Machine Story

City of Corrinth

When David finally came around, he no longer found himself in the Sahana Desert. Instead, he was near the outskirts of a city, where many people were lining up to enter. He was also all covered up in clothes, so no one could see his mechanical body.

“Finally decided to wake up and join us?” Atana asked happily. David’s head was still in a daze and he was confused as to where he was. Niall began to fill him in on what had happened and that they were about to enter the City of Corrinth as their next destination.

“Wait what? Why are we in the Corrinth right now? Shouldn’t we be out finding the location of the coordinates?” David asked and Roop informed him about what the coordinates meant. David was skeptical so Roop asked him to check his memory bank to see if it contained the same information as his. The only problem was that David couldn’t contact Siri, and without her, he had no way of accessing that information.

“It's not a big deal David, let’s get into the city first and then we can figure the rest out.” Shaan reassured him. They all lined up together in order to get inspected by the entrance guards.

Once they were called up by the guard, Mya spoke and gave her identity to the guard who immediately bowed down on one knee in respect. The other guards did so as well, but Mya told them to stand up. The lead inspector got up and granted her party entry into the city without any conflict.

The inspection guard told Mya to wait as a group of guards would escort her to the royal palace where the Queen would be. While they were waiting, the time had come for their party to separate; Atana and Jake were ready to part ways.

They were grateful for the adventures they had in the desert but the two of them had other ambitions. Jake was off to create more art and sell them as a merchant, while Atana couldn’t wait to add to her collection of candy. They all gave their condolences and went their separate ways.

Right after Jake and Atana left, the guards from the royal palace arrived. Mya glanced at all the guards that were there, “Pardon me but where are Viraaj and Paco? I thought they would be here to greet me.” One of the guards replied, “Apologies my lady, Captain Viraaj and Commander Paco are on a very important mission upon the Queen’s request. Therefore we have been asked by the majesty herself to escort you.”

Their answer raised some suspicion but Mya accepted their request. David, Roop, Niall and Shaan were about to follow but the guards stood their ground and blocked their way. “Sorry, only Lady Mya has been requested, all other party members will be staying in a different location!” One of the guards commanded.

Mya attempted to change the guard's mind but they were very firm that the four could not join her. That was when Niall jumped in with his negotiation skills, “How about only one of us goes with Mya. We want the same thing, to ensure Mya makes it back to the palace safely.” The guards looked at each other and discussed for a moment, before turning around to respond, “Fine, send forth your escort.”

As Shaan was about to make his way towards the guards, he thanked Niall for what he did. “Hey this doesn’t mean I trust her, but there is something weird going on in this city. Keep your guard up.” Niall cautioned Shaan.

While a couple of guards guided Mya and Shaan towards the palace, another two were assigned to lead Roop, Niall, and David to the place they would be staying. They were brought into an inn that wasn’t anything special. They were each given separate rooms that were distanced from one another. After they were brought to their rooms, they were told that the inn keeper would notify them when dinner would occur.

All three agreed and immediately went to their separate rooms. It had been a long time since they had a nice quiet rest after being stuck in the desert for so long. So the three were craving some alone time to recharge before dinner would be served.

David’s initial attempt at a nap had turned into a full on sleep. He was having quite the snooze until a noise coming from the window woke him up. It was the sound of a stone hitting against the glass. He slowly got out of his bed and went to check out the window. He noticed that the sun had already set, which meant David must have been asleep for at least three hours.

He was wondering if Niall and Roop had fallen asleep like him or if he had missed the call for supper. He turned around to face the direction of the door. However, in the same direction was a mirror that reflected the window he was just at. Within the reflection, he saw someone kick his window open and two assassins infiltrated into his room.

The two infiltrators took out the light bulbs in the room, reducing David’s vision. In response, David tapped the side of his head and asked Siri to activate night vision but nothing happened. He tried multiple times but nothing changed and Siri was silent.

