Comfortably installed in the first-floor office of the orphanage, the three local noteworthy individuals of the surrounding area - Mesker the wizard, Marie the cyborg, and Motiro the beast - talked with their latest neighbor and host, Silhouette.

"So, what's your business blackie? Drugs? Arms? Contraband?"

"Maybe something more intriguing than those basic frivolities. Artifacts? Ingredients? Reagents?"

"Mercenaries?"

The black figure facing the trio chuckled, an act Marie found somewhat uncanny since he only emitted the noise and none of the movement.

"I have to admit I am still setting up our operation. Our main goal is to create a safe haven for ourselves, anything beyond that is only a way to secure our future or funds. Though I must admit, we are currently working on the production and distribution of a new gadget."

"Oh? Don't leave us hanging, what's your shiny new trick?"

"Electroguns. My lead inventor is currently working on new and improved designs, as well as other products. Last I heard he was mumbling something about an individual shield."

"Electroguns? Sorry to be the one to tell you but these things have been around for a while. They're pretty easy to make too."

"Ah, but ours are of superior quality. Not only that, but we have a system put in place to make them more viable. If your electrogun's battery is empty, you may bring it back to us and we'll replace it with a new one, free of charge."

"Uh, neat. I'm guessing you have something to charge them?"

"That's a secret."

"Right. Well, it ain't that interesting for me, but I appreciate the effort. I'm sure the guys up there will like having something to fend off monsters if they don't already have one."

Mesker nodded as he pinched his thin wick-like beard between his fingers white Motiro simply shoved dried cockroaches and pieces of toad jerky into its mouth, its long upper lip raised and revealing its strange wide mouth with sharpened human teeth to make the process easier. Seeing with how much gusto the white beast was eating Marie snatched up some toad jerky and began to chew on it.

"I concur, such an item is of no use to me but the commonfolk will treasure it. But I must admit I am surprised. Considering the ambient magical energies, I assumed you would not resort to technology."

"Oh, I'm sorry to disappoint you. But, now that you mention it, I might be convinced to part with some of my shadow-infused materials, if you are interested."

"Oh, how intriguing. Which begs the question, how come you have in your possession such important quantities of enchanted materials? Especially enough to rebuild an entire building from scratch. Unless you found a way to harness enough shadow mana to reproduce a sped-up version of the natural process, but I doubt someone with such a technique would be down there."

When Silhouette spoke again, there was an edge to his voice, something more felt than heard.

"Again, it's a trade secret. One you will not investigate."

Mesker noticed the shadows in the room grew sharper, slowly extending their reach. The wizard knew they had all signed a contract with non-aggression as a clause, and from what he'd seen of the man he believed he was reasonable enough not to try and breach it, but the pyromancer knew when not to push.

Morito, however, stilled and stopped eating for a second. Its eyes widened slightly as it stared at Silhouette.

"Fair, fair. In any case, I must admit you have my interest. I believe you may have already yourself a buyer for those materials."

The shadows settled down and Motiro returned to its feast of snacks as though nothing had happened.

"And you, Motiro was it? Is there anything you wish to inquire about us or want to offer?"

"No trade, but a request. If you find any trapped or lost pups, bring them to me."

"I will keep it in mind. Now, I can't help but notice we've only been talking about me thus far. What do my lovely neighbors do in these parts?"

"You first twiggy."

"Yes, yes. I am Mesker Duskenfer the Third, scholar, pyromancer, demonologist. I research the magical arts and try to keep this area demon-free. If you are ever in need of help in magical or demonic matters I am available for hire, though do note that my time is precious, therefore my prices are high. Marie?"

"Sure, twiggy. The name's Marie Musaraigne, you have something broken you need fixed, I'm your gal. My specialty is cybernetics as you can see but I can tinker with a little bit of everything."

"Would you be able to repair and improve the orphanage's electric system? I can handle the problem of a power source on my own, but an engine without a car is of little use."

"Sure, if you've got the cash blackie."

"Oh, have I mentioned I also offer my services as a contract enforcer? It's always useful when you let someone modify your home. Or when you buy something from them that ends up exploding and destroying your bed."

"Oh come on twiggy, it was one time! And a newbie's fault!"

Motiro huffed as it shoveled some more questionable snacks into its mouth before talking.

"Motiro. Beast. Hunter. Raider. Tracker. You need an animal dead or alive, come to us. You need a location looted, we take half of the spoils. You need to find something that's alive and trying to flee, we will find it within the week."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I see. I shall keep it in mind. Now then, are any rules or traditions I should be aware of? I assume you already guessed, but I'm not from around these parts."

"Yeah, there's a few. So first off..."

----------------------------------------

Sam, still covered in bandages beneath his clothes, walked side by side with a pitch-black humanoid in the dark alleys surrounding the Black Block. The two of them hadn't talked much since his boss had come by while he was in the middle of developing a personal electromagnetic shield to accompany him to the Doctor's Drake visit. Apparently, he was busy doing something and needed to concentrate, and although Sam didn't see him actively doing anything he had come to learn enough about his employer that he knew he was probably telling the truth.

Knowing it didn't make the situation any less awkward, however.

It wasn't the first time Sam saw his boss in his young adult mode, he had brought him to the clinic that way after all, but it was still odd to see the eldritch shadow monster he knew as a regular guy. He had also taken him aside and kindly asked him to keep it secret, which the teen agreed to of course. Sam gazed at his casual walk and wondered which of James and Silhouette was the real person and which was the persona.

And of course, it was at this exact point that apparently his boss finished up whatever he was doing and stopped running on auto-pilot, his faceless head almost snapping toward Sam's in a second.

"Sorry, it took longer than I thought."

"Uh, no problem."

