Chapter 6: Heist Redemption
A strange sound can be heard from the corridors sliding against metal echoes throughout its metallic walls blending in with the natural noise of the environment. The base is still quite lively however it's a far cry from what it was before. The cause of the noise was Iver sliding across the floors a silently as humanly possible. He makes his way to the landing bay clutching a heavy bag holding his gauntlets and boots. A mechanical hiss can be heard from his mask as he zips through passages and corridors.
"Tch, I didn't expect to sleep that long." He's annoyed by the fact that he slept for much longer than he had expected and that ruined his schedule. Ever since Kei handed Iver the USB stick, he has been planning on stealing one of the jets from the base. He tried to get the information from the stick earlier however it was encrypted and he didn't have time to decrypt it due to his rushed schedule.
He arrives at the entrance of the landing bay and scouts the area. Iver then makes his way inside and looks for a proper jet and his eyes land on the Stitchers Scrambler SJ25. His eyes widen as he recalls its performance on their persuit from the Judgment Order.
"Jackpot."
Iver slides his way to the Scrambler and as soon as he takes a proper look at it, his heart skips a beat, and that doesn't happen often, he'd hate to admit it, but he's a sucker for top-notch machinery. You could call him a Jethead. He gives himself a dry chuckle and places his bandaged hands all over the ship, and traces his fingers along the ridges, the scars. He almost feels remorse for stealing Aoi's prized position, but that feeling is quickly flushed out.
He looks at the panel he tore off and clicks his tongue.
"There's no point in all of this if I'm dead in space, shit."
There's a slight chance that it'll put him in danger, but he's not taking his chances and so he climbs the ship and starts fiddling with the wiring and cuts off the frayed fibers and fuses them together by increasing friction. He looks around the bay quickly, and finds a blow torch and gets a visor for his eyes and finds different scraps of thermal resistance panels. He fuses the scraps together to make one complete panel, each on with different properties.
"This'll have to do for now."
Iver loses himself in the process as he completes the finishing touches in silence and installs the panel. A lot of time was lost, however it was to ensure his own survival. He then grabs his bag and scales the ship and opens the hatch. He was prepared for some counter-measures to break inside the ship however it was unlocked, he didn't question it. As he makes his way down the ladder and he goes to the cockpit. He drops his bag on the side and prepares to hot wire the jet, the system was complicated however Iver found a loophole and got the jet to spool it's engines, the ship hums to life like a dream. However a stern voice, yet oddly commanding booms from behind Iver.
"You took a little longer than expected."
Iver grabs a wrench from his back and hurls it behind him to his target in the blink of an eye by reducing friction between the wrench and the air, however it was caught mid-air by none other than Roy.
"Relax, I'm just here to talk."
Iver squints his eyes and slowly stands up and faces him.
"Your point?"
Roy(Ryo) sits down and gestures Iver to do the same.
"The doctor figured that you'd try doing something like this, we were alerted around the time you tried opening the USB."
Iver stares at him, wondering what's going on behind those goggles, everything about this man tells Iver to not do anything too rash, or else something bad will happen. He takes a seat and he sighs.
"I got too excited and look where that got me."
Roy stares at Iver and then and then he puts his arms on his legs. Iver can't get a read on this man at all.
"Iver, me and you both know you're dying. Even if you make it out, I honestly doubt that you would make it out. It's a miracle as to how you've survives these past what 5 years is it?"
Iver blankly stares at Roy.
"I don't need some terrorist slash revolutionary group worrying about my safety. It means even less knowing that I don't care what happens to my body, as long as I do what I gotta do. Besides me and you both know you're just using me, you have what I want, and for some reason I have what you want."
Roy stares at the at the ceiling and sighs.
"I think you're misunderstanding something here...I don't really care about you at all, however don't you think it would be best if you were...cured before you went off on a suicide mission? Look Kei tells me that you have the uncanny ability to create chaos no matter the situation, I don't know how he knows that but I trust him."
Iver raises his eyebrows and walks to Roy and stares him down. He looks at Iver and responds.
"Don't believe me?"
He takes a canister from his jacket pocket and hands it to Iver labelled "Miracle Juice". Iver looks at his hand with a sceptical glare and grabs the container.
Roy says, "The only deal is that you help us out, I trust Kei's words and his belief in you...the Judgment Order must be stopped, and to do that we'll have to show them how unruly we can be Iver."
