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I stood over the edge of can's wall and peered down at the immense, complex machinery below. Coolant pipes, storage chambers, and memory arrays jutted out in the rising sun. It was peaking over the cloud cover and pouring through the thick mist that settled on the top of the can. Vibrant hues of oranges and pinks scattered the sun rays and painted the can with an ethereal glow. Somehow it felt different from Reaches for Stars' wall. Less cold, but not any less lonely. The view was stunning and for a moment I could forget my task. My troubles.
However, the peace was shattered when Fallen Horizon kept looking back to the entrance of the can with a curious expression. The weight settled back in, and I trudged onwards. The towering city was as empty as the one back home and yet I could hear noise in the distance. Grinding metal and constant pattering as if creatures were running amok. I supposed they would be considering most iterator's lack of pest control.
I arrived at the gate in a timely manner. Loping covered the distance in under a few minutes. There was only a crawlspace that led to a small shelter and eventually the typical Karmic murals. I rolled my eyes under my googles. They held such an obsession over a natural force of nature. A small part of life that held little meaning in the cycles. Only breaking free of them as if life was a prison.
I knew confinement and I knew what it meant to be trapped. Living and the cycles were not that.
I finally made it into the maintenance shaft and was free of the frankly poor artwork. The tiles, textured stone, and bright golden colors only caught the idea for so long. Perhaps they looked more vivid when in their heyday, but such thoughts were pointless. I peered into the puppet chamber and found the iterator endlessly cycling through pearls and glaring at monitors. He was aware of my presence on his structure, but no overseers had observed my entrance into his can. He seemed more invested in observing the creatures scurrying around on his screens. Not so strange for an iterator I supposed. I let myself drop in and found myself endlessly amusing at his wide-eyed expression.
Before he could turn off the gravity, I quickly signed, "Five Pebbles."
I didn't think his eyes could get any wider, but I was thoroughly surprised and impressed. Iterator's puppets had little in the way of expressiveness, but you could read them easily if you knew where to look. He moved towards me at eye level and stared for a moment at my equipment.
"A not so little beast has once again come to my chambers. This time it speaks," He spun upside down to get a better look. "You are not first to come and yet are more advanced than any that have traveled through my structure," He paused for a moment and then narrowed his eyes suspiciously, antenna flicking back, "Why are you here? You've clearly been in contact with an iterator judging from your equipment and Mark."
I swatted his approaching hand away when he moved to examine my harpoons. I could practically feel him puff up with offense. I swiveled to meet his eyes once more and to sign, "It's rude to not look at someone you're speaking to." Not letting him spout off a retort I reported my reasoning, "I am here as a representative of the iterator known as Reaches for Stars. He is located north of your structure. The curious design of it, your apparent Rot, and the advanced of the scavenger population is why I was assigned your region."
Five Pebbles stilled. I could feel the chamber crackling with energy, likely his anger, and moved to sooth his irritation. "There's a chance we may be able to help with your current... situation. Though I have no guarantee any information I possess could help. Your sickness is the result of an unsuccessful gene-splicing experiment I imagine. Just what taboo were you trying to overcome?" The pearls within the chamber stopped shaking and clattering. The tension in the room lowered, no longer thrumming with barely contained fury. He was still irritated judging from his crossed arms and thin slits for eyes but was also curious enough to not kill me.
"I was attempting to subvert the self-destruction taboo. It clearly failed and now my systems are slowly being eroded away," Five Pebbles subtlety slumped in exhaustion, "Flushing my systems only slows the Rot."
I felt a drop of pity for him. He was young for an iterator and likely made his choices out of a desperation to escape the cycle. I lifted up me googles to give him a better look at my face. Curling my paws, I swiftly signed what we both were thinking.
"You want to ascend."
Against my better judgement, I continued on, "I pity you," I quickly cut him off before he could somehow become more offended, "I pity you because you never had the chance to truly live. You are stuck in this box and never experienced what it is to live. To feel the sun and walk freely in our world. You have been trapped by the Ancients. Doomed to suffer from their philosophies and cages. Yet, you are trying to flush the Rot out of your system. I would think you'd want to die. It is slow, but it is an escape of some sort. Perhaps you would wake up as something different. Something free." I looked at Pebbles expectantly, yet he was silent. He no longer was crossing his arms but was rather staring at the ground completely limp. His antenna was pressed as back as they'd go. Likely from distress.
I flicked my tail to look up at him, "You do have a choice. Iterators are capable of detaching themselves from their cans, though it's extremely painful and requires help. Severing the umbilical is risky, you would need slag keys nearby along with neurons. As for your... lack of walking, you would need to 3-D print something. The real question is, can you give up your processing power and advancement? Could you become a lowly creature such as myself?" Pebbles finally blinked and readjusted himself. Taking on a more neutral demeanor, he started to do the usual swerving around the can on his metal arm. The umbilical and wires obediently followed behind.
"You said you were looking for the reasoning behind the Scavengers. I gave one a Mark and now they run amok the top my can. You can freely access the city." I was taken back by his change in the subject. I moved to sign but he raised his arm. I felt him grasp me by an unnatural force and the pressure was almost painful.
"Get out." He hissed coldly. He shoved me against the maintenance tunnel, and I floundered. Struggling against the force, I gave a raspy, choking gasp. Despite my inability to say anything, this only enraged him further.
"GET OUT!"
Finally, I was thrust out of the chamber and back into the tunnel. Eager to get away from the temperamental iterator, I slammed my hind legs against the sides of the shaft to pick up momentum. By the time I was past the Karmic murals and had crawled through the pipe, my heart rate had calmed. The fact he was able to shake me so well was unnerving. Even Stars rarely broke my composure these days. Still, it mattered little in the end and my goal was merely a jog away.
The gates sputtered and hissed steaming. Metallic clacking and the gritty, grinding of gears helped to cement me in the moment. All that was mattered was right in front of me. I pushed onwards through the endless hallway and into the streets of the Metropolis.