Chapter 1: Echoes from The Box
It had been a few weeks since the fall of Fandango, and Jungorou was close to recovering from an injury sustained in battle. It was during that time where Shep was starting to sort through some of Jungorou's past treasures that were collected when he donned his past identity, Junichiro. Out of everything he searched through, there was one thing that piqued his interest. A Jack-In-The-Box that was glowing and pulsating. Shep felt it was necessary to show Jungorou the box, asking him what it is before he does anything drastic.
Shep: "Hey, Jungorou, are you feeling okay now?"
Jungorou: "Yeah, i think the spike wounds have patched themselves up now, so i should be good to continue our operations."
Shep: "I admire your enthusiasm, Jungorou. We'll make a good team. But first, we need to have some discussions over some of the artefacts we've found in your bag, specifically because one of them caught my eye."
Jungorou: "Hm, and what would that be?"
Shep would reach into a pocket, revealing the aformentioned Jack-In-The-Box. It was so small in Shep's hand that it looked like a sugar cube.
Shep: "Do you recognise this?"
Jungorou: "Oh, that? That's The Playbox."
Shep: "The Playbox... that's an oddly specific name. Mind giving me some context as to what it is? I'm not sure whether i should put this in the vault or not."
Jungorou: "I would advise against it, as i'm fairly certain that the box contains a living man."
Shep tilts his head in confusion.
Shep: "What? How?"
Jungorou: "Let me explain."
Jungorou would then stand on both legs while standing on top of the bed to stand as close to Shep as possible while recounting the origins of The Playbox.
Jungorou: "It all started when i was venturing Starcross. This was when my name was still Junichiro. During my venture, i ran into what looked to be a private outpost. The thing that caught my eye was that there was a chimney in this outpost, and it was letting out a concerning amount of emissions. It didn't add up to being anything natural, so i decided to open the door to see if it was unlocked. Surprisingly, it was. After going up a few flights of stairs, i started hearing a voice behind one of the walls."
???: "Aaaaaaaaaaaand set that to auto. Perfect, now we just wait for a few minutes and i'll never have to work another day again."
Jungorou: "I had a hunch that there would still be someone in the building, but the tone in their voice gave me a bad first impression. I decided to confront them, and i initially tried to simply sneak towards them. It didn't exactly go well, but that may be because his hearing's really good, i'm not sure."
???: "Y'know, i've really outdone myself with thi- HM?"
Jungorou: "He was a good looking man in both a green suit and what looked to be a scuba mask. Not too far from what i look like right now all things considered."
Junichiro: "Who are you?"
???: "Better question, why do you need to know?"
Junichiro: "I feel like i'm inclined to know if your chimney is pumping out a huge cloud of fog that doesn't look natural in the slightest in the context of where we are currently."
???: "Look, what does the location have to do with my intentions? I could be doing this on the moon and nothing would change." Junichiro: "I'm not here to hurt you if you just co-operate with me."
???: "Well, i don't even know your name, so why would i trust you?"
Junichiro: *Sigh* "It's Junichiro. Yours?"
???: "..."
Junichiro: "YOURS?"
???: "...trade secret."
Jungorou: "I then started to notice what looked to be a timer of sorts in the corner of the room. It started to become clear that this strange individual was stalling for time."
???: "Listen, listen, if you just give me a second to explain myself, we'll both be-"
Junichiro: "WE DON'T HAVE A SECOND!"
???: "Oh SCREW THIS!"
Junichiro: "Yep, wasn't expecting anything else."
Jungorou: "After that, i swung my staff out and went through the same steps as i usually did to secure a quick kill: Tieing their legs and slamming him into the ceiling, walls, floor, etc. As you can probably tell, it worked about as well as it usually did."
???: "Oh, you have a big WALLET? THAT'S your trick? Couldn't even hurt a fl- FL- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
Jungorou: "His body wasn't able to take much before it completely crumbled apart, but i noticed the timer in the corner of the room was into the single digits, and i didn't have enough time to go and switch it off. I took the next best option and hid behind a wall. When the timer stopped ticking, a deafening explosion went off in the room. When i looked back in, the man in the green tuxedo was gone, replaced by the very same jack-in-the-box you see before you. When i picked it up and placed it into my bag, i took special note of it. I knew that it wasn't just another artefact that i just picked up. Rather, it was something i had to treat with extreme caution. That's why it was almost always at the bottom of my bag, so if someone were to find it, they'd end up encountering The Playbox, as i've come to calling it, last."
Shep seems taken aback by Jungorou's tale, but he makes a rather bold decision.
Shep: "Jungorou? I want you to keep it."
Jungorou: "What?"
Shep: "I know that i've taken most of your plundered artefacts to add back to the vault, but leaving you with nothing would practically leave you defenseless. I mean look at you, you're not even 3 feet high. If you ever end up in a moment where you're truly cornered, use it. I've given you a screwable pocket you can use to hold onto it. Just undo the zip on the top and you'll be able to pull it out."
Jungorou: "I admire your decision, Shep. I'll make sure to use it properly when the time comes."
Just at that moment, Cypress comes bursting through the door with enough force to nearly snap it off it's hinges.
Cypress: "So, how's the green one doing?"
Shep: "You do realise that ALL of us are green, right?"
Cypress: "Oh yeah..."
Shep: "Jungorou's pretty much recovered from the spike wounds he suffered a few weeks ago, and we should be ready to investigate the house you were talking about."
Cypress: "Wonderful stuff. Follow me into the lounge, and i'll explain what's caught my eye to the both of you."
With that, Jungorou jumped onto Shep's shoulder and followed the two of them to the lounge. Jungorou hadn't heard anything about the certain something that caught the bionic eye of Cypress, so he was certainly on board with seeing where this was going.