Azazel & Sawyer
*Knock Knock*
Sawyer stood outside the building listed in the ad, before a huge, painted metal door a good size-and-a-half bigger than he was used to. The building itself was also far bigger and in a public area, so he didn’t feel too worried about how lacking in details the ad was. At least, it didn’t seem like it was some sort of weird trap. Who would want to jump a mechanic anyway? He supposed his tools could go for a fair bit but they certainly weren’t worth mugging a guy for.
He considered himself for a moment. He felt he was fairly well built; good lean muscle from working with machinery for so many years, about average height but with a slim build, wearing boots, jeans and a non-descript shirt under a soft fuzz jacket for the chill weather and topped off with his out-and-about beany and glasses. He probably looked a fair bit bigger than he actually was but as far as defense went, it was a good deterrent. His tan side-bag of tools also probably added to the size factor a bit and could probably make for an interesting weapon. Not that he’d ever risk damaging such an expensive part of his own livelihood.
The ad itself simply stated that someone with mechanical knowledge and experience with high-end androids was needed for possibly recurring work. Pay for work and replacement parts was a given but not many more details were given besides an address and a name: Azazel no last name given. That, in and of itself, raised a red flag in his mind but the area listed he felt would be too public for anything illegal. Or so he hoped. Another flag that drew his attention was just how the ad was made; hand written, but looking as though it were written by a kindergartner with very good spelling. Whoever had written this looked as though they’d written it with their feet or some such.
Still, his interest was piqued and his wallet was small. So, he’d decided to check it out, first scouting out the area for the address itself, then the building in question, and then, finding nothing too out of the ordinary, worked up the guts to knock on the door to the flat. Thus, bringing us up to where the door slid open and Sawyer met his new employer face to face. So to say.
Standing just beyond the threshold of the door was an Android, bent over at the waist and holding the handle to the door in its mouth. Not sure how to proceed, Sawyer simply stared, mouth agape. The Android had a mask-like faceplate with three red eye-dots on each side and short black horns jutting out at the back amongst fluffy white hair. The android also seemed to be wearing a black bodysuit of some sort beneath a stylish brown half-vest. A short moment passed before the robot released the handle from its mouth, leaving a score on the handle from its metal teeth. It then stood to its impressive full height of what he guessed to be around nine feet tall, coming close to the top of the exaggerated doorway and looked down on him.
Another moment passed as the android seemed to size him up before it spoke. “Hello there! Are you here about the repair guy ad I put out?” It was then that he noticed just how feminine the android’s voice was and, dropping his gaze lower, just how accurate the voice was. Below the neck barely covered by the vest were two large globes of synth-flesh made out to be indistinguishable from breasts and below that, a fit and trim waist above shapely hips. All along its… Her legs and waist were armoring plates, apparently made of the same material that formed her faceplate.
“Hello?” The fem-droid queried again. He jumped slightly, realizing he’d been staring.
“Oh! Uh, yeah! I saw an ad posted with this address just down the way and I figured I’d check it out.” So far so good, he thought to himself. “If this is the right place then you wouldn’t happen to be this- “
She cut him off, excitement clear on her face even through her mask. “AZAZEL! YUP! That’s me! That means you must be a mechanic, right?” She bounced slightly, very happy for some reason… which became almost painfully obvious in the next moment. She lifted her arms into his view, or at least, half lifted them, because, with a shock he realized just how distracted he’d been; her arms had been badly, badly damaged to the point of being useless, dead weight. One arm was bent almost 90 degrees in the wrong direction and the other had the exo-layer completely removed, leaving the internal synth-flesh exposed with the alloy-bone peeking out beneath. “So, do you think you could handle fixing these for me, Mr.… uh…”
“Sawyer.” He replied numbly, still staring at the mangled limbs. He knew on a professional level that those arms weren’t real flesh and blood, but for some reason he couldn’t help but hesitate; maybe it was her bubbly attitude or just how seemingly uncaring she was of her predicament. Or maybe it was because he caught himself staring at her breasts while her broken arms were right beside them.
Thankfully, Azazel saved him from his thoughts. “Ah, Mr. Sawyer then. Err, you are a mechanic, right?”
He shifted his gaze again to her face again. “Oh! Y-yeah, I’m an android mechanic, vehicle experience too, somewhat. Several years practice and education.” He explained, shifting his tools in front of himself as proof.
“Oh, Thank goodness!” She didn’t seem to notice his tools at all. “It’s been a real problem running around with broken arms and no way to fix em,” she stood aside at this point, inviting him in. “Normally I can run a good enough patch job to keep things working but not with no arms.” As soon as Sawyer stepped in, Azazel shoved the door closed with a quick hip check and a lot of noise. “Normally the brass would have had someone to take care of this sort of thing but I guess wrecking myself on a weekly basis was a bit too much for them. Probably why they cut me off like that.”
