Altered

Chapter 3

3. Partners?

Every morning after Fiona and I visit Pink's place, the same thing happens over and over. I get hangovers, but it's a first to unlock all the symptoms as accurately as in what the internet says. A dull throb in my head—headache. Bile rising up in my throat— nausea, and the general feeling of 'like shit' because I feel too lightheaded to describe everything else. Standing up at the edge of my bed, I groan from the sore spot on my back. It could be because of a wrong position when I was sleeping last night, but if I do find scratches and bruises— I'm dead wrong. "Fiona!" Fiona's face is still damp with drops of water, and she raises one of her eyebrows. "Can you check if there are any marks on my back?" I lift the back of my shirt, revealing a small part of my back.

Fiona lifts it up and pulls it back down. She shakes her head, "There's nothing. I was with you the whole time, Mark. You don't think I'd let you leave with some weirdo, do you? Well, I left you for a bit but I don't think anything happened. But you were a bit weird yesterday though." Fiona points out.

"Weird?"

"Not really weird, but you were really kind to that boy from yesterday,"  her lips curl into a mischievous smile.

I glance at her with a nonchalant look. Of course I know what she's referring to. Darius. I think back to the time when he was sprawled across the counter, his cheeks flushed red. Like a wreck. "Are you really a Rust?" I remember him asking me that. It was an odd encounter, and it felt like being analyzed. The questions he asked were strange, because he was so wary that it seems like he knows something is off with me. Something that sets me apart from other Rusts. If my 'real' face is that distinct, then I should watch out. Only three people in this world know about how I look like, and I intend to keep it that way. Plus two, if you count Darius and his friend.

"It's nothing like that," I say, my voice barely coming out like a whisper.

"I know, was just teasing. Hey, stop spacing out, we have work to do." Fiona waves a hand in front of my face. Her eyes look everywhere on my face, as if she's trying to recognize someone she doesn't know. My eyes meet hers and she stops searching.

A small part of me wants to find out more about Darius. Like a small hunch that he's no ordinary Rust.  What are the odds of meeting him again?  But even then, he wasn't exactly friendly anyway.

"So what's the plan, partner?" a confident grin forms on Fiona's face and she starts explaining.

"We got some information from yesterday's research, from common Rusts, done. From the internet, done. But we haven't asked any insider from Lesley Coals,"

"So you want to meet Uchida?" I guess.

"That's right," she nods.

Fiona stands up in front of the HD-3X710. She hovers her hand over its sensor and it emits a blue light, scanning her whole figure, from the top of her head to her toes. It recognizes her immediately, from the robotic female voice that greets her 'Good morning, user Fiona'. Among all of the options in the display, she chooses one. 'AA' - stands for Appearance Alteration. She has readied presets and the moment she activates it- she transforms into another person. Her blonde hair turned into mahogany tangled curls that stop on her back, her skin turning into a golden brown from a pale white. But she keeps her bright blue eyes, creating a contrast between her skin and them.

For some reason, Fiona tells me every time that none of the different looks I put up makes me look better. Every time we need to go out for mission purposes, we put on the mask the Diamonds put on themselves. The hologram they call AA. 3 months full of missions' worth of money disappeared when we got it with the HD-3X710 that was just released that time.