"Don't blame you," Shade replied whispering, "it's as good a place as any to hang out. Doing pretty much the same myself. Bar seems to have quieted down a bit though. Then again, most people will probably just get some sleep during the ion storms..."
The man in front of him was hiding something, he knew. He was either a stereotypical, boring human, or there was something more...what was the man hiding...
"Super secret evil-black-thing, huh?" Shade whispered. He wasn't quite sure what a Shadow was, but the Storta meant this man had ties to the Outcasts. He didn't have a cardamine inhaler anywhere, though, so he wasn't actually an Outcast...
Shade knew the next answer wouldn't actually tell the man anything about him. Still, he was starting to enjoy this question-thing.
"I fly a Roc. You know, that civilian bomber," Shade whispered back, "flown several ships, but you need a bomber to be...persuasive to my target audience, these days."
Shade turned around to a barmaid standing slightly behind him. She gave him a surprised and slightly scared look, until he whispered "I'll have the usual."
Shade once again turned to the man in front of him. His turn.
At that moment, a waitress put a drink on the table, muttered "Don't forget to pay when you leave", and walked off again.
Shade stared at his drink, showing no intention of drinking it. After a few moments of silence, he whispered,
"I lost my voice and became severely handicapped years ago. I've been making due with some makeshift cybernetic components and such, since."
For the sake of conversation, he did not actually reply to the question of hostility. He still didn't have such a high regard of humans...they did this to him in the first place. As predictable and boring as humans considered most lab rats, so did Shade look at most humans. To the keen observer, they were simply too predictable. No, Shade was better than that...he had to be.
Shade glanced at his drink once more, still having no intention of drinking it, until he bowed forward and whispered, "And your own act?"
"My own act? I'm jus' here for the party" he chuckled, "Bedding beautiful barmaids..." he winked across at the barmaid again, "Killin' polices or just causing chaos"
Tyler got up and stood on the table.
"Life is a party!"
He laughed and drew his gun, aiming it at a man in the corner of the room, sulking over a drink.
Tyler fired a single shot, turning the whole bars attention to him.
"Bounty Hunter" he nodded, holstering his gun, "Check his ID, probably doing some research on us bad folk"
Tyler knocked over his drink, smashing on the floor as he went to sit down again, he didn't much care though.
Shade smirked under his mask.
"Perceptive. Good shot," Shade whispered after the man sat down again.
Shade looked at him, trying to see if he was at all moved by killing the man, but was unable to see any emotion.
He liked this man, he realised.
"I believe my evening just got more interesting," Shade whispered with a puzzled stare.
Shade moved his mask slightly, just enough to take a few sips of his drink and reveal a little of his burnt face, then put it back on.
"So," he whispered, "You have relations to the Outcasts, but aren't one, and you apparently are somewhere sufficiently high up to fly a "secret" ship...who are you with, anyway?"
"I'm Tyler Valentine, life and soul of the party" he smiled, "Gambit and Freedom Fighter for life"
He made a sarcastic, but dramatic, gesture with his arms, not bothered the slightest by his recent kill.
"Seven years I served the Maltese navy" he coughed, "Sure I gotta use this purple stuff" he raised a small vial with a purple liquid in it, "This stuff, if taken wrong, can kill a man straight, like poison to the blood stream, but it's modified by my employers you see?"
He pulled a small syringe, and took but a single drop, injecting it into his blood stream with a quick, sharp jab.
"Keeps me alive, and though" he smiled, "But no, I ain't no Outcast, next round of drinks if you can guess my birthplace"
"Hm," shade whispered, thinking out loud, "You don't sound like the type for authority, you're a cardi addict, you served in the Maltese navy, well, you're obviously born on Malta. Am I right?"
Shade considered for a moment telling the man Luxuria was looking for him, but decided not to. Worst case, he'd ruin her plans. She'd find him eventually.
Interestingly, Shade noted, the man had dodged the question of who his current employers were.
"I'm Bretonian myself," Shade whispered, "formerly part of the Bretonian Armed Forces, years ago, around the start of the war, 814 AS. That is, until said...handicaps occurred."
"This'll surprise you" his face ware a serious expression, "So was I, Born into a very infulential crime family on New London"
Tyler sipped his drink and slouched again,
"But that.." he smiled again, "...is another story"
He glanced at a small electronic device on his belt.
"I gotta go crash for a bit, I'm a lil tired" he sighed, "Later Shade" he patted Shade heavily on the shoulder as he walked past him and out, back to his ship.
![[Image: 7ulU1.png]](http://i.imgur.com/7ulU1.png)
