Chapter Text
It had been 300 years since the rusty era, since then the cities had eliminated conflict and war by making everyone shades of average. One of the many things eliminated by the programming of the city was the Rusty ideas of relationships.
Zane had always felt just a little bit… different… in every way. Yes he could see just how pretty the girls were on the feeds, but something else he could see was how pretty the boys were too. No one ever seemed to notice both, not in the way Zane did, not in the way that made him feel bubbly down to the core.
“Stretch, you’re falling behind, if you don’t hurry up we’re going to leave you behind.” Shay called with a delighted giggle as she banked along the river, the tail of her board dragging along the surface causing water to jump up and spray over Croy who was only half paying attention.
“Hey Freckles, why don’t you keep your eyes on where you’re going instead of on your girlfriend.” Astrix teased, the kid had been looking at the rusty ruins so emersed in his feelings about leaving the city that he couldn’t even hear half of what was going on.
When he got wet he jumped, nearly losing his grip on the board. By the graces of his belly ring he was saved from plunging headfirst into the cold of the river. “ I just can’t stop thinking about what this will mean if we do actually find someone out here… I mean supposedly there is a whole world out there still and all those uglies have traveled there? That sounds so unreal… if we can find them, why can’t the city?”
Croy could always be so skeptical but Zane felt something so right about this expedition. “Because they only want us to find them Freckles, you’re missing the whole point of this.” He rolled his eyes with an exaggerated sigh.
When they made it to the tallest building, all floating there looking up at the daunting thing that loomed over them, they were no longer so sure they wanted to activate the flare. The building itself a ghost of an era when humans had gotten to hubris. “Alright fine, I’m going.” Zane entered the building the lifters on his board whirring with the task of lifting him up through it.
“What if no one comes?”
“What if someone does come?”
Zane could hear the panicked whispers of his friend below him, but he could no longer wait to see if this was real.
He lit the flare and waited quietly, look down at the shadows cast across his friends' faces in the alley as the strange red light filled everything around him. He held it as high as he could, urging his board as high as it would go, straining against the lifters to make it just a little higher, like some offering to a long forgotten rusty god.
“Looks like someone is eager for me to get here.” A voice came out of the shadows of the roof, it struck right through Zane, the silken and rough textures of it igniting the excitement once again.