Chapter Text
*Ding!*
The elevator arrives at the second highest floor.
The building? Bliss Ocean Headquarters. A heavily defended skyrise, filled to the brim with security measures and armored goons up to the top. Out the elevator exists Zora Salazar, one of the four Bliss Ocean Corps Officers.
Boss called in for a meeting along with the other officers, regarding her... mishap in getting the Amulet, along with a new assignment.
She enters the meeting room. It's a spacious atrium with windows on every wall, the view looking down on the busy city below. Streetlights and car lights flood the night with life and activity, but seems so small when viewed from the skyrise.
Acting as the centerpiece of the room is the large table with the organization's heart insignia. There's a few empty seats, but Zora takes the seat next to the hooded figure with pointed shades. The figure looks down, contemplative, but Zora knows that she's just sleeping.
Sitting on the opposite side of the two is Yoomtah, the mystery girl with seemingly robotic features. Her body make a faint mechanical whir as she moves, which probably explains why she always seems to be full of energy, zipping around all the time. Zora never knew what's up with her, but she knows for a fact that Yoom's not inscribed.
Speaking of which, Yoomtah looks at the empty seat beside her, arms crossed. “Oh! We’re missing a person~! You know where they’re at, Zora?” She asks in a playful, bossy manner.
"Probably still doin' undercover stuff. Guess I'll talk to 'em some other time, then." Said missing member is one of Zora's close friends, who she chats with off work often.
“Right!! Forgot about that! Got LOTS of stuff to do myself, gotta zip Naven around town with my chauffeuring gig, and all! Last week, I even got to drive a BUNCH of kids I don’t know across town at FULL SPEED, after another one of Naven’s speech lessons!”
Zora, having experienced Yoomtah's driving first-hand in one of their missions, stares at her in concern. “Yoomtah, gotta ask. How long’d it take you to get that driver’s license?”
“Couple of days! Why?” Yoomtah spins her hat around at an alarming speed, making a concerningly audible buzz as it whizzes around her finger like a saw.
“Hon, you’re gonna crash someone’s car someday like that.”
Elsewhere, an eldest sibling feels a shiver down his spine.
"By the way, I saw your little screw-up back there! In the forest, I mean!" Yoomtah pulls out her phone, and shows Zora a selfie.
"You TOTALLY got beat up by them, AND grabbed the fake necklace instead!!"
Zora winces slightly. "Aw hell, you were around there? Ya should'a said hi! But yeah, Boss is gonna be so pissed."
"Heh, maybe he'll be pissed at you," Yoom banters.
Zora chuckles. "Yeah, yeah."
*vwmmm*
The television audibly flickers to life, to which all officers face their attention. The hooded figure next to Zora wakes up from their nap.
A figure appears, with iridescent, kaleidoscopic eyes against a static background on the monitor. Boss.
“So... How did it go?” He grins, tilting his head.
...
Damn, guess he forgot to fix BOTH audio and video quality again, it’s all distorted and staticky, and his voice sounds way deeper, ugh. Makes him more menacing and mysterious than he really is, funnily enough.
Zora glances over to Yoomtah, seeing if she knew about this. Yoomtah returns a shrug. Well, nobody seems to care anyways, so might as well go with it.
Zora speaks up first. “Right, so that necklace ya sent me after? Poof, gone like the wind! Lil' rat-faced sunofagun made a fake outta dirt an' pulled the wool outta my eyes..."
As she recalls each event, she gets increasingly irritated. "Damn rodent nabbed the real deal, gave it to the cop of all people, broke my GUN!! Ooh, whenever I see ‘em next, you bet I’ll-”
“Now now, Ms. Salazar, no need to get so heated about that for now. We’ll deal with Mr. Murdoch eventually. Now, the necklace is currently in police custody, I presume?”
“Yup, like it says on the news. 'Breakin'!: Artifact recovered from those Banzai Bastards', an' all that junk.”
“Goodness, that’s going to be a challenge to retrieve. But I don’t suppose you were injured, by chance?”
Zora shrugs. “Well, the two of ‘em DID get a nasty combo on me, but it's nothin' to get worked up about. If anyone should be worried about bein' hurt, 's oughta be them...”
The man on the TV smiles. “Nevertheless, I’m glad to hear you are safe. Moving on, then! Moot! How is your pursuit on the Epithet Killer?”
