Judges - 6 Ch 6 Three very simple rules

An arm reached out and a hand touched the wall. Once more, the word ‘Acknowledged’ was heard and the wall slid downwards, as it did Cairn became increasingly bothered by the other’s nonchalance. As soon as the others walked into the office Cairn could contain himself any longer and with an expression of frustration he walked towards Judge Dub and grabbed his collar, hoisting him into the air. The others appeared to be unsurprised by the sudden turn of events.

Judge Dub looked down at Cairn as the atmosphere grew tense before slowly saying, “What are you doing, Apprentice?” Cairn grinded his teeth together and said, “What am I doing? What the hell are you guys doing? You tried to kill me less than 3 minutes ago, and now what I’m supposed to pretend like that didn’t just happen?” Dub slowly placed his hands on Cairn’s wrist and said, “Have you ever heard the saying, ‘A dog is at its most vicious when cornered’?” Cairn raised an eyebrow. “We make the elements move by enacting our will upon them, The stronger our mental abilities the stronger the elements will get, but the elements still need a way to understand us otherwise they will only rush forward and do nothing more. The need to understand our intent, that’s why when certain people use their wills they shout words, but what intent do you think is understood most easily by all beings?” Cairn didn’t know. “Why don’t you look down at your tattoo.”

Cairn glanced down at his left arm and continued to stare at it as the tattoo had changed slightly. The Cerberus’s fangs were bared and it’s design had become even more detailed so detailed in fact that Cairn could even see the frost covering it’s fur and surrounding it’s body. Cairn unconsciously lowered Dub back to the floor and continued to gaze at his tattoo in astonishment. When Judge Dub’s feet touched the floor Cairn heard a sword being unsheathed. As he heard the noise he peered out the corner of his right eye and saw Noir standing behind him with a spatha sword positioned at his heart, while Hank had his fist aimed at Cairn’s temporal lobe. When Cairn looked left he saw Angela’s silver warhammer aimed at his knee while Deker had a five-seven charged and aimed at his head. As Cairn turned back towards Judge Dub he felt a sharp object graze the upper area where his large intestine was. As he cast his gaze downwards he saw a 9 inch serrated knife and Judge Dub’s right hand firmly gripped around the handle.

Cairn slowly glanced back up from the knife to the hand, to the sleeve and from the sleeve to Judge Dub’s eyes. As Cairn Stared at Judge Dub, Dub scowled and slowly said, “I don’t particularly care where you grew up, who you know or how strong you think you are, but for as long as you are apart of the 54th squadron I advise you to learn three very simple rules,” Dub raised his left hand and held up three fingers. “Rule number one, never disobey a superior officer.” One finger went down. “Rule number two, never attack a superior officer or comrade.” Two fingers were down. “And rule number three is to never attack without due cause.” As the third finger went down Judge Dub tightly balled his hand into a fist and struck Cairn in the nose. The impact made Cairn’s head swing left, Cairn’s body still stood upright and he stopped himself from falling from the punch. He slowly turned his head back towards Judge Dub as he did he felt a liquid go down his nose to his lip. Cairn took his right hand off of Judge Dub’s collar and wiped his mouth, when he glanced down he saw blood on his hand. Cairn licked his upper lip and brought his hand to his nose one more time and whispered a word, “Stop.” His nose began to get cold and a piece of ice was being placed over the cut inside his nose. As he did this he inspected the other’s weapons again and his eyes widened slightly as he realised all of these weapons were graded as tier 6’s, basically tree quadrisectors or the little sisters of the tier 5’s better known as the tree bisectors. They got their names from being able to erase a thick tree in 4 shots for tier 6’s and in 2 shots for tier 5’s.

Once Cairn was done observing the tier of the weapons that were surrounding him he made sure that his temporary fix was done he fixed his gaze on Judge Dub once more and said one word, “Understood.” Judge Dub stayed silent for several seconds and studied Cairn’s facial expression. As the atmosphere continued to get even more intense as each second passed until Judge Dub finally closed his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, “Alright then, I will consider this as your first and only warning do not allow this to happen again.” Judge Dub took his knife away from Cairn’s stomach and put it under his left sleeve, then he fixed his collar while doing this he said, “Deker, fix Cairn’s nose. The rest of you need to get ready to leave, settle whatever affairs you need to care of you, have until…” Dub reached into his left pocket and pulled out an old silver pocket watch. “Well it’s 5:30 right now so I’ll give you 10 minutes. Remember, we have to be at the quartermaster’s place at 6:30 and not a second later so put some pep in your step, dismissed!”

