Mechanical Heart
“Should be around here somewhere, unless that sketchy street vendor gave us wrong information.” She said, walking ahead of Rosario, he was enthralled, looking at seedy shops peddling goods of all sorts. “There it is.” She said he broke off his attention, looking to where she was pointing, a large building with a farm-themed exterior with a large neon sign featuring a large bovine beastfolk woman holding a tankard of milk and the words in cursive at the bottom “The cowbell.” As they arrived, two horned women with cow-patterned short skirts and tops threw a man out onto the curb, one said, “And stay out, until you have more money, of course.” The elven man pushed himself up on the ground,d groaning as a pair of pants came flying out the door, hitting him in the back, causing him to hit the ground again. He sat up as Senarre and Rosario approached him. He squinted in the sunlight, his eyes adjusting as he saw them. His eyes lit up as they focused. “Oh, high cousin and businessman, hey, businessman, you have some money I can borrow, I could really use a cigarette and maybe some mouthwash right now.” Rosario looked down on him, “What happened to the money I paid you yesterday for giving us a ride?” The elven man shrugged, “It's gone, I've drained all of it, in more ways than one.” Rosario cringed, “If you can tell me where I can get some information, I'd be glad to pay you some more.” Eddie began pulling his pants on. “I'm not in the business of information brokering, but maybe Ma and Pa can help you. Do be warned, they are a little intense.”
Eddie got to his feet, standing tall over Rosario and Senarre. “So anything new with you, cousin?” Senarre cringed, “Why are you still calling me cousin? You're hitting on me or something.” Eddie scratched behind his head. “Nah, don't get me twisted, and don't get offended, you look nice, but I prefer my women with a couple more centimeters.” She looked at him sharply on the edge of anger, “Couple more centimeters where?” Eddie smiled and said, “Bitta everywhere, thicker the cake, better the baker, you feel me?” He looked at her face that bore a pitiful expression and, taken aback, said, “What, don't judge me, everyone has their type, what's yours then… Cousin” She immediately said, “Don't call me cousin, and I've never thought of it before, whatever that's not important right now, what's important right now is that you take us to this Ma and Pa.” Eddie raised his hands in the air and looked to Rosario “Your friend is a little too intense for this early in the morning.” Rosario looked at him with a plain expression and said, “It's 12:30.” Eddie jumped to his feet. “Oh shit, I was supposed to check in with Ma and Pa at 10 am, I'm gonna get my ass destroyed.” He rubbed his eyes and said, “Follow me.”
They entered the building, a large, brightly colored building with guards outside dressed in funk fashion. Eddie walked in front, stopped eventually by a man with mirrored sunglasses and light blue attire. He said, “ Where were you eddie your late for your check-in.” Eddie smiled and said, “Cut me some slack, Yuen. I was busy.” The man identified as Yuen said, “Bull shit eddie, I bet you were down at the cowbell getting your rocks off again.” Eddie said, “No i wasnt i was just busy thats all.” Yuen, looking angered, said, “I'll just ask Steph then, she's your favourite.” Eddie jumped in front of him, “No, that won't be necessary, look i need a favor from you, Yuen. These people here need to talk to Ma and Pa.” Yuen looked over to them, “A halfblood and what are you supposed to be jadeye aint alot of people with eyes like that, I ain't letting you through.” Eddie waved his hands in front of him. “Let them in, they are heir apparent from ellura they got the bread you need for the bakery, you feel me?” Yuen placed his palm on his face, exhaling, “Fine, I don't believe you, but I guess I'll let you in.” Eddie led the three of them through the door as Yuen stepped aside. As they walked through the door, ensuring they were out of earshot, Eddie said, “Don't worry about Yuen, he's just got a stick up his ass because the woman he loves is employed with another family.” Senarre said curiously, “So you guys are a crime family that doesn't rely on family ties.” Eddie is still walking in front. “Yea i guess you're right, drugs, guns, brothels, a little bit of everything i suppose, but Ma and Pa treat all of us like their kids, their philosophy is no kid should die out on the street.” Rosario, in thought, said, “But isn't that stuff kinda, you know, illegal and bad?” Eddie quickly answered with “Yea and the Esparzas are a noble family, and they have made weapons for centuries in the name of profit and craftsmanship. I think they have more blood on their hands than a couple of people who have to worry about if they can or can't eat dinner some nights.” Rosario shook his head, “Fair point.” Eddie pushed open a large double door, revealing a balcony with two cases of stairs going down into a large square room. “Ma and Pa will be with us in a bit, probably.”
