You had a plan, or at least something that resembled one.
You'd get out of this place, make a call from a pay phone just as soon as you were a comfortable distance into the city.
After calling your family, you'd go sight seeing.
That was what you needed - a chance to talk with your family.
You could find out what work your father had managed to get, what your mother was doing to stay busy while she looked for work, see if they'd given your room to your sister yet.
If that brat had your room, you wouldn't be happy.
No, they wouldn't do that, they'd just tease about it and-
"Come on, lets get out of here before you-" you shot Millicent a glance as she paused to brush a thumb over your cheek. "Okay, that's a bruise, we'll pick up some makeup while we're out too, foundation and such, you can disguise the worst of it."
"Before I what?" you asked, as you turned your attention towards the lobby beyond the lift. "You were going to accuse me of being accident prone again, weren't you."
"No, you were zoning out. You're clearly far from your best, so, perhaps... Yeah, lets pick up coffee on the way too, we can get something strong to perk you up. That's assuming though..."
"Assuming what?"
"Hell if I know, but what if your body purges that kind of stuff now?"
"Then we'll find out?"
"Sure, we'll get you a strong coffee and..." Millicent paused as a frown came to her features.
"And...?" you asked, waiting for a answer that would never come.
"Lets just go," she responded as she forced a smile, leaving you wondering once more just what... No, you didn't care at this point, she could be as secretive and mysterious as she liked, your concerns were calling your family and sight seeing.
Not the petty interpersonal drama of a bunch of agents with dwindling power, or their fears that you'd be snatched up by people who actually had funding.
You didn't care for their drama, their goals, dreams, whatever.
What you did with your power would be to serve your own goals once you had them.
You alone would ultimately decide if what they requested of you was an acceptable use of your powers.
In time, at least.
You just had to remember you, Alyssa, had what they desired.
They would come to you, they would pay you tribute.
You would never again have to feel as if you were second rate, the girl that would get passed over.
A little ego would carry you through these times.
Millicent marched you out to her car after a few hushed words with the person behind the desk, taking you through doors that you had seen a few days ago last.
A few days ago enshrouded in fog, all you could see was the looming facade of this building with lights bleeding through into the darkness of night.
Now, you could see the dull facade as you glanced backwards, the steady rise of the building a counterpoint to your fall as you descended the steps away from it and to freedom. Freedom that had never tasted so sweet as it did now, for this freedom was one in what you could finally get a taste for something you yearned for.
Oh, did you yearn for that connection with your family.
Step, after step away from this oppresive and dreary symbol of what could be, into the freedom - however brief - that the city itself represented at this time.
The buildings about this one were as dreary, with the road that weaved past them leading to a shared parking lot. One of them was converted housing, the other office buildings, the other businesses and residences... Well, you didn't know.
You didn't care either.
And there was Millicent's car, just visible in the distance.
That tatty old thing that made you question what someone with her apparent job prospects was doing with these people.
Just what kept her from leaving them to pursue a career that would pay her what you could only assume was substantially better with, well, anyone?
"Phone call first. Coffee second. Sightseeing after that," you stated as you approached the car, prompting Millicent to glance your way. "That's my priorities, I really, really need to talk with my family. But..." you patted your pockets.
"We forgot to claim replacement funding for you. Don't worry, I'll cover it and get it covered as an expense."
"Thank you," you responded, figuring that as small a gesture as that brief mention of gratitude was, that it would be appreciated none the less.
You clambered into her car, belting yourself in as it roared to life and lurched from the parking lot.
Here you were, back where you had started with her - inside a vehicle going places unknown.
This time though, it was away from this place that sought to oppress you, a place in what the man atop the pile sought to throw his weight around to hold onto power he had never had. He was a literal fish out of water, yet he had betrayed that he himself had a power to you when he had addressed you after you had...
Could you really call that a moment in what you were dead, given you had quite literally gotten better?
You'd been out of comission and he had addressed a projected form.
Several miles went by in a blur as you idly started to draw shapes in the growing condensation on the windows, adding your mark to a landscape that would never persist.
The windows would be cleaned, the shapes you left would be lost.
It was like the world about you, if your mark was just footprints in the sands of time, you'd never leave a persisting mark.
That meant whatever you did, it had to be substantial.
The mark that this thousand soul had left was one that persisted, he had created what had become the modern day LPD Guardian division.
The car pulled to a halt in a parking area in a run down and frankly seedy looking neighbourhood. It was one that's very appearance made you feel uncomfortable, the dillapidated fencing, pockmarked road and boarded up windows told you that this was a bad place, yet it was clear why Millicent had picked this location.
There was a phone here that was just a few feet past the end of the community parking bay, yet...
"I don't feel safe here, Millicent, can't we use a phone-"
"You'll be fine, I'll be out there with you," came her response as she unfastened her seatbelt.
"What if-"
"Shush, here's some change for the phone-" she paused as she passed you several large, silver coins. Three pounds in fifty pence pieces. "The worst you'll catch here's a case of poverty."
"I'm from an area like this," you mumbled indignantly as you clambered from the car. "Tories ruined abso-fucking-lutely everything everywhere north of London," you added as you stomped your way over to the phone.
They were still doing so, too.
More austerity, kill the common man - workers didn't need to eat, they needed to obey.
That was the theme they were giving with their recent political drive.
Not that you'd actually looked into it too much, no, that'd require more effort than just grumbling in an ill informed manner, and hey, grumbling like that had its place.
