Palm was walking home on his own just as night had fallen.

The soft neon hue of flashing city lights filled the corners of his vision. The derelict grey concrete towers which used to lined the streets stretching far in all directions were now plastered with sickeningly bright advertisement for various products the barkeeper never thought he would see again in his life. Checkmate being the bogeyman of the Emperor's kingdom meant no sane company would ever branch out there, so all of its entertainment and produce either homegrown or accessible via the Wave. 'Who would've thought it would be possible' Palm thought amusedly, a bad reputation was always almost impossible to get rid of.

'Goddamn capitalism' Theda swore shaking her fist at the billboards in mock anger before turning to the tired man next to her, 'Hey we should meet with the princess in charge of the reform effort, I wonder what her plans for this city are.'

'I think I'd rather not deal with the hassle.' Palm replied, He was already shaken from his close encounter with a figure that would quite literally go down in history books, he'd rather not have to deal with the woman he was supposed to bodyguard.

As it went, the talk he had with Noah Waters was not nearly as bad as he expected. The man had crushed him in a bear hug and given him a thousand thanks before rushing out of the police department to get back to his home before they started sending out search parties for him. Although, he struck Palm as a man who worried a bit too much as the police captain had already informed his superiors of the situation and explained his absence. Of course Hercules had since fled before he could be told.

Palm was then given his ghost axe and kicked out, Falcon offered to drive him home but the barkeeper didn't want to impose on the man more than he already had. So he found himself trudging through the illuminated streets of the ever changing city of Checkmate. He looked up but the moons were hardly visible through the mess of skyscrapers streets and anti-gravity vehicles.

A rather Interesting fact about the city was that it split itself up into layers like an onion. There were full highways and junctions laying just above his head with houses and shops which were much higher end than anything he'd ever experienced. Up there were all the headquarters of Mercy with mansions for all the officials which monitored the city at large. Unsurprisingly crime was almost non-existent towards the top and only ever seemed to increase the lower one trekked. It gave the phrase 'seedy underbelly' a whole new flavour.

Ironically enough the further away you got from the top the more culture seemed to flourish. It was the only place in the whole Blinding Empire that held vast amounts of people from all over the honoured planets. It gave home to those who felt that they had been unjustly booted from their lives. Or at least all those who weren't dangerous criminals, they built entire sections of Checkmate which smelled of sweet spices or ocean salt. Holding interesting art and music from everywhere meshed together to make something new, even if it was admittedly much poorer quality than the higher end areas.

'If these places are so cool why didn't you live there instead of choosing to be surrounded by dull concrete every day?' Theda questioned poking her finger through his cheek.

'Because those areas are run by actual crime bosses' Palm responded shuddering slightly, 'I wouldn't survive a day without being dragged into some sort of gang.'

'You don't seem to be faring that much better here though' she deadpanned, crossing both her arms.

'Point taken' Palm thought sheepishly.

He eventually came across the smouldering wreck that was the hurricane, his bar. 'Damn this sucks' he thought navigating his way through wreckage. It wasn't completely destroyed but the quartz laser had cut quite a few pieces of furniture in half, including most of his front door. He eventually settled on barricading the entrance with some wooden planks he found in his storeroom before making retiring for the night.

He then made his way back to his bedroom dropping the axe on the floor, half eaten wrappers of chocolate and unwashed clothing strewn about. The door to his bathroom was still open and the light still on from the shower that he took in the morning. 'Oh come on.' He thought exasperated before switching off said light. The electricity bill was going to kick his ass later.

His companion had taken to observing his poor state of affairs, which had Palm feeling slightly embarrassed. The room itself was not large with a small built in bathroom, but aside from a bed and obnoxiously large diving setup he had bought at a heavy discount to let him surf the wave and watch all his favourite shows, there wasn't much.

'Really? because I think I spot a problem with that argument' Theda said fixing him with a flat stare.

He wasn't lying! his room really was relatively empty it just looked full due to poor living habits. The giant surfing setup was just an added bonus. If anything he thought it looked really cool.

'Right' Theda replied rolling her non-existent eyes at him, 'It's just hard to believe you live like this is all'

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'That's unfair' Palm pointed out 'How is anyone supposed to build a life for themselves in this cursed city, I'm doing the best I can with what I have.'

The spirit raised a brow in return, 'It looks to me that you haven't been doing much at all.'

It angered the barkeeper to hear somebody else tell him that. But, for all the fire that raged in his heart, he couldn't find the words to disprove what the ghostly woman had just pointed out. 'Whatever, Theda I get it' Palm thought 'Just let me get some sleep.'

moonlight lazily shone through the window of his room illuminating the face of the ghost who's face twitched in annoyance.

The spirit sighed before cupping both her hands around his face as he lay down. 'Listen to me Palm, I can help you' she then gestured frantically at the large window at the head of his bed. 'Don't you want to be more than this? there's a whole world out there why are you just content watching shows, barely surviving?' her voice began to grow with anger 'We could take the universe by storm!'

