After hours of simply sitting and talking, the friends finally run out of things to say and plans to hash out. It had been fun but they had to put some of the plans into action. And during their long conversation, they'd researched the cheapest auto mechanic shops around and found a likely one.
The friends broke up to their tasks and Dorian walked back home, his feet nearly floating off the ground. And this time it wasn't as a result of his control over gravity. Simply sitting and talking about how to better themselves and knowing it was a distinct possibility was exhilarating and freeing.
The talk had turned dark when they postulated what would happen if the GDF ever found out what the hunters could do. They all knew what would happen but the conversation had to be had for all their sakes, especially Dorian's. He remembered his stomach falling when they all arrived at the same conclusion. Total destruction.
The Global Defence Force had committed too many atrocities for the hunters to let them be or for the Defence Force to let them live should they find out the hunters could regain their former strength. There was no reconciliation or peace on that front, only an inevitable war.
The conversation had then shifted to who else they could tell, their Optimiser was a forgone conclusion once the others got their powers— along with other key figures in the Lodge. That had also started another uncomfortable discussion, who deserved the power and did they even have the right to judge who got the chance to gain power and who couldn't?
A lot of hunters were too far gone mentally or had enough justified anger to burn the world down, it was an uncomfortable truth. And Dorian who had been carrying a ball of resentment since the System departed couldn't imagine the rage and hurt the other hunters carried. The numerous victims of the ART program came to mind.
The conversation had been too raw and they'd tabled it for the day. They all knew they were avoiding speaking about the issue and yet no one pushed.
Dorian sighed at the turn his thoughts had taken. He had power over gravity and yet somehow his thoughts were enough to weigh him down. He went through the conversation in his head but one thing shined through, his safety was paramount.
Which meant he couldn't be using his powers all willy-nilly, if at all. It had been a long-discussed point whether the GDF monitored the various hunter settlements or not. It was obvious they did but the question was how?
The hunters had only found out how when it'd been too late. Again.
When the wrist terminal was launched, it came with a flurry of applications that made life for all easier. Popular amongst them was the CS app. The immediately popular character sheet, a copy of one of the Systems functions, was a program that using the wrist terminal scanned the user and assigned figures to their 'stats'.
Hunters had already been burned once by such programs the powers that be released so they avoided it. It enticed other hunters when they discovered the program was open to all thus assumably making it safe for hunters, they'd been wrong. Craving the familiarity other hunters had opened themselves to be scanned and to have their own character sheets. It was around the same time that fighting rings started popping up everywhere.
The hunters now savvy to the GDF's insidious ways quickly figured out what was going on. The character sheet scanned heart rate, brain patterns and the like to form a whole picture. And obviously, the most physically fit people were a majority of hunters—veterans of battle, and it just so happened that the fighting rings targeted them.
The rate of deaths in the fighting rings was so high, they'd been renamed Meat Lockers.
Walk in alive and be dragged out as meat.
Dorian made a concerted effort to shake off his dark thoughts. It only made the resentment he carried worse and thoughts of revenge to surface. Now that he had the power, such thoughts were doubly dangerous — plus that path without building up significant strength led to certain death.
He had too much riding on his shoulders to throw his life away for revenge, he and the hunters would have it. Just not now.
Arriving at his home, Dorian was pleasantly surprised to find packages waiting out front. The result of his promise to make his house appear livable and not like a prison. He carried the boxes in and walked out moments later with a jacket and keys to both the van and his motorcycle. It was beyond the time he'd fixed the thing.
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After loading the bike into the van via a ramp, no powers even if he wanted with an empty core, Dorian drove for Wilsons' Auto mechanic.
Dorian pulled up and inspected the place before driving in, it was a nice quaint shop and not at all like one of the futuristic places he'd driven by. This place wouldn't charge an arm and a leg and his soul for good measure, he hoped.
Dorian drove in and was backing his bike out of the van when a woman wearing oil-stained clothing came out and began fawning over the van, totally ignoring him. He cleared his throat and the woman looked up and blushed furiously.
