3 Chapter 3
Sleep in it's nature, was fleeting.
At times it could be that no matter how exhausted one was, nor how much they yearned for it, they would not find the rest they wanted.
And even if they had found it, the slightest drip of a dewy drop or the flutter of leaves by the wind outside would set them all the way back to square one.
It's antithesis was also true. At times it came even when not needed nor wanted, inviting itself into events that did not require its presence.
That even at the behest of thunder and lightning and the occasional angry superior or spouse, it would remain a resident of the old noggin.
Though a prevalent experience to most human beings, Tasha had neither felt nor discerned a contrast between the two.
He slept when he needed to and stayed awake when that was what was required of him.
And yet the changes these past few days had finally settled him into such a state where he was vulnerable enough to experience these events, much more prevalent was the former of the two.
He looked up at the ceiling of his new room, wondering why he was still awake.
Try as he might, tossing and turning upon the new bed, swinging his blankets this way and that until such a point where all the contents of the bed besides himself was on the floor.
After that he attempted to close his eyes as hard as he could, urging it's blackness to overcome him.
It was weird that he found these things much easier when it was always a struggle for his own survival.
He'd spent years figuring out how he would survive in each and every environment he was thrown into, and he always rested well knowing that he made precautions against such things that threatened his well-being.
But these days he'd been shifted from the care of what he was now told was a soldier gone rogue to an institute and then to this lady who all gave him much more comfort than he'd ever experienced in his life.
And he should accept that these were all simply given to him?
There was no catch?
Just like that...
He was safe?
Even if that was exactly the case, the very notion of it completely eluded him. His body wouldn't allow him to rest until he found the thing that threatened him and made precautions for it.
Even if there were no such things to be found in the first place.
...
Finally being unable to take it anymore, he stepped out of his room.
Back into the junkyard of beer cans and half eaten pizza boxes that was the hall way.
Peculiarly however, that indiscernible pungent smell amalgamating from all this litter did something a clean and comfortable room and bed couldn't do,
it calmed him.
Any normal person, would see the junk heap for the mess it was.
But to Tasha, the chaos had a strange comfort to it.
...
It could almost be considered comedic how both residents of this single apartment, despite having just lived with each other for but a few hours, were somehow so synced in their predicaments.
Curtis has laid sprawled on her bed for hours and yet she had not had even a wink of sleep.
Between the ones she brought in and those she hid in her room, she'd drunk enough alcohol to put down an elephant and still she was unable to reach the knock out drunk she so yearned.
Gulping another mouthful of beer down, she looked at the can in her hand.
"Oh sweet alcohol, why have you abandoned me now of all times."
She drained the can in her hand like a starved vampire would drain blood.
Reaching under the bed for her next victim however, she was met with sonorous clangs.
Grunting at the thought of having to go all the way to the fridge. She gathered all her will power to roll off her bed.
Slowly opening her door, she winced as it creaked open. Her head peaked out the opening, allowing her to scan the hall to make sure no one was there.
Once she was sure, she tip toed down the hall to the fridge.
She took each step ever so slowly, making sure her feet didn't so much as glance off a single crushed can as she made her way.
Reaching the dining room and was nearing the door to the kitchen on her left, something stirred in her peripheral.
Instantly her body shifted into a combat stance.
But with the combined effects of shifting her legs from tiptoeing to combat, stepping on a misplaced can and the existing effects of copious amounts of alcohol, she slipped and fell.
Crashing loudly into a heap of trash that broke her fall, she fumbled around until she found herself back into a standing position as she tried to spot the intruder.
Looking behind the heap hwoever...
she spotted her new ward.
...
Having made a clear space for himself in the middle of the pile, the young man was curled up into a little ball.
His one arm was the only cushion between him and the floor, and yet he seemed quite peaceful sleeping in such a position.
At this point a thought reached Curtis's head. 'Why was I even being so cautious anyway? It's my house, and he's the only other person living here now, the alcohol must've just hit me.'
Unbeknownst to her, she was quite infamous among anyone who drank any amount of alcohol in Atlas, as the most dangerous kind of drunk.
The kind who didn't even notice that they were far past the threshold of drunk until they were already there.
