Author's Notes: So here is the second chapter of The Markings of a Hero. Again, these next few chapters will just be used to construct Eli's character as well as give a bit more detail about his hometown, New Camford. Like my Jake Cross series, I will be doing a review corner for this story every four or five chapters to show that I do read all of your comments and appreciate it greatly. However, unlike my previous series, I will do a chapter ratings for each chapter- as I mentioned earlier- to warn about sensitive topics and comments said by the characters. Enjoy.
Chapter Warnings: The following chapters is rated T with swearing, racial colloquial term (The "N" Word), and a smidge of religious beliefs.
The Markings of a Hero
Chapter Two: The Cheshire Girl
It was rather pleasant that no one decided to wake him up the next morning. Despite missing breakfast, he at least got to dodge his mother and stepfather before they went off to work. Sam had gone, as he always has, to the neighbors where he would remain until Leila returned home from work in the evening. This left Eli to do what he wanted for the time being.
Leaving his bedroom, he crossed the hall into the bathroom, flicking the switch on and closing the door behind him. He stared at himself in the mirror for a while.
He had his mother's eyes and eyebrows- which he was thankful for considering his dad's bushy brows- but the rest was completely his father's genes dominating. His hair had been kept short all his life, Leila never being a fan of guys with long hair.
Eli also noted that, like his father, facial hair was something he would receive very little of. Despite being seventeen, the most Eli could grow was peach fuzz that barely constituted as a five o'clock shadow. He questioned if he would gain his dad's height of seventy-six inches or if he would remain at his current height of five-foot eight, two inches shy of his mother.
"…" Eli sighed as he turned the water on. Bending over the sink, he splashed his face with cool water. Wiping his face, he glanced back up at the mirror. "I guess I'll go through those boxes and see what's inside."
It was more of a suggestion than an actual statement. Truthfully, it would make more sense to go through the items at his apartment than attempt to bring them here considering he did not have a safe way of transporting the boxes without his mom and stepdad. Therefore, he could only open the boxes that were hidden away in his father's closet at his dad's apartment.
Giving himself one final look over, Eli finalized his resolve. He was going to open the boxes he had set aside yesterday prior to Mallory's call. He would find out more about this "Army Ant" and will eventually find out what possessed his dad to even become a vigilante. And then he would somehow get revenge on the Sullivan Family.
Not as a hero though, but as a very angry son.
With school out for the summer, Cheshire Square had several of its sidewalks blocked by kids doing random activities that ranged from hopscotch to card games. The older teens lined along the apartment buildings, a good handful of them waiting to commit an illegal affair for monetary gain, while others were simply watching out for the younger kids. Crinkly Park, a recreational center nearby Eli's old home, had its basketball courts, field, and playground filled with children of Cheshire Square and its neighboring boroughs.
Though that was just the beauty of Cheshire Square. It was also home to three men and one woman who have all died in an attempt to become a costume hero. In fact, it was theorized that one out of fifteen kids from Cheshire Square will dawn a costume and die in the line of duty. It was those thoughts that were causing families to move out of Cheshire Square to other neighborhoods within the city in order to give their children a better future.
Ignoring those thoughts, Eli made his way up the steps that led inside of his apartment building. As a force of habit, he subconsciously moved to check for any mail.
After fishing the key out of the left side pocket of his baggy blue jeans, Eli used the key to open up his mailbox. Inside were, undoubtedly, a stack of letters and his father's latest edition of NexSquire, a popular magazine in New Camford that did its job to inform and entertain its readers. Though not as high-selling as the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, it was still fairly popular within the city and surrounding areas. It was only after removing the letters and magazine did Eli spot a small box stuffed inside.
"What in the hell?" Eli questioned quietly as he removed the box. "It's addressed to Dad…"
Removing the parcel and mail, Eli closed the mailbox and began walking towards the steps while going through the letters. Most of them were addressed to his father, despite Malcolm being dead for three weeks now.
So caught up in his search through his mail, the teen is oblivious to of the descending female that bumps into him, nearly causing him to fall backwards down a flight of stairs.
