Bloodletter

He was awakened by somebody ringing at the door. He looked at the clock. 6AM. Who the fuck? Well, whoever wouldn’t have to wait long. He rolled out of bed and equipped the stuff for the day. He almost drew the Necklace of the World Ender into the inventory slot by accident. He noticed the mistake before it could happen and dropped it back in the inventory.

He also heard footsteps downstairs. Probably Aclysia was going to answer the door. ‘Master, you have a visitor.’ It rang in his head. John yawned and asked, ‘Who?’ ‘Victoria Beloozero.’ He quickly went down the stairs.

The Russian Sniper girl was meeting him down there with her arms crossed. “Took you long enough.” She complained before pulling out a red letter. “You have been invited to the Bloodfallen Headquarters.” She formally informed him as he took it and read its contents. It was a long letter, speaking about how much they regretted what happened to Travolta, how they wanted to continue working with him, how they heard about Jimmie leaving and so on. The crux of the letter laid towards the end.

‘…We, therefore, ask that you answer our summon with utmost haste. If you ignore us for an extended period of time, we will take measures to ensure your compliance. Therefore I, in the name of the Bloodfallen, hope that you will heed our call within the next two days. Victoria shall escort you once you are ready.

We have fallen from Red,

Igor – Guildmaster.’

“This is not an invitation but an order,” John stated and put the letter into his inventory. “Will you obey?” Victoria asked she didn’t even try to hide that he was right. “Not like I have a choice in the matter.” He sighed. “You have a choice.” Victoria disagreed, “Obey and be safe or disobey and face our wrath.” “That’s not a choice, that’s an ultimatum.” He stated and got his shoes. “Fine, I will come with you.”

“Right now?” Victoria seemed a bit perplexed. “Yeah…well no I want to have breakfast first, afterwards sure.” Missing out another Tuesday of school, whatever harm would it do? Funny story really, now that he aced pretty much every test his teachers were lenient with him. They were concerned about the times he was missing, sure, but not overly so. They basically had no arguments to keep him there outside of ‘You should be’.

“Want something too?” He asked. He wasn’t psyched about having Victoria around, after all she had done, but that was no reason to be a bad host. “I will have a couple of toasts.” She decided and followed him into the house. She was stopped by Aclysia however. “What is it?” Victoria asked with a stoic expression. “No shoes in the household.” The Artificial Guardian firmly stated. Victoria nodded and sat down to get out of her boots.

As they got seated and Aclysia prepared the table John pulled out his phone. “What are you doing?” Victoria eyed him up suspiciously, “Calling Jane. She would wonder if I didn’t so calm your tits.” John answered and decided to be a bit of a rude host as he ogled said tits up for a moment. Victoria looked annoyed. “Your behaviour Is uncalled for!” “Is it though?” John asked and listed a couple of reason, “So you appeared in my life just to spy on Travolta, or Collide as a whole, then you blew up Jimmie, then you attacked my girlfriend and me, then you guided us towards your Guild Leader, who is not the nicest of people by the way, and finally you shot Travolta.” “Don’t insult Igor.” Victoria threatened, and John sighed in response, “And because that is the only thing you took away from that list my behaviour is absolutely called for.”

He clicked on the shortcut for Rave’s number and heard his phone dial. It took maybe half a minute until he heard a tired voice from the other side. “Joooooohn. It's six something. Whaddya waaaant?” “Good Morning to you too, Jane.” He laughed, “Victoria is here and…” “WHAT?!” The voice on the other side was immediately wide awake. “What does that traitorous bitch want at your place?” “She brought me an ultimatum to visit the Bloodfallen. Don’t feel like going but I don’t think there is another choice here.”

He looked over to Victoria who was following the whole dialogue with intent staring. “So I will probably be gone for today, at least.” Wow, he was calm about the entire thing. Was that Wisdom 100 taking control here? Sure, as hell was helpful. No more stress ever!

Rave was less controlled in her emotions. “Fuck that!” She cursed, “You are not going anywhere with that girl without me.” “What, you think I will cheat on you?” “Yeah, right, no I think she will shoot ya.” “That is the more likely outcome indeed.” John admitted with a giggle, then he added in a serious tone, “But if you come with, your dad is probably going to rip my head off.” “Grind out a few more levels, and that thought won’t be threatening anymore though.” Rave countered, “Also ya think I would skip on an adventure? Nu-uh. Tell me where to.” “A second.”

John turned to Victoria, “How do we get there?” “Train.” Was the short answer, “Centre Station.” Was the just as short longer one. “You got that?” John asked. “Ja, corner, my place, Mitchum Park?” “Sounds good, we should be there in about an hour.” “Great, see ya.” “Bye.” He put down his phone and spread some butter on his toast.

“Aclysia, if Victoria pulls a gun on me break her arms.” He said nonchalantly as he threw some salami on there. Aclysia bowed, “Understood.” Victoria let out a ridiculing grunt. “You think your toy could do that?”

“I know for a fact that Aclysia, that’s her name in case you forgot, can do that.” He stated and bit into his toast. Victoria took a deep breath before answering “…You changed since the last time I saw you.” “I am a lot wiser, and I went through hell yesterday.” He joked with a full-mouth, “also burying a friend does that to you.” They finished their meal in silence and went out. Taking a bus, the trio drove close to the city centre and then met up with Rave where they agreed to. Under the eyes of a certain bird, they kissed. “And did you miss me watching that anime?” “Nope, Fairy Tail is awesome.” Rave laughed and grabbed his arm. She was currently in her disguise as the plain brunette. “Did you miss me watching the dumbest fantasy universe out there?” “Well, I didn’t really get to it. A redhead and a secretive blond guy kept me from it.” John sighed, he really wanted to watch that Podcast.

“Oh? Tell me all about it.” Rave demanded, and John was happy to do so as the Verdin jumped out of the tree and followed them. He kept the details of SecretBlonde to himself for the moment, he didn’t want Victoria to know but told her all about how it felt to be a fission bomb. “As a half-Japanese girl, I have mixed feeling about dating the guy that was the bomb that killed thousands of my people.” She commented at the end. “As an American, I have mixed feelings about dating a girl that watches Chinese cartoons instead of good old American ones.” He countered.

“Don’t call them that.” Victoria stepped in with a reprimanding glare at John. “Why not?” John wondered, “Don’t want me to slap Communist nations on anything?” That stopped Victoria dead in her tracks before she could make an argument. “Yes.” She answered in a confused tone, “How did you…?”

John hadn’t spent the last weekend doing absolutely nothing but fucking. He had worked through her documents multiple times until he memorised and analysed everything of note. It wasn’t that hard with his Stats. “Because.” He said to her and looked her dead in the eye, “You will never catch me off-guard again, Victoria. This I swear.”

She wore a shocked expression as he turned with the words. “Let’s catch that train.”