Mariko's lungs begged for air. Her eyes were shut, but she could feel that she was completely submerged. She wasn't sure how she had gotten here, or even which way was up, but she knew that she wouldn't last long if she didn't surface soon. The girl peeled her eyelids open, hoping to make some sense of her surroundings. Instead, she found a searing light which sent intense pain through her head and forced her to squeeze her eyes shut again.
Desperate, she started swimming in an arbitrary direction. Or rather, she attempted to, but despite her confidence that she
did know how to swim, Mariko found that she could do little more than flail her limbs and thrash about in vain. Between the stabbing pain in her eyes, her lungs' increasingly vehement demands for oxygen, and the rapidly swelling sense of panic within her, she couldn't stop herself from opening her mouth to scream, releasing what little air she had left. Water surged down her windpipe and into her lungs. She felt like screaming again, but instead only gagged and started flailing her arms around even more violently.
“M..r..k......a..e....p!”
A faint voice reached her ears, and she felt hands latch on tightly to both of her wrists. In a terrified frenzy, she started kicking her feet towards whatever had grabbed her.
“Mar..ko..wa..e..up! Y..u ha..e to wake u- OW! Would you stop freakin' kicking me? The hell's gotten into you?”
Mariko's eyes shot open. Rather than painfully blinding light, they were met with pitch blackness. During the handful of seconds it took for her vision to adjust, she sat still and took several gasping breaths, aware that she could still feel the hands around her wrists. Once she was able to see, she instantly realized who was holding on to her, and she felt her face become flushed with embarrassment.
“S-sorry...” she mumbled.
The young man let out a relieved sigh, released his grip on her, and took a few steps back. “Don't worry about it.” With a reassuring smile, Mariko's cellmate wiped some blood from a boot-print on his face. “That was nothing compared what
they've done to me... to both of us.”
She quietly nodded in response. It had only been at most two weeks since she had been dragged to a prison facility located close to a large military base, but the NAF wasn't exactly known for the humane treatment of their prisoners. Especially not when they convince themselves that you're secretly a mage and decide to torture you until their suspicions are confirmed. Of course, the Federation weren't exactly the first to mistake her for a magic-user; the way her eyes inexplicably changed color at seemingly random intervals had given that impression to many. What confused Mariko was why she was still alive. After all, with her distinctly Japanese features, it was no secret that she was from the OCU.
Maybe, she thought,
this is just how NAF soldiers keep themselves entertained when they're not out slaughtering people.Still, she knew that her situation wasn't as bad as that of her cellmate, Silp. He had been captured while acting as a spy for the European Union, and was only being kept alive because of the possibility that he may have information that would be of value to the NAF. She wasn't sure how long they had been holding him, but when she first met Silp he had already been covered in bruises and scars. Even so, he never lost his positive demeanor- something Mariko had always found impressive about him.
Silp ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair, then broke the silence that had washed over them while Mariko was contemplating their situation. “So... was it that same nightmare again?”
Like before, her answer was simply a wordless nod. She had never actually explained the nature of her dream to him, but every few nights she would wake up screaming. There were other recurring dreams as well, but none seemed so terrifying or so real as that nightmare. Still at times she couldn't help but think that perhaps these weren't just dreams. After all, she had no memories from before four years ago. It seemed entirely possible to her that these dreams may actually be some of her lost memories.
If that was the case, then her life had been very different before whatever it was that had caused her amnesia. All of her memories from the past four years involved fleeing from some group or another that was trying to capture her for an unknown reason. The NAF military were the first ones to actually succeed after they cornered her while she was trying to find a way to leave Earth.
Silp loudly cleared his throat, once again interrupting her thoughts. “Now that you're awake,” he said, “wanna break out of here?”
Mariko stared at him blankly for several seconds, stunned. “W-what?”
He smiled brightly and reached into the pocket of his pants, and after pulling it back out he revealed a small device. “It's a communicator,” he explained. “I've been able to keep it hidden from the Feds all this time, and was able to call in a favor. We only have a small window of opportunity, so we'll need to move quickly.”