Music began to boom with basslines, strings, and horns. A disco ball lowered from the ceiling, bathing the dark room with a spray of refracted light. Two figures came bursting out of doors at the bottom of the room. One of the figures was an older man with dark skin and a short afro and mirrored circular glasses with an open-chested purple velour shirt and bellbottom jeans. The other was an older woman with the same outfit, save for the shirt with an orange pattern featuring peace signs. They skated out from the corners of the room on rollerskates the, the beat on the music dropped as spotlights settled on them, skating into a large arcing figure 8, followed by both spinning in place as a series of backup dancers moved into the center of the room, forming a series of intricate patterns before the music reached a crescendo and the lights faded and a skater rolled out a table on wheels followed by four chairs as the music faded to a low bass humming in the background. The man and woman sat at the chairs on one side of the table and gestured for them to come closer. Rosario and Senarre walked down the stairs to the floor carefully, crossed the distance cautiously, and pulled out the chair as the man said, “My name's Pa, what's got you grooving today?” The woman said, “My name's Ma, what's the vibe?” They both, in unison, pulled out two matching large firearms lined with chrome like a disco ball before nodding their heads. Rosario said, whispering to Senarre, “I think they want us to put up our weapons.” She pulled the gun seated on her waistline, its intricate engravings glinting in the spotlight, and set it down on the table. The man cleared his throat and said, “.38 nice vibe personally I feel as if .45 got a bit more groove but to each cool cat their own ya feel me?” The woman spoke up, “What can the funkiest cats this side of the island do for you today?” Rosario spoke up, “Were looking for someone.” The man spoke up, “Well, I ain't in the business of finding lost things, too many things go lost here on this side of the island, I need some incentives to open these here eyes of mine, you feel me?” Ma spoke next, “Something to sweeten the deal, I like this one, you for hire, sweetheart.” She pointed towards Senarre. She nodded, “You need someone taken care of?” Ma laughed, “Not in that way, I think you'd be the next big hit down at the brothels.” Senarre's eyebrow twitched. “Say that again, and I'll blow your shit smooth off, ya feel me?”
Pa said, shocked, “I don't appreciate anyone talking to Ma that way.” He picked up the gun and aimed it at Rosario, who stood up, manifesting a blade of black stone in one arm, resting it on Pa’s neck as Senarre had pulled her other pistol from her side, crossing arms with Ma. Rosario said, “We still negotiating here?” as others walked to the center of the room, all bearing weapons, trained on the pair. Pa let out a deep laugh, “I like your style, Heavy Metal Woman and Greeneyes, relationships are push and pull, so do some work for me, and I'll maybe consider opening my eyes to find your friend, you feel me?” Pa placed the weapon down on the table. Ma set her weapon down and gave a gesture for the others with weapons to stand down. Rosario and Senarre sat back down at the seats, Rosario allowing the black blade to fall to nothingness when it left his hand. Ma and Pa in unison, “You all are a grand old time, we dig ya vibes.” Pa said, “We got a guy that needs a little favor, if you do well by him, consider it well by us.” Rosario said concernedly, “Are you going to have us do something illegal?” Ma laughed, “Mainlander laws don't apply here, sunny boy, ain't nothing to kill a vibe more than worrying about those who live kilometers away with more amenities than a Rivieran will see in their lifetime.” Pa cut in, “I want you two to head out to a warehouse owned by a junker, who's been pestering us for some time about something, and he's the one who keeps our weapons in working order, so why not give him a hand, ya feel me?” Rosario shook his head “yea i feel you, we help out your guy and you guys help us out?” Ma shook her head, “That's the vibe here, sonny boy, unless the heavy metal woman here would like to take up another line of work, or you got the bread to pay the piper.”
