When Adventure Comes Crawling
Yuki Kikuchi, self-proclaimed cybernetic artisan, heir to the Kikuchi family, was bored out of her mind.
Today was an all too quiet day. Somehow, the usual chaos and violence of the city ruins had faded away. No raiders shooting up every shattered window they could see. No mutants demanding revolution on the streets. And definitely no haywire robots running amok causing a commotion. Business carried on with a more than leisurely pace. And that didn't exactly sit well for her.
"This apocalypse thing's got us all boring." she sighed, fist squishing her cheek, eyes gazing at the bustling streets but mind drifting.
"I thought it would be more like that Metro game but guess I just disappointed myself."
From the building whose wall she was lying on, a portly mutant wearing a shirt of necklaces bumbled out.
"OI PRETTY LADY!", he yelled, "IF YOU NOT BUYING, YOU RUNNING! GIT!"
"Shut up Blubber! I've been sitting at this damn place for 4 months. Pretty sure finders keepers apply here!"
The annoyed Blubber broke into a tirade about property ownership as she just rolled her eyes in her disappointment. He was an annoying one, selling trinkets to any passerby he encountered. And not even the fancy stuff, every single one of his collection was some kitschy tourist bullshit that would have a pre-War native shaking in disappointment. One had to wonder whether sensibility had died with half of the human race.
"AND THAT'S WHY YOU NO STEP ON MY PROPERTY. FIND OTHER IDIOT'S PLACE TO PERCH, BIRDIE LADY!"
Well, screw it. "Ok. I'll go. I'll find a new place and get my sorry ass off YOUR property"
If adventure didn't come to her, she'd just have to find it. Like the old days.
But of course, a little reminder for one of her clients. That'll she'll eventually be back to annoy him.
"Just make sure you know where your shiny bits came from!" the snarky tone of "shiny bits" eliciting a blueing flare from Blubber's right eye.
She walked and walked, her high heels scratching through the unpaved roads. Grime and dust stuck to her coat and skin as she absorbed the view around her. Weirdos from all corners of life trading and gambling in broad daylight. A lone raider cowering from a group of burly leather-donning Amazons. Spider robots crawling through the rubble of what used to be skyscrapers. Spider robots crawling through the rubble of what used to be houses. Spider robots crawling through what used to be shops. Mutants, settlers and drunken bunker-babies like her running away in panic. Spider robots crawling through...
Wait, was it her or did the entire market district become a mecha-spider den?
The screaming grew louder as none could discriminate between the yells of pain and the whooping of bloodthirsty fighters. One spider bot latched onto the walls of a bodega-turned-pawn shop only for a mine stuck in a freak frisbee incident (don't ask) to blast the mechanical creature into scraps. Another was being smashed onto the floor repeatedly, the city denizen doing it clearly enjoying his extending cybernetic arm. Still, more were punching beyond their weight. A gorilla-like robot was pinned down, countless spiders tearing chunks of metal off it. An octopus-haired woman screamed as two of them tore out half of her entire scalp, the tentacles flailing and flopping on the floor.
Yuki scanned the entirety of the pandemonium, somewhat taken aback at how quickly adventure came to her. And at the ferocity of those little bots. "I thought those things were only farm aids!" her inner thoughts screamed.
Of course, there was some basis for that. The specific model of Arachnid robot in front of her used to cut wilting branches off fruit trees, pluck grape vines, and change the wood of rotting farms. And now that hardware was put to plucking the settlers of the City Ruins like apples off the tree.
Sure there were people who could shoot down every single bot within seconds. Sure, there were people who could just smash them together like bowling balls. Sure, there were even bots who knew how to rewire those things for the good of all.
But clearly, she had to do the job.
And that she relished.
The odachi she carried around burst out of its sheath with one graceful pull. A battered spider-bot crashed nearby the preparing Yuki, screeching to alert its brethren of the new meat incoming. She took a few deep breaths at the now-incoming horde. Maybe she'd die here. But if she did, who else could decipher how those tiny creatures worked? She couldn't drop here, not while both adventure and research hinged on her presence.
"Well looks like you little buggers"
The breathes stopped. She charged towards the sea of metal legs.