Recycling (solo)

The days went by without much event for the red headed shinigami. His injury from the strange centuar creature was treated quickly. Thankfully his time spent in recovery was short. It was the time after his stay that bored him. Days in the lab seemed to blur. At several points he even forgot the date. Not just the day, but the month and year as well. True this was the job of those of the 12th division and the Research Bureau. They had improved the phones used by shinigami in the last few day. Strengthened the wards on the gate portals several times. Trouble shot computers in the communication department. Helped create a new medicine for the 4th squad. It had been a busy time for everyone, and yet Arawn still craved more. All those things were interesting, but he wanted something more. He found what he sought when he took it upon himself to to help dispose of a malfunctioning computer terminal beyond repair. There were limits to how much one could tinker with such things. In this case the computer had melted after causing a small explosion. The thing that worried him was that he accepted such a thing as normal at this point. If it hadn't exploded he would have been more surprised than if it had stood up and had offered him tea. With a groan he moved through the lower bowels of the dark building. He was several feet underground in the area used for disposal. He had been down here once before. Then it had caused a slight explosion that had sent him into the underground network or tunnels. Everything had been rebuild since that time, now it looked as if it never had happened. There were several improvements as well. There were no attendants to each area to prevent irresponsible dumping. It was one of these attendants he stopped to ask for directions to the scrap metal area. The directions took him what felt like miles into the underground complex.

He finally found the right hallway and could just see the door in question. A sign next to it read scrap metal. Before he could reach it a young man burst through looking quite frantic. He spied Arawn and his eyes lit up.
"Hey you!!!" he exclaimed to which Arawn looked to see if he meant anyone else. Save for the two the hall was empty. Without waiting for a response the man ran over to him. "You've got to help me! I just got a call I need to turn in some files, if I don't the section chief is going to kill me!" There were divisions within the divisions of both the 12th squad and the Research department. The leader and heads of smaller sections were often called 'chief'. Arawn himself was blessed to have Bryce as his section chief, something he had found out not long ago. But he had heard horror stories from other people about their chiefs.
"Well what can I do? You want me to get the papers for you?" Arawn quickly asked and the man started to laugh.
"No,no,no,no!" he replied shaking his head. "You might grab the wrong thing, and then how will I explain that? I need for you to watch my post while I turn in the reports." The man did have a point it was possible he'd make things worse by giving the man the wrong files. Still he didn't like the idea of taking over his position.
"It's an easy job!" he stated as if reading the other man's mind "Hardly anyone comes down here, you're the first person in over 2hrs. No one will even bother you."
"If that's the case why not just go? No one would notice." Arawn said to point out the obvious.
"Yeah, but if someone did show up, I'd be in just as much trouble for not having someone here. Thanks to some idiot blowing up the incinerator somebody had to be on duty or heads roll. My head. Please, it will only be a few minutes." Arawn turned red at mention of the accident he had caused. With a sigh he rolled his eyes and agreed. "Thank you!" he pulled Arawn through the door and to a small desk just to the right. There was a clipboard and a stack of papers on the corner of the desk. "If anyone comes in, you make them sign in and press the time stamp. Once they leave they sign out and put time stamp again. That's it." With that the young man turned around and left the room. Arawn gently placed the computer on the ground. The room was rather unimpressive to say the least aside from the desk this was a rather small room. There was a pair of double doors on the other side opposite the door to enter. Arawn could only guess that it lead to the scrap room proper. He thought of dropping off the ruined computer in there. He decided to wait until the man got back.

The seconds ticked by as Arawn took a seat and waited. There wasn't much to do in the small room, but he tried to occupy his mind with the work he needed to do once he finished with the task at hand. He had more papers to file after this budgets and reports from other projects. Nothing too interesting. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. As the minutes started to slink by he started to wonder how the man could stand sitting there all day. Suddenly Arawn’s eyes popped open. How much time had gone by now? There was no clock to check, he could only guess. Surely the man had finished his task by now. He chided himself for being impatient and closed his eyes once again. The almost deafening silence was relaxing before he knew it he found himself nodding off. His head snapping up he awoke with a start. How long had he been asleep? How long had it been since the man left? Digging into his pocket he pulled out his phone. It was well past two o clock now. While not completely certain he was sure he had gotten the computer some time at noon.

“Forget this; I’m leaving!” he said getting up from the chair putting his phone away. He reached for the door and stopped. Slowly he turned his head to look over his shoulder at the twin doors at the other end of the room. He had been in such a huff that he had forgotten about them. Curiosity overrode his frustration as he released the door handle and walked over to the two doors. There were no windows on the doors, they were larger than the first one entering the room. They almost blended in perfectly with the wall if not for the handles in the middle and the hinges on the edges. For the most part they were solid, there was no window to see what was on the other side. Arawn had no choice, but to open them if he wanted to know that. Feeling somewhat jilted for wasting his time, he felt entitled to see what was on the other side. Slowly his hand grabbed the handle for the right side door and he turned it. With deep breath he pushed the door open and stepped through.

