Broken Gear (Indi/Aletha)

[The Broken Gears]

Aletha walked through the rubble of previous buildings in Eastern London, knowing her destination to the pinpoint. She had been fighting in the west, but when a human got a lucky shot and broke her elbow hinges and gears, she became almost useless. It didn't hurt, because nerves no longer ran through her body as they used to. There was a bruise there now, and that did hurt, but that was because the skin was still nerve-laced. She had incapacitated the human quickly, and made off through the raging battle to go meet her maker.

It had been almost two years since she had had the accident, since she had survived, and since she got named Aletha T, 0001. Almost two years since she had met Indifference Indigo, who has become the older brother she had never had before. She visited him not as often as she wish she could, but if anything ever broke, she only trusted Indi to fix it.

Her left arm was swinging useless at her side as her right hand was in her pocket as she walked, clearly bored as she headed for the only untouched building, protected by the point that it was a mechanical residence, and also the leading doctor in the cyborg community lived there. As she opened the gate and started to walk on the black rock path, she petted a few metal flowers as she walked by, and smiled as they purred back at her. "Dear Indi sure has an odd collection of lovelies," Etha said to herself and looked up at the front of the intimidating red-brick house. She felt she was being watched, but she walked straight to the odd happy light blue door and knocked with her useful hand. When the door swung open, she grinned, "What's up, Doc?"

[Indifference Indigo]

Indifference Indigo stared down transfixed in his own work. Several interconnected gears were laying on the table before him, and each one was connected distinctly with one another that if one was moved in the slightest, it would damage the others to the point of being unable to be fixed. Slowly... Slowly... carefully..... after a moment, Indi moved his tweezers and moved the gear away from the others. Succeeding with this, the red haired scientist let out a relaxed breath. "Well now that wasn't too detrimental now was it...?" Indi half smiled down at the machine before him. The machine almost appeared to yowl in irritation as it finally rose completely from its transfixed place. "You should know better than to go messing in my garden, ZImmy...." Indi scolded the animal like machine who just shook itself somewhat irritatedly before leaping straight off the desk.

Turning around once more, Indi stretched just in time to hear the sound of sirens reflecting that someone had just entered the premise of his house. If it is those nasty government officials trying to get me to work on some new project for them AGAIN..... Indi shook his head in irritation. In truth, the red haired man adored the money that the United States government along with the British government paid on a regular basis for the scientist to work on technical ambitions, yet the cost outweighed the luxury far more often than not. Because he was neither in full support of the humans nor in support of the mechanicals, Indi sat in a peculiar spot among people that made them very wary of him. This however, made little difference to the scientist.

"Well if it isn't my little 0001....." Indi said aloud as he looked at the screen that had come fowards to direct him on the situation. Walking up the stairs and into the confines of his original house, Indi opened the door and stared down at the seventeen year old mechanical before him.

"Hah well hello there yourself...." Indi smiled down at Aletha. His eyes moved in a scrutinizing fashion as the well known mechanical doctor tried to find why Aletha had come. "Ah I see... You messed up your arm... I'm guessing you would like me to fix it?"

[The Broken Gears]

"There's another fight going on over in the west. Stupid human got a good shot on my elbow. The hinges are broken as far as I can tell," Aletha said as she tried to hold up her left hand, and failing. She sighed and walked through the door, looking around at Indi's house. If she didn't know better, she would say that her older brother could perform magic, because every time she came here, all of the furniture that littered all of the rooms in his gigantic house was different every time, the walls were different colors, and the overall style was different. He seemed to be going through a Japanese phase, she assumed because of the amount of hand-painted fans that were hung on the walls.

But even when the decor was different, the walk from the front door the laboratory was the same, and so she started making her way slowly down the path, stopping and looking closely at certain fans that were especially pretty. Crossing from the living room and into the dinning room on the way, she stopped and stared at the opposite wall, her mouth wide open.

