Queen's Gambit Chapter 05

Chapter Index

Love in plastic (Berdly)
1
https://pastebin.com/TKjKcqVe
2
https://pastebin.com/dDw2ti92
3
https://pastebin.com/2FRWC9jj
4
https://pastebin.com/vJ67iw7N
5
https://pastebin.com/88fCetw0
6
https://pastebin.com/Dj46NYUK
7
https://pastebin.com/DmandfKg
8
https://pastebin.com/2qAE3pbm
9
https://pastebin.com/YFvjUjeu
10
https://pastebin.com/s3Q8nruN
11
https://pastebin.com/MQeRHGWJ
12
https://pastebin.com/pgcGWuRZ

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Love in Plastic

Chapter 05

Needy Girls and Fluffy Boys

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Kris was hopeful. The person on the footage that Manuel described, it had to be Ralsei. He paced away from the tower and straight down the walkway, back to the precinct. This time, before entering, he touched the light. If anything happened after him leaving Berdly and the jester behind, he could always go back to this point. Knowing this, he gave the simply designed building one more good look. The power of law and order shined within him.

Inside, right around the corner from the entrance, was a counter with a nervous-looking police officer in a blue uniform sitting in a chair behind it. He had the insecure face of a beaver and the reason he seemed nervous to Kris, was that he was rapidly tapping his index finger on his side of the counter. At least he did until he noticed Kris come in. The counter was walled off with glass, bulletproof glass presumably.

The only opening connecting both sides was an indentation in the middle that spanned a bit into both sides of the wall, with a glass metal slide covering it that could be slid open and shut from inside, and a tray about as wide as the indentation that currently lay on the official's side. In sudden, twitching motions, the policeman's eyes shot up to the precinct's new visitor. He opened the slide so Kris could clearly understand him. "E-excuse me. Can - can I help you?"

"Yes. I'm looking for a prince. I heard you had one here."

The officer scratched his fuzzy chin and pulled up a little black booklet to flip through the pages. "Sorry, I - well we got someone who says he is a prince. Not sure if that was an attempt at an excuse, but I have it noted down anyway. Dressed like a wizard, black, long ears." It was him! Kris was relieved enough to almost forget about Berdly. He grabbed hold of the counter and beamed with anticipation. "But he's a suspect in custody. Sorry"

Kris let go of the counter. Something was wrong here. "That can't be right. What did he do?"

The officer pulled up another document. "Says right here he violated a whole bunch of regulations. Housing, fire and safety, who knows what else."

"How? Are you sure?"

The beaver nodded, never fully closing his mouth. "It's pretty cut and dry. I can get a copy of the paperwork if you like." He slid further back into his office and spun around his chair to pull a file out of a drawer opposite from the counter and came back to place it down in front of himself.

"Says right here he - and I'm not making this up, 'summoned' a door out of nowhere on an outside wall of a public building. With no regard for whether its placement was a good idea, and he had no permits saying he could do this. Could that wall be a supporting wall? Is the building stable enough to afford another door there? And how are people inside supposed to know which exit to use in case of a fire if there are just more exits than before, all of a sudden? Those are all very pertinent questions he didn't pay attention to."

He couldn't just leave him here. "Is there anything I can do to get him out?"

"Well he did at first have a few felonies dangling over his head, but when we first got to him, he didn't resist arrest, he was actually the one that approached us first. He came with us nicely when asked, he didn't even sit on our work time or delay things by asking for a lawyer or threatening legal action. Or try giving us any trouble whatsoever. He's just sitting in there. Waiting for something."

He shrugged. "Maybe he's waiting for you. Any brawlers just draw their weapons and shoot or get whole departments shut down if we so much as look at them the wrong way. He was so nice, especially by comparison, we got the DA to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor. That makes his bail a small fraction of what it was originally. If you got five thousand dark bucks, he's a free man."

A brief moment of relief, that was struck down mere seconds later. Kris checked multiple times, but he couldn't deny it. He thought he was loaded, but he only had about half the amount necessary on him. "Would you take two thousand? Two thousand five-hundred?

"Sorry." The beaver shrugged again. "We did what we could as is."