She watched over the sleeping body with some curiosity. Sure he was found in the home of what could only be described as a mad man.
And his demeanor and character was rather peculiar. But the events surrounding him so far, to the point where he had reached her custody was suspect at best.
She hadn't really thought about it at first, but now too many questions floated in her head.
If she knew anything about that man, it was that he was very practical. He would put a bullet in even his own children if they did not serve a purpose, much less a crippled kid.
Every other viable and rational option she'd proposed were all rejected by the higher ups. And the moment she joked about keeping him with her, they did everything short of physically throwing him in her house.
And then there was what Akagi had told her... It was too much of a coincidence.
Something wasn't clicking, and she wanted to know what.
She left the room for a bit, her presence being made known from the thumping of feet and the shifting of items in the apartment.
From time to time, a heavier thump would resound followed by a muffled groan.
Finally, after about half an hour, she came back with a crystal ball in her hands.
From it radiated brown and red lights that flooded the whole room, surging with something that definitely shouldn't be held in such a fragile looking thing.
It washed over and undulated inside, mingling together so peacefully despite looking violent enough to destroy each other in the process.
With a bend of her hips, she brought it down to the floor, letting it gently slide off her fingers.
Immediately as it did, the light show ended, as if all that power had suddenly been sucked away by a vacuum at the center of it. Leaving nothing but an empty, transparent crystal ball to slowly roll towards the boy.
It stopped as it made contact with his knees on the ground, causing essentially nothing at first.
Curtis held her breath for a moment almost expecting the thing to show her a miracle.
And all of a sudden, a small green spark fizzled into existence at it's center while dots of blue speckled it.
But unlike the time it was in Curtis's hands, where that power was threatening to tear apart the walls of the crystal ball from the inside.
This one simply grew to about the size of a marble, glowing like a night light in the dark.
Curtis's brow sighed for a moment, his talent didn't seem to be out of the ordinary.
It in fact, was probably much weaker compared to those his age whose glow would at the very least reach the size of a baby's fist.
But that relief was short lived, as she realized that only made all those other questions she had, much more pressing.
While she was thinking, she didn't notice when the light inside the ball suddenly blinked out.
That was, until she felt killing intent aimed at her, bringing her back to the darkness of her living room.
"Sh*t!" She ducked almost immediately, as she did she felt something fly above her head right where her neck would be about a tenth of a second ago.
Once she touched the floor, her hands glowed for a moment and a wall of earth protruded upwards to cover her.
Waiting for a few seconds, she lowered part of the wall as she scanned the room.
The boy was no longer lying where he was slumbering a second ago.
Now his back was up against the corner of the room.
And while she couldn't clearly make him out in the dark, she could feel that he was different from the boy she took home just this afternoon.
Perched down on his one arm, his was back taut as it held his torso parallel to the. Those seemingly frail legs worked in tandem with his arm to balance him in this almost animalistic posture.
Teeth bared, eyes glaring, the emotionless mask had turned into a feral scowl.
"Dammit kid! Come here!" Curtis was oblivious to these changes, glaring on into a pitch black corner in the middle of the night.
Though she was looking his way, her mind was more focused on her peripherals, still trying to figure out where they were being attacked from.
She deduced that, since they were alone in the room, the attacker must've taken his shot from outside. If he were with them, he'd take his chance to continue attacking before she was able to adjust herself.
If not for her impression of Tasha's magic grade just before, she might've thought he was the attacker from where he was standing.
She had wanted to make some light, but thought otherwise, not wanting to risk making it easier for their assailant to spot them, seeing as how they were already quite proficient even in the dark.
As she was thinking up a solution, the boy made a quick dash in her direction.
Soon as she noticed, he'd already bounded past her and entered his room, locking the door behind him.
"Damned kid!" Curtis cursed but she didn't dare move out, with the kid's making such a move without being attacked, it at least meant that they were trying to avoid harming him.
But now, there was nothing left for her to do but wait to counter them if they dared rear their heads here.
She didn't like it, but she could only be on the defensive since she was basically in the open while she had no idea who or where their attacker was.
She couldn't just go out, as that would leave the kid defenseless.
