Chapter Text
The slight breeze rolled around the desolate, frozen wasteland. Anybody that would have happened to reach the area would be in a daze, for the place seemed beyond surreal due to the absolute silence within the vicinity. The moon shone bright; illuminating the bare trees and casting shadows onto the freshly laid snow.
A path of disturbed snow remained uncovered, still visible to the naked eye. If anyone followed these tracks, they would stop at the remains of a dead drone. Multiple parts and torn wires were scattered hazardously around an area near an abandoned cabin. The oil seems to have been seeping and integrating with the agitated surroundings, inviting robot cockroaches to come out of their hiding places to take a bite of the morsel.
A slight tremble comes from beneath the ground, startling the roaches. One jumps in surprise and begins to scamper further away using their little, nimble legs. The muffling of a voice could be heard beneath the icy tundra. There was enveloped thumping, a similar sound of banging against metal, creating a metallic noise.
Snow flew around everywhere as the decapitated corpse was violently tossed to the left, thwacking against a tree; effectively crushing a cockroach who let out a squeak.
Turning back to the original area, some boots awkwardly stick out of a hole.
A hatch was what had seemed to be the source of the noise. The poor thing looked like it had seen better days despite being an inanimate object, boot imprints clearly indented into the underside. The hinges were forcefully bent from the immense force applied.
“Wahhh, I'm visually impaired!! I think my visor's cracked from the tumble!" A voice sobbed out from the egg shaped dome quite rather loudly.
The nearby trees shook slightly and the layered snow comedically fell into a heap in the hole. It effectively smothered the newly uncovered entrance with a layer of snow, causing the boot to twitch.
Snow crouched from under a certain bot's boots. Their head jerks up and their eyes immediately latch on to the heap of snow. Kneeling down, their hands dug frantically in the snow before being kicked by a hunk of metal, the boot.
It jolted with the contract of the drone's hand, pausing a tad later. A low voice could be heard, and violent curses were thrown as snow was kicked away. With their hands thrown out in front of them, they shout, trying to overcome the sounds of desperate kicking.
"Knock it off, will you!? Relax..! It's just me!"
The kicking abruptly stopped, obviously recognizing the bot.
Zyair bent down, firmly gripping the boot before putting all the force into his legs and pulled, sending the other drone flying into the air and hitting another tree. As he fell into the snow, the tree sent down another load that almost smooshed him over.
“How petite.” Giving a quiet, little laugh, he approached the pile and pulled Kraiser up, removing all the snow from his frame. The two searched the surrounding area with urgency due them noticing that a certain other drone was missing.
Looking around for Sino, Zyair and Kraiser happen to notice boot tracks in the snow 14 feet in front. They follow the tracks until they have come across a rather deep hole on a side of the cave.
“Seems like it stops here…” Zyair commented as he trails a finger to the entrance of the half covered cave. The snowy tracks disappear slowly as it leads further into the gap.
Curious about what might be inside the hole, Zyair and Kraiser carefully shovel the snow away to open up the hole bigger. They slowly approach the hole and carefully peer inside it.
Zyair and Kraiser peer into the dark depths of the gaping hole that seemed to lead into something. The two can barely make out anything in the darkness from at most a few feet in front of them.
With a quick gesture, Zyair turns on the flashlight attached to his suit. He shines the light in the hole and he could see a figure curled up in the corner of the hole.
Zyair and Kaiser are relieved to see Sino alive in the hole. His head slowly turns towards them, revealing his brain dead-looking look.
"So much for being oh-so reliable, huh?"
He seems annoyed and a little upset. Sino, now free from the hole, rises up and brushes off the snow from his coat.
“Ah.. sorry?” Zyair scratched the back of his hair. “We didn’t turn on until just recently. I’m truly apologetic, really!”
The former drone sighed and just approached the bright light, squinting from the blaring yellow. He exhaled quite loudly before speaking, “Nah, it’s fine.”
His glance shifted from the two drones towards the entrance of the cave before turning around and walking away from the hole. The wind starts to pick as the sun hits his visor, making the snow pick up as it drifts in the wind.
“Aren’t you cold?” Zyair pointed out, eyeing the underdressed male weirdly. The two followed the drone outside, ignoring the blaring whoosh of the winds.
“What? No,” Sino replied, focused on trying to flatten out a wrinkle on their colorful, obnoxiously bright Hawaiian shirt. Their brows furrowed with skepticism as a slight frown formed upon his lips. “Rather, I find it pretty hot. Don't you?”
“No, no. It really is freezing here.”
Kaiser looked and pointed at his and Zyair’s own respective snow coats, refuting the former’s words.
“Wear some clothes man…” Zyair deadpans, finding anywhere else more interesting.
Unfortunately for Sino, his tacky choice of clothing caused the other two to bully him quite a bit. They often judged the drone like close siblings that also hated each others’ guts to some extent.
“You look like you’d get pulled over at a casino,” Zyair casually mentioned while he chuckled, his eyes falling over to the horizon, looking at the falling sun that blended beautifully into a calm sunset.
“No, I wouldn't! I'm dressed like one of those beach guys with the six-packs!” Sino inserts a png on his visor. It's seemingly of a muscular, tan guy on a beach with a six-pack.
“Bro, you’re not like tha- ACTUALLY, you’re far from that… YOU'RE FAT!” Kraiser yells, startling his two companions due to the sudden loud noise.
Sino starts fake sobbing as he responds, “I- How dare you… I’m not fat! I’m handsome.”
Letting out a deep exhale, Zyair pushes the two outside. “Stop dillydalling. We don't have time to waste.”
Casually taking a step past them, he walked towards the sunset with a rather serious expression, the two following right behind him.