"Okay, tell me again… You broke into a criminal's house because you thought another criminal lived there?"
It was early on Thursday morning and Morgan and Booker were in the lair. Morgan was still wearing her crop top and sweatpants, spinning around in the spinny office chair, surrounded by wadded-up balls of paper. Booker had taken off his bartending button-down to reveal a plain white undershirt, which had ridden up to reveal some of his stomach while he lounged on the couch. He'd wanted to get comfortable since he'd been here all night. Lulu and Beans weren't allowed down in the lair, but they'd become used to him from the many trips up to the kitchen where Morgan had allowed him to give them pats and treats.
"And I was right! But I didn't know that Kei was a criminal when I broke into her apartment. I just thought she was a minor celebrity."
"That's ballsy," Booker said with a sleepy nod of approval.
"Well, I had to do something. Everyone in my life wants me to be cautious, to not put myself in danger for Seth. But Seth would do the same for me. Seth has put themself in danger for me on more than one occasion. I can't just sit back and do nothing." Morgan leaned back in her chair and almost fell out of it. The Obake head seemed to sneer at her and so she turned it around.
"No, I totally get it. There are some things you can't half-ass. You have to find your partner. Maybe that means taking risks. Maybe that means breaking into someone's apartment."
"You're still hung up on that aren't you?" Morgan asked with a tired laugh.
"I just think it was so cool. You were like BLAM, I'm the Angel of Vengeance-"
Upstairs, the door slammed open and Morgan and Booker jumped.
"That must be Seth!" Morgan said excitedly.
"Mystery solved!" Booker cheered, following Morgan upstairs.
It was not Seth.
"What are you doing here?" Morgan asked, eyeing the bad guy. Obake looked even more pissed than when she'd broken into his lair the other night. He was also wearing the stupidest disguise she'd ever seen, literally just a hat and a hoodie. Pathetic.
"Morgan Helena Lynch, what did you do?!"
"How'd you find out my middle name? That's creepy, dude."
"Yeah, not cool, Bob," Booker agreed, crossing his muscular arms, fully prepared to fight the villain.
"I have access to your files, dip shit. That's not important right now! What did you do to Kei?"
"I didn't do anything to Kei. Last thing I heard, she was going to talk to Liv Amara yesterday."
"Yeah, she told me that part… You haven't heard from her since?" Morgan never thought she would see Obake looking worried, but he was downright frazzled at this point.
"No…"
"That bitch! I'll kill her myself…"
"Whoa, let's not get murder-y," Booker suggested, stepping in front of Morgan.
"If Liv did anything to Kei she will rue the day," Obake said, fuming.
"I didn't think you cared," Morgan said.
"I don't care. Not about your problems. But Kei is different. Kei is my problem." Obake stated this like it made perfect sense, hiding any embarrassment he might have felt with pure stubbornness.
"Does she know that?" Morgan asked, shocked that she was potentially about to give relationship advice to the guy who has destroyed the city.
Booker wandered off then, deciding Morgan would be safe and starting up the coffee maker he'd become familiar with last night. It seemed like they all needed a little bit of coffee right about now. And poptarts, if Morgan had any. Definitely needed some poptarts.
"Know what?" Obake asked.
"That you love her." Morgan was fearless now, possibly from lack of sleep.
Obake looked indignant, "I do not! I am simply… Worried about finding a new place to live, should something happen to her."
"An evil genius like yourself could figure out living arrangements. You like her," Morgan said, "Or else you wouldn't be this riled up over her going missing. I get it, dude, my partner is missing too. Maybe you'll finally show me some sympathy."
"I don't do sympathy," Obake said, looking away, "though perhaps…"
"Perhaps what?" Morgan asked, knowing where this was going.
"It would benefit both of us to work together to get to the bottom of this. You're gifted in reconnaissance and I, well, my genius knows no bounds. I could very easily upgrade you to be able to rescue our partners in crime."
Morgan almost said, "Your genius was beaten by a fourteen-year-old." Fortunately, she kept her mouth shut and chose a different approach.
