“That’s an excellent way of putting it, yes.” Aon nodded along, eager to keep this conversation back on the rails.

“I think I’m in very capable hands then.” They clasped their hands together and leaned back a bit in their chair.

If there was one thing they were good at, it was laying it on thick. And they had kept them on the line so far despite the outbursts. Their fingers pressed tighter together at the notion of having their concerns heard, as if theirs weren’t drowned out from the start in their mind. They kept that to themselves.

“I…think I see where you’re going.”

Of course it was something a police mascot could do. They just had to try a little harder at the kindness part. This would all come a bit easier once they were able to get their current state of being under control.

“I’ll take anything you can give me, if we’ve got the time.”

please edit me

edit: yay

edit 2: noo

edit (hub) why the fuck can i edit your post

“Ah..” A weak noise creaked and died in the back of Aon’s throat while they tried to process their misstep. The hand cupping their chin moved upwards and under their visor to cradle their forehead.

“I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have assumed you would think that. My PR has been horrendous lately, so I…”

They could still turn this around! This kind of answer was what they wanted out of this after all, regardless of how unearned.

“Thank you for um. For that.”

Their hand retracted from their face and joined the other back on the table.

“I don’t think that’s entirely true. I think I get on just fine with my coworkers…” Very rarely did they take actual cases with them that weren’t more than small time operations or data collection. And then there was the marketing. It was peaceful times. They hadn’t really considered if maybe their standing within the system had gotten in the way of being approachable to their own coworkers. They never really cared either.

“Though I guess it’s not really the same as the kind of work we have been dealing with in the chatroom. I can’t say I’ve pulled off the type of coordination I have with you in battle with anyone else. So for the sake of this exercise let’s say that’s correct.”

“Mutating over time…”

Aon took a moment to consider what that could possibly mean for theirs…and a mental note to keep a closer eye on her in the chatroom.

They were caught off guard by how nicely they had put what they could only assume they were really trying to say. The whole intent of the meeting was to solidify trust with the two, now it was backfiring in their face.

“What? N-no I meant dealing with the whole of the chatroom and having to deal with the government backend breathing down my neck if I were to disclose it not-”

Their control was slipping away. Bitter malaise rose in their throat that they had to fight to keep down, clenching their jaw. They propped their elbow up onto the table and put their chin in their hand in an attempt to ease it up.

“Are you saying you think I’m incompetent?”

Aon opened their mouth to deny but quickly shut it again. They hadn’t thought about it so deeply…but surely this had to be true, otherwise they could have felt safe enough to have asked for help.

“Ah…well I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case but…”

Accepting that, or a fault of their own ego were equally undesirable options. So they chose to let that topic die in awkward silence.

They blinked through all of the names listed off and just nodded along, recognizing none of them except ‘Netto’; knowing there were least a few of that guy in the chatroom and theirs wasn’t one they had met yet.

“Right, do we know if there’s any update on them?”

They glanced down past their visor at their restless hands while they debated sharing their own information. There really wouldn’t be any harm in telling a half truth…That that SoulNet Yuichiro reached out to them in direct messages inquiring about the Tower. But that could potentially lead to–

No, they couldn’t. Not yet.

“You don’t need to tell me. Just curious.”

“I stated what I wanted to see from the start! Why are you surprised?! Is it because I’m not coddling you like everyone else?! Letting you think it’s all fine?!”

Aon struggled to keep their hold while they argued, bracing their arm with their other hand attempting to pump more of their vaccine toward Rock.

“You’re arguing what I’m doing isn’t fair? After using illegal chips on me, and now this?” They knew they were going to be dealing with whatever this Shadow Trance was, and in all truth they hadn’t made any kind of plan for it, not even this.

But now here they were, unable to take it back. They could only attempt to excuse their way out of it.

“What’s with the double standard? First it’s ‘no one told me so it’s fine’ but it’s not fine when it’s used against you. Is it? I haven’t said one thing I didn’t mean!”

