"Help us!" Solo cried into the dimly lit town, Octave dragging limply behind him, arm still rested on his shoulder.
The sound of a hand cannon charging stopped Solo dead in his tracks. The worst ran through the possibilities of what could happen. That could be a robot master, and Octave is about to lock down. A fight now would mean the death of them both.
"We don't help no robots around here." A man stepped into the light from the fire in the center of town. It was dark, his face was darkened by shadow, but he was human.
"Listen, I'm a New Harmony Robot Master here to see if you would liked to be escorted to the city. And all that can be handled later, my partner is hurt and he needs shelter to repair." Solo said desperately.
The man lowered his gun slowly before speaking.
"I'm sorry robot. No robots here." The man, most likely older by the sound of his voice and the hunch in his back had plenty of reasons to distrust robots. Malevolent ravage the Wastes with no rhyme or reason for hundreds of years already before this man was born. Well before Solo was extracted from Domain as well.
"It's fine, Seymour." A woman came from behind and place a soft hand on the older man's shoulder before taking the gun away. She placed her hand on the man's back as he walked back towards town. As she walked away, she waved for Solo to follow her.
They entered a small, cluttered, dirt-floored house. This was one of the nice ones in the Wastes. Solo went to place Octave on the floor when the woman motioned for the bed.
"Thank you. Thank you so much." Solo extended his hand to shake the woman's. She folder her arms and shifted her weight, tilting her head in the same direction.
"Listen here, I'm Ex-New Harmony military and I need your help. How long until your friend self repairs?" She asked sternly, startling Solo a bit.
"If his body doesn't lock down..... Two days." Solo calculated using his visor as he looked at Octave.
"Will he be combat ready?"
"I don't know, I'm just a soldier, ma'am. When he is awake, he will fight. Why?" Solo answered plainly.
"We've got a problem."
"FUUUUUUUUUUuuu.... Hey there..." Octave's word choice had been deemed socially unacceptable to say around children, so once he jumped upright and saw the three kids, he shifted his words.
The child closest to him poked Octave's side until he got annoyed and swatted the hand away lightly.
"Why are you in here?" The child said, unphased by the rejection of contact by the machine.
"What do you mean?"
"Our moms told us to stay in here and keep really quiet and hide. Are you hiding too?" Another child said with a lisp and a light voice.
Octave did not answer the child's question, because the sounds of buster shots and dying humans caught Octave's attention. He ran out the door, looking into the center of this shambled, round-about town, a large bonfire in the middle still smoldering. Suddenly, there was an explosion, a low class Malevolent flying through the building, no head on it's shoulders.
While not as fast as he was, not fast as he will become, Octave was fast enough to get to the scene of a gruesome battle between Malevolent and humans. A fairly small group of Malevolent, maybe fifteen members were fighting less than ten humans just outside of town. Solo was in the front-lines, ducking and weaving behind rocks and firing his AssaultBuster rapidly and wildly.
"Solo!" Octave said just before he began to sprint to his brother in arms. As he did, when Solo turned to see who said his name, the red robot was body-checked by a larger Malevolent, drills on it's head and ends of arms.
When Octave reached his stopping point, the Malevolent was attacking, holding a drill out for Octave to run into. Luckily, he managed to dodge it, slamming into a rock.
"Octave! There's a class 9! We need help! My comms are dead!" Solo shouted, uninjured but worried about this battle.
A class 9 Robot Master is a rare and powerful fighter, and it's even rarer for a Malevolent to be anything higher than a 6. As a Class 3 Robot Master, Solo a Class 4, they weren't going to be able to beat this one without the aid of General, the only currently know Class 10 Robot Master.
But Octave was still in harms way. The Drill was rounding for another attack. It was a few feet taller than Octave, slow too. This is exactly the kind of situation General had trained Octave for.
In a gray blur, the underdog Robot Master leaped onto the shoulder of Drill, dodging its attack as he did so. Before the slower Master could reach behind it and grab him, Octave jammed his saber at the base of the head and swung up, blowing the head to pieces. The Soul rattled, whispering almost as it returned to the waves.
"You show great promise, boy." A calm, suave, unfamiliar voice said from behind Octave.
"Who the hell are you?" Octave asked, saber still out as he turned around.
It was obviously a Robot Master, a shinier plate than the regular Malevolent. His New Harmony seal was torn off and his coat of blue paint reflected onto Octave's gray body, making it appear blue for a moment.
"You may call me by no name at all, or Grandmaster if you must." His tone was upright, running a parallel feeling with the tilt of his head. He was not much taller than Octave, but his stature made it seem as though he was feet taller. He had two holstered Jian blades and probably had one or two busters slotted away.
"I hate calling my actual teacher General, so how about I just call you-" Octave was stopped dead cold by the slight metal clank, and just before his eyes, Grandmaster had shot himself from more than three yards away to having two Jian blades at Octave's neck too fast for Octave to register.
"... Bitch?" Octave finished.
"Your body holds all sorts of wonders once you realize what you can do fully. You are not a Class 3 Soul, Octave. General sees this, keeps you under his wing to prevent you from flying high..." Grandmaster stepped back slowly, Octave almost falling backwards as he did.
"What are you even-" Octave was, once again, interrupted by a fired shot aimed at Grandmaster, who didn't move, he simply stood there and looked at Octave.
Everything stopped for a second. Octave looked around him, his body moving in real time while Solo, who was jumping while he shot, flew slowly in the air. He rounds was leaving his buster at an extremely slow speed as well.
"Time is such a trivial, human thing. They do not understand how, but certain Souls given certain bodies can access special things. You and I have an unwritten code in us, Octave. Ignoring time. Some can feel things machines should not feel, like love. Others can even move between bodies at will, taking over if necessary. We are born of the domain, a big mess of data that collects into groups, making an entity. A radio wave that can be collected to make a "Artificial Intelligence". We are born in a mass and die in the air, alone. The one I look for, the one who's voice is one with all our minds, he can ignore this all. His soul ignores limits. He holds the power to break from any bond that holds him. He is a legend. You know of who I speak, whispers among your ranks creating his story in fable. Once you understand the entirety of you worth, yet worthlessness. Your place in a world full. Once you can master your mind, Octave, you can master any skill set possible. Your gift is your speed, it is more powerful than mine. This battle is lost to you, I have beaten you this time by moving and speaking. You see that plateau there? Off to the west? Meet me there, tomorrow at any point in the day you are ready. Face me, and the outcome of the fight will decide the fate of this town. Goodbye, Octave."
And he was gone, just as if he was never there at all. The buster shot hit the floor, Solo landed, and Octave was powered down, his energy levels drained by an unknown output.