Unwanted Heroes

chapter eight: an addition

"So...this is the VCC?" Shyama clarified, gesturing to the three tall buildings that sat upon a hill, towering over the train station that was nestled beneath it. 

"Yes it is, Mr. Joshi," the VCC's chaeuffer replied calmly. "Were you expecting something grander?"

Shyama shook his head. "I sort of expected something like a hospital. Something simpler, I guess," he admitted.

Sharmila's eyes flitted across the three buildings, squinting in the bright light reflected off of them. "So...what's in these buildings?" she asked.

"The first one's the administrative building," the driver explained. "Registration and the like."

He pointed his finger at the second building. "This is the rec center for veroes. Eating, exercising, cooking, you know, normal people things."

"Normal people things?" Shyama questioned.

The driver ignored him and pointed at the third and last building. "The dormitories and bathrooms. You know how that works," he finished his explanation, leading them to the first building. "That's just the gist of the buildings. I've never really been in there. Probably because they're dangerous."

"Who's dangerous?" Shyama asked.

"Y'know..." the driver gestured to the other buildings. "The veroes."

Something in his tone made Shyama shiver, like the word 'vero' was a curse word. "Has anything majorly bad happened there, then?" Shyama asked coldly.

"Well, not for years, but..."

"Then maybe they're--I mean, we're--  really not that dangerous at all," Shyama huffed, crossing his arms.

Sharmila winced inwardly and elbowed him lightly. "Hey, dweeb," she hissed at him, "be a little nicer, okay? He's probably scared to death every time he drives new people over."

"Why would he be scared of people like us?" Shyama whispered back defensively. "We're still human, right?"

Sharmila bit the inside of her mouth. Everyone seemed to think otherwise.

~•~•~

"And that concludes my proposition of suit redesign," Kem finalized, swiping down the holographic screen and turning to his friends, a proud expression on his face. "Any questions?"

Fin raised his hand. "Are there gonna be games on our watches this time around?" he asked.

Kem could feel his face burn as Mar and Al snickered. "That had better be a serious question, Fin," he huffed, crossing his arms.

"I am serious!" Fin protested, putting his hands up in defense. "I can't entertain myself with a century-old pinball game and free movies that are just as old as the pinball game!"

"Well, too bad, so sad. The Iron Giant and Toy Story are the only movies that I think are decent out of the bunch of crapsack movies I could download into the watches legally," Kem huffed.

"But I do agree. The pinball game is sad. I'll consider its deletion in two weeks' time," he added quickly.

"Aaww, I personally liked the pinball game," Al whined. "Please don't delete that for my watch."

"Screw the pinball game," Mar jumped in. "Let's talk about the grappling hook mechanism thingy."

Kem's expression immediately lit up. "Do you like it?" he asked excitedly. "It's only an idea, but I thought that since we might have a few newbies, it'll be harder for them to catch up to us so I thought that we could install a mechanism that could help them with that."