CINDER

Cinder let out a squeak of surprise as the pipe, as soon as her fingers closed around it, sent a pulse of electricity through her. Her other arm automatically shot out, her hand knocking against the chest of the Cyborg, and he gave out a grunt of pain.

He dropped to the ground, unconscious.

After a few moments, she managed to let go of the pipe, and grasped at her hand in pain. “Damn,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “That stung a bit.”

“What’s going on?!” she heard FA1RY whisper loudly from his hiding spot the shelf. “Did you get ‘Em?”

“Yeah, I did,” she whispered back. “Come out, I need some help.”

FA1RY flew out off the shelf and over to them. “Darn, Cinder, how did you manage to take out a Cyborg?” he asked, sounding impressed.

The answer was clear—while she was in pain as an organic from getting lightly electrocuted—the cyborg on the other hand had mechanical parts to him—the majority of him seemed to be mechanical, in fact. She had somehow managed to grab onto an exposed metal part of his body that hadn’t been cased in a thin, protective sealant meant to protect him from just this sort of attack. Seemed like for the first time in her life, she had some good luck. She just hoped he wasn’t dead.

“For now,” she panted, her head in pain from the shocks she had just received. “Let’s just get him hidden away so no one notices that we just took out one of BETA’s guards.”

“Is he dead?” FA1RY asked, as he helped her drag him to the spot he had been hiding in moment’s ago. They stuffed the cyborg into the spot, and Cinder dusted her hands off for good measure.

“No, of course not,” she muttered. “It does take more than a few shocks to take out a Cyborg. Thankfully. I don’t really feel like killing anyone.”

They gazed at their handiwork. “Looks uncomfortable,” FA1RY noted.

“Yup,” Cinder agreed, cheerfully. “Alright, let’s get going. When that guard doesn’t make it back to their headquarters they’re gonna get suspicious.”

“If they haven’t already,” FA1RY said accusingly. “Why’d you have to shout so loud?”

“I got electrocuted,” Cinder said angrily, annoyance flashing through her. “Just be lucky it wasn’t you, gears for brains.”

“I won’t take that language from you, Cinderella,” FA1RY retorted, his screen turning red.

Cinder stopped short, before spinning around to face FA1RY. “Say that name again,” she threatened quietly, her eyes narrowing in anger.

FA1RY flew backwards another foot away from her. “Sorry—Cinder—Cinder,” he said, and thankfully it sounded like a legitimate apology. “Let’s get going, though,” he said, in a bit of a rush, “We’re not going to be able to dawdle around forever—the code I stole from BETA’s bot last week will only work for a little while longer.”

Cinder turned around and began to sprint down the aisle. It wasn’t fair, she thought to herself, that FA1RY could remember the blueprints of the warehouse perfectly, being a Mechite, while she, an Organic, could only hope that she was remembering her left and rights correctly.

Of course, she could always become a Cyborg, a creature that was part Organic, part Mechite, originating as one or the other. It was a forbidden practice, but some got away with it

A lot of people got away with it, Cinder thought cynically.

It took some time to find the Coderoom, but while Cinder’s Organic mind was unable to memorize intricate warehouse blueprints, FA1RY’s Mechite mechanisms were able to do so. “Go, go, go, go,” Cinder said, hopping slightly in place as FA1RY worked to unlock the Coderoom. She was starting to get anxious. They had been in the warehouse for twenty-five minutes, and at this point she wasn’t sure if they’d get out of here alive.

“Hold on, Kid, I know what I’m doing,” FA1RY said with obvious false confidence.

“Since when—hey!” she yelped quietly again as one of his limbs shot out and flicked her gently on the forehead. “I don’t appreciate that,” she muttered, rubbing the abused flesh. FA1RY ignored her.

“Alright!” FA1RY said excitedly, as the door to the Coderoom opened, and it slowly opened.

“Now…” Cinder said, quietly, “You sure you know what the coding looks like?”

“Yup,” FA1RY said, his body bobbing up and down in an improvised nod. “I know exactly what we’re looking for. Now, finding it in this mess will be…difficult.”

“How difficult?” Cinder asked.

They both stood on the threshold of the door, neither making a move inside. “Well?” Cinder asked.

“Well what?”

“Aren’t you going to go in?”

“I really think,” FA1RY said, his internal mechanisms giving out a noise akin to a indignant sniff, “That I don’t think it’s fair that I’m the only one constantly risking their life just so that—“

He let out a screech as she pushed him into the Coderoom.