Square Hammer

Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.

I'm sitting comfy in an Arrow fully-dressed in gear, armor, weapons, loaded backpack, everything on my way to meet some stranger that I met on the internet. We're comms-dark but Ravi installed a script in my helmet that will kick open a secure channel when my heartrate spikes or adrenaline gets out of hand. Every ten seconds I send out a radar ping and count the ships in the area and log the serials so Stone can run them to see who the owners are.

As I pull closer to the asteroid I feel oddly calm, like everything is going to be okay and life is worth living.

Not to say that I was in a bad headspace previously, but the fact I'm at peace with the universe right now is odd.

The Grim Hex ATC pops in over my comms.

"HEY MA! HOW THE FUCK ARE YA?!" His squeals grind ever so familiar nerve in my spine.

"I'm good, victor. Can I help you?"

"WHATCHA DOING HERE?! ARE YA HERE FOR YER ARREST QUOTA?!" His voice cracking like puberty is just now showing up to the party.

"You know I don't take people alive, Vic. Just here to meet a contact. May I land?"

"LIKE WE CAN FUCKEN STOP THE INFAMOUS SPACEMOM HAHAHA!"

//Hangar Request succ-HAHAHAHAHA//

Mature, as always.

I get the ping for my designated hangar and pull in, set down, then shut everything off.

A single planted dead pixel in the minimap tells me the system is still armed for emergency recording and broadcast so I can breathe easier.

I casually stroll over to the elevator and my mystery contact hits up my mobi again.

<???: Taking your sweet time, huh?>

<C: Vic if this is your way of asking me out AGAIN I'm leaving>

//Mailer Daemon Failure: contact not found//

Nice.

I hop on the elevator, take it to the terminals to stow the ship and then take another to what I call the rat-hole: the home of every filthy criminal in Stanton with migrants from Pyro.

I'd do the verse a favor by blowing this place the fuck up.

I step off the elevator and everything is ungodly quiet. No talking, plotting, stealing, killing, it's like the day it was originally abandoned and the feeling of dread sets in. Usually when Victor lets me in he tells EVERYBODY I'm here. The walkways are full of motherfuckers plotting my death.

But right now it's a ghost town.

I make my way through the paths and halls, through doors and stand in front of the bar's entrance. I step through and see a whole lot of nothing, not even the cute bartender I see here on occasion when she's working.

Look around, an odd sense of warmth fills my shoulders but I'm oddly compelled to sit at a stool by the bar.

Motion trackers are dead except for one pip that's making it's way here erratically but familiar.

"Hello Victor, and no I won't date you." I say before he comes around the corner but instead turns around and walks out slowly.

"awwe..." I hear in the main hall.

Every nerve in my body screams for me to grab my Coda but something somewhere stops me in my tracks.

There's a gentle pat on my right shoulder and a draft behind me. There is about two-hundred pounds of bullet-resitant weave wrapped around my body, and the fact I can FEEL somebody behind me is terrifying.

Feminine form, not sure if black in this lighting or just purple, full duster gear and carying nothing on them at all but they stop and lean against the bar with both hands.

"What can I get ya, doll?" She says in a bright, cheery tone but I can't respond in the slightest.

"Y'know what? I know what you want!" She says sounding happy.

Shot of cream rum, some cruz dark and a mint leaf go into a small glass, two ice cubes and handed over the bar.

"Pearl, why the fuck won't you go away?" I growl and the recording clicks on. She places a hand over her chest in a gesture imitating old-school shock and the fires of hell burn inside me.

"Heard you nuked the Hacienda asteroid? Not a small feat. Did Jojo suffer for what she did?"

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

"That's classified info, people higher than either of us would know about that. Why did they let you fucking regenerate?" The inside of my helmet is getting frosty.

She lets out a small chuckle and a playful shrug.

"Until somebody wipes me from the database, I'm going to keep coming back, dear! How is my darling Rav-"

"Shut your fucking mouth before I force you to eat a grenade and make you shit fragmentation for the rest of eternity."

Her voice drops down to a lower tone, and I know she's serious here.

"Look, this criminal shit in't playing out too well for me. The Xenos had an irresistable offer, then you blew up the fucking Hacienda before I could get there to collect so there's nothing there but irritated Vanndies."

"Not my fucking problem, should have thought about that before you became a criminal." I want to feed her lead so badly right now...

She leans on the counter again but closer this round.

"I did my time, Calliope. They damn near had to build a supermax prison for me but they decided that my time was served in Klesher's mines. I want to go back to being legitimate, if you would be so kind."

Desperate?

"Even if I WANTED you to come back, Arcantha is going to kill you, Ravi is going to make you vanish, and Veridian will disembowel you with her bare hands. I refuse." I'm seeing colors and hearing voices at this point.

"Oh, new person? Who is this Veridian girl?" She's starting to sound slightly happier.

"No, Boink got a promotion and she's my second in command. She still wants you dead regardless."

I hear the elevator stop, a Coda hammer clicking back and footsteps rapidly approaching. I know that gait, and I stand to spin on my heel.

"I'm not done talki-" Pearl says before Ravi slams into my arm as I catch her across the chest.

"LET ME KILL HER! LET ME DO IT AGAIN!" Ravi screams through her helmet mic and the feedback stings my ears a bit as she thrashes around.

Arcantha and Veridian step around the corner in full gear, weapons lowered with itchy trigger fingers.

"I asked you to come alone." Pearl says with an irritated tone. "What the fuck, Cal?"

<S: I tried to shut the Avenger down but she overran my processes. Sorry, boss.>

"First off she's not your boss, airhead." Arcantha says in a flat tone. "You gave that up."

Veridian grabs Ravi and pulls her back with a free hand before stowing her rifle and holding back with two.

"I tracked Callie, she doesn't just vanish off for no reason anymore! AND WHERE SHE GOES WE GO YOU RANCID BITCH!"

Pearl actually looked upset, she clearly didn't know that Ravi put a bullet through her skull previously but hell, here goes.

"Where did you wake up from regeneration? We wiped your imprint from the Galaxy that day before Ravi aired you out." I say letting Ravi go.

"Aired me out? Babe what did you do to me?" Pearl says, and Ravi's flailing causes her to fire a round into the floor.

"I FUCKING BLEW YOUR GOD DAMNED BRAINS ALL OVER THE FUCKING WALL RIGHT AFTER I CAUGHT KAT TRYING TO SNEAK UP ON US!"

Pearl sat on the small stool behind the counter and put her head in her hands after removing her helmet. Her face was covered in scars while her head was shaven to the scalp.

Ravi settled down after seeing her nemesis in this state.

"You told Jojo that you were going to deal with the 'codependent moron' after you airlocked Callie and dealt with the rest of us." Ravi says fighting back tears. "If you didn't like me you could have said no, but going after my family can't be tolerated..."

Pearl's head slowly rises and looks at Ravi.

"They were my family too you kn-" Pearl stops when all four of us stare her down and I point my finger of judgement at her.

"Family doesn't kill family. We are not your fucking family, Desi. You made the choice and pissed off for cheap Xeno money and drugs, we funded a fucking space station of our own after your stupid little stunt."

"Wait, you got paid from that?" She says shocked. "How much?!"

I turn and take the Coda from Ravi, and tell Veridian to let her go. In a flash she flies over the counter and all we can hear is screaming and something probably close to what I did to Kat that day.

"It's not about the money, never was. We can call the UEE right now and this whole rock, and you will cease to exist."

I nod to Verdi who walks around the bar and pulls the miniature terror off her prey, who is clinging to life.

"We'll think about it, in the meantime you'd better vanish and prey to whatever you believe in that we don't find Kat.