Two mages and Manda.
Texas, if that's were she was, wasn't much of anything special. Tink had fallen asleep in an empty train car and woken up elsewhere. It wasn't something she was real proud of, but it was just one of those things that had to be dealt with. The train had stopped for several hours at the depo, and she finally decided it wasn't going to move for a long time. Crawling off of it, she found a road and started walking.
Things had been going pretty good, so it was only expected they'd take a turn for the worse and leave her in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere in Louisiana she had been stopped by a overthetop strumpet who had given her a bag of food and a thermos of coffee if she'd give a note to Papa Twilight. Hey, food and coffee were a fine delivery fee for a guy she'd likely see in a month or two, but it did bother her a bit how the woman just seemed to know who she was. Fucking mages.
She had jacked a Game Boy Color off some kid in Tennessee, and Tink was really digging on the Zelda games. Playing late into the night likely had something to do with oversleeping on that damned train car. Powering it up, she kept walking. She beat a castle or two as the sun beat down on her. Really, it wasn't a bad way to spend a day. Peaceful, the weather was good, and the game was just delightful.
And then the fucking cop almost ran her over.
There is something about giving someone a badge and a ginormous truck that makes them think they are out to save the world. Shit. Tink thought, Heat's likely gonna try to arrest me for something. The more she kept thinking about it, the better this idea sounded. At least arrested, she'd be in a city, rather in the middle of goddamned nowhere.
Plan in hand, Tink gave the stopped truck her pathetic 'I'm alone and a little girl and the world is so scary' look. It seemed to work, cause the driver told her to hop in. He had one of them save the world voices, too, but he hadn't broke out handcuffs yet, so it looked like the ride might be alright.
He was a chatty sonofabitch. Wanted to know all sorts of shit. Where she was from, what her family was like, why she was on the side of the road in Texas -- all those bullshit adult questions that they just can't seem to accept they don't need to know. Tink blew him off for a bit, but as the silence that she loved so much stretched on, it became clear that this wasn't how he expected a little girl to act. Fuck, thought Tink, If I don't talk to this guy, he's gonna think I'm weird. I hate strangers. Her mind raced back to lessons with Nixie, as she slowly started up conversation. Bitch was still chatty, so it went fairly well. He seemed to have some sort of hangup or objection to Smoke -- thinking his bitchass shouldn't leave her alone for weeks on end. Adults. Always worried about shit that ain't their problem.
It seemed like they were going somewhere far, and it had been a long time since dinner miles ago, so Tink investigated this bag from the TittyQueen of New Orleans. Shit had everything. Snacks, half a sandwich, a motherfucking apple, and even a snickers bar. Tittylady ain't looking so bad anymore. Even the fucking coffee was good. Shit, for this, Gabe would get his motherfucking letter.
She was rescrewing the lid on the thermos when the explosion came. It's the way it always fucking happens. Shit is going good, the fuss is giving a girl a lift somewhere, the coffee is good, and the fingers aren't frozen from cold, and some motherfucker has to go and fuck shit up. The truck was upside down, but that didn't stop her from watching these five fucked up dudes troll across the highway at them. It seriously looked like some bad episode of Dukes Of Hazard or something, as these guys started taking aim at the flipped over truck.
Tink reached for her hanging spells, only to find invisibility and flight. She growled at herself for the lack of anything useful, but was interrupted by the cop carefully undoing her seatbelt and letting her down. Her flat look of disgust was missed -- what's the point of taking the chick who can fly off the roof? Adults. He fell ungracefully onto his head as he let himself down.
The cop started redeeming himself as he pried the shotgun loose and started maken'em jump. He would have been a lot more useful if he could hit the side of the barn, but at least the bitch was trying. Considering how hurt he was, he was making a good showing...at least until the kick of the shotgun laid him out. Tink checked the sky, seeing the slightly green aftertaste of paradox settling. Shit was gonna hurt.
The first two fucks ran like little bitches as the girl lit up with lighting crackling all over her. Tink smiled slightly as she chanted, a mocking tone entering her High Tongue. Run little rabbits, run, she thought after them, as her attention turned to the other three. It wasn't fancy. She just blasted the holy hell out of them. They fell to the ground with the lighting still flickering through them. She could still see the life pulsing within them, but their shit was out. Tink turned back to the truck to grab her backpack, only to see the cop looking at her with big eyes. Fuck. she thought. And I thought bitch had questions before...
