School assemblies were boring as fuck.
Apparently on some days of the week the headmaster cast multiple simulacrums of himself so he could lecture multiple buildings worth of students all at once on various topics nobody cared about, with maybe one or two things that were occasionally relevant. At least that’s how Nika explained it to him as they were escorted to a massive lecture hall by the teachers and Prefects, who quickly put down any signs of dissent with extreme prejudice.
Jack sat between Sephy and Chiyo, the enforced boy-girl-boy lineup working in their favour. The seats were uncomfortable, and it had taken an extra 15 minutes to herd the rest of the students in before the headmaster had even started droning on. Apparently these had sometimes lasted hours, pushing the rest of the school day right into the evening, and it certainly felt to Jack that this was how it was going to go.
“.....and so, it is important to note the wise teachings of Professor Klars that discipline is one of the cornerstones of….”
“Kill me please!” Sephy whispered under her breath to Jack, out of earshot of the ever-watchful teachers waiting to punish those students who fell out of line. Master Kull in particular seemed to relish roughly dragging students out of their seats to administer verbal beatings, with threats of physical ones should they ever so much as breathe wrong again. For her part, Mrs Schlart didn’t seem to mind what the students did, provided it couldn’t be seen, so Chiyo could talk away as much as she liked, though Jack obviously couldn’t perceive her telepathy.
Not yet anyway.
“.....discipline and integrity, important to this institution….”
According to Svaarti, the Gloom Cauldron had something to do with summoning. In that case, what was Dubakuu planning to do with it?
“....an incident which brings great shame and horror upon our community….”
Not Dubakuu, Jack corrected himself. The hacker controlling the dark acolyte was still out there somewhere. The Mal’Kars were the only possible lead they had on them for now, and it was a shaky lead at best.
“....a whole TWO CREDITS were STOLEN!”
The headmaster was rambling on about a perceived theft of property from one of the Prefects, and wanting the perpetrator to come forward and confess. Like that would ever happen.
“...and this theft will not go unpunished!”
He gave Sephy a quick glance and could see that she was likely using her cyberware to do a few things in the background. He was jealous as hell that she had something to do to escape this mess, but he made sure she didn’t slump to the side too much.
“....but the worst crime is what we discovered this morning!” the headmaster yelled, the raised tone of voice slightly waking everybody up, before most of them immediately went back to their species equivalent of daydreaming.
Jack felt somewhat helpless. They had clues to follow but nothing concrete that could directly lead them to their enemies. And those enemies were poised to strike at him. It could be any time, and any place.
And his luck wouldn’t last forever.
“....YES! You heard me correctly, students! Excrement was discovered on Master Kull’s desk earlier this morning by a patrolling drone!”
Wait what? That certainly got everyone’s attention! Did a Zorn break in?
“NOT ONLY THIS!” the headmaster continued to yell. “But a copious amount of urine and bile was discovered on the floor of the cafeteria kitchen on Floor 38, with several drones having been destroyed by cutting weapons of some description, and there is a pungent smell of an unknown substance detected in several areas in this building and several adjacent ones!”
That got several giggles from a few of the students, who were quickly shushed by their teachers.
“Using several drone images we have compiled a picture of the likely perpetrator, and mark my words! Anybody involved with these incidents shall be severely punished!”
Jack’s ass clenched as he saw the picture.
Obscured by a lot of smoke and powder, wearing an obviously fake grey beard and moustache was the unmistakable bright green skin, bulging bloodshot eyes and twin samurai swords of Killer Kush!
“Uh oh…” Sephy whispered under her breath.
Jack could only agree. The school was meant to be secure against outside threats!
Thankfully the assembly did not last for too long after that, the headmaster being all tuckered out by ranting and raving about the bounty hunter that had eluded them so far, clearly being more mad about the embarrassment of being unable to locate them than the intrusion itself.
“Killer Kush is either highly intelligent or completely retarded…” Nika spoke up as soon as the group were alone after being dismissed. “I thought the school would be safe…”
It is. Chiyo reassured them. If he tries anything during the day he’ll definitely be spotted and eliminated!
“It’s on school grounds as well, so even if Jack dies medical droids will try to resurrect him,” Sephy added, before hurriedly adding, “though I’ll blast him before he tries! You’re with me for Art class!”
“And me,” Nika groaned. “Absolute waste of time…”
“It is not!” Sephy argued. “I’m actually good at it!”
