Consoulia Chronicles: Booting Up [~ read description]

Chapter 6: Cooperation

"I'm so bored! I wanna go home, already!" Stephanie shouted. It was a tone that was drawn out and bored, just like the young woman whom shaped her statement as such.

"Can it, would ya?" Ken had turned around swiftly to scold her, then looked in other directions before she would continue with a hushed voice. "We wouldn't have to come here if you didn't lose your experiment."

All of a sudden, her bored, distracted disposition turned to that of one with a more heated outlook, already on the defense. "My fault?" she glowered. "Iris is your experiment, dipshit."

Saying that had lit a spark in Ken's spirit. It took all of her willpower to keep herself from physically lashing out. "Maybe if you did your job and sedated her and didn't leave the keys so close to her, we'd still be sitting pretty." There it was; Stephanie had a certain vacancy in her eyes that could tell anyone that her defense had failed to show up. With that, she turned her nose up at her. 

"Bullshit." The more Stephanie trekked through her thoughts, the more she scrounged for any sort of defense. "Iris is smarter than we gave her credit for. Talk about developer oversight. Just admit that you're wrong."

"You're the one who's wrong here. I'm only in this mess because I just so happened to be in the room with you when you fucked up." 

"Are you here to get a promotion or bitch at me?" Stephanie bemoaned. 

Stephanie crossed her arms over the back of her head and looked around at the boulevard. Compared to earlier sights and vistas of empty shorelines, this was shoddy by comparison. She even tried to start a game of punch-buggy with Ken to pass the time, but none of it stuck after a few attempts to break up the monotony. 

Ken stopped, letting her colleague collide with her back. "Sorry, Steph, we just can't take any risks. Who knows what Iris could be doing now? Who knows what, I don't know, Helix, could be doing?" 

"At least we know they're not working together, otherwise Iris and Helix would be working together." Stephanie reassured. 

They were interrupted by footsteps indicative of multiple people approaching. Approaching the duo was a group standing behind a girl with her hands on her hips, smirking, and standing next to her was a male with a smaller stature who looked almost like her, but didn't have the same expression of self confidence. Instead, he shrunk behind the woman.

"Move it or lose it. We've somewhere to be." Ken approached them, but Stephanie held her back. "Hands off, punk." 

"Hey, you mentioned someone named Helix, eh? Did I hear right, y'all?"  The same female had spat on the pavement away from anyone before turning back to her gang. They all affirmed her answer. 

"Who's asking?" Ken scoffed. The gang advanced whilst Ken glanced at the accessories each member wore: collars. Thick, bulky, black collars with differing emblems in the very center. Ken smirked, showing her ID card. "You know, we're all on the same side. I think we can make a few arrangements." 

"You're really funny," the leader kept advancing as the rest of her gang stepped back. "If I didn't know any better, I thought you'd be here to take us back to your lab. Corporate Greed's got to be breathing down your backs trying to get us back." For as fierce as the gang looked, they exchanged worried glances at the mention of that name. 

"We'll tell him we didn't see you if you help us find Helix," Ken negotiated. "We all know how ruthless he can be when he's looking for resources." 

"Like when he destroyed our world? Why would we work with you two? Why not kill you two where you stand?" 

Ken couldn't find a defense. Stephanie sighed. "Well, looks like this is it. No promotion and no Iris. Too bad, really." 

"Hold on," the leader craned her head at Stephanie. "Iris? You mean that kid with the dress? Rainbow-esque aesthetic with her gaming system?" Her blood started to run cold; the man who looked similar to her held her arm. "That Iris? C'mon, let's talk elsewhere."