Cora woke to the sun shining on her feet through the mouth of their shelter. It took her mind a moment to process what was going on and where she was, but when it did, she groaned. Then she realized that there was something rather soft draped over her, something she most definitely did not fall asleep with. It was far too soft to be something she owned, all of her clothes being rough and worn. She sat up quickly with the realization, looking down at the crumpled blue fabric piled in her lap. Astro's jacket, but why did he give it to me? She then look over a the boy's sleeping form, his back facing her. Her mind immediately went to her life with the other orphans. With them it was almost always survival of the fittest, and once you were old enough to take care of yourself you we responsible for yourself. No one shared when it didn't benefit them in some way. No one gave up their small amounts of comfort unless they absolutely had to. And yet, this kid gave her his jacket on a freezing cold night, without her even having to bargain for it. An odd warm feeling filled her chest, confusing her for a moment before she shook it away. He is going to get himself killed if he doesn't start taking care of himself before others.

She rose to her feet, rolling the jacket into a ball in her hands. She then proceed to walk over and roughly kick the kid in the back. It didn't quite get the reaction she was hoping for. Astro grunted, opening his eyes slightly while trying to adjust to the bright light. In return, Cora felt like she had just kicked a brick wall with all her might. Her foot throbbed, and she gritted her teeth, hoping not to show that that had actually hurt. The boy turned and looked up at her, but his expression changed quickly, going from a lazy sleepiness to concern right before her eyes.

"Um, are you okay?" He asked cautiously. She just stared down at him for a moment. Did he even feel that? What does this kid eat?! Realizing that he was still staring at her and she hadn't given an answer, she huffed and threw his jacket at his face.

"You're gonna freeze to death if you give away your clothes." She stated, crossing her arms as he spluttered, pulling the jacket off his face with a confused look. "You're just lucky that I'm nice enough to give it back, not many people would do that." He rolled his eyes, getting to his feet and tying the jacket around his waist.

"You were cold, I wasn't, I thought you would appreciate the extra coverage." She just stared at him, blinking as she tried to comprehend what she just heard.

"Look, I don't know where you came from, but around here, it's every person for themselves, and it will do you well to remember that. Kindness is going to get you killed in a dark alley somewhere." She turned around and was crawling out of the mouth of the shelter so she didn't see him cringe, but she did hear his response.

"I'm from Metro City, and I do realize that I need to be careful, but I don't feel like my kindness is going to get me killed." Cora whipped around to look at him as he crawled out of the hole and stood. Disgust rolled around her insides, and anger boiled in her chest. Metro City kid, no wonder he doesn't seem to know how to function down here. He is probably a pampered little brat like all the rest of the people up there. When he stood, she plastered a fake smile on her face.

"You're from Metro City?" She gasped in an overly cheerful way, watching as the boy's face morphed in confusion. "Oh my goodness, it is such an honor to be in your presence, I can't believe you are talking to me, this is the best day of my life." She ended on a low sarcastic note, making sure that her face and voice displayed her displeasure. He just stared at her, confused. She sighed.

"Let me spell it out to you. You're from Metro city, I don't like people from Metro city." she leaned back, crossing her arms and glared at the boy. He still seemed confused, but he rolled his eyes at her. Of all the nerve….

"Yes, you made it clear you don't like people from Metro City, but I don't see why that suddenly changes anything. We were getting along just fine so far, and I haven't done anything wrong to you." He looked at her with a quizzical look, and she huffed. Leaning forward, one hand on her hip and the other with its finger in his face.

"It's not what you have done, it is what you might do. I don't want your problems following me, so get lost kid." She then turned around and began to storm off. She heard a gasp behind her, and frantic footsteps, but she didn't stop.

"Wait, please, I won't cause you any trouble, I promise!" Astro said frantically, dashing up and walking backward in front of her again.

"Promises mean nothing down here, so get lost before I make you." She kept walking, walking around him as he stumbled and fell on his rear.

"Please, I don't have anywhere to go!" His voice was starting to sound thick, like he was on the brink of tears. Wimp she thought to herself.

"Not my problem." She grumbled. This time he ran in front of her and stopped her in her tracks. His voice was thick and his face was twisted like he was getting emotionally worked up, but his skin was still pale, and his eyes dry and clear, as if they hadn't gotten the emotional memo. Is he trying to play me? She wondered, but her thoughts were cut off when he continued.

