Chapter Twenty: Sky Titans
After giving the sky captain the coordinates for the floating temple, she had returned Business' tablet as a peace offering of sorts. He glared at her suspiciously until she left, then sat down with it to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. Satisfied that the device itself hadn't come to any harm, he moved on to check his notes, and was surprised to see all the little additions she'd made. Most of it seemed to be on the culture and history he'd decided to wait on translating, and it proved a fascinating read.
They eventually left the cramped cabin to hang out on the deck, taking the opportunity to stretch their legs. It was surprisingly empty of any of the Sky Rogue's crew; they had been expecting at least one chaperone to ensure they didn't get into any place they weren't wanted, but apparently Airheart had been overcome with a fit of generosity, and they were left to their own devices.
"I don't like it," Lucy said, leaning against the railing as Emmet was nearly hanging over it to take in the view. He glanced up at her as she spoke. "She has to be up to something. She's being too nice, now."
"Sirius was the same way, and you never complained about him being up to something after he decided to be good."
Lucy sighed, taking his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Emmet, I know you have a tendency to see the best of people, but can you just… trust me on this? I can't put my finger on it, but something about her just rubs me the wrong way. I don't trust her at all."
"Okay," he agreed. She gave him a grateful smile and leaned in to kiss his cheek.
Across the deck, Metalbeard glowered suspiciously at where Benny and Bad Cop were huddled over several sheets of paper. They were clearly plotting something- he knew that twinkle in Benny's eye- but he knew if he asked, Benny would just clam up. Bad Cop wasn't likely to be any more forthcoming. He thought about wandering by in attempt to catch a glimpse of what they were working on, but decided against it. It'd be too obvious.
"Oh! Look, there it is!" Emmet gasped and pointed, drawing their attention. Sure enough, a surprisingly large island floated in the distance. Business shot to his feet and sprinted over to see it. Emmet grabbed him when he started to sway. "You're supposed to be taking it easy, remember?" he admonished. Business waved him off.
"Not important."
"You don't want to pass out before we even reach the temple, do you?" Lucy teased.
He huffed at her. "I'm telling you, I'm fine."
"If you don't calm down, I will tie you to the mast and make you sit this one out," Bad Cop threatened and Business startled, turning to face him. Benny was coming up behind him, stuffing their papers into his suit. Business glared at him.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Try me, Sir."
"Ugh, fine. I'll 'take it easy' or whatever," Business sulked. Benny giggled. Several of the sky pirates finally came out, preparing to moor the ship. They got out of the crew's way to let them work, waiting impatiently for the chance to disembark. The moment the gangplank was lowered they were off, eager to explore the last temple. Already it was so different from the others, easily the largest of the four as it covered the entire island, and the outer walls were constructed of a pale, iridescent blue crystal, rather than the stone the other three used.
The sky pirates were quick to catch up to them. "Okay, Mr. Expert, what did your notes say about this one?" Airheart asked.
"That's it's going to be a lot more complicated than the other three put together," Business answered, and she glowered at him.
"That wasn't what I was asking."
He smirked back at her. "I know."
"Do I have to shoot you again?"
"That's not likely to convince me to be any more cooperative."
"Working together, remember?" Emmet reminded them.
"Well, since Busy apparently wants to be a brat with no sense of self-preservation-"
"Hey!"
"-I'll tell you what I can gather just from what I can see," Unikitty said. "The material the walls are made of- it's a type of crystal used in magic generators as an 'insulator', to keep the magic contained. I used it to build the silly cloud stabilizers when I built Cloud Cuckooland. So I'd venture a guess that this temple is all one giant generator!"
"Powerful enough to raise a city from the ocean?" Flea asked.
"Oh, definitely! That's the other thing about that specific crystal- it's most often used with one particular type of generator. The most powerful, but also the most unstable." She was met with a crowd of horrified looks at that declaration, and waved them off with a giggle. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure the Atlanteans would have taken all precautions when they built this! They wanted it to last, after all."
"What else can you tell us about it?" Airheart pressed, and Unikitty grinned.
"Nothing I can really explain; words won't do it justice. It's something you really just have to see."
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Business pouted. "Let's get in there!" They approached the massive door, pausing just before it. It was covered in ornate carvings, which seemed to serve no purpose other than to simply be art. They could, however, make out three slots that were the perfect size for the keys.
Lucy looked at Unikitty. "Ready to test those replicas we made?"
