Chapter 12

Jaka 4

The hunters returned near dusk, and split up to find their companions. Hammerlock found Wainwright in the hotel sitting room, in one of the tall chairs by the fire, going over a thick ledger. Spotting him as he came in, he rose and hugged his husband before signaling for food to be brought over, and while they waited by the fire, Hammerlock began regaling Wainwright with tales of his most recent adventures. Jinx watched for a second before she went to the main desk to find out which room Gaige was in and headed up.

Gaige had spent the rest of her day, after Wainwright had left her to go check on the factory, wandering the town. She had found that there were two bars in addition to the one in the hotel, one of which had a decently nice view from its open terrace, which faced out from the town and over the jungle, it also had fairly decently priced drinks, though it was mostly brands she had never heard of. She had also found that the general store stocked many weird items including dried animals, though she couldn't figure out what they would be used for, as well as some of the worst flavors of soda she had ever encountered, including but not limited to Blood Sausage, which appeared to be some kind of local delicacy, Slag, and strangest of all, Beer, which had proven wrong on so many levels that she had bought one, it was still sitting on the side table waiting to be opened.

All in all, it had taken an hour or so of exploring the town before she was so bored, she couldn't take it anymore, so she went to the factory. Finding that Wainwright was still occupied with meetings and business, and not wanting a repeat of their mornings conversation, she went exploring in the wing that they had originally been held in, eventually finding a few more of the awful inspirational posters and a volume of an old ECHO log serial, all of which she took. She had just finished it for the second time when the door opened and Jinx walked in with an "I'm back.".

"Thank goodness" she moaned "I was sooooooo boooooored."

"So why didn't you go up to the ship?"

"Urk…I didn't want to miss you when you came back, and uh, it's rude to enter someone's house when they aren't home?"

"You didn't think of it."

"I didn't think of it."

"So other than bored, how are you?"

"Uh…fine"

Something about the way her eyes didn't quite make it to Jinx's made her wonder what was really up, but everyone had things they didn't want to say so she moved on "So what was up with the factory? Is it up and running? Did you get permission to use it?"

"Yeah, about that, turns out that a bunch of bandits from off world, led by some ex-Hyperion dude, tried to take it over to make guns for their revenge against Hyperion, if you can believe it. But we sorted it, no problem. Well, had to totally kill a bunch of goons and all, but it's all good. Place is back up and running and should be ready for action."

"Damn it" Jinx swore in displeasure "I knew I should have went with you to check it out, you OK though?

"Totally fine."

"Ururgh"

"BABE! Wait in the hall you rat." she said pointing to the door.

"Ururu" he responded huffily before floating out.

Once the door was closed Gaige turned and saw Jinx staring at her "Fine! I got hurt a little bit, nothing major." She fibbed hoping that the other girl would buy it or at least move on.

Jinx continued staring at her hard, like she was waiting for Gaige to brake and just when it appeared that she was about to ask something, Gaige quickly interjected "So how'd your hunt go?"

Jinx fixed her with a stare that let Gaige know that she knew what she was trying to do before sighing and letting her win this round.

"It went." she sighed "Hammerlock used me as bait to get his Emperor Diomos. That thing had three tongues, like tentacles with teeth and the teeth moved on their own. Super gross, I hate those things. Tentacles I mean. But on a brighter note, we got what we needed. And not just that, but the nest turned out to be a super rare rainbow hive, so we got all kinds of colors that we can use to coat the cybernetics with, I mean like emerald and sapphire and ruby and even a really pretty purple…What?"

"So that's why you're so late? You had to collect the full set of the colors?"

"Whoa what? No, it's not like I couldn't just kill the ones I needed and then collect them and walk away, you know. Once a hive gets riled up, it needs to be dealt with before you can spend the time harvesting them, and we worked as fast as we could."

"Fine, fine I get it, you're out there playing and having fun while I'm stuck back here with nothing to do but sit around and wait and worry, right?"

"Smells like you found the bar though." Jinx muttered.

"What was that?" Gaige said with rising anger in her voice.

"Nothing." Jinx said dismissively.

