Something Awesome Beam (Worm - FGO Reincarnation Chapter 5)

Bakuda woke up feeling...lightly sore? She actually felt much better than what she was expecting.

"You should take it easy, you're not exactly back up to a hundred, you know."

She heard a voice say from nearby then move to next to her.

Bakuda didn't flinch, she doesn't lose her cool and show weakness. She slowly sat up, looking up at the guy talking and the room she was in. The place was living room that had an open kitchen, a next near the window, a bookshelf behind the couch she was on, some door to a toilet probably, and a latter to the second floor. The place looked...small, some would call claustrophobic, but the bright wood color, and caramel walls made it cozy instead.

"Here," the guy offered her cup of...something she didn't look, just stared at the black hair, tanned guy. After all, it was a stranger having her in an unknown--Okay, it's probably just his house, but still a stranger offering her a drink. "It's not poison," he raised an eyebrow in amusement. "This isn't a James Bond movie, if I wanted to poison you, I'd do it while you're asleep."

"...Point," Bakuda took the cup of...coffee? Huh, she actually could some. She didn't drink it though and held it, it could throw it in his face if need be. Then she noticed something else, while she was still in her cape costume, with her belt, and toe rings, she didn't have her mask on. "You unmasked me?" She bared her teeth.

"It was suffocating you." He shrugged, he seemed uncaring to be in her presence. She was Bakuda dammit, he should be sacred out of his wits. "Which wasn't really helping with your injuries."

Alice checked her body and...yeah she had bandaged up. It's probably thanks to him that she wasn't dying back in that alley.

"I see, thanks." She took a sip of her mug. If he went to the trouble of bandaging her up, then he probably was invested in keeping her alive. Was he in Lung protection racket? He didn't look Asian.

Alice thought back to how she ended up in that alley. She was heading to Majin Saber's civilian house. She had a good idea on where it was, somewhere in the Coast Downtown. She was going there went Lung sent her about joining him in a fight with the E88 making a push on one of his places. She texted back that she will, and began to head off on her own to get to Majin Saber.

Turn out, the old fucker dragon didn't trust her, and the goons with her, had orders to shoot her and bring her to Lung if she tried to run at any point. Fuckers missed and beyond some scraps, Bakuda was fine and the asshole backstabbers were dead. Then she ran right into Skidmark and Sqealer on a joyride, they got into a fight with her, then that little shit nazi brat, Rune showed up to take potshots at her. In the end she still got a way, bruised but standing.

Then some nameless fucker tried to mug her.

"What the fuck, is it Shit-on-Bakuda Day today?" She remembered screaming. Still got the fucking mugger, but he got a lucky hit and stabbed her. She wasn't sure if the wound was deep or not.

After a long walk, she stopped in an alleyway, out of sight, just to catch her breath, just to rest for a moment. Then she blacked out.

Right that's what happened. She looked up to meet her rescuer's gaze, that was...patient. He didn't look at her like...well, like anyone in the cape business. Not with fear, disgust, greed, or...he was just patient.

"You know who I am, right?" Alice decided to cut the shit and see what was up. She gestured to her mask on the table next to him.

"Yep," he grabbed the mask and handed it to her.

"And you still helped me, what? You want something from Lung?" She didn't want the mask but okay. She paused for a second, then with quick check, she could see that part of the inside of the mask was pushing on where her nose was wrong. So, guess he didn't unmask her for the hell of it.

"No. I want to make you a deal, Ms. Kazuma." There was nothing in his voice of ill intent, but Bakuda back still got stiff, and she readied herself for a fight.

If this fucker tried to threaten her, then...well he was a dumbass for leaving her with her bombs, and suit on.

"Yeah? What's that? Also how the fuck did you find out who I am? What are you, a Thinker?...Are you Coil?" Alice look at the guy in suspicion.

She was met with a very deadpan look.

"There was a tinker cape threatening Cornell University with a bomb. Then Lung went to Boston and came back with you. Good god almighty, I wonder who you could possibly be? Truly only the greatest minds of our generation could figure this mystery out." He said in monotone.

Alice wished her had her mask back on to hide her red face, because...yeah when you think about it, it's not all that difficult to find out who she is.

"...One, fuck you."

"Sorry, but I'm married."

"And you brought a strange woman to your house?"

"My wife help in bandaging you."

"And where is this 'wife'?"

"Buying clothes that fit you."

"Oh how convenient--"

"I want to hire you." The guy cut through the banter. He looked amused, but likely just wanted to get thing over with.

Alice look at him in speculation.

"You want to hire a villain?"

"Well, I'm hoping you would quit that job, since my company has a 'one job contract' policy."

Alice blinked a few times, then threw her head back and laughed.

She hadn't laughed that much in a long time, and had to force herself to stop when her side ached a bit, and she worried she might open up a stab wound or something.