It turned out that both girls raised valid points about Art class. While the passionate toadstool-like Mx Cxilla had warmly welcomed Jack to the class, they then immediately separated the class by gender into two groups to work on a canvas together as a group exercise. While some students naturally switched off and left other members of the group to do the work, Jack appreciated the time he had to talk with some of the guys, especially Vaal’s group who had first tipped them off about the hacker over the weekend. Though he didn’t mention the Spawn of Nekdon or the resulting encounter with Dubakuu at the Grove of the Oracle, their fight with the Red Legion aspirants certainly got a lot of attention.
“Those extremists have been making the Red Legion look bad for months. I’m glad most of them are gone now, at least,” Vaal finally sighed as he added a few brushes of colour to his section of the canvas. “Xharl and Kralk in particular, those two were good at bringing others into their sphere. They were always nasty to anyone that didn’t join them, though most of the blame can be left at the foot of Master Kull for starting them down the path of extremism. I can only imagine how bad things are going to get now that he’s lost his protégés.”
“Maybe he’ll try and pick up again with whoever survived,” Crill added thoughtfully.
“Did Svaartal really fight you to a standstill?” Vaal asked Jack, who reluctantly nodded. “Damn! What are you going to do about him?”
“You should fuck his mum!” Kritch quipped, which got most of the table laughing before Mx Cxilla shushed them and told them to get on with their work.
“That was harsh, Kritch!” Crill pointed out despite his smile, trying to be serious. “His mother’s dead.”
“He has a sister though!” Kizzarith grinned.
“Dude!”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to do about him yet.” Jack sighed. “I’ve got even bigger threats to worry about right now, so as long as he doesn’t attack me I’m happy for us to just avoid one another for now. It’d be a different story if he had gone for my friends, though.”
“Perhaps you should consider placing a bounty on Svaartal?” Crill mused to Jack. “Svaartal can’t attack you again if he’s taken out.”
“You mean send assassins after him?” Jack questioned, a little disturbed as he saw the others nod their heads in agreement. “Come on guys, I really can’t see myself doing that. Who do you think I am? Hillary Clinton?”
“Svaartal did get a fat bounty from my grandfather for killing The Redeemer!” Kritch pointed out. “Maybe he isn’t desperate for cash right now and won’t bother coming for you again?”
“Yeah, I met your grandfather.” Jack smiled as he remembered the insane encounter. “Nice guy, he smuggled us out when The Redeemer came, though we probably could have taken him out.”
“Probably.” Kritch agreed. “Though he would want to get any incidents out of the Tea Garden bloodlessly if he could. Bad for business if shootouts occur, and the clan elders have something big planned!”
“Huh, neat,” Jack answered simply.
The group fell silent for a few moments, putting a few more touches to their work on the canvas, which now just seemed like a mismatched patchwork of different styles and influences. It was interesting to do, but Jack had no idea if this was what the teacher wanted or not.
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“Oh yeah, that reminds me!” Kizzarith spoke up. “Jack, are you going to join the Deathball team? We have practice tonight after we lost last week!”
“Um…” Jack answered, not having thought too much about it, though he knew that Nika and Sephy were on the team. “I can do, but I have no idea how to play!”
“The rules aren’t too complicated, the hardest thing is trying to survive without getting injured!” Vaal perked up. “Crill? Want to give him the rundown?”
“In this version, two teams of 11 people try to get a ball through the opposing team’s goal,” Crill started, looking serious.
“Ok…” Jack answered. That sounded too easy, so he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Is it more like football where you only use your feet or rugby where it’s a bit more physical?”
“More like the second one,” Crill replied seriously, “and you can get the ball into the opposing goal however you like.”
“Right,” Jack acknowledged. The game didn’t sound so bad after all-
“You just need to avoid getting killed by the spectators, or ‘accidentally’ by the opposing team.”
“Wait, what?” Jack questioned.
“The only rule of Deathball is that players are not allowed to kill one another.” Crill sighed. “Spectators are allowed to do whatever they want as long as they don’t physically invade the field of play, though there’s nothing stopping them invading if they’re able to get past the referees!”
Jack’s mouth just hung open as he took all of that in. That sounded insane!
“We have sports later today,” Vaal grinned. “Kull might run a game, and hopefully he won’t immediately throw you in the deep end for wiping out his favourite students!”
