Shattered Ladder 1-17

Chapter 17

"You the Scrap Hunter?"

The question made as much sense as her outfit did as he blinked at her past all the dust she’d kicked up. Basically, none at all.

He looked her up and down one more time, taking in the neon-pink puffer, the white top that showed off her whole middle, and the pink shorts cut off high enough that pretty much every single bit of leg was on display. It was already a crazy enough look, and made even crazier with the fact that the jacket was more than a little cut off too, as if to better show her belly button. Are you cold? Are you hot? Are you trying to cover up or not?

His lips turned down into a frown the longer he stared, everything about her confusing him the longer he looked. …I mean, you have to pick a side. 

She looked like someone that was going out of her way to get attention; showing off with as much color and skin as she could find or get away with.

A rainbow-toad type of person; bright and loud so you know not to touch.

Scrap Hunter? His brain trailed back to the question as his eyes slid up to her face again, Ken’s eyes narrowed as he pressed his spine tighter against the corner wall. What kind of name is that? 

Everything about her from her looks to her words had his thoughts spinning again, looking for a way out, as he realized how weird this looked. Why is a girl looking for… He blinked again, another thought hitting him as his fingers flexed tighter. This a trap?

That question was more important than all the others as Ken worked his mouth silently, trying to find something to say. She doesn’t look like a threat… Not like the thugs from before, at least, but she didn't look like she was scared or worried either. No, everything about her was too confident, her eyes too focused, her clothes too… too… much.

“Who…” The first word came out low and careful, Ken managing his breath as he kept his eyes firmly on her. "...who are you?"

The girl folded her arms across her chest, head tilting slow as she stared at him like he just spat insults her way; eyes narrowed halfway to slits. "I ask, you answer. Asked first, didn’t I? So you talk, then maybe I talk. That’s the deal."

…okay, so she was used to being in charge, that much was obvious.

Ken let the silence pass over them both for a second, saying nothing as he waited for her to fill the space. But the blond girl just stared back, unblinking but clearly impatient if the tapping of her sandals on the ground said anything.

After a few seconds more of quiet, a long sigh slid its way past Ken’s lips. "...don't know what you're talkin' about. Never heard of a Scrap Hunter or anything like that." He bit back a scoff, almost nothing left to say other than that. “Dumb name, by the way.”

She rolled her eyes so hard he could practically hear it, a sharp puff of pure annoyance leaving her in a scoff. "Scrap Hunter? Don’t play with me, thickhead. New ghost dropped two Scrap Boyz last night?” 

Gold eyes flicked down to his tunic as her lip twitched up. “All in green and covered in blood that ain’t his." 

Ken blinked slow, the name hitting something in his head as it bounced around for a second or two. A second later, a laugh forced its way out of him before he could even try to stop it. "...they call themselves Scrap Boy-z?"

"I ain’t pick what they go by.” The twitch on her lips slipped away, that hard look returning in full force. "Just sayin’ what I know and what I saw. So, you talkin’ or not?'Cause if you ain’t talkin’, you can hide out in the gutt-blocks for long as you want. Nothin’ to do with me."

He almost bit down on his tongue, the words feeling thick in his throat. The way she was looking at him, she already knew who she was and that meant lying was less than worthless. "Yeah, I fought some guys. The Scrap Boy-z…” The words came out slow, almost a drawl as he rounded off the words as he tried to think faster than his mouth. "If that's what they call themselves, sure..."

She cut him off with a click of her tongue, a sharp tch that came with a swipe of her wrist. "Good enough." 

Ken raised an eyebrow back her way. “Yeah?”

A smirk spread wide across her face, all teeth and too sharp for comfort. "Ain’t lookin’ for a get back, in case you're sweatin'. Those drecks ain’t my crew, never cared about any Scrapper. I'm here 'cause I got a little job for you, if you hungry for it."

A job. Ken went quiet again, the word hitting him like a flick to the forehead. I… He hadn't thought about anything like that. Being honest, he hadn’t thought past the next five minutes ever since last night. Everything had just been moving so fast, his thoughts as frantic as his body, and even when things went still, his head had been as empty as it had ever been as he sat in the dark. "...a job?"

Her smirk widened as he echoed the word. "You real curious, y’know? It's cute, but it's not that cute, but yeah, a job."

His frown deepened, patience dropping with it as she mocked him with another smirk on her face. "...a job for what?"

