Survival is Crucial

Greenhouse Heat Death

"What'd I miss?" The Manager asked, entering a room Tyche was sitting in -- Tyche is sat upon a chair in the middle of the room, staring off into space before snapping out of it and staring at the Manager as he entered. "I had to go and adjust some things in the Escravos, canceled the bounty, well... for the most part but something like that can't be completely canceled until a later date. It'll take time." He paused, "It's not like we literally 'removed' it, all we did was hide it, essentially."

"Can't really fathom that I'm allying with an enemy," Tyche commented, leaning into the chair he was in. "Well... Nixon went back to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Balrog also went with him since he said, in his own words, 'Marshall didn't give me orders to stop protecting her'.  Maxim also went with them... umm... what else am I forgetting."

"What happened to that one kid..." The Manager paused, "We don't know his name, do we?"

"No, I do. He went to the same college as me. His name is Justin."

"Yeah, where did he go?"

"He's still here, he's just..." Tyche looked to the room beside him, "I think he's lamenting?" He shrugged, "I don't know why he stayed."

There was a visible pause in the room before the Manager continued, "What were you doing in this room by yourself?"

"I've just been thinking."

The Manager left the room, leaving Tyche to his devices, staring at cold stone walls by himself, cold air filling the room. The air entered his lungs before blowing it back out into the room, his eyes flickering as he took more breaths of the air around him. He gripped the bottom of his chair, the whites of his knuckles are visible as his neck visibly tightened. His neck relaxed, letting out a long sigh while blowing out a cloud of smoke between his lips, raising up to the ceiling before dissipating. The Manager knocked on the door, entering the room again, "We've got something that we want you to have."

"What?"

"You've seen someone with powers before, right?"

"Yeah..."

"We'll give you one, but this is only because you're directly involved with the Boss, okay? We're also going to need to get the... thing... before the Boss does, so we'll go now."

"Okay." Tyche stood up, "Let's go."

They both entered a car, the Manager entering through the driver's seat and Tyche was in the passenger's seat. The car shivered and growled as the Manager started up the vehicle before sending itself forward, shaking against rubble and pebbles on the streets below popping like popcorn against rubber. After riding for a few minutes, it slowly picked up speed, transitioning from a rocky ride into a smooth hover. Tyche looked out the window, staring out at the citizens walking around and living their lives, glancing at a small group doing Capoeira nearby before quickly passing by them and taking a turn.

A voice chimed in, "Do you think you can trust this man? What is his name even?"

Tyche sighed, "What's your name?"

"Janko Despotov," He paused, "Just call me Jank."

"The 'J' is supposed to be silent, right?"

"Well... I prefer Jank with the 'G'."

"Okay..." Tyche paused, Satisfied?

The voice came back in, "Of course not, we shouldn't trust someone who wanted us dead not too long ago!" It doesn't matter if we trust him or not, we have no way of progressing to our goal other than doing this.

Another voice came in, "Justin, did you just abandon Justin?"

"Ummm... Jank?"

"Hm?"

"Are we going back for Justin after this?"

"Yeah... maybe? Depends on how you feel after all of this."

"Okay..."

A voice came through, "Do you hate this? Doing this? Do you hate yourself?" No... I don't. "No, but you hate what you've become. Why don't you kill yourself? It's clearly not working anymore, you've become a monster, and you might even become worse as you get closer and closer to your next destination. You know this, right?"

"You aren't a monster, you're just better than those you have killed. Humans are fragile... and all you did was exploit said fragility. You can't be a monster when you live in a world of 'em. So many people, one after the other, they wanted you dead, and if you didn't kill them first, you would've been just like your dear 'ole Carla..."

Tyche's jaw tightened as another voice came in, "You can smell a stench, you can feel the cavities in the air as you inch closer and closer to your destination. It isn't a stench you have smelt before. It isn't a bad smell, but you can only describe it as a stench rather than the typical scent." A faint sigh came from the voice which slowly turned into a quiet wheeze before continuing, "Fifteen people litter the building, whatever it is that they are hiding, where the unnatural smell is coming from -- it's in a small warehouse next to a mansion."

"The smell..." Tyche commented.

Jank chuckled, "I must be lucky since I can't smell it myself. What do you think is needed to give someone a power?"

"I don't know... a needle?"

"It's a thing that your ancestors had attempted to keep a secret. We have those, but we don't know where they came from, only the boss does. But, yeah... we have a bunch of trees with these fruits, but the trees die out really quickly 'n s**t and the fruits themselves are really rare."

"Wait..."

"You'll eat one of these fruits, and you'll pray to God that it's a power, and or, it'll cure something in your body. Either or, it'll be a positive, but not the positive we need."

'I see... I have a question."

"What?"

"Do you know a man who was always on fire?"

"I remember a guy who was durable... almost immortal."

"I see..."

"Yeah."

"Have you also... actually, you don't need to answer, I can tell by your smell and you've already shown me a bit of your power already."

"Yep." Jank chuckled to himself.