Don’t smoke, kids (Especially if it's unfiltered evil stuff)

The shelter was something like a cramped bunkhouse, stacked beds allowing the meek of the world to pile in. It wasn’t glamorous by any metric, with scattered possessions being gathered and hidden under sheets, hung from the rafters, or set by beds in sacks if they were sufficiently unsellable, turning the place into a cramped and stuffy maze of bunks with paths blocked off by small mountains of assorted knickknacks.

Trudy didn’t mind, though. She had taken enough children to summer camps to be familiar with how these rooms invariably wound up after two weeks. Granted, the operative word was “summer” – she didn’t think she’d ever need to slum it in the middle of a freezing city, but it was funny how things worked out.

The shelter also provided plenty of privacy – most of the inhabitants had left for work, to find work, or were still fast asleep, leaving no witnesses to the trio huddled in a corner of the commune, whispering harshly at each other.

Paul looked very concerned as Trudy relayed… well, she wasn’t sure what it was, though between her naptime visions, Bao’s refresher at the temple and Paul’s unrelenting cynicism, they were starting to pick out a pattern.

“Just to be sure, though, this isn’t going to happen every time you decide to booze up?” Paul muttered, half-asking.

“Find me some more, and we can find out,” Trudy retorted with a clean and practiced eyeroll. “My superpower is apparently being hangover-proof.”

Bao nodded, a grin tugging at the edge of his mouth. “Yeah, you’re basically unstoppable. I’m jealous. I never really drank much back home because I got drunk too fast and then in the morning-”

“Anyways,” Paul said, voiced raised to override the topic – Trudy inwardly noted that it was his fault for bringing it up to begin with – before continuing. “I think we’re all starting to guess that Dennis the Outer-Space Menace had a hand in bringing us here, in these freaky bodies.”

“It explains why we woke up with a voice telling us, ‘reveeeenge’,” Bao added, gargling the last word in mockery.

“And I’m apparently sensing its… ‘evil energy’,” Trudy added, almost attempting to convince herself that what she was saying was actually real. “Though I don’t know why it picked us at all.”

“I hope we aren’t being outplayed, or something,” Paul grumbled. “But, the Menace’s evil whatever-the-hell is around, and even in this city right now?”

“I’m guessing this stuff is, like, space mold or something,” Bao ventured, brows furrowed in thought. “It just gets into everything.” He fell silent for a moment, drumming his fingers atop his knees, then looked squarely at Paul, his eyes searching. “Should we do something about it?”

“I’d do it on principle,” Trudy immediately answered. “Hell, the Menace basically made that giant cat that nearly ate Paul, using this evil stuff your priestess mentioned, Bao. I’m not living in a city where the chickens are going to turn into dinosaurs when we’re not looking.”

“We should probably bring this up with all the soldiers around here,” Paul said, hand raised in a subdued expression of caution. “They just came from a war against this stuff, right?”

“Yeah, but what are we gonna say otherwise? ‘Trust us, bro, there’s evil stuff in this city, my girl here got it from drunk-vision’?” Bao countered. “Heck, what if they found out that maybe the Menace sent us here? Say that we promise not to kill everyone ever despite being told to?”

“Oh god,” Paul slurred, fighting down rising hackles, “don’t ever say ‘bro’ like that… still, for the rest of that… okay, yeah, just going to them now might be a bad idea,” he conceded, a sigh escaping him between pursed lips.

“Look, we just need to find it, and then pass it on as a tip. We’ll just be three nobodies who happened to see something weird,” Trudy said. “How hard can it be?”

It was as good a plan as any, though it still didn’t stop Paul from doubting, since he seemed hand-built to do nothing but gripe while the three of them started heading to the front door.

“Are we really going to just… walk around?”

Trudy rolled her eyes, before indignantly reaching out to swat the pale man in the back of the head.

“Stop being a kid. Anything is doable after you spend five minutes on it! Mush!”

“I’m not a dog-”

This was the first thing Liev heard as he saw his three new friends emerge from the shelter.

The three came to a standstill as they saw their new acquaintance, and the two parties were awkwardly speechless for a moment, before the old man’s mouth quivered a little.

“Interesting conversation?”

Paul snorted. “Liev, seriously, do you wait up at all hours to see how we are? Now you’re getting weird.”

Liev just winked in return, “What can I say? You three are the liveliest new faces around these parts in many moons, and I keep tabs on what interests me. Plus…” His ever-welcoming smile stretched into a knowing grin. “Any jobs you get nets me a nice commission from the businesses around here. Pocket change, but enough to keep my bar tab clear.”

Before Paul retorted, Bao had stood tall to loom over his companions’ heads, face eager.

“Hey, old guy, are there jobs in any weird places that no one ever goes to because people say they’re cursed?”

Paul and Trudy looked back at him, eyes wide in mortification.

Liev took a moment to blink and soak in the request.

“...That’s weirdly specific.”

Bao shrugged. “Well, if it pays more because people are scared off by it…”

Liev laughed. “Ha! Ambitious sorts, huh? Well, if you’re willing to brave it, I know of some demolition jobs on the outskirts. Lots of old wrecks not worth living in, but still full of good stone and wood worth reusing. The group had to offer double pay to convince people to ignore the ghost stories. About to send some other guys there to get some work done if you’re interested. What say you?”

It was a stretch, but Trudy could see the logic of Bao reaching out so far like that. Even though it was dreamlike, the memory of that pulsating mass gave her the impression it was something physical. If the Menace from the Stars really was as vile as it was described, it was hard to imagine people living near it safely.

Paul seemed to have made similar conclusions, judging by how his face near-imperceptibly twitched in thought, before ending with a resigned shrug as he met Liev’s gaze.

“I have a feeling you’ll keep bothering us about work until then. It might as well be this. Let’s see these wrecks that need knocking down.”

“Great! Well, best to step lively!”

The old man hooted enthusiastically, and Trudy kept her face from falling into a frown, though she had to consider the right time to pass on her worries.

There was something oddly anticipatory in Liev’s posture, and it reminded Trudy far too much of students who were waiting for a prank to trigger.