Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Face-to-face

Just as the crew was finishing up eating in the mess hall, Jack noticed a girl stalking up in his direction, glaring. Wait, him? He looked immediately past himself, expecting to see some other target. But there was no one, and when he turned back around, he noticed Abundance running behind her, grabbing her hand and trying to say something, at which point she ripped her hand free and barked something back at him.

Aw hell.

The young woman was tall and athletic with short, messy hair, somehow still stylish, and an expression naturally predisposed to be just as fierce as her eyes were, at least right then. She marched right up to Jack and slapped her hands down in front of him on the table, glaring into his face, close with her countenance fuming. Scraping sounds quickly announced that Highfive and Bo were standing up to respond. Otherwise, the immediate area went quiet, as all heads turned curiously to the altercation.

“You piece of fraggin’ shit!” the girl invading his space exclaimed, baring her teeth. “You’re the one who tried to pop my head off! Make me a damn quadriplegic at the least!” Her eyes flashed over his face rapidly. “No denials, huh?! What the utter shit is wrong with you?”

Jack, however he was annoyed by this, nonetheless kept his cool, and didn’t rise. He slow-blinked at her and put on a grin. “Corroline, I presume?” Jack’s eyes shifted as he noticed another walking up more slowly behind her. A girl with a baggy jacket on over her uniform, complete with a hood, and wearing a wooden mask. Solid amber eyes observed the scene from behind it. Her hands were idly in her jacket pockets. 

I’ve seen her around before. I guess this is X-Tender, then. Jack kept his focus on Corroline, though. “Why don’t you ladies have a seat, then? We can chat.”

Corroline growled and pointed a finger in his face. “Don’t give me that cute shit, asshole! Answer me! What kind of psycho are you, doing what you did?! Do you get off on it? Hmm?!”

“Corroline,” came the rich, layered voice behind her, lightly admonishing but highly annoyed, as if this whole thing was a huge bother. “Come on. Don’t project.”

Interesting. I thought she’d be pissed at us, too, after all that acrid banter she threw out.

Corroline slapped the table again hard, half-turning her head behind her. “Shut the frag up, Ten! Stay out of this.”

“You better move your ass out of my friend’s face,” Bo said acidly, having moved right beside Jack, glaring up at the other girl, bodies almost touching. Her eyes were the cold, dark fire of a compact panther before it struck. “Unless you want this to get real ugly, real fast.”

Daaamn.

Corroline turned and rose up to loom over the shorter girl, glaring right back with a sneer and her hands on her hips. “Go ahead and make it ugly, shortstack. I dare you.”

Daaaaamn.

Jack held his hands up. “I’d much rather not make it ugly, thanks!” His eyes shifted emphatically and insistently over everyone present. “Look, how about that answer, then? So, you take exception to what I did. Fine, but you’re taking exception to the rules. I didn’t violate any, Corroline. I did what I did only pragmatically. The most effect for the least effort. We’re supposed to go for the kill. Any slow type of pressure is child’s play for the chamber to counter.”

Not long after he began, Corroline shifted her scowling face once more toward Jack. It deepened as he went on, as she practically writhed with barely-contained anger, breathing deep, in and out, in and out. “You’re even more of a slimy maggot than I imagined.” She scoffed. “Frag your rules, you sick bastard! There’s some things you don’t do. You crossed the line.”

“No, I didn’t. They aren’t my rules. This is a competition. What do you want from me, Corroline? An apology?”

She sniffed. “Don’t bother. I can tell your sick mind has already justified what you did. Figures. I don’t need meaningless words from a worm like you.”

Jack just took a breath and shook his head, incredulous and dismissive of the childish situation. A little confused, too. Had she come for no other reason than to vent steam? Well, that was better than a more intricate revenge plot, at least. Hopefully, it didn’t progress. 

“You think you’re owed something?” Bo asked mockingly. “Just keep thinking that from your high horse. But if you have any sense, you’ll agree to mutually keep our mouths shut about each other. As a team. Which is in both of our interests.”

Corroline glared at Bo with incredulity. “Like I can trust a bunch of scum like you? Your lot” — her eyes flashed significantly at Inkblot — “are practically guaranteed to backstab us.”

