Alive
By: Aviantei
2 mph
Cunningham stands in the middle of the room, already dressed in his mech suit. The vibrant red stands out amongst the pale architecture of the hangar. His posture is sturdy and tensed to fight. The air conditioner thrums around us as I try to figure out which move to take next.
I have my credentials, which means a number of excuses could do. I could always take the apologetic employee route: "Oh, Mr. Cunningham, I'm sor—" Gross, fuck that. I may have done plenty of questionable things to get here, but I haven't hurt anyone or sabotaged anything. I'm not afraid, so I don't need to act like it.
He can hire a better lawyer than me if he has to, I remind myself. The height factor keeps me from reading Cunningham's face, but that means he can't see my grimace, either.
"Wanna explain to me what the hell you're doing in my mech?" the racer shouts up at me, all of his displeasure packed into the words. Of course I picked his mech. Why not? "You have about five minutes to talk before I call security."
The warning doesn't carry the same bite. It's not his first time facing down someone where they don't belong. I'm just a hassle in his own routines. If I'm reading his voice correctly (and I know I am, because I know those feelings in distinct clarity), then he's—
"Bored much?" I call back down, adjusting my stance so I can lean on the edge of the cockpit. I'll play the sassy part; how often do you get to have a throw down with a celebrity anyway? "Listen, I'm just here to have a private tour, okay? Get me down from here and I'll get out of your hair. No need to call your buddies." Cunningham seems to contemplate the words, and I use the opportunity to think back on the guards I saw before. I've dabbled in enough mixed martial arts that I could take down three or four with surprise, but not much more than that.
I've been in the hospital enough times. Think of a different plan.
"Fine," Cunningham relents, and I can't figure out enough from the single word. "Stay put until I say so. One wrong move and you'll get a private tour of a police cruiser." As if I haven't seen that outcome before, either. If the evening ends up being a bust after this, I'll be pissed. Cunningham crosses to a console on the east side of the room, keeping his eyes on me like I could even run away in my position. "How'd you get up there anyway?" He doesn't project his voice on that one, but the lack of other sound makes it easy to hear.
I put my smirk into my response: "Ever hear of parkour?" Cunningham pauses before the computer layout, his head twisting to look to the railings. I flash him a thumbs up of confirmation.
Cunningham's sigh echoes up to my spot in the cockpit. He turns to the keyboard before him, manipulating commands on the console. I wish I could see from up here. There's a whir as machinery comes to life, a lift mechanism from the side of the room extending out. The platform comes to a rest in front of me, a small gate visible in the railing. I could reach the handle if I extended my arm to half length.
"You planning on taking up my seat all night?" Cunningham demands.
"You're the one who said not to move," I call back. Not waiting for a response, I stand up in said pilot's seat, check my distance and jump, catching onto the platform's support railing and hauling myself over the edge. The mech behind me still doesn't budge.
I take a few breaths to catch up my oxygen intake. Even though I'm not in the mech anymore, the faint buzz of excitement sticks in my chest.
Without warning, the platform moves. It's not jerky enough to make me lose balance as Cunningham maneuvers me to the ground. Still not in the mood to toy around with security, I play the good girl and fold my hands behind my back.
Cunningham's suit thumps like armor as he crosses the floor to me. He's without helmet, meaning it's still not time for him to go. "Special warm up time?" I ask, half to stall time, half from curiosity. Not that I need money, but I could earn a few favors from my informant buddies if I scrounge up fresh information on Cunningham Hume. "Didn't mean to interrupt, you know. I thought the hangar was supposed to be empty at this time."
"Do you even care how suspicious you sound?" Cunningham's dry remark gives me no pause.
"You already think I'm suspicious. What's acting otherwise gonna help?" Now at a closer distance, I can make out the sharp angle of his jawline holding up the otherwise youthful features of his face. Dark hair is styled upwards, just like all his publicity photos. He seems like a straight laced guy. Bribes won't work. "Listen, whatever you're gonna do to me, just get it over with. I'd rather not waste a lot of time on formalities. I'll even go to the police. Just say the word and I'm out of your hair."
At this point, my best hope is to get the arrest over with fast. Pleading guilty should keep Cunningham from wanting to do anything too drastic. Who wants the hassle of a lawsuit anyway? I certainly don't.
I wait for him to make a call, trigger a security feature, anything. Instead, Cunningham opens the gate on the other side of the platform and steps up to me. He's got the height, and I know being a pilot involves at least some level of physical prowess. I can't size up his body shape through his bulky mech suit, but trying to take him on in a fight screams of a bad idea.
Cunningham reaches his hand out and catches the lanyard from around my neck. He raises my ID to his eye level without taking it off. There's less than a foot between us. "Kirsten Tailor," he reads. A few more moments pass as he looks over both sides of the ID and then drops it. The flimsy card bounces in dissonance with the percussion inside my ribcage. "You do know that building employees can get a tour of the building when they start, right?"
In other words, it's something I should know. Well, it's not like I'm attached to my cover or anything. Still, I keep up the vague responses. "Employee tours can't show me what I want to see." Cunningham hasn't stepped back. I don't know if I'm fast enough to slip away without him catching me. It's almost exciting, not knowing how this is gonna play out.
