The Lost Key: Mechas Are Breaking Down

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FJ22

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Character Skeletons/Profiles

Name: Vinni
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Race: Human
Occupation: Famous Idol/ Earth's back up battery
Special Abilities: Spirituality and electrical current

Name: Trinket
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Race: Human/Alien
Occupation: Mecha operator and ship mechanic
Special Abilities: Fixing crap and being one hell of a mech fighter ;)
 
After sitting through her last day of school, Vinni said her goodbyes. She was graduating early. She had no need to linger. Her friends were already gone. But she dragged her feet, enjoying the crisp air, and the lasting smell of winter on it's way.

Vinni wasn't keen on going home at this moment. She needed to clear her mind of all the little annoying things that happened that day. "Curse that clock." She muttered under her breath. The ticking of every second still made her twitch from anger. She remembered that she didn't even change out of her school uniform. She brought her street clothes from home for that reason, to change. Another annoyance bubbled in the back of her mind. It wasn't summer yet, she couldn't change in a back alley.

Her home didn't seem right, nothing seemed right as she walked up the steps. "Reggie?" She called into the dark house. "Reggie! You oaf, you better not be sleeping!" She shuffled through the darkness until she found a switch. The power going out was never a problem for her.

But as quickly as the lights flicked on a figure enclosed on her. Vinni only caught a glance of the room, blood on the floor and Reggie twitching in pain. The figure muffled her mouth with a damp cloth and out she went. The figure lifted her over his shoulder and stuffed her into the back of his trunk. Things ended quickly that day.

-----

Trinket tied up her copper curls and flicked down her protective mask. In a fluid motion, as though she did this a million times, she clicked the metal and lit up her gas torch. She held it gently, listening to the radio. She knelt over her a metal sheet, cutting loose a new part she etched in with marker. Determined, she was going to finish cutting the part for her mech. She was willing to stay longer than the rest of her coworkers.

Trinket yelled to her apprentice to turn up the music. She couldn't handle the sound of hammers right now. So many people were banging out dents and putting the metal back in place. But the national news came on. More so urgent that it may have been more wide spread. Trinket couldn't figure it out. All she heard was; "Idol gone missing", "Murder of..." and "Earth's back up power source in danger." She got the majority of what the news caster was trying to tell everyone.

The quiet and sudden chaos of one voice drove Trinket wild. She didn't want to think of little miss perfect. She threw down her torch and pulled the radio plug from the wall.

"Get back to work! We're on a deadline!" She shouted, still clutching the damaged wire. "... we don't need any distractions."
 
Name: Alec
Gender:M
Age:20
Occupation: mech operator(beginner) and lead tech legend.
Race: human
hidden abilities: Haker that can get into any system

Hacking his first computer was difficut, he remebers when he was studdying to become a mecha operator that some one in his class had changed his password and account so that he wouldent pass. Alec tryed every thing he could do to his portable with out damageing the content within the systems memory. finnaly he did some thing most people where not supposed to do to there portable. He had wirelessly connected a second portable and sent scater codes to his system so his orignal system did not notice it as a hack.
When he told his teacher why he could not present his mecha plans to the class his teacher became immpressed in his tech skills and alowed him to present later.

*Later on joining a squad ship*
I became the lead tech but every one calls me the tech legend becuase i can fix any system or just hack it.
Alec sat in a hot stuffy mecha chair trying to fix the system of a friends mecha, His friends problem with the mecha is the weapon system wount operate with out a pass code. Alec calls out
"yo! luke! What do you want your new pass code as?"
"I donno, make it 'Luke is the best' or something like that"
"Allright ill just go with that" Alec changes the pass code and pops out of the stuffy area to tell luck his mecha is ready untill every thing is quite except for the mecha operator Trinket. He Hears the news about Vinni going missing and the murder of some person and the earths energy in danger. Then Trinket yells at every one to get back to work and she ended up riping the wire off the raido. But she was right we needed to get things done fast.
 
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Trinket freed herself from her hair tie, her blood seemed to continue to boil. Struggled with the protective mask and tossed it onto it's hook. She had enough of mending and fixing. The parts she needed could wait until tomorrow, and Earth just finished a pesky battle. No one would dare strike after recent victory on their part. She waited a moment, watching Alec shout to his friend.

"Alec!" She shouted up at him, sounding like she found a new victim. She chose something that could respond to verbal abuse, something stronger than a radio. Her hands rested on her hips as she head tilted back. She looked as though her heavy girls were too much for her tiny cranium.

