Haxxored - Tyro and Foxytail

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Wiiiizzzt! Wiiiiizt!

The room was largely dark except for the shafts of light coming from the overhead windows. The plastic, shiny floors covered the walls too, having no describable detail or decoration on them at all. Just blank, easy to clean surfaces. Conveyor belts led up to lines of the machines standing in this featureless room. Tall, metal beasts that whirred and fizzed at regular intervals. They weren't built to be pretty. Which meant it was covered in strange boxes wherever it was needed to cover the internals so that they could slurp up the contents of the conveyor belt at a regular speed. Not all the conveyor belts were full of sleeping people but at least five stretched the room that seemed to be the same size as a warehouse. There were no voices here. No-one was watching over everything, just in case a machine seized up. There wasn't a soul here that was conscious. No noise except the beat of metal at work.

Suddenly, from on of the boxes, a thud.

Thud. Thud. THUD. THUDTHUDTHUD- The lid of the box swings wide open, a figure rolling out of the box onto the floor. A lapine female of average build, wearing a plain grey dress with a number on the back, not that she could see. She coughs and curls up on the floor, taking deep breaths as she looks around her surroundings, though her efforts are futile as her vision is blurred. Weakly standing, she utters her first word.

"Glasses..." She whispers, looking back to the box she had just escaped from.

"Bloody things and the damn place....Honestly...A maniac designed this place..." A cross between a growl and a grumble echoed from inside the machine. It sounded male. You could hear heavy thudding coming from inside.
"Nao, no, no, no, no! No! You've already tried it on once, don't push your luck sunshine!" There was the squeal of servos under stress, the growling over took the complaint. "You damn, useless-"

Fizzt! Sparks flash momentarily, lighting the darkness for nanoseconds before a heavy thud. The heavy foot steps start again.
"Damn thing ripped my shoulder....Great...that's like what? What, five hundredth shirt I've had to find this year? Maybe even six..." A fox, walking at a pace just faster than the conveyor belt, the large black paws being granted little grace in them. He was dressed in a pair of these dirty jeans that seemed to have seen better days decades ago with the stains of so many colours dotted everywhere. Prodominantly black ones. Soot smudged his white T-shirt with the black hems and lightly dusted the already black shirt over the top. His white muzzle that seemed to be as unruly as his scarlet hair was peppered with black flecks. His ears, two black backed triangles, poked out of this mess on the top of his head.

He drew a blank face as he stared at the rabbit. The dark brown eyes surprised to see anyone else here.
"Err...hi..."

She turns to the stranger. His voice was unfamiliar, and she couldn't see him clearly without her glasses. She walked to the box she just fell out of, searching inside with her hands to find something. She can't see what she's feeling, what is poking her, what the hot things are, what the cold things are... she only knows what she is looking for. In this search, she talks to this new stranger.

"Who... are you...?" She asks.

As the rabbit turned around following her peering at him, the fox places the tip of some thing metal on the side of the conveyor. It was a weapon, probably. It looked too ceremonial though. But the blood splatter on the blunt 'blade' made to look like a fox's head seemed to tell otherwise. The head lead into a body that held on to the handle. And that led into a long tail that curved around the handle like a hand-guard. The fox uses this blunt weapon to lazily pole vault off the conveyor belt to land heavily on the glossy white floor. His hand carrying the weapon drops to his side as he watches the rabbit rummage inside the machine.
"I'm Tyro." He said, fighting the urge to extend his hand in greeting just yet. He'd be showing it to her arse anyway, as though he intended to insert it there or something. It would look strange. Plus, there is the soot.
"How the heck did you escape the death-o-tron by the way?" Tyro said, pointing to the machine. The cavernous mouth was flickering with each arc of the machine's short out. He stops and thinks as he answers his own question...

Flames melting the circuits and scorching the panels. They made blotches on the metal arms, melting the plastic tubes that feed the pneumatic pistons of the internals.

"Actually...Actually, it was probably me braking the thing mid way through...I'm a little dusty..." He sweeps the ripped shoulder of his shirt as he spoke.