"Jesus Christ, that is the biggest, and prettiest fan I have ever seen," Aletha said. The fan was easily six feet tall, and was painted so elaborately, that the story it told was obvious, and it must of been a requested painting made by Indi, because of the scene that it played. It was romanticized version of the first battle, and the mechanicals looked more machine then human, because if they hadn't been painted like that, it would have looked like a battle from the past instead of something that happen a year and a half ago. The guns were replaced with swords, and it was beautiful.

"Geez, how much did that cost anyway," she asked as Indi poked her in the back to get her moving again.

[Indifference Indigo]

"Ah," Indi sighed to himself for a moment as he allowed Aletha to walk into his house. Indeed, as he closed the door behind her and found that she was already off down towards the lab, Indi almost laughed to himself. Always have to be careful when people know your secrets like that..... Indi thought to himself and then shook his head before smiling lightly. Following down the hallway, Indi nearly ran straight into Aletha as she stopped almost to examine the Fan of the First Battle or so Indi liked to call it.

"You can have it if you like," Indi answered as he stepped asside from Aletha and looked sharply at the picture. "It was a gift from a friend of mine, but he always has too much flare and not enough stuffing if you know what I mean," Indi half laughed to himself and shook his head. "Have you heard of Mousiki?" he asked lightly already knowing the answer was probably no. "He was a great painter in Japan who was nearly killed by a fork lift piercing through the upper half of his abdominal muscles. It was a very bloody procedure, but we managed to save him and make him into a cyborg. He was a very willing person, and actually made the picture as a thank you for his life." By that time, Indi had somewhat of a dark look in his eye. His own words had caused somewhat of a sharp irritation within him, and yet he would not allow this notion to continue any further.

" Anyways, let's get you fixed up first, " Indi said as he continued to push Aletha down the hallway. They both came to the back room that signified Indi's study, and as he entered, Indi removed his eye patch to expose his sharp cyborg eye that carried such a technological appearance that anyone would be able to detect it.

Welcome, Doctor the female voice spoke through a speaker not far off. I will initiate the sequence. With that, the door of the back room closed, and the door on the floor opened. Stepping down the steps, Indi walked to his lab now followed by Aletha.

[The Broken Gears]

"If I had my own place, I would take it readily, but knowing Limera, she would burn it when she saw it. She still refuses to acknowledge me for what I am, even if she was the one that pushed me into these circumstances," Etha said, a slight hatred clear in her voice as she followed Indi down the stairs, and leaned against the counter as she watched him, her right arm crossed across her body, the other one twinging slightly every time her inner elbow touched her side.

His laboratory was pretty much stationary, the only differences being the animals that putted around in there, all of them mechanical. There was a grumpy cat that was walking around with a slightly limp before coming and rubbing against her leg. She leaned down and pet the cat and smiled as it too, purred like the plants outside of the house. "What's your name?" Etha said sweetly as she stretched the mechanical cat's cheeks.

She looked up at Indi, "How realistic these animals is insane Indi. You truly are the best at what you do." She picked up the cat and walked over to her friend, "But then again, I knew that from the moment I survived the accident."

[Indifference Indigo]

Indi half laughed to himself at Aletha's comment on the animals and being the best. "Trust me," Indifference answered as he began to take up a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers off the desk once more. "There are still much more updates and things that could be done to enhance work," Indi continued suddenly stopping and realizing that e had forgotten to put his eye patch back into place. However, after another half thought, Indi stopped the motion to return the patch and rather kept his cyborg eye out.

