Never a dull moment, huh? At least that's what ran through my head before I was quickly reminded that I could die at any moment by Tangent's hands. I needed to focus.
Historical guided me to a rickety metal door with a little circular window near the top. He hurried me through, clunkily following me behind, shutting the door behind us.
The small room I found myself in was a staggering contrast to the rest of Zynima: it was wet everywhere and covered in tile, all gleaming light blue. There were similarly coloured pipes travelling across some of the walls and ceiling, some dripping water here and there.
"No entry without authorization," read a white sign on the far wall. Sorry, I'm breaking the rules whether you like it or not, sign.
Historical snapped me back to reality. "Oh dear, he's just walked inside the shop. Let's not waste any time."
In front of us was a door on the left end of the room, and on the right end, a few stairs leading to another door.
"Up the stairs, quick, now." He ran towards the miniature stairwell. I followed.
I hopped up the stairs two at a time. Historical jumped from the side of the stairs straight up to the top, pushing the heavy door open just before I got there. He was unexpectedly agile for someone so bulky.
My optics were met with a similarly designed room once I jogged past the door. This one had one small turn to the left, and at the end of the room, a manhole with a ladder going down. I didn't need any instruction to know what to do.
As swiftly as possible, I swung myself onto the first rung, clambering down as if my life depended on it.
(It did.)
I landed outside on a grated, metal walkway, not unlike the one that circled the tower I lived in.
...It was also the only thing separating me from the rocky cliff below, which led straight down to the desert floor. Were we really this close to the edge of Zynima City's plateau? I was getting the worst kind of déjà vu just from looking at that cliff.
Metal on metal echoed out from the ladder chute as Historical tumbled down onto the walkway, back first.
"Fucking ladders!" he cried out.
I stepped over and helped him up; it didn't take long for him to get back onto his feet.
"Pardon my language. Let's go, quick quick!"
Something up in the room we just exited smashed open with a piercing screech. I wasn't about to wait around to see what it was. I ran down the walkway, Historical just behind me.
Sunlight illuminated our path, but only for a short distance: the walkway zigzagged to the right before leading us underneath a building jutting out from the city's plateau. Support beams and scaffolding surrounded us as soon as we ran beneath the structure.
Clunk. I looked back past Historical. Tangent had gracefully fallen out from the ladder chute, locking eyes with me.
"Go! Go!" I instinctively shouted as I swung my head forward.
"Stay near the edge!" Historical instructed me. The walkway branched off into a grid with countless junctions; staying near the edge meant going straight forward. Easy enough.
The clanging of our footsteps were joined by Tangent's, racing towards us at a pace I couldn't hope to match.
"Historical! He's gaining–"
The edge of the walkway was coming up, forcing us to turn right.
"How much do you trust me?" Historical yelled.
"More than Tangent!"
"Then jump over the railing up ahead!"
"What?!" Oh hell no. Not this again.
No time to think. As soon as I reached the 90 degree turn in the path, I hopped up on top of the railing.
...But I couldn't bring myself to jump. The cliff below would shred me.
"Jump! Now!"
Historical and Tangent were both bolting towards me.
...
...
...No, I couldn't do it.
Someone tackled me from behind, sending me flying.
Flying straight down to the rocky cliff below.
Tangent, I guess.
...Haha.
Looks like he finally got me.
All I could do was watch as the jagged boulders below came closer and closer as gravity brought me to my demise.
I couldn't help but wail as I fell.
Sorry, Shock. You're on your own now, I suppose.
Just behind me, some small bits of machinery were twisting and moving and transforming. Not that I could tell what it was, but in the few moments I had to think, I assumed it was my limbs being dismantled mid-flight. That made sense.
Didn't matter either way. The rocks would've done the same thing to me as soon as I made contact with them.
...Huh. That was a strange sound. A rocket? Torch cutter. Pshoo.
My legs felt kinda hot. Haha, probably Tangent cutting them open.
...
My free-fall was slowing down.
...?
I was still slowing down. Wh...?
"Tsk, tsk! I guess you don't trust me that much after all."
That was Historical, right behind me.
I looked down. A pair of thin, bone-like arms were wrapped around me. Those weren't Tangent's. Those were Historical's.
My free-fall came to a stop. I was hovering mid-air.
...I wasn't doomed?
Pshoooo.
I wrenched my head around to, hopefully, understand what was happening.
I only confused myself even more.
Wings...? Rocket-propelled wings?
They were coming from Historical's back.
You had to be kidding me. Historical had wings?
"Now, my companion, we're not out of this yet. We've got an uninvited guest on this flight, it seems," Historical calmly explained, though his voice was shaking and shifting in intensity.
I looked down again. Just in the edge of my vision, I could see Historical's legs dangling below me.
Ah. Tangent was holding onto his ankles.
...I shook my head. I wasn't doomed. We had a chance!
"Shit! Get him off! What do we do?!" Filled with new vigour, I screamed everything that came to mind. "Get that toaster off!"
"I'm trying, you see!" Historical yelled back as we haphazardly swung side to side in the air. "Stay as still as you can! If I can just... bah! Hold on, Aural!"
We started plummeting again, though we were at least moving away from the cliffside. Thanks to Historical's surprise wings, we were now gliding through the air.
I had no idea what he was planning, but I was hardly in a position to protest or help in any regard.
Through the intensifying sound of the wind around us, shrill, searing metal was very audible behind me.
I looked back. From what I could see... Historical had aimed two of the rockets on his wings at Tangent's head.
