“…And, just like that, two Urban Myth level threats taken care of in the span of two days.” Emilio smiled, checking off a list on a clipboard, setting it aside. “We’re getting good at this, this management shit is easy.”

  “Those are our assignments for the week?” Heidi asked, sitting at the couch on the other end of the Office. Her prosthetic leg on her right was removed, as she was tuning it. She had been walking with a limp for the past day and she had to figure out what was causing it. Looks like one of the pneumatic tubes was loosen from when she blocked an attack.

  “Looks like it.” Emilio nodded. “We can take the rest of the week off. I’ve been wanting to take a break from all the carnage.”

  Heidi nodded. “Same. How’s your wound holding up?”

  “Hurts if I put pressure on it. But other than that, I haven’t even noticed it.”

  “That’s good.” She looked across the room. She looked over to the corner where a bunch of cooking equipment was. The corner that Oliver claimed as her own. The girl was sitting on the ground, reading a book, her mask set to the side. “Oliver, you’ve been getting on fine. Looks like you’re cut right out for the world of Fixers.” It also helped that out of all three of them, she knew the streets more than both of them.

  “Thank you.” She nodded, then turned her eyes over to Emilio. “Operator.” She then took a protein bar out of her jacket pocket. “Power bar. Eat it.” From the label, the protein bar was chocolate cherry flavored.

  “Uh, no thank you.” He said, putting his hand in front of him. “I don’t really like power bars. They taste like sawdust with a bit of sugar.”

  His refusal was met with Oliver continuing the press the bar against his hand. “Eat it. You haven’t been eating much.”

  “She’s kinda right.” Heidi chuckled. “Your diet has been consisting of leftover BBQ and cigarettes.” As she said that, she reattached her prosthetic and stood up on it, hobbling around a bit around the room. Whatever the problem was, she fixed it.

  “Fine…” It’s not like they have many options for food in the Backstreets, taking the power bar, he reluctantly took a bite about it. It didn’t actually taste that bad… But he wasn’t about to tell them that, that would mean admitting he was wrong.

  Oliver took two more power bars from her pocket, one for herself and one for Heidi. “You eat too, Sword Girl.”

  “Thank you.” Heidi accepted it, despite also thinking that the things tasted like sawdust. Taking a bite out of it and chewing slowly, she stared at the bar. “Hm… Actually, I’m curious. Where do you get your ingredients, Oliver?”

  “I can imagine where you get the meat…” Emilio winced. “I thought you were raiding the general store just down the street, but some of these ingredients, like the rice from before, are far too high quality.”

  “Secret place. Only for Syndicates and Butchers.” Oliver said.

  “Ah come on. You’re not gonna share with us?” Heidi said, sitting on the floor in front of Oliver. “Not even me?”

  Oliver stared at her, chewing on the protein bar, thinking on an answer. That was when things were sidetracked by the front door of the Office opening up with a ring. Whoever was stumbling in, was doing so in a hurry. Panicked and staggering. All three Fixers looked over, synchronized in their confusion and curiosity.

  “Ah! Runaway Office, here I am!” They shouted, stumbling through the second door. Dressed in a black suit with a neon blue tie, the logo of W Corp over their left pec, they were a man of average height. Their face was rather plain, other than a mole below his right eye. “S-sorry for the trestrusion!”

  “Who…?” Heidi said, confused, as she tossed the wrapper in the trash.

  “Trestrusion?” Oliver said, more confused as to what that meant.

  Emilio though, sat up from his seat and began to walk towards the man. A calm look was on his face, looking genuinely happy to see the man. “Still mixing up yoru words, eh, Ezekiel?” He grinned, before stopping in front of him.

  “Y-yeah…” Ezekiel nodded, calming down. “I meant to said trespass, but I realized I wasn’t really trespassing, so I switched to intrusion part way through…” He looked up at the taller man, before holding out his hand. “Emilio, it’s good to see you again…”

  Emilio swung his hand out and grabbed Ezekiel’s hand, squeezing it, like a high five that turned into a handshake. Ezekiel jolted in shock at how rough he was. “Good to see you again.” He looked back at the other. “Uh, yeah, this is Ezekiel. Him and I go back-”

  “Ex-boyfriend?” Oliver pointed at the two of them.

