"Lock n' load, boys; get ready for some action."
"We were born ready."
They crouched down with their weapons and waited for a noise. One girl and two boys, but they could take on ten people at a time.
Axelle was prepared to walk into a shooting frenzy; she was the bait and everything was planned out. She strolled in casually like she was supposed to and waited for the bullets. She knew how to dodge them and defend herself even without a weapon more than the others could. That was why they chose her.
The girl and boys tensed. Once they saw Exie walk by they took the bait; they shot at her like no tomorrow. Expert dodger that she was, Exie didn't let one bullet touch her. She was fast enough to make one guy go, "Shit. I didn't think we were up against this." But they kept trying to shoot her.
"Why won't this bitch just die already?" one of the guys growled frustrated.
"Stop," the girl said. "They knew we were coming. This is all a trap. They're obviously trying to waste our ammo and leave us defenseless."
"Well, shit. That must mean there are more of these people," the first guy said. "And if they're all like this one, we're screwed."
"Well, we have no other option anymore. Our best chance is to present ourselves to them and hope they show mercy," the second guy said.
"That's weak. But I don't think we can do anything else for the time being."
They stepped out from their hiding spots and gathered their equipment.
"Hey, you!" the first guy shouted at a retreating Axelle. She spun around. "Yeah?"
"We come in peace." He held up his hand in a peace gesture. "Take us to your leader." The other guy punched him.
Exie just rolled her eyes. "Try to keep up," she said, running in the direction of her base where everyone was waiting for her to come back with whoever threatened them.
As soon as they came through the trees, Jet enveloped Exie and Noella pointed at the first boy. "What's that?"
The boy turned frantically, and they saw the plaque strapped to his back.
Arizona groaned. "Ugh, now we not only have The Books to look for, we have that."
"I told you they'd want it," the second boy said.
Arizona stood up. "So what is it you want? A reward? Too bad. We have nothing to offer."
The girl elbowed the second boy, "Told ya so."
"We need," he paused in thought, "a place to go."
Arizona rolled her eyes, "Fine. You can come with us. That means introductions are due."
The first boy stepped forward and gestured at himself. "I'm Destin." He pointed at the second boy. "That's Erastus." He pointed at the girl. "And that's Vlad."
"Vlad?" Arizona inquired.
"It's short for Vladislava."
"I'm Arizona. That's Noella, Dayle, Misa and my twin brother Larkin. And those two lovebirds over there are Jetmir and Exie." She pointed at each person accordingly.
Now she was all business. "That thing. Where'd you find it?"
"I dunno," Destin answered shrugging. "Some shithole town in, like, Connecticut or whatever."
"Connecticut?" Misa groaned. She picked up the GPS they'd ripped out of the Hummer and searched Connecticut. Once she had a map, she started flipping swiftly through pages of The Book, looking for anything related.
"So," Dayle said. "When do we start for the Big Apple?"
"Tomorrow," Arizona decided. "I want some assessment on these three."
Larkin was getting too drunk to be of any use. If they were any kind of normal, he would've had to go to AA. Noella took the can from him. "I think you've had enough for today, hun."
Arizona crouched near Misa and whispered, "Have they officially hooked up yet?"
"I think so, but that's not important," Misa said absently, shrugging then going back to The Book.
"It's way important! I'm his sister, I have to know."
"Then ask someone else because I don't have a clue and I don't give a shit, to be honest." She turned more pages then stopped and went back to one page. "Haha," she muttered. "Gotcha."
Arizona went from concerned sister to complete business in a second. "What've you found?"
"Noella, I think," Misa answered. "'T says here, The Princess is All One." She grabbed a spare piece of paper. "See, the words All One are capitalized. And," she stopped to write the words on the paper, "it's an anagram of Noella's name." She demonstrated on the paper.
"That means she's the Princess." Arizona thought deeply for a couple minutes. "Noella!" she called.
"Yeah?" Noella answered taking yet another can of beer from Larkin.
"I need to ask you, what happened to your father?"
Noella looked at her dubiously. "Why do you need to know?" she snapped.
"He killed himself, didn't he?" Arizona claimed.
"How the hell did you -- oh. Oh God. This is about --" she looked at Arizona like she could burst into tears any minute.
"Just one more thing, who told you?" Arizona pumped, trying her hardest to be sympathetic. Everyone knew she was probably the most unsympathetic person on the planet.
"I d-don't know," she cried, and the tears came down. "Some kid, the neighbor--I don't know!"
Larkin was sober enough to care thanks to his high alcohol tolerance. He pulled her near and caressed her considerately and affectionately.
Arizona quickly forgot about Noella's issue, and concerned herself more with The Book and the three new inclusions. She would keep glancing at them, studying them, as she talked with Misa about who the Torch Bearer could be.
"I mean, he's bound to cross our paths sometime or other, seeing as all of us seem to be related to The Book. And since the Torch Bearer's one important dude, he should be around soon. And we're hoping that as soon as we encounter him, Noella would recognize him, and -- Zo, are you listening?"
Arizona looked away from the trio. "Huh, what? Oh, oh, yeah, go on."
Misa sighed. "Fine. We'll pick up again tomorrow in the car. If we're going to NY tomorrow, we'll have to wake up early enough to make the drive."
Arizona nodded. "Tell Noella. She always drives. I'll tell the newbies."
She marched up to the group huddled together and put her hands on her hips. They looked up at her as she pointlessly cleared her throat. "Listen up, we're headed for New York tomorrow, you're coming with us. Don't. Try. Anything. I'm warning you."
They all shrugged and got to sleep.
