Moonstrike 20: drive

CHAPTER 20

Min Joon didn’t have much packing to do, since he hadn’t brought anything but his school bag when he’d fled with Issa. He basically had to grab his new toothbrush and razor from the bathroom. He followed Ji Min and Ari around the apartment like a little ghost. At one point he drifted off to watch Ari as Ji Min ruthlessly tossed her dressers for a functional wardrobe and anything she might want to pawn.

That was when Issa sidled over and asked, sotto voice, “Do you think he has abilities?”

Ji Min grimaced. “Both Ari and I do, so the odds seem high,” she answered, just as quietly. “But if he has something, they’re either latent or subtle. But that makes sense.” She looked at the wall that separated her room from Ari’s. “Neither of us were at all abnormal in high school.”

She didn’t know how prominent Ari’s abilities might grow to be, but Ji Min had been realizing that her abilities were outside of the norm, even for supers. The way she’d outpaced expectations in training had left a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Being better than others meant being more valuable. That didn’t seem like a good thing, in this context.

Issa’s eyes darted the same way before trailing back to Ji Min. “He said something about your father and the hospital?” she prompted.

Ah. “We might not have natural abilities,” Ji Min said. She’d never said the words aloud. It felt very wrong to speak the words into being. It made it seem more real. “I think we were all used as test subjects, starting from late elementary school.” She paused. “That’s what I remember, anyways. Obviously something could have happened when we were really small. But if I did, I might have been old enough to notice something off with Min Joon, and I didn't.”

Issa’s nose flared and an angry blue flush traveled across her cheeks. She didn’t say anything. She gave a sharp nod and crossed her arms.

The only thing to do was to get out of there. The siblings said goodbye to Issa in the apartment and then went separate ways outside without a word. Ji Min led her ducklings to her car and loaded all their things into the trunk. "Don't unpack," she warned as she started the car. Min Joon looked at her from the passenger seat. Ari was already sprawled across the backseat. "We aren't going to be in this car for long."

That got Ari to sit up. "Do you have another car?" She asked.

Min Joon cocked his head to the side like a bird.

Ji Min sighed as she checked her mirrors, checking more carefully than usual for anything that seemed wrong. "No." That clearly wasn't enough. Reluctantly she added, "It's something of a share system."

"Oh." Ari leaned back down. "This is a criminal thing."

"A criminal thing," Min Joon repeated in a very high voice. "Excuse me, what? Did I mishear?" He cupped a hand to his ear. "Ji Ji, are you for fucking real right now?"

She closed her eyes for just a second, relaxed the tension in her jaw, and got on the road. "I'm sorry, did you think I paid for university for the two of you by working in car insurance?" Min Joon hadn't broken into his yet, obviously, but she'd already told him about his account.

"You're not a car insurance agent!" Min Joon shrieked. "Are you even a mechanic? This is a web of lies!"

"She's still a car insurance agent and a mechanic," Ari cut in, "she just also is some kind of contract thief."

Ji Min sighed again.

'You are a rotten little sister,' she thought, aiming the sentiment at Ari. Maybe she could beam it into her brain. 'Bottom tier, bargain bin sibling.'

"I don’t know the details yet." Ari had her feet on the car seat and her knees hiked up, with an arm thrown over her face to block any lights. "She claims she's cool, but she's never been cool."

"She's cool," Min Joon disagreed automatically.

Ji Min felt her lips twitch into a smile. Just a little one.

"But she's a criminal?" His tone went up again. "I thought you were a superhero!"

"Awkward," Ari said, sing-song.

'You are not helping.'

"I am a superhero," Ji Min defended. "I'm gainfully employed as one and everything. Which is why I know people who can help us."

Ah, fuck. She shouldn't have said that. That was promising more than she could deliver. Issa had come through. But hero contacts? She knew Alex (currently being investigated) and that one weirdo she’d met at the harbor. What was his name again? …She had totally forgotten. Ji Min frowned.

"Is Issa a hero?" Min Joon marveled. "What's her costume and name?"

Ah. "Issa works in an adjacent field," Ji Min said carefully. "She's working on a project now with NASA."

Sort of. It was like, a forcible scientific collaboration that NASA just didn’t know about yet.

"Oh, another mechanic." Min Joon seemed much less interested now.

