The runner and the drifter

Contains mentions of alcohol and heavy language.

“I quit!” She spat out, droplets of beer and spit flying in the air as she finally snapped at the boy.

She could have honestly just kicked the kid out on his ass after even proposing the most stupid thing she had ever heard, but that would be too much and very uncalled for. If anything, it was just the itch to fight someone or something talking. She would have hoped by now that the voice inside her head would be dead.

"Sorry kid, but I'm no longer in the business." She said off-handedly, the initial wrath of her response now simering down. Her silver hand quickly pulled her black leather jacket from the chair. "You want something from me? Here's some advice then. Don't get entangled in it, unless you are strong or lucky enough to get out when everything goes south."

Putting some credits on the table, her still organic hand pointing to both hers and the boy's drinks to the bartender who only nodded in acknowledgement, she quickly made an attempt to leave the bar. Sadly that was all it was, an attempt.

The kid was fast on his feet, she'd give him that, and before she even knew it he was already standing between her and the most direct path to the door, effectively blocking her way as she still didn’t want to hurt the young boy. “Alright kid, now you are starting to piss me off. Move.”

“No!” The kid suddenly shouted back to her, surprising her for the second time in a row, and if only a few eyes were on them before, now all the patrons inside the dingy establishment were completely fixed on them. A variety of emotions could be seen plastered on each and everyone’s faces, all of them directed solely at the kid. A few offered some pitying looks, others seemed to express the fear the kid should be showing before her, while the most drunk amongst them watched in amusement.

But the kid remained unfazed, either by stupidity or bravery. She was still wondering which of them was. “I came all the way out here looking for the legendary Viper, not a drunk husk of my hero!” 

Silence reigned across the watering hole, and everyone just waited anxiously to be broken by the sound of flesh or metal hitting against flesh, perhaps even the snapping of a bone or two to come, but it never did. 

The woman, Viper, merely sized the kid up during this unbearable silence, weighing her options on what to do about him. A soft, defeated sigh parted her lips as she quickly put her jacket on, the early signs of a headache rearing their ugly heads as the numbness of the alcohol began to fade away. 

And in all that time the kid never shied his gaze from her, his young eyes carrying that same judgment she would see in that of her own father's. Meeting his gaze, she could already feel herself regret the following words. "Come, let me show you something."

That awkward silence between them followed them into the streets, only now the sounds of music, cheering drunks, and the whistling of bullet trains from above and below saved her from the painful monotony. For the first time, she thanked the excessive lifestyle the undercity of district White Sand had to offer.

"So, where are you from, kid?" Viper asked, trying to even out the playing field since everyone in the criminal underworld had heard of her back in the day.

"Site fourteen, district Whiskey." He answered without hesitation, and from the sound of it, he'd been honest too. Part of her would have wanted to tell the kid that honesty was a fast way to getting yourself killed on their side of the tracks but thought against it quickly enough. The kid had earned himself to be heard out after his little stunt at the bar, and now hearing how far he'd come it felt as if he earned it.

"A bit far from home, don't you think?" 

"Never felt like home to me…" the boy whispered almost immediately, and Viper could relate to the feeling. Perhaps her and the kid had a lot more in common than she would like to admit.

“But why risk everything just to come here? Why come looking for me?” She was aware just how arrogant she sounded, but it was the reason why they were in that moment. Something more had to be the reason why he was searching for her specifically.

“You are the best Runner there is in the world!”

“Was. I was, I’m retired now.” Viper hated snuffing out the sudden spark of enthusiasm that had finally broken through the uncomfortable atmosphere around them, especially now that she was starting to fall into the rhythm of a conversation that wasn’t influenced by drinks or just limited itself to being professional. "Still, that doesn't answer why a kid your age needs a Runner. Sure, if you need one I can pull a few strings for, pay for all of it myself just so you don't leave empty-handed." 

It was unlike her to show this much kindness to another person, and she very much doubted this softness was due to her age. Somehow she believed the reason why she was reaching out to this kid in any way possible through the means she knew was because he reminded her so much of her when she was that age. 

“No,” the kid said sincerely. “No, it has to be you. I can’t think of anyone else pulling this off other than the one and only Viper.” 

She’d be lying if hearing those words didn’t make her chest swell up with a warm feeling of pride and a faint smile crept upon her ever stoic face, but logic and reason had to quickly opaque that sentiment. She was retired, dammit, and she had barely escaped this life, coming back now was a death wish. No one is as lucky as they were their first time around, not even her. “And besides, I don’t think anyone else would be able to do this.”

For a third time in a single night, the kid caught her off guard. The kid was a surprising source of enigmas. For every answer he gave, more questions formed in her mind. What could he have that would be so valuable, so important? Whatever it was she thought the boy had in his possession, it sure as hell wasn’t what he pulled out from his worn bag.

All it had taken was a glimpse of that strange glow emanating from a small vial to know just how valuable, and how dangerous, his burden was. 

She could immediately feel a chance within her upon having the essence's influence unobstructed by its containment unit, how it was her being shuddered at the electric feel of power surging from it, even the metal and wires in her body reacted to this energy, grinding against her flesh in hopes to getting near of it. A feeling only Ether at its purest state could provoke on any Wired. 

“Oh, fuck.” Ether was a rare thing to find flowing in the streets, more so if it remained pure, but whatever this thing was had to be impossible, and now for some reason, the most powerful thing in the world was resting in some random kid’s hands.

Viper wasted no time on launching herself towards the kid, quickly pushing the vial back into the backpack with the same instinctive alarm she’d polished through years of escaping death, several voices in her head warning her about unseen dangers. She didn’t care for the strange looks sent their direction, how the world viewed her mattered very little when one’s life was at an imminent risk, one inadvertently brought by a kid who didn’t know any better.

Thousands of questions suddenly plagued her mind but she could not spare the time to seek answers to each and every one of them, not until her safety and that of the kid’s had been assured. By then, she hoped to know what to do with the mess destiny brought at her doorstep.

Eight good years of retirement had all gone down the drain in a fell swoop, thrusting her back into the raging fire where how long you got to live was measured in how quickly you could kill those in the same spot as you. Back then she might have managed, but now the weight of another life rested upon her shoulders and she sure as hell wasn’t planning on having it be cut short under her watch. 

But first they had to find a place to lay low and get out of the radar as soon as possible, from there she might have the luck of scraping a plan together. It was going to be a long night.