Rise in Revolution (Chapter Three)
Mar. 11th, 2016 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Chapter Three
Unit 7007-α
Street 6, Sector IAL. January 4, 2272. Time instance 842N.
Fan froze on instinct, feeling the sharp blade against her throat and knowing that moving would be a very, very bad idea. Chester, on the other hand, panicked, backing up before turning and running.
“Halt!” When he didn’t stop, the cyborg’s fingers swung open on a hinge and the barrel of a gun extended. He took aim and shot Chester in the calf. Chester screamed and fell, clutching his bleeding leg.
“You are both under arrest.” The cyborg announced. “Anyone who attempts to flee or intervene will be shot.” He turned to Emma, Scott, and Clash, allowing Emma to get a better look at him. He was about 5’10 and about as pale as she was, but the resemblances stopped there. What hair they could see under his hat appeared to be blond, and the entire left half of his body seemed to be metal. If she had to guess, she’d say that at least the bottom half of the cyborg’s right leg was metal as well, considering how quickly and easily he had crossed the street. His left eye glowed the same eerie red that the cyborg at the train station’s had, although this was clearly another unit, while his human right eye was gray.
“This situation is under control. Move along, citizens.” Not wanting to get involved, Clash quickly turned and walked back they way they had came, Scott and Emma right behind him.
“I think we just met our new peacekeeping unit.” Scott mumbled. “He’s a lot more robot than the last few. We might have some trouble with him.”
“Fun.” Emma crossed her arms. “How long will that Fan girl be in jail?”
“Not long if Cap breaks her out. A few months if she doesn’t.”
“A few months.” Scott repeated.
“Are you not even going to tell Cap?” Clash frowned.
“No. She bought from Chester. Scumbag.”
“He’s in jail too!”
“Imprisoned scumbag.”
They fell silent until they reached Kyir’s house. Scott opened the door without knocking and stepped down the hallway until he stopped. Emma frowned and peered around him, trying to see what the problem was. As her eyes locked upon the man in the trenchcoat, she panicked momentarily, thinking it to be the cyborg they had seen before, but he spoke and dismissed her fears.
“Come on! Let me in!” His accent was Skerekish, just as Clash and Scott’s were.
“Not until you say the magic word!” Gali’s voice giggled behind the wall.
“No! I gave you the passphrase now please open the door.”
“What’s the magic word, Shawn?”
“Jimmy, come on!” He growled and crossed his arms as both of them laughed. “This isn’t fair.”
“Jimmy, Gali, please open the door.” Clash called.
“Oh, fine.” The mechanism whirred and the bricks slowly opened.
Shawn looked over at them. “Thanks, Clash, I-” He blinked. “Who is this?”
As Emma introduced herself, she looked over her newest acquaintance. He was the same height as the cyborg they had seen, aiding her initial reaction, but his hair was brown and his eyes were blue. Under the trenchcoat he wore a blue t-shirt and jeans, and a pair of white-lensed goggles were pushed up his face.
“We haven’t had anyone new since Fan joined us.” Shawn told Emma as the four of them walked down the tunnel, Shawn shooting Jimmy and Gali and annoyed glare. “It’ll be good to have some new faces around.”
“Well, it’s my first day and I’ve already seen someone get arrested, so...”
“Arrested?” Shawn looked surprised. “I thought we destroyed 7006-α?”
“Looks like her replacement is here. Fan got caught buying something from fucking Chester.” Scott spat.
“Oh, not him again.” Shawn raised his voice as he noticed someone in the back of the room, and Emma noted that she hadn’t seen this person before. “Cap! Fan got arrested!”
The freckled girl looked up and sighed. “Again?” She shut her book and set it down, picking up a pickaxe from where it was leaning against her chair. She was about 5’6 with long, curly red hair and green eyes. As she approached, she smiled at Emma before moving past, eyes narrowing with a mix of emotions between frustration and concentration.
Tanadin approached them, frowning. “Fan got arrested?”
Shawn sighed and nodded. “Apparently our new unit is in town.”
Tanadin swore. “Dammit. I had hoped to be rid of that problem for a few more days. Spread the word that we’ll have a meeting here in a few hours to decide what there is to be done about it. We have to show the Mainframe that they can’t push us around like this.”
“They kind of can.” Scott told her. “I mean, I get what you’re saying, but they’re totally pushing us around. That’s what they’re doing right now.”
“I don’t need your sass right now, Scott.” Tanadin uncorked a half-filled vial of brightly glowing orange liquid. “Spread the news. Three hours.”
