Pay Day

The next day R.C. went directly to Mr. Pipp's office. He barged in without knocking.

"I'm here for the console, old man."

"Ah, yes. Good morning R.C.. I actually have it right here."

The console sat right on Pipp's desk. R.C. picked it up and tucked it under his arm.

"Pleasure doing business with you." He said.

"I have to say your performance last night was something. I don't think I ever have seen someone take down an entire building just to kill a single C.A.N.."

"Well, that's because that was revenge."

"Oh I see. Well there are some new bounties that were just posted. I think they would be perfect for you."

"Nah I'm good. I got what I needed."

"But everyone here is talking about you. I think you could have a real promising career as a C.A.N. collector."

"Like I said, I'm good."

"Alright if that's what you want. If you change your mind let me know."

With that, R.C. left the office and made his way toward the exit. On his way out he ran into Codea.

"You know, I think you might be a sociopath." She said.

R.C. smirked.

"What makes you say that?"

"Isn't that obvious? You blew up my brother's van and knocked down an entire building. Not to mention you ran away and left me and Milo to fight that C.A.N.."

"You guys have car insurance and you just collected a good sized bounty. I'd say it all worked out just fine... Now if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to."

"Bu-"

R.C. arrogantly walked away before Codea could finish speaking. He was off to pay his debt.

...

R.C. was back towards the slum district, closer to where he lived. He was standing outside of a rundown looking brick building.

As he walked through the entrance, he was greeted by a few thugs.

"R.C.? I haven't seen you in a while." One of them said.

"Is Peligrino here? I have something to deliver to him."

"Yeah, he's just hanging out upstairs."

R.C. went up the unkept filthy staircase to the next floor. There, Peligrino was alone, sitting on a couch watching the large flat screen T.V. mounted to the wall.

"Yo," R.C. said.

"Well well well, I didn't think I'd see you so soon."

"After our conversation. I got straight to work. So now that I held up my end of the bargain, I want that Neurochip disabled."

Peligrino got up and grabbed a device from the other room.

"Before I disable the chip, let me make sure this thing actually works."

He plugged the console into the T.V. and pressed the power button. The PS40 logo suddenly booted on the screen.

"Look at that! Monsieur Croix will be quite happy I'm sure. He was almost upset at the prospect that he may have to kill his favorite little errand boy."

Peligrino aggressively patted R.C. on the back. He waved the handheld metal detector device over R.C.'s neck. R.C. felt a slight stinging.

"Alright, it's disabled. So, how did you manage to get a hold of one of these so quickly? To be honest I was almost certain we were going to have to kill you."

R.C. opened his mouth, but nothing would come out. He wanted to brag about the ordeal he had been through the past week or so. It was as if his brain knew what it wanted to say, but his mouth wouldn't allow it.

Then he remembered when he first found the C.A.N. Collector's Union, the government agents injected him with an inhibitor chip that prevented him from talking about anything involving C.A.N.s.

"You okay?" Peligrino asked.

R.C. was frozen for a moment, but he managed to spit out,

"Yeah I'm good, let's just say I had a friend who happened to have a spare one he gave me."

There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Peligrino spoke.

"So are you looking to start doing some work for us again?"

"We'll see. I think I'm going to take a little bit of a break from working."

"Alright, but if Monsieur Croix asks for you, I would hope you wouldn't deny any work he gives you."

What Peligrino said seemed like a veiled threat. R.C. didn't really care though. He would deal with the Le Croix gang when that time came.

With that, he left and went back to his apartment complex. Before returning home though, he stopped by another vending machine that he could "borrow" from. He pocketed some change and went home.

He sat down at his kitchen table and pulled out an object from his pocket. It was round, metallic, and glowed green.

The night before he had pocketed one of the strange objects the El Dew-pra Cabra left all over the parking garage. He didn't entirely know why he snatched it, but something about it drew him to it.