Radioactive: Chapter Fifteen

Radioactive

Chapter Fifteen

~Be Careful what you Wish for~

A tattered woman walked through the labs underground. She wore old torn clothing and was overall a dirty mess. People stepped out of her way to avoid getting any filth on them. Others covered their noses because of her stench as she walked by. She walked into a room and spotted the doctor, black goggles and all. The woman walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

The doctor turned around startled, “Oh, what a hideous creature—I mean, hello lovely lady have you come to—”

“Doctor, it’s me! Jumper!” the woman pointed to herself.

“Oh, it’s you,” the doctor relaxed, “You couldn’t have taken a much cleanlier form?”

“I didn’t have time,” Jumper said, “I have to talk to you.”

“If you must,” the doctor muttered as he walked around the room.

“I think we may have a problem,” Jumper followed him around.

“How so?” the doctor started to look interested.

“I saw these people yesterday, well actually it was a boy and a dog, but I still didn’t get a good feeling out of them,” Jumper started seeing the holes in his own theory.

“So boys walking their dogs scare you, now,” the doctor looked at him, “That is a good thing to know.”

Jumper sighed, “No, you weren’t there, there was something weird about the two!”

“Jumper, you’re just being paranoid again,” the doctor said, “Remember the mailman incident? It’s a mailman’s job to deliver the mail. They aren’t spying on you. We don’t want a repeat.”

Jumper crossed his arms, “Okay, can I borrow one of the mutants.”

“Absolutely not,” the doctor said, “My beautiful creatures will not leave the premises.”

“How about the ones that escaped?” Jumper asked.

The doctor looked saddened, “That was an accident. Unfortunately, the security precautions failed and they managed to escape. It wasn’t on purpose however.”

“Fine,” Jumper muttered.

“Now go get out of that filthy skin. You are stinking up the whole place,” the doctor shooed him away.

Jumper left the room and walked to his own room. He jumped into his own skin. Jumper was still unconvinced that who he met that day was more than just a boy walking his dog. Frankly, he didn’t like the way the dog was sniffing at him. He needed to convince the doctor that these new comers were something to worry about and not just some people passing through. The choice was obvious; he needed to take things into his own hands.

He walked barefoot through the hallways of the facility. No one questioned where he was headed. He was the doctor’s favorite and they weren’t going to get in his way for fear that they might anger the doctor. Jumper stood in front of an elevator and typed in a code for the keypad. He used a code that one of the maintenance workers used. Sure that worker would be in a heap of trouble but what did he care.

The door opened and he walked in. The elevator took him down to the cooler lower levels. He got off and walked down a long hallway. On either side were bulletproof windows. On the other side of the windows, were separate cells. In the cells were several creatures. Some of them rammed up against the widow growling and snarling at Jumper. Each creature was assigned a number and that number was placed on a plaque at the base of the widow.

Jumper walked to one of the windows and stopped a moment. A female mutant sat cross-legged in the center of the cell. She had blue skin and black hair; a tail snaked its way around her in a neat circle as she sat. Jumper vanished and appeared inside the cell. The girl’s black eyes opened. She screeched quietly at him, bearing sharp teeth but other than that, she didn’t move.

“Hello, Samantha,” Jumper smiled, “You remember me don’t you?”

She growled. Jumper sat down across from her.

“I mean, sure, this isn’t the form we met in but I’m sure that little detail doesn’t matter anymore with your mutations now,” Jumper talked to her. He smiled at her, “How are your new powers doing?”

The creature glared at Jumper. She bared her teeth in a brief grow.

Jumper reached out and clasped her hand, “Come on, don’t be like that. I got you what you wanted, right? In fact, you should be technically thanking me. But I won’t have you go that far. Instead, I need you to do a little favor for me.”

In a flash, both he and the creature disappeared.

~§~

“That sounds interesting,” Kaiba said as he typed at the computer, “Does that description sound familiar to you, Kiri?”

“Scanning thought Tower records,” Kiri reported, “Found a match. From the description Fang has given us the best match that I can confirm is a Body Jumper. The user sabotages another’s mind and controls their body killing the hosts mind in the proses. Each Body Jumper has an original body but must leave their body in order to control another.” Kiri looked at Fang, “This might be the cause of your observations with the boy having two scents.”