"This would have killed me?" She asks, finally touching something rigid. She tries picking it up and finds it light. She lifts them to her eyes and her vision clears. She sees the machines clearly, her would be coffin and the fox that had indirectly saved her. Her eyes are a dark grey, her expression becoming puzzled.
"Where is this place?" She asks.

"Killed you...errrr...." Tyro said, scratching violently behind one of his ears. "Nah! You'd probably more....err....Repurposed than strictly dead, I guess. It's not nice going through that thing."
He sniffs loudly, looking around and up at the blank room. Up and around at all the featurelessness. He lifts the weapon to rest on his shoulder.
"I haven't a bloody clue. We could be anywhere...They're always this blank. Anyway..." He turns back to the rabbit.
"You are?" He said, extending his sooty hand to her to shake. "Seems were stuck together here."

"My name... Samantha." She says. She then looks back into the box. She falters when it's empty.
"My stuff is gone... I wanted that... I was going home..." She looks to the fox.
"You said your name was Tyro... I don't know a Tyro... is there a way out?" She asks, walking past him.

"I'm not surprised you don't know me." Tyro said, turning towards where the conveyor belts were coming from. His hand drops to his side, ignored. His two, long, white-tipped tails flick around then go back to swaying as he looks for a way out too. He begins trotting forwards. "I look like a massive toy, you'd remember me! Anyway, maybe it's on it's way to an incinerator. It's where I was earlier. We might be able to find it somewhere. Although your stuff could also be being holding somewhere to then be made into new stuff. It's all recycling round here."
Tyro breaks into a faster jog towards the hole to the light outside where the conveyor was rolling in from. He stops just before it, looking out into the bright air.
"Samantha, stick by me and I'll see about getting you home."

She pauses at the thought of going home.
"Actually... I think... I'd rather stay here." She says. She looks to him.
"If you find my stuff... I'll shake your hand." She says as she heads into the light. Her expression is odd, as is her way of walking. She slides her feet slowly across the floor, testing the floor before setting her foot down.

Tyro studies the odd rabbit as she clambers outside. The way she seemed to gingerly take each step or how she would keep stopping mid-sentence as though thinking of the next part stood out to Tyro. He couldn't think of any other person who was like this. She was...well...what's a good word? Umm....

Irritating? A part of his brain chipped in. It wasn't finished there. Overly-Cautious? Lost in her own world? Paranoid?

No...Tyro thought. No, not those things, but really odd. For a creature used to being able to see the looks on peoples faces when he makes even just his hand grow fur then lose it again, he could bet he wasn't going to get much of that with this one. Samantha seemed to be taking this in her stride. Possibly too well...Has she seen this before or has she got the best poker face Tyro will ever see?
"Look! We're in a really dangerous place. There's guards and security cameras here. Identity chips and lock-out doors. This place has been made with keeping intruders out in mind all the time. If I leave you here, they'll probably try and throw you in the death-o-whatsit thing again. It's best if we stick togeter." Tyro said. He looks to the side, along the blank wall.
"That way you stay safe and I'll probably earn more than a hand-shake. Heh-heh!" He raises his hands defensively. "Joke! It's a joke." He said, looking back to where he thought Samantha was still.

It turns out she had exited the building by entering the light of the outside world. Tyro followed her out there, sliding over the now stationary conveyor belt and onto a large flat balcony with landing areas clearly marked in red. It was a cold but extremely bright day; lighting the huge tower adjacent to the building where they were. It seemed to be taller until Tyro looked up behind him to see the top of the tower they were in carried on or a good number more floors. Two, no, three, no, seven white monoliths, standing in grassland, surrounded by bushes and shrubs, were just in view. They were gilded with silvery glass that seemed to ripple in the sun. This seemed to be a quiet place. You couldn't hear much other than the machines inside whirring down.

