Exceptional Normality
Noblesse is not mine, I simply exert my will upon the characters.
Everything Changes
M-21's first feeling about the blond man—quickly introduced by the others as Principal Lee—was that he gave the teen goose bumps.
The blond had greeted him with a smile that even M-21 knew belonged on the front of magazines, and in his experience no one who looked that nice actually was. Plus, the man smelled too clean. The only thing he could compare it to was the last time he had been in the labs—an association that made his body tense as though ready to defend itself.
Hiding his feelings behind a polite nod and murmured greeting, he settled down next to Rai—it was almost his usual spot now—and instead looked down at the table the group was seated around. Aside from snacks and drinks, there were several boxes with names M-21 didn't recognize, and on the table, across from an opened box was some kind of matt on which sat dice.
"We decided to wait for you before starting a game," Shinwoo announced as he plucked a bright red plastic figure, almost like a chess pawn, out of the open box before setting it down on one of the path ends.
Ikhan snorted and adjusted his glasses, "You just wanted to try and flick him as revenge for killing you."
At that, Shinwoo suddenly pulled Ikhan into a headlock and tried to smile innocently at M-21.
Eyes narrowed, M-21 looked at his cohort in confusion, hoping for some sort of hint as to what was going on. His worries furthered when the brunette's normally blank expression seemed a bit apprehensive and the elegant teen set his tea down.
Knowing he wouldn't be getting any advice from Rai—the silent—or Shinwoo or Ikhan, M-21 turned to Yuna, "What are they talking about?"
The girl answered with an innocent smile, "Ah, it's the penalty for certain things in the game. If you get points taken away the person who took your points gets to flick you as hard as they can in the forehead."
Bewildered, the gray teen looked at Shinwoo, who had suggested the game, and then back to Yuna with a mystified expression, "Why?"
"It's a penalty for losing points!" Shinwoo interjected. "Pain makes you stronger and tells you not to lose points again!"
"I…guess." M-21 muttered. Really, how much could strikes from normal humans hurt?
It turns out, they hurt a lot. Much more than he had expected, for sure.
Well, at least I'm not alone, he thought to himself as he looked to his fellow sufferer who was also sporting a red spot on his forehead. As usual, the brunette wasn't much use when it came to games, but this time M-21 wasn't doing much better.
Thankfully, Yuna suddenly stood up with a smile, "Well, I need to go home. I'll see you at school tomorrow. Ah, and, Hyun Su, hopefully we'll all get to play again before you leave!"
"Ah, I'll walk you home, Yuna!" Shinwoo suddenly exclaimed, rising himself. At which point Ikhan stood and accused Shinwoo of just wanting to get out of cleaning up.
"It's no problem," M-21 interjected quickly, "it can be dangerous out there—you should both escort Yuna home. Rai and I can handle this, right?" He turned to eye the brunette as he volunteered the two for the cleaning process.
Hyun Su was quickly gratified to see Raizel set down his tea and nod in agreement, but he felt strangely unsettled a moment later. Suspicious, the experiment looked around for a source but only saw the blond man with his picture-perfect smile. M-21 really didn't trust that smile.
"Great! We'll see you around, Hyun Su, and see you tomorrow, Rai!" Shinwoo cheerfully hollered as the group left the house.
Almost as soon as the door shut, M-21 was standing to get started on cleaning up—the sooner he got away from the blond, the better. A moment later, Rai was helping him, delicately picking up candy wrappers with a serious expression.
"That was very kind of you," the blond suddenly stated. "Though, it isn't safe to be travelling alone for anyone; shall we walk you home once this is done?"
Startled, M-21 quickly shook his head in denial, "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" The scary man persisted pleasantly, "It's no trouble and it isn't only girls who aren't safe out at night."
"I have a lot of martial arts training," M-21 replied with a dismissive shrug.
"Ahhh, then you're like Shinwoo, then? He's actually quite the martial arts prodigy from what I've heard."
"Mmmm, he mentioned that before, I think." M-21 murmured, hoping that was the end of the conversation.
