Master Porky gave a rather strange order yesterday. He's ordered the construction of a large tower to the right of the training facility – a tower which is supposed to be used to generate large amounts of electricity to power New Pork City. Apparently, the city is expanding at such a rate that the current methods we have of generating electricity will be insufficient in the near future. Personally, I never noticed this expansion but I suppose I've been busy recently.
All the Pigmasks are to stop with their normal jobs and instead assist with the construction of the tower. However, Porky has specifically given orders to me that I'm not to assist with construction and that he has a special job instead. He's requested that I meet him at Beauty and Tasty so that's where I'm going now.
The restaurant is completely empty, as it was when I first met Porky. The waitresses are still here, all identical and equally ugly.
"Took you long enough to arrive." The Pig King wheezes with considerable contempt. I have the impression that this hasn't been a pleasant day for Porky so I decide to simply take a seat, rather than dispute the fact that I came as soon as I received his message.
"It took you so long to arrive that I ordered for both of us. If you don't like what I got, then that's your punishment for your tardiness."
Definitely hasn't been a pleasant day for him.
"Bah! Anyway, I have a special task for you, so I hope you feel honoured."
"Very much, my liege."
He continues with glee on his face. "Good. Now, I have two robots that need to be constructed. One that will be stationed at the Thunder to guard and protect the generator there. The other will be a robot designed specially to help maintain a certain room in the Thunder Tower that is very important – the room in which I'll be staying whenever I need to visit. And being the kind person I am, I've decided to give you, and a few other lucky Pigmasks, the honour of building both of these robots."
"Very well, although I have no experience in creating machinery like this and my abilities would be best applied to the construction instead. Would it not be better to ask someone more experienced, like Dr Andonuts?"
"Dr Andonuts is… occupied, shall we say, with another important project. One that cannot afford to be interrupted so, regrettably, he will not assisting you. Besides, you'll be mostly giving orders and making sure none of the Pigmasks mess anything up or try some sort of sabotage. You are after all, the Commander."
I may be the Commander, but how do I command people on a subject I have no expertise with? If I didn't know any better, Porky seems to doing this to hide the construction of the Thunder Tower from me, rather than because my help is required here. Regardless, arguing isn't going to yield any different results so I might as well accept.
"Very well then. Who knows, I might even learn something."
"Exactly. Ah, the food. I hope you enjoy steak."
The waitresses deliver our meals – steak, just as Porky said. Oh yeah, time for a question that I've had for a long time…
"Why do all the waitresses look the same?"
"They look the same because they all represent a person. My mother."
Oh. Oh. I'm very glad I resisted all those urges to laugh and didn't say anything rude about them because, that would not have ended well…
"It's stupid. I don't have any good memories of her at all. Well, unless you count the time she banned from leaving the house for a month, the time she forbade me from going into my own room, even to sleep, the time when she abolished my birthday or the time when she said I couldn't have dessert for the rest of the decade."
I almost choke at that last one. No dessert! For an entire decade! That's no sweet stuff like, nut cookies or ice cream or cake. How do you celebrate a birthday, without cake? Oh wait, his mother banned him from celebrating that at all as well. Which of course is begging for this question: what in the world would persuade Porky to make all the waitresses look like his mother?
Mothers are supposed to protect you. To comfort you. To be there when something's gone wrong and coddle you, saying 'everything will be okay.' They're supposed to be there by your bed to give you a good night kiss, despite you saying you don't want one… even though you really do. They're supposed to be there to… to…
'Run! Take your brother and go! Now!'
To…protect… why do I…
'Mum! You can't stay behind! That thing will kill you! Don't leave us!'
To… sacrifice themselves… no, that can't be…
'GO! Don't stop running! Find your father!'
Because of something strong… he's so devastated, so hurt.
The only dream to be had was a single scream.
Because they love you.
What was that? I felt… pulled apart… shattered and scattered throughout time. Maybe that was just me getting angry at hearing such a bad mother. Just my sorrow and pity for Porky for having yet another abuser in his life. Only it was about someone who should be kind to you, so it made me feel more emotional. Yes, that seems logical.
