No more Helping Mack, NONE!

[no_leaf]

The mid-evening hour has the youth center rather quiet this hump day. There's a single inhabitant there and she's doing her best to be quiet and unobtrusive. Mack is sitting on the couch- just the edge really, with one of the paperbacks in hand.

There's a noise from above, someone moving through the crawlspace, and a moment later one of the ceiling tiles wiggles and starts to slide out of place.

Instincts draw her hand to the inside of her jacket lining, which requires a rather sudden dumping of the book she had hold of. As The Chamber of Secrets thuds to the ground, Mack is rushing upward and turning toward the source of the noise.

Laughter comes from the darkness above, and the ceiling tile moves the rest of the way aside. A face appears a moment later, the grin and sparkling blue-grey eyes surrounded by short blond hair, spiked with gel, the ends brightly colored. "Heya," Skylar says, sticking her whole head down to where she can look around, and then focuses on Mack. "Didn' mean t' startle you."

Mack lets her shoulder droop at that, a sigh huffing out with the gesture. "Well ya did." Her hand leaves her side as she bends to pick up the book. "What the hell are you doing in there? Besides being really f'ing weird."

Skylar folds herself out of the crawlspace, swinging around like a gymnast to land on her feet. Gone are the braids and the skirts, and when she pulls the grey hood over her hair the worn jeans would leave her looking like most of the other teens in the country. She laughs again as she lands, and rakes a hand back through the spiky hair as she turns to face Mack. "I like t' find different ways t' get in an' out," she says, and then the grin fades and her expression sobers. "Y' seen Ben, today?"

Mack gives the girl a longer looking-over before she answers, "Nah. Only got here about twenty minutes ago. I'd been out of town for a bit. Shit storms are following me like I tracked through dog crap." A pause. "What's with the short-o hair?"

"Yeah," Skylar says, as though that were answering a question. "So y' heard 'bout MDCI an' them?"

Mack huhs at the question. "The who? No." Her eyes narrow a bit at this.

"MDCI an' Rutherford, th' parent company," Skylar repeats, and starts pacing the small space. "I don' know how it all fits together, an' where Damian fits in, but MDCI's th' big security company, an' I don' know 'f all their guys 're fomori, but some 'f 'em are. An' we found out th' other part, Rutherford? They got a special unit 'f hunters. Y' know? Werewolf hunters. An' the MDCI guys 're th' ones that show up when we stick our noses places they don' like. When we took down that factory, all them guys. Yeah?"

Mack's eyes go wide now. "Whoa whoa. Holy fuck, wait! My truck is full of holes because I had to save some hijab-wearing dumb ass who was poking around by where that big to do went down. They gave chase. Fired on us even. And yeah, security gear. But not like legit kinda stuff. Fomori? Christ, that girl should be dead or worse"!

Skylar's pacing stops and she looks to Mack at that. She draws in a breath as if to speak, but instead shakes her head and resumes pacing. After a beat, she goes on. "Yeah," she says. "Them. An' I got into th' email 'f one 'f th' guys, an' it ain't good. They know 'bout this place. At least, I'm guessin' it's this place, 'cause they're callin' it The Nest, an' talkin' 'bout us." She stops pacing and again faces Mack. "An' y' gotta know, they got pictures 'f you."

"Of me? Christ. Was it with that girl? Was that when they got them?" The poor Potter book gets thrown rather violently at this news. "That's why I fuckin' left town for a while! Every. Single. Time. I should just walk away... let idiots reap what they sew, but noooo. I gotta take pity on them, and ..." she clenches her fists and clamps her lips into a tight frown at this. "Fuck."

"It ain't her-- She got a pink unicorn thing?" Skylar asks, breaking off from her other line of thought.

"Yeah. Pink wrap. And when are the pictures from then? I mean, what pics do they have of me?" Mack asks with an edge of worry creeping into her voice.

"I don' know," Skylar answers after a beat. "Th' background was just random city. I think they only got a couple. Anyway. They had descriptions 'f me, an' a few others, too." She runs a palm over the short spikes of hair. "That's why I had t' cut it all off, see? Gotta blend in, more. An' I'm tryin' t' find us a new place t' get together, an' I was thinkin' 'f findin' us a way in, through th' tunnels 'r somethin'. 'Cause they got eyes on this place, so 'f we ain't seen comin' an' goin', they'll figure we bugged out."

Mack sighs. "They got pictures of my truck?" This, of all things, seems to now be her most critical concern.

Skylar laughs. "Yeah. That's what they call you. Th' girl in th' truck. I'm th' girl with th' braids. So I ain't that, no more. Hey. You ever meet any 'f th' rat people?"

Mack brings her hands up to cover her face for a moment, a deep, bothered breath drawn in as she does so. A more defeated shake of her head follows, "No."

Skylar frowns, though it's only briefly lived. "That's too bad. I don' know how t' get in touch with 'em, but I was thinkin' 'f we could get 'em t' help? I mean, 'f there's tunnels in th' city, an' they know 'em? Even that much'd help." She sighs and her shoulders rise and fall in a shrug.

Mack drops her hands to her sides and shrugs in response. "Beats me. I never got around to meeting any of the other changers. Hell. I don't even know if I've come across all the tribes yet even. This fucking sucks. This group, they're huge right? I mean, this isn't something that can get tidied up real easy."

Skylar shakes her head in a quick negative. "It's big. Th' parent company ain't just here, neither. I mean, they're /barely/ here, except f' what they do with MDCI, right? So. Big."

"Yeah. I knew the answer before I asked." The girl goes quiet for a while, then seems to break away from her thoughts. "I gotta go look after something. Thanks for the heads up on this crap."

"Y' got a phone?" Skylar asks, heading toward the farther of the couches to climb up on the arm. "I told Ben we should lay low, an' find ways t' get t'gether that they ain't gonna know."

Mack nods her head, "Just a crappy one. You want my number?" While the question is asked, it's heavy with hesitation. A lip-chewed moment later, she recites off the ten digits and rakes a hand through her hair. "It's not a smart phone. Just a little slider thing. But it can text."

"Yeah," Skylar says, and pulls out her own, which is a smart phone, and fairly high end, in contrast to the rest of her meager possessions. "I'll let y' know what's up, yeah? An' y' can do th' same."

Mack nods. "Yeah, alright. I'll probably be back in here later. If there's a more discreet way I should be coming in, let me know.

"Maybe watch f' a group 'f kids, an' come in with them, f' now?" Skylar shrugs and paces across the back of the couch. "Just be careful. An'-- I want t' see if we can start watchin' th' watchers. So pay attention." She reaches up and starts pushing against the ceiling tile above her head.

Mack gives a nod to that and then looks toward the door. Tonight, at least, it will be out the old fashioned way.