw almost made them attack the trafficker all over again.
They beheld two girls who stood just in front of him, their heads down and feet together as he had a hand against each of their backs, making both arch their backs in response to the touch, as if it would burn them if it was too firmly pressed against them. The first girl they noticed wore a blue cheongsam with silver characters going up one side. Her skin was a light brown hue and her hair was a darker shade of brown. She was thin even for one of Apep's subjects, this concerned the twins, but they continued to study the pair before speaking up. To their relief she looked otherwise healthy and unharmed.
The other girl was a different story. She wore a red and gold version of the other girl's cheongsam but otherwise wore the same thing. Her hair was raven black that slowly which shifted slowly to a deep red as it neared the tips and she sported startling blood red eyes as she met their gaze. Her skin was pale, a stark contrast as the bruises and welts that littered her exposed arms and face. The twins gasped in horror as they beheld her, and pity swelled in their minds as they saw her shake at Apep's touch. She couldn't have been any older than eight and yet she had already seen more of the twisted parts of the world than most adults could claim.
Miltia felt Melanie ball her fists in barely restrained anger beside her. Apep noticed too and once again wore a toothy grin, taunting the twins by running a hand down one side of the red clad girl's face. Tears could be seen forming in the corners of her eyes as she stiffened at his touch.
"Meet Ilia Amitola," he gestured to the brown skinned girl who looked up at them pleadingly. "And Ruby Rose." He shoved the pair forward causing them to stumble. The twins caught them and looked up, almost snarling at him as he walked back over to his van, waving over his shoulder as he did so. "Tell Junior that I hope he enjoys his new toys, but if he ever gets bored with them, I wait with open arms." He was almost cackling at the end as he closed the driver side door behind him. Seconds later the nightmarish van once again disappeared into the dark murk of the city.
"Asshole." Melanie spoke aloud, too pissed off to bother concealing it in her mind. Her sister hummed her agreement and they both turned to look at the girls who stood before them. The one he had called Ilia was slowly backing away from them, fear evident in her grey eyes. The other girl, Ruby, seemed to sway on her feet, swinging back and forth before eventually falling forward. Miltia caught her, but when she felt the dead weight of the girl she realised she had passed out. She slowly moved her palm to feel the girl's forehead, and almost pulled back at the temperature that she was met with. She was burning up.
"Melanie!" her sister whirled round from trying to comfort the other girl. "She passed out and feels like she could melt at any moment. I'll take them inside go get June and tell him we need medical attention now." Melanie nodded, whispering into Ilia's ear something that seemed to calm her down before running off towards the club.
The music in the club picked up in volume, drowning out the laughing and chatting of the club members within its lull. Fog machines spewed forth a thin mist that crawled along the floor like a cool phantom, swirling around the unsuspecting feet of the club-goers. There were around one hundred people filling out the dance floor and the surrounding booths, whilst the club could comfortably fit three times as many people, it was still early hours and Junior had been thankful for the slow start. This way he could get slightly drunk without the risk that his club went up in flames whilst he wasn't in his right mind. He wouldn't risk going overboard, business could change on the flip of a coin in the underbelly of Vale, but he could allow himself to slacken slightly. He slammed down the bottle of whiskey he had finished on the bar counter, letting out a loud satisfied gasp as he did so.
The alcohol hadn't been the best quality, but he had intended to drink it too quickly to enjoy the taste and instead decided the burn in his throat was all he needed for now. Still he had always been a sucker for a strong drink and often enough flavour didn't matter to him anymore. He called over for another bottle. Jax who was manning the bar, simply raised his eyebrows but slid a cheap bottle of whiskey across the bar counter.
Jax was a tall and stocky man with short black hair with purple highlights near the top and clothes identical to Junior's with the exception of the lack of a red tie and instead the white button-up shirt was unbuttoned at the top three buttons displaying a toned chest. Junior wouldn't generally tolerate an employee breaking dress code, but he let Jax off under the guise of him being his most trusted friend as well as his staff member. Besides many a lonely woman would stay in his club for an extra drink or two just to try and chat-up Jax. Whilst Junior looked larger and stronger, both of them knew that Jax could likely break his back over his knee if he wanted to. Not to say that Junior was a push over, but Jax was simply a monster in the ring and had a reputation of being a good fighter even outside of the club.
