"Hey, buddy, how are you feeling?"
"It really hurts when I move it."
"I'm sure it does."
In the mechanic shop, Jamie and Aiden were sitting on the sofa, the latter inspecting his right arm, which was wrapped in a thick makeshift cast, wincing whenever he moved it.
"At least the bone's back in?" Jamie joked, before realizing how bad it was.
"Yeah…" Aiden responded with a deadpan expression, looking down and swinging his legs. "Jamie?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did they do this to us?" He turned to his older brother, who saw the weight Aiden's eyes carried.
Jamie gulped. "Dynamos just… sucks."
"I hate them."
"So do I." Jamie nodded, then saw Aiden's fist shaking in frustration.
He clicked his tongue before going to the garage to look for something. He was going to make Dynamos pay for what they did to Aiden, but first he wanted to cheer his little brother up. As the older sibling, it was Jamie's job to be angry and take revenge, not Aiden's.
"There you are! C'mere, it's time for you to do your job."
Spotting a fluffy white tail poke out from under a tool rack, Jamie picked up the puppy monster-dog whatever and tucked it under his arm, patting it on the nose. As if responding to him, the puppy whined.
"How about you stop thinking about jerk cops, and give this little guy a name already?"
Jamie went back to Aiden, dropping the puppy in his lap, making sure it landed closer to the good arm. The Snow White puppy shook its head for a moment at the sudden drop before turning to Aiden, attempting to climb him and lick his face.
"H-Hey!" Aiden tried to resist the puppy, but he was no match. Soon, he was on his back giggling as the puppy kept licking and nipping at his face.
"See how much he loves you? Name him already!" Jamie had a smile on his face as he saw his brother act like a happy kid.
"Fine! What about… Snow?" Aiden suggested as the puppy calmed down an snuggled by his good arm.
"Really? You wanna be generic like that?"
"What's wrong with - Ow!" Aiden recoiled as the puppy nibbled his finger. "How about Little Shit!?"
"Language!" Jamie crossed his arms. "Where'd you hear that anyway? You're 10!"
"I heard it from you!" Aiden pouted.
"Remember last month when that big rat bit you? Or 2 weeks ago when that bird flew into your face? Or when-"
"Ahem, no need to explain further." Jamie coughed to hide his embarrassment. "Just come up with another one."
"Uhh…"
While Aiden tried to think of a name, the puppy yawned and sneezed directly onto Aiden's hand, shooting a layer of snow onto it. Both of their eyes widened as Aiden raised his hand to get a better look, and sure enough…
"The puppy sneezed out snow."
"I think it did, Aiden." Jamie said absentmindedly, wondering how the hell this puppy got an ice affinity in the wasteland!?
"The name has GOT to be an ice pun." Shaking the snow off his hand, Aiden looked at Jamie seriously. "Snow is back on the table."
Jamie sighed.
******
After careful deliberation (and Jamie's persistence on NOT naming the puppy Snow), the brothers settled on calling the new ice puppy Yeti.
At first Jamie thought it sucked, but Aiden argued that since it came from the wasteland, the puppy might actually be a yeti. Thinking that he had a point, Jamie relented, just grateful that it wasn't named Icicle, Snowflake, or possibly the worst of Aiden's suggestions, Snow Cone.
Successfully having cheered Aiden up, Jamie spent some time talking with Amanda and doing puzzles with Amy before heading out.
"Time to get the dirty work over with," Jamie sighed as he walked down a street, looking at Prime who was right behind him. "No use hiding you anymore."
His eyes drifted to Prime's fists, which were currently covered in some red liquid, looking like it was just added.
"Oh, you got one of their crests stuck on you."
Jamie peeled a wet, half-destroyed Dynamos crest off of Prime's wrist before tossing it away. They continued walking until they reached Beck's Market, seeing the familiar two story building.
This time, Jamie didn't bother to hide Prime, walking up to the building with the mecha right behind him. He entered, watching as the faces of the guards and receptionist be filled with fear and awe at the mecha bending down to enter through the doorway too small for it.
"Do I need to register?" Jamie asked the receptionist, who only shook her head, her jaw still hanging wide and eyes stuck on Prime. "Cool."
Jamie went up the stairs, none of the guards having the nerve to stop him, instead making way. The staircase creaked loudly when Prime stepped on it, and Jamie was scared it would collapse, but luckily it held.
"I'm here."
Jamie entered Beck's office, leaving Prime to stand outside it. Inside, he saw the mob boss in his usual spot behind the desk, but instead of the armed guards, the white haired guy from the warehouse was sitting in a chair, fiddling with a pistol.
