“I just don’t see the point in watching Adventurers doing their job,” Vex said over her shoulder as she walked into Archi’s room carrying a crate of cameras. “You’re just watching someone do the job you could’ve done better.”
“And I told you, AdRecs can be useful,” Ex said as he trailed behind with his tomb shell over one shoulder and a crate of electronic hardware under his other arm. “You can learn from a good AdRec. What a class is capable of, how a team works together, and how to handle a monster or problem with at-hand tools. All kinds of stuff.”
“Fine,” Vex said, her word firmly punctuated when she firmly set down her box at the foot of Architallis’s dresser. “I’ll give you the point if you can find some AdRecs that’ll give us info on Martyrs, Furys, and Wardens.” She turned and propped a hand on her hip with her declaration.
Architallis sat on his bed, already mixing something with his pocket lab and carefully dispensing a gray-white, milky fluid into a beaker. Sin sat against one wall, his legs crossed casually, his clothes rumpled and covered in bird shit.
Trouble walked in behind the Soulforged, carrying a pair of sacks. One carried lemons, the other jalapenos. The sacks were set atop the corner desk. Alex set his crate beside the bed as the Vhenari corked the potion and set it in the bag at his heels. The Alchemyst quickly set his Distillex Device aside and gestured to be handed something by Vex. “You collected the items on the list, correct?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Vex said as she took off her hat and reached inside. Her arm vanished in up to the shoulder before she pulled free a lemon juicer. Vex tossed the plastic tool into the Alchemyst’s lap. “And I don’t like getting played for the fool. Told me to stay in my room, then sent me the list, expecting I’d be with the Gear Head.” She reached back into her hat and began dumping things out on the bed unceremoniously.
Archi didn’t show any mind for the mess the Witch was leaving on his bed. He calmly picked up the juicer and a small knife that was tossed with an irritated disregard. “My first directive for you was in an effort to get you to acquire housing. I knew you would not seek safety. You seem to perpetually leak wanderlust.”
Architallis moved to the table, opened a sack, and pulled free a lemon. “I assumed you would want to follow our courageous Knyght into the market.” The Alchemyst skewered the lemon on a single claw of his left hand while he cut the fruit between the knife and his thumb. “He does not have a therra-node. Until we can find a way to provide our Knyght with a similar interface, someone with a therra should partner with him at any given time.”
Vex kept a hand defiantly pressed to one hip, even as her other hand brushed aside a wild lock of her massive hair. “That means you, or me, given that Ex can’t understand Tro,” Vex snapped her free hand into an accusing finger. “And given that I apparently can’t leave home without my handy-dandy Freak of Chaos Myst, I’m not about to take another hanger-on.”
“Excuse me?” Archi asked with a baffled expression, pausing mid-juicing of a lemon. “What is this nonsense about?”
Vex huffed and rolled her head in frustration. “I was warned by our boss moments before an attack.”
“Well, that sounds helpful,” Architallis said as he emptied the lemon juice into a waiting jar.
“Let me finish,” Vex said with a pointed glare. “She warned me that I needed to keep Mister Unlucky near me at all times to stop scrying. Faith said he screws up the targeting of the spells or some dreck.”
Architallis wrapped up juicing the second half of the first lemon. “You don’t say.” His tone was thoughtful. “I suppose that if you require the Immortal and your brother won’t part with you… Then it seems the unlikely pair of he and I shall become a regular partnership.”
“And you just agree to it like that?!” Vex accused, stomping a foot.
“Why are you upset?” Archi asked calmly as he started juicing a second lemon.
“Don’t give me that!” Vex snapped. “First, you give me orders. Then you play me like a game piece. Then I tell you that you screwed me when you took the damned Imm-” Vex’s tirade was abruptly cut off when Tro rested a hand on her shoulder and pressed a can of instant tea into her hand. Vex instantly shut up, cracked the can, and sipped on it while she fumed.
Everyone else in the room turned to stare at Trouble in silent question. The Neoform shrugged in answer and simply answered with. “Trained. Like pacifier.”
“I do not need a damned binky,” Vex snapped at her brother before closing herself around her drink.
