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New Volume 3 Chapter(s) Weekly. Volumes 1 and 2 now complete!

Xard woke up one morning with his back screaming in pain. It had only been a little over a week since he had joined the For Hires, but in such little time, the cheap bed he had been sleeping on had taken its toll. “How did Drim sleep on this for so long with no problems?” he grumbled. “Hmm, or maybe I’ve had it better than I thought.” Since birth, Xard had always had a comfortable bed to sleep in, and had never gone camping or anything of the like. So, he never had to ‘rough it’ so to say.

He sat up in his bed and then twisted and turned in all directions, doing his best to stretch and crack his back to alleviate the pain. It went to show how bad the bed really was since it could do so much damage through a Fiend’s tough skin. There was no window in his room to give an indication of what time it was, so Xard pulled out his phone. It was still early, so he doubted anyone was up yet.

Hmm, might be nice to have quiet time to myself in the apartment for once, he thought to himself as he stood up. However, he didn’t take two steps before he was frustrated again. There was a pile of Kada’s clothing blocking the door. He guessed that after she changed last night, instead of opening the door, she had just melted her hand through it and dropped them. Ugh that girl, she needs to learn to pick up after herself, he sighed as he began picking them up anyways out of habit.

Before he’d arrived, they already had a chore schedule divided among the three of them, which Kada had laminated for some reason. So, they all decided it would be too much of a pain to go revising it. Because of Xard’s nature of keeping things orderly, he had become the unofficial housekeeper of the group. None of them were extremely messy individuals, but none of them were great at cleaning either.

Honestly, the worst offender was probably Drim. He was actually quite organized, but could be a bit oblivious at times. The biggest issue came after jobs that involved killing things. Afterwards, he would just walk around in blood spattered clothes. Even when it was pointed out to him, he’d just brush it off as being used to it. Xard did have to praise him for hand washing it though, and not just throwing the bloody rags in with the rest of their clothes.

Xard had spent the past week shadowing the others; mostly Phon, but Drim occasionally. There had been one instance where it had just been Kada and himself, but that was a quite easy job of finding a lost purse, even though it took forever and Phon had been watching them the whole time with her curse. Really, there had been nothing as dangerous as he was expecting. He had only been on one monster slaying job but it was something quite weak, and Drim had done almost all the work.

He had been expecting it all to be a bit more perilous; risking his life on a day to day basis. He wasn’t sure if they hadn’t received any jobs that fit the bill, if they just hadn’t taken him on any yet, or if the world was a much safer place than he thought. There was also the possibility that they didn’t want to do anything too grand to draw the attention of the police which might lead them to this apartment. That wouldn’t be too bad, though, Xard considered. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take of living in this cramped apartment anyways.

After he finished putting away Kada’s clothes, Xard opened the door to the bedroom. He let out a hefty yawn as he stepped out. The next thing he knew he was face down flat on the floor, with one of his feet in serious agony. He rolled onto his back and looked at his foot. The top had been sliced open. He looked around for the cause, finding Kada’s anchor sprawled out on the ground. Thankfully, his foot would heal soon, but it didn’t stop the pain and anger.

“Cosdamn it Kada! You forgot to melt your anchor again!” Xard yelled as he turned his head to look at the couch were Kada was sleeping… or should have been, but the couch wasn’t there. That was when Xard noticed the puddle he was laying in, and next to him in the puddle was Kada, completely naked. It seemed in her sleep she had managed to melt the couch, her blanket, and her wetsuit. Phon had mentioned that she and Kada had trouble picking out something for her to wear at night, and somehow Kada had landed on a full wetsuit to everyone’s confusion.

Pox was currently sleeping on Kada’s face, leaving Xard to guess that he had been snuggling with Kada during the night and moved there to seek refuge when things got wet. Xard lifted his hand and slapped down on Kada’s bare stomach. She jolted upwards into a sitting position, Pox still clinging to her face. She pried him off and held him in her arms as she looked to Xard and whined, “Ahh, why did you hit me?!”

“Look around genius, you tell me!” Xard chastised her.

Kada took a good look around the room while blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Once she finally seemed to process what was going on, she turned back to Xard, rubbed the back of her head, and apologized lightheartedly, “Aha, sorry about that.”

“If you’re sorry then fix the room and get me a bandage for my foot. And put your wetsuit back on for Cosmos’ sake!” Xard ordered.

Kada looked down at her naked body and gasped, and then proceeded to use Pox to cover herself. “Oh wait, I guess I don’t really need to worry about that with you,” Kada breathed in relief. It was true that Xard definitely felt no reaction when he looked at her naked body, but he still wasn’t really comfortable being around anyone naked. “Good thing it wasn’t Drim. Well… it might not be the worst thing if he saw me,” Kada said cheekily as she stood up.

After she resolidified everything and put away her anchor, she lifted Xard up onto the couch before heading into the bathroom to get the first aid kit. “You know, Phon would beat the living zjik out of you if she heard you say that,” Xard scoffed as Kada wrapped his foot.

“Same goes for you pal,” Kada sneered. “I’ve seen you glancing at Drim, and some of those stares last a long ass time.” Kada said coyly as she leaned in and tightened the bandage, “But you don’t have to worry about it. I won’t let you win.” Xard took a swing at her but she easily dodged.

Neither of them said anything for a while as they sat on the couch, until Xard finally muttered out, “Thanks,” in regards to the bandage, to which Kada just nodded. A few more moments of silence passed, neither of them really sure of what to say to break the awkwardness. Eventually Xard spoke up, “It really would be nice if this place was bigger. The smallness of my room is starting to get to me a bit I think.”

“At least you have a room,” Kada huffed. “Not having any privacy at all has taken its toll too.” Kada stood up, headed to the kitchen and came back with an empty glass. She sat back down on the couch and propped Pox up on the arm rest. She then held the glass between the animal’s legs, and pushed on his stomach. Liquid poured into the glass. Kada took a big gulp and let out a relaxed sigh. “Ahh, that's the good stuff. You want some?” she asked as she offered the glass to Xard.

He held up his hands and reeled back in disgust as he refused her offer. “Yeah, no thanks, I’ll pass on that... Anyways, I know the two of them have mentioned that they won’t stay in Constead forever, and that they believe this place won’t be safe for too much longer, or they wouldn’t be taking so many precautions. However, despite all that, I haven’t seen them show any inclination of looking to move or find a bigger place.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that myself,” Kada added. “This place really is at capacity with the four of us. It’d be a pain if someone else were to join. Not sure where we’d put them. Don’t think we could justify doubling up anyone else like Drim and Phon. I really don’t know how they manage it.”

