know the family. Had never seen them before. Had no idea if they had small children in the house. So weird that we lived only a few streets away and I was completely unfamiliar with them. Now we shared more in common than anyone I had known in this neighborhood.
“It’s a family,” I whispered. “They’re fighting some robots. We’ll either have to wait it out or go the other way.”
“We have to help them,” said Ezra.
“I don’t think we can.”
“You have a plasma gun and you’re smart. What else do you need?”
“Ezra, it would take a lot more than that.”
“Somebody has to help them.”
“My job is to protect you.”
“What if someone had seen Aria attacking Mommy and Daddy? Wouldn’t you want them to help?”
Shit.
“I’m not built for this,” I said.
“No one is,” he said.
I looked him straight in the eye. He was deathly serious. I was responsible for him. But he had a point.
“All right. You stay here. Do not move. No matter what happens, you stay here, and if I’m not back in five minutes, you run like hell. You got it?”
“I wanna help you.”
“You can help me by staying safe. I’ll be back.”
I slid the packs off my back and darted through the yards, using parked cars, fences, bushes, and trees as cover as I made my way as quietly as possible from hiding spot to hiding spot. The Red Masks thought they were safe from behind and didn’t expect anyone, especially not anyone wielding a plasma weapon. I’d have one shot before any others knew what was up.
So it had come to this. I was entering the war. Choosing a side. And I was doing so by cheap-shotting some other robot in the back.
But fuck these guys.
They were killing kids.
I got within range and hid behind a garbage can.
The two Red Masks were crouching behind a car parked on the street. They would alternately pop up and take shots with hunting rifles at the family, who were scattered around the front yard of a house, each of them using whatever they could find as cover, the car in the driveway burning brightly, casting long shadows.
I steadied my rifle, took aim at the Red Mask closest to me—another iAssist, same exact model as Haddy—and I waited for him to pop up to take another shot at the family.
The iAssist did and I fired.
The plasma rifle shone brightly in the darkness, the white-hot glowing ball of plasma illuminating every house and lawn as it passed. I ducked immediately down behind the trash can and listened to the immense pop and sizzle of my shot striking true.
I could hear the bot explode, just as Haddy had. And it broke me a little inside. I didn’t want to be this person.
“Vincent!” cried the other bot, a basic model Verizon Industries domestic. He was bright red and made of metal, with a white V emblazoned on his chest. I’d seen him around but didn’t know him.
Rifle bullets whizzed by in my general direction, but it was clear that he didn’t know where I was. But if I popped up again, he’d have me dead to rights before I could get off a shot.
I didn’t know what a hunting rifle bullet would do to my head. My skull was aluminum to protect my insides and lighten my overall weight, so I could very well take some real damage. Losing access to my audiovisual capabilities would definitely be a death sentence.
Another bullet whizzed past.
“Come on, you coward!” shouted the Verizon. “Come get some!”
Shotguns started to roar, all three family members firing at once.
I peered around the side of the can in time to see them descending on the car.
The father went around the back as the Verizon was reloading.
The slug at close range nearly took the Verizon’s head clean off. It popped and flashed, then spewed a shower of sparks across the nearby pavement.
The father fired again, this time into the Verizon’s chest, and it was over. The body went limp, dropping the rifle and a handful of bullets into the street.
The father then waved the family to go back across the street, then made his way quickly in my direction.
Oh shit, I thought. This wasn’t good.
That slug had taken the head off something more durable than me, and if he got spooked, seeing me and mistaking me for a Red Mask, he might not hesitate.
I didn’t want to kill him.
Shit, shit, shit, I hadn’t thought this through.
He was getting closer. I could hear