Songs: Smashing Pumpkins - Obscured; Radio Moscow - Sweet Lil Thing
"I hear you both did well, girl! How was it? Come on, tell me everything."
I was lying around on the bed, talking to Lilith and waiting for Mordecai to get back. I had done it. I had done better the second and third round. Much better. Anouk had won the whole thing and I was proud. I was so goddamn proud. Some girl from Artemis had gotten second place and me? I made it to third place. It was a close one, yes, but I had made it to third place.
"Well, Lil, there's not that much to tell, really. I messed up the first round royally. But I did really well the other two rounds. So yeah. Third place." I answered. I could hear Lilith scoff at the other end.
"Oh, come on! I am so proud of you. Are you not proud of yourself?" she asked. I giggled excitedly.
"Hell yeah, I'm proud! I'm really fucking proud of myself! I think we got a good chunk of cash with that. And with Mordecai winning, too! I've got a good feeling about this, Lil." I answered. I was happy, but I was also really exhausted.
"So how did you mess up the first round? What happened?"
"I don't know. I was just nervous, I guess. Not really used to the whole competition shebang. They give you hearing protection, it was so weird. And it's strange to know that you have people watching you. Not having moving targets is weird. Most things about these competitions are just really weird, you know? So yeah. I kinda screwed up the first round, because it was all new and weird."
"Yeah, sounds weird as hell. So, how'd your daughter do?"
"Oh my God, Lil, I'm so, so proud of her! She won! She got first place! It was pretty cool, you know. I mean, I still didn't tell her, but-"
"You still didn't tell her? Nova, get yourself together and say something to her! You won't get anywhere with that kinda attitude."
"Well, I got this far, didn't I?"
"Nova! Seriously?"
"What? Stop pressuring me. You don't know what it's like, it's not that easy. Relax. I just met her like... a week ago. I've made up my mind and I will tell her, just not yet. Okay?" I said to her, hoping she'd change the topic.
"Fine, fine, fine. You're only hurting yourself, but that's not my problem. How's Mordecai doing?" Lilith wanted to know. Thank God, she changed the topic. I don't think I could have gone much longer without getting mad at her.
"He's doing good. I think. Sleeping a lot whenever we're not out doing something. Gulping down insane amounts of soda. Actually, we met his mother the other day, so I'm not really sure how he feels about that, but he seems to be doing alright. He didn't really talk much about it after we left."
I heard some weird gurgling noise on Lilith's end and then she started coughing violently. Did she choke on her drink?
"Excuse me, but what? You met Mordy's MUM? How... What... How did this happen? And how is he not talking to you about it? Are you sure he's okay?"
"No, I'm not sure, but you know what he's like. If you're being pushy about something, you won't get anything out of him. You just gotta wait until he starts talking himself and that usually takes a while."
"Fair enough. But how... I thought his parents were God knows where?"
"Okay, long story, but the short version is: I want to see where he grew up, so we go there. Random girl on the street gets into the crossfire of a shooting, we bring her home like the good people we are and wait with her until someone else comes home. Next person that comes home is the landlady, and it turns out the landlady is Mordy's mum, who came back to Artemis, because she thought he was still there. She bought her old house back and is renting it out to three other girls now."
"Sounds wild, but I've heard wilder stories. Okay, so what happened then? She comes home and you just stand around in her house?"
"Basically. I mean, she barely noticed us at first, cause one of her girls got shot. And then she was giving out to Mordy, because he never told her he was okay or anything. Poor woman, she must have been pretty shocked to suddenly see him again, like... 25 years later."
"Damn. But... they do get along now? Or what's the story?"
"Yeah, we stayed for dinner and all. Mordy was close-ish to his mother, but not to his father. His dad isn't alive anymore, she said."
"Shit. How'd he take that?"
"Surprisingly well, I'd say. Anyways, I think he's just getting back. I can hear some noise from the door. Must be him. Or Anouk asking me to hang out or something." I said and sat up, listening a little closer. I heard the door open. Must be Mordecai so, because there was no way for anyone else to get inside.
"Cool, talk to you later then. Say hi to Mordy from me."
"Will do. Talk to you later."
I turned off my ECHO device and got up to walk downstairs. I saw Mordecai standing in the doorway and smiling at me. He had a bag in his hands that I hadn't seen before. And he kind of looked like he was up to something.
"Hey, how are you doing? I hear you got a shiny new gold medal." I said, as I walked up to him to hug him.
"I hear you got a shiny new bronze medal." he replied.
"Yeah, that's right. I got my own shiny medal." I answered and grinned proudly, stepping back a little to have a look at the bag in Mordecai's hands.
"You did really well, I'm proud of you." he said, which made me smile again. I don't think in all my life I was ever at a point when so many people had told me how proud they were of me. And when I had that much constant support. You don't really realize how much that can make you grow as a person until you actually experience it.
"Thanks. I kinda messed up the first round, though." I answered. He shook his head, laughing.
"It's okay. I know how nervous you can be. I thought you'd mess it up more the first time, to be honest. I was way worse at my first competition. But I was only... 15 or something." Mordecai replied.
"Well, you're just too good at what you're doing for normal people to keep up, golden boy." I said.
"Oh God, please don't call me that in front of people."
"I won't. Or I might. Who knows. What's in the bag?" I wanted to know. Mordecai just shrugged.
"Just some stuff I wanna take back home."
"Thought we were getting that later today? What is it?"
"Oh, just some stuff that's difficult to find on Pandora." Mordecai said and put the bag down. I raised an eyebrow.
"Mordy, did you buy a shitload of soda cans?" I asked.
"Maybe."
"Why would you be so secretive about that?" I wanted to know and laughed. Mordecai just grinned and shrugged again.
