Sky thought for a while as the robots talked.
"COMtech Standard is a boring name, I'm gonna call you Forty." She said.
"Come on Nee, we need to get some food before it gets too light." She said, skipping towards the more rural area's of The Escapist. Usually Sky stayed inside during the days, because she was slightly paranoid about the scans being able to reach outside the city limits.

As Pon was running, he saw two robots and a person standing around talking. Might they be able to help me?
He ran up to them and pulled out the paper, "Any one of you know what 'Escapist' is?"

Xivout paused again as he saw the human approaching the limits of the city. He tapped a claw against his faceplate, considering his options. Were the two robots going to follow her? And why didn't they kill her already for being that far out of the city limits? The more he wondered, the stranger these new entities became. Well, at least the human will be simple. They're always the same, so boring. He watched the human move for a while, determining its path before climbing across the buildings to lie in wait on a rooftop the human would pass near. He collapsed his legs and layed the cloak over himself, pulling his "face" over his head an lying in wait.

"Holy crap! Hi there!" Sky said, hugging the man. She looked at the piece of paper.
"Uhh.. Isn't The Escapist that city over there?" She said, pointing at the city she had been skipping towards. Sky had always been uncertain whether she was remembering the right city.

Neo looked in surprise as what was happening between the human girl and the human man.
He readied one of his energy blades and strode up to the newcomer.

"External Address:-Let go of Miss. Kemea or you will never find out"

"Uhh, okay...Just-Just calm down..." Pon said, nervously taking a few steps away from his new acquaintance. He looked at the robot with the rather dangerous looking weapons, "Now can you take those things down? I don't really feel like being hit with those things."

Neo didn't move.

"External Address:- Once you explain to me what you were doing to her."

"Well, she hugged me. It's a common greeting amongst humans. Completely harmless, I swear. But, if you feel that uncomfortable about my being here, I'll be on my way."
Pon put the slip of paper back in his pocket, and headed toward the city thought as "The Escapist".

Neo retracted the blade.

"External Address:- Greeting? I... I misunderstood. Forgive me. What do you know of robots? Can you fight?"

Neo was getting curious again. All these new people had him on alert, but they seemed harmless enough. He focused upon his task once more.

As soon as the small detachment of nBU's reached Theta's positions, he had ordered them into several various positions. His scans of the building had reveled two possible door entrences, with most of the windows caved in. He ordered two groups of six nBU's to these two openings and had them stand by. He also ordered one of his MCU's to be with the front door group and the other gaurd to be with the back door group. He then had four groups of two nBU's patrol the area around the building, their objective was to ensure that no human escaped the dragnet they were about to unleash.

"Initiate the attack" He ordered.

It happened fast. The nBU's used their lasers to cut open the doors and once the doors fell foreward, the units surged foreward. Theta detached one of his shoulder drones to survay the combat going on inside, it happened just as he predicted. The humans were supprised to see a force of robots storming their market and many were cut down by the nBU's and the supporting fire from the MCU's. As per Theta's orders (and in direct violation of NinjOS's command), the units were injuring those with weapons whenever they could and were injuring one out of every ten humans they found.

The fight was over in less than a minute, at least a hundered humans were not displaying any signs of life and a small group of injured survivors were huddled in a confused mass outside. Two nBu's had minor damage to their legs and one had severe damage to it's chassie, those three were extracted from the area. Theta took his chariot and approched the group.

"Are any of you Escapists, if so where is your base?" he inquired, no one raised a voice

With that Theta shot one of the group

" I will procede to ask that question once every minute, for every none responce I get, I will kill someone in the group" This had it's desired effect, one of the humans who had been a gaurd spoke up

"We're in the warehouse district okay, you have your info, let us go!"

"Thank you, this information will be utilized effectivly"

Theta transmited the results of his battle to NinjOs as well as the location of the Escapist's and as an added treat, the video of the survivors being mowed down by theta's remaining forces.

The large bot was starting to get quite anxious to move along. He waited for a while before deciding to move along and started on his way towards the city, ancient machinery clinking and clanging as it slowly began to return to it's previous state of perfect, unhindered and fluid movement. He spoke again, without turning to the group, his eyes now glowing a bright and quite dangerous yellow.

"I'm gonna scout up ahead. Since we're headin' to the city, prob'ly, since there ain't really much anywhere else to go. Might be useful, don't ya think?"

