Pharm. Ald
Haa…Haa…Haa…Jace panted as he made his way into the shipyard.
The noxious scent that dominated the airspace couldn't have made the experience any more worse. With each breath, his eyes watered further in response, and his throat itched even worse still.
The 'Ship Yard' title was a very misleading title, for a bay that served no ship, but as a convenient waste point for a chain of AG-Tech Factories. A titian corp in the food industry.
The toxic nature of their waste does make one wonder what exactly they put in their paste and 3D-Meal Substrates, but that wasn't what Jace would want to wonder about at the moment.
He made his way to the pseudo-commercial X residential complex, constructed from repurposed shipping containers, that held the tenants of the shipyard.
Mostly creepers that used these accommodating spaces for both business and residence.
Climbing the staircase of steel to the third floor that housed Ald's Pharmacy was a test of grit as much as it was a test of just how much stress his already exhausted quads and tibs could handle.
[Bio Energy 27%| +10%Gain: Metabolic Process Accelerated]...Halo flashed, a consolation to Jace's effort.
He had jogged all the way here to cut travel time, but having the activity boost his recovery of Bio-energy was a very much appreciated surprise.
Krink!.....A grating metallic screech resounded as Ald's door slid open before he could knock.
"Howdy! My Man," the orc greeted, bringing his fist forward for a bump.
Jace bumped back, his mind flashing back to the earlier phase of their interactions, when the Orc used to pull him into a rib-crushing bear hug as a greeting, before he had lied that in his culture, fist bumps were superior to hugs, and the Orc accepted that as truth without questioning.
This was the event that set up the chain of developments that ended with Ald spending a lot more credits than he should have in their deals.
"How you holding up?" Ald asked.
"Barely."
…
"We'll get her back," Ald promised.
The sincerity in the spectacle-wearing, punk hair styled Orc's eye as he said those words, made Jace slap his bulging biceps with a grin.
"Yhh."
"What's with all the sweat?" Ald asked, barely feeling any sting from the bicep slap with how densely packed his muscles were.
"Had to run all the way here," Jace answered. "Trying to boost my metabolic activity," he added a misleading truth. Feeling a bit too vulnerable with how lacking his credit balance was.
"Why?" Ald pushed further, aiding him to slump into a seat as he made his way in.
"Building up Bio-energy."
Ald looked at him weird, with those gentle eyes of his, that looked misplaced in the face of an Orc.
He molded his mouth to ask another why, but thought better of it.
"I'm guessing you hurt like shit, right now." He said instead.
"An understatement," Jace cheered in agreement as he leaned further into his seat. His eyes darting across the several fancy packs of expired and subpar drugs displayed all around Ald's store.
The orc had once mentioned to him, his desire to become a legal physician, but it was a thing very much easier said than achieved for a creeper…didn't stop Ald from running illegal fixes though.
"Pull the jacket off," a command from Ald reeled his attention in.
The bespectacled orc held a syringe filled with amber coloured fluid in between its fingers. A syringe that looked so comically tiny in his large hands.
"What's that?" Jace asked, skeptic of the development.
"Lacti-X," Ald mentioned. "It would help with the aches…accelerates breakdown of lactate."
"Good shi*," Jace praised as he enthusiastically removed his jacket.
"Hol'on the thought, until after the side effect hits."
"Side effect ?" Jace echoed, pausing mid jacket pull off.
"Water is essential for Lacti-X MOA. You have never loved water as you would once the thirst that Lacti-X induces hits."
"Thirst," Jace sneered as he pulled off his Jacket and exposed his right arm for inoculation.
Not minding how out of place the injection looked within Ald's large fingers, he handled the process with exceptional dexterity.
If Jace hadn't kept his entire eyes glued on the process, out of fear of a syringe snapping within his blood vessels, he wouldn't have known when the needle went in and out.
[Foreign Bio-Active Substance Detected]
Halo flashed
[Optimizing Bio-Active Interaction]...Jace glossed over the notification.
"I still haven't gotten any tangible intel from buddies I hit up," Ald said as he disposed of the syringe. "All they know is that this try-hard gang of goblins is a really mobile one; they are always on the move, robbing and moving on…that's how they avoid enforcer interest."
"Let me check in with some old buddies of mine, they would definitely have something."
"Don't bother," Jace notified Ald with a wave, already feeling his body aching less.
"I have their location."
"How?" Ald asked, shocked.
The Enforcer's disrespect came flashing back.
"Long story."
Ald didn't push further, he made his way to a door at the back section of his store and began unlocking.
Jace made to stand, but fell back in as the world danced in his vision.
"Don't stand yet," Ald spoke without turning. "That's some strong shit…give it some time."
Jace wasn't the advice-taking kind; he was more of a 'learn it the hard way kinda guy'. He stood again and landed face-first on the floor.
It stung like hell.
"Tol'ya," Ald said as he aided him to stand.
Jace didn't agree to sit down back, his head only made it all the way to Ald's chest, but that didn't stop the 6-foot-5 orc from serving as a crutch for his buddy as they made their way to the now unlocked door.
The first thing Jace noticed as he entered the space, was the several rows of shelves holding lab-grown plants, then the mini lab at the side. Before he could observe the space more. The thirst hit.
His throat felt as dry as crackers; he thirsted for anything liquid as beach sands thirsted for water in summer.
Ald was on it, before he even made mention of it.
The Orc handed him a one-gallon container of what must have been water.
Jace only began to question the taste after he gulped down the whole thing…it left this druggish aftertaste in his mouth, but Jace wasn't complaining.
