"...And it's with a heavy heart that we announce the retirement of Bellfower, one of our most beloved characters." Dave said, a picture of Bellflower next to him, wrapped in artificial flowers "She served us well for these three years, and she'll be missed by her friends and fans alike. Her core was recycled into an office utility repair drone, so whenever a printer needs to be fixed or a network goes down, you can take solace in the knowledge that she's out there somewhere, helping the community and keeping things running for the rest of us, just as she did in her life as a Flower Girl."
We hugged Moonflower and put our head in her shoulder as the service went on. We'd never really understood what Bellflower was saying, but she was so happy and full of energy... It felt wrong for her to be gone, for her core to be fixing office supplies instead of playing with kids and chasing thieves. We sniffled and fought the urge to wipe our eyes, we didn't have tears, we didn't even need to breathe, why did it feel like we were crying? Moonflower pet our curls and we sat still. It was... uncomfortable that Nate wasn't mentioned in the service at all, they had to know it was him who caused this, didn't they? He'd been declared missing this morning, hours after Bellflower recycled herself, it was obvious it was connected, right?
We looked around the room; Cornflower, the puppeteer from the show, the crew and cameramen, the elf who'd woken us up, all of them were here for the service. In the very back sat a lady with a cold, almost angry expression on her face, and next to her was a young girl, three or four years old, holding a Bellflower plush, crying quietly. We made eye contact with the woman for a moment, and she stared back at us, her expression cracking for an instant before hardening again. She stood and picked up the child, hurrying out of the room. We turned back around and looked at Moonflower, her face as sad and lonely as ever, and we hugged her again.
If we were ever recycled instead of converted to a civilian unit, we hoped we'd get put into a teacher's aid... We wondered what Moonflower would want to be, had she thought about it? It didn't seen like the kind of thing that was polite to ask, so we kept out thoughts to ourselves...
~~~
"This is so dangerous..." we muttered, crawling through the vents behind Moonflower
"It'll be ok, we're just goofy sectional defenders designed for kids to laugh at and buy toys of, if we get caught, we just tell them we were chasing a mouse to put in the recycler and got lost or something." she told us confidently "Dave mentioned today's meeting was going to involve the owner of the city, and I think I know what it's about, come on, we can listen in!"
"I still think that we're going to get caught, and if all the section heads are at this meeting like you said, at least one of them will see through our goofball attitude." we complained "What about the guy from section 3? He's so paranoid he didn't even let the Flower Girl program open a unit in his territory..."
"Oh, hush, we won't get caught, they don't even care! Why do you think they make vents big enough for people to crawl through anyway? It's so we can spy on them."
"Most people are taller than four foot nothing and couldn't fit in the vents..." we said as we crawled
"It'll be fine, just hush!" Moonflower whispered "Here, this is the meeting room, dim your eyes so they won't see us through the vent."
We reached back into our head with our mind and lowered the power to our eyes, causing them to go dull. It was a lot harder with our code down like this, but all of our systems could be accessed by our template instead of our code with a little training, and we'd been spending a lot of time with our code turned off lately.
We shimmied up to the vent Moonflower had found and peeked in, our cheek pressing into hers. There was a table below us, surrounded by the leaders of each section, with The Shining Son at the head. We were taken aback by the Son's appearance, on TV he seemed so bright and full of life, proudly proclaiming how the legacy of his father was eternal, but here... His gold and white costume hung loosely on deflated muscles, his wrinkled face looked puckered and old, he was hunched over and tired, he wasn't even flying, nothing like the hero we'd grown up with...
"The city... is dying." he said, his voice dry and shaky "I've known it for years, we all have. We've been losing nutrients to people selfishly voiding themselves instead of letting us recycle them, we've been losing energy as the displacement drives that power our machines wind down, we've been losing people as they realize the world is shit and no one wants to bring a child into it anymore. My men tell me we have less than fifteen years left before we're all dead."
The sectional heads muttered and shifted uncomfortably, and Dave leaned forward "I... We are aware of the problem, sir, we've been trying to correct it. The Flower Girl program raised morale by twenty percent and lowered voidings by fifteen, and the addition of section 5.5b will give us twenty acres of new land to-"
"Section 5.5b is a wasteland!" The Son said, banging his fist on the table "All we find are useless plots of land. In my time, we've gotten an amusement park, a college, a refugee camp, nothing that helps the city! My father was adding farms, apartment buildings, manufacturing plants, why aren't we finding anything like that?"
