Chapter IV

KayXClankForever: This is quite the interesting read so far! It's not everyday I get to read fics about Klunk, and considering I'm a huge fan of him the lack of content does tend to be disappointing. Gotta say though, you're capturing his personality really well in this, I also like seeing how he interacts with Rivet.

Used to write for Klunk a few years back during my roleplaying days and I can agree that writing for him can be difficult at times, especially when first starting out and getting to know his character.

Good luck with future chapters! I'm looking forward to seeing what antics Rivet and Klunk get up to!

My Reply: Thanks! I'm glad you like it so far, and I'm also pleased to know I'm capturing Klunk's personality well (I'm always worrying about characterization, so I'm glad at least up to this chapter, I've been writing him well enough. And his and Rivet's dynamic is certainly interesting to see.

Hopefully this chapter is okay- it's not nearly as good as the other chapters, imo, but I needed to move the story along, otherwise I'll never finish it... I'll try to come back to this chapter eventually, though, and rewrite it if I can.

Thank you for reading and commenting! :3

As soon as Klunk's magnetic mount connects with Rivet's, the young Lombax sprints for the door. It slides open, revealing the wide corridor beyond— and all the Blarg running around screaming and occasionally crashing into each other comically. The feline ignores them, weaving in-between the panicking reptiles while they're distracted in trying to find the quickest route to the escape pods.

"T—minus six minutes and forty seconds to total destruction," the ship's speakers crackle threateningly. "Please proceed to the escape pods on your floor in a calm and orderly fashion."

If any of the Blarg soldiers heard the ship's computer, they don't give any indication— they continue to run back and forth, from room to room, and even throw belongings at one another. Rivet dodges a flying suitcase, which instead whacks the Blarg to her left right in the face. Hallway after hallway— they're all flooding to the brim with chaos.

"T—minus five minutes and ten seconds to total destruction. Evacuation is strongly advised."

Rivet runs from the corridor into a much larger, cylindrical room. The floor is split twice in the middle from wall to wall, parallel to the doorways leading to and from the chamber. The wide gaps in the floor are half-filled with a thick, and potentially deadly sludge— the only way across the first one being the Versa-Target hovering just below the ceiling. Rivet, upon reaching the edge of the gap, engages her Swingshot. The grapple latches onto the Versa-Target, and the feline catapults herself off the platform. She swings across the divide, and disengages her Swingshot upon reaching the other side— allowing her to land on the floor feet-first with a soft thunk.

"T—minus four minutes and fifty-two seconds to total destruction. If you are not in the escape pods in three of those minutes, recording your final will and testament is strongly advised."

As she resumes her run, she spies a Wall Run Ramp to her right above the next gap, and she leaps towards it, flinging her arm up and engaging her Swingshot once more. The grapple locks onto the Zip-Target, and the young Lombax plants her feet against the ramp. She sprints across it, boots pounding hard against the metal surface, almost as hard as her heart pounds against her chest. When she reaches the end of the ramp, she deactivates her Swingshot and leaps to safety on the platform below.

Rivet doesn't waste any time, and resumes her flight for her and Klunk's lives.

Rivet and Klunk are safely in the fighter jet, flying away from the warship— when said warship finally explodes, meeting the same fate as its brethren had just moments earlier. The feline steers the jet down towards the ground, and carefully lands the ariel vehicle in the middle of the crater-ridden street of the town below. "See?" She turns her gaze on him and smiles. "Sometimes I don't crash."

Klunk sends a look her way that shines anything but confidence in her abilities.

"And technically, the first time wasn't even my fault," Rivet adds with a light chuckle while she shuts off the jet's engines. She presses one more button on the dashboard, and the cockpit window tilts open with the soft hum of its inner machinery.

Rivet clambers out the cockpit. Klunk follows shortly after, falling on his rump with a thunk. The little bot quickly gets to his feet and brushes bits of dirt off his metal frame. "Perhaps not, but your piloting skills are still quite questionable."

