A New Horizon

“Hey, look. It’s the House of Steel,” Travis said after a while. “I remember seeing a weapons room on the map when we last raided the place.”

“Oh. Don’t see why not,” I listlessly decided.

As we made our way through the facility’s automated defenses, I briefly wondered if the Guy was still tied down to that operating table. Honestly, I’d be fine if I never saw him again.

“Here it is,” Travis said. “Behind this door… oh, it’s open.”

We peeked in. Two workers were standing there, talking about something random. I quickly made a gesture: on three, we slam ‘em.

Then, BAM—

Whoa! Those guys had better reflexes than I thought. It took us almost a full minute to subdue them. A nice change from Joseph’s men, I suppose.

“Ngh,” one of them grunted. “You guys are aeronauts?”

“Quiet, you,” I told him, then knocked him out.

“No, wait. We’re—” I knocked the other guy out, too.

“Hey, look at this,” Travis called. “They’ve got swords in all the colors of the rainbow.”

“Really?” Bernicia pocketed the EMP device she had been examining. “Ooh, I want the black one.”

“Hmm. I’ll take the white one, then,” Travis replied. “Ho ho ho. Yes, we shall be known as the Black Unibrow and the White Knight.”

“No way! Call me Dark Pixie Girl, that has a way better vibe,” Bernicia told him. “Look, my sword has a zircon gem in its base.”

“Really? Mine has… a diamond,” Travis noted. “Man, they really went the extra mile with these things.”

“And they’re sharp, too. Definitely a keeper,” Bernicia decided. “Hey, Kit. You want this yellow one?”

“Nah. I was never really a fan of two-handers,” I replied. “You find any knives?”

“I like this halberd, personally,” Blake stated, holding up an intimidating-looking polearm.

“That’s a spear,” I pointed out. “Halberds have differently shaped points.”

“It looks more like a pike,” Bernicia said.

“No, it’s too short to be a pike. It’s a glaive,” Travis told us. “See, the tip is curved a bit.”

“Yes, yes, a glaive,” Blake agreed. (I’m pretty sure he just liked the name, though.)

I decided to do some more browsing, and a belt of knives caught my eye. Here we go, I thought, picking them up. These seem sturdy enough…

Underneath where the knives were, a parcel sat.

“Hey, check this out,” I said, pulling out the parcel’s contents. They looked to resemble tubes, with a hard metal exterior and a wire-lined interior. “These are… wait, what are these things?”

“They look like gauntlets,” Blake said.

“Well, I could tell THAT much,” I retorted. “But are they weapons?”

“Yes,” one of the workers said.

“Hey! When did you guys wake up?” I demanded.

“Hear us out!” The first worker sat up. “The gauntlets were designed by an aeronaut named Macy Lee.”

“An aeronaut?” All of us stopped to stare at him.

“He isn’t lying. You guys aren’t the only ones,” the second worker vouched.

“Where is she now?” I cautiously asked.

“Can’t say. She escaped a long time ago and was never seen again,” the first worker replied. “She might be dead, but really, who knows?”

“But how come we never met her, or even knew she existed? How do we know you aren’t lying to us?”

“Well, aren’t you paranoid,” the second worker muttered.

“If my sources are correct, you guys make up the third generation of aeronauts,” the first worker explained. “We don’t know much else about you beyond that, though. The top guns keep everything under super-tight wraps.”

“Huh,” I went. This was the kind of stuff I wished Joseph had told us. “So if we look hard enough, we can maybe find more aeronauts?”

“Heh. Who knows,” the second worker grinned. “They may be clos– ow.” The first worker had kicked him for some reason.

“I guess I’ll keep these gauntlets, then,” I decided, slipping them onto my arms. They’d make for better balance than knives when it comes to offense and defense.

“Should we knock ‘em out again?” Bernicia asked.

“Nah… they’re cool, I guess. Let’s go, guys,” I replied. “There’s a whole wide world out there with our name on it!”

“I saw a skyline over the hills north of here,” Travis suggested.

“Oh, a city? Good idea,” I replied. “They’re the best place to start a new life, apparently.”

“I concur,” Blake nodded. “Shall we head out?”

~

If this is what we’ve been missing out on all this time, then it’s no wonder mankind invented ways to fly, I thought with distaste. The city below us spanned for many kilometers in all directions, and the small spaces between the tall buildings made me feel cramped, even while up in the air.

“You know,” Bernicia said as we landed on top of a skyscraper, “I’d hate to live here.”

“You and me both,” I nodded. “Look at how confined everything looks.”

“Hey, have you ever seen any monster movies?” Blake asked.

“Uhm, no,” I said. “Why?”

“I’ve seen Shifting Sands,” Travis supplied.

“Well, so have I, but the mirage never climbed any towers,” Blake said.

“Oh, those sorts of monster movies. No, I think we only had Shifting Sands. The rest were, like, documentaries and junk,” I remembered.

“Get with the times,” Bernicia told us. “Everyone knows it’s all about reading nowadays. Books, comics. The good stuff.”

“We only had one volume of Furry Knight, though,” Blake mused. “And it was a cliffhanger.”

Travis rose a finger. “Well, remember when I wrote–”

Beep-a-deep-a-deep.

“WHAT was that,” I yelled, leaping off the skyscraper’s edge.

Beep-a-deep-a-deep.

“It’s… coming from you, Kit,” Travis called. “One of your gauntlets, I mean.”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, tapping the source of the noise. A light glowed under the metallic surface, and suddenly a voice spoke through it –

“…ronauts! Yes? Do you copy?”

“Wargh! It’s you! The workers! Worker number one, I mean,” I shouted.

“Oh! Success. Aeronauts, do you copy? This is Larry. Roy’s at the hideout right now, but I’ll still be able to meet up with you guys.”