“A... favor?”
Silp nodded. “From a guy I helped out big time a few years back- goes by the name Captain Jerry. His freighter is docked in an airport close by, and he can get us offworld as soon as we get over there.”
“Hang on a second,” Mariko interjected, a confused look on her face, “Why not make a call to the EU? I'd imagine they would want their spy back, and it would probably have been faster than waiting for this Jerry guy to come help.”
“
Captain Jerry,” he corrected, “he can get a little touchy about that. And I can't just call in an evac; that's not really how espionage works. If you get caught, you're expected to just keep your secrets until the torture finally kills you- a rescue attempt could cause an international incident.”
Makes sense, in a fucked up kind of way, Mariko thought,
but there seems to still be one small issue here... She spoke up, “I don't suppose you have a plan for getting us out of this cell?”
Silp grinned again. “As a matter of fact...” After walking over to the large cell door, he pressed his communicator against the electronic lock. He removed his hand, and the device stayed where it was. “It's a good thing they didn't take us to the holding area for mages; this wouldn't have worked there.” He reached for the communicator again, then stopped himself. “Oh, uh. One more thing. Don't turn your back on Captain Jerry. He's a man of his word, and he'll get us into space, but... honestly, I wouldn't put it past him to try and sell us right back to the NAF if we aren't careful.”
He pressed his right index finger against the communicator, and it began to emit a faint beeping sound. Silp quickly hopped backwards several feet, looked at Mariko, and said hurriedly, “You may want to cover your ears,” before covering his own.
She did as he suggested, and within a second the small device exploded with a loud
bang, sending the cell door flying open. Immediately after, an alarm began to sound. Mariko removed her hands from her ears, then yelled so that she could be heard over the wailing of the alarms, “For a spy, your escape plan seems to be notably lacking in subtlety!”
With a shrug, he yelled back, “If I was more subtle, I wouldn't have gotten caught in the first place! Now let's go!”
Mariko jumped to her feet and quickly followed Silp out of the cell. They took off running down the long, concrete hall of the prison, and as the pair passed the other cells Mariko caught brief glimpses of their occupants. The vast majority looked much older than herself or Silp, both of whom appeared to be in their early twenties. The other inmates reacted in multiple ways to seeing the escapees go by. Some cheered, or begged to be freed as well. Others jeered, and yelled about what would happen to the two of them once they were caught. Still more only sat and watched disinterestedly, not caring one way or the other about what happened to a couple of strangers making a break for it.
Only a short time after they had left their cell, Mariko realized that she had no idea where they were. She knew that the facility was large, but it hadn't occurred to her until now just how little of it she had actually seen before. She had to hope Silp knew what he was doing, and she followed him as he ran through hallways and doors, around corners, and up winding staircases. After they had been running for around ten minutes, however, she was able to calm her thought process down enough to come to a sudden realization.
“HEY, UH,” she yelled as loudly as she could, hoping her companion could hear her over the blaring alarms and multitude of voices, “WHERE ARE ALL THE GUARDS?”
“BEATS ME,” he called back. “MAYBE SOMETHING HAPPENED AT THE BASE. LETS JUST HOPE OUR LUCK HOLDS OUT!” He had barely finished his sentence when the unmistakeable sound of a gunshot ripped through the air, originating from somewhere behind them. Silp yelled in pain and doubled over, clutching his left forearm.
Mariko whirled around to find that three soldiers had appeared behind them and had their pistols trained on the two escapees. Additionally, and as she had now come to expect, she also saw straight red lines extending from the barrel of each gun to its intended target. She had no idea why she could see things like this when it seemed that nobody else could, but it had come in handy on numerous occasions in the past.
Right now, two of the soldiers were aiming at Silp, while the third had his sights on Mariko. Realizing that her companion was basically a sitting duck at the moment, Mariko did the only thing she could think of to take the enemies' attention off of him- she charged straight at them. The other two immediately pointed their weapons at her, and all three started firing. As they did so, Mariko ducked, sidestepped, and moved her arms around to keep her body away from those red lines. The three men fired repeatedly as she advanced, but their bullets all flew past the girl and harmlessly impacted the walls and floor behind her.
