Author's Note: Since the character limit for chapters is WAY too short for this chapter, I shall announce the chapter myself. Chapter 1: Money Problems. Also, sorry for the long wait until the this next chapter (you probably thought I was inactive - which I sort of was) I had major writers block on this chapter, but I'm slowly but surely typing away. :P
Run!
It was all I could think of.
RUN!
It was all I had to do.
RU-U-UN!
I had to reach the power switch!
I was surrounded.
Run!
I had enemies on every side.
Run!
I needed to escape.
Stop!
I had reached the power switch… Then I heard a blast from behind. I quickly pulled the switch down, but the blast hit me… The last thing I remembered was the background deteriorating…
(H)(H)(H)
"Dude, what a dumb idea!" Acziome said.
"Yeah, I'll never, ever do that again!" I said.
"I told you, Darklite. Don't connect your Xbox to the VR training sphere. I did tell you, but did you listen? No-o!" Zib said, "That was real. That could've killed you!"
"Yeah, lesson learned." I said.
"Oh, don't think you're off the hook yet! Your Xbox got fried after you turned it off. Lucky for you the memory is still intact, but you'll have to pay for a new one!"
"Yes, Zib." I said. I turned on my Hero Pad to check my balance, "Hey Zib. How much do Xbox 2880's go for?"
"Around $350. And if you want someone to replace the hard drive with your old one, that will cost another $50."
"I'm gonna need a whole lot more money than this." I said to myself looking at the frugal $35 in my account. "Yo, Acz."
"Yeah?"
"Could you rack your brains for a sec?"
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Money. And fast."
"So you want a get-rich-quick scheme?"
"Yeah, whatever'll work."
"Rob a bank."
"What?! No!"
"Blackmail?"
"NO!"
"I know, I know. I'm kidding. I know you want it within legal boundaries."
"Phew. For a second there I thought you were serious."
"You know me bro! Always the joker!"
"That's true... Well what do you think?"
"Hmm... Well, you could sell scrap metal from here to the salvage yards, on the outskirts of Makuhero City."
"I'd have to get permission for that, but it could work. I like it!"
We decided to go to the source: The smelting area. As we were walking down, we heard a familiar sound. It was the sound we heard when we were first made.
"Oh no! The assembly mechanism has started up!" Acziome said, "This would be the worst time to go down there!"
"Relax, Acz. I couldn't be that bad."
I was wrong. The place was as hot and as noisy as everyone says it is, with all the machines making the armor, and the molten metal churning in the canals underneath the catwalks we were walking on. But the thing that really got to us was the surprising lack of workers. In such a busy place as this, shouldn't you need a few employees? That's what we thought, anyway.
We finally found someone, who was working at a console, overlooking the conveyor belt that was sending parts to the assembly tower.
"Hello." I said. The man didn't look up.
"Hello." I repeated, a little louder.
"HELLO!" I shouted.
"Oy vey, I can hear ya! Ya don't have to shout, I ain't deaf y'know! Now, what is it you want, eh?"
"We want to take some scrap metal to the salvage yard." I said, with my voice raised just enough so it was audible over the din of the smelting area.
"Listen, mac, you got the wrong guy, eh. Go speak to the boss."
"You mean… Mr. Makuro?" Acziome asked.
"Yeah, I mean him. I didn't say the president of the planet, now did I?" He chuckled.
"Okay, thanks sir. Sorry to have bothered you."
"It's okay, eh. I don't get much company down here, y'know?"
"I can imagine…" I said, taking in the 'ambience'.
We took an elevator up to the top of the building. Mr. Makuro's office is located at the far end of floor 300.
"Do you get vertigo when you're up here?" Acziome asked, looking out of a window.
"No, not usually." I said, remembering that mission on Trantor, "Good view, though. Mr. Makuro knows his stuff."
We started the walk down the hallway. It was mostly unoccupied dorm rooms, but there were a few closets, and some lounges. The last door was in the center of the hall. It was a wooden push-door, unlike the metal sliding doors that usually divide rooms. I gave a series of sharp raps on the door, and Mr. Makuro's secretary told us we could come in. I looked at her nameplate, and, not knowing what title she preferred, I said.
