Wave after wave of humans run, they run for the hills; they run to attack their captors. What was once so powerful to be immortal is now being destroyed by a boy in blue. An inferno follows him, the furious flames lick the edges of the camp, winds keeping it back from attempting to swallow the grassy plains. And yet the camp is not a stranger to the cleansing fire.

 

Laura bursts through the treeline, barely outrunning the main body of flames. Her clothes are seared, the perfection of her face marred by smoke. She falls to her knees on the soft grass, breathing the hot air in, sucking in smoke from the flaming woods. A high pitch carries her mind away from the destruction, smoke glossed the world over and she falls to her face. Glossed eyes barely focusing on the Blue armored figure in front of her riding a machine down to the ground, as if surfing on the corpse of a flaming metal dragon. He rolls off the junk heap just before it hits the ground and explodes. The high pitch masks the sound of the explosion, but the wave of heat washes over her and is suddenly cold.

 

The firestorm rages on, everyone has fled. Every building is either on fire or rubble. "I was only a few minutes behind him... how could he have caused so much destruction in so little time?"

 

Rock stands up and notices the body of Laura and begins to walk towards her. She tries desperately to get up, pride trying to will her body to move, but her muscles are cement and her bones are titanium. He stops before her and looks down, eyes cold and unrelenting as if he were deciding whether or not she was dead weight or useful. He then reaches down and pickes her up like a fallen log and begins walking away from the flames, following the path made by the escaped prisoners. Fire and metal still rain from the sky, but undeterred he walks away, as if he has just done his groceries or mailed a letter.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hours pass in a dark swill before Laura's vision. Ink presses on all perepherals and she is left wondering about her present situation, time has lost all meaning in her personal abyss. All that has become her world is when the darkness will subside. And it does, slowly but surely she reagains her grip on now. The blackness creeps from her eyes, and the pitch in her ears deafens. Her thoughts grind together in a jumble of questions and her body jerks awake. Adrenaline pumps through her taut veins like acid, the fire searing her thoughts, jarring her mind into overdrive. To her she shot upwards and jumped from Rock's arms and down to the ground in a roll. To rock she started going into convulsions and fell face first.

 

She immediately rolled over and jumped to her feet, quickly dusting herself off. "Er... where are all the people who escaped?"

 

"Gone, probably to a city or something. I don't know where people go to when I can't see them."

 

"What?"

 

"People. They come and go but I never now where they go, just where they are. I have only been alive for a few days now, I am still getting used to time."

 

"A few days? But you must be somethign like 16... you're a little short though. I'm lost."

 

"I was alive for a time before now. I was recreated a few days ago. I've learned so much except where everyone goes once they run away from everything. Everyone seems to be cowards, they do not fight at all, even when it is their lives. Why did you come for me?"

 

"Don't you try to change the subject on me. Recreated? Are you a robot? You can't be... I saw you bleed."

 

"I am a robot Laura, look." He raised his arm parallel the ground and they both watched it change into the blaster. "I have blood in me, yes, but I am not of your flesh. I don't even think I rightly could even have an age."

 

"But..."

 

"Laura, I helped you because I felt it was right. I am programmed to fight Dr. Wily, and helping you served my programming. I need to get back to work now. I know where his lab is and he must pay for what he has done to the world, and to me," an ironic grin plays accross his lips, "Twice."

 

"I can help, I'll come with you and we can take him down together. Then we can go back and you can stay with us and help us..."

 

"No Laura, this isn't your fight. I cannot guarantee your safety."

 

"But I can guarantee her death." A deep voice cuts in as a concussion grenade lands between them and blasts them away from each other. Rock lands in a roll that brings him to his knees, facing his attacker who steps in front of the unmoving body of Laura. "Looks like I get a two for one today. But she is fleshy, I will enjoy peeling it off her body."

 

"If you touch her, so help me..."

 

"You won't even be able to think of doing anything. Look at you, your body is broken already. I've seen to it that my minions would take care of that. I know that your nanobots are depleted or else you would have fixed your helmet by now. I can read your energy signature, you are almost depleted, you are far from able to fight me. You are a good fighter, noble and courageous, but today the spider will take down the lion."

 

"Shut up and get on with it, I will defeat you. Then I will continue to hunt your master until he is brought to justice. Half the world burns because of your brothers, the other half cowers from your master. I will not rest until you are all defeated."

 

"You take the lives of my brothers and you dare speak of their actions, they are as much a part of you as they were monsters. You cannot take their strengths without taking their lives. So what would make you any more different than them?" A few seconds of silence pass. "that's what I thought."

 

...