Seeking Strays

“Reyna?” Quinn stared down at me with a blank expression. Her face slowly morphed into incomprehension as her eyes slowly dropped to the pool of blood forming below me. “R-Reyna?”

”Hey, Quinn.” I shifted, and let out a sharp rasp of air through my teeth. Still, I forced a smile and tried not to focus on my injuries. “Come here often?”

”Fuck. Fuck!” Quinn dropped down to my side, and pressed her hand against the patch of exposed flesh. My nice blouse was basically in blood-soaked pieces. It barely gave up any resistance when she tried to pull it to the side and accidentally ripped it off.

”Take me to dinner first,” I muttered. That was my favorite one, too. I didn’t have that many nice clothes left anymore.

“Now isn’t the time for that,” she snapped at me, and lifted one of her hands. “Are you still with me? How many fingers am I holding up?”

“I’m bleeding, not blind.” I tried to struggle out of her grasp to no avail. This was why I always took care of the medical stuff. Aside from her aversion to blood. “Three.”

Quinn glanced back over her shoulder—no doubt to where the kids were hiding. I could hear them whispering from back over there. “W-what do I do?”

“The kids?” I asked back instead. I was fine. Totally fine. The worst injury I had was my shoulder, and that was already half-healed. I’d be back to… well, maybe not top-shape. Still, I wouldn’t be a bleeding mess on the floor in a few hours.

“They’re fine. Told them to stay away from the windows. Fuck, why’s there so much blood?” She used her Awoken ability to control my blood, and stem the bleeding. She wasn’t nearly as good at controlling it as pure water, but she did a good enough job that my insides remained inside. “How do I fix this?”

“Quinn,” I called her name. “Quinn, look at me.”

“What?” She lifted her glowing blue eyes to meet my own ugly red ones. I was the injured one, and yet she was the one that looked like she was about to hyperventilate.

”I’ll be fine. I’ve been injured way worse than this before.” Though I was a bit worried about catching some kind of disease from those monsters. I usually didn’t get sick thanks to my enhanced physiology, but I had a feeling that didn’t apply to diseases from anomalous monstrosities.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” She sniffled lightly. Her eyes were already starting to turn red as she watched me bleed out—err, bleed profusely. “What can I do for you?”

”Help me up?” I shifted around, and slowly started to push myself off the wall. Quinn quickly grabbed my arm, and pulled it over her shoulder to support me.

”You really shouldn’t be moving much at all right now.” Quinn’s other hand dropped to my side, and pressed up against my wound to keep up her ability. “Fuck. I should’ve been the one acting as bait.”

”Did I do that bad of a job?” My ears twitched, and I forced her to turn with me to the side so we ducked between shelves of prizes. “Can I have your coat? Can’t let the kids see me like this.”

“Y-yeah.” She pulled away, and shrugged off her jacket. My reflection in the window instantly transformed from profusely bleeding, on death’s door wolf to just a pale and exhausted wolf leaning on her best friend.

“Vigil?” I asked quietly. He was stuffed into the pocket of her jacket. The plushie remained totally quiet. Was he… was he giving me the silent treatment?

Unfortunately, I had other things to worry about. Robert, hearing our voices, finally peeked out from behind a shelf covered in prizes. He had the Hero’s Dagger tightly clutched in his hand. “R-Reyna? Are you okay?”

”Just a little bruise.” I forced my ears upright, and smiled at him. Quinn’s glare felt like daggers pressing into my cheek. “You, uh, you kids alright?”

”Yeah!” Beth, seeing that it was safe, bounced out of cover and moved over to us. Her red hair flicked around her shoulders. “You should’ve seen it! One of those things came at us, and Tidebreak went phwssshhh! And the thing went flying!”

Tracy was a bit more timid behind her, but looked equally as excited. “I can’t wait to tell the kids at school. They’ll never believe I got to see a Guardian in action.”

”That’s so cool!” I forced as much excitement into my voice as I could. I’d been a little worried about them even with me acting as bait, to be honest. Two of the creatures… I figured as much, but Quinn was able to make sure it all went well.

