Forty-three years had passed.
Forty years of pain and torment, of failure and sorrow. Yet, followed by three years of patience and discipline, of love and understanding.
They were years that held memories that did not keep Jack awake at night, dreams that did not frighten his soul. They were peaceful years in an unpeaceful time. A time where he could rest without fear of the next day, and where the nights were not something to be regretful for.
His days were filled in those years with caring for the little ones that followed him closely. His nights were a time to relax as they slept, usually. Days and nights filled with them and helping them as the future marched on.
For now, forty-three years since he had been flung into Aku's future, they were in a desert town, far from any natural oasis or other settlement. It was a town filled not with industry or homes, but a bazaar that frequently changed with the wind.
Only a few buildings dotted the town, tall things that appeared to be ancient spires more than carefully designed dwellings. It only confirmed for Jack and Adi that this was a town that had come up from convenience, not need.
More so, it was a town of robots and machines, not of aliens and life. So as such, it was rather difficult to find what he and the little ones needed.
In this case, food.
"Do you have food for humans?" Jack asked the umpteenth bazaar merchant he had found, a robot that was cloaked in so many rags that only its rugged vehicle like eyes could be seen.
"Searching for possible parameters, searching," the robot began, eyes flashing a multitude of colors as he did so. "Negative, no items designated for biological consumption are present." Jack sighed at the confirmation.
"I see," he began, nodding respectfully towards the merchant. "Thank you for your patience." The samurai turned as he finished, looking into the dense crowd with a soft sigh.
The size was what threw him off the most. Robots were huddled together in a way that only they were unaffected by. Even in the other human towns and shops so similar to this, humans and aliens alike so often wished to have space to move. These robots did not have the same problem. They did not mind walking foot and foot or wheel and wheel synchronized with one another.
It was a quality they possessed that left Jack taking slow and deliberate steps through the crowd, making sure not to have his feet, layered as they were, stepped on by the metal creatures. It certainly did not help that his beard, long and untamed, made the harsh heat all the harder to bear.
So with a heat of the desert, crowd of robots, and shortage of food, Jack found the need to search the Bazaar quickly necessary. So the little ones, though quickly growing with the years that passed, paired up and left.
Ahi and Aki, perhaps the most likely pair to find the food and understand how to prepare it, searched on one end of the busy town.
Ami and Aphi, the more mechanically inclined and most likely to hold a conversation, searched another.
Avi and Adi, the pair of knowledgeable and inquisitive siblings, looked in another corner.
That left Jack with Ashi, sitting currently on his shoulders and searching the crowd high above his own vision.
Though she had grown like her sisters, all of them nigh-equal in height and appearance, she still was far shorter than he was. Legs swinging down his chest, hands steadying themselves by his shoulders, he was sure she was feet above his vision now.
"Do you see anything, Ashi?" Jack asked, looking up at the little one. He could already tell her eyes were about the Bazaar as well, clear and focused as she always appeared.
"I see Ahi and Aki, further in that direction," her hand pointed out above Jack's head, needing only a glance upwards to see. The 'eldest' of the little ones were indicating a far-off stand, different from the others only by the merchant that stood behind it.
Just barely, above the numerous robots, he made out the dark hair of Ahi and Aki, likely standing on the edge of the stall or pushing themselves up from it. The merchant did not seem to mind.
"I don't think they are having any more luck than we are." Jack nodded at her words. Ashi understood her sisters well, knowing what they were thinking before he could even ask. It was quality he envied in the little one, as only too often he wished he could understand what bothered the little ones so often.
"Ashi," Jack asked again, moving slowly through the crowd, yet quick as he could. "Do you see the others?" He would leave her to look for them. It was his job to look for food.
"I think so. I believe I see Adi and Avi." She twisted on his shoulders, body bending in a direction Jack could not follow.
He twisted on his feet, moving as the little one did above him. Amongst the crowded robots that either knocked at his feet or scrapped by his shoulders, it was a difficult dance to keep.
"There," Ashi spoke tapping on his head. He followed her arm again, pointing outwards towards one of the few buildings not made of assembled wood or convenient steel. Still, the little ones were far more important than any building.
And Jack saw the pair of them, the ribbon-wearing Avi and bob-cut Adi standing, doubtlessly this time, on a platform beside the building. Between the myriad of robots that marched by it was easy to miss them. But once he saw the, Jack recognized something quickly.
They were waving.
"I think they found something," Ashi added on. Unneeded, but appreciated. "But… I don't think it's food." That was good to know.
"Thank you, Ashi," Jack spoke as he made his way towards the sisters. When they saw his approach, their arms fell, waiting patiently by the large building.
It was a trek that should not have taken too long, but the crowd of robots, beings made of metal and rigid steel, made movement far more restricted than Jack would have ever preferred. Perhaps it was a benefit to the children they were small and able to climb.
It kept them out of the crowd.
"Dad!" Adi spoke when he entered ear shout. The smile on her face showed great pride. She had indeed found something. "Dad! Avi and I found information!" That was… very general. "He's a robot that knows a bunch of things about the Bazaar, and its history and stuff. He's the guy to ask about it." General, but very interesting.
Jack looked through the window the pair of sisters stood by, looking in to see another robot standing beyond the counter. He was not raggedly dressed like the other robots, though far from the sleek metal that made up a great deal of Aku's minions.
He was made of several sheets of metal, welded together as best as could be imagined to create a face and body. It appeared like stitching about his form, but it still was far studier in appearance than the rags and loose clothes other members of the Bazaar wore.
His eyes drifted up, past Ashi's hands, to see read the sign that hung above the window.
Information Kiosk
"He's supposed to allow… um, other robots to download information." Jack turned to Avi, the younger girl, pointing out the robot's presence. "But he's been very patient with us, answering our questions as well. Jack nodded in understanding.
"Excellent job," Jack congratulated the sisters. Avi grinned in satisfaction as Adi beamed with pride. He turned his attention to the attendant of the kiosk, the robot staring back at him through holes for eyes.
"Hello sir," the robot mechanically replied. "Welcome to the Bazaar. Is there any information I may assit you with?" A simple and practiced question. Ami once told him older or worn robots had fewer introductions due to less memory.
He didn't understand what she meant at the time. Only over the months since then did he understand she meant they all sounded very similar to one another. And, often, tended to repeat.
"Good evening," Jack began to the new merchant, face placed and made of welded steel. "Do you have any food for humans?"
"Negative, no human food supplies present in Bazaar." Jack nodded at the expected answer. Disappointing, yet expected. "Do you have other inquires regarding the Bazaar?" In truth nothing immediately came to mind.
"Dad, we already asked that," Adi spoke up from beside him. "It was one of the first things we asked." Jack gave her a hard look. He was wrong for believing she wouldn't ask, but she was wrong for speaking so brazenly in front of others.
"Well, we did… after Adi asked a dozen questions about these old buildings." Avi followed up. Jack turned his gaze to her. Unlike her sister, the girl was meek quickly. "Th-They were good questions, just… not before food."
"Yeah, I did," Adi spoke up again. Jack looked back to her. "Course, it was after you asked if there was anywhere to get other clothes!" Perhaps not the most important question either, Jack agreed, but certainly far from unneeded.
"I-I only asked because we have been wearing the same clothes for weeks now!" In truth, yes, but they had washed them when they could. Though Avi did enjoy new garments often. "A-And if we're in the desert… we'll need new clothes." Jack did not intend to move through the desert for so long.
"If that excuse works, then me asking about the history is important, too!" Jack did not know how. He knew he would soon find out. "How else are we going to know where to go unless we know why places like this are here?" Jack knew the little ones well.
Just as he knew he didn't need to say anything for them to stop fighting. There was another for that.
"Enough!"
The pair of siblings stopped and looked above Jack, at their 'elder' sister. Perhaps not in age, but in all else, Ashi was their elder.