"Oh, ahaha, oh god, that was good. You should work in stand up, err, what's your name?"

"Michael Chaser. Nice to meet you, Ms. Kazuma." He said with that annoyingly polite content smile of his, made her want to push his face to look away from her.

"Just call me Alice, since you know who I am. Ms. Kazuma sounds fucking weird."

"Okay, Alice."

"Right," she took a breath to get the last of her giggles out of her. "Look, you seem like a good guy. A bit dumb, since you live in this city and thought helping me was a good idea. I mean, I appreciate the sentiment since you save my bacon, but no." She didn't realize that when she felt relaxed in the guy--Michael's presence, but when he stood up with her, her first instinct wasn't to get ready for a fight.

Michael went to the kitchen and filled himself a glass of water. "Why not?"

He asked and she frowned at his insistence. She was about ready to leave, and he keep talking, keeping her here, where she might be in danger. And he and his wife would be in danger too. Bakuda's lips curled in annoyance.

"Look, I'mma make this simple. You don't just run away from Lung. That's not how this works, the only way you leave the ABB is in the body bag." She explain the simple truth since Michael seemed slow.

"I can get you a plane ticket to California. Set you up in a lab in San Francisco. You get 25,000 dollars a month plus whatever tinker expenses you need, and to top it all off a 100,000 dollars starting bonus." Michael said nonchalantly and drank his water.

Alice blinked a few times, like she wasn't sure she heard right. That sounded way too good to be true, and just...

"Why would you do that? What do you want in turn?" She narrowed her eyes. It would take quite a person to have that much money to spend on her. Is he part of the E88? Alice dismissed the thought instantly, no racist would offer her a job. Was he Coil? It would be stupid for a guy whose so cautious to just appear in front of her out of the blue.

"I already said it, I want you to quit the ABB." Michael shrugged, unsure on what else to tell her. "As for why I would do this? Well, because it's one less villain off the street. I would be helping someone in what, anyone looking outside in, can see is a pretty shitty situation. Because I can and have the resources to back it up. And I have some hopes that there are things you powers can help in." He explained, that calm patient smile, that just...didn't judge her, was back.

Michael clearly didn't know what she had done since she joined the ABB. What she had been forced to do.

"So you just want my power for yourself, huh?" She said aggressively.

Michael raised an eyebrow at her. "People who want other people with certain skill set to do stuff for them, so they give them money in order for the people with the skill set to use said skill set for them. That's...literally how jobs work."

"Fuck your capitalism." Alice flipped him off. Not because he was wrong, but because she just wanted to flip him off. Michael chuckled. "Look, thanks for the offer, really, but...Lung isn't just gonna let me go hunky-dory."

"You would literally be on the other side of the country. Lung is one guy, and he has a gang to run. It would be insane to just expend time and resources to find you when he has everything here that he needs to deal with." Michael looked at her confused.

And suddenly Alice realized why Michael had a problem understanding her. Why she really shouldn't be frustrated that he doesn't get it. Michael isn't a cape. He doesn't get that reputation in the cape world was do or die. Lung can't afford to let her escape. Either she brings her to heel or her kills her. There was no third option for the dragon to maintain his authority.

"That's not how this works." Alice smiled sadly. "Sorry, but I don't just get to run away. I can't just get on a bus and leave it all behind. Lung would hunt me down even across the country."

"Then go the PRT. Sign up as a Protectorate as punishment. They would have to protect you." Michael said back.

"HA!" Alice snorted. "The Protectorate is shit. You think they'll give two fucks about me? Either their paper tissue security will get me killed, and if they transfer me to another city, I'll be under so many restrictions that I might as well be a slave, how is that different to Lung?"

"Can you make bombs that affect time or gravity?"

Alice blinked at the non-sequitur. Thinking about it for a second, she could easily imagine designs for that.

"Yeah?"

"Then you can potentially make something to undo the Gray Boy Spheres. If you can do something with gravity then you can make something to capture high level brutes or even an Endbringer. Following the logical conclusion on the gravity bit, maybe you can make some kind of miniature blackhole bomb and kill Behemoth."

"Pffft," Alice found herself giggling and let herself walked back into a couch chair. She giggled to herself before looking at Michael in amusement. "What are you, one of those fanboys on the PHO VS threads?"

"I don't really post on PHO. Sometimes it has useful news, but for the most part it's a waste of time." Michael rolled his eyes. Alice snorted at his "dad" response.

"Look, I can't just make stuff like that out of thin air, it takes time and materials. Which while you can provide, I won't be safe from Lung till then. And the PRT won't provide that, and regulate the shit out of whatever I make." She said, just feeling tired from the weight of...everything.

"You act like you can't win no matter what you do?" Michael came and sad down on the couch, now being perpendicular to her.

