8 - Stray Kids//Nora

"Welcome to Paradox City News; Channel 14, where nothing is ever just right," Lucky Bagley said, shuffling his papers on the screen. "Breaking News Tonight; sensational marketing campaign goes a bit too viral."

"Feisty Ice, beloved friends of the show, put up a video on YouNow showcasing the downtown city area being destroyed by an adorable new mascot!" he said happily.

"A few viewers got too excited, believing that downtown Paradox had really been levelled by a cute red monster."

"Though Mr. Lacombe's definition of 'cute' might need a bit of fine tuning," Lucky added after a laugh.

"In unrelated news, Downtown Paradox City will be closed for renovations this week as the City Council finally put those wiley signs back where they belong. Was it the work of yet more pranksters? Hear the full story at 11."

-HEIST_ON-

"What was all that about a viral video?" Lea asked. "That actually happened, right? I was really a giant monster?"

"Don't focus too much on the detail," Nora said. "That's all a cover-up."

"A cover up?" Lea asked as Paxton walked back in, a manic expression on his face.

"Right," Nora said. "I've seen more than my fair share of them since I moved to Paradox City."

"What's up?" Nora asked, tilting her head at her friend. "You look like you're going to explode."

"I was thinking that we should take-" Paxton said, gesturing to Lea in a confused panic.

"Lea," she offered.

"Yeah, we should take Lea home," Paxton said, twiddling his fingers like a madman. Considering he'd just suggested they take their kidnapping victim home, he might have well been.

"How can you take me home now?" Lea said. "I just found out that the weird dream where I turned into a giant monster and destroyed the Lozenge Café actually happened! That means those two weirdos in masks are real too!"

"Weirdos?" Nora repeated angrily.

"And don't think I've forgotten about my StairS Limited Edition Lalala-" Lea began to say before being overcome by a wave of tiredness. She let out a large yawn.

"Because along with a bevy of interesting Raw Noiz facts that are actually really concerning," Paxton said. "The Mooar Shee clearly says that anybody who has recently recovered from a Raw Noiz possession will usually experience ten to twelve hours of uncontrollable tiredne-."

Lea didn't hear the rest as her legs buckled under her.

-HEIST_ON-

"Lea!" the lanky, raven haired boy who answered the Allis' front door shouted as soon as he'd opened it. Once she was out like a light, Paxton's quiet panic had transformed into a full on freak out. Luckily, Nora had found a Europop International Fan Club card in her skirt pocket.

After balking at the psychedelic print on her skirt and the existence of this bizzare fan club for weird pop music, Nora had foofl'ed the address on the card and they'd taken the bus over to her house.

Ever since she left Toronto in search of the mysterious Man_of_Manx, Nora had missed out on a lot of normal teenage things. Though her life before and since had been anything but normal, she'd never really cared until they had to cart an unconscious girl around on a public bus twice on the same day. If she was a normal teenager, she could have gotten her driver's license a few months ago when she'd turned sixteen.

But an unknown teenager showing up to driving school with no school records and an ID that had probably been listed as 'missing' would raise a lot of red flags, so she didn't bother.

Out of transformation, Paxton had no upper arm strength, so she needed to do the heavy lifting as they lugged this Lea girl up and down the stairs in Paxton's apartment building. On the bus, they had to hope nobody noticed that the girl with them was out cold. On both trips, nobody had even batted an eye at them. Maybe this was one of those many weird things about Paradox City.

Paxton kept insisting they transform, but Nora didn't think it would be okay to use the Noiz and Mooar Shee for trivial things like this. They needed to keep raising their Volume, but Paxton had admitted a few days ago that 'just' transforming raised it by a minute amount.

Now here they were in front of Lea's older brother, who used a walker to stay up. He didn't mention his condition as he ushered them in, so neither did they. Nora had to kick Paxton in the shin to keep him from prying.

"What's wrong with her?" he said as Nora set her down on the couch. The small house felt lived in, but not too messy. It was different from Paxton's practically pathological obsession with cleanliness. He'd even gone back to put the ramen away before they'd left.

"She's just tired!" Paxton said in the least convincing way possible, adding an unnatural laugh to the end of his statement. "We were just... partying!"

With his wild story out in the world, Nora was ready to break her no transforming policy just to get them out of there quickly enough. The expression on Lea's older brother's face was stony, and Nora was sure he was just about to call the cops.

Then he started to sob.

"Lea!" he shouted. "With all of your abject oddity, I never thought you'd be able to make friends who weren't gigantically socially awkward nerds!"

Thankfully, Lea finally fluttered her eyes and gave him a confused look.

"Waco?" she whispered, but he put a finger to her lips. "It's late; you need to rest."

"Don't worry, little sister!" Waco said, grabbing Paxton and Nora around the neck by his elbows. "I'll be sure to thank your cool new friends with a beautiful meal! Breakfast for dinner all around!"

And Nora thought her family was weird.