“Great…” Jack deadpanned sarcastically.
“Boys? How are we getting on?” Mx Cxilla cheerfully asked as she came to examine their work thus far, though Jack wouldn’t be surprised if they were just trying to get them to focus on it. “Oh? Very good! A very interesting contrast of differing cultural styles! Jack, is this a vehicle of some kind? Could you tell me more about it?”
“Um…” Jack began, unconfidently. “I drew a tank on a battlefield. I think the contrasting natures of battle work well together?”
He really hoped that would work. Jack was terrible at drawing, but he was a self-proclaimed master of bullshitting.
“Most interesting…” the teacher muttered to themselves before moving on. “Carry on!”
While that didn’t fill Jack with confidence, carry on they did, not talking as much with the rest of the group, but working on putting the canvas together until the class ended, at which point the girls were awarded the higher mark.
Chemistry class was next for Jack, who followed a cheerful Sephy to meet up with Chiyo, who shared that class with him. She had shown him a few of her graffiti designs she had added to the canvas and was very proud of them, and Jack had to admit they were pretty good, with the Skritta promising to use them in future throw-ups next time the group went out on a mission. Jack didn’t know too much about graffiti and the culture from Earth despite a few of his classmates getting into it, but he was glad Sephy was happy all the same.
“So, did Vaal persuade you to join the team yet?” she excitedly asked him as they pushed their way past a Prefect checkpoint, with Jack getting a lot of suspicious looks from the Korrigan guards.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah - ‘Come play this sport where the bloody crowd is trying to kill you because this galaxy is totally batshit crazy!’ It’s a hard sell for me.”
“It’s not that bad!” Sephy giggled. “Nika and I play for the team and it’s not like we can’t handle ourselves!”
“Well I’ve kinda promised to tag along after school for practice, but it doesn’t mean I’ve said yes!” Jack cautioned on seeing Sephy’s face brighten up.
“Close enough! We’ll make a Deathballer out of you somehow!” The Skritta grinned.
You know you don’t need to fall for peer pressure, right? Chiyo messaged Jack as their teacher began splitting the students off into groups. Lt Xcratho was apparently a former Red Legion demolitions expert who retired and took to teaching with gusto, being very keen on group practical exercises and demonstrations with things that smoked, popped, exploded or otherwise did something interesting, though students sitting in the front row had been known to pick up the occasional singed fur. The cherry on top was that, according to Vanya, Lt Xcratho and Master Kull apparently hated one another despite coming from the same faction.
“I haven’t said I’ll join the team yet,” Jack explained for what felt like the tenth time that day. “It’s bad enough I have bounty hunters after me, adding an entire crowd of people to that doesn’t sound smart.”
But?
“But if it’s a way to make more friends, and Sephy and Nika are this enthusiastic about it, the least I can do is hear them out. I kinda owe them for tipping us off over the weekend about the hacker.” Jack grinned slightly. “Unless you want to take the spot instead?”
No thank you. Chiyo replied with raised eyebrows at the totally foolish suggestion. I’m good.
“Alright! Let’s put you four together!" The badger-like teacher grinned as she came up to them, waving her tail at Jack, Svaarti, Chiyo and Vanya.
As Jack sat down, he noticed Svaartal sitting with another group of students, some of whom he recognised as some of the other Red Legion aspirants that had attacked them. Both boys stared each other down, ready to fight if one of them attacked.
"Oh please don't do that!" Svaarti pleaded, giving both Jack and Svaartal a pleading look as the teacher began handing out materials for the lesson. "I think you two have a lot in common!"
"No we don't!" Jack quietly growled as he broke eye contact and looked at her.
"Why not?" Svaarti questioned nervously.
“He’s an asshole,” Jack replied, looking Svaarti in the eye.
"Can't you two just call a truce?" Svaarti desperately asked. "Yes you both started on the wrong foot but it's not too late to…"
"He stays away from me, I stay away from him," Jack firmly answered as he looked at the sheet of instructions in front of him. "And that goes for his scant few surviving Red Legion buddies as well."
*****
Svaartal sat alone in the cafeteria, quickly consuming the series of fruits, vegetables and dairy foods he had picked for himself, with a few slithers of meat he had been conditioning himself to eat. Though Nirah were usually vegetarians, they were capable of eating limited meats, and Svaartal sought to push himself in all ways.
