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Every so often, when Hyperlaser passes by the same, familiar building, he finds a single black tulip on the doorstep of Apartment 303.
It is not the same tulip, he’s sure; each visit, the leaves are distinctly mismatched, the petals are always fresh and blooming, and its signature dark color is always subtly different.
One day, it’s as dark as the bottom of a cup of steaming Crossroads coffee. Another day, it’s akin to the lightly tinted fabric of matching eyepatches. Then, it’s as muddled as the shadows beneath each Blackrockian who utters that fateful name.
The “name” itself isn’t exactly a name, rather a numerous number of titles that constitute the infamous Inphernal. Sometimes, it’s “the traitor.” Other times, even in his own words, it’s “the renegade.” But in very uncommon cases, it’s “Medkit,” spoken with as much vitriol as if it is some lethal disease (and in a way, you could say it is.)
It swirls invisibly through the conversations in each fluorescent white hall; it’s silent yet evident in the topics of each higher-up meeting, each job Hyperlaser accepts, each diamond-shaped crystal… and always in the two scientists who created those crystals.
The one aforementioned scientist is unremarkably peculiar. Subspace is horribly self-centered and demanding, and Hyperlaser wouldn’t listen to him go on about whatever unethical experiments he enacts for longer than ten minutes, even if he were to be bribed. But the other scientist, the one owning that amalgamated title—he piques Hyperlaser’s interest much more.
He feels that way towards every bounty he is assigned, to be honest. It’s a common trait of his to be interested in an Inphernal’s backstories and motives; he’s horribly nosy, in the simplest terms. And there’s something noticeably different about Medkit, all the way back to when that incident first had happened and the traitor had been put on Hyperlaser’s long list of convicts to capture.
It’s an understatement to say that most Inphernals don’t like being a part of Blackrock. To fear what will happen when you step out of line, that one day, you’ll be deemed no longer useful… It’s a fear too great to enjoy being under their thumb, but also too great for consideration of rebellion to really conspire. Everyone has thought of escaping Blackrock, but no one has fully acted on those thoughts, because they know what will happen if they don’t succeed.
Medkit is one of the few Inphernals who have truly left the faction. And it is in this act of fighting against authority, not fully out of passion, but also out of necessity, that he proves himself different from everyone else Hyperlaser has met. Well, that and the fact he’s actually met him.
It hadn’t been his intent at first. Katana had recommended to him a particular cafe on the edge of Crossroads, relatively close to the Lost Temple bridge. The restaurant was nice, as Katana’s recommendations always were, but Hyperlaser had never been to that area of the city before. He’s wholly unaware of the geography, and he’s clueless on how to get back home.
In his search, he passes by an empty apartment building. It’s smaller than the typical complexes he finds in Crossroads’s center, but it’s definitely larger than his own.
At this point, he’s certainly lost, and it’s probably a good idea to get some external help. But there’s no one around the building—it’s almost as if this is some secret, taboo corner of the city.
Hyperlaser considers backtracking, just to try and find someone, but abruptly, he hears footsteps echoing from his right.
He turns his head to the noise and gets a glimpse of tall, teal horns—
Hyperlaser quickly ducks to the corner of the apartment building, where the setting sun casts a shadow on him and what looks to be a dumpster.
He definitely notices the changes—the longer, pulled-back hair, the eyepatch lined in gold fabric, the dark teal suit; though it does look good on him, it doesn’t give quite the image of a traitor. But he can’t mistake those antler-like horns, towering over the diamond-shaped crystal hovering above his head. Its bright glow illuminates each stone the Inphernal walks past with an indisputable teal glow.
Medkit hadn’t noticed Hyperlaser, it seems. His movements are quick and deliberate, like he has a place to be and doesn’t realize the immediate risk he’s in. It’s the perfect situation.
And he almost takes advantage of it. He almost reports back to his employer that he’d finally found “the renegade” that they’d been searching so long for. But he stops before he can press his communicator.
Some small, nagging part of his mind didn’t want to do this. It’s a completely unfamiliar feeling to Hyperlaser—usually the regret would hit after the job had been completed, when he’d already fired his gear; he’d take a shot of whiskey, and it would go away as fast as it arrived. But this time, he couldn’t fire any shots, and he had left the alcohol at home, wholly unprepared to find a bounty in the wild.
