Kronya looked utterly lost for words to these turn of events. She tried to say something but it only came out as jibberish. "A-a as if I'll help you worms! Help yourself!" Defiantly she stood her ground against Alex. "If you come any closer I'll rip out your throat."

As this was going on in the background Tifa was whispering something to Sodom. "You want to do WHAT!" He suddenly exclaimed in shock. "Are you cureragey??"

"I think it could work," Tifa said in a matter of fact tone. "Besides do you want to leave her here where she can cause problems again?"

Sodom thought about it for a moment before he sighed and turned around to address Kronya and Alex. "She...she could uuuh...hang with us to pay her debt?"

Kronya had a dumbfounded look on her face before she burst out laughing. "You think I'm going to hang out with filthy vermin like you as equals? Think again! I'll gut you like fishes the first chance I get."

Tifa shrugged. "Maybe, but we defeated you once already so I'm not too worried about that. What do you think Alex?" She turned to the blond wrestler. "Sounds like a plan, right?"

@Yun Lee
 
Well, it sounded totally bonkers, but it was better than fighting her again. Or leaving her unsupervised for that matter. "If you're up for it, then yeah, let's do that. Better than sendin' her back to town." He shrugged. "Though uh...you may wanna keep her away from any weapons. I don't even trust this one with a butter knife right now."

@Jeremi
 
"Alright!" Tifa replied with a perky smile. "It's settled then! We'll take Kronya to the truck and get everything in order and you can go and tell Tom and Patricia what's happened!

Sodom meanwhile didn't seem too excited about this. "Ugh, come on then clown girl. We'll get you settled up."

"He's not the master of my destiny!" Kronya pointed an accusing finger at Alex. "Neither are you worms and I won't- wait! Where are you going!" Tifa had started to walk away and beckoned Sodom and Alex to follow her.

"We did this with one of my friends before we got to know her too," She spoke loud enough for the two men to hear her. "Any second now..."

Sure enough much like a puppy looking for its owner, Kronya came running up to them. "I was talking to you!" She snapped when she was close enough.

"Oh you were? I didn't notice. So, Alex, we'll see you in a bit okay?" She replied with a wink aimed at Alex.

@Yun Lee
 
"Uhhh, yeah. Be back in a sec." It was kinda funny how little of a threat Kronya was once she was disarmed. Honestly that meant she'd be an asset to their little business...as long as she got over the whole needing to kill everybody thing. "Good luck," Alex said with a small salute, leaving Tifa and Sodom to deal with their new employee as he headed back home.

@Jeremi
 
As Sodom, Tifa and now Kronya went back to the truck and get everything in order for them to leave Alex found Tom in bed still with Patricia looking over him.

Her face lit up when she saw Alex walk in. “You’re back! And you’re dirty!” She went up to him and brushed off the excess dust and dirt from his shirt. “You need to be more careful to not dirty yourself up like that! Not to mention the bruises! You look like you've been in a car crash!”

“Never mind a little dirt,” Tom replied from his bed though he looked concerned when he got a proper look on Alex. “Looking like that I hope you caught the thief and gave them a lesson?”

@Yun Lee
 
"Huh?" Oh, right. He hadn't even seen himself. He took a second to look in a mirror hanging in the hall...oh jeez. He looked like a damn mess. But hey. The dragon and clown were both dealt with, so he'd take that over looking pretty any day.

"Yeah, we took care of her. Took care of a giant dragon out in the caves, too, which uh..." He gestured to his bruises. "Explains all this. The two I drove in with are gonna take her with 'em, so she won't be botherin' us no more."

@Jeremi
 
Patricia looked at Tom when Alex mentioned a dragon. "Of course there are dragons, not like this world is weird enough," With a heavy sigh, Tom laid his head down again. "You sure you guys know what you're doing with the thief? Not like we really had any place to hold her but..."

"You're leaving again?" Patricia asked Alex with a somber tone. "At least stay for a little while! I'll cook you something and you can relax for a bit until you have to go again. You could even ask the other two! I'd like to pay them back for their help somehow."

@Yun Lee
 
"Hey, it was their idea." Alex shrugged, as if washing his hands of the whole thing. "Long as she's outta here and away from you guys, it's fine by me." Not like he could've thought of anything better for her to do.

As Patricia got all sad, though, that got to him. How did she have the special skill to make him feel like a jerk with one look? "You're breakin' my heart here, Patty...you know I can't resist your cookin'." Honestly he wasn't so sure he wanted to leave right now, either, especially with Tom being out of commission like this. "Want me to go check with 'em?"

@Jeremi
 
Patricia’s face lit up as Alex decided to stay for dinner. “Great! I’ll get started immediately then!” She was already halfway into the kitchen when Alex asked about getting the others. “Sure! Tell them they are warmed welcome to join us!” As she left Tom turned his head towards Alex.

“Having you here for dinner’s going to be nice but, better make sure our thief doesn’t get into any trouble alright? Now go and grab them so we can get some grub!”

As Alex left their house he’d find Sodom and Tifa packing everything back to the truck while Kronya was solemnly sulking by one of the tires.

@Yun Lee
 
"Yo." Alex walked up to the duo, ignoring Kronya for the time being. "Need help? Me an' the family wanna thank you for your help by invitin' you to dinner." He looked over at Kronya and frowned. "Though uh...somethin' tells me we can't just leave her to her own thing."

@Jeremi
 
"Oh, that's awfully nice of you!" Tifa replied as she put the final stuff into the truck. "But you're right..." She looked over at Kronya. "Probably not best to leave her alone, or bring her along."

"We could just tie her up when we're eatin'?" Sodom replied.

"I'm not going anywhere..." Kronya mumbled.

