Wrath
- Apathy -
Kane watched the boy behind the thick layer of glass. His black and red suit torn and stained. His helmet visor cracked, and from the brief moment they were in the same room, he smelled as bad as he looked. He noted how the kid sat on the chair in the middle of the electric blue room with his back hunched and shoulders slouched.
"I wish we could get better acquainted before we reach our destination." Abraham said with a thin smile. The boy didn't even move. "Can you remove the helmet?" He asked knowing that it would take a bit of insistence, needless to say, the boy didn't budge. Kane kept the smile more as a provocation than courtesy, "Please, you certainly don't look comfortable."
His hand hovered over a key that would call for a more aggressive approach, but the boy raised his hands to the back of the helmet and removed it. The first thing Kane saw was an uneven, spiky mess of red hair, a bit brighter than his clothes. His smile disappeared at the sign of a scar on the boy's left eye, or the lack thereof. It wasn't a hero's scar, or something that would "get the girls", but a ugly, thick, protrude series of cuts around the socket, like something smashed against it rather than slashed by.
It took a minute until Kane realized he looked at it a bit too long. The boy stared at him with his head tilted down, a murderous glare on the sole green eye that made the man choke on the words he was trying to form.
"So... what should I call you?" He regained his composure, the boy's first response was a shrug, "How about..." He glanced his subject down and up, "Red? Let's keep it simple." He received another shrug. "My sentries watched the fight, you did well against Chilton." At the mention of the name, the boy's hands curled into fists that tightened his gloves' fabrics. Kane's smile grew malicious, "Very well in fact. If it wasn't for an unfortunate deus ex machina, I was sure you would win." He waited for a response, "I can assure you that if you accept my offer, those things will no longer happen, you will even have the upper hand."
The redhead shifted on is seat, Kane gave him a moment to process the information. Red looked down to his hands and appeared in deep thought.
"Sir, we have arrived." Said a voice from a comm in Kane's side.
Kane stared back at the boy with a look that demanded an answer, Red looked back, "Sure." Was the first word from a barely audible voice. Kane smirked.
The boy didn't seen bothered by the soldiers and staff that circled around him. His intimidating calm, apathetic demeanour surprised the leader. Red took his gloves off, the sign of his hands led to some cringes. The tip of his fingers were black with oil. His palms had burn marks and blisters. The skin on his knuckles were torn. He then took his suit off, underneath he wore a -originally- white undershirt stained with what seemed to be oil, dirt, sweat and maybe even blood.
While some of the staff look in fear and disgust, an advisor turned to him with a look of worry, Kane smiled and nodded. He knew exactly how much control he could have over the boy. Red wasn't going to be a cadet, a loyal soldier ready to stay in line and follow orders. He was an attack dog, kept on a cage with a leash just waiting to engage a target. Whatever spirit the boy had seemed to be gone, leaving an angry, delusional weapon that was now in the man's hands.
The scientists measured him and led him away to heavily guarded quarters. They would later come up with a new uniform good enough to defend against any of Chilton's shenanigans.
- Pride -
Red's unpredictable behaviour was terrifying to those around him. From unresponsive to the to lashing out in ferocious attacks against anyone that pushed his buttons. It took a strangled worker and a guard's broken arm for the staff to leave him alone and stop complaining about his vandalized uniform.
To Kane's surprise, the boy was easy to keep contained, he never tried to escape or caused any mischief that didn't had it coming, hell, he was more disciplined than some cadets. He kept to himself, aloof to alarming levels. The few times he and Kane spoke were surprisingly brief and professional, something that pleased the man. Most of them one sided, with the mercenary grunting and nodding in response.
Red used the same facility as the soldiers in alternate hours. He worked himself to exertion, walked back to his room to sleep and repeated the next day. He kept the boy hidden from everyone apart from a selective small crew. Even his daughter didn't know the mercenary's existence. Kane knew Julie enough that she would try to get to know the boy, and he had no time for distractions, or interest, it seemed. Red didn't speak unless spoken to and never engaged in any conversation, he was content on being alone.
Kane sent him on a few missions to test his abilities and loyalty. Red was quick, silent. Doing the work of an entire squad with much more proficiency. A wild card not abiding to any protocol, much to the staff's discontent. Ruthless to anyone that crosses his path, as the Skylarks witnessed. He stole, sabotaged, eliminated his targets without effort and most importantly, without questions.
