>>Well it is only like that for healing. However, fixing a car with magic is very difficult as these highly processed alloys are very difficult to enchant. I seriously only try it because it would be quicker.

Between AM's spell, Tamarind's drones and expertise, and Mato's strong arms, you manage to get the tire back into place and the car running. It might not be good for a long distance, but it should hold until the two reach the next auto repair shop, which is more than enough. Bobby uses the time to seperate and prepare the Piasmas heads in the meantime. A grizzly business, but they are worth quite a bit. You should be able to turn them in, when you get to Greeley on your way to the border.

Mato sighs at the two heads. If they're heavy, he'll pick them up by the scruff and deposit them in the back of the Gopher, taking care not to let any blood or gore drip onto his clothes. (If they're not heavy, Bobby can do it.) He DNIs a command to his commlink to provide a reminder in 24 hours to hose out the back of the truck.

"They're going to Greeley," Mato says of the Native couple. "Let's follow them to make sure they don't break down."

Mato has a sour image of their car collapsing on the highway, forcing them to ride in the back of the Gopher with the rolling heads.

"Is there a bungee cord we can use to secure these?" he asks. It's unclear whether he's joking or not, but he's looking around for rope or cord or anything else to prevent them from bouncing around the back like pinballs.

He looks at the pile of guts and wonders what scavenger will come along to clean those up.

"Time is tight. Let's get a move on."

<<Monday Afternoon - 17:32 - May 15, 2079 - Greeley, Sioux Nation>>

Mato finds the Gopher well-equipped. There is some sort of canvas that they can use to wrap the Piasma's heads in, and also a tow rope that can be repurposed.

You make it to Greeley without further incident, and stop at the local police to report the incident and collect the bounty. The officers on duty are a bit surprised to say the least, but after checking regulations, and since you also have witnesses, they offer you the bounty of 20,000¥ in total and a commemorative pat on the back. They note the area of the incident, because someone will have to get there to clean the whole mess up.

The teachers are being escorted to the local auto repair shop, where you part ways. They cannot thank you enough for what you did there, and you cannot help but wonder, whether they will have nightmares or dream of your heroic deed tonight. Or maybe they just get mad drunk after escaping certain death.

Now you need to hurry a bit, and you will likely run a little late. But, considering, you were back in Seattle just a few hours ago, it's not too bad.

Bobby mused during the drive: "A shame that we are in such a hurry. Bonded pair like this likely had already a litter of little monster bears somewhere close by. We could have made another 30 or 40k with a lot less risk.

Been a while since I encountered one of them. Back then they would have been a real problem to deal with.

A shame that Rachel isn't with us - she could have won so many reagents from those bears.

Good call by the way, AM, to petrify those people. No-one needs to know how we managed to kill them. Even here word travels fast."

"Huh," Mato says when he sees how well-equipped the Gopher is. "How fortuitous."

Bobby makes a fair point about how AM eliminated any complications from 'witnesses'. That said, it does make him wonder what the process of petrification feels like. He can't imagine it's pleasant, but it's certainly less unpleasant than being consumed by a couple piasma. Or who knows? Maybe the process is so sudden that the target doesn't even register what happened. One moment they're screaming and running and then the next moment there's a hairy naked man beheading the beasts.

Mato knows a little about piasma, as he started studying the basics of parazoology following the experience with the hellhounds at Pike Hall.

"Aren't they usually nocturnal?" Mato asks. "I thought sunlight bothered them. And I thought they were usually solitary, except during mating season. I wonder if they were under some sort of stress to be hunting together during the day."

Bobby brings up an interesting point about reagents. "Should we bring back a present for Rachel? I could snap the tusks off. Even if they're worthless as reagents, they would make a fine trophy."

"That's why I suspect they have their litter nearby - no other reason for a pair of them to show up in daylight than to defend their progeny. Or they are mutants - magic creatures change so quickly, most guides are outdated after only a few years. Though I hate getting the new editions.

Anyway, yeah I'm sure she'll appreciate them. I took a few of the claws for a new necklace. Shame I almost never get a chance to wear them."

Bobby replied.

After dropping off the heads, Tamarind makes sure they wash out the truck bed. She doesn't want blood raising questions at the border.

