19The Mech Files: Chapter One
By:Prettysammy007
Author's Note: My story, my characters. NO TOUCHIE!
"Mmm hmm…" a teenage girl, who by the way, was somewhat dirty (motor oil spots were almost covering her face), somewhat tall, and had very thick golden hair tied back in a high pony tail, with strands sticking out to the side. "I hope that this will work…" she said as she observed a machine that she had obviously built herself. This girl's name was Rani, and she was a mechanical genius. The machine that she had built just now looked just like an ordinary metal box with a switch and a light bulb. No, this is not your ordinary science project, just see what happens.
"Now… Time for the ultimate test!" she held up her finger and hit the switch. Ducking for cover behind the nearby desk, she waited for an explosion. Instead, the light bulb on the top began to glow faintly, then finally shone to its full potential.
"YES! I AM A FRICKEN GENIUS!" she yelled and walked over to the candles lighting the room while wiping the oil off her face. Perhaps her place should be described a bit before continuing: First of all, Rani lived in an apartment building, which was practically deserted. It would be said that it was totally deserted, but Rani lived there. Also, all the electricity had been shut off in the building, so Rani had to light the apartment with candles. Speaking of which…
"Bye-bye, candles!" she sang and tossed them out the window as far as she could. "I have electricity now!" she danced to her song. "I have elec-tri-city!" I have elec-tri-city!" when there was a knock at the door.
"GO AWAY! I'M NOT OPEN!" she yelled. Suddenly, her stomach growled, and there was another knock at the door. "Okay, maybe I am open! You'd better have something good for payment!" she stomped over to her door and swung it open. Oh, and also: Rani owned her own business. She fixed people's machines in return for food. Now you know what she meant by the payment thing.
"Whadd'ya…" she frowned. There wasn't anyone there. "Hm?" she pondered who could have done this, when something appeared in the corner of her eye. There was a girl, sitting on the floor asleep. Rani growled in a low tone. "Wake up." She said. The girl didn't move. "Oi!" she yelled, and still, the girl did not respond. Rani got on her knees, eye-level with the girl. "WAKE UP!" she yelled as loud as she could. Nothing. Rani glared. She seemed a bit jealous at the girl's beauty. Long, shining black hair with two white bangs in front, pink outfit, complete with a short skirt and tall, white boots, and a very pale and pure face.
"I told you to wake up, NOW WAKE UP!" she gave the girl a hard poke on her right arm, which immediately fell off.
"Gah! I killed someone!" Rani wailed. She expected a large bloodstain on the old wooden floor, but instead found nothing but the girl's arm, with wires sticking out the top. "Wha… oh. It's an android." She said to herself. "THANK GOD!" Rani sighed with relief. "I may as well fix her." Said Rani, picking up the android with all her strength. To Rani's surprise, it was very light, and it flew up into the air. Rani panicked for a moment, then succeeded in catching the girl back in her arms. "Light…" she commented while she picked up the arm that was laying on the floor.
An hour had passed, and with the help of a welder, some electrical tape, and Rani's new machine, the android's arm was attached to her body again. Rani took off her welding mask and wiped the sweat off her forehead with her wrist.
"Now," she mumbled to herself. "There has to be a way to switch this thing on. " she lifted up the arms, looked on the bottom of the shoes, and pressed her nose, which resulted in nothing.
"Damn it." She cursed, pushing random places on the machine's back. She parted the hair in the back, and finally found a switch on the girls neck, with two buttons that were clearly labeled 'on' and 'off'. Rani hit the switch to the 'on' position, and watched what happened.
The girl slowly opened her bright green eyes, and opened her mouth to say something. Rani ducked for cover behind a desk on instinct.
"Model X9284 now online. Waiting for input command." She said in a low monotone voice. Rani peered from behind her desk and saw that nothing had happened.
"What did you say?" she asked.
"Model X9284 now online. Waiting for input command." She repeated.
"Hmm.." Rani smiled. "Again, I prevail as a genius!" she yelled. The android did nothing. "Now, I'm going to give you a different name. Mine's Rani, by the way."
