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Started September 21, 2021 by @CaseyJ group

tune

Z snorted as Sean pretended to shoot the bandages. She caught them with ease and immediately returned to her crouching position to wrap up both of 3110's wounds, "Thanks Sean. If ya want, I can make ya a better toy gun later."

Chet sat on the ground, cross-legged. He watched the scene unfold, not really sure what to make of it. Finally, he asked 3110 what was on his mind.
"What just happened to you?"

3110 watched the metal one and Sean interact, an odd look on his face. He didn't really know what to make of them, they were so.. Loose? They felt care-free, it was so odd to watch, much less be somewhat involved in what was going on. He still let her clean up his wounds, he was in no position to really object, and.. 3110 grimaced again, confused. These people were being kind to him. Why? He couldn't understand it, he was the enemy, he should have been killed hours ago, he was absolutely and completely defenseless for gods sake! Maybe they were just stupid? That didn't feel right though, all of them just.. Smiled. The kid was acting like a kid, the others like real people. The ginger set his jaw, trying not to inspect any of the emotions he was feeling too closely.

Finally, someone with eyes similar to his own met his. Confused, angry, and bitter. 3110 let out a breath, these were emotions he was used to, not complex, and the questions were direct.

"What do you mean? Nothing happened to me. I just shut down." 3110 looked down at his hands again, sighing softly.

Chet narrowed his eyes, unsure of what to do with that answer.
"What do you mean, you 'shut down'?"
The agent was being cagey, which made sense, but he seemed to be more uncomfortable with the other two.
Which was hilarious, really, since they were the only reason he was still alive.

3110's lips drew into a line, not sure how to answer. Didn't he know? Didn't everyone know? There was no way this was hidden information right? A thought struck him, though it made him highly uncomfortable to think of it. It couldn't be that he was one of the only ones with a chip.. Right? 3110 drew in a breath, banishing the thought, it wasn't worth his time anyways.

"I shut down. I was thinking of things I shouldn't. So action was taken." 3110 said it carefully, though even staying vague, an odd ache formed in the back of his skull again, which hurt far more, since his brain has just recently received a massive jolt. The ginger raised his hands to his skull, gently massaging his temples.

"No Government would want information to get out unneeded, right?" 3110 said it with such nonchalance, it was a fact of his life. It was how he was raised, a person is not worth more than the many. So it would be fine for the one to suffer.. The red-head looked a tad bit uncomfortable now, he didn't like speaking with these rebels, it raised complicated questions.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Z groaned as her head drooped down for a second. Oh, they didn't think they could hate the Gov anymore than they already did, but they were just proven very wrong. She hadn't ever had a chip in her brain because she was an experiment. No need to worry about them ever getting rogue thoughts. Z didn't waste any time, nor cared about 3110's reaction, as she reached her hand behind 3110's skull trying to find the implant, "Ya know that just isn't right kid. Any idea where they chipped ya?"

Sean stared at 3110 for a long moment, "I knew it! I mean, not really, but I always had theories that some of the Gov had chips, which is why they never ran away, but they don't put them in everyone cuz they aren't safe and stuff" he shrugged, "I broke into enough offices and read enough files to know something was def going on under our noses" He grinned. He bounced up and down on his heels. "Oh dude! What does that chip do anyway? I mean, you said it keeps from rouge thoughts, but what else? do you have laser eyes or something?" He asked, like any child would.

3110 flinched away from the metal one, hands going up defensively.
"Hey- Stop-" He turned his head from one to the other, eyes opening wide. "I- It?" The ginger looked utterly baffled, the sheer confusion on his face was a new emotion. He didn't know how to respond,the strangest question he'd ever received at the Compound was what he'd had for morning rations. Asking if he had laser eyes was not something he ever expected to be asked. 3110 continued spluttering incoherently, too bamboozled to even react at this point.

"WHat iS wrong with YoU pEOpLe?" 3110 finally asked, head tilted to the side. "Are you all insane??"

