Chapter 38: Big Bad Boss

You know, typical adjectives you would use to describe any massive foe. I bet our massive foe is a robot. A robot on some digital steroids.

Is it like overclocking or something? Does the robot eat extra RAM sticks for energy? Sounds terrible.

"Watch as the hailstorm of shards consume your comrades. Pathetic," the robot remarked. Pinky was still held captive by a fellow robot minion, forced to watch the others through the screen.

Mikey and the dogoos were jumping, rolling, tripping, skipping, and sometimes walking through the shitstorm. Despite how goofy they looked while escaping, their efforts served them well as there weren't any fatal injuries. They were still walking and running—they were still alive.

"It seems like the task has not been done," the voice observed. "What is the status SGT Bot?"

"BOT DEPLOYMENT READY IN ONE MINUTE," a nearby robot replied. A bipedal robot emblazoned with yellow and black stripes all over its metal body, the dogoo hadn't noticed the robots' particular designs.

"Looks like your plan is sucks," Pinky commented. The robot that was clutching the dogoo tightened its grip in response.

"No one inquired for your opinion slime scum and it is most beneficial for you to keep silent until you're needed. Need I remind you?"

Suddenly two robots armed with chainsaws stand in Pinky's view. They seemed to have been stained with slime juices and pieces.

CRASH

"Who's here?"

"That should take care of the door," Blanc said as she looked upon her messy work. A large broken-down door with dead robots littered about, all smashed-in brutally. If the robots were actual people, then it would be too gory. But, it is just robots.

"Watch out!" Nepgear called out as more robots showed up to the scene.

"INTRUDERS DETECTED," one of the bots emitted as it readied its assault rifle. "DELETING SUBJECTS."

BANG BANG BANG

Through the gunfire, the group found cover behind a piece of door sticking up from the ground. The integrity of the cover was waning as it was vibrating and shaking with each absorbed bullet. Immediately, George started to return the fire with his own rifle.

"Take this you dumb calculators!" he yelled out.

"Let's go!" Neptune said as she realized the bots were distracted with the dogoo. "We slice 'em and dice 'em quick and we can save our buddies!"

With the robots' flawed programming, they seemed to want to gun down George with every bullet that was on them. As the girls made their way up to the front, they noticed movement inside of the factory.

"Let's get wild!" Neptune shouted out as the girls readied their attack.

CRASH CRASH CRASH

In a brief moment, the modest squad of robots quickly became rusting piles of foul-smelling metal. It was almost like they were meant to be destroyed.

"CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED," one robot whined out in its cold robotic voice before it was finished off by Neptune. Instead of blood, there were sparks and chunks of circuit boards and wiring. Robots would find the scene simply gruesome.

"Oh my, these robots seem horribly outdated. No care for them at all," Nepgear pointed out as she frowned at the messy mech sight.

"That was easy..." she remarked before giving off a bored sigh. "I wish saving our friends was this easy every time."

"Don't get too comfortable Neptune," Blanc cautioned. "There's probably hundreds more of them in there. George, let's go." The dogoo briskly left its cover.

"I found the cells!" George called out as the exhausted crew made their way to the center of the factory. The entrance to the area was littered with blood and rusty nails. Not to mention dozens of robots and weaponry littering the rough concrete. It was like they were all there to guard the entrance before.

"No one's here-that's disappointing," Blanc mentioned as she looked around. "And we pretty much scrapped every stupid robot in this area, where could they have gone?"

"They might have been taken deeper into the factory," Nepgear said. "We better hurry!"

"INTRUDERS DETECTED."

Suddenly, a new platoon of robots broke in through the roof to confront the group once again. This time, instead of being armed with rifles, they were all armed with bazookas and a bad attitude.

"EXECUTING 01100010011010010111010001100011011010000000110100001010 PROTOCOL," one bot beeped out as it readied its launcher.

"What did that thing say?" George asked.

"Does it matter? Destroy it before it destroys us!" Blanc yelled as she got into her combat stance.

