Hello again! Well my internet died the second I went to start writing this so, This is going to be out a bit later than I wanted. Oh well. hopefully, you'll enjoy the story all the same thanks as always for continuing to read/returning to the story. The support is appreciated.

Music suggestion: Wolves by Selena Gomez/Marshmello

Disclaimer: eeey I'm a fanfiction writer and don't own jack aside from my own ideas. Surprise! Please don't sue me CapCom.


It was the first week of August, and Saturday had returned. A few weeks had passed since Chris stopped by for coffee. She remembered being surprised the day after finding the empty and clean Tupperware container on the shelf by her door. It had been carefully placed next to the vase she set up, which she'd started putting fresh flowers in to make her door look homier. She was just about to walk out with a replacement bundle of colorful Carnations, Celosia, and Peonies when she heard an excited knocking at the door with chattering outside, causing Duke to bark. Emma smiled and told the dog his usual command to get his stuffed animal so he'd stop barking before opening the door.

"Auntie Emmy!" two small voices happily cheered after seeing the woman open the door. A family of four was waiting on the other side, consisting of a father and a very pregnant mother who appeared to be around Emma's age and two little girls. One was five, and the other was two.

"Hello, you little beans," she said before kneeling to be at eye level with the kids. As soon as she did, the two quickly tackled her in a hug. "Oooh, it's been forever, hasn't it? Are you excited about your sleepover?"

The older of the two broke the hug first to look at Emma. "Can we have pizza and ice cream?"

"Pizza AND ice cream," Emma parroted back in mock shock, causing the girls to giggle and squeal. "Oh, I don't know about that. That might be too much. If you're very, very good, then I'll consider it," she said before noticing the door to her right open. There stood a less-than-impressed neighbor. Emma winced before mouthing a quiet 'sorry.'

The oldest child, however, was none the wiser. "Hi! I'm Summer," she exclaimed, waving to Chris, which the younger sibling mimicked.

"Hiya! I'm Summer," she said with a toothy grin.

"Maurie, no," Emma said quietly as the toddler forgot to say her own name instead. While Emma was focused on Maurie, Summer had already started walking next door.

"What's your name?" she asked with a happy and curious smile.

"Chris," he said after a moment of contemplation, though his unamused expression remained.

"Hi, Chris," she parroted back, accepting the name.

"Summer, get in the house," her mother said, clearly more used to telling the child what to do with authority. "I am so sorry about that. She's very excitable and likes making friends," the mother went on as she walked over to pick up the small child, who only protested further by kicking to get away. Tantrum in five… four… three…

"I set up some paper and crayons on the table. Do you want to draw with me?" Emma offered as she picked up on the growing frustration of the child.

Distraction accepted, and tantrum avoided. The leg flailing became less aggressive and more excited as she wanted to hurry into the apartment while she watched the younger sister toddle in to try and get to the crayons first. Once both of the kids were inside, Emma gave a sigh of relief before she noticed that Chris had gone back into his own apartment.

"Thanks again for watching them, Em. It helps a lot," the mother said with a sympathetic smile.

"Don't worry about it, Chel. What are friends for if I can't be the cool Auntie?" she said with a short laugh.

"Chelsea, we're going to be late," the father pointed out with a gentle nudge. Chelsea pulls Emma into a quick hug.

"You're the best," she says before letting go. "We'll be back first thing tomorrow, I promise."

"It's fine. I got this. Take your time and get going. You and Jack need the break," Em said, laughing as she nudged her friend to go.

"Fine, fine, see you tomorrow," she said with a chuckle, then carefully made her way back down the stairs with the help of her husband. Once Emma was sure that Chelsea had made it downstairs safely, she went back into her apartment and locked up, per usual. The two kids were happily sitting at the table. The oldest was already working on her third masterpiece while the youngest was trying to feed a crayon to Duke.

"Maurie, don't give Duke crayons," she said while briskly walking over to take the crayon and put it onto the table. "Duke, bed," she added as the dog wandered off to take its place on the couch and begrudgingly laid down.

One oven pizza for lunch and a healthier dinner later with several games and episodes of Paw Patrol in between made for a very tired Auntie Emmy as 8 pm finally arrived. The golden hour. Bedtime.

"Okay girls, time to get into your PJs," Emma said as she pushed herself to get off the couch.

"One more episode?" Summer asked with a hopeful smile causing Emma to falter slightly.

Curse the puppy eyes, but if she had to listen to another song about the power of friendship, she was going to go insane. "No, bedtime," she said, sticking to her original statement.

"Frozen?" she asked with a giggle thinking she was clever.

"Absolutely not," Emma replied as she picked up Maurie.

"Ice cream?" Summer asked as she flopped over with a big grin. This was turning into a game.

"Summer, no," Emma said with a firmer tone, which caused the girl to pout but get up and grab onto Emma's leg.

