Mecha Realm

As Ben slurped his big bowl of noodles, Marvin thought of ways to phrase his question.

What are the odds those people who broke into Renee’s apartment will try to break into the workshop?

No, too many words.

What happens if people try to break into the workshop?

Still too many.

Will people try to break into the workshop?

That was good. Marvin spoke the words to Ben.

“Will people try to break in?”

Ben looked up and frowned. “To this shop?”

Marvin grimaced. “The workshop. You know, the people who were at Renee’s apartment.”

“I told you,” Ben said, raising his bowl and taking a long sip, “don’t worry about it.”

Marvin was getting quite sick of hearing that, but then again, Ben, Caroline, and Renee were probably sick of him asking. What kind of dark past did they have to keep so secret? Was he right in trusting them in the first place?

Ben went back to eating and Marvin went back to watching the Sawblades’ garage. Caroline was abroad, reaching out to mech teams to prepare for the season. Renee was at the workshop, working on her code to illegally register Marvin’s mech.

Marvin liked being at Jori’s Noodle Shop with Ben more than Caroline. Even though they were in the same boat, Ben didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives and was just along for the ride. Although he was also a lot more talkative than Caroline, he didn’t seem to mind Marvin’s lack of reaction, and Marvin never felt obligated to keep a conversation going.

It was currently 5:30 PM. The TV at the chef’s central counter was playing the news. The regulars—the new rotation that came in from 3 to 8—were minding business as usual, the scavenger among them.

He had come in at 4 today. He’d changed into a hoodie and pants, but still covered his face with a surgical mask and wore a wrap of cloth on his head. His hollow eyes sometimes seemed to be gazing into a different dimension, but more often than not, he was looking at Marvin and Ben.

It was unnerving. The scavenger didn’t eat or talk. He just sat in the opposite corner, eyes slowly sweeping across the room.

Ben finished his noodles and checked his watch.

“I still have five minutes,” Marvin told him. He’d gotten good at keeping track of time.

“Appreciate it,” Ben said, and turned to the TV.

Marvin decided to listen in as well. The news channel was talking about a serial killer at large in Sector 8, Nagatown’s flipside Sector. Apparently the killer had claimed five victims so far and had staged all of them as suicides. The police were on the hunt and Ainsel AI had employed its most advanced AI to assist them.

“The Hosaka Roundtable has expressed concern over how much influence companies should have on the police force,” the reporter said. “Ainsel AI’s CEO, Saeyung Park, had this to say about the role of AI in law enforcement, and how her company aims to be as unbiased as possible.”

A different voice began speaking. “First of all, the police gets the final say whether or not to use our product-”

“Holy shit, it’s her!” Ben exclaimed.

Marvin spun around, startled. The woman on the TV, Saeyung Park, looked slightly familiar. Black hair and tinted glasses… it was the same woman who’d zipped up Ben’s backpack in the Mecha Realm foyer. The potential—and now confirmed—Legionnaire connection.

Ben was about to say something else, but he suddenly snapped his mouth shut and turned away. Marvin looked around, confused, and noticed that the scavenger was glaring at them. He shrunk back into his chair.

“We gotta do something about him,” Ben murmured.

“He hasn’t done anything wrong,” Marvin said.

“He’s stalking us!”

“We don’t know that.”

Ben sighed in exasperation, got up, and stalked to the chef’s station. Marvin nearly stood up in alarm, but relaxed when Ben simply returned his bowl. He lingered at the counter for a moment, then returned.

“He says the scavenger is new as of two days ago,” Ben said. “When you and Caroline saw him the first time.”

Marvin tilted his head. This was obvious—the scavenger had been wearing his badlands gear that day.

“So?” Marvin asked.

“Isn’t it weird?” Ben whispered. “He came in a week after we did, completely separated from his brood, no scrap to sell. And then every day, he comes in right after we do and sits there till we leave.”

So he’s watching us? Perhaps. But how would they confirm that?

“What if he’s not a scavenger?” Ben said. “What if the Manhunters sent him?”

Marvin shivered. If that were true, then did the Manhunters know? Was he compromised?

If they knew, why don’t they just kill me?

