5. Always Remember

“What are you doing out here?” Reina huffed. She was pulling a pile of junk on a sled for Old Devourer. To be precise it was leftover pieces of the snake. Unfortunately her strength stats weren’t the best, and she was suffering a penalty for her lack of oxygen due to the breach in her helmet. But, Old Devourer promised to fix her helmet’s visor if she helped him carry the parts and gave them to him, so she obliged. After all, the parts were worth a small bit of cash but were basically worthless compared to getting information on Aufhocker, which was still her main objective.

“Eh, wouldn’t you like to know? Who do you work for, the Dev’s? Basilisk or FishCO?”

“What? Of course not, why would I be a Dev? Wouldn’t they just know where you are?”

“They wish…” Devourer said ominously.

“I’m not a dev or a mod, and I’m not part of Basilisk or FishCO; those guilds are far too high ranked for me, why would they be after you, anyway?”

Old devourer laughed. “Not that it's your business, but the fools thought I would just make boring old equipment for them. Giant tank suits, worn-out gold plated disgusting ass props. Those guilds are the worst of the worst, I tell you!” He shook his fist in the air like an angry old man. “They have no ounce of originality. Stats and aesthetics, does it give high stats? Does it look pretty, bah! Just go to any old Hephaestus then with that crap. I took their 100 mil and tossed it in their faces.”

Reina nearly fainted. “You gave up a 100 million contract?”

“Of course, what’s money when you compromise your beliefs for it? Like selling your soul to the devil for a piece of bread when you’re hungry. Sure, sure, you’re hungry, but what’s some hunger compared to an eternity of damnation?”

“I…” Reina felt a bit guilty, but thinking of her father she knew she had no choice. “I think sometimes, if you’re really desperate, a deal with the devil isn’t the worst.”

Devourer went silent for a bit. All Reina could hear was the soft scraping of the sled and the consistent clank and hydraulic lift of the PERCON. “What are you here for?” He finally said.

They pulled up to a large warehouse as he said this. Reina let go of the sled and another PERCON came out to greet them. Its giant eye scanned her and it beeped playfully. Then it took the sled and pulled it around the warehouse along with the other PERCON.

“If I could be blunt sir, I want Aufhocker.”

“I see…what a strange thing. So someone told you I worked on his armor eh, what do you want then, to kill him?” Devourer snorted and then pulled on Reina’s helmet and glanced at it side to side. “Follow me.”

“It may seem impossible and yet, I want his bounty.”

“And you’re freely telling me this?” When the warehouse closed and locked the gravity and oxygen turned on. Reina removed her helmet and Devourer took it. He glanced over the helmet a couple times and sighed. “Junk!” He yelled and threw it across the room.

“Hey! That’s…” But Reina was silenced quickly as Devourer pulled a lever and several tables appeared from out of the floor. On one of them were several helmets.

Devourer took one and spun it around three times. Then he pulled something out of it and pulled out a small drill. He made a couple modifications and the entire time the intensity of his work was so fascinating that Reina remained silent.

Finally he set it inside of a large box that looked like a microwave, then he scanned Reina’s Suit and input numbers. The box swiftly painted the helmet to match and he pulled it out and handed it to her.

Reina looked over the helmet and opened the stats menu and couldn’t believe her eyes. It wasn’t the best helmet she’d ever seen but it was worth three times what hers was. Not only that but the visor had strong infrared sensors, and it has a built in oxygen converter. Also, it had something called ‘Devourer’s touch’.

“What’s this special attribute?”

“My signature, impact destabilization, no one else has mimicked it yet. It’s beautiful really. It reduces the impact of regular rounds by 50%, small rounds by 75% and large rounds by 20%!” Devourer began to laugh uncontrollably.

“That’s…amazing, but how?”

“I’ll tell you if you promise to go home and never mention Aufhockers name again.”

“I can’t!” Reina put on the helmet. “There’s no way I can adequately repay you for this helmet. But I need to find Aufhocker.”

“What makes you think I’d tell you where he is?”