"Your mother… why would you want to remember her?"
"I couldn't tell you if I tried. It's a peculiar feeling…I feel like, I just can't forget her. If I do, a piece of me is missing. After all, she was my mother. And that's got to mean something."
But would you want someone so horrible to be associated with you?
"Let's eat."
The steak looks as delicious as the burgers did. While the burgers tasted nice, compared to the steak, it might as well be garbage. The flavours of the steak blend wonderfully together, and the texture is just right. It's the best thing I've ever tasted!
"Enjoying yourself?"
"This is wonderful. I'd say it's probably my favourite food."
"Your favourite food… I'm glad to hear that. Any questions?"
"Where will I need to go? The Chimera Laboratory?"
"No. The Empire Porky Building has a laboratory on the 57th floor, where non – chimera based projects are handled. I remember designing the Pork Tanks in there… such good memories." He remarks wistfully. "I hope you too can contribute something as worthwhile. Now off you go! You'll report to that laboratory every day. You've got 2 months to finish both machines. And I demand nothing but perfection…"
The… claws of Porky's bed machine extend and click menacingly, which I take as my sign to get the heck out. It doesn't make sense – why is Porky so… moody? I suppose that's what happens when you live for 10,000 years, or however long Master Porky's lived for, you have your good days and your bad days. Still, the rapid mood changes are jarring… is this what will happen to me when I grow up?
The Empire Porky Building is easy enough to find – after all, it is the giant building with the giant spikes on the sides. What practical purpose could they possibly serve?
The elevator in the lobby takes me to the 57th floor rather quickly – I feel like I'll be flung into the ceiling when it stops. Thankfully, that doesn't happen, and I exit to the laboratory Porky spoke of.
There's about 30 Pigmasks here, and I notice the different colours they're wearing. Most are the ordinary pink, but some are blue or green, and one is white, wearing an awesome cloak. Still, what's with all the different colours?
"It's the Commander!"
"What brings you here, Commander?" says the white.
"I have been ordered by Master Porky to help and supervise the construction of the two robots you are working on."
"Oh, I wasn't aware you had such mechanical prowess!"
"Actually… I don't have any. However, Master Porky still insists that I help you."
"Strange, but if the king orders it, we must follow. Come over here so you can see the blueprints."
One of the blue prints is headed GENE163-1425. It has a diagram of a large robot with a creepy face and two hands. It's connected to a generator behind it, which powers it and seems to let it utilise electricity. I assume that this is some sort of combat robot or guardian. Given its electrical abilities, it's likely to be placed in the Thunder Tower. The wires extending from the robot seem to extend to some sort of generator.
The other is headed MROB-6720M. Yeah, that's just as annoying to say as GENE-whatever. I've got to come up with better names for both of these things. Either way, this robot looks more human – save for its metal face. Oh, and the massive claw and drill protruding out of its back. What the Pork were they thinking?! It looks like a maid, given that it has a blue apron.
"Right then, if I'm correct, one of these is some sort of battle robot that utilises electricity – a guardian for the Thunder Tower perhaps? The other is a robotic maid… that also has combat functions. Why would the maid need that?"
"The king thought it would catch people intruding off guard. They see this harmful maid, and then it surprises them! And you are correct, the other is designed to guard the tower."
"Well, how might I assist you?"
One of the green answers. "Commander, I've seen you use lightning powers. I've heard rumours it's PSI. We could use them to measure to test the electrical powers of GENE163-1425."
The others make sounds of agreement. I suppose that would work. And it'd give me a chance to further improve my PSI.
"It's agreed then." Says the white. "To work then!"