Red was truly something to behold. A pet project that Kane was proud of, a pet project that Kane would make damn sure he wouldn't make the same mistakes again.
- Anger -
It seemed that Kane just couldn't have a peaceful day anymore.
"All of the state of the art equipment! All of the training! And you still let Mike Chilton beat you!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. The boy in front of him stood defiant which only enraged him more.
"I had plenty of chances!" Red raised his voice, it was the loudest Kane ever heard of him, "But thanks to someone's incompetence..." His eye shifted to Tooley that cowered behind Kane's figure.
"No excuse!" Kane approached the mercenary, "Not with all that power you had on your suit." He grabbed the boy's collar and yanked him up so they were eye to eye. For a second he saw fear in that green eye, "You cocky, arrogant little shit. You are not as good as you think you are and you should know that by now."
He tossed the boy to the floor and turned to face his city shining a soft tone of blue against the night sky. "You better not mess up next time or you are not worth wasting my time on." He directed his attention to a screen, not bothering to look back as the boy left the room.
The months after their conversation, Red overworked himself to the emergency room several times. His temper became more unstable, he was more violent during missions. The team assigned to him reported he suffered from shakiness, dizziness, nausea. Sometimes he would hallucinate, chasing an employee through five floors just because he looked a bit like Chilton. Kane didn't budged, if Red was willing to sacrifice himself, so be it, he had other things that needed his attention.
He cut any communication with Red until the day the boy collapsed on his punching bag, that was when the leader was forced to intervene. After a catastrophic rage blackout, his team had to sedate and forcefully bound the mercenary to his bed.
For the next weeks he was on heavy drugs to keep him docile and to fix his severe insomnia. Red's developing eating disorder caused him to lose weight and muscle. The doctor advised Abraham that treatment needed to be immediate to avoid loss of all the training progress.
He hated what the boy was becoming. Gone was the professionalism, replaced by a constant irritable mood. He was too unhealthy and frail to go to missions. He was losing control of his rabid pet. As much as Abraham wanted to believe he worried over an investment, he couldn't help from feeling a pang of parental guilt. He watched the boy toss and turn on his bed, a frown of pain on his face. A nurse reported that he often cried himself to sleep. Kane was forced to forfeit and give the boy the treatment he needed.
- Shame -
Months of planning, thousands of resources, all wasted. His most ambitious plan to destroy that plagued junkyard was foiled. He waited on his office, staring through the window at another night of failure. The door opened, his red haired mercenary walked in. For the first time, Kane saw defeat in his eye.
"I think you're aware of the damage you caused me." Kane gravelly voice made the boy shudder, "Out of all people that you can be a cocky little bastard, Chilton is the one you choose. You just don't learn do you?" He sat back on his seat, snickering at Red's clenching fists, "Even I can't afford that."
Red couldn't look back at his boss slouched on his seat, he gritted his teeth. "What am I going to do with you?" Kane said in a condescending tone, "Logic and all my board tell me I should toss you back to the thrash pile I found you, but my gut..." He stood up, Red's eye carefully followed him to a bar set on the wall. "My gut tells me that you are better on my side."
Abraham poured a drink in two crystal glasses and returned to his seat, "Sit." He ordered, Red hesitated for a moment, but followed the order. The older man slipped one of the glasses towards hum, then took a long sip of his own drink and licked his lips, "Tell me, what has Chilton done to you?"
Red watched the liquid reflection his glass projected on the table. All the while Kane glared at him like a hawk, demanding an answer. "I..." He reached for his drink and took a long gulp, grimacing at the strong taste, then set the glass down.
Kane noticed shivering and his paternal side kicked in before being smothered back to his subconscious. "I don't even know anymore." Red confessed. His posture slouched like he was free from a great secret, or maybe it was the alcohol. He sobbed, then coughed in hopes Kane didn't notice, but he did. "You did this to me, Kane." He leaned towards the man, pointing to where his eye used to be. Kane frowned slightly, "I know you are to blame, it's so clear to me..."
"Then why are you here?" Kane interrupted, that was the longest Red ever spoke.
"Because..." He took his glass and drank what was left, "There's nothing else I can do."
Kane remained silent. Red gripped the chair's arms and for a moment, Abraham thought he was stopping himself from attacking.
