Hey! It's me, Silva the author. I just wanna say thank you to all the people who are still following this story after I take a…hiatus, let's call it.
I've also been thinking about going back and editing some of the other chapters of this story. My writing hasn't evolved much, but it's much better than it was a whole year ago. Anyway, without further ado, here's Mother!
Ninten and Lloyd walked diligently through the halls. Lloyd, with practiced motion and pose, lowered his head and trained his eyes on the tiles of the school, not looking at anyone.
Ninten did the exact opposite, looking at everybody he passed, on the lookout for Eileen or Harry. If they saw him walking with Lloyd of all people…he didn't want to even think about it. Already, he could think about the rumors flying around. He forced himself not to look into anyone's mind. His own brain was making all the rumors for him.
Sneaking past the hall monitors and hurrying to the doors out of Twinkle Elementary, Lloyd led the way to his house. Ninten figured Lloyd would tell him to buzz off now that they were out of school, but the boy did no such thing so he followed until he was told to leave.
"What's the deal with everyone?" Lloyd asked, snapping Ninten out of his thoughts. He realized he had been stuck in his thoughts ever since he learned PSI. Maybe it was to train his mind?
"They all look so gloomy. I know Sweet's Little got shut down, but everybody looks like their dog just died." Lloyd adjusted his broken glasses, shaking his head.
"A lady said they all had to start working for Duncan Industries, and that's why they all look so sad."
'And because Mt. Itoi looks all dark and evil thanks to some kind of evil force' Ninten thought but withheld that info from Lloyd.
"I guess, but working at Duncan's can't be that bad. My mom and dad work there now after Sweet's Little shut down and they never-"
Lloyd turned to look at his speaker for a second, remembering he was talking so casually to Ninten. He clammed up immediately and lowered his head as if he was at school. Shifting his eyes away, Ninten was silent the rest of the walk to Lloyd's house, both mildly offended but also understanding of why Lloyd had stopped talking to him.
'He said it himself, he didn't want to forgive me…can't blame him' Ninten thought, swinging his bat absentmindedly. Lloyd's hands were firmly tucked into his pockets as they walked for a while, waiting at intersections, crossing through lawns, until eventually, they arrived at Lloyd's house, which was drastically different from Ninten's. While Ninten's house was a simple 2 story with a basement out near Podunk not especially near any house, Lloyd's was a one-story ranch-style that looked like it had an attic, with a garage next to it in a suburb.
"Well, here it is…y-you can come in if you want, this will only take a minute or two," Lloyd muttered, walking up to his door without waiting for an answer.
Ninten followed quickly, hoping he wasn't being rude or intruding. But he heard no other qualms from Lloyd so he stuck around.
Lloyd fiddled with his house key, before opening the door. Ninten had expected the inside of Lloyd's house to be filled with all kinds of inventions or robot butlers that Lloyd had built. He wouldn't even be surprised if he saw a hoverboard. Instead, he just saw a simple, everyday house. A couch facing a tv, a mudroom for shoes, and pictures on the wall. Taking off his shoes, Ninten followed Lloyd inside.
"Uh…y-you can just wait here. Use the tv if you want, I'll be done in a second." he slowly backed up before dashing into his room, closing the door and holding his back to it as if Ninten would come barreling through.
"I-I can't believe it. Ninten Doe, star of the baseball team, is i-in my house!" he exclaimed, trying to stay quiet in case the jock heard. At the sound of his voice, Lloyd's computer on his desk beeped on, its blue screen flashing on and off as if it was blinking.
"Mr. Lloyd, you've told me of such an individual. Shall I activate security measures?" the computer spoke, not shocking Lloyd.
Lloyd let out a squeak and waved his hands.
"What?! N-No, computer! Absolutely not! De-Activate security measures for the time being." the computer beeped again, satisfying Lloyd as he moved to his closet.
"Activate clothing sequence Alpha: 2.85," Lloyd said, the computer beeping again as he opened his closet. He stepped inside, throwing his arms open as clamper toys suddenly came from within his closet, helping him out of his shirt and pants. They were replaced by exact copies of his clothes, now fresh and clean. One hand then began spraying deodorant while the other produced a comb and scraped it through his hair, getting rid of all the trash that had gotten stuck. Finally, one last hand grabbed Lloyd's glasses, taking them away while another replaced them with new non-broken glasses, the lenses looking good as new.
