"How many times does she have to tell you?" Aila growled, holding herself back from punching the debt collector in the face. "We can't pay right now, but we're working on it!"
Her mother stood a little bit behind her, trembling slightly. If Aila left it up to her, this goon would take everything they had and force them to take on more debt just to survive. The woman stared down at them, and Aila had no doubt she'd be able to leave them both black and blue if it came down to it.
"Unfortunately, the terms are pretty clear," the debt collector said with a dark grin, pulling up a contract on her phone to show Aila. "You owed us that money back on Tuesday. We've been plenty nice in delaying until now."
Aila clenched her fists. She'd had no luck in picking up a new job, and she was not about to let her mom and siblings be turned out on the street.
What options did she have? The military wouldn't help them, since there was technically a legally binding contract involved. The bank wouldn't help them since they had no money in the first place - that was the whole reason Aila's mom had needed to turn to shady loan sharks in the first place.
Nobody was going to help them. Aila needed to find a way out of this herself.
The debt collector leaned forward and grabbed Aila by the collar, pulling her up so her feet dangled off the floor. Aila held onto the woman's hands, determined not to let herself be choked.
A more aggressive Miracle would be really helpful right about now.
"I'll give you twelve hours. If you don't have the money by then, I'll take your youngest sister and make her pay for it. Got it? Twelve hours. Don't test our patience again."
With a shove, the woman let Aila go, turned and walked out, slamming the door behind her. Aila collapsed onto her rear, struggling to keep her breathing even. Her hands shook. Her vision went spotty.
Not Abby.
"Aila, are you alright, sweetie?" Her mom held her by the shoulder, keeping her sitting upright.
"I'm fine."
No, she wasn't. But what good would telling her mom that do?
"I'm heading out." Aila shook herself out of her stupor and dragged herself to her feet, stumbling toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Fear laced her mom's voice.
"I'm going to find a way to make sure they can't take Abby. Or Kath. Or Casper. We'll be okay, Mom. I'll make sure of it."
Without giving her mom time to respond, Aila scurried out the door and ran out into the streets.
Three hours later, Aila still hadn't figured anything out. Nine hours left until midnight, the deadline. No leads, no way to get that much money. Abby was doomed. It would have been better to let that damn woman beat her until she couldn't move.
No, even if she had been beaten within an inch of her life, that wouldn't guarantee anyone's safety. At best, they'd be given a little more time before doomsday.
Cries of fear echoed from above her and Aila growled. It would put a pause on her plans, but maybe she should see what was happening. Worst case scenario, she'd have to use her Miracle.
Aila slipped to the nearest staircase, carefully weaving her way through the flood of people running down it. She was small enough that it wasn't too hard.
When she got to the top, her bad feeling was confirmed.
Light Master, Whiplash and another girl were darting around the street. Light Master was yelling and tossing lasers wherever he could, often barely missing civilians. Whiplash used his chains to keep Light Master at bay while they seemed to try and catch the girl. As for the girl herself, she looked about the same age as Aila, and wove through the chains with seemingly practiced ease, a placid look on her face.
"You're going down asshole!" Light Master yelled, unleashing a large beam of light that reminded her of an energy beam from some old cartoon. Its diameter was impressive, almost as wide as one of his arms was long.
If he let that loose, there would be a lot of collateral damage. Forget Whiplash - the people running away would be caught up in it too.
Before Aila could even think about it, she activated her Miracle, and both the beams of light and the chains vanished into thin air. The girl stumbled slightly, but otherwise all three had frozen.
Again, the girl was the first to move. She ran up to Whiplash and launched herself onto his back, putting him in a chokehold. He thrashed around, trying to throw her off, but she had all four of her limbs wrapped around his torso. It felt like an eternity, watching them wrestle while Light Master looked on in stupefied disbelief.
Eventually, Whiplash fell backwards, squishing the girl. Even so, she didn't let go for another full minute. When she finally let go, she shoved him off of her and stood up, glancing at Light Master, then...
Was she looking at Aila?
Aila retreated deeper into the alleys, hoping she hadn't been spotted.
"Why won't my Miracle work?" Light Master asked, his hands shaking as the girl walked calmly up to him.
"Go home, squirt," she said. "Military should be here any minute." Without pausing, she walked right past him, giving him a slight shove on the back.
"Who do you think you are?" Light Master snapped, spinning around to face her.
"Someone on their day off. I don't have the time or craps to deal with this." She kept walking, disappearing into a different alley.
Aila breathed a sigh of relief that the girl hadn't come for her. She wasn't quite ready to be a hero yet. Before that happened, she had to make sure her mom and siblings were taken care of.
Light Master ran away as soon as the military showed up, and Aila finally released her Miracle with a sigh. The officers looked a bit surprised to see that things had been resolved so simply, but the sergeant in charge ordered them to take Whiplash into custody. When he stirred slightly, the sergeant placed a hand on his shoulder and his entire body convulsed.
What was that? Aila had other things to do, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene.
"Guess the military has their own Miracle now."
Aila nearly screamed at the voice. It was right next to her ear, but she hadn't seen anyone coming towards her. When she spun around, the girl from before was staring right over her shoulder, a bored expression on her face.
She couldn't even voice the myriad questions spinning in her head. Who was this girl? How had she snuck up on Aila? What kind of Miracle did the military have? What did she want here? Why had she been in the middle of that Miracle fight?
Then she noticed that even though the girl was so close to her, she couldn't feel her at all. Aila tentatively put her hand out. It went right through her.
"Hi." The girl leaned back and landed back on the ground, then grabbed Aila's hand.
Aila couldn't find the words to reply.
"You seem interesting. You shut that whole fight down, didn't you?"
"How...?"
"You were the only person who wasn't running away. And you moved your mouth like you were saying something right before our Miracles shorted out. Then you hid."
Aila tried to take a step away, but the girl held tight to her hand.
"Hey, what's your story? Wanna talk for a bit?"
This Miracle...
The girl was probably Mist, of Phalanx fame. Aila couldn't get involved with her. She finally managed to pull her hand away and walked past Mist further into the alley.
"I don't have time right now. There's something else I need to get done."
"Like what? I might be able to help you."
"You can't. No one can." Aila took a shaky breath and kept walking. The girl's footsteps echoed right behind her.
"You're scared. Of what?"
Mist hopped in front of Aila, then started floating backwards down the alley.
"It can't be a Miracle since you can just shut those off and you didn't seem to be particularly scared of Light Twerp or Jacob. The military maybe? But they've got nothing on you. So are you in some kind of trouble?"
"Fine!" Aila snapped, stopping and glaring at Mist. "I need money. Lots of it. By midnight. Or else my little sister gets taken. See? Nothing you can help with."
"Wrong. I can help. Who do you owe money to?" Mist grinned darkly and leaned in close to Aila.
Aila hesitated a moment before answering.
"Kwik Kash."
Mist's smile spread wider.
"Yeah, we can definitely help with them. In fact, we'd love to help take them down a peg or six. Come with me for a bit."
Aila froze for only a moment before accepting the devil's hand and following her through the alleys to a cute little cafe on the main street.