"We need to find food first, then we can ask about other things. Agreed?" Jack could feel the sister looking at Avi and Adi, the pair relenting easily under the pressure.
"Yeah." "Y-Yes." Truly a leader, as Jack knew she was.
Though, unintentional as it was, the arguing did give Jack a new idea. Though clearly not designed for humans or aliens to visit, Jack found it unlikely they were the only ones to ever search the Bazaar. Perhaps there were others who came before them.
"Excuse me?" Jack spoke again to the kiosk robot, the little ones stopping to listen to him. "Have there been other… humans that have passed through here?"
"Affirmative," the robot responded. Though not the question he wanted more, it was still good to hear. "The last group of humans to travel through the Bazaar did so approximately 238 days prior." Though that was perhaps too long ago.
"Who were they?" Adi followed up before Jack could think of a new question. Her inquisitive mind was clearly at the forefront. "Sorry, no… where they looking for something here? Or out there?"
"… Records indicate the humans were searching for unused deposits of copper and iron oxide." That was telling to Jack. It told that the humans were looking for goods, but not willing to steal what was convenient. In other words, they were good people.
"What… did they wear?" Avi followed up next. "Was there anything they wore that was… common between them? A pattern they all wore."
"… … … Brief analysis indicates each member of the human party wore some plaid uniform of varying designs, most often rolled fabric approximately 250-300 millimeters in length." Jack did not understand much of that, but he understood one part more than the others.
Plaid was the style the Scotsman often wore. IT was adorned across all his clansmen. Men, and daughters.
"Did anybody accompany them?" Jack asked next. "Someone whom we may be able to speak with?" If there was, then it means that they had a better source of information. A trusted source.
"… … Records indicate an unassigned robot escorted them through the desert. Undesignated robot has not returned since the trip was made." Jack nodded, though unsatisfied with the answer.
"Father, what does that mean?" Ashi asked from above his head. "Do you know who that was?" Jack knew who the party was, but not the 'unassigned' robot.
"I believe the humans were the Scots." The girls looked happy to hear the name. Avi folding her hands as she smiled while Adi looked ready to jump from the platform she stood on. "Though I do not know who the robot was."
"Can you tell us about the 'unassigned robot' you spoke of?" Ashi quickly followed after Jack. It was clear who she was speaking to.
"… MP4 compressed records, analyzed… Unspecified robot was approximately 2 meters in height. He wore a human designed overcoat of color hue # 986E3F. Ocular replacement devices had color hue # F6340B. Structural metal was secured using over bolts design and outfitted with a chassis of color hue #000000." Jack did not understand most of that.
"A brown hat and overcoat, red eyes, and black metal suit." Jack looked to Avi, the ribbon haired girl mumbling. She blushed when he looked at her. "Those were the colors. I… recognize the hues, from when we last visited the garment store."
Jack smiled at the little one, even if he did not know a robot of such a description. There were faint ideas of possible suspects, but even forty years in a twisted future did not allow him to be familiar with all of its denizens.
"It's alright, Avi," Jack comforted, putting a hand to her head. "It's good to know who left with our friends." She smiled up at him, a good sign as any.
"What do we do now, father?" Ashi asked from above him again. "Should we continue to look for food?" Food was what the little ones needed, and much else was secondary in comparison. However, it was beginning to appear there was not much luck to be had.
"No," Jack started. "We should find the others first. Then we will discuss about searching for food elsewhere." It was unfortunate, and far from a desired outcome, but to struggle against what was present and real was pointless.
"Aki and Ahi are among the stalls," Ashi spoke up. Jack felt her twisting around. "However, I don't see-"
BOOOM!
Jack, at the sound of explosion, immediately crouched down, pulling Ashi off of his head and dragging her sisters from the platform they stood on. He covered them with his body as the rumbling continued through the ground.
He felt dust and scrap metal fall on him, like hail in a storm. The robots that made up the crowd were screaming in beeps and noises he couldn't discern but had no trouble understanding.
"What was that?!" Ashi asked from beneath him, wisely not trying to escape. "What happened?!" Jack did not know.
He twisted about, seeing robots dressed in rags and clothes running and wheeling in a frenzy. They slammed into one another, pushing each other over, upturning one another until they were lain on the ground. Any symmetry they had before was lost.
They were scared, but so was Jack.
There was any enemy nearby, and he didn't know where his children were.
Robots were supposed to be organized. A crowd of them, running from an explosion in a dozen different directions, was not organized at all. It was embarrassing.
It was something Ami noted as she was dragged through the crowd. Aphi pulling her forward as her stronger sister pushed her way past the mechanical creatures. Perhaps it was their external pressure sensors that told them to move, or perhaps her sister really was that strong.
Either way, the conclusion was the same. They were running through, and with, a mob of robots to avoid explosions.
BOOM! On going explosions.
They weren't far off, certainly not. Ami could observe the debris of buildings from the direction of the explosions, not to mention the remains of unfortunate robots at her feet, nearly tripping over them several times now. It was disgusting in so many ways.
The testament to mechanical and system design, beings that emulated the complexity of life living together in a densely packed group seemed to dissolve like a broken circuit the moment foreign stimuli was introduced. Ami corrected herself in her mind. It was too complicated for her sisters to understand.
Simply, the robots were panicking at the explosions.
BOOM! On the other hand, so was Aphi.
Ami ran behind her sister, the stronger of the pair, as she pushed her way forward through the metal beings, panicking in odd directions. They ran over strewn metal limbs, scrap parts and chassis, as they made their way through the once organized bazaar. Aphi was doubtlessly looking for safety. It was what her sister did.
Ami, however, was focusing on other things. The mechanical beings they passed, the parts they jumped over, the spare tools and devices in her pack.
BOOM! And the devices that continued to erupt around them.
They were devices that had to be small, non-randomly placed, and very likely being thrown in the same vein as an assault. It was evident by they way they continued to erupt in different locations around the Bazaar, never seeming to direct the flow of the robots, so dependent on constant stimuli.
That, and watching one of the explosive IEDs fly over her head as she ran. She followed it, watching it dip out of sight into the crowd.
"Fragmentation," Ami noted as she watched one of the bombs lob itself over their head. Aphi must have seen it, because she altered course through the crowd. Away from the bomb and its thrower.
BOOM! The explosion sent the robot crowd, their conditional sensors likely searching for an appropriate response and concluding that mass panic was appropriate.
It was not. Appropriate action was acknowledging the threats.
"Fragmentation grenades are non-electric, physical trigger based, dependent on chemical reactions." Ami muttered the words as Aphi continued to drag her and push her own way through the robots that crowded above them. "High damage from fragmentations. Modified with thin metal for high pressure leading to a good probability of lacerations or external wounds."
Fragmentation grenades were volatile, dangerous even by the comparison of weaponry. The best example she could list was a stationary computer system, presumably with a copious number of cores, not including a coolant system. The lack of the cooling system meant it required less power to run, but excessive run times could overheat the wiring and boards, creating permanent damage to the system.
Fragmentation grenades were much the same, in that they sacrificed too much. The lack of need of an exterior trigger meant they could be storied in greater number than other charges, but they needed only a loose wire tied to one of their pins to go off.
BOOM! BOOM! But even knowing that, the explosions didn't seem to be anything less than significantly accurate with their placements throughout the crowd.
Afterall, Ami realized as Aphi twisted again, running in a new direction as the bombs went off again, they seemed to be doing an excellent job at creating ran stimuli to the logic based robots. That, and to her and her sister.
"Here!" Aphi finally yelled in front of her. Ami didn't ask what she meant. It would have been a waste of breath.
Her sister pulled her out of the crowd, perpendicular to the normal path of the rest of the robots in either direction. She didn't need to wait long to know why.
They exited the stampeding mechanical beings to enter a small alley, dainty and sand-blasted. It as barren of any type of storage utensils common to larger cities, either due to its small size or the more organized nature robots tended to possess.
