Third chapter is out! If you are feeling antsy and want more, you can always look over at my ao3 (link in profile) as it has some more chapters there :D

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Rating: Mature for fighting scenes n the like, just to be safe

Warnings: none.

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Chapter 03

"I'm going out," Genji called above his shoulder, shuffling on his jacket as he moved to the entrance of their base.

"Where to?" Of the others casually hanging out in the sitting room, only Angela did look up at him, though she looked like she was barely aware he was there to begin with.

Hana was busy playing one of her videogames, fingers flicking expertly on the console handle, Lucio was tapping with one finger against the table, earphones on and a pile of papers in front of him, composing a new song, and Angela was idly flipping through the pages of her thick medical book, studying for her next exam.

"No more snacks," he answered, yawning and covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "If we're still up for that movie night, we need some good shit."

"Then don't forget to get soda!" Hana called out, her eyes never straying from the screen of her videogame, where she was soundly beating the shit out of some poor sod from across the continent. "Last time it barely lasted through half the movie!"

"Not my fault you and Angela started to challenge each other," he fired back. "Don't do it again and it will last till the end."

"Booooring! Where's the fun in that?"

Genji snickered to himself and left.

It was quite a nice day, and Genji felt the warmth of the sun on his skin as he walked out of their operation base and across the street; they were lucky that there was a 7/11 open on the same block, and the workers there were used to seeing him coming at any time of the day or of the night to buy food and snacks, and even kept some of his favourites for him –being a regular had all kinds of perks, after all.

When he got to the 7/11, though, he found a small crowd of people surrounding it, all mumbling and talking excitedly to one another, and Genji slowed down his pace, approaching them and straining his ears to listen for eventual dangers.

"What a horrible thing, really," one of the bystanders muttered, lips pulled down into a frown. The omnic standing next to him nodded slowly, the three-dot forehead array blinking a steady orange.

"Can't believe it happened to them, she seemed such a nice person…"

"Hey, did something happen?" Genji walked closer to them, standing on his toes to try and peek above the heads of the people in front of him. Since he was not exactly the tallest person around, it made it difficult, and they did not seem to want to move. "Why the crowd?"

"Oh, it's you, kid!" the man turned around, and Genji vaguely recognised him as another regular. "Do you remember one of the workers there, Stephanie?" at Genji's nod, the man continued "she disappeared with all their income from this past week. She left them in quite a pinch."

That surprised him. He knew Stephanie a bit, since he was a regular at the 7/11 and he liked to chat with people. At first he'd tried to flirt with her, but when she'd told him she was happily taken he'd backed off, though that had started a bit of cheerful back and forth between them. He… could not believe she would do something like that.

His emotions must have been obvious, because the man and the omnic shared a knowing look and nodded. "Yeah, it was a surprise for us as well. It happened during the shift change this early morning, when the owner comes by to collect the money and bring it to the bank. She was there waiting for him, stole the money and ran. The owner couldn't stop her."

Dismayed and baffled, Genji could only shake his head.

The people in front of him finally shifted enough that he could see what was going on. The 7/11 was closed down, but the owner was standing in front of the door talking to two policemen with one of his other employees, a tall guy with a scruffy beard and a slight slouch.

A part of Genji felt guilty –he was supposed to be the city's protector, and not just against monsters but also to help with robbers and thieves, and this 7/11 was so close to the base he should have realised…– but then he forcibly shook his head. He couldn't have known, nor could he have prevented it, if everything happened so quickly in the early morning.

Genji could not do everything, even if it made him feel angry at himself.

The employee took notice of him and his bright green hair and his lips quirked up in a small smile; with a polite nod to his boss and the policemen, he went around them and moved to join Genji.

"Oi, Genji, good to see you!"

"Same for me, Jesse!" Genji smiled, though his lips tilted down in a small grimace a second later. "I heard what happened. That must… suck."

"Yeah, there goes my weekly salary I guess," Jesse shrugged, a small roll of his shoulders, as if to downplay the situation. "She took all the cash and the envelops with our pay too."

Genji bit down on his lower lip. "If you need anything…"

"You're a darling, but I'll manage. I'm good at sorting my finances, and we're not closing down just because of that, so… I still have a job."

