Editing Toyhammer (section)

=Chapter 13=

I wrenched the door open, to the sight of what could only be described as Sister Alice, Adepta Sororitas. White-gold hair framed her face in a pageboy cut. Her clothes consisted of a white blouse and an embroidered black waistcoat. Her black jeans hugged her legs closely as they tapered down to some sturdy black boots. Alice let me drink in the sight of her, bathed in the late-morning sun, and then giggled. She threw herself at me, catching my right shoulder and left waist – thankfully avoiding my left shoulder from getting battered more than necessary – and enfolded me in a hug.

"Uh... hello to you too."

Then it suddenly hit me that this was the first time I had ever hugged Alice since our first meeting a few years ago. Alice, who had always avoided direct contact with most other people. Alice, who only ever got close to the people she knew – that is, Vincent, Olivia, Mark, Miles, Sam, Alexa and myself – and never really letting anyone else closer than arm's reach and acquaintances.

Any other thoughts were dashed to pieces as her lips pressed against my cheek, and I felt the area wheres he kissed reddening as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

"Always wanted to do that..." She blushed as she pulled me close in for a warm hug. "Thanks, Michael. For a lot of things."

Giggling, she sought to do the same with Vincent (who was already scrambling to his feet). Despite his head start, she crossed the room quickly, glomping him and kissing him on the cheek. The nerd who had just shot a man in the leg without so much as a 'wow' flushed red, and went into shock. He hit the ground hard as his feet lost their balance, and rolled once, scattering Chimera and Devilfish everywhere. I think he would have just given up and fainted if Alice didn't give him a 'revival flick' with her index finger.

I shot a look at the rest of the group.

Canoness Samisha was giving out body language that amounted to 'what the hell, Sister?' and Ishabeth had her head on a swivel, no doubt looking for Commissar Tomas... I saw him on the other side of a Chimera, quickly shifting himself to the open back hatch. A half hundred Imperial Guardsmen were staring on in shock and awe, as well as a good number of the Space Marines and Sisters of Battle. I'm guessing that Sisters kissing men was a rather rare event among the Imperium.

Looking at the xeno, I wasn't surprised to find that the Tau were pissing themselves laughing behind their featureless helmets, I'm sure. Sergeant Talon and various others were leaning on their friends, spasmodically twitching rather worryingly. One Broadside Battlesuit tipped over.

Eldar were more stoic, more controlled (except for a few) and far less entertaining. That is, until I caught Zara's expression, or lack thereof, and the fact that she was being attended to for splinters of one of the rune-stone in her hand.

Oh boy.

Lastly, I looked at the Cultist, Batel, as she stared on. 'Does this always happen?' was the question written all over her face.

"This is the first time it happened." I croaked.

"Uh..." Her eyes darted from exit to exit. "Shurrre..." She ventured, not quite believing me. "Duu hyuu hwanch huss choo gho?" An olive skinned hand gestured towards Alice, who was half-straddling Vincent as he tried to recover from her glomp. Suddenly, there were red stains on the wooden floor.

"Ehewh..."

"Mah douze!" Vincent cried out, clutching his face. I saw blood running between his fingertips.

"... Alice, Vincent's going to bleed out soon! Please, stop that!"

I hobbled over to Vincent, and sat down beside him.

Alice shifted herself off him, sitting on the floor beside me and looking on earnestly as I checked Vincent's nose. So far, I was just guessing that he had bashed his nose on the way down, but Alice had not tackled him that hard.

"... bhlond guurl skares husss..." Batel whispered, peeking over the edge of the couch

The adopted Sister of Battle tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to her. She pointed at the purple-haired cultist that was now nervously talking to a Grey Knight with a similar opinion.

"... err... who is she?"

"W-what? Do I look that different to you guys?"

Alice was teasing her hair. The long tresses had been cropped into a pageboy haircut with millimeter precision – something that made me think that a dozen Sisters of Battle with combat knives could easily achieve – and dyed into a pale off-white color. A white-blond warrior nun convert now sat on the stool set into the counter outside of my kitchen.

Vincent nodded solemnly, transfixed by Alice's new appearance. Her wardrobe had no doubt changed as well, now that she wore the colors of the Sisters of Battle.

"What happened there?" Vincent asked, his voice rather flat from the two chunks of tissue that had been pushed up his nose. He was looking at the two-dozen Sisters of Battle now appraising themselves of events that had happened between their departure and return.

"Stuff. I took some Sisters home with me." She answered. "What happened here would be a better question..." Alice turned worried eyes to fix them on my wounded shoulder. "Michael... did you have an accident?"

I instinctively winced as attention was brought around to my wounded shoulder. It looked alright, underneath a shirt and several layers of gauze and pads, but it still hurt like hell. I shook my head.