She wanted to see him cringe at her voice but she probably wouldn't be so lucky today. "I'm leaving early, I need you to run a few tests on my mech's software, make sure I didn't damage anything internally. Got it? I need it by tomorrow!"

Many people in the shop disliked how much of a hard ass she was in and around the shop. They glared at her for mistreating the young computer genius.

"What what you say! We don't need to lose him. If you scare him off our software and mechas will never run smoothly. Do you want that?"

"Mind your own business," Trinket grunted. "This is my shop."
 
After Trinket commanded every one to get back to work alec quickly jumped back into the cockpit of the mecha and quickly finished the last remaining updates with this mechas system. He ran the program and the mechas system responeded better than he expected. The main weapon was runing so smooth it affected the mecha's secondary to the point where it was not needed for the updated.
"Alec!"
Trinket yelled out from across the room.
Alec knew it was Trinket yelling at him. he knows it was her becuase she likes to take comand of the whole shop, which was right becuase shes one of the lead mechanics. As alec jumps out the cockpit trying to hear the girl, he can tell the operator was trying to muster up an insult to him, But it wount work for him becuase hes faced stronger insults from tech training. She desides to say.
"I'm leaving early, I need you to run a few tests on my mech's software, make sure I didn't damage anything internally. Got it? I need it by tomorrow!"
He knew she would try to do this to him but he was ready for any thing, even this. Alec starts to get out the cockpit and he hears some of the operators telling her not to scare me off, but i knew what to say next. she told the other operators to mind there own business.
alec yells out "Ill get it done by tonight"
*late at night*
The shop is empty but there are some beeping comeing from one of the insides of a mecha. Alec sits there with a tired face but hes excited to be just about finished. Her system is alot smother but he has to check every system so she dosent die in battle. He likes siting in her cockpit better because it is alot cooler, was it maybe the cold night? Alec just about finishes every part of her mecha when stomch growls to him, he forgot he hasent eaten all day. he jumps out of her mecha happliy due to he did his goal.
 
The beeping on the inside of Trinket's cockpit may not have been a malfunction, but an urgent message. Alec had appeared to do a great job so far, any problems were out of the question.

"Is anyone out there?" A small faint voice came from a fuzzy screen inside of Trinket's mecha. Her voice started to break up, and crack from poor connection. This made her panic a little more. "Pl..ease.. H..lp." Her young face fizzed and flickered on the screen, waiting for a response from the mecha. "Tri..k...t?"

Silence grew after that, the loud volume of the screen would pop and crackle. Whether Alec would hear the pleas was a mystery, but they were there, recorded for Trinket to find the next morning. She would probably freak out like usual.
_____

Being caught off guard, Trinket blinked and looked him dead in the eye. "Good, you better. Keep it, you'll get further than my voice can reach." She flashed a smile at him. Trinket tried her best at a compliment, and moved on from the scene. She hummed to herself as she got into her car and zipped out of the shop.

Finally on her way home she was able to relax, she busied herself with digging dirt from under her nails. The Tv flickered on and off, but she paid no mind to it. The voice didn't cut out any, yet. Then it all stopped. A lot of this happened all over the place. Some places at different times, other places went pitch black. Crime was starting to rise from the little weakness bubbling up in these cities.

By the next morning, Trinket woke up trying to push the remote out from under her back. Her spine had poked at the volume button. A new news cast started blaring in her Earth.
"A ship of 200 fighters fell to Earth today...."
Trinket blankly looked off at the screen. "To...day?" She muttered. "A good portion of my team is on that ship."
"Also on the news, rolling black outs and weak power lines across the globe..." She clicked the TV off after that, not caring about the power outages.

Trinket returned to work after pulling herself from the couch. Her head hung low as though she had done something shameful.
"Where is Alec?" She asked around, but couldn't find him at first. She plugged in the radio and let everyone listen to the news. In her usual loud voice, she spoke, "stuff like this is important... many of you had family. I will excuse you for a couple of days to be with family or friends. Use it as an excuse to drink, because when you get back.... we are going to KILL whomever or whatever has brought down our strongest ship!"
 
When alec retured to the shop he was about to jump on anouther meaha for a system check untill Trinket came over to him. She looks him in the eyes and started to give him a compliment. This sort of took him by supprise because she never gives people compliments. Then she flashed him a smile, This completly paralized him. As she walked away he came back to his senses and started to work on all the mechas systems that he couldent do yesterday. Most of the systems where just fine with out him. A few of the mecha operators left the shop to test out there mechas out in the feild. This gives Alec a chance to relax a bit but he still had to work on the mechas. He hated the fact that some of the operators cockpits where disgusting and hot, they must have missed the part about keeping there area clean.

