Spacebound Chronicles

Chapter 22: Joseph Butcher

Scott strolled out of the office, then across the street and past the bar still unopen for happy hour, and a little further into the building that hosted Joey’s law firm. Scott knew where his friend worked but had never witnessed the grandeur of the office before. Not that he paid attention to the decoration now, no. He was laser focused, all he saw was red.

Scott asked the receptionist for Joseph Butcher, insisting it was an urgent matter, then barged into the indicated office.

“Scott?” Joey looked up from his laptop frowning. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I can’t work,” Scott shut the door behind him. “Not until I know for sure. Did you kill Meron Trius?”

Joey pushed the laptop away and stared deadpan at the visitor.

“Scott, this isn’t the time or…”

“Just tell me!” Scott hissed. “You knew he was up to something, you were waiting with the adulterated fighter for the opportunity, you knew he was going to permakill me, Logan, whatever, and you took that chance to get rid of a threat to League and take his place as guild leader.”

Joey’s eyes remained floating coldly over Scott.

“Interesting,” Joey said after a moment of silent contemplation. “Everything you said is right, despite having huge gaps of information and not asking the right questions. Still, you did provide me with a piece of the puzzle not even I had.”

“W-What?” Scott gagged.

“You. I knew he was about to snipe someone somewhere in Megafleet when I took the shot. I did not know it was you. Now why would Meron Trius, one of the most important players in the whole game, want to kill a mid-level guildmate?” Joey closed the lid on his laptop and leaned back on his leather chair. He could see regret suddenly flooding Scott. “Because you knew he was up to something, but, unlike me, you allowed him to figure it out, somehow. The great question is… How did you know about his ill intentions?”

Scott swallowed dry. Well, that had gone terribly. He walked into that room ready to confront Joey, now he was the one under the spotlight, and the charade was finally coming to an end.

“Joe,” Scott sat on one of the fair-colored shell-shaped chairs across from Joey’s desk, “I have to tell you something. Please don’t be mad.”

Joey squinted. “Yes?”

“I know about the Chimeras. I don’t know what they want or who they are, but I know about them, and I knew Meron Trius was one of them.”

Joey studied his friend. His bouncing knee revealed his nervousness.

“How?”

Scott took a deep breath.

“That first day, in your car, I played as Snorri,” he confessed. “I saw Meron be initiated.”

“Damn it, Scott!” Joey struck the table and jumped to his feet, turning to look at the glassy walls behind him.

“I’m sorry!”

“Do you even know what you’ve done?” Joey’s voice was raising. “I had been stalking them for years before you even heard of Fantasy Stars! By following Meron’s ship I had finally found their meeting spot in Shay’s Fortress. I was closer than ever to smoking them out and in one day you sent them running scared!”

Meron’s ship… was that the ship he had seen resting on the grass sea around the dark castle? Must have been.

“But who are they?” Scott asked. “What do they want?”

“I don’t know who they are, thanks to you, but they want to destroy everything we know about Fantasy Stars! The happy places you saw? The beautiful sights and the cute creatures? The romantic spots you and Carol waste time on? Gone!

“H-How? How can they destroy everything?” Scott stuttered.

“If I knew how they would do it, I would stop them, but it has to do with bringing Supreme Commander Shay back,” Joey breathed heavily, a vein pulsating on his sweaty forehead. “And maybe I could have stopped them, but you screwed it up.”

“Oh, yeah?” Scott too stood up. He was having enough of that bullshit. “How did I screw it up?”

“You made them aware of me!” Joey leaned over the table. “Tell me, on all your sherlockian deductions, did you ever ask where I got The Glimmer’s flight computer?”

Scott stared silently. He had not thought it would have mattered.

“Aboard one of the pirate ships that ambushed us at the Maze,” Joey answered.

“That can’t be a coincidence.”

“It wasn’t. The Chimeras crashed The Glimmer, we looked into that because I was onto them. They attacked us at the Maze because they were onto us.”

“So that T-500 pirate captain…” Scott trailed off in thought.

“He didn’t care about our Diamonds, he wanted Snorri gone and with the Diamonds triggering permadeath that was the place to make it happen,” Joey explained snorting.

“I didn’t know Joe…” Scott braced himself on the chair’s armrest. “I’m sorry, but now we can make this right…”

“No, we can’t!” Joey screamed. “Meron was my only lead, and I had to kill him to save someone who I thought would know something, but turns out it was just your worthless ass! The only thing I can try now is to figure out who gave me the tip…” he trailed off.

“The tip? What tip?” Scott asked.

“Oh, you didn’t think about that either?” Joey threw his hands up. “How did I know Meron was about to kill someone, so that I could kill him? Huh? Someone tipped me off, I got a message from a level 1 character.”

“A throwaway,” Scott muttered.

“I thought it was his target asking for help, playing bait, but since the target was… you,” Joey scoffed, “that must’ve been another Chimera. They expected us to fight. Either I killed their compromised asset or he killed me, their enemy, and whoever survived would face justice.”

“Except you never got caught,” Scott said. “Until now.”

“Are you…” Joey lower his voice. “Are you threatening me?”

“What? No! Joe, we can figure it out, let me help…”

“You have done enough!” Joey yelled. “You exposed Snorri, your recklessness forced me to permakill my only lead for nothing, you betrayed my trust and you’ve given the enemy everything they need to win! I couldn’t possibly need more of your damn help!”

They stared at each other across the office, a stare that lasted seconds but that seemed to take ages. A stare the told them everything they had to know. Joey finally broke the silence, speaking on a low voice just as disturbing as his enraged screams:

“I would like you to leave my office, Scott. Right now. Go play tag with your girlfriend or whatever the hell it is you casuals do.”

Scott stared holes at him, a pit on his stomach growing by the second, then turned and left without another word. His face boiled, but his gut felt cold. His muscles were all tensed in adrenaline and nerves, but his mind and senses were numb. Bloody Joe, Scott should just tell everyone what he had done and let the rest of the guild rip him to shreds for killing his predecessor.

No, he couldn’t. Doing that would cement the end of their friendship forever, if there was any hope left for it. There probably was not, not after that. When had that damn game started mattering more than their relationship?

Through the whole way back to his own workplace, all Scott could think about was his desire to call Carol. She understood him, and no matter how much they diverged on certain aspects they could respect each other’s boundaries and decisions. Still, he was too torpid to talk to her. He needed time alone with his own thoughts, he needed to put things in order and…

“Scott! Where have you been? Off saving the world again?” Tony asked in his joyful Jane-absent persona as soon as Scott walked back into the office. “I was looking all over for you!”

“Not now, Tony,” Scott stormed right past him.

“Yes, now! We need the whole team in the conference room immediately,” Tony ran to block Scott’s path again. “Trust me, the world’s about to flip upside down.”

Scott snorted.

As if his world needed any more flipping.