She reached the soldier in the center and hit him with a hard upercut to the jaw, sending him reeling backwards. She turned and started to throw a punch at the next man, but saw a pair of translucent red arcs extending from his arms up past his face, indicating that he was intending to block. Mariko jumped ,kicked him in the stomach, landed, grabbed and twisted his wrist, forcing him to release the pistol, took aim, and shot him in the head. Before she could turn around to deal with the last soldier, she felt a large arm wrap around her, restraining both of her own arms, as a gun barrel was pressed into her right temple.
“You're going to pay for that, you little bi-” Mariko heard a cracking sound, and the man released his hold on her. She turned around and saw Silp, having just delivered a right cross punch to the enemy's jaw. Without hesitation, she used her stolen pistol to shoot and kill both of the knocked-out men.
Silp grimaced. “That was a bit excessive, don't you think?”
“If we left them alive, they might have come after us again later.”
“We're going to space, Mariko. We won't exactly be easy to find out there; especially not by a few random grunts.”
Rather than responding, she took a knife from one of the dead men, tore off one of the sleeves of her prison uniform, and moved to wrap it around Silp's wound.
“Besides, after you kicked their asses like that, I doubt any of them would have been to quick to try to hunt you down. And on that note... where the hell did you learn to do all that??”
“No idea.” After securing her makeshift bandage, she collected and pocketed two pistol clips from one of the men. “You may want to arm yourself too.”
“Yeah yeah, I was getting to that.” Silp took a gun and some ammo for himself, and the two returned to their dash for the exit. They ran for several more minutes, then came to a large metal door, operated by a keycard reader on the wall next to it.
Mariko swore under her breath. “Now what?”
Smiling, Silp reached into his pocket and retrieved a security keycard. “The gun wasn't the only thing I took back there,” he explained. “Now brace yourself. There's no telling what's on the other side of this door.” After Mariko nodded and pointed her pistol at the door, he swiped the card through the reader. The heavy door slid open, revealing the prison's reception area, as well as five more soldiers, all ready to attack. “SHIT!!” Silp yelled, dropping the keycard and raising his pistol. Before he could even take aim, Mariko fired five times, and all five of the enemies dropped to the ground.
Her companion gaped. “How... exactly did you get captured?”
“The guys that came after me knew what they were doing. If these men had been skilled, we would both be dead right now.”
“You're saying they were rookies?”
She nodded, and Silp moved to check their uniforms. After confirming that Mariko was correct, he furrowed his brow and began scratching his chin, likely wondering the same thing she was:
What's going on? Why is the prison so lightly defended?“Do you think...” Silp mumbled, “Is it possible that we're the first ones to try to escape? The cells here are really well built, and we're never allowed to leave them without an escort of several guards. This isn't a new facility, either; if something really
did happen at the base, maybe all of the more experienced feds left thinking that nobody could break out while they were gone.”
Mariko shrugged. “Could be. Either way we need to move before more show up. Even with their bosses gone, we probably shouldn't try to fight all of them.”
“Right.” They made their way outside, and had to pause momentarily to let their eyes adjust to the early morning darkness. After fighting through another handful of low-ranking soldiers, they reached the main gate of the prison. They passed through it, then Silp led the way into town. He made sure to avoid major roads whenever possible, though they still had to periodically hide and wait for vehicles full of armed men to pass by.
“Those guys didn't look like rookies,” Mariko quietly remarked on one such occasion. “If they weren't looking for us before, they sure has hell are now.”
“They're looking for
someone, that's for sure,” replied Silp. “Looks like they're gone; let's move!” After roughly two hours of progressing like this, a small, civilian airport came into view at the end of the road. Grinning, Silp whispered, “That's the place! Hope Captain Jerry isn't getting too impatient with us.” They continued forward, and as soon as they were close enough to see the runway, his expression soured. “Shit.”