Rivet snorts, settling her hands on her hips as she looks down at the silver robot with a slight frown. "Fiiiine, you can fly next time. Let's just go find that one Novalian, and see if they can give us a ship."

"If they are still alive," Klunk points out.

"Yeah, if they're still alive," Rivet mutters.

Finding the Planetary Chairman Buckwash (as they quickly learned that's who the Novalian they'd met in the town is) turns out to be pretty easy— as less than five minutes after the fiery end of the Blarg invasion, an announcement is made over the few still-intact speakers throughout the town.

"Citizens of Tobruk Crater— the Blarg invasion is over, thanks to a young Lombax and a little talking toaster. Ahh, if the two of you are still alive, meet me in the town square! I'll have one of my courier ships all set and ready to go for you." Pause. "Oh, and there's some plumber here who says they wanna see you too. Anyhoo, for those of you citizens still left in the town— feel free to contact any family or friends who might have already evacuated, and tell them the good news. If they're still alive, that is…"

"Wait second… is that Skidd McMarx?"

Rivet stares, wide-eyed with surprise, as she watches the transmission play out on the infobot she and Klunk got from the rather eccentric plumber. Out of all the things she might have expected to see on this infobot— this is not one of them.

Skidd, who is sitting on the left side of the ship, frantically presses buttons at random as missiles rising up from the surface of the planet below explode.

The Rilgarian on the right is none other than Skidd's agent, Don Wonderstar. In contrast to Skidd, he is perfectly calm— it probably helps that he is too busy staring down at his phone, oblivious to the carnage taking place right outside their ship.

"Mayday, mayday- this is the solarship Radical!" Skidd's hands seem to tremble more with each second that passes, and the panic was evident in his voice. The poor guy is legitimately scared. "We seem to be under attack from the planet's surface."

"Relax, Skidd. It looks like some sort of fireworks display—" Yeah, right. "— probably in your honour!"

"Whoa-ho-hoo! That was close!" Something explodes, and a tremor ripples through the ship. "Ny-aaahhh!"

"Pipe down, I can't concentrate!" Don Wonderstar snarls at the pro-hoverboarder, still seemingly unaware of the dangerous and potentially deadly situation the two of them are stuck in.

"But we've been hit!" Skidd protests fearfully.

"Uhh, an unexpected detour- when we land, I'll see if I can scare up an exhibition for ya."

"We're not gonna live that long!"

Don finally looks up, and sees the missile that was headed straight towards them. He points frantically, calling out, "Kid, let's am-scray!"

"Eject, eject!"

The two Rilgarian's seats sink into the floor, taking their occupants with them— just before the missile strikes, exploding upon impact. The resulting flames consume the ship, and then the infobot screen goes black.

"'Skidd McMarx?'" Klunk repeats with a blank expression. "Do you know them?"

"Not personally, no," Rivet answers. "He's a professional hoverboarder from Blackwater City, and the inventor of the Twisty McMarx. So he's pretty famous."

As his jaw tilts into a frown, Klunk releases a loud squelch— his version of a snort maybe? "It does not sound like he is at all relevant to our objective."

"So? That doesn't mean we shouldn't go find them," Rivet retorts, crossing her arms and sending the bot a glare. "They might've survived the crash. And they might need our help—"

"No! We already took one detour to save this planet!" Klunk shoots back sharply, eyes quickly narrowing. "And guess what, Lombax? We have saved it. Now it is time you held up your end of the bargain! Escort me to the Rangers, like you promised. After that, you are free to do whatever you wish."

"Fine! I'll take you to Kerwan! And then after that, you're free to leave, and save the flippin' galaxy or whatever!" The young feline is practically seething with rage— she doesn't even know where it's coming from, just that it's been there a long time, and it's bursting now that it's finally reached the surface, and she's taking it all out on the silver bot in front of her. Klunk takes a step back, his scowl disappearing as the Lombax continues to rant. "Just leave!" That's what everyone else does. "I don't care!"

