Chapter Text
Callum and Ezran waited anxiously in the living room. The sun had risen, the blinds had been raised and the late morning sun shone through the spotless windows, reflecting onto the modern design of the open room. Jet-propelled vehicles drove down the streets below, carefully regulated automated programs. All the focus was currently on the main door into the apartment, however, as Harrow would be walking through it soon.
It wasn't too often the boys actually got to see their father, and Callum still felt a sense of intimidation near him. He had been fully adopted into the Anansi name, yet he always had the nagging insecurity that Harrow could disown him and make him an OutCaste if he did something too drastic.
They could hear the dinging of the elevator on each individual floor getting higher, and the subsequent opening of the doors, followed by the beeping of a password on a keypad with the gentle whirr of a retinal scan, where the door's lock finally clicked, the handle turning and the door being pushed open. The boys held their breath- Ezran out of excitement and Callum out of nervousness.
Just behind the door stood Harrow, behind him a KrugerSec Enforcer bodyguard. Ezran squealed and ran forwards, hugging his dad around the waist. Harrow let out his low, mellow laugh, the laugh that always made Callum a little more comfortable to his presence.
He was a taller, dark-skinned gentleman, with a broad chest, standing at a natural height, with consistant and solid legs to support him. He was wearing black dress pants and shoes, with a red, velvety dress shirt, emblazoned with intricate gold patterns. He also looked tired. Very tired.
Callum didn't want to interrupt the tender moment, so he tried to stand there in the least awkward way he could.
"Hello, Ezran." He chuckled, hugging his son back, before turning his head to Callum with a friendly smile.
"Callum."
Callum nodded in respect to Harrow- unsure of what else he should do- but thought he saw his stepfather's face fall a little bit when he did. When Callum took a double take, though, his face had reverted back into a warm, casual smile as he strode into the room when Ezran had finally detached himself.
Harrow took a seat on an armchair in the room, Ezran and Callum popping up on opposite ends of a small couch a few feet away from it. A small silence followed, only broken by the shuffling of Harrow in the armchair. When your ass has been in a straightback office chair for several hours at a time over the course of a few days, you learn to appreciate how an armchair feels.
Callum was the one to finally break the silence.
"So, how was your meeting?"
Harrow sighed and looked up with tired eyes.
"As much as I do respect Viren in the conglomerate director's chair, he needs to take a rest on the Bryson family. The conference should have been on the rising numbers of LoCaste voluntarily becoming OffGrids, among other issues, yet the majority made it seem as if the debate was on their little rivalry."
"Couldn't you help try and settle it with them?" Callum asked. Harrow laughed sadly.
"Our relations on a business level with Kruger Holdings still has some work to do. Sometimes it's just better to leave well enough alone."
Callum's eyebrows furrowed- something didn't add up to him.
"But they've been arguing ever since I started school when I was, like, 5." Harrow waved him off.
"That's enough, Callum." He said in a respectful, yet firm, tone. Callum fell silent. His confusion on the rivalry between the Bryson and Kruger families had always confused him. Anansi remained neutral, at least for now. Harrow didn't appear to have any current direction for the corperation's goals within the conglomerate, it seemed.
"So, boys, how was the last few days? How was Soren?" He asked them again, officially indicating the end of the previous topic. Ezran sprung into talk about everything that had happened, how school was, the exorbant amounts of Jelly Tarts he had eaten (a common pastry for the HiCaste, but quite exotic for the LoCaste), whatever other tiny detail, Callum pausing for a moment before joining in the more cheerful talk himself. Maybe Harrow had just had enough of corporate life for the rest of the day.
-
By this time, Rayla was already completely up and risen, and had explored the entire interior of the maintenance hub space they had occupied, from the upper rooms all the way to the catwalk, on the way looking for alternative routes around and out the hub, in case of attack or the desire for a little more variety.
This exploration doubled as an excuse to jog around and warm herself up, as she was entirely planning on going for a run before Runaan's meeting. She had practised plenty with improvised items back in the Silvergrove, the Graylands village she lived in. She knew it was nothing compared to what she was about to do. The city had obviously changed a lot- just on the way over, the brands on the buildings and the atmosphere felt much more clear. It was eerie, compared to the scene she had left to 2 years ago…
She shaked that thought out of her mind and walked up the stairs to the place the team had primarily set up base. She passed Andromeda and Skor, sitting silently and maintaining their equipment. As she walked past, the wrist grapple attachment Andromeda was so proud of whirred slightly. Rayla put on an awkward smile as she continued walking towards the large, sliding door which she knew Runaan's established base of operations was, with a very particular exit she had been eyeing.
