The sound of a wild, feminine scream filled the air, echoing loudly and clashing against what had been pristine silence moments earlier. Startled birds, snapped out of sleep a mere few minutes before they would have begun their typical morning songs to one another, went tearing out of nearby trees in every direction. A second later, both their cries and the initial scream were interrupted by a loud splash. The source of the scream, and the subsequent splash, was a girl who had violently flung herself off the balcony of a beautiful three-story cabin and down into the waiting crystal clear water of the lake that it sat on the edge of. Fish and birds alike were sent scattering in a wild panic thanks to the unexpected and loud intrusion that thoroughly shattered their ordinary sleeping routine. One they weren’t too happy about, judging by the sharp, annoyed bird calls and trilling whistles that started back up as soon as the initial explosion of noise had settled down enough.
Unfortunately for the birds, it was an interruption that wasn't going to end any time soon, considering the girl immediately surfaced while bellowing loudly over the sound of their annoyance, “Yeah! How do you like it!? How do you like someone fucking with you while you're trying to sleep!? Is it fun when someone else won't shut the fuck up and leave you alone? Maybe you'd like it better if I stuck my head right next to your nest and started whistling before the sun has even come up, does that sound good!? It must, since you keep fucking doing it so much!”
She might have gone on in that vein even longer, but the sound of someone else clearing their throat from the nearby dock drew the girl's attention that way. “Sierra,” Paige Banners started while sitting down the fishing pole she had been holding, “you do realize none of them can understand anything you're saying, right? Also, we don't even need that much sleep anyway.”
Casually treading water, Sierra offered her sister a shrug. “First, you can't say for sure that none of them are TONIs. And evil ones at that. It would explain why they get such sick joy out of fucking with my sleep. And just because we don't need that much doesn't mean I don't like it. This is supposed to be a vacation, right? I’m just trying to enjoy it before we go back to work.”
Kicking her legs back and forth as she sat on the edge of that dock, Paige gave a soft snort. “You could try just sleeping inside, where it's soundproof, like Irelyn. You're the one who chose to sleep out on the balcony where you could hear everything, even though you knew there were a bunch of wild animals who were actually living here first. Honestly, that one is definitely on you.”
Swimming over that way, Sierra pulled herself up and out of the water. She was wearing old running shorts and a simple tee-shirt, both of which were quite thoroughly soaked by that point. Shaking herself off, which she made sure to do in the other girl’s direction as much as possible, Sierra primly replied, “Hey, I have fun my own way, you can just go ahead and have fun yours.”
Raising an eyebrow, Paige mused, “And your way of having fun on vacation is starting a feud with a bunch of wild animals who don’t know any better anyway? There must be something on TV you can watch instead. Or go for a walk--wait, scratch that second one, you’ll find a way to pick a fight with a deer or something and turn it into a cartoon. Deer season, Biolem season. Stick to entertaining yourself with technology. At least that stuff isn’t actually alive.” She paused before quietly amending, “Usually.”
Sierra, however, shook her head. “I like being outside in nature like this. It’s pretty. I mean, have you seen that mountain range over there? It’s not as good as the actual Sierras from that poster in the mall, but still. No, I like it here. I like taking walks in the woods without any deer feuds. Even if that does sound fun. These birds and I, we just have to come to an understanding about what’s acceptable behavior at five in the morning, that’s all. They’ll get the point eventually. Or they won’t and I can just keep jumping off the building and into the water. Seriously, Cassidy’s right about one thing, that is fun. No wonder they keep letting people dare them into it.” Her head tilted slightly as a thought clearly occurred before adopting a curious expression. “Hey, do you think--”
“I’m not daring you to jump off this building or any others,” Paige flatly interrupted. “I've been trying to get Cassidy to stop doing that. What makes you think I want to encourage their doppelganger?”
“Spoilsport,” Sierra grumbled before gesturing, “well I’m definitely awake now. Think I’ll head down to that place they laughingly call ‘town’ and pick up some breakfast while Irelyn’s asleep. You gonna come, or keep trying to get food the hard way?” Her hand waved at the fishing pole.
