At Hero's insistence, though mostly because Greg wasn't certain the rest of the gang were assholes, he didn't end up killing everyone else, though he did leave a rather graphic note detailing the consequences of kidnapping members of his crew again. They were about to leave anyway, so it shouldn't be an issue. "So, you guys want to visit the ship?" Greg asked, turning to Hero and his crew as they left, Sophia and the other women still looking a little pale, while Hero just looked… grim. "Unless you guys still think I'm the bad guy?"
"Well you aren't a fucking good guy!" One of the women exclaimed, glaring at him.
"Eh?" Greg wiggled his hand at her. "I think I'm at least decent. Better than I could be, that's for sure."
"You kill people!" She yelled back.
"Georgia, just- don't, okay?" Hero groaned, rubbing his temple. "He has- reasons."
Georgia turned to look at Hero, wide-eyed. "Are you suggesting he was right to kill those men?!? To-" She paled slightly. "Did you see what he did?!?"
Hero shook his head. "No, but- ugh, it's complicated. He has arguments and- I can't poke holes in them. Not yet at least. I just… I need time to think."
They were all silent for a moment, before Greg coughed slightly. "So… ship? We have food. High mana content food. Good for the mana pool, you know?"
"Wait, you're from the pirate ship?!?" The last woman asked incredulously. "The one that's offering tons of meat for a mana core?!?"
"And bone, but yes." Greg nodded. "Why, do you have one?"
"N-no, but… do you really have that much meat?" She asked hesitantly.
"Oh, sure." Greg nodded. "We spent like a month hunting in a yellow zone and pretty much filled the ship, so we have more than enough. It's honestly harder to actually find anything we want to trade for."
"Why trade at all?" Sophia asked. "With that much meat, you could just hide away somewhere and focus on getting stronger… Why make yourselves a target?"
Greg gestured towards the hideout. "Because of people like them. Because life is hard enough as it is, and we don't need all these assholes running around making it even harder. My crew and I know how to defend ourselves. Others don't. So why not make ourselves a target so that when people start looking to make trouble, they run into us, instead of some poor defenseless… whatever. Solve a problem, instead of leaving it to fester. Plus, you know, we really could use a mana core."
"You- you make yourself a target so you can do that to people?!?" Georgia asked incredulously, looking a bit sick.
"Only the really nasty ones." Greg explained. "Murders, rapists, slavers, shit like that. Thieves, scammers, drug dealers… organized crime type shit is the local governments deal. Hence why I don't particularly mind leaving the rest of those guys alone. The ones going after 'Meredith' in the basement were the real problem."
Georgia just stared at him for a second before shaking her head. "You're insane."
"No, I'm not." Greg chuckled. "If I were, you'd be dealing with a much bigger problem."
Sophia shuddered, taking a step away from Greg and giving him a wide-eyed look. "P-please don't laugh like that." She asked in a small voice.
Greg flushed. "Ah, sorry. I don't know why, but half my laughs come out evil…"
"Maybe it's because you're evil?" Georgia snorted.
"No, please, I don't want to get into that argument again!" Hero groaned.
"Fine, fine." Greg grinned. "But seriously, you guys are welcome to visit. Meat's on the house. Ship. Where we live though, so technically a house? Whatever, you guys can come."
"I- wouldn't mind seeing this ship?" The last woman replied, looking at the others with a pleading look in her eye that suggested she really wanted to see the ship.
"I suppose a quick stop couldn't hurt." Hero sighed, breaking under the pressure of her pleading look.
Georgia rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
Sophia grimaced, clutching her stomach. "I don't think I could eat, but I don't mind seeing it… apparently it's a marvel of artificing."
Greg snorted. "Please, I made it from parts I scavenged from the Technocracy. The only artificing is in the defenses."
They all turned to look at Greg, wide-eyed. "You made it from technology?!?" The last woman asked incredulously. "But- how?!? The- the mana!"
Greg shrugged. "It's a smoke thing. Basically, anything I dissolve I can remake using the smoke, and I dissolved a lot of technology from the Technocracy. Since it's made from smoke, I can fix any damage by just resetting it back to perfect condition, but honestly, as long as you have the shields working, it isn't an issue."
"Huh… but- isn't your smoke mana? How can mana make technology?" She frowned, looking very confused.
Greg hesitated. "Well… my smoke is weird. Let's just leave it at that."
