As Marco darted across the wet bushes and muddy grass, he could somewhat begin to piece together what just happened. It was not as if he wasn't aware of how bizarre his current situation was beginning to look, but there was a sneaking suspicion that something wasn't quite right. As he moved across the dirt path and over a puddle to the next set of greenery, a shiver down his spine told him to second guess the situation.
"So how exactly does running away from…whatever happened back there, fix the situation?" Marco inquired.
"Those machines are being controlled remotely," explained Alysa, "We can cut off the connection, but we need to use a specialized computer to do so."
"And the first step is to get there…," Eito continued as they went through the last set of bushes, "…is to go under."
Marco was a tad stumped as he scanned the ground until he laid his eyes on a manhole. The only thought that came to his head was: "What the hell am I doing?"
"This has got to be some sort of prank."
"What do you mean?" asked Eito.
"You want me to go into the sewers?"
"You don't have to follow us," retorted Eito as he heaved the large, metal disk from its place, "You wanted to know, and it doesn't really matter to us if you find out or not."
"How would someone finding out about your secret… not be a problem?"
Alysa stepped in, "Well to be frank-,"
But before she could get her word in, the sound of shrubbery rustling and a … coiling, hissing electricity cut the whole conversation off. Emerging from the lighting-draped bushes, turning leaves into crisp brown before ash, crawled out an amalgamation of steel.
Consisting of the students' robots and additional parts from the classroom, the creature stood at the size of a large canine. Electricity wrapped across its body as it held together the components that were haphazardly slapped together. Disproportionate limbs, lacking in proper joints, perturbed from the main body. Sensors, from cameras to pressure detectors, poked out across the mangled chassis. The monstrosity scrapped and screeched its metal parts towards the group, as one of the appendages sparked a small puddle with a bloom of electricity.
"Creepy," remarked Alysa.
"How is that possible?" questioned Marco as he slowly extended the distance between him and the beast.
Before either could Eito or Alysa could answer, the monstrosity, exerting a burst of energy, lunged towards Marco. In an instant burst of adrenaline, Marco sidestepped the attack as the implausibly functioning hunk of metal landed and slid across the grass, leaving a trail of electric pulses. At that moment, the new transfer flight or fight response kicked in. He chose flight.
As he ran across the forest, Marco could only feel regret on his terror ridden face. Regret for leaving the other two behind. Regret for sticking his nose in the business of others. Regret for thinking that this school would somehow be better. All he could do now was survive whatever that was.
He soon found himself on one of the trails of the campus. To his right, he sees an intersection leading to the rest of the campus. "I would definitely be safer with an adult," he thought as he followed the trail, "Chances are those two know how to handle that thing."
Just as he thought he was in the clear, the whizzing sound of wheels approached from the right road of the intersection. The amalgamation, laying on the wheels that placed along its belly with its limbs raised, barreled down the path. The machine slammed its perturbances onto the ground, creating an eruption of sparks on the improper joint, and lunged into a puddle, forming a splash of water and thunder.
Its position blocked Marco from his route. With little time to react, Marco could only take the left turn of the intersection where, unbeknownst to Marco, the outdoor pool was located. As he made a run for it, he immediately spotted the first obstacle in his way: a metal fence that was almost two and a half meters tall.
He figured he did not have enough time to find an entrance and decided to jump the fence. Marco began to pick up speed as his legs became sore. As he approached the fence, he leaped up the wall and grabbed the ledge. Using the last drop of energy in his lower body, he hoisted and pulled himself up over the barrier. As his body was tossed over by his own strength, he dropped onto the concrete. Marco was never the athletic type, so he breathless from a combination of both fear and over excursion.
"You there!" a booming feminine voice called out, "What do you think you're doing? Shouldn't you be in class?"
Marco looked up to see that a gym class was having their class at the pool that day. He began to begin picking himself off the ground. But before he could warn them of the danger, the clanging of metal was followed by a thunderous eruption. Electricity blanketed the entire side of the metallic fence, creating a panic amongst the present students.
A shock strayed onto Marco's leg, sending a burning pain across the limb. The jolt sent the transfer student back onto the ground. Slowly, the pain became numb as Marco slipped away from consciousness.
Bright, fluorescent light pierced the eyes of Marco. As his senses returned to him, a soreness cropped up around his body. The soreness became an intense pain that swelled on one of his legs. As Marco opened his eyes to check his bearings, he found that he was in the infirmary and that his left leg was wrapped in a hastily made splint.
As he scanned the room, he found a small crowd of students, fear slowly fading away, huddled in a corner. He followed their gazes towards a tall adult with jet black hair staring down onto a dead pile of scrap, most likely the amalgamation. Marco tried to ask a question, but he was too drained to speak. At that moment, a faintly familiar image beyond the broken window caught his eye: an encroaching, white light.