Chapter XV
A/N: Sorry in advance if this chapter, especially later on, is really rusty... it's been a while since I've worked on this fic, so some stuff isn't going to be that great, honestly.
"Whoever built this thing was crazy!" Rivet yells over the whoosh-ingof air brushing past her ears as she glides along the haphazardly constructed train rail, her FissionMallet in hand and at the ready to smack the last one of the Circuit Breakers. As soon as that red, plastic button comes into view, Rivet swings. The head of her weapon strikes the button in its centre, and she has just a split second to see the light inside the button turn green.
"Security barrier disabled," a computer announces, its monotone voice reverberating throughout this section of Gadgetron HQ. "Have a Gadge-Great day!"
"Talk about terrible alliteration!" Rivet shouts over the roaring wind sweeping past her.
The Lombax leaps over a few mines hovering just above the train rail ("Seriously, who was even in charge of making the blueprints for these rails?!") and spies up ahead a gold bolt stuck in a glass crate that's bolted to the rail. She swings her Mallet as soon as she gets close enough, shattering the fragile glass, and freeing the gold bolt within. Her weapon's bolt magnetizer breaks down and absorbs the hunk of shiny metal before it can topple off the rail and into the Sharkigator-infested ocean below.
However many death-defying seconds later, Rivet's flying off the edge of the rail, and onto the wide, disk-like platform below. The wind is knocked out of her chest as she lands. She just lies there for a minute, trying to catch her breath again. The silver feline hurriedly scrambles to her feet as a dropship swoops down in front of the glass-like building ahead, re-equipping her new Shatterbomb glove. She watches intently as the dropship door lowers open and as soon as a reptilian face peers out, Rivet hurls one of the deadly explosives in.
The dropship is consumed in a massive ball of flames, and spirals out of control away from the platform— right before crashing into the ocean below.
"Yeah, take that!" Rivet shouts after the dropship.
Rivet crosses the narrow bridge ahead of her and skids to a stop as she stares up at the platform higher up— or rather, more specifically, an all too familiar person poised up there.
"You," Rivet growls, crossing her arms.
"Who?" Klunk pipes up— Rivet turns just enough for Klunk to see the individual in question, and his voice too turns guttural. "You."
"So what're you here for this time, Captain Squishy?" Rivet calls out, her lips twisted somewhere between a smirk and a grimace. "Come here to steal our thunder?!"
"Your thunder?!" Qwark exclaims, putting his hand to his chest, looking offended. "What about my thunder!? We had everything under control back on Kerwan!"
"Yeah, right," Rivet grumbles. "It sure looked like it."
"'Captain Squishy?'"
Rivet's and Klunk's jaws drop slightly as a Blarg approaches Qwark and throws their arm around his shoulders.
"Geez, Qwarkie, you must've really ticked these two off for them to give ya such an awf—"
Qwark tele-equips a Combustor and points it at the Blarg's chest. "Walk. Away."
Visibly frightened, the Blarg removes their arm and starts backing away, their body trembling.
"You… backstabbing… arrggghh!" Rivet tele-equips her FissionMallet and crouches low, a rage now burning in her icy blue eyes. Her hoverboots start thrumming softly with power, volume swiftly rising.
"Uh oh…" Qwark shoots at her as she leaps off the platform below. The Combustor rounds only scorch metal. Rivet swings her Mallet up as she soars through the air, and then as she comes back down, mid-descent she brings the head of her weapon crashing down on Qwark's face.
Qwark's jetpack roars to life, and he's hovering above the platform, switching from his Combustor to a Megacorp Bouncer. From the weapons nozzle tumbles a metal ball that shatters upon impact with the ground, releasing tons of smaller ones.
Rivet yelps as said spheres bounce around her, exploding. She weaves her way in between them, wincing as she feels the heat from each explosion. The Lombax switches from her Mallet to one of her Dual Raptors and pulls down all the way on the trigger, releasing a stream of bullets in Qwark's general direction.
"You KNEW! You knew the whole time, didn't you!? About the invasion, about Drek's plans— you were willing to let your entire team get killed, not to mention countless of innocent civilians you're supposed to protect, and for what?! How much is Drek paying you to be his little lap dog!?"
