Elysium Core - L'Internet du Soir

[Deleted]

The boy's eyes sharpened and his jaw tightened -- that was his first sign of aggravation up until this point.

" I've been sitting in this spot all day. So everything you've said -- regardless of what you think you know -- is simply not true."

The guy's face said it all -- he was ready to backhand the kid across the room, but Warrior was left to wonder why he hadn't already.

" If can understand if you'd be a little upset from that scratch on your arm -- but making up stories about how you valiantly fought off some giant blob that deleted two navis and supposedly hit me so hard in the head that I forgot the whole thing, just to make yourself look tough, is a bit far-fetched and downright ridiculous, if you ask me."

" Personally, I don't care how you got your cut there. But I do care when somebody insults my intelligence, or has the audacity to raise a lip at me for an accusation that they made up, and then call me the nuisance."

Still seated, Warrior had drawn his sword and plunged it into his own arm, before Erat really had a chance to react.

As the blade tore down to his bone, Warrior could feel the numbness from the loss of blood begin at his finger tips and quickly rush up his arm to the self-inflicted wound. The layers of his arm -- the skin, tissue, muscle and bone -- were all completely visible, but only for a second as they were quickly buried under a pool of blood that came spilling out almost immediately after.

The sword was placed through a strap on Warrior's back -- his own blood still dripping from its tip onto the ground behind him.

More blood flowed from his open wound until it drenched his entire arm, but Warrior wouldn't notice due to the nerve-shock that arm was experiencing. Indeed, the cut had been too quick and deep that the nerves were destroyed before they could send the message of pain to his brain, so it was only numbness that he'd experienced. Keeping a straight face wasn't difficult -- literally anybody could have done it.

The wound was possibly just as deep -- and equally as disabling -- as the cut on Erat's arm.

" I might've actually believed your story if you weren't too much of a coward to hit me until the odds were evened."

If this guy said he could fight off a blob monster that destroyed part of Creamland, Warrior would have expected him to have had the nerve to backhand a regular Navi that was half his size regardless of limitations.

Having already seen that he didn't, though (in your previous post), Warrior was convinced that he'd still find an excuse not to.

Deep down, he was hoping Erat would. He'd been needing to release some stress, lately.

[Deleted]

The weapon that Erat was holding onto shined brightly for a few moments.

"Would you two idiots stop bickering already?"

The voice came from a fire navi that now stood behind Erat.

"Also, this isn't the same navi. You might not have noticed, but there are some differences."

Serix slammed a fist on the bar, waiting for a drink.

"Must have been a cheap clone or something."

[Torchman]

'Does he seriously think I didn't hit him because I was at a disadvantage? Arrogant little ass.' Erat thought to himself angrily. 'I just didn't want a fight at all. I just wanted to heal and drink in peace.' Luckily for Erat, Serix chose this opportune moment to resurrect herself.

Erat wheeled himself around on his barstool to face her. "Well now," he started off, a bit of surprise and relief in his voice, "Didn't expect to see you back from the dead so soon." He quickly deduced that the sword was linked to this, seeing as it was glowing brightly.

"So... if he's not the navi that was there," he went on, placing Serix's blade on the bar beside him where Serix was demanding a drink. "Then where the hell's his near perfect lookalike that was there?" He took another drink, pinching his brow as he did. He felt rather embarrassed about everything that had just transpired. He'd hadn't paid enough attention to the navi at the time to be able to notice the differences between him and the navi here.

"So ugh... sorry?"

[Deleted]

'Sorry' would have probably cut it, had Warrior not 'cut' something else in eager expectation of a fight.

And the pain was starting to really take its toll on him now, so it was getting more and more difficult to cover it up.

"... Yeah. Apology accepted."

Arrogant was not an untrue title.

Holding his arm (since he didn't have any OP nanomachines to heal it up as quickly as Erat), Warrior got up and walked out of the bar.

This wound was probably going to need some serious medical attention before he could use it again.

[Location Change: L'Internet du Soir → ? ? ? ]

[Deleted]

"So, I guess I owe you some form of thanks."

Serix was now talking to Erat, seeing as Warrior had ragequit and left the bar. When her drink arrived, she downed it like it was nothing and demanded another.

"Before that, though....There's the issue of repairing Creamland once more."

As she spoke, Serix typed an email to ONB HQ.

---------------------------------------

To: ONB HQ: Anyone who cares...

Subject: Monsters wiped out Creamland again.

