Ravela walked out to the parking lot, and the car that had followed her, as it did every day, did a slow turn well within her sight. The Two Swaddy men in the front seats made sure that she never missed the fact that Morbolfr Krone held a grudge against her. Little did they realize how minor her fear of them was and that the grudge was a two-way street. Soon enough she would be on the prowl for them.
Smiling broadly at them, Ravela waved to them as she walked through the parking lot. If she made herself an annoying target to follow, Ravela hoped Morbolfr would order them to do something more productive, but she had not yet formed a good image of Swaddy culture. Perhaps she had made an enemy that would be persistent solely on wounded pride. She cussed herself out for being so rash at the moment, but on the other hand, she couldn’t stand the way he was only concerned with the deaths of the culprits of Gradjias misery.
Today would be an easy day for her. Fitness tests and obstacle courses barely registered as a challenge to her, but most of her fellow recruits seemed entirely intimidated.
Walking into the lobby the room was already full of recruits eating bananas, and drinking lots of water. Some were smoking cigarettes and Ravela couldn’t bear the stench permeating the hall.
She had not the slightest clue why so many people were smoking. The smell alone had her wrinkling her nose. It reminded her of toxic fume pits, and she tried to steer clear of the worst clouds as she strangled her desire to use her power to keep the smoke away.
Why would anyone think that smoking like that before a day of exercise was a good idea?
Ravela found her group lingering on the edge of the hall. Alan looked a bit tired while Jocul looked well-rested, confident, and relaxed. Donna and Kahli still did their best to completely ignore each other's existence. There had to be some story there, but Ravela didn’t yet feel the urgent need to ask intrusive questions.
“Good morning, group one. Everybody fit and ready? Alan, you look tired.” Ravela opened by greeting her group.
Alan Weipher locked eyes with him and gave him a wry smile that didn’t reach his eyes, nor did any emotion ever as it seemed. “No worries, I got it handled. One night of bad sleep won’t stop me, you’ll see.”
Ravela didn’t know how to take that answer, so she shrugged it off and let her gaze wander through the group. Kahli just gave him a nod, it felt odd for her to still be miffed about the opening day, but Ravela chalked it up to her need to be the shining exemplar in any group. Looking over at Donna and Jocul she thought that Kahli was decidedly not the star of the group, while she was quite good in her performance even Alan Weipher did better than her. Ravela was in a group of high-performers and Kahli for some reason seemed to hate being surrounded by equals or betters.
Jocul and Donna, on the other hand, seemed happy that they were in a group with proper recruits and not a mix of slackers and probable quitters.
The twins jumped at the opportunity to have an actual conversation with someone because between Alan and Kahli it seemed more fruitful to talk to a wall for a fun time. Donna smiled broadly and said, “We had a good breakfast and already stretched properly. How about you? Ready to pass third place?”
“Heh. You woke up confident, hm? I assure you, while usually, nothing can come between you and your brother, you can be certain that I will finish at least ahead of you.” Ravela quipped back.
Jocul grinned. “What? No big talk of beating me? Am I running without any competition here?”
She warmly smiled. “Just putting your mind at ease before I trounce you on the last stretch, Jocul, don’t worry.”
Ravela looked into the full room. “Well, it is not like we’re the only ones competing for a clean bill of fitness. Although some seem to go about it all wrong. Why would you smoke before an entire day of performing fitness tests?” She genuinely wondered about that and thought her group might grant her some insight into the reasons for the awful stench in the lobby.
Alan spoke up. “Some do it for nerves and others do it because they believe any commercial they see. As a former smoker, I can tell you it is hard to quit and easily the first thing you reach for when you feel stressed.”
She hadn’t expected tired-looking Alan to put some effort into the conversation, but she appreciated the gesture. “Oh, there are commercials telling people smelling like burned asphalt is good for you? That sounds bizarre. Good for you that you managed to quit though.”
Alan smiled nostalgically and for the first time, there was a broad spectrum of emotion reaching his eyes. “Yeah, becoming a father changes you. When my daughter was born I threw a full pack of them in a trash can, haven’t smoked another since. Alice changed everything for me.”
Ravela found the fact that Alan had such genuinely warm feelings for his daughter heartwarming. Something in her envied that child, for it was loved and cherished.
The instructors entered from their usual upper-floor gallery down the stairs. Some instructors remained up in the gallery but the main three that interacted with them always came down. “Good morning, recruits. Form ranks!”
Everybody took their position in the customary five recruits per row system. As group one, Ravela had a first-row spot in Instructor Harmond’s rhetoric and speeches. She found them entertaining and enlightening.
“Today is an important day, so I want you all to understand properly why these tests are of great significance to you. If you chase a suspect you have to be reliable while catching up to them. Losing them because you’re too fat to run a short distance is not an option. Losing them because you never learned how to vault a fence won’t happen to you after you’re done with your training OR you won’t make it into a uniform. If you can’t jump small obstacles to cut off a suspect you will not wear the uniform of my beloved PD.”
