"See Alex run." Michelle says.
"See Alex run." Tessa repeats, tracing the words with her finger as she reads them. "See Alex s…" she struggled for a moment, "Sit. See Alex sit."
"Excellent work." Michelle praised her, "Your reading is improving stupendously, Tessa."
Tessa brightened at the praise, smiling. The last two weeks were filled with Michelle and the others trying to teach Tessa how to read and write.
K.R had taught her a little, but with how often they had to change locations it was difficult to get too deep into each lesson.
That wasn't to say Michelle was the best teacher around either- she was very unsure of what the best way to teach Tessa was. Should she teach her how to write first then read- or switch the two?
Arinna and her both tried looking it up online, but it wasn't that great of help. Neither of them were trained in this- but they were doing the best they could. They were both dreading the day they would try to bring numbers and math into the lessons.
"I barely passed Algebra with a c-." Arinna tells her.
"I honestly do not remember anything from my classes either." Michelle is a little pale, "We should consider buying teaching books. I have seen them in book stores."
"Well this would probably go better if Nicole would help us out." Arinna glares at her.
"I don't see why you should be angry at me." Nicole says calmly, flipping the page in her book.
"I never finished High school or College! You did! You should be the one teaching them how to write, not me."
"You don't need a college or High school degree to be able to write. You learned it in elementary school." Nicole says calmly, "Besides, my degrees focus on baking and mechanics. And I'm working for my degree in Medicine, so if you want me to teach Tessa how to bake, make a robot or stitch a wound, I'm your girl."
Arinna groaned, shaking her head. "Well I would ask Jake for help, but I think he dropped out of school earlier than I did."
"He could probably teach them all the cheats in video games." Leather Head offers.
"True."
"Speaking of him- I have not seen him all day. I wonder what he is up to?" Michelle glanced around.
"Probably working." Nicole says. Michelle hums then glances at the clock.
"Could you do me a favor Nicole?"
Nicole lowered her book with a sigh, "What?"
"As you can see I am in the middle of a lesson with Tessa-" she motioned to the child reading books, "Could you run over to Jake's and see if he is home? I need to know if he is joining us for dinner tonight."
"Why don't you just call him?" Nicole grumbled.
"I punched it." Tessa lifted her hand nervously. Nicole wasn't sure what she meant.
'You punched what?"
"The phone."
"…Why?" she drew out the question, eyes narrowed.
"It startled me." Tessa lowered her gaze nervously.
"Michelle changed the ring tone, so when it started to ring it was rather shocking to Tessa and myself, and often times Tessa's first reaction is to punch whatever spooks her." K.R explained
"Of course.' Nicole pinched her nose, "That makes way too much sense." Getting to her feet she put her book down and got on her shoes, "Fine. I'll be right back."
Shuffling out the door and down the hall, she gave Jake's door a few good bangs. "Jake?" There was no reply, "Jake. Jake-a-roonie. Hey." She lowered her voice "Open the door or I'll kill you~~~" in the spirit of the upcoming holiday that was Halloween, she had begun using her witch voice as of late. Arinna hated it because it was, to Nicole's pride, very creepy.
It even convinced Elizabeth to go as a Witch this year. Everyone was looking forward to it, especially Leatherhead. They would use it as a chance to let him out of the house for once and let him get out and about. A single night of peace and not worrying about them being discovered was something they all needed.
"Jake-Cake?" Nicole tried again.
When there was still no answer, Nicole moved the rug at Jake's door and grabbed the spare key. From what happened with Michelle and Tessa, she's made it a habit to at least check in the rooms if there is no answer. She had to be sure there were no random mutant holding her friends' hostage.
With that thought she opened the door and stepped inside. All the lights were on- which must mean that Jake was in the apartment somewhere, "Jake?" she asked.
"Nicole?!" she could hear him yell from his bedroom, sounding panicked and breathless. Rushing over to it, she swung the door open to find Jake balancing on top of his night stand, his lamp held over his head in defense as if he intended to throw it.
"Jake?" she gasps at the sight, instantly on guard, "What happened? What are you doing up there?" she scanned the room for any hostile intruders.
"T-There…" Jake motioned to the floor, his face pale and his voice wavering. Nicole scanned the floor, her gaze unable to pick up whatever it was she was supposed to see.
"…What?" she asks.
"There!" he jabbed his finger at it again.
Nicole cringed, unable to see what this thing was, "I don't see-"Something small moved, and she realized it was a spider. "…The spider?" she asks, completely joking until Jake nodded, looking ready to burst into tears. "Seriously?"
"I c-can't handle, s-s-spiders." He stammers.
"Ohmygod." She gets to her feet, moving over to kill the stupid thing with her foot, "Are you serious?"
"Yes I'm serious!" he watches with almost an odd satisfaction as she kills the accursed beast. "They are creepy and crawly and can crawl in your ear!"
She moved towards him, thinking he looked like a baby when he held his arms out to her and she had to help him down from the nightstand.
"How can you like Spiderman but hate spiders?" she questions.
"Spider man is a man. Not a spider. He just has powers of a spider." Jake points to her, almost insulted that she dares bring his childhood hero into this conversation and compare him to a bug.
"You're sad." She tells him.
"Am not."
"Alright, then tell me… how long were you on the nightstand because you saw one little spider?"
Jake didn't answer for a long time, his gaze looking everywhere but at her.
"…Two hours. I couldn't reach the phone."
"Sad."
"It isn't sad- Spider! SPIDER!" Jake wailed when a second one suddenly moved on the wall. He then leapt at Nicole, clinging to her like a Koala, refusing to let his feet touch the ground. Nicole almost fell over at the impact, gagging.
"Dude! Chill!' the two stumbled out of the room before toppling over the couch and onto the floor with a thud. Pinching Jake's nose and giving it a tug to get him to release her, she sat up. "It is just a spider."
"Two spiders! There were two! There could be more! Right in this room!" he leapt upwards and onto the couch. "I ran out of bug killer and now I can't get rid of them! Now they will live here forever and ever and I'll never get rid of them and then they'll eat my brains by crawling into my ears."
