“Oh? Have you, now?” His voice did not change in tone. Janusz barely seemed intimidated.
“And besides, it depends on the context for here. Because if I recall correctly, I have been on this planet since 1989 when I first decided to come here. And besides…” Janusz gave a tilt of his head. “You were living peacefully before you decided to confront me. Why can’t you just go on your own way and resume business as usual?”
"Oh really? I've been on this planet since 1989 as well you know and I've stuck with my home base in this very city for all those years," Alexa responded deciding to match his uncaring demeanor. The other Eldritch had a point, but the mere fact he was here was going to bother her, unless… "But yes, I could go on my way and resume business as usual. However, I'm not going too. Either you're leaving or we can make a deal."
“I refuse to leave.” For his own reasons, of course. Reasons he wouldn’t say. He folded his arms. The note of her saying she’d been in this city all these years stuck with him, but you couldn’t exactly avoid travel when you had a war or two to fight in, could you?
“It depends. What sort of deal?” Janusz questioned.
"Work for me," Alexa responded letting the light smirk tug on her lips. She folded her arms as well as she looked at him. Her hope was that her words of being within the confines of the city for so long would help sway his decisions, "It would be useful to have someone of my caliber alongside me amongst all the humans. You be able to do more of your vigilante justice with me, more than you can do now at least."
“What sort of ’jobs’ would that involve? And would there be limitations to what I could do?” Janusz asked. This part of his job, he wasn’t really willing to give up too much for it because it was the only place where he truly felt some freedom in. He wanted to know what he would be doing if he were to work alongside her.
"As long as you let me know what you're doing, and it doesn't affect my own scheming, no limitations," Alexa responded to the second question first. She quickly formulated a response to the first question, "You'll probably be put in charge of something within my business, but you wouldn't be doing any of the dirty human work. I haven't quite worked out the details yet."
“And what is your business about?”
Janusz considered what she had said. It seemed interesting, to say the least. He’d probably end up saying yes, but he wanted to gain as much as knowledge as possible before he jumped into it.
"We deal with matters of the law," Alexa answered. It was mainly the truth. Her cover business was a law firm, but the other half dealt in breaking the law by selling drugs, trading illegal wares, and, of course, murder.
Janusz appeared to ‘hmm’, as he turned to the side slightly. “I will..” He began, quietly at first, then added on, a bit louder this time. “Yes. I’ll agree to the deal.”
Alexa's smirk only grew as she held out a hand to him. She was glad he accepted and even gladder to have another Eldritch in her ranks, "Then we'll shake on it and the deal will be sealed."
Janusz held back for a moment or two before he reached out his hand as well. “Okay. Deal done.”
Above, the clouds in the night sky thundered softly as rain began to fall. Janusz glanced away to the rest of the alleyway. He’d better stop at the market soon and get to Tamara. Who knows when she’d call again.
“What now?” He questioned.
Alexa had a grin and messed with reality just slightly so the rain wouldn't ruin her suit. She let go of his hand after shaking it putting it into her pocket and pulled out her phone, "You have a phone, right? Give me your number so I can call you later to give you more information. I'm figuring you have better places to be right now."
Janusz had a phone, alright. Just not a typical one. It came with the suit, you see, and putting numbers on there was a real pain. So upon noticing her usage of her abilities, with a quick glance around, Janusz seemed to push his gloved hand into the air. The small area around it seemed to almost warp for a brief moment. Janusz pulled out a much more convenient mobile phone and the area turned to normal. Pocket dimensions were some of Janusz‘s favourite and most useful tricks to use, although you did need to be careful with them.
“My number.” Janusz read it out to her, briefly taking off a glove on his hand in order to operate the phone.
Alexa watched as he reached into his pocket dimension. She wondered why he kept his phone in a pocket dimension but decided not to question it as she put in his number. She had no problem keeping herself dry because it was so unnoticeable with the light rain. She sent a message to the number hoping his phone would go off, "The message is from me."
Janusz looked at his phone.
‘Recieved.’ He typed in the response to her text.
