Warnings: Usage of the seven (at least) dirty words you cannot say on television / language Summary: Emerald goes to check on her “babies” in a plant nursery in Emptiness. She starts to grumble about the “project” she promised to do for Strix, and to long for the good old days where missions were simply to sex up eliminate the target.
Well, at least they weren't all dead. The greenhouse had protected them from bad weather, and the sprinkler system had been timed just right. Still, Emerald's babies hadn't grown properly during the month that she had been lost in that damned underground labyrinth. Their stems were too weak, the vines too thin, and the thorns too short. Not to mention she had yet to figure out how to make her creations fireproof. Sal's "pet" could take them out with a good kaboom if he wanted.
For all her knowledge on botany, she couldn't prevent her "creatures" from becoming fuel. Resistent, yes, but any persistent bastard with a flame thrower and napalm could torch them. Emerald knew one other person with pyrokinesis from her world, an assassin code-named "Ruby." She had out-manuevered Ruby in hand-to-hand combat (while wearing fire-resistent clothing), in one of her closest fights, and the fight that won her one of the highest positions in the mercenary guild.
Of course, no one here cared about that now.
As Emerald ascended the stairs to the roof, she began to curse to herself silently. 'Why the hell did I promise that woman that I would grow these plant watchdogs in the first place? I usually ask for a price and I... she didn't even buy me a drink! I'm a whore not a slut, goddamnit!!'
She sat herself on the edge of the roof, bare legs and high heels dangling over the canopy in front of the garden store. She was actually wearing a cotton skirt today instead of leather, and a tank top. It would've been too warm to work in her usual outfits. 'Sacrifices.'
After lighting up a cigarette, her green eyes looked over the scenery of Emptiness. It was no New York or Las Vegas, that was for certain. And where the hell were the people? That had always bothered Emerald for some reason. She didn't think that she was so attached to people before since, well, she killed many of them... for money, and for kicks sometimes, of course. She'd never complain to Lucifer, but she sometimes longed for the good old days when the missions were to eliminate the target. This realm was a challenge in more ways than one.
Though not a tree-hugger in any way, she did enjoy finding oases of nature in the middle of concrete jungles. This shop, and the park she came across once, broke up the monotonous lifelessness that was Emptiness. As the once proud mercenary leaned against the shop sign and smoked, she contemplated finding one of Sal's cameras and flashing it. Assuming Sal put cameras with those turrets, of course, since they already had password-locked mechanisms.
'Damn Sal... damn Strix... damn Trial... I'll show y'all.'