“One was the body he was controlling and the other was his own original scent,” Fang nodded.

“I will add that observation to the records,” Kiri stated.

“So why are we interested in this kid anyway,” Riu stated, “Just seems like a kid jumping bodies if you ask me.”

“He kills people when he jumps into other peoples bodies,” Duke said.

“Yeah, so,” Riu shrugged, “it’s not any out our business.”

“Still, it could explain why people have been going missing quietly,” Kaiba said, “Our Body Jumper takes a form that his next victim will feel comfortable will, maybe even taking the form of a friend or family member, then he’ll lead them to where ever the experiments happen.”

“Makes sense,” Jekyll noted, “He doesn’t seem like the kind to actually do the experiments.  He seems like the supplier, supplying enough test subjects for the doctor to do his work.”

“So our new goal is to find this jumper,” Kaiba said, “Great, let’s get to work.”

A heavy object crashed into the building. Brick and mortar caved in on all of them. They were thrown to the ground. Kaiba covered his head as debris fell. He felt the floor underneath give way and fall through. When things settled down a little Kaiba sat up. He coughed as the dust settled.

The side of the apartment had a huge hole in it. On the roof of the neighboring apartment was a mutant. It’s levitated in the air as it screamed at the team below. It raised its arms in the air, lifting two vehicles in the air and throwing them at the damaged apartment.

“Move!” Kaiba called out.

Everyone got to their feet. Kaiba ran toward the gap in the wall. He jumped down and was followed by the others just before the two cars crashed into the building. Kaiba landed on his feet. The creature screeched at the survivors.

Jekyll landed closest to him, “Finally, a little excitement happens. How are we going to deal with this one?”

Kaiba got to his feet, “She can’t attack all of us at the same. We’ll split up and surround her at all sides.”

“Roger!” Ing reached up and grabbed the apartment roof ledge.

“Where do you think you’re going!?” Kaiba yelled at the android.

“What? Sorry! I can’t hear you over my being awesomeness!” Ing pulled himself up onto the roof.

He jumped up and grabbed onto the creatures leg. The creature screamed and flew off leaving a blue light trail behind her making it easy to track her. Kaiba sighed and clenched his fists.

“Come on!” he called, “We have to take that thing down before it causes anymore damage!”

“The mutant or the kid?” Fang smiled.

“Both,” Kaiba stated. He looked at Kiri, “Come with me.”

“Right,” Kiri nodded.

“Then let’s move!” Fang turned into a wolf and ran down the alley.

He was followed by Kaiba and the others. The trail to follow the mutant was easy even as the blue light in the sky started to fade. Riu and Duke climbed onto the roof and traveled by roof top. The creature tried to kick the little android off her leg. When she saw the others coming, she screamed and lifted a rooftop water tower and threw it at Riu and Duke.

“Read it and weep, babe!” she pulled out two daggers that looked similar in make to the blades braided in her hair. She threw a dagger at the creature fused with electricity. Lightning crashed down on the creature as it screamed. Stunned the creature fell to the ground.

Ing grabbed on to the roof ledge and held on as the creature fell below. Duke grabbed onto his arm and pulled him onto the roof. The creature fell on the ground. Fang lunged at the creature but she stretched out her hand and used her powers to throw him across the street. He hit a wall and was momentarily stunned. With the creature distracted, Jekyll threw knives at the creature striking pressure points but not killing her. The creature screamed in pain. Kiri ran forward only to be picked up and pushed back. The creature reached out a hand at Kaiba and screeched. Her screech was cut short when a broadsword fell from the sky and cut her in her chest.

Kaiba looked up and saw Duke on the roof. Riu waved hello as she stood over his shoulder. Ing called down to the others, making a lot of noise. Kaiba sighed and rolled his eyes.

Jekyll sighed, “Why can you keep these creatures alive long enough for me to examine them?”

