Karigoya Yabureme
Chapter 4
By shadows/of/flame

Thank you very much to all of my reviewers. Credit to my sis for help with this chappie.
Sig and a bit of Torn OOCness.

A mission.

Keira slept like a dream that night.
Jak was utterly pissed off that Keira was his competition, but Ashelin convinced him there was nothing he could do, and eventually he too, drifted off to sleep. wondering what had happened to the girl he used to love.

0o0o0
"I have a mission for you."

Keira spun around as she entered the kitchen to see Torn, of all people, making breakfast.

"What is it? That super uber important one?"

Torn smirked.
"Not the same one... but one of the same importance. Sig is going to fit your gun properly, then you will go through an old door in the sewers and guide a train filled with explosive dark eco to blow open the door into Mars Mine.
For some reason, the cities eco supply is getting low again, and of course the slums will be the first to suffer, so we need you to open the door so we can supply more eco to the city... For a price of course."

Keira grinned, had her breakfast as soon as it was ready, bidded Torn goodbye, and went to get her gun modified.

Sig saw her through the glass of the Naughty Ottsel, his second most regular hideout, and he fitted her gun in 5 minutes with the tools he had.
"Piece of cake cherry! Now go and work some magic!"

Keira took the gun from Sig. It seemed... lighter somehow.
She thought nothing of it, and hijacked a hover to the sewer doors.

"This place is swarming with metal heads..." she grumbled loudly, flicking the gun to the Yyvn setting and shooting a group of the nasty creatures.

Water dripped down the walls, and it was... it stank, to say the least.

Keira was used to worse smells - the smell of sulphur was enough to make anyone but Jinx gag.

"Ain't the smell of sulphur grand?" he had asked once.

Now, as the smell drew closer, she knew he had inhaled too much sulphur.

Keira slammed her feet down hard on the switch - and managed two things at once.

The water from the elevator drained to reveal the elevator, and the tunnels electricity switched on, causing Keira temporary blindness.

Keira switched her gun to the laser setting, and shot a few metal heads that had been revealed by the sudden light.
It was only a matter of twisting turns and endless corridors before she found the door to the train room, and she entered cautiously.

'So this is the train...' Keira thought amusedly as she saw the tiny thing.
'This is going to blow up the door? Oh please.'

Keira read the instructions scrawled on a piece of paper by Torn before she left. He usually had hurried handwriting, but this was worse than usual, and she had to squint in the faint light to read it.

"Flick the switch to activate the train.
Shoot the bridge parts as the train comes to them, otherwise it will fall into the abyss and you will fail the mission.
If all goes well, the door will blast open, and after that, return to the hideout immediately. I'm counting on you. Good luck.
-Torn."

Keira flicked the switch, and ran to keep up with the tiny train as it sped towards the first set of bridge parts. Keira shot them successfully and passed on to the next set.

But halfway through, her laser stopped working!
Keira panicked, and checked the solar energy the laser was powered off.

It was half full.

She tried the bullets, but the gun didn't shoot far enough, and it missed completely, nearly destroying a part of the bridge.

Devastated, she watched as the train of eco plummented off the set track... into oblivion.

She had failed.

0o0o0

Torn was pacing back and forth, wondering where the hell Keira was.
He thought Keira would have contacted him on her communicator by now.

Sig rushed in, out of breath, but pale as a new white pillow case drenched in bleach.

"Torn!"
Torn spun around to see Sig.

"I have to confess... and I need to pass on some bad news.
"Keira failed the mission."

Torns heart stopped as he heard those four fatal words.

"She... She WHAT?"

Sig bowed his head and nodded.

"Her gun failed at the last minute, and the train fell into the pit and blew up. We should have never trusted her."
Torn swore, kicking the table.

"But you checked that gun for faults! You said to me and her it was in perfect working condition!"

Sig lowered his head again. "Thats what the confession bit is about..."

The door opened, and Keira stumbled in, bruised and cut badly, holding the Dawn Raid.

"I'm sorry Torn... I failed... the gun..."

"NO MORE EXCUSES!" Torn yelled.

Keira was shocked.

"You KNEW how to use the Dawn Raid correctly - you were instructed how to! The mission outlines were PERFECTLY clear - you disobeyed them. It was not a difficult mission, but more an important one. You failed everyone!"

Keira slammed the Dawn Raid down on top of Torns maps that were sitting on his table, startling the other occupants of the room.

"Do you HONESTLY think that it was my misuse of the gun, that this THING crapped out and refused to help! The power guage was HALF FULL. So excuse me, sir stuck up prude, how the hell was I supposed to either use a gun as a boomerang, or get another gun in time to be able to complete the task? You gave me ONE fucking gun. Your darling Jakky has 12! How the hell was I supposed to complete a mission like this with one fucking gun? Sure, it has two settings, but the Yyvn bullets are useless from a long range!"

Keira threw the gun at Torn, and left the Underground hideout, regardless of her state.

"KEIRA!" Torn yelled, worry evident in his tone.

Torn grabbed his jacket, and went out and scoured the streets for her, but to no avail.

Torn went back to the hideout to see Sig sitting on an abandoned bunk, looking embarrased.

"Its not her fault her gun crapped out."

Torn hung his coat on the hanger, and faced Sig.
"Then whos fault is it?"

Sig hung his head for the third time that day.

"Mine Torn... I... you told me to improve her gun... so it could do the mission properly... But I tampered with it. I pulled out and damaged the programming. I didn't want Keira to succeed... because then she would be your right hand woman... and you'd never let me go on any missions."

Torn was shocked to his very core. He had never seen the jealous side of Sig before.

"You would have me kill Keira, or at the least kick her out of the Underground, so you would be my favourite again?"

Sig nodded sheepishly.

"Then you would have to kill Jak too - if Keira dies it will be him I will turn to.
"For your actions, you will take a plasmite bomb and blow open the door yourself!"

Sig went as fast as he could without running, and Torn felt an unfamiliar prick behind his eyes.

"Oh Keira..." he whispered, the prick getting sharper, "Wherever you are, I hope you're safe."

Pecker and Onin came in, Pecker having heard everything in the conversation.

"Oh, are you starting to CARE?"

Torn wasn't so sure anymore.