I quickly went into the house next to me and started to search for weapons in the kitchen, remembering we left some stuff here.

If I remember correctly.. It was in… here! I quickly grabbed the 2 pans from the cabinet, smiling. Unfortunately, I couldn’t test how well it worked, but judging from the old disney movie about that girl in a tower knocking the intruder out with a frying pan, it should be fine.

I went out of the house, looking at the situation. I could hear Sam and Jane arguing with the kids, but I couldn’t make out any exact words unfortunately. I scurried to the other side of the street, and went to the one in front of ours.

It was almost night, and there was barely any light in the sky. I took a deep breath, and glanced at them one more time. No pressure, but if I messed this up it could mean that we would still be at a disadvantage.

Then, I started to walk towards them, walking quickly and confidently even though my hands were shaking. When I noticed that Sam and Jane saw me, and she was about to speak, I threw one of the pans at the side of one of the kids.

I watched as all of them turned to look at the cause of the noise, and sprinted to the one nearest to me, and by the time he turned to me, I already smashed the pan in his head. BAAANG!!! The sound made me even feel a little bit sorry for the guy, the sound almost made me feel the pain.

Almost though. He was still standing there, and like everyone else, in shock. The pain must’ve not gotten to him yet, so for good measure, I swung the frying pan again, aiming at the exact same spot that I hit him before.

This time, the sound was less loud since I had momentum swinging before, and this time I was trying to be fast since I wanted to react before anyone else could do anything. The boy fell to the ground, and before I could move on to the next, the supposed leader spoke.

“Well well well, seems like you do have more people in your group.” He approached me, looking me up and down. I glared at him in return, and he just smiled. “What a lovely person you are, mind telling me your name?”

I pulled my arm back, ready to strike him with my pan anytime if he got closer. Realizing this, he finally backed away a bit. I quickly stepped back, and went to stand next to Jane and Sam while the guy also went back to his group.

When he went back to the safety of his teammates, Jane gave me some information about what was happening. “They’re trying to stake their claim on our territory, and they want us to merge with their group.”

I scoffed at the audacity, and glared harder at them. One of them actually started to get scared, which was the kid who was next to my unfortunate victim. I tried not to scoff, and waited for what the leader had to say.

“Since you have a new addition, let us reintroduce ourselves. My name is Jax, and the one you knocked out is Myrtle.” He pointed at the traumatized kid, and continued to speak. “This here is Raynold, and the last one is Mark.”

He looked at me, and grinned. “Now that we’ve introduced ourselves, what’s your name, lovely lady?” This was wasting our time. Charlotte and Claude were probably very hungry by now but they wouldn’t leave. I wasn’t patient, so I finally talked to Jax.

Smiling, I told him as sweetly as possible. “My name is Lokaste Shiress Mckinley, and that’s my first name, so make sure you say it every time you talk to me.” I crossed my arms and looked at him. “Now, what brings you here?”

He looked taken aback. This time, Mark was the one who spoke. “Under the orders of the saints, Aila and Mikhail, we’re trying to gather all lost kids like you and bring you back to the capital, while trying to rebuild this area.”

I looked at them suspiciously. Although Aila and Mikhail mentioned that we would get a new place to live, it was odd that she was sending kids instead of adults. Of course, some of us wouldn’t trust adults, but it was still weird.

“If Aila and Mikhail really ordered you to help us, then why did you beat up the Jorge’s? They’re very calm, so I doubt they would’ve attacked you first.” There were some plot holes in Mark’s explanation, which made me think about Aila and Mikhail’s leadership abilities.

Mark hesitated when he heard my question, and turned to look at Jax. This time, Jax looked confident when he answered. “That’s because they refused to comply with the heroes orders, so we just gave them a taste of what will happen!”

Silence struck the street. If Aila and Mikhail had good intentions, they would’ve brought more people like Mark to appease us. They must’ve had to go through some screening and preparations before being sent here, so they must’ve known about Jax’s personality.

There’s a possibility that there’s another reason for this, but I doubt it. I looked at Mark and Jax. Jax was only now realizing what he had done, and Mark looked like he had a headache.

Aila and Mikhail aren’t as they are seen on tv. Of course, these are my speculations. But if they truly were good people, they would’ve sent soldiers that they trusted, and they would be nice to everyone unlike the rude soldier.

There’s also the bombings. It would make sense that they were trying to kill Tor soldiers hiding amongst us, but technology isn’t that advanced, and nobody would make such a dangerous mistake. They could’ve surrounded the area with soldiers and performed a lockdown while they inspected everywhere.

“It seems that we will have to talk about this for another time.” Mark looked at us, and Jane muttered something. I just glared at him instead, since it was one of my strong suits.

Sam stepped forward, replying to Mark curtly. “Actually, I don’t think so. I know that me and the others wouldn’t like to deal with a group that resorts to violence if they don’t get what they won’t.”

I stepped next to him and added on. “If you do come, make sure to bring lots of gifts, otherwise we might launch an attack that’ll do worse than what I did to your little buddy Myrtle over there.” I smiled at him brightly.

Mark sighed, and looked to Jax for confirmation. He looked at us and then at his group, before speaking in a hushed voice to Mark and Raynold, and stepped forward to talk to us while Mark and Raynold started hauling the unconscious Myrtle to the left.

“We’ll come back next time, don’t worry about that. And what happened here won’t be forgotten.” Jax stated, and Jane grumbled about him being a coward. I laughed inwardly as I watched them leave, and waved to them.

“Don’t forget to bring us a bunch of gifts, or else I’ll make sure to aim for your nuts!!” I shouted enthusiastically, and I could see them pick up their pace faster. Sam and Jane laughed, and I just shrugged.

We went back into the house, where Sam put the bag of goods down while I emptied my pockets of other items we got, like the ointment. Charlotte and Claude came down, and while Emily put away everything Sam started to make dinner.

“El, El, did you get anything for us today?” Claude shouted excitedly, with Charlotte trailing behind him.

“Claude,” Charlotte scolded Claude, wagging her finger at him. “Don’t shout. If you shout, bad guys could come and annoy us, remember?” She then turned to me, and she couldn’t hide her excitement either.

I smiled, and then pretended to look through all my pockets, and then looked at them sadly. “Dangit! I’m sorry guys,” Claude’s face evidently dropped, but he still waited, while Charlotte looked unconvinced. I sighed, and put more effort into my acting.

“Sorry, I must’ve lost the thing I prepared for you guys today. Oh well, you’ll have to wait for next week then.” Charlotte still wasn’t fooled; on the other hand, Claude looked so sad, like he was about to cry.

I finally stopped. “Wait, I think there’s something here.” I reached in my back pocket, and carefully took it out, but I didn’t show them. “Do you want to see what it is?” I asked them, and Claude instantly started jumping while Charlotte nodded.

“Yes yes yes! I want it!!” Claude ran to my back, but I already put it in one of my other pockets.

“Ok ok, give me a second guys,” I reassured them, and they were quiet for a while. “Tada!!!” I exclaimed, showing them the candy I found today. I was going to take one from the rations, since we had quite a few, but luckily me and Sam had stumbled upon some of them in a store.