"Gift?" Jamie asked.
Amanda grinned before turning around and leaning over her seat to reach her bag. After rummaging through it, she found the gift and handed it to Jamie.
It looked like a black wristband, except there was a rectangular mechanism attached to one part of it. Jamie raised an eyebrow as Amanda grabbed his right wrist and started putting it on. Once it was on his wrist properly, he looked it over and saw the thin rectangle was now pressed against the underside of his wrist.
"Now flick your wrist; be careful with your fingers, though." She instructed.
As Jamie did so, a thin blade slid out of the rectangle with a click. It was sharp, shiny, and about 7 inches long.
"A hidden blade?" Jamie grinned, testing it out.
Flicking his wrist again sent it back in the rectangle, and there was even a lock placed on the mechanism so that the blade wouldn't pop out if Jamie didn't want it to.
"You need something to defend yourself with, don't you? I know you can't always have Prime protect you." Amanda smiled at his reaction.
"Not to be ungrateful, but can this hurt Wizards? Their bodies grow stronger with each Realm they break through, so I'm not sure this blade can cut them." Jamie frowned.
"Don't you worry about that." She pointed her thumb at the sleeping Armin. "He did something to the blade before I finished building the whole thing. He said it could potentially hurt even a Wizard in the Sky Realm, whatever that means."
"Thank you, Amanda." Relieved, Jamie thanked her.
He hadn't heard of the Sky Realm, but it had to be above the Superior Realm. He wondered how Armin could make something that could harm a Wizard that strong, but decided to trust his words. Besides, Jamie doubted there would be Wizards of that caliber in the middle class sector.
"It's nothing. Onto the next topic, how are we going to present ourselves in the middle class sector?"
"What do you mean by that?" Jamie frowned.
"We don't exactly scream 'normal family', do we?" Amanda pointed out their peculiarities. "Transparent hand, ice puppy, Ghost Wizard, Prime…"
"That's true… I guess we should just hide our unique traits, so that Dynamos or anyone else doesn't take interest in us."
Saying so, Jamie turned off his ghost hand, his left arm returning to a stump. He thought about ways to hide what made them special, because he knew how dangerous it was to stand out.
The moment news spread about Jamie and Prime in the slums, Beck had Amy kidnapped, and the mechanic shop got wrecked along with Aiden's arm, all as some collateral damage. Of course, Beck had made it up to them so far, but there could be stronger or more dangerous people out there that would do worse once they've taken interest in them.
"I guess I'm gonna be a cripple from now on." Jamie chuckled. "For Armin, I'll tell him not to use his magic in public. Yeti, keep him indoors. I can keep Prime invisible all the time, so we can keep him wherever our new home's going to be."
Mentioning Prime also made Jamie realize another thing. By this point, he was sure that Prime was special, or at least different from other mechas for some reason, especially because Jamie didn't need to be inside him to control him. He would need an excuse if people found out about Prime somehow.
"I got it." He turned to Amanda. "From now on, Prime is just a friend of ours, piloted by a guy that's in him 24/7. We'll call him… Peter."
"Peter." Amanda tried to cover up a laugh, making Jamie slightly embarrassed.
"Just go with it! It'll attract attention if anyone finds out I'm the real pilot. This way, people think he's just some guy that sticks around us all the time."
"Well then, why is 'Peter' always with us? What's his reason?"
Jamie scratched his head. "Uhh, let's just say I saved his life, and this is how he's repaying me. How about that?"
"Ha, alright then."
******
The three day train ride passed by peacefully. They spent the time eating or talking together when they weren't sleeping. Jamie also explained to Armin, Aiden, and Amy about the new way they were going to present themselves, what to hide, and what to never say to other people.
As they were nearing the end of the trip, the middle class sector came into view from the windows.
"Woah…" Jamie looked at it in awe.
From what little he could see of it so far, he could tell that it was easily thrice the size of the slums. It also looked so… alive from afar. There were tall buildings, flashing lights, and what looked like little dots moving all over.
"We're near." Jamie could barely contain his excitement.
The train began to pull into the middle class sector, which, surprisingly, didn't have a port but instead had a whole station for the train to stop. Jamie saw multiple Dynamos officers and workers spread out over the station.
As they were checking out the train station, the bathroom door opened and Beck stepped out, wearing a white and blue long coat, the very same worn by the officers of Dynamos.
"I didn't know you liked cosplay, Beck." Jamie joked as the train began to screech and slow down, stopping neatly next to the station platform, a group of Dynamos officers ready to receive them.
"Haha, let's just say this is integral to Phase 4 of my plan." Beck replied as everyone stood up and gathered their things.
"Heh - wait, Phase 4? I thought there were only three?"
