Chapter Nineteen - Saying Yes

I walked into the MommaPops and blinked as I discovered the same zit-faced boy behind the counter. For some reason, that felt very funny to me.

I... may have been a little more tipsy than I had previously thought. That, or the taxi ride over to here hadn't helped the alcohol settle. Weren't D-rankers supposed to be a little more tolerant of alcohol?

Then again, I was barely a D-ranker at all, was I?

I didn't stop to ask anything at the counter, and instead just walked around and to the back. For some reason I was feeling a little self-conscious. Fortunately, I made a fresh Save at the hotel. If things went pear-shaped, I had a decent point to restart things from. Nothing to worry about.

Full-Auto Stranger-Danger looked mostly empty at this hour. There was one man shopping around though. He picked up a shirt, seemingly at random, then moved to the counter.

Not-So-Plain-Jane bagged it for him, and it was very obvious that she'd tucked something else into the bag. Then the man pulled his cap down lower, adjusted the hood of his coat, and walked by me without making eye contact.

Right, this place was suspicious as hell.

Jane glanced up, then her eyes widened and she immediately grinned. "Well, well! It's my favourite beanstalk!"

"I'm five seven," I said as I walked over. "Hardly a beanstalk."

"Nah, but you're all thin and scrawny, so beanstalk," she said as she came around the counter. I supposed to her I might as well be a giant, she barely came up to my collar. "Or should I call you... Deadline." She made a little wavy gesture with her hand, fingers wiggling.

My heart skipped a beat.

"What?"

Jane's smile was absolutely shit-eating. "Ohhhh, you think I wouldn't notice? Girl, I designed your outfit."

"How did you know?" I asked. I was tempted to Reload, but what even would be the point? I didn't have a Save point set up an entire day before.

Jane shrugged. "CCTV. Footage leaked when it became clear that it made the Storm Chasers look like Storm Posers. Heh! You smacked that little firebrand girl around. Strong dom energy. I approve, but I didn't think you had it in you."

I felt like my head was spinning for a moment. "Someone posted that online?"

"Ehhh, in some circles, sure," she said. "Dug into it, and the name leaked. Don't worry. No one died, and your crime was like, barely a felony. I do worse every afternoon. And I do crimes against god at night." She winked.

I sighed. "How much shit am I in?" I asked.

Jane snorted. "None. Not really. Like I said, what you did? Nabbing a portal without a license is a big no-no, but no one can prove that you didn't have one at the time, right? Not without your real ID. So there's 'suspicion' of you soloing a portal without a license, and then there's not reporting it in time. The thing with the Storm Chaser chick? That was her. She started it. You defended yourself. Hell, a good enough lawyer could make the whole case poof. You did the city a service without charging the usual portal clearance fee." She shrugged, as if that was that.

"Oh," I said.

"It's minor. Now, what's less minor is how badass you looked. Ohh, those moves were hot hot!" She waved her arms around and... was she imitating the way I fought Mizu? "And you looked good thanks to me. Hope you're here to pay up?"

Damn, Jane had a way of keeping me on my toes. "Yeah, that's exactly it," I said as I reached into a pocket. I pulled out a small wad of cash. It almost hurt to hand this out, but I'd just earned a heap and I'd be earning more. "Here, all yours."

Jane took the cash, whistling happily and off-tune as she counted through it. "What, no tip?" she asked before laughing raucously. "Come on, follow me to the back? We can talk biz."

"What sort of business?" I asked warily.

"That depends, but you didn't strike me as the kind of gal that just wanted to tap out one portal. You've got ambition, it's written all over your pretty face."

I followed her, against my best judgement. I had an easy exit, one Reload away. Jane moved to the back of the warehouse, past all of the clothes and into a section with... more clothes. But also, guns. Guns and cases of ammo, racks of other weapons, some armour. Lots of things of very questionable legality.

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"Don't look at my stock like that," Jane said. "It's all perfectly legal, sorta."

"Sorta?"

"I have a trademark on that sorta," Jane said with another laugh. She liked laughing, and it suited her well. She walked over to a second counter, this one more of a workbench and pushed aside what looked like a current project. There were some machines here, tools that I couldn't guess at, but some that I recognized as tailoring gear.

Jane reached under the counter, into a mini-fridge, then pulled out a brown bottle and two shot glasses. She poured, then slid one over and across towards me.

"I shouldn't," I said.

"Ah ah, none of that! C'mon, you cleared a portal, and it looks like solo too. That's not nothing. You're what, a D-ranker? That was an E-rank portal. Not insane, but like, kudos. And you came out with my gear looking spotless. You just needed a little runway strut at the end there, but your ass is way too flat for that."

"My, what?" I asked.

"Your butt's like a pancake, girl. Eat something, do some squats. Look at me, four-foot nothing but I've got cheeks for days and I've got curves to grab onto."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. This woman... god, she was... urgh. I took the shot, downing it in one swift motion before coughing.

"Thanks," I said as I cleared my throat. "So... business?"

"And then pleasure?" she asked, a twinkle in her eye. "I can shut down for the day, and I have a bed right there." She nodded her head back and... yeah, there was a bed behind a curtain wall. Did she sleep here?

The discarded panties suggested that yes, she did. Also, she wore very... daring things. "Uh," I said. "We'll have to see about that."

Damn. I was in a state if I was actually thinking about it. Truth was though, Jane seemed fun? I kind of liked her. Not in the long-term relationship way, but still.

"So, biz?" she asked.

"Right. First, do you know any appraisers? For weaker portal artefacts."

"Ohh, shiny. Can I see? Also, yeah, I know a guy who can do things on the down-low. E-ranked or higher?"

"Just E-ranked," I confirmed. I reached into the bag, then pulled out the macuahuitl and set it on the counter. "Careful, it's sharp."

"So's my wit," Jane said as she picked the weapon up. She weighted it carefully. Actually, she treated it with more care than I expected, which, yeah, she was a weapon's saleswoman... black marketeer. She'd know how to handle a weapon with respect. "Neat. enchanted? Something weak though. I've handled weapons with strong enchantments. C-rank-ish, and they felt dangerous. This ain't it."

"Probably, yeah," I replied. "I can't afford much for it."

"That's fine. This ain't worth too much, I don't think. A couple of grand?"

I blinked. That much? It didn't make the risk of the portal worth it, of course, but it was still a nice payout. Or it would be if I was truly concerned with cash.

"There's this too, can you tell me about it?"

I pulled out the revolver. I'd emptied it out, of course. A loose, loaded gun in a bag was a stupid idea.

Jane cooed as she picked it up and turned it this way and that. "Where'd you get this?"

"Mizu... donated it." At her confused look, I elaborated. "The Storm Chaser woman."

Jane cackled. "Oh, nice! You'll want to re-register it, but I can do that from here. An hour and I can switch out the plate. See? The registration number is on this little plate thing here. It's two rivets. Pop pop and you've got something that's all yours, legally."

"Huh, that's nice," I said. Good to know that stealing guns was just that easy in Fortress ENE.

"Bastion-Krieger. Alright brand. Middle of the pack. Nice caliber though. If you go for Special-D rounds they'll come up to a hefty sixty dollars a shot, but hey, you can apparently blow the brains out of just about anything, and anyone, that isn't C-ranked."

That was expensive. Probably. I didn't know how much bullets cost.

"Was that all?" Jane asked.

I blinked. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"And now the pleasure?" she asked, standing up onto the tips of her feet. She was pressing her shoulders in, making me very aware that her shirt had a low neckline.

I worked my jaw.

Then I made a Save. "I hope I don't regret this," I said.

***