Turning around, Janusz put back on his glove. He did have a place to be at this moment. Without saying anything, Janusz began to leave.
Alexa smiled and let the other Eldritch leave for a moment. Before he could fully leave the alley she called out, "Oh yeah. Welcome to the mob."
She turned around and walked back into the alley to meet up with Kasey to get back to the upper levels. Alexa wanted to get out of the rain and the lower levels.
Janusz seemed to halt in step for a moment as he heard her. The mob. So that was what this was.
He couldn’t exactly back out so soon, he’d just made the deal. He’d have to wait and see how this would play out. He resumed his walk.
Proceeding out, Janusz went up to the mid levels, where he was sure to come across a market. He could then pick out the potatoes for Tamara there. As he was surveying the area, finally coming across what he was looking for, a raspy but loud voice; even among the market interrupted him.
“Jan! Are you coming down to the fighting ring tonight? It’s been a while since you’ve been there.”
Typically, Janusz went down there for investigations. He never told Kovrov, who seemed to believe he was just going down there for fun. But Janusz didn’t really have anything planned tonight. As long as that new deal of his didn’t intercept..
“Sure.” He said, after a moment. “How did you know it was me?”
“The way you carry yourself and walk! And besides, you don’t really see just any armoured guys like you down here.” Janusz still didn’t get it, but he let Kovrov off. Kovrov seemed harmless enough.
“Anyways, see you tonight!” The man waved, running off into the crowd before Janusz could respond.
Turning back, Janusz made his purchase. It wasn’t too expensive, but it wasn’t all too cheap, either. Even for just a few potatoes.
Janusz made his way over to Tamara’s home.
Alexa met up with Kasey in no time. She allowed a slight bit of rain to fall on her suit. Kasey walked up to where Alexa was, "Did you manage to get the informant?"
"No, but I got something better," Alexa responded continuing to make her way towards one of the quick passes to the upper level, "We'll need to send in a team to clean up the mess, however."
"I'll send for one right away," Kasey responded pulling out her phone to make a few calls. Alexa just smiled as she continued her way up. Her human underlings already worked like a well-oiled machine, now let's see how well working with another Eldritch would go.
Janusz had entered the house of Tamara, located about ten minutes away from the market he’d just visited. The house wasn’t really much of a house first look, it only seemed to be a Butcher’s shop at first. But built into the back was like a warehouse, a big one. Set up like a normal family home.
Tamara greeted Janusz upon entry. “Ah! Have you brought the potatoes?”
“I have indeed,” said Janusz as he approached. He set them down on a counter, looking around. Tamara gave him a knowing side glance.
“The children are in bed.”
“Sleeping?” Already?
“Who knows?”
Janusz placed his hands on the countertop, sighing. Tamara began to prepare the potatoes. Presumably making a soup, Janusz reckoned. His senses were still haywire, for whatever reason. Even if the adrenaline of killing the criminal had ran out long ago, it was almost as though something else were interfering with it.
“Why don’t you take that off? Get changed into something less..armoured..?” Tamara had snuck up on Janusz, and moved her hands up to his helmet, as though she was to take it off.
Janusz pulled away. Not right now. Not here.
“No,” at first, his voice came out cold, but he stopped. “I mean, I will. I’ll go do that now..”
Tamara stiffened, but allowed him to proceed into the hallway where the spare bedroom was located. Janusz shut the door and look into the mirror, slowly removing his helmet.
What looked at him was not the face of a man but of a thing. An inky, black featureless face returned his stare. His face.
Janusz had witnessed this phenomenon only once before. It was rare to come across another Eldritch when you acquired a Husk. Only certain Eldritch had this..condition, it was like a reaction. Not a very beneficial reaction though. It seemed to only occur around other Eldritch, and it didn’t happen every time, either. It wasn’t studied upon because…well, humans didn’t know of his true identity.
He stilled himself, calming, and allowed his real face to be molded into the human one. He was not Shiondun right now. He was Janusz.
Janusz prepared to get ready to go to the fighting ring.
