The inside of the restaurant was full of sounds and smells. Even at this low depth in Shikago’s guts the place was still a hive of activity as cashiers took orders and the cooks sent out food to hungry customers.
“Jasper calm it down, stay next to me okay?” Abel scolded, the yeown kid nodded his canine head, eyes still bright as his sensitive sense of smell must be going haywire in the warm restaurant.
Abel looked around the room, it was brightly lit. Colorful promotional materials lined the walls and the rest was windows that looked out of the parking lot outside. Several of the windows were covered up, the thin metal plates serving as a much more opaque kind of covering.
There were numerous patrons inside with them, Abel did a lightning count and saw there were at least sixteen others in the building that he could see. None looked like trouble but it never hurt to be cautious. Leaning down he whispered to Jasper “There’s the line. Let's go get in it.”
He watched as the kid scampered off, his long fluffy tail sticking out straight behind him in excitement. He shook his head and surveyed the place. It seemed to be in order, though he could see a few holes in the upper part of the far wall that looked like unpatched bullet holes. The lower levels of the city were not exactly lawless, but with larger and larger areas to cover with each stacked level the law enforcement down here seemed stretched a bit thin. Certainly far too thin to regularly patrol such a border establishment.
He walked to the line and stood next to the bouncing Jasper. He looked up to the menu and picked out a few tasty things to buy. He himself wasn't that hungry at the moment but he might get a small cheeseburger and a drink.
They waited in line as it slowly shortened, Jasper getting more impatient by the second it seemed. Finally they were at the counter, the bored looking nerivith man behind the counter giving them a look that said they were not excited to be there. “Welcome to McDoink’s. What can I get started for you tonight?” The pink skinned alien asked in a mildly dead voice, false cheer dripping from them like spoiled honey.
Jasper immediately blurted “Can I get a Double CheeseDoinker, annnd… and..” he turned and looked at Abel.
Abel Leaned forwards, the man behind the counter’s eyes widening a bit as he looked up at Abel’s heavily armoured form. “I would like a regular cheeseburger and a FungDoinker meal with a Cola-Cola, hold the mustard and please double grill the snallke. Also, go ahead and make that first one a meal. What do you want to drink Jasper?”
The youth seemed to think, his body freezing except for the end of his long tail which continued twitching. “I want a Pulsar-Cola.”
Abel raised an eyebrow but nodded to the cashier. “Will that be for here orr..” they glanced between the hyper Jasper and Abel’s own much more stoic posture.
“To go.” Abel handed the man a few osmir and was given a receipt in return. They moved from the line to stand next to the counter as after a moment a different McDoinks Burgerhut employee handed them a couple of drinks. Abel checked his internal timer. They had about eight minutes left, they would be cutting it close.
Jasper made a happy noise and Abel smiled as he saw the boy sipping his violently purple soda. The surgery bliss apparently sitting well with him. He decided to try and pry a little bit more at the kid’s past while they were in a safe environment.
Leaning against the nearby wall he popped the top of the Cola-Cola he had gotten and took a deep drink. The fizzy bubbles dancing across his tongue and sparkling down his throat in the most pleasant manner. “So Jasper, how long were you running the streets?”
Jasper froze again, but only for a moment. He looked over and up at him, the bottle still halfway in his sharp toothed mouth. “A bit.” He said evasively, his demeanour immediately changing as his face scrunched into a decidedly more furtive look.
Abel frowned but didn't press him, instead he took another drink of his soda. The mildly fruity flavor causing him to twitch, his memory sparking but in a manner he couldn't quite place.
Jasper started to poke him in the side. “Hey. Can you feel that?”
Abel smirked at the boy’s antics. “Yes, knock it off.” Jasper didn’t knock it off, if anything he started poking him more fervently. ‘Kids.’ He thought to himself.
He endured another two minutes of the boy’s incessant poking before he heard their number called. Jasper tried to sprint to the counter but Abel caught the back of the kid’s shirt, stopping him dead in his tracks with a grunt.
“Hey what was that for!” The boy cried indignantly.
Abel looked down at him and smiled. “I kinda wanted my food. I figured that if you got to it first there may not be anything left when I caught up.”
Jasper seemed a bit confused before understanding the jest and smiling. “Yeah? You are pretty smart for an old man.”
Abel walked with the boy and grabbed their food, thanking the worker who just nodded tiredly and waved them a happy day. As they walked outside Jasper practically climbed his leg as he pleaded for his food. “Woah, calm it down there. I know the smell is probably driving you crazy, but wait till we get back to the car at least.” Jasper groaned and slumped his shoulders even more. The young yeown’s normally hunched posture even more hunkered looking due to his posture.
