The Noodle Incident

It had been more than a handful of hours since the incident at the water facility at Voltham's east end, finally waking Izime realized he had forgotten the same damned thing a second time. Sitting up while rubbing at his chest, Izime quickly shelved the repeating nightmare, adding another thing to the list of things he'd forgotten. First to set an alarm, Cradle waking him well after those six hours for a snack of RAM, second was the light which was still on.

He'd forgotten to turn of the lights, wasting their battery brick, not a lot of it but still they were a precious resource. Thankfully Cradle had returned with the one from Crushers pack with a nearly full charge. Though that didn't matter nearly as much to Izime as his own empty stomach. The shakes he had woken with matched the grumbling protests from his gut as his body's battery was running truly empty.

The beans he had eaten a day ago had been wasted and before that it had been a meal of caloric-cubes which were not exactly sustaining but more familiar than this worlds food. It gave a bit of energy to burn, but as for nutrients a human really needed, well they were called caloric for a reason. Not quite as similar to the cubes he'd been raised on during his first run at life.

"At least I still get an auditory warning," Izime raised a brow while looking at Cradle who had escaped his stomach's rumble for the comparative silence of its nest. Glancing between Izime and his midsection repeatedly with a hint of worry reaching through their bond.

The sensation of hunger and a few other 'unnecessary processes' had been halted or replaced after completing his bond with Cradle. It probably had a bit to do with the parts that the bird had needed to replace to return him to a functioning state. That or those areas of the brain were being repurposed for the other added benefits such as info feeds. It was a bit of a return to familiarity for Izime honestly, though not good for the human body. The desire gone now Izime's body only yelled at him when it was running on fumes and needed the fuel.

Ignoring that led to shakes, those led to black outs, which would eventually lead to death of course. The whole combo had led to a issue of actually managing his diet and weight. The pounds just falling away for a while until Izime had gotten the hang of balancing the un-felt hunger and fullness, now it had somewhat stabled into spikes of binge eating. Though that in itself was a bit of an oxymoron as binge eating wasn't a real solution either just a bit healthier than starving completely.

"Food then I tear stuff down then," Izime glanced at his watches a bit surprised at how early it was still. Giving a more excited nod towards Cradle as he continued, "hell maybe a shower if we can find a nice shelter."

It was a good idea but it also required cash, something Izime had parted with in Centropolis leaving all his physical money with Wesson. That left accessing his off-earth accounts here on earth which was a bit complicated and of questionable legality. The Vidan Security Council didn't take kindly to off-worlder's toppling planetary economies and monitored such things. There were a few banks he could launder through but that would require moving some funds repeatedly. Izime got up, walking towards his box of potential solutions.

The first was basic human tech as there were some financial institutions in-the-know about such matters. Someone had to OK Blane and Jame's spending and directing of governmental assets in orbit. That meant some clerk somewhere had at least seen a check signed in Klorxian and knew what Sol Credits were. Let alone all the more back-alley options that existed for the likes of less heroic financial powerhouses, Lux Winthor had to be cutting his own deals as well. Each of those routes left digitally accesible options that could be made untraceable simply by washing the credits through several accounts into actual money.

"Let's see," Izime dug around in box full of scraps finally pulling out an older model smart phone, something with net access unlike his flip-open alarm. Izime deciding a nice cellular device would only tempt his bond into snacking on his mobile, "this should still be salvageable?"

Taking the battery in hand Izime held it out as Cradle flapped over and landed onto his arm. Carefully plucking the lithium battery up it flew back to its nest on the shelf. A tendril in its mouth reaching out to check the connections as a few streams of nanites slipped between the layers to check integrity. The tiny robots slipping through the tightly woven and wrapped ribbons of metal to inspect the seals around the oxygen reactive metal inside.

"Bad." Cradle tilted is head shaking it a bit in disappointment, croaking over the battery in its mouth. Tilting its head as it expected Izime's usual complaints to start coming in, Cradle never quite getting why some snacks weren't snacks at all.

"Is it reeeeally?" Izime crossed his arms not quite trusting the metal munching bird, knowing full well lithium ranked rather high on its menu. Cradle enjoying the apparently spicy alkali metal as it chewed away on it like gum, though really any rare elements were sought after by the bird. The time needed to create them counterproductive to just searching or occasionally stealing them, fabrication of such rare elements slated as an idle process to be accomplished in Cradle's downtime.

"Bad. Bad." Cradle gave the old silver rectangle a bit of a test charge through the connected tendril, smoke curling out from the edges. Cradle quickly snapped its beak closed and sheared a portion to let the battery vent before it could swell further. Black metal beak snapping several times as it quickly made the shredded silver disappear as the rest of the battery fell down.

"Bad Bad!" Cradle cawed a little less proudly, fluttering down to try and fan away the fumes that could harm its oxygen breathing family. The bird new it could repair any damage to Izime's form, but it was better to preserve the delicate lungs in him. A few stomps lefts a coating of nanites that would stop any potential fires, the raven fluttering a wiggling its tail proudly.

