The walls, massive structures built to contain what remained of humanity form the terrors that lurked beyond, the terrors of the Titan's, humanoid monsters the size of buildings with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. For centuries, the people lived in peace behind these walls, growing comfortable, complacent, greedy. Food and resources became finite, commodities that the rich held over the poor, many forced to go to the extremes to survive, and thus, it was not an uncommon sight to the passersby as a young rag clothed boy sprinted between the market stalls, bread clutched tightly between his fingertips.
"Shit, just leave me the hell alone!" the boy yelled, ducking under a market stall. The pounding of feet echoing upon his heels, a voice barking out after vaulting over the obstacles in his path as the thief ducked into an alley. "Get back here, you little street rat!"
Refusing to comply, the child swiftly slid behind a few old crates, tucking himself behind them as the Military police member ran past and disappearing down the alley's bend. Letting out a drawn-out sigh upon wedging himself free, the young boy looked down at the stolen bread in his hands. A growl promptly erupted from his stomach as he looked down over its warm brown exterior, licking over his chapped lips.
"Yeah, well, I'm a good street rat." He muttered, before scarfing down the bread in a matter of seconds before he sat back against the alley's stone wall. Between the market raids, there always seemed to be too little time to rest, always on the move, even if his stomach pleaded with another hefty growl.
"Of course, way to go Mathew, not even enough to fill you up...typical." He grumbled, stumbling up from his spot on the ground and began the trek back 'home'. Moving between the alleys and avoiding the main streets as much as possible, Mathew stumbled past many a sly glance from passerby's after being forced to cross the main road. The boy pausing only upon spotting a small wanted poster of himself, plastered against the side of a building. Frowning a bit, Mathew yanked it off the wall, crumbled the paper into a ball, stuffing it into his pocket as he walked behind a dead-end alley, walking into his ragtag housing. To call it housing however, were pushing what one would consider a home to the limits, considering of only old crates stacked on top of one another with a torn cloth tarp acting as a roof. A small half-assed fire pit lay a couple of feet from it.
Walking over, Mathew pulled the crumpled paper from his pocket and threw it into the pit, steering up some embers as it landed, singeing the exposed edges of the yellowed paper. "Home sweet home." Mathew whispered, moved the tarp aside as he settled down in a pile of old blankets. Looking up through the holes in the cloth, he could see the sun's rays start to paint the alley's walls in shades of orange and yellow as the sun slowly set.
"Guess I'll go looking for breakfast in the morning." He said, curling up in one of the blankets, his stomach pleading with him once more, like almost every night since he escaped the servitude he was sold into. The sunlight fading into night as the cold sank in, turning slumber into uneasy tossing, yearning for warmth that would never come.
Though when Mathew awoke, unlike the numerous times of a rat or something skittering around, attempting to shelter itself like him, the boy felt a firm hand grab ahold of his ankle. Letting loose a startled yelp, he was dragged out of his shelter and roughly held above the cobbled ground.
Recovering slowly as the sleep fogging his mind, Mathew barely could take in the world around him, till ice ran through his veins. Casted in the low light of a lantern, was the uniform of the Military police upon the man that held him.
"Finally caught you street ra- Gah!" Kicking him square in the jaw, Mathew landed with a solid smack against the ground, the boy wasting no in scrambling to his feet, sprinting down the alley, dodging a swipe from one holding the lantern. Though the disturbance only bought a little time for Mathew as the two men started sprinting after him. Desperately looking around, Mathew old crates stacked in his path, he quickly through them aside, crashing them down on his pursuers, before bolting once more, refusing to even look back as he darted into the depths of the first beyond his town.
With legs burning and breath heaving, Mathew forced himself forward. Crunching leaves and bramble underfoot, running from the light that shown through the darkness, away from the shouting voices that had taken his only sense of home away, that punished him for wanting to survive.
Running till his legs couldn't carry him anymore, Mathew crashed into the undergrowth, nicks and scrapes covering his exposed limbs. Labored breaths followed as exhausted as he was, Mathew managed to haul himself into a sitting position under one of the thick trees. Looking out, the faint light of the lantern faded into the darkness of the forest beyond, slowly disappearing like the setting sun, letting the tiny sliver in the sky lay faint outlines through the dark clouds. Through the twilight shimmers, a faint flash caught his eye deeper within the forest, something metallic that gleamed in the shallow moonlight.
Letting out a reluctant groan, the boy slowly pushed himself against the tree, staggering to his feet and clung from tree to tree towards the shimmering silver. What he found however instead of some old shack; he really couldn't explain on first sight. Laid in the center of an overgrown crater with aging trees bent in unnatural ways, lay a metal 'thing'. Covered in moss and what reflected off the shine looked like a metal sheet of some kind, though in what little light breached the canopy, it more like a blade. Yet, it couldn't be, nobody could ever lift something that massive, the thing towering over him completely.
Hissing as Mathew placed his hand against the cold surface of the object, the young boy shivered, the air around him growing cooler as he stood exposed, wind rustling the canopy above drew his eyes to the crevasse underneath the rest of whatever was attached to the metallic object. "It's better than nothing." He muttered, crawling inside the crater, for while the chill still ran over his exposed skin, the sharp wind no longer sank into him like fangs. Stomach growling and with cracked lips, the boy curled in on himself and slowly let exhaustion lull him to slumber.