"I could be asking you that," Z replied as her non-metal hand finally found the scar from the insertion. Now that they knew where the chip was, it was time for the hardest part. Removing the chip. But Z wasn't going to do that until the kid was asleep or knocked out.

The ginger jerked forwards, his nerves going on auto-pilot. He hissed through his teeth, though he kept himself from standing or getting himself in more trouble. He wanted to scream at the metal person to stop touching his skull, but he gritted his teeth, the ache in the back of his skull increasing.

"I don't see the problem. It's fine. I'm Fine." The words popped out of his mouth automatically, even accompanied by a mechanical smile. His lips twitched upwards, then down again. 3110 frowned, his skin felt itchy whenever that happened, he hated not being in control of his own actions. He breathed out through his nose, not sure of what to do. He felt vulnerable and in a very compromised condition. No matter how friendly they were, or how.. Nice. Everyone had a limit, 3110 didn't want to find out these peoples.

Chet was pretty sure they were dealing with a madman, or a cyborg, or a robot, or some kind of Guv drone, At the very least this guy was a dangerous killer being controlled by someone else. Sean seemed excited, Z seemed to know what was up, but Chet hadn't spent a lot of time with Guvs. By the time he got up close to them, they were usually dead or dying. So this was new info to him.
It freaked him out a bit, honestly. And nothing good could come of it. If I can knock him out, we can get it out of his head…
So he stepped forward and swung his fist into 3110's jaw, spinning his entire body into the punch.

Sean jumped when Chet punched 3110. "Dude?!" he shot his toy at Chet, which was absolutely not intimidating. "but I really think they should give people lazer eyes, wouldn't that be cool?" he asked, no longer acting as a mature person, why, because he felt comfortable.

3110's eyes went massive, and he tried backing up, but with the metal girl behind him, he couldn't react too much to the oncoming hit. As much as the ginger would have loved to say that he took the punch, then got up and hit the man back.. He wasn't exactly trained for physical combat. He wasn't meant to engage, he was a sniper, meant to stay out of harms way. All this to say, he crumpled like a paper doll, his lights well and thoroughly out. 3110's body turned a bit at the force of the punch, lucky enough to not have a tooth completely knocked out, though it would leave a nasty bruise. He slumped backwards into the person behind him, a bump already forming on his jaw.

3110's eyes went massive, and he tried backing up, but with the metal girl behind him, he couldn't react too much to the oncoming hit. As much as the ginger would have loved to say that he took the punch, then got up and hit the man back.. He wasn't exactly trained for physical combat. He wasn't meant to engage, he was a sniper, meant to stay out of harms way. All this to say, he crumpled like a paper doll, his lights well and thoroughly out. 3110's body turned a bit at the force of the punch, lucky enough to not have a tooth completely knocked out, though it would leave a nasty bruise. He slumped backwards into the person behind him, a bump already forming on his jaw.

Chet scrambled to pull 3110 into a sitting position, so the back of his head was exposed. "He's out cold. Z, can you get that thing out of his head?"

"you might want to be careful, no telling what might happen if you try to remove it-" Sean said sitting in front of 3110. "he needs a name, and not 'moss'…I will call him ginger."

"Yeah I can do that, nice work by the way," Z began to get to work refining the scar and then pulled out her arm knife once more. They were very careful when they made the incision and then tried to see if they could spot the chip before going digging. She looked over to Sean, "Do you think you can get me a light? And if you care so much about a name why don't we just call him Ello."

"Um Ello, no..how bout Ely." He hummed, getting a light out of his back, "imma need that back, I stole it."

Chet just kept supporting the limp agent. Usually, he would have joined in on the naming conversation. He loved it when people had names and not numbers, but in this case?

He was ok with just calling 3110, 3110.

Or murderer, maybe…

"Fine by me," Z replied as she shone a light onto the incision. They saw a glint of metal and immediately went to work getting it out. She didn't know how it was hooked up to his actual brain, so she gave it a gentle tug to see if there was any resistance. Once they realized there was none, they pulled the chip out slowly. Cutting anything that was attached once the chip was fully removed before taking the same rag from earlier to wipe up the incision and bandaging it up, "There. One dechipped ex-Gov."