Then she returns to driving the truck, not offering the wheel to anyone else just now. She needs something to keep her hands and at least part of her mind occupied. As it is she has too much time to think over the whole incident, the oddness of the attack, the absolutely stunning deadliness that Bobby displayed, and AM's ease in transforming the couple. It is hard to wrap her mind around what it would be like to be able to just petrify someone in a blink of an eye.

Eventually her curiosity gets the better of her, and she asks AM "What if the Piasmas had attacked the petrified people, any chance with their size that they could have, I don't know, snapped apart or something? And then what would have happened when you dropped your spell? I started off thinking about how useful that spell could be to bail any of us out of danger, but then I began to wonder just how resilient one is when petrified?"

Mato duly snaps off the tusks before hauling the heads into the police station like bags of bloody groceries.

He nods at the speed of Awakened evolution. By all accounts the weather patterns in Sioux Nation had gotten even more extreme since the Awakening. Evidently the mana just supercharges the weather systems, so it makes sense that it would have similar, unpredictable effects on the local wildlife.

"Let's go run the border," he says, slipping back into the front passenger's seat to ride shotgun.

"I could use one of these if you are in a sharing mood." I tell Mato to make him a badass necklace. Perhaps a magical one with a healing spell... I had a few ideas.

I sigh when I answer Bobby . "No need to thank me; that thought has never crossed my mind. I did not even realize you wanted to kill these bears. Or that we even can." I look at Bobby as if assessing him again. "I knew you were dangerous, but not that you are the Harbinger of Doom on max difficulty dangerous. I planned to petrify the people, distract the bears, and, once they lost interest, rescue the people. They were so massive that hunting never crossed my mind. I didn't even know there was a bounty on them. "

To Tamarind, I say, "Petrification would make them more durable, but these bears could still shatter them, and it would break them and likely kill them. Still, they are animals and likely attack to hunt - and they can't eat rocks. So I hoped they would leave the people alone."

It still feels terrible to hunt such magnificent and insanely dangerous critters that were desperate. However, they might be in big trouble if the government thinks they are too dangerous to exist. They were desperate. There is some unfortunate story in there, but we don't have much time to go down that rabbit hole."

"Oh, sure," Mato says, handing a tusk each to Bobby, Tamarind, and AM in case they have their own designs on trophies. "I'll give this one to Rachel if she wants it," he says of the fourth and final tusk.

"The bounty is nice, but how wiz would it have been to have a taxidermized piasma head over our mantel? That would make an impression on the neighbors."

He hums at the thought.

"At least it wasn't a juggernaut. Those things might be too much even for Bobby."

"Perhaps in the Redmond office. " I muse. "What is a Juggernaut?" I ask. The largest thing I can imagine is a dragon, but barring that, these bears come pretty close. I have heard of elephants, but I don't think they are predators.

Bobby replied: "Sorry to burst your bubble, but Piasma are at a nine out of ten on the aggression index. They attack everything - even inanimate objects if they smell wrong.
And I didn't turn them into jelly fish because they have insane body mass. I might have managed that, but my chances where better to just kill them.

And yes, I didn't spend a month atop a mountain, getting pelted by lightning strikes just for the fun of it. There is power to be found in nature.

A juggernaut is a giant armadillo with natural armor hard as a tank. You usually just conjure a spirit and dominate their mind instead of fighting them.
Luckily, they aren't that aggressive."

"Giant Armadillos with tank-like armor? I guess I should get out more. Where can I meet one?"

"Just follow the path of destruction and/or th national guard trucks..."
Bobby smiled

"So to follow you then?" I say semi seriously.

"As I said, it's good you made sure there were no witnesses. I don't need anyone getting nervous about me - especially not people with access to my military record..."

Bobby's smile turned grim

"Well, your secret is safe with me. I'll think about preserving it the next time you do that." ... By that, I mean turning into an electrical-infused animal of death.

"It's actually pretty funny when I turn into a little bunny with the destruction potential of a tank."

<<Monday Afternoon - 17:52 - May 15, 2079 - Platteville Crossing, Sioux Nation-Denver-Border>>

As you drive down the Route 85 towards Denver, you soon approach the DMZ, the demilitarized zone, a one-kilometer wide zone around Denver, supervised by the Zone Defense Force. A mix of fences and walls, between 5 and 10 meters high, surrounds the whole city with checkpoints along each major road.

