I thought you said you spoke to her, Alora! Chiyo chastised the Eladrie.
“I did, but there’s more to it than Luvia being pushy. When she kissed him in the lecture theatre and I spoke to her afterwards, Luvia told me she was under duress and told me the details. I’m guessing things have gotten worse for her.”
“Guys…” Nika spoke up after noticing something different. “I think we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands now!”
“Jack? I’m sorry!” Luvia called out as she made it to the house, finding the living room empty except for a few people watching TV, but she spotted movement down one of the corridors heading towards the spare garage and quickly followed after him, dismissing the lack of scent as she saw the door at the far end close. “I don’t know how your courting rituals work, but I’ve just received a message from my father and I really need to…”
She quickly sped down the corridor and opened the door, entering the garage at the end. It was a mostly empty room. Looking around, she spotted Jack at the end with his arms crossed in a relaxed pose. He had a blank expression on his face, just looking at her.
“Jack?” Luvia asked, confused. He didn’t respond, just looking at her with that same blank expression. “Say something!”
He didn’t. He just kept staring at her without moving.
“Please Jack, talk to me!” Luvia sighed as she slowly walked up to him, before sharply stopping, realising something. As well as the lack of scent, he had just gotten out of the hot tub, and the floor was bone dry. She took the last few tentative steps forward, realising the deception as her claw passed through Jack’s arm as he stood there motionless.
A hologram.
“What?” Luvia muttered to herself, her gaze focusing on the drone hovering in the corner projecting the image, before suddenly snapping her head around as the sound of two plasma bolts bounced off the nearest wall, ricocheting off the ceiling before smacking into the dragon’s snout. Her natural resistances as a dragon meant she didn’t suffer any serious injuries, but it still hurt.
“OW!” Luvia snarled as she looked to the source, rubbing her snout. “What the hell, Sephy?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Sephy snarled from where she had been hiding in the corner behind the door. “You think I’m going to let you ruin everything?”
“What?” Luvia gasped, looking more confused than hurt. “Sephy, I-”
“That boy is everything to me,” Sephy growled. “And the others. They’re all family to me, and you’ve been trying to tear it apart!”
Luvia scoffed. “No Sephy, that’s not what I’m trying to do at all! Look, let’s just calm down and find Alora so we can-”
“Alora told you to stop, and you didn’t,” Sephy interrupted.
“Please Sephy, you’re overreacting, let’s just-” Luvia tried.
“Don’t patronise me, you whore!” Sephy snapped.
“Or what!?” Luvia then angrily snapped back, her blood running red hot with the insult as she took an aggressive step forward.
She stopped as she saw Sephy give a slight smirk. On the cusp of her hearing, Luvia heard a new sound, like an electrical device being activated, and she looked down. Stuck to the dragon’s lycra shorts was a small dark sphere that suddenly blinked a blue light of activation.
“Or this,” Sephy calmly responded, as the cryo grenade detonated.
Luvia roared out in agony as she was suddenly blasted with an explosion of icy wind, falling to the floor as her limbs locked up, fighting to breathe as the air was taken out of her lungs by the cold.
“Maybe that’ll teach you to cool off!” Sephy began as she paced around the dragon.
Luvia shut her eyes, desperately trying to shut out the sheer pain of the cold, and quickly focused on her breathing. Maybe she had crossed a line with Jack in her desperation, but Sephy had just crossed one with her too! Breathing in and out she quickly focused her breathing, snapping her eyes open as she opened her mouth and shot a gout of flame at the Skritta, who was nimble enough to dodge the worst of it as it smacked into the far stone wall, but seeing the grimace on Sephy’s face, Luvia knew some of it had hit.
“You bitch!” The dragon gasped in between pained breaths as she managed to get herself up and launched at the Skritta. Sephy fired two ricocheting shots off the ground to slam into Luvia’s chest, throwing the dragon off-balance, but it was not enough to stop her colliding with Sephy. They both slammed into the far wall, with Luvia’s punch catching Sephy in the stomach, causing her to bend over, before the Skritta used the momentum to headbutt Luvia on the snout. Enraged, Luvia’s claw slashed out and caught Sephy on the shoulder. The Skritta flew back, then suddenly pushed off of the wall with a spinning kick that caught Luvia in the face.
“You’ll pay for that!” Luvia roared.
“Not before I kick your ass!” Sephy yelled back as she moved in for another punch, before an unseen force suddenly held her in her tracks, followed by a blast of telekinetic power that sent her flying back.