Ever since Xard had moved in, Drim and Phon had shared a room, but there wasn’t even remotely enough space for another bed. Their solution was that they would take turns sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag. However, it was a bit different than how others would take it. Instead of fighting over the bed, they fought over who would sleep in the sleeping bag since both of their personalities put the other above themselves. It had become a competition between the two to get to bed first so that they could claim the bag and force the other to take the bed.

“You know what, I think we should go ask those two what their intentions are. I understand that they don’t want or need to tell us everything, but I don’t want to be kept in the dark about this,” Xard said firmly as he stood up. His foot still hurt a little, but he was resolved now. When he got to their bedroom door, he jiggled the handle, but it didn’t turn. “Wuh, it’s locked?” Xard said as he turned to Kada who had followed him close behind. She had a very worried look on her face, prompting Xard to ask, “Is that a bad thing?”

“Of course it’s bad!” Kada barked. “You know how weird Phon is around Drim when she thinks he isn’t looking!” Kada then moved her finger to the door and looked to Xard for confirmation. He nodded and Kada tapped her finger and melted the door. The two looked in and Xard wasn’t sure if what he saw was better or worse than what he was expecting. It appeared Phon had won the race to the sleeping bag the previous night.

Drim was still asleep in the bed, and Phon was standing on the top of the bag while looming over him, recording him as he slept. Xard leaned over to the still baffled Kada and muttered, “I get that she’s in love with her brother or whatever, but this is just creepy.”

Phon looked up from the video camera screen to the two in the doorway. She had an equally creepy smile proportionate to the action, but that quickly swapped to surprise. “Err, I’m not in love with him okay!” Phon stammered. “Well, I do love him, but in a purely platonic way, got it?! I’m just making memories for the future. What’s wrong with that, huh?!”

“Oi, does that mean you’ve been recording the rest of us sleeping too? Pervert!” Kada chimed in.

“Gross, why would I ever want footage of that,” Phon blurted out, clearly repulsed by the idea. “Also, haven’t you two ever heard of knocking? I could have been changing or something you know!”

All three of them jumped suddenly. A thorn had shot out from the bed and into the video camera, knocking it out of Phon’s hand and pinning it into the wall behind her. Drim sat up in the bed, wiped his eyes, and yawned, “Don’t waste your energy on stupid things, Phon. And why do you even have a video camera? Our phones work better than that hunk of junk.”

Phon had slumped to the floor, sadly picking up the shattered remains of the video tape. “It’s leftover from when I kidnapped, err I mean, was interviewed by Crihound,” she said as she sniffled, mourning the loss of her footage. Xard wondered what else had been on there, but could guess it was almost all footage of Drim. However, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about her weird collection.

“Uhh, well anyways, sorry for coming in so suddenly. There’s something we wanted to talk to you about,” Xard mentioned. Both he and Kada returned to the living room after she fixed the door, and waited a while to allow the other two to properly wake up. Xard watched curiously after Drim came out of the room and grabbed Pox.

He watched him take Pox to the kitchen, set him on a burner of the electric stove, turn it on, and pour coffee grounds into his mouth. Drim returned after stepping away for a few minutes, put a mug between Pox’s legs, and pushed his stomach in the same manner Kada had done earlier. A fresh, aromatic cup of coffee was poured, and Drim sipped it with delight on his face.

Once the two Drazah’s had settled down in the living room, Xard and Kada expressed their concerns. “Oh that’s all?” Drim responded, relieved. “I was worried you wanted to leave the team or something. The truth is that we never expected to acquire new members so quickly, and we weren’t planning on moving until we’d made a bigger impact. However, with the four of us now it does seem like a good time to move onto the next phase.” Drim turned his head to Phon and asked, “Mind making the call?”

“Sure sure,” Phon chimed as she took out her phone. A muffled voice answered the phone to which Phon replied, “Hello Uncle, it’s me.” She stood up and headed off into the bedroom for a more private conversation, but Xard could hear a bit more before she closed the door. “No, I’m not pulling the ‘It’s Me’ scam. It’s Phon. Phhhhooon.”

Both Xard and Kada turned to each other, confused as to whom she could be talking. The Drazahs had never mentioned any living relatives, so they had no idea who this ‘uncle’ person would be. It wasn’t common knowledge if either of their parents had any siblings. Drim didn’t seem to notice their concern and wandered off to do other things.

Eventually, Phon came back out and addressed them. “It should be all taken care of now, but it’ll take a few days before everything's in order. You don’t mind waiting that long right?” The two sitting there nodded. “Cool. Well Drim and I have an important job we have to do today, and unfortunately you two can’t come. It would be much too dangerous and tormenting for your untrained hearts.”

“We do?” Drim asked, poking his head out from the kitchen.

“Yes, we do,” Phon answered. “So, you two are on your own for today. I’m still a little adverse to you guys doing stuff on your own, but you’ve been good kiddies so I guess you can.”

“Wait, you’re finally going to let us do a job unsupervised?!” Kada squealed out in glee.

“Yes, well nothing too difficult,” Phon added. “I added a job ranking system to the site now. It rates difficulty on a scale of one to ten. So, for now, don’t take anything higher than a three. Though I’ll be honest, there’s not that much in those levels right now. So, an additional option is taking a monster bounty from the community center. Just be careful not to alert anyone important.” Drim and Phon got ready for their job and left eventually, leaving Kada and Xard alone, discussing what sort of job they would take.

◆◆◆

Kada looked up at the sunny sky, enjoying the lovely day, as she and Xard made the walk to the community center. Phon wasn’t kidding when she said there wasn’t much on the job board that fell under their restriction. “Man, some of those higher level jobs looked really interesting,” Xard complained while walking next to her.

“Yeah, I really would have loved to take the one for hunting bandits,” Kada added. “I grew up in a safe town, so I’ve never met a bandit; could have been interesting. I get why they’re cautious, but it can be a little overbearing. I mean, I’m older than both of them but they feel like my parents sometimes. Oh well, it’s nice that we get to do something on our own for once. Also, I have seniority in the group, so I’m leader for today, alright?”

“I mean you’ve only been in the group for like three weeks more than me, but fine, whatever,” Xard shrugged. The pair continued on in silence for a while, until Xard chirped up and asked, “Hey, does it always feel like you’re constantly being watched?”