“I didn’t necessarily think that. But you’re my only lead. I understand he’s a client but…”

“You can’t kill him. I can tell you everything, what his armor is, his weapon, his weaknesses, his location, when he’s the most tired, and anything else you want and you’ll still get your pretty face shot off.”

“What makes you so sure!”

“Because he kills that monstrosity you almost lost to in one shot.”

That statement was enough to give her pause, but Reina was still adamant. “Even so!”

The man that looked like a beekeeper scratched his helmet and sighed. “You’re a stubborn one, huh? I do work on his equipment, no point lying about it. But as I said you’d be unable to touch him. Your best bet is to give up. Whatever you plan to sell to the devil, the reward won’t be worth the trouble.”

“No one is unkillable.”

“Of course not, Aufhocker will die, everyone will. But it won’t be you that does him in. It’ll be himself.”

“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing…look, you have your helmet, it’s a nice one. Consider that your information and leave you’ll get nothing else from me.”

“But…”

“Leave!”

With that last declaration Reina was escorted out by the PERCON. Her lead was ruined and she cursed her own honesty. She should have been more covert and not declared her intention so freely. Regardless she also didn’t feel she was a good liar and might not have gotten away with a ruse anyway.

She stared at the closed shack of Old Devourer and pondered her options. To go back empty handed after all her friends had done to help her would be terrible. To not try as hard as possible would kill her pride. Of course he wouldn’t sell out Aufhocker, and he was kind enough to give me a helmet. A great one. But…I need that money. Reina’s kinder sensibilities were clashing with her financial needs.

The question was simply: How would one kill Aufhocker?

And the answer was: You don’t.

I can’t kill him. Not like this, not broke, with a mediocre team and poor equipment. Reina crouched down and hugged her knees, that motion made more awkward by the clank of metal and tightness of the symbiote joints. Suddenly her stomach hurt.

Reina made her way to the safe zone, luckily without incident and logged out. She removed her helmet and stared at the bare ceiling, there was a light buzzing sound, the hum of the AC and the electric output of the machine.

She stretched after standing up and got a glass of water. Looking over at her father, possibly fishing online or watching a movie. She tapped through her email absent-mindedly. A sense of dread over an overdue message about the water bill came and went. Then she settled her eyes on a reminder about paying her taxes. Her stomach began to hurt again and she felt that there was no end to things she had to pay. It was hard enough being a nurse, that gave her the ability to take care of her father but even with her insurance the medical bills piled up and with her income level there wasn’t much relief despite the fact she was always broke.

To make matters worse LodeStare income was taxed like gambling because it was from a video game. Lots of people were fighting that, different organizations and lobbyists, people smarter than her about tax law. But for the time being that income added to the burden. Not more so than getting a traditional job in some ways, but she felt she had to deal with it because a real job would take her too far away from her father like her normal job already did. In the game she could work and monitor him at the same time via a monitor and his vitals, but if she left for another job she’d be far away if something went wrong for him and her shifts at the hospital were already arduously long.

Reina wanted to scream. She felt she worked so hard but still didn’t have anything but a migraine and a stomach ache for her efforts.

***

Reina relayed photos to Layla and Amir. She told them about Devourer’s shack, his special attribute and helmet she was gifted and that he had refused to help her. That wasn’t going to set her back however. The two of them said they’d think over what to do and the three could reconvene the next day. Until then Reina had a job to go to.

Reina worked 12 hour shifts, 3 days a week. It was typical of most nurses but Reina found it great that she could spend 4 days a week taking care of her father. Their neighbor was a friend of her father’s and he’d watch him while she was at work. Thankfully he was a kind enough man to do so and had free time as he was a widower like her father. Mostly they would just both go online together and play the usual games together. Poker, chess, fishing, bowling, or farming.

The hospital was as busy as ever and Reina found herself trying to distract from her frustration with work. It was a bad idea to get distracted. She worked in the children's ward and she cared a lot about them. She was patient with kids and thought they were so clever and funny. Lately she had been taking care of a new patient, a young boy named Arlan. He had been somewhat difficult.

