[Whatsyourface]

48 looked at the boy. Then it actually realized he was acting hostile it seemed. 48 paused for a few seconds to grasp this, and then it says simply “It is alright….” It seemed the right thing to say to Jet in this situation. 48 then says. “I will be close.” It walks away and jumps out a window out the building. Even though Jet is not is not directly in his site, 48 could see all around itself using sound. Though certain materials used in the building made this not as usable to navigate. This was not a problem in the real world. 48 could navigate blind folded or in total darkness if need be. Jet would be in it’s site at all times.

[Kalli]

Jet watched the creature slide through the small window, surprised that 48’s large body could possibly fit. Then again, he’d seen cats and mice and rats slide into openings they never should have been able to manage. 48 was an unknown quantity- who knew what he was capable of? Jet was just glad the creature seemed to be on his side, and forgiving of asshole behavior.

The boy decided to leave that window open, as there was no reason to suppose any other street-dwellers could get in that way. Twelve floors up and a flat wall to scale. Anyway, he had nothing worth stealing that wasn’t on him, and could be gotten down to the ground. 48 would use that window from now on if he chose… if he stuck around, anyway.

After securing everything else, and making sure he had his weapons, and a new bag to replace the one he’d lost last night, Jet made his way down the dark, narrow stairwell and out onto the streets. As usual, there weren’t too many people up, and those who had made it out of doors were scrounging around in the debris, or sitting on doorsteps, smoking.

A few shabbily-dressed children, too young to be in gangs, stuck to the shadows and played quiet games. They were afraid to draw too much attention to themselves. Jet knew the feeling; he preferred to go unnoticed, even if he stopped to check on the kids. They were hungry, of course, and the morning air was cold. One of the little girls, starved for attention, clung to his leg, clutching a doll made of a rag. Jet told the children where there was a spot of sunlight away from the street, and to warm their bodies that way. In his mind, he was thinking of how to get them something out of his day’s pickings, but at the same time wondering if their starving to death wouldn’t be kinder. In spite of his calm demeanor among them, at least Jet still bothered, unlike the other conscious adults on that part of teh filthy street. Maybe he was just sentimental.

Walking on, nodding in farewell to the children, Jet made his way down the street, making sure to keep his eyes and ears open for trouble. There was always something going on, even if things were pretty quiet for now. Jet wondered if 48 was right overhead, but didn’t dare look up to see, in case he drew someone’s attention. Hopefully, anyone who did see 48 would chalk it up to substance abuse. They probably wouldn’t be believed anyway.

[Whatsyourface]

48 was never in sight for and not noticed. The most that could be seen of it is as it traveled roof to roof if someone even bothered to look was a split second blur. There was no noise hears from it and it never peaked out at Jet to view him. It was hard to know it’s location at all. But it was watching jet all the same unseen, always keeping track of his location as he moved through the streets.

[Kalli]

Jet navigated the streets and back alleys with caution, though he could have done so blindfolded. He knew the grid of the city like the back of his hand, and even many of the movable things, like humans, didn’t tend to vary from day to day in where they were. The same drunks or drug-addicts, passed out behind dumpsters; the same prostitutes working their beats; the same beggars glaring balefully at him as he passed them by. Jet had nothing to give, they should know that by now….anyway, he’d been attacked before years ago after trying to give money to a couple of kids. If children were capable of robbing you at knife-point, adults sure as hell were. Better to act like you had nothing and weren’t worth the trouble of robbing.

The city streets, for all its numbers of poor, were relatively empty. Since the battles, mots people stayed indoors, or in their cellars. Only a few like Jet ventured out for food or supplies. That was when the beggars and thieves descended- when you came back from scrounging. For now, Jet was allowed to pass, mostly unhindered, to the outskirts of the city, and The Mound.

It stood in the early morning sunlight, a huge collection of detritus in a pile at least a hundred feet high and twenty times that around. Several smaller ‘foothills’ dotted the area around it, and among the heaps roamed people and cats and dogs and rats and birds. The area used to be controlled by gangs, and there were still a few members left, but no intact groups large enough to control the whole area, and they hated one another too much to join forces against the rest. Most people were too weary of fighting to continue, and too hungry, so even the gang members were rather listless. Jet wasn’t that concerned about them, especially since he’d show in the past he wasn’t worth the trouble. He actually had combat training- almost none of the gang members could even hold a gun straight.

