Nightfall

Chapter 10: A New Teacher

"Wait, what?!" I blurted, "You guys can't be serious! You heard what Anya told me! Its suicide!"

Ruby laughed menacingly, "Who do you think we are sweetheart? A couple of push overs? We are two of the strongest people in this country! A few useless thugs with pea shooters shouldn't be too much for us to handle. And besides; hunters here are the best upholders of the law here, if someone does something evil, or we just don't like it, it's kind of our job to stop it."

"But what about me? I'll be Swiss cheese in an instant! You two may be super powerful hyper-wizards or whatever, but I haven't even figured out how to summon my gift yet! You guys can go, but until I learn how to protect myself from bullets I'm not going anywhere."

I finished that statement by crossing my arms and shooting her a firm glare. It was the first time I had ever stood up to her and honestly I was pretty nervous.

Ruby stared back at me with a similar stubborn expression for a second after I said this, trying to think of a way out of our predicament.

"Well I guess we'll just have to teach you how to use your gift before we go then, won't we?"

In reality I just had not wanted to go, but since my excuse didn't work the way I had wanted I accepted my fate and agreed.

Upon hearing me give in, Ruby jumped up from her spot at the bar and exclaimed, "Great! We'll get you all powered up and then bring down the hammer of justice on these douchebags." She made the last part very dramatic, then turned to James and continued, "Alright James I think your work is done. So you can be our intel, this "boss" doesn't sound too hard to find, but still, make sure we know enough about him to make this easy. As for me, I'm going to find someone to train our apprentice in kinetic techniques since I won't be of much use. And Stone, you better be ready to learn, because we won't wait very long."

James sighed, "You know you are not my boss, correct? You sure have been ordering me around a lot lately."

Ruby sighed and composed herself. Then, after a split second she put on her most endearing face and giggled, " I'm sorry James, will you pleaseeeee gather intel for us?"

James stared at her unamused. But even as strong as he was, he eventually gave into her pressure with a sigh and went back to his apartment to get started.

Once he left, Ruby grabbed some sheets and pillows and handed them to me before telling me to go right to sleep. We apparently were going to "hunt" for a teacher the next day, so that meant I needed to be on my top game.

The next day we searched the internet far and wide for someone that was willing and able to teach me. Ruby called all of her contacts, and I searched the web, but unfortunately, no one we could contact seemed to possess the same type of aura as me. Then, after several hours of searching, Ruby remembered that Henry had mentioned a man and, several phone calls later, came in contact with him. She arranged to meet him at a restaurant to talk and went on to work out some sort of deal as he apparently did not work for free. I was relieved to hear that we had found someone and I didn't have to keep searching, but on the other hand I could tell from what I heard of the conversation that he wasn't the most agreeable teacher. He sounded like a dick.

To make matters worse, the "restaurant" we agreed to meet at was actually a bar in the American sector. The place was in a strip mall that was crammed next to some shotty apartments and was packed full of shady people. It didn't strike me as a good place to do business, but on the other hand it was a seller's market and we could not afford to be picky.

Ruby and I walked there since it wasn't far into the American sector, but it was a long, silent walk. It was obvious that Ruby was less than thrilled to be paying this guy whatever she was paying him, but he was the only person we could find, so we had to play by his rules.