Chapter 6
Rhys' alarm went off twenty minutes earlier than it usually did, his flesh hand slamming down on the off button as he turned his head to try to suffocate himself with his own pillow. Though the sun was just starting to peek out over the horizon, he could hear Athena moving around the kitchen and talking quietly through his open door, most likely getting coffee started. During her new-found residency, Rhys and Vaughn had noticed that her sleep schedule was different and constantly changing, so sometimes she was awake when they left for work, and other times she was dead to the world. Rhys supposed it was former this morning.
With an exhausted groan, Rhys dragged himself out of bed and to the bathroom across the hall from his room, fumbling around until he got the shower running, water running colder than ice. He hadn't slept well the previous night after his call from Jack, his nerves too hyperactive to allow him anything close to a good night's sleep, and he hoped the freezing water would do well to wake him up, even though all he wanted was to soak in a heated bath.
The water sprayed over him as he bustled about, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. With only one arm it took a little longer, but soon the temperature took a backseat as Rhys thought about what was in store for him. Jack had demanded that he meet him in the R&D Department for... what exactly? A supposed upgrade and his input? On what? Rhys only helped develop code for the products they made, he didn't get involved with anything more than that. If Rhys could made the programs they wanted, then his job was done. He didn't need to be there to see it fabricated and finished.
With a frustrated growl, Rhys scrubbed at his hair harder, his fingers sliding through easily in the suds. After, he made sure to clean everywhere else too, and when he exited the shower, he got out his cleaning supplies for the metal dock on his shoulder. He dried it as best as he could and then used his tools to get in the cracks, removing built up grease and grime, and making the metal of his shoulder shine.
By the time Rhys returned to his bedroom, towel wrapped securely around his waist, he had an hour left before he was to meet Jack, so he attached his arm and dressed quickly. Rhys made his way into the kitchen, his shoes clacking on the tile softly as he moved about, getting a travel mug for his coffee and thanking Athena on his way out. She was on the phone with Janey, so he merely smiled and nodded at her, which she returned with a wave of her own. Aside from making sure Rhys had his coffee that morning, Athena had also offered to give Vaughn a ride to work since Rhys would be leaving earlier.
The company man made a note to pick up some honey sweets from the store on his way home as a thank you, and got in his car to start it up.
Hyperion proper was quiet as Rhys walked into the building, with most of the employees on the ground floor looking at the ECHO devices or reading anything from reports to the newspaper. There was a quiet buzz of conversation in the lounge and in the cafe, and a few phones rang before they were quickly answered by receptionists, but other than that there was no noise.
Which was a very good thing, as some mornings one could walk into Hyperion and hear Handsome Jack over the loudspeaker, blasting some poor sap who had already fucked up that morning. Those days tended to be hell for everyone, and everyone who had meetings with Jack on days like those tried to weasel their way out any way that they could.
Rhys couldn't blame them. A pissed off Handsome Jack at in the morning meant an enraged CEO with trigger-happy firing tendencies by noon.
With a glance at the time, Rhys noted that he had roughly twenty minutes before he was due in R&D, which would be enough time to leave his things in his office and go down to the labs. He readjusted his bag, which was slung over one shoulder and crossed over his chest, and walked to the elevators, sipping from his travel mug as he waited for it to arrive. When the silver doors opened (again, honeycomb designs were everywhere, printed in an opaque gold over the elevator doors), Rhys was happy to find that it was empty and stepped in, pressing the floor for Robotics and leaning back against the hand rail. His ECHO chimed as the elevator began it climb to the twelfth floor, and Rhys saw that the screen alerted him to a message from Jack.
'where r u '
"Really?" Rhys whispered to himself, scoffing at the message. Somehow, his CEO's texting style didn't surprise him. He switched his coffee mug and ECHO device so that he could tap out a reply with his flesh hand, finishing and hitting send just as the elevator stopped and let him off on his floor.
