Outrun - Chapter 300

While Mira settled back into her own skin, I left the room to speak with Nael. I found the man sitting down on the edge of the clinic by himself reading a book. Doctor Cumen was gone. Hadn’t seen her since yesterday she did some more final checks on Mira to ensure everything still went smoothly. I forced my steps to become loud.

“Shiro.” Nael closed his book and looked up. “Is she up?”

”Chek. Getting used to the modified chrome.” I stopped in front of him and shifted from foot to foot. “How much do I owe you for this one? Calling in a favor and all of that- it couldn’t have been cheap.”

“Nothi-“

”Don’t give me that crap.” I cut him off and stared him dead in the eye with the most serious look I could muster.

Nael looked away and toyed with the book in his lap. “She- Doctor Cumen usually charges high rates
”

I nodded my head several times. Now we were getting somewhere. I was just shy of fifty thousand Rayn in my account. I could pay her with all of that, or- “Would she like Gravitic?”

I noticed how her eyes seemed to sparkle when she worked with the substance. Although I helped in the design of the gravitic chambers for the halo and a bit of the modification, she took the lead throughout. She knew what she was doing with the stuff. She’d even showed me some new techniques to gravitationally lock an object into place. The halo above Mira’s head wouldn’t be moving even if a tank tried to run it over. That, and Gravitic would be worth more than just some Rayn.

Nael paused for a moment, tilting his head in thought. “Probably. I doubt she’d accept payment, anyway. She’ll see it as repaying a favor to me.”

“Then I’ll give it to her as a gift. How much longer is she in the city?” It might take a couple hours to make some more Gravitic. That was fine though. I couldn’t exactly just let her walk away without doing at least something. 

“She flies back to Loyalty City in a couple days.”

”Then I’ll go meet up with my mikata and see what I can do.” I fell back into my cover story of knowing a guy.

”How’s the patient?” Nael dropped the book onto the counter and stood up, easily shifting the subject. I didn’t miss the fact that he once again tried to worm his way out of taking payment. Although he used Cumen as a sacrifice, he hadn’t said anything about his own prices.

“Awake. She seemed better than I’d seen her since pulling her out.” The ExoCore still had me worried though. It was the next thing I’d have to look at now that the Halo Cortex was much more manageable.

The Medek nodded his head toward the surgery chair. ”Think she’ll be up for some final checks? Just simple blood work and all of that.”

“I’ll ask.” I paused for a moment, mentally waving the flashing interface out of my face once more. “Probably though.”

As for Nael’s payment
 I had a few ideas. He’d shoot down any kind of payment that I offered, but I was thinking about a micro fabrication unit. It’d be a good experience for building an upscale version for my own workshop. I’d preset it with templates for simple chrome so that he could just hit a button and start making stuff he needed.

I’d noticed in the past, but Nael was chronically running out of supplies. Part of that was his philosophy that no chrome was better than bad chrome. Unfortunately, that severely limited the man. Especially considering he gave most of his services away for free or only accepted the bare minimum. If it wasn’t for powerful backers like Athena, he’d probably be out of a shop.

If I set him up with his own chrome fabrication unit, he wouldn’t have to stress about finding good chrome for cheap anymore. I’d just have to come by every once in a while and give him some filament to keep it pumping
 just as soon as I set up my own filament crafter in my workshop.

And before that, my workshop would need to move. To be honest, the speakeasy was a nice place. It wasn’t designed to be a workshop though. And to be doubly honest, I had all of my equipment spread across several private booths and offices. I’d need to move it anyway if I was ever going to get the speakeasy up and running. I had some ideas, but they’d all take some time.

I left the room and headed back to Mira. She didn’t need any convincing to take a couple hours for some additional scans and whatever else Nael wanted to put her through. She seemed much more comfortable just existing now. The constant tension and anxiety was mostly gone.

While they did that, I sat off to the side of the room and finally checked out the interface. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to expect. My memory of the past while was hazy at best.

「Tracking - 9>10」

「Melee Weapons - 9>10」

「Intimidation - 7>9」

「Firearms - 10>11」

「First Aid - 7>8」

「Explosives - 6>7」

「Driving - 8>9」

「Deception - 9>10」

「Criminology - 8>9」

「Cleaning - 4>5」

「Art - 1>2」

Most of those were about as I expected. Deception, Intimidation, Tracking, and Firearms definitely were going to go up after all I’d done recently. A few of those took me a bit off guard though.

Art, specifically, was weird to me. And a bit unsettling if it thought what I thought it did. Then again, there were some demented eidolons out there. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my actions were considered art to them. Panther, in particular, chomped at the bit to get me out there and slaughtering. 

Cleaning, of course, was also a bit of a surprise. Cleaning crime scenes counted. I’d scraped a few of my haunts to make sure I didn’t leave too much evidence behind. It was interesting that counted toward the Skill
 unless they were saying I cleaned out the trash. And by that, I mean the Savants.

Driving was also a weird one. It’d been almost completely stagnant since I first got the Skill. I thought it’d never go up. It just confirmed my suspicions that the best way to level driving was to drive vehicles that I’d never driven before. I’d have to go try with boats sometime and see if that power-leveled the Skill.

There were two new Perk choices in there. Intimidation and First aid were ready for their second Perks. I was looking forward to the latter. Calming was nice, but I wanted some kind of healing hand spell like in one of those video games. I doubted it’d be possible, but it sure would be nice. As much as I liked drugging people into stasis with Pervider venom, I wasn’t really healing them all that much.