Their gaze meandered to the screen to glare at Lan, taking note of her reactions. It left them off guard for the sudden transformation and the swiftness of Rock breaking free, appearing directly in front of them and the shadow from behind,

They struggled briefly, slacking when it became evident they were far outmatched. They could barely keep up with these two as it was, this new form was as Ellen put it ‘Frightening’ but not fun by any means.

They couldn’t do anything about this, no matter how badly they wanted to.

“I’ll take the hate. I’ll take it all! If you brats would. Just. Get it!!” They hissed through their teeth, tilting their head up and to the right against the blade to shoot a direct glare at Rock with their good eye from under their visor.

“I see.” Aon nodded along through most of the explanation until it landed back on the topic of the chatroom and theirs.

“Ah, I don’t think it’s for lack of wanting to know. Rather…” They started, “I just don’t think I can shoulder something like that just yet.” A far cry from all of their funny ideas about punitive justice.

“It’s more that I seem to be the only vector for the chatroom here. I don’t claim to know how this all works, but Miss Blaire can only access it through me as well, she doesn’t have access her own client. Which worries me as to why she keeps getting dragged into things.”

It was so easy for things like that MegaMan to come through…and for Blaire to have been involved in the past two Alpha encounters. They weren’t familiar enough with the people working on preventative measures in the chat to inquire.

“Maybe it’s selfish, but I don’t want the hands of every old man in the government prying me open to take a gander when I’m confident that I can keep tabs myself.

“But I guess I can feel at ease that your side has things under control! I am curious about what that looks like.”

Nothing the pair said afterwards really registered anymore, until they were called out. Aon started, briefly stunned that it had finally happened, and not even for the reason they were trying to hide– directly anyways.

“Don’t! question me!” They argued, their voice raised in an uncharacteristic guttural bark.

Their footwork was messy in the fight, they were losing control of themselves, they needed to reign control back into their favour. They had to convince themselves in the same breath that this was on purpose and not the same.

“You are the ones being tested. You are proving yourselves to Me. Not. The other way. Around.”

Some of the tendrils sloughed off after impact with the blades, but that only caused Aon to try and tighten their grip with what remained. The goop rippled and a white glow began to creep from Aon’s end toward Rock as they forced their element into the attack. Their teeth ground together as if it was hurting them to do so.

“Show me that you can overcome it this time! Or don’t! Let it out for all I care!”

”You don’t know that! So people have warned you and you refuse to listen?” Their gaze couldn’t help straying to Rock while they argued with her operator. This wasn’t Rock’s fault, It seemed like there was some merit to Ellen’s concern about Lan herself after all.

“Why won’t you just listen then!? Your stubbornness is putting your navi at risk, not just…” Aon squinted at the smoke and trailed off. Even if it wasn’t the same, that reaction after using Lightwave was enough confirmation that there was much more to what was wrong with these two.

“Fine.”

At Rock’s running lead they took to running to meet her, veering to their left slightly to keep the blades in their field of view. They weren’t about to let her get too close though, kicking out as she slid forward while they loaded the next chip.

With a growl through grit teeth Aon’s free arm began reforming, elongating, bursting into a stream of familiar iridescent black goop that stretched forward and enveloped Rock. Sludgy tendrils constricted around her middle pushed her back and swung her into the trajectory of one of her own blades while Aon stayed in place.

“Right, you have a boyfriend.” That had come up before…hadn’t it? It hadn’t been relevant at the time – that ‘useless blue thing’. They had context for that now, even if it was different iterations of the guy.

It was heartening that she had the time for that, but sickening at the same time. A thought Aon had to swallow and grimace through like bad heartburn.

“Must be a hard balance.”

More and more they wished for that stupid coffee to talk around.

“It’s still Officials in Kingland. They’re called Net Sheriffs on some parts on the mainland and I think if I had to call myself that I’d probably die.”

“I’ve always been one.” They answered in a blasé way to avoid stating their age.

“It’s pretty much baked in, though I more so meant things are more stressful lately what with our encounters with Alpha and the new viruses in the chatroom. It’s kind of uprooted my usual routine and well I don’t really want to mix that into my work life. Too much to explain.”

