Opening the rusty box proved to be a challenge for Reid. He tried every screwdriver size he had at hand but none worked.
Remembering what he had to go through just to get this box, he could only hope it contained something special.
----5 hours earlier-----
The day started for Reid much like others. He woke up earlier than others in the Scrapyard, at 3 AM which was just an hour after the scrap truck from the city comes to dump scrap and junk in the dump yard.
"Come on Rusty, let's head out" he called out to the sleeping mouse while putting on his black jacket and picking his scrap bag up.
"Squeak" Rusty let out a tired squeak/yawn before teleporting to Reid's head.
Reid, with the sleepy Rusty in tow, walked out of his bunker, heading to the scrapyard dumps.
Although it was pretty early, Reid could spot a few people also getting ready for scrap hunting. It was the only way they could get enough to afford food.
"Mornin' Reid" an old man with a mechanical arm greeted.
"Good morning Old man Scrappy, shouldn't you be sleeping at this hour?" Reid replied with a small smirk.
"Ha, I could say the same to you boy" Old man Scrappy answered.
Even with the bad living conditions and the poverty in the Scrapyards, the people were at least nice to one another.
Since the Scrapyards wasn't that big, everyone living there knew the other. Old man Scrappy was the leader of the Scrapyards and rightly so.
From what Reid had heard, he retired from the military and chose to move to this place for a reason unknown to anyone but him.
The residents of the Scrapyard were appreciative of his decision to move here since as stated before, the Scrapyards was dangerously close to the wildlands and although it doesn't happen frequently, every once in a while beasts ventured in these parts and if not for old man Scrappy and a few others, the defenseless people of the Scrapyard would have been long dead.
"Are you off to the dumps again to hunt for junk?" He asked seeing Reid carrying his usual black scrap bag.
"They're not junk old man" Reid argued with a bit too much passion "They're just underappreciated tech waiting for my saving".
"Whatever you say kid" Scrappy laughed seeing the way his eyes lit up when talking about what people deemed as junk "Be careful out there and make sure not to go too deep or you might get buried under a pile of junk".
"Take care of him Rusty" Scrappy said to the barely awake mouse on Reid's head.
"Squeak" It affirmed and resumed sleeping.
"Alright, see you later old man" Reid waved him goodbye and resumed his journey.
He walked for a 20 minutes before getting to the main dumping site.
The had so much junk that some were even stacked so high, they looked like towers from afar.
The dump site, although a place for resources for the people of the Scrapyard, it was also a grave site in which many have been buried under piles of junk.
"Alright Rusty, Let's begin" he said to the mouse on his head.
Rusty squeaked and disappeared, officially starting their hunting. The first two hours passed quickly, Reid and Rusty were able to find a few scraps but nothing worth noting.
That was until Reid felt Rusty's urgent call towards a certain pile. Curious he moved there to investigate and he was surprised with his find.
Laying among the other scraps was a small mechanical looking moth with frayed wings. Although it looked unfixable, Reid knew it was anything but.
"Jackpot" he celebrated and gave Rusty's little head a pat "good job Rusty"
He cleared the small pile that was laying on the failed forged beasts before gently picking it up and storing it away.
"Okay, it's time to head back Rusty" he spoke looking at the clearing skies, an indication that the sun was about to rise "we've gathered enough for today".
By six to seven Am, the dump site would be full of scrap hunters like Reid and he wanted to avoid the crowding.
Rusty teleported and appeared on his head again but before they could leave, he spotted a glow from his peripheral vision.
He moved towards the glow, intending to find out what it was. He discovered the source of the glow to be a rusty box like object with glowing lines wrapped around it. It stopped glowing as soon as Reid got close enough.
The box was somehow buried underneath one of the scrap towers making it almost impossible to retrieve with getting buried under the tower.
Reid was about to give up on the box but the allure of what it might be hiding inside was enough to force Reid to try and retrieve it.
Ever since he was disowned two years ago and forced to move to the scrapyard, the only motivation driving him forward was the burning desire to make his family regret casting him out.
He didn't know why but something was telling him that this rusty box was his answer.
