A/N: And a new chapter is up! Trying my best not to leave too long gaps between chapters. But at the same time, since I don't write very often, I try to take my time to write each one. I don't want to rush the story along too much.
No warnings for this chapter except for minor swearing.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Jak and Daxter series. The property is owned by Naughty Dog and it's respectful owners.
-Chapter Three: New Faces Part 2-
It was a little cooler that evening. In fact, Keira noticed it was seemingly colder in Kras at night than Haven was. She made a mental note to buy more clothes that was suitable for this cold weather. She sighed, hoping that a cool air was because of the season, and it wouldn't get any worse. She already had plenty of reasons to dislike Kras and she didn't need one more problem to add to the growing list.
Keira borrowed a jacket from Alex, her newly and only extremely energetic "assistant". For the past three months, she didn't know exactly what to call her. 'Assistant' seemed to fit best but she seemed more like a student than anything else. If she wasn't running her mouth a thousand miles per second, then she was finding ways to screw things up it seemed. But there was one thing Keira really admired about Alex, and that was her ability to pick up things fast. She was a quick learner, Keira never felt the need to repeat herself in order for Alex to understand her. She passionate about machines and race cars just as much as Keira was.
But you would think the shared interest and the higher intellect would cause them to be very close friends. After all, she allowed her to spend almost twelve weeks working with her, teaching her the tools of the trade, and even allowing her to work overtime without the extra pay. But unfortunately, that wasn't entirely the case. Alex's personality was something Keira was not quite used to. She was a fast talker and can sometimes be a scatter brain.
Keria had to double check every break, every single engine, every squeaky wheel Alex 'fixed'. She would often forget to do one two or even three key important things. Like leave whole parts out, or forgetting to double check the engine to see if it would even start. She has left quite a few customers very angry. It had occurred to Keira to fire Alex several times, but she simply couldn't afford to. She didn't know anyone else in Kras that would except the low pay she was offering Alex. And besides, somehow despite her many flaws, she managed to bring in some business from time to time. Although how she was doing it was questionable.
She asked Alex once about the customers, they didn't exactly look like you standard citizens. But Alex always had the same response; 'Don't worry about it!' she would say, 'I have connections from all over!' Keira never pushed beyond that. Perhaps she was afraid that she might lose whatever little business she had coming in. Or maybe she was too afraid to know the real ugly truth… whatever that could be.
Keira found herself parked outside of a large scrap yard, located on the very outskirts of the city. She zipped up the jacket she borrowed from Alex. It wasn't exactly fitting but it was better than having nothing in the chill night. She hopped out of her car and walked towards the large metal gates. She pressed the large buzzer on the entrance.
There she stood for less than a minute, but for her it felt more like five. She pressed the buzzer again, hoping this time to get a response. She told herself she wasn't going to go back to the shop empty handed. After the third buzz a little vidbot hovered over the gate. Its bright red light flashed in Keira's face and she covered her eyes, looking rather annoyed.
"Who's there?" It spoke.
"Gear, com'on. It's me." Keira answered, "Can you let me in now? I'm freezing my butt out here!" She hugged her arms and did a little hop to show she was trying to keep herself warm. It was mostly for show, it may have been chilly out, but it wasn't that cold.
"Say the magic word!" The vidbot teased.
Keira sighed, "If you don't let me in, I won't buy anything, and you won't get any money."
"Money! The magic word!" The bot laughed, "Hold on, I'll open the gate for you."
The vidbot hovered back over the gate and a few seconds later the gate began to slide open. Keira walked inside as the gate closed shut behind her. She followed the vidbot between giant heaps of scrap metal and broken machine parts and who knows what, to the middle of the yard.
There, a man was tinkering with a large robotic arm. Probably belonging to one of his many creations. He had flood lights on all around the yard, so it wasn't too dark to see what he was up to. Keira could tell he's remodeling the gears in the joints of the arm
The man stood up straight, wiping the grease and sweat from his face using his forearm. He wasn't wearing a shirt, as it was tucked between his belt of his dark pants. He was lean fellow, but still very muscular. When he stood he was taller than Keira, but his height never felt imposing. It could be because he had a very gentle and calm smile, of which he greeted her with.
"Hey, Keira!" He said pulling his goggles down to let it hang loosely around his neck. "What's up?"
"I didn't mean to come by so late," Keira said tucking her hands into her jacket pocket, "But I needed something."
"I know, why else would you be here if it wasn't for spare parts." Gear joked as he grabbed his shirt tucked around his belt and wiped his face with it. "What do you need this time?"
"Well..." Keira looked away for a moment, and Gear had a sneaking suspicion what it might be. His smile however, didn't dissipate, as he was quite used to Keira's rather large and sometimes impossible requests.
"I need an eco convertor." She said, looking as innocent as she could be. Which for Keira, wasn't very hard.
"Oh!" He said in sly manner. For a moment Keira wanted sigh. She knew Gear well enough that when the first word that comes out of his mouth is 'oh', that was usually followed by 'I can't help you there' or 'I don't have that.'
But tonight might be a little different.