The Turn: Chapter Twenty-Three

The Turn

Chapter Twenty-Three

~Just You and Me~

Two Years before The Turn

Zara lay in bed. The rain from the day before was starting to let up. The early rays coming though the morning clouds. Slowly, Zara sat up. She had been unable to sleep very well the night before. Puppetmaster had been kind enough to walk with her all the way home pushing her bike for her. Later that night, she lay awake in bed thinking about how she was going to talk to the rest of her team. She was thinking about it still when the doorbell rang.

Curious, Zara made her way toward the door. She looked through the peephole and sighed. Zara rested her head against the door for a brief moment. She then opened it. Chaud stood there in a black sleeveless shirt and his usual cargo pants.

“Hey, Chaud,” she stated.

“Sup,” Chaud glanced at her bandaged arm, “What happened to your arm?”

Zara shrugged, “Guess biking in the rain was a stupid idea. Look, about almost running you over…”

Chaud shrugged, “I’m alive aren’t I? No harm, no foul.”

Zara smiled, “So what are you here for?”

“Just thought we could hang out,” Chaud said.

“Hang out?”

Chaud smiled, “Yeah. You’re not doing anything are you?”

Zara shook her head, “No, not really. I’ll be right out.”

She closed the door just to be a little mean and make Chaud stand out there. After changing her clothes, she grabbed her house keys and walked out of her apartment.

“Where are we going?” Zara asked as she locked the door.

Chaud shook his head, “I don’t know yet.”

Zara looked at him and rolled her eyes, “You’d better figure it out soon.”

“Do you have the key to the roof?” Chaud asked.

“I might,” Zara stated.

“Good,” Chaud walked toward the stair well, “We’ll start there then.”

Reluctantly, Zara followed him. Her building was a decent height. It defiantly wasn’t the tallest of buildings but it also wasn’t the smallest. It also had a lot of stairs. Not that there was anything wrong with walking up stairs, it was just a tedious work out.

When they reached the roof, Zara unlocked the door with one of her other keys and they both walked onto the roof. It wasn’t a great sight. There was garbage and trash lying around, vents spewing steam or smoke. The waist high cement wall was slightly off color being exposed to the elements. The floor was even worse. Zara tip toed through the disgusting mess behind Chaud so he wouldn’t see her acting so squeamish.

Chaud stood up on the cement ledge. White wings sprouted freely from his back. He stretched them, extending them to their full length, and flapped them once. After that, he looked back at Zara and held out a hand.

“Chaud,” Zara looked at him with skepticism, “What the heck are you doing?”

Chaud shrugged, “Thought you might want help getting up.”

“I think I can cope by myself,” Zara’s pride spoke for itself.

Zara made her way onto the ledge. She managed for the most part and stood beside Chaud looking down at the ground below.

“Can I have your right hand?” Chaud asked.

“Maybe,” Zara looked at him, “it really depends what you need it for.”

“Just grip on to my shoulder,” Chaud answered. Zara did, “Hang on tight,” Chaud said, “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Chaud wait—!”

Chaud leaned forward off the ledge, pulling Zara with him. Zara closed her eyes and threw her left arm around his neck and held on for dear life. Chaud’s wings spread to either side, trying to catch the wind. When they did, Zara could feel the change in speed that they were going. It wasn’t much but it was enough for Chaud to change his direction. His wings flapped to regain altitude. Soon though, they stayed extended as the two of them soared.

“Um,” Chaud said after a while, “I kind of need to breathe so if you could, I don’t know, loosen your grip on my throat?”

Zara forced herself to relax her left arm. Slowly, she pulled her right arm around his neck as well, making sure that she didn’t choke him. She realized that she was shaking as she situated herself on Chaud’s back. Her head rested on his left shoulder closer to his neck.

“You can open your eyes too,” Chaud stated.

Zara shook her head no. She just wanted Chaud to land as soon as possible so she could have both her feet firmly planted on the ground. But curiosity got the better of her. She slowly opened her eyes. They were not that far above the Island. They would have been just above the Tower if they flew over it. It was unnerving being so high without being inside some sort of aircraft.

The Island suddenly disappeared into blue as they passed over the ocean. Chaud flew up higher into the high cumulus clouds. Reluctantly, Zara sat up. She placed her shins against the base of Chaud’s wings. After that she gripped firmly onto his shoulder as she extended her other arm and tried to touch the clouds as they passed by. It was as if they were in a temporary fog. Zara’s arm got wet because of the water droplets.

