Carmen, Hakeem and Ji had split up with the others under a time-sensitive objective to find Ben, before bad things happen with him. With him being a ‘pup’ as a werewolf, it would be quite easy for him to cause trouble, and possibly in an even much worse scenario, he could end up hurting or killing innocent people. Carmen and Hakeem didn’t like the idea of that, and neither did they like the idea of their contracts being torn up due to failure of protecting him. Right now, as they drove their innocuous Jeep Cherokee up in the direction of Albany (as that’s where the surveillance footage last caught his direction), they continued their search for Ben, in hopes of stopping him before he gets himself and/or others killed.
Ji, sitting in the seat next to the one she sat in before, sniffed at it to make sure she had the scent enlodged into her memory. Sniffing out the window, she detected his scent meaning the surveillance tape wasn't wrong. The scent was drifting off to the left a little bit. Noticing some dirt and grass picked up in a odd way, she kept her eyes trained on it.
As Carmen drove, she looked to the rearview mirror to check on Ji.
“Do we continue this way, or is the scent too weak right now?” Carmen asked, having had the windows to the rear doors rolled down for Ji’s convenience.
”The surveillance wasn't wrong and the scent is here. But it seems to be drifting to the right. If you look out the window you can see a small trail in the grass and dirt. His claws picked that up when he made the cut corner. We need to go left” She pointed to the marks.
Carmen nodded.
“Okay, you got it.” She said, making a left onto another rural road, hopefully following up on the tracks.
“I’d be a little surprised if he’s still alright. If we come up with nothing though, we’ll head back to his estate, debrief and wait for his return. Probably get a search party going or something.” Carmen digressed, following the trail as the roads see fit.
”Well, there is a chance he won't come back. We have to keep looking for him. The more time we waste, the more danger he is in. He doesn't have a pack like me and my sister did when we first turned.” Huffing at the female, she turned her attention to the tracks.
”It looks like they keep going straight for now. Isn't this the back way to the a warehouse or something?” She looked at Carmen and Hakeem.
Carmen nodded.
“Well alright, don’t say we ain’t trying. I want Cracker Jack alive too, but things aren’t…” She sniffed a little.
“Is something… burning?” It would take a little before Hakeem would smell the smoke too, but Hakeem was well aware of Carmen’s enhanced senses. Carmen looked up past the treeline and above into the sky, seeing smoke nearly blend into the night sky. What revealed it was a faint glow beneath it, a fire. “Oh shit…” She immediately drove towards the source of the smoke, driving through a back driveway through the woods.
Hakeem looked a little apprehensive.
“I seriously hope that this is an incredibly unrelated incident… an unrelated fire…” Hakeem gulped.
“If Ben was involved, lord have fucking mercy…” The jeep continued to bounce around as it drove through the unmaintained road that led through the woods and towards the warehouse. The large warehouse, an old one, appeared to have been engulfed in flames. It appeared to be a one with mainly metallic siding with wooden supports, and while the flames were mainly at the rear part, there was clearly evidence of a fight there. There were a few busted vehicles near the back, as well as some bullet holes in the walls of the warehouse. There were dents in the metal siding, and several marks. However, while there were signs of an intense fight, there appeared to be no signs of a werewolf attack. Both Carmen and Hakeem prayed that Ben was not involved in any of this.
Ji, have enhanced senses as well, could smell the smoke and grew nervous. Fire was one of her weaknesses. If there was fire, her earth element was useless. Ji got out of the car when it stopped and ran as far as she could. Her nose felt like it was burning from the smoke smell.
Covering her mouth, she gave several harsh coughed that left her lung aching and her chest so winded up and tight, it made it hard for her to get oxygen into her lung. She could only hope that the other two can do something; praying mentally that Ben was not inside.
Carmen and Hakeem immediately got out of the vehicle as well, once Ji jumped out.
“Ji! Ji!” Hakeem called out after Ji after she ran towards the trees, away from the burning building. He then turned to Carmen, who was looking at the ablaze warehouse.