"Well shit." Izime rubbed at the back of his head, giving a halfhearted chuckle at Cradles tail wagging. The man knowing the greedy raven wasn't going to take well to his request, hence why'd he'd planned to do the transfer himself. "I need to get onto our account."

"Waste money." Cradle turned one eye towards Izime accusingly, the raven's instincts railing against the idea of parting with any of their hoard. It quickly recalling where the stack of money they'd once had disappeared to. "Wesson waste money."

Izime frowned a bit, not accepting the blame for giving away the money but it was something the two had discussed together. Though the raven had likely forgotten in its greed to keep its hoard. The relatively small bird having all the instincts of a fully grown dragon aside from the need to steal random princesses or bake cherry jubilee. Izime deciding to remind the raven on just why Wesson had been given the money by the two.

"Wesson has Shya, and you love Shya." Izime crossed his arms, doubling down on the familial emotions they held for the two as a reminder for his bond, "he needs to waste that money more than we do. We can shelter hop, Shya deserves better, we want Shya to have better."

"We love Shya!" Cradle hopped excitedly as it recalled exactly why Izime had gifted their physical funds away. As incredibly capable as the bird was in using its various sensors and abilities were, sometimes it forgot such simple things and got all upset for no reason, Izime was right as usual.

Cradle stopped hopping and returned to solving their earlier problem of money, physically creating their new card while pulling credits through the ether and running them through earth-based accounts. Plucking a feather and carefully nibbling. Cutting and adding bits of metal as it forged them a meal ticket that connected to Izime's off-world bank account. A few thousand slipped in by the dollar through various banks around the world, cleaned and taxed accordingly. The credits their assets had existed as cycling through various channels and denominations to pool together into their own earth-based debit card.

Carefully crafting an account that would never be detected, ensuring the two remained un-accosted by the universe's scariest predators: financial agencies. Staying hidden was their mutual rule and natural instinct for safety. Not only was Cradle a high value target being a creature born from the Father Hexagon. Something Izime had taught and warned the raven about, the various risks and unique individuals that might pursue it. There was the question of Izime.

Cradle had never questioned why even its own searches through records couldn't produce any history on Izime beyond some random street camera footage stored from years ago. The bird just going through the records and erasing the two without bothering to ask. Izime was a human and all humans had to come from earth at some point in their lineage. But there was no lineage, no history, no data, there was just the face it knew since birth.

That had led to more questions the curious raven could have asked, but there was something Cradle felt more than curiosity when it came to Izime. Cradle was happy, happy Izime had decided to make it exist at all, content in concluding the same things had happened to the other member in its Unkindness. Sometimes things just existed, the two of them were proof enough of that.

There were questions but it wasn't like the raven thought things were wrong, and Izime had never led it astray, ever. Its bond was right about some of the more complicated things, even right about Stupid Purple. He was right about good food, where to get money, where to trade things. Cradle stopped its idle process' ponderings as it gave the card a final once over before tilting its head to present to prize in its beak. This move should be alright too, nothing should go wrong because Izime knew what he was doing

"Awesome, so what sounds good?" Izime took the forged debit card from the bird, admiring the slick black and silvery magnetized strip, "Pizza, burgers, something boxy we can take back."

"Noodles." Cradle nodded its head as it considered the small boxes that the human wanted to eat for dinner, thinking of a bigger box, full of something stringy like tasty cables!

"Thinking vertically that's my bird." Izime nodded as he quickly pulled on his yellow jacket, carefully tucking his gasmask underneath before stopping and checking the fit. Giving a slight spin before hopelessly shaking his head. It was just too noticeable, the bulge making his coat poof out too far.

Snagging his guitar case, he shoved the mask down alongside the worn acoustic not caring as the metal rims around the eyes added a few new scratches on the back of the instrument. Nodding as the addition was much easier to hide now simply by wearing the guitar case as intended.

Finally considering taking a pistol because this was Voltham after all, shrugging Izime dug around inside of the box of junk. Snagging one of the more familiar 5.7mm standard Voltham issues he had lying in the box on the shelf. Voltham's street stompers liked to sling fast lead while the Detectives favored revolvers. Each being something Izime could appreciate though a bit laughable considering some of the things he'd seen those officers shooting at. Quickly checking that chamber was clear he rummaged until he found at least two full mags that fit, tossing them into his cargo pocket.

"Dinner for breakfast in Voltham it is," Izime nodded to his companion before raising his arm offering a lift out of the sewers, "you want a ride out or are you flying on your own?"

"S'wat I thought." Izime smiled as Cradle hopped onto his arm, a hologram projecting a view of the city from above. The view adjusting to a street angle of a few reference points around Voltham Cradle had selected for snapping to.

"Any close to a noodle joint and a shelter?" Izime smiled as the view quickly danced back out, the map moving and swirling. Cradle finally refreshing its image according to the latest info from the net and the new parameters.

"Random back alley..OK.." Izime smiled stiffly as he considered how many stories began with that particular backdrop. Preparing to snap out of the sewers and into Dark Nights origin story his hand stopped midair. Eyes glancing at the vest hanging off the side of the bed before turning back towards the gloomy mystery alley. "It is Voltham after all."

