"Bang!" the gunshot echoed, bringing complete silence once again. The smoke from the barrel trailing into the air as the birds dance erratically through the sky, then the metallic body hit the floor, falling from the tree with the bullet hole in its chest. It was a third machine that followed Fe and Cu, hiding in the trees behind them. The mysterious human then lowers their weapon and looks back at Fe and Cu, still startled by the sudden gunfire with their robotic eyes glued to the third machine that they were completely unaware of.

Mysterious human: "Now I said, what do you bots plan to do with that child! Answer me!"

Cu steps back nervously as he holds Axel in his metallic arms,

Fe: "To protect him, We are protecting him"

Mysterious human: "Protect... bots protecting a human?"

Fe: "Yes, we..."

Mysterious human: "Do not take me for a fool! Bots do not protect humans, especially not any of your kind, not anymore!"

The mysterious human clearly agitated raises their weapon, aiming it at Fe.

Cu: "Don't!"

Mysterious Human: "I'm going to ask you again, and if you lie to me I will drop you right here, right now!"

"BREEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPP" the little crooked bot screams as he circles the mysterious human,

Mysterious Human: "Do not argue with me R3D, we can not trust them so easily, they clearly came from the city."

Fe: "Yes, we did. We are telling you the truth, we are protecting the child. We escaped from the city to protect him, his name is Axel"

Axel finally brings his tears to a halt as he hears Fe's radio-toned voice mentions his name and bears a smile immediately. Cu, still unable to utter a word out of confusion. The mysterious human notices the sudden change in the child's behaviour.

Mysterious Human: "Axel?... Escape?..."

Fe: "We are truly grateful for you helping us"

Mysterious Human: "Enough! Just answer my questions, where did you find the child? and why are you protecting it? Were you programmed to?"

Cu: "Maybe you should answer some of our questions too, how do we know we can trust you?! A hum.."

Fe: "Stop Cu!"

Mysterious Human: "See that's where you must have a screw loose, I am the only one asking the questions because I am the one with the gun and you need to give me a reason to trust you before I shoot the both of you, bot!"

Cu's gears spin crazily as he becomes even more uneasy,

Fe: "We found the child within the city in a junkyard, It is not any programming or act of ill intent leading us to protect this child, only my curiosity to find the truth and to protect this small, defenceless being from harm because he can not. Our programmings have been gone for a long time now, this is our own decision."

Mysterious Human: "How? A child alone in the city alive and well... That doesn't make sense"

The mysterious human whispers to himself as he relaxes his aim away from Fe's head, confused by this information. The mysterious human glances over to Axel in Cu's arms.

Fe: "I have been trying to make sense of it myself. I am a Fe8890 and my friend over there is a Cu8800..."

Cu: "Hello..."

Cu awkwardly utters as he rocks back and forth nervously,

Cu: "So what about you? Do you have a manufactory num... correction, a name? Is it short and simple like we named Axel?"

Fe giggles at the sight of the reaction the mysterious human has to Cu's nervous chatter.

Mysterious Human: "You...You bots named the child? This is all so strange. What the hell did you bring to my doorstep R3D?!"

R3D spins around and wobbles over to Cu, raises its tiny arms towards Axel.

Fe: "Yes, this is strange for us as well. You see we have nothing but stories and fairytales to remember you humans by, and they all paint you as the bad guy. Our memories were wiped of you so most just go along with it, but not me..."

Fe looks over to Cu,

Fe: "Not us..."

Mysterious Human: "Zaine... My name is Zaine, you can tag along with me, this place isn't safe, at least not anymore."

Zaine puts away his weapon and picks up his large blade from the ground, lugging it over his shoulder, R3D begins to follow him.

Cu: "What about your name of importance? surely that can't be all."

Zaine: "What?"

Fe: "He means your last name, you only gave us part of your name"

Zaine: "It's Zaine... just Zaine, there hasn't been a reason to use last names in so long, I have forgotten, almost forgot my name entirely. Just follow me... what are your names again?"

Fe: "You can just call us by our designed names Ferrum and Cuprum, but we refer to each other by Fe and Cu"

Zaine: "So the periodic names of the metals you are made of ... Your manufactured names... Now I understand. Well, then Fe and Cu, we must get going before more of the scavengers show up since the scouter has probably signalled back our location to his pals."

Cu: "There's more of them?"

Zaine: "Of course there's more of them, that third bot in the tree was a scouter, most likely relaying the situation to the others after it heard the first gunshot. so this place has been compromised... Thank you for that R3D"

R3D: "Breeeee Ooop?"

Zaine then heads into the little wooden house that he emerged from earlier with Fe and Cu following right behind him, grabbing can foods and bottles of water, packing them into a backpack.

