Scarlett: I am waiting.

John: YOU are waiting? How about you explain to me why you sent me somewhere where an absolute monster is hanging out?

Scarlett: Absolute monster? Wait, I am still checking the security footage…

Scarlett: Ah, Sigmund was there. Wow, you have bad luck.

Scarlett: Still, I just got these windows cleaned yesterday!

John: Judging by that gigantic emblem you have on the front of your SKYSCRAPER, I think you can afford getting them cleaned again.

Scarlett: Sure, I can afford it, but I need to have security watch everything while it happens.

John: Why is that?

Scarlett: You think I am letting the poor scrub my stuff unsupervised? I had to warn three attempting robbers already. The warning being them getting their windows smashed in at three in the morning by some of my cronies.

John: …Maybe you should just pay them more?

Scarlett: For WINDOW CLEANING? If it was easier to get my hands on those genius slimes the Dutch make, they would be completely unemployed. As a matter of fact, they are slowly being replaced.

John: And you wonder why they try to rob you when you rationalize their low-wage jobs away?

Scarlett: Are you defending robbers now?

John: No, I am telling you that they have reasons.

Scarlett: And I am telling you that those reasons are stupid. Stealing is wrong.

John: Don’t you break people’s legs for crossing you?

Scarlett: No, I KILL people for crossing me, if they fuck me over hard enough, that is. Otherwise I will just ruin their life. Everything in measure.

John: So how are you in any position to make moral judgements?

Scarlett: Because, and listen to me closely here, they CROSSED me. I don’t go around killing people for the fun of it and I don’t steal because I am too much of a scatterbrain to learn a craft that actually pays. I am not a brute like Sigmund. Seriously, how do you not get this? What are you, a commie?

John: Oh, I am getting it, I just like asking questions.

Scarlett: Really? Steelman my point then?

John: Which part of it?

Scarlett: Just a general summary.

John: If you do bad stuff, it’s out of reactionary necessity, because you can’t let people who do you wrong go unpunished without looking weak. If they do it, it’s because they are wasting their life away without educating themselves in the search of better jobs and instead they are cleaning windows.

Scarlett: Precisely.

John: Thing is, somebody has to clean your windows.

John: So, the least you can do is treat them with respect and pay them enough that they don’t feel like robbing you.

John: Unless you feel like paying for having a security guy watching them is cheaper than raising the cleaner’s wages by half of what that security guy makes per hour.

Scarlett: …You raise a valid point. Let me check my Excel Sheet.

Scarlett: Running it through, no, I actually come out with a net loss. My security works cheap because I give them housing.

Scarlett: Better to take the risk of robbery.

John: Wow.

Scarlett: What? I told you I am not interested in dragging people out of poverty – especially not on the cost of my hard-earned money. Window cleaners exist like sand on a beach. Should be a side job at best.

Scarlett: Look at it this way: I will use the money I save here to open another store and give someone actual employment down the line.

John: Why are we in a debate about economics all of a sudden?

Scarlett: Because that is what gets me wet.

The line was deleted a second later.

Scarlett: Pretend you didn’t read that, realized how cringy that sounded.

John: And suddenly me dumping water on your home has a whole new meaning.

Scarlett: ?

John: Because you are thirsty as fuck.

Scarlett: …Okay, that actually made me chuckle.

Scarlett: Tell you what, golden boy, you send me a nude of you (after shower and with an erect dick please, best with length and girth data as well) and I will raise those poor window cleaner’s salary this time around.

John: You want me to give you fap material so they get paid more? Also, you are going to use that data to create a dildo of the same size, aren’t you? I have a girl who did that already.

Scarlett: Everybody wins. They get overpaid, I get to look at something really sexy and you get to feel like a good person. Also, yes, dildo.

Scarlett: Although I doubt you really mind showing me your body.

John: What does a man got to do to get a nude from you?

Scarlett: In your case? Wait 30 minutes while I take a shower and check if my landing strip looks neat.

Scarlett: Most of them can go fuck themselves though. Really hard to meet my quality standards.

Scarlett: …So how are we on the whole ‘sending me a nude’ thing?

John: I will think about it when I get back home.

John: Speaking of which, my ride is here.

John: Maybe you will see me later.

John: Also, go get that shower.

John: I will need something to get an erection to, and it wouldn’t feel like an honest boner if it weren’t from the receiver of the endpic. Will increase the likelihood of getting what you want immensely.

Scarlett: Awesome~ Will have it ready soon.

