What a night…

As I walked away from the small clearing and Anath, I considered my actions. Bouncing around the two League-guys, that I was totally fine with. Captain Jackass had bounced me around, and I returned the favour. His buddy, well, if you sleep with dogs, don’t complain about the flees.

No, what I’d done afterwards was making me a bit worried. Taking an unknown Powered into my base had risked the whole thing. It had worked out but I would have to find a better way, if something like that happened ever again. But somehow, knowing that I had saved someone’s life gave me a good feeling.

“Galatea, let’s keep our word. Do you have a hidden account, very well hidden, to pay the pharmacy back? I think I’d feel better if we do.” I asked Galatea, trying to distract my mind from all the ways the night could have gone bad and could still go bad.

“Yes, Alex, I can do that. Do you want to add a specific message or purpose?”

“Apologize for breaking in and sign it Metis. That will be my nom de guerre.” I told her with a small smile on my face.

“Metis? Why that name?” she asked in confusion.

“To remind me of what’s important. Sure, I could name myself something silly like Iron Maiden and write 666 on my chest but that’s just not me. No, I want to remind myself that my most potent weapon is my brain, that I should take care whom I trust and that nothing is absolute, even Gods can fall.” I answered Galatea.

Thinking of hidden identities, part of me truly wanted to dig into Anath and the two League-guys. Getting their real identities would be so easy, I had high-definition scans of them, using both x-ray and ultrasound, not to mention the parts of Anath I had seen while operating. Even following them with drones after the encounter would not be that complicated. But it would be a major breach of the unwritten code of conduct, bringing down all manner of heat on me, if it ever got noticed, so I forced my thoughts away from the topic and buried it deeply in my mind, nothing good could come of it.

Making sure that I was not followed, I returned to my bunker, doffed my armour and hurried home. I had better luck than the last time, nobody was home, allowing me to creep into the house and my bed.

The next morning, Galatea showed me something fun at breakfast. I had made news, at least the online-version of a Powered-Watchblog. They had a picture of me breaking the door of the pharmacy, obviously from their surveillance camera and a few lines of text. The owner of the pharmacy was both annoyed that I had broken in and happy that I had paid him back, calling me an honourable criminal and spelling my name right. Well, I wanted to get my name out there as a mercenary but all publicity is good publicity, unless it’s your obituary. They even asked the league as someone had reported a confrontation between me, Galactic Grip and the Battlemaster but got the usual “No Comment” that was given out whenever there was no victory to report.

Well, at least now I knew what names Captain Jackass and his sidekick had chosen.

At school, I had to put on my dunce-glasses to make sure I did not see reality. A certain, small, beautiful girl was moving gingerly, just as if she had taken a beating the night before. I had seen the girl in black’s skin and for some reason it had just the same skin-tone. No, I would not draw conclusions, no matter how obvious, I just wanted to ignore it.

To make my day perfect, Clark was absent that day so I did not have to see his annoying visage.

The day after, I got quite the surprise. On the adresse I had given Anath, I had a message, asking for a check-up of her injuries. I offered her a meeting at the clearing I had used before, shortly before midnight.

When I got there, I was alone. A few minutes before the appointed time, something hit my back. I had only used passive scanners and those had obviously failed.

“So, I can sneak up on you. You will tell me what else you have done with me, apart from playing doctor.” A voice I recognized as Anath’s hissed in my ear. She was hanging on my back, making sure that I was unable to use the Plasma Cannon against her. The big weakness that system had was the firing arc.

As I felt her actions were just rude, I wanted to do something about it, without destroying the work I had done on her. There was a simple solution for my problem, I had placed stun-grenades into my armour, allowing me to arm and eject them with a flick of a toe. One hidden on each upper arm, one on each thigh, alongside a smoke-grenade, if I ever needed a smoke-screen. Anath had never used any visible kind of night-vision aid and it was quite dark in the forest so I had a suspicion that she had minor sensory powers in her powerkit. Those were statistically the most common powers out there.

The motion of the ejection-system drew her eyes and the flash-bang went of a split-second after ejection, giving her no time to react to it. I felt the concussion through the suit but it was blunted enough for me to ignore it. The grenade was enough to stun her for a moment, making her fall from my back and onto the ground, holding her head while thrashing on the ground. I realised that I was lacking some sort of immobilisation-device and told Galatea to add it to my to-do list. That list was getting longer and longer.

As deterrent, I pulled my railgun and trained the Plasma-Cannon onto her, making it clear that I was not having any of it and waited until she looked settled down. I did not have to wait long for her to shake the effects of my grenade.

“Now, you are rather impolite, Anath. I came here in good faith, just to be ambushed. To answer your question, I have done nothing to you, apart from the necessary medical procedures. Obviously, I cannot prove that to you, as there is no way to prove a negative. I cannot prove that I did not do anything to you, the same way I cannot prove that there is no god.” I spoke, once more using the voice-distortion.

“So, what do you want from me?” she asked, her tone angry.

“Nothing. Yes, I could try to coerce you, if I wanted. I could have taken off your mask while you were unconscious and go after your family or something like that in order to force you to do my bidding. But know this: I abhor slavery. You have no reason to believe me and while I could give you one, I won’t.” I spoke, knowing that the only way to gain her trust was showing her my identity. It would be nice to ally with her, but I did not feel a need to risk everything in order to attempt it.

“Just so you know, your wounds look quite well healed, I underestimated your healing factor. If you want, I can remove the sutures or you can do so yourself. I can’t see any complications, so you can stop taking the antibiotics.” I added after a quick scan with both x-ray and ultrasound.

Once more, I walked away, angry about the naivety that had brought me here. I should have been more cautious.

Such an ungrateful…”Try to see it her way.” My musings were interrupted by Galatea. “Admit it, you would do something similar to protect your own identity, wouldn’t you?”

Just when had she turned into my conscience? But it was true, I had no place to throw stones. The things I risked and would do to make sure my father never got wind of my actions were far worse than being ungrateful. I would remember it and be more cautious if there ever was a next time.

“You’ve got mail. Remember that you asked me to set up a presence on the dark-web boards that offer mercenary services? There is a contact.” Galatea told me. Hopefully it would be something splashy and public, I needed the publicity to draw the Guild’s eye.