Kris stared down for a while. "Is...is there anything I can do to lower it more? I don't have five thousand. Please, did he look that dangerous to you? There's got to be some way for this to work."

The officer leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin. "Hm...we can't reduce it just like that. Not more than what the DA set it to. We got new regulations on that, what with the new mayor and all." Then he twitched. "Speaking of which, maybe we don't have to. Ever since the new mayor took over, times got desperate." He pointed all around the grey plates of the human's armor.

Which must have been visibly out of place for all these people wearing mid-twentieth-century themed clothing. "And you look familiar somehow, I'm just not quite sure where from." Kris wasn't sure whether blurting out that he was the lightner those brawlers seemed to be looking for was a good idea. It was best to just shrug and nod. The beaver's first reaction to him acknowledging his status as a foreigner was to lean on his side of the counter and point at him.

"There's that 'some way' you asked for. So listen up. Commissioner Brigham's on a missing's person's case right now. If you ask him for a job, there might be the cash you need in it for you. He's right here actually, over in an interview room talking to two people. It's a major case. The guy we're looking for has lots of friends all around the city. Everyone here wants to see him safe. That and we could really use his help with a few things right now. Problem is - you can guess - new mayor -we can't do anything on our own. Our hands are tied. We can't collect evidence, we can't frisk anyone, we can't ask anyone to open their bags, we can't defend ourselves when attacked, we can't even talk to anyone unless they talk to us first - the only reason we even could arrest your friend in the first place, is because the very first thing he did after he appeared, was ask an officer if he knew of any lightners showing up here. We used to go to the infopage next door for information, but even asking him is illegal now if you'e a cop. It's - it's."

He wiped the sweat that had gathered off of his forehead. Whatever this situation was, it was really bothering him. "The thing we need most right now, are helping hands from outside. Without help, we're never going to make any progress."

Well that was an opportunity, Kris guessed. And it explained why all those policemen were just watching when the brawlers attacked. But this left open bits that bugged him. "Why can't you do anything anyway?"

There was a bit of an awkward pause. Kris felt like he wasn't supposed to ask this for some reason. "New mayor and all that." Again, the officer stared at him, and only after a while his eyes narrowed. "Sheesh, you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" Kris shook his head. "Have you been living under a - how far away are you from exactly?"

He had to think. This was still the same house as in the light world, so maybe there was something similar to the different floors. "Down under? Pretty far down under."

Him not knowing what this 'new mayor' thing was about seemed to really surprise the officer. He put his hands together, looked around and went on. "Guess it's a good thing the commissioner's busy. And I'm kind of waiting to hear how it went, so I don't have much to do either. Why don't you grab a chair and I tell you?" Beyond the hallway the counter was in, was a larger area presumably made for visitors.

More monsters in suit jackets with hats sat and stood in various places, all nervously sneaking glances at one door further in the back from time to time. The odd one here and there looking at Kris in a funny way, because of how he was dressed as far as he could guess. There were a few sittees, a water cooler with several officers gathered around it. Same with a coffee machine about a metre away.

And in the corners just next to the windows were a few cubicles with men in blue tapping their feet or twisting their thumbs in a manner similar to the one behind the counter. And further down another hallway past the door they were all weirdly fixated on, was a mouse, that frantically gnawed at a cheeseburger without actually eating it.

Kris tried to ignore the depressing atmosphere and just grabbed one of the chairs next to the table and brought it closer to the counter, even though upon sitting on it, he could barely look into the office on the other side, so he fetched another chair to stack on top of it before he sat down.

"Right then, so how much about this place do you know?" Kris went on to recount what little Jandsome had told about the citizens originally living spread out until the 'lightners' - Berdly probably - banished them into the canyon. "Okay, that's a start I guess. Thing was though that getting banished by itself wasn't all bad. But it is where our city growing stopped and our problems started. The brawlers were actually here before we were. Nasty bunch, all of them."