"Could be worse, the UKEP could have won," Millicent called after you.
"The United Kingdom Eurozone Party's a bunch of lunatics, that farage-day cage guy's a nutjob."
"Rather them than the BNP," she retorted, while moving to sit on the bonnet of her car.
"Lesser of evils, the lot of it. Why'd you even bring the British Nazi Party into-" you huffed as Millicent gave you a dirty look.
"That isn't what it stands for."
"It isn't?"
"Nope."
"Fuck it, it is now," you responded as you brought the phone receiver to your ear. It had a tone, meaning it would work.
A coin was fed into the slot as your fingers danced over the keys, tapping in a less familiar area code, followed by the much more familiar number of your home phone.
Ring, ring.
Ring, ring.
Ring-
"This is the Smith household, nobody-" came the answer phone, your heart sinking at first until the click of a phone being lifted was followed by a familiar voice. "Hello?"
"Mom!" your face lightened up as you heard one of the voices you'd longed to hear since you left home in the first place.
"Oh, Alyssa, we've been hoping you'd get in touch soon, how are you, how is-"
"I'm sorry I didn't earlier, things have been complicated. They did tests, told me I'm all special and stuff, so I guess they're going to want to find me a job down here. If all goes well, I can send some money to you guys to help out. How's dad? How's she-who-cannot-be-named?"
"Your father's at work, he got a job with the local council that gets him up at the crack of dawn-"
"A bin man?"
"Yeah, don't you put him down for it, he-"
"I know, he's doing an awful job because he cares and... I miss him. I miss you. I miss Jennifer less."
Another coin was fed into the slot as a small warning came up on the LCD display.
"Your sister asked if she can have your room if you die, then she asked if she could have it anyway."
"Why does she want my room so badly?" you paused. "Hers is bigger."
"Honestly, it's probably because yours is better kept than hers."
This back and forth conversation went on until the money you had dwindled, leaving you with regret in your voice to tell your mother that you had to go - to tell her to give your love to your father and maybe, just maybe your sister.
And then you turned to Millicent, pausing as you looked up at the sunglasses she had donned in the meantime as a look of clear confusion crossed your features.
"What are you..." you started, glancing at the sky briefly as you did so. "It's overcast, why are you..."
"If we're going into the city, I need to look the part. Most people don't question a flashed badge and an agency with a name like ours, if you won't question the abuse of power, I'll get you ice cream."
"It's too cold for ice cream, though."
"Cake?"
"Make it fudge and you have a deal."
"How about we get whatever catches our attention and don't limit ourselves to-"
"What do you have against fudge?"
"Nothing, it's just the best fudge doesn't come from tourist stands in London."
"Okay, okay," you gave a sigh of mock exasperation before turning to make your way towards Millicent's car, only to pause as a group in hoodies started walking up the street towards you. "Oh great, chavs. They're probably going to-"
"Stop your worrying."
"But-"
"They're a bunch of teenage boys, if they-" A wolf whistle came from the group as they approached, you could almost see Millicent's eyes rolling behind her sunglasses. "See, boys, not a bunch of thugs."
"Uh-huh, I feel all the more uncomfortable now."
"Stop being a baby. Oh fine, I'll handle this." Millicent paused as she glanced back at the group as she rolled her shoulders. "Could you not do that, please?"
"You gonna make us?"
"Whom shall impose this decree," Millicent responded.
"What?"
"I shall impose such a decree."
"The fuck?"
"Let me put this in terms you understand then. Cut that shit and tell my charge here you're sorry, or I will fuck your scrawny ass up."
"I'd like to see you... Try..." The guys response came as Millicent paced towards him. Even as she did he was balling his fist to throw a clumbsy punch - one that Millicent caught with seemingly little effort before she started to apply pressure down on his hand.
You could hear him whimpering as she forced him down to one knee, begging her now to release his hand as his shocked friends looked on.
"They're not going to help you. Nobody will help you," Millicent's words tickled your senses in a way that told you she was using her talents to hold them off. "Now, you're going to tell her you're sorry, or-"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it, please let go!" came the guys immediate response as Millicent shoved him backwards.
"Good. Remember to respect others, as not everyone'll meekly tolerate your shit," Millicent responded as she moved back to the car, leaving the shocked group awkwardly shuffling away.
"You didn't need to escalate it in that manner, we could have just... Got in the car and left," you mumbled as Millicent unlocked the doors.
"They don't smell right."
"What?"
"They smell of designer aftershave and their clothes are new. Should be tatty, smell of cheap cider. Not clean shaven and..."
"What are you saying?"
"We're being followed."
"So, we should... Do what about it?" you asked as your stomach turned. The concept of others sending people to follow you made you uncomfortable to say the least.
"We should go sight seeing, they're likely a bunch of goons working for people the boss is friendly with. I'd know if it was some of ours tailing us."
"Why would-"
"Alyssa, if you were in charge and you were keeping it quiet about having done the equivilent of winning the lottery, wouldn't you send people to keep an eye on things?"
"I guess, I don't... I don't like it though."
"Get used to it, we'll see them again later - Just you watch. Now!" she brightened up as she clambered into her car. "Where'd you like to go?"
There were various options - the museums, the bridges, the dome, the various tourists traps.
You could see whatever you wanted, eat junk, spend time relaxing - Millicent was simply waiting for you to give her some direction over what took your fancy now.
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Topic: I told them I could be anything... (Read 27772 times)