“Maybe she has fire-phobia or something.” “Wolves don’t like fire…” Carmen said softly, reaching for her Nagant rifle inside of the Jeep before taking it out and bringing it to shoulder.
“Ready weapons, we don’t know what we could find here.” Hakeem nodded.
“Copy.” He said softly, pulling out his 1911 pistol, walking right beside Carmen as they approached the burning building.
The warehouse’s large front door suddenly seemed to tremble before them, and the rusty metal groaned as if a great force was trying to push it wide open. A moment later, with both only a few feet away, a loud burst of air finally made it yield, and they both found themselves facing a flurry of embers and snowflakes gliding on the strange wind. Beyond the threshold, they saw nothing but swirling black smoke and the orange glow of still raging flames within.
From within the smoke, two bodies, bound together by a chain, suddenly came flying, and landed before Carmen and Hakeem with moans of pain. One of them, a woman, wore a black combat suit, while the other was dressed in a colorful vigilante costume, mask and all. Both seemed to be struggling to maintain consciousness, their muffled sounds growing weaker behind their cloth gags.
Seconds later, many feet above, a big and mostly broken window suffered the same fate as the front door, and from the wall of smoke, embers and snow came a dark, seemingly winged silhouette, which landed with practiced grace right beside the two bodies. The wings turned out to be a long cloak of dark feathered, and on their head the person wore a pair of headphones which seemed to be playing music into their ears at full volume.
Beneath his goggled mask, the cloaked and probably male figure glanced at Carmen and Hakeem, and for a moment said nothing. Beneath the cloak, it looked like his body was swaying with the melody, and he combed his long brown hair with a gloved, clawed hand while he looked back that the ruined warehouse and the two people on the ground.
When he turned once again to the two armed people, he finally spoke, his expression was nonchalant, with a hint of an arched eyebrow.
“Can I help you?” He greeted them, and all of a sudden the air around them all became still. The smoke, embers and snow settled. The music came to an end, and he removed his headphones slowly.
“I know this looks bad, but I swear I’m just an innocent tourist. So put your guns down.” He smiled, and the roaring wind returned, encircling them with a short wall of swirling dust and leaves.
“Please. I’m having a rough night.” Both Carmen and Hakeem, while they witnessed the showmanship of the air elemental, watched as two chained people were thrown out from the warehouse, and a winged figure burst out of the warehouse window. Even as the man introduced himself with gusty winds surrounding him, Carmen and Hakeem kept their guns trained on him, having no idea whether or not he’s a friend or a foe. But with him flying up into the air and landing onto the ground with grace, both of them came to the conclusion that he was another metahuman doing some work in this sector. After the snow, embers and smoke (quite an unusual combination) settled, they watched as he stood there. Both of them were incredibly confused.
Carmen slowly lowered her bolt-action rifle as the wall of swirling dust and leaves surrounded her and Hakeem. Hakeem kept his pistol trained on the man in front of them, but Carmen spoke softly to her partner.
“Stand down.” She said, to which Hakeem obeyed, lowering his gun, but still in a combat-ready stance. Both of them had no idea who this man was, and what kind of metahuman they were dealing with… and they intend to find out. Carmen looked back to the man in front of them.
“Who are you, and who are you affiliated with?” She asked, her tone not hostile, but not friendly either. Her questions were straight, and her tone demanded straight answers.
“Furthermore, what are you doing here?” Biting her lip, she watched as this odd male landed in front of her two companions. Who the hell was he? She began to grumble about fires and that they needed to continue their missions. She dismissed the guys to the back of her mind and went on to try and continue, without the help of Carmen and Hakeem. She got onto her hands and knees to try and find a scent trail, only to have a burning sensation enter her nostrils. Yelping, she jumped up onto her feet and covered her nose, annoyance filling her system.
Well then, this is just fucking great. Not only was her worse weakest was nearby, but now her sense of smell was fucked up. Growling, she figured she could try and snuff out the fire so she can go back to tracking down Ben. Sneaking around towards the side of the warehouse, she began to chant something under her breath. Dirt rose from the tree line and hit the fire. Hissing sounds filled her ears as the dirt snuffed out the fire little bit.