"You bet!" They readied their keys as Business retrieved his from his pocket, and slid all three into place at once. They could hear the clicks of several locks opening, then rumbling as the door slid downward to permit entrance.
Lucy gasped as they stepped into an enclosed overlook, awed by the view before them. "Oh my," Airheart breathed as she came up behind them. "That is… beyond incredible…" They gathered to stare at the massive transparent purple crystals that were sunk into the island itself, their points reaching far above their heads. The chamber walls were covered in elaborate glyphs carved into every surface, reaching from the floor up to where the domed ceiling segmented away from the walls. There was a structure at the top, with what looked like rotating rings holding magnifying lenses and mirrors of varying sizes, as well as folding arms to allow the sections of the ceiling to split open. Benny pushed himself off the floor, floating over the control panels to press his face to the glass-like panel and see further down into the chamber. Copper wires were wound around the base of the crystal formation, snaking down into the floor.
"So how does this work?"
"Unikitty?" Business called, and she turned toward him. "All I have is what the texts tell me, you seem to have actual experience with this…"
She nodded. "Doctor Fox tried to teach me and my brother how to make one of these, once. On a much smaller scale, of course- easier to control if something goes wrong, and uh… We were experts at making things go wrong." She smiled sheepishly. "Anyway! Though it was only ever that one time, I do actually remember a lot about it, cause it was actually pretty fascinating! Those crystals are very rare, and with good reason. They can convert solar energy into magical energy through harmonic resonance. Basically, they sing! But if they're out of tune, they sound really horrible. Like, worse than Benny's singing horrible." Benny blew a raspberry at her, and she grinned. "But that's also where the whole 'unstable' bit comes in, cause if they're not properly tuned, the vibrations from the resonance will eventually cause them to shatter and unleash a torrent of raw magical energy. Basically? BOOM. No more generator."
"And do you know that from experience?" Airheart drawled.
"Nah, Puppycorn and I actually got ours to work perfectly. As much fun as explosions are, we really wanted to see one in action." She sighed softly. "We did learn another valuable lesson that day, though. See, we didn't get it properly insulated, and even a generator as tiny as the one we'd made produces a lot of energy. And to us chimeras, raw concentrated magical energy like that is kinda… poisonous. Kinda like when you humans are out in the sun too long and get heat stroke or something. So if these crystals need tuning, I won't be able to help with that. You'll have to find someone with a good ear."
"The trail you followed back at the jungle temple didn't seem to affect you much," Bad Cop pointed out.
"That's because that was refined and contained through a spell, made and laid down with the intention of being a guide. It was almost enough to start giving me a headache though, and even Lucy said it made her feel jittery."
"So we'll have to tune the crystals," Airheart noted. "Anything else?"
"There's some electronics or circuitry or something, or at least the Atlanteans' equivalent of it, under the crystal chamber's floor," Business added. "That's something else we need to check to make sure it's not damaged or left unfinished. And, once we have this thing powered up and ready to go, we need to make sure the beam is exactly aligned with the receiving tower to make sure it gets full power."
"I'd be willing to bet that's what all this is for," Benny piped up, gesturing to the control panels as he set his feet back on the floor. "In fact I think this one has to do with those magnifying glass things in there."
"Focusing lenses," Unikitty told him. "As big as these crystals are, there's no way we're moving them to tune, so they must already be in proper position. So I think the trick here is to use those mirrors to direct the sunlight to the crystals, then the focusing lenses to make sure the sun beams are strong enough to charge the crystals."
"Maybe that means you can help with this, then," he said. "If this room's insulated too, you can just control everything from in here and not have to worry."
"Hmm, you're right!" Unikitty chirped. "Okay! Airheart and I will work on that then, you guys go check to make sure everything below is in working order!"
"Aye aye, Princess," Metalbeard chuckled, heading for the stairs with the rest of their team and Flea.
'Complicated', it turned out, was something of an understatement. Benny facepalmed at the absolute mess that greeted them; it looked like the Atlanteans hadn't even finished the temple in the first place. It looked like they had just managed to bring all the wiring down, then left in a hurry. Flea took one look around and began laughing.
"Boy, they really left a disaster, didn't they?"
"Something must have happened," Emmet mused. "Something bad, that forced them to leave before they could finish. Why else would it be in such a state?" Business was looking around, trying to see if anything on the walls might hold clues as to what happened, but they were blank.
"Well, nothing for it," Lucy sighed. "Let's just get to work on finishing it. Maybe we'll find out what happened in the city itself."
