Chapter 6
Ender yawned, doing his best to pay attention to what his Interstellar Commander, Kore McKinley, was saying. The white-blond-haired Electric Elemental was in all black sweats that morning, his light-gray eyes sharp and fully awake.
Taking a sip of his coffee, Ender wrinkled his nose at the still too bitter taste, and added another sugar cube.
The ‘as many as they damn well needed in a week’ weekly Cryptid Means inner circle meeting was going about as it normally did.
Which meant they were in his dining room, there were members missing, and a few assholes were trying to not fall asleep.
Why the fuck did he schedule so many of these damn things in the early AM? Not that he was tired, more just bored.
Wait! He didn’t schedule anything! It was usually Kore or Soren who did.
Like himself, the Harpy and Electric Elemental were morning people.
He'd had too many years on a damn farm for him to be anything but. Soren likely was the same way. He wasn’t sure what Kore’s excuse was though, as he was a city boy.
Kore, with his tablet in hand, stated, “We are set to meet up with Calico Delgrim three days from now. The location will be the halfway point between where we will intercept Riker Amarant.”
Soren ran a hand over his feathery, flame-colored short hair, his hawk-like nose wrinkling slightly as he asked, “Celeste won’t be with Calico?”
The question was more a statement if anything, as Kore would have mentioned her alongside her brother if she was currently with him.
Ender couldn’t help but smirk a bit at the irritation he heard in Soren’s voice… irritation that was showing on the man’s sharp, angular face. The muscular, over six-foot-tall Harpy was not pleased a bit about it.
“Worried you won’t be able to fend Calico off?” Ender teased.
Based on his past experiences with the Succubus twins, while they were chaos together, apart…the two pirates were so much worse. Calico’s extra chaotic self, however, seemed to lean towards dangerously flirting with people who could kill him, as well as just making bad decisions in general.
The Harpy rolled his eyes. “I can kick his ass easily.”
“I’m sure he’d let you, based on the fact he’d likely feed on you while you did it.”
Succubi, unlike in the stories, could actually feed on all sorts of satisfaction and pleasure, and beating someone up would bring a bit of that.
Kore chuckled. “Moving back to the topic at hand. No, Celeste Delgrim will not be there this time. So it's best to keep that in mind when communicating with the Delgrim Pirates. As for Riker Amarant, I’ve already got confirmation he is preparing to launch into space as we speak. But the route we will be taking is more direct and faster, so as long as we leave this afternoon as planned, we’ll make it to the attack position on time. ”
Iphy Incana, Ender’s gender fluid Supply Officer, who, based on the sparkly yellow sun pin they had on their blue jean cropped jacket, was going by she/her today, spoke up for the first time that morning.
Her voice was filled with sleep, making it slightly slurred.
“Supplies are already packed and ready, and the manifest is completed, so there won’t be much loading to do aside from personal luggage.
Do—” They yawned, their jaw cracking as they did.
“—note that there is a whole list of parts we simply do not have, so any repairs that need to be made in space will likely be time consuming, depending on what breaks. I’m still trying to get my hands on things, but you know how shitty the Black Market has been lately for spaceship parts. ”
The Dryad was not one for morning meetings, but then she also sometimes stayed up until the sun rose, so…it sort of was a gamble on just how awake she’d be at any time of the day.
“Weapons are all checked and loaded,” his Weapon Supplies Officer, Arco Kyrosa, stated succinctly. The non-binary Cerberus was fully awake, but was not one for words on the regular, aside from when they lost their temper.
“Where are my triplet troublemakers?” Ender asked, cutting in as his gaze zeroed in on the Electric Elemental.
Dessa, Meara, and Kaisa Desai were notably the missing members of today’s meeting, and who, in order, were his Interstellar, Domestic, and Internal Intelligence Officers. Them being missing was only notable because they were usually the most boisterous during meetings.
The triplet Manticores were identical, aside from a single beauty mark on their face that was in a different spot for each of them, and their hair, which they alternated between bright candy-apple-red, ocean-blue and forest-green.
The beauty mark, however, was really the only way to tell them apart, as they liked to switch their hair color almost daily.
“Don’t know, don’t care. I am not their keeper,” Kore huffed testily.
Ender smirked and took another sip of his coffee before adding an extra cube and drawling, “Yes, but they are usually glued to your ass, soooo?”
The sisters had decided to try to force Kore to be either their little brother, or…lover, Ender wasn’t entirely sure which, as their intentions appeared to change daily with their hair.
Soren cleared his throat. “They are ‘disciplining’ one of the new recruits after the Cryptid managed to set fire to one of the towers, causing the fire suppression systems to go off.”
Ender’s right eye twitched as the words registered. “Excuse me?! What tower?!”