Just as I thought. If I was the one escorting them instead, I wouldn’t have been able to deal with it. Although Quinn couldn’t do damage to them either, she at least could displace the abomination long enough for all of them to get here safely.

”Lizzie?” Quinn called out to the store. She wasn’t with the rest of the kids.

“Over here!” Lizzie shouted from several aisles over. “I found it!”

After a few moments, the girl appeared around the aisle with a leather bound vial clasped tightly in her hands. It looked like a potion pulled straight out of a fantasy game. A tag hung around it with the price tag—10,000 tickets. My attention was stolen away by the Blackwater Anomalous Biosystems making their presence known.

| Lesser Panacea

Type: consumable

Anomalous Property: Miracle Medicine

Effect: Can cure all common diseases, illnesses, and infections, returning the body back to its peak state. As a lesser variant, its effects are greatly diminished. |

Honestly, the Biosystems were kind of useless in this case. The backside of the tag had the potion’s description. The arcade wasn’t selling unknown items to its customers—everything here was likewise marked with a description and effect.

“T-thank you.” Lizzie held the potion to her chest like a precious treasure. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

”Don’t thank us yet.” Quinn nodded to a counter on the backside of the ticket shop. “Let’s get moving.”

Our group slowly shuffled to the front of the place. Our lack of speed was my fault. As per usual, I was just holding everyone around me back. I shook my head to clear up the slight fog. Blood loss was starting to get to me. I’d be fine, but… “How are we going to get it past the containment team?”

”I haven’t thought that far ahead, yet.” Quinn shrugged. “They’d probably let me through without a search, right?”

”You’d be the first one that they would search.” I sighed softly. After coming all of this way… “Don’t suppose we could requisition it back?”

”This kind of thing?” Quinn held up the vial. “You know as well as I do that it wouldn’t make it back to Harbor without someone acquiring it.”

Right, crime it was. Funny how it always seemed to wrap back around to that. The two of us went silent while we tried to brainstorm ways of making it through. My attention was quickly stolen by the chaotic assortment of items lining the shelves of this place.

| Candyman’s Candy Box

Type: Equipment

Anomalous Property: Neverending Rush

Effect: Refills every hour with anomalous candy. |

| Demon King’s Pendant

Type: Equipment

Anomalous Property: Facade of the King

Effect: While wearing the pendant, appear like a fantastical demon king. |

There were thousands if not tens of thousands of items scattered across the massive store. Each of them was as anomalous as the last. There were so many that even I wanted to run around and try to shop for something.

That was the trap of this place, though. I shook my head, and my ears curled low against my silver hair. The trap became even more apparent as we approached the counter. A metal grate blocked the customer side from the employee side. Behind the grate sat a void of darkness that I couldn’t see through. I could feel something watching me from within it, though. It felt almost… curious?

A sign flickered to life above the counter in bright neon colors.

GRAND PRIZE

PSYKER PURIFICATION SERUM

COST: 1,000,000

I stared at the neon sign for a long time. Long enough for the kids to fork over all their tickets to buy the Lesser Panacea. Long enough for me to seriously consider going back out into the arcade to grind out enough tickets to buy it.

“What are you looking at?” Quinn glanced back and forth between me and the top of the checkout counter uncertainly.

”You can’t see it?” I forced myself to look away.

”See what?” Quinn frowned, and her eyes danced back and forth uneasily.

Was it because I was the only one even close to hitting a million? I hesitated for a second and then handed over the satchel. “Here. What about now?”

Quinn took the satchel from me. The flashing neon sign abruptly vanished, and she stared at where it’d just been with dumbfounded eyes. A moment later, she forced herself to look away. “I, uh… w-what did it say for you?”

”I don’t want to talk about it.” As I thought… this place put the most desired thing up there, didn’t it? I took the satchel back from Quinn. She let me with only a slight resistance that abruptly faded. “You?”