Genji sighed but nodded, knowing that Jesse would not allow him to help unless he was truly inconvenienced.

He and Jesse had not been friends for long –just a few months, ever since he'd started working at the 7/11, but he was a nice, easy going guy and Genji enjoyed hanging out with him. They even had the same taste in men, and that always helped.

"You're juggling two part-times, I don't know how you can do that," he murmured, still worried.

"You do what you gotta, Genji. So, if you were here to drop some good cash on us, fat chance. We're closed. But I can walk you to the rival 7/11 a block away if you want. Worked there for a few months before coming here."

"You've worked everywhere, Jesse."

"Not everywhere, yet. When I hit the big ones you'll be the first to know."

"I'll expect you to offer me a beer then."

Jesse smirked and punched him in the shoulder, and Genji smirked back.

Their trip to the other 7/11 only took them a little while, and as they walked back towards Genji's base –or as Jesse knew of it, Genji's apartment, which he shared with some housemates– they chatted idly, though it was obvious to Genji's keen eyes that despite his apparent ease, Jesse was still a little too stiff, his slouch even more pronounced than usual, so he tried his best to cheer his friend up.

That is, until he spotted something weird with the corner of an eye, and froze mid-step in the middle of the street, a small shiver running down his back.

"Oi, Genji, what's wrong? You look pale."

Genji blinked, and focused once again on Jesse, but it took him a couple seconds to come up with an answer. "I… I remembered I had to do something important and I totally forgot and Hana will skin me alive if I don't… get her soda!" the realisation hit him, as he had honestly forgotten about it until that instant, but it was also a convenient excuse. "You still up for a gaming night later this week?"

"Uh? Sure thing. Have nothing else to do until my second shift so I'll just head home. I'll text you at some point later today. Better not get that lady angry with you, I hear she can bite really hard."

Unable to restrain a wince at that, Genji nodded. He did not really waste time checking if Jesse was going, turning around and dashing down the street, apparently heading back to the 7/11 only to take a sharp turn once he was past a corner, slipping into one of the side streets and hiding behind a trash can, out of sight.

He glanced around, and once he was sure nobody was there, he called forth his morphing powers and switched to his sentai suit.

"Yosh," he murmured to himself, feeling a shiver of anticipation run down his back.

If what he'd seen was real, he could not approach it as Genji, and of course, he could not do it when in Jesse's company either, but now he was alone and did not need to worry.

The street was still empty, thankfully, and there was no sign of Jesse anywhere, which was a relief. Genji hesitated only for a split second before he moved to the side of the street, easily vaulting over a tall fence and into the garden of someone's house.

To his excitement –and a little bit of wariness too– what he'd seen earlier was still there, comfortably wrapped into the paws of a slobbery, snoozing dog.

One of the Cultist's creepy orbs.

He had no idea how it had been caught like that –the dog was sleeping, one floppy cheek pressed against the round surface, and appeared undisturbed by the deep, unsettling aura of the orb, which was blinking slowly at the sky, not moving much– but it was nothing short of a small miracle for Genji.

Winston had wanted to get his hands on one of the orbs for months, ever since seeing what they could do, but the Cultist was jealous of them, and though he seemed to never part from them, Genji had enough suspicions that he used them for intel, and to find one like this…

Definitely lucky –or it would be if he could catch it.

The orb was probably sending information back to the Cultist, and if he caught it, then the monster would know. If he could track the orb back and Genji brought it with him to his base, then he would give its location away… unless their masking protections worked better than Genji knew. He was not sure. Still, even giving away the general area of their base would be bad so… how could Genji prevent that?

Genji looked down at his hands. He had the bag of snacks, maybe he could use it, and…

That would work, yes. At least for now.

He inched forwards slowly, tiny shuffles so not to alert the dog, who kept on sleeping without taking notice of him, and moved closer and closer, slowly, biting his lip under his mask, tense, getting ready…

The orb's eye flickered his way, but it was too late –Genji struck, his hand a blur as he grabbed the orb and trapped it inside the bag with his snacks, tying the opening quickly and then pressing it hard against his stomach, his heart thundering in his chest.

