"Your tea, sir." I politely say to everyone individually, putting down tea onto the tables in front of the Wave Medicine board of directors.

The room is louder than usual, but given the issue at hand, that's to be expected.

"Where is Ken?" one of the men asks.

"Didn't you hear the call for the emergency room?"

The only one missing is Mr. Ken Wave, the CEO of Wave Medicine. Unlike the rest of the board, he is a doctor. With the released thugs causing problems, many doctors asked to be transferred to different hospitals, causing the staff to work harder to make ends meet.

(Look at them.) My "cruel" side thinks. (They're too trusting. What little they know.)

(For a business, they are unnaturally trustworthy.) I think. (But I wish more were like this.)

(Kindness doesn't make the world go round.)

Batan.

Everyone looks to the door to see Mr. Ken Wave himself. While he's dressed up in his business attire, like everyone else here, including myself in my secretary dress, his face is drenched with sweat and his hair is untamed. Not his most elegant appearance, but that's to be expected after an emergency surgery.

"So..." one of the board members begins to ask, "how'd it go?"

Catching his breath...he gives a thumbs up. The rest of the board then looks relieved, in spite of the fact that this doesn't solve their immediate problem.

"We...really need to hire more doctors." Mr. Wave states.

"You know we're barely making any profit as is, what with the scare of those thugs." another board member says. "Not only are we paying extra for the antitoxins that we don't receive, many of our doctors are leaving, and not very many want to be hired right now."

"The bandit issue is temporary." Mr. Wave calmly retorts. "And the scare of an understaffed hospital is also something the public is concerned about. What if the thugs choose to attack them? They need someone to attend to their medical needs. Besides, we also need to uphold our reputation of being a hospital for the people."

(Pride over reality. Trying to be the hero of the people. How...sickening.)

(At least he has pride.)

(You know you just insulted yourself with that too.)

(Sadly. Wish you were never in my head to begin with.)

Mr. Wave finally gets to his chair on the far end of the room and sits down. I give him his long awaited tea.

"Before we begin, congratulations on the successful surgery." I say.

"Actually, Tarran did the majority of the work this time."

This information causes the board to talk amongst themselves. From what I hear, it's actually mostly positive talk.

"It's nice to hear that your son is doing so well."

At this, Mr. Wave begins to blush. However, it's only temporary, as he probably thinks of Sutoria again. To drown his worries, he takes a sip of his tea.

"Wish Sutoria could see me as her father as well."

He takes out a necklace with a picture of him and two young children by his side. This picture was taken years ago, following the adoption of Tarran and Sutoria into the Wave family.

"You're still a good father." one of the members states. "You not only adopted them following the assassination of their corrupt father, you still take the time to be there for them, even though they're all grown up. Sutoria just hasn't gotten over the traumatic experience yet. And speaking of Sutoria, you going to her concert tomorrow?"

"It's nice to know that you have chosen to sponsor Sutoria's musical career as well." another member says.

Mr. Wave nods, faintly smiling.

I clear my throat.

"Anyway, back to the issue at hand, mind if I say something?"

Everyone looks at me, then at Mr. Wave. He nods.

"Go ahead."

"While it's nice to play the hero, the reality is that this is still a business. To combat the loss of mesures, have you considered a slight price increase for our appointments and surgeries?"

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Everyone again looks to Mr. Wave. This time, not surprisingly, he shakes his head, then takes a sip of his tea.

"Considering that we have a monopoly in the medical field following the damages to the New Vegas hospital after the city riot, it may be true that we don't have anything, competition-wise, holding us back. But, pride aside, there are still a few issues with this. First, as stated before, retaining customer trust is also important, else we might have something similar to what happened in New Vegas. Secondly, we import more than just antitoxins. If we raise our prices, this might encourage more bandit activity, as this not only shows that we're becoming desperate, the fact that the only hospital firm is increasing their prices might encourage our importers to increase their prices, making what is stolen more valuable."