Either way, it left Ami and Aphi alone in the alley. BOOM! As bombs continued to erupt the crowd.
Ami watched the robots, covered in unfitting rags and clothes by even Avi's standards, run and screech in mechanical tones as the explosions continued to rip through the Bazaar. Former Bazaar. Her hands patted her bag even as she watched them, ensuring she still had all her spare parts.
"We need to find dad," Aphi spoke across from her. Ami looked at her sister, already looking up and down the alley for a way out. "But… we might be trampled." BOOM! "Or blown up, first." Ami nodded in agreement. There was nothing she could do about the grenades.
They doubtlessly had their pins pulled before they were thrown. It left her with no tools that could possibly turn them into 'harmless fragments of metal', unlike if they were C4 charges with a wirelessly controlled detonator.
"Right now, we're trapped." Ami didn't argue with her sister. She was like Ashi when it came to situations like this. Quieter, more independent, but still smart. The difference between RAM and SDD. One requiring the other, but not vice-versa.
"I can make us a way out," Ami noted as she dug into her bag. She had spare parts. "I can fix the emitter to use X-Rays and smelt the internal components of the robots." Aphi shook her head.
"We can't hurt the civilians." They weren't civilians, they were robots. But she knew her father would disagree. And he was always right, usually, when it came to these kinds of things. That made Aphi right for now.
"Then I can… try and build… something…" she tapered off as she looked through her spare parts.
BOOM!
Several different processing systems, pre-soldiered to green boards, free wire, clippers, battery sources, emitters, loose resistors, keyboards, there was a lot she could make. But what could she make easily that wouldn't destroy anything.
"I can make a uni-directional EMP wave." Technically she couldn't. She needed a helical antenna for that with a wide mounting plate. But she could attach that easily to her soldered board and program the frequencies. "It would temporarily shut down the robots, not kill them. I just need… a helical antenna."
"There isn't one here," Aphi noted. Ami knew she was right. It was unlikely they'd find one in the alley way.
BOOM!
Ami pushed herself against the wall as the explosion shook the structure. She pulled her legs into her body as something slammed against the walls, bobbing back and forth along the upper limits of the alley before slamming into the sandy bottom.
She looked at the object, recognizing the torn up head and missing ocular processors as the head of an unfortunate robot. The sparking wires were enough proof to show it had separated the central processor from its battery core. Dead, in other words.
"He might have one." Ami noted, pointing at the head. "His body would, not his head. The antenna is too large to be in the head." For most robots at least.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
And it did not sound as if there would be a shortage of robots to search. Aphi, however, shook her head.
"We just need to find dad," her sister spoke. "Or… find a way to stop whoever is setting off these bombs." Throwing, Ami internally corrected. They were being set off by timing pins, pulled and thrown to release the ignition agent within their ceramic holdings.
"I don't know if I can make something to stop him." It would take a long time to reprogram the emitter to release deadly waveforms, even then hold it long enough to kill someone. It could take months. They were unlikely to aim a gun at someone for that long.
"'Ello! Can I get a hello from the children!?" Ami looked at her sister, who looked back at her. That was not a voice either of them expected to hear. They both looked to the entrance of the alley, over the destroyed robot's head. "I know bombs can be loud, but there's nor reason to run from Da Bomb!" That sounded like a name.
"Da Bomb?" Ami repeated. It sounded like something Aki would say, when complimenting music. Aphi shrugged her shoulders across from her.
"C'mon! The streets are alive with the sound of explosions!" The words didn't make sense, so Ami didn't read into them. The way they were being said, however did. "Why are you running from the noise of life!?" That wasn't the sound of a human or alien talking.
BOOM! That was a robot.
"He's a machine," Ami noted. That was a good thing. "A machine would be susceptible to an EMP explosion or directed wavelength in ways that humans wouldn't be." She began to look through her pack again.
"Wait," Aphi instructed her. Ami stopped, looking at her sister with an arm extended. Her eyes, however, were looking down the alley. Ami followed.
The crowd of robots had thinned, only slower models running by now with poor servo control or low power availability. Either way, it made it easy to see the other side of the street.
Or, as was a far more interesting sight, the lone robot that appeared to be searching in the street.
It wasn't a bipedal model, but mounted to a tracking system. A trio of wheels that allowed for swift movement in omni-direction. It supported a heavy chassis, from what Ami could see. It was difficult to see much more of the robot's upper body with the heavy amount of bagging and fabric he wore. The fabric was unimportant.
The bagging, from what could easily be surmised, was what was holding the majority of the robot's apparent armament supply. It had to be, as there was little else a robotic lifeform needed to carry. After that, the robot lifted up its arms. Ami noted that he had four. Four arms and three treed wheels to support him. He was a hulking brute covered in bags and rags.
"C'mon! Why are you tryin' to avoid having fun?!" The robot yelled again. Ami watched him reach into one of his bags, producing a fragmentation grenade from the pack. Her previous guesses were, obviously correct. "Da Bomb's a real blast to hang around with!"
Ami watched, carefully, as the pin of the grenade was pulled. She counted once, twice, then saw the grenade fly.
BOOM! It went off a safe distance away. Clearly the robot was calculating the time for the blasts to go off. Dangerous then, within and without.
"I know you guys are out there!" The robot yelled again in its synthesized voice. Ami and Aphi didn't make a noise, just as their father had instructed them in many encounters before. They only watched as the robot rolled off and out of sight.
Out of sight, but not range. The volatile nature of explosives such as the fragmentation grenades meant that the robot, with a proper angle, could throw them around cover. That was not to speak of simply lobbing them a respectful height into the air.
"We need to leave," Aphi noted again. "We need to tell father about him." Ami knew her sister was right. This was the area in which she excelled.
Her hand grasped her bag, standing in the sands of the alley. Her fingers played with the parts through the fabric, feeling everything available to her. There was a lot there, a lot that she had, and only missing one thing.
Her eyes looked back down at the robot's head, lifeless and detached from its main chassis. The head contained the main CPU and memory bank. A process that was meant to bridge the artificial gap between nature life and synthetic. The part she needed wasn't in the head.
She needed a part that could interfere with the positioning and stability data all robots required. The robot, Da Bomb, needed to have one of a higher grade in order to calculate the trajectory of the fragmentation grenades.
"Ami," her sister spoke her name again. She didn't look at Aphi. She needed parts.
She had the parts in her bag, a lot of them. She had the necessary wires and battery supply. Soldering was unnecessary for a quick device. She could quickly write the code in the attachable keyport. The processor would be able to handle it. It only meant she'd need to write in Basic.
"Ami," Aphi spoke in a harsher whisper. Ami didn't pay her mind. This was more important.
She just needed an antenna of some form to transmit the signal. Something that had a strong direction dipole. That meant helical antenna. Nested on a reflective surface would be best, causing a cascading wave. It would make it stronger, and the stronger the signal the harder it would be for a robot to filter out.
It was like her father said. There was no such thing as a perfect guard, just one that was better than the attack. If she could attack the robot's processor and directional axis with her machine, stronger than any shielding its bulky form had, then she could do this.
"Ami!" Her sister was yelling now. Ami looked up, knowing that wasn't good.
"And here they are!" It definitely wasn't good.
She looked up from her bag, staring at the hulking brute of a robot. It's eyes were no different than the many others they had seen, red headlights bearing down with freedom from emotion. The bags hung arounds it body shook as its wheels drove it forward, clogging the alley like a high resistor to a weak current.
"I knew that you'd be here!" The robot seemed too happy as it spoke. Probably a fault in its coding. Or an intentional misleading emotional output. Robots before had those. "It's a law of the universe that the bigger the bangs you make, the more life comes flushing out! Good to see I'm right again!"
Ami realized it was definitely a fault in its coding. The logic was horrendous enough that even her sister was questioning it.