"More!" He demanded.
"Endure," Ald consoled. "Any more will only worsen the stress your bladder will go through, with how often you will be relieving yourself soon."
This time, Jace humored Ald. He endured the thirst as much as he could.
It wasn't as intense as it had been earlier; that much was obvious.
He went back to observing. This was his first time beyond the store part of Ald's housing…his memories told him so.
He was pretty curious of what a creepers' living space looked like.
His curiosity morphed into something else the moment he sighted the pinkish suits hanging on a side of the wall.
The design was unique, with a black zipper running in the dead center of the suits, but with the googles affixed to the hood and the polythene nature of the pinkish material, Jace couldn't mistake what he was seeing, even if there was no accompanying nose mask.
"Hazamt Suits," he mumbled. "Ald, is this space toxic?" he asked amidst growing panic.
"Of course not," Ald said with displeasure. "Do I look dumb to you?"
"That stuff is for when I am on a project, I ain't working on nothing right now."
Jace let go of the 6-foot giant, and to his delight, his body didn't charge for the floor this time. The world didn't wobble as he made his way to the suits, admiring them better.
Ald went on to a new door, punching in codes and whatnot.
"I am guessing that's where the Apocalypse chest is," Jace said without turning.
Ald hummed in response, a smile playing at his mouth with the double protruding canine. Jace missed all that with his back turned to Ald.
Looking at the pinkish suit, Jace was beginning to recognize a quirk. He seemed to have developed a new appreciation for colourful stuff. That was unlike who he was before…another product of the merge.
Finally reining in his appreciation for the colourful nylon suits, Jace caught sight of new brightly coloured shit.
Five large gas cylinders with diverse colours ranging from something as shouty as pink all the way down to ashy gray.
"What's this?"
Ald paused his security protocol, that was taken a bit too long, and came over to see what Jace was asking about.
He didn't immediately give a reply when he arrived; he stared awkwardly at the coloured cylinders.
In all his memories of the Orc, Jace had never seen him awkward about anything; he was the kind that gave the impression of lacking the workings that enabled social anxiety.
"You don't have to elaborate," Jace clarified. The important stuff right now was Adea, not the gas cylinders.
"No…It's nothing much," Ald said, eyes on the floor. "It's just something I have been working on."
"Just some fumes…nothing impressive."
"Fumes," Jace asked, shocked. He had always seen Ald as the law-abiding type, not minding his weirdness with anything that kills; he never pictured that the Orc was hoping to break into the drug business.
Ald pointed to the pink cylinder, "That's the only one with good stuff…the others…I don't really know what to say about them."
"What kind of thing do they do?" Jace asked, trying to show appreciation to the inventor in his own way.
"The pink one, the good one," Ald Clarified. "Makes you feel real good, relaxes your muscles…really good for destressing."
"Yhh…that will be a hit for sure," Jace analyzed, already making some after plans for later, partnering with Ald wouldn't be such a bad deal. As long as they restricted their activity to low-tier districts, the Enforcers really didn't care.
"The blue one makes your neurons fire faster, your muscles respond faster," Jace's mind short-circuited.
"Causes random muscle spasms, though," Ald added. Jace's mind was still recovering from the possibilities to really register that extra disclaimer.
"The red one increases metabolic activity, constricts blood vessels, increases heart rate…It makes your muscles feel denser, making you a little bit stronger."
Jace's mind short-circuited a second time.
"Makes you really limp later though." Jace didn't care about that part.
"The purple one, overclocks your senses…really good for parties and you know what," Ald added with a smile.
Jace was certain Ald was implying something kinky, but that wasn't what his mind was simulating he could do with the drug.
"Makes your senses really hypersensitive to noises after, though."
"What about the ashy one?" Jace asked as Ald started turning back towards the door.
"Total failure that one," Ald responded. "It's turned out the opposite of the pink one."
"Gives you depression…just makes everything feel like shit."
"Good to know," Jace added after Ald, logging the new entry into his simulations.
An idea was coming alive already, an idea that involved the blue and red cylinders a lot. The purple one could come in handy, too.
"This damn door won't open," Ald mentioned, drawing his attention.
"Let me handle it," Jace said as he walked towards the door.
"With more time, you could refine the side effects, off the gases, right?" He asked the Orc as he caught up with him, his eyes bearing newfound admiration for his overexploited client.
"Not without losing a large degree of the effects."
"Nothing that goes against the natural comes without its own consequences," Ald continued. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
"Issac Newton," Jace whispered under his breath reflexively. His mind briefly foing to the AI in his head, what was its opposite reaction on him.
Ald, however, stood rooted on the spot. "How do you know that?" He asked, shocked.
"That's old science."
"Everyone is always more than what meets the eye," Jace confessed, making a note to resave the Ald's name with something that didn't involve stupid and ugly…but definitely weird.
Orcs shouldn't be this cool. Ald was definitely weird at that.
Bang! Bang!
Jace struck the door ruthlessly.
"How will doing that help ?!" Ald asked, panicking at the development.
Jace didn't reply; a young one like Ald wouldn't appreciate the fine art of 'Force-based Hard Boot', for malfunctioning technology.
Whirrrrr…The door groaned as it clicked open and jammed again.
Ald took lesson, he inserted his fingers in the tiny space that had slid open and put his overly abundant muscles to good use.
Jace thought the revelation of the fumes was shocking enough.
The just-opened room one-upped that ruthlessly.
The Apocalypse chest was no chest, it was one fu**ing hell of a room!!!