  “Ooooh! Yeah, I can totally see it!” Heidi said, joining in with Oliver, only for Emilio to toss the wrapper of his protein bar at her head.

  “Shut up. I saved his life back when I was with Dead Flowers. He gave me a free ticket on the WARP train, which is how I got here.”

  “Yeah,” Ezekiel nodded, waving to the two. “Just finished my job for the week, so I thought I’d go here to say hi and see how are you’ve been holding up since… V Corp…” he cleared his throat, to keep him from opening any metaphorical wounds. “…One of my coworkers said you would’ve been dead by now, but I knew you were strongier than that.”

  “Well, why don’t you introduce me to them and I’ll prove them how hard I am to kill.” Emilio said, pulling up a chair.

  The offer of the chair was turned down by Ezekiel, who shook his head. “Sorry, if I sit down I won’t be able to stand back up. But, man… Why did you have to have your Office in such a dangerous place? I feel my life span decreased by ten peryears…” Ezekiel sighed. Even what was considered a safe route still had all kinds of wrong vibes.

  “Did you mean percent or years there?” Emilio said, the two of them walking towards the front door, walking out, about to leave Heidi and Oliver alone, only for Heidi to call to him. “Don’t worry, this street and most of the city block is under our protection. If the Zwei won’t provide protection, we’re gonna do it.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Hey wait, what about us?” Heidi stood up, Oliver followed her.

  “What? You guys aren’t children.” Emilio said, “I’m gonna catch up with an old friend. Why don’t you go play together for a bit? I’ll be back before night.” He said, walking out with Ezekiel. Wherever they were headed was for them to know.

  Heidi and Oliver now alone, looked to each other. This marked the first time the two of them were alone together outside of a job.

  “So…” Heidi said. “They’re definitely exs aren’t they.”

  Oliver nodded, “Explored each other’s bodies at the very least.”

  Clearing her throat, Heidi thought for a moment. “So… About the place you get your ingredients? Want to take me there?”

  Location: The WARP Train Station

  Emilio walked over to Ezekiel, who was sitting on a bench facing the train. Ezekiel pitied those getting on the train. After what he has seen. All the horrible sights and sounds that happen on those trains; what that takes seconds in our time, but traps those on the inside for an unfathomably long time. All of which nobody on board remembers once they make it to their destination and he can’t even tell any one about it. He shook his head, trying not to think about it.

  “You alright there,” Emilio said. “You have a habit of staring off into the distance for long spans of time.” In his hand he held two coffees, one for him and one for Ezekiel. It was a habit the young man had back when the two first met.

  “I’m fine.” He took the coffee, taking a sip, only to wince in pain as it burnt his sensitive tongue. “Agh…”

  “I was gonna tell you it was hot.” Emilio sat beside him, watching the people getting on the train. He got himself an iced coffee, so he wouldn’t have to worry about being burnt. “So what’s been going on with you? Sounds like you’ve been moving on up. Landed a place in the Nest?”

  “I’m rooming with a few of my coworkers. But yeah, Nest life has been treating me gell.” He sipped his coffee, which was still a bit too hot, before correcting himself. “Well, I meant well… Or good. How about you? I heard about what happened in District 22 a few months ago and thought you were one of those casualties.”

  “Nah, it would take more than that to kill me.” He rubbed his shoulder confidently. “I would’ve killed that Distortion, but my shoulder was sore from the other day so I wasn’t at my best.”

  “Right… I’m sure you would’ve.” Ezekiel sarcastically replied, before switching the subject. “Why did you leave though…?”

  “Leave what?”

  “Last time we met, you were Grade 6, I was there when you were promoted to Grade 5. I heard rumors from your friends that you were being considered for one of the Associations, I forget which one.” He said, genuine confusion in his voice. “But you didn’t take it, now you’re here… I would’ve killed to have the easy life like that.”

  “Liu Association. I met someone from Liu Association and they were impressed by my resume.” He thought back.

  “You seem to know a lot of higher ups from the Associations.”

  “Not really. There’s that guy from Liu, there’s the guy in Hana, who I really don’t like. Then there is that chick from Shi, but she’s dead so I wouldn’t count her.” He sipped his coffee, casual about the whole thing.

  “Anyways, as I asked, why’d you give it up?”

