Chapter 4: Teams

Everybody was already seated when the three of them arrived. Their mother looked at them sternly and motioned for them to sit along with the rest of the kids. There was three seats open at the table set for thirteen. One seat was between the Cruz sisters and the Makis, the other two were between Max and Kit, of course they would do this. Flo hurriedly sat next Kit and gave Avery a shy smile. This was another one of their tests to see if Avery would avoid them or face them head on. He sat next to Flo smiling at the whole table. He wasn't going down without a fight.

"Kid's table." He said pulling his chair up. Roz sat in the remaining chair directly across from him.

"How does it feel to be sitting at this table with all of us children, Mr. and Mrs. Best hunters?" Max asked already trying to agitate them.

"It's Miss you idiot." Roz snapped from across the table. "Besides someone has to make sure the troubled children are being watched over." Max sourly smiled at her. The Battalignas may have separated them but it wouldn't hinder them.

"Does everything have to be a fight with you two?" Avery asked as calmly as he could, just being around them was causing his blood to rise.

"Not a fight," Kit began.

"But a competition." Max finished his thought.

"A competition you're losing." Flo said playing with her napkin. Avery laughed looking at her. Just looking at her again made him calmer. He didn't know what she was doing to him but it was working.

"Shut your mouth Florence!" Kit said glaring at her.

"Don't talk to her that way!" Avery snapped back. "She can do whatever she wants." He felt her hand find his under the table and she looked down smiling.

"You're family might be a bunch of hippie progressives but our family..." Max was cut off when Rei Maki spoke for the first time the entire night.

"Treating women as equals in not progressive," His eyes moved across the table to the Battalignas. "It's merely common sense." He looked at his sister seated next to him. "Sometimes they posses the skills that we lack. Female warriors are nothing new to society, you'd know that if you paid attention during our schooling in New York." He continued to eat his food quietly as if nothing around him was happening. Roz and Avery smiled at each other contently, someone was on our side. The rest of the appetizers were eaten in silence. Flo still hadn't let go of Avery's hand. Once catering service had taken away the appetizer Mr. Bishops decided that it was time for toasts to be given, as if the speech he made at the beginning of the night was not enough. Avery knew that all this toasting was just going to lead into back handed compliments and more arsenal for Kit and Max to use against him and his sister. As per usual his dad went first. He started with childhood stories, which led into a reprise of how proud he was of both of them, which lead into his hopes for the future. He was into the third minute of his speech when a cell phone went off. He stopped talking immediately, he hated cell phones at the dinner table. It took a second for Avery to recognize the ringtone, he turned to Roz.

"Roz! turn it off!" He whispered urgently. She reached into her clutch and searched for her phone as it continued to go off. "We forgot to turn the volume off!" He apologetically said. Her ringer kept going.

"It must be about Colorado." She finally managed to turn it off and put it away.

"What about Colorado?" Their father was standing right behind Avery. He didn't dare to turn to look at him. Flo finally let go of his hand. Roz laughed timidly and shrugged. The entire table was silent. Mr. Bishops was a friendly man but he was scary when he was angry. Not one person made a move afraid of the man towering over them.

"Nothing," She motioned to his chair back at the adult table. "Go ahead and finish your speech it was amazing." Even the whole adult table was scared of their father, nobody dared say anything. Avery felt his father's hand on his shoulder. His heart dropped into his stomach.

"Avery what about Colorado?" He asked sternly.

"Umm..." Avery looked at Roz for help but she couldn't say anything without their father hearing or seeing. "I don't really know anything." He put on his best fake smile looking up at him. His father tightened his hold on him. "Really Dad I don't know." He said moving his shoulder away. His father reached his hand out to Roz.

"Give me your phone." His tone wasn't demanding, it didn't have to be everyone in the room knew he meant business. You didn't get to be a big bad Hunter without the intimidation factor. Something Roz and Avery still had to nail down. Roz sighed and handed him her phone. "Now what is so important about Colorado that needs to interrupt your celebration." He turned to the rest of the room saying everything aloud. "Another disappearance in Arapaho national park." He sounded as confused as Avery had been when he read it. He looked to Roz for an explanation but she just shrugged, they didn't want any of the others taking their hunt. He turned his attention back to the phone and went through her messages. "Why is Aaron, my research assistant texting you information about this park?" another moment of silence swept the room. His eyes didn't falter from his daughter.

"We were hoping to go camping in a few weeks." Avery lied trying to keep his attention off of Roz hoping she could come up with a lie as well. His father looked at him sternly clearly not believing.

"Why would you go camping in an area where people have disappeared?" His attention was back on Roz. She just shrugged at her brother, they were going to have to tell him eventually.

"It's a lead for a possible hunt." Roz answered quietly. He looked at her than at her phone. Most of the tension in his body faded instantly. The tension in the room did too.

"Oh," he gave her back the phone almost smiling. "Already looking for a new hunt." He seemed impressed. "Good." He moved back to his seat.

"Colorado is our turf." Kit said loud enough for the whole room to hear. "If anybody is hunting there it's Max and I."

"There is no turfs!" Avery rolled his eyes. "We aren't a bunch of gangs."

"I found the lead, so Avery and I will do the follow through." Roz yelled over the murmuring at both tables.

"We would like to take the hunt too." Micheleen said softly as her brother nodded along. Roz just glared at them.

