Memory Bonds

Cooper blinked, vaguely aware of the square of light above him. Wherever he was lying was cool, damp, and smooth.

'Cooper, Cooper, Coo-you're awake.'

'Have you just been thinking that the entire time I've been passed out?'

'Well, yes. But you've only been out for like, a second.' Thank the Gods.

'Well yeah. That's how passing out usually works,' he told her as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

His left arm shook under the strain. He took stock once he was sitting up. He left arm hadn't taken the strain very well, wobbling under his weight, but it didn't hurt. His shoulders felt like he'd maybe knocked one out of place. And his head was throbbing in the back, where it had lain. He put a hand to it. Ah yeah. That was sticky. But head wounds bled easily, so that might not mean much. Overall, it wasn't too bad.

. . . The two of them, once again, had different ideas of too bad.

Well all his limbs were seemingly fine. He could probably knock his own shoulders back into place, and his head would be alright. Though he didn't think he could solve that one on his own.

Ugh. It was at times like this he wished he actually did have a metal skull.

'The robes Evin gave you are pretty loose. Could you use some of the fabric to wrap around your head?'

Fair.

Cooper ripped some cloth off the bottom, wrapped it around his head, and pulled the robe's hood back up, so it wasn't obvious he had makeshift bandages around his head.

He didn't have the sunglasses anymore, lost them in all the scuffle. But they'd already been recognized.

With that taken care of, he stood up, and looked around. He was inside some sort of underground tunnel. A manmade one. The walls curved, turning into a rounded ceiling, instead of having corners. He was on a path, sort of like a sidewalk. There was water flowing beside him, but he didn't know if there was supposed to be water, or if this abandoned tunnel had merely eventually filled with it.

It was a little slimy beneath his feet, the way wet stone could be, but not gross.

'It's not?'

At the very least, he was confident this wasn't a sewer, even without Moon's nose.

He tapped his shoes together, trying to get them to start up. There was a wheezing sound. And nothing.

Cooper frowned at his shoes. 'Hm.'

'Do you have to do anything? Surely the others can help you.'

'How would they know?'

The others couldn't follow him. They didn't know where he was, and he had no way to contact them that either he or Moon could think of.

No, he could handle it. The shoes probably weren't even broken. Something had just gone out of alignment, and could easily be put back. Something to bear in mind if he kept workshopping the flight shoes. He dropped down to take a look. He was still doing impromptu repairs when he heard something. Faint clicking of footsteps on the weight floor.

Cooper turned. Three people were coming down the tunnel towards him. Two of them had lights. Otherwise, it would be too dark to properly see in that direction.

The person on the right was a zenny, whose light was attached to a helmet. She also had to wear a mask against the rank air. The slit of visible skin between the mask and the helmet, where her eyes were, was pretty narrow.

The man on the left was a colbber, and he didn't need a mask. But he was still wearing a lot of cloth. The poncho and bandana he had made him look a bit like a cowboy. Unlike Cooper and the cultist, he did have a partially metal skull.

The third figure was cloaked entirely in black clothes, so thoroughly Cooper couldn't guess species or gender. The only ones he'd rule out were gnomes and dwarfs, as even imps could have their horns filed down far enough to hide. Their mask seemed to come with some sort of voice synthesizer.

And they'd noticed him before he noticed them.

He noticed all three of them had weapons as well, even if the zenny was the only one holding hers.

It was silent for a moment, the only sound the water moving beside them as the three stared him down.

"Who are you people?" Cooper asked.

"Assassin's guild," the colbber said.

"Shaun," the zenny hissed.

"Oh. Were we not going to silence him later? I thought we were going to do that."

"Phonetic Shaun," the one with the full mask, and synthesized voice, sighed. "Killing random people who fall down here is a waste of time and resources, and could draw unwanted attention. And even if you were going to do that anyway, you probably shouldn't tell them. In case you fail."

"Ah."

While they talked, Cooper shuffled back a touch. He strangely preferred this over if they'd said, say, human traffickers. Biases and all that. But it didn't mean he wanted to be here. Unfortunately, his feet made noise against the damp floor. It was quiet, but the masked figure turned to him.

There was something about that one. Shaun and the zenny were a bit harder to take seriously, once they started talking. The masked figure could say ridiculous things too, but their face was covered, and their slow voice didn't sound like a person. They didn't move much either. It made them hard to read and. . .off-putting.

"Well, you've seen us, and you know Phonetic Shaun's name. For a colbber, that's more than enough information to be a problem."

