Rude Awakening

The next morning Codea and Milo returned to R.C.'s room. They entered with no regard for the fact he was still asleep.

Codea walked over to the sleeping R.C. and slapped him in the face to wake him up.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" R.C. exclaimed.

"Get up, Old Man Pipp has a lot to discuss with us today and I'm sick of waiting around for you." Codea said.

"That's great, but in case you haven't noticed I'm not exactly in shape to go anywhere. Why can't the old guy just come here?"

Milo waved his hand to get R.C.'s attention. He then pointed to the seat of the wheelchair he pushed into the room.

"No, I'm not going anywhere with you two."

Codea aggressively took her foot and kicked over the cot R.C. was laying on. He crashed to the floor.

"Are you trying to kill me!"

"Quit being a wimp and just shut up and get in the wheelchair." Codea said while nudging R.C. with her foot.

R.C. finally gave in not wanting to have to deal with Codea's abuse anymore. He got in the chair and Milo wheeled him out the door.

Pipp's office was just down the hall. Milo and Codea escorted R.C. over in the wheelchair.

They knocked on a wooden door and proceeded to enter a room.

Old Man Pipp sat at a very ordinary desk at the center of the room. There were two chairs set up in front of it.

Milo placed R.C. still in the wheelchair between the two chairs. Him and Codea then each took a seat in one of the chairs.

"I have to say R.C., you are recovering spectacularly fast." Pipp said.

Today he was wearing an orange vest and dress pants with a white shirt underneath. Rather than wearing his usual fedora, his grey hair was slicked back with pomade.

"I'd probably be recovering even faster if I didn't have these two psychopaths throwing me out of bed first thing in the morning."

"Well you wouldn't be like this in the first place if you weren't such an idiot." Codea responded.

Pipp laughed a bit. Then got a bit serious, "alright now that you are all here let's get down to business."

He looked directly at R.C..

"First of all, there's something I need to know R.C.. Why did you recklessly go after the El Dew-pra Cobra? When I first met you, you seemed to be desperate to make money quickly."

R.C. smirked, "That's because I do need money. I have to buy a PS40 by the end of the month."

The room suddenly got quiet. Everyone just stared at R.C. for a moment not sure how to respond to what they just heard.

Codea was the first to speak up, "what the hell? You nearly got yourself killed and dragged us all into it over a game console!"

"Wait a moment, Codea. Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. I'm sure R.C. has a perfectly good reason he needs that game console... hopefully." Pipp said muddering the last part under his breath.

"Yeah it's a bit of a long story, but basically here's what happened... For the past year or so I've been doing odd jobs for the Le Croix gang. I was pretty much an errand boy.

Last week there was a competition for a video game I happen to be really good at. The only issue is I don't have the new PS40 to play it on. At the time I was on decent terms with the leader of the Le Croix gang, Monsieur Croix. I convinced him to loan me his console and he agreed.

A couple days later, I was practicing in my apartment and I wasn't doing all that great. For whatever reason the servers were loaded with a bunch of campers. I kind of lost my temper... and I sort of accidentally... threw the game console out of my apartment window on the fifth floor.

As you can imagine Monsieur Croix wasn't exactly thrilled about me destroying his console and he sent his goons after me. They gave me thirty days to get a new PS40 and they injected me with a neurochip that will release a deadly toxin in my bloodstream if I try to leave the city.

And that's pretty much how I ended up in the situation I am now."

Codea was irritated.

"Are you kidding me! You have to be the stupidest person I've ever met! Why even get involved with a gang like that in the first place?"

"It's not like I really have a choice. I'm a S.C.R.A.P. so I can't exactly find regular employment."

"My brother and I are S.C.R.A.P.s too, but you don't see us joining a gang." Codea remarked.

R.C. Arrogantly laughed, "I get my work from a street gang. You get your's from a sketchy secret organization. Really, what's the difference?"

"Well at least our work isn't illegal!"

"Ha, don't make me laugh. If the work you do is so legal, then why the need to be so secretive?"

Old Man Pipp cut in, "okay, that's enough bickering from you two. We have other matters to discuss...

We're in a bit of trouble. When we drove the El Dew-pra Cobra off it ran into a populated area and a civilian captured a video of it. Luckily the video was really grainy and the media has pretty much written it off as a hoax, but my superiors still are not happy.

It seems like this particular C.A.N. is getting bolder around people. It's only a matter of time until something happens that the government can't cover up.

The C.A.N. Collector Union's board has decided to hold both R.C. and me personally responsible for anything that happens going forward with this C.A.N.. "

R.C. lashed out, "that's bullshit! Why is this my problem."

"I understand you may feel a certain way, but the Can Collector Union's board is made up of some of the most powerful people in this city. They have given you and I two options; we dispose of this C.A.N. quickly and discretely or we get sent to prison for the rest of our lives."

"Great, I'll add it to my list of debts." R.C. exclaimed sarcastically.

"I get why they'd want to punish this idiot, but why you? You were only acting out of good faith." Codea inquired.

"It doesn't matter, I'm the Union Boss. I'm responsible for everything that happens with everyone in the field in this organization."

Codea stared at R.C. for a moment with a look of disgust, "do you feel any remorse at all? You just dragged an innocent person into your mess."

R.C. laughed.

"all much as I'd like to be able to clean this all up myself. I'm not exactly in the shape to do that right now."

Codea wound up her fist and attempted to punch R.C.. Lucky for him her brother caught her fist and held her back from attacking him.

"Listen, I need you all to calm down for a moment and hear me out." Pipp spoke in a calm, diffusing manner.

"Fine, I'll listen," Codea said.

"So, R.C. what if I told you I could fix all your problems if you help me hunt this C.A.N.?"

"That sounds alright to me, but how am I supposed to do anything when I just had my guts sliced open?"

"I'll get to that in a moment. Now, Codea and Milo, I know you two don't really have to involve yourselves anymore in this, but you two are some of the most skilled collectors we have and I'd like your help. The bounty for the El Dew-pra Cobra is still valid, so I'll let you two collect it if we kill this thing."

Codea looked at Milo and Milo nodded at her.

"We'll help. That's a lot of money and we could really use it." Codea spoke on behalf of the two.

"As for you R.C., we just so happen to have a highly effective experimental stem cell treatment that the government has been letting us test. If you agree to help, I'll make sure you are administered. You should be fully healed in a couple days."

"I'm not going to object to that. If it is that effective, I'll take it. I still am not sure though how that fixes my other problem, especially since these two are getting all the bounty money."

"Don't worry. If we manage to hunt this thing, I'll make sure you get your game console."

"Fine, it's a deal then." R.C. finally agreed.

"Alright you'll start your treatments right away. When you're healed we'll deal with your training."

With that, everyone was on the same page. R.C. was wheeled out of the room to start his treatment.