by Andrew Jones
"Taking damage from these beams would take eternal damage, BLAZE-0X119. I suggest avoiding said beams." Chip spoke calmly.
"No shit!" Blaze shouted as she slid passed one of the beams as it attempted to hit her. "Chip! Survey the enemy and look for a weakness!"
"This machine has been contaminated by a virus. Hacking such would risk being contaminated with said virus as well."
"Just fucking do it, damn it!"
"Processing request... The machine's weakness seems to be an attack it possesses."
Blaze grunted from Chip's answer as she slips and falls into a corner of the circular platform. She falls to her knees while looking up at Kryptonite who had been grabbed by one of the steel arms of the machine. The beaming sound grew louder, as she saw the beam's light coming her way quickly. She unsheathed her battle axe and stabbed the bottom of it on the ground, blocking her like it was a shield. The beam shortly hit against the battle axe's blade, shooting back the beam quickly into the machine.
The damage was great, the whole internal part of the machine broke off, exposing the wiring and functionality of the machine. Blaze glances at it, grabbing the handle of her battle axe and jumping high toward the machine.
"Please... D-Do not k-kill me..." The machine whispered sadly.
Blaze ignored the machine's desperate begging as she cut through all the steel arms of the machine, seemingly trying to block her as they served as self-defensive now. She finally got the machine itself, taking a few heavy swings at the functions and insides of the machine.
"You piece of shit!" Blaze shouted.
After her shouting, she stabbed the battle axe inside the machine with more power, seeing the inside explode right in front of her eyes. She grunted from the sound before she was sent back from the impact of the explosion. She flew high and eventually hit back down on the circular platform. She grunted again, sounding more painful than before. Slowly placing two of her fingers on the symbol within her forehead.
"Damage report high. Seek immediate repairs." Chip answered her.
Kryptonite yelled down at her, "Blaze! You okay!?"
He pulled on the claws of the steel arm that had grabbed him, surprisingly being able to do so. He quickly used his paraglider to jump off the arm and glide down to her, letting and falling to his feet right before her.
"I-I'm fine." Blaze sat up slowly just as Kryptonite made it to her side.
She held her arm, as her arm had been blasted off and static was shooting out of her broken arm every so often. As she grabbed her arm, she grunted again, feeling no functionality on that side of her body.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Blaze reached back and unsheathed her spear, and stabbed it into the ground she could use that to stand up and use as a cane. She looked up ahead as the machine looked to be dead. The insides of the machine were completely black and had nothing inside, just the rusted shell. Blaze knew the machine was in functioning order for perhaps hundreds of years, so she wasn't completely surprised it had flipped out that way. A loud squeak sounded, as the machine slowly dropped down the dent it used to climb up to their floor. Another loud squeak sounded, followed by a loud screeching sound as the machine quickly fell back down. The screeching sound slowly got quieter, before a loud thump was heard from perhaps the bottom of the factory.
Kryptonite sighed as he looked down deep into the darkness, "Poor guy."
Blaze ignored him as she slowly dragged herself along the skinny platform to her destination. She wasn't able to fully walk right. As she made her way to the door, it automatically opened like most of the doors in the factory. She gasped as she saw a big monitor in the room, along with three keyboards laid across a big desk.
"Chip, I need you to hack into this monitor and allow me the usage," Blaze grunted as she fell onto the desk and gain her balance from holding onto it.
"Affirmative."Chip responded.
Blaze watched up at the monitor for any signs of success coming from Chip's end. Kryptonite stepped into the room and looked around. It looked like a big lab like this was a place to modify machines that had come here. There were a bunch of gunned parts or weaponry parts. He questioned if the machines that had been sent here were forced to be modified and made into more of high qualified weapons than mere machines. Kryptonite knew the feeling of being a machine, and how it was rejected toward Humanity.
