Turn 26

--- Maya ---

(You know I think I’d prefer a rematch with Decker, to having our ass handed to us by our middle schooler of a sister.) Her inner passion commented drolly from where they laid on the ground.

(I know what you mean.) She agreed waiting for her various aches and pains to fade. (At the very least we’ll be prepared when we start patrolling soon.)

(True, but it might be best to avoid sparring with Izzy on that day, otherwise we may be too injured and exhausted to actually do anything.)

(Right…) She agreed as she sat up. (Especially with all of the walking and -hopefully- fighting we’ll be doing that night.)

“You ready for another round or no?” Izzy asked.

“Yeah, just give me a second…”

---

(Are we sure these people are… reputable?) Her inner reason questioned as they stepped into the lobby of an old hotel.

(If not we’ve got our Hand Cannons and can blast our way out.) Her inner madness assured her.

“It doesn’t matter, of the three legitimate Hunter’s agencies in the city this is the only one that we know doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.” She reminded herself, as she walked through the entrance of the building where she caught sight of a handsome dark-haired boy a few years older than her placing things from a box onto the lobby counter. “Uh, hello?”

“Oh, uh, hello luv? What can I do for ya?” The older boy asked with an English accent. “You looking for a specific shop, or?”

She glanced around the room a bit trying to find a store sign of some kind. “Um, is this Hack and Slash Inc.?”

“Ah, yes it is…” The boy nodded with a smile, before rolling his eyes at himself. “Or rather it will be once we open shop proper in a couple of weeks.”

“Oh… I could’ve sworn the website said you were already open for business.” She told him.

(It did.) Her inner logic confirmed with perfect recall.

“Ah, yes, that…” The boy made a face as he grumbled about someone ‘half arsing’ it. “Our… tech manager switched out the physical address on our website while keeping the rest the same.”

“So, you can’t help me then?” She asked disappointedly, mainly because she knew she couldn’t afford the other two agencies.

“Now I didn’t say that luv.” The boy told her before placing a hand on the counter and hopping over it. “Just because we’re not ‘open’ doesn’t mean I can’t help a dearie in need.”

“Oh, um, thanks…” She stalled realizing she didn’t know the boy’s name.

Jack smiled before offering his hand. “You can call me Jack Wright for now miss.”

“Uh…” (Crap, we forgot to come up with an alias…) “Maya Williams.” She eventually defaulted when she felt her pause was dragging just a little too long.

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you miss Williams.” Jack nodded before gesturing to a couch on the other side of the lobby. “Why don’t you take a seat and we’ll see what I can do to help.”

“Ah, thanks.” She nodded back before sitting down, as Jack sat on a nearby coffee table.

“Now tell me what a pretty miss like you has need for a big bad Hunter?” Jack asked, his blue eyes seemingly flashing red.

(Must just be a trick of the light…)

“Um, right…” (How to word this without giving away the fact that I’m an M.A.D.?) “My family was working on refurbishing this old building, while I was going through I ran into this pale woman with glowing green eyes, who ran me off.” She explained with what was largely the truth.

“Mm, glowing green eyes… that’s usually means she’s a type of Deadman.” Jack confirmed for her with a thoughtful look on his face. “So, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you want this Dead-woman taken care of?”

“Yeah, um, I’m here because my family doesn’t really believe there’s a Deadman since no one has been hurt so far.” She told him, which as far as she knew was in fact true. “So how much would an… exorcism like that cost?”

Jack made a face, before seeming to think about it for a moment. “Well, I suppose that would depend on a couple of factors. For instance, is the ghost in question actively causing trouble, or is it just minding its own business?”

“I…” She stopped to consider it, before sighing. “I guess she was minding her own business until I showed up. I mean at the very least she left me alone once I left.”

“Right.” Jack nodded thoughtfully. “And how long exactly have you lot been refurbishing this place?”

“Um, about a week or so.” She admitted.

“And you’re sure this spirit hasn’t actually done anything violent in that time, right?” Jack asked once more.

She tried to think of anything unusual that may’ve happened over the last week. “Nothing I can think of anyway.

Jack gave her a look before sighing. “Okay. Look, I’m going to be straight with you. If this spirit truly is leaving you alone for the most part, it’s probably better if you just learn how to work around her rather than trying to get rid of her.”

