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The drive had been relatively calm for Elara, given that she was able to sit passenger and just snack or read. Not the most exciting, but calm. In the beginning it had been closer to a road trip, but the past few hours once they'd hit that fog wall had been more quiet- Eel hadn't wanted to distract Ingrid while the seamstress had been navigating the debris and detritus of the road, and it was somewhat hard to hold a conversation when one person was partway out the car window, wind blowing past.

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Elara adjusted her hood and put it over her head as Ingrid suddenly stopped and left the car. She fanned at the cloying thick fog rolling into the vehicle itself, but mostly just managed to spread it around a bit. "Mmm." Hopefully Ingrid hadn't seen. Elara gave up and tipped back the last few bits in the stale pretzel bag, then felt something on her lap- a rectangular city sign, damaged by something and rusted from the intense moisture it was constantly experiencing. Elara wondered weather she'd had a tetanus shot recently. The sign read 'Arkhangelsk'.

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"Ah, I think so? Yes." She'd had to think about it, pulling up her system window and re-reading the request. "Now we've just got to figure out where- oh." The weather sought fit to clear a little, finally showing what was (probably) the town they needed to be in. "Yeah. Just gotta find the cannery now." Elara stowed the rusted sign in her inventory, she would keep it as a souvenir from her friend.

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Elara found herself stretching in the passenger seat, sprawling her legs as best as possible and putting arms behind the headrest. Multiple things audibly popped, and Elara groaned in satisfaction. "I need to walk soon. Feeling cooped up." She idly looked at the church and wondered what all that wiring was even for, and couldn't help but imagine the tops as giant onions. Then Elara spent a short moment cleaning up her traveling provisions, packing away her book. All ready to find the golem.

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For a moment the chiming paused as Ingrid's summoned car began to disappear, and Elara didn't immediately notice. She felt the cold air start to seep in around her, attributing it to the thing having been turned off, but this wasn't exactly a regular vehicle. Then she heard the screaming whisper of wind, and assumed it was because the window had been down. Fully sitting in an upright position and shifting her weight to position the backpack off her lap and open the door, Elara was surprised to see that she was just... floating there. For a moment the woman was weightless, a strange feeling only comparable to the one time she'd ridden a rollercoaster. Then with a small yelp she fell those few feet to the damp ground, not hurt but confused. Still, she took it in stride and stood up, adjusting slightly and donning the pack.

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Elara dutifully followed along, looking this way and that for any telltale signs of danger. The wind was loud and distracting, making Eel uncertain if there were some creature crying out or just the rush of air through broken glass. Occasionally an open window or door would slam against a frame, producing a noise that made certain to keep Elara alert. Conversation helped pull her back to the task at hand. "Ah, that's a shame. I'd much prefer the lovely beachside way right about now." She continued with Ingrid along the damp streets, stepping over and around all manner of junk and leftovers about. The end of the world really was a messy thing, all said.

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"Yeah, sticking together seems right. I don't want to get caught alone in a place like this, attacked by automatons or, uh, golems? Whichever." The further they pressed in, the more she wondered why someone would even set up shop here to begin with. Maybe the cold helped keep the creations running, perhaps they ran hot. Alternatively, they were powered by fish, hence the cannery. Elara sniffled a little, suddenly noticing a stinging smell, like burning wires or the dying motor on an oscillating fan. They rounded a corner and the smell grew more distinct, and Elara finally spotted another living thing.

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Or maybe living wasn't quite the word. It certainly moved, an inconsistent jittery thing that twitched a little bit but was otherwise perfectly, eerily still. It had eggshell skin with an unfinished sort of appearance, the body itself being human-shaped but devoid of distinctions. Stark white hair sat atop it's head and it wore only old, dirty slacks, a size too small and unbuttoned, fitting snug. The eyes were the most startling thing about it, right up until- "Oh shit-"

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The skin of their arm peeled and folded as the hand itself shifted and an armament took it's place, the mechanoid taking aim at the duo. Ingrid had been swift enough (and clever) to use her road the way she did, an application Elara hadn't even considered to date, but found herself quite impressed by. As the artillery made impact on the road and sent Ingrid back, Elara was already moving, worried as she was about her friend. She went around the seamstress at an arc and charged forward, hoping desperately that the creation would have to reload after an attack like that, but keeping to a semi-wide angle in case she needed to dive away from another attack. Luckily it did seem to whir and clink, loading another shell of some kind from an auxiliary compartment in the same arm, and Elara was able to close in and activate her core with the clawed swipe of a hand. A spectral face with cervid skull and jagged, rough fangs hurtled forward and clamped down in the area between the neck and shoulder, ripping at the robot and tearing away the upper portion of torso. The head didn't come off, but enough of it's core components were damaged and it hung from the neck via it's paper skin, exposed wiring and tubing freshly severed. It fell to the ground.

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"They're built...very human." She hadn't expected the attack to work, but they didn't seem to be made durable, just deadly. Elara turned to Ingrid and jogged back to offer a hand for her companion to use in standing, anxiously looking around while she did for another attack. The automatons didn't seem to favor sneaking as their main means of extermination, though. "Are you alright, Ingrid?" Worry was clear in her voice.

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The duo had just a moment's respite. Thankfully Ingrid was unharmed, and ever constant in her position of grandeur and grace had stood before Elara could properly offer help. Eel rather admired that force of will, something she herself struggled with. Elara fell back into stride with Ingrid, moving a bit quicker than before. She couldn't help but notice that the attacker from before still twitched there on the ground but seemed defeated, inoperable. A pale synthetic substance seeped from some wiring onto the ground.