The next few weeks are spent building the guardian robot. I don't actually do all that much – although I am technically in charge of this entire project, being the Commander and all, seeing as I'm not good technically, I mostly assist the others with what I can – they request for me to some tests with PK Thunder as they'll be basing the thunder abilities of the robot of that. I do make one order though, at the very beginning of the project – to give this robot a name. They're quite a few names that fly around including: 'Shock-o-matic 3000', 'Large and Charged' and of course, 'Thunder Thrasher'.
The vote is for the least dumb name: Mr Genator.
We split into two groups. The first, including myself, spend a large proportion of our time building Mr Genator, assisted by Clayman, these weird clay sculptures brought to life by electricity, but they're strong nonetheless. The other group works on the wiring as well as making a model generator– Mr Genator is to be connected to the generator of Thunder Tower, so this model will give us a good idea of how this thing works, even if it won't be as powerful as when it's actually hooked up to the main generator.
I also get to learn about the different coloured Pigmasks – the colour dictates their rank. Pink is normal but blue is for captains, green is for majors and white is for the colonels. The weaponry they use seems to get better with rank – captains and majors have bombs, for instance. The colonel even shows me her PSI shield device – which does exactly what it sounds like. Apparently, her cloak isn't just for looks either – it actually grants a great deal of protection against various elements!
Eventually though, we finish and so, it's time to test it. I'm a bit nervous. See, the success rate of the Pigmasks isn't exactly very high, so obviously, my expectations aren't exactly very high. In fact, I think it'll malfunction. The reason I'm nervous is because Porky demanded perfection.
"Right then. Let's activate this thing!"
The colonel switches the generator and Mr Genator… I just understand that name now. Clever. Mr Genator springs to life.
"Hello there, we're the…". But the colonel doesn't get much more out than that before Mr Genator responds.
"INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! ACTIVATING DEFENCE SYSTEM! REPEAT! ACTIVATING DEFENCE SYSTEM! ALL PERSONNEL, IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU'D EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!"
I'll say this now – I take no pleasure in being right on this occasion!
Mr Genator immediately starts swinging both arms around madly, knocking the Pigmasks nearest it back. The ordinary Pigmasks immediately start opening fire on it. The majors and captains throw sticky time bombs on it, which detonate with extreme force. The colonel activates her PSI Shield Device, which envelops us all in a PSI Shield. Despite us all being out of range, Mr Genator stores and then discharges the electricity within it, forcing us all to keep on our toes.
As for myself, I draw my stick and start bashing the heck out of Mr Genator, targeting its wires – after all, that'll take out its power supply. They're behind metal though so that plan doesn't get very far. Either way, Mr Genator evidentially doesn't like that and uses a powerful paralysing chop attack, as if to say 'Take that!'. It comes out too quickly for me to dodge and hurts me immensely, especially with my metallic parts. I'm tempered to counter with my own lightning attacks, but it might very well just absorb it and discharge it with deadly power.
'System repairs to lower abdomen and back initiated.'
My back? Wait a minute – I have wings! All right then, I'll give myself the aerial advantage and attack from there.
I activate my wings and carefully manoeuvre myself so that Mr Genator won't go for a thunder chop. Grabbing my stick, I dive at him and go for a huge swing, like the Fierce Pork Trooper taught me.
SMAAAASH!
It sounds rather painful, if robots can feel pain that is. Mr Genator grumbles and immediately counters by sending two thunder bolts at me. The first hits me dead centre and it's only luck that the second misses. I go for a improvised crash landing. It hurts badly – didn't I have that shield? Let's see…
'Shield status – PSI type, strength: 1. Damage to shield: 0%'
No damage?! How? I just got hit by a thunder attack – surely the shield should have taken some damage? I'll have to solve this mystery later. I notice a few Pigmasks rushing to me.
"Are you all right Commander?"
"I'll be fine." System alert! Repairs have stopped due to high voltage disruptions. Commencing in 290 seconds, 289…'
I hate being wrong.
"Here, eat this." One of them hands a bag of Pork Chips. I thank him and eat them, they're a bit too greasy and salty, but they restore some energy at least.