Ryo stands up and turns to leave climb out the ship.
"And by the way, this jet has a built in failsafe, and even if you did manage to escape, Stitcher normally sleeps near the Scrambler. So brace yourself drifter."
Ryo gives Iver one last glance and he climbs out of the ship. Iver sits down and sighs. He takes a look at the container. He doesn't trust their words...however if he wants to achieve his goal he has no other choice but to disarm his paranoia. He clutches his fists and slams down on the seat.
Iver grabs his bag and makes the hard decision to climb out of the Scrambler. As he makes his way out he descents from the ship and then proceeds to walk. A figure comes out from in front of him and Iver raises his head and finds Aoi standing in front of him.
"Hey Drifter."
Somethings different. She's pissed...Iver crossed a line. She walks up to him, her expression stern with silent anger.
Iver speaks up. "What do you want?"
Iver intends to ignore her presence and walk past her, however something stops him from doing so, and so he looks her straight in the eyes. She walks up to him and slaps him to the right, his mask gets out of position and falls, he keeps his face to the right, her hand hit his mask but she doesn't care about the pain at all. Ivers freezes for a moment, his mask is laying on the floor, his face is concealed by the shadow of the Scrambler.
Aoi speaks to Iver sternly, "That's for trying to steal my ship you inconsiderate asshole?"
She grabs his vest and her voice chokes.
"Well? Aren't you going to apologize? Why the hell would you do that?!"
She stops for a moment and notices his mask, she clicks her tongue and grabs his mask and places it in his open hand.
"Don't you know better than to take what's not yours?"
His one free hand covers his mouth, however not entirely. In the gaps there lies charred skin connecting to what lies underneath his bandages. He grasps his mask and puts it on slowly, his yellow eyes, dim and weary as he and looks at Aoi.
He adjusts his mask until a hissing sound comes out from his mask and he walks closer to Aoi. She calms down for a moment. And she speaks up.
"Why my ship, out of all the others here."
Iver squints his eyes, his face still stinging as he places his hand to the spot he was slapped and then speaks to Aoi.
"Because, out of all of them, yours is the most efficient. Look..."
Iver struggles with his words and cones to a resolution. He stares at the girl blankly his words heavy with something unreadable.
"I'm sorry about that, but I don't regret what I did, and I would do it again to do what I need to do."
Aoi's eyes widen from shock at his words. Iver then walks past her.
"And I paid back your debt."
She raises an eyebrow and looks at the panel he ripped off the other day and her jaw drops slightly, she rushed to her ships side ready to tear a new one until she saw all the different parts fused together. It was unprofessional, messy but filled with passion. That's exactly her style however she never would have thought that he'd be able to synchronize with her ships needs. Her fingers traced the torched lines slowly as she saw the different patterns on the panel.
She then closed her eyes and hugged her ship and breathed out heavily and opened her eyes. She looks at Ivers dissappearing figure and yells out.
"HEY, You're not out of the gutters yet but, you've certainly got a taste for quality."
Iver squints his eyes at the strange woman and and shakes his head and continues walking away. However as he disappears in the corner, he begins walking strangely.
He makes his way back to his room and as soon as the doors close behind him he immediately collapses against the doors and his body slumps to the floor. He takes off his mask and throws it to the side as blood splatters out of his mouth, his heart begins racing, he body trembles as a sharp pain tears through his body. It's starting again, his meltdown phase.
Iver has been suffering for the past 5 years ever since the nuclear reactor incident. He doesn't know how but to compensate his body basically stocks up the damage from his radiation sickness in exchange for some use of his body and then it's basically explodes and takes its toll on his body. During this time he normally disappears back in the red district to ride the waves. It's a painful experience, and it's a sign that he is slowly nearing his death if not fixed soon. The meltdown phase lasts for at least three days to a week.
Iver stares at the miracle juice container. His arm trembles hesitantly as he reaches for it, his paranoia kicks in…but he knows he won't survive any longer if he doesn't do something about it.
"Can't believe I'm doing this."
He then gives in and opens the canister violently and he pulls out some vials filled with green liquid with an injector device, he hurriedly attaches the two and injects his the liquid on the side of his neck. He drops the them on the floor as he begins feeling light headed. And his breathing shallows. The pain subsides.
"Why the hell…am I still here…I can't trust them…I won't…"
Iver passes out.