Found Family

You hadn’t meant to make such good friends with Mary and Allen Woods; the mother and son pair who basically saved your life after you got caught off guard with more than a couple knife wounds to your chest. But in truth you owed them your life so you really had no choice but to go back to at least say thank you. But Mary’s cooking was just so delicious, and home cooked who could deny that. And Allen while sometimes being a little too energetic was a real nice lad. He was only a few years younger than you, but the way he hung on your every word when you would telling him about your “grand adventures”, as he called them, made you think he was a much younger boy. You were surprised at how Mary also listened with interest; you thought she would’ve put a stop to tell her son such brutal stories.

“Can you serious jump off buildings and not die? How is that even possible? One time I was walking down the steps and tripped, nearly broke my ankle!” Allen was laughing at himself as Mary took your cup.

“It’s not as easy as you think Allen, it took me a lot of training, and focus, and nearly killing myself on a few slippery roofs. But thank you again for dinner it was delicious, as always.” You said as you got up from the table and shrugged on your jacket.

“You know you are always welcome here dear. You keep Allen occupied and out of trouble, and the housework always seems to get done faster.” Mary smiled as you headed for the door.

“Do you have to leave already? You only told us one story this time.” Allen half pouted.

“I have a couple errands of my own to do lad, and heaven help me if I don’t see if Evie needs anything she’ll have my head.” You pulled on your cap and opened the door.

“Speaking of the girl when are we going to get to meet her dear?” Mary questioned. They had both been bugging you about wanting to meet her ever since you spent an entire dinner raving about her.

“Yeah! You said we would get to soon! What gives Rookie?” Allen piped up with his arms crossed trying to give you an angry look. But the boy was just too happy of a person to look cross even when he tried. You tried not to let him hear you laugh when you told them you would do your best to get her to come round with you next time you came for dinner. With one last good-bye you were off. It was a really nice late afternoon, sunny but not hot, a nice cool breeze was blowing through London. You had been walking for almost 20 minutes deciding to take the long way home in order to really appreciate the city, something you rarely got to do now, with all the Blighters around. You were just about to climb atop a building to get a better view when you heard someone yell for help from behind you.

“Shit, I was really enjoying the uneventful walk home.” You muttered as you ran towards the noise. When you got to the alley you saw four Blighters surrounding someone on the ground covering their face. They were grabbing at the person and kicking them trying to get them to release whatever they were holding onto.

“Give us the bag you lousy kid, we aren’t going to hurt you if you give us the bag.” One of them spat at the kid.

“No way these aren’t yours and you can’t have them, they’re my friends and she’ll kill you if you hurt me so go ahead but I’m never going to give you her stuff!” The kid shouted them. You could tell it was a boy, and you had to give him credit he didn’t sound scared at all, but he did sound familiar.

“ALLEN!” You shouted. That made the four Blighters turn to look at you, that gave you a clear sightline at the boy on the ground, you were right it was Allen bleeding from the noise and a cut on his head. These Blighters were already on the wrong side, but they had unknowingly got on the worse side of you.

“Rookie! Ha you guys are in trouble now, that’s my friend.” Allen said weakly as he sat up against the wall.

“Hello boys.” You said as you slipped on your brass knuckles, deciding that brute force would be better for them to learn their lesson by instead of just using your hidden blade.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of me, but I can promise that when I’m done with you, you will never forget me. That there is my good friend Allen, he’s like my little brother and you have made the biggest mistake of your lives. So, who’s first?” You’re sure that you have never sounded more serious in your life, you’re not even sure where that little speech even came from but you know that it did as intended three of the Blighters looked a little shaken. The only one who looked unaffected was probably double you size, in height and weight. You knew he probably wasn’t going to go down easy, but you knew he was going down.

“Look boys the Frye’s pet has a pet of her own, and she’s come to save him.” The big one scoffed at you. The others found their confidence again and began laughing with him. You tightened your grip on you brass knuckles. Standing silently you waited for the perfect opportunity to make them pay for hurting your friend.

“You idiots do know that antagonizing her is only going to make the beating you get that much worse right? Surely you can’t all be that stupid, can you?” Allen said mocking them.

