At first, Jet didn't feel anything. He looked around expectantly, curiously, wondering if maybe Kammi and Kyotoshi were joking with him and the little pill he'd swallowed would do nothing. He felt hyper aware of what was going on in his body at this point, and every beat of his heart he counted. Would this one be the last at a normal pace? Did that one come a little quicker than the last? He simply couldn't be sure what was his imagination. He measured his breathing and looked around, searching for something to moniter what was happening by. On the far wall was a chart of rules. Keintem walked slowly to it, as if afraid of his own steps. Maybe they would give out at any moment...Keintem didn't know.

Kammi watched him silently, barely moving. Her breath was being held, her fur very nearly on end. She did not remove her eyes from the silver furred Hekshanian- even as he paused across the room looking at the rules. A swift sideways glance told her Kyotoshi was looking away, eyes closed. He didn't want to see this.

"Look, goddamnit. You wanted this. You watch."

A low growl sounded from Kyotoshi. Normally he wasn't this bad tempered but he was still feeling the nagging pain of his hangover. "I've had to look all my life. I'll look the hell away if I wanna." There was a pause, the entire garage grew eerily quiet. Keintem didn't move. Kyotoshi couldn't stand the silence coupled with the darkness of shut eyes. "What's he doin now?"

Kammi snorted air through her nose, watching Keintem closely for the tell tale signs. "Marking his progress. But he won't know when it actually hits him."

"Will we?"

Kammi nodded gravely. "You know the old psyche concepts of Id and Ego and Superego? Stims let the Id run free. The only sign he'll feel is his stomach flippin." She backed her ears as she saw Keintem squint at the poster in front of him. "He'll wanna laugh."

Slowly at first, Keintem started moving again. To his eyes, everything was far more clear and real. He was feeling everything- every sensation and ripple of muscle in his body. Every fur on his skin was tickled by the air when he moved. Letters seemed so sharp in his vision it was as if he'd had a blindfold suddenly removed. Keintem felt rejuvinated- unafraid. He felt an urge to touch the poster- run his hands over the letters to be sure they only looked sharp. Carefully at first, he swept his fingertips over the slick surface. The fur on the end of his fingertips bent on the board and Jet giggled at the sensation. Placing his palm down on the surface, he moved it around, enjoying the crystal clear sound of fur on paper and the tingle of the poster on his skin.

He was laughing now, not loud but he was laughing. Smiling broadly too. Taking a few springy steps back, Jet felt as if gravity didn't exist for him. Fears were melting away...home was distant. He didn't need to go home right now anyway- what good would it do? He was having fun right here in this instant. Smirking, he strided off through the rest of the garage at an increadably swift pace, laughing to himself.

Kyotoshi had forced himself to watch as the innocence in Keintem melted away and left only a hard, cocky shell. The kid moved like a purely addicted Hekshanian- not a care in the world and everything going his way. Strange fingers marched up and down his spine and he felt sick to his already angry stomach, a serious nausea that threatened to take over. He quelled it and tried to follow the kid, afraid he might hurt himself on one of the sharper garage tools. Kammi, however, held out an arm and blocked him.

"He'll be aright. He's just gettin a feel for it. He won't do nothin stupid." She spoke with an expert assurance, the slightest tint of sorrow in her voice. She was remembering her times in Jet's shoes.

It was all Kyotoshi could do to keep from pushing her aside and running after the kid. His voice was a frantic barking. "What the hell'd you give him? How much?" He demanded in a far louder voice than he'd wanted.

Kammi glared at Kyotoshi and gave him a quick shove back. The elder Hekshanian looked both afraid and angry, ready to cry almost. She didn't care, though. "I gave him what you wanted me to give him! Stims, aright? The dose is about two times a regular caffeine pill! He should be fine if you fed him anything. Or're you treatin him the same as yourself?" Her tone was biting.

Kyotoshi seemed to shrink, falling back and stepping down. The anger flashed on his face for a moment again and was gone, the yellow furred Hekshanian hanging his head. "Okay..I'm sorry...I'm just worried, okay? Don't want him hurt none..." He failed to mention he didn't care so much about himself. Of course he'd kept food for Keintem...something unusual in his apartment. He had come to think of the younger Hekshanian as a surrogate sibling, and had tried to keep him safe.

