Trail 65: Family Consequences

Trail 65: Family Consequences

--- Jon Whitaker ---

“So what exactly do you guys do for your whole ‘training’ thing?” Felicia asked, his uncle and cousins apparently having decided to stick around for the weekend while his Ma and Big John worked out what they were going to do about Felicia.

“A bit of this, and a bit of that.” His Ma answered as she and he both stretched. “You don’t remember what we used to do back when we all lived together?”

“Uh, not really?” Fe shrugged, barely stretching compared to them. “I mean, I was active but I never really joined in outside of those prank wars you guys do or those self defense lessons you used to give me.”

“Well we still do those.” His Ma assured her, while blatantly not telling her just how far those things tended to escalate ever since it became just the two of them. (And Brutus.)

“Today we’re just going to go for a run.” He added taking a few steps back to get a decent start.

“I mean, I guess this place has enough space for pacers or something but wouldn’t a couple blocks around the neighborhood be better?” Felicia frowned as she looked around the roof.

“You’d think that.” Miss Edna scoffed from where she was sitting on the roof reading a book, his second parent having insisted on joining them even if she wasn’t actually going to join them on their run.

“Right, on my mark…” His Ma told everyone as they both took a runner’s stance, something Fe did too after a moment, albeit sloppier. “Go!”

He and his Ma both took off running forward and toward the edge of the roof before jumping the gap to the next even as Felicia stumbled to a stop behind them.

“What? Aren’t you coming?” His Ma called back with a smirk.

He faintly made out Miss Edna laughing at his cousin’s face and telling the younger girl. “Yeah, they do stuff like this all the time.”

Felicia frowned before taking a few steps back and leaping across the gap with a running start of her own, something he’d known she’d be able to pull off even if his Ma had been a bit skeptical.

“Huh, so you do got some mobility.” His Ma chuckled.

“Yeah, I do.” His cousin nodded.

“Well, let’s see just how mobile you are.” His Ma grinned before taking off and setting their course.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Ma gained (2XP) to Mobility, increased by 1 thanks to Felicia’s presence.

--Currently: Lv. 7 (9/16)

---

“You and Aunty M are insane.” Felicia told him as she collapsed on top of his bed still sweating after their run. (Gross…)

“Don’t you have a healing factor? Shouldn’t a run like that be easy for you?” He frowned, tempted to drag her off. (She’d heal from hitting her head on the floor.)

“I do, and super strength, speed, and more general badassery.” Fe confirmed with a nod. “You guys however… don’t.”

“We were only out there for like an hour.” He reminded her, thinking that was nothing compared to when they usually decided to ‘push it’. “Ma was taking it easy on you.”

Felicia gave him a skeptical look. “Roof running is taking it easy on me?”

“Join us for our other games.” He grinned, wondering how’d she’d do with hide and seek.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He grabbed her backpack full of clothes before chucking it at Felicia. “Now go take a shower, you’re getting my bed dirty.”

Felicia looked him dead in the eye before flopping back and rolling all over his bed. When she was done she hopped onto her feet and walked out of his room without a word, her smirk saying everything she wanted to.

His eyes never left the covers he was going to have to wash now as he waited for the bathroom door down the hall to close before calling out for, “Pix.”

The little fairy gave him a curious tweet as she flew out of her garden.

“Let’s go talk to Miss Edna… We need to work on your illusions.”

Scene Consequences

-Pix Level Up, X 2.

--Currently: Illusionary Trap Lv. 3

-(Strike one…)

---

“You really didn’t have to come, you know?” His frowned looking at him.

“I know, but…” He’d been a little… iffy about following his Ma back to the station given what had happened the last time they’d been there, but at the same time he wasn’t in much of a hurry to let her go back by herself.

“Don’t worry we’ll be fine.” His Ma promised, a hand on his shoulder.

“I know.” After all, he’d murder anything that threatened his Ma. He rolled his shoulders before letting out a sigh and jokingly admitting that, “I just needed an alibi.”

His Ma paused. “For?”

“Something.” He answered.

His Ma gave him a look. “Something funny?”

“Depends on if I get caught.” He shrugged.

“Good enough.” His Ma huffed as they started making their way through the station proper, a number of fearful or worried eyes turning their way. Something that made sense given his Ma’s reputation, absence, and now return.

Or rather it would’ve if those eyes weren’t more focused on him for some reason, a fact that was putting him and his Ma on edge.

Enough so that they both let out a sigh of relief when his Ma’s pseudo partner Garcia showed up with the first friendly face they’d seen since stepping inside.

“You really are too tough of a bitch to keep down, huh, Whitaker?” Garcia laughed as she pulled his Ma into a hug.

“Not the first person to tell me that.” His Ma tried to grin as she rolled her shoulder. “Admittedly, I’m still not at a hundred percent but I’m getting there.”

“That’s good.” Garcia smiled back. “Was honestly worried about you, the whole Creep thing was… It’s usually not as bad as it was this time.”

“So I’ve heard.” His Ma nodded, her eyes darting around the room. “Hey, you don’t know what’s up with… this?”

“Oh, um…” Garcia glanced at him before wincing. “I’m not sure if he told you but apparently before… everything Jon uh, Jon saved a few kids that had gotten lost in the station… from a Creep.”

His Ma frowned in thought. “Right, uh, he was telling me about that before I got bit… I think.”

“Well, um, when you got hurt he kind of… got a few of them on his way out…” Garcia trailed off as she glanced at him unsurely.

“I… don’t really remember a lot after Ma got hurt.” He admitted, fully aware that he hadn’t just let the beast in his head out so much as given it free reign that night. Everything up until he found the Horror little more than blur to him.

His Ma gave him a concerned look. “It was a rough night all around.”

“It was.” Garcia swallowed. “Anyway, more than one person saw Jon kill a Creep… by ripping its throat out… with his teeth…”

“Oh… right…” He’d forgotten he’d done that, (before Ma even got hurt…)

He was pretty sure he’d done a lot worse to every other Creep he could find that night, but he was glad most of those hadn’t had witnesses outside of the Southside Coven. (Which would kind of explain why Artemis was so tense around me…)

“I see…” His Ma hummed, her expression unknown since he couldn’t bring himself to look her way. “The apple doesn’t fall far I guess.”

“Huh?” He blinked looking at his Ma in confusion, something that was matched by Garcia.

“Oh, well you see back when I was overseas,” His Ma began, her voice slowly rising in volume. “I got captured by these assholes, and while I was locked up one of them thought they could get handsy with me.”

(KILL. SLAUGHTER! MURDER THEM ALL!!!)

“So of course when he tried reaching for my clothes, I reached for his throat. With my teeth.” His Ma chomped into a vicious smile, as his head suddenly cleared. “Tore his throat out and use his still warm blood as a lubricant to slip my cuffs, before stealing a gun off his cooling corpse, shooting his five buddies dead, and then walking five miles through the desert trying to get a signal on my radio for pickup.”

His Ma laughed, in a way that made Garcia take a step back even as it reassured him.“You should’ve seen your Mags and Theo’s faces when they saw me covered in drying blood~ Probably looked like you did when you found me on the roof surrounded by dead Creeps!”

She slung an arm around his shoulder, her fingers running through his hair as she gave him a soft smile. “No matter how you look at it, you're my kid through and through.” Her eyes moved across the room as something in them shifted, something familiar. “And nobody fucks with my kid...”