☆ ⁺ « 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒
SHEILA
They have a new recruit with them. Some scrawny kid named JoJo.
Zero merely glanced at the message his holopad projected into the air. He was preoccupied with a matte-silver VR set that one of the maintenance bots had managed to knock off its display, inspecting it closely for damage.
"Is he a Stand user?" Zero said out loud, his holopad recording the words and sending them as text.
SHEILA
Yes but it's too soon to tell what his ability is.
I'm guessing a low-power type.
Zero hadn't banked on the Passione gaining a new member so late in the game. It could potentially be a risk, seeing as he hadn't had the chance to prod at this rookie's resolve with Kiss in Blue Heaven.
SHEILA
That's not the interesting part.
All of my scans on him came back clean. There's nothing on him. He practically has no records. I couldn't figure out why until I tried matching his face to some registries.
He's using a facial pinger. None of the pictures I get of him match.
Zero paused at that. Facial pingers were highly sophisticated and highly illegal pieces of tech. Through a small incision at the base of your jaw, they could thoroughly scan your face at every millisecond and cast a fine grid over your features, undetectable to the human eye. By minutely altering your appearance they made it impossible for any tracking software to work on you. They were invaluable for people whose identities might be ... compromising, but they were notorious for glitching or failing entirely. The last thing Zero needed was for a facial pinger to fail and reveal his face to the galaxy. Why spend an exorbitant amount on a false chip when a mask could do the job just as well? As well, a mask was capable of far better theatrics than a facial pinger.
It was obvious that the newest member was not who he said he was. How he'd gotten a facial pinger to begin with intrigued Zero, since even black market frequenters like himself rarely came across that piece of tech.
"What did you say his name was?"
SHEILA
Johnny Jones
Zero squinted at the name. He sent off a command to his virtual assistant to catalogue the name and begin running it through a backward search. It was a common enough name, but if they looked back far enough, one variant of the name would start somewhere that the others did not and it would inevitably be used somewhere incongruous.
The Captain might have shot themself in the foot with this new rookie. Zero tiredly realized that if that was the case, he would have to let them know, seeing as he was their benefactor.
Zero returned his attention to the VR set. "What about the rest of the crew? Is the search going well?"
SHEILA
They're on track for the most part. Those two low-life mechanics nearly screwed them over with the ship, but they made it through. Pericolo should be giving them Polnareff's location soon if they can find him.
I did notice that their engineer is putting up a bit of resistance. The Captain seems to be putting him in line, but it could be a problem later on.
Do you want me to deal with him?
Zero frowned at a scuff mark on the headset. He'd had a feeling that engineer would be trouble.
YOU ARE READING
KISMET ─ vento aureo.
Fanfiction☆ . kismet ─ with virtually nothing left in their credit account, a gang of space thieves turn to the richest man in the galaxy to give them a job worth millions. too bad those never come easy, even with stand abilities and a pretty-faced crew...
