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The smell of grease and burning wood penetrated the air around Stitches. He’d made his way to a section of space mostly devoted to bars and grills sprawled across the JKL rows. Closer to J, buildings consisted mostly of markets selling preserves and canned goods as well as some pricy meat and fresh fruit. The buildings in the K section were mostly leveled by a large chunk of black charred skyscraper. The rubble surrounding it served as a good place to eat for the metamorphs preferring a sit-down experience.

He flipped open his manual and had a look at some buildings listed. The previous owners had plenty of colorful things to say about each place such as “good food, piss beer” or “owner spit his ciggy in my soup”.

The more reasonable dignified writing from earlier even took their own take on a couple, “The tea here is a divine relief from the swill served by the Prospector vendors,” only to be written over by another owner with, “Shit service, note: stab waiter.”

A couple of vending machines with the Prospector brand labeled across them sat against a weathered brick wall. According to contract, these machines would dispense a finite amount of free food and drink per day. The blank white packages and cans reflected the lights from outside the plexiglass but after his first run in with Prospector rations, Stitches wouldn’t dare.

Instead he followed the tangy smell of meat in the air to a food truck. He ordered whatever was recommended and was handed a warm grilled sandwich wrapped in an oil stained paper. He walked away and bit into it with a pleasing crunch. Warm roast beef delighted his taste buds and sweet melty cheese brought comfort to his mind as it dribbled onto his cheek, “Ah, that’s better.”

Finishing his sandwich, he began to focus on his surroundings again and spotted Jerry from the bus. He’d turned his jumpsuit inside out to hide the stripes and was speaking methodically to two other metamorphs, one with half transparent skin and the other with a mysterious dark cloud surrounding him.

Wanting another red stripe in his group he approached them, “Yo!”

The conversation ceased and all three stared at him “Stitches…”

“Hey I’m putting a stripe group together, you in?”

“Uh sorry man, I’m already with these guys. I knew them from my forging business.”

The transparent one mumbled a “Hey” while the cloudy one eyed him suspiciously.

“Two cloaking types… So you must be planning-“

“Shh!” Jerry waved him closer, “Yea we are,” he whispered, “but non-cloakers aren’t invited so keep it to yourself.”

Stitches picked at his teeth, “You’d need muscle regardless. Think about it. You really expect to make it all the way back without dealing with the checkpoints?”

“The plan is to go right through the checkpoints using me. That’s why we need to do it now before they start scanning blood,” he half whispered half yelled, “and we don’t need someone new screwing it up alright?”

Stitches sucked his teeth, “Whatever,” he crossed his arms, “Your secrets safe, but once you come to your senses come see me,” he walked away.

 

Stitches thought deeply as he walked back to HQ, That was everyone I had half a connection to.

He spit, The hell is jerry thinking? The moment someone with two brain cells to rub together notices he aint human, he’s brown fuckin bread!

He stretched an arm behind his head, I was really banking on him taking that forth slot. I need to fill it, so my options are; I could go see what the randoms from the bus have to offer or I could settle on Ang-

“No” he cut himself off. He sighed and turned to walk towards C11.

They gotta still have some groupless fellas floatin’ around over there. If I’m lucky they might even be useful.

 

Evening grew to a close as Stitches entered the apartment, his 3 picks sat waiting around the table near the kitchen.

Angel fished around his briefcase and played with his aviators, delighted by their mirrored lenses.

Saul picked at his fingernails with his upper hands while the lower set twiddled their thumbs.

Witch sat back in her chair crossing her arms, a bored look quietly analyzing stitches.

He approached with a file full of documents and opened it, “We sign these and we’re officially a group; we share this place and we work together on assignments,” his attention drifted towards the bedrooms, “might need a couple more beds though,” he looked towards Angel who smiled at him past the aviators she wore, “maybe two for you.”

Witch leaned forward, took the paperwork and quickly signed through it, “How are we going to plan out combat?”

“I was thinking you and me would deal most of the damage while Angel handles a ranged weapon and Saul keeps most of the attention off us.”

Saul looked up from the paperwork he was carefully reading, “Huh?” a worried expression crossed his face.

