Little Hunter
"No!" Cassie groaned and rose from the couch. "No! No! NO!"
On the screen—in a horrific misuse of a widescreen—some man in his thirties handed a rose to a vapid woman in her twenties. The woman clapped excitedly and shot a dirty look at another.
"NO!" Cassie screamed. "Why Kystyn?! She spells her name with two y's! That's stupid! She's stupid!"
Nanku didn't get it.
Who looked for a mate on a game show? That seemed like the worst possible way to find someone to breed with. Surely anyone actually worth that kind of arrangement wouldn't need to whore themselves for entertainment value.
"Why?!" Cassie carried. "Why are they always so cute but so blind?!"
"Because they're looking for love on TV," Bitch quipped.
Nanku huffed in agreement. "Waste of a widescreen."
"Hey!" Cassie turned and pointed. "Who's name is the arrow on the turn wheel pointing at?"
Bitch didn't look.
Nanku didn't either.
"Yeah. Cassie," Cassie said. "Right there. It's my turn and I am going to watch this adorable idiot with the cutest ass on Earth ruin everything with some dumb blonde bimbo who spells her name with two y's!"
Brutus barked in support and Angelica yapped.
"Traitors," Bitch complained.
"Of course they're on my side." Cassie crossed her arms over her chest. "All you ever watch is Shark Week and that random subscription to the Great Courses. Which you don't need a TV for!"
"Visual aids," Bitch replied.
"Get a powerpoint!"
"Knowledge is power," Nanku quipped.
Bitch huffed. "Better than—"
"Rule two of the wheel," Cassie interrupted. "No criticizing outside commerc—Gracie?! You're picking fucking Gracie?! She cheated on you on national television and they told you about it!"
Bitch held her mouth shut and seemed to resign herself to an afternoon of vapid reality television. The name struck Nanku as impossible. How could it be filmed and be 'reality?' That didn't make sense.
Complete waste of a widescreen.
Nanku refocused her attention.
Her injuries had healed enough she could move around. Enough to sort the papers on the coffee table. Which no one used for coffee so Nanku didn't know why they had it.
No matter.
Bitch was able to produce her father's file when Nanku asked for it.
Her biomask did have limits.
Having the papers spread out before her had limits too but she could organize and sort the information. Let her visualize the information. See multiple pieces at once and try to fit it all together.
Her father wasn't ambushed. Ambushed wasn't right. He'd have died sooner. There weren't enough injuries on his arms or legs to signal defense.
Danny Hebert didn't fight, but he wasn't ambushed.
Someone approached him and he trusted them enough to let them get close.
Then that person killed him. Quick. Violent. Brutal.
Taylor's father was so shocked by the attack he didn't even try to protect himself. The question was who. The most straightforward route to who was why did they kill him.
Missing shipments.
Nanku focused on that.
The police determined it was a misunderstanding, but how? All they did was talk to Kurt about it. The investigators questioned him and Lacy extensively, but only asked Kurt about the shipment.
He produced some paper labeled 'incident report' and the police added it to the file.
The report was vague. Someone said something about a computer entry that never really existed.
No one ever looked to see if that was true.
The Dockworkers did a lot in Brockton Bay. Worked for different companies doing different things. And the gangs were always looking to get a foot in the door.
Maybe one of them did.
They started running a business through the Dockworkers somehow, and Danny Hebert died when he started looking into it.
Nanku watched Bitch from the corner of her eye.
Othala was gone. Taken somewhere by someone. And Nanku still needed her. She might know about Quality Care, and she might know about anyone moving on the Dockworkers at the time her father died.
A complication, but Nanku didn't believe the coincidence.
She couldn't.
Her father goes to investigate something and is killed shortly after? It had to be related. The enforcers of Earth gave up on the obvious trail far far too easily.
Maybe they knew more than they let on?
Another question for the pile.
A pile that kept growing taller because she could move about on her own, but she still wasn't in any condition to hunt. And it was miserable. The last time she'd been injured two other hunters managed to help her back to the ship.
Yautja medical technology sped things up.
Another week at least she thought. Her rib would still be sore, but it would heal enough. She didn't particularly like imposing on Bitch either.
It was very generous of her to hide Nanku while the entire city was hunting for her. She framed it as paying back a debt. Nanku didn't find the scales very balanced. Cassie nearly died in the Pure's ambush, but Bitch would have survived and made them suffer for the effort.
Nanku hardly saved her.
But that was a week away at least.
Until then, best to take things easily. She'd heal faster.
Cassie groaned and shook her head furiously. "Why is it so hard to find a guy with a great butt and brains?"
"They're men," Nanku answered automatically. "They think with their organs first."
Cassie looked over her shoulder. "Don't strike me as someone with much experience in the boys department. Unless you killed them after. I could see that."
Nanku scoffed. "All men are the same."