“I better go with,” Paige murmured, glancing to the cabin itself briefly. This was where Irelyn had wanted to bring them. Not just to pick up the unregistered Incogniter so Sierra could easily disguise herself, but also just to get away from Detroit and… everything there for awhile. They were here for a real vacation. One that none of them were that eager to get away from anytime soon, if they were being honest. Which was just as well, given that disguise tool they’d come for wasn’t actually here in the cabin anyway, as it turned out. Instead, there happened to be a man who lived up in one of the other cabins further into the mountains. He had access to Incogniters and would sell them for a certain price, to people he trusted. In this case, ‘trusted’ meant doing him favors. He wasn’t content to simply sell them for money on its own. You had to earn the right to even try to buy them, especially if you were a known Star-Touched. Irelyn was working on that. Paige and Sierra had both tried to convince her to let them help, but she insisted they stay out of it. The only thing she would promise them was that the favors were nothing illegal or bad. She was dealing with it, and in a couple days, they would have what they needed. For now, they had been given firm instructions to spend their time relaxing and definitely not getting into trouble.
It was that last instruction, about not getting into trouble, that clearly convinced Paige to go with Sierra for the breakfast trip. Not that Paige was entirely certain how the other girl might manage to find a way to take what should be a quick visit to a ‘town’ so small that the combination diner and grocery store was the most happening place within a hundred miles and turn it into some sort of international incident. But she also didn’t exactly want to find out. Sierra could be pretty creative when it came to that sort of thing.
“What about Haley?” Paige asked after picking herself up so the two of them could head for the red jeep that was one of at least four different vehicles her adoptive father had kept at the cabin for trips into town or through the surrounding area. One of those other particular vehicles, a four-wheeler ATV, had been missing since the day before thanks to the girl in question. She was helping Irelyn with those ‘favors’ the man with the Incogniter was asking for. Which, honestly, made both Biolem girls feel a bit awkward. They barely knew this Haley girl at all, yet she was helping Irelyn do things specifically to get a piece of rare, expensive Touched-Tech just for them?
But the truth was, while they might have barely known her, she had been Irelyn’s best friend for years. They were close enough, even after being away from each other for so long, that Irelyn had actually told the other woman the truth about Paige, Sierra, and that whole situation. Even the part about who their creator was. With their permission, of course. That was a whole thing.
“Haven’t heard anything yet,” Sierra informed her sister while cutting in front of her to take the driver’s seat. She pivoted long enough to stick her tongue out, then situated herself and started the jeep. “Speaking of, did you get Irelyn to tell you what she went off to do in the first place?”
Paige didn’t answer until she’d crossed around the front of the jeep to climb in the passenger side. Then her head shook. “No. I think Irelyn’s convinced that if we actually know anything about what they’re doing and why, it’ll be easier for us to try to involve ourselves and actually help out.”
“God forbid we contribute to getting something that’s specifically meant to help me blend in and not attract a bunch of attention from people who might want to know why I look like the daughter of your parents’ business rivals,” Sierra muttered while pulling the jeep around the wide dirt lot in front of the building so they could head for the actual road. “She is aware that we’re not actually invalids, right?”
With a small cough, Paige assured her, “She knows, and she trusts us. More than I ever expected her to, actually. She just wants us to take an actual vacation, even if it’s not as much of one for her. And yes, I tried to point out that she needs it as much as we do, but she just said she’s been asleep for weeks while we dealt with everything, and that this is the least she can do.”
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The two Biolem girls were silent for a minute, while the jeep made it to the paved road and began to take the several mile trip into town. If Irelyn woke up while they were gone, she would contact them over the private chat room they used with each other. They’d already given her a new, untraceable phone she could use to access that. It was part of the whole ‘learning to be a real family and start communicating with each other’ thing that this vacation was supposed to lead to.
