─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

SEASON 3 EPISODE 2

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Location:

System: Volii

Faction: Freestar Collective

Planet: Volii Alpha

Place: Neon

☆☆☆

Jimin

"No, please!"

Jimin gripped the cool metal of the pipe and whistled, pacing back and forth while watching the man scramble to get away. Steam hissed from Neon's vents, and Jimin popped a bubble from his gum before kneeling to make eye contact with the bloody man.

He had no hair and a scar over his right eye. Jimin couldn't tell if he had given him it or not. His face, which had once been brown, turned blue with purple streaks invading his swollen cheeks. His torn clothes hung off his battered torso in a red and black checkered pattern. The glowing sign of Euphorika, a bar in Ebbside, illuminated every inch of his frail form.

"Ron," Jimin said, keeping his voice tight and slow. "Where is it?"

"I'm not telling you shit!"

Jimin sighed and dropped the pipe. He opted to take his knife and stab himself in the hip, which made the man, Ron, yelp despite him not being the one to receive the injury. Jimin grunted and pulled the blade out, blood soaking the cracked concrete of Neon. No other citizens were around. Jimin paid Euphorika well to ensure that.

He powered up his hand with black energy, and Ron staggered back and kicked his bare feet in an attempt to get Jimin to stop.

He didn't.

He blasted Ron with the ability, and he screamed as his hip ripped open, blood gushing out of the new wound while Jimin's healed. Any pain subsided in favor of bliss. Crimson liquid stained his clothes, but he ignored it and grabbed the pipe again.

"Last chance. I have other people I can ask about this. So, what'll it be: death, or info?"

Ron spat out a combination of mucus and saliva on the ground and gagged. "Fuck! Fine, it's on the rooftop of Ryujin."

Jimin brought his brows together. "Ryujin? Why would anyone put a shipment there? That's suicide."

"Why else? They're avoiding Benjamin God damn Bayu. It's one of the only places he wouldn't look."

Bayu had cracked down on Aurora distribution in Neon. If Aurora was sold by anyone other than him, they'd get booted out of the city. Going against him would mean risking losing access to Neon; however, Jimin couldn't find it in him to care. Bayu was just another monster. Just another Terrormorph, only in human form. If he could bleed, Jimin could kill him.

And he intended to find out if Bayu bled.

"Thank you," Jimin said, dragging out the you for a beat longer than needed. He whistled and tightened his grip on the pipe, Ron's lower lip quivering as he eyed the weapon. Jimin tilted it back and forth, but before the man screeched, he slammed it into the side of his face. Ron fell to the ground with a gash where his cheek had once been. Two teeth clattered to the ground.

Another bubble popped from Jimin's gum, and as it did, another hit came. He kicked the man to the concrete and stomped on the back of his neck to keep him in place.

Jimin clicked his tongue. "Stay still, this'll only take a minute."

"No, stop! You said I'd get to live-"

The pipe smashed into Ron's skull until bits of brain matter stained the pipe and infested the concrete. Fragments of bones joined the liquid death, and Jimin avoided stepping in it as he backed away from the corpse. The taste of the watermelon gum drowned out the putrid metallic aroma the bodily fluids had. He squeezed the pipe and watched thick crimson blood drip from it.

"I lied."

When he turned, he spotted a Neon security guard standing there with his hand hovering over his holstered sidearm. It wouldn't matter.

"Hey, Jimin," the guard, who Jimin recognized as Tony, said. That voice was too hard to forget. He sounded like he shoved ten tons of ash down his throat whenever he spoke. "Haven't seen you in a while."

Jimin shrugged. "Busy."

Tony used his free hand to pull at the collar of his tight black uniform. It hid the wrinkles on the man's ivory skin. "You, uh... you back in business?"

Jimin huffed a strand of his long hair out of his face. It had gotten long enough that it went down to his nose and covered the back of his neck. It surpassed a mullet, though he didn't mind.

He went to the edge of Ebbside and overlooked the spaceport. There waited his bright red ship, which glimmered in the otherwise navy blue atmosphere. Rain banged on the sides of Neon's walls, and lightning cracked overhead. He leaned against the railing, then tossed the pipe overboard, watching as it flew to the waves. The ocean of Neon engulfed it. Not that proof mattered to security, but he figured it couldn't hurt.

He swiveled on his heel and blew a bubble as he stalked by Tony. Before he went, he clapped his blood-covered bare hand on Tony's shoulder, leaving a wet print there. Jimin stared at Tony, daring him to try to perform an arrest. When Tony didn't move, Jimin offered him a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I am."

