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Why was it always something?
Billy looked around the decrepit buildings of the Hollow and scratched at his scalp with the hammer of one of his Girls™. The other sat against his hip.
From the moment the Cunning Hares had entered the Hollow, he'd felt a creeping presence at his back- lurking eyes that the android didn't want to risk zeroing in on his family team.
It made something near primal stir low in his plating.
Something painful and stabbing that itched at this trigger happy fingers into motion.
Billy wouldn't let any of the Hares get hurt, not on his watch.
So he'd done what he does best these days. Caused a ruckus. The android had flailed his limbs and pulled his punches just enough to make himself seem like an easy target and then split.
He'd definitely get an earful later... the girls never liked it when he put himself in positions like this. But it was a necessary evil!
Billy could bounce back from atomization, especially now that his memories had been banked on a hard drive oh-so-generously gifted to the Hares by a certain blue-eyed manager. [Nicole's insistence, so they didn't have a repeat of... well.]
But the fragile humans, and thiren, could not. They didn't have the protection of metal plating or veins of rubber-cased wiring or the luxury of deleting memories from a bank of data. When they got fatally hurt, it stuck.
It stuck in a way he couldn't protect them from.
So. Billy would just protect them this way. By taking care of the threat before it became a threat.
"Hey- uh.. are you ok?"
It would be tough, but with the strength of the Starlight Knights on his side-
"Seriously- do you need, like- help?"
The dames of the Hares would be perfectly protected by none other than-
"That looks really bad, dude!"
Billy Kid, former Son of Calydon and current marksmen of the Cunning Hares! The android would not rest until-
"I'm a mechanic, you know, I could-"
"DO YOU MIND? CAN'T A GUY MONOLOGUE IN PEACE ANYMORE!?"
Billy whirls on the rude voice, more than a little miffed that someone just had to interrupt his internalized heroic speech when-
"YOU HAVE REBAR THROUGH YOUR STOMACH!"
Oh.
Billy looks down.
Well that explained his stomach pain.
"...look at that," the android says, and makes the oh so wise [heh, manager joke] decision to poke it. He never claimed to be the smartest Hare.
Pain instantly spiders it's way through his wiring.
"Hey-!" Before Billy even realizes it, muscular arms are looping under his arms before his knees can crack against the pavement.
They hold his weight with surprising ease, even if the jostling coaxes a low groan from the suddenly aware marksmen. Knights, he didn't even know androids could feel adrenaline like this. He missed being a mindless marksman, actually- could he go back to not perceiving pain please?
"Guess even robots can crash out, huh..?" the voice- male, he thinks- nervously chuckles out, "Are you-"
"Android," Billy cuts in, "I'm- an android."
"What's the difference?"
"What's the difference between you and a bear?"
Maybe his newly discovered flesh- plating?- wound was making him a touch too grumbly, but he really hated that robot v. android question. Probably in the same way humans hated being compared to animals.
He kinda expected to hit the ground now, actually.
The day just kept surprising him though.
"Huh- touché," the voice ends up responding- and he should really get a look at his face and not just his stupidly firm chest, "I never thought about it that way before."
And then the android was being lifted- lifted, not hauled, what the fuck- to his feet; with his arm slung over even more stupidly broad shoulders. What were they feeding this man-
"That looks really bad, bro..."
Right, mortal flesh wound.
"Come on, lets get you out of this Hollow and I can-"
"NO!"
It's like all of Billy's systems suddenly kicked into high gear. He was fighting to get his feet back under him, fighting to pull away, he couldn't leave-
"No... my team- the girls, I can't. There's someone-" The android had barely wrapped his fingers around the rebar in his stomach before he was being hip-checked and the man was wrestling his hand away.
"There's somebody after my family-"
"I think they're after you, actually!"
The gun goes off before the mechanic realizes Billy had wormed his other arm free.
•_-><-_•
Anton had seen a lot of things within the Hollows.
Too many things, all things considered, stained too many clothes with Ethereal matter. Ruined too many tools.
He had also heard a lot of things. Both in and out of the Hollows.
Namely, things about a certain robotic- androtic? No, that sounded dumb... um.. oh! Mechanical. Mechanical worked.
Anton had heard things about a certain mechanical marksmen. He'd heard his reputation change and evolve and shift like a human's would- had been hearing the whispers and seeing the headlines since he was small.
From a point and click war machine, to a feared enforcer, to whatever the hell he was now- the mechanic had heard it all. It was sort of the thing that got him into the scene in the first place.
Seeing the android in person though- without the buffer of his Boss- was a different experience entirely.
