Marion and Robera grunted together the second they sat Kirex down on a round metal chair.
The chair glowed blue around the edge. It was placed on a low, disk platform with tubes and wires connected to the back of the arched headrest—where Kirex's head was killed to the side.
Marion breathe out and stepped down the platform.
Robera followed him soon after, watching the transparent cubicles lined on both sides of the walls.
The whole chamber was a long, narrow aisle with an open floor-lifter on the far end of the room. It elevated the roboxes to the four different sectional heights of the chamber which housed their share of metal chairs and cubicles that worked as a divider between each charging chair.
Those wired chairs worked automatically to recharge a robox as soon as they sat on them so Robera and Marion didn't have to do much other than placing Kirex on one of the first sections on the left.
"I think that's enough." Marion sighed.
Robera could only nod in response before starting to walk toward the glass door entrance.
"What are we going to do now?" Marion strode fast to catch up with her.
Robera's face grew somber as she remained silent.
Marion frowned and gently pressed his hand on her shoulder.
Robera froze for a second and gulped.
"The toughest job of the night."
And she walked out the door, leaving Marion's hand suspended in the air.
It took a moment to curl his thin fingers back before Marion sighed and followed Robera.
***
"Are you sure?" Marion asked, watching Robera with a worried frown as she rummage through a red crate full of uzis, shotguns, and glocks.
After a quick exploration of the ground floor, Marion and Robera found a rare, laminated map of the building in an abandoned store room. There, Robera found the weapon chamber located on the third floor and insisted on going there.
With the map being that old, Marion had his doubt whether they would really find a weapon room or a renovated kitchen for robox's food fetish. Apparently, these metal boxes couldn't eat but surely loved to keep some of the human aesthetics alive—such as storing fresh food items regularly—even if it was utterly useless for them.
However, Robera had thrown Marion a big glare and an even bigger smile when they found the ultimate heaven for all things firearms in that exact same spot.
Robera moved to another of the thousand crates and bucked her back and buried her elbow deep in the flaming waiting to happen.
Robera hummed and straighten her back only to hand him over a loaded machine gun.
Marion fiddled with it for a while with a frown.
"Why do we need this?"
"To kill." Robera grabbed her own pair from the pile and checked for the bullet holes.
It was fully loaded.
But what she didn't bother to take note of was Marion's deadpanned face.
"No. We're not."
"Why?" Robera drawled, brushing past Marion without a care.
Marion grabbed her arm, earning a quick snap of those slightly narrowed amber eyes.
"It's not safe."
"Nowhere is."
"You'll get hurt, Robera."
"I already am."
"I promised Kirex, damn it!"
Silence.
Marion's chest heaved as his breathing turned ragged. He looked away, closed his eyes, and dragged a shaky, deep breath before meeting Robera's stone-cold blue gaze.
"Please…" Marion pleaded with his heart and soul.
Robera's throat bobbed up and down. Her amber eyes turned glossy despite the dead look in those windows to her soul. She licked her chapped lips dry and sighed.
"I… I'm sorry, Marion."
And before he knew Robera snatched her hands away and rushed out of this cramped chamber.
Robera's name was frozen on the tip of Marion's tongue—ready to call and beg her not to throw herself in front of danger.
Not to die while he was still breathing the cursed air.
And so, Marion sprinted through the door, following Robera's flighty, purposeful footsteps toward the elevator.
***
When they walked out of the building for the second time in the night, the chase and carcass of metal had well and truly settled in the front yard.
The smell of smoke, burnt metal, laser, and destruction contaminated the already polluted air of the dying earth.
The flickering circuits occasionally sparked from the debris of broken metal as if to grab the on-lookers' attention and remind them of their proud self-sacrifice. The sacrifice they made to protect the princess and the king of this place.
Or was it knight?
Marion's lips twitched a little at the thought as he tossed a sparking arm away while moving forward.
Funny, just an hour ago these sparks were lighting up to hunt down the same princess and her knight. Life and its cruel jokes.
However, not all chaos had died down yet. The war seemed to be still raging on the outside of this yard.
Marion shared a glance with Robera the second their heard lasers and firearms shooting off in the distance and rushed there with their backs hunched and footsteps lights. They carefully stepped over the metal body parts to move as noiselessly as possible.
They moved toward the right side of the gate wall and edged closer to the entrance with their backs pressed against the concrete. Robera on the front with Marion trudging right behind her.
Just before they reached the opening, Marion moved over Robera and planted himself on the edge just before she could move to the entrance and risk exposure.
He ignored Robera's grumbled mutterings behind him and peeked out to see the flashing lights and raging war.
The loud booms and sickening crackles of machine guns and lasers were deafening from such a close range.