'Robotics, dropping off my things. I'll be up in a minute.' R&D was located ten floors above him, so it wouldn't take him too long to ride up the rest of the way. A few people greeted him as he walked by the cubicles, which he returned with a smile and a small wave. When he got to his office (his office, holy shit), he dropped his bag onto his chair and left his mug on the desk, stopping to look around the room with a smile.
It was still a lot to take in.
Him, Rhys, cybernetic boy wonder, as the Head of Robotics.
Another text alert had him leaving and locking the doors as he went, his legs and long strides carrying him to the elevator in no time.
'hrry up, ur making me cry' Handsome Jack confirmed for loser, Rhys thought to himself. He didn't know what warranted this behavior from Jack in the first place, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to show the texts to Vaughn when he got home. His best bro deserved to know how stupid their boss was, too. Another message followed that one as Rhys climbed into the elevator again, hitting the twenty-second floor with his thumb.
'im gonna yell ur name on the intercom if ur not here in 2 minutes' There was a festive pumpkin emoji after the weak threat. Rhys rolled his eyes, but he wasn't sure how he should take this. This was Handsome Jack, after all. He wasn't exactly known for being friendly with people, quite the opposite in fact. It'd probably just be best if he went with it, he decided. The elevator stopped, its familiar effect of making Rhys' stomach roll kicking in just as the doors opened.
'I'm getting off the elevator now, I'll be in the lab in like five seconds.' He stuff his ECHO into his pocket as he walked down to the hall to the lab entrance, sliding his ID through the card scanner at the door and stepping into the lab proper, his head swiveling around to look for Jack.
He didn't see the CEO anywhere. Rhys saw many scientists and engineers bustling about, hovering over weapon frames and circuit boards, but no Jack. Was this the right lab?
An engineer near the door spotted him, coming over with hurried steps and hands wringing together in front of him, looking like a nervous wreck. His eyes were glued to Rhys' arm as he walked up, then they shifted to his eye and lastly his neural port. The amount of interest in the man's gaze made something uncomfortable twist in Rhys' stomach, and he was taking a step back before he even realized it.
"Um, hi? I'm-"
"Yes, I know." The engineer said, eyes still stuck on Rhys' hardware, flickering between his port and arm. Rhys blinked down at him, face scrunching up in confusion.
"I didn't even-"
"Jack notified the entire department of his coming arrival and told us he'd be bringing you along as well." The engineer was wearing a watch on his left wrist, which he fiddled with as he spoke. It seemed like a nervous habit, but from the look in the man's gaze, Rhys figured it was more of an excited tick.
"Speaking of Jack, where is he? He was-"
"He also told us he'd be a little late." Rhys' felt his eye twitch, and he knew his expression was tight. If there was one thing he didn't like, it was people cutting him off, whether it was in traffic or conversation. The engineer must have noticed his pinched expression, his hands wringing together again that reminded Rhys more a scared rat than anything. Rhys straightened his posture, hands coming to rest at his sides, and watched as the engineer seemed to shrink into himself. He tried to school his expression into one that he'd seen Jack use, all pissed off and disgusted rolled into one, scathing glare.
Or at least, that's what he hoped it looked like. He'd only seen Jack do it a few times in the past as Rhys passed by Jack firing someone. Rhys however didn't get to see how the engineer responded to it as someone called him away, their voice irritated and short. He scampered off after leveling Rhys' tech with one last, uncomfortable look.
Thoroughly freaked out and awkward, Rhys pulled out his ECHO again and went to his recent messages, fully planning on reprimanding Jack for being late and forcing him to sit through that conversation. His plan fell short when Jack made another grand entrance to the labs, reminiscent of his arrival to Robotics the other day.
Oh joy.
After failing to draw an apology out of Jack for being late (read: Rhys didn't even try), the CEO led him around the labs, introducing him to prototypes that he helped program. It was certainly amazing to see his lines of code being translated into actual movement and functions. It actually warmed his heart a bit, especially after seeing a little robot beep and boop at him, happily responding to the commands scientists entered on a tablet.
