213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOY4xli2aQE
“So as it is a well known fact, Meatless knows everybody right? However, Meatless regrets to inform he indeed does not know you.” Meatless began to speak with Vivian, she was still shaken by hurting her father. She just listened to the blue boned skeleton speak. The group had gotten a pretty large rickshaw after her prior power surge to hide away, thanks to some words from Meatless they managed to get a Minotaur to pull their rickshaw which was changed from just a seat into a wagon for them to rest and hide inside. For a price it seems anything can be adjusted in Salaren.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJijcgxVW3r
“So lady Vivian, what’s with the glow? I mean Meatless knows what it is you're wearing but Meatless can’t fully put his finger on what exactly it does.”
“Ya askin a lotta questions for us still being in this damn town, how about ya can it?”
“Hey you hired Meatless and his Best Friend THE Ashley Deadeye. Meatless feels that questions are necessary especially since we’re moving towards a lot of potential problems, so a friendly rapport is always a good thing. Plus a friend of Meatless and Ashley is gonna be moving us, as long as we can ensure his safety.” Meatless and Ratchet went back and forth with one another, Ratchet was currently tinkering with something and Meatless was leaning on the shaw arms folded.
“Okay okay, look my sister is holding an artifact my grandfather used to hold.” Alex stepped forward to explain things.
“Who’s ya old man’s old man kid?”
“Morgan.”
“Huh. Not ringing much of a bell, did he go by that name here?”
“No. Bastard went by Agapios.”
“Oooooooh…Oh! Yeah Meatless remembers your grandfather, okay this makes things easier.” Meatless would nod as he pulled out a small device and placed it onto his ear…lobe, it covered his entire lobe as she began to make a call. Alexander looked at Ratchet and sat beside her.
“Let's try and be a bit more friendly with the people we work with.”
“Piss off Alex.”
“Oooookay then, talk later.” He got up and walked over to his sister and sat beside her, he would slowly remove her hood and look at her.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0GqDsXjxJT
“Vivian? You alright?”
“What do you think? I shot dad..I almost drowned some guys-”
“Bad guys.”
“Still guys.”
“Look…I can’t get how you’re feeling. I mean I can but not with the artifact thing but with the world, learning it, understanding it. Heck I’m still understanding it and I’m the smart one.”
“Don’t try and pull that crap we’re only two weeks apart in intelligence, once I finish your rinky dink notes I’ll be back to being smarter than you.”
“Point being, you’ve got this. If dad were ever mad we’d know, I mean every time he gets mad some red energy bursts out and he lets out some barbaric roar.”
“Like some kind of warrior?”
“Yeah. So trust me, dad isn’t mad. You’ve done no wrong and-” The rickshaw rocked a bit and everyone looked on ahead, they saw there was just a large group crossing the streets.
“Excuse us.” A voice called out, everyone looked over and saw what appeared to be a man and a woman standing there. He would raise his head up revealing his face. He was a slightly older man with swarthy skin, what appeared to be a diamond shaped birthmark on his forehead. His hair was white, his eyes crimson red, and his clothing consisted of a trench coat, a white shirt that was opened slightly and some gray pants held together with some sort of fiber. The woman beside him, well..one couldn’t really discern her look as she didn’t remove her cloak. However from the way she was standing it could be seen that her arm was a prosthetic and her skin tone was similar to the mans. He would bow his head before beginning to speak.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuMTIYMI4x2
“Greetings my name is-”
“Prometheus. Who’s face ya wearing this time huh?” Everyone turned to see Ratchet who came from the back of the rickshaw wagon, her tone gave off immense hostility as the man named Prometheus looked at her.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYWCEAYOD2
213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLlaIlreaF3
“It has been a while hasn’t it, Ratchet.”
“Spare me the bull, I don't wanna hear a damn thing from you.” Ratchet glared at Prometheus however he didn’t return the hostility, his face seemed to show more regret than anything.
“Who’s this?” Mina asked politely.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFGAvceO8x
213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwhj6Sog9M
“His name is Prometheus but that isn’t really enough to discern what his motives are.”
“You shut her out? What gave you the right?!”
“Shut up ya cheap bucket o bolts, this is between the Metallico kind not some half assed synthetic. I don’t tell you how to be born and human, you don’t talk to me about what I do with ma sis ya sack of meat.”
“No wonder our people despise you, you’ve abandoned them and now you prance around with this made up attitude. Doing nothing at all to even try and quell Metallico hatred but only-”
“Zereza, enough. Please.” Prometheus quieted the woman with him as he looked at Ratchet with a soft expression.
“Dawn ple-"
I already told you not to call me that.”
“Can we at least talk? Just us..please.”
“Got not a damn thing I wanna hear but whatevea, lets see what you can spit out to me. Hold for a minute ya?” Ratchet stepped out and began to walk off to the side with Prometheus, everyone watched as the two of them began conversing and it began to quickly turn hostile and more yet turn some heads.
“Oh boy.” Alexander jumped off the rickshaw Logan didn’t focus on many things in this world but anything pertaining to his children were instantly laser focused.