Aphi was moving beside Ami, the smarter of the two realized. She felt her sister, slid her feet across the sand of the alley. She sounded heavier though. Ami didn't check why. It would be a poor decision to take her eyes off of the robot.
It was always a poor decision to take your eyes off a problem.
"Hey now, no need ta be so stiff," Da Bomb, ironically, spoke. Two of its hulky arms held themselves out, as if to offer something, though they had nothing. His third arm, however, was reaching into one of his duffle bags. "Bein' stiff makes it hard to create new things. You gotta be explosive if ya want to make a change!" His logic, incredulous as it was, was a secondary problem, Ami realized.
The primary problem was the grenade he pulled out and lorded over his head.
The robot's red eyes flashed a darker red in the light shadows of the alley.
"Let me help ya loosen up!" And he tossed the grenade.
One, Ami counted, pushing off the loose sand in a poor attempt to get away. There was no escaping the grenade in a short alley, however.
Two, Aphi, however, had a different thought. As Ami traced the path of the grenade to roll at her feet, she saw the robot's head was gone. She looked to her sister, hoping she was getting ready to run.
Three, and she saw that Aphi was holding the head. But only for a moment. Because in the next, she slammed the shredded metal over the grenade. Ami knew it was a poor decision. But like code, bad code was better than none at all.
Four, BOOM! Ami flew back from the explosion.
Her sense of direction was demolished like the alley, flying feet, hands, and head over one another in a made tumble over the loose sand. She felt the coarse material dig at her skin as her body flew over it, skipping like poorly optimized code.
She landed with a groan on the opposite street, her bag of materials clutched tightly in her hands. Nothing felt broken, which was good, and neither was anything in the bag, which was great. It meant she could still do something, maybe. She needed to be able to move first, at all.
Ami shook her head, running through the Pythagorean Theorem and Three Laws of Artificial Intelligence. She recalled them all, reducing the chances of a concussion, possibly. Her dark eyes looked left and right next. No trouble with vision either.
Thankfully, she also spotted Aphi a short distance away, her sister already standing. She was tough.
"I know you're still alive!" The robot yelled from beyond the now rubble worn alleyway. "If I'm still here, then you gotta be, too!" Its logic was infuriating to the mechanically inclined young girl.
"Come on!" Said sister yelled, loosely running over to Ami's side. She gave a groan of discomfort as her sister dragged her up. She knew it was important, but her body felt as if it needed rest. It was always difficult to move against the natural instincts of the body.
But as she got to her feet, bag clutched in her hand and feet swaying on the sand, Ami made up for it by thinking.
She thought of how the grenades exploded at different intervals, implying a difference in timing for the pins. She didn't have the chance to analyze them, but assumptions could be made. There could be markers on the grenades that the robot scanned. There could be a difference in size that robot was aware of. There could be a difference in storage.
Boom! BOOOM!
Yes, that one. Ami noted it even as she ran her fastest behind her sister, still be dragged for the effort. The different bags had different grenades. The robot was using them to keep track of timing. It was a human thought process, perhaps, but robots didn't build themselves.
"Found ya!" Ami dared to look back, seeing the hulking brute having blown his way through the alley. His wheels tore through the sand, kicking up a veritable storm behind him. "Are you running to join the dead? There's no need for that while I'm here!" This time, Ami understood what he meant.
It was easy to tell when Ami and Aphi began to run past the shredded bodies of the robots.
"Don't stop!" Aphi yelled her instruction. "But stay in cover!" That Ami understood as well.
She joined her sister in vaulting over the fallen buildings and ruined stands, keeping themselves low and behind the columns of dirt and clay. They were hardly solid protection against explosions.
BOOOM!
But if the freedom of injury was any indication, they were doing part of their job. And like bad code, it was better to have some cover than none at all. Still, that was no excuse to not improve the code.
Running and hiding worked for all of the three explosions they've endured, but it would not reduce or limit the number of grenades Da Bomb threw. They needed to, as Aki would say, take him down. And looking at the many strewn metallic bodies of the Bazaar citizens, Ami knew where she could get her last piece.
She could find the part she needed in tone of the robots, and then she could reduce Da Bomb into a metallic heap.
BOOM! "I know it's called run and gun, but there are no guns and this ain't fun!" A comment that, oddly, Ami could agree with. Still, he wasn't who she needed to talk to.
"Aphi!" she yelled to her sister. Her fellow horn-haired sibling looked at her, crouching behind a column of granite. "Find father! I have an idea!" Ami knew words alone wouldn't be enough. Her sisters didn't listen to reason often. Too emotional.
So, before her sister could throw up the usual arguments, Ami ran.
"Ami!" Aphi yelled behind her. BOOM! Just in time for an explosion to go off. Her sister was okay, Ami knew. Too much cover now and her sister was too smart to put herself in danger like that. Smart, but emotional.
Ami kept running, bag clutched to her chest and eyes scanning over the mutilated metal chasses of the robots. She knew what she needed and what she had. She just had to find the right robot.
The right robot with the right type of antenna with the right type of power requirements. One had to be among the bodies, given their number and previously shown level of organization. It was a statistically probable situation.
BOOM! "C'mon! Don't split up! I wanna split up atoms, but I wanna blow you up!"
The mad robot, however, made it a bit more difficult.
With the family she had, it was to be expected.
"Here! In here!" Jack yelled with great strength, but his words were muted and slaughtered.
The cacophony and discord of a thousand robots screaming with distorted voiced rose above and squashed his own. It left the samurai in the same position as if he were screaming against the sea.
He needed to tell the robots that were fleeing the carnage, looking for an escape, to follow him into the tower of metal. A tower of metal was safer than the structures of stone, but they robots, panicked as they were not quick to realize it.
Thankfully, he was not alone.
"In here! In here!" Ashi yelled beside him, waving her arm as she hung from a high post. Her hand swung towards a doorway, to the only tower in the Bazaar like town to have any kind of defense. "You'll be safe here! Hurry!"
"C'mon! Hurry up!" Aki yelled just beside her, though hanging upside down from her perch. It was enough to allow her hands to fall and grab the robots trying to run, directing them towards the safer building.
The pair of sisters, strong and determined, were doing an excellent job at directing a few of the many robots into the safety of the structure. But they were only two against hundreds of the panicked horde. The two on the outside of the structure, at least, with him.
Avi, Adi, and Ahi were already inside, all doing what they could to help the robots nestled within. They were not as strong as their sisters, not as knowledgeable of the robots as Ami, but they had skills fostered through the time through the cursed land.
Avi, collecting and distributing the pieces of fabric that she could, trying to stave off the flow of oil and fluids from damaged ports and chassis.
Adi, trying to organize everyone into the safest positions within the tower. Her knowledge of the structures history, no matter how small or brief, was compounded by her studies from the many similar structures across the land.
Ahi, still searching for food, but now also looking for what the robots needed to calm themselves down. She whispered words that Ami would normally speak. Coolant, power cycles, soldering, and many other terms that Jack was sure she did not know. And in truth, he did not either.
Those were things Ami would know. But Ami was not here.
BOOM! She and her sister were still in the Bazaar among the explosions.
Jack twisted on his feet, resisting the flow of robots that pushed and rampaged by him. His eyes scanned for where the other little ones could be, for where Ami and Aphi could possibly be hiding. And hiding he knew they would be.
But he saw the smoke of the explosions rise in the air, the missing chunks of building falling over, and the debris of the Bazaar stalls scattered amongst the floor, mixing with the metallic corpses of the others.
Ami and Aphi, they were mixed in there as well. But worse yet, he did not know where.
They were out of his sight when the explosions started, and they were no closer now minutes after they had begun. He had not heard them, seen them, or much else other than think of them.
BOOM! BOOM! And the moment, they were all that was on his mind.