“Fascinating,” Archi said as he looked between the siblings.
“I’m not your damned science project,” Vex grumbled as she nursed her tea.
“Ignoring her grumbling,” Ex started. “What exactly are the lemons and peppers for?” Waving a hand at the bags of produce. “I hope it isn’t for cooking.”
“I am restricted from most forms of chemical warfare,” Architallis said with an off-handed gesture of the juicer. “I am denied nerve agents, knockout gas, tear gas, and so on. So I must make do with what I can purchase off the market.”
“So…lemons and…peppers…” Alex pondered
Vex rolled her eyes as she took another sip before answering the unspoken question. Vex saw that Ex was critically thinking the puzzle over. She also saw that Archi was wearing an open grin at the Knyght’s pondering. Vex figured that the sadistic rat liked seeing the idiot squirm under the confusion and his superiority. Vex gave a growling sigh. “What, Tin Head? Didn’t you take grade school chemistry? He’s making in-house pepper spray.” She turned back to Archi, “Seriously? The hard way? You know you could’ve had cases of citric acid and capsaicin mailed here inside the week.”
Architallis moved on to juicing his fifth lemon. “We do not have a week to wait here. We are trapped in an unknown timeframe.” He waved a half-squeezed lemon as he continued, “Our Drake gentlemen is targeting the local owning corporation’s rights over the settlement. He could strike at any moment and leave immediately afterward to move on to his next target. I don’t have time to wait for ingredients to be flown in.”
“But you do have time to spend juicing lemons?” Vex accused and questioned.
“We had the materials nearby.” Archi poured the juice out into a jar. “It simply requires some refining. Which I can do with some of the equipment you collected while out.”
The whispers and screams rose up in the back of Vex’s mind, and she recoiled as if slapped. Architallis raised a brow at the reaction but said nothing as he moved on to another lemon. Ex leaned against the far wall, his arms and legs crossed as he watched the Alchemyst work.
“Well, it’s good to know that you’re at least trying to stick to the law,” Vex said with a twirl of one hand. “But, how about you explain to us how this corporate takeover is going to work? Actually…” she held up a finger in request for a pause as she bottom-upped the can of tea, chugging it empty. Vex gave a slight gasp before continuing. “Before we get down to those tacks, we need food. We came back here just as much to snag you for food as we did to drop off your dreck.”
Archi gave his bag of lemons a sour look before turning back to Vex. “Is the meal such a necessity?”
“I want a hot meal,” Vex said, with a thumb pressed to her chest. “And I’m pretty sure Tro could go for something hot and wholesome.” She turned to the Immortal. “What about you, Regenerator? Could you go for something hot to munch?”
Sin gave a tired shrug. “I certainly could feed myself, not that it would end well.”
Alex pushed off from the wall and raised a hand to comment. “I could go for something to munch.”
Everyone in the room silently stared at the Soulforged for a long moment before moving on. Archi lowered his head as he gave a defeated sigh. “I suppose I could do with some quality food before I get to work.”
“Great!” Vex cheered with a wide grin. “I found just the place while we were shopping.”
Vex turned and led the way out of the room, the remainder of the lance following her in varying degrees of disgruntlement and hunger.
Vex led the lance down one street after another, her mood souring further as they continued. She frequently twitched and recoiled even as she wove through the streets like a drunk with attention issues. Vex knew that everyone but her brother was watching her as if she were insane, but she didn’t care in the slightest. The opinions of the others mattered little in her mind.
After about twenty minutes of walking, Vex brought the group to stand before a brick-walled tavern named Biscuit’s House of Stew, Brew, and Nooky. Vex waved for the others to follow before she passed through the front doors of the tavern. Vex entered a facade of a classic tavern scene. Wood-paneled walls decorated with copy-paste paintings of scenes of debauchery and sex in all kinds. The bar tables were square or rectangular pieces of metal, painted to match the wood of the walls, but the metal showed through the scuffs and scratches. The thick scents of beer, stew, and sex permeated the space.
