There were some preparations I needed to make before meeting with the Biker. Specifically, I needed to have something constructed for me by an Oathbreaker. I'm certainly not proud about doing business with him, but there are plenty of necessary evils in this world. And if I wanted to get the biker on my side, this was one of them.
I was able to get in touch with the Biker and arrange a meeting with him. Justin and I arrived outside Ozzy's, where the meeting would take place, and waited. The item I had commissioned from that Oathbreaker was lain out on the ground, covered with a sheet.
"Is it weird that you've had that thing for 3 days, and I'm still creeped out by it?" Justin asked.
"I'd find it concerning if you weren't," I replied.
We waited in silence for about a quarter hour, before a solid steel bike pulled up before us. The Bloody Biker dismounted it and approached me.
"So, you wanted my help?" he asked.
"That's right," I said. "I'm building a team to do something about the forest."
"How much are you offering?" he asked.
"I'm afraid I can't offer you any money," I informed him.
"Then why the hell are you wasting my time?" he asked.
"I have something more valuable to offer you," I said, gesturing to the covered object next to me. The Biker raised an eyebrow.
"Is that so?" he asked, flicking out his tongue for a moment. "Let's see it then."
I nodded, and tore the sheet away, revealing the figure beneath it.
Before us lay the lifeless figure of a young girl, around 10 years old. She was dressed in a plain white gown, had eerily pale skin, and shoulder length white hair. Justin was visibly disturbed.
The Biker flicked his tongue out briefly, and took a moment to process what was before him. Slowly, a look of recognition crossed over his features.
"Sylvia?" he muttered to himself.
A second later, his blade was at my throat, and he snarled at me.
"What is this!?" he demanded.
"I commissioned it to look as similar to her as possible," I said.
"You think you can buy my loyalty with some cheap doll made in my sister's image!?" he snarled. I could feel his sword pressing closer against my skin.
"It's not a doll, and it sure as hell wasn't cheap," I informed him. "It's a homunculus."
I felt his rip on the sword loosen a bit, and he gave me a confused look.
"A homunculus?" he asked.
"An artificial body," I explained. "There's only one man in the world, Dr. Luigi Helthead, who has any skill in their construction. Partially mechanical, but mostly organic. It will age naturally once activated. Right now, all it's missing..."
I raised hand, as black mist began swirling around my fingers.
"Is a soul," I finished.
I teleported to the other side of him while he processed that, and knelt down over the homunculus, and hovered my hand over its face.
"It's time to wake up, Sylvia," I said, and the black mist flowed into the lifeless body. "It's time to meet your brother."
The homunculus shuddered suddenly, as its eyes snapped open. Color slowly came to its skin, and its white hair turned a a light brunette. its eyes, initially pale, shifted to a bright blue.
Sylvia Monroe blinks slowly a few times, adjusting to her new body. She sat up, and looked around a bit, before her eyes fell on the Biker.
"Damien?" she asked. "Is it really you?"
He hesitated for a while, before slowly removing his blindfold, getting a look at her with his real eyes.
"Syl...," he said, before his expression turned serious. "Favorite color?"
"Magenta," she replied.
"Favorite animal?"
"Turtles."
"Favorite food?"
"Waffles!" she replied ecstatically. "With extra syrup, and-"
"Strawberries," the Biker finished for her. "It really is you.."
He dropped to his knees, at a loss for words, it seemed. Sylvia stepped forward and ruffled his hair, smiling.
"You've changed a lot," she said. "I remember you being the little sibling."
He smiled a little, for just a second, before his expression turned dark.
"I'm not who I used to be," he said. "I'm not the little kid you used to know. Everything started changing after you died. I..."
He looked her in the eyes, looking serious. The pentagrams burned into his eyes glowed fiercely.
"I hurt people," he said. "I kill them. And I enjoy every moment of it."
"I know," she said.
He gazed back at her, confusion spreading over his face.
"You do?" he asked.
"Doctor Ferris told me everything," she said.
"Yeah, she's been living inside my head for a while," I said. "HELLFIRE's found it really awkward, seeing as he was partially responsible for her death."
"The Dying Man shard?" the Biker asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep," I said.
The Biker considered that for a moment.
"That explains a lot," he said. "I'll have to have words with Ben..."
Sylvia ruffled his hair again.
"You're still my baby brother," she told him. "But you need to stop hurting people."
