Blessed by Night

Joanne watched her phone ring for a few more moments before she sighed and lifted it up.

Before she could answer the call, Bianca held up her tablet and the comic book they were supposed to read.

"Remember… giant robots of death and bigotry..!" She whispered.

Joanne could only nod and pretend like she had been listening for the last hour.

After steeling herself for what she was sure would be an exhausting conversation, Joanne swiped across the screen to answer her phone.

The first thing she heard was the relieved and annoyed tone of the woman who used to be her best friend.

"I'm relieved you actually picked up... I thought for a second you were going to ignore the call and leave me floundering waiting for an update."

Joanne didn't miss the line of familiarity that Awena was trying to cross. It took a great deal of effort not to hang up the phone right then and there.

But she swallowed all of her annoyance instead. Maybe it helped that she was just too tired from the day to be angry.

She took one of the comic books Bianca insistently kept offering her and flipped through the colorful pages absentmindedly.

"Pardon me for being late, I was just looking through some notes on my desk..."

Joanne paused when she came across a panel with two naked adults.

She turned to Bianca with a bewildered look. 'What the hell. There's really sex in this stuff? I thought it was for kids!'

Bianca looked horrified. 'Why would you think that!?'

The only thing Joanne needed to point to was the brightly colored spandex on the cover. Bianca didn't really have much of a defense against that line of logic. At least, not one that she could argue without yelling at the top of her lungs.

Awena scoffed on the other end of the phone. "Looking through some notes, huh? Is that secret code for tying one on?"

Joanne's eyes immediately hardened. If she hadn't gotten control of herself in time, she would have crushed Bianca's comic book in her hand.

"...I don't drink anymore."

Anna briefly looked up her phone, but didn't say anything and went back to scrolling not long after.

In all honesty, Awena's comment had been little more than a joke. Something to hopefully open up a segway into past, fond memories.

Something to overshadow the fucked up decisions she'd made not too long ago.

But it seemed she'd accidentally stepped on a metaphorical landmine instead.

It seemed like she just kept making mistakes, and she didn't know how to move past them.

All she wanted was her friend back.

"That's great, Jo... Really, I mean it." She said sincerely. "I should probably put down the bottle myself, but I haven't quite found a man handsome enough to make the choice worth it, you know?"

Awena wished she could have taken the words back as soon as she said them. Joanne's silence was the only confirmation she needed to know that she'd put her foot in her mouth again.

For a moment, neither one of them said anything over the phone. The only sound to come was background noise and infrequent static.

"...May I proceed with my briefing now?"

On the other line, Joanne could clearly hear the sound of Awena chewing her lip off.

"...Go ahead."

-

Malachi thought he was good in serious situations. At least when he didn't have Anna, Nadine, or Bianca standing next to him and cracking jokes.

They were his beautiful bad influences. And since they were such a big part of his life, he could sometimes hear their voices even when they weren't with him.

It was usually never a problem, until right now, that is.

"Pfft... Oh my god, this man said Master Splinters! I totally missed that!" Malachi cackled.

Since he was laughing, Camille naturally started giggling too. Most children do follow their parents' examples after all.

"I want to see turtles too!" Cami chuckled.

"H-Hold on, little miss, I don't have any backup to be dealing with a four-on-one assault."

"Mommy said that one time you fought an army that was this big to save her." Camille held her arms out as wide as they would go.

They didn't quite stretch as far as she would have liked, so her lowbreed held out his arms to better paint the picture.

Malachi went from cackling to feeling slightly embarrassed.

"S-She told you about that, huh?"

"Yeah." Cami nodded in an obnoxious manner. Like a child who'd just discovered one of her friends had a crush. "She said that it was the first time she realized she loved you."

Camille further heightened her obnoxiousness by mimicking a bunch of kissing noises.

Malachi was glad his daughter couldn't see his face, because he was sure he'd be blushing right now. Something like that would only make Camille's teasing significantly worse.

"I can't believe Jo would tell you that story... that's a little embarrassing." Malachi smiled wryly.

*In Japanese* "AMERICANSSS!!!"

The other human in the sewer let out a loud roar after being continually ignored.

Malachi had to take a few steps back when the mound of dead rat flesh started moving once again.

After placing a shield over Cami and her lowbreed, Mal watched as the flesh started moving again to form a disgusting, squishy wall.

Mal's lack of a stomach was no longer serving him. He thought he was going to throw up for sure.

"And I thought changing your diapers was gross..."

"HEY!"

"Kidding, kidding." (No he wasn't.)

The wall sculpted itself to form a strange and unholy creation that was somehow living and dead.

Some of the faces of the rats could be seen protruding from their arms, torso, legs, and wherever else.

Their eyes hung open painfully as a strange black substance spilled from their mouths; turning the foulness of the sewer water into something even more sinister.

Malachi was so baffled by what he was seeing that he didn't know how to process it.

The one thing that he knew for sure though, was that he had to be much more creative in how he took this thing down.

"Munch… need you to step back, a bit."

Suddenly, the sewer lit up with cyan light as Malachi's visage underwent a completely new metamorphosis.

Awed and full of wonder, Cami commanded her lowbreed to step back and watch her father work his magic…