“That being said, yours are aware? How much do they know?”

They were caught midair– again. They were getting sloppy, but they didn’t have time to beat themselves up over it while they were busy taking the brunt of the blast of dark fire, barely catching themselves on their damage-propelled landing.

Aon grimaced, grazing a hand over the singe-marks on their side feeling like the burn prickled a little longer than it was meant to.

“This is what I mean.” They hissed, catching the glint in Rock’s eye. Part of them did want to be proven wrong, to get to let all of this go and not have to worry about working as a team. But the part that was justified won out in the midst of the turmoil.

“Do you even know what you’re using? You can’t be just whipping out shady chips like that and claiming you’re not a danger to those around you! That wasn’t even what I was worried about. What else is there?”

Done with whatever niceties they had been attempting, and failing with, they loaded in their next chip; they were running low so they had to start making their next moves really count. Their sword arm glowed and they swiped the air once, then twice, sending an X shaped LightWave across the gap at Rock.

“No no it’s fine, really!” Aon simulated a deep inhale to try and hold things down. Smooth out the shaking. How could they have fumbled this frame one? If they could sweat it’d be coming in bullets; thankfully that was one less tell to worry about. If a mundane meeting without a cyber coffee could slip this fast how were they going to be able to keep this up?

“Please don’t apologize, It’s really nothing.” They iterated again, hands back up on the table now with more rigid and deliberate movement.

“I guess I can’t attest to it being close to the real thing, but just about? I suppose it’s hard to explain how something is meant to taste or not when-” The blood “-you don’t have a frame of reference, but it feels nice to have.

“As for the addictive properties I doubt that is effectively simulated. I feel like it’s probably more the routine. The thought of having the nice treat after you do something stressful, or before. Just a lot happening lately. You know how it is.” Or maybe they didn’t. Roll certainly didn’t (Serpentine’s comments on her maturity came to mind), and they weren’t about to make any judgements about Meiru.

“That sounds like a lot of fuss just for one little outing.” They cocked their head to the side and pulled a practiced grin. “I’m sure I’ll loosen up as we talk.”

“No, I’ve seen you fight, I know you’re not stupid.” As far as fighting went, Aon chose to omit. “I just told you what I came to see, that’s all.”

They weren’t ready to start really goading them just yet, though their patience was wearing incredibly thin. A hot commodity that was running in shorter supply as the days went on.

Rock flashed forward and Aon realized they may just be getting what they asked for sooner than expected. They Jumped to dodge her sweep, swiping out with their blade in attempt to retaliate that left them without much momentum to avoid the poison.

They growled as the too-familiar goop splashed underhoof and it was their turn to start trying to put distance between them now, leaping back to try for unsullied ground.

“Ah, Roll.”

Aon eased slightly in their seat as Roll joined them, but as soon as Roll produced the imitation frappe, explaining that it didn’t do anything– the bottom half of their face that was visible noticeably fell.

They hadn’t noticed while they were waiting, but the other items were just like hers. No interaction but simply being able to carry and place them.

No coffee.

They had even thought about how it would have been rude to get one for the road ahead of time. Now here they were without a fix.

“Haha…they don’t do anything…” Their voice warbled under a small nervous chuckle.

Not that their cyber coffee really -did- anything, it was the placebo, the idea of the coffee to ground their instability. Their link to normalcy. Something they were really depending on to get them through this.

“I’m so sorry, I hope I’m not coming off as rude. I should have inquired beforehand about the coffee. I was totally expecting something else.”

Their hands slipped under the table and into their lap in an attempt to hide the shaking.

“It’s a shame, takes away the icebreaker of getting to know someone by their order. But these are quite charming though, you’ll have to remind me to pick one up as a souvenir before we go.”

The next day Aon made sure to submit a request for overtime along with their leave for the day. Equivalent exchange to be quoted if and when they were given any flack for it, though they were quite sure it would be a non-issue.

They checked the location again with intent to arrive ahead of schedule; and it was a good thing they did, having found themselves easily distracted.