The room was mostly full of men from all walks of life. Many of these men were flirting with prostitutes dressed in a wide range of revealing outfits. Vex held nothing against sex workers. You did what you had to do to pay the bills, and work was work.
“Really?” Ex asked as he hurried to walk beside Vex. “A back-warmer bar? Were you looking to get lucky?” Vex could hear the smirk in his words.
“Not even a little,” Vex said with a wave of one hand as she casually took a seat at an unoccupied table. “The stew from here smelled nice. I could also go for a drink, and the prices were reasonable.”
Architallis wrinkled his nose as he took his own seat. “And the scent of copulation does not dissuade your appetite?”
Vex gave a shrug as she pulled a menu from a stand in the center of the table. “I spent a few months hiding out in a low-bar brothel when I first left the Gilded Rose. After a while, you barely even notice it.” Vex’s eyes roamed over the plastic sheet menu, surveying her options. Her eyes lit on one option. “Oh! They have rat stew.”
“Is that an insult directed toward me?” Architallis asked in a tone more resigned and tired than accusing.
“What? No,” Vex said with open honesty.
Ex leaned over to look at Vex past her brother, who sat between the two. “You like rat?”
“What?!” Vex asked defensively. “When you need to, you eat what you can find or catch.” Vex raised her nose to stare down at Ex. She took on a pompous air and tone. “I have a refined palate. A classically roasted rat over an open fire with some salt, pepper, and sage.” Vex gave her fingers a chef’s kiss.
Tro gave an amused snort, while Archi rolled his eyes as he inspected his own menu. Ex was distracted by a passing elf prostitute, dressed in little more than ribbons and glitter, her hips sensually rolling with each step. The Wood Elf didn’t even give the Soulforged a passing glance. There was no point flirting with someone without the hardware needed to do the deed. Ex watched the shapely woman pass by with sad and longing eyes.
Vex turned to her brother. “How’s the gunshot?”
Tro attempted to give a shrug but stopped mid-motion with a pained wince. “Tolerable.”
“You were shot?” Archi asked as he looked up from his menu to give Tro a questioning look.
“Yes,” Tro said in a tone of irritation. Vex knew the irritation was with himself and not her.
“Who attacked you?” Archi asked. “I don’t recall anyone in the Gilded Rose lance carrying any ranged weapons.”
Vex propped her elbows on the table and rested her eyes in her hands. “I shot him.” Her words reflected even more irritation than her brother's, but hers was directed towards herself. She should’ve known better. She should’ve been better.
It was at this point that one prostitute strolled over to their table. She was a lovely human woman with rich, dark skin and a long braid of coal-black hair that reached down her back. She was dressed like one of the wild women from the distant savannah. A brown and golden fur pelt wrapped around her breasts, leaving plenty of cleavage bare. Wrapped around her waist was a black fur loincloth that showed enough hip to reveal she wasn’t wearing underwear. “It’s lovely to see you, masters…” she flicked a weary glance at Vex, “And mistress come in this evening.” The woman cocked her hip and rolled a hand. “We have a great selection of drinks and plenty of stews to choose from. And if you want a little something… extra, we can give you a list of our ladies and gentlemen along with their rates and specialties.”
“I have no need for such company,” Architallis said calmly as he continued to browse his menu.
The prostitute looked over the lance, briefly glancing at Alex before moving on. “We don’t serve homeless,” she said to Sin. She then looked to Tro and Vex. “What about either of you? It doesn’t matter which way you swing or your tastes… as long as they are legal.”
“No, thank you,” Tro said without looking up from his hands. His eyes had been locked there since the woman had walked over. Tro didn’t do well with sex workers. Vex knew why. He was embarrassed. As a neoform, much like Ex, Tro didn’t have the necessary equipment to hire a sex worker.
“Nah, I’m good,” Vex said with a wave of her hand. “But thanks for the offer.”
The human woman gave an irritated sniff. “Then what’ll you be having?” She said with an uninterested air.
Ill Omen made their orders; Vex ordered rat stew with a pint of Dark Root Ale, Tro ordered lab-beef stew and a glass of cola, Architallis ordered vegetable stew with a glass of instant lemonade. The prostitute took their orders, plainly ignoring Sin and Ex. The two looked at each other in mutual irritation, but said nothing.
