One night it was raining hard

[voiceless_anon]

Who: voiceless_anon, updateit and runsinpacks
Where: City core, near Wulf's clinic
When: Immediately after this thread.
What: Anon returns badly damaged from fighting Abraxas.
Warnings: Program injuries, mentions of violence.

Comments

[updateit]

The millicycle had not been a good one for Drive. Most of it he had spent hunched over his desk sorting through the mess created when a midsized directory had fallen victim to corruption and crashed. Rooting out the corruption and removing it had taken time, and the directory had to be partially rebuilt from the ground up because the available backups had been outdated. As if that was not tiresome enough on his way home after his shift he had gotten caught unprotected in the rain. It was little wonder that he was now traveling along the sidewalk looking about as disgruntled as anyone had ever seen him with his hair all but plastered to his head and dripping water into his eyes, Alpha hovering just a few spaces ahead of him

[voiceless_anon]

Too weary to use the data pad, Anon turned his right shoulder towards Drive so that his friend could see the sharp, glinting shards of the yellow disc still stuck in his arm. Then the monitor stumbled, his left arm moving to catch Drive's hand to steady himself.

Like many programs these days, Anon carried vials of energy. He scrabbled weakly at the belt container that held them with his right hand, his burned fingers failing to find purchase and leaving behind a few darkly glittering voxels. As he did so, he spent another flicker of energy to get his helm partway up. Most of it was still in place, but his mouth was free.

Silently, he shaped the words, Drive. Help. Please.

[updateit]

Drive automatically shifted and braced himself to support the monitor’s weight when Anon stumbled. He sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of the disc shards embedded in the young Security program’s arm, wordlessly stepping closer and draping Anon’s left arm across his shoulders so that he could rest his weight against the Utility. Part of Drive ached with the want to remove the shards from the wound, to ease some part of Anon’s pain, but he dared not to touch them. He was not a recompiler. He had no way of knowing whether removing them would do more harm than good, or if they would infect him personally with whatever virus they carried.

The sound of Anon’s helmet partially retracting drew his attention away from the ghastly injury. His eyes widened slightly at the mouthed request, but Drive did not waste time with gawking. Pausing just briefly to ensure that Anon could still balance himself Drive fished out an energy vial of his own. He quickly uncapped it with his teeth then held it up for the weakened program.

"Here, drink this

[voiceless_anon]

Anon drank thirstily, feeling the liquid energy soak into his systems. A little of it went into stabilizing his injuries, preventing the wounds from degrading further. Another few drops gave him back some stamina, enough to ensure that he wasn't going to run out of energy on the way to Wulf's. His circuits were still flickering, but the frequency was slower and they weren't quite so dim.

Leaning gratefully on Drive - Anon noticed, irrelevantly, that Drive was a tiny fraction taller than he was - Anon mouthed a silent thank you.

[updateit]

When the vial was thoroughly drained Drive slowly pulled it away and derezzed the empty container. He surveyed the slight improvements in Anon’s condition critically and weighed the options at hand. There were still several full energy vials in his possession that he could give the monitor to further stabilize him, but they were not all that far from Wulf’s clinic. It might be better to just get Anon there as quickly as possible so that the recompiler could tend to the injuries. Drive was certainly not knowledgeable enough to help his friend much more than he already had. In the end there really was only one viable option. Wrapping his arm around Anon’s back to better support him in the act of walking he nodded at the silent thank you.

"Feel up to walking? Wulf’s clinic is not far from here," he asked, already contemplating how far he could carry Anon if it came to that. There was not much size difference between them, but Anon was definitely the heavier between them.