Throughout it all, Inblot hadn’t even reacted to the event. He’d sipped tea, calm as could be. Few others could see it, but loose as he was, something subtle indicated he was ‘watching without watching.’ Poised to react, if needed. He did have the advantage of it being almost impossible to see where his eyes were focused.

Bo sniffed derisively. “As if we wouldn’t expect the same from you, oh Queen Degen, to get back at us for our supposed insolence?”

As the two had another glare-off, X-Tender said simply, “Deal.” Literally everyone turned to look at her, to which she shrugged, still with her hands in her pockets. “We won’t say anything if you won’t. Mutual interest.”

Oh, ho! This group dynamic is getting interesting… 

Corroline rounded on her, throwing her hands out wide in exasperation. “What the frag makes you think you speak for me, Ten?!” Her voice was higher-pitched than any words she’d directed to anyone so far, by an octave.

With the mask on, X-Tender’s expression wasn’t readable, but it still seemed like she looked at her teammate with long-suffering. “The same thing that makes A plus B equals C trump ropes, rods, and shadows.”

Frustrated confusion painted Corroline’s face. “What?!”

A sigh. “Never mind. The boys will agree. This is a team matter, Corroline, not your personal vendetta show.”

Corroline, as usual, fumed. “The opinion of newbies means jack shit! The boys do what we say, when we say-” She suddenly cut herself off, glaring over at the others with her lips pressed together, as if they were all eavesdroppers in her affairs. She seemed to get redder in the face.

Highfive met her eyes, standing somewhat near, his arms crossed. He formed a shit-eating grin. “Don’t mind me. Just counting my blessings over here.”

Corroline made an extremely frustrated noise, threw up her hands, and stalked off, calling, “Forget all you assholes and your bullshit! I’m gonna go soak, and no one better fraggin’ bother me!”

As the others watched her storm off, stomping off almost comically, Highfive whistled. “Now that is a firecracker.”

“More of a powder keg,” X-Tender replied.

“You know, you don’t have to suffer for one teammate. Plenty of fish in the sea, especially for a tank like you.”

X-Tender turned to meet his eyes. Speaking low, she said, “She’s vicious. Deadly. Dedicated and obsessed with perfection. Gets all four kills routinely in training, and she hasn’t blown up like this in a long time. She’s just overtuned. A sore loser. Anyway, loyalty is loyalty.”

“Right. True.”

Hmm. A perfectionist? And we spoiled it, ruining her team’s record in their first battle. Will she keep blaming ‘cheating’ and such, or turn inward eventually for self-criticism? Maybe we’ll see one day.

Most people wouldn’t care, perhaps, considering she had been practically screaming in his face like some Karen, i.e., who cared what ‘that bitch’ thought? But Jack always wanted to know what made people tick, and why. It was more valuable to analyze, to see things from different angles and ponder what led to the conflux, than to let ego corrupt the equation. He’d only started to get more serious about that sort of thing since he’d become a Non. As a pilot and then a cabby, it was more of a casual thing to establish rapport and satiate curiosity. Now, it was data. Business, so to speak.

X-Tender turned to Jack. “Nice maneuvers, Ferro. I couldn’t believe my eyes seeing white phosphorus drop from the air. I shouldn’t have, obviously.” She turned to leave. “Good luck in the next one, cousins.”

“You too,” Jack replied, then called, “Hey…” As the masked woman paused and half turned back, Jack asked, “Were you actually angry when you were slinging all those insults and such in the battle?”

She left a long pause, meeting his eyes. He wondered if she was smiling. “Nope.” With that, she turned and sauntered off.

Jack chuckled to himself. She’d surprised him, as he’d expected a non-answer from her. But he would’ve assumed the apparent truth, based on her calm demeanor out of battle. The only other explanation was some kind of Jekyll and Hyde type shit, but that didn’t really feel right, either.

“Soooo,” Highfive mused, eyes shifting around, inevitably landing on Jack, “why was she acting like she was mad, then? She was also talking shit when she was fighting me.”

“Come on, Fiver,” Bo admonished with a scoff. “You’re not that dense.”

Jack raised his brows at Highfive. “Guess?”

“Okay,” Highfive said with a breathy exhale, rubbing his chin. “I guess… strategy? Oh right. Tanks and taunting.”

