Chapter XVII
A/N: I just wanna give Tangent, Awareness_Bringer, and TheLilyoftheValley a quick shoutout, they've all been very important to the development of this story and I cannot thank them enough. I don't think this story would be nearly as good as it is if it wasn't for their input. So thank you all so, so much! I really appreciate your input! :3
Rivet blows away the over-sized toxic crab ahead with one shot of her Enforcer, leaving the creature nothing more than a smoldering pile of goop sprinkled with the shattered remains of a shell. The Lombax stops just short of the cliff ahead, peering down to see more of the critters sprawled on the ground— along with another one of those blue blobby things with wings— snoring away.
Her Shatterbomb glove makes short work of them.
She leaps down below— then sprinting and skidding to a stop near the edge. There's a wide gap that can easily be traversed over via her hoverboots, but the gap is not what stopped her in her tracks. No, it's the infobot peering at them over the back of one of the crustaceans snoring away on the metal platform ahead.
"Hey, little guy," Rivet calls out softly. The infobot whirls around and whisks around the corner, much to the feline's chagrin. "Ooof course." She tele-quips her Dual Raptors and blows away the mutated alien critters lounging away on the platform.
Then she hurls herself over the gap and lands safely on the other side in a crouch.
"Okay, infobot nowhere to be seen," Rivet mutters as she stands up. "Great." She spies the grav-ramp to her left and immediately shakes her head. "Can't go that way."
"You saw an infobot?" Klunk asked.
"Yeah, but it got away before we could get up here," Rivet answers. "Hopefully we'll come across it again… let's just keep an eye out for it and the Gadge-bots in the meantime." She turns her gaze to the right and spies a somewhat high up cliff, with several Versa-Targets. "Bingo."
She slides into a low crouch and launches herself into the air, equipping her Swingshot and latching the grapple onto the target. She swings, slowly turning her body around to face the other way.
"This is one of those times that I am glad I am not a squishy," Klunk grumbles.
"When aren't you glad?" Rivet quips back, swinging back and forth quickly before releasing and latching onto the next target. "Heli-pack when I say 'go!'" From there, once she swings to the highest point, she releases. "GO!"
At the same time, they both engage the heli-pack and hoverboots respectively, slowly gliding down to the… stone? platform below.
"Hey! There's the infobot!"
Just as Rivet's feet touch the ground, the infobot zig-zags out of sight.
"No, no! Not again!"
"It escaped again?"
"Yep," the Lombax answers, putting extra emphasis on the "p."
Rivet spies the two sleeping toxic crabs on the next platform ahead and with a tired sigh she blasts them both with a Dual Raptor. She leaps onto the stretch ahead, blowing away two more of the creatures. The feline skids to a stop. There's an entire path of Wall Run Ramps ahead, much to her annoyance. "If we ever run into the architect— or architects— who were in charge of construction for every place we've been to so far, I'm going to shove my R.Y.N.O. up their—"
"And get us arrested for homicide?"
Rivet shrugs. "Done plenty of that already."
Klunk goes silent as his partner re-equips her Swingshot. Then he pipes up again. "We never did talk about it."
"Talk about what?" Rivet tries to sound casual, but Klunk can detect the strain and tightness in her voice.
"When we were in the warship on Novalis, attempting to stop the invasion," Klunk starts, speaking slowly and carefully so he has more time to think over his words before saying them. "That was the first time you ever killed anyone, was it not? And since then, the numbers have only continued growing."
"And…?"
"You have grown increasingly desensitized to killing and death since," Klunk points out.
"I'm fine, bolts," Rivet retorts tersely. "Really." She leaps off the platform, grappling onto the Wall Run Ramp and sprinting along it, feet thumping loudly against the dark, shiny metal. "Right now we gotta focus on finding those Gadge-bots and that infobot, and stopping Drek!"
Rivet detaches from the Zip-Target and leaps off the Wall Run Ramp, already engaging her Swingshot to latch onto the next one.
Klunk doesn't believe her, but decides not to press for the time being. There will be time to do so later.
"Argghhh! Seriously?!"
Rivet clenches her fists and takes several long steps back, looking up at the cylindrically-shaped building a moment before locking her gaze back onto the entrance. The same entrance through which the infobot zipped on in through and decided to fly up high where one couldn't reach without a set of Magne-boots. Luckily, she had a pair of hoverboots, and if she did this right, she'd be able to reach the top.
That, or she'd break her neck.