"Shit," Eli said as he was forced to drop the mail in his right hand in order to grab the railing. "Sorry about that." Glancing up he saw the girl who he assumed was of some Eastern Asian decent glaring at him. "…"
"Are all the people in this complex this careless or are you a special case?" the girl questioned.
"Well," Eli noted that while the remark itself could be seen as disrespectful, the girl did not say it in a disrespectful tone. "There is that guy that lives on the third floor. Blind as a bat."
"Uh-huh?" Obviously she was uninterested as Eli began picking up the mail that he dropped.
Eli gathered his dropped mail and looked up to see the green eyes of the girl locked onto him. His initial reaction was to ignore her stares though he ruled that out once she arched a thin brow upwards towards her hairline after they made eye contact. His next option was to ask her what was wrong but before that could happen; the cell phone he had missed in her hand began to ring, gaining her attention.
"Damn it," The female adolescent mumbled. She then addressed Eli. "I have to go. Try to be more careful, will you? I'd hate it if this becomes a reoccurring thing."
"Sure, uh…"
"Jade." she says as she steps by. "See you around."
Eli completed his mental model of the girl once he got a good back shot of her. He noted that her hair was longer than he imagined, flowing loosely down to the small of her back. Her black tight skinny jeans and green top gave away her athletic figure without much effort. Eli also noted that this girl, Jade, was also filling out quite nicely in the breast department.
Not that he would know just how much she had grown, mind you.
Eli resumed his climb to the third floor where he and his father once lived while replaying images of this mysterious Jade. She was obviously new here, whether she was new to this particular part of town or New Camford entirely was something he did not know.
Maybe he would find out later?
Finally making it to the third floor, Eli stepped to his apartment door and sighed heavily. A year ago at this time he would be on his way to Crinkly Park with a few friends whilst his dad was at work. Now he was returning home with no intentions of any outdoor activities for a while.
Entering the apartment, Eli comes into view of the boxes in question.
These ten boxes were found in his father's bedroom closet and had remained unopened since their discovery. Eli, after being told by the police that his father had been gunned down, suspects that in these boxes was the equipment that his dad used. In was in these boxes that Eli was opening that he could get a small answer as to why Malcolm did what he did.
Oddly enough, now that he was staring at the boxes in question, he was growing nervous. He had left these boxes untouched for three months and now, on a day where he could finally get some answers as to what they contain, he was becoming too afraid of finding some other secret out.
"Come on Eli. You can do this." His motivation pretty much fell on deaf ears as his body remained still by the door. "Fucking hell…"
Anger welled up inside of him. Today was the perfect day to find out about his dad's secrets. And here he was too afraid to do it.
"Let's get on with it." Eli said to himself once more. "You're acting like Sam."
Eli approached the sofa slowly, sitting the mail on the wooden corner table next to it. The ten boxes were all different types and sizes. There were two that were sat on the couch that were smaller white storage boxes that were filled with papers, from what Eli could tell. Then there were larger cardboard boxes that were apparently sealed up with packaging tape that were stacked neatly in a corner. Eli had no idea what to expect in those.
"Better get started." Eli said as he sat on the couch, grabbing one of the white boxes on the couch and sitting it in his lap.
As expected, it was filled with notebooks and folders. Eli took out a black binder and opened it.
"What is this?" Eli thought aloud as he gazed upon pages with pictures of people he did not know and some places within New Camford and Gotham. He soon turned to a page with a blurry picture of an unknown man taped to a sheet of paper. "What…?"
Eli read the text on the page quietly. "Donald Sullivan of the Irish Sullivan Family. Last seen at Hotel Olympus along with Vladimir Mozgov of a Russian crime family of New Camford…"
Eli turned the page and spotted a picture of another person who he assumed was Vladimir before frowning in confusion and reading his father's words once more.
"The Irish Sullivan Family? I thought the cops said that Dad died from a Russian crime family?" Eli pondered. "So the Sullivan Family is an Irish family in Gotham? I thought…" He paused and grunted. "Does it even matter? It's not like that information will bring Dad back."
Despite saying that, Eli continued to read through the notebook. Apparently his father had learned of several men that were working for the Sullivan Family and the Russians that were located within New Camford. Unfortunately, Miles was not known for his completely legible writing which gave Eli more headaches than the information itself.