“What's wrong?” He pointed at one of the hangars, and Mariko quickly realized the problem. “Let me guess. That's where we're supposed to meet Jerry?”
“
Captain Jerry. But yes.”
“Shit.” The hangar Silp had indicated was open, and clearly housed a ship of some kind, but the problem was just outside of the hangar door. A group of at least twenty soldiers stood watch, all armed with automatic rifles. “How did they find out?”
Silp shrugged. “No idea. And it's entirely possible that they've already taken Captain Jerry into custody. But that ship's our only way off of Earth. We've got to find a way in there.”
Before either escapee had the chance to even begin formulating a plan, they heard a voice from a short distance away, near the entrance to the airport's primary building. “Weeeeeell, look who it is! Out for a little stroll, are we?” They both snapped their heads towards the source of the sound, and Mariko felt her blood freeze.
Silp cleared his throat. “Oh, uh... hey there, Warden... and... friends. Weather looks like it's going to be pretty nice today, don't you think?” Before them stood the warden of the facility they had just escaped from, along with ten armored men holding an assortment of heavy weaponry.
The large, bearded man chuckled. “Aye, that it is. Though, I don't remember giving the two of you permission to wander around aimlessly.”
Scratching the back of his head, Silp called back, “Ah, yeah. Guess we forgot to ask. Sorry abut that!” Turning his head slightly towards Mariko, he murmured, “Run.”
“What?”
“In just a second, I'm going to make these guys completely forget about you. Get to the hangar, and get out of here.”
“What are you planning to-”
Silp held out his right hand, and it began to glow. A second later, a small ball of flame appeared in his palm. Mariko's eyes widened.
“You're... you're a...”
“A mage!” The warden exclaimed, his calm demeanor disappearing instantly. “Drop him!” Before any of the soldiers started to shoot, Silp threw his fireball at one of the troop transports in the parking lot. The vehicle immediately exploded, knocking the enemy men onto the ground and causing several of them to be hit by debris.
Mariko's companion smiled sadly at her. “I've managed to keep it a secret all these years- you're the first person to know about this. Well, you and them,” he motioned towards the soldiers with his head. It looked like they were starting to get their bearings, so he threw another fireball, causing another explosion and throwing the enemies off balance again. Silp sighed, and said, “I was really wanting to get out of here with you, but... shit happens. You'd better leave while you can. Oh, and keep an eye on Captain Jerry. Like I said before, he can be a handful.”
For a brief instant, Mariko considered staying with Silp to try and fight off the soldiers together.
I haven't survived this long by recklessly helping others. If he wants me to leave him here, so be it, she thought, then she looked Silp in the eyes. “Thanks.”
He nodded and returned to hurling magical attacks as more soldiers began pouring out of building, and Mariko crept around the side of the building. Peeking around the corner, she saw that the soldiers guarding the hangar had gone to investigate the explosion, so she made a break for the ship. When she reached the hangar, she found a man standing at the base of the freighter's loading bay ramp. He was a scraggly-looking man, appearing to be in his 40s, and he was watching the combat through a pair of binoculars.
The man whistled. “So the kid was a spell-slinger, eh? Little shit's just full of surprises.”
“Uh...” Mariko spoke while cautiously approaching him, “Are you Jerry?”
The man lowered his binoculars and glared at her. “That's
Captain Jerry to you, young man.” He looked her up and down, then corrected himself. “Err, young lady. Sorry, all of you from the OCU look the same to me. Plus, your rack's so small, you might as well be a might as well be a guy anyway. No offense.”
“Uh.”
“Anyway, we'd better get going. Wouldn't want the Feds to figure out what we're up to.”
Mariko raised an eyebrow at him. “Don't they already know? Isn't that why all those men were guarding this hangar?”
“Pff, nah. Apparently they've got a deserter or something. Mine is the only ship prepping for takeoff right now, so I guess they wanted to use me as some sort of trap to lure him out.”
“This whole force for one guy? One of their own?”
