The car slowed, tires crunching over gravel as Angel steered into a half-lit alley wedged between two collapsed warehouses. Neon signs buzzed overhead, one flickering ROOMS BY THE HOUR in broken pink strokes. The place stank of oil, rust, and wet concrete.
Xavier looked out the tinted window, unimpressed. "Charming neighborhood. What is this, Angel? You finally selling off for parts?"
Angel cut the engine, smirking. "Tempting, but no. I've got a pickup. So gear I ordered from a black channel contact. Couldn't exactly have it delivered to the club front desk since I am not as rich as you. And the remaining paynt of the stuff you had ordered from the village."
Xavier's gaze sharpened. "Gear? As in guns and toys, or gear as in shit that'll land us on a governnt watchlist?"
"Both," she said with a wicked grin. "Heavy munitions, prototype field drones, so encrypted comm relays. Stuff I couldn't exactly put on your invoice. Let's just say this is the off-book part of our little budget."
Xavier leaned back, chuckling. "Figures. You never take sowhere normal. Always corpses, casinos, or cri dens."
Angel popped her door open and slid out, her boots crunching the grit. "What can I say? Normal's boring. Stay close—this guy's paranoid. If he sees soone like you standing beside , he won't try any shit."
Xavier stepped out, stretching his shoulders, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the shadows. "Then let's hope he's smart enough not to test ."
From deeper in the alley, movent stirred. A figure stepped forward, hauling a reinforced case on a grav-sled, tal gleaming even in the dim light.
Angel smiled. "Showti."
The grav-sled rolled closer, its noise echoing off the broken brick walls. The man pushing it was wiry, eyes sunken, his jaw tight under a grease-stained mask. His coat had too many pockets, every one probably hiding sothing illegal.
Xavier clocked him in a glance—body language twitchy, one hand never far from inside the coat. The kind of rat who lived his whole life looking over his shoulder.
"Angel," the man rasped, his voice like sandpaper. "You brought company."
Angel gave him a sharp grin. "Relax. If I wanted you dead, you'd already be cooling in the gutter. He's just here to make sure no one forgets who I am."
Xavier tilted his head, eyes boring into the dealer. "I don't like how you look at . You think I'm here to fuck with your deal?"
The man stiffened, sweat visible even in the dim light. "N-no. Business is business."
"Good," Xavier muttered, stepping aside. "Then keep your eyes on her."
Angel crouched by the sled and cracked open the reinforced case. Inside, rows of sleek gear glead—custom pistols with glowing cores, collapsible drones with razor-wing designs, encrypted signal jamrs, even a pulse rifle stamped with a corp logo that had been scorched off.
Angel's eyes lit up. "Mm, this'll do nicely." She tapped her wrist, transferring the rest of the paynt in neat digital stacks.
The man's wrist device pinged. He nodded, then dug around the sled. "And… your bonus."
He pulled out a matte-black container, unlocked it, and revealed a massive egg—glossy, almost tallic, veined with faint pulsing light. It looked alive in a way that unsettled the air.
Angel raised a brow. "What the hell's this?"
The man shrugged. "Reward program. Every hundred million credits moved through us, we throw in sothing rare. No clue what's inside. Could be worth a fortune. Could be a parasite. Could be nothing. It's yours."
Angel smirked, hefting the egg like it was a trophy. "Good custor service. Sha you don't have a loyalty card."
The man only backed into the shadows, sled humming away.
Back in the car, Angel shoved the egg into Xavier's lap. "Congrats, daddy. Since you're the one funding all this, the mystery prize is yours."
Xavier stared at the faintly glowing shell, unimpressed. "Yeah, no. I don't babysit oversized breakfast."
Angel shot him a look. "I don't exactly have the space or ti to raise… whatever the fuck this thing is. You've got a giant apartnt. Throw it in a corner. Worst case, it rots. Best case, you get a pet."
Xavier turned the egg in his hands, the veins pulsing faintly against his palms. "Or I hatch it and it eats the building."
"Now that's the spirit," Angel said, grinning. "Fine. I'll gift you a hatching pod. Consider it my contribution to the family."
Xavier groaned, setting the egg down by his side. "Great. Just what I needed. A surprise child."
Angel laughed, pulling the car out of the alley and heading for the glowing spire of the Nexus Tower. She dropped him off at the base, the egg still nestled awkwardly against his side.
"Try not to drop it on the way up," she teased. "Or do. Either way, I wanna see what crawls out of that thing."
Xavier sighed, stepping out with the egg under his arm, disappearing into the neon-lit lobby.
Xavier stepped into his apartnt, the glow from the egg faintly illuminating the otherwise dark living room. The lights turned on upon Xavier's arrival. He set it down carefully, feeling the faint pulse beneath its shell. "Alright… what the hell am I supposed to do with you?" he muttered, kneeling to study it.
Lilia and Lyra followed, their eyes widening.
"Is that… a pet?" Lilia whispered, staring.
Lyra, on the other hand, leaned closer, tilting her head. "Wait… did you bring this for ?" she asked with a mischievous smirk. "'Cause I'm hungry. Can I eat it?"
Xavier smacked her lightly on the shoulder. "No. Don't even think about it."
He rubbed his chin, circling the egg. "Can either of you recognize it? From the color, the texture, the… whatever this thing is? Could it even be alive? Or… dangerous?"
Lyra shrugged, frowning. "I don't know. I can handle ships, drones, weapons… I'm not exactly an alien egg specialist. Looks like so kind of bio-tech hybrid maybe, but that's a guess."
Xavier smirked, "Guess I'm doing all the heavy thinking, huh?" He carried the egg into one of the empty rooms and set it on a reinforced table. He tapped a few settings on the room's climate system, raising the temperature to help the egg hatch. The faint veins across its shell glowed brighter as the warmth settled in.
Satisfied, he stepped back and wiped his hands. "That's all I can do for now. The rest… we'll see."
Lilia glanced at the egg again. "You're actually going to… leave it like that?"
"Yeah, for now. We eat first. Then we figure out what nightmare cos out of it," Xavier said with a shrug, grabbing his jacket. "Co on, both of you. We are going to eat at Seraphina's."
And with that, the three of them left the apartnt, the egg glowing faintly in its new heated chamber as the city lights flickered outside.
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