He began pacing up and down the front in his usual manner. “There is no partial element you can fail here. If you do not match the fitness standards by the last day examination you can have passed and excelled on every other aspect of your police training, and YET you will NOT wear a PD uniform. So pay attention to the aspects you fail today and even to those you think you passed. Come tomorrow we will let you know how you actually did, in painstaking detail.”
Instructor Harmond checked in with the now-full gallery of instructors. “Alright, time to get you on the running track first up is a three-kilometer run. Get a move on, we don’t have all day for the run! There is so much more that needs to be done.”
Ravela followed the instructors in a slow jog, each group filing in behind them making the line of recruits one long snake slithering through the training center and onto the track field.
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The run, to her, was a breeze. She stuck right behind Jocul for the entirety of the run. She noticed that they slowly worked themselves through the field. Ravela didn’t look back but she took note, the further to the front they made it, that Jocul was in excellent physical shape for someone without superpowers.
By the end, there were only two other recruits keeping up with them. Alan and another man with light brown hair. Curly locks on his head with very pale skin. He was a strong contrast to Jocul whose dark skin and short haircut almost made him look like one of the men that had entered the academy straight from the military.
She calmly observed the runners beside her. Alan looked like he was in a tunnel completely focused on himself. There was no way to know what thoughts were running through his mind. Jocul mostly focused his attention on the finish line and the runner next to him. Likewise, the unknown recruit glanced over clearly angling to go for the win on the last stretch. Ravela sat happily in third to fourth place. It was good to be up there, but under no circumstance did she wish to stand out too much. Having a comparison to pacing yourself was certainly helpful.
The obstacle course started with easy hurdle jumps and vaulting fences and progressed to climbing wooden walls on a rope. The net, bars, and weird wheel-stepping tasks Ravela didn’t even register as obstacles. Then they reached a smooth wall that neither Jocul nor the unknown recruit could vault on their own. They stood there for a moment and Ravela decided to solve the riddle for them. Interlocking her fingers she stood her back to the smooth wall.
“Come on then I push you three up and you pull me up after you. Let’s do this before we lose our lead on the others.”
Jocul nodded in agreement and Alan joined her at the wall. She helped Jocul up, and Alan helped the other recruit. Then Alan was pushed up by her. The three then help Ravela up. Atop the wall, the four of them celebrated for a moment, and Jocul asked the other recruit his name.
“Brill Frames, and you were…Late Two, right?” The recruit laughed.
Jocul patted him on the should. “Yeah, I’ll be waiting late for you three at the finish line,” he said then he immediately jumped down the other side and started running off without them.
For a second they all just watched after him then the race was back on.
Ravela grinned. This day was going to be fun.
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Morbolfr sat inside his favorite little run-down bar. The place of choice for all Swaddy worthy of their marks. The Bifröst was overflowing with the scarred and lightly injured that the hospital had released.
Everybody able to walk made their way here. They were waiting for a plan from above. Orders, a target, really anything at this point.
He slammed back a glass of herbal liqueur and stood up from the bar. Morbolfr could feel the eyes on him as he slowly walked to the payphone section on the right hand of the bar.
The barman handed him the coins for the phone wordlessly. As he reached for the phone the entire bar went quiet. You could hear a pin drop.
The dialing wheel of the old phone spun with a clicking rattle. Morbolfr cleared his throat. As the signal patched through to the other phone and he waited for the other man to pick up, he tried to ignore the eyes on him. They were waiting for leadership and in times like these the clans stood as one. Even he as a kinda separate clan cooperation leader felt the pressure. The leader of his clan would call him to take action shortly and like a good grandson he wouldn’t wait for his clan and family to call on him. He would be right there. Unwavering, unbidden, and as always unconditionally at their side
*Crick*
Someone picked up the receiver and Morbolfr snapped back to the here and now.
“Winnie, it’s Morbolfr.”
“Oh, Mor, I’ve been waiting for your call. Things aren’t good over here. I spent the whole time putting out fires all over the place.”
Morbolfr hummed his agreement. They were all struck and shaken.
“Bo needs to come down from Big Ulundi, we need some serious reinforcements.”
“Agreed,” Winnie chimed back in, “I actually had an idea while I was running around the City like a headless chicken trying to stem the chaos. The guy hitting us knows a great deal about our operations inside Pliada, but he doesn’t operate like the Carthaginians from the south.”
“Go on.” Morbolfr wanted to hear the insights Winnie had gathered. If nothing else Winnie knew people like no other man. He could read them like a book.
“So, this isn’t from the Carthaginians but it is too organized for a civilian. I’m thinking maybe some veteran got disgruntled with us and now is bombing our warehouses on his own. So if I am right he probably knows how we work by now and has his next targets marked already.”
