It’s been a couple of days of travel since I gave Carl his legs back, and we’ve come a long way. The fields of green have been vast and lots of wildlife was around for us to feed off of. Or rather, for Carl and Kate to feed off of, after all I no longer have a need to eat. The wildlife has been interesting to say the least, and Kate has taught me as much as she can about the world I now reside in. Unfortunately we’ve finally made it to our destination. The Docks, or to be more specific, the Eastern Harbour Institute of Trade, E.H.I.T. It’s a rather large institute, or so I’ve been told by Kate. Despite Carl being a male, he seems to have had far less opportunity to hunt, explore or do anything that might align with my world's positions for male and female. Of course, perhaps he simply was following his family tradition as they had been shepherds and farmers as well, but I'm still not sure. I can get the answers I need at the Archipelago.

As we arrive a couple of things become immediately clear. This place has some BIG ships. The ships are huge and each have their own unique flair to give them a personality, of course none are made of metal as none of the civilisations of this world have reached that level of technology yet, but even so, they look sturdier than some of my world's ships. One particular ship stands out to me, the name ‘Gloria’ is engraved elegantly on its side, the tips of the letters winding off into flowers and sparkles. Of course the name is simple, and mostly cosmetic. The ship is clearly of a strong sturdy build, and better yet is a Carrack, a ship with three or four masts, a rather large one. The sails are clearly square rigged, but even the masts which hold the sails give off a feeling of brand, strong and sturdy, recently polished as well. The hull looks at least 3 Centimetres thick, which is quite extreme for any boat. This is clearly an expensive ship.

Of course there are other things beside the ship itself, being an institute of trade the harbour has many, many stalls and shops, ranging from ‘Jason’s Barber,’ and ‘Hailey's Bar’ to ‘Carter’s Maps’ and ‘Jonathan's shoes.’ The other thing I proceed to notice however would have brought a frown to my old face. Most of the civilians take a good long look at me and run, the guards are quite shaky but hold their ground. “Halt! You are not welcome here Machina!” They stare me down, swords and spears raised, and heat appears to rise around some of them. I take a step back, ready to run or if necessary, fight.

“He won’t hurt anybody! We’ve travelled with him for days!” Carl is quick to defend me, strangely he is the first to step up before Kate, but in a way it makes sense. The guards shake their heads, “He is one of the old, he is a trickster, a killer! They all are!” Kate steps forward now, “James! Tell them you know me!” The guards appear confused, and me and Carl clearly are too, but Kate just taps her foot and looks somewhere in the distance behind the guards. Eventually a short, almost grubby, figure emerges from a nearby stall to come by.

“Kate! My goodness! That Machina you have there really scared me, you know.” The short grubby figure tries to move past the guards, his strangely large smile becoming a frown as they try to stop him. “It is a Machina! Do you not understand the danger?” One of the guards, Keth his name tag reads, says to the figure I can only presume is James. “Damn it Keth! Always one to overstep the bounds. Look at them! They’re fine, besides if Kate says he’s safe then he probably is. Now let’s get a look at you.” The guards reluctantly step back and James makes his way towards me.

I tense up, but James simply looks me up and down and frowns. “You’re different from all the others. If you weren’t so rusty and banged up I’d say you’d be one of the most advanced and newest variants.” That left me confused. “If I am so advanced, why then am I so rusty and banged up?” James’ eyebrow arches up. “I thought you could answer that question for me,” James says curiously.

Kate decides to interrupt, clearly not willing to drag the situation out further, “We can talk about this later, right now we need to get you to the Archipelago. Guards, can you not see he’s harmless? Keth, just this once.” Keth doesn’t seem particularly keen on starting a brawl, or at least not with a machina so he steps back. “Just this once.”

With the way forward clear we move past the guards and into the sprawling harbour. Despite the clear hostility the people around here seem keen on showing me, most of them let us go on our way as we make our way to one of the boats, led of course by none other than James. “I was wondering when you’d get here. I was very worried about you, you know! It’s not everyday you hear that one of the cities on your trade route is destroyed, especially when one of your favourite clients lives there!” James scolds Kate. “I’m sorry we couldn’t come sooner, we encountered some issues… and if it weren’t for our metal friend here we wouldn’t have even survived the attack.”

