It took several hours to finish the work on the computers, but eventually, DH and Vik figured out a way to let them access the ship's information from the underground. By the time they were done, TO had completed most everything they could do by themself. Maybe tomorrow, they could come back with only DH, and get some more work done.

Maybe they could also use their little washroom to take a hot shower.

“You’d think they’d design your suits with some pockets or something.” Vik complained as they settled into TO’s bag. DH’s bag was too full and carried too many fragile things for Vik to hide in there. “What do you do if you need to carry something around?”

“There are pockets on the inside, and DH has their medkit.” TO said, “There’s also a small pocket on the leg of the armor, but you won’t fit there.”

“Of course not.” Vik grumbled before TO zipped up their bag.

TO and DH activated their own armor, looking around the entry hall to the ship once more. Somehow, TO didn’t want to leave. They had spent so much time with DH here, had so many comfortable nights in their mates’ arms and watched so many shows.

“Maybe we should stay here.” TO said.

“Wait, what?” Vik’s voice came over their radio, suddenly panicked and higher in pitch than TO was used to. “Why would you want to stay here?”

The panic in Vik’s voice invoked such confusion in TO that they could feel their ears brush against the inner edge of the helmet. “Why not?” TO asked, “We could maintain the ship, we could go out as normal civilians and feed ourselves while leaving the food in the ship alone, we could get more supplies, and free up another room in the underground.” They looked at DH, but of course could get no impression on how they felt about it from a glance; they had their helmet on. “We could bring Avery up too. I think they hate being in the underground-“

“Avery won’t leave.” DH said, “Not unless we can leave with Kei, and Kei’s going to need medical surveillance for a while; specialized medical surveillance. The kind I can’t provide.

“Oh… Oh, you meant just to stay here until we leave.” Vik said, and even though the communicators TO could hear the relieved sigh he gave.

“Of course.” TO said, “What did you think I meant?”

“Nothing.” Vik said, “And I think GiDi would be sad if you stayed up here. And Pearla! I mean, she just wants GiDi to be happy, right? And she doesn’t mind you. Oh, and Tham! I know he’s a dick half the time, but he was happy around you two last night, right?”

“… You thought I meant to stay here and go back to work as a synth, didn’t you?” TO asked.

“No no. I mean, why would I think that?”

TO didn’t answer, but it suddenly occurred to them that if they wanted, they could simply act as synths again. With Kei out of commission, nobody knew that they had shot the other synth. They had accessed their ship with no problems, and local authorities still acknowledged their authority.

“We wouldn’t leave GiDi behind like that.” DH said, “And besides, even if we stayed, we wouldn’t be able to go out and get supplies… They're probably looking for us, or at least people who look like us, because of the incident in the tunnels yesterday.”

“I didn’t even think of that.” TO said. Of course there would be recordings from the helmets of the authorities from that incident, but given the distinctive scars on their wings, TO knew the authorities would easily recognize them. Also, if local authorities had footage of them, then it was only a matter of time until that footage made its way to Ark-1, and to the rest of the synths. Of course, they had to know something, right? The ‌news that the GBA had given would be something that Ark-1 would pay attention to. TO had received no messages from Ark-1 yet. Would their superior try to reach out to them, or would they simply cut TO off? Well, that was just another thing to ask Flit about later.

They stepped out into the hazy Arkanian evening; the sky bathed in purple, the distinct glow of electric lights from the inner-rings giving off a faint white-blue aura. The combination of light, and the fading mist from the heat of the day would have given everything a somewhat dreamy feel if it weren’t for the drones flying overhead, the electric fence enclosing them, and the guards still standing at their main gate.

“What are they doing here?” DH muttered as they caught sight of the guards.

“Maybe extra security given everything that happened.” TO offered. “Not my concern.”

“I’m linking into their wireless signals anyway.” Vik said, “So much easier with Synth access! I’m Unstoppable!” They gave a manic cackle that echoed in TO’s ear.

“Careful Vik.” DH said, “Don’t let anyone hear you.”

“Doesn’t matter.” TO said, “Let’s take off, and head back. I don’t want them to pay us more attention than absolutely necessary”

======

They were airborne for all of five minutes when the alert came in; a quiet ping in TO’s ear, followed by a warning flashing across their vision.

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== Warning; Potential tracking occurring. ==

As the words flashed across TO’s vision, an arrow pointed off to the side.

“What the heck was that?” Vik said, “Something just came in on my communicator.”

“It was an alert,” DH said. “I got one too.”

“Obviously.” Vik said, “It’s saying something about tracking, and it’s giving coordinates.”

TO didn’t need the coordinates. Holding tightly to the bag, they did a sudden loop in the air, getting a good view of everything around them. As they did, their helmet locked onto a drone behind them. It was one of the drones that had been circling over their ship before, but now ‌it was following them.

“What the fuck TO!” Vik shouted, their little voice louder than it needed to be right in TO’s ear.

“Keep it down!” TO snapped.