The Platteville Crossing consists of a small ZDF barracks and a fenced parking area, where you can see about half a dozen vehicles, ranging from jeeps to light tanks. There is the border gate, of course, where vehicles are stopped for scanning. The gate can handle four vehicles at a time. During afternoon, there is not a lot of traffic into the city. The automated system displays instructions via AR. Commlinks have to be active, so you can be registered as visitors of the FRFZ. You get a link to a Matrix document, that explains the most relevant laws as well as code of conduct. There is a video as well for those that cannot read. Nothing unusual, really, apart from the treatment of spirits and some pretty drastic warnings about the punishment for espionage. An array of scanners is looking for contraband, but does not find anything objectionable. The smuggling compartment's shielding does its job. All in all, the whole process takes less than a minute. Afterwards you are cleared to enter and can continue on towards the ranch.

I answer to Bobby. "Well, there is more than one way to skin a bunny... " I Doubt that anyone I know would win him in melee, but that kind of massive power is also a vulnerability, mind control; Bobby and we're dead for example. I need to make sure it never happens.

On the way.

"Very nice driving, Tamarind; I didn't know you had it in you. I always figured you'd be more subtle, but there you dashed into danger with stunts! It was like a scene from a movie." I will tell Tamarind once we're done with the bounties and on route to Denver.

Denver.
I am relieved when we manage to enter Denver with my deck and guns. Even if, realistically, my gun is a pea shooter compared to the kind of punch Bobby is packing. The Sigma still makes me feel safer. I try to prepare my mind to maximize our revenue during the drive to the farm. Thinking how negotiations would be, perhaps for the first time - not wishing Jawsie was there. My new role grew on me over time, or it is the new bigger body, but I feel less anxious about negotiations. Perhaps it is also that money has lost its magic once I did not owe buckets to the Finnigans.

Bobby just nodded and smiled while they crossed the border.
The closer they got to the client the more somber he became again.
"Remember - we might be doing this as a favor, but we still ask for what we are worth."

"I don't do favors to strangers."

"Not to get into semantics," Mato begins. "But wouldn't you call petrifying a couple strangers so that they don't get eaten alive a favor?"

Mato seems a bit lost in his thoughts. He studies the border as they pass through it, somewhat surprised by the ease of the crossing. Perhaps Ghostwalker's reputation is so ferocious that it acts as another layer of border security.

The comment about influencing a juggernaut has him thinking. He has no more resistance to such a thing than a juggernaut would. Mind control isn't really discussed in polite society, unless it is to excoriate the notion of it. Kill someone and you have a good chance of getting away with it, but use mind control and they will find you. Or so he hopes, because otherwise it seems like it would be commonplace.

"Bobby has the force of a wrecking ball but he's right: we should keep it under wraps. We've made it this far with discretion and a soft touch. Let's not throw that away for expediency. We're a scalpel, not a sword."

Iktomi may disapprove of my actions, but I am not sorry for petrifying them. They would not learn anything by getting eaten by bears. However, fixing their car was an arrogant mistake as it was not for me to solve their problems. I was weak, motivated by their meaningless gratitude.

Mato turns around in the front seat and gives AM a look, wondering if she's been mind controlled.

"What sort of nonsense is Iktomi filling your head with?" he asks acidly.

"Altruism is a well-documented feature of evolutionary biology, especially in species with complex social structures.

"And don't shovel any drek about how we've robbed them of the opportunity to become stronger by overcoming their obstacles by themselves. None of us are self-made; we have all received help. It's not weakness to assist others. The strength to watch others suffer with indifference is the soul of tyranny."

He turns back around, facing out the windshield again.

"This individualist streak doesn't suit you. You've been in the UCAS too long. It's starting to rub off on you."

"I am SINless; rules do not apply to me; I do not get protection from the police; from the law, I am more likely to be a scapegoat than getting help from anyone. You just saw real tyranny when you witnessed with your own eyes that the knights have placed an innocent person in prison just to look good in public opinion. This is how this world treats people like me; they don't see us. They use us, exploit us, bully us, murder us, and there is no justice. No democracy, we are not even real people; nobody would ever get in trouble for harming a SINless. If you have no digital existence, you do not exist as far as this world cares.

