The two strangers led Elias back to the Bay Ridge station, and back into Manhattan.
“I hope you didn’t have much going on today,” Ally said in a sing-song voice, “this is probably going to take a while.”
Elias looked over at Ally in detail for the first time, seeing her lacey black dress and chunky boots, as well as her face, which was caked in a thick, gothy makeup job. She had bone white powder covering most of her rather angular face, but her eyes and lips were darkened black, and red blush and eye shadow accented the edges of both. She had a number of piercings in the ear facing Elias, mostly studs, with a chain as well.
“I was supposed to meet up with my friend later, but I don’t think it was meant to happen anyway since he wasn’t returning my calls.
“Oh,” Ally replied with a bit of whimsy, “well that’s good, right? Personally I have a lab in the morning so I’m ready to get it done!”
“Lab?” Elias asked, somehow just registering that these people probably did indeed have their own lives and jobs outside of whatever mystical nonsense was going on right now, “Are you a student?”
“Yeah!” she excitedly replied, turning to face Elias, “I’m at NYU’s medical school. I help patch up the Club members when they get injured. They like me a lot for that hehe…”
“Why are you getting hurt?” Elias inquired, “And what Club are you talking about? Is that where you’re taking me?”
Zara finally interjected and said, “Ally, don’t say too much too quickly, it tends to confuse them.” They also turned to Elias, stepping into the Subway train as they spoke, “We’re taking you to a club for people like us. Don’t worry, we won’t force you to stay or even participate, but just for this day we want to get you registered so we know if you’re safe and whatnot. Think of it as a safety net–hell if you qualify you can even get a stipend, depending on if Duncan likes you or not.”
Elias did his best to take in the information. It didn’t seem too crazy to have an organization like that, it seemed like an underground version of a union. What still eluded him was the exact nature of the people there, and what reasons a support group like that would need to exist for them.
By this point the three of them had already made it a few stops on the train. It wasn’t very crowded, so they were all sitting down, Zara next to Elias and Ally across from them both. The train was shaking as it rolled along, and then screeching to a halt every few minutes at the stops.
Zara saw the kid was eyeing the little map on the wall of the train car, and decided to give him a bit of an idea of where they’re going, “We’re going to a spot near 33rd and 9th, so we’re switching to the red line near Barclay’s, alright?”
Elias silently nodded along, trying his best to remember what 33rd and 9th looked like.
“The Club is an organization for people like us,” they took a moment to peer at their surroundings to make sure no one was close enough to hear them, “people with special abilities, like us.”
Elias looked up at Zara for a moment, before looking back down at his lap, and sighed, “I guess that’s the part I’m hung up on. What sort of abilities are you talking about? All that’s happened to me is a few wounds healed faster than normal.”
“I suppose that’s a valid confusion,” Zara said with some resignation, looking over at the young kid, with his ragged clothes and tired look, “unfortunately they sent us two and our powers aren’t so easy to show without someone to use them on, but maybe we can get Duncan or Thatcher to do something-Actually hold on,” Elias saw Zara reach in their other pocket and take out a different phone, this one looked more utilitarian and stark in design, and text someone. A moment later the little brick dinged and Zara returned to their thought, “Alright, looks like Thatcher is getting back from a Recruit OP as well. When we get there he can show you what our powers are like with his…panache you could call it.”
Zara saw Elias eyeing their Club phone, and quickly added, “It’s a cheap burner phone for the Club, untraceable and purely for communication. You’ll most likely get one yourself later today when we get there. Ah-” Zara broke conversation for a moment, looking at their stop, “we get off here.”
Ally had already hopped up and was urging the two of them to the train car doors, “Come on! Come on! It’s gonna start getting dark if we keep this pace up, you know.”
“Alright, alright, Ally.” Zara sighed, getting Elias to do the same, “We’ll get there eventually; slow and steady wins the race you know.”
“For you maybe.” Ally responded, pointing accusingly at Zara, “sooome of us still have future’s ahead of us you know.” She topped it off by sticking her tongue out at Zara.
“YOU-” Zara started to hiss, as they grabbed Ally’s arm, “why do you think everyone with a little experience in the world is some fucking fossil! I swear to god if you weren’t important…”
Zara didn’t get to finish their rant as the three of them started walking out the door and into the crowd. Ally kept the most self-satisfied smile on her face the entire way back.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
‘I’m getting the feeling that not everyone in the club gets along so well…’ Elias thought to himself, a slight grin creeping across his face as he continued behind the two of them.
The rest of the journey was mostly in an odd silence, with the two strangers–or maybe not so strange now that they’d been introduced–unwilling to talk to each other since Ally was dead set on irritating Zara. The two strangers didn’t want to spoil or overcomplicate anything to Elias before they made it to the Club, and Elias was simply too confused to have anything to say.
When they eventually reached their last stop, Zara got up first, and the other two followed solemnly behind them. Zara led them out of the station back to the surface, and a brief walk later they found themselves at the base of an imposing skyscraper, with mirror-finish windows from bottom to top, except for the lobby, each reflecting exactly what lay in front of it with some distortion. Up high he could see the clouds through the warped images of the other highrises.