With that having been said, Rivet whirls around on her heel and stomps off towards their newly acquired courier ship (a big, clunky hunk of metal painted a pine green, and so old that it has landing gear that pops out when coming in for a landing.), ignoring the stares both she and Klunk are getting from the few civilians now congregating the crater-ridden town square.

She'll take Klunk to wherever the Ranger tryouts are taking place, and let him take it from there. She doesn't need him to track down Skidd McMarx and his agent.

She can find them just fine on her own.

. . . .

"… aaaand this be Pirate Radio! Hosted by me, ex-Cap'n Romulus Slag, and my successor and fiancé, Cap'n Pierre!"

"And if yeh don't come to our weddin', it's le casier spatial de Davy Jones for yeh! Hic— hahahaha!"

"I hope someone does fail to show up, Pierre— I'm a little rusty when it comes to knot-tyin'!"

Rivet shakes her head, an amused smile spreading across her lips, as the couple then dissolve into a heated discussion as to what knot they should use for the nooses. Thankfully, they quickly settle on a constrictor knot, and then Pierre announces the next song.

"Up next on our playlist for the day is the live version of Courtney Gears single 'Robot Lover!' This one is my personal favourite! Profitez, nos merveilleux fans!"

The audio then cuts to the cheering and squealing of fans, which soon dies down. Courtney Gears' voice then crackles softly over the microphone as she says, "This one's just for you, Snookie-Woogums.

"You, you, you

Are my robot looover!

Goin' zap,

Zap, Zap,

Zap with your love!"

The feline's smile disappears after a moment, and she glances over at Klunk. The robot seems content to stare out at the cockpit window as he pilots the ship, taking in the many stars twinkling softly in the endless darkness outside. For a split second, she almost wants to apologise for snapping earlier— and then the memory comes back to hit her with full force. Her expression twists into a heavy scowl. Rivet grits her teeth and crosses her arms over her chest as she looks away and instead glares out the cockpit window herself.

Whatever.

I don't need you.

I don't need anyone.

I've been doing just fine on my own!

"Don't need to ask

For your ha-aaand—

I know you'll say yes

Don't need to ask—

It's a silly question.

I know you'll say yes,

'Cause you're my robot lover!

You, you, you

Are my robot looover!

Goin' zap,

Zap, Zap,

Zap with your love!"

The silver Lombax reaches for one of the knobs on the dashboard and turns the volume down a bit, her ears now ringing.

Courtney Gears can be really loud when she sings sometimes.

Rivet clambers out the ship first, glad to be able to stretch her legs after sitting in that cockpit for hours. Kerwan, a planet that has the very unfortunate honour of being named after a somewhat disturbing anagram, is a planet covered in nothing but ocean, with all its cities high in the sky— thousands of miles above the surface of the sea itself. Its many skyscrapers stretch out into the cloud-less pale blue above, truly living up to their name. Bronze rooftops glint in the golden sunlight, and the trees, grass and other plants bloom in abundance wherever there isn't a pathway or building. Ships zip by overhead, filling the city of Metropolis with a soft thrumming. There's safety railing lining the edges of pretty much all the streets, to prevent civilians from accidentally falling to their deaths.

There are also billboards littering the city, some flickering due to power fluctuations or problems with the wiring. Quite a few of some are advertising for a place called "Al's Roboshack" (which, ironically enough, was the place that Rivet and Klunk saw being sponsored by Qwark in the ad on that one infobot), while others are advertising for the new VG-9000 game system or something called a "Protopet" from Megacorp.

Klunk made sure to find an empty landing pad not too far from the Ranger tryout fairgrounds, so the bot would have to do some walking if he wants to talk to the Rangers. Rivet figures she'll take him to the entrance, at the very least. And then, from there, he's on his own.

Maybe I should get him a weapon or something, in case he needs it. After all, while there may not be any Blarg here, someone might mistake him for a rogue toaster or something… As she and Klunk head down the stone pathway leading from their landing pad into the streets, Rivet spies a Gadgetron vendor up ahead. She breaks out into a run and sprints towards it, ignoring Klunk's startled/annoyed queries.

