Anderson Warehouse [2]

"What is that thing!?" Austin screamed at Jack.

"How far is it away?" Jack asked unperturbed by Austin's question, how should he know, as Austin massaged his temples.

"Sixty feet, why?"

"Because that gives me enough time to look at the SCP files, I put all those related to Anderson Robotics in one big file so I can check on it in an emergency."

"Good I'll run calculations while you look at the files, but more importantly what is that thing?" Austin pointed at the metal ball right under Jack's leg.

"Don't worry about it, it's friendly but useless for our current predicament." Just as Jack fished out his phone from one of his pockets a loud bang reverberated throughout the hall causing said phone to fall to the ground and break.

Austin was equally shocked by the gunshot, it hit Jack's shoulder piercing through the metal container, they took cover under.

"Goddamnit, what now?!"

"*Cough* I'm not dead yet you...*Cough* Bring me away to better cover, away from that bastard!"

Austin complied and dragged Jack's body on his back, he sprinted away from the robot afterward evading multiple bullets during his escape with his ability. The metal ball followed him during all of that.

Austin also took a quick glance at the machine noting that the bullets shot out of its black fingers, large holes inside them.

...

"Should we try to disable that thing or just get the hell outta here?! I really like option two, to be honest!" Austin hid behind the heaviest container he could find, the robot was about 90 feet away at that point

Jack placed Austin's jacket on his shoulder to stop the blood loss as he said "It's up to you if you think you can take that thing down we stay, if not we run away, I can survive like this for... 20 or 30 minutes, who knows? But remember, if you take that thing down and I happen to be able to reverse engineer it..."

"Then what?" Austin inquired, he was already convinced that the better option was flight.

"I can create the same skin-like material it has strewn all over its body. I roughly looked over the file with all the Anderson tech before we came here, the reason I wanted to check on it during the gunfight again was that the robot doesn't fit any of the machines the foundation knows about. I won't annoy you with the details but that thing has features of both the PHSUD and Saker series Android, the latter is known for its ability to shapeshift, the former for gadgets stored in its fingers."

Austin tried to open his mouth to speak up but he was stopped by his rational side. 'It's 80% a prototype. I also have that taser, I can take Jack's crowbar and would be able to utilize my ability during a fight, my chances for victory are pretty good, and if he really does what he says I can get my hands on tech that lets me shapeshift, let's me live a normal, a better life.'

Austin's hand shook, his heart told him that every second lost fighting could mean life or death for Jack but in the end, he resigned and said "I need the crowbar and then I'll be right back."

Jack handed Austin the weapon and as the red-haired youth left he muttered, with a sad smile on his face, "Human greed will never be sated."

...

The android's steps got louder as Austin neared the man-made killing machine, he observed the robot from the shadows of a large wooden container. It seemed focused on the last known location of himself and Jack.

'Let's start with a small test and while I'm at it I could lead it away from Jack' Austin two-handed the crowbar and smashed it against the floor chipping away at the gray stone, with no reaction from the machine.

The robot was ignorant about the sound, "HEY TIN CAN! OVER HERE!" This time the robot's head turned around eerily fast, its empty head full of metal, plastic, and squirming pieces of flesh staring intensely at Austin before its arms followed and aimed at Austin.

Multiple gunshots rand out, Austin got out of their way and sprinted behind cover once again constantly moving to avoid the android's pursuit and get it off his back.

'Good, that means it can only hear really loud noises, a sneak attack should suffice to take it down.'

With the new information Austin's ability got a heavier grip on the android's actions and the redhead could probably evade its gunshots even right in front of the barrel if he has enough room to dodge.

Austin clenched his fist, now he needed to get close to the android and get the finishing blow, this could be his demise if he's not careful.

He sneaked around the robot slowly taking two minutes to carefully align himself with the androids back, and then he struck.

Austin placed the crowbar in his right hand and the taser in his left, he covered the distance almost instantly and was now directly behind the robot.

Said robot seemed to notice him but to its misfortune, it was too slow, Austin already plunged the crowbar into its right arm detaching the thing mostly, only a few tubes and wires connected the arm to the robot's torso.

Not relenting, Austin rammed his taser into the machine's chest piece. For a few agonizing seconds, Austin thought nothing happened as the robot still stood upright but as he took a few steps back he noted that the robot's skin like tissue stopped moving and its head hung low, all movement stopped.

Austin decided to better be safe than sorry and detached the robot's other arm, both legs, and its head with multiple swings of his crowbar, he placed the surprisingly light limbs into his jacket, attached the head to his pants with some string, and carried the torso with his own two hands.

...

Austin rushed to Jack and placed him on his back piggybacking him and barely holding onto the killer machine's torso at the same time.

"*Cough* That took you long enough."

"Stop speaking. I don't know if it's true but in action movies, they always say that speaking causes more blood loss." Jack complied and let himself be carried all the way to their car silently, the metal ball from before trailing after them and even entering their car by jumping with its round body.

"You sure that thing won't attack us, I can't handle two terminators in one night." Jack nodded after chuckling for a bit at that terrible attempt at a joke.

"Open that cabinet there, an emergency kit should be inside *Cough*." True to Jack's words, a first aid kit was inside the small compartment.

"Take the bandages, alcohol and some of that blood clotter, and then you..." Jack gave precise instruction to Austin on how to properly handle the gunshot wound.

...

After successfully ensuring Jack's survival the roommates and best friends drove home taking multiple detours to throw off those who might follow them and after 10 minutes they even heard police sirens in the far distance signaling the police's arrival, the robots gunshots weren't silenced in any way so it would be weird for them to not show up.

They parked their car a few blocks away from their apartment and walked the rest of the way slowly and safley avoiding the eyes of humans and cameras alike. When they finally entered their apartment and the heavy metal door behind them closed they both sighed in relief.

Jack trailed off to his bed navigating through the maze of computers, he let himself fall on his soft feather cushions and closed his eyes.

"Before you go to sleep. I've got a few ques-"

And like that the day ended for Jack.