No, Jet’s problem wasn’t a potential threat from them, or anyone else. Not to himself. He halted near the last buildings, trying to figure out the best way for 48 to get to the mounds and not be seen. There weren’t too many people out today- probably because of the recent bombings- so that was a plus. Still, Jet wanted to make sure 48 wasn’t seen. He skirted the length of the building, then the next, heading for the high boundary wall that divided the Mound from a wooded ditch on that side. There were just ten feet from the building to the trees, and assuming no one was in the wooded area, 48 could slip over the wall unnoticed. Jet headed into the woods himself so 48 would follow, then stayed there, waiting for him.

[Whatsyourface]

48 keeps track of the direction everyone in the area was looking in. Positioning itself. It opens it’s mouth and hops the wall with it’s powerful legs at such speeds it was diffcult for the human eye to catch. Jet would for a moment hear nothing when 48 was in the area. It was as if he was deaf, as actually 48 dampened the sound in the area. It would land through the trees in front of Jet without any audible noise. Then when it’s mouth would close. Then things could be heard again. 48 would look at jet, scan the area the area with it’s eyes briefly, and then proceed forward.

[Kalli]

Jet hadn’t known where 48 would land, or if he’d get the idea of what Jet was doing. Too late he remembered that 48 might be able to hear his thoughts because, by the time he turned around in a full circle, the creature had appeared out of the blue. Letting out a yelp, Jet leaped back in surprise, then held his chest and started to laugh breathlessly.

“Damn, I can’t ever get used to that…Maybe you should be called Stealth-Bomber or something.” Jet was just joking, of course, but he had been pondering the name problem since the night before, and nothing seemed to fit. Later was the time to worry about it.

The boy motioned him toward the wall, pointing over it. “We’ll climb over this way. I didn’t see anyone in the area, but you can tell better than me, so…. how does that work, exactly? It’s sound stuff again, right?”

[Whatsyourface]

48 walked towards the wall as Jet asked it to explain it’s abilities. “Yes. Acoustics” 48 began. “I emit sound from a device within me. The same device that produces my sound and enables me to speak. Materials within me direct the sound. Bend the soundwaves. So that it comes exclusively from my mouth and nowhere else.” 48 starts to climb the wall. Actually letting jet do it himself this time.

“I can also receive sounds via sensors akin to ears and sensors within me akin to nerve endings. In much the way the eyes receives light from light bouncing off an object, I do the same with sound. Some of it passes through as the rest bounces back. Allowing me to see through an area via acoustics. If an area already produces much sound. I can also view it that way. As well as map out structural disintegrity in any object by detecting cracks.” 48 got over the wall and jumped down. Then waited for Jet.

“As you have seen. Sound can be weaponized. All sounds above 180 decibels produce blast waves akin to explosions. But sound does not need to be so intense in amplitude. Naturally I produce ultrasonic and infrasonic sound as well as audible sound in any range. By adjusting an Acoustic lense in my throat I may also focus sound…” 48 did not seem to know or notice if Jet even understood this. It was after all made to be a weapon and reconnaissance drone.

“As well as use scanners in my eyes along with an on board computer to detect the resonant frequency of a system. All matter has a varying resonant frequency. Frequencies at which the oscillate the most. By altering frequency amplitude. Allowing me to vibrate any object. In turn. Making me able to cut, shatter, melt or bore through objects. Allowing numerous applications.”

48 began to go on and on about this “Against human. I cause disrupt the sense and the brain. Disorienting them by vibrating cranial fluid or vibrate fluid in the ear. Removing balance. Cause organs to explode and leave others umharmed. Cause enemies to lose control of their bowels and excrete waste through channeling infrasound through their bowels. Set things ablaze. Cause internal fluids to boil. Vibrate bones to cause them to shatter or break. Or cause small earthquakes and attack underground bunkers. It also had communication relaying applications. Using bone conduction, I can mimick “telepathy.” Channel sound so as to communicate quietly and remotely to an ally via vibration of their skull to produce a voice in their heads…this may also be used to confuse, demoralizd, frighten or control the enemy. It was planned at one point that I could be used to speak to Islamic terrorists in their heads and convince them that I am god and ask them to lay down their weapons…”

If Jet did not stop 48, it would continue to explain itself even further in the casual moderate paced manner it had said all this.

[Kalli]

Jet followed 48, perching on the wall like a cat. Climbing he could do, and he wasn’t afraid of heights if he was in control of his own body. Anyway, the wall wasn’t high enough he couldn’t jump down safely. He listened to 48 explain his abilities, and felt his brain beginning to fog over again. His own fault for asking. 48 clearly didn’t get that he should explain his abilities in layman’s terms. Jet decided to let it go- they had enough to worry about.

