I made sure my angel was stable on my shoulder before following the two women out of the room I was sleeping in.

A new tunnel showed up in the main room, and we all went through it. The dim hallway echoed with our footsteps, a counting down to see what the outside was like when it was safe.

Light blared ahead of me, making me cover my eyes with my arm as I walked forward. "Welcome to Elysium."

It was hard to see with how bright it was, and I had to blink away the pain as my eyes adjusted.

When I could see it was... sad. The buildings were fine, and the surroundings were clean without any sign of the fight that took place here, but it seemed so lacking.

The buildings were grey all over with a few splotches of color on them. I glanced around and saw that no one was here. "Why does it look and feel so... empty?"

"Not a lot of people live or pass by the bunker, and if you're talking about the buildings, the painters haven't gotten here yet. They've been busy with redoing the more popular locations." Echo seemed excited to show me what she was talking about as she spoke.

"You said painters?" I asked to push the conversation forward. I remember doing that a lot with my friend.

"Yeah! A few saints have the concept of artistry and paint over the repaired buildings, so we don't feel like the world is ending." Echo mumbled the last of it, but the choice of words really bothered me.

We walked down a few blocks, and the buildings got more and more colorful. We turned another corner and a beautiful graffiti mural on a wall.

The mural was of a giant golden tree with people of radically different looks surrounding it. A woman with mismatched patches sewed together into a dress and a hat, one wearing a plague doctor's mask with a full leather coat holding numerous potions that leaked fumes, another was dressed as a nun with a massive scythe that had a white aura on the blade, and many others depictions of people.

I stared at the mural, stunned by how detailed and striking it was. The sound of someone talking jolted me out of staring. "Echo! Great to see you around and with Momo!"

A tall man with long pointed ears with a respirator gave Echo a big hug and refused to let go. "Last time we talk was last month where you said you were getting 2 apprentices. Pulse and GoldenWing, right? How did that go?!"

He wore a hoodie a little too big for him that was stained with paint and a belt holding 4 spray cans of different colors. His loose cargo pants were covered in multicolored animals and symbols.

Echo pushed the man off of her and kept holding the man at bay. "Wildstyle, stop trying to hug me, and I'll tell you!"

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"Fine, fine." Wildstyle whistled and backed up while sarcastically pouting with his hands on his hips.

Echo gave the artist a frustrated huff before straightening out herself back to her more cold persona. "It went ok. Pulse handled her role just fine and GoldenWing... did well, too."

Wildstyle whistled in amazement and leaned forward towards Echo. "What's with the pause? Did Wing do something to disappoint you?!"

"He treated a victim poorly. To give him some credit, he's been thinking it over." Echo

"Good, good, as long as he's learning... who's this you got walking with you?" Wildstyle turned to me with a smile that put me on edge.

Echo put herself between me and him. "This is the victim I was talking about. And before you try and get touchy with her, she really doesn't like being touched, and they will fight you if you try."

"Really? You found someone so feisty?!" He swiveled around Echo so he could see me, and we stared at each other.

His burning yellow eyes gazed into mine. I could see him get more and more interested in me as time passed. "Where did you come from, you pretty thing?"

"I don't want to tell you." I retorted and backed away from the long eared man. He didn't really freak me out, but I didn't think he would keep to himself.

"Ha! You're great. What's your name, pale wolf?" Wildstyle popped one of his spray cans out and turned to a wall.

"My name is Marri... what are you doing?" I watched as he sprayed a part of the wall with red and black. He then conjured panels of glass with holes cut into them and sprayed different colors into the holes.

"It's been a long time since I've gotten to do someone's new portrait." The thing he was putting together on the wall quickly formed a stylized image of me leaning on a wall with my cat sitting next to me. Underneath the graffiti was Mar-ri by Wildstyle

I blinked, then rubbed my eyes, not believing that the first thing he did upon seeing me was make graffiti art of me.

Wildstyle laughed when he saw my reaction and put his spray cans back in his belt. "Sorry, I can't help but make something with someone so striking in front of me."

Echo slapped Wildstyle on the back of the head and led me and Momona away from him. "Stop teasing her. We're showing her around to let her get her bearings and breakfast."

Wildstyle looked excited and tried to follow us but got stopped by the stare Echo gave. "Can I-" "No." "But I-" "No, I want her to be comfortable."

Wildstyle sighed and gave us a wave goodbye. "See ya later then! Don't forget to come see me, Marri, I'll be here for a while!"

"Sure... I guess?" I waved back as I tagged along with Echo.

After we turned the corner, Momona spoke up. "Yeah, that's one of 5 artists we have here, and he's very... outgoing, to say the least."

"You don't say. Does he usually paint people he meets?" I wasn't quite sure how to feel about him, but he was a bit too much for me to be alone with.

"He only does that to people who he likes, but it's pretty common for him to like someone, so yeah." Momona stepped a bit closer to me and gave my angel some ear scratches.

I wonder how that feels. I shook my head at the thought, almost making the cat on my shoulder fall off. "So where are we eating anyway? You never told me the name of it."

Echo slowed to a stop in front of an ally, and Momona led the way from there.

"It's the bar restaurant me and my husband own, Bunny's mead. You've been there before and broke my door down from what I heard." Momona gestured to the tarp where the door was that I put a hole in.

I felt guilty that I messed the door up to the point it needed to switch out with a tarp, but I couldn't bring myself to regret it because it was necessary at that point. "Sorry..."

"You're forgiven. It's just crazy that a small thing like you broke that door with just your raw strength." Momona laughed as she pulled the tarp to the side.

"Come on in. My husband knows we're coming."