"Nothing? Really? Cause it sounded like you said that I smelled like a bar to me."

"No, I said that you smelled like you found the bar. How many drinks have you had today anyway?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but one, two, three, three drinks, oh and a little hair of the dog, and a couple of margaritas. But that's it."

Jinx sighed with a disappointed look on her face.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"No what was that sigh about? Am I not allowed to have a drink?"

"Let's just drop it." She said as Gaige looked at her with a near glaring expression.

When she didn't get a response she continued "So, back to what I was saying, uh, right, with the different colored wings I got, I can make the new cybernetics outer armor in about any color or style. So do you have any requests or thoughts? I'm thinking of doing a really pretty one with the purple I mentioned and I could make one for you too."

"I'm not a kid anymore." Gaige snapped back.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounded like, I'm not six, I don't want a pretty purple prosthetic."

"What does your age have to do with what you like?"

"It means I'm an adult now and I act like it, unlike someone I could name."

"You act like it? You? Really? Is that why you keep having to chastise yourself because you finally enjoyed something? That's not being an adult, that's just playing pretend." It was like a dam had burst, and everything she had been keeping inside came pouring out. Even some of the things she never meant to say. "I mean seriously, you keep denying what you like and who you are to the point that I don't think even you know who that is anymore. Do you? I mean every time you look like you're about to have fun, you suddenly look like you're ashamed of it, like you're guilty of something. Why? If you like something, you like it, if you don't that's all there is to it. I mean tastes change and all that but yours haven't, otherwise you wouldn't keep thinking about these things longingly would you? You wouldn't need to justify it to yourself like you don't secretly want them. That's probably why you're drunk so much, because you loathe yourself, deep down, I mean, you really can't stand the person you've become, and that's the 'adult' way to deal with it, isn't it? To drown yourself in booze till you forget who you are and why you can't stand yourself. And you wanted to know why I keep looking at you like that? It wasn't disgust, or disappointment, it was pity. Pity, because you don't even know who you are, not really. I mean you used to be a badass and now? What are you? After giving up all the pieces of yourself that you liked and that made you you, what was left? A pathetic little girl who's pretending to be all grown up. In other words, the biggest child around. That really is the truth of it isn't it, you're just the kid at the gathering who desperately tells everyone around them that they're an adult, when all their petulant whining is doing is convincing everyone that they aren't. You want to think you're an adult? Grow up."

SMACK

Gaige slapped her. Hard. With her left hand. The force of it spun Jinx's head around hard enough that she saw stars dancing in front of her eyes. Gaige was quaking with rage, so much so that she couldn't even speak as she stormed out, slamming the door behind her, leaving Jinx alone in the room.

Jinx was numb, she couldn't even feel the throbbing in her cheek, and as a trickle of blood traced its way down from the corner of her mouth, she muttered the one word that summed everything up.

"shit"

A Few Hours Later

Gaige had stormed out in such a rage that she had even sent Deathtrap away, not being able to face him for fear that she would do something, to take out all the pent-up emotions churning inside her on him. Alone she had stormed into one of the bars and had set up in a corner of the terrace to drown everything away, even as a small voice pointed out that she was acting exactly as Jinx had said. She squashed the voice down and proceeded to drown it in booze. Before long it had worked and the voices and emotions went silent as she passed out across the table in sweet, sweet obliviousness.

"Miss? Are you alright?" A soothing voice pierced through the fog.

Lifting her head from the blessed cool of the table, she turned it slightly and looked up to see a handsome man looking down at her in concern.

"It is you." he said with a kind voice and soft smile "I thought it was, but didn't think I'd be running into you out here of all places."

She looked at him through bleary eyes, 'Do I know anyone this good looking?' She thought, hastily whipping the sleep drool off her chin with the back of her hand and tried to place him.

"It's me, Steve, from Talion 6. We met at the wedding, remember? Though don't feel too bad if you've forgotten." He said with a kind smile, she liked that smile.