Abel checked his internal timepiece. Right on time, not a minute to spare. Bittu was casually standing at the rear of the cruiser smoking an ignistix which he stubbed out on the ground before walking to meet them. The nerivith man’s tufted tail lashed as he nodded to him. “About time, the more I was sitting here thinking about it the more I realised I am actually pretty hungry.”
Jasper squealed, “MEEE TOOOO!” to which both Abel and Bittu chuckled.
Abel reached in the warm paper sack and pulled out the small boxed meal. He handed it to Jasper who almost immediately opened the box and stuffed a handful of potatt fries into his wide mouth. The golden orange morsels still piping hot as the boy then proceeded to hop around while furiously sucking air, after a moment he took a big drink of his cold cola and gasped, “Owie! Those are hot as fuck!”
“You shouldn't swear.” Bittu said, seemingly automatically causing Abel to stare. Bittu seemed to turn a light shade of lavender as the blood flushed his pink cheeks. “Uh.. I mean, it isn’t polite to swear Jasper.”
Abel coughed as the boy pointed at him, saying “But you swear all the time? Why can you do it but I can’t?”
Abel shook his head. Bittu saw the motion and reached out “Hey, you got my burger?”
He gave his partner a nod and handed him the meal box. Bittu raised an eyebrow. “You got me a meal box? I didn’t really need the fries..” He was cut off as a light grey hurricane bolted in between them suddenly.
Jasper shuffled around in front of Bittu, “I’ll take em! I mean, if you don’t want them..” the boy trailed off. Seemingly a bit embarrassed.
Bittu chuckled openly as he handed the small white bag of morsels to Jasper. Abel looked over at the empty box on the rear of the cruiser. “You done with your food already? Did you even taste it?” He looked back at the boy and frowned.
Jasper had nearly the entire wad of potatt fries in his mouth, his eyes watering as he scarfed them all in a single humongous bite. Bittu gave him a look and muttered “You know, I wasn’t all that hungry. Here ya go kid, you can have half of my burger.
Jasper paused, a few fries still poking from his mouth as he chewed furiously. “Yoth reavvy meanth itbt?” he asked, his mouth still full.
Bittu nodded, a genuine smile spreading slowly across his features. “Yeah, here ya go. But take your time, savour it.”
Jasper cocked his head and swallowed before looking at the burger. “Say-vor? What is that mean?”
Abel watched as Bittu frowned again and tried to explain the meaning of savour to the boy who clearly was more focused on the burger he was holding than what the nerivith man was saying. Finally Bittu just sighed. “Just eat it a bit slower, chew every bite before you swallow. It will make it better, trust me.”
Jasper looked at the pink skinned alien and then said softly. “I trust you Bittu.”
As the young boy climbed into the back seat of the cruiser Abel gathered the garbage and walked it over to a nearby trash receptacle. When he returned he saw Bittu standing by the driver's side door, seemingly wiping his eyes.
“Are you crying?” Abel asked a bit flatly, not trying to be mean but a bit surprised.
Bittu shook his head angrily. “No! Get in, we are almost there.”
Abel just looked around a final time as he climbed into the armoured police car. The dark was certainly upon them now, the overhead lights dimmed to minimum to simulate the proper flow of time. They were getting closer to their objective now.
As they reached the skyway onramp he heard Jasper speak once again. “You were right Bittu, that was better.”
Bittu chuckled and Abel cracked a smile too as he reached into the brown paper bag and pulled out his own smaller burger. As they continued to drive he took a bite and a small voice spoke from behind him.
“Are you going to finish that?”
**********
The descent to level forty-six took another hour and a half, the cruiser finally passing through the last sublevel and into the stratosegment proper. Jasper pushed his face up against the glass. He had never seen any other floors of Shikago before, in fact his whole life had been centered on the west quarter of level seventy-four.
The last few levels had been drastically different from what he was used to, the tightly packed urban sprawl giving way to a vast open area full of heavy equipment and large warehouses. It was as if the city itself had been changed, but he knew from what Abel had told him that they were in something called a shipping district.
Speaking of Abel, Jasper turned to look at the huge metal-plated man again. He was tall, way taller than Jasper himself. He struggled to think of what the man had said about it. That he was repaired or something.
Jasper felt his stomach gurgle and tapped the glazmite partition between him and the front seat. Abel turned around, his visor up and whole face showing. “What is it Jasper?”
“I have to use the restroom.” He told the large man.
Jasper heard Bittu mutter under his breath, something about kids it had sounded like. Abel just gestured to the nearest exit. “We can get off here, it’s not like we know exactly where we are going anyways Bittu. There should be a station we can pull off at, Jasper, just hold on a bit longer.”
