Aiden Laurel's Story

Aiden let the smoke slip out from between his lips before placing the cigarette back to his mouth, freeing up the hand that had previously been holding it to adjust the piece of equipment currently settled upon his right arm. Bionic exoskeletons were difficult enough to make as it was, let alone being nothing more than a sheath of sensors with little blue lights and connecting wires that fit snugly to his scrawny arm. It wouldn't fit anyone else, certainly, the object having been crafted with extra parts and around his own arm in the first place, and it certainly didn't need to fit anyone else either, as the purpose really was only to be testing equipment when none of his little buddies from Moorden were around to do so for him. It wasn't the same of course. The exoskeleton was barely any stronger than he himself was, and only barely worked at all, but it did the task of making sure that a weapon was actually going to fire, rather than have serious problems about backup. The sensors running along his fingers, his palm, and his forearm read the signals from his nerve endings, and the small, three-sensor piece clipped on behind his ear sensed just enough to get a minor synchronization going, and activate whatever most basic function of what he was working on with the cue of his brain fluctuation. In the hands of, well, basically anyone else, the object would have been confiscated and deemed absolutely illegal. Being one of those few useful humans to Moorden came with its perks, he supposed.

Pulling the cigarette away from his mouth again and waiting just a moment for the smoke to dissipate from his field of vision before reaching his right hand into the open crevice of the engine before him. He leaned in as far as he could get without blocking his light, clicking away at this and that, pulling a connection from one place and situating it in another. The automatic energy renewal system had been installed hours ago, Why isn't this working yet? He huffed, reaching just enough to grasp at one connection a little further. Maybe... If I just cut this connection -

"Aiden! C'mon we've gotta go now."

Aiden snapped back, drawing his grease-covered arm out of the engine all-too-quickly, resulting in a small electrical burst which caused him to flinch for a moment, his hands instantly going to shield his own face from flying sparks while he shut his eyes against the start. Settling down after a moment, he straightened his back, using his left arm to push himself up off where he had been sitting on the concrete ground of his garage. He took a vague look at the dropped cigarette on the ground and could only find his expression darkening at the petite girl standing at the top of the stairs that lead into the rest of the house. Caitlin, all twelve years and one hundred pounds of her stood with her hands on her hips and her little red cheer-leading uniform on with her dark blonde curls in a ponytail, looking agitated and impatient with her older brother. Aiden could barely discern her narrowed brown eyes.

"What the fuck, Caitlin, Did you not see I was busy?" Aiden scoffed, forgetting for just a moment, in his quiet rage, that he wasn't technically supposed to be swearing in front of his little sister. "What do you mean we've gotta go? Where the heck do we have to go to?"

"The school idiot, I have cheer-leading, remember?" She replied, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her shoe impatiently on the step.

Aiden groaned, letting his head drop backwards uncomfortably. "Are you kidding me? Today is Saturday! Why in hell would you have to go on Saturday?" This certainly had to be the worst part of his parents' anniversary. Every single fucking year they had to go on some seven-day-long trip and ever since Aiden could drive, he was tossed the responsibility of his younger sister. The seven days was nearly over, thank god, but here he had been thinking that the weekend would have been a bit of a break. Didn't normal kids sit and watch TV on Saturday? Go to the movies with friends?

Caitlin groaned right back at him, stomping her way down the stairs and making her way to her brother's back, laying her hands down against his spine and pushing with all her fragile little weight. However, there was no doubt that Aiden had just about as much strength as she did, maybe less, if one accounted for the fact that he was also decently bigger still. He leaned back against her force, trying his hardest not to budge just for the sake of being annoying. "Cheer-leading is always on Saturday, Aiden! I'm gonna be late and you have to take me now or I'm telling mom about your dumb guns!"

Aiden froze for a mere moment before straightening and slipping out of the path of his sister's force, slipping the bionic exoskeleton from his arm and placing it down on the work desk against the wall, followed by the little piece that had previously been behind his ear. "Jesus Christ, Caitlin, what the heck are you playing around for, you're gonna be late for cheer-leading," he uttered, and after an audible 'ugh' from the girl, he quickly gestured towards towards the door out back through the house. "Go on."

Caitlin was the first to rush through, followed by a still reluctant Aiden, wiping the the grease from his arm only barely with a rag before grabbing his keys on the way out the front door. Caitlin was already in the passenger seat of his truck by the time he'd even gotten out, her bag for cheer-leading in the back seat next to Axel, who Caitlin must have allowed in, his head already stuck out the window and his tail already wagging. The animal enjoyed going for rides, but Aiden didn't indulge him often. After all, he felt bad about taking him places where all the dog could do was sit in the car. It seemed pointless, and almost cruel to taunt him like that. He supposed this wouldn't be so bad. After all, it wasn't as if he had to do anything aside from drop the girl off at practice and go home, however, he was sure that wouldn't end up being the case. He would probably stop at Moorden, too, now that he thought about it. He needed a couple extra parts, just for a few regular weapons he was building. Surely, getting that engine to work was a priority, but it was one that he could take his time with. He still had to keep up with the other more common projects. Axel, well, at the very least, Aiden would be able to take the dog in with him. Axel had never been disobedient, anyway, and this wouldn't have been the first time, but not everyone was overly fond of large dogs, anyway, and it wasn't something he easily did often.