☆☆☆

Climbing Ryujin was a bitch.

Ryujin Industries was the second most powerful entity in Neon, right behind Benjamin Bayu, though the two were intertwined. Not a single company on Neon didn't have Bayu's grimy fingers all over them. That meant any "businesses" selling Aurora had to do it off the grid. What Jimin searched for was a shipment of the special drug intended for Ebbside. Instead, he'd take it and sell it to the Trade Authority for extra credits. The ultimate goal was to build trust with the Trade Authority until they told him what he wanted to know. Someone on Neon had to know where the machine he looked for was, and he wanted to find out sooner rather than later.

Ryujin had a long but narrow spire sticking out of the dome of the indoor city. Despite the hole in the dome allowing for the sky's colors to slip through, the lighting stayed dark. Pounds of rainwater slammed against Jimin's body as he hoisted himself up the spire with his calloused hands. One had the same glove as always while the other remained bare. He couldn't tell if the callouses came from mining, his superpowers, his Vanguard training, or a mix of all three.

With his grav dash ability on the ready, he continued. He stopped halfway up the spike to press his forehead on the cool metal. A sparkling maroon light flashed on top of the spire, and he could see the color was muffled by a package strapped around the side of it. That was his target, and he had to climb a good fifty feet to reach it.

Note: He had climbed fifty feet so far. Park Jimin would be one hundred feet in the air with nothing but his hands stopping him from falling to his death.

He kept his legs around the slim metal beam and went further. He shut his eyes and focused on his breathing. The grav dash ability he picked up from a temple about a month back could hover him off the ground, but it wasn't a flight ability. At most, it could hoist him up a few feet, though it was risky to wear himself out using his powers to climb. It didn't help that ever since he had been kicked out of the Vanguard, he hadn't found a replacement boost pack. So, no flight.

Despite himself, Jimin glanced down and yelped when he saw the ground nowhere near his feet. A fear of heights had followed him for years, but he had thought he had gotten over it after learning to fly. Being in space in a ship was far different than hovering dozens of feet off the floor.

A sheet of pitch black shadows cloaked Ryujin Industries. The skyscraper looked more like a dark force than a building. Well, on the bright side, Jimin's fear was heights, not the dark, so he had that going for him.

After sucking in a deep breath, he lit up his eyes a brilliant mix of cyan and gold, then, he shut his fist to activate his grav dash power. Weightlessness kissed his body as he flew off the spire. With both his hands, he propelled himself upwards by a few feet and wrapped his legs and arms around the spire in time for his ability to expire. That cracked down on the distance; about thirty feet left.

Closing his eyes and thinking about Y/n, Jimin managed to make it to the top and rip the package off the glowing tip of the spire. He slid down and maintained a steady speed with his grav dash on standby if needed. Going down was far easier than going up, and when he reached the bottom, his hands burned from all the tight gripping he had done. It had taken him half an hour to climb up but mere seconds to get back down.

Long story short: Jimin was a pussy.

However, the momentary bliss of a successful mission faded, and in came the thoughts of his wife. Her beautiful face had flashed in his mind while he climbed, and that had gifted him the strength needed to continue. However, reflecting on it afterwards brought nothing but emptiness and lungs that felt as on fire as his hands.

He slumped down and sat in front of the spire, overlooking the entirety of Neon. As much as he had his annoyances with the city, he had to admit it was beautiful. Neon lights danced around his face as they flickered off the various tall buildings and signs advertising products that were either half-broken or going to get stolen within the next ten minutes. Countless shoplifters sprinted out of the general stores, but no guards attempted to stop them. They stayed in formation with their rifles pressed against their chests and their helmets tightened around their chins.

House music from Neon's famous DJ, BorealUS, played from the speakers. Chatter from the hundreds of citizens and tourists crowding the narrow streets mixed with the music and hiss from the dozens of steam vents. Although he was far above the city, he could smell the shit, rotten food, and strong stench of Terrabrew trying to overpower the horrendous aroma of Neon. Sarah would love it there. If she had the courage to wander around Neon, that was. It was one thing to rehab his mother, but strolling the streets of Neon was a different animal. Even Neon natives had issues with it at times, Jimin included.

Through the masses, he scanned for Y/n. She wouldn't be there, but he hoped anyway. None of them so much as looked like her. He bit at his nails and didn't care how short they got. He tucked his knees against his chest and waited with the package by his side. He didn't know what he waited for, but he waited anyway. All he had to do was take the elevator back down to the surface and go to the Trade Authority, but he didn't budge. Something about the overwhelming sight of Neon's vibrant lights called to him.

