"Mr James! I found this puppy!" Axel held the puppy into his arms as all of them sat inside the bar, "Can I keep it?"
"By all means, you can. But, you must take good care of it, Axel." Mr James said with a smile.
"Yay! I'll call him Elron!" Axel smiled.

"Sounds robotic." Jimmy drank his mocktail with some noodles.
"It's a good name! Shut your crusty ass up!"
"Excuse me but my ass is smooth as fuck!"

Till then, Asselyum came downstairs and sat with the others. They just quietly stared at her.
"Where's Slaine?" Jimmy asked curiously.
"Probably sleeping," She said. Lupin picked up a cup of tea. They all continued talking.

Slaine couldn't fall asleep and so he got up and picked up his board. He was about to leave from the backdoor of the bar when Asselyum caught him, "Where are you going?"
"Taking some fresh air. Don't worry, I ain't running," 

She looked at him for a while, "Actually, I want to talk to you,"
"About what?"
"About Lupin," 

Lupin went outside the bar to throw out the trash near the trash bin. It was pretty late at night, the streets were dim-lit and eerie. As he walked, he heard a few sounds. The sounds of wheels on the road. He suddenly turned back. It was Frank on his skateboard. Lupin looked at him and turned away, walking into Denis. He smirked "Hello, my man. Wanna skateboard?"

Lupin turned away and saw the number of skateboarders around him increase until he was surrounded by them. Soon, Riley walked toward him and all of them moved away. He stood before him and pressed his skateboard on the ground "I'll get straight to the point," He looked into Lupin's eyes, "How do you know Slaine?"

Lupin didn't say a word.
"How do you know Slaine Benjamin?"
"Can't you hear, fool?! Answer the goddamn question!" One of Riley's gangmates shouted. 
"Is this retard deaf?"
Riley grabbed Lupin's collar and pulled him closer, "Giving us the silent treatment, huh?"

Lupin shook his head vigorously and Riley threw him to the ground. He fell on his face and looked back at Riley. Riley's eyes looked down at him as he lit a cigarette, "Hold him down,"
They held Lupin down and Riley stood over his body with a knife in his hand. Lupin shook his head and began crying silently, "What is wrong with this dude,"
"We'll find out," Riley rose his knife and suddenly, they heard sirens. 

"There they are! Catch them!" 
"Oh man, talk about party poopers," Denis threw his skateboard down and got on top of it, "Better make a run for it, chief!"
All of them got on their boards and began boarding away, leaving Lupin behind. He got up and ran back to the bar. He shut the door to his room and lay on his bed.

Slaine and Asselyum still stood at the door.
"What about Lupin?" Slaine asked.
"Drug addicts don't live long. You never know when he might overdose and his body gives up."
"Then, we need to help him."

"I've got more important stuff to do." Asselyum bailed out but Slaine grabbed her hand "Are we not important to you?" He asked. She looked into his eyes.
"All that is important to me is the upcoming war." He pulled his hand away and walked back inside his room.

Asselyum sat alone in the bar for a while. Mr. James looked at her as he cleaned the glasses, "Kids are difficult,"
"How did you take care of your kids, Mr James?" She asked him.
"Communicate," He looked into her eyes, "Communication is the key,"

She opened the door to Lupin's room. It was dark and he sat in a corner. She moved towards him and sat before him on her toes, "You are high,"
He hid his face between his legs and squirmed them towards himself. He didn't say anything. She stared at him for a while, "Let's communicate," She came closer. But he didn't respond.

Finally, she got up, "We will communicate once you are sober," 
She left the room. The next morning, they all sat in the bar while Mr James cleaned up.

"Hey, why is this dog still here?" Slaine kicked Elron who was sitting beside him.
"Don't kick him!" Axel scolded him.
"So, you finally found a friend of the same species?"
They fought among themselves while Asselyum and Jimmy sat together.

"Asselyum, tell me more about yourself," Jimmy asked her.
"I was the first android made in 26 ATGXW."
"ATGXW?"
"It means 26 years After The Great X-DROID War."

"Is this replacing all that B.C and A.D we use?" Axel asked as he ignored Slaine.
"Yes," Asselyum said "After that Code C- 555, Vill was made, then came the doublets- Who work as a small team of two, Norman and MiK, and finally came the strongest android, Lucifer,"

"Lucifer?" Slaine said.