Rivet kicks on her hoverboots and blasts inside the building at high speeds. She tilts her body just enough to rocket along the curve of the wall inside, before leaping off the wall and grappling onto the edge of the floor lining the entrance to the room ahead with her Swingshot. She boots ahead with her hoverboots, reaching her free hand out to grab the infobot before it could get away again.
Her fingers latch triumphantly around the little orange bot's arm.
"Haha! Gotcha!" Rivet's feet hit the metal floor with a thunk, and she disengages her Swingshot as Klunk clambers off her back. She presses the big red button on the top of the infobot's head. "Now let's see what's on you, little guy."
The face of a heavy-set alien with purple-grey skin and two tusks (one broken), a cap with a bright green rim, and an eyestrain-y orange Hawaiian shirt fizzles onto the screen.
"Cities are full of smog, swamps are full of muck, and tar pits are full of tar— but here at Jowai Resort the sun shines twenty-four hours a day! Visitors get a free O2 mask to explore our warm waters. The benign marine—" The camera is turned onto a scuba diver with a suspiciously strong resemblance to the Gadget Engineer from the BTS station, who at first appears to be fascinated by the puffoid, but then starts speedily swimming away in terror as the puffoid chases them— "life will welcome you to the big blue world under the…"
The camera is fumbled with, being turned upward to the sky. "What in the name of Orvus is that?!" Scuttling across the sky is a long, caterpillar like vessel with crystal clear capsules filled with water. From the bottom of the front end of the vessel, an all-too familiar green sludge spills out into the ocean water. "Who the…?"
"Attention, inhabitants and visitors of Pokitaru," drawls the voice of Drek himself over speakers, presumably from the ship and its brethren. "It has come to my attention that you have exactly the kind of ocean water we need for our new planet. Now that we have acquired the amount necessary for our new world, well… we have no further use for you. Thank you for your cooperation and your sacrifice in the name of Blarg progress."
A pause. His voice morphs from a slimy façade of amicability into downright obvious loathing as he then continues, "And if you don't like it, you can take your noodle floaties and shove them up your…"
Another pause.
"Again?! Turn it OFF, you moron!"
The camera is fumbled with again, and the green-capped alien comes into focus again. "Please, if you get this, Rangers, we need—"
The camera fizzles into black, cutting them off.
"Well, that's just wonderful," Rivet grumbles, crossing her arms. "How old is that transmission?"
"A few hours, at most," Klunk answers.
"Then we still have time. Let's find those Gadge-bots and head out!" She holds out her hand, allowing Klunk to grab it. She swings him around and their magnetic mounts click together.
A quick glide down to the narrow path below, and instantly, to her right, Rivet spies a Gadge-bot entrapped in a clear, slightly gold colored glass-like case. "THERE! There's one right now!" She sprints towards it, and kneels down beside the shell. As Klunk slides off her back, she asks, "How'd you get them out the last time?"
"Like this," Klunk replies almost smugly, shattering the shell with his fist.
The Gadge-bot blinks, shaking its head. It then turns its gaze onto Klunk, blinking again and then chirruping happily.
Rivet suddenly is no longer at Klunk's side, instead smashing one of those slimy alien swarmers with her FissionMallet. And splattering herself with goo in the process.
"Ughh, of course they're here too," the young Lombax grumbles.
Klunk chuckles at her displeasure, and the Gadge-bot chirrups along with him.
"Yeah, laugh it up, you two." She shakes her head, groaning in disgust as she glares at the green slime now covering her armor. Her ear twitches as it catches the sound of pairs of tiny feet on the ground not too far away. "Great. Sounds like there's more… that's just… great."
It's something of a scavenger hunt, trying to locate all of the Gadge-bots and rescuing them. It's made a bit easier by the fact that the Gadge-bots, once close enough to their brethren, were able to guide the duo to them. They also came across an abandoned pair of Magne-boots along the way. Neither Rivet nor Klunk are sure they want to know what happened to the wearer.
When they reach the outside of a shiny metal door in part of the cave/building (the place is practically built into the mountain, it qualifies as both in Rivet's mind), Klunk turns to his partner. "I feel it is best if we split up for now. While I gather the rest of the Gadge-bots, perhaps you can search for any further information that might be here."
"You sure you'll be okay with—?" The look Klunk is sending her way cuts her off. Rivet sighs, scratching the back of her head. "Just— stay safe, okay, bolts?"