"Maybe if I wantedtocatchyou. But Iwanttohire you," Cooper quickly tried, giving Wesles a run for his money in speaking speed.

Moon, instantly getting the idea, asked if Fleck knew the names of any of the cult members.

"You're definitely not going through the right channels."

The zenny laughed even as she raised her guns. Given the situation, Cooper didn't realize "channels" was a pun right away, but it explained the laugh.

"Look, look, wait," Cooper urged, raising both hands. The zenny's fingers weren't on the triggers, so hopefully she was still at least considering. "I do want someone dead. Murv Fauths. And I can pay up." Possibly a lie, but if he actually ended up paying, maybe Wesles could float the bill. "I don't know the channels for hiring an assassin, but not many people do. Can you honestly say all of your clients do?"

That didn't seem like a business model they could afford.

Both the zenny and Shaun seemed to be looking at the masked figure, at least out of the corner of their eyes. The masked figure seemed to be considering. Though once again they were still and silent, not even crossing their arms or tapping their fingers. And of course there was no face to read.

Cooper didn't move, barely even breathed. He'd gotten out of a lot of shit in his life, but this was it. Out of ideas. If they decided to take his offer, it would be one cultist out of the picture. If they didn't, he couldn't think of a way out of this. Then-

"Oh my God. We really do have an assassin's guild on this planet."

The only one not surprised by the new voice was the zenny, who swung her guns angrily towards the left, but strangely still kept her fingers off the trigger.

Cooper looked right, mentally adjusting his eyepiece to night vision, as he looked away from the light source.

As it turned out, there was another, smaller, tunnel branching off on the other side of the water. At the mouth of it were his friends. Rasha, Wesles, and Evin were there.

Was Evin a friend?

Honestly close enough at this point.

And they'd brought someone else with them as well. A familiar short figure in a black outfit, the clasp on her black cloak the familiar pattern of the clerics. Though this one was red, instead of gold. Was she allowed to do that?

She might still be carrying the gold one under her cloak or something. Her allegiance was clearly advertised, either way.

Sure enough, the zenny hissed softly.

"Ah shit," Shaun muttered.

"I don't suppose you'll let us keep working on this deal?" the masked figure asked.

On the one hand, Cooper was pretty sure they'd been about to turn him down, or at least had more reluctance, before the cleric showed up. On the other hand, he was OK with an assassin killing a cult member, actually.

"What do you think?" the cleric asked, lifting her chin.

"I think you'll try to arrest us," the zenny snarled.

"Clerics don't really make arrests, but I had a similar idea in mind, I suppose."

"Oh. Oh. Are you going to hit them with my curse?" Evin asked.

"Maybe." Elice kept her eyes trained on the assassins. "Slimy is a better word for businessmen than assassins though."

Evin's narrowed expression was both insulted and disappointed.

Shaun, meanwhile, apparently decided he'd had enough. He flung something round and crackling, like a firecracker, towards the group.

"Shaun no!" the zenny tried to warn.

But she was either too late, or he ignored her.

A red rim appeared around the color of Elice's eyes. Her eyes were still brown, and they still had whites, but both shrunk to make room for the faintly glowing red ring.

The bomb disappeared in its arc towards her, and suddenly a loud explosion went off over Shaun's shoulder. The right one. Not the side his heart was on.

"What did you do?!" the zenny shrieked.

"Merely turned the attack back on its caster." Elice slowly tilted her head. "I'd say that's fair karma, wouldn't you?"

Shaun stumbled back, gripping at his shoulder with his good hand. He wasn't dead, clerics weren't allowed to kill people, but it was nasty.

Might explain why the zenny hadn't attacked. If she'd been planning to, she'd see what would happen.

"Cooper! Come on!" Rasha urged, extending a hand.

"And who said you could leave?" the masked figure asked. "You hurt Phonetic Shaun, even if he was an idiot."

Elice fixed her gaze on the masked figure. "Oh? We can stay. Do tell, what are you going to do?"

Cooper took the moment of them having a staring contest to dash forward, leaping into the air and using his metal leg to launch as far as he could. He was pretty sure he was still going to end up in the gross water, but the less he had to wade through it, the better.

He was at the high point of his leap when the cloaked figure took out what looked like a gun, and launched what looked like a flare. But they hadn't aimed at any people. Instead, they fired at the ceiling.

The tunnel shook. Rocks and dust fell lose. Cooper felt something hit his shoulder, and he was going down.