7Seven Secret Space Guppies
The third part of delivering Gil, I promise, this is the last one. What are you waiting? Go, enjoy!
Chapter 12: Persisting words in one's memory
"How far is this elevator going?" Goby asked.
"I feel it's slowing down, we will probably know soon." Zooli said. Their elevator reached a new floor. The transport tube continued up to the roof of the chamber. It was a circular room, again. The 2 remaining Guppies walked out, and the elevator shut its entrance immediately.
"There's a stairway in front of us, let's go that way." Goby whispered.
"Don't you love these high-tech, metallic rooms too? It's not science-fiction, it is really real." Zooli commented.
"Yes they look cool, but we must focus, Zooli." She nodded and followed Goby up the stairway.
The stairs led to a wide hallway. It was dark, but the 2 noticed something a couple of meters from them.
"It doesn't look like an enemy, we can approach it..." Zooli whispered.
"Found a light switch!" Goby said. The 2 were shocked about what they just saw.
"What the Hell is this place?" Zooli said. In the walls were glass cylinders filled with fluid, and unconscious lobsters in them.
"These are, test subjects. For whatever they're doing! Oh no, look!" Goby pointed at a containment cylinder in front of them, in the room.
"Gil!" The 2 said. He didn't answer.
"This is a sort of, containment cylinder. He's held unconscious in this fluid." Zooli explained. "Look, he has a mask connected to tubes. To breathe." Two mechanical arms were holding him at his shoulders.
"Not only there. What have they done to his arm!" Goby pointed at Gil's right arm.
"What the fuck! His arm is more robot than natural!"
"There's a couple of wires attached to his skin, going from his shoulder to his hand." Gil was equipped with a metallic shoulder protection and his hand had a layer of protection on it too. Lastly, on parts around his upper limb and forearm were metal plates too as additional protection.
"Oh this is gross!"
We must open this! There must be a way!"
From behind the cylinder, Cesario appeared. "sono io!" Goby pointed his weapon and was ready to shoot.
"Liberate him now!"
"Ohh, friendship, very beautiful! Amicizia sounds better. I know it's your best friend, Goby. Will you save him, against another teammate?"
"What?" Cesario took a holographic tablet with a small beacon on it, and pressed on some buttons.
"Enough! I'll..." Zooli wanted to approach Cesario, but stopped. "Wh, what happened?! I, can't move any more!"
"Hahaha! Now I control you! How unfortunate, your systems are obsolete and easy to hack! Say ciao ciao now, hahaha!" Zooli pointed at Goby and was ready to shoot.
"No, Zooli don't!" Goby yelled. Cesario disappeared in a nearby room. Goby had just the time to ran back to the elevator room.
"I don't want to do this, Goby!" Zooli said, while shooting at him.
"How can we deactivate that tool?!" Goby shouted from behind the tube elevator.
"Watch out! I'm coming from the left!" Zooli shouted. "He couldn't take away my speaking ability. From the right!"
"I gotta start with destroying your weapon! It's too dangerous." Goby yelled while running around.
"Miserabile parassita! You can't run forever!" Cesario shouted through a loudspeaker.
"My weapon is overheating, but I can't shout that. The freaky spaghetti eater will know too." Zooli thought. "I'm running via the right!"
Zooli could still look around, and was waiting for her barrel to overheat. When it became red-coloured, she shouted.
"Goby! My weapon is overheating! Shoot the barrel of it! NOW!" Goby heard it and sprinted around the elevator. Zooli couldn't shoot any more. Goby aimed for the overheating barrel. The additional warmth from Goby's laser weapon made it melt.
"RAAGHH! YOU ARE FAR FROM VICTORY! Attacco corpo a corpo!" Zooli threw away the blaster and sprinted towards Goby. He couldn't shoot and dodged her attack instead.
"Pizza man is unaware of my laser hands. Oof." She thought.
In the meantime, hundreds of meters under them, Oona was still trying to revive Nonny.