He brushed some dust off the COMtech logo on his chest, a five pointed star in a blue circle, surrounded by the words COMtech Robotics appearing. If he had a mouth, he probably would have had a please expression.
As he broke off from the group, he lowered the gauss rifle from his shoulder and carefully, as to not disturb anyone or alert anyone of his presence, scrambled into nearby rubble for cover. The yellow eyes grew dull before the colour drained completely, and the robot used his rifle's scope to scout on ahead.
Empty streets is all he saw at that moment.

Xivout saw the skeleton moving into the city and focused on it, still hidden under his cloak on the rooftops. He watched as it drew a rifle and took cover, scanning the streets carefully. Dammit, it's a combat unit. And that rifle doesn't look all that nice, either. I suppose I'll have to abandon the hunt for now. I'm not quite in the mood to get shot at today. He slowly lowered himself to the ground and scuttled across the rooftop, lowering himself to the ground opposite the thing with a gun. He landed silently and began sprinting away, heading back towards the Spire to satisfy his raging curiosity as to what the falling shape was. And what it meant. Don't worry, little ones, he thought towards the group he was leaving behind, I'll come back to give you the death you desire soon enough.

"Bye for now Forty.." Sky said, watching him go off ahead. She caught up to the man instead.

"So why are you going to The Escapist?" She asked him, hoping for a conversation. She had only N.E.O to talk to until now.

"I was walking down the street, and I saw this paper fall from one of the buildings. It's addressed to 'Escapists', so I think they need to get this message." Pon handed the note to the girl. "Can you make any sense of it?"

Sky read the note a few times, frowning at it.
"Nope, sorry, maybe it's in code?" She said, her eyes lighting up.
"It'll be like a secret organisation sorta thing! That'd be so cool." She drifted off in a daydream, still walking alongside the man.

No one ever checks the rooftops. Why not?

It was a puzzling question, to be sure, and a full 17% of the ASATU-ZEM unit's processing power was currently devoted to answering it, with the remainder being split between maintaining bipedal locomotion systems and the ever-present situational analysis programs. With the robots, the answer was easy and quickly understandable. If there was anything on the roofs worth noticing, their sensors would pick it up: they were reliably indiscriminate that way. So they never bothered focusing the optical sensors above street level. Everything gave off some kind of emission, with thermal and electromagnetic being the most common, and they would pick that up in less than a heartbeat. There was no need to actually look most of the time. If it weren't for the routine status reports it sent to NinjOP, ASATU-ZEM knew that its rooftop maneuverings would be all but invisible to its fellow robots.

But the humans? They had no excuse. Their eyes couldn't pick up flickers of heat or radio through solid concrete. For all they knew, at any given moment the tops of their buildings were liberally coated in battle-ready MCUs. Admittedly, that had never actually happened, but you couldn't be sure. That was the thing. In robots, ASATU-ZEM would expect pattern recognition like that. With their absurdly chaotic lives, paranoid little minds and fleshy vulnerability, it would seem logical that the humans would be more...careful?

Why did they never look up?

Because there was never any need to. Because looking up would mean taking your eyes off the street, the street where dangers have traditionally come from. And because they never think about it. It was all subconscious. For a robot, not checking the roof was a matter of careful consideration that had ended in the decision that it wasn't necessary. For a human, the mere conscious thought of the possibility of checking the roof was enough to trigger an automatic reaction. It was amazing, it really was.

ASATU-ZEM watched from his lonely kingdom of rooftops as the small party moved along the streets. There was a woman and a man, and a robot who seemed to follow the woman, and another robot of a model that he didn't recognize. It was approaching curfew, and ASATU-ZEM debated for a moment descending and warning the humans. They looked like they knew where they were going, though, and the presence of the robots was as sound an indicator of legal business as existed in the city. They were going somewhere, probably home for the night, and their pace suggested they felt they would get there before curfew.

ASATU-ZEM filed the movement away for the next status report and watched the odd collection of people walk until they were out of sight.

It didn't take long for Andrew to reach the site of the disturbance; about twenty minutes in total. It would have taken ten but dodging patrols and hiding tended to add a few extra minutes to any journey after hours. It was rather more brutal than he'd expected. Dozens of corpses lay strewn around, all recently dead, all from 'bot inflicted wounds. His ears pricked, but he could hear nothing. Any robots still in the area were making a deliberate point to stay hidden. He couldn't see anyone either. Not a sound, save for the far off clunking of metal on stone of patrolling bots. Truly it wasn't as hard as many made out to dodge the sensors of a bot. One only needed an understanding of what they looked for.

