Chapter 1 "What Remains"

The group wandered descended down the hill top onto the low ground. 11 helped 12 climb down the hill, he carried her with one arm while with the other was used to bring them down.

"Careful, careful," 12 muttered as 11 descended the rock-climbing rope; his grip started to loosen. "12, if you don't shut up and constantly shifting your weight, I WILL drop you!" 11 told her. 13 and 19 both descended down next to the two. "Guys, don't fight or you'll both fall," 13 said then continued descending.

19 was having a hard time getting a grip on the rope, "I just can't wait to get out of this harness thing!" he groaned as he tugged on the harness with his right hand. 11 laughed as he looked down at the ground which he was close enough to not get hurt by a fall.

11 looked at 12 then at 19.

One by one, he slowly let his fingers fall away from 12's back. She started to slip away, "11! I'm falling! 11!" she screamed as she fell from 11's grip. 19 unlatched his harness and leaped to 12's aid. He caught her mid-air and put her above him as they came crashing into the ground.

11 unhooked his harness and leaped off and landed with a THUD. He and 13 ran over to 12 and 19. "Guys! Are you alright!?" 13 exclaimed as she ran to them. "Yeah, mostly," 19 said as he let go of 12.

She rolled off his stomach onto the dirt, "11, that was not funny!" she muttered while trying to catch her breath. 11 kneeled right next to her, "Next time, have patience when you have me carrying you and I won't drop you," he told her.

12 tried to nudge 11 in the leg but he jumped out of the way. "You get back here!" 12 shouted and quickly got to her feet to chase 11. "You'll never catch me alive!" 11 exclaimed and booked it down the hill to the valley. 13 just hopped around them as they took off like a wild fire.

She looked down at 19, "Need some help?" she asked him. 19 nodded silently.

She reached down and lent him a hand, the massive 19 took it and slowly got up; almost bringing 13 down to the ground in the process. "Careful strong-arm, I'm fragile," she told him as he adjusted his gear.

19's heavy armor looked like it was weighing down on him but to 19 it felt like wearing nothing at all. His shoulder pads and knee guards were made out of some old gears and wires he found under rubble back home.

His giant scissor blade was strapped to his magnet, there was a small metal plate too that he pulled down when in the heat of battle. "I think we should find 12 and 11 before they tear each other apart," 13 told 19.

The tall Stitchpunk nodded then they took off to find their compatriots.

They ran down the hill unto the valley of fallen machines, old tanks were toppled and crushed. 11 was on top of one of the tanks, one hatch leading to the internals was open, his bow held it open while he salvaged the remains.

12 was shouting at him from below. "11! I swear of my soul I'll get back at you!" she waved her arm angrily at him. 11 just ignored her as he continued what he was doing. "Yeah, whatever, just let me do my job and you do yours."

12 huffed and turned her back to him, keeping an eye out while he salvaged. When 12 finally noticed that 19 and 13 were heading over to her she scanned for something to do. She reached inside one of the tank's road wheels and pulled something out.

"12, let's scout out the area to check for anything 11 can use for equipment," 19 said as he reached the rest of them. "Alright! We're heading out, don't get torn to shreds while we're out looking for your scrap metal!" she hollered. 11 stuck his hand and gave them a thumbs-up.

They raced to the rocks, 19 tossed 12 onto the rocks and raced off.

13 climbed the rubble to reach the top of the tank. She scurried to 11's side as he yanked out a bunch of wires. "Hey, 13," he said casually. 13 squatted next to him and sat crisscross.

"Can I help?" 13 asked 11 and peeked inside. Her friend brought his head out of the machine's internals, it was covered with grease and oil. He looked at her and raised a stitch, "Really? You want to help me salvage old parts from machines of a by-gone era?"

13 nodded enthusiastically.

11 sighed and rubbed his head. He turned to his left and reached inside his quiver, he returned with a small piece of paper. "Head into the city and mark salvage locations on my map, also look for a place to stay overnight in case you can't make it back," he explained to her as he handed her the map.

13 snatched it out of his hands and jumped up. "You got it, captain!" she said then ran to the edge of the tank and leaped off and crashed into the dust. 11 raced the edge to check on 13, he saw her running towards the wall of the city.

