Chapter Fifty-eight: Shock Action
The scream-inducing sludge had eaten Setsuna, Hotaru, and Patrick, leaving Sailor Saturn and Sailor Mars to fight the Slick and PallaPalla.
With Silence Wall, Hotaru repeatedly blocked the Slick's oil bubbles. Like SpongeBob, it wielded a bubble wand, but fought in a trickier way, sliding this way and that to change the trajectory of its bubbles. Hotaru zigzagged in the air to keep pace.
Behind her, Rei and PallaPalla battled. Couldn't focus on them when a robot was attacking her with all its might.
Especially when the robot wasn't going after PallaPalla but the Guardians alone. How obvious.
Hotaru tried to bat the flying oil with her Glaive, only splattering it, some into her face. Burning spread, and she shrieked. What had she been thinking?
The world dimmed, becoming as dark as the oil.
Hotaru scraped her face with her hands, trying to peel off the concrete-thick oil. The Slick laughed. PallaPalla joined its laughter. Was Sailor Mars not matching PallaPalla?
Something slammed into Hotaru's stomach, blasting the wind out of her. She flew backward, opening her mouth to holler, only for the sticky, viscous oil to cover every inch of her mouth, worse than gravel. Not only was she blind, but now she couldn't speak.
She crashed onto the ground. Another robotic cackle. Pincers whisked her into the air. Wind whistled about. She was being taken somewhere.
"Hotaru-chan." Rei.
"Stop ignoring PallaPalla."
Rei yelped. Put an end to her being a hero.
Up and up Hotaru and the Slick flew. After an eternity, they stopped.
The oil was swiped from Hotaru's face as easily as water. She opened her eyes.
Firstly, the Slick held Hotaru by her shoulders, its pincers digging inside. No care for a frail girl like her.
Secondly, her head throbbed, courtesy of being jostled about like a rag doll.
Thirdly, she hung on the peak of a green-hued ship floating at the top of the graveyard.
Three other ships hovered about, outfitted with cannons. Fodders, BZZT-Bots, Tubelets stood behind those cannons, poised to fire.
Hotaru was going to become part of the robots' spat, whatever their spat was about.
The Flying Dutchman had mentioned the robots overtaking his ships. Hotaru could defeat the robots and return whatever modicum of peace had existed in the graveyard. At least return the dependable chaos and unpredictability that the graveyard housed.
Below, the graveyard stretched, illuminated by the green sun. Lakes of sludge sluiced atop, and mountains sprouted above. Couldn't see Rei or PallaPalla, the flashes from their attacks.
All at once, the robots looked at Hotaru. Stared at her, their pettiness forgotten.
A Monsoon descended from the sky, putting on glasses. It flew inches from Hotaru—she couldn't back away, held in the Slick's pincers. Its eyes flitted up and down, absorbing her every detail. Swiped out a notepad and pen from its pocket and scrawled. Hotaru craned her neck. In a neat line across the page were scribbles. The Monsoon glared at Hotaru and then turned its back to her, like she could understand its nonsense. It returned to writing in its notepad that peeked over its shoulder, giving Hotaru a view of its chicken scratch. It crossed an "X" over one of the scribbles and then scribbled another scribble above.
Like a crane, a third arm extended from the Monsoon's pocket, holding measuring tape. The Monsoon measured Hotaru's height and width, its other two hands scribbling notes all the while. Hotaru was as fascinated watching it examine her as it must be examining her.
The examination, the measurements, they were all for a purpose.
Weren't the robots' labs scattered throughout Bikini Bottom?
A trap door screeched open below her. The Slick dropped her through, and it clamped shut.
She fell through darkness. Just like Patrick had.
She landed on a pink cushion, stark enough to glow in the darkness. How kind of the robots, thinking of her well-being for their own end.
Dread crushed Hotaru's stomach. At any moment, her father could appear, holding a scalpel, his glasses glinting, primed for experimentation. Hotaru sat up, didn't dare lay on her back like she had for her father, vulnerable, almost naked so he could build her into a more pleasing machine.
Her breathing became shallow, and her eyes darted about. Didn't dare grasp her racing heart. Needed her hands to defend herself. Couldn't let her papa have his way with her again.
She was in the right place to be constructed into a cyborg. Vats filled with green goo lined the walls. Fish floated within those vats, masks attached to their mouths, feeding them with water to breathe. Her heart quickened. Her father could cage her in a vat, too.
The metal floor was punctuated by the pink cushion, giving the room some personality. Her father wouldn't dare poison the room with a pink anything. The sacred lab was for experimentation on humans, not in interior design.
Machines with tubes snaking from them, into the ceiling and the ground, towered above the vats. Hotaru would have to destroy them to make sure that her father didn't get his hands on anyone else.
