Week 62: Dire Warnings

Han pressed the button to ring the bell to Seoul Wasteaway. "Sosie, Let me in, I need to talk to you. It's important. Those fuckhead Future Boys are back."

He let that statement hang in the air, and waited for the door to open.

There was a longer pause than normal before the intercom clicked. "...What?"

There was a shorter pause, and a much more informed Sosie voice came over the intercom. "Okay, fine, I'm sending Bell out. Don't come in yet. Dogs and all that."

Another long pause. The door to the courtyard opened. It looked more or less identical to the last time he was there, though the bushes were bigger, leafier, and even had a few buds. Bell was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, wearing a pair of black pants and a beat up white hoodie. her pale petal colored hair was tied behind her ears in buns. She gave Han a cool look, large green eyes looking him up and down.

Han gave Bell a respectful bow. "Ah, good to see again, Bell. Keeping well, I trust?" His voice was light and friendly, but carried with it a severe undercurrent of impatience.

"If you would be kind enough as to escort me to your mother, I would be most grateful." He kept flicking his eyes up at the sky, as if expecting a mortar to come crashing down on top of him at any moment.

Bell glanced Han over, her gaze still cold... Though she nodded once back at him. Her arms unfolded. Her voice was calm and relaxed as ever. Closer to, it was easy to see she was barefoot and her feet were covered with pale dust. "You can come in now. Gren won't attack anyone when I am here."

She looked over Han once more, and stood beside to door, motioning him inside. There was something moving along the far side of the wall, slowly spinning in an agitated circle, but it was impossible to see or hear what it was.

Han stepped in following Bell's footsteps. "And I appreciate that. Uh...should I ask precisely what Gren is, or is this just one of those questions I'll be happier not knowing the answer to?"

As they walked, Han scanned the ground, plus the corridor, using a full spectrum of detective vision modes, as was his habit in a strange place he didn't know, mentally keeping track of his footsteps, corners, and the like. "So, I trust Sosie is well?" he asked.

"Gren is... a cyberwolf." There was a little pause there. She brought Han through the garage, silent in a way that showed no evidence that she was going to answer his next question. Eventually, as they crossed from the training room, she responded. "Mom is better than she has been. She is working on repairing the stapler most days. Currently she is upstairs in the kitchen."

There stapler was in much better repair this time around, and the smell of burned plastic was gone. The floor was clean, and open panels of electronics and circuit boards were open to the air, in obvious mid-repair. Otherwise, the place looked the same; cement walls and open spaces. This time she turned upstairs, away from the med-bay, to an open living area with rooms branching off of it. There was a small circular table at the far end, next to some appliances, and Sosie was indeed sitting at it. She looked better fed and happier than the last time he had seen her, though her hair was all white and there were dark rings and even a few more wrinkles around her eyes. She didn't look up from whatever she was working on. It looked mechtronic.

Before Han had a chance to speak to Sosie, two near-identical female voices rang out. "TARGET LOCKED."
Standing at the top of the stairs was none other than Ida, triple-wielding two ridiculous plasma shotguns and one grin of psychotic glee as she burst out into crazed laughter.

In her right hand was Mirabelle and in her left was another plasma shotgun with all the same extras but of even more refined craftsmanship, with far smoother edges and a generally sleeker appearance. She was wearing a fashionable dress in her traditional bright orange, with slit sides at the legs to allow for better movement. Shimmering red lines resembling veins ran across it, and where they met her skin at the edges of the dress they continued on her videoskin, dribbling downwards as if they were bleeding.

Everything about Ida screamed "dangerously unhinged", from her expression of crazed joy to her mad laughing to the fact that she was standing there aiming two highly lethal weapons at Han. She'd never been the most stable of agents, but now she seemed to be right out there in batshit country. "Bang!" she whispered loudly, pretending to fire at Han before bursting back into laughter.

She holstered her guns as she approached Han, moving just that bit too close into his personal space with a dangerous smile. "Heeeey, kiddo! Long time no see! How's work going? Killed many people lately?" she asked cheerfully, an unnerving tilt present in her voice. She might not have had her weapons drawn, but between everything else about her practically holding up a neon sign reading "DANGER" to Han's combat-trained instincts and how quickly he'd seen her draw Mirabelle in past missions, that didn't really help.

(Rolled double 7s and passed by 14 on Presence + Attitude to be terrifying! I'm not saying how Han has to react or anything, but Ida is pretty damn scary.)

As he heard the words Target Locked, Han's hands moved on autopilot, drawing his shotguns, flipping the clips over to pacifier ammunition and machine fire mode as he looked up to face his would be assailant. The familiar mantra ran through his head. Strip Shields, Ascertain Threat, Incapacitate as he geared himself to open fire... before immediately checking his fire and lowering his weapons. Though they remained in his hands.

Han let out a breath. "Yeah, try and startle an agent, Ida. Great plan. And for the love of noodles get some goddamn muzzle discipline." He shook his head.

"Well, I can't say I was expecting to see you here, but I suppose I should have. We're all here, now aren't we? Start Small, I mean."