“Well, Foxy Tulipana is my drag queen name, but I figure you’d be better off calling me Condor.” The cloaked young man answered, hands on his hips as he smiled softly at Carmen. His voice had a thick accent to it.
“And I’m not ‘affiliated’ with anyone. I’m just a hippie hitchhiker, I swear. Please ignore the cloak and mask and the freaky stuff the air is doing.” Behind them, the costumed vigilante moaned behind his gag, and Condor turned to him.
“Stop whining. I didn’t break anything this time either. You have some pretty good bones in you, and I told you I was going to get you to a hospital if you behaved.” Looking back to Carmen, he stopped smiling and opened his arms in defeat.
“Seriously, I’m not affiliated with any group, criminal or otherwise. I’m all on my own, just destroying government property in the name of juvenile idealism.” Both Carmen and Hakeem watched as he introduced himself in the most casual way. As Condor spoke, Carmen tried to place where the hell his accent was from. It was clearly a Latin American one, but not one she’s ever heard of before. She listened to him, nodding softly as both she and Hakeem tried their best to ignore the cloak, mask and the freaky air stuff. Carmen looked to him as he explained himself, revealing himself to be a freelancer without any affiliations or ranks. And a ‘juvenile idealistic anarchist’ type too.
“I see, well-” *BOOM!!!* Somewhere inside the warehouse, a crate full of explosives blew up, causing the ground to shake beneath them. Both Carmen and Hakeem immediately raised their guns at the source of the explosion, pointing them at the blazing warehouse behind him before slowly lowering their weapons.
The blast of the explosion cause Ji to be thrown back a bit. Making an oomph sound as she landed on her back, she hissed and looked at her hands. Cursing, she saw that her hands had small burns on them. Great now she really couldn't help until her hands healed. So much for using her power to help.
“And the property in question was an Israeli arms shipment for one Cesaro Zepeta. You know: Latino, middle aged, marginally handsome guy in a uniform who’s on the news now and then.” He nodded towards the other bound person, the woman.
“That one is one of his… umm… fangirls. She is half to blame for that hot mess behind me.” He said, looking a bit sheepish as he offered his hand to Carmen.
“And you are…?” Both Carmen and Hakeem exchanged looks before looking back to the warehouse.
“An Israeli weapons shipment for… Zepeta?” Hakeem looked to Carmen, a little confused.
“We’re gonna have to do a little more research on this guy once we get back, I’m pretty sure that what the hell we ran into is much bigger than Ben…” Hakeem said softly.
Carmen looked to Hakeem.
“See if you can secure some intact crates, I wanna see what kind of shit we’re dealing with, and what shit we can loot.” She nodded to Hakeem before he walked off towards the warehouse. She turned to Condor.
“I’m Carmen, and my partner’s name is Hakeem. We’re ex-SDF militia, now working with Hendrix Tactical Services.” She said, shaking his hand with a friendly smile.
Condor was quiet for a moment, looking at her as if in deep thought.
“So… you’re not here to stop me? I don’t have to worry about being forcibly disappeared?” Carmen smiled, shaking her head.
“Nope, we’re just looking for someone else.” She gave him an inquisitive look.
“Hm, reconocen que el acento. Es usted de cualquier parte de Latinoamérica?” She asked, her accent a little Mexican-American.
“Ah, sí. Argentina.” Answered Condor.
“Como dije: sólo soy un turista. Vine acá para romper los juguetes de Zepeta, y de vez en cuando jugar al héroe.” “Un placer conocerte.” Carmen replied with a soft smirk.
“Soy de San Diego, los padres mexicanos. Me encuentro con Hakeem en Siria y lo trajo de vuelta aquí en los estados.” Meanwhile, Hakeem was standing at a safe distance from the burning warehouse, looking inside of it from the large doors. Holstering his pistol, he stood in a combat stance, and his irises glowed a bright green with a sound of a low bassy
*BOOOOOOMMMMM*. Almost immediately, he threw his right arm back, and an intact crate slid from the flaming building and out near the others. He did the same exact thing, but with his other arm, revealing himself not only to be a metahuman just like Condor, but one with telekinetic powers as well.