"So, are you excited about getting tested?"

"Sure."

"You don't sound that enthusiastic."

"Sorry bo- James, it's just... I've my entire life without knowing what makes me tick. I know that knowing my Aspects will be a good thing, it's just that I managed without it so far."

"You're happy it's happening, but would have been okay never knowing."

"Yeah, that's it. And you? You signed up to be tested too, right? I'd figured someone like you would already know."

"It's... Complicated. Well, it's not, but I don't like talking about it. Let's just say this test is more important to me than it is to you."

"If you say so."

The two kept on walking, navigating through the labyrinthine alleys of the slums under the cover of the various improvised wooden platforms and paths the local gangs used to guard their territory, taking care to avoid any potential encounter with ruffians or thieves. James had a bad experience with those. A deadly one, one might say.

"It's weird."

"What is?"

"This. Walking with you, having a home with other people, working for someone..."

"I take it you've only worked on your own before?"

"Yeah. I'm from the Junkland, there ain't that many permanent residents there you can talk to. It's mostly broken robots, monsters, and scavengers. Even then you can't trust the people there, they'd do anything for better loot. The few that can behave well enough to work in groups are either tribalistic lunatics or trigger-happy maniacs."

"Yes, I can see why having a social life there would be hard. But despite all that, you tried to become a Vigilante."

"Yeah. I suppose I did."

"Don't beat yourself down. Frankly, had you not met Sunburn, I'm sure you'd be one of the big players around here."

"Nah. I'm a genius, sure, but just one guy. I don't have The Empress' armies. What was I going to do on my own against the scum of the slums?"

"Your best."

"Doing your best isn't enough. Not here."

"I disagree. Just think of Larry and Barry, they may not be the most incredible men out there but they survived on their own in the slums, Coreless and factionless, for years. They did their best, and they did great. Relatively."

"You know getting compared to those two ain't a compliment?"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear anything."

"Eh, if you want to. By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what were you doing on the way here?"

"Oh, a nifty little trick I learned while the Shadow Commando and I got the Shadow Den ready."

"Shadow Den? Really?"

"Do you want to file a Tech Complaint, Techlord?"

"No."

"Good. Besides, they came up with it, not me. And the kids loved it, I wasn't going to crush their hopes."

"The ratlings?"

"The ghosts. The kids' ghosts, to be precise. The nuns weren't fond of the idea but Greenheld told them to let it go."

"I still can't believe you decided a haunted orphanage would make a good base, and that somehow you managed to recruit the local spirits."

"What can I say, I was polite and Greenheld appreciated it."

"But anyway, what was the trick?"

"Oh, before I came back up to get you, we had a visit from our new neighbors."

"Really? 'A visit from our new neighbors'?"

"They tried to sneak in and I caught them."

"Now that's more like it."

"Either way, I invited them, signed a magical contract to make sure no one would try anything against anyone else, and then had them wait in the first office I could find so that I could get things ready."

"Are you going to tell me what's the trick yet?"

"You see, while repairing the orphanage there were a lot of things to 'improve', so I wondered if I could make use of some of our latest additions. Namely, Solvent."

"Don't tell me you possessed the slime you corrupted."

"No, no, nothing of the sort. I merely established some kind of telepathic link with them to tell them what to say and sense what's happening around them."

"That sounds like possession."

"It's not. It's mind control at best."

"You know it ain't that much better, right?"

"Hush now. In any case, Solvent also got some of my abilities, so I used them to infuse the orphanage quicker and then as a body double to handle negotiations while we got ready for our examination."

"Yup. Still weird."

It was at that point that the two reached Doctor Drake's clinic, they went in and went straight to see the titular doctor who was currently - just like last time - reading at what should have been the secretary's desk, the odd hybrid of duck and draconic beast lowering her magazine as soon as she heard them open the door and placing it down, readjusting her perfectly round glasses' temples in the spots between her lower and upper pairs of horns.

"Misters James and Techlord. It's good to see you. You are in luck, your tests arrived earlier this morning."

"Hello, Doctor Drake, it's good to see you too. I can't wait to begin, as soon as we get some privacy of course."

"Yeah. What he said."

"Superb. Follow me then."

She rose from her seat and stood straight, her head barely higher than Sam's chest without the horns, and walked deeper into the clinic, toward one of the examination rooms. The two young men followed her as her palmed feet lightly flopped on the ground inside her custom white shoes. Before long the three of them were seated around a desk, a pair of small long white boxes on the side.

"Are either of you aware of how this procedure takes place?"

James turned to Sam who simply shrugged.

"A bit? I know there's a needle."

She winced at that.

"Not exactly. Due to the various species and mutations around the globe, these tests were made to be as universal as possible. As a practitioner of the more normal medicine, I cannot describe exactly how these tests work since they are mostly magic-based. What I can say is that they harvest a small part of the energies naturally produced by your body and your core, after which it will separate them and provide us with all of your Aspects and Major Affinities. It may even detect some more diluted magical bloodlines, such as demonic or draconic ancestors."

Seeing how little Sam cared about the conversation, James chose to take the reins. There was something he was incredibly worried about.

"And you guarantee that these tests are secret?"

"Why yes, mister James. I have sworn an oath that prevents me from divulging patient information unless the law dictates otherwise or it is a danger to public health and safety, such as carrying a plague or being prone to exploding at the drop of a hat with no control over the process."

"Ah. I see."

"Is there a problem?"

"I hoped this confidentiality would be more... Extreme, let's say."

Doctor Drake narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She didn't like that answer.

"Is there any particular reason why?"

"I... I'm afraid of what people may do depending on my results."

But I have just the thing to deal with that...

"Say, would you be open to signing a pair of contracts?"