379: Someone Like Him (Patreon)

‘You’re that guy,’ said the Summoner, frowning up at him. ‘I saw you in the Tournament. You…’ She shook her head, swallowed. ‘The way you fought was horrible.’

‘I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,’ said Nicolai, doing his best not to lose himself in the wonderful memories her words birthed.

‘You looked like you enjoyed it,’ she said with sudden sharpness.

Nicolai was registering that apparently she considered that wrong in some way. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘And I saw you, fighting in your own tournament. Of course, you didn’t really need to fight because you had a giant robot to do that for you. It must be nice to be able to so cleanly wash your hands of the whole matter. Anyway, I believe you did something to my friend here.’ He pointed at Serrin. ‘What, precisely, have you done to him?’

She ignored him. Instead, looking to Serrin, she said, ‘I really didn’t think you’d be partners with someone like him.’

‘Someone like me?’ echoed Nicolai mildly.

Serrin looked back and forth between them. ‘Um… I really think there’s a lot that we could do to help one another. He’s my friend,’ he said to the Summoner. ‘And I know what it looked like, but… well, we’re working on it. And…’ He turned to Nicolai. ‘We need allies, don’t we? What with everything we’re up against. And she needs help, and we need help, so…’

‘I don’t know,’ muttered the Summoner. She looked back at the rest of her companions, a wretched expression on her face. ‘Maybe I made a mistake.’

The big bald guy nodded, taking a break from staring at Nicolai to crease his stern features in a noble frown. ‘Everyone does, on occasion. At least you recognise it.’

‘No way you could know,’ said the dog. ‘Boy smelled alright as he was, but this one stinks of blood. A merc of the worst sort.’ And it glared up at him, expression a near twin to that of Baldy’s.

The two of them had been giving Nicolai deeply hostile looks since the moment he’d arrived. Even the average human could’ve easily ascertained they didn’t like him one bit. To Nicolai, with his sense of Souls and body language further augmented by Psychology, they felt like a pair of angry dogs, growling out a warning, hackles raised.

The one beside them—a woman in black robes—was likewise eyeing him, though her face and Soul were less easily readable. Cat-like, to continue the analogy, watching from a lazy distance.

Then there was the Summoner, who clearly occupied the centre of this group, and whose face and emotions seemed to be almost entirely open. So much so it struck him and Threat Analysis both as deeply suspicious. The Module’s endless data-mining of all conversations in hearing of his many drones through the City bore some fruit here, when it told him their names were Junko, Marlowe, Maverick, and Yue, and gave him the surface details it had learned of them all.

Nicolai looked all of them over, thinking. Nothing came for free in this world. Why had this Hero of Humanity granted Serrin a Mark of Heaven? What did she want? What was her game? Were they trying to use Serrin to get to him?

Time to wheedle and dig his way to the juicy centre of… whatever this was.

‘What have you done to my friend?’ he said again, voice rising, sharp and angry. He cast his hand dramatically at Serrin. ‘You bound him to you with a Mark, and he told me you Examined him. Alas, he has no understanding of any of these things, leaving him open to your wiles. But. I. Do.’ He leaned slowly forward as he spoke, thrusting his helmeted head toward Junko. His H-gram had come to life in its typical everyman face, and Psychology made its eyes widen, widen, widen until they were huge accusing pits. Junko leaned back away from him, her own eyes widening.

‘Wha—?’ she managed, confused and on the back foot. Just where he wanted her.

Serrin goggled at him from the side. ‘What? No, I mean, I don’t mind—’ began the Hornet.

‘Shh, it’s okay,’ said Nicolai, snapping back up to put a protective hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s not your fault. You’re not experienced enough to know how cruel the world can be. You’re not able to see people like this for who they are.’ He returned his glare to Junko, the features of his H-gram a picture of distrust and protective anger.

She spluttered with angry disbelief, a reaction mirrored by her companions.

‘What?’ spat Marlowe. ‘You trying to say she took advantage of him? She did him a favour! He doesn’t have a bloody Mark! It’s a sign of trust. It’s an honour!’ His voice became a furious growl by the end, and he stomped forwards, big metal boxer-borg hands forming heavy fists at his sides, shoulders hunched like a gorilla on the warpath, and he didn’t stop until his nose was near pressed against the front of Nicolai’s helmet. Maverick followed on the man’s heels, growling in a way that might’ve been menacing were he not a corgi.

‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ the dog demanded, and Nicolai tilted his head forty-five degrees downwards and to the side—barely avoiding Marlowe’s furious features—to watch it hopping furiously up and down. ‘You’re the worst guy in this entire city. We’ve all heard of you!’

‘That’s right,’ grumbled Marlowe, nodding, and Nicolai’s head tilted smoothly back up as the man leaned back and began counting points off his fingers, looking back between Nicolai and the rest of them like a prosecutor in one of those legal TV shows. ‘They say he’s a scammer, a trickster, a murderer, a cheater, a liar.’ He ran out of fingers and swapped to his other hand. ‘A blackmailer, a…’ He glared down at his hand then up at Nicolai, struggling to think of more words, clearly hoping to finish counting off a full ten.

