Well, i originally thought that this chapter would only be enough for half of it, but turns out it filled the gap of a full chapter! So now you get more world building and relationship building and all that... and still no action.

/rant

I want to get to the action already!

/endrant

Well, hope you enjoy it all the same!

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Alex sat in the car for a good minute, cooling his head off with the AC on full blast. The nights recently had been cold, but the headache that was coming on had caused his body to heat up more than he liked. After cooling himself down, he turned on the radio to listen to the local news, and decided it best to go home and change clothes for the supposed outing with his parents.

Arriving at the parking lot, he noticed his usual spot taken by a large truck. He grew slightly annoyed as he liked the spot for its view from his apartment, not to mention assigned to him by the apartment complex itself. He decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to call down to the main office this late at night, as well as the fact he was going to be out of the place all night anyways.

After ascending the flight of stairs to the second floor, he heard a peculiar sound coming from near his apartment. When he turned around from the stairs and walked toward it, he saw his next door neighbor Patricia leaning out of her door to get the mail. ‘Leaning’, as in through the door itself.

“Evening, Patricia.” Alex called out as he fiddled with his keys for the mailbox key, remembering he hadn’t grabbed the mail last night. Patricia looked up at Alex for a brief moment through her long black hair that covered her eyes and just groaned, before leaning back into her apartment. She was a beautiful woman, and one of the ‘intangible’ races at that, so he wasn’t sure if she was groaning from old age or if she just didn’t like talking much. It didn’t matter to him either way, as he had only ever given her a passing hello.

Pleasantries always helped make yourself look friendly though, so he decided to use them when he could with people he barely knew; Most of the time, anyways.

The usual mail was about a new tv he could win, something for victoria about lingerie, and even something from the college to most likely pay back the loan. It caused a sigh to escape his lips as he closed the door behind him, knowing there was more money coming out of his bank account. His current apartment, thankfully, was free thanks to the B.R.E he worked for; though being human had made him special enough for that privilege.

Bureau of Racial Equality, The B.R.E. A lot of information on its history could simply be gleaned from it’s name; Racial problems, something humanity didn’t seem to understand how to get rid of easily. It wasn’t as much of a problem what with the hundreds of unique and different races spread throughout the world, but still a touchy subject even in this melting pot of a city. Not finding much else of importance in the mail, he grabbed a clean white shirt,new boxers, and a pair of black jeans and jumped into the shower to wash the filth off.

After the shower, he attached the pistol to the shoulder holster and threw his favourite black jacket over it on the bed. He glanced into the mirror at the blue veins peeking out under his eyes, and at the bad haircut he had given himself that was short and uneven. He hated the cowlick that pushed the right side of his hairline back that made his forehead look bigger than it was, but there was nothing to be done on that; besides grow his hair out, which made him look like he was in an old western movie. He could remember the annoying laugh Victoria had made when she saw an old photo of him with long hair. The teasing lasted for weeks.

Tidied up as best he could, he left out of the door with his jacket and holster on and was back in his car. He contemplated to just say fuck it and go get some much needed rest, but the idea wasn’t a very good one. His mother had noticeably been looking forward to his visit, and he’d feel like he betrayed her if he just gave up at this point. The car flickered on after a couple unsuccessful startups, and onto the interstate he was once again.

“Coming to you live from West Ageless, the new hit single of the week is-”

Alex hit the switch on the radio, changing it to the local news.

“-In what appears to be yet another killing by the ‘ruby eyed’ killer has happened, again, this week tonight. The victim was unidentified as of the latest comment, but we will bring you the latest news on the most notorious killer we’ve had here in Ageless, when more comes to light. Back to you, Ve-”

Alex shut the radio off, not in the mood to hear of the case that was agonizing him. He already had enough of it as it was, without the news shoving it in his face. The only thing good about it at the moment, was that the news outlets didn’t know he was the current inspector being ‘hazed’ with this case. It had been going on for a year, and was so mysterious and difficult of a case, that it was being used to haze new cadets into the force; to show them they can’t win them all. It was doing a damn good job at it, too, he would add in an interview if they ever gave him one.

That was fine with him, he only had the case for three more weeks and then that's it. He’d do his best to catch the perpetrator, but his hopes weren’t high on being the one to solve it.

Shutting the car down as he pulled up across the street from the gate with a guard in the post, he finally saw the old mansion in full view. It was a humongous piece of land, with the wall that protects it stretching at least a mile long. It was in the wealthiest part of the city, the northern part, and quite a ways away from his apartment in the western side. If he drove the full city length, it’d take him a third of the day driving just to get to the other side.

