Chapter 19: The Disgusting Thing Called Morality

Orion walked down the busy street, planting different devices on every person he passed, the more information he got the better. His cameras could pick up any strange activity, and if a camera happened to go out, he'd go to its last trackable location.

"This city sure is strange huh Qece?" He asked aloud as he stopped on the side of the street, looking at the casino in front of him.

According to Luna, there were 12 of these casinos here, and if they were anything like the last one then he knew it was more trouble than he wanted to deal with.

"What's strange is how you've been acting recently, what happened to the cute quiet kid that would peek under Miss Aria's skirt?" Qece asked, dancing in her hologram as if excited to be free.

"Hey I never did that," Orion protested, shaking his head as he continued walking. He'd visit the casino another day.

"Sure sure… But Orion?"

"What is it?" He asked, hearing the change of tone and looking at her holographic form in front of him.

"If we find Jack, do you think Aria will be with him?" She asked, looking sad as the scene in her hologram changed into a rainy day.

'Why'd I give them emotions? So worried about nothing…'

"Of course, they never did anything without each other, besides… Pretty sure they were dating in secret."

Qece looked happy at first but then made a disgusted face. "Dating!? Ew with that loser? Aria would never!"

"Why are you talking to yourself kid," A man said behind Orion as he sent Qece away.

"Hm? Do I know you sir?" Orion asked politely, doing a quick scan and seeing the man had two guns on either side of his body, as well as a knife tucked into his sleeve.

"Nope, but this street is under my jurisdiction… And I don't recognize you."

The man didn't seem to care too much about Orion's presence, in fact, he was pretty sure the man just felt bored and wanted to pick on the new arrival.

"I'm not from here, perhaps you could help me find what I'm looking for?" Orion asked, smiling softly. Had Zephyr been there he would have been disgusted. 

The man's features hardened as he suddenly became nervous. "Sorry, can't help you kid, gotta go."

With that, the man rushed off, not even looking back as Orion looked at him leaving. 

"At least he didn't notice the camera I placed on him, but people here sure are weird... Almost too weird," He thought aloud, a new noise catching his attention.

"Stop!" A girl screamed. It was loud enough for anyone on the streets to hear, coming from the alley next to him, yet none of them even looked that way, not one person looked confused or surprised.

Orion stepped in front of the alley, looking at three men forcing a young woman's clothes off. 

"Should have paid your dues eh Maria?" The man on top of her said, smiling wildly as he got the woman's jacket off. The other two held her down as Orion watched in confusion. 

"Excuse me ma'am," Orion said to a passing lady. "Why isn't anyone helping her?" He asked, glancing back every so often as Qece began saying things in his ear about helping her.

"Hm? Help her what? That's just payment, she probably owes them, our city's protectors are so great!" The woman was so cheery, yet her words didn't come out normally, they almost sounded slurred. 

Then there was the smell, the sickly sweet smell Orion had noticed once they'd stepped into the city.

'Qece, forget backgrounds... Test everyone's vitals and awareness..."

A few seconds passed before Qece showed the results. 

"Huh... 99% of the city is heavily drugged..." He whispered as he walked away from the alley, the woman's screams ringing in his head as Qece began to complain. 

"I doubt they're just a city full of druggies, so it's probably in the air constantly, or in something everyone in the city uses... How interesting."

"Dumb bitch, I've been waiting for this," The large man said as he licked the woman's neck, his eyes crazed as she cried and struggled to get away as he began taking off her pants. 

Shink

"So this city is just as bad as the last one..." Orion said behind the man, his head in Orion's hands as he smiled down at it. "Guess I'll do a good deed... Just this once."

"W-What the hell!?" One of the other men said, eyes wide as he pulled out a gun, pointing it at Orion. Due to the lack of technology, it was an old model, so he couldn't just shut it off. But it's not like he didn't have other ways of stopping attackers.

"Catch," He said non chalantly, tossing a silver orb to the man. Without thinking, the man caught it, dropping his gun as he looked at it with a confused expression. 

"What is this?" He asked as Orion put a jacket over the girl. "Plasma Grenade of course, what else would it be?" Orion said as it set off, incinerating the man completely. 

Orion looked at the last man, who turned and ran away quickly. "Riqo will here of this! Good luck surviving your stay here you pieve of shi-"

"All that talking, yet you're not saying a single thing tyhat's meaningful," Orion said, the man's tongue in his hands, bleeding tremendously as he looked at it. 

"Ew, now my hand is dirty," He whispered, grabbing the man's face as blue energy encircled his hand. "Clean it up," He said as the man's head crunched under his hand, leaving a limp corpse. 

"Finally, will you shut up now Qece?" He said, sighing as Qece smiled at him. 

"Yep, thank you!" She said sweetly as he left the alley, leaving the girl frozen in shock.

"That guy mentioned someone named Riqo, do I care about the drug thing or continue looking for the artifact user? Is this Morality Qece?"

"Morality? In our dear Orion? I doubt it."

Orion nodded, taking on last glance at the woman before leaving the alley, it wasn't his business, nothing in the city was his business, so why did he feel kind of bothered by what he'd seen?

...

"Curious, how very curious. You use artifacts to fight?" Angel asked, entirely too close to Zephyr as the man coughed and tried to back up, realizing he was already pressed up against the wall. 

He and Luna had followed the two mysterious people to their "Boss" yet for thirty minutes they'd been sitting in the small foyer, waiting for him to show up.

"Yes, I do... I have the most collected artifacts currently I think... I'm pretty famous actually-"

"Where's your boss? You said he wanted to talk to us," Luna interrupted, looking at the woman sitting across from her. 

She was beautiful, ethereal even. Womanhood was something she had created, that was the conclusion Luna had come to. 

"He'll show, your third companion seems to have given quite a scare to one of our newbies... He's quite cute," The woman said, her eyes closed as she said this as if she was picturing something. 

"Orion? Where is he anyway?" Zephyr asked, trying to ignore Angel, who was now sitting in his lap babbling nonsense about artifact grades.

"He's doing some scouting of our city... But there's nothing he can do, we have control, and he's just a kid."

Luna looked confused. "Uhh... What do you mean nothing he can do?" 

The woman smiled, opening her eyes. "Well nothing he can do to fix it, I've seen plenty of wandering wannabe heroes, but he's by far the most interesting... Yet there's nothing he can do against us."

Zephyr smiled, wanting to laugh but not wanting to accidentally breathe on Angel. "Orion? A wandering hero? What do you guys even think we're in town for?"

The woman's expression turned serious. "Don't smile so freely pig," She said with a deep hostility, surprising Zephyr before she smiled at Luna. "You three are here because you heard about the misdeeds and the underground scene, you believe you can rid this city of everything we've done, yet it's impossible. Riqo will say the same thing, so be prepared to leave."

Zephyr and Luna looked at each other before looking at the woman. "I think there's a misunderstanding, we don't care about the city."

"What? What do you mean-"

"Boss Riqo is here!" Angel screamed, jumping up and saluting to the door.

Two minutes later a large man walked in, a scar under his right eye and his dark hair slicked back. It was clear he was trying to be intimidating.

"Boss! Oh boss boss boss!" Angel yelled, checking all around Riqo. "No injuries! Oh goody goody!"

"Angel can you calm down, my god," The boss, Riqo, said in an annoyed tone as he looked at Zephyr and Luna. "Hello travelers... And Welcome to Meso, city of pleasure..."