“Izorinn!” Alora cried out, as several chains of light sprang up to ensnare Luvia, who snarled as she fought to try and free herself, breaking one of the chains. Sephy quickly recovered from Chiyo’s attack, dodging the telekinetic follow up and blasting two ricocheting plasma shots towards the Ilithii. They weren’t aimed to hit Chiyo, but they were enough to break her concentration as they whizzed past her head.
“No!” Sephy yelled, as a pink-furred figure rushed her, predicting her attempt to dodge as Nika tackled her to the ground. “I’m not done!”
“Yes you are,” the Kizun told the Skritta as Nika got Sephy into a rear choke, keeping her voice as soothing as she could as she tried to calm her friend down. “Come on, please. I know you can try and fight out of this, but it’s me. You know you need to calm down and stop…”
“You think these chains will hold me Alora!?” Luvia roared. “I will-BLARGH!”
Suddenly, the dragon found she couldn’t move as she found herself mostly enveloped in a bundle of rocks and earth that snapped her maw shut.
“I know.” Alora sighed patiently. “I was just stalling you. Thank you for the aid of your earth spirit, Zayle!”
“No problem!” The little Squa’Kaar chirped up entirely too smugly for the situation. “Uh, don’t worry, Luvia, I promise I won’t tell anybody about this, so please don’t eat me!”
“MMMMPH!” The dragon tried to mutter in return.
“Sorry Luvia but I’m not taking any chances with your flame breath.” Alora sighed. “Once we’ve all calmed down, we’ll let you go…”
“What the fuck’s going on?” Jack’s voice yelled out as he suddenly rushed into the room, gun raised. “I go to the bathroom for five minutes and I hear a fucking riot happening downstairs!”
*Funny, you usually take longer…*Chiyo quipped, but dropped the humour when the others gave her unappreciative looks for trying to lighten the mood.
“Sephy and Luvia got into a fight.” Alora sighed. “Honestly, Sephy, how did you even pull this off?”
“Had one of my remaining drones pick up my stuff remotely and had them bring it here,” the Skritta replied nonchalantly. “Had the other one scan Jack as he went to the bathroom for the hologram.”
“Why!?” Jack asked.
“You freaked out from Luvia doing something lewd, so she needed an asswhooping!” Sephy spoke up from where she was being held on the floor. “Alora told her to cut her shit before and she didn’t, so I figured I’d do it my way instead!”
“God fucking damnit!” Jack then yelled out in a roar of frustrated anger that caused everyone to stop what they were doing to look at him. “I’m sorry I reacted badly back there, but I don’t need anyone to fight these kinds of battles for me!”
“Really!?” Sephy yelled at him, returning the anger, and now it was Jack that was put off guard. “You didn’t say anything, you didn’t do anything, and I thought the worst! You’re too damn polite and passive to speak up about it!”
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“That’s not true!” Jack retorted just as angrily. “I just needed to take a breather. After coming back I would have spoken to Luvia privately, not fucking attack her!”
“Why are you siding with her against me!?” Sephy snarled.
“I’m not!” Jack roared out. I’m not picking sides because we should all be on the same one! We’re all meant to be friends here, so whatever this beef is we’re squashing it right now!”
Everyone else was silent as they all looked at him. He had never shouted at them like that before, and for a moment he regretted doing so as he looked at their expressions. Sephy was hurt, Alora was shocked, Chiyo was surprised and Nika just stared at him, stoic and unblinking.
“When I got here I had nothing!” Jack began, finding his words as he addressed all of them. “I was a dead man walking and I just resolved to just carry on going until something killed me! And then I met good people, I met all of you.” He made a point to look to Luvia too as she lay on the ground, and Vanya from where she was looking in from the garage door, where a crowd had gathered.
“You all convinced me that there were good reasons to keep on living, and you all gave me the support I needed despite me never asking for it, and that is something I can never repay you for!” he continued. “So I won’t let you fight amongst yourselves like this. Luvia, I know Alora spoke to you about being too pushy, and I already agreed to go on a date with you, so what’s really going on here?”
He looked down to see tears in Luvia’s eyes, as Zayle’s earth spirit let her go.
“I’m sorry everyone. I know I’ve been shameful, but I’ve received demands from my father and I’m desperate,” she began, looking at the ground. ”My grandfather has decreed that the dragons of the Red Legion should increase our numbers due to taking wartime losses, and as a result, my father has been insisting that I find a mate and has threatened me with arranged suitors that I want nothing to do with.” Luvia sighed, her voice shaking with emotion. “He just wants to use me as cattle for political gain.”