But as he glanced back at Blaze and saw her in her condition, he became concerned for her. She was more than anything he had met in a long time. She was strong, but her heart was stronger than what she could do physically. Even if she was broken down as of now. He stepped next to her and looked up at her.
"Hey, Blaze," Kryptonite said, asking for her attention.
Blaze looked down at him, "Hmm?"
"Why are you after this network?"
Blaze sighed, "The Armagna Network? It's what made all these machines go crazy. It's something like that virus going around for the Humans."
"Maybe... Are they the same? Maybe Ruse and Armagna could possibly be the same."
Blaze stared at him with no reaction before looking back at the monitor, seeing that Chip was successful at hacking into the monitor. She used her usable hand to type and click on certain files within the computer's file, seeing a file with over two thousand files on it; it was titled Dataspace. She narrowed her eyes curiously as she double clicked on the file, but it did not do anything.
"This Dataspace file is the only file in this computer that is suspicious. But I can't get into it." Blaze frustratedly whispered as she kept clicking on the file.
Kryptonite reached into his pocket, "It might just be the computer itself. This factory is known for being hundreds of years old. A modern day computer should be able to run it in tip-top shape!"
Kryptonite pulled out a little flash drive from his pocket, handing it up to Blaze who looked at it. She bit the bottom of her lip as she looked down at the keyboard and placed the flash drive in it's desired place. She began to grab the Dataspace file and drag it to the flash drive sender, then began to watch as a loading timer appeared on the screen with a set time limit of twenty minutes.
"Ugh. I just want to get outta here. This place is pissing me off." Blaze complains as she sighed and watched the loading bar fill slowly.
Kryptonite chuckled before looking at her open wound from her arm, seeing it shoot a static reaction every so often that would force Blaze to react from the pain. His face grew concerned as he looked up at the screen, watching it fill up. A ding sound popped as the screen showed 'SENT'. She retrieved the flash drive and held it in her hands before handing it back to Kryptonite.
"I hope that works." She said with a lack of confidence in her voice.
"Lady Blaze, I know for a fact that it'll work," Kryptonite said with more confidence in his voice as he put the flash drive in his pocket.
Blaze laughed, laughed more than she had laughed in so long. The smile on her face at that moment hurt her cheeks, as she was not used to that feeling. She raised her hands up to her cheeks to rub them, whining softly from the soreness.
"Are you all right, Lady Blaze?" Kryptonite asked.
"I'm fine..." She answered. "So, I'm taking it that you're coming with me then?"
Kryptonite nodded with much anticipation, growing a wide smile on his face. "Yes, Lady Blaze! I'd love to accompany you! I thought you'd never ask!"
Blaze blinked her eyes at his reaction, not remembering if she asked him to accompany her or not, but she brushed it aside as she sighed at his reaction. She turned back to the door that led to the previous room and looked down at her leg as it was not able to move.
"Kryptonite..." She whined again.
He immediately looked her way as he was snooping around the room. "Yes, Lady Blaze?"
"Is there anything in your pocket that can help me walk?"
"I got something! You'd never have to walk again!"
After he shouted, he reached deep into his pocket and quickly pulled
out a little motorcycle that was small enough for him to ride. She looked extremely surprised, surprised he had something like that in his pocket. But she was also confused as to how that will help her walk. He dug deep into his pocket once again and pulled out a big carriage, which he connected to his motorcycle. She blinked as he jumped and undid the gate so she may step onto it.
"Just go inside and relax, Lady Blaze." He spoke.
She kept the look on her face, but it was replaced soon after by a small smile as she walked onto the carriage. It wasn't much, but she managed to plop down slowly and sit against the railing side of the carriage.
"You know where we're going?" She asked him.
"Send me the coordinates!" He answered as he got on his motorcycle and slid on his black goggles.
She looked down as she thought, "Chip, send Kryptonite the coordinates to the Machine Village."
"Affirmative." Chip answered.