“If I jumped, would you catch me?” Zara asked.

Chaud looked over his shoulder and smiled, “No.”

Nevertheless, Zara tried to stand up on Chaud’s back. She spread her arms to balance herself.

“You’re kind of heavy you know,” Chaud teased.

“Shut up!” Zara kicked him lightly in the back of the head.

She leaned back and fell. It was both the most liberating and frightening experience she had ever been through. Every muscle and fiber in her body was screaming for rescue as she hurled back down toward earth. Yet there was an underlying calm that she couldn’t explain.

The waters were getting closer as she fell head first. She couldn’t help but smile as she felt Chaud’s usual presence behind her. He gripped her arms and turned her body so that they skimmed the top of the ocean. Water sprayed in her face and Zara found herself laughing with the wind in her face.

Chaud increased his speed by flapping his wings a couple of times before gliding again. They headed toward a canyon that partially split the Island in two above the water. He flew between the two masses of land. Rock bridges connected two sides together providing passage for land travelers. Ocean water washed in and out below. Chaud never once slowed down as he flew under the walkways.

The canyon started to narrow, the sides of the walls getting closer and closer together. Zara looked ahead and saw the end of the canyon. It was a relatively flat wall, about a little more than Chaud’s wing length wide. The surface was riddled with caves and tunnels. Water even trickled down the face of the cliff from some of the caves.

“You trust me?” Chaud called as he flew toward one of the smaller tunnels on the cliff face.

“About as far as you can throw me,” Zara answered back.

Chaud smiled and he pulled her closer to his body. He wrapped his arms around her waist. A moment after that, they entered in to the cool darkness of the caves. Chaud dipped suddenly, avoiding a stalactite. The cool rushing air struck Zara in the face. She nervously gripped ahold of Chaud’s arms.

With the constricted air flow, Chaud had to exert a lot more effort to keep them both from smashing into stalagmites and stalactites alike. The darkness didn’t help either. Most of the time Chaud only saw the coming danger seconds before they crashed into it. But he seemed to know where he was going, Zara concluded. Sure there were a few unwanted surprises but for the most part she trusted Chaud.

There was a trickling sound that soon grew into a roar. Water dripping from the ceiling or coming from the ground seemed to all flow into a stream. Soon the stream turned into a rushing river as they traveled the underground passage. Chaud followed the water’s flow, avoiding disaster as best he could.

By the time Zara saw the light at the end of the tunnel the underground river roared so loud that she almost had to cover her ears. As soon as Chaud saw the end of the tunnel it was smooth sailing, no more dips or sudden jerks. Together they flew out of the tunnel frightening the birds near the mouth of the cave as they did so. The water fell down into a large basin.

Chaud flew around, gliding slowly. The basin was surrounded by wall of jutting rocks. The water was a crystal blue. There was one way the water could exit once it entered the basin and it was through another cave to the far left. In the middle of the basin was an enormous tree. In the tree was a wooden platform. Chaud landed on the platform, setting both him and Zara down gently.

The crashing of the waterfall was amplified by the surrounding rock walls. It was cool in the shade of the trees. Zara sat on the edge of the platform, her legs dangled over the edge and Chaud sat next to her. For a long moment neither of them said anything to each other.

“You know,” Chaud stated after a while, “No one on the team hates you.”

Zara looked at him, “You brought me all the way out here to tell me that?”

“Somebody needed to,” Chaud shrugged, “Thought it best if it was me.”

“And just how exactly is it not my fault?” Zara asked, “I allowed us to go in there without a backup plan and we almost got killed.”

“If I recall correctly,” Chaud stated, “in Cairo we had a plan worked out but as we got off the plane, we had to fight our way off. That defiantly wasn’t part of the plan. We could have died, but we didn’t.”

“That isn’t the same thing,” Zara muttered.

“Point is,” Chaud continued, “We could have died, but we didn’t.”

“How is that a point?”

“We could have died but we didn’t.”