Alec had to work over night again becuase he had relaxed to much. He was in office room that connected all the mechas onto one computer. Alec also set up an extra battery and a spare memory bank on the computer just in case something went wrong, and suddenly the lights went out but the computer stayed on with the extra battery pack runing. Alec was worried about what had happend so he turnd on the radio on his wrist portable and it boomed with news about power black outs and crime rasing. Then he heard nosie comeing from one of the mechas. He quickly ran to the mechas cockpit. Alec turnd on the communication system and heard a mayday call over the system. Alec quickly tryed to call back to the other operators but it was to late, alec heard an explosion, then a scream, then stadic. He knew something had gone wrong but what was it? was it that he had misssed something on the systems? did the weapons system malfunction? He had to find out, and fast.
It was the next day and Alec had fallen asleep at the shop trying to find out why the mechas had malfunction and herd Trinket yelling over the raido.
 
Flames grew high that night, the only thing that lit up the town's sky during the rolling black outs. A good majority of the town knew even before the news told the world of the tragedy. The fire fighters tried their best to save everyone. The fire was hard to put out, so much gasoline had spilled and wires were exposed to both gas and water. When water hit it just sparked the fire even higher. So their only choice was to choke out the flames.

What happened on that ship was a mystery, even to the people who were on the inside of the ship. But only they knew the light flickered, wires snapped free from the motherboard, micro chips melted and ruined all circuits around them. They were no longer projecting forward with their fuel burning at the back of the ship. Instead they floated for what seemed like hours in the darkness. Only the stars would light up through the glass, and the occasional flicker. People panicked, still trying to send out a distress signal to Trinket. Their efforts, now a haunting recorded piece of history, it would always be something to make chills run down your back.
_____

Trinket's eyes started to fill with tears when everyone left. She pushed them back though and returned to building parts for her mecha. She would NOT take a break. She refused to. She seemed to have little faith in the strength of her team, but she did not have family on that ship. So she had no excuse to cry. In her mind, only they could. Only the friends and family could cry for them. She would rather take out her anger on another battle. She felt one was about to come soon.

She took off her protective mask to wipe off the sweat. She needed to do a few more measurements before she continued. Gently she twisted off the valve to the gas, setting down her torch. Trinket knew Alec's office would have a calculator she could borrow. So she helped herself to Alec's office. She opened the door and saw Alec asleep at his desk.

"Alec." She spoke softly. She had no urge to pester him. Her usual spunk had settled down and made room for other emotions. "Alec, you should go. You worked hard. I can tell cause all that binary code has tanned your face."

She picked up the calculator. "You're lucky... there is a survivor from the ship waiting for you. Rumour has it, he's your brother. He's one out of two people who survived." Trinket craved to see his reaction to the news. She wanted to see one happy face, one little bit of hope to help her through the evening. "I'll be borrowing your calculator." She finally spoke after an awkward silence, heading out the office door.

Trinket worked hard that day, getting stuff together. Her mecha wasn't malfunctioning yet, so she hopped in to admire the software update Alec had done for her. She wouldn't be able to attach the parts until she was familiar with the new set up. But after getting familiar, she noticed a red light blinking. Her blood turned cold and she felt her heart race. "A distress call... for me?" She would feel flattered if she knew it didn't end so badly. Like a scared animal, she quivered as she watched the short clip. Her name was mentioned in the message, but she wasn't there to help. It became just another thing that would weigh in on her shoulders.
 
Alec had decided to stay and work over night once more. He could feel the wieght of over working for the past 3 days take a toll on his mental health. During the day he would hear people call for him on the raido and he would anwser it but there would be no response till he realizes the calls where distress signals comeing from the dead operators. This also help mess up his health mentaly. He started to hear the sparks and stadic come from the shop and decided it was his mind messing with him untill he realized he can see the light colors from the shop so he walked up to the windo to find out it was Trinket still working on her mecha. Slowly Alec went to his desk and started to continue the disconection of the fallen mechas. After disconectioning the mecha wireless systems he quicky connected them again to discover what had gone wrong with the mechas systems. All the systems either say they were damaged or system fail. He couldent understand, the new system of the most expensive and top of the line tech that could be put in a mecha. slowly he started to fade off, then he rested his head. Last, darkness.