"Gross."
"It is gross!"
"Jake." She held up her hand, hoping to calm his anxiety and panicked state, "We'll just get some more bug killer or something, okay? It isn't that big of a deal."
"It is a big deal." He disagrees, looking distraught.
Nicole blinks at him, not wanting to be the bad guy in this situation and completely cut him down for his fear.
So she sighed and scratched the back of her neck, looking around the room until she thought of any idea.
"We'll just ask Agatha for some bug killer, okay?" she asks him. Sniffing, Jake nods his head.
"Cool." Together the two of them exited the apartment and went to the elevator.
"You figure out what you are going to be for Halloween?" she asks once they are inside.
"I dunno." He admits, "How does Black Panther sound?"
"I don't know too much on that hero." Nicole shrugs, "He is the one that is a King, right?"
"Yeah."
"That would probably be a good one then. Arinna is going as Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. She dressed Picasso up as Squirtle."
Jake laughed at that, "Did Michelle pick anything?"
"I convinced her to go as a Ghost Buster with me." Nicole grins, "I'm trying to get Agatha to join us, but she insists that she doesn't want to dress up and go gallivanting off into the city with us. If I'm persistent enough though, I think I can get her to at least put the outfit on."
"Who is your Fourth ghost buster?"
"Tessa and K.R will be one of the ghost."
"Ah." Jake smiles, looking forward when they arrived at the Lobby, only to find the front desk empty.
"Agatha?" Nicole ran the bell. Waiting a few minutes, she rang it a few more times. Frowning, she stepped around the desk and stuck her hand between the beads- because Agatha had hanging beads to her office like a hippie instead of a door. Separating the strings, she peaked in. Seeing no one inside, she blinked, "She's gone." she told Jake.
Jake was nervously rubbing at his palms. "Oh…. Then I have to go back to the apartment? I don't like spiders…" he was prancing a bit in place.
"Dude, relax. Agatha has bug killer somewhere. It is probably in the storerooms." she promised him. She pulled out her phone and dialed Agatha's number to let them know they needed her. When she didn't pick up, Nicole left a message.
He looked pale, "Do we really need to go to the Store rooms?"
"Yeah, they are in the basement." she grabs the key from behind the desk. Jake doesn't look comfortable.
"W-We should wait for Agatha."
"I've been down there a billion times, it'll be fine. Come on. It is just bug killer." she starts to drag him with her.
The first store room was right at the bottom of the steps, and often times it usually held everything that a person would need. Which always made the room cramped.
Nicole never understood why Agatha didn't just put half of the supplies in one storeroom and the other stuff in the other room.
"Find it?" Nicole asks over her shoulder.
Jake sneezes from the dust, "No."
"Me either."
They search the whole store room, finding nothing but toilet paper, brooms, and other cleaning supplies. "Must be in the other one." she notes.
"The other one?" Jake looks pale.
"Yup." She starts heading down the hall.
"W-Wait!' he grabs her arm, "What are you doing?"
"Going to Storeroom 2."
"H-Haven't you heard of the rumors?" Jake whimpered.
"Rumors?" Nicole questions.
"All the other residents talk about it." Jake begins to explain. "Store room 2 is haunted."
Nicole snorts, "Haunted?" she laughs, "You have got to be kidding me."
"Several people have disappeared down here. T-They were never seen again! Something took them, they say."
"Right." She scoffs, "And what were the names of these missing residents?"
Jake couldn't answer because he didn't know.
"Boom, rumor destroyed." She pulls her arm out of his grip. He stumbles after her, making little pleading noises to get her to stop.
"We'll go in and then go out. Simple, Jake."
The lights above them began to flicker. Looking up at it, Jake screamed when it suddenly cut off, leaving them in darkness. A second later, a light came from Nicole's phone.
"Jake." he was clinging to Nicole, "Let go."
"T-The light-" he whimpered
"It just died out. Lightbulbs do that." she shoved him off, using her phone to guide their way. "Come on, we are almost there."
He pulls out his own phone in a frantic panic, "I-I don't think this is a good idea." he admits.
Shuffling the rest of their way down the hall, they stop at the last door, "Storeroom 2." Nicole ran her flashlight over the number. Jake was frowning behind her.
"Nicole." he whined pitifully.
"Stop being a baby. Come on." she grabbed his arm and gave it a tug. He stumbled in after her. Prepared to click off the light on her phone, she hesitated when the light switch to the room didn't work. Trying a few times, she hummed, "This one is out too." Jake was making worried little noises behind her. "Light bulbs go out Jake." she tells him. Shinning her phone light around the room, she noticed a large gray box attached to the wall. Popping it open, she titled her head, "Found the circuit breaker."
"Great." Jake says quietly, staying at least 3 inches behind her. He inched a bit closer when the water pipes above them groaned from the movement of water within them.
"Little elbow room please." Nicole asks him.
"…Sorry." He didn't step away.
"….Jakeeee~" she used her witch voice. He flinched away.
"Don't do that!" he hissed quietly.
"Then give me space." She said back, equally as quiet.
He pouted at her, then turned away. To take up his time and distract his worries on the rumors of Store Room 2, Jake began to rummage through one of the boxes. Nicole followed his example, frowning when she couldn't seem to find what they were looking for.
Jake was having no luck with the box he was going through, "What does the bottle look like?"
"I dunno- it says bug killer." Nicole pulls her phone out again to call Agatha, hoping she could at least tell Nicole where the stuff was stored at.
She didn't answer again. Jake was deadly quiet behind her, but she assumed he had lost himself to thought.
Mid way through her voicemail to Agatha, Jake tapped her shoulder.
"N-N-N… Ni-." he is hitting her shoulder suddenly, his breathing coming out in shrill gasps.
"Jake I'm leaving a message. What do you want-?" she looks over her shoulder. He is pointing ahead. Following his finger and moving her phone to see, her throat drops to her stomach. Staining the floor in small droplets was a sickening red color. She recognized the dark red instantly.