The few Blarg soldiers who were previously congregating the platform have scattered at this point, having made their way to the edge as they watch. Some pull out their phones and start recording.
"I looked up to you! When I was a kid, I looked up to you! Thousands of little kids just like me still do! I wonder what would happen if they knew just how much of a scumbag you really are!"
"Possibly severe disillusionment and even hatred for you, Captain Squishy," Klunk offers. "While I care not for your pitiful existence and wouldn't bat an eye if you were to be incinerated right this very second, I can only imagine the sheer number of robots who also look up to you and practically worship the ground you walk on— and the disappointment and resentment that will result once they know the real you."
"[bleep] you, Qwark! You were a hero, but now? You're no better than Drek."
"How dare you?!" Qwark switches over to a Warmonger and sends a barrage of missiles Rivet's way, forcing the Lombax to zig-zag haphazardly across the platform to avoid them. "I am way better looking than Drek!"
"Do me a favour," Rivet snarls, hurling herself up in the air and re-equipping her Mallet. "Shut. Your. Stupid mouth!" She brings the Mallet down across his jetpack. Metal crumples under the weapon's weight and sparks fly, sending the Captain spiraling and screaming to only Loki knows where.
Rivet lands back on the ground in a low crouch. She lifts her head to glare at the Blarg, who are now staring at her uncertainly.
"Who wants to get pummeled next?" she hisses threateningly.
The Blarg troopers back away slowly, leaving the path ahead clear.
Only one is stupid enough to equip a set of Razor Claws and charge. Rivet cuts them down with a single shot in the chest from her Dual Raptor.
"No wonder they just let us through!" Rivet grumbles, lobbing another bomb at the closest testing bot— taking out both the bot and its Pyrocitor. "Probably thought these guys would be able to take us out!"
Thankfully, it's the last of the testing bots, and neither Lombax nor robot are worse for the wear. The doors slide open, and Rivet charges on ahead, ready to toss another bomb courtesy of her Shatterbomb glove. As she steps onto the elevator pad in front of her, Klunk starts, "Rivet, are you—?"
"I'm fine," Rivet cuts him off as the elevator hums and begins to rise. "I'm mad, but I'll live. After we stop this invasion and return the Gadge-bots, we're gonna have to comm the Rangers and warn them about Qwark. I just hope…"
"That they will still be alive by then?"
"Yeah," Rivet murmurs as they reach the top. The elevator jerks to a stop, and as the feline steps off, she hurls one of her purple spheres at the nearest Blarg solider before they can even equip a weapon. The orb explodes upon impact, consuming the reptile in ball of violet light.
Two or three more bombs, and the area is clear of troopers. Of shattered debris and still-smoldering ash, not so much.
Rivet approaches the edge of the platform, swinging her Mallet absent-mindedly. Down below is the entrance to the next building, which she and Klunk can easily reach by gliding— if it wasn't for the obnoxious yellow forcefield blocking access. Next to it, bolted to the wall, is a big red button.
Rivet smirks, then frowns. "Ya know, Gadgetron HQ should probably look into improving their security mechanisms, cause this right here—" She waves at the button, though Klunk can't exactly see. "— is pretty poorly thought out if you ask me."
"I will have to take your word for it."
Without further ado, Rivet crouches down. "On the count of three, we glide. One… two… three!" She hurls herself off the platform, activating her hoverboots while Klunk engages his heli-pack. The Lombax smacks her Mallet against the button, deactivating the forcefield and allowing them to enter. "Yes! We made it!"
Then she spies the two warbots standing in front of the hallway leading to the next room.
Her ears and tail droop. "Great. Warbots. Of course."
Rivet dashes to the left as they fire at her with their Combustors. She tries to conjure another bomb with her Shatterbomb glove, but it beeps several times in protest, and a robotic voice announces, "Shatterbomb Ammunition depleted. Please visit your local Ms. Zurkon vendor to replenish."
"Oh come on!" Rivet dashes to the right now, thoughts running a mile a minute through her head. She switches over to her Dual Raptors and blasts the two warbots. The rounds chip away at their armour, but do little else to faze them. She equips her Bomb Glove and hurls a few spheres at them, but they do very little damage at this point. If any at all. "I really wish Drek would stop making his warbots so durable!"
