After a while, Penny and Fidget finally arrived at the place.
"Here we are..." said Penny.
They deactivated their water sliding accessories and reprogrammed them. Penny put a foot on the mountain side, and strong claws popped out to grab on the rock.
Penny tapped her brain to remember the first trap: it was located approximately two feet before them, so she had to remind herself what it was.
"Bend down!" She whispered.
They fell flat on the mountain, dodging a laser beam.
Penny got up as soon as it missed, "Okay, we must go ahead before it comes back."
"What was that?!" Fidget whispered.
Penny walked up to the system, "It's some sort of laser system. It activated itself when it sensed an intrusion. It won't hurt us, but if it hits us, then every security system that's still working in here will activate all at once, and climbing this mountain will be just impossible.
"Oh, okay..." said Fidget.
"The mountain is still blind for now." said Penny.
"Blind?" asked Fidget.
"It has a whole camera surveillance system all over it, but it's deactivated for the moment." Penny explained. "They couldn't afford having it activated whenever a seagull decided to land on it, so they added the laser system to confirm the intruder alert."
After for what seemed like hours, they finally arrived at a hole in the mountain side. Penny thought twice: she couldn't turn her watch on, she knew it, because it would trigger a detection system, so she had to remember everything.
"There are holes covered in fake rock along the side from here." She said to the blue robot. "If we step on the fake rock, we fall in the hole and land in a prison cell."
"A prison cell?" asked Fidget.
"Yes, they were meant to be temporary detention rooms, so the police would have time to come." Penny explained. "But if we land in one of these, the police will never come, and if Doctor Claw actually hides here, we'll more likely die in there."
"Oh..." Fidget gulped.
"I know it's scary, but we have an opportunity to stop him from doing more wrong to this world." Penny assured him. "He's the last force of evil standing between Humanity and World Peace."
Fidget nodded, "I know."
Since the WOMP got its hands on all the most powerful villains the Earth ever carried, Doctor Claw was Public Enemy Number One, and every Worldwide Organization was looking for him on every continent.
They left the hatch, and Penny turned to Fidget, "You're completely offline, right?"
Fidget confirmed, "I am."
"I think it's safe to use your heat scanners to unveil the fake rock, then." said Penny.
"I'm on it!" Fidget gave a thumbs up.
Fidget heat glasses popped in front of his eyes, and he looked around, "Oh I see it..."
Penny nodded, "Okay you open the road, I follow you."
"No problem!" the robot gave a thumbs up.
Fidget walked on, focusing on the heat variations. After a while, his glasses went back inside his hat.
"I think we passed this area, I see no fake rock around." He said.
"Good job, Fidget!" said Penny. "Now... What..."
Next, there was a bunch of popping spears. The whole area was stuffed with detection plates, so if they stepped on one of them, it would activate the deadly spears.
"Do you think you can detect detection plates?" Penny asked Fidget.
"They are usually designed to absorb the area's heat to hide better, so my heat scanners won't be very helpful here." Fidget explained. "But I can try a wave scanning, maybe this will show their approximate position."
"Approximate? We need precise coordinates!" Penny shouted.
"Hey, you gave Digit that upgrade a month ago. I, got a toasting thingy." Fidget pointed out as a Pop-Tart jumped out of his chest. "Besides, it's still broken."
"But I gave you those special programmable boots." Penny pointed out.
"They're just the replica of those you made for yourself!" Fidget retorted.
Penny smiled, "But Digit didn't get them, right?"
Fidget sighed, "True..."
"Once we get home, I'll take that toaster out of you and replace it with something more useful." said Penny.
"Thank you!" said Fidget. "Should I try the wave scan now?"
Penny nodded, "Yes, but don't use a high frequency, or we might get detected."
"On it!" Fidget gave a thumbs up.
He scanned for a little time and shook his head, "I have detected no variation."
"Not even the slightest?" asked Penny.
Fidget crossed his arms, "This is unusual. May I use a higher frequency?"
"Just slightly higher." said Penny.
Fidget nodded, thumbing up, "You got it boss!"
He scanned again, but nothing seemed to activate itself, "They emit no waves."
"No waves? How is that possible?" asked Penny.
"I don't know, maybe I need a higher frequency, but I detected a security system that would be triggered if I went up again." said Fidget.
"I know about that," Penny nodded. "What can we do...?"
Fidget popped his helicopter out of his hat, "What about this?"
"No!" Penny shook her head. "We need to stay low to the ground, or the surveillance cameras higher that way will see us."
"Oh, I didn't know about that." said Fidget and the helicopter went back in. "I have an other suggestion, though."
