Chapter 20: Emily

For a moment no one said a word. Rick turned away, almost hoping that it would pass without any comment, but then the Birthrighter took a step forward.

"Holy shit, it's that guy Mike was looking for! You have any idea how pissed he is?"

Rick sighed. "He mentioned it to me."

"He said we should take a swing at you if we got the chance. Maybe I will..."

Though Rick didn't want to get into a fight outside a random gas station, he realized that he might not have a choice. Just one more twist of fate for life to throw at him.

The guy looked a couple years older than Mike and had his dark hair cut unfashionably short. He wore jeans and a polo shirt that looked normal but that Rick suspected cost an absurd amount of money. For a Birthrighter he was pretty built and he still had a strong aura. Now that Rick was more accustomed to powerful lucrima, he suspected that this one had a core that produced a generation rate of around 110,000 lucrim.

"Cool it, Glenn." The woman had a stern normal expression, but now proved that was nowhere near a frown as she fixed the Birthrighter with a vicious gaze. He turned to her and scowled back.

"Why are you getting involved? You know these losers?"

"They're just random people from the Underground, but I've had enough pointless fights for the day. Back off."

For a moment they stared at each other, auras seething. As far as Rick could tell, Emily had a generation rate of roughly 85,000 lucrim and should have been at a disadvantage, yet that didn't seem to be the dynamic between them. She was entirely calm, while Glenn was the one putting up a front and eventually backing down.

After taking several steps back, he turned back to jab a finger in Rick's direction. "Alright, you get off today. But it's only a matter of time..." He ran a finger across his throat, smiled unpleasantly, and then turned and stalked away.

Emily watched him go, then turned to them with an irritated expression. "I don't like that I got involved in this, but since you made him go away... I'll call us even."

"What exactly was this?" Henry glanced at Glenn's retreating back, then smirked. "Fight with your boyfriend?"

"Hardly." Emily cast both of them a look of pure scorn and Rick winced to be included in it. "We used to work together and he wanted me to bail him out again."

Henry started to say something else that probably wouldn't help, so Rick stepped between them and cut him off. "I know you said you didn't want to get involved, but even a little information from you could help me a lot. Mike and Glenn have it out for me, as you probably heard. Do you know anything about them?"

"Not very much. I just used to work for Mike's dad." Emily gave a shrug. "It was a decent job and their tech staff are good, but too many of the executives are douchebags with Birthright Cores and trust funds. I saw Mike a few times but I never met him."

"And Glenn?"

"He was over our department - his dad went to school with Mike's dad or something, so he got him a job. Something something nepotism. I wasn't paying attention at that point - I was on my way out because I was tired of cleaning up Glenn's messes. But because he's an incompetent tool, he came to ask me for more help."

Rick nodded thoughtfully, absorbing the new information. Not exactly actionable, but it gave him a better idea what he was dealing with. Based on how they'd worked together, and what Glenn had said earlier, Rick was afraid that Mike had both of his friends looking for him. Even if this was a solely personal vendetta and Maguire Incorporated didn't get involved, he had three threats to worry about.

While Rick was thinking, Henry spoke up again. "So, where do you work now?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but EthCom."

"Seriously? A cute girl like you shouldn't be a slave to a corporation like that."

There might have been worse things to say, but Rick wasn't sure what they could have been. Emily's eyes went extremely cold. "Excuse me?"

"What, don't tell me you're going to defend your corporate masters? They don't care about you, you're just a cog in their machine, a-"

To Rick's surprise, Emily laughed, though not pleasantly. "Unless you're secretly a terrorist, you're a lot more enmeshed in the 'machine' than I am. I'm an engineer with a valuable specialty - I could leave EthCom any time I wanted. I'm guessing the two of you don't have that option, whatever form of 'wage slavery' you take part in."

"Hey, I was playing nice, but-"

"Henry." Rick put a hand in front of him to shut him up and focused on Emily. "We don't want to pick a fight here. If Glenn visited here, does that mean he knows about the Underground? Do you think it's likely that he'd tell Mike and they might try something?"