Alice looked at him like he was an alien. "Do you...what world are you living in?" The question seemed to throw him off. "There is no winning in this world. You climb over a mountain of corpses, until you're one of the ones alive at the end." She said. "You said I could make a bomb to kill Behemoth? Yeah, I'm a genius, but no. Serious talk, that's not some shit anyone can just do."

"And the Endslayer?"

"An exception. Pure luck."

"You think there's luck when the Simurgh is involved?" Michael raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up," she didn't have an answer, as debating the Simurgh was just a mind bending rabbit hole with no answer. But she didn't want him to know that. "Look, things worked out once, that's doesn't mean everything is gonna start looking up. In fact, things are likely to be more shit, because...well people are assholes. They'll see an Endbringer being gone as a reason to fight more, not less." Alice growled out as she didn't want to continue this discussion any longer. "Anyways, I'm not here to debate fucking...global cape politics bullshit." She stood up. "thanks for the help, but I have to get going."

"And what are you gonna do?"

Bakuda was starting to head to the front door when she stopped, and looked back. "Why do you care?"

"I saved you, so now I'm invested in you not dying at least for a while." Michael shrugged. "Call it a good Samaritan thing. You don't seem like a bad person, so it's kinda sad that you're put in a shitty situation."

"...Yeah," It felt...annoying that he was emphatic to her. Because it would have been nice to have met someone like that a long time ago. "Thanks but I don't need your help. I'll fix my own shitty situation."

"And how will you manage, you made it sound like you had no options?" Michael leaned forward, placing an elbow on his knee and rested his face on his hand.

"Where are we?" She asked. Michael told her the are, and Bakuda smirked. "Lucky me. Well somewhere around here is Majin Saber's home. I'm gonna find her husband, take him hostage and make her kill Lung for me." Bakuda turned to face Michael with a glare. "You're not gonna say anything or call the cops, or I'll make sure you stay silent."

Michael looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but didn't even change his position. Actually he looked like he wasn't sure whether to laugh for not.

"Hopefully no one get hurt, other than Lung obviously, and after that...if you're still okay with it, I might take you up on that job offer." Alice said with a small hopeful smile.

She frowned when it looked like Michael was actively trying not to laugh now. What fuck is his problem?

"Umm, Alice..." Michael looked aside and rubbed his temple. "Have...Have you considered, and I know this is gonna sound far-fetched, maybe...asking her?"

Bakuda snorted. "People don't just help you because you asked." Michael pointed at himself. "Well...I didn't ask." She said to which Michael chuckled.

Alice smiled as well. This meeting...it felt nice. Like one last decent thing god gave her before the shitstorm starts.

"Alice," his voice brought her back to the present, and she felt like she should leave or she would lose her resolve. "You can't...you don't have to do things that way."

"Majin Saber is likely the strongest cape in the world, and she didn't do anything to change this shitty city." Alice scowled. Michael, oddly enough, looked away with a troubled expression. "What makes you think she'll help me out? Help out the 'crazy bomb girl' as they called me?"

"You don't know her circumstances either." He said. "Maybe she only get her power recently. Or she didn't know how strong she could be, or if she will be effective against an Endbringer." Michael offered some reasons. Alice felt something at the back of her head. Michael sounded like someone guilty trying to cover up with something. ...Nah, it's probably just what any hippy-dippy just glad someone beat an Endbringer even if they don't care about anyone else. "The point is, just because you have a power doesn't mean you have to use it if you don't want to."

"Cape don't work like that." Alice shook her head. "Like mentally we literally can't just decide to not use our powers. Maybe we can for a while, but things get...bad if we force ourselves to abstain." She said with a regretful look. "And in this case, Saber is someone that is so powerful that she can fix everything here, but she doesn't. She would have to be a cruel, vicious, evil, and sadistic--"

The lock to the front door turned, and someone walked through closing the door behind them.

"Honey, I'm hooome~." Edina said with a lazy monotone, yet a happy smile on her face, as she placed the bags after she went in.

The conversation stopped as the two looked at Edina's arrival.

Alice looked at Edina's face, it took a while for her brain to recognize and affirm that that's who she thought it was.

"Oh, you're up!" Edina's smile widened, and she spread her arms.

"...Huh." Alice looked at the photos in the house, and realized that she should have recognized the tanned Asian in the pictures. After all, even if no one got a good look on her face, Alice with her superior computing skill, was able to at least get an idea of what Majin Saber from that one outing more or less looked like.

"I'm happy you're feeling well. We were worried." Edina hugged Alice.

And Alice found herself in a bosom window, as her brain tried convince her that yes, this is really happening.

Majin Saber was hugging Bakuda into her boobs, and moments prior Bakuda had just told the husband of said Endslayer, to his face, that she planned to kidnap him.

Alice rejected this reality of absurd coincidences and promptly fainted.

AN: I...don't feel good about this one. I dunno, it just seemed like a struggle to get the conversation going.