Human After All (II)

Beau tightened his hold on Joshua's arm after he realized that they were walking through a heavy crowd of people. Machinatio was packed with people, so many people Joshua had never seen before. Few of them seemed decent. Most were either drunk, or so out of the loop that they didn't know what direction was up, and what direction was down. Joshua did his best to avoid anybody who seemed too strange.

Through drunken laughs, and a few gropes from strangers, Beau pushed his way to the front desk of Automate. The girl at the front desk had her legs crossed, tight black fishnets wrapped around her legs. Through the fishnets, Beau could see tattoos running along her calf, and a few trailing up her thigh. Tattoos were views as a luxury, so she must have been a runaway. Only people truly capable to go through the pain of getting a tattoo could have one. Beau almost missed his chance to get his tattoos. His were the most painful of all.

“Hey.” Beau shoved her boots off of the desk when she didn't respond to Beau's loud coughs. The girl looked past the worn book in her hands long enough to pop a piece of bubble gum. She sat up, staring at Beau with annoyed eyes.

“What do you need, outsider?” She popped the gum again, releasing the fresh smell of cherry. The tart scent tickled at Beau's senses. Joshua held onto his master's arm ever-so tightly to make sure he wouldn't be taken suddenly by one of the rough and strange looking people around him.

“How do you know I'm an outsider?” Beau hissed. “Am I too nice to be one of the assholes in this town?”

The girl stood up, slamming her open palms against the desk before her.

“You smell like one.” She hissed. For a few minutes, they both stared challengingly at each other before Beau pulled the collar of his shirt away from his throat to reveal a tattoo he had gotten around 15 years of age. The markings her were of near royalty. “O-oh.” She said at the sudden sight of it, pulling herself away. “I'm sorry, I didn't—“

“I need to see August.” Beau snapped. The girl's eyes widened. She lowered her voice, and glanced around the room.

“You know he is here? How? Are you with the empyreals?” She said under a very hushed breath. Beau shook his head quickly, almost showing a sudden disgust at the sound of the empyreals.

“Not even close.”

The girl fixed her red skirt, and then her shirt. She cleared her throat, reaching a hand out to Beau.

“Rue Groff.” She said. “Sorry for being such a bitch. I'm naturally like that.”

“Don't say that word.” Beau murmured to Joshua, who nodded in reply. “Beau Homem.” He said without adding his other last name. As much as this girl seemed to suddenly trust him, she didn't absolutely have to know his name. He had just met her, and it was probably in everyone's best interest if she didn't know his name anyways. She would be in enough trouble for harboring a fugitive.

“Follow me.” Rue nodded towards a staircase, but when they got to it, she reached for a handle on the ground instead. Snapping it open, there appeared to be another staircase that led underground. Beau hopped down with Joshua soon following. Beau had to snake his arm around Joshua's waist just to keep him from falling flat on his face on the unfamiliar (and fairly creaky) floorboard. Rue was right behind them, puzzling because she had told them to follow her first.

Beau turned a corner where he found himself staring at a young blonde man staring down at two cards in front of him. There was a group of others around him, all a bit rougher than the next. A long cigarette hung out of the corner of the blonde's mouth, the ashes falling off the edge of it and onto his arm. His eyes were intense, as he looked down at the cards. He peeked up at Rue who swallowed hard, almost letting out a squeak of fear when he reached for his cigarette.

“So, you're Beau?” The young man said, taking a long drag from the cigarette in between his supple lips. Rue ran away as soon as he spoke, as though she was afraid he would punish her. Joshua looked around the room cautiously. He looked like a cat on edge. There was somebody else in the room, somebody threatening. He could feel the intimidation from their eyes.

“And you're Ethylon.”

“Master!” Joshua said almost simultaneously as a firm arm wrapped around his shoulders, and another held a jagged knife at his throat. He squeaked, trying his hardest to pull the arm away from his throat, but no matter how meaningful his efforts were, he simply couldn't pull the arms away. Beau turned back to Ethylon.

“What the hell?” Beau nearly shouted. Ethylon shooed away his goons before he threw his cards down, taking a step towards Beau. A laugh slipped past his lips.

“We're all friends here.” He said to Beau. “I would never hurt your bot. Lejend, release him.” He turned to the shadows behind Joshua.

