66 Back to Form

"Collective... Return ten percent of my emotions, please." he mentally asks, deciding to err on the side of caution and listen to his past self's inhibitions towards the nanites.

[Affirmative]

Like a jolt of electricity, everything rushes back to him, he sucks in a deep breath and squeezes his eyes shut, simply listening to his rapid heartbeats. This was ten percent...? How did he even survive earlier?

"Man... Christy... You really know how to break a guy's heart..." he mutters to himself, blinking some stray tears away.

...

"Status." he asks, wishing to know how much time he had left in the tank.

[8:23]

Almost a complete hour... He felt exhausted, yet not.

Letting out a long sigh, he just closes his eyes and waits for the time to be up, settling his nerves all the while.

*Pssch!*

The tank depressurizes and opens up, prompting him to get out and dress himself, eventually leaving the store after slapping his cheeks to psyche himself up to go back to the party where his friends were presumably waiting. He rubs the bridge of his nose, sighing at the soreness around his eyes that the nanites were trying to repair.

*Click!*

He steps into the private lounge and spots Bats, Judy, and Rebecca sitting at the bar, everyone else must've left already.

"Ori! You alright kid?" Bats asks him as he walks over and retakes his seat at the bar, cupping the drink he'd left earlier.

"Better now." he easily answers.

"You sure...?" Judy questions, staring intently and watching for anything that indicated otherwise.

He nods, "Yeah, all good... Can I have a drink? Don't matter what it is..."

Rebecca slides up next to him, hands anxiously pulling at her sleeves despite attempts to hide it. Huh, it's the jacket he'd bought her... How didn't he notice that earlier? "So, what's the plan? We gonna whack the bitch or what?"

Ori shakes his head, "No. Just forget about her, she doesn't matter."

"Fuck that! You mess with my choom you mess with me! It's personal now!"

"I said leave it." he says with more force this time, "I'm over it, there's no point in bothering with someone who doesn't matter."

...

"Eh, really? Really-really?... Huh, you're not usually this chill about things..." Rebecca remarks, her combative attitude vanishing as she sips at her drink. "I'm not gonna stop calling her a bitch though." she adds.

"She's a bitch so she deserves it. Nothing more than that though." he says before accepting the strange cocktail Judy had made for him.

"Bleeding Heart, basically a Bloody Mary with triple the vodka." she shrugs.

"Thanks..."

"So... About those tickets..." she starts, "What're you gonna do with them? If you don't wanna go and really wanna get back at her, why not just sell them? Have the greasiest, grossest, fattest fan of hers be there front seat to watch her." both she and Rebecca snickers at the thought, "That'd get the message across, and some Eddies. A pile if what I'm hearing about that concert is true."

"Yeah, let's see if we can find the most desperate stalker creep and send him! Oh! Tell him that bitch likes him too while you're at it!" Rebecca laughs.

"Huh. Thought you were gonna suggest strapping a bomb vest to them." Judy remarks, surprised.

"Eh, I didn't think it needed to be said. It's obvious isn't it?"

"Revenge plots aside, how about we leave the terrorism alone for now?" Bats states.

Rebecca folds her arms, "Why? Don't you think some payback is due?"

Bats shrugs, "Maybe, but it's up to Ori if he actually wants that."

Both of them turn towards him as he takes a long sip of his drink through the pink straw Judy included.

...

"Let's just move on to the gifts? I doubt he wants to hear any more about her after all this." Judy says as she pulls out something from her pocket and slides it to Ori.

"What is it...?" he asks, looking it over. It reminded him of a larger-than-average red dot sight.

"Custom Smart Scope, stick it on any weapon system and it'll work."

Ori crooks a brow at her, "Ain't this... Expensive...?"

She nods, "If you wanted to buy it, sure. But I made this one myself so we're good."

"Thanks..."

"You go next." Rebecca all but orders Bats.

"Eh? Why?"

"Because best is saved for last."

...

Bats shrugs and slides a shard to Ori, "I scoured everywhere I could for that, inside there's a dozen pictures of your parents and anything else about our family. Should have some pics of us with Cat too."

Ori keeps it in the palm of his hand, staring at it before quickly composing himself and hugging Bats, "I thought everything was burned... How'd you find it?"

"Backups hidden in private stores, found some of our old vehicles in some lots too which had pictures saved in their databases. Eman's old car had a bunch of them with you, your mother..." he trails off.

"His car?"

"Forget about it, didn't have enough to buy it so it got scrapped for parts. Lucky I got to it before then."

"Mou... How am I supposed to beat that?" Rebecca complains as she drops a paper bag onto the bar.

Bats smiles at her innocently, "You asked for it."

She eyes him with a glare before returning to her task, pulling out a black synth-leather jacket with a pink hood and inner lining (Looks like this but with pink inner fabric : shorturl.at/ditR8 ) "See! We match now!"

...

He takes it and looks it over, feeling the material it's made out of. Pretty high-quality stuff... Could probably take a low-calibre bullet or two too.

"W-we can get one for Six as well if you want, have the whole crew matching! Call ourselves... Er,-" she pauses, trying to think of something pink.

"The Baby Rats." Judy offers with a grin.

"The Pink Panthers?" Bats adds.

Rebecca just scowls at them, "Don't ruin the moment!"

"You come up with something then." Judy states.

...

"... No. Giving the crew a name is bad luck anyway!" Rebecca says, unwilling to admit she couldn't think of anything.

In the meantime Ori had slid the jacket on, finding it fit almost perfectly. It was a bit too big, but that was fine given he had room to grow, if not taller then wider. "Thanks 'Becca, it's great."

"Better than the other two?" she questions, leaning forwards on her seat.

"Let's not go that far." he peeks a smile at her pout.