“Chaud will you stop—”

“Say it with me, WE COULD HAVE DIED…” Chaud paused.

With a small smile, Zara finished the sentence, “But we didn’t.”

“Good! I always consider it a successful mission when everyone gets back with all four limbs and their head. That’s usually a good thing,” Chaud said with a smile.

“How’s Hina?”

“Pissed. She can’t wait to get her hands on one of those New Order folks.”

“And Naru?”

“He’s going okay. After the surgery, he went through some special treatment stuff that helps you heal faster, you know. Guess who the doctor was.”

“Oh, boy,” Zara could help smiling, “You’d thing Dr. Jekyll is doing this on purpose now.”

Chaud nodded in agreement, “Knowing him, he probably is. He probably gets some kind of sick pleasure off of tormenting him.”

“Poor Naru,” Zara nodded slowly as she went over the information, “And the others?”

“Well, Deontay’s chill as ever. Nothing seems to faze him too much. Vicky seems to be especially motivated. She’s been at the boxing gym frequently. She’s even on a winning streak against the guys.”

“That’s good,” Zara smiled.

Chaud looked at her, a smile on his face, “What are you thinking?”

“I was thinking how I don’t want this smudge so early in my career,” she looked at Chaud, “I don’t think I want to sit around.”

Chaud’s smile grew, “As always, you plan and I execute.”

You Love 'Em, You Hate 'Em

A Little Insanity

A Spin-off

~You Love ‘Em, You Hate ‘Em~

*Warning! The Characters May Be Completely Different!*

Fang sighed as he fixed the center piece on the dining room table. He was on the brink of exhaustion and he hadn’t even had to do that much this year. Yes, he supplied the house this year and the turkey, easy enough, but he didn’t realize that cleaning and decorating the entire house could take so much out of a man. The table was set for the adults and a smaller table was for the children. In only a few hours, more of less, the house would look worse that it would on a normal day. That’s right. The day of football, food, family and traditions…Thanksgiving.

As was mentioned before, this year the holiday was going to be spent at Fang’s recently bought home. He had just graduated from collage with a doctorate and already had a job as a doctor at the local hospital. A minor position, yes, but everyone has to start somewhere. As a family tradition there was a rotation on who would supply what. For example, the year before Fang supplied the cranberry sauce at his uncle Sage’s celebration. Two years before he was responsible for the mashed potatoes. This year the extended family was going to bring food to him.

The smell of turkey permeated through out the house. It was already in the oven almost an hour longer that it should have been but it still didn’t look all the way cooked. Fang mentally kicked himself for not putting it in the oven sooner like his uncle Undertaker had suggested. But it was too late now, the relatives were coming soon.

It was almost five-o-clock when Fang heard a knock on the door. After centering a tilted napkin, Fang walked to the door. He paused, took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Hey, Uncle Sage! Happy Thanksgiving!” Fang said.

Sage walked in in his usual business suit. He barely even glanced at Fang as he pushed a large yellow bowl of mashed potatoes in his hands. Sage walked into the home. Critical eyes glances at all the surfaces searching for any discrepancies.

“I see you haven’t screwed anything up,” Sage stated.

Fang’s shoulders dropped. As much as he loved his family, he just couldn’t stand them sometimes.

Sage looked at him, “Well, don’t just stand there! Put the potatoes on the stove!”

“Yes, sir,” Fang sighed.

He walked into the kitchen as there was another knock on the door. When Fang walked back to where his uncle stood, he expected to see someone else standing at the doorway but Sage hadn’t even touched the door knob. Sage stood at the foot of the stair case centering a slightly tilted picture frame. Fang went to get the door.

The two of the youngest members of the family, Arisa, age 10, and Blue, age 11, ran past Fang’s legs. Arisa in a pink dress did her best to out run Blue who was chasing her for his action figure. Fang’s brother, Shadow, and his wife, Raven, stood in front of him. Shadow looked embarrassed about their children’s rudeness while Raven simply stood silently holding two dishes in her arms: cranberry sauce and their signature gravy.

“Hey, Shadow,” Fang said, “It’s good to see you again. You too, Raven.”

