"Ugh… at least I'm slowly getting better."
Jamie groaned as he turned his wrist, neck, and feet. Control of his body was coming back, albeit at a very slow pace. He slept through the night on the sofa, and upon waking up was relieved to see that the side effects of Overdrive were starting to wear off.
He heard clicking sounds to his side. Turning his head, he saw Amy sitting on a stool, playing with a small puzzle board.
"Good morning, Jamie." She smiled at him before glancing at his missing left arm.
"Hey Amy." He followed her gaze to his stump, where the purple energy appeared to form the outline of a hand.
He flexed the ghost hand's fingers to make sure it still worked, and was pleased to see that it did.
"How did you… get a new purple hand?" Amy asked, her eyes showing how she was a little freaked out.
Jamie realized she hadn't seen it last night, it probably had disappeared while he was asleep. "Have you met Armin?"
"The purple haired guy? Keeps saying he'll be a good brother?"
"That's him."
"Yeah. Why exactly did you adopt him?" Amy raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I felt bad for him. He had nowhere to go. Besides," Jamie wiggled his ghost fingers. "He gave me a replacement arm AND brought me and Prime back. He's a Wizard, you know?"
"I guess that's a good enough reason. He seems nice, too."
"I'm glad you guys are warming up to him."
The room went quiet. Amy returned to her puzzle while Jamie stared at the ceiling, attempting to move what parts of his body he could. He wished that he had some music playing at least.
"Amy."
"Hmm?"
"Where is everyone else right now?"
"Amanda's sweeping the front. Armin and Aiden went for a walk."
Jamie was alerted upon hearing it. "A walk? Isn't Aiden still sick!?"
"He was whining about being cooped up in here, so Armin offered to take him out."
"Please be alright…" Jamie mumbled before turning back towards Amy. "What about Prime and uh… Yeti?"
He heard a bark the moment he asked the question. He heard soft footsteps before his vision was covered by a ball of white fur on his face.
"Yeti, down boy! Ow! Don't bite - cold! Stop!"
Yeti began to nip and play with the immobile Jamie's face, which was slowly getting covered in frost. "Amy!"
"Yeti! Leave Jamie alone." Amy put down her puzzle and picked up the puppy, which whimpered upon being scolded. "Prime's still in the garage. I think he's turned off or something."
"Thank you." Jamie breathed out.
Jamie was about to go to sleep when he heard voices outside the shop, Amy turning her head to look as well. After a moment, a familiar face with silver hair popped in the doorway.
"Good morning. Your lady friend let me in."
"Lowe!" Jamie frowned at Beck's right hand man. "What are you doing here?"
"Relax, I'm here to talk to you. Speaking of, what happened to you?"
Lowe looked down at Jamie, raising an eyebrow at the ghost hand.
"The aftereffects of fighting Agent Victor."
"Well, I hope you get better soon." Lowe pulled over an empty crate before sitting on it, looking Jamie in the eyes. "We're on a time limit. I'm here to brief you on Phase 2."
"I thought I said I'll come to you guys when I'm ready?" Jamie didn't appreciate Lowe's intrusion, and his expression showed it.
"Well, after the whole sector spotted you having to be carried back to your shop with Prime not moving, I had a feeling you weren't exactly coming soon. Looks like I was right."
Jamie sighed. "Fine, what is it?"
"So as you know, Phase 1 was destroying Dynamos and taking over the slum sector." Lowe paused so Jamie could nod. "Well, Phase 2 is making sure we keep that control."
"Just say it, man." Jamie rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Northeast of the port, in the middle of the ocean between the slum and the middle class sector, there's a rig. Now that rig contains not only Dynamos reinforcements, but also the control panel for the hovertrain."
"And you need me to take it over?" Jamie questioned.
"Yes. Using your mecha, we need you to fly over there, kill everyone, and guard the rig until Beck and I can arrive by boat."
"What happened to no aircrafts, mechas, or boats?"
"If you fly low, you shouldn't be detected by any passing ships or anti-aircraft defenses. As for the boats, we already own the slums, and once you take the rig, boating would be safe as long as no one aims for the other sectors.
