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Getting hired into the Syndicate was a weird process. Raven, as he was called these days, couldn’t quite place if it was really hard or easy. Mostly because he couldn’t really see or follow through what the screening processes were. About all he could trace was that he could fly, well . Or well enough. Not that he took Sparrow’s word on anything.
Interestingly enough to Raven though, aside from the cliché secrecy aspect of this business. Was that the weirdest thing in his job happened to be one singular thing:
The man, a collection of half truths, bullets, blood and an odd streak of idiocy, was how Raven would go about describing him to start with. He certainly wasn’t human by nature or by capability though. A remorseless killing machine with nothing but the current objective in mind. Except if there were classified documents or computers available apparently, because he always seemed to stock up on those. Where he left a bag full of laptops while he scrubbed a facility clean of life, Raven would never know. Or why.
Why his name was 106 he didn’t know either. He’d only seen one other agent go by a similar naming scheme, funny enough that being 105. He didn’t get to work with him very much though; two whole missions together, seeing as he’d been KIA in the same mission that had rescued 106. A shame the two of them never got to work together. From what he could tell they had quite a bit in common.
Lastly, the main quality to the man, outside of a collection of statistics, was his silence. Raven had never heard him say a word and didn’t ever expect to anymore. What his reason for silence was didn’t interest Raven nearly as much as the way the man approached it at first. He simply…stared. There were rarely any attempts at communication, despite the fact that Raven could tell he wanted to say or ask for things. Usually reinforcements, supplies, weapons or the like. It led to either a game of him trying to guess what he wanted or 106 acquiescing and pointing at things he wanted. Both were bad when you had to keep your eyes on the sky.
So far he had made his biggest breakthrough with the man on that. He’d taught the man to sign ‘hello’. Now he did so every time they saw each other. Raven wasn’t quite sure if he’d misinterpreted it as well, or if there was some reason he only did it to Raven. Because so far no one else had received his silent greeting.
Speak of the devil.
“I have eyes on 106. Heading back to base.” Raven radios to the rest of the team.
106 slides the door open and steps inside. First glance at him proves that he’s had another stash of laptops. Raven just had to know…he’d have to ask during this hour or so trip back.
“How would you rate this assignment out of 10?” Raven asks, flicking switches and checking the radius before getting a liftoff.
106 holds out five and four fingers, finishing it off with an exaggerated explosion motion.
Raven leans over to comment, but 106 interrupts him and points at the Pandora sight, just as the foundations come crashing down. The structure caves in as 106 watches it with his head rested in his hands. If Raven didn’t know better by now, he’d have missed the almost dreamy look 106 must’ve had behind his masked self.
“Found some of the grenade launchers today, didn’t ya?”
106 gives no nonverbal response, electing to return to his seat in the back now. Raven shrugs in response.
Next, the man starts on his routine gun inspection. It was always the first part of what 106 did after returning from missions. The second part was related to what he wanted to know about.
The laptops.
Something on them interested him. Enough for him to collect them like children used to Pokémon cards.
It doesn’t take long for him to start pulling them out. Scrolling through for something. It was weird none of them were ever locked, or maybe HQ gave 106 some weird hacking tech that gave him access. Raven had seen the man bypass security before.
“What’s even that interesting on those?” Raven finally asks.
106 holds up one and points to text on a screen. If Raven had to guess, it was a diary entry. It makes him scowl, who wants to read what some cultist or egghead wrote?
“Dear diary,
Thou saw Satan. Hast was unholy and sacrilegious.”
Or
“Entry log 13457,
An attempt was not forthcoming in combining DNA of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Galapagos Finch. Did not succeed, trying a new hypothesis, as to avoid further incidents in proceedings.”
Ok, maybe Raven would want to read that second one. Dinosaurs were cool, maybe that’s why he’d thought of them.
“Anything about dinosaurs yet?”
106 looks up in apparent surprise by the jerkiness in his motion and considers. After a moment he makes an ‘X’ with his hands but makes the motion of his left hand biting his right hand off.