"Ashi! AKI!" Jack yelled up to the little ones, roaring over the ocean of screaming robots. The pair of girls looked down at him, eyes wide but focused. "Help the others! I am going to find your sisters! I will be back!" Ashi nodded with little hesitation. Aki raised her hand and extended her thumb. Jack smiled in turn.
Then he was gone. Jumping over the robots and their panicked state.
Dozens of feet in the air gave Jack the perspective of the damage, and it was not good.
Though the Bazaar was only littered with buildings before, dull gray and light tan clay, they were all but ruined now. Minor structures made for little more than enduring the sweeping sands reduced to chalky rubble and ruin.
Jack landed, then jumped again.
The wooden stands that had made up so much more were all nearly destroyed, the few remaining likely not for long. Posts and tents torn to sunder, some alight with the sparks of a fire, and even more trampled to ruins beneath the heavy bodies of the fleeing robots.
Jack landed, then jumped once more.
And the robots were far more in number than anything else, all but the sand that blanketed the town. Their organized numbers and fashion earlier was reduced to nothing. Their heavy bodies clashing into another, grinding metal like gears. It was a painful to hear and likely the same to experience.
Jack could save them, but there were others who needed saving first. They were infinitely more important.
Once more Jack landed, but this time he did not jump.
"FATHER!" Because he heard a voice he recognized.
His head spun, his dark beard waving with the motion. With a twisted back and wide eyes, he saw what he wanted, and needed, to see.
"Aphi!" Jack yelled the little one's name, running to her against the stream of the robots. Heavy though they were, there existed little to keep him from the children. "Aphi!" Jack yelled her name twice.
He stopped when he reached her, sliding to his knees and scooping her into his arms. She didn't hesitate to embrace him as well, her head falling into the crux of his neck and shoulder.
Though she was far taller than she was three years ago, she was still far from his height in size. Only enough now for her arms to wrap around his body and hold against him with some force. It was a motion he did the same in kind to her.
In his arms, he knew that she would be safe.
But though Aphi was safe, she was not enough. Not without Ami as well.
"Aphi," Jack spoke after the quick embrace. "Where is-"
"Back! Farther back!" Aphi yelled before he could finish. Her arm hard already delatched itself from his, swinging to the direction she had come from. "Ami is back there! She's distracting him!"
He looked up, following her arm, fear already creeping up his back. He saw the damage from above, he saw the ruin and destruction, he saw the bodies and the panic. But now, looking at it all and knowing that one of the precious little ones was amongst it, the Samurai saw something else.
He saw red.
"Co-radial antennas, two, helical," Ami spoke as she worked on the box in front of her. It was just a box right now. A box with a four-core processor, less than 1GHz in processing power. It was weak, very weak, but it was enough.
It was enough for her to look at the simple box and determine the parts she needed to finish the device. She had the processor, motherboard associate, small battery pack, and loose wiring connecting all the critical elements. She still needed antennas though.
"Helical, has to be helical," Ami spoke again, even as she searched through the rubble of fallen buildings and scrap of broken robots. They were dead, they wouldn't mind. "Helical in longitudinal mode. Long dipole necessary."
There was another robot in front of her, the rags that had covered it burning off as she approached. She beat aside the few scraps that were smoldering. A dry climate void of moisture mad the combustion of materials easy.
And the chassis of the robot ripped open made it easy to look for spare parts. Her hands dug into the body without a second though, ignoring the oil and grime of disrepair. She needed an antenna, not hygiene.
"Antennas important for mechanical citizens," Ami spoke as she ripped through wires and gears, many broken and abused. "Necessary for reading atmosphere, communicating information wirelessly, interacting with devices remotely." She still hadn't found one in the chassis of the robot.
She withdrew, the clothing she was wearing now covered in dark oil and ripped into patches. Avi would be upset. Ami didn't care. She needed to find helical antennas.
"Helical antennas allow for unidirectional signal," Ami continued to speak softly, crawling over rubble as she looked for another robot. They were more likely to have what she needed. "Use low power, hand-operable, mounted to a grounding plate." One would come with the other.
Her arms, weak as they were compared to the likes of Aphi, were able to push a boulder aside. She was rewarded with the smashed form of a small robot underneath. She didn't need tools to open it up.
"In the chest region, the chassis," Ami continued to mutter, pulling at the metal sheet to look for what she needed. She didn't need to look for long.
Coiled along the posterior wall of the robot's inner chassis, the length of her arm, was a helical antenna. Even better, judging by the large mounting plate it was affixed to and radial span of its coil, it had an inner additional antenna. Ami nodded, satisfied.
Simply, she'd found her co-radial helical antenna.
BOOM!
Ami fell against the robot, hard. She checked to her right, where the explosion had gone off from. There was a hole in the building, one of the few that the small town had. The rest of the structure wouldn't survive another blast.
But then again, without armor like her father's, neither would she.
"Where are you sweeeetyyyyyy!" Ami heard the robotic voice yell. The smae one that had chased her and Aphi. Her sister was alright, she was strong. Ami was just smart. "What are you hiding for? Don't ya want to meet Da Bomb! I've gotta be the biggest bang you'll meet!" Ami didn't understand what he meant. She'd ask her father later.
She found her antenna system and she had her computer system ready to attach it to. Now, she just needed to make sure Da Bomb didn't find her.
"Don't ya know that your tha number 1 kinda person I wanna hit with my bombs?!" Ami did not understand that either. She didn't care to. It was like trying to understand the preference of HDD over SDD. Pointless. "C'mon, how'm I supposed to bring ya new life if you keep hiding!?"
BOOM!
Ami pushed her face into the rubble, feeling the gray dust and abrasive sand blow against her. No shrapnel had pierced her, which was excellent. But she could feel the explosions, which meant they were nearby. That was poor.
"I got plenty of my babies ta show ya. Each one of 'em is looking to grow up into a boomin' bang as big as me!" Ami still didn't understand the menace. He spoke worse than most others she had heard. With her father, she'd met a lot of poorly educated people. "Da Bomb is here ta make things grow up big and fast, fast as the big bang that started it all!" The Big Bang?
Ami kept herself in the rubble of stone, metal, and sand, but she still thought of the robot's words. The Big Bang was the theoretical creation of the universe, like Adi had told them over Ahi's dinner once. It was the explosion of matter that created the complex relationships between atom attractions, mostly around Carbon for life forms.
How did the chemical combustion of fragmentation grenades relate to that?
"You're seriously missing out!" Da Bomb yelled again. This time, Ami heard the tread of his wheels roll by. Specifically as they crunched over pieces of stone and metal. He was close, but still unseen. "Don't cha know that Aku's gonna help me make a whole new universe?!" Ami understood that.
She kept herself still though, holding the precious computer box and antenna system. She needed them, but she also needed to stay hiding. If she was found, she would be killed. She just needed her father to come here... Aphi would make it happen. She always protected her.
"The Big Guy promised that if I could give him the samurai's body, he'd give me a bang big enough ta jump start a whole new universe!" Plausible, Ami realized. Aku was powerful enough and evil enough. "So don't ya see that all I need are few good explosions to get things rolling?" Their deaths, she realized.
The absolute worst case scenario.
"So c'mon! Why are you trying to stop life from happening?!" She heard a roar of rotors. Ami braced herself, knowing what was coming next.
BOOM! It was just as ear-piercing as she feared.
She felt rubble fall over her now, chunks and debris from the buildings and sand. There was metal too. Metal from either the robots he had destroyed or the fragments of his explosives. Hopefully the former, the latter was too dangerous.
Actually, this was all dangerous. But hindsight didn't matter.
She needed to finish the device, and she only needed the antennas to do it. She lacked the solder necessary to secure the wires, but stripped gauge wires could work, even if she needed to hold the helical antenas up. That was okay, acceptable given the circumstances.
Ami reached inside the robot she was lying on, grabbing at the antenna. It was secured, on one end. She needed to grab it at the securing point. She couldn't risk bending the wires with the torque. She gripped it and pulled. A second into the effort and she wished Aphi was here.