"Hello, Ms. Lindsey."
"Hello, how can I help you?"
"We-e-ell…" I began.
"We want to see Mr. Makuro!" Acziome interrupted.
"Do you have an appointment?" she asked.
Acziome flinched.
"I didn't know we need one. Did you?" he asked
"Uh, yeah!" I said, "If he has a secretary, I would imagine that she would help manage appointments and stuff like that."
"That is what I do…" she said, looking at her nails.
Just then, Mr. Makuro opened the door to his office. If I was human, I would imagine that I would've blushed. I did anyway, but it didn't show behind my helmet.
"Darklite! Acziome!" He said, saying our names like he was our long-lost father.
"Y-yes?" I asked, tentatively.
"Come in, come in! I've heard a lot about you two."
I looked at Acziome, and he shrugged. We both walked into his office.
"But I thought we needed an appointment-"
"Oh, it's all right. I'm very interested in you two."
That last part just sailed over my head.
"I, uh, was" I cleared my throat, "wondering if we could, uh, take some of the scrap metal from the storage areas to sell in the salvage yard. I'm sort of in need of money."
"That's all right. I don't see why not. I've been meaning to get rid of it, anyway. Just be sure to use a blow torch to cut it up, so it won't be Hero armor anymore. And also strip out any circuit boards. They may not be functional, but they still could be analyzed."
"Alright. We can do that. Just a little bit of extra work, Acz. Shouldn't be a problem. Thanks Mr. Makuro."
"That's perfectly fine, Darklite. It was good seeing you."
Yeah. You too…"
"I look forward to the next visit."
Next visit?!
"Sure… See ya."
"What did he mean by 'next visit'?" Acziome asked, as we were walking into the elevator.
"Search me." I replied. I decided to not give it anymore thought until further notice. I concentrated on the task at hand: To get some extra money.
(H)(H)(H)
We finally made it to one of the storage areas. There were tonnes of 1.0 armor and armor scraps.
"Wow. There's enough scrap metal here to get ourselves sorted out for life!" Acziome exclaimed
"But we can't carry all of this!" I said, bringing him down to earth.
"That's true." He said. But I could tell he was thinking about large ambitions.
"Did you park the pickup truck near the conveyor-belt port?"
"Port #236." He confirmed.
I took my Hero-Pad out and opened the calculator app.
"Let's see… The current exchange-rate for 30 kilograms of titanium-cobalt weaving is 300 US Dollars… Kevlar infused boron-cobalt flexiplating is $450 at 25 kilos…"
"Dude, we have enough here to sell a store out of Xbox 2880's!" Acziome shouted.
"I'd have to agree with you on that one, Acziome." I said, smiling, "So we should only take a little bit."
"Awww! I was wanting to have a few $1000 in my pocket!"
"Quit whining, and start tearing out circuitry!" I snapped.
"Alright, alright! I'm tearing!"
We worked on this for a while. It felt a bit like biology class for androids. Acziome kept asking me questions to which I said to ask Jetterre or Surge, because I didn't know the answer. After a while he did ask me a question that I could answer.
"What's the yellow stuff on the circuit board? I know its circuitry, but I don't know what it's made of.
I leaned over to look, "That's gold."
"GOLD!?"
"Yes. Aside from superconductors, it's the one of the very best conductors!"
Abruptly, he took out a screwdriver, and started chipping away at the board.
"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm gonna get more rich!"
"You think breaking a circuit board will-" Then it dawned on me what his plan was.
"You're never going to get enough gold from that to sell at a reasonable price."
Acziome had already stripped the gold from the board. He put the filaments in the left satchel on his belt.
"Well, I'm now going back to those other circuit boards. Mr. Makuro didn't say we had to keep them intact. Besides, I'm sure they're updated already. Most of the Heroes here are already upgraded."