"Always out for blood, and everywhere they go, people start getting stabbed, shot or hooked on dust. We were lucky when we first got here, because we already had a fully operational police force. When they'd mug people, stab people to death, get caught selling dust, we just locked them up. Fast trials, no appeals. So mostly, everything was fine at first. And it stayed that way for a long, long time. Only that not too long ago, things changed. A lot. This 'knight' showed up."

"Guy completely covered in weird armor. He just asserted himself and threatened to kill everyone when he didn't get his way. He just kind of 'overthrew' our mayor of several years and instated a new one. A brawler. And it's the biggest and nastiest one I've seen in my life. He doesn't even have a forename, he's only called 'Don Gatore'. When that was over, the knight left, but the new mayor made a lot of changes."

"The moment he took office, the first thing he did was grant complete amnesty to all brawlers that were behind bars and had us set them free. Every single one. We had the commissioner talk to him about the exploding crime rate, but all that did was make him angry, so he just made bothering brawlers in any way illegal and started issuing all kinds of new laws on what we're not allowed to do. Police restriction after police restriction, and he hasn't stopped since."

"The only thing he does all day except issuing police restrictions is expropriating and homeowners, so now about a third or a fourth of the whole city is homeless and their homes remain empty." He sighed. "Well either way. What do you think? You ask for a job, if you find information that helps solve the case, you'll be swimming in so much cash, your friend could rob a bank and you could still bail him out." It was 'something' but he didn't feel like he could just leave Ralsei here.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It'll be fine, it's not like your friend's running away or something. Besides, he's safer in here than anywhere out on the streets, what with the brawlers looking for him and all that."

That only made it even worse. "Why are they looking for him?"

The beaver shrugged. "I dunno. All I do know is the Don put out a hit on a few guys. All anyone's got for reference are descriptions and these crude drawings. And he kinda looks like one of them. Wait a sec." He slid back to open up and rummage through the same drawer, but a bit more deeply. "Your friend's lucky he went to us first. We only arrested him. If the brawlers had found him, he'd be swimming with the sharks right about now."

Once he found what he was looking for, he slid back and dropped a few pieces of paper on his side of the counter. The first one he spread out and pushed closer to the window, was a barely recognizable, coloured sketch of three characters. And the rough shapes and colour schemes were immediately recognizable to him. It was a drawing of Ralsei, Susie and himself. "Come to think of it..." The now intrigued officer picked it up and held it in place to compare the drawing to Kris.

"You kinda look like one of them,too. But that doesn't make any sense." The man grew increasingly uncertain all of a sudden. His motions turned a little more sudden. He tried to give it a good look a few more times to reassure himself that he wasn't imagining it, and got more agitated each time. This seemed to stir him up more than talking about Ralsei. He put down the picture and spread out the other sheets, which were printed on with lists.

"...bear with me here. I thought it wasn't relevant to anything we're allowed to investigate, so I didn't bother to sort it at the time. Help me here." He began reading a few points off one of those lists. "Would you personally say that 'pacifistic, low confidence, pushover, non-confrontational, uses magic' is an apt way to describe you?" Kris shook his head. "Didn't think so. Your friend said that's him. What about 'Simple-minded, impulsive, anger issues, highly violent, excessive appetite'?"

He declined again. "Okay, didn't seem that way to me either. What about - uh - outgoing, flirtatious, commanding, silent, shy, attacks on sight, resolves conflict peacefully...this one is just all over the place!" All the more to his confusion, did the human shoot him an affirming gesture. This was going to be the one.

The jumbled-up descriptions were exactly what Kris imagined it would sound like if someone tried to make sense of all the things he was compelled to do during his adventures with Susie.

"Goodness, that means..." He scoured along the sheet, reading off of it more that they seemed to have on him. He was even more shaken up when he found what he was looking for. Almost jumping in his seat, he pointed at a particular part of what must have been summarized points someone gathered watching him, Susie and Ralsei. "There it is! Lightner! You're a lightner!"

Considering what he had just heard about being a person that was wanted dead by the highest authority here, Kris was readying himself for incoming attacks and kept his hand ready to draw his sword. But that proved an unnecessary concern within a moment. "Come with me! He's definitely going to want to talk to you right now if this is true!"