Hotaru stood. The robots hadn't taken away her weapons. She aimed her Silence Glaive at a machine that reached the ceiling.
A shadow covered Hotaru, and she looked above at a cannon extending from the wall, its nozzle pointed at her. Its nozzle drew back, and it exploded. Couldn't dodge in time. Hotaru ducked behind her Glaive.
Something soft and small crashed into her, and they fell onto the cushion. They struggled, rolling off the cushion and onto the metal floor.
"Yer not gettin' me this time." The thing slapped at her. His hands didn't feel like metal. "You may have gotten my biscuits, but you won't get my scones."
Grabbing his shoulders, she stilled the fish. The fish was only a boy.
She blinked. He blinked.
The boy gasped, and he flung crumbs into Hotaru's face. Shouting, she covered her face and scurried backward. The boy swept onto his feet, raising a crumb-filled hand.
"Try and get me now," the boy spat. "I've kept you away since you got me in Rock Bottom and Goo Lagoon. I'll get away this time, too."
"I'm not your enemy." Hotaru brushed the crumbs off her face. The boy seemed the type to stash and forget about food in his pocket for months. "I'm here to save you." Regardless of her being captured.
The boy looked her up and down. "You're a weird-looking fish." His eyes drifted to her skirt. Not in a naughty way, but in an observant one, like he'd just noticed her outfit. "Actually, you look like those other humans."
She hoped she did. Her father had done terrible things to her, but he hadn't marred her beyond recognition. If a fish could recognize her as a human, her father must not have disfigured her too badly.
His face twisted. "Like that glutton who ate all my biscuits." He lunged at her. Not wanting him to fall, Hotaru fumbled to catch him, and she fell onto her back. At least she cushioned his fall. She wasn't strong like Sailor Jupiter or Sailor Uranus. Her power came from her Glaive, not her pea-sized muscles.
He shoved a fist into her mouth, and Hotaru's pupils contracted. "How's that taste, huh? As good as my biscuits?"
He was only a boy. Not trying to be naughty.
Hotaru shook her head. Would disagreeing get his fist out of her mouth?
"Uh-huh, I bet. You just wanna get a taste of my biscuits instead. Or my scones, which aren't as delicious, but are still delicious."
Hotaru shook her head more vigorously. Breathing through her nose with a fist crammed in her mouth wasn't pleasant.
He showed no signs of popping out his fist, so she licked. "Eww!" He pulled his fist out. "That's gross." He shook his fist, scrunching his face. "Why would you do that?"
His reaction didn't warrant a response. "I'm Hotaru. My friends have told me a bit about you. We thought we lost you in Rock Bottom, and we weren't able to go back for you." Or for the fish lost in Goo Lagoon. No need to mention their failures. Seemed like the citizens were well taken care of, despite being trapped in sludge-filled vats. Godzilla-sized robots, an evil circus, and arrogant gods took priority.
"Ah, you're like…hm, I think her name was Makoto. She was helping me and that guy with his crippled leg. He should be here somewhere." He looked around but shrugged. "Don't see him. Anyway, my name is Billy. These robots seem to really like me. They won't leave me alone."
Hotaru cocked her head. "Why are they coming after you so aggressively?"
"My biscuits and scones smell good. And they've already eaten all my biscuits, but they didn't know about my backup supply of scones." He patted his back pocket. "I keep those in a special compartment."
Probably the same compartment the crumbs had been in. Didn't want to ask or find out so she could hang on to her last sliver of sanity.
Hotaru straightened. "We have to get out of here. Have the robots given you any clues about their plans or a way out of this lab?"
"Hmm." The boy whisked out a scone—Hotaru didn't see from where—and placed it to his chin, like it would help him think more effectively. "I'm trying to think back to when they first got me." He closed his eyes, sniffing the scone. "Yes, that brings back the memories." Took a long whiff. Hotaru gaped. "It was a sad tale. The robots captured me in Goo Lagoon while I was building sandcastles. I fell down a hole in the sand that Sailor Jupiter blasted open. We escaped from their lab, and then I went to Rock Bottom to explore. I wanted to learn new baking techniques. Down in Rock Bottom, if they have a whole different language, then they've gotta have a whole different way of cooking, right?"
Hotaru's expression blanked alongside her mind. "I guess?" How could she be wise but also naïve? At times, thanks to her memories, she felt like the most mature, wisest person in the room, despite being surrounded by adults. Other times, she felt like she knew nothing of the regular world. She was steeped in her memories of being a Guardian and princess of Saturn, to the point where she wasn't aware of the goings-on of the world.
"Of course they do." His eyes lit up. "They cook while blowing raspberries into their food. They say it makes their food taste better." He chuckled. "I've had the pleasure of tasting their food, and it does taste better. I felt sick for a few weeks afterward, but what's a little vomiting blood if you get to eat amazing food?"