"Alec..."
He herd a name call him out in his dream. He is now at home with his brother, hes young, but Alec himself was the age he was. His brothers younger form came over to hold his hand and whispered, "im fine bro..." then alecs dream faded to his computer and sees trinket, she is talking but he could hardly understand her. The only words he can make out is.
"Alec....you.....go.......worked hard.....tell cause.........code has tanned.......face."
After alec had realized what she said he told her he had to finish his work and that he was about to be finished. She explained to him that there is some one wanting to see him and that roumor has it, it is his brother. When Trinket explained this to him it cuaght him by supprise and it also bightened up this moment of his life. It was like finding the light in a room full of darkness. When Trinket walked out with his calculator he walked out the office watching Trinket work hard on her mecha. This was the right time for him to set up his own mecha.
 
Alec's brother woke up in a painfully bright, white room. He held his head and felt bandages all over his body. His hair was falling loose and his face was pretty badly smacked up. He looked around him and wondered why he was alone. There was a sign outside of his room. He read it through the glass window. "Isolation: Staff only..." He muttered. He wondered if he became contaminated from the crash some how. It was impossible to him that he survived, or that he survived alone. There was a girl under him, he remembered holding her down to protect her from a gas explosion. The rest was fuzzy at the moment. Dark circles had formed under his eyes. He wanted to see a familiar face.

A nurse would occasionally come in wearing something that resembled a thin haz-mat suit. He watched her from his swollen and drooping brows. He didn't speak, nor did she explain things to him. She placed down the tray of food in his lap, and mumbled something about his appearance. He just shook his head and rolled back into bed to annoy her.
____

Alec was now back to walking on thin ice with Trinket. She had spent most of the time working on the mechas with him. But seeing him remain there for so long, that drew the last straw.

"Alec, I told you to go home!" She yelled while she caught him sleeping again. "You are no use to me like this." She slammed the door behind her and walked deeper into his office. She wasn't going to let camera's record this conversation. "I want my men in top shape. Go to the hospital, get your brother, and return here after you've caught up on rest. You perfectly know well that your brother will not be able to get out of that hospital safely with the media dying to talk to him about the crash!" She slammed her fist into the table.

Her green eyes burned a sharply with a deepening jade. They were rough and ready to cut into their nearest victim. She really didn't mean to treat him this way, but it was the only way she knew. She needed to push him out the door so the poor kid would get some rest. Regardless of being thankful for helping her catch up on the work, his brother needed him at this moment.

"I mean it, Alec." She placed a small disk, no bigger than her thumb, on the desk. "Once you return, I'm training you to fight like me. The androids have been shutting down like the power around the world. They won't last much longer, nor will they survive in battle. I will need you to be my strongest fighter. People will be weak from their loved ones dying in action, but you have strength. Your brother is alive. You should feed off the fuel for hope that we'll make it through this."

She doubted he understood very little of her conversation with him. "The camera's showed me you tried to respond to the distress call. The proof is on this disk. If I had trained you sooner, you could have taken my mecha and responded for me. We could have avoided this mess if..." Her body started shaking, really hard. Her hair fell into her face. "You were the only one here that could have helped them last night. I carelessly left an untrained rookie to watch MY shop, take MY calls, and force you to sit through our men dying...."

"So go home, Alec. Stop being so helpful to me.." She finally gave way to her body, Trinket couldn't handle the pain at this moment. She sat silent now in the chair, his calculator in her hand.
 
Alec quickly and sleepishly ran to his desk. He pulled up one of his own personal portable wrist computer wich contained info about about the spare parts that were left in the shop. These where spare parts and old parts alec was able to save before they could be added to a mecha or thrown out to the dump. His mecha was systematicly ready but the body of his mecha wasint ready. He felt the dizzyness again, his eyes got heavy untill he has fallen back asleep.

He woken up to Trinket yelling at him. She yelled to him about being of no use becuase he was working to hard. She closed the door sor some odd reason and started to yell at him to go visit his brother and to go to get his rest. He didint want to visit her brother becuase of the past they had bettwen each other. He began to have a quck flash back of the times his brother had messed with his life, most were mean but in the end they turned out quite well. He diecided to follow Trinkets directions and visit his brother, but Alec had allredy seen a video of his brother in the hospital, he didint want to see him like that but he wanted to show his brother that Alec was still alive.

He seen her place a small disk on her his desk that was small but still big for there time. Then she went on to explain that he will be training the way she did becuase she wants him to be a top mecha operator and that the droids where losseing power and they are failing. Anouther malfunction? Why were there so many power failers? He wanted to find out why. Then she went on to explain that he hasent lost every thing. He can see the pain in her eyes. Now he knew this was important. She contuined to explain that she had seen the video of him trying to anwser the ditress calls comeing from the mechas. He starts to see her body shake she wount be able to hold in much longer. She finnaly told him to go home as she fell on the chair.