Minutes later Eli sat notebook on the table and began to go through the other files and papers stashed into the box. While not the most studious student in the world, Eli was no stranger of the late night pre-exam ritual that has kept him a B student for the majority of his schooling career. This box- and predictably the next one on the sofa with him- was just notes and lessons that would ultimately give him the answers he wanted. But first, he had to learn them.
Eli scanned through the papers, learning what he could clearly decipher while setting aside those that he could not. His mind was filled with people and places from New Camford all the way to Australia. Some of the people within his father's files were criminals, some just suspects, and a handful of them dead. Others were a list of wannabe heroes with a few familiar names such as Batman and Flash located here and there. There were even clippings of newspaper articles of some of these heroes and criminals.
But there was nothing that answered his question. As informative as all of it was, there was absolutely no reason as to why Malcolm chose this life; no motive at all.
It took an hour for his patience to finally reach an end and Eli simply sat the box aside. He realized that there was nothing in there that could help him at all. Though, he did find some comfort that he knew where to direct the investigators if they should come asking him questions again. Other than that, his search had yet to provide any fruits of wisdom.
And so he began going through the other boxes within the room.
And was thoroughly surprised that he had not earlier.
There were gadgets and pieces of costume stashed away. Two pistols roughly nine inches in length, each of them with a small red laser sight seen beneath the guns. Finding an odd brand logo on the sides of the weapons, he theorized that they were not American-made.
"Metric," Eli commented to himself as he held the black firearms as he remembered his father's teachings. "Foreign guns are always in the metric system."
Eli set the guns down and continued his box openings. He would soon find a red laptop- a Kord Industries product he knew nothing about- as well as some gloves, black goggles, a black-bladed army combat knife, what appeared to be small grenades, and other accessories that Eli was sure to be for Malcolm's Army Ant person.
"Holy shit," Eli quietly gasped. "Dad was preparing for a war." However, it was at that moment that he remembered his mother's words from the previous night. There were times when his dad appeared to be alright and then there was someone who Eli had yet to meet. "…Or he thought he was already in one."
It was no secret to the people in the Nolan and Jackson families that Leila was a bold, near fearless woman. Things normally did not worry nor scare her. So when she made the comment last night that Malcolm, one certain nights, did indeed scare it, it got Eli's attention.
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, Eli glanced around the living room and found it in disarray. Papers lined the sofa and table. There were weapons scattered around his person on the floor. The laptops charger was lying on the ground in a tangled mess.
"Did I really do all of this?" Eli asked himself in disbelief. In his search for finding answers, he had undoubtedly cluttered the one room in the house his father wanted to keep in some order for guest's- especially Leila's- sake. "Great…"
He had to clean this up. That was a given. No one but him was going to clean this mess up. So on the second day of his final summer vacation, he found himself cleaning up an apartment that was not messy prior to his arrival.
Rising to his feet from his seated position on the floor, Eli was hit with a nostalgic collection of memories.
Those moments, especially when he was younger, where his parents forbade him from doing anything until he had straightened up his bedroom. On days that Eli had to go to his mom's, the woman would drive here just to supervise Eli as he cleaned his room while Malcolm left for work.
Eli grinned at how dumb he found his younger self to be by continuously scraping things under the bed despite it being the first place both of his parents checked.
His body continued to clean the mess while his mind wandered down memory lane. He remembers his father teaching him how to play Darts and a few variants of poker, bar games that have landed Eli in more trouble than he can count.
The first time he had hid Hannah Souza, his ex, in his bedroom had been another fond memory to pop up. Malcolm had given Eli a very firm talking to before sending his son and his at-the-time girlfriend to Leila. While Eli was still a novice about Bialyan traditions and such, he now knew that there was no childish way that a Bialyan man or woman could explain sex to their child. There was no "birds and bees" metaphor or the whole "when a man loves a woman" speech. Leila had just jumped right into it and, in turn, embarrassed Malcolm- who had been attempting Leila to approach the matter at a different angle- than it did the two fifteen-year-olds present.
But, Eli did get free condoms out of it which did come in use later on.