The others swiftly put away their weapons and ran off to their cubicles. Deker made Cairn face him before reaching behind his back and pulling a large fanny pack forward. He began to pull out a first aid kit and took out some rubbing alcohol, 3 cotton puffs, a pair tweezers and blue bottle only labeled with the large bold word ‘Sealant’. Deker took the pair of tweezers and picked up the cotton balls and doused them in the alcohol before using them to clean the opening in Cairn’s nose. As Deker disinfected Cairn’s nose he thought back on what happened and he tried not to speak until he was done. He grabbed the blue bottle and said, “Whatever you do, don’t breathe in.” Cairn nodded and Deker opened the bottle to reveal a spray top which he aimed at Cairn’s right nostril. When Deker pressed the top down foam came out that clogged the nostril. Deker noticed that despite how cold the foam was Cairn was even shaking and thought to himself, ‘Well that’s weird, most people would shake at least a little from having this shot up their nose, guess he just isn’t most people.’

Deker quickly finished applying the sealant and couldn’t help but say, “My friend, your ‘pair’ must be made out of stainless steel or something.” Cairn was surprised at Deker’s sudden statement and said, “What do you mean by that?” Deker was shocked by Cairn’s question and asked, “You don’t know what a ‘pair’ is?” Cairn facepalmed and slowly said, “I know what my testicles are, I’m asking you why they must be made of steel.” Deker laughed vigorously before saying, “Man you don’t look the part but you could be one helluva comedian.” Cairn crossed his arms and stared at Deker until Deker slowly stopped laughing and started realising that Cairn was serious which made Deker astonished as he asked, “Didn’t anybody tell you about Judge Dub?” Cairn gave Deker a puzzled look. “What about Judge Dub?” he said. Deker put away his equipment and slicked back his hair before saying, “Looks like it’s up to me to give you an idea of your current associates…well kemosabe allow me to enlighten you. First off Judge Dub is old school, like really old school. Judge Dub was serving under Thor during the unification wars, he even saw the Akbast sacrifice. Do you even know how long it’s been since the Akbast sacrifice happened?” Cairn put on an expression of deep thought as he looked down at his hands and muttered, “We’re in June, today is the fifth and it’s 102 A.D. The Akbast sacrifice happened in 40 A.D. so it’s been…” Cairn slowly started to count using his fingers until Deker quickly lost his patience and blurted out, “62! It’s been 62 years since then but yet and still this guy is running around like a young buck! Seriously, that guy has more experience in combat than most of us have had years to live, isn’t that insane?!

Deker was beginning to run out of breath and froth at the mouth after speaking so excitedly about Dub before he slowed down and continued, “In other words I highly doubt you or many others in our group could beat him. Besides Dub, Hank is also a veteran, apparently he fought a couple of years before the border of sacrifice was erected. Though I also heard he was still an adolescent when he joined…and if you haven’t guessed it by now he isn’t much of a talker. Next up you’ve got Noir. Noir usually acts as our scout but … she’s also a weapons ‘collector’ for lack of a better word. If you ever find something nice that doesn’t quite fit your style then she’ll ‘probably’ give you a good price. After Noir, there’s Angela.” He said her name with a hint of scorn. “She was in the same graduation class as me back at the academy … and as much as it pains me, she was our valedictorian while I was the salutatorian. Usually she is the prim and proper holier-than-thou Judge…” Deker slowly surveyed the area to make sure no one was listening before leaning in and whispering to cairn, “But between you and me, and elements that girl has a sadistic streak longer than a straight line through the plant. Trust me, you know it’s bad when certain ‘stores’ know her by reputation alone.” The former assassin raised an eyebrow as he was curious about what stores Deker was referring to. “And last but not least there’s me! I’m our resident trap expert, medic and ace in the hole!”

