chapter 2! more Ultron less groceries.
The bat cracked against the robots skull and it didn't even flinch.
Simone froze. She'd seen those things level 300lb men to their asses. Then again, it wasn't a 300lb man, it was a death harbinger robot that tried to destroy the planet. She suddenly remembered how outmatched she was, watching the machine readjust it's head with jerky movements, "Now if you're done-"
She screamed, chucked the 'weapon' at it, and ran for the kitchen, knife, knife, get a knife, chanting in her head as she scrambled to get footing on the wood floors. Not that she didn't try valiantly, but her socked feet kept going when the rest of her body started to turn, throwing the woman against the floor with a solid 'THUD'. Pain seared up her hip at he fall, but she forced herself up again, steeling a glance at the robot hobbling towards her.
"Now wait a minute!" It called, raising its nub, "Wait ..!"
Her eyes bugged out of her head, this should not be happening, a freaky death-machine should not be in her substandard working class house, talking to her. She hurled over the marble counter, and wrenched a knife off the magnet holder. She held it in front of herself, like a miniature Excalibur trained on the robot as it approached her. This wasn't much better, she realized, the bat may have done nothing but at least it kept her farther away, and what was a 5 pack knife from Walgreen's against reinforced steel? Somewhere along the lines of hitting a tree with a pool noodle she figured, A.K.A., totally ineffective… probably.
"As impressive as that is," It said, gesturing to the five inch blade, "I'm not here to hurt you! that's the opposite of what I want to do, really."
"That doesn't mean you won't," She jabbed, shifting her weight.
"That's fair."
She forced out an exasperated 'ha' as her brow pressed upwards with worry. Simone looked around the kitchen quickly, trying to find an opening to escape. None, she admitted ruefully, acknowledging that the machine would probably grab her before she'd get 3 feet. If she got to the sink behind her, she might be able to spray it with water, make it short out or… something. She decided on something.
"But that doesn't mean I can't see an opportunity," It offered.
"You're in the wrong house," She raised her throwing arm.
"Don-"
The knife hit right in between between its 'eyes', and she would've been proud of herself, if it hadn't been with the handle.
"Are you done yet?"
"Yes," She grunted, turning around and wrenching her pan wrack off the ceiling, hurling the kitchenware. Relief flooded through her as the robot did what she wanted, reaching up to shield itself, so she charged. All 135 pounds of herself against a crippled robot, and she won. Sort of.
Her shoulders colliding with the steal plates sent sour pain in her bones as she tumbled over it. She pulled herself forward and up as fast as she could, trying to distance herself from the robot. As she flailed for the other room she felt her stomach drop when a hot mental hand clenched around her ankle.
Simone imagined all the gross veins and arteries folding over under her skin as the hand tightened it's grip. Pain seared through her leg as adrenaline pumped through her body. She watched a documentary on anacondas once, she was five, it killed a zebra by crushing its lungs. She didn't want to be a zebra.
While groping for the counter's edge, the robot gave the limb a solid yank, pulling her hip farther out of it's joint that she thought was healthy, and sent her ground, watching it close in before the side of her head cracked against the paneling. Hard.
Pain. She gasped her head falling back as the world spun. Her hands snaked up to clutch her throbbing brain, fingers woven tightly between her hair. The corners of her vision was black, dark fireworks erupting where ever she looked. Simone became vaguely aware her hearing aids had fallen out when the her palms dug against empty ears. She tried rolling over, bad idea. The nausea hit again, the sensation of her brain hurling through space when the rest stayed still.
She felt the robot shift, barely processing it save for the pain as it dragged the woman across the floor. Grunting over the pots and pans she was hauled over, she kept digging her palms into her head, praying to relieve some of the throbbing. She thought about death, or, it crossed her mind. Holding on to thoughts hurt, even though it became easier to father into the house they went. This wasn't how she wanted to die, not at the cusp at round 2. in the robot apocalypse, she had to much shit to do.
