Chapter 9: and taid

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On a Thursday probably because Thursdays are boring, Quest-i-Tech came to Spring Valley Academy. They'd set up little stands across the hall which held cool experiments and interactive science things and everyone was forced to go, one year at a time.
"YEAR NINE!" Someone yelled over the loud speakers and Rowan along with the rest of the year went over, but Rowan just stood against the back wall.

He saw Wolf, Ire and Tom, who had daisy chains again. They saw him too. Tom waved over to him but Wolf got her attention and pulled her and Ire away.

Rowan saw Micheal talking to Jesse.
"Dude, look at this!" Jesse said. They came across a big sarcophagus. Jesse opened it and laughed as he got in.
"Bye!" He closed the door.
Micheal laughed a bit until Jesse stopped.
"I'm stuck." He said from inside.
"Fuck Jesse why did you do that!!" Micheal yelled.

He watched as people he recognised did stuff that didn't matter. But because he was watching, he noticed a little robot running behind the stalls, being cautious as to not be seen.
It must have been one or two foot tall. It was a skinny little human shaped robot with a tall cylinder head and a dim red light coming from the top.

Rowan followed it onto the stage, and looked at the crowd below him to see if anyone was looking. He didn't know that Wolf had seen him.
He snuck backstage and Wolf followed him. She was followed herself by Ire and Tom, onto the stage and into the back hallway.

They went down small stairs and into a narrow hallway which led to the prop room.
Wolf saw Rowan peering through the door to the prop room.
"Hey!" She whispered harshly, which made Rowan jump.
"Fuck, what, what are you-?" He stuttered but stopped when he saw Ire and Tom wonder into the hallway as well.
"C'mon, guy really?" He sighed, "Go away."
"Rowan, what's goin' on?" Wolf ignored his demand.
"Okay." He sighed, "Not that you'll believe me, but there's a little robot and he's up to something." When he said it he realised how silly it sounded.
"That's cool." Tom smiled as she went to the door and peered through the glass but Rowan pulled her back quickly so the robot wouldn't see her.
When he looked again he saw the robot had seen.
"Stay here." He told the girls and went through the door.

The girls followed him and they all saw the little red robot panic.
"Wow." Ire whispered she had a big smile on her face matching Toms. But Wolf matched Rowans face with a confused expression.
"What are you doing?" The boy asked loudly.
The light at the top of its head began flashing and it opened up and reshaped itself until it began growing. The kids slowly walked back as parts of its body shifted gears to double in size and kept getting bigger until its head hit the ceiling.
The taller it got the harder Wolf found it to breath. It started speaking in a language none of the kids knew, and what began as a quiet sound soon lowered into a harrowing growl.
The robot now had a towering presence and Rowan clenched his fists, ready to jump it.

Its large arms swung down at the children and they jumped out the way. Ire and Tom hid under a table.
Rowan leapt up and punched the robots body, but it was metal and he really hurt himself. Not that he noticed at the time so he kept hitting the robot.
The big robot pulled out a small sword and swung it around frantically. The booming base of a voice echoed around the room, filling Wolf with dread. She found herself glued to the floor with fear.

Rowan continued punching through bloody knuckles. He began to lose himself in a wave of anger darken in room.
He jumped out the way as the robot swung the sword into an old backdrop and struggled to get it out.
Rowan quickly grabbed the grips along the back edge of the sword and pulled against the robot.
Rowan held on tight until the tension broke and he was sent to the floor. To kick him while he was down, the robot kicked him. He was sent into piles of props and whatever else was in the room.
The sword was flung into the air and landed a bit behind Wolf.
She hesitated but picked it up and spun back to see the metal monster, letting anger replace the fear she had.
She got ready to charge at it and held a tight grasp on the sword with both hands.

The monster watched Rowan struggle to get out of the books and curtains he was under. This gave Wolf enough time to sprint at the monster.
She leapt high into the air and pulled the sword back.
"HEY GRIDLOCK!" She shouted, causing the monster to spin its head like an owl to see her.
With one strike she sliced the sword through its neck before falling to the floor in front of it.