"Collecting data: Rani. Command: Rename. Please state new name." Stated the android.
"I'm not going to call you X51 whatever…" Rani frowned. "Now, what was the name of that one girl… that girl that I used to play with… Narutu? No… um… Na-something…" she stared at the foot of a chair, then pounded her fist into her other hand. "Yes! Natsue! That will be your new name!"
"Rename: Natsue."
"Great…" Rani suddenly went into a trance. "Hey, I want you to do something for me." She suddenly dug into her pocket. "Read this." She pulled out a note with a strange language written on it and handed it to Natsue. She unfolded the note, and her eyes quickly scanned through it.
"I am sorry. I cannot read this to you. It is instructed on the note that you must read this yourself." She handed the note back to Rani.
"Damn it to Hell and back!" she cursed, and tears filled her eyes. Wiping them away and taking a deep breath, she said to Natsue "I want you to teach me how to read."
"A data recessitator needed for that command."
"A data what?"
"Data recessitator: also known to humans as a computer." Natsue said. Rani sighed.
"I've never even heard of one of those…" she said. "Can you tell me where to find one?"
"Searching: Computer stores…" Natsue said. Rani became confused for a moment. "Search complete. Four results found. The closest one is not even a mile away. You may purchase one there."
"Great!" Rani started for the door. "Let's go!"
"Wait. Cardonians are required to purchase a data recessitator." Natsue said.
"Cardo…nians?" Rani asked.
"Yes."
"You mean this stuff?" Rani pulled a rather large box out from behind the desk and opened it. It was filled almost to the top with paper bills. "I've always wondered what this was."
Natsue looked at the box. "This will be a sufficient amount for a data recessitator." She pulled out six one-hundred Cardonian bills and five one Cardonian bills from the box and handed them to Rani.
"Ah, so that's what they meant by 'Here you go Rani, here's your payment and a little something extra…' I'm glad I saved those Cardio-whatever things." She said and walked out the door, followed by Natsue. "Hey, were do you think you're going?"
"With you. You must know the location of the data recessitator store."
"Oh yeah." Rani stopped. "Well, let's get going before it gets dark.
"The current time is 11:38, it will not get dark for seven hours and three minutes."
"Oh shut up." Rani commented as she walked down the stairs and out of the apartment building. Natsue came out behind her. "Which way?"
"This way." She walked ahead of Rani, who followed. A moment of silence passed.
"Are we going to be there soon?"
"At the rate we are walking and the distance of the store from our current location, it will take five minutes."
"…" Rani didn't know what to say. They walked in silence for a bit more. "Now how long?"
"Three minutes, twelve seconds." And a bit more silence.
"Now?"
"Two minutes, thirty-six seconds."
"I don't think I can stand you for another two-minutes and thirty-six seconds."
"You don't have to, we will arrive at our destination in two-minutes and twenty-four seconds." Natsue said, continuing to walk. Rani growled. Two minutes and twenty-two seconds passed, and they were where they wanted to be: Dan's Computer Castle. "We are here."
"So this is it?" Rani asked, admiring the poorly hung banners and cheap castle props. "I've never seen anything like this! This is so cool!"
"Please follow me." Natsue walked into the store, where she was automatically greeted by a balding fat man.
"Welcome, little lady! My name is Dan!" he said, sweat dripping down his face.
"Collecting data: Dan."
"Uh…" Dan didn't know what to say.
"Don't mind her." Rani commented, walking in after Natsue.
"Ah, and you must be with the little lady here,"
"So you're saying that I'm not little?" Rani asked with a threatening tone.
"No! No! You're little, little lady!"
"Oh! Now you're saying I'm shrimpy!" Rani clenched her fist.
"No, you're just fine!" Dan began to sweat even more than he already was.
"Good. Now, gimmie one of those compooper things." Rani demanded.
"So, you're here to buy a computer? Right this way, ladies…" he said, winking at Natsue. Rani glared at him with suspicion. They followed Dan to an older looking model. "Top of the line, very cheap! I highly recommend this one!"
] "Rani," Natsue turned to her companion. "Please purchase a connector cable. There is one right next to you."
