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tex
-"Dialogue"-
("Inner thinking")
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CHAPTER 8
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The mindless drone of the television duly sounded in the back of the shop as Jackie sat up front, waiting for her only customer today to come by and pick up her car. Jackie nervously fidgeted, paranoid before she hopped off the stool for the fourth time in the hour and peeked into the back, seeing Hans, wearing the shop's uniform to avoid suspicion from others, sitting and watching the crappy glow of the television about some news. The only thing he ever watches it the news but no matter what it is about his face still looks as stoic and emotionless as ever. It freaked her out quite a bit, she had to admit.
Jackie sighed before returning to the stool in the front, slumping forward before seeing a bandage piece hang out from the inside of her sleeve. With a small tug she shuffled the sleeve back, staring at the bandages that hid the painful cuts. Jackie was lucky that crazed man didn't cut any ligaments. Based on the marks it seemed like he knew what he was cutting into; at least that was what Aria said. Jackie had no idea what that guy did to her after she fell unconscious but she was lucky Aria knew how to stitch her up with sewing needles and thread. Pretty makeshift but it would work and keep her out of the hospital. She sighed and pulled the long sleeves back over them to cover her arms up before taking another dose of pain medicine to help the aching. Hopefully Aria would be back soon with that morphine to help Jackie cope with the pain.
The bell rang, catching her attention as she recognized Officer Roberts enter her shop. Her eyes widen, startled before she carefully reigns her expression in. Well great, this was one annoyance she didn't want to deal with today. She was already drugged up on pain medication and not thinking straight.
"Officer Michael, what brings you here today? Broken car?" - She ask with a croak in her voice before coughing to get control of her tone. Officer Roberts sheepishly smiled.
"No. I am here to question you about Mario, if you don't mind." - He politely asked.
"Where's your partner?" - Jackie asked, glancing out the door and half expecting him to come barging in.
"On leave for what he did. I apologize I was not fast enough to stop him," - he said with a guilty frown, seeing the bruise beginning to fade on her head. Jackie's eyes narrowed.
"Actually I do mind being asked about Mario. A lot. Please leave," - Jackie immediately retorted, nervously gulping as she glanced out the window. And, as she suspected, the same two thugs were across the street, looking into the shop. They wouldn't try anything with the officer there but they were absolutely going to come into the shop after he left and give her hell. This was exactly what she wanted to avoid.
"W-Wait now, hold on. There is more you are not telling me. Ms. Penske, with your testimony we may finally be able to put that guy behind bars and prevent him from hurting more people." - He said, pleading with her to reconsider.
"Look, you're trying to do your job, I get that. But I'm already on his radar thanks to your snooping around that night," - Jackie snapped before biting her tongue, taking a deep breath before staring at him. - "So please get out. My business is having enough trouble as it is and with your face being seen in here I'm already in deep enough trouble as it is with the locals." - She sharply told him.
"We can protect you." - He confidently countered.
"I don't want protection. I want peace." - She said before reaching into her pocket and letting him see his card, - "I will come by the station sometime in the next few days and tell you what I know if you agree to leave now. I have customers coming in soon," - Jackie said, glancing out the window briefly. Yes, very rowdy ones who were probably going to break some things. However, with Hans here she doubted they would do a lot of damage. He's bigger than they were so his presence alone would probably deter them. Probably. Jackie got up, moving around the counter and heading into the back.
"Please wait." - he called, firmly gripping her arm. Pain shot up her arm and staked her in place, causing ripping agony and a searing heated sensation to shoot up her arm.
"AUGH!" - She let out a pained shout. She yanked her arm back from his grip, feeling slits of burning heat opening across her arm before she saw Hans twisting the officer's arm back. His piercing crimson eyes cut right through the officer, looking like he was about to rip the man's arm clean off; of the which Jackie knew he was fully capable of.
"Wait, wait Hans, let him go! He's an officer, you know," - Jackie said, reaching up and gently holding his wrist. Dang it, she could feel some stitches had come undone from that. Aria would have to fix that for her. Hans's eyes rolled over towards her before he let the startled officer go, glaring at him. - "Hans, into the back." - She ordered, watching as he simply stared at her before turning and slowly retreating behind the door frame but turned around, standing right in plain sight of the two.
"And who is he?" - Officer Roberts asked, sounding very surprised.
"Sorry about that, he's just a worker I recently hired." - Jackie apologized, seeing the officer's keen eyes staring at the strange man before locking on to her arm. Well great, so much for Hans's distraction.
" … let me see your arm," - he said, flickering his eyes up to her.