The arm reluctantly pulled away from Joshua's throat, and then he was shoved in Beau's direction. A girl emerged, she was almost shorter than Joshua, but her face showed no emotion. Her hair fell past her shoulders, but her clothes were torn almost to shreds. She wore only a black skirt, some white socks that were black with soot, and a gray shirt that looked two sizes too big.

Ethylon laughed, calling Lejend over to his side. Beau's arms were around Joshua protectively as the girl slid the jagged knife into a loop on her belt. She stared at Joshua with cautious eyes.

“This is Lejend.” Ethylon's arm wrapped around her shoulder, almost like a brother's gesture, and then he brought his free hand up to his chest. Beau marveled at how built Ethylon really was; he expected him to be a bit scrawny, being on the run and all. “You already know me.” He reached a rough hand out to Beau, who took it in his own. It was like culture shock, Beau thought. Ethylon came from a rough environment, and then went to bion for years. He was considered to be completely lethal. He could probably snap Beau's neck at any given moment. Yet he was nice as can be.

But Ethylon didn't make a move. He simply gave a grin that beau thought he would never see a criminal have before. The girl at Ethylon's side, however, as grim. Her eyes looked blank, and along with her clothes and dark hair, her eyes had black circles underneath them. Her skin was a light shade of peach, and her taut lips seemed to be constantly pursed. If Beau didn't know better, he would say she was extremely tired.

Beau's arm tightened around Joshua's waist as a sign that he wasn't going to let him go the entire time they were there. While Ethylon seemed trustworthy (as strange as it seemed), Lejend did not. She looked on edge every time Beau looked at her.

“This is Joshua.” Beau said, nodding in Joshua's direction.

“Ah yes, one of those new bots?” Ethylon asked, leaving forward and slightly crouching down (after all, he was taller than Beau). He tilted his head to the right, studying Joshua's face. His eyes didn't stay on one part for more than a few seconds, perhaps less before he stood straight up again. “He looks so real.” His voice almost sounded suspicious. “I know this sounds ridiculous, but I feel like I've seen him before.”

“Joshua?” Beau said, clarifying what he had just heard. “No way. I've only known him for a little while myself.”

“Yeah.” Ethylon nodded. “I'm sure I would recognize a face like that.”

“What's what supposed to mean?” Joshua swallowed hard while Lejend's eyes did not leave his.

“All freckle-like. No offense to your bot or anything. You just don't see many robots, or people for that matter, with freckles anymore.” Ethylon pointed out. “He's cute though.”

Beau's arm instinctively tightened around Joshua's waist.

“Don't worry, man.” Ethylon noticed the gesture. “I'm not out to get your bot or anything. I don't bat for the same team. Besides, I got a girl of my own.” Ethylon dropped his “prim and proper” boy vocabulary for something more entertaining; slang. He learned a lot of it while in bion, and it was so amusing! Beau used some of it, but he wasn't raised that way.

“Yeah?” Beau asked, loosening up on Joshua, although Joshua squeaked and buried his face in Beau's side. “Where is she?”

Ethylon pulled out a rough looking wallet, handing it to Beau. “Her name is August.” He said. The girl looked no older than 14 or 15, although the photo itself was very old and seemed as though somebody had unfolded and refolded it many times. Her brown hair was ridiculously long, past her fingertips even. She had a small beauty mark above her lip and just on her cheek, and her smile seemed impenetrable, even though Beau was just looking at a photo. Her eyes were shut since she was grinning so happily, and she waved at the camera.

“What happened?” Beau asked. Ethylon didn't say anything, but gave a small shrug.

“Let's not harbor on small things like that.” He nearly shouted. “We oughta get talking. I bet you have a lot to ask.” Ethylon said. Beau had nearly forgotten the entire reason they were there.. Amidst the threats to his bot, and the hints of August, he hadn't really kept the idea of Troia in mind.

“Yeah, actually I do.” Beau said. Joshua walked alongside him as they started down a rather dusty hall before they came to a room with all kinds of tools and microchips, things like that. Ethylon walked inside, urging Joshua and Beau to follow. Beau walked in, Joshua soon following. Ethylon turned to Beau, a curious look in his eye. For a criminal, Beau though, he sure was cheerful.

“You mind if I take a look inside your bot?”

***

Beau never liked fiddling around inside of Joshua. It just seemed so... how could he explain it? It seemed like such a violation of privacy, but maybe that was in his own mind. Perhaps he was the only one who saw Joshua as an equal.

