-3- JAMES AND TAGGART
The trader's face displayed shock at what James and Taggart had told him.
"You're leaving Makurotown?" the trader asked in disbelief. The two citizen robots he was speaking with, James and Taggart, both nodded.
"We're hoping you might have a few weapons on hand," James said.
"I do," the trader replied. "Where are you two going?"
"The Assembly Tower," James replied. "Or what's left of it." Other citizens who were walking nearby stopped and looked at James after he said this. The trader himself could not believe what he heard.
"Are you two out of your minds?" the trader asked, almost at the volume of a yell.
"Maybe," Taggart replied with a thin smile.
"What in the universe are you going there for?" the trader continued.
"Quaza," James answered. "We think people could find lots of uses for it here."
"I take it this won't an act of charity for the good of Makurotown," the trader ventured with a smirk. James and Taggart shook their heads with firm smiles.
"Entrepreneurs, I see," the trader said slyly. "Well, I do certainly hope you're bringing weapons. It's risky just leaving Makurotown." He then began sifting through a few crates he had behind his makeshift trading stand.
"We're willing to take risks," Taggart said, mimicking James' smile.
"Yeah, the prospect of wealth tends to make people say that," the trader replied wryly. He then pulled out two projectile weapons that were visibly of a custom quality and set them on the table he sold his wares on. The edges of the weapons' metal were brown with rust and the flinty odor of all of Makurotown was more prevalent when the ugly contraptions were pulled out.
"Still, if you're going to take risks, take them with these," the trader said, putting his hands on his hips as if proud of the guns he presented to James and Taggart. "Bought these things a while back. They're custom-made."
"I can tell," James remarked, studying the weapons with a less-than-approving expression on his face.
"Ever heard of the Hero Duncan Bulk?" the trader asked the two.
"Heard of him?" Taggart replied. "I had to stare at a billboard of his fat face towering above where I used to live in the City."
The trader laughed, said, "Well, if you saw his image then you saw his weapon, surely. It was a gun that fired ball bearings, very powerful. Not powerful enough to stop the Villains from getting their way, but you get my point. These weapons here are basically homemade versions of that weapon. I'll trade them to you for something." Taggart looked to James.
"What do you think, James?" he asked. "What do we have?"
"How about everything that's in our shack?" James suggested. The trader was surprised at the offer, and even Taggart did not expect his friend would say that.
"James, are you out of your mind?" Taggart asked with alarm.
"Hardly," James replied. "We either accomplish our goal and come home rich men able to buy back all that was in our shack, or we die. If we die, we won't need our stuff anyway." Taggart looked worried for a moment before reluctantly shrugging in acceptance of James' decision. The trader was flabbergasted, but tried to hide this and casually threw his hands up in the air and smiled.
"We have a deal," the trader said. "The guns are yours. Oh, and…" The trader turned back to the supply crate at the back of his stand. He dug through their contents until he found two small tin boxes. He then opened each and set them on the table that the guns were sitting on. James and Taggart peeked into each of the boxes. Both boxes were filled with small metal ball bearings.
"Somehow, I don't think these guns would do much without ammo, would they?" the trader asked sarcastically. James and Taggart returned his smile and then shut the boxes, sliding them off of the table and holding them in their armpits. With their unoccupied arms, they each picked up one of the guns.
"Our shack is at the northernmost edge of Makurotown, and we scraped our names on its front wall," Taggart told the trader. "Everything is yours. Oh, but, not the jeep. We'll be needing that."
Later that day, James and Taggart took their purchases from the bazaar of Makurotown back to their shack, constructed like all of the surrounding housing units of Makurotown from various scraps, metal shapes, and slabs of stone from the ruins of Makuhero City. Rising above the hovels of Makurotown was a large metal sheet that had been crudely attached to a thick metal pole and turned into a large makeshift sign. On it were words formed from the attachment of bits of metal that read, "Welcome to Makurotown! We owe Mr. Makuro for this town's creation!"
James, staring back up at the sign and its mockery of Hero Factory's founder, Akiyama Makuro, began laughing.
"I'm going to miss this town's sense of humor," James admitted.
Both James and Taggart stepped through the lopsided threshold to their shack's interior. Taggart began searching for some kind of surface to set his gun and ball bearing box on.
"Ever fire a gun before, James?" Taggart asked, setting his gun and box on a small box in the corner of the shack.
"Just flare guns and blowtorches," James answered, finding his own surface to examine his weapon.
"Same." Taggart then searched his gun for the logical area where he could load the ball bearing ammunition. When he found a cover that was able to be opened, Taggart propped it up and opened his ball bearing box. One by one, he dropped individual ball bearings into the gun until it was full. He then shut the cover and secured it in place. He cautiously picked it up, now realizing he was wielding a loaded weapon.
"Mind if I test this?" Taggart asked. James was still working on his own weapon.
"Just fire it at the ground or something, away from me," James said, finding his own gun's slot and preparing it for loading. Taggart took his gun and pointed it at the ground away from James. He hesitated, somewhat nervous. Eventually, he squeezed the trigger on the gun. A sharp zap noise sounded off and a brief flash of light came from the tip of the gun's front. The ball bearing pellet rocketed out of the mechanism and smashed into the ground. A small cloud of dust flew up where the pellet had impacted the ground.