I barely resisted the urge to go spend my Perk Points now. I was in the middle of the clinic, and they’d be finishing up sometime soon, hopefully. It wouldn’t be a good look to fall into a coma in the middle of a Medek clinic. Not to mention it’d worry Mira. I’d have to figure out how to explain all of this before I spent the points so she didn’t freak out.

Instead, I started to search the Net. Specifically, I wanted to find someone to teach me how to better use my Kinetic ability. I've been practicing in my free time. Admittedly, not very well since the whole missing Mira fiasco started. My operation was super basic though. There was more to my ability then just zapping people and things. I just couldn’t see it yet.

Unfortunately, most of the ‘Kinetic Dojos’ advertised online looked like scams outright or hidden recruiting offices for major corporations. Going to one would be like putting a signboard on my back that I could control electricity. If an interested corporation came after me, at worst, I’d be turned into a living battery for some super weapon.

And I’d be leaving Mira behind. I couldn’t do that. Not when she was at her most vulnerable. Although she was recovering, I wouldn’t be satisfied until she had her easy going smile back on her face. If that ever happened.

I sighed and shook my head. That avenue was out. Maybe I could go ask the eidolons if they knew somebody trustworthy? It couldn’t hurt, right? As for Kinetics that I knew
 well, Carone was out. Hadn’t spoken to him in a hot minute. There was someone else too, but I blanked on them the moment I tried to focus.

Oh! I could go ask Razorface. He’d surely be willing to tell little ol’ me everything he knew. I wouldn't just go kill someone who proved themself so helpful to me, but he didn’t know that. And what he didn’t know could very well hurt him-

“Shiro?”

I flinched, falling out of my thoughts. Mira appeared in front of me with a soft smile on her face. “Ready?”

“Are you? You looked completely zone out.” She shifted from foot to foot. “Nael gave me a clean bill of health.”

I looked around the clinic. “Where’d he go?”

”Fetching medicine.” She rubbed gently at the new hover modules on the sides of her head. “Supposed to help with Desyncronization.”

”Nova. Desync isn’t pretty.” I shuddered. Feeling like chrome isn’t part of your body was the first step to glitching, and I knew for a fact how much that sucked. I still felt uncomfortable any time I had to go by the evidence lockup of the Crusade.

The smile melted off her face. Mira eyed me for several long moments. “I sense a story there.”

”What- you some kind of psychic now too?” I smirked and stood up. “I’ll tell you another time.”

”Right. No rush.” She ran a shaky hand over her face and adjusted the beanie. It actually fit now, which was nice. 

”Same goes for you
 talking about it is supposed to help, but if you don’t want to
” I should try to bring up seeing one of the Crusade’s psychiatrists sometime soon.

She mutely nodded her head. We fell into a silence when Nael returned to the room with several bottles of medicine in hand. “Take this one three times a day for the next week. This one is for if you suddenly start feeling existential dread, intense fight-or-flight instincts, or overwhelming suicidal thoughts. Only take one. And this one is for you, Shiro.”

I grabbed the last bottle from the Medek on instinct. “For me?”

He glanced at Mira for a moment, only continuing when she nodded her head. “Her idea. It’s basically knockout medicine. Only use it if you need it.”

The bottle suddenly felt much, much heavier than when he handed it to me. I looked at my mikata. If she insisted he gave me these
 I swallowed dryly. “I will.”

Nael sighed and clapped me on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Call me if something happens. Oh! And come back for a checkup in a week.”

”We will.” Mira looped an arm in mine, casually dwarfing me. As if she wasn’t already tall enough, the halo gave her an additional height advantage that made me feel absolutely tiny.

I let myself be dragged away toward the exit, waving a tired hand at Nael before I was pulled out the door. I heard a faint chuckle and the door shut behind us. For the time being, we were finally out of Absolom Clinic.

The ground was chilling rapidly throughout the city. Small piles of snow were starting to stick instead of melting right away. When we left the clinic, we found several kids playing with the tiny amount of snow under the watchful eyes of adults. A cold breeze blew through the area, making me pump up the heat of my thermal poncho.

Mira stopped at the edge of the courtyard, watching the snow fall down on the leafless tree. “This’ll be the first time I’ve been in Aythryn City for winter.”

”Chek.” They were usually off on some grand adventure when the winter season rolled around. It made the city frigid beyond just its temperature.

”Any word from Pa?” She idly toyed with the Packheart ring, twirling the solidified lightning around her finger. 

I checked my messages. ”He got delayed again. If the weather holds out, he’ll be on a plane to us in a couple days.”

“I-“ She cut herself off and shook her head. The halo followed the movement and pulsed with a soft golden glow. 

“It’ll be fine.” I patted her shoulder and then leaned on a pillar supporting the roof. “I’m right here with you.”

She nodded her head. We watched the kids play in the snow for a few minutes. Hopefully nothing insane would happen for a bit, and we’d have some time to rest and relax. After that
 Well, I’d see how she was doing and maybe let her in on the next job. 

We headed for the roof and flew back to the speakeasy.

— — —

AN: Chapter 300!!! I didn’t think it’d ever come. It’s crazy everyone I look back and see how far this story has come. I still have several dozen arcs I want to write that I haven't gotten around to yet. Some of them outside of Aythryn City and in the wider world, even. No need to worry about Outrun ending anytime soon! 

I wanted to do some kind of Q&A for chapter three hundred, but I’m super busy right now so it’s going to be delayed. I’ll put up another AN when that comes around. Hopefully in a week to a month? Definitely before Christmas.

As always, thank you for reading and sticking around so long! You guys are the best!