Heavy clouds rolled across the moons and the occasional plit plat of rain drops began hitting the leaves in the trees above. Sentinel and Jackie watched as the flock of Blink Birds milled about and occasionally fought with each other.

“I’m gonna scare the pants off 'em,” Jackie whispered.

Sentinel put a hand in front of him and motioned that he should wait. He then pointed to his own eyes before pointing out into dense underbrush near the birds. Jackie followed the motion and could see Elita crouching with an open “stop” hand in their direction, and her ThunderBlast sword in the other.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and the birds became agitated. Some of the flock huddled close to each other while others fought over a particular spot. The wind picked up speed and the trees swayed. If not for the ability to see beyond the visible light spectrum, all that Sentinel would be able to make out was inky blackness and the occasional blip of light as a Blink Bird [Blink]ed.

Elita nimbly jumped from her position, to the thick trunk of a nearby tree and up into the branches. As she held out her sword, sparks of electricity danced along its blade, picking up the static charge of the pending storm.

Lightning crackled in the clouds above and Elita lept from the branches, high into the air. Out of nothingness, she unfurled her large draconic wings and tail, gliding out over the flock. A second crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning tore through the sky lighting Elita up as it was redirected through her sword down into the flock.

The lightning bolt smashed into the crowded flock, instantly frying two of the birds and blasting all of their feathers off. Sparks flew and Sentinel’s vision was completely overwhelmed for several seconds. When his vision cleared, he could see Elita, with her wings out, slowly circling around as she drew closer to the ground until she aligned herself with the direction a bird was running.

When she neared the ground, the wings and tail vanished back into their [Inventory] storage compartments and she dropped from at least a story high, onto the back of the Blink Bird with her sword impaling it from above.

The instant the bird hit the ground, she rolled with it and popped up on one knee with her shield arm transformed. Electrified quills sprouted from the skull of another bird before it crashed into the thick vegetation surrounding the clearing.

The rest of the birds had scattered and were [Blink]ing away at impossible speeds. Within the span of moments, the hunt was over and Elita had killed 4 Blink Birds. More thunder rolled overhead as the wind got stronger. The full force of the storm would be upon them soon.

Jackie and Sentinel stood up from their vantage point as Elita hummed tunelessly and collected the birds into the [Inventory] bag.

“How...” Jackie began, “how did she survive that? I mean, sure, Elita is tough as nails but crikey!”

“And to think this is probably the first time she’s used those wings since they were installed. It’s impressive.”

“Are you serious?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yeah... I’m starting to think she might be a bit of a Mary Sue.”

“Who’s Mary Sue?”

“Ah. Don’t worry about it. Anyhoo, let’s get back inside before the sky opens up.”

Jackie looked up through the trees as another flash of lightning lit up the sky. “Yeah.. that’s a good call, mate.”

Sentinel and Jackie ran directly back towards the village and through the barrier, hoping to outrun the rain when they heard shouting coming from the village gate. Around them, villagers were shuttering windows and bringing indoors anything that they didn’t want rained on.

Joleen, a self-described artiste, was struggling to maneuver a large canvas with an impressionistic interpretation of... something into her studio.

“I got this. Go check on what all that hullabaloo is, yeah?” Jackie directed as he moved to help Joleen with her painting.

Sentinel ran on and found a small group clustered outside the gate. The group consisted of two humans and three slightly rat looking species with long, thick tails and orange skin. The oldest looking of the rat-ish people, Sentinel recognised as the man that IronHide had spoken with in Thompson’s Fork. One of the humans was the one that had thrown the fire bomb. Maybe the others were the ones that had tried to beat Shiro to death. Sentinel’s hands balled into fists as he approached the gate, but he consciously opened them back up.

“Sir? Sir, can you help us?” the older man called out as Sentinel neared, “I know it’s late, but we were trying to push to beat the storm. We were planning on arriving tomorrow morning but... Anyway, we were told to seek out a Master Prime at this village.”

“Any weapons?” Sentinel responded.

“Yes Sir, I have a crossbow and a dagger. Charlie, here, has a sword, and Mikk has an axe. Oh, and Davin has a club.”

Sentinel nodded, then indicated a hinged chest attached to the gate. “Go ahead and leave your weapons there and I’ll let you through. Can’t be too careful these days.”

