"What's that on your arm?" Dameko asked as they stepped out of the dark woods, relying only on Dameko's headlamp for illumination. Above them, the moon slowly rose over the horizon. "I don't mean the bracer. I mean the gadget thing inside."
"Wow. You have a sharp eye." She put the phone back into her pocket. "It's...nothing cool, though. Just a screwdriver."
With a press of the switch, the screwdriver shot out. The movement was still slow and awkward, since the handle didn't fit nicely into the blade slot at all, but the credits they received during the past few days were almost enough for a return trip ticket, and she'd soon have the chance to secure a proper replacement.
"Ooh! Do that again!" Dameko clapped her hands together. Nodding, she retracted the screwdriver back and pressed the switch again.
"You can charge it up with electricity too. I need an insulating glove, though, so I won't end up shocking myself."
"Insulating glove? I have one in my secret base." Dameko said. "It's pretty awful at playing games, but I think it'll work, once I take the in-built circuits out. You wanna go take a look?"
"You...have a house?"
"Duh. Where do you think I sleep every night? In the woods?" Dameko stuck her tongue out. "Follow me!"
She was expecting an abandoned tool shack or dingy basement. When the cave floor began to shake, and the hidden elevator descended into a giant hollow bunker, packed to the brim with machinery parts, colorful metal blocks, and old toys, it took her a while to organize her language, and turn to face Dameko's expectant gaze.
"Wow. Did you build this yourself?"
"Eh, my sister helped out too." Dameko was scowling, like she wasn't happy about that fact. Soon, she led her forward and placed her hand on a closed door. With a ding, it swung open, revealing an even larger space. As the lights were switched on one by one, the humongous robot at the center of the room became visible.
Its round body and red and white color scheme reminded her of one of those mushroom buildings in Lowee's capital, and the hang glider Dameko showed to her before was attached to its back. If not for the giant bazooka mounted on its shoulder, the entire robot would look like a large, harmless toy.
"Behold, the HANDY Booster-Plus!" Dameko made a dramatic wave. "If it's just the mecha, I'll call it Booster Bot. But HANDY is there, too, and I gotta' make sure people know that."
"Cool." She said. "If you don't mind me asking, is it still in action?"
"Not really. But if, say, a bad guy decided to disturb the peace of this little town, I bet they'd make a super funny face if they suddenly find themselves looking down the barrel of my L-Scope!" Dameko winked at her. "You don't happen to know someone like that, do you?"
"No. And you...should leave the job of catching them to the adults." Gosh, did her suggestion not sound convincing at all. Like "leaving it to a more responsible person" had ever stopped her from doing the most stupid things without Clancy's knowledge.
"But it can do a lot more things than blasting things to smithereens." Dameko grabbed onto the robot's arm and climbed up to its shoulder with surprising agility. With a few taps, a hatch slipped open, and multiple satellite antennas shot out from the back of its head.
"You can download games with these Giga-Satellas! I swear there's a sonar attachment back here, too, but I might have lost it during a fishing trip..."
Even though she didn't quite understand the point of using a military-grade robot to download games or catch fish, she still smiled and nodded at Dameko, who pulled out a wrench from her shorts' pocket and began to tinker with the robot, no doubt looking for that lost sonar.
Really, when was the last time she hacked something, or made a new gadget and showed it off to her own family? Not since that disastrous EMP incident, that was for sure.
"Ah well. Bummers. Guess I'll have to start building a new one." With one last sigh, Dameko put down the wrench, and the satellite antennas slid back into their original position, as she leaped back onto the floor.
"Take your time." She nodded. "Also, didn't you say something about an insulating glove?"
"Oh yeah, the glove!" Dameko pointed to the opaque glass panes on a nearby wall. "It's in there. You just go 'knock-knock', and it'll open."
"...Knock-knock?" She walked up to the panes, and made a few actual knocks on the surface too, just in case. It did work, and the panes slid open, revealing a short, narrow passage. Upon receiving a nod from Dameko, she stepped inside, and walked towards the giant pile of stuff lying at its end—
Without warning, the tiles she was standing on gave away. Letting out a yelp, she barely grabbed onto the edge of the newly formed pit and avoided falling inside. Seconds later, something grabbed her ankles. With a swift swing, it lifted her towards the ceiling, and she was left dangling upside down.
From the corner of her eyes, she could see the tiles sliding back into position, covering up the pit in a matter of seconds. The pink phone had fallen out of her pocket, and was lying near the wall.
"What the—?" She yelled as she wriggled in midair. "I think you forget to turn off some kind of security system in here!"
Dameko soon entered the passage, with a cheeky grin on her face. "Ooh, really?"