"I dunno, maybe because I knew it would annoy you. Anyways, are you ready to meet up with Gaige and Axton later? They said something about having found Aurelia." he replied. I nodded.
"Yeah. Also, we need to go to that other thing later, so we can find a squad. Maybe we can smuggle Gaige and Axton in somehow. I mean, Aurelia should be there as well, right?" I suggested.
"Yeah, sounds about right. Let's go then or we'll be late."
"Are Gaige and Axton waiting for us?"
"They should be."
I followed Mordecai out of the door and down the stairs towards the Fast Travel station. Maybe we would have a little bit of time to get some souvenirs. I needed to find something for Lilith and Scooter, because they had specifically asked for stuff, but I kind of wanted to bring back something for everyone.
There was an unusual amount of people just out and about today. They were probably getting ready for that party tonight. It would make it easier to find a squad for sure, but then I've been thinking about asking Nadia and Anouk. Maybe if there were some other nice people we could ask them, too. I had no idea how many people were allowed to be in a squad.
"Hey, are you planning to see your mum again?" I asked. It was a little out of the blue, but I was wondering whether we'd go back there. I kinda felt like spending some more time with her.
"Maybe. I don't know. If there's time, then yes. Why not. If you'd like to." he answered while putting the Fast Travel code into the system.
"Yeah, I think it might be nice. The poor woman hasn't seen you in years, Mordecai. She'll be happy to see more of you."
"Sure. I mean, you can also visit on your own, just be careful, okay? Be really, really careful. You've got less disciplines than me, so you'll have some more free time. When's your next competition?"
"I've got the Precision one tomorrow and another Long Range one the day after that. And then there's the squad thing and the team competition, but that's at the very end. Might hang out with Gaige and Axton for a while, when I'm done." I replied. Mordecai nodded and initiated the Fast Travel.
I started feeling dizzy as everything dissolved and went black for a second. Then I opened my eyes again and things still felt a little odd, but everything was in place again. It still felt like it was spinning a little, but only for a few seconds. Maybe I should have eaten before fast travelling.
"You alright?" Mordecai asked.
"Yeah, just... just Fast Travel. I'll be fine in a second." I replied and looked around me. It was like we were in a completely different part of Artemis. It was much colder here and there were lots of pine trees all around us. I could make out a few small wooden houses. They looked really cosy and neat.
"Why did they wanna meet up here? Where even are we?" I wanted to know while rubbing my arms. Why didn't they tell us it'd be freezing?
"This is way further north. I figured just so Aurelia won't be able to accidentally see us and get suspicious? I don't know. Maybe they found her up here, that could be it, too. Anyways, this is very far north. Should have told you to bring a scarf or something, sorry." Mordecai explained while he unwrapped one if his scarves and handed it to me.
"Thanks, it's okay. Hopefully they won't have groundbreaking news for us, so we can leave again soon." I answered as we were walking towards the small settlement. The houses looked really nice. I could have imagined settling down in one of those places, staying in when it was too cold, a nice fire in the fireplace. Sounded pretty neat. But on the other hand I was very used to warm weather and going swimming whenever I felt like it. So maybe this wouldn't have been the place for me.
"Can you see them anywhere?" Mordecai asked. I squinted and saw Gaige standing at some sort of sign, fiddling with her robot arm while Axton was chatting to someone walking around. They were probably being suspicious just standing around there. I mean, they were strangers, after all.
"Over there, by the sign. And Axton is talking to that man there." I said and pointed them out to Mordecai.
"I better go and save Axton. The villages here are really close-knit communities. People up north know who lives in the village and who's a stranger, and they're really suspicious of strangers." Mordecai replied and walked over to Axton. I made my way to the sign Gaige was leaning on.
"Hey, Gaige. What's up?" I shouted while I approached her. She looked up and smiled at me, waving me over to her.
"Hey, Nova. Heard about you being a badass at that competition today. I think people seem a little excited about the fact that you're a total newbie and just won something the first time you tried." she said with a grin on her face.
"I mean, I would have sucked at this without Mordy torturing me with practice every single day." I replied and shrugged.
"Yeah, well, there are some people that have their suspicions. Especially cause Mordy trained you."
"Ah, damn. I think that's what happened when Mordy got the bounty on his head that forced him to leave. People wanted him disqualified and then things got ugly. I'm just gonna have to try and ignore them, I suppose. Or we'll all be kicked off the planet." I replied with a sigh. It was then that Mordecai and Axton joined us.
"Hey, Nova. Congratulations to you, too. I just said to Mordecai, you guys are going to ace this thing and then people will think Pandora is an awesome place to learn shooting." Axton said.
"Well, it kinda is." I answered.
"Only if you're lucky enough to survive the first few weeks." Gaige added.
"Y'all are just amateurs." Mordecai replied with a smug grin.
"Oh, shut up, golden boy." I said, grinning back at him.
"Alright, alright. So, guys, what's the update on Aurelia?" Mordecai asked, looking at Gaige and Axton.
"Well, the update is that we found her. We just aren't really sure how to get to her. She's staying at a very high end resort with loads of security. She has a driver that gets her from her competitions to her resort. It's almost impossible to get a hold of her when she isn't being watched by a small army." Gaige explained.
"We might have just the thing for you then." I replied.
"What do you have for us?" Axton wanted to know.
"There is some sort of small party this evening. I'd say most of the participants will be there, since they usually form the squads for the sniping squad at this event. So if we manage to sneak you in, you might be able to get a hold of her. Or to find out how to get to her. Maybe you can see if there is any way for you to get into the resort without anyone else noticing." Mordecai answered.
"And how do we get in?" Axton asked.
"Actually, we might know just the right person." I said, smiling smugly, as I thought back to the girl selling fruit. If anyone knew how to get in, it was her.