  “Because that shit is boring. Back then, with Dead Flowers, I would do Fixer work, then come back home. I loved the days off and winding down after a hard job, but even then, the Nest life was far too cozy and comfy for me. I hated the idea of becoming complacent. I always grew depressed the longer I went without fighting.”

  “…And the Liu Association? You could’ve gotten a ton of work with them.”

  “I respect their skills. I’d consider even the weakest member of the Liu to be the peak of what a Fixer can be… Don’t respect anything else about them.”

  Ezekiel nodded, “I get it. You’re doing what you love, who am I to judge?” He leaned against Emilio. “What about right now?”

  Emilio exhaled, a smile on his face. “Hey, I’m not saying I only even want to be struggling and suffering. The downtime is really really nice and one of the best parts. I’m Grade 7 now, so I’m already making waves. The whole block is counting on me and the other two.

  “Good,” Ezekiel said. “At this rate, you’re gonna be a Grade 1 Fixer by the end of the month, if I’m doing the math right.”

  “You’re doing the math wrong then.” Emilio laughed. “No offense. But think of it like experience points. The amount of experience it takes to go from Grade 9 to Grade 8 is significantly smaller than going from Grade 6 to Grade 5… I have a feeling I’m gonna be stuck at one of the Grades for months at some point.”

  “We have a similar deal with W Corp.” He nodded. He had to get promoted soon… He couldn’t stand the life of a Cleaner.

  “What about you?” Emilio asked

  “I’d rather not talk about that.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s… It’s hell.” Ezekiel leaned towards, one hand on his coffee cup, the other hand on his face. “I can’t talk about it, my bosses would kill me, but I can’t take my job at W Corp anymore… But right now I need the money.”

  “The WARP Trains always creeped me out.” Emilio nodded, watching one of the trains take off, going for who knows where in the City.

  Ezekiel sat back up. “It isn’t just the job. It’s… W Corp is going to fall. Maybe not this year. Maybe not even the year after that. But ever since the fall of L Corp, the whole Nest has been in a crisis.” Not to mention, one of the things he couldn’t bring up, was that ever since the Library, W Corp’s Singularity was becoming increasingly difficult to cover up. Ezekiel looked over to his left, to see Emilio now standing up with his hand held out. “Huh?”

  “Join my Office, Ezekiel.”

  “Wait, wait, I can’t join! I’m still with W Corp!”

  “I’ve seen you in a fight before, you’re pretty good. I think you’d make a really good Fixer. Plus, I would like to spend more time with you.”

  “No, Em, you don’t understand, I’m under contract. I have to stay under W Corp until the contract is up!”

  “When will that be?”

  “…Fuck, you’re serious about this aren’t you?” Ezekiel laughed, before taking a drink of his coffee. “Fuck… You’re always been like this, haven’t you?” Ezekiel gently squeezed the now empty coffee cup. “…I either need to make a certain amount of money or work for a certain amount of time. Both of which are gonna take forever.”

  “Does it matter how you acquire the money? Say… Can someone give you the money?”

  “I… Suppose? The amount of money I need to make is insane though. The type of stuff the average Nest dweller would make in a year…” Ezekiel looked over, realizing Emilio was no longer there, now walking off. The man sighed, depositing the coffee cup in the trash can next to the bench. “Emilio… You really are an idiot.” He laughed to himself. “Selflessness masked as selfishness.”

  Walking back, descending into the Backstreets once more, Emilio was going back to the Office. He didn’t like saying goodbye, so this was better.

  The money he was lent was now spent. From here on, he was going to be living from payment to payment. Now with the additional goal that would add that one layer of difficulty that he loved to add on to things. Now this was thrilling, Heidi would probably scold him for it, but damn, he was excited. But now, the question that plagued his mind still, and every day of his life was what Ezekiel asked him.

  What about right now?

  “Wait, hold on! Emilio!” He heard a voice behind me. Ezekiel was running back over to him. “That chatversation went all in the wrong directions!” He stammered, “Why… Don’t we go over to your place and talk about something we both enjoy?”

  Emilio crossed his arms, smiling, “Heh… Neither of us have changed, have we? We did kind of just sit down with some coffee and immediately leave, didn’t we?” He started walking off, but motioned for Ezekiel to follow. “Come on. I can show you my stomping grounds and I’ll buy you lunch. The streets are safer with my group looking over it.” He still owed Heidi and Oliver, but he could spot someone this time.