“That was a fucking velociraptor!” Odie hollered in the passenger seat.
“Yeah, I saw it too.” John said calmly as he drove. His eyes never left the road.
“A fucking velociraptor!” Gar yelled next to me in the back of the van.
“Why are you not freaking out!?” Odie looked at me and said with wide eyes.
“I’ve seen weirder.” I shrugged.
I gently stroked the velociraptor corpse that was laid across my lap. I looked down at its glassy black eyes. Whatever light it had before was completely gone. My suit was laid underneath it.
“Don’t even start with that, Little Man.” Gar laughed.
“I know you’ve seen and done some weird shit, kid. But there’s no way you’ve seen anything weirder than dinosaurs.” Odie stared at me with a big grin on his face.
Even John was smiling. I tried to play it cool for them and just shrugged, but inside I was freaking out worse than they were. Not because of the velociraptors, but because this meant that Polybius was still hunting me.
He was still sending his pets after me in a desperate attempt to convert me to his side. I thought that maybe running away from home and teaming up with the Platinums would be enough to scare him away from me. To scare him away from my friends and family.
I guess monsters like Polybius can’t be scared so easily. But this time I’m more exposed. He knows where I’m living, where I sleep. And my friends and family don’t have me there to protect them. I’ll have to do something and do it soon before he sends his prehistoric hunter-killers after everyone I love.
“We’re here. Everybody, get changed into your suits.” John said as we screeched to a halt.
Odie jumped back where we were, and he and Gar immediately stripped down and changed into their proper attire. I looked at them for reassurance.
“Gotta be a penguin like the rest of us.” Gar told me, with a hand on my shoulder.
“Damn.” I replied. I caught myself for a moment, then remembered that Danny wasn’t with me. A pang of sadness moved through my body as I got changed. John opened the car door and hopped out, already changed.
We were parked outside a back entrance to the tower. It was some sort of shipping entrance, where materials could be loaded into the building without any sort of interruption from people living there, or people going in for service.
I messed with the collar of my silver tuxedo. Alistair was waiting for us. He was standing in the middle of the flat concrete area that was the loading bay. There was a single streetlight above illuminating the darkness around us. I could see the silver bridge leading in and out of the city, in the distance.
“They should be arriving soon.” Alistair said. For the first time in the two weeks I’d been here, he seemed genuinely concerned. I began to wonder just who exactly these mystery guests were, and how Alistair of all people could be frightened by them.
“Remember, I need you all on your best behavior. Your life may depend on it.” Alistair threatened us.
“Who exactly are these guests?” I asked.
“My siblings.” Alistair sighed in response. The sun was starting to rise in the distance after about an hour. As it rose the beams of light hit the silver of the bridge and made it shine. It was breathtaking.
The first car arrived. Immediately everyone shuffled into place to greet the inhabitants. Gar even went so far as to hold the car doors open as the vehicle stopped. The passengers in the back of the limo were the first to get out. Alistair nodded his head in their direction, to signal to us that we needed to greet them.
The first was a woman I instantly recognized. Not just because of her strange outfit, and the pale white octopus looking creature attached to her shoulder, but also because the last time I’d seen her she had been trying to maim me. Victoria sported the same black dress, but the gold jewelry had all been replaced with silver.
Even the strange crown atop her head, and the Victorian party mask were silver. Proxy’s tentacles were wrapped around her throat and draped limp over her shoulders. His black eyes seemed to watch everyone at once. John greeted her by helping her out of the limo. He took her arm in his and walked on to the very large elevator connected to the tower. They disappeared inside.
The next guest made me jump back a little. She was the first Crimson I had ever seen. Her blood red hair and sapphire blue eyes contrasted heavily with the silver dress she wore. She was tall and stood up as straight as a board. Odie happily greeted her with a stupid grin on his face. She seemed bored as she took his arm and they marched off.
I wonder what her powers are.
The third guest was for me. To my surprise she was close to my age. I pulled my hand back in shock, when I caught a glimpse of her hair. Her shoulder length hair was as white as paper, and her eyes staring up at me were the orange eyes of a fox. She was a Platinum.
She was wearing the same silver dress as the others, and she was as pale as snow. She looked up at me in confusion when I recoiled. I looked back at Alistair and he simply nodded, to signify that it was okay to touch her. I took her hand and lifted her up out of the limo.
I guess even Platinums are children once. Or teenagers.
I carefully marched off to the elevator. Her skin was cold to the touch. She looked over at me and gave me a nervous smile. I tried my best to give her a reassuring grin in response. She giggled in response.
“I’m Casper.” She said quietly.
“Jason.” I said not as quietly.
“So you’re the boy my cousins have been telling me about.” She said with a little more confidence.
“All good things, I hope?” I replied.
We approached the elevator. The door opened and we entered. As soon as the huge doors closed in front of us, we both immediately unlocked arms and inched away from each other.
“I don’t know, is it true that you’re a superhero?” She asked after a moment. I tried to keep eye contact with her but the eeriness of her eyes kept forcing me to glance away. I felt bad every time.
“Something like that..” I said casually.
“What are your powers?” She asked with bright eyes filled with excitement.
“Well, none normally.” I said. I pulled at the strap of my backpack. “In here I have a suit that I built. It gives me strength, speed, durability, and enhanced senses. It also has a prehensile tail.” I added.