Chet let go of 3110's limp form, and the agent sagged back into Z's lap.
"Ex-Guv? What if he's still loyal when he wakes up?" Chet's voice was quiet. "What if the chip only kept him from saying too much, and his heart really is with the Government? What if this changes nothing?"

"Dude, the Gov literally starved us, and plus even if you lost a limb you had to earn the right to get help…which wasn't easy…and almost never happened…no one would be loyal to that shiz" Sean shook his head, "But if he is, at least it will be his choice"

Chet turned and stared at him incredulously. "No one would be- Sean, there's literally an entire evil Government in power. What do you mean no one would be loyal?" Now he was livid.
"Some of us have lived in the shadow of that Government for most of our lives. There are spies everywhere. You can't trust anyone. The only reason I'm semi-comfortable with any of you-" he gestured at Sean and Z and 3110- "is because I'm reasonably sure I could kill you all, if I had to. That's the world we live in!" He pointed at 3110.
"And agents like him are the ones who make it that way. The Government has people everywhere,.and it doesn't chip them all! Some are just loyal. Some are just terrible people who enjoy power, so they're loyal to the powerful. I don't know,maybe some are just sadists who enjoy making the world a miserable place." He turned to look at Sean again, his eyes flashing.
"I'm glad you left, and you're not a loyal Guv. But let's not pretend that no one would choose that life."
He turned on his heel and walked away from the area, needing to clear his head.

"Drama queen," Z huffed as she held 3110 for a second before maneuvering him back against the shed's wall. They didn't know that people had to earn the right to prosthetics in the Gov. Then again she wasn't exactly a part of the normal Gov program. Z looked to Sean and said in a softer voice, "Chet does have a point though. The Gov wouldn't have become what it is if people didn't make the choice to be loyal to them. And there are people in the Gov that have no idea what they're doing is bad. Or, or what's happening to them isn't normal. They think they're the good guys and what happens is just what happens. We'll wait till the kid wakes up to hear him out, but if he turns out to be one of the people who are willingly loyal even if he knows it's wrong. Then I'm letting Chet kill him, got it?"

Sean sighed loudly. "that's not true anymore…not really…no one can leave because of the trackers…and most don't know how to remove them. Yeah some people might not understand, but even the power hungry don't get anything more than everyone else..at least..as far as I can tell" Sean crossed his arms, shaking his head. "Nothing is black and white, I get that…but I don't think people are loyal without a reason…without having something held over their heads."

"Trust me when I say you don't know everything about the Gov," Z huffed out as she glanced down at her prosthetic arm. They slowly rolled each of the prosthetic fingers before releasing them again as they sighed, "They keep the different departments separate so no one knows how others get treated. Those that do well, get treated well. They never have to see the poor souls who are forced to scout or get experimented on. And if they do, at that point they're being treated so well they can turn a blind eye. Even if they hear kids screaming from the pain or begging to be freed from something they have no choice over," Her voice was tight as she finished that last sentence memories surfacing before being pushed down once more. "Until you feel the eyes of people who could do something, but won't, watch you scream and writhe in pain, then you can't say people aren't loyal without a reason. Because trust me, they are."

Chet walked back over a couple minutes later. He didn't say anything, but he no longer looked furious, just determined. He stood a bit away from 3110, waiting for him to wake up.
"Well done, Z. I never bothered to say that." He said quietly.

"I didn't realize you came back," Z said looking up at Chet her eyebrows raised slightly. They should have heard him but they must've been so in their head that they didn't hear him. But she shrugged it off figuring that Chet wasn't going to say that, "But I don't deserve praise for just saying the truth."

Chet shook his head. "I meant cutting out the chip, but what you said needed said, now that you mention it." He glanced at Sean. "We gotta be realistic out here."