"I… I did it! I caught it!" incredulous yet triumphant, Genji allowed himself a moment of utter joy, jumping from one foot to the other as a nervous laugh left his lips.

The noise was enough that the dog did wake up then, and upon seeing a weird masked individual bouncing at his side, he did what any other disgruntled dog would have done. He barked loudly, growling at Genji, and he stopped bouncing immediately to step back from the dog.

"Easy, easy there pup! I'm the good guy! I saved you from the evil orb!"

It seemed like the dog did not agree. He kept growling at him, lowering his front and shuffling around, tail held high and stiff.

Genji thought it would be best to back away slowly, and when he was far enough from the growling dog, he jumped out of the small garden and high-tailed away, still giddy about what he'd just managed to do.

Instead of running on the street, and risk being recognised by people as a sentai, Genji jumped up a wall and ended up on top of a tall building, sitting on the edge and clutching the bag to his chest.

He had no idea what to do, but he did not want to risk opening the bag to look at the orb, just in case it ended up recording something that could give him away to the Cultist.

For a moment, Genji entertained the thought to keep the orb to himself –maybe let it go and follow it back to its owner, and then confront the Cultist alone, challenge him maybe, fight him… but then he shook his head, not wishing to go down that road.

He knew what happened when he faced things on his own, and he knew how much pain it caused to his friends. He had learned his lesson.

Still, he had no idea how to proceed.

He shuffled with the bag for a few seconds, and wondered if he should peek inside at the orb, and after another long moment of hesitation, his curiosity peaked enough that he unwrapped the edge of the bag from his hand, and opened it, just a fraction.

The orb inside did not move. It felt like a dead weight but Genji was not fooled, so he kept a tight hold of it through the bag and then managed to get a good view of it.

It was the first time he'd seen one this close, and it was just as creepy as it seemed from afar –only perhaps… worse.

The eyes on its surface were… not quite gelatinous, they did not truly appear to be 'real' eyes, and for a moment, Genji felt a wave of relief. That also seemed to dispel the notion that the orbs were part of the Cultist's body, only separated by some sort of monster magic.

If they were not magic, though, what were they?

There was a flimsy layer of something thin covering the eyes, and Genji squinted through his mask, only to realise it was probably something like a polymer, a mix of plastic and glass perhaps, or something different but…

Mechanic.

The orbs were mechanic.

Yet, the eyes looked incredibly realistic, and when one of them focused on him, pupil constricting, Genji had to restrain a shiver, instead attempting to look defiant and aggressive, though he knew it would not convey much through his mask.

He was confident that he could move quickly before the Cultist could follow him, and besides, he was someplace high, so the eye could only see a small piece of a building and the sky, other than his mask.

It would be fine.

Hopefully.

Genji focused his attention on the orb again, daring to meet the focused stare of the eye head on. If this was mechanic, it did not make any sense; monsters never had anything on them that looked like a machine –no guns, no lasers, no complex weaponry. They were usually attacking people or places with parts of their bodies, like claws or teeth, or at most, a modified rudimental weapon like a blade or a scythe.

This… this was different. This was mechanical, and exceedingly advanced.

As Genji observed the eye flicker from one side to the other, one edge of the orb flickered and frizzled, and he scrambled to cover it with the bag again, afraid it would disintegrate in his hands, only to see…

The orb was moving slightly. Or well… its surface was. Shifting and shuffling like water, or like sand, or maybe even like sand covered with tiny ants.

At once, his eyes widened in shock, recognizing what he was seeing. These were nanomachines.

But… how?

Hastily shoving the orb back into the depths of his bag, Genji closed it as tightly as possible and held onto it with both hands.

Impossible.

If a monster had this much technology… how?

The Cultist had appeared already holding the orbs with him, and had used them as if he was familiar with them, so he'd probably acquired them somewhere in the past, but… from who? Who could have allowed a monster to have nanomachines?

A small sound broke Genji from his reverie.

"Genji? Where are you man? You left for the store ages ago!"

Startled, he almost dropped the bag. "Lucio! I have news!"

Zenyatta felt the ripples coming from one of his missing orbs and paused mid-step.

He had been walking quietly through the sewers, in one of the abandoned parts of the city undergrounds, when it happened.

