“We don’t typically get clients at this hour, so excuse the mess.”

The apparent owner of the Rusty Pitch was an older woman whose apparent age could’ve made her either someone’s grandmother or aunt, but not both. She just had one of those faces you could ascribe to someone both older and younger than she likely was. Light wrinkles graced her forehead, dyed short silver hair messily arrayed in every direction at the same time. With her casual jeans and shirt, I had to imagine we woke her up.

“It’s a nice place, ma’am.” I answered, trying to keep myself cordial as I looked around.

The “Rusty Pitch” was nothing how I’d envisioned it to be. A polished wood floor (fake wood?), copper furniture, and black faux-leather cushions on every seat gave the place an oddly calm atmosphere. It certainly looked far too expensive for anything I’d ever willingly purchase, and seeing how the bar was stocked with actual bottles and refrigerators rather than a robotic dispenser… yeah, I didn’t want to look at the price-tag.

“I thought this place was a dive bar.” Isia muttered, eyes wide as she took in the place.

“That’s the front. This here’s for special guests, invite only.” The old woman hopped over the bar and pulled out a glass. “Name’s Cate, with a ‘C’. It’s not short for Catherine.” She then pulled out a blender from under the counter, glancing my way. “I sent the message to Kali, she’s going to connect soon. Go to the restrooms and walk past them. There’s a communal conference room further in.”

Not wanting to overstay my welcome, I hurried along, making my way into a small “conference room” that looked more like a lounge. There were a dozen or so leather seats and an equal number of tables. Each of them had neuralink-connector cables, and what I had to assume some sort of digital space involved. There was one table with a flat screen display on it, and it was on.

It looked like that was my spot.

The screen turned on as soon as I sat down. “Hey? Hello? Is this thing on?” Kali’s image loaded up as she tapped her finger against a camera. I’d seen a few pics of her since moving here, but this was the first time I’d felt like I was seeing her. For a moment nothing happened, and I had an urge to make a run for it now that I was presented with the prospect of talking to Kali in real time again.

Why wouldn’t I be? Before I’d left our interactions had been a mix of friendship and convenience for the few years we’d known each other. And though I’d thought the whole thing had been mutual convenience, as it turned out, she’d always had all the cards and resources. Not even in a way I could morally complain either, she was a meguca, she’d saved hundreds if not thousands of lives and killed just as many monsters. If she wanted to man a dingy bodega, who was I to judge?

How could anyone express all of that?

“Hey. So you’re a meguca, huh.” Definitely not like that. I wanted to just slam my head against the table then and there. Withholding on that urge, I smiled instead. “I… uhm, have a bit of a big reveal myself.”

Kali quirked her brow in that way she did whenever I asked for a discount on something that was already half off. “You don’t say?”

“I’m caveman.” There were other things I could’ve told her for sure, like the fact that I was the shush monster. But I wasn’t sure if here and now was the right time or place. She’d been a meguca all this time, and… and I wasn’t sure what that meant. I wanted to know where we stood now that things had changed. Were we still friends? What did that friendship mean to her?

That, and I couldn’t be sure who else might be listening, nor who she’d tell.

“Caveman?” The raised brow went further up.

“You know, caveman? Unga and Bunga?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I fought Bear. You know, Bear? The tacky gang-banger with the bear motif.”

Kali leaned back though not out of the frame, staring at the screen and blinking rapidly. “So that was you?” She asked, voice restrained, curious, but in a calm way that felt slightly out of place. There was a glint in her eyes as she stared into the screen.

“Yeah.” I nodded as I stared for a long moment, trying to get a good read on her. What was she thinking right now? “Where are you anyway? I don’t recognize that place.” I asked, noticing the office-like background.

“NexCorp generously lent me the room,” she said offhandedly. “For a real-time face to face it was either this or I’d use the satellite connection.”

Alarm bells immediately rang as I leaned back a little, taking a moment to pretend like I was stretching as I drew a circle with my right hand. “So…?” I asked. If she mirrored me, then that could only mean someone else was definitely listening in on the exchange.

“Hm?” Kali cocked her head a little. “So… you’re the caveman? How did that happen?” she asked instead, not making any gesture. Not even a shake of her head, as if she hadn't noticed the gesture at all. “Was that because of doctor Moreau? What did she do to you?”

The words felt as if they should’ve been full of concern, but they weren’t. They were curious, eager, almost. I blinked a little at the screen, trying to make sense of what was going on. Was she just not worried, or was it something else? A chill ran down my spine at the prospect of Kali just… not caring. I didn’t want to go down that line of thought, who would? But then again, she was a meguca, and I’d been a nobody until I became an unwitting accomplice to the most wanted criminal in the region.

No. I refused to believe that.

Something else had to be going on.

“I know this is kind of a lot out of the blue.” I muttered, deflecting the question. “But I wanted to know about how you got your powers? I’ve barely been told anything about megucas, and it’s just… I always wanted to know more. Did you just one day get the realization you had powers?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

She frowned ever so slightly. “It wasn’t anything interesting, I just woke up one day and I realized I could move sand. Really, it’s not that important.” Leaning forward, she stared at me through the screen. “Axel, I know there’s a lot going on right now, but it’s key we understand what the doctor did to you. Maybe it could be a clue to where she’s hiding.”

“No weird dreams?” I pushed, pulse quickening a little. “Purple skies? The ten moons and four suns? Did you see anything like that?”

“What? Sure, yeah, there were some weird dreams.” She waved it off. “Axel, could you focus for a moment? This is important and time’s of the essence.”

The realization struck me like a slap to the face.

This was not Kali.