He grabs the small disk and rises from his chair walking up to her soon after. He places his hand on her shoulder and says
"Ill go, and ill be ready by the next day."
As he is about to open the door he says with out looking at her.
"you need your rest also"
 
Trinket let Alec leave, she felt horrible for yelling at him. But she was rash and brutal. It was the only way to get things across. Growing up with a Navy man as her father, she learned that quickly. They would always butt heads to get things across. She smiled as she thought of him. She remembered how she yelled at him that she IS going to prom with Russell and THAT was final. They spent 20 minutes staring each other down. She knew her father had a weakness for his hot headed, baby girl. She won that battle and ended up getting a ride home after she was ditch for a prettier girl. Her mentioned that he was proud that she didn't cry.

"Look at me now dad, I'm crying like that Baby girl you always called me." She laughed and got up. She knew what she had to do to beat this power failure that was happening on Earth. Human powered generators were the answer. She was going to spend all night charging up the old tech she had stored away for this very purpose.
"We're going to save Earth, THAT'S final!"

____

Jimmy (Alec's brother) laid there in his drenched bed. He was sweating bullets from the sight of the crash being replayed in his mind. He kept yelling an incoherent name. He started to worry the nurses but they left him to be haunted by his memories. It was the only way that the world would understand what happened, they had a right to know. A lot of them craved to hear of their families last moments. They wished to hear about the brave, if their suffering was quick or what their last words may have been.

Jimmy clung to the bed. Visions of black, body bags and stretchers burned into his mind by the glowing fires behind them. The paramedics, their faces were covered with distress and pity for the sole known living victim of this attack. He was able to crawl around after the attack. He was yelling the name of the female that was laying under him. Her soft voice had whispered in his ear just a moment ago. Chances of her getting far wasn't possible. Maybe she thought he was dead, tried crawling away....

Finally, the name... it came out! He yelled it at the top of his lung. "VINNI! VINNI!" He grabbed the rails and shook the bed violently. "FIND VINNI!" He hollard toward the nurse, she stared at him dumbfounded by the fear he struck into her. "VINNI! YOU FOOL, SHE'S STILL ALIVE!" Jimmy just couldn't say it enough.

Vinni had hurt her arm on the way down, she could still be in the area. He wanted to tell someone every detail, he remembered it all. "Vinni! She called help for us! The panic... I remember grabbing her... before the camera shut off. I don't know who this Trinket was, but I need you to find her." He scrambled from his bed and shook the poor nurse. Jimmy begged, trying to get all the info out. But there was so much to be said. "FIND TRINKET! FIND VINNI!"
 
Alec had left the parking lot of the shop in a small car, he wasint into the new cars that have special equipment on it and older genoration cars are alot stronger wich is why they discontuied the cars. He reved up the engein with a roar wich can cuase alot of attention if in the wrong naboirhood.
He held on to the steering wheel and drove away from the shop. The roads he took still had power wich was good becuase if it didint have power he would have been in the middle of a riot. He dives by the remains of the broken mechas wich were in pices, he thought he had seen some bones but wanted to forget about it. Once he had gotten to the hospital he waked to the counter and asked for his brother Jimmy. The nurse thought he was anouther reporter so she denided him the request. Alec had to pull something out of his hat to see his brother. He walked away and hid from the nusre at the counter untill her shift was over. Once she walked away Alec ran to the desk and pulled up the screan on his portable and connected the two systems with a wire. Most computers deal with wireless hacking not wired ones. He found his brother in a hazerd area wich scared him. Alec programed that if a camra seen him he would not show up on the recoreding. He ran to the room avoiding doctors. He had made it to the room and it was in a white room wich was not a good sign. He took a picture of him self and jumped into a hazmat suit. He walked into the room quitely so he couldent wake up his brother. He placed a very recent picture of him self in the shop smiling. Then he found a small disk under his brothers bed, His brother knew to do this when he wanted to tell his brother something.

Alec left the hospital to go home. He hasnet been home in days, but alec decided to visit the shop before he returened home. Trinkets car was still there so alec decided to sleep in his car. He opend the message his brother had left him.
It was a video record, his mecha was being destoryed but there was a girl in his arms, he knew who it was,
Vinni was with him.
Then alec feel asleep in his car.
 