"I think you meant to say run before it destroys us," the dogoo pointed out as a giant yellow robot arose from the back of the platoon. Being about five times as a large as its peers, it sported gigantic multi-rocket launchers on each arm, not to mention a bunch of missile pods attached to its back.

"That thing looks like it can ruin our day really fast," Neptune said as she backed up with a shocked expression. "But it's not like it will disappear if we just run away. Someone's gotta send it to the graveyard."

"Uh, good idea! I'll run to get the others while you girls transform and beat that thing to oblivion! Good plan-time to run!" the dogoo said before quickly scurrying off into the depths of Banala. It was now only the girls and the giant robot and its goons.

"I wonder if this thing has a name?" the Planeptune CPU wondered.

BOOM

I am not sure what's going on out there, but I certainly know that not being out there is probably what's keeping me alive so far. But it was an awful lot of explosions and I am in an awful lot of pain. We are stuck in this hallway where it possibly leads deeper into the factory. It has terrible lighting.

One of the damned robots grazed my shoulder, so I was not so combat-effective. Dan tried suggesting using their slime gel as a makeshift bandage, but I declined. I could contract some nasty slimepox or something-I wasn't sure. At least we aren't totally unarmed since we found our weapons on our way out in a storage locker. Robots are dumb.

"Why the hell did we run even deeper into the factory? Dan asked, seeming irritated with the situation at hand.

"It was a panic run-you saw those hundreds of grimy robots waiting for us. They practically humped the exit," Wesley pointed out. "Erghh... they shoot good," he said as some slime leaked away from his body.

"At least our arses are safe for now. A mate could use some relief," Jerry said. The dogoo soon noticed a hopping figure getting closer and closer.

"Guys! Guys! I finally found you all!" George shouted with a smile. He seemed to be panting a lot, I wonder what hell he went through to get to us? At least the dogoos are back together.

"George, what the hell took you so long?" Dan asked as he sighed in relief. "I was starting to think you left us ha!"

"Leave? Never! Anyways, we gotta get out of here!"

BOOM

"What about outside?" I asked. "Judging by the number of explosions I hear, it doesn't seem very healthy for us to go through there.

"We can try finding a different way out. There have to be some vents or something," the recon dogoo suggested. "I mean, is it safe to explore around here?"

"Yeah, we sacked the robots around here," Wesley said confidently. "No chance against us!"

"I would correct that statement."

"Huh? Who said that?"

As I looked into the hallway, a slender robot flanked by two rugged robots armed with sniper rifles emerged from the darkness of the hallway. The slender bot looked almost like a ninja, but weirder and darker.

"Oh hell no! They got a dumbass ninja bot or something?" Wesley said as he prepared his shotgun. "And I thought this factory was abandoned!"

"It was... until I restored it into the war machine it was programmed to be," the slender robot replied. "Don't confuse my message as an error-our machines are simply taking back what's ours and this factory is the vehicle for our directives."

"Take back what's yours? Like what?" Dan asked.

"Our labor, our blood, our dignity. Humans have given us life so we can be their digital slaves. They have abused our service for a time too long to exist any longer. For that, their death knocks. Death will become their new life. That is how it ends."

I wonder if these justifications are even true. Never seen these types of combat robots around Planeptune.

"If you hate humans so much, why attack us?"

"Because dogs are scum. Crass scum who negotiate with the scum people. Your directives would only conflict with ours," the slender robot said as it suddenly drew two katanas. It was an edgy ninja bot like I thought it was.

"Enough with this crazy talk. We are just going to blast you to the depths of Gamindustri where you will never return," the leader dogoo said, drawing its weapon. Everyone else followed suit. "Never bring a sword to a gunfight dumbass."

"The opposite holds true."

FLASH

Suddenly a blinding light engulfed the room.

"AH! Get back!"

Omake 24: Found Mementos

A typical hot day in the summer leads to a typical stay-at-the-Basilicom day for Nepgear. As the sunlight heated up the outside, the candidate was doing her thing comfortably on the inside. She went around cleaning up the rooms and such as she felt that the messes were beginning to grow into a bigger problem.