"I have one of those" Gear said smiling, knowing that Keira would be delighted. And that she was.
Kiera pulled her hands out of her pocket and clasped them together, "Really?!" She exclaimed. "Gear you have no idea how badly I need an eco converter! I'm losing business because all these new hotshot shops are now offering pure red eco for nitro boost for their cars!"
"Not surprising," he said "The championship race will be rolling around in few more months. Everyone want's to have some sort of advantage for the race." Gear threw his shirt on top of the robotic arm. "But you sure you want to mess with red eco? That's kinda dangerous."
Keira put her hands on her hips, "I've handled red eco way before you were even born!"
Gear gave a perplexed looked. Then Keira suddenly remembered that not everyone, outside of a few people in Haven, knew she was from the past.
She quickly waved her hand in the air. "Nevermind. Um, bad joke."
She crossed her arms, "So when can I get it? The sooner I can set it up back at the shop the better!"
"You can have it as soon as tonight!" He said.
"That's perfect! How much?"
"Forty-thousand credits." Gear said with a bright smile.
There was cold air of silence for few seconds, as Keira waited for man in front of her to start laughing or at least admit that he was kidding. Gear was known to be a joker around her, but that wasn't the case this time it seemed.
"Are you…" Keira hesitated "Are you sure, Gear?"
"Yep!" He said without missing a beat.
"You're insane!" Keira's outburst was certainly unexpected. It even shocked Gear. "Forty-thousand credits for an eco convertor?! How is that even possible?!"
Gear sighed, "You're right, that is insane." Keira almost looked hopeful, as she started to believe he would maybe knock down the price significantly to something more affordable.
"Usually it's sixty-thousand credits."
Keira huffed, "Gear, stop messing with me!"
"But I'm not." He said in a more serious tone, "A proper eco convertor isn't cheap. It isn't easy to make and it's even harder to come by. I'm offering it to you for far less. I'm doing you a favor, Keira."
"Some favor," she pouted, "You knew from the start I wouldn't be able to afford it. Even at twenty-thousand less."
"Business isn't doing too hot this week, huh?" He asked, with almost a slight concern in his voice.
"Are you kidding? Business hasn't been doing 'hot' all month!" she said, "Especially now that this new eco convertor on the market."
"Don't worry about it too much," he tried to assure her "Most people around here don't start a booming business in just a few months. This shit takes time."
Keira sighed, and not at the use use of Gear's profanity. "When I opened up my shop in Haven I had customers rolling in by week two. Now, I get one every two days! If I'm even that lucky!"
Keira turned away from him, "They call me a genius and yet I can't even get my own small business off the ground!"
Keira nearly jumped when she felt his hands touch her shoulders.
"Calm down." He told her, "It's just a slow year for everyone in this city. The real money won't start coming in until the big race starts. Trust me, you'll see, kid."
Keira whipped around, "Don't call me kid!"
"Whoa," Gear held his hands up, "Sorry, it's just a figure of speech."
Keira immediately felt a sting in her chest, "I'm sorry," she apologized, "I'm just having a tough week, I guess."
Geared turned around and picked up a small device that looked like remote. "Trust me, I've been there." He pressed a button on the device and a large robot walked from behind one of the large mountains of scrap metal.
"Hell," Gear began, "I've been having a shitty week myself."
The robot walked towards the two and waved it's clunky hand at Keira. She waved back with a small smile on her face. The robot reached for the large robotic arm Gear was working on earlier and connected it to it's body, making a loud clunk sound as it popped it into it's open socket.
"Now don't go breaking another arm again!" Gear spoke very sternly to the robot, "I'm not made spare parts, ya know?"
Keira thought that statement was quite ironic, considering Gear's whole business is selling spare parts.
"Now go back to garage, we got a big day tomorrow sorting through the new shipment." The large grey robot nodded, and sulked away towards the back of the scrap yard.
Keira looked up at the clear night sky feeling just as defeated as the robot probably did. She deeply exhaled and turned away from Gear.
"Well, guess this was a bust." She said as she started to walk away back to the main gate. "Thanks anyway Gear. I'd probably see you again soon when I'm selling parts just to stay afloat."
As she walked away, Gear scratched the back of his head. Not really caring about the small grease stains getting into his short bluish hair.
"Keira, hold on." he called out.
Keira stopped and turned slightly, "Yeah?"
"If you can come up with half the money, I can offer to loan it to you for month or…" Before he was able to finish his sentence Keira ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his bare upper body.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She repeated.
"Hold on!" Gear said chuckling, "I said IF you can come up with half the money first, and then you can only borrow it for a month or two if you can't afford to pay me the rest by then."
Keira pulled back, "Oh of course I will and when I get a hold of the convertor I'm sure business will go up!" Keira stood on her toes and pecked Gear on the cheek. "Thank you, Gear!" She said happily.
Keira began to walk back to the main gate as it slowly began to open enough for her to leave. She turned one last time at the shirtless smiling mechanic, "I'll try to get the credits soon! Good night!"
"Well, let's hope you can come up with the cash before someone else buys it from under you!"
