NEVER Talk To Strangers

~ 14 ~

"How did you sleep?" Budo asked, looking over at the awake girl on the bed. It was now the morning, and they'd been in the room all night trying to get some sleep. He'd slept on the floor, letting her have the bed for the night.
"I felt like I was tossing and turning all night." She admitted, sighing. The bed was old and obviously had been used several times. It wasn't comfy at all. "Surprisingly, I don't feel tired at all. How about you?" She asked curiously.
"I don't need too much sleep." He nodded his head slowly, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her. "You still up for our plans today?" He asked curiously. She nodded her head instantly, of course she was up for getting her birth certificate and hopefully coming closer to learning who she really was.
"Who isn't up for breaking and entering?" She laughed jokingly. He laughed for a moment too.
"We should get ready to go. We've got a long day ahead of us." He told her, getting up. She got out of the bed too, suddenly feeling hungry.
"Okay, but we have to stop and get breakfast first, I'm starving!" She told him, holding on to her stomach. He rolled his eyes playfully, looking at her. She pouted when she saw him roll his eyes at her.
"It's like I have to feed you every day!" He complained jokingly, heading for the door. She kept pouting, and he couldn't resist giving her a quick peck on the lips. "Okay, let's go get breakfast then get going to that school." He opened the door, holding it for her. She giggled and left the room, him following behind her.

"I'll get some snacks from the vending machine so we can get going." Budo suggested to Mari as they stood beside it. They had already returned their room key and were planning to get going. "We can stop somewhere out of the city for proper food." He said, seeing the small pout on Mari's pretty face. She sighed and nodded her head.
"Okay, but I better get my pancakes." She told him, folding her arms playfully. He rolled his eyes and started buying things from the vending machine. "You still owe me that date, you know." She told him. He smiled, glad she hadn't forgotten about that.
"I haven't forgotten, trust me. As soon as all this is over, I'm going to take you on the best date ever!" He told her confidently. She sighed almost out of his earshot. While that sounded lovely, she had her doubts. They certainly weren't about the date Budo would take her on.
"Do you think this will ever truly be over?" She asked, leaning on the wall beside the vending machine looking up at the sky. It was a fairly bright day, and the sun had barely started rising yet. He was silent for a moment before answering her.
"I hope so, Mari." He said. There was more silence between them as he finished buying snacks. "Come on, let's get going. Can't spend forever wondering." He told her, taking her hand.

"Where did you get this car?" Mari asked as he opened the door for her. It was a different car to the one they had used to get to the motel. He shrugged his shoulders, waiting until they had driven away from the motel before responding to her.
"I stole it, why?" He asked blankly, looking over at her. She gasped a little, in shock. She couldn't believe he had stolen a car and admitted it so nonchalantly.
"You stole it? What if the cops pull us over?" Mari panicked a little. If they were caught, chances are they would return her to Dr Shuyona. Neither of them wanted that. He sighed and kept driving.
"I stole it from some business park. The owner won't even realise its gone until the end of the day." He assured her. That didn't make her feel much better about being in a stolen car. "We've got time, even if they do go out for lunch or something." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Should I be worried that I'm falling for someone who has no morals?" She asked with some sarcasm in her voice. He laughed jokingly, focusing on the road ahead.
"I have morals! We're just borrowing the car for a few hours, no big deal." He told her. She rolled her eyes. "I'll ditch it somewhere the cops can find it, and they can have their car back no harm done." He said to her to try and calm her down about this a little.
"Wouldn't say no harm done..." she muttered. He sighed and rolled his eyes. She could be so hard to please sometimes.
"Okay fine. Less harm done than if we let dr. Shuyona and his goons get you." He said bluntly. She nodded her head slowly, turning to look out the window. She was silent for a while, and he finally caught on that something was wrong. "You've been quiet for a while, what's on your mind?" He asked.
"I was just thinking about what happened back at the hospital." She admitted sadly, sighing. That was the moment her whole world had been turned upside down, and she realised her whole life had been a lie.
"What? The moment I came to save you like a hero?" He asked, flexing his pecs a little. He had a playful smirk on his face.
"No, that's not what I was thinking about." She admitted. He glanced over at her, curious. She went silent for a minute before she spoke again. "Remember when I took out those guards?" She asked.
"When you pulled the gun away?" He asked. They were both still surprised she had been able to do that. She nodded her head slowly, looking back at him. "It was like you were some martial arts master!"
"That's the thing. I've never been able to do anything like that before." She said thoughtfully. He sighed a little, wondering what she was thinking about that made her bring this up. "I didn't do anything sneaky, I just grabbed it. Before that, when I first got away from them before you found me, I shoved them hard enough to send them on their backs!" She continued. She was trying to piece all these puzzle pieces together in her mind. "It was like I had super strength or something like that." She enthused.
"Who knows, maybe you do have super strength." He suggested, shrugging his shoulders. She thought about it, shaking her head.
"That's insane. Things like that only happen to people in stories." She laughed it off a little. Part of her didn't believe her own words though. Maybe she did have super strength.
"It's no crazier than being able to read minds." He said nonchalantly to her. She sighed internally, he was right about that. Her whole life seemed like a story to her.
"I guess, but if that's the case why don't I feel super strong now?" She asked, looking up at him. She felt pretty normal right now. He shrugged his shoulders, focusing on the road ahead.
"Maybe it only kicks in when the adrenaline does?" He suggested. "Either that or it's still emerging like the rest of your powers." He offered another suggestion to her. That got her thinking and wondering. "It'll probably get stronger the more you practice." He suggested. She barely heard, lost in thought about something else. Budo has mentioned that his healing abilities were because of her DNA. It seemed crazy at the time, but now it was starting to make sense. Maybe she would have super healing abilities too.
"You know those experiments you were part of?" She asked suddenly. He nodded his head, staying silent as he focused on the road. Of course, he was still listening to her as she was talking. "What other powers did the others taking part get?" She asked curiously. Maybe she would develop those abilities too. That would be pretty cool. Budo thought, trying to remember.
"One guy had super strength, kinda like you except he had it all the time... another could fly..." he continued before he was cut off by Mari.
"How amazing would it be if I could fly too!" She said excitedly. He chuckled, smiling at her almost childish excitement at the moment.
"Pretty amazing, but then again you're amazing anyway." He told her, making her blush darkly. He laughed and kept driving.
"Do you think I'll get all those powers?" She asked curiously, looking up at him. He thought about it, shaking his head. While it would be awesome to have those powers, he hoped she didn't get everything that the others got.
"I hope not." He said. She looked at him, very surprised. She was about to ask why before he cut her off again. "One of then died, remember? I don't want you to die, Mari." He told her. She nodded her head slowly. She didn't want to die either. He noticed almost immediately she was worried about dying. "The doc's formula was based on your genetic material, but I don't know what else was in it. For all we know, your talents could lie in a completely different direction." He tried to assure her. "Don't worry, I'm gonna be here for you. No matter what." He assured her. She smiled softly.
"Thank you, Budo. I'd kiss you now if you weren't driving." She laughed softly. He laughed too, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Fine, but you owe me one when we stop."