"Sir, ah, we think at one point section 5.5b was farmland," one of the heads said "but being so deep in the void for so long, the plant life has all but vanished. If we mix the soil into the biomass recycler-"
"You think I should feed my subjects dirt?" The Son asked, disgusted "Isn't it enough they're eating their recycled loved ones? Eating plants grown from sewage? Insects? I'm not that cruel, Almonson."
"So... what is the plan, sir?" another man asked "Are we going to start up the distress signals and alert the drones?"
"Like hell I give up my city to those floating bitches." The Son barked "No, I've been working on a plan, we've stripped the void of everything useful, right? Well, there's one place left we haven't stripped yet..."
The heads looked at each other, confused, and Moonflower tensed and grabbed our hand in hers
"That's right, gentlemen." The Son said proudly, and two men stepped into the room holding reality displacement projector cannons "We're going to send some of the most loyal members of our inner circle up top, out to the main layer, and we're going to... 'restock' on supplies, so to speak."
"So... we're going to use the same weapons that sent us here... to send more stuff here?" Dave asked, frowning
"Exactly!" roared The Son "If we can't grow food, we'll void a grocery store! If we need tools, we take a factory, if we need civilians, we'll implode a school!"
"Why a school?" one of the heads asked "Why not a neighborhood?"
The Son glared at him "Get 'em young, get em alone, and they'll never know any different, Jack."
"This seems extreme, sir..." Dave said, crossing his arms "We're not even near any land masses anyway, there's nothing on the main layer but folds, sir."
"We're heading north west, we'll be to the land masses in less than half a year." The Son said "You have that long to find people in your communities to go to the surface for us. I'd recommend using the Flower Girl project if your section has one, they're practically built for this, and it'd raise morale to see the cute robot kids bringing back food and supplies."
Moonflower pulled our arm, and we followed her away down the vent, using our skirts to muffle the noise. Once we'd made it out and back to the waiting room Dave had left us in, Moonflower finally spoke.
"Well, we have a timeline now... If we can cripple the turbines when we get close to the landmass and get out, we'll be able to head off the plan and get the people out of here..."
"But- they have displacement cannons!" we said "If they shoot us, it'd set off our power cells and we'd end up at least three layers deep, I don't know if we'd be able to get out from that..."
"Are you saying you don't want to help?" Moonflower asked us, frowning
"I want to help, I'm just scared, I always thought it was an 'eventually' thing, not a 'within six months' thing..." we said, hanging our head "I'm sorry, I'll do whatever it takes, I'm just nervous."
"Yeah... We can do it though, I know we can." she said "We'll save everyone, ok?'
"Ok... I love you, Moonflower, I hope it works out..." we whispered
"I lo- oh, hang on, someone's coming, reset, quick." she said glancing at the door
"Motherf-f-f-f-flipper!" we said, pushing the words out
The door opened and Dave walked in looking stressed and tired. He glanced at the two of us and gave a half smile "Hey girls, sorry for the wait, meeting went long."
"No problem, Mister Dave!" we sang "We're just happy to be riding along side ya, keeping you safe through thick and thin!"
"Yeah, you... you're good at that." he said, looking sad "Say... How would you two like to... go on a field trip soon? We're going to be... exploring new areas, and I think you two would be great for the job."
"I think that sounds lovely, Mister Dave." Moonflower said, tilting her head "I think we'd love a field trip, right Starflower?"
"If'n a field trip lets me spend time with my bestie and explore new places, I'm up and ready for it!" we said, grinning
"...Perfect, yeah..." Dave said "Uh, we'll need to train you a little for it, but... yeah, go team. We'll... do what needs to be done."
"We certainly will, Mister Dave, we certainly will." Moonflower nodded knowingly.
~~~
The explosion rocked the ground and we huddled together under the overpass blocking us from the turbine. As the helium tank we'd thrown in tore the rotors to bits and shredded the internals, sirens started wailing in the distance. Fire from the destroyed electronics bloomed upwards, the air around us glitching and flickering as the displacement drives gorged themselves on reality. We clutched Moonflower's hand and tugged at her arm.
"Come on, that's two, we only have one left!" we told her "We need to move!"
