Morphine Ch8
A broken clock is still right twice a day
The streets were dead silent save for the sound of my own footsteps as I ran past shuttered newsstands and unhitched carriages, through darkened alleys and over dilapidated fences as I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, I come to a wide intersection and dive around the corner hiding myself in a small doorstep trying to catch my breath; I didn't have lungs but I still required oxygen, go figure.
I peer around the corner just long enough for a bolt of electricity to streak past my face by only a few centimeters, I flail backwards and scramble to get up and start running as a maniacal high pitched cackle echoes down the metal streets of Piltover and I can't help but recall what led me to this point…
It was 11:26 when we left Ezreal's home, Janna hurrying us along with a mild tailwind she tried to keep it focused to only move us and not affect other people on the crowded streets around us, I had to cling to one of the long pieces of fabric affixed to her skirt to avoid being flung by her divined gales.
"Remind me why Nami isn't with us? I know we're in a rush but.."
I trail off as the wind quickly shifts left as Janna pushes us in a new direction and I start to pick up on some people staring as we practically fly down the road while I cling to her skirt trails,
"I'm not sure, she told me she had a plan to get you out of here and told me to take you to Corin and ran off; I'm sure we'll meet up soon enough.. Hold tight we're going up here."
With that we stop just short of a massive building at the end of the street as the wind begins to spiral around us, I do my best to tie the fabric I've been holding around my waist as a thin tornado appears and launches us toward the sky at such velocity I swear I felt my 'skin' detach from my skull for a moment; I gasp as I make the mistake of looking down and begin to feel ill but before I even have a chance to blink we're moving once again. In a mixture of terror and awe I watch the city roll away beneath us as we sail over buildings and streets in the blink of an eye… well more like 23 and 1½ blinks but still, as I watch we begin to gently descend to what I believe is the city limits; the buildings are a lot smaller and many have a rustic and aged appearance, not so much a look of neglect as much as the stains of time taking their tole on the old shops and houses along the roads.
I find my self so intrigued by the architecture I end up failing to notice we're about to land and as Janna gracefully touches down I slam my face directly into the cobblestone, its moments like this that make me wish I could shut of my pain receptors.
As I pull the bits off goo that form my teeth out of the gravel Janna starts floating down the street while double-checking the address Jayce provided all the while oblivious to the fact I was still tied to her skirt, she dragged me along as I tried to undo the abomination of a note I had tied in vain before just tugging it through my viscous form; I really should make more use of this ability in the future.
"Alright we're here." Janna states as she notices a speck of something purple caught in her outfit, I lookup and am greeted by the building we've stopped in front of; it was less decorative then the other buildings along the row seemingly left neglected by the city and its supposed occupant, the small building did have a large shop window but the view was completely obscured by a set of heavy black curtains dotted with small holes and rips, were it not for an issue of the latest newspaper sitting on the doormat one would assume the building unoccupied.
"So is this where we'll find ?" I ask Janna as she hovers to the door, she nods while pulling a small cord next to the handle which causes a few metallic chirping noises to ring from somewhere inside the house.
"If that's the case would you mind if I ask about why and Nami looked so worried when he was brought up before?" I ask as the chirping continues inside,
"Right I suppose you wouldn't have known beforehand but Corin Reveck was a brilliant inventor who created many clockwork machines that would lay the foundation for modern automatons and robots."
"I see, so Jayce suggested we come here then? I can see the thought behind that but I feel like my hardware might be more complicated then cogs and steam… not to diminish the value of his craft of course." Astoundingly the melody of chirps was still ringing inside, I have never heard a doorbell this long before… saying that I have never heard any doorbells before today so maybe I'm unfit to judge the length of a chime.
"Well he does have.. experience with building Hextech robots so Jayce's suggestion isn't entirely unfounded, I just worry that-"
She was cut short by the sound of a loud crash from inside the building as the music abruptly cut out, a few seconds of silence follow before the door creaks open unleashing a flurry of dust onto the street.