“Hmm, I guess,” Kada responded after a moment to think. “I mean, look at our hair and what we’re wearing. It’d be weirder if people didn’t stare at us honestly.”

Xard seemed to ponder on this for a bit. “Yeah, I suppose, but it feels more intense than usual. When we were in the mall people would casually glance, but now with every alley we pass I feel like I’m being stared down.”

“It’s not healthy to be so paranoid, Xard,” Kada chuckled. “Today is going to be great, so lighten up or you’re gonna bring down the mood!”

When they got to the community center, Kada immediately dashed to the bulletin board. Warrants were generally updated weekly unless there was a specific need for one, and she hadn’t checked in a while. She looked all over the warrant board, but didn’t find her name. In fact, she didn’t find a single one of the four Fiends posted there. Shocked, she frantically searched the entirety of the board. They were nowhere to be found in either the monster section or the community post section.

Kada let out a large sigh of relief when she found another recently added bulletin board off to the side. This board was dedicated to the posters of the four Fiends For Hire. She looked over the posters. Phon was at the top left, and her picture had been changed. She was now in a large office chair in front of some bookcases; Kada recognized it as Vinlot’s office and guessed she must have gone back at some point.

It showed her petting Pox who was laying in her lap; like she was an evil villain in a movie. She also had her feet propped up on someone in the fetal position that Kada couldn’t recognize because they had a black bag over their face. Yeah, that about wraps Phon up in a nutshell, Kada thought as she perused the rest of the poster. New crimes had been added, such as mass murder, but the score hadn’t gone up as much as she expected. It was only at 4460 which was definitely too low for someone who had killed ten people.

Kada quickly pulled out her phone to inquire about it. After a couple seconds of digging, she found that apparently mass murder for a single incident only counts as two thousand points for one hundred people or less, as to not inflate the scores too much. I guess the CP doesn’t want to incite terror by having someone raise their score too fast without being caught, she thought to herself before moving on.

Drim’s poster was to the right of Phon’s on the board. He had a new picture as well that Kada guessed had been taken by Phon without him knowing. It definitely possessed that ‘cool’ vibe Drim was always seeking. He had both blades extended, and looked like he was charging at a monster with his cloak flowing gallantly behind him. It was also probably one of the only public pictures that showed him with his hood down.

Drim’s score was lower than Phon’s as expected, since he had only killed one person. It was still nothing to sneeze at with a score of 3895. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone’s scores going up as fast as these two, Kada thought before moving on to her own poster; placed just below Drim’s. She cringed a little when she saw it. The drawing had been replaced, but now she kind of missed it.

In its stead was now a low-res screenshot from security camera footage of when they were racing through the city. It wasn’t a flattering picture at all. Her arm was held out, her mouth was open with a stupid expression, and she was halfway through a melted wall. She would surely need to have it changed like Drim and Phon, but didn’t really know how they did it.

She decided to cheer herself up by looking at her score. 2345 not bad, definitely higher than I was expecting. I have a lot of catching up to do, but it should still definitely be much higher than Xard’s. I’ll try to keep my gloating to a minimum, she thought proudly as she looked over to his poster. Her mouth dropped when she read ‘2400’. What the hell?! How is his higher than mine?!

She then saw the words ‘murder’ listed below it. Confused, she thought back to the past week to see if there were any instances that he had killed someone, or if any of his actions could have led to it accidentally. She drew a complete blank but then remembered the night at his parent’s house. He had confessed that he was a murderer to them, and they had likely told the police. While it was true that all four of them had committed murders to become Fiends, he was the only one who would have been charged for their first one.

“Huh, don’t the scores seem off to you?” Xard asked, now standing next to her.

“You’re Cosdamn right they do! I’ve been a Fiend for years but you have a higher score than me?! Also, you actually have a decent picture, so unfair,” Kada complained. Xard’s picture looked like a standard photo that would be used for an ID. It had likely been acquired from his school or his parents had a copy. However, it didn’t have his new hair and eye colors, so he would likely receive a new one soon.

“No, I mean they’re too high. I only have a small amount of crimes, and there’s no way the ones listed would add up to that much,” Xard deduced.

Kada took another scan over them. Just from a quick count they did seem quite off, so she opened the calculator app on her phone. Excluding the more minor crimes that weren’t listed, they were all approximately a thousand higher than they should be. Kada then noticed a mark at the bottom right of the poster which was on all four; it was their logo. “Well, it seems that just being part of our group has been labelled as a crime, one on par with murder at that,” she said.

“Hmm, I wonder why they’d do that,” Xard inquired. “Maybe it’s so that bounty hunters know they’d be messing with a powerful group if they messed with one of us. Let them know that they would have that additional danger to deal with.”

“Sounds plausible,” Kada shrugged. “Alright, well you have a look at the monsters and see if there’s anything good. I’m going to go talk to that bland looking man at the counter and see about a picture.” She strolled up to the counter and leaned against it. “So… err… Keith,” she said after she read his name tag. “How does one go about getting a fancy picture on their warrant?”

Keith took a long look at her and then said in a drab voice, “Ah, you must be Ms. Susten then. It’s true that while I was putting up your poster, I believed your picture was less than desirable.”

“Wow, I’m not sure if that’s a jab at me or the picture,” Kada said, conflicted on whether she wanted to punch him or not. “Also ‘miss’ is a bit formal, don’t you think?”

“I believe it will do just fine,” Keith persisted. “If all you want is for your photo to be changed, and not to dispute anything else on the poster, I can be of assistance. I can’t change it myself, but I can pass it to my supervisors. They should then update it the next time a new warrant for you is issued. It worked out for the two Drazahs when they gave me their pictures.”

“Wait, if you know who I am and know who they are then why haven’t you reported any of it to the police?” Kada questioned.

“Very funny miss,” Keith said, not breaking his serious demeanor. “No job is worth making an enemy of people who could very well melt me with their brains.”

“Well, I am an expert on melting things…” Kada sneered before staring at him intensely.

“You’re trying to do it right now, aren’t you?” Keith asked, calm as ever.

“Just your stupid face,” Kada mocked, staring harder now. Her face started to hurt from the strain so she gave up after a few seconds. “Seriously, do you ever look or sound not so… boring…” Keith just slightly shook his head at this remark. “Alright well whatever. Give me your number and I’ll be in touch about the photo thing.”

“Certainly, miss,” Keith replied before pulling out a business card and handing it to her. Kada was grateful that he was so compliant, but talking to him and his unbreaking coolheadedness was starting to piss her off. Thankfully, Xard was headed over to serve as a distraction. She turned to him and awaited his findings.