Maybe the “scavenger” had recognized Caroline as they’d passed one another and had been ordered to watch them at the noodle shop.

Do they really suspect Caroline? She barely acted out of the norm.

“I got a plan,” Ben said. “Tonight, we’re gonna see when our little buddy leaves the shop. We’ll leave, then hide in an alley and watch the door.”

Marvin gulped. “What if he sees us?”

Ben shrugged. “We’ll just be careful. Far as I know, he’s not trying to follow us home.”

Marvin tapped his metal thumb and index finger together. There had to be a more subtle way.

“What if we went to the store next to us?” he suggested.

“He’s gonna get suspicious if he sees us in there,” Ben argued.

“Why? It’s a boba shop, isn’t it?” Marvin said. “We’re just… going to eat boba, and I can watch from my periphery.”

Ben paused and tapped his chin. A smile spread across his face. “You know what, that’s a good idea.”

Marvin grinned. It was good to be useful for something other than fighting for once.

“But do you eat or drink boba?” Ben pondered. “The age old question.”

“You eat it,” Marvin said.

“What is boba?” Ben mused. “Is it the drink or the round thingy? Oh, the age old question.”

They debated this for a while until Marvin got tired and Ben started talking to himself. When he was done, he pulled out his laptop and pretended to work on a school project. People shuffled in, sitting at tables, laughing, chatting, but there were never too many to block the view of the scavenger.

The horizon borders’ light faded away, and neon blue and purple filled the restaurant. It was a nice vibe. For a while, Marvin could ignore the scavenger’s uncanny presence. The people began to trickle out, and the aromas drifting out of the chef’s station dampened.

Soon, it was time to leave. No activity by the garage, as usual. After walking out the door, Marvin and Ben made two sharp lefts and entered the boba shop. A thick wall separated the stores, so it was unlikely the scavenger would have seen.

The boba shop was one of those places that tried a little too hard to stand out. The interior was pink and white, the ordering kiosk was shaped like a mech, the chairs were strange, hovering semicircles, and firefly projections pranced through the air. The counter itself was built to resemble a giant sword.

Lindon would have a field day with this place, Marvin thought. He imagined his uncle complaining about the lack of consistency and proposing a hundred ways he could’ve designed it better.

Marvin and Ben sat in two opposite hemisphere chairs, separated by a small round table. Marvin positioned himself so that the street and noodle shop were just barely in the corner of his periphery.

A few people passed by on the sidewalk. The lantern above the noodle shop flickered. Two cyclists zoomed by.

Then the door opened and the scavenger stepped out.

Jeez, we just sat down, Marvin thought. Maybe this is just a coincidence?

But the timing was too suspicious.

The scavenger turned right, opposite from where Marvin and Ben usually went, and disappeared into the night.

“He’s gone,” Marvin told Ben.

Ben widened his eyes. “What was that? Thirty seconds?”

“About three minutes since we left,” Marvin said.

Ben exhaled sharply. He twisted in his seat to observe the street, but the scavenger was out of sight. Ben narrowed his eyes.

“Let’s do an experiment,” he said. “Tomorrow we come at 10 and stay till 2. If the scavenger shows up, we’ll know he’s watching us.”

Marvin nodded. “What do we do if he is stalking us?”

“I dunno,” Ben admitted. “We stop coming here, I guess.”

Even though it was the safer option, Marvin’s spirits sank a little. Going to the noodle shop every day for the past two weeks had made him quite invested.

“You know, Ishaan probably isn’t even at the garage,” Ben said. “The Manhunters might have him in their base.”

“They need his team and mech, though,” Marvin pointed out.

“They could’ve captured them, too. Maybe the Manhunters outside the garage are a decoy.”

Marvin pursed his lips. If that were the case, they had no hope of gaining another lead and had to rely on Bob.

Sometimes, Marvin wondered if he should just tell the whole city that he was alive. Take a chance that people who wanted to help would reach him before those who wanted to harm him.

But that uncertainty was the very thing that held him back.

“Eh, we’ll see,” Ben continued. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

-----

The next day, the scavenger didn’t show up. Marvin and Ben purposely left at 2, an hour earlier than normal, so they would not encounter him.

