For a mont, I wondered how, exactly, I had gotten here. And which person should I cuss out for putting in this position? Shinobu? Nael for keeping alive? Or myself for stupidly trying to run from the Inquisitor. Knowing my luck, that probably drew his eye more than anything. Why was he even here? Seriously, what shitty luck.
I turned on my heel and smiled brightly at the Inquisitor. “Ha- ha, S-sir. Good to- uh, see you again.”
His silver aura seed all-consuming as I faced him. It felt like my every act and action were under scrutiny as if he was just waiting to watch struggle and laugh at my expense. The intense fear and guilt working through felt… extre. Too extre, though incomparable to how I felt when Glitching.
I activated Aetherial Perception just to make sure of my suspicions, and he lit up like a firework. Every part of his armor seed enchanted in one form or another, possibly with guilt or fear-evoking ones. Or at least that’s what I suspected considering Aetherial Perception didn't do anything but confirm the presence of the aetherialy aligned.
Inquisitor Strumgard coldly nodded his head to , that infernal mask blocking any of his microexpressions as it reflected my own all too clearly. “Of course it ish! You are- uh- Zuku- hmm… Ichima, right? Shee! I’d never forget my precious Shquire… again.”
Was he- was he drunk? Now that I thought about it, was he drunk the first ti too? Everything had been such a haze back then; I barely rembered anything except fear and guilt. And yet, it was hard to tell for sure. He only slurred so of his words, and his ice tone made it even harder. He could just have so kind of weird wisp- doubted. Seriously doubted. He was probably drunk. Or at least tipsy.
“Y-yep… that’s .” I hesitantly started to walk to him, ignoring my raging instincts. At the very least, Insight wasn’t triggering, so I was probably safe. And running now would only look even more suspicious.
He kicked the chanical lump one more ti before fully turning to . “I tried to get your contact information from the recordsh to apologize, but your phone line was dishconnected…”
I could practically feel the air turn hostile as he questioned . I stared at the reflective mask covering his face, wishing I could see through it for so kind of Cue. “Ha- ha… My phone broke. I-I haven’t gone to get a new one yet.”
He nodded several tis before reaching for one of his pouches. I half expected him to draw a gun or cuffs, but instead, he simply tossed sothing to . “Here.”
Reflexively, I caught the object. It was a phone. A cheap-looking burner phone at that. “Sir?”
“Now I can contact you till you get a new phone. Ah, and don’t worry about the prishe.”
“T-thank you, Sir.” Fucking hell. Why can’t anything ever be easy? Now I literally don’t have an excuse to blow off the scary silver man. Hell, I might as well go buy a secondary phone now to better sell the Blue Crusade identity/ “What- what’re you doing out here though, Sir?”
“Weird, HQ didn’t tell you when they shent you out to ? And why aren’t you in uniform?” His voice ca out endlessly cold, halting any hope of trying to get a Cue from it.
I glanced down at my techwear jacket and pants. Definetely not the Blue Crusade uniform... it would be utterly stupid of to wear that thing around willy-nilly. It was a laughable idea, and whoever ca up with it seed to be quite dimwitted considering the state of the city.
He thinks HQ sent to him? Well… it certainly made more sense than just randomly showing up thanks to my shitty luck. Seriously… maybe I should look through the Skills again and try to raise my luck with sothing. “No, Sir. Only to be discreet, hence my incognito clothing.”
“Huh… well, I’m tracking down a clue. Or wash, until this dumb thing shtopped working… don’t shuppose you know a chanic around here?” He asked as he turned back and kicked it again. His silver greave bounced off with a tallic clang, which saw people all around ‘casually’ retreating. Not that I could bla them.
I walked closer, deciding to commit fully since I was already pulled in. Anything less than a full commitnt to being a Squire might draw suspicion. Suspicion I couldn’t afford from an Inquisitor… maybe getting the fake ID wasn’t such a great idea…
What would a Squire do here? Fawn over and talk to their Crusader like it wasn’t an issue? Right, I could do that. And it was a given for to be helpful. At least, as much as I could be.
