As the hole in the ceiling closed behind Adrian, the two brothers watched silently, lost in their own private thoughts, as they so often were these days. Moving at the same time, they began to clean up the mess their younger brother had left behind him when he left. As Aleksander moved the corpse to stem the trickle of blood and closed the vessels in it’s neck with his mind, Aiden began to grow long tendrils of metal from his body, tipped with patches of extra-hairy skin, mopping up the blood and discarding the pads inside the throat of the body, letting the alloys return to his self in a fast slither.
With a sigh of relief, Aiden realized that he wasn’t in the least exhausted by what he’d done. Looking up at Aleksander quickly, he smiled brightly. “The little fucker wasn’t kidding. I’m already feeling stronger.”
“I know Brother. I just discovered a new part of the human mind and a new trick, too.” With a wicked grin, Alex snapped his fingers and watched the body burst into flame.
“Awesome! How’d you do that?!” Aiden exclaimed.
“Just pinched a nerve in his brain and twisted... something... It kinda did it on its own. I’m not even sure how I know it.”
“Nice. Think we should go take care of the prisoners now? I don’t particularly think they should be handed over to the scientists. Those nasty little bastards never mean well when they work on a new experiment.”
“Sure thing, but I’m ravenous, so let’s interrogate them at Ringo’s. I’ll just put a locker in their minds so they can’t escape.”
“Sounds pretty good to me, let’s get going.”
The two men walked through the maze of tunnels, working towards the experimentation cells on the upper levels, where all current inmates of the Ever orientation were kept. As they walked into the hallway along which the cells were arranged, they saw a fat human guard sitting at a desk, stuffing down donuts while he watched the only three inmates there. Both of the girls were awake, and staring at the remaining inmate in some emotion between fear and revulsion.
The last inmate was a member of a small offshoot tribe of the Quaker Evers, who were genetic chameleons, changing their bodies as often as a woman changed her mind. The only thing that told them that was the snakelike shape of his face and the extensive modifications he had done to himself in the years he had lived, the apparent ones probably only a fraction of the full extent he had modified himself in his life.
His eyes were slitted like a cats and sparkling silver, offsetting the nose ring he had probably put in himself. His hands were long-fingered and each finger tipped with a spike of bone crudely sheathed in metal, dark gray but deadly sharp. His tongue flickered between his lips as he watched the two girls, the triple-tips of it moving independently of each other as he scented the air. He didn’t wear shoes, since his feet wouldn’t fit after he had added a few extra toes to each foot, allowing him to run faster over rough country without falling. He had a long, prehensile tail encased in scaly skin, ending in a wicked barb of bone, once again sheathed in metal as had the claws on his hands. He seemed to have gills under his ragged shirt and his hair was mostly fallen out from the thickened bone on his skull. He looked like a cross between a zombie and a fish, his lower jaw protruding a bit from his upper, where long tusks grew up out of it at a slight curve.
As the men walked in, both the guard and the Quaker turned to look at them. With falsely wicked smiles, they split, Aiden walking to the guard and Alex to the Quaker, both on different missions.
Leaning forward, Aiden extended a long tentacle of wires from his wrist and picked up a donut, sticking it in his mouth and munching it contentedly. Looking away, Aiden heard the guard sigh in relief and right then, he struck. The tentacle moved faster than lightning, splitting into 8 different wires that each plunged into a different part of the guard with a wet squish. With a faint grunt, the guard was ripped into sections, painting the walls with blood and gore.
As Aleksander reached the Quaker, he smiled more realistically. “Don’t worry, you’ll be free of your pain soon. I’m so sorry we had to make you insane, but I had to have a test subject to see what would happen.” Smiling more sadly now, Aiden disabled the creature’s pain receptors and twisted a nerve in his mind, watching him explode inside the shield he had woven. Sighing, he met up with Aiden next to the girls’ cell, his eyes downcast as he thought on what he had done.