"13! Stay away from danger!" he shouted to her. In the distance, 13 stopped in her tracks, turned around and waved at 11. He waved back then got back to work. Feeling ignored, 13 inched away. Huffing and puffing as she reached the outer layers of the wall. Her exoskeleton felt like it was nearly broken, her mechanical lungs were not able to contain much longer. She needed help, but the rest were busy, it seemed difficult to hide her impatience on them.

"Too much excitement…can't breathe…" she labored out muttering as she slowly climbed the rubble of a machine. As she reached the top, she got an overview of the ruins of the city.

Old skeletal corpses lined some of the streets, some were in odd places like corners and cars. She saw tin cans scattered about the place. 13 started to climb down when something amongst the rubble caught her eye: pieces of a plastic spoon along with wax from a candle.

Drivingly, 13 dipped her fingers in the wax, it was starting to mold or harden, she couldn't tell. "Strange, what's wax doing here? And a spoon?" she rhetorically whispered. 13 brushed the pieces deeper into the rubble, wiped off the wax then hopped down.

She looked around the ruins, keeping an eye out for any key-locations for her to investigate. Ahead there was an old cathedral in the distance. The silhouette of a lone house just barely standing not too far from her. In the same vicinity, an old plane (quite a large one) crashed into the main district.

13 couldn't decide which one to investigate first, so she decided to choose the one closets to her: the house. Having learned her lesson from earlier, she walked to the house instead of running there. As she walked, 13 noticed the entire place was seemingly deserted. The bodies she saw were older. Extremely older than the usual ones she finds.

She held up 11's map, checking to see if it was still up to date. "Let's see, according to 11," she changed her tone to mimic 11, "According to the map, there should just be a straight shot to the house!" when she lowered the map she found something…odd.

There was a group small flags (just about her height) placed in a circle leading back to a great pyre. The flags were burned yet 13 could still make out what was written on them. She read them as she passed by them:

"5."

"8."

"6."

"2."

"1."

13 took a step back from the flags. "Why are these here?" she thought as she backed up. Looking to the stairwell, they were intact…mostly. Suddenly, she heard rumbling in the distance, turning her head to the west. A great dust storm roared over the silhouette of a factory, passing by the pillars that stood tall and covering the old battlefield.

The storm spread quickly, it passed through the plains of the battlefield and reached the wall at an unnatural speed. Making the dust cloud siege the walls and hitting the streets. 13 peered into the cloud, hoping that she could find her way back through the dust.

"Oh, I can't see a thing!" she groaned as dust particles smothered her face. In frustration, 13 turned back to the stairwell, "I need to wait out this storm if I'm going to make it somewhere!" she said aloud. She ran through the storm. One arm covering her forehead to help her maneuver the terrain. Her cloak went wild against the wind, with her other arm she clung to it as best as she could. Running directly into the stairwell.

13 fell on her back. Her cloak unwrapping itself, flew off into the wind. She tried to grab it before it went out of reach but to no avail. "My cloak!" she bemoaned as she watched it fly away. Yet, she couldn't stay upset at the loss of her prized cloak. She had to get inside or she'll be lost in the storm.

Sprinting at the first step, 13 leaped and barley landed on the edge. Just managing to pull herself up on the ledge, "First one down, a lot more to good. Good idea for spending my time."

…

9 stepped outside the Library to gaze at the dust storm in the distance. He watched sadly as it covered his creator's home, he just couldn't stand the sight of it being tampered. "We'll have to make a journey to his home once the storm has cleared. Maybe we can find more things of him to help us in the future."

He turned around to see 7 walking towards him. He smiled and nodded. 7 always knew how to cheer him up. "We scoured the entire place, every nook and cranny we could think of," 9 told her as she stood next to him. She had her skullmet tied behind her shoulders, her spear sat against a book back in the entrance.

They decided to watch the storm together.

"Hey, what's that?" 7 asked and pointed to a small object flying towards them. 9 looked at the object but he couldn't figure out what it was. "I don't know," he told her. The wind from the storm carried things here and there like dust particles and small rocks. But this one stood out, it was a small black sliver of cloth.

The object flew straight into 9's hands, he and 7 examined it together.

"Looks like a cloak," 7 stated.

9 flipped the cloth around, revealing small stitches that made a shawl and just below that a single number was stitched in.

"13…?"