“Exactly. Piss off and unbalance your enemies; make yourself harder to ignore. Just a basic extra to toss into the equation when your opponents really don’t want to waste energy on you. I imagine it's a skill to train, talking as you fight. Becomes automatic eventually.”

“Yeah, I get so focused, man, I forget to do that. That’s good shit, though.”

“Yes, all boys need to learn to use their words during action,” Bo said, which immediately elicited groans from Jack and Highfive. Bo crossed her arms and raised her chin in a smugly satisfied expression. Squinting her eyes, she continued, “I think maybe Ten was also psyching herself up after Corroline went down. It’s hard not to give someone pause when they start screaming and going off on you. But, you have to actually go off to, you know, go off.”

“Eh,” Jack muttered. “That might be better for some people, but I tend to go more so colder and hyper-focused when angry and juiced up.”

“I guess I’m like that? Now that I think about it.”

“Not me,” Highfive said as he started collecting his trash. “I keep pretty level, but if I do get pissed…” He trailed off, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head.

“Preferably don’t, yeah.”

Highfive chuckled and nodded as he finished off his drink.

Jack eyed the big man, realizing it was true: he’d never really seen him angry. His outbursts were more good-natured, like ‘aw, shucks, we failed, guys!’ He’d never seen him completely unleash in fury or the like. Never seen him ‘go off.’ It was supremely odd to think of the man as a gentle giant when he was out there murdering simulations with impunity, but half the time he was doing it with glee. A big smile on his face under the mask, no doubt.

Yeah, enemies beware, if he ever hulks out, I think.

Inkblot finished his tea as he rose. “I had to learn to get cold when angry. Direct it. The alternative wasn’t pretty.”

“Don’t get mad, get even?” Jack asked as he also rose and collected trash. To this, Inkblot simply nodded. Jack then glanced at everyone and asked, “Meet up tomorrow, eh?”

Highfive almost nodded, but hesitated. “Actually, the thing is, we got no chamber time. Rarely do, a day after an actual match.”

“We might as well take a break,” Bo said. “That’s the intention.”

Jack was a bit surprised. “Oh. Hmm. Alright. I can do individual training, at least. I do need to catch up-”

“You should spend time with Ira.”

“Huh?” Jack made a face at her. She stared back. Jack made even more of a face and snorted at her continuing stare. “So, anyway, I think it’s time I do my Calibration, so I’ll touch base with you guys-”

“Do I really have to remind you?”

“Huh?”

Bo crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows a bit dangerously. Even more danger, from slightly scrunched-up lips.

Jack struggled as he searched her face. Her lips twisted a bit sideways in impatient annoyance, the palpable danger growing by the second.

Inkblot was there to save the day. “You promised her observation,” he popped over via Mem-link. “Of your calibration, as you observed hers.”

Jack felt relief wash over him like an inky ocean as he replied, “Holy shit, Ink, you’re a lifesaver!”

“Yes.”

“I owe you one!”

“No need. S’all good.”

Jack grinned quite suddenly, as if victorious, and pointed a finger at Bo. “Calibration observation!” He winked. “I had you going, eh?”

And he did kind of get her, as she blinked in surprise. A flash of mixed emotion, caught between the satisfaction he did remember, and the disappointment she couldn’t hold it over him and correct him. “Damn you. Yes.” She squinted at him. “How are you both a good boy and a bad boy at the same time with this?”

“I am… not consenting to that language.”

As Bo rolled her eyes, Jack turned and began walking, grinning to himself in supreme satisfaction, waving a hand amiably behind him for Highfive and Inkblot. “Later, guys!”

After they all said their goodbyes and the boys went their separate ways, Jack and Bo headed to his quarters. 

As they sat on the subway car for a minute, Bo glanced his way and said, “Ira will meet us there.”

Jack met her eyes just as briefly and nodded, opting not to comment. Despite her brazen commentary at times, she was pretty damned cautious, maybe a little paranoid, around guys. Even Highfive to some degree. If Ira being around made her more comfortable, so be it, and making a deal out of it would be bad form. Whether she’d ever want to discuss the reasons — almost certainly to do with her history — would be her court forever until fielded. Some people wouldn’t want what amounted to coworkers knowing personal shit, after all.