Now a chuckle escaped him as he remembered his dad's reaction to when Hannah and Eli went on their first date. Malcolm was, in Leila's words, a "cheesy romantic" so he had suggested that Eli buy Hannah flowers (which Eli did not do) and compliment Hannah throughout the date (which Eli did). Malcolm had also offered to show Eli how to prepare a good dinner to add to that romantic element, but Eli had chosen a restaurant instead.
Eli paused in his actions.
Did it really take him three weeks to actually have this little blast to the past? And how did cleaning up bring about all of these happier memories? And why the hell was his mother in so many?
"Eli!" a female knocker interrupted Eli's thoughts. "Eli open up, we want to talk!"
Eli's earth-brown eyes scanned the room to find that he had only accomplished half the job. The weapons, something he really wanted to hide and keep for himself, were still lying about and the laptop had not been put up either.
"Eli!"
But of course, Hannah, the girl knocking on the door, would not leave until she saw his face.
"Coming!" Eli called back before muttering, "Brat…" Stepping carefully over some sheets of paper that had yet to be stacked and put away, Eli reached the door and opened it enough for his body to block any view that Hannah and his friend George, who was there as well, would have. "What?"
Hannah Souza, a Hispanic teen who stood at five-five, gave Eli a bland look.
"We haven't spoken in three weeks and all you can say is 'what' to me?" The New York City born girl questioned with a mixture of worry and anger. "Eli, what have you been doing? And why," Hannah rose on her toes to spy over Eli's shoulder. "Why won't you let us inside?"
"I'm going through my dad's things." Eli said pushing the thin girl away so he could successfully step into the hall, closing the door behind him. "I'm fine."
The girl in her dark plaid shorts and black shirt gave a scoff when she was physically moved away from the room but chose not to do anything about it.
"Nigga, no you're not." George Lincoln, an African-American who was currently trying to dread his hair, spoke as he looked at Eli with bloodshot eyes. "You've been hiding in there for weeks man! Come on out and breathe!"
Eli noted that George had been smoking earlier as the scent of marijuana on his baggy clothes and redden eyes were too evident to ignore.
"I'm fine, trust me. Just having a hard time figuring out what I'm going to do with this." Eli paused. "My mom and her bitchy husband don't want all of it, you know? So Mal and I were thinking of ways to divide it."
Eli was not one to believe that one lie led to another. A good lie stood on its own and made everyone believe it. While lying to his friends was something he was actually against for the majority of the time, he did not want them to even glance at what he had found inside for multiple reasons.
Hannah pushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.
"Eli, please talk to us," she plead lightly. "I know you. You'll end up doing something stupid and your mom will just get on you for it."
George snorted. "Fuck that bitch." He glanced at Eli's glare. "No offense."
"None taken." Eli sardonically responded. Despite his personal feelings about Leila, he still did not approve of others openly belittling her.
"Look," George began, clapping his hands for emphasis. "There's this party down on Saints Row later on tonight. Eric said to come on through and we'll find something or someone to get your mind straight, feel me?"
Hannah scoffed. "A party? Really George? He lost his dad, not the state finals."
"Yeah, I know. But what would Miles want, hmm?" Eli raised his brows at George's response. "Miles would have wanted his son to get out of the house, find some nice thick New Camford chickadee, and-"
"Enough George," Hannah interrupted, a hand raised to cover her left ear. She glanced at Eli. "Why are all of your friends pigs?"
Eli frowned. "Why did you come with him?"
"Because he followed me from Crinkly," Eli nodded. That sounded like a plausible explanation given that Hannah and George were really not the best of friends. "He said that he was on his way here to speak to you but he got caught up talking to his brother and those other goons."
"Mad no one is talking about you." mumbled George, gaining an eye-roll from the doe-eyed Hispanic. "Look, Eli, get out and live life, alright? Life wants to take your pops away? Fuck her. Make life your bitch."
"Is that supposed to be advice?" inquires Hannah.
"Hey, I call it like it is, alright? Yolo. That's all I'm saying. Yolo." Eli grinned at George's words.
