A Home for Heroes

[Proto Man]

Despite the amount of time they spent preparing for it, the walk across the street was about as mundane as any other bisection of a thoroughfare. With Mireya leading the way by a few paces, the trio gently crossed through the group. When they got toward the congestion of people, the half-night elf reached a hand back and grasped hold of Mickey’s gloved palm. The mouse then extended his other hand to hold onto Proto Man, and it was in that manner that they shimmied their way across the line. En route to the alley opposite their starting point, they did receive a few angry glares and rough elbows, but other than that, they didn’t provoke any sort of chaotic fracas.

Once they were free from the crowd, Mireya let out a sigh of relief and turned to look back at Proto Man. “You got that route programmed in your head, Blues?” The preteen machine nodded his head, but before he could offer directions, all three of them were sent crashing to the ground by a sudden and vicious explosion in the street behind them. Proto Man landed hard on the side of his face and his right shoulder, but he was shoving off the ground before the first specs of blood could ooze through the scrapes.

Turning toward the blast, the red robot’s eyes widened with horror as his enhanced vision cut through the layer of dust to reveal the mayhem. Those not immediately killed by the last were left in broken, maimed heaps—their mouths ajar as they screamed out for help. People further from the immediate destruction wandered aimlessly with dazed expressions on their faces. A man, holding his severed arm in his other hand, shambled out from the street and collapsed against a long-since abandoned trade cart. At no point did the civilian scream or cry out for help. He just stared with empty eyes at his shattered limb until the light faded.

“What happened!” Mickey shouted as he rushed forward. Proto Man was a half-step behind his partner as they glanced around the warzone for what may have gone down. With his sensors and scanners, the preteen machine was able to get a better look at what had actually happened, and while the gore-stained crater was as good an indicator as anything else, his systems provided him with a little more science. “Improvised explosive.” He muttered to Mickey. “Traces of… yea, this is some high-tech stuff.” When he looked back over his shoulder, Proto Man saw that his companion was crouched down next to a wounded woman with glassy eyes and trembling hands.

“You’ll be okay,” Mickey whispered as he looked down at the piece of shrapnel imbedded into her gut.

While she was initially in a state of confusion, the woman reached up with her gore-stained hands and grabbed at the headgear. Although lacking the strength to rip it off, she had enough to tug it loose, allowing part of an ear to poke through. At the sight of it, the dying woman let out a surprisingly sturdy shriek. “You’re back to finish the job!”

Mickey’s eyes went wide with the realization that the woman was blaming him for what had happened. “N-no, that’s not it at all,” he remarked as he tried to place a hand on the woman’s chest. Although he was trying to keep pressure on the wound, the civilian continued to wail and shriek and smack him away.

“Just finish me off, I want to be with Gilgamesh!” She wailed as she threw her head back against the bloodstained street.

Looking around, Proto Man saw that a few of the less injured people were starting to make their way over to the scene and none of them were wearing smiles.

From the alley, Mireya rushed forward and slid her arm under Mickey’s armpit and around his chest. The half-night elf plucked the mouse off the ground with the ease of a mother picking up her child. Her eyes moved to Proto Man even as Mickey protested the treatment. “We need to go. Now.”

While he wanted to stay and help the injured, the red robot knew that people wouldn’t understand. Already, he could spot knives and rocks in the hands of the few people who had heard the dying woman’s shrieks through the chorus of screams that filled the street. As the first rocks started to land around him, Proto Man fled with his companions into the back alleys. He looked around just once to see that one of the stray projectiles—a dislodged sandstone brick—had smashed open the dying woman’s skull.