“Jack! Veri is waiting for you!”
“I know, sis!”
“Hurry! Hurry! It’s not polite to make a lady wait, son!”
“Relax! I’m coming, Mom!”
Jack nearly tripped down the stairs as he pulled his shoes on while moving down them. He had woken up late today, which was usually a bad sign, but that wouldn’t stop him from seeing his sick grandmother in the next town over. It would have been quite the trek, under normal circumstances, had he not had a friend who could fly. She was a cyborg named Veri, and she had been a very close friend of his since childhood.
“Sorry, Veri!”
“It’s fine, Jack. Take your time. I don’t mind the wait.”
Veri replied with a smile as she sat down on the wooden stairs outside. She played with a picked flower between her fingers casually, as a bee continued to buzz around her.
She had silky white hair that ran down past her shoulders and blew in the wind. She was a normal human female in her teens, in appearance anyway. The only things that gave her away as a cyborg, were the Xs she had instead of regular pupils, and her strong looking metallic chest, which was a metal plate created to protect her vital organs. It ran from her upper chest all the way down to her lower abdomen, but it was bent outward at the upper chest, as an aesthetic choice she made to mimic a woman’s chest. This plate could be removed by unfastening the top and bottom clips and pulling it upward. Her arms and legs were equally metallic, but still human in appearance, with soft white synthetic skin that ran over them. Despite this appearance, her entire body was capable of the regular senses a human had, thanks to highly developed nerves that ran like cords to even the metallic plate in her chest. These nerves could be disconnected from the metal, in order to upgrade them to accommodate the growth of her human body, but they could still be damaged and couldn’t be removed from her internals. Despite her soft skin in both feel and look, her metal limbs were actually extremely durable, in comparison to a human’s. She had a massive dense plate hidden beneath the flesh of her back, that was nearly impervious to any form of damage and acted as a sort of shock absorption, protecting her skin from blunt force trauma as well. Her most vulnerable areas would be her throat, face, and other human parts, that made up her torso, that were not protected by metal.
The bee landed upon her arm angrily and tried to sting her, but it’s organic stinger did absolutely nothing to her strong synthetic flesh, before it gave up and buzzed off.
“Veri, dear! You’re sitting right above a beehive! I’ve been meaning to get it moved from under the staircase, but my husband has been far too busy!”
“Mom, I said I’d remove the damn thing two days ago!”
“No, Jack! I don’t want you to get stung!”
“I’ll get it.”
Veri replied casually as her eyes focused upon the shaded underside of the staircase and spotted the massive beehive. Jack’s mother caught her arm, before she could reach under to grab it though.
“Now… cyborg or not… you’re still a young woman, Veri! And, that is certainly not a job for a young lady!”
“Oh… are bees that dangerous?”
Veri’s eyes focused upon the beehive, before her survival module gave her a 60% chance of being stung on her human flesh, unless she took evasive maneuvers while handling it. Despite that high chance of a wound, the hive’s threat level was rated as negligible. Of course, taking evasive maneuvers so close to a house, would not be possible without unintended crossfire damage.
“That’s not the point, Veri! I’m not having my son’s girlfriend getting stung! Now, get out here, JACK, and stop making this beautiful young lady wait!”
Jack stumbled out with a brightly flushed face and clumsily tripped down the stairs, before Veri caught him with expert speed and skill.
“Thanks… Veri…”
Jack said with a deeper blush, before he turned toward his mother.
“She’s not my!”
“Save it! You better get going. I packed you two a travel lunch. I’m sure with Veri being so fast in the sky, there was no need, but I still don’t want you two to get hungry.”
Jack’s mother handed him a giant backpack, before she urged him forward.
“Mom! It’s heavy as hell! How much did you pack in here!?”
“Can’t you thank me just once, Jack? I did raise you, after all…”
His mother pouted and calmly walked through the angry bees, as if they were a normal occurrence to her.
