Memory Bonds

Springfield was a big place. The subway they were on was supposed to specifically service the edge of town, namely the East edge Harmoni and the cult members had left through. There was one that hit all major areas of town, including that edge, but it would only stop in one spot along the East border. This one specialized in the area, and should get them closer than the single stop would. They would still have to walk from the edge of town to the abandoned building somewhere out in the wastes, but it would be less walking.

Since the spaceport was in the West section of town, the subway took off at full speed, through the tubes the dragons had noticed from outside, and would likely stay that way for a little while.

It was roughly . . . two minutes, before Rasha broke the silence. "Does it seem really empty in this cart to anyone else?"

Cooper looked up, and she was onto something. She'd whispered, but it was empty and quiet enough, everyone in the train car had probably heard her.

Aside from their group, there were three other people on this car. There wasn't even a driver at the front. The subway was self driving. And that might be fine and normal, but this was the first car. People liked to congregate up front. He knew that. Also, Cooper could see the car behind them. There was a window. It looked more crowded.

One person in here was an older, thinning, human man. He sat near the back reading a newspaper. An actual paper one. One was a boy, probably about their age, elbows on his knees. Based on his worn clothes and sort of dirty face, he'd seen better days. Or maybe he hadn't. Cooper hadn't seen "better days" until the Hidden Cult killed all the slave holders, and he fled to Xentron City.

The third was a colbber woman, younger than the man, but older than Evin, if Cooper had to guess. Like Cooper himself, she didn't have a helmet-like metal on her skull, but the visible exoskeleton on her eye and hand was the rare gold, instead of the more common bronze or silver.

She'd been staring with wide eyes at the window across from her, not that you could see anything out there, but turned towards them when Rasha spoke.

When her gaze fell on Wesles, Cooper could've sworn he heard the faint click of her eyepiece focusing on him. "I know you."

"You do?" Wesles asked.

The woman launched from her seat, even pushing herself off with her metal arm to move faster. Her other hand stretched out, palm first, for Wesles' head.

"Ah heck."

Wesles escaped by sliding off his seat. The woman's momentum meant her hand hit the wall of the train instead, and it proceeded to burst into splinters. Like it had gone through a woodchipper. Only Cooper was pretty sure most of the wall had been made of metal.

The man near the back dropped his newspaper while the boy grabbed a pole, despite being in a seat, to avoid being sucked away. They were moving at fairly fast speeds without a wall.

Rasha screamed.

"What the fuckery?!" Evin exclaimed.

Cooper stood up. He could feel the wind move by, pulling towards the gap in the wall. It made his hair get in his face a bit, and his metal leg was pulling more weight than usual, to keep him in place, but he could still stand, and see their attacker.

"You're from the Hidden Cult, aren't you?"

"And you're witnesses, weren't you?" she asked. "This is what happens when people get funny ideas about leaving before the job's done."

Well, he supposed that explained why they usually killed everyone in any given town. Fairly obvious reason in the grand scheme of things.

The woman launched herself at him, and was close and fast enough there wasn't a lot of time to respond. The boy on the train fired a gun at her.

"Cooper!"

And then the train turned sharply, causing people to slide.

The bullet sailed past the woman and hit the old man at the back. Based on the moaning, he was still alive. Cooper saw Rasha wobbling back there to heal him. Cooper himself fell backwards, causing the woman to miss him, hand going over his shoulder. Evin almost slid out of the train car, unable to get a grip on anything with his gloved hands or feet. Wesles caught him with his ghost arm, and pulled him further inside.

So the cult woman had failed to get any of them twice now. But he wasn't about to let her try a third time.

He dropped another smoke bomb from his pocket, filling the car with thick black clouds.

He had time to roll over onto his belly and prop himself up on his elbows. Then, abruptly, his metal exoskeleton locked up. He fell to one side, his elbows no longer balanced. He couldn't move his metal bones anymore.

He could hear the sounds of shouting and scuffling. Possibly more fighting, possibly just trying to get organized.

He was still mostly organic. He could in theory still get up, and use his inoperable metal limb as a peg leg. But it was hard to get into a standing position with only one good arm and leg, the other two acting as dead weight, especially when he was starting from his belly and the train car was still pressing on.

The good news was, he managed to grab a pole with his good arm, and pull himself up. The bad news was, the only reason he managed to squirm into a standing position, was because the train was slowing down. They were rolling into their next stop, and with an automatic driver, the train was treating this like normal.

When the train came to a complete stop, the cult woman swept past him, leaping out. There was still a lot of smoke in the car, but she'd been close enough he could see her.

"Cooper," Wesles scolded, like he should've stopped her when she passed him.

"I can't move some of my bones," Cooper pointed out.

"We should go after her," Rasha said. "She could put more civilians in danger. Or be getting more of her friends to help her."

Or maybe finding a weapon or something. Cooper understood Rasha's concern, and it seemed the other two did as well. Wesles jumped the gap and was after her before Rasha had even finished talking. Evin followed, and seeing as he had longer legs and lighter shoes, he was doing better at keeping pace.

Rasha finished healing. She thankfully grabbed Cooper, putting his dead arm over her shoulder, and helping him move after the others. Well, she was practically dragging his stiff body along. Movement and feeling was coming back to his limbs, but slowly. He needed the help.

They weren't keeping up with the rest of the group, but Cooper could watch their progress through the cameras in the hall, having found some luck accessing those on the subway, and told Rasha where to go.

Outside of the room where the train let out, the crowds were a bit thinner, and parted for them. They must be near the edge of town. The hallway was light blue, cleaner in a way that came from less use, and there were fewer doors to exit out of.

Maybe that was a good thing for them? Left the cult member with fewer places to go?

If she really wanted to, she could blast another hole in the wall. But she seemed to have some sort of destination in mind. She reached a white door, standing out against the blue walls and rare brown door, and went inside.

Meanwhile, Cooper's limbs finally seemed to be unfrozen. He moved his leg up and down a few times to be sure, and it creaked the first couple times in a way that made Rasha wince. But whatever mild pain was there faded quickly, and his leg was back to normal.

The two moved faster, catching up to Evin and Wesles as they reached the white door, and they all went inside.

Cooper put one foot on the ground, and the ground moved beneath him. He stumbled in the new room, vaguely aware of the others coming in, and doing similar around him. Except Evin. Despite being the first one to reach the door, he didn't seem to be inside yet.

When Cooper had steadied himself, he saw the room was round, the ground was spinning, there were mirrors on all the walls, and music was coming from a few corners. (Could you call it a corner if the room was round?) Metal animals on poles moved up and down.

"What is this?" Cooper asked.

"Well, I believe most people call it a care-oh-sell in Standard," Evin said, finally stepping into the room without any trouble. "Of course you could argue it's a merry-go-round but-"

"Would you shutup?" Wesles demanded. "Unless you've got somethinguseful tosay."

"I do actually," Evin said. He stepped further into the room and looked up, like he expected the cult woman to drop from the ceiling at any moment. "This is the Orich Carousel. Five stories high. A few other smaller carousels around this large one. Quite the attraction here on Morivon. My parents took me here once as a reward for good grades."

Yes, from what Cooper had heard, that sounded like a normal childhood thing. "But, what's our cultist doing here?"

"No idea, I'm not a mind reader," Evin said. "But I don't like that we can't see her anymore."

Neither did Cooper.