But Beau allowed Ethylon to take an inside look at Joshua. After taking a quick look, he connected Joshua to his own computer screen. A tool bar on the side popped up with numbers filling the blank space.

“You're on six different servers.” Beau stepped closer to the screen, chewing on his fingernails vigorously. “How are you doing that?”

“Government is constantly tracking me.” Ethylon said in between loud clacks of his keyboard. “Gotta keep 'em off of my tail. When I have six different servers open, it sends a signal to six different towers, which is turn, send to more towers until I am basically anywhere and everywhere at the same time.”

“You're amazing.” Beau said. “No wonder you were right on my tail on my own server.”

“Oh, you're such a charmer, Beau. But your robot's firewall was really hard to get through. When I breached it, it freaked the fuck out.” Ethylon cursed loudly. Beau didn't worry about Joshua though, he couldn't hear them while he was connected. “I'm pretty sure it messed with Lejend's defenses a little bit.”

Beau took a glance at the girl sitting in front of Joshua. She leaned closer, studying Joshua's face with careful eyes.

“Does she....” Beau started off awkwardly. Already, Ethylon knew what he was going to ask.

“She doesn't feel.” Ethylon said. “She can hear, and she follows orders. She can see, and all that jazz, but emotions are a no-go.”

“Who built her?”

Ethylon shouted in happiness as a file opened with all of Joshua's personal information, including a few extra IP addresses.

“Jeez, your bot's pretty special. Glasz eyes? What the hell is that?”

“They're gray, green, sometimes yellow, and blue.”

“Damn.” Ethylon continued. “Look at all this extra security he has!”

“That was me. I'm really protective of my bots. Especially Joshua....”

Ethylon nodded. He murmured small things to himself like, “Nice, he's only a little bot, isn't he? You got him for the holiday? Yeah, I didn't get much for it, but I was on the run, so what did I expect? Anyways, wow, nice system. So far he's great.” Then Ethylon paused and giggled rather childishly. “I didn't know you were gay. I thought you were just really careful with Joshua.”

Beau's cheeks flushed. The sudden address of his sexual orientation made him nervous, although usually it wouldn't.

"Well, yeah." Beau paused. "Wait a second, where did you get that from?"

"Sexuality; Homosexual." Ethylon nodded his chin in the direction of the screen. "Right there. You programmed him right? Well, of course you did, who else—"

"I didn't do that." Beau shook his head quickly. In fact, the sexuality option had completely slipped his mind. He had forgotten that he didn't set Joshua as a homosexual because he was reluctant to know what it would be like to be in love with a bot. Knowing what he knew now, Beau would have obviously set it as homosexual, but he had forgotten. So how was Joshua suddenly getting emotions for his master who hadn't even made it that way?

"Bots are always malfunctioning. Probably just happened on accident." Ethylon brushed it off as nothing. "Government makes 'em like this, then they mess a little thing up. No big deal."

Although Beau couldn't push the idea out of mind. He hadn't even remembered that option was there. How was Joshua doing what he was doing then? How was he falling in love with his own master?

“Well,” Ethylon reached behind Joshua, pulling the USB out. “He looks fantastic. And no bugs, government isn't following him or nothing like that.”

"Yeah." Beau said, leaning forward to say hello to his bot who was waking up after almost an hour's sleep. Joshua smiled at his master while rubbing his eye gingerly. Lejend had walked away and now sat in the corner of the room, picking at her nails with the same knife she threatened Joshua with.

"Master, are we still here?" Joshua whispered. Beau nodded, pushing Joshua's hair behind his ear.

"We'll be out of here soon, Joshua. Promise."

Joshua nodded, yawning once more before he turned to stare at Ethylon. He waved carefully, and Ethylon grinned.

"Hi there." Ethylon said. Beau couldn't help but smile when Joshua squeaked when Ethylon reached his hand out toward him. "I don't bite. Trust me."

Joshua took a look at Beau who nodded once. Joshua took Ethylon's hand in his own, feeling rather comfortable knowing that his master trusted him as well.

Beau grabbed Joshua off of the table and sat him down in his lap while Ethylon began to clean up the mess of tools around him.