"They're nothing," - Jackie denied, turning to her side to protect her injured arm at the very least. He stared at her with an expression that made her almost hesitant to deny him at least looking at her wounds. Jackie deeply inhaled before rolling back her sleeve, letting the officer see the bloodstained bandages. The man clearly wasn't satisfied just seeing the bandages so, begrudgingly, she shuffled a few of them back to let him see the fairly deep cuts on her skin.
He stepped closer, a little too close, as he gently touched her elbow and raised her arm to get a closer look at the marks. - "These were not self-inflicted."
"I would never hurt myself like that." - Jackie countered, lightly trying to pull her arm back but his grip remained firm.
"Jackie, be honest. Was this the work of Mario?" - He asked, looking her dead in the eye. Jackie hedged back slightly, finding her scapegoat.
"And if I said yes?" - Jackie said, softly pulling her arm back and holding it to her chest as she carefully studied the officer. He'd buy it. The police and other districts as well were desperate to capture Mario and put an end to his reign.
"Then that means the investigation has gotten that much closer to capturing him," - he happily said with the brightest smile Jackie had ever seen. Her heart skipped a beat as she blinked, coming back to reality pretty quickly. Oh hell what were those warm fuzzies for in my gut?
"Well, I wish you luck then." - Jackie said with a faint smile.
"Please come by the station when you have time so that we may take pictures of your injuries for the future trial. The chief will be very happy to learn of this promising lead" -he says, taking the card from her and flipping it over before writing his cell phone on it -"and if anything happens, give me a call and I will personally make sure to come"- he says.
"I'll do that." - she answered, watching him leave. She watched him as he cast the two men a glance, studying them before he kept walking and got into his car. Jackie glanced through the door, seeing Hans standing in the doorway with a menacing aura about him. She didn't know why she felt like he would protect her if something happened or why she had so much faith in him but she did.
Jackie leaned back in the chair as Hans stepped into the room and looked over her arm, seeing that some of the wounds had reopened. - "Don't worry about it, I'm fine. We have bigger trouble coming in." - Jackie said with a frown as she watched the officer approach the two men. - "Oh it just got worse. Hans, whatever you do, do not kill them. Just, just maim … or, or at the most a broken limb or two, please." - Jackie said, looking up to him as he paused before nodding. Jackie watched Officer Roberts talk to the two thugs for a few minutes before he nodded, tipping his hat in respect and leaving. Once he was out of sight the two thugs approached Jackie's shop, sneers clear on their faces before they stepped inside.
"I didn't tell him anything," - Jackie immediately snapped as she leaned back in her chair.
"Then why did he drop by?" - The man asks, tailing his head with a sneer on his face, - "Mario has been nice to you, letting you work on his precious cars and this is how you repay him?"
"You should be grateful he's letting you be a part of our familia, Jackie." - The other said with a grin.
"Yeah, kind and not paying me at all for my services." - Jackie bitterly hissed.
"Know your place, bitch! Be grateful he allows this shit hole to exist on this street. This is our territory you live on." - The man grinned as the other one tightly gripped his bat and started tapping it against the ground. Jackie was hardly intimidated. Standing next to her was a werewolf. She felt like she could do anything she wanted and get away with it. Hans on his part, although he did not move, provided a menacing aura of danger that made Jackie that much more confident in herself.
"Tell Mario to get another mechanic. I am not offering my service to him anymore." - Jackie bluntly stated, seeing their eyes widen in surprise at her statement before they glared at her, gnashing their teeth.
"What, you got balls now because you think you got a big man beside you now? I'll beat you both to a bloody pulp!" - The man with the bat cried, swinging the blunt weapon around.
"HANS!" - Jackie screamed, falling back in her chair to avoid the full blow of the strike to her head. Her eyes widened as Hans whipped forward, catching the bat before it would have even struck her and crushed it in his hand. She stared up at him, startled that he actually helped her.
"The fuck are you?!" - The man demanded, grunting as he struggled to pull the bat back.
Jackie scrambled to her feet and grabbed the pepper spray underneath, blasting the man in the eyes who tried to hit her. He let the bat go and screamed, clutching his eyes as the second man pulled out a gun. Faster than Jackie could react Hans snatched the muzzle and crushed the metal in his hands. The man's eyes widened as he pulled his gun back and saw the mangled weapon, eyes bulging in shock. Hans hopped over the counter and hooked his leg under the pepper sprayed man's body and literally hoisted him through the air with his kick alone and blasted him through the glass window, sending shards of glass over the sidewalk. The remaining man stumbled back with a surprise that turned into a glare, already heading out the door.