“Shut it you little – uggh!” The big Blighter was cut off with your fist flying into his face. Him turning around to tell Allen off was just what you needed, running full force and jumping off the wall for added leverage you hit him square in the side of the head. He went down like a sack of potatoes, hitting the ground with a loud thud. You landed and looked at the other three. They all looked like they were about to wet themselves, and before any of them could let out a hint of a breath you were beating the crap out of them. Picking them off like the targets Evie set up when she taught you to shoot. When all but one had landed on the ground unconscious, you pinned the last one up against the wall.

“So what have you learned here today?” You asked holding your hidden blade close to the Blighters throat.

“Never to, uh to mess with this kid. Ever. I’m sorry, I’m sure the other guys are too, really.” He replied. You moved the tip of the blade the smallest bit forward and slammed him into the wall again before letting him drop.

“That’s right. You tell these idiots and the rest of you Blighter knobs, his name is Allen, and he a good friend of Rookie. Understood?” The Blighter nodded in understanding. “Good, don’t let me ever see you again, get your friends and get out of my sight.” He stood up and helped the others to their feet and then they ran off tails between their legs. You helped Allen to his feet and got him out of the alley into the light to better look at his head.

“That was so awesome! You kicked the shit out of them! They were shaking in their boots!” Allen was clearly fine, as well as over the moon with what he just witnessed. The bleeding had stopped thankfully.

“Allen what on earth are you doing here!?” You were annoyed but you tried to not sound it. Allen just smiled and handed you your knife belt out of the bag he was carrying.

“You forgot it at our house, and mum said it was something that you needed so I ran after you. I had almost caught up to you when they jumped me and said they wanted whatever was in my bag. I told them no so they roughed me up a little, then I yelled for help hoping you’d hear me and you did.” Allen looked like he was sorry for being such a bother.

“Thank you for bringing these to me, you are your mother are right they are important.” You said as you put the belt on.

“I’m sorry the Blighters messed with you. And now that they know you’re my friend it’s bound to cause more problems, so as much as your mother might not like this, you’re coming with me and we’re going to semi fix this problem before it starts.” You helped Allen to his feet. He seemed steady enough to walk, which was a good thing.

“Uh, what does that mean if you don’t mind my asking?” Allen sounded confused.

“Well my friend, how would you feel about being an actual Rook?” You weren’t certain anyone had ever smiled as wide as Allen did after you said that.

“Are you serious? Like you’re not messing with me are you Rookie? I would love that! One hundred times yes please!” Allen jumped with excitement and nearly tripped on his feet where he landed.

“Okay easy lad. I’m going to bring you to the Rooks base near by and they’ll fix you up, get you some nice green and yellow clothes, and then they will take you home to make sure you stay safe. So if those Blighter idiots try anything again it will be a much more even fight. Plus I can see you’ve got potential. Don’t think I didn’t notice that black eye that one guy was sporting as well as those bloody knuckles you’ve got there.” You explained as the two of you walked. When you came up to the base all the Rooks greeted you with a roar of cheers and laughter. You quickly gathered a crowd and explained what was going on they basically swarmed Allen. You swear in three months you’ve never seen him happier. With a glance at your watch you realized you were going to be in big trouble if you didn’t get to the train soon. Bidding the Rooks and Allen a farewell you ran until you found an abandoned carriage and grabbed it. You hopped on the train with minutes to spare, but of course Evie was already there and waiting.

“Where have you been? I know you went to dinner at the Wood’s house, but it never takes you this long to get back, are you hurt?” Evie was already inspecting you before you could even try to explain. But once you did get to say something you saw her relax.

“So we have a new Rook? Jacob will be happy to hear about that. Do you think he’ll make a good asset?” Evie asked as she kissed your forehead.

“Well put it this was love, if nothing else he will make for a very good distraction if needed.” You smiled as you sat on Evie’s bed before pulling her down to straddle you.

“If nothing else we know he’ll get some good training thanks to what you and Jacob have taught the Rooks. But enough about that, I have had a very long day and would like to cuddle and hear about yours, if you will.” You pulled her in for a kiss and let her tell you about all her day of tracking down Eden related things. It was a lovely way to end the day.

The next day you and Evie were out scouting a building when two Rooks came out of nowhere looking extremely out of breath and slightly beat up.

“Rookie! Evie! You have to come quickly! We were training that new guy, Allen, when all of a sudden whole bunch Blighters came out of nowhere lead by this big ugly bald guy with scar on the left side of his face. He was yelling about “some assassin bitch and her little friend”. We managed to tracked them to one of Starrick’s old warehouses. But the thing is absolutely crawling with Blighters. They took Allen!”