Season 1, Episode 6 - The Tree Plot XXI - "The Cagayake Girls"

Russet - the nicest non-Rddhi district in the capital. If it weren’t for lack of a general feeling of Rddhi diffusing throughout the district, the average person might mistake it for Elizabeth Pond - the long tree-lined avenues, the elevated rails, the easy-going lifestyle of the middle class who lived here.

And, of course, the corners where all the unpleasantries had been pushed away. After Audrey, Lynn, and Mackenzie's train passed the last nice station and they got closer to the impoverished, neighboring district of Waban, the rail laine entered a soot-filled factory area, hundreds of chimneys belching smoke into the sky. Cars gave way to horse-drawn carriages, tree-lined avenues gave way to cracked roads, gray skies gave way to dark skies filled with smog.

With Mackenize as their guide, the trio of girls got off at a particular station and stepped down the rusting metal stairs into the city below. With no time to change, they remained in their suits, Audrey wearing a backpack with the broken Golden Trowel inside.

Lynn cocked her head at a group of homeless people sitting against a wall near the bottom of the stairs, resembling the dying weeds sprouting around them. “Don’t you think we stand out a bit?”

“We’re just providing some sunshine to an area in need of it!” Audrey proclaimed, her pleasant voice providing an odd juxtaposition to the constant clanging of factory machines in the background. She approached one of the homeless men and fished a dollar bill out of her pocket.

“Here you go!” she exclaimed cheerfully.

The homeless man made no reaction.

Audrey gave him a quizzical look, then tried to slide the dollar bill into his hand. She ended up smushing the dollar bill into his seemingly frozen hand until she accidentally dropped it onto the yellow grass below. The homeless man made no motion towards it; Audrey decided just to leave it there.

An odd look came over her face and then she sniffed the air for confirmation. “Sunshine, sunshine,” she repeated to herself when the smell of fresh urine arose from another homeless man nearby. She squinted her eyes at the sky; smog blocked out most of the sun.

A prompt urging from Mackenize got her back on course - there was no time to waste!

With a local map in her hands, Mackenzie led the way. Lynn replayed the telephone conversation with Babs as they navigated the mean streets of industrial Russet.

Lynn, heeeellllloooo! Long time no-see! Of course, I saw you last Saturday at the Combat Simulation. We make one helluva team, don't we!

Oh, that whole business with the New York Minutes? Don't worry about it, Lynny boy. Water under the bridge and all that jazz. I'm onto bigger and better things, no point in holding a grudge against someone cute like you! And I'm not just saying that to earn brownie points!

Cradling the phone in her hand in Mackenzie's apartment while her friends watched, Lynn resisted to urge to blush, since an attractive girl saying she looked cute was indeed a weakness of hers.

Someone who can provide a quick fix for something gold and something broken? I know just the guy! All I need from you is a study guide for our next biology quiz and a favor!

Don't worry, Lynny boy. A favor's just a favor. It's to be determined, though.

Anyway, there's a guy named Rodolfo working out of Russet. You won't find his place in the phone book, though...

Lynn scratched her head, wondering why she had to mess up simple things like microwaves and trowels. To get her mind off of things, she took a long look at the cracked streets and rundown brick buildings around them.

“I thought Russet was the nicest non-Rddhi district in the capital,” Lynn said, carefully avoiding stepping on broken glass as they headed down a road.

“It is,” Mackenize said. She kept her eyes focused in a cycle of looking down at the map, then up at their surroundings.

“This doesn’t look all that nice,” Lynn said. At Mackenzie’s prompting, they took a turn and headed down a big side street. Several stray dogs ran by; Audrey tried to pet one, but it ran off in search of scraps.

“I guess everywhere has poor people,” Audrey sagefully observed.

Lynn scratched her head again. “Do you think we can ever make a city where there aren’t any poor people?”

“If we push them somewhere else, maybe,” Mackenzie dryly said. “Enough philosophy. We’re on a mission.”

Audrey and Lynn dutifully saluted.

The trio headed down more sidestreets, the layout of this part of Russet turning out to be a winding maze. Mackenzie seemed like an able navigator and they found their destination in record time.

They looked at the brick building on the street corner, which stood a couple of stories high. It looked seemingly abandoned, with mossing growing up the sides, reaching broken windows at the top. They heard more dogs barking from somewhere.

“You know, I’m not the brightest bulb in the shed, but I’m confused about something,” Audrey said as they gazed at the door. “Using Rddhi to repair things is a super-duper handy-dandy skill, right? So why is this Rodolfo guy doing it out of somewhere like here?”

“Perhaps it’s too super-duper handy-dandy,” Mackenzie mumbled. She didn’t like the feeling in the air. Her sixth sense - the Rddhi one - sent a tingling feeling through her, as if they were being watched. Perhaps they were.