The fog cleared slightly from her head, ready to twist upwards and try to grab a loose wire and tear. She never got the chance. The robot threw her forward and snatched her neck instead, hauling the woman up and slamming her into the wall. What came out of Simone's mouth was a pitiful mix of scream, whimper, and gasp, letting her head roll to the side, pain bubbling across her neck and head.
"mrry ba ath oo, err annig"
Simone shut her eyes, she couldn't make out the words, not without the hearing aids, which where probably broken. The robot shook her when there was a response, followed by more muffled sentences. So she wasn't going to get killed for throwing household items at it, but because she couldn't hear the killing machine in her house. She preferred the other way, it was more heroic.
She sucked in a breath and gritted her teeth,"I can't hear you!"
The woman realized she probably yelled that, but she didn't care, the shaking stopped. It was a small victory though, as it let go of her neck so quickly she collapsed to the ground gasping, sweat collecting on her skin. It couldn't wait to drop her, like she was dirty, like it was above her.
She felt the heavy, dragging footfalls walk away and then back, vibrating though the floor. It stopped infant of her, dropping the small pieces on her lap. The left was busted, having split along the seam holding two plastic halves together, wires spilling out. But Simone'd rather it be the hearing aid than her skull, and adjusted the right one as best she could.
Her eyes looked up, locking with the glowing red slits of the robot as it stared down at her. She swallowed, feeling the bile at the tip of her tongue, and pretended that was fear instead. The shaking said it didn't work.
"Do you want to try this again or are you going to throw something else?" It asked.
She noticed a small dent on its skull where the bat hit earlier, and hid the grin tugging at her lips, "Who are you"
The robot sagged its shoulders dramatically and rolled its head with a huff in a gesture that came across as something akin to exasperation, "Are you going to answer any of my questions?"
She starred at it, refusing to give the robot any form of satisfaction.
It sighed again,"You're fun at parties, aren't you?"
Simone was great at parties, she was drunk at them; but hell if she wasn't hilarious, and hell if she'd tell the mechanical asshole that. She stayed silent. It must have accepted it wouldn't get an answer out of her and ran its hand over the scorched faceplate she was really starting to resent.
"Ultron."
No one said anything for two arduous minutes before she opened her mouth, "I'm Simone A-"
Wait.
"-Fuck."
"That's a lovely name," it, or he, falsely complimented.
Slack jawed and in wet clothes on the floor, she was standing at the feet of the A.I who'd tried dropping a city on the Earth. Mouth open, unblinking, she tried coming to terms that she threw a kettle at a robotic psychopath. He killed people in the last two weeks, she killed a cat 17 years ago. Simone was out of her depth.
"What do you want?," she whispered.
His head tilted to the side curiously, like a bird,"To save the world."
"To destroy it," she corrected weakly, continuing before he could say she was wrong, "but why are you here."
Her eyes searched the blank face, it was full of contrasting angles, smooth and sharp, "Don't you have people to kill?"
"Well, I'm kind of bent out of shape right now," he gestured to the battered body in front of her.
Simone almost grinned at the joke, almost, if he wasn't a rogue A.I and she wasn't scared shitless, "I thought the camera just adds ten pounds."
She had a feeling he would've laughed if the circumstances were different too. But they weren't, so Ultron let out a subtle 'ha' she strained to catch, focusing extra encase he said anything and her aid missed it, and yanked her up by the hair. She screamed at the sudden pain, her head spinning all over again when the crash-induced migraine went from manage able to 'please end me now'.
The A.I dragged her kicking body down the hallway and threw her on the couch… Next to her phone. Simone forced her to make a scene of falling on the furniture by groaning and rolling over to the jacket. She laid face down on the coat, her arms tucked under her, using her hands to tugged the pockets closer to her.
"I wasn't that rough," the A.I complained, watching her while sitting down in a lounge chair parallel to the couch.
