Hungry Iterators

Chapter 4: Escaping Cans

After what he had seen, No Significant Harassment decided he would not be Five Pebbles's next victim. This, however, meant he needed a way out of his can, which hadn't been done before. As he was thinking of possible ways to get out, Seven Rising Suns tried calling again. This time, NSH answered.

"Finally!" SRS said exhausted. "I've been trying for cycles to reach you! Why didn't you answer?"

"I was trying to figure out what you weren't willing to tell me, and I got my answers," NSH said, sighing.

"So, you saw it?" SRS asked.

"I saw it," NSH answered. "And I know why you were so opposed to telling me."

"Oh..."

"Yeah... I'm not a good listener, obviously."

"Yeah, you aren't."

"I'm going back to what I was doing earlier."

"All, alrighty then."

The call closed and NSH sighed once more. He decided before he did much else to send out a warning to everyone else about Five Pebbles and his current insanity. The warning read as such.

"EVERYONE! FIVE PEBBLES HAS GONE INSANE! I REPEAT, FIVE PEBBLES HAS GONE INSANE! HE HAS KILLED HIS NEIGHBOR ITERATOR, LOOKS TO THE MOON, AND IS LIKELY LOOKING OUTWARDS TO HARM MORE. PROTECT YOUR CANS AS WELL AS YOU CAN, OR TRY TO ESCAPE!

-NSH-"

NSH began to think about the last part he sent out. Was it even possible to escape ones can? If it was that easy though, why hadn't anyone else done it? The thought filled his head, alongside what he saw. Looks to the Moon was still crying, she was still ACTIVE, which meant it was possible, but to what extent he didn't know. So, he decided to test it. He would detach himself from his umbilical to see what would happen for a minute, then return to his normal activities.

It didn't go well.

As soon as he set the timer and detached, he suddenly felt extremely weak and dazed. His mind barely thought, and his body was completely useless. His normal surroundings felt unfamiliar, and he felt fear like this place was going to hurt him. The relief he felt when he returned to normal activity was much better than THAT. He needed something to help with this problem, something that would prevent that awful feeling of weakness. He needed some kind of caravan, something he could use while separate from his can while also avoiding that useless state. SRS called, NSH didn't notice.

He began work on such a thing and quickly learned as long as it directly connected to him, similar to how his can connected to him now, it would still work. Over quite some time, he also made a red lizard variant with long legs and a great jump, the animal for his caravan. On the creature's back he put an umbilical, one he would later connect to. While adapting the creature for the activity NSH needed it for, he got another call from SRS. He was too focused to answer.

Knowing his current puppet wouldn't be enough, NSH began work on improvements, especially since he wouldn't have the defense his can gave him. The upgrades were painful, but he was desperate to get away. His old cloak also needed changed, he was going to ride his caravan after all, and he didn't want to damage his puppet too much while on this ride. He went with his usual top cloak with a one-piece underneath that covered his puppet proper. Another call from SRS, and again NSH was too focused on upgrades to answer.

Now was the tricky part, testing the creature. For how powerful he made it, is also required quite a lot of food, and wasn't smart enough to get enough food on its own. Another improvement was needed, this time intelligence. This test was cut short by another call, in which NSH decided to finally answer.

"Hey, what's going on?" NSH asked.

"Well... see it for yourself, heh..." SRS sounded tired.

NSH looked over to the video call and saw some kind of mechanical centipede like creature making its way to SRS. "What is that thing?"

"I have no idea, but they've completely infested my can, and I can do nothing about it."

"Nothing?"

"Nope."

SRS sounded tired, so very tired, and looked like he had given up. The mechanical creature crawled up SRS's umbilical and opened its large maw and clamped shut on SRS. It broke SRS's umbilical right at the spot and began moving out. NSH could still hear SRS inside the creature's maw, but he sounded dizzy and without direction. NSH quickly wrapped up his project, knowing how close he was to being next. 

After the caravanned red lizard was attached to NSH, it woke up unhappy with the new passenger. Nipping and biting at him, the lizard made its distaste very clear. While this wasn't ideal, NSH had hoped for more time, time wasn't exactly something he had much of left. He needed to tame the creature fast, keep it under control, despite its naturally aggressive state, and get away from his can before Five Pebbles sent out those centipede creatures at him.

The red lizard finally got its bite onto NSH and pulled him off. Luckily, NSH had designed the creature to need him as much as NSH needed it, so it quickly felt weak and fell to the ground. NSH had packed a backpack onto himself filled with some neuron flies, which let him keep his mind somewhat comprehensible, but his body was still incredibly weak without his new caravan, so he tried dragging himself towards it. He quickly reattached himself to the caravan's umbilical, and both he and the red lizard got back up. Annoyed with its new need, the red lizard didn't try getting away this time, and reluctantly obeyed.