A few days passed since the Fiends For Hire’s first job in Cotagerie. It had taken them nearly a full day of travel to visit the home of the requester and return back to their apartment. They could have used Phon’s Curse to greatly speed up their trip, but it was something she didn’t really want to risk. If she expanded her vision as far as it would go, she could move herself over the course of a few lages in a matter of seconds.
However, this had its limits, and would only really work well in rural areas. The more objects cluttering her range, the less she could extend it. In a packed place like a city, things got blurry much quicker if she extended her vision too far. It also made travelling lengthy distances difficult—not always knowing exactly where she’d end up, since Phonscience would be putting her piece into the blurry unknown.
Phon was fine taking that risk on her own, since she could reanalyze her position and teleport away quickly if needed. But she didn’t want to risk it with Drim, not without more practice. The sister wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she accidentally moved him somewhere dangerous and he got hurt because of her negligence. For now, she’d only use her ability to move them to public transportation hubs like train stations, and they would commute from there.
Early in the morning, The Vixen was walking down one of the main streets of Constead, wearing a more casual outfit than usual. While the woman didn’t mind the notoriety her regular get-up attracted, she could at least get errands done more peacefully in civilian clothing, and she didn’t mind the more relaxed feel. She had the same hat on, but was wearing a casual frilly blouse that most wouldn’t associate the ruthless bounty hunter with, and shorts over tights instead of standard skirt and socks.
The belt she had on was a touch more unusual, though. On her left side, it was around her hip like normal, but on the right it was raised up a little past her navel and pulled on her waist. This was to support the leather pouch that hung off of it from the left side that contained her surprisingly heavy yo-yo. If she wore the belt normally, the weight of the deadly toy would just pull it straight down.
Phon was carrying a large stack of flyers as she walked. Every few steps, or basically wherever there was a blank spot on a wall, she would hang one up. Occasionally, she would also cover something already there if she found it stupid or irrelevant. This wasn’t really something she was eager to do, but it was an easy marketing strategy that would hopefully produce results when they had few other options.
Their first job at the museum had brought them the popularity they were looking for. The livestream was surging with attention, as was their debut in Prosper that had been uploaded by a third party. Both had several million views in a very short time and were covered on every media outlet.
Word was spreading fast that there were two Drazahs alive, and that they were powerful, immensely so. This hadn’t been the exact message they were going for, however. They more wanted to convey a message that they were capable, and willing to go far for their tasks and accomplish great things. Instead, what had come across was a feeling of fear or being awestruck.
Almost every single legitimate request they had before had been recalled, and there was a required option to list why. The most common responses were that they didn’t want to be associated with known criminals or apologies that they bothered the Fiends with their ‘meager’ requests. From the start, it was never the siblings’ intention to limit smaller jobs. Sure, they might not take something like finding a missing pet, but they were fine building their way up or helping people with modest inquiries.
I guess maybe we did go a little overboard that night at the museum, Phon debated internally while hanging up another flyer. It had basically just been another job for her, and was nothing really special or difficult, besides the fact that it was substantially more illegal and people were watching. However, the experience left her feeling a bit out of touch now with being a normal human. She couldn’t really see things from their perspective and didn’t have a grasp on their expectations.
Apparently, there were now several posts on forum sites with discussions about them. There were even panelists on news programs that would debate for hours on the siblings and the existence of Fiends. The various communities had come to a consensus of calling them ‘The Drazah Duet’. When this was reported, Drim had to restrain Phon from breaking the television as part of her sworn feud. Truthfully, she quite liked the name, but hated their incessant need to use alliteration for everything.
The young woman was hanging up flyers in hopes of getting smaller, local jobs to fill their current void of work. It was their new strategy to try and build up a reputation of completing tasks that actually helped people, rather than doing elaborate crimes. That said, if someone came to them with an extravagant offer, they would likely still take it, but would do less to seek them out for the time being and tone down the scale of their operations for a bit.
