My Brothers' Keeper

[Proto Man]

It was just another dreary day down on Tier Six that the package arrived. With a smile, Roll bent over and picked it up from its spot on the little conveyor belt that cycled through everyone’s packages from the upper tiers. Making her way back out of the common area, she wove her way through the hallways until she found her small private quarters. Once inside, he placed the large pink box on her bed and pulled apart the bow on top. Her smile grew wider as she pulled off the top half to reveal what she’d sent away for a few weeks before.

For anyone else, the arrival of some new dresses would probably feel like no big deal. But when you lived in a city with no retail stores, it wasn’t that easy to come by new clothes, especially ones that were still somewhat in fashion. After storing the two new dresses in her closet, she brushed some of the dirt off the patchwork garment she’d been wearing for the last three months. Sooner, rather than later, she’d retire it and have it turned in to be recycled into rags or other useful by-products. For the time being, she’d wear it a little longer.

Returning to her bed, Roll let out a sigh and plopped down onto the lumpy mattress. Her eyes moved to the garish relic that her brother Blues had sent her from Camelot—a portion of a dragon’s skull. The boys had got a kick out of it, but Roll was anything amused. Unfortunately she had to keep the thing hanging up, because otherwise her siblings would start demanding she let them have it, and the last thing she wanted them to do was break it, regardless of how unsettling it was to have part of a dead reptile flanked by a poster of a Tom Hanks romcom and another of New Kids on the Block.

Knock knock!

“Who is it?” Roll asked as she hopped off of her bed and took a moment to smooth down the sheet. By the time she turned around, Guts Man was awkwardly crouched in her doorway, his overly large bulk making it impossible for him to navigate the small entrance. “Hi, Guts Man… what can I do for you?”

“There are some new mercs moving down into Tier Seven… I guess they’re after some old Imperial -bioweapon. Hiberius said we should expect a lot more noise until the situation rolls over.”

“Does he think that we’re in danger?”

The giant android shook his head. “He says it shouldn’t be a huge concern, because the Empire wouldn’t let someone use their old experiments to attack their outposts. It would be bad public relations, he said.”

Roll nodded her head. The last thing she needed was to worry about some maniac mercenary with expensive tech trying to shred up the place. Even the thought of it made her think back to when the Space Hounds had tried to storm the Community Center by force with what could only be described as ‘patchwork power armor.’ The Hounds had been repulsed, but it had taken a considerable effort by most of the battle-capable citizens who lived in the complex. Hiberius himself would have been overwhelmed, regardless of how strong he was or the durability of his own suit of armor.

“You want me to pass a message on to anyone else?” Guts Man asked, prompting his little sister to chew her lower lip for a few moments until the answer came to her.

“Just have Elec Man double-check the wiring in the automated defenses and the perimeter sensors. Best we keep our eyes open in case we have more traffic in the neighborhood.”

“No problem!” Guts Man shot back before lumbering off to relay the message to his brother. Once the heavy thud of his shoes faded into the depths of the building, Roll walked over to her mirror. Much like her dresses, her ‘vanity’ was made from welded together pieces of reflective glass. She supposed she didn’t need much, but she liked to keep herself looking fresh. As a robot she never felt fatigue, but that didn’t stop her from looking like a girl who had been awake for nearly 36 hours.

Grabbing her brush, she hummed a tune as she started to work the bristles through her blonde pigtails.