"Ugh" Siran moans, "where am I?". As Siran slowly opens his eyes, he finds himself in a white void. Surrounded by nothing, laying still as if he were floating. Siran begins to hear a disembodied voice, but one that he is already familiar with. The voice was that of a woman, and though disembodied and ominous as it sounded, the voice was soft and gentle.
"You have finally returned" she says, "it's been a while".
Without changing his expression, as if this situation weren't surprising to Siran at all, he replies "Not exactly like I volunteered to come back".
The voice of the woman giggled and said "You really are an interesting human".
"You need to stop calling me 'human' already" Siran complains.
"You know why I wanted to talk to you, don't you?" She asked. "It's because your job has still yet to be completed".
"I had the feeling 'he' was still out there" Siran says, "I guess this is you confirming my suspicions? Is The Ly'Lum really looking to use him as a military power?".
The voice giggles again and says "You know how I work. I like to make humans think for themselves".
"... Is that a yes?" Siran asks.
"That" She begins to say, "is usually a no. You should know this by now".
"Thanks for being so cryptic..." Siran complains.
"I have a deal to make with you" she says. "You finish this job once and for all, and I'll show you how to fix your life span".
Siran crosses his arms and thinks for a moment. "No thanks" he says, "last time I made a deal with someone from 'this realm'.... well, you know the rest".
"You'd deny a deal with a god?" She asks, skeptically.
"You should know how I work by now" Siran says, then laughs a little. "I'll do the favor you already asked of me so long ago. I don't want anything else to do with anymore.... 'gods' after that".
The voice laughs softly and says "That's why you're my favorite human. It's time to wake up now, you've been asleep for a long time again. It's time to return to your own world".
"Thanks for being so vague" Siran says, "guess I'll catch you next time and hopefully get actual answers".
"Only if there is a next time" she replies. "Let's hope for your sake, that there is not. After all, it is your fault that the job hasn't been finished".
"Sorry" Siran says, "I guess in the end, I felt at least a little mercy for him".
"You can not fool me" she replies. "You failed your task because you felt sorry for yourself, not him".
"Yeah" Siran says, "I guess you're right".
"Farewell, Siran" she says.
"So long, Gaia" Siran replies as he starts to feel the sensation of falling. As he fell, he could hear a different voice slowly get louder and louder.
"-Et up... Get up!" It said. "Hey! GET UP!". As Siran finally woke back up from his dream, Tanya was standing over him. "Get up, shit head!" Tanya yells.
"You don't have to be so loud" Siran complains.
Tanya stands up straight and puts her curled up fists on her hips. "I told you I'm an impatient person" she says. "Anyways, get ready, this is important".
"What is?" Siran asks.
"I've got a tip on the doctor, Demetri Ivanov" Tanya replies.
Siran sits up, Picks up his hat and slowly puts the hat back on his head. "What's the tip then?" He asks.
"Well" Tanya tried to recall, "we got the coordinates for where he's operating. His place is outside of the opposite side of this town, so it won't be much of a hassle to get there. We got the tip when we went outside without you. Rose fell down and someone else asked 'what's her deal?' and we explained that she is blind. After that, Rose explained that she wanted to see Demetri. I mean- there was a lot of arguing about ethics on the topic, but in the end, we got the information we wanted".
As Siran stood up, he asks "You did all of that in just a couple hours?".
Tanya shook her head. "No, it's been 6 hours, not just a couple. It's already 3 in the afternoon".
Zia walks up to Siran and offers him a hand to help him get up. "You really were asleep for a long time" she says.
"Sorry about that" Siran replies.
"Go ahead and get ready" Alex says, "we're heading out now".
Siran nods his head, and gets ready to leave. The crew immediately leaves to go to the place where they were told they can find Demetri. Once they get there, they knock on the door, but no one answered. They knock again and hear someone yell from the other side. "Alright, alright, I'm coming" the voice said. The door opens slightly and a man asks through the crack of the door "Who are you people?".
"Are you Demetri Ivanov?" Rose asks.
"Doctor Ivanov" Demetri replies.
"Right, Doctor Ivanov, I wanted to ask for your assistance" Rose says. Rose takes the bandages off of her face to reveal her eyes. Her corneas, the skin over her eyes were scarred and blurry. "You see" she begins to say, "I'm blind and was wanting to know if your cybernetic enhancements can help with blindness".
"Look, girl" Demetri says, "I'm too drunk to look into eyes and see blindness. Also, of course cybernetics can fix blindness. Don't ask such stupid question".
Rose begins to get irritated, but calms down and asks "Can we request your services then?".
"Eh- don't really feel like it" Demetri replies. "Come back tomorrow, when I'm not drunk".
Rose gets so angry that she could almost spit smoke out of her ears. Rose kicks down Demetri's front door and pulls out her gun. "Look here jackass" she says.
"Hold on a minute" Siran says. Siran walks up to Rose, grabs her gun, and points it at Demetri. "You weren't even aiming at him" he says.
