They went to a nearby eatery and ordered something to eat. Of the other four, only Quinn had money. Fex had to give his card back went he left the 13th Family. Paul's money card was taken by the vampires and was linked to the military. Lana decided to pay for this using Vorden's card if there was enough. If not, she'd cover it herself. She'd use this card first, though since it was his military money. She would throw this card away once empty. Noone talked except for ordering their food. Lana ordered chocolate. A piece of molten lava chocolate cake to be precise. She was so happy with it, she asked for 5 more in a go box for later.
This earth station was like a huge dome-shaped shopping mall. There was food, clothing, beast gear, ability books, anything you could need. Once everyone was done eating, Fex asked what was next. Paul explained the ship was good for a month if run normally. It had food but needed crystals to power it. If they went the independent traveler way, they needed their own teleporter for the ship. Quinn didn't have much money and he agreed with Logan that Lana's money was for setting up her planet. Plus with babies on the way, she needed it even more. The options for joining a faction at this time were Sunshields and Graylash. They could park the ship in a portion of space that was not used as a routine travel route and use a smaller ship to get to a planet. The question was, which planet. Quinn needed air so he suggested some window shopping for an hour or so. He wanted a list of things and prices of what they would need for future reference. Paul didn't look impressed. Lana wasn't impressed with Paul. It was great all around.
Quinn went one direction, Fex, Paul and Kaz went another. Lana was going to try for the fastest shopping trip ever. Stop number one was beast armor. She wanted an advanced tier chest piece for Shalt. They went in and asked the clerk to point them in the right direction. Ten minutes later, they were walking out with new armor. Next was clothing. She'd wait on baby clothes but who knew how long it would take to find Dilly. Maternity clothes were next. Fifteen minutes later, she was walking out with three outfits. Once again, two pant outfits and a dress. He did say an hour or so… The last place was the ability book stand that appeared to have everything under the sun. A quick question and there was a headshake. They didn't have his ability. Nor did they have Almin and Alto's requirements. She knew this one was going to be hard to find. He would probably need to increase his strength in his ability on his own. Back to the starting point. They were the first ones back.
It was quite annoying out there. Every few steps someone was trying to get them to join their faction. Lana was good at ignoring them. Simply acted like she was late which wasn't hard. She had a time crunch. Quinn was the last one back. They were heading to the Crows faction. Lana had a huge smile on her face. That was where her brother went at the start of break.
Back on the ship, they sat around the table once again. This time it needed to be decided what they were going to say their abilities were since the vampires were special.
Quinn, Paul, Kazz, Lana, Shalt, and Fex were sitting around the table on the ship while Peter stood at the helm with the ship's remote. The group had just finished discussing what they would claim their ability to be while demonstrating their capabilities to the Crow Faction. Quinn was going with super speed. Kaz was going with regeneration. Fex with his string ability. Paul with no ability. Paul was going to claim to be a former member of Pure while the others all came from the second military base. This would explain them not having a soul weapon.
Lana decided to give Quinn an idea of what her ability could offer in terms of what she gleaned from the trees during school. She handed Quinn a book. "It's all there. Names. Dates. Places." She says each word with emphasis as she stares at the table. "I had thought about giving that to General Nathan."
Quinn began reading through the beginning of the book, "It's so thorough!"
Lana scoffed "all but one entry." He looked at her inquiringly. She took the book and flipped through to a specific entry and handed it back, pointing at the specific entry. He read the few words on the page, put the book down and his eyes flash red for a moment. "Tell me."
"Vorden and I were walking in the park after dark. Just talking, getting to know one another. We heard a partial scream and looked at each other to make sure the other heard it. We ran in the direction of the scream and … Vorden pulled a boy our age off her and I ran to her side. She was broken and bloody. Her leg was at the wrong angle. Her fingers couldn't be used if she wanted to. I told her she needed to be taken to Dr. Haley but she refused." She looked up into Quinn's eyes "Quinn, she begged me to kill her. To Kill Her." Lanna's eyes were filling with tears but she continued. "I gave her the choice, Dr. Haley or me. She chose to allow me to help her so I did. I couldn't do anything about her torn clothes. They barely hung from her body they were so tattered. I helped her remove her clothes and gave her mine. I covered myself with my plant armor. She thanked me for helping her and I asked if she wanted me to take her back to her room. She refused the help and ran off toward our building."
"I realized I was no longer hearing sounds behind me so I stood and turned. The first thing I saw was the most beautiful smile beaming back at me. Then I noticed he was holding these limp things behind the back of a broken, blood, swollen mess. Then Vorden, he said to me," she closed her eyes remembering and savoring, "he said to me, care to have a turn?" Lana smiled a wide and wicked smile, "I did. We left him there a Broken. Bloody. Heap. Then smiled at each other and kissed. We held hands and walked back to our rooms covered in blood splatters and slept really well that night, after a shower, of course."
Fex quipped, "how romantic it is to beat up a bully together!"
She glared at him and continued "The girl refused to be alone after that. That's what it looked like anyway. She was always with at least one of her roommates but usually both. As for the boy… never saw him talk to a girl again. He stayed away."
"I know what we did was wrong. We were just as bad as them. But I realized something Quinn. This world was created by monsters. They wanted to raise us to be weaker than them while telling us they wanted us to be strong. They made us this way. We ARE what they molded us to be. That boy learned that day that there are monsters bigger than him. And I think he learned that being a monster wasn't worth his life."