"Alright man, I hear you. But can you give us a minute before she actually starts speaking Spanish? I'm already dealing with one headache, I don't need another." George accepts the suggestion and walks towards the stairs. Eli waits for George to descend before speaking to Hannah. "Am I in trouble with you or is this just a house check?"
"Both," Eli chuckled. He and his father always noticed the physical and mental similarities that Hannah shared with Leila. While Hannah was not as conservative as his mother- and Eli was damn sure not going to find out how his mother was in the bed- the two had a lot of similarities that both attracted and repelled Eli from Hannah. "It's been nearly a month Eli. I just want to make sure you're okay. Is that such a bad thing?"
"It is when you bring George with you." Hannah gave him a dimpled smile. "Seriously Hannah, I'm fine for the moment. I just want to get the rest of this stuff up and go on about the day. Maybe I'll stop by Crinkly-"
"Don't. George and his goons have taken over." Hannah interrupted.
Sighing, Eli relented. "Fine. I'll call later, alright? You can tell me all about how to properly use the terms who or whom and I can pretend to care."
"You are such an asshole." Hannah playfully says, shoving his chest with her hand gently.
"There was a point in time when you loved this asshole." Eli shot back.
"I still love you. I'm just not in love with you. Big difference." Eli nodded his head.
"Right, right, God and all that stuff." stated the boy.
"God gives me the free will to love you or not. Just like He probably won't mind if I slap you a few times for ignoring my calls." Hannah joked. "So call tonight. And don't do it just to piss your mom off. I am not getting in-between you and her again, understood?"
"Crystal dear. Now if you don't mind, I have to call Mallory back. I need to know when she'll be up here to take her half." Eli lied. Unsurprisingly, Hannah hugged him. He returned the gesture with equal pressure. "I am fine Hannah. I promise."
"You will be." Hannah whispered before releasing him. "Um, I'm going to go speak to Carla." Eli only nods as she backs towards the steps. "Call me tonight Elias Jackson or feel my wrath tomorrow!"
Eli laughed as he stepped back into his apartment.
Closing the door behind him, Eli was once again left with the mess he had begun to clean up.
"Alright Eli," he said to himself. "Let's clean this mess up."
"What in the hell?!" Eli groaned in frustration.
It was roughly two hours after his friends had left and he had done a pretty well job hiding the equipment his father had originally stored in Malcolm's bedroom closet. He had put some in his bedroom closet for personal reasons but the majority was put back where he found it.
All except for the laptop he was currently angry at.
"Of all the times…!" Eli grunted.
Malcolm Jackson was known for a lot of things. One thing he was not known for was over-the-top unpredictable passwords. Yet here Eli was, unable to log onto the laptop because all of Malcolm's normal passwords- Malcolm's or Eli's birthdates- did not work. Eli had also tried a combination of personal information related to Malcolm, Eli, and Leila and still was blocked.
"Think Eli, think," Eli said to himself, repeatedly slapping his forehead with the palm of his left hand. "Dad must've used something that he'd never forget. What could it be?"
Eli closed his eyes and thought. To his knowledge, he had used every obvious combination there was and got nowhere. It was beyond aggravating at this point. A rather simple task, one which Eli has done multiple times before, was now being halted because Malcolm decided to go a different route when choosing a password.
Sighing, Eli laid back on his bed with his feet still planted on the floor. He glanced to his right to see his cell phone lying atop of his pillow before turning to left and seeing the foot of his bed. His eyes scanned the walls and ceilings for any hints that could lead him to this one answer.
Of course, before any revelation hit him, his cell phone would buzz noisily on his pillow. He glanced at it and debated on answering it or not. It could be Hannah checking in on him or Mallory calling to do the same. Or it could be George or someone else that he did not necessarily want to speak to at the time.
Before he came to a mental resolution, his hand had already grabbed the device.
"Yeah?" Eli answered without even checking the screen to see who it was.
"Were you planning on spending the night over there?" Leila's voice came off as neutral, something that bothered the teen.
"I wasn't planning on it and," Eli glanced at the time on his phone before putting it back against his ear. "It's only four."
Leila was heard releasing a sigh. "I'm not calling to argue, Elias. I'm calling to find out if you'll be there for the night or not. You're still my son. I do have an obligation to check up on you."