The phone almost slips from her hand and she scrambles to catch it, barely able to say, "Gotta go." to the voicemail, before she shuts it close, turning back to the light on her phone to illuminate the stained floor.
"...Is that blood?" she asks, her voice barely a whisper. She approaches it cautiously, kneeling down to get a closer look. Blood. It was definitely blood. Feeling sick, she points the light around once more.
Every fiber in her being is telling her to leave- but the years she has put into medical school is forcing her to hold her ground and make sure no one is hurt in here.
Something blue catches her attention. Hesitant and barely using the tips of her fingers she reaches for it, plucking it off the puddle then turning it between her fingers. From what she could tell, it was a feather. It is stained a bit with red, but the blue was striking. There were several feathers in fact, all leading towards the back of the room. Rising to her feet, Nicole starts to follow the trail.
Jake scrambles after her, not sure what she was up to.
Together they inched around the towering boxes, careful to make as little noise as possible.
Getting to the side of the room, the blood stops at the corner… than goes up along the wall. Nicole gulps a bit. "Jake-" There is a sound to their right, and they go back to back, phones held high, "W-Who is there?" Nicole demands.
"Nicole." Jake pleads, "Lets go.."
"Wait-"
A sharp screech to their right has them clinging to each other. Then a crash, and they are running for the door.
"NEVERMIND! RUN!" Nicol screams. Something large drop down behind them, silhouetted from the shadows.
It moves towards them when it realizes they are heading for the exit.
"GO GO GO!" They leap out of the Storeroom. With several screams of panic they slam the door shut, locking it and tossing a pole between the door handles, sealing the room shut.
There were no windows inside, and the vents were too small for anyone to escape using them, so whatever was in there… it was stuck.
With that in mind, Nicole and Jake backed up until their backs hit the other wall, their eyes locked on the door. Refusing to move, they flinched when the handle began to turn. Once, twice, then frantically, before something slammed against it. The horrid slamming was the final cue for them to get out of there and they ran for the stairs.
Refusing to stop until they reached the lobby, Nicole dove over the counter, grabbing Agatha's desk phone. She was dialing Agatha's number a second later.
"What are you doing?!" Jake demanded, glancing nervously at the door to the bottom floor.
"Calling Agatha!' Nicole told him, "I'm freaking out! She could totally handle whatever that thing was unlike me or you."
"Good idea! Good idea!" Jake takes a few sharp breaths, "W-What was that? Was it a ghost!? Are we like the Scooby doo gang? I don't want to be Fred!"
"You would be Shaggy, now shut up." Nicole tries again, only to go to voicemail. Jake mumbles something behind her.
"Well you would be Scrappy."
"What did you say?" she whipped around.
He held his arms up defensively, "Nothing. Nothing."
After the 15th call, Nicole gave up, "She isn't answering."
"What do we do?" Jake demanded, "What if that thing gets out? We don't even know what it was! It might have been a ghost! A ghost out to haunt and kill us-"
"Get a hold of yourself!" Nicole shook him when he started to panic, "We gotta be calm about this. Lets start by going back to the others."
"And do what?!"
"Telling them about what happened!"
Finding they agreed on that, they ran up to the room as fast as they could, barreling through the door and into the others. "There was a ghost!" Jake screamed.
"It wasn't a ghost, shut up!"
"It was a ghost and it was in the storeroom and there was a blood and feathers! I think it ate a bird! Or possessed it! It is like the Thing! It eats them then takes their form!"
"Jake shut up! We don't know if that is what happened! But if it did, we need to get a flame thrower!"
Arinna and Michelle blinked rapidly, neither knowing what the shell their friends were talking about.
"Wait- wha- Nicole! Jake! Calm down!" Michelle yells at them, "Explain to us what happened."
"The bug killer- storeroom- ghost!" Jake gasped for air.
"Wasn't… a ghost!" Nicole said
"Down in Storeroom two! There was something there. It tried to attack us!"
"Down in Storeroom two you say?" Michelle jumped when every light in the apartment suddenly cut off. Jake screamed, ducking down to cover his head.
"It's the ghost!"
The lights began to flicker than, blinking rapidly with no distinct pattern.
"What's happening?" Tessa asked. "What is with the lights?"
Stepping back, Nicole scrambled to get the door handle to the front door and looked out. It wasn't just the room; the whole hall was doing this. "...The circuit breaker."
"What?" Arinna peeked out at her. "What about it?"
"The circuit breaker is in storeroom two." Nicole explains quickly, "Whatever is in there is messing with it."
"Why would they do that?" K.R questions.
"We locked it in." Nicole mumbles, "...After a while someone might get annoyed enough to go check out the problem themselves instead of waiting for Agatha. Or Agatha herself would go down there."
"They would let it out when they went inside the storeroom!" Jake gasped in realization.
"Exactly!" Nicole snapped her fingers at him,
"...And?" Michelle hoped for some sort of plan, "What do we do? Wait for someone to do that or go figure out what it is ourselves."
Nicole hadn't thought of that, "I could be something bad." she admits, "Something dangerous."
"Or a ghost." Jake whispers.
"There are no such thing as ghosts."
"Do you have proof they don't?!" he demanded, "Cause I have proof they do." he pulled out a book of Goosebumps.
"That is a Nonfiction children's book! That doesn't prove they exist!" Nicole took it from him and tossed it on the other side of the room. "Either way, I don't want to know what is down there. Haven't we found enough weird things as is?"
"Not saying I disagree Nicole." Michelle begins, "Say it is a danger however. I would hate for any of the residents to get caught up in it. If we must resist calling the police to protect our non human friends here, then I say we at least do the right thing and check it out ourselves."
"I agree." Arinna nods. "But not all of us. Maybe only a group, because if Leather Head went all the way to the bottom floor, I can't guarantee we could get him back up here unseen."
Nicole should have known they would say this. "Who goes down then?"
"Can't be all of us, that would be too suspicious." Arinna reminds them yet again.
Nicole grumbled, "Might as well be me, since I was the one already down there. Jake, you in?"
