"Joey!"
Joey glanced up from restocking the shelves as Cleo ran over to him, her eyes wide and her face pale.
He glanced quickly at Justice, who was working the till. He could probably talk to Cleo for a minute or two. Crystal wasn't working, and if he played it as helping a customer no one would care too much.
Best to still keep his hands moving, though.
"What is it?" he asked, pausing for a second to make sure Cleo wasn't going to trip over anything. She didn't, but she looked a bit unsteady.
"Something nuts happened. Again. I mean, everything's always nuts, but - "
"Cleo. Breathe." He grabbed her by the shoulders as she took a second to compose herself.
"Right. Sorry. We can talk on the way home. Your shift's done soon, right? I'll just hang around until then."
"Twenty-five minutes," Joey said, going back to stocking shelves. Crystal was pretty particular about keeping every shelf full and beautiful.
"Twenty-eight. You'll be delayed by a bit. But that's fine. I'll wait." Without another word, Cleo started walking around the store.
Joey sighed, smiling despite himself. Her future predictions were mostly accurate - they only seemed to change if she herself interfered - and sometimes she used that for the most frivolous of things. He wondered what kind of delay he'd be experiencing.
Two minutes before his shift ended, he had his answer. Some had picked up a carton of juice, not realizing that it was damaged, and it spilled all over the aisle. Cleaning it up took him three minutes past his normal finish time, just as Cleo had said.
When he had changed back into his normal clothes, he waved at Justice and followed Cleo out.
"So?" Joey asked quietly. If it was something she'd come to find him at work about, it was probably important. Maybe not important enough to wait until they were back in the Underwing.
"Two seconds." Cleo grabbed his arm and dragged him into an alley, where she opened up a portal that brought them back to the Underwing's living room. Ida and Ned were sitting on the floor discussing something, while Darius watched with great interest.
"Welcome back," Ned said, glancing up from his tablet.
"What are you two up to?" Joey asked.
"Ida offered to help me figure out how to make a game on my own," Ned said. "I was showing her some concept art."
"He's not bad," Darius said. "And the story concept sounds interesting."
"Ida's helping you with it?" Cleo asked, raising an eyebrow. "How does she know anything about this?"
"I dunno, but she does," Ned said. "She's even pointed out some things I wouldn't have thought of."
"Glad you two are getting along," Joey said with a smile. "Sorry, but Cleo wanted to discuss something."
"Right. That. Come on." She dragged him over to the kitchen, where they sat together at the counter, speaking quietly so they wouldn't bother the others.
"So?" Joey asked.
"Something weird. Really weird. Today, Magnetic got attacked by Twinblade again - they have a history and Twinblade hates his guts for reasons that aren't really Magnetic's fault - anyway, Twinblade's Miracle quit working halfway through their fight. Magnetic won the fistfight, and the both scattered when the military showed up. A special military unit."
Joey nodded at her to continue.
"The Third Division has made a special anti-Miracle squad now. Led by a guy with a Miracle. I think. Details are fuzzy. Anyway, the most concerning part is that Twinblade's Miracle quit working and I have no idea why. I've tried digging around the area, looking through as much as I can - that's how I learned about Officer Griffin - he's the guy with the Miracle - but I can't find anything that would indicate that a Miracle would stop working. It's like it just...quit.
"So I have to wonder, is that our fate? Are all of us eventually going to burn out the power of our Miracles and everything will go back to normal? Or is that a freak occurrence? Or is there something else at play here? And even if we assume the Miracles burn out eventually, that doesn't explain why mine seems to want to work so much, or why Achilles is still fine when someone who got a Miracle as recently as Twinblade would be losing his.
"Could be that the burnout depends on how much usage it gets, but then wouldn't we have seen this earlier? I mean, Achilles' Miracle is always running, and there have been others with weapon-based Miracles who have probably used them more. I mean, just think of Light Master or Hot Rod or even Paris. Why Twinblade of all people?"
Cleo looked at him, her hands shaking ever so slightly.
"I'm scared. I don't know what's going on and I have no way of figuring it out. Ever since I started using my Miracle in earnest, I've always had an idea of who's doing what and if I don't know, I can figure it out quickly. The only one who - no."
Cleo's eyes widened and she put her hands over her mouth, taking a shaky breath.
"What is it Cleo?"
"The only other person I can't see is Odin. Well, anything to do with the Underwing really. So...did Odin find a way to turn off the Miracles?"
"Isn't that a good thing?" Joey asked carefully. "If he can stop Miracles, there's no reason for him to kill anyone else."
"Yeah, but...I don't know. I have a really bad feeling in my gut right now and I don't know how to handle it."
"Can we ask Odin about it?"
"Should we?"
"Let's wait until Courtney gets back and ask her about it," Joey said, glancing at Ned, Ida and Darius. Probably best that Cleo hadn't said anything that might freak them out.
If Miracles could burn out, would there be some kind of warning sign? Or would Joey just one day land on his face with no Miracle to protect him?
Depending on the height, he might just wind up dead this time.
He frowned, and took Cleo's shaking hands in his. For his own comfort as much as hers. The idea of falling without any protection, of potentially dying, terrified him. There was no way he could leave Ned alone like that.
Until Cleo had this figured out, he decided he'd try to use his Miracle as little as possible.