An obligation, Eli thought. That's what her duties as a parent had turned into; obligations. Then again, she never really stopped being a lawyer.
"Elias?"
"I'm here," Eli said. "I'm going back over there tonight. George wants me to go to some stupid party later and I don't want to be there."
"I thought you said you stopped hanging around that boy?" Eli released a quiet groan at her words. "You and I both know that he is always up to no good. I hope you know that by now."
"Which is why I want to be there instead of here," Eli replied in an annoyed tone. "Seriously Mama, I'm fine. George isn't here. And I will be there, okay?"
There was a pause, a really long pause at that. At first, Eli thought he had accidentally used some form of profane language, which he always double-checked his vocabulary to avoid. He then thought that something had happened to his mom due to the fact that the only time she has been this quiet was during their talk last night.
"Do you know how long it's been since you've called me that?" Eli blinked in stupor. "Since Malcolm… Since then, you've only called me 'Mrs. Nolan'. Never 'Mom' or 'Mama' like you used to."
"Oh…" Eli did his best not to let his breath of relief be heard. All of his worries were over a simple word. "Well I'll be there tonight. I was just going to hang out with Hannah for a while, walk her home, and then catch the bus back there."
Again, a good lie came in handy every now and again. Given that Leila actually approved her son's friendship with Hannah, Hannah had been one of the few people that Eli used as a solid alibi with his mom. And due to the fact that the Bialyan-born woman did not have any contact information for Hannah, Leila could never really check to see if Eli was lying or not.
"Alright," Leila said. "Try to be back before nine. I want dinner to be put up by then."
"I'll try." Eli responded.
Another audible breath escapes Leila, one that made Eli believe that he was annoying her somehow.
"Stay safe Eli, okay?"
"I will." Eli answered, ready to rush her off of the phone. "Is that all?"
Another pause. "…Yes. I'll see you later. Bye."
"Bye." Eli hung up afterwards and groaned loudly. "And I have to spend an entire year listening to this crap." Eli then looked at the red laptop that rested on his lap and sat up, careful not to send it sliding onto the floor. "And I still can't think of… Bialya."
It was the one thing that Eli had not tried that had direct ties to his mom. Only behind closed quarters did Leila mention her roots to the point that friends of his parents and stepdad still believe that she was American born to Middle Eastern immigrants. Mallory's mother, Carla, still thought that Leila was actually from a rich Syrian family. Leila's origins were something that only her family knew and at one point, that constituted Malcolm.
"Welcome!" A feminine computerized voice came from the computer.
"Christ!" Eli exclaimed aloud. "Of all the stupid things he could have used! Bialya!" Eli then looked at the screen, frowning at the icons he saw. "This isn't Windows."
Indeed, the computer's operating system was not Windows or anything that Eli had seen before. But that was not the real problem. Now that he had the machine operating and functioning, he had no idea what to do with it. Sure, going through the entirety of the computer file by file seemed like a great way to waste time, but who really had the patience to do such a thing?
His eyes scanned the screen, reading the names on the icons present, before they paused on one in particular titled: Mission Report. Clicking on the file, Eli was introduced to three new pop-ups, each being a word document of some sort.
"These are just reports from those boxes," Eli said to himself as he minimized the three documents. "What else is there?" Eli found a folder titled "Others" and clicked onto it. Multiple files appeared on the screen in rapid succession. "What in the hell? These are…"
Eli sat stunned as the pop-ups soon came to a halt. There were at least ten files that appeared, each having a picture and words beneath said picture.
"Profiles," Eli muttered to himself in astonishment. "Dad had profiles of other heroes within the city."
The teen was soon engrossed in the information, clicking on each of them and reading what Malcolm had typed down. He had not imagined that there were so many vigilantes working in New Camford, mainly because the only ones he knew were the ones they show on the news after being killed by some random gang member or other criminal. From what he could tell, or rather what Malcolm knew, was that each hero normally stuck to a neighborhood or an entire borough, but no one had been brave enough to tackle the city.
Cheshire Square, however, remained without a hero.
