Digging into the Past

“Ha, ha, and also, HA!!” Harrison exclaimed, a cocky grin on his face as he entered the kitchen. Raze looked up at him, and Harrison tossed him the gun. “You owe me twenty bucks!” he stated, smugly.

Raze looked up at him, his face still expressionless. “No I don’t,” he replied simply, as he opened the chamber of the pistol to find a hollow point bullet filled with silver nitrate, “the deal was that you couldn’t do it before the end of the month. It’s now the second of September. Deal’s over, dude. Pay up.”

“What? No way! I so had this thing ready, it just needed testing! That’s all I’ve been doing the last few days!” he explained, his voice rising. Harrison had never been a graceful loser; there were few things he hated more. Raze looked at the boy, and sniffed the air, before rolling his eyes.

“You’re a terrible liar, Harry. Can’t believe you’d even try to fool me.” He held out his hand, as Harrison fished around in his pocket for the money, cursing under his breath. “I heard all that.” Raze said, rolling his eyes again as Harrison walked off. As he entered the small library the group had set up, he was more than a little surprised to see his sister sitting beside Jade, who was typing madly at the keyboard.

“See, it’s not really that hard,” Jade explained to Rachel, still unaware of Harrison’s presence, “you just have to bypass the mainframe, which is fairly simple when you go through the proxy.”

Rachel just sat there, her face blank. “Right…yeah, I have no idea what you just said, you might as well be speaking Latin. Or Hungarian, ‘cause I at least know a few Latin words.” Jade laughed and began typing again.

“So…what’s happening?” Harrison asked, his face showing all the signs of confusion.

“Jade’s a hacker.” Rachel explained, without turning around.

Jade laughed again, her eyes lighting up as she turned to smile at Harrison. “I prefer the term…well…yeah, hacker, I guess. Sounds better than über-geek or something.”

“Ah,” Harrison replied, making some sense of the scene, “so…what’s happening?”

“We’re just trying to get into a government website to see Ryan’s criminal record. You know, illegal stuff.” Jade replied, her fingers flying over the keys of the iMac. “Although it’s definitely harder on a Mac. These things are good for graphic design and music mixing, and that’s about it.” she added, her brow furrowing in frustration.

“Let’s get the iMac, Ryan, it comes in orange!” Harrison exclaimed in a high, sarcastic voice, mocking his sister.

“Oh, go get fu-”

“So…illegal, huh? Can’t that be, like…traced, or whatever?” Harrison questioned, cutting off his sister with concern in his voice. Her bad mouth never ceased to amaze him. No-one he knew swore more than her.

“Such a lady...” He whispered in her ear. She glared at him

Totally oblivious to the twin’s banter, Jade started to explain, her fingers a blur, “No, see that’s what the proxy’s for, it stops anyone from –” Rachel raised a hand and shook her head.

“Uh uh, it’s just gibberish to us normal folk.”

Jade rolled her eyes, “Yeah, ‘cause you’re all so normal.” Suddenly, she made an excited noise as Ryan’s picture came up on the screen. “Got it! Ha, knew I could!” Harrison leaned over the girls and the three began reading the file.

“What?! That’s total bullshit!” Rachel exclaimed, pointing at the screen.

“So…he never assaulted the cops?” Jade asked.

“No!” Rachel replied, looking in disgust at the file. “And he wasn’t carrying a weapon then, either!”

“No, you’re right,” Harrison answered, slowly, trying to remember, “he gave his crossbow to me the moment he heard the sirens, told us to get out.”

“Yeah, he stayed behind to help Renée get out, and got himself caught in doing it. She was freaked.” Rachel agreed. “So, why’d he only get a year?”

“Says here the assault and weapon charges are only alleged,” Jade answered, tapping the monitor, “the Judge went easy on him because…uh, let’s see…oh, they couldn’t find any sure evidence that he had a weapon, or assaulted the cops, because he was polite and courteous through the whole case, and because one of the cops accidentally elbowed him in the face when helping him into the car, giving him a black eye. But there was enough evidence to convict him of lighting the fire because…he had a pack of matches with him?”

“It was before he quit smoking.” Rachel explained. “Says here that if he had been an adult, instead of only seventeen, he would have been sentenced to three to five for such a serious arson case. It’s such a shame, he has this permanent black spot over his name, but he was innocent.”

Jade started typing again, and soon enough, Rachel’s face appeared on the screen. “Petty theft?” she asked, smirking at the girl.

Rachel rolled her eyes. “It was the one time I got caught. I had no idea the mark was an undercover cop!”

“I tried to warn you!” Harrison laughed, “I could see the outline of her badge through that top!”

“Yeah, because that’s why you were staring at her shirt.” Rachel responded, rolling her eyes.

“By the way,” Harrison continued, ignoring his sister, “did I ever thank you for not ratting me out as your accomplice?”

“No, you didn’t,” Rachel answered, a pissed-off smile forming on her face, “but I’m saving that for when I need something big.”

“So you’re a thief? Is that like your skill or whatever?” Jade asked Rachel, once again typing furiously.

“Yeah,” Rachel answered, her face beaming, “I’m a great thief. I don’t like to brag, but I gotta say, I’m pretty good.”

“She is,” Harrison remarked, “as much as it pains me to say that, she’s damn good.”

