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Nick was running. He didn't plan to do it for much longer, but that was what he was doing at this immediate point in time. Why was he running when he was normally one to stick around and fight? Well, he was currently being chased by some kind of anthromorphic cougar person who seemed rather set on killing him, and he needed more room if he actually wanted to fight this guy. That was the only problem with a katana, it required more room than a simple gun. But Nick hated guns, so that was simply out of the question.

The bridge was up ahead- perfect. That'd give him the room he'd need to fight and help with restricting movement from his opponent as well. But when he got nearer he saw that the bridge was broken in half- okay, he could handle that- he just needed to stop-

He skidded to a halt a few feet from the edge, peering down below before starting to turn and catching a clawed fist to the face. Nick was thrown off the edge from the force of the blow and was free falling, too much in shock to even yell, and then he hit the water. The impact knocked what little breath he had left out of his lungs, causing him to gasp raggedly for air. The problem was that there was none since he was underwater. That could be an issue, especially since Nick couldn't swim.

The cougar man smiled as he watched the human's struggles grow weaker as he was swept downstream, dusting his hands off, sheathing his claws, and padding back the way he had come. That should deal with that pest.

Zepttyl could constantly hear the small monsters as it moved through the narrow tunnels, its claws scratching the metal walls and its tail wildly swinging through the air hitting anything too close to it. The creature was best described as a mix of a lizard and a dog, it's tiny body was covered in scales but it stood on four legs and was due to that capable of quickly running away and jumping rather high. For the past few weeks it spooked or as the victims said terrorized the people living in a building complex close to the river. It would escape to the tunnels of the building too quickly for anyone to catch it and so the humans called the petite android who could himself fit in the narrow space to chase out the "lizard.

It didn't take long for Zepttyl to find the pest and the only thing left for it to do now was to capture the "lizard". Still the little monster didn't seem to know when to give up and the machine ended up crawling after it for hpurs before the creature simply jumped out of the tunnels and disappeared completely.

Zepttyl followed it through the exit only to realize that the tunnels were a nice distance up from the ground. The android came crashing down and landed on a few unfortunately full boxes which rested beside the building. It stood up and started searching for the lizard again but two figures moving on the bridge just a few meters away caught it's attention. A human and a yet another monster, Zepttyl concluded after a few minutes and continued to watch the two as they approached the edge of the partially collapsed bridge.

The machine wasn't very surprised that the human ended up in the river but was rather curious why he didn't just swim to the waterside. As the monster walked off Zepttyl started to slowly run, following the rivers flow and the struggling human. At this point the curious android didn't intend to aid him but only to see what would happen to him.

Nick struggled against the river, panic and water both building up in his chest. He needed oxygen, and soon, too. But it seemed that every time he got close to the surface another current would force him back down and the process would repeat itself. The only thing he was able to get out of the water was a hand scrabbling desperately at thin air, trying to find something to latch onto and finding nothing. That was disheartening.

Eventually the panic started dying away as he began to black out- why was he so upset? There was nothing to be upset about. The hand sluggishly disappeared again and didn't resurface this time as he sank a little farther to the bottom, finally giving up the fact that he wasn't going to get air anytime soon and should just go with the flow. Hehe, that was funny. Go with the flow...

Lack of oxygen can do strange things to a person's mind.

Zepttyl, not of flesh and blood and on top of that very young never understood the concept of death or even pain, still seeing the human giving up his desperate resistance against the river caused an unpleasant feeling to emerge in it's chest. It was something the machine was unable to describe even though it had felt it many times before. Although not aware why it had the urge to say sorry and asking the human for forgiveness.

In an attempt to rid itself of this heavy feeling the android ran into the river. Moving through the water became more and more difficult as it became deeper but the current had no effect on the machines heavy form. Zepttyl knew well that his kind can't swim but also that they need no air to stay alive. True he would most probably earn some rust this way but that wasn't on its mind now.

Its eyes weren't any help in the filthy water so it outstretched its arms in an attempt to grab a hold of the human and with much luck succeeded. It turned towards the waterside and started its way back while pulling the humans body behind itself. As the water became more shallow the machine started to drag him over the river bed but was careful to try and keep his head above the surface.

In a minute or two they were out and Zepttyl let go of the man. It bent down beside his motionless figure and continued to observe him with curios eyes. The machine didn't know what else to do now but wait for the human to wake up on his own.

Nick was vaguely aware of something grabbing him and dragging him, but wasn't really all that concerned about that right now. He was having issues forming coherent thoughts so he didn't even try.