He flashed his teeth only for the woman to impossibly flush a deeper red. Dorian was about to call for help when he remembered his new appearance. The new face would take some getting used to but now he planned to exploit it. With a twinkle in his eyes, Dorian approached what he realised was a much younger woman under all the oil stains and moved to introduce himself. If he played this right he could get his bike fixed for free.
A deep gravelly voice dashed all his hopes, “You, get inside and you stay right where you are.”
The voice belonged to a short stocky older man who stomped out and pushed what looked like his pouting daughter back into the shop and glared at Dorian.
The hunter gulped and introduced himself, “Uh hi I'm Dorian, nice to meet you.”
The man's glare only intensified and Dorian knew he was on the verge of being denied service and kicked out. He quickly pushed his bike forward.
“I need to fix this and I think it's a problem with the engine.”
The man's glare let up a fraction and he gestured for Dorian to follow. He turned and caught his daughter darting back, the man turned and glared at Dorian some more.
The hunter could only sigh.
Dorian wheeled his busted bike into the shop and stepped back to watch in awe as the man effortlessly dismantled the bike whiles grumbling and glaring all the while. The man glared over the parts and then directed his glare back at Dorian. “Before I fix anything, tell me what someone like you is doing here.”
He meant Dorian's face and the nice van that he drove. From his perspective, a young impossibly good-looking man had driven up to his shop forgoing all the other places people like himself frequented.
Without a word, Dorian pulled out his empty essence stone and showed it to the man. The man's glare didn't let up but it did soften. “Lemme see that,” he growled.
The man inspected the stone and seeming satisfied with its authenticity threw it back. “You one of em Ex-hunters who betrayed his kind for a new face from the GDF or something?”
Dorian smiled at the man's bluntness and tucked the stone back under his shirt, “Nah, been a citizen of the Lodge since the blood-drenched fields. The face and van are a new development.”
The man scrutinised Dorian some more before growling out, “Names Wilson, kid and I can fix your ride but engines such as these are obsolete,” he kicked the parts to drive home his point. “I can either fix your engine as is or you can agree to do two favours for me and I'll put you on the list for the new echo-powered engines.”
Dorian froze and thought furiously, he hadn't heard about the GDF releasing any new tech which was par for the course as a hunter and a denizen of the Lodge. They always found out last. Plus it also explained the GDF's recent rampant buying of cores. The mention of favours rang alarm bells in Dorian's mind. He needed more info and told Wilson so.
“It's exactly what it sounds like, engines powered with monster cores. Silent running and zero emission. They're mighty expensive but I have my ways. You'll have to agree to the favours before I tell you what they are.”
The man drove a hard bargain an unreasonably hard bargain, to be honest. Dorian studied the man and the man stared right back giving nothing away. He was familiar with hard unfavourable situations such as the one he found himself in, it tended to happen a lot when the world knew hunters had nothing.
Dorian contemplated saying no and walking away but the thought of the saved credits and the echo engine stopped him. His friends needed the van to complete their end of the plan and he also needed a means of transportation to get to work. With a resigned sigh Dorian agreed and the man relaxed a bit.
He then smiled which surprised Dorian. “Only a hunter would agree to such a shitty deal even if you don't look like one.“
A test, it had been a test and Dorian was about to breathe out in relief when the man continued, “Now for my first favour, you will not give your contact information or have any contact with my daughter when you leave and when you come to pick up your ride.”
Dorian nodded along, easy enough. An affronted cry from the daughter in question gave credence to the man's worry. He waited to hear the last favour but Wilson simply puttered around his shop putting away the tools he'd used to dismantle the bike. ”And the second favour?” Dorian asked.
Wilson turned with a guilty expression on his face. “It's pretty shitty of me but if you ever find yourself planning on entering the wildlands, message me and I'll tell you my favour then. Till then get out, your bike will be ready on the morrow.”
Dorian was summarily kicked out and as he stood outside he could hear the father and daughter arguing, he could guess over what. Dorian got back in his van and drove back to the lodge, his thoughts occupied by the strange request from Wilson.
As a hunter Dorian knew he wasn't done with monsters, and the location with the greatest concentration of monsters, the wildlands was a place he'd have to visit eventually just not soon.
He was wrong.