Back at the workshop, they discussed how to proceed, and eventually decided to go again at 10 AM tomorrow to confirm. They had dinner with Renee (Caroline was still traveling), and afterwards Marvin attached his head to the mech chassis. He brought a makeshift punching bag to the clearing by the shalewheat fields and ran a few exercises. Even though every one of his swings could’ve tore the bag to shreds, he made a point to only graze it. It was imperative to practice restraint along with honing a mech’s strength. Overextending after a miss could cost a fight.

Marvin’s style was relatively standard, so he didn’t need to worry about giving himself away in street fights. Even if he adopted the dual sabers, he wouldn’t exactly stand out among the hundreds of mechs that used arm blades.

The next morning, Ben woke Marvin at 9:45 and they headed to the noodle shop. They were alone with the regulars for the first two hours. Ben and Marvin took turns doing their “school project” and watching the garage.

Then, at 12, the door chime rang. The scavenger, wearing his usual mask and headdress, walked in. He sat at his usual table and directed two shadowy eyes towards Marvin and Ben.

Ben cursed under his breath. Marvin felt his joints tighten.

He came earlier when he saw we weren’t there yesterday. He’s not even being subtle at this point… Maybe he’s trying to send us a message.

“What do we do?” Marvin whispered.

Ben hunched over and cast a side-eye glare at the scavenger. “We stay here till Mr. Nurse Practitioner leaves.”

“Nurse practitioner?”

“Doesn’t he look like one?”

“No…”

“What do you wanna call him, then? Sam?”

“Sure.”

Ben shook his head in disappointment.

The two of them remained at the shop on the grounds that they were simply too invested in their project. The hours passed slowly and the tension in the air seemed to grow. They were in a standoff with the scavenger, daring the other party to leave first.

People began trickling in for dinner. When the restaurant reached its peak attendance, Marvin felt his discomfort turn to something worse, as if worms were crawling under his nonexistent skin.

“Maybe we should go to the boba shop,” Marvin suggested.

“Why?” Ben said.

“We’ve… we’ve been here for so long. People probably think we’re weird.”

Ben scoffed. “Are you seriously getting second hand embarrassment?”

“This is first hand embarrassment.” What scared Marvin even more was that they’d have to wait till closing time. He’d never gotten kicked out of a restaurant before, and he didn’t want to ever experience that.

Ben sighed. “Same strategy then? Watch when he leaves?”

Marvin nodded gratefully.

The two of them rose from their seats and headed towards the exit. They passed by a table, temporarily obscuring them from the scavenger. When they emerged, Marvin could almost feel the strange man’s cold gaze return.

Three minutes.

Marvin and Ben ducked into the boba shop, parting a swarm of holo-fireflies as they made their way to their spot. Marvin sat down and rested his chin on his fists, even though it provided no extra comfort. Ben hovered next to his chair.

The seconds passed. One minute. Two minutes. No one left or entered the restaurant.

And Ben remained standing, appearing to be deep in thought.

“Ben?” Marvin asked. “You okay?”

Ben slowly turned towards him. “You still have that smoke grenade?”

Marvin frowned. He did—it was safe and sound in his right arm, as a last resort safety measure.

“Why?” he asked.

Ben hesitated, clearly debating something with himself. He turned his head as if to shake it and say nevermind, but instead, he grinned. “Let’s follow him.”

Marvin widened his eyes. “Are you crazy?”

“We’ll keep our distance,” Ben said. “We just have to see where he’s going.”

“This is actually stalking!”

“What if he leads us to Ishaan? Or, if he doesn’t go back to the Manhunters, we won’t have to worry about him as much.”

“What if he goes to the other side of the city? What if he sees us?”

“If we run into any trouble, you fire your smoke grenade and we book it,” Ben insisted. “You got a good reaction time, right? It’ll be fine.”

Marvin gulped. Yes, they could learn a lot by doing this. But this could also end with them murdered and left in an abandoned alley.

Just then, Ben started towards the window in alarm. “Marvin, he’s outside! We gotta go!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Marvin saw the scavenger walking down the sidewalk, his neon-bathed figure growing smaller by the second.

You outnumber him two to one. You have a smoke grenade. You have combat training. The odds are in your favor.

