The Kingdom of Heaven

"Insane Genius"

Summary- In which Maya speculates on her best friend.

She didn't like robots. Well, she liked robots just fine, Runner was a good one she could count on to watch her back in a fight and the worker-bots were always polite, so she had to say she liked robots. What Maya didn't like was the way the hard shiny material they were made of tended to resist her bullets, only one or two of a burst getting past it to screw with the sensitive insides.

She didn't have the almost instinctual skill that Grubb had (she could make repairs to her own weapon but never during the confusion of battle) how the mechanic wiz managed to run alongside his creations and make repairs fascinated her. She would also admit if asked, that she was a little bit jealous. A junker through and through, she could recognize a 43B converter from a 43F and even identify which wires would handle so much voltage, but she didn't know why. She could gather the parts together and say "This is what I need to make a water purifier", but if you asked her do it the thing would come out functional but sparking.

So she was a tiny bit jealous of people like Grubb who could look at a pile of junk and see all the working bits, that could instantly come up with a use for it and follow through.

Just a bit.

But back to the point at hand, she didn't like how robots were so damn resistive to her attacks! Maya calmed herself, blocked out the sound of explosions as Corgan's blade sheared through metal, and gathered energy. Maya ignored the shrapnel that cut into her cheek as she opened fire on the pain in the ass Jinam robots blocking her way. A mixture of metal and core energy ripped into the sentinel bot, chewing through a leg and hitting some vital chip inside that resulted in it self-destructing.

Maya rocked back and wiped the sweat from her face; the robots seemed to favor hitting them with grenades and napalm. "You alright, Corgan?"

The Holy Guardsman of Wind City gave her a nod of confirmation while running his thumb along his sword to check for damages. They were only there on a rumor but it was the best bet they had. The two of them moved into a more organic looking part of the downed Jinam ship, Maya taking the lead but watching the blonde. He was trained for this sort of thing, after all.

"Hey." Maya paused, her ears picking up the faint sound of tinkering. "My Grubb senses are tingling." She turned the corner, noted a deactivated sentinel bot, and grumbled. The skinny mechanic was just sitting there oblivious to the danger around him and rummaging through a downed robots chest cavity. Maya arched an eyebrow. "Grubb."

"Huh? Oh, hey Maya." The man adjusted his goggles and ripped a piece of hardware from the robot before pocketing it. "This ship is awesome!"

She was sorely tempted to question him, to demand how he got passed all the robots that were guarding the ship and the double locked doors. She wanted to shake him. What have you been doing? Do you know how much I was worried about you?! But she didn't. She just leaned against the wall and watched him salvage usable parts in true junker fashion. At least he wasn't trying to repair it; she didn't need supposedly dead combatants to get up and resume fighting.

Corgan shifted uncomfortably; he didn't like technology and with his sword he didn't need to be. Whatever it was made of, it cut through the tin soldiers like butter. "Maya, I think I can here reinforcements coming from elsewhere on the ship."

The woman pushed off the wall and tapped her best friend, mad genius that he was, on the shoulder. "We better get out of here."

Grubb nodded absently as he stood and looked around them at the treasure of parts. "If we-"

"Now, Grubb." She was already walking back the way they had come, green eyes watching for ambushes. "How did you get passed the locked doors?" She asked carefully as they passed through the double-door set and into the main entry room.

He shrugged. "They were locked? I thought the opening mechanism was just jammed..." Maya rolled her eyes. He probably hadn't even noticed the robots, or he had somehow bypassed them completely. How did a tall, gangly guy with a mohawk avoid notice?

Well, at least if they ran into any battles with the Jinam troopers the fight would end faster. She could probably get him to program them to shoot each other.

"Leave the gadgets alone, Grubb! We still need to find Runner." Maya shouted over her shoulder as Corgan hid a snicker and they left the ship. Grubb grinned sheepishly and jogged back. He may have been a genius, but she wasn't the least bit jealous of that bit of insanity he carried around with him.

End.