"Can I give my new friend the picture I drew for him first?" she asked while amplifying her attempt at a pouting puppy face.

"New frie—Summer."

"PLEASE?"

"Okay, okay. Just keep your voice down. It's late," Emma relented. "You can put it through the mail slot, but you have to go to bed right after."

"Okay." She smiled as she hurried over to the table to dig through the mountain of papers she drew on to find the perfect one. While the five-year-old was busy with this, Emma got Maurie changed and tucked into bed. "Auntie Emmy, can you help me with my letters?" Summer requested.

"What do you want to spell," Emma asked in return as she walked over to the table to see she already had her own name on the back of the picture she chose.

"I want it to say: To Chris," Summer said with a nod, causing Emma to chuckle. Hopefully, the military man had enough of a sense of humor to be okay with this. Emma took a blank piece of paper and wrote out the letters for Summer, who carefully copied each one. The S was backward, but she did a pretty good job overall.

With that, Summer flipped over the paper, allowing Emma to see the chosen drawing. It was a frowning red stick figure. A black shirt and blue pants were added after, in what Emma guessed was an attempt at drawing her neighbor. He was standing in what appeared to be a scribbled grass field. There was a tiny house in the distance and—

"Is that a bird?" Emma asked, pointing to a large section of green and red markings in the sky.

"It's a dragon," Summer said with a pout.

"A dragon, right. Now I see it," Emma replies with a nod before pointing to another squiggle. "And that's a cat?" she asks while pointing at a white and orange blob with two red dots.

"Nooo silly, that's Duke," Summer said with a giggle as she now believed Emma's guessing was an attempt at a joke.

"Ah. Of course," Emma said. Right. Why wouldn't Duke be there to help her neighbor with the dragon by the house? Dear Lord, please let him have a good sense of humor, Emma thought as the frowning face of the stick figure finally registered.

"Okay, I think it's ready," Summer said with a nod after quickly drawing a yellow sun in the corner.

"All right, let's go. Remember, no knocking on the door or shouting. Just put it through the mail slot," Emma gently instructed, which caused Summer to nod.

"Okay," she agreed with the determined expression of a child on a mission as she got out of the chair.

Emma gives a quiet sigh before opening the door for the child. "Go on then," she said, and Summer quickly hurried over to Chris' door to try and get the mail slot open, but it wouldn't budge.

The child made a few sounds of frustration. "Auntie Emmy, it's stuck!" she loudly complained before she eventually tried sliding the letter through the small gap without opening the slot. Sure enough, the rather loud announcement resulted in footsteps and the sounds of the door being unlocked as Chris once more opened the door.

Please let me crawl into a hole. I don't want to exist right now. Holy heck, please just let me go invisible, Emma thought as she watched the child just stand there with a smile as the door opened.

"Hi," Summer said with a smile as she looked up at the much taller man. "Auntie wouldn't let me watch Frozen, but she said I could give you the picture I drew if I promised to be quiet about it and go to bed after."

FEARLESS CHILD, PLEASE STOP TALKING!

Chris looked over to Emma's door to find her halfway in her apartment while watching with a clearly uncomfortable expression as she gave him a short wave in greeting. He gave a small nod before noticing the child walked into his apartment part of the way, so she could try and get the picture out of the mail slot before walking back out into the hallways.

"Anyway, here's the picture," she said and held the paper up for Chris to take.

The tired man accepted the paper and looked it over. Was that supposed to be him? "...Thanks. Now go to bed," he said as he looked back to summer.

"Okay, bye, new friend!" Summer said before hurrying back over to Emma. "I did it," she whispered with an ear-to-ear grin.

"Very nice, get inside," Emma said quietly before whispering another quiet 'Sorry' to Chris. Once the door was closed and locked up, Emma held her face, which was warm from embarrassment. Summer, however, happily skipped to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth before walking to Emma's room and crawling into the bed next to her sister.

"Auntie Emmy, can we have a bedtime story?" the child asked as Emma walked into the room to get her own clothes.

"I think you've had enough excitement before bed. Get some sleep," Emma replied. She heard a few grumbles in response, but the girls stayed in bed. Thank the heavens. "Good night."

"Night, Auntie Emmy," Summer said.

"Ni-night," said Maurie with a yawn. With that, Emma made her way over to the bathroom, changed, and went over to the couch to settle in for the night.

The next morning, waffles were served, and the girls were happily enjoying them until a knock was heard at the door, resulting in the usual greeting. Duke barked. Emma gave him his command for silence, then opened the door to find the girls' father on the other side of the door.

"Daddy!" Summer said excitedly as she rushed over and clung to his leg.

"Dadda," Maurie parroted, grabbing his other leg.

"Heya kiddos, did you behave for your Auntie?" their father asked, receiving nods from both girls and a headshake from Emma.