Eli stared at the pictures of these people- these idiots- that his father had taken gained some information on. He was brought back to his conversation with his mom the previous night. Why did they do it? Was it for the fame? Was it for the money?
Why would they risk their lives when their sons and daughters needed them to…!
"…" Eli stopped his thoughts momentarily and began closing the files he had pulled up. "Time to go."
Once again, he found his emotions quickly taking turns at sporadic moments. This time it was anger that began to swell inside of him. The thoughts of his father selflessly giving his life to protect this city while Eli was left to suffer the consequences alone angered him. Sure, one could say that Mallory and even Leila were also dealing with the loss of Malcolm as well, but Eli was more than certain that neither of the two felt the same level of grief as he did.
Sitting the laptop to the side, Eli stood up and stepped for his bedroom closet. Fishing his backpack from his closet, he returned to the laptop and shut it down. Packing the laptop and its charger, Eli looked around his room.
"What else should I take…?"
That was a question that was easily answered. He packed a few notebooks that held information on the criminal activity within the city written by Malcolm. He packed the combat knife for security purposes. Eli then retrieved the headset for the laptop to see what they were used for. He also packed the gloves and goggles for unknown reasons before zipping the bag up and throwing a strap across his shoulder.
Exiting his bedroom, he made sure to grab his cell phone and his key, pocketing the latter while keeping his cell phone in hand. He walked into the living room and looked around to make sure that he had not forgotten to put something else up. After failing to spot anything suspicious, Eli headed for the door before stopping.
"The package." Eli said to himself as he spotted the small box that had come in the mail. Setting his backpack down, he unzipped the main pocket of it and stuffed the box inside. "Alright. Now that's everything."
Leaving his apartment, Eli was greeted by the sight of Jade once more. Her green eyes seemed to glimmer with curiosity, locking onto the bag on his back.
"Running away?" she guessed.
"I wish," Eli returned. He then saw her give him a questioning look. "Moving in with my mom and stepdad."
"Uh-huh? Visiting my long lost dad with my godfather." Jade stated. "Though, New Camford's not all bad. I heard that there was some party near the harbor. What was that place called again…?"
"Venice Terrace?" Eli speculated. When he saw Jade nod her head he shrugged. "There's always some rich kid throwing a summer party at the beach. I normally stay here in Cheshire Square but…"
Jade gave him a small smile. "Are you trying to tell me that you would just so happen to go to a party that I have no clue how to get to?"
"Well the best way to show you how to get there is to actually show you, right?" Eli had no clue who the girl was, but he did know two things off bat. The first, and most important, he was single, and two, if he went to a party with Jade, he would be able to avoid George and his mom.
But of course, the teenage girl of sixty-six inches seemed to have other plans.
"Maybe some other time?" she offered.
"Sure," Eli replied, hiding his disappointment at her decision. "See you around."
"This is the part that you give me your name." Jade pointed out, stopping his ext.
Eli offered the girl a small smile. "Eli."
"See you around, Eli." Jade returned the smile with one of her own before heading up to the fourth floor.
This left a grinning Eli descending the steps. One could argue that he was not really over Hannah, which was a solid argument in his book. Even he could see how he shadowed over Hannah whenever he thought that something wrong was going on.
But Hannah was just a friend and Eli was in search for something a little bit more than mere friendship. Maybe not a full out relationship, but something to get his mind off of his current predicaments. And Jade seemed to be the perfect girl to help him with that.
Author's Notes: Another brief chapter, not too much going on. But it did introduce three important faces: George, Hannah, and Jade. Of course, George is the life long friend who joins a gang (explained in the next chapter), Hannah is the ex who just wants Eli to succeed, and Jade is... Well, I'm sure many of you can guess who Jade is. Next chapter will dive into Eli's relationship with his stepdad Robert and his brother Sam, and there will be some racial tension arising, just a little FYI. Unfortunately the next chapter will not be posted for about four weeks with Raijin Gaiden chapters 1 and 2 taking up next week and the following and an Arkham Rising update plus Artemis's AuDC Showcase taking up the following weeks. But of course for this story, please leave a review or PM for any questions, comments, or thoughts that you might have and I will respond to them whenever the review corner comes up. Have yourselves a lovely day. Peace.