"Chaos-possessed knife stabbed me."

There was silence as Batel shifted in her seat. The Cultist was still seated at her couch, a dozen heavy weapons and almost a hundred personnel ready to unleash the most destructive weapons that could be found upon her at the slightest... no, at my signal. They had agreed to let me take the risk of her going back to her Chaotic side, or becoming the human girl that she had been.

"And the girl over there?" Alice asked, pointing at Batel.

"The one the knife possessed." I answered.

Alice stared far less lethal daggers at Batel, her gaze causing the olive-skinned (former) Cultist to flinch.

I sighed.

"No. We're done, she's innocent..." Half of the listening miniatures roared in unison. "... mostly. But I want to help her. She can be helped, she hasn't killed for Chaos... and I think that's the starting point."

Vincent nodded. "Too many have died already. Now we need to save who we can."

"My Sisters have told me many great sorrows have come from such ventures." Alice whispered, throwing another glance at the Cultist.

"Hy'll bee ghud." Batel promised. "Hy hwon't kheel hyuu hwin hyuu shlehp."

Vincent facepalmed. Well, fore-head palmed, the guy had glasses.

"Not reassuring us!" I snapped, to regret it instantly. Batel was shutting down as she cowered in the corner of the sofa, curling up into a little ball as she hugged her knees

"Look... we're all a little strained at the moment, aren't we?" I threw a glare at the others, who nodded faux-enthusiastically.

"... lets get some rest... how about we go make some lunch?"

"Which reminds me, mon-keigh... where are those supplies you promised us?"

Oh... whoops. I looked at Zara's death-glare. She had been wearing her helmet less and less these days, and her midnight black locks floated up as she gathered energy.

"H-hey! We were being attacked by a living knife! C'mon, you gotta give us some credit, okay! N-no, you put that shuriken pistol away right now! Whoa! I didn't mean it like that! ZARA, NOOOOOOOO!"

It was decided that I'd go out for another excursion in Vincent's pickup while he and Batel stayed at home with the majority of the heavy equipment. A lot of the guys around felt that this was a little too soon to be heading back out, but we needed food, and armies marched and fought on their stomachs. A reassuring point to many, though was the reason why I said majority of the heavy equipment. The Tau and the Eldar had given me jurisdiction over their heavier vehicles, which would hide inside of the pickup in case we ran into another... problem. With the Tau railgun's bombardment munitions comparable to a 'shotgun to the face' as Vincent put it, I figured that we would have more than enough protection... this time.

I slid into the driver's seat of Vincent's pickup, towel in hand, as I wiped down what blood there was around the car.

Especially in the glovebox. I felt my jaw clench as I daubed away a slick mixture of red and blue blood. Human, Eldar and Tau blood. Wiping away the marks of their suffering, I balled up the towel and chucked it over into a bin.

My shoulder throbbed. Still hurting.

"You really shouldn't drive, even if you've been improving." Alice worried, casting a glance at my shoulder.

She had changed the dressing while Vincent hunted around for more food, and we had both been rather shocked to see that the damage done was actually a lot less than what we had started with. Granted, the knife had gone in maybe an inch and a half, but now... the wound seemed to be repairing itself quickly enough, so there wasn't any need to panic over it. I could still feel my shoulder throbbing in protest, but moving around wasn't too much of a problem anymore.

"Can you drive a stick?"

Alice thought for it a bit. She drove around in a Pugeot 507 to get to work, transporting her gear around got her behind the wheels of a van, sometimes. Both were automatic transmission cars. Glancing at the gearshift, she nodded and slid over to the passenger's seat.

"... fair enough. We're headed for Henderson's, right?" She asked, naming the family owned store that I was thinking of going to. I nodded, and we pulled out of the driveway.

I chose a different place to shop this time. Further away, sure, but at least it wasn't crawling all over with police.

The supermarket I was headed for was a smallish little box of concrete and steel, set in the middle of the suburban strip mall (it was a small one) and surrounded by quaint little boutiques, it was a much more busy place than the early morning shopping that had been interrupted earlier on.

Managing to get a parking space (things were filling up), I slid out of the car in a bout of deja vu, and walked around to the back of the car.

"I still think that this is a bad idea, mon-keigh." Zara sighed, seated atop a crate of Vincent's tools. Her comrades-in-arms were sitting around her, the majority of the more free-thinking miniatures who were willing to work with 'xeno'; namely the Cadian's more unconventional warfighters, the majority of the Tau infantry cadre, the Grey Knights, a few of the Space Marines who had served with the 'Deathwatch', the Sisters of Battle were here mostly thanks to Alice, and last but not least a great number of the Eldar warhost.

