"Don’t leave with them. You’re a cool guy, and I don’t want to fight you later because they lied to you. You saw what they did to Angelie."That familiar voice didn’t quite surprise him but it did pull him from the brooding that he’d started to fall into. The esper addressing him was the wolfish girl from his first operation in the city, the one at the church. Asher frowned at her words, mulling over their meaning as he attempted to recall the church. It was his first real act as an esper in Pax Septimus and he’d had just as much of a clue about what was going on back then as he did now. Clearly he was supposed to be remembering someone but he wasn’t really placing the name. Contextually though he imagined she had to be referring to the girl who’d been unceremoniously decapitated. Asher hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing her any further than that but clearly the two of them had been comrades for a time, albeit short. Clearly she was trying to warn him off of his present course and using the prior events as an attempt to persuade him. She must think him a fool who walks willingly into the lion's mouth, pity. A slight scowl was all she received in response.
A voice called out, one not present.
”I thought it was hard to see with the smoke screen.”Before Asher was given any time to respond further he was enveloped along with the other members of the party in a thick cloud of smoke and whisked away in a manner unfamiliar to him. Asher was no fool, but he was definitely treading a fine line here in his present company. But he needed answers and who better to perhaps share some of the truth than someone who might not altogether be fond of you? Asher had no doubt that every other group he’d met so far wouldn’t mind spinning him a tale to pull at his heart and convince him to rally to their cause. Black Sabbath might be just as manipulative, or perhaps their nature would lend a different brand of honesty. Only time would tell.
As they touched down and materialized in a nearby back alley Asher opted to transform back into his usual self. He didn’t really give a shit when it came to secrecy, he didn’t have a family to threaten or friends to harm or any allegiances to worry about. The worst that might happen is he would be recognized from his touring days, what a bore that felt like to him now.
“So…” He started, taking a drag off the cigar Bobo had so [i]kindly[/] parted ways with prior,
“who wants to start talking? Or should I start asking questions?”Most of the nuns remained silent. Nova and Lexi seemed a bit taken back by the fact that Asher would transform so suddenly. They weren’t
that far away from the combat area. The sound of motorcycles and exploding rockets seemed to erupt from all around them. Bobo rolled her eyes, also in the middle of smoking a cigar.
”You want to have a heart to heart here?”Lenore positioned herself in front of Asher. She was grinning like the Cheshire cat, but there was something in her eyes. Maybe it was pity, empathy, or something akin to a con artist spotting the perfect mark. Maybe it was a little bit of each of those.
”Pax Septimus is a confusing place.” She didn’t detransform, but her weapon was on her back.
”But being an esper is confusing already. You have all this power, but no way of making meaningful change by yourself. That’s why I founded Black Sabbath. I got tired of working for the government’s nebulous ends, but even with the four of us, we couldn’t really do anything. But as freelancers, we could at least decide who we worked for.” Lenore patted Asher on the shoulder. All of once before he twisted his shoulder to the side to avoid her touching him further.
Another scowl jumped to his face in response.
“Not really a touchy person, if you don’t mind.” he explained. He didn’t like the way she looked his way as she spoke, that face that just felt like it hooked a fish.
“Yeah I’m not the biggest fan of the government myself. But can the recruitment speech, I’m not some soft-gazed hopeful enamored with your big bad outfit. I’ve been at this for a few years now, just not really local to this area. Usually things aren’t this complicated but I can’t help but feel like I’ve stumbled into the middle of somebody else's theatre and I don’t know what the play is. What can you actually tell me about the city and it’s big players?”Asher’s hostility didn’t seem to dampen Lenore’s smile.
”I hope you didn’t let the kitty give you the wrong idea about us. We’re just a band of freelancers. I wouldn’t take you into my ranks anyway. You might have noticed that everyone in this team has a certain quality that you don’t possess.”Nova leaned in close and in a hushed tone said:
”It’s a vagina.””And I’d overlook that if I thought you’d look good in a habit. We’ll respect your personal space at least.” Lenore half bowed.