Looking down, Jet found a good spot to land and hopped down, still listening to 48 and only understanding one word in five. He wasn’t unintelligent, just unschooled, so some of the words were completely foreign. ‘Ultrasonic’ and ‘infrasonic’ sound didn’t come up regularly in street survival.

Still, understood in general what 48 was trying to say. He could see through sound and use it as a weapon, something Jet had witnessed first-hand. The memory had to be pushed down or he’d lose last night’s dinner all over the ground. It would be easier if 48 didn’t barrel onward discussing it in detail.

“Yeah…I didn’t forget you could make people explode…don’t remind me.” The boy looked at him, a bit green at the gills. “Those scientists, or whatever, really wanted you to do some damage, huh?” The more he thought about it, the more he felt chilled to the bone at the idea of 48 wreaking easy havoc on the city’s population. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to consider.

“You don’t have to do any of that anymore.” he said after a few gulps. His blue eyes met the creature’s golden ones- it was strange to think that he’d been afraid of them, but even after the catalogue of 48’s deadly attributes, Jet still wasn’t frightened of him. Not really.

“That’s in your past, anyway. You’re free now.” Jet’s head cocked to one side, a thoughtful expression on his face. “…Though some of that would come in handy. I bet we could stop a lot of gang fights with your telepathy thing. And the other stuff…maybe there’s a way to use it to do something good. There’s a lot of shit that goes on around here, I dunno…”

Though Jet had been considering this idea since last night, he was still not sure it would work. Who would they fight for or against? And how? And would 48 even want to fight? Honestly, Jet was too weary for it at this point in his life, but maybe.

“You can do something good with your sound stuff and keep us both out of trouble. Is there anyone nearby that’ll see us?” He nodded toward the Mound, looking at 48. Then, switching to speaking in his mind, he thought very clearly, “Can you hear me?”

[Whatsyourface]

Towards Jet’s statement of doing damage, it replies “As much damage as I am required.” 48 looked at Jet as he began to explain that it did not need to do all of these things. That it no longer had to be a weapon and no longer had to be a weapon. To be commanded was not something 48 desired to be. It was not being commanded however, it was here of it’s own free will.

48 opened it’s mouth and let out a sort of loud noise to see everything for about 5000 feet. Nearly a mile out it would map the area out and see if there was anything ahead in the junkyard. If there was something there, 48 would detect it unless it was intangible. It would alert jet as they walk and only pause if he paused. 48 did not respond to Jet’s thoughts, as it was as incapable of hearing them as anything else.

[Kalli]

Jey certainly didn’t think he could ever, in a million years, give something like 48 a command. Maybe a request, but a command would have gotten his insides blown up and he knew it. Anyway, he wasn’t into telling others what to do, unless it was to leave him the hell alone. He had to use that one a lot in the past. Otherwise, it was ‘you go your way and I’ll go mine’.

With 48, Jet simply wished to let him know that he didn’t have to be what he was created for, that there were options that didn’t involve death and destruction. If 48 had wanted to go down that path there was no stopping him, but he seemed to be searching for something else. Jet was just pointing him down a path he may not have seen yet.

As 48 opened his mouth, Jet covered his ears, though it wasn’t as loud a noise as he had expected. A fan of invisible sound waves radiated over the debris, causing some dogs to bark, and birds to take to the air, and a few distant people to demand that their neighbors shut up. Otherwise, no one noticed. There were no human individuals within several dozen feet of them, so they would be safe for now.

As there didn’t seem to be anyone around, they both moved forward, and Jet headed to one of the nearer mounds, starting to sift through its contents. He was rather disappointed that 48 couldn’t hear his thoughts, but it was just something that would have been fun. He could do plenty of other things.

“Would you be able to find a certain kind of thing in a pile of garbage like this? I’m looking for copper wires, pipes, any electronic stuff I can maybe fix and re-sell.” Jet looked up at him doubtfully. “Only if you want to, though. I mean…you were cooped up for hours, you don’t have to stick around if you don’t want.” Not that Jet wanted him to leave, but he was very careful about 48 being able to choose for himself.

[Whatsyourface]

“Noted. I will search for these things for you. Should you require assistance. Simply call for my aid.” And with that. 48 made a lower cackling jumped give or take 200 feet into the air clear over a mound. As it begins digging through junk in another area of the junkyard. Rummaging through old computers and finding old phones. Things it recognized and knew as electronics.

