Queen Of The Beasts

32| Change

But before we could catch anyone, we needed to do one last thing. Emi brought us to the 'stomach' which is as strange and as gross as it sounds, the black markets of Lightsville, where people go to look for crap that ruins their lives and sends them to prison. People down there don't look you in the eye, they don't try to remember anyone, they simply want to make enough to put food on the table for their families but those that do, the ones that stare you down and watch you like hawks, they do it for the pleasure or because they've gone in too deep and they don't bother trying to hide it, rather they own it. Those were the people we were looking for.

We definitely looked out of place with our colorful clothing and bright faces. Even Matt who was usually scruffy. And Flora who had more dark clothing than light.

"is that a bazooka?" Matt asked, gaping at a man behind a stand filled with a collection of guns.

"best not to ask," Emi answered. She hardly seemed bothered by our surroundings. She was right at home.

But then I caught something, something that made me halt. Just opposite us, a woman stood behind a stand cluttered with cages of baby birds. The woman's head rose and we made eye contact, expect she had only one eye. The other was stitched close. "What you looking at?" she growled.

I gulped and stepped forward, but a hand slipped into mine and held me back. "Not now," Connor murmured. "We'll be back, don't worry."

I squeezed his hand and looked away. Emi brought us here and there and finally we stopped before the back door of a club. The door was ajar when we arrived. Inside it was dark and the air was stale. But it wasn't quiet rather the room was filled by the sound of labored breathing, the clashing of flesh against flesh, and bodies hitting the floor. Emi flipped a light switch and the room lit up to reveal a shirtless Aldo a few feet below us, laying stomach up against the floor, his chest rising and falling rapidly, among a mass of unconscious badly beaten bodies.

"do we really have to do this?" Matt whispered, fear laced into his tone. "We could've been them."

"what are you doing here?" Aldo asked, eyes still closed.

"are these your boys?" Connor asked.

"yeah, so what?" Aldo scoffed. "you gonna scold me for hitting them."

"did they try to harm you?"

Aldo chuckled. "harm me? What am I, an old woman? They don't stand a chance against me. I could take on a hundred more of them."

"they tried to harm him," Emi translated.

"if you're here to ask me how I am," Aldo sighed. "Then you should be satisfied, you can leave the way you came in."

"we came because, we're missing a member of our team," Connor said.

Aldo sat up and stared down at the floor. "what happened to the psychic girl?"

"he meant you, you numb skull!" Emi scolded.

Aldo snickered. "well isn't that sweet."

"he really thinks it's sweet," Emi translated, which was necessary, because I thought otherwise.

"but when you save the day," Aldo said, "and you get your shiny scraps of metal and your own statues, I won't be one of them. I don't belong in your world. When they see me, they see all of this, not me helping you, not me choosing to do the right thing, none of that. So don't try to make me something I'm not."

"we broke into the zoo," I said. "with your brother. Maybe that doesn't amount to the things you've done but we're not all perfect either."

"I've never took a life," Aldo said. "I've stole, I've cheated and lied, I've beat people till they were on life support, I've done worse than you could imagine, but I've never killed. Taking a life, now that's something you don't come back from so easily. I've seen it break men and I know that's one thing I'll never do."

"I know you haven't," Emi said. "You never chose to be born into such a life. But that doesn't mean you can't take another path." Teary-eyed Emi looked to Flora. "Right?"

"Change is always an option. But one has to first realize why they must change." Flora took the first step down the stairs. We met Aldo on the ground floor.

"whatever happens," I said. "we're a team and a team sticks together."

Emi was now full out bawling. "Now are you going to be a depressed dumb baby or are you going to go help us beat up some more of your friends?"

He shielded his eyes and stood. His body bloody and bruised, he stretched a hand out to us. "Am I still allowed to insult you guys if I'm on your team?"

We looked around at each other, shrugging. "yeah, I guess," Connor said.

Aldo grinned wickedly. "Let's go destroy this little son of a— "

~~~

After an excruciating 2 hours I was able to return Aldo's boys back to their normal selves, well at least mentally. We couldn't do much for the bruises and their missing teeth. But according to Aldo these were just half of them. The rest of them were still out there. And the thought of more people to make sane made me insane.

"so do you people know where the culprit is?" Aldo asked, now clean, clothed and in shades.

"actually, the culprit is the zoo," Connor said.

"the whole zoo, everyone?"

"well of course not everyone," Connor said. "just those involved in the experiments. The scientists. Everyone else are just pawns. We have the evidence that incriminates the zoo, but the crimes don't only revolve around the zoo animals, as you know. We think this person is involved in something much more sinister."

"well, have you narrowed down suspects?"

"Samuel Nakkikus," Emi said. "he's one of them, he mentioned the mutant experiments."

"well we won't know for sure," Connor explained. "Which is why we need to visit that building. And get a confession out of him for all his crimes."

"can't you just tell us who did it?" Aldo looked to Flora.

"I'm not able to recognize people in my visions I don't currently know," Flora explained. "I can see what they'll do but I don't know who they are."

"then we better make use of your abilities and plan this well."

"I like your charisma," Matt said, smirking.

Aldo glared at him and Matt was lucky he couldn't see Aldo's eyes.

After we finished up in the Stomach we returned to the normal part of Lightsville. Aldo said he called a healer who would take care of his boys and patch them up good. But then I fainted from the mental exhaustion and we had to go to the hospital.

When I gained consciousness I woke to the sight of a familiar-looking nurse. Too familiar, I almost thought I had completely lost my mind.

"Maya," I muttered.

"you're awake," the gorgeous nurse said, smiling sweetly.

The door clicked open behind us. Connor entered looking anxious. I propped myself against the wall and looked from Maya to him. "What's going on? Why is Maya here?"

"have I met you kids before?" Maya asked.

"HIT," I gasped.

"No." Connor shook his head. "Worse. Maya, have you ever worked at the zoo?"

Maya the nurse seemed baffled. She shook her head and gaped at us. "I've never worked at the zoo. Where is this coming from? Is this a prank?"

A migraine came over me. "If you're Maya, then who was the Maya you talked to?" 

a/n: ayo a plot twist.