A Timely Rescue

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 6, Post Number 143

-On the outskirts of Motor City, early afternoon-

Wearing her casual outfit and wearing the holster with Shining Light on her right hip and her shoulder bag with iLac on her left shoulder, Lucia was on the outskirts of Motor City and heading for the city famous for making and modifying vehicles of all types. Cars, trucks, motorcycles... if it had wheels, chances were high that there was a garage that catered to that type of vehicle. Lucia was here to meet a man named Dr. Abel, a scientist who needed help with a project of his and had asked for someone who did not mind the risks of working with vehicles. Since the blonde was kind of bored hanging around Talonia, she eagerly jumped at the opportunity to do something interesting like work with a vehicle.

Lucia walked down a path leading towards the town and spotted something in the distance. About seventy meters away from her was an old man being accosted by three local hoodlums armed with lengths of chain. The old man was in the middle of a triangle and reaching for his walking stick, which had been taken by one of the toughs and was being held just out of his reach. Not willing to stand by and let the old man be abused like that, Lucia broke into a sprint to get there before something really nasty happened.

-Sixty-five meters closer-

"Give us your money, you old bat!" One of the hoodlums, a shirtless youth with a buzz cut and blue jeans with black work boots, shouted at the old man who was doing his best to stand without the support of his walking stick. The man reached for his stick  and was hit in the hand with it by another goon. The second one was a bulky and bald shirtless youth wearing a black leather vest and blue jeans with black work boots.

"The money first, old man! Then you'll get your stick back!" The second one commanded.

"But I don't have any money. I told you that already!" The old man, a fellow wearing a blue robe held in place by a gold cloth belt and white boots, protested. The third goon kicked the old man in the backside and sent him falling to the ground, where he landed on all fours.

"Quit lying to us, old man! You've got money and if you don't give it to us right now we'll break your walking stick on your face!" The third goon, a tall and lanky youth with black hair and blue jeans with brown work boots, said as he hefted his length of chain and held it in both hands to wrap it around the man's neck. He started to approach the man from behind, who was struggling to get to his feet and was in no shape to defend himself. That was when Lucia chose to make herself known.

"Stop right there." Lucia commanded in a firm tone of voice. The three toughs turned their attention away from the old man and towards her. The black-haired youth smiled at her with an ingratiating smile.

"Normally we beat up wannabe heroes, but since you're a pretty face, we might be able to make a deal. Tell ya what, lady. If you go with me on a date we'll leave the old man alone. This doesn't have to end in violence... I'd hate to have to hurt someone like you." The youth "offered" with a salacious smile. It did not take Lucia very long to make her decision.

"No thanks. I have standards." Lucia retorted, firmly turning down the "offer" then and there. The black-haired youth's smile disappeared and the mood turned hostile.

"Then I'll just have to bash your face in, you bitch!" He roared. He ran towards Lucia and the blonde mage stood her ground. She watched the youth charge towards her while the other two goons cheered him on. If it was a fight he wanted, it was a fight he would get.

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Lucia stood her ground and raised the palm of her right hand towards the black-haired youth who was charging her. She channeled golden magic into her right hand, then fired a Seeker Bolt that homed in on him and hit him in the chest, causing him to yell and drop his weapon. He paused in place and gawked at her while his partners backed away from the old man. They were obviously not expecting to deal with a mage.

"I'm giving you one last chance to walk away. Leave us now and that'll be the end of it." Lucia firmly warned the three hooligans. She was being sincere in her offer. If they walked away now, Lucia would not pursue them. She would take the old man to get medical help and then move on to visit Dr. Abel.

"This is just our kind of luck! We beat up an old man and we run into a mage!" The hooligan with a buzzcut declared and backed away further. The burly hooligan tossed the old man his walking stick and backed away from the old man who was still on all fours.

"I didn't sign up for this!" He declared and held out his hands palms-up in an "I don't want trouble" gesture. The black-haired leader turned back towards his followers and glared at them.

"You useless cowards! She's not a Wizard Saint! She's just one mage! ONE MAGE!" He bellowed at them as they fled. He then turned back to her and gritted his teeth.

"Damn it! You had to come along and ruin everything!" He yelled at Lucia. He backed away from her while clutching his chest at the place where the Seeker Bolt had hit him. He staggered backwards a few steps, then turned and ran from her.

"THIS ISN'T OVER! WE'LL MEET AGAIN ONE DAY!" He bellowed as he fled the scene, leaving Lucia and the elderly man alone on the path. Lucia lowered her hand and started walking towards the man, who had gotten back on his feet and was slowly making his way towards Lucia. She met him halfway and paused in front of him.

"Thank you, young lady. Those hooligans tried to mug me. I told them I didn't have any money, but they wouldn't listen. They just wanted to beat up an eighty-four-year-old man for the fun of it." He said to Lucia as he dusted off his robes with his free hand.

