The friendly prisoner with the gentle Irish temper

Looking towards the makeshift prison cell, John saw that his captive, Andrea McIntyre, was awake and hanging on the bars of the ‘cell’ door, glaring at them with an annoyed look . She didn’t have the skull markings on her face anymore, revealing her beautiful and feminine face. Her personality didn’t seem to represent that femininity though…

The two of them had the decency to blush. “So… you heard us?” asked Kaen, looking away in embarrassment.

“Of course I did, ya wee freak! I heard you screaming the entire time. I’d have to be deaf to not hear that!” She had a thick Irish accent in her voice, clearly showing her heritage and origins. While she did seem angry, she didn’t seem outright hostile or ready to attack them if given the chance. Hell, she probably could’ve shot them with her finger bullets at any moment already.

“Okay, embarrassing wake-up call aside, you seem to be doing a lot better since before we knocked you out,” John said as he equipped his clothes for now, walking towards the door.

As he walked up the stairs, Kaen stopped him for a moment. “Can we trust her?” she asked quietly.

John shrugged at that, “I don’t see a reason why not; she called out to me in the first place to help her, and I’m pretty sure that, if she was out to kill us, she’d have tried already.”

“Yeah, listen to your boyfriend, girlie! If I’d be out to kill yer heathenish arses, I’d have done so already,” said the captive, clearly able to hear the two of them.

Kaen pouted towards the older woman at the word ‘girlie’. “I’ll let you deal with her alone; I think I won’t be of much help here. I’ll go out and play with the dragon. Do that telepathy thingie if you need me or when you’re done.” She gave him a peck on the cheek before heading out the door.

How did she know about the telepathic connection? He’d have to ask her afterwards… Turning back to the captive, he said, “Okay, let’s get some things straight: First, you’re welcome for me not killing you after piercing me multiple times. Second, while I don’t think you’re out to kill us, that doesn’t mean I trust you. You’ll stay in that… cell until I feel safe with you running around here and not going berserk again. I’ll provide you with any necessities you need. Third, I’d like to know what happened to you; it’d be to your advantage if you’re honest and open. Last, once I’m sure that you’re not a ticking bomb anymore, I’ll let you go wherever you want. Sound good?”

Andrea just shrugged at that, “For being such a young lad, you sure talk mature. Sure, sounds reasonable as long as you don’t try anything funny. I won’t hesitate to cut your willy off if you try to have your way with me like you did with your girlie there.”

Now it was John’s turn to shrug, “Sure, I’ll keep that in mind once you’re falling to my charms.”

The redhead had to laugh at that, “Cocky brat! Very well, I’ll tell you what you want to know. Ask away.”

“Okay, let’s start simple. What does ‘Holy Osteomancer’ mean?”

“It means that I do magic with bones, my bones to be specific. And the holy part means that I am blessed by the Holy Lady to do her bidding and decimate those heretics that defy her.”

Holy Lady… He felt like he had heard that title before… He’d have to check his memory on that later…

“And who are these ‘heretics’?”

“Easy, anyone who refuses to believe in the Holy Lady and anyone who defies her name!”

’Not a helpful answer’

“Well, who is this ‘Holy Lady’ then?”

“The only god there is, ye daft wanker. She is the one watching over all the living things, keeping the balance between the powerless and the ones with power. How can you not know of her?”

Something clicked inside John’s head, “Oh, you mean Gaia?”

Andrea’s look was pure venom, “Do not speak her name, you bloody heathen! You have not earned the privilege to use that name.”

Rolling his eyes, John just looked at the girl behind bars, “And what do I have to do to be allowed to speak her name?”

“You’re allowed to utter her name if she speaks to you.”

“Oh, if that’s the case, then I can totally call her Gaia.”

“What do you bloody mean? How could a bloody child like you talk to her, something that barely anyone ever has done?”

“She sent me a message the first day that I received my powers. I got a message signed by someone named ‘G.’, and at that point barely anyone knew about my powers.”

Andrea’s eyes now lit up, “Really? She sent you a message? What did it say? How was it?”

John just shrugged, “It was just a letter, it said that I’d be in some deep shit in the future... that letter was a lot nicer than the other comments she sent me though…”

“Other comments?”

“Oh, I get achievements for doing certain things, and some of them have quippy comments with them that mostly insult me.”

Achievement unlocked: Do you want to die that badly?
We had this before; I can easily take your powers away from you and just obliterate you if you piss me off too much. Bad Mouthing me like that is signing a **** warrant.
-5000$
-1 Stat Point
Rewards will be restored once you apologize.

“I just got another one… I’m sorry that I’m not happy that I get insulted by you.”

“The bloody fuck are you doing?”

“She obviously heard me; she took away some of my stuff until I apologize.”

Good enough
Rewards restored!

“Of course she can hear you! She can hear everyone!”

“Seems like it. Anyway, on with the questions: how did you end up with that fucker James?”

“You mean the dirty bloodsucker that I impaled? By being fucking **** and experimented on.”