The hooded figure takes off her cloak and shades, revealing a tall, muscular woman. Long hair flows from her head, and her body's lined with countless arrow-shaped tattoos, more visible than her actual skin.
“There's traces of Slim in Sweet Jazz after that prison break, so seems like he’s out there somewhere. But that'll change soon, Boss.” The tattoos spread along her arms and glow a haunting white.
“Good to hear. He was too extreme, though we had similar goals.” Boss turns to Yoomtah, whose hat is now hovering in the air like a helicopter. “Yoomtah, dear?”
“Yeah, boss?” The electric green gremlin smiles, catching her hat. Smoke hisses from the friction.
“I’d like some help investigating someone, there’s a certain epithet user that caught my attention recently.”
“Oh oh!! Is it the soup boy from the museum robbery? The other guy who can slip through walls? Or was it the-”
“My mistake. It’s actually two people. One of which you'll accompany me for, and another who Zora will be in charge of."
Zora blinks, pointing at herself. "Wha- me?"
The Boss nods. "Yes, the one you will be in charge of is Rick Shades. I’m sure Yoomtah's met Rick on her car ride back from the toy store last week.”
Yoomtah nods in super-speed. “Rick!! Friend guy! Loved his energy! Sooo, what’s so special about them?”
The boss takes a moment to think of an answer, “...Well, first off we have Lorelai Blyndeff, the elder sibling at the Blyndeff Toy Emporium. From the information we've gathered, her epithet ☆Augment☆ allows her to amplify quite a number of things, even create augmented realities. A pleasant power, if not a little rambunctious. If she could amplify my powers to a certain extent, it could help expand the scope of our plan quite significantly. We'll have to test if she's willing to join, however.”
Zora whistles at that. “Woo, damn! So, what's this other guy got for ‘em? The one yer sendin' me for.”
“Well, Mr. Shades has a unique epithet, one of which we haven’t seen anything like before. ☆Soulmates☆ allows him to use the powers of anyone he befriends. Quite the backup plan for the amulet, is it not?”
“...So he can just use someone else’s powers? I mean, guess it sounds useful for us, but what’s the fun in that? Thought we were an anti-epithet organization, what're we gonna do with even more Inscribed folk?”
“For these two, you'll see in time. Anyhow, Yoomtah and I will approach Ms. Blyndeff to recruit her. As for you, Ms. Salazar? I’d like you to... befriend Mr. Shades for me.”
Blink.
Out of everything that could've been assigned to Zora, that was unexpected. “Wh- HUH? So lemme get this straight. You want me to... be pals with this ‘Rick Spades?’ No shootin’, no harmin’, no nothin’ like that? I mean, if ya want him here, I can just nab 'em from the street. And- hol' up, won't he be able to use MY epithet if I do that!?"
“Quite so!” The boss replies enthusiastically, voice still glitched over the TV malfunction. "Well, not exactly. From what I've heard, all you need to do to stop sharing your powers with him is by simply 'not being friends with him.' Just in case it becomes risky!"
Zora blinks. "... That's all it takes?"
Yoomtah heckles. "What a loser, hehe! Sounds fun though! Good luck trying to have friends, Zora!!"
She slams her foot on the table. *WHAM!* "AY!! What's that supposed to mean? And what exactly do ya want me to do, then?"
The boss continues, "Well, he seems like a pleasant young man, and his current life circumstances are... convenient for us. As for your assignment, I want you to reach out to him, slowly get accustomed with him, and make your way to recruiting him! I'm quite certain the two of you would find something in common, so hopefully it'll be a wonderful experience."
Zora takes a moment to consider her new mission. No gunning for a bounty or anything like that. Just... be friends with some weed of a man with a cool power?
(Well, one of my guns did get destroyed by that damn rodent, so I'll have ta take some time off huntin' to repair that anyways. Well, if it’s about just gettin' chummy, that might be a nice change of pace from all the work needed to hunt someone down. Besides, ammo's expensive!)
“Welp, might as well! So, where exactly do I gotta start for the job?”
"Hm." The boss thinks for a minute, considering his words, and finally replies. “Okay, please do not take this as an offense, but...”
“Nah, nah! Go for it! Whaddya need, Boss?”
“If you say so. Well, your first order of business is..."
He glances at Zora through the camera, squinting. "...to take a shower.”
Yoomtah bursts out laughing, howling into the night of Sweet Jazz City below.