Zaine: "Don't touch anything, this place is filled with traps for any unlucky bots. We need to get moving and find a new safe place before dark."

Zaine then stuffs his backpack and struggles to zip it up, hurriedly tossing it onto his back, and begins to bandage up the wound on his shoulder, but then he looks across the room to a photo frame on an old broken table beside a malformed couch. He then rushes over to the table and slowly reaches for the photo frame, lifting it into the air as he stares at it. "Crack!" He smashes the frame into the old table, and takes the photo inside, stuffing it into his pocket, Fe notices this and instantly becomes filled with curiosity.

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The four of them and little baby Axel then make their way out of the house through a backdoor that leads to the other side of the forested village, only accessible through the backdoor of that particular house.

Fe: "We thought this to be a dead-end, but this entire time there was a path right behind the trees and wooden houses, amazing."

Zaine: "Couldn't you have just scanned the area or see through the walls with your X-ray vision or some shit? Speaking of which, scan the area and see if we have any scavengers on their way here yet"

Cu: "X-ray vision, but that isn't used to see through walls..."

Fe: "We do not have tech anywhere close to that technology, we would have known we were followed if that was the case. But we can scan for any radio signals in the area."

Zaine: "Well that's useless, seriously R3D?"

R3D: "Breeeee Oop"

Zaine: "Do better"

Cu: "So are they more humans? We have never seen one before until now, a fully grown one that is. Even Axel, I have only ever seen 2 days ago."

Zaine: "Let's get something clear here bots, I'm still the one asking the questions here. Do not speak unless it is to answer said questions. Got it?"

Fe and Cu walk side by side in complete silence as they stare directly at Zaine,

Zaine: "That was a question!"

Fe and Cu: "Oh! Yes we understand"

Zaine shakes his head pinching his forehead in disappointment,

Zaine: "Anyway, tell me more about your escape from the city. why did you have to run?"

Fe: "Because we became criminals for having the child in our possession and protecting him from capture"

Cu: "We were chased out of the city, and are currently on the run. It is against the machine laws to come in contact with a human or restricted being and not report it immediately to a higher power. It would result in immediate deactivation or destruction of your body. They are probably still after us to eliminate the child."

Zaine then comes to a stop as they all travel down a bushy path,

Zaine: "They?"

Fe: "The Primordial"

Zaine: "The Primordial?"

***

Back in the city, dark trails of smoke swarmed the sky as the melted site of where the junkyard once was and buildings that were raided, still burned hot from the massacre that took place last night.

The resident machines in the city received their broadcast of the news streamed directly to their eyes. All in shock as they are told about the rogue machine fugitives that caused a massive explosion at the junkyard site and resulted in the manhunt for the culprits responsible. Leading to the Ti9000s onslaught in the locations mentioned, The Primordial then gives a speech announcing,

The Primordial: "In order to prevent any incidents like this from becoming a possibility ever again, we will take measures to ensure that the likely hood of rogue machines is down to zero in this city and all over the world, meaning any symptoms of rogue nature reported or sensed from machines will not be tolerated. And all suspected machines of rogue nature will be banished from all machine cities immediately, refusing to cooperate will result in immediate deactivation."

The entire city was swallowed in silence, everyone at a standstill,

The Primordial: "All Machines must have a routine check for rogue symptoms and have an upgrade to implant visual trackers and monitors so that we can better monitor this city. This is mandatory, any machines scanned without one after the given time will be deactivated. That is all, carry on."

The broadcast suddenly ends, the machines infesting the streets in swarms begin to bicker and panic.

Random Machine 1: "Are we expected to pay for this upgrade with our own credits?"

Random Machine 2: "You already know we do, nothing is free in this city, mandatory or not the stupid Primordial doesn't care if you have the credits. If you don't you either leave this city or be deactivated"

Random Machine 1: "You better watch how you speak of him from now on, when we get that upgrade. The Primordial will hear and see everything you say"

Random Machine 2: "You think I don't know that? I'm getting it all out of my system now"

Random Machine 3: "But I just started saving my credits to be uploaded to the cloud, after buying my brand new manufactured body to be downloaded into once I do get to the cloud."

Random Machine 2: "I'm already on the cloud so at least if I'm destroyed, I can be downloaded to a new body of my choosing"

Random Machine 1: "Just remember you aren't untouchable, even on the cloud. The Primordial controls it all, some say he can delete machines who've uploaded to the cloud if he so chooses."

Random Machine 4: "Everything will change the moment we all get that upgrade, The Primordial owns us now."

Random Machine 1: "You're wrong, nothing is going to change. He's always owned us, you all are only just realizing it."