‘Another case of abduction and being experimented on… that’s the third one now… Astrid, Aranea and now Andrea…’

That certainly didn’t bode well…

“Where were you ****?” John asked, trying to find some connection between the abductees

“In the same fecking backwater city that we fought in!”

That… was concerning… John was pretty sure that Astrid was **** in this city as well… If Aranea was **** here as well, that would mean that someone in proximity to the town was abducting girls and experimenting on them. Or was this a coincidence and these were actually multiple people?

“When were you ****?”

“What day do we have? I have no fucking idea how much time went by.”

“July the 27th, 2017.”

“Then I was **** three days ago.”

So whoever did this had been in the area recently…

“Can you tell me anything about anyone abducting you?”

“Why?”

“I want to find them. I have reason to believe that they have done this multiple times now, especially in this area.”

“That fucking cocksucker…. Okay, I’ll tell you what I know. The fucking bastards that jumped me were some pillocks in red armor with magic weapons, they beat me to an inch of my fucking life. Couldn’t say much about them, two females, two probably males. The bitches were an archer and some prissy little puppeteer, the wankers were a berserker cunt and a knight. Only the puppeteer had part of her face revealed, was some prissy little girlie, pale skin, reached up to my tits maybe.

“Then there was the posh fucker who injected shit into me. Didn’t bother with hiding his face, gold eyes, black hair, might’ve been dark brown, undercut, smug fucking face. Injected me with something, and then I blacked out. Next thing I remember is lying on that staircase and seeing the two of you bash your heads in, but I could barely move my body, it went by itself. You know the rest.”

So she hadn’t been **** by James… that meant that he was part of something bigger and that there were at least six members… This was getting serious…

“Okay, I’ll try to find more information about that guy… Hopefully I can find him…”

“You fucking better! I want to crucify that fucking shithead for the shit he did to me… I can still feel whatever he injected into me in my body…”

Remembering the list of status effects she had, he would assume that’d be the nanites.

“One last question, then I’ll make you some kind of bed so you can sleep. What’s the deal with your outfit? Are you a nun?”

“Sort of. I’m not one of those sissy catholic nuns, but I am a devout follower of the Holy Lady. Nuns of the Lady have more practical uses than these abstinent bitches. I was supposed to meet with an organization here to help them with a problem.”

An Abyssal nun… coming here to meet with an organization that was probably devoted to Gaia as well… The gears finally fit in place in John’s head.

She was in Springfield because she was supposed to meet up with the Order! They had called some sort of backup…

He would need to talk to Moira about this…

John’s head was spinning by now with all the information he had just received. The long and eventful day was starting to take a toll on him.

“Alright, that’s everything I can think of right now. My head feels like mush; I’ll drop into bed for now. Anything you need besides a bed? I’ll also close the door entirely to give you some privacy.”

“How about a toilet? One of those would be dandy.”

That was a good point, though John had no idea how he would deal with the… product. The Nexus didn’t have any plumbing…

’Master, I could create a system directing the wastes to a spot where the maintenance bots can deal with it.’

That sounded like a good idea that could help him with installing more things to live here.

’Sure, that sounds good! What do you need for that?’

’I need your permission to change the Nexus and the ability to create things.’

Could he grant that kind of ability to someone else? As if in response to the unanswered question, a new popup appeared in front of him.

Nexus Creation Control

Current Users allowed to edit:
John Newman

Current Users allowed to construct:
John Newman

Nexus Self Control is turned: Off

Turn on Nexus Self Control? (Y/N)

’Would you be able to build that system if I turn the self control on?’

’Yes, Master’

’Alright then’

Nexus Self Control activated. Nexus Maintenance system is now able to edit and construct. Daily Reports are visible on this screen.

Neat! Now John didn’t even need to create the commodities for Andrea; Sarai just created them from the image in his mind. Now there was a sizeable bed and a simple toilet with a sink inside the holding cell.

“Holy fuck! How did these things just appear?!? But this’ll do. Now kindly fuck off so I can sleep away this headache!” shouted the redhead inside the cell.

John just shook his head, “Sure, I’ll talk with you tomorrow again. Good night.” And the barred door of the room turned itself back into a normal door, or at least it looked like that, because there was still no way to open it.

“Sure, whatever, now get the fuck away, I need to take a shite.”

That was not something John wanted to hear, so he quickly went out to the garden where he expected Kaen to be.

He found her by the fruit tree, which by now was about as high as John was. She was just sitting under the short tree with Thorn in her lap, already asleep. Her breathing was soft and steady, and she had a content smile on her face. Thorn was asleep as well, nuzzling his head into Kaen’s stomach.

Silently chuckling, John slowly lifted her up, with Thorn still on her lap, and brought both of them into the house. Gary was nowhere to be seen… weird…

John made a little basket for Thorn to lie in while he put Kaen into the bed, beneath a soft duvet. Unequipping everything but his underwear, John got in next to the dragon girl.

Kaen wrapped herself around John's waist in a matter of seconds, enveloping him in comfy heat. Exhaustion took him out quickly, drifting into a deep sleep. The Nexus turned itself to night, settling the world in a soft glow from no particular light source.

He would never know how much happened in that night.