Chapter 2
Daybreak however, was delayed that day by cloud cover, and when i woke about noon, i found that the girl had gotten down from the futon and crawled under my blanket with me, tucking herself in where my arms had wrapped around her. I carefully disentangled myself from her and slipped into the bathroom for my own shower, I had to think, and the best place i could do that at the moment was under the scalding hot water of the shower. “Oh-kay, critical thinking time.” i muttered to myself as the water thundered down on my head. “What do i need to provide for this girl and why should i do it.” The why was simple if two fold, first of all i had sworn myself to her protection, not only her protection, but also to avenge that which had been lost to her. That, quite simply, was something of Wolf's nature showing itself through me, that nature being the second thing. What was needed however was a different matter, she would need clothes, food, and shelter, all the things everyone else needed. She also would have to be kept safe however, I hadn't bothered to check and see if she was magically active, and really anything less than that would be useless against the bug spirits. Even if she wasn't however, i could at least provide her the basics and teach her how to protect herself against more mundane enemies. As i stood there in the shower mulling over these decisions to be made, i realized one thing, she had never told me her name. I mean it was a simple oversight, but one i needed to rectify soonest. I could keep calling her kid and child and the like, but i also knew that it would do nothing but irritate her to no end. As i finished fastening my belt i opened the bathroom door to find the futon already set back upright in its couch form and the blankets and pillows all neatly folded and stacked on one end of it. I found her in the kitchenette reheating the pizza slices with two of the soda's already pulled out of the fridge.
“I didn't know if you ever ate breakfast or anything so i thought reheating the pizza would be at least something to put on your stomach before you downed one of those sugar and caffeine monsters of a soda.” Her voice was light and chipper, seeming to go with the mood she was showing as she pulled the slices out of the microwave and slid one onto a separate paper plate than what they had been warmed on. “I know this isn't very healthy, but at least its something to fill the void right?” she quipped as she started munching on her slice. Turning she saw the apparent shock on my face and she faltered, “I'm sorry,” she said, “I just did something rude again without thinking.” her face hung low like she was about to start crying like she had last night and that i wouldn't stand for.
“No child, make yourself at home.” i said trying to comfort her, “It just took me as kind of a shock to find you already awake and in such a good mood already. I mean i had a terrible time a couple of weeks ago that brought me out here. But enough wool gathering, you told me last night what took you to that nasty little place, now tell me your name and a bit about you, and here in a little while after we've eaten a bit and drank these soda's down, we'll go get some more food and some clothes for you.” This made her perk up a bit, and she proceeded to tell me how her family had not always been homeless. Her name was Joanna and from what she said her father had worked at the docks as a mid level manager until around three months ago. About that time someone broke into the independent warehouse that he managed and burned it down in the middle of the night. Since this had been the company's only warehouse, they had to lay everyone off and declare bankruptcy. Since then the family had ended up selling practically everything they owned to survive, and had gone to the brotherhood's outreach program as the last of the money had run out. Rummaging in the closet as i listened to her tale i found a pair of running shoes that though exceedingly overlarge, would protect her feet long enough for us to go find her some real clothes.
After she was shod, and the food and drink consumed we walked back out to the bike, her still in the sweats and T-shirt, following me like a little sister, myself in my usual BDU pants and polo shirt. After mounting and starting the bike we went south toward the area strip mall where we proceeded to get all the necessities for a young woman of 17. Clothing her was a surprise in that she didn't want anything expensive or really anything that the strip mall had. Though she had been raised to be as she put it, a girly girl, the last few months had broken her of wanting the newest and sharpest fad clothing.
What got me was that she wanted her own set of clothes like mine, simple, practical, and armored. Sighing to myself i went over to a pay phone and called up an outfitter i had found in the area. Louie was a rat, or at least a rat shaman, but as far as being able to lay hands on military surplus, he couldn't be beat. The tel com terminal lit up as a person on the other end answered.