“Yeah, there’s basically nothing worth killing. I mean, there is stuff up there, but nothing worth having a Fiend kill. It’s stuff anyone with a gun could easily take out,” Xard reported.

Kada immediately turned away from Xard and back to the counter; slamming her hands down on it. “Oi, Keith, what’s with the zjikky monster list?!”

“Well, your scary faced friend has gone and killed most of the monsters around here, hasn’t he?” Keith stated. “I, for one, am enjoying the new peace. I like taking long walks outside the city, and knowing that I won’t be mauled by something ferocious is quite blissful.”

“Yeah, nobody cares Keith,” Kada snapped at him. “Do you have anything for us or not?”

“Wow, going by your hair colors I would have guessed the gentleman would be the hot head,” Keith spouted his dry attempt at humor. “Well, I may have something. The scary boy tore this poster up and demanded that I never let anyone take it. However, you two are his companions, so I feel like you’d be able to handle it. I’ve seen it myself too on one of my long walks. It is quite something, and despite his protests, I do believe it should be dealt with as soon as possible.”

He pulled out a poster and set it on the counter. Usually on monster posters there was either an image or drawing of what the monster looked like, but on this one, there was just a hexagon printed on it; ‘Beehexoth’ was written beneath. “Hex… Hex… Drim mentioned something about a monster with ‘hex’ in it before,” Kada mumbled. For the life of her, she couldn’t recall what it was. It was really bothering her that she couldn’t remember, to the point that she was clenching her hair in frustration.

Xard must have noticed how spazzy she was acting. He picked up the poster, said ‘We’ll take it’ to Keith, and pushed her outside. She was close to having a full breakdown and was muttering, “hex hex hex hex,” over and over finally screaming, “Gahh, I know he mentioned hex before, but was it a Beehexoth?! He talks about monsters so damn much that I guess I could have let something slip through, but no, I listen to everything he says!”

“So you forgot one thing, what’s the big deal?” Xard asked, seeming a little worried and freaked out at the same time.

“You don’t get it. My ability to remember things is all I have. I’m not that smart, but I made it through school with no problems because I could just remember everything. So, unless I find the missing part, I’m just going to obsess over it,” Kada grumbled. “Oh right, there’s an online bestiary, I guess we can find out more there.” She snatched the poster from Xard’s hands. “Wow, there’s really nothing on here except the name, location, and a stupid hexagon.”

She didn’t know the site address for the bestiary, but a quick web search on her phone found it with no problems. Before looking the monster up she just scrolled through a few entries to get a feel for the site and test its usefulness. Most entries were quite detailed, with high definition pictures and full guides to a monster's habits, weaknesses, and so on. Nearly all of them were submitted by ‘Slayer’ which Kada had to assume was Drim. It was almost as if he had done the whole database himself.

Eventually, she searched for Beehexoth, but the entry was almost as empty as the poster. There wasn’t even a class ranking like there had been on every single other entry she checked. Where the picture should have been was just another drawing. This time, instead of a single hexagon, it was seven; six in a circle, and one in the middle. All that was written in the entry was ‘Do not engage - Slayer’. “Wow, is this maybe a monster that even Drim can’t handle?” Kada put forward while showing the entry to Xard.

“Well, it would make sense then as to why he didn’t want anyone fighting it,” Xard responded. “Could there really be something so dangerous that Drim couldn’t deal with? I always got the impression he was relentless and unyielding no matter what.”

“I don’t know…” Kada exclaimed, “But that’s all the more reason we should go after it!” Xard looked at her like she was insane. “Oh come on, if we beat something even Drim couldn’t, they’d have to take us more seriously. Next thing you know we’d be allowed to do like level 8 jobs and never need to be supervised again.” There was also a part of Kada that wanted to redeem herself after her failure with the gorrizard, and felt this would be the perfect opportunity.

“That does sound tempting…” Xard agreed, “But if we fail to take it down, or even worse get hurt in the process, they’ll be furious with us for taking on something we weren’t ready for. Especially Drim, since it’s quite clear he doesn’t want anyone fighting this thing.”

“Oh come on, we’re practically invincible!” Kada blurted. “I can’t melt monsters, but I can melt my way out of any danger, and you can reflect any hits you take. So, if we decide it’s too much, we can just run away and never mention it to anyone. We may have to silence Keith, but I’d still be able to sleep fine after.”

Xard took the poster and stared at it a bit. It seemed that he was thinking it over. Kada took this time to search the bestiary again, since the gap in her memory was still bothering her. However the word ‘hex’ turned up no other results so she forced herself to put it out of her mind for now. “Alright fine, you’ve convinced me,” Xard conceded. “Do you know where Naynoc Canyon is, though? I’ve heard of it but never been there.” He was referring to the last known location on the poster.

“Uhhh… give me a sec,” Kada uttered, switching over to her navigation app.

◆◆◆

Naynoc Canyon was a fair distance away from where they started. It would take someone about thirty minutes by car to reach it, but there were no buses headed there today. So, it ended up taking them around seventy minutes on foot to get there. They still couldn’t maintain Drim’s top speed for long, but they were getting better steadily. The fact that they couldn’t run on main roads, for obvious reasons, didn’t help in getting there quickly.

About halfway, they were both tired and stopped for lunch at some random restaurant they found before continuing. The whole ordeal had Kada thinking that they definitely needed to reevaluate their transportation needs. After they got to the canyon, Kada took a good look around. It truly was a breathtaking sight. The canyon was vast, and unlike she expected, it was completely covered in grass. She wondered why it wasn’t more popular. It could have something to do with the only way to get there was through long hiking trails. Plus, the giant monster in the middle of it probably wasn’t helping.

In the center was a creature larger than any other Kada had ever seen in her life. She gave a rough estimate that it was about four stories tall. She now knew why the only thing in those pictures were hexagons. The only thing visible on it were white hexagons covering its entire body. There was a slight smidgen of another color that seemed like a brownish pink between them, but there wasn’t anything else anywhere.

The creature seemed like it was in the shape of a human. It walked on two legs, had a torso, and two arms, but it was rather undefined. There were no hands or feet; the arms and legs were just long cylinders made of hexagons attached to an equally cylindrical body. There was also no head to speak of at all. It was hard to tell at first but the creature was in fact moving; taking large and slow steps, that caused the ground to tremble beneath it with each one.