Before Jamie could question Beck further, the hovertrain's doors opened, and the mob boss immediately disembarked and reached behind his back, pulling out a rusty, Old Earth pistol and shooting into the sky two times, alarming everyone.
Within an instant, all officers had their guns drawn and trained on Beck, while the Wizards among them prepared to attack, elements and energies appearing around them as the mana in the air rose.
Jamie noticed that none of them gave off the same feeling that Victor had, meaning none of them were at the Enhanced Realm, which was reassuring. He made a mental note to ask Armin later on how to properly identify what Realm a Wizard was in.
"Hello! My name is Beck!" Beck greeted the officers surrounding him, dropping the smoking gun before getting on his knees, hands behind his head. "I'm here to turn myself in!"
The cops immediately approached him and cuffed him before taking him away, while another officer approached the rest of them.
"Welcome to the middle class sector! Enjoy your time here." He greeted them before walking off.
Meanwhile Jamie stood there stunned, not only at Beck's sudden action, but also at how… normal the area looked. None of the people present were being jerks or trying to hurt them, they weren't even sparing them a second glance. Jamie didn't want to take any risks, though, and had the invisible Prime hover a few inches off the ground near them to not make sound.
"Did that cop just… greet us?" Aiden frowned, with the girls showing similar expressions.
"I'm as confused as you are." Amy agreed.
"Come on, let's get you happy campers into the sector." Lowe appeared, stepping off the hovertrain with the purple haired woman following behind him.
"Hold on."
He tried to walk past them and lead the way, but Jamie stopped him, grabbing his wrist. "What was that?"
"What was what?" The silver haired man tilted his head.
"Beck surrendering to the cops! And what the hell is Phase 4? You guys told me there were only three." Jamie questioned him with a hard look, making him sigh.
"Phase 4 is a personal project of Beck and mine, as your job ended with Phase 3. It's nothing for you to be concerned with. Now let's get you all registered."
Shaking Jamie's hand off his wrist, Lowe led the way for them, entering into a different part of the station where the wall was lined with booths where men and women sat behind counters with a protective glass layer on top.
Past them was an open arch, serving as entrance and exit of the train station. Jamie almost froze as he looked out, seeing all the happy people walk by, the clean and peaceful streets, tall buildings with colorful signs and billboards, the working cars driving all over the place. It was breathtaking.
"Over here." Lowe called them over, taking two cards from the man in the booth he spoke to, handing one to his lady friend. "From now on, how you live is up to you guys. See you around, Jamie."
Patting Jamie on the shoulder, Lowe and the purple haired woman walked out the exit, disappearing quickly into the crowded sidewalk. Looking back at the booths, he gulped before approaching one, where a woman in a uniform smiled at him from behind the glass.
"Hello…"
"Is it your first time in the middle class sector?" As if sensing his nervousness, she decided to help him.
"Yeah." Jamie nodded. "As you can see, we're all pretty lost."
"No problem. We just need to set you all up with some identification cards. You'll need them whenever you travel between sectors or in certain occupations." She eyed the others behind Jamie. "It's 200 credits per person."
"Here."
Jamie handed her his black credit card, which she took through a hole in the glass and inserted into a machine next to her. It beeped, and she returned the credit card to him, before turning around and taking 5 blank, cream-colored cards off a rack.
'That's a thousand gone already…' Jamie turned his credit card over to check the balance, the projected numbers showing 24000. During the train ride, he added the balance of his original credit card (from the triple assassination job) to his new one for convenience.
"Are you all related?" The lady asked Jamie, to which he confirmed with a yes. "Alright, I'll need your first and last names."
Hearing her, Amanda stepped close and whispered in Jamie's ear. "We don't have a last name. You have an idea?"
"Don't worry, I came up with one back in the slums." He whispered back, making her nod and return to the others.
"Our names are Jamie, Amanda, Aiden, Amy, and Amin." He pointed to show the lady which name belonged to which person. "Put us all under the surname 'Prime'."
"Alright, just give me a moment."
She paused to input the data on the cards. Once she was finished, she picked up the cards and handed them out to them with a smile and continued to inform them about the cards.
"The identification cards contain your names so far. To fill out the other data such as age, height, weight, and your picture, there's a scanning function in the cards to do that for you.
If you ever get jobs, you can also change the card to show your occupation. These cards count as official identification all over the Milky Way and UHF-governed areas.
Enjoy your stay, Prime family!"
As she spoke, Jamie activated the card. A short beam of light shot out and scanned his face, and immediately after his information filled up most of the once-empty card, his face being projected in the top left, with an option to make it larger or smaller. Looking at the others, he saw they had done the same.
"Thank you." He thanked the lady before joining everyone else.
They all put their cards away before looking out the exit, admiring the view, and feeling hopeful towards their new lives from this point forth.
"Shall we, everyone?" Jamie asked them with a smile.