"No, and no." She pointed to Kit. "Find your own damn lead." Everybody was talking over each other at once. It seemed they all wanted the lead. Roz had the death grip on her phone, she was dead set on nobody else getting this information. All the yelling was beginning to hurt Avery's head, the longer it went on the less he was able to focus. Everything was becoming one big wail in his ears. Anxiety was creeping up on him. He put his head in his hands and took deep breaths. Everyone was busy with yelling that nobody noticed. Nobody but Flo, she placed her hand on the back of his neck. Somehow it helped. It was a soft, warm touch that tethered him back into reality and out of his own head.

"Are you okay?" Her voice was soft but he could hear it through all the shouting. Like his ear were focused solely on her. So much for a night of celebration. The shouting instantly stopped. He looked up to see everyone's attention behind him. Grandmother Li was standing in the center of the room. She was holding her hand up demanding the room's attention. As if she had to demand anything, the woman had a regal presence about her that was hard to miss.

"We will hold a competition." Her voice was soft like Micheleen's but they all heard it perfectly. "The children will break into teams and go against each other to decide who will go on this hunt." Everyone looked at each other. Roz pointed to her brother then herself. He nodded diligently in agreement and turned back to Grandmother Li. "Three tests that will eliminate teams until one team is left." Some of the others looked to Roz, out of all of the people in this room Roz was the only one to have ever talk back to grandmother Li. Roz may be a quarter of her age but Grandmother Li respected her more than others. Something about how she reminded her of herself at that age.

"As long as we do it all tonight." Roz said getting up she began undoing the back zipper on her dress. "Everybody change clothing and we can meet at the training center down town." She looked at Avery waiting for him to respond. He immediately stood up and began to undo his necklace. His neck and collarbone felt much lighter. He handed the heavy necklace to Kit as he passed by him. Kit caught it but clearly underestimated the weight of the jewels, he had to brace his arms so he wouldn't drop it.

"It feels good giving to charity." He said undoing his hair. He didn't wait for a response and followed his sister. Both siblings headed to their rooms and headed straight to their closets. Avery went with all black workout clothes. He could hear his mom leading the rest of the kids into one of the guest rooms where they kept extra clothes. He went into his sister's room as she finished putting her shoes. They both pulled their hair back into low pony tails and headed out the door. They didn't wait for the others and drove directly to the training center, it was about fifteen minutes away from the pent house. The center was hidden underneath a business building, their father rented space to small businesses in the city there. The three floors below ground were where they trained, only those with a security card and code could enter the lower floors.

Roz and Avery were the first to arrive, they began stretching convinced that physical activity would be happening. Everyone arrived shortly after they did. The others began to stretch as well, the adults were unsure of what Grandmother Li expected them to do most of them were still wearing their suits and evening gowns. Flo was sitting next to her parents watching as the others stretched. They had all broken into pairs, six in total. Roz and Avery were together, so were Kit and Max, Rei and Micheleen were another team. The Cruz twins Amalia and Cassandra decided to compete together, their sister Bea had to partner up with Anna Felkent, and naturally Ruben and Stefan Santiago competed as a team. The six teams stood silently waiting for Grandmother Li to announce what they were going to do. Flo ran to her brothers and said something that her father had told her to say, they both nodded at their parents. Avery watched trying to figure out what they were saying. Flo timidly walked towards Roz and Avery.

"Hey Flo." He smiled, she looked as if she was blushing. She fidgeted with the hem of her blouse.

"I just wanted to wish you good luck." Her father snapped his fingers asking her to return. "This is your hunt." She said walking away with a small wave. He couldn't help the smile that took over his face, he looked down trying to hide it.

"The fair maiden awaits her knight." Roz said in a sing-song voice.

"Shut up." He laughed turning around to regain his composure. He could see Max and Kit staring daggers at him from a few yards away. Avery just smiled at them in defiance. It was clear that they didn’t like their sister speaking to him. Avery felt bad for using Flo to anger her brothers but he’d make sure to make it up to her. Roz tapped his shoulder pointing to Grandmother Li. She stood in front of all the competitors ready to tell them what they were going to be doing. Avery took a deep breath, he was going to win this thing.

The first test they were given was actually boring to them. Grandmother Li had Flo hand them all a sheet of paper and a pencil, she was going to name off characteristics and they would have to write down what supernatural creature they thought it was. They had the competitors sit on the ground at least three yards from each other, like they were in middle school gym class. The first creature was clearly a ghoul which made Avery laugh to myself having just dealt with them. He knew that knowing how to identify what they were fighting would be important but he was in workout clothes expecting to do something physical, something badass. The next series of characteristics were for a vampire, boring. Vampires were not as scary as they made them seem in books and movies. Really they only feed about once a month and most of them have been around long enough to create an empire giving the hunters a run for their money. They took care of their own with blood banks that they ran legally. Hunters rarely had to go head to head with vampires since their elders set rules that if not followed lead to death or imprisonment. They were given enough characteristics to identify a few more creatures, shape shifter, djinn, banshee, poltergeist, and mermaids. He looked around to see how some of the other hunters were doing and some of them seemed to be struggling but that wasn't his problem at this point. They identified a few more before Flo returned to collect our sheets of paper.

"What do you mean you put down demon? It’s a poltergeist!" He scolded Roz. She shrugged angrily at herself.

"They're pretty similar." She defended. "I mean they both mess with your mind."

"Poltergeist don't show themselves to you, they just move things to scare you." Her brother explained. "Demons show themselves in shadow form." He usually didn't roast her on not knowing stuff but they had a hunt and bragging rights against the Battalignas. They stood waiting in silence as Grandmother Li and a few of their parents checked everybody's answers. After a few minutes it was finally announced that the Cruz twins together had the least answers right. They were eliminated from the competition. Grandmother Li told the remaining competitors their next test would be weaponry skills. Finally something badass Avery was glad.