The front of the Dragon Inn was crowded and noisy today, but as usual, Sara found a peaceful place to sit in the back of the restaurant. For years she'd had her own private room behind the kitchen with a door that opened up to the alley way behind the restaurant and a vertical maze of fire escapes. Sara found a great deal of comfort here most of the time, but a news clip had caught her eye the day before.
"Unicorn commits mass murder. Story continues at 6." Confermed the anchor man as he, emotionlessly as possible, read the title of the latest mutant related crime in NYC.
The story had been on the news for the last 24 hours straight and while channel 8 kept promising new facts and developments, in reality they really kept repeating the old ones. The camera work was terrible, the footage was fuzzy, and you could tell that after the inicial report, the tapes had been edited so as not to disturb most of their audience as much as the original footage had.
Johny sat across the table from Sara and when she saw his hand clench around his pencil and his knuckles go while, Sara reached over to tap the power button on the TV off.
"Thanks." Johny murmured to her before he turned his attention back to his text book, but his eyes stared blankly at the page. Lips pressed tightly together. The short thin delivery boy with a bowl cut that Sara had once knew was now a taller, thin young man with a bowl cut. He was 21 still working in his families Chinese restaurant, and attending NYU. Jackie, the victim with the winning speech, was in one of his classes and he could have just as easily been one of the victims in that auditorium whom the news casters carried on and on about.
"So you think you know him?" Johny asked trying to break the silence now that the TV was off.
"Yeah. I think so." Sara said staring at the now blank screen of the TV. "There is only one person in New York, who I know smells like a horse." and whom might know how to use a sword.
If only the footage was clearer.Sebastian wasn't really a friend of Sara, but he was by no means an enemy either. At least she didn't think that he was until she'd seen the news. Sara felt a mix of doubt, frustration, and betrayal. She'd seen Sebastian talk a centuries old vampire down from a blood frenzy. That meant that the unicorn man couldn't become a terrorist himself. Could he? Then her mind darted back to the time that Sebastian had tried to kill her, claiming to be under the spell of a virgin's ignorant request. There was Columbia where the unicorn man didn't follow Sara's directions and followed her when he claimed that he'd thought she'd needed help. HA!
Sara wanted to believe that Sebastian had always been truthful with her, but her memories, and the anchors on the news all screamed different stories. In Sara's mind it all came down to one conclusion. She needed to ask what was going on and she might have to ask a little hard.
"Johny. Can you do me a favor and watch Roxy today?" Sara asked as she slid out from the make shift booth, and started to gather her belongings. Her back pack was unzipped, and for a moment she fumbled through it's contents till she found her keys, handing them across the table to her old friend.
"Yeah but Mom won't be haaa.... Happy." Johny trailed off as he caught sight of a set of sai in Sara's back pack. Sara pulled them out with a smooth motion and tucked them in the back of her belt the way you see most action movie stars pack away a gun. "I'm supposed to work tonight and I'll have to leave early to walk her."
"I'll make it worth your mom's while then." Sara said. Her long coat came on over the rest of her form, concealing her shorter weapons decently enough, along with all but the end of her tail. Sara opened the door ready to leave, when Johny caught her attention again.
"Remember all detectives and vigilantes need a hat." He said tossing her the fedora that he'd once found on the street. Sara adjusted the hat on her head with the brim low. The sun streamed in through the open door, casting deep dark shadows across her face and giving the illusion that her eyes glowed as they caught the light. Effectively making it look as though Sara wore a mask. The wind swept in through the open door, and kicked up Sara's long coat as if it were a cape swaying in the breeze behind her.
"I told you that I'm not a vigilante." And with that, Sara was out the door. She doubted that it would take her long to track down a mutant whom smelled like a horse.