She gave him a look, before shrugging. "Fair enough. Travis is kinda weird too."
"Travis?" Greg cocked his head. "Oh, you mean Hero?" He asked, pointing at Hero.
"Hero?" She replied, a bemused smirk on her face.
Greg shrugged. "He wouldn't tell me his name, so I made up my own."
"And you chose Hero?" Hero interjected incredulously.
"Well, Hero McBitchface the third, but yeah." Greg replied.
Hero began to sputter as Sophia gave him a disapproving look, Georgia rolled her eyes, and the last woman snickered. "Well, before you go naming me, you can call me Jennifer." She smirked, sticking out her hand.
"Greg." Greg replied, frowning slightly. Didn't he already know a Jennifer? Not that it wasn't a common name… but he felt like it was someone close to him.
"And I'm Georgia." Georgia quickly added.
"Sophia." Sophia introduced herself as well in an insistent tone.
"And I'm Travis!" Hero declared in a frustrated tone.
"Whatever you say, Hero." Greg chuckled, giving him a thumbs up.
Sophia shivered. "Stop that!"
"Huh? Oh, the laugh." Greg flushed again. "I really can't help it!"
*
Greg led the four back to the ship, considering his options. While he couldn't be sure this was the 'Hero's party', it certainly seemed likely. The whole 'we stop bad guys but never kill anyone' was a huge giveaway. Completely impractical in real life and barely practical in fiction. That's how you get recurring villains up the wazoo, which Greg had absolutely zero patience for. Plus, what stopped the villains from just turning around and trying again once the heroes left? Honestly, it made no sense. That, plus the whole 'three girls, one guy' thing. Not that something like that happening naturally was impossible, it just seemed… unlikely.
But the big question was what was Greg going to do about it? Obviously the best option would be to have them join the crew, but how the hell was he supposed to make that happen? The only ways he could think of were either awkward or suspicious as fuck. Though if the World was involved… maybe it'd happen naturally? But if not, they at least needed to part on friendly terms. Which seemed to be going well, but if Hero decided to get all bent out of shape over killing assholes again… Greg honestly felt lucky he'd managed to talk him down the first time. Greg sighed, shaking his head. What he should really do was let Tessa handle this. He'd already told her what the deal was, so she was busy getting everything set up for when they arrived. If only the only real people weren't her, Victor, and Casey…
"Alright, welcome to…" Greg spun around as he stepped onto the ship, spreading his arms in presentation, before trailing off as his eyes widened. "Ah, crap… I forgot to name the damn ship." Greg sighed as Tessa, Victor, and Casey walked out.
"We haven't really needed a name, now have we?" Tessa commented as she walked over, shooting Hero and the others a quick smile. "It's just the ship, because what other ship would we be talking about?"
"If it helps, I've been calling it the Gregship." Victor added.
Greg cocked his head at him. "No insult?"
"I tried to think of one, but I reached the end of the sentence before I could. The best I got was the Gregship Pooperprise… not my best work." Victor sighed.
Greg paused, before frowning. "Wow… I got nothing either."
"Smokey McGregship?" Casey offered.
"Nah, that's just goofy, not insulting." Victor muttered, shaking his head. "Man, this is starting to legit bum me out. Why can't I insult this damn ship?!?"
"Maybe cause it's just that awesome?" Greg grinned. "I mean, come on. It's a floating pirate ship!"
"Okay, I've been meaning to say something about that." Tessa frowned. "Technically all boats float, so calling it a floating ship is redundant, and how is it a pirate ship? Do we even have a black flag? If anything, this is a trading ship."
"Yeah, but trading ships are boring, while pirate ships are cool." Greg retorted. "And we totally have a black flag! It's in the crows nest. Debbie has been using it as a blanket." A bit of smoke shot up to the crows nest, forming into a Greg who pulled the flag out and waved it around for everyone to see.
Tessa blinked. "That is literally a black flag… why doesn't it have anything on it?"
"Technically it does, but it's just a cloud of black smoke, so…" Greg shrugged helplessly.
"You're ridiculous." Tessa snorted.
"Yes I am." Greg chuckled, turning back to Hero and the rest, who were giving them all weird looks. "Anyway, welcome to the ship. This is Tessa, that's Victor and Casey. The rest of the crew is just me at the moment, so don't be insulted if they ignore you. The real ones are hiding a few miles out of town."
