Chapter Text
Something rumbled in the long-abandoned Blackrockian warehouse. The air whirred with an artificial taste, orange light coming from a very specific room. Dried up leaves and stale crystals littered the concrete floor with no life inside. Until, there was. A singular biograft, long forgotten in a gloomy room.
Their lights flickered on, illuminating the dark interior. It was barely enough for their vision to work, but it did.
[ WHAT HAS HAPPENED? ] It questioned itself, trying to move around and take a better look at their environment. A dingy closet. Really helpful. It began to be curious of itself. Is it okay?
[ S.ZETA BIOGRAFT-701D. ]
[ STATUS: FUNCTIONAL. ]
[ HEAT METER: LOW HEAT. ]
[ CURRENT LOCATION: WAREHOUSE 18843, BURNS ST. BLACKROCK. ]
It tried moving its limbs, only to be met with sluggish joints.
[ RUST DETECTED. ]
[ OIL LEAK DETECTED ON TORSO REGION. ]
In a desperate attempt to smoothen up the rust, it wiped their other hand on the leakage and smeared it on themself. Of course, it wouldn’t work properly as their oil wasn’t made for unrusting, but it was just enough for the biograft to work its way up off the floor. Their parts grinded together, causing a screeching noise to stain the robot’s ears.
Now that it was standing up (barely might i add), it could now pick up the shelf unit pushed up against the wall through their less-than-clear vision. A faint light peeked through a small line on the floor… Was it a door? They attempted to turn on night vision mode, but to no avail as their sensors betrayed them. It used its arm as a light source instead, putting their forearm towards the wall they suspected to be an exit.
The orange hue revealed the outline of a possible entrance, with a silver doorknob to top it off.
[ POSSIBLE EXIT POINT SPOTTED. ]
The robot creaked its palm towards the handle, so it could leave. When they twisted the knob, it failed to budge. When they pressed their weight against the metal, they were met with nothing. They lifted their limbs and pounded against it, only to be met with a metallic screech.
The door was jammed.
It wouldn’t move. Not unless they could pry it open. The biograft stood, petrified in panic. It tried to unsheathe its gear, only to be met with a sizzle. That couldn’t be good. Before the biograft could think further, strings of codes lined the top right corner of their view, a new task popping up.
[ CURRENT OBJECTIVE: -OPEN THE DOOR. ]
It looked about as fast as it could, scanning the area for anything that could open the damn door. As it spun around, they picked something long and metallic off the shelf. Biograft looked closer, scanning a crowbar laying flat on the surface.
It quickly got hold of it, snapping back too quickly and accidentally slamming the crowbar against the door. Biograft flinched at the all too sudden bang, squinting at the damage they just caused. A huge dent was seen on the exit.
A new task was then laid out before them.
[ -DESTROY THE DOOR. ]
Its heavy arms quickly made use of the tool, bashing and hammering the poor crowbar over and over again on the exit. After several minutes- maybe even more than an hour (biograft doesn’t know)- of the repeated clunking sound, the door faltered, breaking off its hinges and falling over. The crowbar was horribly bent, but still kept its shape after the robot tried mending it.
An overwhelming amount of light soon poured into the closet, almost blinding poor Biograft’s receptors. It quickly stumbled out, falling over on its head like an idiot and dropping the crowbar to the side.
It could now see properly, no longer needing to rely on their body lights. It was a desolate storage area, decked out with metal and wooden crates. High shelves filled to the brim with nothing but air. Beaten and battered windows were high up on the tilted ceiling- impossible for Biograft to climb up with their current state.
[ STATUS: FUNCTIONAL. ]
[ HEAT METER: MEDIUM HEAT. ]
It limped forwards, catching itself on the cluttered objects. Biograft pressed one foot after the other, trying to look for a way to leave. They tried reaching for their databases to view the layout of the warehouse, but only an error pop-up was shown. The robot wiped oil off its face, feeling the warmth of the black gold. They eventually laid its eyes on yet another door.
[ POSSIBLE EXIT POINT SPOTTED. ]
They limped further towards it, swinging the rusty hinges open. The other side was revealed to be a dingy bathroom. The stalls were unclean and covered in a crimson red. What was once a long, rectangular mirror was now shattered glassed sprinkled across the floor like candy on some- candy giving holiday, and a sound that crept up Biograft’s artificial spine. It sounded like… chewing?
