Chapter Fourteen: Cicada

After a moment of me being frozen, Jun humorously asks, “Cat got your tongue, Minea?”

Blinking, it clicks. Wait shit I was staring at her, wasn’t I? I swallow the lump in my throat, then shake my head. “N-No, it’s fine. You just reminded me of someone.”

“Oh? Must be a woman of culture.” Jun chuckles as she looks back at the Doberman. “But yeah, back to the reason I’m supposed to be here, how much damage do you think this puppy took?”

Pausing for a second, I consider what could be wrong. “Probably a lot of potential electronic damage, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine that ED’s stupid chill not fucking at least one thing up.”

Walking up to the Mecha’s neck, Jun reaches over and pulls out a wire. The insulation around it has been snapped into two, and I wince since this thing was supposed to be new. “Partially correct, the cold has put about half a million microfractures into the wiring on this thing.”

I wince. “That’s going to be a pain to fix, huh?”

“Actually, the answer is surprisingly a no.” She digs around in a pocket on her belt, pulling out a penlike tool. “Watch and be amazed.”

Holding the pen above the wire, Jun breathes in for a moment. The air around it blurs for a moment and she touches it directly to the metal. It sizzles as it forms back together in a moment, and the engineer grins as she holds it up to me.

“Soldering pen, specially designed by yours truly.”

It takes me a moment, but I open my eyes wide when it clicks. “Oh, it’s a mini PEM for your ability.”

Jun clicks her tongue. “So they told you what it was already? Laaame.”

“Sorry I guess?” I look up over her at the mech. “So… The wires weren’t the only problem? What else was there?”

Jun stands up, nodding for me to follow. She hops up on top of the Mecha, then moves over to the cockpit hatch.

“Here’s the first one.” She kneels down, running a hand along what seems like a small crack. “The hermetic seal on the cockpit is busted here. Not an issue all of the time, but could cause issues until it’s fixed.”

Frowning, I think back to when that monster overlaid its consciousness over mine. I shudder at the memory, closing my eyes as a migraine bursts into being. I brush my fingers against my forehead, then leave them there as they feel so comfortably cold.

There's a moment where Jun doesn’t say anything, and I just stand there. Then I jump when her voice, much closer than before, mutters, “You okay, girly? I know you’ve had a rough day.”

Slowly I open my eyes to find her standing right in front of me, her neck right up in my face. I unconsciously take a step back, then immediately regret it just a little bit. “Y-Yeah, it’s- I’m fine. I really don’t like Extradimensionals.”

“Heard they sucked to be around, never really got the aversion most people have to their bodies in the rare case we actually kill them though. I don’t get the head pains that others seem to have from seeing it.” Jun politely takes a step away, then turns and gestures for me to come. “This seal is not that important: The SAI egg will eventually fix it when its Nano-bots aren’t in use.”

“Um.” I frown. “Which implies there's something more concerning at the moment?”

Jun snorts as she hops down onto the ground. “You could say that again. Look at this.”

I tilt my head as I jump, then groan when I see what she is talking about. With several of the armor plates removed, you can see that there are tears in the Mecha’s muscles, each swarming with grey goo. It’s immediately apparent that I’m the reason for this, and I flush a little. One of the most important things that my mechanical engineering teacher specified was that an Engine had to be careful with their Mecha, keeping track of conditions at all times to prevent exactly this from happening. Unlike natural muscles, while they’re technically tough to break, these mechanical ones can’t just heal naturally. No, you have to use expensive nanobots to manage the detail needed, and it takes them a long ass time in the big scheme of things to do just that.

Basically, my carelessness lost the corporation a lot of money today, on my first day. Not a great start to my career, that’s for sure. Well, not that I particularly care about NAER’s wallet, but I’d rather not be labeled as a liability.

I do wonder what I even did to cause this though. The egg didn’t mention it when we started the patrol, so it had to have been during the chase right? I did a lot of panicked maneuvers at the time, so it doesn’t exactly surprise me. Actually, I wonder if this happened when I attempted to move when the tentacle was wrapped around the Mecha…

“Wait, is it just this leg, or…?”

Jun sighs. “Nope, this is just the biggest one. There are tears over literally every weave on this thing.”

I wince. “Yeah, I can see that being a problem. Sorry.”

She shakes her head. “Nah, don’t apologize. I checked the logs, you were trying to survive – well, the second time at least, you did some real damage to a lot of the muscles when you pounced on the Beefalo, but the egg managed to fix it quickly during the time between your return and you going out on patrol.”

Ah. I forgot I did that. Reminder for future Minea: don’t do stupid things you know might damage your expensive Mecha.

Jun laughs brightly, and I flush. “Did I say that out loud?”

She smirks. “Yup, pretty adorable.”

“Uhwa-” I gawk. “That ain’t how I would describe that?!”

Walking over to some of the nearby armor plates, Jun doesn’t respond to me as she picks one up to hold up towards me. “Also, future reference Minea, these are particularly good against piercing and slashing, but if something is going to ram into you or hit you with a bludgeoning attack probably try not to get hit. These are expensive, and insurance really hates covering them since it’s ‘technically the Engine’s fault for being hit’"

D-Did she just dodge the question to tease me? My mouth hangs open as I try to find words, but I just end up shutting it and nodding instead. She snickers, putting the metal plate back down.

“Good that you know now. I think that’s everything about the Mecha I want to cover.”

Raising an eyebrow, I watch her as she walks towards the locker. “What are you-”

She opens it, pulling out my balled up Trinity River Uniform and tossing it at me. I barely manage to catch it. “I picked this up when I got in here, since it was just spread over the floor. It’s nice that you’re getting the latex used to your body shape, but the combat suit does need time off of you for the auto-cleansing function to work. I’ll be here for a bit, go clean up and then come back.”

