Modern Age Online

Kaleb leaned against the wall of his workshop as the others flitted about the place. A few Brute Clan lizards dashed about as Marie shouted orders at them. The young woman had really found a place as the workshop’s organizer. It had only been two days since the demon incident, but since then Kaleb’s workshop had become a well-oiled machine. Terrance and Roy helped build things, with some help from a few hunters and lizards. Daivor assisted Kaleb on special projects, and Marie handled the logistics… sometimes with an iron fist.

“Your break is over, chief.” Marie smirked at Kaleb.

“I think since I am the chief, I can set when my break is finished, right?” Kaleb sipped at his coffee as he smiled back at the teen.

“Yes, but we’ve also just got the latest shipment from the local dump. So we might have those cables you were looking for.”

“Shit. That’s all you had to say.”

Kaleb dragged himself off the wall and started for the shop’s door. As he passed through, he looked down at his robotic hand. It was his first attempt at machining himself a replacement, and it showed. He had wanted to use some of the spare cybernetic arms he had gotten from Under-Town. But he would need a better Robotics skill. Not to mention he was sure he’d need a cybernetic skill of some kind to install a new arm. In that regard, replacing a broken hand was easy.

So instead, Kaleb resigned himself to updating his existing arm. Which meant all new wiring and plating. It also meant that his precious crafting time was used to try to raise his Robotics Skill. Unfortunately, none of the team wanted any cybernetics installed, so he was out of luck in trying to gain that skill. But with the creation of his new hand and some general repairs, his Robotics had been raised to level four.

Kaleb exited the hangar through the eastern door and squinted against the sunlight. A big green garbage truck sat there, the engine still running. Kaleb waved at the two lizards sitting in the cab and Ringo and Rahn got out. The Brute Clan lizards gave him their approximation of a smile as they turned the truck off and threw Kaleb the keys. Originally, the job had been for the lizards to back the truck into the hangar and dump the stuff near Kaleb’s workshop. But one broken weight bench later, Claire demanded that the Brutes not be allowed to make the deliveries anymore. So Kaleb, Roy, or Marie would finish the delivery.

Kaleb hopped in the truck and drove around to the front of the hangar. The shield dome hovered around the outside of the metal building, and Kaleb reminded himself that he needed to do an upgrade on that as well. But his arm came first. He spun the garbage truck around and started backing up as the hangar’s large doors opened. Brute clan lizards and teenage hunters scattered as the doors creaked open. Kaleb spotted the yellow painted dumping area and eased the large dump truck into position. Terrance, Roy, and Daivor came out of the shop just in time to watch Kaleb dump all the precious new materials onto the hangar floor.

Quickly finishing, Kaleb returned the truck to its parking spot and rushed back into the hangar. A crowd was already gathering around the enormous pile of metal and junk. But Marie was quickly sorting things. Soon, the detritus would be sorted and placed in its proper containers. But for now, he joined Terrance and Roy as they looked over the new haul.

“I have to say, your use of garbage in your metal working and weapon creation is astounding.” Terrance said. “Its real guerrilla-style metal-working. But it works! Which is the most amazing.”

Kaleb shrugged. “Its just the best way to get mats and not pay out the nose. K-Tech and all the other big name companies could probably deliver what we needed. But they’d charge us out the ass for it.”

“Not to mention their product-delivery service is all on a subscription model. So you have to sign up for a monthly payment. Even if you only use their services a few months out of the year.”

“With the amount we go through, though, a sub to K-Tech deliveries wouldn’t be a bad idea.” Marie interjected from her spot near the junk pile. “We can only go so far with junk.”

“I’m not paying fifteen hundred credits a month to get K-Tech’s castoffs. We are doing just fine with the metal and junk we get from Roy’s family friend.”

Marie shook her head as she went back to pointing out various bits of junk for the Brutes to collect. A team of lizards and teens had formed a chain of workers taking the junk into Kaleb’s workshop. He was about to move in and help, when Two Gun and Claire poked their heads out of the door to the basement. They both glared at him tiredly, but said nothing as they trudged into the hangar. Kaleb waved off Terrance and the others as he walked over to the tired-looking couple.

“Did your sound-proofing not work?” Kaleb asked as he joined them.

Two Gun Smirked as Claire huffed angrily. “Stupid Super-senses. We’re going to have to double up on the stuff. Or you can do your deliveries outside, y’know?”

“But this way, everything is sorted and placed quicker. I know it can wake you guys up. But let’s be real. Most times, I’m the only one here. Besides the NPCs, that is.”

“We know, son. But we crashed in-game after last night’s patrol. Sound-proofing was fine for me, but Claire here…”

Two Gun’s face was a barely concealed a smile as Claire’s green skin grew slightly darker. The prim and proper alien coughed demurely into her hand as she said.

“I…mumble mumble…”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I punched him off the bed in surprise.” Claire said, covering her face.

Two Gun laughed loudly as they approached the small kitchenette area of the hangar. His voice drew a few looks, but most looked away when they realized who it was. Kaleb joined in the laughter as Claire moved over to the fridge. She grabbed some eggs and bacon as Two Gun heated the stove. Kaleb quickly grabbed himself another coffee and got out of the way. The kitchen was too small for three people.