Blackrock would have no idea that he had encountered Medkit if he fails to report it. So if he truly doesn’t want to, there isn’t a reason to, is there?
Hesitantly making up his mind, he decides to put his hand down and simply observe. Medkit passes him by, walks up the stairs of the apartment complex, and opens the door to Apartment 303.
Once Medkit finally goes out of sight, Hyperlaser lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. There’s something that feels inherently wrong in letting Medkit go. That he’s missing the huge sum of bounty money, the overwhelming acclaim…
That he’s wasting an opportunity.
But that isn’t just it, is it? In order to get out of his own situation, he’d be putting someone else in an objectively worse one. One where there is no relief of death, he has to assume. After all, Blackrock wants Medkit strictly alive.
Hyperlaser shakes his head. He’s already made his decision, so there isn’t a reason to dwell on it.
He almost forgets about the occurrence, the busy monotony of his usual life preventing him from thinking about anything else. He would have completely forgotten about it, if the same thing didn’t happen again.
Only a few days later, Hyperlaser passes by that same apartment building by accident and notices the same traitor walking up that staircase, up to Apartment 303. And just like the time prior, he hesitates.
If this instance isn’t enough for Hyperlaser to connect the dots, the next few encounters certainly is—Medkit lives in that apartment. He can’t find any other reason for Medkit to be staying there daily.
The curious part of his mind keeps dragging him back to that corner of Crossroads, it seems. He does it almost instinctively, yet he excuses his regular visits to that apartment complex as the most convenient route to get back home. He doesn’t acknowledge in his mind that he subconsciously returns at the same time, only moments before Medkit typically arrives.
It’s become such a common occurrence, in fact, that the two have started making small talk whenever they see each other outside of Medkit’s apartment. Even if “small talk” is an overstatement—usually Hyperlaser makes a remark and Medkit responds promptly before leaving him to his own company.
It started out as a simple acknowledgement of bumping into each other so frequently. Medkit had eyed him suspiciously and walked away without a word, that encounter. But each time they see one another, Medkit utters more and more of a response, though he always holds the same untrusting expression.
Hyperlaser gets a little more ambitious each time he speaks up to the stairway of that apartment building. In his first encounters, he had started off with the typical topics; weather, current events, and the like. Eventually, their conversations seemed to get more personal. They’d lament about the last phight; Hyperlaser would mention his own hobbies and interests, sometimes even Princess. Every so often, he tries his luck with asking about Medkit himself—to no avail, of course.
In that regard, though, Medkit has seemed to initiate the conversation a lot more, once he’d gotten used to Hyperlaser’s appearance at his apartment. Coincidentally, each time he has, he’s started off with a question.
“Why do you hesitate?” he asks suddenly one day, narrowing his eye at the shadowed corner of the apartment building. Hyperlaser’s visor reflects the little light shining from the setting sun as he turns to look at Medkit.
“Hesitate from what?” Hyperlaser replies with his own question.
“From turning me in,” Medkit explains. “I assume that’s of your own volition. Blackrock wouldn’t wait to try and capture me.”
Hyperlaser doesn’t immediately have an answer. He at first thinks he doesn’t entirely know why he’s decided not to capture Medkit. But that would be a blatant lie; he simply doesn’t want to admit the real answer.
He decides on something that isn’t too far from the truth. “To be honest,” Hyperlaser admits, “I just don’t want to.”
“That’s it? You don’t want to?” Medkit repeats, though he doesn’t act very surprised at the answer.
“I don’t see a point in disrupting you,” the helmeted man adds. “After all, you don’t see me as a threat, do you?”
Medkit furrows his eyebrows. “And where did you come to that conclusion?” he jeers, crossing his arms.
“Because you haven’t left.”
The healer doesn’t reply, his frustrated expression growing even further as his stare bores holes into Hyperlaser’s pitch-black helmet.