Acziome's statement did made sense. But I was being bombarded by an overwhelming urge to stop him.
There isn't anything apparently wrong with what he's doing… I thought, then, why do I get the feeling that letting him go on with this is a big mistake?
"Uhh, Acziome… I don't know why, I just don't think you should do that…"
"Why not?"
I had to think of an excuse. When I couldn't think of one, I said,
"Because I said to, that's why."
"That's not a good reason, Darks."
That stumped me. Acziome, however, just continued ripping gold out of circuit boards, contently.
"Let's start cutting up the armor now. The sooner we do that, the sooner we get our money." I said a short while later
At the word 'money' Acziome perked up.
"Yeah! Let's do it!"
We took turns with the blowtorch. The bright yellowish light cast an eerie glow in the room lit with the cool fluorescent lights.
Soon, we had the armor cut up in manageable chunks. It also made it indistinguishable from other pieces of scrap metal. We chucked the pieces onto the conveyor belt and turned it on. Acziome wanted to go through it.
"No, you can't." I told him.
"But, it's on my bucket list!"
"You're too young to have a bucket list!"
"Hah! You're never too young!"
I rolled my eyes. I then dragged him out of the storage area.
(H)(H)(H)
With Jetterre's help, we drove the pickup truck to the scrap yard. He said he would help us if we paid him, much to Acziome's complaints.
When we arrived, and walked in, Jetterre was star struck.
"Guys… this is payment enough! Look at all these spare parts! All free, even! You can keep your money!" he said.
I let him enthusiastically browse the wares. Our objective was the main office.
We walked a few meters towards a concrete building on the edge of the main yard. I knocked on the door, and waited patiently. Acziome, not as patiently, rapped on the door again. A perfect example of lack of patience.
"Alright, I'm comin', I'm comin'!" The owner said from inside, clearly annoyed.
"Way to go, bro!" I said, scowling at Acziome.
"What is it you wa-…" he started, noticing we were Heroes.
"Whatever it was, I didn't do it!" he said, nervously.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, "Why do you say that?"
"I was worried that you might've found Hero armor that wasn't cut up. I run an honest business. Well, I turn down anything suspicious, that is."
"Nope. No need to worry."
The owner wiped his brow, clearly relived.
What are you here for, then? Some spare parts to modify your Hero-Craft?" he asked.
"We're not here to buy. But that is a good idea… Maybe later though. We're here to sell." I said.
"Sell? What do you have that you could sell me?"
"Scrap metal from the-"
"From the storage areas with all the old armor!" Acziome interrupted.
I opened my mouth to tell him off, but he went on.
"We have 15 kilos of titanium-cobalt weavings, and 10 of some Kevlar infused boron-cobalt flexiplating!" he said in his over-enthusiastic, almost salesman-like monologue.
The owner was lost for words.
"I'll go see how much I've got…" he said, scratching his scalp.
"Why?!" I exclaimed, "Why did you do that?! I told you on the way over here: 'let me do the talking!' Can't you respect that!?"
"Well, you're a boring salesperson. At least I got a result." Acziome countered.
"I NEVER EVEN TRIED!" I shouted.
"I could tell by your apparent lack of enthusiasm that he wasn't going to care much."
"You stumped the poor man, Acz!"
"So? Like I said, 'I got a result didn't I?'"
This argument was going nowhere fast. I just dropped it.
The owner came out with his wallet.
"What's with all the yellin'?" he asked.
"Just a private conversation." I said.
"Seemed more than just a conversation." The owner muttered, handing us the required sum of money.
Acziome stared at it, greedily.
"Thank you, sir. Have a nice day." I said.
"You too. See ya 'round." He said, waving.
"Pleasure doing business with you." Acziome said.
"Acziome! You are not a salesman! So quit imitating one!"
Acziome ignored my comment and said, "Are we going to get Jetterre?"
"Oh, Jetterre! I forgot all about him!" I said, slapping my forehead.
"Hey guys! Someone say my name?" Jetterre called from somewhere.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"You're lookin' right at me." He said.