”Something impossible.” She shook her head with a sad sigh. “1,000,000, huh? How long would that take?”

”Too long.” I wasn’t sure if it was even a real reward, either. Something about the whole situation set me on edge. Every other reward was a physical thing in here somewhere, so why was only this one like this? “Lizzie, where’s the way out of here?”

”That door there.” The girl pointed toward a door off to the sides of the counter. Really, I should’ve seen it coming. There was a big, glowing exit sign hanging right above it. “It only opened last time when I bought a one ticket candy.”

I pushed off of Quinn, and leaned on the counter as I carefully pulled tickets from my satchel. With my tickets included, there were 10,000 tickets on the counter. Almost like a vacuum, the tickets were sucked into the absolute void behind the counter.

”Transaction complete.” A robotic voice called from a till set up on the counter. “Come again!”

With the robot’s voice, the exit door on the side of the counter slowly opened. I resisted Quinn’s attempts to pull me off the counter, and pushed her away lightly. “You go first.”

“Right, like I’d leave you here.” Quinn shook her head, and moved to support me once more.

With a deep breath, I stood up to my full height like I wasn’t injured. It hurt, but I let her support my movements more for her benefit than my own. Like I said, I’d taken much worse and been fine. “I’ll be out right after you. Someone’s got to explain what’s happening to the containment team.”

“I… right.” She slowly nodded her head. At the end of the day, I was just a Canary and she was a Guardian. Her word was much stronger than mine. Not to mention her halo was identification enough.

Quinn headed to the door, and paused to check back on me. Only once she was sure did she walk through the door. The moment she passed through, it snapped shut behind her.

The kids raced to the door, and started to push and pull on it. Lizzie tightly clutched at her Lesser Panacea. “What’s going on?!”

”Nobody panic.” I tiredly called from the counter. I half expected something like this to happen, which was part of the reason I had Quinn go first. “Everything’s okay.”

”How is this okay?” Beth practically shouted.

“You kids go grab a one ticket item over there.” I waved off to the side, and started to pull more tickets out of my satchel. This place only let you leave when you made a purchase. Quinn took our one escape when she went through. That meant we just needed to buy four more chances.

With me trying to keep them calm, it was only a matter of moments until I bought four more escapes. The kids disappeared through the door one after another alongside a few pieces of candy. I pulled one last ticket out of the bag to buy my own exit, though paused instead of setting it down on the counter.

My eyes dropped to the satchel full of tickets. Bringing this out there… is it really smart to just hand these over to an Harbor containment team? Even with helping the kids, I still had somewhere around 850,000 tickets hanging from my side.

If Harbor got these… they’d just start Experiment 467 all over again, wouldn’t they? Only this time, they’d do it with a massive head start. This place was already going to be a nightmare of experimentation in the coming weeks after we got out of here. All it would take was one hint about what was inside, and they’d ignore the previous generation’s warning isolation protocols.

Quinn and I could keep our lips sealed, but the kids? They were incredibly brave, but they were ultimately teenagers in an adult world. It would just take one slip up. I needed to find a way to get rid of the tickets before Harbor got them.

How though? Spend them? Stuff them into prizes and hide them around here? I held my side, and walked out into the empty store once more. Despite the cheerful music, I found myself longing to be back home in Silverport. There was just one more thing I needed to do.

I slowly looked up to the grand prize, and shook my head. I wasn’t that far off. If I delayed getting out of here too long, Quinn would definitely jump back in to come get me no matter what anyone might say. I collapsed onto the side of the counter and breathed heavily.

The moment I pushed away from the counter, I felt eyes on me. Not the curious ones from behind the counter. These ones were different—familiar almost. It was like a whole host of people were carefully watching what I was doing.

“You feel that too, Vigil?” I quietly asked the plushie stuffed in my pocket. He remained silent. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? Are you mad that I gave you away to Quinn?”

”This unit can not feel emotions.” The robot finally spoke up. “I am… perplexed. This unit can appreciate what you were trying to do, Reyna Vargriev, but my fifth priority is to ensure your health.”