She tapped her heel on the floor, and the things that grabbed her ankles started swinging in a circle. The nausea that had largely faded away came back with full vengeance, sending little sparks flying all across her vision.
"Seriously, stop! I-If this is a prank, yeah, you get me, I surrender! You don't need to rub it in!"
The arms did stop spinning at the sound of her pleading. She heaved a sigh of relief, before Dameko stopped a few steps away from her, with a comically serious expression on her face, and picked up the fallen phone.
"Uh, can you...let go of me now?"
"Sure. I just need an answer from you!" The smile returned to Dameko's face, as she reached into the front pocket of her T-Shirt, and took out a crumpled ball of paper. "Why are you on this wanted poster for attacking two police officers?"
Oh crap.
"You heard me! I wasn't in control of my action at all," She took a deep breath, "I've apologized to the officers, though I probably should've done more—the point is, I never wanted to hurt anyone."
"How do I know you are telling the truth?" Dameko gave her a dubious look. "You've been like, lying to me for days. And I thought you really saw the Self-appointed Photographic Genius Guy!"
"...That's what you are upset about?!"
"Yeah! And if you really were sorry, why would you run away from the hospital in the first place? You think you can just escape back to PC Continent, and everything will be fine n' dandy?" Dameko pressed another button, and a pair of hands on crisscross tongs shot out of the walls. "If you don't start telling the truth, I'm gonna tickle you with these U-Hands until you start crying."
"Well, I got a message from this giant piece of human trash, and..." She gritted her teeth. "She's going to try and befriend my sister, while I'm stuck here!"
"Oh, really?" Dameko narrowed her eyes. "Maybe you are just being overprotective. Who are you to decide if she can make friends with someone or not?"
"Her friends have all DIED!" She practically screamed out the last word, "And if that creep tries to 'make friends' with Loft in the same way she tried to 'make friends' with me, she's so gonna end up in jail, no amount of money will save her, and as much as I'd like to see her spend the rest of her life in a cell, I'd die before I let—"
"Slow down, please? You are talking super fast, and I can't keep up."
"Okay, kid." She took a deep breath. "Not all of her friends died. But when more than ten 'tragic accidents' have happened to people who were close to this one single person, it's starting to look a lot less like misfortune, and more like foul play."
"And no one tries to stop her?"
"I mean, I totally believe she's capable of cold-blooded murder, but...I don't even know how she did it," She closed her eyes, "Nor do the investigators. There are almost no connections between the causes of death, and if she isn't one of the richest people on our continent, I'd say it was all part of an elaborate insurance fraud scheme!"
"Wait, you have parents, right? Maybe you can call them, and ask them to—"
"Loft's guardians aren't us anymore." Her eyes were tearing up, as she uttered those words. Must be all the blood flowing into her head.
"That Viven woman said she'd be a much better role model, as a mature, responsible adult, and the mayor of the province capital. But when I asked Blizz about the years she spent as Viven's foster kid, she just started laughing until she was in tears, and...I'm concerned, you know? I don't trust her, not one bit, even if she did have good intentions."
There was a long silence, before Dameko started speaking again.
"You really had it rough, huh?" Dameko gently poked her in the cheek. "I'm still a little miffed, and I think you are a real dummy. But I know you aren't like, evil or anything."
"Does that mean you'd let me go?"
Dameko shook her head. "No. I'm gonna take you back to Lowee's Basilicom tomorrow, with my robot. Once we're there, we'd explain everything to them, loud and clear, and I'm sure they'll let you go!"
"What?! That's the worst possible thing you could do!" Her newfound hope was quickly replaced by crippling panic, as she started another round of struggling against the restraints. "They still think I'm crazy, and I'll get stuck in some asylum for months before they deem me fit to go back—hey! Don't leave!"
"You aren't the only one with secrets." Dameko gave her another wink, before she walked out of the passage, "Trust me, I will get you back home in time, safe and sound!"
The moment the glass panes slid shut, the mechanical hands released their hold on her ankles. She fell onto the ground in a heap, and immediately scrambled towards the exit.
"Let me out!" She screamed, as she gave the glass barrier a running kick. "Just—let—me—go! You don't even know what you are doing, you..."
Her kicks didn't even create a single crack. After a few more tries, her legs gave out under her, and she knelt down in front of the glass, panting. The screwdriver slid out of her bracer. Pain shot through her palm with every forceful stab, but all it left was some ugly scratch marks on the smooth surface. After what felt like an eternity, she finally fell forward and lay face-down on the ground.
Shauni would be back by tomorrow morning, and she'd still be stuck in here.
Was she not completely exhausted, she might have started sobbing into her sleeves at that realization.