aiyakuma

[aiyakuma]

Chappie Drei (Pathfinder X Reader)

(Chapter three of Finding the Path to Your Heart on Wattpad, a SFW robot X human fanfiction) )

I never did run into him again that match.

Our squad made it to ninth place before ultimately falling to Bloodhound and their team. I managed to get two more kills, and while Bangalore and Wraith each got three times that amount, it still felt good to have contributed. Now I was once more back in the dropship, awaiting the final results of the battle alongside all the other fallen fighters. Their whoops and hollers during the fight between the final five squads was deafening, so much so that I half-considered jumping off the ship again just to escape it. I never did understand all the excitement surrounding Apex matches, and experiencing one for myself hardly changed that opinion… Though, I will admit, it wasn’t so bad watching Pathfinder play. The little quirks he had made him fun to watch, from high-fiving fallen enemies to bubbling over every zipline he got a chance to ride. But ultimately he too fell to Bloodhound, making the mystery-in-a-mask and their squad the Champions.

It was only a matter of time before those last two squads joined us on the ship. Everyone was buzzing about the winning squad, while I was more looking forward to seeking out Pathfinder and thanking him again for what he did. Out of nowhere a hand landed on my shoulder, making me jump out my skin.

“Oh, it’s just you, Bangalore. You scared me…”

“Sorry, sorry, kid,” she waved apologetically. “I just wanted to apologize for giving you such a hard time earlier. You did alright for it being your first match,” she offered a warm smile.

“It’s okay, I don’t blame you. I still have a lot to learn.”

“You’ll get the hang of it in no time. Shoot Turret, and I could have sworn you almost went down right at the beginning. Good thing you aren’t that bad at fighting though, right?” She gave a rough but friendly slap upside my back. “Haha, yeeeaaah…” I laughed nervously, trying to avert my eyes from her before my more foolish side revealed the truth. I didn’t have to pretend to be distracted for long though, as just then the top two squads emerged into the room, including Pathfinder.

Everyone instantly swarmed around them, gushing about the epic battle they’d just fought. For a moment I gave up on talking to Pathfinder, seeing as how occupied he was with everyone else. But that wasn’t so. Pathfinder raised a hand to high-five the crowd as they came, only for everybody to rush past him and high-five his teammates instead. Ouch! The only thing worse than getting left hanging was seeing someone else get left hanging. How could they ignore him like that? Even Bangalore and Wraith had no problem sliding past him to congratulate the others. But he got second place! He deserves to be celebrated just as much as his teammates! Yet as infuriating as it was to witness, Pathfinder didn’t seem to mind. With a big, yellow smile displayed brightly on his chest, he lowered his hand and went about his own way to go fidget by the window. It didn’t sit well with me at all.

“Pathfinder!” I called out, charging towards him with an outstretched hand. “Highfive me right now!” He almost didn’t turn around in time, just barely meeting my hand with a startled slap that broke air (and possibly a few bones) upon contact. “El Turret! I’m sorry, you caught me off guard. Did I hit you too hard?”

I fought back a tear as I gazed down at my quivering red palm. “No, not at all. I’m fine.” Shaking my head, I clasped my hands behind my back and turned to face him. “Nice job getting second place. You fought really well,” that’s what he’d want to hear someone tell him, right? “Right?! That was a fun match. Too bad we both lost to Bloodhound, they’re a tough person to beat!” His smiley face momentarily became slanted to match his bummed out expression.

“You think so too? Well, my first match wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, thanks to you,” I offered a smile.

“That’s what friends are for!” Friends, huh? He slapped me on the shoulder and gave a thumbs up. Only, I didn’t jump when his hand landed on me like I did with Bangalore, probably because I saw him coming. What I didn’t see coming was a man appearing between me and Pathfinder and throwing his arms around our backs. It was the same magician guy I killed last match. “You guys, we should go to the bar to celebrate another match well done and the newest Legend to the roster, yeah?!” He proposed the room.

“Shut up, Mirage. Match well done my ass, you were the first fucking guy to die,” a big, mad scientist looking man huffed.