“We need to upgrade this room.” Two Gun said as he started preparing his breakfast.

“Another thing for the list.” Kaleb said.

“You say that, but didn’t you just expand your Workshop… again?”

Kaleb took a strategic sip of coffee and looked away. He had argued with D34d-I for a full morning about giving him more space. Kaleb and Farrah were the ones that were in the hangar the most. So they needed bigger working areas. Farrah had practically the entire back wall to herself. Aside from Jar-lock’s small library. Meanwhile, Kaleb was in an awkward position between the eastern and southern wall. But the hangar office made it harder to expand.

Claire and Two Gun weren’t put off by Kaleb’s attempts to avoid the issue, though. They waited as he finished his long coffee sip and stared at him. Eventually, he could only shrug.

“We have the funds.” Was his only answer. “Besides, aren’t weapons and armor more important?”

“Then food?!”

“It’s digital food! You're being fed by a system of tubes right now.”

Two Gun stopped scrambling his eggs and turned to glare at Kaleb. Pointing an egg-covered spatula at Kaleb, he said.

“It might all be fake, but a decent breakfast is paramount to clean living.”

“It’s ten in the morning.”

“So it’s a late breakfast.”

Kaleb rubbed his eyes. “Fine. We can expand the kitchen next.”

“Shouldn’t we decide that as a group?” Claire interrupted. “I mean, I understand the Workshop and the Command Center needing to be upgraded. But now that they are, maybe we should discuss our next areas for growth. Jar-Lock’s library, D34d-I’s office… or the workout area.”

Kaleb smiled at the quiet way the tall woman mentioned her own area. But she wasn’t wrong. They hadn’t been paid for the Demon Raid yet. But with that infusion of credits, they could probably do something with each of the areas. Two Gun looked like he agreed, but also seemed pensive. As he plated his food, the old cowboy brought up his concerns.

“Maybe we should do a whole redesign.”

Claire and Kaleb stared at the old man as he sat down at the table and put a fork-full of eggs in his mouth. Once he finished chewing, he explained.

“We have expanded employee-wise, but not with the base. Yes, the CC and the Workshop have seen the most growth. But they have started infringing on other areas. Prof, your workshop’s south wall is about to crash into either Farrah’s or D34d-I’s area. We need to do a proper layout for the hangar and make some space for the new hires.”

“Maybe we should expand the second floor? We’ve got the space. We just need the cash and the muscle, and we can extend ourselves underground.” Claire said, flexing her slim arms.

Two Gun smiled at his wife. “That’s an idea. But I was thinking of more of a layout change on the hangar floor. Just to make things easier to move around.”

Kaleb stared at his large rectangular room. It stood out like a sore thumb just to the right of the center of the hangar. Four metal walls extending almost the full length of the space, almost blocking the eastern wall completely. Kaleb nodded his head at the wall.

“So I could move the workshop against that far wall. Opposite D34d-I’s office. It would free up the middle of the hangar. After that, maybe we can convince Jar to put his library underground? It doesn’t get used enough to be top floor material.”

Claire snorted. “And your workshop does?”

Kaleb raised an eyebrow and looked at the stream of people walking into and out of his shop. Then he turned to Farrah’s Command Center. More teens and lizard were stomping around over there. In fact, the two places that weren’t being used on the hangar floor were the exercise room and Jar’s Library. Claire coughed awkwardly, but nodded her head in defeat at his unsaid argument.

“I think the exercise area can stay up here, right?” Two Gun said around a mouthful of eggs.

Kaleb nodded. “Yeah, I hate to say it, but the daily exercises are good for my skill growth. Also, it’s the only time we all get together to discuss things.”

“Except for Vivienne.” Claire said.

“She’s at the wizard college half the time.” Kaleb shrugged.

Claire squinted her eyes. “I don’t know. That just sounds like an excuse to skip our team-building exercises. I never even heard of this college you speak of.”

Kaleb smirked at her jovial tone, but then remembered he had his own college to go to soon. A sighed escaped his lips, and he tried to remember the name of the bookstore in their portion of town. He needed to grab an advanced chemistry book and brush up. Something must have shown on his face, cause Two Gun and Claire looked at him worriedly.

“I have to play teacher this week, remember?”

Two Gun grinned. “It’s one day out of the week. You’ll live.”

“Besides, don’t you already have a basic understanding of such things? Thanks to the game.”

“Sure, but like the basics of the basics. I still need to know how to teach.”

Two Gun rose and cleaned his plate as he spoke over his shoulder. “Then I’d get to learning, son. You only have a few hours until your patrol this afternoon. Also, the cops have asked that we stop looting the criminals we capture.”

Kaleb raised an eye-ridge. “I thought we had the first right of refusal on all found loot.”

“We do. But now they say that the criminals could be carrying dangerous items we are unfit to dispose of.”

“Just another way for them to fuck with us.”

“Professor, normally I would say you’re paranoid. But I have a gut feeling you’re right. It’s taken longer for the police to show up these past two nights. Not to mention our paperwork keeps getting denied the first time. After we resubmit it goes through, but it’s like they are being needlessly petty.”

