She's probably swamped with work.' He lingered for a minute staring at the bright screen, waiting for a reply that didn't come. Deciding not to worry about it, he stashed his phone into his pocket. Solstice took his left wrist, which was where his microchip was embedded, and held it over the steering wheel, the vehicle recognizing its owner then started up.
The center display prompted him to enter the location that he was going to drive to, once he entered it, it automatically deducted money from his account, a total of 60 credits. Most vehicles were electric powered, and they could receive wireless electricity through towers, inspired by the original Wardenclyffe Tower, although not exactly the same.
Of course, this power was not free, and required payment for people to power their own vehicle. There were a couple options to be billed, the first option being to simply input the destination in the center display, in which they would calculate a fairly accurate, estimated charge for the ride. The second option being to be billed in real time as you drive around.
Daemon looked around in the truck which was kept in good condition. "This is our first time in a vehicle like this."
Solstice raised his eyebrow in curiosity, glancing between the twins. "Huh? How do you paragons usually get around then?"
"Hyper-tunnels." Ava said blankly, chiming into the conversation.
Solstice was at a loss for words. Hyper-tunnels were specially constructed underground subway systems used for travel only by the richest of people. Most paragons had the kind of money to use them, and even they had to be careful on how often they travelled using hyper-tunnels. For Ava and Daemon to be so accustomed to them, the Lazarus family has to be filthy rich.
"Aren't those ridiculously expensive to use even once?"
Daemon shrugged. "Not to brag, but our family has accumulated a ton of wealth over the years."
"Must be nice." Solstice felt very humbled.
"It is."
"Money rules the world.' Solstice cursed inwardly before backing out of his carport, he was heading north on Bolton Avenue, which intersected with Smith Street. Smith Street held the longest shopping district within the outskirts of Zephyr Heights, mainly containing small-time food vendors, general retail stores, the occasional decent restaurants, and much more.
Solstice hated driving to his job, as the shop was located all the way at the West end of Smith Street, close to the harbors. Because of this he had to drive on the bumpy old brick roads which he hated and couldn't understand why the city had chosen to make them brick roads. He also hated the fact that the roads were usually flooded with people who chose to walk, making it uncomfortable for him. Yet, this was the quickest way to the shop. If he picked a longer route he would have to pay more credits for the drive which, just like anyone else would, would not want to pay extra if he didn't have to.
Having some company for the ride did bring his mood up a little. He pointed out various shops and areas, telling both Daemon and Ava little bits of information about them, Daemon would ask some questions back while Ava nodded silently for the most part, only showing signs of genuine intrigue in the conversation when Solstice mentioned local clothing stores.
"This shopping district is much different at night. Most of the vendors are more active at night, sometimes the nighttime is more bustling than the daytime, and there are plenty of neon lit signs polluting the street. I myself am actually a vendor and have my own little stand! Of course, nighttime is when it gets a bit more dangerous with the criminal being more active, so you have to be vigilant."
Smith Street was a relatively clean street, clean as in lower illegal activity in comparison to other parts of the outskirts. It didn't mean that there weren't places to be wary of, even with the robustness of this area, some criminals didn't mind being bold, so Solstice also pointed out a couple of alley ways and corners to steer clear of.
After about a twenty minute car ride, not so much due to the distance but simply from how flooded the road was with people, Solstice parked out front of his workplace. The building was one of the largest on Smith Street, but was also the bleakest, a solely gray colored exterior, with the only exterior color being a neon blue sign that read, "Steele's Workshop", above the doorframe.
Solstice walked right to the front door, held his left wrist over the chip reader that was attached to the wall right of the door, getting a confirmation which allowed him to open the door. He held it open and motioned for Ava and Daemon to enter, locking the door after he finally entered as well.
The front office didn't have much, there was a brown colored couch that sat along the right side wall, a desk, and a silver fridge with not much in it. Amelia didn't do much in the front office, and neither did Solstice. He made sure to always have some snacks and drinks available in the company fridge, which was really for himself since he was the only employee and Amelia rarely ever took anything.
Solstice spent no time and opened the door that led to the workshop, various machinery filled the space, Amelia Steele's office was located in the far left corner, the door was open. The sound of frantic typing could be heard as they got closer.
"Wait here." Solstice whispered to the twins, he wasn't sure if how his boss was going to react to his appearance, let alone that he let two people inside that weren't a part of the company.
Solstice knocked on the door to announce himself which spooked Amelia, whose attention was absorbed in whatever was on the computer screen.
Amelia swiftly turned around in her chair, sweat beading on her pale scarred face, she looked distraught. Amelia's blue eyes darted up and down Solstice. His boss was clearly stressed out beyond belief, which bothered Solstice quite a bit.
"Where have you been!"
"I would like to explain when everything has calmed down, what the hell is going on?"
"Oh my gods….we were offered a commission from MSC."
"Wow! That's fucking amazing!" Solstice's face lit up with joy. Then he remembered that a shipping company as big as MSC, which was short for Mercury Shipping Company, dealt with some of the largest shipments coming into the Eastern Continent, meaning that MSC would need their commissioned goods fast. "What do they need?"