James, though not having seen the shot, turned to Taggart after hearing the weapon fire, looked at where the ball hit the ground.
"That little thing made that noise?" James asked, looking at the gun that Taggart had fired.
"Yeah," Taggart replied, still looking at where the ball hit the ground. "You should give yours a try." James stood up, his gun loaded with ball bearings. Aiming it at the ground slightly away from Taggart, he fired. The same noise sounded, and the pellet crushed the ground it hit. James jerked back a bit at the strength of the gun.
"I think we might be prepared, Tag," James said, looking at his friend. Taggart gave a small chuckle and placed another ball bearing into his gun to replace the one he had fired. James, seeing this, went back to do the same. As he did, James saw near the box he had set his materials on a small plaque resting against the metal of one of their shack's walls. A smile formed on his face as he reached down to pick up the familiar object. Dust covered the plaque and blurred its text, and as James picked it up he gently brushed off the dust with his hand. Taggart saw James doing this, and turned to look at what his friend was holding.
James held the plaque out to Taggart, aiming an index finger at the words on it. The plaque read, "Ironworkers Union of Makuhero City," beneath which read, "James Burnweld."
"Take one last good look at this place," Taggart began, panning his own gaze around their shack. "Anything of sentimental value, bring along with you. That trader's going to sell this place clean when he gets here." Taggart then turned around, looked at the series of crates behind him, said, "I should really bring mine too." Taggart began digging through the crates nearest him until he found a similarly shaped plaque with near identical wording, "Ironworkers Union of Makuhero City, Taggart Meltforge." Taggart stared at the plaque for a few moments, recalled memories of the crew he worked on during the time of Makuhero City. But, with the memories came his contempt for the Hero Factory, and the nostalgia subsided quickly.
"Ah, forget this," Taggart said, hurling the plaque at a wall shooting it with his gun, the single pellet smashing the plaque into bits. James jumped at this. Taggart then gave a somewhat sinister smile to James, said, "We'll probably die anyway."
"Well, I'm keeping mine," James said. Taggart shrugged.
"No objections from me," he said, picking up his ammo box and walking out of the shack. Taggart called back to James from the outside of the shack.
"When you're done, meet me by the jeep!" Taggart shouted to James. James could hear Taggart's footsteps walking over to where the two had parked their makeshift jeep outside. James checked his gun, made sure it was fully loaded, then stood up with ammo box and gun in hands. He turned to face the rest of their shack, looked at all of their belongings and how soon they would be taken away to be sold by the trader they met in the bazaar. James began thinking then about life back in Makuhero City, and what civilization had been reduced to since then. Suddenly, a smile similar to Taggart's smile after he destroyed his plaque wrapped around James' face.
James then dropped his ammo box and picked up his own plaque. He threw the plaque on the ground and copied Taggart by firing a pellet into it and shattering the plaque. James nodded at the remnants of the plaque with a kind of personal approval of his action. He then picked up his ammo box and exited the shack.
As James walked out of the shack, he heard the sound of their jeep's engine approaching him. From behind their shack, Taggart drove their jeep up to the entrance of the shack, stopping it right in front of his friend.
"Thought I'd save you that much more walking," Taggart said. James smiled and climbed into the copilot seat of their jeep. The machine's rudimentary suspension system squeaked as James stepped onto it. A small piece of the clunky and rust-outlined jeep fell off as James got on. Taggart saw this and craned his head to see what feel off. It was a fragment of the rusting walls and nothing vital to the jeep's operations. Still, it reminded him how poor a state their jeep was in.
"We'll be lucky if this thing holds together just getting there," James remarked with some humor. Taggart laughed.
"We'll be lucky if it holds together just getting out of Makurotown," Taggart added with a smile. He then noticed James had not brought his Ironworkers Union plaque like he said he would.
"Where's your plaque?" he asked James.
"Excess weight," James replied with a shrug. Taggart gave a quick laugh before pressing down on the jeep's acceleration pedal. The sound of their vehicle's four heavily worn wheels kicking up dirt rose as he did. When the vehicle picked up traction, Taggart and James began driving out slowly down the long dirt clearing that separated some of the other shacks from one another. Citizens who were walking down the path saw the two in their jeep driving down, and moved to the side. One of the citizens ran up to James and Taggart, and Taggart stopped the jeep when he saw the citizen.
"Whoa, where are you guys going?" the citizen asked in a way that suggested he might want to come along.
"The ruins of the Assembly Tower," Taggart answered with the lift of an eyebrow and a smile. The citizen then backed away.
"Never mind, then," the citizen said with some fear in his voice. "What in all the world are you going there for?"
"Quaza," James said. "We could really put it to practical use in Makurotown, and people will want it when they learn that."
"Are you two crazy?" the citizen said. "That whole area was where the Villains who unleashed the Cataclysm were last seen." James and Taggart looked at each other with some concern.
"Well," James began, raising his gun slightly. "We prepared for that." Taggart did not wait for the citizen below to respond, and hit the acceleration on the jeep again. The nearby citizens who had overheard that conversation watched as the two drove off out of the limits of rusty Makurotown into the wastelands beyond. There were whispers among the gathered citizens who were watching James and Taggart drive off.
"They'll never return," said one of the citizens, shaking his head as he watched the duo and their jeep drive ever farther from Makurotown to the feared Assembly Tower ruins.