Chapter 13

"Girls!! I got our food!" Sage called out, bringing in a giant armful of groceries.

"Sage, you are a life saver." Evangeline said, rushing out to help her with groceries.

"It's kinda hard to adjust to a new diet." Samantha said, coming out of her newly finished room and sliding down the pole.

They'd finished tricking out their safe house, adding more rooms inside their large and spacious area. Each girl had their own room, but they always had their doors open just in case they had to defend themselves or go hunt down more information. They finished their upper floor area, where Samantha and Evangeline resided. It was really more of a loft where the two girls could watch from below. Evangeline demanded an upper room because of the recent experiences with the two y men. Both bedrooms didn't have doors but instead had a dark curtain. They sturdied a fire pole from an abandoned fire station as well as spiral stairs. There was a bathroom in the middle of the two rooms upstairs.

Sage's, Scarlett's, and Aisha's rooms were below with another bathroom the three girls shared. The lower bedrooms had doors and Aisha insisted on a window in which she could see into the living area without leaving her room. They added a half bath near the front of the safe house so the boys wouldn't be wandering through their personal belongings. Ever since they had the rooms up they felt a lot more comfortable and relaxed since they could just retreat whenever they wanted to. Their living room area was in the back corner while their kitchen/dining area was near the door. There was an area set up for Scarlett to practice self-defense and other skills.

"Where's Aisha?" Sage asked.

Samantha shrugged. "I'm not sure...she's been hauled up in her room/bathroom all day. Probably exercising her brain."

Aisha stuck her head which was wrapped in a towel out of her room to see the commotion and saw the groceries. The girls turned to see their reclusive brainiac. Scarlett put down the grocery bag she was carrying onto the table.

"There's our little computer! Why do you have a towel on your head?" She asked.

"Head's Up!" Sage said, tossing a bottle to Samantha. She caught it easily. She tossed a box to her as well, which she caught, but not as successfully.

"I have a comment about the diet thing." Aisha stated, coming out of her room/office area.

"First off, the turban is coming off. It's not a good look for you." Samantha said, giving an 'I disapprove' look.

Aisha took down the turban and the girls gasped in shock at the hair change. Instead of a normal brunette she had ombréd her hair from brunette to purple with an occasional blue streak in the purple. She had also trimmed up her fringe and colored the underside of it the same mixture of purple and blue. (New Hair)

"Damn girl, you look y!" Evangeline said. "No wonder we haven't seen you all day!"

"And that's why it smelled a bit funky in the bathroom." Samantha noted. "It was cuz of all that bleach!"

"I got the inspiration from our name. We're Nebula...the galaxy. Naturally I tried a galaxy look." Aisha explained. "Anyway, can I still say the comment about our new diet?"

"Go for it." Samantha said.

"Well, we're used to all the fried food of America, so naturally it's going to be a bit harder. Honestly I feel that because we have practically no fried things in our diet anymore, we're healthier."

"It would explain the fact that my pants are getting looser." Evangeline noted, and began throwing food in their appropriate spots. Sage laughed and tossed a bottle and box to Aisha. Unfortunately Aisha's catching skills were lacking and both items tumbled to the floor. Scarlett laughed at her misfortune.

"Oh my Lord...you got me some liquor!!!" Evangeline exclaimed happily, holding up a vodka bottle. "This russian girl needs a drink! Gang stuff is hard work!" The rest of the girls looked at her curiously while Sage wash unfazed by her behavior. Evangeline poured herself a glass into a coffee mug and chugged.

"So, while we were out, did y'all find anything new?" Scarlett asked.

"I think I found something worth checking out." Aisha said, going back into her room/office.

"So besides dying your hair, you were also productive." Sage said.

"Of course." Aisha called out. She quickly printed the important sheet out and waved it in the air to dry the ink faster before returning to the girls.

"You found more info on Danny?" Evangeline asked, brow arched.

"Yeah, apparently he's part of a gang...maybe even the mafia."

"It sounds like the working theory of Tori being taken for revenge is actually becoming a bit more likely." Sage said.

"I want to be pleased with myself for coming up with that, but it's making me sick to my stomach that it may be true." Samantha said. "Or it could be cramps too..."

"Take your painkiller, we don't have time for monthly bills." Scarlett said.

"We need to have a little chat with these boys Danny may or may not know listed on the page." Evangeline decided. The four other girls agreed.

"OW!!! What the hell, little bi-"

"SAVE IT!" Scarlett shouted at the man. "You just admitted to knowing Danny. Now we want ANSWERS!" She'd forced the man, Benjamin, to the hard brick wall and pressed her gun to his head. Aisha had her gun trained on him as well. Evangeline had taken down his other friend, Conner, and had a gun pointed to him. Samantha was busy getting information from another guy who had easily fallen under her con-woman spell. Sage was keeping watch over the whole situation, making sure that there was a way to escape if they needed to or the police came.

"Okay, fine! We supplied Danny with those drugs!" Benjamin spat out. "But we know nothing about some girl he banged for two years."

"Usually when we get a girl, we keep her out of our affairs. OW!" Conner choked out. Evangeline dug her heeled boot into his back.

"We knew that he wasn't too concerned with her after dating her for a while. He sounded a bit bored at times..." Benjamin winced as Scarlett pressed the gun harder to his head. "Seriously, we were just his suppliers. We grew it, he bought it, and sold it to other people."

"He'd occasionally vent about how he was seeing this other girl, and it was getting harder to see her cuz of the other chick you're talking abo-OUCH! Dammit russian chick!" Conner growled out. Evangeline had backhanded him. "I'm on the ground here, are you going to me next?"

"Oh please." She rolled her eyes. "I didn't come down here because I was ."

Samantha came back to the group, looking satisfied. The boys they ganged up on gasped at their companion now on the ground.

"What'd you do to Stan?" Benjamin asked.

"I found out he's a drug addict. He'll be fine, chill." Samantha said smugly. She pulled out her weapon of choice. "Now where were we?"

"You didn't tell us who you work for." Scarlett said with aggression.

"You tell us who you work for first."

"Nebula works for no one." Evangeline said, notching an eyebrow up.

"Oh ...you're Nebula?" Conner asked. Samantha looked at him, a bit confused.

"Yeah...so?"

"Do you realize how much trouble you guys are causing the mafia?" Benjamin asked. Aisha made a mental note to look themselves up online.

"So, you work for the mafia?" Sage asked.

"Who doesn't, to be honest..." Conner said quietly.

"What did they do to Tori?"

"Most likely shipped her off to Korea or something. We don't know. We just know they took some girl from Italy. It was a big deal because the big man had one of his strongest gang members dispose of her." Benjamin said, finally getting desperate to escape.

"What's the strongest gang?" Aisha asked.

"We don't talk about them..." Benjamin said. Suddenly gunshots rang out.

"SCATTER!" Evangeline shrieked. They followed Sage who's mapped out their escape route out of the war zone. Aisha looked behind her and saw Benjamin get shot in the arm as more guns were fired. She turned back around and scrambled into the car with the rest of the girls. Evangeline slammed on the gas pedal and off they zoomed to their safe house.

"So, brief recap." She said, jerking the car violently to the left. "Tori was taken by part of the biggest gang ran by the mafia. We need to figure out what that gang is and basically as much information as we can about them. That'll probably require some hacking."

"We also need to look ourselves up. It sounds like we're getting a reputation for being bad gir