Morbolfr put his hand to his chin. “Could be…Then where would he strike next, the Ting?”
He could hear Winnie inhale sharply at the thought. “No, … no, I don’t think so. He wouldn’t attack children and women…I feel but who knows we should double our effort to protect the place…relocate to the distillery maybe? I’m recalling all the guys on minor errands just in case. I will not play fast and loose with the clans’ safety just because I think something is beneath someone.”
Morbolfr thought for a moment. “Agreed. I will do so too. The safety of the family is paramount.”
“Wise words, Mor. For his actual target, I suspect he’ll probably hit the market square.”
“The factory?” He thought for a moment. “You’re right I would hit us there too if I wanted to hamstring our operations thoroughly.”
“Exactly, so I’ll send some of our oldest members to work one shift there on Friday. I’ll talk to Beorg and Ettl so all clans can cover one day of the weekend each. What we really need is someone who can take charge if something happens.”
Morbolfr knew what he was asked to do. “Don’t worry I will be there when it happens,”
Winnie responded. “I am glad to hear you say that. Don’t worry, we will have many hands on deck to help.” *Crick*
Morbolfr wanted to say something else, but Winnie had already hung up the telephone.
He hung the receiver back in its place and sighed.
Turning his attention back to the full bar where all the guests were waiting for his next words.
“I need you guys to make some small trip to get anyone running minor errands back to their respective clans. All the minor missions they were running are now on hold till we get the freak that did this to us. The heads of the clans will tell them their new assignments.”
Morbolfr watched as the people filed out eager to do something useful. They were all eager to contribute. Yesterday they were all in good spirits because the Ting would be the occasion to chase out the Carthaginians from their city. The incident in the warehouse district had caused chaos in all clans.
This had to be settled fast and decisively.
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Ravela walked to her car pretending to be exhausted like the other recruits of his group. The late afternoon would be ideal to get some shopping done. She watched Jocul and Donna getting picked up by a man in a police uniform that looked like he was rank and file. The man appeared to be very proud of the twins. The conclusion that this must be their father was an easy one.
Getting into her car, Ravela took off from the parking lot and sure enough her shadows were back on her tail. She sighed and drove to Kent’s Mall. For her weekend plans, she wanted a fitting wardrobe. Micheal Manus would have some weekend adventures from now on.
The moment she pulled into the big parking house her pursuers drove right in with her. They were becoming more obvious with their harassment and Ravela didn’t like to be watched all the time.
They followed her up the levels and pulled into the spot right beside where Ravela parked. She looked over at them, raising one eyebrow. Opening her car door slowly and with great care to not hit their car, Ravela got on the driver’s side. She walked four steps before the car door opened from the other car.
Ravela stopped her fist balling up. She turned to look directly at the smug-looking Swaddy man that got out of the car.
“What? Are you gonna follow me to the bathroom next? Helping me wipe my ass while you’re around?” Ravela taunted the guy with the yellow neck tattoos. Other than two crossed axes on his temples he was missing the usual facial tattoos she saw other Swaddy men with. He was still too young or had done too little to earn himself the proper tattoos marking him as a highly honored fully matured man, Ravela concluded. So she shot him a grin before she said, “Wait. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
The man who got out on the driver’s side of her pursuer's car scoffed loudly, masking a laugh. She could see the wounded pride in the young man’s eyes. For now, they only had orders to annoy her and follow her. They had no orders to attack him yet, Ravela speculated. Because the young man looked red as a tomato but held back from taking a swing at him.
Ravela turned away and just walked off. She shouldn’t give them the satisfaction of letting them know that they were bothering her but after over three months of being followed by these clowns, she had about enough of them.
Entering the still-busy shopping mall, she tried to ignore the two men following her. At least they now held a bit of distance which let Ravela enjoy her walk through the light-flooded mall.
Leisurely she made her way past many different shops. Just before she decided to enter a shop for designer suits, Ravela spotted her fans getting called out by one of their own.
A Swaddy man flagged the two down. The man looked injured with a bandage wrapping one of his arms completely. They gathered and talked for a moment and two left leaving behind the young man she had mocked so badly. ‘Poor little puppy, left on babysitting duty,’ Ravela thought snarkily.
She walked into the store and immediately spotted a wine-red shirt that would go well with Michael Manus. Ravela knew Michael’s size by heart already, so he found the right size for the shirt and picked three of them from the carefully stacked shirts.
The mannequins in suits show many variations of suits, some with mantle suits, others made from visible fibers or lines. Ravela was enamored with a smooth black suit with a buttoned vest that was a shade lighter in color than the suit jacket itself. Looking down at the red shirt she had already picked out she made an executive decision. She went to find the shopkeeper.
There was a purchase to be made.