Robera hissed under her breath when a bullet flew closer to the entrance. However, Marion remained firm in his stance.
A slight frown marred his features. His lips remained pursed as he assessed the crowd for an opening.
No. Not an inch of space was spared as roboxes rose hell on earth.
Marion clenched his jaw and turned around to walk away.
"What happened? Where are you going?" Robera asked, wariness and apprehension wobbled her voice as she followed him with a frown.
"To take cover."
"What! Marion, you realize there's a huge fight going on out there. We have to find Trevor and stop him..."
Marion drowned out her hissed mutterings and looked around at the scattered debris.
Soon enough, his eyes caught something and he rushed toward it with flighty steps. He bent down and picked up the jagged metal chest piece of a robox.
It was lightweight, plus big and wide enough to cover both Marion and Robera if they could just keep their thin bodies behind it.
Perfect.
Marion hummed and turned around.
"Robera, look—damn, girl!"
Robera was already striding away with her gun raised high, not even bothering to cover her footsteps.
"Robera," Marion hissed, putting his gun under his armpit and running after her with his gritted teeth.
Soon enough, his long legs caught up to her petite ones and he grabbed her arm, yanking her back.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, huh?" Marion glared at her.
"Let me go." Robera clenched her jaw, twisting her elbow hard.
Marion cursed under her breath and moved toward the entrance with Robera in his right hand and the metal plate in his left.
He reached the edge and yanked her right behind him. The metal plate was already raised before them.
"Crouch," he spoke, peeking out to see the status of the war.
It was still raging as high as ever. However, the black roboxes of Kirex's group were gradually gaining over the dark gray roboxes of Trevor's team.
For every three gray roboxes going down, there was one black and the ratio was slowly increasing with more and more of Trevor's pets bursting into flames.
It seemed Kirex was going to win this battle. But to win the war Marion and Robera must face the big Trevor and soon.
"Marion." He flinched when Robera patted the back of his left knee.
He looked down to see his grip already loosened on Robera's arm. In fact, Robera was already crouching down on the ground and looked up at him with a frown.
This girl was strange. Stubbornly defiant one second and understandably compliant in the next.
Marion shook his head to focus on the current task.
"Right." He cleared his throat and pulled out the gun from under his arm before lowering the metal plate upright before them.
He found a loop inside the complex design of the plate to latch his fingers into it. He crouched down behind the plate and motioned Robera to do the same.
When Robera shuffled to move beside him, only then Marion dared to crawl out the gate with the big plate shielding them.
If it seemed hot chaos from the safety of the yard inside the entrance, right now, it was no less than boiling hell.
Roboxes rushed left and right, screaming with their lasers and bullets as though making up for not being able to lash out with their voices.
Some of those lash outs came to bite Marion and Robera as well when stray bullets shook their plate occasionally as they moved.
Marion kept his pace cautious yet steady as he remained close to the gate walls. His eyes assessed the crowd in hope of getting a glimpse of Trevor's bald human skin in the sea of shiny metals.
Robera kept her head down while moving. But her fingers clenched the gun pointed to the side of the raging war on their left, in case their cover was shattered and she had to take matters into her hands.
"Where do you think he's gone?" Marion asked in a faint whisper, taking advantage of a close-range shot somewhere around them.
Robera didn't hear him at first, flinching at a particularly loud burst of metal behind them.
"Robera?" Marion hissed low.
"Huh?" Robera raised her head, finally being able to hear him.
"Trevor. Where could he be hiding?"
Robera opened her mouth to respond and yelped when their plate rattled with a shot close to her ears.
Marion took the barrel of his gun between his teeth and tugged Robera closer behind him, keeping his free arm wrapped around her wrist as they crawled forward.
Robera tried to shake him off but Marion didn't budge.
"You are too strong for such a scrawny lad," Robera grumbled under her breath with a frown.
"Thanks. Now, about your uncle..."
"He's not my uncle!" Robera snapped, wincing at how loud that came out.
Marion huffed, straightening the plate which leaned inward a little while they talked.
"He's my nothing," Robera whispered, glaring at the dusty ground, "Just someone who wants to use me for his selfish gain. I think he was taking me to some helicopter or something. I didn't get a good look at it, though. It was too far away and foggy and I was busy trying to get away."
Helicopter, huh? He must have gotten here in that old machine.
Marion hummed. "So, where's that helicopter, again?"
Robera shrugged. "Somewhere to the left."
Marion frowned. "You mean we gotta take a stroll straight through the war, huh?"
Robera clicked her tongue. "We can take a long route."
"Which is?" Marion couldn't help but look at the girl behind him with raised brows.
Robera opened her mouth to speak but promptly clamp it shut when nothing but air came out of her throat.
Marion's lips twitched into a mirthless smirk.
"Thought so."