“Wow… I uh… Wow,” Xard stammered. “I have no idea where to start fighting that thing… Hmm, maybe you could try melting the ground underneath it. You could stop it from moving or at the very least maybe slow it down. Or maybe we’ll get super lucky and it has a weakness to water or something.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we’ll get that lucky, but it’s a good place to start,” Kada said as she slipped her hands into the ground. The area under the monster started to liquify and it began slowly sinking. Eventually, it was submerged about halfway when Kada relayed, “That’s as far as I can melt with the minerals I can currently touch. This should work out though. The beehexoth didn’t seem like an amazingly graceful creature and it will probably struggle to get out.”

Almost as if to spite her words, the beehexoth began moving strangely. It laid both arms out onto the solid ground in front of it. Then, a hexagon popped out of the liquids, and slid along the body until it reached near the end of one of the arms and reattached. A whole swarm of bony looking hexagons followed suit; up out of the water, across the other hexagons, and onto dry land. Once they were all accounted for, they shifted even further, reforming the human-like figure it had before, then started walking slowly again as if nothing had happened.

“What the hell was that?!'' Both Kada and Xard cried out in unison.

“I didn’t expect it to be able to reshape and reform itself. Honestly, I'm still not convinced that my eyes aren’t lying to me,” Xard added.

“Yup, that thing is hella weird,” Kada noted. “There has to be solid flesh somewhere under all those hexagons, though. So, I guess the next thing to try is to attack it directly. If we can get between the slits, we can probably do some damage… I have a crazy idea…”

Xard was now carrying Kada bridal style per instruction. She didn’t know if it was because Xard was gay, but she didn’t feel the same fluster as when Drim had held her the same way, but that was relieving since she needed all the mental faculties she could muster for this. Xard had backed up a ways from the canyon, and looked to Kada for confirmation, still looking unsure at the idea. She didn’t blame him for his uncertainty; it truly was a crazy idea after all.

Kada nodded, and Xard took off running towards the canyon as fast as he could. Just before he reached the edge, he kicked off hard, leaping high into the air. Now airborne, he slipped his arms down Kada’s body, grabbing onto both of her ankles. He tucked up so that he could put the bottom of Kada’s feet against his own. She opened the thermos she had been keeping ready in her hands, summoned her anchor, pointed it at the monster, crouched, and then kicked off from Xard’s feet, sending her flying right towards it.

This was the best way Kada could think of to get the most velocity without alarming the beehexoth beforehand. As she soared closer, she aimed the sharp end of her anchor right between two hexagons. It hit the slit directly, but there was much less resistance than she was expecting. The next thing she knew, she was enveloped in complete darkness, and then hit with light again before she crashed into the ground.

Kada sat on the ground disoriented. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought she just went through a black hole. She heard yelling, and looked up to find Xard running along the rim of the canyon. She was glad that he had made it to the other side just fine, but couldn’t make out what he was yelling. His yelling grew more intense, but she still couldn’t understand a single word.

Xard seemed to have gotten fed up and started sliding down the canyon wall towards her. He was still yelling the entire time, but it wasn’t until he was right on top of her that she could finally hear what he was saying. “Move you idiot!” Xard screamed as he tackled Kada, rolling them both a ways away. Kada wondered why he did that, until a large mass of hexagons slammed down in the spot where she just was, denting the ground.

The two of them clambered away to a safe distance. Luckily, the Beehexoth moved quite slowly, so it wasn’t going to catch up soon even if they didn’t go too far. After she caught her breath, Kada turned to Xard and said, “Thanks you really saved me there. I guess I went through it, and was really disoriented after. I honestly had no idea that it was attacking me.”

Xard flicked Kada in the forehead in response, “Well get your head back in it. That thing could crush us in one hit if we’re not careful… Any ideas what we should do now?”

Once Kada was done rubbing away the pain on her forehead, she pulled her anchor chain to bring the anchor close and insisted, “I haven’t given up on aiming between the slits yet. It’s quite possible we just hit the wrong spot, so I’m going to aim more towards the middle this time.” She started spinning the chain to build up speed as she walked slowly towards the monster. She got fairly close, but still out of its range, and let the anchor loose towards it.

Like before, the anchor slipped through the opening with little resistance, but didn’t go all the way through this time. Instead, it got caught in the middle. Kada took that as a good sign that she’d landed it somewhere important. She pulled the chain as hard as she could, but there was no movement. She tugged a few more times, but still it wouldn’t budge, causing her to let out a bit of nervous laughter. The chain suddenly started reeling into the Beehexoth’s body which Kada took as a sign to bail.

She melted the anchor, and pulled the metal goop out of the monster’s body. After she finished reeling it in, she returned to Xard to strategize. The two of them talked for a few minutes about what to do, when Xard suddenly turned pale. He started stuttering his words and pointed behind Kada as a shadow grew across his face. Kada turned around to see the Beehexoth shifting its shape once again.

It had one of its arms raised high. Hexagons from the rest of the body were slowly sliding their way up to that arm, making it grow while the rest of the body shrunk. Over half the hexagons now made up the appendage. Kada was certain that it was going to try to crush them by covering the most area possible. Next to her, Xard let out a sigh, ran his fingers through his hair, and shifted his body a little before announcing, “I guess it’s my turn.”

Xard slowly walked towards the creature, now completely eclipsed in the shadow of the giant fist looming above him. The Beehexoth started driving its arm down towards Xard. It was slow moving, but the force behind it would be like having a wrecking ball dropped on him. Xard raised his left arm up, and as soon as the first hexagon touched, all momentum was gone. It was different than if it had hit a solid object, which would have caused a massive shockwave.

Instead, the energy surged straight into Xard’s hand. His sleeve was shredded into a thousand scattering pieces as the energy passed down his arm. Kada guessed that it was just a bit too much energy at once to control fully, and was amazed that he could handle it at all. Xard stood there shaking for a few seconds after moving out of the way of the fist that then fell to the ground. He finally managed to get himself to bring his right arm up, and plunge it between two hexagons into the giant mass. He dove it in deep, to the point that his chest was pressed right up against one of the hexagons.

Like with his left sleeve, the right one tore into tiny bits as the energy surged up his arm. Kada could hear the energy enter the monster, making a sound like the shockwave that should have happened earlier. Kada guessed he let the energy release in all directions, and with that much force, it would be like a bomb going off. Spurts of blood shot out from between the cracks, followed by hexagons launching in every direction.