Moving towards Aletha, Indi stared using his mechanical eye and analyzed the break in Aletha's arm. "It looks like a clean break of the hinge joint. I can weld that back into fashion easily..... but... what is this...." Indi's cyborg eye took on a red look and began to flash somewhat of a lazer pointer at Aletha's arm pinpointing something within the general metal material. "It appears someone stuck you with a tracker, Aletha," Indi's eyes narrowed, and very suddenly, he seemed to take up a scalpel and threw it so accurately into Aletha's arm that there was only one penetration hole that stabbed into the gear itself. "Nasty little bugs...." Indi glared as his eye continued to now move about Aletha's entire body. "Some idiot has been experimenting with nanomachines again...." Indi sighed and closed both eyes for a moment completely on edge. After another moment, he foreced a smile. "Sorry for the stab wound to the arm by the way," he half smiled. "Agitation always gets the best on me when someone tries to do something that not even I have perfected yet and uses it to try and find me.... you know the feeling, no?"

Stepping forwards only a foot away from Aletha, Indi looked down at her, and yet in another perspicuity movement, he removed the scalpel revealing at the tip a strange bug like machine that was flailing in its attempts to live. However, Indi took this bug between his fingers and then smashed it promptly. Whoever tried to do this is starting to get on my nerves..... Indi thought to himself, and with a sudden motion, Indi's entire visage became dark. A smile persisted on his face, and yet it had taken on such a demented look that even humans with normal eyes could feel there was something wrong with this. Making nanomachines just to try and..... get me to come to work again...... Shaking his head, Indi gave a light laugh. "You must remember to be careful out there you know." Indi said in a joking manner that one would tease their family with. "I don't feel like having to deal with the government just because you lead them here on some fluke of perception....You know how I feel about those lazy bums....."

[The Broken Gears]

(Sorry if this is really crappy reply. I am exhausted, but wanted to reply before passing out.)

Aletha cursed lightly as the scalpel entered into the flesh of her arm, but didn't pull it out. She tended to let other people take their instruments out of her when they hit her with them. "Why would they want me to lead them to you, really? They already know where you live." She yawned lightly, and winced when Indi took the small sharp blade out with the bug on the end of it.

She took her other hand and brought her elbow up to her eyes to see if she could see anything broken inside of her elbow before looking at Indi. "I still haven't seen what I'm made of yet. And of course I'm being careful. I don't want to die, especially not to a human. I'm not like I was when you first changed me. I want to fight for the Cause now."

She ignored the darker looks that started to show on Indi face, only obvious to her because she knew him slightly better then she knew Kato, but on a different level. She felt her cheeks blush at the thought of Kato, but held her elbow to her non-blood older brother at an angle, showing him how it was broken. A sudden, horrific thought came to mind. "This just came to mind... but is it possible for a mechanical to have his or her body start to fail them? Like a normal humans' body might?"

[Indifference Indigo]

Indifference Indigo blinked for a full half second before a solid laugh rang from his throat. "No, not where I live... Only a select few know where my lab is...." he explained. "I've evaded people and made them believe I have my lab in several different countries in order to keep it safe and away from both humans and mechanicals... but... hah as you can see...."

Indi's cyborg eye rushed over Aletha sharply when she heard the world Cause. It had been a scrutinizing subject among many doctors that worked on mechanicals. For many, there was the strong belief that the mechanicals they morphed belonged to them, and if the mechnaical misbehaved or rebelled, it was the belief that one could destroy what they owned. However, another side took mechanicals to be more human and more like children than anything else, and this portion, drastically smaller than the first, was compelled to allow complete free will to the 'children' so that they may grow and adapt to life to reach full maturity. Indigo Indifference was in a class all his own and split things right down the middle. He believed that those that were once human should have some free will, but on the other hand machines that were made strictly from metalic components did not deserve such a right. Also, those that Indi used from graves, for he did dig up dead bodies to use in experiments, did not, at least in his mind, deserve to have any form of free will.

The Cause that Aletha was now striving to help... the rebellion against humans.... was something Indi would neither condone or completely help with. Standing in the middle allowed him to work on both sides if the need persisted, and yet in his heart, the young doctor held the strong belief that one day, machine would surpass man completely and take to the world. This was what drove him now, even though there were strict rules against helping mechanicals, to give tidbits of sanctuary and medical help to mechanicals that managed to find his house.