"Why can't you rescue Kei yourself?" Morgan asked though she knew she'd relent pretty soon. She heard Booker in the kitchen filling Lulu and Beans' food dishes but didn't think much of it. It felt like a natural thing for him to be doing. Much more natural than talking about Obake's relationship status or accepting his help.
"I can't be seen, not by San Fransokyo and certainly not by the criminal underground. I'm dead, remember? A ghost."
"A ghost wouldn't have had to break my locks to get in."
"It appears I'm not your only ghost," Obake said critically, "or is that fellow rifling through your cabinets just the skeleton in your closet?"
"What are you implying?" Morgan asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
"It just seems you moved on pretty fast, is all."
"Asshole! Booker's helping me find Seth. I would never go behind my partner's back like that."
"That's even worse, then. Is Booker aware you're a pied piper, leading helpers to their doom? You're the reason Kei is missing, you're probably the reason Seth is missing-"
"Your words don't have power over me anymore," Morgan said, shaking in her slippers, "I'm a fucking badass who's going to get my partner back and I will not let some deadbeat grifter make me feel shame for things that aren't my fault. So I'd think twice before you bring up the people I'm willing to fight for."
Obake stepped back in surprise. He'd assumed Morgan's emotions would be a lot more malleable than that. If he couldn't manipulate her then she had the power here. He needed her help but he was too proud to admit it out loud.
"Fine, then." He turned to go.
"Stop," Morgan said, "I'll help you find Kei, I owe her that. But after Seth and Kei are safe you'd better go back to the couch you came from and never mess with my friends, my family, or my city again, understand me?"
Obake turned and gave her a chilling stare before relenting.
"I understand. There are other cities. There are other C-List criminals. I'm sure there will be no need for our paths to cross after this." What was tying him to San Fransokyo, anyway? He was a ghost here. The only thing here for him was… Kei.
"Breakfast," Booker called meekly from the other room, where three cups of coffee and six off-brand toaster pastries awaited them.
Morgan and Obake sat across from each other, practically glowering at each other, and Booker sat in the middle.
"Do you have any forks?" Obake asked, after a moment of staring at the warm strawberry toaster pastry.
"What kind of monster uses a fork to eat a poptart?" Morgan sneered.
"A sophisticated one."
"Whatever."
"So, Bob," Booker said after another minute of tense and awkward silence, "Got any kids?"
"Hm? Why are you asking me that? I don't know you."
"Oh, I'm Booker. And I'm just trying to locate your humanity," Booker said with a tight smile. If he was in customer service mode he would have phrased that differently, but it was early in the morning after a very long night and he didn't personally care that much about sparing the feelings of someone who had nearly killed everyone in San Fransokyo.
"Oh, um…" Booker's frankness had caught Obake off-guard. He would have expected this kind of thing from Morgan or her little hero friends, but from what he could tell, Booker was just some guy who knew how to work a toaster.
"I have a daughter. Trina. She's a robot." Obake didn't talk about his home life very often.
"Cool, cool. I have a daughter too. She's a human."
"What's her name?" Obake asked, surprised at the ease he was talking with this stranger. That was the power Booker had on people.
"Her name is Maya. She would freak out if she met Lulu and Beans, she LOVES cats."
"After we find Seth and Kei you can bring her around to meet them," Morgan said, offering Booker a smile.
"Aww, really?"
"Of course, dude."
"How long have you two known each other?" Obake asked, suspicious once more.
"Twelve hours. But you can learn a lot about a person in twelve hours. Like, for instance, Booker is allergic to marshmallows."
"Don't tell him my weaknesses," Booker laughed.
Cruel jokes danced in Obake's head, something about toasted marshmallows, but he swallowed his words with his coffee. He needed these two buffoons' help.
"Are you prepared to do whatever it takes to get intel on Kei?" Obake asked.
"And Seth," Morgan said.
"Uh-huh, sure."
"Say it," Morgan said.
"And Seth. Are you prepared to do whatever it takes to get intel on Kei and Seth?" Obake was clearly annoyed.