Alexa arrived back at her office building and sat back in her desk. She leaned back in the chair and rested her feet on the desk while one the others left her be. She looked to her arm to see some of the hairs still raised and no matter what she did they remained raised. Her mind knew it was because she had ran into that other Eldritch, whom she didn't even have his name yet. Now that seemed rude to her. It was fine if she didn't know a human name, but this man was an Eldritch. She did have his number, so…
With the snap of her fingers, one of her underlings came into the room. She held out a paper with his number on it, "Take this and track it down, or at least it's last location. I want you to track the owner in person preferably. Or at least get someone to do it."
"Yes madam," the little human responded taking the paper and scampering off. Alexa didn't need to be an Eldritch to make humans fear her. It had been a while since she had been Tazha, but it was a necessary evil they assumed.
Wasting no time she took out her phone and sent a text to her other Eldritch, I never did get your husks name. What is it?
Janusz had gotten changed into what he considered casual wear. He was walking down the hallway towards the main room when his phone buzzed.
Opening up his messages Janusz held his phone in silence for a few seconds before making his response.
‘Janusz.’
It was the only thing he wrote before pocketing his phone and leaving. As he was waking up the stairs again, towards the door, Tamara yelled out.
“Where are you going?”
“Out to see a friend.”
“Oh. Will you be back tonight?”
“Maybe.” He paused. “Goodnight.”
He left the home, lifting up his hood and bandana. Janusz paused, looking around the crowded streets for a moment or two, then turning right and proceeding down to the fighting ring that Kovrov ran. He’d no clue if he’d actually see Kovrov there. He didn’t really care, either way.
The fighting ring wasn’t far. It was a bit closer to the lower levels, but just enough so you could stay out of radar of the patrols of the enforcement around here. Of course they came around sometimes, Jan was living proof of that. But rarely did they ever care what the ring did, unless some wanted criminal was hiding out here.
It was a busy place.
'Alexa' She sent the message back. So he hadn't put his phone back into the pocket dimension, good. A slight smirk tugged on her lips and rested there as she waited for news on his location. She wasn't going to go to where he was, but it would be nice to know his whereabouts. Especially given how dangerous he had the potential to be. It would take a moment or two, but it would come soon enough. Her people were effect after all.
That's my husks name. she added on as an afterthought. It was probably smart to put some reason behind the name.
Janusz took a seat at the busy fight club. He was by the sidelines, looking out to the fenced arena. Rarely did the ring use real humans. No, they preferred robots around here. Sometimes they were bots that looked like humans, other times they were more animal like. It was interesting on what the humans would do for entertainment, what they would throw their money at sometimes…Jan glanced as someone; speak of the devil; threw some cash right at the ring. The opponents were two machines. One on wheels, the other quadruped. He could see their controllers on either side.
Jan never paid too much attention to the fights, unless something came of interest. He’d almost figured the same for this match..but something caught his eyes. His sight, cleared up for the time being, caught the symbol. Deluge Networks. A name he hadn’t heard in years. Jan had thought they’d went bankrupt. Apparently, he was wrong. The symbol was a silver triangle, half red half yellow dot in centre.
The match was over in under 30 seconds, when the quadruped DN bot fried the systems of the wheeled one with an electric charge. Janusz watched them take out both of the robots..watched to see if he saw the uniform of the Deluge Networks personnel, but nothing showed up. Maybe someone had gotten ahold of one of their machines? Not many people knew about DN, after all. All aside from the enforcement which had ran a case against DN a few years ago.
Janusz made a note to do some research whenever he got the chance. He leaned back in his seat.
Alexa finally got word of Janusz whereabouts. He was at Kovrov's fighting ring. Kovrov wasn't within her gang area exactly, but he and she did business on occasion. He paid her a small fee once a month and she didn't send people to burn the building down. It really wasn't that large of a fee anyway compared to what the thing made on a daily basis.
She twirled the pen in her hand as she thought through her next actions. What was an Eldritch doing in a fighting ring anyway? That was for bots and idiotic humans who thought they could beat robots in entertainment purposes. Though she would admit that the blood in a human fight was always enjoyable to see.