Nicolai brushed past before he could, while internally Legal finished the 10-count for its own satisfaction: ‘A thief, an extortionist, a terrorist, and—depending on definition—a rogue killbot missing its operating licence.’

‘A typical strategy,’ began Nicolai, ignoring the Module. He was not a terrorist. He was a professional. ‘One I’m well used to. A bald-faced attempt to use the irrelevant details of my reputation—which has very little basis in fact, by the way—to call into question whether I have a right to be angered over your actions. Are you just going to let your dogs bark on your behalf?’ He glared down at the corgi, then at Marlowe, then back to Junko. ‘Or are you going to answer me? What have you done to Serrin?’

Junko spluttered at him, shaking her head silently, but he could see there were words in her, brewing behind her eyes. He just needed to make them come out, and all it would take was a little nudge further.

‘Seriously, Nicolai, I’m not… It’s not a problem,’ said Serrin, attempting to get his attention from the side. ‘It’s not a big deal. She didn’t… She wasn’t trying to do anything. You weren’t there. She was—’

Nicolai sighed. ‘Poor boy,’ he murmured, shaking his head in dismay. ‘So unprepared for the schemers of this cruel, cruel world.’ Then back to Junko. ‘Such as you, taking advantage of him! What are you hoping to gain?’

‘I’m not hoping to gain anything!’ she yelled, breaking at last. ‘I did it to help him. I did it because I thought I could trust him. I Examined him, and from what I saw, I thought he was a good person. I thought he was someone I could trust. But now…’ She looked to Serrin, face a mess of uncertainty and dismay.

Marlowe darted away from Nicolai and got quick beside her, cooing like a mother hen. ‘Junko, it’s okay. You don’t have to explain yourself to this, this—’

‘No,’ she said, brushing him off. ‘No, this guy doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. I’m the one who’s been… I mean…’ She looked back to Serrin. ‘I trusted you, but you’re with him. Why are you with someone so, so… everyone says, and I saw in the tournament… I…’ She shook her head, lips pressed tight together, and she actually looked sort of like she was fighting back tears.

Amazing acting, or honest truth? Neither Nicolai nor Psychology knew for sure. Keep on digging, said the Module. Nicolai needed no encouragement.

‘What… did… you… do?’ he said, H-gram glaring at her. All of her companions, meanwhile, were giving him looks of total loathing.

She straightened. ‘I invited him to my party. I’m only meant to do that with people I trust, but I thought I could trust him. It doesn’t mean I’ve done anything bad to him! I can see where he is, but so can he, if he looks on the map, and we can all communicate through the voice chat. That’s it! I’m not trying to do anything!’

‘Locational data, huh,’ he murmured, and slowly shook his head, his body language emanating contempt, embodying A Man Proven Right. Internally he and the Modules considered the possible benefits of Serrin’s useful new access. ‘What else? From what I heard, after you Examined him you decided to trust him. Why? What privileged information how you stolen from him?’

‘It’s fine,’ cried Serrin, desperate. ‘We can all work together. Nicolai, she needs help. She needs a token and House access and to go into the Dead City.’

‘I can get a token myself,’ spoke up Junko, in a voice of finality. ‘The Houses are falling over themselves to recruit me. I don’t need help from him, and I’m not saying anything else!’ And she glared at Nicolai with eyes like little brown daggers.

‘Well, and—and,’ stumbled Serrin, before rallying, ‘she’s strong! Powerful! She can help us. We need friends. We can’t do this alone.’

‘Mmm,’ said Nicolai absently, staring into Junko’s eyes, hungry for the information behind them.

‘And they’re going into the Dead City and it’s dangerous, she needs protection! So we can all help each other!’

‘Mmm.’

‘She’s got me to look after her,’ broke in Marlowe, sneering at Serrin. He raised a fist. ‘I used to compete in the underground, and you wouldn’t believe how many tournaments these hands won me, boy. Anything comes for us and I’ll handle it.’ He turned his head, slow and menacing, until his narrow-eyed gaze settled on Nicolai. ‘Anything,’ he repeated in a hiss.

‘Mmm… hmm.’

‘You can trust me!’ said Serrin to Junko. She avoided meeting his eyes, or rather the visor of his helmet. ‘We can help you! If you’re going somewhere dangerous, you need us! And we can help with the token!’ Suddenly, he looked to Nicolai. ‘You’re in, right? You succeeded?’

‘That’s right.’

Junko was still avoiding Serrin’s helmet, but the others exchanged frowns of uncertainty and wariness. Then Marlowe looked to him. ‘What role?’

‘I am now the lead assassin of House Thrynn.’

Nicolai watched the ensuing reaction with a not insignificant amount of enjoyment. Yue was the first to register exactly what that meant. She grabbed Junko by the shoulder and pulled her away from him. ‘Get back!’ she cried, raising her hand and forming a flurry of Oma shields around the two of them.

Marlowe was next. His face paled and his eyes widened. ‘He can cut through the Restriction,’ he breathed, then he snapped his fists up and threw himself between Nicolai and Junko. His body, which held more overall artificial weight than Nicolai’s own, hummed with energy as he activated various physical and mental enhancement augmentations. Then he advanced on Nicolai with rapid steps, determination in his eyes.