He slid into the driver's side and started up the engine.

"Don't forget to pick me up at two," Caitlin reminded. Aiden simply shot her a look and backed out of the driveway.

☩ ☩ ☩

Aiden popped the back door of his truck, allowing Axel to hop out from the back seat and snuff around the ground for a moment while he shut it back up, locking the doors. It didn't take long for the dark colored animal to realize where he was and happily make his way over to his typical place at Aiden's left side, wagging his tail and staring up at his master expectantly. Aiden stared right back at the dog boredly, only offering up a small "What're you lookin at?" before patting the animal's head and moving from his place finally, trailing calmly in through the front entrance of the main building.

The halls were relatively relaxed. The Moors that traversed them here and there ignored his presence, as it was one they had gotten used to over the duration of his trips there. Saturday, for the most part, was a free day for them, after all, and it made sense that any going around were either here after or before detention, here for personal one-on-one lessons, or here to take advantage of the simulators. Many of the ones walking around with their partners or their friends, sitting around on the grey carpeting and quizzing each other or eating snacks, were mostly just waiting for a simulator to be free. The occasional younger Moor passed and held Axel up, letting the animal sniff their bionically-laced hand before petting him until he dashed off to catch up with Aiden. It was mostly other teachers that disliked the animal, after all, and most of them, he was sure, wouldn't be around to care for the moment.

His journey didn't take him very far up the elevators and through the third floor to the weapons training wing, where part of his "job" currently took place. The wing held a few doors, most leading to class rooms or shooting rooms currently with doors shut and lights off. A couple of offices were around here, too, but as well, they were currently vacant. Stopping at the equipment room just past the room he typically taught out of, he pulled his keys from his pocket, quickly grabbing hold of his pass key, which took the form of a small metal card with his identification, military allowances, and so-on, laced into the little hard wiring. One of those little precautions taken just to be sure that not just anyone was going through the private stuff. If the face on surveillance wasn't matching the one on file, the card wasn't going to work. He let the key pad scan the object quickly, and after a small, encouraging beep from the panel, pushed through the door, giving a quick look to Axel before letting the door swing shut behind him, figuring that the animal would be fine by himself in the hall for the time being.

The room was a mess, really, but it wasn't as if he'd been expecting it to suddenly be clean for once. Much to disappointment, it seemed the others who worked in the department were equally as disorganized as he was, and just about everyone was simply waiting around for one another to finally get agitated enough to clean the entire thing. So far it was a stale mate with no end, however, Aiden was beginning to get used to it. Snatching one of the empty crates from a pile against the wall and plopping it down on the nearest cleared place on the floor, he started trying to sort through some of the mess surrounding him, just enough to see if he could find anything that was going to be of any use. Working on the automatic reloader seemed to be one of his bigger challenges, though the idea of not having to carry around all that extra ammunition had been itching at the back of his mind for quite some time. This was just going to need a bit more juice to power than the usual that went into his regular weapons, and if he was going to get it working without draining all the energy from a Moor's body every time, it was going to take some toying with.

He'd tossed a couple of things in the crate before a couple of barks gave him a start. Biting his lip and nearly tripping over a small motor on the floor, he made his way over to the door again, giving a glare at the dog who'd only decided to shut up now that the door had opened. Aiden looked him over, noting nothing wrong with the panting mass of fur, sitting up and wagging his tail, though on a quick glance at the other direction, noticed a couple of guys passing by the hall. Aiden sighed, glaring at the animal once again. "God, Axel, shut up, we'll be out of here in a second. You're gonna get me in trouble." He grumbled, backing away from the entrance and sighing, trying to focus back on the disheartening mountains of tangled wires and parts, looming over him and threatening him with avalanches that could crash down at any moment and bury his small body completely. He mindlessly rubbed at his cheek with the back of his right hand, effectively doing nothing but smearing a bit of the black sludge that had remained on his arm across his freckled cheek, before finally getting right back down to what he had been doing. Yes, he would certainly only be a few minutes, he assured himself, as he quickly looked towards his wristwatch. Eleven AM. He'd be back home to do plenty of work before he'd have to pick up his sister. It was fine.

In nothing but his boxers and a pair of cotton socks, Doctor Bright reclined in his large, tiered office space overlooking the lab adjoining. It was a real luxury set-up, with banks of glass monitors lining the walls, and projected monitors winking in and out of existence. He had his feet up on the lab's control deck and staring up at several of these monitors, reviewing yesterday's notes and recorded video while low grumbles and electronic clicks of an eclectic assortment of music crackled around the room.