“Mam! There is an 80% chance you’ll get stun if you stand there too long!”
Veri’s warning went unanswered as Jack’s mother got stun a moment after she had finished saying that.
“It’s fine… barely felt it…”
His mother waved her arm around and felt the lump on it, before she pulled the stinger out and walked inside.
“Damn it… why not just let me get rid of it… Mom?”
Jack mumbled as he watched his young brother and sister playing with the angry bees from the other side of the screen door. They seemed to be completely oblivious to the danger just on the other side.
“Jack…”
“What is it, Veri?”
“We have a 50% chance of being stung, unless we…”
Jack took Veri’s hand and dragged her forward, running just far enough that the bees gave up the chase.
“Looks like we won that coin toss, huh?”
Jack said to Veri with a smile, as he held her hand.
“Yeah… only… by we… I meant you. They had a 0% chance of stinging me, from that distance.”
“Right…”
Jack playfully shoved Veri, who responded by shoving him back a bit.
“Man… it seems like just yesterday, that we were walking to school and stuff together, right? What are you going to do… now that we’ve graduated?”
Jack said with a trembling voice.
“Oh… me? I’m… not sure.”
“Oh… umm.. me neither. Guess… I should probably get a job… right? Or… should I attend college? I just… don’t know.”
He came off as weak, because Jack still didn’t know what he wanted to do, and he felt that Veri might actually leave their small village, and go find work like all of the other cyborgs did. They just seemed so much better than human ability, that it was kind of scary. In short, he didn’t want to lose her, and that was making him rather anxious. He just didn’t know what to do, or more importantly, what Veri wanted him to do.
“We’ll have to make a plan together, after we get back, huh?”
Jack couldn’t hide the immense cherry red blush that overcame his face in that moment. He was so relieved, but also so embarrassed, upon hearing how much she cared for him.
“Yeah… sure…”
They walked far out into a wide-open field, quite far from the main road, before Veri activated her flight protocol. Her grand angelic like energy wings sprung forth from the long metallic rods upon her back, but Jack was more preoccupied with picking the tick off of her shoulder.
“Oh… I didn’t see that one.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good at finding them.”
Veri’s eyes flashed quickly around as she scanned Jack’s entire body from head to toe. She finished picking six ticks off of him, with insanely fast movements, before she aimed her hand at the sky and blasted the ticks far off into the distance.
“You showoff…”
“I’m not… I just don’t like… to kill things… is all…”
“I was just kidding, Veri. You’ve been acting kind of different lately, you know that?”
“Oh? How so?”
Veri gazed into his eyes, which caused Jack’s pupils to widen in response. Although her sensors picked this slight movement up as romantic attraction, Veri was too embarrassed to say how she really felt about him.
“You’re more… mature… I suppose? But, you’ve kind of lost that sense of humor you used to have.”
“Oh… you think… so?”
“I was just kidding! You’re still pretty weird sometimes, hahaha!”
“Jerk…”
Veri’s wings continued to burn outward from the long metal rods upon her back, before she suddenly realized she had just lit a nearby tree on fire with the powerful energy bursting forth from her back.
“Oh dear! Oh, me, oh my! Help me put it out, Jack!”
“Oh, me, oh my? You been listening to my mother again!?”
Jack shot back at her like a dagger as he threw buckets of play sand from the nearby park. It took him and her nearly fifteen buckets full, but they eventually put the tree out, while leaving a large black scar deep within it.
“I’ve never actually seen you do that flight thing before, so I suppose… that was my fault for distracting you, huh?”
“Kind of, but let’s move further out…”
Veri reactivated her flight protocol near the center of the field and pulled Jack closely against her chest, which caused him to blush.
“Hold on tight.”
“Wait… don’t you lock me in or something!? VERI!”
“I do, but I’d rather not get jostled around. Also, put your goggles on.”
