The woman didn’t take any time to enter my room, she simply walked in and after taking a second to look me up and down began doing the same to my room. My room wasn’t a mess per say, it just wasn’t clean. I had clothes in the hamper, and I had paper scattered all over my desk. The world had gotten harder to live in but finding supplies hadn’t, stores still had things for sale, and in a place went out of business due to a rogue super attack their supplies became fair game. That's where we got most of what we lived on, clothes were usually the last things people fought over when a store became fair game, they usually all went for food.
“So, you want to tell me what happened back there?” She asked while pulling out my office chair and turning it around so she could sit down while talking to me. Clearly, she wasn’t scared of me or the pistol I was still holding. I knew who she was or at least who she represented and while killing her may put me in the new government's good graces the fact that I killed one of their supers would not. Slowly I lowered my pistol and put it on the nightstand across from my bed, no reason to make her think I planned on using it.
“Simple I was defending myself from a rogue super attack.” I said trying to sound as calm as possible, if she knew how close I was to vomiting my brains out due to the stress of the situation she might burst out laughing. She just stared at me before shrugging and turning my chair around and opened up the one drawer it had. With gentle ease she grabbed the notebook I had been writing in before I fell asleep and began turning the pages one by one examining them like it was a book from your local library.
“The new government isn’t going to see it like that,” she said after finishing up with my notebook and putting it back in the drawer. I knew she was right, something inside was telling me that the government wouldn’t let this be forever, I just didn’t know where to go or what to do next. It wasn’t like you heard of people killing supers every other day, and the ones that did, they get dealt with quickly. As I began to steel my nerves, I noticed a smile spread across her face, then it disappeared before I could say anything.
“So how did you manage to stay calm back there, because every time I’ve seen someone face death for the first time, they usually shit themselves,” she said moving the subject along, clearly, she was used to this sort of thing, and for her question I didn’t know how I managed to stay calm either. It was like something inside of me took control and forced me to stay calm. It wasn’t something I was in control of to say the least, but I had to give her some sort of answer that wasn’t that.
“I’ve seen what happens to those who don’t keep calm,” I said as calmly as I could. There was no reason to let her know, especially if she was here for the reason, I think she is. For a second it looked like her face softened and a sadness crossed over her, but it was gone before I could confirm it. She quickly stood up and began dusting off her pants, as if dust had actually gotten on her pants in the first place.
“So why don’t you tell me about the super you managed to kill tonight, what do you know about him?” She asked, gesturing to my notebook clearly fully aware of the notes I had written down just a little bit ago. I figure this is just a test to see if I know what I was doing or if I just ended up getting lucky. But before I could speak, I could feel this uneasiness bubbling in my gut, something about getting tested wasn’t sitting right with me. But given the circumstances I can’t be too picky with how this conversation is going.
“His name is Crius and he likes to do exactly what he did out today,” I say trying to build suspense. I have been watching and recording every super I saw or heard about from anyone and everyone. Crius appeared a few weeks ago when he used his new powers to rob a local Atlas bank, and after that no one had seen him again, clearly Atlas had spent that time convincing him to join his side. But I am unsure what part of that she is looking for.
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“He is a kleptomaniac as you know, and he didn’t have a presence until a few weeks ago, making me think that he just recently got his powers.” I said not bothering to look up at her for confirmation, I know what I was saying was right and looking up would just make her question if I was bullshitting this.
“His first action to my knowledge was robbing the new Atlas bank that sits where the old library once sat, after that he disappeared for a while and is now suddenly Atlas’s puppet. Either he went to Atlas offering some extra muscle or Atlas went to him offering to let him do what he was going to do anyway but without the fear of Atlas killing him, either way he’s dead now.” I finished up and finally looked up to see her shocked face.
–Cough, Cough– “Well clearly since you already know everything about him. I guess we don’t need to go into further detail about that.” She said putting a closed fist to her lips and fake coughing into it. I’m not sure why but I was pretty sure I had seen something similar in an old movie.
“So instead, why don’t you tell me how much you know about the resistance?” This was it, she was finally breaking out the questions that truly mattered, if I got this right, or at least correct enough to impress her then I would most likely have a spot guaranteed. I would just have to use some of the favor I was building to get Lucas a spot as well.
“You are the last hope for everyone left in the city,” I said after taking a second to think, there wasn’t much public information on the rebellion, and that was probably a good thing. If they left any line leading back to them, they most certainly would all be dead. Trying to use rumors as my knowledge base for them wasn’t going to work, if I said anything that wasn’t 100% right, they wouldn’t bother with me anymore, but there was a way I could phrase the rumors that weren't a lie.
“You guys are credited for jumping from city to city and killing minor supers, which makes me think that you had Crius in your sites, which would explain why you were watching my fight with him earlier,” it wasn’t the prettiest argument, but it did cause that one second smile of hers to reappear. I figured that meant that I was right or at the very least on the right track, which would give me some brownie points at the very least.
“Very clever, now just one more question, what makes you think that we wanted to kill this super?” She asked while she took a second to walk behind my desk chair and lean on it, using it for support rather than just sitting down again. It took me a second to get my bearings, her question wasn’t hard to answer but once again it felt like I was treading dangerous waters.
“All the super’s you guys have been given credit for killing have all obtained their powers a few weeks before you took them out. That makes me think they are the weakest soon after obtaining their powers, Crius was at most three weeks into having his powers meaning your window of opportunity was closing fast,” this was the statement I was the least sure of, I had these speculations for a while now but that’s all they were, speculations if they were wrong, I was just shit out of luck.
“I want you to follow me, I want you to meet someone,” she said after a long stretch of silence. I knew that she was most likely a part of the rebellion but in the end this could all be a trap. Everything inside me was telling me that wasn’t the case, but a hint was still suspicious.
“How do I know for absolute certainty you are who you say you are,” deep down I knew that asking her wasn’t going to answer the question for me but there wasn’t any harm in asking. If she was adamant about me following her then that would be a red flag, he could finally base these feelings on.
“I don’t know, I guess you're just going to have to trust me,” she says leaning over the office chair reaching out her hand while finally smiling. Her right hand brushing her hair out of her face. It wasn’t the greatest answer, but it wasn’t a forcing answer either, for now my suspicions would just have to take a back seat, this might be my only chance to find a safe place for me and Lucas, there was no way I was about to waste that, with that I reached out firmly gasping her hand.