"Go?" Cradle asked as it watch Izime tugging at the vest he now had on under the hoodie, which was underneath the bright yellow raincoat, a bit confused as to why Izime hadn't just left.

The raven even more confused at the concept of wearing clothes and the reasoning behind the particular order of them. The entire concept was a bit weird sometimes, but it looked like now that Izime had finally redressed it was time for human food. Why bother with the undressing last night at all let alone stripping just to add another layer of down right now?

Cradle certainly didn't think about molting every year, maybe in a century or two it would consider having another go at it but the idea of wasting its precious metal feathers just to grow more sounded dumb.

"Yep, now we go." Izime smiled as he shouldered his guitar with its extra additions raising his hand once again, Cradle deciding instead that his shoulder made a better perch this time.

Giving the bird a half smirk Izime snapped his fingers sending the two of them to the pictured alley. Izime nodding in appreciation as Cradle transferred the information on the closest noodle joint to him. The information displaying through some mental means or by those nanites working some techno-wizardry.

"Give me a heads-up Cradle," Izime scratched lazily at the area where smooth beak became metallic black feather.

An affirmative clack and slight push of the bird's weight leaving was the only response Izime needed to hear. If anything went down, he knew added markers would be displayed and Cradles projected advice would be adjusted according to simulations the bird ran. A method they had developed for rougher escapes turned combat, now with the added benefit of hero icons!

Rolling his neck Izime felt a relieving pop as he started making his way out of the alley. Heavy soled boots easily kicking away Voltham's littered debris as Izime walked out onto the street. Casually glancing around while he walked, watching both the people and the little red line pass by. Stopping as the line flashed, watching the cars pass by as the Volthamite's passed on by or joined him in waiting.

The line towards the noodle joint in his mind finally glowing steadily again Izime started walking once more. Turning a final corner Izime glanced around at the complicated junction that had led to the design of those narrow triangular shop fronts. Looking up at the sign across the street, reading the wooden signboard through the steam and exhaust that mixed together from the sewers and passing cars: Ji'Meng Noodle.

Izime nodded and blended into the crowd that was already crossing the street along the route in his mind, glad the line hadn't started blinking when the crowd reached the second sidewalk. Carefully pulling his coat closed to not tempt any pickpockets Izime crossed the street a third time, finally arriving only to push at the pull door nearly slamming his face into the glass as it rattled.

"Fucking idiot." Izime rolled his eyes, stepping back to pull at the door. The sound of him hitting the door was apparently enough to draw the attention of the shops single employee who was looking at him a bit crossly.

"Not you dude." Izime carefully waved away his words not sure if the shop owner had heard him from outside but not wanting to cause trouble already. Though Izime figured it was more because of his appearance, maybe he should have stopped to shower in a shelter first. He was pretty dirty, not really smelly or anything just greasy from working and messing around in Voltham for two days straight.

"I know I saw. It was funny but you better be buying." The store owner nodded at the very roughly clad man that had just come in, gesturing towards the instrument on his back "I don't plan on bartering not even if it's a noodle per note."

"Take debit?" Izime held up the card in his hand happy he at least was given a chance to possibly order, entering the shop despite the warnings outside had been risk enough. Voltham wasn't exactly known for its kindness and here Izime was looking worse than the goons he'd seen last night, covered in grime and likely smelling like a machine shop.

"Do." With a nod the man gestured towards card reader on the counter, before pointing back towards to door, "But yo-"

"Eat outside I got it. Let me get three of the beef and noodle bowls, chili with extra sauce," Izime smiled softly, nodding along without a bit of surprise. He wasn't even bothering with being bothered. He had read the sign outside before entering that stated plainly no 'homeless/no loitering'. Instead, quickly stepping forward to order three sets of the pepper and beef lo-mein not wanting to waste the employee's time. "Can I sit here and wait, if not its fine."

"Yea it's no problem... I-shit man my bad." After the pleasant attitude and decent order size the noodle chef had nearly forgotten why Izime was asking, hanging his head apologetically. "I thought you'd ya know... smell, yell, and be all crazy and stuff. This is Voltham ya'know and we got some wackos I tell ya."

Glancing at the man the employee hoped the more pleasant of their customers not take the reaction personally.

"I get it man and no offense taken I know I'm rough looking." Izime waved away the apology, he had accepted this little role as soon as he had arrived. Staying outside a system that was going to ask far to many questions, just doing his own thing was far easier. "Thank you though, I really do appreciate being indoors."

Not been born, just dumped here in this fucked up wild world after the worse day ever. Literally the worst day ever, as there were few other days that could compare to the end of all sentient life in his old known universe. From then things had been really rough, now with Cradle and this whole life he was making? Here he was about to get some noodles, he had whole as tanks of toxin to sell and was even going to eat at a table! Maybe there was something to this actually living thing that did pay off sometimes... maybe someday he'd get to see Bell again and tell her all about it. The rest of those nerd would never belive it, but... no things weren't terrible at all.

Izime smiled at the noodle chef not minding the loud ring of the door as another customer entered throwing the door open rudely.