“… and after I took him out with the portable railgun you made, which broke right after, I requested a taxi about a block away to take us a street away from the store,” Arri stated. “Then I came here.”
“Well, that sounds like a whole load of bullshit,” Iso replied. She was currently replacing Arri’s deuterium reserve tanks, the old ones so damaged that they were worth more as scrap.
“You can see my injuries,” Arri countered. “And I can show you a video of the entire encounter if you want.”
“You don’t need to do that.” Iso said as she finished installing the new deuterium reserve tanks and got to work on repairing the tubing and wiring. “How come you didn’t take the railgun back? I would have liked to see it for myself.”
“It burst into flames. The taxi driver would have smelled it.”
“Fair.” Iso sighed. “I’ll pass by and try to pick up what’s left later.” She pulled out a broken piece of tubing, inserting a new one in its place. “Fucking hell, he really did a toll on you. Do you have any idea what he is?”
Arri tilted her head slightly. “I thought you would.”
“Hmm.” Iso stepped back, dropping the broken tubing into another box on the ground next to the workshop. “I never heard anything about human experimentation… though if there was I probably wouldn’t have had clearance.” She walked over to the workstation, grabbing a soldering tool. Iso also grabbed a box of military-grade wires from the shelf, before walking back over to the workbench.
“He seems like something out of an old novel,” Arri acknowledged.
“Nothing like anything in the novels I read,” Iso said, beginning to reconnect broken wires together, small clouds of smoke rising in bursts as she did.
“That’s because you read nothing but trashy dramas.”
“Hey, don’t knock them until you do try one,” Iso snapped, pointing the soldering tool at Arri.
“No thank you.”
Then, from inside the workshop, they could hear the front door of the store being unlocked. Iso turned off the soldering tool, setting it on the workbench and grabbing a suppressed Beretta M9 from the underside of it. Arri laid down on the workbench, quickly closing her torso cavity and becoming as still as possible.
They could hear the door open softly. Then, a male voice spoke. “It’s just me, Isobella. You can put the gun away.” Iso let out a held in breath, putting the pistol back where she got it from before picking the soldering tool back up. Arri slowly sat up, reopening her torso cavity.
The workshop door slowly swung open, and a young man stepped in. He was about twenty-two years old, standing at almost one hundred and eighty-four centimeters, with slightly dark skin, short, messy, sandy brown hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a light hoodie, gray sweatpants, and a pair of slippers, all on a slightly skinny frame. The man looked much younger than he really was, and was attractive in that sense. “You guys were making such much noise that I could hear you two from upstairs,” he said.
“Fucking hell, Tristan…” Iso murmured, getting back to work on Arri. “You could have at least called ahead.”
“But I did call ahead, Isobella,” Tristan replied. “You didn’t pick up. Did you forget to charge your smartglass again?”
“Don’t call me Isobella. How many times do I have to tell you?” Iso sighed, exasperated. “And I remember putting it in its charging station…”
Tristan worked over the workstation, pushed aside a small box of tools, and picked up a smartglass. “Here it is! Not in its charging station~” he sang.
“Fucking smart ass…” Iso muttered under her breath.
“I heard that~” Tristan walked over to the workbench. “Hey Arri, how are ya doing?”
“As well as I can be right now,” she replied. “How’s the clinic?”
“Oh, just fine and dandy,” Tristan said. His face didn’t match up with his statement, however, an expression of annoyance slowly grew. “The government cut our funding again, and most of our patients aren’t able to pay. My hours have been cut again, so now I’m working part-time for miss cussing here.”
“Shut your mouth.”
Tristan sighed, shaking his head. Then, he noticed Marsh sleeping on the couch. “When did you get a boy toy?”
“He’s not mine,” Iso replied. “Arri brought him in.”
Tristan walked over to the couch, squatting next to Marsh. “Why’d you get a boy toy, Arri?”
“He’s not a boy toy,” Arri sighed. “He’s the reason why I’m on this workbench.”
Tristan paused for a second. “Why’d you bring him here, then?”
Iso paused. “Wait a minute, why did you bring him here?”
“Well, it would be troublesome if he woke up alone in an alleyway,” Arri answered, “He would probably become a monster again and wreak havoc on those sectors. Without them, I would lose most of my income. I’m the only one who’s willing to deliver to those sectors.”
“So you’ll let him wreak havoc here instead?!” Iso yelled.
“He would be less likely to lose control here. A more comfortable environment,” Arri replied.
“Fucking hell…” Iso grumbled as she got back to work. Then, another grumbling filled the room, but not from Iso.
“Whoops,” Tristan said. “Must have forgotten to eat dinner. I’m gonna head to Sally’s. Isobella, you want anything?”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Can you get me a bacon cheeseburger, a large fries, and a strawberry milkshake?”
“Alright.” Tristan was about to exit the workshop when he turned around. “Do you know if the boy toy over here will want to eat anything? He’s skinnier than I am.”
“He said his name was Marsh,” Arri responded. “Just get him whatever. I’ll pay for his food.”
“You own a successful business, while I’m just a laborer,” Arri snapped. “And you’re going to charge me extra for these repairs, so use the money from that to pay for the food.”
“Ugh…” Iso groaned. “Fine. But make sure to bring back the recipe. I’m only paying for how much it says my food costs.”
“Stingy~” Tristan sang as he left the workshop. They could hear the front door of the store open and close, followed by the clicking of the deadbolts sliding shut.
“Motherfucker…” Iso muttered, getting back to work on Arri.
----------------------------------------
Iso stepped back, stretching her arms. “Well, that’s everything inside you. Now, to repair the holes…” Arri shifted into a different position as Iso walked over to the shelf, pushing aside some boxes to take out a large polycystic bag that had been hidden behind them.