The Harpy shrugged. “I was just told ‘the blue one’.”
He gasped in horror as the man said the name for their central internal data storage drive, which was not at all a ‘tower’ as the technologically inept Harpy had first stated. “What in the blue blazes was the fucker doing that it caught fire?!”
“You are going to have to ask them that, as they didn’t stick around to explain,” his brother said with a chuckle.
“Or answer my questions, as they continued running past me.
The three were looking murderous, mind you, so I'm not sure how much will be left of that new recruit after they are done with them.”
Who gave a fuck about the new recruit?! “How damaged—”
Soren held up his hand. “Don’t know. Again, you’ll have to ask them.”
He let out an angry hiss.
Kore tsked. “Well, I don’t know anything about that. But them not being here is why I get to remind Soren at least, since he is the only one at this meeting actually going on this mission with me, about the dangers we could encounter. That danger specifically being Riker himself.
“The man’s a Skinwalker, and we all know how much of a pain in the ass they are.
As a Harpy, Soren, you’ll have an advantage, as they are Cryptids that are weak to fire.
Safety-wise, I suppose all I really need to say is pay fucking attention to what everyone is wearing, and refresh yourself on everyone’s identification codeword. ”
“I doubt it will come to codewords. Riker won’t be able to mimic what we are wearing, and in the chaos, it’s unlikely he’ll have time to change, or even have the outfit to change into,” the Harpy noted.
He likely wouldn’t, but it was always good to be a little paranoid about the people around you.
Rayner Arken, his Branch Officer, and the only member present who had yet to speak at the meeting so far, cleared his throat.
The Gargoyle was inner circle member number two, who looked barely awake.
“I’ve already coordinated with the Kelolly and Huckson bases, and they are ready to take off in case of any issues. ”
Ender started to zone out again as the conversation shifted back to talking about the pirate. Same shit, different day, different trafficker. Though, some asshole setting some of his equipment on fire was an unneeded extra bit of fun.
Either way, besides the added danger of dealing with a Skinwalker, and Soren going for that very reason, Calico was just one of the pirates they worked with to free trafficked individuals, while taking down their traffickers.
The normal routine was that his people would meet up with whatever pirate they were working with, kill the traffickers, free the captured, and then split the illegal goods.
They'd scrap the ship for parts, followed by helping those poor souls who’d been trafficked return to their families, or somewhere safe, while using any data they recovered to try to track down past victims. It was pretty straight forward at this point, and it wasn’t as if Ender usually went nowadays.
His ass was too high profile to be running around outside the compound for long. So it was all a bit boring now.
When was the last time he’d gone on a trafficker murder bash? Ender pursed his lips, and tilted his head as he tried to remember.
I should go.
He blinked at the sudden thought, frowning when the odd urge he had to go on this particular hunt intensified.
His stomach was twisting with this knowing that he needed to be there.
That knowing sent Ender’s heart racing, and he found himself straightening in his chair as a shiver of fear sliced through him when he dared to even think about not going.
What replaced that fear was rage, swiftly swiping it aside the moment he recognized and identified the unnaturalness of the need that wasn’t really his own.
How dare those bastard Fates involve me in their spinning of threads?!
And that’s exactly what it was. Someone had changed fate, and whatever must come to pass now, his presence would obviously be required to accomplish it.
Ender knew he could ignore it, he was old enough and knowledgeable enough to do it…but the price… Even now, he could feel a building pain in his very bones, ready and waiting to spread if he even considered denying the threads—that were no doubt even now tangling around him—what they wanted.
To be honest, Ender would rather not deal with that pain, as it would likely last for days. Besides…part of him was very curious to see who he’d find waiting on the other side of this pull.
Ugh, but the timing!? Why now?! The anniversary was so close…too close! The pain grew, and was now an aching throb. Barely containing his angry hiss, Ender gave in.
FINE, you bastards, I’ll go!
Why bother fighting it when he’d likely have more fun just going along with whatever bullshit this was?
Ender grimaced as he took another sip of his coffee, holding back the urge to add more sugar cubes. Mainly as the taste was fine, he just liked sugar when he was irritated.
“Why do you look like someone pissed in your mug?” Soren drawled, the man eyeing him suspiciously.
Ender smirked. “Just a bit too bitter for my liking.”
“Bitter, my ass. You are six sugar cubes deep in that fucking cup.”
“Be less observant,” he snapped.
“Be less predictable!” his brother said snidely. “Now, what the fuck is going on in your head, you crazy ass snake?”
Ender sighed, but his smile never dropped as he set down his mug and announced, “Seems it’s time I get back into the action.”
“What?” Kore asked with a frown.
His smile widened. “Be joyful, boys, my old ass is going with you into space!”
“WHAT?!” Soren barked.