***

Meanwhile, Fe, Cu, Axel, R3D and Zaine continue travelling through the bushy terrain heading deeper into the lost city, overwhelmed with nature. Large vines, filled with knife-like thorns sprouted from the ground beneath the buildings, reaching into their windows and wrapping around the entirety of it like an infection that has taken hold of a victim.

Fe: "This place, was this a city once before?"

Zaine: "Yes, everywhere had a city once before. But what did I say about questions?"

Fe: "That only you get to ask them, my apologies. Curiosity is a machine's greatest weakness."

Zaine: "Tell me more about this Primordial"

Fe: "The Primordial... As his name suggests, he's said to be the world's first sentient self-serving AI"

Cu: "The most powerful machine in existence, capable of being anywhere and everywhere within his network's reach. Truly terrifying, he doesn't even have one designated body and can hack any machine and possess them within seconds, once their firmware is fully functional."

Zaine: "And you guys said you escaped him, how?"

Fe: "We were helped by some old droids who were also protecting the child. They sacrificed themselves so that we can get away"

Zaine: "But what about this Primordial? Why didn't he just hack you guys as you say he can?"

Cu: "Because he didn't anticipate a threat or a fight I suppose, he couldn't hack us immediately because like I said, he can only hack fully functional firmware easily, but both I and Fe have mixed parts keeping us operational so it would have taken him a little longer than usual to hack into our systems since he didn't get a chance to scan us and see which source code each individual part of us holds in order to hack it."

Fe: "He also only sent his first tier of his top soldiers after us, the Ti9000s and TiCanines. If he really took us seriously he could do so much worst."

Zaine: "All of this to get the child? So they are no human prisoners in that city?"

Fe: "Axel was the first human we have ever seen, humans were almost a myth within the city borders."

Zaine: "And where did you find this kid again? In a junkyard? There's no way a kid would survive alone in such a place."

Fe: "The child was hidden away in a secret room within an abandoned facility at the junkyard, I found him encapsulated in this strange pod filled with a strange liquid. There were other capsules in the room but they were all empty. Axel was the only human in there."

Zaine: "Well I'm sure this Primordial isn't too happy that you got away, and will surely hunt the child down. Let's move faster to get a good distance away from that city, now that I know we are no longer dealing with scavengers, there's only one place to go."

***

Currently, back in the city,

The Primordial: "So after the raids last night, you haven't found any human children?!"

Ti9000: "No Prime Sir, We did, however, manage to track down where the remaining droids' last location was, there were traces of them leaving the city by the northwest exit gate, they managed to take out the guards posted there. But upon inspection of the security footage, they were not carrying any humans with them."

The Primordial: "How many droids were spotted?"

Ti9000: "Eighteen, however, the guards managed to take down two of them before they were destroyed by their gunfire. So there are only sixteen on the run as we speak."

The Primordial: "And you are certain they were not carrying anything that could possibly conceal 9 infant humans?"

Ti9000: "Affirmative, they were only equipped with weapons. Other footage shows all eighteen of them leave the junkyard without a trace of any humans as well."

The Primordial: "So my theory is correct then, there was only one human in that room. those other nine pods were emptied long ago. Only one remained with a child... That got away!"

Ti9000: "We believe the droids may be heading in the direction of the child. we have already sent a team tracking them, do you wish us to follow them once found? In case they lead us to the child?"

The Primordial: "No! in fact, I want all Ti9000s recalled immediately. You have failed me one too many times, You clearly need improvements, upgrades that will make you more effective. And I will do so by destroying you and rebuilding you all from scratch. There are to be no flaws in my army, I am perfect and so should my soldiers, even if you are the weakest of my top arsenal."

Ti9000: "Recalling all Ti9000s now"

The Primordial: "The dogs too."

Ti9000: "TiCanines as well. Anything else Prime Sir before I enter the reassembling room?"

The Primordial: "Send ten strike teams of the elite squadron in all possible directions to find the old droids and two rogue machines in possession of the child. I want air patrol as well as a ground patrol in search parties of eights. And while the Ti9000s and TiCanines are being managed, have the Heavy-duty Ti4000s patrol the streets to ensure all residents follow the new protocols that were broadcasted today."

Ti9000: "Understood"

The Ti9000 leaves the room and heads down a long hallway, eventually entering a massive room, filled with silhouettes of ominous-looking figures, some bulky and beast-like, while others looked slim and sleek but menacing, even more so than the Ti9000s, and far in the back were gigantic figures, scaling 60 feet high into the air towering over everything around them.

Ti9000: "Elite Squadron, The Primordial has summoned you."

Bright blood-red lights flood the room, as the eyes of the silhouetted figures glare through their shadows...