Ji Min opened her mouth to argue and then shut it. Issa was more of a rocket scientist in addition to being a pirate than any kind of mechanic, but… whatever. "Yeah, close enough," she agreed.

Min Joon probably didn't need to know that Issa was an intergalactic criminal. She didn't have any criminal history on Earth yet, so it was her own business, really.

“I need to make a call,” Ji Min said. Her siblings took her seriously enough to quiet down while she dialed a contact. “Hey,” she greeted, checking her rear view mirrors to be sure there was no one following them. There were other cars around, but so far none of them were behaving unusually. “Echo, coming to the garage at five-oh-one. Mmhm. Yeah, thanks. ETA maybe ten. Thanks.” She hung up and stuffed the phone into her jacket pocket.

The peanut gallery didn’t talk much on the rest of the drive, or while Ji Min picked up the keys for a different car and moved their luggage over. They left her car in the parking garage and Ji Min took the freeway towards Rat City.

Ari fell asleep before they were more than a few miles on the road. Min Joon looked like he was heading that way too. Regretfully, Ji Min nudged him awake.

“Whu?” he said blearily. God, he was cute, blinking the disorientation off. Ji Min swallowed around something hard in her throat.

“Hey, sorry,” she apologized. “Can you search up hotels in the south part of Rat City? We need something with at least two queens in one room, ideally two connected rooms would be better. Connected parking, and off of any main roads.”

He let out a sigh and started tapping around on his phone. It took a while for him to come up with, “I found a place.”

“Dial, from the phone in the glovebox, please.” Ji Min pointed at it with her free hand. “And then give it over to me.”

M. J. made a grumble that might have been meant as an answer. Ji Min took the phone and made a reservation under a name she had a current ID for.

This was the one that she used to scoop from Hammer’s account, actually. But there was no way that whoever this was would be connected to him. He was annoying, but he wasn’t some creep.

‘I’d be better off dropping M. J. off with Hammer for a babysitter than… well. A lot of people, honestly.’

That was a hilarious backup plan. No one would ever expect it. If this threat came from Ji Min’s circles in any way, either government or criminal, they would never in a million years expect her to turn to Hammer. But he’d be fine with it. Hammer didn’t know her face as his rival, but he’d wanted to help Echo the cat burglar in her career.

‘I’d probably get them both back saying ‘bro’ every third word, somehow employed by one of his companies.’

Ji Min snorted and then glanced over at M. J., guilty about the noise. That was when she realized that he’d fallen asleep.

Oh. No harm, then. She turned soft music on to help her stay awake and plugged the hotel into her GPS.

She had this under control.

They got in late. It wasn’t exactly a short drive, and both of the kids had probably been running on adrenaline ever since Issa got Min Joon. She regretfully shook them awake and had them haunt the sofa in the entryway while she paid for their rooms. M. J. had managed to find a place with two connected rooms. She ushered her sleepy kids down the hallway and bullied them to at least brush their teeth before they were in bed.

It was a little after 2am at that point. Ji Min couldn’t sleep immediately. She stayed in the same room and paced like a caged tiger. The only sounds were two sets of soft breathing and occasional rustling in the sheets.

Eventually, she got tired as well. She considered going to the connected room but Ji Min couldn’t make herself cross the boundary. So she ended up crawling in with Ari.

It was morning before she knew it. Ji Min shot upright at the sound of movement in the room. She was standing with her eyes open before she remembered that she’d gone to sleep in the same room as her siblings.

“Hey,” Min Joon said. He was making tea with the complimentary hotel bags. “We were thinking about heading down to see if there’s a buffet.”

“There is,” Ji Min assured. She let the covers fall and slid her feet into the crappy hotel slippers. “I’m gonna wash my face. Be right back.”

She’d been thinking about all of this the wrong way, Ji Min decided, looking at herself in the mirror. She had been getting her hands dirty so that her siblings could get ahead in life. She had thought that meant keeping them safe, normal, and civilian.

They needed to develop their own capabilities and competence.

‘I bet that Issa can get those trainers to accept them as well. And I can get them into self defense classes. If they’ll go along with it, they’ll be much better off if they don’t have to be reliant on me for protection.’

She brushed her teeth and spat in the sink, thinking over how she’d bring it up.