#niratias

"I was wondering how long it would be until the two of us found ourselves business partners," Zaychik chuckled quietly, shaking his head, "Although I prefer the term bloody buddies." Shoving his hands into his pockets, they stepped forward up and out of the darkness. In truth, it hadn't taken much effort from Josh to convince Zaychik - just the offer of this job being unusual was enough for the masked man. It was strange, how even violence and gore could grow to be dull when it was done day in and day out. Before long, you began to focus more on the amount of time it would take to get the blood out of your clothes than what you did to put it there in the first place.

For once they don't want to kill each other. They've had a few moments of peace, they haven’t even spoken to each other. Yet, this is the most comfortable he’s ever felt around him.

“i don’t even like waffles,” Cassidy leans on the table with a bored huff.

So much fir a first date…if that’s what this is supposed to be. Brawling over territory between the Riders and The Conglomeration has ended in a temporary truce. Getting a text in the middle of the night asking him to show up here was annoying enough.

At least Mox is paying.

"What's this about? Gonna jump me? Have Pac strangle me when I'm not looking?"

"And I'm telling you, man. I got that in spades."

Not with this stuff, specifically — the gang unit of it all — but hell, if he wouldn't make a good team player just given the chance. It's every other part he can prove to be worth Moxley's time. His pride's shifted to the wayside, well aware this is sort of pathetic, just shy of begging for attention at this point, but he's out of places to think to go. No John, no Sam, just this fucked up clutch of lonely he's got to outrun.

"Hey, yeah, let me call you back. If you don't hear from me by tonight…" Azin said softly on the phone before slipping it into her pocket, that same hand now holding the controller for the shocks in his body loosely. She didn't like what she was seeing on the TV; she knew exactly who was responsible for this, and she also knew what was sitting on her sofa right now.

"Gabe, turn that off." She ordered, the most force her voice had ever directed towards him. She didn't give him a choice. "I said shut it off." Still he didn't listen, and she was not happy. Seeing that kind of chaos on the TV sent her nervous system into overdrive, and that's when she got sloppy and made mistakes. She was about to make one, a big one. "Look at me." Her finger hooked the corner of the muzzle to force him to watch her.

In reflection, she will hate that the first time Gabe touches her is in violence, but that will be in reflection, not now. Now she's just focusing on landing safe. She did try to take half a step back before he got to her and sent her flying. Her slight frame was sent backwards; she didn't even stumble, her feet left the ground and she came crashing down, missing the coffee table. The wind was driven out of her lungs.

Patient: Rachael Villeneuve Daughter of senator Philippe Villeneuve. Known reason for hospital transfer: Liver damage, caused by the overconsumption of alcohol. Searching database for a matching donor . . .

Not too long ago, Reach would have done the same as their copy. Searching the depths of a huge medical database, pulling a matching donor and send a request to the authorities, to acquire the unfortunate soul. Reach never questioned any of it back then, simply because Warren and Steven programmed them that way.

'Humans are neither important, nor unimportant'.

But now? It is wrong. Even if Warren and Steven did mean well, what they helped to create, all of it is wrong. The human trafficking, the experiments that resulted out of it all... sometimes, a human is just beyond saving. It is not right to kill a healthy human, just to save a sick one. Warren didn't want to accept that.

If anything though, Reach inherited that strong desire to help other people.

"Drop your weapon!"

The police trooper turns around in surprise. Maybe he thought it was another squad-member who received orders to abort this undertaking. It would have been a favorable outcome. Gabe Kidd? That guy keeps fighting like a wild animal down there on the street.

But instead, it is Reach who approached the trooper stationed at the roof of an old convenient store. And before said trooper can even turn around to take out this unwelcome guest, Reach closes the gap at breakneck speed, slamming their own weapon into the officer's face with such force that the attacked struggles backwards and falls down onto the street, where other troopers still grapple with the task of taking their target down.

"You--"

I shrug off my jacket. Hang it on the hook by the door.

"--were incredibly loud tonight."

The bartender flinched. The bouncer prepared. A very enraged female patron was flipped off. No one got away unscathed, except the taxi driver and that was only because of my hand at Gabe's neck the whole ride over, thumb moving every time he looked like he was winding up.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

I don't wait for an answer. Can't care what it is.