The meeting wasn't for a good hour, but Rayla had another thing in mind as she pushed open the door.
-
"I don't get it."
"Art isn't something you get, Soren, it's something you feel."
"..."
"The only thing I can feel is boredom."
Soren had returned from the Anansi apartment to the Kruger penthouse, and of course had completely forgotten the fact that before he left that upon his return he would allow Claudia to drag him through the Malus art Museum, something he should have remembered as it had most definitely come back to bite him in the ass as he stared upon the large canvas full of erratic brush strokes making up a strange pointy structure, labeled 'Katolis'. This confused the hell out of him, as did everything else in the goddamn museum.
Claudia wasn't particularly impressed with his dislike of the arts.
"You find enjoyment in tripping people off of buildings, I can find enjoyment in art." Claudia huffed.
"Hey, I don't kick them off of buildings! Can you imagine what would happen if they hit a car or something?" Soren retorted, in what he obviously thought was an effective argument. Soren wasn't particularly good with his words in this way. Claudia raised her eyebrows and looked back to the painting, appearing to be appreciating it as hard as she could just to spite her older brother, who rolled his eyes, crossed his arms and looked away, sulky. His grumpy expression turned to one of suprise and confusion when he spotted his father walking towards him, flanked as usual by enforcers, with an additional setenial. What could he want down here?
-
Rayla stepped into the room, and two things were apparent to her as soon as she set foot within.
The first one was that in that short space of time, Runaan had completely unpacked all the equipment they had initially brought with them, which wasn't a lot, given that they had to be light, hard to notice and sneaky from the Graylands to the city. He had one small holographic screen up and was carefully poring over something within it.
The second thing was that there was a large, shuttered window, with the lock having been found broken off when they originally came to the hub, outside of it a very long, shiny and slanted bit of the roof at a more intermediate angle, connecting straight to the rooftop of the next building over. The large buildings of the city were perfectly seen from there, glass walkways and long wire supports connecting some of the wider gaps between them. Straight outwards from the end of the slanted roof were several rails, ventilation units, platforms of the roofs at different heights, doors, pipes, latters, a perfect stretch for a runner looking to practise their moves with the free momentum built from sliding down the shell of the hub.
That was her exact intention. It wouldn't take longer than 15 minutes to go for a run, right? Runaan's meeting would be there when she got back.
Runaan looked up from his moniter once he noticed Rayla, and stood up, brushing off his clothes.
"Ah, Rayla. I've been meaning to speak to you. If-"
He was taken aback when Rayla walked past him, her eyes shining as she walked towards the window and cracked the gap open a little wider, enough for her to begin to slip through. Runaan suddenly realized what she was doing, and begun to walk over to her, gaining in speed as he saw she wasn't stopping.
"Rayla! If you're going to do that at least take the-"
It was too late. Runaan broke into a run towards Rayla, trying to pull her back inside the room, however, she had already pushed herself out of the window, positioned herself so her left foot was in front of her right, and began sliding, gaining momentum as she slid down, letting out a whoop as she did. Runaan stopped at the windowframe, muttering to himself as he watched her slide at full speed down with perfect stability, as if she hadn't left the city at all.
"Stairs." He whipped around to Ram, who was in the room with him and stood at attention to his leader.
"Go. Make sure she doesn't kill herself." He instructed. Ram set off, through the door, sprinting as quickly as possible down the stairs. It wasn't unlike Rayla to pull off impulsive, youthful things such as this- but there was no place for recklessness on his team, even if she was one of the most agile and strong of all of them. Runaan huffed, pacing the room, already preparing a speech in his head to deliver as soon as she got back. If she missed the briefing… there would be hell to pay.
Meanwhile, Rayla, who couldn't give less of a shit about what Runaan had to say at the moment, reacted to the end of the slide, performing a roll after a short drop on the end, cheekily waving to the window before sprinting up a set of metal stairs. Feeling the fresh air felt good- not the fresh air of being atop the train or through all the fans in the transit hub, but real, city air, against her face, knowing everything she did was now in her control, at her own pace.
