"Parker. You're late." Kara says with an exaggerated sigh.
I check my phone. It says "6:00". "You told me 6:00. I'm here, and it's 6:00. You're just early," I reply, a sense of annoyance washing over me.
"Hah, I suppose you're right," Kara says with a chuckle, moving next to me and throwing an arm over my shoulder. "So, where to?" She asks me.
"How am I supposed to know? You invited me." I reply.
"And? We're letting you pick our destination," she tells me.
"I don't know many spots… Uh, I don't get out that much." I explain, hoping that is enough for them.
"Fine, let's get you out of your rags then. We're going to the mall." She tells me.
"Rags?" I scoff.
"You are wearing a worn-out, solid color t-shirt and sweatpants that are a little too big for you. So yes, rags." She retorts.
"Can you two not bicker? Kara, you said you wanted this to be a nice, welcoming hangout. Does this seem welcoming to you?" Bayani says, shooting a glare at his sister.
"Thanks, Mighty Mouse," I say, looking slightly down at him.
"Can you cut that out, too?" Bayani says, now directing his glare at me.
"I'll consider it," I reply.
Kara interjects herself, "I just realized. The mall is about a two-hour walk from here."
"Then it probably isn't worth it to go," I reply, honestly just trying to avoid any kind of trip altogether.
"Nah, I can probably get us a ride," Kara says, pulling out her phone.
About five minutes later, a car arrives and parks in front of us. It's a black minivan; it looks rather old. The window rolls down and reveals Elaine in the driver's seat. "Get in, you three." She says flatly. Still giving a glare directed at me. What did I ever do to her?
The three of us got into the back of her car, as we saw Elizabeth in the passenger seat. I am sitting in the middle, with Bayani to my right and Kara to my left.
"Paragone Mall?" Elaine asks.
"Yup," Kara answers.
That man not only has a city named after him, but a mall too? "Narcissist," I mumble, my inside thoughts turning into outside thoughts.
Kara gently elbows me and whispers, "Just because we all think it, doesn't mean you gotta say it."
Bayani gently elbows me from the other side and whispers, "Bet you're wondering how she forgives and forgets easily. She really doesn't have it in her to truly hate anyone."
"Wasn't really concerned with that, but alright," I reply, duly noting his words. Weird. They're both being friendly. Is this guilt? I shake it off. I can't let myself feel this way now. Move on. I will move on.
Shortly after, we get stuck in some traffic. Elaine curses under her breath, while Elizabeth pats her shoulder, telling her that the traffic isn't that big of a deal. Kara is staring out of the window, while Bayani is using the car windows to make shadow puppets. I sit there calmly and pull out my phone. I quickly changed Miss Claire's contact name from "Miss Claire" to "Mom". Purely for the cover.
Kara spots me on my phone and snatches it from me. I reach back for it, and she hands it back. I look and see that she added herself as a contact in my phone. "Oh! Me too!" Bayani says as he snatches my phone and does the same thing.
I snatch my phone back from him and see that Kara has already made a group text between her, Bayani, and me.
The car abruptly jerks and swerves. The three of us fly forward, getting caught by our seatbelts. I look up and see that we are parked. "We're here," Elaine says flatly.
We all exit the car. Kara runs over and hugs Elaine, "Thanks!" She exclaims. Elaine returns the hug and gives a quiet, "You're welcome, Kara."
Kara runs back over to Bayani and me. "So, Parker. How much money did Paragon give you?" Kara asks.
"How did you know he gave me money?" I ask, answering her question with a question.
"It's his thing. All apprentices get money on their cards. Bayani and I make the most because we actually are trusted to go do missions on our own." She explains.
"He gave me 200$ for my performance in our spar," I tell her.
"Alright, how much are you willing to spend?" She asks, a glint in her eye telling me she's plotting something
"I'll decide that as we go," I reply.
Elaine cuts into our conversation, "I didn't drive you three here to stand around and talk in the parking lot. If you're gonna do that, at least do it in the damn mall."
"Sorry, Elaine!" Kara shouts over to her. She grabs Bayani and I's hands and drags us into the mall, Elaine and Elizabeth following shortly behind. Probably planning on shopping on their own without us.