He took the gun out of his holster and placed it into his glove box, knowing how touchy some of these guards could be about weapons on him; especially the kind that hated him, as he recognized the guard up front. Bad enough as it was that he came near the place again, seeing one of his old tormentors now on guard duty just made it worse. He could do nothing but suck it up, and walk to the guard post across the unlit street.

The man guarding the mansion at the gate had a scar down the right side of his face, and his figure could be called ‘beastly’; Burns as well, lined the right side of his body as far as Alex could see. Looking like a mixture of human and bat, he looked rather grotesque to Alex who was a full human inside and out. The man, Dominic, used to be the head guard for his mother until that fateful day on his tenth birthday. The man chose Alex as his scapegoat to the pain, beating his ten year old self in a fit of rage. Alex gave him his payback via the scar on his face, and was sure the man had been through a lot of struggles just to get hired back on for the door watch. How could Alex have known his sister couldn’t step into the light like he could? He was just a child.

Dominic looked up at Alex for a brief moment, looked back toward the security cameras, and then turned back to Alex with a scowl on his face.

“Something you need?” Dominic asked, acid in his voice at the unexpected visitor at this time of night. Alex let out a puff of air from his nose that drifted like smoke in the cold night, not ready for this.

“Name’s Alexander Rosemary. Here to meet my parents.” Alex stated, keeping his voice level and he stared back into Dominic's eyes. He saw a flash of surprise lift the man’s brow up, but he soon was back to his emotionless soldier look as usual. Silently, Dominic pushed a red button on the side of the terminal in front of him, a buzz ringing out. Silence enveloped the area as the two silently sat waiting for the response from the other end.

The buzzer soon went off, signaling the other end picking up the phone.

“What is it?” His mother’s voice drifted into his ears from the other side, deeper and seemingly angry at the sudden interruption. It was a rare sight to see his mother angry when he was a child, but it just made it scarier when it did happen. He could hear Dominic gulp from behind the glass as sweat trickled down his brow.

“T-There’s a man here calling himself by the name of Alexander Rosemary.”

“Oh!” He could hear the surprise in her voice, most likely having been in a meeting and forgot about the promise earlier that day. “I’ll be right out, dear!”

He heard the buzzer go off again and silence enveloped the two men again, with Alex standing there awkwardly. A minute went by with nothing being said, so Alex just turned around and walked away from the guard post without a word. Surprisingly, that went way better than he thought it would.

He got to his car rather quickly, and leaned against the door to it as he noticed how shaky his legs had been. Having regular human capabilities amongst all of these super capable races made him feel weak. Without his gun on him, he was easy pickings for just about anything in the city. The new bullets designed some time ago were made of hundreds of different materials, capable of causing lethal damage to just about every race out there. What good it did with it’s limited use, he pondered, as his shaking legs steadied a bit.

His phone rang out with a single beep, notifying him of a new text message. Pulling the old dinosaur phone from his pant pocket, he opened it to find a new text from an old high school friend. Matthew, or Matt to Alex, was a purebred werewolf from one of the lesser clans. Nothing too special, but could pack a mean punch with his over excess of muscles.

The text was rather simple, reading ‘What’s up?’.

Alex scoffed a bit at the basic question after not seeing each other for years, but gave up asking something stupid to someone not very bright like Matt. He’d get a text back of ‘What’s up your ass?’ Or something equally stupid back. So all he did was reply with ‘Waiting on parents.’ And shut the phone. A minute later he got a text back with ‘That’s cool.’ Followed immediately by another one reading ‘We should hang out sometime.’. Alex just replied back ‘Yea, soon as i get a day off.’ And then shut the phone again, putting it back in his pocket.

Matt didn’t like technology, preferring to talk to others in person. So going by his past habits, he wouldn’t reply until he wanted to hang out, or alex wanted to. While lost in thought, a buzzer rang out for longer than the one for calls, signaling that the gate was likely opening for a vehicle. When Alex looked up, he was right; a limousine was pulling out of the gate to stop on the sidewalk across from him, his parents stepping out to greet him.

His mother was beaming ear to ear with a full smile on as she walked toward him, arm in arm with his father; who, by Alex’s thoughts, was quietly sizing him up after having grown so much the last thirteen years. He had an aching feeling in the back of his mind that had been growing since the time he left the crime scene, and it felt like it was only getting worse.