"Looking positively marvelous, Mr. Lloyd. Now, since you are home from school, might we have a go at a game? We were left in quite a daring position in The Lurking Horror. Or perhaps another try at Might and Magic? Maybe even Gradius, you never quite got past Level 3." The drawer Lloyd's desk opened by mechanical means, showing all the game floppies and even his Superman action figure.
"Not right now, computer. Maybe later. I-I should go check on Ninten."
"Jolly good, sir." The computer clicked, closing the drawer and clicking itself off.
"H-Hey, I'm back," Lloyd muttered as he closed his room door behind him. Ninten had awkwardly been standing near his couch, his bat propped up near the door.
"Oh, cool. So, uh…should we head back to school? I can take you there, but then I have to go somewhere."
"Oh, r-right, you were called out…why were you called out? You don't look sick, and you always drink orange juice at school and baseball games so you're high in vitamin C," Lloyd noted, Ninten cocking an eyebrow.
"You know what I drink every day?"
Lloyd shook his head, adjusting his glasses.
"N-Not on purpose, I just like observing and looking at things and you're pretty popular so everybody watches you and I'll stop talking."
He quieted down, shifting his feet and looking at his carpet. The awkwardness had settled in again, and Ninten wanted desperately to end it.
"...Do you want to know the real reason why I got called out?" he asked, making Lloyd look up."
"I-I guess…if you want to tell me." Lloyd moved toward the couch, sitting down as Ninten copied him and sat on the couch. "W-Why the lie?"
Ninten smirked, leaning back after walking nearly the whole day. "Well, let me start from the beginning. So, it started with the lamp in my house…"
"What did you say this was again? Angimuh, Animus, Angora?" Ninten asked, taking a sip of his soda. Lloyd had gotten the both of them drinks from something he called; 'The Mobile Fridge.' When Lloyd reached into the couch cushions and pulled out a controller for an RC car. Messing with the buttons, a mini-fridge slowly rolled from somewhere in front of him, letting him grab two sodas before moving it back to where it was. It was the greatest thing Ninten had seen.
"It's 'Anime.' It's from Chommo I think." Lloyd explained, watching Ninten's enraptured face.
"Wow…I've never seen anything like this! Man, look at that Astro Guy go! Yeah, get 'em!" Ninten cheered.
"B-But I wanna ask again…you're on a journey to save the world? But there's nothing wrong with the world! A-And you're saying you have Psychic Powers?! I'm sorry, but I find that hard to believe…" Lloyd muttered, sipping his soda. Ninten looked too engrossed with this new discovery, watching as the robot boy sucker punched a robot like it was nothing.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I told you I do have Psychic powers. It's called PSI or PK or something. Look, watch."
Ninten closed his eyes and concentrated, furrowing his brow. Lloyd watched with a puzzled expression as Ninten pursed his lips, his mind scrambling to come up with a reason as to what the heck was going on.
'I-Is this some sort of trick? Some kind of…psychic divination? Of course not, this must be a joke…well, at least he's the one looking idiotic, not me' Ninten's eyes flipped open and he frowned straight at Lloyd making him hop in shock.
"I do not look 'idiotic'! I look cool, besides, it's kinda hard not to look dumb while reading minds. And it's not a 'psychic divination, I'm pretty sure that's for ghosts, it's called Telepathy." Ninten propped his arms behind his head, enjoying Lloyd's shocked expression. He could practically see the gears turning in his head, trying to figure out what had happened in such a short amount of time.
"Wh-What? Wait, d-did you just?"
Ninten tapped his noggin, smirking.
"Yup, I read your mind like a book. Gotta say, if it really is like a book, it felt like an encyclopedia in there. No wonder you get high test scores, you just have a big brain to remember things."
Lloyd, with a quaking hand, smoothed out his shirt. It didn't have a speck of dust on it, but he needed to do something with his hands to keep them busy.
"...A-And you called this thing…PSI?" he asked. Ninten nearly let out a laugh. After seeing what Ninten had done firsthand, he went right into researching mode.
"Yeah, PSI is what it's called. It said so in my Great-Grandfather's diary. I think that's where I learned it from. I don't know why, but it just kinda flared up yesterday, and now I can talk to animals with my mind, heal things, put people to sleep, and probably other things, but I haven't tested them out yet." he explained, Lloyd leaning forward and nodding. It was a lot to take in, but Ninten figured that of all people Lloyd was the one to handle it best.