“Eeeyup. I didn't ask too many questions, but seems like they really don't want this motherfucker gettin' away from 'em.”
“What makes them think he's coming here?”
“Only town with an airport for a few dozen miles out. There's no way he's going to be able to hide long enough to walk his way out of the country, so tryin' to get to space is pretty much his only option. Anyway, looks like good ol' Silp- may he rest in pieces- is leading the Feddies away, so we should probably get going before they come back.”
Mariko looked, and it did seem like the explosions were moving away from the airport and into the town. “Didn't you come here to help him?”
Captain Jerry shrugged. “I'm the type of man who always returns favors, but... I'm not gonna get involved in all of that shit. He saved me once, now I'm saving you; as far as I'm concerned, that's enough to make me and him square. Now come on.” He started walking up the ramp into the ship, and Mariko followed. After the cargo bay door had been shut, they made their way down the narrow hall leading towards the ship's cockpit.
Once Captain Jerry reached the door at the opposite end of the hall, he stopped and turned around. “This is where you'll be staying; at least until we're clear of the atmosphere.” He pointed at a small space between a large plastic crate and the ship's inner hull. “Wouldn't want someone spotting you while we were trying to leave.” Mariko nodded and began crawling into the tight space, and Captain Jerry pointed at the pistol she was carrying. “I'm gonna start the preflight systems check then go drop a log. Anybody comes on board- save for our dear friend Silp, of course, you use that to deal with 'em.” He turned and walked into the cockpit, and Mariko could hear him press several buttons, then enter the ship's restroom.
For several minutes, she just sat in her small cranny, fidgeting uncomfortably. She had hoped that getting into the ship would make her feel some relief, but that wasn't the case. She knew now that she wouldn't feel safe until they had put a decent amount of distance between themselves and Earth. Until then, she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about the soldiers outside... or the ones that she had killed without hesitation. Most of all, she couldn't stop thinking about how she had left Silp to die, when he was the only reason she had been able to escape.
I did what I had to, she thought,
above all else, I have to ensure my own survival.Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the cargo bay door opening, and heavy footsteps coming up the ramp.
No! Fucking damn it! We were so close! She gripped her weapon tightly, and waited for the intruder to get closer. She planned to jump out and shoot him the second he entered the cockpit, but she froze when the young man walked by. From the looks of him, he was clearly a soldier, but he walked like someone who was badly injured. Mariko briefly considered that he may have been fighting Silp, but he wasn't wearing armor like all of the men she had seen outside.
Wait... could he be the deserter?Inside the cockpit, the young man spoke to himself, "I guess that explains why it was already unlocked I better get out of here before whoever this belongs to re-"
The sound of Captain Jerry's toilet flushing echoed through the ship, and Mariko could hear the restroom door swing open.
The soldier spoke again, a touch of nervousness in his voice, "Woah there guy, I don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to get off planet, far far away from here."
Captain Jerry cocked his gun and spat. "In a hurry to get off planet, eh? You a criminal or something?"
"No...no not at all. Just uh...girlfriend troubles you know? You know, typical stuff. They both found out about each other and now they want my head on a platter. You know how it is."
Were Mariko not so tense, she might have laughed. She had to admit, the guy sounded confident, but he was in bad shape. Captain Jerry must have realized this as well, because he moved towards the intruder and threw him onto the ground.
"Looks like you are lyin', boy. That is, unless those pretty little things caught up to you and did that already.” From the sounds of it, Captain Jerry had found the soldier's wound. “Tell you what, you take this gun from my hand and I won't shoot you. Deal? Go ahead, gimpy, let's see what you got. "
She could hear the young man struggling, but evidently it was to no avail.
"Tell you what, boy," Captain Jerry spoke again, and Mariko heard him set his gun on the floor. "Can you reach it yet? I'm trying to make it easy for you. Pathetic, you must really want to die."
Just kill him already, Mariko thought.
Torturing him doesn't accomplish anything. She found herself questioning whether she could really trust Captain Jerry, and was beginning to wonder if she should help the boy, when he spoke again.