“Huh…” Condor said as he saw Hakeem display his powers.
“¿Sabes, Carmen, tuve un amigo de chico que estaba convencido que yo también tenía telekinesis. Honestamente, prefiero no tenerla. Ese poder atrae cosas raras.” “Hehe, we salvó la vida con sus poderes muchas veces antes. No soy el tipo de persona que alejarse de eso.” Carmen replied.
Vehemently repeating the F word under her breath, she got up onto her feet. Now she was just plain pissed off. Like a dog, she had hairs standing up on the back of her neck and any hairs that were burned stood up at attention. Now she had no access to her earth magic.
”Stupid explosions, stupid fire.” She muttered. She decided she had enough with this and went back to the jeep only to see the same guy and Hakeem standing between that and the burning building. She gasped when she saw Hakeem pull the crates out of the burning building from a distance, with his
mind. Someone had powers as well?!
Hakeem’s eyes stopped glowing, fading back to their normal light brown. He then heard Ji behind him, to which he turned to her. “You alright?” He asked, a little concerned as Carmen continued to converse with Condor. “Is it the fire?” He asked, a frown a little visible on his face.
“No. no I'm not alright. The more we are sitting here, the more Ben is in danger. I try fucking helping and I get burned, now I can't access my damn power until my hands are healed.” It was safe to say Ji was annoyed or even pissed off. Since she was not apart of this thing, it was natural she wouldn't understand why this happened. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Hakeem.
”I'm going to try and track him down myself by foot. You can stay and talk to...whoever this is. But I'm not wasting anymore time than we already have.” Turning away, she began to walk away.
“Uh… who is the girl? And why does she smell like a dog?” Said Condor, pointing at her with his thumb as he produced a cellphone from within his cloak and looked at the screen.
“Oh, text message… and it’s just spam. Booo! Hiss!” Hakeem listened to Ji and sighed.
“I understand that but right now we kind of ran into a little ditch… maybe this guy could help us find him… I mean he was fucking flying just a few seconds ago! We could be of great help to us if we can just-” “Flying is often useful, yes.” Condor interjected, looking up from his phone with a proud smile, before he tilted his head to the side. His smile became lopsided.
“But it kinda sounds like you want me to do your chores, and you didn’t even say please. That’s just… rude. Even the drug dealers down the street say please.” He looked to Condor before looking back to Ji as she walked off.
“Wait, you can’t go alone.” He objected, attempting to stop her.
“You can’t leave. No offence, but it’s dangerous, especially for someone like you. I know Ben needs our help but I’d rather not have another wolf put herself in danger and possibly get killed when we could’ve easily stuck together.” He said a little awkwardly.
“And I can’t exactly leave Carmen behind either, she could probably need my help.” He explained.
“C’mon, let’s just get you in the truck and blast the AC to let you breath for a moment. Does that sound okay?” He offered, gesturing to the Jeep Cherokee.
“Wait…” Condor said, looking at Hakeem with a puzzled look beneath his goggles.
“Wolf? You mean… werewolf? As in… somebody turned into a wolf and is rampaging through the city?” He paused for a moment, pensive. When he spoke up again, he sounded enthusiastic.
“That sounds awesome. I’m in. I want to see a werewolf. Werewolves are cute. And... I have some experience in dealing with feral shapeshifters. Had a boyfriend once. Turned into this big cat. Tried to eat me three times. The first time was scary.” Carmen looked to Condor.
“Yeah, I was just about to ask you, have you seen a werewolf?” “I wish.” She chuckled.
“Yeah, the guy we’re looking for is one who just turned into a werewolf for his first time, and… if we aren’t careful, he could end up getting himself hurt or killed, or getting other people hurt or killed. We’re already on a contract to be his protection detail, and this guy’s only a kid, so I don’t want either to go to waste.” She said.
“So, if you are free, we would like your help in searching for him. If you don’t mind of course.” She asked casually.
“Please?” Hakeem added, smirking a little as part of the callback.