James scowls in disgust, “Those bastards need to stop abusing their power! It hasn’t just been them either, even the government itself is starting to enforce heavier restrictions and taxes. They keep getting stronger too. Recently I’ve barely been able to earn a single dime without being asked to hand over tax.”

Kate frowns, and Carl snarls, but there is nothing we’d be able to do.

As we turned a corner we found ourselves in front of an alleyway, dark and secluded. If only I could frown. “James, this isn’t the way to your shop.” James sighs in dismay. “I’m sorry, but I’ve already told you how things are. I’m sorry it has to be this way.” As James speaks two burly figures emerge from behind him. “Your kind aren’t welcome here, Machina.” James gave a nasty glance towards the man to his left and he scoffed. “You’re too eager. Here, as we agreed. It’s been a while since we’ve had a lady to play with.” Kate snarls in disbelief. “James, how could you!” James simply shrugs, “You aren’t of use to me anymore. I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t really aware of anything between Kate or James, but I would be a fool to not act. Just as the two men begin to step forward, I do the same, purposefully in front of Kate. “Hey, I’ve done a lot to keep these two alive, and you won’t change that now.” The men frown, but they still appear quite confident. Kate steps beside me. “Hey, don’t tell me I need protection.” I chuckle, but it’s a short one before I turn back to James and his lackeys. “I always hated thugs like you.”

As I utter my final words I launch myself forward, springing toward them like a hare, before bringing my knee into the balls of the man on the left. Immediately he cries out in pain as a light crack sounds out, and if I were human, I would have winced. Unfortunately he’s quick to recover and, just as I lower my leg, his face becomes what I can only describe as pure hatred before he grips my arm and, to his credit, flips my likely extremely heavy body over itself and slams me on the floor. This would have been effective had I been human. My hand slithers out to grip his ankle, and I twist. Yet another crack sounds out with a scream, but this time louder than the last. The man falls backwards, catching himself on the cobblestone pavement with his hands. He begins to scrabble back as I bring myself up, pushing himself against the wall, but despite his eagerness to get away from me I can tell that he definitely hasn’t given up. Reaching behind him, a notion I was all too familiar with.

I don’t hesitate, if you hesitate in a battlefield, whether you're in a street or in the trenches, you shoot first and ask questions later. Lurching forward I stomped down on his shoulder hard. One might’ve said too hard. The alley goes quiet aside from the drops of blood splattering to the ground, the man not even groaning. He frowns, realising something. “What are you staring at? Why can’t I feel my arm?”

As the big lunk looks to his right I remove my bloody metal foot from the wall. I hadn’t just crushed his shoulder, I’d obliterated it. The man's eyes move from his stumped shoulder to where his arm lay on the ground, observing the open flesh and tendons, eyes widening in surprise and horror. In the hand of the fallen arm, grasped tightly, is a weapon I am all too familiar with. A gun.

“Where did you find that?” I ask him, my words a little rushed as I try to catch him before he loses to shock. His brows furrow at first, but slowly his head begins to tilt back. I slap him on the side of his face, careful not to put too much force in this time, and raise my other foot threateningly over his precious spot. As the man comes back into focus and spots my foot, he gulps before squealing in terror, “The gun? It’s sold at the market ten blocks away! They’re common! Why!?” I stare at him incredulously, I refuse to believe that this world was developed enough to create such weaponry, but then again, I guess I’m here.

I try to return my gaze to James, but he is nowhere to be found. I look for Kate and find her standing nearby, grasping her thigh. Clearly she did not escape her fight uninjured. “Are you alright?” I ask her, but Kate only nods with a grunt before turning to face down the alleyway. I completely understand her. “Carl, are you okay?” My eyes flick to where he had stood before the fight, and spot him hiding behind a wall staring at the limp body next to me. I suppose it’s only natural, after all, I am one of the most terrifying things these guys know, and despite my ability to bring health, I clearly underestimated my ability to bring death.

Carl gathers himself, standing straight and dusting off his pants. “We should find a place to stay.”

I follow Carl’s example, standing and taking Kate over my shoulder. “I completely agree.”