“Yo Charlie!” She stirred. “Hey you crazy mad.” Opening her eyes she could tell it was well past dawn. Charlie stretched, catlike, easing her way out from under the bench. It was Jay. He was grinning widely. “Hardcore girl. You slept here? That's way wild.” All of a sudden he seemed to have an epiphany, maybe because Glen had elbowed him sharply. “Oh, shoot! You homeless sister? Sleepin' rough?” He frowned. “You a runaway?”
Glen shoved him hard. “Shut it man.” And then to Charlie, "ignore him. He's a twat.” Charlie smirked as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She hadn’t had so good a sleep in ages. This [Coat] was wonderful.
“Sup boyfriends?” She shrugged out of her coat and stretched again. “What?” Both boys had frozen. Glen was turning a lovely shade of pink and Jay looked totally befuddled. She splashed some water from her bottle on her hands and then rubbed her face. What was up with them? She bent over and fished her tote bag out from under the bench and pulled out her [Tee Shirt], slipping it over her head. Bundling up her coat, she jammed it in and turned to look at them. Glen had his back to her and Jay was off in dreamland. She snapped her fingers. “Wake up twat”, she used the unfamiliar word. It had a nice twang to it.
Jay blinked. He shook his head “you’re something else girl.” He grinned. “You’re like totally way cool” holding out his fist for a fist bump. “You wanna go get some brekkie?”
“Brekkie?” another unfamiliar word as she absently tapped his fist with her own.
“Yeah, Breakfast.” He paused trying to gauge her mood. “Like a croissant or brioche or something? We can go that café on the corner just outside the domain.” She replayed his words again in her head, trying to parse his meaning. Her stomach interrupted. She hadn’t eaten since before leaving the hospital. Oh, like break your fast. She was still unused to eating more than once a day and quite used to not eating every single day. This world was somehow completely unaware of how luxurious it was; different names for eating depending on the time of day, she shook her head.
“Sure,” Charlie replied, she had no idea what on [Kentron] he was referring to but she wasn’t fussy. Everything she eaten here had been great so far. She paused. She had nothing to trade for food. She needed to get a job. She frowned. She could probably filch something but that was always dangerous in unfamiliar territory. Getting caught was too high a probability without clear escape routes already mapped out. And she had no weapons or gear to hunt or trap something.
“Dude? You shook your head and you said ‘sure’.” Jay was curious. “Does shaking your head mean yes where you’re from?”
Glen spoke before she could answer. “Hey bro, stop grilling her already,” and then to her, “don’t worry about paying, we’ll shout kay?”
Okay, now Charlie was getting a bit lost. You could shout for food? This was way out of her experience. But they were pretty straight up. She almost felt she was part of their team. She felt a pang of longing for her crew. The only way you could survive was to band up and look out for each other. And now Jay and Glen were looking out for her. Jay threw an arm around her shoulders. “We got you babe. No need to worry ‘bout nothing.” He had somehow picked up her homesickness. He grinned, "Now let’s go get a feed afore your tummy deafens us.”
Both boys turned and picked up their bikes. Glen’s was smaller, a [BMX]. A stunt bike. “Hardcore,” Jay told her. “Doesn’t have any brakes even.” That was good. These bikes looked flimsy enough for the speed they could go. Riding a broken one would be suicide. Jay's bike was bigger. That was good too because he was bigger. His was a [Jump Bike]. That meant it was a single speed, which didn’t make any sense at all because he could go slowly as well as fast. Just mostly fast though, maybe that was it. They looked at her. “We can double you,” Jay offered. “Till you get a bike of your own.” Charlie's mind boggled, her owning her own bike. She hadn’t even considered it. “Who do you want to go with?”
“Glen.” Charlie was decisive.
“Alrighty big nighty.” Jay helped her perch on the front of the handlebars showing her the pegs to place her feet. She was only just tall enough.
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“Ready?” Glen was considerate, probably taking note of her white knuckled hands. She could do this.
And they were off.
“Creaming kobolds!” It was fast.
And, once she had caught her breath, it was way fun.