“Lucky Louie's Military Surplus, what can we get for you today?” The answer was rote for Rhonda, Louie's only cashier and main squeeze.
“Rhonda babe, hows business?” I replied to her as if we were old old friends.
“Well hello Mister Smith, its good to hear from you again. ” Rhonda had one of those high pitched voices and coupled with her New Jersey accent, it had a tendency to drive people crazy. “Last thing you said to Louie was for him to total everything up so that you didn't leave town owing him anything. I take it your still in town?”
“Yeah Rhonda, something came up and i didn't have to take that trip after all. But now however, i do have a need to outfit a young woman i know. Some BDUs and other necessities of rough living, you know what i mean. Now i know you are the folks to do it out here so you cut me a good deal and I'll see about sending you some more business other than myself.”
“Well unless you can get the Maraca brother's crew to come over and shop here, there ain't much more business that you could send us that ain't cops and such.” Rhonda's voice was starting to grate, so i told her we would be by shortly and cut the connection. North again, this time with full saddlebags we stopped at the apartment long enough to unload what we had already gotten and then were right back out again and now heading west.
Chapter 3
The neighborhood that Louie's was in was even worse than the one just north of the apartment. This was the kind of area that the cops went into only when they absolutely had to and then in squad strength or better and with swat backup besides. Louie's shop looked like a mix between the old pawn shop that the building had been, and your typical military surplus. As with most pawn shops there were the three gold balls over the door, however not many pawn shops, even in the worse neighborhoods, had an old 20mm cannon sitting in the front walk covering the door. Once you stepped inside on the other hand, you saw that it was almost all military surplus. Looking around i saw Rhonda sitting behind the counter fiddling with her nails as usual, but Louie was nowhere in sight. Walking up to the front with Joanna in tow i stepped quite deliberately into Rhonda's line of vision. “Where's Louie Rhonda?” I didn't expect there to be much of a chance that someone would try to ambush me in Louie's place, but if i didn't get Rhonda's attention focused right off then things were going to ramble until i got her attention centered again.
“Louie's in his office with mister Marcone, they should be almost finished though. You think i should check and see?”
“Nah Rhonda,” I replied “mister Marcone wouldn't like that, and then he would take it out on Louie, and Louie would take it out on you and me. Not to mention i don't want to be on mister Marcone's bad side neither. We'll just eyeball stuff till their done.” No drek Marcone wouldn't like it, this was his best fencing business, as well as his best intel source. Everyone bought from Louie, and most gossiped as much as they shopped. Each rack had a unobtrusive microphone that fed a digital recorder over in Louie's office. That digital recorder fed into a pretty hefty table unit that had one hell of a word recognition program running in it that picked out all sorts of information. I had paid enough to Louie, and to Marcone, to not be hassled for the rest of this month by anything they found in the transcripts. Of course also knowing meant that i kept my bloody mouth shut about sensitive information in Louie's shop anyway.
Wondering down the aisles we found some armored clothing to fit her and a duster in her size. While we were looking at web harnesses i heard the door to Louie's office open and watched as a pair of orcs followed by a dwarf walked through the store and out to the parking lot. Not long after they left, the office door opened again and a gnome stepped out wiping the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief. “Who was that?” Joanna asked softly from beside me. She had taken cover behind me when the office door opened and was now peeking around at the gnome that was talking with Rhonda. “That my girl, was mini Mickey Marcone, also known as Don Marcone to those who either fear him or work for him, or as 3M on the streets. The gnome over there is who we came here to see.” It was about that time that Rhonda pointed us out to Louie and he started walking over. “Whatever you do Jo, don't say anything except that your my new apprentice.” Her nod was sufficient and in time for me to turn back to Louie as he stepped up to us.