“To be fair to them, we did kind of go over their heads with the Demon thing.”

“To be unfair to them, they had already proven to be a pain in the ass,” Kaleb argued.

Two Gun and Claire both shrugged before the linked arms and moved off. Kaleb got up and followed them as they moved to the CC.

“We still have to have that discussion about moving out to Garfield and Wyldwood.” Claire said as they walked.

“Do we know how that would work?” Kaleb asked.

“More contracts and deals.” Two Gun said simply.

“It would be nice working with a police department that isn’t actively making our job harder.”

Two Gun and Kaleb nodded at Claire’s words. But Farrah’s voice stopped them all in their tracks as they entered her domain. Rows of hunters and brutes were actively taking phone calls and collecting data. Farrah stood in front of her bank of monitors, taking it all in. She was shouting orders at the drone flyers as the screens displayed real-time footage. Something big was happening, and Farrah was trying to stay on top of it.

Kaleb moved around the bank of terminal and approached Farrah. “What’s up?”

Farrah spun him, and her eyes looked wild and angry. “The police department is in a high-speed pursuit through our neighborhood. But they’ve ordered us not to intervene. I’ve got the drones on them, but the fucking cops have even started taking potshots at our hardware.”

“How the fuck are they getting away with that?” Two Gun asked.

“Stray bullets.” Farrah snorted. “Or so they say. Meanwhile, the yahoos they're chasing aren’t even firing back. It’s such gross, obvious bullshit. I’m ashamed of ever working in the police force.”

“What do we do?” Claire asked.

“There’s not much we can do. The cops have asked us to step off and unless we get a request from the locals, we can’t override them. But all calls from that area are being blocked ‘somehow.’”

Farrah’s sarcasm as she said the word somehow was obvious. It made clear how she felt about the matter and boiled Kaleb’s blood. The police were becoming more of a problem in their contractual area. How were they to do their jobs if the local PD was fighting against them? Kaleb almost wanted to rush to his car and stop the chase anyway. But Farrah’s small smile made him freeze.

She was looking at a small girl at a nearby monitor. The hunter’s long fingers danced across her terminal’s keyboard until she slammed the enter key and nodded at Farrah.

“We’re good to go, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Casey.”

Farrah stuck a large headset over her rabbit ears and put on her office voice. Two Gun, Claire and Kaleb, all shared confused looks until they heard what she said.

“Patrol Car 934, this is the Lone Star Super Group. We are ready to assist.”

A man’s angry voice practically yelled through Casey’s terminal. “Lone Star, this is patrol. We heard you the first three times. I’ll say again, we don’t need any help from a group of Non-HLO Supes.”

Farrah scrunched up her eyebrows. “Officer Trask, am I to understand that you don’t accept our rightful contract to this area?”

“You’re goddamn right, you fucking bitch! You damn mercenaries can get the fuck out of my district for all I care!”

“And is this view shared by your superiors?”

“Who gives a fuck!?” Officer Trask screamed down the line.

The call went dead after that and Kaleb had to forcefully unclench his hand. He wanted to smack someone. But Farrah was smiling, so was the young hunter, Casey. Kaleb looked at the two as Farrah took off her headset and placed it on a small desk. Farrah nodded at the other young woman.

“Send it out.”

Casey nodded and rapidly started typing again. Two Gun started laughing as he caught on first. But Kaleb wasn’t far behind.

“You were recording him?”

“Yep. Asshat shouldn’t have yelled at me the first time. We’ll see how the court of public opinion likes his fucking attitude. His little car chase has already caused some damage to the district.”

“The cops aren’t going to like that,” Claire said.

“Fuck’em!” Farrah and Kaleb said together.

“We’ve tried playing nice all morning and they keep stonewalling us. At least this way, the locals will know we’ve been trying.”

“What kinda of blowback will we see?” Two Gun asked.

Farrah shrugged. “I’d wager it will be minimal. If they do something, that will also make them look bad to the public.”

“But our relationship will now be even more adversarial.” Claire complained.

“It already was. Now they know we will hit back.” Farrah said, as she grabbed a few tablets from another table. “Now, we have some other requests for aid from the rest of the neighborhood. Why don’t you three head out and handle them?”

“Hey, I’m not on duty for another two hours.” Kaleb said. “I’ve got to go through this morning’s junk.”

“Then what are you doing in my Command Center? Get out of here. Also, I’ve got two drones that need patch jobs. So hurry and get to work.”

“I’m going, ya slave driver. Two Gun, Claire, let’s bring up what we discussed with the others when we see them, okay?”

Claire gave him the okay sign as Two Gun buried his nose in the tablets Farrah handed him. Kaleb sighed and turned back to his workshop. The streams of workers were still bringing in junk, and he could tell the next two hours were going to fly by. Which meant he had to hurry. He needed to find the wires he wanted and get them installed asap. Later he had to visit the bookstore and find some college level textbooks on chemistry. His day was filling up, and he hadn’t even done any hero-ing yet.

Kaleb smiled and rushed off toward his workshop. Eager to get a start to things. Ignoring the feeling in his gut that Farrah had started something they were all going to have to finish.