Authors Note- whoo-hoo! Welcome to another chapter! I'll skip all the formal shit and cut down to brass tax—I hope you like it!

Disclaimer- Subtract Edward, the name Suburbia, and the haunted mansion, I could write a book with all that shit in here that's mine. So…suck on that, Burton.

No. I didn't really mean that.

VertiCut: Chapter IV

New Suburbia: The Condemned Mansion

"Who were those people?" Edward asked.

"The men in the van? That was Illegal Bionic Control." I said.

Edward tilted his head.

"They take away unregistered cyborgs that are being forced to fight. You know what a robot is, right?" I asked.

"Like Johnny 5?" he asked.

"…Johnny what?"

Edward shook his head. I continued.

"People make fight rings and bet on fighting robots or cyborgs. Most of them have skin and flesh. It's a hazard, because without this special lamination that's really expensive, they are like plague rats—transporting diseases and shit." I said.

"You look like them, you know." I added "Your clothes, your hands. A lot of Battle Bots—that's what they call them—have had their arms replaced with weapons."

"Is that why they tried to take me away?" Edward asked.

"Yeah, but only 'cuz this part of town is abandoned. You can bet two fucks they would not try that shit in the main part of town where all the people are. Robots don't act like you…they don't show fear. Not like us. Anybody walking down the street would have been able to tell you were human."

Edward looked up at me, surprised.

"Really?" he asked. His metal fingers twitched.

"Well, I had to cut you to prove it to them. See, you heal,"—

I reached out and pointed to where I cut him.

"Battle-Bots can't. They just bleed till whoever's fighting them cauterizes their wounds. The ones I've seen, they bled until the blood got thick and clumpy and couldn't come out anymore. It's sick. Their skin and blood isn't essential for them to live—it's just a cover. But they can feel it. They can feel all the pain. Sometimes they end up gnawing the flesh off their legs and arms so they won't have to put up with it." I said.

Edward's eyes were wide, and his fingers were twitching out of control. I leaned back against the side of the fireplace.

"Sorry. Things like that…they get to me. My dad, he was really against using robots like that. He made them, you know." I said.

"He did?" Edward asked.

"Well, he designed them. He did a lot with cyborgs and artificial body parts. He saved a lot of people with his research. A lot of robots, too."

"He sounds like a good person." Edward said.

I nodded.

"Urchin?" Edward asked.

"Yeah?"

"…Before you cut me…you said you knew I was human. How did…why did you think that?" Edward asked.

I yawned and let myself slide down the wall.

"I've known you were human since the day I first met you." I mumbled.

He stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate.

"You sliced that guys face up. No robots do that. Not even Battle-Bots do that, and they have machete for arms. You can tell them to—they just won't do it. Robots can't hurt humans. You can." I said.

Edward looked confused. Hurt.

"It's not a bad thing, believe me Edward. It saved my life." I said, my eyelids lowering.

Edward looked out at New Suburbia. I did too. The sea of lights was mesmerizing.

Edward said something, but I don't know what. I could barely hear him. Something about pain, life and death. I don't know. I shrugged.

"Here's a tip for the future Edward," I said as I closed my eyes. "The key to being human is inhumanity."

-Snip-

I yawn and open my eyes. I was curled up in the fireplace, my dads jacket covering me like a blanket.

"Aw, fuck. Did I fall asleep?" I asked out loud.

"Yes."

I screamed and pulled myself up. Edward jumped back.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"No, no, no—it's my fault. Damnit, this is the most I've slept in months. You don't have any way to tell the time up here, do you?" I asked.

Edward walked over to the gap in the ceiling.

"It's one fifteen." He said.

I stood up, hiked my bra down, and put on my jacket.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"There's a big sign." Edward answered.

I pulled myself over to where he stood. The city was no longer the blanket of light and dark. it was replaced with what i only assume is the interior of hell: huge smoking factories, crusty old streets, towering sky-scrappers, and free ways and overpasses and highways that knot off the city from the rest of the world.

A holographic billboard illuminated the time.

"OH Shit! Shit, shit!" I screamed.

"What is it?" Edward asked.

I ran back over to the fireplace and scooped the knife back up and grabbed my Street Skimmer.

" My friends are going to kill me. I need to go, and I have to go now!" I said.

"Will you come back?" Edward asked.

I turned and looked at him.

"I guess…if you really want me to." I said.

"I do."

I laugh nervously. I have no idea why.

"Edward?" I asked.

"Yes?"

" I…I don't normally do this kind of thing, so know this means a lot…"

"What is it?" Edward asked, taking a step forward.

"Thanks for saving me." I say.

I take off down the stairs, trying to loosen my foot harness. A loud, crashing sound echoes as I reach the bottom of the stairs. I drop my Street Skimmer, and yank out my switchblade. I turn, and look into the hallway next to the staircase.

Someone's in there.

I step limberly down the last few steps, and peer down at the figure.

He smells…awful. Like rotting flesh. Jesus Christ. His pants are torn and bloody, and one pant leg has been ripped off, revealing a crude robotic leg that disappears into a mess of bloody bandages. One of his arms was gone at the elbow. The metallic joint gleamed, while loose, ripped skin and stripped wires hung down from it. His face…oh god, his face. He had no skin on his mouth…no skin on his jaw. From his upper lip down, there was a metal, skeletal jaw—dripping with blood and stained with rust.

He stared at me—captivated. He took a small step forward and reached out his working hand.

"…Human?" he asked softly.

I jumped on my Skimmer, turned it on, and flew out of there as fast as I fucking could.

-Snip-

I flew nervously down the back alleys next to Tin-Tins apartment complex. I stopped at a tarp that had been squeezed into the narrow space. I stepped off my Skimmer, and walked between the sheets that closed the entrance.

