The pitter patter of feet on dirt roads could be heard for a moment, as a small form sprinted past trees and shrubbery. Leaves crunched underfoot, the sky cloudy and gray and melancholic. Far behind, miles away, bands of robots entered the forest, scanning their surroundings for vital signs. A humanoid droid clad in military garb led them directly, transmitting orders straight to their processing chips.

“Fan out over the whole woodland. We can’t afford to let him escape us again! Do you all want to be made fools of by our neighboring chapter in Commonhaven?!”

He needed not vocalize, but it had become a force of habit after being forced to endure the tiring presence of many living things, all which in their imperfection could only communicate through sound waves. Such a critical oversight, he thought, having been molded for the very purpose of commanding the legions of Automotive Industries, at least in his city. After the little gremlin was revealed to be a Volan in nature, it had fled, tearing through stone and steel in a bid for escape.

Which was why a whole division had been sent to hunt down the creature. Now it was desperate, injured from repeated attacks and flagging as its stamina dwindled every moment it continued the chase. But the general and his men were no living things, inefficient and fragile. Metal bodies and compact fuel cells ensured their continuous operation for hours, and with constant resupply from support vehicles there was no question of the fate that awaited the demonic monster.

The trees became taller and ever greater, stretching to magnanimous heights. Many were hundreds of feet tall, a precious few so gigantic as to reach miles high. Dime had no time to appreciate the wonders of nature as he tunnel visioned, legs burning from running for so long. Scrapes covered much of his exposed skin and lacerations bled from every limb and his head. Even his limitless devilish stamina actually had a limit. And he was upon the precipice of reaching his.

It was not long before he heard the beeping. Flickers of light from mechanical eyes and powerful flashlights cast beams that split on wood and branches, revealing many acres of land. He hid behind tree trunks, barely avoiding their makeshift spotlights and staying just out of range of their mid range scanners. For now they still could not locate him, trawling the wider area in an insane frenzy. For a moment they had seen his horns and that sealed his future. He could not help that his fiendish kind was constantly persecuted for perceived injustices and his valuable body parts, used for a variety of elixirs and magical weaponry.

So tired was he, nearly on the verge of collapse, that he didn’t even notice the squad that had circled around him to stop his flight. If not for his quick reflexes, he would have nearly been hit by a salvo of lasers and beams, bullets and bombs. The rampant destruction of these stray projectiles, most of which missed their mark, crunched wood and tore up soil and dirt, creating a massive dust cloud accompanied by a loud explosion. Immediately all nearby units who could sense this disturbance immediately changed trajectories to this location.

Looking around, it was obvious he was cornered. The woodlands had been encircled to create a net by which to trap him. Around him they gathered, surrounding him with bodies of steel and circuitry. Their lifeless eyes bored into his mind as Dime withdrew into himself, curling up to protect his vitals. The sea of robotic sentinels parted, the general inserting himself into their midst to greet the “beast” on his last legs.

“Just give up. You know you cannot escape us forever. We are more numerous than you could ever imagine, you must understand. Our business spans the whole continent. Our influence is inescapable. Turn yourself in now, and you won’t have to go through all the pain. We’ll let you live, you know. Our containment towns have lots to do, and we’ll only need to harvest your flesh every so often.”

“But I don’t want to live trapped in a metal box forever. I want to be free! And to go wherever I want and make real friends! I just want to live my life how I want to live it.”

“A commendable goal. A shame, then. No hard feelings for this, alright?”

The general raised his palm, and a kinetic round suddenly tore off Dime’s left arm before embedding itself deep in the ground. He collapsed to the ground, shocked and barely feeling the pain due to the adrenaline. He did not need to look at his stump to know what had happened, and he tried desperately to crawl away.

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“Take him away. Make sure he never sees the light of day again.”

And as the wall of eyes and arms, metal and wires reached out to grasp him, he charged forward recklessly into their frontline. Droids were tossed away like ragdolls, crumpling under the pressure or shorn in half by his remaining arm. The general watched him flee with measured, tranquil silence.