"Go back down there with the chance of death?" he asks incredulously.
"You could see on whether or not it is a ghost." Nicole suggests.
Jake finds that interesting enough to almost agree, but insists they bring Tessa along. "Why Tessa?" K.R demands.
"Have you seen how strong she is? She could level this entire building with a punch. I want her on my team." Jake insists.
"Ooh, yeah he's got a point. Tessa, you're coming with." Nicole nods vigorously.
"If Tessa goes, then so do I." K.R says.
"Cool, whatever. A group of four is good. If we don't contact you within 30 minutes, then assume we are dead." Nicole tells Arinna, who goes pale.
"Don't joke about that." She hits her arm.
"I wanna come too!" Elizabeth raises her arm.
"You gotta stay here and watch Picasso." Nicole said, pointing to the crawling menace who was giving her the stink eye. "You know Arinna can't handle him alone."
Looking back and forth between the two, Elizabeth sighs, "Yeah." She agrees quietly.
"Alright then, lets go." Nicole steps out of the apartment with the others. K.R takes that chance to leap up to Tessa's shoulder and sit there. It doesn't take long for them to reach the bottom floor and make their way to Storeroom 2.
Quietly approaching the door, Nicole tightened her grip on the wrench in her hands. "Ready?" she whispers to Jake, K.R and Tessa. They both nod, Tessa slowly tilting her head to brush it against K.R's. "Okay. Here we go-"
"Wait." Jake held out his hand. Nicole froze. "...Maybe we should rethink this?"
"Jake." she sighed.
"I have a broom!" He yelled, "What is this going to do against a ghost?!"
"It isn't a ghost!" she hit him on top of the head. "If the broom is such a big deal you should have grabbed something else."
"I didn't have anything else." he grouched, rubbing his head, "What was I supposed to do? Grab a frying pan?"
"That would have done better than the broom." She grinded her knuckles into his skull. He yelled, slapping her hands away.
"...Um…" Tessa held up a hand, "so are we going to go or-?" she trailed off, pointing to the door.
"We're going. We're going." Nicole grumbled, grabbing her second wrench and giving it to Jake. He took it, holding it awkwardly between his palms.
"This is heavier than I thought it would be." He admits as if that was the first time he ever held one.
"It is a wrench; they are made of metal. Of course they will be a little heavy." Nicole inches towards the door, running her hand over the pole she had previously placed there. It meant no one had entered or exited the room since Jake and her fled from the scene.
Removing the pole, she hesitated from unlocking it, giving the group one final look before she turned the lock. She couldn't hear anything on the other side and slowly creeped it open.
Half expecting something to pop up as soon as she did that, she was relieved to find nothing… so far.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Tessa inquired quietly.
'I didn't get a good look at it. Something with feathers I guess." Nicole shrugs.
"Blue feathers." Jake adds, pulling out his phone and using the light on it to guide their way.
"Are you positive it wasn't a bird?" K.R frowns.
"It was big. There is no way it could have been a bird." Jake tells him, "It was almost… I dunno- human?"
K.R and Tessa gave each other curious looks and went back to scanning the room.
After two minutes of horrible silence, something crashed towards the corner of the room, making all four of them jump. Sharing quick looks, they quietly approached the corner, weapons held high. Jake was the first to get there, leaping around the side to survey the area. Blinking once, then twice, he frowned. There was nothing over here.
"False alarm-" he turns back to look at the others and sees something. His eyes grow wide when he spots the shadowed figure sneaking behind all of them and towards the door. The sound had simply been a distraction for it to escape, "THERE!" he bellows.
Startling both his friends and the creature, they all flinched, whipping around to either give chase or flee. "Tessa!" K.R yelled to her.
"On it!" she sprinted forward, holding a high advantage to the injured beast in front of her. Taking out it's legs with a move Nicole remembered Elizabeth doing once, specifically to Tessa herself, the lumbering figure toppled over, two elegant wings lifting upward in the decent.
While this startled and shocked Jake and Nicole enough to hesitate, it didn't for Tessa, who was instantly upon the being, grabbing his arms and flipping the person over.
The two wings coming off this person's back moved to hit Tessa off, but she avoided the attack, stepping on the ends of them with her boots.
The person yelped at the sensation, and turned into the light coming from their phones.
It was only then that they realized it was a young child- well, not so much as a child. More like a young teenager who was just tall. The baby face gave away how young he was unlike his height.
"A boy?" K.R mumbles quietly.
Tessa moved to glance at his face, almost giving him a chance to escape from the loose grip, but she quickly regained control.
Holding one of his arms behind his back, the boy winced at the painful sensation, his wings shifting to try and accommodate the pain.
The blood oozing down his other arm, which hung limply to his side, had Nicole's stomach flipping, "You're hurt." she says.
He hisses at her, blood staining his teeth. One was missing in the back. Looked like it had been knocked out recently- better hope that was a baby tooth kid.
"A kid… It's a kid." Jake shakes his head, "Oh jeez. A-Are you okay? W-We can help you." Jake held out his hand. The boy swung his injured arm out at him, snagging Jake on the forearm. With a yell of pain, from both of them, Jake fell back, cradling it. Three deep scratches ran on the back of his arm from his elbow to his wrist.
Nicole was quick to crawl to him, yanking off her coat to help stop the bleeding.
"Hey!" Tessa tightened her grip, putting enough weight on him to have his chin hitting the ground. The boy gagged, kicking a bit in hopes of getting away.
"You okay, Jake?" Nicole asks carefully.
"I'm… it is fine. I've gotten worse." He insists. Nicole nods a bit, tightening the cloth around the arm. It wasn't too bad and could be solved with some bandages. The boy on the other hand…
"K.R. Get a first aid kit. Tell Arinna to get the painkillers and disinfectants too, she knows where those are." Nicole whispers to him. His ears flick at her.
"Is it that bad?" he glances at Jake, concerned.
"I'm not talking about Jake." her gaze is on the boy Tessa was currently pinning to the floor. "That injury- if we don't do something about it, he'll die of blood loss."
