As soon as Henry exited the armory, he saw Mercy awkwardly leaning against the wall by the double doors to the front, arms crossed with a rifle case propped up beside her. Henry had expected her to be taller, but her application did have her at approximately one and three quarters meters. It seemed that she had opted for athletic clothes instead of the typical work apparel. Seeing that they left her forearms and shins exposed, he wondered if they didn’t have the right size or if she deliberately picked them. She wasn’t wearing any protective gear from what he could tell. As his eyes fell to Mercy’s feet, Henry was surprised that she was wearing a tattered pair of human sneakers. The shoes seemed even more out of place with her digitigrade legs. Henry knew about the scar on her face, but he was surprised by the scars on the rest of her body. They were thick and bright pink, like some massive parasite living just beneath her skin. Some of them seemed to be located at joints while others went in wild directions.

Perhaps they were surgery scars from having her grafts installed or injuries from the riots?

Her expression was one of annoyance, which made sense considering the two coworkers beside her that appeared to be hitting on her. Henry expediently made his way towards her. Before he had made it halfway across the room, Mercy had turned and locked eyes with him. Her eyes were a light shade of amber, which made her pupils stand out as piercing black dots. The black of her pupils was so intense that it masked the red tint of her artificial eye. Henry could feel the primal challenge behind her stare. He could also feel his heart beat a little faster as her gaze remained upon him. As Henry finally crossed the room, the two coworkers stopped pestering Mercy to see what he wanted with her.

“You’re Mercy, right?” She didn’t respond, continuing to stare at him. She seemed to be taking in every detail of him. “I’m Henry, your patrol captain. You ready to go?” Mercy continued to stare silently at Henry for a few moments before standing up and grabbing the rifle case. Slinging it over her shoulder, she walked around Henry to the double doors and headed outside. Henry followed quickly behind her. When they were back in the bright autumn sunshine, Henry placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She flinched. “By the way.” He retrieved the ID from his pocket. “You’re going to need this to get into the office until your SIG key gets set up.” He held it out to Mercy, where she stared at it for a moment before slowly grabbing the corner of the card and pulled it from his hand. She studied the ID for a few more moments before pocketing it. “Also, what’s your SIG? It’d be useful for us to have it.”

The two of them stood there in awkward silence as Henry waited for Mercy to say… something. Anything. She kept staring at the ground, her eyes shifting as she was in thought. A few seabirds interrupted the silence with their calls, but nothing seemed to spur Mercy. It began to make Henry’s hair stand on end.

“Hey, you okay?” Mercy mumbled something. “Uh, can you say that again?” She looked up from the ground, staring dead ahead down the street.

“I don’t just let strangers into my head.” Henry was starting to get worried. Mercy didn’t seem like she was… all there.

“It’s just so we can communicate while we’re separated. That’s all.” Mercy’s body was incredibly rigid, to a degree that Henry didn’t know if she was breathing or not. “Okay… well… I guess we’ll figure that out later.” Henry pulled up his communications with Reggie, feeling a bit of remorse at the last message he had sent the team.

ME: Hey, you got a sec to talk?

REG: Are we back on speaking terms?

ME: Sorry, I shouldn’t have sent that last message.

REG: What happened?

ME: Just stuff with Lily again.

REG: Everything good?

ME: Idk and I didn’t get to finish talking to her.

REG: You talk to Gerry yet? He stopped messaging us so I assumed you did something.

ME: Yeah, I did. Under a bit of probation rn. Do you know where everyone is?

REG: We were thinking of meeting up for lunch? Wanna meet us?

ME: Yeah, I need to introduce you to the new teammate.

REG: OH?!

ME: Yeah, so where should I meet you?

REG: I think folks would accept a bowl of curry as an apology.

ME: …Winston’s isn’t cheap.

REG: We’ll handle our drinks and appetizers.

ME: Fine, but only one serving. We’re heading straight there.

REG: Roger that ^.^

Henry let out a sigh and turned to Mercy, who was watching him with great intent.

“Hungry?”