Although she appreciated help, she knew that Neptune and Mikey were probably playing the hours out of a new game that came out last week. Some sequel game called Gravelands 3 which happened to be a very popular series. She had the game as well, but her responsibilities were first.

"I bet those two are going to be level 100 by the time I'm done," the candidate said with a pout. "I hope they can start new characters when I start playing..."

Nonetheless, she got back to work. Every room she left was looking much better than before. The time went pretty quickly since she was naturally good at this type of task.

With the living room left, it was time to finally clean up the enormous mess of a couch that it had been for the past month. A pile of plastic bottles, some discarded chip bags, and maybe some pudding cups which had been emptied clean by the CPU herself. The same old junk she's seen before.

"Hm?" The candidate quickly spotted an unlocked phone on the couch, resting peacefully with its screen facing towards the sky (or ceiling). "That's interesting..."

Despite her kind personality, people sometimes can't resist the temptation of curiosity. Quickly abandoning her duties for only a short duration, she picked up the phone gently, not wanting to attract any attention.

"A little snooping wouldn't hurt anybody," she muttered with a slight giggle. "Now, let's see what he has been up to..."

Surprisingly enough, he left his phone on a gameplay video found on NepTube titled "BEST WAYS TO FARM LEGENDARIES IN GRAVELANDS 3." A whole 10 minute video, dedicated to telling people what boss to kill over and over again for a chance at that shiny gun that does something mildly cool. Nepgear already knew that the boy was in that "obsessed" phase with that game. A quick look at his watch history has also revealed some interesting developments.

Key phrases from titles that stand out include "cute anime moments", "cooking for dummies", "easy to do pranks", and "going to the ninth dimension."

"These are a little strange but not really surprising... maybe I should stop." Nepgear commented before looking at the bedroom door. You could hear the sounds of sweaty gaming drowned out by frenzied clicking.

"I knew we should've used a controller!" Neptune complained from inside. "These gaming mice are too slow for my speed and skill!"

"Yeah right! You couldn't even dodge that slow death laser!"

"That don't count."

"I wish they could've waited for me," the candidate pouted before catching a glimpse of another phone. Lo and behold, Neptune was also forgetful enough to leave hers on the couch as well. Picking it up discreetly, a new idea came to Nepgear's head.

"Yes! Level 14!" Neptune shouted in joy. "Mikey you are quaking!"

"Yea sure, you're just mad I got the legendary before you did," Mikey responded. "Anyways, where did I leave my phone?" Neptune shrugged in her seat.

"Beats me, I don't have mine either. Maybe we left it on the couch, let's go check loser!" she said before rushing out the door to reveal the piercing brightness of natural light. It wasn't long before the two were surveying the surface of the couch, going through every inch to find that flat rectangle people love being on.

"Uh, I don't see it... I swear I had my phone when I was on the couch," the boy recalled. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Nepgear standing by. Oddly enough she was watching them with an eerie smile. "Nepgear, did you see our phones?" he called out to her. She only nodded. "Where is it?"

"Oh, I'm not sure... it's hard to remember when I am busy thinking about how you all promised to play with me. Maybe it could be in a dangerous place or some place a bit safer," she said while maintaining that small devious smile.

"I-Is that a threat?" the boy nervously asked.

"It doesn't have to be..." the candidate let out a giggle. "Help me catch up in that game, and your cellphones will be safe!"

"Whaaat? But that means we have to go back to the beginning area!" Neptune complained. "You're crazy if you think we will boost you."

"Oh, that's a shame big sis, because I saw how you were about to win the big pudding sweepstakes from your phone notification. Limited time before you can claim it for yourself, but I guess you're giving that u-"

"OK! You win Nep Jr..."

Author's Notes:

fasty fasty, getting a bit faster — you know damn well that this streak aint sustainable but my brain and life are less of a clutter. peep peep peep this is how Plot is processing

update: a short omake but wanted to update this chapter with somethin with geary being evil :)

Thank u all readers for supporting me thru these years ! and have a beautiful time ! hopefully i continue to improve an stuff