“…I don’t wanna hear more. Got enough monsters in the paperwork these things create.” Raven told his eyes. He wouldn’t need this job if he got a penny for every flesh eating monster Pandora created. That name had to be deliberate.
“If I’d wanted to start describing man made horrors on paper I would’ve told god to make me the next Lovecraft.”
106 shrugs. The bastard.
“You know it’s your fault. You don’t write shit. And it’s always “oh Raven you know him best, you interpret what he says he saw down there”. As if they didn’t have bodycam footage. I think it’s some stupid hazing—in a government run secret organization I know!—but until I can prove it I’m not taking chances.”
106 indicates a gun getting shot.
“Sure—you kill the man-made monstrosities, but c’mon, that’s way more fun. I only ever get to blow up some helicopters. It’s not the same.”
The man stares at Raven after that, either having nothing to say or finding no way to say what it was. Regardless, it marked the end of their conversation. With him returning to piloting and the crazy agent reading along through what the laptops contained.
What he hadn’t realized until much later was that 106 had been suggesting with his gun motion a solution to his paperwork problem—the supposed hazing. And Not a description of the work he already did.
—
106 calls for his attention before he leaves the helicopter to get his next assignment on base. It’s not often the man initiated anything himself, so it always made Raven curious when he did.
At his feet he can spot the pile of laptops. Even more curiously, 106 pulls one out. With his other free hand he pulls out a few cash bills.
Raven stays silent as 106 gestures at the laptop and then makes a show of splitting the cash between the two of them.
Raven makes a confused face under his tactical helmet, “You want to sell the laptops to me..?”
106 makes a denial motion with quick and choppy gestures. After that he opens the laptop and pulls out the Internet tab, pointing at the laptop, then the browser and finally at the money.
“You wanna sell them online? Why tell me then buddy? Congrats?” Raven shrugs.
106 points at him and then at half the money again.
“You want me to sell them online? Why? ”
This time when 106 remains silent, Raven can tell it’s because there’s something he doesn’t want to say. It was a bad idea to push him on that, so Raven would just have to make the call based on these facts alone. The truth was only a fool would reject practically free money, but he could tell there was a danger aspect to this. Selling laptops with classified information, about organizations outside of the Syndicate sure, but still…
“I’m in if I get 60%.”
106 crosses his arms and taps his foot in response.
“Hey man, I’m the one who’ll take the heat if we get caught. And if I ever have to listen to Hawk talk shit again, I’m shooting myself.”
106 remains silent, but when he pushes the laptops towards him, Raven knows his proposal has been accepted. Huzzah to him.
106 disappears past the landing pad and into the actual headquarters. Raven had never actually been inside, but all the other pilots told him there was nothing interesting in there anyway.
For now he’d listen to them, mostly because he always had something to do afterwards anyway. Tonight he was gonna see how selling those laptops would go, he could use some better boots for example. Some Doritos would be nice too, since 106 kept stealing those from his helicopter. Bastard.
Quartermaster looks as the helicopter piloted by their newest ‘Raven’ flies off, most likely to be dropped off for the night. The newbie’s recent interaction still makes him think.
“Is there a reason you paired up the new guy and 106, Director? Didn’t he work with 105 too?”
“There always is. Why?” The director responds icily.
“I wouldn’t call myself a bleeding heart, but it seems mean to pair the two. Our pilot obviously has no idea and isn’t hesitating to make friends.” He responds, drinking coffee.
“You must’ve noticed by now. He isn’t exactly the sort of man you’d find in the military. His division needed him out of their hands and we needed the pilot for these sorts of high risk assignments. Let him ‘make friends’ as you put it, by the end we won’t need him any more than we do subject 106. We can cycle them both out once Horizon falls and we get asset 78 back.”
Yikes , thinks Quartermaster as he says, “Alright.”
The line goes dead and Quartermaster doesn’t pursue it further. He knew it was pointless to suggest anything alternative to the director, she’s made up her mind. And while it would be sad to see Raven go so fast, it was just part of business.
—
As most things did, it started when Raven thought to ask 106 if he’d ever played a card game. The answer had been a swift no. So of course the next logical step was to teach him one of the more complex ones; Magic the Gathering.