The rioting was thick, the people were strong and mean. They allowed the confusion to fuel their anger and took out their rage on the closest person, building and stole what they felt would have worth in this new world of approaching darkness. Alec had made the right choice in taking the lighted road in front of him. But the path he had chosen was not any prettier. The broken down mechas and scrap metal caught the yellow light, reflecting back onto scattered bones.

The nurses at these hospitals were hired volunteers, and not very bright ones. If something happened, they usually turned the other way and busied themselves. They would act as though nothing had happened. So Alec was free to sneak about, despite how ninja-like he did it.

Jimmy was so heavily sedated that he couldn't move very much. Straps held him to the bed by his ankles and wrists. There were red marks where the plastic had rubbed against him fighting so hard. He still muttered like a mad man. Both Trinket and Vinni's names were audible from his lips. His was very much lively when it came to being vocal, be it grunts or moans.

The next morning there would be no sign of Jimmy. There would be no sign of the nightmarish groans that left the depths of his throat, no more shouting to look for Trinket and Vinni. The ground missed any trace of Jimmy's movement. He had vanished, but with who was obvious. Blond hairs were abandoned on the ground from stress and worry. Vinni had been there, she had taken Jimmy with her. Maybe she had a moment of weakness.

Alec would soon receive a call of his missing brother....
___

Trinket came out of the shop finally, she was going to head to the store and stock the work shop fridge. She took notice of Alec still sleeping in his car. She tapped on the window. "What to come?" She asked, holding the shopping list against the window. "I'll buy you coffee."

She appeared to be calm and collected after being so productive. She was so far past the point of needing sleep that she looked the opposite of tired. Trinket looked energized and ready to fight. The mechas were charged, ready to go and hard wired to fight to the death. She needed everyone in her shop to fight their hardest. They may not be the only ones ready to battle, but she knew they were the only ones fully equipped and the best.
 
A car passes every road in shearch of the area where trinket works, but little do they know its very neer the area where all the riots are at. They didint find the shop becuase of the fear that was in them. The car drove all night with the young blond girl and jimmy thats half dazzed and awake driving all day and night to find the shop.

Alec was one of thoses people who belive listining to something all night while they sleep would help them learn faster and better. He could hear the instructions in his ears and while the words play out his dreams where filled with vived images of the mechas parts, ways to fix it, models, and reasons why it would stop functioning. Most of the things he knew becuase most of the problems have to deal with the programing systems and weapon programs but some things he didint know. Like the mechas have to be clean, becuase keeping the mecha clean avoids unnessery junk in side the mechas body. He also reads the parts about placeing old mecha parts on new mecha bodys.
Suddenly he is pushed out of his sleep by a ring, but the ringing stops and puts him back to sleep but with out dreaming about mechas.

He is woken up again buy tapping on his windo. He sits up with his eyes very heavy and streches with a loud yawn. Hes had a good nights rest but he knew it would be one of his last long rests. He see's the time is allmost after noon and looks at Trinket with a heavy dazed smile. He presses a list of food and drinks for the shops stock. she askes if he wants to come along with her. He studys her face to see if she was toying with him and she told him shed get coffie for the both of them. He opens the passnger door and tells her to come in. As they drive to the store he pulls out his brothers small disk and puts it in trinkets hand.

"i think your going to want to watch it when we get back to the shop."
 
((Please don't mildly hi-jack my characters. okay? It limits what I can do for them. I'm only talking about the car thing, though. Not the disk stuff.))

Trinket laughed at the sleepy sight of the young man. But that first description of him... That word, "young." It stuck with her. It was a virus of guilt eating at her. He was still yet so young, yet she was ready to strap him into a mech that would probably explode on first contact with Aliens. It robbed Trinket of her laugh and wide smile. Her desire to drink coffee vanished,

She was getting weak again, she could feel it. The hand that pressed the list so firmly to the window just started to slide down. It was like oil had slipped under her piece of paper. To hide it Trinket started to growl, "Well hurry up! Let's go!" She snorted at him and got into the car.

Looking over the list, she tried to make sure she didn't forget a thing. "We have...." Her thoughts were interrupted by an object being placed in her hand. She looked at Alec, tilted her head and then placed the object in front of the sun. The shadowing of the disk and reflective light danced in her eyes. Then it slowly moved across her face as she put it back down to lap level.

"What are you giving me? It better not be your collection of.... what ever your into." She glared at him suspiciously, then watched him.