"The most intellectually superior among all of us. He doesn't need any human aid to function like me. And he is very human-like. He was last used in a war against the UK and he ended up completely destroying that nation by submerging it underwater." Asselyum said.

"What?!" They all shouted.

"So, they all have controllers or coordinators?" Axel asked.
"Vill only needs a mechanic, Norman and MiK need each other to function,"
"So, it means you need maximum human aid?" Jimmy asked.
"Yes, I need a controller, coordinator, mechanic and a technician," Asselyum replied.

Lupin walked down the stairs to the bar. His eyes were swollen and he looked paper pale.
"Hi, Lupe!" Jimmy said and continued chatting with Asselyum. Axel was busy feeding the dog. Slaine looked at him and walked towards him, "Are you okay?"
Lupin took a notepad and wrote, "I'm alright."

He looked at the dark bruise under his eye. "How did you get that?"
But Lupin didn't say a word.

"We need to find the fifth oblivion and kill them. They are like a spinal cord to the vertebral column of X-DROIDS. If we kill them, the others will die by themselves." Asselyum said, "The killings have started."

In the afternoon, while Lupin was working on the computer setup, Asselyum tried to talk to him. But he wouldn't reply. "Lupin, talk to me,"
He smiled and continued working. Slaine stood at the door and looked at them.

"Seems like you're trying to get to know him," Slaine spoke as they sat in the bar while Jimmy and Axel helped Lupin with the computer. 
"Communication is important," She repeated. 
Slaine smiled, "It is," She touched his lips and smiled back. Mr James looked at them while making the cocktails. The other customers were talking among themselves. 

Slaine looked at her face and quickly pulled his face back, "Move your hands away, you're giving me pimples as we talk and making me ugly," He took a bite of his burger, "Also, I think someone has hit him,"
"Hit whom? Lupin?" Asselyum asked.

"Yes. He's got a bruise."
"Maybe he just fell somewhere. He was high last night." Asselyum shrugged her shoulders.
"Really?" Slaine furrowed his brows.
"I saw him."
"When?"

"When I went to his room."
"Why did you go to his room?"
"To communicate."
He shook his head and picked up his skateboard, "Do you even know what communicating is?"
"You talk,"

"Nevermind. I'm going out for a quick skate." He ran down the stairs and went out on the streets. As he passed through the bridge towards the city, he touched his lips. Then brushed them his fingers and shook his head. He reached the skatepark. It was full of scooter kids and some other skater boys. He went up the ramp. He had planned to do a 720 that day. He went up the ramp at full speed and switched to do the trick. Suddenly, that same scooter kid he met the other day, came in front of him. They crashed into each other and went down sliding on the ramp.

Slaine got up with a bruised ankle. The kid dusted himself as he got up. "Bro, can you leave me alone? I'm trying to do something important here." Slaine picked up his board and went to the other side of the park. He was constantly being followed by that kid everywhere. Though he didn't interrupt him again and Slaine did the tricks smoothly, he still felt watched. Suddenly, he felt a tingling in his ear. Those were the headsets Asselyum had given.

"Slaine!" He heard Axel's voice.
"Axel?"
"Asselyum went after two X-DROIDS!" Axel seemed out of breath.
"Where are you now?"
"District 12, near a Mongolian shop. Come here, quick!"

"That fucking idiot," Slaine got on his board and went down the street.
"Guys, can you hear me?" He spoke on his headset.
"Jimmy is still healing. So, it's just you, me and Lupin." Axel said from the other end.

"If Jimmy can't fight, how will Asselyum fight?" Slaine said.
"I don't know. Her energy is just 33%"
"This brainless blonde!"

. . .

A little girl sat at a huge dining table, decorated with candies and cakes. It was a full-course dessert meal. She was dressed up in a puffy, extravagant frock and took a sip of her tea as she looked at the monitor in front of her. She was what all the ANDROIDS called her--Delete.

"So, these are the codes of X777" Her voice was high-pitched and she looked as old as twelve. Three dolls served her a tuna fish-like dish, dressed in pink and red. She sliced it up and as she ate it, she smiled "I'm sorry, Belinda. I ate you because I got too hungry, you know. But look how pretty you are even as my food. This is art!" She looked back at the monitor, 

"The coordinator...So pretty," Her eyes lit green, "Let's cook him next,"

-To be continued

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