Just get an idea of where he’s going. Nothing more.

Marvin stood up and nodded quickly. It was stupid and impulsive, and he immediately regretted it, but it was too late now.

The two of them stepped out of the boba store and casually turned right onto the sidewalk. Five people and about thirty feet separated them from the scavenger. They kept that distance and began trailing.

Soon, the scavenger stopped at a crosswalk. Ben and Marvin stopped as well, turned, and pretended to observe a poster on the window of a closed store. It was a political ad; Hisen Kobayashi, one of the Hosaka Chairs, was being challenged in a snap election due to concerns over his declining health.

The red lines that indicated the crosswalk turned green. The scavenger crossed, and Marvin and Ben followed thirty feet behind.

They headed toward a portion of the street that was shrouded in shadow. Multiple barred gates led into dark alleyways. The scavenger pushed past one of these gates and disappeared from view.

“Apartment complex,” Ben said. They stopped outside the gate, watching as the scavenger walked down the alley. Eventually, he turned right and disappeared again.

Ben walked forward and prepared to open the gate.

“Shouldn’t we go back?” Marvin asked. “We know where he lives now.”

“He could just be passing through,” Ben argued.

We can’t just follow him all the way to his room! Marvin wanted to protest. But if Ben was right, they’d risk losing the scavenger for good.

He did not object as Ben pushed the gates open. They walked down the alleyway and turned into the corridor the scavenger had gone. It was a narrow understreet of the complex. Only windows with faintly glowing blinds lined the walls. Ben had been right.

They entered a vacant square clearing, lit by a single block of neon light in its center. The world seemed to grow quieter here; the ambient sounds of the megacity seemed to drift in from old radios. In the far corner, Marvin caught a glimpse of the scavenger heading down a set of stairs.

He glanced at Ben. Do we keep going?

Ben nodded. Marvin primed his smoke grenade, and they descended down the stairs. They passed by two ceiling lamps, then reached an open doorway. The room beyond was dark and likely vast, as its walls were obscured. The scavenger’s footsteps echoed ever so faintly.

Again, Marvin looked to Ben for assurance.

“He’s still going,” Ben murmured.

Thus, the two of them went in.

A dozen ceiling lights flared. Marvin felt his soul leave his body. Ben spun around and ran… into the door that had slammed closed.

Marvin frantically fired the smoke grenade. In an instant, the surroundings blurred as a heavy mist blossomed from the capsule.

I fucking told you, Ben! his mind screamed.

Neither of them dared to make a sound. The scavenger’s footsteps had gone silent.

Oh God. We’re gonna die, Marvin thought. Of course this had been a trap. Why would the scavenger just let them follow him? Oh, how he wished he could rewind the last five minutes of his life.

Ben began tugging on the door to no avail. Marvin scanned the smoke, trying to spot something, anything, but the white curtain was effectively opaque.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps again. One pair, getting closer. The scavenger was coming to finish them off.

Ben stopped trying to open the door and covered his mouth, stifling a cough.

There has to be something we can do.

The footsteps were so close, growing slower, more methodical. The smoke would disappear in less than a minute.

Marvin found himself instinctively lowering his center of mass, as if he were getting ready for a mech duel. Why? He was in no such mech.

And yet… the scavenger was one man. Armed, probably, but what good would a blade do against Marvin’s metal exterior?

Could I take him?

The footsteps began speeding up. Ten feet, five feet…

I’ve gotta try.

Something emerged from the smoke. A metal polearm. Marvin caught it, shoved it to the side, then cranked it downwards. There was a yelp as he yanked the weapon free from the scavenger.

Marvin saw the silhouette as clear as day and acted without a second thought. He swept the polearm at the man’s legs, knocking him to the ground. Then he lunged forward and jabbed the sharp end at his opponent’s face. He stopped within a fraction of an inch.

“Wait wait wait, I’m sorry, please don’t kill me!” the scavenger squealed. He had a soft, raspy voice.

“Who are you?” Marvin demanded.

“I’m sorry!” the scavenger repeated. “I’ll leave immediately! I’ll never come back!”

The smoke was beginning to clear, allowing Marvin to see just how wide and afraid the man’s eyes were.