The moment he had pointed at Kris and blurted out that he was from the light world, the surrounding officers in the hall were starting to turn his way and pay attention to him. While the now all the more sweaty beaver came stumbling out from a door a little in the back of his office. While he came to the front and led him to the hall, Kris could see all the other people slowly shift their tone. He could even hear them mumble things like: "A lightner?"

"Another one? This one is bigger."

"How are they all getting here?"

When he arrived at the door in question, the beaver was already peeking inside and talking to whoever was there. All their visitor could do for the time being is stand outside and listen. "And what makes you so sure he is one?", a loud, grumbled voice asked.

"I've got a match for their doodles."

The already loud voice just gained quite a bit in volume and turned all the more annoyed. "What? Again? How do they keep wandering in here? Why here of all the places?" He heard a sigh. "What does it matter. Where is he? Well, then open up that door! Let me have a look!" With an anxious haste, the beaver obliged his superior, opened the door all the way and gestured Kris to enter.

While he did so, the doodle in question was handed to a very upset looking brown bird with ruffled feathers black spots. A lit cigar hung off the side of his beak and he wore a black suit jacket made of about as robust-looking a fabric as you could use without making it look too informal. While Kris came closer, he held up the picture to make the same comparison as his subordinate.

"That's a match alright. At least as much as you can. Not like one of those brawler scumbags ever went to art school." Neither did Kris, but he was fairly confident he was able to do better than those barely coherent strikes.

"Well done." As though that was enough, the trembling beaver nodded and rushed outside, presumably back to his office in case more people came in here. "And as for you." Commissioner Brigham took the cigar out of his mouth. "Since everyone who wanders in here seems to know each other somehow, do you recognize those two?"

He nodded toward the other side of what was - counter to his expectation, not the kind of table you expected to see in a room for interrogations, but rather a conference table. On the other side sat two more people. Slightly hunched and drawn together, sat a human woman who must have been ridiculously tall if she wasn't almost curled together like that. Her smooth, blond hair was so long, it reached down to the floor, and her legs were impossibly long as well.

She wore a warm, long coat that covered everything, it was long enough to cover her entire body even if she had been standing. She was sobbing, her face was drenched in tears that she could barely wipe off fast enough to get a break, and those had long smeared all the makeup around her eyes down along half her cheeks. The other person that sat next to her, trying to cheer her up, was a little girl. A bird with bright orange feathers and dressed in an orange raincoat.

The colour had thrown him off for a second, so it took him a little to recognize by the shape of her beak and her overall face, that it was Berdly's little sister. "So?" The surprise must have startled him for so long, the commissioner was already getting impatient. Do you?"

"Y-yes..." Kris rushed right around the table to talk to the little girl from up close. "What are you doing here?"

Her response was completely nonchalant and bore no hint of her thinking it was surprising or worrysome for her to be here, she responded with as much of a smile she could muster with this human woman she was apparently familiar with, crying right next to her. "We're looking for Scott."

Right, the plastic doll she was missing, but that didn't explain her presence. "Yes, but how did you even get here?"

"We flew here, with a plane."

The unsettling grunts of the chief behind him startled him for a moment. "Janice right here's got friends in a lotta places. Got flown in here calling in a favour, and we owe her and her boyfriend lots of favours, too. But before you dig your nose into this too far, come right back here. Why are you here anyway?"

Kris tried his best to explain the entire situation he had discussed with his subordinate just before in a few sentences. Including the part of wanting a job in hopes of bailing out Ralsei. It only seemed to worsen the commissioner's mood even more.

He grunted and ground his cigar against the bottom of an ash tray near the edge of the table. "And again, the system's being a roadblock in all the wrong places while it doesn't get done what it's supposed to. Look, I get ya. About the job, congratulations, you're hired." He gave Kris a quick handshake and began making his way outside.

Well that went fast. "I've got an idea what to do about your friend, just wait here, I'll be right back. He could worry whether he could trust any of these people later, should they actually reveal that he can't.

For the time being, it was best to find out more about this missing person. He sat down at the table the woman didn't seem like she was in a condition to talk. "Wait, so before you flew here, how did you get where you started flying from?"

