Chapter 7 : Training harder

On the road, Lance stopped to take some oil. Astrid had calmed down, though now, he was horrified by Lance's confession.

"I killed my coworker."

Lance could imagine every scenario happening in Astrid's head: Lance, being a serial killer, hunted down by police. Intending to destroy the world. Killing him at the first chance. This had crossed Lance's mind: getting rid of the boy by leaving him on the road. However, something inside pf him prevented him from doing such. He would be better off bringing him back to his parents. This way, they would leave him alone.

"Why?" Astrid said. "Why did you lie to me? Why did you kill this man?"

While taking oil, Lance shrugged. "He wanted to me dead. He wanted to get rid of me. I wasn't useful anymore."

"That's not true! You didn't have to kill him!" Then Astrid cried again. Lance rolled his eyes. "Humans will always be the same. Always saying their race is right and robots would only be tools to them. After all, we are close to computers. We can have a glitch sometimes."

Astrid shook his head, tears in his voice. "That's not true! You have feelings! I thought we were friends. I thought we were…" Lance cut him off.

"Do you want to know everything?" He paused. "…You are nothing to me, Astrid."

He then went back to what he was doing and paid. However, the moment he was distracted, he heard one of his car doors slam.

"Astrid!" He cried out. He just realized that Astrid had just left the car.

Astrid escaped!

He sighed. Maybe should he take his own way so...Driving without caring for the boy. After all, what did he have to lose? They only had only known each other for one week. It wasn't like he was responsible for him. It wasn't like he was his parent, or his guardian or anything…

He started again. However, the moment he was about to leave the gas station, he heard a loud scream behind him. Frowning, Lance slowed down to check in his rear-view mirror.

He realized what was happening: Astrid was cornered against a wall by a man in his forties. An older man. Closing his eyes, he listened to the meeting.

"Poor boy…Are you alone here? Where are your parents?"

"…" Astrid looked away, like not wanting to face him.

"Are you lost, huh? Maybe should I help you find them? Are they in the gas station?"

Astrid simply shook his head. Lance had a bad feeling about it. Why didn't the boy leave? He glared at the man.

"If they are not…We should search for them tomorrow, don't you think? I live nearby. You could sleep at my home."

The man came closer to Astrid, who cowered. "Furthermore, I have a lot of animals at home. Three cats, three dogs…Do you want to see them?"

"I don't want…" Astrid said.

"Don't worry. I will not bite you. Come with me." The man then sharply took Astrid by the arm. Astrid cried out, struggling. "Let me go! Please! I don't want to!"

"Shh, little man. Don't worry," the man repeated.

For one moment, Lance was quite torn. He was okay with leaving Astrid here to handle that man alone. However, for one reason or another, Lance believed this man was one of most horrible kinds. Furthermore, he didn't need to analyze him to understand that he planned nothing good for Astrid. That was not a normal reaction, even if it was a human. Watching that man talking to Astrid this way made him shiver.

"Let me go, please!"

"Shh…"

Lance had already killed a man. He could definitely get rid of him. Hearing Astrid's pleads for help was the last straw. Lance turned back into his robot form and headed for the two. While the man was growing more threatening to the boy, Lance pushed him away from Astrid.

"Hey! What are you doing?" the man cried out.

Lance didn't even reply back. Lasers came out of his eyes then aimed at the man's butt. The moment it touched him, the man yelped in pain, screaming for help as his trousers were burning. Lance almost wished to aim at another intimate part, but he preferred not to do so.

"Lance?" Astrid said, mouth open. "…You saved me?"

"Let's go now before I just leave you here. Stop crying now."

Astrid gave him a grateful smile then followed him. "Thanks."

Lance…felt nothing about it.

They didn't even notice a woman holding her phone, filming the entire scene.