Phon had made it through about a quarter of her flyer stack when she found something interesting posted on a window of a shop. It was brand new warrant posters for her and her brother. They weren’t regular ones either, having skipped that and gone straight to Dead-or-Alive warrants. Her eyes went straight for the criminal scores. She had a score of 1385 and Drim a score of 1535. The girl guessed his was higher because he had actively harmed officers while she didn’t, even if their injuries were much smaller compared to the ones Phon had caused by making them hit each other.
She would later find out that this made them the fastest criminals in the history of the criminal score program to go from earning their criminal records to achieving a DoA warrant. This specifically referred to people who didn’t have a murder charge, since that would get anyone a DoA warrant instantly if they were found to be guilty.
The Vixen then took a look at their list of charges. There were some missing since they would only post the top ten. It also had some she wasn’t expecting, such as cybercrime, which she hadn’t even thought of before. Guess I’ll need to make some new cards, she made a mental note while continuing down the paper. There was no last known location which made her think, Huh, guess the CP is smart enough to realize that we wouldn’t actually be living in Cotagerie.
She was surprised when the warrant kept going as her eyes continued downward and a grimace shot across her face. There were pictures of them on their posters—a pretty rare honor. Normally, only official mugshots from repeat offenders would be put on posters. If there was a particularly elusive criminal with a high score they would sometimes include a composite sketch on a later iteration.
It was unheard of for a first time run of a warrant to have pictures included. I guess they really want us to get caught… hmm, or maybe they want to spread awareness of our appearance, since they’re not sure if they can catch us, so that people can be wary. Thoughts like this continued for a while, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from staring at the picture, feeling worse the longer she lingered on it.
It wasn’t the fact that there was a picture on the warrant that bothered her, but rather the picture itself, clearly a screenshot taken from their livestream. Based on the composition, it must have been nabbed when the two were sitting down in their chairs and Phon was delivering the initial address. However, the quality of the picture was quite poor. Whoever had taken the screen capture had been watching at a low resolution and had picked an extremely unflattering moment of the Drazahs in poses and making faces that were less than desirable.
Maybe when we have a bit of free time, we’ll go get professional pictures taken, make us look as cool and dramatic as she would. Then, I can submit that straight to the police, and if they have good sense, they’ll change the picture, Phon made more plans for later. For now, she decided to cover up the warrants with her flyers. It’s not that the woman didn’t want people to recognize her from it, she just wanted it to wait until the picture was better.
The Vixen had just finished hanging them up when all of a sudden the remainder of her flyers were scattered in the air. A small girl with brown hair had bumped into her, knocking the papers out of her hand. It was enough force that if she had not been a Fiend, it would have likely knocked her over. After processing what had happened, Phon began picking up the flyers as the girl did the same without needing to be asked.
When the child had picked up as many as she could carry, she handed them over to Phon, and apologized with a bowed head. The adult bent down to the girl’s eye level, looked at her with a gentle smile and assured her, “It’s quite alright, just be more careful in the future, okay. My name’s Phon, what’s yours?”
The girl tilted her head with a puzzled look when she responded. “Phon… the grown ups keep talking about someone with that name. Well, my name’s Mazie Pozin, I’m four years old,” she said while holding up an appropriate amount of fingers.
“Nice to meet you, Mazie,” The Vixen shot her another smile before asking, “Are you all by yourself?”
Right on cue, a middle-aged woman with matching brown hair came trotting up the street. When she got a little closer, she shouted, “Mazie, sweetie, you’ve got to stop running ahead of me.” Once she got to them, the woman had to stop a moment to catch her breath. She stared at Phon, a little confused for a moment before snapping out of it and speaking to her.
“I’m so sorry, did my daughter bother you?” Mazie’s mother apologized as she bowed her head and pushed her daughter’s down a little to match.
“It’s quite alright, just a few spilled papers. Nothing to worry about, and she helped me clean them up,” Phon replied kindly. It was most likely a rare sight for anyone to see her act so nicely. When she wore her mask, everyone instantly knew her as The Vixen and she had a bit of a reputation to maintain. However, it was nice to put that to rest for a while and just act calmly for once. She usually reserved all the niceness she could handle for when she was with Drim but didn’t mind sparing a bit.