"It's no problem." Lucia said to him before beginning to look him over. He had a few bruises on his face, but other than that he appeared to be fine. He looked her in the eyes and began to speak.

"It is a problem, young lady. Those hooligans don't take defeat very well, especially at the hands of a woman. Now that they know you have magic they'll come back with more of their friends to try and get even. We'd better get back to my lab before they return." The man warned Lucia that they had better get moving. Lucia blinked when she heard the words "my lab."

"Are you Dr. Abel?" Lucia asked the man. He nodded.

"Dr. Howard Abel, at your service." He said to her.

"I'm Lucia Winchester, the mage you hired to help with a special project of yours." Lucia introduced herself to the doctor. Dr. Abel smiled.

"So our meeting was more than just sheer luck. Well, we'd better get back to my lab before those hooligans return with their friends. Follow me, my dear!" Dr. Abel said. He then turned around and began to walk towards Motor City as fast as his legs and walking stick would allow him to go. Lucia followed at his right side. While she was glad that the conflict did not end in fatalities, she knew that she was taking a big chance by interrupting the mugging in progress. It was a chance she was willing to take... she was not going to stand by and let innocent people be abused by hoodlums of any kind.

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-Outside Dr. Abel's Home, 1946 Inventor's Way, forty-five minutes later-

After Lucia had chased the local thugs away and met Dr. Howard Abel the pair had walked through Motor City to his laboratory in the nicer part of town. While walking through Motor City Lucia noticed that a lot of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other forms of motorized transport were on the streets. While some of them were standard vehicles that one could purchase at a car/truck/motorcycle dealership, others were obviously customized by their owners. For example, Lucia had seen a black convertible with an emblem of a red dragon spreading its wings as if it were about to breathe fire at the viewer painted onto its hood. A blue sports car had highly detailed angel wings painted onto the doors and the name "Blue Angel" was stenciled in white on the hood.

Dr. Abel hobbled up to a thick brown wooden door with the golden numerals 1946 above the doorframe and produced a metal key from his robe pocket, put the key in the lock, and turned it left. The door unlocked and he opened the door. He then slowly stepped aside to permit Lucia passage.

"After you, Miss Winchester." The doctor said to Lucia. Lucia went inside first and Dr. Abel followed, closing the door behind them.

-Inside Dr. Abel's Home-

"Welcome to my home, Miss Winchester." Dr. Abel welcomed her. Lucia looked around the foyer and saw that it was clean and neat but sparsely decorated. The walls were beige and the floor of the foyer was black-and-white checkerboard tile. There was no real decoration to speak of... there were no family photos, no family pictures, nothing to suggest a personal touch to the home. It was a living space and nothing more.

"Thank you, Dr. Abel." Lucia thanked the doctor for his hospitality. The two walked through an equally austere living room that had a black leather recliner, a large bookshelf full of books on engineering, robotics, cybernetics, and other highly technical subjects, and a black leather sofa for guests. There was no television anywhere in sight. The doctor hobbled ahead of her and guided her past the living room and down a hallway to the left.

At the end of the hall was a single wooden door that had a keypad to the right of it. He walked up to it, gripped the walking stick with his left hand, and rapidly entered a series of digits with his right hand. A tone sounded and the keypad flashed green. He turned away from the keypad and turned towards the door. He walked over to it, placed his right hand on the doorknob, and opened it to reveal an elevator.

"After you, Miss Winchester." He offered. Lucia obligingly stepped into the elevator and Dr. Abel followed close behind. The doors closed behind them.

-Inside the elevator-

Lucia looked around the elevator and saw that it was large enough to comfortably accommodate twenty people. It also had a stark metal interior with no decoration whatsoever, but that was more understandable considering what it was used for. Dr. Abel hobbled over to the control panel on the right side and pressed the glowing DOWN arrow. The elevator rumbled to life and the pair were on their way.

"My lab's on the bottom floor. It won't be long before we arrive." He said to her as the elevator continued to descend. It moved at a normal pace and the pair faced the doors while waiting to arrive at their destination. Lucia wondered what Dr. Abel's lab looked like and what technological marvels it was home to.

-On the bottom floor, two minutes later-

After a two-minute elevator ride it came to a halt at the bottom and the double doors parted to reveal an immaculately clean laboratory with a lot of computer equipment and some monitors displaying schematics of inventions Dr. Abel was either currently working on or was in the process of creating. Lucia marveled at how clean and well-organized the place was. Inventors were stereotyped as disorganized and unkempt individuals who cared more about pursuing their passion than taking care of themselves, but Dr. Abel seemed to be an exception. Aside from the bruises on his face from his encounter with the local hoodlums and a stoop that was a sign of the infirmities of old age, Dr. Abel kept himself clean and kept his clothes neat.