Kryptonite started his motorcycle. The engine of the motorcycle sounded light like it was a toy motorcycle, but from how Kryptonite treated it, it seemed as powerful as a regular motorcycle. She found it hard to trust anyone, especially in this situation. But she was really wounded, and she had no choice but to expose the location of the Machine Village to Kryptonite. She thought he was kind- or just a kiss-ass.
"All right... I received the coordinates." Kryptonite announced as he let his motorcycle's engine roar and he pulled his goggles over his eyes as he prepared to ride off.
Blaze felt the whole carriage shake rapidly just as she attempted to close her eyes and relax. Her eyes directly shot ahead at Kryptonite.
"H-Hey! Are you sure this safe!?" Blaze shouted, her voice being shaken by the carriage's shaking.
The motorcycle roared, as it pulled back to do a wheelie. And with high speed, it fell forward onto both tires and drove quickly into the next room, with Blaze's screams following behind.
Verse IV
Mandatory Repairs
Within the underground caves of the Land of Ruin, lies a peaceful village of machines who seemly came from all over the world, running away from the terror the Humans bring forth. The village isn't much as of quality-wise, but it had plenty of shelters for each of the machine families. Many businesses were formed in the village, most businesses would tend to assign the machines a family, of which they became compatible to feel a sort of loving embrace toward them. Blaze never really understood it, she felt like the machines were trying to mimic the Human's civilization too much. But she didn't do anything to attest against their beliefs.
The machines looked at her differently than the others, she was one of the only machines known to still be in sync or alive throughout the world of Izequin. They called her kind Humanoids, or Synths- the true mimics and the more improved form of Humans, but Blaze already knew the Synths had their share of flaws as well, be it different or the same as what the Humans have.
She knew the fear all the machines had hidden inside them from what's happening in the world. They were afraid of witnessing the infected Humans or machines or even becoming infected themselves. Blaze remembered a scene not too long ago that happened at the village. It was strange. It was one day of which she could remember coming out of her sleep mode and see clear, blue skies for once. All the machines were at ease, with no problems to be seen. But out of nowhere, a machine screamed. Blaze rushed over to the machine and saw it devouring another machine. Then it jumped straight across to a Synth by the name of Akemi.
Akemi struggled to get the mad machine off of her. It was devouring her from the top of her head, actually eating her. Blaze gasped in fright as she rushed over to grab the machine. But as she pulled on the machine, the machine was pulling part of Akemi's head off as well. Blaze didn't know what to do, just as she had seen the previous devoured machine stand up and attack another machine. The village slowly became more and more infected with the 'virus of the insane Humans', as what us Machina called it to insult and throw the blame at the Humans.
Blaze freaked out, and she was crying as she saw the machine pulling on Akemi's head. She could see the flesh being pulled against the machine's mouth and not long after that, she could see the mechanical shell under the flesh the machine was devouring. Blaze shut her eyes and Akemi's screaming, along with many other machines in the village blared into her ears. She screamed herself as she pulled on the machine as hard as she could, with no limitations. After a few seconds, she fell backward with the raging machine in her arms. Her sobbed eyes opened in surprise, as a wave of relief hit her chest hard, but she could see the body of Akemi on the ground.
It wasn't moving, it just fell down like a rag doll; a puppet that had its last performance. But as she looked deeper, she saw that the machine had pulled off half of Akemi's head off, as it devoured the half part of her head it had in its mouth. Blaze screamed in horror as she tossed the machine in a random direction, crawling toward the dead body of Akemi, looking down at her. The cut that divided the halves of her head was diagonal. From the bottom of her left cheek, cutting up to the middle of the bridge of her nose, and just over her right eye, that was all devoured. The opening of her head showed all the necessary parts of the functionality for the Synth.
But she didn't see Akemi as a Synth, or a machine life form, so seeing the machinery within her scared her, and sort of traumatized her. She was scared to hold Akemi's body, and she hesitated. But she just couldn't do it.