The moment we enter the building, Bayani shakes Kara off and hops on an ascending escalator to our left. "Hey! Wait up!" Kara shouts as she drags me along to follow him.
When we reach the top, Bayani immediately enters the first shop on the floor. A secondhand book store. "He always stops here first whenever we come. His room is like a library." Kara states, before following up with, "Well, at least this place has a nice vinyl selection sometimes."
"What's a vinyl?" I ask.
Her jaw drops and her eyes widen, and with no words, she takes my hand and drags me over to a bin with a bunch of thin cardboard with a slit in the middle and assorted odd designs. There's a bunch of weird titles and names I don't recognize. She picks one up and reaches two fingers into the slit and gently pulls out a large disk with odd, indented lines circling the inside of it. "This is a vinyl. Put it on a thing called a record player, and it plays music. I collect them. I have a nice record player in my room." She explains.
"You getting that one?" I ask.
"Nope. It's in pretty bad shape. You see that large scratch mark stretching across the record? It's probably a dud, especially since I can feel the scratch," she answers.
"I see," I reply succinctly.
"Bleh. Nothing good." She says with a disappointed sigh.
I shake her off and walk over to Bayani, who is browsing the books. He's mumbling, "This place is great, but so unorganized." He notices my presence behind him and jumps. "Did you seriously have to sneak up on me like that?" He says, shouting while whispering.
"What are you looking at?" I question.
"Books." He replies succinctly.
"I see that," I tell him. He knows that isn't what I meant.
"Parker, if I bought a few books, would you be willing to keep them in your room? I ran out of shelf space, and I'm trying to convince Elaine to let me carve out part of the ceiling in my closet so I can fit two new bookshelves in." He asks.
"And why can't Kara?" I question.
"She's already holding onto some for me. And she said that she won't hold onto any more." He explains.
Does he really need so many books? Well, I suppose it isn't like I collect anything, so I suppose I can't understand him. I sigh and shake my head. "Sorry, man, but no," I tell him. I'd rather not give him reason to start hanging around in my room. He could potentially find my cloak and mask if he ever decided to dig around.
"Well… I suppose I need to refrain from buying these then… And these are the hardback anniversary editions too…" He says with a disappointed sigh.
I feel a pang in my chest at that. Is this guilt? I mean, it isn't like I need to do this for him. Logically, saying no is the smart thing to do…
"Whatever, man, just buy 'em. I'll keep these in my room, but that doesn't give you free rein to just come in whenever." I say with a slight huff. I don't understand it myself. Why am I doing this? "Now I'm gonna go look around. You get back to whatever you're doing." I tell him.
"Really? Thanks!" He shouts after me. It seems as though his normal demeanor breaks when it comes to books. Bayani is quite the character, in some ways even more so than Kara.
I feel myself drawn to the different CDs of movies and shows. I've never been much of a reader, unless it's about a topic that already interests me. I was always the type of person who, if you'd ask me if I've heard of or read something, my reply would be that I've only seen the movie. Mainly due to Miss Claire and me watching things together often, as well as some things before her. Although she mainly watches trashy reality TV, she has introduced me to some really good movies.
I walk over to that section of the store and begin to peruse. I see some very nice boxes of different movies with cool art on them. Maybe they're some special edition? I pick one up. It's titled: "A Violet Rose Blooms in the Fog." It feels familiar.
A more gruff, feminine voice speaks up behind me. "Huh. A favorite of mine. Good taste." I jump up and turn around. It's Elaine. She scoffs a little bit at my reaction.
"You scared me," I grumble.
"Tch, I can tell. I was trying to be nice to you. Since you're gonna be around." She says with a huff as she glares at me.
Before I can give her any of the snark I planned to, I hear Kara shout, "Parker! We're checking out!"
I shoot Elaine a look and walk over to Kara and Bayani, who are at the register. I place the movie on the counter. Kara ended up buying one of those Vinyl things. I can't read the title, but it has a man with a golden-looking instrument on it. Bayani bought a whole basket of books. Kara swipes her card first, then Bayani.
I swipe my card; however, it gives me an error. "Wrong way," Kara says, snickering. "You haven't done this before?"