So saving people from certain death is alright. I can justify it; they can't handle these bears alone. We did them an honest service there. They needed something, and perhaps some kid out there would have parents because of us. However, they can handle car fixing on their own - they don't need us to fix their car; they are both working and don't need more than a ride. Heck, they may even have car insurance.

What does it show about me that I choose to bleed to fix a car I don't own for people I don't know? I risked my physical well-being and drained myself not to save them but to make life a little easier. I harmed myself for their comfort, and they didn't even ask me to do it. You may call it altruism, but I'll call it too little respect for myself. After a lifetime of being nothing, I am used to pleasing people at my own expense... but sure, interpreting it as altruism rings better than being insecure and looking for the approval of strangers. I feel pathetic, Mato."

"As a kid didn't you ever dream of being a hero? Defeating the monsters and saving their victims? My inner nine year old thought all that was pretty wonderful. Plus the adrenaline rush of doing something dangerous and pulling it off? And finally, the opportunity to be generous and really make someone's day with skills and abilities that we had at hand? I guess we are all wired differently, but I'm still awash in all the feel-good brain chemicals from that encounter. Better than drugs, although still potentially addictive."

"Sadly, I don't feel any of the good feelings you describe. I never wanted to be a heroine; I thought they were boring. They never have ambitions of their own and are always so passive. Reacting to things other people do, they would not even have an identity without the villain trying to do something evil. Look at you; you only feel heroic because some huge bear wanted to eat a bunch of teachers. You saw a situation and responded to it, nothing more. No bear, no heroism.

On the other hand, the villains always have big dreams and the courage to go out of their way to achieve them. They take the initiative, they go up against all odds, and while misguided, and often presented superficially as evil, they illustrate humanity in all its cunning and glory. Their mindset allows us to fight against dragons and other demigod entities. I mean, if Lex Luthor can stand up to Superman... Perhaps we can stand up to dragons, immortal elves, or other supreme entities."

"There is something you are missing." Now Bobby piped up: "You can do what you want if you are strong. If you want to be cruel, you can be cruel, if you want to help, you can help.
But no-one is so strong that he never needs help. I have started to thrive when I decided to help and be part of a team. My magic thrived the more challenges I accepted - if I kept only to my own challenges, I'd never gotten so far so quickly.
No-one is looking out for you in this world - except for friends, families and allies. They are a form of strength. Pass up opportunities to gain them at your own peril. Of course, there are always those who just take and never give back. They are bad investments. But if you diversify your portfolio enough, they won't make much impact - and as soon as you notice their underperformance you can decide to cut them loose.

I invested once in paying off the debts of a small sorceress, to allow her to grow and not be crushed by interest payments. And it payed off: Now I have a best friend I can trust with my life. Helping others does not weaken you. If it weakens them is another question - but that is not relevant. If those who you helped decide to help others in turn, they'll make more than up the missed opportunity of helping themselves. Because there are always more other people in need than problems of your own.

Having two teachers as contact may be irrelevant - or it might be the deciding puzzle piece in a future case. They are certainly no permanent drain and we were rewarded handsomely with bear bounties. Mana drain from fixing their car is annoying, but just another step at getting better. The only thing we lost was half an hour - and that is unlikely to be an insurmountable problem going forth."

Did Bobby call me small to my face? My hand stiffens on the car handle as if it is to blame for this intervention (?!), but I am not angry despite wanting to be. I feel misunderstood; all of it is very rational, but you cannot convince me to feel a certain way about a situation. I guess they don't share my desire to watch societies of oppression and injustice collapse. To see all these privileged people I saw from a distance suddenly afraid - like I had been my entire life. Like I was until I met Bobby, let him call me tiny. It is not fun to make a scene. Besides, he has become so powerful that I may be little in comparison.

I wanted to dislike Bobby being a soldier, a sinner, sioux... but despite myself - I like him. So, I don't want to actively burn the world. Because well, there are people I like in it despite the big picture being so unjust. Every time I help someone, I feel the sting of disappointment, of outrage when nobody helped my mom and me when we had to make difficult choices for survival. We had to choose between bad and worse, terrible. I can't speak about it right now - not when they are judgmental about me, so I shut up and try hard to keep it all within—all that river of pain, disappointment, and hate.

