Optics on.

Nervous system on.

Sound system on.

Motor control on.

Good morning, world.

Still sitting on the floor of Shock's room, I felt totally refreshed. I took a quick look around the room, but couldn't see Shock. She must have already been up and about.

I carefully detached the wires hanging from my arm and replaced the little panel to conceal the sockets. Now free to move around, I got up and walked out of the room in search of my pal.

“Morning,” I heard as soon as I stepped into the hallway. Shock was over by the junction that led to the living room and the front door.

“Hey,” I replied, “what's up?”

“Same old, same old. Puttering a bit while I waited for you to get up.”

“Exciting. So, got any ideas for what we're gonna do today?”

“Mhm. After you shut off last night, I went and did a little bit of browsing online to see if there was any quick way to get to Grilith Tower.”

“Oh yeah? Find anything?”

“I guess. Come here,” she instructed, bringing me over to her living room computer and sitting down on the chair.

Shock had a page open that described a small transportation hub near part of the city's outskirts. Dukes of the Desert, it was called. Comparatively, it wasn't too far away from here – past Verdin Square a little ways, and down a major road that led straight from the city's core to the desert below. Probably just a bit closer than going to my home from here.

What really got me excited was the vehicles they had available for rent there. From two-wheeled dune bikes to eight-wheeled sand rollers, this place looked like it had anything someone might need to get around the desert.

“Dude,” I exclaimed with an openly excited voice, “holy shit.”

“Yeah, this place has vehicles we could use,” Shock began in her usual monotone pitch, “but there's absolutely no safety involved here. You don't even need a license or any certification, and they don't offer any sort of training.”

Hell no. I wasn't about to let Shock talk me down from cruising through the desert on a motorbike, licensed or not.

“Are you kidding? How is going straight from there to Grilith that dangerous?”

Shock gave me one of those looks. “I'm assuming you're aware that Grilith is on the opposite end of the city from Dukes, and that there's no path for vehicles directly through the city?”

“Okay, so what's so bad about a couple turns through the sand?”

Shock threw her arms behind her over the back of the chair, tilting her head towards the ceiling. She followed up with an exasperated sigh.

“I thought I was supposed to be the baby here,” I joked.

She glared at me.

“Well, is there any alternative to this place if you're so opposed to it?”

“The only other choice that would be even remotely available to us is going to a factory and getting our own car custom built for us. Not only is that going to cost a fortune, but it's also going to take weeks.”

“Dukes it is!” I cheered.

“...Other than walking for a whole day, I guess it's our only option.” Shock lifted herself off the chair and onto her feet. “Get your stuff ready to go. I don't want to waste too much time.” She walked over near the front entrance.

Seeing as “my stuff” was comprised of my guitar and its bag, prepping for the trip took mere seconds. I walked over to the living room, slipped the instrument into its bag, and slung it over my shoulder once again. Shock was over near the cabinet by the front door, rummaging around inside it.

“You want a snack for the road?” She asked.

Puzzled, I walked over closer to see what she was talking about. A snack?

Shock held out her palm in my direction, with three red packets sitting in her hand.

“Oh! Yeah, why not,” I answered.

These red objects looked like marbles wrapped in some sort of clear foil. The red varieties were often called “vital packets,” since a robot could plug them into their body the same way they would a recharge plug, effectively draining the packet into their internal machinery. The liquid inside helped give our systems a boost after a long day of wear and tear.

Still not sure why Shock called them snacks, though. I knew she took packets orally for some reason, but I learned to not question a lot of the strange things about her.

“Well, I'm ready to go,” I told her.

“Likewise. Let's hit the road.” She tucked the vital packets in a small brown satchel she was carrying by her side.

Shock and I opened the door and stepped outside. There it was – that gleaming ball of morning light hovering above us in the sky. With the sunrise's heat came the activity of hundreds of robots, many of whom were out walking along our street, minding their own business. Countless metal footsteps echoed around us as we walked off Shock's property, joining the ranks of the machines on the left side of the road.

It was a pretty calm and quiet area that Shock lived in. I didn't realize how far we'd gone in our rush to get away from Verdin last night, but we definitely ended up in a vastly different district than the marketplace we were in earlier. This place was a stark contrast to the dark alleys and tunnels – the buildings actually had a tinge of rustic colour, a few robots were tossing a ball to each other in front of some flat-topped apartment complexes on the opposite side of the street, and one machine far down our side of the road was playing an electronic piano, just barely audible from this distance.