“But what if she starts harassing me again?”

“Then you call me to deal with it.” Jack told her sternly, before giving her a laidback smile. “Until then you’re just wasting your money hiring a Hunter you don’t actually need luv.”

She couldn’t help but raise a brow. “Aren’t you supposed to be convincing me to hire you? Not sending me off on my own.”

Jack just snorted at that. “No offense, but I don’t think you can actually afford me luv.”

“Really and how much do you charge?”

“For a walk-in like this?” He confirmed. “Fifty dollars an hour or five hundred a day if the job takes more than ten hours in a day to finish.”

(That is significantly more money than we have.)

(What was that about this place not costing an arm and a leg?)

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Jack chuckled at her expense. “Still, people are always surprised when they realize that most spirits can actually be fairly reasonable so long as you’re willing to honestly hear them out.”

“So, what you’re saying I should just leave it be?” She asked for one final clarification.

Jack sighed once more before shaking his head. “You don’t have to leave it alone, but if the ghost is leaving you alone, then essentially you’re one breaking into her house and assaulting her. Even if by mortal legality, that’s not the case. It’s still a bit of a dick move dearie.”

She grimaced as she actually thought it through. “That’s… fair.”

Jack watched her for a moment before nodding and giving her a smile as he stood up. “Well if that’ll be all luv, I really do need to get back to work.”

“Oh, right! Thanks for the help I guess.” She nodded back as she stood as well.

“No problem luv. Just remember if you ever need any help with what goes bump in the night, feel free to call.” Jack smiled as he waved his hand twirling a black business card into existence, before presenting it to her with a half-bow.

“Oh, uh, thanks.” She told him as she accepted the card, before making her way out of the building as Jack resumed what he was doing before her appearance.

Once she was on the street she gave the little black card a proper look.

In red and silver ink on front of the card was the image of knife stabbing through a heart covered in stitches, with the words, ‘Hack & Slash Inc. Beware Ye Who Hunts Monsters, For You Already Are One.’

(Well, if that isn’t ten kinds of ominous.)

---

Deciding to take a detour to check on her drone, Maya got off the bus and made her way to the train car her Drone was supposed to be leaving scrap at.

“Hmm, not bad.” She commented seeing a small pile of scrap.

(I don’t know I was kind of hoping it’d gather more after three days.)

(We did restrict it to only scavenging at night.) Her inner reason reminded her.

“Right…” She glanced around a bit. “Where is our little drone anyway? DM-1 report!”

There was a slight sound of clacking before her drone crawled its way out from under the train car.

“Ah, there you are.” She smiled picking the little drone up and setting it in the train car. “You’ve been a busy little fellow haven’t you?” She told it as she scratched the top of its chassis.

DM-1 nodded before doing a little jig in place.

(Hmm, how smart exactly did we make this little guy?)

(Skynet~)

“Shut up.” She told herself with a shake of her head, before turning her attention back to the little drone in front of her. “Still we should probably figure out what we’re going to do with you…”

---

She stopped at the entrance to the hospital, before glancing around for anymore spooky shit waiting to jump her.

(If what Wright said was true, then in all likelihood the spirit will leave us alone so long as we stay away from the mental ward.) Her inner reason reminded her.

“I know…” She sighed.

Deciding she should either woman up or head back home, she steeled herself before entering the hospital and freezing.

(…)

(…)

(…)

“Well we’re not dead at least?” She told herself, before immediately leaping away at her purposeful tempting of fate.

(…)

(…)

(Now you two are taking this too far.) Her inner logic warned her. (The spirit clearly isn’t a threat at the moment, so let’s get to our lab and get to work.)

“Right, right…” She nodded, before making her way through the hospital and to her lab.

Once there she walked over to her computer and began typing up a few improvements for her Alchemy () program in the hopes of decreasing her overall drain on her supply of plastic, given how hard it was to find a suitable quantity of the substance without essentially dumpster diving.

By the time she had to start making her way back home, she’d begun to finally calm down after her previous scare and was much less reluctant about working from continuing her work at the hospital.

“You know, maybe this won’t be so bad.” She told her other selves as she exited the hospital and started making her way to the bus stop.

(And you just jinxed us.)