Chapter 3
No POV
"A wizard?" Matt repeated. What was this guy on about, how could Matt be mistaken for a psyker? "No, I'm a bounty hunter. Now piss off" he holstered his weapon and turned to leave.
"W-wait" the man stammered. "The mayor has a job offer for you?"
Matt stopped and turned back to the man, his curiosity spiking. "Job?"
"Yes sir" the man continued, more confidently, "he's willing to pay handsomely for your services"
Well, Matt couldn't refuse anything to get him money out of hand, especially when the only credits he had wouldn't work on this planet.
The mayor, the apparent authority in this small town, lived in a very large and surprisingly grand stone mansion. Outwardly it looked more aesthetically pleasing than anything even Lord Helmawr had. Inside was as one would expect a highborn's resident would be.
Brutus was left at the entrance to the mayor's office where he was terrifying the little secretary girl who was cowering under her desk.
The mayor was a fat man with a bald head with spectacles and who habitually mopped his sweaty brow. He spoke with a stammer though whether it was a nervous tick or a speaking condition, Matt didn't know and care.
"G-good d-day s-s-sir" he said, gingerly shaking Matt's hand and gesturing to sit down. "T-thank you for c-coming sir. I'm Mayor Baldrick"
"Grendel, Matthias Grendel" Matt introduced, "now what's the job?"
The mayor looked somewhat surprised at Matt's bluntness but obligingly slid a piece of paper to the bounty hunter.
It was a bounty poster. Matt had seen enough to recognise one instantly, but it was the face that caught his attention.
It was the man he had seen from the bridge earlier, the one with all the rings and the forehead tattoo.
"Y-you've seen this man?" The mayor asked, noting the crease in Matt's brow. the only visible sign of expression.
"Yeah, not long before your friend found me," Matt looked at the name at the top.
WANTED:
BORA THE PROMINENCE
REWARD: 2,000 JEWELS
"Jewels must be the name of the currency here" Matt thought, "maybe those green paper sheets"
"T-The man was once a w-w-wizard of the Titan nose guild" the mayor continued, "he was b-b-banished after continuing to use I-illegal charm magic. And he is we-wanted for practicing s-s-slavery"
This was a lot of information about Matt, much of which didn't quite make sense to him. Not so much the subject matter but the details within it that puzzled him
Back home, slavery, though unpopular with those subjected to it, was not technically illegal and was sometimes even endorsed. Matt just accepted it as a part of life though he wasn't a fan, but he was surprised to learn that it was outright a crime on this planet.
Secondly this Bora was a psyker and an unusually good looking one at that. Most psykers were either horribly crippled and deformed, or, even if not, often looked extremely tired as if they hadn't slept in weeks. But the image of Bora, seemed to be in the peak of health.
Thirdly, what guilds was the mayor referring to? Who in their right mind would name a guild after a titan's nose? Did those god machines even have noses? More importantly, what did this guild deal in? water, food, metal?
The mayor was still talking but Matt wasn't concentrating.
"Hang hang on" Matt finally interrupted when he was well and truly lost in what the mayor was saying. "I'm new around he looked around the room desperately for something he could use as a basis. Luckily there was a map of a small portion of the world on the wall. "Basically this entire area" he gestured around the whole continent the map encompassed.
"Oh are you from Alverez perhaps? I heard their wizards are restricted to their empires, military and aristocracy" the mayor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah" Matt answered, thinking "didn't I already say I wasn't a wizard?" But deciding to play the part of the traveler from a foreign land, it wasn't entirely inaccurate either. He decided that this would be his cover story. A wizard who was from Alverez turned into a bounty hunter. "And I don't exactly know about things like guilds or magic. Can you fill me in"
The mayor looked a little wrongfooted but obligingly sat down to help explain things.
Matt POV
The things this man was telling me sounded rather far-fetched to me. Apparently here, Psykers, or wizards/mages, were very common, some were lone wanderers but most worked in guilds, these guilds acted as a combination of pubs and hideouts. All legally endorsed by the government and when a wizard took a job they would be paid for their services and earn a decent living.
Basically, it was like having legalized Psi-Syndicates. Only you didn't have to be a Psyker to be eligible to join, many so-called wizards simply wielded magical items or weaponry.
Still, you couldn't trust Wyrd's or anyone freely wielding a possessed sword for that matter.
