Eleven missed calls and fourteen unanswered text messages were sent out from the archfiend's phone back at the apartment. Byxx licked his lower lip as he bent over to type another message, while Zayzann paced the length of the living room on his high torque legs. He was unaware that each time he lifted a clawed foot, his toe talons clacked together like pool balls hitting each other.
“Would you please cut that out?” Byxx pleaded with the anxious Paxoram. “I can’t even think with all that wretched clicking.”
“…What if she’s hurt?” Zayzann mumbled to himself, not hearing Byxx’s pleas for silence. Iris wasn’t just late, she was gone, and not responding to any hails from their shared device. “We should… We should do something…”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Byxx snarked back at Zayzann as he pressed the cellphone to his ear. “Hello, Khaz? Yeah, still nothing… Well, no, but that was hours ago.”
Zayzann strained to hear Khazmine’s report over Byxx’s left side, until the archfiend jostled him away with a defiant nudge of his shoulder. Khazmine had apparently tried calling just as much as Byxx had, and was equally worried about not getting a response.
“We can’t wait any longer, Khaz.” Byxx insisted. “The buses have stopped running for the night, and cab fare this far out of the city would be criminally high. Plus, I’m sure Zayne here is about two seconds from flying out there, surveillance or not.”
Aside from Zayzann’s winged flight, the roommates had no reliable means of getting deep into the heart of the city so late at night. Curtis wasn’t off work at the Busy Bee Café until midnight, and wouldn’t see Byxx’s messages until then. They didn’t have Ramona’s number, or Lily’s, or…
“Wait a minute, Byxx.” Khazmine startled on the other end of the line. “I have an idea. Lemme make a couple of calls, okay? Stand by.”
Khazmine hung up on Byxx and scrambled up the fire escape ladder on the southern side of the building that housed Jesse’s Pool Hall to get a better signal. While she didn’t have Mr. Cavendish’s number, she did have the next best thing.
“Hello?” Ryan Dämmerung answered on the other end of the phone with a yawn. “Who is this?”
“It’s me, Cassie.” Khazmine’s ears drew back at having to beg for help from this human. “I need a favor, Ryan.”
“Yeah? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Give me Alden Cavendish’s personal number.” Khazmine demanded. If she was going to negotiate, she would have to do it fast, and avoid bandying about with terms and conditions. “It’s an emergency.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of—”
“Just give me the d*mned number and name your price!” Khazmine practically shouted into the receiver. Her outburst was so off-putting that it silenced the city night birds chirping for a few seconds. She hadn’t meant to be curt with him, but time wasn’t on her side at the moment. “Please…”
Ryan was probably more shocked than anything and he gave her the number twice to confirm its accuracy. He couldn’t tell over the phone, but the stern woman sounded scared. No, that wasn’t the right word for it…
“Thank you. I need to go now.” Khazmine brushed errant locks from her face with a trembling, gloved hand. “Think about what it is that you want, and I’ll be in touch.”
No sooner had the Augment hung up on Ryan than she furiously typed the new number into her phone and clenched her teeth together as it rang. A distressing urgency poked and prodded at Khazmine’s mind, and her plates jingled gently in the cool breeze of night. Finally, a groggy, disheveled voice answered on the other side.
“Hello?” Mr. Cavendish’s voice crackled in Khazmine’s ear.
“It’s me, Cassie. Iris’s roommate.” Khazmine introduced herself and got straight to the point. “Have you seen Iris recently? It’s almost midnight, and she never came home.”
Mr. Cavendish was reclining at home in his decadent Eames lounge chair and took a second to register what the Augment had said. The black Vincenza leather upholstery creaked as he leaned upright at Cassie’s question. “Wait, what? She’s still not home?”
“Correct. We received a message around ten thirty that said she was still working late, as ordered by someone called Maker.” Khazmine’s voice hardened as she spoke. It was immensely taxing for her not to sneer when she said Warren’s name aloud. “Byxx and I have tried calling but have gotten no answer. Can you help us?”
His hand still stung from the coffee burn earlier in the day that Iris had so carefully tended to. He pressed at the bandage he’d gotten from Urgent Care and landed on an idea. “Yes, I have something that might help. Give me a second to access our office cameras on my phone here.”
The feed took a minute to load on his phone, and each of the cameras displayed on a two-by-three grid on his vertical screen. The office itself looked normal, but there was something strange going on with the cameras by the reception desk, the main hallway, and the elevators. A coarse, grainy static blurred and distorted the feed beyond recognition, except for the vague outlines of two fuzzy figures, with one of them towering over the other from behind.
“Cassie, there’s something going on at the office. I’m alerting Security now.” Mr. Cavendish put her call on “hold” and issued the order to alert Security that someone was in the office after hours. He could barely make out the taller of the two figures approach the other figure and lunge at them from behind.
Iris had tried pressing the button to call an elevator to her floor, but it was too late. Both of her hands felt a forceful tug from behind, and she was smashed up against the elevator wall before she knew it. Her cheek pressed firmly against the cold metal door trim, and she barely missed getting a black eye on the edge of the welded metal “GC&S” backlit logo sign that was between the two elevators. The imposing figure’s face closed in on her and whispered into Iris’s ear with a mechanical crackle.
