Terra felt like she was looking at the world through a thick puddle. She couldn’t feel her body, but that was a sensation she’d grown accustomed to. Sometimes she’d be able to make out a bright light or glimpse an arm, but most of what she could see was a garbled mess of colors. She tried calling out to anyone that would listen, but not even Neiman responded to her. The sinking sensation of being truly alone sank in but she had no outlet. She couldn’t cry or scream or curl up into a little ball. She simply existed.
Her vision suddenly flickered into focus and it took a moment for Terra to find her way out of her daze and into reality. She sat up abruptly, making sure her arm was still there and that she was, in fact, not drifting away into nothingness. And then she saw him. The last face she’d ever thought she’d be seeing; the face that had caused her world to turn on its head and killed Indo and Petri.
The rage that filled her was unmistakable and she could only utter a single word in response to seeing 895G again.
“You.”
She wanted to kill him, to make him pay for inciting that ambush, to make him feel the pain she’d felt when she saw the life leave Indo’s eyes as Petri held him, and cause him the same heartbreak she’d endured when she left Petri to die to save herself. So why was she hesitating from lunging at him and snapping his fragile human neck and ending her torment?
“Incoming explosive, one second.” Neiman quickly informed her.
Terra snapped out of her daze and jumped off the table she’d been laid on just as the far wall exploded, causing a very large man to come flying at her. Still disoriented from being suddenly woken up, Terra didn’t react in time to avoid the flying body and ended up on the floor with him. Shoving the groaning man off of her, she flipped the nearby metal table on its side just as four armed figures entered through the dusty remains of what used to be a doorway.
“Four hostiles, each with automatics and heavily armored. Two unconscious friendlies, I think, near the doorway. 895G is unconscious as well, to your right. Minor concussion. The man next to you is conscious and may of use. Black crystal still intact.” summarized Neiman. “The explosion opened up a panel in the wall that may have been a passageway before the renovation.”
Terra turned to the man she’d served as a cushion for and vaguely recognized him from somewhere, but pushed it out her mind until she didn’t have to worry about people attacking her.
“I’ll distract them, you get those three into that section of the wall. I’ll meet you there when I’m through.”
Without waiting for a response, Terra jumped out from behind her makeshift shield, immediately inciting gunfire from the four who’d entered the room. She could see two young men laying on the ground near each other, partially covered in concrete and dirt and metal, and although their vitals showed they were simply unconscious and not majorly wounded Terra couldn’t help but feel a pang of worry. An arc of electricity leaped across her vision, bringing her back to the bigger task at hand.
“They seem to have use of old world tech. Faraday’s armor, equipped with electric batons and EMP bullets. Don’t get hit with too many otherwise your systems will shut down. We are a robot after all.”
“What are EMP bullets? How many are too many?” Terra asked in shock, jumping out of range from a swinging baton, already regretting her choice to save the first people she saw.
“Just like in the name, these are miniature versions of the EMP disablers the Scouts and Patrollers use when they are faced with a technological threat. EMP bullets will disable small portions of your circuitry. Your own body repels all bullets, but these don’t need to break the surface in order to work. Get hit with enough and they may short-circuit you, which will permanently immobilize you.”
“Oh, great, thanks for telling me know now,” Terra said sarcastically, hearing the sharp metal tings of bullets ricocheting off her chest as the two of the four opened fire at her.
Terra jumped over a table, but instead of tipping it over and using it as a shield, she curled her metal fist around an edge and chucked it at the four. She managed to nail one right in the jaw and watched them go down and used that distraction to fling herself at one of the armed members of their team, swiping the gun out of their hand. They were completely prepared for that it seemed and they immediately drew out their baton and swung it down on her. Terra used her arm to block her head, caught in surprise when her black crystal suddenly spread out into the air and stopped the baton in the air before it impacted her arm.
Time seemed to stop for a moment as everyone took a second to figure out what their eyes were telling their brains. Terra could see the gears whirring in their heads as they were all trying to make sense of what that strange black thing that had emerged from Terra’s hand. Using this to her advantage, she swept the legs out from her current opponent and snatched the baton out of her hand. If they were using electrified weapons, then so would she.
“Aim for the joints where there’s no armor otherwise your attacks will be ineffective,” Neiman informed.
“ Yessir, whatever you say, sir.”
The other two snapped out of their daze when Terra had taken out yet another one of their compatriots, jumping into action and coming for her.