Yet it still didn't feel like home. Not without her.

Six months had passed since he had last held her, kissed her, asked her how her day went—six months since he felt alive. Tears threatened to spill, but he had done enough crying and opted to sniff them back and let the flash and flair of Neon calm him.

"Lonely?" a mix between a male and female voice said.

It was the voice in his mind. It had spoken to him a few times in the past six months, but that was when he got in sticky situations, not for casual conversations. That caused him to perk his head up.

"Excuse me?"

The voice chuckled. "Thinking about your woman?"

Ever since he had heard the voice for the first time on the Legacy, he didn't know what to think. Over a year had passed, and nothing but confusion had developed since then. No understanding, no new answers, no relaxation—nothing. Life had gotten more chaotic, not less. He thought putting the pirates to rest would give him freedom, but it brought more chains than his mining "job" on Vectera ever had.

"Why are you talking to me like this?" he asked. To the outside world, he looked like a maniac. He didn't care. "I thought you only talk when I'm about to die."

"I'm always here."

Jimin winced. "Always? Even when my wife and I..."

"I chose not to look during those parts."

He nodded and glanced at the hole in the dome. He sat away from it, meaning no rain poured on him anymore. Maybe the rain could bring coolness and comfort, but at the same time, he knew he didn't deserve it.

"Who are you?"

The amalgamation of the universe laughed at that. It sounded distorted. "You're not ready to know that yet, Park Jimin. But I can tell you who you are."

He squeezed his eyes shut and placed his chin on his knees. "Please."

"You're my candidate."

"For what?"

"Becoming... more. We've watched countless generations, but none have had the same potential as you. Maybe you can do it."

He grunted and kicked at the ground. "Can you stop being so cryptic and just tell me what the fuck all this means? Why are there artifacts giving me powers and visions? Why is some strange voice talking to me?"

As if to mock him, the voice didn't come back, and he resisted the urge to throw a temper tantrum. Between losing Y/n and returning to Neon for more crime, he felt lost. Having the voice tease him with answers only to leave seconds later was like the final straw. He had agreed to embrace the powers and find out who he was meant to be, but nothing had come from that other than new powers. There were no revelations about who the mysterious voice was. Hell, Jimin didn't have so much as a gender or age for who the voice belonged to. He didn't-

"Hands up!"

Alright, that was a voice from behind him, not in his head. A loud male voice, like a security guard's. So, he got up, stuffed the package in his jacket, and turned around in time to see ten guards there with rifles pointed at him. That was his fault. Ryujin had cameras. He had taken too long to get the package and get out.

"That's Park Jimin," one of the men whispered, and the leader of the squad who stood a hair closer than the others nodded.

"Park Jimin, we have special orders to take you to Mr. Bayu. Hand over the package and stand down. We don't want to hurt you, so don't make us."

Ha, as if. No one could hurt Jimin, but he could hurt them. Deep down, he knew they knew that. The warning was a formality to convince him to stand down and come in peace. On any other day, he'd slow time and run, but they were about to take him to Benjamin Bayu. He'd lose the package, but a chance to meet Bayu was priceless. Out of all the people on Neon, he was the most likely to know where the machine was that Jimin wanted. That meant any cost was worth it.

So, he gave them the package and followed them.

☆☆☆

Jimin didn't think he'd meet Benjamin Bayu so fast, yet there he stood.

In the penthouse overlooking all of Neon sat Benjamin Bayu behind his sleek white desk with a spiral staircase behind him and a chandelier made out of real tree branches hanging overhead. Everything was white apart from the gray sculptures lingering near the borders of the giant windows and the occasional painting depicting Neon's historic moments, like when it had built its first spaceport during an intense thunderstorm, and the Freestar flag waving from the top of the tower Ryujin would take over a few decades later.

Bayu himself had dark purple robes with golden accents covering his wrinkly skin. He had a full set of hair, but it was white like his trimmed mustache and beard. His bushy eyebrows hovered a few inches above his slim eyes with irises the same deep color as Jimin's. A single mole rested above the left corner of his thick upper lip.

"Park Jimin," he said while taking notes on his tablet. Still, no eye contact was made. "I've been dying to meet you."

Jimin faked a smile. "Awh, such a bummer you don't mean that literally."

Bayu put his pencil down, and in that moment, Jimin noticed how little technology filled the massive penthouse. Other than a tablet on the enormous couch to the left side of the living room the two were in, Jimin didn't spot any TVs, holograms, or computers.