"From the airport of course."

"Yes, but what airport? Where exactly?"

"I dunno, just an airport. Debbie brought me here." The moment she said 'Debbie's name, the human woman cried all the more. Of course. She was here to look for the Scott doll she couldn't find. And then this woman was the corresponding Debbie doll, or rather what she looked like in the dark world.

"Stop callin' her Debbie, dammit!" The angry commissioner had come back from whatever errand he was off running. "Her name's Janice! Janice! And he's not called Scott, his name's Pilot. And you, get back up." He gestured Kris to come closer. He was now holding a little box filled with two stacks of bills.

"You said you only got enough to pay half the little black guy's bail. These are four thousand dark bucks. Three thousand so you can pay your friend's bail and get him out right now, and another thousand for expenses you might run into. Consider 'em a pre-paiment. Or a loan. You can work it off as you go." Kris' eyes widened. These policemen were willing to watch people get killed to abide those nonsense laws and here he was, just giving him a pile of money to free Ralsei.

He stared at the commissioner for a while. Then he finally put his thoughts into words. "I'm pretty sure there's some law against this."

The commissioner chuckled and began pulling a box of cigars out of a pocket on the inside of his jacket. "Like I care anymore. I played along with 'em for too long. Frankly, I lost trust in the system the moment that cocksucker of a mayor banned arresting brawlers. If there's already two lightners here, that's good enough for me to believe the lightners are on our side. And since you're officially on the case as a police advisor, we might as well get you up to speed."

He sat down at his table, in front of two closed folders and opened them up. "Person we're looking for is called Pilot. And he's a Pilot. A pilot called pilot. Almost like he was made to be one. Here's a pretty good picture." He pulled out one photo of Pilot standing next to Janice and saluting with a smile. They both seemed happy actually. He had well-kept brown hair, striking facial features and muscles that you could see through his uniform. And he was just as tall as the woman.

"Long story short, him and Janice here have been together for years, and everything was hunkey-dorey for as long as anyone can remember. Until one day, earlier today actually, he just up and left. Came to Canyon City, acted weird in front of everyone he talked to, went to a bar, bought a bunch of booze and then just vanished. Completely. And right after that, all hell broke loose."

"You mean the new mayor?"

"No, that came quite some time before. It's uh - it's over. That's what matters. If it ever happened again, you'd know what I'm talking about right away. That said, you wanna free your friend, right?" All those worries he had about him not being able to see Ralsei again, they were melting away along with the frown that kept his smile away. He nodded and was directed back outside. "Then wat'cha waiting for? Take the money, go ahead. None of us are running away."

The moment he said that, Kris grabbed the Money and, holding onto them tightly, rushed back to the counter at the entrance of the building.

"Huh? What?" The beaver had gone right back to absentmindedly tapping his finger on the table and was surprised to see Kris come back so soon. "Oh." He quickly began to get an idea what this was about though, when he saw Kris place down stacks of bills and open his bag to pick together a third stack. "Is this what I think it..." He didn't need to finish that sentence before Kris nodded.

Once the stacks were placed in the tray and slid over to the beaver's side, he began sifting through both stacks to assure himself that it was the right sum, and took his time doing it. Kris was calm. He could wait, as long as this meant Ralsei was going free. Soon, the officer placed the third stack on the side. "That's it, five thousand." He slid his chair back to fetch a few forms and began signing them and adding notes. "Okay, that'll be it. Follow me."

Now a lot less nervous than before, he got up and left his office to guide Kris through a different hallway deeper into the building, past more doors, behind some of which were conference rooms, and windows showing the interview rooms behind closed doors. The plain white walls of their holding cells at the heart of the building seemed almost designed to make the dirt and traces of dust on them visible. An inexplicable excitement took hold in his spine.

He couldn't believe this was happening, it felt like a dream come true, moreso than being in the dark world. And then, once they passed a few cells with scraped metal bars, obscured behind the cold metal of the only cell that wasn't damaged beyond recognition, he sat on a bench. Wrapped in the same green robe and the same dark-pink scarf, looking down on the floor. The sight would almost have broken his heart, if Kris didn't know that it would change very soon. "Hey, get up."

