Aren woke to a red-headed girl staring at his face.
After about a full minute of staring each other down, Aren simply said one word, "Hi."
The red-headed girl, seeming shocked at the fact that Aren could speak, jumped away from him and screamed, "You're alive! Yea!" She fist pumped the air, "Another score on the scoreboard for who? ME!" The girl then started doing a victory dance.
Aren tried to sit up but found the pain too much to handle, so he just pushed his weight along the wall until he was sitting with his back against the wall.
Aren looked at the girl, who was still dancing as if no one could see her, and noticed one of her arms wasn't real. Her right arm was made of metal, Aren took note that whoever this girl is was either a genious, a pyschopath, or somewhere in between. Even though this girl had saved his life, he still feared what thoughts went through her head.
The girl, who seemed to be done dancing for the moment, took out a device and began talking excitedly into it. After a few minutes of talking she must have ended the call, because she stopped talking into it and just stared at Aren.
"Uhhh... So.... What happened in the few hours I was out?"
The girl obtained a confused look on her face and asked, "You're not worried about if I'm an enemy or not?"
"An enemy would have left me for dead, right? If you really are an enemy, you can't be that bad if you healed me."
The girl shrugged, "That's true, I guess." She stuck out her metallic hand and said, "I'm Gaige."
Aren shook her hand, "I'm Aren."
"I know. You were moving with Mord, before your fight with Whiplash. I gotta say, it was a good fight. Until, y'know, he beat the holy living shit out of ya."
"Wait. How'd you see my fight with Whiplash?"
"We got cameras all over the place, mainly for defense in case one of the gangs attack. But they came in handy to know where you guys were. Thanks to those cams, we were able to get to you guys' location and bring you back here to open ya up and fix ya."
"Oh. Alright. Wait. Did you just say 'open ya up and fix ya'?"
"Yea. Why?"
Distressed, Arrid screamed, "YOU MESSED WITH MY INSIDES?"
Gaige giggled a little. "Relax, I didn't turn you into a bomb or anything. But now that I think about it, that'd been AWESOME!"
Aren let loose a sigh of relief, "So what did you actually do to me?'
"Well I handled you're insides, Maya handled your gimpy bits on the outside. I just modified your heart and lungs and reconstructed most of your internal organs."
"Well, damn."
"That's what I said when I saw you! Now, let's get the medical examination over with." Gaige scooted over on an office chair and lightly punched Aren in the stomach, "How're ya feelin'?"
Aren replied by barfing blood on her shoes.
"Great! Now I need new shoes. Your insides are going to be weak for a bit until you totally heal on your own. But besides that you look great!"
Aren responded with a voice that was barely more than a moan, "I don't feel great.."
Gaige shrugged, "That'll pass."
Aren shrugged and looked at Gaige, "What about those guys I was traveling with? Are they alright?"
Gaige grinned widly and said, "Yea. They got here safe a sound three days ago."
Aren smiled, "Good." A moment passed and Arrid's smile dropped from his face, "Wait a fucking second. Did you say three days ago?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I've been out cold for three days while you guys do surgeory on me, and you ask why!? Why didn't you tell me!?"
Gaige shrugged, "My bad, I forgot."
"YOU FORGOT!?"
"Yeah. I said my bad."
Aren sighed. This girl was a wackjob. But a smart wackjob.
"Where are my friends?"
"They should be here- Oh! Here they are now!"
The doors opened up to show Xak, Dezroi, and Elise all grouped together in the doorway.
"Heyyo!" Xak exclaimed as he pushed Dezroi and Elise in.
After Dezroi moved out of Xak's way Arrid noticed that basically most of Xak's left side was bandaged up.
"Xak what the hell happened to ya!?"
Xak looked down at himself, "Oh this?" He said using his right arm to point at the bandages, "When we got shot out of the sky I landed pretty badly. Broke my arm, a few ribs, and fractured my lower leg."
"Damn dude.."
"Eh, it's alright. Maya healed me up pretty well. She said I should be back to normal in no time."
"Good. What about you two?"
Dezroi nodded, "I'm alright."
Elise smiled, "It's great, Aren! Everyone is so nice, and it's true! Maya and Lilith have powers like us!"
Aren felt a smile creep up onto his face, "Really?"
"Yeah! Maya and Lilith!"
"I've got to meet these guys." Aren turned to Gaige, "Am I healthy enough to go?"
"If you can walk, be my guest."
Aren grinned and set his feet on the floor, he slowly put his weight onto his legs and slowly and carefully tried to walk. He stumbled a few times but was precariously keeping himself from falling down. And in this fashion, he followed the others.
They walked down until they came across a kind of large group of people seated on sofas and chairs and tables all across the room. Everyone suddenly became quiet and looked over at Aren. Aren began to feel a little nervous until Mordecai stood up and said, "'Aye, look who's back from the dead!"
Aren smiled and said, "Thanks man."
Mordecai put an arm around Aren and said, "Aren this is the gang. The human beefcake over there is Brick."
A mountain of a man looked over at Aren and nodded his head and said, "Hey there!"
"The short one over there is Salvador," Before Salvador could protest Mordecai went on, "The one breathing fire over there is Krieg."
Krieg looked at Aren and pointed his buzzaxe at him and said, "Blood, bloody, BLOOD! You're the blood man!"
Mordecai whispered in Aren's ear, "He saw you come in with all of y'er wounds." Mordecai went on to introduce the others, "The one in the black suit is Zero."
Zero nodded and said, "Salutations bro, I saw your fight with Whiplash, You were a badass."
Aren shook his head, "Did he just speak in haiku?"
Mordecai nodded, "Yep, he tends to do that. That guy over there working on his turret is Axton."
Axton stood up, walked over to Aren, and clapped him on the back and exclaimed, "How're ya doin' buddy!"
Aren groaned and punched Axton in the nuts, "Just about as good as you do right now."
Axton doubled over and groaned, "Fair enough."
Mordecai spoke up, "Okay.."
Aren said, "Where's Maya and Lilith?"
"Maya went to go rest, then she has to go help Tiny Tina with something. I dunno where Lilith is. She said she'd be her-"
A door to what looked like an office was kicked open and a woman with bright red hair and yellow eyes stormed in.
"Ah, Lilith, we were just talkin-"
Lilith pointed at Aren, "You. Follow me." She turned around and went back inside.
Aren shot an inquisitive look at Mordecai, who replied with only a shrug, went and followed Lilith into the office, where she was already seated on the other side of the desk.
"Sit down."
Aren sat down and thought to himself, What is her problem? I couldn't have done anything wrong yet.
"I'm gonna ask a question and I'm only gonna ask it once: What are you?"