“Likewise,” Raven stated. She walked in, her black boots clunking as she walked, “Hello, Sage.”

“Hello, Black Bird,” Sage said without even looking at her.

“How’s it going, Fang?” Shadow asked as he walked in.

“Everything is going well,” Fang said sarcastically, “Sage is here and the turkey isn’t done yet.”

Shadow laughed, “I’ll go see what I can do about the turkey. You’ll have to deal with Sage yourself.”

Fang smiled.

“Oh,” Shadow said, “I saw Alister and Zorah outside fighting again.”

With a sigh, Fang went out to make sure his brother and sister were still both alive. They fought more often than the sun rose. They used to live next to each other until a series of disturbances and police visits got them a restraining order from the court. They could only see each other at family events.

Fang looked outside. Zorah had a two pronged serving fork in her hand as she dangerously pointed it at Alister. A holiday salad lay in a nice bowl on the grass. Alister on the other hand held a rather strange salad utensil. It looked like a pair of rather large scissors but on the ends where the sharp points should have been was a spoon head and a large spork. He held it in front of himself in self defense. A long glass pan of baked ham was tucked under his arm. Fang cautiously stepped forward.

“Stay back, Fang! This man ‘ere is a thief! A tong thief! He took ‘em on purpose! As if I wouldn’t notice that this here prong wasn’t for my signature salad! Why I ought to…!”

“Now, wait one bloody minute!” Alister interrupted, “Why in the world would I want this! I have no use what so ever for it!”

“A likely story you piece of—!”

“Now, now, you two!” Fang raised his voice, “It’s the holidays, can’t you two just get along once a year?”

“Sorry, I thought that day was for Christmas,” Alister looked at his sister, “Wasn't that day for Christmas?”

Zorah shrugged sympathetically to Fang, “Sorry, Love, but I ‘ave’t to agree with him. He’s right, Mate. Christmas is our truce day.”

Fang sighed, “Fine, then make it the second day of the year! Can you both do that?”

“I don’t know, Love,” Zorah said with regret in her voice, “You should have given us warning.”

Alister nodded, “A week would have been nice.”

“I haven’t even had breathing exercises yet.”

“But we could try.”

“That we could.”

“But there aren’t any promises we'll succeed.”

“That’s true,” Zorah glared at Alister, “He pulls somethin’ like this again and all bets are off!”

“Then you’d better watch the stuffing, Missy! Last year you nearly had the whole bowl!”

“Oh, yeah? I wonder where the rolls went? Oh, that’s right! You stuffed your face with them! I didn’t even get one by the time you had thirty!”

“Alright,” Fang shouted, “Starting now! Whoever is able to not cause trouble gets twenty bucks! Now hand each other those serving utensils and get into the house!”

Grudgingly both Zorah and Alister did as they were told. Fang was able to catch his breath when something caught his eye.

“Did I miss the brawl all ready? What a shame,” a voice said.

“Hello, Uncle Zero,” Fang said through clenched teeth. He looked around his Uncle, “You too, Rose.”

Rose, Zero’s son, held fruit salad and sweet yams in his arms. He barely gave Fang a glance before moving on to the house.

Zero patted Fang on the head, “I hope you didn’t screw up the turkey.”

One more figure came running from Zero’s car. The red headed girl named Flare ran after her father and brother. She held out a bowl of strawberry fluff. Flare smiled at Fang. She was about to wish her cousin a happy Thanksgiving greeting when her father called her at the door. With reluctance, Flare just bowed slightly and ran to answer her father’s biding. Exhausted and exasperated, Fang walked wearily back inside.

When he finally made it inside, Fang was surprised to see another addition to the company that he hadn’t seen go through the door. His cousin twice removed on his father’s side Shifter was there chatting away with Sage, a glass of red wine in one hand. Shifter was the family detective. Fang walked up to him.

Sage was in the middle of spouting insults at the quirky detective when Fang interrupted.

“Oh, hey there cousin! The wine’s in the fridge. Don’t worry I brought soda for the kids too. So when do we eat?” Shifter went on cluelessly.

“When did you get here?” Fang asked.

“A few minutes ago,” Shifter shrugged, “Why?”