Startled to hear such news, K.R nodded and ran off.
Waiting until he left, Nicole looked back to the situation she was thrown into. "Geez…" she scratched the back of her head. "What is your name kid?" she asked him.
He only growled at her, his feathers bristling on his wings. Wings.
How bizarre was that? To just have wings and try to do things with them? How does this kid fit through doors?
"Is Grr grr your name?" Nicole joked. The teenager didn't find it funny. The rest of the time until K.R returned was spent having quiet conversations between Nicole and Jake- asking if his arm hurt, talking about how it might scar, and giggling at the question if a boy with wings was better to find than a ghost or not.
Neither or them knew the answer.
When K.R returned with the bag, there was a note attached to it.
"A boy with wings?! Are you serious!? I should have gone down with you! It is an angel I say! An angel! I want to meet him when this is all over! Make sure Tessa washes her hands- blood pathogens and such. Stay safe and do your thing Ms. Doctor."
Chuckling at the letter, she put it aside and opened the bag. She could tell the boy was eyeing the contents, kicking his legs a little harder when he noticed the syringes and scissors.
"Okay. Let's just calm down." she held out her hands. The boy shot a glare at her. "You don't like me. I don't like you. That is fair." she started to inch forward, "We have to do something about that injury." The wing slapped her in the face.
It didn't hurt, but she swears she thought she heard Jake snort.
"Okay. Very funny." she pushes it over, "Seriously kid, chill. We want to help."
He makes a scoffing sound.
"Yeah. Yeah we do." she nods at him. "Shocker there, but the cat thing with her talking feline brother, the spider-phob, and the beautiful mechanic want to aid the strange bird kid."
"What is a phob?" Jake mumbles quietly.
"Phobia." Nicole answers. The boy seems almost unreasonable, kicking his legs with a raging ferocity, enough to almost make Tessa lose her grip. To compensate, she dug her knee between his wings.
The boy cried out a bit in pain, looking ready to bit at her fingers.
Nicole was furious just watching, unable to take the insanity that fate often pulls her in to.
"Hey!" she hit the kid hard enough to startle and momentarily daze him, "Shut up and listen short stuff. I don't care that you don't trust us. After this, you can leave and we won't follow. In fact, I would really prefer that you just left our lives and not bring any more trouble into our world- because we got enough of that. What I won't stand for though is letting some kid who has barely entered his life as a teenager die on my watch. Is that what you want? To die in some dark room with strangers? Doesn't sound like a great way to go, does it? So you can either zip the lip and cooperate, or our friend here knocks you out cold and you have no say what so ever in what is about to happen." she motions to Tessa, who's eyes are shinning with an unspoken threat to the mutant below her.
Going still, his chest heaving, the boy lowers his wings, "..." he presses his forehead to the ground, as if in thought. After a short time, he looks up.
With something Nicole could only describe as a torn look, the kid reluctantly goes limp under Tessa's grip, then nods.
They had a deal.
"Let him go Tessa." Nicole tells her, already putting on two rubber gloves. Tessa steps away a second later, ready to spring the moment something seemed off to her.
"I'm watching you." she points to the kid, who rubs at his soar neck. Shrinking when Nicole approached him, he watched her cautiously, never once letting her leave his sight as she shuffled around him.
She glanced at him, holding her hands up in a motion of peace before she lowered them to his shirt. He tensed, but didn't attack. Taking that as the okay, she got to work.
Tearing a bit of his shirt away, hoping not to rub against the gash in any way, she felt her heart sink. It was worse than she first realized. The gash wasn't just on his arm, it ran up to his shoulder, inches away from slicing at his wings. She couldn't even imagine what had done this to him.
Tessa looks a little pale, her hands trembling slightly as she handed Nicole the tools. Nicole can't say her worry wasn't justified. Couple years at med school, which she still hasn't graduated from by the way, couldn't have prepared her for a mutant bird kid being so severely injured.
She could only hope that besides the wing and slight feathers on his skin here and there, that this kind relatively had the same anatomy as any human.
For now, she just had to stop the bleeding, disinfect the gash, and patch it up before this kid went unconscious. There were other scratches and bruises covering his frame, but none of them were severe as the shoulder.
Putting her focus on that, she pressed a pad to the wound, adding as much pressure as she could. The boy winced, glancing at her. "Gotta stop the bleeding." she told him for the billionth time that day.
Keeping the pad going for a little while, she glanced to Tessa, "Can you help me?" she asks.
She straightens, "W-With what?"
"Keep the pressure on this pad." she tells her calmly. "Can you do that?'
Tessa nods numbly, quickly moving into Nicole's place and bracing her hands on the bad, watching as Nicole reached into the first aid kid, pulling out a needle. She placed it into a jar, extracting out some clear liquid into the needle.
"What is that?" Tessa inquired, her mouth dry. This whole situation felt horribly familiar.
"Morphine."
No one but Jake seemed to fully know what that was.
The mutant bird kid, just from seeing the needle alone, had began to squirm, "It is a pain killer." Nicole explains.
"I don't need it."
"Oh." Nicole is startled, "So it speaks."
"I don't need it." he repeats.
"Kid, I'm about to sew your shoulder back together. It will be excruciating."
He hesitated, "I don't-"
'You need it." she insists. With that, she took his arm. He almost reeled back, but Nicole grabbed his other shoulder, holding him still. "Hey… It is okay." She had seen patients with wounds like his. All from car crashes or other injuries. All them were scared and frightened, but none of them had been children. Waiting until he stilled, she grabbed his arm again, taking the time to find a nail and place a little on the spot to numb it before she injected it into his system.
Breathing heavily, he relaxed a little, allowing them to wait a few minutes for it to fully kick in.
000- Agatha-000
Agatha had stepped away from her phone for a single hour to take care of an errand. Many things had come up these last couple months- all which were putting a strain on her patience.
However, one could now be tossed aside and forgotten. All she wanted to do now was head home and take a bath. Maybe see if Joel stopped by at all and left her something?