The group did as asked and Sentinel stood at the threshold to place a hand on each member and walk them through; one by one. The original barrier had been designed to block organics that didn’t possess a key token, but it’s since been modified to also block Automata without a digital token in their codebase, however an authorized Automata could act as a token for others by physically touching them. It wasn’t fool proof against betrayal from within, but we were all in the same boat when it came to survival as a species.

Jackie had finished helping Joleen bring in her artworks and had grabbed Mara before meeting with the group. The group cart was wheeled in, and moved to the empty stables beside the village inn. So far, the Inn had only ever had a single guest, that being Shea, who had largely taken care of herself. There wasn’t currently anyone actually running the Inn, and the food supplies were minimal at best.

“I’m afraid that we aren’t well equipped for providing much hospitality for your kind at the moment,” Sentinel conceded, once the group had been moved to the dining room of the Inn.

“Oh, it’s fine Sir. We can tend to ourselves. I’m just glad to not have to sleep in the storm.”

“I’m Sentinel Prime, I maintain security for AutomaTown. We Automata don’t sleep, but things should be quiet with the storm tonight. Feel free to choose any rooms you like, if you need anything just let me know.”

“Oh! My apologies, my name is Lamar. I’m the village head for Thompsons Fork. This is Charlie and his son Mikk,” he said, gesturing to the other two of his species, “and these two are Davin and Stew. We were hoping that you might be able to put the boys to work.”

Sentinel nodded to them, though the humans and Mikk refused to meet his gaze. Davin, in particular, appeared to be seething at the idea of being here. He was the one that had openly challenged IronHide.

“Ah yes, our mutual friend, IronHide, said to expect you.”

Davin sat up and stole a glance at the window, “it, it’s not here, right?”

“Oh, did you want to see him? I can arrange it. I don’t think he’s busy at the moment.”

Davin scrunched down further in his chair and muttered something under his breath that Sentinel couldn’t quite make out.

I was busy working on my upgrades. I still couldn’t make any extensive changes to my own systems or body but I was able to install some connection ports similar to what I had installed for Elita. I had ports on my back, arms, legs, and the bottoms of my feet. I had mostly completed the first set of upgrade parts but trying to get the magiCode firmware to work properly was kicking my butt.

Shiro had slipped into the shop and was quietly watching me work from a stool in the corner but I could feel his anxiety over not having anything to do. He kept trying to engage me in conversation but it constantly would break my concentration and I’d have to backtrack on what I was working on and remember what I was mentally juggling for the programs.

I tried to turn the conversation to what I was doing in code, thinking it would put him off, but he seemed immune and adapt at ignoring the topic. When Sentinel brought the group from Thompsons Fork into the village, I wasn’t sure what the best course of action would be.

“Shiro. The guys that tried to kill you on the road are here. They’ve been dragged here by their village chief. He’s saying something about hoping that we’ll put them to work. I think as punishment. How do you want to handle it?”

Shiro went quiet. “I’m not sure. I don’t want any trouble. We can’t send them away though, not in this weather...”

“So what should we do? Let them stay the night in the Inn and send them home in the morning?”

“We have an Inn?”

“We had built it when Shea was staying with us, but it doesn’t get much use without any visitors.”

“Visitors... you think they’re hungry?”

“Probably. Thompsons Fork is at least an 8 hour walk from here.”

Shiro stood up, knocking the little stool over, with a gleam in his eyes. “I’m going to feed them!”

“These are the guys that tried to kill you, you know.”

“Master Prime, you want us to be taken as equals as a species, right?”

“Well, of course. That’s the goal, at least.”

“Then we can’t dwell on these sorts of things. We have to show that we are worthy as a people. If they attack us and we lash back, where will it end? If the kingdom got serious, they could wipe us out just as we’re getting started, right?”

That’s exactly what they plan on doing in a few days time. I wanted to say, but I didn’t want to squash his optimism. Instead, I said “You’re right. I shall leave them in your care then. It will be up to you to decide how to work them.”

“Right! Okay, I’m going to head over to the Inn and greet our new guests.” He then paused in the doorway, hesitating to actually step out onto the porch and beyond. “Um... Master Prime, could you come with me?”

I looked at the code in front of me and sighed inwardly. My brain could use a break. “Sure. I’d be happy to.”