Mister Madness [closed ;; Ebs]

Here she was, on her first mission. The young Anne-Marie was nervous, to say the least, but she had to focus. The previous weeks had been her gateway to practicing her powers, now that she had been sorted into the Summer house, but she was still reluctant. The description of the mission made it sound fairly serious, and the twelve year-old wandered whether Beata sent her in hope that she could reason with the young boy. Anne had doubt - her life had been a sunny, happy one, with loving parents that did not kill themselves all of a sudden. The mere thought of it made her teeth clatter.

She was waiting for her partner at the airport. Naturally, she needed someone to accompany her. She wouldn't have done this all alone, the fright and nervousness would've gotten the best of her first, and her still mistrust in her abilities was still dawning on her, even with the help of her teammate. The day wasn't that cold, but she was wrapped up in a sweater, almost unrecognizable besides the cherry blonde hair and red-rimmed glasses. The other would be there in any moment, and she hoped that moment would be soon - she'd hate to lose the flight that would take them to their task.

Could you talk about a more depressing sort of mission? Preston had made it his goal to get out in the world more. The more crazy ass jobs he took, the more experience he gained under his belt, and the more experience he had, the stronger he would be come. With every bit of strength of gained, he could better protect what he loved. It was a simple concept, really. Like grinding for levels in his favorite video games. And while he figured he would have to take down a monster here or there, hunting down some sort of child maniac...

It wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but shit. It was something. The young man shrugged his bag further up on his shoulder, peering around for his new partner, for the time being. It'd taken time to find her. She was so small she blended right into the crowd. "You look as fragile as a leaf," Pres mused, stepping up beside the other student.

Anne frowned,half of her face hidden away behind her huge sweater. She didn't like being considered a fragile thing, even though she was, to some extent. Sighing, she took off her glasses and wiped the fogged lenses before pushing them back on her nose. "Ha, ha." she mumbled back to the other boy. He was surprisingly older, she observed. Even though he might be underestimating her, that meant he could offer her a grade of protection. Hopefully.

"We should hurry or we'll lose the flight." the Summer said, opening her bag to check the flight tickets. It was going to be a long flight, that was true, and she didn't look forward to it. The mere idea of it made her sick, the motion of lift off and landing made her shiver.

The Autumn sniffed in amusement as he stared down at the girl, watching as she shuffled through her bag to stare down at the tickets, again. He was surprised he made it even this far through the airport, lost and restless as it seemed. "We'll be fine," Preston mused, far more at ease. His ocean-like gaze shifted across the room, taking a quick look out. The boy leaned in closer. "You have flown before, haven't you?"

Anne smacked her lips at his question, staring dully away from him. He was unto her. The fear of flight had been there ever since she had first flown with her parents, and they had been many places, though all the time she had been holding her mother's hand. Now it was different, she was with a complete stranger flying to New York to catch a kid that had presumably killed his loving parents. Swallowing deeply, she turned to face Preston with a forced smile. "Y-yup! Flying is totally my t-thing! Lovely!" she boomed, a little too loud, obtaining the questioning glares of some bystanders. Sinking back into her warm sweater, the Summer felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment. "Let's just go." she murmured.

Preston raised an eyebrow, watching her closely. His family often traveled the world and he'd been on an airplane more times than he could count, and for about as long as he could remember. Simple to say that he could recognize a nervous flier when he saw one, none-the-less someone being as much of a giveaway as she way. "I'll grab the doggy bag before we climb on," he jibed away at her, nudging her playfully with his elbow and helping her on board.

ooc;; idk if you wanna time-skip or whatevers, just do whatever feels right. uwu

Anne-Marie followed obediently. It was decent to assume he was much more experienced than herself with flying, not to mention older. Through the entire trip around the airport and until they reached their seats in the plane, she toyed with a small papercut, healing it to the oint it was merely a speck, then making it larger again, so on and so forth, until her skin was sore and she tucked her hand away in the pockets of her cardigan. A lady was seated herself in the same row as them and gave them a puzzled look - society had a certain level of distaste for a couple of teens flying alone. They weren't teen really, Preston was past that oint and she had a while till her thirteenth birthday. The Summer assumed the lady had nothing to stick her nose into other than them. Annoying yes, but tolerable. The initial fright numbed after minutes of low-key hiper-ventilating, and with a yawn, Anne settled into her seat and fell asleep shortly after lift-off.

