[4] glitch

I didn't know what to do. Irene's relentless staring and shocked expression made me uncomfortable more than anything, so I lowered my eyes, cheeks flushed.

Angelo gave me a look, one that was both scrutinizing and not exactly scrutinizing, and he must've understood whatever had shocked Irene about me. "Oh," he said. "Oh, no. I didn't think...I didn't notice..." He let out a shaky sigh. "This can't happen right now."

Irene calmly closed the door, but Angelo slammed a hand onto it, keeping it ajar.

"Two years," Angelo said, still balancing the door open, tip of his shoulder against it. His voice dissolved into a whisper. A quiet plea. "I've been waiting for two years. I can't anymore."

There was exhaustion in his voice. So, so much exhaustion. He'd masked it well with all his anger. "Don't blow my chance just because Jake looks...a little like Xander," Angelo continued. "I need you. You're the only Support I trust."

I frowned. Xander. I wondered who that was, how similar we actually looked. I wondered why it rattled Irene.

Irene glanced at Scarlett, now actively avoiding me. She faced Angelo again. "They're..."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah. Humans. And who knows when we'll find ones again if we let them die, Irene? They won't survive alone here."

With sad, eternally glossed eyes, Irene looked at Angelo. Maybe empathizing with him. Maybe understanding him. She blinked, slow, but something. A reaction at least. Then her crimson-coated lips parted, and she whispered with a torn velvet voice, "I'm sorry. I can't right now."

The last person she looked at was me, and then she closed the door.

The silence that followed drowned my lungs. Mostly because I could summarize the entire encounter like this: I'd reminded Irene of Xander, which made her too uncomfortable and sad to focus, which meant she couldn't help us right now, which meant we'd have to wait longer to figure out what roles Scarlett and I were.

So basically I screwed everything up without even trying.

Amazing.

Angelo rubbed a hand over his face, shoulders more tense than ever. Pretty sure Scarlett was fuming right now. And me...I was just standing there, reserved, hands clasped in front of me, thinking: I swear I didn't mean for this to happen.

"So now what?" Scarlett said. Years old anger resided in her voice. "This is your best Support?"

Angelo looked like the world had crashed on his head. "She's just shocked. We'll go to my Tank's house and by tomorrow she'll have calmed down and she'll figure out your roles."

"Really? You really think I'm about to go anywhere with you again?" Scarlett snorted. "Screw you and your Support. Screw all of you. Stupid pieces of metal pretending they're the boss of me."

Like a funnel. Always. I knew Scarlett more than I knew myself. First start insulting Angelo, whatever the current problem was, then narrow down to her real issue: the entire system-living in a world bots controlled.

I wouldn't piss Angelo off right now. I wouldn't break the truce. Kinda ruined the entire personal-issues-aside-and-focus-on-advantage. Expectedly, Angelo's distress melted into anger that matched Scarlett's, and he reached for the hilt of his sword as if it was a habit. "How many times do I have to tell you that we don't have a better choice," he hissed. "I swear, if I didn't need you, I'd throw you out and watch all the other androids tear you into piece-"

He stopped, then grunted and turned his head at an angle, like his neck hurt. For a second he closed his eyes. When he stumbled a tiny step, Scarlett jerked forward, a buried instinct to help, but she stopped herself before she could touch him. Not that he'd let her. Not that she'd complete the action anyway.

The disgusted expression never left Scarlett's face. "The hell's wrong with you?"

I kept observing Angelo, the pain twisting his face. Pain. They could feel it. How, why-I wished they'd taught us more about the fourth class and their emotions. Wished I could learn about their anatomy. More details. More knowledge.

Then it hit me. Maybe they weren't supposed to feel pain. At least not randomly. So...

"Are you...glitching?" I asked.

Angelo breathed out. No answer. I'd expected as much, so it was okay. Just before Scarlett could open her mouth, footsteps echoed behind us, behind the cobblestone fence. We spun in a ridiculously synchronized manner and stared, wide-eyed, as if we could see through the damn stone.

Angelo pressed a finger to his lips. "The battle must've ended. Follow me," he whispered, grabbing my arm. He towed me behind like I was Scarlett's bait. It worked. She followed him and grasped my wrist to claim me. Maybe just to spite Angelo.

We hurried to the backyard. Angelo climbed over the fence and motioned us to stay. Scarlett was strangely quiet-it reminded me of all the times I expected her to flip out on our bot parents, but she'd kept it in. Because she feared punishment, feared the consequences. But here there were none. Not direct ones. So I guess that was her green light to go all crazy on Angelo, to desperately re-establish her presence, her power, even if it was through useless sharp words and rancid anger.

The typical human tendencies. Not stupidity. Techno had been wrong about that. Superiority, instead. Authority.

Angelo jumped onto the other side. Silence for a second, and then I heard that slide of metal out of the sheath, and a quiet dainty step, then a feminine gasp. Angelo must've ambushed an android trying to sneak around Irene's house.

