Red Entaries

Fourtysix

One poor man thought Raver's Group were jobless miners replaced by cyborgs or machines, so he didn't beg for dia and tried to tell the others to stop, they were retired too, and just had gold for food.

The man with a laser bead banjo on his back fought to give Raver back her dia but the homeless people wouldn't let him.

"Stop this insolence Fungal!" Logan said, "they need all the charity they can get, the food with supplies helps," he pointed.

"Fine!" Fungal said, taking gold from Raver, he ran into his tent to score another fresh bottle of Moonlit like the other drunks.

After Fungal took a swig of Moonlit he found himself clumsily dancing and singing, he came out of his tent...he remembered when being a bard earned him extra dia for his family while he was one of the first human miners.

Over the rocks

With no thunder,

Picking under.

Miners placing charges,

Making mines

From hot ore refines.

After the dome,

The throngs made a sect.

A dancing parade did connect.

They blasted and welded

The towers with foundations never tilt.

Greens and houses needed to be built.

Now it was new on Mars,

Called Red Entaries and won't wilt.

Those people, animals, and plants, never wrecked.

From the Moon and Mars, we mine,

The machines are divine and erect.

Now the bums live in the Slums and meet.

The machines and cyborgs have the jobs,

The poor and homeless throw and pelt,

A cruel fate for the mobs is now dealt.

The diseased are treated poorly.

In the Slums they drink Moonlit,

The poor live in this crater pit.

Raver was amused by Fungal's song and his high pitch. After Miss Sholla put her gold into the bank using fake identification, which the CEO gave her, she realized Rahden Sr.'s plans: First, put the dia in a secure place he gave me. Second, try to recruit the bums before it's too late for the older ones, who may die soon, and finally, restore my ranks.

But...how Raver thought. She was thinking hard. She noticed the throngs of the Slums and how they enjoyed Fungal's song.

Sholla entered Fungal's tent to find him. He was there inside drinking the rest of his Moonlit to the last drop.

Miss Raver removed her space suit and black cloak. The bone-twisted old man smiled with his gapped-brown two teeth. He thought he was going to be given a gift, but when he saw Raver's arm gun, he became frightened and stood there, frozen stiff.

Sholla said her gatling gun needed to be charged, and that she meant no harm, she just wanted his help.

"Help me," Raver said. "I need to recruit you and your fellows. I need more Pirates for a secret mission, a conspiracy if you will, what say you?"

"I can't," Fungal said. "I'm now an official Street Slug for the Harbinger and I get paid very well. All I have to do is sell weapons on the street."

"How dare you!" I thought the Mob was no more or disbanded, when did this happen, Fungal? But first tell me more about Street Slugs."

"Basically, it's a starting point in the Mob to sell weapons, that's how Joanna Brown and Lorena Brown both started out, as Street Slugs."

"That name, Lorena Brown, I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't be sure where. Now you, I've had enough of you and your smelly tent, tell me everything else you know about the Mob, or else, or else...I'll cut you in half with my laser pick!"

"Anything Miss, anything at all. What do you want to know?" Fungal stood trembling.

"Who's the leader's name?"

"Her name is Joanna, and she's called a Red Viper. She has a twin, but she's not in the Mob anymore. Her name is Lorena. That's all I know, I promise!" Please don't hurt me—"

"You'll be safe if you don't say a word about who I am, got it—"

"Yes," he trembled again.

Raver Sholla put her gear back on and coveredher weapons with her black cloak and left the tent.