"You're going to regret this, you bitch!"
"Go ahead and tell your pitbull of a boss that I've got my own wolf. If he wants to mess with my business then he will feel his fangs. Right, Hans?" - Jackie asks, casting him a grin.
He didn't respond, but his menacing stare remained set after the retreating figures while Jackie could do nothing but stare at Hans.
"Freeze, NYPD!" - Officer Roberts called, startling Jackie. She looked back, see him pursuing the two men. Was he hiding and watching the whole time? She watched, worried before looking away. He'll be fine. He had his criminals to chase. Jackie let out a breath of relief, leaning against the counter. And with that, the war with that drug lord began. But with Aria and Hans she wouldn't have to worry. Hopefully.
"You'll protect me, right, Hans?" - Jackie asks, tugging on his sleeve and staring at him. Hans rolls his eyes down towards her. Once again, far more of a reaction than he had ever shown before.
He stated at her for a couple seconds before walking past her and into the back, resuming his place to watch TV. she could only hope that had been a yes. But if he really wanted her dead he would have done so sooner.
"We also have a cat, right?" - She pondered about Aria always going on her own and coming back on her whims - "what is Aria? ... She's human, right?" - And yet, after seeing her fight in that basement with that creepy voodoo guy she wasn't so sure.
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Jackie was finally doing some cleaning at the garage by sweeping dust, that she hoped was normal dust but knew it wasn't, when from the opened door some furry thing came in and started heading inside her home. What the hell is that, a raccoon? In the heart of New York? Or more likely a cat.
"Hey, out" - Jackie says, picking up her broom and began sweeping the weird looking cat out the door. The animal made a yipping whine, clinging to the broom and pressing its head against the bristles. Jackie stopped in mid sweep, seeing four things all at once; it was hurt, it was a fox and not a cat, it had a leather collar and the strangest deformity with its tail, appearing to have two tails instead of just the one.
Jackie stopped, slowly leaning the broom against the wall as she stared at its collar. Someone must have lost the little guy. She slowly knelt down and before it could run her hand shot out, grabbing it by the scruff. The little animal offered no resistance as she lifted it into the air, seeing it trembling and whining. Jackie hesitated before holding the little tyke against her chest, carefully eyeing it the whole way up the stairs and ready to throw it if it tried to bite her.
"Well now, I guess I need to make posters now." - She sighed, gently rubbing its head and listening to the little red fox hum. Jackie went into the kitchen and grabbed one of her spare cardboard boxes before setting the little fox inside. She walked over to her bowls and filled one with water and the other with some chopped up pieces of apple. She knew foxes were omnivores so it would eat this at the very least. Jackie turned around and looked in the box, seeing it empty before darting her eyes around the kitchen.
" … oh foxy~" -Jackie called, setting the water and food inside the big cardboard box. How it was able to get out she had no idea. She might have to grab one of her bigger boxes if worst came to worse. Jackie walked around and into the hallway, spying the little fox near the three steps going up into the hallway leading to the rooms. It barely held on to the first step, trying to crawl up and over when it rolled back without strength to hold on.
"Come here you little troublemaker." -Jackie lightly laughed with a warm smile, picking it up. She gently held it against her before pulling out a towel and setting it on the bottom of the box, laying the little fox over the small bit of comfort.
This time the small fox didn't have more energy to get out of the box. It tried getting up a couple of times and then he just laid there and simply fell asleep, or more likely, unconscious.
Jackie went to get a towel to clean him up a bit and then began examining him to search for the wounds, which didn't look that bad for the amount of blood it had on it's fur or as bad as it originally looked when it was crawling inside her home. Still, he was very weak and exhausted. She cleaned him up as best as she could without risking hurting him in any way, and then left him in the box while she to get some paper and markers do do some signs of 'pet fox found'.
When she came back with the items, Hans appeared out of nowhere, got near her and sniffed. He tilted his head at the new scent and then moved in the kitchen right up towards where the fox in the box was.
"Hey, Hans, careful it might bite you." - Jackie warned as she walked over to him.
Hans briefly looked her way and Jackie remembered whose bite was worse, then he kneeled down and looked at the sleeping critter while sniffing the air around it. He processed the scent and then stood up, looking past Jackie and towards the stairs where the fox had tried to go to
"It crawled inside. It has a collar so it has an owner," - Jackie said, staring at him. She was tired of never getting a rise out of him.- "Hey, Hans, should we get you a collar too? Have you ever worn one before?" - Jackie asked with a teasing but cautious grin, unsure how he would react to that comment.
