Kicking down doors is really easy with a bionic leg, and it makes for a suitably dramatic entrance.

“Wassup bitches!” She yells at the drug den’s inhabitants, all of them freeze at the sight of three armed teenagers entering their abode.

Sasha scrunches up her nose “Goddamn, what is that smell?”

“Some modified grass” one of the druggies provides

“How the fuck did you get it to smell like rotting fruit?” She asks

“It’s good shit” another mumbles

“It’s certainly a kind of shit” Alex responds

“Which one of you is Damian?” Aki asks, ignoring their antics.

The five druggies look at each other.

“Who’s Damian?” One of them asks.

“Oh c’mon, you really expect us to buy that?” Alex says

“No seriously girl, we’ve never heard of a Damian” another druggie says.

“You got a description at least?” A third druggie offers.

Aki shoves his ramus under his arm before looking through his phone.

“Red hair, blue eyes, freckles, about six foot two” he says.

One of the druggies open up their arms and shrugs “Do any of us look like a ginger chink?”

Aki and Sasha glare at Alex “I told you it was the other building” he said.

“But…but…look, it’s the home of druggies, we’re after drug money, it’s perfect!” Alex reasons

“Girl, none of us are dealers”

“What does that have to do with anything?” She asks.

The whole room looks at her like she’s stupid.

-

“We’re never following one of your feelings again” Aki states “I don’t know which god’s stuck in your head, but they’ve clearly got a sense of humour”

“But it felt so clear” Alex says as they exit the building

“Maybe you need to see a shrink” Sasha suggests

“You think I have the money for therapy?”

“It’ll be an investment” Sasha states

Just as she finishes her statement, an explosion rings out from the building across the street. Brick and shrapnel rain down on the pedestrian below as they scramble away, screaming all the while.

Aki looks up and sees that the explosion happened on the third floor, “you don’t think…” he says

“Yeah…” Sasha continues

Alex doesn’t even try to stop the smirk that creeps up on her face.

-

Just for the sake of being thorough, they checked on the target's building.

It was, in fact, his apartment that exploded.

They even found the body, well, pieces of what they assume is the body. Aki took a few pictures and sent them to Ellie.

Along with an explanation of course, wouldn’t want the very dangerous ganger to think they went overboard on a job.

Aki got a call a little after.

Alex couldn’t hear what was said, but she could hear some laughter.

On the plus side, they’re still getting paid.

“My friend talks with God” Sasha muses

“I told you, it’s a feeling, not a conversation”

“Maybe that’s how God talks to us mere mortals”

“Still don’t think it’s a god”

“God speaks to a heretic” Aki says “Truly, can it get any more biblical?”

Sasha snorts “better hope it’s not the Christian God, or else the Kingdom will literally burn you at the stake”

-

{How was day?} she asks

{Good, learn to write name} he responds

Alex looks at Clarice excitedly. “He wrote his name?”

“Yes” she says simply

“What is it? C’mon I deserve to know”

“Roan”

“Roan” she repeats “How do I sign it?”

Clarice sighs then turns from her work

{R-o-a-n}

Alex smiles and turns to the boy {hello, Roan}

-

“Ah, fahlan, my favorite little dragon shows her face!” Says a boisterous man over the counter “where have you been homar, the shop hasn’t been the same without you.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“It’s been a busy few months” Alex said “and I kind of forgot” she added sheepishly.

Fady dramatically clutches at his heart “you wound me little dragon, and here I was about to offer some mahshi free of charge”

Alex rolls her eyes “sure you were old man”

She goes to sit down and orders a kebab alongside some golesh.

“So, you wanna talk about it?” Fady asks

“Talk about what?”

“You have a look girl, like you’ve seen something and can’t get it out of your head”

Alex stops eating.

“Am I that obvious?”

He shrugs “only for those who know where to look”

She is silent while staring at her food.

“I killed some people”

He nods, as though that were expected “You are a ganger, it was bound to happen eventually. Did they deserve it?”

“They cornered us”

“That does not answer the question”

She takes a bite out of her kebab and chews slowly.

“I don’t think they were planning on killing us. Just rough us up and take our guns”

“And that would have been better?”

She looks down, shamefaced “no”

He nods “I know you girl, you want to be a Scar. That is a path filled with corpses, you cannot let a few fools occupy your mind”

“I know,” she whispers.

-

Alex opens her eyes to find a broken sky, abominations roam the boundaries but can’t seem to cross. It looks bigger than last time, or maybe she’s closer? This time nothing speaks to her. She just stares at the planet of flesh as skinless things participate in a never ending war.

“Are you God?”

Nothing.

“What, not gonna say anything? You were so talkative last time”

Silence.

The flesh abominations don’t acknowledge her as she lays there in the citrusy sand, continuing to feed on each other as new horrors are spawned from the ground that is flesh.