"Found you!" Ami twisted, feet in the chassis of the destroyed robot, to see Da Bomb pointing at her.
Pointing at her with three grenades in his two other hands, the last holding up a column of stone like a scrap piece of wood. His wheels churned in the sand, menacingly. His red eyes glowed with delight and she knew, if mechanical beings were capable of altering their chassis significantly enough, there would be a manic grin on his lips.
But all of that was superficial judgement. What was important were the trio of fragmentation grenades Da Bomb was holding.
"Help me kick off the Big Bang!" And then they were chucked at her.
Ami watched them sail in the air towards her, wondering what she could do. Anything would work, anything that could stop them or knock them away. But she wasn't strong like Aphi or Ashi. She wasn't talented like Aki or Avi. She was only smart, like Ahi and Adi.
Smart enough to know fragmentation grenades couldn't be disarmed once they had a pulled pin and released guard. They were going to blow up. And, by their trajectory, next to her.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! At least, they would have blown up on her. If they weren't knocked out of the way. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Knocked out of the way before Ami was guarded by something large landing in front of her. There was no mystery what it was.
She knew her father, beard and glare, anywhere.
"Father!" Ami yelled up at him, even as he curled over her. He said nothing, likely because of the stone and fragmentation falling down on him. That was a possibility.
It was equal chance he was staring at the robot who had tried to kill her. Her father was quick to anger in such cases.
"And the catalysis arrives!" The robot, however, lost none of its exuberance. Ami knew she was collecting quite the cavalcade of data regarding the speaking pattern of the mad robot. "The one Aku says is keeping the biggest of all the bangs!" Perhaps she could use it find the coder.
"Ami." The young girl looked up at her father, his glare sharp as steel and just as cold. "Run to the tower. I will handle this." Her head shook. No, that wasn't right. She couldn't leave now.
She was so close to stopping Da Bomb.
"No," she spoke quickly. It took great effort to ignore the harsh glare of her father being leveled at her. "No I can stop him! I just need to cable attach the co-axial helical antenna system to the processor and power supply." Yes, that was all she needed. Her father could keep her safe while she did that. He was invincible.
"Ami!" She ignored the rise in his voice. She had to, because she needed to procure the antenna system without bending it. That required focus.
"Hot stuff, coming your way!" Like on that voice.
Thwack! Thwack! Boom! Boom! And her father was no less invincible now than he was before.
Ami could feel the rumble of the explosions through the dirt she kneeled on and chassis she clutched, but she ignored it. It was unimportant next to preserving the integrity of the antenna system. If it was bent, any helix broken, or part damaged, it would be impossible to propagate a dipole field.
"Ami! I am serious! Run!" Her father yelled again, but she shook her head. She couldn't not yet. She needed to do this. She could do this. Not doing it would be a waste.
And like Ahi would say after a meal, wasting anything was horrible.
"Don't ya get it Samurai? She's catchin' onto the message!" Ami heard a pin pull as the robot screamed. She didn't care. She needed to unfasten the support column of the antenna. "There's no out running the Big Bang. She's thinkin' she might as well go out with one!" His logic and reasoning were clearly fried.
Thwack! … BOOM! But if she didn't hurry, then she'd be fried as well. Her father was invincible, but she was not.
"Ami! You're not safe here!" Her father yelled again. He was correct, but it was not a reason to leave. Not until she was done. And she was close. "You have to run before-"
Her father cut himself off, which was odd in a fight. She looked up, distracted for a moment, and hoping to see her father wrestling with the robot instead of her.
Instead, she found a grenade rolling to her knees. That wasn't good.
"Ami!" Her father yelled, but he was too far away. She knew it. She just didn't know how many counts the grenade had. The fragmentation grenade with a pulled pin laying almost against her leg. Three? Two?
BAM!
"AH!" Ami yelled, at the sound. Even as her eyes traced the grenade.
BOOM! Then they promptly shut as the explosion went off.
She nearly buried herself into the chassis of the destroyed robot, falling so quickly to the ground to avoid the blunt of the explosive force and shrapnel flying off of it. Her hands were over her head, teeth clenched, and fingers ready to pull out her hair.
But if she could recognize all of that, she knew it meant she was alive. What she didn't know was how.
Ami rose her head, noticing first the lack of light despite the time of day and location. Then she noticed the spontaneous cover that was over her head, a hunk of material hanging above her. Then she traced how it was above her.
"A-Aphi?" She spoke her sister's name, almost questioning. There was no reason to. It was her sister, of course it was. She recognized her fellow horned haired sibling out of any crowd and any time of the day, in the midst of her work or not.
But somehow, it just seemed appropriate. Seeing as her sister was standing above her with a hunk of steel above her head.
"Aphi!" Her father yelled now. Ami didn't look at him. She was staring at her sister, her panting sibling. "Grab Ami and run! Now!"
BAM! Ami shook as the chunk of steel Aphi was holding dropped beside her. If that had fallen over her head, it would have easily crushed her…
Then Aphi grabbed her arm and pulled.
"Aphi, wait!" She yelled, though her sister did not seem to pause. Their father wanted them safe, and she'd do just that. "Please wait! I need that antenna! I need it to stop him!" Her arm swung back towards the robot, grenades in its trio of hands.
"There's no stopping me," the machines spoke as a fact. Further proof of its fallacy of logic. "You can't stop a boom once the fuse has been lit!" Fragmentation grenades didn't have fuses. Just like her EMP directional wave didn't have an antenna system yet.
And Aphi was still pulling her arm!
"Please Aphi! We can help father!" She was sure they weren't moving yet only because Aphi was considering it. Otherwise they'd be half way to the tower father spoke of. "It can stop the robot if I just get that antenna!"
KRR-ACK! Ami nearly jumped again.
Before she'd even seen it, Aphi had swung her hand into the chassis of the robot, grabbing the helical antenna system by its base. Then broken it off with a single pull of her hand.
Her sibling held it out to her, a stern look in her eyes so similar to their father, especially now. Ami knew better than to question it. This was a gift that she needed, to help them both.
Grabbing it, she saw no significant deflection in its central axis, no breaks in its helical structure, and the base plate still welded together. Simply, it was perfect for a hot-wired system.
"… That is sufficient." Ami admitted, holding the antenna system to her eye level. She didn't resist the pull of Aphi this time.
"There's no running away from me!" The robotic voice yelled behind them as they ran. Ami didn't care to look. "Maybe you just need a controlled explosion!" That reached Ami's ears. Thankfully, Aphi's too.
Her sibling dug her feet into the sand, sprinting sideways and behind cover. Ami didn't question her sister's judgement. There was no reason to.
When she saw another grenade roll by, she knew it was further just.
BOOM! The pair of siblings covered their ears at the noise, or more like attempted to. Ami didn't dare ruin the antenna system, not before it had been used to disable the robot.
"Ami! Aphi! Are you alright!" Ami didn't respond. There was no time to. They were in cover and she had to focus.
"We are okay!" Aphi yelled for the pair of them. "Ami just needs some time!" She was sure her father would rather they run away, but he was not one to run from a fight either.
Ami quickly worked her hands into her pack, pulling out the necessary items to attach the antenna system. That was the easy part. The more difficult handling of the system would come in the form of programming a BASIC code to generate the diple. The shielding of the base plate would have to be sufficient as well.
"Looks like the girls are ready to go!" She heard Da Bomb yell in turn. "Does that mean your ready for me to set them off?" A poor choice of words to anyone's dad. Let alone theirs.
The lack of response back, however, was not one of Ami's concerns. Their father was strong, extremely strong. He wouldn't be downed, let alone injured, by some poorly programed robot with a few grenades. Not when he was keen to fight Aku in the past.