Jack was fastened against her body, before he wrapped his arms around her and strapped on his goggles. Her takeoff was rather tame, much unlike what he had expected, but after they flew up a couple of hundred feet, she immediately jutted forward with intense speed. The view of her powerful light blue energy wings pulsing behind her, the clouds above, and the wide-open blue sky, were such a marvelous sight for him. Their tiny village below became more and more distant, nearly ant sized, as they flew on ahead.
“MAN! THIS IS SO COOL! WHOOO!”
“I suppose so… but you just spat in my face…”
“Uhh… sorry…”
They were able to speak clearly to one another, because Veri had a gas-like shield built in, that dispersed a lot of the wind blasting against them.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
At the speed they were going, it really wouldn’t take long before they got to the next village over. The trees beneath them seemed to fly by like they were alive, which distracted him from the still rather heavy wind blasting against his back.
“Hey… HEY!? JACK! JACK!”
“What!? You’re freaking me out, Veri!”
Jack tried to turn around as he heard some kind of pulsing sound, but he couldn’t while strapped against Veri’s chest. Veri’s sensors had seemingly gone crazy, as the threat level went to a 100% chance of mortal damage, unless she activated her counter aerial defensive maneuvers, which she couldn’t do while holding Jack. She had shields just for this sort of situation, but the issue was, she had no idea where the threat was coming from, as she glanced all around them. The only thing she could do was shield her front, as it was the most vulnerable to damage, thanks to her chest, organs, and Jack. After doing so, the threat level dropped to severe damage, but the chance of being struck stayed at 100%, despite her trying to dive down lower.
ZAP! A stream of highly volatile energy blasted Veri from behind, as if it were fired by a powerful cannon. Her wings were vaporized as the beam pulsed through them in a steady stream, but she had managed to dodge the blow to her back, with inhuman reaction speed. The explosion of her energy fueled wings launched them flying toward the ground, and she quickly barreled out of control.
“Hold on, Jack! Don’t let go!”
“Veri! What the hell happened!?”
“I don’t know!”
Veri ignored the chances of her survival doubling from 33% to 66%, if she were to drop Jack. Just the sight of that statistic coming from her survival module, caused her to angrily clench her teeth hard, and she only gripped Jack tighter in response. She scanned the area around them for any way to break their fall, even if it meant breaking one of her limbs in the process.
Jack hung on for dear life as they both spiraled faster and faster toward the hard ground. His life flashed before his eyes, as he saw the ground quickly approaching them. With a lightning-fast reaction speed, Veri managed to kick off of a tree branch, which snapped under the strain and flung them toward a gaping chasm, in the rocky terrain. It was so deep and dark, that it looked as if it had no bottom.
-This is it… this is the end for us… isn’t it? If we’re dying here… it won’t be before I tell Veri how I really feel!
Jack summoned all of the strength inside of him, as the light that shined down upon them, was swallowed up more and more by the darkness that now held dominion.
“Veri! I love you!”
“I… I love you too, Jack!”
They spiraled down further and further into the darkness, falling faster and faster, into the nearly endless chasm. Veri would grab onto patches of moss and whatever else she could, but they all quickly gave way. It was just a perfectly smooth cylinder beneath the surface, as if it were manmade. Seeing that Jack had a 99% chance of dying if he remained upon the bottom, Veri climbed over him desperately, until she held him above her own body. After what seemed like an eternity of falling deeper and deeper yet, the entire dimly lit world around them disappeared with a loud CRASH!
***
Jack came to, his head bloody and pounding. He could only barely move, as he willed his limbs to do so. He coughed heavily, which caused him great pain for some reason. It took him a moment to realize it, but he could hear someone crying. A woman. Who it was, or why they were crying, seemed distant to him.
“Wait…”
Veri’s cyborg eyes flickered repeatedly, as tears dripped from them and ran down her cheeks. The metal plate that protected her chest was crushed inward from him landing on top of her, and he didn’t know what to do. It would take a cyborg mechanic to fix her plate, but he was more worried about her vitals. The human parts of her, were just as vulnerable as his, after all.
