San Fernando Valley – 2168
"Marco, you're awesome! Thank you so much!" Alex flung her arms around Marco's neck, squeezing the older man tightly.
Not typically an openly affectionate man, Marco chuckled as he patted the kid on the back. "Well, I had to get you something for your birthday, kid. Though I know most girls would want a pony, I figured this would be more up your alley."
Esteban smiled, "Damn, Marco, you're able to get your hands on more interesting pieces than I thought. How the hell were you able to get the parts?"
The small group stood in the back room of the pawn shop, crowded around a table. In the center was a pile of bizarre-looking tech, the most interesting of which was a sphere roughly 75 mm in diameter. Marco rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, I got lucky. A dirty cop I know had to liquidate a few items before he got caught."
Alex couldn't help but jump up and down in place. "I can't believe it, my very own spy drone!"
"Well, the body is that of an LAPD spy drone, but ole Marco here seems to know you rather well, Kid," Esteban chimed in, pointing to a cylinder on the table. "If I'm not mistaken, that has got to be a 3000 milliwatt laser." Alex's jaw dropped as she looked from Esteban to Marco, a destructive twinkle in her eye.
"Yeah, it is. It may not be the most powerful one out there, but it's the best I could get my hands on. It will definitely be able to set stuff on fire, too. The OSD's contain basic combat and espionage software. While there are still some pieces missing, I bet the two of you could- OOF!" The older man was interrupted by a flying hug from Alex.
"Marco, this is the best birthday present ever!"
Marco stumbled back a bit from the force of the tackle-hug and patted the kid's head, trying to remain the tough and stoic shopkeeper he pretended to be, "Well, you're really doing me a favor. I can't have this stuff hanging around my shop and…" He trailed off, looking down at Alex who was still clinging to him tightly. He remembered the night when she first walked into his store – God, what was it, almost six years ago? – Dirty, bloody, and scared, but determined to make him listen to her so she could get some food.
He had watched her grow from the small, frightened child into a tall, self-confident young woman. Esteban had stayed true to his word and had kept her safe all these years. Though Alex was running with a gang, she rarely saw front-line action. Hell, the only scar on her was the one running down her lip from that cut she walked in with all those years ago. She was Esteban's apprentice of sorts in the gang, helping him maintain all of the Wolf Pack's gear and manage their defenses. She often came with Esteban or by herself to Marco's shop: buying, selling, or trading with him to get supplies when they had extra merchandise. As much as he pretended not to, he really cared about the kid. She didn't trust everyone, but she trusted Marco, and he knew she thought of him like a favorite grumpy uncle. Despite everything she had been through, there was still so much innocence and joy in the girl, especially when she was around the people she trusted, and it brought a tear to his eyes.
"Marco? Something wrong?"
Marco looked down at her. Alex had pulled away just a bit to look up at him, concern in her brilliant green eyes. He was never one to get emotional, but he let himself give in just this once, and really hugged the kid back, almost crushing her to him. "Nothing's wrong. Happy birthday, Alex."
Smiling, Esteban put a hand on Alex's shoulder. "Alright, Kid, time to head back to HQ."
Alex finally released Marco, a big grin still plastering her face. "Okay, let me just put all the stuff in a box and we'll head out."
Already one step ahead of her, Marco pulled a box out from under the work table and silently handed it to her. One piece at a time, Alex placed all the items into the box, careful not to drop any of the pieces. After they were all packed, she wrapped both arms tightly around the box, clutching it to her chest. It was obvious that she wasn't going to let it out of her sight for a moment. Esteban held the door open for the young woman. He smiled gently to himself as Alex walked out. He followed her out, letting the door close behind them. That's what she is now, a young woman, not the little kid who was brave enough to stumble into Marco's shop.
Esteban pressed his palm to the driver's side panel of the X3M skycar, the top opening to allow them both access. Well, brave or stupid. Esteban shook his head to himself as they settled in, the skycar sealing up and lifting off as they made their way back toward the hideout and garage. The kid may not be well educated but she wasn't stupid.