Stitches tapped him with the back of his hand, “You’re a big enough guy to handle holding some creatures down,” he smiled, “You’re gonna have us two blasting at em over your shoulder, so don’t worry so much.”

Saul smiled nervously, “Uh, yea…”

“Hey Angel, can you handle a rifle?” Stitches asked.

“I want to use a bow!” she excitedly exclaimed.

“A what?”

“I won every archery competition back home,” she boasted proudly, “well except for one… but those judges weren’t being fair!” she pouted.

“Uh okay? Bow it is then,” He gathered the signed documents and stacked them together in the file. “I’ll go submit these, yall get some sleep and we’ll get geared out tomorrow”

“But we have to play games first!” Angel whined.

“Huh?” Saul looked puzzled.

Witch raised an eyebrow.

Angel produced a deck of card from her pocket, “New friends have to play games and get to know each other. It’s important to strengthen our bond if we intend to work as a team.”

Witch rolled her eyes, “I don’t feel-“

Angel began to deal cards, “We’ll play go fish,” she leered at the both of them, “Loser sleeps on the couch…”

Stitches left with the file and waved behind him, “I’ll sleep where I want, I paid the deposit.”

“Come back soon! Don’t want to miss out on all the fun,” she excitedly called back.

 

Stitches walked down a dim hallway towards the staircase at the end. It was oddly quiet considering the commotion of the offices above and below him.

He opened the door of the staircase and had quick look down the sprawling corridor that connected the entire floor, “weird I haven’t seen any other tenants yet.”

He stepped down the stairs, his ears suddenly assaulted by the sounds of impatient arguing and phones ringing. He stepped through the offices and knocked at a closed door. He was invited in and immediately instructed to shut the door.

“Your back,” Vic typed away at a computer, “Got the paperwork?”

Stitches handed it to her and she quickly scanned through each document stamping and signing away at the pages until she paused at one. She read it twice as if checking if it was real. She bit her nail looking up towards Stitches but shook her head and continued.

“What was that?” Stitches chimed in.

“Nothing” she answered.

“Didn’t look like nothing.”

She ignored him and finished. She closed the paperwork into the file and quickly put it away, “That’s that, you’re groups good to go,” she slid 3 extra keys to the apartment over the desk.

“If you’re hiding something that’ll put us in danger…”

“It’s confidential,” she retorted returning to her computer work.

“I’m sure it would be plenty of paperwork if something happened to us…” he sighed.

“Ugh, fine,” she bit her nail again, “That girl that hides her face, the one named Bitch, she… No, forget it, get out of here!”

“Bitch?” his brow furrowed confused.

Vic grabbed the phone and began dialing.

“Okay! Okay!” he grabbed the keys and quickly left hearing the door slam shut behind him.

 

Stitches opened the door to the apartment thinking about the encounter with Vic but his train of thought was suddenly cut off.

“Goooo fish!” Angel sung.

“Dammit!” Saul shouted as he drew from a thin deck, “You’re cheating somehow I know you are!”

Angel sneered; her lips hidden by 3 cards she held in her fingers, “only total losers call cheatsies,” a pile of face up cards sat proudly in front of her.

“The hell is the tone in here?...” Stitches mumbled.

“She’s won 9 games in a row! If I lose this one, I’ll owe her free food for a week! I can’t afford that!”

“It’s a kid’s game! Why the hell did you bet so much on it?!” Stitches asked shocked.

With shaky hands Witch tugged at her handkerchief nervously, “It started with just a free soda…” she pulled down her hood as her eyes darted between her cards, “How the shit did she use the same trick so many times without me noticing?...”

She looked up towards Angel who returned her gaze amused. “Tsk!” she looked back towards her cards and then across from her at Saul’s panicking face, “Give me your fives.”

A look of betrayal passed over his face, “But you said we’d…”

“I know,” she averted her eyes from his, “I’m sorry, but you have to hand them over…”

Saul’s voice shook, “Don’t give in yet! She wants us to turn on each other, but we can still win this!”

Witch trembled, “Only one of us has to go down and it aint gonna be me!!”

All fight from his body left him as he collapsed into his arms. His right upper arm took the two cards from his left and passed them slowly over the table.

Witch snatched them away and put down the matching set, disgusted with herself.