“Mister Smith,” Louie somewhat intoned as he stepped up to us, “Rhonda tells me your here to outfit the young lady here. Its a funny though, she doesn't strike me as one who.” The gnomes sentence was cut short as Joanna launched and connected with a vicious snap kick to the gnome's ribs. I barely stopped the follow on upper cut that would have rendered the store owner unconscious. “Now now,” I told her as she backed down and gave me a wink, “We cant go and kill Louie here, if we did we would have to deal with mister M and his two friends.” Turning back to Louie i squatted down to where he and I were eye level with each other before speaking. “Louie, this is my apprentice and she isn't exactly the kind of person to let someone take liberties with her honor in any way. Now as things go you and i both know that looks are not everything, so why don't we cut the drek and get busy getting her outfitted oh-kay.”
Holding what was surely at least one broken rib, Louie took us to the molding room and had Joanna strip down to her skivvies so that she could lay in the mold for her body armor. Form fit body armor was not something you just bought off the shelf, it was also not exactly cheap. It was however a good idea, and i ordered a set of half body and a set of full body for Joanna. Added to our “shopping cart” was a soft air rifle, pistol, real rifle and pistol, a rucksack, and a fresh set of fake identification as well. This plus the armored clothing we had picked out earlier was going to cost a pretty penny, but it was a basic load for life on the streets, a life i hoped wasn't in store for her.
After I paid the bill for the equipment and setup a pickup date of 3 days later for the armor and the identification, we then packed the rucksack with the other gear and headed back toward the apartment. It was to be 3 days of intense training and pure hell for both of us, i thought as I planned out the hours of the next few days in my head. All of a sudden Joanna let out a scream and i chanced a glance in the direction she had been looking. Just as luck would have it, here came the ant's air support. Three large wasp looking creatures were starting to bank in on us from an alley that we had just passed and i knew that there was little chance of this old hog outrunning them. Cranking the throttle wide open i started weaving through the little traffic that was on the street, and thinking of a way i could deal with them. My sword was at home, but i still had the armor and shield spell foci on me. No, while it would protect me it wouldn't do Joanna any good, and that had to be who they were after. All the weaving had turned me back west and i decided to make a flat out run for the city limits. Once out there i could at least open fire on the flesh forms without endangering innocents. I felt Joanna shift behind me on the bike, and suddenly there was a large backwash of mana. It felt as if someone had set off a fuel air explosive, only one of mana.
Looking back over my shoulder i could see the crashing husks of the flesh forms sliding across the pavement behind us, and i stopped the bike in a skid, looking for the mage that had set off that large of a mana ball. I saw no one, but i heard Joanna chuckle slightly and then felt her collapse against me. “Baka” i mumbled as set the kickstand of the motorcycle.
Getting off was a pain due to Joanna's unconscious form, but finally i found myself laying her on the sidewalk, her head propped on the tool pouch of the bike. Opening my astral vision i saw a weird aura around her that i could recognize but not quite place. Then suddenly it hit me, this was why the bugs were after her, the girl was a physical mage. Part of her magical ability was like me, channeled through her to enhance her physical capabilities, but part of it was also thrust into the ability to spell cast I needed to get her home, the drain from her spell had knocked her clean out though so she couldn't ride like she should have been, and when she woke after awhile she wouldn't be in any condition to ride then either, the headache she would be dealing with would preclude that or any other really loud noise. Suddenly an idea struck me and i dove into one of the saddlebags on the bike. After digging for a few minutes i managed to come up with what i wanted, a pair of bungee cords. One of the cords i put around her chest right below her armpits, after which i pulled her up onto my back. Throwing both of our legs over the saddle of the bike, i set her feet on the passenger pegs and locked them in. Months of carrying the groups mage back in Seattle had made me get this modification to the bike. Running the loop of bungee cord over the sissy bar, i took the second cord and hooked it into the first. After running the second around myself and testing to make sure the tilt didn't loose her we started back to the apartment.
Half an hour later she was starting to come around. Somehow i managed to get her and the gear inside without the neighbors seeing us and hopefully in the morning i would be able to teach her some of the basics. She groaned slightly as awareness finally took hold of her. She looked around and tried to sit up, only to find herself collapsing back down onto the bed. “Oh my head” she murmured pressing her fingers to her temples. “Did you happen to get the number of that City master that ran over my head.”
