Dawn's POV
Three days after the last chapter

I dragged the massive sack of metal through the woods, feeling the grass and wind blow past my face, ruffling the plain black hoodie I wore. Splashing through a stream, I felt the adrenaline of the chase pumping through my robotic body.

I heard the sounds of the dogs barking behind me, closely followed by shouts and gunshots. I didn't dare look back. Things flew at the edge of my vision.  An abandoned house, a small pond, a ditch in the ground, surrounded by yellow safety tape.

I stopped behind a tree. I quickly used my scanner to try to find a place to hide. The house was too obvious, the hole was too shallow, and there didn't seem to be any other real place to go. Then I saw something in the corner of my scanner's vision.  At the edge of a ravine, there was a small cave. It was out of the way, and looked big enough for me and a sack of stolen power cores.

There was a small heat sensor in the corner of my screen, which was flashing. I didn't notice at the time, but that meant that there was something alive in there.

Peeking out from the shelter of the tree, I sprinted for the cave. I skidded into the entrance, pulling the bag in right behind me, shoving it into the depths of the cave. I held my breath and waited for them to pass me by. 

Heavy boots thumped past me.  One of the dogs stopped to sniff the cave entrance, but lost interest when someone shouted up ahead.  "It went this way!" The dog stopped and sprinted away, towards its master.

I let out my breath, surprised and giddy at my close escape. I shifted into a sitting position and gathered my bag into my invisible metal hands.  That's when I heard it. A small groan coming from behind me. I froze.

I slowly turned around. In my rush to find safety, I hadn't noticed that this cave was already occupied. By the two dark shapes in the far back of it.  Two boys around my age.

Luckily, they were both sleeping, and as I got closer, I realized that they probably wouldn't be awake for a while yet. One was propped up against the wall, and had fresh, vicious scars on his face. He had dark blonde hair and wore a brown coat, light gray pants, and brown fingerless gloves, blood leaking from tears in knuckles of the fabric. 

The other boy was lying on the bare floor. He had blue hair with black on the sides. He was wearing a gray and orange shirt, light brown pants, and he was facing away from me. I slowly ventured closer, looking at his face. Then something drew my attention up to his hair.  I gasped. On top of his head were two fuzzy, disk-shaped, gray wolf ears. A ruffled, storm gray tail swished up his back and around his side. Now that I had a better look at his face, I saw that he wore round, black rimmed glasses, and had fairly fresh scar wounds on his shoulder.

Both boys slept soundly, occasionally groaning and shifting. The boy against the wall kept clenching and unclenching his bloody fists.

I knew it would be a bad idea to wake them up. My sensor could tell that they were both still in a huge amount of pain. The boy with the wolf ears was clutching his stomach and whining like a puppy.

I slowly grabbed the bag of metal and backed up, out of the cave, trying not to disturb the sleeping boys. I wondered what sort of thing that they had gone through to get those scars...

Once back out into the sunlight, I continued to drag the sack behind me, crossing another river. Then I reached a clearing. In the center of it was a massive crater, a hole leading down into the cave system. It was, in fact, the hole that led straight down into the main cave, where I made my base.

I threw the bag of parts down the hole, waiting for the telltale CLANG that told me it had reached the bottom. When I heard it, I jumped after it, grabbing the rope that was suspended from the side of the hole. Sliding down, I let go of the rope from about halfway up and landed in the little underground lake with a massive SPLASH.

Retrieving the bag from where it had fallen, I took off my black coat and hung it up on a stalagmite, letting it dry. Pulling the sack behind me, I went over to Cory's corpse. It could hardly be called a corpse anymore though.  I wasn't sure if it could be called Cory either.

His arms, legs, and back were being supported by strips of metal inserted inside the skin. Metal bits were on the outside of his arms, making room for chips and controls, to help him move and have feeling. His human feet were gone, and in their place were iron strips that I had cut to look a little like feet, or boots, I should say, because his normal feet were too busted to keep. In order for him to stand, at least at first, I had made the boots rocket-powered, so he could hover a few feet off the ground if he didn't have the hang of walking.

But the biggest change that I was forced to make was his face. Instead of his normal, human, soft face, it had been replaced with the camera lens. I had hooked it up to the sensors in his brain, allowing him to see out of it. It looked like a giant cyclops eye with a red recording button in the corner, taking up most of the space under his hair. I'd left enough room for his mouth, which was pretty much free of too much damage. It was just about only thing that I didn't have to change. He would be able to move it without pain.

The lens was closed, making it look like he was sleeping. A blanket covered the rest of his body.

Aside from a couple final touches, Cory was completely fixed. The only thing that he needed now, was a power source. Dumping out the bag of power cores that I had stolen, I got to work right away.

Time skip brought to you by Jon's colorblindness.

About three hours later, I was finished. A heart-shaped, red power core with glowing crimson lines running through the center. I slowly approached his body, carefully holding the core. I lifted the blanket and pulled his shirt down, revealing a heart-shaped hole in the middle of his chest, encased in metal. I looked at Cory's new face, a peaceful, serene look on his camera lens.
I took a deep breath.  Time to give you another chance at life, Cory. This will make up for all my mistakes. You can help him, Dawn. I thought to myself.

I closed my white, robotic eyes and took a deep breath.

Then I shoved the heart into his chest, and it attached with a small click.

--------------
Cory's POV!

The blackness was cool, soothing. I was content, and I didn't want to move, ever again. It was... peaceful.

And then it all changed. I felt myself being pulled back down, feeling and energy flowing into my limbs with every second of movement. My brain started to move again, thoughts speeding up as they rushed back inside.

I felt like I was falling.

I could feel.

I could hear.

My eye opened.

And I was alive again

<//>

Oooooooooooo!! Hope you enjoyed this! I really had fun writing this one...
Now, EVERYONE READY TO SEE TOMMY AND UNI?!?!?! Well, they're next.

Sorry for leaving everybody on this cliffhanger, but I'm a meanie, so DEAL WITH IT!

Here's what Cory's power core looks like!

Sketch literally took me 30 seconds....

Hope you have a sweet tweet day!!