"Nice to meet you all." Hero nodded at them. "I'm Travis. This is Jennifer, then Georgia, and Sophia." He introduced them all, putting some extra emphasis on his name and shooting Greg a dirty look.
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"Nice to meet you too." Tessa smiled back. "Would you like to come in for something to eat? We made a stir fry."
"That sounds lovely." Jennifer agreed, smiling back.
They all headed into the dining room, taking a seat while the decoys brought out the food. "So, Greg tells me you attempted to rescue him?" Tessa began after everyone got their food, raising an eyebrow at them. "How did that go?"
"Well, when we arrived, we found Greg just standing there carrying an unconscious man." Jennifer smirked. "As you can imagine, we assumed he was the kidnapper. And then he repeatedly failed to convince us otherwise. Travis even sent him into-"
"Fuck, right!" Greg slapped the table, pointing at Hero. "Can you let me out? Cause I gotta say, big empty voids are not my thing."
Hero flushed, nodding. "Right, sorry, let me just…" He trailed off, closing his eyes and focusing, before reaching out his hand and with a *pop* a… steel block appeared. Hero blinked at it. "That-"
"Thanks man." Greg grinned as the steel block turned back into smoke and returned to him.
"So you can just turn into anything, huh?" Jennifer commented, leaning closer to him.
"Pretty much." Greg grinned, before letting out a sigh. "Though I seem to turn into less and less lately… back on Earth, I had tons of feral forms. Scorpocroc for fighting, cheetahman for travel, sharkman for tracking… Now I just spend all my time as me."
"And Meredith. And Jake. And Carlos." Victor began listing off on his fingers.
"Feh, that doesn't count." Greg waved dismissively. "Y'all are vanilla ass humans. Just not the same."
"Such a strange form of shapeshifting." Sophia muttered.
"That would be Greg for you." Tessa sighed. "Can't be normal to save his life."
"Normal is overrated anyway." Jennifer smirked.
"So, you found Greg and thought he was the kidnapper?" Tessa gestured for her to continue.
"Right! So, Travis does his thing to send Greg away, but he just reformed from his smoke. Which of course made things worse. We were going to leave to look for evidence one way or the other, when he mentioned… uh, he-" Jennifer hesitated, paling slightly as she remembered the basement. "It was pretty obvious he wasn't with the kidnappers after that."
Georgia snorted. "You could say that. Then he somehow managed to convince Travis to trust him after all that, so here we are."
"Trust is a strong word." Travis muttered. "I just-" He sighed. "I can't say he's wrong."
"What'd you do?" Casey asked, raising an eyebrow at Greg.
"I killed a bunch of rapists." Greg shrugged. "I was in Meredith's form and they tried to take advantage."
"Ah, good riddance." Victor nodded, before frowning at Hero. "Wait, you guys have a problem with him killing rapists? Really?"
"We agree that there should be punishments, but to kill so… brutally." Sophia's expression twisted. "It just seems excessive."
"Torture is excessive. Killing is just problem solving." Victor retorted.
"That is a horrible way to view the loss of human life!" Sophia protested.
"Rapists aren't human, they're scum." Victor countered. "Humans are social creatures who rely on mutual trust and cooperation to survive. People like rapists betray that trust and lose any right to the name."
"So you think we should just kill anyone who commits a crime?!?" Sophia replied. "Give everyone the death penalty!?!"
"No, of course not." Victor shook his head. "We simply need to remove them from society. If you have a way to do that without killing them, then I'm all for it. However, the way things are now, we don't have the resources to keep people isolated, which means we must resort to extreme options, such as killing."
"But what if you're wrong?!?" Sophia retorted. "What if you have the wrong person, or you misunderstand, and you kill someone innocent?!?"
"That's why we let Greg take care of it." Victor replied. "It's hard to argue that you have the wrong person when they're in the middle of committing the act."
Sophia gritted her teeth. "Killing is reprehensible, no matter the context!"
"Sure, but here's the thing: how are you going to stop me?" Victor grinned, raising an eyebrow at her. "Can you watch me twenty-four seven? Can you keep me contained? Keep me from interacting with anyone I might kill? For how long? In what condition? Greg here spent two years in complete isolation, and I can assure you he would have preferred to be dead. Would you submit people to that torture just to avoid killing them? Or would you put them all together so the only people they can kill are each other?"
