“Pahahaaha! Excellent! The ministry needs to be roughed around a bit from time to time! Did you hear that Guillermo!”

“Heh, yeah, good job there. We blew em out of the water here as well. We’ll make sure you get your rightful cut Mr. Thomas, but for now we’re going to let you get out of this before the baddies know your face.”

At those words Sam’s face went darker.

“Yes, I think it’s best you stay at home or cover your face for a while. The Beiorg’s allies will be looking for the folks that brought them down for a while. Be careful lad.”

With that, Guillermo and Sam raised their mugs and the transmission ended. Greg then tipped his hat and showed them out of the complex, giving them directions on a safe path back to the area around the bar. Crash did seem to be a bit different, deciding to follow Luke around without a word. Once it began to rain Luke ran straight through back home, the bot right on his heels. Once he was back in his apartment he sat down at his small coffee table, Crash taking the other chair.

“Welp meatbag we did it.”

“Yep.”

“Nah that ain’t accurate. You did it and I beat some assholes up.”

Nodding once, Luke opened a beer and drank half of it in one gulp. Crash watched him for a moment.

“Mind if I get one of those?”

“Hmm? Sure.”

Tossing Crash one of the drinks, Luke watched as he opened it and drank just as heartily as him. It looked like even robots could get tired. As they both lounged in their chairs and stared at the discolored white ceiling they both took a few more swigs. They didn’t even have to say a word to each other for what seemed like an eternity. Luke would admit, he didn’t hate the robot’s company. He brought some air of companionship into Luke’s life that he really hadn’t felt much before. Crash did decide to interrupt their silence though.

“Ya know the last person to give that much of a damn about me was old Thickton. He was a good guy.”

“I’ve never met him but that’s what I hear.”

“Ya remind me a bit of him actually, except the white hair n stuff.”

Chuckling, Luke swirled the beer around in the bottom of the can and took another drink. As they continued to talk Luke seemed to grow ever more comfortable with the somewhat new Crash. Where before he appreciated the bot, his regulator made him just bearable enough to be friendly instead of high strung and murderous a hundred percent of the time. By four in the morning they were talking like old friends, but Crash needed to get back to his mode charger before he ran out of juice and said good night to Luke, leaving him alone once again. With only the quiet of the night and the light bulb on a cord over his head, Luke looked around the small apartment. Crash sure could drink. He picked up the cans and put them in a trash bag only to find a small smile on his face.

“A friend, huh.”

Luke woke up five hours later at nine.

No time to waste in the week meant that he had to get going. With how difficult Crash’s trial had been he had no idea what Pat would hold in store. If one of these things took more than a day or two he might start getting into hot water. As he ran to Z-mo’s he passed by the same old regular shops and the same drunken miners yet he had almost a bounce in his step as he ran. Things were getting strange indeed.

Arriving at Z-mo’s little shop, he quickly told him everything that had transpired with Crash, Sam and Dan and looked to the old bot to see what was next.

“Ho, boy! Two trials already down then eh!”

“Yeah thank God. Guess that means Pat is next?”

“Yep, who knows, maybe you won’t have to do anything dangerous this time!”

The old bot wheezed a few times and slapped Luke on the back a little harder than probably intended. He hoped there would be no breaking and entering this time around…

After saying goodbye to Z-mo, Luke went back out on the street, hands in pockets. His head bobbed from side to side looking at shops and street vendors until his eyes caught on a familiar sight. It was Lexa… she was looking through some sort of kiddie shop with tops and toy guns. He reached a hand out towards her and prepared to yell her name but his voice caught in his throat. He couldn’t waste time on that… he had to focus on saving her. As he kept saying those words in his head, Luke began to run back towards the apartment. He had to focus.