Jack didn't ask him much about the prototypes beyond if he thought they were cool or not before he dragged him further into the labs. They passed by different departments that focused on the many specialties of Hyperion before they finally stopped at the Cybernetic Prosthesis Lab, which was filled with bustling employees making last minute adjustments on various artificial limbs, designing 3-D models for future products, and testing the movement of other prosthetic. When Rhys and Jack entered the lab, they all seemed to stop, and each of them trained their eyes on Rhys. It was like being faced with thirty copies of the engineer from before.
Jack cleared his throat pointedly and they all got back to work. Rhys heaved a quiet sigh, thankful to have their eyes off of him. He doubted Jack did that because he noticed Rhys growing uncomfortable, but it worked all the same.
Speaking of the CEO, he snapped his fingers in the direction of one of the engineers who was working on what looked like a robotic leg. The engineer in question handed off his clipboard to someone next to him and hurried over to Jack and Rhys, barely glancing at Rhys before focusing his full attention on Jack.
"What can I do for you, sir?"
"Marcus, this is Rhys. Rhys, Marcus-" The cybernetic man gave Marcus a small wave and a timid smile, which was ignored. Rude. "Cool, so we're all friends now. My boy here needs an upgrade and you're gonna work on him."
Marcus, for what it was worth, seemed to take the direct command in stride, as if he was used to strange demands from their boss. Then again, this was Jack. The engineer nodded and took out a small legal pad and a pencil, posed to jot down whatever notes he needed.
Jack didn't seem to have any awareness of personal space as he crowded against Rhys, reaching over to grab his prosthetic and lift it up. Rhys, not knowing what else to, let him move the limb as he wanted while shooting questioning glances at Marcus, which were again ignored as the engineer shifted his focus to his arm.
"Get him a new one of these. Keep it a nice Hyperion yellow, though, it's good advertisement when he's out doing whatever boring shit his life consists of." Rhys squawked in annoyance and tried to yank his arm away from Jack, but the CEO's hand clamped around his wrist, effectively trapping him. "Upgrade the software in his ECHOeye too. For I know, this guy's running Windows 95 in that skull of his."
"I am not-"
"Course' not, pumpkin." Jack dropped his arm, allowing Rhys to take control of it again. He turned it this way and that, extending it and curling it back up. His elbow squeaked and he was reminded that he had yet to buy that damn oil. Both Jack and Marcus stared at him when they heard the noise, both of them sharing a look of disbelief. Marcus even scoffed at him.
"Really? Got priceless Hyperion tech literally wired into your meat sack of a body and you can't even take care of it? I should yank that right outta your undeserving, lanky corpse." Jack sneered at him, shoving his hands into his pockets as Rhys' face flushed in shame and his mouth gaped open like a goldfish. The implication of calling his body a corpse was not lost on him.
"I'm sorry, sir! I just, I lost my oil recently and I haven't had the funds to replace it." Rhys looked at his shoes, the floor, the questionable stain to the left of Jack's boot, anywhere but the CEO's face. He gulped, keeping his head down. "I'll get more first thing after I get paid, sir, I promise."
Before Jack graced him with a verbal response, his hand met the back of Rhys' head with a hard slap, almost knocking Rhys forward into Marcus when he lost his footing.
"Don't let my shit get ruined, Rhys." Rhys rubbed the back of his head where Jack had hit him, frowning at no one but himself. Great. Jack was in a decent mood before this, and now he had tipped him into something worse.
They left the labs after Rhys was measured for a replacement and his ECHOeye evaluated. Despite Jack's teasing, his software was nearly up to date and needed minimal upgrades until it was running perfectly, which Rhys was grateful for. Having any sort of plug in his port was weird, and he'd rather have one attached for as little time as possible. Jack was still mad at him, or at least annoyed, by the time they said their goodbyes in the elevator. Or, Rhys said goodbye as he got off on his floor and was met with a glare from Jack as the doors closed again, ready to take the CEO up to his personal floor.
Rhys sighed, running a nervous hand down his front, and turned to walk to his office.