"Let's talk then, Ethylon." Beau said while Joshua leaned his head in the crook of his master's neck. Joshua was a bit colder than usual, so he enjoyed the warmth that spread throughout his body while Beau ran his fingers through Joshua's hair.

Ethylon wiped some sweat away from his brow, moving his sticky blonde hair away from his face. He sat down on top of some crates, and the silence between them grew. Then Ethylon clapped his hands together.

"What do you want to know?"

Beau sighed as at least 20 different questions went running through his mind. How do you pick only one to ask a criminal like Ethylon?

"Why did you get arrested?"

Ethylon smiled, scratching the back of his neck.

"It's a long story.... You sure you want to listen to it?" Beau nodded quickly. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you." Lejend sat down next to Ethylon, resting her head on his shoulder with a calm look on her face.

“Y'know when you're young and you look up to people around you? Family members, friends, celebrities.... Yeah, well, I looked up to my brother. He was eight years old when I was four. He was always really techy, he liked to take things apart, put them back together. Well one day, he started collecting all this shit, like metal and stuff. I had no idea what he was doing. He just kept collecting all these metal pieces until one night, I found out. My brother was building his own robot. We didn't have enough money to buy one. We were really poor, but then again most of the people in our neighborhood were poor, so my brother thought if he couldn't buy a robot, he would make one.” Ethylon took a long breath.

“Her name was Lejend. She was the first thing he ever created, and she worked, and still works, fantastically. He liked to use her for hacking, but my parents didn't like that. They told him that if he kept building robots, the government would send him to bion.” Beau gasped under his breath. Going to bion was not something to joke about, as Ethylon probably knew all too well. “Anyways, my brother and I started to work together. I stole stuff, he built bots out of absolutely useless pieces of scrap, but made them work amazingly. Years passed, and we were still making bots. We even sold one for $600. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it kept food on our table for four months, or something like that. Then I met August when I was 14.

“She was so beautiful. I fell head-over-heels for her just because of her beauty.” Ethylon paused and made a gesture to almost wipe his eyes. “I started ditching my brother. August took up a lot of my time, while my brother was still trying to keep the money flowing. He needed a lot more help, and I wasn't giving it to him.

“One night, he ran out to steal some scrap metal. It would've been no big feat for me. I could have gotten it without breaking a sweat. But my brother, he wasn't experienced in things like that. He tried to sneak into the scrap yard, and he... he got caught.” Ethylon laughed weakly. “We thought he was a goner. Making bots of your own is a felony, but so is stealing. Our family was on edge for days. Nobody would tell us what was going to happen to him.

“But then the government officials came back with empyreals behind my brother. They said he was going to be an asset to the government. They stole him from us. When he was leaving, he would barely even look at me. He hugged mom and dad, but when it came to me, he just kind of laughed. He said I should have been there to see how much of a failure he was while trying to get the scrap metal. He nicked himself on the cheek real bad when the officers were chasing him at the scrap yard. He said it would scar his ugly mug. Then he told me not to worry, and that he would be okay. He didn't hug me, say he loved me, or forgave me. He just left.

“A while after they took him, the government started producing these bots. Doll sized robots, mini ones, animals bots, and I just knew that they were using my brother for themselves. They weren't even paying him for it, and we weren't exactly get compensation. My family was starving, and my dad had to take up a few extra shifts at the mine. He died from some disease that we could have gotten medicine for if we had the money. My mom ran away. She was just too scared to handle anything. And well, I was just left to fend for myself, I guess.

“I realized that the other towns, squadrons, whatever, were better than my own when I was about 16. My mind was on it all the time, about how unfair it was to us that we were the poor ones, and we got the worst food, clothing, and all that. August didn't even want to talk to me anymore because of how pissed off I would get about it. She said if my mind wasn't on jealousy, it was on rebellion, and if it wasn't rebellion, it was on hate, and if not hate, then death. And she wasn't lying. I didn't think much about her after they took my brother. She was worried about me, but I didn't care. I pushed her away. Then she decided that I needed to get my priorities straight. She basically left me.

“After a while, I created a group of rebels. People weren't stupid; they knew we were getting the short end of the stick. So we rebelled. Everybody makes it sound like some huge fucking bloodbath, but it was nothing like that! The government – the empyreals – they're the ones who started killing! We didn't even have weapons. Then they pinned it all on us. Actually, just me really. They captured me, put me in bion. Squadron ST was so screwed up after the rebellion, they said that we caused all the destruction, that we blew it up from the ground up, when the government really did it. None of us did anything violent.”