~~

The young girl was jerked away by a sudden movement of the plane. Her first reaction was fear, which she easily gave into at first. But shortly afterwards, a message announced their landing. That was fortunate, she thought. The plane braked and they had docked into one of the gates. It was cold, she could feel it seeping through the walls of the plane. The weather was ever-changing, and they had to deal with it. She got up, filling out of the plane with Preston close by. Pausing by the luggage retrieval section, she looked up at her upper-classmate sleepily. "Long flight..." she yawned, rubbing her eyes. "What now?"

What a blessing that she'd managed to fall asleep so God damned easily, he thought, looking over the younger girl as she near snored away the entirety of their long flight. He didn't think much of the old hag shooting occasional glares their way, instead focusing on the complimentary peanuts and staring out the window. It was difficult not to admire the clouds. Preston had always wonder why people would shelter themselves away from such an incredible view. People were never supposed to see anything that wasn't a few feet off the ground, but there they were, off on a flying hunk of metal in the sky.

Most people didn't know what they were missing. He shrugged deeper into his seat, watching a stray spark bound off his arm and down his leg, narrowly avoiding their grumpy elderly flight friend.

By the time they'd gotten all their bearings back together, he was rather tired himself. "Depends," the Autumn muttered, shooting Anne-Marie a crooked grin. "How eager are you to chase after demented little children?" Hotels and transportation and ya-da-ya-da were all important, but who would wanna delay jumping straight into a B-rated horror film... right?

Anne-Marie's stomach was already jumbled enough from the flight. When Preston mentioned the mission, she felt the pit inside of her deepen, but completing the mission was why they were here. "Uh, as much as I hate the idea, I think we should get going with the task." she told him, a long yawn escaping her mouth. Outside the sky was overcast and the clouds heavy with rain, completing the scary movie vibe of their mission. The Summer almost hoped that the entire thing had been a misunderstanding and the kid was now going to the house to weep for his parents, mentally scarred by all of this, but her guts told her it wasn't quite what was expecting them. She signalled a cab over, and the driver pulled over on the sidewalk nearby.

"To Harlem...." she mumbled, but the driver shot her a bewildered look and drove of stopping next to a small group of passangers to pick them up instead. The young girl stared after the yellow car in confusion, then back at Preston. "Maybe I said something...?" she mumbled to the Autumn. Or maybe people were jusy afraid of that neighbourhood. That could explain it, their irrational fears getting the best of them. It made Anne even more uneasy of the whole thing. She sunk back into her sweater, fidgetting with her hands on the handlebar of her luggage.

Preston stared in bewilderment as the cab driver chose to drive off to pick up some other chumps rather than him. In such a huge city, it was a surprise that there were places even the gritty drivers might even refuse to go. Then again, they were the type of people to hear more rumors than most. He rubbed away at the back of his neck, wordless in response to his young companion. "Beats me," he muttered, gripping tighter onto his case. Pres could make out the pieces of his weapon slide gently around inside. It was comforting in an odd way, especially considering where they were going.

"Come on, there's gotta be one taxi around here who isn't gonna be rude to a pretty, young girl," he muttered, whistling and waving down another car. Plus, there was no way in hell he planned on walking all the way there at this time of night, not in this weather. "Harlem!" He shouted at the next driver to come, swinging the door open and throwing his things in before the cab had time to second guess itself. He held open the door for Anne. "Ladies first."

"O-oh you are just gonna... M'kay." the British girl stuttered and slid into the taxi with an embarassed not of the head to her companion. At least this approach was going to get the job done faster. The car started moving when both of the students were inside, even if Anne could catch doubtful glances into the rearview mirror. She sighed and crept her hand towards her luggage, unzipping a compartment and passing her hand over the wooden handle of her crossbow. That was some skill, pulling strings to allow a little girl and a young adult to pass through airport safety controlls with two weapons without any slip and any form of suspicion.