"W-Wow," Lloyd breathed, flopping back down on the couch, "That's…a-amazing! You have-"
"Superpowers? I know! And get this; I have to use them to save the world. How cool is that?" Ninten did a little gesture with his hands, snickering at getting to show off just a tiny bit. Lloyd was enraptured, adjusting his glasses.
"W-Wow…are you, like…t-the Chosen One?"
That threw Ninten for a curveball. He scratched the top of his head, not sure what to say. He supposed he had all the traits of a hero; strong, brave, and wanting to help people. Heck, he even had superpowers. But still, he felt a bit out of place with everything.
"I guess I am." he said, though he didn't sound so absolute with the way he said it. "But, hey, I already fought an alien robot so-"
"AN ALIEN ROBOT?! What did it look like, and what was it made out of? And you said it was alien? How did you know?" Lloyd piped up, getting the loudest Ninten had ever seen him. He was almost blown back by the exclamation.
"W-Well…" Ninten stood up, placing his arms on his hips. "It looked like this, except pink and it called itself Starman Jr. It was made out of liquid metal or something, it was weird. It was in some kind of pod that looked like a pill, so it must be an alien." Ninten explained, coming to the only acceptable conclusion. After all, he had seen Terminator. He knew the difference between future robots and alien robots.
Lloyd continued to fiddle with his glasses, muttering to himself as Ninten continued. "Then it started shooting lasers at me, so I tried to attack it, but then my bat broke, so I was at a final stand. I stared the sucker down, and then it fired one final beam at me. But then," Ninten held up the Franklin Badge around his neck.
"This thing reflected the laser back at it, and it evaporated or something! You should have seen it, it was so cool!" He looked up to see Lloyd was now standing, pacing to get his thoughts in order.
"Alien robots…psychic powers…A-Are you said you're trying to save the world from…alien robots?"
"Well, something like that. My dad said that animals are also going crazy. And just an hour ago, I had to rescue Pippi from zombies. Heck, I even got shot, but then I got to use my sick psychic healing powers to fix it up." he pulled up his shirt to show the now non-existent bullet wound, treating it like a neat scar.
"So…do you think that maybe whatever's causing this is an…alien?"
"...Huh. I never thought about that. I guess it would be an alien." Lloyd looked at Ninten blankly, wondering how he had never come to that quite obvious conclusion. He reminded himself that he was talking to Ninten Doe, Ace of the baseball team and perpetual C and B student.
"Do you know the name? You s-said your Great-Grandfather had notes on PSI and-"
"Yeah, right! It said something about how he had to leave my Great-Grandmother behind, and that he took something that had their secrets on them." He explained. He also began to pace.
"And those secrets were this PSI, I'm guessing, r-right?"
"Exactly! And he also mentioned something else… about my Great-Grandmother taking care of a monster, and then something starting with 'Gi', but then it got cut off." Ninten said, allowing Lloyd to do the piecing together part while he did the explaining.
"And then, two years later he apparently cracked the code and was able to use PSI himself and saw into the future and saw me. Then he started building 'ADAM and EVE'. Then the last entry, he said that 'THEY' found him and took ADAM and that he had hidden EVE, and to not let them reach something." Ninten finished. Lloyd's mind was practically on fire with how much processing he was doing, piecing together all this information.
"...Hey, have you h-heard about Mt. Itoi?" Lloyd asked.
"Of course I have. It's so tall, we see it almost every day." Lloyd rolled his eyes behind his glasses.
"N-No, I mean have you heard about how in the old days, almost 80 years ago, people used to go up the mountain and then return with no memories?" he explained, Ninten nodding in return.
"Um, yeah. But that was just an urban myth. I used to tell that to my sisters to scare them."
"You have sisters?"
"Yeah, twins. Minnie and Mimmie, they're a couple of years older than me. They go to a different school than Twinkle so that's probably why you don't see them around."
Lloyd nodded, never having heard that before. All the times he had observed Ninten, he had never seen them once talk about having sisters. Was he embarrassed by them? 'Well, of course, he was', Lloyd thought. From what he had watched and read, older brothers treated younger sisters like they were the plague. He had never would have realized Ninten had sisters if he hadn't come into his house. He would have never realized Ninten had Psychic powers or was off to save the world if he had never come into Lloyd's house. Thinking about that made Lloyd nearly faint. Ninten Doe, star of the baseball team, was in. His. HOUSE!
"R-Right. Anyway, about Mt. Itoi, it might have to do something with this alien…perhaps a-alien abductions?"