A blast of hot air hit him in the face as the roar of machinery filled his ears. Arawn was shocked to say the least at the site before him. It was like he had just walked into factory. There were large machines humming with power as they melted metal. The molten steel was carried in large automated pots moving across the area. It had only been a few seconds and Arawn was starting to sweat. He was amazed the simple looking doors could keep all these noise and heat at bay. Was this the place they processed all the metals now? There were stacks of metallic objects in piles on the floor. The cat walk covered the whole area. How could such a big place exist? There were mechanical arms stirring the metal, other places where the lava like substance was put into a casting mold for simple bars. He slowly made his way through the large processing plant until he noticed what could only be a control box for all the machinery. It was like a maze getting down there, but he knew he was making progress as the heat got steadily higher.

Spoiler:

After careful manuvering he reached the door to the small control room. His body was covered in sweat now. The thick clothing was hardly ideal for such a place. As he turned the handle to enter the room he had already pulled off the top of this uniform. As the door went inward a blast of cool air hit him in the face. He welcomed the change in climate and hardly noticed the man sitting in front of the computer terminal. Or course the man was quite startled to see a strange man enter.
"Hello?" the man stuttered eying Arawn "Can I help you?" unfortunately the man wasn't listening as he was too absorbed in soothing cool air washing over him. The sweat droplets felt like ice on his skin now as his body got over the heat from outside the room. Arawn turned to the man noticing him for the first time.
"I'm sorry, it's just so damn hot out there." he coughed to clear his throat "I was here dropping off some items when the guy up stairs asked me to sit in for him. But he's been gone for awhile so I decided to explore abit." he finished sheepishly. The man at the console eyed him the whole time.
He was a bald man, Arawn could only guess it was by choice since he had such a nicely trimmed hazel mustache and beard. The beard reached the middle of his chest. Instead of hair he had a purplish tattoo on his skull that looked like a tribal design. Part of the tattoo left the top of his head and moved across the right side of his face. Arawn tried his best no to stare at it, but it literally looked as if the tattoo was actually moving.

"Ah that brat skipped out on work again." the man at the terminal muttered shaking his head. It would seem that things like this had happened before. A new heat came over Arawn, anger. He was reminded of the old saying 'No good deed, goes unpunished.' his kindness was being taken advantage of by the young man. He had been quite convincing too. The rage quickly subsided as he realized there was nothing he could do about it, but leave.
"Sorry to bother you. I guess I'll show myself out." He said turning around back to the door. The other man raised his hand quickly to stop him.
"No need to be sorry, lad. You're not the one at fault here. " He tapped some keys and slowly and spun his chair to face Arawn completely. "He's good at talking, could sell ice to Eskimos that one." the husky voiced man snickered and then quickly hid his smile. "Rest assured he'll be getting the what's coming to him next time I lay eyes on him." The man clinched his hands tightly knuckles cracking the joints. It was Arawn's turn to smile, it seemed the matter would be taken care of correctly by this man.
"That's good to hear, Mr....?" Arawn offered his hand out to the man
"Jaryoon, Gila Jaryoon." The man said rising and taking the hand in his own. He was about to say something else when there was a tap on the glass window overlooking the work-floor. Arawn's voice got caught in his throat as he saw the making of the noise was a very familar robot.
"Rover!?" he spat out. Gila looked at him questioningly.

The longer he looked the more certain he was looking at the robot droid he was currently modifying for training purposes. His hand never left Gila's as he studied the robot standing on the other side of the glass. The other man noticed Arawn's sudden shift of attention, not to mention the additional squeezing he could now feel.
"I guess you've not seen many robots here in squad 12, this here's Cache." Gila said withdrawing his hand from the vise like grip. "When I found him he was a mess, but with a bit of elbow grease I got him in working order."
Arawn only half heard what the man was saying. Was he saying he rebuilt the strange machine. He turned to stare at the man, his mouth agape.
"Don't look so surprised." the man huffed. "I may work down here, but I'm a scientist like the rest of you lot." Arawn could only nod, it wasn't like they would allow just anyone into the squad.
"Can I see it?" he quietly asked the other man. Gila smiled as he stroked his beard a look of pride upon his face. He probably didn't get many visitors so it must be rare to show off to someone.
"Sure why not?" he grinned as he struck keys on the keyboard. The robot walked away from the window. It was only a matter of seconds later that he could hear the metallic thud of it's feet as it approached the door. Arawn quickly stepped back as the door swung open. The heated air squeezed in as the robot stepped into the control booth.