Looks like it needs to be rebuilt again.

--Serix

---------------------------------------

"So, what would you have me do?"

[Torchman]

'What would I have her do?' He didn't necessarily care, but he didn't want a repeat of before either. But what exactly would he say?

"Ugh..." he began, trying to carefully formulate his words. He really didn't know what to say. "Either stay and have a drink and talk a bit, or you can leave and go report to your higher ups. Either way, doesn't matter to me."

He took another drink. The pain in his arm was minimal now, meaning the drink was doing it's job properly. He'd probably have one or two more then leave, unless of course she decided to stay and talk a bit.

[Deleted]

Serix finished her second drink, then pounded down a third.

"You know, things weren't always like this... Navis were originally created for simple tasks like delivering email, or virus busting. Now, we are on a constant state of war that threatens our very right to exist."

The forth round wasn't quite as bad as the prior three.

[notegg]

Finale

---

A cocky Navi entered the bar, half a coat flowing behind him as he walked. Taking a seat next to Erat he snapped his fingers, indicating to the barman that he wanted a drink. Because of the angling he was on, he didn't notice the navis sitting beside him, AxeMan and NotEmbera.

It was when he looked around that he noticed his fellow bug hunters, and bought them a drink.

"Well what do we have here?" He said to the allies of his, throwing Zenny on to the table as the barman brings their drinks. Gulping his drink with a refined sense about him, the King eyes up Erat and Serix, noticing that Erat was still wounded while Serix had none, indicating that she had either respawned or had seeked medical attention.]

"You die?" he said to the flaming maid, trying to initiate a conversation whilst waiting for his employee.

[Team Active Star]

It would be some time before the "Employee" would arrive. But he would, and did.

The employer would just start to get that strange feeling, one of someone staring at you, or standing nearby, but out of sight. Before he would have time to turn to search for the reason of that uncomfortable sensation though, Mr. Employee would move forward to take a seat to the right of his Client.


"Friends I presume?"

[Deleted]

The navi's question irked Serix, to the point that her face was fully flushed.

"Wanna run that by me again?"

She wasn't actually requesting that he repeat himself, but rather testing his intelligence. Then she looked back at her message client.

"Hm...HQ should have replied by now."

[notegg]

Finale

---

"Just trying to make conversation." The King said to Serix, not noticing the Mercenary until he was next to Finale. Finale snapped his fingers upon the Hired Guns' approach, signalling for the barman to get them both a drink.

"No actually. We were allies in what went down in Creamland recently. I assume you heard about that?" he said answering his employ's question before The Red Mistress could. As he said it though, he had a rather negative tone when he spoke the word 'allies' as if he didn't want to be fighting with her at all.

"Speaking of, what ultimately went down there?" he said to Serix, wondering to himself how much longer she held out in comparison to Finale.

Whilst waiting for an answer, he whispered to his current ally, the Unknown Man sitting to his right. "She's ONB, see if you can gather information from our server. Assuming we can provoke a reaction, she'll be more useful as a resource then powerful as an enemy."

[Deleted]

Upon hearing the tone used to describe them as allies, Serix almost fell off the bar stool laughing.

"Hmph, anything that happened to you was your own doing. All I did was attack that thing for trying to grab me...and for attacking my home, but that's beside the point. You wanna blame anything on me, might wanna think real hard before ya' do."

As a form of showing off a bit, Serix lit a cigarette with her fingertip as she waited for her fifth drink.

"Hey bartender, make this one extra strong!"

After yelling this, she blew a puff of smoke towards Finale, hoping he would choke on it.

[Team Active Star]

The Employed one scrunched his nose at the request his Client made, looking over at the navi he had mentioned and shook his head. He had seen the fiery navi before, and he didn't think much of either idea. Which he would voice as well, none to discretely.

"I doubt she can be considered a "powerful enemy". And last time I saw her, see was in Green Tempest Uniform. Don't think she would know much if anything useful."

[notegg]

Finale

---

"So be it." said Finale, ignoring Serix's smoke cloud. With a quick turn Finale jumped out of his seat, gesturing for his employ to join him. As he neared the door, he taunted Serix.

"Perhaps HQ isn't responding... because they don't exist?"

And Finale left, heading towards the UnderGate.

[TO: UNDERNET]

[Deleted]

Given that she hadn't heard back from the ONB, Serix beamed out of the bar to where they should be.

[LC: Interwebz -> New Life?]