The monsters head slid off and its arms dropped. It fell to its knees as Wolf looked at Ire and Tom knowing she was fucked.
The robot began falling forward but before Wolf was squished the robot was caught by Ire. She shouted through the pain of holding the robot up and Tom joined her, keeping the robot from falling.
"Wolf!" Ire yelled, making her open her clenched eyes while Rowan joined in holding the robot up.
Wolf got up and joined as well, holding up the large, heavy machine.

They stayed there for a moment.
"...now what?" Wolf said.
"Um. Ok, everyone, let go and jump on three!" Ire told.
She counted down and the four of them leapt to either side and out of the way for the hulking robot to come crashing to the floor.

"I'm not cleaning this." Rowan said, but no one got and it wasn't cool.
They said fuck it and left the robot in the room. Ire helped Rowan walk from the beating he'd just been given.

They left through the hallway and sat in a small circle on the field at the back of the school. Rowan looked at the ground, embarrassed that the girls saw him get angry like that.

"...why are you all wearing daisy chains?" He finally asked.
"Tom made them for us." Wolf said.
"Would you like one?" Tom asked.
"Um, no thanks." Rowan said.

"So. Why'd you follow the robot?" Wolf asked.
"I dunno, he was up to something." Rowan said.
"Are you into conspiracies?" Ire asked.
"Um, I guess." Rowan answered, looking up.
Ire and Tom looked at each other and smiled.
"We are too." Tom said as she picked daisies from beneath her.
"...you're not gonna ask about the clocks are you?" Rowan sighed.
"No... Wolf said it's sort of a you thing." Ire brushed off. "Did you know about the robot though?" She asked.
"No, I don't know." He shook his head.
"Oh, well there's more." Ire said, "There's this new one on the island."
"Oh yea! It's this flying person!" Tom explained.
"Yea. They're at the mountain." Ire added, a smile growing on her face, "And they go up and then down again. Like they're learning to fly." She said, smiling at the boy.
Rowan felt his stomach fall through him and his head grow hot.
"Um..." He sighed, not knowing what to say.
"Look, I have a video." Tom said, pulling it up on her phone. "Molly saw it and filmed it." She said as Rowan watched a recording of himself. It was from very far away at least so he told himself they wouldn't be able to tell it was him.
"Yea, you've not seen anything have you?" Ire asked. Rowan stared at the phone for a second, blankly. He looked back up to Ire who had the biggest grin on her face and when he looked to Wolf, Ire and Tom burst out laughing.
"You..?" Rowan muttered to Wolf.
"Your face!" Tom laughed.
"W-what?? I-" Rowan stuttered but got cut off.
"We know it's you." Ire laughed.
"You said you wouldn't tell anyone." Rowan said quietly to Wolf.
"I didn't!" Wolf defended herself. "They just worked it out, we thought it was you, so I followed you an-"
"I thought you didn't like these things." Rowan asked.
"I don't, but this ones real."
"Real?" Ire smirked.
"...well... he's right here now." Wolf laughed, "It's proof."
"Yea it's cool, we're not gonna tell anyone." Tom told.
"...you're not?" He asked softly.
"No." Ire said, "Why would we? Also... who would we tell? The police? You're flying, it's not illegal. Well, don't fly over Rhosneigr, that actually might be illegal."
"Yea no, they got the airbase there." Tom added, more focused on the flowers.
"Anyway, it was more about the mystery, y'know? Like what's this thing that's flying? But it's cool that it's you." Ire smiled. "But now the important question, who are the other boots for?"
"...what?" Rowan asked.
"Wolf said you have two pairs." She went on.
"Oh... yea. My friend, she's into this stuff too, you'd like her. Piper." He said.
"Nice." Ire smiled.
"Here you go." Tom said, handing Rowan his own daisy chain.
He took it and looked at it.
"Thanks." He smiled.

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