Haywire Ranger

Chapter 5: Haywire

"Hello?" Sky's voice echoed alone in the clearing the next morning. "I'm back like I promised. Are you there?"

His words met the stillness in the air as he stood on the shore by the lake, staring all around him, hoping to spot the Sonic Echo Ranger.

I'm an idiot. He chuckled and bit his lower lip. It's not here. Why would it stay anyway? It's probably flown away. It's free from its master. When I hit it with my sonic gun and destroyed its behaviour-monitoring component, I set it free, but it doesn't owe me anything. Not sure I could make it pay me back anyway. It's a beast, not a rational being, although it seemed willing to trust me enough to stay near it and touch it.

The early morning mist was slowly dissipating when the first rays of the sun hit the treetops, leaving only some stranded drops of fresh water on the leaves.

Sky kicked a black pebble. It reached the water and sank while he stared at it.

I was hoping to see it again. He sighed with a bittersweet kind of anger. That was why I rushed back home to get my toolkit and a first aid kit. But it didn't wait for me to come back.

Then, he heard a swooshing sound cutting the air high above his head. He raised his gaze and saw how, out of the blue, the Sonic Echo Ranger swooped down on him, reaping a sharp intake of air from him in surprise.

The majestic beast could not fly in a straight line, but it could still fly at least. Its chaotic moves made flying dangerous.

Damn, he needs a good fix. As I imagined, it had some time to recover during the night, but it's not in pristine condition. It needs help. The messy state of the chips near its right ear, where the balancing chip is, is to blame—I'm to blame for that.

The Sonic Echo Ranger landed awkwardly in front of him. Its talons hit the pebbled ground with a loud clatter and stumbled. When it stopped in front of Sky, it whined and balanced its head from left to right as if something bothered him in its head but couldn't do anything to shake it off.

"Don't worry, big fella," Sky told it with a smile. "This is my job. Brought some tools from home to fix you," he added as he took some needle-nosed pliers and forceps from his backpack. Then, he let his open backpack fall on the ground beside him.

The Sonic Echo Ranger lay down and let Sky approach it with his tools. He knelt by its side.

I'll handle the robotic parts first, just to make sure he's stable and remains friendly. I hope its 'owner', whoever they are, can't claim it back remotely. If it becomes its old self, I'm totally screwed.

"Let's examine your head." He narrowed his eyes on the phoenix's open wound and put his hands on its neck and beak. His long fringe got in the way of his eyes, but it didn't bother him.

After diving into work on the exposed motherboard and a long sigh, he whispered, "I was hoping to see you here, big fella. Am I just lucky that you haven't flown away, or were you keen to see me again too?"

It made a joyful, high-pitched, long piping sound.

"I'll take that as a yes." He smiled.

He then grabbed his tweezers from his backpack and focused on the motherboard and the charred chips again.

His hearing isn't impaired. Those circuits look in pristine condition. I'll fix its navigation and balance components and disable the behaviour monitoring chip for good.

A good ten minutes later, Sky was done fixing the robotic part of the cybernetic eagle's brain.

Let me check my smartphone. The Bluetooth signal should be strong and request no more fixing or attempting any communications with whoever controlled it. He squatted down and rummaged in his backpack for his phone.