'Just where is she?' Ester thought, his legs bouncing in agitation as he stared at the air lock meant to keep the poisonous air out.
'It's way past the agreed upon time now.'
When he first separated from Eva, it took roughly ten minutes to walk here.
Since there were a bunch of hooligans prying off armored plating from a variety of cars so that they could have access to the expensive Aether systems within, fifteen minutes blew by just like that as he took down all fifty of them.
One of the remaining twenty or so had discovered him belatedly, calling out to his friends, but when they found out a good portion of them were dead, besides four of them, they all ran.
And three of those guys left when he instantly disarmed the first attacker, slamming the stolen pipe into their wind pipe, snapping it.
That left thirty five minutes till the agreed hour.
Thirty minutes of which he spent repairing the urgent things that couldn't be put off any longer, including but not limited to the air filtration system, the big hole in the ceiling and a portion of the engine that he was keeping a wary eye on.
The remaining five minutes was spent breaking into the parking booth because she was basically useless and stole fifteen minutes of time that he could've used to remove the plane wing interfering with the electronics.
In fact, she implicitly agreed with her faults since she didn't react in the slightest when, he stole back his five A-Units, took one hundred sixty five A-Units as interest and arranged the fifty one bodies to block her door.
Even if the lock was broken, she wasn't going to be forcing fifty one bodies away from the door anytime soon.
'But it's now been fifteen minutes since I trapped the Spark addict in there, just where is she?'
Continually bouncing his leg as his mind wondered where in the void Eva was, just as he was on the verge of getting up from his seat to look for her, the sound of someone knocking on the Driller entered his ears.
Head looking up in confusion since Eva should've already known the password, when he glanced at the monitor bearing the images transmitted from a brand spanking new camera, instead of the hooded figure he knew and loved, it was an unknown figure.
An unknown figure who hurt his eyes.
'Why is his head so bright?'
Narrowing his eyes as they slowly adapted to the shine radiating off of that bald head consisting of both steel and skin, he made the obvious conclusion.
'It isn't Eva.'
Even if, and this was a big if, she somehow transitioned genders and moved the metal replacing her throat and legs to the chest, head and fingers, he was pretty certain she would still know the password to enter the air lock.
Also, she wouldn't be caught dead wearing the insignia of those Mechaphiles.
Staying silent since he didn't want to alert the bald man of his presence, the man's persistent knocking was only interrupted when his muffled voice pushed through the walls of the driller.
"We know you're here whatever your name is, we saw what you did and we would just like to talk."
' Pretty sure it isn't just a talk.' Ester raised an eyebrow as he thought back to the fifty one bodies lying in front of that druggies booth.
'So just in case, I should get the power sling which I now remember is with Eva... Crossbow with an unfortunately low number of arrows it is.'
Moving to pick up the crossbow hanging off of the wall, as he was in the middle of loading arrows into the slightly dented slot, a muffled voice drifted through the walls.
"To facilitate our conversation whoever you are, we have someone you might be interested in."
'What?'
---
"Either you explain or I'm killing you and takin the info from your corpse." Ester spoke through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowed as the crossbow aimed square at the flesh neighboring the metal on his bald head.
That dome of his was so shiny that he had trouble focusing on anywhere but it even with the apparent weakness of the fluorescent lights overhead.
"A hacker? The data didn't say anything about this..." The cyborg tilted his head as he lifted a data pad that Ester didn't see before, his optics flashing brightly at the screen before its brown flesh bit counterpart turned to look at him.
"That addendum has just been made to your profile, to facilitate our conversation would you like to move away from the corpses or stay near them?"
"You know I just threatened to kill you right?" Ester furrowed his brows as he stared contemplatively at the Cyborg, his fingers twitching ever so closer to the trigger.
The bald cyborg nodded, his eyes unwavering as he calmly spoke. "Your combat capabilities had been taken into account when you dispatched the Jackers gang so I shall ask again, would you like to speak here near corpses or elsewhere?"
Put reminder for money later.
'Was that what they were called?' Ester thought quietly, his eyes still staring directly into the cyborgs own pair before he opened his mouth. "Can I ask you a few questions?"
"I find that I can answer to the best of my capabilities without a weapon pointed at my forehead."
"Either you answer or I shoot."
"Duly noted. Please ask away."
Ester licked his lips underneath his mask, asking a question that he hoped would clear the strange feeling he had. "Is there anyone else other than you?"
"To my knowledge, no."