This damn axe had already made his life a nightmare and now she was lecturing him!?

'DON'T YOU THINK I TRIED!' Palm roared sitting up violently before taking a few breaths to steady himself. 'I'm just a man why must you people always have such high expectations' he hissed venomously 'And your just an axe, what are you going to do behead the Emperor?.' Seething Palm wrapped himself in a cocoon of blankets turning away from the spirit to face a corner refusing to meet her gaze any longer.

'I'm more than that Palm and I can help you' Theda called out softly, 'You just need to trust me.'

'I don't suppose you'll tell me what exactly you are?' Palm thought bitterly

Theda lightly shook her head before answering 'When I know it won't put you in danger by knowing.'

'Then I don't care' Palm replied. He ignored all of Theda's attempts to converse with him from that moment onward choosing instead to drift into the inky depths of sleep.

Earlier the next day the tension between the two was palpable as Palm made his way back into the main room, After harassing his local vending machine for breakfast he eventually sat down behind the countertop as he had the day before switching on his television while he ate. Despite leaving the axe upstairs Theda had somehow followed him to the bar itself and stood floating a few feet away from him eyes transfixed on the television screen. He idly wondered how far she could stray from the strange weapon or if she was even bound by it at all.

The television seemed to be favouring war propaganda that particular morning as it belted out the same generic call to arms. "ONLY YOU CAN JOIN THE STARSPARK ARMADA ON ITS ENDLESS JOURNEY TO PUSH BACK THE GALVANISE INVADERS TODAY AND KEEP YOUR HOMES FREE FROM THEIR IRON GRIP." What nonsense. Who would even want to join that suicidal effort anyway?

Just as Palm moved to put away his plate he saw a brief headline about an attack on a small bar in central Checkmate, luckily it seemed as though his name and face were blurred but it was almost frightening how quickly the information had reached the press. Although it was more focused on the attack on Hercules rather than his establishment, which was just fine by him.

'What do you want Theda' Palm thought annoyed, the spirit had been glancing at him all throughout his meal and he figured he might as well be the first person to break the ice.

The ghost stared blankly at him for a few moments before asking 'Is that Man vs Dog 2?'

Bewildered by the question the barkeeper simply nodded his head, to which the spirit asked If she could watch him play. It was strange but Palm found himself more relaxed as he booted up the old arcade game. Truly one of humanities greatest inventions, virtual reality was overrated. Man vs Dog 2 was a very interesting Idea that came up not that long ago by a now very old game creator by the name of Markus Grace who intended to answer the age old question of what dogs looked like. Apparently dogs could not travel with mankind beyond the stars and were wiped out in the pre-historic period.

Strangely enough there were still logs found hundreds of cycles later vague descriptions of dogs and how people missed them. Eventually many different people came up with different renditions of what they could look like but nobody could settle on anything definite given their incredibly sparse information and history. So Markus decided to put many of humanities favourite Supernaturals in a game where they fought against the elusive creature that was the dog.

It made for an incredibly fun and interactive fighting game that managed to make it's way into the virtual reality gaming space even from the original arcade version. Needless to say Palm preferred the original. Fighting against the poorly coded enemy AI Palm found himself reflecting on fond memories of him indulging in arcade games as a child, things were always better back then.

Even stranger still Theda couldn't keep herself from giggling every time he fought. 'They look hilarious, I mean they- pffft- why does he have a-pffft-hehehe' What the hell was she even laughing at. Those dogs looked awesome.

After calming down the spirit eventually hovered closer to Palm resting a hand above his shoulder while he played. 'Listen Palm I'm sorry if I came across as rude last night, I just want you to know that I'm here to help if you need me.'

The barkeeper was silent for a few moments simply focused on the match he was currently winning before heaving a sigh. It felt like he was doing a lot of those recently. 'How exactly do you plan on helping.' he said despite knowing he probably shouldn't indulge her.

'Well I was thinking you do with some training' she remarked with some cheer over his question.

'What like in anime?' the barkeeper questioned shivering slightly, 'I don't know, Japanese people scare me'

'As interesting as that sounds to unpack that's not what I meant' Theda replied, 'No I meant actual combat'

'To what end?' Palm responded confused, He was a member of the general public for a reason. Not a Supernatural or any of the other fight crazy species out in the galaxy, he intended to stay in his lane at all times and never saw the need to increase personal strength. Outside of maybe staying healthy and looking good.

'As much as everyone loves to hide behind the curtain of diplomacy, It is undeniable that many of the people on top are simply much stronger than anybody else.' Theda continued 'You want to live better? be strong enough to protect your own interests.'

'I'm not a fighter Theda I can't do that' Palm sighed again.

'Oh but I can make you one Palm' the spirit replied grinning widely, 'I can make you one.'