Rivet's hoverboots start thrumming, and she stops, staring at the corridor ahead.
"What are you doing?!" Klunk shrieks.
"Getting a move on!" Rivet bursts forward, narrowly dodging the Combustor rounds being blasted. She just barely manages to make it into the next room before the doors slide shut with a loud slam. "Why do I get the feeling we…?" She recognises the room even before the computer speaks.
"Volunteer detected. Releasing Negotiator test bots. Thank you for your contribution to the advancement of Gadgetron technology!"
"Can't catch a break for five seconds," Rivet grumbles, whipping out her FissionMallet and smashing the face of the first test bot that emerges.
Rivet soars off the very short grind rail and lands in a low crouch on the platform below.
"You realise that you could break your spine landing like that, correct?" Klunk points out. "Or at the very least, pull a muscle in your back."
"Oh you hush," Rivet retorts, smirking lightly in mild amusement.
"You are a poser, aren't you?"
"What— no! I am not a poser, you're a poser!"
"… Rivet, do you even know what the term means?"
Rivet scoffs, crossing her arms. "Of course I do! Why wouldn't I?"
"Then please do define it."
"It's… uhh… well, it's… it means… ohh crap. We'll have to take a rain check on that one, bolts." Rivet's grin twists into a scowl as she glares up at Captain Qwark, who's lowering himself down on the platform with the help of his sputtering, still-sparking jetpack. "Back for more, huh? Fate must really enjoy seeing your butt kicked, Captain Squishy."
Qwark's already present glare only darkens as he tele-equips a Groovitron glove. "Stop. Calling me. THAT!" He hurls the disco-like ball into the air, and the device brightens up as it prepares to engage.
Rivet tries to tele-equip a Dual Raptor, but the music kicks on, and she's no longer in control. Against her will, she breaks out into a high-energy dance.
"Errgh! Qwark, stop this now!"
Klunk equips his own Bomb Glove and mutters to Rivet, "I am still in control, and you should still be able to turn while dancing. If you can rotate exactly 180 degrees, I should be able to destroy the Groovitron ball."
Rivet nods, although he can't see.
"You should've taken my offer to join the Rangers when you had the chance—"
"Your 'offer?!' More like you cracking under pressure!" Rivet shoots back, trying to force her body to turn. "You were gonna kill us anyway, weren't you?! Like I dunno, send us on a deadly mission you think we'd have no chance of coming back from!? Can't have anyone getting in the way of your next paycheck, right!?"
"You don't know anything about me!"
"I know you're self-absorbed sell-out willing to get his own team killed for a scumbag like Drek!"
As soon as the Groovitron ball is in his sight, Klunk hurls the bomb at the multi-coloured sphere. Qwark has just enough time to scream at the top of his lungs "Nooo!" before the orbs collide in an explosion of fire and disco lights.
While Qwark is occupied trying to protect his face from the flying shrapnel, Rivet is already whirling around and equipping her Dual Raptor. She fires a round, striking his Groovitron glove. The weapon is scorched, and sparks flicker from the damaged metal and circuitry. His jetpack sputters to life, not of his own accord, and he's sent hurtling through the air— and crashing into the ocean below.
Qwark then bursts from the waves, still screaming and twirling around through the air haphazardly, now with a Sharkigator clamped down on his leg.
Rivet and Klunk watch a moment, and the former shakes her head. She trudges forth, heading into the next building.
"Volunteer detected. Releasing Fusion Grenade test bots. Thank you for your contribution to the advancement of Gadgetron technology!"
The doors in the wall to the side flip open, revealing on the other side… sheep?
"I…" Rivet stares, astonished, and waiting for the ball to drop. It doesn't.
"Whoops. Wrong testing room," the computer says, almost cheekily.
Rivet rolls her eyes and just sprints out of the room as soon as the door ahead opens. As she steps into the outside world once more, she's greeted with a battlefield. Huddled behind stacks of metal crates are Gadgetron employees, armed with various weapons— while on the other side hover jetpack-equipped Blargian troopers, also heavily armed. And clearly winning.
But not for long.
"Hey, doofuses!" Rivet calls out to them, smirking and equipping her Enforcer. "May I have this dance?"