Apolo's feet and fingers grasped at the rocky pavement, scrambling for purchase as debris fell around him, before coming to a sudden thump of a stop. His body skittering across the stone and metal debris, he desperately clawed for and gripped a pipe, but he had no time to use it before Unit 4 pounced on top of him. Unit 4's weight was crushing and disoriented Apolo for a moment.
"Faulty, return to base," it droned, voice so calm, even as it raised an arm to piston it straight into Apolo's headcase. The impact was fast but predictable and he was able to shift his head out of harm's way.
Kicking the attacker and rolling to his belly, Apolo rolled his head a little, mimicking Unit 4 mockingly, "FaUlTy, ReTuRn To BaSe." He whipped his arm around with the pipe and bashed Unit 4 across its left bolt-flinger, jamming a bolt in the barrel so it couldn't fire. "Go away! I want nothing to do with you, can't you just leave me alone?" Apolo hopped up a few mounds of trash, facing off with Unit 4 on top of some old cars that had to have been crushed down and stacked quite a long time ago.
"Faulty, return to base," it said, completely uncaring about the damage it had just suffered. The machine strode forward mechanically, driven solely by its directives and official orders. Apolo found himself disgusted by it as if the motion were uncanny.
Reflecting, Apolo realized that his own motions were more organic than his opponent's; at least that's what his processors told him. He really didn't know what that meant in context. However, now was not the time to consider his circumstances, Apolo had to protect himself; he set his feet and leveled his broken pipe like a spear, keeping the business end towards his enemy. He snarled at Unit 4, "Can you really not be satisfied with completing your original purpose a unit short? I am not one of you anymore."
"Impossible; Unit 5 is faulty, return to base."
"I told you already, I'm Apolo-"
Unit 4 charged very suddenly, shooting its body forward like a frog, getting higher than the spear to tackle Apolo around the cranium. A sound like nails on a chalkboard bounced around them as they barreled down the bend on the bits of bins and waste, kicking and punching at each other until they hit the bottom. Unfortunately, Apolo found himself underneath Unit 4, shielding his body with his arms as an unrelenting barrage of fists assailed him.
CLANG-BANG-BANG! "Faulty!" BANG-BANG! "Return to base." BANG!
There! Apolo took the nearest pause in the assault to strike back, rocketing his arm out once, striking glass. Uncovering his eye, he realized he had broken the lens out of Unit 4's head, scattering the pieces across the terrain.
He did it, Apolo could finally leave. He squirmed his way out from underneath Unit 4, pushing the machine away as it grabbed at the dirt around it, searching wildly to find where the shards of the lens had fallen. Looking at it, Apolo felt a twinge of something else. Almost the opposite of the loneliness he had felt earlier, but still sad in some strange way. He searched for the word as he watched: empathy. Apolo felt related to Unit 4, despite it having attacked him not even a few seconds ago.
Slouching to the dirt, Apolo scrounged at the ground for the shards of Unit 4's lens, picking out the largest few and piecing them together in one hand, using the other to hold Unit 4 still long enough to put it back in. It was broken with large parts missing, so Unit 4 wasn't completely saved, but it was close.
"Why?" Unit 4 was taken aback by its own voice suddenly, the lens almost falling out as its head jerked up in surprise.
Apolo was filled with wonder at the soft voice that Unit 4 now spoke with, "We are alike, I will not leave you blind."
Unit 4 seemed to hesitate for a moment, before backing away and scampering back up the slope towards the road.
Apolo sighed, "He'll figure things out, like me."
Shorter chapter, just to give y'all a bit of a break.
Shit planned for the next chapter is... somewhat harrowing.
Keep an eye out.