It was strange to get a hug from his sister, but Eli took it surprisingly in stride. He wrapped his arms around her, listened to her words and whispered back quietly, “It’ll be alright.”
Then, louder, he scolded her, “Do not do that again. Or I’ll have no choice but to decide I’m mom’s favorite and the better sibling.”
After he was done, Eli turned to look at the man, his eyes narrowed in suspicion but filled with boredom. This man was annoying. Without a doubt he could decide that. “You can take your deal somewhere else. We’re not interested in anything.” He spoke, being the unofficial voice for the pair.
Farah lowered her head to smile for a brief moment at Eli's scolding comment before she looked up and made fierce eye contact with the man.
"Oh, but you haven't heard what I have yet to say," the man replied. "It will benefit both of you as it will benefit me, I guarantee that."
Eli rolled his eyes, scoffed and waved a dismissive hand, giving into the man’s antics. “Fine. Say your thing, but our answer is still no.”
As his sister didn’t object to his comments, he assumed she agreed with him. And for all purposes that dealt with the annoying man, he would continue to assume she was agreeing with him. At least until the dude left and he was able to yell at her properly about what had happened.
"What if I told you that you both had the ability to amplify your powers beyond what you thought you ever could be capable of?" the man asked, arching an eyebrow.
Suddenly, Farah felt herself becoming intrigued. Physically, she showed no change in her body language or facial expression other than gripping Eli just a smidge tighter.
"And what if I told you that if you trained with me, you'd be able to unlock that ability?" he continued.
"How is that possible?" Farah asked quickly.
He smirked. "My dear, anything is possible with science."
Eli was caught at his words just as much as his sister was. He was just better at hiding his interest.
“We’re already powerful, why need more?” He questioned, tipping his head to the side in mocking question. The question had a real answer he wanted to know, but it was easy to play off as just mock interest. “Amplifying my powers would do little to me. What could I do? Move my legs faster? Wow. Big moment.”
He could tell Farah was genuinely getting hooked on the man’s words, and he pinched her to remind her to focus. They didn’t need more power. They were already powerful enough. The water tornado they had made was proof of that.
The man shook his head. "No, not only move your legs faster Elijah, though you would no doubt see an increase in speed. You'd be able to incorporate other abilities with your speed, such as, perhaps, time? Or the wind. Potentially even weather in general."
Farah now began to seem skeptical. "Time? Wind? Weather? All from increasing his speed?"
The man's eyes glittered. "Exactly."
Eli couldn’t deny the words sounded too good to be true. But the power the man spoke of…if he could get his hands on it…Farah and him would be unstoppable.
“Now what’s the other end of the bargain?” He questioned, holding back on his dreams of power to figure out what this would cost both of them. Everything would have a price, especially this power he spoke of.
"Ah. Smart boy," the man praised Eli with a grin. "All I ask for in return is yourselves. Come back with me so that I can run a few brief tests on you, and then I'll be able to teach you how to grow your powers."
Farah seriously considered his offer. A few tests in exchange for exponentially powerful abilities? She felt her nosebleed start up again, so she pressed the sleeve of her jacket under her nose to stop the flow of blood. She looked up the few inches to meet Eli's eyes, and she whispered, "Well? What are you thinking?"
“And once we learn to control the powers we’re free to go?” He questioned, eyebrow raising in question. Eli wasn’t totally sold on the idea, but the power was enticing.
He narrowed his eyes at the man, then announced while spinning his sister around. “We need to think about it. Give us a minute.” Then, he marched her a few feet away. “Do you trust him?” Eli asked quietly, meeting Farah’s eyes, “I…I don’t think he’s telling us everything, but then again…the power we could gain..”
"Of course," the man acknowledged with a curt nod.
Farah glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were out of earshot before she spoke. "One of his guards gave me a bloody nose. Ask me again later if I trust him," she hissed, pulling her sleeve away from her nose to see a spot of blood on the cuff. "But if this new power is what he's promising… we could finally give this city the justice it deserves…" Her expression darkened as she said this.
(Sorry for the wait, I was skiing with family I haven’t seen in a long time!)
“Which one? I’ll give him a bloody nose of his own,” Eli replied, his eyebrows furrowing. His eyes twinkled when she mentioned using the power they would get. “You’re a quick learner, and it can’t be that hard to learn these powers. We’ll be in and out of there faster than I can run, then we can make the city our toy.”
Turning around, sure that his sister would agree with his choice, he spoke to the man. “We accept.”
(Nah, you're good! I had work basically all day T-T)
Farah narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin to signal her agreement with Eli's statement.
The man's eyes glittered. "Wonderful. Now, if you'll follow me." With that, he turned with his guards and filed through the door and down the steps.