And then he huffs. It seems like a poor attempt at a laugh. “You really aren’t a model Blackrock mercenary,” he says. His fingers tap impatiently on his skin. “Don’t you ever worry about being decommissioned?”
“Of course I do,” Hyperlaser replies, “everyone does. But as long as I do my work, I have a bit of leniency.”
“And this ‘leniency’ to you is…” Medkit draws out his last word, tilting his head back and looking around with feigned contemplation. “Stalking and fraternizing with a traitor?”
Hyperlaser stands upright against the wall, his position stiff. “Well, I hope it isn’t considered stalking,” he jests. “I’m just curious about you.”
“And curiosity killed the cat,” Medkit quips. Then he lets out a sigh, resting his hand on the railing. “You’ve seen the flower that keeps appearing in front of my apartment, yes? There’s someone who knows I live here.”
“The black tulip?” Hyperlaser tilts his head. “Yes, I’ve seen it. Those aren’t usually given out as gifts, are they?”
“Right. It has to mean something. It can’t just be—some admirer, or something,” Medkit says, hastily avoiding Hyperlaser’s gaze with his last comment. He shakes his head, seemingly in an attempt to regain his composure. “Well, unless you know something about it, I shouldn’t really—you shouldn’t concern yourself about that.”
Hyperlaser chuckles, though it’s barely audible through his helmet. He can’t explain it to himself well, but Medkit’s display of embarrassment is almost… charming to him. “Then, is there something else you want to tell me?”
“I…” Medkit trails off, looking up at the staircase. Once it seems like he’s found the words he wants to say, he finally turns back to Hyperlaser. “I’m not sure what about me interests you enough to compromise your own livelihood, but I assure you, it’s not worth that much to know.”
Hyperlaser waves his hand in front of him. He makes an attempt to sound empathetic; after all, he still wants to keep visiting the apartment complex. “Being here isn’t an inconvenience for me, Medkit,” he stresses. “I pass this apartment every time I leave Crossroads. It’s not much trouble—”
“—Then save yourself the rest of the trouble.” The healer narrows his eye. “Get it over with. What do you want to know?”
His words pierce through the air, a sharp contrast to the almost pleasant topic they’d gotten themselves into. Medkit doesn’t change in his tone, but the intent is evident, and the accusation almost makes Hyperlaser flinch. “You want me to… ask you about something?”
Medkit nods. “Whatever you’ve been trying to talk to me for. But I can’t promise I’ll give you an answer.”
Hyperlaser turns to the side. He’s never entirely thought about what he wants to know about Medkit. The visits themselves were really only a subconscious decision, and there’s so much he can know.
He could greatly benefit himself, even Blackrock, depending on what he asks. But there’s also a part of him that wants to ask something about Medkit himself. To get to know him better. That’s his whole thing: being curious, right?
In the end, he decides on something simple. Something stupid. It’s really the only thing that comes to his mind in the moment.
“How did you leave?”
Medkit raises an eyebrow. “‘Leave’?”
“Leave Blackrock, I mean,” he clarifies.
It’s likely something he gets asked often. But he seems to think of a meaningful answer, given his silence after Hyperlaser’s question.
“You and I, Hyperlaser, we’re both victims of circumstance,” the healer says. “It just so happened that my circumstance caused a scene. So in that case, my suggestion would be…” He pauses. For a split second, Hyperlaser can notice the edges of Medkit’s lips turning upwards. “Maybe you should work more with Subspace?”
And before Hyperlaser can reply, Medkit sharply turns his head and leaves, walking up the stairs to his apartment.
He supposes Medkit is right. They’re both victims of the rigid cycle that lives in each slate wall, each cold, tiled floor. The circumstance that holds its thumb over every Inphernal having the unfortunate fortuity of being born as a Blackrockian.
Under that circumstance, Medkit will forever only be identified as “the traitor,” and Hyperlaser will forever be “the ranger.” Beneath those titles, however, are the intimate details of a personality, of a real, living Inphernal. That’s what the helmeted man longs for, even if he’s not ready to realize that about himself.
So, for now, Hyperlaser is content in leaving the single black tulip on Apartment 303’s doorstep. Whether or not Medkit knows it’s him placing it there is irrelevant.