There were parts of the city that had been partially or almost fully destroyed or damaged by the first monsters attacking, years in the past, unstable after far too many attacks, and Zenyatta had sought them out, too dangerous for people to live as nobody dared to come around, so he could use them as a temporary shelter.

It was not ideal, but it was safe.

He kept each and every one of his orbs monitored, receiving every few minutes a constant update on what they saw, but that one orb had ended up caught by a playful dog, and Zenyatta, not wishing to disturb it as it slept after playing and chewing on the newfound toy, had allowed it to keep the mala.

Yet, that proved to be a mistake.

Not too long after he had received the last stream of images of a dog's nose in close quarters, the orb had started sending weird images of food and fabric and plastic, and it had taken Zenyatta no time to realise that someone had caught his orb and placed it in… a bag with food, apparently.

Mostly snacks, but they looked like an interesting collection.

That did not fix his problem, though. His orb had been caught by someone, and this… did not bode well for him.

He only had three on himself, the other six in various areas of the city, monitoring everything from safe spots, but even one less orb proved to be difficult to fix, and he could not just go outside and retrieve it on his own.

Still busy considering his options, Zenyatta assumed his usual meditative pose, index and thumb pressed together, the remaining orbs slowly circling his neck with a soft hum; if anything, at least their sound had not changed, and he could still allow his mind to ease through meditation.

Hit attempt to calm himself was, unfortunately, short-lived.

Something was walking through the empty tunnels ahead of him, and in the silence, their footsteps were as loud as a stampede.

Zenyatta tensed, and sent one of his orbs ahead.

The dark did not bother his optical receptors, nor the eyes on his mala, but he had not expected what the orb reported to him seconds later, the image clear through his sensors.

A human.

It was a short, buff human woman, wringing her hands together and looking apprehensively around, and then, trailing behind her, so quiet it could almost go unnoticed, was a monster.

Suddenly apprehensive, Zenyatta took three steps before more images filtered through his processors, making the picture clearer for him as his senses were assaulted with discord and pain and anxiety, all coming not just from the human ahead, but also the monster.

It was clear, then, what he was seeing –but not why.

Slowly, with measured footsteps, Zenyatta advanced towards the human and the monster following her.

The monster was the first to see him coming –as it seemed obvious, considering the tunnels were not lit, and the human only had the light from her phone to let her see where she was going– and it hissed something at the woman, who instantly froze.

Her hands clenched together, her breathing harsh, the woman remained completely still, eyes wide in fear, and the monster slithered forwards, grotesque and mismatched, one half of the body with paws and short, cropped fur, and the other a hardened bug shell.

"Don't touch her," the monster hissed, and the voice sounded almost girlish, though it had a strong echo to it.

"I do not plan to," he answered just as quietly.

There was a long, tense silence.

"What are you doing here, in my domain?" deciding to play it safe, Zenyatta allowed his orbs to shine an otherworldly green, illuminating the walls and the metal and the stone surrounding them with a sickly glow. "This is not your place."

"I–" the woman squeaked, and Zenyatta watched with a flicker of sadness as she punctured the back of her hand with her nails in a fierce attempt not to tremble. "I'm here to propose an ex-exchange!"

Zenyatta did not speak further, allowing the woman some time to calm down and explain, but he was curious, and rather perplexed, and he hoped, against all hope, that the woman did not mean for him to harm someone else, though… the monster behind her spoke of an entirely different story.

"I have… I have money! A lot of it!" she scrambled to grab a small bag attached to her hips, and with trembling hands, she extracted a few envelopes full of money, which Zenyatta observed with shock, though none of it reflected anywhere in his appearance. "I… I don't know if you need it, or… I'll buy anything you want! Anything! But I… I want…"

Her voice seemed to falter, and then the monster advanced towards him. They passed the woman, who seemed to flinch, minutely, before steeling herself, but the monster did not appear to notice –or if they did, they did not show it– and stepped in front of the woman, between her and Zenyatta.

A protective stance, as far as Zenyatta was aware.

"She wants to ask you to lead us out of the city from down here," the monster hissed, raw and just as unsure as human behind them was. "We'll get you anything. I don't care. I just–" they turned around, enough to look at the woman, before twisting their neck to glance again at Zenyatta. "Away from here. Somewhere safe."