"Startin' my own crew, y’know?" She puffed out her chest, shoulders back as she jabbed at her sternum with one thumb. Proud and not trying to hide it, the girl grinned his way with the look of someone who knew what she wanted. "Bet ya I’mma run half this damn district before I hit one-seven. And I'm lookin' for muscle."

Muscle. He looked down at his own scrawny arms, at the simple green tunic that hung off his thin frame. It was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

"...I'm not... muscle. Nothing like that, honest." He raised his head slow, blinking back at the girl in pink. He could barely fight even; sure, he had the spark in him now, but that didn’t mean much against the people who could actually do something with it. "I'm just an apprentice alchemist... kinda."

Considering his apprenticeship was over, he wasn’t sure what he was anymore.

Apparently, that didn’t matter all that much, though; the ‘kinda’ seemingly going unheard as the girl's eyes went wide. The smirk fell clean off her face, gold eyes almost bugging out as she looked at him like he'd just told her he could spit gold. Whoa, girl… Honestly, judging from that look and the way she took a step closer, he wasn’t even sure she heard the ‘apprentice’ part either. 

"Wait, f-for reals?" Her voice jumped up, the rasp vanishing as it suddenly became half as bubblegum bright as her jacket and shorts. "An alchemist?" She took a step closer, hands snapping together right in front of her chest. “Y-you’re a…”

The girl froze up, body easing up as her clasped hands folded back over her chest as she crossed her arms, eyes sliding back down until she looked half-bored again. "I… I mean, yeah, that’s decent, y’know? Not better than muscle or nothin', but alchemist… an alchemist’s good work, too."

What the… Ken blinked at that weirdness, mouth moving quietly as the girl looked off to the side with her eyes suddenly focused on the closest boarded-up window. He finally settled on the facts, correcting where he could. “...apprentice. I’m an apprentice alchemist."

The girl shrugged, the motion strangely slow and careful. "...Yeah, whatever. if you say so." Her tongue poked at the side of her mouth, humming silently before she allowed her gold eyes to slide back onto him. "So what kinda stuff you cook up, then? Street-grade stims? Somethin' with a little kick?"

Wei’s lessons hadn’t just been alchemy. The old man hadn’t really taught him the same way he’d guided him through books and lectures on how to make things, but he had always made sure to mention some things.

Like, never telling anyone all of your cards.

 "...healing salves.” Ken licked his lips slow, suddenly wishing he had some water. “A couple poultices. Things to make the body stronger."

"Stronger?" A high-pitched half-giggle left her, the sound breaking down halfway into more of a cough as she rubbed a hand under her nose. "So, you could make muscle even more hardbodied?"

Ken blinked, not really sure whether he wanted to answer any more of this weird girl’s questions. “...yeah?”

She ate the distance between them in three quick strides, movements clean, fluid and confident as she shoved her face right up to his; so up close and personal the hair on his arms stood up straight. The air she displaced brought her scent with it; something clean and sweet and candy-like that had no business being in this dusty, decaying room. 

It was like a flower growing on a junk-pile. Wrong.

Ken stared right into her eyes, tasting bubblegum and sugar on his tongue as the amber flecks sparkled in her bright gold gaze. The apprentice blinked again as he glanced down, one sharp pink-painted nail jabbing right into the center of his chest, right over his breastbone. 

You got potential, kid. Real potential. But you're actin' like a scared rat." She was leaning over him, her face inches from his, the cut-off pink jacket doing very little to hide the view down the front of her white tank top. “You and me, though…” Her smirk sparked wider, that sharp grin right back on her face. “We could be somethin’ big.”

Ken snapped his face to the side, facing the grimy wall; anywhere but what was right in front of him as he felt his skin get hot. He couldn’t help the reflex, stupid as it was. He knew enough about girls to know when one was pretty, and it’d been three years since he was around more than one or (occasionally) two people. 

Going from that to this close to a girl was… new. 

A loud cackle filled the room as the girl erupted, Ken literally biting back a groan as the sound echoed off the walls of the small room and bounced right back to his ears.

She noticed. Of course she did. 

"Y’serious, ghost-boy?" She leaned back enough to let Ken breathe again, whole body shaking with laughter she didn’t bother to hide. "Saw you breaking jaws, but you can’t even look a girl in the eye. Thought you were a real martial-type, some hard-body but you, you’re just…” She broke off into more laughs; hands around her sides as she let out another cackle, loud as the first.

Eyes narrowed her way as he rose all the way to his feet, standing tall as he could, and stared back down at her as his voice came out flat, cold, and a little too sharp. "That’s not funny."