(Jeez. Ever since what happened in New Vegas, they've chickened out. To think one of the reasons we made Dodge and Chates do what they did was to give this business more power, and they're not embracing the opportunity.)

"Anyway, you think that this whole bodyguard method is going to work?" says another board member.

"It's the best option we have without making us take the offensive. We don't want to look like the victimizers here." Mr. Wave responds. Mr. Wave drinks more of his tea.

(To think they don't know that speaking of this out loud is helping the thugs.)

"So, you said you hired more of them?" a board member asks.

"Technically, the transporters requested funding for more bodyguards. These transporters have worked with us many times in the past, so I trust them."

"Any ideas about their fighting skills?" I ask.

"They're bodyguards for a reason, so I'm sure they're fine." Mr. Wave states. "It's rare for you to wonder such things. Why you ask?"

I remain silent for a second, then politely grab Mr. Wave's empty cup.

"Allow me." I say, changing the subject.

As I go over to make more tea, I think about the damage the few Keisetsu bodyguards already have done. The reason I've chosen to deploy more prisoners at this time is because the assumed two bodyguards that were already hired beat every group that encounters them, thus allowing up to 60% of the antitoxin shipments to get here. The only reason my team actually get some is the fact that some shipments are still unguarded, as more than two shipments are done at a time, which is probably why they're hiring more bodyguards.

"Know anything about them?" one board member asks. "You think they'd consider being hired to work on site for a little while? Beefed up security could reassure the staff, making some of our employees come back."

"All I know is that one wears some full-body cloak."

GUCHA!

Hearing of this information, I crush Mr. Wave's tea cup in my hand.

"Ms. du Perlé?" Mr. Wave begins. "Are you alright?"

(Full-body cloak!? Could they be...? No. No. They should be dead. It's a miracle enough that they survived my poison, assuming the person Dodge spoke of was them. But to survive what happened in New Vegas!? It can't be!)

"Ms. du Perlé?"

"Huh?"

I look back to see everyone staring at me with great concern.

"Je vais bien." I say, laughing at my previous behavior.

"Maybe you should take a break." Mr. Wave states. "You've been working non-stop ever since our pressing issue began. Take the day off, and maybe tomorrow as well, to hear Sutoria. Might be good for you."

"I'll...think about it."

With that, I take my leave from the meeting.

I then choose to leave the hospital, take my rhime-powered car, one of the few of its kind, and head towards a building once used for the excavation of larger rhime crystals in the ground, before that industry it bled the area dry. I leave my car and walk up to one of the air vents.

(Water Drive: Vapor Body!)

The upside to being an outcross is the ability to learn new rhime skills while retaining your old ones.

Upon the activation of this skill, my body quickly evaporates into gas, along with my animal tone clothes, allowing me to pass through the vents into the compound. Even in this form, I can retain some of my senses. In this case, I use my hearing to detect voices below. When I reach the lowest level, I pass through the nearest ventilation shaft into the room. I quickly solidify my body back into its normal state and look around...

To see my group of thugs I bailed from prison.

Specifically, those who aren't treating their wounds or the wounds of their comrades are either lying around doing little to nothing or playing cards with other thugs. Oh, and these men aren't your stereotypical thugs. The majority of these so-called "thugs" were thrown in prison for no good reason. Many of these guys are either political prisoners and strikers from New Vegas, poor people who couldn't pay their taxes, or framed by the rich so that said rich bastards could escape their punishments. Sure, we have some thugs, murderers, rapists, and other types of criminals here, but the majority of them are simply victims of the times. Why would "good" people choose to help me? Well...

"So, you're back." one of the larger animal tones states as soon as he smells me.

Everyone turns to look at me. After a little while, some get back to what they were doing, while some begin to surround me. Those surrounding me are led by one of the murderers in question: a surprisingly muscular ice tone, or, at least "muscular" by their standards, who goes by the nickname "Abram the Ice Golem".

