Chapter Text
“Hey, thanks for visiting me earlier. I'm fine, don't worry. My suit had it worse... totally fried.” a sigh, both frustrated and resignated “Killjoy's working on repairs, but I need to wait in a containment room that can soak up my extra volts... kinda boring. If - if the lights flicker around the base... sorry. Anyway, as soon as the suit's ready, send me out. I want payback.”
A couple of knocks rang out from the door of the office. They were loud and rithmic, and Brimstone recognized this specific pattern as he looked up from the computer screen.
“Kay/o?” he called out “Come in.”
The robot poked his head in “Hello Brimstone. Do you have a minute?”
His tone sounded almost hesitant, or as hesitant as a killer robot who never hesitated about anything in his life could sound, which was enough to grab the captain’s entire attention.
He took the reading glasses off. “Of course. What’s wrong?”
Kay/o had an idea.
Kay/o explained his idea to Brimstone, and since it seemed like a pretty good idea in the Captain’s eyes, he got the okay for it.
But as he was about to exit the office, he hesitated. He turned around to look at Brim, who apparently was still looking at him, and received and amused look in return.
"Do you want me to come with?"
"Yes please. As supervision."
Killjoy was so busy trying to get the pronunciation right of the brazilian song from Raze’s playlist that she almost missed the second set of knocks.
In her defense, the music was really loud, and she was also busy fixing Neon's suit (it wasn't difficult, but it was long and precise work, and there were a lot of damaged parts) and usually she responded by the third set, so it was alright, wasn’t it?
“Brim! Heeey. How are you doing?” she opened the door wide open. Brimstone looked serious when she looked up at him, but it wasnt a you’re-in-trouble serious, nor a this-is-mission-related-business serious, which was enough to pique her interest.
Kay/o was trailing behind him, looking oddly sheepish.
That definitely piqued her interest.
The containment room was a relatively new installation, the last room to be completed before HQ was inaugurated, it’s creation sounding almost like an afterthought. Kay/o was surprised by the fact that it was the last thing to be implemented into the base’s design, almost as if it’s inhabitants did not expect to have to deal with dangerous or downright hostile Radiant forces. Perhaps it was Brimstone’s conscious decision to not turn to such extreme measures during the Protocol’s missions, to the point of deeming the room’s existence to not be a big priority. Or perhaps the the idea behind the Valorant Protocol began with a no prisoners approach on mind, making any kind of cage or containment unit on base superfluous.
His Liam would've agreed with the second option.
Eliminate the threat. Do not let doubt set in, do not linger.
But his Liam wasn’t here, Brimstone was, and Brimstone not only agreed to Kay/o’s insane idea, but he also brought more people in too.
The room was set in the underground of the base, a complex of steel beams and reinforced, noncoductive materials, clean and sleek and sterile like a lab. The pillars of the custom built voltage dispersion system vaguely reminded him of the bars of a prison.
And that’s what Neon looked like to him in that moment: a prisoner. He knew she was there of her own volition, and she knew that, since her suit was damaged and could no longer keep her powers in check, this was the only option remaining for everyone’s safety, but it still struck him how miserable she looked.
> ERROR: INCORRECT APPLICATION OF EMPATHY MODULE.
The prompt almost made him jump.
> MODULE NOT APPLIABLE TO RADIANT TARGET. REROUTING...
He felt a light pressure on his right shoulder, and turned to see Brimstone smiling at him.
“I’ll stay close.” he said with a nod of encouragement.
Killjoy was dragging a long cable behind, probably a spare part from Kay/o’s charging station, and it was connected to the somewhat large lithium battery that Kay/o was carrying in his arms, presumably a piece from a disassembled charging station. Kay/o took the cable from her hands, and shot one last look at Brimstone. He was not sure if what he needed right now was encouragement or the man to simply come with him.
“Go on. This is your idea.” the man said good naturately.
“ Ja . And a great one to boot!” Killjoy piped in, walking ahead.