Chuckling i set a bottle of water and a pair of motrin pills down within her reach. “No, but you sure tore up the three wasps that decided to come pay a visit.” She looked at me with confusion all over her face. So I sat on the floor next to the bed and asked what the last thing she remembered was.
“I remember, leaving the supply store,” She answered, her brow furrowed in thought. “We had gone maybe 4 blocks when i looked down an alley and then nothing, complete blank.” So sitting there i filled her in on what had happened, and what i had figured out about her.
“Now,” i said after the pizza I had ordered arrived and Joanna had been filled in on what had happened. “After we eat, your gonna go back to sleep.” Her mouth opened to argue but i held up a finger and she closed her mouth with a clop. “Don't argue, that spell you cast took more out of you than your willing to admit, and once were finished eating sleep is probably the second thing your gonna want to do. Your training can wait until morning, and I'm gonna spend part of the night on the phone talking to some old friends about getting you away from here.” Again her mouth opened to protest, but shut with the raising of my finger. “It is important that the bugs not get you, they intended you as a host for one of their own, and the fact that they are still after you means that they really want you for some reason. My guess, would be that they want you for a queen to come through and inhabit. Another thing is, for all your desire to do this, your still woefully under-trained. I have friends that can see to your training, both in your magical abilities and more mundane things like tech, combat and interaction with others in the world. Some of them can get you contacts that i cant, others can get you other things you will need.”
After i had finished explaining why i was sending her away, she still wanted to stay and fight. On the other hand however, she recognized that she wasn't going to win an argument so she let it drop. Once the pizza was gone, she did doze off and i tucked her back into the bed once more and started making phone calls, leaving messages all over with my old team in Seattle and Germany as well as with one of my few surviving contacts. As an FBI agent, Suarez was all aware of the bug spirits, in fact he was the one that had sent our team into camp hope to roust them out. What happened was more like kicking a fire ant mound, flesh forms poured out of the barracks and tunnels beneath the complex and we had to retreat under fire. We had survived, and gotten the data that Suarez wanted, but in doing so had made an enemy of these spirits that had ended up coming back to haunt us.
Calls made and messages left I sat in the corner of the apartment and started to meditate. As the strains of a century old lost group named “Pink Floyd” washed over me, I sought the green grass and towering trees of the forests of Wolf. Thankfully, it ended up i didn't have to go to him, because he came to me, or maybe i should say us. Feeling a presence before me i opened my eyes expecting Joanna to be curled up before my feet, instead, i found Wolf sitting there eying me. “What do you seek from me tonight my child.” The thought came clearly into my mind and i responded in kind to the old spirit.
“What is it about this child old one?” i asked, “She is like me yet not, and the not is an ability to manipulate the mana outside her body. What am i to do with her?”
Wolf looked at me with an obvious grin on his face, “Keep her with you young one, keep her safe, for as you said she is like you, but also, she is like me. She is one that follows our path, and will need your training in it over the next few years.”
This puzzled me and i sat to think about it for a minute, and Wolf came and sat in front of me where he continued the conversation. “You have followed my path for years young one, and never have you taken an apprentice in your art. It is time you did, and she is the one you shall take. This was one of the reasons fate has sent you here. You have also found the others you sought, and the time approaches fast that you shall have your revenge. Be careful though my child, for though you may be the victor against these that you have found, i have not seen your survival a definite matter. Now stay safe, and sleep well.” With that the spirit vanished back to its home plane and i was left their to ponder the situation. Mumbling through my fatigue addled wits, once again i curled myself up on the floor to sleep. Blade would probably be the first to call me. Germany was in a time zone hours ahead of us, but he wouldn't call until he was sure i was awake which meant i probably had till about noonish before the telcom rang for anything. As i dozed off i felt the warmth of another body snuggle into mine, and then nothingness of sleep overtook me.