Right, time to take this thing apart. Being in the air means his thunder attacks are more likely to hit, so the ground it is. Switch to the arm cannon… and fire! It's a solid hit as well… but he doesn't look any worse for the wear. Let's try that again, with more power. Another solid hit… and it doesn't do anything again! Something's wrong – and it's here I remember that a large majority of the Pigmasks are also firing at Mr Genator, and have been doing so for some time, except they're not doing any damage either. In fact, Mr Genator just takes the shots and fires an onslaught of thunderbolts back!
Wait. What if the laser shots are what is giving him his power? We keep feeding him energy, and he keeps retaliating with it! Yes, that makes sense – I don't understand the details exactly, but the colonel mentioned that the generator was needed because Mr Genator will have to recharge after discharging large amounts of electricity. But he hasn't recharged once – because we keep recharging him!
"Everyone, stop!" All the Pigmasks do so and look at me, while still dodging the occasional attacks Mr Genator throws out.
"That thing is absorbing all of our shots and using them to power itself! Colonel, that shield was a good idea, but it's not standing against the electricity for whatever reason."
"Why isn't the shield working?" asks the colonel to the captains.
It's a regular Pigmask who responds: "Oh! We based the electricity off our studies of fulgurkinesis from the Commander!"
"Which ignores any kind of protection or counters one puts in place." Finishes a major.
"How very annoying." The Pigmasks turn their attention to the colonel.
"What are your orders, ma'am?"
"What are your orders? What do you think, you morons? Think of a different way to hurt it!"
"Enough! We're trying to destroy the giant robot that can kill us all, not each other."
"You are the Commander. What are your orders, sir?" replies the colonel.
What are my orders? For all the high ranking this position has, I've done very little of what the title actually says – commanding. Let's think. Any sort of energy based attack is a bad idea, for obvious reasons. Touching this thing when electrified is also a bad idea, for equally obvious reasons. So what if we cut the power?
"Majors, captains and colonel, bombs seem to be hurting it, so keep going with that. Everyone else, you've all had combat training, so attack it head on!"
"Sir! That thing'll shock us if we so much as touch it!"
"So we wait. It'll run out of electricity eventually and when it does, it'll have to recharge. Then we strike."
The next few minutes are spent playing a very dangerous game – baiting Mr Genator into discharging as much electricity as possible. He gets us a few times, but eventually he's forced to take a break.
The 20 or so ordinary Pigmasks and I quickly seize the opportunity and start hacking away at whatever we can – until my scanners report something.
'Target recharging batteries and systems.'
He's repairing his systems with the generator as well! We'll have to destroy the generator then.
"Bombers! He's using the electricity to recharge his systems!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot we put that feature in! We really thought of everything!"
Yeah, except for a self destruct in case it backfired! Never mind…
"Destroy the generator then!"
"It's no use Commander! This thing's even tougher than Mr Genator!"
They really did think of everything. Okay, we need to expose the wires then.
"Bombers, destroy the metal pieces shielding the wires and then we'll slash them to pieces!"
And for once, my plan actually works! The bombs do enough damage to the metal pieces that we're able to force them out of the way and expose the wires, and finally destroy them. I take a lot of joy in slicing one of the larger wires. The other Pigmasks clean up any of the other wires I missed, and finally, Mr Genator falls.
Everyone takes a sigh of relief. Well, until...
"Yeah, so, I don't think Mr Genator was working properly."
There's a lot of 'Noooo, reaaaaally?' flying around and the colonel bashes the offender with her gun. I somehow resist the urge to follow through with a bad idea by grabbing a piece of scrap metal, and start bashing him over the head with that.
Actually, that's not such a bad idea. I look around the remains of Mr Genator and notice one particular piece of metal that's straight and narrow. Not too big or heavy either. I take a few swings, and it feels comfortable. I think I've got myself a new weapon.