“Well, maybe don’t flip me upside-down without warning! Ugh, I might throw up.”

“What did you see?” DH asked.

“There’s a drone behind us. Must have been following us from the ship.” TO said. They gave the commands to their chip to send a message to the drone behind them to stop following.

“Do you really think a cease order is going to work?” Vik asked.

“How do you know what I did?” TO snapped.

“I’m using your chip to access some info, and I can see the commands that you’re sending.”

“Well, it should work.” TO huffed. “We have authority here.”

They waited a minute, then two, and the drone was still following them.

==ORDER DISREGARDED==

Elimination suggested.

“So your suit tells you how to do everything, then.” Vik said, “Interesting. So long as you obey properly, it basically turns you into a cyborg! That is so cool. I mean, it’s awful; Clearly you’re supposed to be a flesh-bot that just obeys orders, but it’s still cool on a theoretical level!”

“We’re not cyborgs.” TO snapped.

“Also, Elimination suggested after just one warning?” A low whistle, distorted just enough to prevent pain to TO’s sensitive ears, came through the communicator. “Brutal.”

TO sighed and pulled up what information they could on the drone. “See.” They said, “This type doesn’t have anyone inside. It’s just a surveillance drone.”

“And you think the order would be different if there were civilians inside?” Vik asked.

“I’d think it doesn’t matter.” TO said, “Neither of us has a multi-gun.”

“To be fair, I’m surprised so many people were alright with us having our armor back.” DH added, “I didn’t think they’d give us our weapons back, either.”

TO sighed and acted fast. They flicked their wings out so that the sudden catch of air would slow them down, giving the drone a chance to catch up. In a split second, the drone raced beneath TO, following DH. TO flew up, aimed, folded their wings and then dropped feet first onto the top of the drone. Their armored metal boots put a decent dent in the drone's top, knocking it off course and sending parts and sparks off in all directions before it careened down and broke apart on top of a civilian skyscraper.

“Please give warnings before you’re going to do something like that!” Vik said. “I swear, I will throw up in this bag.”

“I wouldn’t. It’s a fifteen minute flight at least to the outer ring.” TO said, “It would be an uncomfortable ride for you.”

Vik fell silent in TO’s bag for a moment, making TO worry that they were actually going to throw up. However, a moment later, his voice came back, tense and quick.

“So, I scan the general security line.” Vik said, “It kinda gives a general idea of what’s going on in the city. I can tell people what areas to avoid, or if they’re being actively tracked. And with that trick, you’re now being actively tracked.”

“But TO just drop-kicked that drone.” DH said, “It seems very broken. I don’t know how it can still track us.”

“It’s not that.” Vik said, “Look, there’s security cameras everywhere, right? There’s people with their communicators. There are security cameras on most of these buildings, civilian cameras, even the overhead news cameras. The authorities here have access to all that if they need it, and right now, they’re using all that to track you.”

“Right.” TO said, their ears pinning back as they bit briefly on their lower lip. This wasn’t ideal. “DH, circle around, follow port.”

They both turned in tandem, TO making a wider turn and letting DH catch up on their left side as they flew. TO followed the curve of the wall below that separated the inner residential ring from the security ring.

“If we're being tracked, we can’t go back into the tunnels.” TO said, “We need to ‌lose the tracking, and get out of range of any cameras.”

“Does it matter?” DH asked, “We can go where we like so-”

“I said before, I think ‌Gyrini suspects us. Why else would she send a drone to follow us?”

“So you shouldn’t have broken the drone?” DH asked.

“Breaking it is what the suit said.” TO said, “And that’s what a synth would ‘normally’ do. If anyone asks us why, well, I’ve made it abundantly clear that we suspect the government here of being involved with the insurgency, so of course we wouldn’t want to be followed.” They frowned as they looked around, trying to guess how many cameras sitting passively atop buildings and in the hands of civilians were actually tracking them right now. Scanning in this environment would be impossible; since they were on the move, they’d have to scan every few feet to make sure they weren’t under surveillance.

“So if that’s the case, why do we have to worry about them seeing where we go? We don’t have to tell them anything.” DH said,

“No, we don’t, but if we just go into the tunnels again and disappear, then Gyrini’s going to become curious where we went. She might send more people down there to look around-”

“Which means a greater chance that they’d find our hideaway.” Vik said with a sigh.

“Exactly.”

“... Alright.” Vik said. “Do we need an out? I have an out.”

TO’s helmet dinged with a new message from Vik, and when they opened it, it was a map of the city.

“That place I’ve marked off in the business district. If you can get there, I can get us lost in the city.”

The spot on the map wasn’t too far away; TO and DH could get there in minutes of easy flying. They wished they could come up with their own idea to get away from surveillance, and they were certain that they could if given just an extra minute, but Vik already seemed to have a plan, and TO wasn’t interested in wasting time.

“Alright.” TO said, “DH; Hard starboard. Follow me.”

They pivoted off their easy circular path over the wall, and headed outwards towards the business district.