When Kay/o looked back the man was still smiling, and gave him a nod of approval. Kay/o turned, set his shoulders, and opened the door to the containment room.
He was immediately struck by how charged the air in the room was, and his vision went fuzzy at the edges.
“Hello, Neon.”
The young Radiant was resting on her bed, face covered by a magazine. When she heard them enter she shot up and looked at them.
“Kay/o?” she said, surprised, rising to her feet. "Killjoy. What are you guys doing here?”
“We have fantastic news!” Killjoy peeped enthusiastically before anyone could make a sound, drawing the Radiant’s attention on herself.
“My suit is ready?” Neon asked without preamble.
“Ah, no.”
“Oh.”
“Buuut you are still going to like this! It will be quite fun.”
The look of suspicion Neon shot the young engineer would have been quite funny, if Kay/o did not happen to understand where her worries came from. Killjoy’s definition of fun was odd, ranging from tedious weapon repair to opening portals to other dimensions without any safety precautions or failsafes in place.
“I hope it’s not another experiment. Not in a mood for those.”
“Nonono, no experiments today. Well. Not really? It was Kay/o’s idea, and Brim gave us the okay, soooo…”
Neon raised one eyebrow, and looked at Kay/o, who had the distinct impression of being judged negatively.
He elected to ignore it.
“I have a way to get you out of here without the voltage limiters.”
Their plan perhaps required a slightly better logistic organization, because the battery attached to Kay/o’s back like the world’s most dense backpack was heavy enough to shift his center of balance slightly backwards, and the wires attached to his ports were somewhat of a tripping hazard for everyone in the vicinity, himself included. But Kay/o believed this could all be excused, since the whole idea has been cobbled together in the span of an hour, most of which has been spent looking for the equipment for it.
The battery was there as an extra charge supply: Kay/o’s NULL command was a program that gave him many advantages, especially on the battlefield, but came with the downside of consuming a large percentage of his charge. It wasn’t uncommon for him to come back from missions that required multiple NULL activations with a charge level within the single digits, and needing to hook up to a power source as soon as possible to avoid deactivating right on his feet. Kay/o did not feel tired, but those occasions were the closest to phisical exhaustion that he experienced.
Neon opposed to their idea until the last possible moment, but her desire for freedom, however limited, was strong enough to shine through the hesitance the moment the option has been presented to her.
It made Kay/o sad how obvious it was, and how miserable she was in that confined space. It was a bitter feeling, to realize he had the option to get her out of there from the beginning, if only he thought of this sooner.
> ERROR: INCORRECT APPLICATION OF EMPATHY MODULE.
Once activated, NULL’s subroutines were energy-draining enough that even that annoying little notification had to be shut down.
Neon was nervous next to him. Her breath sounded a little shaky now that the perpetual hum of the containment room faded away, and Kay/o wondered if it was the side effects of his suppressing ability, or merely nerves.
She brought her hands forward, arms slightly shaking, breath a little unsteady, gritting her teeth as if ready to strike down an invisible opponent with all her might.
Nothing happened.
Kay/o tilted his head, observing her attentively.
“So?”
“I...” she looked at her hand, frowned, then looked at Killjoy, him, and then her hand again.
Killjoy, on the other hand, seemed to be vibrating in place from the excitement. “It’s working! Oh this is fantastic news.” She grabbed both of Neon's hands, uncaring about how just few moments ago they could have electrocuted her with just a touch, and stared right into her eyes with a glee that was almost maniacal. Neon, on the other hand, still looked somewhat shocked. “Your powers are suppressed! It means you can get out of here. Without your limiters!”
“I… can.” Neon agreed, somewhat numbly.
Kay/o studied the two and opened his medical program just long enough to check if the young Radiant displayed any symptoms of illness or distress. Her breath and heartbeat were slightly elevated, and a faint sheen on her forehead indicated a degree of perspiration, but otherwise she seemed to be faring alright.
Killjoy was already rambling again, shooting off ideas at rapid-fire speed about how she could engineer a device that could replicate Kay/os abilities on a much smaller scale, how it could be a handheld device instead of a whole suit, how this could make Neon's life so much easier.