Surprised and soon with a warm glow in his eyes, the cervine bag of goodness looked up to see who was visiting. "Kris! You're here."

"Yeah, and he paid your bail. You're a free man." The beaver got his key out to unlock the cell door, swung it wide open and then stepped aside.

Relieved beyond everything, Kris almost ran around the cell wall, inside it, and before Ralsei could do much else, ran his arms under his to pull him into an embrace. "Kris..." It was hard to explain why he was so happy. Or so emotional in general all of a sudden. It felt like a lot of the baggage bubbling up now was always there, now he just had someone he could let it show with. He was just glad that he got this far and brushed his head against the darkner's fuzzy cheek.

When Ralsei first taught him how fighting worked in the dark world, the 'player' made him hug Ralsei. Again and again. Someone like Ralsei must have had some major significance for them, and finally meeting Ralsei again, after only a day had passed, he couldn't blame them for it. He had only met him twice, but something about his warm touch made him feel like he had known him almost his whole life.

Like he could tell him anything that concerned him and Ralsei would just listen and not somehow use it against him. He was close to tears, his mouth was trembling. He was out of breath even though there was no reason to be.

Between how little meaning there was to most things in the 'light world', the supposedly changed Susie turning on him as soon as there was something to make fun of, and Berdly's endless screeching here in the dark world, seeing Ralsei again was just the change he needed. The darkner hugged him back, but when Kris held him a little more tightly, he let go. "...Kris, you're hurting me."

"I'm sorry." He let go of him, but the wide, smile wouldn't leave his face, even if he tried to make it.

The beaver giggled and waved towards the hallways they had come from. "All right, you two lovebirds. I've got to get back to my post. Off you go." And so they did. Hearing and feeling Ralsei's steps right behind him, now he finally felt like everything was going to get better from here. He didn't really feel confident that they could make it through this dark realm before, he was just grasping at straws for the most part.

As the commissioner had said, the two guests were still there waiting for them with him when Kris and Ralsei were back. "Good, now that you're all together, I can't wait to send you all outta here."

The white light of Ralsei's eyes grew a little taller. "Why does it sound like you're trying to get rid of us?"

"Because I am. The sooner you get out of here, the safer it gets in here. Every minute one of you three from that doodle is in here is a minute where those scumbags could be kicking our door in to get to you. The worst thing that could happen is if that pink hairy one showed up as well. That said, here you go." He picked up a blue leaf binder that hadn't been on the table when Kris had left. It was filled with sheet protectors, most of them empty, but the ones in the front were not.

"Got everything I think you need in there, so you don't have to come back. My number, a few others' numbers, the number of every police station in this city, the number of Janice over here, the address of the bar Pilot visited before he vanished, the number of the same bar, I gathered a copy of everything we got in there."

While he was going on, Ralsei snuck around the table and kneeled down to be eye to eye with Berdly's sister. And who would you be, young lady?" Kris told him that that was who she was.

"Pluma." Janice had calmed down by now, even though her tears left their mark on her face. But at least, this left Pluma in a bit of a better mood.

"That's a nice name." He got up and returned to the commissioner. "The door this is all about, is it still there?"

"Oh god, you're not planning on making more of those, are you?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No need to worry. I just need the one. I suggest Pluma and the nice lady here come with us. The door will take us to a place that offers more safety than any of your stations can offer."

"We got word on that by the way. The building's fine. No new exit and it seems solid enough not to have to worry. But please, for the love of everything that is holy, don't make any more doors. It's a nightmare for anyone doing the paperwork."

Kris gave him a questioning look. "Don't worry, Kris. Some of the policemen visited me from time to time, they told me everything about what is happening outside. I knew that if I just wait for long enough, you would find me. But how did you find me so fast?" He told them all he knew about the tall, blue but otherwise human-looking, medieval jester who led them here.

It seemed to spark Mr. Brigham's interest. He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and pointed it Kris' way. "Did this guy tell you where exactly he had been last before he met you in the cliffs? Had a few guys spot him too, right after all the weird stuff stopped happening."