"Best friend?" I say, embarrassed, astonished. I owe Bobby so much, but I never considered it mutual. I thought he had a dozen people like me and that he was like Razak cultivating people for some obscure need. Perhaps he is, but it does not make me any less loyal. It is the doubt that he may not be like that that challenges my entire cynical view of this world.

I'll be a heroine and do this altruistic things if you feel so strongly about it. Perhaps one day I'll feel like one."

"Well, I don't know if I am one of your best friends - but you are certainly one mine. You and Trouble.

It's all about growth. You physically grew into a powerful figure. But your spirit hasn't caught up quite yet. And that's ok. It took me a while to overcome the dark urges of my totem. A process that you and the others in the team helped tremendously.

When they bombed our office and almost killed Mato, I was this close from going all out - and probably would have self destructed along the way. It's thanks to you and Jawsey that we prevailed and actually became stronger as a result.

For me, you already are that heroine"

By the great spirits, I want to deflect the topic of conversation so much. I don't do emotions very well. I don't trust people very easily, and after Jawsie just decided to leave for obscure reasons I never understood it all made me more defensive. "I'll be your friend, Bobby Walker, but I'll be devastated when you leave me behind."

I muse "You know after you paid my debt, I expected you to make a move. Any move? Perhaps you'd ask me out or get me to spy after some old fling or a rival... I didn't know what to expect, but I did not expect you to not ask for any favor. When I confronted you about it, you made it sound all transactional. But it was never transactional to me. I trust you, I decided to trust you when I took your money. Though perhaps we should find some mutual hobby."

You know, the thing that hurts with Jawsie is not that he left; it is that the way he left made me realize that he had more important things than us. There were people he felt truly connected with, and I was not included in that tribe. I didn't expect much, but after we formed a magical bond, I let my guard down.

Mato thinks about the action trids he watched as a kid. He wanted to be a hero, not so much to help people but because they were so competent. For a sickly, unathletic kid it was like a BTL. He knew it was artificial but he wanted that same sense of grace, the ability to excel effortlessly in everything he undertakes. Whether or not he has achieved that is an ongoing question.

Mato is privately pleased to hear Bobby speak of friendships in terms of investment and diversifying portfolios. Mato often thinks the same way but doesn't always verbalize it lest it make him sound calculated and transactional. But he very much agrees. How curious that Bobby is articulating the business case while I'm the one referencing evolutionary biology, he thinks to himself.

He has thoughts on the back-and-forth but he keeps them to himself. He wonders how all of this comes across to Tamarind, who is still new to many of the underlying dynamics of the team. He feels a certain affinity for her: augmented-to-augmented, mundane-to-mundane. Shooting her a private message, he writes <<It's important to not let all the Awakened dynamics overwhelm us. Their gift gives them such a different experience of the world.>>

Bobby sighed:
"Jawsey... wasn't happy. I doubt he became happy when he got back. Because when you are unhappy about yourself it doesn't matter where you go, your problems move with you.
I know he struggled with the limitations of his body as well as that of his magic. It's not fair to talk about him behind his back, but I can assure you, his decision didn't reflect on your worth.

You can try to help people, but you can't save everyone."

"Well, trying to help people got us into this unexpected chat in the first place, but it was a really nice thing that you knew about the bounties. If you ever get tired of us you could be a witcher. "

Tamarind messages back to Mato <<I've never worked so closely for any amount of time with two people with such magical talent. But I've worked with enough awakened to understand that it is hard for them to realize how different the world looks for most people. That may be true of all of us to some extent. There were times that I would have cut out someone's tongue and swallowed it, if that let me speak spells and also have the opportunity to view the world like that. I've mellowed since then. Still hard not to envy them, but I do appreciate the perspective that comes from knowing that you are mostly a spear carrier in someone else's drama. Mostly, not always, but accepting that you just are not that important does make it a lot easier to get along in the world.>>

Meanwhile she pushes the speed limits a reasonably safe amount, to try to close up the time delay they'd built up by helping out the teachers. She'd hate to have to admit that helping them had hurt the team.