Reina opened the curtains and then pressed a button that buzzed Arlan. He had his headset on and was playing his favorite game. It took about 10 minutes but he unplugged and returned to reality. He set the headset aside and Reina briefly took note of the large scar on the side of his skull. His head was shaved and his eyes were baggy and dark.

“You haven’t been sleeping again, do we need to take away your VR privileges?”

“No…” Arlan groaned.

“You need to rest, Arlan, you can’t just play games,” Reina chastised.

“And why not?” He leaned his head back into his pillow and stared up in disappointment. “What else is there to do? Not like I’ll be alive much longer anyway.”

Reina’s heart sank but she was used to this from him. You got all kinds of children in the hospital and the cancer patients were as diverse as they came. He was the type to wonder what the point of fighting was. It wasn’t a question Reina could ever hope to answer. “Your family would be really sad if you left them, you know?”

“They’d be glad they didn’t have to waste time and money on me anymore.”

“That’s not true.”

“My dad and mom are always fighting. Talking about how expensive everything is. My dad doesn’t even sleep in the same bed as my mom anymore. My brother told me,” Arlan stated next. Oversharing was his specialty. He was a very observant child and he asked a lot about what was going on at home.

Reina served him his lunch and filled out the required information on her tablet. Then she sat on the side of the bed. “You know. I can’t know how it feels to be you. But I can tell you that what your mom and dad are feeling is a lot of pain and guilt that they can’t do more for you.”

“How would you know that?” Arlan said, picking away at his chicken with an unsteady fork jab.

Reina leaned her head back and fought back the wave of emotion that overtook her in that brief second of remembering then smiled sadly. “When my mother died, my father and I thought it was the end of the world. That there was no way we could go on living. But it wasn’t her dying that was the worst part, it was that we couldn’t go with her wherever she went.”

Reina reached out and grabbed Arlan’s hand. It felt skinny and far too fragile for a boy his age. “We just wanted even a second longer with her. And I know your parents would give anything if they were guaranteed it would keep you with them for just a day longer.”

Arlan frowned. Then jabbed the fork into his chicken breast. “How long ago did your mom die?”

“She died when I was twelve…so, thirteen or so years ago,” Reina answered him.

“Do you still remember her? You haven’t forgotten?” Arlan asked, finally looking away from the lunch he was probably set on not finishing.

Reina squeezed his hand tighter. “I remember everything about her. I haven’t forgotten her laugh, the way she hugged me, her smell, her practical jokes, all of it!” Reina said, happily.

Arlan smiled. “I hope my family remembers me like that too.”

“They won’t have, because you’re going to get better and make more memories with them. And that starts with you eating your meal so that you can get stronger.”

“...Do I have to?”

“Yes. Arlan, eat.”

Begrudgingly Arland took a few small bites and after a minute of silence he chirped up with, “Oh I watched this streamer today. And he was playing that game you like.”

“Oh yeah?” Reina replied.

“Yeah! I was watching because I can’t play it. Even though the game looks so fun. But there’s a stupid age limit, can’t they make an exception for me?” Arlan complained.

“No way, kiddo. You still have plenty of growing to do, don’t rush it.”

Arlan sighed. “You’re worse than my mom.”

When Reina got home that night she checked on her father, showered, and immediately fell asleep. She had no energy left in her tank from her shift and she had to get ready to do it all over again the next day. She hadn’t checked her phone and hardly ate.

That was why, when she woke up the next morning and finally saw the twelve missed calls from Amir, she worried something terrible had happened. She called him mid-brushing her teeth.

He answered almost immediately. “We have a huge problem!”

“What do you mean?” Reina said with a mouth full of toothpaste.

“Layla did something bad. And it’s already spiraled out of control.”

“What? What did she do?”

“Check Aufhocker’s bounties.”

“Huh?” Reina put the toothbrush down and kept Amir on the line while she tapped away. “Did someone add something or—” Reina’s jaw dropped.