So we all got a bollocking off Castor and Pollux, which I couldn't really argue with, but they gave us some shots too, which made me cough. The poor bastard in the back room needed blood, and not just human blood either after what Yigirel did to him, and we couldn't exactly take him to the hospital. People don't always come out of that place. So the hospital would have to come to him.
We stood outside Camden General while Billy sized the place up. There were Asterian peacekeepers on the doors. The roof was clear but he didn't know how to get there. I pointed out I can climb well with my claws, and Balae reminded us that she can fly. So Billy put his arms around me so I could carry him up, which felt pretty weird, but I concentrated on climbing and got the two of us up onto the roof while Balae floated up.
There was one of those manta ray sentries on the roof, and Billy tried to hide us with some smoke that Nigel the chest fish made, but the ray's eyes turned red anyway and an alarm went off and a janitor showed up. I don't know how Billy and Balae managed to convince him that we were actually window cleaners. He seemed pretty cool though, and he had a tattoo of a spider.
It was creepy as hell in the hospital and we kept spotting medical stuff being done, like those awful louse things chewing on someone. It's supposed to be good for them, but that's what they told me when I was being changed and it didn't make it hurt any less. When we got down to the basement I was ready to rip the door right open, but Balae said she wanted a go first and we were supposed to be being quiet. She did something to the keypad and it opened right up.
It wasn't long before I got to do my thing though. Balae and me started loading up with medical supplies, but Billy managed to run right into a pair of Asterians. I got there just in time to have one of their spears bounce off me instead of going right through Billy. I scared the shit out of that alien bastard, but his mate got me right in the neck and I suddenly realised taking on two of these fuckers at the same time wasn't the best idea.
Then Balae showed up and I didn't know what had got into her because she was beating one of them so hard I thought she might actually kill the host. I had to try to talk her down and that felt all wrong because she's the sensible one and I'm the one with stupid hair and a temper, but she did back off and he was still alive when the Asterian jumped ship. Nigel ate the little slimy thing, which kind of gave me the creeps.
We had to get out fast, now we'd got what we came for, except Balae was a mess. Like, a passed out on the floor mess. So I picked her up and carried her and Billy took the other stuff, and we legged it. There was a riot going on outside. I don't know how it started, but it gave us some cover, at least, and when we saw an Asterian hover vehicle unoccupied we knew we had our way out. Good thing Balae was waking up again since I've no idea how to drive the things. We ditched it in the canal and went back to the pub.
You'd think Castor and Pollux would be grateful we got back safely with all the stuff but they just wanted to know if we'd started that riot. They went to look after the guy in the back, so I went behind the bar to get us some crisps, and we all sat down for a bit.
Then Billy said a load of crap that sounded like he was making fun of me, and I tried to say something nice to Balae but that just upset her more, and Billy stormed out of the pub. So I went behind the bar again and grabbed the first bottle I could see and took it up to the roof, because what was the use of doing any of that if my new friends already hated me?
By the time I got to the bottom of the bottle I felt a bit dizzy, and then my phone buzzed. It took me a while to figure out how to enter the unlock code, and then when I did I didn't have any new texts. Then I realised it was a different phone in my other pocket which I hadn't seen before. It took me a few goes to read it because my vision was all blurry, but it was someone called Ariadne who wanted to meet me at the docks at midnight and said to come alone.
It took me a while to get back down the stairs, because they kept moving about, but I got back to Balae and told her I was going to do something stupid and asked if she'd come with me.
I was a bit steadier on my feet by the time we got to the docks, although I was starting to get a headache. Balae turned into a tiny version of her to hide in my pocket and we went into the warehouse. It was dark, and nobody answered when I called. In the end I got fed up and sat down and told them to stop messing about, and then they shone a light in my face and told me off for bringing Balae although it sounded like they expected me to do that anyway so I don't know what their problem was.
Someone called Ariadne talked to me, and she called me Melanie, which was weird. She told me she'd helped me out and she'd keep helping me out if I worked for her and got some thing the Asterians wanted for her. I didn't realise straight away what she meant, but she had the same spider tattoo as the hospital janitor so maybe that was what she meant about helping.
She said I didn't have to decide right away, which is good because she was pushing really hard and my head was hurting, but I've been pushed around so much and I don't mind getting this thing to help stop the Asterians but I don't want to do it for her, just because she told me to.
At least me and Balae seem to have made things up. She told me she saw one of her kind at the hospital, and I didn't need to hear any more to know how bad it was.
So that was today. I'm back home now and writing this down. Abeni says I don't have to show it to her, so I don't have to hide anything. I don't feel much like a hero right now but maybe tomorrow will be better.
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