What came through the door was a spitting image of Rover. It was very shocking to say the least. Although it looked quite similar there were minor differences. For one thing the arm was different. Rather than the polished silver appearance it was quite dingy and black. Probably from ash smoke from the heated melting pits. The casing wasn't as smooth either. It was rather rough looking at the joints, but the basic form was identical.
"Where did you get him?" Arawn asked even though he had a slight idea.
"It's the damnest thing." The man began as he plopped back into his chair "Several months back this thing was in a delivery of scrap that came in. Not sure why, but it was in bad shape." Gila pointed at the thing's body. "Had a hole the size my head in the chest."
As the man spoke the memory came to him of the trio of robots sent to exact revenge for their crazy creator. After a very troubling fight he had managed to defeat the mechanically monsters with the help of another shinigami. He ha been quite lucky at that time, having won only by a narrow margin. Gila was still talking; Arawn went back to listening.
"......nearly weeks to find the right parts." the man smiled as he rubbed his bald head, the tattoo still shifting on his face. "Most of the parts came from salvaged computers." He stood up and walked over to the droid and patted him on the back like a buddy in a bar. His hand brushed off the dirty machine showing the dull metal beneath.

At first Arawn had wondered what had happened to the other robots after the incident. He had taken one for his expierement, but didn't know what had befallen the rest. It was nice to see that the strange invention wasn't completely lost.
"Hey." Gila said looking quite serious "You're not thinking of stealing my helper are you?" Arawn could only smile at the man's question. It seemed a valid question.
"I wouldn't dream of it." he said evenly. "I hope you take good care of it." Gila laughed and gave the machine a playful slap on the back of the head. The robot's head wobbled slightly. Arawn wondered if the man hit harder the head might have came off.
"This guy takes care of the place better than I do." he chuckled.

"So you use it for heavy labor?" He asked the Gila, who gave a sharp nod. The machine's body was capable of amazing feats of strength in battle, moving scrap metal around would hardly be difficult. In fact Arawn was positive the robot could reduce the room into scrap with it's combat programming. Of that was if Gila choose to keep those functions. Now that he thought about it, what about the weapons the machine had? With Rover he kept those attachments and even improved upon them. Did this machine before him use it's weapons to help with it's work. "How long did it take to program it?" He now asked, he was careful not to say 'reprogram' implying that he knew of the robot already. Gila was enjoying talking to someone about his hard work.
"Not too long actually." he chuckled. "The machines already do most my work, I have plenty of free time to tinker while things begin to process." Gila pointed at the piles of metal. "I salvage what I can and then trash the rest. Otherwise I'm just watching pressure levels and temperatures on the screen." Arawn had to admit it sounded rather tedious. He probably got the programing done quite easily. But to do it all alone, he could only wonder how such a man was confined to the bowels of the 12th division. He was obviously skilled. Lost in thought Arawn didn't hear the main ramble on about all the technical work he did to complete the droid. It was lost on him either way. At best the young scientist only would have understood half the terms and jargon used. If Bryce had been there the two men would be talking for hours about the various techniques and tricks in their employ. Still that didn't stop Gila from going on and on about it. Arawn could only nod and smile for the most part, he did his best to add some 'hmmmmmm', 'uh-huh', a 'I see' comments when needed. When the man paused Arawn took the chance to end the conversation.

"It's quite a machine you have there." he began telling the man as he preened over the robot. "I'm impressed you were able to do so much with so few materials." he said honestly. Arawn had long learned improving upon things was far easier than making something from scratch. It was nice meet someone of a like mind. "Perhaps when you have some time later we can work on something together." he said with a grin. The smile was returned by Gila. The statement made him quite happy, the shifting tattoo on his head even changed colors. It would seem many people didn't bother with him, but it was their loss. This man was quite capable in his own way. After seeing his accomplishment Arawn wanted to get back to his own work.
"Arawn Dan Shir, 9th seat of the 12th division."holding out his hand to Gila he introduced himself properly. The man reached forward and heartily shook the hand. "It's been a pleasure to meet you Gila Jaryoon. I pray we meet again soon."
"Like wise." said the bearded man. The released hand and Arawn exited the booth into the sweltering heat once again. Quickly he navigated the catwalks and stairs till he once more reached the thick double doors. Once through the silence and heat were cut off. Shaking his head he put the broken computer on the desk and looked at the log in sheet. He pulled out his watch and wrote down the time and signed it. He tossed the sheet onto the desk and walked away.