He declined. "Only that he's a travelling jester. Why?"

"Hey, Reg!" He called for an officer, who brought a block of paper and a pen with him. "I got some stuff for you to note down. I've got a feeling that's somewhat related to the weird stuff that had been happening. Might even relate to the Pilot case. And you guys, off you go. Nothing's keeping you. You're not losing contact with us."

When Janice got up and followed them with the little girl, Brigham stopped them. "Lady, no-one's forcing you to follow those guys."

That didn't seem to do much to stop her. With his hand pressed against her coat, she just wandered right past him. "I am aware." She was still sniffy from before. "But they feel like my best hope. Please don't take this the wrong way."

The commissioner smiled - for once. "No offense taken. If you need anything we can help with, you got our number."

While the four of them got ready to leave, Ralsei further encouraging Pluma and Janice to follow, every step of the way, the commissioner's face finally relaxed. He followed them just outside of the conference room and raised his voice to call for the attention of all the officers present. "Right now, listen up everyone. We're gonna change up how we operate just a bit. Blind eyes are on the table from now on. We got two lightners on our side." Everyone in the hall cheered to that.

Those that had cups or glasses in their hands raised them. "Maybe we even got a third one coming soon. Let's hope they can find Pilot!" Then he heard him speed up to catch up with them. "And lightners." Most of his anger and annoyance was gone from the smiling bird's face, and he had put out his cigar as well. "Something you might need. Haven't seen either of you armed, you might need it for self-defense."

Kris was surprised to see what he saw in the box the commissioner had been handed to present to them. He was giving them a firearm. A one-handed pistol with a modern, blocky shape to its barrel, along with a few boxes of ammunition. Kris was about to decline, when Ralsei stepped closer, gladly accepted it and stuffed both the weapon and the ammunition in two of the pockets in his robe.

"And about the loan. Here's one way you can pay it off even before you solve the case. Brawlers are flying blind. All the cameras all over the city are useless to them. We can't just march out on the streets and arrest them, that's start an open war and all the citizens would get caught in the crossfire. But what we can do is not stop you from doing so. As long as you got no witnesses, if you can take them out or bring them to any station to get them locked up, we're gonna do it and deduct a reward from that loan. Maybe even pay you part of it to keep you going. It's about time that we started playing dirty. Brawlers don't give a damn about the law, why should we?"

One more time, everyone in the room cheered at the four people leaving the building.
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Noelle spent some more time with her Dad that day. And even now, there was uncertainty in every step of hers while she walked outside. It had already been growing dark when she came to the hospital, now, while little light remained, she could already see the stars. Time had run out more quickly than she had hoped. Noelle's time felt best spent around her father. There was a disturbing silence to how the leaves slowly shook back and forth in the wind.

They had lost their colour in the dark. Noelle knew they would regain it in the morning when the sun rose. But she could already feel that this wouldn't last for too long. She wasn't in a hurry, even though she knew she should have been. She knew where she was going, she was only setting herself up for disappointment. And yet, she had to. She already knew what was coming, but she couldn't keep spending the night at other people's homes. She already spent the last night at Catti's.

She was thankful enough to have a reliable friend like that that would let her. She knew what she was getting herself into, she didn't want to, she could feel that there was only a small chance that there was any point to it. She forced herself to move closer to the imposing pillars of the town hall. Each of them a multitude wider than her and poised to crush her without batting an eye, should the smallest part give in. Step by step, she carefully ascended the stairs and entered.

The walls looked a little grayer, every time she came here. The looks of the secretary and the other monsters all waiting for their own, sparsely spread appointments to come around, more weary and impatient every time they saw her enter.

"What is it you want?", the talking hand asked her, knowing full well she was here because it was her only way to go home.

She could feel her deep red fingernails stare at her. But she had to bring out those words. She had to. "I-i-i...I want to see Mo- the mayor. I would like to know if I - if I could talk to the mayor...please."

"I am afraid she is very busy. She has no time for insignificant things like family visits."

"Please...please just see if...I only need to talk to her for a second. Not even a minute...please, I can't go home otherwise."