People like these had a habit of cleaning up witnesses with the target, there was little chance she would die if she stepped out, but they my kill him prematurely as a potential witness.
As she sat with her back against a makeshift wall, seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours, and still no attack came.
At this point she'd already figured that the assailant had probably already fled.
But she stood guard anyway, watching as the sun began to rise beyond the horizon.
*Ring Ring*
Somebody had pressed the bell on her front door.
Cautiously she walked near it and asked.
"Who is it?" Trying to seem as oblivious as possibles, all the while holding a spear made from her floor in her hand, pulling it back and ready to release it at a moment's notice.
"If you dare throw that thing at me, I'm never inviting you to a singles meet ever again." A familiar voice spoke from beyond the door.
"Throw what thing?" The door opened swiftly and a giddily smiling Curtis opened the door, her hands empty of the weapon.
"Where's the kid?" Akagi said, looking over Curtis's shoulder into the apartment
"Inside, what'd you find?" Curtis immediately asked back.
"Nothing yet, but they're still looking. We have a 10 kilometer radius under lock down and surveillance, if your attacker is still here we'll get him." Akagi replied. "Show me the scene."
"Dining room." Curtis answered, letting her pass before peeking outside and checking to make sure no one was looking.
She had barely closed the door when she heard Akagi shout. "Son of a b*tch!"
"What!? What!? Is he back?" Curtis ran back in with a sword in hand this time.
But she arrived to an angry Akagi, "You were drinking last night?"
"Yes, but what has that got to do with anything?" Curtis replied looking away.
Akagi kicked a still freshly emptied can out from under her, her expression switched between anger, constipation, and a little anxiety. "Oh my God!, did I summoned State Security for one of your drunken pranks!?"
"Whoa! Whoa! I'm not pranking you, there was an attack last night!" Akagi waved at the room.
"Oh and where do you suppose the attack came from?"
"I would say from somewhere outside my window, maybe from a vantage point on the oppo..." Her voice trailed off as she saw that there was no evidence of an attack.
The windows were clean, if an attack came from outside it'd have shattered the glass before coming towards it's target.
The whole room was in it's normal state, if one considered the heap of trash normal.
But if anyone'd been here last, there was no way they would be able to move around without stepping on the trash that basically covered the floor.
There weren't any signs of any disturbances beyond that which Tasha and Curtis herself reportedly made.
'Sh*t! Did I actually drunk dial!?' Curtis thought in a panic. She already had an infamous reputation, but this would definitely elevate it to a whole new level.
She trudged through the the trash to get to the center of the room to look for clues.
"Hey... what's that?" Just as she was losing hope, Akagi suddenly commented, pointing at Curtis's head.
"What's what?," In response Curtis touched her head only to feel a sticky substance clinging to her hand and hair.
Looking at her hand she saw a yellowish fluid stuck on her hand as the faint smell of iron began to linger up into her nose.
"Oh? maybe I nicked myself on one of the cans..." She stopped almost as soon as she spoke those words.
Akagi's face turned dark very quickly.
This was the earth fiend in front of her, even at her weakest, it'd still take a cannon at the very least to so much as scratch her.
If anyone else told her that Curtis may have accidentally cut herself on a flimsy Haineken can, then she'd slap that person's mother silly for birthing a child so stupid.
Flipping her phone open she made a call. "Call off the search," Closing it right after that line.
"You still don't believe me?" Curtis asked, looking a little angry.
"No, it's just that there wouldn't be a point." Akagi explained, "a person who can not only catch you off guard, but manage to injure you, even if by a fluke is not something even 100 of those guys can handle... and I doubt that they're even anywhere nearby anymore considering how much time has passed."
"So that's it?" She asked.
"Look, we can only look at our files for class A and S Cleaners who have this MO and skill set, while that's going on, the best that we can do is inform some of the powerhouses nearby, so if you meet some problems they'll come immediately to your assistance." Akagi explained as she began pressing buttons on her phone.
"No way! Those guys are all stuck up, if they hear I need help..."
*Ring Ring*
Curtis looked around, pretending to ignore it as Akagi apologized silently.
After the first ring tone was over it wasn't even half a second before the next one came.