Farah sighed, suddenly getting a sinking feeling like they'd signed themselves away. Her feet slowly began to move after the man, and she looked up at Eli. "Whatever happens, we stay together," she hissed.
(Oo that doesn’t sound fun…)
“Obviously,” He whispered in return, rolling his eyes. Whatever nice side of Eli she had seen, was now gone, replaced with his usual snarky self, “By the way, you owe me food since I came up here to save you. I want pizza.”
Eli followed his sister’s lead, following the man. It felt strange to walk so slowly, but then again, it always did. Having to spend the mental focus on just slowing down his footsteps to a reasonable speed was not something he enjoyed doing.
(It was not. I ran a register 100% by myself for the very first time, and I was so anxious >_<)
As Eli's caring side vanished, so did Farah's. She showed no hesitation when she drove her elbow into his ribs as retaliation for his comments. "You're lucky your metabolism works so fast, or you'd be massive," she teased wickedly.
She slowed down a bit extra on the stairs, not wanting to get too close behind the man and also knowing that a "normal" walking pace drove Eli up a wall.
(Ooo also not fun…how did it go?)
“I think you’re just jealous I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want,” He replied with a grin, stepping away from the elbow easily.
As they started down the stairs, he huffed, watching as she began to walk slower. “You’re so mean to me,” He whined, reluctantly matching her pace even as he wished he could just speed up. It would be so much nicer to just meet them at the bottom of the building. Especially with how many steps they had to go down to reach the bottom.
(It went pretty well, I think. The beginning was rough, but it got better especially towards the end of my shift lol)
Farah rolled her eyes. "You wish I was jealous of you, Sonic," she shot back, using her favorite nickname for him. "And I'm mean to you because I love you. It's called tough love, get used to it." However, she also got tired of the slow pace and began to go a bit faster, hoping the increased movement would ease her nerves.
(Well that’s good at least!)
Eli rolled his eyes in response and bumped her with an elbow, just enough to knock her into the railing. “I think you have love and hate mixed up, Drama Queen. No one with a sane mind would call your antics tough love.”
The man in front of them seemed extremely focused on making him walk as slow as possible, and he was starting to get annoyed. But he had told his sister they would stay together…and already it was backfiring on him. All he wanted to do was use a little speed and get down the steps. But no, he was stuck here with Farah, all because he wanted to seem brotherly.
"Well fortunately for me, I'm not sane," Farah replied, hissing and slipping a curse out through gritted teeth when her hip connected with the railing. "And neither are you. Why else would we have made this deal?" She felt him almost stepping on her heels as they walked, and she let out a loud sigh. "I'm going as fast as I can, would you relax?"
He huffed and grumbled under his breath, slowing down ever so slightly so he wasn’t right on her heels. It was going to be a long trip to the bottom of the building. And all he could do was suffer through it by annoying his sister. At least by doing that they both would be grumpy by the bottom, not just him.
Farah tossed a "Thank you" over her shoulder as she continued down the stairs. Discreetly, her eyes turned from brown to silver-blue as she used her powers in an attempt to connect to the feelings of the people around her. Eli, she ignored and instead focused on the emotions dwelling inside the mysterious man, who was leading the entourage down the stairs. Her nose wrinkled, and she shook her head, not knowing how to make sense of the situation.
“Where are we going?” Eli called out to the man, “Please tell me we’re not walking all the way down to the floor when there’s an elevator?”
He grew bored as soon as he had stopped bothering his sister, and the next best thing was to try to annoy the man. Or at least ask him questions to find out where they were going.
"I'm afraid there's not. We're going to the ground floor where my car is waiting outside to take us back," he replied. Now that he had the siblings in his clutches, he seemed much more enthusiastic to answer questions.
Farah gripped the handrail tighter as they continued downward. "E, I have a bad feeling about this," she muttered.
“Where is ‘back’ exactly?” He asked, quite unhappy that his guess had been right. They indeed were going to walk down every flight of stairs to reach the bottom of the building.
Eli huffed at his sisters words, whispering back under his breath, “Little late for that now, don’t you think? It’ll be fine. We’re quick learners. We’ll be in and out in no time.”
"To my organization," the man replied casually. "Try to keep up."
Farah's fingers that weren't holding the railing curled into a fist. "Piss off, I was in shock earlier. A bloody nose resulting from getting hit in the face by a stranger who just appears out of no where does that to you."
“You don’t see me making excuses when you use your powers to smack me in the face,” He hissed back, rolling his eyes, “We’re in too late now. Nothing we can do but roll with the punches.”
Eli huffed louder to show he was annoyed with the man, but he didn’t speak again. It was surprising to see him holding his comments, but there was a first for everything.