The two had grown up on the streets together, looking out for one another after their orphanage went under. Most of his staff were from that orphanage. The two of them had been the oldest children and had taken it upon themselves to look after the others when they had been released onto the streets. Most of the grunts he used for dirty work had been the younger children, with the more superior members of his clubs' staff being people closer to his age.
Junior's musing on the past had been interrupted by a loud slam as the main entrance to the club had been flung open. He sighed to himself and swivelled the bar stool he was sat on around. To his surprise he was awarded with the sight of Melanie which appeared slightly out of breath as she spotted him and called out to him as she ran over. He had expected a rowdy brawler, who was drunk or had been denied entry for various reasons, he hadn't expected this. She reached him quickly, the clacking of her heels giving him a dull headache as she got closer.
"June! We have a problem. One of the girls that Apep dropped off suddenly collapsed and has a scalding temperature." Junior sobered up quickly at the mention of the girls and the trafficker. Jax put down the glass he was wiping down and walked over at the commotion. Junior stood up and put two fingers to his mouth before letting out a loud, shrill whistle. The response was immediate and before the minute was up three new figures run up to the huge manager along with Jax and Melanie.
"Jax, I need you to fetch Joy from her apartment, she's supposed to be off duty tonight, but this is more important, tell her I'll make it up to her." The burly man let out an affirmative hum before running off towards the back entrance of the club. Junior whirled round to the others present. "Mavis." He turned to a short brown skinned woman with a red and white sports jacket and dark blue jeans, a black beanie covering one eye and the top of her head. "I need you on the roof of the apartment building. You know what Apep's van looks like right?" she nodded and grunted simultaneously. "Good, keep an eye out for it and find me if you see it nearby." She jogged off without even acknowledging the last sentence, but Junior knew she got the orders. She may have had an attitude, but she was loyal to a fault and would listen to almost anything he told her to do.
"Jack." A tall well-dressed man straightened at his name being called. He wore the uniform of the establishment, a black waist coat and white shirt with a red tie around his neck. His soft green eyes betrayed, that unlike most of Junior's staff, he had no place in a fight. He was an older man, in his late sixties, who had worked at the orphanage before it shut down, he felt responsible for the fate of the children and so offered to help in any way he could, when Junior found himself with more money he offered the man a job as repayment. He was part of Junior's three-man medical team, though he had no medical training, but his semblance was useful in that regard. "Go with Melanie back to the apartment and help in any way you can but prepare for Joy to get there." The older man nodded and followed the white twin out of the main entrance though he could not match her pace he was spry for a man his age.
"Jill" the last figure looked up at him, her hazel brown eyes calming his slight panic, before he shook himself of the lull. She wore a revealing blue dress that cut low but had slits along the skirt length giving a generous display of the attractive legs beneath. "I need you to call Roman and tell him that I am unavailable for a business chat today. Make up some story if you need to, something about being ill if need be, but tell him that I only do business in person and so he'll have to wait until I'm available" she nodded before walking calmly into the back of the bar which served as her 'office', in reality it was simply where the club had its only computer and the best signal for calls. Her semblance was another useful one, one that made calls to dangerous people much easier than they had any right to be.
A short blonde man took up Jax's absence behind the bar as if rehearsed to do so and Junior began his walk back towards his apartment. What a night.
The girl writhed feverishly as Miltia struggled to pin her unconscious form to the bed that the twins shared. Ruby's skin was slick with sweat making her failing grip slip further along the flailing limbs as the girl convulsed in front of her as if possessed by some demon, fighting for control. The occasional moan and whimper escaping the girl's lips as she tossed and turned. Ilia stood, looking on concerned as the nightmarish scene played out. She flinched at the sound of the apartment door suddenly flying open, bouncing off of the door stop as two figures rushed through.
The first was the girl she had seen before, the one who had attempted to comfort her, out of breath and frenzied as she scanned the apartment to search for the source of the commotion. Her light green eyes shot to Ilia who hurriedly pointed in the direction of the other twin and the smaller girl. Melanie gave a curt nod and turned to the other figure who emerged from the doorway behind her.