“Oh, God! Veri! Veri!”
His voice echoed in the dark chasm, a stream of light still shining down upon a small area around him, before Veri stopped crying. The light in her eyes grew dimmer and dimmer, before they eventually went out altogether.
“Wait… no… that can’t… be… Veri… Veri…”
-What does that mean? Tell me she’s not… she can’t be… dead…”
As he attempted to move, his entire body recoiled in shock, because of the intense pain radiating from his stomach. Each breath he took was labored, but he chose to get up anyway. It was really cold and damp, but he could see some nearby trees growing out of the soft soil around them, just barely in range of the sparse sunlight from above. The only reason they hadn’t been crushed, was because they had landed on such a soft spot, compared to the crag like rocks around them.
“The least I can do… is make us a fire…”
Jack gathered up some fallen stick and wet grass, before he took the lighter out of his backpack, that his mom has packed for him. It took him a while, but he eventually got a small fire lit, as the light from above disappeared.
“Must be… night time… huh? Someone… must have… heard that… right?”
Jack nearly collapsed as he laid down beside Veri and rested his worn-out body. He felt so dizzy and uncoordinated for some reason, and his ribs felt broken, as a feeling of warmth ran down his chest and arm. His muscles were bruised and maybe even torn, and he was bleeding from his nose. For such a hard fall though, that was a miracle.
“Damn… what am I gonna do?”
Jack mumbled to himself as he saw that his cellphone had no service. He didn’t even know if the GPS would pick up his location down here, but it wasn’t like his mother would report them missing so soon either.
“Veri… you have to be okay… please… wake up… I need you…”
Jack couldn’t help but lament how helpless he was in this situation, but some slight movement beside them startled him into action. He looked up at the dark approaching figure, before he realized what could have been a beast, was actually a man.
“Damn… looks pretty bad. Good thing you had that fire lit though.”
The large man tried to smile down at him, but his smile lacked any confidence.
“For such a huge fall though, you both must be blessed by something greater than mankind. You have guardian angels or something?”
“How did you find us!? No! It doesn’t matter! Help her, please! I’m, begging you! Help her!”
“Calm down, kid. You’re the one that needs help. I just followed the sounds of the woman’s crying, but then she suddenly stopped. It was hard following the echoes, but without them, it was really hard to know where you had fallen. This damned chasm is nearly a mile thick, after all. Thankfully though, you lit a fire. It was like a beacon to me, because of how dark it is down here.”
“You followed… her… crying…? Oh God… how long?”
“Not long. Maybe ten minutes. I sprinted the whole way here, so you owe my old ass one big time.”
The man sat down by the fire, covered in his own sweat, as he breathed deeply.
“Veri is hurt!”
“She’s a cyborg, kid. She’ll make it. Her plate got messed up pretty badly, but she wasn’t crying because of the pain.”
“How do you know that!?”
“You sure are dense, boy. She was probably crying because she thought you bit it! That’s why she stopped when she saw you were still alive. You do look like shit, after all. Do you not notice just how much blood you’re losing? Your shirt is practically soaked in it!”
Jack looked down at his blood-soaked white T-shirt, before he grimaced and pulled it off. He hadn’t noticed the deep gash in his chest until the man spoke. It was still bleeding him dry, even as he sat there.
“I don’t suppose… you’re a doctor?”
Jack replied with shaky hands.
“I am actually. Not a very good one, but I can patch you up. I’m more of my team’s mechanic… or… was. I never thought I’d even get to use this little med kit.”
The man got to work stitching up Jack’s chest, which stung and burned like hell, before he did the same to his left arm. He set his twisted ankle, which caused Jack to scream out in agony, despite him biting down on a cloth, and that awakened Veri.
The intense moment ended in a split second, with Veri’s hand ending up around the man’s throat, dug in, and ready to tear it out, before she knew what she was doing. He merely stood there stunned with his hands still around Jack’s ankle.