Angel proudly plucked the remaining card from his limp hand, “and ill take that King” she combined it with the 3 she had, and added them to her pile, “Yay! I won again!” she perched her head on her hands and made an innocent smile.

Stitches sighed and patted the heads of his defeated companions, “Ya’ll take a break, it’s my turn to take a shot.”

Saul grabbed his arm, “You can’t Stitches! This woman… she’s undefeatable! It’s like she can see through your very soul…”

Angel yawned and a smug smile spread across her face, “I’m bored of go fish, let’s play old maid,” her eyes leered at him, “Would you like to make it interesting?”

Stitches grinned, “Yea I would” He took a seat and shuffled the cards, “Ill assume their debt, if I win you forget about it.”

Saul dropped to his hands and knees, “Lord Stitches… I’ll pay you back for this someday! I swear upon it!”

Witch grabbed his shirt choking back tears and attempted to maintain a straight face, “Th-thank… You…”

Angel interrupted the touching display, “and if I win?”

“Whatever you want” He replied.

“Interesting!” Angel hid her smile behind her hand but the delight from her eyes gleamed across her knuckles.

“Within reason!” He corrected as he passed the deck over.

Angel cut the deck and slid it back, her eyes studying him thoroughly.

Stitches dealt the cards staring back at her intently

It’s time to figure you out, he thought.

I realize now; you’re very gifted at reading people. Your acute senses make it even easier for you to break into people’s thoughts .

He picked up his hand, he had the old maid. He removed his pairs.

But I know you can do that. I know you’re studying my breathing and heartrate using those keen ears of yours, he shuffled his hand and sat back in his chair, and I’m going to use it against you.

 

Many turns later, the two were down to a final set of cards. Stitches shuffled his hand and placed it face down in front of him. Attempting to bluff his bodies cues worked for a while, but she quickly caught on. She still faked falling for it a couple times but stitches saw through her ploy to lower his defenses.

He had 2 cards left, the old maid and an ace. Angel had the matching ace of course. With no tricks left, he had no choice but to leave the last play to absolute luck.

As Angel reached over, her eyes narrowed and she stopped to rest her hand on the table in front of her options. She tapped on the table with her index finger and studied the two cards.

Stitches realized he’d made a crucial error. This was her deck; she could’ve easily memorized the cards subtle differences. In hindsight he should’ve brought his own set and gritted his teeth at his sudden epiphany.

He could see the corners of her lips angle up from behind the card she held in front of her face. Before she could take the card, he quickly snatched them away and shuffled them again.

“H-hey”

Stitches placed a card in each hand and placed them down on the table ensuring the cards weren’t showing from underneath.

Angel nibbled on her lip and a small amount of nervousness passed through her eyes.

Stitches smirked, satisfied that he’d finally managed to make her squirm a little.

Angel reached for his left but paused and tapped his right instead.

He passed it to her and revealed his remaining card to himself. An ace graced his sight and he quickly looked up towards angel holding her cards in front of her in disbelief.

“Hmph,” she shuffled them quickly and hid them under her hands the same way Stitches did. She stared down inscrutably at him, her eyes studying his every move.

Stitches was paying clear attention as she shuffled. He couldn’t tell which card was in each hand but he knew for sure she didn’t leave it to chance.

As he slowly reached in, he noticed her eyes follow his hands movement, unshaking from her quarry. Seeing her eyes in the light of the overhead lamp, he realized her irises were an alluringly deep blue, only slightly contrasting from her black sclera. Not to be distracted he focused and reached for her left.

Angel yawned with a sigh, a smug smile forming on her lips.

Stitches pulled his hand back.

She’s bluffing… Right?

His mind raced trying to decide whether it was a bluff or a double bluff.

“It’s cute you’re taking this so seriously” she playfully teased.

Like ripping off a band aid he took a breath and pointed to the left.

“Awww, I guess I lost…” Angel pouted revealing the card.

“Phew” Stitches tried to pretend he wasn’t ecstatic over his victory, “Well its late, I’m gonna hit the hay.”

He got up and headed towards his room. Looking to the couches he realized at some point in the game Saul and Witch fell asleep. I’ll indulge myself in their gratitude tomorrow, he thought smirking.

“Sweet dreams” Angel smiled putting away her cards.

 

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