The maintenance and rebuilding of Mr Genator takes another week – and this time we include a remotely controlled shut down in case it malfunctions! If only they put that in before…
And to my shock and surprise, we don't have a repeat of what happened before. Mr Genator greets us all politely, or to be more precise, by not immediately cascading thunderbolts down on us. How nice. The thing that scares me is that Mr Genator will be even more powerful in the Thunder Tower, as it's connected to a more powerful generator. We're thinking about giving it some weaknesses – in case something like this happens again. What we ended up doing was putting a limitation on how much electricity it can use – both to limit its power, and because an overuse of electricity could negatively effect the tower or overload Mr Genator.
We take a break for the next 2 days and I want to explore the Empre Porky Building – but unfortunately I can't as some floors haven't been constructed yet, which surprises me, as I thought this city had been here for a long time. Then again, I don't think I ever heard about this city before that incident, so maybe it is newer than I think.
Instead, I head to Murasaki Forest to train a little and practice using this aluminium rod. The first subject, is a pig shaped flower.
'Name: Pigtunia'
'A genetically modified flower that can reproduce very quickly. Their pollen is known to make people cry and their mouths allow them to drain psychic energy from a target. Danger level: low.'
'Weakness: Being a flower, they are incapable of moving and are easily burnt or frozen.'
The one element I have is the only one it isn't weak too… still, being still makes it an easy target. I swing once with my new rod and I send it flying. Woah. That's a bit too powerful, I should probably tone it down. The rest of the day is spent doing the same thing to other chimeras I can find, although I make sure not to seriously injure them.
The next day, I decide to focus more on the mental side of things and start reading PSI and I. It's a good read so far, because they cover things in a lot of detail. The chapters on recovery PSI were interesting, and our mishap with Mr Genator definitely makes me hope I learn some.
Returning to the lab, we start building the maid, but not before I give the order for a name – who we decide to call, Li'l Miss Marshmallow. Somehow, somehow, that's even worse than Mr Genator – because at least his name was a clever word play. This is just… I'd rather call it whatever its serial number was, if I could remember it.
Either way, the construction of Miss Marsh - that's my nickname for her, goes rather smoothly, although saying that, the construction of Mr Genator also went smoothly and the results weren't the best by any means. It only takes 2 weeks to finish constructing her – which leads us to activating her.
We've learned from Mr Genator and all the Pigmasks draw their guns preemptively. We've also got a crew of Claymen ready to help us if things don't go our way.
"HELLO."
The colonel replies, "Hello, who are you?"
"THE NAME WHICH I WAS GIVEN IS LI'L MISS MARSHMALLOW, SERIAL NUMBER: MROB-6720M."
"What do you do?"
"I SERVE HIS HIGHNESS IN WHATEVER WAY HE REQUIRES. HOWEVER, I DO NOT SEE HIM, AND I HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN ANY ORDERS BY HIM."
"We'll take you to him."
"I CANNOT. MY PROGRAMMING FORBIDS ME FROM LISTENING TO ANY ORDERS THAT DO NOT COME FROM HIS HIGHNESS."
The colonel takes a look at all the Pigmasks behind her. "Why do they always have to have such stubborn programming?!"
"Well, it is the king's orders."
The colonel sighs before continuing. "Can't you trust us, we can take you to him."
"THAT IS IRRELEVANT. MY PROGRAMMING FORBIDS ME FROM LISTENING TO ANY ORDERS THAT DO NOT COME FROM HIS HIGHNESS."
The colonel and robot spend a good few minutes going back and forth like this, until eventually she snaps. Both of them snap.
"Right! I've had enough of this! Where is that shut down switch?"
"DANGER! DANGER!"
Miss Marsh sounds rather ticked off now and out pops the claw and scissors. She chases the Colonel for a few minutes while everyone tries their best not to laugh.
They fail.
After some time, I decide to put the colonel out of her misery and hit the shut down switch, stopping Miss Marsh. The colonel gives us all a look of contempt before dismissing us all. Despite its reluctance to listen to anyone but Porky, I suppose that's what we programmed it to do, so at least in that respect, it's working.