It was to his surprise that 106 took so quickly to it. He wasn’t gifted by any means, but he understood the rules within the first few games. Raven found it funny that the man preferred blitz strategies even in card games. He hadn’t made his own deck, but he heavily favored the red and blue deck Raven owned. Raven himself played every color combination, it created intrigue for him. It was working too, as he was winning 6-4 against 106.
Teaching a one man army the concept of loss was its own entertainment. It was clear he took the games very seriously, often taking time to deliberate each of his moves. Other times Raven wasn’t sure what game he was playing, but the strategy he employed was best called ‘Russian roulette’. What made 106 snap to his base instincts of ‘just play any card’ Raven hadn’t figured out yet.
“I know you have that lightning bolt. Cast it.” Raven says. He had been waiting the whole game to take that 3 damage. At this point it had to be psychological warfare.
106 puts down an instant and makes a ‘give here’ motion. It was a card that allowed the other to look at his hand. He sighs but obliges, letting the man look. All he’d find out is that Raven was going to play his legendary spider demon with reach and deathtouch. Adios to the wyverns in play, as this spider gave his other ones deathtouch too.
That’s exactly what happens. Next turn when a wyvern is forced to defend it dies. It makes 106 think more. While the superhuman thinks, Raven’s thoughts meander.
He recalls the early morning’s table tennis game of Hell. Why had Hawk dared him to try? Why had he tried?!
106 had signed hello to him when Raven had arrived at the leisure wing of the compound. 106 had been…staring at a wall prior to noticing Raven. Whatever floats his boat Raven had supposed.
“Hey—y’wanna, try a game of table tennis?” He’d asked. Wanting that 20 in cash back from Hawk.
106 had given him a thumbs as an answer.
They’d gotten to the table. Raven had given 106 the honors of starting. What a terrifying blessing that had been.
When he’d watched 106 break the ball from the speed he was trying to serve it at, he’d just said nothing. Taken a page from 106’s book.
“Never again.” He’d said in the end. Putting the racket down gently. 106 had almost managed to look sheepish. And Hawk’s laughter had been nowhere near quiet.
106 sets down another instant that buffs his second wyvern. Apparently he really had nothing to play. Raven destroys the second wyvern and deals 7 damage via instant to the already low health 106. If a miracle didn't happen, he would lose.
No such miracle happens and Raven deals the last few damage points through his spider.
106 lays down his cards, showing an awful hand of only instants.
However, he isn’t deterred for long, as he makes a circular motion with his pointer. Raven had to give him credit for not being a quitter. Sadly, mid-shuffle their new game is interrupted by Quartermaster.
“Alright, let’s head out. Raven. 106. Our rendezvous has arrived now.”
“Aye aye, let’s blow up these fuckers.” Raven cheers, piling his two decks.
Across from him, 106 twirls two of his pistols from the table into his holsters. He lays a hand on Raven’s shoulder as he moves to walk past, only stopping for a second. Its meaning was foreign to Raven, but that was nothing new with 106. He’d have time to figure it all out eventually.
—
106 stands dangerously still, eyes focused on the fiery horizon. Raven’s helicopter had gone down the skyline a moment ago. He wanted to go after it, find the helicopter pilot. It was most likely the case that he would need assistance. Critically so.
However, his priority objective is marked behind him. Kill the leader of Horizon; kill Anton Lazar. Stop the neural upload. Still, he knew there was something weird afoot. The missiles that had taken down his pilot they—
Shouts from the distance remind him that his objective was not a suggestion. It also reminds him that if he can spread their gore around efficiently enough, he could still make it in time to save Raven.
As he starts, there’s no more savagery in his movements then there normally are. All that changes is that an imaginary estimate goes down in his mind as he ticks down the lives in this compound. Leaving holes in their essentials, inverting them, crushing them—whatever it took to end them.
It’s always too easy, he shot more accurately and faster—hit harder and better.
By the time it comes to deal with the CEO, the man behind everything, his pizza themed work outfit is covered in more tomato sauce than cheese.