But she did call me her friend in a moment where things can slip. With her, I don’t think that word is meaningless.

“So,” Jack began, breaking the ice and shifting subjects, “how much do you think the difficulty will ramp for our next actual match?”

Bo paused to consider it thoughtfully. “Really hard to say. We did so well, though, that I could see us going against a full veteran squad. Sixes and Fives, no weak links. Who knows, though? Central could say, ‘welp, that might be a fluke, let’s test them some more to see.’ And give us another even match or two. It’s a mystery. One thing I’ll say: a blind match anytime soon is unlikely. Almost certainly, they’ll test us in the typical default way, which is to be able to strategize acutely, gather intel, and possibly interface for smack talk and shit like that, between the teams.”

“Mmn. So, that little encounter we just had isn’t that unusual, then?”

“Yes and no. That dumb bitch can go fly off the plat.” She glowered briefly. “She went overboard, and what’s the damn point after a match is over? Some people, it’s just like the wood girl says: they’re sore loser dipshits.”

“Actual fistfights are rare, yeah?”

“Oh, they better be, especially before a match. I think Central likes to see psychological warfare, but not results manipulation, throwing matches, blackmail… anything that makes the struggle not about dealing with one's own shit, I guess? They’ll shut it down.”

“It’s like the old world boxing matches.”

“Hmm?”

“I researched it once, on a whim. Big-shot fighters, they would talk shit leading into the match and even do a face-off. Stared each other down nose-to-nose. At least, I think it was common. There’s a lot of missing info. But the whole thing was to create hype and maybe build animosity. Competitiveness.”

“Pff. Sounds dumb as hell, just like what we do. So I guess you’re right. I can’t stand it, but it is what it is.” After a pause of glancing his way, she added, “You can stand up to girls, Jack. The Nonny culture is a different animal. All warriors. If they’re going for a jacket, they are, anyway.”

“Eh. Not a good look. Nor do I care.”

“Just do it if another one comes at you, Jack. Okay?”

Jack frowned at her. “Why are you making a big deal out of this?”

She looked at him incredulously. “Why do I have to explain this if you’ve studied it?! It’s just what you do. You’re asking to inflame the situation just by sitting there. And if a whole team comes, everyone stands. Probably. Ugh! I can’t explain everything. You just need to read things. And stand up to anyone who does something like that in your face.”

Jack continued frowning as he looked away, raising his brows and shaking his head. “Whatever. Fine.” After a pause, he added, “I haven’t been absorbing the damn culture for years, Bo.”

“I know.” 

They were silent for a bit as the ride went on. 

Finally, the car came to a stop. As they rose to exit, Bo tapped her temple with a finger. “I would’ve instructed you in the moment, but you did have confidence in what you were doing. I bit my tongue. I didn’t want to disrupt what you were going for, or sow doubt at the wrong time. So I diffused and redirected her a bit by facing her.” They stepped out from the car in Everywhere Hall, and Bo shot him an accusing look, though he also caught a trace of amusement there. “Which you, you bastard ass, found cute, didn’t you? Girl facing girl, as the world should be, right, Big Iron?”

“No comment,” Jack muttered versus that teasing tone.

“Oh, I saw your face, Jack. You don’t need to comment. Anyway, this time, you might’ve impressed the wood girl that way. Novelty or whatever. Might even be why she was soft on the deal. Take note, most groups lie at some point, trading for vital info they need, breaking their little oaths to the contrary. The wood-and-whip crew isn’t likely to break theirs any time soon, with a lot of matches in their future and a presumably clean rep.”

“Got it. So, I’m off the hook for the first one. Sounds good to me.”

“I bet it does. Lucked out again, Jack.”

“So, hey, you and Ira are getting close, huh?”

“We’ve chatted here and there privately. We relate on some things.” Her eyes squinted. “It’s weird. I swear, she wears a boring facade over… I dunno… another person? Seems like there’s a really interesting soul trying to come out of the shell of the otherwise drabbest of spooks. If so, I will make that happen, trust me. Maybe you’ll help me.”

Jack blinked at that declaration. Poor Neex. She just can’t help but be more charming than some boring, analytical Central dweeb. Guess there’s a sea of difference between nerds and dweebs… 

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