The establishments in this version of Internet City were much more filled in. There was some speculation about how ‘far ahead’ this group from the chatroom was, but they had far too few points of reference to dig too deep into it.

Once Aon found the right place they scouted out the perfect spot: a table out of the way to afford them a shred of privacy but easily visible to spare Roll the trouble of needing to look for them.

Seating themselves they got all of the fussing out of the way: straight posture, hands folded on the table making sure their elbows weren’t resting on it- their prim demeanor only betrayed by a hoof bouncing restlessly while they waited.

With their blade missing the mark they were just able to pull back in time to block off the blade Rock threw out, causing them to back off slightly.

“That’s exactly it.” Aon answered tersely. “I don’t really see you proving– or ‘making me regret’ anything when you’re stalling.

“Now I’m all for theatrics but–”

They were cut short by Rock’s swift uppercut, having fumbled their attention on Lan. They supposed that was deserved and didn’t bother to finish the thought. Hissing through their teeth they pulled a knee up to make space between them so that they could back off in light of the Clock Arrow call out.

Favouring their left, Aon tried to keep the glowing clock hands in their line of sight without being too conspicuous. They circled in a retro-jog, their blade to parry the projectiles once they got a sense of their trajectory.

They had expected the ring to miss if anything, certainly not that they would be prematurely trading places with the Needler. The next thing they knew Aon was caught in midair, twisting in an attempt make a balanced landing.

Hooves skidding slightly on the ground, they put out a hand to steady themselves before kicking off at a run. Markers on the ground found them skidding to a near halt as the Magnum’s explosives caused them to veer into a sharp turn to avoid being hit.

She was pulling all the stops to keep them off of her– being avoidant. Not what they were here for.

“I didn’t come here to play games.” They growled. “I want you to show me what you’re capable of!”

Gritting their teeth they continued forward, closing the gap to as predicted– catch her on the landing with Step Sword.

“‘Tear them apart’ how scary.” Aon scoffed to themselves, paying Lan’s grand gestures little mind in favour of keeping their attention on Rock.

She started things off by trying to keep her distance, that was fine. They could adapt. The roller blades though they could see– not so literally– them being a problem.

The pattern was easy now. They skipped backwards to dodge the first, to the side to narrowly avoid being clipped by the second. They were going to become a pain in the ass if they kept getting wheeled out as the battle progressed– likely to become more unpredictable and get caught up in their blind spot.

No sooner were the blades out of the way were they being assaulted by spikes. The first round of shots hit before they could react. Aon grimaced at the stupid virus and pushed forward, trying to keep themselves on a diagonal to avoid the spikes.

With their free hand they loaded in data for SwapRing, giving it an experimental toss before hurling it at Rock in an attempt to steal her place on the high ground.

Well now they were talking about it. About how they just had to be weird about it. They were still being weird about it. Their fingers twitched over their next reply.

[MSG: ️] Thank you. I apologize if I came off as inapt. I’m just more familiar with you, and assumed if we were the ones meeting that I was to expect an invite from you. That’s all. No harm done.

Aon turned their attention back to the main conversation, and did some quick picking at the chatroom’s clock, which thankfully did most of the work, to see what that time looked like for them.

[MSG: ] That sounds perfect, not much meddling on the schedule needed then.
[MSG: ] Your people? Oh.

Oh, they must mean their Dr. Hikari, the one that was also looking into the Arcana virus vaults. Jesus fucking Christ.

[MSG: ] Aha. I’m sure that won’t be necessary.

“Both. Or well…”

Aon grimaced slightly at Lan’s voice above Rock, not that they were particularly too hurt. She did seem to be more sure of herself since the last time. Whether that was a good thing remained to be seen if what Ellen had to say held any relevance.

“I don’t need to be pals. I just need to be able to trust you if we’re going to continue working as a team.”

They had more to say, but perhaps it was better this way– to get right into the fight. Anything left could be said while fighting. Summoning a generic sword to their arm they lowered into a defensive stance.

“If she thinks there’s nothing else to say, then don’t disappoint me.”