Radioactive: Chapter Eleven

Radioactive

Chapter Eleven

~Stowaway~

“We’re coming on our final decent,” Kiri reported as she maneuvered the Nightwing aircraft.

Rain fell in sheets and made visibility difficult and landing a risky business. The wind beat against the aircraft making for a bumpy ride and on top of that it was in the middle of the night. All of those factors combined did not bode well for the average human. Luckily, Kiri wasn’t human. She maneuvered easily and located the place they were to land.

Kaiba sat beside her and assisted in maneuvering the craft. He looked over his shoulder, “Wake up! We might be in for a bumpy landing!”

Fang opened his eyes. He lounged in one of the chairs with his feet up. Just by the glare in his eyes it was apparent that he had other places that he’d rather be than here. Across from him sat Jekyll. His hat fell over his eyes as a sign of slumber. He barely stirred when Kaiba called. The truth was, even if Kaiba had a megaphone up to his ear Jekyll probably still wouldn’t have moved. A ways down was another man. He had long black hair that was braided back into a braid at the back of his head. His arms were laden with tattoos and a large broad sword hung on his back. A black spiked dog collar decorated his neck. He was younger than the other two men.

The craft landed in a beat up neighborhood. An abandoned lot was the designated landing spot where the five Fixers were going to meet with their contact: a local who would help them out with the case. The landing was a little rough but manageable. The back entrance opened and the passengers walked off. The Nightwing was cloaked and hidden from sight.

A woman stood a few meters away with her hands of her hips. Her hair was long and braided into five long cornrow braids. On the ends of the braids were red attachments with long blades attached to them. Around her head she wore a thick red head band. She wore an orange midriff tank top and light brown cargo shorts. On her feet she wore red high top sneakers. A yellow belt was wrapped around her waist carrying her handgun in a holster.

She stood in the rain and didn’t seem to mind it much. Kaiba walked up to her.

“I assume you’re Riu?” Kaiba said.

“The one and only,” she offered Kaiba a gloved hand.

“That’s an unusual name,” Jekyll observed.

Riu smiled, “It’s actually R.I.U. It’s an old nickname that stuck.”

“What does it stand for?” Kiri asked.

“Read it and weep,” Riu smiled and turned. She started to walk away.

Kiri was slightly confused. Weep was spelled with a ‘W’ not a ‘U’. She decided to inquire about the anomaly.

“Isn’t weep spelled with a ‘W’?” she asked.

“It is,” Riu answered, “As I said, it’s an old nickname; an old nickname that a bunch of first and second graders came up with when ‘weep’ was spelled somethin’ like ‘uep’.”

“So what’s your real name,” Fang asked.

“I’ll never tell,” Riu smiled, “Come on, keep up! You don’t want to be left in the dark in this neighborhood!”

She jumped onto a ladder and climbed to the roof. With some amazing parkour she ran across the roof and jumped to the next lower platform. She was faster than the others but they followed her better than she thought they would. After several minutes she landed in the center of a market place. She walked down an alleyway that lead away from the market square. There was an emergency staircase that she climbed up. Half way up the stairway had given way. With a running start, she jumped and grabbed on to the next ledge. She pulled herself up and continued upward. Riu stopped by a window and looked down below. The others were making good progress. She opened the window and ducked inside.

Her apartment was laced with the latest technology. Computer screens littered the apartment all with some complicated program being displayed. Riu took her job as an unofficial Agent very seriously. She would document anything and everything that she would see on a daily basis. Then after that she would go over all the information to look for anomalies. She was typing away at one of the computers when Kaiba walked through the window.

“Make yourself at home,” Riu looked over her shoulder, “Mi casa su casa. There are some beds up stairs. Nothin’ much but it’s better than sleepin’ on the floor. There are only five extra beds. I was under the impression that there were only five of you.”

“There are,” Kaiba said.

Riu looked again, “So the little kid who’s been tailin’ us isn’t with you?” She turned grabbed the handgun from her belt and walked toward the window. She stepped out once again in the rain and looked down the alley. Sure enough, there was the little kid that she had noticed before.

Riu walked to the edge of the railing, “Hey!” she prepped her gun, “Beat it kid!”

The kid hid behind a dumpster. She fired her weapon. The bullet struck the broad side of the dumpster, “I see you!”

“Hold on,” Kaiba walked to her side.

“What? You know him? Make up your mind, man! I just wasted a bullet!” Riu complained.

“Ing, get over here!” Kaiba called. He turned to look at Kiri, “Did you know he was here?”

“No,” Kiri shook her head.

Kaiba looked out through the rain again, “Get out, Ing and get up here!”

“Oh ho!” Riu turned to go back inside, “That kids in big trouble now!”

Ing looked out from his hiding spot. The anger in Kaiba’s eyes seemed more terrifying than staring down the barrel of a gun at that moment. He gulped nervously before emerging. Ing walked up the stairs and raised an arm. His arm broke into segments and he grabbed onto the railing next to the window. He pulled himself up and stood in front of Kaiba. His head was down as he stood in Kaiba’s direct gaze. He expected a big lecture but the silence was the worst part.

Kaiba looked down at the rouge android weighting the options of what he could do now, “Can anyone come and pick him up?”

Kiri shook her head, “Unfortunately, the Tower is extremely busy at the moment and would see the retrieval of a single android without an immediate emergency a waste of time.”

“And we can’t afford any time for one of us to fly him over and come back,” Kaiba said.

“No,” Kiri said, “I would be a waste of time to put it frankly.”

Kaiba closed his eyes and sighed, “Well, there isn’t anything we can do at this moment. You’ll be disciplined appropriately along with anyone who helped you sneak on board when we finish with what we can do here. You will behave and you will follow orders while you are here, understand?”

Ing nodded.

“Get in!” Kaiba shouted.

Ing walked through the window and went to sit in a corner. He sat cross-legged where he thought he would be out of the way. He looked up at Jekyll, his new found friend, but the doctor didn’t look in his direction.

Kaiba walked in and looked at Fang, “You keep an eye on him.”

“Me?” Fang raised an eyebrow.

“I have better things to do than babysit,” Kaiba said.

“And I don’t ?” Fang questioned.

“Don’t waste your breath,” Jekyll said, “this is Kaiba we’re talking about.”

Fang looked at him, “Yeah, but I could still rip his head off if I wanted to. I just hope he remembers that. I don’t work for the Tower and I think that wouldn’t mind facing them down as a consequence.”

Jekyll smiled, “That makes two of us but for now I think it would be mutually beneficial if we keep him alive. Besides, who would get on out nerves if he were gone?”

“I have six other people that do that every day,” Fang muttered.

Jekyll put his hands out to either side, “Than taking care of the little kid wouldn’t be too hard, would it?”

Fang glared over at Ing. He sighed. It sounded almost like a growl, “Fine.”

“Good,” Kaiba turned his attention to Jekyll, “And for your information, I could finish you off before you could even get a scratch on me.”

Jekyll smiled; there was a darkness to it, “Is that so?”

Kiri decided to step in, “Come on, you two! Not in front of the children!”