Bayu met Jimin's gaze. "But you did when you killed one of my best men."

"Ah, you mean Ron? Yeah, he was a fucking kid diddler. Good riddance.

"He was an amazing lockpicker."

"Oh, I'm sure he was. That'd explain how he fucking murdered and raped countless kids. Such a shame he's dead. You want me to cry now or later?"

Bayu didn't answer and instead got up. The office chair didn't so much as squeak. His fuzzy close-toed slippers made a soft swish swish noise as he traversed the hard floor to close the gap between him and Jimin. Jimin stood in front of the elevator that led into Bayu's abode. Guards waited inside with AA-99s pointed at the back of Jimin's head. It wouldn't matter.

Bayu didn't get too close, but close enough for Jimin to see how straight his teeth were. "I heard you gave up crime and went straight after taking down the Fleet."

Jimin stiffened. "You know I did that?"

"Of course I do. You're talking to the most powerful man in the Freestar Collective, and you don't think I know who those Legacy credits came from? Thank you for returning them."

Jimin glanced at the fancy chandelier and polished walls, then hummed. "Yeah, no problem. Looks like you used them real well."

Bayu brushed the comment off. "You didn't answer me. Why are you back to committing crimes after working with the UC for so long?"

"What can I say, I hate you more than I hate the UC, so I thought I'd take you down."

It was at that moment that Jimin's patience ran out.

His eyes glowed the same mix of purple and gold on Bayu's robes. Then, he closed his fist, and time stopped. Jimin turned and strolled over to the two guards, taking one AA-99 and shooting the two of them in the head without hesitation. Blood squirted out, but in slow motion. He shifted again and fired at Bayu, but before the bullets could connect with his body, they shattered in mid-air.

Time resumed, and the two guards slumped to the ground. Bayu didn't. Jimin stalled and scanned over what had went wrong, and that was when he spotted it: a barrier. A forcefield so minuscular that Jimin hadn't noticed it. He powered up his solar flare and blasted it, but the forcefield stayed strong.

"Ryujin designed it," Bayu said without so much as flinching. "I figured we'd meet at some point, so I wanted to take the precautions. Oh, and these."

Bayu moved his hand out from the long sleeves of his robes and revealed a tiny switch. He clicked on it, and out came several turrets from the ceiling on Jimin's side of the penthouse. They pointed laser sights at him, and without hesitation, he slowed time and shot them with his AA-99. No damage. That time, he used his solar flare to destroy three of the five turrets. By the time he charged up to annihilate the fourth, a groan left him, and his mind numbed from the overuse of powers. Time resumed before he gained the strength to power up with another solar flare.

"There's more, by the way," Bayu said with a tight smile. "Do you want to keep throwing a temper tantrum, or will you listen to me?"

"I prefer tantrums, thank you very much."

"Maybe not after I tell you what I know." When Jimin shut up, Bayu nodded and went back to his desk to lean against it, waving the little clicky thingy around as if mocking Jimin. "I was hoping you'd come clean to me, but I suppose not, so let's stop playing around. I know why you're on Neon. I know why you're doing crime."

"I like crime. Doesn't get much simpler than that."

"Or maybe you're searching for the last available combat mech in the Freestar Collective," Bayu said, dragging out each word and tapping his finger against the device in his hands. "One only Ryujin has access to. To save your girlfriend, I presume?"

"Wife. She's my fucking wife, and she's trapped in some Terrormorph nest. The UC won't do shit about it."

"Makes sense." Bayu shrugged and glanced at his perfect nails before continuing. "I wouldn't sacrifice all that time to save one person, even if that person were Ron. You have the most power available to any human being, yet you can't save her on your own either. You think the UC is making the wrong decision? I hate the UC as much as you, but would you send your friends, the people you're supposed to protect, into a nest of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy just to save one person? I wouldn't do that for the damn president."

Jimin stared at his feet and brought his hand to his mouth to nibble on his fingertips. "Y/n and I saved the UC. They owe us."

"How much blood do you want them to spill? How many innocent men and women died trying to save someone who's probably dead?"

Jimin didn't answer.

"That's what I thought," Bayu said with a tongue click. "But a mech stands more of a chance. You can stomp on Terrormorphs, assuming the UC authorizes it."

"They did, but only if I got it myself."

"Ah, awfully generous of them considering you're an ex... or, current, criminal. Maybe the UC isn't as bad as I thought. Well, Mr. Park, I want to make you a deal."

"I don't make deals with rich snobs who gave Neon its drug problem."