Worse, "magic" as warpcraft was called here, was used everyday for even some menial tasks. The one upside I could see to this is that at least the black ships will have more than enough Psyker's to feed the emperor, when they eventually find this world. Not to mention the ecclesiarch would have plenty of witches to burn.
beyond legal wizarding guilds, there were the all too familiar Merchants guilds who delved into trading, Alchemist guilds who practiced science and treasure hunter guilds full of fine archaeologists.
This actually made a lot of sense to me, it was actually quite similar back home, even the organization was almost the same, they had their planetary government at the top and their advisors, then below them was the magic council. Guild-masters all over the guilds reported to the council.
The only exception being Mercenary guilds, these were created and funded by nobles like barons and counts to recruit wizards as hired muscle to fight for them in times of need and where technically not under any legal authority but where allowed to exist.
But then there were the dark guilds. These were filled with wizards who delved into more sinister activities, such as in the case of Bora, slavery and the practice of foul sorcery. So this world had potential chaos sorcerer's on it as well. Just wonderful. It seems Necromunda wasn't the only planet that had a shitty shadowy side to it underneath the seemingly stable hive spires.
This Town, Hargeon it was called, barely had any wizards or magic, they only had one magic shop and most of the common-folk time went into fishing for economy.
This Bora the Prominence was hosting a barge party on the water tonight, an all women part as well. He was going to take those women off to be sold into slavery, unfortunately he was doing it under a false identity and had paid off a number of people who I don't need to mention to get away with it. The Mayor wanted me to go and kill or capture the man and save his civilians.
Now I was no Astarte in ceramite armor, so I obviously asked what the reward money was, bit of a stupid question since the number was already on the bounty poster but I really wanted to make sure.
"Thank you sir" the mayor said shaking my hand gratefully, "now why don't you wait here and we can get you cleaned up for tonight?"
I scrutinized him and noticed that he was scrunching up his nose ever so slightly, then it hit me that to him, I probably was the worst thing he had ever smelled, I had barely noticed my own smell myself. I sheepishly accepted the offer.
I really hated taking my armor off, I really did, it made me feel vulnerable and unprotected. Not just to bullets and blades, but to everyone's eyes. It took a while to get it through their thick skulls that the Bioncins on my face weren't goggles or glasses but prosthetics like my arms and legs.
When asked how I lost them, I replied honestly, I got rid of them, which was half true but I won't get into that now.
There were two gentlemen who were helping me get clean, they had already taken my clothes to be washed as well. I especially didn't trust the towels.
Back home a towel could very well be a catachan face eater. I absolutely refused to be dried with them. In hindsight, that was very childish of me to do, especially since I didn't know if they could get Catachan face eaters.
I didn't even know if they had space travel. This place had all the hallmarks associated with a feudal world from the stories of spire-boys going off world to visit some, but how did I know?
In the end I relented and allowed myself to be dried with the towels that hopefully weren't catachan face eaters.
Can I just say that by the end of it, I had never thought I would feel so clean in my life. I felt somehow shinier than before, my clothes were a lot less Grimmy. Even Brutus looked pleased with himself from whatever kind of cleaning ritual they did for him. His bionics glinted in the setting sunlight as we exited the mansion to do our job.
But enough about that, it was time to catch a slaver.
Let the Hunt Begin
No POV
Matt and Brutus could have found Bora's boat in their sleep, it was a large steam powered paddle boat that practically glowed in the early night with how many lights were shining from it. A long line of young girls and women were lined up and stepping onto the boat one by one.
Bora himself was welcoming the women onboard, however he did seem to take a particular interest in a young blond woman in a rather lovely red dress. The two shared longer pleasantries than the rest before the blond elegantly walked onboard.
As Matt and Brutus watched, Matt looked up at the moon, and the star's. You couldn't see stars from within the hive of necromunda, even in the ash wastes, the toxic clouds of Necromunda's atmosphere blocked out all but a few signs of star's. He had only seen star's once in his life, during a rare moment of clear skies.
But he had never seen a moon before, that big white, wheel of rock that was thousands of kilometers away. Lighting up the night sky better than any of the lamps.
Matt waited till the last passenger was onboard and Bora's henchmen had raised the gangplank. Then Matt jumped down. The distance between the platform Matt was on and the ground would have broken a normal man's legs but his bionic legs absorbed the impact with their maglev coils perfectly and a quick roll also helped break the fall.
