Smoke and Demons

However, Having Swords CAN Make You an Edge Lord

>Bajer<

"Um, Mr. Hollow?" I rolled my eyes and groaned internally. This lady had been following me down the halls, practically tripping over everything to catch up with my long strides. I stopped and leaned against the wall, waiting for her to catch up.

She was a thin thing, fragile and full of sharp angles. Her face didn't give away her age, but I was guessing she had probably had plastic surgery at some point. The lady clutched a clipboard close to her chest, covering the top of her black dress she wore. She huffed, her red hair in her face.

"Mr. Hollow," She stood up straighter. "I need to go over some notes with you about the mission."

I tilted my head at her, trying to get a read on her. "How does a girl like you survive in a place like this." When she scowled at me I added, "No offense of course."

"It's none of your business." She spat. "But what is your business is what the hell is going on on the surface, and if you don't listen to me you're going to be underprepared." Her face got all red.

I smiled. "Yes Ma'am." I started walking. "Keep up, we're going to the war room."

Her heels clicked on the concrete floor, men looking at us while we passed. And yet she didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable. When she caught me staring at her she clutched her clipboard and leaned closer to me. "If you must know I'm 'the Boss's' girl. So don't be staring like that. One scream, one yell, and your head would be on my wall." She walked with a bit more strut.

I almost felt bad for this girl. She was in over her head. "Yes Ma'am."

We walked the rest of the way to the war room, and to say the least it was quite impressive. Most of what they had in there was the old stuff. Guns, bats, homemade bombs that sorta thing. But what was the show stopper was proudly displayed on the back wall, military guns, stolen and sold on the market, those ones that looked straight outta the movies. Guns that shot blasts of force, not bullets, so you'd be thrown maybe twenty feet with a direct hit. Others that shot electricity, but not in the taser kida way. And in the center in a glass display were my swords, the ones that I had left here on my last mission, Boss holding them as hostage. Well today I'm getting them back.

I ignored the Boss's girl as she tried to talk to me, instead lifting up the glass case, and examining what condition my babies were in. Those crackheads better not have broken them. I picked them up, not able to hold back my glee. The cold metal, the hefty weight; I had missed them. It's like a part of me was missing. I rubbed my fingers down the black paint of the hilt, before grabbing one in both hands and swinging them, getting a little yelp from the lady.

I couldn't help it, I laughed. "You should see these suckers when I charge 'em up. I gotta charge at home. They really are something."

She clutched a hand to her head, steadying her breaths. "Yeah. Really something." She wiped invisible dust off her front of her dress. "Look, about the details."

"I'm listening." I mumbled as I continued to examine the blades, running my fingers down the metal, looking to see if any of the electronic parts had been damaged.

"Look, I'll give you coordinates for the government holding facility he's at." That got my attention. "You should be able to find him easily, but you must know as soon as you break him out you are going flocked from all directions. The government, the other gangs, and the monsters."

"Monsters?" I started to look for my sheathes, knowing that the Boss must have kept them somewhere. I bent over and started rummaging through the cupboards.

"Yes. Monsters." She sighed. "Seems like some of the apocalypse movies got it right. They aren't zombies, but more like..." She struggled for words. "It's hard to explain, but people have started to call them Demons. It seems that people who weren't killed initially by the smoke, breathed it in and mutated." She tapped her foot, annoyed. "Are you even listening?" When I didn't reply she slammed her clipboard on a counter, causing me to look up. "Demons! Listen to me. This is why it's so important that you get the kid. For the masks. And it's also why it's so important for you to not damage your mask either." She mumbled under her breath something that very vaguely sounded like cussing. "Boss says if you can't get the job done, no one can. But I'm having a hard time seeing what is so special about you."

I tilted my head. "Yes Ma'am."

"Urgg!" She threw her clipboard at me, and I caught it in my hand, struggling to hold it along with the sword and the sheaths I had finally found. "Here's your god forsaken coordinates. Go have fun: have a blast! Do me a favor and get yourself killed." With murder in her eyes she stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. 'Bout time.

Because I had real work to do.

>{}<

Authors Note

I really hate this chapter. Like actually hate it. I've tried to fix it, but the characters all seem wrong, it just feels flat, and I'm going to attest it to my lack of experience in an underground gang hid-away. Excuses but how am I supposed to know what a gang works like other than that one time in health class? Well anyways, if you made it this far, thank you! It means so much! Please keep reading, hopefully not all my chapters are as cruddy as this one, but it has some exposition in it, so that's why I decided to not scrap it entirely. Also, hopefully, the chapters start to get a little longer, a bit more book like. Thank you and hope you are enjoying the story!