"Still, I wouldn't want your guardian to worry about you—the rest said you were here with someone?"
Mentally gritting his teeth, the teen answered emotionlessly, "My cousin, and he knows I can take care of myself."
With a brilliant smile, the blond, dropped the subject but then, to M-21's discomfort, began cleaning the living room with them. The room quickly fell into an awkward silence.
Once the room was clean again, M-21 controlled his unease long enough to give a polite, if somewhat terse, goodbye before making his way outside. Escape successful, he felt his shoulders unclench as he gave a deep sigh of relief. Nevertheless, he slunk into an alley as soon as possible so he could traverse the roofs instead of the unnervingly open street. Once he had deemed it safe, the teen retrieved the ear bud from his pocket. "M-24, what's your position?"
M-24's night at the docks had so far been boring, yet filled with anxiety considering he didn't know what the stronger experiments were now doing with his infected. All M-24 could think of was how everything could fall apart if the infected became aware enough to talk about the mind control he had used on it.
Thus, M-21's message that he was heading back—spoken in code in case either of the others were listening—only slightly eased his mind. "I'm watching the docks from the warehouse roof. See anything interesting?"
"Just a few teenagers walking home. You?"
"Nothing."
They reverted to radio silence after that, at least until M-21 finally made his way back to his partner. Then, the teen felt free to remove his ear bud, turn it off, and rely on M-24 to respond to any queries from the other agents.
M-24 immediately grinned at him and lifted his eyebrows in a silent question. M-21 scowled in response and purposefully turned away, only to growl when a large hand landed in his hair and began ruffling it. Shocked, the teen twisted around to face his partner, then jumped back, out of reach, when that did not stop the…petting. Grinning, M-24 silently began to walk closer, obviously intent on continuing his assault, and M-21 was forced to move back several steps for every one of the giant's.
Eventually, the teen happened upon what he decided would be the perfect escape, as he quickly left the warehouse roof to M-24 and jumped over to an adjacent roof. Surely, the giant wouldn't go so far as to chase him all the way to another roof.
He was wrong.
M-24 couldn't say anything with his ear bud in and functional, but he easily communicated his glee with a massive grin—a rather creepy vision on a man of his size and appearance—as his young partner was forced to dart away to yet another roof. Despite the teen's warning growls—and he mentally added that to his list of things that were now odd about the youth—the giant continued his pursuit with no intention of stopping any time soon. There were very few ways to amuse yourself on operations like this, especially when you weren't provided with enough money to cover more than the most basic of needs, and teasing his partner was his favorite pastime.
Smiling fondly as the game continued, he noted that if the teen had really wanted to get away from him, he could have. M-21 was easily faster than the giant, but he was a good kid at heart who wouldn't throw that in M-24's face.
They were in a stand-off, M-21 cornered and looking for a way to get past the giant, when the game came to an abrupt end.
"Hey, I'm hungry. Get back here and make me something to eat," Jake demanded over the ear buds.
Scowling, M-24 motioned to his partner, who then approached warily. "We're on our way," the giant responded, annoyance at the arrogant man carefully kept out of his voice.
Looking back, M-24 would say what began everything was the fact that Mary wasn't there when they arrived.
Only Jake.
As soon as they walked through the door, it became obvious that Mary was gone and Jake was not only hungry but bored. And, of course, his immediate solution to this was to mock the two weaker experiments.
"What the hell took you weaklings so long? Did you crawl all the way here?"
The giant grit his teeth and refrained from saying anything. Silence and a glance to the side let him know that so far M-21 was doing the same, but better to be safe than sorry.
Calmly, M-24 tried a tactic many parents over the ages have tried—distract them with food. Casually walking over to the refrigerator, he opened the door to peer inside. "There's still enough vegetables and rice to make a stir-fry," he murmured. "Huh, and if I add chicken and tofu to that, there should be enough for everyone," he determined before returning to the living area.
M-21 had claimed the ratty couch, and was scowling at Jake who grinned mockingly at the teen. Clearing his throat, M-24 told them, "I can have something ready in a few minutes, but is Mary coming back soon?"