The longer we walked, the thicker the crowds became and the higher the buildings rose. The quiet residential district slowly transformed into a bustling cityscape with a contrast of towering high-rises against a series of small parks and beautiful art displays. I couldn't see any more than a couple hundred feet in front of me – the roads stretched both horizontally and vertically, as though the city had been built on wildly unterraformed ground. Where the ground couldn't be flattened, some rather intricate and uniquely shaped buildings catered to the planet's terrain instead, which added an interesting level of complexity to some parts of the city. Overhanging pipes and tunnels connected to multiple buildings, the occasional passage to an underground structure, and pillar-shaped lights all decorated the streets.

Something caught my attention off to the side of my vision. I quietly veered off from Shock a bit to approach a nearby statue, easily twice as tall as myself. It was a round, spiky object that shone bright pink, almost glowing in the intense sunlight.

“Pitaya,” I read aloud, looking down at the small plaque at the base of the statue. “The hell is this?” I mumbled.

“It's a fruit.” Shock obviously noticed me change my headings.

“A fruit?”

“Yeah. A fruit.”

I looked back at the plaque. It read, “An object speculated to be an edible substance for Humanity, The Creators.”

“Humanity... The Creators?”

Shock didn't interject.

I kept reading. “Hand crafted by Trivo over the course of 37 days.”

“Trivo!” I exclaimed. “She did this?!”

Shock shrugged. “Hm.”

“Wow. Pretty cool.” I decided to leave it at that, given Shock's feelings towards Trivo.

We kept walking along, travelling down a rather steep slope before entering a wide open area with several roads forking off from our new location. Kind of like Verdin's main plaza, but much smaller.

Looking around the area, I couldn't see any signs or landmarks that led to this vehicle rental place. There was supposedly a huge road connecting it to both the desert and the city centre, but I wasn't seeing much of a huge road nearby. Right when I was about to turn to Shock to see what she thought about our current direction, something else jumped out at me.

“Aural? Aural Automaton?” A heavily synthesized voice quickly approached through the streams of robots on either side of us. A blue robot with a rigid build brushed past a couple of nearby strangers, heading straight towards me. The two yellow circles on its face were beaming brightly with what I assumed was excitement. Following in its wake was a pair of similar robots, both holding large film cameras.

“Aural! Can I have a quick word with you?” The robot held a microphone in my direction with both of his hands.

Taken aback by this sudden encounter, I found myself at a loss for words. I felt a loose whack on the side of my right shoulder before I could say anything; Shock was trying to grab my attention.

“We don't have time for you to sign autographs right now. We should keep going,” she whispered, leaning in close to the side of my head as she spoke.

“Hold on. They might be trying to gather news, and seeing as I was just attacked...” I responded, matching her voice's volume.

Gotta act cool for the camera, I reminded myself, turning my attention back to our guests. “Sure, I got a bit of time.”

“Great! Okay!” The robot's arms both split into two smaller arms, and he reached behind his back to pull out a clipboard and pen, still holding the mic in front of me. The two machines behind the robot in front both pointed their cameras at me. I assumed this was a news operation.

“So, Aural, we received word that you were assaulted in your own home yesterday! Is this true?”

“Yeah, someone smashed my door down and tried to get at me in my own place. Nothin' I couldn't handle, though.”

I couldn't see her, but I could feel Shock rolling her eyes at me.

“Have you heard the rumours about a serial killer going around? Do you think your assailant was this alleged serial killer?” He was rapidly scribbling notes down on his clipboard while moving the mic between our faces.

I carefully thought about what I was going to say before I spoke up. “...Dunno. I've heard about these murders going on, but I don't know much else about 'em. Couldn't tell ya if my attacker was a murderer or not.”

“Do you plan on doing anything about this attack?”

“Yeah, I'm gonna get to the bottom of it.”

“Great! Where are you going right now?”

“Uh, Gri-”

Shock hit me on the shoulder pretty hard. I turned to look at her and she leaned in close to me again.

“Don't you dare say where we're going,” she whispered.

“Yeah, uh,” I resumed, turning back to the reporter, “nowhere in particular, really. Though my pal and I need to get going. Business as usual for me – tight time constraints and all that.”

“Okay! Thank you for your time, Aural! And be careful out there,” the reporter beamed. The cameras were no longer focused on me, and the small group of reporters huddled closer and talked among themselves as the leader of the group continued jotting down notes on his clipboard.

Shock pointed just past me, towards one of the forks in the big junction. It seemed like our guests were done with us, so we quietly resumed our pace in Shock's direction.

“Couldn't help yourself, could you?” Shock pointed out with a subtle hint of joviality in her voice.

“Hey, that was pretty cool if you ask me.” I made sure the expression on my visor was mirroring my sentiments towards the cameras. “So, where are we going? Did you find a sign or something?”

