Project: MI
Chapter 14

Teruo pulled himself out from underneath the dumpster and took a look around.

It’s been about an hour since I tried to bust a hole through their defenses, he thought, placing one hand on the brick wall beside him. Maybe I can… Aaah!!!

Biting down to keep from crying out from his attempt to stand, he lowered himself carefully back down to the ground. Changing his position so that his back was supported by the wall, he cautiously pulled up his now-grimy pant leg to inspect the damage from his fall. He winced upon spying an expanse dark red and blue bruises rising along his ankle.

That’s…not a good sign. I must have really messed up my leg worse than I thought. My heroi metabolism hasn’t fixed it yet.

He wondered what was wrong. Fracture? Completely broken? He resisted the urge to test the bones to see if he could feel anything grinding against each other. Regardless, either type of injury would greatly extend the time required for the healing process.

At least nothing’s poking out of the skin, he thought, grimacing. At least there’s a silver lining I can live with. I don’t have to deal with any blood.

“Okay,” he breathed. “Let’s…try this again.”

This time, using his good leg, he pushed himself up from off the ground. Using the wall to brace himself, he hobbled along toward the edge of the alley. It was darker out now. Much darker. This suited him just find, though he was certain that the CHC was ready for the loss of visibility. Unfortunately for him…

I can’t track their movements now. I’ve got to admit, as far as plans go, blowing up a transformer was not my best move. I’m crippled and I can’t see anything worth a damn. Finding the entrance to the junkyard is going to be even harder since it’s probably moved… Crud.

Breathing heavily, he dropped back a bit. Blood was pounding through his body at a rapid pace as it worked to fix itself. It made it rather difficult for him to concentrate and figure out a way around his current predicament.

I wonder if my spider-bot survived. It should have…shouldn’t it? No… The range from the blast was pretty large and disabled a ton of Guardian Spheres. There’s no way it could have…

Adjusting himself to keep from falling, he kicked at a small, spherical device with a dead electric eye in its center. Turning toward it, a thought came to mind and a small smile began to draw across his face.

Looks like the CHC missed one when they made their initial sweep over the area. Teruo tsked and picked up the sphere. Very careless you guys… Very, very careless…

Daria Foster looked at the photograph of the ruined hammer transmitted to her by ground agents from the scene.

“Sweeps have still turned up nothing?” she asked a tall agent wearing sunglasses on her computer screen.

“So far,” the agent replied. “We’re expanding the search perimeter, but it’s possible that the spatial warp from the junkyard is interfering with sensors.”

Daria nodded. That was always a possibility. It gets bigger every year too, she mused. “All right,” she replied. “I’ll have Mallory adjust the long range equipment. Continue the search and report back if anything turns up.”

“Yes Director.”

With that, Daria turned off her computer screen and looked up at Kelly, who stood across from her, data pad in hand.

“If a kid got into the junkyard during that brief moment, heaven help them,” Kelly said. “There’s no way that we can expect to go in there right now.”

Daria nodded. The spatial warp was known for random bouts of oscillation. While not necessarily harmful, there were moments where the junkyard would…rearrange itself. A person could end up in an entirely different and farther off area from where they started just by turning a corner. She sighed and massaged her temples.

“I’ve been telling the higher ups that we need to increase patrol duties around that area and have more staff to monitor the distortion,” Daria said, her tone tired.

“We’ve got it better than other places,” Kelly replied, trying to be helpful. Daria gave her a deadpan expression. She couldn’t fault Kelly for her comment, but the knowledge that children often attempted to enter the junkyard did not sit well with her.

I guess I should be grateful that I wasn’t in charge when that one girl was nearly killed in the place last year, she mused. I just hope that this isn’t related to the heroi that broke out of there. Which reminds me…

“Is there anything new to report on the main investigation?”

“Image searches give us a ‘best guess’ on the brand of shoes as belonging to either Zeus or Pro-Athlete. There’s a strong indication that they’re female as well.” Kelly bit on her tongue, not saying what they both were already thinking. “If this is the case,” she continued,” this puts the individual in the upper bracket of economics. It’s not absolutely certain, but it is the most likely.”

