Puppet without purpose

Chapter 1: The Robot and The Silhouette

Ota Ward, Kamata Industrial Technical College

After Hombre Tigre's assault to the Crafters' Base in Kamata Tech, a relative peaceful time has come to Ota Ward during some weeks until now...

It was nighttime and the workshop was in silence, an imponent tanned, redhead man with stripes in joints and limbs was reposing in a strange designed resting chair surrounded by monitors, his face was showing a peaceful demeanor in sleep mode, but suddenly his face was twitching with discomfort, starting to sweat and the lines in his well-built body were flashing with orange hues.

The sleeper was walking in a bright white void space, his steps were noisy in the silence of this space, his face not showing any emotion besides a little distressed, calling for any known companion around.

-Prof. Amatsumara!...Kurogane!...Takemaru!...Musashi!...Creator!...anybody?!...Hello?!- he kept screaming to the void, but there was no answer, after some time looking for his guildmates, he swore to have listening a voice calling him.

-Talos...-it was a distorted version of his own voice, mixed with a deep, guttural voice and another high-pitched voice, our sleeping robot turn around his body to the voice's direction, Talos saw at distance a little silhouette of a little goat man at first, he yelled at distance with certain distrust, taking a fighting pose

-Who are you?!  identify yourself!- the silhouette didn't say or do anything after the question, but suddenly, it started to shapeshift to a more familiar shape to the robot...his own shape...a replica of himself except for some things: the lines in joints weren't shining, instead they were releasing black flames, the skin tone was pale, almost light gray, and its eye were pitch black, that thing was looking at him directly, Talos can't understand a strange sensation spreading in his metallic body, but unconsciously he knew that the dark being in front of him wasn't a good thing, he tried to move and fight it, but his body didn't respond, the silhouette was moving erratically to get close to him at fast speed, the sensation in the robot's body was spreading more and getting stronger with every step of the shadowy being.

Talos tries again to move himself, but is useless, he's completely paralyzed and wide open to that monster, with every blink of his eyes, with every exhalation of his artificial lungs, that dark silhouette was getting closer and closer, like those screamers on internet, the robot doesn't comprehend the origin of this sensation and the reason why he feels like this, at the last blink, the silhouette is close to his face looking at his eyes, Talos only see his own reflection in those pitch black eyes, in a fast move, the monster rise its hands to grasp Talos' head, Talos starts to breathe faster and kinda sweats through his life-like skin to cool himself, he calls again the names of his creator and guildmates asking for help, and again he gets no answer, the sensation in his body was unbearable at this point, then, the silhouette opens its mouth to release a final message to its victim.

-YOU...ARE...MINE!!!!- that entity shriek at his face with a strong blaze from its mouth, Talos screams and his body twitches uncontrollably in reality, the monitors and machines around him starts to sound the alarms, this wakes up the members of the guild, mainly the scarred man who created him as his ideal self, Hephaestus of Olympus.

Hephaestus runs to the desk to reach out a tablet with Talos' commands to try put him in standby mode, the other guildmates see the scene and tries to contain the robot from his convulsions but they get slightly injured in the process, even Hephaestus wasn't free from it, the monitors keep rumbling with alarms until the robot engineer starts the emergency's shutdown command, the tablet inquires a voice command, then Hephaestus says the command's key aloud.

- sleep tight, Talos!- the robot stops to convulse and his limp body rests at the armchair, after this, Takemaru, the Oni builder of the guild rubs his left cheek from the punch Talos gave him while helps Old Amatsumara to stand up from the floor and yells Hephaestus with disgust

-what the fuck happened, Heph?!, your oversized toy man just gave me a damn right hook to my face, the old man had a punch to the nose, and Kurogane was thrown away from a kick!-

- I-I'm like you right now, Talos never had something like this b-before, there's no reason to a robot to scream and have convulsions o-out of the blue- the scarred god answers to this with confusion and stuttering voice.

-Oi Heph-niki, what you will gonna do with him now?- Kurogane, the youngest one and guild master of Kamata Crafters asks while he stands up with pain in his abdomen from the floor,

-I'll leave him shutdown for now, I-I'll check him after my classes to see w-what's wrong with him...-Hephaestus looks at his robot with doubt and answers to his guild master.

Amatsumara get close to Hephaestus while he still observes his creation resting at the armchair, posing his black hand over Hephaestus' shoulder trying to comfort him a little, -Hephaestus, we are worried for him as you are, if you need some help, you can tell us, even Tvastar and Vritra would be willing to help you if they know it, so, what you say?-.

Hephaestus turn his gaze to the old god and the guild's dad, - t-thanks old man, but I p-prefer to do this by myself, I don't want t-to anybody else gets injured the next time- the old god and Kurogane retires from the underground workshop to their rooms, Takemaru goes later, but at the door he tells something to his guildmate before retire himself.

-Hey...Heph...I'm sorry for yelling at you... I was a little shocked with this...- the smithing god was fixing the disaster and tells him back to the Oni

- I-it's ok Takemaru, n-no worries- after that answer Takemaru gives him a little smile and goes back to his room, after cleans up the workshop, Hephaestus gives the dormant Talos a last gaze and thinks aloud to himself

-I hope to fix him before M-Mama knows it o-or would be a mess-.

After this, Hephaestus turn off the lights and close the door to retire to his bedroom, leaving Talos alone like a big doll in his armchair, but in Talos' right wrist line, a glimpse of a black flame starts to ignite to then disappear in air.