"They want ten Model-ERS's due on the 11th this month."
Solstice's eyes widened and his heart dropped. That specific model was the same model of his own skeleton, without the gun modifications of course. This model was in good demand for shipping companies, construction, pretty much any industry that required hard physical labour. They could power themselves through kinetic energy conversion, had a backup battery pack, and were particularly good at handling constant physical labour. Most importantly, unlike human workers, the skeletons didn't get tired.
"How many do we have already made?"
Amelia's eyebrows twitched. "I've made two, a third is almost done and we have enough parts for the fourth."
Solstice's jaw dropped. "Wha…wa…gods this is-"
"I've already given a call to Thatcher so get a move on you little shit!"
"Alright!"
Solstice bolted out of Amelia's office, hurrying both the shocked Ava and Daemon back outside to get in his truck as soon as possible. He entered the location he needed to drive to via the center display, paid with his own credits for the ride, and sped down the roads as quickly as could.
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A total of two weeks went by, the date was June 19th, 2580, a Monday.
The commission from MSC, the major shipping company, was miraculously fulfilled. Solstice had met up with Thatcher, a man that Solstice and his boss Amelia had previously done business with to secure parts when they were in dire need. Usually, it was significantly cheaper for Amelia to send Solstice to the junkyard and have him gather the parts required, weeding throughout the junk, allowing higher profits. However, with the deadline coming due from MSC, Amelia and Solstice had to resort to getting parts from Thatcher. This was much more costly, but failing the commission from a major shipping company like MSC was non-negotiable.
It would be very bad for business if they had soured a potential relationship with MSC, and hurt the reputation for Steele's Workshop, making it much harder to secure a future relationship with other large shipping companies. But, they made the deadline, and the representative from MSC was satisfied enough, to the point that they said they would be in contact with them whenever they were doing business around Zephyr Heights.
Solstice had told Amelia that he had been chosen to be a Traverser and that was the reason for his absence. He did trust Amelia enough to tell her that, but he didn't delve into further detail, she understood and all was forgiven. Solstice's skeleton was also fixed by Amelia, fully functioning again, and able to guard his house.
During these two weeks, Solstice had established a new schedule for each day going forward, especially since there was a backlog of other uncompleted small commissions for the workshop that he had to catch up on.
Normally, he did his day job at the workshop with Amelia from 8am to 4pm but that recently extended to 6pm temporarily until the backlog was under control. After his duties at his day job were completed, he had half an hour to eat a meal and rest, then he spent an hour and a half studying books from the library regarding the Wyrd, and any information that the twins provided him. Once his study was completed for the day, he gave himself another hour of rest and a larger meal.
His night job was next on the list in which he worked from 9pm to 2am. Solstice never actually made money from his day job with Amelia, he was solely working there to pay off a major debt that he owed her. His night job is where he actually earned his living. He had his own vendor stall in the safer night market within the outskirts, where he sold items that he refurbished from the junkyard, or at least the ones he knew how to fix up, or were able to be fixed.
From 2am to 3pm he closed up his stall, ate a meal on the way home, then he slept until around 5am. After a very limited amount of sleep, he trained with Daemon in the junkyard, until around 7am, sometimes Daemon wasn't available and he had to train himself, but that was uncommon. With the amount of training he was doing, Solstice himself didn't expect much change at first, but he was growing in physicality and combat prowess fairly quickly, Daemon even told him he was surprised at his growth, Solstice's overall confidence increased as a result, he wondered if he was naturally gifted and he never took advantage of it until now.
After training, he had about another hour to squeeze in a power nap, take a shower and scarf down breakfast.
Solstice, with this new routine, was quite tired all the time, but it was manageable enough. He also had written down his goals to make sure he knew what he needed to improve, and what direction his decisions needed to go towards.
His first goal was his personal strength and knowledge, and this current schedule was furthering that forward.
His second goal was figuring out how to establish a consistent income, and of a level that could allow him to buy the things he would need in the future, whether that be artifacts, bribes, establishments, weapons, whatever that would be of benefit to him.
His third goal, find people that he could trust, and grow a network of powerful people that he could fall back on. He already had the backing of Ava and Daemon, two people from the powerful and rich Lazarus family, which was an amazing start.
HIs fourth goal was one that he felt conflicted about. It was to understand the Wyrd itself a bit further, and figure out a way to combat it, or stop it completely. As a Traverser, it was pretty much an established duty that their kind were expected to follow, and Solstice understood this, but it was something he wasn't sure he could come to terms with completely. He wanted to live his life the way he wanted to, and this was forced onto him.
Then again, Solstice, despite being young, had seen and experienced his fair share of ugly, a lot of that stemming from the Wyrd itself. He definitely didn't have a hero complex, but he thought that maybe the world needed one, or multiple, he was simply reluctant to fall in line with this way of thinking yet. His main fear for this was that he would have to take up the mantle, he wanted to reject this, but he felt himself accepting it more and more as the days went on, especially since the Wyrd was in control of his fate now.
'So much to think about, so much to do, and very little time in the day.'