"Sorry about that, but thanks for watching them while we were at the doctor's," Jack said as he picked up Maurie.

"Not a problem. How was date night?" Emma asked.

Jack laughed. "Chel went into labor two hours after we dropped off the girls," he admitted, causing Emma to gasp.

"Oh my gosh, what are you doing here then? Get back there," Emma said, swatting at his arm.

"Relax, she's fine, and so is little Annie," Jack replied with a chuckle. "Chelsea wanted me to pick up the girls and take them home, though, so they're ready to meet their new sister."

"She's here?" Summer asked excitedly.

"Yep, you get to meet her tomorrow. Grandma is waiting for you guys at home," Jack explained to the girls, resulting in giddy cheers.

"I'll show Maurie how to be a good big sister," Summer said with a confident nod.

"I'm sure you'll do great," Jack agreed before smiling at Emma. "Thanks again for watching them. You'll have to tell us about how it went in the group chat later."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll get the girl bags," Emma said, then walked back to the bedroom to grab the two princess backpacks, which she handed over to Summer and Jack.

"Thanks, see you around," Jack called before taking Summer's hand to walk out of the building.

With that, Emma closed the door, looked at the mess that was her apartment, and got to work with Sunday cleaning and cooking.

She was looking forward to an uneventful week after the craziness that was the weekend, but that didn't end up happening. Three days later, as Emma was getting ready to curl up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, she heard footsteps going up the stairs to the second floor.

"That's odd... I thought everyone was already home for the day," Emma whispered before hearing the sound of a door shaking. Once, twice, thrice. The rattling moved around the floor before. Eventually, her own door started to rattle for a moment. "What the heck?" Emma said as she quickly got up and put the popcorn down on the coffee table so she could move to hide behind the wall of the small hallway that separated her open living space from the private rooms. The rattling stopped as soon as it started. A shuffling could be heard, then the sound of shattering glass before the footsteps quickly hurried back out of the building. Emma waited a moment before cautiously walking over to the door and opening it to find that others were doing the same. Mr. Russo had a shotgun in hand while Chris was holding a pistol. It seemed like an overreaction, but Emma couldn't deny she had considered grabbing a knife from the kitchen before opening the door.

"Did you hear that as well?" Bastion asked as he looked at the others.

"Yeah, I think we all did," Chris confirmed with a frown before putting the safety switch back into place.

"What was that?" Mrs. Russo asked, peeking out from behind her husband. "Oh, oh no, Emma, your flowers," she cooed as she noticed the mess.

"It's fine. I can clean it up and get a new vase... maybe plastic this time, though," she said, frowning as she kneeled down to pick up the bigger chunks of glass and the discarded flowers.

"Did anyone see who it was?" Mr. Russo asked, receiving a collection of head shakes.

"No way, I didn't want to go near my door after that. Emma, is this what happened to you when you first moved in?" Bastion asks curiously.

"Sort of. They just slammed into the door and left last time," Emma explained before getting back up with the vase shards and flowers in hand.

"Maybe the cameras caught something," Chris suggested, crossing his arms.

"Maybe," Emma agreed. "Well, I'm not going to be sleeping any time soon," she said with a short laugh. "Did you want to stop by for a cup of coffee so we can compare footage and see if we can figure anything out?" she offered to Chris as Mr. Russo grumbled about installing a camera after this as well then went back into his apartment.

"Sure, I'll be over in a moment."

"If you two find out anything, let me know. It will help calm my nerves," Mrs. Russo requested, placing a hand over her heart. "I'm too old for this," she complained as she went back inside and closed the door behind her.

"That's so weird. I've lived here for years and haven't had anything like this happen before." Bastion frowned. "Maybe I should get a camera too..." he said while rubbing the back of his neck. "For now, I'll leave this mystery to you, detective Emma." He laughed.

Emma chuckled at the joke. "I'm sure it's probably just the same teen Mr. Jacobs mentioned who was bothering the third floor," she suggested to give Bastion some peace of mind.

"All right. Well, try and get some sleep," Bastion said before heading in as well. Emma tossed the glass shards in the trash before starting a pot of coffee. Once that was taken care of, she got a broom and dustpan from the closest to clean up the last of the glass from the hallway. By the time she finished sweeping, Chris had walked out of his apartment and locked it behind him.

"Let's see what we got," Chris said as he walked over.

Emma nodded. "Right," she said as she let him into the apartment, closed the door behind him, and locked it to calm her own nerves. Upon seeing that Chris had taken a seat at the island, she put down the broom and dustpan by the door and joined him in the kitchen. After pouring two mugs of coffee, she offered one to Chris as it was before adding some milk and sugar to her own cup.

Chris frowned as he clicked around on his phone and accepted the mug. "Looks like they had a mask on," he said while looking over the footage.

