Hope For a Cure - Part 4
“All right Gos, calm down,” Forte muttered, adjusting the cable linking himself and his support unit. “I know ya don’t like this but I gotta keep ya still somehow.”
Gospel gave a loud whine of protest, fixing Forte with a wide-eyed look and being sure that his master knew he was not happy in the slightest about having his motor functions temporarily disabled while Forte fixed a delicate connection in his knee. “I know you don’t like it,” Forte said over their link, giving the wolfbot a mental nudge of reassurance. “But I ain’t got any other way t’make ya stay still.”
He leaned forward slightly, focusing on his support unit’s thoughts and blocking out everything else, completely zoned in on the tiny wires and connections that he needed to fix. Everyone else in R&D was gathered a ways across the room working on something else, and the faster he got this done, the less sulking his support unit would do later in the day. “Easy there boy,” he muttered out loud, dialing down his aural receptors when Gospel whined in distress again.
Fixing the torn connection didn’t take too long, not that he had much of a perception of time when he was this deep in concentration. While he had Gospel still and settled, he took the chance to check over the rest of the wolfbot’s joints as well, silently pondering if the old mutt was due for some major upgrades. It probably couldn’t hurt, all things considered.
He was vaguely aware of an increasing amount of white noise somewhere behind him, but he ignored it until a blip showed up in his proximity scans. Without turning around, he held up a hand to indicate to the R&D tech to wait, finishing up with Gospel’s front left paw before doing anything else.
Satisfied, he turned in his chair, readjusting his aural circuits and flinching at the sudden wave of cheers and yelling that he was assaulted with. “Th’fuck is goin’ on?” he grumbled, rubbing his ear and silencing his support unit’s half-whine half-howl with a sharp mental reprimand. “I thoughtcha said it was gonna be a quiet day.”
He leaned over to peer around them, raising an eyebrow at the sight of quite literally every other tech in R&D, his boyfriend included, cheering and celebrating and carrying on. “What,” he said, turning back toward Gospel and reactivating his support unit’s motor functions before disconnecting the cable linking them together. “Y’planned a surprise birthday party without warnin’ me first or some shit?”
“Forte!”
The blond looked up, turning around once again to see Dynamo grinning at him from across the room. “Get your ass over here already!” the ex-mercenary said with a wave.
Forte hopped to his feet with a grunt, making sure that Gospel was steady enough to get down from the lab table on his own before tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans and loping across the room to join his boyfriend. “Seriously Dy, the fuck is goin’ on? I’m tryin’a get Gos fixed up.”
“Just look at the screen,” Dynamo said, getting up from his chair and gesturing for Forte to take his place.
Forte rolled his eyes mildly, leaning onto the console and half-expecting some kind of bizarre cryptic prank, or at the very least a dick joke. It wouldn’t be unlike the techs to do something of the sort, after all.
He quickly fell back into deep concentration, blue-violet eyes slowly beginning to widen the more coding he read over. Some of it was far beyond his comprehension, tiny bits and bytes and details that he didn’t bother to understand, but in general…
“Was this on an actual sample?” he asked at last, turning to look back at his boyfriend.
“Just sims and lab tests for now,” Dynamo replied with a shake of his head. “It won’t be approved for field use for a while yet, but-”
“But it works,” Forte interrupted. “We- you guys...made a cure that works.”
Before he could say anything else, Forte suddenly found himself being scooped out of his chair into a bear hug, and for once he simply couldn’t find it in him to protest. No wonder everyone was cheering and celebrating, and he could feel Gospel’s excitement too and hear his support unit beginning to yip and howl with delight and- “Holy shit,” was all he could manage.
As soon as Dynamo set him down, Forte found himself practically pounced on by an overly enthusiastic wolfbot; not that Gospel truly understood why everyone was so ecstatic, but he did seem to know that there was some cause for celebration and dammit master pet him and love him! “Shit- down boy!” Forte laughed, only keeping his balance for the fact that he was more than used to Gospel jumping all over him. “You damn mutt get offa me, get down!”
It was several sloppy licks and knee-shoves later that Forte finally managed to get his support unit to settle down and sit, rolling his eyes in mild amusement when he realized that everyone had taken to staring at him and either chuckling or trying not to. “Yeah yeah, all’ya just shut up or I’ll sic ‘im on you next. So's this gotta be kept under wraps or what?"
"Well, we still have to write up the official report and announcement," Dynamo said, glancing at one of the senior techs and continuing when they nodded in approval. "So I’ll be stuck here up to my nose in paperwork for a while. Buuuuuut I don't see any reason not to spread a little joy, this place could use some cheering up.”
“I think I know a few people who could use some good news,” Forte said. “An’ hey, don’t you go stayin’ at work too late.” He cracked a grin, a little gleam of mischief lighting his eyes. “You’n I gotta celebrate together tonight~”
He stretched up on his toes to give his boyfriend a kiss that lingered just a little too long considering that they were both in public, matching Dynamo’s smirk with his own. “I hope your definition of ‘celebrate’ is the same as mine,” Dynamo said with a wink.