Ami, the budding doctor, was sorely needed.
"So here I was, cooking upside-down from the ceiling, because they also say that cooking like a bat makes your food taste better, when, all of a sudden, robots stormed into our castle. They began swiping cookies and cakes and eating them. I mean, they tried to eat them. All the food did was slide out their other end."
Hotaru cringed. A visual she could've done without.
"They grabbed me and the other anglerfish, and they took us down to their lab. Plus, they took some of the cakes and stuff with them. They made robots out of the anglerfish and cake and then ate some of the robot cakes. And then they turned to me.
"That's when I ran and managed to get away, distracting them by throwing away my biscuits. They went after the biscuits instead. Who wouldn't? Biscuits are a million times tastier than a boy.
"I ran into a dorky starfish who tried to scare me when he was with the Flying Dutchman. We stayed together for a while, fought the robots together—mostly I did because, like I said, that starfish is a dork—and then the starfish crashed through the museum with a robot. His friends saved him but not me. Not because of anything they did but because they were fighting a giant robot. What I did was, I sat on and controlled one of the robot cakes and drove it out of there. Well, almost. They were after the cake more than they were after me, so I jumped ship once I was close enough to the outside and ran. Took the bus back to Bikini Bottom, decided to kill time in the Dutchman's graveyard, ended up being captured by the robots again, just because they want to make robots out of my biscuits."
He growled. "They want my recipe." He cracked his knuckles. "If they think they're gonna get their hands on it…" He snapped the scone in half. "I will not let them use food or recipes in vain. Not for creating inedible robot cakes. How cruel, to make something that looks tasty but that you can't eat." He bowed his head. "A crime upon humanity."
Through Billy's story, Hotaru gleaned one useful snippet of information: the robots liked to eat. The smells of pastries, cookies, baked goods attracted them. If Billy let her, then she could use his scones and cookies to lure the robots to their deaths.
Death by cookie.
"They won't have to steal your recipe," Hotaru said. "We can use some of your scones to distract them."
Billy gasped, held the scone to his chest. "Sacrifice one of my precious scones for the greater good? I don't think so. No way am I giving up any more of my food. First, one of you guys accidentally ate some. And then the robots tried to eat it but couldn't because they were too stupid to remember that they're robots." He sniffed, on the verge of tears. "No more senseless sacrifices."
Hotaru bit her tongue to keep from saying something she shouldn't. "If you sacrifice one scone now, you won't have to sacrifice more later." Perhaps if she put his "sacrifice" in the context of saving more of his baked goods instead of all the fish in Bikini Bottom, he'd be more receptive.
Billy's eyes shot open. "That's true." His lips quivered. "Goodbye, great scone. Too bad you didn't get to know the inside of my tummy." He kissed the scone. Hotaru no longer knew what to think.
"Aw, man, I'm turning into just as much of a dork as that sponge and starfish were." He cleared his throat, stuffing his scone in his back pants pocket. "Can't do that. I swore to myself that I'd never become a dork like adults. The robots are bringing out the worst in me." He glared at one of the vats lining the walls. "Not anymore." He rushed toward the vat, a brown-haired male fish, his pants and polo rippling upward, bobbing within.
Hotaru reached toward Billy. "Wait."
Whipping the scone out of his back pocket, he aimed at the vat, closing one eye and sticking out his tongue. He hurled the scone. It clattered against the vat and then the vat shattered, pouring green goo out. Either the vats were weak, Billy had thrown the scone hard, or the scone itself was as hard as a rock, becoming stale in his pocket.
The man inside the vat flopped on the ground, like he'd been fished out of the ocean. He sputtered and coughed, swiping goo from his eyes, the goo slopping all over. He tried to stand, only to slip in place.
"Hey, it's you." Billy rushed to the man. "Mr. Fred. I haven't seen you since Goo Lagoon." He grabbed Fred's hands and helped him up, the male fish muttering about the darn robots breaking his leg, once in Goo Lagoon, again in Rock Bottom, and now this boy almost breaking it a third time by freeing him from the vat.
"They got their hands on me again, these robots." Fred wiped the goo from his legs. "These darn robots, they hit me in my leg to keep me from running. Then they took me down here." He turned his head and hawked a glob of green goo. "Can't wait for them to all be destroyed." He turned his attention to Hotaru. "That's why you're here, innit?"
"That's right." Hotaru looked for danger. Least of all the robots come to experiment on her.
Between each vat, doors slammed open. Monsoons, Slicks, Chucks, BZZT-Bots swarmed into the lab. Must be a reason why they hadn't come before, or they would've stopped Billy from breaking the vat. Unless they'd been monitoring the two from a camera and hadn't been able to stop Billy from breaking the vat in time.