"I will," Klunk tells her firmly. "I have my weapons. I will be fine."
Rivet awkwardly offers a thumbs up and a sheepish smile, though he can't see the latter due to her O2 mask. "Meet back here when we're finished?"
"Yes."
Rivet nods, swinging her arms a bit. "Okay." She turns and starts to walk away— and then stops before looking over her shoulder. "See ya soon, bolts."
Klunk's Bomb Glove leaves a smoldering, gnarled hole in the sheet of metal of a door. He steps through, the little Gadge-bots trotting behind him and chirping softly. Two swift, strong punches take care of the pair of mutant swarmers scurrying around this part of the facility. Of course, he ends up splattered with that green goo again, but such is the nature of their adventure, it seems.
One of the toxic mutant crabs is lounging in the corner of the corridor ahead, though it oddly enough ignores them save for a glance and a warning growl. Perhaps because they do not have Rivet with them, it does not look upon Klunk and the Gadge-bots as a potential source of food? Or perhaps it had already eaten recently and is in no mood for further mauling and maiming at the moment. Either way, Klunk is glad that the creature otherwise ignores them, and the group inches along past it unscathed.
The swarmers, on the other hand, are quick to turn to the group and charge at them— Klunk swiftly disposes of the slimy critters.
After dispatching the swarmers, he sprints down the dusty Carbonox ramp, metal feet thunking against metal, whereupon he spots more of the Gadge-bots trapped in Vioxyite shells. He smashes his fists through the shells, one by one, shattering them all and freeing the little bots trapped inside.
"Do not worry, Gadge-bots— you will remain on this planet no longer."
He leads them back up the ramp and telepathically sends them a command to Enter the teleporter. As they enter one by one, appearing in a flash of light on the section of floor slightly higher up, Klunk clambers up himself.
A single sphere from his Bomb Glove takes care of the door in their way, leaving a gaping hole for the group to pass through. After freeing two more Gadge-bots, Klunk blows a hole into the next door, and is met with a big, white button on the floor, on the other side.
"Hmm," Klunk hums, pausing a moment to study it. "Intriguing. Not particularly ingenious, but… intriguing."
He waves for the Gadge-bots to resume following.
"I didn't find any new information, buuuuut, I did find this!"
Rivet shows off the Nanotech dispenser with visible glee. Strangely enough, this room is the only one in which she can take off the O2 mask and, well. Not die.
"A Nanotech dispenser…" Klunk taps his chin with his finger, tilting his head as he studies it. "Intriguing."
"I would've smashed it open," Rivet starts, "but I'd probably damage the stuff inside, so… yeah."
"According to the prices, it seems that the Premium Nanotech is within our price range," Klunk observes, pointing to the little green screen on the dispenser. "It will increase your current Nanotech level by twenty percent."
"Should I get one for you too?" Rivet asks, looking at the amount of bolts they have. "We've got more than enough bolts for two cans."
"I suppose," Klunk answers. "Given that this dispenser is very old, I do not know if it will have any effect. The invention of the Nanotech variant for both squishies and robots was extremely recent."
Rivet purchases the two cans and tosses one to her partner with a soft grin. "Catch!"
Klunk manages to catch the can in his hands, and sends a glare her way. "Do be careful. These drinks are made with carbonated water. We do not want them exploding."
Rivet glances at the drink in her hand worriedly and points the top away from her as she pulls on the little latch for the lid. It tears open easily, and thankfully no explosions occur with hers.
Klunk's does overflow a bit, but otherwise no explosions on his end either.
Both individuals gulp down the drink, and out of the corner of her eye Rivet can see Klunk's eyes narrowing in disgust. Probably because it doesn't taste anything like oil.
Rivet lowers the can once she's gulped down every little bit she's able to, and feels something coming back up her chest. Before she can stop it, a long, loud belch bursts from her throat, accompanied by an awful smell. She covers her mouth and looks at Klunk sheepishly, who stares back with a weirded-out expression.
"Excuse me," Rivet mutters, flustered from what was probably the biggest burp in her entire life. She doesn't even remember those refried bean burritos she'd eat all the time growing up ever giving her such big belches as that.
"If that is how loud you are with the Premium Nanotech," Klunk finally starts, "I do not want to know the sound you would make with the Ultra Nanotech."
Rivet snorts, smashing the can between the palms of her gloved hands.
Orxon is more or less over and done with, aside from the Ultra Nanotech. Time to head out for Pokitaru.