The tallic hunk he kicked at was actually a Jaeger, a wolf-like robot used by the Crusade to track scents. It had the sa silvery sheen as Crusade armor and looked incredibly sleek. Sharp claws of steel sat on each paw, capable of shredding through people like butter. That is- if their Shock-Maw didn’t get their opponent first.
“I- uh- I know a bit about chanics. I could take a look?” And hopefully think of a way to inconspicuously escape while I was at it. With the way things were looking though, it was doubtful… looks like I’m going to be a Squire one way or another.
He popped up, seeming to straighten his back. “Jusht my luck! Of course, Shquire Ichima. I knew there was a reashon I picked you from the ashpirants!”
But you didn’t… I knelt next to the Jaeger and started to look it over. After a bit of ssing around and trying to figure it out, I managed to open up an access panel on its back. I followed the prompts and scanned my Crusade badge. Seeing as I was the Squire registered to Inquisitor Light Strumgard, who ‘owned’ the unit, Jaeger's systems accepted as an admin.
The panel popped open, revealing a fancy touch screen. Unit CJ29, at least according to the screen. The screen had dozens of options and settings, including a strobe mode of all things. A bit of rooting around from there, and I managed to unlock its protective ‘fur’ shell and got a deeper look at its insides.
The insides of the little bot were… complicated, to say the least. Thanks to my recent advancents in Tech, I sowhat got an image of what was going on, but most of the random-looking parts, gears, and wires went right over my head.
Thankfully, the problem was a rather simple one. Several bullet shells had gotten caught in so of its servos sohow, completely halting its ability to walk around. That, in turn, seed to have activated a kill switch inside the Jaeger to avoid damaging said servos with the debris.
I pulled them out, though I really needn’t have. Based on where they were and how loosely they were lodged. Several more kicks from the Inquisitor would have freed the servos and got the thing back up and running.
After finishing up, I closed the Jaeger back up and reactivated it. In an instant, it jumped to its feet as its eyes lit up blue. A holoprojector on its back lit up, covering its back with a holographic Blue Crusade symbol. Lights all across its body lit up, accenting the sliver with the aesthetic blue lighting the Crusade was fond of.
I stood back up and backed away from the machine. “What are you- uh, you looking for, Sir?”
“We, “ he coughed lightly, seeming to draw emphasis onto the word as if to reinforce the idea that there was no escape, “are looking for that thief’s shecond stash of ill-gotten loot.”
That Idism guy? He was already caught though, so why keep moving on this case? Surely there were other cris out there. Heck, I could point out several happening in view at the mont, let alone point to preditated ones in gang territory.
The robot wolf walked away from on its tallic limbs and headed over to the Inquisitor as I processed what he said. Did he just voluntell to co with him? Damn it all! “A-are you sure he even had a second stash?”
“Of Course! Every good thief has a shecond stash.” He affectionately petted the Jaeger. “And this little buddy will lead ush right to it.”
But I don’t have a second stash… or even really a stash? Damn, am I a bad thief? No- no, I just haven’t had a chance to set one up yet. That’s right. It didn’t speak of my klepping skills, just my organizational ones. Those being bad was an acceptable alternative.
And it’s not like I’ve ever really stolen sothing I hadn’t imdiately sold afterward, so I had nothing to stash in the first place. Maybe I should find a place though… that golden statue back in the Neo-Joker office called to , and I didn't want to steal it only to sell it. It would make the perfect addition to a new stash and would reward a perk point.
Hey! That makes a perfect new short-term goal; start up a second stash. And maybe I could start snatching for sport rather than for money. I did enjoy the ‘acquisition’ process quite a bit… Maybe once my inco stream was more consistent. I couldn’t exactly sacrifice the ti I could be earning money to set up a heist, at least not yet.
The Jaeger’s blue, glowing eyes flashed as it stuck its nose to the ground. “D-did the Jaeger already have a scent before shutting down?”