"You know, that'd be an interesting system." Greg muttered. "Lump everyone who's committed the same crimes together. Do it again, you go down one more level, on and on until you're all alone. Not that you could actually implement something like that, but it would be interesting. Though death is preferable to isolation."
"What about rehabilitation?" Sophia asked with a frown. "People have the ability to change! How can we take that away from them?"
"We do it because the cost of giving them that opportunity is too high." Hero sighed. "Sophia, I had this same argument with Greg, and… at what point is being merciful to one person being cruel to someone else? If you can't stop people from hurting others… can you really justify letting them live?"
"Travis, that isn't- you can't- killing is wrong!" Sophia exclaimed in frustration.
Hero nodded. "It is. But what if- what if sometimes… it's the lesser of two evils?"
Sophia glanced at the other two for support, but Jennifer just looked thoughtful, while Georgia… also looked thoughtful, but she was frowning as she did. Sophia's expression twisted, almost like she was sick. "I can't- I- I need to go." She shook her head, getting up and rushing outside.
"Sophia!" Hero cried, getting up and rushing after her.
Jennifer sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry about that. She can be a bit… dramatic."
"Don't worry, we don't mind." Tessa assured her. "It's a tough subject, and even we can't be sure we're right. But as long as we believe we are… then how can we not act on it?"
"So this is what you do? Travel from city to city, making yourselves targets, luring out the bad guys so you can kill them?" Jennifer asked.
"In a nutshell." Tessa nodded. "We figured that with everything that's happened… We don't want anyone taking advantage of the chaos to screw over everyone else."
Georgia snorted. "Damn aliens… how could they do that to us? Just- or do you think that killing was justified too?"
"Oi, that's a tough one." Greg grunted. "Matter of perspective, really. Is it more important to focus on the people who are alive now, or to focus on making sure future generations have the best life possible, even if it requires sacrifice in the present? Either view is valid in my book, and I honestly have no idea which side to stand on. Well, I mean, now that it's already happened, there's no way I'm letting anyone kill the rest of us, but as to whether I support the Republic continuing to convert planets? That's a tough one."
Georgia gave him an incredulous look. "How could you support them doing anything like this again?!?"
Greg sighed. "Technology consumes resources. Magic creates resources. Technology will inevitably lead to the death of the universe as a whole. Magic will make sure the universe lasts forever. Can you really blame the Republic for spreading the thing that will ensure life goes on? It's like having an infection in your arm and choosing to cut it off instead of dying. The only problem is that the death takes place on such a ridiculous time scale that it doesn't seem relevant to most people."
"You are just full of interesting viewpoints, aren't you?" Jennifer muttered, smiling at Greg.
"Nah, I'm just blowing smoke." Greg chuckled, letting a few streams of smoke escape his mouth. "But seriously, living in the present is also a completely valid view. Crippling yourself just so you can live longer isn't always worth it. Sure, you might give up a hand, or an arm, but what if I asked you to give up all your limbs? What if you needed to give up your sight or your hearing?"
"Or your dick." Victor suggested.
Greg rolled his eyes. "Whatever. How much can you give up before any life you gain isn't worth it anymore? I mean, for me, mana didn't cost me much, and I gained so much more, so the trade was worth it. But for the people of the Technocracy? They'd have to give up everything, go from a people that can fight the Republic on equal terms, right back to the bottom. And then on an individual basis, there are people who lost their loved ones, their husbands, their children, and they would give anything to get them back, and for them the trade was far from worth it. I can say that in the long run, mana is good for the universe, but for the individual? It could go either way."
"Okay, that's enough of that." Tessa clapped her hands. "No offense, but we have done this conversation to death already, and as far as our current situation goes, it isn't all that relevant. What I want to know is what your plans are. You four dared to raid a hideout full of dangerous criminals just to save a few strangers. Why?"
"Travis would probably explain it better, but… see, we've been together since everything went down on Earth. We joined a safe zone together, fought ferals together…" Jennifer began.
"Though we're not very proud of fighting ferals anymore." Georgia grumbled. "All those lives… who knows how many people we killed for no reason?"
"I think that might be why we've been so… averse to killing." Jennifer's expression twisted. "Even seeing your logic, agreeing with it even… it's a hard pill to swallow."