After his cyborg eye finished its analysis, Indi let out a sigh. "If that is what you wish....." Indi said with an air of cool patients. "Then become stronger and fight for the Cause..... but do not fail....." A light laugh escaped the red haired doctor as he said this. "Hm.... three gear breaks and a crushed hinge plate... several wires need to be replaced, and the entire gun circuit was mauled....." Indi shook his head as he continued to mumble to himself about the different componets that he would need to fix Aletha up with. However, when Indi's sharp eye caught Aletha turning somewhat red, he stopped and wondered what exactly she was blushing at. If it's a boy and he's making some kind of woose on her, I'm gonna break him..... Indi thought to himself.

Suddenly, as Aletha brought up the mechanical body failing, Indi's face turned completely stern. "Of course it's possible... there are a number of things that could transpire... 1. the mechanical could be made of some kind of previous biodegradable material that causes their body to rust and eventually the rust ends up in their circulatory system and kills them. 2. Their body could resist the metal circulatory system completely causing them to have neural spasms, and this could happen pretty much at any time. 3. A mechanical can have what most doctors have named 'Mechan Syndorme... it causes the nervous system to completely shut down and with that, the brain shuts down causing the mechanical to be braindead. Honestly, with the way I can develope dead bodies now a days, I can work machines to make the body alive once more, but I can never really cure the mind afterwords. They become more of a machine wearing human skin rather than an actual mechanical... It's all subject to speculation and proverbs within the scientific community on whether or not the Mechan Syndrome is induced by something or whether or not it just appears. Anyways, no more of that now. I need to fix that arm of yours, no?"

Taking aletha by the hand and pulling her down to a medical chair not far off, Indi all but forced Letha to sit down and learn back in the chair. After several more detailed statistical analysis tests, Indi began working on Aletha's arm. The replacement parts were always in stock, and Indi managed to make due with what he could. After a few hours, Indi stepped away from his work. "You can get up now.... " he said pleasantly.

[The Broken Gears]

Etha moved her arm around, enjoying being able to move it again. She stretched it across her chest, ignoring the tiny pinprick of pain from her bruise. "Thanks Indi. I really doubt anyone else would be able to fix my broken parts as well as you. I mean, who else can say that they made me who I am today? Literally?" She laughed and stood, feeling her body being complete. She had had things broken enough that seeing metal things going in and out of her skin didn't bother her in the least, it was expected actually.

Looking around the laboratory, she bit her lip before turning to Indi. "How is Selene? Anything different from that last time we saw each other?" She asked, still moving her arm around, so that the bending was easier. Sometimes new hinges could be stiff to begin with, and even if they weren't, they could lock if they weren't stretched first thing. Running her hand down the skin of her elbow, she found a small point pressing against her skin, and after that, there was a loud pop, and the arm felt comfortable.

Patting her pockets down, Aletha cursed loudly. "I lost all my guns at the fighting. Do you have any on hand? If you don't, I can just force a human down and take his."

[Indifference Indigo]

Indi half laughed at Aletha's comment on the making. "But of course hah," he answered back. As Aletha commented on Selene, Indi's face became somewhat somber. "No... she still hasn't awakened, but I did manage to find that those that were trying to make her into a cyborg sadly succeeded to a certain extent... she has an eye somewhat like mine and a mechanical rib cage. I have a feeling they had to replace those first seeing as the accident was killing her quickly that way...." Indi shook his head sharply. "They should have let me in tehre before hand though. I would have been able to fix things a lot nicer than those governmental imbeciles they call doctors." Indi's voice was so extremely caustic that it could have cut the front door off of his house if it had chosen to.

"And as for guns.. how did they manage to take all your guns away? They'd have to rip your entire arm off to get at the gun lacing that I put in...." Suddenly Indi stopped. "Oh hah... I never did tell you did I? Silly me..." Indi stepped fowards and took a hold of Aletha's arm. Carefully he folded he fingers in to a fake gun format and pulled her thumb forwards as though one were shooing a real gun. Almost instantaneously, Aletha's hand formed a gun attached to her wrist and able to be used by her hand. "You have almost an unlimited supply of munition, but use it carefully..." Indi laughed more to himself than at Aletha.