Business passed his tablet over to Benny. "I was able to translate the original plans, but," he shrugged. "It's all in text. You might be able to make better sense of it than I can."
"Oh, thanks." Benny scrolled through, humming thoughtfully to himself. Emmet leaned over to give it a curious peek. "Okay, I think I got it. We need to get these wires to the mechanism underneath the crystals, that's gonna direct the beam to the city. Get those attached where they need to be, then run the wire back in here to that conduit-" he pointed- "back up to the control panels so those get power too. I think the door to access it should be right about… here." He pressed his hand to the crystal, and startled when it appeared to melt away. They gasped at the sudden wind that tore through the room.
There was a catwalk around the domed mechanism under the crystals, then under that, nothing but open sky. Emmet took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Just another job," he told himself. "Just… walking the beams on another job… Nothing you haven't done before… Okay! Let's do this!"
"That's the spirit!" Flea praised, and clapped the young man's shoulder as he strolled out onto the catwalk. Benny fed the wires through where holes had been drilled near the ceiling. Business stood in the doorway, opting to simply watch and stay out of their way.
"We're gonna have to pop one of those panels off the dome to get to the machinery underneath so we can actually attach the wire," the spaceman instructed. Bad Cop nodded and pulled one off, pulling it behind the railing with Metalbeard's help. Flea grabbed the first bundle of wires and hauled it over to begin placing it. When they had finished, they replaced the panel and moved on to the next section.
When they were done, Benny fed the extra wires back through the holes and zipped through the doorway to pull them over to the conduit and attach them.
"That didn't take you long," Business commented, watching him. "I was really expecting that to take you all a lot longer. You know, with not all of you being Master Builders."
Benny grinned at him. "Amazing what people can accomplish under the guidance of someone who actually knows what they're doing, isn't it?" He moved to lean into the stairwell. "We've got it all put together now!" he called up. "Go ahead and open up the roof panels, Unikitty!"
"You got it!" she called back, and pulled down the switch. There was a loud groaning as the ancient mechanical arms folded down to pull the panels away, allowing sunlight into the chamber. There was a beat of silence, then a hum began to fill the air, swiftly followed by the most eardrum-exploding shrieking any of them had ever heard.
"Holy…!" Benny yelped, clapping his hands over his ears and sprinting back up the stairs to get away from the racket. The others were quick to follow, practically stampeding back into the control room. Bad Cop slammed the door shut behind them. They glanced at each other, wide-eyed, then began laughing. "Wow, you weren't kidding," Benny wheezed. "That is bad."
Unikitty grinned. "Told you," she teased. "Now budge over, I need to fix that before it gets really bad." Benny scooted aside, letting her have the controls. They watched in fascination as she pushed buttons and turned knobs, directing the mirrors and lenses into place, and the cacophony slowly faded into something far more tolerable as the crystals began to glow.
"Oh wow, look at that!" Emmet pointed into the chamber, as the glyphs covering the walls began to glow in response to the power the crystals were generating. By the time Unikitty finished, the humming had become a soothing tune. She glanced up. "What are they doing?"
"They're 'catching' the energy and directing it downward- watch, you can see them kinda pulsing in that direction," Unikitty explained.
"Oooh, I see! Very cool."
"So all that's left now is alignment, right?" Airheart asked.
"I think so," Business answered. The sky captain nodded and stepped over to the other control panel, switching it on. She studied the controls and the 'screen' made of quartz, two dots flashing on it, one in red, one in blue. "One of those must be the receiving tower," Business said as he scooted in closer for a look. She turned and gave him a pointed look, and he backed off again.
"Looks like these 'fly' the entire island." She grabbed the two handles on the console, shifting them ever so slightly to the left. There was a subtle sensation of motion that followed, and she smirked. "Alright. Piece of cake."
"Is the whole thing really moving?" Emmet asked, and ran back outside to see. "OH MY GOSH. You guys! This is incredible! The whole thing's really moving!" Airheart rolled her eyes and returned her focus to making the two dots on the screen match up.
"That guy makes it really hard to believe he's the Special, sometimes," she muttered. The console beeped and the two dots flashed purple, and she locked the temple's location. "Alright everyone, this is it. The moment of truth." She took a deep breath as she turned to face the Master Builders, trying to quell her excitement for just a little while longer. "Ready?"
"Hit it!" Unikitty shrieked, bouncing. Airheart threw the switch and the entire island jolted as it shot the beam down into the ocean.