Chapter 32
A heavy winter rain hammered continuously on the roof of a sketchy tavern near the outskirts of Metropolis City. Inside, an aged, sketchy looking man sat in a corner, downing tankards of cheap nectar. A parcel wrapped in brown paper sat near his left hand, next to a loaded pistol. The dull sound of roaring wind outside grew louder and sharper as the door banged open, rain marking the floor in front of it, the howling, feral winds keeping the door pressed tightly against the inside wall of the tavern for a few seconds, before allowing it to swing shut once again. A tall, thin man wearing a tan trench coat with a matching brown fedora pulled over to hide his eyes walked in. Ignoring the dirty look the bartender shot him, he made his way over to the man in the corner.
"You have the package?" he asked the man, without bothering with any kind of greeting.
"'Course I do. I'm a man of my word, ain't I?" He said gruffly, patting the package as one would a well-behaved dog.
"Our previous encounters have hinted otherwise." the newcomer responded with a smirk, pulling a cigar out of his pocket and lighting it.
He bared his teeth and growled, seeming somewhat similar to an angry bulldog. "Haven't changed at all, have you, Churchill? Still an arrogant, self absorbed brat. Remind me again why I made this deal with you."
"The money, of course. You'll do anything to get your hand on those little slips of paper. I find it worrying, personally."
"I didn't ask for your opinion, arrogant swine!" the unnamed man roared, slamming his fist down on the table. "Just hand over my payment and we can both get out of this hellhole!"
"You're proving my point, you know. Already losing your head at the thought of having to wait any longer to get your cash. Pathetic."
Another growl came from the man. "You talk big, Churchill, but you wouldn't last five seconds in a fight out here."
The man called Churchill squared his chin, glaring at the one across from him. "Oh? Well, I'll have you know I've fought better men that you out in the slums."
Sunken, evil eyes narrowed. "Care to prove your little story true?"
"Gladly." the words were tossed casually into the air, along with the cigar he had previously been smoking. It hit the floor in front of him, and he stomped on it with his back boot to put out the flame.
At that same instant, the man leaped to his feet, grabbed the chair he had previously been sitting in, and swung it with all his might at Churchill. He ducked just in time, but the chair swept off his hat, showing just how close it had come to killing him. Crouching like a feral cat, he flipped the table over, making a grab for the parcel that flew into the air at the motion, but his opponent was quicker, grabbing it and shoving it into the folds of his leather coat. The ruffian the pinned the other man to the wall, large dirty hands attempting to close his windpipe and choke him. Churchill fought tooth and nail to escape, when suddenly everything around him flickered, he was unable to feel anything, a loud buzzing filled his hearing...
A few seconds later, his VR goggles were yanked off, and ten-year-old Ragnarok Churchill went crashing to his living room floor.
Still attempting to get used to being back in the real world, Ragnarok glared at the black haired girl standing over him. "Couldn't you have found an easier way to get me to stop than yanking the VR goggles right off my head, Plasma?! I lost all my progress because of you!"
"Sor-reee..." his sister grumbled, rolling her eyes and tossing the goggles onto the couch. "I would have used the off switch, if you hadn't been jumping around and acting like someone in a bad spy movie. Anyway, it's lunchtime."
"Wonderful. There'd better be hamburgers, since I had to lose two hour of progress to come eat."
"Hate to break it to you, but it's autumn salad."
"Oh, come on!"
They made their way over to the dining table, where another girl with shoulder length, wavy black hair was chewing absently on a forkful of salad while reading a thick book propped against a pitcher of lemonade. Ragnarok flopped into a chair next to his oldest sister. "Hey, Swan." he said, reluctantly scooping some of the contents of the salad bowl onto his plate.
"Hi," she responded, looking up from her book. "How was your VR experience? I could hear you all the way from here."
"It was going great until someone," he jerked his thumb at Plasma, "Shut off the goggles the wrong way and erased all my progress." Plasma responded by pulling down her lower eyelid and sticking her tongue out at her brother.
"You know, you shouldn't spend so much time on those things." Swan commented, munching on another forkful of salad.
Before he could respond, Plasma cut in. "Yeah, you might backflip into a wall and run up a terrible hospital bill. The newspapers and tabloids would have a field day if that happened."
"You're not really one to talk about dangerous pastimes, you know. That was what, the fifth explosion you've caused with you chemistry set this week?" Swan said dryly, examining a lock of her sister's messy hair that was singed at the tip.
"Seventh actually. But that was different, it was for science!"
"You know, contrary to popular belief, science doesn't always justify everything."
"Shut up and eat your disgusting salad, Rok."
They sent a few minutes in silence, the only sounds being the clinking of silverwear and chewing. The since was broken by the sound of the front door being unlocked and opened, causing all three Churchills to bolt from their seats over to the source of the noise.
Plasma was the first one to reach to door, who instantly charged over to her mother and threw her arms around her. "Welcome home!"
Her mother, Violet, hugged her back and ruffled her daughter's black hair. "Hi, sweetie!"
Swan was the next to reach her, and gave her mother a hug as well. "Hi! How was work?"
Violet rolled her eyes. "Not that great. All we filmed today was some boring 'Allow me to explain everything' scene."
"Oh well. At least it was a scene with your character in it, so you got to act."
"I suppose."
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Okay, this chapter wasn't meant to end so abruptly, but something urgent came up, so I'll need to spend my remaining time on the computer trying to sort it out. I'm sorry.