She paused, sighing. She sure did miss him.
Reaching her palm up to rub her tired eyes, she pulled out her phone. Turning it back on, not wanting to be rude if it buzzed or went off during the meeting she was just in, she frowned when the notifications appeared.
A few texts, a notification that it was time to harvest her berries in her farming game, and… 15 calls from Nicole? What in the world did that silly girl want?
Sighing, she went to her voicemail, listening quietly as she got on the nearest bus.
"Hey Agatha, It be Nicole~" The cheeky red head says, "Jake is hassling me about some spider problem or whatever in his room. Think the guy has a phobia or what not to them, so I told him I'd get bug killer. You weren't in so I took the keys to the storerooms to get it-" There was a pause and Agatha could only assume Nicole was talking to Jake when she said, "No you can't have 3 whole bottles of the stuff. 1 bottle will last you months Jake. Yes I am sure.' the message ended at that, with no real indication that Nicole was done talking.
A year ago, Agatha would have felt nervous if someone told her they were headed down to the storerooms. The chance of them seeing Joel was too great and she couldn't risk it. So she made up all these odd rumors about the place to get the residence to keep their distance.
Joel lived elsewhere now though, so the fear of him being seen had left with him.
Grumbling, Agatha skimmed the voicemail. She really did not want to listen to all of these. With nothing else to do however, she listened to the next one.
"Hey Agatha, it is Nicole again. You know I hate you bother you, but Jake really wants that bottle. We are in the storeroom, but I just can't figure out which box you put it in. Is it a blue bottle or a red one? Anyway-" There is a small pause, "Jake, I'm leaving a message. What do you want-?" There is the sound of shuffling, as if Nicole lost her grip on the phone, but it goes quiet. "...Gotta go." Nicole hangs up suddenly.
Finding the situation odd she instantly clicked to the other one. She felt her heart jump out of her chest when the first thing she heard was Nicole's frantic screams, "Agatha! Agatha!" the younger red head cursed, "Pick up your phone! Come on! Something just happened!" she was gasping for breath, sounding frightening, "The storeroom. Storeroom 2." Agatha can barely understand her through her gasping, "There was something in the storerooms! And blood! Where are you?! Call me back!"
Most of the messages followed in similar lines after that. Blood. Storeroom 2. Something in there that scared Jake and Nicole enough to call her.
It had Agatha gripping at the side of the Bus seat. It couldn't be…
The final message had her rising to her feet in a rush of panic, her heart shooting into over drive when Nicole mentioned something about 'Blue feathers on the ground'.
The bus ride suddenly feeling too long she hit the button and got off, pushing and shoving through the citizens of New York to get to her apartment complex.
It couldn't be him. He left!
But he came back sometimes. If it was him, why was there blood? Was he hurt?!
Agatha couldn't think straight enough to make rational solutions for this. The only thing on her mind was, "Have to get back. Must check. Have to go faster."
00000- Nicole-0000
The kid was on cloud 9 by the time Nicole finished disinfecting the wound. On multiple occasions she had to stop him from falling back into her. He would stare at his fingers curiously, opening and closing them before giggling.
"...So drugging him was supposed to help?' K.R inquires after staring at the boys behavior for a bit.
"He doesn't feel any pain right now, so yes." Nicole nods, "Yes it does."
Grabbing the needle and examined the tip of it before moving for the boy's shoulder. It was time to get to work.
"…"
Nicole paused, her hand hovering about the swollen and red skin. Jake was concerned, "You okay?"
She had practiced suturing for a while now- from bananas, to dummies, to assisting a doctor do it themselves, but how could she admit this would be the first person she actually did it to?
"Just-" she gulped, "Feeling a little nervous." she gulps.
"...You've done this before, right?" K.R cringes. Nicole stares at him, not answering. He looks very concerned by that.
"I'll be fine…" she says quietly. She hoped it would be fine. With that oh so confident thought in mind, she started the first stitch. It was almost sickening feeling the needle pierce the boy's skin. She half expected him to scream or flinch, but when he didn't, she sighed in relief. "I'm good." She says to Jake again, continuing with the rest.
Suturing the last stitch together, she cut the string and tied it off. It was done, and it looked awesome. "Whoop!" Nicole pumped her fist.
And then someone slide into the room that she hadn't expected to.
It was Agatha.
Her eyes were wild with an almost predator locking system, her gaze flaring the moment she got there.
Nicole had never felt so terrified in her life at the look Agatha was giving them. She was really going to kill them this time. But before the death could arrive, Agatha saw the bird kid.
Oh great. Here we go-
"Joel." Agatha covered her mouth in horror.
"...I'm sorry, what?" Nicole could barely believe herself. Did Agatha know this kid?! Was this kid Joel? Who in the world even is Joel?!
Agatha shoved them out of the way, bringing the boy into her arms. The embrace was warm and loving. Without a fight the mutant melted right into it- though you could blame the morphine for that one. "Joel." She held him close.
"Hey~" he giggles a slur. "Hey you~" his drugged mind wouldn't allow him to fully process everything around him, so he just giggled.
"Wait- What?! What is going on?!" Joel and Nicole demanded.
000- Later—000
Through some odd means and little to no conversation or indication to what was happening, they ended up in Agatha's apartment an hour later with everyone present. And when Nicole says everyone, she means Everyone.
LeatherHead was in the room! He was just there! Nicole couldn't even explain why he was there, he just got there. Everything was such a blur and Agatha's cold stare was enough to give someone amnesia just to forget it.
For the moment, all focus seemed to be on the bird kid- or, Joel, was his name. He was out of danger for now, and just needed rest as far as Nicole could tell. They would need to keep an eye on that wound and be sure it didn't get infected, but for now they could rest easy.
So Nicole could only sit there in Agatha oddly well enforced kitchen that she had no doubt held rows upon rows of hidden weapons.
When they settled Joel down to rest, Agatha trudged into the kitchen, exhausted and looking ready to get straight to the point. Realizing everyone was staring at her, she straightened. "You probably have questions."