"Please, I'm begging. I literally lost everything in one fell swoop." Something in her expression must have made him think that she didn't believe him, which she really didn't, and so he continued. "My dad disowned me, I was kicked out of my house, lost my humanity, was chased by some lunatics with huge guns for no reason, thrown off of the city and attacked by a pack of malfunctioning robots as soon as I opened my eyes." He said all of this in one, long breath. And hearing this made her feel guilty, because it sounded close to her story, except a lot worse, but he continued before she could say anything. "So this may sound stupid, or childish, or whatever you wanna call it, but I just really don't want to be alone again. I don't know if I will be able to survive on my own down here, and I could really use some help, even if that is just a little bit of company and a destination to look forward to."

He finally stopped, staring at her for some sort of reaction. She felt like someone poured cold motor oil in her brain, clogging her gears and slowing her down. One odd point stuck out to her, though, and she couldn't possibly decipher what it meant.

"Did you just say that you lost your humanity?" She asked, totally baffled. She watched as the boy cringed, clearly not having meant to mention that. He opened his mouth to reply, whether to confirm or deny she wasn't sure, but was interrupted by a metallic clang. They both startled and turned to look at a rusting robot that stood at the top of a hill they had crawled over the night before. It stood on uneven legs, like it had stolen a leg that was a little too short for it from a different robot, which would explain the color difference. It had dents all throughout its body, with wires sticking out of random holes in its frame. One arm was far shorter than the other, a hand attracted where the elbow should be, and the other ended in a large meat cleaver, obviously implying that the thin red robot had been a chef bot in its prime. Two more robots appeared over the rig of the hill, one a small, wiry toilet cleaning robot, the other, a six foot tall construction robot with a cement tumbler for a chest and bulky arms covered in a light grey dust.

"Ahhh, there you are." The chef bot graveled out, its voice sounding like forks in a bender. "Come on brother, spare a little juice for the old folk around here." Several more robots climbed over the top of the hill, waddling towards them like metal zombie, moaning about new batteries. Cora was stupefied, she had never in all her life seen robots react this way to humans. she turned to Astro to see fear warping his soft face. She cleared her throat and Astro turned to look at her.

"You got any batteries to give them?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Nope."

"We should probably run then."

"Agreed." And with that they both turned and bolted. Astro ran quickly, and surprisingly smoothly across the rough terrain, seeming completely unaffected by the bright sun light reflecting in their eyes off of the hot metal covering the ground. Cora, on the other hand, stumbled a lot, and was starting to fall behind. Astro noticed and immediately slowed down for her, but that didn't help the situation. They both looked back to see that the robot army was actually keeping a fair pace with them. Cora's shin throbbed from the night before, and it was slowing her down further. Beside her there was a hiss, and before she knew it, Astro had grabbed her hand, twirled her around in the air and threw her on his back, holding her thighs to keep her in place. All of this happened without him breaking stride.

"Whoa!" Cora yelped, wrapping her arms tightly around Astro's neck, noticing that they were actually gaining speed rather than losing it. How the hell did he do that? She didn't have time to ponder the question when a metallic screech sounded behind them. She just decided to hold on for dear life and hope they didn't die. Then she proceed to curse herself as they came to a screeching halt at the lip of a deep crevasse that split across the never ending waste land. The way the sun hit it and the shadows engulfed it made it look bottomless, and it was far too wide for any sane person to try and jump. They looked left and right, but saw no end to the crack in the earth. She felt like all hope was lost, they were going to die. Then she felt Astro roll his shoulder and looked down to see him staring at the other side of the crevasse with determination. He backtracked then bent down to get a running start, and she realized that he was crazy.

"No, no, no, no, no! Don't you dare take me down with your insanity!" She squirmed, but his grip was ridiculously strong and she couldn't get down.

"Hold on tight." Was all he said before he shot forward. She would have fallen backwards if she hadn't grabbed his neck in a chokehold, screaming. Then suddenly they were in the air, and she opened her eyes just in time to see them suspended above the darkness before they came crashing down on the other side. They were both torn apart from the other, tumbling in a painful roll as they crashed into the land on the other side of an impossible jump. They lay there for a moment, groaning, before sitting up and watching the robots on the other side come to a halt at the edge. Three robots decided to take the risk and attempted the jump, all of which fell sickeningly short and fell into the dark abyss.

After a couple of surreal moments, both absorbing that they actually made that jump, and survived. They looked at each other, and then both started to chuckle. Then the chuckles morphed into laughs, hysterical laughs, but laughs nonetheless. The robots screaming on the other side of the ravine was just fueling their laughter. Astro jumped to his feet, pulling her to her feet as well, both still laughing as they ran away from the army of psychotic machines. They ran and ran, running till Cora's legs gave out, and then they collapsed next to a mountain of trash, still giggling like maniacs. What neither of them noticed was that they were both holding hands throughout the whole experience.