“Well I’ll apologize again either way. My name's Bray Pozin,” the woman introduced herself, “And I’m sorry, this is my fault. I got called in suddenly for work so I’ve been running around town looking for someone who can take care of her. Her normal babysitter is sick, the usual daycare I take her to is closed, and the one I just took her to said they were completely full and couldn’t take anyone else!”
“Ugh, I just don’t know what to do!” Bray suddenly shared her issues unprompted as she crouched down to clutch her head while Mazie looked at her with worry. “And now I’m breaking down in front of a stranger, and don’t know why I’m telling you all of this either.” She paused and looked at Phon for a few more seconds before continuing. “Have we met before? I don’t know why, but I get this strange familiar feeling whenever I look at you, like I know you from somewhere.”
“Nope, don’t think so,” Phon dismissed the notion entirely. “But I do think I could help. My brother and I are between jobs at the moment and have been looking for work; that’s what these flyers are for. So, we could look after her if you wanted. I’m not suggesting we take her to our place or anything, so we could watch her at your home. Only if you’re fine with it, of course.”
“Really?!” Bray replied in disbelief. “I mean, the notion of leaving my daughter with someone I just met is a little crazy, but I am running out of options, and I really can’t shake this familiar feeling when I look at you. Do you have any experience in babysitting?”
“Well… No…” Phon answered honestly. “But I am a big sister and looked after my brother a lot when we were younger. So, I know the importance and responsibility of watching someone, and my brother is the super responsible type.”
“Well, I guess that will have to do,” Bray conceded with a somehow sporadic yet relaxed look. “I think I may be going crazy a little bit, but I feel good about this. Thank you so much, please look after Mazie and… Oh, I should give you my contact info.”
“Ah, no need,” The Vixen stopped her, pulling out her phone, “Mine can exchange our information with just the push of a button.” Her phone then made a beep, followed by a similar noise that came from Bray’s purse.
“Wow, that really is convenient,” The mother smiled before bending down and giving Mazie a hug. “Alright, be a good girl and go with her now okay. You know the way home, so be sure to lead her properly. Try to get along and do as she says, and you can call me if anything happens. I’ll be home late tonight, but I’ll promise to get there as soon as I can.”
When they were done, Mazie walked over to Phon and grabbed her free hand that wasn’t full of flyers. The impromptu pair walked off in the direction of the Pozin household while Bray waved them goodbye before rushing off to work.
◆◆◆
Mazie was endlessly excited while they walked. She was swinging their held hands happily humming a tune that she saw on TV a lot. Since the girl hadn’t entered school yet, she didn’t have many friends, and the ones she did have were just friends of her mother. She thought that this may be the first time she had made one on her own, that she could remember anyways.
When Mazie saw her home, she let go of her babysitter’s hand and dashed over to it impatiently. Just as she was about to round the gate into her yard, she slammed into something, causing her to fall butt-first onto the ground. She looked up at what she had hit and terror instantly struck her, having collided into the legs of a tall man wearing black. Most of his face was hidden by the hood he had up, but she was scared by what little of it she could see.
Stolen story; please report.
Mazie got up and ran back towards Phon, hiding behind her legs. She gripped tightly onto them as she peeked out from behind. The woman simply smiled, bent down, and patted her head while she explained. “Don’t worry, that's just my little brother. I texted him your address after you told me so he could meet us here. I know he may look a little scary, but trust me, he's a big softie. And he keeps his hood up since he has a bit of a complex about his hair.”
“Really, that’s your brother…?” Mazie was a bit unsure but poked out a little more. Drim flashed her a soft smile which eased the tension even further. After a few more seconds, the girl came out of her hiding spot and walked over until she was a few steps away from the man and began examining him all over.
Like Phon, Drim was wearing a more casual outfit than his usual combat gear, since wearing that in broad daylight drew a lot of unwanted attention. He was wearing black sneakers, dark green cargo shorts, and a well fitted black tunic with green lace across the collar, pulling it tight. The tunic was long sleeved normally, but he had it rolled up to the elbow, and it was buttoned in place.