As the lance waited for their food, Vex grilled the Alchemyst on what he had found during his digging. “So, how is our Drake guy supposed to be stealing corporate control? Most of what I’ve seen as far as hostile corporate takeovers consists of things like strike teams breaching and killing corp-rat officers and capturing corp-rat workers, or that confusing business version with buying out stocks or whatever.”
Archi gave Vex a tired look, his head half-cocked, and his shoulders slumped. “The method is through an old law. A very old law from the start of corporations during the Age of Industry. An agent from one corporation can challenge a corporate officer for control over their company shares, their position in the corporation, the company property under their supervision, or all of the above.”
Vex leaned back in her chair as their drinks arrived and gave a whistle, her hands resting on the table. She scooped up her beverage and took a swig before speaking. “Then why doesn’t this happen all the time? One corp hires a strong lance to challenge a suit behind a desk. The corp-rat moves to the hereafter, and the challenging corp wins a new, juicy prize. Plain and simple.”
Archi picked up his own drink and sniffed it, his nose wiggling before wrinkling. He took a sip and immediately set down the glass with an irritated look at the drink. “Because corporation offices in each settlement keep Adventurer lances on retainer. They are normally elite combatants in one form of threat or another. These challenges can happen rather often, depending on the nation and the corporations in question.”
“But kept quiet?” Trouble asked before he lowered the straw of his cola behind his collar to take an audible sip.
Architallis nodded in agreement with Tro. “Certainly. Many settlements never know when an owning corporation has been overthrown, as long as the services provided to the people remain unchanged. Plenty of citizens don’t even notice when the company sign changes.”
At this point in the conversation, the prostitute/waitress arrived with their food, unceremoniously dropping each bowl down before walking away to sit in an orcish man’s lap and twirling a finger through his mane of hair.
Vex took a bite of her stew to find it was nothing but wilted veggies in a thin broth. At the same time Archi took a bite of his own and spat it out across Sin’s face.
“That woman must hate me,” Archi muttered as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Tricking me into eating my lesser kin. I’m not some minotaur who will casually eat beef.” He traded his bowl with Vex, both of them showing disgust at the mix-up. “However, back to the pertinent topic.” Archi took a bite of his correct stew, and he didn’t seem much happier, if less offended. “On the topic of our target, who should remain unnamed while we are in public,” he shot Vex a disapproving glare. “He is only a single part of a larger machine.”
“Yeah,” Ex spoke up, his attention snapping from another scantily clad woman back to the conversation. “He’s part of a corp meat grinder.”
“Yes,” Archi agreed, but he raised a finger to punctuate his next point. “But I am referring to the fact that he is, in fact, not a lone agent. He is part of a lance. The lance is called Shadow Saber and is made up of five members.” Archi took another bite, followed quickly by a sour expression.
Vex took a spoonful of her own stew and found it to be not terrible. She let out an approving grunt before taking another bite. “You really should’ve gotten a bowl of this. Much better than soggy veggies.”
Archi gave her an offended glare, but Sin spoke up before the two could spark a fight. “What did your deceitful digging discover about this loathsome lance?”
Archi blew a breath out the side of his mouth. “Unfortunately, little. I don’t know any of their classes, species’, or even their names beyond the fact that they number five.”
“Really?” Ex asked. “That’s all you got?”
“I am relatively certain that our target is a Deviant class, much as myself.”
“Okay?” Vex asked. “So, you said you have experience with hunting people. You wanted to lead. So, please tell me what we need to do.” Vex said in a condescending tone.
Archi turned to Ex. “First and foremost, I need our resident Soulforged to process our bags of produce tonight. Tomorrow, you, Vex, and your immortal jammer will be setting up cameras and simple traps at specially targeted locations. Trouble, while they are working, I think it best if you travel the settlement on the hunt for our target. I would recommend rooftop travel with your advanced agility.”
Vex sat back in her chair, her arms folded. “This is going to be so boring.”