While some parts of the city were slightly different, the city still felt familiar, in a way. Seeing a set of stairs and then a railing, she did a Kong vault over the railing, hurling herself over, but stumbling slightly on the impact, which she quickly recovered from. Obviously she still had some work to do, but if she kept her focus up she would be fine. Sliding under a large vent unit and rounding a corner up a pipe, she saw something… odd.
It was a camera. While she had seen plenty of security cameras before, this one seemed different. It was larger, a large sphere, with a blinking red light.
She stopped for a moment to look at it, and was taken aback when the camera slowly panned over to her, the light now blinking blue.
In a robotic voice, it said "Scanning Gridprint."
Rayla was confused for a millisecond before suddenly processing what that meant and beginning to sprint like a madwoman back to the pipe, where she promptly swung herself behind the wall the pipe was mounted on, breaking line of sight with the camera. She heard it continue to beep for a moment before it whizzed back into what she assumed was a neutral state. Still, she wasn't willing to take any chances, and slid down the pipe, running back towards Zephyr Transit Hub.
Those cameras must had been installed after the riots. There were almost never cameras on the rooftops, and certainly not cameras like that, with the robotic voices and automatic Gridprint scanning. Rayla never had even gotten a Gridprint- being born to parents who were runners, it would have been much too large of a risk to attempt to document her birth officially with the conglomerate.
Great… she was thinking about THAT again. Luckily for her, or unluckily in another sense, she had another thing to worry about, as she recognized Ram leaning against the metal vent she had slid under, no doubt waiting for her. Rayla gulped, walking over to him, knowing full well who must have sent him after her.
-
"Who was it?"
Was Callum's first question once Harrow had gotten off the phone, his expression unreadable. Harrow sighed.
"No one, Callum."
Harrow had finished a phone call, sitting in the same chair Callum had when he was writing his essay for school, just off the side of the living room. It was a little bit in the afternoon, and Callum had overheard Harrow speaking on the phone while he was watching the television. His tone sounded surprised and serious, as if he was being given a business deal or a threat.
"Well… I've been given an offer by Kruger Holdings. They wish to renew our security contract, as well as expand it." Harrow decided to carefully reply.
"Well, that's good, right? Can't you just sign the contract and send it to them?" Callum asked.
"Well… it's not quite so simple." Harrow began. "See, they're asking me to go to the KrugerSec Headquarters to sign it in person, because, well… It's a more long term renewal, with some more major alterations and expansions." He finished. Callum's eyebrows raised.
"Does that mean Soren would be staying here longer?"
Harrow nodded.
"Aside from breaks, he would be working as you and Ezran's primary bodyguard full time." He responded. Callum smiled a little- Ezran would like that.
His smile faded slightly when he remembered Harrow had spoken about 'major changes'.
"What did you mean by 'expansions'?" Callum asked him. Harrow, again, sighed.
"I don't know for sure. I'll know more about them when I'm in the meeting with them." Harrow responded, but Callum smelled blood in the water at this point. Harrow wasn't telling him something. While the family was very honest and open with each other, occasionally, in situations like these, Harrow would close up. There was no use pursuing it, however, because Harrow would just change the subject or use some obscure saying that Callum didn't understand.
Callum walked back to the TV and turned the volume back on. It would be fun seeing Ezran's expression when he knew that his friend would be coming back.
-
Rayla was walked back into Runaan's command center by Ram, seeing that the rest of the team was already present, looking over a large floor plan. Runaan looked up when he saw them come in. Runaan nodded to Ram, who nodded back and joined the group. His gaze shifted over to the person who walked in beside him, who appeared hopeful they could phase through the wall and run all the way back home.
"Rayla. You're nearly late."
"Uhm… Wasn't Ram late too, then?" She replied, with the little sarcasm she could muster while being stared down. Runaan was rather intimidating, even if she had gotten used to his strictness. Runaan squinted in a warning glare.
"Don't take that tongue with me. If you want to run off, either do it as I authorize, or not right before a briefing. Also… try not to freeze when you see a camera. It's quite the opposite of what you should do."
Rayla flushed as Ram smirked a bit. So he had seen that, too. Well, wasn't that just wonderful. Runaan motioned for her to join the rest looking over the floor plan. Rayla's embarrassment didn't fade as they focused their attention to Runaan entirely.
Runaan was going to begin his briefing, when a thought appeared to have come to him. He looked over to Rayla.
"Speaking of running when I authorize it, I have a specific job for you to do before we execute the datagrab. I believe it would assist you in returning to a more conditioned state."
Rayla's ears perked up. This could be interesting.