He was older and had his hands on his knees as he attempted to regain his breath. Ilia initially backed away from the suited man, fear filling her form, experience screaming at her to run from the man before he locked her up just like the rest of them did. However, as he looked up her fear slowly dissipated, his calm, kind eyes displayed none of the malice she had seen in the other men, no ulterior motive, just concern and exhaustion. The white twin spoke after taking a gulp of air.
"Jack she's through there." She gestured to the bedroom where the young girl was gradually growing more violent in her unconscious struggle. The older man nodded and seemed to find new vigour as he walked into the room she gestured to. The twin turned to Ilia; pity full in her eyes as she strode towards the young Faunas.
Ilia could feel her dread build up again, she couldn't help it. Too many people had at first appeared friendly just to later turn her trust into nought but regret as they sold her away. She could see in the corner of her eyes as he skin began to change colours before seemingly disappearing into the shadowed corner of the apartment. Her clothing didn't change colour with her and so displayed clearly where she stood. The older girl seemed to acknowledge the fear that was gripping Ilia and stopped her approach donning a soothing tone as she spoke.
"Everything is going to be okay. I'm not going to hurt you; I just need to make sure you're okay." She took a slow, careful step towards the partially camouflaged girl as she spoke. Closer inspection allowed her to realise that the girl hadn't actually become invisible as she had originally thought, but rather her skin, eyes and hair had changed to match the colours of the environment behind her. The small details of the terrain behind her gave her away slightly but from a distance she was otherwise completely hidden. Melanie slowly reached a hand towards the chameleon girl as she watched her slowly return to her original colour pallet. At first only her eyes became visible but slowly her hair and skin returned to their normal tan colour. Ilia reached her own hand towards the extended limb, cautious but daring.
Melanie grasped the hand in her own before gesturing for the girl to walk towards her, allowing her to move at her own pace rather than risk startling her. Ilia complied after a moment of hesitation. With the gap between them closed Melanie placed her other hand on the shoulder of the smaller girl, kneeling down to her eye level as she did so. The Faunas girl was trembling noticeably, fighting some unseen battle with her emotions. The older girl gently raised her hand, Ilia's still within its soft grasp, to the tanned face of the smaller girl. Ilia flinched away from the touch and Melanie paused before pressing again.
"It's okay, it's okay." She moved her hand forward again, this time the Faunas didn't rear away, though she watched it the whole way, trembling the all the while. Gently, Melanie pressed her slightly clammy hand onto the gaunt face before her. The girl's freckles seemed to change colour, adopting a pink hue before blinking back to their original dark brown. "I'll show you to your room, so you don't have to watch okay?" her voice was as warm as her haggard breath would allow as she spoke, it sounded raspy, but Ilia understood the desired effect and nodded slowly in confirmation.
Melanie smiled and led her by the hand, the pair disappearing from view into the corridor of the apartment building that Junior owned.
Miltia was at her wits end. The girl's feverish struggles had intensified and before she had known it, the sweating body of Ruby had vanished from her grasp leaving nothing but rose petals where she had previously been. A sudden crash drew the twin's attention to the kitchen, the sound of metallic cutlery clanging along the floor alarming her. She ran in to the kitchen to see the red clad girl flailing her limbs around, knocking pots and pans off of the counter she was splayed across.
She let out an ear ringing shriek as she suddenly began clawing at her eyes, rolling onto her sides, back and forth as she let out more cries. Miltia ran over as fast as her fatiguing limbs would allow her, trying her hardest to prevent the girl from harming herself in her unconscious rampage. She gripped the girl's wrists in her hands and attempted to force her legs together between her own, though she struggled to maintain her grip on the sweaty limbs.
"Miltia?" a calm voice forced her head to spin around to see Jack looking around for her in the bedroom. She grunted from exertion as she attempted to finally pin the girl down to the counter as she shouted back.