"Come on, wake up Nonny!" She said, pressing on his chest.
"Cough, cough! Ahhh, I saw the light, and then... nothing." Nonny said, being tired.
"Nonny, oh, finally you're awake!" Oona hugged him.
"Where's the rest?" He asked.
"They went up with the elevator to find Gil, I tried to call them, but their communication is broken."
"We must regroup with them, they might be in danger." Nonny stood up.
"You're too weak, Nonny! And the elevator seems to stay all the way up. We're kinda stuck."
"And the exit gate here?"
"Those kamikaze drones are waiting outside, probably..." Nonny sighed.
"Then we must try and contact Deema, or Sergeant Flynn. Have you tried that?" Oona shook her head. Nonny went in all the corners of the room.
"Hello? Deema? Deema, do you copy?"
"...Onny?"
"Fucking signal! Yeah, Deema. Do you hear me." He repeated slowly.
"Yes, but n...t t... go...d."
"Listen, locate our positions and come quickly! We need backup, I repeat, we need backup!"
"...ou need b...ckpack?" Nonny exhaled.
"NO! Back, up!"
"Ahhh! Ba...k up. I'll t...ll Fl...nn, wait ... sec."
Deema jumped off a crate she sat on and went to Flynn. He was discussing plans with his soldiers.
"Eh, Sergeant?"
"Watcha want?"
"Nonny want's backup. We must find them."
"Agreed. We're just sitting her, being stuck. SMITH! BLOW A HOLE IN THIS PLATFORM!" A soldier placed an explosive in the middle of the platform, and detonated it. "Now we fly down with the propulsors and find your friends back."
Deema, Flynn and several WPP soldiers went back down.
"Nonny, we are in."
"Deema! Your signal is clearer now. Have you located our positions yet?" Deema looked on her arm screen.
"Jeez, you guys are far into this massive base! What the Hell have you done?"
"We didn't follow the rules. I'll guide you to us through our exact route. Describe me every room that you enter."
"Okay, then..." Deema took the lead. There were no OD soldiers in the first part of the complex.
Back at Goby. Zooli was still trying to attack him, but until now, Goby had dodged or blocked all Zooli's attacks.
"I can't hurt you, Zooli! There must be a way to deactivate you, right?" Goby said. Zooli ran at him and hit Goby's weapon out of his hand.
"Ah fuck! Take it back! Yes, you can deactivate me! On my neck is a little box that covers a reset button!"
"But you'll never reach it!" Cesario added. Goby picked his weapon up, and received a hit on his back. He pushed Zooli away with the gun. Then, he ran away from the elevator and hid behind Gil.
"Dang, he's right!"
"Goby! You must destroy me! Before I, oush... Kill you!" Zooli shouted.
"Can't we wait for your batteries to be empty?" Zooli stood in front of Goby and tried to punch him.
"There's still 5 hours left before I shut down! You will be too tired then! You have no choice! Shoot me!" Goby hesitated.
"I won't have enough ammunition, you know!"
"Aim for my legs!" Goby ran down the stairway and looked. He was hesitating even more. Zooli approached him. He released three shots at her left leg.
"I'm sorry for crippling you!" Zooli was limping a bit.
"Don't be sorry, you must save Gil and yourself!" She yelled back.
In the meantime, Nonny was still guiding Deema and Flynn.
"So you go into that pipe that got blown up. Go up and follow it. You'll find a generator room." Nonny explained.
"Blown up pipe, aha! Here." Deema pointed at it. She entered it. The rest followed.
"Pwoah what the Hell is this bullshit route that you guys took?" Flynn said.
"No other choice..."
"Nonny, we're in the generator room. What now?" Deema asked.
"Okay, from there, go through the exit door, and you'll enter a large hub room. Take the stairs up and go through the right door on the first floor. You'll enter a hallway."
"Hub, stairs, right... Right, okay, haha!" The WPP forces followed the instructions of Nonny.
"Are you at the end of the hall, yet?"