One quickly circled around to her left side, the one without the arm, and swung their baton at her torso. Although she blocked it with ease, she was surprised when she saw their other arm suddenly have some sort of clawed attachment that seemed to radiate energy lunge right below the place she’d blocked. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to block two attacks at once, she jumped backward, forming her black crystal into a ball and flinging it at her attacker and then recalling it, trying to catch them in the back but they managed to dodge out of the way at the last second.
Her attention was quickly diverted by the ringing of bullets against her back and she could literally hear sparks fizzling inside her chest and suddenly there was a lag between when she tried moving and when her body actually moved.
“Environmental echolocation malfunction. Temperature regulation malfunction. Spinal control running at 95%. We can’t take much more of this.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Terra commented as she dropped to the ground and rolled, a spray of bullets following her.
She ducked behind the table she’d thrown but had to quickly jump out of the way as the first assailant brought their baton down right where she’d stood, although she couldn’t avoid getting swiped in the ribs with the clawed mechanism.
“Spinal control at 74%. Power failure. Suggested course of action; enter sleep mode.” A robot female voice stated.
Terra didn’t have time to wonder what had happened to Neiman since she was too busy trying to get her body to move. The lag between her mind and body had gotten to two seconds now so she was having to guess where her attacker was aiming and dodge before the action even happened, which was impossible. She made it all of five seconds before her knees were knocked out from below her and the final blow from the baton to her left side caused her controls to shut down altogether.
“Spinal control failure. Immobile. Would you like to enter sleep mode?” The female voice asked.
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Terra tried to look up at least get a look at the human who had taken her down but her neck was locked in position and she could only look at their black metal-plated boots. She chastised herself for getting cocky since she’d been transferred to this new body and wondered what was going to happen to her. If she was going to be shut off, would she ever wake up again? Was this moment of defeat going to be her last memory? Was this short life really all she was going to get?
The feet that stood before her didn’t move, but to Terra’s surprise, the body that belonged to the boots suddenly crumpled to the floor like a ragdoll.
“Are you alright?”
895G’s face popped into her vision, his eyes full of concern, making it difficult for Terra to muster up the rage she normally felt when it came to him.
“Can robot’s get hurt?” A voice just out of sight asked. “I mean, it’s not like they can feel anything.”
“Stop yammering and help me carry it to the pathway. Who knows when the next round is coming in.” A gruff voice called out.
Terra saw the ground pull away as her body was lifted by two men. From her height now she could make out people’s faces, and the Scout was one of the ones carrying her along with the guy that was familiar somehow but she couldn’t place.
“Working on getting vocals back,” said Neiman as he popped back into her head. “Those batons in particular really did a number on you. I’m diverting full power to getting systems back online, so your vision might go black for a bit and you won’t be able to sense anything.”
Terra was immediately plunged into darkness. She was reminded of the place she and Alter once shared, but devoid of the floating lights. She tried looking around but she didn’t even know if she was since she could feel anything and all around her was the same shade of darkness. This was worse than not being able to mingle with the world of colors she’d been drifting through before. The darkness wanted to suffocate her. She was falling while not moving in an endless pit of black. For a moment Terra thought that maybe she had died and this was the thing that she’d somehow avoided when she transferred into the Efficiency body. Was death finally coming to take her back?
And the world was back again, although Terra found herself propped up against a dusty dirt wall instead of being inside a completely metal lab.
“Power is fully restored and all systems are back online,” Neiman said cheerfully.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” Terra muttered.
“Do what?” He asked innocently.
“Don’t ever leave me in the dark again.”
“Are you talking to us?” The Scout asked.
The four males had gathered around Terra and were staring at her with concern. Terra took the time to finally get a good look at her surroundings.
The passageway Neiman had pointed out had irregular walls and was lit only by the sliver of light that passed under the metal panel they’d replaced to hide the entrance to the tunnel. Even with Terra’s night vision, she couldn’t tell how far down the pathway went, and she suspected the reason the four chose a place this close to the lab was because they couldn’t see anything further than where they were now.
“Four more hostiles entering the room. I highly suggest you collapse the area near the entrance otherwise this place will be found relatively quickly.”
She got up wordlessly and the four men moved out of her way.
“What are you doing, we have to go that way!” One of the younger ones called out, pointing down the dark tunnel.
Ignoring him, Terra stood a few feet away from the entrance and looked for a weaker area of the wall. Neiman pointed out a small crack that had already formed from the weight of the rock itself and Terra pressed her palm against it, coaxing her crystal to melt into the small area. Once she was satisfied she had gotten the full extent of her crystal in the small crevice, she took away her palm and watched as her crystal solidified without her touch, causing the crack to widen just slightly and web out into different directions.
