Chapter 3: The [ANGEL] ArriVes Home

Corporate Alliance Territory

Eden City// Cordell Industries Central Territory.

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Jack woke to the sight of an unfamiliar pasty yellow room as a TV blared another one of those annoying ads.

Blinking, his vision focused enough to see that he was in a run-down room with flickering lights and water leaking from the ceiling that was suspiciously close to dripping on the rusty machines.

He sat up and stretched, with the sound of loud snoring drawing his eyes to a middle-aged man propped up in a chair, sleeping soundly with his prosthetic arm pressed against his face as drool leaked everywhere.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing Mike here was a good sign, it meant his sister was safe as there was no way he’d leave her alone if she was injured.

Suddenly the realization of where he was and why he was there crashed on him as he noticed the hospital gown and rhythmic medical machinery. Jack panicked, immediately throwing back the thread-bare sheets to see if his legs were still connected to the rest of his body.

Sure enough they were there.

Wiggling his toes, Jack let out a nervous chuckle before plopping his head back down on the brick-like object that was supposed to be a pillow.

Remembering the events, outside of being a little sore and feeling heavier than usual, he felt fine. Maybe even better than usual. Was everything just a hallucination?

“What a sick dream,” Jack murmured to himself as he stared at the dinky ceiling above.

“It wasn’t a dream.”

Startled, Jack shot up at such a speed he became light-headed from the sudden exertion. Sitting up he could see the naked woman from his dream, draped over his legs with her boobs pressing against his thighs. He hadn’t even felt her lying down until he sat up to look at her!

Wide-eyed, Jack's vision shot towards Mike before shifting his gaze back to the wingless Angel.

“Put some clothes on!” Jack hissed.

“Oh relax, he can’t see me. Only you can.” Sahaqiel replied lazily before rolling over, exposing her breasts to Jack who shyly covered his eyes and looked away.

“Can you at least cover yourself or something?!”

"What are you shy? They’re just boobs. I’ve seen your memories, I know what your internet search history looks like.”

Flustered, the teen took a moment to recover from the shocking revelation.

"Don't worry its just the surface stuff." The Angel assured, examining a nearby beeping monitor. "What is this?"

“Please… just do something, they’re… distracting.”

Sahaqiel giggled.

“Fiiiiine, is this better?”

Removing his hand from his eyes Jack was astonished to see white light appearing from seemly nowhere and obscuring the woman’s breasts and naughty bits.

“No… Not, particularly. It’s still very distracting.” Jack said. At his words the woman rolled her eyes before making the light begin to fade, causing Jack to leap up. “No! Keep it, it’s better that way.”

Jack’s sudden outburst caused Mike to stir, waking the man who immediately jumped up and scrambled onto the bed, phasing through the naked woman.

“Thank the maker, you're awake!” Mike cried, hugging the boy as he watched Sahaqiel fade away with a wave of her hand.

Soon a doctor and a nurse entered the room, performing generic checks and diagnostics on Jack as they asked him a series of various questions.

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“Ya one lucky kid to have survived an impact like that.” The doctor whistled, his cybernetic eye on his clipboard while his real eye stared at Jack. “Minor bruising, some broken ribs. Concussion. With you being out for two days we did an MRI of your brain to make sure there wasn’t any long-term damage. Luckily we found nothing so we did a body scan. With the exception of your left arm being about two inches longer than your right, you're medically fine. Pretty much good to go.”

Uh. Ok? Jack thought, unsure what to make of the arm comment.

“Hear that kiddo? You’re good to go.” Mike smiled, smacking the boy on the back. “How much do we owe Cisco?”

Jack froze, it hadn’t occurred to him that he would owe money. Seeing the expression on Jack’s face, Mike made a subtle hand signal, telling him it was ok.

“Eh, uninsured rate? Full hushed? Couple hundred creds for each of the overnights since I like ya, six Gs for the MRI, and five hundo for the visit. Oh n forty bucks for the gown. Won't charge you for the failed implant though, what's that come out to Misty?”

Jack looked down at the paper-thin hospital gown. Forty bucks are you serious?! Jack nearly cursed the man out if not for the nurse staring ominously at him.

“Six-thousand nine-hundred and forty credits doctor, plus taxes.” The petite woman answered, eyeing the duo like a hawk. From the outline near her waist, she was packing more than just boobs underneath her nurse's gown.

“Oh yes, plus taxes.” The doctor clapped, not even bothering to hide his greedy grin.