“Mhm. I'm pretty sure this street will lead us to the main strip Dukes is on.”

“Sweet.”

Shock paused. “'I find it kind of strange seeing you act like that in front of the camera, though.”

“What do you mean? I gotta keep up appearances!”

“Well, don't you think it feels a bit... fake? You're not really all that cool in real life.”

“Wow. Ouch.” But I guess I could see where she was coming from. “It's not just about looking good, though. It's... theatrics, I guess. It's about keeping up the illusion of something greater. Something more. You know? I gotta be an idol that people can look up to.”

“You aren't that famous.” Shock smiled again.

“Hey now, I still have a few fans out there.”

She laughed in response. “Okay, fair enough. I guess I never really think of you as a public figure, since I just see you as a regular person all the time.”

I returned a thoughtful grunt her way.

The path we found ourselves on was much thinner than the streets we'd been traversing for the last little while, and the foot traffic was much higher here as a result. Between the clanging of metallic feet was a low rumble of bass emanating from nearby structures; we were in a strip where the buildings were comprised of music shops and small clubs. Definitely my kind of place. We had to take it a bit slow, since the crowds of machinery were almost jamming the whole lane every now and then.

After a bit more trekking, we finally made it to an opening in our little road that widened into a huge lane. After peering side to side, it quickly hit me that this was the road. It was a huge lane of pavement, probably about fifty feet in width, extending down into the desert to our left, and far into the city to our right. The crowds had thinned out significantly, but there were a few dune buggies slowly rolling around, filling up the empty bits of the road.

“Good, looks like we're on track,” Shock noted. “So, it should be down near the desert end of this highway.” I almost had to lean in close to hear her over the nearby vehicles, but I received her message well enough to understand her.

Staying on the left side of the road to avoid any collisions with the passing cars, we power-walked downhill towards the desert. The view was almost surreal – on either side of us, skyscrapers and machinery, but in front of us at the bottom of the road, a portal to the endless expanse of sand that surrounded our civilization. I rarely ever ventured out past the city's outskirts, so I was pretty excited.

I was so transfixed on the desert that I almost didn't notice Shock stop in her tracks.

“Here we are,” Shock sighed, looking at the neon sign atop the front entrance of the building before us. “Christ.”

The sign was a gnarly thing, with huge, almost unreadably skewed and pointy letters curved around a neon tire, reading “Dukes of the Desert.” Behind the neon letters was a pair of (fake?) flamethrowers pointed up in the air. I could tell right away that it was taking everything Shock had to brace herself for this.

“Dude. This place is gonna rock,” I told her.

She peered over at me, looking kind of disgusted. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

I took point and pushed the front door open.

The interior of the store was so much larger than it looked from the outside, probably because the front entrance from the main strip actually led to the second floor of the building. We were standing on a grated path that wrapped around the perimeter of the angular room, giving us a great view of the floor below: dozens of bad-ass looking vehicles, all illuminated by the morning light beaming through the windows on the ground floor.

Shock obviously didn't feel like taking any initiative in here, so I took a moment to stare down in awe at our potential rides. I was almost vibrating in excitement just thinking about cruising around the desert in one of these rides.

I took a break from the view to take a quick glance around the floor we were on. I couldn't see anyone else besides my pal, but I did spot a spiral staircase on the far right side of the room. I casually walked over in that direction with Shock in tow, rapidly descending each step once I reached the stairs.

“Hey, hey! Who do we got here?” Someone shouted as my feet hit the ground floor. I couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, since the building had an intense echo.

Before either of us had a chance to look around, I felt a hand on my right shoulder. Someone was between me and Shock, with their hands on both of our shoulders.

“A coupla newcomers, huh? You lookin' for a ride?”

“Ye-”

“You know it!” I accidentally interrupted Shock.

I took a quick look at the shopkeeper. This robot looked rugged. He had a really jagged design, with a purple and blue triangular head, and white semi-circles for eyes. The rest of his blue and silver body was relatively thin and narrow compared to his head, and it took me a moment to realize this bot had no feet – he had wheels instead.

“Exquisite! Whatcha lookin' for today, ladies?” He released his grip on our shoulders and rolled in front of us.

“We want something that can take us around the desert. But we don't want anything too expensive either,” I explained, eyeing down a couple of desert bikes to the right of Shock.

“Then you've come to the right place, my friends. How long you need wheels for? Packin' any gear around?”

“A day. Maybe two? And just what we've got on us for gear.”

