By the ti Nika finally erged from the dic bay she t with Luna and dusa who were waiting to comfort her after receiving her punishnt. Judging by how shaken up Luna was and how much ti it took for Nika to co out, dusa assud her punishnt was probably more severe than she deserved and was ready to give Uriel a piece of her mind.
Contrary to her expectations, Nika didn't co out with a flushed face or flustered in any manner. Instead, she seed pensive and barely noticed their presence.
"If he spanked you again, I can prescribe you the sa topical cream you used last ti." Luna declared.
"He what? Nevermind that, how bad was it?" dusa shook her head before asking.
"He... just asked to stay in the ship while he and Jon go to Hollywood." Nika replied, then retreated to her room to ponder about the conversation she just had with Uriel. Nothing bad was said and Uriel wasn't angry, but she would have preferred to receive a punishnt, any sort of punishnt.
Faithful to her style, Nika's room was minimalistic and had only useful furniture like her dresser, a standing lamp and a big mirror, though now she wished she had at least a chair to sit on.
"I dropped the ball and he didn't even yell at ... I should have been there to protect him and now he doesn't even want to go buy the serum he needs. I could be in and out of the city without anyone noticing, but he prefers to go with that jerk who he hates. Sothing's not right."
On the dic bay, 'that jerk' Nika ntioned was being wrapped in bandages. After purging the last remnants of Sam's flux energy from his body Jon's recovery speed was finally up to holy rank hunter standards and was now able to move on his own, but his appearance not so much.
"Tch, this is stupid... I look like a mummy." Jon scoffed.
"Stop squirming or the bandages won't be tight enough!" Lamar snarled like an angry beast, but Jon didn't react in any way as he was already getting accustod to his doctor's bad temper.
"Are you sure you want to go with him? I could accompany you if that's what you want." Seiren knitted her brows at the pitiful sight of the hunter she used to despise but now admired.
"I'd much rather go with you, but this kid says we should go alone and for once I agree with him."
"I don't see why I can't go. You dragged along all your incursions and even so explorations, but now you don't want to co." Seiren hugged herself emphasizing her bosom and looked the other way in a gesture that would have made Jon gasp before he got injured.
"Nice!" Jon gasped, just like in the old tis when he flirted with her on every occasion. Then he shook his head to take his mind out of the gutter. "The problem is that we don't have communications, which ans we can't let the city know we're coming.
Last ti they were expecting us thanks to Mister Alessandro's connections, but he warned Winnie that next ti the city would probably shoot on sight."
"That's why we need to go in person. This way we can inform them of our intention to land in the city, pay the obscene toll they're asking for and the insanely expensive hangar." Uriel explained, showing how much it pained him to be forced to keep spending his savings.
"But..." Seiren wanted to refute him, but since she was present during the conversation she understood the reason why she couldn't co. Moving on foot to the gacity of Hollywood was bound to be dangerous, and even more so with Jon's energy signature. He may have spent up to the last drop of his flux pool, but as long as he was alive he still exuded the sa energy signature of a holy rank hunter.
It wasn't a matter of quantity, but of quality. Unlike lower rank hunters, holy rank hunters emitted a much denser signature broad enough to cover an entire city.
Usually this wouldn't be a problem since Jon was strong enough to deal with anything that ca his way while protecting Seiren, but now fighting was off the table for him as his wounds were too severe and every movent hurt. Jon was nothing but a walking beacon.
Uriel's case was different. Despite having only one hand, his energy signature was minimal which ant his presence wouldn't draw cryptids at all and his combat prowess wasn't affected.
"Done, this should last for a day at least. Try not to move too much." Lamar warned at the sa ti he adjusted his glasses.
"We should reach the city in a few hours anyway." Uriel said before exiting the room.
"Co on, now you jinxed it." Jon grumbled as rolled his wheelchair following Uriel.
Everything Uriel said while Nika was inside was logical and well thought. His reasoning for going just the two of them was actually the safest option and Jon knew Uriel wasn't lying or Seiren would have warned him, but Jon couldn't shake the feeling that sothing was off from his head.
Uriel wasn't acting like himself. There weren't any traces of the cheeky lad Jon knew, not his snarky comnts or nasty rebukes to everything he said. What bothered him the most was that before letting Nika go, he gave her a precious Colt revolver.
If not for that, Jon would have assud Uriel just wanted to be alone with him to take a shot at him now that he was at his weakest and then claiming he got killed by cryptids.
"Hang on... are you seriously going to try to kill ?" Jon asked after fifteen minutes of being pushed in a wheelchair, trying to hide the fact that he just thought of that possibility.
"Don't you think I would have done that in the dic bay?" Uriel replied without an attitude, which made Jon suspect him even more.
"You couldn't do it there because Winnie would have..."
"I could have claid it was self defense." Uriel finally showed a smirk which could have made Jon sweat bullets if not for the fact that his sweat glands had yet to regenerate.
"Then... I don't understand. Why did you want to co alone with ?"
"I just spent half an hour explaining my reasoning, what more do you want?"
"This is weird." Jon placed his hand on his chin.
"If you want weird you should take a look in the mirror," Uriel chuckled, then his face beca serious. "I wanted to speak alone with you. I want you to tell what happened to Mister Scofield."
"I told you already, I don't know what happened to him..." Jon looked the other way.
"I'll ask you again, but this ti I want you to think that I could be asking with Seiren present and she would be forced to tell if you're lying."
"She works for the Mapple corp... and dusa is from the Works family, I got it. So this isn't a matter of truth or lie, you want to be honest enough to give you so peace but not honest enough to shatter your hopes. In other words, you already know I'm lying." Jon nodded knowingly.
Him saying Uriel's thoughts out loud was rude and Uriel would have felt compelled to let the holy rank hunter pay dearly for it, but not today, not after what he heard while Jon scread his lungs out in pain.
"You know, people say only kids and drunk people are honest, but that's not the truth. True honesty isn't related to a growth stage or any drugs, the only ti a person can be honest with the world and with themselves is when they think they're about to die. I've seen it happen, I've seen the face people make when they realized they're about to die and there's nothing to do about it...
I've also made that face myself, quite a couple tis actually."
Jon put his hand on the wheel letting Uriel know he wanted to speak to him looking him face to face. It was the first ti he saw Uriel for what he truly was, he wasn't a kid, he wasn't a goof or a goodie two shoes, Uriel was a survivor.
The ever present glare on his face wasn't the murderous face he always thought, it was the face people made when they were in fight or flight mode, when soone was grasping at straws just to stay alive. It was the sa face people in the slums wore when they went about their day, fighting for crumbs and defending what little they had.
"I'll tell you the truth, but you may not like it. That old weasel," A wry smile appeared beneath Jon's bandages, then he corrected himself. "Xavier Scofield saved my life. He pushed right before the yellow light your pal shot at us hit , but he took the full brunt of the attack and his last words were: 'beco the champion people think you are.'"
"His last words..."
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