"No, I don't want to die. Not today." The gun fired once, and Captain Jerry's body fell to the floor. "Was that...soul magic? Or am I just...going crazy?" The young man stood up and kicked the dead captain. "Buddy this really seems like you bad day. Should have quit being a dick while you had the chance."
He walked over to the ship's controls, and shut the loading bay door. He put the freighter into motion, then pressed another button, and spoke to himself again, "Xanadu, aye? That should be far enough from Earth to start over."
Mariko stood up, still keeping a firm grip on her weapon. She didn't know how to pilot a space ship, but it seemed like the deserter had enabled the autopilot. One she took care of him, she would be home free. She slowly moved into the cockpit, and could see Captain Jerry sprawled out across the floor, blood spilling out from the new hole between his eyes. The killer was standing with his back turned, still looking at the ship's flight logs.
She took aim and slowly began to squeeze the trigger, but hesitated when she saw the man's stub of an arm. She realized that he probably wouldn't be able to defend himself even if he knew that she was there, and an image of Silp filled her mind. She thought about how she had left him, sacrificing his life so that she would have a better chance of escaping. She also thought about the men she had killed back in the prison, and how Silp had been upset by her actions, despite the fact that one of those men had just shot him.
I've been doing nothing but running away and killing people for four years. Now that I'm finally leaving this planet... am I really going to keep doing that? Is this all I'm going to ever do? Just run, hide, and shoot, until I finally meet somebody who's quicker on the draw?After several more seconds of internal debate she released the trigger, though she didn't lower her weapon. Instead, she spoke up, “Who... who are you?”
Kayla hated clubs.
Or at least, she had to pretend that she did. After all, she was supposed to be the responsible sibling. If she allowed herself to cut loose, there was no telling what sort of trouble Cale would get them in to! No, she needed to stay vigilant and prevent him from doing anything stupid that could jeopardize their mission... like he usually did. Why, even now he was......... Kayla stopped dancing and looked around, suddenly realizing that she had lost sight of her twin brother.
“...Cale?” She tried calling for him, but her voice was drowned out by the
bass pumpin' rhythm bumpin' jams that had the crowd jumpin'. “Shit.”
After weaving through the aforementioned crowd to the edge of the club, she finally spotted her brother at the bar. For a brief instant, she almost felt relieved. Then she noticed that Cale was occupying himself by stumbling around, approaching other people (most of whom were at lest as inebriated as he was, if not more), and challenging them to arm wrestling competitions. Regardless of how they responded, he would then proceed to grab them by the wrist, twist their arm behind their back just to the point of being painful, and then declare himself the victor, tell them that they had just “got wrassled,” and release them. Most of his opponents would then hastily exit the club, their expressions giving away their extreme discomfort. Kayla started to make her way over to him, when the bartender waved her over.
Once she reached him, he leaned over the bar and spoke in hushed tones, “Hey, is it safe to assume you're with that guy that looks exactly like you? Chin stubble aside, of course.” She nodded. “Do you think you could... do something about him? He's making all my customers uncomfortable. Hell, he's making me uncomfortable. I would have tried to throw him out already, but I don't want to get 'wrassled.'”
She sighed. “Yeah, I'll... I'll go talk to him. I'm really sorry about this.”
“Don't worry too much about it,” he said with a shrug, before leaning back and returning to pouring drinks. “This place might not be as wild as some other joints out there, but I still see my fair share of weird shit. Just... please make him stop.” As if on cue, a couple brushed past Kayla, both looking very disturbed after having been simultaneously 'wrassled' by the drunken troublemaker.
Kayla walked up behind her brother and tapped him on the shoulder. Cale turned around very (
very) slowly to face her, then threw his hands up in challenge. “Heya, sis! Where ya been? Wanna arm wrestle?”
“Sure.” He reached out and grabbed her wrist, and she immediately took hold of his, pulled him forward so that he would lose his balance, and kicked him in the chest. They let go of each other, and Cale sank to the floor.