Inquisitor Strumgard started to move towards the Jaeger, his silver mask flashing the neon around as it moved. “Yeah. Luckily found hish trail jusht down the road.”
I followed as well, as much as I didn’t want to. There was silence as we chased the chanical wolf. People got out of our way as we walked, scared off by the combination of Inquisitor and Jaeger. It was my first ti to walk down a sidewalk and have a complete bubble of isolation around. Kinda nice, if I had to say.
Unfortunately, that silence ended as ‘my’ Inquisitor spoke. “So… have you seen or t my other shquires yet?”
“No, sir…” Shit, I really hope he doesn’t want to introduce and make feel like part of the team or sothing. More people I had to keep up the act around would only weaken my story further.
“Really? I’ve only got… hmm… five, I think?” He asked. “They must be off doing shothing or another. I prefer a handsh-off approach, ash long as you co when I call.”
Why was he asking how many Squires he had? At least a ‘hands-off approach’ would be beneficial to , so it wasn’t entirely unwelco news. “‘Course, Sir.”
Silence returned or about as silent as Aythryn City could get. We walked behind the wolf, stopping every once in a while to ‘sniff’ the air for whatever scent it was tracking. We followed it all the way to the base of Talus Tower.
The gargantuan arcology towered over the surroundings in a similar way to the Big 7’s buildings in the Corporate Quarter. Its vast sides were covered in advertisents and neon, making it difficult to tell where the rest of the city stopped and the building began.
The building, built as a testant to humanity's power and progression, acted as a self-contained city within a city. Every arcology was designed from the ground up to be almost entirely self-sufficient, and Talus Tower was no different. People could live their entire lives from birth to death and internt without leaving the tower even once.
I had never been into Talus Tower, or any other arcology for that matter, but I had heard the tales. Cri and decay were just as prevalent as ingenuity and innovation. The conflicting nature throughout the technological leviathan of a building warned of the dangers of overreaching and neglect, though a look anywhere around the city would reveal the sa.
The robotic wolf led us through a backstreet and to a massive plaza. The plaza sat half under the first several floors of Talus Tower and half out, exposed to the air. The place sat absolutely packed full of people and rchants, sowhat similar to Saint’s Plaza though far shadier. taphorically speaking, not literally. The entire place reeked of cheap drugs and booze.
Unlike Saint’s Plaza, massive arrays of holograms and advertisents floated around the plaza, so carried around small drones with holoprojectors while others ca from stationary ones. The flashing colors lent a chaotic hand to the entire plaza, raising my anxiety just by looking at it.
The Inquisitor chuckled, though the laugh sounded downright hellish thanks to his permanently frozen tone. “Been a while… sho things never change, I see.”
What would a real Squire do in this situation? Hmm… maybe complint and question their Crusader? “Wow, y-you’ve been here before, Sir? What for?”
“Ah, no need to be so nervous, Squire! And yes, though it wash a long ti ago… they brought in for a day to look over so evidence of a sherial killer.” He waved a hand to the place. “Arcologiesh are bad about breeding ‘em.”
He started to walk, and I hurriedly moved into action only to stop as he froze. “What’s wrong, Sir?”
“Dumb bot broke again…” He nodded his silver head to the Jaeger.
I frowned and crouched at the thing’s side. A bit of finagling later, and I pulled up the tal beast's touch screen. A long paragraph covered the screen as it flashed an angry red on and off. “It lost the trail. Too many wayward scents around here tripped it up.”
He nodded, his silver mask holding perfectly still as it reflected my image. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if he was staring at , or sothing else. “Right… looks like we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way then. Co along, Squire.” Before I could even say sothing back, the Inquisitor plunged into the throngs of people all around the plaza.
For a mont, I contemplated taking the chance to run away. It would make look too suspicious though, and I had no doubt the Inquisitor would be able to track down. Seeing as I didn’t have too many other options, I set the Jaeger to follow and unwillingly stepped after the man.
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