The only thing I made out was Tin-Tin sitting on a musty couch. Beck jumped at me, and pushed me to the ground.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Beck yelled. His voice echoed like a broken speaker.

I opened my mouth, and Beck punched me across the face. Hard.

"Do you have any idea what you put us through!? We thought you were dead! We thought you'd been killed! We thought you were suffocating in some dark alley and there was nothing we could do!" Beck rasped.

"Get the FUCK off me." I said blankly.

Beck started screaming. What, I do not know. Whatever he was saying was so loud that it couldn't be heard over his mechanical moans.

" KNOCK IT OFF!"

Tin-Tin wrapped her arms around Beck and tried to yank him off me. I slid out from under him and Tin-Tin let him drop.

"If you punched me harder, you coulda put me into a coma." I said.

"We waited hours for you. Hours. Hours of cold rain and you didn't come back." Beck moaned into the ground.

"It…it is true. We looked for you everywhere." Tin-Tin nodded.

"I ain't some little kid got to have someone to protect her," I mumbled as I spit out a mouthful of blood. I touched my face and winced.

"Fuck, Beck. That kills." I moaned.

"We're all we got, Urchin," he said, pulling himself up. "You, Tin-Tin, me, we're all each other has. You can't do that to us again. Just leave, and not come back. If anything happened to you...I...I don't know what I would do."

I shot Beck an angry look.

"You ain't all I got." I said.

Beck sighed.

"How longs it been, Urchin? Ten years? Your father isn't coming back." Beck said.

I twisted around and punched Beck. My fist twisted around his throat, and he fell to the floor in a spasm of metallic coughs.

"How dare you. You have no right. NO RIGHT." I hissed.

Beck turned his face away from me. Like he didn't want me to see him.

Tin-Tin looked back between me and Beck. She grabbed a handful of her hair.

"Urchin...does this mean you ain't staying?" she asked.

I spit another mouthful of blood and looked down. I don't need this. Not now, not ever. I love Tin-Tin, and I love Beck. They've been my family for over seven years.

The people we love are the one's that will hurt us the most.

"I think..." I said slowly. "I need some time to myself."

I silently look over at Tin-Tin.

"Is my stuff still in your room?" I asked.

Wordlessly, Tin-Tin grabbed my ponytail and marched me out of the alley. We walked up the steps and into the apartment complex. She took out her key-card, and opened the door to her apartment.

I walked back to her room and started gathering up all my things. She watched nervously by the side.

"Take some food with you, okay?" she asked.

"I plan to."

I grabbed my duffle bag out of her closet, and started stuffing clothes into it. I didn't even check if it was hers or mine.

"Beck and me were really worried, you know. We checked everywhere. Beck especially." She said.

I didn't say anything.

"We went to South Gate, even asked Lintu if she'd seen you," Tin went on nervously, wringing her hair in her hands.

I shrug as I keep packing.

"Beck…he went to the hospital. To talk to your mom," she said.

"HE WHAT?!" I screamed. I hadn't seen or heard from my mom in ages. She stopped coming home from her hospital shifts long ago.

"I told you we were really worried." She whispered.

"I can take care of myself." I said.

I stood up and walked into the kitchen. I pulled open the fridge.

"Do you know where you'll go?" she asked.

I didn't say anything. I stuffed a few pre-made sandwich wraps into my bag.

"Yeah."

"You're gonna go up to the mansion, right?" she asked.

Tin-Tin and Beck don't know much about my history with the mansion. They know I got my scar up there, they know a man saved my life up there, and they know I don't want Illegal Bionic Control to go near it. Other then that, they filled in the pieces themselves.

"You're gonna be okay? Right? I mean, you're gonna come back?" Tin-Tin asked.

I shoved some soda cans, a few bottles of water, and some take out boxes into the bag.

"I'll be back in a few days. Take care of Beck. That is, make sure he doesn't…do anything stupid." I said.

"Gotch ya." Tin-Tin said cheerfully.

I looked over my shoulder at her. Tin-Tins golden hair was done back in a mess of braids and clippies. Her pale skin showed no flaw or blemish. Her big flowery overalls hung loosely over some pink t-shirt from an old, old movie or TV show. Seeing her shirt, it made me remember something Edward said.

"Hey, Tin? Does the name Johnny 5 mean anything to you?" I asked.

Tin-Tin grinned like a maniac.

"Yeah. He was from Short Circuit." She said.

"What was that? A book or,"—

"It's a movie, a really old movie. Johnny was a robotic weapon. He got struck by lightning and became alive."

"Okay. How old is it, exactly?" I asked.

"Um…1980 something was the original one. That's when all the good movies were made, you know. The nineteen hundreds." She said.

It was also, (I realize with some level of uncomprehending wonder) the last time Edward came to Suburbia.

"Urchin? Did you hear me?" Tin asks. I shake my head.

"I asked if you think this is a good idea."

Do I know that? What do I know? I know I've just decided to spend the next few days in a crumbling mansion from a few centuries ago, and that I saw a rotting Battle-Bot on my way out. I know the man who lives there saved my life. I know he has a metal skull, and scissors for hands. I know he is over two hundred and twenty years old. I'm abandoning my oldest friends for Edward, even though I only just met him last night.

But knowing all this just makes me want to see him more.

I answer Tin-Tin by zipping up the bag and running out the door.

Well, that's chapter four for you! I wanted to reference the 80's somehow as the time period Edward went down to Suburbia in. If none of you have seen Short Circuit, it is pretty much everything Tin-Tin said. A little on the cheesy side, but very cute and heartwarming.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any ideas or suggestions or ideas, please do not hesitate to leave a review.