"If it helps, day ferals were irredeemable. Completely insane." Greg offered. "I found out ferals were getting intelligent, so I made sure to check, and… yeah, they couldn't be reasoned with, only put down. Also, the Republic confirmed that that's why everyone else had to die. Anyone who couldn't adjust to mana would go just as insane as they did."
"That- does help a little." Jennifer gave him a small smile. "But anyway, we worked together on Earth, and even after the aliens took us, we always ended up together. Travis ended up as a General, while we were his Colonels. We truly believed in the cause, in fighting against the Technocracy, in saving the universe! But when the war ended and we learned the truth…" Jennifer sighed. "Travis had become… close with one of the aliens."
"Dude boned an alien? Respect." Victor commented with an appreciative nod.
"He didn't bone anyone!" Georgia growled. "They were just… close."
"Couldn't seal the deal, eh?" Victor sighed, shaking his head.
Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Travis couldn't handle the betrayal. We left our city as soon as we could and since then we've just been… wandering. He's just been so lost… every now and then he'll see something that relights his spark, some injustice he feels the need to correct, and he'll throw himself wholeheartedly into it, but as soon as it's over… he just deflates again." Her expression twisted. "I'd like to say that at least we've been helping people, but… now I wonder how many people we've rescued just for them to be hurt again the moment we left, because we didn't actually fix the problem. We just beat people up and moved on."
"Eh, who knows." Greg shrugged. "At least you weakened them, right? At this point, no one is wildly stronger than anyone else, so if you gave people a chance, they probably took care of the problem themselves. Not that it wouldn't be a good idea to go back and check on things…" Plus there was the whole 'hero' effect to consider. Maybe the World made it so that Hero beating people up did make them change their ways. It did seem like ninety percent of bad guys in anime were one good concussion from changing their ways.
"So that's it? You're just going to keep drifting until you find a problem to fix?" Tessa asked, raising an eyebrow at Jennifer.
Jennifer flushed. "I-I guess? There isn't much else we can do at the moment, right? I don't think Travis has it in him to settle down…"
Tessa smiled. "I couldn't agree more. And since we just happen to be drifting ourselves… would you care to join us?"
"What!?!" "Excuse me?!?" Georgia and Jennifer both exclaimed in unison.
"Think about it. You're obviously talented fighters with good hearts, we have plenty of meat to go around, and Greg can easily expand the ship to accommodate you." Tessa pointed out. "We get more people to help us defend ourselves, you get meat and a luxurious mode of travel. It's a win win. Obviously you'll need to discuss it with the other two, but I wanted to put the offer out there. Think about it, talk about it, and if you have any questions, let us know. We should be here for a few more days, so feel free to take your time."
"You know, if I leave three large rooms for the couples, I can split the rest in two…" Greg muttered as he considered how to adjust the ship. "That'd leave us with three extra rooms… but maybe we'll pick up some more people, so that's probably not a bad thing."
"You can't just add an extra level?" Casey asked.
"I mean, I could but it wouldn't be defended. We'd need to get an artificer to add more barriers." Greg replied.
"So? It isn't like we can't afford it." Casey pointed out.
"True, but I just don't think it's necessary yet." Greg shrugged. "The rooms will still be a decent size and splitting them is no problem."
"Hold on!" Jennifer interjected. "Are you- are you serious about this? You'd just… let us join, just like that? Share your food with us? For nothing?!?"
"Not nothing." Tessa replied. "If we were attacked, we'd expect you to help defend everyone. And we'll obviously ask for your opinion when we plan to move on someone. The rest of us are a bit… desensitized to killing. It would be good to have some counter points to make sure we don't take things too far."
"See, that's what bothers me." Georgia frowned. "You don't say if you plan to move on someone, but when. I don't like this idea of expecting to need to kill someone."
Tessa leveled a look at her. "The world is full of dangerous people, people who would hurt and kill others solely for their own gain. To pretend otherwise is to ignore reality. So yes, I say when we need to move on someone, because I know they're out there and I refuse to let them continue to abuse anyone. Not if I can help it. If you have a problem with that, you are free to go your own way, we won't stop you."
Georgia's expression twisted, before she let out a sigh. "We- we'll have to talk to the others but… we'll think about it." Jennifer nodded in agreement and Greg grinned slightly. He knew Tessa would figure something out.