“O-oh hey, my daughter!”

The tall thin man quickly shoved his hand before his mouth to catch any errant crumbs flying from his blueberry muffin.

The girl before him had an unclear look on her face. Her blonde hair styled in large curly pigtails was slightly disheveled and her eyes appeared ever so slightly sunken in. The baggy houndstooth sweater hung loose on her tiny figure.

“What’re you doing here?” She looked around as if she was afraid to get caught by someone.

Ripper scratched the back of his neck, looking wildly around the room and trying to cook up a decent excuse to end this family reunion early. “You know how much your old man loves his breakfast! I heard this place has great muffins!”

The ever so subtle chuckling of Meltlilith could be heard in the only seat available across from him. Thankfully, she maintained her invisibility throughout their impromptu break.

Cutting the laughter short, the young woman sat on the chair, seemingly confused by the distance between her and the chair. “You’re so far from work. Plus, you hate driving. What’s the real reason you’re out here?”

“I- Uh…” He tried his best to give a genuine sigh, “You caught me. I wanted to catch you here…”

If the girl did not seem surprised before, she was beyond shocked now, “How- how’d you know I come here?”

“Ah, well, you know your old man! I’ve got my ways…”

Ripper could just hear Melt teasing him about this later. The girl looked familiar, but after seeing enough faces in his line of work, she very well could be his sister for all he knew.

The girl sat silent for a minute.

As he adjusted himself in his seat, the girl spoke up once more, “I’m sorry, dad.”

She bit her lip and looked down at her feet, giving him a brief chance to look for a way out.

“I’m sorry I’m such a fuck up. I’m sorry I never realized how hard you worked to get me and Becky everything we wanted. I’m sorry I thought the world revolved around me and never gave a shit about anyone else…”

She looked at him pleadingly, her eyes glittering with tears that refused to drop.

This was a nice sob story and all, but who was she?

“It’s- It’s alright… dear. I’ve made plenty of mistakes growing up too. Hell, I’m still making mistakes to this day!” Ripper found himself reaching out to hold the girl’s hand, “But the trick to it all is to not let your mistakes define you. Sounds cliche, but if you keep focusing on tomorrow, you’ll miss out on today…”

A single stubborn tear hit the table.

Looking down, Ripper had a few around him himself.

“Thanks, dad.” She cleared her throat and looked up, “I missed you a whole lot…”

With the soap opera hopefully coming to an end, Ripper resumed scrambling internally for a way to end it before the next episode. He retracted his hand, placing it on the trash from his now ruined breakfast.

“I missed you too, love. I- I probably should get going! You know how busy your old man is!”

“Hey dad…?” Her voice trembled once more, afraid of showing too much emotion, the strain holding back almost more than she could take, “Can I... Can I come home?”

He tried not looking at the ceiling and rolling his eyes. “I don’t know, sweetie... “ He could not have this girl go back to her house expectantly and seeing her real dad who must have had a good reason for kicking her out in the first place, “I’m still not too sure you’re ready for that.”

The air temperature changed.

What was a sweet saccharine substance of a father-daughter reunion hanging in the room had boiled right out. The sad, homeless girl in front of Ripper had shifted into a bubbling cauldron quickly stoking the blaze underneath into an inferno.

“Not ready?” Steam shot from her mouth, “Not FUCKING ready?! Do you know the fucking HELL you’ve put me through in the last TWO and a fucking HALF months?!”

Now, he was not sure he would ever hear Melt teasing him again. Maybe at his funeral, if he was lucky to have something to bury left.

“Now- now sweetie! I didn’t mean you weren’t ready, I meant, I wasn’t finished fixing your room! You might not be ready to see what all I’ve got for you in there!”

It was pointless. The flames roiling from her blocked all sound of his backtracking.

Time for ‘Universal Plan B’.

“So good seeing you love, I ‘ope you have fun doing whatever it is you’re doing, be safe and always remember, I love you, my little princess!”

Slipping into his own accent a few times, Ripper sailed outside the shop, no longer looking back at the biblical cataclysm that must be occurring behind him.

Running behind the shop, he dropped the form and resumed his short, bald self once more, “Fuckin’ ‘ell, Melt! Of all the people I copied, I ‘ad to pick the one that everyone ‘as a vendetta with?!”

The faceless woman tumbled out of her invisibility beside him, laughing loudly within his mind. Doubled over, she could hardly stand up straight.

“Terrence, that was an absolute treat! ‘Hell, I’m still making mistakes to this day!’” She imitated his own voice within his own mind, something he never thought she could do, “Who would have thought you would give life advice to our own target!”