“More like pain in the hole.” Cairn and Deker turned right and left respectively as they looked towards the area where the new voice had originated from and saw Noir as she was walking out of her cubicle. As Noir continued to walk towards Deker and Cairn she said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the others filed a noise complaint with how loud you like to boast, Deker.” Deker smirked and said, “It’s not a boast if it’s true.” Noir stopped in front of the Deker and waved him off while saying, “Yeah, yeah whatever ‘Ace’, at any rate, I’m guessing the loudmouth over here already brought up to speed on the rest of us so I’ll just go ahead and ask this now and get it out of the way.” Noir’s face settled into a firm expression, seeing this Cairn also became serious a couple seconds passed like this until Noir finally spoke, “Cairn … what did you used to do for a living?”

The question made Cairn think back to the lives he had taken, the time he spent waiting, watching and hiding. He even thought of Saint bella, before he remembered a job that had similar characteristics to his own. “I … was a hunter. I used to wait, sometimes spending days and even weeks in order to catch the rather particular prey I was after. Noir eyes widened in surprise as she hadn’t expected someone with the sort of clean look he had to be a patient huntsman but Deker appeared confused so he asked, “So wait … What prey did you hunt?”

Before Deker could get an answer to his question another voice was heard, “Alright people grab your gear it’s time to get a move on!” Judge Dub came out of his office and was walking towards the door that led out into the hallway. Afterwards Angela and Hank also left their cubicles, as Angela walked towards Dub she stared at Deker for several seconds which made Deker break out in a cold sweat while thinking, ‘Oh elements! Did she hear me?’ Until finally Angela broke the silence and said, ” Deker did you finish your unintentional discharge report? You do remember that Judge Dub has a time limit placed on you right?” Deker’s green eyes widened like a deer caught in the headlights before he said, “Oh crap! I’ll be right back, don’t leave without me!” His feet drove him to his cubicle where soon afterwards there was the sound of a rapid series of keys being slammed down.

As everyone waited for Deker to finish up, Cairn walked towards Judge Dub. “Why do we need so much time to get to the Quartermaster’s place? Isn’t he in the same facility or close by? He queried. Noir, Hank and Judge Dub collectively covered their eyes and groaned. “What?” Cairn said. The Judge and Squires looked between one another before Dub gave Noir an expression practically telling her, ‘you do it.’ Noir shrugged her shoulders and turned towards Cairn. “To put it bluntly the guy has a couple screws loose. He used to stay here in this branch a couple years back in the 52nd squadron’s current room. We were tasked with guarding him alongside the 53rd squadron but one day he just lost it, said he wouldn’t feel safe unless he was underneath one of the turrets in New Yurin” she recalled. “Wait, you mean one of those tier 2 turrets? The ones that could put a hole in a mountain and kill a Poseidon ranked fighter?” Cairn asked. “The very same.” She answered. At this point Judge Dub chose to chime in and said, “He’s one of our most reliable suppliers and one of the few reasons why we aren’t completely reliant on trade and can still bargain with the Socrates faction. So be on your best behavior, we can’t afford to lose this one.” Once he was done speaking Judge Dub pulled out his pocket watch once again. The time had gone from 5:40 to 5:43. Judge Dub began to stare at the leg that indicated seconds. At 15 seconds Dub clenched his teeth together. By the time 30 seconds had past a vein started to pulsate on his forehead. When 45 seconds had past Stared at Deker’s cubicle. Once the minute hand had from 43 to 44, so too did Judge Dub move from the door to the inside of Deker’s cubicle. What ensued was 2 minutes of Dub’s verbal bashing and Deker’s cries of compliance.

Afterwards, Judge Dub returned with Deker in tow. “We’re going to have to hurry if we’re going to make it there on time, am I understood?” Dub said. The others, except for Cairn, replied by saying, “Order!” Judge Dub stared at Cairn while crossing his arms and putting on an expression that meant he was waiting for something to happen. Hank nudged Cairn with his elbow which caused Cairn to glance back at him and soon after Cairn felt like he was hit with the brick of realization as he saw Hank giving a salute. ‘So order means understood.’ He thought. Once again, Cairn looked Judge Dub in the eyes and said, “Order.” Dub smiled and a nod of satisfaction. “Let’s get a move on 54th!” Dub said.