I shoot her a glare as I flip the card and swipe it that way. The man behind the counter bags up Bayani's books, hands Kara her vinyl, and then hands me my movie. We exit the store as Elizabeth enters and runs over to Elaine.
Bayani turns to me and says, "Don't worry. Kara made the same mistake you did for two months when we first got these cards."
"Bayani!" Kara shouts, recoiling a bit and blushing.
I chuckle a bit at the exchange. Kara shoots me a playful glare while Bayani joins me.
We make our way down the escalator. As Kara points to a stand a long way down from here, "Ooh! We need to get some coffee!" She says, bouncing with excitement.
"Sure, you can get yourself some," Bayani tells her.
"Of course you'd say that. Tea drinker." Kara says, sticking her tongue out.
"Not my fault, I have better taste." Bayani retorts.
"Parker, what's your verdict? Coffee or tea?" Kara says, now shifting the focus of the conversation onto me.
"Water," I reply. It's true, it's all I drink. Never really had coffee before because Miss Claire told me it's bad for me. And I'm not too sure about tea… Maybe it's that stuff in bags. I think I've seen Miss Claire put it in hot water before.
"You're weirder than us. Water is gross." Kara says.
"Water is gross? It doesn't even have a taste. It's water." I retort.
"Sorry, Kara, gonna have to agree here. Water doesn't have a taste." Bayani tells her.
Kara gives an overly dramatic sigh of defeat as we all step off the escalator and begin to walk toward the stand. As we walk, I begin to notice the lack of people here. From my baseline knowledge of this place, shouldn't it be busier?
I brushed off that feeling and split off from Kara and Bayani. They went and ordered themselves drinks, while I went to a nearby vending machine and bought myself a bottle of water.
We meet back up and sit in a corner. Kara is drinking her coffee, which has an ungodly amount of whipped cream on top. Bayani is sipping on a lidded drink, which I can only assume is some kind of tea. I crack open my water bottle and start drinking it as well.
"This stand has the best coffee ever," Kara says matter-of-factly.
"You say that about every place we get coffee from." Bayani chimes in.
Before the banter can continue, we hear a loud crash alongside some glass shattering to our right. We look over and see a group of ten men wearing masks with spades on them.
That gang…
I hope they didn't show up here for me. Because of what happened a while back with the rooftop showdown with the other faction.
The first people to react aren't me, not the other mall goers, not Bayani, and not the gang. Kara runs over, and two iron needles pierce the arm of one of the men.
"I'd bet you guys are powerless! I just gotta avoid those weapons that Sonar told everyone at HQ about, and I'll be fine!" She says with a laugh. Her wide smile is terrifying, even to me.
She enjoys fighting too much.
I run to her side as Bayani reaches out to me to stop me, "Wait! None of us has clearance to handle these situations without prior permission from someone who does!" He shouts.
I dodge his hand and stand next to Kara. Bayani stays back. He sighs and slumps into a wall before standing back up straight and running to direct all of the civilian mall goers out of the building.
"I take the right five and you take the left five? Halfsies?" Kara asks.
I let out a sigh before echoing her words as a verification, "Halfsies."
Kara wastes zero time and jumps up, delivering a corkscrew kick to the man she pierced with the needles, knocking him unconscious.
She can handle herself. I need to handle my five people.
I let them approach me first. All of them are wielding daggers. I assume they are power-disabling weapons like the last guys I fought. Two rush me from the front, and I weave out of the way of their slashes. I notice one of the others approaching me from the right, so I crash into him, knocking him off balance before jumping back, and using all of my force on a cross right to the chin. Knocking him out.
These guys are definitely unpowered. No aura, and they go down too easily. I glance over and see Kara messing around in the fight. Dodging around and purposely only nearly missing with her needles. I scoff and turn back over, noticing one of the men got close while I was looking away. I front kick him, but as my foot makes contact, his dagger barely connects with my chest. The one slash was enough. My senses are now those of a normal person, and I can't move my aura.
Like Mr. Eun-ji, my powers will likely return later. But I don't have that later. I need to worry about them now. I'm still physically stronger, but being powerless is still a detriment.