The other man scowled, "Feh. No idea when she'll be back. Just make something now."
Not commenting, M-24 left the room after another look at the teen whose body was still tense with anger at Jake's attitude but had closed his eyes as though preparing to sleep. When M-24 went back into the kitchen and narrowed his attention to making dinner as quickly as possible, he thought everything would be alright, and he was correct.
For a minute.
He was so intent on cooking and his own thoughts that he didn't notice anything had gone wrong until he heard Jake's yell.
"You useless little brat!"
M-24's body moved before his mind had even formulated a response, and the sight that met him was of Jake with fists clenched and teeth grinding together while M-21 was equally tense, though with a smile that was both angry and smug.
Uneasily, M-24 tried to intervene, "Now, calm down both of you. Dinner's almost ready—"
Snarling, Jake turned back his way, "No one tells me what to do!"
And suddenly, M-24 couldn't breathe.
As soon as M-24 had gone into the kitchen and started up the clamor that meant he had begun cooking, M-21 could hear Jake's feet shifting as though he didn't know what to do now. Then, the distinct sound of footsteps came closer until they stopped next to the couch.
The rasp of cloth moving together and then the smell of fetid breath told him that Jake was standing at the foot of the couch, likely staring at him. Annoyed, the teen opened his eyes and stared back—Jake's cruel grin warned him that the older agent wasn't going to leave him alone.
M-21 closed his eyes again, deciding that a show of ambivalence was the best course of action for now. "What do you want, Jake?"
"Eh? What a rude kid. I was just thinking about how lucky you are to have a servant assigned as your partner." With a nasty leer at M-21's suddenly narrowed eyes, the man added, "Or I guess since you're just a brat then he's really your nanny instead—does he change your diaper, too?"
M-21's hands clenched into fists for a moment, before the teen remembered himself and got off the couch so he could face the elder agent on somewhat equal ground.
"Really, Jake, I didn't know you were so old you were going senile. I'm a teenager, teen-a-ger. That means I grew out of that a long time ago." Here, the teen paused, eyeing the effect of his words on his opponent. The man was becoming angry, but not as angry as M-21 wanted to make him—not after insulting his partner again. "What you should really be thinking about is how soon you'll need Mary to change your diapers." He smirked as Jake's eyes begin to narrow in fury, "After all, that's the only reason she'd ever touch someone like you—doing her job, no matter how disgusting."
M-21 was too satisfied with hitting several of Jake's obvious weak spots to be properly concerned when the senior agent roared.
"You useless little brat!"
M-21 smiled with teeth bared at the older agent, preparing himself for a fight—a fight that he would have normally known he couldn't possibly win. And then M-24 was there, trying to smooth things over.
The teenager had seen many awful things as a conscripted member of the Union. However, the sight of M-24 being held by the throat by a snarling Jake was the first time since he was still a child that M-21 abruptly lost all sense of control. For an instant, his body was frozen, incapable of movement, even as his heart seemed ready to beat itself out of his chest. In the next, he had tackled Jake, forcing the elder experiment to let M-24 go, and then proceeded to claw every inch of the threat that he could reach.
A purple-ish arm sent him through the opposite wall as Jake countered on reflex.
"What the hell is this?!" The man roared, as M-24 leaned on the couch, trying to subdue his coughing. M-21 had yet to appear from the new hole in the wall, but the giant didn't have time to worry for his partner as Jake rounded on him again.
Not only had Jake transformed his arms, but his shredded clothes and faint bleeding from not-quite-healed wounds made him look like he had been mauled by a wild animal, not a teenager. Instantly, M-24 began thinking desperately for a way to get himself and his impetuous partner out of this, only to find that Jake was reaching for him again.
This time, a gray blur intercepted the experiment's arm before Jake could get a hold, and the two went barreling through the wall and into the kitchen.
"21!" The giant yelled as he pulled himself together and took a few long strides to the kitchen, growls and inarticulate shouts echoing in his ears.