“We decided to interrogate you ourselves and let you avoid the experiments with these creeps. But we have a dilemma we need to solve.” Aiden said in Ever, looking back and forth between the girls, with a quick wave to the scientists walking past, “We need to leave the compound and aren’t sure if you can be trusted not to run off when our backs are turned. Can I have your vow not to run off while we are all off in town?”
The girls nodded slowly, watching Aleksander with apprehension and fear apparent in their eyes.
“Good. Now, I’m going to unlock your cage. Don’t do anything rash, and we won’t disable your powers and turn you into drooling idiots.” Aiden said with a smile, speaking English for the first time.
The two girls watched him unlock the cage and walked out of it, following the two Brothers through the compound silently, their eyes wandering over their surroundings with interest.
You get it planted? Aiden thought to Alex.
Yeah, wasn’t that hard. They’re slightly telepathic, but not enough to beat me. Aleksander thought with a mental smile. He was very sure of himself in mental matters, and for very good reason.
Stepping into an elevator, Alex hit the button for the garage and leaned back against the doors while Aiden started to talk to his reflection. The girls took turns watching them both, and Alex took this chance to get a closer look at them both while pretending to watch Aiden.
The taller one had black hair falling over her shoulders and dark eyes, like chips of ice in the Arctic Circle. She looked just short of 6 feet tall and had an air of being angry constantly. He thought that it was kind of cute to see her snarl like that, baring her teeth at him. It showed off her beauty even more in his opinion. She looked to have a fairly curvy body, not too large but not too small either, just the right size in all the ways that mattered. He still remembered having to knock her out when they first met her. She had been angrily brave even then. He admired courage in a girl, and he admired guts even more.
The other Ever was a little shorter, but more curvy than the other, her attributes seeming right for her frame even though she was a little underweight by human standards and nearly as well-gifted as her companion. Her hair was blonde and cut to her shoulders, matching her bright gold eyes, which watched Aiden with an apparent interest. She always seemed eerily calm, and got under his skin in a way only the supremely confident could, which was probably why Aiden was watching her through the mirror. Aleks still thought she was a little too confident though. She’d certainly annoyed Aiden with that rope trick of hers.
As he felt the elevator slowing, he stood straight again and buzzed Aiden to get his attention, making a fire alarm go off in his inner ear. He turned smoothly, giving Alex the finger in the same motion he put his arms around both girls’ shoulders and started walking out of the elevator behind Aleksander.
“I say we take the new Chester Nail.” Aiden said quietly, surveying the collection of rare and expensive cars in the room. They had a habit of buying things they liked.
“What’s that…?” Said the dark haired girl, speaking for the first time in a slightly lower voice than expected, pointing to a dark SUV parked against the near wall.
Aleksander smiled at her gently and explained, “The Chester Nail is our newest car. We acquired it from a military testing base in Washington State. Kinda like an SUV that’s been raped by a Jeep, a Hummer, and a tank. Completely stealthed though. Looks just like an SUV.” Aleksander walkedacross the garage to what looked like a large 4-Door Chevy Trailblazer. It was painted in black and chrome and seemed pretty innocuous.
“That doesn’t look very scary.” The blonde one had a tone to her voice like she was sneering at you, but she looked genuinely curious.
“Not yet it doesn’t, but watch this.” Aleksander said with a smile, sending a mental command to the custom-made console. He grinned as the whole truck suddenly shifted higher on it’s suspension. Guns sprouted from every possible place on the Blazer, it’s windows seeming to grow darker as the rocket-proof second pane came up and the whole thing got bigger. A third pair of wheels dropped down from the chassis and the whole thing looked a lot more menacing now.
“That’s… Quite interesting. I’m guessing it does more?” The blonde one said, sneering for real this time. Women were never easy to please
“Sure. It also completely rebuilds into a tank. This is emergency combat mode, for when something decides it hates us RIGHT NOW.” Aiden said, smiling down at both ladies. He sent a command to the truck that re-shifted the whole thing to normal again, adding in a little beep as if shutting off a car alarm.