Audrey and Lynn saw a brief spark of Rddhi flash through Mackenzie, then felt her invisible waves gently lap at them. When her survey was complete, Mackenzie rubbed her chin. “I can’t sense anything with my Cavity Magnetron. Nothing in the normal Rddhi grid, either.”

“That’s the name you’re going with?” Lynn asked. Mackenzie ignored her.

Audrey straightened her black tie. “I’ll take point.”

Mackenzie raised a hand. “But you’re the one carrying the trowel-”

But Audrey was already stepping through the door of the building. Mackenzie looked at Lynn, who just shrugged and smiled. The two girls followed her inside.

They found themselves in a decaying lobby, with long cracks running up and down the walls. Audrey poked her head around. “Hmm, looks empty-”

Someone suddenly grabbed her from behind. As she yelped for help, Rddhi flashed through Mackenzie and Lynn and they turned to face the attacker. But they were too late - a man had hidden behind the opened door when they entered, and he now had one arm around Audrey’s neck, the other hand pressing a gun into her temple.

“Did Hikari send you?!” he screamed out, pushing the gun even harder into Audrey’s head. “I won’t hesitate to shoot!”

Mackenzie tensed; the man noticed this. “Don’t think about activating your Rddhi. The second I sense it, your friend’s gone.”

“Don’t listen to him!” Audrey cried. “Just do it! Use your Rddhi right through me!”

Being their unofficial leader, Mackenzie naturally took over. She spoke in a steady tone, designed to calm the situation down.

“DROP AUDREY OR I’LL KILL YOU!”

Mackenzie would never be hired as a hostage negotiator.

Audrey got cold feet. “W-wait, don’t do that! I have so much to live for!”

Being the actually most level-headed, Lynn took over, raising her hands and speaking in a calm voice. “Let’s not do anything hasty.”

The man moved his eyes on her, never moving his finger off the trigger.

“My name’s Lynn,” she introduced herself. Her Rddhi stopped sparking. “We’re students at West Narragansett Technical Academy. We came here because we’d like to ask you to fix a symbolic tool for us.”

The man sized her up. Audrey managed to stop her whimpering. Mackenzie counted to ten in her head.

“So, you’re not working for the Sect of Steel?” he asked.

“We’re just students,” Lynn promised.

After a tense moment, the man relaxed his grip. Though he still had his gun raised, he pushed Audrey back over to them. She collapsed into Mackenzie’s arms, then separated herself, deciding to collapse into Lynn’s arms instead.

The man rubbed his head. “Well, I guess you’re no killers. And I’ve never heard of any students working for the Sect of Steel.”

He holstered the gun at his side. Now that everybody wasn’t freaking out, the girls got a good look at him. The man had a scar across his face and a mane of brown hair.

He smirked. “So, you must be in need of Rodolfo’s Repair Services, right?”

A few minutes later, the two pieces of the broken Trowel lay on Rodolfo’s desk in a back room of the building. With the overhead lighting broken, a nearby lantern provided them with light; all the windows either had their shudders closed or were boarded up by planks of wood.

While Rodolfo rummaged around for his goggles, Audrey and Lynn stood over the broken Trowel, curious looks on their faces. Audrey then glanced back at Rodolfo. “Are we allowed to ask about personal information?”

After a moment, Rodolfo shrugged. “Normally, no. But considering I’m about to skip town anyway, might as well tell someone my story.”

Audrey’s eyes lit up. “Thanks! I really want to know - why's a Rddhi user hiding out in an abandoned building?”

Lynn nodded. “I thought all Rddhi users got an easy retirement after their conscription periods.”

Rodolfo chuckled as he found his goggles in a closet. He grabbed a cloth to wipe them down. “Wouldn’t that be nice. I graduated from Cambridge, so you figure I would’ve.”

Now realizing they were speaking to apparent royalty, Audrey and Lynn closed their eyes and gave faux bows; had this been another form of media, Mackenzie would’ve smacked both of them on the noggins.

“Show some respect to the guy who’s saving our lives,” Mackenzie called out. She stood against a nearby wall with her arms crossed.

Audrey and Lynn opened their eyes and stood back up. “Sorry,” they said in unison.

Rodolfo slid the goggles over his head, adjusting them so he could see perfectly. From the ritualistic nature of that adjustment and the small grin on his face, Lynn suspected he had done that motion hundreds of times.

“I’ve read the papers - I know your Academy has a rivalry with Cambridge,” Rodolfo said. “And considering Cambridge sold me out, a little tomfoolery doesn’t bother me.”

“Sold you out?” Lynn repeated. He and Audrey stepped aside when Rodolfo arrived at his desk; they then peered over his shoulders.

