Finders Keepers

Prologue: It's A Child

It's Saturday.

Roxanne has rules for Saturday; no work, no Hal, no stress. For one day of the week, she isn't a reporter struggling her way up the KCMP ladder. She's just a normal woman, enjoying a quiet day to herself.

So she sleeps in late, until at least noon, and doesn't wonder whether she'll still have a job next week.

She drinks way too much coffee, with a side of too many pancakes, and doesn't worry about her next article.

She spends hours lazing around, watches crappy TV, makes a dent in her 'To Be Read' pile. She doesn't think about the errands she's putting off.

Those things can wait until Sunday; she still has a blissed seven hours left until midnight, and she's going to use them to make herself feel like a person again.

The only problem is, she's sorta out of ideas for what to do next. She doesn't really feel like doing much of anything, but just laying around is starting to feel like a waste. Maybe she can try that online game Hal recommended? It did actually sound interesting, more than his usual suggestions anyway.

She's not really in the mood for that, though. Maybe she can just...

She scans her eyes across the room from her position laying on the couch, looking for something, anything to do.

She could try to bake? Or maybe finally start yoga? Or–

Her eyes land on her sneakers, such simple things, and she grins. It's been forever since she went out for a proper jog, and she still has a few hours of sunlight to work with. This is perfect!

She jumps up, hurrying to change into something a little better for running than an oversized Hello Kitty t-shirt. (Hey, it's her day off, she's allowed to spend it in her pajamas)

The sky is clear, the wind's in her hair, and her favorite playlist is streaming through her headphones. Life is good.

Right up until she sees the smoke, a giant black cloud of it billowing close by. It's her day off, she doesn't need to investigate, she should just go home and–

And she's already heading towards it, sucking in a sharp breath when she turns a corner, viewing the destruction on front of her. A building she vaguely remembers as being condemned has collapsed, broken brick and burning flames everywhere, twisted metal that looks like it might've once been some sort of machine strewn about.

It is horrifying, and Roxanne decides that maybe this was a bad idea after all. She turns around, ready to head home and call the police, when a flash of movement catches her eye.

Oh God, someone isn't actually trapped in this, are they? She inches warily closer to the rubble, trying to spot the movement again, and blinks in frozen surprise when she finally finds the source; a small, groaning body, weakly twitching on the ground.

It's a child. Is Roxanne's first thought, followed by:

It has a tail, claws.

It's unconscious.

It's blue, its head–

It's a child.

Might be a child, might be an old man. No way to know–

It's hurt.

Its clothes are torn, dirty scraps of orange fabric barely clinging together. Blue skin is marred by numerous cuts, bleeding green and white in horrifying (yet admittedly fascinating) swirls.

Maybe it's a mutant. Maybe it's a monster. Maybe it's somebody's pet. Maybe it really is a child, or maybe it's as old as Great Nana Ritchi. But what's absolutely clear is that it's hurt, and there's no-one else around to help it, and she is not going to just abandon it.

So she lifts it up, carefully, not sure whether to be thankful or worried at how light it is. It groans and shifts in her arms, pressing closer without waking up, whining when her fingers brush one of the cuts.

She turns, ready to go home and try to save this thing's life, when something makes a sound behind her. She looks back, seeing a clear glass ball with something inside it, struggling to roll after her.

A piranha? But piranhas don't glow like that, she's pretty sure. And they don't have expressive enough faces to look so desperate and scared.

There's a crack in the glass ball, leaking just a few drops of water at a time. There's a cut on the fish's head, making the water go murky as black liquid oozes slowly out. It's obviously hurt, and its eyes are clouded enough that she can tell it's probably not thinking well right now, but it's still trying to follow her.

Roxanne turns back, switching the child's weight to one arm and scooping up the glass ball with her other before she can think better. The fish makes a startled, strangled sound, before pushing itself towards the kid. She moves her arms just enough to hold them to each other, and watches as both relax despite the glass barrier, cuddling with each other as best they can.

If Roxanne wasn't dedicated to saving them before, she most certainly is now. Her apartment's only a few blocks away, she was jogging barely ten minutes before she stumbled upon the rubble. She breaks into a sprint, reaching her home in five.

Now she just needs to... Figure out how to actually save their lives, before they bleed to death. The ball cracks open a little more, black-stained water rushing out faster, making the decision of what to do for her.

"First thing's first, then." She sets the blue one on her couch, heading into the bathroom despite the fish's sounds of protest. She plugs the bathtub, letting the water fill up, and grabs a knife from the kitchen to carefully create a hole in the ball. "Come on, little guy, let's get you settled."

The fish slumps into the water for all of five seconds before hopping out, flopping a few inches across the floor, obviously determined to rejoin the other despite its failed attempts at gasping breaths.

This might be a little harder than she thought...