It also had a hood attached, as did basically all of his clothing, and of course he had it up over his head. There was also a single-strap dark green backpack slung over his shoulder that acted as a sort of pseudo quiver. It only held a few arrows tucked away inside, but it was good enough for an emergency situation. He also had his bracers, tablet, and a few rations stored inside as well. The man basically went everywhere at least this much prepared.
After noticeably fidgeting a bit from being stared at, Drim bent down in a similar manner that Phon had done previously, smiled at Mazie, reached out his hand and greeted her, “Hi, I’m Drim. It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I hope we’ll get along well today.”
Mazie was still a bit hesitant, but she stuck out her own hand to shake his. The man’s was quite large compared to hers and covered hers entirely, but he had a very gentle touch. After that, she could feel his kindness and took Phon at her word that he was harmless.
Now that the brief moment of terror had subsided, the girl returned to her previously enthusiastic state. She now had another friend to add to self-disovered collection, and that made her even happier. Mazie grabbed both siblings’ hands, hurriedly led them over to the door, and then hopped impatiently in place while Phon unlocked it with the spare key.
Once inside, the resident proudly gave them a grand tour of the house, which to her dismay only took a few minutes, so she felt a little bad about hyping it up so much. The girl was glad when her new friends didn’t seem to mind. They spent the rest of the morning in the living room, most of it just talking. Both Mazie and Phon would just spout out whatever came into their minds, which the girl loved since she had someone to relate to, but felt that Phon was just as much of a child as she was.
The highlight for her, though, was listening to Drim talk about some of the adventures he had been on. She thought he was making them up at first but changed her mind when he told them with so much detail. Plus, she didn’t figure him for the type to lie easily. Eventually, Mazie brought out a board game that they all played together while The Slayer Recounted another story. Once they were done, Phon pulled out her phone to check the time and noticed, “Oh, it’s almost [500]. I guess I should go make something for lunch, do you have any requests, Mazie?”
“Oh wow, you can cook?!” the girl was amazed once more, staring at Phon who looked a bit hurt by the unwarranted doubt.
“Yeah, she may not look like the homey type, but she’s a surprisingly good cook. I can see how you wouldn’t get that impression, though,” Drim interjected. His sister looked like she wanted to retort, but couldn’t hide her smile from being praised by him. She went to the kitchen and came back with an apron. As she put it on, she asked for a request again before heading back in.
“If you’re such a good cook then I’ll be happy with anything you make!” is what Mazie had said with wide-eyes in eager anticipation. A few minutes had passed since then, and the girl couldn’t take her eyes off what was now resting on the table in the living room. Phon had removed her belt with the pouch and set it there so she could properly put on an apron.
Mazie could see the gleam of the yo-yo shining out from within the pouch and couldn’t resist wanting to play with it. She looked over at Drim, who was currently distracted reading something on his tablet and decided this was her chance, reaching over to the pouch. She had just gotten it open and was about to grab the yo-yo when Phon suddenly yell behind her, “Ahhh! Don’t touch that!”
Unbeknownst to Mazie, The Vixen had been keeping an eye on them with her vision from the kitchen, and dashed over when she saw their charge grabbing at the pouch. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. That's just a bit too dangerous.”
“I doubt she’d be able to lift it. The thing weighs at least a hundred pounds,” Drim quipped from across the room, not looking up from his tablet.
“Hmm, I guess you’re right. She wouldn’t be able to activate it either. Guess I panicked over nothing. Well, either way, I guess we should find you something safer to play with,” Phon hastily looked around before looking at the large knife in her hand. “Here!” she said with a smile held the hilt out it towards Mazie.
Before the girl could take it, a vine shot across the room and snatched it from Phon’s hand. “That’s still not safe. She’s a human child, remember,” Drim snapped at her.
“Oh?” Phon was genuinely confused. “I got my first knife when I was three. Guess we didn’t grow up in a normal family, though. Well, I’ll get back to it then,” the chef turned around to head back into the kitchen.
“Wait,” her brother stopped her, “I’ll help out a bit.” The vine with the knife, as well as several others that had just sprouted from him flew into the kitchen.