When dawn crested over the towering shadow of the wall, Mathew's eyes fluttered open to a much warmer world. Grogginess clung to his mind as he let out a low yawn, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He half expected the events of night prior to have been a horrible fever dream, yet upon painfully knocking his head against the metal above him, his mind was rudely awakened. "Of course, lovely morning." He grumbled, rubbing the forming welp as he crawled out from under his makeshift shelter, staining the already worn darkening cloth with dirt, Mathew looked back up, with light sprinkling over him at what he stumbled upon.
What conclusions had come the night before, didn't pale in comparison to what sat before him now. Under the cloak of night, the object did turn out to be a massive sword, way larger than himself, but attached to that blade made every cell in his body want to run, as a humanoid form became noticeable. One with no head but indeed defined arms and legs, one hand gripping the hilt of the massive blade. "I-is this a titan skeleton? No, no, from what papa told me, titans don't use weapons, and that sword isn't stabbing it in any way." Mathew muttered as he moved around the humanoid thing.
Growing more curious by the second, the young boy walked up to the torso, the whole form looking like it was crouched so it was easy enough to reach and run his hand over its surface. Where he expected to find rust or natural wear on the metal, his palm simply brushed aside the dust and flora that had found purchase, the paint had fading away, but the structure overall looked intact. After a bit of dusting aside the debris, what looked like a black glass stripe protruded from the rest of the boxy body. "Ah, this whatever this things eye is? Never seen anything like this before." He muttered, before wrapping his first against the side.
To his surprise however, a loud hiss sounded from within the humanoid as the whole front section popped open, falling onto his ass, he quickly crawled back on his hands and knees before turning to look at what lay within. Though what little remained of yesterday's meal began to bubble to the back of his throat as the smell cascaded down from the body that lay within this sarcophagus. Wearing clothing unlike anything he had seen before, the inside of the man's metal tomb, was covered in various nobs, switches and a million other things that boggled Mathew's mind beyond what came before.
Moving forward a bit, Mathew held his nose before poking the body. Whoever this was, well, was very much dead, perhaps someone from Wall Sheena? Rumors had spread that whatever lay within the innermost wall of humanity's bastion was leagues beyond what had spread to his part of society. Though, fragments of conversations were all that Mathew could ever grasp as he gazed around, taking everything in before looking once more at the corpse that sat before him.
Morbid curiosity drove the boy forward as he stepped up into the humanoid, reaching with both hands as he attempted to remove the helmet. Though, with his movements, it was unsurprising when Mathew jumped upon the body toppling forward into the dirt below, the helmet coming free without much effort as the mummified body laid there, hair still clinging to what remained of the skin atop the skull. Breathing heavily, Mathew turned away from the body, distracting himself as he looked over the helmet, covered in art of creatures he'd never seen before, he spotted a name in a language he didn't recognize.
Settling down into the seat, Mathew flipped the helmet around, staring into the x shaped glass. Running his hands over the smooth surface, he looked around the inside once more, the smell having dissipated with the lack of its source and fresh air, the boy turned, flicking a switch in his surveying, there was a solid click before the front closed in upon him, suddenly trapping him inside as the entire contraption began to roar to life.
"Hibernation mode deactivated, running scan... scan complete. Compatible life form found." A voice sounded, patchy and inhuman in speech, Matthrew suddenly pushed against the panels, pounding his fists as panic swelled within his throat, crying out as lights began to flicker. "What the hell is going on!?" Yelling out gave no response as humming and whirling sounds bombarded his ears, the humanoid shaking as its voice boomed inside. "Neural link required, Protocol 1 - Link with Pilot." It said, Mathew shoving the helmet over his head in a panicked frenzy as he gripped onto the sides of the chair. "What is it say? Wait-Gaaaah!"
A pained cry echoed from within the cockpit of the metal beast as green lights flashed before his vision, everything going white for a moment, then faded back to the dimly lit interior. The young boy gripping ahold of his covered head in pain, the sensation unexplainable, panting through raged breaths and teary eyes, lights shined brightly as the voice continued on.
"Link established, data not found, you are now the active pilot of RP-3900." The being stated, its name and words another pallet added to the tower of confusion spread through Mathew's mind. "Pilot?! What is happening-", He tried to voice before being cut off, yet, startled as the words morphed into something he could register. "Protocol 2 - Uphold the mission. Orders are to establish a link with a new pilot by Lt. Day King. Mission successful, Protocol 3, protect the pilot, determining high levels of stress from acting pilot, visual conformation required."
The front opened up as the humanoid started to shake violently. Taking this time as his chance to escape, Mathew jumped for it, hitting the ground hard, weakly scrambling to his feet, he looked up as the thing moved to its full height, moss and grass falling from its chassis. Frozen in a sudden fear the boy could do nothing but watch as in the morning sun shining off its frame, the 'eye' of the thing glowed blue and looking straight down upon him as he threw off the helmet to breath.
"Greetings Pilot. I am RP-3900, a Robin prime class titan, who might you be- oh lord you're a child." It said, the two staring at each other, unmoving, the sounds of the forest all that backdropped their first meeting, one that the young boy soon depart as he fell back, shock overcoming his senses as he landed with a thud, passing out in front of the metal titan before him, one that looked down, its optic flashing in a blink like motion. "Oh shit."