"The hell do you think you're doing, dumbass?"

"Angelo?" the girl said, surprised. "You haven't been out in forever...What are you doing? I thought you resigned. You and your team. After...you know. What happened to Xander."

Mentioning Xander forced tense silence. The same kind that had drenched the air a few minutes ago, with Irene. Whoever Xander was, he must've been important. Probably skilled.

"Get out of my face."

"Wait!" the girl continued. "Are you...back in business? That'd be interesting. Because, you know, half the androids don't want you to come back, and the other half would do anything-literally, anything-to have a Fighter like you on their team. They've even been going for Yaseen. Great Tanks are so hard to find, and ever since your team broke up-"

"What?" I could imagine Angelo's expression: all furious and frowny. "They've been bothering Yaseen? Listen-if someone so much as passes by his house again, I'll fuck them up."

So he was protective of his teammates. Endearing. Maybe a bit overboard. I didn't know, and who was I to judge? Now I wanted to meet Yaseen. I wanted to see that one creature Angelo cared so openly about.

The exchange ended with Angelo's threat. The girl shuffled away, footsteps gradually fading. Scarlett looked at me with conflict in her eyes. This conversation...it kinda assembled the hierarchy of this place in my head-Angelo was a good fighter. Both feared and desired by other androids. And his Tank, the one he'd wanted us to meet, other teams were fighting over him too.

I looked at Scarlett, trying to draw out her thoughts. Get her to say something, anything.

She sighed. "Don't look at me like that, Jake. I know what you're thinking." Defeated, she stood with her shoulders a little slumped, a little unwilling. "I know Angelo's our best option right now. But once we get what we want from him, I can't wait to stab him in the back. He's a fourth class robot, right? He has emotions. Cool. I'll teach him what betrayal feels like."

I gave her a tentative nod, sensing the trouble behind this steel intention to hurt Angelo. I mean, I got it-I'd betray him too, but only if we needed to. Not for pleasure. Not to prove that we were better. I wished she'd separate her anger from the situation, and I'd tell her that, except...words were only organized in my head.

Angelo knocked on the stone on the other side. "Come out. They're starting to flood out of the battlefield. We need to get out of here. We'll go to Yaseen's."

Scarlett and I climbed up and jumped down, landing next to Angelo. Ahead of us, a curtain of trees formed an entrance to a dense forest, all thick dark trunks and overlapping leaf canopies. When I glanced at Angelo, I sensed the newfound anger. The added burden.

"Is it about androids bothering Yaseen...?" I tried.

Startled, Angelo spun towards me. Maybe he didn't expect me to acknowledge the emotion.

He nodded, then he led the way into the forest.

═══════════════

The inside of the forest was a nightmare. Sure it was fascinating, raw nature, and I touched every tree trunk and observed every pattern on every flower, but there was one problem: the goddamn vines, criss-crossing before me like goddamn webs. Angelo had to cut them off for us. He muttered something about us being too incompetent.

Beneath me, the mud caked my boots so much that halfway through, my steps became heavier. Required more force. I wadded through anyway. Again-Angelo was the pro. Walking along like all the crap under us was nothing, like all the branches occasionally scraping our skin didn't bother him.

"You never get lost in here?" Scarlett asked, irritably smacking a feeble branch away from her face. "It's huge. And it looks all the same."

Angelo laughed, but it sounded more like an offended scoff. "Of course I don't get lost. I know every inch of this place by heart."

Every minute or so, Scarlett would glance back at me and make sure I was keeping up. And you know, that's the funny thing-it offended me sometimes, the way she was always worried about me, always concerned I'd mess up.

And sometimes, I felt like she had every right.

Because in that interval of a minute she spent focusing on her gait rather than me, I stepped onto a patch of underbrush. It dipped under my foot, making me lose balance. I cursed. Leaning over to one side, uncoordinated, I extended my arm, tried grasping onto anything-branches, vines, Angelo, whatever the hell was nearest-to steady myself. But I failed.

I tumbled over to the right. Like an idiot. And I rolled down a slope. Thorns tore my arms, jagged rocks scratched my face. Desperate, I dug my hands into the soil, anything to anchor myself in my spot.

I slammed into something. Everything stopped for a moment-motion, time, senses-but then my head spun and the world resumed. I'd landed facedown. Grunting, I pressed both palms onto the soil, pulling myself up. Little pebbles hurt my knees. Just as I turned my chin to one side, only halfway, I realized something.

I hadn't slammed into something.

I'd slammed into someone.

Heart thrumming, I looked up, eyes slowly taking in long legs clad in pants, a thick belt like Angelo's, and above that-torso level-an eight pack, a bare chest that looked strong like steel, shoulders broad and muscular.

In other words: an android who was ten times the size of me. An android who could literally end me with a punch.

One other thing about him, though. A stark contradiction against his otherwise intimidating structure.

He had the kindest eyes I'd ever seen.