As everyone scampered off, Tanadin poured the last of the liquid down her throat. She sighed quietly and shoved the now empty vial into her pocket. A shiver ran through her and Emma could have sworn that, for a moment, her eyes were lit with blue flame. But she blinked and her friend appeared normal, so she wondered if she had seen it at all.
“It’s a shame that the new unit showed up just as you got here.” Tanadin mumbled, looking at Emma sympathetically. “Do you want to sit down for awhile?”
Emma nodded and followed Tanadin to the back of the room. They sat down in seats next to each other, falling into a comfortable silence.
Despite the dangers of the sector and the unnerving experience of watching someone get arrested, the Black Market was already starting to feel like home.
~~~
After a couple of hours of sitting, chatting with Tanadin, and perusing through a few books on the shelves, the door opened and admitted someone that Emma hadn’t seen before. People had been coming and going, spreading the word about a meeting and leaving to retrieve everyone else. She had glanced up every time, but only now was she rewarded for her efforts.
An aven strode into the room, but unlike Devan, this one gave off an almost regal air. She was only 5’1- which was astoundingly short for an aven- but carried herself with the authority and power of one over a foot taller. Her feathers were brown and white, indicating that she was a hawk, and her amber eyes scanned the room quickly before locking on an unfamiliar form. Emma shivered slightly as the predatory gaze of the aven settled on her. She seemed much more alert and dangerous than Devan had, and despite her short stature, she was clearly one to be feared. In her talons she held a simple brown bag.
“The mighty huntress returns.” Sadie remarked. “What did you find?”
“Not much. I had to be careful with that stupid new unit around.” The aven’s voice was surprisingly low pitched- usually aven had higher voices. She dumped out the contents of the bag- freshly killed small animals- into one of the small refrigerators and shut the door. She walked down to the other end of the room, dropping off her bag at one of the unoccupied stalls, before coming to a stop in front of Emma.
“Are you new?”
“Yes. I’m Emma.”
“I’m Hawk. Don’t mind the crazy people.”
Emma raised an eyebrow but didn’t question the name. Who was she to question the ways of another race?
Hawk turned her attention to Tanadin. “What are we going to do about the new unit?”
“We’ll work that out in an hour or so. Make yourself comfortable until then.”
Over the next twenty minutes or so, people trickled in until an unfamiliar voice announced, “Nobody fear, for Sub the magician is here!”
A couple of groans rang out from here and there in the room. Emma looked up to inspect the final member of the Black Market with interest.
She was about 4’11 and had gray-blue eyes, light skin, dirty blond hair, and a magenta jacket. She wore a fake raccoon skin hat (then again, considering Hawk’s hunting habits, it might be real) and practically glowed with repressed energy. She almost skipped into the room, a frustrated Shawn not far behind.
“Hello, Sub.” Scott sounded less than enthusiastic.
“Hello!”
Tanadin glanced around and counted everyone up. “We’re missing Cap, Fan, and Kyir. I hope Cap hasn’t gotten caught breaking Fan out.” She frowned. “She hasn’t before, after all…”
“She’s fine.” Tanadin looked up at Kyir’s voice as he strode into the room. “She’s walking down the street with Fan hiding in the shadows and following. They’ll be here soon. Call the damn meeting already.”
Everyone quickly grabbed the chairs from the carpeted area, from behind stalls, and seemingly out of nowhere, racing around and placing them in a rough circle. Cap and Fan came into the basement as they put the last few chairs in place, shutting the door behind them.
The chairs that made up the circle filled quickly. M, Emma noticed, didn’t sit, instead standing behind a couple of other seats. Shawn, who he was standing behind, looked slightly uncomfortable but he didn’t remark on it.
Tanadin took a quick headcount and seemed confused for a moment before her eyes paused on Emma. She smacked herself on the forehead- apparently she had forgotten that their number would have grown by one- and cleared her throat for silence.
“So! Most of you probably already know, but we have a new unit in town.”
“Unit 7007-α.” Cap put in. “I saw him on my way to the prison and glimpsed his number.” It wasn’t hard to see a cyborg’s number if they weren’t wearing anything over their shirt- it was on a patch in plain view. Cap had apparently gotten close enough to him to see his patch despite the trenchcoat.
“Right. So, clearly we’re going to need to deal with him. Any suggestions?”
“Blow him up.” Zahnra said immediately. “Clash’s attack against 7006-α was quite effective.”
“No.” Clash told them, crossing his arms. “That was...a mistake.”
“A mistake that saved lives.” Mars reassured him, putting a hand on his arm. “You did the right thing.”