Jake had always hated the remainders of the M-series. A kid and an old man, just strong enough to be put to use in the field, but so weak he should never have had to lower himself to working with them. Then, suddenly, the kid had sliced through his clothing and into his flesh like a rabid dog.
He didn't understand what was going on now, as he tried to grab a hold of the slippery little mongrel who was now sporting claws, but he did know one thing.
No one weaker than him would ever hurt him and live to talk about it.
To hell with Mary, the kid attacked me first—we don't need them.
The realization that he finally had a reason Mary would accept to kill these weaklings caused him to grin as he lashed out and managed to clip the teen, sending him sprawling across the floor.
Jake laughed as he got his first good look at the kid. "You thought a little physical transformation would let you beat me?! You've gotta be crazy! What a stupid kid, I bet some of those nerds back at the base would love to get a hold of you. Maybe I'll even be a nice guy and give them your corpse to play with."
M-21's response to the threat was to bare his elongated fangs and snarl as he crouched low, ready to strike.
Both of them were surprised when Jake was suddenly knocked off his feet from the side.
M-24 took advantage of a moment of inattention, and put everything he had into knocking the stronger agent away. Then, quick as you please, he ignored the furry and sharp additions to his partner, grabbed him with an arm around the waist, and proceeded to run away as quickly as he could.
Understandably, once he had gotten over his surprise, M-21 did not approve of being picked up and carried like a child. So, like a child, he began to wiggle and growl his unhappiness until the giant set him down on a roof top.
"There's no time, 21! We've got to find somewhere to hide!" M-24 grabbed the teen's arm, and soon felt his partner fall into step with him. An abandoned alleyway wouldn't have been his first choice for hiding places, but he knew they needed to get out of sight before Jake caught up, so down they went. In a stroke of good fortune, no one else was in the alley, and their appearance seemed to go unnoticed.
Feeling somewhat more secure, M-24 turned to look at his silent partner, not sure what to say in light of their abrupt change in status from agents to fugitives. Once he was facing M-21, though, his mind went blank.
The teen stood, shoulders scrunched forward and arms held stiffly at his sides. The flickering lights from passing cars were just enough to see that the gray eyes were suspiciously shiny, while small fangs were resting over his bottom lip. The teen's clothes were rumpled, dusty, and torn in several places, while gray-furred hands with long claws were scrunched into awkward fists—his claws wouldn't let him clench properly.
"M-21?"
In a small, defeated voice M-24 hadn't known his partner had, the teen murmured, "I'm sorry."
Faced with tears, M-24 panicked. "It's okay! I know we were going to wait until I didn't need the pills at all anymore, but I'm so close—I probably have enough to last until then—and who knows how much longer we could hide the changes—"
Instead of being comforted, the teen seemed to shrink and grow even more distressed as M-24 spoke. In a panic, he thought about what he had just said and couldn't stop a wince. He hoped he wasn't usually so inept.
"Look, first thing we need to do is find a safe place to hide. Jake may be as subtle as a brick and easy to hide from, but Mary is different." M-24 changed the topic, trying a different tactic to distract his partner. "We can head for somewhere near the docks and catch a boat out tomorrow—"
"That won't work," M-21 cut in, though with only a fraction of his usual confidence. The teen's fur and claws began disappearing as he focused on their next move. "Mary would know the docks are familiar territory for us. We need to go somewhere unexpected, somewhere familiar to us that they wouldn't know about."
"Maybe you could stay over with Reds again?" M-24 suggested.
"We're not splitting up," M-21 growled, "and I doubt he'd be okay with having a friend's adult cousin hang around his house over night."
M-24 didn't make another suggestion. Instead, he waited and watched as his partner's mind began piecing things together.
Finally, M-21 looked up at his partner with a grim smile, "How do you feel about going to school?"
Sooooo, sorry for taking this long to get the next chapter up! Hopefully this one at least meets your expectations, and I hope you enjoyed it! I'm also hoping that I will be updating this and my other story more frequently—I have time off work coming up, so maybe some writing will happen then. :-D Anyway, thank you for reading and I welcome critiques so long as they give advice and are politely stated.