Grey Skies Anthology
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Table of Contents
Author Note Story 1: Tuna Story 2: A Hard Day's Work Story 3: Goldfish Story 4: Oreo Story 5: Aero Avion Story 6: Returning Story 7: No 1 Story 8: The *SQUAWK* Story 9: What a coincidence... not Story 10: The Door Story 11: Happy Halloween Story 12: The Date Story 13: Pear Story 14: Email Story 15: Angy Story 16: Spiderman MEME Story 17: A Sealed Envelope Publishing HouseStory 17: A Sealed Envelope
Arret sits in the corner of the Stonewall cafe, quietly absorbing the auras of the patrons while sipping her gneiss tea. On the top of her table in front of her, a pile of documents are scattered around. He picks up the top file and opens it, revealing a photo of Aero paperclipped to a fact sheet. On the table, there are multiple photos of Aero in different settings; him going home, him at the grocery store, him leaning over Sky’s shoulder at work.
A passing patron slips a newspaper from between their arm onto the table. It was a news piece about a case that Sky and Aero won the other day. Arret opens the newspaper and slips out an envelope, on it is the stamp of Special Labs Inc. He smiles to himself, slipping a photo of Sky inside, before clipping it into Aero’s file. They’ll check the results of both Aero and Sky’s aptitude later.
A familiar aura passes, and Arret’s senses spiked. It was Carl. Arret immediately placed his files into his bag and continued sipping her gneiss tea normally. Carl sits opposite Arret.
“Bird. Dark. Servant of the law. Upperpage, reverse.” Carl looked at Arret, saying the words monotonously.
“Carl. What did you do this time?” Arret replies.
“Knowledge. An endless seek. Jealousy.” Carl replies.
“Caaaaaaaarl.” Arret retorts, “Is this about school again?”
At that, Carl gets up and leaves, leaving Arret alone with his thoughts again.
Arret, now restored by the auras, gets up and proceeds to their next appointment. It’s located at Palmfall Eye, a skyscraper in the middle of the city.
“Good Evening, um… how may I help you?” the man at the reception asks Arret, visibly confused at how to address Arret.
“I have an appointment with Mr Rawon Dashi?”
“Of course.” The man replies and clicks a button on the phone. The lift comes down and Arret steps into it, pressing the 32 button.
As the doors close there is a scuffing from above and the emergency hatch falls open with a “SQUAWK!!!!!!!”
“I see you still haven’t gotten your alter ego under control, Rawon.” Arret said coolly, walking past and taking a seat on the couch.
“SQUAWK!!!”
“Squawky, shush it - Arret,” Rawon raised an eyebrow, “what are you doing here?” ‘
Squawky was not amused by Rawon’s shouting, but he always gets like this at work.
“Aw, can’t I simply come to see how my cute little brother is doing?” Arret flashes Rawon a charming smile, earning a roll of eyes from the latter.
Suddenly Squawky screamed “CARRRRLLLLL!” Rawon ignored him.
“Here. Cold. Greetings.” says Carl as he exits the elevator.
“Who is this?” Rawon asked, face turning annoyed.
“Meeting. Time. Mistake.” Carl stared blankly back.
“Sorry, sorry, Carl is a good friend of mine. Anyway, Rawon, I need some information from you.” Arret said.
“Arret. Nasty. Rawon. Business. Future.” replied Carl monotonously.
Rawon cast a muting spell across the room, leaving him and Arret with voices in the room.
The intercom rings and a message from the receptionist appears on a digital display telling Rawon that his next appointment has arrived and is there to discuss a business proposition, their name is Carl and should have arrived at the top from the elevator.
“You should’ve held them back by a few more minutes, I still have a guest,” Rawon said into the intercom. Sorry appears on the display They were very hard to communicate with. Rawon sighed and signalled at Arret to go into a room. Arret does an exasperated signal and then goes into the room.
“So, what do you have for me?” Rawon asked Carl. Carl’s mouth moved but no sound came out.
“Oh, lol,” Rawon uncast the muting spell.
“LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLL” Screamed Squawky.
“Arret. Information. Gathering. Friend.” Carl said. Perhaps the aura around Carl has become somewhat more energised. Rawon sighed, and Carl simply handed out a file to Rawon.
“You want to turn yourself into a llama?” Rawon asked, confused. Carl blinked. “Okay. Well, I can recommend a few transmorphigational specialists?”
“Arret. Want. no one else.”
“Hmm. Yes I suppose Carrot on 4th Street does good work, but I think Brocoli is more skilled”
“Thank. You.” Carl said and exited. Rawon dashed ahead though and handed the contact information over as well as a risks and pricing information pamphlet, then waved as Carl descended in the elevator.
“Are you done now?” Arret walks out of the room he has been hiding in.
“I think so” Rawon sighed as he sat back behind his desk. “So, what do you want from me?”
“I bumped into an old friend of yours the other day, I have some questions” Arret explained as they approached Rawon’s desk and dropped the investigative files and test results in front of him.
Rawon opened the file, and his eyes widened at the sight of Sky’s photo. Shock turned to horror as he saw just how much information Arret had collected on Sky, and as he looked into the next file, Aero as well.
“What do you want with Sky?” Rawon asked, trying to remain collected.
“Nothing. They have an interesting friend though…” Arret replied. “But you sure do sound like you care a whole lot about this bunch, what happened to my tough little brother?”
“Nothing.” Rawon replied blankly, but was struggling to not blush slightly. “I see you already have all these information, I can’t possibly think of what you might want from me.”
“Maybe I wanted to let you know I’d collected it, considering they’re your ex, but also that Aero has a very strong aura, but isn’t a Special?” Arret said, waving in the direction of the sealed test results.
“If you harm them in any way--”
“What do you mean? You know the aura tapping is harmless, I’ve been experimented on extensively at the Academy.”
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” Rawon said seriously. He reminisces slightly on their time together at the Academy, all the extensive exams he waited outside the lab for Arret to finish, always worried something bad would happen like during the ancient dark founding days of the academy.
Arret flashed him a smile, one that Rawon is all too familiar with. The rain began to pour.
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