As he buzzed away, I continued to flex my fingers, looking down at the improvements of my hardware. I was modifying every day, bulking up my cyber tech so I could perform better. The stronger my gear was, the quicker I could level up, and the deeper I could travel into the forbidden parts of Thalian to search for Jezz.
“All right, chief. Let’s wrap dis up.” Madeem leaned back into his wheeled chair with a satisfied grunt, tossing the hand towel stained with grease over his shoulder. He flashed me a wide toothy grin and propped his goggles up, looking at the upgrade he just installed for me and the fix along the seams of my powered up sleeve. “As good as new. Check out the new chrome.”
I sat up on the stretcher and flexed my arm, the polish and shine off my black-plated finish staring back at me. I could see my own reflection off the thing, admiring Madeem’s beauty.
Truly the man knew how to create a work of art.
“I’m impressed,” I said, drawing out the machine gun extension he fixed into my sleeve with fresh mods. The extender was as easy as squeezing a button just beneath the joint opposite of my elbow to unlock the mechanism, the weapon about twice the size of my sleeve.
“Mi bypass the mana required per magik bullet. It uses less now. Mi also added a grenade launcha.”
“Great. How about the leg piece? How is it looking?”
His smirk sunk a bit. “Still workin’ on it…”
“I needed it since yesterday, Madeem.”
“We don’ exactly have all the tools we need in da shed.”
“Then I’ll double my time in the badlands.”
“Hero…”
“How much do I owe you?”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Come again?”
“No seriously. I’m good for it.”
He looked up to me with one skeptical eye. “You tink mi don’ see what yer doin out der?”
“What?”
He scoffed. “Boy, you as broke as the bridge to Edefur-Reiss. Turnin’ currency into rations like a wish fairy gone rogue.”
I looked at him skeptically. “Those are actually real?”
He chuckled. “About as real as dis war. But don let the title deceive ya boy. They only brin sufferin’ and sorrow’.”
“Well, it’s not like feeding mouths is a bad reason, is it? I have to go out there and get food for Prism Point. Our rations are running low. Since Jezz has been gone, me and a few volunteers have been guarding the perimeter. We survey hazmat zones, slay cyber freaks, and cast away hunters. In doing so, we found plenty more survivors. More mouths to feed means more traveling outside of our jurisdiction for food.”
“And what about your promise to Jezz?”
My heart jumped when he mentioned her name.
“Fighting de good fight, fixin da dungeon core?”
I darted my eyes away from him. “I’d get to that…”
“When?”
“When I get to it,” I said, getting off of my seat a bit irritated.
“Hero, ya focusin’ on de wrong ting.”
“And since when was searching for Jezz the wrong thing?”
“She wouldn’t want this. Abandon’n the mission for her.”
“She is my mission.”
“And what is the outcome in all of dis? Ya three days in and ya ain’t got nuthin’ to show for it. Levelin up, pullin gear, addin mods and tackin’ on more metal. At dis rate, ya gon’ CO.”
“I’m not overloading… I promised Jezz I wouldn’t…”
“Ya pushin’ it already, Bruer. XDM gear is usually reserved for da higher levels, thirty and above.”
“Well, I am a hero, right? It makes sense that I excel faster. Besides, I didn’t see you complaining last night when I found that XDH acid rain attachment.”
He shrugged lightheartedly. “What can I say? It a hard find.”
“It makes no difference if I’m at level 24 or 30. The sleeve scanned me and came back as compatible. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to keep feeding it more hardware.” I tightened my fist, my blood heating up from the fight with Ezmar. His defeat was fresh in my mind, and I was feeling the adrenaline all over again. “I’m going to find Jezz. I promise you I will. Whatever it takes...”
“And what of the rest of us?”
I snapped my eyes at him confused.
“Ya know, mi always found it strange how our goddess built such weapons of mass destruction. Cyber gears, the edge that humans needed to survive. When really, it a means to chaos and divide. Have ya eva asked yaself hero, why a woman with such high regard to her creations would create such tings? Alzera-Kar is a lova, not a fighta. And yet, she made cyber gears.”
