Down in the Dumps?! Start from the Bottom Looking Up!

[Fox]

When Marina hopped up on top of his arm, Wight immediately wished to protest. Such an action would only put her in danger. She then proceeded to antagonize their assailants. Since they had delivered the first blow, he couldn’t rightly chide her. Plus, they seemed insistent despite his earlier warning. She threw some kind of projectile at them. His analysis indicated that it was water. Interesting. He hadn’t known that water could be used with such force. Wight glanced over to his newfound companion as she addressed him.

“I fail to see how watching each others’ backs will resolve the situation. It seems much more prudent to engage in suppressive fire. Engaging combative protocols. Please brace yourself.”

Marina was still on his arm, so he didn’t want to accidentally dislodge her. He moved her safely to the side as the ground trembled beneath the bandits’ feet. They lost their footing quickly, firing panicked shots into the air. Wight ensured that none of the stray bullets hit Marina by carefully angling his arm away. Abruptly, metal burst out of the garbage as Wight’s legs managed to free themselves.

There were some confused cries as he rose up to his full height, completely towering over the humans below. Wight lifted his arm to allow Marina to stand on his shoulder if she preferred that to his arm. Pointing his other arm at the bandits below, some mechanisms shifted to reveal the barrel of a cannon pointed at them.

“Firing suppressive shot.”

With a resounding BANG, the cannon fired, much to the terror of the bandits. Wight had aimed at their feet so as not to kill or too badly damage them, but the blast sent bits of shrapnel everywhere. Some hit some bandits and took them down. Others ducked behind the hill that Wight could now very clearly see over.

“Retreat. This is your final warning.”

“THAT was a warning?!” One of them shrieked to themselves. Several of their forces had lost their courage, throwing up their weapons and fleeing. Unfortunate. They were sure to report this to the authorities. Some still lingered, wondering if they could salvage the situation in some manner.

[SnowDog]

Marina did what she could to maintain her balance as Wight began to slowly lift his arm to his shoulder, gently moving her to his shoulder despite what his giant size would have you believe. And speaking of giant, the ground beneath their feet began to split as trash and rubble rolled off his metallic chassis. The piranha girl already thought Wight was pretty big, but this was incredible!

“That’s right! You humies better run!” She exclaimed, grabbing at the side of Wight’s head for security. Oh right, she had to dial back the “humie” thing... But this was amazing! Every one of those bandits practically looked like ants from up here! She readied another Uchimizu to fling their way if the scavengers who stayed behind decided to keep on fighting despite Wight’s “warning shot”.

“What do you say Wight? You ready to blow this popsicle stand?!”

[Fox]

As the humans scattered all in different directions, Wight took stock of those that remained. A small group took potshots at him from behind a more distant hill. None of them were high enough to reach Marina, but it seemed like they had noticed his injuries. Toward the bottom of his torso and into the spine connecting his top and bottom halves, his armor had been damaged and internal circuitry was exposed. It would be problematic if he took much more damage in those areas, so he covered them with a hand as bullets plinked off of him.

Before he could formulate how to deal with the remainder, Marina called out from his shoulder. Humies was not the proper term for humans. It could be inferred that it was a derogatory term given the context. He made a note not to use the term and filed it away in his databanks. Marina shortly followed up her taunt with another violent projection of water. The group that had been firing at him quickly dispersed, losing whatever resolve that they had been clinging to before. Victory had been attained. Wight was about to suggest their next course of action when Marina said something he simply did not understand. He tilted his head toward her perplexed.

“Are you hungry, Marina? Frozen refreshments are not a recommended source of nutrition. They are high in sugar content and lack various other nutrients required to keep an organic body functioning properly.”

But there was more that did not make sense to him, so he continued.

“What would blowing air on the stand accomplish? Ordinarily, transactions are made with currency, not something as readily available as air. Unless you mean, blow as in explode. Either way, I fail to see the use of such actions. They are counterproductive.”

Still, if Marina required nutrition, Wight wanted to provide it for her. He did not even see a popsicle stand in the vicinity, so he assumed that she must have seen one on her way to him. He began walking in the direction that Marina had appeared from, scanning the nearby vicinity for any sources of food or other sustenance.

[SnowDog]

Marina kind of just... stood there as she tried to process Wight’s rebuttal to her call of departure. She honestly didn’t know how to even respond to whatever it was he just said! For an advanced giant robot, his grasp on expressions was practically juvenile.

“Wait, that’s not what I- Wight, it’s just an expression...” the piranha girl stated feeling the impact of her one liner dissipate as the preverbal wind was taken out of her sails. Still, Wight was at least concern about her current health. As if on cue, Marina could feel her stomach rumble followed by an audible growl shortly after. “Okay, the hunger part wasn’t exactly an expression, Heh. It would be nice to look for something to eat.”

Seeing how the scavengers had all dispersed away and Wight began moving out back towards the beach Marina had washed up on. The piranha girl took a moment to adjust her stance before sitting herself down onto Wights shoulder.

“What about you? Do you need to... ‘eat’ anything?”

[Fox]

“An expression?”

Wight ran through his databanks for an appropriate definition. It didn’t take long for him to find one that seemed reasonable. An idiomatic statement to convey an idea. He must have lacked the required associations to make the connection. He was curious to learn of the ideas behind the expression, but it could wait for another time. Marina expressed her hunger so he thought that perhaps some part of his earlier analysis was correct. She asked if he required nutrition, and he thought for a moment before he answered her.

“I do not require nutrition as you do, but I do require fuel in the form of oil. My stores are sufficient for the moment, but it would be prudent to acquire more for travel. I am also damaged and in need of repair. If we could find both fuel and a way to repair my chassis, then that would be optimal.”

As they reached the water, Wight walked until it was to his waist before jabbing his sharp, pointed fingers into the water. He pulled it up and on its end was a skewered fish. He handed it over to Marina.

“Will this sate your nutritional requirements for now?”

Before she could answer, Wight shifted and roiled beneath her. His head retracted into his body, his limbs shortened and flattened out. Before long, Marina would find herself sitting on top of what was clearly a boat. A very weird metal boat, but a boat all the same.

“This form will be more convenient for travel. We are leaving before the hostiles return.”