Another Horizon

"Hey, look. It's the House of Steel," Travis said after a while. "I remember seeing a weapons room on the map when we last raided the place."

"Oh. Don't see why not," I listlessly decided. While we had all received weapons training at the Safe House, none of us actually got to keep any of our own. So we went ahead and swooped down to the building.

As we made our way through the facility's defenses, I briefly wondered if the Guy was still tied down to that operating table. Honestly, I'd be fine if I never saw him again.

"Here it is," Travis said. "Behind this door… oh, it's open."

We peeked in. Two workers were standing there, talking about something random. I quickly made a gesture: on three, we slam 'em.

Then, BAM—!

Whoa! Those guys had better reflexes than I thought. It took us almost a full minute to subdue them. A nice change from Joseph's men, I suppose.

"Ngh," one of them grunted. "Aren't you guys aeronauts?"

"Quiet, you," I told him, then knocked him out.

"No, wait. We can—" I knocked the other guy out, too.

"Hey, look at this," Travis called. "They've got swords in all the colors of the rainbow."

"Really?" Bernicia pocketed the EMP device she had been examining. "Ooh, I want the black one."

"Hmm. I'll take the white one, then," Travis replied. "Ho ho ho. Yes, we shall be known as the Black Unibrow and the White Knight."

"No way! Call me Dark Pixie Girl, that has a way better vibe," Bernicia told him. "Hey look, my sword has a zircon gem in its base."

"Really? Mine has… a diamond," Travis noted. "Man, they really went the extra mile with these things."

"And they're strong, too. Definitely a keeper," Bernicia decided. "Hey, Kit. You want this yellow one?"

"Nah. I was never really a fan of two-handers," I replied. "Too bulky. You find any knives?"

"I like this halberd, personally," Blake stated, holding up an intimidating-looking polearm.

"That's a spear," I pointed out. "Halberds have differently shaped points."

"It looks more like a pike," Bernicia said.

"No, it's too short to be a pike. It's a glaive," Travis told us. "See, the tip is curved a bit."

"Yes, yes, a glaive," Blake agreed. (I'm pretty sure he just liked that name, though.)

I decided to do some more browsing, and a belt of knives caught my eye. Here we go, I thought, picking them up. These seem sturdy enough…

Underneath where the knives were, a parcel sat.

"Hey, check this out," I said, pulling out the parcel's contents. They looked to resemble tubes, with a hard metal exterior and a foam-lined interior. "These are… wait, what are these things?"

"They look like gauntlets," Blake said.

"Well, I could tell THAT much," I retorted. "But are they weapons?"

"Yes," one of the workers said.

"Hey! When did you guys wake up?" I demanded.

"Hear us out!" The first worker sat up. "The gauntlets were designed by an aeronaut named Macy Lee."

"An aeronaut?" All of us stopped to stare at him.

"He isn't lying. You guys aren't the only ones," the second worker vouched.

"Where is she now?" I cautiously asked.

"Can't say. She escaped a long time ago and was never seen again," the first worker replied. "She might be dead, but really, who knows?"

"But how come we never met her, or even knew she existed? How do we know you aren't lying to us?"

"Well, aren't you paranoid," the second worker muttered.

"If my sources are correct, you guys make up the third generation of aeronauts," the first worker explained. "We don't know much else about you beyond that, though. The top guns keep everything under super-tight wraps."

"Huh," I went. This was the kind of stuff I wished Joseph had told us. "So if we look hard enough, we can maybe find more aeronauts?"

"Heh. Who knows," the second worker grinned. "They may be – ow." The first worker had kicked him for some reason.

"I guess I'll keep these gauntlets, then," I decided, slipping them onto my arms. They'd make for better balance than knives when it comes to offense and defense.

"Should we knock 'em out again?" Bernicia asked.

"Nah, they're cool. Let's go, guys," I replied. "There's a whole wide world out there with our name on it!"

"I saw a skyline over the hills north of here," Travis suggested.

"Oh, a city? Good idea," I replied. "They're the best place to start a new life, apparently."

"Yeah, I read that book too," Blake nodded. "Shall we head out?"

~

If this is what we've been missing out on all this time, then it's no wonder mankind invented ways to fly, I thought with distaste. The city below us spanned for many kilometers in all directions, and the small spaces between the tall buildings made me feel cramped, even while up in the air.

"You know," Bernicia said as we landed on top of a skyscraper, "I'd hate to live here."

"You and me both," I nodded. "Look at how confined everything looks."

"Hey, have you ever seen any monster movies?" Blake asked.

"Uhm, no," I said. "Why?"

"I've seen Shifting Sands," Travis supplied.

"Well, so have I, but the dragon never climbed any towers," Blake said.

"Oh, those sorts of monster movies. No, I think we only had Shifting Sands. The rest were, like, documentaries and such," I remembered.

"Get with the times," Bernicia told us. "Everyone knows it's all about reading nowadays. Books, comics. The good stuff."

"We only had one volume of Furry Knight, though," Blake mused. "And it was a cliffhanger."

Travis rose a finger. "Well, remember when I wrote–"

Beep-a-deep-a-deep.

"WHAT was that," I yelled, leaping off the skyscraper's edge.

Beep-a-deep-a-deep.

"It's… coming from you, Kit," Travis observed. "One of your gauntlets, I mean."

"Uh-huh," I muttered, tapping the source of the noise. A light glowed under the metallic surface, and suddenly a voice was speaking through it-

"…ronauts! Yes? Do you copy?"

"Wargh! It's you! The workers! Worker number one, I mean," I shouted.

"Oh! Success. Aeronauts, do you copy? This is Larry. Roy's at the hideout right now, but I'll still be able to meet up with you guys."

Roy? Larry? The workers had names, duh. "Yeah, nice to meet you too," I replied. "So what's this hideout? Is that where we're meeting?"

"No, it'll be safer if I came to you," Larry decided. "Meet me at the tallest skyscraper in the city. Then we can talk for real."

Beep. He had disconnected! The nerve of that worker. Just who did he think he was?

As I stepped back onto the roof, I said, "The worker's name is Larry. He wants to meet us at the tallest skyscraper."

Bernicia looked around. "This is the tallest skyscraper," she noted.

"Oh." I shrugged indifferently. "I guess we wait, then."