Chapter 20: A Brief Departure

"Achoo!"

A sudden, violent sneeze erupted from the teenager, causing her to take a few wobbly steps back before falling to the ground. It was freezing outside, but since she was in Los Angeles in the middle of the night in the dead of winter it was understandable. Sure, it was nice and toasty warm here in the middle of the day, but night time was another story.

"Gesundheit." She said to herself as she regained her feet.

"You okay, Jette?" A blonde haired man in his early twenties asked.

"Yeah, yeah, other than the cold I'm completely fine, Rufus," Jette replied in a voice that was somehow both cheerful and sarcastic at the same time. It was obvious the girl wasn't in good shape. If the fact that she was coughing, hacking, and sneezing up a storm wasn't enough to show that she was most certainly not fine, the bullet holes that were still oozing crimson blood was.

"Don't think I don't know sarcasm when I hear it, you goofball," Rufus said lightly. "What's the big idea of trying to steal something from the Ghouls? That gang's the roughest one in town, and they don't joke when they say they're going to shoot at anyone that comes into their territory."

"First of all, I wasn't stealing anything. I dropped my wallet and it rolled down the hill into their territory. I was merely retrieving my property." Jette retorted. "And second of all, I figured that I'd be in and out before anyone noticed me. Besides, everyone on the street knows that I'm not a part of the gangs, I just crash at your hideout because you let me."

"Regardless you're lucky their guard had bad aim," Rufus replied as he opened the door to the abandoned garage, pulling the girl in out of the elements. "You're lucky that he only hit your arm and not your heart."

"At least I got my wallet back." Jette pulled the item out of her pocket happily, causing Rufus to sigh.

"Why'd you even go after it? It wasn't worth it if you ask me." He said.

"It's got a letter from my mom inside," Jette confessed as she pulled out a wrinkled, yellowed sheet of paper. "It's the only piece I have of her and my twin sister. You know how mom had to give me to one of her friends to raise since she couldn't raise two girls. This is the only piece of my family I have left."

"Has she woken up yet, Zetta?" The purple android sighed and glanced over at his metal companion.

"Not yet, Meg," Zetta replied, glancing over at the cot that was nestled in a small alcove in the room. A girl - in truth the only human in the small Accelian outpost - was lying on it, eyes closed. Her name was simply Jay. No surname, just Jay. In truth, it was her nickname, but she had dropped her real name a long time ago.

Yes, Jay, the only human to reside in Highway 35. A victim of the Acceleron and Drone feud, or so she thought. Jay had the misfortune to find a piece of the Wheel of Power in her hometown of Chicago, the innermost section called the Zero Ring. It had pulled her into Highway 35, trapping her here. Needless to say, Jay hadn't liked that too much, and thus like any teenager would most likely do she tried to resist the Accelerons and the power they had gifted her.

Unfortunately, she decided to resist it when they very first Realm had opened up. The girl had succeeded but at the cost of falling into a coma as soon as the Realm closed. Trying to fight the interdimensional pull with only her willpower had been too much.

That had been about seven months ago. She hadn't died, but the girl's condition also hadn't improved.

Meg seemed to deflate a bit hearing that Jay wasn't up yet, and soon left the room. Meg's sister Kilo wandered in a few moments later to ask a question, and soon Gigabyte and Exabyte came in from patrol. Meg decided to be funny and douse Kilo with water, and the blue android, needless to say, wasn't thrilled.

"You're so immature!" Kilo snapped, hissing like a cat as Exabyte tossed the unfortunate victim a towel.

"Oh, quit being such a wet blanket." Meg giggled. If Kilo wasn't livid before, she certainly was not, and Giga was forced to physically restrain her. Exabyte sighed, and Zetta spared a moment to glance towards the heavens in exasperation before returning to her work. And throughout all the commotion, Jay didn't stir.

Maria scowled as she paced through her cell. Fourteen steps one way, pivot, fourteen steps the other way, pivot, fourteen steps the first way once again. It was a miracle that she hadn't worn a trench into the floor already.

Muttering in Spanish to herself, she switched directions, pacing along the width of the cell rather than the length. There was more space here - twenty-two steps between each pivot rather than fourteen - and soon settled into the new rhythm. All the while she still spoke to herself in Spanish, reciting poems, composing stories, carrying on conversations with the wall. Anything to stop her from going insane.

Clank, clank, clank. Heavy footfalls the girl blithely ignored soon entered the room. Cumbersome black metal hands wrenched open her cell door, tossing in a tray of food and a bottle of water before slamming the door shut. Food, water, any form of sustenance really was enough to get her to stop her weary trudge, and eagerly the girl turned to look at her meal. It was sort of skimpy, and half of it had spilled on the floor.

Once she wouldn't have even dreamed of eating the stuff that had spilled. But it had been days since Maria had consumed anything, and thus she swallowed her pride and scooped the pieces of bread and the small wrinkly apple off of the floor, brushing them off before setting them next to the lump of cheese that had thankfully not pitched onto the cold metal tiles.

Maria ate quickly before returning to her pacing. Shaking her head, she sighed and let some sort of half-laugh escape her.

"Aye Tono." She chuckled. "What would you, Mama, Nolito, and little Talia think of me if you all saw me now?"

"He wouldn't think anything." Maria glanced over at the door, where Gelorum had appeared. She wasn't alone, as LD-01 was dragging an unconscious African into the room. Said African was quickly tossed into the cell.

"And why is that?" Maria inquired frostily. She had no love for the freaky old hag of an android that had locked her up for the past three and a half months. In her eyes, Gelorum was a hypocrite - always looking down on humans but at the same time trying to emulate them so much.

"Your precious twin won't ever tell you anything again," Gelorum promised, reveling in the look of anguish that appeared on Maria's face as she spoke. "Because he is dead."

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