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In one of the many smaller streets branching off of the main ones a garage door was open, emanating from it was the sharp clang of a wrench hitting the concrete floor of the garage. Lee rolled out from under a sharply painted muscle car, he looked up at the clock above the door and sighed. It would be four very long hours before he was going to close the shop and leave. Lee was one of two people who worked here, and as much as the true owner was here, he might as well be the one running the place. Often the owner was there for the first ten to twenty minutes int he morning before he left and went about his own business for the rest of the day. It was like he just made sure Lee came to work before leaving.

I could seriously use a hand around here, he thought as he looked at the other two cars sitting in the garage, lined side to side across the three car garage. This car however was his priority seeing as it had the biggest problems. Lee had been told to change out the transmission and set the front end alignment. And with a car like this, any story was possible about how it ended up like that. The other two were normal sedans, one needing the belts checked and the other needing a simple oil change. Lee was at least thankfull that the garage was well stocked with tools and parts.

A loud smack echoed from the office at the end of the garage that caught his attention quickly. It was one of two things, the front door, or the 'Help Wanted' sign in the window. Grumbling as he snagged a roll of duct tape from the top of the tool box he walked into the office to find the sign face down on the floor. Subtly cursing under his breath he taped the sign to the window. "Now let's see you fall down," he spoke uneededly to the sign as it would no longer fall now. Sighing he laid back down on the creeper and rolled back under the car.

((><; Sorry.))

Arden had continued to walk, with his familiar smile, heading twards his morther's shop, he slowed only slightly as he watched two girls seem to have a short conversation, in which one hurried back into the shop, but moments later as the other one slipped off, he saw the other girl walk of. He gave an odd look at the thought of this site, and kept his smile, until he slipped into the shop.

His mother had to be around here somewhere. "What're you doing letting costumers go without a purchase." He laughed softly as he greeted his mother. She gave him a soft smile, and pushed her hair back, piling some stuff to put in the cellar, into his arms. She mummbled something about being too busy at the moment, and then hurried off.

Arden laughed lightly, and then lugged the stuff down the dark stairs, and settled himself into a chair. Now he could be calmed, he laid his head back, and closed his eyes. His purple streaked bangs fell back behind his ears as he let out a soft yawn. He then pulled himself up, he knew his mother would need help, so he headed back up into the shop.

Aireth glanced down at the man that had rolled from under the car with her icy grey eyes. "I want the job." she said cooly and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "or do you think that a woman can't do a man's job?" she smirked beneath her black veil-like mask and folded her arms across her chest.

She hoped that he would hire her. She needed to get that nosy woman out of her business some how. She didn't like to be studyed or anything like that. She was a secretive person and somewhat anti-social, a bit cold too.

She stared cooly down at the man as she waited for an answer. Judging from this place, he had probally been brainwashed by that b@sterd Ace and would turn her down just for the simple fact that she WAS a girl. Oh did she hate Ace with a passion, she couldn't wait to expose him and take him down. Yang was just itching to get him out of office and take over, leading the people back to individuality. Yang was the secret orginization that devoted itself to making sure Ace doesn't become too greedy and start changing people's looks.

At first her tone struck him as odd, and then she followed the tone with the attitude which caught his attention even more, no way was this chick aceist. Normally a woman would never even attempt to get the job, let alone come in here alone. A smirk spread across his face, there was something about this girl that he liked. No, it wasn't that she looked good, she had guts, individuality.

"Don't jump to conclusions lady," he said as he got off the creeper and walked across the garage and towards the office. Half way to the office he motioned for her to follow. Lee stepped behind the desk, half-way reaching for the mountain of applications that had been printed out. The peculiar thing being that his hand came to rest on the semi-automatic pistol beside that. The firearm was his, the owner had no idea of it's presence either. Lee shook his head as he felt the weight of the pistol when he slipped it behind his back, covering it with his shirt.

He decided against an application, he'd just do the informal 'interview' or whatever his boss wanted done himself. So instead of having her come back to the office he walked back across the garage again and leaned back on the hood of the muscle car he had been working on. By now the pistol he had was practically forgotten. He had carried it there so many times before it was almost natural to him. "Now, I want to hire you, but I can't soley on that reason. How much do you know about cars?"