Gaige looked at him while trying to wrack her sozzled brain. A handsome man in his mid-thirties at the wedding? She had a vague memory of someone like that, but maybe it was this light, but he looked a whole lot hotter here. She also remembered Jinx at the party and that soured her mood a little. 'Well screw her, bitch ain't here to ruin this for me, and neither is Deathtrap' She thought before fixing her gaze on the hunk before her "Steve?"

"That's right. Didn't think I'd see you again, especially not so soon, or in such a place. So what brings you to Jaka 4? Certainly you didn't chase me all the way out here just for that drink I owe you?" He said with a laugh. It was a nice laugh, Gaige thought.

"Naw" She slurred out "'M ere cause I needed somfin for for for persnl raisons. Yew?"

"Business. Won't bore you with the details."

"Nonshenss, eit won bore me."

"I'm sorry if this is a bit forward of me, but is everything alright? You seem kind of, hm, down?"

Gaige looked at him, the concern in his eyes, those pretty eyes and let loose "I ad a figh wif dis bish. Well na a figh relly, mor a she jus wen ov on me, like I shot we wa frens, bu she call me a chil, child an shit, meen stuf, righ?"

"Wow, she seems like an unpleasant sort."

"An ta tink I kinna liked er, pft, I got no tase."

"Well, better to be rid of her then. Just be glad that you found out what she was really like when you did."

"True dat" She smiled sloppily, he seemed nice, handsome too, and he had said something about business. Had she hit the jackpot this time? Was he, just maybe, had she found the one?

"I still owe you a drink, so why don't we drink to, hm, I know 'The truth and new prospects'" He said while setting a drink in front of her.

Gaige clumsily picked up her glass "Ta truf an gnu proshpecs" and downed it.

Slamming the empty glass down she looked at Steve. Through the drunken haze, the small part of her mind that had kept her alive chimed in that something was wrong. Her head was feeling heavy and fuzzy so she lay it back on the table to rest and looked up at Steve to apologize. Maybe it was the booze, or the lighting, but it almost looked like something had flashed behind his eyes, like his smile had turned colder, and for a second she had the strangest thought that it looked like something was wearing his face, like a mask, and it had slipped. And maybe something was up with her eyes, either that or it was getting late cause it seemed to be getting darker suddenly, but she couldn't hold the thought long enough to figure out which. Maybe a nap would help. Or would that be rude? Nah, Steve was so nice that he wouldn't mind.

He had just set his glass down, which was still full, she dully noticed, when he suddenly looked to
the side, out of Gaige's visual range and suddenly started twitching slightly, especially the corners of
his smile.

"H-hey, this is"

BOOM

His handsome face vanished in a shower of blood. Gaige watched as two drops landed in his drink and swirled away as they dissipated. 'Waste of a good drink' sloshed through her consciousness while in the fuzzy faraway place that he had been sitting, Steven's body slumped out of his seat and thudded far, far away on the floor.

A firm hand grabbed her by the chin and pulled her head up, her vision swam and stuttered, trailing behind the sharp movement, but eventually she was able to focus on the face in front of her. The bitch stared back with a strange expression, part of it Gaige could identify as anger, but the rest was unidentifiable.

"Oo bith" Gaige slurred around her thickening tongue "I lid im. E wuz nece un oo killd em."

Jinx looked at the table and the empty glass in front of Gaige before grabbing the other girl's jaw as she was slurring and holding it open, shoved her cold robotic fingers down her throat, even as Gaige tried to bite them. She quickly changed her grip to the scruff of her neck as Gaige violently and noisily threw up across the floor.

"Wha da fug?" She coughed out.

"That 'nice man' you were talking with?" Jinx hissed out through clenched teeth "That was 'Suave Steve', one of the worst pieces of vileness to crawl its way into standing on two feet." She crouched down and tossed Gaige over her left shoulder while continuing in a slightly softer voice "I would prefer to carry you better, but I'm afraid that if I do, you'll end up drowning if you throw up again. So bear with it."

From her new vantage Gaige could see Deathtrap floating in the doorway holding a crate as locals swarmed behind him to try and see what had happened.

As the edges of her vision stitched the darkness together over her eyes, Gaige murmured as loud as she could "I ope I puk on yur butt." And the she went limp.

Jinx let out a sigh and lugged her out.