"You're joking," Emma replied as she put the milk away, then took out her own phone to check. Sure enough, she saw pretty much the same thing. A figure completely covered from head to toe walked over to Bastion's door and shook it while jiggling the handle before walking out of frame. The figure eventually walked back into the frame and did the same thing to her door. They noticed the flowers, picked up the vase to take them out, threw them on the ground first, then poured the water into their hand and smashed the vase in frustration. Once the figure noticed the camera, their eyes went wide, and they bolted for the door. They had been trying to get in...

"Shit," she said as she watched it again in horror. "I think they were looking for a key," she said, showing the footage to Chris.

"Seems possible," he agreed with a frown.

"Well, great. What do I do now?" Emma asked, clearly unhappy with the situation. At this point, it was pretty clear it wasn't some teenager messing around. Someone was trying to get into the apartments with no clear target since they went to all the doors.

"Without a face or a way to identify them, not much..." Chris admitted as he offered the phone back. "With any luck, noticing the cameras will be enough of a deterrent."

"So, what? I just hand over the footage to the authorities and hope it doesn't happen again?" Emma asked with an exasperated expression as she accepted the phone and put it on the counter.

"There's not much else to do at this point. They didn't get in," Chris pointed out. "Keep your door locked when you're not here and at night, and you'll be fine."

This didn't really comfort Emma much as she picked up her coffee and sipped at it while thinking. "You're military, right?" Emma asked though it was clearly rhetorical as she continued to speak. "Can you teach me some self-defense stuff? Maybe this is normal for you, but this is really freaking me out. I only just moved here," she pointed out while trying to convince him to help her. "I'll pay you for your time. Just once a week until I get the hang of a few moves, or whatever they're called."

"You don't need that. You're panicking," Chris said with a slight frown.

"So if someone does get in, what's going to keep me safe? Duke?" She pointed her thumb over to the living room, where sure enough, Duke was still hiding in the space between the couch and wall with a terrified expression. "If this is the same person as before, they only slammed into my door last time. I'm not asking for a full boot camp training, just enough to be able to hold off a threat until someone can help me."

Chris' frown deepened as he considered it before sighing. "All right. You made your point."

"You'll help me?" Emma asked with a gleam of hope.

"I have another trip coming up in a few days. I'll be gone for roughly three weeks," he explained before sipping his coffee. "We can go over a few things now, and after I'm back, I can help you on Thursdays after work until you're confident that you have it down. I don't usually get home until late, though, and I won't go easy on you just because you're tired."

"Understood, thank you so much," Emma said, already starting to feel a lot better about the whole unwanted apartment door check situation. Chris finished the last of his coffee and got up to walk over to the space between the kitchen and living room, and moved the table to the side before motioning for Emma to join him. Emma put her cup of coffee down and walked over. "I need to see what I'm working with first of all," he said before holding up an open hand. "Punch my hand."

"What?"

"I'm not repeating myself," he said as he started getting into his usual drill mode. Emma did as she was told and punched the man's open hand. It was not exactly impressive.

"Harder," he said, figuring she was holding back. Once, twice, thrice. Nothing really impressive came from that. It seemed she just lacked upper body strength. Maybe she did need the help... "Okay, kick right here." He patted his side.

"I'm not going to kick you," Emma rebutted.

"Do you want my help or not?" Chris snapped back, which quieted Emma, whose expression shifted to a more determined one. Emma swung her leg at Chris' side. To his surprise, it was actually a pretty solid kick. The form wasn't great, but it had force. Once, twice, thrice more, and he nodded. "All right, so you have a decent lower body and core strength, but the upper body is lacking pretty badly, so that's going to be your weak point," he explained, to which Emma nodded.

The two went over different holds and breaks that would be useful in an emergency. An hour or so had passed before Chris held a hand up to stop. "All right, that should be enough for you to practice while I'm gone," he says before walking back to the kitchen.

"Thank you," Emma said as she walked to the kitchen, then over to her purse sitting on the far counter. Right, she didn't usually carry cash... She went to the fridge instead and took out another lunch pack. "It's not much, but hopefully, this will work as collateral for the lesson."

Chris looked at the Tupperware before accepting it. "You don't have to pay me, but if it bothers you that much, then food is fine." He figured that would at least keep her from trying to give him money.

"Food it is then," Emma agreed as Chris headed over to the door and unlocked it. "I hope your trip goes well," she added as he walked away. "Have a good night."

"G'night," he said and headed out, closing the door behind him so Emma could lock it after he left.

With the apartment safely locked up, Emma walked back over to the empty space where the table once was and practiced a few small jabs before giving a quiet sigh. "Yeah. I'm gonna have to work on that..." she admits before putting the table back into place, cleaning up the abandoned popcorn, and heading to bed.


The plot thickens! who is the mysterious masked figure? what is their goal? Only time will tell. Thanks for reading another chapter :) with any luck, I might still get a double upload today.