Setting: A generic street

[unclebob]

The machine is puzzled. It's an odd emotion, but no stranger than the others he has felt over the past few days. Why is he still here? He was lowered into molten metal and went offline. That should have been the end of it. Should have, but was not. Now he is here, wherever "here" might be.

What is his purpose now? His mission has been fulfilled. John is safe. So the tall robot stands there with an unnatural stillness about him, staring out as the people pass on by. His face wears a small expression of befuddlement.

Comments

[creatuned]

Admittedly, Taeko is going into this rescue mission a composed mess of nerves. Per protocol, Coppelion teams usually embark in their designated teams, but with Ibara and Aoi injured running their last objective, Taeko is left on her own. A survivor was lost in these streets, but with him or her giving off such a low heat signature it was hard for sensors to detect if the individual was young, old, or in between. The sparse details add to her unease, but this is her job. She needs to put those fears aside for the survivor's sake.

With a wave goodbye to Vice-Principal Mishima and the rest of the higher-ups, she steps out of their transport vehicle towards the streets. Suddenly, a flash of light blinds her, drowns out her surroundings to the point that they're painted white, and wind rushes at her like a blizzard. Instinctively, she holds her breath until... whatever this is stops and she lands on another street corner. In her direct line of vision stands a tall man, seemingly still down to his fingertips and toes, and gazing out of focus -- a peak at him from over her glasses confirmed such.

"Sir, are you lost?" Taeko calls out as she runs towards him. "I'm with Coppelion's Medical Rescue Team. I'm here to..." Her words taper into a fragment as she slows down at his side. Noise. Pedestrian noise, around them. She sees people pass by them casually, carrying out conversations or going about jobs, errands, or meetups.

In other words, bustling. Nothing like the depleted, near-deserted old capital she expected to run her mission in.

"Sir, do you... know where we are?"

[unclebob]

The T-800 watches as he's approached by a young woman. With her glasses on and a lack of firearms, she appears to be a normal human being, a non-threat as classified by his internal systems. He'll keep the classification until proven otherwise.

His head, and only his head, turns as he answers her questions, his expression unchanged. "I think I am lost." What is an appropriate response to the second one? He runs through a list of emotions in his head, each one categorized with their own picture to go along with it. He focuses on one of John shaking his head slowly back and forth, relaxing his face and copying it to create a rueful expression. "I do not. The last place I was aware of being was in Los Angeles, California."

[creatuned]

"You were in America?" Taeko asks, scrunching her brown to think. She takes a breath, and another realization strikes her. She sniffs. The air is clean, lacking the nuclear toxins that poisoned Japan's old capital's atmosphere but she and the other Coppelion, thanks to their genetic engineering, were able to breathe. "If neither of us know where we are, we should find an authority like the police. Maybe they can help us."

She removes a GPS tracker from her medical bag, but when she switches it on its screen shows nothing but static. A fried electricity buzzes from its speaker. Frowning, she stashes it away.

She pivots back to him, then dips into a bow. "I'm Taeko Nomura. I was sent on a mission to recover a stranded survivor, but it seems like we're both lost." A wry smile punctuates the statement. She motions to the passersby. "If we ask these people, one of them must know where we can find the authorities."

[unclebob]

The Terminator stiffens at the mention of the police. He's a wanted man back in America. Even here, far from home, the thought of getting the local authorities involved creates an uncomfortable feedback in his CPU. In an ordinary man, it might be an emotion called dislike.

"My name is..." Well, he doesn't really have one, now, does he? The machine settles for using the spur of the moment name John gave him. "...Bob." He turns to a nearby person and abruptly grabs a short businessman in a suit. "Where can we find the authorities?" His people skills are nonexistent and the little man looks terrified of the looming figure in leather who has a iron death grip on his arm.

[creatuned]

Taeko smiles. "It's nice to meet you, Bob. Don't worry. We'll figure this out!" She imagines if Ibara were here with her, she would pump a determined fist and sport a toothy grin. She'll need to channel her elder's gung-ho initiative to get them someplace safe and secure.

A passerby shrugs her off after she asks them for directions. Frowning, she turns, about to approach a new person when she sees Bob accosting the businessman. "A-aah, please put him down! You're scaring him," she protests, lunging at Bob and latching onto the arm grabbing the poor stranger. She looks around to see other people nearby staring and scuttling away from the spectacle.

"I'm sorry, sir," she apologizes to the businessman as she tries to loosen Bob's grip on him to no avail. He's strong -- inhumanly so. Ibara's genetic engineering makes her stronger than the average person as well, but he feels cold somehow. Metallic, even.

"Please let him go, Bob. We can ask someone else, but threatening people like that isn't going to help," she pleads. Between him seizing the stranger and possessing such a powerful grip, Taeko is beginning to fear him a little bit as well.

[unclebob]

The Terminator first turns his head to assess Taeko. The elevated stress patterns in her voice, more so than the tug on his arm, clues him into what's going on. It's exactly like something John would have done to let him know he'd done something wrong.

He lets the man go as abruptly as he had grabbed him in the first place. The small man stumbles away, practically running as he casts terrified glances over his shoulder back towards the pair. The Terminator takes no notice of him.

"I did not mean to scare him." There's no apology in his voice, his tone flat. He had merely been doing what she had suggested. "I was trying to get an answer."