Phenomenon (2)

He shrugged his shoulders to the cursing and finished alleviating his morning needs. He casually leaned slightly forward as he continued shaking the one-eyed cobra, avoiding the approaching projectile whilst cleaning what needed to be kept clean. Once finished, he pulled his boxer back up, and under the deathly stares, and continued cursing of the offended party he turned towards the sink and swiftly washed his hands.

Then, finally acquiescing to the yelling and cursing of the girl, he walked to the door. Before he left, however, he turned back, and with a cheeky grin on his face, he threw back a remark.

"Don't be so mad, sis, you look great today!" He immediately rushed and closed the door behind him. Not a moment too soon either, as just as he did, a loud thump could be heard. The woman threw the shampoo bottle at him. The loud but to his luck, muffled curses could be heard even as he walked back towards his room.

"Damn, she is feisty today! I guess I should avoid her for now…"

He glanced one last time towards the bathroom door with a smirk on his face and shook his head before he stepped back inside the semi-lit den that was his room and closed the door behind him.

He had no time to waste on pointless squabbles, he needed to get ready as soon as possible and go over the details of today's plan once again.

A short while later, the doors to the lair were opened one last time, and a now battle-ready, dressed youth stepped out. His lean, thin frame was covered with a black t-shirt and light blue jeans.

With his mobile phone in his hand, he quickly navigated through the maze of the Operating System's interface, opening up his messaging app. Quickly tapping twice on the top of the appearing name list, the chat frame loaded up.

With a lightning-fast motion, he began typing as he slowly crossed through the hallway once again, but this time, aiming for the staircase at the other end, making sure to keep his distance and avoid the dungeon-slash-bathroom.

Soon, the quick typing of his hands formed a sentence that was sent towards the other party.

[Hey Jay, u up man?! I'm going over soon!]

He did not need to wait for long before the animation of the three dots signaling that the other party was typing appeared on the screen.

[Sup man! Sure, come, we can eat while we go over the plan!]

Smirking, he nodded his head. His fingers flying into action, a response was formed in a second.

[K, C ya soon!]

With that, he locked the screen of his phone and slid it back into its space, his farmer's back pocket.

As soon as he crossed through the relatively short distance of the hallway, the handle on the bathroom door was pushed down, and the door slowly creaked open. A feminine figure, the feisty, black-haired demoness stepped out, wrapped in a large white towel. Lucky for him, her eyes were currently closed as she used another towel to wrap her long black hair and created a makeshift turban over her head, she did not notice him.

Before she had the chance to throw another barrage of curses at him, Jake quickly, but silently stepped forward, and left the hall through the stairs, descending from the upstairs floor of their family house.

Arriving at the ground floor, Jake entered a large, spacious hall, his family's living room. The first sight that greeted him was just a bit ahead of him: lounging on a dark brown, leather couch, a slightly older middle-aged man was enjoying his work-free Sunday morning, watching the local morning news on the large flat-screen TV.

Stepping forward, the noise of grease sizzling on a pan hit his ears, soon followed by the trance-inducing aroma of fried bacon with some eggs, his family's traditional weekend breakfast.

Although the smell was incredible, Jake had no time to waste. He already set up an early meeting with Jay. Today was much too important. Still, he did not want to leave without at least saying hi and hopefully stealing one piece of the obviously delicious treat. You know, just to be sure that they are good for the family! Yeah, that's right, just to keep his family safe, there was no other reason to do it at all!

"Hey Dad, good morning!" He threw a greeting to the man, laying on the couch wearing nothing but his pajama pants before he sneaked towards the kitchen.

"'ning son..." Still sleepy, the man on the couch grumbled a response in a barely audible tone.

Closing in on the target, Jake quickly leaned against the wall, and carefully sneaked a peek at the 'enemy' inside.

Much to his dismay, as if the woman had magical senses, just as he glanced a peek, she also spoke in a loud, audible voice aimed at the rogue hiding just outside.

"Jake, don't just stand there, come here and give your mother a hug!"

"Damn, how do you do this… Every. Single. Time?! I was sure I was silent this time!" Spotted, Jake could do nothing but grudgingly leave his hiding spot, and walk inside with a defeated sigh.

The middle-aged woman, with shoulder-length black hair, similar to the girl, who was still getting ready upstairs grinned under her breath, not taking away her attention from the frying pan where a few strips of delicious-looking bacon was getting the sizzling hot caress.

"I am your mother Jake, it's my job to know what shenanigans you and your sister are up to at all times!"

Letting out a loud, theatrical sigh, Jake decided to change the subject.

"Mom, I…" However, he was immediately silenced as the cooking lady interjected.

"Let me guess. You have to leave and have no time to spend breakfast with your family, but you would like to get a strip just to 'keep us safe'?"

Jake looked shocked at the woman. Her conjecture was spot on, scarily precise to be exact. Looking at the middle-aged woman with a stupefied face, he stuttered.

"H-how?!"

In response, the woman only gave a knowing wink, and grabbing a fork, she picked up a strip of bacon and gave it to the boy.

"Here, you rascal, take it and leave. Do your thing!" She smiled, as the boy hungrily grabbed the meat, and swallowed it whole without wasting his precious time and energy on properly chewing it.

"Fank... " Gulping, he quickly destroyed the incriminating evidence and returned a wide, thankful smile to his mother. "Thanks, mom!"

With that said, he quickly turned around and was about to leave, but was, once again, interrupted, as a firm, but a delicate hand grabbed his left shoulder, holding him in place.

"But, make sure you return for dinner, you hear me? I don't mind if you skip lunch, but at least get back by nightfall! Don't make me call all your friends!" The warning that came from her, caused shivers to run through Jake's back. He could only silently nod, with a loud 'uhm', unable to let out any meaningful responses.

As he was finally let go, he bolted towards the exit and quickly left his home. As soon as the outside noise of the city hit his ears, and he felt the warmth of the sun hitting his skin. He was happy, his excited mood returned.

Today was the day! After months and months of research, they finally had an exact location to investigate!

Their destination: To the nearby Mountain!