[Kalli]

Jet watched 48 soar into the air, as usual completely awed by the creature’s abilities. It was chilling to think of 48 using even his jumping skills to hunt down and destroy his enemies. However, he had chosen, for the present, to help Jet and be non-destructive. That choice still had Jet thinking 48 might have grown beyond his programming. He knew enough about computers to understand that they couldn’t go beyond the way they were built…not traditional ones, anyway. How had 48 been able to rise above what was hard-wired into him to choose something so far to the opposite? Jet never had believed much in souls, but now he was starting to question some long-held assumptions. The question was, if 48 had a soul, or something like it, could he ever feel raw emotions? Sadness? happiness? Anger? Jet wasn’t sure.

The boy pondered all these things in silence as he rummaged through the debris of his own pile, keeping an ear out for 48’s digging so he knew the creature was alright. A pretty strange thing for him to worry about, as 48 could definitely handle himself, but Jet was still feeling strangely protective. After at least an hour, he hadn’t found much, but maybe enough to buy a few cans of food. The problem, as always, was how to dig down under the top layer, which was always pretty picked-over, to the lower stuff. One had to be careful, as the mounds tended to shift, and people had been crushed under what the city’s denizens colloquially referred to as “garbage-slides”. Jet had a few close calls himself in the past, so he was very careful to anchor himself on larger, heavier pieces. The day’s pickings had been modest on his side, but he at least a few things in his bag. Jet slung it over his shoulder and went to see what 48 was up to.

Once he rounded the large pile that separated them, Jet decided he should have worked with 48 teh whole time. Smaller, almost neatly-distributed piles of debris lay around the creature in a radius as he moved from place to place up to a few hundred feet away. He’d shifted more than jet could have in a whole year, and found some valuable things, too. Not in terms of true luxury gods- no diamonds yet, though Jet was always hoping for things like that. There might be some buried under the debris but he hadn’t thought to ask 48 to look for them. Next time he might just do that.

“Damn….that’s a lot.” Jet said out loud, bending over and picking up an old laptop. He’d have to see if it was viable, but he could have sold the parts for a little money, at least. There were more just like it, all in piles- TVs, radios, copper wire, steel pipes.

Suddenly, the boy laughed. “You can stop now if you want. I don’t think I could carry all this home.” He imagined a sack the size of a house on his back and the thought made him laugh a little more.

[Whatsyourface]

48 had stored a mass of the collected items in an old pickup truck as Jet called him back. 48 looked in Jet direction as 48 pushed the truck along the mound. He had found numerous copper wires. Some old phones. Many rusted pipes A large pile of most of the things jet asked for. Though it wasn’t enough to fill back of the truck, it was a fairly large pile that 48 had dug deeply for and it filled out the bottom of the truck. “I have amassed a collections of the items you requested….”

[Kalli]

Jet whistled, looking at all the items n the truck bed. “Too bad I couldn’t get this thing to work or we could drive out with all this stuff.” he joked. “Not sure how we’d fill the gas tank anyway. You’re pretty damn useful, you know that?”

With a grin, he looked over at 48, and had the creature been a dog or a human, he would have ended up with playfully ruffled hair. The prospect of a good meal in the future did much to lift Jet’s spirits.

“Still,” the boy said, turning back to the truck and reaching in to grab a bunch of copper wires, turning then over in his fingers. “Still, I could carry a lot of this stuff back pretty easy, and there’s more than enough time now to fence the stuff at a few different places. Whatever I can’t carry I’ll have to hide somewhere. People start to get suspicious if you have too much at once. Guy down the street got shivved when the gangs thought he was holding out on the motherlode. War over garbage….pretty ridiculous, huh?”

In spite of this last, Jet’s good humor wasn’t dampened. He was used to a pretty dark life, so morbid things didn’t bother him so much. Looking around, he began to think of a way to hide what they had found that was valuable. A stray patch of earth had been exposed in 48’s shifting of the garbage, and Jet pointed to it.

“Think you could make a hole there? I’ll bury the stuff for later so you don’t have to work as hard next time. It’s kind of like having a bank account, really.” That thought made him chuckle.

[Whatsyourface]

48 looks over to the ground and walks over. Jet’s mood made 48 curious as to why he was so happy. “Perhaps it would better to cover it in more trash. As burying these items could damage non plastic components.” 48 commented. “Making it harder for one human to move it.”