Beau watched as the “lethal criminal” Ethylon wiped his eyes free of tears. Joshua was asleep by now, Beau could tell by the way his breathing had calmed, and his hold on Beau's neck loosened. Lejend didn't look as rigid as she did before, and she slid her eyes closed a few times, even when Ethylon yelled in his story.

“Bion wasn't that bad.”Ethylon said abruptly. “They fed me well, better than I ate in my own town. I got enough activity, social interaction, physical time, stuff like that. But they beat me sometimes. They said I knew too much, but they couldn't just kill me. So they tortured me. They killed me on the inside, but not the outside.” He slipped his shirt off and turned slightly to reveal scars that ran down his back. The flesh was completely mutilated from what looked to be whip marks. “I became numb to it after a year. It was just like another scar, no big deal. Nobody cared. I sure didn't.

“I escaped one day, but I won't tell you how I did that.... But I did, and I went to the ruins at Squadron St. Surprisingly, I only found a few skeletons. It was weird. Then I found one thing I thought I would never see again; Lejend. She was just lying in the rubble of where my old house used to be. She looked dirtier than she does now, shocking as that may be. I cleaned her up, turned her on. We've been on the run since.” Ethylon said. So much emotion was released during the story that he just sighed. Was he happy because he escaped, or depressed because he caused the demise of a town? Did he feel guilty, or was he happy to be free? So many questions, but he could answer only few.

The silence grew between them. After Beau only asked why he had been imprisoned, he had learned Ethylon's entire life stor,y and he felt bad for ever thinking that Ethylon was some bloodthirsty criminal. He was just a kid. Just a kid who had his older brother stolen from him. Joshua stirred in Beau's arms, but did not wake. Lejend fell asleep on the crate with her back against the wall. She was paranoid, for good reason though.

Beau placed Joshua on his seat, then nodded at Ethylon, silently telling him to walk out of the room.

“Lejend won't hurt Joshua, will she?” Beau whispered.

“She's asleep.” Ethylon said. “She sleeps like a fucking rock. Don't worry, she won't wake up until she's ready to.”

“all right.” Beau said with a sigh. “I'm sorry about your brother and all, and August.”

“I like to think she escape the city before anything happened.” Ethylon said. “Sorry, don't mean to keep interrupting. Now why are you here, lover boy? You gotta have a reason.”

Beau swallowed hard. The thought of Troia being dragged away, Joshua crying, what the empyreals could have done to her, all of it just made him hate the government a little bit more.

“I need to get that fembot back. The one who was taken away this morning? We gotta get her.” Beau scratched the back of his neck. “She was Joshua's companion. They were so close. When they took her away, it was like....” Ethylon urged Beau to go on by nodding. “It was like Joshua's world came crashing down, and I was the only one who was trying to keep it standing. We're so close, it was like mine came crashing down too. I don't want him to be hurt. He's so sensitive, and loving. That's why we need to get her back.”

Ethylon smiled with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “You know where they hide captive bots, don't you?”

“The Main.” They said simultaneously. Ethylon laughed.

“So what do you think we're gonna do? Swoop in there and save her?”

“C'mon, Ethylon. You're a smart guy. You know people. I want to help in getting her back, but I need a little help.” Beau paused. “I need some people with smarts. Someone who can get into the energy supply. I need the power to be down long enough to stall the empyreals in all the towns, and the power needs to be out in the Main, so I can get it. You got anyone with smarts like that?”

Ethylon grinned from ear to ear. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it with the flick of a small lighter he carried in his pocket. He took a drag, exhaling a long breath of smoke.

“I got two of 'em.” Ethylon gave a pause. “But are you ready to rebel? We're not just some group you ask a favor from, then run away and go back under the government's thumb. We're not temporary assistance, Beau. And are you sure you can get in and out of there fast enough?”

Beau nodded. “I know I can. I'm ready for it. As long as I can keep Joshua safe during all this, I'll take whatever risk there are.” He paused. “I just need the power to be out for a while. Then we'll be out of there. No trace. Sound good?”

Ethylon reached a hand out for Beau's. Their arms locked together in a silent, welcoming promise. Ethylon laughed, letting out a puff of smoke.

“Nice to have you on board, Beau.”