"How did you know where to find me… if it was me, specifically, that you were seeking?" instead of addressing their request, Zenyatta, asked his most pressing question instead.

"I…" the monster fought with themselves for a second, gritting their teeth, gnawing at the lower lip –a mix of reptile scales and fur, fangs of different sizes– before shaking their head. "No matter! We know! We found you! We won't tell anyone, but we need to leave! If you don't… if you don't want to help, we'll…" they paused, suddenly aware that their tone sounded more like a threat now, but empty, too empty of any sort of leverage, and then their eyes flickered with an idea. "We'll find the sentai and tell them!"

Zenyatta hummed, softly.

In the back of his mind, he received a quick image of Green Sentai's mask peeking from the edges of a bag that contained his missing orb, and he filed the information away, though he could only see little fragments of the city, not enough to deduce where he was.

Unfortunate.

"So you came here, knowing where to find me, attempting to pay for… a service… from me." he paused, the tentacles on his face wriggling slowly. "With no plan B. Alone. A human and a monster, together. And then you threaten me, and do not think I could just end you there, without allowing you out from here, and no one… no one would be any wiser."

He saw both stiffen, and the monster's fur rose to its end, a hissing sound coming from their throat. The woman, frightened, her breathing quick and uneven, took a trembling step back.

"Yet you are at your wits' end," he continued, his tone soft, quiet. "With no other option, scared, and… with money that does not belong to you, either."

"What do… what do you even care?!"

Zenyatta's shoulders relaxed, minutely. "I do, because if you had not found me –if you had been seeking truly the monster this city calls the Cultist, he would have destroyed you." They both flinched, too scared, too frozen to even move. He continued, "But there will be no need of money for something I can easily grant."

He knew he'd shocked both of them, because the monster's fur flattened instantly.

"I… wha– you… you accept?!" the woman looked so surprised, though he could feel from her waves of hope flickering towards him, almost intoxicating after all that Discord. "Without… both of us! I won't let her become one of your minions!"

"I have no minions." He allowed a small flicker of amusement to colour his tone, his tentacles writhing a little faster to show his mirth. "I assure you, that is merely bad press."

He advanced towards them, and the monster was instantly on defense again, hissing loudly enough for the sound to echo around them, but all Zenyatta did was stop in front of her. "Where do you intend to go, once away from this city? There are just as many dangers out there as you could find here. Nothing is any better anywhere."

"Yes, it is! Here they think… and then I just…" wringing her hands together, the woman took a step backwards, then forwards, forcing herself to fight the fear. "Anywhere! Somewhere nobody will give a fuck about a human and a monster travelling together!"

"You stand here, so afraid, so scared, and yet you still refuse to back down." Zenyatta, mournful, turned to the monster. "It is admirable she is still standing here. We unfortunately have something that both humans and omnics find undesirable to face, and as such, it is their nature to run and hide, rather than stay and listen. Very few can withstand the onslaught of such aura we have, and yet… your friend is here with you, to support you. She has…" one of his orbs blinked, focusing on the envelopes full of money, "… stolen to pay another monster, because humans would never agree… so that you both could run. Yet, away from here nothing will change. You will find opposition anywhere you choose to go, and you would end up hiding, homeless and alone."

The monster was staring at him, both eyes narrowed in speculation, both sides of her face showing the same emotion –a calculating look that she was focusing on him. Zenyatta waited.

"You are nothing like what I expected," she finally murmured. "You know lots of things and you're smart and you say the truth, but here… I'm…"

"You changed, and you are afraid… but she's still at your side." Zenyatta watched the two and felt their shock wash all over him again, and allowed himself a soft pleased sigh. "You are lucky."

"How… how did…" the woman appeared conflicted, wanting to run to the monster yet at the same time back away, but it was the monster who reached the correct conclusion first.

"You're… you're like me!" all at once, her wariness melted away, the confusion turning into a sharper focus. "I can't… you're not a real monster?! There's more like me?!"

With a soft chuckle, Zenyatta nodded, and stepped back. He chose to address her, to allow the woman some respite, though he knew his appearance was still creepy enough that she would never truly relax, not until he was gone. "Indeed. Though not quite like you. I was an omnic before, while you were a human."