"Of course. I could fly to Sycorax right now, sneak in invisibly-"
"Or you could hack it, right?" Booker asked, beginning to clear the dishes, "Then you wouldn't have to put yourself in danger until you were absolutely certain about Liv's involvement."
"I can't hack something that large if I'm not close…"
"Not even with Bob's spyware?"
"How much does he know?" Obake interjected.
"You can learn a lot about a person in twelve hours," Booker said, beginning to wash the dishes.
"I could maybe repurpose the spyware if I had an in… Yes, that's perfect! I can use the teen genius… I just need to plan things right and play with the one thing that I know will motivate her…"
"Jealousy?" Obake guessed. He'd seen how Hiro and Girl Hiro operated.
"Fanfiction."
Morgan spent the next thirty minutes carefully crafting a fake email that would look exactly like the new comment email Karmi received when someone commented on her real-person fiction.
"It's really not the best practice to write fanfiction about real people, sometimes they end up seeing it," Morgan muttered. Obake snorted quietly to himself.
In the time it took to send Karmi an email that, if bought into, would infect Sycorax with spyware, Booker did the dishes, wiped down the table and counters, took a shower, changed into borrowed clothing, and then returned to his task of befuddling Bob.
"Tell me more about Trina. How old is she?"
"Well, she takes the appearance of a teenager, but again, she's a robot."
"Mm, a teenager. So she's going through that phase."
"Last I heard, she was trying to carry out my plan of city domination."
"Teenagers," Booker said with an eye roll.
"Uh, what about your daughter?" Obake asked, vaguely aware that this type of conversation was supposed to be a two-way street.
"Well, she's one, so no city domination yet. But I've always believed that someone in the Harrison family was destined for greatness, so who knows? Maybe it'll be her."
"City domination is kind of overrated, anyway," Morgan said, "It's more fun to fuck things up in the background. Like taking down rogue buddy guards and losing Alistair Krei money."
"Are you implying that you have buddy guards in this building?" Obake asked.
"Yeah, in the basement, why?"
"I can weaponize those for our purposes, should we have to attack we'll be prepared to do so."
"I mean, I already have a weapon," Morgan said, dubious of Krei Tech in the hands of someone even worse than Krei.
"And we all cower in fear of your baseball bat," Obake said with an eyeroll, "But Booker is unarmed. Do you know how to aim?"
"I think so," Booker said, "I play a couple of first-person shooters."
"Well, you can't create a criminal empire with video games but it's a start. Show me to your basement."
"Nuh-uh. That's sacred. No one gets to go down there but me and Seth, not even the cats."
Booker cleared his throat.
"Okay, me and Seth and Booker," Morgan relented.
"The guy you met twelve hours ago."
"How long did you know Kei in person before you moved in with her?" Morgan asked.
Obake looked flustered, "That's irrelevant."
"Sure it is, buddy. Just don't mess with anything in the basement unless I give you permission."
"Of course. I'm a humble home invader, I'll play by your rules."
"You're creeping me out. My new rule is that you aren't allowed to say blatantly creepy things."
"Very well," Obake said with a dramatic sigh.
"So, tell me about Kai," Booker said, sidling up to Obake once more.
"It's Kei," Obake snapped.
"I know, I just wanted to see if you'd correct me. So how long have you two been together?"
"We're not together. We're just roommates."
"Been there," Morgan snorted.
"Has Kei met Trina?"
"No, not yet. Trina doesn't know that I'm still alive."
"That's awkward," Booker said, "you should probably contact her. She's your daughter, man."
"Yeah, I will. After we save Kei."
"What's the best thing about Kei?" Booker asked.
Obake answered without thinking, "Her unrelenting positivity. She doesn't give up on the people she cares about." And she cares about me, Obake realized.
"Neither does Morgan," Booker said.
"Huh. I suppose so. No wonder Kei has taken you under her wing."
"We both care about Kei, isn't that enough for us to be some sort of friends?" Morgan asked.
"Associates," Obake said.
"Works for me," Morgan said. She got a notification on her laptop then.
"Oh my gosh, it worked. Karmi fell for the email. We're in."
Question Of The Week: What do you think Kei and Seth are up to?