"Oh, thanks" Rose says. "Look jackass! We came all the way here, and we're kind of in a desperate situation! So take our damn money, or I'll make your body too unrecognizable for the autopsy!".
"Okay, okay... crazy woman" Demetri replies. Demetri eventually gets back up and sits at the table. He pulls out a sheet of paper to write measurements on and thoroughly stares at Rose's face. Although, not long after, Demetri fell asleep at the table before writing anything down.
"This son of a bitch!" Rose says after Demetri's head hits the table with a loud thump and begins snoring.
"This is going to take longer than we thought" Siran says. "Guess we'll stay here until he wakes up".
"We should probably fix his door at least" Alex suggests.
"Not it" Siran calls out. Immediately, everyone else calls out 'not it' except for Finn who looks around aimlessly.
"Aw, you guys suck!" Finn says.
After several hours, night approached and the team still waited at Demetri's place. Finn had fixed the door that Rose kicked down, using tools borrowed from Demetri. Demetri slowly wakes up, and most of the team had long since grown impatient.
"What are you people still doing here?" Demetri asks.
Tanya has been getting irritated from having to wait all day. "We're waiting for you!" She says. "I have to go home soon! My daughter is only supposed to stay over with her friend and her babysitter for the weekend!".
"No" Demetri says. "I mean, why are rest of you here? You can leave girl with me and let me work in peace. I don't like people looking over shoulder".
Tanya crosses her arms and get visibly more angry. "Well MAYBE if you told us that before...".
"You can come back and check in week, maybe I'll be done" Demetri says.
Demetri sits up straight in his chair and gestures with his hands to shoo everyone else away. Alex had to lightly shove Tanya out of the door, to keep her from beating up Demetri. They needed him alive if he were to help Rose. As they finally exited Demetri's house, Tanya storms off. When the rest of the crew catches back up to her, Siran asks "Where are you going?".
"I don't know" Tanya replies. "It's probably too late to leave for now. Even if I get home, I'll just end up sleeping until real late, and I need to be up earlier in the morning to pick up my daughter".
"Then why don't you just head back to the hotel to sleep, wake up extra early and drive from here?" Alex asks.
Tanya shakes her head as if she were trying to shake off her stress alone. "Yeah" she agrees, "I think I'll do that. How long do you guys plan on staying in Vega?".
Siran shrugs his shoulders and says "Not really sure. Maybe we can stay for just a couple weeks and get some rest".
"This wouldn't be a bad place to rest for a while" Zia says.
Tanya turns around to face the crew. "This isn't even the most interesting part of Vega" she says. "This city is called Therio. Also known as the ever changing city. The city itself doesn't change frequently, but there's always new people around. However, if you want to go somewhere even more interesting, let me show you the way to Marina. Also known as Shark City. I'll take you there before I head back to bed".
Zia looks over at Tanya and says "What's it like in Shark City".
"You'll have to see it to believe it" Tanya replies.
"Are you coming back?" Zia asks.
"Hm..." Tanya thinks to herself. "Maybe next weekend. I'm a mother first, after all".
"Understandable" Alex says.
Tanya leads the crew to a new city. When they arrive, they walk through open gates and down a narrow street. As they approach the end of the street, the street splits into a large open area.
"Let me be the first to welcome you" Tanya says as everyone enters the large open street, "to Shark City".
As they enter the large open street, they could see the street grew into a large, circular street with a thin tower in the center. There were more volumetric displays everywhere, more so than in Tokyo. However, unlike in Tokyo, there were displays of giant great white sharks swimming through the air. The sharks would swim from the top of the tower in the middle of the street, all the way down to the ground. There were a lot of people keeping the street busy, and many people just walk through the displays without bothering to go around it. One shark flew in front of Zia, who reached out to touch it. Her hand simply went through it without feeling anything. Static showed in the Shark where Zia placed her hands before the display of the shark swam away and rebuilt itself instantly. The city around them looked very busy and loud. Casinos and bars were easy to spot from nearly anywhere in the city. The sight was simply captivating.
"Not quite what you'd expect, is it?" Tanya asks. "Anyways, I'm heading back".
"So soon?" Zia asks.
As Tanya turns to start walking away, she says "I told you, I'm a mother first".
The crew walks further into the city to explore. Eventually they found themselves at the entrance of tavern. The major difference is that this tavern was partially built under the street with stairs leading underground. There weren't many windows and the only windows that were in place were blurry and covered in dust. The door said "Ace of Spades" and smooth jazz could be heard from the inside. The smell of cigars surrounded the place and occasionally, the screams of bar fights could be heard from inside.
Finn laughs a little and says "Hey Zia, look, it's got your name on it".
"Just because my code name is Ace" Zia replies, "doesn't mean I want to go in".
"What do you think about this place?" Finn asks Zia. "Don't you wanna go inside for at least a little bit? It sure sounds lively in there".
