Iron Drumbeat Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Wait I totally logged in to post this. Wow, I got super distracted. SCP Justin strikes again. Anyway, enjoy!

"You have machine magic?!" Tink asked, her hands blurring through the signs so fast I could barely read them.

"Slower," I pleaded motioning to her hands while I picked up another tasteless nutrient cube. "Yeah. Do you think I could just, like, touch the fascist tin-can and he'd turn off?"

The little fluffy alien excitedly shuffled closer and pulled a small electric motor out of a pocket on the greasy tan coveralls she always wore. "No. Too much thinking in his head. It will fail. Now try this! Feel the motor. It is broken, but machine magic doesn't care. Try, try, try!"

"Why do you keep a broken motor in your pocket?" I asked, plucking the little component out of her hand.

"I fix when bored. Now try! Stop being distracted!" She complained.

Geez. She was feeling excitable today. If her fingers signed any faster they'd probably get tangled up like a pair of headphone cords.

Now about this motor… how did I even vibe with the other things? I just sorta touched them and suddenly I understood them and could encourage them to do their jobs. I was already touching the motor though.

Well, the wise old teacher characters in the bootleg shows we stole from some street vendors usually told the main characters to clear their minds. Maybe that would work?

But like, how the hell do you clear your mind? Mine was always running, thinking about things, being curious and random shit, or watching for danger. Well, or thinking about thinking about things. Or thinking about thinking about thinking about things. Argh!

A small finger flicked my hip, and I startled out of my recursive thought loop to look down at Tink.

I can see too much thinking up there! Less think, more think about motor!

"I'm trying!" I exclaimed. Then, I gave her a funny look. "Wait, how do you know how this works?"

"Always wish for machine magic. Not born with it, but learn about how it works anyway because interested. Fog didn't give either. Stupid fog."

"Oh, that makes sense— hold on, you're a neon?!"

I stared at Tink incredulously while they gazed back up at me with frustrated annoyance. "I am not lightbulb. I am condensate of fog. But! You are getting even more distracted! My life story will be later! Think about motor! Look at it, investigate!"

“No, no,” I said, holding up a hand to stall her. “A neon is a person who can’t die, who is reconstructed by the fog whenever their body is broken beyond repair. We could both escape! The collars won’t come with us!”

“A neon, a fog-condensate, it can return to life? More than just once?”

I nodded. “They’re famous for it where I’m from. Most people who go into the fog just mutate or die. Some of them become sorta part of the fog, and then the fog will rebuild them. Now that I think about it, it’s obvious you’re a neon because otherwise how the hell did you get here?”

“I heard tales of the haunted woods,” she signed slowly, collecting her thoughts. “The stories say that the spirits within might grant you powers. I was… foolish. I listened. I went in, I was killed by the monsters, I woke up here. Mi-DOS helped me, but I did not want to help him with his quest, so he shackled me and made me help him.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely a neon like me…” I said, gesturing between us. “If we die, we’ll essentially respawn at the nearest source of fog.”

She sighed and nodded. “Only source of fog in my world is in the forest. Why did I not come back there?”

I shrugged. “Maybe the first time is different?”

“I see. It does not matter currently anyway. You are even more distracted than before! Think with the motor!” She told me, getting more and more animated as she signed, until she hopped up onto the small table in our shared metal hovel and planted her hands on her hips.

“Fine, fine,” I grumbled, focusing my attention back on the motor. Tink was a neon though! Honestly, I felt a lot better knowing I wasn’t alone. There was definitely hope we could—

Tink flicked my forehead, hard, and I yelped. “Hey!”

She stared me down, hands still on hips.

Right. The motor. The motor… I wonder if it could spin at all, I mean, how was it even broken? My new magic could probably give it the juice to move, but only if that was still physically possible. It was very cool to the touch, despite being in Tink’s pocket. The metallic chassis was smooth with no obvious damage, though so the problem probably wasn’t physical.

Suddenly, I could feel the motor. The internal components, copper wire and magnets, plus the outer chassis. I guess if I asked it very nicely, it might… spin. It was spinning!

“I did it!” I cried happily, showing the motor to Tink. They danced a tiny excited little dance on the table and finished by pumping a fist.

Mi-DOS joined in from outside. No, wait, that wasn't… what the hell was he doing? Out in the courtyard, he was screaming incoherently and smashing pots and pans together or something.

Tink and I put our celebration on hold and rushed to the door. Slowly, I edged it open so we could see outside. The courtyard beyond the airvan-turned-hovel was a mess. Scrap metal, mostly signs and other flat pieces, were strewn across the gravel. That was about the time that Mi-DOS opened up with the fucking minigun.

Up on top of what could generously be called the "keep" of his little castle, an old pre-fog minigun had been mounted and then abandoned. Apparently, it still worked.

"Invade my lands, will you? Let me show you the wrath of the Micrasect Dynasty! Die, foul demons, die!" The mad robot howled, somehow finding enough power to yell over the din the gun was making.

What was the fucking loon up to now? Demons? Was he finally blowing a fuse too important to lose?

The gate exploded inwards, shards of metal pinwheeling across the courtyard in a cone of death. Through the open doorway, translucent grey figures rushed in, bounding over obstacles and each other. Each figure was different except that they all had a form that exuded danger like only the twisted horrors of the eldfog could.

I knew what these things were. They were the horrors of the early days, when the eldfog ruled earth in a way it never had in my lifetime. They were the Consumed. Twisted mirrors of the dead who weren't so lucky as to become a neon. The Consumed didn't just focus on Mi-DOS. They began to fan out, ripping through the various workshops and other ramshackle buildings inside the compound like they were searching for something…

One of the Consumed walked on four impossibly long legs, each of which ended in a blade that looked more solid than the rest of it. It looked like a monstrous cross between a person, a cargo loader, and a four-legged-spider and it was faster than any of those three on their own.

It ghosted across the courtyard faster than any of the other monstrosities and leapt up to sink its fore-blades into the ramshackle structure that Mi-DOS was making his stand on top of. Then, like a ship-breaker from down at the docks with his vibro-picks, it began to climb.

"Tink…" I whispered fearfully. "There's a mech transport in sector F-6. It has a red-painted mech inside it. I think it will be able to keep us safe. It looked mostly intact and considering it died in battle, it probably has hella strong spirits."

I had to tear my eyes away from the chaos unfolding outside our hovel to see her reply, and her small fingers quivered with fear while she said, "I know it. I will gather what tools I can. How do we get there?"

Fuck. How were we going to get to it?

A shadow passed close to the door we were peeking through. A car was torn in two on the other side of the compound. Mi-DOS screamed futile defiance. We were out of time.

Nah, I knew how we were going to get to it. Who was I kidding?

"You go. I'll distract," I said, fear curdling in my gut, solidifying, and somehow giving me strength all at once.

Tink's eyes widened, and their fingers flew. "No! You will be hurt!"

"Doesn't matter," I said, gritting my teeth. "I'll come back, and we need you to escape with the tools. Git, tiny."

Turning from the door, I nudged her towards the back door where she kept her tools and picked up a mean looking section of pipe from her pile of components. "I'm going to borrow this like you borrow food."

Tink hovered for a moment, blinking in anxious confusion.

"It's a saying. Means you're not going to get it back, I hope it's not important," I said, flashing her a grin that was probably a grimace from her end. "See you soon."

Then, I turned for the door and slipped through it.