Molting the Mortal Coil

In the canteen area there were around twenty hexagonal tables of a very industrial design. They had stainless steel tops with three legs and six triangular stools tucked underneath. Sage took a look around at the place and saw four or five groups of people eating and talking. He suddenly felt very nostalgic and was reminded of a high school lunchroom. Oh great, does that make me the new kid? Which clique am I going to get invited into?

Laughing inwardly at the comparison, he went over to get some food. He’d already learned that the leg bands were what they used for currency tracking, and he was glad the food was set out in a buffet style. He still had no idea how to read the signs and he’d have no way to order off a menu. He picked a few unusual looking foods, mainly to try them out. There was no shortage of food in the Universe Ring, and he was mainly here to socialize. A worker tracked everything he chose and then there was a negative sounding beep.

“Sir, it says you don’t have enough to pay.”

Oh, right. It’s like I have an empty bank account.

Sage’s eyes rippled, quickly hypnotizing the attendant, “Oh no, I just lost my old band. You know I’m good for it, can you cover it for me? I’ll get you back next time.”

The worker’s eyes glazed over for a moment before he smiled, “Oh, Acumen! I didn’t realize it was you. Sure, you owe me a beer!”

From his questioning of the Veterinarian, Sage learned about the naming style of this world and embedded the name into the worker’s memory along with his face. Now that he seemed like a regular, getting him to spot him a lunch was no problem. He carried the tray and took another look at the occupants before he recognized someone. Well, he recognized her figure. While everyone wore the same jumpsuits, they didn’t completely obscure the body shapes of the wearers. Sage’s memory was quite good and he’d got a pretty good look at the woman’s figure when she was up close to the Blacksilver Pawn and his Twin Soul. She had been wearing a mask over her face, so he couldn’t be sure, but he had a pretty good feeling he was correct.

She looked to be somewhat sulking, and she was at a table with two other women and two men. The women seemed to be trying to console and cheer her up, while the guys were trying not to look bored. Conveniently, there was also a free chair and Sage slipped into it. Since these were likely all field operatives, they were likely far more powerful than the Vet and cafeteria worker. He wasn’t going to risk bumping into someone that could resist him, so he resorted to normal methods.

“Hello, everyone! I’m new to Hollow Phase and I saw the empty seat. Do you mind if I join you? You guys looked friendly and I was hoping you could help introduce me to the place.”

One of the women gave him the stink eye, while the other was too preoccupied with cheering up her friend to pay attention. He had sat between the two men and one of them clapped a hand onto his back, “Welcome, then! Hollow Phase is the best base on the Janus Continent so you’ve chosen well. What brings you here? Where’s your team?”

Sage let his bright smile fade, “I lost them to the Flares. I was lucky to make it here on my own.”

Sage’s sad story seemed to work, as even the saddened woman lifted her head and looked at him for the first time. She was examining him as the man beside him let out a sigh, “The world is harsh. Sorry for your loss. What are your plans now? Do you need help getting home?”

“The only home I had was with my team. I’ve already lost everything, even my shell and band.”

The shell he spoke of referred to the turtle shell like hexagonal backpack all of the field operatives carried. Sage had learned that all of them carried it and it was basically the symbol of their profession. It was far from comparable to a storage treasure, since they didn’t have any extra-dimensional storage spaces here, but it could expand and collapse to store supplies. It was also packed with small devices that assisted them in their work, like tracking beacons, scanning systems, and communications equipment.

With their sympathy roused, Sage had an inroad to conversation. Well, for most of them. The man sitting to his other side seemed annoyed. As soon as the saddened woman stopped sulking and put her attention upon Sage, the man looked annoyed. He coughed and patted Sage’s shoulder, “You’ve had quite the hard time. Spark, why don’t you take our new friend here on a tour around the base?”

Ahh, jealousy. Looks like he’s trying to get rid of me.

“Oh, it’s alright. Some of the others have been kind enough to show me around already. I already feel indebted to them as so many have already helped me out here and there. I was actually hoping you could point me towards a team that needs new members. I need to make some money to pay everyone back and stop being a burden.”

The kind male, who seemed to be named Spark, was already jumping up to lead a tour. He had leapt to his feet before the other man finished talking. Yet, when Sage spoke, he hopped back onto the stool, “Ooo, there’s plenty of teams in Hollow Phase! What’s your curse? Tell us quickly, we can definitely help you pick a good team.”

Curse? Oh, I didn’t hear about that one yet. It must be something related to their powers?

He put on an uneasy smile and looked around, “I… I don’t really know if I should be talking about that.”

The woman who had first given him the stink face was no longer so hostile, at least to him. Instead, she reached over and slapped Spark on the back of his head, “Don’t be so overbearing! Not everything treats their curse as nonchalantly as you. Leave our new friend… What’s your name, friend?”

Oh good, that worked. Sage rubbed his head and smiled thankfully at the girl, “I’m Acumen Asan, at your service.”

The excitable guy jumped up and started by pointing at the woman who was focused on taking care of the woman Sage had met in the city, “This is Spring Raylyn.” Then he moved on to the woman he knew, “That’s Aurora Saeva, and this fellow is Cloud Jaro.”

After the woman he pointed to the other man and at that point the third woman slapped him again, “I’m last?! This foolish guy is Spark Benjam, and I’m Nova Leara. There’s one more person on our team, Cross Carbin, but he’s in the infirmary. He got injured on our last mission,” then she leaned over towards Sage and lowered her voice, “He’s the reason Aurora is so down.”

Sage made note of their names and Spark seemed a bit annoyed at being smacked again by Nova. He stood up at the table, escaping from Nova’s immediate arm’s length, “Since Cross is down for a while, that means we have an opening on the team. Why don’t we let Acumen fill it? It’s only temporary, but we need another for our mission and he needs some help. It’s a win-win, right?”

“Hey, I like to help people as much as the rest of you, but Acumen is new here. We don’t know what he can do. We can’t just trust him with our lives!” Cloud turned to Sage, “No offense, Acumen. We were just assigned a dangerous mission, and I don’t want to take any chances.”

Spark looked annoyed that the great idea he’d just come up with was already being shot down. He started to turn towards Nova and then thought she might smack him again so he looked at Spring instead with a pleading look. Spring flipped her shoulder length brown hair back and then looked at Aurora, “Acumen would be filling in for Aurora’s partner, so you should be asking her what she thinks, not me.” She pet her hand across Aurora’s dark hair, “What do you think, Aurora? I’ll just team up with you and Cloud can operate solo, okay?”

“Acumen can fill in for Cross,” Aurora spoke up abruptly at that point and the others were stunned into silence.