His eyes were still adjusting to the dimmer indoor light as she finished, but something about what she said caught his attention. “Brass? You mean like, the military?” he prompted her, trying to learn more about her situation.
“Yup, I’m ex-military. Retired now though. Surprising for a mech, right? Living to retirement and all? Anyway, yeah. I lasted long enough, and now I’m living off pension. Got a nice place for it too, yea?”
Eyes now adjusted, he took in the room of the android lady he would be working for; mainly composed of a single, large, box-shaped room supported by several floor-to-ceiling I-beams, open space was the apparent theme for her living space along with “Spartan” being the furnishing. To one side was an open kitchen area with a long counter scattered with bits of paper and writing material. To the other side was an impressive spread of exercise equipment and free weights, as well as a well-worn punching dummy off in the corner. Smack dab in the open middle of the room was an entertainment center opposite a huge comfy couch, perfect for relaxing in while watching the huge-screen TV that was the centerpiece. Lastly to the back of the main room were three doors leading to what appeared to be sectioned off rooms. All in all, it was a fine bachelor pad for Azazel.
“Wait,” pondered Sawyer, “If you’re ex-military, then why don’t you have them fix you up? In fact, how did your arms get busted up in the first place? Aren’t military androids super tough?” A few other problems popped up in his mind but those seemed the most apparent at the moment.
“Err, yea. The answer to those questions are kinda related, ya’see.” She paused a beat as she leaned against the couch that he now noticed was scaled up to her size, suddenly giving him the impression that she would be twiddling her fingers now if she could. “Well, after I retired from the corps, I started looking around for things to do, odd jobs and hobbies and the like. Eventually, I found out about the Mech-Core fighting ring and thought it’d be a fun thing to get into. Yea, I got a bit busted up from time to time but for the most part, the corps took care of it with parts and repairs and stuff.” She paused again, seemingly having trouble sorting out what she would say next before settling with, “I guess they just got tired of having to fix me up over and over. Guess I can’t really blame em, really.”
“Sounds pretty rough.” Offered Sawyer.
“Oh, it’s not all that bad. Pension covers most of my living costs and whatever else the military still does give me helps with parts,” she twisted her shoulder to one side, gesturing to one of the doors he surmised. “Plus, there’s always the prize money from the bouts! That’s always nice.”
“Okay, so… you go to fights for… fun and profit, and you sometimes get ‘busted up’ as a result and need to get fixed up, but because you got ‘busted up’ one too many times the military cut you off so now you’re hiring a mechanic, me, to fix up your arms so you can get back to, what, more fights?”
“Mmm, yea. That’s about the gist of it!” She chirped happy to know he knew her situation. “So, do you think you can help?”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah, I believe I can. At least for the left arm. The right arm looks like its frame is completely totaled so it’s gonna need to be replaced and I don’t think I have any military-grade frames just lying around.” That much was true. Military grade parts tend to be rather expensive, but the rest of the work would be right up his alley. “The left arm just needs some reconnecting of the flexor plates and endo-restructuring for the rest of the subsurface. Add on a skin regraft and it should be good as new.” He finished with a nod and a mental pat on the back that he could keep his cool talking to an ex-military fem-droid.
“Oh, that’s wonderful! I think.” She began moving to the back of the room and towards the leftmost door, forcing Sawyer to follow as she continued with, “Oh, but don’t worry about the parts or anything. The military guys who came by to patch me up started leaving me extra parts and stuff here, rather than lugging them back and forth. Especially after the, uh, 12th or so time…” The door they now stood before was similar to the “Front door” in its size and construction but only about half as wide, giving it the appearance of a more typical house door, only scaled up.
They waited in front of the door, appreciating its myriad qualities for a good moment before Azazel gave a polite, slightly metallic, cough. “Uh, after you, if you would be so kind.”
“OH! R-r-right! Sorry! Heh.” He stammered as he lunged at the door in embarrassment. He gave the door a quick yank before immediately realizing it was, in fact, another sliding door like the first, redoubling his embarrassment.
Once he finally had the door opened, Azazel casually strolled ahead of him into the room he quickly realized was the most well-stocked workshop he had ever seen. All along the walls were an assortment of plates, parts, bits, bobs, screws, bolts, tools, clamps, an entire cooling section filled with synthetic digits and bundles, and across an entire wall, entire arms, legs and the digits of each. And absolutely all of it sized and fitted specifically for one android who now stood amongst it all, looking strangely embarrassed herself. “Well, welcome to my room of… well, Me!” She finished crookedly.
