Trish stood, brushing the dust from her knees and watching Ascelin's twitchiness exasperatedly. "Honey, you need to learn to relax just a smidgeon. Everyone's fine. You're gonna put young Pan on edge should you not put the defensive down a notch…"
"Yeah," Jake was suddenly behind him, resting a large arm around the smaller man's shoulders and squeezing what Ascelin would later assume was meant to me assuringly.
It was rather the opposite though, too many people too close to keep track of at once in this closed room. He'd tensed and locked up something awful and stared forward, through Trish's head.
Jake seemed not to notice. "I think we should go move that two wheeled contraption of yours, by the way, man. It's shinier than others like it that I've seen. And whether the people around the area are better or not, some civilians just can't help themselves when it comes to shinies."
"What…do you propose I do with it?" Ascelin inquired through clenched teeth.
Jake removed his arm then and shrugged. "Don't really know. Plenty of spare and barren rooms 'round here left…"
"You can keep it in my garage, Cel," Lexi commented. "Lean it against the wall in the last open corner I have. That should be fine."
"Alright…" he followed her out.
Wheeling it in, thankful that her 'garage' was on the main floor and not up any of the stairs; she unlocked and opened the door for him. It was another larger room, not that one could easily tell.
It was littered by junk metal and broken scrap electronics. Tables with tools and shelves with even more clutter. He hesitated, not quite sure how to wheel the old Harley in without causing an avalanche.
"Hey, it ain't that bad…" Lexi murmured, her eyes narrowing on his expression. "Just follow the walkway till you reach the open part of the room."
"There's an open part in there?" he lowered his head and did as told at the glare the question received.
Mostly successful, he put the weight of the thing on its kickstand and looked around once more. "Wow…"
"I know."
"What do you have going on here, Lex…?"
"All sorts of things," she shrugged. "Trinkets I hoped to maybe repair at some point, mostly. Whenever I could find the time but…"
"Never got around to it."
"Nope. Tomorrow really never does come," she shrugged and smiled his way. "But hey, I managed some things. And I repair the Mech kids whenever their playing does get too rough and their Guardians are out…"
"I see… What kind of rough do you mean? Pyro's okay, right?"
Lexi rolled her eyes. "Do you see me standing here fretting over Hex's wellbeing this very moment? Pyro's with other children, Cel. Not crazy cult people or addicts…"
She looked at him hintingly then and he had to fight not to look away. "You know about that, then…?"
"Trish and I talked while you and Pyro showered. What the hell were you thinking?"
He shrugged and, finally, lowered the small chest he'd been carrying around with him both before and after bathing, down. Kicking it open lightly with his boot. "This… Was hoping to get the things needed to fix the bike and something nice for Pyro…"
She went quiet a moment, "You know… I've brought old mopeds and motorcycles in here before with the same hope, before I realized that like most everything else, I wasn't getting around to it and after several second looks, there just wasn't hope. But this thing…" she rested a hand on the handle. "This is in pretty decent shape. And I…may have just what it needs somewhere amongst this junk."
Ascelin couldn't help the smile that came to his own face after a minute. "Well that would be…convenient. Couldn't complain, it's about time I gained a little luck."
"Well I do suppose we'll see then. I'll do whatever I can do."
"Thanks Lex… So," Ascelin crossed his arms. "I suppose you expect a thank you for introducing me to everyone prior to even the knowledge of my arrival…"
She looked away. "Yeah-no. I'm sorry about that. But you know that I would never dare think speak your name unless the residents residing within here were the utmost trustworthy… I trust them Cel, about as much as I trust you."
"About?" he sighed. "What's done is done I suppose… and the kids seem to trust everyone too…"
The tan girl nodded, almost bouncing happily with the gesture. "Yes. And I'll admit now it made me beam…how happy Pyro looked just then."
"Same…" he responded, a touch more unsurely this time. "But Lex, what exactly is this? This group…what do you all have going on here? Seems odd – that a bunch of strangers would just come together this way. It's too….organized."
She sobered a bit at that. "Yes, you would be one to notice that wouldn't you?" she shook her head this time, more slowly. As if to clear it for thoughts of a new topic. "It started with just Trish, Jake, and their kids. I'm lucky she is how she is, Trish, or I'd be dead. But upon awakening and remembering where I was…"
She shrugged and started wandering about the room as he followed. Sorting things and checking around, she continued, "We're a grown group of truth seekers, Cel. Most of us just wanna know what happened, where, how…but mostly why things are the way they are. Why children go Mech and why some never wake up… If this is how things were meant to be or if there were some kind of mistakes."
He nodded, understanding so far. "Most of you…?"