"In here." The older man soon emerged from the doorway horror clear on his face, before he quickly schooled it into the aged calm he always displayed in difficult situations. Miltia gave him as best a run down as she could but the struggling of the girl made it hard. "She passed out after Apep left and has a fever, I couldn't find out anything more as she began flailing around not long after passing out." The older man nodded and moved to Ruby's flailing form
Miltia watched as Jack bent down gently placing one hand on the girl's jaw and squeezing lightly, holding her head still. He moved his other hand to his mouth and used his teeth to pull off a black glove that had been covering his hand. If Miltia hadn't seen it before she might have flinched at what she saw as black veins weaved their way along his thin skin, like rivers of oil flowing beneath it. He flattened his palm before inspecting it carefully and hovering it over the girl's brow and taking a deep, exaggerated breath. Suddenly he swung his hand over the rest of her body just inches above her flesh and as if by magic as his hand moved along her form she lay still.
Jack stumbled back gasping for air, using his semblance always took a lot out of him these days, and the run had hardly helped. He looked up to see a sweaty Miltia slide her back down the wall opposite him as she too began attempting to catch her breath. He gave her a worried glance, but she waved him off and looked up at the now motionless form of the girl who had caused her so much trouble.
It always amazed her, seeing Jack use his semblance. It would be terrifying, if wielded by anyone else, but Jack would never willing hurt anyone, not that he ever needed worry about having to; his relation to Junior made sure that nobody messed with him or ever tried to manipulate him into doing something he would regret. He could stop a person's time, meaning that they wouldn't age or decay and equally they couldn't move or be harmed in any way. Whilst under the effects of his power the person became a constant that couldn't change, be it by their own will or someone else's. There were drawbacks, heavy drawbacks, and they showed. Every hour someone spent under Jack's semblance would speed up the rate of decay his cells underwent, shortening his life span. He was actually only around fifty years old, but he looked and felt at least seventy due to his semblance's toll.
"What are we going to do? You can't keep her for like that forever." Her words came out raspy and broken up between breaths. Jack paused before standing up and replying, stumbling slightly as he stood.
"Jax went to get Joy. We'll just have to hope she can do something. Otherwise we're in for a long night." Miltia nodded at his words, if anyone could help her it would be Joy; if Miltia had been religious she would have called Joy a miracle worker, she had seen many people do so and could see why. Mavis had gotten shot by a drunk with a sawn-off shotgun one night, she had barely half of her torso remaining after the shot. Most would have assumed her dead on the spot, but Joy had simply bent down and everyone watching had looked on in shock as the football sized hole slowly shrunk being replaced with baby-pink skin. Joy had fainted afterwards and not woken for the rest of the week but was otherwise no worse for wear.
Joy had lorded it over Mavis for weeks, all but forcing the girl to pay for basically everything she wanted. There was no malice behind the act and Miltia was confident that Mavis would have found some way to try and repay her debt anyway, but Joy had enjoyed the process of pushing the younger girl around for weeks more than the actual benefit she got from the exchange. Her inner musings were interrupted by the sound of the door swinging open again.
She slowly stood and turned to see Junior and Jax standing in the doorway frantically looking around for Ruby. Miltia smirked to herself as she beheld the sight; Junior and Jax acted like hardhearted killers during the daylight hours, but the moment that one of their dysfunctional family was potentially in danger they resorted to little more than muscle-headed mother hens. The two were abruptly pushed to the side by the small figure of Joy causing them to trip slightly over the nearby furniture.
Joy was short, even by Militia's standards, standing at slightly under five feet tall. Long blonde hair splayed atop her head in a hurriedly tied bun with streaks of pink mixing in along the tips. She wore a crumpled black and white chequered button-up shirt with blue fraying dungarees over the top. Her blue eyes were bloodshot, likely from a sudden awakening, and her brown boots punctuated her rushed steps with their laces untied and trailing behind. At any other time Miltia probably would have laughed at how easily the diminutive woman pushed passed the giant men with Junior standing almost an entire two feet taller than her.
"Where is she?" her tone was commanding and made it clear she was in no mood to be messed around at this time of night. Her accent was thick, having come from Vacuo, she often spoke using different lingo and dialogue than the rest of them, and Jax would sometimes tease her about it, that is until she sat him on his ass and showed him why she wore such thick-soled boots.
