Chapter Text
Warm skin pressed against cold brick. Silver shone against a blade as its coldness, too, pressed against the warm skin. The owner of the knife was covered in the shadows of the alleyway, but his victim was much more visible. She was a short girl with long red hair, wearing a striped yellow shirt. Her brows were furrowed angrily but her fingers shook with nervousness against the brick she was pressed to. She couldn’t have been much older than ten.
“Get away from me!” the girl barked.
The dull edge of the knife pressed a bit harder against her neck. “Don’t be that way,” purred the adult. “Just come back with me quietly and ain’t no one’ll get hurt.”
“NO!”
The girl risked a glance sideways, but no cars drove by. The knife moved to tilt her chin up into the pale, shadowed face of her captor. A wicked smile spread across his face but dark sunglasses and a high-collared trenchcoat hid many of his other features.
“Come now,” said the adult.
The girl breathed heavily and pushed against the brick wall further. Her eyes stung with tears, from sorrow or anger she couldn’t quite tell, but neither of the people were willing to budge.
A small light almost pierced the edge of her bleary vision, and an animalistic growl nearly broke through the loud pounding of the girls’ heart in her ears.
“Sic ‘em, boy!” called a voice that was definitely not that of the darkly-clad adult. The voice was much lighter and louder. The girl didn’t have much time to think about if she recognized it, though, as the animal-like growl grew louder. Suddenly a white blur leaped onto the head of the adult, and a crunch wrang out.
The girl begged every single muscle in her body to start bolting as her captor screamed, assaulted by some other person; but they were still cold and hurt and tired, and refused to move. Her knees buckled as she tried to force herself to move.
Before she could stop herself, the girl found herself hitting the cold concrete beneath her. A big shape rushed near, a similar height to the other adult, but much wider. She could hardly make out any of his features as bright white headlights only illuminated his back. The girl gasped and pressed herself in between the brick wall and the corner of a nearby wooden box. The growling, crunching and yellow continued. The girl’s ears continued to ring.
The big figure crouched down a few feet away from the girl and put his dark hands up. “It’s alright, kid. We aren’t here to hurt you,” he spoke calmly.
Closer, the girl could see that he looked a lot like a dog, with very long ears and an oddly-shaped hat. An uncommon sight to most people, but a strange and new experience to the sheltered child. She had heard and studied about the Animal-American people, but had never actually seen one so closely, and in the flesh, before. Her eyes sparkled a minute as all that she learned came rushing back to her. However, a particularly loud crunch brought her back to reality.
The dog turned to face the brutal attack a few feet away. “That’s enough, Max,” he stated simply. The girl turned that way too, scared but still curious of what had become of the man that had cornered her. Had they - she shuttered thinking of the words - murdered him?
All motion stopped and a white rabbity-thing crouched atop the adult. One ear was tattered and flopped, but he didn’t seem to own any new injuries. His mouth was red, but the man breathing heavily beneath him seemed to be missing a fair amount of skin. Without another moments hesitation, the rabbit grabbed the mans collar roughly and shouted in his face.
“GET OUTTA HERE!”
The rabbity thing hopped away while the adult rapidly, and awkwardly, tried to get back to his feet. The tattered man quickly ran through the alleyway until he was stopped by a fence. Glancing behind him nervously, the rabbit let out another fierce growl. Ultimately, the man decided to try and climb the wooden boxes as quickly as he could. The rabbit’s nose didn’t stop twitching until the click of his shoes was impossible to hear. The rabbit then turned to the dog and wiped his face of a fair amount of blood. He nodded down at the girl, only being about a hand taller than her.
“So what’ve we got here?” the rabbit asked through a thick accent.
“A kid,” the dog answered simply.
“Ooh,” the rabbit replied. Then his tone sombered. “Oooh. That ain’t good.”
“Nope.”
“I have a name!” the girl barked. Her adrenaline still rushed through her, even if her muscles refused to work.
“I’m sure you do!” the dog replied. He stood up with a grunt and extended a hand toward her. The girl grabbed it hesitantly and, putting her other hand on the ground, rose to her legs uncertainly. Her muscles weren’t as tense as they were before, and she still remained wary of these strangers. Maybe if something went wrong this time she could run.
“What is it?” the rabbit asked.
“It’s, uh -” the girl hesitated, still trying to get her body back in order. She’d asked herself the question of what her name was several times. She knew one thing, though. It couldn’t be her legal one. These strangers couldn’t know her real identity. “Um, Geek.” she finally answered. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sam - this is Max,” the dog introduced. He dug in his suit for a moment before producing a rigid gold shape, much shinier than the people were in the backlight. “We’re the Freelance Police!”
Geek gasped and stepped back, almost tripping over the box. Stumbling a minute and staring up wide-eyed at them, she exclaimed, “P- police?!”
“We don’t arrest kids,” Max stated simply, crossing his arms behind his back. He looked off innocently and rolled on his heels. His shark-like smile got even larger. “I mean, unless you’ve done somethin’.”
“N-nothing bad,” Geek stuttered. She almost wanted to continue but she swallowed back the words. Her mouth was still dry from the lingering fear.
Silence held for a moment, the only sound being the growl of the Freelance Police’s car.
“...Well,” Sam stated simply, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “It’s late - and you’re vulnerable. Why don’t you settle in at our house for the night?”
“Yeah, kid!” Max exclaimed, another huge smile splitting his still bloodstained face. He wiped away a droplet with this back of his hand, but continued to smile. “Don’t you worry your little head! We won’t let anything happen to ya.”
Geek glanced between the two strange people several times over, sizing them up. A huge dog with weird feet, and a hyperkinetic, bloodstained rabbity-thing. Max was definitely dangerous but - he had protected her from the first guy. And Sam and been nothing but nice.
Swallowing back her fear, Geek spoke. “With friends like you who needs enemies?” she asked dryly.
Max chuckled and thumped his foot happily. He interlaced his fingers together and tossed them under his chin, looking up at Sam with pleading eyes. “Aw, Sa~am, can we keep her? She’s cute! Can we?”
Sam chuckled himself and patted Max’s head like he had no fear of getting bitten. “We’ll see, little buddy,” he answered. He then pointed backwards with his thumb to the still growling car. “Why don’t ya keep her company?”
Max laughed excitedly and thumped his foot a bit more, now turning to face Geek with the pleading expression. Geek’s skin crawled. She had to admit she was a little unnerved, after all, he still had blood in his teeth.
“Will you wash your face?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh,” Max replied, wiping away another trail of blood with his arm. “I forgot about that.”
Sam had already made his way to the driver’s seat of the car. He looked up through the open passenger window and put his hand to his mouth. “We’ve got germ-x!”
Max ushered her forward to the passenger-side door of the back seat. “You can’t put germ-x in your mouth!” she exclaimed. The old door was rusty and took lots of force to pull open, but Geek managed to slide it open just enough and bounced a bit on the seat. The door squealed as gravity closed it back. The car didn’t have seatbelts and the seats were made of old velvet, but overall, it was not the most uncomfortable car that Geek had ever been in.
“Clearly you don’t know Max,” Sam answered, adjusting the rear view mirror so Geek could just see the start of his smirk.
She bundled up in a ball and looked out the window. Leaning her warm and pounding head against the cold glass, all of her nerves returned.
She didn’t know either of them.