He never planned on fighting the human again unless he had to or the pay was worth the attempt. What would be the point? The Crimson Fangs and other extremist Red Legion groups were now dead or disbanded, so there was no more honour to get or approval to gain. And as far as the bounty went, it wasn't worth going for. The Redeemer, however, had been worth more than Svaartal had expected, and he was pleasantly surprised with the amount. Just a little more and he could get him and his sister away from their father to somewhere safe.
He had often encouraged her to go live with her friends - he knew Glenphyranix had room and had even offered to take Svaarti in - but his sister had always refused to leave Svaartal alone with their father, despite his encouragement for her to do it. He’d survive on his own somehow.
A tray delicately being placed on the table in front of him stirred him from his thoughts as a figure sat down. Svaartal didn’t bother looking up. The surviving Red Legion aspirants he had bailed out from the ambush had tried to talk to him several times already during the day to try and get him to lead them in a new band, to which he had refused. The old him would have gladly accepted it as a stepping stone to a prosperous career in the Red Legion, but right now Svaartal didn’t immediately know what it was he wanted, save improving the lot in life of him and his sister.
He had spent more time today tucked away in the library and practising his spells and swordplay when he could get away with it. His duel with the human had emboldened him to do better, and his newly found mentality had helped him begin to push his limits even further.
“I told you already,” Svaartal patiently called out to the newcomer. “I have no further wish to chase the Outsider’s bounty, and I have no interest in leading a Red Legion group right now. Your best bet is to train together with the others and take on salvaging jobs.”
Another tray was placed to his right, followed by another on the left as two figures sat either side of him.
Without looking, Svaartal acted casuallly and kept chewing, keeping his hands visible as he subtly reached into his bag under the table with the tip of his tail, grabbing the grenades he kept hidden for situations like these. He had natural resistances to them, but it was still going to sting…
A black fist thumped down on the table right in front of his tray. Svaartal stopped, and calmly raised his head to look right in the eyes of the giant drow it had belonged to standing next to him. With flat top hair and a snarl of anger, it took all of Svaartal’s willpower not to lose his cool at the sight of the hulking beast forcefully getting his attention.
“Ull!” Izadora Mal’Kar snapped at the brute. The girl was just as casual looking as Svaartal was, though that was likely due to her other two brothers sitting on either side of the Nirah ready to act. Svaartal tensed himself as he prepared for anything.
“Lady Mal’Kar,” Svaartal began, nodding his head in respect to the drow matriarch and not betraying any hint of noticing the obvious, wicked facial scar that ran from her mouth, through part of her nose, to her right eye. It was clear that she had used some rudimentary healing techniques to begin healing it, but it hadn’t been a good job and would need a recast. “Your presence honours me. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“My divination has revealed,” she began slowly, “that you faced the Outsider in single combat as part of an ambush led by yourself and several Red Legion aspirants."
She didn't phrase that as a question, and that had Svaartal worried. The drow were not known for being forgiving to those who failed them, after all. More grenades were looped in his coils, and he answered with confidence.
"You are correct, Lady Mal'Kar," Svaartal hissed back, not wanting to volunteer too much information.
"Though the efforts on the part of your compatriots were pitiful," the drow spat, "your efforts in particular were unusually outstanding, so I ran a background check on you, and I must say that my interest in you has piqued."
"How so?" Svaartal asked with genuine curiosity.
"A Scion of Svaarvali, hero of the Red Legion, living in a slum," Izadora replied slowly, with a knowing smile. "Does your mother's service mean nothing to the forces of the Red Death?" She quickly got to the point on seeing Svaartal's glare. "You and your sister deserve better, and I can provide that to you."
Svaartal's heart beat hard in his chest. Scraping as many credits as he could was one thing, but a Patron? He and his sister's lot in life would skyrocket overnight! Not just get away from their brute of a father, but thrive doing it!
"A very generous offer," Svaartal replied as calmly as he could. "What do you desire from me?"
"Any and all information you have on the Outsider," the drow replied instantly. "I also know you are the one selling vials of its blood and other samples. I require three, one of them being your largest sample. Finally, I wish to employ you and your sister's talents for the benefit of House Mal'Kar."
Svaartal could hardly believe it! She didn't even want him to kill the human! However, he had to keep his cool, and needed to make sure this was acceptable for them.
"I have a few conditions if I am to work for you," Svaartal politely hissed.
“Name your terms.” Izadora smiled.