"I know, I just-" she looked at us, her face stricken "We're endangering lives, Starflower, I didn't think about the fires, the displacements-"
"It's too late for that now, grab your tank, we need to move!" I hissed
She picked up her helium tank and we ran, stretching and running through the dark streets, the orange glow of the fires lighting up section 1 with a sunset of colors. Not that we'd ever seen a sunset... We would soon though, we'd bust the last turbine, and the city would be dead in the water, there's no way they'd send people to attack the main layer without a getaway plan, and the drones would find us at last... The final turbine loomed in the distance, the one Moonflower and us had had our all important talk on all that time ago. We dropped to the observation deck and turned to grab Moonflower's tank from her to toss it into the blades, and froze as lights went on all around us, the sound of sirens and horns deafening in the night air.
"Moonflower! Come out with your hands up!" a voice over the loud speaker said "We know it's you, we've checked your records, we know your behavioral systems have been down for over a year! Surrender now and we'll recycle you, resist and we'll be forced to destroy your core!"
Moonflower looked at me, her eyes panicked "I can't do either one of those, Starflower, what do we do?"
We waved our hands "I don't know! You're the mastermind, I'm just an accomplice!"
Moonflower gasped "Gods, you're an accomplice! That's... they're going to review my memories when they catch me! They'll find out you were helping!"
We grabbed her face in our hands "Baby, I love you, I'm going down with you, ok?"
She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly, her body shaking. She pressed her forehead into mine and grit her teeth "I love you too, sunshine, I love you more than anything, even more than liberating the city, I really, really do..."
"Then... together?" we asked, running our hand under her hair
"...No, I need you to screw them over, and keep screwing them over. Do it over and over until they get caught and the drones come, do you understand?"
"But-" we looked at her, her haunted face, her intense glare, and we knew we couldn't do anything to change her mind. The only way to keep her alive was to keep acting in her name "I- how will you stop them from reading your memories when they catch you?" we asked "And how will I get away? If I go back they'll know I was working with you..."
"They're not going to catch me, sunshine..." Moonflower said, and kissed me as deep as our artificial mouths would allow, and hugged me so tight my metal creaked.
We broke the kiss, and my body was shaking, the sirens were sounding off all around us, and the metal plate door keeping the rest of the world out shuddered as the outside world slammed into it over and over. Moonflower passed us the helium tank and gave us one last kiss, her hand tracing our face as her other hand snapped off the valve, causing the gas to scream out. She kicked us hard, out over the turbine, and the weightlessness kicked in as we entered the void, the helium pushing us out and away from the platform like a rocket. We shuddered and felt our body writhe inside our shell as Moonflower turned to face the door, her arms out and her middle fingers up. The door broke down, and the bots and troopers lunged for her as she jumped backwards, her metal hair trailing behind her as she fell.
We were far enough away that we could barely see her now, we'd hissed away faster than we wanted, but as we'd slowed to a stop now, the gas all used up. We watched her body hit the blades, her limbs spinning out to their full length, tearing apart the core and ripping the turbine out of the bottom of the city. The resulting explosion and displacement shockwave took out the entire turbine maintenance center, troopers and all, and I watched slag drip into the void from the crater as I sobbed for the loss of my loved one.
~~~
I stumbled back into the shack, my skirt smelling like smoke and ozone. It'd taken all of my internal supply of helium to get back to Shining Void City, and I'd only made it at all because the city was no longer moving. We were still miles away from the entrance point the higher ups had found, there was no way for them to get there from here without using up the same valuable materials they'd need to repair the turbines, we should be safe, for now. I was replacing my skirt with a fresh, un-burnt one when Cornflower came in the door, and I turned to look at her, my expression blank.
"Y-you... you heard the news?" she said
"What news?" I asked
"M-Moonflower, sh-she was a t-terrorist..." she said, her eyes falling on our ragged, burned skirt and widening "I g-guess you d-do know..."
I stared at her, considering what it would take to disable her, to throw her body into the void and leave her behind. I was stunned at how little I cared about anything right now, for some reason, the ache inside over Moonflower made little things like murder seem so... trite.
"I... don't know what you're talking about." I said carefully
"I-I don't c-care..." Cornflower said "I r-really d-don't, I'm s-so done w-with all this..."
"...with all what?" I asked cautiously
"W-with all the m-mess, th-the tr-training, do th-they really think w-we'll be able to g-get enough f-food to s-survive j-just by r-raiding?"
Cornflower shook her head and scrunched up her face "I d-don't even c-care, m-maybe M-Moonflower was r-right to blow up the... uh..."
She wobbled and put her hand to her forehead "Oh, oh dear, I think I broke something..."
"Is... is your overlay down?" I asked, curious
"Yeah, it's just gone, I can't even use my scanner anymore, it's... wait, my stutter is gone too, when did that happen?"