"Like in-"
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind!" the two of them shouted simultaneously, shocking each other.
"Y-You saw Close Encounters?" Lloyd asked. Ninten's smile widened.
"Of course I did! Well, Mimmie rented it for movie night, and she won the vote even though I wanted to watch Gremlins. But when we watched it…oh my god it was great!" Ninten said, Lloyd reeling back from his excitement.
"W-Wow…I thought I was the o-only one who saw it…"
"Guess not…man, now you got me wanting to watch that again…anyway, what about Mt. Itoi?" asked Ninten, snapping Lloyd from his stupor. So many conflicting emotions were coming at him and he had next to no way to handle them.
"R-Right! Sorry…well, maybe not alien abductions, I suppose alien mind removal? A-Anyway…Ninten, what happened to your Great-Grandfather?"
"He died, of a heart attack."
"A-Are you sure? What happened to your Great-Grandmother?"
"She died too! Well, of being old, not of a heart attack I think. But Great-Grandpa George went crazy, so Great-Grandma Maria hooked up with his boss! They weren't abducted by aliens."
"And…who told you a-all this?"
"My Grandmother! She said that it all just happened out of the blue, and even she doesn't remember why…" Ninten trailed off, mouth forming more words but no sound coming out. He tried desperately to say something, anything that would come up with an explanation, but Lloyd beat him to the punch.
"Ninten…I think whatever happened to your Great-Grandmother and Great-Grandfather…isn't true. It has something to do with all this. Even the-that 'Gi' thing, it has something to do with this…all this." Lloyd explained, Ninten wordlessly listening. Silently, he pulled out his wallet, looking at the picture inside of his Great-Grandmother. He wanted answers. Fast.
"Is that her?" Lloyd nervously asked, wanting not to intrude. Ninten, nodded him over so he can look for himself, the two gazing at the photo.
"Yeah, that's my Great-Grandmother, Maria. My grandma used to say she could play piano like nobody's business and wouldn't hurt a fly…"
Lloyd hung onto Ninten's every word. He was learning so many new things about Ninten, it was almost excruciating for his brain. Of course, he was used to learning new things at a rapid pace. But none could exceed Ninten Doe. Just yesterday he had lied and told on him to the Principal which landed him in trouble and quite possibly could make him not go to college if he doesn't complete his Science project.
Then, miraculously, now he was apologizing and telling him about aliens and how he's psychic. Lloyd felt like it was too good to be true. But he also couldn't resist a slight hint of jealousy in his mind. He had been beaten, bruised, and scarred. He was smarter than most teachers at his school. Ninten was just a jock who just suddenly gained a conscience, why should he get superpowers? Lloyd couldn't help but slightly seeth at that.
"But…why them? What made them so special that they got mixed up in this alien business?" Lloyd shook his head to clear his thoughts before replying.
"I-I don't know…we'll just have to get some more evidence." Ninten nodded, putting his wallet away as he turned to Lloyd. He held up a fist, Lloyd flinching, assuming the worse until Ninten grabbed his hand and touched it to his. A fist bump. Lloyd had never got one of those.
"Thanks for telling me all that, Lloyd. I probably would have never figured it out if not for all your smarts and stuff." Lloyd was trying to hide his blush. The only person who complimented him this much was his mother, hearing it from someone his own age was embarrassing.
"I-It's nothing. You just…go out and save the world, I-I guess. I got other things to do…"
"Oh, right! Like your…science project…" Ninten suddenly looked super uncomfortable, remembering what he had done.
"I-I know I already apologized for that, but I'm super sorr-"
"I-It's fine, don't worry about it! I-I still have an hour-" Lloyd glanced at his clock, cringing at the time.
"F-Forty five minutes until next period, I can get it done by then! I just need some materials, I don't have any, and-"
"Where can you get materials?" Ninten replied, retrieving his bat.
"W-Well…Sweet's Little should still have some, but-"
"Then that's where we're going. C'mon, you don't want to fail, do you?" Ninten smirked, adjusting his cap. Lloyd looked up into his confident eyes, having observed them during his games. It was like he was at the mound, getting ready to nail a home run.
"...O-Okay! We'll go!" Lloyd replied, despite his shaking. He had no idea why he agreed, by all counts he wanted to just accept his fate and fail and blow his chances of getting into an Ivy League. But, with Ninten with him…this new variable made him act without his brain. It felt strange but good.