They were nearly at the entrance to the [Domain] when they were accosted. Three young men, on bikes of their own, pulled out and blocked the path. Glen saw them just in time, jamming his shoe hard on the rear tire. The bike screeched to a stop, handlebars nearly about level with the newcomers’. “Stupid idjits,” Glen was spitting mad. “Darryl you absolute muppet. Can’t you see I got a pasninja?”
The central boy smirked, his face mean and his eyes hard. “Nice parcel Glen. How much yer paying?” His hair was cut close and strangely flat across the top. His two sidekicks hooted in derision.
Jay, who was trailing them, didn’t bother to stop. Instead he rode harder, and as he passed them threw his bike up into a jump, slewing it sideways. All four boys went down in a tangled mess of bikes and limbs. Jay was up in a flash, laying into them with knees and elbows.
Charlie nodded in appreciation. She had a front row seat, just inches from the action. If you needed to take someone down, you didn’t hesitate. Fast and hard. Both henchies were almost out of the fight already. Darryl was pulling something from his pocket. A shiv! He advanced on Jay who was still putting paid to the second hencher. Before Glen even realised what was happening Charlie had boosted herself up and then with a standing leap had launched herself off the top of the handlebars and across at Darryl. Twisting her body in the air she hammered both feet into Darryl’s neck in a massive two footed kick. Glen blinked. He had never seen anything like it. She wasn’t quite half Darryl’s size yet he was sent flying. Charlie rebounded and flew at him again as Darryl staggered to his feet, snarling and swearing at her. Charlie dove and with a roll popped up and unloaded a quick one two into his crotch. “Holy…” Glen was speechless. Charlie was relentless and absolutely without mercy.
As Darryl collapsed in agony, she twisted the shiv from his limp grasp. It was beautiful. This was an [A Grade Artefact]. With a burst of appreciation she tightened her grip and went for his neck.
“Stop! Charlie!” Glen’s desperate cry arrested her lunge and at the last second she averted her blow. “Charlie!” Glen was staring at her. “What on earth are you doing? We don’t want to kill him.” He was horrified.
She looked at him. We didn’t? She looked at him blankly. “These are enemies?”
“Well,” Glen hesitated, “yes, sort of.”
“Leaving an enemy alive behind you is always a mistake.” Charlie was unequivocal. She turned back towards Darryl. Jay had regained his feet and now he clasped her shoulder. Looking at her straight on he met her gaze.
“Thank you for the save Charlie,” he was uncustomary serious, “I owe you one.” Turning to look at Darryl who was silently gasping in wide eyed agony as he clutched himself, Jay continued, “he’s a total squib. A coward without honour.” He spat to the side. “But he’s not worth it.” He bent and hoisted his bike, giving it a quick examination. “Leave him to his humiliation. Getting owned by a girl. He will be mortified.” Jay grinned. “In fact that is in itself decidedly funny."
Charlie frowned. This was unwise. But they knew their world better than she did. She turned to look at Darryl. He was seething mad, staring at her with hatred. She [Interrogated] him. Huh. He was a [Human] not a [Squib]. She didn’t bother trying to delve deeper. He wasn’t worth it. With a thought she rewrote his designation; [Squib]. Ha, it fitted and now it matched.
Turning from him she looked at her two friends. She smiled. Having friends was good.
“Okay babes lets go.”
Both boys burst out in somewhat relieved laughter.
“What?”
— -O- —//— -O- —
The [Squib] stared at the laughing trio as they slowly disappeared. He hated her. The animosity that had previously existed faded into nothing compared to the flare of his rage. She would pay. Oh, he would make her pay. Painfully he sat up. Wade and Grant were still out to it. At least they hadn’t witnessed his humiliation. Or had they? No, they were still fully unconscious. Hotdam they had all been owned. Jay was a total menace. But that girl, she was a monster.
All of a sudden he froze.
A blue light was blinking in the side of his eye.
It blinked again.
He focused on it. ‘Accept’ he thought.
[NEW SYSTEM USER] DETECTED
Please wait while initiating your [Personal System Interface]…
Please wait. Activation will take a while…
…
…
His eyes widened. A system? What on earth? This was unbelievable resolution too.
He felt like he had suddenly stepped into the future.