He lay motionless on the riverbank for a moment like a drowned rat before his lungs tasted oxygen again- just a little bit, but enough to bring his body back to the realization that it was alive and needed to stay that way. His thin shoulders convulsed before he started coughing violently, curling into a ball in a reflex as he spat out water and replaced it in gasping breaths with air. Air, air, wonderful air; it brought feeling back to his limbs and also alerted him to the pain on his cheek from getting punched by the cougar dude. He had claws too so that didn't help much. He was bleeding, and that was probably where the pain was coming from.

The hacking cough finally faded away when the water in his lungs was emptied out and he just focused on breathing instead, twitching slightly as he got all of his senses back. That was way too close for comfort.

Zepttyl thought the human was already dead and was surprised when he as if coming back from the dead, suddenly started moving. The machine pulled itself backwards and away from the man but ended up falling on its back. It quickly stood up and continued to observe him like it did before. The heavy feeling that had been bothering the android faded and the whole situation now became only interesting and amusing to it.

Remembering that it's body was slowly being damaged by the water it started to remove the top layers of its clothing but stopped upon remembering something more important. Zepttyls attention shifted to the weapon attached to it's left arm and it began examining it afraid that it might have already been made useless by the liquid. The machines worry was made obvious by its expression, a small frown rested on its face and tears started to form in its bright green eyes.

Nick let out a grumbling kind of sound as he shifted himself gingerly into a sitting position, clamping a hand on his cheek before blinking his dark green eyes open. Well, whaddya know? He was alive.

He paused a moment, confused as to how he had survived this encounter with water. Then movement flashed in his peripheral vision and he turned his head, blinking up at Zepttyl. Startled mostly by the machine gun he scrabbled back a foot or two before realizing they were the only ones there... This android (he was pretty sure it was an android) had saved his life.

This day just kept getting stranger and stranger.

He studied the machine with a mixture of confusion and curiosity on his face, his head tilted slightly as he watched it mess around with its gun. It didn't seem to be using the weapon on him as of yet, so that was good. He wasn't sure he could take on a droid with such a huge gun as the one he had. He tried to speak but ended up coughing instead, closing his eyes again as he buried his face in a shirt sleeve- give him a minute to collect himself and he'd be with Zepttyl shortly.

Zepttyl only glanced at the human as it moved away from it, too occupied with its precious weapon. The machine gun didn't seem to be damaged but the android still wasn't sure. It would certainly go to have it checked and if needed fixed later but it was impatient and wanted to know at this very moment if it was all right or not. As it was hunting only a small monster previously it didn't bring along any ammunition so checking if the weapon would fire wasn't possible but even if bullets were available the whole thing could just end up exploding if it was truly broken.

Zepttyl sighed lightly in frustration but then remembered that it wasn't alone and that maybe the man knew something more about guns than it did. The machine paid no attention to the fact that the human still had trouble breathing or that he was probably very confused. It rushed over to him and bent down on it's knees right in front of him. Now sitting uncomfortably close to the man it placed its left hand and weapon in between the two of them and questioned.

-"Is it broken?"

Nick flinched slightly when he gun was put in front of him, but when the machine asked he question he sat up a little more and carefully looked it over.

"Not sure," he replied truthfully with a shrug, wondering if it would be safe to take it apart while it was attached to the droid's arm. He tugged his bandana off, wrung it out to get it semi dry, and started doing his best to dry the weapon off, shaking a shock of black hair out of his eyes. "Hold still."

Zepttyl frowned childishly as the human replied but still didn't object as he proceeded to examine the weapon. It watched him closely, following every one of his movement without even blinking. It was always very reckless and gave people its trust blindly even if they did nothing to earn it but its machine gun was one thing that he was careful with. The weapon was Zepttyls only possession and as such was very dear to him, having a stranger touch it made the machine nervous but not knowing if it was still useable made it even more so.

Obeying the order given to it, the machine froze becoming motionless as if it were made of stone.

He carefully opened up part of the gun, watching as a mini cascade of water that had collected in the weapon dripped out. Once he was certain the water was out he proceeded to dry that off, taking care not to mess anything up because he was fairly certain Zepttyl wouldn't appreciate that. He did the same thing to all the other compartments, taking it slow as to not ruin it by accident.

Finally he stopped after drying the last bit, shaking his bandana out and retying it around his neck.

