Squad Tales: Edition II

[PART 3] A Satisfied Customer

Sawnik was sit rigidly, watching Zone deal with another customer while her paint dried. Strangely, he was wearing a hoodie drawn over his face completely and was checking over some kind of guns. Her eyepiece immediately alerted her that they were heavily modified shotguns, certainly not anything normal.

She moved forwards in her seat, listening to their conversation, eager to learn why such powerful weapons were being passed around in a run-down workshop like this one.

"This had better work." She overhead him say. His hoodie then fell back, revealing shorter, wavy blonde hair that was a little messy.

Zone, who now had a large smear of grease across his face, was doing a final check over the guns. He handed them to the man. "They're as good as I can get them." Zone continued to open a drawer at his desk, taking out a small log book. "Now, payment."

Sawnik watched as his customer shifted uneasily. "Now, you see-" And began to back away quickly through the door, where he managed to collide into a returning Lydia.

"Ah whA-" She shoved forwards, not thankful for acting as a human shield. "What's going on here?" She demanded, noting the situation.

"I may have forgotten to bring any money-" He looked down uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck.

Sawnik stood up at this point, having heard enough. "Well, you're going to have to pay for it somehow." She felt oddly defensive towards Zone, even Lydia gave her a sideways glance as she had managed to raise her voice to the point the 'customer' was now shaking a little. 

"Well? Speak for yourself. Who are you?" She raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Wik." The man spoke quietly.

"Come again?" Sawnik took on a more aggressive stance, folding her arms this time.

"I said my name was Wik. Wikus."

"Well, Wikus-" Her tone was almost venomous. "We're going to work something out."

Lydia was just watching, an amused smirk on her face. "Tone it down, cog-brains. I don't want you to chip your new paintwork . And you, I think you have some definite explaining to do." She smirked at her own remark.

---

About an hour had passed, and Sawnik looked a different Cyborg completely. Her battle suit gleamed a beautiful electric blue, and was buffed to a dazzling shine. Meanwhile, Wikus was sat in the corner, sulking, as Sawnik had refused to let him leave before they arranged a form of payment. She was now busy reading the same crumpled tourist Pamphlet, clearly studying something.

"Are we... waiting for something?" Pondered zone, who was busy soldering some wires down to a board. 

"Good question. We are." Lydia answered bluntly, not explaining at all. This left everybody completely puzzled as to what she meant. She just turned over the pamphlet, studying it further.

Sawnik shifted in the tiny chair, wondering what crimes she could be stopping at that moment in time. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door, mimicking the pattern Lydia had performed earlier. Lydia leaped up to answer the door, inviting in another figure.

He had slanted, sullen eyes and was dressed in a white shirt with black suit pants. A mop of fairly long dark black hair hung slightly over his face, which he shook out of the way. However, the party immediately noticed he was missing his left arm, from the elbow upwards.

A stunned silence fell over the group.

"Joh- Oh sorry, It's Hyper now, isn't it?" Beamed Lydia, shattering the lack of noise once more. Hyper only glanced around the room, nodding with little enthusiasm. He drew himself up to his full height, not hesitating to hide his voice. 

"What's this rag-tag party you've gathered here?" His eyes scrolled along them, lingering on Sawnik curiously for a second, and narrowing almost completely when they fell on Wik.

Wikus returned the hostility, raising his upper lip and turning his head away slightly. He could tell immediately they had conflicting personalities. 

"This is Sawnik," Lydia gestured loudly to her in an attempt to warm up the cold atmosphere, before continuing "Followed by Zone- y- you remember him I hope-" Her voice faltered while she waited for a response. Zone just grinned widely, which Hyper met with a bleak smile.

"And myself, of course." She continued to look between them, a few times, evaluating her choices. "Now, I hate to have everybody clustered in this grimy little workshop but I urgently need to-"

She stopped, noticing Zone's hurt expression. "...No offense, Zone, it's just very small." 

"Uhh... As I was saying. I've brought everybody here to discuss a dire, dire situation! I can't stand to see my trade center for illegal weapons go to ruins- so I even bothered to travel here." A smug look came across her face.

"And I've decided to recruit all of you to give me a hand."