He isn’t even that old, Marvin realized with a start. This was a child-like fear.

“Answer the question!” Ben snapped, walking up to them. “Who are you?”

Not even a thank you, huh? Marvin thought. Though he supposed it was good that Ben did not miss a beat.

“My name is Sangeet,” the scavenger whimpered. “You can take everything. All my money. Just let me go, please.”

“We don’t want your money,” Ben said. “Why are you spying on us?”

Sangeet audibly gulped. “I… I’ll leave. I’ll go back to the badlands.”

“Yeah right. You’re working with the Manhunters, aren’t you?” Ben said.

Instead of comically gulping again, the scavenger blinked in confusion. “What? No, I’m not.”

“Stop lying.”

“No no, I’m not.” Sangeet looked between Marvin and Ben, the fear in his eyes slowly dissipating. “I thought you were Manhunters.”

Marvin did a double take and withdrew the polearm a few inches.

“What?” Ben said. “Why?”

“You always watch the Sawblades’ garage,” Sangeet said. “And you give me weird looks.”

“That’s cuz you’re watching us!”

“I… I have to be safe.”

“From what?”

“Look around you.”

Marvin withdrew the polearm some more and gasped. The smoke had cleared somewhat, revealing rows of shelves stacked with mech parts. Each shelf was labeled accordingly, and the parts were organized neatly by automated dividers.

“Are you stealing from them?” Ben asked incredulously.

“They, well… Yes, you could say that,” Sangeet stammered.

Ben let out a huff of amusement. Marvin found himself raising the polearm and resting it on his shoulder. No wonder the scavenger had been so paranoid.

“Was it that obvious we were watching the garage?” Marvin asked.

Sangeet nodded, carefully getting to his feet. “Was it that obvious I was watching you?”

“We thought you were trying to make a point out of it,” Ben said.

“Oh.” Sangeet rubbed the back of his neck.

They were quiet for a moment. Marvin couldn’t pinpoint what he was feeling—it was like a mixture of relief and disappointment. Of course he was relieved that the scavenger wasn’t a Manhunter. But why was he disappointed? Had he been expecting more of a fight?

“What now?” Sangeet asked at length.

“Nothing, I guess,” Marvin said. He turned to Ben. “Right?”

However, Ben wagged a finger at the scavenger. “You owe us.”

“Why?” Sangeet said.

“For wasting our time.” Ben gestured to the shelves of mech parts. “For the next week, we get to take whatever we want for free.”

Sangeet nervously adjusted his mask. “Do I get to say no?”

“No.”

The scavenger sighed. “Okay. Just… be realistic? Please?”

Ben rolled his eyes. “We’re not gonna raid your entire stash, buddy. It’s not like you paid for any of this anyway.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Sangeet mumbled.

Ben grinned. “What a wonderful turn of events, Marvin,” he proclaimed. “I told you, didn’t I?”

Marvin rolled his eyes. Remind me again what you were doing when I incapacitated Sangeet?

“May I ask,” Sangeet began. “Why were you watching the Sawblades’ garage if you are not Manhunters?”

He doesn’t need to know about me, Marvin thought. Since they had the upper hand at the moment, any stupid lie would do.

“We have a friend in the Sawblades,” Ben explained. “We’re worried about what happened to him. We wanna see if we can catch him leaving the garage so we can get him out of there.”

Okay, not just any stupid lie, Marvin thought, impressed.

Sangeet’s eyes lit up. “I’ve seen a Sawblade leave at midnight a few times. I don’t know where he goes, but he’s always alone. No Manhunters.”

Marvin felt his heart skip a beat. The odds that it was Ishaan were miniscule, but if it was…

“Where does he leave from?” Ben asked excitedly.

“The side door. He goes along the sidewalk and through gate A2.”

Out in the open, without the Manhunters’ supervision? It was almost too good to be true.

Ben checked his tablet. “It’s 7:20,” he told Marvin. “We could get this over with tonight.”

“No, not tonight,” Sangeet cut in. “Tuesdays and Fridays. That’s when he leaves.”

“So tomorrow,” Ben said. Sangeet nodded.

Marvin’s circuits jittered with anticipation. They had the next day to prepare, and then they would confront their biggest lead.