“So you’re like me?” She said excitedly while staring at me.
“Huh?” I asked.
Like me?
“I’m a Daedalus.” She said, as if that was an answer. I gave her a confused look.
“Huh?” I asked again. Just then the elevator doors opened and revealed the apartments of the tower. The same floor that Gar, Odie, John, and I lived on.
“It’s a branch of Platinums. Our powers let us invent things.” She explained. “So you’re like me, we’re both… Inventors.” She said after a moment.
I looked the girl over. Despite the fact that she was from one of the largest crime families in the world, she didn’t look scary. She didn’t have any nasty scars, and she had no weapons on her person. She was just a teenager like me.
Someone like me.
“I think you’re supposed to show me to our apartment.” She said while nervously pushing her bangs out of her eyes.
“Right. You should be in the apartment just across from mine. Just around this corner.” I told her. She followed behind. When we got there I pointed her to her room, then I turned to open my apartment door. She grabbed my arm to stop me.
“Serena told me that Alistair wanted to speak to us in his office.” Casper said in a hushed voice. I nodded silently and led her to his office. It was located in the back of Alistair’s apartment, which I had a key to. I had yet to ever actually use it. I’d never been inside and never felt any desire to. The apartment itself was disturbingly orderly.
Everything was organized to the extreme. Nothing was on the floor, everything was freshly cleaned and dusted. I was unsure if it always looked like this or if Alistair had cleaned it specially for the arrival of this Serena person. I couldn’t keep myself from shaking as I grabbed the door handle to his office. The door opened gently and I got my first look at this Serena person.
She was tall, with pale skin, snow white hair, and yellow wolf’s eyes. Another Platinum. She sat with her legs crossed. As she laid her creepy eyes on me a smile grew at the corner of her lips. I saw her pupils turn from circles to slits as she looked me over. Next to her was an even taller man.
His chest was as broad as a barrel and his arms and legs were equally as huge. He too had white hair and yellow eyes. He was sporting a flowing white beard. He let out a chuckle as he saw me enter. Four Platinums in one room. In close quarters with me.
“Why do you look so nervous, boy?” The large bearded man laughed gleefully. He held a palm out and the door behind me swung shut.
“Just not used to seeing this many people like you at once.” I replied with an awkward chuckle.
The two new Platinums let out laughs but Alistair’s eyes told me everything I needed to know.
This is serious.
“What was your name again, boy?” Serena asked. Her yellow eyes were piercing my direction.
“Jason.” I replied with my fake name. I’d used it so often the past two weeks that the name no longer sent a shiver down my spine.
“Lovely.” Serena said with a slight smile. She uncrossed her legs and stood up from her seat. “I’m Serena, this is my brother Dion. And you already know Alistair quite well, from what I’ve heard.” Serena said as she walked over and held out her hand. I nervously took it in a handshake.
The large man called Dion walked over to me and held out his left hand to shake. I put my hand out to take it. Alistair looked at me with a grim expression and shook his head. I immediately dropped my hand to my side. Dion gave me a raised eyebrow. I looked over and saw that Serena had a grin on her face as she watched with anticipation.
“Disrespecting a Platinum is a dangerous thing, boy.” Dion said in a much more serious tone than he had before.
“I mean no disrespect, sir.” I replied while staring directly into his creepy eyes. They turned from pupils into slits for a brief second and almost gave me a heart attack. Then he started to laugh. He slapped me on the with his right hand and the force of it almost sent me toppling to the ground.
“You’re a clever boy. I like you.” He laughed. It was then that I noticed the thing that looked like a tiny wooden spike sliding underneath the tip of his finger. I let out a sigh of relief. Then both siblings were crowding around Alistair’s desk. Something about these two terrified him, and it sent goosebumps down my arms.
“You’re probably wondering why I called you here.” Alistair began to speak. He was sitting in his chair in his nice suit. His hair was in a ponytail. He had his hands in a pyramid on his desk. “Jason, the girl next you is Elizabeth Daedalus. She is part of Serena’s entourage and as you have probably guessed, she’s a Platinum like us. She’s something of a…” Alistair paused and looked the girl up and down. “Lost cousin of ours. She is not an official part of our family, but she’s been working hard to change that.” Casper looked at me and nodded slowly.
“Unfortunately in order to be reinstated in the Platinum family you must do something especially noteworthy to enhance the family’s power. Dear Serena here accomplished that by recruiting a Crimson to our cause.” Alistair continued. Serena looked at me with a Cheshire smile. Her yellow eyes glowed even in the fully lit office.
“Which brings me to you. You cannot keep working for me. The family has certain archaic rules, and one is that we are only allowed three in our entourages. I was going to offer to allow you to join Dion’s, however he recently recruited three members so that won’t be possible.” Alistair had stress lines along his face as he spoke.
“We have an offer for both of you. A way for you to both get what you want.” He began to speak, quieter than he usually did.
Fuck, I know what this is about.
Alistair, you asshole.
“We have a way for Casper to bring a significant increase of power to the Platinum family, thus being reinstated as a family member. And a way for you, Jason, to not only continue working for my family, but also a way to cure the disease afflicting you.” Alistair looked me dead in the eyes. I nearly dropped my entire jaw.
I never told any of you about the cancer. Not a single one.
“What my sweet half brother is getting at is this: we want you two to get married.” Serena said with a smile.