"Best I can do for ya," he told him truthfully. "Got all the water out, I think, so that should help a little. I'm not sure though, I don't really deal with guns... I just know you gotta keep them dry or they can't fire, that's all."

Zepttyl appreciated that the human at least dried its weapon but what it desperately needed was for someone to tell it that the machine gun was perfectly fine so what the man said only made sure he remained worried.
The machine pulled away its hand sighing once again in defeat. In the end it was left with no other choice but to wait and be patient.
It stared at the human in silence for a few minutes as if wondering about something while still sitting uncomfortably close to him. The young machine had no sense of personal space and usually wouldn't notice when it was making someone feel uneasy.
-"You're a human." Zepttyl finally spoke.
-"And humans can swim,not as well as fish but they can."
-"So you're NOT a human?" It questioned after a short pause becoming unsure of its previous statement now that it presented all of its observations.

"No, I'm a human," Nick sighed, glancing down at the ground. "I'm a human, I just can't swim as well as other people. Hell, I can't swim at all. Never learned how and nobody ever showed me, so here I am now, half-dead because of it."

Zepttyl blinked as it listened to the humans explanation.
-"Well,at least your not dead-dead." It commented as a light smile appeared on Its face.

The machine intended to introduce itself but a familiar, immensely irritating sound got it back on its feet. The small monster it was hunting before now sat on the pile of boxes the machine had dropped previously. As if attempting to anger the android the creature leaped into the air and hopped back into the building through an open window.

-"Noooo!" Zepttyl cried frowning like an upset child. Knowing that it will have to crawl through filthy tunnels again it slowly made its way towards the building, dragging its feet unenthusiastically.

A ghost of a smile flickered across Nick's face as the android pointed this out. "That's true. Dead-dead would be bad."

He was about to thank Zepttyl when he swiveled his head to watch the little monster thing, his eyebrows rising as he watched it hop through an open window. "Trying to get that thing?" he asked, staggered to his own feet and shaking himself like a dog to get the excess water out of his hair. He took the katana sheath off his back, unsheathed the katana itself, and turned the sheath upside down to get the water out. He slung it back across his shoulders and glanced up at the windows, twirling his katana absentmindedly as he did so. "Need some help with that?"

Zepttyl stopped and turned to the man with an even wider smile now stretched over its lips.
-"You want to help me? Great!"
It felt more enthusiastic now that it knew that it wont be chasing the lizard alone, though the human might not be much help once the creature crawls back into its narrow hideout. The machine didn't miss the lovely blade that the human held. It saw only a few cold weapons before and never a katana so the sword easily captured its attention. Before asking about his weapon the android remembered to firstly ask the human for his name.
-"I'm Zepttyl" It smiled politely and offered a hand.

"Nicky," the human introduced himself as, shaking the machine's hand after a second of hesitation. It had been so long since someone had offered a hand to him, unless it was of the negative kind, like a slap or something. He had gotten used to that by now so the gesture caught him off guard. "Most everybody just calls me Nick, though."

It was interesting just how easily the droid was amused, and if Nick had been a different person he would've called it cute. But Nick was Nick so he just saw it as naivety.

He'd learn the longer he lived. Probably, if he had the capacity to learn.

-"Nice to meet you" Zepttyl laughed lightly. "Nicky sounds a bit like a pet name." It commented.
The machine walked over to the widely open door of the building and skipped over a few steps before entering the hall inside.
-"What is that?" It asked while pointing at Nick's sword. It doubted the human would need a weapon against such a small monster but after everything the little demon put it through that day Zepttyl didn't mind seeing the lizard cut into pieces.

He snorted at the 'pet name' comment, deciding to let that drop because he figured there would be no way he could win a fight against Zepttyl if it came to that. It would be best not to get on each other's nerves.

"It's a katana," he told him simply, listening for the sound of the lizard thing as he sheathed his sword. "Japanese style sword, basically. Lighter and easier to handle than, say, the western longswords for example. Been in my family for a long time and I taught myself how to use it to defend myself." Look how well that turned out today, he added to himself mentally with a sigh.

Zepttyl payed attention while the human spoke and nodded its head lightly once he finished. For a moment it wondered if Nick was as attached to his katana as it was to its machine gun and quickly concluded that that is most probably the case.
The people living in the building forbid the android to enter their homes so it could just search the hall and staircase. It had already decided to not waste its time and go straight to the tunnels if it failed to find the monster after one search through these areas.
-"You're rather slim." The machine commented.
-"Do you mind narrow spaces?"