Gear Crash

Chapter 13

Hey guys, thanks for reading my new chapter! I hope you're enjoying Gearcrash so far! Unfortunately I'm in a pretty heavy writers block, but I'm hoping to overcome it soon! In the meantime, keep reading my dudes!

Simon walked into the storage room. Parts were strewn across the floor, boxes were littered all around, and Kyle sat in the center, rearranging pieces like a madman. He sighed.

"Dude, how long are you gonna be obsessed over Sophia? She betrayed us like four weeks ago. She's gone, dude."

"She's not, if I can get this fingerprint machine wor... CRAP!" Kyle had bolted his own finger to a block of metal.

"Dude. You need sleep. You've been working on this for at least thirty hours straight." Kyle ignored him, and pulled the bolt out of his finger.

"Pass me the healing salve before I pass out from blood loss." Simon shook his head.

"No." Kyle looked up in surprise.

"Do you want me to bleed out?"

"No, but I don't want you to continue working on this either."

"And how is me passing out supposed to stop me from working on my fingerprint scanner?" Kyle reached up and tried to grab the healing salve.

"Here's the deal. You go clean up, take a shower, get at least six hours of sleep, and I'll not only give you the salve, but I'll work on your stupid project when you're gone." Kyle considered this for a second.

"And why can't I just go get my own healing salve?" He asked quizzically.

"Because I've hid all of the bottles, and you won't be able to find anything to heal your finger." Kyle sighed. Simon could be extremely stubborn when he wanted to.

"Fine. I'll take a break. But I don't want you touching anything. You'll just mess it up."

"Will do," Simon said. "Now let's go back to my apartment and get you cleaned up."

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Approximately ten hours later, Kyle returned to the lab. He walked into the lab, fresher and cleaner, where Simon sat on a beanbag chair, sipping an orange soda.

"See? Don't you feel better now that you aren't tired, hungry, and dirty?"

"The food was great, the sleep was nice, and thank you. can I have my healing salve now?" Simon tossed the bottle over to Kyle. He rubbed it on his finger, and smoothed the wound over. It turned from a black and blue blister to a more gentle pink. "That's better. Anyway, I have to get back to my scanner." Simon smiled and got up from the beanbag chair.

"Actually," He said, pulling out a box from behind his back, "I think I have that covered." He handed it to Kyle. Kyle opened it up, then stared.

"OH MY GOD, I LOVE YOU." The fingerprint scanner had been completely finished. It now lay in once piece in the middle of Kyle's hand. Simon smiled.

"Well, I know how much she meant to you, so why not track her down. This way I get to find her and whack her in the head." Kyle grinned.

"Let's go get her fingerprints!" He ran into the garage and, after shoving things out of the way for a couple of minutes, came back with a large computer set. "This was the station that she worked at when I was here. Let's scan it and see what we get."

"The fact that you know exactly where here fingerprints are is slightly concerning, but let's." Kyle waved the scanner over the computer. The scanner beeped, then registered three different fingerprints. One of them was Kyle's, a second was Simon's. "This last one must be Sophia's. How are we going to use this to find her again?"

"There's a computer program created by the CIA called Over-Fly. It lets you use someone's fingerprints to search through a library of records and find out data. Data like where they live."

"So the government has been watching us all along? I knew it! Also, where'd you get a government program?"

"Soph showed it to me." Kyle ran back into the lab's control room, and logged into the computer. He booted up Over-Fly, then scanned the fingerprint and ran it into the program. "Alright, here's her data. Went to school in Bradsville, graduated from University of Maryland blah blah blah, alright, here! Her address is 211 Frosty Lane. Let's go!" Kyle ran out of the room with surprising energy, with Simon following him, smiling.

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"You sure this is the place?" Kyle asked. They were in Simon's car, driving down the street. Kyle looked around. It looked like a warzone. There was trash spilled all over the roads, the houses were tattooed with graffiti, and he could see little drug needles in the sidewalk cracks.

"Never thought a place like this would be called Frosty Lane, huh?" Simon quipped, as he pulled over onto the side of a street. "Here we go. 211 Frosty Lane." The duo walked up to the door, and Kyle rang the bell. They waited a couple seconds, and nothing happened. "Maybe she's not here right now." Simon suggested. Kyle knocked on the door loudly.

Suddenly, they heard a loud screaming noise coming from inside the house, followed by a . Simon and Kyle exchanged a look. Kyle got out his robot suit, and Simon pulled out his tranquilizer. Kyle kicked the door open. The house was a complete mess, with bookshelves knocked over, shards of glass on the floor, and... was that a blood trail?

"Simon," Kyle whispered, "There's a trail of blood leading to that door. You open it and I'll activate the shield." Simon nodded, and went toward the door. His hand tightened around the knob, and he sprung it open, then jumped out of the way and let Kyle get in front of him.
"Anyone in there?" Kyle called. His voice echoed into the room.
"Turn on the light, I can't see anything" Simon said. Kyle flipped the switch, and gasped.
In the center of the room, Sophia sat, with her back turned to the wall. Her fedora was torn to pieces and was on the ground. She was soaked, from head to toe, in blood.
"S-Sophia?" Kyle called. She turned around. Kyle could see the fatigue in her eyes, looking like she hadn't sleep in years.
"Run." she whispered, then collapsed to the ground.
That's when the lights went out.