“Usually things aren’t this complicated but I can’t help but feel like I’ve stumbled into the middle of somebody else's theatre and I don’t know what the play is. What can you actually tell me about the city and it’s big players?””Pax Septimus was ‘protected’ by a ferociously powerful esper known as Penny, The Iron Queen. She was rumored to be invincible, until she wasn’t. Some unknown killed her, which created a power vacuum that the ‘big players’ rushed in to fill. Penny more or less allowed monsters to do their thing with impunity you see. GEMINI , being the US government, didn’t think it was going to be able to tax the monsters. So they have shown up to wipe them out.”Nova positioned herself against the wall next to Asher.
“But that’s mean, so Maverick Alternative decided to step in. They believe that there are good monsters, and want to give as many of them a shot as they can. GEMINI didn’t like that, so they labeled them a terrorist organization and fight with them and the monsters!”“And where there’s a conflict of interest, there’s money to be made.” Lexi placed a hand on her hip.
“I could tell you a lot about freelancers, but I feel like would come across as patronizing.”Lenore looked at Bobo, but when she didn’t speak up, the sister of sacrilege continued.
“And things were fine for a time, but then they discovered The Hand, a group of monsters running Pax Septimus from the shadows. Also the pope decided to get involved, so the Inquisition is here too. I couldn’t tell you why.”Nova inched closer, just on the verge of what one might call Asher’s personal space. She might have even been slightly inside it.
“And then you have Oros the Mad. No one knows why she’s here either, but with a name like ‘the mad’ I wouldn’t waste too many brain cells thinking about it.”Lenore mirrored Nova and leaned against the wall, but on the other side of Asher.
“It all comes down to money.” She hesitated.
“Well, at least that’s the simple explanation. If you look at individuals it can get a little more complicated.”Lexi, now in front of Asher, turned to look at her boss.
“You use to work with the nut job who runs GEMINI’s Pax Septimus branch, right?”“Yea, but that was a long time ago…”Asher tucked his hands in his pocket and stepped out of between the two nuns to his side and slightly past Lenore as he took a deep drag on his cigar.
“I appreciate your consideration of my personal space,” he started, sarcasm dripping heavily from his words as he exhaled,
“so what can you tell me about GEMINI? Or more so their local branch? Your old gig huh?” Asher asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. Asher took a few casual steps towards the opposite end of the alley, no clear destination in mind but more so as a means of putting a few feet between him and the group. He still wasn’t one-hundred percent sure they weren’t attempting to trap him and thus wasn’t willing to be entirely unguarded.
If he was being honest with himself he wasn’t quite sure where to go from here, a little background info helped make sense of the situation but he still didn’t really feel beholden to any sort of side. He hadn’t been lying though when he’d mentioned being anti-govt, Asher had always been a bit of a misfit with an authority problem, so anarchy and anti-govt tendencies simply ran in his blood one could say. Mayhaps he’d simply cause a little chaos and fuck with the government, or something. Asher was still feeling a might bit directionless. Idly he began scratching the back of his head as if the very act itself might help produce an idea. It wouldn’t.
As Asher came out of his head, he’d find his predicament hadn’t changed too much. Nova and Lenore were walking with him side by side at either of his flanks, and Lexi was hovering behind him. Asher was a tall dude, but Lexi was practically an amazon and hovered to boot. Her breasts were level with the back of his head. Bobo
would have been leading the group, but she waited for Asher to walk past her before following everyone from the back.
“As I said, long time ago. Though if you already distrust the government you probably have a good idea of how they operate. Lots of ‘rules for thee but not for me.’ Money motivates every action they make, but only to assist a few bureaucrats. The machine works by running fresh recruits through a meat grinder. I know the process pretty intimately because I use to train those fresh recruits. Dr Moller and I were…Close, but we had different ambitions and the administration picked up on it. Dr Moller went on to research grimoires and I was put in charge of training. That was when I started to realize that the government was a giant corporation and we were all expected to climb that ladder. Only the ladder had no rungs, so you had to use a pile of corpses to scale it. I was expected to use my students I guess. I’m not sure what ol’ Fritzi used, but she’s standing quite high up now.” She looked at Asher with her good eye.
