Meeting the junklads boss

The morning was similarly peaceful actually. Despite me and the old man being the only ones there for breakfast there was actually nothing too interesting that happened between us.

It was almost parental the way he asked me to be careful when I left for the junkyard. Regardless I needed it and he appeared happy things were going well between us again. So my walk to the junkyard was far more bright than usual.

I was still lethargic and there wasn't any sort of smile on my face or anything but I wasn't dragging my feet or trying to avoid work. In my mind I was excited for the work ahead and that was all that mattered really.

So after a grav-tube hop and a wasteland skip I made my way to my home and prepared myself. First I checked my gear. I made sure that the preparations I made yesterday didn't go to waste and grabbed all the equipment I thought I'd need.

Picking up my knife and flashlight plus putting on the hover boots and double checking that all the equipment works. Once I was done with the equipment checks I went through the plan in my head. Essentially it's just a dash and grab.

Run past the guards and make a ruckus. Once that's done I just have to keep scanning and looking until I find the chips. Once I find the chips I grab as many as I can carry and run as fast as my legs can carry me to the nearest wall.

There won't be many people flying around the place so hopefully I can just vault the wall and run into the junkyard. After that I'll hide for a while or head home if I'm able and then I'll have my chips.

Easy to say but likely incredibly risky in reality. But I can't come up with anything better on short notice and I want this chip now so lets get into this. With my resolve renewed despite my expression not changing, I head out of my home and towards the junklad's headquarters.

Arriving at the headquarters of the junklads I find my renewed resolve shaken once more. The walls alone are rather intimidating. Being nearly 7x my own height they tower over me like mountains of metal. Despite knowing that it's only made of junk and hastily constructed I can't help but see them as something akin to castle walls.

Of course the walls aren't the only thing intimidating about the task in front of me. The guards look far more gruff and bulky than I would expect as well. They both have a good few feet on my own height and their well muscled physiques lend credence to the idea that they are the elites of the junklads.

Their expressions are stern even while chatting and making small talk their heads are constantly on a swivel not missing a beat. In fact they almost spotted me once already and I barely even got here. I am currently hiding among a pile of junk a good few hundred yards away from the walls and guards and yet they immediately turned in my direction the moment I made any sudden moves.

Their alertness is astounding really. If it was just that however then this would just be a more impressive version of the weapons depo. What really scares me is the occasional rustling of wind. Normally I'm not particularly bothered by a sudden cold breeze but this breeze carries a certain chill on it that isn't just about the cold.

The smell of fumes and chill in the air are a fairly good indicator of something I suspected before now. They have aerial defences here. Judging by how strong that smell is I can imagine they have a fair few amount of people floating around in the sky waiting like a bird of prey. Their hawk-like eyes ready to pounce on any little mouse below that catches their fancy. Or in my case any stray cat.

This gives me pause and I take a few moments to compose myself. While the defences themselves are not outside of the prediction I made earlier it is far more intimidating in person. Watching guards who don't get bored of their jobs has quite a presence in and of itself. So when those guards also have backup in the form of what are essentially hawks flying in the sky ready to gobble you up it takes quite a bit more courage than I expected to actually take on the challenge.

Nonetheless this is for my robot and I want it now so I have to do this. Taking a deep breath and suppressing that fear I ready myself and charge straight out from my hiding spot and towards the guards.

I see the confusion on their faces for just a moment but that quickly fades as they get into stances with their weapons. They don't appear to have lasers of their own which is a relief. Instead however the greeting at the front gate is a pair of sharp, bio-electric knvies. The arcs of electricity running across the blades dance and sparkle like little lightning spirits and would be beautiful if they weren't both gunning for my life.

I don't have the time to appreciate the knives beauty however, as one is currently approaching the location my neck is currently occupying. The wielder of that knife has an expressionless face as though killing a child is no uncommon occurrence for him and perhaps it's not.

Regardless my own safety is the most important at the moment and so using my small stature and flexibility gained from my race and constant training sessions I duck the man's swing and crawl between his legs faster than he appears to be able to follow.

The reason I say he could not follow me is because as I leave the guards at the gate behind they appear to have frozen in place. After a few seconds their heads once again go on a swivel even faster than before but find nothing leading to my whereabouts.

Likely realising their error they appear to panic which is a relief to me. Even these clearly well-trained guards appear to be panicking in this situation. That's a good sign if it means they will be slower to ring the alarm and alert the others to my presence.

I start busying myself with my objective however and scan my surroundings looking for anything that could lead me to the location of the chips and clues to where the guards are currently stationed. In hindsight perhaps entering a secure facility like this one without any information gathering beyond the bare minimum isn't such a good idea.

But I won't ever have to do this again if I succeed and if I fail I'll be too dead to care so I focus my attention on both scanning the piles of junk around me and looking for any signs as for where the processing chips may be.

After a good deal of running through winding corridors of metal I find what appears to be sign pointing down several similar corridors. The sign only has illegible writing on it however so I am going to have to trust my feline intuition on this one more than anything.

The corridors in front of me are split into 3 and each of them looks almost identical. The signs are obviously different but the writing is illegible and any meaning they once had is now lost so I can only guess at their function beforehand.

