"I can't believe you brought a rookie to me."

"I had to help the kid. I promised I'd take care of him."

"Promised WHO, Kyo?"

The sun had risen hours ago, but Kyotoshi's strange metabolism had kept his hangover at bay until mid afternoon. He was now miserable, but determined to get Keintem a teacher to become a racing pilot. The mine races were dangerous- many people died in the high speed chases each year. He didn't want Keintem to be one of them. The elder Hekshanian growled a little in his throat and sheilded his aching eyes. Hangovers always made him feel anti-social, and irritable. He watched Keitnem running through the garage looking over planes and talking to mechanics, hoping he was doing the right thing. The orange furred Hekshanian beside him looked slightly iritated at the intrusion.

"You promised yourself, didn't you? You're still parallelling Lyika's leavin to your problems..."

Kyotoshi growled, just a warning and held his paw to his forehead. "Look, just shut up, okay?"

"Ya ain't reversin time by this, ya know. Ya won't bring her back."

"I said shut up, Kammi."

Kammi sighed, rubbing a paw in her short, bristly red hair. She watched the kid too, and could see he had talent...but was too civilized still. "She wasn't a failure, Kyo. Keintem's not a reincarnation. By givin him what he wants, ya ain't apologizin to her."

"I gotta atone for what I done somehow."

"We all woulda done the same thing in your shoes. Most of us did."

"Don't make it right."

The garage was large and spacious, and fit six planes quite adiquitely. Kammi was the head mechanic, and a veteran mine pilot. She was, however, quitting now. The races were like an addiction in and of themselves, and after watching plenty of people and pilots become mine dust during them, she was ready to end her own career. Not to mention the countless people she'd seen reduced to nervous shaking wrecks by the stimulant drugs pilots had to take to control their crafts in such extreme conditions. She sighed. "You really want this kid takin stims?"

Kyotoshi slitted his eyes and shoved his paws deep into his jacket pockets, re-tasting the beer on his tongue from the night before. "Better than dims..."

Stims and dims were slang terms for stimulants and depressants- the main two varaties of drugs in the community. It was largely considered worse to be a dim addict than a stim, for while the life span was shortened dramaticly by stim drugs, it was also one of hightened sensation and memory. Dim drugs stole time, stole money, and were a slow disgraceful death. Kyotoshi hadn't cared when he had become addicted though. All he had known was the concept of alcohol was thousands of years old...millions even perhaps. Something from so long ago had a stronger past than his own...perhaps it could obscure it. Sometimes it worked and other times...

Kammi grunted and shook her head. "What if he dies in the races, what'll you do then?" Kyotoshi remained stoicly silent to this question. "You ain't got the power in you to mourn two people. If he dies, you'll just go away, won't you?"

"I'm not going to think about that."

The fur raised on the back of Kammi's neck. The cold determination in Kyotoshi's voice had her scared...she hadn't heard that kind of resolution since before his sibling had left. "Alright," she grunted quietly. "I'll train the lil bastard."

Kyotoshi smiled faintly and shouted across the garage to Keinten. "Yo kid! C'mere! Got some good news for ya."

"NO goddamnit! I said bank the bitch UP!"

"You said pull up on the stick! I pulled up on the stick!"

"I SAID PULL UP! Pullin up on the stick and pullin the whole plane up are two DIFFERENT THINGS!"

"Craika, Kammi...go light on him...he's a rookie."

Keintem was locked into a pilot simulator, and across the room Kammi was in another sim, flying as his wingmate in a simple game. The interior cockpit was a poor mimick of a racing plane's, but it was basic enough. Keintem, while he understood terms such as port and starboard, hadn't quite gotten the hang of the fact that when he pulled up on the stick the plane dipped down and when he pushed down the plane nosed upwards. It enraged Kammi, who had thin patience as it was after years as a stim addict. She snarled from across the room at Kyotoshi, who reclined against a wall not far away.

"Keep out of it, damn you! You want me to teach him, fine, let me teach him!"

Kyotoshi raised his hands defensively, and let the lesson continue. After Kammi was through, Keintem emerged from the simulator cockpit with his fur on end, both enraged and trilled. He seemed to have leeched confidence from the simulator, and was speaking with a bit more of a Hekshanian accent.

"That was so cool! I mean it was like...there were these walker things and then we pulled up and it was like...take that bitches! And I was flyin RINGS around em!! Even though Kammi screwed me up and sent me into a nosedive..."

Kammi stepped out of her cockpit, her ears backed and eyes slitted. "You wouldn't'a walked away from a real mission like that. You're still a major rookie."

Keintem's face turned a little red under his silver fur. "I'm no rookie! I could beat you in a flight sim!"

"ME? HA!! I'm a racin vet!"

"Let's go!"

"Any time!"

Kyotoshi shook his head and smiled faintly. It was just like Kammi to react like that, although he had to admit he didn't think Keintem would have gotten so worked up. It seemed like a drastic change came over the younger Hekshanian when he was flying...like he really did seem to find answers. Snapping himself out of his questioning thoughts, he turned to the other two argueing Hekshanians. "Kammi, should we introduce him to the stims yet?"

Kammi's pupils darkened with pain. She honestly didn't want to get anyone started on the same path she had been down, but it was impossible to race without them. "Fine," she grunted at length. "But first off he needs a better name. Keintem's way too citizen."

Kyotoshi nodded solomnly, looking the shorter Hekshanian up and down. Keintem blinked at them curiously. "Yeah, I see what yer sayin. If he wins, ain't nobody wanna chant 'Keintem'. Need somthin catchier."

"Should be all pilot-esque."

Keintem blinked and spoke up. "How about Jet? I always wanted to be called Jet."

Kyotoshi smirked. "Jet, huh? Sounds pretty dangerous and rough to me. Kammi?"

Kammi nodded in approval. "Yeah, good choice kid. Okay. Follow me...Time to corrupt you."

Keintem- now Jet, followed on bouncy footsteps as the two older Hekshanians walked solomnly through the hallways of the garage, stopping in the mechanic's locker room. Kammi fished a key from her pocket and unlocked a cabinet on the far wall, her eyes narrowing as she did so. The cabinet was filled with bottles, boxes and bags of multicoloured pills. Kyotoshi felt a shiver of revulsion go down his spine, but made no comment. Jet looked almost frightened. Kammi spoke darkly.

"Now it's time to kill the child in you, Jet."

Jet had already learned from the pilots that this would be neccisary...that he would instantly be dead without them. He also learned the side effects...disjointed thinking, perverted attitude, inability to stay still, occasional hullucinations...He wasn't sure if he wanted to take this step. He gulped and looked towards the only parental figure he had in this lifetime, his old one being miles behind him. "Kyo?"

Kyotoshi closed his eyes and didn't want to look. He wished somehow he could have kept the kid a kid...but if he wanted to keep a spark of hope alive in Jet he would have to let this happen. He just hoped the kid wouldn't vanish. "Ya do what ya gotta do to fly, kid..."

Kammi held out a small pill to Jet and filled a paper cup with water. Taking them gently in his hands, Jet swallowed the pill and drank down the water...and awaited the change that would wash over him.