Chapter XVI
Rivet blasts the last of the Blarg troopers in the face, sending them crashing into a stack of bolt crates a couple feet away. She turns around to spy the Gadgetron employees still huddling behind the giant metal crates. One of them steps out from behind, eyes widening in surprise.
"Hey! You're the two heroes who saved Kerwan!"
Rivet chuckles, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "Yeah, that's us. You all okay?"
"Much better now that you showed up!" the employee said, smiling and holding out their hand. "I'm Mort!" They wave their hand towards each one of the other employees, introducing them. "This is Mort, this is Mort, that li'l trouble maker over there is Mort…"
"Uhmm…" Klunk starts, his voice low. "Are you all named Mort?"
"Yep!" they all say simultaneously.
Rivet snorts. "Well, we gotta keep moving— these jerks aren't gonna stop unless someone gives them a good enough reason to." She points her thumb towards her chest. "You guys find somewhere safe to hide, okay? Klunk and I will take care of these Blarg!"
"You got it, Rivet!" A pause. Mort looks at her with some worry. "Just be careful! We… we lost some good people today."
Rivet nods, her expression determined. As all the Morts run off to safety, she smashes a couple ammo crates— restocking on ammunition for her Enforcer and Shatterbomb. Once the area is clear of ammo crates, she equips the former weapon and sprints down the path ahead, towards a… very odd looking testing room. Odd in that there was no door or wall to block off access to the route they came.
"Volunteer detected in fluffy bunny room. Prepare to play with adorable bunny rabbits."
Rivet frowns.
"… Correction: the fluffy bunny room has been relocated to sector twelve. Releasing experimental robo-vampire bunnies, our answer to the Megacorp Chickenbot. Thank you for your contribution to the advancement of Gadgetron technology!"
"I knew it," Rivet mutters. As soon as the first appropriately dubbed "robo-vampire bunny" charges through an open trap door, she fires. She quickly pulls down the trigger again and again, less than a second passing between each pull.
She dances backwards, dodging the metallic nips at her feet and blasting the attempted attackers. The young Lombax soon switches over to her Shatterbomb glove, annihilating entire swathes of the sharp Carbonox-toothed rabbits.
Within minutes, the robo-vampire bunnies are reduced to piles of smoldering metal, melted wires, and shattered circuit boards.
Rivet stands hunched over, panting, hands resting on her knees. "You alright back there, bolts?"
"As usual, yes," Klunk answers. "Although I am extremely concerned by the fact that Gadgetron is experimenting with robotic vampire bunny rabbits."
"Yeah," Rivet says breathlessly as she starts making her way towards the glass double doors ahead. "Same. But this is the same corporation that doesn't require any kind of safety gear on the hoverboard tracks, soooo…"
"Test complete. Thank you for participating in the Gadgetron weapon test. Your ten percent coupon will be mailed to your home address in within five to seven years."
Rivet looks up at the speaker from which the computerised voice had come from, one eye twitching, fists clenching with barely bottled rage.
Klunk never thought he'd hear so many expletives from his partner in one day.
Rivet approaches the Gadgetron CEO, Wendell Lumos, an elderly, wizened-looking lizard (possibly the same species as Moby) with glasses and no shoes. He has his back to them, watching the Blarg-caused chaos outside the building.
"Uhh, excuse me?" Rivet stops, raising her hand. "I was wondering if you were uh… concerned about the invasion…?"
"Kid, our defenses are the best money can buy," Lumos declares proudly, turning around. "Don't give it another thought!"
"If by 'your defenses,'" Klunk growls, clambering off Rivet's back delivering a glare to the old CEO, "you mean your employees, they seemed fairly close to being obliterated. If we had not come along when we did, they all would have been killed."
Rivet nods in agreement, crossing her arms.
Lumos heaves a sigh, shoulders sagging. "Alright. So maybe we aren't doing too well…"
Rivet has to bite her lip from saying, Ya think?
He looks back up at them sheepishly, twiddling his thumbs. "I don't suppose either of you know how to operate a cannon?"
Rivet and Klunk share a look. The former then turns her gaze back on Lumos. "We just might. You've got one?"
Lumos nods. "I'll let you compete in the hoverboard races without having to pay the entry fees!"
"Wait, there are entry fees now?" Rivet's expression is blank with puzzlement— she then shakes her head quickly. She looks down at Klunk, offering a smile. "Wanna blast some more Blarg outta the sky, partner?"
The smoldering wreckage of Blarg ships dot the ocean, slowly sinking beneath the waves. The remaining, still flyable ships retreat, quickly speeding off towards the horizon with their tails between their legs.
Rivet and Klunk clamber out of the thoroughly crumpled, half-charred turret, and trudge inside, where Lumos stands in front of a computer, watching the screens.