Condor stared in silence at both, turned his head in the direction of the warehouse, then back to them. His face was expressionless, and the wind turned into a soft breeze. Behind him, the bound and wounded hostages groaned. He gave them a gentle kick.
“Okay, I’m game.” He shrugged, putting his headphones back on.
“I’m free for the rest of the night, and chasing down a teenage werewolf sounds like a nice change of pace.” He tied his hair back, humming, and walked past Hakeem and Carmen.
“Honestly, I’ll be happy to help.” He suddenly said, glancing back at them with a smile.
Ji sighed rubbing the bridge of her nose, these two were asking a complete stranger to help them. Ji, bring already in a bad mood from work, was not in the mood to dealing with this...bird who thinks he could help them. She turned around and stared Hakeem down.
”Fine...I will stay, but I do let you know I been a werewolf since I was 12 years old and know how to handle myself, as much as I appreciate the thought of someone else caring for me.” Walking to the jeep, she went to open the door and hissed. She had temporarily forgot about her damn burns.
Hakeem looked to Ji as she spoke to him, and frowned a little at her angry remarks. At that, he remained silent and headed towards the SUV, before Carmen stopped him.
“Hang on just a second.” She looked back to Condor.
“You can follow our Jeep overhead and keep an eye on us, as well as our surroundings in the meantime.” “Sure, if I see a big stray puppy, I’ll give you a shout.” Gesturing to Hakeem, she opened up the hatch to the back of the Cherokee before lifting one of the crates into the back.
“Here… this could help you keep in touch with us.” She said, throwing a walkie-talkie to Condor.
“Our frequency’s 132.32. It’s usually encrypted but I’ll make an exception for now.” Condor’s smile widened as he deftly caught the device with his taloned hand, his thumb pushing on its buttons playfully as he held it.
“Okey-dokey.” She then helped Hakeem lift the second crate into the back of the truck, before looking to Hakeem.
“We got room for 1 more. We’ll investigate all three of them once we get back to the barn.” She said.
Hakeem nodded to her, before stepping towards the warehouse. Using his powers of telekinetic burst, he retrieved another intact crate from the burning warehouse, making sure it was not burning before grabbing it and lifting it into the truck.
“These things are heavy as fuck, they definitely must be weapons.” “If they are, we’ll be saving shit tons of money on armory costs. Let’s hope that they are good ones.” Carmen said with a soft smirk, closing up the back of the SUV before both of them went to the front and got in.
“Alrighty, let’s head out and head out quick… wanna make sure we don’t lose Ben here.” Before she was finished talking, the feathered young man had already taken flight, his figure disappearing into the dark night with a gust of wind.
- - - Later - - -
The journey was long, and it was exhausting. After traveling along rural roads, following Ben’s trail to the best of their ability, they ended up at the Hudson Valley Drive-In Theatre, which has been vacated at that point, and where the trail has run cold. After lots of searching for clues, there doesn’t seem to have been much evidence for anything. There weren’t even cameras on the property, which made it even more difficult for the search for clues. After sticking around for about an hour, Carmen and Hakeem concluded that he might have either been abducted or picked up by the Agency, to which Carmen texted to Angelo that they would be heading back to Ben’s mansion and figure out what to do there, as the trail ran cold and that they are approaching bingo fuel. After a little bit of arguing, they all saddled up to head back to Ben’s mansion.
Her hands were now throbbing at this point. Never expecting them to run into a damn burning warehouse, she didn't bring any burn cream. Lucky the athlete's tape had plenty on the role so she could use that as hand wraps until she got home.
’This is the most exhausting night I have ever had since last year.’ She leaned against the door looking out the window.
All the while, high above them, Condor had hummed as he looked at the ground beneath him, his goggles’ thermal imagery showing him all manner of things, but no werewolves. He did his best to suppress his disappointment, losing himself in happy, optimistic thoughts, like the burning warehouse and the fact that werewolves were in fact a thing. He followed the Jeep in almost complete quiet, keeping radio silence and basking in the feeling of cool night air and the sights before him.