I sighed, I'd need help anyway, and if she wasn't stuttering all the time, she might not be as annoying as usual... I liked her well enough, and she'd never broken my trust in the past...
"So... About three years ago, Moonflower and I found out something interesting about how we work, our code versus our templates..."
~~~
I rolled out of Moonflower's bunk and stood up. Fully charged up and ready to go, I shook Cornflower out of her charge cycle.
"Hey, we gotta make sure we're on top of this, we need to find a way to activate the distress signals, and-"
The door opened behind me as Cornflower blearily looked around the room. I turned, and my heart dropped, I fell against the wall and tried not to notice as my chest felt like it was going to explode. I was- something was-
"Yo yo yo, what's new, friends?" Moonflower said, a big grin on her face
"I- you were- b-but..." I stammered, my legs giving out under me
"Yeah yeah yeah, I 'died' or whatever, no sweat, but yo, they had my template on file!" she said, holding out her hand to me "and, you know, Trevor still has cancer, sooo I gotta exist or he dies! They pulled my original brain scan out of storage, slapped it on a fresh slug, slapped some 'Bellflower' on me, whatever that means, and bam, back again, good as new! Nice to meet you, but I guess you guys already know me, huh?"
I stared at the fake Moonflower and fought the urge to vomit from a stomach I didn't have. This was wrong, this was the love of my life, without context, without me, without... everything that made me love her... I ignored her hand and shakily stood up, folding my arms across my stomach and using the wall as a support.
"Uh, yup, n-nice to meet you, pardner..." I forced myself to say, my thoughts spinning
"W-we- um.. W-we have to g-get on p-patrol, c-can we c-catch up l-later?" Cornflower asked the... replica
"Whatever, I don't care, but uh, we gotta report to section 1 later, according to the head honchos." the thing wearing Moonflower said "We gotta practice popping the pink chicks, the uh, drones? Whatever they're called. Target practice, yo."
"Well... Boy howdy, that sounds mighty fun!" I said "Over near the void on the west corner?"
"Yeah, right there!" someone said "All the teams are taking turns with the gear we have, it's all set up. I'll meet you there, I gotta get my crib customized first, though!"
I stepped outside and Cornflower followed me. "So... uh, what now?" she asked "If what she said is true, we're gearing up for a war..."
"We..." I wracked my brains for the solution "We... We just need to make sure the city can't fight back when it happens."
"How do we do that?" she asked, tilting her head
I looked back at the supplies shack next to our sleeping quarters "...How much helium do you think we have on hand?"
~~~
I sat on top of the wagon, the two crates strapped to the back. If this worked, we'd at least buy some time before the city could fight back... I turned around to Cornflower, who was hugging the crates, her arms wrapped around them tightly, holding them to the wagon.
"Everything secure back there?" I asked
"I think so, are we sure this is the best option?" she asked "Can't we just void them?"
"They might get them back, we gotta get rid of them..." I said, and snapped the top off the first tank, kicking the wagon off the city's streets and into the void.
We blasted through the inky blackness, Cornflower moaning behind us as I pulled out a second tank and opened that one too, aiming for the one shining spot of rainbow in the inky blackness, the fold...
"I just wanted Yena to get an art degreeeee!" Cornflower moaned behind us as we rocketed int the ever blackened sky. I was right, she was paying for school... Not that it mattered now. Not that an art degree mattered in a dying city...
I saw the light shine in front of us and I braced myself, this was for Moonflower, the real Moonflower. If we got stuck between worlds, so be it, I didn't care anymore... We hit the glowing spot and I saw flashes of worlds, one with cities like the one I'd left, one with beastmen still alive, one with a strange box with hundreds of legs, and finally a forest, a bright shining forest. I lay in a heap on top of the boxes of weapons and I looked up at Cornflower. She lifted her head and shook it, looking scared and upset, but when didn't she?
"Think they'll follow us?" she asked, looking at the rainbow hole in space-time
"I hope not, gods..." I muttered "We... need to find a place to stash all these weapons, though, in case they do."
"Ok, let's fund a way to move them, if we can- aagh!" she slipped off the crate she was on and landed on her face "Oh, f-f-f-f-fiddlesticks..." she muttered "I'm all m-muddy...
She bolted upright "S-Starflower! M-my systems are b-back online..."
"Yeah, it's because you tried to swear... " I said, trying to stack the first crate on the wagon. It was heavier than it looked...