Daria turned around in her chair so that she was looking out the window. Her brow furrowed, not liking this development.

Damn it Amanda, she thought bitterly. Why are you doing this?

“Very well,” she said after a moment. “Begin sifting through camera footage from all schools in the area and begin identifying any students that fit the description. Have their records ready for me by tomorrow.”

“Yes Director,” Kelly replied, tapping on her data pad.”

If there was ever a moment that Teruo was glad that he took extra effort to make his Doctor device extra durable, this was one of them. His computer pad was fried…at least until he could work on it with more equipment than he had available, but the rod that served as his primary general-purpose tool would more than suffice for futzing around with a Guardian ball.

It helps that they tend to be pretty durable themselves, he thought, wires hissing as he probed the presently open orb. Kind of surprised that so many of them got killed like this though. These things are normally pretty robust…way more than this. I mean, they have to fight heroi after all…

Gears in his mind turned. Was there something to that thought?

Maybe the manufacturers are just trying to save money somewhere. I mean, it’s not like everyone expects to have these things hit by an EMP. I’ll have to ask Kitsune when I get home. He might know something.

Another spark and the orb began to vibrate to life.

“Okay,” he breathed, licking his lips. Turning the Guardian around, he saw that the blue light was restored to its eye. “Guardian. Identify.”

“Guardian Model CM1440M001. Registration…”

“Enough of that,” Teruo interrupted. “Do you recognize me?”

“You are…” The Guardian buzzed, searching through its memory. “Teruo Kato, a heroi.”

“All right. Nice to know that you weren’t seriously damaged from earlier. What’s the deal with the junkyard?”

“A heroi was spotted leaving the vicinity. The CHC is investigating the grounds.”

“Is that all?”

The Sphere’s eye dimmed slightly and it stuttered a little.

“F-File corruption. Un-Un-Unable to…”

“Got it. You are under my command now, understood?”

“Yes.”

“You are capable of flight as well, correct?”

In answer, the Guardian Sphere trembled and then rose into the air. Teruo nodded in appreciation.

“All right. Here’s what I need you to do. I need you to fly at an altitude of…” he thought for a second. “…thirty meters and seven blocks north of here. Once you get to that distance, begin broadcasting an emergency signal—Gamma status—and erase all memory logs. Then begin a circuitous movement down seven blocks and repeat while alternating directions at each circuit’s completion, continuing to broadcast that signal. Got it?”

“Understood.”

With that, the Guardian flew off at a rapid speed. Leaning back, Teruo flipped his Doctor device in his hand and caught it, smirking as he began calculating how long it would take for the orb to reach its destination.

This might turn out well after all. Hope they enjoy their little merry-go-round.

It didn’t take long for the ruckus to start. Just as he predicted, the alert of the orb’s Gamma status signal caused a flurry of activity as troops and vehicles began to storm toward the signal’s location. He didn’t have to see them; the shouting and sounds of movement were all that he needed to know. Counting to thirty, he staggered to his feet and began to limp toward the junkyard. It felt as though an eternity passed while he hobbled along, and every time he heard warbling sounds he became deathly afraid that the CHC saw through his trick too soon. In spite of his fears, he arrived at his destination, and now stood outside the gate.

“Made it,” he breathed, resisting the urge to lean on the fence to catch his breath. His leg throbbed painfully, but the shock he’d get would be far worse than that. Directional fifteen thousand volt fence with variable amp control to counter almost any heroi that might try to get over. All controlled by an AI via through either Guardian Spheres or Bob the bot…

He grinned. ‘Almost’ being the key word here. Too bad Bob doesn’t know I’m coming…

“Okay…let’s see…where…we can get in.”

This was the hard part. He calculated that the entrance point had been right here before he left the house, but it tended to wander once given enough time. Hours had passed since then.

“Ugh…” Picking up a loose piece of gravel he tossed it at the fence. Sure enough, a blast of electricity fried it, sending it smoking back down to the ground.

Well… There goes that hope. Without my computer I can’t properly calculate where the opening went. All that’s left is…process of elimination?