A Yautja woman only killed a male if he was reaching for far more than he could grasp and a lesson needed permanence.
Not that Nanku would ever know. She was two-thirds the height of the shortest Yautja—all males. She was thin, lacking in the chest department, and significantly, completely incapable of carrying any male's child.
She had friends among the men. Good friends. None of them would want her as a mate and Nanku wasn't sure why they would. She offered them nothing.
Nanku accepted it long ago. Puberty had been awkward but the end of it was obvious.
For the best. The clan accepted her because she'd proven herself. Any other human—let alone one who entered only through her—wouldn't fare so well.
She'd never have a child of her own.
Nanku accepted that.
Though maybe sex was something worth trying at least once before she left. She'd have to find a man worth the risks first. Something to consider when her chest hurt less.
"Still looking?" Bitch asked.
Nanku did just that. "Use of time until I can run."
"Run fast. Heroes are after you now."
"For killing Nazis," Cassie said. "Which is like, the weirdest thing ever. No one cared when we kicked the Empire out of town way back when."
"Didn't kill them," Bitch said.
"Um, Animos?"
"Accident."
"Yeah. Because no villain has ever claimed that defense before."
"Accident."
"Live by blood, die by blood," Nanku recited.
"So you grew up with a bunch of crazy Bible nuts?" Cassie asked.
"No."
"Damn."
"Less Nazis in the world," Bitch said. "Heroes are stupid."
It did seem oddly unheroic.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "We'll try that defense if they arrest her. Good luck not getting Birdcaged."
"Birdcage?" Nanku asked.
They both gave her a look.
"Prison?" Cassie pursed her lips. "No way out. Literal pit where they throw capes they don't want to deal with?"
Nanku turned back to her papers. "They can try."
"Oh, they're gonna."
"Cass," Bitch chided.
"Just saying."
Nanku turned her attention to the list. A loosely scrawled collection of 'big questions' she'd assembled. There were simply too many to memorize. She had to write them down in the bastardized mix of English and Yautja she could manage.
She'd not 'written' anything in years.
Most of her questions required talking to people. Kurt. Her mother. Lacy if she weren't dead. Several Dockworkers. Brady. The man who reported the missing shipment.
If there really was a shipment, then the locals gave up on him too readily.
Nanku frowned.
That was a completely different sort of hunt. One she wondered if she'd put off because of its… unfamiliarity. A hunt with no killing. Where her tracks came from talk.
And the local enforcers were looking for her.
Was this what being a bad blood felt like? Annoying.
Maybe she didn't need to wait until she could run and jump around to get started.
Nanku lingered. Mostly not to draw attention. She'd lingered for a week—marking a month since she arrived on Earth—healing. It was slow but she was getting better. Better enough for a quick trip perhaps.
The credits on the show started rolling after some vapid testimonials from people who seemed to want their faces on TV more than love. Cassie stewed, pacing back and forth. Ranting about how Java was the name of a country and 'totally not that bitch's real name.'
"Is it over?" Nanku asked.
"No," Bitch replied.
"How?"
"Because she waits for the season to end."
"… Why?"
"Because I have the heart of a lover and I can't take the suspense of waiting a week! I am binging this shit!"
Another episode started and Nanku took her chance.
She collected her papers, sorted them back into their file, and rose from the couch. Dusk scuttled over from the other room and provided a place to lean her weight while she went back to the trap door.
It was well hidden. Tucked in a closet where it could easily be covered. The room was sealed well and before her occupancy Nanku wondered if it had ever been used. There'd been no bugs and she'd not even noticed it before.
Once she was down the stairs she sent both twins on another task.
Nanku undressed while they rummaged quietly.
Cassie was back to shouting at the man on the television and Bitch was enduring. Or so she seemed. Nanku thought maybe she enjoyed the program more than she pretended.
Not enough, unfortunately.
The Twins hurried through the kennel with their prizes. One dog was started and yapped. The canines had grown accustomed to their presence but no animal liked sudden movement in its proximity.
Bitch noticed.
She looked over her shoulder and rose.
Started walking.
Damn.
Dusk and Dawn joined her in the basement. They delivered the retrieved clothes and Nanku started changing. Bending over to pull pants up her legs was a challenge. Cassie was far too short, but Bitch's worked with a belt and a jacket.
The only thing that really just didn't fit was the bra. Were Bitch's breasts really that much bigger than hers?
No matter.
Kurt wasn't far.
Nanku drew her braids back and gritted her teeth through the pain. She'd use the bus. That would save her a lot of painful walking.
The shadow stepped into the doorway above and looked down the stairs.
"Stupid," Bitch said.
"If you say so."
She set her feet apart and drew her hands from the pockets of her jacket. "Get in the bed."
"Make me," Nanku replied. "And reopen my wounds."
"If it keeps you there."