“Sis... why?” He heaved.
“I could ask you the same question. What the hell do you think you're doing?”
“I got bored.” After standing up, he pointed at a trio gathered at a table in a relatively lowly-populated corner of the club, looking like they were discussing some kind of important business. “You're sure it's one of them, right?” Kayla nodded. “Then let's just go talk to them! All we have to do is walk over there and tell them that they should come with us if they want to live!”
“I already told you no. We're not going to interrupt their conversation to deliver vaguely threatening-sounding one-liners. We can wait until they're finished before we approach.”
Cale crossed his arms, pouting slightly. “You're just saying that because you want to dance more.”
“Wha- That's not- No!” She quickly became flustered, stumbling over her words as she tried to argue. “You know what? Fine. You want to be rude and go bother them, we'll be rude and go bother them!”
“
Finally!” Cale quickly did an about-face and started marching straight for the group, but his sister suddenly reached out and grabbed the back of his cloak, causing him to trip and fall again.
“Wait!”
“What
now???”
“They're moving.” She nodded towards the trio, and Cale followed her gaze to see that they had, in fact, all gotten up, and were now moving away from their table.
“Looks like they're headed for the exit. Doesn't this mean we should start following them now?”
“Well...” Kayla's voice trailed off as she turned her head to gaze wistfully at the mass of moving bodies, youthful energy, and impending next-morning regret in the center of the club. “Don't get me wrong, I want to get out of here as soon as possible, but... now that I've sensed them, I can keep track of them as long as they stay within the range of my detection abilities. I'm sure you want to stay here just a little while longer...”
“Nah, I'm goo- Oof!” He was cut off in mid-sentence by a sharp elbow to the ribs. “Err, what I was saying was... yes, dear sister! I would love to stay in this deafening room full of sweaty drunk people! How thoughtful of you!”
His sister smiled. “That's what I thought you said.” She quickly turned and hurried back to join the body bumpin', feet jumpin' crowd dancing to the music that was pumpin'.
Cale watched her until she had disappeared into the amorphous dance blob, then sighed and started talking to himself. “Guess I'll stay out of trouble for now. She deserves a little bit of time to relax after all the shit she had to deal with on that last world because of me...” He shuddered, reflecting on their previous adventure. “I'll probably be afraid of doghouses for the rest of my life...”
He decided to lean against the wall of he club while he waited for Kayla to get her fill of partying. For several minutes, he just stayed where he was, enjoying the music and the flashing lights. After only a couple of songs had played, his sister reemerged from the crowd and quickly made her way over to him.
“We need to move,” she said hurriedly, then began moving towards the door before Cale even had the chance to ask why she was in such a rush. As though reading his mind (or simply understanding common courtesy), she explained, “They're moving fast. Magically fast. I think someone might be after them.”
Once the twins were out in the city streets, they started to run, following the traces of magic Kayla was sensing. Not foolish enough to forget about the city's surveillance, they made sure not to look like they were fleeing some kind of crime. It was more of a, “Oh jeez, I sure am late for that important thing I'm supposed to be at,” kind of run. Cale even retrieved a piece of toast he had purchased earlier that day from his pocket and held it in his mouth to add to the effect.
As they were making their way downtown, Cale noticed movement in several alleyways out of the corners of his eyes. “Mmmff mmhm mffmm mm!” He exclaimed.
“Yeah, I see him too,” Kayla called back. “Looks like I was right about them being followed.” Before long, they arrived outside of a hotel.
Cale shoved his toast into his mouth, swallowed, then said, “That guy seemed to know his way around. Think he was able to keep up?”
“I'm not sure. If we're lucky, those three warped around enough to lose the tail. Either way, we probably don't want to stay here for too long.” They entered the hotel, and quickly arrived outside the correct room. “Now...” Kayla mused, “They're probably on their guard right now. We have to be smart about thi-”
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! “Hellooooooooo!” Cale yelled into the door, raising his voice to the highest pitch he could muster, “Room service!”