“Yeah, yeah… Lap it up, I only-” He stopped himself, “Did you say that was our target?!”

Melt straightened up, adjusting her robes slowly, “Why, yes I did! Certainly your most interesting way of making contact on assignment!”

Ripper’s fingertips found their way onto his temples, “I fuckin’ KNEW she looked familiar! We can’t ‘er let get too far, Melt!”

“Right. Or else you can’t help her with her boy troubles next.”

“I fucking summon Gemless Carbuncle, gaining me an extra fucking play point.” Slamming the rock down on the table, Sarah continued, “Evolve Carbuncle into fucking Leilah. I’ll win by breaking your fucking shields with Scrapper, Oracle, Ankleslicer and attacking you directly with Leilah.”

The red haired boy blinked as he watched his chance in the tournament go down the drain.

“Uh… Good game, there.” He held out his hand.

Ignoring it entirely, Sarah stood and stormed across the back room, past the last few contestants before semifinals picked up.

“Woah hey there, bucko! How’d you do?” The smug pale alien seemed to know what she was doing.

“Shut the fuck up.” Sarah harshly laid her head on the table, biting her lip. She put every ounce of energy not to let things get out of hand.

Carbuncle sat on the table and gently laid a paw on the back of her head, chirp-lessly trying to do what he could.

“Damn, bitch girl! You’re more sassy than you usually are!” The few people hovering around the shop, floated around the table, still admiring the now more modestly dressed cosplayer. “You know what you need? I could turn Jesse back and he could-”

The slam on the table was enough to gather the attention of most of the people in the room.

“Geez, Sar-bear! It’s only a joke! Who fucking pissed in your corn flakes this morning? I was there too, must’ve been the work of some enemy ACE creature or something…” Ortelanus got up, shaking her head, before joining the side of her wielder, still in mid-duel.

Withdrawing his paw, Carbuncle continued to sit on the table. After a good minute, his wielder finally sat upright, her eyes swollen.

“Squeak?”

Sarah looked away from the glowing green creature, scowling all the while.

“I fucking hate that bitch.”

Carbuncle slowly nodded in approval. Chirping at her once more, he waited until she wiped her eyes.

“I should just go home to Albert’s... “ She looked across the room, only recognizing the alien, her wielder, the ginger kid she just beat, a handful of the judges, and the bigger ginger in the blue Hawaiian shirt. “Today’s been the worst day I’ve ever had.”

An idea came to the tiny fox-like creature. Hopping into her lap, he spun around a few times before settling in.

“I know what you’re doing, and it fucking won’t work.” She crossed her arms, careful not to move her legs, “You’re trying to be all fucking cute and distract me from my problems. Well, too bad! The day’s already in the shitter and it just won’t fucking go down!”

A young boy looked at her from across the room wearing a dopy looking cowboy hat. Having met his gaze more than once, she flicked him off, hoping he would get that she’s not in the mood. Besides, he’s, like, fucking twelve.

Glancing over, Carbuncle quickly looked back, “Squeak.”

Sarah sighed. “Fine. If you have to fucking know, I saw my dad today.”

“Squeak!”

“No, it’s nothing to get fucking excited for! He said I can’t come back. Even after all this time… Even after I-” She stopped, restraining herself for a moment.

“Even after I begged him to forgive me…”

With a small chirp, ‘Buncle nuzzled against her stomach.

“Thanks, but it still fucking sucks. I seriously don’t want to be here today…”

After a minute of silence, Ortelanus returned, trailing behind a beaming Jesse, “Looks like we’ll get to duel in the semi-finals after all!”

Sarah looked up from the table, with Carbuncle still in her lap, eyes stinging from the events of the day, “That’s cool.”

Sliding into Orty’s old spot, Jesse lowered herself to Sarah’s level, “Is everything alright, Sarah? Is something bothering you?”

“Yeah, her case of bitchitis is acti-”

Jesse slid a finger in front of his ACE’s face, actually shutting her up for once. “You don’t have to tell me, but are you at least feeling alright?”

With a hollow stare, Sarah looked up at the flawless woman’s face, “I’m alright.”

“Well,” Jesse straightened up and scratched her chin, “I’ve been there a couple of times… Orty, why don’t we give our friend some time to get ready for our match?”

“What? She said she’s fine! She can-” Jesse grabbed one of Orty’s pale ears and lifted her up out of the seat.