Almost.
"You mean the inside of my cockpit," Cunningham deadpans at me.
I beam at him, in hopes it'll catch him off guard. "It didn't have to be yours." Like hell I'm gonna get pegged as some crazy fan of his. "Yours was just the easiest to get into."
Cunningham looks back at the line of mechs, all bright and imposing. I lean my head back in an attempt to see them, too. Unlike some other teams, the Velshtein mechs have very few distinguishing features. Cunningham's, parked in the middle, just happened to have the best run-up time for me to launch myself into.
The man sighs again, and I toss a glare up at him. "Alright, I'm stumped," he admits. "You work here, but you do stupid stuff like this?" I hold my tongue. Let him think what he wants. Cunningham presses a hand to his temple. "Whatever. The rest of the team's going to be here in ten minutes to get set up started. If you wanna check out the mechs, set it up with the staff. I have a race to do."
He turns his back on me—a stupid move really—but I don't take the chance to bolt. That would be too suspicious. Cunningham clunks his way off the platform and walks up to the side of his mech. Right, he showed up off schedule because of a pre-race ritual. One I'm interrupting.
I should walk off. That would make the most sense in this situation. But I caught something: the first undercurrent of excitement in his voice at the mention of the race. Breaking and entering is nothing to him in comparison to hitting the track. But on the other hand, that means hitting the track is the only thing that matters to him.
Everything is gray. Such a mundane perception pisses me off. One of the biggest superstars in IGPX history, and he's not even satisfied with it. He didn't even smile when he mentioned the race. Sure, that might be because I'm a nuisance to him, but I'd expect at least some enthusiasm for something he should be all means enjoy.
I spin around, the metal clanging as my boot stomps down on it. Even though my gloves, I can feel my nails bite into my palms. Cunningham looks up at me, his palm still splayed out on the leg of his mech.
"If it's not even special to you, why do you bother?" I demand.
Cunningham frowns. "If you don't leave Sir Hamgra won't be as nice as I was."
I snort. Like I care about some team manager. "You don't care about any of that," I continue. "You don't even bother to care about me messing around in your shit." I stride forward and push open the gate closer to him. Cunningham turns to face me again, his expression unsettled. "You can't seriously tell me you're having fun with any of this. Just how bored do you have to be with everything to think life's not even worth your attention?"
I know the answer to that, because that's how bored I am. But I, at least, have an excuse. Not him, not someone who gets to sit in the peak of adrenaline. If he's going to treat that like it's nothing, then I'm not going to let it slide.
"Your point being?" His deep voice wavers just a bit, leaving a curl of satisfaction in my stomach.
I hold up my badge between two fingers. "This is fake," I say, as plain as blank paper. "I went to the trouble to get it because I'm a thrill seeker. That's why I would do 'stupid stuff like this,' thank you very much." Cunningham looks like he can't decide whether to yell at me or just look stupefied. The latter wins. "So tell you what. You let me walk out of here without any trouble, and in return I'll show you some of the more exciting things in life. I won't even break into your precious little hangar again."
This is where it gets tricky. I've left enough distance between us that I have a head start on the door. At the very least, I can use parkour if I have to. There's no way he has enough mobility for that sort of stuff in his mech suit. Of course, my contact was fucking with me when she put my real name on the ID, but I have a few old friends who owe me some favors if necessary…
"Are you messing with me?" Cunningham asks, his look more cutting than the edge of a blade.
I skip backwards a few steps, avoiding the platform behind me. I've pushed the time limit too far on this one. "Half the fun of life is taking chances, Cunningham," I taunt still backing up towards the door. "You can either do the rational thing and call security on me, or you can indulge a bit and see what fun I can get you into." I grin, making sure to show off as many of my teeth as possible. "But if you ask me, I think the time for rationality has long passed."
I'm far enough across the room I have to project my voice to reach him. I can't read his expression anymore, either. But I do manage to catch his startled shout as I press the trigger to open the door and slip back out into the hallway.
[Author's Notes]
Goodness gracious, it's been some time, hasn't it? Much apologies, I ended up doing the stupid thing and started way too many projects and ended up way over my head. If we want to get technical, I'm still over my head, but I'm working on fixing it. So, after way too fucking long, here we have the next chapter of Alive!
Before I get into spilling out excuses on why the heck this is so late, I must first thank kimikokimono, ZabuzasGirl, and ThayetRosethorn for the favorites, follows, and reviews left on this story. Considering it only had a prologue and a first chapter, that's a pretty solid response. Hopefully all of your enthusiasm for this idea hasn't faded!
The good news is that I don't just have one chapter for you all, but several lined up, and they will be updating on a weekly basis until I run through the queue. I truly love this story and where it's going, so I hope that love came through in my writing and makes its way to you. I haven't quite reached the end of the plot in those updates (I've been scrambling to produce content for my other eighteen fics), but it should be enough to keep this story from dying an awful death it doesn't deserve.
If you wanna keep an eye on what I'm actively writing, my Twitter Plot_K_Bunny has daily updates on what I'm drafting and other announcements, so do check that out for news. And either way, I'll see you next week for chapter three. Please look forward to it!
-Avi
[03.12.2018]