Mike sighed as he fished out a card.

“Eh, we don’t take Liu credit here. Not worth much with Cordell winning the bloodbath they call an election.” The doctor taped a nearby desk, making a loud thunk sound. “Need hard creds these days, non-traced, universal. If you can’t pay we can make an arrangement. Kidneys are still a hot item.”

Mike smirked at the comment.

“Yea, the department knows all about your arrangements, Cisco.” Mike retorted, taking out a chip and flicking it toward the doctor. “I’ll pass on your arrangement. Here’s everything minus a half for being a greedy little fuck.”

At the response, the nurse snapped toward Mike with a scowl on her face, a scalpel somehow already in her hand. The doctor raised an arm, stopping the woman from reaching for her waist as Mike’s prosthetic whirled to life.

“Ha, sure, sure. Just teasing you Mikey,” The man laughed, pocketing the chip. "Come now kitten, we've got several goods to examine."

The nurse maintained eye contact with Mike as she followed the doctor out the room. Seeing an opportunity, Mike stuck his tongue out, taunting the woman whose eyes visibility twitched before she stomped out.

“Heh. You good kiddo?” Mike turned to Jack.

“Little sore, but I think I’m good. Is Jill ok? How's the apartment?”

“Relax, she's fine. The apartment is still livable and all of the bystanders and news folk are gone now so she’s holding up in her room dying to see you.” Mike fished out a cigarette lighting it up. “You ready to leave kiddo?”

At the news, Jack let out a sigh of relief he hadn't realized he’d been holding.

“Yea, I'll feel a lot better once we get away from this smell.”

After putting on a fresh pair of clothes Mike had brought for Jack, the duo stepped out into the neon-lit alleyway where Mike helped the teen to the Constable cruiser parked in a damp alley. His legs were a bit sluggish, but he chalked it up to having been lying around for the last two days.

“Fascinating,” Sahaqiel murmured, unexpectedly materializing alongside Jack and startling him.

“You ok kiddo?” Mike asked, pausing as he opened the police car for Jack.

“Yea I’m good, just getting used to walking again.” Jack replied, ignoring the butt-naked specter as she twirled in amazement at the concrete jungle around her.

Getting into the vehicle, the ride was fairly silent as Mike navigated the congested traffic. The only sound in the car being the occasional oohs and aahs from Sahaqiel as she observed the urban blight they passed.

[Surprising how far humanity has come despite not being able to evolve.]

Jack went wide-eyed at the Angel's words in his head.

Are you in my head?!

[Oh? Yes, relax I'm a part of you. This is how this all kinda works out. What did you think being my avatar meant?]

Not you speaking in my mind?

Sahaqiel chuckled. [If you think that's mind blowing, You have no idea.]

Suddenly needing a break from the Angel, he elected to ignore the glowing woman in the backseat laughing and turn his attention to the traffic to occupy his thoughts.

As he focused on the view around him, Jack could make out several Awakened flying about. It was usually a common sight to see the White clad mercenaries, but now, instead of having a sense of melancholy and jealousy, all Jack felt was annoyance as he remembered how the Mercenaries had left him to die alone on his roof.

With a sigh, Jack looked away from the flying humanoids and shot a quick glanced at Mike, where he decided to put to rest a nagging thought that had been plaguing him since they left the clinic.

“I’ll pay you back.”

Mike looked over and raised an eyebrow before smirking.

“Pfft, in which lifetime kiddo?” the man laughed, turning on his sirens to manipulate the cars ahead of him to move. “Consider it your coming-of-age gift. Besides, Jill wouldn’t forgive me if I let the scrappers take you.”

Despite Mike's nonchalant attitude, Jack knew it was a lot of money. He couldn't help but feel guilty and at the same time annoyed by the string of events that had led Mike to spend so much on his behalf.

Arriving outside their slab-grey home, Jack was amazed to see their building still standing. Somehow only the roof was damaged but everything else was still intact, with people going about their business as usual. Considering things going boom and people showing up missing was normal here, Jack didn't expect much when he eyed the sight. Mike pulled the car up to the curb but didn’t shut the engine off.

“Jill is waiting for you upstairs. I gotta go into work, since you were out there was a big disturbance downtown." Mike reached over and ruffled Jack's hair. "In the meantime, you say hi to Jill for me and stay out of trouble ok?”

"No promises," Jack grinned, getting out of the vehicle and making his way to the rundown apartment, unaware that he was being watched the entire time.