"Jamie!" Beck stood up to greet him, beaming. His eyes darted to the mecha standing outside the office. "I see you brought Prime with you!"
"That is what we want him for." The white haired man said without looking up from the pistol.
"Heh. Jamie, meet Lowe." Beck sat down, gesturing to the white haired man. "Recently, he's proven to be someone I can trust."
"And someone who can improve your gear." Lowe polished a part of the pistol before blowing on it.
"That too."
Jamie noticed that Beck acted a lot more casual and mellow now compared to the crafty and suspicious individual he was in their past meetings. He figured that escaping Old Orion really was that important to the man.
Jamie turned to Lowe. "Have we met before? You look familiar."
"I used to be an errand boy. You've definitely seen me at some point."
"Maybe." Jamie didn't really believe him, but he didn't dwell on it. He took a seat in front of Beck.
"So, what's this plan of yours?"
"I won't go into too much details, but here's the gist of it:
The plan is to escape the slums of Old Orion - where we are right now. To do that, we have to take down Dynamos."
Beck pulled some photos out of a drawer and showed them to Jamie. The pictures consisted of a large port with an ocean past it stretching far into the distance, the only thing crossing it being one singular railway.
"That port is what's behind the Dynamos Headquarters on the northern side of the slum, and the only way out of this sector. That rail you see is for a hovertrain that goes through all of Old Orion, and the only - official - method of transportation between sectors."
Jamie nodded as Beck explained, looking up at him blankly. "There's more sectors here in Old Orion?"
"You… didn't know?" Beck blinked at him a couple times. "Jamie, do you know how Old Orion works?"
Seeing the boy shake his head, Beck sighed and reached below his desk, pulling out a comically large whiteboard. "Lowe, would you kindly?"
Beck walked over to the wall while Lowe put down the pistol, picking up the whiteboard and attaching it to the wall. Beck pulled out a marker and cleared his throat. He drew a massive circle on the whiteboard.
"Okay see this?" Upon receiving a nod, Beck continued. "This right here is ALL of Old Orion. Now, all this here is just ocean. A stupidly large, artificial ocean."
A memory appeared in Jamie's head of the ocean he saw while standing on the edge of the wasteland, moments before he met Shell.
While Jamie reminisced, Beck drew three smaller circles of varying sizes inside the big one, vertically stacked with some space between each one.
"Now, these three smaller circles are the sectors inside of Old Orion, and are where almost all the land is."
He pointed to the bottommost circle.
"This is the slum sector, where we are right now. In terms of size, the slum is in the middle, but most of that land belongs to the wasteland that came to be from how shitty this place is."
Beck added zigzags to the lowest circle's outline to represent the wasteland, before pointing at the middle circle, which was the largest of the three.
"The middle class sector, the largest and the most peaceful part of Old Orion. They live normally over there, and their law enforcement are actually decent people."
Beck shrugged before pointing at the highest circle, which was also the smallest.
"Now this is the high class sector, full of the heads of Dynamos as well as the wealthy and powerful, though seemingly not wealthy or powerful enough to live somewhere else."
Beck drew an exclamation mark inside the circle.
"These are the guys in control. A bunch of stuck up bootlickers sitting on piles of credits. They overlook the sectors and keep everything running. We want to get off Old Orion, they'll be the last line of defense."
"Okay so, three sectors divided by wealth, and we're in the worst of them." Jamie summarized what he learned.
"Yeah. Now here's the kicker." Beck drew one straight line that cut through all 3 circles. "The only way to travel between sectors is through the hovertrain, and Dynamos manages access to it."
"Couldn't someone build a boat? Or fly between sectors?" Jamie asked. He had a thought of rising Prime to the other sectors.
"Even if you had an aircraft, or a mecha like that, the distance between sectors is big enough that any average mecha would run out of fuel before seeing the next sector in the distance. Not to mention the defenses. Phew."
Finished explaining, Beck put down the marker and returned to his desk, drinking from a water bottle. Lowe silently picked up the pistol and went back to messing around with it.
"Do you need time to rest?" Jamie asked with a taunting smile.
"I'm not that old." Beck turned to Jamie with a serious look. "Now that you know how this place works, I want you to know that there are three phases of my plan to escape the slums."
"What's your end goal?" Jamie leaned back in the chair. "Are you just trying to hop sectors, or leave Old Orion completely?"
"I don't know. I'd have to see what life outside the slums is like first."
"...I hate to agree with you."
"Anyhow, today is Phase One."
Jamie focused on the middle aged man behind the desk. He was about to start the dirty work in order to leave this slum. The room went silent, Lowe putting down the pistol to look at Beck.
"Today, Jamie, we're going to destroy the Dynamos branch in the slums."