"This place makes me nervous" Zia says.
"To be fair" Alex interrupts, "a place like this would be filled with ruffians. However, if you want my opinion, this would be a good place to be if you wanted to find out how many people here have ties with The Ly'Lum. If we're going to stay here for a little while, may as well check the hands we are playing with".
Holly looks at Alex in surprise. "That's a valid point" she says.
"Thanks?" Alex responds.
"I hope you didn't hurt yourself thinking about it" Holly adds.
"It's not my job to hurt myself by thinking about simple tasks" Alex replies. "That's Rose's, Finn's and Siran's job".
"Hey! Thanks for the moral support!" Finn says sarcastically.
The crew slowly opens the door and enters. As they go inside, it seemed as if everyone's eyes were on them. Zia took one look around and began to walk close to Siran's side, as if trying to hide behind his left arm. They found an empty table and sat down. At the table across from them, there were a group of men in casual suits and a wolf patch sewn onto the left shoulder of their jackets. The wolf patch signifying they were a part of Wolf Pack. These men stared at The Six Guns with discontent. It was clear they didn't want them here. Most of the crew tried to avoid making eye contact, but Zia kept looking up at them in worry. Eventually, a waitress came by to ask them what drinks they wanted. They ordered their drinks, but in the meantime, the Wolf Pack men kept staring at them. Zia started to grow from restless to irritated. The waitress brought them some drinks, then some more and some more, all the while, Zia was having a stare down with the men at the other table. Eventually, one of them gets up and walks up to Siran. He puts his hand on Siran's shoulder and says "I'm going to have to ask you to leave my bar".
Siran, without bothering to look at the man, asks "Why is that?".
"You're a sore sight to look at" he says.
Zia looks the man directly in the eyes and says "Get your hand off of our Captain".
"Captain, eh?" The man asks. "Captain of what?".
Siran was about to speak up before Zia interrupted him. "That's not the problem" she says. "The problem is that you need to remove your hand, before I remove it for you".
"Watch your tongue, girl" the man says. The man pulls out a butterfly knife and holds it up. Zia and the man stare at each other for a minute without moving. Alex tries to get up, but Siran stops him. The waitress comes by again with more drinks. Everyone but Zia grabs a drink off of the tray the waitress carried. Siran grabbed a second drink and held onto it for Zia. The man finally moves as he jabs his knife at Zia. Zia grabs the tray out of the waitresses hand and uses it as a shield. The knife pierces the tray and Zia spins the tray to make the knife fly out of his hand. Before the tray hit the ground, Zia kicks the man all the way back into his table, knocking the table over to the ground. The other men at the table also stood up. The music playing in the background stopped suddenly.
"Should we do something about this?" Alex asks.
"She's got this" Siran says. "She's much stronger than she looks".
Zia walks up to the men this time, and all five of them surround her. They all try punching her at different intervals, but Zia parried every attack with ease. Zia didn't bother to attack back. Instead, she merely let them attack until they got tired. Once all of them seemed to slow down, Zia got a little bit of distance between herself and them. Zia raises two fingers in the air with a glowing paper charm between them. The charm fizzles into ash and the ground under the tray, the one with the knife in it, sprung up suddenly. The tray flew upwards, into the air, right behind Zia. Without looking, Zia reached back and grabbed the handle of the knife, and threw it so hard and fast that the tray slid off of the knife with ease. The knife landed in one of the men's leg and he toppled over and hit the ground, writhing in pain. A small smirk was visible on Zia's face just before she moved. She jumped up above eye level and used two of the men's heads to hold her up as she kicked two other men. Those two went flying with fire bursting from their chests. Before Zia could land on the ground, she pulled the last two men's heads together. The men head-butt each other with enough force for their heads to bounce from the impact. They then both fell head first into the ground with a loud cracking sound. As Zia stands up and looks around, everyone else in the bar went silent. Now, all eyes really were fixed on her this time. Zia went from her angry temperament, back to her usual quiet self as she walked back to the table quietly and sat down. A loud cheer of approval was heard from all of the onlookers of this scene. It seemed to them that violence was nothing but a show to these people. Siran handed Zia the last drink and the music started playing again. After Zia finished her drink, she looked around again. People went back to what they were doing before, as if nothing ever happened.
Zia slams her cup on the table and looks at Siran. "Sorry about that" she says. "Those people were making me uncomfortable".
"I don't blame you" Siran replies. "They were just thugs. But on the other hand, I think we just became enemies of Wolf Pack. I wonder if Tanya is going to have a problem with this".
"Maybe if we leave them an apology letter, they won't be mad" Finn jokes.
"Yes" Holly replies, "a mob boss totally accepts the word 'sorry' and won't want revenge and/or money".
"It was a joke..." Finn adds.
"Anyways" Alex interrupts, "we may as well head back to the hotel for now. We've done enough damage".
"Yeah" Zia agrees, "let's head back. I don't like being here".