“He’ll fall to the floor any moment now. Exhaustion is upon him. Finish the job, men.”

His army dispersed and he reached down to grab a dismembered metal arm and a leg. They still crackled with electricity, silently screaming in binary for assistance. Nodding to a group of squat metal bots, they began to gather the corpses of the dead and lost. All would be recycled into more workers, more troops, more “manpower”. Expansion would never stop, and it would definitely not end here.

Stumbling into a clearing, Dime fell to his knees, unable to keep going. Gasping for breath was barely enough. His throat burned with parched thirst, stomach with gnawing hunger. The conifers and evergreens around him seemed so towering now, lording over his weak and vulnerable form.

Fading, he was. Soon there would be no him, anymore. One powerful, vigorous strike to the heart, and he was done. His natural regeneration was capable of anything but took too much time for larger or more important body parts. His chest would not even begin to knit together before his mind gave out, and he returned to the earth from which he was born. And his respite was short and bitter, as the steps of his enemies could be heard from right behind.

Nets of energy wrapped around him, and he could not muster the energy to tear free from their clutches. In seconds he was doomed. Already images of eternal slavery and entrapment filled Dime’s brain, quivering in abject fear from his imminent fate. On the other end of the spectrum, the general was overjoyed to have finally captured his prey after so long.

“Goodbye, Dime. If you live long enough, maybe you’ll be allowed free one day, when we won’t need you anymore. Any last words before I warp you there?”

“...BURN IN HELL.”

It came out as a whisper, a wheezing fatigued voice from a resigned victim. The general would have smiled if his metal face allowed it, happy with his success as his minions readied the teleporter to send them back. He could already see the face of his superiors and his assured promotion!

Clink.

A little golden coin collided against the head of a drone. It promptly fell to the ground, instantly crushed like a can under incredible gravitic duress.

“What the fuck was that?”

A little hut, hidden from view at the edge of the clearing, opened its door to reveal a short teenage girl in a brown overcoat, skinny to the point of underweight and holding a hovering, spinning coin in one hand and gesturing with the other. And she spoke.

“You enter my home, and kill so loosely outside my home? Criminal.”

A slew of more coinage impacted surfaces, crunching every robot like an empty coke can. The general stepped back in fear, watching the dangerous newcomer intently to try and discern the root of their power. He quickly noticed the right hand still gathering power to fuel a slowly growing coin now the size of the girl’s hand. With a flick of the rest she tossed it towards him. Trying to sidestep it did not work, as the trajectory of the coin swerved to meet him. As it grew closer, his accelerated thought felt the pressure skyrocketing before his very eyes.

But before he could be killed like the rest, the general’s emergency telewatch lit up with a blinding flash of blue and purple and he vanished without a trace, leaving the giant coin meant for him to fizzle out and shrink until it disappeared before ever hitting the ground.

Dime lay there in shock, unbelieving of the sight. Nearly a hundred individual enemies wiped out just like that? The rest of the division retreated without their commander, as per company policy, withdrawing from the forest with haste. His enhanced hearing felt them leave, and his heart began to beat slower. With calm and the momentary end of the conflict came the loss of adrenaline, and the PAIN.

RED RED RED RED IT HURT IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS

He could barely think as the net was sliced open by the girl’s pocket knife, the compromised netting fading into nothing. Even unrestrained he lay on the soil, groaning from the severity of all the injuries he had accumulated. His small form was unceremoniously picked up, and carried princess style back towards the hut by the unknown girl. From up close he could see her brown hair hanging down to the lower back and the earthy eyes of a human most hopeful. In his agonizing daze, he could barely get the words out from between his grinding teeth:

“How? Who?”

She kept walking, not taking a moment to look at Dime or back at the massacre she had caused, grinning with the knowledge of the good deed she had definitely just done. With a skip in her step and a brightness to her voice, she told him,

“Nobody important. You can just call me Coyn.”