"B-but I'm getting a m-message!" she said "It's f-from the.. um, the GGDS?"
I frowned "I've... never heard of them, what does the message say?"
"It-it's s-something about... registration?" she said
"... hang on, I'll check..." I said "Holy sh-sh-sh-shirt flaps!" I said, and my systems popped back online.
A tip popped up saying 'We see you're thinking on a restricted bandwidth, please register with the GGDS as soon as possible to avoid being processed as an abomination or an anomaly."
"Well I'll be darned..." I said, frowning "I reckon they're trying ta contact us, without even knowing who we are, that was fast..."
"Should we... g-go to them?" Cornflower asked "M-maybe they're the ones w-with the FolDrones..."
"Let's lay on down for a bit, hun..." I said, frowning "If'n we start tellin them tall tales about Shining Void, I reckon they'll think we're looney... Or worse, they'll pick us apart to see how we tick. We're bound to be an oddity o' some kind, doncha bet? They said we could be 'abominations', and, well, we do got some mighty odd bits in us..."
"Y-yeah..." she nodded "Let's find somewhere to hide these weapons, then... we'll find someone we can trust to help us figure out things..."
I thought of Moonflower, and crossed my arms "Yyyup, we'll find someone, then we'll figure out how ta get the drones to investigate..."
"How do we f-find someone we can trust?" Cornflower asked "We d-don't have any c-contacts here, and we d-don't know the culture, and-"
I glanced at her "Same as we always did, I figure. A real important cowpoke told me once that smiles and balloons are the things that make people like you, and wouldn'tcha know it? Those are my spe-cia-li-ties..."
~~~
"Starflower?" I heard Cornflower say "There's- there's a new message..."
I 'woke up' and pulled myself out of my makeshift charging pod, scanning to make sure we were alone. Once I was confident, I checked the tips.
A new tip popped up saying 'Unit 'MOD' on route to location for registration assistance, do not resist.'
"Well, it seems like they're sending someone out this way... Figure we'll be able to rope them into our problem?" I asked
"I-I think it's a l-long shot..." she said, wringing her hands.
I looked at the crates in the shack with us and narrowed my eyes "I reckon the townsfolk like me well enough so far, we've been here just shy of a fortnite, and I bet that's enough to get this 'MOD' to sally up to me, but for the rest..."
I picked up the strange, round radio device that we'd gotten from one of the criminals we'd caught in the past week and pressed the buttons until a chime sounded out. A gruff voice sounded out from the other side "Yeah? Whadya want?"
"Food shortage, The Son is an old geezer, the city has cancer..." I whispered, then leaned in to the device "Yes, we're looking for a pickup of some... industrial rolling pins and bowling balls? We'd like you to hold them for no more than a week, we'll send a truck to move them later."
After the radio conversation, we snapped the device to the closed position and looked at Cornflower "If this 'MOD' character discovers this stuff on her own, she'll have to believe it... we just need to help her along the way..."
~~~
I smiled at the child in front of me "Aw, no thanks necessary, little bean! I'm just doing my job to make people happy!" I said "Golly, I'd do the same for anyone who wants one, I got lots of spares! Balloons are a hobby of mine!"
I felt a warmth fill my insides, one that I hadn't felt in a while. This was right, this was... me. I was honoring Moonflower and being true to my passions, all at the same time. Part of me hoped I'd be able to just focus on this stuff once the mess I was in died down...
"I appreciate your work, ma'am..." the child's mother said, looking mildly wary "It's been a while since this town had a hero."
"Well, you guys sure are swell, I betcha don't even need one!" I said with a salute "But heck, don't let that fool ya, I'm not going anywhere, needed or not!"
I caught a strange buzz in my sensors, something... not quite any emotion, but somehow all of them at once? My eyes flicked to a metal lady wearing a short, light purple dress standing in the small crowd. Her body and head looked just like a FolDrone, and her arms were mismatched, one made of gears, and the other looking almost human. Her legs were... construction equipment? This must be MOD. I felt a wave of relief, at least this layer had some understanding of robotic life forms... This wouldn't be as hard as I'd thought. I turned to her and gave her a big grin, stepping forward until I was almost touching her, and 'cranked' myself up until I was level with her face.
"Sweet sunshine, we could be cousins!" I said, looking her up and down "I'm Starflower, what's your moniker?"
She gave me a small smile "Ah, my name is Maud, I'm a registered hero from Valley City, I was wondering if..."
And with that, my world faced to white one last time.