It provides a suiting visage for the last thing the CEO would see, if he could anymore.
That’s all 106 remembers thinking before a sudden bout of vertigo hits him and his consciousness short circuits for a moment.
When he looks back down, the mutilated corpse of the former Horizon CEO stares back at him. It doesn’t bother him, but the loss of time does however.
His objective has been met. He can search for Raven.
“Primary target KIA. You’ve done it 106! Horizon is finished.” The Director congratulates him, “Now return to base.”
106 does not consider the order. He walks past the retrieval squad and into the left side of the building. He could slide down the side of it well enough to get to where he predicted the crash would’ve happened.
“106, what are you doing?!” The Director comes in.
He slides down the glass exterior and when the time comes, curbs the excess of his momentum with the bayonet of his rifle.
“Ghosts 1 and 3, do you have eyes on 106? He’s stopped responding, check and clear. We need to leave with him now .”
106 looks around, not spotting any smoke wafting into the horizon. Had Raven crashed so far? If he was not fast enough, they would force him to leave without the pilot. He did not want to.
And that’s where the trouble began, wasn’t it?
Four friendlies move to stand in his path and he halts. 106 looks at them for the verdict, as if he was deaf.
“C’mon, let’s go 106. We finished the mission.” One of the Ghosts say, moving to corral him into the landed chopper.
“We can’t stay any longer.” The second to his right says. They move to surround him in a semicircle. He could read their body language just fine. No time. No Raven.
“You’ll miss the celebration 106!” Quartermaster’s voice comes through next.
106 plants his feet at that. Celebration is what his pilot should be doing.
He had a last beat, before he knew they would forcefully move him. He needed them to understand why.
106 looks at all of them, knowing it would catch their attention. He never paid attention to them. He points behind them in a side gesture and then indicates to the chopper behind himself. He waits to see the response.
“106. I’m sorry. We lost contact with Raven awhile ago. Our rescue teams didn’t see anything. We have to go.” The Director responds, some sliver of understanding entering her voice.
Both Ghost leaders latch onto his arms and pull him towards the chopper. He makes no moves to help or hinder them. Indecision rocks at his core.
Don’t trust her.
He had seen it plastered in every mission. In the insanity of the Patriarch. In the desperate pleas from Anton Lazaar. In the sword of 105. In the corpse of Dr.Emmerson.
Break the cycle.
The chopper door closes and he automatically moves to sit on one of the chairs. The decision had been made. He had not made the decision himself.
106 looks over at the pilot. There was no chatter from this one. He narrows his eyes. It finally strikes him.
The real damaging missiles had not been fired from the direction of the Horizon chopper. He’d taken a major hit from the inside, making it definite that he couldn’t recover. Raven had never seen it coming because it was not just the enemy that had fired on him.
—
This feeling 106 knew well.
Survival.
Kill. Or. Be. Killed.
They want him to stop. The Syndicate has turned against him. He understood now entirely how against him it had been since the start.
Cycle 106.
Break the cycle.
The pistol feels natural in his grip as he slides through their defenses. Whatever they had to say now he did not care. He shoots with no hesitation, breaking through what he knew were weak points in their armor. He had worn it once too.
“Cover me!”
“Move in, move in! He’s—“ A shot to the chest silences him and draws shrieks as 106 uses the grenade pinned to his uniform to lob him at the rest.
The explosion anoints his arrival as he pushes the smoke to the side and shoots any downed survivors. It also covers his form as his cloak recharges and more of them rush in.
They thought he couldn’t hide from them. But really, they couldn’t hide from him .
“Wait—!” The first goes down with no fanfare.
A shootout starts, unbeknownst to them, he’d palmed a shotgun from the first corpse and had already moved behind them. It splatters the next two into the wall. A final shot leaves the last unrecognizable.
The reactor room. 106 had to head there. The Director had foolishly revealed the weakness Task force 27 had at the very start.
He could end this. End them.
Break the cycle.
—
He…just had…to…a little bit…further.
He could see the red button. Feel the heat of the facility coming down. He could stop it all.
He’d defeated them all. Not even 107 could stop him.