The monster's shoulders trembled, relief and shock and sadness making her shake, and she covered her mouth with her scaly hand, breathing hard into it. Zenyatta allowed her a few seconds to calm down, all the while monitoring the situation of his missing orb.

He could easily recall it, make it come back by slipping through Green sentai's lack grip, but… he did not wish to.

Zenyatta could not feel the dragon's presence through the orb with just this touch, but he wondered, not for the first time, if allowing the sentai to have a mala could perhaps aid them in finding the true extent of his curse.

Of course, if he'd offered them one they would have refused, thought it a trap, but like this, maybe…

Zenyatta had thought about giving up his idea to get the sentai to help, at least the way he had been doing until then. Green Sentai had almost looked like he considered listening, but in the end, he had not –and his companions had pushed him into refusing.

There was nothing there for Zenyatta to further pursue, so it would be better to give that up, but this…

This was a different angle he could try.

"My… my name is Alexandra. And… she's Stephanie," the monster's voice snapped Zenyatta's focus back on the task at hand. "She's my… she's my girlfriend. We were meant to get married next June, you know."

Zenyatta felt a wave of grief fill him at the thought of how that might have felt –watch her future ripped away from her hands by a curse befalling her.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, and his voice conveyed all his grief, so honestly that even Stephanie, wrapped in shock and still away from them, was startled by it, her shoulders tensing. "It must have been recent, is that right?"

"Y… yes. It happened last week. I… I was tending to my plants at home and then… and then it happened and I was so scared, and I knew nobody would want to talk to me, and I wanted to run but then… Stephanie found me, and even though she was afraid she… she recognised my voice, and remained, and we talked a lot, and we had no other choice–" now that she felt a connection, her voice came out louder, in a sudden rush to get all her story out. "She stole money from where she works. We watched the news, but did not know where to go or how to run, and my family kept calling and they were planning on visiting and… we panicked."

Alexandra's shoulders shook, and then much to Zenyatta's surprise, Stephanie stepped forwards, hands trembling, and pressed one hand, very gently, on her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Alexandra is really smart," her voice shook, but she kept her eyes trained on Zenyatta as she spoke, as if to challenge him. "She figured out we needed a plan. She thought… you had your underlings, and on the news most of your sightings were on this part of the city, and she… she used to work for the metro line, a few years ago. So she figured you were hiding down here. I thought… if we could offer you something, maybe…" she trailed off. "We had no other option, and if people found out about Alexandra, they would… I couldn't! I couldn't let them!"

Zenyatta knew he could not reach out to her as he would in the past, and instead remained motionless, head tilted down in respect for her pain, and watched as her girlfriend turned around and hesitantly wrapped her arms around her.

Stephanie stiffened, but then relaxed in the hug, and the two held each other quietly, trembling but not crying.

"I will help you get out from here." He promised, and the two turned to look at him, faces so different yet both betraying hope, and relief. "But I will offer something more. Once away from here, seek the Shambali. They are aware of my… circumstances. They will not turn you away."

"The Shambali?" they looked at one another, tentative in their hope. "What can they do?"

"Offer you shelter where others will reject you. Unfortunately, there is no known cure yet, but at least there no one will chase or attempt to separate you. Also the Shambali can actively fight the aura we emit, and they can help you strengthen your will against it," he turned to look at Stephanie. "You have an admirable resistance to it already, it will not take long."

As if something had been switched inside her, Stephanie's expression turned immediately determined. "Then, we will go. Thank you."

Zenyatta smiled, his forehead array burning a bright green. "Well then. One last thing…"

Genji idly played with the orb in his hand, watching the eye blink and stare at him, then look away.

He was bored.

The novelty of the plaything he'd caught had quickly faded, especially after contacting the others.

Winston had been delighted to know they were now in possess of one of the Cultist's evil orbs, and though he'd admonished Genji for acting on his own, he was excited and proud to hear he had not handled the orb without his suit gloves or mask.

It would keep his identity safe, and make sure the orb could not do something evil to him if he were to touch it with his bare hands.