Rachel smiled even brighter. “Well, Harrison’s a great wheel man, an incredible marksman, and can even build things. Pretty much anything you want.”

“Given enough time,” Harrison corrected, “I can build most things. There’s a lot I can’t do.”

“So…what about the others? I heard Renée’s story, but what about Ryan and Lilly? And how did you all end up together?” Jade asked, stopping her typing frenzy to turn and listen.

“Well, I guess if you’ve heard Renée’s story, then you know it was her and Ry that founded the group. Well, Harry and I had been living on the streets for a few years, just sort of getting by on what we could take.”

“I can relate.” Jade interrupted, her voice cracking slightly.

Rachel gave her a sympathetic nod, and continued her story, “So one day I see this guy who looked like a bit of an easy mark, and he has this nice watch, which I knew I could get a few bucks for. So I picked it, right off his wrist,” she paused for a moment to admire herself, “which turned out to be a huge mistake. He knew I’d taken it, and he followed me. I couldn’t lose him, it was uncanny. It was like he had eyes everywhere, even with Harry guiding me through headsets from the top of a nearby building, I still couldn’t lose him.”

Jade cut in again, “Wait, you were living on the street, but you had headsets?”

“Like I said,” Rachel replied, “getting by on what we could take. Anyway, the guy eventually cornered me and asked very nicely for the watch back. I tried to hit him, but he just grabbed my arm, said he wouldn’t hurt a girl, and asked for the watch again. Eventually I just gave it to him, figured after all that, he deserved it more than I did. That was when he asked us to join up.”

Jade looked at Rachel and Harrison, her face showing the obvious signs of confusion, “I don’t get it, how was he able to track you?”

“He could smell her,” Harrison answered, “and not because she hadn’t showered or anything, he just picked up on her scent. See, Raze ain’t quite human. Well, not entirely, anyway.”

“What…like an alien, or a demon or something?”

“Sort of. It’s complicated. Raze’s mother was…is…I don’t actually know if she’s still around, I haven’t asked, but she’s a really powerful witch.”

“What they call a Class One,” Rachel explained, “which is the strongest. See, there are different levels of witchcraft. Seven, to be exact. Class Ones are the most powerful and the most rare, and can perform the hardest of spells with just a thought. They can almost shape the very fabric of the world to suit them. However, every witch and warlock is closely monitored by a group of covens world wide, and using their powers for evil causes is severely punishable. After the Ones there’s the Twos, obviously, who can perform most spells by thought or spoken word, but the really powerful ones need to be done the old fashioned way, with rituals and such. The list goes on, each stage getting less and less strong, and needing to rely more and more on rituals, until you reach the bottom. Class Sevens have very little magic ability. In order to perform even the simplest spells, like levitating a pen, it would take a group of them performing a ritual. Generally these people aren’t even aware that they possess any magical skill at all, although they’re often used to fill in spaces in seriously heavy rituals.”

“So everyone has some kind of magic ability?” Jade asked, almost excited at the idea.

“Not exactly, see there’s also us non-magical beings, or Class Zeroes, who possess absolutely zilch magic skills.” Harrison responded. “It doesn’t really bother me, it just means that any talent I have comes from good old human skill.”

“Although, it would be a lot easier to steal things if I had some magic in me.” Rachel interrupted.

“Anyway,” Harrison continued, “yeah, Ryan’s mother was a Class One, and his father was a werewolf, also the most powerful kind, Lycanthropus Maximus. While Ryan doesn’t change during the full moon, he holds the rest of a Lycanthrope’s attributes, including the mega heightened senses, increased speed and strength, and a much faster ability to heal himself. During a full moon, these attributes are increased again, nearly tenfold.”

“So, why doesn’t he change?” Jade asked, by this stage completely ignoring the computer, which had gone to screensaver, photos of the five fading in and out on screen.

“We’re not entirely sure,” Rachel answered, “it could be because he’s not fully wolf, but we think it’s because of his mother’s blood. The running theory is that the powerful magicks running through his veins bind the wolf’s blood, keeping it controlled.”

“With a sacrifice.” Harrison added, “Because of that, he’s lost the abilities of a Class One. It’s dropped him down to like a Six, I think.”

“You should ask Lilly if you want to know more about the magicks and stuff,” Rachel pointed out, brushing back her hair, “it’s kind of her thing. She’s a Class Three.”

“Well, how would I know if I rank at all?” Jade asked clearly desperate to find out.

“Lilly. There’s tests and stuff she can run,” Harrison explained, “she’s done them all on us at one point or another. Actually, her and Ryan are the only ones here with definite magic abilities, and us two definitely have none.”

“What about Renée?”

“She’s…something else,” Rachel started, “a mystery, really. She shows up on the tests as having no magical skill, but her pyrokineses sort of says otherwise. In order to do something like that, you have to have some magic running through you. I think Lilly just sort of marked her off as an anomaly. She’s not the only one of her kind, though. And it’s not just fire. Some people can only control water, others the wind, and some can even reshape the ground to their will. They call them elementals, but they’re pretty rare.”

“If you really want to be tested that badly,” Harrison began, standing up and stretching casually, “talk to Lilly. The tests don’t take that long.” With that, he left the room, wondering whether Ryan would be up for a game of basketball.