There's only one more week before the deadline so we spend it doing some more tests on Miss Marsh and Mr Genator. They go smoothly and with one day left, we decide to clean them – until one of the majors comes up with a 'better' idea.
We drag the two robots in the same room and activate both of them.
Miss Marsh speaks first: "LOOK AT ALL OF THIS FILTH ON YOU! I MUST CLEAN IT AT ONCE!"
Mr Genator isn't exactly comfortable with that though: "GET OFF ME! CLEAR THE AREA!"
"BE QUIET! WITH ALL THIS FILTH, YOU WILL BE OF NO USE TO HIS HIGHNESS."
That finally shuts him up – but it all it does to the Pigmasks is make them laugh even loader. Even the colonel joins in – I suppose it's the relief of being finished with such a difficult project.
"…they're acting like a married couple already!"
Do married couples really argue like that?
'This is the 21st time you've done this. 3 weeks and I'm keeping count. It's only luck that I woke up this early to catch you.'
'Hinawa, you shouldn't be up so early. Go back to sleep.'
'I could say the same to you. You've run yourself ragged these past few weeks with those sheep and chickens.'
I suppose they might on occasion – after all, no one is perfect.
'I can't. Someone's gotta look after them. Besides, I don't mind.'
It can get heated at times.
'But I do. You've been getting up at the crack of dawn and you don't return until late in the night! How much sleep are you getting? This can't be healthy!.'
And sometimes both sides have a point.
'I'm not getting enough sleep, I'll admit. But if I don't look after them, who will? How will we get wool for you to knit with? How will we get food? I have to do this for you and the kids.'
'But you're still working too hard! And speaking of the kids, they haven't seen you for five days!'
But they start to see reason.
'What? How can that be? I've always come back home.'
She's on the verge of tears. 'You leave so early. And then you come back so late. Even more so recently. Not even Claus could match your bad sleeping habits. And Lucas… he is our resident sleepyhead. You can't even come with us to see my father next week because of the animals. I'm not saying you should stop work, but don't overwork yourself like this. At least… spend some time with the kids before we go.'
'Five days… I'm… sorry. I'll wait for the kids to get up before I leave.'
'Have something to eat as well – I know you've been skipping out on breakfast!' Although she says it playfully, there's a serious undertone to it.
'I never could hide anything from you.'
And eventually, that bond is renewed stronger than ever.
'Nope. But it's one of the reasons, many reasons, that I love you. You raised the kids to be honest after all. I think a bit of everyone's favourite food ought to help. Remind me, what do you like on your omelet?'
'You know exactly what I'll say.'
'I know, but I like hearing you say it.'
'Lots of cheese.' He says, with a roll of his eyes, and a smile plastered on his face.
'As always.'
She spends some time making the omelets, humming along. Meanwhile, he's deep in thought. Until…
'Hinawa?'
'Hm?'
'I love you.'
'I love you too.'
A/N: Merry Christmas! Hope everyone's having a good time this holiday, even if you don't celebrate the festival in question. Thank you to all the people who have read this story and my present to you is this chapter! I'm really bad at this whole making a short chapter thing, and it's Christmas so... *sigh*.
I'll admit - I'm not happy with how this chapter turned out. I don't know why either - it just feels a bit off.
So yeah, not much to say about this chapter, other than the memories Claus starts to have. I imagine that certain words, like 'mother', bring back these important memories (like battling random hippies, or universal cosmic destroyers... oh wait, wrong kind of mother), but they don't make much sense to Claus, because he doesn't fully remember or understand these memories. I actually quite enjoyed writing them - and once we get to the Seven Needles... well, I won't much more than that.
Also, not gonna lie, writing Flint and Hinawa gives me a real warm fuzzy. I might just do a bunch of random Flint and Hinawa one shots after this, because why not? I'm aware that Flint is never stated to look after chickens - but come on, think about the omelets. How does the family have omelets with no eggs? Rhetorical question - they can't! But now they can!
Next time, Claus gets a little reward for his efforts.