He had tried to get Alex back into school shortly after he had found her – more like when she had found him. He spared a quick glance toward her in the passenger seat, her eyes glued inside the box as she rifled through the pieces. He had found that schools would need to do a biometric scan in order to enroll her, and since she was in the system as a runaway and ward of the state, she would have been taken back to her foster parents. No way was Esteban going to let that happen. He had made up some bullshit religious protest about not wanting his "little sister" scanned, and took off before anyone could question it. He and some of the other friendlier gang members had helped teach her what they could. Alex could read and write perfectly fine, even better than some of the other kids in the gang her age. In fact, when she wasn't working in the garage helping Esteban, she could be found in her little hammock, practically buried under all the different data pads she was reading.
Alex wanted to learn everything she could, but there was only so much you could absorb without instruction or guidance. The kid was a bit of a puzzle: she excelled at theoretical fields and problems, solving issues in her head within moments in the most bizarre fashions, when other members of the crew had been trying traditional means and failing. When forced to show all of the steps or work it out, however, she tended to falter and make basic mistakes. If one of the guns malfunctioned or broke for a mysterious reason, she could tell what was wrong by watching a crew member trying to fire it or by doing so herself. She had once explained to Esteban that she just knew what was wrong.
Alex had also recently developed quite the knack for strategy and squad tactics. Esteban made it a point to play games of strategy with her, and while she was never out in the field, he had discussed combat with her. If they had downtime, he would make her sit and people-watch with him to tell him what someone was going to do next. Every time she predicted enough of the people's actions correctly, she got ice cream as a reward.
He hadn't talked to Alpha about it yet, mostly because their illustrious leader was a bit of a misogynistic prick who only seemed to tolerate Alex. Alpha only seemed to keep her around due to her remarkable skills at not only keeping the gear working, but finding ways to upgrade it as well. Despite Alpha's dismissive attitude toward the kid, Esteban wanted to get Alex some field training. She was already a good shot with a pistol. They had tried a shotgun at one point, but Alex was only just now hitting a growth spurt and the kick-back of the shotgun sent her off balance too easily.
The Wolf Pack was getting stronger and had been claiming more territory over the past few years. They could use more lieutenants who were smart and could lead, not just dumb grunts who kept their squad in line through fear. Esteban was one of the Betas, a high-ranking member of the Wolf Pack, and could recruit his own lieutenants if he wanted to, but it was always smarter to do it with Alpha's permission.
Alpha – both the leader's name and title – was in complete control. The gang's structure was then broken up into five sections headed up by five Betas. Gang territory made up four of the sections, and those Betas were in charge of controlling and expanding their particular section under Alpha's authority. Then there was the garage crew, the section Esteban led. These crew members were essentially support staff: they kept the skycars running, managed the finances, kept the arsenal maintained, and took care of other legitimate and illegitimate tasks needed to keep the gang running.
As territorial as his lupine namesake, Alpha had chosen a compound near the base of the Sepulveda Pass to serve as the Pack's garage, in order to monitor who came and went from West Los Angeles. Traffic had always been bad in L.A., and this night was no different. Even with the advent of skycars, it would still sometimes feel like you could get wherever you were going faster on foot. Thankfully, the garage wasn't far away from Marco's shop, and a few short minutes later, Esteban set the skycar down onto the landing pad in front of the large garage-bay doors. While it was technically a garage, no one ever parked inside of the structure, as the whole building was full of tech, spare parts, and occasionally a skycar needing repair. It also contained the sleeping quarters of the youngest members, as well as extra bunks for whoever was on call for repairs or EMT duty. Esteban even had his own small apartment attached to the structure, which was his permanent residence. Being the Beta for the garage group did have some advantages, such free rent.
Once the skycar had fully settled down and opened, Alex hopped out and hurried toward the door leading into the garage proper. As she reached for the door, Esteban, still exiting the vehicle, called out to her, "Hey Kid, hold up a minute."
Alex's hand froze on the nob as she turned to face Esteban, her box still clutched tightly to her stomach with her free arm. "What for? I wanna go check this tech out and see if I can at least get the little guy hovering by morning."