After another hour, the group had arrived at Ben’s estate, Carmen parking the jeep right where it was before, when Ji met them. Climbing out from the Cherokee, Carmen shut the door behind her and opened up the rear hatches. Hakeem, in the meantime, opened up the side door for Ji, allowing her to step out.
“The door’s locked for now, but we’ll unlock it shortly.” Hakeem said to Ji.
“Give us just a moment.” Nodding, she got her back out of the Jeep. After using her elbow to get the door closed, she went up to the open door and entered the house. Since it was considered rude to look around when the owners were not there . She just went into the living room to sit down huffing.
”God damn hands feel like they are on fire” This is what she hated about fire, it made it take longer for her body to heal.
For the sake of good manners, Condor landed softly beside Carmen and Hakeem, rather than crash through the estate’s windows. With a long, semi-pleased sigh, he pulled off his cloak and let it hang from his forearm, leaving him in just his body armor and mask.
“Nice house. Very ugly garden. Architect was probably a pretentious dick.” He remarked, looking awfully nonchalant as he gave his surroundings a glance.
“Had I known we were chasing after a bourgeois werewolf, I would have dressed nicer. Throw in a scarf, wear my best cloak…” Carmen looks to the others before looking to Hakeem.
“As much as I’d like to carry these fuckers inside, we’re gonna have to cover them up after we find out just what the hell are in these things.” Carmen said to whoever was listening, before lifting one out from the back of the truck and onto the ground nearby with Hakeem’s help.
“Jesus… I hate lifting these things…” Hakeem panted.
“Yeah… me too…” He rested against the Jeep before pulling out a knife.
“Alrighty… let’s take a good look at our generous gifts…” He said before attempting to cut the crate open.
“Pleasedontbeanukepleasedontbeanukepleasedontbeanuke….” Carmen muttered under her breath as Hakeem cut open the top of the crate. And with that, they both lifted the lid up, revealing just what they had hoped for.
“Holy shit…” Carmen’s eyes glowed.
The crate was filled with assembled
Tavor X95 rifles, top of the line Israeli bullpup firearms. They were brand new, fresh from the factory, some of them black, some of them with an olive color scheme. All of them incredibly deadly.
Carmen and Hakeem looked at them with their eyes wide.
“We hit the jackpot, there was no way we could’ve got those here in New York…” She muttered, feeling her hand along the stock.
“Jesus, must’ve cost as much as a Corvette a crate!” She chuckled. “Man, and these were weapons headed for Colombia?” She asked Condor.
“Sí. Zepeta específicamente pidió armas israelíes.” Answered Condor, combing his hair and dusting the ash off his cloak and armor. He looked up at them.
“I… interrogated a CIA agent after I heard about the smuggling operation. He said Zepeta essentially threatened them into giving him weapons for free, promising to use them against the FARC. And to think I liked Obama.” Carmen looked to Condor before shaking her head.
“Some crazy shit going on these days…” Carmen chuckled.
“Wow…” She looked to Hakeem.
“We’re gonna have to use these fuckers. Soon. Replace our AR-15s with these things. They’ll give us a serious edge. We can also conceal them too if we try hard enough.” Hakeem nodded.
“Yeah…” He sighed.
“We could be running into something a whole lot bigger than ourselves though, but for now we’re gonna have to hide these things before anyone else sees them. They’ll land us in prison for life if we aren’t careful enough.” Carmen nodded.
“Yeah, you’re right.” She said, before taking a rifle out of the crate and placing it nearby.
“We’re gonna examine this one though. We’re gonna cover the rest under the tarp.” She said before closing the lid on the crate.
“On three… ready? One… two… three!” They lifted up the heavy crate together and into the truck, before quickly placing the tarp over all of the evidence.
“Wew! Jesus…” She looked to the others.
“Alrighty, let’s head inside.” She said after she closed up the back of the Jeep.
“I’ll have Victor retrieve them tomorrow, but for now, I think we all deserve a rest.” Raising a eyebrow at the three, she decided she wasn't going to say a damn thing. She figured they were something illegal right there, but she just decided to pretend that she didn't see anything.
Condor smiled at Ji.