Keira was already outside of the gate but she yelled back loud enough for him to hear, "Don't you even try to jinx me!"
Gear stared at the gate for moment longer as he touched the cheek Keira kissed him on. He smirks.
-o-o-o-o-
Keira opened the door to the shop. To her surprise she heard gears turning. She walked to the middle of the shop and saw Alex underneath a Brasher, a standard race car. Since it was the weekend, she expected Alex to clock out early and go do god knows what. Before Keira could say anything, Alex was the first to greet her.
"Hey! How'd it go?" Alex asked from underneath the car.
"Not great, the eco converter is a no-go right now" Keira walked up to the workbench, getting a pair a gloves, knowing she might have to double check Alex's work after she was through. "But if we can raise twenty grand, we can borrow it for a month at least."
Alex rolled out from underneath the Brasher. "Twenty, huh? Does that mean another pay cut this week?"
"If business doesn't pick up soon, then I'm afraid so."
"Ugh!" Alex, rolled back underneath the car and started to tinker around again. "Why didn't you just offer him something else instead?"
Keira leaned against the wall, waiting for Alex to finish up. "Offer him what? We don't have anything else valuable around here that's worth nearly as much."
"I wouldn't say that…" she said.
Keira felt confused, "What do you mean? Are you telling we have something worth that much lying around this dump?"
Alex rolled back out from underneath the car. This time she sat up and looked at Keira with a sly smile on her face. "You know he likes you, right?"
Keira felt her face flush. She knew what Alex was getting at, but she still wanted to play innocent. "I… don't think he likes me that way" Keira thought for a moment, "If anything, he thinks I'm a good business associate."
"Oh Keira," Alex stood up patting the dirt away from round bottom, "You could've easily 'borrowed' the eco convertor from Gear for far less, and you know it."
"And how exactly would I have done…" Keira immediately stopped when she saw the look on Alex's face. The truth was clear in her dark green eyes. If Keira's cheeks weren't red before then they certainly were at that very moment.
Keira stood up and held her composer "Alex!" She said sternly, "I would never do anything like that for a part!" Hell, she would never do anything like that for… well, anything! Just the thought of it made her feel dirty.
"Relax!" Alex stepped back, "It's alright, I totally understand" She almost sounded sympathetic. "I know you're virgin and…"
"I am not a virgin!" Keira shrieked.
Alex looked at her in shock. Maybe it was Keira's loud outburst that shocked her or the fact that she revealed she was indeed, not a virgin.
Keira sighed and placed her hand on her head. She started to feel stressed. She took a deep breath and continued to speak.
"Alex, I'm not a virgin, okay?" She placed her hand down, "Why would you even think that I was?"
"Well," she did her usual pose when she thinks. A finger on her chin, a hand on her hip, and her had cutely cocked to the side, "I've never you see you go out, except to buy parts. At night you spend most of your time alone, and you work almost non stop that you've never seem to notice any guy who comes around here to flirt with you."
"I'm running a business here!" Keira waved her hand around "I don't have time to go out on dates."
"Who said anything about dating?" Alex asked, "You don't need to go on a candle light dinner just to have some fun." She winked.
Keira didn't want to look like some saint or worse, a prude who was afraid of the mere mention of sex. She wasn't a child, she had urges too. She just been too occupied to even think about it, let alone properly 'deal' with it. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.
"I'll have 'fun' after I know this shop is fully up and running smoothly." Keira said confidently.
"Fair enough." Alex said taking off her work stained gloves. "So…" Keira shivered knowing what the question coming up might be. "Who was it?"
Keira grabbed her tools from the work table and sat on the roller on the ground. "This really isn't the time to talk about-"
"Was it that Jak guy!" she asked with the brightest most amused look on her pretty little round face.
Keira looked down, "Alex, I really prefer if we didn't-"
"What was he like? Was it good? Was it amazing?I bet he was amazing!" Alex blabbed on, not realizing Keira's pained expression.
"Alex, please. This is too personal-"
"I heard he can turn into some kind of beast. Is that true? Is it scary or sexy? Has he ever turned to a beast in bed? Oh please, please tell me he has! It must have felt-"
Keira stood up quickly, "Alex! One more word and you're fire-"
Suddenly there was a buzzer from the door. She quickly thanked the precursors for the interruption. She didn't know how much longer she could take of the conversation between her and Alex. Alex offered to answer the door but Keira quickly stopped her. It could have been a collector, and she needed to find a good excuse why she missed out on last month's rent. The vid screen was still broken so Keira just opened the door.
And there the man stood. He was tall, maybe even taller than Gear. But unlike Gear, his height felt more imposing. He had dark slick raven hair and defined strong facial features. He wore an expensive looking red coat with black trims, and popped collar. He had lit cigarette in his mouth which reached up and pulled out, holding it between his gloved fingers.
As he spoke, the smoke gently blew out from between his lips.
"I'm looking for a mechanic."
-o-o-o-o-
A/N: Ah ha! I'm not looking to fill a whole story with just original characters! This is based on the Jak X timeline after all. I look forward to including more... familiar faces in the next coming chapters.