"I can't make sense of my thoughts anymore." The boy scratched the metal chair with his fingernail. "I can't make sense of who I am, who I was."
Kane started to feel discomfort, he expected a tale of vengeance that could be exploited, but the boy had really lost it. He offered Red his own glass, he hesitated but accepted, downing the strong liquid quickly.
Abraham's paternal instincts were yelling at him to help the kid, but he had to maintain composure, had to show who's boss. "What's your name?" He regretted asking, digging up the past could only lead to more trouble.
"Please don't ask me that." Red's voice wobbled. Kane never heard him say please, he counted it as progress, maybe.
"Afraid to dwell in the past?"
"I rather let go of it, it's not mine anymore."
Kane wanted to stop the conversation before they were too deep to get out. He didn't want to know the kid, didn't want to see him as a kid. Red was a weapon, seeing him as a person would only lead to another disappointment, like the one he had experienced that very day.
He did not need another Mike Chilton, specially one as unstable as Red. And yet, something held him, compelling him to go deeper.
The boy was having a hard time focusing, his head bobbed side to side. Kane smiled briefly.
"Do you hate me?" The man asked, catching the boy by surprise.
Red blinked a few times, "Yes." He muttered.
"And yet you stay because you have nowhere else to go."
The boy nodded, staring at the edge of the table in shame.
"What if I don't want you here anymore? What would you do?" Half of him wanted to slap himself for making that question.
Red only shrugged.
"Would you help Motorcity? Help the Burners?"
The mercenary shifted on his seat with discomfort. "Just say what you've been wanting to say." Red blurted with a frown, trying his best to focus on the older man.
"I want to be completely honest with you." Kane leaned on his chair, his fingers crossed, "When my guards said they found you unconscious on Chilton's cell, I wanted to tie you up on those very chains and beat you twice as much." His malicious smiled frightened the boy. "Part of me still does. Part of me thinks you might have even failed on purpose..."
"I would never do that." Red interrupted, obviously scared.
"Why not? You've just stated that your allegiance isn't fully with me." Kane mocked, he leaned across the table, looking deep into the boy's eye. "Choose your next words carefully. Did you purposely let Chilton escape?"
Despite his fear, Red leaned forward, "No."
There was enough conviction in his voice for Abraham to believe, but he wouldn't let the boy get away so easily, "So..." He leaned back on the chair, "It was pure incompetence."
Red looked away.
"Do you know how much you costed me? How much I paid that crew to look after you and clean up your mess?" He didn't need to raise his voice, his tone was enough. Red curled on his chair, clinging to it's arms. "No one else wanted you here. No one else said it was worth it, but I kept you here. I gave you shelter. I gave you doctors to get you through all that shit. Now look what you've done, another disappointment to my list." Kane shook his head and sighed like a disapproving father.
"I worried about you." He blurted without thinking again, eyes turning to the bar, regretting he didn't brink the bottle with him. He looked back at Red who stared at him, Abraham swore he could see a tear beginning to form. The father inside him screamed again. He shook his head again to lose those thoughts.
He straightened himself and puffed his imposing chest. "So back to beginning of the conversation, what am I going to do with you?"
He waited for an answer, Red didn't even dare to look at him.
"Will beating you senseless work? I don't care if you hate me even more." He shrugged, "Maybe I can beat the insolence out of you."
A minute of intense silence passed, the thoughts in Abraham's head clashed against each other, he had to accept the fact he wanted that kid across the table to like him, to think of him as a father, but oh, history tends to repeat itself.
"Do it then." Red spat, finally looking back in anger.
"Don't test me, boy." Kane warned, in his head he begged Red to back down. Once he crossed that line there was no turning back.
Red stood up, the chair fell back, hitting the floor with a loud metallic bang. "Hit me, you bastard."
Kane stood up slowly, cracking his knuckle. The boy had made his decision. Before Red could even react, Abraham's fist smashed his only eye, sending him to crash his back against the chair. Red curled on the floor, Kane heard a sob that left a crack on his heart.
"My guards will be authorised to let you leave Deluxe, but if you decide to stay..." He walked back to the bar, "Don't expect the nice guy treatment anymore."
Red struggled to his feet and stumbled blindly to the exit, the older man watched him leave.
Kane knew he was going to stay, after all, he had nowhere else to go.
Or so he hoped.
I want to expand on that, but I can't afford life support for another fic, so I'll mark as finished for now.