Twinkle in Sweet Repose

[The Vision]

One ring of blue light, about 6 feet wide, materialized and moved up and down. Each time it passed the air, blue pixels of a still frame Vision and Marcus printed into the air. When the process finally stopped, the two machines peered around to take in the new environment.

The marshlands were fairly dry tonight. The moon was a slender sliver of silver, a steady light against the darkness. Crickets chirped in some distant cluster of weeds. The Vision had never been to the Moors, but what he could glean from the web implied that the Moors were a hotspot for entities that originated from media of the horror genre. Despite that, Vision noticed, there was a serenity here that he had not expected.

Marcus inspected his shotgun, making sure the Teleporter pulled everything in correctly. The Vision was less concerned with the journey, and more concerned with where they were.

"Watch yourself, Vis," Marcus muttered, "Heard tales of some pretty freaky crap out there."

"Affirmative," Vision replied. He opened a mental map of the Moors, trying to triangulate their current location.

"I believe Darkshire is 70 miles to the west from here."

"That's a one-hour ride," Marcus estimated.

"Query: did you bring a vehicle?"

"No, but I can make one."

Marcus lifted his hands. Cutting through the drab and gray light of the Moors, a kaleidoscope of bright colors tingled through the Terminator's fingertips. The rainbow light seemed to sketch an outline in the air, an outline of a mud cycle. The Vision lifted his own hands, creating another invisible stencil, using his internal database to improve the engines and other functional parts.

"That kid..." Marcus said, breaking their silence, "He'll be fine, right?"

"I imagine so," the Vision nodded, "There were no hostile intentions, and his injuries were not permanent. Although, I must say I agree with Captain Rogers. Your quote, tough love, unquote may do more harm than good."

Marcus twisted his lips, then said thoughtfully, "I'll be more careful."

When the mudbike was completed after several minutes, Marcus offered the Vision a ride. The android refused. There wasn't a seat, and either way, he preferred to fly.

The duo set off towards the collection of torches. That was likely Darkshire.

"Hey, Vision!" Marcus shouted over the mudbike's engine.

Vision flied lower, descending and coming closer to Marcus.

> self.setvalue density 10.330002%
Shifting...

Just in case.

"Query: what is your query?"

"You and I..." Marcus shouted, "We may be robots, but we both have... you know. Feelings. I'm pretty sure."

"I have an emulator of emotions embedded into my programming."

"And about the mystical stuff," Marcus continued, "You know that's not how the Omniverse works, right?"

Vision peered at the Terminator thoughtfully.

"What's the real reason for you taking me with you?"

The Vision looked away as Marcus turned his eyes towards the android. He flew away.

"Recommendation: keep your eyes metaphorically on the metaphorical road."

The rest of the journey was uneventful. They arrived in Darkshire at the break of dawn.