Unfortunately, Winston had not known where they could safely take the orb, as he'd been caught unprepared, and had asked Genji to keep on the rooftops and away from people, and if the Cultist arrived before Winston called again, Genji was not to engage and instead run.

Lucio and Hana had at first proposed to meet up with Genji, so there could be three of them in case the monster appeared, but Genji had refused, saying it would be more conspicuous for three sentai to be together bouncing around on the rooftops rather than just one, and he was the silent one.

Hana was… not quite used to stealth, especially not jumping over buildings as she did not have Genji's training, and while Lucio could match Genji's speed with his rollers and had quite a good grasp of jumping around, he was not exactly quiet either.

So, he promised to keep quiet and move around, and Winston promised to be quick and prepare a way to store the orb so no one could track it down.

"It appears you have something that belongs to me, Green sentai."

The soft voice startled Genji enough that he almost dropped the orb below, but at the last second he clenched down his fingers on it and scrambled to stand up.

He had been idly pacing over the edge of an abandoned building, and had been deep in thought so he had failed to hear someone approaching until it was too late.

Genji turned around, tense and on guard, and found the Cultist standing there, a few feet away, with his orbs –or at least, eight of them– circling lazily around him.

"Well, seems like you misplaced it, so now it's not yours anymore, creep," he called out, attempting to sound less wary than he felt.

"Hmmm. Is that so? Yet, last I knew, I had decided to let a dog have it, not a sentai."

Genji scoffed, though as usual, the Cultist's behaviour unsettled him.

With his amused voice and his casual attitude, he was a far cry from the usual monsters the sentai fought. He truly was on an entirely different level.

"Well then… what about a fair exchange, sentai? You let me have my orb back, and you can have this."

Genji fought the urge to leap away when the Cultist smoothly slid one hand under his cloak, expecting who knew what sort of weapon, only to see him extract what looked like a pile of envelopes from some inner pocket.

Genji frowned, fighting the urge to crane his neck to look at them. "What's that? Why would I exchange this for…" something caught his attention and his eyes widened underneath his mask. "Is that… money?"

The Cultist's shoulders shook slightly, and Genji realised, startled, that he was laughing quietly, and stifled an offended grunt.

"I thought humans enjoyed exchanges that included their currency," the Cultist said, voice a smooth timber that made Genji shiver. "Is that not the case?"

He had no idea why, but he had the feeling the Cultist was mocking him, yet he could not understand why, or how.

"Not when monsters like you are bundled up with it," he growled, and in the back of his head, his dragon surged forwards, just enough to be a comforting presence, enough so that the monster could also feel it, and be cowed.

He saw the Cultist stiffen in front of him, and he felt a small flicker of pride at the thought that maybe he'd scared him.

"Where did you get that?"

The Cultist brushed one finger over the envelopes he was holding. Casual, just as calm and unruffled as ever. "A woman happened upon me, afraid, so much afraid."

Genji felt anger coil inside his belly, and focused on it instead of his fear –being angry was much better, and had better results than cowering. "What did you do to her?!"

The Cultist at first did not answer. He looked at Genii, right through him, with his glowing eyes. Genji stiffened. "She will not be seen around here anymore, that much is certain."

Dismay and an even stronger anger rose inside Genji like burning fire, enough that he was left breathless, fury almost consuming his thoughts.

Any thought that the Cultist was somehow playing around, that there was maybe something else at play, completely vanished from his mind, replaced by disgust with himself at having allowed a monster to fool him this way.

This creature had killed… he had…

The fury paralyzed him, and when the Cultist flung the envelopes at him, Genji almost did not move, though his hand darted out on instinct to grab the pile of envelopes, nearly tied together by a red string, before they could topple over and flutter down on the city streets.

"Wh–"

"I have no need for this. You can have that. As for my mala…" the Cultist paused, pressing his fingers together in front of his face in a pose evocative of a meditating stance, "I will have it back, eventually. Everything is as it should be."

He disappeared before Genji could react, quickly, smoothly, leaving behind Genji with his fury coiling inside him, yet nothing he could do about it, seething, furious.

It would take him a long time before he noticed the printed name on each envelope that stated they belonged to the 7/11 a block away from his base, and before he realised exactly who the woman the Cultist had been talking about was.