The Lantern Bearers

chapter 23: will and fire

The lights would come on and blind us briefly.

-INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT. EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN IN EFFECT-

the security shutters would slam down behind us and the lights would turn off again.

"Master!!" Cried yui as she morphed her hands into drills.

She made them spin and pressed them into the shutters. Only sparks would fly around as she tried to drill with no avail.

She would growl and scream as she kept attacking the shutters with nothing happening. She eventually slumped to the floor and panted.

"Pops...." zeus said.

"Grr, i knew we couldn't trust her!" I shouted.

"Wait, she said that all the stairwells lead to the upper floors and the basement! Maybe we can take em to reach pops!" Zeus suggested.

"It's a coin toss, but i don't see any other choice. Let's see, the basement is probably quicker, but more dangerous....the upper floor might be on lockdown as well...." i pondered to myself.

"We can't waste any more time! She's probably doing god knows what to him!" Zeus exclaimed.

Yui would collect herself and stand up.

"The basement would be optimal, i will protect you two, as master would have intended." Yui said.

"Ugh...basement it is. I hate cramped, dank spaces, but what choice do we have?" I groaned.

"None, the upper floors are possibly-"

"I know yui! Let me complain!" I exclaimed.

"I do not take orders, aside from master's. However, since it is the allowance to complain, i shall allow this." Yui said plainly.

"......if i could strangle you without hurting myself....." i said.

We would make our way to the stairwell, but came across an obstacle almost immediately. There was a bizarrely colored hanging moss right above us.

"The hanging moss anomaly, exercise caution to not move hastily, for it will launch highly poisonous barbs with pin point accuracy." Yui explained.

"Poisonous barbs??" Zeus said, shaking a bit.

Yui extended her hand to the moss and gently waved her hand in it, brushing the moss around.

"Bizzare, the moss itself has no harmful properties on touch. I detect no poison or toxins on the moss itself. This organism doesn't apply to the common logic humans have established long ago. Anomalies truly are something beyond comprehension." Yui said, looking at her hand.

"So your hand is....clean." i said.

Yui pressed her hand to my arm. It was just her normal metallic, fleshy skin. She says anomalies are weird, but she herself doesn't make much sense. How can she be both organic and a robot? I would say cyborg, but even then it doesn't make sense in her case! Her metallic parts feel both metallic and fleshy! It's so weird!

San likes this kind of woman?! However, he's kinda weird too. He doesn't have any social skills really and he acts...out there. Could it be that the striders are deprived of human social skills and focus more on killing skills? Do they even know what sex is??

We would make our way down the stairwell, it feeling evermore darker and ominous.

"Stop!" Yui said.

We immediately froze up.

A mutant dog was at the entrance, snarling at us. Great, that's all we needed! A dog that will make us have to fight and that damn moss will make us into pin cushions!