‘You know, it’s really hard to remember that she is basically the head of a Shadowrun mega-corporation when we are talking about nudes,’ John mentally told Aclysia as he put his phone away; he didn’t want Tilgun to get the right idea. He would have spent the time chatting with his girlfriend or Lydia instead, but both of them were offline. As Scarlett had started writing him, he might as well answer.

The weaponized maid adjusted the unconsciousness body of Metra on her back. After interrupting her chant, she had fallen into a deep slumber and there were no signs she would wake up soon. ‘She doesn’t strike me as a bad person. The word I would use is direct.’

‘I would say ruthless, but yes, I wouldn’t call her evil either. She has a very self-centred moral code, but at least she has one.’ So far everything he had seen of Thorne indicated that Scarlett expanded peacefully where she could but mercilessly broke those who reigned through violence in the first place. In other words, she saw it fit to beat people with their own weapons. Not entirely unjustified. ‘Her goal to have ultimate surveillance over the net is worrying though. I don’t want that amount of control centred around a single person.’

Their drive back home finally came to a stop at the pier. The two people on top of the boat, being the daughters of Magoi, nervously eyed Tilgun as Aclysia and John got on board. “Sorry for the hassle,” John apologized. “I would have just carried her to the teleporter but…” he gestured at the comatose Metra in her fully armoured state. Getting her through the city without garnering Gaia-disliked attention would have been impossible, with the red glow between the gaps and whatnot.

“It’s fine,” Stefanie ensured, waving her hand dismissively. “We were about to go anyway. The little drive over here and back to the island won’t take much.” With another worried glance at Tilgun, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “But can we go now?”

“Ready when you are,” he said, and thus they turned the ship around.

_____________________________________________________________________

They placed Metra in a bed on the ship. While nobody really believed that she needed the comfort, it would have felt rude to just place her on the floor or something. Still, Aclysia made a sour face; when asked why she answered that the many spikes of Metra’s exterior were ripping apart the linen. With no other choice (John tried kissing her awake, but that didn’t work and felt creepy after the fact), they left her lying there.

A bit later John called together the first ‘official’ meeting of the Collide council. It wasn’t exactly a great gathering, it basically boiled down to John, Aclysia and Rave (who ensured him that Eliza was preoccupied), Magoi and his son and lastly John’s smartphone lying on the table.

Still though, John felt like there was movement in what he was doing and that was a nice feeling. “Scarlett, you there?” he asked the smartphone.

“Mostly,” the voice of Scarlett reminded John a bit of Nathalia through those speakers. A certain degree of coarseness but swinging with a sense for business rather than sexy teasing, hunger and arrogance. Although, as earlier demonstrated, the Technomancer was perfectly capable of the sexy part (less of the teasing). The sound of water running in the background told John exactly where she currently was. “In all seriousness, as fun as our talks have been, I spent enough time today with you, so cut straight to the chase.”

“Well, this is just a recalibration of the strategy I will employ given today’s happenings,” John told them and then broke down the happenings with Scarlett to Magoi and what happened with Sigmund to everyone.

“Ya tell me there is someone even stronger than ya inside the city?” Rave was quite baffled. “Ya know the number of people who qualify for that is miniscule.”

The sound of water running stopped for a moment, the clacking sound of a bottle of shampoo being opened told everyone why. Magnus raised one of his thick eyebrows. “You get used to it rather quickly,” Magoi promised his son, “the constant innuendos, the harem talk, this, that. Personally, I think the Gamer is an inappropriate title, maybe Harem King would be more fitting?”

“That’s a stupid title,” Magnus reprimanded his father. “Much less fitting, it doesn’t describe his power set. Also, he said he doesn’t want to be king.”

Scarlett put the shower back on, leaving John with a half mast as he spent the time wondering how her lithe body looked lathered in soap, and talked. “There are a few on the east coast that could justifiably be called stronger than John, although Sigmund is quickly climbing that list himself. To the best of my understanding, he has an innate ability that is similar to part of yours but magnified. To put it simple, he grows in power with every challenge he beats.”

That was indeed similar to how John’s experience system worked, although he would still prefer the level system he had when given the choice. The way Siegmund looked, the challenges he had to face had been a journey of extreme danger. Then again, if it weren’t for Gamer’s Body, John would have suffered more than a few scars himself already. ‘The more I think about it, the more it’s just the whole array I have besides the experience mechanic that is bullshit,’ he thought.

