Dreamcatchers

i

"Up and at 'em, Park." Maximum Lane directed from the hallway outside of his bedroom. When he didn't see any motion in the living room, he paused. Waiting, patient as ever for his Trainee. She'd fallen asleep on the couch in his living room, and he sighed, starting to throw open the curtains.

"I thought you said yesterday was going to be the last day of intensive." There she is, he thought.

"And I never realized you were one to complain if I added an extra day." Max knew he was right, as he most often was. Unfortunately though, if this had been any other person's room, Haylei Park would have stood right up and got ready without an ounce of complaining.

"Fine." Her indigo bedhead popped up from behind the couch, and as she gazed at Max's grandfather clock for the time, he couldn't help but smile. "It's 3:30 in the morning. What now?"

"Code 13, kid." He didn't need to look back at Haylei to tell that she was rummaging around in his belongings, either looking for a snack or the jacket that he left on his favorite armchair. Instead, he gazed out the window over the city of Coffslin. The town he hadn't grown up in, yet took multiple oaths to protect. The town that shunned his trainee, and thus him.

It was almost like an unspoken deal, he thought. If he agreed to turn his back on Haylei Park for what the world thought she did, he would be put right back into prestige. Like he'd been before all of this.

"Where's the alarm?" Max almost hesitated, unsure of how she would receive this news, but he turned around nonetheless, grinning the mischievous grin people in these parts knew meant trouble.

"I've requested this one for us. And for a few of your... friends, I think."

'Friends' was an immensely lose term. Lifelong comrades? What is it that the kids called it... "ride-or-dies"? A knock pattered at the door, and Max plucked up Haylei's black sweatshirt from the back of his chair, tossing it to her. "Come in!" 

"Hey, guys!" Bryce Kim, a tall, somewhat muscular, Asian man greeted as he waltzed in, and Max could tell that he was trying his best not to gaze straight at his Trainee. "Let's get this thing going, shall we?"

———

Haylei Park wished to slam her Mentor's head into the outer wall of Dreamcatcher Headquarters. In reality, though, she doubted she could even get close enough to touch a hair on that head. She'd told him about her "feelings" for Bryce Kim, a currently Trainee-less Healer, but she didn't that he'd go so far as to set them up on a mission. As a trio. Especially during a Code 13.

"Sure you can handle this, Catcher?" Haylei glanced up, jolted out of her thoughts by Bryce's inquiry. He'd spoken in their native language, the one that they both knew Max couldn't understand, and so a grin lifted the corner of her lips. Every time they spoke to each other in their mother tongue, it was like she had a semblance of family again.

"You underestimate me, Healer," she retorted.

"Get a room," Max mumbled. Haylei once again considered knocking him unconscious and leaving him.

"Like you have with nearly every single female at-"

"Choose your next words very carefully, Kim," Max threatened. Haylei rolled her eyes.

"You're defensive because you know it's true, Max."

Her Mentor sighed, and Haylei grinned. If she couldn't beat Maximum Lane in combat, at least she could best him in arguing.

"So, where's the Terror?" She asked, running a quick check of her inventory. The official Dreamcatcher emblem, her daggers, and a bottle of smelling salts in case one of her teammates were to fall under all rested in pouches along her belt. No Dreamcatcher carried a bag, let alone a large one. It was of the utmost importance to move fast and efficiently, and baggage would only weigh them down.

"Just a few more blocks down," Max reported, and the three lapsed into silence. It was comfortable, though, not awkward. Never awkward. They always knew what to say, or not to say, to each other, and Haylei appreciated that. Especially because most were rendered speechless by her due to fright, it was a comfort to know that Max and Bryce would never be scared of her.

Just before the trio could round the corner of the next block, a whiff of decay swept past Haylei, and she froze, holding up a hand. Max nodded, and Haylei noted his hand already dipping down to the holsters on his belt, where he kept his twin guns. Next to her, Bryce drew Solar, the light blade that was gifted to all Healers. With the moonlight shining down onto them, the silver merely glistened as if it had been imbued with stars. If it'd been daytime, the light refracting from the blade would have made her look away.

"Dreamcatchers, huh?" Haylei's heart dropped deep down into her stomach. These were always the worst.

"That would be us, sir," Max murmured as the lanky figure emerged from where they'd stood against the wall of a highrise. As it stalked towards them, shadows melted down from the windows above, coming to gather behind their master.

"Healer," Haylei whispered, "Stay back." Bryce nodded, withdrawing a few steps behind her. He swept a hand against the small of her back as he did, and she shivered at the brief touch.

"Let's see what you've got, little one." He'd have to stop with the pet names if he wanted her focus to stay sharp, Haylei silently complained.

And then, the figure sprung.