For a moment he had one of those bad 'gut feelings' though he wasn't sure what to make of it at the moment. She had looked back at the cans either because she had some buddies back there, or she thought someone was back there. Either way it gave him reason to be suspicious of both. Shaking the thought off for the moment he smirked, "Sure, you got the job I guess. Just show me you know how to work is all." Lee finished by pointing to the dark blue sedan with belt noise issues, nothing big. "Take care of the belt noise on that car and you've got the job. And if you can't find the tool you need here," he paused for a second, "Well, if you can't find the right tool I'd suggest not working here."

Slightly laughing to himself he got pushed off from the car and headed to the office again. Except this time he didn't stay in the main office, he moved to the back where the private offices were. While there were only two 'official' people running the store there were three offices, one that was known to be unused to the public. The third office had no windows, and a very high grade, heavy, lock and dead-bolt on the door. The door itself differed as well, it was made of a heavy metal, just painted over to look like the other doors in absence of the windows. The keys stayed put in his pocket, the owner didn't even have a key to the room.

That was just one of the agreements he made with the owner, since Lee was the only one here most of the time he was allowed use of the third office for anything he wanted. He was also allowed to modify the room however he wanted as well. It was rather obvious he had used those priviledges to his advantage.

Stepping up to the door just before that, his office he stepped in just for a moment before returning to the garage with a grey mechanics uniform. Nothing special, just a shirt and pants, something that could be dirtied up without expense. "Here," he said and set the clothes on the hood of the second, red, sedan. Shortly afterwards he was already back under the muscle car and a dull thud against the floor signaled he had the old transmission out.

She cast one finaly icy glance at the trashcans before ignoring the spare clothes he had provided and walked over to the car. She opened up the hood of the car and let out a sigh. First she would check the alternator dive belt; this can be done whenever the cooling system is serviced. Since, it hadn't been running, it was cool enough. She then had to check the belt tension using a belt tension gauge. Unfortunatly, she did not have a belt tension gauge, so she had to press down on the belt with her thumb midway between tow pulleys, it deflected more than 1/2", it was too loose. The belt should also was inspected for signs of wear. She then checked for oil, grease or hard glaze on the underside of the belt; any of these can cause it to slip on its pulleys, resulting in reduced output from the alternator. Another sign of a worn belt is squealing noise, like he had told her what was wrong with it. To find the source of the squeal, she would have to apply aerosol belt dressing to the belt. She glanced around for a moment for the spray and spotted it sitting on the floor. She picked it up and applied it to the belt. She removed the belt from the axel and examined it, her hands were covered in grease, but she didn't care at the time. Her eye was caught by a small piece of something pink and sticky. She removed it from the belt and examined it, it was a piece of gum. She frowned and placed the belt back on the axel. What the...why was there gum on the belt? she thought crossily as she shut the hood of the car. "Done." she muttered and shot him a cross look as she held up the gum. "What's this?!" she growled cooly and cast him a rather venomous look. "This was what was making the belt screech."

Arieth waited until he rolled under the car before she shot him yet another venomous look. She barely knew the man and already she wanted to strangle his greasy little neck.

She let out a sigh and picked up a piece of rag to wipe of her hands as well as the grease on the hood of the car. It came off fairly easily, but not so much on her hands. She bit her lip, inorder to control the urge to slap the man across the face.

"I'll be back later then. I have business to attend to." Aireth said cooly and walked out of the garage. She glanced around and disapeared into a dark alleyway.

Aireth stopped and glanced at the woman from the corner of her eye. "Not an Aceist? What ever gave you that idea." she smirked cooly. "Alright, I'm listening, speak while you have my attention. I have business to attend to." she replied cooly and folded her arms across her chest and turned to face her, a smirk hidden beneath her mask. "First, tell me your name, then, tell me what you want." she demanded cooly, she had little patience with loud mouthy, nosy people like this woman.