Mazie was amazed. After witnessing such crazy things all morning, the girl convinced herself that the siblings were either superheroes or aliens. Either way, she didn’t care and wanted to see what they’d do next. She raced after the vines and watched them chop, mix, and complete all sorts of prep work at blazing speed. By the time Phon got back to the kitchen, it was all ready to cook.
Just a bit later, they all sat down and enjoyed the meal together. Mazie had no idea what she was eating, but it was delicious, better than anything that her mom had ever made—though she’d keep that to herself if she could manage to keep her mouth shut. When they finished, Drim lifted up his tablet, presented the screen to them, and asked, “Do you guys want to go somewhere fun?”
He showed them an article for the local zoo. Nowadays, with all kinds of new monsters and animals popping up all the time, it was pretty common for zoos to capture them and create new exhibits. This article was promoting a new ‘Platybear’ exhibit. Mazie stood up, lifted her arms in excitement and yelled, “Yeah, let’s go!”
◆◆◆
Bray’s trip home was long and tiring. She would walk faster if she could, and wanted to out of concern for Mazie, but was just too exhausted. She pulled out her phone and took a glance at the time. The woman couldn’t help but sigh. It was very late, around the time her daughter should be going to bed if she hadn’t already.
The salarywoman had wanted to get home early, but there was an important meeting she just couldn’t miss at work. She had texted Phon asking if it was alright if they stayed later, and the babysitter assured her that they could. It was a huge relief. They had definitely saved her today, and she absolutely felt compelled to give them a large tip.
Bray knew they were looking for more stable work and was considering asking them if they wouldn’t mind watching Mazie when they had time to spare. The idea even floated through her mind briefly of asking if one or both of them would be interested in becoming a full time caretaker for her daughter. The woman was a single mother who often worked late, so that kind of extra support would be nice, but she didn’t know if she could afford it and imagined that both of them would want something more out of a career, so the idea didn’t linger long.
This was all, of course, under the assumption that they had done well and Mazie enjoyed spending time with them. The girl had called her earlier to get permission to go to the zoo and a few other places. Though Bray was hesitant to agree at first, Mazie had such enthusiasm in her voice that she just couldn’t turn her down. The mother let out a loud sigh of relief when she got home and entered through her front door.
It was rather quiet, so she looked around and the only light was coming from the living room. She walked in and found a scene that warmed her heart. Drim and Phon were sitting on either side of the couch with Mazie between them. The man was reading something on his tablet and his sister was gently stroking Mazie’s hair, who had fallen asleep and was using Phon’s lap for a pillow. Wow, they look like a happy family, it makes me a little envious, Bray’s heart was conflicted as she looked on with a smile.
A few more seconds passed as she just stood there and stared happily before Phon noticed and locked eyes with her. The young woman gently lifted Mazie’s head, scooted out from underneath, then placed it back down on the couch. Both siblings then headed over towards her. Drim didn’t introduce himself but instead just gave her a slight nod, headed past her and out the front door. Bray couldn’t help but get that strange familiar feeling when she looked at him too.
The other babysitter stopped for a second and whispered quietly, as to not wake the sleeping child, “Mazie tired herself out. She wanted to stay up and wait for you, but it looks like she couldn’t hold out any longer. I was just thinking about carrying her to bed when you came in.”
“Really, thank you so much for today,” the single mom was extremely appreciative, but kept a hushed voice as well. She pulled out her wallet,took all the cash in it and handed it to Phon. “I won’t take no for an answer, you earned it. It looks like Mazie had a lot of fun with you two. I’ve never seen her sleep so peacefully.”
“Thanks… Oh,” The Vixen said as she pulled out her phone. She pressed a few buttons then Bray’s phone beeped. “We took a few pictures from when we went out today, so I sent them to your phone. I also included a digital version of our business card. Be sure to tell your friends about us!”
“Oh I will!” Bray responded cheerfully and waved Phon off as she walked out the door. Then mother then looked over at Mazie who was still sleeping on the couch, and a wave of relief washed over her. Those two are so nice. I’m so glad they turned out to be such good people, but… I still can’t get this gnawing feeling out of the back of my head that I’ve seen them before. While she continued to watch her daughter, the thought drifted to the back of her mind.