“Wait, what!?” Jack began, shocked. “He wants you to repopulate? But you’re the same age as me! Um…sort of? I don’t know what dragon years are like…”
Luvia nodded with a drawn out sigh.
“Then refuse! That’s insane!” Jack exclaimed, but Luvia shook her head.
“I have refused, but I need to be seen obeying the spirit of order as I am considered of age for my kind, or the Red Legion will take action against me. That’s why I’ve been trying to court you! Even if you didn’t have a harem of your own I would have pursued you! If I had a suitable mate close at hand, my father would not be in a position to question it!”
“Why haven’t you told us this before?” Jack asked.
“I told Alora!” The dragon retorted. “And at the time my father wasn’t being nearly as pushy as he is now! ”
“It’s true,” Alora confirmed. “But Luvia, why didn’t you speak to Jack about this?”
“I was going to after courting him!” The dragon countered. “But I’ve been trying to work out how, since he hasn’t been receptive to my actions.”
“I agreed to a date,” Jack pointed out. “Hell, I’m out of my depth with that as it is…”
“Wait a moment…” Luvia began, her eyes widening with realisation. “You’ve all been involved with him for a few months at least. Have you not broken him in?!”
“LUVIA!” Alora yelled at the dragon as everyone firmly looked away from one another in embarrassment, with Jack’s face turning scarlet.
“Oh. I see. I suppose that explains why.” The dragon sighed. “Jack, I truly am sorry. I assumed being in a harem as you are, you had already-”
“No, we haven’t,” Jack snapped, not wanting the dragon to finish the sentence. “Look, I have no idea where this is going to go,” Jack began, “but surely at the very least we could just be seen together like normal people so your father leaves you be? Isn’t that what we were already going to do? At least now I’m clued in just in case there are any problems.”
“Oh…” Luvia began as she quickly thought about it, having now calmed down to see things more rationally. “Very well, that could work...”
“And Sephy.” Jack sighed, turning to the Skritta who also couldn’t meet his gaze. “You know I always appreciate you having my back when we’re in a hot spot, but you shouldn’t have attacked Luvia. There are better ways to solve disputes, especially among friends.”
“I’m sorry, Jack,” The Skritta reluctantly answered. “With the way she was acting I just thought she was trying to ruin everything between us and needed her ass kicked!”
“I know.” Jack nodded, before letting out a harsh chuckle.
‘Jesus, I knew this was all too good to be true.’ He thought to himself. ‘I was dumb enough to think this’d be like one of those stupid harem animes and everyone would suddenly be cool with everything, but this was the reality check I needed.’
“Maybe we need to put a hold on us being more than just friends?” Jack finally sighed, looking at all of them. “We’ve gone into this way too fast, I mean hell, I’ve known all of you for, what, a few months? Stuff like this should take time, and I don’t think we’re ready to take things further. Nothing wrong with us going on dates and fooling around as kids our age do, but taking things further should wait until we’re all ready to make that decision together as adults.”
I…agree with Jack. Chiyo added. There was…something I saw in the fog that made me realise I’m not in a good headspace for whatever this is between us.
“I wasn’t expecting things to get super serious,” Nika admitted. “You’re still not adjusted to life here Jack, so…yeah.”
“In that case…” Alora spoke up, before looking to both Sephy and Luvia. “I think you two have something you need to say to one another.”
“I’m sorry for attacking you, Luvia.” Sephy sighed as she looked the dragon in the eye. “I didn’t know you were having problems with your family causing you to act that way.”
“And I’m sorry for giving you cause,” The dragon returned miserably. “I should have just been open with all of you from the start and now I’ve probably ruined things.”
“We’ll see.” Jack sighed. “Let’s just drop this now. I’m exhausted, sick, and hurt, and I wasn’t actually kidding when I said I needed to go to the bathroom…”
“Well, now that we’ve calmed down…” Alora continued, as the tension between them all finally cooled off. “Perhaps we can return to the tub?”
*****
After bidding Luvia farewell with a promise to call later, Alora sighed. “Well, tonight’s been eventful…”
“No shit.” Sephy sulked.
“Don’t be like that.” Nika chucked under her breath, patting the Skritta on the shoulder. “It’s squashed now, we can all be friends again.”
“True, but it does mean I’ll be spending all night in the hot tub.” Sephy sighed “This burn fucking hurts!”
That’s what you get for starting a fight like that! Chiyo chided. Honestly, what were you even thinking?
“Kick the dragon’s ass for acting like one?” Sephy chuckled with dry humour. “Yeah, wasn’t the best plan, come to think of it.”