“How did you get in?” Fang pressed.

“I heard that that bird brain gave him a good ‘wack’ with that upper cut of hers when he crawled through the bathroom window,” Sage paused, “The one on the second floor.”

Fang sighed heavily.

“If you do that enough times you decrease your life expectancy, you know,” Sage said without feeling.

There was no moment unlike then where Fang saw himself strangling the life out of that man. But with amazing self-control, Fang refrained himself. He walked into the kitchen. Shadow was bringing out the turkey, a satisfied smile on his face.

“I hope you don’t mind I take credit do you? I really want to prove Sage and Zero that I know what I’m doing.”

Shadow laughed, “I don’t have a problem with that as long as you give me more of the leftovers tomorrow.” Shadow winked.

“Consider it done,” Fang had to smile.

He and Shadow had always been fairly close. Fang was much closer to Shadow than his other relatives or his other brothers and sister. The both of them carried the turkey out onto the dining room table where the other things that the relatives brought were placed neatly. For a moment, as he worked around the table with his brother, he was at ease. But the night was still young, and not all the relatives were there yet.

The doorbell. Fang ran to the door, realizing very quickly that no one else was going to get it. Several bags of peanuts were shoved in his Fang’s face.

“Here,” a dull voice said. The girl before him didn’t even look up from her blackberry thing and her fingers sped across the keys at blazing speeds.

“Peanuts?” Fang asked, “I think you were assigned chestnuts.”

“Whatever, they’re nuts, get over it,” she said.

“Now, now, Penelope, greet your cousin a happy Thanksgiving.”

“Sup, happy turkey day, gobble gobble, marry Xmas, what? What do you want me to say? Are you going to let us in?” Penelope walked past Fang, “Whatever, this is so lame.”

Undertaker, who stood behind her, smiled, “She’s quite the handful.”

“I’m sure it’s a phase,” Fang said, “Her parents did die about a year ago, didn't they?.”

“That they did,” for a moment Undertaker sounded somber but his attitude picked up again, “Reighn? Come on out. This is your cousin Fang. You remember Fang from last year, don't you?”

The little adopted boy stepped out from Undertaker’s shadow. He held a pan of rolls and another one for stuffing. The boy was a little older than six years of age. He smiled up at his cousin. Undertaker reached into his jacket and pulled out a bag of chestnuts.

“I told her she should have bought chestnuts,” Undertaker laughed, “But all she said was—”

“They’re both nuts.” the three people at the door said.

After that they couldn’t help but laugh. Fang was happy to see the younger boy was taking a liking to his adoptive father. The two were practically inseparable now.

“Hey, you’re Reighn, right?” Arisa called from under Fang’s legs. She was barely and inch from the boy’s face, “I’m Arisa, and that’s Blue! You’re playing with us! Come on, we’ll give that stuff to my dad. He always knows what to do with stuff like that.”

With a quick glance back at his own father, Reighn was dragged off with a petrified look on his face.

Undertaker simply mused at the sight, “This will be interesting. Happy Thanksgiving, Fang.”

“You too, Uncle,” Fang responded.

After Fang closed the door, he stood and looked in at all the conversations and personalities that were mixed in one room. He didn’t like all of them but they were family. You have to be able to at least tolerate family. There was one last knock on the door. Fang turned and opened it.

“Happy Thanksgiving!” squealed the overexcited Edonya. Another cousin and her boyfriend, Thae said in more calmly from behind a pile of pie boxes. And in between them was…

Fang stared at the man for a while. He thought he recognized the man form somewhere.

“We brought pie!” Edonya continued, “Apple pie, cherry pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, rhubarb pie, and some other pie that I can’t pronounce. I think it’s Indian. But it looked good so I bought it. Pie, pie, pie!” She skipped around happily.

“Who is that?” Fang pointed to the black man in between them.

“Tristan,” Edonya answered matter-of-factually.

“Who’s Tristan?”

“You know the corner of Main and Don?” Thae answered, “He found him there. In a box.”

“He had a sign and everything! He was so lonely! Oh, Fang, he has no home for the holidays! Please let him in! Please, please, please!!!!!”

Fang hesitated.