"A-Akemi..." Blaze spoke in an oddly soft voice for even her.
But she continued to sob as she looked at her friend. Until she heard the screams of the machines behind her. She had no choice but to fight the infected machines, even though as she cut them down and killed every single one, their normal and peaceful side of them before their contamination occurred appeared in her head.
She struck down the last one, as she heard one of the baby machines that was infected crying in her head. As it did every single night. And she couldn't help but cry because she blamed herself for the invasion. Somehow, someway, she was to blame for the infection spreading to the machines.
"Lady Blaze? Hey, Lady Blaze! We're here... I think." Kryptonite spoke.
Her body rocked itself as she heard the familiarity of his voice. She opened her eyes as she saw the darkness of the night. She sighed as she stared up, blinking her eyes while noticing he had stopped moving. She sat up and took a quick look around, glancing right at the gates that led to the Machine Village. She tried to stand up, but she fell back onto her usable knee, still being damaged on one side of her body. She still sounded like she had been in great pain, but she pulled a calm-ish face and looked over at Kryptonite as he was still seated on his motorcycle.
The loud sound of his motorcycle only increased in volume as he sped into the village, breaking through the gates that would give them entry to the village. The light that lit the village lit up the area they were in, signaling that the machines were somewhere around them. But just as Kryptonite was about to stop, his motorcycle slid on the little pebbles on the ground. He was forced to turn his motorcycle the other way and try to regain control of the motorcycle, but ended up hitting into a wooden fence, letting loose some animals.
With the sound of the crash, a few machines raced outside their shelters to see what had happened. The carriage had flipped over, and the motorcycle broke into pieces. Kryptonite popped his head out of a haystack, as he spits out some hay from his mouth.
"You stupid teenagers better not be hassling with my animals again, you here!?" The old, rusted machine shouted in a robotic voice while shaking his cane up in the air.
Kryptonite jumped out of the haystack and flew slightly in the air, doing a clumsy flip in the air and landing right on his bottom. He grumbled as he stood up and rubbed his painful bottom, walking toward the machine.
"Sorry, man. Lost control of my ride." Kryptonite muttered while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"A teddy bear? No wonder why you couldn't keep control of your 'ride', you're probably small
er than the confounded thing!"
"W-Wha-!?" Kryptonite's button eyes widened as he looked to be in complete shock. "The motorcycle was small, don't bring my size into this, old man!"
"Enough!" A new voice came forth.
Kryptonite and the old machine quickly glance at the voice and seeing a sort of half machine, half Synth sort of prototype. She stood in a sort of elegant way, a way most machines and Humans looked upon as both elegant and ancient. She had long orange hair and kept this serious look on her face, but she glared at both of them as she could them arguing.
"What is the meaning of this?" She asked.
"This freeloading, rebel teen came and let loose my animals, SIYURI-BOT2998." The old machine shouted with panic in his voice.
Kryptonite gasped as his voice went really high, "What!? I only came to deliver Blaze back here! My ride went out of control when we came, I apologized!"
"The hell you didn't, you fluffy piece of shit!"
"You take that back you rusty bag of fucks!"
The SIYURI-BOT2998 turned her head as she was curious about the crash. She let the two of them continue their bickering as she wondered into the crash, seeing the carriage flipped over. She gasped as she saw some long silver hair, knowing right away that it was Blaze. She bent over and pulled her up by one of her arms. Blaze grunted as she was lifted up, panting for air as she looked over at Kryptonite.
"Did you forget about me!?" Blaze yelled.
Kryptonite facepalmed, "Shit."
After that, Blaze blacked out after enduring that amount of damage for that long of a period. She opened her eyes slowly and saw a light which forced her to breathe deeply in a sort of anxious way. She heard other machines in the distance, so she tried to sit up. The pain wasn't as severe, but it still hurt a lot. One of her eyes was shut as she pulled herself up, she held onto her damaged arm, feeling the repair work bandaged up.