Eh?

Oh.

My cheeks on fire, the floor is very interesting as I rush towards my Sleeper. I’m not sure if it's a blessing or a curse that she doesn’t laugh at me this time. When I get to my bag I toss my uniform beside it and strip out of the combat suit, then reach for my only other set of clean clothes before I pause.

I-

Fuck, I should shower, huh?

I rush into the bathroom, just to find that there isn't even any shampoo put out. I consider asking someone further up in the train to send some back but then remember that Jun is literally in the hangar where I’d have to go to send the message. Fine! I guess??? I’ll just scrub really hard???

It takes me an uncomfortable amount of time to finish the shower and as raw as I feel afterwards I do not feel clean. Hopefully I got enough of the sweat off that I don’t reek. With not very much enthusiasm I change into a far too large tshirt that I totally didn’t steal and a pair of hip shorts that I actually stole.

When I get back into the hangar car, I find Jun sitting in front of the computer, her arms crossed, staring out of the window into the murky night. I pause to glance out to see what she’s looking at, but there’s nothing. Is she just deep in thought? Probably won’t be nice to disturb her…

With that though, I move over to the worktable and take a seat, trying to be quiet as I do. I pull out a sheet of paper and start folding, but about halfway through the process I nick my finger on an edge and hiss. I lick away the blood, then am about to go back to finishing my work when I jump as Jun says:

“That’s interesting, you can make paper flowers?”

My heart running twice as fast now, I look up at her standing above me, then back down at the flower. “Mhm.”

“Can you make me one?”

I hesitate, and she definitely notices as she quickly says, “You don’t have to, don’t feel pressured to.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t want to,” I explain, “it’s just that you only are supposed to give paper flowers to those that are about to go into a battle they’re likely to die in or are already gone.”

Well, that’s a half truth. There’s one more thing but mentioning it is definitely going to get me teased… So yeah, we’re just going to move on.

She hums, then steps over and takes a seat at the other end of the table. “I didn’t know that, I suppose I’ll have to wait then. Combat Engine culture is kind of wild for me to look in on from the outside.”

I go back to folding. “I mean, beyond the obvious fear of pain and dying horribly, why avoid becoming a Mecha pilot? What got you into engineering work?”

“Er.” She reaches up to scratch the back of her head a bit awkwardly. “To be honest, it was to spite my mom.”

Momentarily I pause. “I can’t really imagine something like that, how did that come about?”

Jun chuckles nervously. “Well, for one thing she really didn’t like that I was queer. So, when she told me that engineering was a man’s job when I was like 14, one thing kind of lead to another?”

“Ah.” I slowly nod. “I kinda hadn’t considered the rebellious teen angle.”

“To be fair, it helped that the power I got from Ignition was so minor. I was told it couldn’t be used for combat so this was the natural next step.”

I sigh as I look at the now completed flower. I reach up and put it above my ear. That makes me pause though. Didn’t I already have one there? What happened to it? It wasn’t there when I took a shower…

Wait, right, we were talking. I look down to find Jun leaning on a hand, staring at me. My cheeks begin to heat again a bit and I idly begin to wring my hands. “W-What is it?”

“You.” She moves her jaw back and forth. “How can you be so freaking cute, yet terrify me every time you move?”

I blink, then absentmindedly whisper,  “Huh, that’s a first.”

“That someone calls you cute?” She scoffs. “Everyone is crazy.”

“N-No!” I try very hard to ignore the flames in my face. “I’m talking about the terrifying every time I move part!”

“What, did people not look at you? It’s not that bad when you’re still, but it definitely gets worse whenever you move. That’s your power right? The fear?”

I nod. “I guess I’ve just never had it described to me like that before? Maybe I leak more DE when I move so the effect gets slightly stronger?”

She hesitates, then slowly states, “Honestly, I’m not even sure it’s actually fear, Minea.”

“Hweh?” I raise an eyebrow. “No, it definitely is. There’s no other way to describe it.”

“I dunno, it kinda seems like what people say happens whenever a really strong Engine uses their boost? There’s that natural intimidation that they put off.”

Shaking my head, I sigh. “That’s just a myth Jun, they would have warned me about it otherwise. There’s no way that they’d just leave us out to dry like that when it’s a real potential threat to a combat Engine.”

Jun shrugs. “I dunno, just sharing my thoughts. The fear thing is just something that I think is impossible to avoid when coming into contact with you.”

Pinching my forehead, I close my eyes. “Y’know you just infected me with a mind worm right? I’m never going to be able to stop wondering if I’m just missing something about my power.”

She winces. “Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. It gives me something to explore on my power front beyond ‘ooga booga I’m scary, woo’.”

Jun’s giggle is like a bell. “Well, I suppose I’m fine with that.”

For a few awkward moments after that, we sit there, until an accursed yawn rises and I remember I’m fucking exhausted. She definitely notices too, since she gets a warm smile on her face before saying,  “I suppose I should dip, so you can get some sleep.”

I nod, mid-second yawn. “It was nice meeting you, Jun, really.”

She stands up as she says, “Same to you, girly. Hope you sleep well.”

As she puts a hand on the door, she pauses, then looks back at me. “If you ever want a little fun by the way, dm me. I’d love to feel what being terrified of the person I’m going down on feels like.”

My jaw drops as she steps out of view, and I stare at the space where she just was. I deflate, covering my head with my arms.

“aaaaaAAAAAAAAHH!!!”

I was right.

Jun is going to be a problem.

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