Strapping his Scrap bag to his back, he prepared to pull out the box and run as fast as he could.
"Alright Rusty, on three" he spoke to Rusty who was still resting on his head "1...2...3!"
He completed the count with a shout and pulled the box out. Without pausing for even a bit, he ran as fast as he could.
Just as anticipated, the scrap tower began to collapse, and like a row of dominoes, the surrounding scrap towers nearby followed suit, toppling one after another.
Some of the scraps almost fell on Reid but he was agile enough to avoid them. The exit was only a few steps away from Reid but before he could get to it, this foot got stuck is a smaller scrap pile causing him to fall.
"F-f*ck" he cursed in dismay. The shadow of one of the falling towers covered him, announcing the tower that was about to fall on him.
The scraps descended quickly and Reid could only close his eyes in resign. He waited for his impending doom but it never came, he heard the sound of the towers falling but it sounded like he was a bit far away from it.
He slowly opened his eyes to discover that he was indeed far away from the falling towers.
"Thanks for the save Rusty" he said, understanding that the mouse must have used it's skill on him.
"Squeak" it weakly replied, quickly going into a short hibernation.
Rusty was barely an iron-tier forged beast, and as a result, when it strained itself by overusing its skills—especially on a larger scale like this—it would enter a state of hibernation for several hours.
Reid heard rushed footsteps behind him causing him to turn around. He spotted Old man Scrappy rushing towards him, along with a few resident tamers of the Scrapyard.
'They must've heard the sound of the falling scraps' he thought to himself.
"Are you okay Reid?" Was the first thing the old man asked when he got close enough, showing his concern.
"I'm fine" he answered and turned back to the dump yard.
"What the hell happened" Scrapper asked Reid. He was busy scouting around, making sure no beasts snuck in from the wildlands when he suddenly heard a noise coming from the dump yard.
Reid knew he had to think fast. The truth would only get him into trouble, and lying outright wasn't a great idea either, especially to Old Man Scrappy. He opted for a mix of honesty and deflection.
"I was scavenging for parts," Reid started, trying to sound as casual as possible. "I found this box buried under a smaller scrap pile, but when I pulled it out, I guess it must've been holding up one of the towers. The whole thing came crashing down before I could even think."
He gestured back to the mess with an apologetic shrug. "I didn't expect it to collapse like that. I barely managed to get out of there in one piece."
Old Man Scrappy raised an eyebrow, his skeptical gaze fixed on Reid. "You're telling me that one little box was holding up all that? You sure you weren't messing around in there?"
Reid held up his hands defensively. "No way! I wasn't messing around, I swear! I was just doing what I usually do—looking for scrap, nothing more."
Scrappy narrowed his eyes but didn't push further. The other tamers began inspecting the fallen scrap, muttering among themselves about the damage.
"Alright," Scrappy finally said with a sigh. "But you're lucky you didn't get crushed, kid and no one else was there searching for scraps."
"Y-yeah" Reid answered and turned to head back to his bunker, excited to fix his newly found forged beast
------Present-------
Rusty had woken up an hour later, fully rested.
"What the hell is wrong with this box?" He shouted, feeling frustrated. After all that and his close brush with death, the stupid box refused to open.
Reid, overcome with frustration, hit the box with his palm and by some coincidence or weird work of faith, his neural tattoo laid perfectly on the only little opening the box had.
The opening produced a small blue glow as if scanning the tattoo before Reid heard a click from the box, which started opening up.
The open box produced an intense light which filled the bunker before dimming down.
Laying in the box was a...
Reid's breath hitched as he leaned closer, eyes widening in disbelief.
The dim light revealed an object, unlike anything he had ever seen before—a small core-like device, pulsating faintly with a rhythmic glow, almost as if it were alive.
Before he could fully process what he was seeing, a soft hum began to resonate from the device, growing louder by the second.
"Squeak" Rusty and Nyx panicked seeing the glow, and Reid instinctively stepped back as the glow intensified once more.
Then, without warning, a voice—mechanical yet almost human—emanated from the box.
[Neural signature confirmed. Initialization commencing.]