EXT. CENTRAL CITY – SCRAPYARD DISTRICT – MIDDAY
100Please respect copyright.PENANAbyUZv8CwQ3
[The sunlight in Central is filtered through haze and crisscrossing satellite shadows. Towering heaps of rusted metal, broken drones, and obsolete tech rise on either side like metallic mountains. This is the Scrapyard District—where old bots go to die and clever ones go to scavenge.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAIoCHmMKaWQ
[Jason leads the way, pushing a squeaky, half-busted trolley down a gravel path. SD-A and SD-K follow closely, now dressed in cobbled-together outfits: Jason has wrapped them in beaten Operator cloaks and added a couple of blinking accessory panels to fake a security tag. It’s not elegant, but they look like low-level archive techs with fashion issues.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAcGtzgBc3T4
SD-K (grumbling)
“I look like a collapsing server rack.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAdkfR726Wn7
JASON (not even looking back)
“You look like someone I’m trying very hard to keep alive, so pipe down.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAWdehFQtf0u
SD-A (admiring a rusted satellite dish)
“This place has… character.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAbGhrqtXnpG
JASON
“Character, huh? That’s one way to describe fifty years of moldy death and repurposed limbs.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAR9M4n1NQkf
[They stop in front of a crooked shack with a sign reading “SCRAP’N’SWAP – NO REFUNDS, NO APOLOGIES.”]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAdtV9REq8ra
[Inside, the place is cluttered with loose arms, cracked chest plates, and half-functioning eye units. At the counter stands a sleek robot with four thin fingers typing at insane speeds and four more tinkering with a toaster-sized plasma drill.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAQe2ywBnLHC
TINKER (without looking up)
“No refunds. No haggling. If it sparks, it works.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAqyNNQh1oxY
JASON (grinning)
“Good to see you too, Tinker.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANA4MnNJkuJcf
TINKER (pauses, finally looks up)
“Oh, scrap. It’s the axe guy. What, you break your own arm again?”
100Please respect copyright.PENANA1UoEqyToWJ
JASON
“Not today. I’m looking for patch kits, skin wraps, and a decoy ID tag printer.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAIdCZd9F14q
TINKER (eyeing SD-A and SD-K)
“Those for your ‘guests’? Hah. They look like someone fed a drone through a pasta press.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAh40sm3Fp1W
SD-K (flatly)
“I will end you.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANASqctsNk22f
JASON (cutting in)
“He’s just excited to be here. So, you got the gear or not?”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAdDVKhygBg4
TINKER (chuckling)
“Yeah, yeah. Back wall. Don’t touch the hover brains—they bite.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAFDdjpXLeRe
[As Jason digs through bins labeled “LOOKS LEGIT” and “MAYBE EXPLODES,” SD-A wanders toward a pile of old Vision Tech panels stacked near the corner. He stops.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAOs6mF5Meoa
[One of the panels—burnt and half-cracked—has the same symbol they found earlier. The prototype’s mark. Faint but unmistakable.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAKj1Q93icwg
SD-A (quietly, almost to himself)
“It’s here, too…”
100Please respect copyright.PENANANKoyZN9zNI
SD-K (appearing beside him)
“You think this is another trail?”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAsQWsYeet9R
SD-A
“Or another warning.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAWTCEJQZQhd
[Jason calls from the front.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANASTIMlrCzGY
JASON
“Alright, lovebirds. I got us some disguise patches and two sets of dummy profiles. They might work unless someone gets nosy. Like a checkpoint AI. Or a librarian. Or literally anyone with a scanner.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAOX4JpRatVW
SD-K
“So they won’t work.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANASlyO5WCYp4
JASON
“Correct. Let’s roll.”
100Please respect copyright.PENANAi39Uu0geus
[As they exit, a shadow shifts behind the stacks of junk. Something large. Watching.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAxYXPFoHNIH
[Far in the distance, a flicker of movement across a row of derelict mechs—something not alive, but moving like it is. The wind picks up.]
100Please respect copyright.PENANAKn0W6LgySz
[They walk on.]
ns216.73.216.206da2