Moby greets her with a pleased "hi" and a big smile, but she doesn't seem to hear him. Rivet scrolls through the available items for purchase until she finds another Bomb Glove and neural interface.

Upon seeing the look of confusion on Moby's face, Rivet explains, "I'm getting this stuff for… someone else."

After buying the Bomb Glove and neural interface, she scrolls through the vendor's inventory again— more slowly this time, to see if there's anything that might peak her interest (and that's within her price range).

And that's when she sees it.

"'The Spiral of Death,'" Rivet reads aloud to herself.

"Oooh, that's a really good one!" Moby exclaims, rubbing his hands together excitedly— most likely at the prospect of doing more business. "I used it to trim my grass a couple times." His voice lowers into a mutter as he adds, "… Until I accidentally took out my neighbor's fence, anyway."

Despite the very weird attempt at advertising, Rivet finds herself enamored by the weapon. "I'll take it."

The exchange is quick, and soon enough, Rivet has uploaded her new Spiral of Death to her own neural interface, and is now passing the other Bomb Glove and neural interface to Klunk. "Here ya go— I'm pretty sure you'll be fine, but you should take them anyway just in case," she tells him. "I'll take you to the fairground entrance, but that's… that's as far as I go."

She may have finally cooled off a bit when it comes to the little robot, but that doesn't mean anything. Their priorities are different, and now that she's thinking a little more clearly, she can't really blame him for being focused on telling the Rangers about what Drek is planning.

In the long run, it's more important.

But at the same time, Rivet can't abandon people (even if she's never even met them) just because it might be inconvenient. As to people leaving her…

It's not important.

She's not important. She's just the universe's plaything. Nothing more. If the universe has any sense of humour whatsoever, it's… certainly a cruel one.

"I am… sorry."

"… what?"

What, indeed.

Klunk is looking directly at her, his scowl once again being replaced by a different expression entirely. One Rivet can't identify. But whatever it is, it's not… as harsh as his scowl.

It's still kind of harsh, but… less so.

"I will not apologise for putting the safety of the Solana Galaxy first," Klunk explains firmly as he fiddles a bit with his new weapon and neural interface. "But I do apologise for… for the way I behaved. It was uncalled for. You were only expressing your concern for McMarx's and his colleague's safety." A pause. "I… should be able to take it from here, Rivet. There is no need to accompany me further."

Rivet's lips are curled in a frown, the gears turning in her head.

After a minute, when he receives no response, Klunk turns away and starts heading down the street.

"Wait." Klunk stops, and turns back around to see Rivet following after him. "I'm sorry too. For yelling like I did." She pauses, and then a small smile spreads across her muzzle. "Not gonna apologise for wanting to help Skidd and his agent, though."

There's an awkward moment of silence.

"Well then… goodbye?"

Rivet snorts in amusement. Of course, he doesn't get it. "You dummy— I'm coming with you."

"You are? But why— wait, what did you just call me?" Klunk's scowl has returned, but that doesn't deter the silver Lombax in the slightest.

She settles her hands on her hips as she says, "I believe I called you a dummy. 'Cause that's exactly what you are, bolts. Look, I'm still going to help Skidd and his agent, if they're still alive. But I'm not leaving you, either. Not until we've told the Rangers about Drek and his plans. No one's going to be safe anyway if he isn't stopped."

Klunk stares at her, clearly surprised at this turn of events.

"I made a promise." Rivet's voice has lowered to a soft mutter at this point, and she's talking more to herself than Klunk now. "And I intend to keep it."

A/N: This isn't gonna be the last time these two quarrel, of course. Or yell at each other, for that matter. Also, just for the record, before someone asks- at no point in this story will Rivet and Klunk be "a couple." They will eventually become friends, but that's that. I never wanted, nor do I want, them to ever be a couple in this story, or in any stories taking place after.

I just wanted to make that crystal clear before anyone makes any assumptions.