Anyway, that made Sigmund the third person that John knew that had something like that. Himself, who got varying amounts of progress towards the next level when he did things (mostly murdering things inside Instant Dungeons); Romulus, with his ability to rip the magical energy out of purely abyssal beings, and now Sigmund, who got a surge of power whenever he beat a challenge.

Sigmund seemed to have gotten the short-end of the stick in that trio, but he was still vastly stronger than John right now. Which was exactly why John wanted to adjust his strategy. “I got a stern reminder that I am not strong enough to enforce what I want,” he told everyone. “So, my focus will now be completely on levelling. Scarlett, I know you have some kind of plan about how you want me to take over…”

“Actually,” Scarlett softly interrupted him, “at best I would like you to grab your shit and bother some other city. I do have a plan to make the best of the situation though.”

“…Yes, that, I will trust you with this, do what you want.”

He could hear her surprise in the silence. “You are seriously just going to let me give you orders? Without asking questions or anything else?”

“Within reason,” he told her. “I think we hit it off quite well earlier, you were open with me and I am repaying you. You want your plans to remain shrouded for now – okay, I am in for the surprise.”

“Not to be rude,” Magoi chimed back in, “but she could have sent you into Sigmund fully expecting you to die.”

“If I wanted to murder his face, I would have hired Sigmund to actually do it,” Scarlett said. “In which case he would have spent less time playing with you and more time chopping you up.”

“I have to agree with her there, Magoi,” John nodded, “this didn’t feel like an assassination attempt. Sigmund would have killed me more as an accident while throwing his weight around than as the actual goal in that fight, at least that’s what it felt like.” He saw, despite the raptor mask, that Magoi had further thought on the matter. “Look, I don’t trust Scarlett completely either, but I think she and I have a good chemistry…”

“I can agree to that,” the speaker rung out.

“…and that she understands that one of these other monsters may be able to flatten me – at least right now – but that I can destroy all of Thorne’s physical assets starting tomorrow if I find out she crossed me.”

“Which is a previously discussed fact,” Scarlett agreed again.

“So, I will trust her that her plan will lead both of us somewhere where we want to be. Unless you have a strong case against this.” John left that possibility open to Magoi. If there was a flaw in his argumentation here, he certainly wanted to hear it.

“I can’t say I think leaving someone you met earlier today in charge of your operations is wise,” Magoi finally stated. “But I understand it correctly that you are not placing her in charge of any of our resources but simply compel us to take her recommendations on what to do in the grand scheme of the taking-over of this city, right?”

“You can put it like that, yes,” John affirmed.

“Then, on the basis that I can easily opt-out if I don’t like what she is making me do and that she holds no actual power over us, I agree,” Magoi finally said. “Anything else that you want to go over?”

“Just that I have priority list, rather than a time-table this time around… I never stick to my time tables…” John mumbled that last part to himself, still not having his billion dollars but being knee-deep in the city affairs already. “Number 1, get the money I want. 2, get the experience I want. 3, I want the rest in my guild to also become stronger. 4, make sure everyone we are officially protecting remains protected. 5, expand knowledge about Collide through all of New York. That’s the important goals for the direct future.”

“Can I get some more experience potions, then?” a blank voice suddenly asked. Everyone in the room jumped as they noticed Nia, who was sitting, legs pulled up to her chest, in a swivel chair and slowly turning around. The turning came from no apparent source. Copernicus was on the inexplicably rotating chair with her. When that had happened, John had no idea, but the suncat was sitting on the blank’s head. On top of the cat lay Stirwin. However that golden pile of hair and elemental beasts had been created was another mystery he couldn’t quite solve. The whole situation was rather weird.

“Nia, where were you?” John asked. “I haven’t seen you in almost two days.”

“Orcas,” Nia just said as if that answered everything, raising both of her hands to pat the two creatures sitting on her head. For all that was important, that did answer everything, because this conversation would only lead to more disbelieving headshakes.

“Anyway, that would be that,” John turned back to the council. “Magnus, I want to start training tomorrow, so can we meet tomorrow in front of the I.D. Gate? Around eight?”

“Certainly,” the man’s answer sounded militarily. If not Scarlett, John had a feeling Lydia would like at least this guy in his new ensemble. “We could start right now, if you so desire, John Newman! It is still early in the afternoon.”

“Yeah, no, I have one,” he looked at Rave, “two,” he looked at Nia, “three,” he looked at Aclysia, “…a whole bunch of things to do,” he looked inside himself. “Also, I want to upgrade the Guild Hall.”

“I told you, Magnus,” Magoi ended the council, “innuendos, innuendos everywhere.”