One nerve-wracking week later, Sonic Sentinel and I were cleared of wrongdoing; as it turned out, Carnage was the one who'd broken the rules in the first place by putting us in a headlock. Cilan and his team were subsequently fined and banned from fighting for five years, and to rub salt into the wound, Carnage was confiscated, his systems deactivated by the authorities to make sure no one but they could reactivate them when the five-year ban was lifted. I think they planned on selling Carnage for scrap, with the proceeds to go to charity.
A lot of the mechas, in fact, were starting to show signs of wear. Years of fighting had left most of them weary, and it was often hard for the older ones to forget they were no longer on the battlefield. Sonic Sentinel was of the younger generation, so he was less immune to the brain-snaps that the older mechas were starting to demonstrate, with Broad Scouter being an example. His last fight had almost resulted in the death of his opponent, Bright Star, and her pilot wasn't in much better shape. Aidan was now on suspension until Broad Scouter's systems were cleared, but he didn't mind too much. He was upset over Jenny's injuries, however, and once her parents had cleared it, he visited her in hospital whenever he could, much to Marissa's disgust. She and Aidan had dated once, but Aidan had found her too much of a handful, and no second date had eventuated. But Marissa had become obsessed with Aidan as a result, and she was not happy he was spending time with another woman when he could be with her, in her mind, at least.
Aidan wasn't having it; he took out an intervention order against Marissa when she ambushed him outside the hospital not long after he'd started visiting Jenny, and Marissa was even more furious. But with the order strictly enforced by the police, there was little she could do, and she vented her fury on her fanclub's forum, only to see it shut down within a week of the order being granted.
Marissa was incensed by now, but having been effectively hobbled, she was left to stew in her own juices. I first found this out when I bumped into her in the supermarket a few weeks after her forum had been shut down. "The hell you doing here?" she demanded, glaring at me as if she wanted to throw her can of tomatoes at me.
"Last I looked, the supermarket wasn't off limits to anyone," I said reasonably. That's when I noticed she was wearing a tan and grey uniform, and I winced, more for the colour choice than for the fact she was now working as a stocker.
My moderate response took the wind out of her sails, and she visibly deflated as she returned to her stocking duties. "Mum's pissed," she said dully. "Took away all my electronics, and she's made me take up this job so I can earn some honest money for a change. She says if I can behave myself, I'll be able to buy replacements."147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡclzlpWMwIk
I winced. Marissa's mother was a no-nonsense woman who punished infractions with creative inventiveness. I suspected she'd sold Marissa's electronics and had put the money away for a rainy day, and I actually felt sorry for Marissa. Not enough to lower my guard around her, but enough to make me realise she could be a decent person when she wasn't being a bitch. "Sounds rough," I said, as I picked out a can of tomatos from the next shelf over, not wanting to disrupt her work.
Marissa sighed. "It sucks," she said frankly. "Uncle Roger's the manager, and he's promised to come down on me like a ton of bricks if I put a foot wrong. I'm on thin ice for my behaviour as it is, and I really don't want to be stuck with a curfew."
I understood her meaning. "I'll leave you be," I said. "Truce?"
She paused, then shrugged. "Get on with you," she said, and I wisely left her to it, glad we'd buried the hatchet, after a fashion. I wasn't quite ready to take her on as a friend, but I felt in that moment we were no longer enemies.
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