Jasper nodded, but he didn’t think they saw. He unsheathed a single claw on his right hand and got back to carving his name in the wall in front of him. As he finished off the R he sighed and leaned back into the uncomfortable seat. How did he get here? In a policeman car with two of the meanest looking coppers he had ever seen. Well, Abel looked mean but he was really nice actually.
Jasper smiled, remembering the burger that Bittu had given him, he was nice too. He decided that he liked the two somewhat scruffy looking men. As he thought it he felt a bump and looked back out the window. The city was much closer now, the large warehouses rising up in the distance like beasts from the scary books his mom had told him not to read.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He sniffed. ‘Mom.’ he thought silently. He missed her terribly, what a world it was that would let such a perfect person die for no good reason. He knew that she had been sick, and that the doctor men had refused to help her because they had no money. He hated them, he had wanted to kill them. But he remembered his mother’s words, ‘Violence is not the way to solve your problems my moonbeam.’
All at once he began to cry. The feelings welling up in him had been too long suppressed, too long ignored. Like a tsunami of grief they smashed through his defenses and left him crippled, curled into a ball as the terrible wracking sobs rolled through him.
He heard a noise but ignored it at first. The noise came again, more insistent this time, next thing he knew he felt a pair of hands on his back. One of them was cold and much larger than the other, but the voices speaking to him were calming. He rolled over and looked towards them with eyes blurry from tears.
It was Bittu and Abel, the two men looking incredibly concerned, Abel’s strange features wrinkled into what looked at first like disgust. But he knew enough about human emotions to know that it was probably more likely to be confused concern. Bittu on the other hand looked a bit annoyed, but nerivith emotions were very hard to read, their smooth faces rarely passing on their inner thoughts.
“Hey it's okay kid, we’re here for you. You okay?” Abel asked in his deep voice, the care in his tone helping Jasper get his emotions back under a semblance of control.
He hiccuped slightly. “Yeah. I was just.. Jus-sst..” he felt more tears welling up and clamped his hands over his eyes.
A large synthetic hand pried one of them off. “Hey, I’m here to protect you Jasper. Your Aunti Ellen made me promise, and I never break my promises.”
Jasper frowned, his nose twitching as he held in his sobs. “You don’t?” The idea was so strange to him, it seemed like everyone Jasper had ever known broke promises on some occasion.
Abel let out a small chuckle. “I promise.” he said in a funny voice, cocking his head suddenly.
Jasper giggled slightly, feeling a bit better in spite of his internal pain. “Now come on, you gotta use the restroom and I want to get another drink.” Abel offered him one of his hands, helping him out of the car. Bittu stood to the side and looked around before nodding.
“You are gonna be alright kid.” He gave Jasper a thumbs up that he returned with a furred hand. Bittu wasn’t really an emotional person it seemed. He remembered being told that the cops were bad men by the other boys he had been staying with. But these two seemed like the nicest people he had met since… He stopped his train of thought as he followed Abel into the convenience store.
The door made a funny chirping noise when it opened and Jasper was distracted for a second by the small beeper, flapping his arms in front of the sensor to make it beep frantically like a whole swarm of birds.
Abel grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away gently. “Hey, don’t do that. You are going to upset the cashier.”
Jasper ducked his head in deference, his instincts telling him to obey the alpha of the pack. And in his opinion, Abel was definitely the alpha of their little trio.
“Now, if you still need to go to the bathroom it’s at the end of the room. Hurry though please.” Jasper nodded and scampered off.
The store was warm, he took off his jacket as he walked into the bathroom. When he stepped into the room he felt his feet stick to the floor slightly though. “Ew, gross.” he whispered as he walked over to the multispecies toilet. Configuring it for yeown, he plopped down and got to business.
He jerked as he heard a loud sound from the store followed by some shouting. After another moment the noise stopped and he quickly finished up and washed his hands. Jasper bolted out of the bathroom, his sticky feet forgotten as he skidded into the main open area.
Abel whirled to look and then seemed to relax. “Oh, it's just you. Hey, what happened to your jacket?” the large man asked, pointing at him.
Jasper let out a small growl of annoyance as he ran back and grabbed it off the door hanger. As he got back to the main area Abel was waving a hand at the cashier who was protesting.
“No no no, I insist, take it please. It’s the least I can do. He has been harassing me for two weeks now.” the young slaaveth woman said, her pupilless black eyes fixed on Abel.
Jasper watched as Abel put the money down on the counter. “I am afraid I will have to insist, I can't accept bribes, tips or gifts of any kind from the populace. Regulations you know.”
