CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.26 'WHAT IS A MAN?'

In the aftermath of the battle between the Rat-Chimera and the combined forces of the Nowhere Generation alongside the mysterious Warrior-Merchants under the even stranger Big-Hat's command, the bittersweet victory left those alive ragged and worn. Alpha.1, the android who had sworn to slaughter every Chimera in her path, had hoisted an unconscious Andrei up by the collar of his jacket, dragging him out of the footpaths taken by the Merchants to repair their caravan of magic- and horse-drawn carts.

Big-Hat himself had been off helping his people for some time now, and the twins Saionji and Shimoda had found him and Hirano working alongside one another to recover what was to be recovered from a wrecked wagon. They too joined in to help, with much excitement from Shimoda at the return of his mentor. Something about the fox-featured merchants interested them enough to help... and something more specific to Saionji gave her the desire to help, just from a more basic perspective. Dwelling on it, she nearly had what it was before she was dragged back to the real world, and the people that needed her the most.

Inoshishi and Hattori had taken it upon themselves to find those Warrior-Merchants who had temporarily held off the Chimera prior to their joining the fight, honestly awe-struck by the power that they each displayed against the threat which had absolutely shown them their place in that moment. When they had found the topic of their thinking, the twins gave an absolutely splendid introduction to their eccentric nature, and the two different groups of soldiers hit it off rather well.

When Andrei came to, Alpha was sat atop a felled tree trunk that had been brought down in their fight against the Chimera. She looked down at the boy with an ice-cold stare, and the two simply exchanged a look, with Andrei growing increasingly unnerved by her constant, unmoving eyes. When she blinked, it seemed as though a weight was lifted off his shoulders, and he sighed. "What the hell do you want? I don't think I did anything, did I?" He asked, breathing with relief as he did so.

As Alpha blinked, she kept her eyes closed. Neither the red nor the green of her heterochromic glare broke her eyelids shielding. Tipping her head, the machine crossed her arms, and she gave a quiet, almost human huff of confusion. "I want to know... what are you, beast? You're nothing like anything I've seen before."

Eyes widening, he sat up when she finally admitted she was not a threat to him... but the hairs on the back of his neck still stood on end. Even if the fires of Ra were burning deep within him, he wasn't sure what to think of Alpha. She seemed all too human to be a robot, even if he couldn't quite put his finger on what a 'robot' was defined as. "The name's Andrei, damnit. And that wouldn't be the first time I've been told I'm special." he spoke with a certain indignant tone, as though he had something to prove to this machine who had been built in seemingly equal strength to him. Perhaps his nature as a half-Chimera.

Alpha let him finish, then she took a far less imposing stance. She unfolded her arms from within her large, billowing cloak, planting them on the tree and leaning forward. Her eyes opened, and they glistened in the moon and the leftover fire light. As Alpha studied Andrei, she crossed her mostly bare legs one over the other, the skin-tight leotard only blocking the moonlight from what would have been a sensitive topic, if she were human. "No, foolish beast. Perhaps I'm just ill-equipped for conversation, due to my purpose... but you, I feel the need to study you, as though you could serve some greater purpose in my own objective." She shook her head, then broke eye contact with Andrei again to stare at the ground. "Call it... selfish curiosity, if you can even comprehend the emotion."

Shifting on the ground where he sat, Andrei adjusted the collar of his jacket once he realized just how exposed to him that this machine was, and he shook himself off to get ash and cinder out of his hair. He registered now what she had said, and something about it called to him. Curiosity, that's what it was. "I can feel everything you can, or well... you know what I mean. But yeah, I get you." He held out a hand for Alpha, and looked her in the eyes now. "You're a real enigma to me too. I've only ever met Chimera who can hold up to me in full... and even then..." He trailed off as memories of Scavver and his guild filled his mind. For once, Alpha seemed to pick up on an emotion.