The dog, meanwhile, let out a series of clicks and clacks from his armour while releasing a somewhat panicked growl. Guns hinged out from where they’d clung to his form, while ports opened to reveal more delicate tools—electrical countermeasures, eye-burners, sonar weaponry, and the like. Nicolai and the Modules had never seen this particular uplifted-canine armour, but it was clearly quite sophisticated.

‘Call something big and dangerous!’ the dog screamed at Junko, turning to shoot a frantic look at her. Two heavy guns bobbed either side of his head, shifting to remain trained on Nicolai. ‘We need a dragon in here!’

‘What?’ said Junko, the slowest on the uptake. Nicolai guessed these guys hadn’t been operating together that long, because rather than responding to the clear panic of her companions by doing as the dog said, she was staring around in confusion. ‘What’s the matter? I’m meant to save my summons for dangerous situations!’

‘This is a dangerous fucking situation!’ yelled Maverick and Marlowe together.

Marlowe was almost on him, now. Nicolai shoved his thumbs in his belt, had Threat Analysis check the area for any actual threats, and considered the boxer’s stance with a measured level of professional interest.

Cyberwarfare spoke up. I’m into the corgi’s armour. There’s a buried access port that’s not been properly closed. No real cyberwarfare capabilities or sentient AI to speak of in here… The Module hummed to itself as it dug in, emanating an unusual eagerness. It wasn’t every day you found someone with an opening something like Cyberwarfare could properly get into—humans put a huge amount of stock into making sure the average augment had no such weakness. It was only when you got people with seriously out-of-date or cheap and trashy augments, or simply who’d been messing around in the kind of ways the typical implants would strenuously object to, that such vulnerabilities tended to appear. In this case the corgi’s armour was stolen property, and he’d done some rather messy work to get it functioning properly.

Better yet, there was an approved, trusted connection between the corgi and Marlowe… and from there, Junko…

They’re lucky I’m the one who found this, said Cyberwarfare, as it tightened its grasp on the corgi’s armour and prepped its killware. Junko wasn’t overly augmented so would only be slightly affected, Marlowe, however, would not fare at all well if that killware got properly into his system. Very lucky indeed. Unless… are we going to kill them or not? The Module was burning with its desire to score a cybernetic hat-trick.

For now, no, replied Nicolai, and Cyberwarfare deflated, vastly disappointed.

‘Those who have the role of assassin can break the Restriction,’ said Yue, speaking fast, voice clipped, eyes narrowed and fixed on Nicolai. She held one hand raised, shimmering with Oma, ready to coalesce into an Art. Less than a second had passed while Cyberwarfare did what it did, and Marlowe was still advancing on him.

Junko, finally understanding, paled slightly. She raised her hand and it began to glow with golden light.

‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ cried Serrin, who then caused some of the Modules to swoon with happiness when he leapt between Nicolai and Marlowe, facing the group with arms spread as though to block anything aimed at Nicolai. ‘What are you doing?! Stop!’

Marlowe slowed. ‘Move aside, boy,’ he growled. ‘I’m still not a hundred-percent on whether you got actual bad intentions or you’re just an idiot, so I’d rather not put a hole in your skull if I don’t have to. But if I do have to…’ And his whole body snapped forward as he threw out a jab, metal fist punching through the air to the side of Serrin’s head. He held it there a moment then shifted back, hands reslotting into a perfect guard. The blow had been lightning fast, enough so that Nicolai confirmed him as a real threat.

Serrin didn’t flinch. ‘Stop this,’ he said, resolute, with such a perfect showing of heroic self-sacrifice that Nicolai and Psychology began taking careful notes. Some of the Modules had wanted him to tell Serrin there was nothing to worry about, owing to the Restriction, but seeing this they fell silent, deciding not to ruin the moment. Even Junko seemed impressed, in a way. She wore an expression slightly disbelieving, slightly dismayed. However, after a moment her face firmed. The golden glow around her hand brightened.

‘Alright,’ said Nicolai, and they all tensed up. Slowly, he raised his hands, first out to the sides then higher, higher, empty palms spread, until finally he said, ‘I surrender.’

[Author Note - sooo this is definitely one where I would've posted the whole conversation, back before I opted to drop back down to shorter chapters. But, as I read through this, well I'm actually very glad I've gone this way. I did a lot of editing to this chapter, which always takes me a while, but because I'm posting just one half of the conversation instead of the full thing, I was actually able to finish editing it to my satisfaction! It's one of the first chapters I've posted in a while where I can really say, yeah, I'm happy with the quality of this. This is the kind of quality I want to be consistently hitting. Pacing-wise, would definitely be better to post the whole 5,000 word conversation, but if I'd done so a whole lot of the funnier moments would be missing from this, the dialogue would be less polished, characters less thought out, basically the whole thing would be rushed and more of an early draft than a finished scene. So... well basically I'm just saying that I finally think I've found a level of output I am actually happy with ^_^]