World of Machina Chapter 16

The backyard was crowded. Machine, human, they all sat there to go over the plan.

Andy felt a glimmer of hope as the plan was coming together. They had the location, they had the weakspots, the blind spots. Brody’s memory was spot on in it all.

“Now you have to be careful in the room where the machine is, heavily guarded and armed. They will shoot you if they have the chance.” Brody added on, as Dottie wrote something down.

Lightning stood up. “For those of us who were machines, it’s  high time to put our skills to the test... An old friend did some tests on me and figured out that our bodies basically just need different triggers. Though seems we all already figured that out on our own.”

There was murmurs and nods all around.

Maya stepped forward. “We’ll go in teams... Humans south entrance, machines north, humans who were machines west entrance. For the machines... As in those who are worried of running us squishies over because you got us mixed up with the enemy... We got a solution to that one. Yo kid!”
Olivia jumped off her dad’s wing holding up a jacket with a symbol that looked like a wheel with two fists meeting in the center. “Sparky made one for everyone, and those who don’t want one, there’s armbands!”

Said medic gave a look of pride. “Figure we need something... and the Jolly Wrench insignia didn’t feel right for this team... It’s different, but still worth noting.”

Andy grinned and took a jacket for himself, replacing his ‘lucky’ vest with it. It felt right. It felt... Like this was real.

“Thanks... Alright suit up! We leave at eleven PM!”

“Wait!”

“What?”

“...What about weapons?”

Brody and Andy exchanged a wicked grin. “We know where to get some.”

It didn’t take much convincing for Louis Alridge to give up a good number of his guns and ammo to the newly formed team. A brief lesson on how to fire them off and they were ready.

It wasn’t going to be easy, they knew it was going to be dangerous. Possibly even get themselves killed.

But...We can’t let this keep happening.

This may be our world, but it’s their world too...It’s truly OUR world…

I want to change the world... For my mom... For my sister... For my dad.

Tonight they’re gonna pay…

----

When night fell, they disembarked, the ones who could fly flew on ahead to scope out the place.

The humans kept back weapons at the ready. Andy was standing next to Maya when he glanced at her.

She looked at him and smiled nervously.

“Hey…” He whispered. “It’ll be okay.”
“I know... But just in case…” She quickly kissed him. The boy’s eyes went wide as she pulled back giving him a big grin.

“There... Now you can’t die cause then I wouldn’t get to do that again.”

“Deal…” He mumbled feeling a little dazed now. Dazed not just from the fact his lifelong crush had kissed him... But also dazed from the fact that there was a very real possibility that someone... Maybe all of them could be killed.

As scary as that thought was. He knew he didn’t have another choice. This had to be done quietly, this had to be done on both their terms.

I’m leading... This is the fight we started... This is the fight we end.

Dusty radioed in that it was safe to move forward.

That’s when they split up, the machines taking down the humans in their section, knocking them out. The runners and flyers made quick work of those who tried to aim at them.

Specifically, they had a hard time keeping aim on targets like Lightning and Francesco.

The two shared a smirk before running forward not making any move of stopping.

The humans tried to run but they were surrounded... and promptly tied up and left there, weapons taken as part of the teams personal stash.

When it came to the inside...That’s when things flew. Quite literally.

Acting on instinct, running, flying out of the way, fighting back.

Andy saw  someone try to aim at Dusty and aimed his gun quickly firing off a shot. It echoed in his ears and made it ring but watching the man crumple to the ground yelling about his arm was awful.

He decided after this night, he would never use a firearm again.

They eventually made it to the hangar, all of those who had been turned human recognized it. All had a memory.

This is the place…

Where they changed us.

Where they harmed us…

They looked around, the room was strangely... Empty. “Keep your guard up.” Andy hissed keeping his weapon drawn.

He and Dusty came forward ready to attack if need be.

The machine  was in the center of the room, shut down for now.

This... Seemed too easy.

“Something isn’t right…”

There was the sound of a door opening as they trained their eyes above. Someone stepped out onto the platform, wearing a jacket with a hood over it.

“So you’ve found my castle…” Said the voice of a woman.

Brody swallowed hard, he knew this voice. “Brace yourselves.”

No one expected it..

As the woman removed her hood revealing a scarred face and a glare that could kill. “But you are not welcomed here... Leave.”

“We’re not leavin’ till you give us the machine!”

The woman sneered. “You want a fight boy? Over machines?” She asked gesturing to those Andy stood in front of. “You realize you're betraying your species right?”

The boy didn’t move aside from training his weapon’s aim upwards. “My species? We’re just like them.”

“Just like them? How pray tell do you come to THAT conclusion?” She challenged. “They’ve taken over the world... Taken it for themselves!”

“Because we couldn’t compromise I bet! The fact that they let us live is proof enough that both sides were probably too darn stubborn! So we hid!”

“Exactly... We hid and they took the land for themselves…” She gave the others a disgusted look. “Ruined our planet... Destroyed all we worked for…”

Andy growled. “You're the one ruining it. You did this to all of them. They’re innocent, they didn’t change the world... We did... Survival of the Fittest... But we survived... So what does that say!?”

“It says... That one must cross the line... That invisible line that supposedly we may be punished for if we cross.”

A look of fear went across everyone’s features. Everyone had a rough idea by now what that line was.

“Andy... Shoot her…” Maya whispered.

The boy tried to fire off a round... But his rifle was jammed. “Crap..!”

“You know the line... Or you wouldn’t have tried that... Someone here... Will die very... Very soon..”
This lady’s a psycho... They may kill us all if we’re proven to be dangerous enough!
She turned to leave as alarms began to go off.

“Rip, Dusty... Sick ‘er.”

The two planes took off but halted as she drew a gun aiming at them.

“You won’t try it…”

The two exchanged a look and kept still waiting until she disappeared before going after her.

Andy looked back quickly before running after ignoring the calls to come back. “Go after the rest of ‘em, get the machine going! GET IT READY NOW!” He called back.

I have a bad feeling about this…

Who is she gonna try to kill?

When he turned the corner he came to a halt. Suddenly he was very alone. Rip and Dusty either had gone ahead and ducked into hiding while waiting for whatever she was going to pull.

Or something had grabbed them and he couldn’t hear it.

What the heck…?

Andy took a deep breath and dropped the rifle grabbing the one he had on his back checking to make sure it worked right. He walked through a doorway and gasped.