She let go of her hands, still talking, while Neon seemed to be trying to use her powers again, still without yielding results.
They both let her try.
It took couple of minutes to give up. It happened without fanfare, with Neon simply letting her arms drop, and something akin to hope flashed through on her face.
She looked at them both. Killjoy was still grinning, although it was now a genuine smile. Kay/o wanted to smile, too.
“So?”
“Can we go outside?” it was silly, but she sounded so hopeful it was almost contageous. Kay/o gave in and let a small :) show on his faceplate.
“Sure.”
The sun shone bright on the island, and the sea sparkled far away on the horizon. Neon squinted aganist the brightness, shielding her eyes and looking around with an air that looked almost lost.
She did no longer looked tense, but a thrum of energy still seemed to run through her, searching for an outlet. She rocked on her feet, as if ready to sprint.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked again, the shadow of hesitation still clouding her expression.
“Yup.” Said Killjoy, “You can go wherever you want, just stay as close to Kay/o as you can manage, because the polarizing waves he emits emitting lose effect after a certain range.”
So she nodded, and then took a deep breath, as if to center herself.
“Alright. Hey, Kay?”
“Yes?”
“Why would you do this?”
Kay/o shrugged. “I can help. So I do.”
She did not look fatigued, or sickly, as Kay/o expected her to look by now. She looked… normal. It was an unusual outlier, and he theorized it was perhaps a result of her immense power, so strong that even a full power suppression did not effect her significantly, only her powers.
That was a good thing.
“And because getting some fresh air will do you good.” Kay/o let a little amusement slip in his voice. “What would you like to do?”
“I was thinking of running laps around the base. Think you can keep up?” she said, with the tiniest hint of a challenge.
The robot picked up on it, and let his shoulders relax.
“Sure. Race you there.”
“So how did it go?”
Brimstone raised his gaze from the computer screen to the robot sitting on the other side of his desk.
“Very well. Killjoy and I managed to let Neon out for about three hours. Killjoy says it could have been more, but the backup battery started to overheat and she said there was something wrong with the adapter. She will have to look into it before hooking me up to a power source.”
“I see.” Brimstone said, looking at him carefully. Kay/o sat a little slumped instead of his usual ramrod straight posture, and his faceplate symbols were a little dimmer. He looked… tired.
“I have 5% battery left. I'm thinking of going in low power mode. Mind if I stay here for a while?”
The man smiled “Not at all. Stay as long as you like.”
And with that, the conversation ended, and Brimstone shifted his attention back to his work. If was an odd routine, this one, that they've developed recently. Sometimes, Kay/o just invited himself to the office while he worked, sometimes for conversation, sometimes for the quiet company, like the one they were having now. Brimstone often found himself wondering how the robot didn't simply get bored, but then he guessed that perhaps he went into sleep mode, or something like that during the quiet hours.
Perhaps he was seeking a sense of familiarity, in this odd dimension he's found himself in. Perhaps it was because Brimstone reminded Kay/o of his friend, his alternate self.
Whatever it was, he wasn't going to object to these moments between them. They seemed to help the robot to integrate, and they were quite enjoyable in his opinion.
When he raised his gaze again, not even ten minutes later, he found Kay/o completely slumped forward, arms crossed on the desk, and head leaning on them. The faceplate was off. The bot was dead to the world.
“Oh Kay…” he said with an amused huff, and got up from his desk. He lifted Kay/o from his awkward position and into his arms, and carried him to the leather couch in his office.
For all his talk of heavy machinery, he was lighter than he expected. Perhaps some kind of super-tough alloy from the future.
He knew that as a robot he couldn't be uncomfortable, but as he put him down he made sure he was alright, and threw on a blanket for good measure.
Yeah, machines couldn't get cold. Still, it was the principle of the thing.
It was likely that Killjoy would call later once she was done with the repairs, but for now, Kay/o could sleep.
“You did a good job today. Now rest.”