Going back to the slums with a headache attacking my head by the second had been hard, and going as far as the bar without getting mugged? Impossible. It was why I decided to tell my team that I'd just slip into some motel for the night and then just go to some agreed place to meet with them by morning. Unsurprisingly, they all agreed and Oliver even went as far as sending me money for the hotel. Pretty nice of him to do that.
The cold air that came out of the doors when I opened the door to the wide building surprised me for a second before that feeling vanished to get replaced by a pang of pain that drilled my skull. I walked in while trying not to clutch my head, the lobby- if you can even call it that, - is just a small room twice the size of a janitor's closet with a front desk manned by a teen that's probably just here because it's the only legal job left available. The source of the cold air wasn't anywhere to be seen, until I looked to my right and saw someone with clear ice powers walking up the steps with a limp.
I ignored them and waved to the teen, "Hey, uh, any free rooms?" Talking made me feel like shit, I realized, then vowed to not do it unless necessary for the rest of the night.
And I guess the teen in front of me had the same vow because all she did in response is look up at me and shrug, "Really?" I asked, not really knowing what she meant. She eyed me with a raised eyebrow and I tilted my head, "What?"
We both shrugged simultaneously and I wondered what she means by that but before I can ask, she looked away from me and started tapping on the keyboard in front of her, she nodded at me after a quick search and standing up, she walked over to the board of keys right behind her, plucked one from a plastic hook, and proceeded to hand it to me, "It's room 304." She said.
"Oh thanks?" I took the key and pulled out my phone, "Can I pay digitally?"
She nodded, "Contacts?" I gave her the pin and before long, I was on my way up the stairs with a key in hand. I idly ignored the trails of frost visible on the walls of the stairs as I slowly made my way up. Room 304 wasn't far, just a staircase more and a brief walk and I'm standing in front of a green door with my key's numbers imprinted in gold on a plaque at the center.
I quickly entered and crashed in.
The headache didn't quite subside when I woke up and thus, it was quite a shitty morning. I tossed the cover away and looked around the rather empty room, completely barren save for a bed and a desk with a nightstand right next to it. Combing my hair, I left until I ended in a bathroom with just enough space to fit a person, white tiles are all over the square room, they blinded me with reflected light once I flicked the switch. I grabbed my head with a wince, "Fuck." I locked with the bloodshot eyes present in the mirror, "This." I growled out.
I promised myself to be conservative with my power rolls as I washed my face and a second promise of buying headache pills for next time came when I went back to the bedroom with a throbbing headache. "Lots of promises are being made today," I murmured.
I gingerly placed myself on the bed and the headache flared up for a brief second as I lay my head on the white pillow. 'The ceiling looks nice,' I thought as I started counting sheep, I'd sleep anytime now- I yawned, an action that gave me both respite and pain. My body shuddered and a thought of my team popped up, 'Later.' I said to myself, 'I'd get that money later.'
A mental reminder of them being trustworthy was the last thing I thought of before it all went black.
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"You sure took your sweet time, didn't you?" Anissa's words got a mixture of reactions from the three people she's sitting with, two- Inga and Oliver, - looked uncomfortable but forced a smile while Fred had the decency to let out a hollow chuckle. The Duskkin must've sensed the atmosphere because her playful attitude went away to get replaced by something more serious, "We're not circling around this, aren't we?" Oliver shook his head at her and she sighed, "Fair enough- What the hell were you thinking?"
I ignored her glare as I pulled a chair, "What? Fighting the Queen?" I asked rhetorically while plopping myself on the soft cushions of the chair, "Ok, I admit it, it was selfish for me to do that but I think that was the only option we had?" I explained under their painful stares.
Which... didn't disappear even as I explained myself, "What? Isn't that the problem?" I asked.
Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose, "The problem- Tyler, are you being a perfectionist?" Now it was my turn to glare. I crossed my arms and gestured for him to explain with a nod, "Okay, how... do I say this?" He turned to his three teammates.
"Why' wer' ya botherin' ta pick' -for a proper power?" Inga asked, her accent changing by the second, "What was that' about?"
"Well... we couldn't kill the plants otherwise?" They all glared at my answer.
"Fuck off. Anissa raised both her hands in exasperation, "What the hell do you mean we couldn't kill the plants otherwise?" She slammed her hands onto the table, making it shake and reminding me that they are, in fact, cybernetic. "Are you fucking stupid? I saw you tearing those plants up with super strength alone."
"And?" I argued and her hands went back up.
"And he says!" Her expression became unreadable and she shook her head.