Billy Kid was lankier than his reputation would suggest, kinder looking- in a way- with his bright glass eyes and animated movements.
...and giant piece of rebar lodged in his stomach.
"Hey- uh.. are you ok?" Anton asks, but the robot didn't seem to hear him as he continued his pacing.
Was it pacing? He kinda looked like he was just mimicking comic book poses...
"Seriously- do you need, like- help?"
Mechanical or not, it can't feel good to have a serrated bar shoved through your flesh- plating? Plating.
Billy Kid's movements had stilled, positioned in just the right way that Anton had a front row seat to the way the rebar mangled through the metal. Oil stained the surrounding plates like blood.
"That looks really bad, dude!"
Robots were not his area of expertise, Anton is big enough to admit that, but- well.. he knew the basics! Hanging around Grace for any extended amount of time would give anybody that knowledge.
Offering couldn't hurt, right...?
"I'm a mechanic, you know, I could-"
"DO YOU MIND? CAN'T A GUY MONOLOGUE IN PEACE ANYMORE!?"
Was he seriously-!?
"YOU HAVE REBAR THROUGH YOUR STOMACH!"
The robot looks down, his arms falter from their accusing whirl, and of course- of course, he pokes it.
He pokes the rebar sticking out of his plating.
"...look at that."
Anton is catching him before he's even realized he's moved.
And fuck, he's glad to have muscles. Billy Kid was made of pure reinforced metals, slotted together in just the right way to allow flexibility any starting gymnast would be jealous of; if Anton wasn't used to hauling high density materials around on the daily, he probably would've felt this harder.
"Guess even robots can crash out, huh...?" he finds himself chuckling, a little uneasy about the limp mass he was currently supporting, "Are you-"
"Android," Billy Kid interrupts him, for the second time in their incredible short interaction so far, "I'm- an android."
His voice is concerningly weak, likely feeling the full effects of his messed up wiring as his adrenaline left, and there's a million other things the mechanic should be focusing on right now but-
"What's the difference?" is the first thing out of his mouth.
"What's the difference between you and a bear?"
And... oh.
He had actually never thought about it that way.
Anton thinks of Belobog Heavy Industries, thinks of Ben Bigger and of every thiren and pet and stray he's come across in his 20 something years of life.
Billy Kid wasn't asking if Anton was the same as a bear. He was asking how he was different from other organic life.
"Huh," he ponders, adjusting his grip on the less than lucid android, "Touché."
Ah- he should probably get the marksmen off his pecs.
In a fluid lift, Anton had Billy Kid's arm draped over his shoulder instead. He thinks he vaguely heard him mutter something like 'what the fuck' buuuut he chalks it up to delirium.
Probably due to the sluggishly leaking impalement in his torso- that stained Anton's pants and was now staining his jacket. Eh, it was just oil.
"That looks really bad, bro..."
Could androids bleed out? Would Belobog Heavy Industries be on the receiving end of the Cunning Hares wrath if their favorite big brother died?
Well- of course, they would. They'd probably also face the wrath of the Sons of Calydon if Billy Kid died and Anton was the only one with oil on his hands.
Jeez...
"Come on, lets get you out of this Hollow and I can-"
"NO!"
And that makes three times the android had interrupted him..
This time though, it was like some sort of switch had flipped in his processors. Billy Kid was practically throwing himself away from the mechanic- clawing at Anton's shoulder, reaching for the fucking rebar-
"No... my team- the girls, I can't. There's someone-" the words stab at something squishy in Anton's chest, but he wrestles Billy Kid's hand away anyway.
"There's someone after my family-"
"I think they're after you, actually!"
Footsteps- muffled and creeping, but undeniably footsteps closing in on the two. Had been for the past ten minutes.
Should he have paid it closer mind? Probably.
Would he get an earful from his own team when he got back? Absolutely.
Maybe Grace would be more lenient if she heard it was for an android...
BANG!
...
. . .
FUCK, THAT WAS LOUD.
Who fires a gun next to someone's ear?
thud.
.....Anton is very grateful he was not the intended target, all of the sudden. Definitely not because of the smoking hole left in their possible assailant.
"There's two more," Billy Kid rasps, finally stopping his stupid struggle for the rebar, "One behind the pipes.. one around the corner."
"...I know we just met, but I'm extremely grateful you work for the Cunning Hares.."
He gets a dry chuckle in return- still raspy and weak, but.. lucid. Enough.
"What do you need me to do?" Anton asks.
"Hold me up."
And Anton did.
Nobody messed with the Cunnings Hares family and got away with it... least of all Anton.