Penny shrugged, "Go ahead..."
"Well we can't step on the ground or fly above it, but..." He looked at his feet. "What if we tried to go under it?
Penny looked down and rubbed her chin, "Under it? You mean dig in the side of the mountain?"
"The Mountain of Limbo is an artificial structure, right?" said Fidget.
"Yes..." Penny nodded.
"Then it means it's only a hollow shape with an armature." said Fidget.
"That's brilliant!" Penny exclaimed. "We could carve the side, go under it and make our way through the armature, thus being totally undetectable by all the security systems and be able to see their precise location at the same time!"
"So, let's do this?" asked Fidget.
"Let's do this!" Penny pumped her fist.
Fidget's chest opened up, but a pop-tart jumped out of his chest. He blushed:
"Oops, wrong one..." He chuckled, but then the Pop-Tart just fell on the ground. "AAAHHHH! My Pop Tart!"
"It's going to trigger the security system!" Penny gasped. "Quick, carve the mountain!"
Fidget worked as fast as his soldering iron could, and they jumped in the hole.
"Pfew, that was close..." Penny sighed of relief. "But they know we're here, now."
"Sorry..." Fidget said, ashamed.
"No, it's my fault, I shouldn't have given you that stupid toaster, it never toasted anything right, anyways." Penny assured him.
Fidget smiled, amused. "Okay, I see the spikes from here. We need to get around these."
They started to climb across the armature.
"By the way, Penny, why can't we touch the spikes?" Fidget asked.
"They send deadly electrical shocks, duh." Penny deadpanned.
"Good thing I'm a robot." Fidget smiled sheepishly.
Penny shook her head, "They could roast all your processors if you touched them."
Fidget trembled, "Ge, t-t-thanks for your honesty...
"I only want you to be careful. I would never be able to make another you.
Fidget blushed again. Oh, Penny..."
"Let's move on." said Penny.
They swung between the metallic arms supporting the artificial flanks, and soon Penny stopped.
"Things are getting complicated." She said.
"What do you mean, 'complicated?'" asked Fidget.
"See for yourself." Penny pointed to what she was talking about.
Fidget turned around and right before them were two metallic arms directly in contact with the retracted spikes.
Penny loosened her grip on the one she was hanging from and landed on a structure just a bit lower.
"Phew, you scared me!" Fidget sighed of relief.
"Come down here, Fidget, we have to make progress from under the spikes!" said Penny.
"Here I come!" He dropped himself down and clanged on the complex surface.
"Perfect." Penny said as she caught him. "Let's go this way!"
They walked and jumped for a few minutes, then Penny bit her lip when she saw what was in front of her.
There was a wall. A giant literal wall, blocking the way all around the place.
"Rats! A dead end." She said.
Fidget looked around him, "Where do we go, then?"
"Well we're approximately under the next area, we can theoretically afford to surface." Penny explained. "I don't really know what's up there, and the surveillance cameras are now active."
"I could peek out." said Fidget.
Fidget's hat released a periscope that went right under the flank. It spun fast for a few seconds, and the flank opened, allowing it to rise higher.
"What do you see?" asked Penny.
"That's weird..." He said . "It looks like night fell.
Penny looked at her watch. "It's almost three, it can't be night. Let me see."
She took the control of the periscope and looked through it.
"I don't see anything." She said.
"So, what's up?" asked Fidget.
"I remember this trap." said Penny. "It's a changing crawl maze."
Fidget looked confused, "Changing crawl maze?"
"It's a maze programmed to modify itself as the intruder advances, and designed to allow to go through it only by crawling all along." Penny explained.
"That sounds really fun." said Fidget.
"I agree." Penny nodded. "But we can't avoid it, it runs all around the mountain. That's why this way is blocked."
"Why is it blocked down here?" asked Fidget. "Isn't the maze above the surface?"
"All the systems that allow the maze to change are located there." Penny explained. "It's a pretty heavy mess, so not very compact in other words."
Penny then climbed on Fidget.
"Hey!" the blue robot exclaimed.
"Sorry, I'm going up to the maze." Penny apologized. "I'll pull you out when I'm there."
"Okay." said Fidget.
She climbed straight up the periscope and pulled herself through the hole.
"Alright, I'm up." Penny said before grabbing the periscope. "Okay, I'm holding you! Retract the periscope!"
Fidget slowly went up.
"We have to go through this maze, now." said Penny. "Do you have any light?"
"I do!" Fidget confirmed, lighting his eyes up.
Penny grabbed her own flashlight, and they carefully crawled through the maze...
Author's Note:
Looks like they've gotta find themselves out of this maze. Stay tuned!