I familiarized myself with the local map and the ranch location. I imagine all sorts of paths and do it in AR with my contacts so that nobody speaks to me on the way. I feel off balance, and well, I still feel a bit bad for overdoing this altruism stuff. I am eager to meet that Jarone Falcone, and hope to be re-balanced by the time we get there.

Bobby had thought for a moment before replying: "You mean a monster hunter? Actually, I considered doing that if we were ever short at the end of the month. There are a few bounties that we as a team would be well equipped to bring in. Easy money if you know where and how."

"Yes, a monster hunter. More violent but more rewarding than photographing cheaters. "

"The cheaters have it coming. The monsters usually just want to live their life, following their nature. But yeah, the thrill is definitely greater with the monsters."

Bobby tried to find a comfortable position in the car. The long travel began to wear on him, but he refrained to turn into a cat - a form that he had found was the most adept at finding comfortable positions where ever they were.

"Let's not be too judgmental," Mato pipes up. "We usually don't know why a person is cheating. It could be due to abuse or neglect. It isn't always selfish desires. Our clients might be victims, but they might also be the source of their own misfortunes. I'm confident not all of our clients have been good, stand-up, family people that deserve our sympathy."

This line of thinking makes him wonder about his own mother's infidelity. Did she have a good reason? Or was it lust, or passion, or revenge, or boredom? His father had been an ork, and a Sioux ork no less, so the level of machismo in the condo was often suffocating. He can imagine his mother wanting an escape from it. Perhaps a sensitive elf from another culture was irresistible.

He shakes his head to clear the thought. He won't judge his mother, but now he needs his head in the game once they get to the ranch. But still... I wonder if my biological father will want to meet one day.

"There are always reasons. Though personally, I think it ethically correct to end your current relationship before taking up a new one - or at least ask for consent from your partner before taking up a side piece.
It is natural to shy away from pain or conflict - doesn't make it right though."

Bobby replied, wondering why Mato would break a lance for the unfaithful.

"I am an apple from that very same tree; feel kind of hypocritical to judge. "

"Maybe it's not safe for them to break off their current relationship. Or maybe there are familial considerations, like trying to do what's best for the kids. Or maybe there are professional ramifications for changing their family status. The Japanacorps frown on divorce, especially if the corporation was the match maker.

"I'm not saying all these calculations are correct, but I can think of valid reasons. It doesn't benefit us to judge either our clients or our marks. We might have done things differently in their situation, but that doesn't mean it was wrong for them."

"I don't have strong desires for relationships -- I've had a couple of short lived ones, but never felt that I needed one for either companionship or sex. Obviously many others strongly feel the need to be in a relationship for various reasons. So I assume that on the other extreme from me are people who can't contain themselves in one relationship. Should they find ethical ways to manage that? Of course. But given the number of people over the years who didn't understand my lack of interest, I assume that most of them find it hard to find acceptance too. I'm still willing to trace their actions for money, but I don't feel a need to judge them as guilty or innocent or good or bad. I'd probably rather help people avoid trouble than get them into trouble, but not much money in that."

"As I said: There are always reasons. If you are unsafe in your current relationship, you probably shouldn't risk angering your spouse. If you are in economic dependency, you should probably fix that instead of fragging around and risking getting divorced without compensation.
You see, counting up reasons is easy for both sides.
Betraying someone who trusts you is bad. And potentially bringing back an STD is a violation.
In the end the true reason is always convenience and cowardice. That's why I despise those targets."

Bobby replied with unusual seriousness.

"Bobby, what good does it to do to judge others? What do you get out of it? A sense of superiority?

"We can learn from others' mistakes, and assess them logically, but moralizing about them is useless. It doesn't benefit us or them.

"Where is this coming from? I doubt it's from the lightning storm on the mountain top."

"What good it does? You can avoid associating with people who you can't trust. Loyalty is a core value for me. I've had my share in betrayals. Once burned, twice shy."

"Sure, and those are the lessons we can extract and apply to our own lives. We can evaluate others' decisions as optimal or suboptimal, but adding a moral component isn't necessary to make that evaluation. I wouldn't say that it helps to despise our clients."