Teruo’s face paled at the thought. The fence surrounding the junkyard was too long for him to try. He’d only be caught later rather than sooner since the Guardian Orb he sent out could only distract the CHC for so long.

“Okay…” he whispered. “Think. There’s got to be a better way in. Something… Something… I can’t do the math fast enough without my pad so that leaves me with…”

A light turned on in his head and he snapped his fingers in realization.

That’s it!

Picking up the smoking gravel again, he got as close as he could to the fence and closed his eyes. Tossing it forward, he felt heat wash across his body and light played against the backs of his eyelids. Quickly opening them, he whipped his head from one side to the other.

At certain angles, the energy discharge would reveal the distortion for a fraction of a second. That’s kind of how it was discovered in the first place. Of course, the ambient temperature is a lot cooler, so… There!

Resisting the urge to whoop with delight, Teruo began to limp toward the corner of the fence where he had seen a ripple manifest, picking up the piece of gravel as he did so. Upon reaching the corner, he tossed it in, and the gravel passed through unharmed, sending waves across the fence.

“Thank gods,” he whispered, saluting the gravel before passing through after it.

Ow…

Teruo limped through the junkyard, now safely on the other side of the fence. One hand was grasping his leg, trying to soothe it while simultaneously attempting to keep it from collapsing on him.

I’ve got to do something about this leg. It’s going to be nothing but a problem for me here and I can’t have anything slowing me down. Taking a look around, he continued onward. Too bad I’m not anywhere in the same league as that Tempest chick from the end of Bronze. I could really use some invulnerability right about now…

He winced as pain lanced up his leg. Rounding a corner he brought himself to rest against an old refrigerator and leaned his head against it, gasping heavily. Not wanting to waste too much time, he shouldered off his bag and withdrew a notebook from it, flipping it open and going to the latest entry regarding a materials list. There was a lot to go through and he had lost a lot of time now.

I’ll probably be only able to get less than a third of what’s on here. Well, if this is the best I can manage, I’ll run with it.

Behind him, he heard the sound of metal clacking. Pin wheeling on his good leg, he found himself falling onto his rear, half expecting a massive war bot to crash through the pile of junk behind him. Instead, he found…nothing. But the sound persisted. Frowning, he crawled back to his feet.

“Um…hello?” he began cautiously. The clicking increased in speed, and within short order a small, familiar, spidery-legged machination, barely larger than a coin, hopped off from the refrigerator that had been Teruo’s resting place. The boy’s mouth split into a wide smile at the sight, and he held out one hand for the machine to hop down to.

“Hey!” he exclaimed happily, as the machine nestled itself in his palms. “I thought… Oh, who cares what I thought? You’re okay! You are okay, right?”

The machine beeped at him and bobbed its small antennae up and down in affirmation. Teruo laughed lightly.

“Great to hear. Now, while I hate to cut this reunion short, I’ve got a new job for you. I need you to go through the junkyard and start cataloguing materials. Surface stuff for now.” He raised his notebook and the robot shifted its electric eye to it. “Memorize this and report back to me in this spot in an hour. Oh, and find Bob while you’re at it. He’ll be glad to help out.”

The tiny robotic device clicked and hopped off its creator’s hand, quickly scurrying away. Teruo watched it go for a moment before dropping his head back on the refrigerator with a hollow bang, breathing a little heavily as pain flared in his leg.

I’ve still got to deal with this problem…

Spying a thin metal tube—a piece of emt, he believed—he crawled over to it, favoring his injured leg and roughly pulled it out. It was a good length of four feet; plenty tall enough for his purposes. Standing it up, he hoisted himself back to his feet, taking the weight off his injured leg and putting it on his makeshift crutch.

“All right,” he breathed. “Let’s do this.”

It didn’t take long for the disk robot to locate Bob, though whether it was due to fortune or the properties of the junkyard was anyone’s guess. Ultimately, Bob was found face down on the ground, unmoving. Teruo’s robot quickly brought him to the sight, causing him to hitch a sigh.

