"I know what you're thinking, kid, and it's not like that." The man decked out in some kind of strange shiny black tactical gear ran his hand through his buzzed grey peppered hair.

"We only recruit the best. My employer is extremely picky and doesn't tolerate wannabes or backyard junk refurbishers. He's had the privilege of seeing your designs and blueprints first hand." The man gave a nod in Derek's direction, who was lining up a shot at the worn pool table.

Fuccckkk thought Marvin.

He was torn but did his best to keep his face neutral. Marvin had heard recruitment pitches before. Different fractions of the remains of the US government had wanted him to design and create weapons for them. Organizations had pitched him when he was still a pimply teenager, seeing dollar signs when they looked at him.

Granted, since the world economy had collapsed a few years ago, the offers had lessened. Marvin had originally chalked it up to the challenges of the lack of satellite connections made for communication. Then air travel seemed to be an option exclusively for the military, or those who owned private planes, so people didn't travel as much as they used to, and that could have been another reason. Or maybe people were giving up.

Whatever the reason, this was the first recruitment pitch he had heard in a long time. He had to admit it was also the first one worth considering.

The man must have seen that Marvin was on the fence, regardless of his effort to hide his emotions because he pushed his offer a little harder.

"Let me guess, kid, you and your team kill maybe what 15, maybe 20 monsters in a year? Combining all the teams here and we decide to go with 20 per team, that's 800 monsters a year, which is excellent for the people around here. But you're not fixing anything, are you? Monsters keep coming, and all that is being accomplished resembles containment of a growing problem.

"Did you know when they first started coming eight years ago, the world saw maybe two to three monsters a day? By the third year, that had turned to almost 50 monsters daily worldwide. Still manageable. Today kid, we see hundreds of those nasty beasts daily popping up fucking everywhere!

"This is your chance, kid, to be part of the solution, not just a grunt fighting to contain the bullshit. My employer is close to finding the source of these assholes, and when we do, we need the best minds of the world on hand to figure out how to stop them!"

He's nuts. Do they think there is a single source for these things? How is that bloody possible? They show up all around the world. That would mean they would have to be coming from a central location...

Marvin couldn't control his eyes going wide. He'd never thought much of it before. However, when that blue rift in the sky had cracked the Mediterranean Sea in two, draining it in a day, and then had seemed to fall into the never-ending crevice like a falling star, no one had understood what had happened, or what it had meant.

He had been only a kid and had understood some kind of a horrible natural disaster had taken place, but everyone had blamed the Earth's shifting climate. Or so he had thought.

"Fuck." Marvin breathed the word like a silent prayer. "They are coming from the centre of the Earth somehow, aren't they?"

The man's eyebrows shot up. "You are quick, kid. Derek wasn't exaggerating when he said you are smart. It took some of the smartest people in the world years to consider that idea and decide it held to credit."

Shaking his head, he looked Marvin in the eyes so intently Marvin was sure the man was reading his every thought.

"Marvin, help us eradicate this infestation so our planet can start to rebuild. You know this is what you were made for. This is your calling, son."

"Look, sir, it does sound good. I mean, who wouldn't want to help save the world? But I have responsibilities here, and these people rely on me."

"Derek mentioned your sister. Bring her. She may not be a genius inventor like you, but I have heard enough to know we could find a place for her. Hard enough finding people willing to fight, mind you to have the courage to do some of the crazy shit we have heard she's done."

Fuck me. He's right. I could fight the monsters until the day I die, but if they just keep coming in greater numbers, how long will it be until they take over?

Inwardly groaning, Marvin stared at something behind the man's head on the wall, not seeing anything but lost in contemplation. He never saw or even heard Aiya approaching.

-------------------

Aiya could tell by her brother's posture he was deep in thought. That was a bad sign. Usually, life-altering decisions were made when he thought too hard. She had followed her brother all over North America in the last few years, determined to keep him safe, yet never getting in the way of what he felt he needed to do.

However, today after the huge verbal dump Errend had just had... Shit! I need him to come with me.

Errend had a lot of explaining to do. Thankfully he was close on her heels as she had made it clear he would be required to answer ALL her brother's questions without hesitation and without holding anything back. Marvin had a mind built for war, it seemed. She needed to hear his honest opinion.

Just before she reached the table where she saw Derek had somehow found a new asshole to try and make money off of by selling her brother's blueprints, Errend grabbed her arm, rather hard in her opinion, and stopped her.

"I think we should wait until the man leaves." Errend shot an anxious look at the middle-aged man who looked to be in better shape than half the twenty-somethings in the room.

Seeing the unusual look, well unusual look for Errend, Aiya asked the obvious. "Why?".

"I just think it would be rude to interrupt. We could ruin a chance for your brother to make a good trade."

"Annnnd now I know why you never lie. You suck at it. Stick to being Earnest. It's your thing."

Groaning, Errend relented. "Fine. I know him. He's aged a lot, so I didn't notice until just now that we are finally closer. Fuck! I had a feeling I knew him. I should have waited to talk to you until later!"

Aiya's eyes were as wide as baseballs she knew, but this man had never in all the time she had known him lost his cool in front of her before. Whoever this guy was Marvin's talking to for some reason really bothered Errend.

She was just about to say the one word a woman should never say to a man, "fine," when she heard Derek yell at her.

Well, Errend, it's your own fault. Sorry, buddy.

The reality was he could have dumped all this crap on her months ago instead of waiting like a pussy. But oh no, he had to drag shit out like a bad breakup. Then when he finally gets the courage, he picks the night Derek has made plans for a stranger to be in town to try and buy out her brother.

It turned out, it may have been fate. Yet Aiya didn't believe in fate, gods or any of that. Things had science behind them, always.

Walking over to Derek, she noticed Errend stayed in the shadows avoiding being in direct view of the man. Seriously either the man was way scarier than he looked, or Errend was a massive coward, which she didn't think he was.

"So Derek, you get paid a finders fee if this works out?"

He gave her a mock look of pain and placing his hand over his heart. He dramatically exclaimed, a little too loudly, "Aiya, you wound me! I am not in this for myself. How could you think so little of me? Me who loves your brother more than I do my balls?"

Fuck me. I need strength for this. Aiya's eyes rolled heavenward as she struggled between laughing at him and wanting to punch him in his smirking mouth. He was an ass, but he was good at being an ass, which made him funny.

"Aiya!" The apparent relief in Marvin's voice upon seeing her made Aiya relax a little. This was why she was here in this shit hole, to begin with, to help keep her brother safe and out of trouble.

"Hey bro, what's the latest?" Pretending captain intimidation wasn't eyeballing her every move like she was going to cut his throat, Aiya ignored the man sitting at the little table across from her brother and stole a nearby chair to sit next to Marvin.

"Aiya, this isn't what you think." Marvin glanced at the man for a second, who gave a slight nod, then Aiya experienced her second verbal dump that night. This one, however, made a feeling similar to excitement dance across her skin.