Her hands worked at twisting the exposed nickel of wires together, creating an electronic bridge. Battery tracks run to the necessary components on the circuit boards, the processor and motherboard properly connected to the 15th and 16th port of the chip as well. Those safe-crossed with the antenna system to prevent a short-circuit. She was already nearly there.
The sounds of her father fighting echoed behind her as she worked. It was reason enough for her to not slow. Not while her father was fighting for them. She and Aphi.
BOOM! BOOM BOO-BOOOMM!
Aphi, who had a hand on her shoulder and looked prepared to jump and run at a moment's notice. Ami knew she was, and she trusted that if she did, it was because they had to.
Because beyond the safety of the cover they huddled in, the sounds of their father fighting the mad robot went on. She paid attention to it in spurts, short enough data times to be able to ascertain if they were in trouble or not. But it did not sound like it.
It sounded as if her initial assessment of Da Bomb was correct. His tri-set of wheels made him too fast to approach, and his machine coding made the ability to throw and place the fragmentation grenades nearly impossible to approach, and no safer at a distance.
BOOM BOOM! BOO-BOO-BOOM!
Ami kept her focus on the board and code in front of her as the sounds of the fighting continued. As her father screamed and twacked away grenades, grenades that went off and destroyed more and more of the Bazaar, she kept her eyes to her work.
It was work that could save her father and sisters, and she would not risk it.
Fingers danced around the rigged keyboard, the buttons across it memorized even if the text on them was worn away. She only glanced at the small screen as she wrote. She trusted her ability, just as she trusted her father.
And that trust was to come into play.
"Finished," she let out quickly, looking at Aphi as she did so. Her sister looked back in kind, down at the jury-rigged device she had cobbled together. It was far from something Ami could call final or well-equipped, but it was at least suitable.
"C'mon Samurai! Are you chasing me or runnin' away!" Da Bomb continued to yell. Hopefully not for much longer if Ami could help it. "Or are you tryin' to run from my heart!" That didn't make any sense.
BOOM! But the ring of explosions did. It was a sign to work faster.
It needed two pairs of arms to hold to prevent the antenna system from cracking the breadboard. It needed a rubberized guard to hold the base plate to prevent any feedback disruptions. And it needed a range shorter than fifty feet.
But it would work. She knew it.
Its range was limited, she knew, but testing from afar would do no more harm.
"Aphi, hold this," Ami instructed her sister, giving her the antenna system. "While wearing these." A pair of rubber gloves were taken from her satchel in the same time. Her sister didn't argue or question.
While Aphi got ready, Ami went over the wiring twice more. BOOM! And rushed at that. Everything was in place, and she knew it would work, because it had to.
"Ready?" She asked, seeing her sister holding the antenna system with rubber gloves. Her sister nodded, the base plate held in her hand. "Then aim it at Da Bomb, making sure the tip is aimed at him." They were far away, but with any luck, she'd get some positive test results.
Her fingers danced over her keyboard again, hitting memorized buttons in a newly programmed pattern. The screen next her showed all the data she needed to.
"Turning on… now." Click.
There wasn't supposed to be a sound, as it was meant to generate an electric dipole field, something outside the hearing and sight range of humans. Being able to interpret either would be sign that something was wrong.
Still though, Ami did hear something. Just not anything she didn't want to hear.
"Time for… what time is it? Where is it?" And that was the sound of a mad machine becoming self-aware. Or rather, losing its sense of self.
"Perfect," Ami spoke up. "Don't lose track of him. Let me know if we have to move." There was some slack in the wires, but not enough to allow for a significant difference in distance between the pair of sisters. And the wires were hardly soldered for any kind of tension.
Aphi didn't respond, she only nodded again.
"It's Da Bomb time! Which bomb? Where are the bombs?" The mad machine continued to rave. Ami continued to watch her sister, holding the machinery in place in her lap. "Maybe it's there! No wait… there!" The declaration was accompanied by Aphi getting to her feet. Ami did the same.
She looked over the wall of cover, of clay and stone, and saw exactly what she wanted to see.
Da bomb, the crazy bulk of a mad robot, flailing with arms pulling in a dozen different directions. They swung with enough force to tilts its mass, wheel spinning in contradicting directions, leaving him to twirl like a whirlpool on dry land.
"A grenade! A bomb! A flare! I'll run it through the biggest bang of them all!" Those it's words appeared to be more random than made now. It was a positive thing to see, though not enough yet.
It was designed to disable, not confuse. It was meant to completely shut down processing and electrical fields associated with the robotic form, not leave its processor jumping at random intervals. It wasn't the result she wanted. But perhaps it was good enough.
Because she knew the rest could be handled easily.
"Father!" Ami yelled, looking for her father amongst the rubble and dirt. At the cry for his name, she saw him twist beyond cover, spear in hand and eyes focused on her. "I've disrupted his processor! You can attack now!" And much like Aphi, he only nodded in response.
Before jumping into the air. Spear above his head.
"HYYYYEEEEAAAAAAA!" He let out the battle cry, in time for the sun to blot him out of the sky. Ami lost track of him in the glare, like every opponent who had ever faced him had.
SHINK!
And the results against this opponent were no different. By sight, sound, and eventual relief.
Her father was in front of Da Bomb, standing lower than the robot's full height, but with his lance pierced through the head and central chassis of the robot. The chances of such a blow not destroying the robot were slim to none.
The results only became clearer as the red lights of the robot faded away, the power that kept it active fading to nothing.
"Noo… Not a shout…. Wimpeeeeeerrrrrrrr..." And the robot sagged in defeat.
Click
Ami clicked off the batter of her board, the device having run its course. Aphi put the antenna down on top of the cover they stood behind, releasing a breath of air in relief. Ami joined in with it, eyes shutting as the calm of a finished battle washed over her.
It had worked. They had done it.
"Ami, Aphi," their father spoke to them. They both looked up, seeing their bearded parent walking towards them, concern on his face and worry in his eyes. "Are you unharmed? Did anything hit you?" Ami shook her head first.
"No." She spoke clearly. "I''m-" But that was all she got out.
"What were you thinking?" Before he stood above them, glare bearing down on them with the same strength as his words. Ami's throat choked, her words dying before they birthed from her mouth.
"I..." she started before swallowing. "I… recognized that Da Bomb was a robotic enemy and I-I believed that I could fashion a device to disrupt his processor and handling systems so-"
"You could have been killed," her father interrupted her again. Ami said nothing in return, because her father was right. Even with a beard as thick as his, the scowl was as visible as the glare of his eyes. Or the harshness of his words. "Any one of those explosions could have harmed you. Killed you."
"Y-Yes," Ami agreed. Lying was as pointless as a Hard Disk Drive. "But I was confident that-"
"Your device worked, but it just as easily could not have," her father continued to brow beat her with other likely outcomes of her choices. Outcomes she had recognized and reasoned as appropriate risks. "You could have been spotted, and the villain could have thrown another bomb at you."
Ami said nothing this time. She didn't know what she could say. Her father wasn't wrong. Neither was she, as she was alright, but clearly his words held more weight than hers.
She had almost died, thrice, if not for her father and sister. And… she had no words to take it back.
"Father," she began carefully. "I'm sorry for disobeying you. I thought… I could be like-" And once more she was interrupted by her father.
This time by him scooping Ami and Aphi into a tight hug.
Her father was fast, as she had seen many times before. But the speed at which she was pulled into his embrace was faster than she believed some electrons ran through wiring systems. Her feet dangled underneath her as she was pushed into her father's chest, side-by-side with Aphi.
"Thank goodness," he whispered above them, head hunched over and mouth smothered into their hair. "Thank goodness you are alright." Oh, he was worried. That made sense. They were chased by that mad robot.
But now they weren't, and their father was embracing them in thanks. It only made sense to do the same.
"We're okay," Ami repeated, wrapping her arms around her father. They tangled themselves with Aphi's, but she pushed her way through. An embrace had to be all encompassing, like the antenna system. Otherwise, it just didn't have the same energy. "Thank you for saving me."
