Blooming Vendetta

Chapter 3: Narrow Escape

"Do you know who that is, Mabel?" Sharp asked as they weaved through the city streets.

"Uhhh...well, kind of...?" She replies, staying behind him.

"Kind of?" The alien asked as they continued to move. "Do you have history here?"

"Y-Yeah... Zoo is my home." She says.

"If that's the case, they why was he chasing you?"

"It's...a long story. Can I tell you later?"

"Why would you need to do that? We're allies, aren't we?"

Mabel seemed a bit surprised when he said that. Sharp had never really shown any interest in anyone else in the army. He never talked to anyone, never went anywhere on his own, or even offered to help or accept help from anyone. So why the sudden interest?

Despite her confusion, Mabel grabs his arm and pulls him away from the main street again, then presses a brick into a wall, causing it to start moving. "In here. We can talk without anyone listening in." She beacons him over, to which he followed. Mabel led him down some hallways, and then they entered what looked to be some sort of hideout, or safe house. "This was my old base before I met Jeanne. Hopefully it's still as safe as I remember it being..." She says and lets him look around the place.

"Bank blueprints... A map of the city... A conspiracy board... Were you...some kind of criminal?" He asked.

"Well, small time stuff... After my mom died, me and my sister...didn't quite get along anymore. She got so serious all of a sudden, and I was just...me, I guess?" She says and sits in an old chair.

"You've never mentioned your family before." Sharp says and he continues to look around.

"Yeah... It's not exactly a happy subject for me anymore. That's why I liked Jeanne's company so much. She was really nice to me, and would never ask me about my past. So for a while, I forgot all about them. I just wanted to live in the present. What was that saying again...? Haku...ta...something. It's not important. But then, recently, I got a letter from my sister. She said she wanted to see me, after all these years..." She started to ramble a bit. "But then...that guy suddenly came up to me and said that he would take me to the Vollino Family, and I just...I couldn't trust him. Something just felt off. It felt like he wasn't going to take me to Vollino Family at all...! So I started running..." She explains the situation.

"I see..." Sharp nods along as he listens. "Then you ran into me." He adds.

"Yeah... I'm making my way home now, but I don't know if I can get there safely with that guy following me around. So maybe we can just lay low for a while until night fall?" She says.

"Then..." Sharp turns towards her. "How about I be your bodyguard for a while?" He offered her.

"I-I couldn't...! I don't think I'd be able to afford your services...!" Mabel says.

"Why would I charge you?" He asked.

"Huh...? I mean, you always called Mr. Kheios your employer, so I just assumed that...you two were strictly business partners..." She admits. "Besides, what's with the sudden niceness from you? You were never like this in the army."

Sharp tilts his head. It took him a moment to realize what she meant, and nods. "I suppose you're right... Whenever I would offer to help, the soldiers would just say they didn't need it, and would then leave... When I wished to join their little games, they said they were full up on space... So after a while, I just...stopped trying."

"Sharpie..." Mabel murmurs softly, now feeling bad for rejecting him herself. "Um, you know what...?! Maybe I could use some company...!" She says, trying to cheer him up.

"But didn't you say that...?"

"Well I changed my mind! Sharpie, I hereby instate you as my personal bodyguard for the next three days!" She says as she stands up.

Seeing her beaming smile, the coolheaded Sharp couldn't help but crack a grin too. "Very well then. I will do this task with my upmost." He says, his expression soon turning serious again. He had heard the bricks at the entrance shifting. "Someone is coming..." He whispers to her.

Mabel quickly covers her mouth, and tones down the volume herself. "How...?! Did someone else start using my hideout...?!" She asked.

"Shh..." Sharp hushes her, and puts his head against the door. He heard footsteps, despite identifying that they were trying to light on their feet. There was also the sound of wings fluttering. Deducing that the pair weren't getting tripped up by the maze like interior, he surmised that they had been to this location multiple times before. Confirming that these were likely enemies, Sharp stands up and grabs Mabel, pulling her into a large wardrobe with him. Once Mabel was stuffed inside, he grabbed a bottle of lavender scented perfume he found on one of the shelves and slammed it on the ground, letting the whole room smell of lavender. He then climbed in with Mabel, pressing his large blue hand over her mouth to cover her hyperventilation. He then calms down and slows his heartbeat to the point it was inaudible to even the most well trained ear.

The door begins to creak open, as a pair of women enter the hideout together. "Phew...! Why is the lavender so strong in here?!" A high pitched voice complains. This voice was accompanied by the light pitter patter of insectoid wings, so Sharp assumed she was either one of them, or a sylph.

"Clever... The scent of the lavender is masking their scents." A much calmer voice speaks, as she walks around the room. With the hint that this woman can track using scents, Sharp deduces that she's likely an Allrune, a plant woman that are often found in Zoo as perfume makers. "They were definitely here." She says. "Why else would they bother to cover their tracks?"

"Good call. Shall we start looking around then?" The sylph asked as she fluttered about.

"Yes. If you find anything suspicious, let me know. And be quick, all this lavender is going to make my nose burn."

"Right! As far as we know, this hideout only has one entrance and exit, so couldn't have left, right?"

The two begin to look around the room. They checked everything very carefully. They moved slowly, as to be sure not to miss a single detail. Sharp could hear the Allrune's footsteps making their way over to the wardrobe they were stuffed, when the sylph's voice soon calls out. "Melly! Check this out!" She calls.

Melly, the Allrune, stops her stride and turns her body around. "Yes, Fiora?" She asked and started to walk in the other direction.

"A hidden passage! You think they went through this way?!" She asked.

Melly walks up to the tunnel and gives it a sniff. "Ugh... No good. All I smell is lavender. Although...we can't rule out the possibility. Let's go then." She says and begins to walk down the hidden tunnel, with Fiora the sylph following right behind her.

Once Sharp couldn't hear their footsteps anymore, he quietly opens the doors of the wardrobe and steps out. "Let's get out of here before they come back..." He whispers to her.

"Good call..." Mabel says, her face extremely red now. She flutters out of the closet, and follows close behind Sharp as they exit the hideout, Sharp closing the door and using a chair to jam the door's handle to hold the two huntresses in place for a while longer.