"Muzzle discipline? Yeah, I got over that, it's pretty easy to unlearn it if you try and it makes things so much better! I'll give you lessons if you want," Ida replied to Han's suggestion with a hungry grin.

"Start small! That brings it all back, doesn't it? Standing in a room, getting all angry, saying we'll do stuff, and then hardly doing shit!" Ida laughed like a madwoman in the style most appropriate for her, then looked a little confused as to why Han and Sosie had such poor senses of humour. "I mean, think of all the dirtbags we could have just..." Rather than speaking, she made a vicious crushing motion with her hand to get her point across.

"Anyway, Han... Back then, you said you believed in something pure. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but those words popped into my head one day because, well... so do I! Maybe you weren't on the right track back then, maybe you could have been but aren't, but I've totally got it now. I mean, you can't get purer than killing! Killing like me and you are gonna bring down on those future boys, as many times as it takes!" She was right up in Han's face, smiling more sincerely than Han had ever seen her before. She then turned to Sosie, realising why Han had probably come. "Hey, Sose! Did you hear the future boys are after Oracle again? This is the perfect chance! Me and Han and the new kids are gonna go out and break them, aren't we Han?"

Sosie only smiled a little weakly at "all here", but Han and Ida were being themselves at each other and this self sealing stem bolt wouldn't fix itself. Her eyes looked lazily over the other agents with a relaxed, ambivalent look. Her brows raised at Ida's point, though. "Back? I wonder if they ever left..." Her voice trailed off, and she shrugged a little. "Could explain some things though."

After a long pause, she added in a distant voice, "You can kill them, though, Ida. That would be.. nice."

"Ida, the day I need lessons from you, or anyone in how to handle a shotgun is the day I strip out my cybes without anesthetic and go become a monk in Jeruselam."

He finally holstered his shotguns. "Oh, if I get a chance, I'll them myself. The problem is pinning the assholes down, and more importantly, making sure that when they do go down, they stay down. Fucking backups." He was irritated, and clearly on edge from Ida's...presence. She was never the most stable of agents...now it looks like she's gone right off the deep end Han thought.

"Mm. All of them are backed up. And we only ever got four of the six." With a little sigh, Sosie went back down to the gadget in her hand, picking up a small pointed tool and touching various pieces inside the bolt matrix. "And Itoma is out of our grasp. Mm. To be fair, I'm not too bothered by their presence. No one can get in here, and you would think they have other things to worry about besides us. Mm, like you. You're still active." Sosie's dark eyes focused on Han, and she seemed more aware and present than he had seen her since before Pinkie's death.

"Of course, as far as I know, I am still withdrawing a paycheck from Oracle. Which makes me an active agent. Mm." She shrugged again, unbothered, and went back to futzing.

Ida rolled her eyes at Han's response. "You've got balls, Han. I'll give you that." She then switched over to smeaker, leaning in close to Han as if she were whispering in his ear. "The thing is, being overconfident... It gets the people you care about killed. I thought you would have learned that after you couldn't save Xu, but I guess I overestimated you." Ida wouldn't have brought up the example of Xu's death out loud since the last thing Sosie needed was him being used to make a point, but Ida had thought Han cared about Xu enough to suffer and grow. "Tell me, what would it take to make you learn? Would you understand if someone killed your dad? Or your girlfriend? If you don't change how you think, I get the feeling that just might end up happening, and you'll have rendered yourself unable to help them one bit. Is that what it's going to take, Han?"

Okay, first, low blow. Second, me emulating you, and rushing into a fight is what got Xu killed. If I'd kept my emotions under control then he'd still be here. You have nothing, and I mean nothing whatsoever to teach me Ida. I've outgrown you. I was always better then you in a fight, always will be. I've just stopped pretending otherwise. You're a whole pile skill and potential utterly wasted cause you can't control yourself. Until you get some damn discipline, you're a loose cannon that I can't trust or even respect.

He exhaled and turned to Sosie. "As long as you're forewarned, that's all I came to say. I didn't want you being blindsided. We might have argued a lot when you were still active, but do know I hold you in the highest regard. I'd hate to see you come to harm." He paused, before speaking once more. "You might want to give your sister a call. They targeted her once to get to you, they might do so again."

He turned and started walking out. And Ida? Mention my family again, or ever make a threat like that again, and I swear, on all that I hold sacred and true, I will end you. It will be clean, precise, and there will be nothing humourous about it. Goodbye.

Sosie kept her eyes on the gadget in her hands, fixing it while Ida and Han had a silent conversation. Her head tilted twice, once to one side, and once to the other, but she looked at Han when he finally spoke out loud. "Mm, she's been travelling. Not in Seoul, and the Hand is with her. She'll be fine." She sighed softly. "And they never stopped looking out for the Future Boys. They hold grudges." She smiled a little, eyes slightly glazed as she looked at, through Han. "We all do."

Ida simply smiled back at Han. "Bye," she said cheerfully as if their private conversation hadn't happened at all.

Once he'd left, she sighed and turned to Sosie. "Well, he seems to have grown up a little. Still so overconfident, though..." she said, shaking her head. "Still, what can you do with someone like him?"