"Pan doesn't know much about it. Jake forcibly carried her here after finding her randomly and feeling sorry for the poor girl. Knew she wouldn't stand a chance out there with Harmony, alone."
"She seemed a bit…traumatized," Ascelin confirmed. "Disturbed even, maybe."
"Yes. Another sob story, another typical situation of today's time. Her background was pretty bad, but since she's decided that we really don't intend harm on either her or Harmony, she barely likes to leave Jake's side."
"Any luck?"
She looked up from an old crushed phone she'd been staring at. "Hm?"
"Any luck with…finding the answers you all seek?"
"Ah…well, not much. There's been a theory here, a maybe there but…worries been settling in lately that the what and why of things has died out long ago, as years progressed."
"I see…" Ascelin claimed, looking at her. "What are you thinking about now then?"
"The latest idea," she admitted. "It was the strongest lead yet but in the end…still just led to more ruins and addicts hoping to mug a fix or some tech for themselves."
Looking around, he nearly flinched when something was suddenly being held up to him. It was a disk, shiny and reflecting the light of the dim room back out in tiny rainbows.
Ascelin didn't take it, only stared. "What sort of upgrade is that?"
"It's not too rare, but any safe disk is uncommon. Go get Pyro; I want you to have it whether you decide to stick around long or not."
"I…don't think so," he murmured. "How do you know it's clean?"
"Because it was in an old protective case with a few others. The thing was hard to crack, and the date marked way back. I'm thinking from before things went as haywire as they've gotten. And all the others were perfectly fine."
Hesitantly, he nodded and made his way back to the door. Heading out. Pyro was still Sharing in the room that he'd met everyone in. The space was mostly vacated otherwise, everyone else having returned to their jobs or habits.
"Pyro."
The boy unwillingly broke off the stares they all had going on and looked over, expressionless without his hologram on. "Big Brother?"
"Keep the image down and come on."
He did as told, confused. Climbing up onto Ascelin's back once closing the distance.
Taking him back to Lexi's garage, the girl worked fast. She already had a table completely cleared of everything, standing beside it with the disk in her hand. "Hey Pyro."
"Hi Lexi!" he climbed down and walked in beside Ascelin, large lit up yellow eyes staring curiously around. Hex poked his head in behind them before trotting in as well. Slipping under Ascelin's legs and catching up to Pyro.
Lexi messed up Hex's hair before lifting Pyro up onto the table vie under his arms.
He clicked on his image, expressing confusion as he eyed the disk. "Candy, Brother…? The good kind?" his face became hopeful.
Ascelin hesitated a moment before nodding. Pyro didn't seem to notice, "Yep. The good kind… Now click off the face and let Lexi do her thing."
Pyro did as told and laid down after smiling big. Looking up at her as his eyes brightened considerably.
Ascelin shushed their brightness back down as she slightly winced and opened a panel on the ro-boy's right side. Exposing a large disk drive, one already in place. A gold disk, since Pyro came with the ability to breathe fire and resist extreme heats.
Placing the shiny new silver one in place before closing him back up, Pyro's eyes went out to everything except numbers and coding as the new ability uploaded to his systems.
His big brother stood there in a worried impatience. This was where a virus would act if one existed.
Once the coding and formats concluded, the boy's eyes flashed back on and he sat up. Holding up a hand palm up, there seemed an obscure little hole in the center of his palm…
"Pyro…?" Ascelin murmured, looking to Lexi skeptically.
She walked away for a moment, returning with the chest of shards. Touching it to that hole on the boy's palm, it automatically shrunk, dispersed into particles, and went inside.
Ascelin's eyes slightly widened, having never seen an upgrade like that before. "Oh… Storage device…I get it…"
"So you can stop being so unprepared everywhere you go," Lexi commented, nodding as the little opening in Pyro's palm closed and he climbed easily off the table and stood beside Hex.
"But that chest was about the maximum size an item can be, so don't get any stupid theories and ideas," she continued, slightly teasing.
Ascelin had to chuckle at that, "Stupid ideas…? Me? Never, Lex."
"Sure," she socked him a hard one on the arm and his smile stayed an extra minute longer as he rubbed the spot. "So…" she murmured, "If you want me to see what I can do about your motored contraption, can I safely assume you trust at least my word enough to stick around?"
He faltered then, hardly noticing as Hex and Pyro ran back off to keep playing with all the others. "Well…yes, I suppose it does… I do trust you and… Trish."
It was her turn to smile now, "Good. Thanks, Cel," she hugged to him then; and he couldn't help but to totally relax and rest his arms back around her.
"No problem."