Rosario and Senarre walked through the gates, a dog barking behind the chainlink, followed them along the fenceline. They pushed open a large hangar door and slipped inside. “I should've shot her for talking to me like that,” Senarre said, still seething with anger. “I think your anger is valid, but as of now, they are the only lead we have on our missing man of the hour.” A loud creaking sound echoed throughout the cavernous hangar. Two large glowing red eyes suspended in the air appeared. “Who dares trespass on my property?” Senarre said, shouting into the darkness, “Ma and Pa sent us, said you needed something.” The voice said, “You should've opened with that then.” The lights in the hangar flicked on, revealing piles of assorted junk and scrap metal, and a large mechanical humanoid machine about 15 meters tall with glowing red eyes and a head like a stylized heaume with swept lines and hard edges and jagged armor made of scrap metal. The sound of squeaking wheels echoed through the room as a man in a wheelchair rolled out from behind the hulking humanoid machine with a pale green bandanna and welding mask over his face. The man stopped the wheelchair and tilted his head through the welding mask and said, “Well, shove a fist up my ass and call me a puppet, Ryvr, is that you? You look younger than the last time I saw you?” Rosario waved his hands in front of him, “No, I'm the younger brother, Rosario.” The man wheeled over and pulled the welding mask off, revealing a lightly stubbled face. He held out his hand, shaking Rosario’s hand before turning to Senarre, he said, “I take it you must be the younger one’s lady, Lorea?” Senarre politely said, “No, we're kinda business partners, I guess.” The man said, “Ahh, ok, welp anyways, my name is Jameson Watt, not to toot my own horn, but best engineer, sapper, repairman, electrician, and sometimes occasionally pilot.” Senarre walked around and reached into a large box, pulled out a large bullet the size of multiple fists stacked on end. “Big ass bullet, what's it for?” the man in the wheelchair pointed up to the large humanoid machine. “It's for baby, or rather, one of her submachine guns.” Senarre smiled, “Wicked, if that's a sub, what's her main gun shooting?” The man rolled over to a blue tarp and pulled it off a large cannon resembling an artillery piece with massively oversized box magazines next to it. “Baby’s got a main gun firing 105mm Semi armor piercing high explosive shells.” Senarre pointed at the machine, “This thing is insane, you're like packing some destroyer-grade firepower on it.” Jameson smiled and said, “This is my pride and joy, put all my free time into building her, the only thing that stopped me from kissing a barrel and painting a ceiling, probably.” Rosario said, “That's dark, what's with the?” Jameson said, “What's with the wheelchair? Got a thing against cripples or something ?” “no i just won-” Jameson laughed “Nah dont worry bout it im just fucking with you, your question is probably why are you in a wheelchair when you can just get a frame and walk normally, right?” Rosario shook his head, “Yea pretty much.”
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Jameson shifted in the seat of the wheelchair and pulled his shirt up, revealing a metal device attached to his spine. “I have the port here, and I had a frame for a while, but I reverse-engineered the tech used to make the frame move when connected to the nervous system, and used it to make something heavier. I tried to build something like a baby in the past, but I couldn't figure out how to get the damn thing to balance, until I got the surgery to install the port for the prosthetics, or in this case, the frames. And then I figured out the way they work is by using the human brain's natural system of autobalancing itself while walking, so by doing that i was able to get the baby to walk. Talking and playing are different things entirely, so I rigged up her interior with some recycled parasite controls.” Rosario walked up to the machine, resting his palm on its foot. “This is some crazy fucking engineering for you to build it in a warehouse. How do you know my brother?” Jameson laughed and said, “Shit hes pretty much my brother too.” he pulled on the tags hanging from his neck and threw them at Rosario. He caught them deftly and read them, “Sgt. Watt, Jameson, Gerard, D.S.O.C, 71856, A-”
Rosario threw the tags back to Jameson, who placed them back around his neck. “Was with Ryvr’s squad for 10 or so months until the Elurra massacre on our way out i got hit with shrapnel on my lower back spine, got fucked now my legs don't work spent the rest of the war bouncing round to diffrent hospitals until they gave me the port and a frame and a set of discharge papers and told me to politely fuck off, Dreynas armed forces had no use for a broken toy. say hows your brother? Haven't seen 'em in say 17 years or so, he marry spawn some little demons like him?” Rosario said back to him, pacing around the room, “Ryvr’s good, he seems happy, he has five wives, he's also the admiral for the first fleet, has damn near an entire army at his behest.” Jameson laughed, “Ryvr married? And five times, no doubt, he was a gloomy kid during the twilight of the northern wars when he was put in charge of the squad. I thought they were insane for putting a kid in that position. I was already 24 at the time, so I thought that putting a kid in command was a bad idea until I saw what he could do. They'd drop us in behind enemy lines and tell him to make a fuckin mess. Ooh, and a mess he did make; he'd slaughter entire garrisons pretty much by himself. When it came to the bounty list on enemy commanders, Ryvr was probably at the top of their list, and the one with the most confirmed kills on our list.” Rosario looked intrigued. “Was Ryvr that much of a problem then?” Jameson smiled, “Oh, most definitely, they used him as propaganda the stories spread in the months i was bouncing around hospitals i heard stories from the other patients said that the siegebreaker of Izotza wasn't human that he was a crossbreed between a demon and human they said he would laugh and sing songs as he danced through the battlefield painting white snow crimson with the blood of the fallen enemies, that he would disintegrate people whole with bursts of jagged raw untamed lightning.”