Sawyer felt like he had walked into an action movie; the kind of action movie where someone flips a switch and a wall or a bookcase disappears to reveal a treasure trove of weaponry and technology and gadgets. At the center of the room, lit by pale blue-white light was a large padded table with a small scattering of tools, bits and a pair of arms to the side. Some of the tools look chewed on.
“Wow,” he admired, walking over to the table. “I haven’t seen anything like this outside of the movies.” He carefully examined the tools and limbs on the table, trying to not look like a kid in a cadaver shop. “I guess you’ve tried some of the repairs yourself first, huh?”
Azazel shifted uneasily. “Yea… Who would have guessed fixing your arms with no arms would be so tough, right?” She moved to the other side of the table and brokenly gestured to the parts. “So, do you think this will be enough for the repair?”
“Honestly? All this would probably be enough to do a total rebuild of you several times over,” he said with mild amazement, before quickly amending, “N-not that that’s what you need, of course.” He scratched the embarrassed spot behind his head before finishing with, “Anyway, Yea, I can totally fix you up with all this,” he said, firmly nodding.
“Wonderful! That’s Great news! Do you mind if we start now?” She chirped, hopping onto the table and scattering several of the smaller parts.
“Right now?” he asked, taking a step back for space. “Uh, sure! I don’t mind. Let me just get my stuff together.” And with that, he set out his own tools on a clear spot on the table, careful not to mix his tools with hers.
Having all the pieces and extra limbs where he needed them made for a surprisingly speedy repair job; the left arm was salvageable so he simply cleared away the replacement she had (somehow) already brought out, while the right was easy enough to simply replace. The entire process still took around 2-3 hours, shifting and swapping all the internals of her left arm, calibrating them both to make sure everything was connected right and finally sealing them both up with a final check. Though the whole process might have been done faster had Azazel not kept giggling and complaining about being ticklish. Finally, Sawyer stood back to appreciate his handy work.
“All right then. So, how’s that feel?” he asked to the now fully functional ex-military android.
Azazel stood slowly from the table, shifting her shoulders and lifting her arms, slowly rotating both her forearms and wrists, flexing and extending her fingers, and making sure everything fit together perfectly. “It feels perfect.” She breathed slowly, “So much better than having to deal with noodle arms, at least.” She turned once more to the room’s wall mounted mirror, flexing her newly repair arms.
“Well, I’m glad you like it. Having all the parts and tools ready to hand was certainly an improvement on my normal working conditions.” He said, packing up his tools, still careful not to mix any of them up. “Okay. One last check, just to be sure everything’s in working order.” He unpacked his data-pad, bringing up the diagnostic tool and prepping the list for arms.
“Deltoid connection?”
“Check.”
“Coracobrachialis?”
“Check.”
“Pectoralis major?”
“Check.”
“Biceps Brachii?”
“Check.”
“Triceps?”
“Check.”
“Brachioradialis?”
“Check.”
“Extensor digitorum?”
“Check.”
“Flexor carpi ulnaris?”
“Check.”
Many more synthetic muscle groups and articulated joints were checked, tested and passed before both were satisfied and Sawyer nodded, packing away the data pad.
“OH! That reminds me!” She gasped, turning to him once more. “I still have to pay you! Is it alright if I just direct transfer the credits to your account?” She began moving past him, back to the main room.
“Of course, that’d be just fine.” He said, pulling the data-pad out once more with mild chagrin. The credits were quickly transferred, along with a tidy tip for the extra time the whole repair took, everything else was put away and the two of them made their way to the front door once more.
“Well miss Azazel, it’s been a pleasure working on you- with! With you! A pleasure working with you.” He quickly amended.
“Well Mr. Sawyer, it’s been a pleasure getting my arms functional again. Thank you again!” she replied, completely missing his flub.
He slid open the door once more, surprised by the setting sun and balking at just how much time had passed. “Ah, well. Good night then, I guess.” He finished lamely, stepping outside.
“And goodnight to you to! Take care, Mr. Sawyer!” and with that she gently closed her giant door.
An uneventful week passed for Sawyer; plenty of ordinary shop work with a few calls for field repair jobs and one interesting case where an older model service mech had been split in half yet remained completely functional but as two different units somehow. But besides that, it had been normal fair as far as android repair went.
It was just after Sawyer had finished another field repair job that he was headed back to the shop when he walked by a post board covered with ads and requests that one caught his eye, written in a familiarly sloppy style.
“Help Needed: High-End Android Repair Specialist, Parts And Tools Included, Good Pay, See Azazel At Address Below”
“Same address too,” He mumbled under his breath. “I would have thought you’d take longer to break yourself than a week.” He took the paper from the board and stared at it for a long moment. “I suppose I should check it out,” he told himself. “After all, everyone needs a hand every now and again. Sometimes two.”
Shouldering his tool pack, he went on his way to help an android in need.