Chapter 37 - Chicken Nugget

Now wielding a small rectangle of simultaneously dangerous yet valuable cardboard, Lucas and Jonathan finally manage to break away from the congregation of supervillains. Supervillains who are still hanging out in the middle of the road next to the truck, continuing to divert traffic. Mark has even posted some selfies to his Mind Flare social media accounts while posing in front of Franz pinning down the imprisoned driver. All while also tagging Black Ash Snow's accounts as well, of course.

Lucas doesn't even need to wonder when he's far enough away from Mikah.

[What the HELL Lucas!? You know we need to onboard Jonathan! You saw how much of a threat being careless around those supervillains can be! Why would you just casually give your plans to Mikah like that!? Now you are socially obliged to let all of those supervillains know how to contact you at their leisure! But! Most of all! WHAT WAS WITH THAT UNHOLY NOISE!?]

'Hmm? Oh, you mean like-'

[NO! NEVER AGAIN!]

Lucas bursts out laughing, instead of getting a confused look from Jonathan, he gets a jealous one.

"No fair, yours is funny?" Jonathan has even started pouting a bit after asking. It seems he really doesn't care for the tutorials he's been receiving so far, or at the very least how they've been presented.

"Psh, hardly. He was yelling at me." Lucas scratches the back of his head for a bit as they're walking down the sidewalk, headed in the direction of the subway station they previously used.

[Your saying 'hardly' is rather rich, considering what utter trash your sense of humor is.]

Lucas is now grinning and laughing again, which does little to improve Jonathan's mood. 427 gives an exaggerated sigh before continuing.

[Anyway, while obviously you two should keep things vague, as you have been, see if you can get his system's designation number. I'll be able to communicate with it on my side then.]

"Oh!" Lucas looks thoughtful for a few moments, certainly longer than usual. "Hey Jon, if I asked you to pick a random number from your mind, like, you know, 427, what would it be?" Lucas manages to be the most uncharacteristically intelligent he's been for hours as he indirectly asks this.

"Ah! Um, 011." Jonathan's focus wanders for a few seconds before paying attention to Lucas once again. "I think they know each other? It, uh, seemed... Surprised. Oh, it's quiet now." Jonathan's eyes wander around the area after he says this, thankfully it doesn't seem like a notably strange sentence to the few passersby near them.

Lucas's side has fallen quiet as well.

"Huh, yeah, it's rather quiet. Oh yeah, you said you wanted a burger, right?" As Lucas brings up the topic of food, Jonathan's face lights up. He's now proudly displaying a unique form of joy; that of a ravenous young male teen being offered the junk food of their choice, potentially in as large of a quantity as desired as well. As Jonathan nods vigorously a few times, Lucas can't help chuckling a bit more.

"I um, I think I saw a place near the st-station when we came out? If that's, um, okay with you..." Jonathan's hopes are quite evident between his expression and tone, if you ignore the nervous stuttering.

"Sure thing kiddo. Ah, I'd ask if you wanted to eat there but I think we should rush home ASAP, so we might as well eat in the subway. Let's just hope we don't throw it right back up again when we get to our station." When Lucas cracks his joke he gets a genuine laugh out of the currently smiling Jonathan.

"Oh, yeah, lemme carry those." When Lucas finishes this request, Jonathan hands over the bag of clothes. While it had been tossed around a few times, it's still in surprisingly good shape.

[Lucas.]

Lucas jumps a bit as 427's tone is gravely serious.

'Eh? Whassup?'

[As much as I hate to admit it, I believe you'd love to know; I was just scolded.]

"Oh! it's back." Just as Jonathan speaks up, Lucas bursts out laughing as he processes what 427 just said, finding it even more hilarious thanks to how upset 427 sounded as he said it. Jonathan looks up at him with furrowed brows for a moment, then sharply turns his gaze away in some sort of mini temper tantrum. This does not even remotely diminish Lucas's mirth.

'You what? Hah! What did you even do?'

[So you immediately assume I'm to blame. Thanks.]

'Oh, it must be good, you're deflecting.'

[...I didn't remember it.]

'Oh? Do tell.'

[Well... It was apparently my system when I, well, was still a living human.]