"Don't worry... there's you guys, right? If you feel worried, all you need to do is mount up, and go for a high speed run across to the roof there." Pointed at the skylights that crisscrossed the rooftops. I then pointed out the metal vents. "Cut through into those vents, and you should be able to access most of the rooms in the entire complex."

The Space Marine leader – Sergeant Vinters - nodded, looking at the rests of the Scouts that weren't recuperating back at home.

"We'll get some battle plans read for any such instances."

"Alright. See you around, then."

The gruff Assault Marine smiled and nodded.

I nodded in return, and with that, Alice bid her goodbyes to the Sisters and the Tau, and together we headed off towards the Mall.

It was only a few steps away that I began to strike up conversation with the newly converted Sister of Battle... it was hard to think of her as anyone else other than a Sister now.

"So, Alice... how did you get Sisters with you?"

"I took some home with me... they're really interesting people, you know? All the things that they've done..." Alice smiled a little to herself, before looking up sheepishly at me. "You didn't mind, did you? Me taking all those Sisters?"

"Nah, its okay... I was wondering why a couple dozen were missing, but I couldn't think of such things while I was dealing with the Orks 'n all them..." I gestured vaguely downwards, as if sweeping a hand across the coffee table and scattering miniature soldiers all over the floor... maybe that was more a muscle memory/reflex than gesture. Those damned Orks were getting everywhere nowadays.

"Oh... busy life, then, with all those Orks?" Alice smiled. "I can see why you disappeared suddenly about a month ago." She giggled, and looked out at the fast approaching mall.

A month ago... had it really been that long? It felt longer... almost like it had been five months, actually. Each day had been a struggle, at first, for peace and quiet.

Now... things were going back to the shit with the Chaos boys entering the equation.

A busy soccer mom bumped my left elbow, sending my side screaming as it protested. Her little kids trailed along behind her. I bent over forward, sucking in a deep breath.

I was still squeezing my eyes shut as I looked back up.

A little girl, no more than ten, was staring at me and Alice.

I did my best impression of Vincent's 'there's nothing wrong here' smile and wave.

She smiled back, and walked away.

Inside the mall proper, Alice sure was turning a lot of heads. Her white-gold hair was unusual, to say the least. I walked/loped alongside her as she made her way down through the mall's hallways. With Alice smiling quietly to herself with a warm confidence, we passed by the many small stores as we hurried over to the mini-market. When we got there, I began digging around inside of my satchel, looking for the shopping list – again – and hoping I didn't scratch anything painful as I searched my left side pockets.

"Le'see..." I unfolded the crumpled paper. "Bread, rice, some of those instant meals... noodles... the usual, I guess." I looked up from my salvaged shopping list, and shrugged.

"Alright." Alice nodded, peering over my forearm to read the list herself. "Sounds good."

I yanked a trolley from the trolley park, and pushed it into the aisles of foodstuffs and miscellaneous items.

We were soon sweeping along the aisles and picking up whatever was on the shopping list. I found it rather odd, doing grocery shopping with just Alice. The feeling was much more different than when it was a group of us, like back when we were flatting together, or like the times with what portions of my family wanted to come along shopping with mom.

What was that feeling?

You'll only find its name once you have found it, mon-keigh. Zara's mind-shadow chuckled.

A sense of familiarity, do you feel. Shadow-Yoza rasped in his best Yoda-style speech patterns. A comrade-in-arms, this bond is similar to.

Well, I never really got the chance to think about it after that: A roll of tissue – still in its plastic wrapper – bounced off my head and into the trolley in front of me. Alice smirked as she hefted a second one, ticking another item off the list.

"If your wound hurts, you probably should be sitting down somewhere..." She murmured, staring at my shoulder. "I'll go finish the shopping, you just go and recuperate."

"I'll be fine, thanks."

"You sure?" The white-haired young woman tapped her chin thoughtfully, a worried expression creeping onto her face. I wasn't sure, but I was feeling like her stare was making things worse.

I nodded firmly, ending the conversation. "Sure."

Alice nodded as she placed the subject carefully to the side, and we began our shopping run. Things went quietly as we wandered through the aisles, grabbing the things I had missed the first time we tried to shop.

Cereal, rice, bread, coffee (lots of coffee)... y'know, the usual supplies.

A little scratching sound directly behind me, the scuffling of feet against floor, made me turn around in alarm. I didn't want to get attacked in another supermarket... especially with my current state of mind. Alice gasped as I crashed into the little girl that had been creeping up on us. She bounced off my right leg, tumbling backwards as she tripped over her own feet, struggling to stay upright.

I stumbled backward and almost fell, were it not for me grabbing onto the solid shelving behind me. The girl had recovered from the impact as well, and was now brushing herself down. Alice was already half-crouched down beside her, asking her if she was alright, to which the girl was fervently nodding.