There was something about Xard’s curse that Kada had been wondering about. If something was pressed up against him, and then force was applied, would he be able to absorb it? The answer was a resounding no. The hexagon that was pressed against Xard had just as much force applied as the rest, sending it and him careening backwards. Xard crashed into the canyon wall, and was knocked unconscious.

That damn fool. Did he not even think that was a possibility? Kada questioned. She was just about to run over to him, when she noticed the hexagon still cradled in his arms. This was the first time she could get a clear view of the other side of one. In her mind, she had expected it to be a slug like mass, but instead it was a separate creature entirely. She looked around at other ones that had flown nearby, they were all the same.

They had leathery brown skin, six legs, a tail, and a pointed face. The word hex started racing through her mind again, over and over, causing her to crouch down and claw at her hair again. Finally though, her mind landed on a word: Hexadillo. Hexadillos was the monster that Drim had mentioned before. She felt relieved that she finally knew, but still couldn’t remember what he had said about them.

She walked over to Xard, hoping that she would remember the rest soon. She knelt down to check on him, and picked up the hexadillo off his chest. She gave it a good look and felt sad. They were kind of cute, so she felt bad about having hurt them. The wounds on this one were quite severe, and she wasn’t sure if it was alive or not, so she took a look around. The main formation of them was still intact, and looked like it was trying to form into something else. However, there were many scattered hexadillos that weren’t moving. Kada guessed that Xard’s blast had taken out a fair number of them.

She started thinking about what to do now. She needed to either get Xard to wake up or get him to someplace safe. She didn’t really want to continue now, but they would need to finish off the rest of them; not wanting to leave a job half undone. They seemed quite smart, so it wouldn’t be easy, but with their smaller number, she felt a bit more confident. All of her plans instantly lost priority when she felt a sharp sting in her stomach. She looked down, and saw the hexadillo’s tail sticking in just above her navel.

The creature began wriggling in her arms until it managed to get itself loose, before crawling over towards the main construct. Kada slumped to the ground. She was paralyzed, unable to move her limbs at all, or even call out to Xard. She activated her curse to check it, and found that it still worked, just slightly melting the ground beneath her. She considered using it to pull both her and Xard underground, but didn’t know how long the paralysis would last, leaving a good possibility that they would both drown first.

Kada could hear a loud rumbling drawing closer to her. She wasn’t facing the direction of the noise, but she shifted her eyes as much as she could, and could get a slight glimpse in her peripherals. The hexadillos had formed a large wall that was rushing towards them. It was terrifying to see, and the fact that she could do nothing about it scared her even more. She did her best to try to call out to Xard to wake him up, but she couldn’t get her mouth to open or her throat to make any noise.

The massive wall of hexagons was now towering over the two of them, making Kada want to cry from helplessness. The top of the wall fell forward, crashing the whole thing down like a tidal wave on top of them. The initial impact was devastating, every inch of Kada’s body screamed in pain from the brutal force, but it wasn't over yet. The wall had broken apart on contact but now the hexadillos were swarming them.

A few of them lifted Kada off the ground, while a few climbed on top of her. They all began pounding and clawing at her with their feet. None of the hits were particularly strong on their own, but they were adding up quickly. It was a never ending flurry of punishment. Every hexadillo was yelling as they attacked, causing a symphony of torturous buzzing. Kada heard a crackling noise from nearby that somehow managed to cut through the rest. It seemed that the assault had woken up Xard. However, he wasn’t fairing much better than she was.

He was doing his best to absorb the energy from the attacks, and use it to blast them away, but each one had such little impact that it wasn’t sending them far. If he did manage to knock a few back, others took their place before he could capitalize on it. Kada watched helplessly as he struggled. The bursts from Xard seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, he was likely running out of energy and will to resist.

She didn’t know how much longer she could hold out herself. The pain now was immeasurable. Some of their claws had broken through her outer layers of skin and were now digging into her flesh. It would only be a matter of time until they reached her organs. She was going to die here. It took a moment, but she had now resigned herself to that fact.

This wasn’t the first time she felt like this, and she hated herself even more because of it. She was too cocky again, just like before, and got herself in way over her head. The past weeks in the For Hires had made her feel comfortable, safe, and powerful. They had done a lot of difficult things, and always come out on top.

It had gotten to the point that she felt she could handle anything, but now she realized she was just hiding behind the strength of the others. It wasn’t on her own merit that she’d gotten this far, and now because of her hubris, she was close to death again. This time she had drug someone else down with her, and that was the worst of it all. She had convinced Xard to take this job, and now he was going to die too.

Kada had all but given into hopelessness and despair when her finger twitched. The paralysis was beginning to wear off. She wanted to cry again just from that small movement alone, but wasn’t sure if it was worth getting her hopes up or even trying. It almost seemed easier to give up now, it would be over soon. But no, she had to try. There was someone else that was depending on her to do so.

She struggled with all of her might to move her finger down. She still couldn’t radiate her curse more than about an inch, but if she got close enough to the ground, she could save them. It had to be soon, she could feel herself losing a lot of blood, and her consciousness was starting to fade. She had made progress, and guessed she was about halfway there, but with each second it got harder to press forward, or to even hold onto the ground she covered. No matter what, even if she died, she had to melt the ground.

All of a sudden, it was very bright. Kada let out a sigh in her mind, assuming she had bled out and passed on to the afterlife. She was upset that she hadn’t saved them, but was happy that she had tried at all despite how helpless she felt. She noticed, though, that even though it was the afterlife, the pain sure didn’t stop at all. That was when her eyes focused and she realized she was staring at the same blue sky she had admired earlier that day.

Phon suddenly entered her vision. She was crouched down next to her, with her ribbon wrapped around her eyes. “Oh, you’re not dead… Guess I acted too quickly then,” Phon muttered then made a dissatisfied noise with her lips. Kada heard heavy coughing next to her and slumped her head to the side to get a look. Xard was on the ground next to her, coughing up blood.

His clothes were basically tatters, and he was covered in bruises and still had bleeding gashes across his entire body. She didn’t want to look, but guessed she was basically in the same condition. It still hurt like hell, but she was feeling better. She didn’t know if it was the boosted regeneration, or the fact that she was safe now and surrounded by her friends. She felt a different pain now, though. She had been saved again, and that hurt just as much.

“Oh, looks like Xard’s alive too, neat,” Phon said as she scooted over next to him. “Well, there is still the matter at hand. I believe Drim has something that he wants to say to you both, so I’ll go play with the rowdy little scamps until he’s done.” Drim… Kada hadn’t seen him this whole time. She followed Phon’s movements with her eyes in the hopes that it would lead her to him. It was now that she realized that they were back up on the ridge next to the canyon. Drim had been just a few feet away, staring down into it.