He moved slowly along the bodies of the deceased, poking and prodding at some. Respect for the dead was useless when the living might soon join them. They would likely never receive a 'proper' burial and Andrew couldn't spend his time giving them one. On one of the corpses he found a small slip of paper with an address - a warehouse. Considering the man's clothing and items, it was fairly clear that he was a member of the resistance movement. Andrew had no intentions of heading over there; to become directly affiliated with such a party would be detrimental to his independence and his safe haven. Nevertheless, the address could be of some use later on. If the robots cleared it out then there would be items for the taking once it was empty, just like now. It took him a little over fifteen minutes to finish his sweep of the building and the life-challenged occupants. He found little of worth he could carry back with him. There were a few rifles and automatic weapons, but they were far harder to conceal on his person. He stowed them in a safe hiding spot in the building as a cache should he ever need them anyway, but he doubted he'd find a use for them any time soon.

He found two books - both with scrubbed out titles that were no longer legible. They were, however, readable and in a good enough condition to survive possible complications during transportation. Gently, they were placed in a small book bag he'd brought with him. The moon shone overhead, casting beams of light through the battered and broken rooftop. They highlighted the features of the dead in a macabre painting of the mortified, shadows painting odd expressions across their frozen faces. Andrew took one last look at the picture put before him before leaving the building in search of...well, he didn't really know. He had his decision made for him though, as he turned a corner to directly into an nBU.

He stood a moment, staring at the chest of the machine which was far taller than he before making his next decision. In a moment he placed his shoe squarely into the 'face' of the robot and kicked, knocking it backwards, before turning and running for dear life. Silently cursing his inattentiveness, he weaved from street to alley to street to dilapidated garden to alley to street through a (empty) home and back onto yet another road, trying to put as much distance and as many turns between him and the nBU as possible. He was all too aware that his kick hadn't disabled it, nor would it have stopped it from transmitting to its leader 'bot. He really didn't want to have to blow one of his precious flares on this chase, not if he didn't have to.

He stopped for a breather in a dark alleyway. Only one exit - where he came in which meant he had a clear view of anyone coming in his direction. A visual scan wouldn't pick him up, his breathing was drowned out by the sound of scurrying vermin and the houses on either side, a thermal scan would likely notice something - but whether they'd deem it to be of human nature was another matter. Decision time once more: Should he wait it out until curfew ended or make a break for it while he could? He clutched his chest, his breathing felt oddly wheezy today. Perhaps he was coming down with a cold, not exactly the most helpful of things to become afflicted with.
"Rest first," he whispered to no one but himself, his lips barely moving. "Then decide." He slumped against the wall and sat down, his shoulders rising and falling steadily as he tried to calm the adrenaline which was pumping through his system. He took the hat from his head and placed it gently atop his knee, running a hand over his sweat-coated brow. He always got like this on a chase. He'd find his second wind soon enough, but he was quite vulnerable until then.

Theta continued to drive around the city, he had guned down two more humans who had been out past curfew, but had not encountered much else. He had recived a signal from a nBU at the market site, but paid it little head, a lone human wandering around the site mattered little to Theta. He was still, however, wondering when NinjOS would contact him with new orders, he decided to call his master once more

"Master...I again request permission to go into the warehouse district with my full command to sweep for the Escapists"

Xivout again climbed his way up to the rooftops, taking care to cover himself with his cloak as he crested the lip of the nearby building. He scanned the streets for the group he had spotted earlier and failed to see them. On instinct, he decided to scan his rooftops, to see if any vermin had decided to try and invade his hunting grounds again. His head swiveled around to its limit and proceeded to twist slowly, performing a cursory sweep. Nothing seemed out of place, save for a...

Another person... but on the rooftops? He had never seen one of their kind up here with him. After all, the rooftops were his realm, and to trespass on it would be blasphemy. Surely they knew that? He decided to confront this interloper head-on, pulling his "face" on and bending his legs to take a running leap to land behind the figure, lifting his claws into the air and hunching over. "Speak, little vermin. Why have you climbed so high? Do you wish to taste the sky?"

Right behind, always right behind. Did they never realize what they were dealing with? They always came up right behind the ASATU-ZEM unit, close enough to reach out and touch, before speaking. Did they think that close range somehow gave them an advantage?