Senarre said, “wicked I didn't know Lorea’s brother was that strong, I mean, I know he's strong, but that's crazy.” Jameson laughed, “The only thing scarier than that was when he was in a funk, one of our squadmates was dropped by sniper fire, and that crazy motherfucker he calls a brother picked up the weapon from the floor and stood exposed waiting for the sniper to shoot again he got a through and through on the upper arm when the sniper fired again but not before firing a retaliation shot, we found the poor sniper laying over his rifle, bullet went straight through the scope.” Jameson rolled over to the machine's right leg, flipping open a panel and pressing a button as the machine's chest opened a cavity featuring control sticks and a seat. “Anyways lets get down to business here, as you can see, baby is still in her crib, she needs the proper nutrition to walk and play, so I need some food for her so she can grow big and strong and lift her toys and play all day.” Senarre smiled wickedly, “Kids are annoying, but I can't wait to see her play. I take it you need something that can't be acquired through normal channels, and that's why you do business with Ma and Pa?” Jameson laughed, “Yea i cant stand those little shits, but yeah, pretty much.” he rolled over to a table, pulled out a sheet of blue paper, and set it down, gesturing for Rosario and Senarre to join him. “Baby food is expensive, normally doubly so in this case. I need a Mk42 Sealstone dynamo core in order to give baby the nutrition she needs. Her siblings were fine with smaller cores, but I added some new features to her that would either require me to wire up a whole nightmare of cores and jump the amperage. Which would probably produce enough energy, but if baby were injured in a sensitive spot, she'd probably level a whole city block with her tantrum.” Rosario looked carefully at the schematic. “Mk42, that's what powers a corvette, pretty much can she really hold that much juice without, y'know?" Jameson rolled over to another table, pulling out a small model of the baby. “Yeah, she can. I designed her to have vents for the excess energy and heat near the core to keep her ice cold, Plus her sword should also compensate very well when it's ignited.” Rosario looked shocked. “You gave this thing a sword?” Jameson pointed up to a large metal apparatus hanging from the ceiling. “It's really heavy, pretty much too thick and heavy to be called a sword, a heap of raw high-grade carbon steel, couldn't get silversteel all that I had I used in reinforcing her frame to support the weight of her with her weapons on board.”
Rosario smiled, “This is spectacular if that's what she needs. What do her older siblings do?” Jameson pulled three more models from the table. “They are just testbeds, pretty much just armored skeletons to test if her weapons would work, so to save money and time i skipped on installing the port compatibility, meaning if you wanted, you could give them a spin.” Rosario said back instantly, “I'll take you up on that, anyway, a Mk42 is a commercial item, why not just buy one?” Jameson cleared his throat and said, “Yea i can buy one, but its little string of seven numbers on it are a way to track it back to the buyer, so I need one sourced from someone else's inventory, not trackable back to me or ma and pa.” Rosario shook his head. “I understand, so where do we get this thing?” Jameson rolled over to another table, revealing a model of a house from beneath a tarp. Jameson pointed at it, “I've done the recon, so now we just need the strat, this joint has served as a station for traffickers for the last four months a regrettable outcome that, but they have something i need, one of ma and pa’s spies was able to sneak around in their hideout said they got a backpack sized Dynamo powering the house’s grid.” Rosario rubbed his chin, looking at the house. “I take it that's what we need?” Jameson pointed at a second-story master bedroom window on the model. “Should be in here, all we need is for you to go get it, approach is irrelevant, blow down the door and take it a real smash and grab if you want, or take it slow and quiet dont even let them know you're there, personally id probably recommend taking it quietly to avoid a fight there's likely to be a good number of baddies in there.” Senarre looked at the model questionably and said, “So why'd you build this thing? It's stupidly impressive.” Jameson smiled and said, “Does a father's love need any explanation? This is my child. I love her and her siblings.” Rosario raised his hands in the shape of an X with a worried expression to Jameson. Senarre turned around and walked out of the building and said, “I need some fresh air ill be back soon. Lorea, can you make up a plan?” Rosario said quietly, “Sure, just be back in here before dark. I'm thinking a nighttime raid would be best; dealers and traffickers should be an easy job if they are tired.” She turned and walked out of the hangar, slamming the door behind her.
“So what's her deal? I was feeling some sort of bad vibe.” Rosario frowned, "She's got her own issues to work through.” Jameson frowned, “We all have our own issues; she just needs some time, so where is your brother at?” Rosario could plainly notice his attempt to change the conversation and said, “He's here on Rivieria, noble summit is going on in say 6 or days, for the noble summit.” Jameson cleared his throat. “I'll probably drop by then. Where are you staying?” “The roulette.” Jameson smiled, “Ooh, they got some good blackjack tables there ill definitely have to drop by, say, did Ryvr marry Yuuki perchance?” Rosario walked up to a table and leaned against it. “No, who is Yuuki?” Jameson leaned back in his wheelchair. “Yuuki was the designated marksman slash sniper in the squad. She was about a year or two older than Ryvr. They had a weird relationship, always fighting, but clearly, they respected each other.” Rosario shrugged, “Never heard of her. Ryvr doesn't talk about the northern wars much.”