And what a family it was. They had Paige, a biological robot with the copied personality of a girl whose gradual Abyssal-related death had been sped up by a father in the process of attempting to save her life; Sierra, the other biological robot who had been created to take Paige’s place because she wasn’t loyal enough but ended up betraying him herself; Irelyn, the actual biological daughter of the couple who bought Paige because she wasn’t a good enough daughter for them; and Haley/Echo, the Sell-Touched who had been Irelyn’s best friend for years before abandoning her for a decade because she wanted to make real money instead of being a superhero. That last one was a bit of a surprise to all of them, even Haley herself. They had expected her to leave, to go back to her own life as soon as she knew Irelyn was awake and able to take care of herself again. But after hearing the truth about what was going on, she’d actually insisted on sticking around and being part of things. Not that any of them knew exactly what being part of things entailed, or where this whole situation was going to go. Right now, it meant she was here, helping to get the Incogniter.
Once they were about halfway to town, driving along that smooth mountain road, Sierra spoke casually, “So, you gonna watch all the matches today, or just the ones that they’re involved in?”
Blushing just a little, Paige turned to look out the window with a muttered comment about people who really needed to have a vacation. “I’m not sure which ones they’re involved with yet, or when they are. Cassidy’s supposed to send everyone a list later this morning, as soon as they know.”
She still couldn’t believe Cassidy had managed to get themself brought in to participate in the LEAT games, though it really shouldn’t have surprised her so much. And honestly, much as she grumbled and gave them a hard time about it, she was actually proud of Cassidy. After seeing how well they’d pulled off that exhibition, there was a part of Paige that really couldn’t wait to see what else they could do in this tournament. Even if that part was in a life and death struggle with the part of her that wanted to strangle Cassidy for putting themself at risk in so many ways.
“Well make sure you share when they let you know,” Sierra insisted while pulling the jeep into the parking lot of the diner-store. “I’m gonna see if there’s any good popcorn in this place so we can have some snacks while we watch my twin make total fools out of all those other competitors.”
There were only five other buildings on this ‘main street’ of the town. One was a combination post office and police station, another was a gas station and service center, a barber shop/salon with one wall entirely taken up by shelves of books and DVDs that could be checked out like a library, a fish and hunting shop, and the so-called city hall. That last one amounted to a slightly oversized house where the mayor lived upstairs and did his work alongside a couple clerks downstairs. There were several houses and cabins spread out a bit randomly through the hills beyond this main street, but the entire permanent population without counting seasonal visitors amounted to a total of just forty-three people. That also included nine children and three teens.
Paige and Sierra might have made a point of finding out everything they could about this place before accepting Irelyn’s firm suggestion that they stay here and relax for a week or two. Sure, it was unlikely that this small town was hiding some huge world-ending secret for them to trip over, but given the way their lives had worked up to this point (even counting the fact that Sierra herself was technically only a couple months old), it definitely wasn’t completely out of the question. It was better to be safe than find themselves caught utterly flatfooted when some evil, murderous Fell-Touched decided now was the time to turn the rest of Peach Pitt, North Dakota’s citizens into his slaves. It wouldn’t exactly be the first time something like that had happened to a small town. The big cities were largely protected by full Star-Touched teams, but the much more rural areas were a different story. Sometimes Fells could take over and rule over the people there relatively unbothered for months, or even longer depending on how strong their gang was, how long they had to set up defenses, or how important the area was. Not that every big city was completely immune to that either, considering what had happened to Atlanta. That was a whole mess.
The point was, it was better to be informed about who all these people were, just in case. And it definitely wasn’t simply a case of Paige being pathologically incapable of simply trusting that any given place she happened to spend more than thirty or so minutes in wasn’t automatically going to be infested by evil bastards who wanted to enslave people and create their own personal fiefdom to rule over, no matter how many muttered comments Sierra and Irelyn made to the contrary.
Stepping out of the jeep and stretching, Paige gave a short wave to the old man lounging in front of the bait and hunting shop next door. His feet were up on a broken crate and he had his hat down over his eyes, yet he casually returned the wave. His name was Tanner Felch, and at seventy-two he was the second oldest man in town aside from Mayor Maurice Gibbens at seventy-nine. Maurice, who lived in ‘city hall’ across the street, had been mayor for the past three decades, to the point that they rarely bothered to even hold real elections because none of the town’s other forty-two official citizens cared to run for the job. It was just that sort of town. Though eight-year-old Brandi Inna had been making threats about coming for it next time elections came around, and she had charisma to spare.