-

There are rules to the turf wars between orphanages, the most important one being no killing, followed closely by the rule not to cripple. This makes Alex’s bionic leg a handicap in the brawls, she’s pretty sure that even a love tap risks internal bleeding, and she’s not practiced enough to really hold back. She can’t even do triangle chokes! She’s too afraid of breaking someone's neck.

So she has to make sure not to stiffen her leg as she checks a kick from Li Chen. A lot of her hand-to-hand knowledge comes from fighting the Wolves and learning their lessons through exposure. Like how the Crimson Dragons have their obsession with kendo, the Lunar Wolves are obsessed with martial arts. It means that they win almost all the brawls they get into, but honestly, if she could use her bokken they wouldn’t be that tough. Unfortunately bokkens have been unofficially banned ever since all the other orphanages ganged up on them in protest. Claiming some bullshit about bokkens being lethal weapons, and therefore aren’t allowed.

Bunch of pussies.

She barely blocked a roundhouse kick that looked like it was going for her stomach but instead snapped up to her head. She has no idea how that even works, but she’s been hit enough times to know the tells.

She responds with a few jabs that Chen has to block, Alex’s taller than most people her age, and therefore has the advantage in range when fighting. Chen tries to close the distance but finds herself bombarded with jabs, she growls in frustration and goes for a front kick with her back foot. It’s blocked easily but it’s purpose wasn’t to do damage. Alex sees stars as an uppercut snaps her head to the sky.

It’s all downhill from there, Li Chen is like a starved wolf to a corpse. Alex doesn’t remember the barrage that follows, and when she wakes, there’s a roof over her head. Alex groans and rolls off the couch she’s been placed on, quickly finding the garbage before she loses her lunch.

She can feel her stomach contracting as she vomits.

Goddammit Chen, I’m going to beat your ass.

“You’re awake” says the voice of a very familiar stern woman.

Alex groans as she turns to face Clarice.

“Done?” she asks

Alex nods

“Come sit then” Alex groans again as she says the dreaded words.

Roan isn’t here, which bodes poorly for her.

There aren’t any words exchanged as Clarice forces open her bruised eye and shines a light on both. Presumably she’s already heard the story from whoever carried her here.

The application of bandages is not gentle. She’s given an Ice pack for the inflammation.

As she exits the office she finds Sasha and Aki playing blackjack with some of the other kids.

She goes to join them.

“Hey” she says from behind them

Sasha almost jumps from surprise. Aki doesn’t react beyond a nod of acknowledgment. lame.

“Jesus, how long were you standing there?” Sasha asks

“Just a few seconds” Aki provides

“Oh c’mon, I was quiet” Alex complains

Aki shrugs “I’ve got good hearing”

“Hey it’s your turn” one of the kids say

“I’ll stand,” Aki says, still facing her.

Sasha stares at their cards like they owe her money. She has a five and a nine.

“Hit me” she declares

She gets a seven

“Yes!” she exclaims as the other kids groan.

“My money…” one of them mumbles

“This is bullshit” another one mutters

“How is this possible?” a third says looking perplexed.

“What's with them?” Alex asks

Aki sighs “this is her third blackjack in a row”

Alex’s eyebrows reach the ceiling “damn girl, which star were you born under?”

Sasha has the audacity to look smug “I guess you’re not the only one who gets help from the divine”

“What does that even mean?” one kid whispers to another.

“Don’t question it” she whispers back “she’s been like that for months, I’m starting to think she’s a Kingdom agent”

“Anyway, I’ve got another job” Aki interrupts, which gets the other kids curious.

“Already?” Alex asks

“Apparently the way the last one went was too unusual to warrant a break”

Alex sighs “I’ll get my gun”

-

“Fuck off” Rei say’s “no way they sent a bunch of kids to collect”

“Chink, we already gave you the password” Aki says

“Yeah, but you’re kids! Who the fuck trusts kids with this kind of money?”

Aki sighs “look, if we weren’t sent here through the proper channels, how would we know who you are or the password?”

The man hesitates at that, but gathers his resolve before doubt can stain his infallible logic.

“I’m still calling bullshit. You can get all that by hacking the right phones”

Aki grumbles and takes out his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling Ellie”

He blanches at that “No way you’ve got her number”

Aki quirks an eyebrow “Oh yeah? Take a look chink”

He shows the man his text history, showing the details of this particular job, the others were deleted. Arthas may be lawless, but there’s no need to tempt fate.

The man somehow gets paler.

He gulps down some saliva.

“I know your faces. If you’re lying, the dragons will come for you”

The three of them roll their eyes

“Yeah, yeah. Just hand over the creds”

-

“I feel like there’s a pattern to all this” Sasha says

“Yeah? How so?” Alex asks

“It’s just that first we got protection duty-” Aki and Alex wince at the reminder of that job “-The next was delivery, then a raid, now we’re doing collection”

“She did find us another job with identical instructions to the last after the chinks apartment exploded” Alex mused.

Aki chuckles “So what's next then? Assassination?”

They go quiet at that.

“Let’s not jinx it, yeah?”