"What did you say?" Sodom cupped his hand over his ear.

"I said, vermin, I'm not going anywhere! So if you want to go and bloat yourself over a hollow victory then be my guest! I'll just...stand here next to this metallic monstrosity." She slumped back down next to the tire and fell quiet again.

Tifa looked to Sodom and then over to Alex. "Uh, then I guess we'd love to! What time should we go? We're just about finished here after all."

@Yun Lee
 
"We can head out now, then, if you guys are all good." This was...sad. Not in a tragic way, more like a pathetic way. Like watching that one pink dude try to win a fight. But hey. Least Kronya wasn't dead. If they were all set Alex would lead the duo back to where the family was staying. "Patty's young, but she's a damn good cook. Food out here ain't so bad even without her touch, but she can make just about anything taste good."

@Jeremi
 
“A home-cooked meal will be a nice change of pace,” Tifa assured Alex. “I’ve been on the road for so long I don’t know when I last sat by a table and had a good meal.”

Sodom nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I’m not sayin’ my food is bad or nothin’. In fact, it’s world-class! But home-cooked grub is home-cooked grub you can’t change that!”

Leaving Kronya behind they’d soon be back at Tom and Patricia’s place where it seemed Patricia was in full swing with the cooking. “Hi!” She replied cheerfully as she peeked from the kitchen as she heard the door open. “Dinner’s going to take a little while longer! Just sit down and enjoy yourself.”

Even Tom seemed to have gotten out of bed and was sitting on one of the chairs, he looked over to Alex. “Before you say anything. I get to walk around. I’m more or less back to shape. I just…got to be careful and not get up so fast.” He then looked over to Tifa and Sodom. “Now you introduced yourself earlier but you...I don’t know.” Meaning Sodom who took a Kabuki pose and flipped open a fan.

“Who am I? Well, I am the amazing Sodom of course!” Alex could swear he could hear taiko drums in his head as Sodom posed and flexed. “It is a pleasure to meet you and your lovely daughter!” Pleasantries exchanged Patricia came out with a large cooking pot and a smile on her face.

“Here you go! I tried my best with what they have in the village.” Sitting down at the set table Patricia removed the pot lid revealing what appeared to be chili corn carne underneath. “I hope you all like it!”

@Yun Lee
 
Tom absolutely got a healthy dose of side-eye, but Alex didn't say nothing. Now was the time to relax after what had to be the most chaotic day yet since this whole mess, and besides. If he wasn't supposed to be moving around? Well, Tom sure as Hell would be feeling it later.

"Smells good as always, Patty." And that was no exaggeration. He loved his sister's food, and it was fun seeing how new ingredients out here made things interesting. "Y'know Tom, Sodom's from back home. Dunno if it's New York, but we're from the same world at least."

@Jeremi
 
"No kidding?" Tom said looking back over to Sodom, who was eating the food with the helmet on. "Where you from?"

Sodom almost choked on his food only getting it down with some heavy clunks of water. "Oh you know! Here, there and everywhere!"

"Didn't you say you were from Metro City?" Tifa asked him before smiling at Patricia. "This is really good by the way."

"Thank you!" She beamed. "Some times it just feels that people take my work for granted." She looked over to Tom when she said that but he acted like he didn't notice.

"Metro City yeah! But that's a long time ago now! I'm on the straight and narrow selling grub!" Sodom replied. "The road is my real home!"

@Yun Lee
 
"Metro City's changed a lot from back in the day, yeah?" Alex took care not to talk with his mouth full so he wouldn't get an earful over the meal, but at the cost of not being ads active in the initial conversation. "I remember even back in NYC we'd hear crime reports 'bout that place. Part a' me always wanted to go check it out for myself."

@Jeremi
 
Sodom almost choked on his food as Alex talked about Metro City. Downing a full glass of water to stop the coughing. "Y-Yeah well Mayor Mister Haggar really turned it around! O-or that's what I heard at least!"

"Speaking of bad business," Tom replied looking to all three of them. "This thief, you're just going to bring her along with you? What if she does something else?"

"I...think we don't have to worry about that, at least not anymore," Tifa assured him before she looked at Alex and Sodom. "I don't know if you noticed it but her eyes...when she was fighting us she was all on fire but now...they're so dim. I wonder what her story is, she seemed like she's totally given up."

"Yeah, yeah!" Sodom nodded. "And her talk about us humans! I mean she was pale but I just thought she was a goth clown or something. Wonder what that was about..."

"So it was a girl?" Patricia asked. "The thief?"

"Yeah, her name's Kronya and she was a real piece of work."

Tom took it all in and finally nodded. "Sounds like she's given up, maybe that's a good thing. This new world...maybe giving her something new might change her for the better?"

@Yun Lee
 
"Sure hope so. I don't wanna have to carry her outta any more messes than I did today." He knew the goth elephant in the room was gonna be addressed at some point, but at least the conversation was nice and relaxed. "Sure wish she was awake when that dragon hit though. Probably woulda humbled 'er a lot quicker."

@Jeremi
 
"Maybe," Tom muttered. "Sounds like whatever this girl is there's a lot more to it than just being a simple thief."

"Maybe we'll get some answers from her once she opens up to us. If, she opens up to us," Tifa added looking rather solemnly down at her food.

There was a lot of maybe's being thrown around the table before Sodom spoke up. " Hey, daijobu daijobu! We'll sort it out! She's a crazy gal but not everyone can be like her all the time...right?"

@Yun Lee
 
"No kiddin'. She'd make a great heel in the ring though. If workin' the truck don't pan out, I bet she could fall back on that." Pausing a bit, he looked over at the two. "So...you guys plannin' to head out tonight, tomorrow...?"

@Jeremi
 
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