She shook her head and then seemed to notice Jasper. “Oh!” she looked at him and then back to Abel. “Is he.. Yours?” Her tone a bit curious.
Abel looked to him and back before a funny look crossed his face. “Oh. Oh, no.” he chuckled. “He is a ward, in my protection. Jasper come and say hello to the young lady, would you?”
Jasper walked over slowly, his padded feet making slight sticking noises as he reached the counter. The woman looked older than him, but not an adult. Maybe late teens he mused, though with a slaaveth who knew?
She put her hands on her scaled cheeks and bent towards him. “Oh he is just the absolute cutest.” She gushed in a teenage girl sort of way.
‘Yup.’ was all Jasper thought. “How long you been breathing air?” he asked, his curiosity overcoming his shyness.
She grinned wide, her dagger-like teeth flashing as she answered, “I finished my transfiguration last summer. I got to get out of that grimy little tank and I’ve never looked back. Though I do still enjoy swimming on the weekends.”
He gave her a winning smile and she looked at Abel. “Well, if you can't take a gift, can he?”
Abel looked at him. He gave the tall man a curious look. He watched Abel shrug. “I don’t see why not, I’m sure Jasper won’t complain.” He chuckled again as the girl zipped off into the back room and returned with a small carton.
Handing it to him, Jasper smelled something delicious and his mouth started to water. “What is it?” He asked her.
She smiled again and leaned over the counter. “It's homemade zebber loaf with grosucm. I already ate a piece of it, but I wanted to share something good. And the stuff they sell here is drek.” She looked back to Abel and continued. “Thank you so much again for telling him off. He is a creep and I have been threatening to call the police on him for a few days now. In fact, I have but no one ever showed up.” She seemed sad.
Jasper spoke up. “My friend Abel is a good guy. He will make sure you are safe, right Abel?”
Abel just nodded, his face breaking into a small smile. “I sure will. If you want, we could send a notice to check in on you once in a while. If we leave the note on official channels they will be much more likely to help out.”
The young woman nodded. “Thank you again officer Abel. You are the greatest.”
Abel bobbed his head and waved to Jasper as he tore his eyes from the girl. “Come on, we need to go.”
Jasper gave the cashier a final wave and then followed Abel out into the parking lot. “What did you do?” he asked as he opened the spruefoam container the lady had handed him. He took a deep whiff, the sweet smell of the grosucm intertwining with the savory sweet succulence of the zebber meat itself. He saw that it indeed had a small corner of it missing, the accompanying fork still stabbed into the side of the meat loaf.
Abel had been speaking while had was distracted and Jasper only just picked up the last bit of what he was saying. “..and she was very grateful as you saw. I mean, I understand liking somebody, but to continue to press them when they have clearly made their opinion known? That’s just scumbag behaviour. By Luck, are you still hungry?” Abel asked him as they reached the police car.
Jasper, who at this point had a mouthful of the delicious sweet meat, nodded and then swallowed a bit painfully as the large bite traveled down his throat. “Yea.” Jasper replied, a little embarrassed. He should probably at least chew his food, nobody here was going to take it from him.
Abel just shook his head and climbed into the passenger seat. Jasper followed and put the box down in the other seat. He had decided that he wasn’t all that hungry, he could eat the rest of it later. Bittu nodded as they climbed in.
“I saw some hoodlem go running a minute ago, I assume that was you?” Jasper heard him say to Abel who just nodded. Bittu turned to look at him and then made a wiping gesture with his hand. “You got a spot of something on your chin Jasper.”
Jasper passed his tongue over his chin, it indeed had a spot of grosucm on it which he cleaned off with the sleeve of his undershirt.
As they started off jasper felt tiredness coming over him. He was full, warm and safe. For the first time in months he felt like things would truly be okay, his head slumped. His chin drooping onto his chest as his breathing slowed and became more rhythmic. Soon the young boy was asleep, dreams of tasty morsels and big friendly giants swirling in his mind.
**********
Bittu glanced in the rearview mirror as the small snuffling noises reached him. It was the kid. The young yeown was fast asleep, his grey furred head slumped onto his chest and his pointed ears flicking occasionally as he dreamed.
He nudged Abel, the big man looking at him from where he was staring out the window. “The kid’s asleep.”
Abel nodded. “Yes I noticed, it’s probably for the best. We can’t exactly take him in with us anyways. He will be safer in the car. I’ll make sure to lock the doors so nothing can get to him.”