“Let’s go! Let’s goooo! Come on now.” Ally once again egged the other two on as she skipped ahead, “We have to take the elevator the whooooole way come on!”
Zara and Elias followed her lead and entered behind her. An old security guard sat half asleep behind a desk, but the sound of the doors opening shocked him back to his senses and he propped himself up.
Zara quickly produced a badge from their pocket and showed the old guard, who promptly nodded his head and soon went back to snoozing in his chair. The three of them continued on toward the elevators past the desk, and Ally pressed the ‘Up’ button with a childish glee.
A few moments later they were greeted with a ‘Ding!’ and the doors opened. Elias again followed the two’s lead into the box, and watched Ally quickly press the top button of all the floors, the number 67 as it was, and soon enough the elevator was going up.
When the doors opened again, Zara and Ally both got out seemingly without a care in the world, whereas Elias was as apprehensive as ever. He recognized this building some time on the journey up, it was 1 Manhattan West, which for all he knew was just another highrise for law firms and tech companies–those sorts of endlessly identical and bureaucratic places which filled all the highrises in Manhattan. Why this super secret club for mutants with superpowers would be here–and in the penthouse no less–made him a little anxious. Whatever confidence Zara and Ally built up with him in the last hour was wavering as he truly wondered why in the world he was following two complete strangers to a random skyscraper in the middle of Manhattan. It seemed insane–no, it didn’t seem insane, it was insane. But nonetheless he was there, and all he could do was hope they didn’t rob him of everything he had on him and kill him or worse.
The brief moment of hesitation, which seemed to last a lifetime in Elias’s head, passed and he finally walked out of the elevator. Looking down the hallway past his two new friends, he saw what seemed like the remains of a cubicle floor. An array of desks sprawled about the place, but not in their original grid arrangement. As he walked forward he heard some other voices to his left. Looking over he saw a makeshift party area–the only way he could describe it to himself–where two couches, three tables, and a couple of desks had been mashed together in front of a massive TV, which at the moment appeared to be playing an anime of sorts. Three people sat on the couches, all of different ages. One of them looked around his own age, a young guy with a mullet and lots of tattoos; another seemed a little younger, maybe in highschool, and she had her blonde hair in two braids; the last one was an older man, wearing business casual clothes. The older man didn’t look past 45, but Elias had a feeling he was the oldest here. He had a receding hairline and glasses, but he seemed fit and well maintained.
“Duncan,” Zara shouted over to the side, “we brought the new guy with us!”
All three of the couch potatoes turned their heads at the call, and the older guy perked up and called back, “You were supposed to text me when you were on your way up, Zara.” He got up from the couch and started to walk over to them.
Zara shuddered for a moment, and a brief look of horror caught their face, before composing themself and replying, “S-sorry Duncan, it slipped my mind. It’s been a long day, you know that.”
Duncan laughed–his laugh was deep and jovial for a guy of his stature–and he made his way over to them. “Don’t worry about it Zara, you did a good job just getting the new blood here” his eyes flickered over to Elias as he said that part, before returning to Zara and bringing her in for a hug, which they accepted. “Let me talk to the kid, the next episode is almost up so feel free to join the party. The popcorn’s almost out though…might need to go to the store soon-Ah, what am I talking about, we’ve got a new guy with us!”
The man, which Elias’s expert sleuthing skills had deduced was the so-called Duncan Zara had mentioned before, turned to him, briefly acknowledging Ally as well with a pat on the shoulder.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about, you and I,” He said, motioning to the other end of the space, to a separate office in the far northwestern corner, “and not a lot of time to do it–Thatcher and Hannah are due in in about half an hour. Please, come with me.”
Elias nodded silently, giving a brief glance to Zara and Ally, who had walked over to the couches–Elias swore he saw a giddy little smile coming from Zara, which confused him a little. He turned around and followed Duncan over to the office, passing a couple of desks along the way, some with computers and personal items, others completely bare.
“I run the branch of the company in this building,” Duncan started explaining with a smile that reeked of pride, “so I kinda get the last say on how it all gets used in the end–so we get to party in a penthouse when we want. It’s rather nice I think–especially considering what the last HQ looked like.”
“What did the last HQ look like?” Elias asked, finally opening his mouth for the first time in about 30 minutes.
“Imagine the worst apartment possible in the Bronx, now imagine it was in Manhattan instead,” he chuckled a bit, “so yeah, this is definitely an upgrade. Oh, by the way, we have snacks over there if you get hungry,” he said pointing over to his right at a little bar with chips and drinks.
They eventually made it to the office, and Duncan let Elias in. He took a seat opposite Elias behind the desk. Elias took in the decor, seemingly the only place on the entire floor that was well organized and clean. The typical box computer that all IT places seem to give their employees sat to Duncan’s right, and some file cabinets rested behind him. On the counter space beyond the computer, Elias could see the right half of a photo, which seemed to show an African American woman, with a child in the bottom corner.
Duncan seemed to notice Elias’s noticing, and quickly redirected his attention, “I’m sure you’re really confused about all this, which is honestly warranted–this is weird stuff I’ll admit–but don’t worry about anything. You’re in the best hands possible–I think so, anyway. Do you have any questions?”