“Compliments to this lady right here, uh, whatever her name is,” Mirage pointed at me. “Come on you guys, first round’s on me!” The entire room cheered, and soon me and Pathfinder found ourselves being swept off our feet by the crowd of alcohol-craving fiends. The bar we ended up at was fairly standard and lively. I sat right in the middle of it all, pushed and pulled around by people who danced and swayed like grass under a landing airship. Drops of who-knows-what spilled from the rims of swaying drinks and rained down on me every now and then. It was pretty stuffy in here to begin with, and now I was beginning to reek of alcohol too, despite not having drank any. What am I doing here? According to Mirage, half of this drinking party was held in my honor, but it didn’t really feel that way. I couldn’t raise my voice enough to talk to anyone, and everyone else was already so invested in their own bubbling conversations I didn’t want to interrupt them anyways. No, I should stop wasting my time here and just go home already. I don’t think anybody would notice if I slipped out now...

But as I got up to do so, I noticed Pathfinder in the same awkward position that I was in, not being able to keep up with anyone else as they drank away either. The same guilty feeling I had from earlier swelled up, and before I knew it I was making my way over to him and taking a seat besides the robot. “Hey, Pathfinder. You aren’t gonna drink either?” I asked, not realizing my own stupidity until the words were already out my mouth.

“I would if I had a digestive system! How about you, how come you aren’t mingling with everyone else?”

“I guess I’m just feeling a little uncomfortable right now. Still getting used to everybody, y’know?”

“You’ll fit in before you know it. I’m still trying to fit in myself. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a robot, so I could drink and party just like everyone else,” he leaned his head on his hand.

“I think it’s really cool that you’re a robot!” I blurted out. “I mean, I think robots and machines and stuff like that is cool. I like them, anyways,” I scratched the back of my neck nervously. Why did I have to out and say something so weird to exactly the kind of person I shouldn’t say that too?!

“You think so? Heh, thanks!” He beamed. “It’s nice to hear someone say that for a change. I bet my master is going to say the same thing when I meet him.”

“Your master? As in who built you?”

“Yup! The whole reason I’ve participated in Apex in the first place is to put myself out there so I can find him. I know he’s out there somewhere, probably trying to find me, too.”

“I see. I hope you two reunite with eachother soon. You know, I’ve met a lot of people that build machines for a living! If it’s any help, maybe I can ask arou-”

“Woah, hold the phone! You haven’t gotten anything to drink yet, have you? Try this, I call it ‘Mirage’s Mirage-Inducing World Famous Special Juice, Working Title™.’ You’ll love it!” A tall shot glass of neon-orange juice was laid out in front of me by his truly.

“That looks radioactive,” Pathfinder said.

“Um, I’m sorry, I don’t really drink,” I waved my hands apologetically.

“C’mon, just this small shot. Try it, I made it myself!” He looked so excited for me to try it, I couldn’t say no. I��m a sucker for homemade goods. Plus, it looked like it was mostly juice. How bad could it be?

“Fine, I’ll try it. Oh, you don’t mind, do you Pathfinder?” I didn’t want to go drinking right after he’d been talking about how much he wished he could too. But he waved me okay, so without further ado I downed the entire glass at once. Instant regret swelled up from within me in the form of a harsh fire that burned through my mouth and nose tubes and tapered off at my ears. I clenched my face and pounded my fist on the table to cope with the intense effects. “What was in that, antifreeze?!" 

“110% alcohol content, baby!” he finger gunned me. “A little bit of hot sauce too, just to spice things up. Tasty, right?” He was so enthusiastic, I couldn’t tell if he deliberately made it that awful just to mess with me or if he was really that bad at brewing. Either way, I was grateful when Mirage offered a normal juice pouch as a chaser. “You aren’t missing much, Pathfinder. Alcohol is the worst, don’t ever drink it if you get the chance!” I sobbed in between sips.

‘Ouch. That bad, huh? Maybe I did put a little bit too much mustard extract in there…” 

“Uhm- Why don’t we go outside and get you some fresh oxygen? You look like you need some,” Pathfinder suggested. He didn’t wait for an answer before dragging me away from the counter and leading me outside with a hand on my back for stability...