“You’re smart. You’ll live longer.” Turning to Carmen and Hakeem, his smile faded a bit.
“I really don’t care if Zepeta’s weapons get stolen, and I totally get you being so happy about getting free stuff. I mean, I got a free walkie-talkie for meeting you, and I’m happy about that.” Carmen chuckled a little.
“Yeah, keep the damn thing for all we care. Just don’t expect us to be on the same frequency though, ours is encrypted and everything so yeah.” There was a pause as he stared at the crates, and he was almost whispering when he spoke again.
“We just met, and so far I like the three of you, but...” His eyes were once more on the two of them, and for the first time there was something almost predatory about them, visible even from behind his goggles.
“I’m here to help find someone who needs help. I’m here because I’m curious, and I have free time. Whoever orders you around, I don’t answer to them. And if you use those weapons in a way I really, really dislike, we’re going to have a bad time.” Hakeem and Carmen, as they were walking towards the mansion, turned back and listened to what Condor said. Hakeem was a little put off by the sudden shift in tone Condor had, but Carmen was listening.
“Well… we’re contractors, hombre.” Carmen clarified.
“While I’m the head of the company, Hakeem and I are only contracted by fuckers I’m not at liberty to mention to be Ben’s protection detail, as he got turned into a werewolf like incredibly recently. Considering that Ben escaped and got himself fucking abducted, I think that contract now is null and void.” Carmen explained.
“Hermano, nosotros luchó en Siria contra los terroristas durante mucho tiempo. Vimos monstruos, y conocemos la diferencia entre monstruos y soldados. Nosotros no somos ellos, ni vamos a llegar a ser.” She raised an eyebrow a little.
“Understood?” Condor stared, expressionless.
”Huh… okay.” Hakeem looked to Carmen and back to Condor.
“Look, I don’t speak Spanish but… I can assure you, we’re the good guys here. We just get paid to be the good guys this time, and these weapons are only our tools for our operations.” Hakeem explained.
“Yeah… I used to be a thug and all myself at one point but I never laid a hand or pointed a gun at anyone who wasn’t in the game. I’m simply not that kind of gal.” She shrugged. She thought for a moment before sighing.
“It’s getting late, and Ben’s parents are gonna arrive sometime soon. We’re gonna pack up and head on out back to our HQ.” Carmen said, before handing a business card to Condor.
“Call us if you need anything, okay?” She asked, giving him a friendly smile.
Sighing, Ji decided it was time for her to go. She had things she had to do, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Standing up to get the other’s attention, she pulled out a sticky note from her bag and wrote something on it.
”Look. I'm just going to go home, I'm wasting my time here and I have things I need to do. I'm leaving my number and name for Ben so he can contact me” Following the scent to his room, she placed the sticky note on the nightstand. She made her way back to the front door and waved good bye.
Changing into her wolf form, she vanishes into the darkness.
Carmen and Hakeem watched as Ji disappeared, before looking to Condor.
“Hey, it was nice meeting you, hermano.” Carmen extended her hand for Condor to shake.
“Aww, thanks.” He said, shaking her hand enthusiastically. “I’ll keep an eye out for the puppy.”
The next moment, he was gone, his dark figure soaring high in the night sky, and a sudden strong wind blew loudly above Carmen and Hakeem.
Carmen and Hakeem watched as Condor soared away.
“Hm… he was pretty cool.” Carmen said softly.
“Too bad we might not see him again.” Hakeem looked to Carmen.
“Yeah…” He sighed.
“C’mon, let’s go home. I think we deserve a rest after all of this.” Carmen nodded.
“Yeah.” She looked to Hakeem with a soft smile.
“I got a present for you once we get back, I think you will enjoy it the most.” Hakeem looked to her, a little surprised.
“Really?” Carmen grinned.
“Yep. It’s gonna be on your bed soon, so we gotta hurry up and pack our shit!” With that, Carmen and Hakeem picked up everything they had left behind in Ben’s estate, including but not limited to the cameras they had installed as well. After packing up their stuff, both of them got in their Innocuous Jeep Cherokee together, and drove south, never to be seen again for the longest time.
Dedonus