Strangely, after the glance he cast her, he was back up on his feet, picking up the bodies. Belle was glad he was distracted, because it was that second the paradox chose to hit. She could feel it recoiling through her body, her very cells expanding outwards as the raw power punished her physical vessel. Vomiting up blood and TittyQueen's sandwich, she could almost see a flicker of the dark green wrongess tearing through her system. Tink pushed herself up and leaned against the flipped over truck, trying to stop the world from going black. She felt herself lifted and carried.
The next thing Tink could remember was feeling the heat from the truck exploding. Somehow they got to a service station somewhere -- she remembered a lot of slightly delirious walking -- and then an ambulance. She hated ambulances, they always had people in them that asked too many questions. Hospitals were worse. Sure as shit, once she blinked, that's were she was. Fucking do-gooder cop, she thought bitterly. She tried to get her bearings, cause the last thing she wanted was to explain why she was like this, or worse, why her shit was healing too fast. Doctors never understood that. They always wanted to ask questions and know why. Fucking adults.
Feeling came back into her hands, and she could feel a bit of paper stuck between them. Unfolding it, she risked a peek: "East entrance, 2pm, blue civic." Tink's eyes found the big clock in the middle of ER as she was being rolled through. 1:57. Thank God. They got her into the room, and in the moment everyone turned around to get gloved up, she vanished. Panic ensued as they tried to figure out how they 'lost' the little girl. In the mist of that, Tink slipped out.
Sure as shit, there was a blue civic waiting with its door open outside the east entrance. Belle slipped in and 'encouraged' the 'wind' to blow the door shut. The driver, a pretty piece of ass, didn't as any questions, but just started driving. Belle liked her already. Neither of them talked on the ride to wherever, and eventually Tink remembered to appear. The woman still didn't say much. They got to a house in godonlyknowswhere, and the woman ushered her inside.
"I'm Manda," the woman said, searching in a closet.
"Belle."
"You are getting blood on my carpet," she said as she handed the young girl a towel and sweatpants.
Tink blushed. "Sorry."
The woman nodded. "It's okay. Got enough of that in this house anyway." Manda pointed down a hallway. "Down there's the shower. Go get clean and I'll fix you a bite to eat."
Thus when the cop came home, he found Belle sitting at his kitchen table, shoveling Manda's food into her mouth. The woman smiled at him when he entered with that look at says a real hell of a scolding was coming. It didn't happen; he got a hug instead. Belle covered her brief confusion by shoveling more food in her, wasn't her place to question their life.
Manda included Belle back in with a smile in her direction. "This is Billy. I bet he didn't tell you his name, did he?"
Belle nodded no at her, expression all serious-like. "He's a cop."
The woman didn't laugh, taking the child seriously. "Ranger, but yeah. He is." Belle gave the woman a sulky look, and turned her attention back to her dinner. Manda smiled at the two of them. "Well, it looks like you two have lots to talk about. I'll go make up the couch."
They both watched her leave. The cop broke the silence first. "So, mage, huh?"
"Yeah." Then she smiled, the hint of 'I can blow up your house' in her eyes. The conversation paused again. "You, uh, cleaned up that shit real good."
He nodded. "Thank you. I liked how you..." The conversation wound on. It was a bit tense in parts, but as the night wore on, it almost got to reach a normal level. Tink really perked back up when he gave her back her backpack, and she found out the GameBoy had made it through alright.
As it got later, Tink started glancing at the clock and the door. It was time for her to get a rollin, if she didn't want to be stuck in the cops house for a chunk of time. Once you stopped movin', it was hard to get going again. She picked up her back and was about to make some sort of bullshit excuse when Manda came back in the room.
"Belle, I've made up the bed in the guest room for you. You look like you could use a rest." Tink watched her warily. "I've got to put my hero here down, looks like today did a number on you both."
Tink nodded, still watching.
"And you'll be here in the morning." It wasn't a question, woman seemed pretty damn positive. "Cause I'm making blueberry waffles."
Belle's whole stance perked up. "Waffles?"
"Yes, girl, waffles. Now, to bed with you." Pretty eyes flashed at the cop. "And you, too."
It took three months for Tink to stop eating those damn waffles and get back on the road.