Book 2 - Chapter 33 - Cleaning up Loose ends.

I'll be honest, not my favourite chapter... by a long shot. With all the negativity around Helen, I just want to get to the end of this arc, and into another Antithesis centred one. Will probably touch this up a little before it's released, but the just is here.

-----
By the time I’d arrived at the abandoned factory that Helen was using, the confrontation was already over. My bears had created an impromptu cordon around the building, and were in the midst of handing off the various Guiding Light members they’d captured to the bewildered police forces lined up outside. I could see the officers weren’t very impressed, or enthusiastic, to take all these people into custody. 

I wasn’t that surprised, I could count the number of times I’d actually seen them on the street on one hand. They’d only leave their fortified precincts when the gangs went overboard, creating absolute chaos in the street with a full blown sector wide gangwar, or someone forced them to. I guess I had, or at least knew, the people that had that pull now.

I landed my truck within the perimeter, to avoid dealing with the police and various onlookers, before making my way inside what remained of the building. The place was a wreck. Holes in the walls, and debris scattered around in, what I was pretty sure, was a fairly intact building until recently. I bypassed Alan, who was sitting in the foyer looking dejected, and went looking for the only person I managed to get a hold of that could help me. Fucking Mirage.

The smug prick was wandering around the production floor, trying to avoid stepping on anything, checking on the carnage. “Your toy did quite a number on this place,” he said, kicking a random pile of scrap.

“Bob is a Class III assault bot, and extremely good at his job. I’d actually be more surprised if the place was pristine after he was done,” I replied casually. “Where’s Helen? Dead?”

“No no no. She wasn’t a complete pushover, but she was far from the most dangerous opponent I’ve ever faced. Far too focused on area control, not much combat potential. No, Stalker took her back to the Family’s headquarters, so we could better contain her, and evaluate her mental status,” he stopped poking the wreckage for a moment and looked in my direction. “Are you disappointed?”

“Honestly? I don’t know,” I answered, after a short pause. “She and I have completely opinions on how to deal with the Antithesis in the undercity, and were willing to clash over it… but the protectors DID make her a samurai, so they must have seen something in her. If the two of us fought again, I probably wouldn’t have held back, especially since she was threatening my family, but I didn’t particularly want her dead.”

“So you don’t want to see her again?”

“And do what? Get into another fight? Fuck no. If you think she can be contained, or rehabilitated, you’re welcome to try. Just keep her out of the undercity for the time being and, if she shows any sign of changing her ways in the future, I’ll talk to her then. I’ve got too much shit going on to worry about her right now.”

“As you wish,”  Mirage said with a laugh. He stepped forward and tried to pat me on the head, but I batted his hand away before he could. “Make sure you drop by the headquarters in the next couple days, we might have something for you.”

“I just told you I’m super busy,” I snapped at his back, as he started casually walking away.

“And you told me you’d owe me one if I brought some people to help. There’s a situation happening in the north and we need someone with your skills to help. I was going to ask you to work with my team, to work on some official merch, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made.”

“Asshole,” I muttered

“See you in a couple days!” he replied with a wave, as he made his way towards the exit. I hated that the bastard was enjoying this.

I sighed, and after a few moments, made my way back towards the entrance. Alan’s face lit up and he tried to scramble to his feet. I didn’t let him.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” I growled, as I smacked him on the back of the head. “Even if it was an emergency, running out of the shelter without telling anyone. How stupid can you get?”

“I didn’t think anyone would come looking for me, or care that I was out and about,” he replied, sinking down into the seat and covering his head.

“Yeah, well, you were wrong. You always complain about me doing stupid, irresponsible stuff, and then you pull this shit? I warned you!”

“I know! I just have a friend who’s struggling and…”

“I know about your fucking girlfriend you idiot! You could have told someone, my bears could have delivered food without any risk. Why didn’t you just ask for help?”

Alan lowered his head, and stared at his feet. “I just wanted to be helpful to someone,” he said after several seconds.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” I said, without missing a beat. 

I watched Alan flinch, and sat up straight. “Pardon?”

“Even if you wanted to help someone, you shouldn’t have kept it from everyone, or went off on your own. If you’d talked to Jane or I we probably could have helped you set something up, or at least come up with a better plan than sneaking out of the shelter.” I smacked him on the head again. “When we get home you better apologize to everyone, got it?”

He nodded slightly, and slunk back down into his chair. “We’ll talk about your girlfriend and her family later, maybe come up with a safer way to actually help them,” I said, as I yanked him to his feet. “Let’s go home.”

I turned, and started moving towards the door, when Alan grabbed my arm. “Hey Evelyn, thanks for coming to get me.” 

I didn’t actually expect him to apologize, so it caught me off guard. “No problem,” I replied. “Just get in the truck.”

—

Jane and Jennifer burst into tears when they saw Alan walk through the door. They alternated between fussing over, and swearing at him. 

Eddie just sat there, awkwardly, while Issi just continued eating. That wasn’t super surprising, since we never informed either of them Alan was missing. We figured it was best not to upset the youngest. 

“Sorry for everything,” Alan started, “I didn’t think it would be a big deal if I left…”

“Well, you were wrong, we were very worried about you. Where the hell did you go?” Jane asked angrily.

“To deliver food to a friend of mine,” Alan replied. “I was just trying to help.”

“That’s noble and all, but not at the risk of your safety. I’m very disappointed in you,” Jane said. I rolled my eyes at her use of the ‘mom’ voice. 

“Alright,” I interrupted, “I know Alan deserves all this berating, and more,” I noticed that Alan looked at me in slight horror. “But I already had this discussion with him earlier. So let him off a little. I promised that we’d discuss a safer way for him to help people in the future, so he wouldn’t do this again. Right Alan?” I said, staring at the hunched over boy.

“Of course not. I’ve learned my lesson,” he replied quickly.

“Well, good,” Jane replied, a little surprised. “Then I won’t push right now. Just be aware, we will be talking about this later.” Alan nodded, and the table went quiet for a minute.

“Well, you enjoy that discussion,” I said, grabbing a nutrabar from the kitchen. 

“You’ll be involved too,” Jane said with a scowl. “And I’m not letting you get out of it.”

“You’ll have to,” I replied casually, “I had to ask a complete asshole for help getting Alan out of there, and if I don’t return the favor I’ll never hear the end of it. Like I don’t have enough to do”

“Sorry…” Alan started.

“Now enough of that. I may have had to nearly empty out my point reserve, and make a deal with an asshole, but what’s done is done,” I replied, biting into the bar. I noticed that both Jane and Alan glanced at me surprised, but didn’t say anything. “I just hope things calm down, so I can take it easy for a few days.” 

Of course, I should have known better than to utter those words. Because two days later, at the Family HQ, I learned exactly what it was that Mirage needed me for.