He hobbled through the doors and Lucia followed behind him, being careful not to run into him because now that he was in the safety of his lab the fatigue from his ordeal was starting to catch up to him and he was slowing down. He stopped in place and the blonde carefully walked around him to his right side, where she stopped and received a warm welcome.

"Welcome to my lab, Miss Winchester." Dr. Abel welcomed her to his laboratory with a warm smile.

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Lucia looked around the large laboratory and did not know what was more astounding... the doctor's state-of-the-art computer equipment, how clean his laboratory was, or the sheer scale of the laboratory, which was at least as large as a surgical operating theater. All she knew was that she had never seen anything like it back in Bellum. The doctor must have picked up on her wonderment because he smiled and asked a question.

"I take it you've never seen anything like this before?" Dr. Abel asked in a tone of voice with no hint of sarcasm. Lucia shook her head.

"No, Dr. Abel. I've never seen anything like this before." Lucia answered truthfully. The doctor chuckled.

"It's taken me many years and a lot of Jewels to acquire and place all of this technology. It's safe to say that this lab is as much my life's work as any of my inventions." He told her as he walked past a table with the skeleton of a robot lying on it and guided Lucia deeper into the laboratory. The blonde followed behind him and kept her hands to herself as she walked and looked at the technology the doctor had gathered into one place. To her left were two additional tables with skeletal robots lying on them and to her right were banks of computer terminals and monitors with schematics of vehicles on them. Eventually the pair turned left and went around the corner, where they stopped in front of a thick metallic door with a glowing red keypad to the right and a circular hole above the keypad.

Dr. Abel sidled up to the keypad and waited until a mechanical arm popped out of the hole and a green light emitted from its tip. The green light scanned the doctor's eyes and the red keypad flashed green before the arm retracted into the hole. Once the mechanical arm was gone the doctor keyed in the code and the door opened to reveal an expansive garage.

"Here's my pride and joy, Miss Winchester. This is my Vehicle Research Lab." He said to her and entered through the door. Lucia followed him in and the door shut behind them.

-Inside the Vehicle Research Lab-

Lucia looked around the expansive garage that was as big as the laboratory she had just left behind and saw three gleaming vintage sports cars, three motorcycles, wall-to-wall metal shelves loaded with tools and parts on the far right wall, and a shuttered door on the left side of the Vehicle Research Lab. Dr. Abel hobbled for the shuttered door and Lucia followed until they reached the shuttered door that had a keypad mounted just to its right. The doctor reached up for the keypad and began to key in the code. It beeped and flashed red just after the last digit was entered. The doctor frowned and muttered under his breath.

"Let me try again, Miss Winchester." Dr. Abel requested. Lucia nodded and the doctor keyed in another code. Again the keypad beeped and flashed red. The doctor's mood soured a little more.

"I apologize for this, Miss Winchester. What I have behind this door is what I called you here to help me with. As soon as I open this door I'll show you what it is." Dr. Abel apologized and informed her that what she had been called to help him with was just behind the door.

"It's no problem, Doctor." Lucia assured him. The doctor focused on the keypad and hesitated for a moment, then keyed in a different code and held his breath. The keypad beeped and flashed red before staying solid red. He cursed and tapped the end of his walking stick on the ground.

"Damn it! I've tried three times and now I'm locked out for the day!" Dr. Abel hissed.

"Is there any way you can get around it?" Lucia asked. The doctor shook his head.

"I could override it, but that'd defeat the purpose. You see, I specifically set it up so that no one would be able to sneak and steal my creation without the code. They get three tries before it's locked for the day. That applies to me too." Dr. Abel explained.

"OK. That makes sense." Lucia commented. That was a fairly clever idea for keypad security.

"Yes, Miss Winchester. I'm afraid it works a bit too well, but that's the price I pay for security. It's better that I get locked out than someone slip in and steal what's behind that door." Dr. Abel replied. Lucia did not bother to ask what was behind the door. That way if the local hoodlums she had chased off captured her they could not learn what the doctor was protecting because she would not know.

"Anyway, I'm sorry that I brought you all the way out here for nothing." Dr. Abel apologized to her for being unable to show the blonde what she would be testing.

"It's no problem. I'll come back another day if you'd like." Lucia offered. The doctor smiled.

"Yes, that'll be great. Say, do you have that communication device that's called an iLac?" Dr. Abel asked. Lucia nodded and brought out her iLac. She gave him her Lacrima Identification Code and he nodded.

"Excellent. I'll contact you when I remember the passcode to that door." He said the second sentence in a sheepish tone. Lucia nodded.

"I'll see you then." Lucia calmly said. The doctor hobbled alongside her and guided her out of the laboratory. Today was not the day for the test the doctor wanted to do, but one day the doctor would have Lucia test his prized creation... whatever it was.

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