NORTHERN MARKETS [Season II]
Episode 63: It’s a Wonderful Night

Edmonds [12 miles north of Kerning City]
[“…Maple Radio time is 5:18. Breaking news: A deadly act of war left the Kerning City Police’s northern HQ building crumbling as it burns in one spectacular blaze. Firefighters and medics are on the scene to take control of the raging flames, however based on the total destruction of the building, the fire chief says there may not be any survivors. According to mayday reports, bowmen troops bombed the building and charged their way in shooting the police officers inside. Experts, are purely convinced that the Justice Arrow organization is behind this…”]

“Light dam it all! And you two said you escaped from that place?”
The blue haired magician girl- dressed in street clothes and a hood nodded.
“Yeah.” Rusty said quietly.
The driver of the old beat up Ford pickup shook his head in disgust. “So you guys actually saw them and lived?”
“I did.” the cop answered.
“You, lady, did you see them?”
“No.” Meeko mumbled. She just sat there in a daze holding the baby, who settled down.
“Cop boy, what are they like?”
“I didn’t actually go up to them and talked with them.”
“No I meant, by how they were acting, you know talking, or body language or face expressions?”
“Oh.” Miller nodded. “They’re worse than balrogs. A bow master’s worse than a balrog on crack!”
“Hah! They’s messed up! Hey, guy, we’re coming up on 101st Street.”

Miller stared ahead as the truck sped along the Victoria Freeway; passing under the sign that screamed:
[ 101 STREET- Edmonds +1200m ]
[<- Hecate Way| Middlegate Center ->]

The truck stopped before the off-ramp and the cop and the magician both had to walk up the ramp to 101st.
MiddleGate was an old mall that was built back in the 1970’s. Having not being renovated in over 30 years
made the place look pretty old, but original in style.
The mall was surrounded by compact apartment buildings. The major streets were lined with stores, bars, restaurants. Since Edmonds was a middle-lower class area, MiddleGate looked more like the ghetto area, but without all the gangster crap that plagued other lower class areas.

Miller threw his SWAT vest into the dumpster behind the fast-food joint at the petrol station. Miller and Meeko boarded the local bus that drove along 101st into Middlegate. Before they got on the bus, the cop had the feeling like it was 11 pm at night, but seeing all the people on the bus reminded him it was not even six yet. The bus was loaded from people
returning home from work or school.
The bus stopped, and let some passengers off at Snail Street, just two blocks past Kingsway, where the mall was.
“Where we going?” Meeka asked as the bus drove off.
“My aunt Shauna’s. She lives around here.”

Meeka was too tired to even argue. She wanted to back to her home in Little ‘Linia up in Coqton, but she had to settle for spending the night at this Aunt Shauna’s place.
As they walked past a convience store, several cop cars drove by. They were searching. For the enemy that threatened to kill them all, and Miller knew they were hiding out in his home neighborhood.

The old apartment building was six floors high, and Aunt Shauna lived on the third. It was warm in here, Meeka thought as cop boy led her up the steep flight of brown carpet stairs. It smelled funky too, like old kind of funky.
The dim florescent lights flickered and crackled, casting beige tinted light.

“Hey! Gimme back my gameboy!” some eight year old kid shouted.
“Go away! It’s ours now! That’s what you get for hitting Angel!”
“I- I didn’t hit her! She’s lying! Gimme back my gameboy!”
The older girl slammed the door in the kid’s face just as Miller and the magician came up the stairs.
“Stupid freeloading Permanoobs!” the kid shouted in tears. “You’re only here because you keep tricking Old Man Pete!”
The youngster ran past the pair without even looking up and stomped his way down the stairs. Other kids were running around the hallways chasing eachother; some of them ordinary civilian kids, and others hippy Permanoob kids.
A blue haired magician child ran around zapping running kids and dogs with his magic for fun.

Miller sighed. This building became a center of unrest ever since the building’s owner let in Permanoobs without making them pay rent. Not that the other tenants had to pay more; the city gave the bastard a mighty fat check every month to keep the Permanoobs. The civilians were easy to recognize- The kids went to school, and their parents went to work or maintained the home, while the freeloading hippies kept their kids at home and home schooling them a bunch of bogus crap like hippy philosophies, mystical crap- no knowledge of actual use. The older Permanoobs used to be partygoers, but after the Panquilia tragedy a few months ago, they all became drug addicts, and parents were getting pissed off about all the dealers coming around like some door-to-door sales service.

“Stupid Permanoobs! Go get a life already!” some guy shouted. He tossed out a stained glass bong and slammed his door. The bong shattered as it hit the wall.
“What’s going on?” Meeka asked hesitantly.
“noobs went and hot-boxed in Mr. Haggis’ apartment again. They always find a way to get into his apartment and spend all day smoking up whatever they can find and eat all of his food.”
“Wow. I never seen Permanoobs do stuff like this before…”
“Yeah. Getting your settlement blown up can really have an impact on you.” Rusty said. “And so can the fact that everybody hates them now.”
The baby started crying again.
“Let’s go.” he said.