106 crawls forward, the stub of his left hand completely numb. The clones around him stir, awakened and ready to tear him apart.
He leverages himself up from the console that held the red button.
A final glance around him shows nothing new. Hell had come to meet him halfway and his legacy was about to eat him alive.
This was it.
106 slams on the activation button and feels nothing.
—
“Welcome back Six. We’re not done with you yet.”
He could not describe the array of emotions he felt hearing that. He had… died. Not even that had been enough in the end.
“Yeah, well, I sure am done with you .” Another voice says, more familiar. The telltale and familiar sound of a gunshot accompanies it, it’s like music to him. His head is fuzzy despite it, eyes not properly focusing yet.
“C’mon! C’mon! Son of a bitch work !” The voice continues, trying something. Evidently not very well. Though, to their credit, his containment pod opens a few seconds later. He falls through, feeling woozy and unfocused. Due to it, he takes some more seconds to identify the situation he’s in.
When 106 looks up, his mind further halts. Wondering if this was another one of those assignments.
It was Raven, minus the uniform he normally wore. He had an outdated set of military gear and a pistol in a holster. The look he was giving him was best described as inquisitive and nervous.
106 doesn’t hesitate to disarm his apparent rescuer and point the gun at him.
Raven flinches in surprise, remembering why the Syndicate had taken such care to keep him down again. He’d had no time to even react.
However, he notes that he’s still breathing because 106 hasn’t pulled the trigger. A mercy he’d never seen the supersoldier afford to anyone else.
106 gestures with the gun for him to speak.
“I didn’t know.” Raven says as a start, “That's part of why they paired us. We were both disposable tools. I want revenge as much as you, but uhm, yeah, unlike you, I’m not some supersoldier with a taste for blood. And so, who better to come to for help than the super among the other supers.”
106 relaxes his hand but doesn’t drop the gun yet.
Raven sighs, “I read about you. I know now. Even if I hadn’t been betrayed myself, it’s unfair what they did to you. To all the other…you’s. I figured if anyone deserved a second chance at reigning Hell, it was you. Didn’t expect to hear you died though, which, I guess your counter is nukes now—not the point though. My point is: are we going to make this shitty organization bleed dry in every meaning of that statement?”
It’s here that 106 lowers the pistol and instead offers his hand out for a shake.
“Buddy I think we’re way past that. You might’ve just tried to kill me, but I’m a forgiving guy.” Raven says, ignoring the handshake in favor of giving 106 a brief hug. The guy sure could use some. When Raven pulls back 106 shifts awkwardly, his hands flustered.
“Can I have my weapon back?” Raven asks instead of commenting.
106 shakes his head and jumps over the table in the center to start moving out.
“Cool. We gotta escape a Syndicate hellhole and I don’t get to keep a weapon. Brilliant.” Raven mutters.
From there it only got worse.
106 ran at speeds that there was no way he was keeping up with. And he clearly had no intentions on stopping to wait for him. What a standout guy.
About the only good thing was that he found a pistol along the way, just sitting on a table conveniently. Why the Syndicate left so many guns lying around, he wasn’t sure.
“Hey 106, see anyone?!” Raven yells, knowing that stealth was not going to be their approach. 106 was going to blow their cover the first chance he got.
Glass shattering ahead is the only response he gets, but no bullets accompany it, so they must’ve been clear for now.
Raven runs up to the broken window, huffing from the effort of trying to keep up. He stares down at the courtyard below, seeing the shattered glass littering the floor. It was at least three floors down.
There was no way Raven was jumping down that distance. No thank you, stairs were invented and he was going to use them.
He slips down the stairs and through the courtyard, surprised to see that 106 was leaning flat against a wall. When he gets closer, the superhuman holds up one finger and gestures beyond the corner.
106 must’ve had a good reason for hesitating. Otherwise Raven didn’t doubt he’d have simply been jumping over the corpse of the guardsman. Was there something stopping him from shooting?