Unable to switch his vision, he held out his arm wanting it to transform into his reliable cannon but once again nothing happened. He realized that he would have to have to fight without the aid of Siri or any of his usual mechanical weaponry. With his right arm he reached to grab the closest thing to a weapon he could find, and what he got a hold of was a coat hanger stand.

Without a better option, David held out his new weapon that did not intimidate his opponents. One of them threw a couple of smoke bombs causing David to cover his nose and mouth so he wouldn’t breathe in the fumes. The other darted in with a stiletto dagger but David was strong enough to stop the attack despite the smoke.

However, the second assassin managed to get behind David while he was preoccupied. With two sai’s, he aimed them right at his target’s heart. At the very last moment David sensed the assailant behind but there was no time to evade the attack. The devious fighter drove both his sai’s behind David’s back. His entire body lost power and he was no longer able to move.

The assassin continued holding onto his weapons, wanting to make sure he finished the job. He reached for the neck to feel David’s pulse but he felt nothing. He then held his finger into front of his nose and mouth to see if there was any breathing and once again, nothing. Their mission had been completed and they began speaking to each other quietly about receiving their rewards from Councilor Shen.

Suddenly, David’s body began to light up and electricity began to flow through his body. The assassin that thought he killed David still had his hand on one of the sai that was impaled into David’s body. The electrical current flowed from David’s body, through the sai and into the assailant’s body, shocking him with high voltage, taking him out completely.

That left only one opposition for David to handle. After seeing his partner get zapped by extreme voltage, he was in panic and began to react by attempting to strike David with his dagger. David dodged the attack then disarmed the dagger from his hand. He then picked up his enemy by the collars of his clothes to interrogate him.

“Who is Councilor Shen? What does he want from me? Answer!” David demanded. The culprit replied, “Ha, you think it was just you we were after?” Immediately after hearing those words, David grew worried about Niall and Roop. However, the thought caused him to let his guard down and the man in his grasp managed to grab a few more smoke bombs without him noticing and threw them right at David’s face.

David was forced to let go of his attacker and when the smoke settled, he was nowhere to be found. Realizing there was no reason to stay in the room any longer he dashed out of the room to find Roop and Niall.

He ran down the hall until he made it to Niall’s room. He revved up his right fist and as he was about to break through the door, he was hoping that he was not too late. As the door came slamming down to the ground, David saw two assassins lying on the ground and Niall was casually sitting on his bed.

“What kept you so long? I finished these guys off a few minutes ago!” Niall bragged. David was relieved that his comrade was safe but now he was frightened that Niall might be a mindless murderer. “Oh don’t worry, these guys took their own lives. Something about a code or a sworn oath, and not wanting to reveal anything. So they drank some mysterious liquid now this happened.”

David found that quite strange, as one of the assassins he faced seemed more concerned about his life than some oath. “We should check on Roop, he might need some help.” but right as David finished his sentence he turned to find that Roop was behind him.

“Did you take out two assassins as well?” Roop nodded and explained, “Well sort of, my detectors picked up their movement so when they made their surprise attack, I just surprised them back and flung them out of the room. After that they never bothered coming back. Not even sure if they survived the fall though.”

“So did either of you find out anything about our attackers? Like who sent them or why they were after us?” David asked. “No luck, those two martyrs took it all with them.” Niall replied. “Hmm, I probably should have chained them up instead of throwing them out, huh? Roop reflected.

Both Niall and Roop then turned to David to see what he had uncovered. “Well I don’t know if it's much but after they thought they had taken me out, I overheard that they were sent by someone named Councilor Shen. But that’s all I got.” David sighed.

When Niall heard the name, something rang a bell. “Wait, Councilor Shen?” David confirmed. “Mya spoke about the leaders of Corrinth, some of them being Council members…” Niall had a growing suspicion that Mya was working alongside the counsel members. Roop told Niall that he shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet.

David then reached for his pocket and pulled out an item he recovered from his battle against the assassins. “I managed to get a hold of one of these when one of the assailants threw them at me.” He held out a smoke bomb for them to see. It had the same design as the one Mya used to help them back in the desert. They all looked at each other but Niall was the first to say, “We have to go save Shaan.”