"You two did it," Lumos says, the surprise evident in his voice.
"Well, we did save Kerwan from a Blarg invasion," Rivet starts, swinging her arms a bit, "and we helped the Rangers with the attack on Batalia."
"Wait, that was you?" Lumos turns towards them, blinking, stroking his slightly unkempt goatee. He hums, nodding to himself. "Interesting…" The lizard presses a few buttons, and there's a hum— followed by the sound of water draining.
Rivet and Klunk approach the office window to see the water once covering the hoverboard racecourse now sinking away.
"Now that the invasion is over, you're free to race! We have three cups: Bronze, Silver, and Gold," Lumos explains, getting a bit excited. "For the Bronze and Silver Cups, you can win cash prizes, but for the Gold, you can win our brand new Hologuise!"
"That's great and all, but that's not the reason we came here," Rivet tells him, waving her hands for him to calm down. "We rescued some Gadge-bots from the Blarg Tactical Research station in Nebula G34, and we wanted to bring them back here, to their home."
"Wait, you found some of our missing Gadge-bots?" Lumos freezes, visibly startled. His face softens. "Where are they?"
"They are safely back at our ship," Klunk answers.
Rivet adds, "We landed on an island not too far from the Headquarters."
Lumos nods slowly, pulling a bit at his goatee again. "In that case, if you could retrieve them and bring them back here… that would be deeply appreciated. For saving our Headquarters and the Gadge-bots…" He reaches into his back pocket, presumably feeling for something, and then pulls it out. "You two deserve a reward!" He shows off the gadget, a green leather cap with goggles sewn on and little antennae sticking out of it. "This is the Sonic Summoner! You can use this to call on Sand Mice. They're friendly little fellows packed with enough fire power to vaporize a Sharkigator in one shot!"
He tosses it to Rivet, who catches it and turns it over in her hands. "Niiiice…"
"There is one more thing I'd like to ask," Lumos adds hurriedly, raising his hand. "You said you retrieved the ones from the station located in Nebula G34?"
"Yes…?" Klunk tilts his head, crossing his arms. "Why do you ask?"
"They're not the only Gadge-bots who went missing a few weeks back," Lumos tells them, reaching back into his pocket and pulling out an infobot. "Some of them were separated and taken to planet Orxon instead. I sent some people after them, but… well. They never came back."
Rivet and Klunk share a look.
"But the way you two handled this invasion and… I think you just might be the right people for the job." Lumos pulls out from his other pocket a metal detector. How he even manages to fit that stuff in there, Rivet doesn't want to know. "If you manage to rescue the Gadge-bots from Orxon, I'll give you… ten thousand bolts, and this old metal detector!"
The face of none other than the slimy villain Drek fizzles onto the screen, delivering the camera an equally slimy grin.
"Hello once again fellow Blarg, I hope this message finds you well!" The transmission cuts to a series of images: a series of buildings, surrounded by heavily mutated plant and animal life, and bodies of what was once water now a glowing green sludge that could probably kill any non-mutated life form upon any sort of physical contact. "As many of you know, our home planet is no longer habitable," Drek drones on.
"We've abandoned our factories, our laboratories, and our happy lives because of the encroaching pollution— leaving much behind." The transmission cuts back to him, and his disgustingly gleeful expression.
"Fortunately, the nearby planets will supply us with all we need to create our new home, which is nearing completion! Once our scientists locate the ideal orbit—" An image of a warbot holding a Blarg scientist at gunpoint as they study the map on the table— "our new world will be perfect!" And then it cuts back to Drek again. "So reserve your space now, prime locations are filling up fast. Good day!"
Rivet crosses her arms as the infobot screen collapses back into the bot's "mouth." A scowl is present on her face. "I had a feeling that slimeball wasn't in this to help his own people— he's in it for the cold hard bolts!"
"Why have you not shown this to anyone else?" Klunk asks Lumos, head tilted.
"Unlike the rest of the galaxy, I don't put my problems in the hands of the Rangers and cross my fingers hoping they'll fix it," Lumos answers, a sneer spreading across his snout. Then he frowns. "Although I suppose it's more than just my problem now… and have you seen Captain Qwark on the HoloVid? If you think that shorty of a Blarg screams slimeball, then Captain Qwark does so by ten times as much."
"Yeah, we kinda ran into him on our way here, actually," Rivet tells him. "The jerk's turned traitor on the galaxy and he's working with Drek now."
Lumos pulls at his goatee. "This is very troubling to hear. Not surprising, but still… troubling. In any case, I suppose I shouldn't keep you." He offers them a strained smile. "Thank you, you two, for saving our Headquarters. And good luck. Although with your skill, you might not even need it."
