'How could something like this even happen?'
Valentine pondered while holding his stomach in a almost useless attempt to hold back the river of blood that leaked out of him, if he couldn't hold his blood then at least he could hold in his guts right?
Looking back up the drab hallway was wrecked with small tinders marring the walls, in front of him were two people, a young blonde man that looked about his age, maybe a little older from his defined face and a older man wearing a face mask, his hair receeding at the edges.
With a practiced calm the blonde reached for his elbow where his core was held, his finger tips touched the orb and in less than a second he swung his hand forwards.
Miraculously for someone his age, an energy erupted from his core, following the swung hand and shot itself towards the older man like arrows.
Again the thought crossed Valentine's mind, 'how could something like this even happen?'
***
Earlier that day.
Valentine was walking the clean street, the morning sun poking through sky scrapers that seemed infinite like a spotlight on his skin, exposing him for the shady character he is.
With a causal step he turned right into a thin alley that was about twice the length of his shoulders, he stepped high to avoid the various bags of garbage leaning against either of the buildings that surrounded him.
After a minute of navigating the alley he walked to the locked chain fense, with a single look back he removed his cheap jacked and tossed it onto the top of the fense, his fingers held the holes and with the kick of his leg he climbed up the fense and over to the other side.
Yanking at his jacket it tore as he tried to take it down, "haaaaaaaaa shit, I just bought this." Valentines sighed, he pulled down the remains and just threw it against the wall in frustration he couldn't express any other way. After an awkward moment he pulled several bills from the jackets pocket and stuffed them into his front jean pocket and looked around.
The back alleys were always tight, the crevices and tight spaces ran through New Elun like veins.
Valentine started walking through these veins, doubling back whenever he saw a person and taking a different route now naked with just his shirt until he got to a door far from the main road, knocking on the door in a rhythmic jingle and waiting for a few moments the slider opened and two eyes peered out, looking left and right a few times before finally looking down.
"Ah, kid, you're finally here, get in."
The almost scratched voice slammed the shutter and with several clicks the door finally opened.
"Do we really have to do the knocking part every time? It's so tedious.."
"Stop complaining kid, it's how we keep safe, you know that."
George looked at Valentine for a moment before walking further into the building, George was a lanky man with long limbs and sickly gray skin with bulging blue and red veins showing at parts, even with his clothing- which was particularly good for the back alleys, a long coat, black pants, a real belt, and a shirt he still looked almost inhuman. Like a charcuterie of a tired salesman.
Valentine followed into the building, "are you and Sarah going to be okay? I heard that the city council is planning on clearing this area for something or other."
"It'll be a new University, and we'll be fine, well we'll soon be."
"Right.." there was a reason Valentine was here besides a few pleasantries, he was here for a job. Specifically chosen because he still had his core, even after many years and several times where he barely scraped by with his life he still had that damn marble in his hip.
A core on a fundamental is a battery, invented back when man still had the leisure for war a core is a surgically implanted object somewhere in a human that siphoned energy from living and allowed people to use it for fantastical things, almost like magic. Alongside talent, knowledge, money and some even more money people with cores become super human-
"-Val, Val, Valentine! Are you listening?"
"Yeah yeah, use my core to get into the St. Micheal's student admission ceremony and steal that.. thing, yeah, the thing"
"The ancestral blade, January. The weapon of St. Micheal. If you can get that, then we can move out of here and move into somewhere good. Of course you'll get your cut for whatever but you understand why I'm choosing you for this right?"
"My core?"
"Yes, but also your youth and abilities, you've survived here for a long time on your own, so you should be able to take care of anything those preps have- but uh, take care to not get caught okay? If you get caught by someone who can use their core you're just fucked. If not outright obliterated."
His words sent shivers up Valentines spine but on his lip was a slight smirk that he couldn't get rid of no matter the danger.
"So how are you even going to get me in? Even if I have a core they still have a dress code and ID stuff right?"
With a sigh George tossed some clothes onto a coffee table. George and his daughter Sasha lived in a pretty decent abandoned building, hell it even had furniture and no roaches crawling across the floor. "Take these and go change, it wasn't cheap acquiring these, understood?"
Valentine scooped them up happily and skipped to the small bathroom in the apartment and almost slammed the door, 'new clothes~ new clothes~ new clothes~' he silently hummed to himself.
Examining the clothing in his arms there were pants, a tank top, a fancy shirt, and the piece de resistance.. a dark red jacket, it had a few well sewn up sections at corners so that it looked just good enough to pass without detailed analysis. On the front was an embroidered metal badge and a small metal plate on the back that was usually hidden by the shirt collar.
After throwing his old threads off and these new clothes on he examined himself in the cracked mirror and out on his best smile and looked like a thug "okay no not that." After several minutes of adjusting his expression to something that at least looked sort of fancy he exited the bedroom and showed off to George.
"So what do you think?"
"Mm. Should be good enough. Use one of my pairs of shoes instead of those things, and for god sake brush back your hair. Hell it might be better to just cut it."
"Wait- no- not the hair, that's the only thing that makes me look handsome!"
With a pair of vaguely rusty scissors George slowly approached..
***
"Now isn't that better kid?" George combed Valentines hair into a swoosh ending behind the ear."
Defeated, Valentine sat in the chair looking disparagingly at the mirror. "You've ruined me sob sob."
"Cut that out, think of all that beautiful money in the future you'll get just for the price of getting rid of that shaggy hair."
"Okay.." Valentine mumbled out.