The door to the apartment was wide open. “Hello?” Rusty called as he knocked hard on the open door.
“Anybody there?” He instantly smelled boiling rice and vegetables.
“Mama! Rusty’s back!” a kid in the aprtment called.
A 40-something woman of Afrikan descent came out of the kitchen. “Oh my Light, you’re back!” she said, clamping the guy in a bear hug. Meeka stepped back, thinking the big woman was gonna knock her over.
“You have been out there for so long, why you even missed Christmas and Kwanzaa! And light damn, look at you, you’re such a mess! What happened, boy?”

Rusty blushed with embarassment. Auntie Shauna had ways of reducing him to a little mama’s boy right in front of everybody; not that she ever meant to.
“I just got off duty.” he lied. “Don’t know when I’m going back.”
Auntie Shauna looked her adopted nephew up and down. “What on the planet happened to you two?” she asked, now looking at the magician. To Shauna, they both looked like they spent a week out
in the streets.
The baby in Meeka’s arms started crying again. “Umm…”
“You can tell me later, let’s get you both cleaned up!” she said, pulling them both into the apartment.

Over what seemed like an interrogation to the magician, she and Rusty both had to explain over and over about how they got out of the police HQ building before the JA’s guys blew it up.

“She needs something to eat.” Meeka said as she sat on the couch with the baby. “I…dont have any food or money to buy food for her…” She tried not to cry, but she felt her throat swelling up.
“Well we can’t give her milk; she’s too young!”
Shauna’s own kids came into the apartment. “Momma, we’re home!”
“Ey! Y’all wash up and get eatin! If your friends wanna eat, bring ’em in too! There’s plenty to go around!”
As the six kids between ages 7 and 16 all raced to the bathroom to wash their hands, Rusty and Meeko sat on the couch, not moving. Meeko felt the sudden assault of a powerful headache and she put her free hand to the side of her head. A tear came out of her eye.
A fat old Afrikan man with a beard came into the apartment. “Hey hey hey! Rusty! Been a long time! How’s work keeping you?”
“It sucks,” Rusty said flatly. It’s true.
Shauna came back. “I know just the thing for your baby! come with me! Rusty, you stay and keep Pat company!”

Meeko and the the woman stood outside the door of a Permanoob apartment two floors up from home. “They have food?”
“You betcha, child! Starla’s got twins this year, but she’s willing to share the food.”
“Thanks-“
The door swung open, and a taller turquise-haired woman answered. She was wearing the organic hemp-made hippy clothes. Meeko gagged as she smelled the mix stench of burning incense sticks. She thought that apartment needed ventilation and fast.
“Hiya, how you doing?” the Permanoob lady asked.
Shauna told her about what heppened to Meeko. “Child has no money and no place to go, and the baby needs food. I havent got anything at home that the little one could stomach”
“She is sooo cute!” the Permanoob said, reaching out with her right arm to touch the baby.
Meeka tweaked; thinking the hippy was too agressive and twisted her own body to move the baby out of her reach.
“Hey, don’t be like that, I just wanted to pet her!”
“You’re scaring me”
“Meeko!” Shauna snapped. “You behave yourself, young lady! Now let Starla see the little one.”
“Sorry.” she said as she let the Permanoob woman hold the baby, which was crying and making wierd vocal sounds at the same time.
Meeko never took her eyes off the baby. These messed up hippes were so carefree, she was afraid the baby’s safety was not garanteed.
“Oooh! Look at you! You so cute!” Starla said, tapping the baby’s nose. The infant chuckled, then resumed it’s cries for food.
“This thing’s hungry-“
“Sorry, but I don’t have any-“
“Then breastfeed it!”
Meeka stood there dumbstruck. “Breast feed?”
“Yeah, you know, the breasts make milk for the baby to eat.”
“I can’t make milk.”
“What? How can you not make milk? This is your baby…is it not?” Starla demanded.
Meeko stared hard at the brown carpet. “It’s not my kid.” she muttered.
“Hah.” Starla said. “No wonder you showed the arrogant lack of mother copassion!”

