Luke leaned up in bed the next morning. He didn’t want to waste time, getting up at eight sharp. All this shit that was going on… he’d beat it.

After getting dressed in his traditional smelly garb he walked outside. If he wasn’t able to find Crash today he’d likely give up on doing them in order and find Pat as soon as possible, looking for Crash when he could. He didn’t want to do them out of order, but he didn’t exactly have time to look for a bot for three days out of his week.

Now where to start… he would probably try the underground market, as he was unlucky enough to end up there with Lexa many times before he’d started the trials. As he teetered towards the crumbling entrance, Luke saw a few robots surrounding a strange object on the dusty ground. Upon closer inspection, it looked to be a box of robot components…

It was a box of… of circuit regulators. Which could only mean one thing.

“Ay! Out of my way you dumbasses! Gah… where is it…”

Luke didn’t even have to see Crash to know he was in the crowd of robots, ever looking for his circuit regulator. According to the timeline, he would only find it if Lexa died… which meant he had to find some way to find the stupid piece without that happening. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“But every journey begins with a single step…”

Luke muttered as he walked towards Crash, knocking him on the head. Sadly he’d not already met with Crash this time around, but he felt that the bot could take a lot of strangeness in one go. The one thing he’d have to watch out for was his violent tendencies. Since the regulator toned down his free will, among other things, the bot would be more prone to violent outbursts and crime. Something Luke was used to from the bot.

“Who the hell knocked!”

“Someone who wants to help you find your regulator. Actually, I might have a pretty good idea of where it is.”

“You know where my regulator is! Did you take it?!”

Crash grabbed Luke’s shirt collar and hoisted him up, but he forced himself to remain calm.

“The collectors, I’m sure they have it. They’ve been dealing with circuit regulators down here for a while now.”

“Hm, the collectors… Fine let’s go, but if you’re wrong I’m guttin’ ya!”

“Fair enough.”

Crash then allowed Luke to lead him to the stall that he remembered to be the one with Crash’s part. As long as nobody else had bought it he wouldn’t have to worry about being killed…

Once they approached the stall, the shady salesman behind the counter smiled, handing a tray of parts to a man in a long coat. Something glistened, and Crash’s robot eyes caught it.

“That’s my goddamn regulator!”

At the bot’s comment, the man in the long coat began to run, weaving in between people and stalls in his attempt to escape.

Crash, however, was not concerned with being cordial, blundering through stalls and knocking people out of his way as he went.

The man in the coat looked back one final time, and Luke, running behind the bot, saw his eyes widen. The man took a quick turn to the right into an alley and Crash bashed into a stall, following him. Before Luke even arrived he heard the bot’s discontent.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“God dammit! Where’d he go!”

It was weird. There was what looked to be brick wall and ceiling, no way out. Where’d the man gone then…

Crash tore through some baskets and crates but to no avail. The man was gone.

“Gah…”

One of the shopkeepers approached them from his stall, looking back through the throng of people flung out on the ground.

“I’ll take it that you fellas got cheated by the Beiorg gang?”

“Beiorg gang?”

“He stole my damn regulator!”

At that, the shopkeeper backed off a bit. People were familiar with bots who’d lost their regulators. They were dangerous most of the time. A fairly fitting description of Crash to be honest.

“You don’t know the Beiorg gang? They function around this area, mostly guys that hide their identities with them big brown coats. They can be pretty hard to catch once they’re runnin’ from ya.”

“Huh, thanks. How would one find them? So we can get his regulator back.”

“Find them? Son, they steal and trade. They don’t just give back. From the looks of yeh you aren’t one with extra cash to flash their way neither.”

“Well…”

“Mmmm… But if I was you I’d talk to Sam. He’s up near Jullong’s bar at night.”

“Damn right we’ll talk to that bastard!”

“Hopefully I didn’t just kill the old man. Ha!”

“Thank you, we’ll talk to him. C’mon Crash let’s-”

A flicker caught Luke’s eye, and he picked up a silver coin from the ground. On the face was a strange bust of a man he’d never seen before. On the other side was a building of grandeur. It was a strange coin… In the background of his thoughts, he heard Crash yelling at him and stuffed the coin in his pocket.

“Crash? My name’s-”

“Crash is easier.”

“Huh. Whatever, get going!”

“Alright jeez!”

Crash picked up Luke by the pants and hurried out of the markets, just before the angry shopkeepers caught up to them.

Once outside Crash plopped him down and started walking towards Jullong’s bar. Had he been in another situation he might have told Crash to reel it back and make a plan of what to ask this Sam and how to ask it, but at this point, he didn’t feel like wasting time. He just wanted to get something done for once.

At the opening of the door, all eyes pointed through the smoky atmosphere to pinpoint the two new pieces of meat who’d walked into their bar. A pair of bots whizzed by them, their gunner arms shining in the dim light. A bit scared, Luke pointed Crash towards the bartender, standing behind an old wooden counter.

“What’ll it be.”

“No drinks.”

Luke didn’t really have the money to get one anyways.

“We’re here to find a man named Sam.”

One of the men sitting next to him, who almost seemed to have scales on his skin, rose up at the mention of the name.

“Ol’ Sam? Where is the codger? Boys! Bring Sam up here!”

Laughing, a few of the smaller scaly men flung up a man dressed in the rags of an old brown coat and hat. A white beard flew out from his face and his wrinkled features left no question about his age. He picked himself up and started muttering, eyes opening from one of the many crevices on his face.

“What do you want Guillermo?”

“Coupla fresh kids here lookin’ to speak ta you. Hah, if they come lookin’ for you they gotta be in real trouble gahaha!”

At this, many in the bar laughed, and Sam looked into Luke’s eyes.

“What are you here for, boy?”

The men continued to laugh, but Crash spoke above them.

“We’re looking to beat the Beiorg gang into a damn bloody pulp!”

Silence.

“The Beiorg gang. What n the hell are you looking for them for.”

“They stole my damn regulator! I’m gonna get it back if I have to kill every last fleshie in the city!”

Finally, Sam replied.

“The Beiorg gang. You want to cause them harm. Destroy them?”

“Fuck yeah!”

“We’ll talk in a back room then. Guillermo? Come.”

“Yessir.”