Leaving her at the table with Carbuncle in her lap, Sarah looked at one of her palms. It itched with anticipation. A strange siren’s call echoing deep from within her mind sang to her, pulling her deeper and deeper into temptation.

“I could do it… I could make this into an ACE duel and get rid of that bitch for good…”

“You feeling any better?” Jesse sat with her deck box in front of her. The judge had yet to arrive to their table, as they stood around the whiteboard, seeing who made it to the penultimate round.

Sarah’s face was still wet from the impromptu mind clearing exercise she practiced in the bathroom mirror. “Yeah…”

She looked around the room and noted the lack of aliens, “What happened to Bitch Witch and ‘Buncle?”

Jesse glanced up from the deck she was shuffling, “Oh, Orty picked him up and wanted to chat alone somewhere.”

Her palm itched.

I could call it right here. Right fucking here…

“Honestly,” the dark haired girl broke Sarah out of her daze, “I kinda think she felt bad about messing with you back there…

She told me all about it and didn’t know why you got more upset than usual with her.”

“Well, I never really liked her in the first place.”

Jesse laughed. She placed her cards delicately on the mat before her, breaking them up into piles of eight before combining the five stacks, “Yeah, Orty’s a bit rough around the edges! She was completely rude to me before she manifested. But she’s cooled down a lot since then…”

“She must’ve been a fucking nightmare then. And she only calmed down after she, uh, transformed you?”

For probably the first time today, Jesse blushed, “I mean, it wasn’t only that… There was a ton of lead up before her manifestation. We ran into a whole lotta trouble before all that.”

With a sigh, Sarah placed her deck box before her.

“Between you and me,” Jesse leaned in, looking around the room, on the look out for any pale-white alchemists, “I think she likes you a lot. You actually bant with her and she feels like you understand how she works…”

“Bant?”

“Y’know, banter? You both make little jabs at each other and know there’s nothing serious behind it?”

Sarah sighed. “I meant every last one.”

Jesse sat upright, eyes open wide, “Well, she took it more playfully than you then. Don’t tell her I told you this…” The girl leaned in once more, carelessly knocking over her stacks of cards with her boobs, “But I think she never really had a lot of friends where she was from. She constantly tries to prove herself and act like she’s the smartest person in the room…”

Scratching the back of her neck, Sarah coughed, “Easily her worst quality.”

Jesse looked down and started stacking her cards again, “Definitely. But once you know about it, you can work around it and really get to the root of her problems.”

Sarah’s palm itched more than ever.

“I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to make me feel bad about her.”

With a twinkle in her eye, Jesse shrugged, “I mean, we are supposed to be teammates after all… Like my dad always said, ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’!”

The headache Sarah had the night before returned. What was a light vice clamping around her temples was changed into a drill, relentlessly pushing deeper and deeper within her prefrontal cortex. Beyond a symptom of exhaustion, this had become a painful coalescence of her recent events.

“You’re right…”

Jesse sat back in her chair, “It’s alright. Sometimes even when people are forced together for a common goal, they still have to get through their differences.”

Sarah reached across the table to grab the taller girl’s cheeks, “Holy shit, I get it! You’re fucking Confucius over here!”

Fucking hell. I’ve been preached to twice today! Can it get any fucking worse?!

A tall young boy sat in the corner of the back room, flicking open a pocket knife. His wide-brimmed hat sat casually on his head. Watching the blonde girl from earlier that day flick him off, Ripper chuckled to himself in his new form.

“Wow Terrence. You’re looking at her like you’re a proud father!”

His compatriot resumed her invisibility in the seat beside him. The coffee cup on the table drained slowly as the straw appeared to be held presumably between her long fingers. Switching from his puzzled look to his usual scowl, Ripper kept an eye on the girl like he said he would.

“This is kinda borin’, Melt…” He resumed his usual accent, sounding strange with the young boy’s vibrant timbre, “You sure Miss Miranda said to just watch ‘er?”

Despite not seeing the flesh bulb she called a head, he knew she nodded silently. “Our orders are to observe any and all abilities this one possesses. Hermes said that she seemed harmless, but that could change in an instant.”

Leaning into his propped up arm, he continued to flick his knife with his free hand, “Y’know… ‘Observation’ is a pretty broad term. ‘E didn’t say we should only passively observe…”

“Terrence. Orders are orders.” Melt moved the empty coffee cup from where she sat, “You could play word games all day, but we both know you would only get into trouble if you act out.”

With a sigh, Ripper resumed his observation.

“I swear to fuckin’ Christ, if she ever wants ta’ start somethin’, I’ll drop ‘er then and there.”