“They’re all motivated by hatred. Both for monsters and each other. A little bird told me that there is constant infighting in their squad, which is why they keep transferring their agents to and from Pax.” She looked ahead, ever grinning.
“I’ll never pass up a chance to fuck with them.”“So, what’re you planning to get up to then? I’m admittedly not too sure where I’m going to fit in with all this business, might be best to steer clear for a bit and let shit blow over, not too sure…What about you though? You lot seem like an industrious group, I’m sure you have some grand scheme in the works?” Asher asked, fishing obviously.
“Some of our contract holders have schemes, but I’m in it for the money.” Lenore said with a not-so-subtle deflection.
“When everyone’s wicked to the core, it’s hard to care about much more than the paycheck, eh? I just go for the highest paying contracts and feel no remorse for what’s on the other side of my sword.”He was starting to feel like it might be time to make an exit. He couldn’t tell if they were pointedly avoiding giving him space or if they just liked to casually crowd people. It was best to err on the side of caution and so Asher attempted to convince them to give him a little room. He turned casually and took in the three crowding him, of course in Lexi’s case he had to make a pointed effort to look up and over the two obstacles before him in order to meet her eyes.
“There a reason you’re all crowding me so heavily? Reminding me of the damn groupies from my touring days, no sense of personal space or common courtesy sometimes I swear…” Asher huffed as he crossed his arms with a mildly perturbed glare at the three offenders.
“Do you mind?”Lexi gave Asher a look like she’d clutch her pearls. That was, if she was wearing any, and Lexi didn’t wear very much.
“We’re in an alleyway, and you’re not in your esper form. Walking single file behind you would leave you exposed.” “Lexi, this dude thought we wanted him to join Black Sabbath. He’s obviously an ultra progressive.” Nova ran her hands down her waist, but didn’t let go of her cigarette.
“He’s probably gay and a transvestite.”This seemed to horrify Lexi, who floated backwards.
“Who did you vote for during the election? Was it Lydia Vanhorn or Davis Gallo?”Asher’s first reaction would have been to maybe roll his eyes at their concern, mock or genuine. But before he really had the time to respond in any way one of the group began making a slew of wild accusations that Asher barely kept up with. The more bewildering the statements became the higher his eyebrow went in apparent shock and confusion. It was easy to tell by his face that Asher wasn’t used to being toyed with in such a manner. Typically his gruff attitude demanded a certain level of respect but clearly Black Sabbath carried enough clout to be unswayed by such tactics. Unfortunately Asher’s playbook wasn’t very thick.
Lenore rolled her eyes, but she was grinning.
“Girls? The end of the alley is here. How about you go ahead and spread out.” Without another word, Nova and Lexi left the alleyway to check the street. Once they were out of Asher’s hair, Lenore looked back at him.
“You’ve been doing this for a while, Deadhead. You’ve visited a lot of places, and I can tell you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the past. Sure, the politics of Pax look like a ball of yarn, but it’s going to be in the rear view mirror someday. I could tell you whatever you wanted to know, but I think what you really need to figure out is what you want to get out of your time here.”When Lenore came to the rescue he was actually grateful, not that he would let it show of course. And then she asked him what he wanted. That one was a confusing question to answer and Asher was struggling with the fact that he’d admittedly had no long term goals in mind. And then a slight itch in his right arm began. A mild sensation that was mostly mental than physical but it served to remind Asher of one thing.
That [i]bitch[/b] had cut his arm off. He hadn’t liked that.
“What do you know about those other espers? The ones who waylaid our party originally and then showed up to wreak havoc at the end there? I owe the golden haired one a little havoc of my own.” Asher held his right arm up as he spoke. He turned it, flexed it, scanned it from top to side, anything really that reminded him that it was present, something that would make that persistent itch vanish. It was the first time he’d ever been dismembered in a sense. Not a sensation he’d plan to revisit, but one that he certainly wanted to impart.
“I’m not sure who waylaid you, but the ones that captured the Bates were from the Hand, if the rumors are to be believed.” She leaned on her shoulder.