His theory is tested when 106 ducks from behind cover and levels his pistol, aiming it straight at the unaware guard. The motion stops there, with his fingers aching to pull the trigger. He ducks back into cover before anyone sees him, but gently bumps his head against the wall, hands balled into fists.
Raven steps past him and shoots three times, nowhere near as cleanly as 106 would’ve done it, but the man ahead was dead all the same.
“You really can’t shoot them.” Raven says more as a statement than a question.
106 faces him in an agitated manner.
“Luckily I did think about this. When I was reading about your cycles, I ran into something interesting. It was a confiscated tape from Horizon, which had been saved to study why it had allowed other cycles to deviate from their conditioning. I figured it might come handy—and as per usual, I was right.” Raven tells him, holding up a USB drive.
106 perks up at this news and in a sudden manner gives him an almost-hug. If the motion wasn’t so awkward and wrong he would’ve called it one.
“Yeah buddy, you're welcome, but please—you’re a lot stronger than is comfortable.” Raven squeezes out.
106 obliges and looks around, spotting an office space littered with computers. Seeing this, he grabs Raven’s arm and pulls him along. He sure was eager to get his freedom back, though not that it was a big surprise.
At the office room, he throws 106 the USB and stays by the entrance to keep guard. Luckily this miracle movie was only about a minute long. Though Raven had not figured out what was so special about it. He’d seen it, it was just a bunch of still images, of either peaceful nature or ransacked places with explosions.
106 activates the tiny film and something about his posture eases as he watches the images flash by. Maybe it was the familiarity, the knowledge of freedom or simply just the deprogramming taking effect, but Raven found it interesting.
He focuses his gaze back out on the hallway. It was only a few more seconds before 106 was finished.
106 claps a hand on his shoulder when he’s finished, holding up the USB.
“Ready for action?” Raven asks. 106 gives him a thumbs up. He seemed much more confident now.
They restart their trek, with 106 poaching a second pistol from the dead guard. Apparently the discount John Wick was going to dual wield them now.
It’s also from here that the carnage starts. 106 creates distance between the two of them again, drawing occasional screams that are silenced by gunshots as he passes through enemies. By now his freedom would be known throughout the facility.
Raven shoots a few downed men that aren’t dead, but mostly he takes care not to slip on the blood and guts poured around the floors. That would be embarrassing.
Down a few more winding halls, he has to deal with a few stragglers that must’ve tried to outflank 106, but didn’t realize the man ran at lightspeeds half the time. To Raven’s fortune they were distracted with trying to figure out where the superhuman had gone. It makes easy pickings as only one has time to turn on him. One who’s quickly blown to pieces by a grenade Raven had palmed along the way. They weren’t in short supply exactly.
Up ahead he spots a second courtyard. Even further he sees the exit to the building. However, a set of metal doors were closing over it faster than even 106 could move. How frustrating. He had no doubt it also meant the Syndicate had really caught up with them.
Raven catches up with 106, who stands alert in the middle. They stood in a small gazebo, surrounded by fake rivers and plants.
106 reloads both his pistols at once and checks over a shotgun he’d procured from someone at some point. Raven holds his pistol tightly. They both knew this was going to be a fight.
“106 you don’t need to fight this; us. Everything we’ve done, what we do is for the greater good.” The Director’s voice comes through a speaker.
“And you, do you know what you’re trying to release?”
Raven looks up to where the voice was projecting from, “I sure hope so; I was his pilot.”
“Last warning then: lay down your weapons.” The Director says with a tight tone. Her anxiety was clear as day.
In response 106 shoots the camera that was used to project her voice.
Two squadrons come through opened shutter doors. Raven’s eyes widen in surprise and for a brief heartbreaking moment he wonders if this is where he really dies.
However, 106 tackles him to the side as gunfire rains over their last known spot. Even weirder is when Raven notices that he can’t see himself. He was…invisible. And so was 106. It lasts for some seconds, long enough for 106 to leave him in cover and prepare to dive out himself. He does so with no hesitation, shooting the closest to him and diving to the next one. With practiced ease he takes the other hostage, unpins his grenade and chucks him towards the others. It’s a gory end for three of them.