"Sorry, this is how it works. 'No visits outside of appointments', the next one is scheduled to be in an hour and is already taken by the gentleman over there." She pointed to a badger in a suit who stared at the picture next to the counter.

"I'm sure if - if it's only in an hour...then what is she doing now?"

The hand remained motionless. "Being busy."

"No..." Mom was doing it again. Noelle was homeless and she didn't even know why. "...no. She can't be doing this. I beg you, just ask if she could..."

They both turned to the door to her mother's office, when it opened from inside. She was a lawyer, among other things, for her mother. Laughing and perfectly relaxed was coming through, with her bare tail swinging left and right in an elaborate motion. She was startled at seeing Noelle. The corners of her mouth dropped ever so slightly, and with her head still pointing up, she stared at her for a few seconds.

With an annoyed sigh, she unlocked the auto-locked office door with her key and opened it. For a brief moment, Noelle could catch a glance at her mother. "It's Noelle."

Her mother rolled her eyes and came outside. And even once she knew it was her own daughter asking to talk to her, and why, she looked every bit as indifferent as she always did in recent times. Noelle stared at those dead eyes, atop the grotesque and yet angry-looking face of the deer-like Monster she was. She put on what Noelle recognized to be a frown, in spite of her vertical mouth and the mandibles she had instead of jaws.

She too gave a contemptuous-sounding sigh from her, but after a moment's consideration, she begrudgingly stuck her hand in the pocket of her jeans. She wore jeans, when everyone else, even Sarah, wore a full suit. At last, she handed Noelle what she wanted for days. The key to their gate and the front door of her home.

She was so happy to be able to come home again, even if it was only for tonight. "Thank, you Mom..." The moment Noelle had the key in her hand, she tried to rush past the retreating hand to give her mother a hug, maybe even a kiss. Her mother just backed off as fast as she had to, to get away from her and went back to her desk. As soon as she did, Sarah stepped to the side to physically block Noelle's way before she turned around and pulled the door shut again.

And with the automatic lock of the door sliding in place, went Noelle's last chance at seeing her mother for the day. By the time she came home from work, Noelle would long be asleep, or would have to pretend to be to not get into trouble.

She pulled herself together, made sure the key was stored safely in her bag and left the building. As soon as that was back outside, she began to rush home. The autumn wind was so cold now. It seeped right through her clothes, no part of her was safe from it. It felt like the void above and around her was gradually swallowing her and leaving no life behind. Her face grew tense, and she could feel her eyes grow uneasy at once. She lodged her jaws together and walked past one more crossing.

Fully expecting a car to rush in and end it, but none came. Every single interaction with her mother felt like a dagger being lodged into her heart, and with all the daggers that accumulated, there wasn't much of it left. She knew this was a bad idea. She knew how it would feel. She didn't let herself stop until she was long past the gates and half-way through the little path that led to their big house's front door. The big house they got when her mother became the new mayor.

With so much room to put between one another. Her legs grew weaker, she had to stumble her way to the door. The hedges Dad and uncle Asgore had cut, that were spread across every bit not covered in trees or the pond at the side, were already growing out of shape. The grass was already growing taller.

She wished it was raining. Rain would wash so much her way. The patter would shroud the subtle sounds of sorrow she couldn't suppress and cover the rest of her face in cold water. She was going to be embarrassed if someone saw her like this and brought it up on the next day. Not to mention if she was in the rain like this, maybe she would get a cold. She didn't feel like getting up. If she had a cold, she had an excuse to just stay in bed, wait for the day to pass.

And only get up to get something to drink. At least until Dad got better, she would be safe that way. Even though she knew she wouldn't be so lucky. There would be no rain, she would have to venture outside and find ways to distract herself.

Dad had to get better. She needed to wait until Dad got better. She wouldn't feel safe again until he did. She had to hold on until he was up and back home. Until then, she had to distract herself. Find anything to do to think of something else. Tarot cards. She had to focus on remembering to bring her tarot deck. She had to hold onto Susie. Susie would get her through this. She had to. Even in the light of the chandeliers that hung from her home's ceiling, a dark shadow loomed over her and would never let her go.