Inexorable Altercation [Round V - Saint Arthelais' Hospital]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

---

So far, Rex had found himself less than thrilled with the new boss.

Of course, if Rex had any qualms about working for a monomaniacal lunatic with delusions of grandeur and a total lack of empathy, he wouldn't be here in the first place. And whatever else you could say about Daddy-Ham, he certainly got results.

The burn marks on Rex's tail were an unpleasant reminder that it would have been damn nice if Daddy-Ham could have gotten said results faster, but that wasn't the core of the dinosaur-man's concerns.

No, it was that Daddy-Ham barely even acknowledged that he had minions. Oh, sure, he'd bark orders, but there was something impersonal about it. It didn't matter if you'd blown up a few underdeveloped villages, kidnapped a few ambassadors right before critical negotiations, or even had a war crime or two named for you; to Daddy-Ham, you were just another tool. You got the sense he was only tolerating you because he was too busy doing Something Important and needed the little things taken care of in the meantime, like tracking down and killing these people who Daddy-Ham wanted dead for reasons that weren't worth explaining to the likes of you.

Pteros had been... well, not all that different when you got down to it. But at least Pteros knew how to fake it. Pteros had made Rex feel like an enforcer; Daddy-Ham made him feel like a thug.

He didn't like being a thug, not least because thugs were expendable. Thrukk had been a thug, and look at where it had gotten him... well, Rex didn't actually know where it had gotten him, but most likely he was either dead or recaptured by now. At the very least, something unpleasant had happened to him.

Or perhaps Nothing had.

***

"What did I see? Oh, Nothing," Atelia replied with a knowing smile.

***

When the contestants had been taken to the Hezekiah, Nothing had followed them.

As the memory beast struggled to find the knowledge to even open a door, Nothing ran through the corridors.

When two factions lead by bitter enemies fought in the halls over meaningless territory, Nothing had stopped them.

Nothing happened to the prisoners, and in the end, Nothing was left of them.

***

Nothing was left of Felix Atrum in KshKalala's body.

KshKalala's two companions had seen nothing; few beings could see Nothing unless they were consumed by it. All they saw was their colleague standing still, shaken - hardly shocking given her recent memory problems.

"Something wrong, KshKalala?" the creature asked.

"Nothing," she replied.

A moment later, Nothing was wrong with the other two as well.