The Aftermath

[Painless]

As soon as the sirens started, Nolan plugged his ears with some ice. It wasn't much better, as the lack of hearing left him completely exposed to any dangers that might come from outside his line of sight, but at least like this he could manage to think straight. First things first, he had to meet up with Lina. But he couldn't get too close; their powers presented just as much of a danger to each other as they did to any potential enemy.

He looked around and didn't see much worth looking at. Dead tress, sparse grass, and a lazy radioactive river cutting down the middle of it all. He wondered why someone would bother to set up this kind of trap in such a remote area. Maybe it had something to do with this wooden wall. If they'd set up protective measures, whoever they were, they must have something worth protecting.

After he made it over the river, he stopped, and motioned to Lina to come towards him. He started pounding on the wall, trying to break through somehow. This was the edge of the Mind Trap, so if they got through they'd be free, right? It was the only thing he could think of. And even if Lina could come up with a better idea, neither of them would be able to hear it.

He didn't bother with fancy weapons, and just caked ice around his fists as he battered on the wall, trying to break it down.

[Olivia Cycien]

Lina came up beside him, looking frantically around, her dagger still at the ready. She noticed him banging on the wall with ice. Since they'd already had a very graphic demonstration that his powers stopped at the wall, she figured he wasn't going to make much headway. She wouldn't be able to use her powers either.

The sirens stopped suddenly and the ensuing silence was deep and ominous. She felt as if there was a giant weight suspended above their heads by a thread and that at any moment the thread would be cut and the weight would drop, crushing them. She looked up as if expecting that mythical weight to appear, then tensed further as a new sound rang out into the still air.

There was a long drawn out metallic twang, as if something very big and very rusty was moving. A loud crump sound was followed by the ground shaking. There was another crump and the ground shook again. A distinctly metallic clank drew her attention and she shifted her gaze. With a look of horror on her face, she flattened herself against the wooden wall.

"Oh my god!"

[Painless]

With his ears plugged, Nolan didn't notice when the sirens stopped. He didn't even notice when something started whirring and clanking, moving towards the two of them. He was too absorbed in trying to break through the wall, a difficult process. He felt like he was making some very slight headway, but not much. Just enough to convince him that it wasn't a waste of time.

Even if he didn't notice the sound, when something hit the ground hard enough to make everything around him shake, that he noticed. He pulled the ice from his ears and realized that everything was far too quiet. No sound, at least at first. After a moment, he heard Lina cry out, and spun around to look at the same thing she was seeing.

Big. That was his first impression. Metal, was his second impression. A robot, his brain finally managed to piece together. They mentioned them in the books sometimes, but in there, they were almost always small, and usually friendly. Even when he read about the ones that weren't, he'd comforted himself by saying that his powers would be more than enough to handle any robot he ever encountered.

Looking at this one, he'd clearly been wrong about that.

[Olivia Cycien]

Now, when it was too late, Lina recalled the stories about robots her great grandfather had talked about. Now she realized how the enemy in war might have been defeated. Great grandfather had talked a lot about Mind Traps. How could she have been so stupid! By destroying the Mind Trap, she and Nolan had inadvertently awakened the robot that was designed to guard the trap!

She could hear its gears creak and grind as it advanced toward them. Though it moved slowly, it was still moving far too quickly for her liking. Its eyes were flashing menacingly. She could see rust and scratches along the surface of the metal body. Apparently this was not a deterrent for the robot because it kept right on coming.

She knew that they had to get away from the wall. The wall was blocking or putting out some kind of barrier --maybe an anti magic field-- that shorted out their powers. But how were they going to get past the robot? It was blocking their escape. She wasn't sure her powers would work against the robot anyway. How were they going to get away from the wall?

There must be something they could do! Any second now the robot would be upon them! Lina frantically tried to think of some way they could save themselves from this predicament.