As the two of them headed into the general store/diner (it was called simply ‘Food’ as far as they had been able to determine), Paige noticed a certain four-wheeler ATV parked along the side of the building. She was about to point it out to Sierra through their shared chat room, when the door ahead of them opened and Haley Torres came out carrying a bag of supplies. “Well hey,” she promptly greeted them. “You guys just bored out of your skull this morning, hungry, or both?”
Before Paige could do more than open her mouth, Sierra promptly cut in with an easy, “Both, definitely both. Come on, you’re not disappearing again already, right? You should eat with us.”
Haley seemed to consider briefly before shrugging. “Sure, fine, I could have another coffee and steal some bacon or something. Let me put my bag away then I’ll be right there. Irelyn still sleeping?”
“Yeah, we’ll take something back for her,” Paige replied, casting a glance back the way they’d come. At least she assumed the older girl was still unconscious, considering there was no message in their internal chat room, and she was pretty sure that would be the first thing Irelyn did if she woke up and found them missing. It was… a weird feeling, knowing that there was a person out there who would immediately start to worry about her the second she disappeared.
Shaking that thought off, she followed Sierra into the building and greeted Tess, the waitress who doubled as the checkout clerk for the store part. The cheerful, thirty-something blonde woman guided them to a table (there were only six of them here and three were taken up by regulars) before promptly heading off to get their coffee. They didn’t even have to say anything, Tess just remembered what they’d ordered the other two times they’d visited over these past couple days.
Before they could actually get their coffee, however, a sound at the door made Paige turn a bit to look that way. Haley was there, beckoning for them to join her quickly. There was a look on the dark-haired Latina’s face that made it clear this wasn’t a joke, or time to mess around. The two Biolems exchanged glances, then straightened up and headed that way without another word.
By the time they made it outside, Haley was already over by her ATV, but her attention was on a convoy of dark vans that had pulled up outside of City Hall across the street. Several men in dark green suits with green sunglasses were milling around talking to each other, while a very large figure, standing just over seven feet tall and very wide, was just ducking through the doorway of the house to step in.
“Strange tourists,” Sierra murmured as they joined the other woman.
“Not tourists,” Haley replied, voice flat. “I know those guys. If they’re here, we have a problem. Because they’d only be here for one thing: they know what’s out in the forest.”
“In the forest?” Paige frowned, giving the woman a quick look. “You wanna fill the rest of us in?”
After a very brief pause, Haley let out a breath. “Yeah, you should probably know. Have you heard of Galileo’s Adherents?”
“That group of Tech-Touched who want to fly to Mars or something?” Sierra shrugged. “Sure, but now you’re gonna say they live out here?”
Haley gave a wobbly hand ‘sort of’ gesture. “They don’t live here, their actual base is on an island. But they’ve got a… call it a backdoor out here. They use the forest for a lot of different things, including good meat and fresh air. I did a little work for them a couple times. Met them when I stayed in that cabin for a few weeks right after I ahh… left town. Figured Irelyn would never guess I’d stay in her family’s cabin. That--that’s a whole thing. Anyway, most of the work I did for them involved making sure those guys over there didn’t ever get this close. Let’s just say those guys want to take everything the Adherents made and use it themselves. They’ve been traveling all over the country looking for their base. If they’ve made it here, then… then that’s bad.” She paused again before muttering a curse. “I owe the Adherents a lot for helping me get on my feet. I gotta help them out. You head up to the cabin and get--”
“Too late,” Sierra murmured. There were several of the green-suited men crossing the street as they came straight toward them. “I guess they noticed we aren’t from around here. So what do you think, play it dumb or kick their asses right out of town?”
With a snort, Haley offered a quiet, “Babe, I’m good at one of those things.
“And it’s sure not playing dumb.”