He then ran to the edge of the dock and jumped off the end of the Jetty and onto the deck of the ship, Brutus followed behind him and both quickly got to cover behind some nearby crates.
The entire front part of the ship had the women conversing, drinking and eating food the men presented to them on tray's. Activating his auger array he scanned the crowd till Bora had been identified. Bora himself was mingling in the crowd, again he was talking with that blond haired girl in the red dress. Now that he was closer he could see that she was only in her late teens.
Bora's eyes were looking down at her admittedly impressive bust which she wasn't trying to stop, in fact by the way she crossed her arms underneath her chest she was indulging it. She had a look of a girl who wanted something and Bora looked more than happy to give it.
He guided the girl away from the party and inside the ship, no doubt to some luxury cabin.
Matt would need to take a different way inside, luckily there was a second floor above, he launched his grapnel gun and the hook caught on the railing above, "wait here and don't be seen" he told Brutus. The Mastiff obediently sat and watched as Matt zipped up onto the second level of the ship. Unlike the deck below, this deck was empty.
Not only that but there was a door inside. There were three sets of stairs, a middle set that led up, presumably to the helm. The two on either side went down. Matt went down the left staircase. Both stairs ended up in a long hallway, lined with doorways, at the end there were two door's spread a few feet apart along the wall at the end.
But before he could do anything, he suddenly heard footsteps coming upstairs from the stairs behind him, quickly dashing back upstairs he hid as multiple men came up the stairs, each one had one or two unconscious girls, all clearly drugged slung over their shoulders or under their arms. Each was a thug, dumb muscle.
Now Matt was annoyed, "great now i have to deal with all of them" he muttered to himself, now he would have to do this out loud and waste more ammunition. Oh well, at least now he could have some fun
Lucy Heartfillia was a young mage who had dreams of big aspirations of joining the Fairy Tail Wizard guild and live her dream as a wizard, she had thought that this man would be her ticket into that guild, this Salamander, one of the most famous fire mages in Fiore.
But that dream was looking to be crushed, the man had tried to drug her and now he revealed his true self, he had planned to sell her into slavery, along with the other drugged girls the man's thugs had carried into the room with them.
But by far the worst thing the man did was toss her precious key's out the window, the key's she used to summon Celestial Spirits, gone like they had been trash.
She hated the man, hated him in that moment more than anything. But how could she get out of this?
"HEY?" Shouted a voice from outside, everyone turned as the door was, quite literally, locked off its hinges and a single man walked in.
Lucy felt a pang of fear at the man who had to be the epitome of intimidation. Firstly he was a tall man, taller than Salamander and came up to the thugs' noses.
He wore a brown trench coat with some kind of body armor she couldn't identify underneath, a skull belt buckle connected his undershirt and his dirty brown trouser, pouches lined the belt and with each step, the leather boots made a heavy stomp.
A skull made out of metal was strapped to his shoulder, but it was his arms and face that interested her the most. He held a large boxy gun in his hands but his hands and forearms themselves looked extremely skeletal and then she noticed that they had the familiar shine of metal to them.
"Prosthetics?" She thought, looking at them. The left one had wrist mounted weapons of some kind strapped(or in the case of the right one, soldered) to it. He had slick silvery gray hair that flowed down the right side of his face, but his eyes were both seemingly metal, goggles perhaps? The right one was a small black monocle that fitted perfectly into the socket, the other was a large metal circle with a glowing green lens in the middle and was connected to metal plating and wire that lined nearly the entire left side of his head.
That wasn't to mention the metal plating over the bridge of his nose, around his chin and jawline.
"Who the hell are you?" Demanded Salamander
"You Bora?" The man demanded, pointing at Salamander "I'm here for your bounty"
"So his name is Bora" Lucy realized, now it made sense, "Bora the Prominence who got expelled from the Titan nose guild"
"Kill him" Bora roared, to his men who all dropped their captives and rushed to him.
The man aimed his weapon and killed the first man with a short burst, blood sprayed as bullets pelted through the man, he dropped dead. Everyone had frozen in shock.
They obviously hadn't expected that, Lucy hadn't either, she was horrified at the blatant act of killing, her supposed rescuer didn't freeze however as a second man died to a spray of bullets.