Tyro wonders over to the edge of the platform. Within a nanosecond of looking, he makes an exaggerated pantomime out of his gasp by staggering back while making a strange, wheezing noise. While you probably can't see the blood drain from his face for the fur, his expression was perfectly visible.
"Have you seen down there?! We've got to be, like, fifty floors up, right? Blimey! And your expected to work up here? I'd go nuts if I could!" Tyro walks away from the edge of the balcony quickly.
"OK! Right, we need to go down to the ground, I think. That should work! Then we can try and look for help elsewhere." Tyro said, pointing to the floor with his free hand. Realisation breaks on his face. "And we need to find your stuff."

Samantha looks over the balcony slowly, looking down the distance. She then looks at the other buildings, the monoliths that stand before them.
"We could jump... but then we'd fall... and die. Maybe. It doesn't look like we can climb down... yes. Sticking together. That'll keep us alive." She nods, moving back inside the building. Her mind was taking it all in, intensely trying to calculate where she was, but her memories didn't fit the scenery. She was far far far away from her comfort zone, and this put her on edge. She closes her eyes.
"This factory... it turns people into resources. We are resources. Objective... stay alive." She says to herself, starting to pace on the spot.
"Can't fight, no weapon... perhaps mindgames? No... unfamiliar terrain. Cameras... could hack if I had my computer... doors... doors are a problem. Need something... crowbar-y..." She turns to Tyro. She looks him over, looking at his weapon with blood stained on it.
"You have a weapon... it's bloody...unlikely your blood... you hurt someone. Killed? No... doesn't seem the type..." she then looks at herself. She sighs.
"I look hideous... you have different clothes... where can I find clothes?" She asks.

This was a new...well, rare experience for Tyro as Samantha freaked him out a bit. The fevered muttering to herself was like a computer figuring something out by running each and every possibility. At least she was agreeing with him.
"You probably don't want the clothes I found. You probably don't want these either. I found them in the machine's incinerator. Seeing as they've been fire proofed so I can't set them alight, a mere box of flaming charcoal wasn't going to damage these. Also..." He sniffs his shirt collar. "Also, they smell heavily of smoke. You can have my shirt if you'd like?"
Tyro slipped out of the black shirt and handing it to Samantha. He also tossed his weapon in the air, grabbing it by its blade and handing it to her as well.
"If you think it'll work, take this too. Better than the jumping idea."

The black fur that covered his hands travelled up to around his elbow like a pair of long gloves.

She takes the weapon and inspects it, looking at the blood and the shape of it. She shakes her head.
"No... too blunt. Need something... edged." She takes the shirt and puts it on. She looks at herself once more, dissatisfied.
"Mm... still hideous... but better." she nods, looking to him.
"You know the area... I'll follow you. I'm... unskilled at fighting. But I can work with machines... do you know where a keyboard is?" She asks, looking around in place.
"I can use a keyboard..." She crosses her arms, holding herself closely. It's clear she's uncomfortable. It's also clear that he seems to be her only hope.

"Well, I'm not sure about knowing my way round but these things are built in the same way all over the place. Although, I've usually been here to stop all that..." Tyro said as he wonders past Samantha. Climbing over the conveyor belt to get back in, Tyro looks up and around for anything resembling a keyboard. He wasn't expecting one though. I probably wasn't Digital's way of doing things...

Was there a problem with his clothing choice? He thought they were all right? Granted, he's not changed it but this sort of this could be found anywhere. He'd not gotten too many complaints before...

It felt oddly cold without his shirt in the huge, plastic room. There weren't any balconies to over see people being fed into the huge boxes of death. Nor were there any other details or signs on the walls that pointed to an exit. Nope, here you knew that already. Here, you knew what everyone else knew too and very little else. Even so, there had to be a door or something somewhere, right? Someone has to be able to come in and out to check these things if they break.

Tyro moves to the wall, sweeping a hand across it in wide arcs. He moves across the surface, lunging forwards with every few sweeps and clambering over more conveyor belts. He makes it down the wall a few metres before his finger catches on a faint slit in the wall. Successful, he slides away from the wall, looking to see the lines were.
"I got a way out at least!" He reaches down the front of his t-shirt, fishing around before yanking the chain around and off his head.