“Found you.” The stranger’s voice gave Iris goosebumps, and she trembled under his fervent grasp.
“Please, can you let me up?” Iris struggled for air with her body pressed flat. “I can’t. I can’t breathe…”
The stranger pulled back from pinning Iris against the wall and allowed her to turn and face him. He was a tall, ghastly-pale man with a long mane of white hair that fell lifelessly around him like a shroud. His face peeked through the limp curtain of hair, revealing what looked like a handsome, shattered porcelain doll. Cracked edges of a gaping hole ran down his left temple to the middle of his lip, and extended across his left cheek, and Iris could see flashes and jolts of electric-blue energy spark inside the huge hole in his face.
“State your designation, human.” The damaged Augment commanded. The edges of his plates misfired with their faulty camouflage as he spoke, sending arcs of electricity through his mouth and teeth.
“My name… My name is Iris. Wh-what’s your name?”
“Cruxuss. I am an—”
“Augment?” Iris volunteered. Her voice faltered at the word.
“Yes…”
“Are you okay?” Iris’s eyebrows furrowed as she eyed Cruxuss’s damaged face. “Does that hurt?”
“Yes…”
These were curious questions indeed, as Cruxuss had expected the woman to plead for her life or beg to be released. Instead, she was chiefly concerned with his wellbeing. This incongruity forced the Augment to tense the plates in his face and tilt his head to one side, allowing Iris to see his hollow interior and the wonderous technology within.
“What is it?” Cruxuss asked, trying to figure out why Iris looked at him so strangely. His tone had an antagonistic, voracious lilt to it that put Iris on edge. “Are you afraid?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.” Iris turned her head away as much as she could and winced. “I’d never seen one of you on the inside. The colors were so beautiful, I—”
Cruxuss was many things, but “beautiful” was not a word he would describe his current self as. His face was a patchwork of plates with various degrees of damage, with the hollow of his cheek reminding him of his fight with Khazmine. Despite his horrific appearance, this human was more sympathetic to him than anything, and he loosened his hold on her wrists, so as not to hurt her too much.
“I’m sure Asteras told you all about me.” Cruxuss sneered as he scanned Iris’s face for understanding. “If you are indeed a Summoner, you can send me home.”
“Can I do that?” Iris looked up at him with a quizzical expression.
What a stupid question. Cruxuss tugged his upper lip up at her ignorance. “Of course you can. Now, ready your lens and send me back.”
“Huh?” Iris puzzled. “What lens?”
“The lens you used to summon Asteras.” Cruxuss’s patience was wearing thin. This woman obviously must know what he was talking about, as he was certain she bore traces of Summoning. His thumbs indented the space between the bones in her forearms, leaving welts where his gloves met her clammy skin.
“But I didn’t bring her here, my mother did.” Iris tensed at the Augment’s tightening hold on her wrists. “Please, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know what you’re talking about… Ouch, not so hard. You’re hurting me.”
“Do not toy with me, human.” Cruxuss squeezed severely against her arms until Iris cried out in pain. “Where is the lens?”
“Ahh! I don’t have one!” Iris’s eyes teared up and she fell to her knees. “I want to help you, but I can’t. Please.”
<WARNING: Target’s vital signs weakening. *crackle* …damage detected. Summoning damage detected. Multiple compromised systems detected.>
“You must miss your home. I’m told that it's a marvelous place…” Iris forced slow, even breaths to calm herself as she spoke. Tears poured down her cheeks and Iris threatened to pass out from exhaustion and pain. “I want to help you get home, if I can. Could you help me find this ‘lens’ we need?”
Iris’s earnest expression and compassion for the Wayward Traveler perplexed Cruxuss, who was ready to threaten her if she resisted his demands. He hadn’t expected her to be so willing to send him back home, especially considering the price of doing so.
Does she not know the cost of Sending? Cruxuss pondered as he squinted at the exhausted human. Using a lens required a tremendous sacrifice from a Summoner, which was why they were so rare to find in the wild. Whether Iris knew or not was none of his concern, and he opted not to dwell on trivial matters for the time being. Whatever the case may be, we still need a lens to send me back…
“Very well. If I can procure a new lens for you to use, you promise to send me home first?” Cruxuss tugged at Iris’s arms, aggressively positioning himself to dislocate both limbs should she refuse.
“Yes.” Iris whimpered. “I p-promise.”
A sound of distant footfalls caused his sensitive ears to shudder.
“If you’re lying to me, know that your friend will suffer for it.” Cruxuss hissed at Iris. “I’ll tear her to ribbons, understand?”
“No, please!” Iris’s erratic breathing left her vulnerable to hyperventilation. “Please, don’t hurt Khazmine! I swear, you go home first.”
The Augment’s long, pointed ears twitched at the faint voice and soft footsteps of a figure in the hallway. Cruxuss released his hold on Iris’s wrists and allowed her to collapse on the tiled floor. With at least one intruder closing in on his position, it was time to leave.
“Remember your promise.” Cruxuss loomed over Iris like a haunted Colossus. “I’ll be watching.”
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