[aiyakuma]

Chappie Zwei (Pathfinder X Reader)

(Chapter two of Finding the Path to Your Heart on Wattpad, a SFW robot X human fanfiction)

It was a little frightening at first, but I quickly got the hang of boosting down. Just kidding, I screamed and spun out of control the entire way down. As soon as we landed in the Market, Bangalore and Wraith wasted no time running around and gathering weapons while I tried keeping this morning’s breakfast down the back of my throat. “So I can just pick up any weapon I see?” I asked once I’d regained my composure. Wraith stopped to roll her eyes at me. “Duh. What else are you gonna fight with, your fists?” 

“Psh, maybe I will fight with my fists. My fists to your face. Heh- ow!” I muttered. Going into the only unopened room, I immediately stubbed my foot on a Havoc. “Woah, sweet!” By the time I was fully equipped, my teammates were ready to hit the road before anyone else showed up. We began heading towards the Bunker, but as we neared the gunshots in the distance were getting much louder. 

“Looks like there’s a couple squads over here. I’ll set up a teleporter in case we have to fall back,” Wraith said as she disappeared, leaving a strange glowing orb behind. 

“Good, I’ll pop out the smoke and we can take them by surprise. You know what you’re doing, right kid? Don’t mess this up,” Bangalore slapped my back lightly, but she wasn’t mean about it. Her tone sounded almost… endearing? 

I couldn’t be the only one not doing anything. That, and I was too afraid to fight anyone head-on yet.  “I-I’ll go behind them and set up my turret!” I exclaimed before quickly diverging paths. There were around five people total battling it out between the Bunker and the outlying houses. While Bangalore began picking a couple off and Wraith finished setting up her portal, I dropped to my knees and slid off the dormant turret that sat on my back.  With just a few cranks and twists, it soon became a fully-functioning platform ready to shoot down whoever came too close. Already its first victim approached, a man in yellow running straight towards me. Turry immediately started firing, and I watched excitedly as bullets ran straight through the man like dust. Wait a second, they were going straight through him?  “He’s right there, why aren’t you shooting correctly?! Don’t tell me you’re malfunctioning!” I wailed while frantically pressing buttons on the control panel.

“Too bad, looks like you’re gonna have to get a refund on that one,” a cocky man’s voice said from behind me, and I turned to meet face-to-face with the tunnel of a gun pointed between my eyes. I fell onto my back and frantically rushed for my gun, but Turry had already beaten me to it. In its last few seconds, the turret shot the man in the chest a couple times before shutting down to recharge. As he stumbled back with his chest held in pain, I pressed the trigger on my Havoc and didn’t stop firing until he crumbled to the sand. To finish him off before he crawled away, I grabbed him by the shoulders and whacked his head good and hard again Turry.

“H-Hey, I did it! I beat someone!” I told my teammates over transceiver.

“...Good job Rookie. We got the other guy too, looks like that squad’s finished. Let’s deal with this second squad now, they’re still hanging around somewhere,” Bangalore said. But first, I had to heal up - the man I just K.O.ed landed quite a bit of shots on me too, after all.

I ran into a random house and let out a sigh of relief as I began injecting a syringe. Only, there was an enemy Gibraltor doing the same thing right across from me. Bullets immediately flew my way, and all I could do was run upstairs to escape. Just my luck, Lifeline and Pathfinder were waiting for me there too. “AAH! SPARE MEEE!” I cried as I darted past them and out the balcony door. Nope, no way in hell I’m fighting three people with such low health. Heading for the portal, I left the squad to be dealt with by Wraith and Bangalore while I began to frantically heal up on the other side. I thought I wasn’t in danger anymore, until Pathfinder grappled towards me and shot me to the ground in seconds.

“You did a really mediocre job, friend. Maybe next time you’ll do really good!”

I knew I was defeated, but I wasn’t happy about it. I threw one last weak punch at his leg, something that hurt me more than it did him. “Don’t tease me, I did my best! Just finish me off already.” Hanging my head low, I waited to experience a blow similar to the one I dealt the magician guy earlier. It was much easier to anticipate that, anyways, then it was to anticipate the shame I caused for my family and the disappointment from my teammates. I knew Apex wasn’t for me. I made a dumb mistake and now everyone will think I’m…

But instead of a blow to the head, I felt a blow to the chest in the form of a revive shot.  In a matter of seconds, Pathfinder had wrapped an arm around me and slowly brought me back to my knees. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Y-yeah… I mean, but why would you help me?”

