Shadows of the Past
Many thanks to JA/AJ for letting me use AJ the insane HUcast. Herb's mine, as you probably guessed by now, and Shard is ostensibly mine but I think I'm hers. I don't own any of the other characters, Sejanus belongs to Eden and Darrel Whitney and everyone else belongs to Sega. Lucky them.
Chapter Two
Two days later I was on my couch with my friend Shard, laughing at the latest episode of 'The Guild'. That's the thing about that show – civilians watch it and are impressed, Hunters watch it and dissolve into hysterical laughter.
Shard. Man, she's something else. She's nominally a RAmarl, but in reality she does a little bit of everything. She's a damn fine shot with mechguns, decent with a saber, and she can toss around blasts of fiery death second only to a Force. And she's completely nuts! She makes me laugh more than anyone else I know, and recently that's been important to me. Plus she's one of the best Rangers I've ever worked with.
Actually, now I think about it, excentric but talented describes me and most of my workmates. Shard's cheeky and completely off-base, I'm as stubborn as the proverbial mule, and our sometime compatriot AJ, well, if I didn't know better I'd say he had some serious programming errors. And I'm not entirely sure I know better.
"I can't believe people think Hunters do that!" Shard squealed, right in my ear. She can get some serious volume going, that woman. The 'that' she was referring to was probably the funniest thing either of us had ever seen – Infurno, the main character on 'The Guild', had stripped down to his boxers to cope with the heat of the Caves! We'd started giggling the instant he unbuttoned his shirt, and we hadn't stopped since.
Stripping in the caves! I could see my father's twisted mind at work from a million miles away. Next time I saw him I'd have to give him the Noogie of Doom. Something else I learnt from Shard. She's very resourceful.
"Gotta like the view, though," I quipped, causing Shard to fall off the couch laughing like a loony. I don't get to do that very often, so I took the most of the opportunity and lunged at her with a banshee scream, tickling her remorselessly.
It was about that point that I remembered that Shard isn't ticklish, and I am.
Five minutes later I was completely pinned by the rampaging RAmarl and hysterical from laughter, so breathless that I was bordering on hyperventilating. Shard, on the other hand, was on a loopy high, giggling like a schoolgirl.
Actually, I've never really understood that. Are schoolgirls really known for giggling like idiots? I was educated in a lab, so I don't really know.
"You know, if AJ walked in right now, we'd be all over the network." I'm not sure which of us said it, but we suddenly sobered and Shard all but leapt off, kneeing me in the stomach in the process. I retaliated with a kick to her ankle, and we were even. We have that kind of relationship. Abusive and loving all at once. I've lost track of the people who think we're a couple. We're not, but we're definitely very close.
"Speaking of homicidal HUcasts," I said once we were both back on the couch, "I need to head down to Ragol to retrieve something. I was wondering if you and AJ wanted to back me up? I'll pay, of course."
Shard instantly got serious. I wish I knew how she did that. "You're paying? That means it's something you're doing off the bat, which means it's something that you've gotten interested in from someone else, which means that someone's been telling you stuff. So, who is it? One of the lab boys?"
I looked down at my hands. I may even have blushed. Shard knows me well enough to know what that meant.
"Oh man. I know that expression – and it's never good. Which was it, Montague or Mome? Whoop, never mind, Montague is lying low for the time being thanks to WORKS, and besides you weren't in the Guild when that whole Seabed mess went down." She gave me one of those looks, the ones that get right inside your brain and make you want to cry. "I wouldn't recommend getting involved, but I know you're stubborn and I kind of want to see what's in that anyway."
It was my turn for distribution of the look. "We'll never get AJ to agree to it, will we?"
"If I weren't so curious, I wouldn't agree to it!" she said with one of her crooked grins. "Aren't many Hunters who would. You were watching Mome at the time, but that incident lead to several Hunters dying, one in hospital almost dead, and another making a deal with the devil. Most people would take one look and tell you to go to hell!"
After that we organized the details during ad break, watching any random crap which came on. Eventually Shard went back to her own apartment, wherever that happened to be – we always met in my apartment, her excuse being that I can keep house.
Eventually I went to bed, but my sleep was haunted by nightmares of shadows and people I love turning away from me.
It wasn't a prophecy, not exactly, but next time I get nightmares like that before a mission, I'm gonna bail. What came afterwards convinced me of that.