Having fully exited the vehicle, Esteban placed his palm to the driver's side panel once more, sealing it up for the night. He motioned for Alex to follow him as he walked over to the door that led to his private apartment. "Come on, I got you a cupcake for your birthday. It'll only take a minute."
Before he could even close the three meters to his door, Alex seemed to materialize suddenly by his side with only a soft rustle of sound betraying her approach. Esteban smiled internally. Man, nothing motivates that kid like food. When she had first started to learn how to move so swiftly and quietly, it had freaked him out. Now though, it was just something the Kid did from time to time. About a year and a half before, another Beta, who had since been ousted, had brought on another girl Alex's age, Moira Flannery. While there were other women in the gang, they were few and far between, and there hadn't been another girl Alex's age for the first several years. When Moira had been brought on to act as a scout for the crew covering the gang's western territory, Alex had leapt at the chance to make a new friend.
Moira, who had had a start just about as rough as Alex's, was wary at first of the odd and brilliant girl's attention. Alex managed to control her abundant enthusiasm enough to keep from frightening Moira off – at least, until they got to know each other – and the two became fast friends. Watching the two interact was rather interesting. While her name may conjure up a romanticized version of Ireland, Moira was actually rather average in nearly every way. Being average and unremarkable made Moira perfect at her job. A result of the blending of countless different back grounds, she had skin that was naturally olive and would darken in the summer, chestnut brown hair, hazel eyes, and a petite build.
It was Moira who had taught Alex to move silently. When she was first learning to move quickly and quietly, Alex tended to bungle it pretty fantastically, like the time when she had knocked over an entire tool rack. However, as time went on and Alex had almost given up on moving with stealth, she had mastered the skill. Like most things with the kid, once she stopped trying, it came effortlessly to her. Now, she actually had to force herself to make sound as she moved. She had actually startled members of the garage crew into accidental minor injuries when they were caught by surprise at her sudden appearance.
Esteban opened the door to his apartment, letting Alex precede him. It was only when he closed the door that the lights flicked on and the entire garage crew, plus Moira, leapt from behind the Spartan furniture yelling, "Surprise!" Alex let out a startled squeal, backing up into Esteban instinctively, and clutching her box even more tightly to her chest.
"Relax, Kid. It's just a surprise party for your birthday. Figured it was about time to throw you one." Esteban was finally able to take the box of drone parts from Alex's grasp and place it on the stand near the door.
"A surprise party?" Alex finally allowed herself to look around the room. The whole garage crew was there: seventeen people including Esteban, Moira, and herself. Most of the crew was older than her by ten years, and they all tended to treat her like a joint little sister. There was a banner reading "Happy Birthday" hanging from the ceiling, and balloons in purple and blue, her favorite colors, drifted around at different levels. She smelled pizza. Peering into the kitchen, she could see a stack of pizza boxes there, the top one already cracked open. Then, turning to eye the coffee table, her eyes grew wide at what was resting there: a cake. Not just any cake, but one she had wanted since she saw one in a bakery case on one of her excursions with Moira, a Black Forest cake. She could see the whipped cream peeking out between the chocolate shavings that coated the surface of the chocolate cake, with shining maraschino cherries sitting on small mounds of whipped cream in a circular formation around the single candle burning in the center. The garage crew treated her well, it was true, but Alex was only tolerated by the rest of the gang. Seeing her friends put this together meant the world to her. Tears began to fall freely from her eyes.
"Alex? Are you okay?" Moira rushed forward to hug her friend once she saw her start to cry.
"Aww fuck, guys, looks like we screwed this up. We made the kid cry." A big bear of a man named Donny, who was standing behind the couch, spoke up.
"I'm okay, Moira." Alex hugged her friend briefly before moving her to arm's length. She turned to face Donny, smiling. "Really, I'm fine. I'm just so happy. You all have been so good to me over the years, and I just never expected anything like this. Thank you all so much, I mean it."
