Chapter Two: The Surface

Toby stumbled back from the disembodied head, tripping and landing next to a – mostly – whole body that gave him a slurred hello, yelping loudly in response. He scrambled up, ignoring the mobbing robots in favor of shaking his still unconscious friend. Sighing in relief at the sight of drowsy green eyes blinking open, he tugged the girl up, steadying her with his arm. The robots stared silently at Lilith before closing in on the two, chanting "One of us…one of us!"

An abrupt shout of "INCOMING!" made the robot boy reflexively curl his arms around his unusually quiet friend, holding her tight to his chest as chunks of metal fell from above them, sending the two tumbling down the side of the scrap heap.

Toby twisted mid-air, turning so that his back hit the case of the 'heap instead of his friend's. The girl gave an appreciative grin before scrambling up, brushing off her shorts and glancing around curiously. She stared upward for few minutes, a thoughtful expression in her verdant eyes, "The surface," she murmured in awe. Toby gave a barely perceptible nod, grimacing and clenching his shoulder. "Ya okay?" Lilith asked worriedly.

Toby shrugged, winced, then asked, "What do we do?"

"We can't go back," Lilith muttered, thumping down on a hunk of metal.

"I can't," Toby corrected, joining her.

The girl shook her head sadly. "Neither can Ah, not after that lil' show." At the boy's questioning, chocolate gaze, she hesitated before giving another shake of her head. "Ah can't tell you until Ah'm sure," she muttered.

Toby's response was broken off by movement just out of sight. He jumped up, pushing Lilith behind him and glaring at the hunk of sun bleached metal that dared to move. "Who's there?" he snapped.

A metal hatch popped open, revealing a beat up robot in the shape of a dog. Said robot gave a friendly bark at Toby's delighted laugh as it jumped out at of the hunk of metal, knocking the boy over to "lap" at his face("lap" due to the lack of an actual tongue.) Having moved away before the dog-like 'bot had leapt, Lilith smiled faintly as the boy announced the 'bot's name to be "Trashcan," cracking a smirk at the implication.

The red head knelt, giving the little 'bot a pat before mumbling, "So, are ya lost Trashcan?" her gaze fell, smile slipping. "I know we sure are…"

The 'bot jumped up, running(rolling?) in a quick circle before turning back to the pair and barking excitedly.

"What is it boy?" Toby asked as the dog replied with more barking. "Someone's in trouble?"

"So, wait," Lilith grinned. "Now you speak dog?"

"Well, it is a robot," Toby retorted thoughtfully with a smile.

The dog gave an affirmative-sounding bark, taking off into the heap. The boy raced after it, ignoring his friend's mutterings of "hero complexes" as she followed at a more sedate pace. Trashcan halted at the edge of a deep chasm, the boy nearly tumbling in before his friend caught his arm.

Toby frowned, glancing at his friend as she knelt and shouted "Hello?" into the hole.

"It could be miles down…" he murmured, straitening and turning to face their guide/ "The hole looks pretty – DEEP!" he yelped, falling backwards as Trashcan head butted him forward.

Lilith POV

I scrambled back, yelling out for my friend as the net closed around him. A giant…spatula?(…what.) flipped him onto the ground, where four suspiciously small figures quickly surrounded him.

"Put the restraints on him," a feminine voice muttered. Snapping out of my daze, I scrambled up, pale teal energy threading around my fingers as I tried to push them away.

"Hey! S-stop that!" I snapped, pushing the tallest away, shocked blue eyes flickering uncertainly under her hood. The other three slunk back silently, helping up their "leader." Hurriedly, I pulled the dark blanket off my friend. "Hey, ya okay?" I murmured, checking him over.

I glanced back, sending a glare at the girl as she muttered hesitantly, "That's not a robot…"

Going on instinct, I stood, planting my hands on my hips and giving my best glare. "No dip, Sherlock!" I growled, stooping to help up my friend.

The girl met my gaze evenly, sweeping back her hood and taking the two of us in through suspicious cerulean eyes. "So where're you from non-robots?" she asked.

Standing, Toby mumbled, "We're from Metro City."

"Metro City?" the girl gasped, in a poor attempt at what I like to call 'fan girl' voice. "Can you believe it, guys? They're from Metro City and they're actually talking to me!"

Ever the oblivious one, Toby asked with real concern, "Are you feeling alright?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Ohmigosh, he talked to me twice!" the girl squealed. "Oh this is definitely going in my diary as the most exciting day of my life," she finished sarcastically.

"Okay, I get it," Toby said, rolling his eyes. "You don't like people from Metro City."

I snorted, drawing the group's gaze. "Ah keep forgettin', surface dwellers ain't got no mannahs," I sneered, challenging a response silently.

Blue eyes glinted angrily as the girl took a step forward, evidently rising to my challenge. "At least we can talk right, Princess," she snapped before the dark haired boy started going off about mine and Toby's hometown almost dreamily.

Breaking my gaze, the girl scoffed at the last part of the boy's spiel. "Ha, they wouldn't let you in," she said, not-so-subtly glancing at me as she continued. "They have a strict 'no losers from the surface allowed' policy. Besides, why would you wanna go somewhere where people think you're trash?" she all but growled.

I pretended not to notice Toby's crestfallen look.

"I mean, look at this," she continued, picking up a junky looking phone and dusting it off. "Can you believe someone would just throw it away?"

"Maybe they just dropped it," I suggested.

"Over the side of an island thousands of feet in the air?" the ravenette asked skeptically. I shrugged, reluctantly conceding the point.

A quiet pinging sound caught my already frazzled attention, turning me away from the strange people's halfway interrogation of my friend. I chuckled though as "Sludge" boasted his ninety second longer life than his twin, Widget. Zane, Sludge, Widget and Cora? And I thought my name was odd.

Abruptly, I spun, seeing a red and blue blur catch Toby up just as he was about to introduce himself. A call of "VIVA THE ROBOT REVELUTION!" left me standing in their wake, hand stretched out and a bewildered expression adorning my face as I numbly said "….what just happened?"