"Yep, we enter the room I guess?"
"Indeed, but watch out for kamikaze drones and maybe OD soldiers... Go straight forward, and you'll see a big gate. We are locked behind it." Deema, with her pistol in her hand, entered the room. Flynn and WPP lobsters were right behind them. From the roof arrived a drone.
"Here they are, the Japanese drones!" Flynn shouted and shot the thing. Others tried to approach the infiltrating squad, but all got taken down.
"That was quite... Nothing, let's move on." Deema and the rest tried to open the door.
"I can hear you all from here. Try to open it, the panel is probably kaput. You must cut the gate..." Nonny explained.
"Okay. JEAN CUT THIS THING! SMITH, BERNARD, COVER HIM!" Flynn shouted.
"Ah jeez guy! Why can't you talk normally?" Deema complained.
"Hahaha! You'd never dare to say that the first days we met, right?" The two grinned.
Zooli and Goby were still fighting. Goby started to feel tired from running around, despite the regrettable damage he did to his teammate. He still had to run.
"Shoot me Goby!" Zooli shouted.
"Yes! Shoot her Goby, you patetico bastardo!" Cesario added. But Goby was trying to figure out a plan. He ran all the way back to the cylinder, containing Gil.
"This glass doesn't look too resistant... Some wires from Zooli's legs are exposed... If I can make this fluid get in contact with her system, then the emergency shutdown will be activated!" Goby thought. He peeked from behind the containment cylinder. Zooli was approaching.
"Who's hiding behind this thing? I can still move! È ora di morire!" Zooli was in front of the container.
"Pardon me..." Goby turned around and used his propulsors to get behind Zooli very quickly. He pushed her hard against the container, making her fall on the ground. A crack appeared in the glass. Goby shot his last energy against it, breaking it. A bit of fluid got in contact with Zooli.
"Emergency 5 0 8, exposed wiring in contact with fluid. Deactivating all electric activities!" Her system said. Zooli stiffened up, and crumbled on the ground.
"I, hope you are still repairable..." Goby said, kneeling next to Zooli's body.
"Aah! Grande puttana di merda! Clear this room!" Cesario screamed. Goby put Zooli on his shoulders and dragged her to the elevator.
"Come on! Open you thing! How does Nonny do that? Wire cutting?" Goby took his knife and removed the control panel.
"How does this work here? Maybe, this... Oush!"
A long way down under him, were his teammates.
"Aaaand, done!" The WPP lobster said. The gate was opened by force and Nonny and Oona were liberated.
"Finally, but now we must get up here. The elevator is blocked on top." Nonny explained.
"We'll fly up and cut a hole in the elevator, JEAN!" Flynn shouted.
"We'll stand by to enter the elevator."
Goby was still struggling with the wires.
"Ah screw this! I've probably locked myself up even more! Let's bring Gil already." Goby went to his unconscious friend, still attached to the mechanical arms. Goby removed them by force and Gil's body fell on him. He had a closer look to his arm.
"You're so cold, what have they done to your arm?" Goby dragged his friend all the way back and put him next to Zooli. He checked for his heartbeat, it was still, slowly active.
"You all are cowards! Why does nobody enter that room?! FINE! I'LL DO IT MYSELF!" Cesario screamed through the loudspeaker.
Goby got surprised by a sound behind him. He looked through the armoured glass of the elevator door. Big sparks appeared and slowly moved around in a circle.
"Hello?! No radio link, shit. Hello! Do you hear me? It's Goby!" He shouted.
"Goby?" Nonny's voice said. He and Oona were waiting until the WPP lobster cut the hole.
"Nonny! You're alive!"
"Yeah, how is the situation?"
"I found Gil! He needs immediate evacuation and medical care! I don't know what they did to him, he's unconscious, but still alive!"
"And Zooli?"
"Offline too!" Goby heard a door opening in front of him, near the hallway. "I'll explain it later, someone entered the room too!"