And now...he'd given the kid up to a possessive drug in hopes..in hopes of what? That the kid might find some mystical path through the mines and off the planet? Find a way home?

Kammi's eyes softened a moment seeing Kyotoshi's distress. She lowered her voice a little. "Look...in about three hours it'll wear off almost completely. And he ain't addicted yet, so it's still okay. You can go back on this and say hell with it still."

Kyotoshi glanced up and across the garage, watching a bolt of silver dart around just out of sight. "Naw..no I can't. I told the kid he'd fly...he's gonna fly."

"There's other ways-"

Kyotoshi drooped his ears. "Ain't no other way. Kid wants out. Races're the only thing close to an out we got."

With a flash of silver and white, Keintem was suddenly between them. Under the influence of the stim drugs, he moved with a silent speed that could be likened to that of a vampire- and the almost carnivourus smile he gave shook Kyotoshi. Did he ever smile like that when he was drunk? He hoped not. The younger Hekshanian looped an arm around each of their necks and squinted in a cheerful grin, lifting himself up by arm power alone and laughing. Kyotoshi and Kammi were nearly strangled but kept unemotionally silent.

"C'mon Kammi!" Jet was speaking quickly now, his words running together and jittered with laughter but clear. "Still think you can beat me in a flight sim? Huh? C'mon baby let's go!"

Kammi gritted her teeth and growled pulling out from under Jet's arm. The small Hekshanian was left holding the melincholy Kyotoshi around the neck with a very puzzled expression on his face. "Listen up, brat," Her voice wasn't the least bit amused. "I don't give a fuck if yer under stim dose. Ain't NOBODY who calls me 'baby,' got that?"

For a moment Keintem seemed almost concerned, but it flashed away instantaniously- a phantom of controling thought. "Yeah sure! No problem!" He beamed and waved a hand almost franticly. "Soooo can we fly now? Huh? I'll still beat your ass down!"

Eyes narrowed into dangerous slits at the silver furred kid, Kammi growled. "Fine. Sure. Get into the sim cockpit," she snarled almost spitefully. Turning on her clawed heel, she stormed off towards the simulator with more rage than would be expected from the situation. Kyotoshi noted this was yet another side effect from her past Stim addiction, and worried about Kientem.

Keintem, however, only turned to grin at Kyotoshi, flashed a peace sign and hopped away, nearly leaping inside his simulator cockpit before Kammi had even entered hers.

Kyotoshi shook his head softly and looked up at Kammi, speaking in low tones. "Dunno...is this okay? What're you doin now?"

Kammi grunted irritably and backed her ears, swinging inside her own simulator bubble. "Checking his reaction speed, that's what. Can't have a pilot who don't react right to Stims in the races."

Kyotoshi sighed and reclined against a nearby wall, pulling a slightly beaten cigerette and silver lighter from his pocket. Holding the cigerette between his right pointer and middle fingers, he lit the tip and brought it to his lips, inhaling once and then simply letting it smoke there, watching the simulators. His head still buzzed, and he felt increadably guilty. What had he destroyed?

"Hey, you okay?"

"...'M fine..."

"No, I'm serious Kyo. You're drinking way more than usual. What's wrong?"

"Nuthin."

"Please tell me? Okay?" Jet was being let down gently from the stim dose, it was gradually setting him into his normal frame of mind. When he would become more dependant for the races, though, the downs would be much harder to stomach. Keintem would probobly wind up even loosing conciousness at points. He didn't know this yet, of course. Right now he was only bubbly and cheerful, his wide green eyes fixed innocently on Kyotoshi. He still wasn't in complete control of his actions, and leaned not only over the kitchen table but flattened against it and angled his nick so he could see up into Kyotoshi's eyes, which were half hidden by the elder Hekshanian's yellow scraggly hair as he lay with his head rested on his folded arms. "Okay?"