The cackles cut off halfway as the girl looked back at him, head tilted as her smirk came back in place of the grin. “Oooh, the alchemist a man, too. Y’wanna fight me, too? Try it,” her fists flexed in time with the last two words, “my jaw ain’t that weak.”

Now, it was Ken’s turn to click his tongue, a tch leaving him as he leaned back. “All I was ‘it’s not funny’. Didn’t ask for a fight, crazy.”

The grin snapped back into place with the word ‘crazy” as she looked him up and down again as if seeing him for the first time. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Alchemy or no, you’re decent enough for a hard-body. Built enough to break someone, even rail-tail skinny like you.” Her head tilted all to the way to the right, hair hanging down as she leaned forward again just a little. “What's the GL say, anyway? Gimme your card."

GL? Card? Half of what she’d said since she pushed that table aside were just sounds to him, the words out her mouth nothing but shapes in the air that couldn’t even try connecting to anything that was real to him. "...card?"

The look on her face was just shock in the most simple way, all the fast mocking atitude gone all at once and none of the excitable giggly energy there to replace it. "Your card. Your… your  C-Card.”

When he just blinked back at her, the girl just blinked back, almost looking offended or something at how confused he was. “L-look… I was laughing before but this ain’t funny, ghostboy. Nothing to joke about. Every one in the City gets one soon as they can, most when they get popped out. Doesn’t matter the Floor, y’know?" 

Another blink passed between the both of them and the blonde girl finally sighed and reached for her jacket. Hands went deep into the big pockets of the neon puffer and it only took a whole second before she  pulled something out.

She gripped it tight as she held the thing up to his face, Ken blinking at the sight of a flat, gray slab of plastic, edges worn smooth and almost frayed. Wha… He didn’t get a chance to voice his confusion as the thing flickered to life; hazy, blue-white light shimmered over its surface, forming words and symbols as he stared at it.

"What the..." Words finally left him but once again they went nowhere as something in his head just clicked the longer he stared at the lit-up card. 

The information wasn't just words; it was a language he suddenly, inexplicably understood. His eyes stung, both of them suddenly wet and itchy as something pressed at them, a stinging heat from behind. Before he could raise a hand to wipe the tears, the meaningless squiggles resolved into cold, hard data.

Her name, WANGZI XIAO, stood out in blocky, official letters.

Grand Level: 2. The number… the number felt pathetic, somehow. Weak.

Ken blinked past that, the thought pushed to the back of his mind as he stared at the  twelve-spoked ring on the right of the card. Only the first spoke on it was lit, a dull gray color bright enough for it to contrast against the card itself. Two tiny dots of light pulsed in that same spoke, a bright shining white pinprick on each one. Realm 1, Stage 2. Barely started.

And at the center of the card, something threaded through it; a thin bloom of light that made him frown the longer he looked at it.

Sick. Faint, ugly yellow flickers marred its surface, a permanent scar of something flawed and artificial. False root. Both words popped into his head, accompanied by so much else that made him pull in a breath as sharp as the girl’s voice. The energy isn't hers. Grafted on poorly, not grown. A cheap fix.

The knowledge flooded his mind, cold and absolute. And right behind it; wave of pure, ice-cold panic that sent his heart pounding loud enough that he heard his blood in his ears again. How do I know all that? The look on his face must have matched the panic he felt, because the blonde girl — Wangzi Xiao, he knew that now — took a step back, eyes narrowing his way.

"You good, ghostboy? You look like you just saw a demon or something."

He could only blink back at her, unsure what exactly he could say as he tried not to sputter like an idiot. Where did... where did that come from? 

She looked from his panicked face down to her card, then back up at him as her eyes went just as wide as his. "Wait a minute. Y’really don't have one, do you?" 

But clearly ifor a different reason. "No card. No idea what your own stage is. Ancients." She let out a low whistle before suddenly leaning in to stare at him closer, as if taking him in for the first time. "You're not from the City, ain'tcha? Can’t be, not if you don’t got a Card.” She looked him up and down again. “A savage… an Outsider. Wow, you guys are pretty damn rare…."

Wangzi tilted her head the other way. "An Intruder who can drop two Boyz..." She shook her head, a grin spreading across her face. "Man, you're a walking lotto."

Before he could say a word, before he could even process all that, she grabbed his wrist. Her grip was insanely strong and not just for someone her size, strong enough to already have him moving a few feet before he realized it.

"Forget the job interview. You're hired." She started pulling him toward the door. "C'mon. First thing's first. Let's get you in the system."