“I… apologize…”
Veri said as she released her grip from the man’s throat, which left him gasping for breath upon his knees. If he hadn’t been a human, with very pure intentions, then his threat level wouldn’t have read as nonexistent. He would have been eviscerated in a single split second, and there would have been nothing he could have done to stop her. Despite that act, the man didn’t hold a grudge, because he knew what it was like to land down here.
“Man… cyborgs… have sure come… a long way… since I was on the surface…”
The man replied and breathed deeply, as he wiped the saliva from his lips.
“…”
Veri continued to scan the area, before she set her sights on Eric’s wounded body. She could see that the mortal damage to his chest and arm, resulting from her thick chest plate being bent and tearing through him, had been stitched up. The entire reason for her earlier crying, Jack’s certain death, had been alleviated by some random stranger.
With no words, Veri hugged Jack careful of her sharp chest plate.
“I was so worried, Veri! Your eyes went out… and I! I didn’t know what to do!”
“I’m sorry… I thought you were dead… I thought there was nothing I could do to save you… Jack… so I just… passed out…”
The man smiled as he watched them from upon an old decaying log. It had been a long while since he had seen his own wife and kids, but he could tell they had what made love work.
“Well, you landed in a good spot, at least. Probably the best spot around, actually. I don’t suppose, you could still activate your flight mode and get us out of here, girly? That cannon only fires at things in the sky.”
Veri shook her head with a sad expression upon her face, before she pointed toward her damaged back.
“Damn… shot your wings off… huh? Well, was worth a shot. Since you’re stuck down here, might as well come back to my camp, right? It’s just me, the rest of my crew passed over the years… we uhh… have a nice place… but we never managed… to…”
“Sounds good to me. Not like we have anything to lose, right Veri?”
Jack tried to play it tough as he spoke confidently, but the pain he was in was no joke. His entire body felt like it was on fire.
“That’s suitable…”
Veri replied as she constantly scanned the man before her. Despite her thorough examination, she could see no ill intentions he harbored. That was unusual, as even among people like law enforcement, would show up at about 2%. It was the look in their eyes and the inflection of their voice that gave her that information.
“Great. Veri, do you think you could lift Jack, or do you want me to!?”
Veri quickly and carefully lifted Jack onto her back, as her scan jumped the man before her up to a 5% threat level, due to his unusual question.
“I meant… no offense… geez…”
The man laughed off her intense reaction and glare, before he turned to lead him to his base of operations. All the while, he was ever so aware of her cyborg pupils, figuratively burning a hole into the back of his skull. Every movement, was calculated, as if it could be a sneak attack.
“I wouldn’t have patched Jack up, if I harbored ill-will, yah know? Keep those eyes on the lookout for any real threats. Lots of monsters down here, well, that’s what I call em, at least. They’re just local wildlife, but they’re a lot more evolved and violent than on the surface.”
Veri nodded her head as she scanned around them. There were threats here and there, but their threat levels were all highly elevated due to her damaged chest plate. In reality, none of them got near the 60% threat level they seemed to pose to her, unless she went out of her way to approach them while carrying Jack.
“I apologize… I’m just on edge right now, due to our damage.”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way, girly. I just don’t want either of you to get hurt, is all. Even I can get tripped up and fall into trouble, and I’ve lived down here ten years now. Well… maybe longer… I kind of lost count.”
“So, what’s your name, sir?”
“No need to speak to me with such a fancy title. The name’s Travis. You’re Veri, right?”
Veri nodded her head as they arrived at a large animal skeleton that was surrounded by a dark pond. It was absolutely massive in size, taking up the entire area before them, but it seemed to have a metal building built inside of it. It was all rather well done, not looking like patchwork at all.
“Here we are! Home sweet home! Aren’t you excited, buddy?”
Veri turned toward him and realized that Travis was speaking to a rock that he was holding in one hand. Due to this unusual occurrence, his threat level jumped up to 20%.