Dusk and Dawn hissed and fluttered their wings.
Bitch whistled. Brutus and three other dogs moved up and snapped their teeth.
"Done this fight before," Nanku recalled.
"Broken bones," Bitch mused. "Barely scarred cuts. No armor or weapons."
Nanku pulled the bra strap over her shoulder. Cassie's clothes didn't remotely fit.
Bitch huffed and with a quick motion of her hand sent the dogs away. Brutus lingered, sitting and letting his tongue hang out.
"Come," she said.
Nanku's brow rose. "I'm not your dog."
Bitch rolled her eyes. "Coming. In case you fall over and crack your stupid skull."
She stepped away without another word.
Nanku lingered a moment and growled.
She ushered Dusk and Dawn onto the bed and left them to rest. They'd been eating during her convalescence and resting. It was good for them. She'd worked both twins hard over the past few weeks. Flying back and forth, up and down the length of Brockton Bay.
It was a lot more flying than they were used to.
Another day of rest wouldn't hurt them, and Nanku didn't want to risk either being seen in daylight. They'd stay put while she was gone, so long as she wasn't gone too long.
"I don't need help," Nanku agrued.
"Good last words."
Cassie was absorbed enough in her show she didn't notice she was alone.
Not that it stopped her.
"You stupid bint! Just tell him! Tell him how you feel and stop trying to be clever you're being stupid! You're lucky I'm bi or I'd never give you dating advice!"
"Bi?" Nanku asked.
"She fucks boys and girls."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
Fair.
Nanku left through the front doors and breathed the fresh—garbage stinking—air. She'd take what she could get. Being stuck in a building for days on end was too much.
Ugh.
"Your welcome," Bitch said. "Brutus. Come."
"I didn't ask for company."
"Didn't ask for clothes either."
"You have plenty."
Nanku went right to the bus stop.
There was a map of the lines and she'd learned the layout of the city with time. Five stops and they'd be two blocks from Kurt's house. Better than trekking across the city.
And she could think of Imp.
Which meant Imp wasn't around.
She hadn't seen Regent either. Or Tattletale. Or her mother. Definitely not Rose, thankfully…
Nanku found it weird she wanted to see Rose. But she was family, with none of the ill-feeling that existed toward their mother. She also had a power only one other person knew about and whoever it was wasn't their mother or her father.
The brother? That would make sense.
The bus ride was quieter than Nanku expected. Bitch sat beside her and scratched Brutus' head throughout the ride. A sign on the vehicle said no pets. No one said a thing about Brutus' presence.
People largely tried to avoid acknowledging Bitch at all. Did they recognize her, or just not want to test their luck with a girl and her dog in Brockton Bay?
"They fear you," Nanku said.
"Smart."
It took more stops to arrive than the map suggested, but they arrived and Nanku disembarked with only minor pain. Bitch and Brutus followed and the trio walked the blocks to Kurt's house. Nanku recognized the buildings and picked up her pace as they grew closer.
"Slow down."
"Make me."
"Stupid."
"Bitch."
"And?"
Nanku ascended the steps to Kurt's door.
No one answered her knocks. The only person inside lay on the couch and didn't stir. She waited and knocked again. And again.
With a scowl, she tested the knob and once more found the door unlocked.
Bitch huffed. "Idiot."
Nanku stepped into the house again and it still reeked of alcohol. If it had been cleaned since her last visit, she couldn't tell. The mess wasn't any worse than she remembered.
Kurt sprawled over the couch asleep.
In the middle of the day.
Reeking of booze.
Nanku opened a window before she sighed.
Bitch stood over the man with a strange look on her face. "Who is he?"
"My father's best friend." Nanku found a blanket from the floor and recoiled from the greasy feeling. "His wife died."
"Easier to put a gun in his mouth."
"What?"
"Wants to kill himself."
"Cowards kill themselves."
Bitch turned away. "Misery is stupid."
Nanku threw the blanket into the washing machine by the back door. She found a clean blanket in a closet and threw it over Kurt. How much did he drink? During the day even?
Lacy was in every picture. On all the walls somewhere. Small items that seemed hers more than Kurt's were scattered about.
It was like her mother after her father died. Broken. Hopeless. Miserable.
Kurt had no children to drag down with him.
Nanku supposed that was different. And part of her wondered why he didn't end it. It wasn't the Yautja way but… She shook her head. The answer didn't matter and the question was pointless.
She found a seat and took it to wait.
"Really?" Bitch asked.
"Need to talk to him."
Bitch sighed. She pointed and Brutus sat.
She found the remote, took the other seat in the living room, and turned on the TV.
Nanku frowned.
Bitch scrolled through several options on the TV guide and picked one.
"Paw Patrol! Paw Patrol! We'll be there on the double!"
Nanku stared.
Bitch set the remote aside and relaxed into her seat. "No one will believe you."