Mana + Magic

"What up?"

"Oh dear Lord, it's you." Zetium began massaging her temples. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, to get straight to the point, the Plumbers need intel on the Triumvirate and I figured you'd probably know a thing or two about how they operate." Isaac said lazily.

"Assuming I did, why would I tell *you?*" Zetium scowled. "I've had enough trouble keeping them off my ass already, never mind what might happen if I snitched and they found out about it."

"Come on, you were a *division leader* in the Obsidian Death, right?" Isaac rolled his eyes. "I saw you make a goddamn building-sized golem with my own two eyes. Are you *really* that scared of a few cranky gangsters?"

"If you knew what I knew, you'd be pretty goddamn wary of them too."

"Theeeeeeeen how's about *telling* me what you know so we can be on the same page?" Isaac leaned onto the counter.

"Nice try." Zetium gave him a flat look. "You're gonna need more than that to convince me."

"Okay then, how about..." Isaac pulled a $100 bill out of his pocket and slyly slid it over to her over the counter. "...A bribe?"

Zetium looked down at the bill and then back at Isaac unimpressed.

"This is Monopoly money."

"Yeah, I don't really carry cash around with me, I just needed a visual prop to help make the point." Isaac grabbed the bill and put it back in his pocket. "You take PayPal?"

"Technically, I guess?" Zetium shrugged. "How much are you willing to pay?"

"Depends on the info." Isaac said. "Gonna be honest, normally I'd scam ya, but since this is technically official Plumber business, I'd rather not get yelled at by the higher-ups."

"So scamming me would get you in trouble, but bribery wouldn't?" Zetium raised an eyebrow.

"You're a small business owner, not a politician, they're not gonna give a shit." Isaac stated flatly. "We got a deal or not?"

"Look, money is nice and all, but unless you're gonna pay me enough to hire expertly-trained security detail, it ain't worth it." Zetium replied firmly. "Can't buy anything when you're dead."

"I can do ya one better: witness protection." Isaac said. "We aren't messing around when it comes to these guys, so letting an informant get killed is really not in our best interests."

"Oh for the love of-" Zetium rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "*Lead with that, then!*"

"...Soooooo...?" Isaac extended a hand with his eyebrows raised and his head tilted slightly to the side.

"...Ugh, fine." Zetium sighed, slumping a bit as she reached out and shook his hand. "Deal. What do you want to know?"

"First off, recruitment." Isaac said. "How the hell did an Earth-based weapons-trading ring manage to pull in people from the *Obsidian Death* and the *AS Guild?*"

"They had performed trade deals with the Obsidian Death in the past, so most of the surviving members were already familiar with the organization and willing to work with them when they reached out to us." Zetium explained. "As for the AS Guild... well, they'll take any job for enough pay. No idea where Raivent's organization got the funding to buy out every single operative, though; that's like, *government*-sized money."

"Ooh, that's some good conspiracy theory material." Isaac snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Still, good to know. What about you?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, like, why did *you* join up?" Isaac clarified. "You didn't seem particularly happy about your job, and I figured the whole "Prelude tricking his forces into a suicide mission" thing would've put you off organized crime for good. What gives?"

""What gives" is that I needed income and being an ex-gangster makes work hard to find." Zetium replied sourly. "I was barely scraping by when the Triumvirate reached out to me. Didn't have much of a choice."

"Interesting..." Isaac put a hand up to his chin in thought. "How many of your coworkers would you say were in similar circumstances? As in, how many people do you think would be willing to reintegrate into normal society if given the chance?"

"Not many." Zetium said. "A lot of the Obsidian Death's recruits were people from poor or underdeveloped planets looking for a way to put food on the table, sure, but you'd have a hell of a time trying to convince them to trust the system after what they've lived through. They're all stubborn, and a lot of them have good reason to be."

"So what happened with you, then?" Isaac asked. "What makes you so different?"

"I'm an opportunist. A survivor." Zetium stated. "I do what keeps me alive and go along with whatever's most likely to improve my quality of life. Simple as that."

"A survivor?" Isaac raised an eyebrow. "Alright, now you've got me interested in your backstory. A survivor of what?"

"The deal was for information on the Triumvirate, not information about myself." Zetium scowled.

"Well, I'm asking outside of the deal." Isaac shrugged.

"Why would you even *care?*"

"I'm a nosy prick, what do you want from me?"

Zetium sighed defeatedly and struck a pose, activating a flash of light that faded to reveal her reversion into her original alien form.

"The hell was that?" Isaac asked, befuddled.

"SapienSwitches aren't linked to the user's brain like Transformation Locks, so you have to use a specific gesture to detransform." Zetium explained. "Needs to be something a bit obtuse so you don't do it by accident."

"Makes se-" Isaac paused as he noticed what she was wearing. "Why the hell are you still in your Obsidian Death uniform?"

"It's custom-fitted high-end protective armor, sue me." Zetium huffed. "Besides, it covers up... all *this*."

She carefully removed her chestplate, revealing a variety of scars that seemed to have been slashed and burned into her skin a long time ago.

"Is covering it up supposed to be a positive?" Isaac tsked. "Everyone knows scars are badass!"

"Maybe so, but for me, they're just a reminder of times I'd rather forget." Zetium put her chestplate back on. "This armor's intentionally designed to cover the scarred parts of my body."

Isaac looked her up and down, noting that her armor was covering the vast majority of her body.

"Damn. Rough go of things, huh?"

"That's one way to put it." Zetium grunted. "My home planet is a war-torn hellscape. Nothing's off the table for most people."