“Must have been the EMP,” he lamented, crouching down next to Bob. Pulling out a screwdriver, he poked Bob’s cranium and flipped open a small hatch. “He’s a little bit more sensitive to this sort of thing.” He scowled at himself as he removed his Doctor device and poked it into the hatch. “I should have been more careful. If I killed Bob because of this…”

No. He couldn’t think like that. He was an expert…a genius when it came to machines. There wasn’t a piece of equipment he couldn’t salvage with the right tools, and here in the junkyard he had all the tools he would need to get Bob back on his feet.

Wonder if I can find a welding torch, he thought sarcastically, withdrawing the device and pulling out his Avalon Army Knife from his backpack.

Teruo poked the screwdriver tool of his Avalon Army Knife into a mess of wires inside an open cranium belonging to a robot wearing a pair of overalls lying on the ground.

“Okay…” Setting his knife aside and closing up the robot’s cranium. “All set. Now let’s turn you back…on.”

Flicking a switch at the base of the robot’s skull, the machine twitched and sat up.

“Hello,” the robot said, seeing Teruo.

“Hello yourself,” Teruo replied with a nod. “Are you okay?”

“I was hit by an Electromagnetic Pulse, but…” Bob sat up and placed a hand on his forehead. “I seem to be operating within normal parameters now.”

“Yeah… You might want to get yourself checked out by the custodian just in case. I think the spatial warp shielded you from the worst of the effects, but you never know.”

“Indeed,” Bob replied. “How may I assist you, Teruo? I assume you’re here for more equipment?”

“Yeah,” Teruo nodded again. “Hope you don’t mind that this isn’t a social visit.”

“You admire technology, so I would call it a social visit by default.” Bob then made a wherping sound that Teruo had long since come to interpret as laughter.

“Sorry. Um… Okay. To start with, I need a focusing lens. Diamond. And…” He hesitated. “…are there any remaining transmat platforms in the area?”

“I believe there’s one on the northern end of the junkyard. However, if memory serves, it has a crack on its surface. If you plan to teleport anyone, there is a high degree of likelihood that they will die or be assembled deformed.”

“I can deal with that when the time comes. I’m also going to need a lot of copper wire and emt piping. I’d rather have something else, but that’s just about the only thing that I imagine will be reliable.”

“Electrical equipment is in the highest concentration in the East section, sector seven.” Bob pointed in the direction and Teruo smiled and used his pipe to help himself stand up, grimacing as he favored his injured leg. “However, I cannot vouch for the condition of any of the material as the spatial warp is less there than in most areas, leaving it exposed to more regular weathering effects.”

“That’s fine by me,” Teruo shrugged. “I’ll live with it, I guess. All right. Well, if you can, when you find anything let me know and I’ll…hobble my way over there.”

“As you request,” Bob replied. Returning the nod, Teruo began to limp off in the direction Bob had pointed out to him. He already had a rough idea of where to go. Climbing a mountain of trash, he found himself envisioning that he was some kind of grand adventurer, exploring the great unknown, never knowing what was over the next horizon.

How appropriate, he thought, grinning. Here I am, in a sea of treasure from all across the ages, Bronze to Gold. I could probably conquer the world with all of this at my fingertips.

He passed by a giant robot with a hole in its chest. Well, except for that. I’m pretty sure I can’t get that working again.

Ascending to the top of the trash heap he wiped his brow and surveyed his surroundings. It was hard to believe that there could be so much broken and discarded rubbish in one area. He remembered the junkyards of other cities, but not a single one of them compared to this place. Here, it just seemed to go on for miles and miles.

He was always struck by the beauty of the dump’s sheer size, and the vast amount of history that lay buried within.

So much that they had to make a singularity just to fit it all in. Imagine that… This place could fit entire countries. He shifted in his position, contemplating that thought for a moment. Huh. It’s a good thing that the EMP didn’t take out the singularity machines. Otherwise, all this…would have caused some pretty serious problems for the city. I wonder where they’re getting the power for it.

He paused on that line of thought for a moment longer before shaking his head. He couldn’t afford to waste time thinking about it. He had a job to do.

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