"You mean this?" Rani held up a mouse.
"No, to the left of that."
"Okay, hold on… lefty loosy, righty tighty…" she mimed inserting a screw with an imaginary screwdriver, and picked up the connector cable. "This thing?"
"Yes, now pay the man."
"How much of these things do I give him?" Rani held out some bills.
"Three of the ones that have the number one on them."
"Uh…"
"Here… miss." Dan was careful with his words, not to make Rani angry again. He picked three of the hundred Cardonians from Rani's hand.
"That is not correct." Natsue commented.
"…Yes it is."
"No. You took three hundred Cardonians."
"Uh, that's how much it costs, duh." Dan began to sweat again.
"It clearly states on the package that it is three one Cardonian bills."
"That means three-hundred."
"Look, whatever you're name is…" Rani took a step forward. "We're going to pay only three of these thingies. You're not going to rip us off, and I'm going to count on that." She pulled out a wrench from inside her green vest. "Besides, I think you're lying. You're sweating like a pig… whatever that means."
"Fine!" Dan gave the bills to Natsue.
"You'd better handle the money issues." Rani handed the rest of the Cardonians over to Natsue as well.
"Rani, open the package, please." Natsue said. Rani did as instructed and handed the cord over to the android, who rolled up her left sleeve. There was a plug on her forearm, in which she inserted the cord and the other into the back of the computer. She then turned it on, and it began to run slowly. Dan looked surprise
"Analyzing data… please wait." Natsue's bright eyes lost all their luster as the data ran through her system. Dan jumped back.
"I…is she possessed?" he asked in a nervous voice. Rani smirked.
"Analyze completed. This system was made in 2163… seven years ago. I have also concluded that it is a used system. There are old data files from when it was last used." Reported Natsue. Dan wiped the sweat off his brow.
"Well… um…"
"This one appears to be newer." Natsue automatically walked to a cleaner looking computer.
"That one is used. Very old. I just cleaned it up a little… you don't want that one." Dan said.
"Really? You wouldn't be LYING… would you?" Rani asked, wrench in hand.
"…Okay! I'm lying!" Dan yelled. "You can have that one."
"We will purchase this data recessitator." Natsue handed the sweaty salesman five one-hundred Cardonians.
"Thank you for choosing…Dan's Computer Castle as your… computer… thing…" Dan said nervously as Rani gave him another evil glare as she went to pick up the box with the computer in it. She struggled a little as she lifted it from the bottom shelf below the sample computer.
"Please allow me to assist you." Natsue bent down to help Rani, when suddenly, Dan slapped Natsue's butt lightly. Rani saw this and dropped the computer. Natsue took her fingers out from underneath just in time for them not to be crushed.
"Did you just slap her where I think you just slapped her?!"
"N-no."
"Really! Then my eyes must have been playing tricks on me! I thought I saw you slap her on the ass, you stupid-assed pervert!"
"Collecting data: pervert."
"I.. didn't?" Dan tried to say. Rani growled loudly and picked up another computer box and held it over her head.
"NOW DID YOU?!"
"Yes! Yes I did!" Dan sobbed. "I'm a stupid old perverted man! Please don't hurt me!"
"Good. Telling the truth never hurt anyone, did it?" Rani set the box down on the floor and went to the one that she purchased. Both she and Natsue picked it up simultaneously and began to walk out the store past Dan when he patted her butt again and held out a business card.
"Call me." He said in a low voice. Rani heard this again and set the box down. She yelled as she picked up the computer box from earlier and hurled it at Dan. He watched in a daze as the two girls left the store, both of them carrying the bulky box in both hands.
"I can't believe he did that to you!" Rani said. "What a perv…"
"Thank you Rani." Natsue said, emotionless as usual.
"No prob. Hey listen, when we get home, can you teach me how to read?"
"Yes." She said. They walked in silence the rest of the way. When getting home, Rani and Natsue set the box down by the Duck-and-Cover desk.
"Alright! Let's get this thing put together!" Rani declared and tore the box open with a lot of confidence and jubilance.
To be continued…