[The Broken Gears]

Etha looked down at her hand in wonder before looking back up at Indi. "This would have helped to know way before, Indi," she laughed as she brought her hand flat, then bringing it back into a gun. "Jesus, that's cool. I'm not surprised that you did that to my hand though," she laughed.

She looked around, looking for something to try it out, when she remembered that she didn't even know how to shoot the new gun. "How about we go upstairs and shoot something? After you tell me how to shoot it in the first place. And does the other hand do the same thing? I would so be the best mech out there!" Aletha laughed as her face flushed with excitement. When you think that you have seen everything there is to see, finding something new always brings thrill.

She unfolded her hand from the gun, and watched as it deconstructed from a gun and back into a gun, a huge grin spread across her cheeks.

(First post via iPad woo! Lol)

[Indifference Indigo]

Indi smirked, and his eyes took on a mischievous look. "Yes why don't we try the shooting range in the back yard..." he answered as he slowly walked up the stairs and into the main house again. Closing the door to the back room for security, Indi led the young cyborg to the back yard which, despite carrying the same furnished look of Asian mastery, was relatively expressive of a shooting range. There were several furnished targets at the end of a large gated area, and there was a stack of bag chairs at the other end.

"Now then, " Indi began. "Put both hands as I showed you before. You can use a regular machine like gun with your left hand and more of a cannon gun with the other. The machine gun will fire approximately 1700 rounds in three fourths of a second, but the cannon blasts of electrical energy take more time to charge... aprox three seconds. Each one will run out eventually, but I'd say not for another seventeen years or so give or take. When that comes just find me again. Anyways, try 'em out." Indi's eyes were extremely intense as he waited to see what his technological creation could accomplish.

[The Broken Gears]

Aletha tried the machine gun first as the other charged. She set her sights on. One of the bag chair stacks, and let loose. The kick wasn't as hard as she had thought it would be, but the amount of bullets that came shooting out made her laugh out loud.

In her body and arm, Aletha could feel the building energy in the way it shivered. She lifted her other arm and aimed at one of the furnished targets, and let loose. The kickback on this one was too strong for her to stay standing, and she was knocked back onto her butt as the shot went wide and hit a singular wall that was standing alone in the rubble.

"Oops!" She exclaimed, and then laughed.

[Indifference Indigo]

"Hah I said be careful," Indi answered back lightly. "But there you have it. You can shoot anything without need for hand guns now. Just don't let anyone steal your arms...." Indi laughed lightly at the pun that had just formed from his speech but grew somber once more. "Anyways," he stated again. "Try and learn how to fire and not have too much recoil. You're a strong one, so it'll be fine..."

Suddenly Indi tensed as the sound of alarms hit his ears. The red haired man turned sharply as his cyborg eye stared directly through the house and at the main display. "Selene!" he said suddenly as he turned back into the house and ran through the hallway, down the stairs, and into his laboratory. Turning several sharp corners and finally coming to the tank where Selene floated, Indi let a breath out. Turning sharply to a computer, Indifference Indigo began to type in codes upon codes into his computer.

[The Broken Gears]

"What? What is it Indi?" Aletha asked, worried as she unfolded her hands and followed after him. As she as she cleared the doorway she could hear the alarm, and started to look into every room that she passed, looking for an intruder, sometimes swinging doors open with her left arm. She decided to chance it with a machine gun instead of the energy weapon while she searched for anything.

When she got to the room that led down to the laboratory, she opened the door, and after checking to make sure that there were no intruders inside that room before calling down, "I'll keep guard up here Indi. I'll try not to destroy your house if I have to use my new weapons ((insert innocent face))." She turned and closed the door until there was just a crack, so she could hear if he called to her, and stood with her arms crossed, her right hand still folded.