Chapter 11: Who I am

"... How do you know who I am?" Kassix woke up with a slight start, mumbling these worse. A bright light, the conversation between him and Allie, and the uncomfortable feeling of being observed had filled his dreams once he was able to get a proper rest. He reached down and fingered the box that was resting in his pocket, assuring himself that it was still there.

Dahr was still sound asleep in the other bed, and checking the PDA that had been placed for him, it was still the middle of the night. He sat up and rubbed his forehead deep in thought, before picking up the PDA again. "Amnesia causes and cures...Hmm..... Head and brain injuries- No, I don't remember waking up with any injuries baring a couple scrapes and scratches from the metal. Drugs, alcohol, trauma, or disease, ok but what would the cures for these be?"

"There seems to be a lot of fiction about curing amnesia with, like, blows or familiar objects, but it looks like actual cures are more of preventative measures and hoping it comes back. So I could sit here and wait, but who knows how long it might take, if at all?" Kassix took the Chimera box out of his pocket and pondered on it for few moments, "It also seems like my memory is far too good for me to just forget things like who I am. Could it have been erased? And if it were erased wouldn't it have had to be by whoever knew me before?"

"Agh, this is so frustrating! She really has me trapped doesn't she? I can't even go get help professionally because this is fake!" He was throwing his tattooed arm around while saying this, before he stopped and stared at the door. "If she knows who I am, maybe whoever at the address she gave me would know me as well. That could either be really bad, and they just want to get their hands on me or what they said is true, that they want to help me. Could I just run from the city?" He turned back to his PDA and looked into the process of leaving the city, and unfortunately found that it is all carefully documented. An ID check is required to get out legally, and it doesn't even seem feasible in the first place. There are pictures posted of the exit, showing a thick wilderness that seemed to be attempting to attack the entrance.

A further look into escaping the city revealed that if he did run, there was only dangerous wilds for thousands of miles before he could arrive at another city. Even if it wasn't ran by the same group here, there wasn't any information if they used the same ID system or not, leaving could just lead him to a similar situation, without the possible aid of Allie and their friends. Or even worse, it could just lead him to an early grave.

"Alright! Well, I don't feel like I'm a patient person, so to hell with it!" Dahr stirred at this, and sat up slightly to look over at Kassix.

"Kas? Are you okay?" He was still groggy, and was blinking one eye at a time.

"Yeah. Sorry for waking you, I'm gonna go out for a bit." Kassix picked up the card and slipped it into his pocket.

"Uh-Allllright." Dahr plopped back into bed, "be careful Kas." He passed back out almost as quick as he woke.

Kassix shook his head, thankful that Dahr wasn't the type of person to pry even more now. He'd get his answers from Allie, one way or another. He quickly left their room and went to the elevator to descend, while looking up the address that Allie gave him on his PDA. "Hmm, looks like a mechanist's workshop? That seems like an odd place for them to be sending me. Looks like they focus on building and restoring mech suits ranging from personal work mechs to combat sparing mechs, although they don't look like a store affiliated with the government. I wonder why-"

Ding!

Kassix stepped into the elevator while still reading and mumbling to himself. "Hey, Kassix right?" Kassix looked up to spot Kathryne smiling at him in full military-esque uniform.

"Oh, Kathryne right? I uh-" He looked down to see the same clothes he was wearing last time he saw her and just sighed. "Nice to see you again, heading out?" He opted to ignore the topic of his clothes, hoping she wouldn't bring it up.

"Yup, also, you can just call me Kate like I said before. Are you going to go buy some new clothes?" She smiled, figuring that he was embarrassed about being in the borrowed clothes.

"Yeah, I'd hoped to head out when there wouldn't be a lot of people out to avoid the weird looks, but it look's like I have bad luck and ran into someone who knows me. Are you heading to the school then?" He pointed up and down at her uniform. "You did mention you were going to the Peacekeeper academy, didn't know they had class this late."

"Actually, there's a member of the Specialty Unit arriving tonight at the nearby Peacekeeping office, I'm heading there in hopes of catching a glimpse of him! I presume you've heard of the Specialty Unit or SAU before, right?" Her eyes seemed to glow while getting on this topic, she looked like a fangirl off to meet her idol.

"I'm afraid I hadn't heard of them, who are they?" Kassix was glad that the topic changed away from himself, even if he didn't care about the Specialty unit or SAU or whatever it was.

"Well, they are an official task group made up of the best of the best. They are technically part of the Peacekeeper corps, but they exist more like a completely separate branch that presides next to, and over the Peacekeepers. They are mostly tasked with dealing with large scale issues within the city, such as terrorist attacks on the wall- those seem particularly more common lately don't they?- as well as dealing with large drug and trafficking rings- but at least those seem to be dying out as of late- not to mention the fact that they take down ninety-nine percent of the Naturals that break into the city to try and break down our way of life!" If she hadn't ran out of breath, Kassix was wondering if the amount of tasks they did would ever end.