Enroute to Orxon…
"Come on, pick up…"
Rivet messes with the comm buttons again, sighing with frustration. Finally, a crackly, fizzy hologram of a Ranger appears. It takes the young Lombax a second to realise it's Elaris, mission support for the rest of the Rangers. Elaris stares back at the duo a moment, absolutely bewildered. "Hello?"
"Uhh…" Rivet scratches the back of her head awkwardly. "Hi. Uhm—"
"We are contacting you to warn you of Captain Copernicus L. Qwark's activities," Klunk speaks up. "We found him on Kalebo III taking part in the Blarg invasion of the Gadgetron HQ—"
He's cut off by Elaris' muttered curses. "We knew it! We knew something's been up with him lately!" She sighs, shaking her head. "He said he was going to an 'off-world spa'… I'll let the rest of the team know." She looks back up at Rivet and Klunk, forcing a grateful, yet strained smile. "Thank you for telling us."
"We are now on our way to the Blarg homeworld of planet Orxon," Klunk adds. "Lumos of Gadgetron Headquarters informed us of some Gadge-bots who were taken there. We intend to retrieve them to take them back to Kalebo III, and perhaps see if we can gather any further information of Drek's plans."
"Do you guys need backup?" Elaris asks, eyes widening slightly with worry. "I can—"
"We'll be fine, Elaris," Rivet told her calmly, offering a small smile. "Just make sure the Rangers know about Captain Squishy, okay?"
Elaris covers her mouth, unable to hold back a snort. "'Captain Squishy'— that's a new one."
Orxon….
Rivet sets the ship down carefully on the landing pad and flips the switch on the dash, shutting off the engines.
"Very good," Klunk declares in approval.
"See?" Rivet slips her O2 mask over her muzzle, the gadget slightly muffling and distorting her voice. "Sometimes I'm not a terrible pilot."
"When under my direction, yes."
Rivet shakes her head, pulling her goggles over her eyes for extra measure (she doesn't like the look of that green haze outside) before pressing the button to open the cockpit of the ship.
She clambers out first, and waits until she feels Klunk clicking onto her harness before stepping off the landing platform and venturing further. She steps off the ground, which is green— not with life but pollution— and onto a circular metal platform overlooking the area ahead. There's a lot of glowing green sludge, but there almost directly in front of her, down below, is a strip of land. They could make it. It's just a short glide.
"Heli-pack in three… two… one!" Rivet leaps off the platform, engaging her hoverboots at the same time Klunk activates his heli-pack.
Rivet breathes a sigh of relief when her feet touch the ground.
Two mutated, reptilian bird-like creatures swoop down, and Rivet tumbles backwards onto the ground, narrowly managing to avoid having her head bit off. One shot from her Enforcer kills both creatures instantly, leaving them piles of smoldering green goop.
"Really welcoming wildlife," Rivet grumbles, getting to her feet. "You alright, partner?"
"Yes," Klunk answers.
The silver-furred feline smashes the yellow glowing orb floating in its module with her FissionMallet, shutting down the forcefield blocking their path— only to be greeted once more by the flying reptile birds. She once again blasts them with her Enforcer, swiftly putting an end to them.
She pauses, staring at the two, yellow-rimmed circular platforms up ahead. "Those don't look particularly safe…" She steps to the right, and then takes a few steps back. "Don't need 'em anyway." She sprints forward, kicking on her hoverboots and hurling herself over the gap. "Yahooooooooo!"
She lands on the other side in a low crouch, smirking.
"You are a poser," Klunk declares, his voice almost smug. Oh wait— it's smug. One hundred percent smug.
"Is that your new favorite phrase now, or something?" Rivet asks, re-equipping her Enforcer and blowing away a blue blob of a mutated alien along with two crustacean like creatures armed with some pretty fierce-looking claws.
"Perhaps."
Rivet groans, shaking her head and switching over to her Mallet. She smashes the modules for the forcefield ahead, shutting it down. She runs on ahead, and skids to a stop, groaning a second time in frustration.
There's a lone Gadgetron vendor up ahead that isn't even working anymore (it's so old and decrepit that she's surprised that she could even tell what it was), not that she needs the ammo anyway— along with a split in the path. "Great. Wonderful. Just… wonderful. I loooove splits in paths. They're my absolute favorite thing!" She heaves a sigh. "Guess we'll just have to take a chance and hope it's the right path…"
Rivet mutters under her breath "eeny meany miny moe," pointing to each path as she quietly sings the tune.
"You are not about to eeny meany miny moe this," Klunk starts, sounding absolutely bewildered. "Are you?"
"You have any other suggestions?"
Klunk doesn't answer.
"Didn't think so." Rivet's finger lands on right. "Looks like we're going right, bolts."