Hans glanced to look at her for a couple seconds, as if pondering that statement, before he simply went away towards his new room. Jackie let out a sigh and a shrug before sitting back at the table to finishing up the signs. A nearly deft footstep made her head turn, seeing Aria walking into the kitchen-
"Alright, wolfie is set up in his room. Who would have thought he'd choose that basement door as his den?" - The mercenary twisted her head to crack her bones and then began twisting and stretching to crack more bones and joints.
Jackie wanted to comment on him but resisted, "I'm not going to lie, it actually surprised me a bit that you helped Hans to set up all his room."
She shrugged her shoulders - "I owed him that favor because I asked him to help me with that old crap storage you called a room"- She finally looked at the table to the markers and papers- "What are you doing?"
"Just some posters. Some weird fox came in lost earlier."
!A fox?" Aria grabbed one of the signs, read it in a couple seconds later she then tossed it away while looking around frankly - "Where is it!?"
"Hey, what's up?" - Jackie was rightfully confused. The woman was actually agitated, the woman who killed and slaughtered vampires and crazy priests with hardly a problem and she's agitated? Something was definitely wrong.
"Where the hell is that damn piece of fur!?" - Aria almost tripped over the box. The mercenary found the fox and then picked it up from the box and into her arms before quickly turning around to try retreating towards her own room had it not being for Jackie standing in her way in the middle of the corridor.
"Hey, Aria wait he's hurt and you can't go moving it around like that. Besides, that fox has an owner. I don't know what you want to do with it but you can't take it." Jackie growled, somewhat fearful that Aria would actually kill the little animal that she might consider to be a rodent or a nuisance.
"I AM the owner!" - Aria pushed Jackie out of the way and ran to her room.
Jackie was left standing in the hallway without a single clue about what just happened.
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That night, Jackie went to get a small midnight snack but stopped short when she heard noises in the kitchen. Her current tenants would have been completely silent if they were at the kitchen so she knew it wasn't any of them.
She slowed her pace as she stepped around the corner, jumping as she saw someone crouching by the fridge and whip around with his glowing eyes locked on to her. He was a lean teenage boy with red hair and orange eyes. Both remained silent, startled at the sight of one another before Jackie's arm shot out and grabbed a broom.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" -Jackie thundered at the thief, jutting forward and bringing the broom down over his head so hard the broom actually snapped in half.
"OWWW! Wait, I-I-!" - He turned tail and ran towards the stairs, - "MASTEEEEER!"
Before the intruder could make it to the three steps Hans's arm shot out, gripping the intruder by the neck and lifting him into the air as Jackie turned on all the lights, startled to see two swinging red tails coming from the pants of a teenage boy that had big furry black ears on top of his head. -"A fox … boy!?"- Jackie asked, startled as the stranger struggled in Hans's grip, tears budding over his eyelids in his suffocating fright.
From out of nowhere, a blur came in and Hans was thrown through the front door by a hard kick from Aria. The force of the kick freed the fox, who scurried away and behind the mercenary woman that had just attacked the werewolf head on.
"Whoa, Aria!" - Jackie shouted, walking to the hallway and pausing as she saw the boy cowering behind her - "Aria, you know him?" - Jackie asked, startled.
Aria didn't had time to answer before a payback kick to the stomach sent her flying through the wall on the other side of the hallway. She managed to twist in the air to land gracefully in a perpendicular way so that she shot herself back to stand in front of the trembling and sniveling boy while throwing a fist at Hans, which the werewolf caught in his palm with ease and held tight, ready to crush.
"Wait, wait the both of you!" -Jackie shouted as she stepped between them, looking to Aria as she flickered her gaze to the boy and back to her. -"Aria who is this?"
Aria growled and threw her other fist at Hans but he caught that one too. They were now just pushing each other.
"T-Tail … that boy has a tail… tails? Why?" - Jackie asked as the fuzzy appendages moved up and down. No one said anything as Jackie tried to get her head on straight, - "Aria, who is that boy?"
"He's mine." - Aria growled, never taking her eyes of Hans.
"Yours? As in, 'yours' yours? I mean, not that that's a problem I'm just surprised that you have a kid," - Jackie said, chagrined and clearly confused. The didn't look that old to be a mom.
"Yeah that's his name right there in the tag," - Aria kept her gaze locked with Hans's. She wouldn't back down or pay Jackie that much attention either.
"Hans, Aria that's enough. Let's just calm down from here on out, alright? He isn't a threat like I thought he was." - Jackie said, flickering her gaze between the two of them, realizing her words weren't getting through to them before she looked over at the fox boy, seeing him shrink back. -"Hey, hey come on, help me out here. They'll break my house if they fight." - Jackie asked, trying to get a recruitment to help her out.