Jake nods, "Yeah… A lot of them."
"A whole lot of them." Arinna agrees.
"Can we wait a little bit before we get into that?" Nicole slowly raises her hand. Everyone is surprised to hear her request.
"Are you okay?" Arinna inquires, worried.
"I'm tired." she is trembling, "And I'd like to go wash my hands." the red stain on her hands was still there.
Agatha stares at her, an understanding and almost pitying look on her face as she motions to her bathroom. Nicole steps in and closes the door a second later, not uttering a word.
"Will she be okay?" Jake whispered softly.
Arinna could only imagine how Nicole felt by all of this. The situation, even the boy's life, was riding on her shoulders. Unable to call an ambulance, or experienced doctors, she was left to her own wit and supplies. She must have been terrified.
Nicole was tough, Arinna was sure she could push past this in no time, but it couldn't have been easy.
After 30 minutes, a very long time to simply wash her hands, Nicole stepped out, her hair drenched and body clean. She must have taken a shower, since she was wearing one of Agatha's shirts. "Borrowed this." she told her simply.
"That is fine." Agatha agreed.
Sitting down, Nicole sighed, "Okay. Alright… So." She clears her throat, "Got a bird kid, huh?"
Agatha looks almost ready to chuckle at Nicole's blunt and almost funny comment, "In short, yet."
Arinna looks ready to flip the table, "That's it? Just, he is yours? That is all? You've been keeping this big all secret and all you do is nod?"
"Landlords shouldn't keep secrets Agatha." Nicole teased, honestly not feeling shocked with any of this. With how things go, she should just assume everyone she knows has some connection to a ninja, mutant, or other strange person. She wouldn't be surprised if she met an Alien one day.
…Did she just jinx herself?
"Well it isn't as though I'm the only one that has done that." Agatha gives Nicole this look. A look that translates into, "You could never hide things from me."
Nicole almost fell out of her chair, "You knew." she accused her, "You knew about Leather Head, and Elizabeth, and Picasso- everything! You knew all along!" She thought it was odd that Agatha wasn't even saying anything about them.
"No way." Arinna covers her mouth.
"A manager knows everything that goes on in her building." Agatha stated simply, "Did you really think I wouldn't have found out eventually?"
"Well I mean- I figured you would! When did you find out?" Nicole demanded.
"When you brought your Alligator friend home. Leather head was it?" Agatha asked him.
He nodded sheepishly, "H-How do you do?"
"That still does not explain how you learned of his existence." Michelle admits.
"Cameras my dear. There is one in every hall." Agatha took a sip of her tea.
...Nicole slammed her head against the table. Of course, the cameras. How could she have not thought of those earlier?
Anyone could figure out their secret and all they had to do was go through the security footage.
"But how did you figure out about Elizabeth?" Jake continued to question her. "Or Tessa and K.R?"
"I admit, the two of you threw me off. I hadn't learned you were here yet." she pointed to Tessa and K.R, who lowered their heads. "I figured something along the lines occurred after that incident with the fight. You two bicker, but you never fight like that." she looked back at Nicole and Michelle. "As for Elizabeth-" she smiled at her, "Dear child, try as you may, I've seen how you can move at times. You are quick, agile- as if you were raised to be so. Plus, I was worried so I hacked into the street cameras a few nights about you two were attacked by those masked hooligans."
"The Foot." Elizabeth corrects her.
"Yes, them."
"I can't believe it-" Nicole slumps into a chair, "All this worry about you finding out, and you already knew. Endless stress for nothing." She almost sounds relieved for the secret to finally be out there.
"So you…" Jake licks his lips, "You aren't mad?"
"I wouldn't say I agree with your choices on keeping secrets, but having one similar, I understand." Agatha admits, glancing at the door behind her where Joel was resting. "I owe you a debt for saving my boy." Agatha bowed her head in gratitude.
"About that-" Michelle speaks up, "Agatha, you told me that you never had any children of your own, and you certainly do not have wings. How is it that Joel is your child? Why did you never mention him before?"
Agatha sighed sadly, "Well, I suppose there is no harm in telling you at this point. Joel isn't my biological son, I adopted him at a young age after his mother passed away. He had nowhere to go, and had his wings since he was born. His birth mother was just like him." she pauses, "To this day I do not know how his family came to posse wings. Was it evolution? Or did his Mother come into contact with something earlier that affected both of their DNA? The answer always alludes me."
"Amazing, and you've raised him in secret?" K.R inquired.
"I had to. I doubt anyone would have accepted him otherwise."
"So you kept him in the Storeroom." Nicole concluded, "Can I assume it was you that started the rumors?"
Agatha only smiled slyly, "He left the Store Rooms a few months ago, having found a home out to the country a bit more. He was safe there, and while he is young, he can manage himself through his ability to hunt and survive in the wild. I suppose it is instinct. He would come back from time to time to see me, but overall the safest place was the country." She lowers her head, her gaze fogging over slightly in silent rage, "I thought it was safer there. I had no idea- who could have hurt him like that?" her grip tightened on the cup, "Did he say anything to you about his attackers?"
"We didn't exactly exchange pleasantries for too long." Nicole says.
"He barely spoke a word. Didn't trust us." Jake adds in
Agatha glanced away, "No surprise there. He has never been a very trusting fellow to strangers- can't say I blame him with the circumstances of how I found him."
"Where did you find him" Nicole inquires.
"On a mission."
Nicole snorts, "Oh so very specific."
"I have to keep some secrecy to myself, don't I?" Agatha smirked. Nicole grumbled at her.
Arinna on the other hand raised her voice and said, "Do you think it was poachers who attacked him? Maybe a hunter or some campers who just got spooked?"
Agatha wasn't sure, "What would you say Nicole? You got a better look at the wound?"
"Didn't really seem like a gun." Nicole says, "They were long and jagged, definitely a knife or something along those lines. Had to be at close contact too." She paused, "If I had to take a guess, I would say they were trying to get his wings- maybe stop him from getting away."
"That is horrible." Michelle covered her mouth.
