EXT. CENTRAL CITY – SCRAPYARD DISTRICT – MIDDAY
41Please respect copyright.PENANAMSiX95V6QC
[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.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAS0rJfJXAcr
[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.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAQL1Hc0a10V
SD-K (grumbling)
“I look like a collapsing server rack.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAjVi1kbUbws
JASON (not even looking back)
“You look like someone I’m trying very hard to keep alive, so pipe down.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANA945gZQK2cn
SD-A (admiring a rusted satellite dish)
“This place has… character.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANACanqzdxRZ3
JASON
“Character, huh? That’s one way to describe fifty years of moldy death and repurposed limbs.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAqt3gkrCrtf
[They stop in front of a crooked shack with a sign reading “SCRAP’N’SWAP – NO REFUNDS, NO APOLOGIES.”]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAuoa6t1aViq
[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.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAqWyVQCOAKX
TINKER (without looking up)
“No refunds. No haggling. If it sparks, it works.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANA7vtcgzMOUC
JASON (grinning)
“Good to see you too, Tinker.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAGkRBtW63tx
TINKER (pauses, finally looks up)
“Oh, scrap. It’s the axe guy. What, you break your own arm again?”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAPa8MvfPZ8n
JASON
“Not today. I’m looking for patch kits, skin wraps, and a decoy ID tag printer.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANArTwvhwsEbL
TINKER (eyeing SD-A and SD-K)
“Those for your ‘guests’? Hah. They look like someone fed a drone through a pasta press.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANA8xaCMfAK7h
SD-K (flatly)
“I will end you.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAoYdHovMojb
JASON (cutting in)
“He’s just excited to be here. So, you got the gear or not?”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAT5Gjm79U2Y
TINKER (chuckling)
“Yeah, yeah. Back wall. Don’t touch the hover brains—they bite.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAh2oSh4j4Rv
[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.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAKlHbrUvZkE
[One of the panels—burnt and half-cracked—has the same symbol they found earlier. The prototype’s mark. Faint but unmistakable.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANANLqPYpKq6O
SD-A (quietly, almost to himself)
“It’s here, too…”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAStv0jmpiSL
SD-K (appearing beside him)
“You think this is another trail?”
41Please respect copyright.PENANARheX4cIiXa
SD-A
“Or another warning.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAItfqT3zgJh
[Jason calls from the front.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAfd6SWLn0NG
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.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAbAvYwWYw8x
SD-K
“So they won’t work.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANA3jrUPN0h8V
JASON
“Correct. Let’s roll.”
41Please respect copyright.PENANAXnXUWhl5DO
[As they exit, a shadow shifts behind the stacks of junk. Something large. Watching.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANA0tkMLbgHjt
[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.]
41Please respect copyright.PENANAw28uEruUfI
[They walk on.]
ns216.73.216.156da2