As the Chester drove over on it’s own, Aleksander jumped into the drivers seat and Aiden got in back with the two girls, sitting between them in a very obviously flirtatious move. As Alex revved out of the garage and drove towards New York, Aiden attempted to chat up the two girls, but they just stared out the windows silently, seeming not to notice anything he said.
Crossing the bridge over into Manhattan, Alex navigated through traffic to a little alley off of Canal Street, parking next to a little restaurant that seemed to be invisible to all the people walking past. Smiling to himself, Aleksander hopped out and walked up to the front of the place, talking quietly to a stocky little man with tattoos everywhere on his body who stood there dressed all in green. Putting out his hand, he proceeded to read the mans mind and move him a couple of feet in the air. The man laughed and clapped him on the back, or as close as he could to it, letting him in with a grin and stepping into the entryway again. Aiden came up to the man and held out his right hand to the stout gentleman. As the girls watched, they saw his arm suddenly bulge and his whole hand exploded outwards, revealing a silvery-metallic limb in it’s place, flexing and moving. The metallic hand then dwindled slowly back into his arm and they all watched as his flesh began to regrow his hand. Clapping, the man let him in with a smile and turned to the girls, speaking a strange mash of languages at them. As they stepped forward, he spoke something intelligible.
“Y’all gots ta prove ye is Evers ‘fore ya can go inta the Bar.”
They both smiled and demonstrated for him, the blonde one summoning a piece of stone from the ground and letting some water out of her pouch, turning them into a miniature waterfall. The raven-haired girl smiled the same and flipped out a lighter along her fingers and lit it, blowing on it to produce a flamethrower.
The little man nodded and grinned, letting them in with a bow before continuing his streetside vigil, a grin sitting on his face.
As the girls walked in, they spotted the men in a corner booth, talking to a waiter who seemed to have a tail swishing lazily behind him as he talked. The two women walked over and slid into the booth across from the men, watching them with blank expressions and blanker expressions.
The waiter continued in faintly accented English, “… And then he said to me, ‘You need to be more careful Giovanni, otherwise next time, you’ll end up without a heart.’ I never realized physical mods could be so dangerous.”
Aiden laughed softly, smiling at the waiter, “Well, I like the tail Gio. It really suits you. I think I’ll have the taco salad, hold the human fingers. And Alex says he wants his usual. He’s in one of his brooding moods today, the silly bugger.”
“I understand completely sir. And for the ladies?”
“Just get them a sampler plate. They’ve never eaten here.”
“Gotcha.” The waiter bustled off to the kitchen, yelling to the cook in a mishmash of Italian, German, French, And Russian.
“What is this place? And what’s with the security? I get the feeling he doesn’t speak Ever.”
“Aiden, would you like to do the honors?” Aleksander said, seeming distracted.
“Certainly. This, girls, is the restaurant of Reginald Giovanni The Fifteenth, Heir to the Giovanni Syndicate fortune. Evers only, hence the security. And yes, the man at the door is not an Ever. He’s not human either. It turns out, there ARE werewolves and vampires and such, other than Evers who act like them. He’s a… Well, he calls himself a Rambelfunctious. Pronounced Ramble-funk-shus. Claims to be from the Erie Isle, and his accent checks out, but we’re pretty sure he’s some kind of leprechaun, perhaps just got tired of the work. Probably got bored with the whole gold and rainbows thing, who wouldn’t?” Aiden shrugged with a sweeping hand movement that indicated it wasn’t his business.
The waiter came back with four steaming platters of food, one of them a high-piled taco salad in a flour tortilla shell with sprinkles of blood on top. The two girls got a platter covered in variants on normal Italian, German, French, and Spanish cuisine, including a couple different kinds of German wienerschnitzel with blood topping and es-cargo fed only from the best virgin’s blood. Aleksander got a plate with something that looked like a huge crab-walrus crossbreed sitting on it, covered in a buttery-garlicky smelling sauce. As the girls began to try the food and Aiden fell to, Aleksander suddenly darted at the crawlrus on his plate, stabbing it through the middle and pinning it to the table as it screamed for a few seconds before he killed it.