Pulling her arm back, Terra punched the weakness and heard a satisfying rumble as the cave around her began crumbling. Running away from the entrance, Terra watched from a few feet away as the rocks crumbled, plunging the cave into complete darkness. Well, for the humans at least, Terra’s night vision was working perfectly well so she could relatively well. Satisfied with her work, Terra recalled her crystal back into her hand and turned around to face the group to figure out the game plan.
“Uhh, did you do that on purpose? Did you seriously collapse the entrance on purpose?” The other younger male asked in disbelief.
“Oh, so you did want to get discovered by the four new fighters that were on the other side of that panel? My bad, let me start digging now so you can go meet your friends.”
“No! That’s fine, I think I just got over my fear of the dark anyway so there’s no need to dig or anything.” He laughed nervously and fumbled around with his arms outstretched ahead of him.
“And before we get any further in whatever this is,” Terra started, “I need to say something to 895G.”
At the sound of his name, his face froze and his eyes widened as if he was surprised to hear it. Terra walked right up to him and punched him square in the jaw, and although she made sure she adjusted the strength so that she wouldn’t actually break his bone, she was a little disappointed it didn’t knock him out.
“That’s for Indo.”
She punched him in the gut next, making him collapse to his knees.
“That one was for Petri. I will never forgive you for what you did to them.” Terra spat out. “But I’m not going to kill you yet because I just don’t feel like it.”
There was a moment of silence as the words hung in the air over 895G like a cloud.
“What the fuck is going on?” One of the younger males asked. “Jer, did you just hear what I heard?”
The other called Jer could only nod and stare into the darkness.
“I think I owe everyone an explanation.” 895G wheezed, groaning while he tried standing up.
“We can wait for the story,” the larger man said. “We need to focus on getting out of this place first. Combatant, I take it you can see in the dark. Please lead the way. Jeringy and Regal, grab onto each other and follow my voice, it’s best we don’t get separated.”
“So we’re not going to talk about a freaking talking Combatant and 895G, whoever that is? And whoever Petri and Indo were? At all? You're leaving us in the dark, literally.” Regal retorted.
“Yeah, for once I’m with him on this one.” Confessed Jeringy. “Brit, you know I always side with you, but this time I need to have answers before I move on. We’ve almost died way too many times to count and we seem safe now that there’s no entrance. Let’s just listen to what Eimose has to say.”
“How about you listen to what this Combatant has to say? You guys did save my life once, but I’ve technically done it twice already and I’ve only known you for about twenty minutes, and no one asks my name? Rude.” Terra said, annoyed.
“Alright then, what’s your name Combatant?” Brit asked in an exasperated manner.
“I don’t feel like telling you now.” Terra pouted. Just once she wanted someone to ask her for her name and not have to forcibly tell them. Was it really that strange for a robot to have a self-identity? Or for people to believe that she was just a girl trapped in this body without people thinking a faulty program was written?
“Alright, so we’re not getting the Combatant’s name then,” Brit concluded with a sigh. “Let’s just get a move on and let Eimose talk.”
A bit of fumbling around ensued as Regal and Jeringy first tried finding 895G in the dark in order to get a good seat, but they ended up sitting by the wall farthest from the Scout since they kept circling around into the walls. Brit just remained standing, leaning up against the wall nearest to him.
“You’re the one that I beat up and took the skull mask from! I remember you now!” She exclaimed, glad to finally place his face to the memory--it was just one less nagging thought in the back of her mind.
This seemed to catch everyone but the Scout off guard.
“What are you talking about. The one Brit fought was an Efficiency.” Regal claimed.
“Was being the key word there. Some complications ensued, which I’m sure 895G will tell you all about, and now I’m in this body. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about how he set up an am--”
“Terra.”
She whipped her head around at the calling of her name and was confounded to see that 895G was the one that had called her by her name. He’d never called her by her name when they traveled together and was floored to know that he’d actually remembered it.
“Terra, please let me tell the story. I promise I’ll share everything.”
The pain in the Scout’s eyes showed the truth; he was going to tell every detail of his story. Terra quieted her vocals and sat down on the floor in front of the Scout, glad to have a moment to sit and listen rather than running or fighting for her life.
The Scout opened his mouth and began telling the story of how he found himself at a landfill and how his life had taken a turn down a road he didn’t know existed.
Terra clung to his every word.