Bayu snickered. "There's nothing wrong with Aurora. No long-term health risks, just fun. The people are the ones who made it so dangerous. People like your mother. How's she doing, by the way? I heard ever since your wife went missing, she's struggled."

No, it had happened before that. After Jimin had hurt her, she went back to Aurora. While the addiction wasn't as bad as before due to Jimin cutting off her credit supply, his mother had found a way. She always had. If only she loved him as much as she loved drugs.

Jimin wrenched the thoughts away. "Leave her out of this and tell me what the fuck you want."

"Changing your mind now, hm? Wise decision. Ryujin has access to the last functioning combat mech in the galaxy, and I own Ryujin. I'll have Ryujin refit the mech for all your needs, equipped with anti-xeno warfare and reinforced steel. We'll even make it taller so there's less risk of Terrormorphs overwhelming you."

Jimin peeked up and met Bayu's narrowed eyes. "And what do you want from me in exchange?"

"Simple: Use your powers for Ryujin. We have a top secret project worth billions releasing soon, but we've encountered some... problems. I want you to become a Ryujin operative and fix it."

"Why me? Doesn't Ryujin have more operatives than scientists?"

"Correct, but none have superpowers." Bayu set the device down and crossed his arms over his chest. For a man pushing his seventies, he had a muscular frame. "Not only are you so popular that people will throw themselves at your feet, but you have the ultimate weapon: invisibility. You can crack this case without causing a PR nightmare. You'd get my product on the market faster."

"And what product is this?"

Bayu stayed quiet for a long beat. "It's better if you don't know. You'll figure it out along the way."

"If I'm defending a product from Ryujin of all places, I deserve to know what it is."

"Jimin," Bayu said with a snort. "The way I see it, you have two choices: work for me and earn that mech in maybe a month at most, or wait for the microbe to work on Londinion. The odds of her being alive are already near zero, but the longer you wait, the more those chances decrease. You can get the mech fast and handle it now, or you can wait it out and hope she doesn't starve to death, get mauled to death, freeze to death, or any of the unlimited possibilities of Londinion."

He curled his hands into fists but released them a beat later. "Fine. Tell me what I have to do."

"I'll submit an application on your behalf, then you'll go to Ryujin for an interview. It's a formality, but you'll get hired on the spot. You listen to your bosses and do whatever they tell you. When my product is on the market, you'll get the mech. Sound simple enough?"

"You're a rich snob, there's got to be a catch."

"Mr. Park." Bayu trailed off for a beat to instead click his tongue and shake his head. "You're right about me being a rich snob. No one on Neon is a good person, myself included."

Jimin snorted. "First step is acceptance."

Bayu ignored him and continued his monologue. "You're right that I'm not good, I won't deny that, but if there's one thing I'm not, it's a liar. All I want is what's best for my business and profits, but I can't do that if I make false deals and shut potential allies out. You're a potential ally—a strong ally. Maybe we can't be friends, but maybe we can be on talking terms, so there is no catch. It's a tough job, and you might run into dangerous complications, but what I'm telling you is true: you will get the mech as long as you ensure my product is put on the market as soon as possible. As long as you uphold your end of the bargain, I'll uphold mine."

Jimin hesitated, then gave in. "I'd like this in writing."

"Of course." Bayu waved his hand as if swatting Jimin away. "The representatives at Ryujin will have you sign a contract stating everything I'm saying here. Forgive me for not wanting to make the deal face-to-face, but I have a feeling you'd kill me if I got too close."

Jimin beamed and lit up his hand with a solar flare. Bayu stared at it with not so much as a flinch or crack in his demeanor. When Jimin closed his fist to stop the flames, Bayu cleared his throat to speak once more.

"Tomorrow morning, nine to be exact. Be at Ryujin for your interview. I'll make sure the contract is ready by then. Are we in agreement?"

Agreeing with Benjamin Bayu wasn't on Jimin's bucket list, but he had no choice. The mech was his last resort. If he got his hands on it, he could storm through the mines of Londinion and find his woman. It was either that or wait for the microbe to work on Londinion, but that'd take too long. They already took too long. Y/n wouldn't like him using a mech to save her; hell, maybe she'd prefer it if he didn't rescue her at all, but he had to try. Even if it meant she hated him for the rest of her life, at least she'd be alive. That'd be enough. So, Jimin bit the bullet and forced a grin.

"I'll be there tomorrow at nine."

☆☆☆

A/N: Well, if you can't tell already, Jimin's more aggressive this season. He's going to be far scarier and more dangerous, so I'm excited to write more.

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