Dread crept up my spine like ice as I stared at the stranger wearing her face. A digital impersonator? How much of one? Since when? “Where’s Kali?” I asked, mouth dry, I felt as if I’d taken a handful of sand and swallowed it. “Who are you?”

The image stiffened. “Come on, Axel. This is not the time for stupid pranks. We need to know-”

“Who is ‘we’?” I asked, pressing onward. “And who are you? Have you done anything to Kali? Where is she?” A hint of anger flared through me. “If you’ve kidnapped her…”

The fake’s expression became blank, the sort that could only be a default expression state. The features just stopped moving altogether, no breathing, no twitching, just a blank thousand-mile stare into the infinite. “We would never dare touch a meguca, that would be suicidal. Your friend is merely having some connectivity issues.” Kali’s voice spoke through unmoving lips. “Before she fixes it, however, we would like to make a deal.”

“It’s hard to trust any deal from someone whose real face I can’t see,” I crossed my arms, keeping a sharp ear towards the door. This could be more than just a hacked call, but the sound of Isia talking was very faint through the closed door.

“Megucas don’t take kindly to corporations meddling in their affairs. Anonymity is a basic protection.” They answered, not bothering to even remove Kali’s fake digital head. “Let’s keep this brief, shall we? The Shadow’s main target is doctor Moreau. If you agree to collaborate with us, we can take steps to ensure she ignores you.”

My gut reaction was to turn the offer down then and there, it just was never a good idea to accept deals from anyone you couldn’t trust. Unfortunately, they were also not wrong that I was in a very bad situation, one I couldn’t even be sure Kali could help me out of. Rather than answer, however, I just stared at the screen blankly, waiting them out. Of the two of us, it looked pretty clear that it was them who were on a tight schedule.

“All you have to do is tell us how Moreau made you.”

There were three key questions I needed to answer. What did they know? What had they assumed? And who were they? All three questions were crucial to be able to hold even the slightest shred of trust in their word. So far, they weren’t going to answer the ‘who’, and that made it rather hard to determine what information they were working off of.

“Sure. I’ll tell you half of it today, and the other half next week.” If I could get them to get Shadow off my back, then offering some information didn’t feel like a bad trade. Still, I had a hard time believing they could do what they were claiming they’d do. If they had the sort of power to guarantee Shadow would leave me be, then it wouldn’t make any sense to not just hire her to kidnap me in the first place. “The doctor explained some of the instruments she used, actually. It was a pretty quick process, it only took a few hours.”

They weren't the only ones that could lie.

The communication went silent for several long moments. “Shame.” The person using Kali’s voice spoke. “I guess we’ll just hire someone to find your corpse and bring it to the lab.”

The screen went dark, leaving behind only my reflection and far too many questions. I could only assume this whole farce had been a wild attempt on their end to see if they could get something out of me. Was that because they were just not capable of forcefully getting to me? I couldn’t imagine any corporation that would be in such a position, while still being able to intercept the communication channel.

Well, no corporation in New Francisco.

If it was a corporation with a powerbase in Frontier City 02, then…

Had this been a NexCorp agent?

My head was spinning a little, trying to put everything together, to make sense of what was going on. I didn’t get the time, however, the screen had come back to life, showing Kali again.

“Axel?”

I didn’t answer, staring at the image, noticing the discrepancies right away. The background was the walk-in freezer inside her shop. The shelves had the same disorganized mess of frozen items that I’d rehearsed my graduation speech next to. Kali herself looked far less composed than the fake, with slight bags under her eyes and hastily combed hair.

The silence appeared to unnerve her. “Axel, what’s going on? Are you alright?”

Only now did I realize I hadn’t blinked. Taking a shaking breath, I leaned away from the screen and pretended to stretch, drawing a circle with my left hand before rubbing my face. “Not really.”

Kali’s eyes widened. “What? What’s going on? This line’s meant to be secure, a friend-”

“I just had a five minute conversation with someone pretending to be you,” I said, standing up. “I’m alive, I’m the caveman that fought Bear, and… I need your help because Shadow’s going to try and kill me tomorrow.” I grimaced. “I’m sorry, I really am, I just don’t know what else to do here, or expect. I need to find an elder and-”

“Talk to Cate.”

I blinked. “What?”

“If what you need is an elder, Cate is one.” She declared. “Talk to her, and…” She paused, giving me a strange look. “Caveman? Seriously? Who came up with that idea? Because that definitely wasn’t you.”

“Hey!”

“You would’ve gone in some Guard uniform replica for sure.” Kali laughed at her own dumb joke.

“Yeah, you would’ve gone for some tacky colorful spandex costume.” I snapped back.

“You can’t appreciate it because you have shit taste.” She replied, and I couldn’t help but stare. “Listen.” Kali’s expression took a slight sadness to it. “The line’s clearly not secure, we should disconnect.”

“Yeah, we should.” The stranger was undoubtedly listening to the exchange. But I also missed this, it felt like a world ago since the last time we’d just had a chance to banter. “I… a lot’s been going on.”

“I’ll say.” She chuckled. “But are you… well, not safe, I guess, but…”

“I’m liking it here so far.” I answered, scratching my cheek. “Got my own bed, my own shower, food’s not an issue, and I’ve only had a few days at it, but it’s honest monster-killing work.”

Kali stared long and hard. “There’s more to life than killing monsters.”

“Blasphemy,” I said half-jokingly before sighing. “If you find out whoever it was that ruined the call, punch them for me will you?”

“I’ll do way more than that, but yeah.” She answered. “I’ll try to talk to some people about your situation. Just…” Kali grimaced. “Stay safe, please.”

“I will.” I answered, reaching out and clicking on the end-call and turning the screen off. I hung my head and rubbed my cheeks. “I will,” I said again, at myself this time, as I stared at my reflection in the blank screen.