Kara notices that I got hit and reaches out to me, worried, "Parker!" she shouts, then promptly gets slashed in the back herself.
Great. We're both powerless now.
We both reunite, standing back to back as the remaining men surround us. Kara took out two, while I only took out one. So we're dealing with seven left.
"Parker. You can't use your power either, right?" She asks.
"Yeah," I confirm.
She laughs nervously and turns around to face me. I turn to face her as well. "So, think you can keep up?" She says, trying to regain her earlier bravado.
"Easily," I reply.
She runs at me, and I bend down. She rolls off my back and pushes off of me to swiftly knock out one of the men. I use the momentum I gained from her push to grab one of the men, wrap my legs around his neck. I used my weight to swing myself down and throw him into two of the other men. Taking them out.
Before they can further react, Kara and I run back toward each other and meet in the middle, where another one of them is standing. We both deliver a kick to his head, our feet slamming into each side respectively.
With three of them left, we take a moment to catch our breath and analyze our last three opponents. Two of them are the same build, but the third guy is much bulkier. The bulkier man is wearing brass knuckles, while the two men are wielding daggers.
Kara and I waste no time dispatching the two weaker men. Rushing toward them, Kara knocks one out with an elbow to the chin. And I'm knocking out the other one by flipping him over and stomping his face.
The bulkier man finally makes his move and rushes me, swinging his right arm to punch me. I dodge under it, and Kara runs over and knees him in the side. Not giving him reprieve, I deliver a jab to his stomach. He tries to punch down at Kara, but she sidesteps and jumps. I give her a boost upwards with a hand, and she hits him dead in the face with a spinning kick.
When Kara lands, the man retaliates by trying to hit both of us with a sweeping kick. We both jump over it. When we landed, we began to take turns landing blows. I start with an elbow to the stomach, then Kara lands a straight punch, then I deliver a kick to his side, and then Kara sweeps his legs.
As he falls, I move to his head and kick it upwards, causing him to stumble and fall in a different direction. Kara then moves and kicks him upwards, giving him enough air time for us to both stomp him into the ground, finally knocking him out.
Kara and I step off the man, and Kara reaches out for a high five. I wait a second before accepting it. I notice her palms are very sweaty, as I rub my hands on my sweatpants to get it off mine.
As if right on cue, Bayani runs back over with Elizebeth and Elaine in tow.
"Parker! Kara! You two alright?!" Bayani calls out.
"Yup! We handled it." Kara says triumphantly, puffing her chest.
Elaine walks up to both of us. "You two…" She starts.
Huh. Maybe she'll give us more money on our cards for dealing with the gang members.
"You two are in so much goddamn trouble! Kara! You have zero real-world combat experience outside of controlled environments! And you, Parker! You're new here, and I don't even understand what your goddamn deal is!" She shouts.
"S-Sorry, Elaine…" Kara stutters, looking down sheepishly.
I look away, unable to respond as Elizabeth walks over, "Let's just take them back to HQ," she says, placing a hand on Elaine's shoulder.
Elaine grumbles before grabbing Kara and I's hands, dragging us back to the car.
The ride back is silent and awkward. Bayani is shooting us worried looks, and Kara is looking rather annoyed.
It goes by rather quickly. We silently exit the car and follow Elaine and Elizabeth back into the building. "Bayani has full freedom. But you two go to your rooms now. No leaving HQ for a week, and you two have double the normal training hours for that period." Elaine commands.
Kara silently walks toward the elevator, and she motions for me to follow. I enter the elevator shortly after her. "Wanna hang out in my room?" she asks.
"Sure. Not like I have much else to do." I tell her as the elevator ascends to floor sixty-eight.
The ride is long and awkward. I don't think Kara was thinking of the consequences either. I mean, seriously, what was the big deal? All we did was knock out literal gang members raiding a shopping mall. People would've been hurt if we didn't step in.
And what is Elaine's problem with me? She's done nothing but get on my case and snarl at me. Me looking the way I do and acting the way I do "disturbs her". No idea why she'd treat me, of all people, that way.
I sigh as the elevator comes to a stop and Kara and I step out.
It's gonna be a long week, I suppose.