“I’m sorry, but what?” Emma looked at Tanadin curiously. “What did Clash do?”
“Back when 7006 was our active unit, Scott ended up pissing her off. I don’t remember what he did, but she attacked him, shooting him in the leg and moving in to kill him. Clash freaked out. He unthinkingly unleashed a huge blast of energy, completely destroying the cyborg and half the block. The repairs are still in progress and the Mainframe doesn’t seem to know it was us.”
Clash flinched away when she spoke, not meeting anyone’s gaze. “I...I didn’t mean…”
Scott put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer. “We know. It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay…” Clash shivered and shook his head, sinking back in his seat.
“You did what you had to do, Clash.” M assured. “The loss of life is regrettable but required.”
“So it seems that these things can only be destroyed with a massive, single attack, presumably taking up a large area so they can’t dodge it.” Zahnra crossed her arms. “Any suggestions on how to do that?” Her purple eyes raked across everyone there.
“I feel like Clash won’t want to try his luck with the fiery phoenix blast again, and I don’t know if Tanadin is willing to risk her life expelling that much energy at once.” Jimmy mumbled.
Geek shook her head, wings unfolding and refolding. “If either of them tried it, they’d almost certainly run out of energy and die. We need another solution. If I didn’t have this damned collar on…” Geek’s words devolved into Demonic mumbles as she tugged gently at the metal ring around her neck with a claw. It had what appeared to be a red lightbulb on the front, but the glass was shattered and the light was out.
“Well…” Eyes turned to Kyir as he spoke. “I do have a couple of bombs from before the invasion. We could try those.”
“Why didn’t you mention that before?” Hawk demanded, feathers puffing slightly. “That could have saved lives, Kyir!”
“Why do you even have bombs?” Tanadin asked him, looking at him with an expression caught between confusion and concern.
“Mind your own damn business.” Kyir snapped. “And I didn’t mention them before because I’ve been saving the stupid things for emergencies, plus I didn’t know that was really the only way to kill the cyborgs. They have some kind of system that helps them dodge attacks and since we have yet to recover undamaged systems, I can’t figure out how it works.”
“How good are these bombs?” Emma asked him, not even bothering to wonder why he had them in the first place. Based on his abrasive, distrusting personality as well as the hidden basement, she figured he was a relatively paranoid man.
Kyir made a so-so motion with his hand. “A blast from one should be enough to damage that fucker enough for us to move in and finish him off. I’m busy as fuck so I can’t take a lot of time off to go plant a bomb somewhere.”
Mars raised a hand. “If you give me a bomb and teach me how to set it off, I think I can plant it well so it’ll hit him.”
Kyir gave her a skeptical look. “If you waste one of my explosives there’s gonna be hell to pay, got it?”
Mars nodded. “Got it.”
Kyir stood and walked through the door in the back of the room that Emma had noticed earlier. As they waited for him to return, her eyes passed over the faces of her new…
Friends? Were they friends yet? She wasn’t quite sure. She glanced at Tanadin beside her and smiled slightly. She was friends with Tanadin, at least, that much she was sure of. The fire elemental squirmed in her seat, impatient and...nervous? She seemed to be quite nervous but struggled to hide it. Emma noticed Shawn- who had removed his trenchcoat- catch Tanadin’s eye and nod slightly, as if reassuring her that it would be okay.
Interesting.
Emma almost jumped out of her skin as a quiet voice whispered into her ear, “It’s not what you’re thinking.”
She whipped around to see M standing behind her. How did he move without me noticing?
“They share a characteristic that allows them to understand one another. Nothing more.” With that, M ghosted away, stepping lightly back to where he had been standing before. His feet, Emma noted, were hidden by his cloak as well.
Kyir returned with a rough, homemade bomb in hand. He reluctantly passed it over to Mars. “Don’t go elemental with that on you. You’ll blow yourself to hell.”
“When you do, take me with you.” Sadie told her. “I want to go home.”
That earned some laughs within the circle.
“I need to get back to work. Good luck blowing that tinhead out of IAL.” With that, Kyir walked off, Cap following close behind in order to close the door behind him.
Tanadin looked around at those assembled and nodded once, a decisive motion that those who had known her for a long time knew well.
“Right, then. Let’s get rid of this tin can before he causes us too much trouble, shall we?”
Emma felt a surge of excitement race through her and she tensed in her seat, both in anticipation and anxiety.
Finally, she was going to strike back at the Mainframe, just as she’d longed to do her entire life.
A fierce grin lit up her face.
Perhaps she had found her home.