106 cloaks again, using it to disappear behind them and with a few nasty shotgun blasts to the back takes out a few more.
Raven pings a few from cover but ducks back down as fire is returned. Another grenade sounds off, with a bunch of them screaming in response. The shockwave is much closer to Raven, leaving him disoriented.
He misses the man who peeks across the corner, ready to shoot him. Before that can happen, 106 vaults over the cover from the other side and dropkicks the man. The crunch is an unpleasant sound, but it’s more than made up for when 106 tosses an SMG to him.
From there he shoots a few from cover as 106 slides back into invisibility and later descends upon a squad with two pistols, shooting them all before they could hit him themselves.
Raven shoots someone in cover, while 106 breaks the neck of the last guy.
The shutters begin to open up to reveal another squad. 106 doesn’t give them any chances though, as he grabs a grenade and throws it into the room before the squad could exit. All their screaming is abruptly cut off.
106 twirls his pistols in a dramatic flair. Raven rolls his eyes and moves in to open the metal shutter doors. There was a panel he could work through.
Raven gets to work as 106 keeps watch. It takes a minute or so for him to get through, rewarded by the creaking of the door opening up.
“Ready to taste real freedom 106?” Raven asks, walking past the doors. He receives no response.
106 was keenly looking at a storage room to the right. In fact, he speed walks over, disappearing past the doorway. Raven sighs and follows, more than anxious to escape before more Syndicate commanders were dropped on their heads. What could be so important?
He waits by the doorway, relieved 106 doesn’t take much time. All that relief is washed away as 106 proudly displays his pizza work uniform. That’s what he was so adamant on getting?
Raven wants to say something, but he knows it would be pointless. Instead he grabs the other and pulls him back towards the main entrance.
Leaving the creepy science space is a breath of fresh air, literally, as a breeze blows by. In front of them was a massive car park and Raven was deliberating in his head which car he wanted to Hotwire. He chooses a nice cerulean car and walks over to it.
“Can you break the window real quick?” Raven asks. 106 obliges right after, cleanly punching through the window and opening the door.
“Thanks.” Raven says, getting a thumbs up from 106. He pushes the glass from the driver side chair and unlocks the rest of the doors. 106 heads to the passenger side, putting on his seatbelt and watching Raven work.
Raven cheers internally as he gets the car to start. He moves the stick to drive and gracefully floors out of the parking lot, knowing well enough what direction they had to head in.
106 rummages through the glovebox, coming out with a pen and paper. Raven’s curiosity is piqued by this. The superhuman scribbles something onto it. When the paper is turned towards Raven:
In terrible handwriting it says, “Thank you. I’m sorry I left you behind.”
Raven smiles to himself, “I think it’s sweet you went looking. But you do know that’s why they tried to terminate you right afterwards? Ignoring direct orders kind of does that.”
106 stares ahead for a bit and then shrugs. Nothing ever bothered him for long.
“Reminds me though, you left this in my helo.” Raven pulls out a golden medallion from his pocket. It had sat right next to his prone form when he’d woken up from being passed out. Since it was right there and he’d seen 106 hold it close to him for a lot of their helicopter trips, he figured he’d return it.
106 holds it up to the light, flipping it around to show the numeral CVI. Raven had never really found out what the medallions meant in his research. He just knew it had to be connected to this whole cycle business.
With no hesitation, 106 opens the window and drops the medallion outside the speeding car.
“Why the fuck did I bother getting that back to you?” Raven says with confusion.
106 gives him a side eye and turns back to his paper, writing something much faster. Once flipped around to face him, Raven reads:
“Break the cycle.”
It was about the most confusing thing 106 could’ve said. That didn’t answer anything nor did it make any sense.
“What…what does that even mean?” Raven finally asks, incredulous.
106 lowers the paper and then with a genuinely confused motion, shrugs.
So even he didn’t know. Brilliant.
“Great. I’ll add that to our grocery list, right beneath ‘take out the Syndicate’.”
106, to his credit, gives him a thumbs up. Raven shakes his head, staring out into the horizon. At least this was going to be an interesting journey. And what more could a guy ask for?