Getting It Together

Russ took a deep breath. "Okay, we can talk about that another time. For now... Hey, I'm Russ Skiler, average person who wants to make money. I'm generally good at figuring out how to get things done, but I don't work well with someone bossing me around. I'll be the acting leader from now on. You can trust me to set us up for success so that we can complete missions and make money. Physically speaking... I am also pathetically weak. I haven't tried my special abilities yet, so I don't know what they do. They only brought my threat level up one, so I don't expect much." Russ gave a personal rundown. "Most of the money is in adventuring quests, however, so if we want to be successful then we are going to need to rank up and unlock adventuring quests. Until we get stronger we are going to have to use our brains." He finished. 

"Yeah! Let's do it!" Fitz said.

Ona nodded vigorously. The eyes of the other two momentarily fell on her as if waiting for her own little speech, but then Russ stood. 

"There is a problem that is even more urgent than all of these though..." He announced. 

"And that would be?"

"We're broke and the guilds infirmary food isn't going to hold us off for much longer."

"Right! Let's head out." Fitz hopped up from her seat and went to the door. She grabbed the handle, and then felt Russ's gaze burning into her back. She turned around meekly.

"Come on Ona, let's go." He walked toward the door and looked hard at Fitz, adding, "Together."

The next quest taken on by Silent Voice was a glorious one: trash collection.

"We really have to complete a hundred of these rank one quests before we can even take the test to become rank two adventurers?" Fitz plugged her nose with one hand while trying to scoop the poop off the street into her bag with the other hand. 

"We'll have to do a hundred of these quests just to afford a decent meal." Russ said, picking up a rotting apple core.

Ona simply worked to fill her trash bag, seemingly unbothered.

"It makes sense though." Russ said, "Aside from ensuring some level of experience, the first rank quests act as community betterment. Before adventurers can serve themselves they have to serve others. I don't think it's a bad system."

"Sure, but are you going to make us do this for every one of those rank one quests?" This of course was her referring to the strict formation that Russ had decided on before they started their trash collection. Russ and Ona were roughly eight feet apart in the lead and Fitz was roughly the same distance behind them, forming a triangle. 

Russ had decided to put Ona in the front because of her sharp intuition and for the fact that she was the only one who stayed on their feet against Frank. Having her in the front of the formation was common sense. He put himself in the front next to her so that she could alert him of any potential trouble and he could assess it himself and decide what to do. Together they formed the vanguard. Fitz was placed in the back as support. The main reason for that was to prevent her from making rash decisions and bolting off, though it was a bit redundant for picking up trash. On this particular mission she just made sure that the vanguard didn't miss any trash. To her, it seemed too convenient that they kept overlooking the piles of poop on the ground. 

"Of course we will stay in formation for all of our missions. I intend to take my role as leader seriously." Russ said. 

"Then why do you have the person with the highest threat level in the back?" She complained, picking up yet another pile of excrement. "And why is there so much poop on the street?"

"You're in the back because we can't trust you in the front. Plus, not even you know why your threat level is so high. We have been to busy trying to get money to test out our abilities properly." Russ said, pointedly ignoring her last question.

Amidst their talking, Ona came to a stop, putting her hand in the air. 

"Hold." Russ said immediately, looking around to see what the problem was.

Ona looked around for a minute longer before shaking her head and giving a thumbs up. 

"Continue." Russ said and the group continued on it's path.

"So, when are we going to go and test our abilities anyways?" Fitz asked. 

"We should be able to finish this quest today, and it should give us just enough money to eat something small and still get our abilities checked out. Thankfully the guild doesn't charge too much for ability testing." Russ said. "So, we should be able to tomorrow."

"Tomorrow. Sounds good captain!"

"What did I say about calling me captain? Actually that reminds me. This is as good a time as any to tell us what's up with you secretly being a noble this whole time."

"I'm not secretly a noble!" Fitz says in a pained voice. "I was disowned by my parents. It isn't much of a story to tell. The Ryhnderock family is one of the more prominent ones in this city, and my parents decided I didn't live up to the name. I was too much trouble."

"They disowned you just because you got into trouble?" Russ asked.

"Something like that." Fitz kicked a rock, sending it rolling up past Russ and Ona. "They pay for my apartment at least." She said as if it made up for being disowned. 

"That is just about the least they could do." Russ said, and Ona nodded in agreement. "How long ago did they disown you?" 

"When I was ten... so eight years ago. But they also gave me a servant to take care of me until my last birthday, so it wasn't as bad as it sounds." 

Russ gritted his teeth. "I wouldn't mind giving these parents of yours a visit."

"What? You and your threat level of two?" Fitz laughed. "It's not that big of a deal anyway. Silent Voice becoming a big name in the city would do plenty to prove my worth."

"Guah!" Russ cried out at the mention of his threat level. He rubbed the back of his head, cheeks flushed. "It still isn't right."

Ona broke formation and bumped shoulders with Russ.

"Huh?" He looked over to see her giving him a smile that he couldn't decipher. 

"What about the formation?!" Fitz cried. 

Russ looked from the smiling girl next to him and then to the girl behind him pouting. There was nothing he could do beside laugh.

'Maybe this really is great.' He thought as the two girls looked at him, doubling down on both the smile and the pout.