Just A Little Taste of Fry Nelson - Book 3

This week, Chuck Wendig wants us to upload whatever we want to on his blog... in other words, what the hell are we working on besides the Flash Fictions?  Sounds good... Okay, here's what I'm working on and kinda stuck with at the moment... it's at a halfway point, and I don't know where to take it, so it stops suddenly.

But I have taken you back far enough where you kinda know what's happening.

A week later, Raven was let out of the hospital and she found she could turn her abilities on and off when she needed them.  However, her eyes stayed the luminous green; and her teeth were a permanent fixture of being elongated.  She became shy too smile to readily and really didn’t want to look at anyone for long periods of time unless she was working on a job – which she was yet to get back to.  Actually, Fry was hanging out to see what she was like on the job to see what kind of Hunter she was going to be.  Raven turned out to be a better Bounty Hunter than she was before the stabbing.

Angelina started her out on something simple, and had Fry partnered up with her as he could control her if he needed to.  They sat in her office chatting about the next case and she found Raven was very quiet and eager to get out of the place to simply hunt and rescue; and didn’t ask any questions at all.

“Okay, have you got any questions?” she looked at them both, “It’s been a while for both of you and I’m wondering if you’d like to ask me or Paul something.”

Raven stood and headed to the door, “Nope.”

Fry stood, “Will we need an upgrade of our programs?”

Paul smiled, “No.  You guys are okay.”

“It’s been a while, that’s all.” He asked before following Raven to the door and opening it for her, “Seeya’s .”

After the door closed, Angelina looked at Paul sighing as she leaned against the front of her desk, “I’m worried about her.”

“Aren’t we all?” He poured her a cup of coffee, dropped in a cube of sugar and milk and stirred it, “There you are.”

“Thanks.” She took the cup from him and took a sip, “I’m wondering if sending her out into the world on a case so soon is wise.”

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

It was late that night when the two of them were sitting in the car across from a club in Fortitude Valley waiting for somebody to come out.  Raven watched the doors without a sound while Fry searched the streets for anyone else they knew who might come in and wreck the assignment.

“You okay?” he asked and looked at her.

She sat still staring at the club, “Sure I am.”

“Don’t lie to me, Raven.”

She blinked, sighing, “I’m scared I’m going to turn out of control; and nobody – not even you – can snap me out of it.”

“I’ve been through some really bad shit before I found you again.  And we’ve been through a lot of shit since we rekindled our relationship…” he said, “I want you to know that if you do begin killing people that I will hunt you down and kill you.”

“What did you say?”

“That I’ll always be here for you.” He frowned, “What did you think I said?”

“That you’ll hunt me down and kill me.”

Looking over at her, Fry nodded, “That’s a given.”

She nodded, “I know.”

Two weeks passed by – as did a few jobs – and Raven became an asset to The Company.  However, she was asked by Angelina to submit reports on how their jobs went.  Fry was asked to do this as well.  Both of them handed in their assessments of each job and Angelina read them over with Paul to make sure Raven’s newly-acquired features hadn’t interfered with her job or her life.

So far it hadn’t.

But it wouldn’t be long until it might.

“I’m not sure how long she’ll go until her vampire side will kick in.” Paul said, “I mean, I clearly remember when I had the upgrades installed that I…” he looked to his hands ashamed he hadn’t told her this before.

His boss looked at him, “What happened, Paul?”

The programmer looked up, “I had really big problems adjusting.  Everything was a hunt.  I didn’t sleep for a while and I had so much energy to burn off I really didn’t know what to do with myself.”

She put down the paperwork she had been looking at then took off her glasses, “The vampire side of you kicked in?”

“No… the hunter side of me did.” He sighed, “Until the upgrades, I didn’t know we were hunters on my planet; and I mean, big-time hunters.”

“I see.”

“No, you don’t… we hunted massive creatures; bigger than the ones here.” He shook his head, “I wanted to hunt something big, but didn’t know what to do with myself, so I just delved into my work.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

Paul felt ashamed of himself as he looked down at his hands, “I thought you’d decommission me if you found out about the glitch in my system.”

Leaning back in her chair, she sighed, “I wouldn’t do that to you, you’re the best we have; and I don’t trust anyone else with my people.”

“Have I put The Company in jeopardy?” He looked up at her.

“Kind of… but we’ll have to look into Raven to be sure.”

“Okay.”

Fry hung up their landline as Raven walked down the hall from their bedroom, pulling the tie at the waist of her robe a little tighter.  She had just had a shower and her hair was still wet.

“What is it?” she looked at him.

“We need to go back to The Company… Angelina needs to get you in for some tests on the Super Computer.” He said.

A frown creased her forehead, “Is there a problem?”

“I’m not sure, she didn’t say, but I have a feeling she’s not at ease about you being this way.” He walked to her, “And I’ll come with you.”

“Okay.” She nodded and turned to get changed.

The chambers of the Super Computer had changed a lot since their last visit; which was when the place was self-destructing and falling down around them.  Paul was proud of what they had built this time around.  It was new.  It was beautiful.  It could cater for more than three snooze beds.  He loved this place.

Raven walked into the cabin where Paul was sitting waiting for her to arrive.  He had all her files out and tests in line to look into her programming and he was drinking a coffee – his second one – that morning.

“Hey, Raven, how are you feeling?” he turned from the computer screen as he pushed his disposable cup into a holder nearby.

She looked over his desk warily, “Fine.  What am I doing here?”

“I need to run some tests on your programming, mate… and see what your transformation has done to your DNA and see if we can tweak you a little to make it so that you’re not so hungry and angry all the time.” He smiled.

She looked at Fry before throwing them both a sullen glare and sitting down, “So, what’s going to happen?