Trial and Error

After flying south for a while, we landed at a roadside rest stop. At this time, the sun had set.

"We're heading inside," Penny announced, picking the lock.

"Meh, we're a more outdoorsy sort," Bernicia replied. "Have fun."

"Hmm… those bots and drones are gonna be a pain to deal with," Blake said. "They can find us anywhere, I bet."

"Maybe if we just let them catch us, they'll leave us alone," Travis mused.

"Those heavy bots had live firearms," I reminded him. "And missiles! Now that the heat's been turned up, we can't afford to be passive about this anymore."

"Well, I'm sleepy," Bernicia yawned. "A good stomping can really take it out of ya."

"Yeah, they probably won't find us immediately," Travis cosigned. "Unless one of us had a tracer chip on us, which would be cool."

"As if." Bernicia sat beside a bush. "We'd never be able to rest if that were the case."

I flew up to the roof and laid on its smooth, cool surface. We aeronauts may be able to run for days, but this meant we slept like rocks whenever we did get the chance to catch Zs.

Ahh… sleep… dreaming…?

I was in my body; I wasn't in my body… I have to get out of here.

My eyes popped open. Not dreaming. But still asleep? I was a ghost again, staring at my sleeping self. But I didn't feel asleep anymore…

I began to wonder if physics mattered here. I mean, I was ethereal, right? Who's to say I couldn't just… go straight to the House of Steel?

(Careful,) something said.

(What?) I looked around.

(Hi.) The something materialized into a girl with severe bed head. (You found Torvalt's enchantment? Banger.)

(Who are you?) I asked.

(The House of Steel is really far away,) the girl said. (Make sure you don't get severed. Stay focused on your goal.)

(Lady, I bleed focus,) I replied. (Check it!)

In a flash, I was in the House of Steel. (See? I… oh, whoops,) I muttered. (I hope she didn't want to come along…)

After wandering around a bit, I found myself in a small backroom occupied by Joseph and the Guy. They were talking to a small communicator that I recognized as a talkbox.

"…never on board with this to begin with," Joseph was saying. "Machines can fail, you know. And they have already, numerous times."

"Oh, come on! They aren't that incompetent," the Guy objected.

"Ah, so you still think training henchmen is a better deal? And you're certain you can train and condition them properly? If I recall, it was you who wrote up the I-bot proposal in the first place, Mr. Adams."

"Don't get clever with me," Joseph retorted. "You know I did that as a contingency. And none of this would be a problem if you had covered for us when the SSA came knocking! You and I both know that the aeronauts are your only option for weaponization."

"Best," the talkbox corrected. "They're my best option. And anyway, you have some nerve talking to me about that when you haven't even detained any."

"Feh." Joseph sat back, annoyed. "You know, we trained them to avoid capture at any cost."

"Well, as long as they don't die," the talkbox dismissively replied. "I'd like a good number for the auction, preferably from Gen 3 or 4."

"Well, Gen 4 will be simple to make arrangements with. They're still in their safe house."

"And what of the third?" The talkbox sounded expectant.

"We're pretty sure they're still travelling with Gen 1."

There was a long pause. The Guy stretched his arms and leaned back.

(Heh, you must be bored out of your mind,) I snickered, and he nodded in agreement. Then he turned and looked around, his brow knit in confusion.

"In that case," the talkbox continued, "we can take them in one fell swoop. No need to hold back, just make sure to stabilize the ones from Gen 3 if push comes to shove. The-"

Whoosh.

I opened my eyes. My real eyes? Oh, I was back. And… the sun was rising. Did that whole journey count as a dream? I mean, I knew it wasn't a dream, but my body felt as rested as if I was dreaming. I wasn't really sure.

"Morning, Kit," Bernicia called. "Want some vending machine junk?"

"Mm, sure," I yawned. "The Gen 1 guys are in danger, I think."

"What? We're all in danger, all the time. What's new?"

"I'm serious!" I hopped down to her. "They're gonna start coming hard. Probably."

"What, did you have a dream about it? You an oracle now?"

"Umm… never mind."

Soon the seven of us were up in the sky again.