"They seem like a particularly important bunch then, huh." The Naturals is what really caught Kassix's attention, Allie mentioned that he would be assumed part of a terrorist organization, but didn't specify who or what. Would those be what he would be taken as? If that's true, that would mean the SAU are the ones he really has to look out for, instead of the Peacekeepers.

"Their more than just *important*! They are mysterious, strong, and the only reason that the city can function as smoothly as it does with the amount of people living here! They stop people from being indiscriminately attacked just because they use cybernetics, and newsflash- that's just about everyone who lives in the city!" She really seemed to worship this SAU bunch.

"Wait, if they are the Specialty Unit, why is it the SAU and not SU?" The detail probably didn't matter, but at least it would stop her from worshiping them. At least he hoped it did.

"The A was dropped from their official name when their duties changed. They were the Specialty Attack Unit before, and they were tasked with seeking out and destroying any threats outside of the city. But since the wilds have gotten worse and worse over the years, their tasks changed from attacking to mostly defending, but the term SAU stuck since most people knew them by that name, and most of their gear was embellished with the SAU symbol and tag. So they merely changed the name to better suit the change in their position, but it was more symbolic than anything." She beamed from ear to ear, reciting off a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of the SAU.

*Ding*

"Oh, thank god." Kassix silently thanked any deity that would accept it, hoping he wouldn't be stuck listening to the deeds of the SAU for his future elevator trips. "Well, I've got shopping to do, and you've got an idol to meet right?" Without waiting for her response he stepped out and started walking.

"Mmm! See you later, Kassix!" She called and waved as she went in the other direction.

Kassix, finally escaping the clutches of other people, decided that he should, in fact, purchase some actual clothes before heading to this mechanist. He looked up the clothing stores, and found that there wasn't many commercial shopping or even entertainment on the first floor. He'd have to go to the second, and despite it costing a few credits, decided it was for the best.

He found an elevator and began ascending, and he ascended for a long while before finally reaching Floor Two. The Pit to Floor One was a drastic change. Floor One, which seemed like mostly factory-like work areas, cheap offices and living houses, was rife in advertisements for nutrient paste, cheap clothes, and even cheaper living spaces. Floor Two was a different world, immediately upon exiting the lightshow was phenomenal, there were ads everywhere, but this time they were videos, some playing audio, and some silent. There were people flooding the streets, but none of them seemed to be in too much of a hurry to get to where they were going. Doors to buildings were open with people streaming in and out, each person a vibrant assortment of colors from hair to clothes. Music was blasting out of the nearby bars, and people were shouting and being friendly with each other, and some were even performing on the streets under the light of the ads. Others watched the performers, and some even tossed credit chips into hats, boxes, and sometimes even metal cases.

"This is amazing!" Kassix opted to walk around to look for a clothing store and take in some of the sights. He didn't seem too out of place with his worn clothes, and people didn't give him weird or bad looks. In fact, some people stumbled out of bars who looked a similar fashion to him. "It wasn't exactly cheap to come up here, but just being here for a short time makes me want to stay!" Kassix strolled down the road until he found a clothing store and walked in. The store he happened to chose was filled with people, all in different sections. Some were shopping in skin-tight leather sections, while others perused sections with extra-stretchy material to cover the more bulky cybernetic areas they may have- and some that weren't so cybernetic. There was more clothes here than there was junk in the Deposit area, far more.

Kassix spent around an hour and a half, just looking through the clothes. He didn't know what kind of clothes he would have liked in the past, but he was going to pick something he liked now, something that he felt would match him. Before long, he had picked out a bright blue shirt, with a red leather jacket and black pants, he felt as if the extreme colors and patterns on some of the clothes was too much and just wanted something a bit more simple. The red leather jacket however, he had spotted while passing by the leather section and it seemed just perfect. It wasn't too tight to prevent him from moving, but it would definitely keep him warm and dry. To go with his outfit, he went and bought some very nice boots. His feet had been hurting for awhile now, walking around barefoot was not only uncomfortable, it was flat out dangerous.

With his clothes and boots picked out, he went up to the register to pay, and decided to ask the clerk a very important question, "Hey, do you know where I can get a hot shower?"

"Oh, yeah man, once you go out the door, take a left until you past the Cyber GF Café and then take a right, you should see one of them bathhouses there, even got one of them private rooms if you don't like the company." He answered his question while ringing him up, as if it was completely normal question to ask, which it turns out it was.

"Thanks! Have a good one!" Kassix was actually happy to hear that straight answer, he slipped on his boots and made his way to this bathhouse, ignoring the Café and heading straight for one of the private rooms. The hot shower gave him life, and he changed into his new clothes while discarding his old ones.

After looking at himself in the mirror he nodded once with a grin, "Alright, Allie and Co. Here I come."