I could faintly see the blue-diluted red glow of his eyes from behind a large pile of scrap. I realized that he was moving it on a forklift pallet, onto which some wheels and a tarp were attached.
"You're not taking all that, are you?!" I asked, almost frightened.
"No," Jetterre said, I almost breathed a sigh of relief, but… "There are five more piles this size around back. We have plenty of room in the pickup truck's bed."
"Yes I know," I said, as Jetterre walked out from behind the pile, "But don't you think that's quite enough of spare parts?"
Jetterre shook his head, then something caught his eye, hidden amongst the piles that he wasn't taking.
He gasped, "WOW! A dynamic-update servo!" He said, as he literally dove into the pile.
After thirty seconds of fossicking around underneath the scrap, his hand poked out, and announced triumphantly, "There it is! Isn't she a beauty?"
After explaining that I failed to see the beauty of a motor, he just shrugged and stuffed it into one of the satchels on his utility belt. He then proceeded to take the large pile he was moving to the pickup truck.
"You do know that the maximum load capacity for this pickup is 1.8 tons?"
"Yes I do, Darks. I thought of that beforehand. I weighed them, and they all come to a combined weight of 1.35* tons." He said, matter-of-factly. He then frowned. "I was going to bring ten piles, but they exceeded the limit."
I chuckled. Then, I asked him, "Why do you need all of those piles of scrap?"
"I like to tinker." He said, patting the top of one of the piles, making several bits avalanche down, "I also like to self-modify. I plan to make a pair shock amplifiers from these parts. Also doubling as shock absorbers too, of course." He added.
"Shock amplifiers?" I asked, intrigued.
"Yes. I may not act, or look like it, but, I'm just stating this as a fact, I am quite smart. I did all the calculations, blueprints, and research myself. You know about Aerial Faith Plates, right?"
"Right." I said.
"I borrowed from how they work, only mine use a piston that gets a lot of air forced into it, making it extend rapidly. The piston used for the amplification of the shock also doubles as an absorber."
"Ah. That makes sense."
"Yeah, but my preliminary designs had them strapped to the bottoms of my feet. I also wanted to use them for kicking, but strapping them to the front of my feet would've made jumping awkward. But I'm sticking with this design. It's the best one, through and through."
"You said you like to self-modify?" I asked.
"You bet your SIAs I do! I'm wa-a-a-ay different to when I was first built! If my original creator were to visit me, which he has a couple times before I went rogue, he'd probably remark, 'Wow, Jetts!' He calls me Jetts, 'You look totally different! Is that a visor that you've got on your helmet? That's really amazing! You're so clever!' …Or something like that."
"You have a visor?" I asked.
"Sure." He said. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet, which I never saw before, and an ice-blue glass visor lifted up into his helmet, and his eyes were now just red. Not blue-diluted red.
"Wow… That's pretty cool. No wonder your eyes looked blue diluted red. Why do you need a visor, anyway?"
"I don't really know…" He said, putting his visor down again, "I just thought it looked cool, but it might end up being useful."
"Guys, aren't we gonna go home to put my- I mean our money in my- I mean our bank account?" Acziome asked.
I chuckled.
"Yes, Acziome, we can go take our money and transfer it into our bank account after I go to the games store to buy our new Xbox, and get the hard drive replaced." I said, teasing him.
"Okay, okay! Let's go." Said Acziome, noticeably resigned.
"I just need to get these into the pickup, first." Jetterre said.
"I'll help. Acziome, you wait in the pickup. I don't trust you with piles of stuff this big."
Acziome walked off, sulking.
"All right, three, two, one, li-i-i-ift!" I said, grunting under the weight.
The pallets were so heavy, I heard our servos whine under the strain, but we eventually got all of the parts in the pickup. Then we climbed in, and drove to the game store.
*1.8 is bigger than 1.35, because as you go down the decimal row, the value of the number decreases. So it's not one point thirty-five, it's one point three five. This random math fact is for those who might get confused by that statement.