“All right. Take a look at these babies right here,” the shopkeeper replied immediately, rolling over to the bikes I was inspecting moments ago. “Dune rollers, third prototype. Top speeds of 180 kilometres per hour, enough fuel capacity for several days. Won't ever get stuck in the sand,” he explained, directing our attention to the massive treads on each wheel of the bikes. “You'd be hard pressed to break one of these suckers down. Never gonna fall over unless you're an idiot.”

“Hypothetical situation – say these bikes are exactly what we want. How much would that run us?” In my peripheral vision, I saw Shock shake her head.

“Bah, just 20 bytes per hour. Pay when you get back.”

I lit up with glee. “Yo, Shock, we can easily afford that!”

“Yes, I guess so... but, why so cheap?” she inquired.

“Well,” he started, “Late fees start at 800% per hour, missing treads are 900 bytes each, damage to the main chassis begins at 3,300 bytes, engine breakdowns start at 12,000...”

“What the hell? That's a bloody scam,” Shock criticized.

“Hey, cool it. What I'm saying is we take no responsibility for technical issues. They're reliable machines! Just don't be a dumbass out there and you'll be fine!”

Shock's expression returned to her signature unimpressed eyes-half-closed look.

I didn't need any time to mull it over. I had the most exciting ride of my life at my fingertips.

“Let's do it. Two bikes, two days.”

“Done.” He wheeled over to a nearby pillar with a series of buttons on it and pressed one, slowly raising one of the garage doors in front of the bikes.

“No paperwork or anything we need to sign?”

“Oh naaah, nah, nah, nah. We're very easy going around here... until it comes to debt collection.”

Something told me that wasn't a great sign, but this really was our only viable option right now.

“So we just... go?” It seemed too easy to be true.

“You know how to ride one of these things?” the bot asked us.

I glanced over at Shock, who did the same to me.

“Come on. Take a seat on these beasties and I'll at least show you how to use them.” He rolled over to the bikes, beckoning us over.

These brown and yellow bikes looked just as heavy-duty and rugged as the bot renting them to us. Not the most pleasant looking machines, but they did look pretty sturdy. I followed our new instructor to the bike closest to him on the far left of the shop, while Shock reluctantly did the same with the bike to my right. We both swung a leg over our seats and sat down, facing forward.

“All right, listen up, since I'm only going over this once. See the pedals above the little platforms by your feet? Your acceleration's on the right, and your brakes are on the left. Don't mix 'em up. You got your handlebars up front for steering, but I'm hoping I didn't need to tell you that. Parking brake is right here,” he explained, pointing to a switch beneath the handlebars of my bike, “and the ignition's right here beside it.”

“Clutch? Shifting? Any of that?” Shock asked.

“Automation is a godsend, baby,” said the vehicle salesman. “Just start it up, take it out of park, and you're ready to go. Any questions?”

“Sounds pretty simple to me,” I commented.

“You wouldn't be wrong! It's a cinch once you get going. Catch,” he said as he passed us both a key. Shock caught hers while I almost dropped mine.

“Oh yeah, before you go.” The salesman rolled around the back of my bike and leaned down between me and my pal, matching our current heights. “Out there, one of my pals set up a huge ramp in the desert. You can't miss it. Don't take it, for all of our sakes. The guy's kinda ridiculous.”

“We won't be doing any of that,” Shock insisted.

“Hey, temptation's a bitch, man. Fair warning.” He reached over and gave us both a pat on our backs. “Rev 'em up, chickies! Let's hear those engines purr.”

I put the key in the ignition and turned it. The bike chugged to life with a deafening roar, which eventually quieted down to a low rumble. Shock's bike did the same shortly after mine. My circuitry was working in overdrive with anticipation as the vehicle revved beneath me.

“Whenever you're ready, give them a tap. The world's yours! For two days, that is.”

I gently pushed down on the acceleration pedal. The bike's engine picked up, and I started moving forward. I pressed down just a tiny bit harder, increasing my speed just enough to get out the front gate at a reasonable pace. Once I was far enough outside, I slowly braked and took a look behind me. Shock was approaching, but at a much slower speed. She stopped beside me, looking a bit frazzled.

“Have fun out there!” The shopkeeper yelled as he began closing the garage door behind us.

Shock stared at me for a few seconds. “That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do, making a rash deal in a shady store like that,” she clamored over the rumble of the bikes. “And now I'm stupid for going along with it.”

“Oh, chill out! We're not gonna be using these things long enough to break them,” I shouted back in a flimsy attempt to console her.

“Just one thing, Aural.”

“What's that?”

“Don't ever bring me in there again,” she scowled.

“Yeah, whatever,” I nonchalantly agreed. I was too pumped to let Shock kill my hype.