Phon walked up next to him, put her hand on his shoulder for a moment, then vanished. Kada guessed she was now at the bottom occupying the hexadillos. Drim turned around, and walked between the two of them on the ground. He had his hood up, which made Kada feel a little sad, thinking seeing his face might cheer her up a little. At this angle she couldn’t even make out the faint glow of his eyes.

Drim crouched down, and held out the palm of both hands flat. A yellow flower bloomed above them, was quickly spun into paste, and applied to two thorns; one on each wrist. He then jammed a thorn into each of their necks and mumbled, “Something to ease the pain, as well as keep you awake. If you were to fall asleep now, it could be fatal.” Kada’s mind twisted after hearing that. It wasn’t what he said but the feeling behind it. His voice sounded so emotionless, the words were so hollow in tone.

The next words weren’t, though. “Now then, we need to have a little chat…” the moment after he finished speaking, Drim grabbed both Kada and Xard by their faces, lifted them up, and slammed their heads into a tree behind them. Their skulls were now firmly embedded into the bark. If they hadn’t been Fiends, they would have been killed on impact. Thankfully due to the medicine they were just given, it hurt far less than it should have.

Kada moved her eyes down at Drim while trying to say anything, even though she didn’t really know what she was going to say. However, Drim was holding them by the bottom of their jaws which made that entirely impossible. That swift movement had made his hood fall off, but it was still hard to see his face. He was looking down at the ground so his bangs were covering most of it, and shadowing the rest.

Kada could notice the slight residue left on his cheek. Something she couldn’t possibly mistake since it was permanently etched into her own face. He had been crying. His face jerked up suddenly, and now she could see his eyes clearly for the first time. They weren’t like normal, the irises were burning; burning brighter than she had ever seen them, with such intensity that Kada felt that his gaze was engulfing her entire body in flames, making her blood boil.

His eyes were so fierce that she couldn’t possibly believe that they belonged to a normal human or even a Fiend. She couldn’t guess what those eyes would belong to; a ruler? An angel? A demon? A god? No matter what it was, they were the eyes of someone much greater than herself or anyone she could ever hope to be. Those eyes screamed one thing to her. This person was special, a unique existence that could never be replicated, and there would never be another person like him.

Her mind had slowly been drifting to existential wonderings, but she was ripped back to the present. “Kada! I Told You Before!” Drim roared, the world shaking around them as he did. “I told you! But you went and did it anyways…! Hexadillos are peaceful creatures! They will never attack anyone for any reason unless they are attacked first!”

Kada immediately remembered everything he had told her about them. How they were hive mind creatures that attacked as one unit. How they would always avoid other creatures, even taking great lengths to go around and avoid them. How if they were attacked, they would relentlessly seek out and destroy their attacker, and not stop until they and all of their species that they could sense nearby were completely eradicated.

“You two put yourselves at risk!” Drim yelled as he continued his tirade. “I have no idea what I would have done if you two had died. And it wasn’t just yourselves, everyone nearby, everyone in Constead, and who knows how far, all of their lives are now at risk too. They won’t stop no matter what, so now I have to go kill every single one of them!” Drim let go of their faces, and they both slumped to the ground.

He turned away from them and walked to the edge of the cliff, but turned back once more, and lifted his arm which was pointing his now extended blade in their direction. “Remember this. Those creatures down there, they are not the monsters here today. You two are.” After berating them one last time, Drim jumped into the canyon and out of sight.

Kada wanted to bawl her eyes out. That scolding hurt and she knew she deserved it. That had to wait, though. She needed to see for herself what would happen next. She slowly crawled towards the edge so she could spectate, but before she could reach it, she heard groaning from behind her. “Hey Kada, I want to watch too. I still can’t move though, so would you mind bringing me over,” Xard struggled painfully to get those words out. Kada was just glad that he finally spoke since it meant he was getting better.

She crawled back over to the tree that Xard was still leaning on, and grabbed him by his shirt’s collar which was still just barely intact. As she crawled back to the edge, she drug him along. She wasn’t doing so well on energy herself, so all she could manage was to keep his face from not scraping along the ground. That couldn’t be said for the rest of his body.

As they went along, Xard started to speak in a very sluggish and strained voice, “Know that I don’t blame you for this Kada. I wanted to pull off something big just as much as you, and I was stupid enough to injure myself with my own curse. Us being in this bad of shape is just as much on me too.” When they got to the cliffside, she rested his chin on the ground, so his eyes were pointing straight down into the canyon. She had tried to be as gentle as possible, but he had let out displeasing noises the whole way.

Now that she could finally stop moving, Kada flopped onto her stomach and propped up her own chin like she’d done Xard’s. As she gazed down, she had been expecting the usual monster slaying she had come accustomed to watching over the past weeks, not the spectacle that was unfolding before her. All the remaining hexadillos were in one solid clump now, with Drim and Phon rapidly teleporting around it.

Phon was using the electric setting on her yo-yo to zap any exposed skin she could see. Likewise, Drim was slashing at any exposed slits with his blades. Between each hit, Phon was teleporting them to another spot around the clump. Drim tended to jump up a bit each time, to attack the higher up areas that Phon couldn’t reach. He would always have to be moved back to the ground but was jumping back up between each movement like it was nothing.

The two of them were entirely in sync, never attacking the same spot. They had also mastered reorienting and refocusing themselves after being teleported; their responses were instant. It was like watching two people in perfect harmony dance around. Phon may hate the name Drazah Duet, but whoever came up with it nailed them perfectly.

Kada still wasn’t sure why they were doing this, but eventually came to realize. They were forcing the hexadillos to form a giant and perfect sphere. After all of them were an equal distance apart, the pair stopped their relentless assault. Drim gave a nod to Phon, and then he vanished entirely. Kada glanced around, wondering where he possibly could have gone. Wait, he’s not inside that thing, is he?!

Her question was answered by the sudden onslaught of a familiar sound: metal tearing through flesh. Before she had joined, she had never seen or heard anything die except for Bosef, and even then she hadn’t been able to see it all the way through. This sound had become familiar to her over the past weeks, and she thought she had gotten used to it, but this time every cut she heard made her wince.

