Rise in Revolution (Chapter Four)
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Chapter Four
Indifference to Darkness
Black Market, Sector IAL. January 4, 2272. Time instance 842N.
It was evening when six members of the Black Market left Kyir’s house, spacing out their departure in order to make them appear less suspicious. Mars had devised the plan, and left last, as she was holding the bomb. Gali went out first, to scout 7007’s position, before returning and getting Tanadin, Emma, Zahnra, and Hawk ready.
Tanadin had insisted that Emma join them on this, in order to get used to how the Black Market did these kinds of things. Emma wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but excitement bubbled in her veins as she followed Tanadin outside.
After Gali had reported the cyborg’s location, everyone quickly scrambled to get into position. Tanadin stood around the corner, on the street that the cyborg was walking down, supposedly having an innocent conversation with Emma. When 7007 had almost reached them, she would speak the code phrase, not out of place in normal conversation- ‘more iron’- and Gali, around the corner, would run partway down the street to where Mars was concealed, and tell her to light the fuse of the bomb hidden under a small pile of light rubble. The fuse was just short enough so that it should go off as 7007 passed, but long enough that Mars and Gali could quickly get away the moment it was lit.
Zahnra and Hawk stood concealed a ways down the street as backup, in case things went south and they needed to cause a diversion to allow the others to get away.
Tanadin nodded slightly as 7007 came into sight, beginning to chatter away to Emma about the conditions of the mines. Emma itched to turn around and look at the cyborg as he approached- all of her instincts screamed danger- but she knew that if she turned around, he might grow suspicious. She struggled to keep herself from tensing as she heard his footsteps, heavier than a normal human’s due to all the metal, as he walked past, not even shooting them a second glance.
“I don’t know how they expect us to mine up more iron,” Tanadin continued, carefully ignoring the cyborg, “but I suppose we’ll have to manage it.”
Emma nodded pleasantly, silently hoping that Gali was fast enough to get to Mars before the cyborg got around the corner. Gali had assured her that she was, but she couldn’t be certain.
Tanadin babbled on for another thirty seconds or so before trailing off, nodding slightly to Emma and scurrying to the corner to peer around it. Emma knelt in order to peer around as well without getting in Tanadin’s way, watching carefully.
Gali and Mars were nowhere to be seen, and after a moment Emma could spot the inconspicuous pile of rubble that she knew the bomb was hidden under. 7007 seemed to be completely oblivious as he approached, and Emma tensed with excitement as he walked.
Then, suddenly, as they watched, 7007 turned around and walked quickly towards them- not running or jogging, or really moving in any kind of hurry, more like he had just remembered that he needed to get some shopping done before dinner and he was running a bit low on time. About five seconds later the bomb exploded, sending pieces of street and rock flying everywhere. He sidestepped without looking behind him, avoiding a chunk of rock.
7007 sighed quietly and continued walking back the way he had came, as if the attempt on his life had been a minor inconvenience at best. Emma stared at him until Tanadin grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the corner, lowering her voice to a whisper.
“Don’t stare. Don’t even react. We’re going to walk casually down the street away from the scene and turn left at the first opportunity. We’re going to loop around and talk about it then.”
Emma nodded and followed Tanadin as they stepped out onto the street and started walking. Tanadin began jabbering around iron production again- her voice a bit tense, Emma thought- as they walked.
As 7007 walked by, Emma tried not to look guilty, but once again he barely even registered their existence as he continued his patrol.
At least now I have a reason for being tense around them. Nothing had changed when it came to how she reacted to the units, but it definitely felt like it had. Maybe because she was actually breaking the law this time.
They looped around back to the bomb site just like Tanadin had suggested, finding Mars arguing loudly with Zahnra by the crater. Hawk and Gali stood by, somewhat awkwardly.
Tanadin started to open her mouth to argue, but Emma hissed, “I’m not the most experienced person here but I’m pretty sure arguing about plans near the site of a recent bombing is a bad idea if you want to stay out of jail.”
Zahnra’s mouth shut and she nodded swiftly, turning around and stalking back towards Kyir’s house. Hawk and Gali exchanged glances before following her.
Mars looked sadly at the damage that had been wrought upon the street. “I was so sure that would work…” She mumbled.
Tanadin put a hand on her shoulder. “Sometimes, things don’t work out like you planned. We’ll figure something out.” She paused. “Kyir’s gonna be pissed though.”
“Great. I can’t wait to see him pissed.” Emma chimed in, making the others laugh as they headed back towards base.
~~~
“You did WHAT?” Kyir demanded, glaring at Mars through his shades. “I told you not to waste one of my explosives, and dammit, you did it anyway! What were you thinking?! Of course he can detect nearby explosives! Any self-respecting robot or cyborg with half a byte of processing power and a rudimentary scanner can tell when someone sets up a bomb with a fuse. Are you actually stupid?”
Mars crossed her arms. “It seemed like a good plan at the time.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t. You might as well have shoved the bomb up your ass for all the good it did.”
“Is that something you’re into, or…?”