'I knew it! Wait, how the hell do you not remember your own system!?'

[Thanks, I really appreciate your support.]

'Pfft, you clearly aren't actually looking for sympathy. Just by your voice alone, I can tell how guilty you're feeling about it.'

427 gives a soft sigh and Lucas has balanced out to a more neutral, sane, state.

Jonathan seems to have gotten some related information on his end as well, given the way he just curiously looked at Lucas for a few seconds. He ultimately decides to not say anything while they're still in public, though.

With the way he's now smiling to himself, Jonathan definitely heard something.

'Well... You weren't even sure what you were before, right? So isn't this a good thing? Finding someone who does know?'

[...I could have dug up the information from Boss System if I really was all that concerned. That's part of why I didn't really care, if it actually mattered I could have found out at any time. But... I think I probably should now. It obviously held onto the data from when we were together, after all.]

'Eh, well yeah. Wait, you're generally pretty quick to call things he or her, why're you still calling it... It?'

[Hmm? Oh, I guess I hadn't bothered to tell you before. The significant majority of systems are genuine AI, the first hundred or so weren't even gendered.]

'...Oh. Wait, so like, doesn't that mean yer kinda special?'

[...Isn't that a rather weighted question? But, well, yes, I suppose. After observing my performance in the role for a while, Boss System even started programming basic emotions into the various systems. Seems they attributed some of my mutual success with Maynard to my lingering traces of humanity.]

'Huh. I guess that's kinda cool. Oh, this must be the place Jon was talkin' about.'

And just like that, Lucas has been completely distracted away from the conversation. As 427 starts to digest what he's begun digging up about his own past, he's hardly concerned with regaining Lucas's attention.

Roughly 20 minutes later, they're on their way down into the subway with their fast food haul. Conveniently, the subway train has just finished pulling into the station right when they're stepping out onto the platform. So convenient, in fact, that it makes Lucas a bit uncomfortable.

'All right, where's the turn? Someone gonna stab me as soon as I sit down or something?'

[...Considering how casually comfortable you apparently are when around well-known supervillains, seeing you get paranoid over things going smoothly is rather amusing.]

'Psh, I bet something bad happens to me within 5 minutes of sitting down.'

[Apart from the fact there is nothing for us to exchange in a bet, I'm admittedly hesitant to take the opposing side in this situation.]

'See! I'm not the only one! You just didn't want to admit it!'

Thankfully, over the course of choosing and entering a train car, claiming seats far away from anyone else, and even starting to unpack their food a bit, it is peaceful. This still does not alleviate Lucas's skepticism about this, admittedly minor, lucky break.

'Heh, you'd think the packaging should be red and yellow. Even the chicken nuggets look the same.'

[Hmm? I assume a reference back to your original world?]

As Lucas starts opening up the light blue packaging with white accents, he immediately turns fate back on track as he stuffs the chicken nugget into his mouth.

'Yea-HOT!'

"Hashafashasha hoo..." As Lucas immediately regrets all of his decisions leading up to this point, Jonathan doesn't even remotely try to hold back his laughter.

It isn't long before Lucas gets to enjoy karma, however, as Jonathan pulls a similar stunt with a handful of fries.

'See? It didn't even take a minute.'

[...That was entirely self-inflicted. Here's hoping Jonathan grows into a suitable hero, I fear you're beyond hope.]

Lucas almost spits out his mouthful of cheesy bacony beefy goodness as he starts laughing. Jonathan is far too occupied stuffing his face to care about being jealous of Lucas's interactions with his system at this time.

'Rude! You just have your work cut out for you is all, Mr. Fancy-Pants System!'

[...New name rejected. Vehemently.]

Lucas manages to swallow his mouthful of burger before laughing this time.

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 6

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0 (Unless you want to count his poor, burnt, tongue)

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 5.6 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 4

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.51

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan and Lucas are very much so not available for comment. The power of chickie nuggies is just too stronk.

427 is busy effectively digesting his own information meal.

Author, musing out loud: I'd be surprised if anyone expected Lucas's good fortune to last the subway ride, let alone beyond it.

Mr. Quacks, contemplating something akin to cannibalism as he stares at the chicken nuggets: Quack....