On the end is a pendent, the metal blotchy from heat and in vague fox-tail shapes around this pulsing gem in the centre. Tyro holds it in his palm, pointing the gem in the general direction of the door. Then drops it, clearly changing his mind. His initial plan changed to then press the gem on the chain against the supposed door. A heat glare rises. The plastic material the door was covered in melts around the pendant, smelling foul as it slops to the ground. Tyro drags the pendant around in a large circle, slowly. The heat from the pendant is strong enough to melt through the lightweight material of the door, as well as make everything smell of chemicals. The charred lump Tyro cut out flops to the ground on the other side. Not really with a thud, more of a splat. He moves though the new, if still gooey hole.
"Right. Maybe there's something useful in there..."

The corridor was brightly lit but a dull-grey metal instead of the white plastic of the other room. Thin walls but thick floors. Again, no features of any kind. Tyro checks the walls for anything resembling a keyboard but everything seemed to be smooth. No secret panels here.

There was a woman walking in circles however.

Dressed in a clean pressed, sky-blue suit with tie, she was just walking around and around. She seemed unaware of Tyro. Mostly due to the blank look on her face. In one of her flat hands, she was carrying an ear piece. A tiny little white box with an ear bud attached. Gingerly, Tyro approached the circling brunette, snatching the ear-piece away from her. No change at all from her, actually. Happy, or at least determined to be boring a circular trench into the floor.

Tyro checked the ear-piece. He turned it over and over in his hands, looking for anything resembling testicles or sharp objects. You never can tell with these things...He raises it to his ear and shakes it, listening for a bomb....probably...
"Just put it on will you?!" Spat the ear piece, quietly.

Now, he knew it was probably to small for his ears currently. This thing was built for a human not a-
"On second thoughts...Push the button on the side." After felling the side of the little device, the voice gained volume.
"Can you hear me now?" It said.
"Leth?"

Samantha followed the fox, still stepping lightly, as if she expected a trap with every step. She looked at the fox with interest as he holds the pendant, shocked when it melts through the plastic. How does it do that? What technology? Nanotech? Some hidden container? Her eyes almost glowed as she thought of the possibilities, so much so that she almost jumped at the sound of the wall falling to the floor. Letting him lead, she clambers through. She notices the woman as Tyro takes the earpiece from her. Looking around, she walks to her.
"Miss... I require clothes. Where can I find them?" She asks. As the woman continues, she asks again.
"Miss... I'm missing my stuff and my clothing. Do you know where they are?" She asks.

The woman stops, facing away from Samantha before mouthing random words and going back to walking in circles.
"Your wasting your breath." Tyro said to her.
"I really can't seem to get these guys to do exactly what I want..." The earpiece said, defeated. "She's been smacking into walls all the way here."
"That must have been funny to watch." Tyro sniggers.
"Not the time, Dad. We've got to get you and your friend out of here quickly. We weren't expecting an extra person to be sorting out but I think we could manage." The Earpiece said.
"Ah, good go-"
"Just..." The earpiece cuts in with an unnerving lack of confidence.
Tyro's voice gains a harsher tone: "What do you mean just?"
"We've not planned for two people but we can make allowances." The Earpiece apologised.
"All right, where to first?"
"Down the hall, into the next room but you'd better hand me over to your friend." The Earpiece said. Tyro walks over and hands the small device to Samantha before trotting down the hall. With a click of his hand, a flame sparked into life, resting in his hand. He was ready if anything arrived.
"OK. So, my name is Lethanyal but Leth is far better. I am going to be your eyes and ears as well as your personal hacker. Now, hacking computers - or breaking into then taking over - computers takes awhile so bare with me. Shouting at me while I take down the computers watching you won't help, OK? Now, you should be following close behind Dad. Err..Tyro."

Samantha looks to Tyro.
"A father... he's quite young for a father." She comments.
"We will not shout. Shouting is noisy. Hacking is much easier quiet. Will I get to hack computers? I can do that." She says as she looks to the woman.
"She isn't important, is she? I need clothes. Hers are more protective than mine." She says.

