Resting Echoes

With the sun almost set on the cityscape, the three members of the Eastern States’ Secret Police were crowded around the remains of a quaint building on the streets leading to the great arch.

“Will a place like this really work?” Slater put his hands on his hips, observing a collapsed wall on the second floor.

“As long as it’s got a roof, probably.” Blitz turned to Charlotte. “Can you get on that?”

With a brief nod, Charlotte held out her hand with the green marking and outstretched it. The glow intensified as green tendrils grew from her arm and latched onto a broken billboard on the top of the building. The roots pulled her up like a grappling hook, and she let herself down on the roof as the roots faded and died off of her arm. All the two boys could see was her eyes darting around as she checked every side of the building, then waving her arm to them below, giving a signal everything looked good.

The group moved into the building, stepping over debris and collapsed walls as they made their way inside. The interior of the building was somewhat preserved, with furniture still being intact and having a modicum of color to them. Most notably, a small blue sofa enough for one person to lay on was positioned in the center of the first floor room. Sat in the corner of the room was a bulky staircase with pale moonlight seeping into the room from the opening it led to. The light was disturbed when Charlotte made her way down through it to meet up with her teammates.

“We should divide up sleeping arrangements.” She stated, still descending.

Without another moment passing him by, Blitz jumped into the air and landed face first onto the old couch, sending a shockwave of dust out to coat everything in the room in it. The result was a fallout of sneezes from the other two in the room as they flailed their arms around to clear the air.

“The heck, man?!” Slater got out between sneezes.

A loud snore echoed out from Blitz’s mouth, but the choppy and forced nature of it did not convince either of Blitz’s friends that he had fallen asleep. All he received in return was a punch to the gut from Charlotte, which caused him to lurch forward.

“If you’re going to bother us, maybe you should be the one to keep lookout all night.” Her stare stabbed through Blitz, whose eyes darted to Slater in response. However, he wasn’t even returning the look. Instead, Slater had placed his hand on Charlotte’s shoulder from behind.

“I’ll be the lookout for tonight. You two need rest. It’s the least I can do after you’ve been so welcoming.”

“But, after all this you—“ Charlotte stopped when she noticed the look in Slater’s eyes. It was a look she recognized. The same look Lupus had whenever he told her he wouldn’t let her go back to being experimented on. After that, she decided to respect his decision. “We’ll sleep down here then, you head up to the roof and keep watch.” Following her statement, Charlotte took out the pinging device and threw it to Slater in an underhand toss, which he was able to catch handily and slip into the pocket opposite his sword.

Slater nodded, giving a dutiful wave as he made his way up the staircase. Once he was fully out of sight, the two remaining turned to each other.

“You sure he’ll be alright all alone all night… Will we be alright?” Blitz questioned. His voice sounded slightly irritated, but under the veneer had hints of care weaved in.

“We can’t expect a mission meant to test his capabilities to do that if we never let him do anything. He’s been through a lot, but we should at least allow him to prove himself.” Charlotte’s mind flashed back to her first two weeks in the division for a moment. “I know I felt the same. Make sure to give him some congratulations in the morning.”

With her piece said, Charlotte searched through the room, locating some old blankets and smacking the dust out of them. She threw one over Blitz haphazardly, before retreating to a sofa chair in the corner, sitting up in it and covering herself with a blanket as well.

Blitz adjusted himself to be laying upwards, giving a smile to the ceiling, making especially sure it couldn’t be seen from the corner Charlotte sat in. “You know, since I won’t be able to say it anymore… See you in the morning, New Girl.”

“Oh, please. Just head to bed already, Delinquent.”

The two shared smiles which they kept hidden from one another, as they drifted off into sleep with their safety in the hands of their new comrade. As they did so, said new comrade sat on the roof of the building being assaulted by the cold night breeze.

These jackets are pretty thin, and I gotta spend the whole night out like this? Maybe I should’ve reconsidered this earlier? He shook his head. If I can’t get through one cold night, how good am I? Slater looked up for a moment. The stars are pretty bright out here. Feels good to be able to see them without having to worry about any buildings getting in the way. He noticed the towering buildings around him and gave a small chuckle. Well, at least not nearly as many as before.

“I wonder if Lillian can see the stars tonight too…” His mouth wandered just as his mind had been, but his eyes remained fixated on the world above.

“Is she not here with you now?”

“Yeah, but I’ll make sure—huh?”

Slater shifted his body around, seeing a familiar man leaning against a wall next to him. A rush of fury and fear darted through his spine as he scrambled to his feet and placed a hand on his blade.

“Axel…!”

“Getting my name leaked just makes things more awkward…” He put a hand to his head like he was getting over a hangover. “Calm down, you and I will fight here shortly… But not until you answer a question I have for you.”

“A question? What could I know that you’d possibly want?” He barked out a reply, trying to turn attention away from his hands. Specifically his left, which had just flicked up the glass box on the pinging device and pressed the button, sending a silent distress call to Lupus. He had called for help, all he had to do now was hold out.

Axel took a step forward and opened a palm. “Just tell me, do you recognize this name:”

Slater’s head turned. “What?”

“Geo Barros.” Axel enunciated clearly.

In response, Slater’s blade roared to life.

“How the hell do you know that name?” The sneer from the rookie agent brought a devilish smirk to the enemy swordsman’s face, who seemed to have found his answer.

“Good, good. That’s exactly what I thought.” The blade of blood wringed itself out from Axel’s wrist, coagulating and writhing as it took its shape for battle. His center of gravity lowered as his body prepared to pounce, with excitement brimming from his face. “Now that I know who you are, we can start our battle in earnest… to prove which of us is the superior student of Geo Barros!”