The boy looked up at her, then to the woman that was clearly protecting him and he swallowed, then he crawled back a bit more and away and extended his hand, and a fire appeared between the pair and forced them to separate. Hans took a step back and Aria jumped to stand in front of the boy once more.
Jackie's jaw dropped, startled as she stared at the large scorch mark now on her wooden floors. - "W-Wha-How did you do that?!" - Jackie cried, startled at the sight. The fire just appeared, out of nowhere!
The boy looked at her for a second before turning towards the man that clearly wasn't a man by the smell. He was frightening … and he was just standing there … menacingly. - "I err… I'm Kit… nice to meet you?"
"He's Kit. A fox demon, hengeyokai, spirit, bette or kitsune." - The mercenary said with just the slightest aura of pride and still on a very defensive stance in front of him, ready to continue fighting if needed. - "He's mine, so don't mess with my property."
"W-Well," - Jackie said, staring at him before back at Aria, - "you should have told me that he was here at the very least. I just broke my favorite broom over his head so you need to pay for a new one." - Jackie said with a firm frown.
Hans dropped his own stance and went away towards his room, followed by Aria's careful gaze. Once he was out of sight, Aria turned her narrowed eyes towards Kit .- "You just costed me money, Kit."
"I'm sorry, I … ," - the fox boy gulped down, well aware how much she loved money.
She grabbed him by one of his ears and began pulling him away towards her own room - "what the heck were you thinking!? Going out and almost picking a fight with the werewolf? Are you stupid or what? You are still hurt, Idiot!"
"I'm sorry, but I was hungry and wanted a snack and … ," - the fox began crying again due to the hurtful pinch on his sensible ear.
"And you alone would have end up being less than a snack for Hans, not even a toothpick … ," - She kept scolding him.
Aria grabbed him by one of the fluffy ears and dragged him away around the stairs where they disappeared into Aria's room.
Jackie stared after them once again, speechless. Her curiosity was being peaked. Seriously. Hans was a werewolf and he was nothing like legends and movies said. The fox boy was a Kitsune or whatever that was. But what was Aria? She was living here too, so it would be good to know what she was. Could it be that she was some sort of were-feline? She didn't mind being called a cat and she did behave like one ... but maybe she didn't care about being called anything at all. And she had never transformed ... and she ate normal food ... but Hans did too. Unless she had some other fixation. Could the green tea had been an indication or just an addiction? she also spoke spanish and that time she had mentioned her heritage. How many countries spoke Spanish anyways? She could ask her later she supposed ...
" … oh what the hell this is too confusing!" - Jackie ran her hand through her hair as she stared hard at the wall. These two, now three, strangers come barging into her house and are now living there with her. They both clearly have their own agendas and have no problem in killing. So what's stopping them from killing her? Money? That's a very shallow and weak shield. Hans didn't give a damn about it and Aria well, she liked it but it now started to seem to Jackie that Aria perhaps was accepting too little. She had no idea how much was worth all the information for real in the black market. But movies always showed that people like Aria were paid with briefcases full of money. Plus she was not only an informant. She had also protected their info and identities and was ready and willing to fight if needed.
Just who were those two… three people in her house right now?
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Chaos -dark-lord. Hello everyone! Finally we release a new chapter and introduced another character in this odd gathering, what does the mercenary really meant when she said taht the fox boy is hers? Oh! and there is a message from co-writer PeekoDeMeeko12 for you all at the bottom :D , but first:
As for the many questions from reviewer akuma, Ill answer some and some others will reveal themselves with time. We don't want to spoil all ;D :
-There were various lost countries after WW2. Some were absorbed into other countries. For Hans I will give clues. It was in Germanic territory , was abolished de-facto by the Nazis and de-jure by the allies.
-Yes they are
-Yes, before Alucard returns . We'll give more defined time later :3
-You'll have to wait to see for the answer tot his questions about he characters ho,ho,ho
Don't be sorry, we appreciate the questions :3
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PeekoDeMeeko12: Hi all! Hope you are enjoying the story thus far; I am so excited for you to see just how many ideas we have in store for you! :D
Oh! And don't forget to check our other collaborations: Featuring our take off of Monster Musume No Iru Nichijou, 'Always Read The Freaking Contract!' which is found under my penname! :D And don't forget about 'Duty of the Red Hood' which is a spin off of this story here. We are so excited for all these stories! Enjoy them! ENJOY THEM! :D