Eventually they arrived at Mari's former boarding school. The old Victorian school building was empty for the summer, and it would be almost a month until anyone showed up for classes.
"It looks almost abandoned." He said with a frown. She nodded her head. It had looked that way even when it was heavily populated by students.
"Can you get us in?" She asked, looking up at him. He smirked and nodded his head, leading her into the building.

Mari and Budo looked around the school hallways, and she could see they hadn't changed at all since she was last here. Only difference now was that it was completely empty except for herself and Budo.
"So, where's the headmaster's office?" He asked. She looked around, her mind blank for a moment.
"That way." She pointed towards the area of the school where it would be. She wasn't too sure if it was right though. He nodded his head a started walking that way. She followed him closely.

Budo broke into the headmaster's office, holding the door open for her. She came in and looked around. She'd been in this room only once, and that was her first day. She'd been well behaved in school, so she'd never been sent to the headmaster's office.
"Let's search that filing cabinet." Budo suggested, walking over to it. Mari stayed with him as they started searching. "I can't find anything, can you?" Budo asked, glancing down at the girl beside him.
"I'm not seeing anything either." Mari sighed. Budo nodded his head slowly, looking around the room to see if there was anywhere else the file could've been placed.
"Should we look somewhere else?" He asked. Mari shook her head, opening up another door in the room. She was surprised by what she was seeing.
"I think I have a better idea." She told him, grabbing his hand and leading him inside the room she'd just discovered.

The room was full of files and documents, all stacked on shelves. The only light came from the small bulb on the ceiling.
"It looks like all the student's files are in here," Budo noted, reading the names on the documents besides him. Mari nodded her head with relief, beginning to search the shelves.
"You're right. These are student files!" She told him. She'd seen a few names that she recognised as her former classmates on the files, and it wasn't exactly a secret that they were their files. She kept searching until she found her own. "I found it!" She said excitedly, pulling it off the shelf. "It contains everything Dr Shuyona supplied when I was first enrolled." She told him as she searched for her birth certificate. "I found it... Oh!" She frowned when she pulled her birth certificate from the file and saw who was listed as her father. Budo gave her a concerned look, trying to see the birth certificate. "It just says Dr Shuyona's my father." She sighed. That didn't help her at all, because she knew that was a lie.
"I was afraid of that." Budo sighed. Mari looked up at him, wondering why he hadn't said anything this whole time about it. "I didn't say anything because it was still worth checking. Then again it makes perfect sense for Dr Shuyona to give the school falsified documents." He explained. Mari nodded her head, putting the file back as she found it.
"What now?" Mari asked quietly. She was desperate to find her real father, but the one lead they seemed to have lead to a dead end. Budo was running out of ideas. At 17, the likelihood of Mari being able to request a copy on her own was slim to none.
"It's okay, Mari. We'll get to the bottom of this." He promised, pulling her into a gentle hug. She hugged back, pulling away when she heard something outside the room.
"What was that?" She asked quietly. Part of her was petrified they'd been found by Dr Shuyona's thugs. Budo shrugged his shoulders, taking hold of her hand.
"I don't know, and don't wanna be around to find out. Let's go, we have no more reason to be here." Budo said. Mari nodded her head, feeling pretty defeated right now. As they were about to turn around to leave they heard a shout. Turning towards the door, they saw a police officer blocking the exit.
"Freeze!"