“I’ve told him once and I’ll tell him again! He can’t bring every single Metallico into his blasted war, not everyone is constructed to be a tactician and a hulking mass collectively! So take whatever the hell ya came here for and f-”
“Hey. Hi. Hello, my name is Alexander and I’d appreciate it if we could talk.” Ratchet looked at Alexander, her hostility sliding down a bit but she definitely didn’t like..whatever he was doing and neither did Logan.
“Alex. What’re you doing?”
“De Escalation, de escalation.”
“How do you plan to do that by announcing it?” Prometheus’s attention was now on the boy, one of the two that intrigued him so…however he was an odd one. Very odd.
“By talking to you, I’m assuming you came to us to speak to someone. So let’s just make this simple, you get to talk to whoever you want, you leave Ratchet here alone, we’ll chat then go our separate ways. Sound good?”
“.....Marvelous.” Prometheus was rather confused, for some odd reason the organic structure of Alexander, Vivian and Logan matched none of the records in the world.. They appeared to be an entirely new species, something is just off about them.
Alexander looks to his father and nods, Logan looks at his son and groans as he tries to stand but is forced to lay back down in seconds by Mina. She begins to rant about the problems he will cause by doing so, so while she did that Alexander looked at Vivian and they both walked with Prometheus toward the water.
“I promise not to take too much of your time, I merely came to thank you. Your sister to be specific.”
“Thank..me??”
"Why of course."
"Buuut…why?"
"It's absolutely simple, for what you've done."
"What..did I do?"
“Defend Metallico people, specifically My people. The minority in this world, my people, are disliked for what we are capable of…even if I have tried to show my people their worth and power they refuse to use it. Like the ones you’ve saved today..they would’ve been killed had it not been for you. So I thank you.”
“I-I’m glad I was able to help, however I don’t want to help like that ever again. I don’t want to risk killing someone else to save someone.”
“Such a childish thought, what if-”
“Yes. It is indeed a childish thought Zereza which makes sense for a child. A child such as Ms. Vivian here.” Prometheus looked at his attendant and she quickly silenced herself before he began to speak to Vivian again.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLy6ctnq7fS
“Apologies. I understand your desires, reasons and choices against killing..however someday you’ll have to take a life-”
213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKUPyrGPJZ
“To save a life..” The humming buzz of an engine was heard, Vivian would look down at the waters below focusing on what was said to her earlier that day. It was pretty obvious that things wouldn’t sail so smoothly all the time, she’s been able to avoid killing anyone as of now but..if she doesn’t get it together she’ll kill someone..someone potentially close to her.
“Yo Vivi! What’re ya up too?” Vivian turns her head to see Ashely walking over to her before she slouches onto the arm bars beside her.
“Hey Ashley, uhm..nothing just..thinking about something from earlier.”
“Prometheus right?”
“You know?”
“Yeah, my buddy Meatless rambles on and on about anything I miss out on. I can tell he told ya something deep though, wanna tell me what it is?”
“That someday I’d have to take someone’s life..to save someone else’s and..the thought of that is just..it makes this collar feel even tighter than before.”
“Yeah..I’ll bet..how old are you by the way? If ya don’t mind me asking.”
“Fifteen..”
“Oh your grandpa is a right ass-”
“Hey.”
“Oop sorry but yeah, I just remember how stressful it is at fifteen. Ya haven’t even flexed your identity yet..but I guess he’s smart.”
“How so?”
“Because younger hosts are much harder for Artifacts to control, sorry for snooping..” Vivian and Ashely watched as Vince came walking over, his usual outfit was gone and he was wearing some Pajamas..it had guitars all over them and it was colored black and red along with him holding a pillow. Ashley looked him up and down and Vivian just tilted her head a bit.213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCxzO0TRR6B
“Huh? It’s the PJs isn’t it..look he said he liked these so I had to get them..part of our agreement.”
“The PJs are fine, you look adorable. In a darker way.”
“Yeah. I think it's cute too.” Hearing them compliment him Vince smiled, he was definitely sleepy but didn’t seem able to fall asleep at the current moment.
“Thanks…uhm yeah. That’s why your grandfather possibly passed it to you instead of your dad, he knew its cunning would make it rush you at your most vulnerable state..which happened to be when you were being uhm..digested.”
“Ew that’s gross and yet so badass that you survived.”
“Plus since you’re so young there’s only so many memories that it can grab onto and squeeze the life out of you with…” Vince held his pillow close, covering his mouth and burying the last sentence in it.
“Guess you're older and that’s why you're so sad and gloomy about yours eh?”
“Huh? I’m only seventeen..I’m not that old.”
“Eh ya could’ve passed for twenty.”
“Artifacts aren’t kind to guys…don’t judge me.”
“Hey I ain’t judging, you’re a very handsome boy. Though I guess we’ve got you two as our power houses.”
“I wouldn’t say that, my artifact is made for sleight of hand tactics..I’m not extremely offensive nor am I a powerhouse.”
‘Of course not, such a meager Artifact could never compare to that you harbor Ms. Omoth.’
“Wha-What?” Vivian’s eyes began to glow as her collar began to emit various eyeballs, causing Vince and Ashely to jump.
213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RQCqaGVv5
213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3MPX0tPhz