"That's gonna be difficult," I said. "We've got a war on our hands. In war, people get hurt. People hurt each other. He's particularly good at that. Which is why I need his help."
The Biker straightened up.
"Right," he said. "That."
He thought for a minute, before turning to me.
"You've named your price," he said. "And quite frankly..."
He waved a hand dramatically.
"It beats out Kraken," he said. "Fuck those guys, the cheap bastards."
He offered me a hand.
"I want in," he said.
I shook his hand.
"Glad to have you on board," I replied.
"So," came another, familiar voice. The newcomer sounded a lot like Karl from Law of Talos, only older, and a bit more sinister, if you can imagine that.
A man was standing on the roof of Ozzy's shop, looking down at us. He was dressed in a heavy looking hooded longcoat, hood up and concealing his face. He was armed with a long glaive, and what appeared to be a steel pipe attached to a sword hilt sheathed at his side.
The Demi God hunter.
I'll be honest, I don't actually know this guy's name, so let's call him... Lance.
"I've got you selling an experimental virus to a known Oathbreaker in exchange for a custom made homunculus," Lance said. "Collaborating with a violent mercenary with an ever growing list of kills, and..."
He glanced at Sylvia.
"Literal necromancy," he finished. "You just keep giving me reasons to kill you."
Okay, I didn't want everyone there knowing what I had to give Helthead in exchange for the creepy little robot girl, but I guess it's out there now...
In my defense, I also gave a sample to the SMSC and Trias (got to see the moose again, that was fun) so a vaccine/cure should be out there before Helthead can actually do any harm with it.
Anyway, putting aside the aforementioned necessary evil, let's get back to the encounter...
Lance jumped down from the roof. He seemed to be wearing some kind of specially designed shoes, because not only did they absorb the impact of the fall, but they seemed to redistribute the energy from it, propelling him forwards. He attacked me with his glaive.
Now, I'm really not joking about him being a professional Demi God hunter. He goes up against super powered people regularly. And that takes a great deal of skill, equipment, and training. This guy's good.
The best I could do was evade his attacks, occasionally steeping into the God's Way to gain some distance. I tried throwing a fireball at him, only for it to glance uselessly off of his evidently fireproof coat. I tried to hit him with an ice attack, only for him to counter with a miniature wrist mounted flame thrower. Where did he even get one of those?
Then he tossed a handful of what appeared to be marbles at me. A few of them missed me, but most of them hit my labcoat and clung to it. Then they all started flashing red and beeping loudly.
Sticky bombs.
Shit.
I could see him smirking beneath his hood as he muttered "Checkmate."
I sighed.
"And I really liked this labcoat..." I said.
And then I did something I rarely do. I stepped into the God's Way...
And left my labcoat behind...
You see, I don't have to bring my clothing with me when I teleport. I only bring what I want to bring. Usually bringing my clothes along is a subconscious effort. But I can still leave things behind if I want to.
I reappeared behind Lance as my coat fell to the ground. Several small explosions tore the thing to shreds. Such a sad sight...
I drew my brand new sword cane, made partially of Newborn steel, and held it up to Lance's neck.
"That was my favorite coat," I growled.
"It was mustard stained," Lance pointed out.
"It was ONE stain!" I said. "Why do people keep drawing attention to it?"
Lance lowered his glaive.
"Do you really want to stop the forest?"he asked me.
"Yes," I said.
He considered things for a minute before speaking again.
"Fine then," he said. "Temporary truce."
I lowered my blade, and returned it to it's cane-sheath. He turned to me.
"Until the forest is dealt with, you have my assistance," he said. "But not my allegiance."
"Fair enough," I said.
He then turned from me, closed the distance between himself and the Biker in a couple seconds, and cleaved through both of the Biker's legs with a single swing of his glaive, causing the Biker to fall to the ground, yelping in pain.
"As for you," Lance said. "You've had that coming since our last meeting, you cunt."
"Whoa!" Justin snapped, gesturing to Sylvia. "There's a fucking kid present! Watch your shitty mouth!"
Lance let out a grunt, and turned his back to us all. The Biker begrudgingly began reattaching his legs, because apparently that's a thing he can do.
"Geez," Justin said, approaching me. "What's his deal?"
"A Demi God killed his little brother," I aid. "Or so I've heard. He's had it out for us ever since."
"Damn...," Justin said.
So yeah. That's how that all played out. We've got some new, sort of allies. Time to regroup with the others, and get a good look at this Phantasm character.
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