Pixal watched as Cole coiled the phone line around his finger, anxiously biting his lower lip. Jay had been explaining the events to him about what all that had happened, and it had only brought concern. The droid tried her hardest not to look like she was overhearing, but it made her wonder…
She remembered her first activation day in Borg Tower. Cyrus had smiled kindly towards her, hand open and taking her off the pedestal. "Hello Pixal," he had adjusted his glasses gingerly, admiring the living form, "Happy birthday." The quartet member held his son's hand- a shy boy who peeked from his father's side from the far wall. He looked angry, save for his posture, but it was a face she had grown to love over the 2 years she had been around. Seeing him worried over this welled her heart with an all to familiar concern.
"Hey Pix," his voice pulled her from her thoughts, "What do you say we go uh, start from the top again?" He had set the phone down, smiling masking the worry, "let me just reset the vinyl again-"
"So Zane is missing?" He tensed his shoulders, holding the needle.
"Yeah, him and everything else about him too."
"And you're worried about him?" her voice was dulled as she kept her gaze afar.
"No," he set the needle down again, "No, no I'm not worried about him, I'm worried about Jay.. And I'm worried about you. You've been distant." Now it was her turn to stiffen. Was it really that obvious? Her mind had been wandering ever since lunch time, and maybe it showed through during the tango lesson at MOSPA. His words had been echoing through her head, 'I mean look at Pix. It's a state of the art new model and even it doesn't feel love, right?' Right? "Are you okay?-"
"Yes," her words came swiftly, "I- I am simply malfunctioning. I… my ESC is broken." Of course, the Emotional Supressor Chip, that was the reason for all of this. The reason why she felt butterflies whenever Cole pulled her around elegantly across the stage floor, how he swayed and held her with gentle fingers and a caring smile, how he'd carry her when she falsely complained about her feet killing her, that was all because it was busted of course. Robots can't feel love, it's a malfunction. "We should call in for an appointment."
"Yeah, good idea. Maybe when we go then we can ask Doctor B what that whole thing was about too." He began pegging on the rotary, dialing up the number….
-o-o-
"G…" Zane shook his head. "Uh, G…?" Lloyd had been testing the keyboard, taking a sharpie with tape and labeling the keys. He had snuck sheet music from Darkleys into his back pocket to practice, Zane helping him along and pointing at the keys and notes. Another label was set on, the boy looking at the forming pattern. "Oh! I got it," The droid pulled his hand back and smiled as the labels were put down in the correct pattern. Lloyd rested his small fingers on the keys, squinting at the music and glancing down at his hand to which he moved the fingers accordingly. It was a slow process starting, and as he struggled and corrected himself, Zane's hearing was drawn outside.
The voices were muffled, the muted ball being hit and shouts being let out. His eyes wandered over to the window were he pushed himself up to steal a glance. It was a group of kids playing with the leather ball in the square, laughing and waving their arms. The ball was hit a little far and as the kid went over to pick it up, he stole a glance towards the window and scrunched his face. "They don't really like me," Zane jumped, lloyd standing close to the window, "None of the others want to play with me, and I didn't even do anything." He sighed, looking glum. The droid tilted his head, that was a little odd of them, there didn't seem to be anything inherently wrong with Lloyd. Sure, he had red eyes, maybe he tries to pull off the evil facade a lot… the only logical conclusion he drew was that he went to Darkleys. Zane tapped his shoulder and pointed to himself, smiling.
The two stood a little aways from a snowy valley between mountains, a rickety board on hand. He gave Lloyd a push sending him flying down the slope and straight into an invisible snowbank. The droid followed suit, throwing himself down in the snow and tumbling after into the snowbank. He popped his head out, smiling as lloyd laughed. Funny though, everything seemed brighter than it was before…. He glanced at the boy who seemed at a loss for words before looking at the hat and glasses that laid half buried in the snow. Man, he really needs to get his eyes fixed. "Woahh…. That's so cool!" he chirped, the droid pausing in the process of putting them back on, "aw…" Zane swiftly pulled the glasses away and stuck them on his shirt collar, Lloyd smiling once more. "Let's go again!" he was eager to run back up the hill, the droid happily trailing after.
By nightfall, Lloyd was passed out on the chair, ragged blankets wrapped around him as well as the empty case being used as a sleeping bag. Zane sat along the far side, holding the instrument on his lap. His mind had once more gone to Jay- oh what was he doing now? Had he forgotten him..? Was he hurt or lost? Especially after getting so close to kissing his cute face, he swore the ginger felt the same now. Slowly looking back to the case bundle, he started thinking about his own brother again. If only he had a radio tower, he would contact him and ask if he wanted a new friend. That would require him to leave the facility of course, he knew his brother was awake, he did wake him up, didn't he? He just needed a good signal to radio the message through… and what a perfect metal beam to use for it.
-o-o-
Echo had tended to cleaning the attic as Ronin continued to chart the path at which the droid went from the security feed. He had a big map out, putting red dots and connecting them together. "Anything yet?" Kai was leaning against the far wall in his PJs observing this process. "Who would've knew that the droid was the fabled Julien-40, heh. I didn't even know it was a thing until you said so." He swiveled the mug of warm milk around before taking a drink.
"It looks like… we have an area." The thief drew the lines on the map, a range pointing outward from the city into the desert. "Now to see if anything is actually out there." Ronin glanced around before reaching for his coat and hat. Echo watched him put on his things before hearing the static come from his speakers. Ronin stopped with only a foot out the door, swiveling to stare at the droid. He knew that noise far too well as Echo stared back, eyes wide as the knob was tuned. A series of blips and beeps were emitted, codes in morse coming through.
'Echo. Period. It is your brother. Period. Where are you. Period. I have someone who would like to meet you. Period.I tried radioing home. No one picked up. Period. What are your coordinates. Period.' A smile spread across Ronin's face as he closed the door.
"Well then, wouldn't want to keep your brother on the line," he sucked down his excitement, "Here, let me plug in the coordinates." Echo watched in horror, frozen in fear as the thief gladly morsed the numbers back. "This day just couldn'tve gotten any easier, haha!"
"Uh oh, this can't be good…" Dareth huffed, appearing from the wall.
"aHH!" Kai Jumped and nearly shrieked, holding his heart as the ghost laughed.
"What, never seen a ghost before?" he looked down at his mug of warm milk before going over to dump it into the sink. "Uh, Kid you aren-"
"I am going to bed Ronin I'm.. I've had enough tonight I think." He held his head, making his way up the half hidden ladder. Dareth frowned.