"Okay, guys, the House of Steel is just over yonder. Ready to storm the keep?" I pointed at a low ridge in the badlands.

"Strike fast, strike first. I mean, second," Blake said. "Are we still dropping Joseph?"

"Ehh, we have to find him first," I muttered. "I wonder if he's even still there…"

"Hey. You should know the place has a tunnel underneath it that no one uses," Penny told us.

"Really? No, seriously? How'd you learn about it?"

"I'm me. I find stuff," she explained.

I gave her a dubious Look.

"I can vouch," Roy said. "It's kind of a quirk she has."

"Hmm." I guess I didn't really have a right to object.

"There it is," she called. "It leads straight to central special storage, which is completely inaccessible via normal doors. Cool, right?"

We silently watched as Penny lifted up a flat-looking rock. Sure enough, there was a subterranean rampway underneath it.

"This is nuts," Travis muttered. "A-Tech's been hiding so much, right under our noses."

We dropped into the tunnel and ran down it as fast as we could. None of us had a plan beyond 'raid the place and kill anyone who tries to kill us', and none of us knew what lay in the heart of the House of Steel…

Which, coincidentally, is where this secret passage appeared to lead. Just how much did these guys know, anyway? I guess there's a reason they'd managed to stay hidden for so long.

We silently entered the area. A handful of guards were standing around, lightly armored and only carrying basic weaponry. They had their backs to us, but what they were staring at looked interesting: four huge, vaguely translucent orbs.

Larry pointed to the left. I followed his direction and saw a large pile of boxes labeled COMPACT FORCE INCENDIARIES. DO NOT DROP (UNLESS YOU'RE A DRONE).

I nodded, then signaled the forward team.

Wham-bam- just like that, the guards were unconscious.

"Okay, we're use these to crack the place open like an egg, then pick Joseph out of the chaos and get the truth out of him," I decided. Let's put 'em around the stress points."

"How big do you think the blast will be?" Blake wondered.

"What's in those orbs?" Bernicia asked.

"We can check later," I replied. "Hey Roy, you have any ball things that can be detonated remotely?"

"Well, yeah, but… you really think it's a good idea? Like, you won't regret it later?"

"Duh! That's why we're doing it," I told him, throwing him a look. "You guys are so cautious. Honestly, it worries me."

"The boxes are in position," Blake called.

"Good. Let's move," I said, and we all jumped back into the hole just as alarms started blaring.

"Shoot! detonate now," I called. By now I figured we were all far enough away to—

BABOOM! The tunnel violently shook and immediately began to collapse.

"Gah!" I shielded myself with my wings and dashed through the corridor with the rest of my aeronaut pals.

We were barely keeping ourselves ahead of the collapse, which was moving outwards from the center. Then I noticed that Penny wasn't with us. Did she fall behind on accident?

We flew out of the tunnel, where the ground was stable. I looked back towards the House just as more things started exploding in it.

"Cool, a chain reaction," Blake nodded. "Well placed."

"Any of you guys seen Penny?" I asked.

"She went the other way for… some reason. I bet she saw something shiny," Roy replied.

"Huh? Why would she not stick to the plan?"

"Because it was terrible!" He pointed a finger at me. "We only went through with this because Larry had a contingency, and even then, it nearly got botched! You guys have no sense of anything beyond brute force, don't you?"

"Oh, like you're any better?" I crossed my arms. "Mister 'wait until it's safe'. I should've figured as much when we beat you and Larry up at A-Tech. Did you guys ever trust us?"

"Look – we're spies; you guys are fighters," Larry told us. "It's only natural that our tactics would differ."

"Their 'hit it until it dies' mentality can hardly be called tactical," Roy muttered.

"H-hey," Bernicia weakly objected. "Ahh, who am I kidding… he's right."

"Forget it! We don't need you to do what we're doing. We never did," I shouted.

Another explosion went off as more of the building collapsed.

"Brute force, huh," Blake murmured.

"For the record, I still believe we can work together," Larry stated, "but this wreckage has probably alerted every squad in the area to our whereabouts. So we'll be lying low for a bit."

"Don't follow us. I'd rather you didn't get us all captured," Roy said.

Then they flew off.