“I don’t have a lot of reinforced durasteel left,” Iso told Arri. “And my contact for it has gone missing. So you can either try to stop getting damaged or find some on your own.”
“Alright, alright,” Arri said, watching Iso take a long drink of coffee before grabbing a laser cutter and fusing tool from the workstation. “I think I know a guy who could get some if I asked him.”
“You do that.” Iso took out a thin rectangle of dark-gray reinforced durasteel. It was thinner than typical body armor, but just as strong and only a little heavier.
Iso set the rectangle of the material half on the workbench, half off it. Then, taking the laser cutter, she began to get to work.
Iso cut several pieces from the durasteel in a way that didn’t waste any of it, catching each piece as it fell before it hit the ground. Once she had about five palm-sized pieces, Iso turned off the cutter, setting both of them on the workbench. Then, she picked up one of the pieces as well as the fusing tool and walked back in front of Arri.
Iso placed one of the pieces into one of Arri’s damaged parts, fitting almost perfectly. After looking at it for several moments, Iso set both the piece of reinforced durasteel and the fusing tool back down and picked up the laser cutter back up.
“Not enough space for the fusing tool to work,” Iso explained as she turned a knob on the laser cutter, decreasing its power. “I’m going to need to cut some of the skin-mimic away.”
Arri nodded, and Iso got to work. She cut close to the edges of the damaged parts, skin-mimic falling off to reveal the dark-gray reinforced durasteel underneath.
Iso did the same for the rest of the damaged parts of the front of Arri’s torso, more pieces of skin-mimic falling off and down to the floor.
“Alright, turn around so I can get the one in your back.” Arri did so, turning on the workbench so that her back was towards Iso, and she was facing Marsh now, who was still asleep on the couch. Then, as Iso began to cut, he stirred.
His eyes flickered open, revealing his blood-red pupils once again.
“Oh, hello. I think I’ve seen you before,” Marsh said sleepily upon seeing Arri. He looked down, and immediately became fully awake. He stumbled out of the couch and fell to the floor, his face both red and full of shock.
“Ah, looks like mister boy toy is awake,” Iso said from behind Arri.
“W-w-what’s going on?” Marsh cried out. “Where am I?”
“Calm down, Marsh,” Arri said, her voice soft. “If you stay calm, I promise you I will explain everything.”
Both Arri and Marsh spun around as the door to the workshop opened. Tristan stepped in, his hands up in mock surrender, one of them holding a white polycystic bag with the words “SALLY’S SQUARE MEALS” on it.
“Ah, the boy toy is awake,” Tristan said. “I think we can take a break for some food while Arri explains everything, right? I know I would like too-”
At that very moment, Marsh’s stomach growled loudly.
“I guess that’s a yes, then,” Tristan replied. He set the bag on the workbench and began to pass out food. A wrapped square double cheeseburger, square hash brown, and a canned soda landed on the couch, Marsh staring at them longingly.
“Those are yours,” Tristan told Marsh. Slowly, Marsh took a bite out of the hash brown, a pleasant expression growing upon his face after he did.
“Alright, so I was heading back from my last delivery of the day…”
----------------------------------------
“…and now we’re here,” Arri finished, looking at Marsh, who had finished his food a while ago.
He spoke up several moments later.“To be honest, I don’t remember any of that happening,” he replied awkwardly. “All I remember is meeting you, and then everything else is just a red haze.”
“Hmm…perhaps turning into the monster caused your memory loss,” Tristan suggested. “Now, I’m not sure what’s responsible for your transformation, but my guess is the trigger for it is your emotions.” He took a bite out of his veggie burger, chewed, and swallowed. “You panicked, and as a way of self-defense, you transformed.” Tristan took a quick sip from his bottle of water. “That’s my guess, at least.”
Iso took a large bite out of her bacon cheeseburger before putting it back in its carton and setting the last durasteel piece against the last of Arri’s damaged spots. Then, she picked up the fusing tool, turned it on, and slowly ran it over where the two pieces of durasteel met. As she did, they melded together seamlessly, as if they had been made in the same mold. Iso fused the last portion, and then stepped back to admire her handiwork.
“Alright, now to apply the skin-mimic,” Iso stated. She placed the leftover reinforced durasteel back in the bag, before hiding it again back behind several boxes. She also picked up the laser cutter and fusing tool, setting both of them back on the workbench before pick up a skin-mimic dispenser, which looked like a cross between an electronic tattoo needle and a hot glue gun, with a dispensing nozzle that tapered at the end. Finally, Iso grabbed a bottle of liquid skin-mimic the same color as Arri’s.
She screwed the bottle into the skin-mimic dispenser, making sure it was secure before walking back over to the workbench. Iso hovered the nozzle over one of the bare spots of durasteel, and quickly but steadily dispensed a thin layer of the liquid skin-mimic, which had the same consistency as hot glue. Once she had done so, Iso stepped back.
The skin-mimic began to solidify almost instantaneously, expanding as it did so. After about half a minute, the durasteel was covered back up like nothing had ever happened. Iso repeated the process for every bare piece of reinforced durasteel.
Arri closed up her torso cavity once the last of the skin-mimic had solidified.
“Another flawless job,” Iso remarked. “Just like always.” Arri was back to what she had looked like before Marsh had impaled her, indistinguishable from a human.
“Finally done?” Tristan stifled a yawn as Arri pulled on her broken shirt and broken windbreaker. “I’m gonna get some sleep. At least I don’t have to wake up early. My shift doesn’t start until eleven tomorrow evening.”
“You can help me in the shop if you want,” Iso suggested.
“No way. No amount of money is worth a good rest,” Tristan yawned again. “Right, Marsh?”
No response from Marsh. He lay on the couch, slowly breathing and eyes closed, asleep once again.
“Fucking hell…” Iso muttered.