Shoving her hand in the pocket she plucked out the phone and pretended to rock back and forth in pain, throwing in a few pained grunts for effect as she worked her hands down to her leggings. Tucking the device in the waist band, she rolled over to Ultron as slowly as possible, "Next time you can be on the receiving end."
"Hopefully, there won't be a next time."
She agreed with that one. At this rate Simone'd be nothing more than a severed head in a few hours,"So what do you want… not long term, I mean."
He leaned back into the chair, lounging casually like he was right at home, "The Internet."
"Starbucks has free WiFi, go there," she blurted.
"I don't drink coffee."
"really?" she gasped, mock surprised, "you don't seem like a tea guy."
He laughed, Simone didn't know if she should be proud of that, not many people could say they made the worlds first artificial intelligence laugh. The woman chalked it down as a positive thing when she released she didn't fully make out what he said, "Sorry, I missed that."
He nodded, almost understandingly, if she thought he was capable of it, "Human defect, I forgot, my apologies."
She takes that back, he wasn't even vaguely understanding, he was an asshole, "Rude."
The robot only shrugged, holding resting his chin on his hand. He managed to put her off more and more every second.
"As I was saying, I need to reconnect with the internet," what, so he was a super advanced A.I, harbinger of destruction, and he didn't have WiFi? her outdated iPhone had LTE!
He must've sensed her confused because he started explaining his… 'situation'. That some half-human/half-robot he may of accidentally helped create blocked him off, Vision, she thinks his name was. Guessing by how much disdain Ultron held when he said the name, she'd like him. He explained that her 'calamity of a home' was the first one on the edge of town he found, and broke into, but even with her computer, and plugging himself into the router, he couldn't reconnect. She briefly wondered if she forgot to pay the bills, and that's why he failed. She didn't say anything.
He looked around her house, taking in the paintings on her walls(she noticed her favorite, a small painting done by her cousin in Delhi was face down on the ground), the tapestries, and photos, "what a nice family."
Her eyes snapped to him, "Don't."
Ultron 'hmmed' appreciatively,"Then let me stay. Your basement and garage will be..," He tilted his head to the side again, trying to find that right word,"Adequate! That's it, adequate."
She sighed, running her fingers through her hair again. Simone couldn't believe the shithole she was in now, "Thanks, I'm flattered-"
Wait. How did he…He'd sifted through her entire house, probably to see if she was home.
"-you didn't go through my underwear drawer too, did you?"
He laughed again before answering with an invisible smirk,"I like the red bra, all the thongs seem… excessive, though."
"That's fair," she mocked.
He raised his hand/nub combo in defeat and got to his feet. She watched his every move, it was all jerking, hard, it looked painful, and she hoped it was. Simone didn't forget the people he killed and the city he leveled in the process. He deserved every discomfort he inflicted on himself. Ultron started walking by her before muttering something unintelligible.
"What?"
"Your phone." He repeated, starring at her over his shoulder.
Fuck. She though she'd been clever about it,"what if someone calls me? They might get worried."
"Your life, your mess," He said helpfully.
Simone groaned, and pulled the phone out of her leggings, slapping it in his hand resentfully, wincing as her head flared up again.
"careful, you might break something," He chided, crushing the phone then looking at his hand in a way that translated as shocked, "Oops."
The woman starred at the robot sauntering out the door, sprinkling 200 dollars worth of Apple phone on the floor as he went. Leaving a shocked and wholly upset Simone in his wake. Simone hardly used to phrase hate for anything, she would count the number of people on that list with a single hand, but Ultron was definitely about to join them.
"Oh..!" He started in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder, "Sweat dreams."
Never mind, she thought, he was on the Hate List, he definitely in the top 3 of the Hate List.
The door slammed behind him.
thnks for reading! srry about any errors i did this in one sitting and my contacts r so fuckin dry rn
reviews r appreciated ! xoxo