That did it. After being totally in fear the whole day, Meeka snapped on the Permanoob freak.
“Screw you! My friend handed me her baby! We were running from the JA and their religious maniac friends! She gave me the baby and then she got shot dead!” Meeko shouted, tears streaming down her face.
“Then the stupid swat teams came, they didn’t attack the JA, they attacked the people! people like me! And then they arrested us! At the cop station, the bowmen attacked and killed everyone! I almost didnt get out!
And I don’t trust you with her! How do I know you aren’t gonna put a joint in the baby’s mouth! You shut the ### up about calling me whatever because you hippy freeloading drug addicts wouldn’t know ### about taking care of a baby! What the hell happened to you noobs anyway?! You’re not the only ones whose homes and towns are getting blown up and people killed by those damn terrorists. Everybody else gets up and fights back! All you noobs ever did was abandon any morals you had and went to the major low- All I see noobs do now is drugs!”
“That’s enough out of you!” Shauna snapped. Meeko stopped her rant and started crying. The Permanoob just looked on her, not with anger but pity. “Kid, it’s a shame you all believe the stereotypes and lies about us.”
“I’m not lying! How come I hear all the time of permanoobs getting arrested for crims and drugs, and how come there always stuff in the newspaper and on TV about kids being taken into custody?!”
A long-blond-haired skinny guy came out and put his arms around Starla.
“The media lies, kid. They hate us. We’ll take good care of your kid!”
Shauna put her arm around Meeko. “I’m really sorry about her- she just had a bad day and-“
“Relax, Aunti Shauna, it’s okay.She looks like a wreck anyway. Poor magicians are always being attacked by the enemy and the cops.”
“Got any food?” Meeko asked weakly.
“I’ll breast-feet her-“
“No! I mean…what if…..I don’t know you guys…” Meeko was afraid the baby would catch some disease.
“It’ll be alright, kid, you’ll see.”
“Yeah.” they guy agreed. He was stoned.
With her free arm, Starla stroked Meeko’s hair. “You need to sleep it off, kid. We’ll take good care of the kid, okay?”
“You better!” Meeko retorted bitterly. She couldn’t deny the grudge she has against Permanoobs. She knew that in a way, they let the civilian magicians down big time.

Meeko sat in the bathtub full of hot water. She cried and her tears mixed with the bathwater. She was over tired and completely drained. Being a magician, her magic levels were really low, and the symptom for that is bad headaches and cramps and pains everywhere. The memory from the last two days stormed through her mind.

Yesterday morning, Meeko was with her friend Sharlotte who gave birth to the baby a few weeks ago. They were in the magician-hacker-noob city of Coqton when the attack happened. At the time Meeko was in the market with her friend when the JA started shooting everyone and blowing everything up. As they ran, Sharlotte tripped and fell and Meeko took the baby from her so she could get up and in that instant,
Meeko’s best friend was pierced with nine arrows- all through her heard and head. On reflex, Meeko involuntarily teleported to another area; totally draining magic energy and as she ran wit hthe fleeing civilian magicians, she got beat down, arrested and trucked away by the cops. Then there was the whole ordeal thing at the police building.

After her bath, Auntie Shauna forced her to eat fruits and the stir-fry she had cooked. She then ended up sleeping in one of the kids’ bedrooms. She cried constantly and within minutes she was passed out.

Rusty Miller fell asleep on the couch infront of the TV. He hadn’t even slepped for ten minutes when the ruckus outside woke him up. He was awakened to the sound of people screaming in the street outside.
“What’s going on, Pat?” he asked. Pat walked in from the balcony. “Damn evangelicalists are at it again! They’re marching for their cause again, and this time they’ve went and upset the kids!”
Rusty got up and threw on his sweatshirt and went out on the deck.

“The Lord is angry with you!” preachers were yelling.
“Get lost!”
“Get the f### out!”

There were two big mobs in the street- one was the marching crowd of religious chanters waving crosses, and placards with inappropriate slogans on them. The other mob was the neighborhood’s enraged young people from teens to young adults yelling and screaming profanities at the maniacs.
“Get the hell off our turf!” one gangleader kid shouted.
“Go away! Nobody likes you!”
Several of the religious nuts were wearing suits with badges- they were church pastors.
“Y’all need to repent!”
“You’re going to hell!”
“### you!”
“Yo Rusty!”

Rusty looked down and saw some guy waving his arms. The dude waved his arms wildly as he walked away from the youth mob. “Rusty! Come out, man!”
It was his friend Chuck from the force.
“Going out!” he said as he dashed through the apartment and out the door.

Outside it was freezing and the two mobs of people were screaming at eachother like two Russian gangs before a battle. Rusty joined up with Chuck.
“What’s going on?”
“Dude! Those douche bags crossed too many lines this time! They went and stormed Edmonds Park and attacked a whole bunch of kids and then they busted up the community center!”
“That’s not cool!” Rusty said. “S###. I got a bad feeling the Justice Arrow might be hanging around here! There’s police cars driving everywhere!”
“They’re after these morons, but they chickened out!”
“o.m.g! So now what?”

Then the religious gang started marching towards the kids. They pulled out tasers, pepper spray, bear mace and other weapons.
In response, the residents drew out their knives, handguns, staves, and other weapons.
“Get the hell out of here!”
“You’ve been warned! Go away or we will attack!”
“Y’all are going to hell!”
Then one guy pulled the trigger on his taser and hit a girl on the other side. She screamed as the was fried by the brutal voltage those things packed.
“Get him!”
The mobs ran at eachother and clashed, before enyone knew it, it was an all out street brawl.
Rusty and Chuck stayed behind.
“Hah! Look at those idiots! Taking the maniacs head on! Not smart!” Chuck muttered.
“Okay, what is smart then?” Rusty asked.
“We gotta demoralize them!” suddenly Chuck’s phone rang. “Yo…what’s that? So he’s actually going through with it then, eh? allright let’s go then!” and he hung up the phone.
“What’s going on?” Rusty asked.
“It’s time for some sweet revenge!”