Ey~! Welcome back!
Since a couple people liked the idea enough (and since I'm still recovering my IRL sanity from CC and losing all my previous data), this is continuing! It'll currently still be a series of one-shots, but if this story does expand enough and I find enough strength and sanity to finally start delving into the lore of Arknights, then I suppose this will become a genuine crossover story!
Oh, and for those who came from [A Gamer's Fate] (If you are, hello!), sorry for the recent quiet. As I said earlier, I lost all my data after updating my windows system, so I'm rewriting the recent chapter. No worries!
Welp, with all that outta the way, enjoy!
Bison was completely, utterly, absolutely shell-shocked.
He'd just been out, doing some errands Emperor had set him and Croissant on. It was, perhaps, the first normal job he'd ever had in his time with Penguin Logistics. Then again, there were some armed militants and strange drunk men who blocked them on the way, but they weren't too hard to deal with.
...Oh god, he's being infected by them.
Either ways, after they'd delivered their package and took care of the disturbance, he decided to go back to their bar while Croissant bought them some dinner for the night.
That was when he met him.
With striking blue hair and deep, intimidating orange eyes, a long, red spear resting by his side as he sat on the sofa, and a pair of lupo ears that matched his hair. His clothing was casual, normal, but even from the door he could almost feel the weighing presence the man brought with him, almost like he was back standing in front of the Rat King.
Panic quickly sprung in his mind, but his eyes soon trail to the office desk at the left side of the main room and at Texas who was sleeping on it, with a blanket laid gently on her back. Confusion followed the panic, and then he turned to the man again.
To find him staring right at him.
"...!" He froze up immediately, every single string of muscle in his body tightening in sudden recoil. The man continues to stare, and Bison could feel cold sweat beginning to pool on the back of his neck, before the man finally smiles. "Not bad."
"...huh?"
"You stood up pretty good, for a kid." He said, mirth dancing in his eyes as he stood up. "I'm Cu. Her brother and resident badass." Bison blinked, and then looked between the two.
Blue hair, lupo ears, yellow eyes.
"...Ah. Sorry." Again, the man smiles as he waves off his concern. "It's fine. Just wasn't expecting Emperor to finally recruit someone else into his goddamn company, a boy at that. Thought he only officially hired girls."
"I'm having an intern." Bison said, and Cu's jaw went slack. "...The guy took an intern? Shit, how much money did he get? Maybe I can ask him to raise my portion or something."
Wait, raise his portion? "Huh? Are you an employee here too, Mr. Cu?" Bison asked, and Cu shrugged with a wry smile. "I mean, kinda? I'm not officially an employee. But I do work here. I'm a bit like Mostima, hopping around here and there, you know?" He said, and then added, "Oh, and just call me Cu. Having Mister behind my name makes me sound old."
"Um, right." So he was like Mostima? But is Mostima even a part of Penguin Logistics? The file he had on them didn't detail her on it, but then again, Emperor was...unique, in his own sense, and a man like him probably had a trail of secrets a mile wide behind his back.
"So, what do you think?" Bison blinked, breaking out of his thoughts to look at the man. "What do you mean?"
"What do you think Penguin Logistics?" Cu asked again. Bison went quiet for a moment, pondering his answer, before sighing. "It's...different. My dad's company was always so serious and...here it's just, like…" He didn't finish, but Cu seemed to have gotten an idea of his answer and chuckled softly.
"Yeah, this place is special, I tell you. Doubt you'd find any place else like this." At that, Bison smiled. Logically, he knew it'd only been several days since he started working here, but it's felt like he'd been here forever. Perhaps that was the sheer incredulity and insanity this company seems to hold as its motto, but the days he'd spent, trying his best to maintain his sanity as everything went on around him,
He'd never forget it.
"It is." He said happily, and Cu nodded in agreement.
"So, what's the commotion from a few days ago? I wasn't here to see it, but I heard even the Rat King got involved."
Seeing as they still had some time before dinner, Bison nodded. The two sat down and he began his tale.
He told of the first moment he stepped out into the open, of how he met the girls and Emperor, how he had strange mafia men chasing him, of how they planned and made their escape with him having to brute force through the road with a bicycle and a group of armed men following his trail. He told of how he saw Penguin Logistics fight as a team, of how he first saw and met the Rat King, and how they ended the night with that candy-filled spectacle.
Surprisingly, for how cheery and boisterous Cu is, he was quite a good listener, simply nodding and asking some simple questions when an interesting event came up. Though, the sleeping Texas close by probably forced him to.
"Man, I sure missed a lot." He said with regret, before he narrowed his eyes, voice turning serious. "So, the old man's beginning to move, huh? I guess the recent commotion in Lungmen's finally brought the old spirit to life."
"Recent commotion? You mean when Reunion invaded Lungmen?" Bison asked, but Cu didn't answer, instead looking at the sleeping Texas a distance away.
"...Hey, kid." He begins, "How long are you going to work with them?"
"Um, several more days before I head off to Rhodes Island with them." Cu nodded his head, and he turned to Bison. His orange eyes shined with sincerity, and Cu bowed his head to him. "I know Penguin Logistics is strong, but help protect them. A storm is coming, and I won't be able to help them all the time."
Bison looked at the bowing lupo, and he wondered just what he was getting into. The only battle experience he's had is the recent scuffle with the mafia, and in several days he'll head off with Texas and the others to Rhodes Island, a pharmaceutical company famous for their active movement and encounters with Reunion.
Yet, as he looked to Texas, sleeping peacefully after a long day of work, as he recalled the short yet fulfilling time he'd spent with them all, he felt no fear for the future. Inexperienced he may be, but-
"I'll do my best."
He had his shield, and he had people he cared for.
No answers were needed.