Blood began spitting out from the slits of the sphere. It started out as just a few spurts, but within seconds it was gushing out of every possible opening. Soon, the slashing sounds stopped and there was silence for just a moment. The sphere began to cave in on itself and collapse. The hexadillos fell one by one, the squishing sound of each hitting the ground was driving Kada to the brink of insanity. It was all she could hear as it tugged at her heart.

Now there was just a ring of corpses on the ground which had begun rotting immediately, releasing a ghastly stench. Standing in the middle of it was Drim drenched from head to toe in blood, not a clear spot anywhere on him. He wasn’t looking at the corpses. He didn’t seem to be looking at anything, just staring off into nothing. In that moment his face perfectly encapsulated what the word ‘drim’ meant.

Kada had thought his name to be weird when she heard it, so she had looked it up. The only result she could find was one from a long dead language. Its meaning: ‘the somber feeling you get when you look at the sky on an overcast day’. It was definitely a strange and specific word, that she felt it was cruel of the Drazah’s to name their son. She also hadn’t fully understood what it meant, but she knew now just looking at him.

It was the face of someone who did what had to be done, even though they hated every second of it. In that moment, there was no trace left of the somewhat airy and carefree boy she was used to. She hated herself for having put him in that situation, and didn’t know if she ever could make it up to him, but she would spend her whole life trying. It wasn’t a sense of guilt that made her feel compelled to do so, she simply wanted to do it.

She always wanted to be there with him; wherever he went, whatever he did. No matter what he would demand of her, she always wanted to be by his side from this moment on. Even if he did never look at her with the same feelings she was beginning to admit to herself.

◆◆◆

Back at the apartment, Kada and Xard were sitting silently on the couch. They had let Drim use the shower first for obvious reasons and were waiting for him to finish. Phon was now in the kitchen after having spent a fair amount of time scolding them; mostly about going against the restrictions she had placed and taking on something they didn’t know anything about and couldn’t handle. In the end, she said she would leave it up to Drim to decide what their punishment would be.

After the scolding, and before she left for the kitchen, she had been kind enough to explain things and answer a few of their questions. She explained that after they had finished their job, they had checked Xard and Kada’s location using the GPS in their phones to see how they were doing. Drim had recognized the area and assumed the worst so they rushed over. Drim had carried Phon so she could move them as one piece for the most speed.

They had gotten there after the two of them had already been swarmed, but didn’t act immediately in the hopes that the two of them would be able to get themselves out of the jam on their own. Only when Phon was completely sure that if the fight continued any longer that there would be irreversible damage to their bodies did she save them.

After the fight, Drim and Phon performed a bit of emergency first aid on them, mostly just to stop the bleeding. Phon had offered to take them to a hospital but they had declined. The two of them were still pretty beat up even now, and it hurt to basically exist at the moment, but their wounds had started to heal, and they would be back to normal in a couple of days.

Xard had asked Phon what the dangerous job from before had been, to which she answered smugly, “Bureaucracy!” She then went on to explain it in a bit more detail. In exchange for their uncle’s help, who surprisingly worked for the CP, they needed to go and get their death certificates revoked. Apparently, there were a lot of issues in continuously awarding criminal scores to dead people.

Kada and Xard were sitting in awkward silence, awaiting their fate from Drim after he was done in the bathroom. They had a brief conversation between the two of them, but didn’t feel much needed to be said at this point. Kada was mulling over what the punishment could be. At best, she expected another scolding. At worst, he could demand that they leave or even be so upset that he killed them. She doubted that would be the case, but felt he would have every right in doing so.

The two of them jumped a little when the bathroom door creaked open. Drim walked out, drying his hair with a towel, and had already changed into a new set of clothes. With only a slight moment of hesitation, Kada and Xard leapt from the couch, knelt down on the floor in front of Drim, bowed their heads, and yelled in unison, “We’re very sorry!”

Kada continued, “I know that I failed to listen to you, and we ignored your warnings, and let you down. But we promise that we will always listen to you no matter what from here on.”

Xard said his piece next, “We also forced you into a position where you had to do something you hated just to save us. We never want to be a burden to the two of you ever again.”

The two once again joined in unison and pleaded, “Please! Help us get stronger!”

Drim had been pointed in their direction, but hadn’t been looking at the two of them this entire time. His wet hair and the shadow from the towel had been blocking them from being able to really see his face. He turned away from the two of them and began walking towards his room. “Pack your things,” was all that he said, emotionlessly.

Xard let out a pained gasp like he was about to cry. “Wait, no please, anything but that!” Kada yelled after him.

Even Phon poked her head out of the kitchen and stated, “Hey Drim, don’t you think that’s a bit too harsh?”

Drim turned around, but he didn’t have the upset or angry face Kada was expecting. It seemed back to normal, and a little confused. “Huh?” Drim questioned. “I mean, we’re moving in a few days so it’s best to get the packing done soon. If the two of you want to get stronger, then fine, but it will be hell. Your training will start as soon as we get to our new location. So, spend the next few days resting up and letting your bodies heal.”

Kada let out a large sigh of relief. The somewhat goofy and socially inept Drim she knew was back. After he had gone into his room and closed the door, Kada leaned over to Xard and whispered, “I’m glad he’s back to normal, but the forceful Drim wasn’t so bad.”

“Right though?” Xard responded with a slight chuckle.

“I heard that!” Phon yelled as her toy gavel came flying at them from the kitchen.

Fiends For Hire Text Conversation 5

Date: Bipriber 15th 2077

『Kada: Heyo Keith. Here are some options for my warrant poster. Pick whichever one you want ;) (3 Attached Files)』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): I’m sorry miss, but we can not use nude pictures for a warrant poster, even if all the important bits are covered.』

『Kada: Prude』

『Kada: Fine how bout this one? (Attached File: Kissy Face.pic)』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): I don’t know where you managed to get a human skull. However, you kissing a half melted one would likely traumatize any children who saw it.』

『Kada: Jeez, it’s a fake, relax. What kind of picture would be acceptable then?』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): Just a regular picture would be fine.』

『Kada: Okay, I’ll look through my phone and see what I’ve got』

『Kada: Here you shouldn’t have any problems with this (Attached File: Splish Splash.pic)』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): You really don’t have a concept of what normal is if you think you jumping out of the ground like a dolphin is normal.』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): Well whatever, it will work. It should also give the bounty hunters an idea of what they’re dealing with.』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): I’ll submit it to my superiors.』

『Kada: Thanks Keith. Pleasure doing business with you. I hope we never speak again』

『Dorkmeister (Keith): Likewise, Miss.』

 

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