"People are horrible sometimes." Jake says quietly.
"I guess we won't really know who did it though until he wakes up." K.R points out.
Agatha nodded, "This secret- you can tell no one about him." She was referring to Joel.
"With all due respect Agatha, have you seen everyone in this room? Telling everyone about Joel is that last thing on our mind." Arinna chuckled.
Suddenly Elizabeth burst forward, unable to stop herself from asking, "Can Joel fly with his wings? How fast can he fly? Is he an Angel? Arinna says he's got to be with wings!"
Agatha chuckled at the young girl's spirit, "Yes, he can fly." She assures her. "And at an incredible speed indeed."
Agatha suddenly stopped talking and turned her head. As if she heard something, she got up and ran to Joel's room. The others quickly followed her, shuffling into the room.
Joel was awake within and blinking up at the ceiling. How Agatha had heard that he was awake they would never know.
"Joel." She was at his side a second later. "Joel, it is me."
His gaze slowly moved to her, and he blinked, "…Hey there." He wiggled his fingers a bit to wave at her. She smiled. "Where am I?"
"My house." She tells him.
"How did I- there were others… A loud red head.' He grumbles, closing his eyes like his head was starting to hurt.
"Watch it Punk." Nicole grumbles. He stiffens at the sound of her voice, realizing Agatha wasn't the only one in the room. Craning his neck to see her, his eyes widened.
"You-" he moved to sit up, only to wince and fall back onto the bed.
"Don't move around too much." Agatha instructs, 'You could reopen your wound. This is Nicole and her friends, they will bring you no harm."
Joel looks hesitant to believe her and scans his eyes over everyone. He recognized Jake, Tessa, Nicole and K.R, and held no shock for them- but it was expected for him to pause when he saw LeatherHead. "….Alligator." he points to him.
"Hello." Leather Head waves. He startles Joel enough to have him flail his arm.
"It talks!"
"You are a boy with wings and a talking Alligator surprises you?" Michelle chuckles.
"He- but-" Joel stammers.
"It is surprising." K.R nods.
"The cat talks!" Joel gasps.
"How did you not realize that already?!" Nicole demanded.
"I was busy!" he yells back.
"Don't be cheeky at me kid!" Nicole threatens.
"Bring it!" he yells back.
"Joel." Agatha calms him, "Let's calm down and focus. They are all friends here. This is Nicole. Arinna, Michelle, Elizabeth, Leather Head, Tessa, Jake, and K.R."
Joel looked uncomfortable to meet so many people at once and waved shyly, "Uh… hi?"
"Hello, Mr. Angel!" Elizabeth giggled.
Joel looked flustered, "I-I'm not an Angel." He said.
"But you got wings." She points to them, "Angels have wings."
Joel blinked once, than twice, before looking away from her sparkling gaze, "Uh…" he sniffs a bit, "Okay then?" he tries to play it off but is failing.
"Joel." He looks back at them when Agatha speaks up, "Who did this to you?" she asked him curtly, anger boiling behind her eyes. She was itching to get out and find the men responsible for this.
Blinking wearilly at her, he slowly moved his arm. The motion was stiff and slow, as if he had been frozen in time for decades and was only just able to move again.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled something black out of it's contents. "I don't know…" he admits quietly, handing her the object, "But they were wearing this."
Nicole didn't have to get a good look to recognize it instantly, "The Foot." she growls.
"Those men who attacked Elizabeth and you before?" Agatha questions her, scanning the mask for any detail or clue.
"It's gotta be- Right Elizabeth?" Nicole glanced down at her. The child looked pale at the sight of the mask and nodded.
"It's them." she concluded.
"These Foot, they are bad men, yes?" Tessa inquires.
"The worst." Elizabeth nods.
"What in the world were they doing out of New York?" Arinna questioned.
"What were they doing in New York to begin with?" Jake adds, "They spell Bad News."
"And share some odd attraction to the bizarre like ourselves." Michelle folds her arms. "First Elizabeth, then Joel?"
"How did they even know about him?" Tessa inquires, "I mean, he doesn't go anywhere but his little hideout and to see you, right?"
Agatha nodded, "Perhaps… perhaps they saw him on his trips from here to there. They could have followed him."
"I- I tried to stay out of sight." Joel insisted, "I know I did! I don't know how they found me." He was giving Agatha a wide and desperate stare. She reached her hand down to pat the top of his head to calm to nerves.
"You are not to blame for this Joel." She tells him. He gulps and nods, shifting to his side a bit and into hers, clutching the end of her shirt. Arinna thought the scene was touching and adorable.
"Either way, I am glad you are okay Joel. It is nice to meet you." She smiled. He glanced at her, only able to give a small nod.
"Oh- this is so grand. Another mutant, at least I think that is what you are. Either way, I am sure Picasso will be excited to-" she trailed off. She glanced at her feet, then around the room. She then went pale, "Picasso?" she asks.
Her friends, and those aware of how easily Picasso tended to run off, started to panic, "Picasso?"
"He is loose!" Jake yelled.
"You lost him again?!" Nicole demanded.
"Ahh! AHHH!" Arinna began to scream, "I'm the worst parent ever!" she ran out into the hall, the others on her heel. "Picasso! Picasso! PiPi-Picassoooooooo. Picapooo."
"Don't call him that, it is the worst nickname ever." Nicole points to her.
Agatha and Joel can only watch in awe as this strange family turns their house inside out in search of their infant mutant turtle.
"…We can trust them?" Joel looks up at his mother figure.
Agatha can't answer for a while, "…Yes."
"You hesitated." He pointed at her.
"I did no such thing."
'Yes you did." He argues.
"Nope."
"Yeah!"
"I did not."
'You did!"
YEAH! And I"M DONEEEEE with this chapter! :D
I had to get Agatha's little secret out there before we reach that time jump chapter. It would make everyone's life easier honestly.
And Yeah,
Joel belongs to ErinHasse
Oooh, The Foot are on the move again? What are they up to? Why are they hunting/gathering mutants? What is their plan!?