Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Once the water was delivered and the thoughts faded from his subject, Max turned to Nico. "What exactly did you do to your prisoner? Even my subject could hear the mental scream through the walls."

Nico shrugged. "Did you know that on a Kyle, if you apply the appropriate dose of electricity to the reproductive organs, it makes every single pain receptor in their body fire at once? Even the ones in their brain that send out chemicals to numb the body are activated, but it doesn't dull the effect of consecutive applications of electricity."

"So, you tasered him in the testicles until his mind broke, and he began psychically screaming?"

Nico nodded happily. "I singlehandedly evolved his species. They have been on the verge of activating psychic abilities for a few millennia now but have never broken through. He can now communicate mentally with anyone he is in direct contact with. It took him a lot of work to make it that far, but I stopped when he finally managed to beg me."

The bodyguards that worked for the Black Market were all staring at Nico as if she was some sort of monster much more horrific than the Klem, and Max didn't fail to notice that they had all subtly crossed their legs or turned their hips away from her.

"Will he recover?" Max asked.

"Give it like two hours, three hours at the most, and the electrical charge will disperse from his body, and the pain will end. After that, he should be alright."

One of the bodyguards hesitantly stepped forward with a data tablet. "Did he know anything useful?"

"No. He was the one that mysteriously passed out at the same moment that the ship appeared to try to board the infested merchant vessel. It was pure coincidence. He was high out of his mind and overdosed a little, then collapsed in the hallway." She replied.

"And how far into the interrogation did you learn that?" The bodyguard asked, following his checklist.

"I knew that before we started, I found out from the security feed. My report also contains the name of the shopkeeper selling crappy drugs cut with mild painkillers and where his stash is."

The big four-armed man frowned. "If you knew he wasn't part of the incident, why did you continue to interrogate him?"

"You never know what people know until you ask properly."

The bodyguard sighed. "I will send someone to ground him and disperse the charge from his body. I don't think he will be getting high enough to pass out and risk getting arrested again in the near future."

The other interrogators weren't far behind, and each of them had managed to gain a small amount of useful information about the situation, as well as some unrelated information that the subjects thought they might want, in exchange for ending the questioning early.

All in all, it was a productive session, and once the electrical charge was dispersed from Nico's subject, he stopped screaming and shifted to simply whimpering and rocking in the corner.

"I think you broke him. What good is evolving his ability if he's completely useless afterward?" Max asked her, hoping to remind Nico that limits existed for a reason.

"You're right. I should go talk to him. I think it will help him recover." she announced, then opened the door to the interrogation room and snapped her fingers.

A young man with floppy hairless ears, like a hairless rabbit, crawled out of the room to sit by her feet.

"Good boy. Now, once we get back to the front hallway, you are going to stand up and remember that you are a sentient being. Do you understand?" She asked.

He nodded happily but remained sitting at her feet.

She walked down the hall, and he crawled along beside her, which earned Nico an envious look from one of the female Titans that Max couldn't help but notice.

Nico was hiding her thoughts from him again, but Max didn't need to be psychic to understand this one. She had put him in an immense amount of pain and used the opportunity to implant a series of subliminal commands, much like a pain-induced state of hypnosis.

"Are we going to need to find you a new hobby when you get back to the ship? You've been looking bored lately, and it's starting to affect your behaviour." Max teased his second in command.

"It's all good. I think I have made a breakthrough on the design problem that I was stuck on. Once we finish up the investigation and get back, I will be busy with the design team."

That wasn't entirely reassuring. Perhaps he should get her a pet dog or something.

They reached the main hallways, and the man's eyes went vacant before he got to his feet and turned a horrified look at Nico before running away and being caught by one of the bodyguards.

"Please, you don't understand. That's not a person. She's a monster. I will never break the law again. I swear it. Just please, don't let her get me." He begged.

Nico smirked at the man, which made him whimper and hide behind the big Titan, who was doing his best not to laugh at the situation.

[One addict rehabilitated. Go ME! Yay, yay, you're so benevolent, Miss Nico.] She thought as the man cowered behind the big bodyguard.

[You could have done the same thing without the public humiliation.] Max reminded her silently.

[Well yeah, but where is the fun in that? Besides, have you forgotten that we have a ship full of coffee-enhanced Innu to deal with once we are finished here? Today's fun is far from over.]

She had a good point.

"Should we compile the data now, or would you prefer to do it later?" Max asked the Station Boss, intending to delay the inevitable barrage of hyper thoughts that he was doing his best to ignore at the moment.

"Give the data tablets to my associates, and they will compile them for us. I'm sure the Commander of a Reaver Company has more important things to do than analyze the interrogation data from a bunch of low-level employees."

Damn. Well, he tried.