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It was almost peaceful there in the street, a battle won. It was short lived. Explosions rang out from down the road with multiple flashes lighting up empty windows and the rooftops. Ingrid had barely started in her warning, and Elara had been distracted taking another glance at her previous foe. The pavement around her lit up with explosive shells, bits of street and shrapnel veering past in whistling trajectories. The street was a battleground once more. Elara sprinted to catch up, feeling the pings of small things hitting her clothes, thankfully avoiding the worst of the shots.

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Elara was able to scurry into the alleyway behind Ingrid panting, sliding further and further from the road where the shots continued to rain. Looking out at the body left behind Eel noted it had been utterly decimated in the attack. Elara began checking herself. She felt at the few impacts she'd noticed while running, finding most of it to have been hard and fairly slow moving debris. Probably bits of the road itself bouncing off her jacket and pants, bruises at worst. One spot on her face though stung, and she brought a hand up to gingerly feel for it. Her ears were ringing and she turned to face Ingrid.

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"Mmm, doing my best." Was all she could get out as she was barely able to hear herself speak, let alone Ingrid. Finally she found the offending intrusion, a sliver of thin metal wedged at an odd angle into her forehead. It was small, maybe the length of a short fingernail, and thankfully wobbled conspicuously; it had been a shallow wound, almost a graze. She peeled the piece out and let it drop to the ground, a small trickle of red making it's way toward her brow. "Ready when you are."

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Elara took the offered handkerchief and daubed at her bloodied head, getting the worst of it but failing to stop the bleeding. It didn't hurt much but it was in one of those spots that just seemed intent on leaking. She held it there while waiting, letting Ingrid carry out whatever scheme she had concocting. She paced a little and tried to close her eyes, taking even the briefest respite despite the cacophony. Eel checked and rechecked her clothes, remembering her magical shoes, then peered out the alley as best she could to watch Ingrid work.

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Something about the summoning of the car was always captivating, and especially so here on a battleground. Elara breathed deep and prepared, the car speeding in toward her, passenger door on the other side now. The car had been changed, or perhaps improved. Eel had heard the last half of Ingrid's sentence but it was more than enough to spur the woman into action. She sprinted out and into the open gunfire, pelted further by flying concrete as she dashed into the seat. Knowing her friend had a penchant for naming all of her conjured vehicles, she would have to ask.

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They weaved through debris new and old, the tires not so much screeching or slipping but singing the whole way there. The new christened car raced it's way toward a ramp made of a vehicle carrier, the metal slats down and a thin slab of metal across the roof of the cab. Ingrid lined it up perfectly and sent the car sailing toward a massive wide window and crashed through it. At the slight angle they hit ground and once more the car sang out, chiming like a crystal glass, Ingrid whipping it into a drift and stopping there on what looked like the main floor of the cannery.

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"Ingrid, that was..." Adrenaline surged despite the new quiet that Elara took in, the cannon fire having entirely stopped. The automatons were no doubt regrouping. Elara stayed there planted in the seat for a moment more even though she probably needed to be rushing. "That was fucking spectacular." She looked to Ingrid as she grabbed the door and opened it, beaming a crooked smile, then stepped out.

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The area was stained from years of dead and likely some still-living fish being piled in, an opening yawning off the side leading out into open air, likely where the water once was. There were machines of some sort, maybe a kind of diffuser above the entryways, and somehow the ever-present fog hadn't made it's way in here. Much of the old hooks and conveyer setups were repurposed with parts of machines strewn about, though none of it was running. Surveying the room Elara turned and, in the opening to what was probably a more general sorting area a new silhouette strode through the plastic flaps separating the rooms. It bore resemblance to the other machine the duo had fought but seemed newer, or just more finished. They had less of a twitch and wore a full outfit of mismatched but clean clothes, and wielded an oversized fish-cutting blade. Wordless, they pointed at Elara, weapon-first.

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"Alright, what's the move Ingrid? Erm, Ingrid?" Ever the independent Ingrid had disappeared and gone off on her own, the slight shimmer of the Diana coasting noiselessly past the new bot challenging Elara. Eel for her part had forgotten about the rule of not splitting up, but it had made sense to leave the car since she wasn't sure if she could fight within it. She cursed internally; they probably could have just snuck past all the forces and grabbed the documents and gone. Elara had been too eager.

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"My plan, then, is to kick your ass. It's not personal." She drew her knife from it's holster at her hip and readied herself, a myriad of decisions to make. Did she attack from afar or- no, the automaton decided for her by starting into a full sprint and closing the distance in seconds. Elara had to bright her knife up and threw an arm to the side, barely deflecting the fish-cutting sword. She moved in close and wrapped an arm around the wrist that held the weapon. She jerked to one side and tried to throw the bot off balance but it was better planted than she was, and Elara slipped on the greasy fish floor. "Shit!" Automata pulled back it's blade and narrowly missed slicing Elara on the way back before thrusting it's arm forward into a stab.

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Elara closed in again, shifting her center of mass instead of her feet to avoid slippage as she twisted to avoid the jab. The bot was faster and she didn't see herself getting as much distance as she would have liked, so Elara would attack from close. She wrapped her arms around their own and held tight as she could before throwing her head back and opening her mouth wide. Elara made for a biting motion and plunged forward, not making contact with her own teeth but summoning the spectral skull inches from her face, like a ghostly overlay. Ruined teeth clamped down and bit, tearing at fake skin and metal underlay, wires and tubes. Synthetic blood spattered Elara's actual face a little, and it tasted absolutely foul. The automaton went limp.

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"Phtoo- bleh! Were they making this stuff out of old fish oil or something?" Messy but triumphant Elara moved through the cannery to find her companion, thankful that Ingrid seemed to have dealt with the more pressing danger. "Hey Iggy, let's bounce."

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