Roy? Larry? The workers had names, duh. “Yeah, nice to meet you too,” I replied. “So what’s this hideout? Is that where you wanna meet?”

“No, it’ll be safer if I came to you,” Larry decided. “Meet me at the tallest skyscraper in the city. Then we can talk for real.”

Beep. He had disconnected.

As I stepped back onto the roof, I said, “The worker’s name is Larry. He wants to meet us at the tallest skyscraper.”

“This is the tallest skyscraper,” Bernicia noted.

“Oh.” I looked around. “I guess we wait, then.”

After about ten minutes of not doing much, Travis spotted a flying person in the distance. “Is that supposed to be him?” he wondered.

“I… am not sure,” I admitted.

“If it turns out to be dangerous, I call first dibs,” Bernicia called.

The person swooped down to where we were. His longish white hair and tired-looking face were a dead ringer – it WAS the worker! One of them, anyway.

“Okay, bub, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” I told him. “Larry, was it? Start talking!”

“You’re an aeronaut?!” Travis looked dumbfounded.

“Yes. So is Roy. I was going to tell you earlier, but… well, anyway. We’re part of the first generation of aeronauts. I’m pretty sure you guys are the third,” Larry recounted. “Based on what we’ve found, our cover company, known as A-Tech, is actually defunct.”

“Yeah, I know about how A-Tech got shut down by the SSA or whatever,” I impatiently stated. “What I want to know about is YOU!”

“Cool your jets, I'll get there.” Larry rose a finger. “First, do you guys know what you really are?”

“Spare me the existential crisis,” Travis groaned.

“Not your role or obligation or anything! I mean biologically speaking,” Larry told us. “Okay, just listen: according to what we found; aeronauts are humans spliced with these weird patchwork creatures called biotools. Our sources were spotty, but this fact lined up pretty consistently.”

“So if you’re Gen 1, then what happened to Gen 2?” I inquired.

“I’m not sure; no solid evidence came up,” Larry answered. “But I do know they were engineered to be the best of the best.”

“Hey, Larry. Do you like the city?” Bernicia asked.

“Hmm… Chandonis, the city of dreams. It grows on you, I guess. It's not as cramped as it looks,” Larry mused. “There’s a lot to explore down in the streets of the tri-state area, if you know where to look. Roy likes it a lot better, though. He knows all the nooks and crannies.”

“But I heard you need money to live in the city,” Blake said. “And I bet its cost of living is super high.”

“It’s not that bad, all things considered,” Larry shrugged. “For now, I’ll get you some stuff, show you around, and maybe crash somewhere. What do you say?”

“Hmmm,” I went.

“I wanna see the sights,” Bernicia decided.

“I don’t mind either way,” Travis shrugged.

“Mostly in favor, then?” Larry pointed downward. “It’ll be fun, probably.”

“W-well.” I tried to act nonchalant. “I never said no.”

“Well, then, first things first. I know a good clothes place down south. I’ll help you guys pick out some real clothes.”

“REAL clothes?!” I drew back, offended. “We’re not naked, you idiot!”

“Look, you’ll stand out like apples in potatoes with that getup,” Larry replied. “I mean, brightly colored jumpsuits? We’re trying to be low-key here.”

“Mine is black,” Blake mumbled.

“It’s not the end of the world. I mean, you can stow the jumpsuits if they mean that much to you,” Larry told us.

“It’s not that I like my jumpsuit,” I replied. “I mean… it’s more like… we’ve never worn anything else.”

“Speak for yourself,” Bernicia snickered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothiiing,” she sang. “Come on, come on!”

An hour or so later, the five of us walked out of a thrift store.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Larry said. “Now you’ll have an easier time blending in.”

We gave each other evaluative once-overs. Since we were optimized for flight, we aeronauts bore a natural aversion to heavy clothes. Even so, with the clothes we decided on (I particularly liked the striped t-shirt I picked out), we still managed to resemble teenagers like the ones I read about, albeit diminutive ones.

For some reason, even after we landed back on the skyscraper’s roof, this thought had begun to nag at me really badly.

“Hey!” I turned towards Larry. “How come you’re so much taller than us?”

“Huh? Um, does it matter?”

“You’re Gen 1, right? Why did they decide to make us so tiny?”

“How should I know?” Larry shrugged. “If I had to guess, though, it was to compensate for your muscle density. I figured that much when you beat us up at the House of Steel.”

“Oh. Ah, sorry about that,” I muttered. “So I suppose this means you guys have less muscle mass than us?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure our bones are hollow, too. Based on how you guys fought, I could tell you were probably made smaller because of your solid builds. You wouldn’t be able to fly if you were my size.”

“So… I could beat you in an arm wrestling contest,” I ascertained.

“Probably, but not in a race,” Larry replied. “Sure, none of us in Gen 1 are very strong, but our airspeed is unmatched.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Unmatched how?”

“Well, the way I see it, we were optimized for mobility, while you guys of Gen 3 seem to have been optimized for power,” Larry concluded.

“That doesn’t mean you’re faster than Gen 3,” I tersely replied.

“Hey, Larry,” Bernicia called. She was going through his bag. “Travis and I are heading out to have some fun. What do these ball things do?”

“They’re like bombs, sort of? They’re Roy’s, but he gave me a few,” Larry answered. “I recommend the gray ones; they make a smokescreen.”

“Neat! Come on, White Knight, adventure awaits!”

“Right behind you, umm, Pixie Girl, was it?”

“Dark Pixie Girl.” Soon she and Travis had vanished into the dark alleyways below.

“Let’s race,” I decided.

“Huh? Now?” Larry sounded confused. “I was going to get us some donuts.”

“I’ve heard of those,” Blake said. “You should do that.”

“Not until we race,” I insisted.