"Yes! Fry that worthless bolt brain! Go! Go!" Ooh, I was mad.
With fiery orange jets still scorching his face, Tangent let go with one of his many hands, reached up, and grabbed my ankle.
Hell no. The moment he touched me, I flailed and kicked my leg as hard as I could.
Only a few moments of kicking later, Tangent let go of Historical's foot, and then mine.
He was falling hundreds of feet down towards the desert floor.
I couldn't help but laugh. This was the most absurd situation I'd ever been in. And we just won.
"Damn! Yes! Get fucked, asshole!" I shouted out triumphantly, still experiencing the rush of a lifetime.
"Good! Now, let's..." Historical spoke up as he sharply changed direction, veering back up towards the city. We'd flown a considerable distance during that fiasco.
Part of this didn't seem real. Only a minute ago we were fleeing from Tangent, and the next thing I knew, my new friend had sprouted wings and we'd flown over the desert with a serial killer dangling from our feet.
Please don't let go...! I thought to myself as we ascended back up to the scaffolding. It almost felt like Historical started losing grip of me when we accelerated upwards.
Once we reached the scaffolding, I wiggled my feet around, trying to find the first stable object I could stand on. Historical set me down on the walkway before propelling himself over the rail just in front of me.
"Waaah!" was all I could manage to say after the intensity I just experienced, my hands clasping my head.
"You're okay, you're okay. Take a bre– or, um, try to relax. Yes."
I looked up. In front of me was Historical: an eight-foot robot with a massive pair of rickety, metal wings extending from his back. On the edges of the wings were six thrusters, still glowing bright orange like the lights on his body and unmistakably happy face.
"You have wings!" I plainly stated, holding onto the railing for balance. "Wings!"
Historical chuckled. "I suppose I do, huh? I'm going to need you to keep this a secret, though. I don't need anyone knowing I have this kind of technology stored away in me, you know?"
I watched the wings slowly slide and twist back together into an incredibly compact bundle of metal, carefully retracting into his back.
"Y-yeah, I... I guess, yeah." I turned the eyes on my visor into little round circles with lines beneath them, accurately representing the shock I was still experiencing from... that.
"It's a good thing we got that done as quick as we did." He leaned against the railing as he spoke. "You see, I can't fly for long. It drains me of energy alarmingly fast. I may have to reschedule today to fit in a nap, lest I collapse on the job."
"Hah, yeah. You do that, yeah." Even if I tried, I couldn't form a coherent sentence after that mess.
"Will you be okay? You're quite shocked, I can tell. Do you need a hand getting out of here?"
"Oh, haha, well. I'm okay, I think. Just gotta walk back there and up the ladder and..." I vocalized a huge sigh.
Historical took a step towards me and patted the speaker on my shoulder. "You're sure you're okay, yes?"
I nodded, despite my uncertainty.
"All right. I'm going to head off, then. We probably shouldn't loiter here too long, seeing as we're not "authorized" to be among all this scaffolding."
"Yeah, that's right. And, hey, th-thank you. Thank you a lot. You saved my life."
"Oh, I know! Not a problem at all." He turned around and waved back to me. "Zynima is a dangerous place. You should be careful out there, Aural Automaton."
"...Yeah. You too."
I watched Historical casually walk away as if the most outrageous shit hadn't just gone down.
...
Did I ever tell him my full name was Aural Automaton?
I... don't think I did.
That was rather curious.
After he'd climbed up the ladder, I decided to take a quick walk down to the scaffold grid we'd just raced across. I wanted to see Tangent, just to have one more gratifying look at our victory.
Once I got to the corner of the grid where Historical tackled me off the railing, I peered down at the desert.
That's when my mechanical heart sank.
I could see a little robot all the way down there, walking back to the cliff just beneath the walkway.
Of course. Of course Tangent survived that.
"Oh, piss off!" I screamed, recording my voice clip so I could belt it out through my sound system. "PISS OFF!" I bellowed loud enough that the whole neighbourhood could probably hear it.
Tired of this shit, I angrily flipped Tangent the middle finger and walked off back towards the ladder we came from.
I climbed back up into Silver Wash's maintenance passage to be greeted by a small, yellow robot with an oversized black beanie on its head.
"Hey, you're not allowed to be here," he spoke up after I passed by.
Oh yeah? Yeah? Yeah?
I quickly spun around to face the little robot, continued walking backwards towards the door, bowed down, and held a finger in the air.
"Yes," was the only thing I could think to say as I nudged the door behind me open with a light kick. I then traversed and left the building without another hitch.
If Tangent was still alive, then I didn't really want to waste time wandering around alone in the public eye. I ran back to our hideout with haste.
Verdin Square was only a few blocks away. After zigzagging around the streets a bit, dodging the other robots as I skipped along, I was met with the bright lights of Verdin.
...
...
I locked up again, just like before when I was in front of Maestro Bar. What was–
Oh. I was in front of Maestro Bar.
Whoops. I calmly walked away from it.
...
...
Much better. Damn, that aura was unnerving...
Our side street was sparsely populated, leaving me free to run back to safety in our hideout.
Beep beep. I unlocked the door and stumbled into the hideout, carelessly slamming the door behind me.
"Aural?" Shock called out.
"It's me," I replied.
I was met with a death glare as soon as I descended the spiral staircase.
"What the hell took you so long?!"
I couldn't even figure out where to start.
"Ohh, oh. Ohoho. Don't you dare give me shit," I blabbed, trying to form a thought as I spoke. "Shock, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."