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Chapter 16
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“Okay, so.”
He looked back at the pair, who were mostly just staring at each other, processing the fact that the other existed. “Great. Wonderful. Could someone at least get Wild? I just- I’m a little busy at the-”
Cordax, however, was far too preoccupied to bother paying any attention to the groaning Dreamer, puzzling over the glowing form of the figure before him, physically only a caricature of the friend he had once known. “You’re real. It’s actually really you.”
“Well… Yep, it’s me.” AI grinned artificially in reply.
“And you’re not- you aren’t some kind of replicated program, then?”
“I do have my original form as proof, but uhh…” The hologram looked at the wall. “Wild said it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to show it.”
“But why??” Cordax almost wailed. “It’s a little unnerving looking at this if what you really look like is an option.”
“Well,” AI began. “It’s because it, it’s a little………… rotted.”
“…You don’t have something from before that?”
“A LITTLE ASSISTANCE, PLEASE!!” Gofers bellowed, finally grabbing the attention of the pair as he stood awkwardly holding a large computer which had barred the path to where Racie now sat.
“Sorry, but,” He grimaced, clearly uncomfortable with having to be so harsh. “If I hurt this giant machine something bad could happen, so if someone could get that girl- sorry, lady - while I’m busy, that would be fantastic!”
Cordax had crawled under and was assisting her in leaving before he finished his plea. With her rescued, he gently returned the machine to the earth before darting to Winger’s side and stared in utter horror at the exposed stump of his boss’ shoulder. “Oh, gosh. I’m no veterinarian, but this looks really really bad.”
Cordax’s question of You’re not a What was ignored in the seriousness of the moment. “If we can get this reattached- we can do that, right? Just stick it back on” His attempts to reattach the arm back to its stump were extremely sad, “then we could just make it better? Someone? Please, we’ve got to help him!”
“Write something like this,” AI whispered, then even quieter into the side of Gofers’ skull through the little metal sphere, which had been floating around the room in slow circles. The skeletal bodyguard looked, nodded, and after scratching it out on a rock with his master’s disconnected extremity and enjoying such a tasty snack, he lit up the room with his flaming green eyes.
“Hey, uh, wake up please.” Gofers rocked Winger’s body with his hand. “Uhh… Okay it’s not working. Anybody else got any ideas on what to do? He could be hurt bad, well I mean he is but it could be worse, he could be dead or-”
“I’m alive.” Winger coughed, his hand feeling over the exposed stump of his arm. “I was in a room, all by myself. And I felt someone take, take my arm clean off.” He turned his head enough to see the limp limb resting on the floor. “I just… Accepted. Like it was a request that needed fulfilling, that… My body wanted permission to be okay with it.”
“It has come to my attention that you aren’t bleeding.” AI commented, looming over the group and scratching his chin. “Although the girl certainly is. If it’s alright with you, would you tell your Dreamer to make her bleeding cease?”
As Winger looked weakly around for a rock, there was a tempered squeal, which was followed by a shattering of glass and an angry roar. “BRRRR-RRRRRR!! It was so COLD in there! Now who’s- uh,” Wild’s many specks floated together, sizing up the situation. “Y’know maybe I just shouldn’t say anything for a few minutes. Oh look, there’s a body in the ceiling.” Some of his lights flew up to where the Tott puppet hung.
“Hey uh, you don’t mind if I…?” Gofers asked as he held Winger’s loose arm in his grip. The resulting repulsed noises by its former host and most everyone present (even Wild, who did not really understand it) informed him quietly setting the arm back down and looking somewhere else was the best course of action after that embarrassment.
“Whoops!” Wild suddenly blurted out, followed by the took of wood hitting concrete as Tott’s body smashed into the floor. “Sorry, I wanted a closer look at this dead guy and there was a cable in the way.”
“You wanted to drop it and hoped it would hit someone.” Gofers deadpanned.
“No, I didn’t.” Wild retorted.
…
“Okay yes I did.”
“I’m bleeding?” Racie groaned, reminding Gofers about her predicament. “And Tott is dead, so I don’t understand why there’s so much emphasis being placed on him right now when I’m still bleeding. I’m still bleeding, by the way.”
“His name’s Tott?” Wild’s cloud descended towards Racie. “I didn’t realize you freaks knew every dead person in town. Is this a sign than I shouldn’t get to know any of you?”
“That would be merciful.” Gofers murmured to the side, bracing as the cloud of Wild flew directly into his face. “See what I have to deal with every day? It’s almost worse than my old fast-food job. Definitely worse than moonlighting as a wrestler.”
“I wish you had normal eyes right now so I could blind them.” Wild replied.
“I’m bleeding??” Racie reiterated, tired of having to scoot away from the puddle forming on the ground. Cordax had gone over to stand and stare helplessly at her burst knuckles without actually doing anything to contribute, and AI had been lost in thought, returning to the moment with convenient timing and electing to travel the room to see if anything remotely medical-looking could be found. Gofers reached for his hat to use it as a mock bandage only to find it wasn’t there, and Wild kept all of his cloud form hovering overhead to monitor things.
All, except, for one lone spark, which floated aside Winger as he stared down into the blank eyes of Tott. “Man, I don’t know who this guy was, but look at that gash.” He made an inhaling-through-teeth sound despite not having teeth to inhale through at the sight of the large crack in Tott’s body. “No way anybody in the world survived that kind of a wound.”
“Tott?” Winger leaned in, staring at the lifeless shell on the ground. With his remaining arm he gingerly lifted it upright by the shoulder, its head slumping forwards from the action. There was a solemn silence in reply.
“Dad?”
I almost completely abandoned my Dreamer body at that moment, because as you may recall, I was riding in the back of a convertible at high speeds towards a figure of impossible stature, fairly well preoccupied with the goings-on I was involved with, so this utterance shocked me pretty thoroughly. I did not realize I had any presence left in the Tott puppet, but it was enough to hear my son’s inquiry.
And, of course, to return.
Right as Wild began inquiring as to what it was Winger whispered under his breath, my eyes flared orange light in all directions and I snatched the little spark out of the air, holding him in my hand as my eyes readjusted themselves to the room, to the reflective sheen of Winger’s helmet, and finally, to the void on his left side…
“Tott’s awake.” The Wild cloud informed the party, who collectively jolted at my presence in a variety of ways - Racie began to backpedal away, Cordax balled his hands into fists but otherwise retreated into his hoodie, and Gofers, who had been trying to tie his trashbag poncho around Racie’s exposed wounds, stopped in confusion and simply stood there.
Eventually, all the members of the party drew up their collective courage and approached me, sitting on the ground, staring at the place where my son’s left arm should have been. If I was there now, it seems certain someone of that party would have tried to convince me that it wasn’t my fault, but I knew what decisions had lead there, to that impromptu surgery, deep in the underbelly of that awful city.
“…Tott?” Winger asked. The inquiry may have been because I was shaking.
I didn’t answer.
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