"..." Ester furrowed his brows as the strange feeling got stronger, his finger moving away from the trigger. "Are you here to take revenge for the..."
"Jackers?" The cyborg asked.
"Jackers." Ester confirmed.
He shook his bald head. "No, the Beforetimes are not in the business in taking revenge for a mid sized gang that would fall so easily."
Ester blinked.
'Well, that clears some things up but... I still feel like something's wrong.'
Hopefully the next question would clear his doubts.
Lowering the crossbow's sights from the cyborg's shining head but not letting his finger move away from the trigger, Ester asked the second question he was concerned about.
"Where is the person that I might be interested in?"
Finger itching closer to the trigger in anticipation for the answer, even if he wouldn't be able to get a guaranteed kill, underneath all of that metal was still flesh, and flesh was notoriously weak to metal arrow heads sticking out of it.
The cyborg smirked. "Would the name the Gravesmith be familiar to you?"
Ester blinked and loosened his grip on the trigger. 'What?'
Taking his silent confusion for shock at his words, the Cyborg's face grew excited. "The Gravesmith! The only Body Modder who can raise the dead! If you work with us, we have someone who has received the Gravesmith's teachings!"
'But I'm pretty sure that all the others died...' Ester pushed away his confusion with a shake of his head, fully bringing the crossbow down now albeit with his finger still attached to the trigger, he continued the line of questioning.
"Are..." Ester shaped his posture into one that was both wary and interested in the current topic of conversation. "Are you sure that it's someone who received the Gravesmith's direct teachings and not some sort of fraud?"
"Are you doubting the one who received the Gravesmith's teaching!?"
Ester hurriedly corrected himself. "Hypothetically speaking."
The bald cyborg turned to look Ester as his expression rapidly cooled. "They would be hooked up to an SMD of course."
Ester pursed his lips at the mention of the Second Mind Duplicate 'Five years haven't changed those Mechaphiles in the slightest apparently.'
SMD's to Ester's knowledge were nasty things that were supposed to emulate a Corrupted's second mind in hopes of finding out what made them tick.
It had been discontinued when results came in from another source, but the people of the Trash planet had since then found another use for these discarded products.
If forcefully stabbed into the Neurostem on the base of the neck, someone with a device remotely connected to the SMD would be able to control the other to do whatever the void they wanted.
And the worst thing was that they were completely aware of the fact that their movements were controlled by another.
Again, to his knowledge, the technology to create these SMD controllers was held only by branch leaders and the leader themselves, but he would've thought that they would've mellowed out their punishments over the years since the old man drew out that agreement from them.
Now that the old man was dead though, they probably returned to manufacturing them.
'But then again they worship the old man to a scary degree, so they might've pulled from what they have left.'
Subtly adjusting his hood with his right hand as he suddenly became conscious of the grey hair on his head, Ester spoke up before the man in front of him could notice the anomaly.
"What do you want me to do?"
"An excellent question." The cyborg began to type something into the data pad before he continued to explain.
This had the side effect of reflecting a sharp amount of light into his retina's when the bald man looked down, but just because he was momentarily blinded didn't mean that he was suddenly deaf.
"To answer your question, 8 days ago when the flames appeared over the horizon, a Dumper suddenly slammed into the side of junk Bunk."
"...And you want me to repair it I'm assuming?"
"Correct." The man said with a deadpan face.
Granted half of his face was covered by a respirator mask, but the upper half was still enough for Ester to infer how uncaring the man felt towards... this conversation in general.
Only when it came to the Gravesmith did his expression change and Ester didn't know how to feel about it.
"What would happen if I were to reject your proposal now?" Ester crossed his arms and asked the man whose expression was like cold, uncaring steel.
"We're going to put a bounty on you and constantly announce your location to all the inhabitants of this mega structure, they have first dibs on your equipment of course." The cyborg said as easily as if mentioning the weather.
"...I guess I have no choice then."
"Good." Pulling out the data pad and typing something into it, after which he shut the pad with a snap, turning it into a small rod which he slotted into a hole in his chest.
"Now follow me." Gesturing for Ester to follow, the cyborg began to walk out of the parking lot.
But before the cyborg could get far, Ester spoke. "Is it fine if I leave a message for my friend who's coming back soon?"
The cyborg waved dismissively. "We don't care, as long as you appear at the booth in ten minutes."
"Great."
Watching the cyborg until he left his field of vision, Ester frowned.
Things just got complicated.
---
20 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
8 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
8 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
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