“It wouldn’t look too good if you died so quickly on your first match. Consider this a second chance to prove yourself!” He gave a thumbs up. 

I could have cried right then. “Thanks, thank you so much! My family would have disowned me for sure if I went out like that!” Without thinking I embraced him, to which two sheepish arms gently embraced back. “Sorry, force of habit,” I said. Pulling away from him, I swore I saw a blushing emoji on his screen before he gave it a couple good knocks back to its normal smile. 

“It’s no problem. Next time I run into you though, I won’t be as helpful. This is every sentient being for themselves, after all!”

“Hey, and next time I run into you I won’t be a chicken and run away. So you better watch your back!”

“Looking forward to it!” 

Our conversation was interrupted by Wraith and Bangalore on the transceiver. “I’m low on health, falling back to the portal.”

“Solid copy, right behind ya.” We both looked at each other, knowing it was time for him to depart. “Take this med kit and heal yourself up. See you later!” He handed me a big red box from god knows where and grappled back to his team. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt a little sad watching him leave. Maybe it was because he was so nice, nicer than anyone I’ve met in Apex so far… in fact, he was nicer than most of the people I’ve known my whole life. The wealthy circle of elites wasn’t exactly full of saints, after all. 

“What are you standing around for, mouth breather? Heal up before I down you myself.” A snarky voice came up from behind. At any rate, I’d much rather have that robot as a teammate than Wraith…

[aiyakuma]

Chappie Eins (Pathfinder X Reader)

(Chapter one of Finding the Path to Your Heart on Wattpad, a SFW robot X human fanfiction)

It was difficult to stay calm as the aircraft began approaching the island. As if the fact that this was my very first Apex match wasn't nerve wracking enough, the fact that I had to barrel down thousands of feet to even get there was soul-draining just to think about. How did all these Legends do it? None of them seemed the least bit scared.

There were my teammates - Bangalore and Wraith - neither of which looking too pleased to be grouped with a newbie. Then there was absolute unit Gibraltar, bubbly Lifeline with her cute little drone, and mysterious Bloodhound, who I knew nothing about other than the fact that he was one of the best fighters in the game.  Of course there were all the other Legends hanging around too, but out of spite I hadn't really bothered to do much research on any of them. Right now, I had a feeling my lack of research would come to bite me in the back later on... But the one Legend that easily caught my eye was a full-blown robot brandishing a little smiley face on their chest-er, screen.  Did he really have a camera lens for a face? Up until now he'd been talking to Lifeline, but as soon as he caught me staring, the robot immediately made his way towards me. Crap, that was rude of me! I shouldn't have been so obvious, he's totally gonna pick a fight with me now!

"Hello there friend! I wasn't aware we had a new member aboard our ship today. My name's Pathfinder, what's your name?"

Oh... Was he not mad? "Uh, yeah... You can just call me Elk- Torrent." I caught myself before I used my real name. I don't think you're supposed to do that here. "NICE to meet you, 'El Torrent!'" He grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously with metallic hands that felt surprisingly warm.

"Um, it's actually just T-" But I was interrupted by the sounds of the side doors opening, indicating that now was the time to jump out. A couple of teams began dropping out, while my own stomach dropped as I caught a glimpse of the dizzying fall.

"This match is going to be so fun, I can't wait to win!" He cheered, but as he turned to face me, the emoji on his screen looked worried. "You're looking pale. Don't be nervous, I'm sure you'll do great!" Pathfinder patted me on the shoulder and offered a thumbs up. Somehow, the small gesture of encouragement was enough to make me feel a little bit better. "Me and my team will be heading down now, but hopefully we'll meet again on the battlefield. Good luck, friend!" With that, he waved bye and disappeared into the sky along with Lifeline and Gibraltar. All I could do was hastily wave back before he was gone completely. After having that interaction, I had a little more confidence towards this upcoming fight. My teammates, on the other hand, were even more annoyed than they were before. "Hurry up, fresh meat. We're dropping," Bangalore ordered.

"A-Actually, I'm not all that used to falling from this height, I think I need a little more time to-"

"Oh, grow a pair." A hand shoved me from behind, pushing me into the battlefield alongside Wraith and Bangalore.