All the Time to Lose (Wormverse)

Ch 5: A New Family

~Anubis's P.O.V.~

I am so busy thinking back over my conversation with Coil, that I don't even notice the figure following me. At least...not until Buck starts growling at them. I turn to see a figure in the shadows of a nearby alley. Now that I've turned around, they step out onto the empty street.

There are two of them. One is wearing a welding mask over their face, a bulletproof vest, boots, a battle skirt, and has black hair. The other individual, has no hair whatsoever, not even eyelashes. His skin is pale and somewhat translucent, giving me a view of his skeleton.

His skin is dotted with circles with swirls on them, none larger than a silver dollar, almost like acne. The person in armor introduces themselves as Faultline, a woman, and that the almost morbidly obese man next to her is called Gregor.

She tells me of her mercenary crew and how she helps them to achieve their goals. She pauses before turning the conversation back to me "But I think the more important question is, what do you want Anubis?"

I stay quiet, considering my answer carefully. I look at them, then stride over to them. When I reach them, Buck starts smelling them, having calmed down now that I have relaxed a bit. I look at Gregor "What do you want?"

He answers "I don't know how I got to be like this, nor what this symbol means." Gregor points at the Omega-like symbol on his arm, before looking back at me. "I want to though. I want to know what my name is and how this happened. Faultline's been helping me do that."

I must admit, she's surprised me. Rumor has it Faultline's Crew won a fight against Chevalier and Myrddin not long ago. Tough opponents. There is no fear in Gregor's voice. No hesitation or anxiety either.

It would stand to reason that Gregor genuinely likes his boss and holds no animosity or fear towards her. The sign of a good leader. I nod. Would I really be willing to open up to her though? Maybe. They are a very mobile group.

I look down at Buck. His tail is wagging and I can tell that he wants to jump up on Faultline and lick off her mask. Rachel must have trained him a bit before I adopted him. He's taken to commands much faster than most dogs would.

So, I ask about some of the jobs they have done. As she and Gregor run through a list of them, I watch them carefully. There are a few times in which Faultline gets a detail wrong, which Gregor points out.

Instead of hushing him or getting upset, she simply, politely, thanks him for the correction. 'So she has humility? A good sign in a leader.' I think. A few times Gregor tells the full story and Faultline stays completely silent.

They are not quite friends, but they are clearly much closer than a boss-employee relationship. I really don't care what jobs they've done. I've read about most of them already. I just wanted to see how they describe the jobs.

If anything, both of them are underselling how well they performed in fights. Yes. I think I can work with them. I nod to myself and open my eyes behind my visor to look at them. They're both shorter than me by several inches, so I have to tilt my head down a bit to look at them.

I look at Faultline and hold out my right hand to her. "I'm in." I can't see any of her skin nor her face, but I could've sworn she looked happy as she shakes my hand. "Welcome to the crew Anubis."

On the way to their base of operations, Faultline explains that the team is a bit like a family, and there are no masks while in their rooms. I am free to take my time before revealing my face and name to them if I want to. We detour so I can grab my stuff and check out of the motel.

I meet them out back and they lead me to a club. We enter through a back door guarded by a large man. He eyes me suspiciously but Faultline waves it off. "New recruit. We'll introduce him later." The man nods, holding the door open for us as we enter.