Kyotoshi looked at the near wall, refusing to meet Jet's eyes. He blinked slowly, trying not to think. It wasn't hard- he was so heavily intoxicated at this point he doubted he could walk across the apartment to his own room. What had happened to Jet today was something Kyotoshi had begun to regret the second he saw it. He'd made a mistake again. While he'd let her go, and regretted it, he had done something far worse in this. Keintem would become addicted to the stim drugs like all pilots- Kyotoshi knew this. Instead of setting Jet free...he had imprisioned him.

Keintem didn't know that of course. He didn't understand Kyotoshi's pain- the pain of reliving a failure again only in a different light. Jet had been his chance at redemption..he'd blown it again. On the way back from Kammi's garage, Keintem skipping from side to side on the road and swinging around lampposts with a completely oblivious glee, Kyotoshi had stopped in a liquor store and bought cheap, strong brandy. It was nasty stuff- he hated the way it tasted and the aftertaste that burned around the mouth for hours afterwards. Even orange juice had no power over it's foul taste, which was reminicent of wax. But that was what Kyotoshi had wanted- to punish himself and at the same time escape. He hadn't been this drunk in maybe a year or two- at the most since she had left. He didn't care though, not anymore.

Kyotoshi sighed, the vapor of alcohol brushing over his tongue like warmth escaping a furnace as he did so. "Go'd'bed...lemm'lone..." As much as Kyotoshi wanted to shout, all he could do was sigh a weak plee. He spoke without emotion, his words slurred near unintelligable.

Jet shook his head, his eartips brushing the table. "Nuh uh no way! You're all down about something. I wanna know what." Jet blinked and smiled, moveing his head again to look into Kyotoshi's misted blue eyes. "I should at least listen, you know. You got me a piloting teacher."

Kyotoshi muttered at the kid, unmoving. "Fer godsakes, kid, shaddap...aight...'s'nuthin.." He closed his eyes slowly, willing his failure away. He didn't want to take responsability anymore. After taking it so many years, he wanted to be able to fully deny something from the very depths of his soul. He wanted to say this wasn't his fault. "y'gor cl'ss t'morra...ged sum mutherfuchin sleep..."

Jet beamed and straightened up. "I ain't tired," he said with an almost genuinely Hekshanian accent. He regarded Kyotoshi a moment seriously, tapping his index claw on his chin. "Ooooh I think I know what it is." He beamed.

Kyotoshi looked up a moment and blinked tiredly. Did it matter?

"I think..." Keintem beamed larger. "Ya need a girlfriend!"

"Wha?!" Kyotoshi screwed up his face in distaste. "Hell no."

"Well see I'd be your boyfriend, Kyo, but I don't think you swing that way and I'm not sure I'm ready for commitment-" Jet's tone was mocking, joking. Kyotoshi knew it, it was the usual humor of a stim addict. The big grin and the rambling nonsense...But he ain't addicted, he told himself darkly. He ain't addicted yet. It's still okay.

"Fuch'ya, m'n..." Kyotoshi re-burried his face.

"I'm serious! That's why you're always moping. Don't try to fool me." Grinning hugely, Jet tried to pull Kyotoshi to his feet. The elder Hekshanian was mostly limp dead weight and didn't go along willingly though. His arm was jerked away and he was thrown slightly off balance, but caught himself. "You need a ladyyyyy!" Jet extended the last sound of the word tauntingly. "A womaaaaaan!"

"Go th' hell to bed, aight?" Kyotoshi glared, Jet's image going blurry in his vision. "Go now."

Jet looked sad, seemed to realize Kyotoshi wasn't joking anymore. Backing off and lowering his ears, he moved into the other room. "Sorry man. I just thought you might appriciate the humor..."

Kyotoshi made an angry and disgusted cry of rage and burried his face again. It wasn't the humor he hated. It wasn't the humor. It wasn't the person either...it was that the scared kid he found in an alleyway would have never said something like that. He never would have had the guts to try to cheer Kyotoshi up. In some sense he was proud...

But in another, he knew it was only the stim drugs convincing Jet there were no boundries he couldn't cross....