Chapter 2: Arkades
Song recommendation: Starset – Carnivore
The light cold of the autumn wind was nothing to the pillars of fire that raged below it. The suns beams matched it, a yellow sphere warped in golden heated waves, against orange flames and red brick. Grey metal tubes aimed at a grey metal sky. Perhaps a few white clouds, but none could get by the black from the shadows lit only buy furnace and forge. And where clangs of failure and mistake where once heard, perhaps the silent shine of gunmetal green perfection can be served.
A young boy, soon to be a man, sat at his desk. A satisfied smile on his face as he looked the gloves below him. They were simple things really, a pair of brown leather fingerless gloves sewn into a gunmetal green bracer with gunmetal grey accents. The gloves had grey metal grooves on its knuckles with a slightly curved pointed tip at the top of the holes. He was planning on putting dust in there maybe, if the situation called for it. The bracers were of a light machine gun mechanism, heavy knitted nylon woven into ammo pouches were weaved into a locking hitch, threaded belts of bullets at both sides into wrist rifles. Sandwiched between the two guns, was also a gun. A shotgun composed of double barrels, sawed off at the hand. The break action popped and grinded open against it, springed latches bolted to and through the heat shield hold the four barrels in place. A set of silver serrated survival knives separated the firearms, sheathed to launch to their full length at any given moment.
What moment to be given, he was unsure of. These things were made on a whim truly. Not of some made purpose like his other work, a pair of swords joined at the hilt to make a bow. Perhaps it was time to spar with those swords, he thought with a smiling green eyes below brown curls of hair.
"If I ever see him again." He thought out loud with a frown as he bowed the brim of his grey cap down. He was unsure if a situation would come when he would need these. Things have been silent in the kingdoms of remnant as of recent. Not even the growls of Grimm have haunted the sound silence of his hundred acre wood. In fact, the sound of silence was all he heard. No roaring fire, no grinding metal, no clang of steel. No, this was something else.
The cry of alarming klaxons crashed against his ear drums! He curled his shoulders and hands into his ears, groaning in annoyed pain. He gritted his teeth, slipped on his bracers and made his way towards the noise, unsure of what was ahead. A set of large steel door stood before him, illuminated only by the red sliver of light between them. As he marched closer, the rusted doors screeched open as screaming men and women, scared out their wits, scurried past the doors, running in panicked fear.
"What's going o-", but before he could finish his sentence he saw. As the doors swung open, the red light of the factory revealed the mechanical menace. Four legged and four armed, the machine was a mix of missing parts and messed up machinery. An old Atlesien drone, with wheels fitted on its legs and air pressure power hammers replacing it cannon arms. It looked down upon the living things below it, an old program as primal as any human mind, attack.
"Oh bother." He said as the robot gave him a right jab.
"To whom it may concern, this robot is a bitch!"
Rising from the ruin around, the boy glared at his operating opponent. The brown ears of a bear set on his scalp. His eyes glowed an emerald hue as he gritted his teeth, raised his fists in a boxer's stance, and lunged at his foe. As he ran to his attacker, it powered one of its arms, striking into a left hook to the ground at him, pistoned fists powdering dust and dirt in the air as the boy rolled out of the way. When he had curled into a stance, he threw a haymaker of a right hook into the droid's leg. Buckshot from his barreled shotgun unbalancing the behemoth bot as it used its two lower arms to stand itself. He took the opportunity to hail a hurl of jabs at these arms, using his LMG to bounce his fist off it in a barrage of punches and bullets. His assault payed off as parts of the droid scattered into pieces. One arm down, four to go.
Unfortunately for him, the droid had other plans as it used another arm to push him away from underneath it. If he hadn't blocked at the right time, he would be sliding on his back instead of his feet. He squared and lowered his stance as his foe swung left and right. He punched away the first and second swing and followed it's third with an uppercut, shooting both guns as fists of flesh and metal clashed. Flesh won out in this turn as another of the robots arms was scraped. The programed pulvirizer synthed, beeped and booped in what only can be recognized as pain and anger. It screeched as it used its motorized wheel to rush the lad. Aiming itself so one knee jutted out in a pointed formation, it speared him across the factory. He crashed into a pile of bits and junk.
"Oh, you're gonna join these guys in a sec bud." Cameras, sensors and servos flashed a rage of red as the robot raced forward. Its two remaining arms raise to mock the fleshling's battle stance. The two fighters matched blow after blow, until a storm of bashing fists and bullets littered their vision. But in this bout, steel smashed sinew, as the mecha monster used it's damaged arms to punch his gut in the air, hammering him up then swatting down against the ground, chunks of the earth cracking and rising around them. His aura was drained, yet he rose to his feet with clenched fists. As he exhaled in a growl, steam escaped his mouth.
"You know, my whole life I've been told to hold it back and let it go. You've put me in a situation where I can let it all out. Thanks for that." His name was Theodore Garrison Arkades and he rushed at this obstacle with rage in his eyes, sucker punching its face with knifed claws burying into false eyes! He climbed behind its back and with his free fist, pounded await at the circuitry before him in bashes and bullets until the coppered creature lay slain beneath him. Tired, exhausted and out of breath, he walked out his destroyed place of employment without thinking of the cap he always wore. As his coworkers came to investigate and inspect, he slipped away, hoping to avoid stares and glares.