“We brought cornbread too!” Edonya added.

“Fine,” Fang sighed.

“Yay! We’ll need to use your bathroom, shampoo, conditioner, a suit that you aren’t using, socks, and shoes!”

“Is that all?” Fang asked his cousin.

“Oh, and an extra tooth brush,” Edonya jumped around like she needed to go to the bathroom with excitement.

Fang stepped aside. Thae handed his items to his girlfriend then took Tristan upstairs for a makeover. Edonya went around talking about her pies and how it was so hard and a hassle to buy them all in time.

After a few minutes, Fang was finally able to sit and watch part of the football game. Dinner was ready shortly after that and everyone gathered around the table. Since the dinner was at his home it was up to Fang to make a before dinner speech.

When everyone settled into their seat, Fang stood: "Thanksgiving is an important holiday in our family. Because no matter what when wrong throughout the year, we come to Thanksgiving and we temporarily forget the hardships of the year while we drown ourselves in gravy and cranberry sauce,” Fang glanced at Alister and Zorah, “Or not. But either way we all get together year after year. We may be at each other’s throats, or stabbing each other in the back but none of that matters during Thanksgiving. We all drop our grudges and for at least one day of the—”

“Two,” Alister muttered, holding up two fingers, “There’s Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year. Two.”

“Whatever,” Penelope said as she punched away at her blackberry, “Just get it right, gawd.”

Fang sighed, “Fine, We all drop out grudges and for at least twice a year and get together for the family’s sake.”

“And the food,” Zorah muttered.

“And because we truly love each other as a family,” Fang continued.

“Yeah-no, it’s more the food,” Zorah insisted.

There were some mutters of agreement.

Zero laughed, “Just admit it kid, you aren’t cut out for being in the spot light.”

Fang sighed.

“One of these days you’ll drop dead in the middle of one of those,” Sage said as he sipped his wine.

“A speech?” Shifter asked.

“No, you idiot! A sigh!” Sage hit the man in the back of the head, “I’m surrounded by a bunch of incompetent people.”

The chatter grew louder and again Fang sighed. He raised his glass.

“To family,” he said.

“And Tristan!” Edonya said in a loud whisper.

Fang nodded to their unexpected guest, “And Tristan.”

The poor host downed his entire goblet as Alister kicked Zorah under the table. The three youngest children at the children’s table were throwing mashed potatoes at each other. Zero rubbed his temples trying to sooth a growing headache. Rose looked disgusted with the goings on while his sister, Flare, laughed at the hysterics. Undertaker was having himself a hearty laugh as well. Penelope rolled her eyes frequently while typing away on her phone, stopping temporarily to pop a peanut in her mouth. Thae seemed to shrink in his chair, hoping not to be unseen. Edonya, the sweet girl, tried to stop the madness. Tristan was helping himself to food already. Raven stood took her plate with food and walked away. Shadow managed a smile to Fang, but it was obvious he too was uncomfortable. Sifter complained to Sage why he had to hit him at the back of the head while Sage sat in his seat indifferent to the rest of the group.

Fang placed his empty cup down. He grabbed the wine bottle and looked inside. It was near full. He poured himself another glass, almost to the rim, and set the glass aside.

He raised the wine bottle, “To a messed up family who can’t make it through one dinner with out everything going wrong but can last the whole year without seeing each other. To a messed up family that loves each other in a hating way and hates each other in a loving way. To a messed up family who doesn’t listen, misunderstands, ignores, and yells. To a messed up family who hears what you have to say, understands everything, listens, and whispers. To a messed up family who has ups and downs, highs and lows, pros and cons. To a messed up family who isn’t perfect in any definition of the word. To a messed up family that you wake up thinking about and go to sleep dreaming about. To a messed up family that no matter how much you hate or love them, you love them more and more. To a messed up family where there are so many opposites that you can’t even count. To a messed up family with children or with none. To a messed up family with no home or live in a mansion. To a messed up family with power or with none. To big messed up families and to small ones, good and bad ones, and all the other messed up families out there.”

Fang drank straight from the bottle but he stopped mid sip as if he had forgotten to say something.

“And to Tristan.”

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!