Spectrum

6.3: Green

Tears were streaming down the boy's face now, happy tears of joy and exhilaration. He never would have to worry about his parents, the bot, or anything else ever again. Granted, the machine did need to be fixed up slightly, seeing as its back had blown out in the laboratory accident that left him in a coma for six weeks. He had missed so much in that seemingly-short time period, and it took him about the same amount of time to readjust to his life. Therapy came next, seeing as he almost lost the ability to use his legs, and the scars were still on his side and shoulder from where he had to get stitches from the bot's advances. 

As his feet traveled up the stairs, leaping up them by taking many at a time, he thought about what this all meant. First, however, he would go see Luxa, a girl from the shop who had helped him get all the parts he needed for the bot to work correctly - she had been the one who had found him after GreEN had retreated into its corner, thinking that its target had been annihilated when instead it had just been knocked unconscious.  

The streets of the city he lived in were relatively clean at this time of day, but he knew that was because the sun hadn't gone down yet. Once that happened, all the drunkards crawled out of their dirty holes where they resided, shoved away during the day like rubbish shoved under a child's bed when he refuses to clean his room. They reek from alcohol, vomit, and other garbage that they amassed during the night. It was disgusting, and Micah wanted nothing to do with it. 

Luxa's garage was just a couple blocks down, providing him no reason to run like he did, but he was excited, absolutely ecstatic to tell her the good news, to tell her that GreEN was now up and almost fully functional. His feet leapt over the cracks in the sidewalk, past parked vehicles on the side of the road, and by various shops whose parlors were almost empty, seeing as the lunch hour had just finished, and every worker was returning to their office or position. 

"Mich!" the female's voice could barely be heard above the blaring guitar rifts that filled the space. Black hair popped up over the side of a large truck, bright leafy stained bangs falling into the girl's eyes, which were sparkling with excitement. "You got something for me this time? Something that isn't explosive or going to put you into a coma again?" The male chuckled at that, knowing that if anyone else had made that joke, he would have punched them in the face - but this was Luxa. She was different, and in more ways than one. 

"Actually, Lux, I have good news this time." Suddenly the music stopped around him, and he heard a wrench being tossed on the ground. Luxa suddenly popped up in the back of the truck, her feet in the bed and her eyes alert. Her dark clothing was stained and ripped, and her jeans were practically in pieces, miraculously holding together, much like her shoes. Micah smiled to himself slightly, shaking his head at the girl's curiosity and daunt. 

"Well, don't just stand there, spill!" She insisted, raising a pierced eyebrow at him and waving her hands animatedly. 

"GreEN works." The two words caused a smile to spread even further across the boy's face, and it caused the girl to jump out of the truck, run up to him, and punch him in the gut. He didn't flinch at the action, because even though it appeared that she had hit him hard, in reality she had barely grazed him - this was her strange way of appreciation. 

"No. Way. This had better not be a joke, Micah Purdy. Because if it is, I will drill a wrench into your skull. You have been working on that thing for too long to be joking with me about this. Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't just given up." Her voice was dead serious, but the look in her eyes told Micah that she was joking.