You'll go in first to commandeer the rig, Beck and I will follow shortly after. Remember, you have to be quick, but careful. Don't let them contact anyone else, and most importantly, make sure the train controls stay intact."
"I'm sorry, is this meant to be harder or easier than Phase 1? And what's with the time limit you mentioned?"
"Technically speaking, Phase 1 was the hardest, but Phase 2 is the most important. If we can't secure the train, we're stuck here until someone out of our league decides to investigate."
Lowe breathed out before scratching the back of his head.
"And for the time limit, we only have at most another day or two to pull this off. With the communications here completely dead, it's only a matter of time before the rig gets suspicious about the lack of reports or anything."
"And here I thought you guys had it all figured out." Jamie yawned, earning him a side-eye from Lowe.
"What we're doing is basically rebellion. If we don't keep news of what we're doing contained, we'll be completely wiped out by those with the power to do so. This is the ONLY way to achieve the best outcome with what we have."
"...Sorry. It's just a lot to digest." Jamie sighed. "Got any info on what I should watch out for at the rig?"
"Yes, actually. The rig is where they keep their reinforcements, so they're going to have some strong stuff there. Nothing on the level of Agents, but they'll have Dynamos mechas there."
Lowe pulled out a photograph and held it above Jamie's eyes. There he saw a bulky, bipedal mecha with a large, transparent hatch serving as the torso and the pilot chamber, and two long machine guns attached to the sides instead of arms. Of course, the mecha didn't lack the white and blue trademark Dynamos color scheme.
"The Grunt units." Jamie remarked.
"Yeah. Expect anywhere from 5 to 10 to be present on the rig." Lowe put away the picture. "They shoot slow, move slower. Outmaneuver them and you'll be fine."
Lowe looked towards the garage, where the immobile Prime was still hooked up to the frame stand.
"What? Does Prime got something in his teeth?" Jamie joked.
"No, just curious about the thing. I mean, it's the first mecha I've heard of that doesn't have the Pilot inside it to control it."
"Funny, Shell said the same thing." Jamie mumbled.
"What?"
"I guess Prime is just special." Jamie shrugged, or at least he tried to before realizing that he couldn't move his shoulders yet.
"Somehow, I don't doubt that." Lowe slapped his knees before standing up. "Well, that's all I came here to say. Got anything else you need to know?"
Jamie shook his head. "Nah, I got it. Do I still need to head to the office, or…?"
"Feel free to just head towards the rig as soon as possible. We have people watching the port 24/7, we'll know when you leave."
"Okay then. Uh, thanks for coming?"
"No problem." Lowe nodded at Jamie before leaving, not forgetting to acknowledge Amanda as he walked off, who hesitantly waved back.
"Coworker?" Amy asked now that it was just her and Jamie again.
"...I guess you could say that."
Amy nodded. "Jamie, will you get hurt again?"
"Huh?" He looked at Amy.
"If you go to that rig, will you come home… missing your other arm, or your leg this time? Or-"
"I won't!" Jamie cut in as he saw her start to get a little emotional. "I'll come home perfectly fine, and we'll have dinner as usual, and then we'll go to sleep, like always."
"...Do you promise?"
Jamie smiled at her, noticing her teary eyes. "I promise."
"Thank you." She smiled back.
The two of them went silent, enjoying each others' company.
******
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the slums…
"Make a fish."
Flopping could be heard.
"Okay, now make a bird!"
The flapping of wings could be heard.
"Uhh, how about a jet?"
A whoosh could be heard, followed by a boy's exclamation and laughter.
"Okay, I'm convinced, this is pretty cool." Aiden said with a grin.
He was sitting on top of a pile of broken furniture, his right arm still in a cast. Next to him, sitting on a higher pile of scrap metal, sat Armin, his glowing purple eyes matching the energy radiating off his hands, the purple glow making his smile look sinister.
"Isn't it!?"
Armin waved his hands, and purple fireworks appeared in the air above them, popping loudly. The two boys laughed as they played around with Armin's ghost magic.