Hotaru swiveled, tightening her grip on her Glaive. Perhaps Billy could fight the robots competently. She was the Guardian of Destruction, capable of destroying planets, but she wasn't sure how many robots she could fight alone. If she unleashed her full power, she'd annihilate Earth.
Billy withdrew his scones.
Fred rose on his haunches, raising his arms and hooking his hands. "I know kung-fu." He jumped, extending his leg, flying toward a BZZT-Bot. He struck through the robot, and pieces exploded.
These fish were stronger than Hotaru gave them credit for.
Hotaru had to do her part, too. No longer was she the waif who had been caged by her father. Now, she was the most powerful Guardian, perhaps behind only Sailor Moon.
From her Glaive, Hotaru shot a black beam, striking three Monsoons, one after the other. A Tar-tar Sauce blew its sauce in an arc, toward her. Hotaru bounded backward, dodging the sauce that melted holes in the floor.
"Hiiii…!" The high-pitched noise came from Fred, striking each of the robots with his legs alone, arms crossed, like he didn't need them for kung-fu. A G-Love grabbed his extended leg and threw him toward the wall. With how fast Fred was flying, he'd shatter.
Taking to the air, Hotaru flew toward Fred. A Monsoon's siren sounded above, and lightning struck her. She writhed, hollering, as Fred hollered at crashing, leg-first, against the steel wall, crumpling and sinking to the floor, eyes whirling.
Billy pelted his scones at the robots engulfing him. He couldn't help Hotaru or Fred. Hotaru had to save herself before she could think about saving anyone else.
Resisting the urge to bite her tongue, Hotaru tried to lift her Glaive. G-Loves, rubbing their hands, the smirk evident in their dancing eyes, surrounded Hotaru. The lightning stopped. Hotaru collapsed facedown. Started to scramble upright, but the G-Loves grabbed her, slamming her down. Just like her father did when he was about to throw her into his laboratory. When her father had begun experimenting on her as a toddler, she'd tried to resist. Had resisted for several years, thinking that, as she grew older, she'd grow stronger. Instead, she'd grown sicker. Her father always overpowered her, so she stopped struggling. Had stopped struggling in school, too, against the bullies who mocked her for her pallor, her skinniness, her fainting spells. Once she'd awakened as a Guardian, once others—Haruka and Michiru—sought to kill her, she decided that she wouldn't let others do with her what they wanted anymore. Once again, she'd become that fighting toddler, the one who had a will to live, to make her life enjoyable, despite her father, despite the loss of her mother.
Here, she would do the same.
Hotaru kicked, but the G-Loves grabbed her with their hundreds of hands. They carried her away from the vats, toward a nearly pitch-black hallway, the dim, flickering lights few and far between.
A G-Love squeezed her wrist, and she cried out, dropping her Glaive. Another G-Love caught the Glaive and waved it like a mere wand instead of a weapon capable of eradicating planets.
Maybe Hotaru didn't need to be wielding the Glaive to use it. "Silence Glaive Surprise." She yelled the words more loudly than she ever had.
A beam burst from the Glaive, and the G-Love screeched, scrambling with the Glaive as though it were a hot potato. The beam screamed in all directions, shattering vats and dumping goo. Fish collided with the floor, into the goo, the viscous liquid spreading quickly throughout the lab. A Monsoon pulled its umbrella closer to its head, shutting its eyes.
Even if the robots held onto the Glaive, it would never belong to them. Neither would Hotaru's life. She'd fulfill her destiny on her own terms.
More hands grabbed her, threw onto the floor. The G-Loves dragged her, Hotaru trying to keep her eyes open to see where she was going, to etch her way back. The flashing light from her attack was working against her.
She struggled, but her physical prowess left much to be desired. She wasn't strong enough to resist the G-Loves tickling and breaking her into laughter. Her boots squeaked upon the floor, and cuts erupted from the broken glass.
"Come back," Fred said. "Ain't you supposed to be saving us?"
She couldn't save herself.
Darkness replaced the seizure-inducing lights. She parted her eyes. She was being dragged into a tunnel. Into another open area, where a constructor stood upon the floor, wires dangling from the walls like vines.
A glint near the ceiling. "One's finally been delivered. My first human experiment." The voice was robotic, monotone. Like how Hotaru would imagine a robot would sound like, if it could talk.
None of the robots had spoken so far. This one had.
"Ha. Haha. Hahaha." Its laugh was robotic, too. "I laugh because this is funny." It didn't sound amused, but Hotaru wasn't well-versed in reading robots' emotions.
"Who are you? What do you want to do with me?" Couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. After all this time, what her dad had done still affected her.
The robot swept down from the ceiling, riding on an upside-down bucket, holding its handles at its sides.
It looked exactly like Plankton.