She didn’t want to wake Mazie up just yet, so she decided to look at the pictures. Bray pulled out her phone and opened up the gallery she’d been sent. The first picture made her really happy and ultimately a little sad. It was of the three of them outside of a cage at the zoo looking at a Platybear exhibit while they were all holding hands with Mazie in the middle. She was happy for daughter to have gotten to go, and with what looked like close friends, but she was still envious to not be the one who got to take her. Bray had planned to take her at some point, but was always just too busy or tired to do so.
Her phone was just a normal flip phone, so she pressed the arrow key to pull up the next picture which caused those complex emotions to go shooting out of her. They were replaced with pure shock as she stared at the picture in horror. They were still at the Platybear exhibit, but now the three of them were riding on top of it. Phon was in the front with Drim behind her and Mazie riding on top of his shoulders, cheering with her arms.
These new feelings didn’t go away as she hurriedly looked through the rest. The next picture was of Mazie and Phon with pocket knives, her daughter being taught how to use it. After that, was Mazie swinging on a makeshift swing made out of Drim’s vines flowing from his body. Then she got to the one that probably worried her the most. It was them up in the air like they were flying. They look like they’re skydiving, but where are their parachutes?! Bray screamed in her head.
There were a few more afterwards. It told a short story of Drim killing some creature she had never seen before as the two girls cheered him on. Then it showed Phon roasting that creature over an open fire. And finally, she saw them eating it as a group for dinner. Then the last photo was the three of them up on her roof staring up at the stars.
New thoughts soared through her head. Are these real? Why would they do this? Is Mazie okay? How did they manage to do this all one one day? How did they get around so fast? What is up with those vines?! Who took all these pictures?! Why can’t I remember where I’ve seen them?! Just who the hell are they?!
“Oh, mommy, you’re home.” That small voice caused Bray to snap out of her crisis and look over at her daughter. She was yawning as she sat up and wiped her eyes. After a few seconds of blinking, Nazue looked excitedly at her mother and loudly exclaimed. “I had the best day ever! Can the Drazahs come play again soon?”
“Dra… Zah…” the muttered to herself. Suddenly, all the news reports over the past few days she had left on in the background and all the conversations she overheard from her coworkers came flooding back to her. She dashed to her front door, flung it open and scouted every inch she could see. The two who were there less than a minute ago were nowhere to be found.
Phon… Drim… Those names. That hair, that eerily familiar feeling. How could I be so blind? Is it really them?! Bray wondered as the panicked thoughts in her head resumed. She pulled up her phone and stared at it for a few seconds. She was sure of it, but didn’t want it to be true, so she was terrified of pressing the button to bring up the next image. Once she mustered the courage, the result caused her to collapse to the ground. Her phone fell out of her hand and the Fiends For Hire business card was displayed on the screen.
Fiends For Hire Text Conversation 2
Date: Monarchber 15th 2077
[406]
『Bray Pozin: Hi itz Mazie! :) I borowed my moms phone so i could msg u. She sad she ddn know when u guys culd visit agn. Do u thnk u can come gain soon?』
『Drim: We’d love to Mazie, but you should probably get your mother’s permission first.』
『Bray Pozin: o ok. Well i just wntd to let u both know i had a gr8 time with u and I want to grow 2b up jst like u2!』
『Phon: Aww, well don’t go killing your mother to make it happen. She’s a good mother after all.』
『Bray Pozin: im not sur wut u mean but oky! :D』
[672]
『Bray Pozin: This is Bray. I’ve taken the phone back from Mazie. I won’t go to the police with this since she is unharmed, and I believe it would upset her if she knew I was the reason for your arrest. I appreciate that you were kind to her, but I’m afraid I cannot tolerate your influence on her. Please never contact me or my daughter ever again.』
『Phon: Spoil sport』
『Drim: :c』
Discord, , and Amazon Release (Pending), can be found on the Fiends For Hire .
Would you let the Drazahs babysit your child?