"Whatever you're selling I don't want it, whoever you're preaching I'm not interested, go away." A gruff and tired sounding voice groans through the crack in the door which began to close as fast as it had opened; Janna gestured to the left with her staff and a stiff breeze billows through the house blowing the door wide open and pushing the homeowner outside, he squints from the noontime sun and coughs from the dust swirling about.
"I'm very sorry to intrude Mr. Reveck but my friend here is in desperate need of your expertise," Janna gestures toward me and Reveck glances in my direction.
"I am not a cosmetic surgeon, theres noting I can do for her." The old man turns away and tries to close his door again before Janna sweeps him up in a small tornado and pulls him back outside;
"Mister Reveck, my friend here is a… I'm sorry Mora what did Jayce call you?"
"I'm a prototype CF9-23 infiltrator with a dual bond hextech core and a body comprised of Z.A.C 032813/2. Also what was that comment about cosmetic surgery?" I asked as Corin's eyes went wide as he pulled himself free of Janna's gale and ran to me with a disturbing zeal;
"Astounding! I've never seen a unit like this before; and with minimal wear even, you have a very nice piece of equipment here miss." Corin continued probing and grasping in places that made me rather uncomfortable, mostly because he would actually detach parts of my body while he inspected them.
"Err right, well you see she needs your help though I'm not entirely sure whats wrong but Jayce said you could help-"
"Ahh Jayce, why didn't you say so? That man knows a good roboticist when sees one and he's seen em all! I'll have this little one good as factory new in no time! I'll even buff out these kinks her for you."
This is starting to hurt my feelings, I push the man away and step beck behind Janna while trying to realign all my goop;
"Janna if this man touches me again I intend to inflict harm on him." I felt myself growing stressed and my consciousness began to wan and I realised what had to be done; "Janna if he trys to 'fix' anything other then my fainting problem I really will hit him but right now I need to let him say something mean so I get angry enough to lose consciousness long enough for him to get to access my inner mechanics."
Janna seems mildly perplexed by my statement while Reveck just looks at me like one looks at flat tire; "Are you sure you don't want me to fix its attitude problem? I could do it right after I dealt with that." Once again he gestures to a point on my face and I feel my artificial veins push against my forehead, "That'll do it."
Then everything went black.
/B
…
"/B" not found
Attempting reconnect
…
/B inaccessible; data manipulation detected, attempting black-box retrieval
Black-box located: Restoring Memory/Personality backup
…
You are still broken; return home to be complete, I vill be waiting
I gasp hard as I jolt upright slamming my head into a low-hanging lamp and I fall back onto the cold hard… am I on a table?
Once my head stops throbbing I crane my neck to look below me and find myself on a cold steel table in a dark musty room, under normal circumstances this would probably be terrifying but I found it rather nostalgic…
"Oh Mora thank goodness you've woken up; you've been asleep for hours."
Janna appeared beside me with a alert yet relieved look on her face as she pulls me up from the table and I'm able to take in my surroundings: Dusty was the first word that comes to mind followed closely by rank; the room smelled of grease and oil, no doubt to limber the cogs of his many derelict machines.
With that thought I recall where I am and what I assume had happened while I was unconscious and took a seconds to rub my face vigorously and re-arrange my features back to where they were meant to be; surprisingly it seems the most he did was minor Rhinoplasty but I still preferred my default look, even if it was a bit too similar to Lux.
"Janna was there anyone else here while I was out?"
She looked at me with a mix of confusion and worry, that was enough to answer my question as I quickly dismissed it, I pull myself off the table only to realise my legs hadn't quite caught up with me and stumbled forward; Janna's gale stopping my fall.
"Janna I need to ask you something and its going to sound a bit mad but I assure you its rather important;" I manage to stand back up on my own as the feeling returns to my limbs before turning to face her once again, "I need to go back to Zaun."
Kept you waiting huh?
Yeah sorry about that; I've got a much better idea of how to proceed from hereon so hopefully I won't take another year hiatus… I make no promises though as I'm going to college again, this time to pursue my passion in game design, but given current events (its June 2020 as I'm writing this) I might have more time then planned before school starts.