A notification window sprung up, light blue and transparent. It hovered near his face, listing the names of several of his consorts; DRw!n, Jinx, Pr4g^n, and N;;n. The first name was blinking.

[5:52]DRw!n: Check weapons system configuration δ right away for human dna compatibility, possible complications with the Bellier mutagens we found yesterday. Also go over all ζ prototypes.

"Uuuugh it's not morning, it's not morning." Bright mumbled when he noticed the time stamp. His hands dragged across his face and rubbed his tired eyes, causing his voice to be muffled. Unfortunately, he still had his chat client set to translate speech to text and what came out was:

[5:52]N0lt5: UUuuHJRGhiieissmmmmrgggg

Which, he could proudly say, was quite accurate.

[5:53]DRw!n: Sure thing. Just get that done before your nice little Moor buddies start looking like Jabba the Hutt.

Bright chuckled at the little historical film reference. But his old friend was right, there were holes in system Delta that they had not quite considered before. Zetas weren't as important, more of an experimental project pushing the boundaries of machine versus human cognitive decisions. Bright hopped down into the lab space and orally commanded for system Delta to be brought out.

Walls slid around, rearranging themselves as out from his lab's storage chambers came long transparent containers and platforms. Bright plodded over, his socked feet making little pattering echoes in the large space. Most of the platforms that hovered around him held different bits of metals, peculiar little mechanics that whizzed to life pulsating or cycling to display their functions. They were just additions or enhancements to Delta, so Bright waved them away, back behind the wall panels and into storage.

The transparent containers were cylinders of various sizes, encasing their subjects in glass and liquid. An arm here, a leg there, many organs and delicate nervous systems. Each equipped with tiny cybernetic enhancements, for Delta was, and still is, his closest effort at making a near undetectable system. He liked to imagine that one day he would be installing a finished system Delta to an assassin. It would be glorious.

Bright waved over the largest container. It contained a tall, lank human, supposedly male, but without any defining genitalia. Most of his systems were displayed with these non-gendered blanks. He liked to keep the itty bits in separate containers.

Pressing his finger to the glass, he intoned, "Weapons system configuration." A bright red light switched on within the container, and suddenly the subject's skin became translucent, allowing Bright to view the network within. Readouts began flooding the surface of the glass, so he slid his finger along the surface and flung them out into the air, allowing more and more information to be displayed in glowing blue projected panels about him. The configuration was in place to give the Moors specific readouts while in combat, advanced targeting systems in the eyes, and general compatibility with the vast assortment of tools put in use. Pretty much anything was plug-and-play. The problem here was when manufactured mutagens are deployed, they start to eat away at the host cells, confusing them and causing them to reject the enhancements.

He spent the next few hours going over every part of the Delta project, moving from one lab table to the next. If the Bellier mutagen would be able to affect Delta's weapons system in any way, it was possible the whole thing would go kaput. Bright cursed Parv Bellier for his stupid invasive viruses, but the only way to progress was through testing. And that would require more parts.

After a quick shower, some nibbles, and actually remembering some clothes, Bright exited his residential suite. He grabbed his lab coat from his office and donned a strange gauntlet that had been hanging from its charger. He had to roll up the sleeves of his white coat to allow room for it on his arm, but they allowed him to continue projecting information into the air whilst outside of his work space.

Bright took the office exit, meaning he had to pass through a much smaller corridor than the lab's exit. Machines scanned him up and down and inside out as he walked through, searching for any anomalies that would not do to reach the outside world. At the end door, a pop up appeared in front of him, merely saying he should drink more water and take a day off. He shrugged and waved it away. The door slid open to reveal that, in fact, it was an elevator. An elevator with a single button. It was pushed and so he went up.

Sun flared through floor-to-ceiling glass walls when he stepped out. Bright checked the digital display on his gauntlet, which had turned clear and hovered around his arm in geometric pieces. 11:03.

It was so radiant and all he wanted was to grab the pieces and get back underground. He grumbled for the storage area. His device lit the way. His lab was located at the very center of the Moorden property, but the storage area was not far. A few minutes and he stood before a door. Someone's dog gave him a curious stare as he waved at the door's keypad.

When he entered, Bright was surprised that he was not alone today, though the pet dog should have clued him in on that. "Alright?" he greeted. "Haven't seen your round these parts before. New? Contract work?"

Navigating his gauntlet's display interface, Bright brought up the list of items he would need to acquire to continue his research downstairs. "Scan" he muttered, and when held out his left hand, a blue pulse of light swept over the piles of junk. And then, "Locate", and many objects glowed blue. They were all the items that fit the description on Bright's little shopping list. His program had done half the work locating all the possible ones for him, but it would take some astute work to find and choose the best bits.

Bright cracked his knuckles as readouts began popping up all around him, displaying the specifications of each object. "An expedition in the search of buried treasure. Great morning, hm?"