“Get the hell out of my workshop.” Kyir snapped, shooing Mars and Emma out of the room. “Go home. Or go mope in the market. Whatever. Just get the hell out of my workshop. And I’m not entrusting the second bomb to you fuckheads without hearing the plan first. Great Naidra on a canoe.”
Emma blinked. “Who’s Naidra?”
“One of the dragon gods! What do they teach you people these days?” Kyir demanded.
“Practical stuff.” Emma told him.
He snorted. “Whatever. Go home, both of you.”
“Go to whose home? Because I wouldn’t be opposed to going home with Emma…” Mars wiggled her eyebrows.
“I don’t need to hear this.” Kyir grumbled, slamming the door to his workshop.
Emma snorted with laughter. “Sorry, Mars, I’m not into taking pretty girls home on the first date.”
“First date, is it?”
“You two can date somewhere else.” Shawn said dryly. “Not in the hallway where people need to get through.”
“Sorry, Shawn.” Emma smiled at him.
He nodded and looked at Mars. “You’re wanted downstairs.”
“Damn. Oh well, I’ll see you later, Emma!” Mars blew a kiss at her and skipped away, both of them bursting into hysterical laughter as they did so.
Shawn looked between them and slowly shook his head. “You guys are weird.”
“Don’t I know it.” Emma grinned at him before turning and reluctantly leaving Kyir’s house. She struggled to remember her apartment number as she walked, but her eyes were drawn towards the sky. The sun had long since set, allowing darkness to expand over the sky and the stars to begin to show themselves.
Today had been far more eventful than she had anticipated, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world.
~~~
Emma awoke the next morning to someone pounding on her door.
She blinked and sat up sleepily, confused. The knocking resumed and she reluctantly got out of bed, calling “Who is it?” as she approached.
“This is the police. You’re under arrest for, uh...shit, um…”
“You’re terrible at impersonations. You can’t even pull off ‘generic cyborg woman’ correctly.” Emma opened the door as she recognized the second voice as belonging to Tac. Surprisingly, she sounded sober, if perhaps hungover- Emma had expected her to be passed out in a corner somewhere.
The first speaker was revealed to be Fan, who waved cheerfully. “Morning, sleepyhead! We figured out a plan for getting rid of 7007. Get out of bed and into the basement ‘cause this plan was devised mostly by Geek with a little help from Scott, which means it’s better than what Mars cooked up.”
“Scott helping isn’t necessarily a positive feature.” Tac told her, shooting the taller girl an odd look.
“At least he’s creative.”
“Should you really be walking around? If you’re seen, you could get arrested.” Emma pointed out. “Supposedly you’re wanted for breaking out of jail.”
“Should you really be wearing those pajamas?” Fan shot right back.
“What’s wrong with my pajamas?”
“You can’t go outside in them.”
“I was sleeping!”
“Well, now you’re not. Get down to the Marke-” Tac reached up and covered Fan’s mouth, glaring at her.
“Just announce who we are to the entire apartment complex, why don’t you?” Tac snapped.
Fan pulled Tac’s hand away. “I didn’t know you could reach that high.”
Tac growled and hit her shoulder. “Shut up, Fan.”
Emma snorted. “I’ll get going once I’m dressed in a way that Fan deems presentable.” She shut the door and left them to their arguing to get dressed, rolling her eyes.
Once she was ready, she opened the door and found Fan and Tac still arguing, although it was so inane that she had no idea what it was about.
“Good enough for you?”
Fan looked her up and down. “It’ll do.” She sniffed, before turning and walking off down the hall.
“Er, Fan?” Tac called.
“What?”
“The elevator is this way.”
“...Right.” Fan turned around and walked down the hallway in the correct direction.
Emma rolled her eyes once more and pressed the button, allowing them to get into the elevator. “I’m surprised you knew which room was mine.”
“Tanadin told us. Fan knocked on a different door, though, scaring the shit out of some poor elderly woman.”
“I said I was sorry!”
The elevator dinged politely when they reached the correct floor, and Emma led the way out. “So, how are you liking your stay with...well, with us?” Tac asked her.
“It’s...weird, but I really like it. I didn’t have a lot of friends in SOV, so having so many the day I get transferred…”
“I guess that would be kinda weird, huh.” Tac glanced at Fan. “I’ve never been transferred, but Fan has.”
Fan glared at her dangerously. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“You never want to talk about that.”
“Because it was the worst day of my life, okay?” Fan growled, looking away and crossing her arms. “Sorry I don’t feel like talking about the day all of my friends were murdered.”
Emma stared.
“Sorry.” Tac’s voice was quiet. “I didn’t know.”
“No. You didn’t.”
The rest of the walk to Kyir’s house was silent.
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Date: 2016-03-15 08:52 pm (UTC)sollux here hidden away
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Date: 2016-03-18 11:19 am (UTC)THAT IS THE SIGN OF TRUE GENIUS
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Date: 2016-03-16 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 07:24 am (UTC)I don't really know what else to say, so I guess I'll just do a throwback to previous comments on previous stories and give you cookies. (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: 2016-03-17 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-03-18 07:49 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: 2016-03-17 04:09 pm (UTC)