The Sin Hunter: Double or Nothing

The Art of Acceptance

The ball struck the ground with an audible slap. Harley lay on her back on the floor, amid the conveyor belts and workers hustling around her while she tossed a ball into the air over and over, her beaded eyes slowly drifting out of perception. As she felt herself nodding away, a particular voice coached her out of slumber. "If you vish to fall asleep, Harley, I vould suggest you go to zhe office space and open a vindow." Harley sat forward, turning to see the Nazi Engineer sitting on a stool, cradling the ball she had been bouncing while two bigger, bulkier Demons carried a box of metal and glass tubes past.

"I find it better down here where all the rest are. Like being part of a wave in blissful silence." Wrench scoffed, tossing his gaze to the wind. "Foolish. Blending in vith zhe crowd is never a good idea." Harley sat forward, brushing cobwebs off of her chest while she rose to meet Wrench's gaze. "'Kay," Harley muttered, rubbing the corners of her eyes, "so what's going on? Any word from the team?" Wrench tapped the heel of his boot on the floor, grumbling. "I am afraid not. All is qviet from zhe ozher end." Harley nodded, sliding into a rotating chair next to the flashing lights above the conveyor belts.

"Hmm. Well, that's either really good or really bad." Wrench turned around, his beaded silver eye blazing through Harley's gaze. His lips pursed before he spoke. "Perhaps. I vould hope zhey are successful in vhatever zhey are doing." Harley sat forward, clasping her hands over one another in her lap while her back stretched out. "Do you mind if I ask a question?" Wrench turned away from fixing his mechanical arm extension, setting the knob to wind the wires tight down beside his arm while the rest of his suit turned. "I haf nothing but time, Miss Harley. Speak freely." Deck's wife paused, clicking her pincers before proceeding with her thoughts. Somewhere in the office space, a loud box crashed to the floor, followed by laughter and light shouting.

"When Shrap told you to keep watch down here in Hell, why didn't you ask to go see the Living World with the group?" At the comment of the Living World, the Nazi Engineer paused, once again setting his tools to rest before spinning around to face Harley. Cold steel fingers wove through scarred, blistered flesh when the traitor replied. "I...if I had gone to zhe Living Vorld, zhen I vould find myself disappointed by how weak humans have become." Harley nodded in silence, receiving the information. "Furthermore," Wrench continued, stepping down from his stool and striding through the aisles of workers hunched over conveyor belts with stimpaks and machines, "I could not bring myself to see zhat my glorious Germany has fallen."

Harley stepped forward, patting a hand on Wrench's shoulder with a gentle grasp. "I getcha, dude. I do." Wrench nodded, tilting the lip of his olive green cap to the stars above the skylight. "My sacrifice was for nothing. Now, I am left alone in a pit of sorrow and undignified disgrace." Harley swept around the room, proceeding to hum a little tune to herself as the two strode back toward the office space, their shoes clattering on the wireframe railing. Wrench mounted the railing upward, his metallic arm scraping against the metal while Harley turned with a grin on her pincers. "But y'know, Wrench, if you don't go back you may never experience what the rest of the world is like."

The Nazi Engineer laughed, patting his chest. "Ha! Zhe rest of zhe vorld can burn in zhis godless nightmare vith me! I am content to know zhat humanity has only become vorse as a result of our careless, gratuitous nature." Harley kicked back in the hallway, twisting the doorknob into the office open. "You have a point, but don't forget that you're a part of that world, buddy. We all have a role to play." Wrench exhaled profusely, steam escaping his mechanically powered nostrils while he smiled a proud, albeit damaged grin. "Of course, Miss Harley, I am aware. Though I show no traces of abiding by zhat statement." While Wrench tipped his hat at the door, closing the space into the office behind him, Harley stood up from the wall, cracking her knuckles while she sifted a hand into her suit pocket, retrieving a phone with a blaring message on the front. SHIFT STARTS IN FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Harley groaned, rolling out of her seat while grabbing her oversized coat and badge from the rack, tying the pin securely about her suit. Popping the collar of her jacket, Harley stepped out into the unnaturally cold, residual evening in Pride, closing the door behind her with an audible click, plunging the warehouse back into an orderly string of pumping gears, hissing steam, whirring conveyor belts and sparks of flashing light.