Commander's Rounds

Entry 116: Purity of Allegiance

Purifier was sitting outside the lab, having decided to try her luck with one of the vending machines that was on the base. She was aware of what ships and humans ate, but some things still boggled her (often underused) positronic brain.

At this point, her yellow eyes were fixed on one of the items in a vending machine that was imported from the Sakura Empire.

What was sparkling coffee? And more importantly, why was sparkling coffee?

The only way she'd find out about that was by forking over the cash to find out herself, so she just resigned herself to the tyranny of money instead of just ripping the vending machine open herself. It's not like it would hurt her to punch a speed hole into the machine, but that kind of thing made other people upset with her and would lead to long, long lectures she didn't want to sit through.

So, sparkling coffee it was.

It was just espresso mixed with carbonated water and some fruit juice, so she didn't see what the big deal was, trying to make it all fancy-sounding, so she drank it while squatting by the machine like the delinquent she liked to play at being.

It was then that her phone rang, and she grumbled to herself, as she wondered what Yuubari might suddenly want now.

Her eyes widened, and her pupils narrowed as her phone struggled to process the incoming caller, but eventually the Caller ID settled on something.

ANTIOCHUS GROUP ARMS LABORATORY

Her hand slowly raised the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"This is no time for pleasantries, Purifier."

Purifier looked around. "Ummm... Sorry, I'm not interested in talking about my car's extended warranty."

"Purifier, this is no time for you to test my patience."

Purifier stood up. "Uhhh... New phone who dis?"

"Purifier."

Purifier squeaked. "All right, Alpha... First off, how did you even get this number?"

"You use it to secure your account on your InstaFans page. The one where you pretend to be a girl who's cosplaying as Purifier in numerous... Compromising... positions... Why do you even have one of those, anyway?"

"My job is part-time and doesn't pay that well. Girl's got her get her top dollar somehow!"

Purifier smiled as she heard an exasperated sigh from the other end. "...There are serious matters to discuss, and I know you don't mind talking when the right questions are asked. However, you gave your survival away when Tester was killed, because you are the only one who could have relayed that information to them. You have caused us a great deal of trouble."

"I guess so!" Purifier said, with a smile. "It looks like you just sorta found out that the dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed! Yeah, I served up Tester for them on a silver platter, and don't start acting high and mighty about it- This is what it took for you to start taking me seriously when you wouldn't give me the time of day. And don't act like you didn't run me through the brain laundromat at least once!"

There was a moment of silence. "...You gave them that information when you knew that killing Tester was one of the possible results."

"Naw." She said. "I gave them that info because I knew they'd do it, and that it'd be one of the only things that'd wake you up. Did you ever stop and think about why the Anomaly and KAN-SEN found it so easy to pull the trigger on Tester? Do you even know what we have done to these people?"