"What Anissa means to say is," Oliver cut in, "That if you could've killed her vines without the electricity, then why didn't you?"
"Because it would've been more effective?" I replied with a lot less confidence than before and they only stared, I stared back. For what felt like forever, no one talked and eventually, I just sighed and gave up, "Fine, I'm stupid."
"There we go, not so hard now is it?" Oliver clapped me on the shoulders, "A tip for next time, if you can just make do with what you already have, you should. God knows everyone in this table does."
I grunted, 'Not that I need that reminder,' I thought. They are fairly weak individually aren't they?
"Now that I've proven my point- the headache that left you sleeping in till lunch was for what? Nothing."
"Point." Oliver agreed, "You didn't need to get a headache that, again, left you asleep till lunch-"
"Yeah, I get the point. I'll be careful next time." Anissa cheered and the rest smiled.
"So now that that's done- the payment." My bad mood disappeared and I straightened my back, "And, seeing as our temporary member here is excited, I guess I'm gonna start with the good news first- We stole extra credits while we were inside the warehouse." I joined in on the cheer and after a second or two of whooping, Oliver continued, "And if we add that to our actual payment, all of us are left with..." The man narrowed his eyes, then eventually just closed them to get into a thinking pause.
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Inga rolled her eyes, "Say it already,"
"Okay-" Oliver grinned, "We have 2,700 Digits each." I paused, 'That many?'
Inga must've caught my surprised expression because she suddenly grinned in my direction, showing a row of perfectly flat front teeth and two tusks, "Heh', nifty ain't it?" I schooled my expression and nodded, "Specially' since ya don' hav' ta bother wit' equipment repairs."
"I guess?" I said dully, "didn't know that it'd be that much."
"Don't get too excited," Oliver said, "These sorts of things are usually outliers instead of the norm." He paused, "At least for us,"
"Right, you guys have to split the profits," When I saw them all nod, I made another promise to not join a team. Safety and reliability in exchange for money? No thank you, I'd rather go solo and in danger and earn Digits.
"That and most of the time mercenary work for us just means that we have to guard someone on The Market or something." Oliver replied with a shrug, "Things like attacking a warehouse of a powerful gang is usually just a bit too far and dangerous for us,"
Inga rolled her eyes and Anissa chimed in, "You say that as if someone actually wants us to go attack a gang's warehouse or something."
"What do you mean?" I looked down as my phone dinged and yep, there it is, 2,700 Digits straight to the account my ID comes with. "I got it by the way," Oliver nodded and the rest of our table pinged with different sound as the money got passed around.
Anissa nodded in satisfaction as she put her phone away, "What I mean is- you see how we can't fight B-listers back then right?" I nodded, "Well, most powerful gangs have that sort of person in their structure, usually as a high ranking member." I nodded again, "We advertise that we can't fight them."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because we don't want to die." Fred replied for everyone else, "Someone like you can probably escape if he wants to but us? We'll get caught and die, no other way about it."
"And the other mercs?" I thought the protection for other mercenaries applies with their death?
"That's only for jobs, not death. Everyone doesn't care about you if you die on the job, right as long as you do it without ruining everybody else's." I nodded at Anissa's words.
"So right as long as mercenary work doesn't get ruined- by, let's say that gangs willingly killing any merc in their employ-" They nodded, "- then the other mercenaries won't care?"
"Pretty much. We don't really know each other so yeah. You can die, right as long as work isn't affected." Oliver confirmed.
I frowned, "That's fucked up."
"As is the way of the slums," Anissa said and I nodded.
"I guess." I agreed.
The topics shifted and we all talked about various mundane things for a little while, then Anissa mentioned something about buying a new modification for her cybernetics and our talks went from day to day life to what we're gonna spend our Digits on. In short, Anissa wanted new mods, Inga said she'd spend it on "herself" whatever she meant by that, Fred answered something about drugs and materials while Oliver wanted to buy his son a new toy, an unsurprising answer until I realized he meant a knife.
"You're just gonna give your son a knife." I said dryly, eyebrow raised in suspicion, "What the fuck? I thought you were responsible!"
"And I am," the father shrugged, "It's just that sometimes, you need to give in to your child's demands."
"Give in." I replied with a tone drier than the other world outside, "What?" I turned to look at the rest of my team to confirm what I'm hearing and they're all either shrugging, smiling, or neutral in Fred's case. "Please tell me you're joking."