The robot limped further, curious of what the chewing noise was. It led themself towards a big stall in the corner where the chewing got even louder. Curiosity killed the cat, they say- and this biograft was surely the cat. Because as they creaked opened the stall door, a horrifically deformed demon was laid on the ground, gnawing on what was bone and flesh. The scent of blood wafted through the dense air.
The thing immediately perked up at Bio’s loud entrance, snapping its neck towards the robot.
[ ENEMY DETECTED. TOO DAMAGED TO PHIGHT. ]
As Biograft saw the horror lift up, it could see the remnants of what the mutant once was. Grey, medium sized horns, blank face, and grey, torn-up clothes. This was a civilian, but it wasn't. Its joints were snapped, bended in unnatural ways. A wet hole was carved into its expression, covered in a pitch black liquid. Before the robot could even comprehend what happened to this demon, it lunged forwards. The monster shrieked like never before- burning up Biograft’s audio receptors.
[ ATTACK IMMINENT. ACTIVATING EMERGENCY, “ADRENALINE MODE.” ]
Unlike before, the robot ran backwards like it was competing in some sort of sport, reaching speeds that were impossible for a biograft in the same condition for the latter. But- it couldn't dissect that now. It needed to run. And fast. It sped through the open bathroom door, feeling the sharp glass stab into their feet.
The pain soon got worse as their legs cramped up- but they refused to stop moving. They spotted the deformed crowbar they threw away earlier, laying on the floor like it had been there for all of time. They rush to pick it up, turning back to see the civilian-monster mix charging at Biograft with its mouth wide open.
The former uncharacteristically screamed, failing to calculate what they should do next. In pure instinct, they lifted the bar up and stabbed the inside of the monster’s throat. Black liquid spewed out of the monster’s esophagus, staining the robot’s face in whatever it was. The civilian fell over, their broken limbs and twisted figure slamming onto the floor with a painful thud.
Biograft could just taste the liquid- though they lacked a mouth. It was viscous- thick if they could say it. It was warm .
The robot’s entire body shuddered before falling on top of the still-warm body. It needed a second to process what just happened.
[ ENEMY ELIMINATED. DEACTIVATING “ADRENALINE MODE.” ]
[ STATUS: FUNCTIONING. ]
[ HEAT METER: HIGH HEAT. ]
It laid there for a good minute, cooling off from the blows of steam they spilled from the vents on their body and small gusts of wind coming through the smashed windows up high. When it decided it could move again, Biograft lifted themself up with a pain lingering in their ankle region. As it kept walking, more things were revealed in their vision.
More shelving units, more crates, and garage doors lining one big wall. They noticed one of them was open by a smidge.
[ POTENTIAL EXIT SPOTTED. CAN EXIT PREMISES IF CROUCHED. ]
They dropped near the open crack, viewing the broken down trucks parked right outside. It crawled through without any (major) problems. As soon as it struggled out into the open world, the cold wind blew against their torso. Strange. Not a snowflake in sight.
They walked down a nearby road, feeling the asphalt grind against their rusted heels. As it limped, their surroundings got more… messy. Dead trees knocked over, long forgotten and rotting corpses laid on the winding street, and the howling gusts of air weren’t helping either.
The biograft soon decided to divert off the cluttered streets. It moved forwards on a dirt path, covered by nothing but silver colored trees. Biograft felt everything that hit the surface of its nerves. Overwhelming textures of nature kept the biograft on their toes.
Nearly an hour has passed since they awoke in that closet, and things were feeling rough. Every single little step was agonizing. They eventually stopped at a frozen puddle, letting themself look into their reflection. The ice barely caught their visage, warping and bending their face. Eventually, they saw a wide-eyed, shooken up biograft with a giant gash on the left side of their torso staring back. The robot looked around, got up to take some more painful steps, and leaned themself on the nearest tree.
[ ENERGY LOW. ENTERING RESTING MODE. ]
And as it sat there, slowly blinking its eyes closed, it wondered what their next task was. 1 blink, 2 blinks, 3…
The last thing they heard before falling ‘asleep’ was the sound of small wheels and a trick.