Chapter Text
V1 had seen many things over its short period of activation.
The endless depths of Hell and its denizens as they mindlessly lashed out at the many, many mechanical invaders. Its fellow machines, including the model meant to replace it, brought down to nothing at its own hand, even the might of the ones above, and the fury of Archangel Gabriel in its full intoxicating glory. Even after entering through the strange blood-red star, it had seen wonders such as machines who didn’t run on blood, and a world where humans could still thrive.
But it had never seen something that couldn’t bleed.
Until now.
The creature was barely taller than V1’s foot. A white horned mask covered its face, save for the two black circles V1 assumed were its eyes, and its tiny body was covered by a grey cloak and small blade that resembled a nail sat on its back. Its hollow gaze was locked on V1’s empty optic and a mutual curiosity hung in the air. What was this small thing? Its height ruled it out from being a husk, a demon perhaps? That would explain the white mask, but it didn’t carry the same crimson Hell’s creations did. Another type of angel? No, didn’t have the signature wings or halo. A Prime Soul? No visible circulatory system.
V1 knelt down to get a better look at this creature. And the creature inched closer to V1 in turn. The eyes immediately drew most of V1’s attention. Something about that dark void was…alluring, and V1 found itself reaching forward to tentatively touch it. A viscous black substance coated its finger and V1 pulled its hand back to examine it, how it resisted being absorbed through V1’s plating. At the same time, it felt a small poke at this knee plate and saw the small creature examining its blood-full wiring. Had this small creature never seen blood before? How intriguing
V1’s systems whirred as it combed through all available data, trying to put a name to this being which defied its current classification system. Not a human, husk, demon, angel or Prime Soul. Could it be another creature? One that was wiped out when humanity was destroyed? It wasn’t equipped with very detailed information regarding Earth’s animals, it was a machine made for war, not the study of the environment. And most of Earth’s environment had been destroyed by the time it was born anyways. It opened up an older folder and began to scroll through it, looking out for any similarities between the creature before it and the animals of Earth.
Anteaters, Axolotls, African Bullfrog, Alpaca, Badger, Bugs…..Bugs?
The picture accompanying “Bugs” bore a resemblance to the tiny being before it.
V1 pulled up the profile for “Bugs” and began to read.
bug
/bŭg/
An insect having mouthparts used for piercing and sucking, such as an aphid, a bedbug, or a stinkbug.
A very small insect
A small invertebrate with many legs, such as a spider or a centipede.
V1 stared at the creature again. The horns of its white mask seemed reminiscent of the mouth of an insect, and it was small enough to fit the bill. What specific type of bug it was V1 wasn’t sure, the few pictures of bugs it had only had small similarities, such as size and the same large black eyes. But it was something, at the very least.
This creature was a bug.
A bug that strangely bled a thick black liquid rather than the crimson V1 was used to, but it could adapt to that.
The bug seemed to have finished examining V1 as well, as it now once again held the machine’s gaze in those blank eyes. Gingerly the machine scooped up the bug in the palm of its hand. It didn’t resist as V1 stood up and raised it to eye level. It defied everything V1 knew about the world, but for such a small thing it had been a surprisingly good combatant, it had fought hard, the nail delivering powerful blows to its foes and its small trinkets gave it strange yet strong abilities, such as how it had flung small and squishy projectiles at its foes that had been rather effective, or that moment when it had been encased in a red glow after taking a beating, the damage it had suffered reinvigorating it. And it seemingly didn’t need blood, like everything else.
The machine could scarcely believe it was considering this, as a lone predator cooperation was unnecessary and a waste, but maybe this bug was worth keeping around. Those taller machines had proved to be much more threatening than it had anticipated, in this rare case, cooperation may be necessary. The bug sat down in V1’s palm as it came to this conclusion. Did it agree that teamwork was needed? Could it understand the machine? All questions for later V1 supposed.
For now, they had to figure out where they were.
New ally in hand, V1 set off in a randomly selected direction.