2 more more men charged in, whatever fear or stupidity they had drove them to charge straight at the man fists raised. The first man died as his face was destroyed by a burst of pinpoint shots, the second man got a bit closer and was about to throw a punch when he too died to gunfire, this time in the chest, shoulder and stomach.
By this point, everyone had dove for cover, flinging over the sofas and the table to protect themselves. Lucy also ducked underneath a stool for what little good that would do her.
Another man jumped up from underneath cover and managed to duck under the shot, only his shoulder got hit but he pressed on and actually managed to throw a punch. But her rescuer moved out of the way of the swing, elbowed the man in the stomach, then broke his nose with a punch from his left fist.
The man collapsed winded and in pain, before a final shot finished him off, Matt raised his weapon at the next person to try and jump over his cover. He pulled the trigger. The gun didn't fire.
Matt POV
Rust-Damn it, I'm out of ammo, got to reload, to bad that they now see that I can't keep them in cover, they were charging me now, however, the damned fools didn't count on the fact that it is always faster to switch to my Stub than it was to reload.
Pulling out Ironside, I ducked under the first man's punch, it was a sloppy punch. This guy didn't know how to properly fight; he was a thug, a brute, too stupid to learn. I shot his leg off with one shot.
My heart was pounding with battle reaction, I blocked the next man's arm swing and broke it at the elbow, his elbow bone protruded from a gash it had torn open. Another man had picked up a wooden chair and managed to hit me with it from behind, my shield flared and was down to 3/4 of its original strength.
I whirled around angry and blew off his lower jaw and bore a hole through the back of his throat. The final three thugs were huddled together. Oh this was too perfect, I raised my left arm and fired an energy blast. The three energy projectiles hit each of them in the head, destroying their heads in a brilliant display of disintegrating brain matter and bone fragments.
Now it was just me, Bora and the blond girl.
No POV
Bora made a grab for Lucy and wrapped his arms around her in a headlock, "do anything and I kill her" he said, Matt knew he meant it, and he didn't care much.
"One girl over all these?" He scoffed gesturing to the unconscious girls on the floor, "you need to do more math"
They both stared at Matt shocked, then Lucy was furious, "What! You're not going to at least try to help me, you selfish bastard?!" He yelled indignantly
Matt deadpanned, "I just said to do the math. One girl dead out of a hundred is sad but could be worse. Besides he seems to like you"
Lucy went bright red in embarrassment and anger, she lifted her foot and stamped down hard on Bora's. The high heels added to the pain and made Bora yelp and release her. Lucy then gave him a furious right hook which knocked to the ground unconscious.
Lucy was breathing heavily, it had all happened so fast, and now it was oddly quiet. "Nice shot," her supposed rescuer commented, dryly.
The anger was back again, Lucy whirled around about to give him a verbal lashing, when the second door was knocked off its hinges and a large gang of thugs ran in and surrounded the two. These men were armed with swords and axes, clubs and even a couple of flintlock pistols.
"Scav" Matt thought, holstering his sidearm and drawing back his rifle and began reloading, popping out the old magazine and storing it for later and sliding a new one in, pulling the hammer back to cock it. The thugs grinned nastily about to charge in.
When the roof above their heads crashed down, knocking some out and crouching the rubble was(to Lucy) a very familiar young man, with pink hair, that strange white scarf and a fierce look on his face.
"Natsu?"
And cut.
That's another chapter done, I hope you like it. I did want to do a little bit of following the protagonist's story, but I wanted it to feel more like it was out of coincidence rather than the whole "it was fate" bullshit. Things will definitely not follow team Natsu, or the fairy tail guild, for a while after this arc. Also yes my oc is a piece of shit but he is a bounty hunter from Warhammer 40k, like there's this bounty hunter in the Ravenor series that legit goes after the inquisitor and his retinue.
Also don't expect a sort of reasonable cooldown time for Matt's Luminen capacitor or a reasonable reloading scene for the auto gun or stun gun very often. Those are going to be one of those "happen when the plot demands it" scenario's. in saying that i will have the Luminem Capacitor have a few limits on it(i really don't want my character to turn into john Grammaticus 2.0(if you know, you know)
As always please like and follow the story see you next chapter.
also on a side note if you notice me changing the name of my character it's because I did initially name him Matthias before writing the story, I changed it to Kilo for some reason which is an official name listed on list on bounty hunters on lexicanum but I feel like Matt or Matthias rolls of the tongue a lot better.