"Us," Aphi spoke up, even as her hand pushed past Ami's chest, uncomfortably. She didn't voice any concern. "Thank you, father."
And their father didn't respond. He only strengthened his embrace around them. An embrace that was warm, safe, and before anything else, once of the happiest places either sister could think to be.
Ami and Aphi mimicked their father, holding him all the tighter.
They were safe. They were all safe.
Jack reminded himself of the simple fact as he entered the tower, filled with the surviving members of the Bazaar, backed and moving about as they worked to find their robotic companions and goods. They were important, they were blessed, but they were far beneath those that Jack searched for.
They were a distant care next to the lives Jack had found.
"Dad!" Aki yelled up to him. She pounced when she was close enough, jumping into his waiting arms. He didn't hesitate to embrace her. "We got a bunch of the robots in here, just like you asked!" He smiled down at the rambunctious child.
"We instructed them and guarded the few that needed protection," Ashi followed her sister's words. She didn't look for an embrace, as she rarely did. "Once we were sure Ahi and Avi were safe, Adi assisted us in finding the best paths."
"Yeah!" Adi agreed jumping next to her sister. She grinned proudly. "The Kiosk robot helped a lot, too. Just had to remember everything he had to say, which wasn't too much." Jack remembered the robot instructing them on a great deal, actually. He never was unimpressed by the young child's ability to retain and explain such information.
Jack smiled at the little ones, pleased with the pride and honest cheer. It was a gift he could never receive too much of. What was more, they had done and excellent job.
The discordance of rushing metal and grating steel had all but vanished within and without the tower. The robots and their mechanical nature had been restored. Simple noises and calm tones echoed through the tower, synthesized voices that were more soothing and far from grating.
The many were gowned in tightly woven fabrics, covered in some rags, but all cared and maintained for. They were put into groups, all looking for one another, and relaxed as they huddled along the walls of the metallic tower.
Simply, the children had organized and calmed the robots that numbers into the hundreds. Alone at that.
Pride was an appropriate thing to feel.
"You all did an excellent job," he complimented to them truthfully, thankfully. "And I am no less pleased to see you all well." He spoke no less in his falsehoods.
Aki and Adi beamed with a pride that Jack felt, standing taller than they normally could. Avi nodded in thanks, standing near Ashi who kept her arms folded, but a small smile betraying her neutral gaze. Ahi pumped her fist into the air, similar to how she would act when she finished a new meal with success.
Ami and Aphi were not apart in celebrating the success. Ami, the little one who had designed the tool for rendering the robot inert, held her bag of parts and device within to her chest. It took only a glance to see the pride and feeling of success bloom across her face.
Aphi was much the same, with arms crossed yet still fidgeting in place. It was clear she wished to take after Ahi or Aki, but was still focused on her siblings around her. She was proud of her success, but she wished not to mean that she was done with her task.
Dutiful in nature, just like all the little ones.
Jack looked them over again, with the danger passed and their tasks successful. They had saved hundreds of robots from the rampage of one. They had kept them safe through the destruction. They helped, if not solely accomplished, destroying the foul robot that had taken life for a worthless gain.
It was something Jack knew himself capable of doing, but not nearly in the same manner that Ami had. Old as he was and hardened as he had become, Jack knew that child was already beyond him in the skill of metal and electronics.
But the question was, how far beyond him was she against his old friends?
Was Extor, the scientist who created dark machines for Aku, so talented at such a young age? Was Olivia so wild as Aki before her years caught up to her, before Aku tried to turn her? Was Kuni so like Aphi, so willing to risk danger for family over self?
They were questions Jack could not answer, and they were worries that compounded the longer he gazed at the little ones. A fear that he had not thought of, that he had never had, until the little ones began to grow among him.
He was protecting them, he was guarding them, and he hoped he was teaching them. An outsider may call him their parent, as they adored to call him. But was he that to them? Jack did not know. He did not know because he had never been this before.
Over his life, the forty-three years in the dark future and twenty ears in the joyous past, he had never cared for children in such a way. He knew others had, he knew others who had. But he had never spoken to them of such things.
Perhaps though… that was the issue. He was thinking readily and often of how to protect the little ones.
But he had yet to think of how to help them grow.
"I am so proud of you all." The words passed through Jack's lips in a breath that was nearly lost.
Surrounded by machines and robotic life, in the lone steel tower in a desert Bazaar, Jack realized the truth of it all unintentionally. He was proud of these little ones, these young girls, for everything they had shown.
And they still had so much more to show. He knew it.
"Children, little ones," Jack spoke again, each of the girls looking up at him with beaming eyes. "I do not believe you realize the depth of your own talents. If the years had shown me anything, it is this."
"What do you mean, father?" Ashi asked. Jack smiled, aware that she would be the first to question. He intended to explain.
"I mean to say you are all talented in ways I am not." Jack spoke to them all, each of the seven little ones who had grown in ways so different, despite their near identical upbringing in the red mountain, and following him in the cursed future.
Kneeling in front of them, ignoring the robots that moved in the building around them, Jack looked at each of the children, each of the sisters, as she continued to explain.
"You have all grown over the years in ways that I have not as well." It was hardly surprising to know that the children were different than him. It was surprising that they were different from one another.
All from the same red mountain, all from the same cursed mother, all from the same dark past, yet they were all children special in their own way. Different, unique, like the flowers of a field. No matter how similar in appearance, they were unique unto themselves.
The heights they could grow to, the terrain they could climbs, winds they could endure, or petals they could grow. All unique, all different.
But all still so fragile.
"Your talents are things that I wish to see grow," Jack continued to speak, eyes flowing from one child to the next, the sisters have all their eyes upon him. "I wish to see you create new gadgets, cook new dishes, make new cloths, and all so much more."
He let his hand fall on Aki's head, the girl's head slumping with the weight. She still pushed her neck up, craning now to see her father.
"I wish to see you all grow in ways that I thought impossible in this dark land." Impossible in a future where he had betrayed all that he once was. "To find your own path in life, to build your own fate… and to fight for your own future."
"Dad?" Ahi spoke up, looking at him with concern in her eyes. Jack smiled kindly to her. There was no reason for her to be wary.
"We've been in danger before, and I know Aku will attempt to sway others to his evil ways again." It was as inevitable as the dying of the light. "But I do not want your love for love for creation to be swayed by the presence of destruction."
"Father? What are you talking about?" Avi now, her hand gripping on the seam of one of his leggings. She was close to tears, as she so often was when she did understand something he said. Jack continued to speak.
"I mean to say that you are all strong, in ways similar and vastly different than me." Jack ensured the eyes of each of the little ones was upon him, watching and listening with intent. "And I want to see, more than anything else, how much stronger you can become in these vastly different ways."
"I don't understand," Adi spoke more than questioned. "Are you… telling us to leave?" Jack felt more than heard the gasps of the little ones.
He settled them quickly. Shushing the more inquisitive of the sisters as he patted their backs and heads, shaking his head in the same kind.
No, he was not going to leave them. If he had a wish that was worth this horrible future, he wanted them to grow old and be forever young. But that was not possible, such as leaving them was not his wish.
His desire, his plan, was much simpler than that.
"No." Jack spoke simply. "We are going to find old friends."
Author's Note:
BAM! Finally throwing in the refs that are going to be helping to shape the girls up now! Maybe a bit of an obvious twist, but its just something I realized while imagining the tikes growing up.
You get lessons from Mom and Dad, yeah, but you grow differently from them by listening to others. I haven't really given these kids that kind of experience yet, and I want to make it plausible for Jack to see it as well. Might have glossed over it a little in that fourth section, but I was aiming for him to realize that Ami's way was better than his. That is, less dangerous.
So yeah, now we're going to get some cameos, but we aren't going to see the kids stop growing.
What fun would that be?