Bittu nodded slightly. They were about to jump uninvited into the grinskal’s den, that was for sure. And there was nobody he would rather have at his side than the huge armoured cyborg eating pibbles next to him. He watched as the large man tossed another of the small brightly colored candies in his mouth, he was incorrigible.
Abel seemed to notice him staring. He held out the small rainbow bag of candy with its tiny hologram wrapper. “You want some pibbles?”
Bittu scoffed. The man was way too friendly, it was uncanny. “No. Thanks though. What are you planning when we get there, you aren't exactly the most stealthy person I have ever seen.”
Abel seemed to find the comment funny, of course he did. He laughed quietly so as no to wake Jasper. “I’m a lot sneakier than I look. I have a few tricks up my sleeves.”
Bittu wasn’t fully convinced, but the man did seem to have an aptitude for pulling out surprises when Bittu was least expecting it. They continued on that way, silent except for the occasional crunching of Abel’s pibbles. They were close to their destination though, fifty-nine levels and almost five hours later and they were finally at their destination.
Bittu looked out over the surrounding industrial zone. The large warehouses were mostly silent, it was late at night. Most of the common workers would likely be asleep, only the occasional security guard wandered these streets now. And they would likely not look twice at a single police cruiser driving through the area.
Abel sat forwards suddenly and pointed out ahead. “Observer, potentially armed, take that alley. Quick!”
Bittu complied without argument. He trusted the large man’s advanced cybernetics to pick out details that he would not have seen. Though he had to admit it did rankle his pride slightly to defer to the newbie. Abel had only been working for two days now in technicality, far less than his own years of experience. But that downloaded knowledge Abel had been furnished with really helped him figure things out quickly.
Bittu pulled the cruiser further down the alley, almost to the far side, but he kept it in the shadows where it would be near impossible to see from the lighted street. As the police cruiser came to a stop he let out a sigh. “What are we going to do, if the place is being heavily guarded then there is a high likelihood that..” but Abel cut him off.
“Don’t worry about it. We won’t get caught because we are not doing anything wrong. If this guy is guilty then we are in the right, and if he isn’t then they won't know we were even there am I right?” Abel sounded much more confident than Bittu himself felt. But he was technically correct, they were fine legally either way.
He gave the big man a nod. “Okay, let's go. Trunk.”
He hopped out of the car, closing the door silently and making sure he had the encrypted key to open it back up again. He walked to the trunk where Abel was already waiting for him, the big human had his helmet visor down, completely covering his face and making him look more like some sort of science fiction robot than a living being.
Abel tapped the trunk. “Well, are you going to open it Bittu? We should get moving sooner rather than later.”
He nodded, his distractions forgotten as the new task cemented itself into his mind. Using the encrypted key to open the trunk, he took a step back as Abel gave a low whistle of approval.
The man reached out and grabbed a Malcolm Smoothbore Repeating Ordinance Launcher. The bulky weapon looked small in his massive arms. He seemed to freeze for a minute as if he was in pain before he shook his head. “No, not that one…”
Bittu ignored his partner’s antics and grabbed an MR-12 for himself. If they were going to go in alone then they might as well have decent firepower. He made sure to grab a few extra magazines of starburst ammo before grabbing a couple of flashbangs and clipping them to his belt as well. Lastly he made sure to grab some body armour, strapping upper thigh plates on and adjusting his bullet resistant vest.
He nodded, satisfied that between that and his Port-25 he would have plenty of firepower for anything they might potentially encounter. He stopped as he saw what Abel had picked out of the trunk’s mini armoury.
The big cyborg was carrying his modified EMC-50 as well as an entire belt of smoke grenades. It was the large LMR v.17 light machine gun he was hefting one handed that gathered his attention.
“By the Lords, what the hell are you planning for? A fucking war?” Bittu asked in mild shock.
Abel pointed at the trunk. “No, I could have grabbed the launcher if that was the case. But it didn’t feel.. right. But anyways, you should grab a silencer for those. It might come in handy if at least one of us had a silent running weapon.”
Abel had a point, quickly he reached into the trunk and screwed a suppressor to his weapons, not that it would do much good for the MR-12 as it fired supersonic rounds. But it would make it about half as loud and that could very well be the difference between stealth and discovery.
He checked his bullet proof vest and then nodded to Abel. “Okay, I think I'm ready. Let’s get this over with then.
He followed Abel as they slunk down the alley the way they had come. He felt the calming effect of his body getting ready for a fight, his muscles relaxing and his mind clearing. Oh yes, he was finally ready to take the fight back to these corrupt hel-dwellers.
He looked at Abel and nodded. “Okay, get ready to hoof it.” Abel nodded and crouched, it was time to see if they had what it took.