The unit turned its head, and the violet glow from its optics illuminating the towering figure standing behind it. ASATU-ZEM paid particular attention to the claws raised overhead like some spiked awning. Okay then. Perhaps this one knew what it was doing in getting so close.

"Good day, sir," said ASATU-ZEM. "I am not here to sample the heavens: I already know that they taste of smog. As always." Scan complete: biological system, heavy electronic modification. "You should be careful, citizen. The light is fading, and curfew approaches fast."

He chuckles, standing fully upright to tower over what he now knew to be yet another robot. Ugh, dammit another new one? What the hell, is today the roll-out of a new line of custom-built things? I mean, that'd make things a lot more fun, but it's kind of annoying. He pulled off his facemask and stared down at the bot, examining it quickly. "I see... you're a mimc, huh? Looks like a human, moves like a human, so it must be human, right? 'Cept you've got one little problem. Same problem all you slag piles have, to be honest. You lack the human element." He raised a hand to show the robot the electricity arcing between his claws, dancing over the metal's surface. "You lack the human element. The spark of life, so to speak. The only one of you that ever got close, from what I understand, is this NinjOP. I'd quite like to meet him, really. Vermin with a brain, the Rat King. Who knows?" He cocked his head to the side as though thinking. "I wonder if he's just a bunch of toasters with their cords tangled together?"

He looked back down at the robot in front of him, hunching over again. "But that's beside the point. You seem to have made a mistake in your programming. I'm no citizen, far from it. I'm neither human nor robot, I'm something more." He reached up to tap the engraving on his faceplate. "Homo ex machina. Man in the machine. Now, I suggest you move along and leave my domain," he said as he swept a hand out to indicate the city's sprawling rooftops. "Unless of course, you'd like to take me up on my offer to taste the sky?"

Sky, N.E.O and Pon snuck through the streets, keeping an eye out for security bots.
"I don't like this place Nee.." She said to her robot friend, as she looked around another corner cautiously.
"Where abouts do you need to go anyway?" She said to Pon.

Dmitri noticed the trio below and hopped down the levels of the fire escape until he landed with a light "Thud" several feet away, rifle in hand "You should find some shelter, curfew is almost upon us." He called out

"Eep.." Sky hid behind N.E.O, scared of the man.
"What curfew?" She called back to him. Before now Sky had just stayed up until she was tired.

"There's a curfew in effect, caught out after dark and..well..let's just say the outcome isn't pretty." Dmitri answere, his grip on the stock of his rifle tightening as he eyed the bot

"Ah crap... Nee I knew this was a bad idea, lets go hunting for food tomorrow." Sky said to her robot friend, forgetting about her idea of a secret mission involving Pon's note.

"You going to be able to make it out of the city before dark?" Dmitri asked, taking a few steps closer.

"I don't see why not, it's only a 5 minute run from here I think." She said, trying to remember how far they had walked while she had been in a daydream.

"I'll go with you, just to be safe." Dmitri said after a long pause "Come on, we need to leave five minutes ago"

"Ah, yes," said ASATU-ZEM. "The justifying philosophy, translated into Latin for added emphasis. I will admit to wondering upon occasion why it's always Latin. Would not, for example, French work just as well? L'homme dans la machine...Homo ex machina, indeed."

It paused for a moment to study the sparks cracking between the cyborg's outstretched claws. Fascinating system, that. Best be careful of it.

"And yet, as you have so eloquently noted, it is indeed a man within this machine," the robot said, "and all men are subject to the curfew laws." ASATU-ZEM leaned away slightly to stare unblinking into the cyborg's face. "This is not your domain, and you cannot make it so merely by hiding within a shell of metal. I have walked these roofs for longer than you have been alive: I have no wish to leave them now."

If it could have smiled, ASATU-ZEM would have. "But this city is large, yes? There are many rooftops. Perhaps you should move to one where they do not care as much about the curfew."

Threat Potential: High
Recommended Action: Target subject for surveillance

"Wait, I can't leave yet, there's another robot I'm friends with around here somewhere." She said, remembering Forty.
"Nee, think you can scan around to look for Forty?" She asked. N.E.O started scanning the area.

"Then at least get behind me, MCUs or nBUs show up they're more likely to target humans first and I seem to make a lovely meat shield" He said, nodding behind him. "Provided, of course that that's okay with-uh... 'Nee', was it?" He added, not wanting to fight more of the tin cans than he had to.