Miltia and Jack both pointed to the kitchen counter where the girl was frozen in time. The counter was raised and required a stool for most people to sit at, for Joy, this meant that the counter was at her eye level. She grumbled before she gestured to the bedroom where Miltia had originally tried to restrain Ruby.
"Bring 'er in 'ere". Jax complied moving swiftly towards the small red-clad girl and lifting her form off of the counter, grunting slightly from exertion; a side-effect of Jack's semblance was that whatever he froze in time became extremely hard to move. "And get those clothes off 'er" Jax suddenly paused almost dropping the girl as he blanched at Joy stuttering something incoherent. Joy let out a single amused laugh. "What? You're gonna' tell me that Jax, the lady killer 'imself, is too squeamish to undress a child who 'aven't even had her first bleed yet? Well I never." Jax opened his mouth to speak, but only a dumbfounded huff came out. Joy simply kissed her teeth before continuing. "Just put 'er on the bed and I'll do it myself ya' sissy."
Jax complied and quickly averted his gaze as the small woman began cutting Ruby's cheongsam with a knife had she plucked from one of her dungarees' pockets. Joy didn't let up her berating as she worked. "'ere I was thinking I was working with some of the roughest men in all o' Vale but turns out yer nothin' but steroid abusing babes." Junior frowned at the comment that seemed to include him and snapped back.
"Hey, I could always dock your pay Joy." The threat missed its mark as she huffed a laugh, finishing shearing the clothes away and once again pocketing the knife.
"Like ya' would risk losing me Hei" the words were said as a challenge that hung in the air for a long moment. Junior moved to argue back but stopped himself as he failed to come up with a retort. Though Joy's focus was not on the bumbling of her boss behind her. The others heard her gasp as she knelt down on the bed blocking Ruby from view of the rest of them. She looked around and met Junior's gaze fury clear in her eyes setting their usually dull blue into rivers of molten diamonds as she bore her gaze into him. Junior silently gulped. "Hei Xiong you 'ave some explaining to do… now."
Junior looked at her perplexed, what did she mean. He slowly walked forward silencing his desire to cover his eyes from the naked girl's form. His eyes widened at what he saw displayed along the girl's back, dread bubbling in his stomach as he beheld the sight.
There on the pale, scarred back of the girl was what appeared, at first glance, to be a tattoo sprawling the length of her back covering almost its entirety. It depicted a blood-red rose blooming along and between her shoulder blades with black vines made to look as if they wrapped around her body and amassing at the small of her back. Each vine was lined with hundreds of sharp white thorns that reminded Junior of fangs, some were depicted dripping with blood and the giant man could feel his skin itch as if he could imagine the talon-like spikes raking through his flesh. However, what unsettled him most wasn't the fact that the eight-year-old child had a tattoo, it wasn't the black vines and their razor sharp thorns, it wasn't even the blood that dripped and pooled off of the thorns. No what scared him most was that it… moved.
The vines coiled and writhed along her back twisting and moving along her back as if they were a swarm of snakes in a pit, the blood on the thorns dripping and congregating in pools at the bottom, rippling each time a new drop was added. It didn't make sense; tattoos didn't move, and even if they did, she was under Jack's semblance. Unless… His eyes widened further as he realised what he had done. Shit.
"Jax, get everyone and tell them to meet me in the club in an hour, I don't care if their off duty, they're gonna need to hear this." Jax looked confused but nodded and ran off to do as he was told. Junior turned back to Joy. She still stared at him her anger practically humming in the air around her. "Look, I swear I didn't know." She didn't stop staring, he continued. "Just… make sure she's stable and meet us with the others in the club." He held her gaze, she never stopped glaring, but after a moment she nodded curtly and moved to back to her work.
He began walking out but addressed Jack and Miltia as he did so. "Miltia make sure the other girl is settled in with Melanie and then I want the two of you at the club, understand?" she nodded and jogged off towards Ilia's room. Finally, he turned to Jack. "Wait for Joy to finish up then release her from your semblance and come over." The older man nodded but piped up a question before Junior could disappear from sight.
"What did you see?" Junior halted seemingly lost in thought as he reflected back on the shifting image on the girl's back. He looked up and continued walking.
"High treason." Came the quiet response as he vanished from sight behind the door.