First I sniff the air. The smells that assault my nose in that moment however tell me immediately that my olfactory improvements as a feline will be of little use in this venture. First is the smell of rust. Followed by the overwhelming smell of fumes and metal. Finally there is a small nigh undetectable scent of body odour and sweat.

The last smell however is incredibly faint and comes from all of the different corridors so helps very little. My hearing is similarly useless as the echoes from these metal corridors mean that the only thing I can hear is my own breathing. Not helpful in this situation.

That changes in the next moment however as an alarm blares at a volume I find incredibly inhumane and I have to stop myself from letting out an incredibly pained scream. I immediately cover my ears with my hands and try my best to not focus on that particular sense.

It appears they've found me which means I don't have time to just sit here and debate with myself. Choosing purely on intuition I go down the furthest right corridor and just run at top speed still covering my ears.

The issue however is that now all of my senses that allowed me to sneak under their noses this entire time are rendered null and void. My hearing is utterly useless as the only thing I can hear is the alarm muffled by my hands and the dull ringing which is yet to subside from how glaringly loud it was.

Regardless I continue to run as I am already past the point of no return. My persistence does pay off in a way. For when I reach the end of the corridor I do find what I'm looking for. A pile of processing chips so large it appears to look down on me. These things are supposed to be rare and yet…

I see this large mound and my eyes follow the mound to it's zenith. In my eyes this is no less than a mountain of gold. It's that precious to me. Unfortunately however there is a reason it was gathered all in one place as I imagine the person sitting behind the mound on a raised platform may attest.

He appears to be sitting on a junk throne of sorts. The metal however appears as though it was polished to perfection and has improved upon what it once was. I see the reflection of my prized mound of processing chips on the thrones surface and it makes my eyes linger for a moment.

The thing that draws my eyes immediately from that sight however stops me in my place. For there is a man sitting on the throne of metal of course. It would appear uncomfortable from what I can see of the throne as it is made entirely from what would appear to be polished metal. Yet this man sits there casually as though the metal he is sitting on is no less comfortable than leather.

His physique would perhaps be the reason for this as even without my enhanced vision I would still be able to see his muscles straining against the fabric of his clothes. The clothes themselves are not particularly unique which perhaps makes him even more threatening than should they have been gaudy.

His top half consists only of a single pure black vest with no sleeves. The black is so dark it somewhat reminds me of mother's wings only this black appears to be far more sinister. Less reminiscent of a quiet night and more evocative of an absolute blackness that would swallow the world whole.

The lack of sleeves also shows me something that makes me gulp in perhaps fright or attraction. His arms are so muscular that I can see his veins straining against his skin. The defined muscles pull my eyes towards them like a black whole magnetising my gaze towards them even without my realising it.

Hefting my eyes with great difficulty away from that sight however and his face comes into view. Yet it disappoints me. For a gang leader his face is incredibly ordinary. Not particularly handsome nor intimidating. Without the muscles he would just look like some guy I see on the streets sometimes.

In fact I could almost mistake his facial features for a kind older brother next door. Obviously judging a book by it's cover isn't a good idea but don't leaders need a sort of intimidation factor. This guy just seems normal. Maybe his muscles do it but I just couldn't see it.

That is until I see the combination of his smile and his eyes. "Well, well. What have we here? A little kitty comes to the junkyard all on her lonesome. It's dangerous in these parts." His voice is soft yet barotone. One of those voices that would be good for ASMR or sending one to sleep. He almost reminds me of those people who read audiobooks that's how pleasant it feels to my ears.

Yet his voice sends a chill down my spine. Not the pleasant kind either. It's not the voice's fault because that is lovely to my ears. What worries me is his smile and those eyes. The eyes are an obsidian black not unlike his vest. In fact all the places that could be black are. Except his skin tone which seems white but not overly pale.

But black isn't a particularly uncommon colour around here. What sends that chill down my spine is the look in those eyes and the smile on his face. Looking into those eyes is like looking at an abyss. Cold, dark and bottomless. They suck you in and you feel like you just want to be pulled in. Yet you also feel like some part of you is screaming. Some part of you is saying that you're being dragged down by damned souls.

The smile only consolidates this idea. Gentle and neighbourly at first glance and perhaps the reason for my first mistaken impression. Yet look below the surface and that abyss once again rears it's ugly head. Staring for even a moment longer will cause that chill to go up my spine once more so I do what I was taught to do in situations where you can't look into someone's eyes.

I stare at his eyebrows and politely introduce myself. "This little kitty just wants to borrow some of your hoard. It'll scamper off on it's own soon enough." I say in a monotone not straying a single inch from his eyebrows with my eyes.

My comment gets a laugh from the abyss like man. His laugh is at first jovial and kind yet again if I listen close enough I feel myself being sucked into it's depths as though I belong there. Once again a chill goes up my spine but my expression and posture do not change.

"We can't have stray cats wondering in and stealing my precious hoard. Why that would incite an uprising of similar kittens would it not? I don't have enough to share I'm afraid." He speaks with a tone that sounds truly regretful. As though he is mourning at a funeral.

Well it was worth a shot I guess. I wanted to see if he'd just let me go but that's clearly not happening this time. I think through my options and a smile comes to my face naturally. Though as soon as it appears I push it back down. Though I may need it in a moment.