"Stay there, we're coming!"
"Halfway cut." The lobster said. The 3 were waiting, while flying.
Cesario appeared with a ballistic pistol and wanted to shoot, but Goby forced him to take cover.
"Gotta spare the last bits of energy..." Goby thought.
"You're so miserable Goby! You chose the wrong side!" Cesario shouted.
"Insulting me won't change anything! You only create more enemies!" Goby replied.
"Almost there..." Nonny thought, looking at the cutting process.
"Your naivety is regrettable. But at least, you're the first one open for dialogue with me."
"It's because I can't kill you from here!"
"Your thirst for killing could explain why you got chosen by the WPP."
"It seems obvious what side to choose! The one that doesn't commit atrocities, the one that doesn't do unethical experiments on people, the one that doesn't strive for world domination!"
"Watch out down there! Cutting done!" Nonny and Oona entered the elevator. They saw Goby laying next to the two corpses.
"Another glass layer must be cut!" Oona shouted. The lobster came back.
"Hahahaha! You really believe what you say? The WPP is the incarnation of purity, kindness and justice? And the OD the devil itself? We might not be so democratic like you, but you have no idea what you're talking about! You've only been here for maximum one year! You don't know anything!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Goby looked behind him. His friends and a WPP soldier trying to cut the door.
"We are sworen enemies you and I, but I'll tell you something, and you'll remember my words. Soon, you will see, what the real WPP is, what their real intentions are! You'll see they aren't that pure afterall! Remember my words!"
"You guys are insane, perverted and indoctrinated!" Cesario just laughed. He peeked from his corner and shot Goby in the arm.
"When the final battle will take place, I hope to face you in a duel. Only you! But just before that, we'll have a talk! I have so much more to tell you before I kill you." The elevator entrance almost got opened.
"I'll be there, I keep my promises!"
"Formidabile! Now go and leave. Get the third panel and we'll see each other soon. Remember my words, Goby. Ci vediamo dopo!" Cesario ran to a door in the hallway and vanished.
"Such a weird guy, but I feel something special towards him..." Goby thought, while suffering from the bullet. He didn't activate his spacesuit. The cutting was over.
"Goby!" Oona and Nonny said. They pulled him up.
"You're wounded, let me see..." Oona added.
"No, I'm fine, in comparison to Gil. Help him first." Oona approached her blue-haired friend.
"What are all those wires and chips in his arm? Is he still alive?" Nonny asked. Flynn and Deema arrived too.
"He is in a critical state, we must cure him immediately!" WPP lobsters brought Gil down the elevator tube.
"And what's with Zooli?" Nonny looked at the lifeless body.
"I'll explain it on the way back, we have something more important to care about! Sergeant, please follow me." Goby showed Flynn the other containment cylinders.
"I've, I've, never seen something like this in my career." Flynn said on a normal tone.
"We must help them!" Goby said.
"No! There is no time to lose or Gil will die! And we only have one transport ship left. I'm sorry..." Oona explained. Flynn turned to Goby.
"You've already saved many lives, but you can't save everyone. We'll make them pay, I promise!" Flynn said, tapping Goby's shoulder. He looked dissapointed.
"Remember my words, Goby..." Goby heard the words of Cesario in his head. Everyone left the room, and evacuated via the way the Guppies made. Gil was put in a reserve space suit and the infiltration squads left the facility.
Back on the surface, they made their way through the ruins of the OD outpost and passed the two rows of walls, back to the evacuation area. Everyone entered the transportship, going straight back to the Hannibal.
"Soon, you will see, what the real WPP is, what their real intentions are..." Cesario's words stayed in Goby's head. "Ah get out of my head!"
"You said something Goby?" Nonny asked, sitting next to him.
"No no..."
"Will you tell us now what happened to Zooli? Did her batteries run out?" Goby waited a moment.
"No... It's far more worse..."
And finally we can put an end to the quest for Gil, and I hope you enjoyed it. But we're not done yet...