“You know it,” Forte hummed. “Now get your ass back to work~”
“Oh yes, sir,” Dynamo teased back. “Scram so I can focus~”
Forte turned and took off at a sprint out of the room and down the hall, Gospel close at his heels. He had to find someone to tell, someone who would help him spread the news, someone who needed cheering up-
He rounded the nearest corner without so much as slowing down, only skidding to a halt when he reached the doorway of the navigation bay and ignoring Gospel practically faceplanting into his legs. “Shit- sorry,” he muttered when Layer signaled for him to keep his voice down. Several navigators, X included, appeared to be in the middle of mission guidance, and Forte knew better than to try to interrupt.
Layer took off her headset and crossed the room, and the two Hunters greeted one another with a quick salute. “It’s not an emergency,” Forte said, a quick mental nudge ordering Gospel to fetch him a datapad, onto which he scribbled out a short note. “Just- give this to X when he’s free, yeah? S’from R&D, it’ll make everyone’s day better, trust me.”
“All right,” Layer said with a warm smile. “He’s navigating Zero through a tight mission right now; I’ll give it to him when it’s done. Thank you, Forte.”
“No prob,” Forte said. “I gotta go tell Ax, tell ‘em to talk to R&D if they want more details!”
Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and broke into a sprint again, suppressing a noise of annoyance when several excited pings to Axl’s comm line went unanswered. “Aw c’mon Ax,” he grumbled to himself. “Ya oughta be back from patrol by now, don’t tell me ya went and broke a leg or some shit.”
He made a sharp turn and practically leapt up the staircase to the next floor, skidding to a stop once again at the sound of a rather prominent string of curses in Russian pouring from behind the door of the nearest medbay. Man, he thought to himself as he peeked inside, today was just not his day for good timing.
Nope judging by the way Axl was laid out on a bed and by the metal pipe sticking out of his leg this was definitely not Forte’s day for good timing.
Then again, if anyone needed cheering up it was probably the Reploid with the pipe in his lower thigh. “Ax, what happened to ya?” Forte called, secretly pleased that the Lifesavers he strode past wisely gave him a wide berth. “Thought ya were just on a routine patrol.”
“Fucking infected construction mechaniloids,” Axl snapped, leaving Forte unsure if the shakiness in his voice was from the pain in his leg, or if he was simply shaken. “They were doing some work near a school, I was lucky I got there when I did.”
“Shit,” Forte murmured, his good mood fading visibly at the news. “Are the kids alright?”
“I don’t know,” Axl replied, followed by another loud curse as one of the Lifesavers got to work on extracting the pipe in his leg. “I got some of them to safety but I didn’t find out if any of them got infected before- son of a bitch can you jerk that thing around any harder?!”
He and the Lifesaver exchanged a long glare before Axl slowly laid his head back and closed his eyes, drawing a shaky breath to calm himself down a bit. “Well . . . hey!” Forte piped up. “I bet I can cheer ya up.”
“Not now, cobra,” Axl sighed. “I’m not in the mood.”
“But I gotta tell ya somethin’, I was lookin’ for ya ‘cause R&D-”
“Forte,” Axl interrupted sharply. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve had an extraordinarily shitty morning and there’s a four-inch diameter hole in my left thigh. I don’t mean to be rude but can whatever it is please wait until I’m at least a partially functional unit again?”
Gospel gave a loud whine of protest, and Forte rolled his eyes, deciding that he was thoroughly done arguing with the stubborn redhead. “Axl, they found a cure,” he said, his voice more than loud enough for the entire wing to hear.
The room slowly settled into silence, all heads turning toward the Wilybot and his support unit- Axl’s included, after a few moments to allow the words to sink in. “What did you say?” the gunner whispered at last, his voice hoarse with shock.
“They found a cure,” Forte repeated. “In R&D. They found a cure that works in lab tests. Axl it works.
The silence throughout the room gradually gave way to increasingly excited murmuring, and Forte moved closer to his adoptive brother’s bedside as Axl laid his head back and closed his eyes once again. “Holy shit,” Axl whispered. “I-it feels like we’ve all been waiting forever for . . .”
He paused, swallowing the knot of emotion in his throat and not bothering to pretend that his eyes weren’t wet. “That means . . . that means that one day . . . things like this won’t have to happen any more.”
“One day soon, bro,” Forte said, his tone and expression softening significantly even as the murmur throughout the room began to rise to a chorus of cheers. “Now quit moping and get your damn leg fixed up so we can celebrate, yeah?”
“Give . . . give me a while,” Axl said softly. “I-I need to . . .”
“Get yourself together, I getcha,” Forte said with a grin. “We’ll go out for ice cream with the kids once you’re walkin’ again, yeah? I gotta go spread more good news, see ya later bro!”
“Y-yeah,” Axl whispered, covering his eyes with the back of his arm and allowing himself to break into a grin that was equal parts exhausted, relieved, and elated. “Asimov in heaven, they finally . . .”
He shook his head, dropping his arm and sitting up partway with his weight on his elbows. “H-hey, one of you stop celebrating long enough to fix my leg up, I have to go hug my kids and give them the news already, jeez!”