"Well, if it isn't the bitch with the sharp tongue." he says menacingly, but failing to intimidate me.

"And here's a fool whose only redeeming quality is brute force."

"Emphasis on the 'sharp tongue'. Anyway, me and the boys have been talking, and we believe this so-called 'agreement' of ours has gone on long enough."

"Oh really? Talk about gratitude. Unlike most of the people here, you actually deserved your sentence of life behind bars. You know how expensive it was to bail someone like you out?"

"Not enough compared to what we've been going through. You keep sending us after those shipments, and we easily lose a few guys to those ludicrously powerful bodyguards of theirs. Though I could probably take them on my own, these guys weren't meant for fighting. They've barely even managed to slow down those other fighters while everyone here is dropping like flies or ending up back in the slammer! We've finally got our freedom back, and we don't want to waste it on a fool's errand!"

"So, you're admitting to being a coward?"

"When you're behind bars, your heart hardens. Many of these innocent guys might actually have the hearts of killers now, thanks to the hate we've built up from both what we've lost in prison as well as how we were treated. But, if nothing else, we've also come to sympathize with one another for sharing the same suffering. If being a coward gets my friends out of here, then damn me if I don't try!"

"Ice Drive: Ice Golem!"

Behind Abram, a large ice golem, an abominable snowman, appears. The golem pounds its fists against its chest, then charges at me. It throws a punch in the direction of my face.

And I stop it with a single hand.

As if anticipating this, the men surrounding me, including Abram, all charge at me.

(Too easy.)

I move my free hand downwards and turn it into a large number of snakes. Each snake, upon touching the ground, branches out by slithering around the feet of the attackers, then coils around them until all their limbs are within my grasp.

"Damn...damn you, you bitch!" Abram yells.

I quickly bring Abram closer to me by commanding the snake that ensnares him. As I do so, Abram commands his golem to retract its arm and prepare another punch. However, before it gets a chance to, Abram is already close to my face.

"If you value your life as much as you say, desist immediately."

Abram looks at me and begins to see purple vapor building up in my mouth.

(STOP!)

He knows what my poison is capable of. This isn't the first attempt on my life from these thugs. For the first time, he begins to show fear, and his ice golem melts away.

(Fear of me. Gratitude towards me. Hate towards others that put them into prison. All these feelings are what keeps everyone here under me. Should they try to defy me, I'll kill them. Should they comply, they will be rewarded. Survival of the fittest demands that the strongest survive, and by any means necessary.)

I can sort of understand Abram's mindset though. I was once a thief who feared imprisonment, until my master took me under his wing. Abram once had a girlfriend that he fought to protect. He even killed his opponents to protect her. Now, she hates him, sees him as a criminal, and is married to somebody else. Prison doesn't reform people. It only makes them hate everything on the outside, making them more dangerous than before. Besides, if society only sees you as a criminal no matter what you do, why not be what society sees you as? You have nothing more to lose.

I command my other snakes to toss the thugs other than Abram away from me.

"Bruno! Eito!" I yell.

Almost immediately following my beckoning call, two men appear and kneel before me.

"I heard that there will be more bodyguards on the way."

"Seriously!?" Eito cries. People in the room murmur amongst themselves in fear.

"Worry not." I say. "I have a proposition. Fulfill my last request, and your debt will be paid."

This causes everyone to suddenly go silent.

"You're right about one thing, Abram," I begin to say. "Things haven't been looking good as of late, but I have a personal vendetta, specifically with one of these assumed bodyguards. And should my request be met, then you're all free."

I release Abram from my final snake and, retract it into my arm, and convert my arm back to its original form. I turn my head to Bruno and Eito and nod.

(Oren Tsurai. The only one to survive my poison. And the only one to constantly get in my way. Killing you won't slow down the Keisetsu, but, should you be removed from the picture, it will allow for my master's plan to continue with one few nuisance. Oren Tsurai. You may be a fool. But you're a fool who keeps showing up.)

"I have an important task for you two first." I say.