“Uhh…”
Veri tried not to be rude, as she didn’t want to elicit a negative response, but she couldn’t help but find his actions to be rather demented.
“Oh… well… I’ve been alone down here a long time… I have a saber-toothed dog too… I swear! I just keep Rocky for a bit of company, when I can’t bring Duster along! You understand?”
“Yeah…. Uhh… sure…”
“People get lonely! A pet is a pet! Whether he’s stationary or not!”
Travis laughed his own words off, as he helped Veri step into the boat, so they could cross the underground pond to his base. It didn’t take them long before they arrived at the entrance, which Travis opened with some kind of switch. Before entering himself, he reached back and helped Veri climb out of the rocking boat.
“Thanks…”
“No problem. Make yourself at home. I have plenty of living quarters, food, and supplies. For now though, why don’t I take that chest plate of yours?”
Veri covered her damaged chest plate with her arms and grimaced at his advance toward her.
“It needs to be fixed, right? That can’t be comfortable for you, even if you are a cyborg. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Veri tapped her foot anxiously onto the ground as the pain continued to grow within her chest. The nerves were being slightly crushed, but she didn’t want to remove it due to how vulnerable it made her. Her organs and nerves were just on the other side of it, after all.
“I won’t even look. You can take it off and hand it to me, and I’ll go fix it up. Okay?”
Travis turned his back to her and stared straight ahead, as he heard her undo the two latches that held her plate to her body. She slid its bent frame up the best she could, before the sound of metal grinding against metal could be heard. Eventually, it slid out from her chest, leaving her heart with her energy core pulsing in view. Jack quickly covered his eyes, as he could only imagine how he would feel being laid bare like that. Before he did though, he could see snake like cords moving around, which he realized were probably her nerves.
“This will take me just a bit. I don’t suppose you have the original blueprints installed or on you? I can take the blueprints via Bluetooth.”
“I… do… but… what is Bluetooth?”
“Oh darn… ancient tech to you, huh? You have a physical copy by chance?”
“Yes… but the physical copy… is the only one I have and…”
“If I could have it, that would really help. I don’t know the original dimensions and what not.”
Veri eyed the man, who still had his eyes pointed away, before she removed the blueprint from her pocket and handed him it. What she didn’t like, was that his threat level was now 100%, which meant he could defeat her without her chest plate. That didn’t account for him being passive though, which he was.
“Thanks. With this, it might only take me a couple of hours. I’ll have to heat it up and see if I can’t get a mold with these exact dimensions. It’ll be as good as new.”
The man took off his thick jacket and tossed it to her, which she put on and buttoned up, before he walked back into his forge and got to work. That single act, caused his threat level to drop to 40%, as her now vulnerable organs were sufficiently shielded.
“Jack… you can open your eyes now.”
“Oh… uhh… sure…”
Jack’s eyes focused upon her bright amber colored ones, before he smiled at her. He was so happy that she was okay.
“You know, I thought you… it really scared me… Veri…”
“Then it’s even… because… I thought you… did too.”
Veri gave Jack a quick peck on his cheek, as she held him close. Her blushing was rather evident, even if she wished her cheeks weren’t human enough to show her embarrassment of finally laying her emotions and feelings for him so bare.
“Oh… I’m so glad… you’re okay… Jack!”
Tears streamed down Veri’s face as her pent-up emotions practically followed them out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Jack reacted the same way and kissed her, before he noticed he was crying too. He wiped the tears from his eyes and blushed.
“You know… I wanted to tell you that… for such a long time, Jack. I was so scared… when I heard your confession as we fell… the thought that it came too late… it… it…”
“I know… me too…”
Veri climbed on top of him and nestled her head against his chest. Sharing their bodies’ warmth with an added blanket on top, they didn’t even need a fire to keep them warm, as they kissed one another upon the bed. Feeling so much returned affection, even with their wounds and excitement, it didn’t take either of them long to drift off into a deep sleep.