Looking at him only reminded her of the goofy smile he gave to her. It made her blush. She wasn't used to it, since she treated everyone so poorly. "Don't ever smile at me like that again!" She said out of no where, "I don't want to think of you like that!"
She blushed even more for even speaking out loud like that. "Let's just go! Never mind me!"

After purchasing coffee from one of the few shops that weren't broken into, she read him the list. "Are we missing anything? Maybe there is a food item you can't live without?" Her eyes were curious as to what pass onto those taste buds, adding enjoyment to his daily meals. Her face flushed again, turning away. "Not like I care or anything, I just don't want to hear you whine when all the food is gone."

Luckily for Trinket, the food wasn't all gone and it was on sale, too. There wasn't many customers when you can just riot and get your items for free.

________
"Jimmy, please, stop yelling in your sleep." Vinni spoke softly, trying to wake him. She held him in her arms sweetly. "Jimmy..."

The sweet voice, hummed in Jim's ears. He thought he was imagining things. He tried to open his heavily sedated eyes. "Sweet pea, please forgive me. I... I left you behind." His tired eyes started to water. "Now you're a sweet illusion before my eyes, a haunting dream left to torture me with guilt and eat my heart alive."

"No, you fool. Wake up." She huffed. "I'm alive." She kissed his forehead. "I'm alive...." Vinni's arms wrapped around him and reached for his most ticklish spot. "You always were dramatic.." She grinned as his arms waved about in a ticklish panic.

"OKAY I'M AWAKE! STOP!" He was laughing so hard.

"No, I need you awake and alert. Find me a mecha."
 
((ah crap sorry, i bearlyy realized it right now..... dam i feel like i offended youu =o ))

"oh no, no, no, no i dont have one of those collections." He looked had her nervously with a smile but once she told him told him this it made his thoughts go a little wild but had to whipe his mind clean from that idea. Alec liked the idea of going some where with the girl. so every so offten hed smile to her wich most likely seem awkward to her. In his deep thoughts he didint know if he was cut out to operate a mecha in any envierment. He keeped runing dark images in the back of his head so it wouldent show on his face. He imagained that his first try on his own mecha would blow up on him and it would be his brother that is alone not him. Anouther thought was he would get his mecha to start but once it lifted in the air it would malfunction and keeping flying off into deep space or it would completly stop working wich will cause him to fall down to the earth. She dives down the same road alec had drove to where had seen remains of mechas, but the road was cleand up. Maybe by the city, or maybe the riot did. When she asked him what he wanted he looked up and thought what he wanted. He never really thought about this but he knew what he wanted, green tea. She made her comment about not careing but he knew she did. he said
"to be honnest trinket, ive never really thought about this. No one has asked me what i liked so i never really knew what i wanted. Now i know though I want green tea, and lots of it"
He smiles to her again but with a bigger grin. He walks off to the area where they sell drinks. Every thing was on sale, it seemed like bad bussnes but with the riots going on it was a good idea. This was the perfect moment to catch up on the training video trinket had given him.
 
Trinket found the ride rather long and embarrassing after fumbling over her words like she did. Normally she was so well versed in being brutal and hot headed, she had a kind of grace about it. But being kind, and looking at her co-workers as actual humans, it was strange. She was so easily confused on how to say things right. Her words didn't sound like her own when anything kind came out of her mouth.

It annoyed her that Alec kept smiling at her. She grumbled, "Like fucking high school all over again."

She had plenty of boyfriends, but none as obedient or thoughtful as Alec was. They couldn't seem to hold a candle. He was determined, too. She really enjoyed the thought of training him, just because she knew how hard he would work to be the best. He was a brilliant mind and nothing would hold him down, not even her constant yelling around the shop.

"Green tea?" She gave him a curious look, and a slight smile. Something so plain in taste... is what you enjoy..? Really? I was hoping you liked sweet things, or spicy. She tossed aside the sweet cherry chap stick she had in her red shopping basket. "Green tea it is." She laughed and paid for the items.

She sat on the car hood and held her coffee. "Thanks, this is a nice change from the sludge Jacob makes in the shop." She laughed to herself. A lot of strong men were on her team, but still none like Alec.

"Look, the poor androids are reduced to cleaning rubble." She pointed out, during the car ride back.

They held bulky packs on their backs, charged by the sun or their continuous movements. Trinket felt bad that her co-worker androids were reduced to picking up trash. But the laws of their equal rights change in a time of war. Everything they have become is stripped away, and they're pushed into slave labour just cause they're half machine.