"Ah... are you alright? I'm sorry about that..."

The girl dusted herself off, and looked up at me – she was just above my waist in height – and nodded.

"Its'kay." She half-whispered, in a quiet voice.

Hey... I peered at her closely. She was that girl that was smiling at me earlier, wasn't she?

I looked at her thoughtfully as she began peeking around the corners and suchlike, before turning to me.

She was frowning at me now. Her hair was a charcoal black, and her face a pastel pink. Bright aquamarine blue eyes fixed to mine as her round face fixed into the stare of childhood curiosity, the morbid fascination of a child looking at something new and unknown.

"You're bleeding."

Huh?

"You're bleeding. From your nose, mister." She pointed her finger to the center of my face, and I reached up to dab a line of blood running from my nose.

Alice swung her head around to face me. "What the?"

We began panicking.

I jammed my hand into my pockets, searching for a tissue as Alice dug into her bag for one.

Soon enough, a tissue was produced and my nose plugged in a way far too similar to Vincent in the aftermath of Alice's tackle-hugging.

"Uhm... Michael? Are you alright?"

"Fine, just fine..."

"Uh... well..." I looked at the girl. Her thick duster-style coat bespoke a high-class heritage.

"Are you lost?" I asked her.

"I'm trying to find someone." Was her answer.

Not a yes nor a no answer... odd. I tried to puzzle out what she meant by that. More information. That was what I needed. "... okay... what's your name?"

"Emma." She replied. "What's yours, mister?"

"Michael."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Emma pointed a finger at Alice, and both of us flushed red.

"No. Just friends." Alice chuckled, tapping Emma's pointer finger. "And pointing at people is rude, don't do it again, okay?"

The girl smiled, and nodded. I sighed as I tried something to Bow in Frustration to.

"Why is Michael banging his head against the shelf?"

There was a pause.

"Why are you hitting yourself?"

Ten minutes later, we were headed for Miles. His uncle owned the place, and when he had finished his latest deployment the former vehicle crewman of the 1st Engineer Battalion worked here.

"... Oh, hey! Mickey!" Waving his arm, the 'off duty' Cpl. Miles Henderson was grinning broadly as I came along, trailing Alice and Emma behind me. His broad frame was wrapped in the simple shirt with the supermarket's logo printed on the back and in the breast-pocket.

"Heya, Miles." I returned the greeting, grinning with our usual volley of casual quips and curling up all but my middle and pointer finger, touching my temple in a quick mock-salute.

"Just this here?" He asked, pointing at the groceries. "Heya, Al- whoa, nice haircut."

Alice smiled and blushed, stepping sideways to put me in between Miles and herself. I humored her there, and just continued to unload the shopping.

"Oh, hey, you hear about the gun range next Saturday? Turns out, Mark's the kid-brother of one of the guys in the 75th Ranger Battalion. They're gonna be bringing in a ton of stuff down to the range for us to play with. Real SpecOps stuff... man, what I'd give to be there."

"Job day, huh?"

Miles sighed, and then tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Just need someone to fill in for me."

I went through a mental checklist of friends, but the majority of them – worryingly enough – would rather haul ass and see the 75th if they ever knew about the thought of meeting real Rangers.

"Try calling Alexa, or maybe Sam... they usually aren't working on Saturdays." I answered, as Miles passed each item through the scanner with an electronic boop.

"'lright, I'll see who I can get along, then." He sighed, placing the groceries into the shopping bags.

"Oh... and can you ask for the parents of Emma to come up to the front?"

Miles' face twisted into an expression of confusion. "Who's Emma?"

"This girl right... wait..."

Emma had disappeared.

I sighed. "There's a girl running around, black hair, blue eyes, kind of tan-ish duster coat, probably lost. Alice and I picked her up just now, but she must have wandered off again."

Looking around, Miles nodded his understanding as he scanned for the missing girl.

"Okay then, I'll keep an eye out for her... well, see you around, Mickey."

I nodded, hefting the shopping bags. Two for me, two for Alice. Enough supplies for a small army... literally.

"See ya, Miles."

My grin was more than genuine. It was nice, you know... to have a normal time like this. Just shopping with friends...

"Now now, mon-keigh. No need to be hasty. I'm sure we turned left at that vent there, then right at the next intersection."

"I don't care where we've been, what I care about is how do we get out of here!"

There was a thump, which echoed throughout the air ducts. To their horror, Commissar Tomas and Farseer Zara found themselves face-to-grill-deformed-face with a security guard.

"Hey... hey, Jerry! I think there's something in them air-vents!"

There was a bright flash as a laspistol sparked into his eye.

"ARGH!"

The sounds of the predictable chaos when a three hundred pound mall-cop fell backwards off a ladder ensued.

"Run!"