“The big weartiger is called Big Tony. He’s head of the weretiger mafia and owns a few businesses here and there. All covers for his less legitimate businesses of course. Penumbra is someone I know less about. They’re a bodyguard for some very wealthy entrepreneur, but said entrepreneur always remains out of sight. The rest are small fry and not worth talking about.” That, or they were so obscure that even Lenore didn’t know about them.
Then Bobo stomped her way up to Asher.
“Excuse me?” she pointed at him with her mace.
“You set us on fire, and now you want to get revenge on someone who cut your arm off? What’s the big deal? It’ll grow back like my skin!”Asher’s eyes narrowed down the length of the mace but he didn’t back down an inch, in fact he leaned in closer. Intimidation was a language Asher could speak in and something like a weapon in his face just got his blood running.
“First of all, get your stick out of my face unless you mean business. As I recall I even said you were free to take your try at evening the score if you felt some sort of way, I wouldn’t blame you with the way I tossed you around in that fight.” Asher was trying to egg her on, not that he necessarily wanted to get into a fight. But that wasn’t really important to him at the moment, the other esper was getting his blood boiling and the previous op had left him more than a little frustrated.
“My reasons are my own, I’m not beholden to anyone else’s ideals and if I feel like tracking down the bitch that cut my arm off, even if it grows back, then that’s what I’ll damn well do. If you got a problem with it then I didn’t ask.”Bobo groaned.
“I do not understand what goes on in that head of yours.” She lowered her mace and walked on ahead.
“And at this point, I don’t even think it’s worth trying to understand you.” “That ‘bitch’ also happens to pay really well.” Lenore pretended to clean her fingernails through her gloved hand.
“But I won’t stop you. Well, unless it goes against my contract.”“Wait, who pays well? Penumbra? She paid you? For what?” Asher was definitely surprised and he didn’t attempt to hide it in any way by the way he reacted to Lenore’s words.
“Were you working a contract against us while also working with us? That’s a new one…” he added with a scowl.
“Oh did I imply that? Woops, my tongue must have slipped.” She was on the verge of laughter, but kept it in.
“Raphael wanted us to save the ‘holy roller’ and slay the ‘demon train’. Our other client wanted the Bates. There is no conflict of interest because both clients wanted different things.” She leaned in, not unlike what Asher had done earlier when ‘threatened’ by Bobo.
“But if I can only complete one of those objectives? And the other one is a lost cause? I’m going for it. Especially when the pay is better.”Asher’s opinion on that was very evident on his face. But of course Asher couldn’t say much himself as someone who’d just left at the end due to, in a manner of saying, a crisis of faith. So, with a slight flaring of his nostrils and a barely hidden scowl, he said
“I see. Well I don’t see much point in wasting more of my time here. I don’t suppose you have a problem with me splitting do you? I’m not a part of your contract am I?” he goaded, although realistically it would be a bad time to be eating his foot if they decided he was.
“The head of some confused, drifting freelancer isn’t worth a whole lot to anyone. Besides, I enjoy watching you banter with Bobo. I haven’t seen her this fired up in a long time.” She pushed herself off of the wall.
“It’s unfortunate. I feel like this was our last chance to work together. Your face doesn’t look like it’s going to let us work together a second time. The feeling’s not mutual.” She turned around to leave.
“At least you’ve stopped sulking. I’m glad you’ve found your purpose again. Losing one’s faith and direction is a horrible thing, initially. But don’t expect leniency when you get in the way of mine.”Asher rolled his eyes at the threat as Lenore and her group turned to leave. She was overstating things when she said he’d ‘found his purpose’ but that wasn’t something he felt like imparting. Asher wasn’t necessarily known for his loyalty but it wasn’t something he’d ever really felt that strongly about. But from the get go the Bates had been teammates and the idea of double crossing your team just because it didn’t conflict with the overall goal felt slimy. Lenore might not see it the same way but as far as Asher could tell they also directly caused the failure of the overall goal by eliminating two of their heavier assets right when things were starting to come to a head. She was right, they’d likely find themselves on opposing sides in the future. But Asher wasn’t altogether too sure and had some soul searching of his own to do still. He let the troupe leave without another word.
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