"Now that down right pisses me off, Miki is out there! I just trained him two weeks ago! He was supposed to be my back up!" She kicked her foot into the floor board of the car. "That's it! We're stealing him when we leave the atmosphere! We are taking back all our android friends!" They were the only shop in America to break the law about having androids in the cock pit of a mecha. Only humans were allowed because they say only a human knows when to stop. Trinket found this highly untrue.

After the ride back, they would see Jimmy sitting on the front steps. He was taking in the violently warm rays of light. The nights were cold and both of them were hiding for a little while in dark places. Vinni was inside trying to find something, Jimmy didn't ask what.
 
Alec decided to buy coffe for the both of them. The drink was alot more cheaper than ever so he decided to buy her the gade A coffe. Alec stod neer the car as trinket enjoyed her cup of joe on the hood of the car. He nooded in agreement with her comment with her. Jacob makes a decent cup of coffe but compared with the coffe now its like sluge to them both. He drank his hot drink and he sees something off in the distance, it was the androids.

He noticed some of the androids that where out cleaning up where coworkers of the shop. He felt a little disapointed becuase if a riot happens in the area the androids would be the first to feel the wave of anger. What made his mood a bit worse is that half of the androids where ones that alec had programed for combat. Trinket showed her anger and told him that they will steal some of the androids when they leave. Alec liked the idea.

He was watching the program Trinket had given him and kept retesting himself at what would happen if something went wrong. All his old mecha parts would keep him from messing up in space but in gravaty it would be fairly difficut to use becuase the parts where ment for space. They got to the shop and seen jimmy. Alec ran out the car as soon as it stoped and grabed his brother by the shoulders. he yells out
"What are you doing here! your suppose to be at the hospital!"
 
((I am going to reply to your post, then sum up the next couple of weeks to speed things along. You have the choice of replying to both or just one. I don't really care. This is more so an open ended thing to help you with your writer's block. ))

Jimmy gave a clueless look to his brother. His blank stare soon widened into a smile to finally make shape and features of his brother's face. "Alec!" He moved pasted his brother's grip and ruffled his hair. "I missed you!" He laughed and then turned quite serious. "You're right, I should be. But Vinni needs me. There are people, creatures.... what ever is after her. So go give your sister-in-law shit."


Trinket looked to the brothers and stunned to see Jimmy enjoying the sunlight so much. She went to school with the guy all her life and never really talked to him. Yet they acted close when they joined the mech forces together. He wasn't much for the out doors, despite him being much stronger than Alec. Well only physically. Jimmy sometimes cries at the drop of a hat. Which made Trinket smile at the thought.


"Hey Jimbo! Your fat ass just couldn't keep up with my mech last fall in the training battles, ready to lose to this falls rematch??" Jimmy's eyes started to water and turn round. He glared up at Trinket and stormed off. Trinket only shrugged. "I guess it's not funny any more to laugh at his suffering. Inside he could be found balling into Vinni's shirt, she was giving a dirty look to Trinket, and trying to calm down Jimmy all at once.


"You're a real bitch sometimes, Trink."


"I have my days, cute stuff." Trinket looked at Alec and smiled. She gave him a quite the tender smile, but she didn't intend to. It was more so one of those things you look at someone and the true feelings bubble up. Though really, they do notice when you think they aren't watching.

____


The a couple of weeks had passed already since Vinni had been found. She invited everyone in the shop out for a drink, things may not have been going well but that wasn't about to get her down before the wedding between her and Jim. She had slammed back quite a few drinks that night. The celebration was huge. All the men, women and androids from the shop joined.

She stumbled over to keep Alec company. "I see you and Trinket getting quite close." She gave him a smirk that said she was up to something. But it would not be clear as to what. "You should just... ya know," she winked. "Steal her attention away from the other men she hasn't scared off with that crazy anger of her's!"

Vinni started to laugh really hard. "I got a little secret. Not even your brother knows about!" It was apparent she could not handle her alcohol very well. "It's about the back up power source." She tried to calm her breathing in between sips and laughter. "It's not me! I'm a escape goat! It's really... Trinket. She's the brat who can save us. My poor Jim wasted his time saving me from the aliens, they attacked us and we crashed. I'm the reason all those people and droids are dead." Her voice was quick to whisper low. It was almost impossible to hear over the music. A part of her needed to get it off her chest, but not fully admit to being the reason.

"Well we take off tomorrow, Alec. I think you'll do great out there. My doubts about you have faded quickly." Trinket smiled at Alec, being rather sweet. She had learned how to compliment people without blushing or getting angry. She had approached after Vinni left Alec alone to go cry in the girl's washroom.