Janusz stood up after some time, and decided to leave. He had no more business here. Now, his interested were turned to Deluge Networks. What had they done in the past, exactly?
They came close to uncovering the Eldritch, that’s what. Although they referred to the Eldritch under a different name; one that Janusz had yet to uncover, he knew their goals were not pretty. That’s why Janusz had done his best to uncover as much as information as he could about them. What he couldn’t find, he made. A case against the Networks, to take them down.
Apparently, that didn’t work so well if DN was back.he wasn’t sure to what extent, but he wasn’t going to wait until it was too late.
Janusz went back down the street, unsure of his next destination. Not back to Tamara’s place for sure, not that he had a problem with the human, it was just he needed something. Information. Janusz decided the next best option would be the police HQ, a tall building on the upper— no, top levels of the city. The main HQ that is.
He made his way over.
Alexa hummed a little as she heard that Janusz was coming up to the upper levels, or at least appeared to be. What could he be doing coming up here? Did he see something in the arena? Maybe she should get a list of the contenders for tonight and the bots they were using. Perhaps… Alexa hoped to god it didn't involve that company. Nothing happened in the city that she didn't know about (except for another Eldritch apparently), but news of Deluge Networks' work came to her far too late. At the very least the police seemed to take them down before Alexa had to get her hands dirty.
(Sorry for lack of response, had some family stuff)
The HQ was quite big and towering. Stairs, elevators, offices, all sorts of rooms. Janusz hadn’t seen all of them, yet he’d been working here for some time.
His appearance had gone unnoticed aside from the occasional questions, often regarding wether or not he worked here (to which he had shown his badge in answer of). The walk wasn’t far, just obtain one of the many computers the headquarters had at disposal, and proceed to bring up some records.
From what he could see, DN was indeed back, just under ‘apparent’ new leadership. Weirdly enough no matter where Janusz attempted to look he wasn’t able to obtain much aside from the leader being the child of the former leader, which arose some suspicion within his mind. He brought up his phone and proceeded to look up the location of some of the facilities for DN, to which he noted that DN had significantly less ownership of space than before. It was probably only recently that they appeared. He made sure to slide the locations onto his phone for later use, perhaps to check it out later.
Once he was finished, Janusz left the HQ having no business here. So apparently he would probably be heading back ‘home’, given the fact there wasn’t much for him to do at this hour, and the fact he had no calls for work.
Janusz proceeded out, presumably back to Tamara’s.
(You're fine!)
Alexa had finally gotten the competitors from the arena and, damn it. She had to do something about this. Then word finally got to her about Janusz's whereabouts of him going to the police HQ. So he was a policeman, heh that would be fun to deal with. She technically was a lawyer so he would hopefully get used to being on both sides of the docket. Speaking of him, she pulled out her phone and shot a message out to him. She had debated having someone grab him but figured it would be better if he came to her of his own volition.
Need to speak with you. Come to Law's Law Firm in the upper levels. About, oh, 5 blocks to the left of where you are currently. When you get there ask for the boss, She was grinning and biting her lip as she added on, Oh and if you don't, I'll just have someone pick you up got it? Good.
Janusz glanced at his phone, stilling for a moment as he read the message. He looked up to the air for a second or two, then back down to the message displayed on his phone.
Where I am currently…
Janusz looked over, then took one final glance at his phone, making sure he remembered the directions. Once satisfied, he proceeded onwards with the directions he was given in the message. He’d rather not have someone sent for him. Pocketing his phone, Janusz moved at an even pace.
It wasn’t long before he arrived at the place. Law's Law Firm. He wasn’t going back now. Janusz entered the building, calling out, “I’m here for the boss.”
One of the secretaries stood up upon hearing Janusz's request. She had been notified that there was someone coming to see the boss but wasn't aware as to what this man looked like. However, she wasn't deterred and stepped up to the man, "Follow me, sir."
She turned and began walking back to the boss's office. She really hoped Ms. Law didn't get mad for bringing her the wrong person.