"Probably." Emily folded her arms and regarded him coolly. "Glenn and his buddies are more bark than bite, so it's not like they'd put a hit out on you. But there's a good chance they'll show up. Honestly, if I was in your shoes, I'd just make myself scarce. It's not like you have much of a chance against them... especially not if you're blowing all your lucrim on independent mystics."

Rick bristled and tried not to overreact. "I don't play those games, Henry was the one who-"

"Hey!" Henry grabbed his shoulder. "Don't try to lie to impress her, man! You're always going on about winning big and becoming a student to some mystic!"

Completely stunned for a moment, Rick stared at Henry, who gave him a smug grin. Okay, maybe it had been a dick move to throw Henry under the bus, but he hadn't wanted Emily to get the wrong impression. He really wanted to get to know her better, for multiple reasons, but right now that seemed very unlikely.

She regarded both of them and he could tell she was analyzing them as fighters. Unfortunately, with his lucrima portfolio hampered by life circumstances and bearing the two remaining leeches, he must have looked pathetic. Though there wasn't quite scorn in her eyes, he didn't like what he saw there.

"What does Whitney see in you?" She spoke almost underneath her breath and he wanted to inquire further, but after that Emily turned away. "I'll leave you two to your fun." Before he could object, she lifted into the air and disappeared in a streak of purple aura.

Not the introduction he would have wanted. So she was an engineer of some kind... that explained her high lucrim generation rate, though not what she was doing fighting in the Underground. Her reference to Granny Whitney was strange as well, since it might have been a simple observation that she assisted him, but it also could imply that he was missing information.

"What a bitch." Henry glared after her sourly. "Okay, maybe I came on too strong, but seriously. She was looking down on us from the start."

"Why are you acting like a dick, man?" Rick turned on him, but his coworker just chuckled.

"Come on, man, you know you don't have a chance with her."

"I don't care about that, I care that she might have information about the guy who promised violent vengeance on me!" He didn't raise his voice often, but realized that it had gotten out of control. Henry's eyes widened as he realized that they weren't just messing around and he raised his hands.

"Sorry, man. Honestly."

"Does she come to the Underground on any sort of schedule?"

"Not that I can tell. It's pretty random."

"Fine." Rick turned away, considering his options. Based on what Emily had said, it wasn't likely that she had any terribly sensitive information about Mike and his cronies. But he wanted to ask her about her aura and the methods she used to fight more powerful opponents. There was something more solid about her lucrima that he thought might hold some secret he was lacking...

"You wanna just go get those lucrim shakes?"

Though Rick wanted to snap back, he realized that he was acting childishly. Henry was just being his usual self and he shouldn't have expected anything different. He wouldn't gain anything by lashing out or making a big deal of it. "Alright, man. Let's see if they're as good as you say."

As it turned out, they weren't bad. Not the best thing he'd ever tasted, but really cheap for a lucrim-based drink. Things were only awkward for a little while before they got back to normal and left the matter behind them.

At least out loud. Internally, Rick found himself wondering about his decisions. Honestly, Henry was probably the sort of person his Uncle Frank would disapprove of, participating in illegal fights and taking on heavier and heavier demonic bonds. Though Rick thought of himself as independent, he couldn't deny that he might be influenced subconsciously. Emily had glanced over both of them like they were exactly the same, beneath her attention...

Several days passed without anything significant coming of the encounter, though Rick kept watching his back. The way Emily had talked about Mike and Glenn made him slightly less worried, but he still didn't want to be on the receiving end of their wrath.

Now that he knew that Granny Whitney was going to be handicapping him in every match, he was able to prepare differently. He tried to keep himself at full strength, which was easier now that he had more money and lucrim to work with. Some days he even considered if he could quit working at the House of the Cosmic Fist, though the rational side of his brain told him that would be far too risky.

For now, anyway. Rick wasn't sure what had caused it, but something had changed within him. He didn't want to be working at a crappy little gym his entire life, to be someone people like Emily looked down on, to get kicked around by the powerful.

Of course, neither did anyone else. But he found himself driven to change it in a way he never had been before.

When Melissa had another severe incident, he didn't let it slow him down. Instead of panicking, he made sure she had her normal medication, let lucrim flow to ease the ether void, and even purchased another item from the pharmacy that was supposed to lessen her symptoms.

But this time, she didn't get better.