“I fought in the First American War,” Rodolfo explained, moving the lantern closer to the Trowel. Both parts glowed under the light. “I have the ability to mend things, so they sent me to help out artillery pieces, tanks, airplanes - you name it.”

“That really is a super-duper handy-dandy skill,” Audrey said.

Rodolfo nodded. “Too super-duper handy-dandy. When we lost the war, New York demanded we hand over a registration of all Rddhi users. Rather than let New York know of me, the government officially listed me as killed in action, then set me loose in the Narragansett underworld. They told me they’d come find me once things settled down, but then the Quinetucket government took over.”

Audrey and Lynn quieted down for once, listening intently to his story. Mackenzie stiffened when she saw Rodolfo run his hands over the Trowel.

“But I didn’t actually mind,” Rodolfo continued. “It was fun, being on my own for a while. But, as the country kept lurching from one disaster to another, I started thinking - if I’m so good at mending things, why don’t I try mending the country? Right after the economy collapsed, I got in touch with an underground group of former and current soldiers known as the Sect of Steel.”

Rodolfo shook his head. “I was the oldest one there. The current soldiers were kids in their early twenties looking for their own war to fight. The former soldiers were older men and women who spent their time in the military during the Quinetucket and Pulaski years without a war to fight.”

“Is Hikari one of them?” Lynn asked.

“She’s their ringleader,” Rodolfo explained. “A Rddhi user and fellow graduate of Cambridge. Once her conscription period ended, she worked as a corporate enforcer before transitioning to sect leader. She wants nothing more than to lead New England in a war against the world.”

“Is that so bad?” Mackenzie questioned. The trio at the desk glanced back at her. “Shouldn’t we be trying to put the United States back together again? Better us than a successor country with no understanding of the American Dream.”

Rodolfo chuckled. “The members of the Sect of Steel think along the same lines. The line between patriotism and ultranationalism can blur pretty easily in today’s times. Commenting on it isn’t my place to say. However, to go about their war of reunification, they want to overthrow the government.”

Mackenzie raised an eyebrow. “Overthrow the government? But you just said they love their country.”

“They do. They love the country, but not its government.”

Lynn scratched her head. “But…isn’t that the same thing? How could we be a New England without the Presidential Administration?”

Rodolfo looked over the girls for a moment, then sighed. “The Presidential Administration’s own textbooks are the reason why a sect dedicated to overthrow them exists.”

The girls looked at him in confusion, but Rodolfo cracked his knuckles. “That’s enough out of me. I got a train to catch early tomorrow morning out of the city, so let’s finish up here so I got time to pack.”

“Why are you skipping town?” Lynn asked.

Rodolfo gave her a sad smile. “Well, Hikari and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on the whole war and overthrow business.”

With that, Rodolfo placed his hands on the broken sides of the Trowel. Audrey and Lynn’s faces shone with curiosity; even Mackenzie, still feigning disinterest, stretched her neck to see better. The energy in the room seemed to shift; the floor seemed to rumble, the lantern flickered on and off, and then all three girls felt a spark run between them.

Lightning flared from Roldofo’s hands, temporarily blinding all three of them; when they could see again, they saw a perfectly mended Golden Trowel resting on his desk.

“Wow!” Audrey exclaimed, clapping. Lynn started clapping too. Mackenzie resisted the urge to clap along and furrowed her brow.

“How’d you do it?” she questioned. “Where’d that matter come from to mend it?” She suddenly gasped and crossed her arms over her chest for protection. “You didn’t steal our life force or anything, did you?”

Rodolfo grinned and moved his goggles onto his forehead. “I didn’t do anything of the sort. Hasn’t anyone told you that the Rddhi is part science, part magic? Part rational data, part mystical belief? I converted pure Rddhi into this mended product.”

Lynn let out a whistle. “An ability like that must make you a lot of money.”

Rodolfo let out an empty chuckle. “Well, maybe if gambling wasn’t a thing…” He then held out his hand. “And, speaking of money…”

He beckoned for his payment. Audrey and Lynn looked cheekily at Mackenzie, but her hard stare blew away all of their greed.

Audrey swung her backpack off and reached inside of it, pulling out her Brady Bank. “And this was all my Christmas money, too…”

She pulled on the plug at the bottom of the piggy bank, but the plug remained firm. She pulled harder and harder until the plug came out with a satisfying pop - but, having held it the wrong way, all the money inside came out with an unsatisfying crash. Coins rolled around the room while dollar bills floated across the floor.

Lynn and Mackenzie knelt down to help her out.

“Well, it’s the least I can do,” Rodolfo supposed. He knelt down as well, groaning from the aches in aging joints.

Fortunately, that meant all four of them were kneeling on the ground when machine guns started firing in the room.