Esteban clapped a hand on her shoulder and smiled down at her. "Well, now that we have all that sorted out, let's get this party going! Gio, turn on some music!" A tall, stick-thin man with long black hair, who was standing in the back corner near the stereo, turned on the local music station nice and loud. The good part about living in an industrial part of town was that there were no neighbors to complain about the loud music at night.
The party was in full swing. The pizza was devoured and some of the guys had chipped in and bought a keg. While Esteban was protective of Alex, he knew there was no way to completely protect her from the drugs and alcohol that were a part of daily life in a gang. Fortunately, he found that she did not enjoy partaking in the drugs that most of the other guys used. However, she did enjoy beer and was able to win the beer pong tournament Donny insisted on, but not before getting decently buzzed herself. Gio passed around the large pipe, and soon pot smoke filled the air as well. A couple of the guys, Esteban knew, were into Red Sand, but that was where he drew the line. While he couldn't protect Alex from everything, he didn't want anyone actively tripping around her.
Esteban stayed mostly sober – someone had to make sure all these pendejos got home – and watched over his young charge and their friends as they enjoyed themselves. Donny had even managed to track down a piñata and jury-rig it to one of the poles out back. Esteban had to admit that watching a bunch of blindfolded men trying to hit a spaceship-shaped box with a baseball bat was hilarious.
Alex had gone first but the guys had all agreed that she could swing at it a couple times without a blindfold after Moira had a turn. Instead of reaching for the baseball bat that had been propped up against the wall, a devilish grin spread across Alex's face. Quickly, she reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out the laser that had been in the box of drone parts. Esteban's eyes widened as Alex took aim. She activated the laser and deftly sliced through the cable holding the piñata above the ground. The guys and Moira had managed to hit it a few times, so when the piñata finally hit the ground, it broke apart, spilling candy out from the hull. The crew was stunned to silence for a moment before they all started laughing as Moira and Alex dove for the candy, most of the crew quickly on their heels for free candy.
It was only in the wee hours of the morning that the party finally broke up. The crew had all gone home or into the garage to bunk down. Moira was even spending the night in the garage with Alex as a slumber party. When Esteban walked into Alex's sleeping area of the garage carrying a small box, the girls were sitting in one of the hammocks, chatting and trading candy, the box of drone parts near Alex's feet. Moira was the first to realize that Esteban had arrived; the little scout always was the more astute of the two girls.
Alex just continued chatting, staring down at her pile of candy, "…Fine, Moira, then how about I trade you two of my… Moira?" She looked up, wondering why her friend had suddenly decided to ignore her, only to notice Esteban. Alex smirked. "Oh, hey, Esteban. What brings you down here? I thought it was past your bedtime, old man."
Esteban shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave, "Well if that's how you're gonna be, I guess you don't get your present."
"Present?" Alex practically jumped out of the hammock, causing it to swing and the candy that had been in her lap to fall to the floor. "You got me a present?"
Esteban placed the small box in her hands. A simple two-piece box, it wasn't wrapped. Alex carefully opened the box to reveal a datapad inside. It was powered on, and across the screen it read "History's Most Notable Women of Science." She reached down and carefully ran her fingers along the screen, scrolling through some of the names: Caroline Herschel, Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace, Hedy Lamarr, Mary Leakey… The list just kept going. Alex turned her face to look up at Esteban wordlessly, before flinging herself into him for a tight embrace, still clutching the datapad. He could barely hear her soft "Thank you" from her head pressed into his chest.
He chuckled that soft chuckle that the kid always seemed to bring out of him, hugging her back. "Anytime, Kid. I know you like to read, and I figured you could use some good role models." He broke the hug, his hands on her shoulders as he stared down at her. "You're smart, Kid. You deserve a better life than this one. Hopefully, some of the women on that pad will help us figure a way out for you. Happy birthday, Kid." With that, Esteban reached out, ruffled Alex's hair, and left to head back to his own apartment.
By the time Alex turned back around, Moira was already curled up in the hammock under the blankets. Alex left her spilt candy on the ground, forgotten, as she climbed into the hammock next to her friend, doing her best not to disturb her. She read by the light of the small lamp until sleep claimed her and she fell asleep, clutching her new gift to her chest.