"I'm not." He answered, "Duskkin brains develop their instincts for hunting at an early age, it's why you see so many teenage Duskkins jumping around in rooftops at the age of ten." What? I didn't see any of that throughout the six years I've been living in the slums.
"Where does this even happen?" I asked and he shrugged.
"In places." Was his ambiguous answer.
"Right, well, whatever. Let's talk about something else other than child endangerment," I decided to finish the conversation.
Anissa snapped her fingers, "Oh, I know! How about places we can buy stuff from?"
"Bowey's is good." I started and moments later, we're all talking about the various spots we can spend our Digits on, from food- the Market, it's always the answer no matter what - to guns, knives, and even modifications. Inga also said something about a place that "sells" powers but I didn't believe her. No one in our table did.
She shrugged, "Yer lost."
Anissa crossed her cybernetic arms, "You do realize that three of us already have that right?" Inga side-eyed her, "Oh don't drag me into this," she rolled her eyes, "mods are exactly the same as powers sometimes."
"Yeah, but they're not unique." I shook my head at the Tusk's words.
"Just... come back to us in one piece okay?" Oliver said and Inga nodded. "Good luck."
I stood up, "Well I'm going before any of this gets any more depressing, you have my contacts right?" Oliver nodded and I looked away from him.
"I don't." Anissa said with a smile, she held out her phone, "Exchange?"
"Sure," A scan of a QR code later and I was out of the bar and back into the streets.
I tossed and grab my phone as I walked along the streets of the lower city, now that the skies are turning dark, the streets have gotten slightly illuminated by the neon signs- a staple feature of the area if anything. People stared at me as I walked on by, most likely because I still have my costume on. I mean, why shouldn't I? It's not that weird to see costumed people pass by here. 'Come to think of it, do they think I'm some sort of debauched hero?' Villains usually just buy their girls from this place to get delivered to the top after all.
'Whatever.' I thought as I placed my phone in my pocket.
The talk I had with the rest about where to spend my newly earned Digits had gotten me to decide that yep, I'm now gonna leave the slums and move to Lower Gloria- a better choice that I have now that I have a source of income that's not planning on sucking me dry. Sort of. Mercenary work does have a high mortality rate but again, it doesn't matter right as long as I have money.
A question about why I want money got asked by the rational part of my mind but I dismissed it quickly enough. 'It's not like I have a lot of it right now.' I answered myself as I boarded a train that leads to Broker's Dam.
One quick ride and a run through the slums later and I was standing in front of my current apartment, the place around the building is as shitty as ever though surprisingly, the bottom floor of the place is now boarded up with planks and upon closer inspection, I saw that yep, not only is it devoid of any homeless person, the lift also goes down to this level now too. 'Guess Bloodback decided to expand their business?' That or it was just Ryan, the guy usually makes financial decisions without being told by his gang. 'It pays off,' Or so he says.
Theikos went inside of me and got absorbed as I stepped into the first floor, walking in deeper, I felt myself connect to buoyancy- which I now decided to call flexibility - and now that I'm safe from getting stabbed by metal pikes suddenly jutting out of the walls, I walked with a quicker speed than before, passing by a stray gang member who stared at my plain, undyed clothes for a split second before realizing that it's me.
"Hi Tyler, haven't seen you around lately," the guy says, still sprawled on the couch.
"Uh, yeah." I turned to him and flashed a smile, "It has been a busy week." And it's not like I was lying either, between getting attacked by Lioness, registration, and the actual mercenary work, it really has been.
"You paying rent?" He asked.
"Something like that," I answered before pulling on the ropes and lifting myself up to the second floor and there, Ryan is sitting on a chair instead of relaxing on his couch, a table full of paper was in front of him, he glared at it as if it was his worst enemy.
"you're leaving?" He asked before I can even say anything.
"Yeah. Sorry." I said.
"Why?" He turned to me, his expression confused, "why say sorry?"
"I don't know? It's just- I've been living here for a long time." I paused, "Well, I guess it was sorry to myself instead of you," I smiled and he scoffed.
"Sure, just pay the rent and an extra percent,"
I nodded, "300 and..."
"150."
I narrowed my eyes, "That's an extra 50%." I said.
"Yeah, and?" He glared at me, unyielding.
One- two- ten seconds passed and I sighed, "Fine,"
He smiled, "Good."
When I sent him the payment, I went up and packed my things, ready to leave for greener pastures and move on from the slums. A bag of my stuff in hand, I slipped out of the building and turned to it once with a satisfied smile, then quickly looked forward to continuing making my way back to Broker's Dam. 'I can afford a train ride or two,' I thought.