“From the looks of it you did pretty well!” Jack snorted with amusement, before getting serious. “Look, everyone, I’m sorry for not speaking up when I should have.”
“It’s fine.” The Skritta sighed, speaking the truth. “We’ll work it all out with time.”
“And time is something we’re going to have a lot of,” Alora pointed out as they all sat down on the sofa with their bags. “Which is why we’re going to tally up our reward!”
“We’ve got 60,000 in CorvCoin from the main objective,” Nika began, sliding the chips across the table. “Half of that is in scrip, so we’re limited on where we can spend it.”
Plus we obtained 5000 in scrip in advance, Chiyo added. How much of that have we spent?
“About 2000 on quality gear for the Run,” Sephy answered, bringing up the receipts. “But very little of that was perishable and most of it is intact, so the value carries over, and we have another 3000 in what we didn’t use before the Run.”
“We’ve got 20,000 CorvCoin from giving Corvin Enterprises the information on the area they wanted,” Jack spoke up next. “Including details on what happened at their Outpost, and how some of it matches with other sites in the area, and what we told them about the threat.”
And another 5000 for the sample of the fungus we agreed to sell to them, Chiyo added. Though I still had other samples we gave to the Greenwardens and the Temple of Hope for study, so Corvin Enterprises will be unlikely to profit from it.
“Yeah, I think that fawn-like women seemed way too interested in it,” Jack noted. “Maybe we shouldn’t have sold it to her?”
“I don’t think it makes a difference.” Alora shrugged. “They’re heading over there anyway, so if anything we just got them a sample a week or a few days early.”
“Fair enough.” Jack shrugged, conceding the point. “What else?”
“Kaldra promised 5000 in CorvCoin for burying his mother’s remains,” Alora began. “But he gave us 10,000 instead for coming to her rescue.”
“Unusually generous for a corpo,” Sephy quipped. “Don’t think he would have been petty enough to try and stiff us based on a technicality, it’s how noob clients tend to get their asses geeked. Say what you want about the guy, but he’s definitely hired Runners before.”
Makes you wonder why he decided to go with a new group for something like this… Chiyo pointed out. He also gave us the two magical items he promised for the return of the Bone Pendant along with a bonus ring.
“What are they?” Jack asked. “I’ll admit I kind of blanked out for most of the talking, since I was more focused on watching out for threats…”
“That’s okay.” Alora smirked. “The first is a pair of magical bracers that make your arms stronger. Lifting, pulling and pushing are especially easier, though it can help in unarmed combat too!”
“And now they’re mine!” Nika grinned, showing the fingerless dark leather gloves on her hands. “The Power Gloves are gonna be dead useful!”
“We also have the ‘Cloak of the Earthwalker’. Alora added, pointing at the shimmering green fabric they’d chucked onto one of the chairs. “Obvious druid thing he must have used at some point, and if there’s no objections I wish to claim it for myself. I found myself stumbling a lot during our trip through the wilderness and wearing this means it won’t happen again if we end up wading through hard-to-pass places. It can also let me teleport at short range once a day as long as I can see where or if a friend is nearby, but that only works if it’s on natural ground, so not in the city!”
“Nice!” Jack grinned. “And what about the ring?”
“I’ve got that too.” Nika confirmed. “Ring of Quickness for me to move faster on my feet!”
“You only got that because you’re shorter than the rest of us!” Sephy laughed, with Nika giving her the finger.
And we picked up a few things when we were at the shrine, Chiyo added. Though much of it was used in the fighting. Alora picked up a Staff of Lesser Weather control that might help us a little with our water situation if it can summon rain, I got a Ring of Marking, Jack got a stupidly powerful gun that we can’t find ammo for…
“And we got some Potions of Barkskin,” Alora added. “Along with a few others Elysandra said we could take back with us as a reward.”
“We took some of the better bows with us,” Jack added. “Just in case we ever need weapons that won’t make any noise or flash.”
“And I picked up some cool knives!” Sephy added.
“You sure did!” Nika grinned. “So the total?”
100,000 in CorvCoin, including scrip and advance payments, as well as the magical items previously mentioned, not only that, but also the bounties for The Redeemer and several of his associates, Chiyo concluded.
Nobody spoke for several moments. Though Jack wasn’t familiar with the currency, the looks he saw on the others’ faces were all varying degrees of shock, disbelief and amazed, cheerful awe.
Finally, it was Nika who spoke up. “Guys…” The Kizun began in a gasp.
“I’m gonna cum!”