”I’m healthy enough, aren’t I?” I spread my arms, and winced as it pulled on my side and shoulder. “‘Sides, you can’t do much in your current state. What if I died and you were stuck here with me? Isn’t finding your Grail Knight more important?”

“Indeed.” His agreement stung, and made my ears lower slightly. “I am useless in my current form. I will work on that. However, this unit must insist you won’t hand me off to third parties in the future.”

”Fine, fine…” I shook my head. The feeling of being watched had faded a bit, but it was still there. “I feel like I’m being watched.”

”This unit does not sense anything off in the air.” Vigil returned to his totally neutral voice. Wait, did we just have an argument?

I shook my head, and followed the sensation. I half expected it to take me out toward the window, where I’d find one of the maintenance creatures leering at me. Instead, I followed it to the bargain 1 ticket bins.

Why—? Something flickered at the corner of my peripheral vision. The fur along my tail shot up, and I flinched toward it. “H-hello? Is someone there?”

My ears twitched alertly, but there wasn’t a single sound other than the arcade music. I hesitantly walked down the aisle between two shelves, and the sensation of being watched abruptly intensified.

The feeling grew and grew until I stopped in front of a deep tub filled with erasers. Everlasting Erasers, according to the tag on the front of the tub.

I picked one up, and toyed with it. Why these? What was so important about erasers? Unless… I dug my hand down into the tub. After a moment, my fingers touched cold metal. The moment I made contact, the sensation abruptly vanished like it’d been a lie. The object, however, stayed right where it was.

I pulled it out to reveal a weird looking key. A price tag hung from the ring of the key—750,000 tickets. After a moment, the Blackwater Biosystems brought up the key’s information.

| Back Arcade Key

Type: Equipment

Anomalous Property: Manager’s Key

Effect: Can open and close the entrance to the Back Arcade. |

“This…” My fingers closed tightly around the key. Why was this hidden away? Did the arcade try to hide it? Or did a previous researcher stash it after finding it? Somehow, I doubted I’d ever get the answer to that particular question.

No, wait, more importantly than that, what just happened? My eyes narrowed on the key. That feeling—it was something I’d felt before. Specifically, it only took a moment to remember where. Just before I’d entered an Overlap. Why did that appear here, though? And why the hell did it lead me to where this was hidden away?

I looked around the shop for answers, but didn’t find any. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was expecting either. I thumbed the key, and shuffled back to the counter. I tossed my satchel and the key down onto the polished surface.

A metallic tendril, similar to the creature’s outside, slowly slid out of the pure darkness behind the ticket counter. The moment it appeared, I dragged myself backward and summoned out Rend’s claws. The silver nanites flowed out into a deadly weapon in a mere instant.

Instead of reaching for me, though, the tendril simply gathered up the tickets I’d presented. A deep, guttural voice came from beyond the dark void. It was entirely incomprehensible, yet somehow I knew exactly what it was saying. “Transaction unbalanced.”

“So?” I hesitantly asked back to the entity. “Keep the change.”

I didn’t want the tickets in the first place. If this could take them off my hands, then I saw no reason to complain. The entity stayed silent for several long moments before it finally accepted the satchel. “This one accepts.”

”Good.” I watched the tickets disappear into the void. Part of me longed to take them back, though I didn’t say anything.

I felt its gaze linger on me for a moment longer before a tendril pushed out of the darkness. It dropped another key onto the counter. This one had a small charm of a motorcycle. “Transaction balanced. Thank you, customer.”

The door to the side of the counter popped open. I stared at the eerie darkness for a moment before looking away. “Is that it?”

It didn’t reply. Heh… everybody’s a winner, right? I picked up both sets of keys. They vanished as soon as I made contact with them, just like the other anomalies bound to me. I shook my head, and staggered out the exit door.

— - —

AN: This one was fun. I always find myself doing these anomaly/overlap arcs, and then wanting to go back to the city so bad ‘cause there’s just so much I want to get through. It’s a good problem, really.