“Always taste better fresh.” Was all he would say as he began to munch on it’s innards.
The girls resumed their meal and Aiden began to ask them questions over his food, being careful in his interrogation. As the meal continued, Aiden found out very little, considering the girls were only as old as they looked, or so they said. He found out only their powers and that they were unsure what tribe they belonged to, if any. They showed none of the marks of the known tribes, and there were too many different tribes to be sure if they even had one. Grinning over his food, Aiden began to tell the girls all about Adrian, watching their expressions as he spoke, carefully gauging their reaction to his spontaneous gesture of friendliness.
As they all finished their meal, Giovanni came over with their check and said that he had to go attend to some things but it was nice to see the Brothers again, and that dinner would be on the house next time.
Wandering out to the car, Aleksander started up the engine and the girls followed while Aiden paid the bill, giving the doorman one last pat on the back. Climbing into the front, Aiden suddenly gripped the seat tightly and looked at something the others didn’t see, his eyes flickering around their sockets.
“Go… NOW!” Aiden screamed, his voice cracking. Alex obeyed immediately, screeching out of there and going into emergency weapons online mode, squealing into traffic and enabling his full mental presence, moving cars off the road ahead of them by force. Anyone who didn’t move in time was moved.
Alex spotted a giant creature bursting out of the alleyway behind them, it’s skin seeming to crawl. It looked to be nearly two stories tall and it was grotesque. It’s skin, or whatever it was, writhed like a living thing and it’s face was nothing more than two mean eyes and a gaping slash of a mouth. It lumbered along with slow, long strides, it’s feet made of two toes in front and one in back and it’s hands like mittens that could separate into millions of tentacles. Despite this slow pace, it was catching up to them quickly.
Suddenly, Aiden kicked his door open and said but two words before back-flipping out of the door. He merely said, “Watch This.” A cocky grin on his face as he fell out.
Alex spun the car around in a skid and sat watching from a couple hundred feet back, unsure what his brother would do against such a creature as this. Clay Golems, especially ones this big, were normally almost impossible to kill, since they weren’t truly alive. The girls crowded closer, watching with blank expressions, as they had all day.
As Aiden rolled out of the vehicle, he came to his feet and started running towards the creature, thinking quickly.
“God I hope this works… Powers don’t fail me now!” With a deep breathe, Aiden roared as he pushed his powers as far as they would go. Suddenly, he felt the ground rumble and a subway train exploded from the ground under him, melting quickly and flowing into his hand, which had once again burst open, replaced by metallic alloys. Before his eyes, Aiden watched the metal flow over his body and suddenly, he felt invincible. Yelling in triumph, he leaped into the air and slammed his fist down on one of the Golem’s feet. Suddenly, right before the impact, his hand seemed to turn red and squirm, wrapping around the foot as if eating it. A second later, it cooled and returned, showing the foot to be blackened and cracked.
“Let’s try something else…” Aiden pulled the metals back into his body and started to strengthen his muscles with his personal alloys, letting the subway car fall to the ground with a crash. As his whole body bulged with power, he leaped forward, diving into the Golem’s body, having an idea of how to eliminate him as a threat.
As Alex watched Aiden dive, he felt sure he’d just lost a Brother.
“You stupid bastard!!!” Aleksander screamed, on the edge of tears. Suddenly, he saw a movement in the Golem’s chest. Thinking like Aiden would, Alex checked the incendiary grenade rack and found one missing.
“You crafty bastard. I knew it.” Alex said as he watched the Golem implode, first turning rock hard and then blowing outwards from a metallic sphere sitting within it, glowing as it sat in the air for a second before dropping and rolling away. Aiden sat up, shook off, and walked back to the car, sliding into the seat as his arms began to reform.
“Let’s go. I need to wash off stupid magical douchebag. Ugh….” Aiden said, wiping gray slime off of his tattered clothes.
“Sure thing bro.” Alex returned, driving off toward the military base they called home, a stupid grin on his face.
The girls just sat watching them, having their own mental conversation that the two men had no idea about, nor even knew possible.
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