Spark 4:
About a week later, Ruby hears a knock at the door. She scrambles to her feet only to find herself interrupted by Tai opening the door.
"*Delivery for Miss Ruby Rost Rose?*" Inquires the robot.
"...Ruuuuuuby...?" Taiyang gives Ruby a look.
"Oh come onnnnn, it's not a big deal, I just needed some parts for a project I'm doing to help out someone I met at the library..." She whines. "And how did they even learn my middle name, I never told Atlas that..."
"*Confirmed: Ruby Rost Rose. Changing allegiance... Allegiance changed. Orders, Mistress?*" Inquires the robot in sync with it's four companions, who set down the wheelbarrow containing the decommissioned Paladin.
"Provide me with one copy of your owner's manual and whichever of you is furthest from perfect working order, shut down and open any self-triggered maintenance panels for inspection."
"*Yes, Ma'am.*" They reply in perfect unison before one begins to remove various plates from it's body and another presents her with a booklet which she quickly scans.
"Oh, yes, and do you have a booklet for your rifles? If so, please supply me with one copy of it."
She's quickly presented with that too and she scans that quickly too. In a minute, she strips down the now shut down Knight along with their rifle. She examines the prismatic converter carefully.
"Hmmm, now that I think about it, while there would be a slight reduction in efficiency..."
She scampers off to the box of leftover parts from the Othabot's creation, withdrawing a piece from the microwave that served to focus the microwaves and returning.
"There should also be a fair increase in power and precision if I replace that with this! And unlike the photographic replication box, there isn't anything major riding on the efficiency of the guns-in fact, if anything I'll make the SDC happier by slightly increasing the amount of dust Atlas uses in each conflict-though there might also be a reduction in conflicts because the bots will win more..." She ponders that for a second before shrugging. "Well, let's try it!"
Taiyang sighs. "I'll set up a targeting range. Please have one of your new robots test it out, just in case it blows up?"
"Why would I do that? My Aura should be more than sufficient for any amount of explosive force that this can inflict, and exposing my Knights to that would actually damage them! How can I expect to be a Huntress if I'm so afraid of getting minor scrapes that I have robots do all the slightly risky things?"
Taiyang looks dubious but accepts the reasoning, going off to set up the targeting range like he said.
Marcus Wultensturm gives his son a hard look.
"How cn' you ever expect to be one of the fuckin' Smoke Knights if we ever get off this goddamn hellscape, ya fuckin' wimp?"
"Maybe I don't care about serving the Storm King!" Mercury retorts. "Besides which, what makes you think we can even get back?"
"Whenever there's a way in, there's always a way back." He growls back at Mercury. "An' I don't want to serve the heir either, but y'damn well know we don't have any choice."
"Father, we're in another WORLD. I don't think they'll hunt us down here for deserting, or blame us if we abandon hope of getting back!" He yells.
Marcus rests his head in his hands. "Fetch me 'nother fuck'n drink while I try'n think this through, boy." He sighs. "And then go strip the weapon of our latest target and put't back together. Remember t'take notes, we should bring back everything we c'n from this blasted world if we do make our way back."
Mercury growls under his breath and casually hurls a bottle of whiskey at Marcus, who easily catches it without even lifting his head.
"If'n we manage to get off this world, 't won't be on our own. They don't teach us Storm Knights much'a anythin' but chemistry, and I'll be damned if I can see a way to create a rift back w'chems, much less one that we can reliably return t'Europa with." He growls to himself. "So tha'means we'll need to find another Spark, 'r the closest thing around to it anyway. We pro'bly can't find a damn Spark, so we'd have to settle for whatever passes for science around here. I don't like those numbers, so our alternative is t' either wait for someone to find us, 'r to just abandon the Storm King altogether and prepare f'r them to come after us. We have Aura, they don't, so we migh' even win."
His damned son couldn't even grow red hair. He'd be the laughingstock of the Smoke Knights even if he DID get back.
Mercury, meanwhie, efficiently strips down the weapon while casting a hateful look at Marcus. Someday, he'd get what was coming to him... Old drunk bastard.
"Cousin... I'll find you... And then, I'll find my way back to Skifander." Zeetha, Daughter of Chump murmurs in another world, closing her hand around the locket containing the picture of a young girl, with green hair only a few shades brighter than her own.
"Who would have thought that it would be so easy to find my way to another universe?" Mused a clank with a grin. "Ah, well, I suppose I might as well start preparing, It wouldn't do for any of the other versions for me to arrive and me not to have a proper welcome prepared after all!" The ex-Muse smirks.
In a dismal alley, a teenaged urchin dreams of a hidden city in a jungle.
Of having a family who actually cared for and about her, but whose faces she cannot remember.
The city, and the starless sky(for the stars' lights are drowned out by those of the streets) swallow the sound of her crying.
It never occured to her when she woke up that the dreams might actually be a reality.
Why would it? There are no cities in jungles on Remnant, for there are only four cities... So Skifander was nothing but a empty dream, and dreams would not fill her empty stomach.
Ruby was exhausted. Modifying the laser rifle just to accept the new part was hard work, and it wasn't until she finished that she realized that Atlas might not actually be able to source the part, even if it worked. Regardless, it was time to test it! She heads to the backyard, takes aim and pulls the trigger...
...And it blows up in her face.
Fortunately, as she predicted, her Aura was more than up to the task, and she collects the scrap with a little 'humph' to see what she can salvage from it.