"Important? Nah...We can't do anything about her really..." The earpiece rattles with keyboard noise before the final thud. The woman stops where she is and grabs her shiny blue tie. She un-knots it, drags it away from her neck then drops. it. Then her jacket is undone before being thrown to the floor. She stiffly undoes each and every button of her clean, pressed shirt before throwing that on the ground. She then unbuttons her trousers, letting them flop to the ground before stepping out of them and her shoes. The woman is now staring ahead, blankly and uselessly next to the piles of clothes she's just dumped in simple underwear.
"She's kinda stuck like that. No amount of hacking might help but I am happy to finally have someone I could talk to properly. I can't get my head around any firewall or inscription method in her. It's a brain, after all. Things are working at a complexity I can only guess at..."

"Oh! And about the age thing...well, I'm probably older than you. I'm probably older than your gran. So's Dad. We don't age like regular folk."

Samantha takes her clothes off openly to dress in the clothes of the woman. She seems happier.
"Ok... my stuff... where can I find my stuff?" She asks quietly. "You both are old... lots of time to learn things... maybe you know where my stuff is?" She asks, looking around. "My stuff is important to me..."

"Err...Baggage, baggage...baggage...err...Hmm...That...That could be a few towers away from here by now. Digital's got a weird little set up where he'll take your bag and rake through it. Some knowledge acquisition thing." Leth mumbles between keystrokes.
Some other voice pipes up in the background: "She's single minded...I like that."
Leth's voice looses some volume: "Your meant to be keeping watch!"

"Boys!" Tyro had come back standing over Samantha. "Stop it! Leth, where am I going?"
"Err....You'll have to go up as your on the fiftieth floor and the closest way of heading towards any inspection rooms would be through the roof bridges. Only clothes are burned, usually. So, your friend is going to have to wear the suit. We got nothing else." Leth said.
"Right!" Tyro turns around, moving down the corridor. "Come on then."

"Leth... Tyro... there's someone else there. He shouldn't be there... in danger perhaps? No, more panic... Stupid? Possible. Isn't where they're meant to be. They like me... unsure if acceptable. What's their name?" She asks. She looks to Tyro.
"I'll follow... lead. Do we need to run? I don't like running... but I'm good at running." She notes.

Tyro stops, turns and stares...That was a lot of words and things out loud for what was a simple calculation in anyone else's head.
"That's my other son, Dom. They're on the boat we're eventually heading for." He said before turning back around. "And I dunno about running. Leth?"

"I dunno. There might be guards. I thought I got 'em all on this floor though." Leth says, typing away audibly.

"I like Leth. He uses a computer. I like computers. Maybe I can use his sometime... I need to check my emails..." She says. "He also has information. Info is good. Knowing more variable means you can make accurate calculations. Leth is a good boy." Samantha says quietly as she follows. She then looks at Tyro and stops. She turns and runs back, returning quickly with his discarded shirt.
"This is yours. It's a good shirt... you should keep it." She says, offering it to him. "It's not a good shirt for me, or the floor, or the woman."

Another quieter mumble from the background came from the earpiece: "Heh, you'd have play with his joystic-"
"WILL YOU GO STAND GUARD?!" Leth barks viciously.
"Dom, go outside. This isn't the time to mess around." Tyro said sternly as he could. He looks up to Samantha, shrugging. "Boys...What yeh gonna do?" He takes the shirt, slipping back into it.
"Thanks. You'd better get dressed."

Finally, Tyro walks down the corridor towards the next door. He rises the pendant again, ready to plunge it into the plastic when it slides open by itself, disappearing into the ceiling and floor.
"Riight...OK..."
The room was smaller than the last one but seemed more of a server farm than anything else. Rows and rows of towers all blinking and humming to themselves stand to attention underneath the fans overhead keeping the room neatly chilled. Each one was cased in the same white, smooth plastic of the room. The difference here was the occasional blue glint that caught your eye and made you look up. Blue butterflies flutter past in here. They rest on servers, flexing their wings. Both were an electric blue with a unique pattern resembling a circuit board.
"Why do these things like machines so much?"
Tyro slides behind one of the towers. He thinks he might have seen someone in blue.