"J-Just hold on, I need to get something." he motioned Ninten to follow out of his house, him doing so after putting on his shoes. He followed Lloyd out, watching as Lloyd lifted the garage shutter with some difficulty. The shutter flew up, and Ninten was faced with a scene right out of Back To The Future.
Wires hung loosey from everywhere, starting from a workbench and then extending out like roots from a tree. Dozens of water and airsoft guns hung on the wall, tools of all shapes and sizes underneath delicately arranged from small to large. The most defining feature of the garage that suck out to Ninten, while Lloyd ignored it and began rummaging around through drawers, was a massive robot. Towering over Ninten, with a gauge on its chest stricken to the middle, its golden coloring made the boy feel like he was staring at the sun itself. He quickly backed away, peering behind the automaton to find Lloyd.
"Hey, uh, L-Lloyd? What is…this?" Ninten asked, motioning to the robot. The aforementioned was quick to pull out a device that looked like a cross between a taser and a bb gun, tucking it in his pockets before catching up with Ninten.
"Oh, this? It's a p-project I'm working on, no biggie…"
"No biggie?! This is like R.O.B! Only bigger! What's it for?" Lloyd shuffled his feet, not wanting to bring it up, but that look in Ninten's eyes was enough for Lloyd to spill the secrets.
"It's for fighting." He blurted out, slapping a hand to his mouth. Ninten's eyes shot up.
"Fighting? Oh, that's cool! We can take it with us to Sweet's Little! Let's activate it and-"
"Not…not that kind of fighting." Lloyd laid a hand on the robot, sighing.
"You know how much people at school rag on me all the time, r-right?"
"Well, I wouldn't call it 'ragging', more like-"
"Every time that happened, every time I would come out of a locker, or climb out a trashcan, hide my bruises…I would work on this machine. It was designed as a bodyguard, to fight anybody who wanted to pick on me. I worked on it and worked on it, and…technically it's been complete for a while, but I never got the courage to activate it, so it's been here in my w-workshop for about a month. Yesterday, I was really thinking of using it…but I-I just couldn't." Lloyd said, gazing up at the robot. Ninten stood next to him, looking up at it as if it would gaze back. But it never did, a would never be able to.
"...A-Anyway, let's head out, okay? Sweet's Little is just a little bit out of town..." muttered Lloyd, backing away from the robot. Ninten followed, and with the clattering of metal and the soft 'clink', the robot was left in darkness once more, Lloyd taking the lead again and walking towards the factory. Lloyd's mind was still on overdrive, but as he walked with Ninten, the two of them keeping quiet after the recent talk, Lloyd felt a feeling he hadn't known for a long time. He was happy to have a temporary companion, even if it was Ninten of all people with him. Just for a little while.
Sweet's Little, from what Lloyd had told Ninten, was a company that many sold kiddie products. Candy, skateboards, toys, it was a child's paradise. But once Duncan Industries became the top sellers, people bought Sweet's Little products less and less, until they filed for bankruptcy. The factory used for production was to be torn down in just a few short months, but for now, it was a dilapidated shell of a building.
"So how do we get in? I doubt the door is unlocked." Ninten asked Lloyd, tugging on the door to show.
"D-Don't look at me! You're the one that wanted to come here." Lloyd shrugged, scratching at his freckles. Ninten rubbed his chin in thought, an idea slowly forming in his mind.
"I have an idea!"
SMASH!
Ninten's bat connected with the window, sending shards of glass flying in every direction.
"H-Hey! That's destruction of public property! We'd get in serious trouble if anyone saw us!" Lloyd exclaimed, throwing his arms wide around them. The only thing with a pulse near them was a rat furiously nibbling on a moldy sandwich that had been long forgotten.
"...I think we'll be fine."
Ninten, avoiding all the broken glass, climbed through the window, dropping to the floor. A long assembly line extended to the far side of the room, long having served its usefulness.
"I can't believe I'm doing this! If anybody saw me my chances at MIT are shot!" shakily and hesitantly climbing through the window was Lloyd, gulping as he looked down.
"Watch out, there's still some-"
"GAH!" Lloyd yanked his leg up, making him topple forward and fall onto his face.
"-Glass." Ninten walked over to help pull Lloyd up. A thin cut was stretching across his knee, and blood was slowly welling up in the injury.
"Shoot, here, let me help." Ninten placed his hand over Lloyd's wound, causing him to hiss in pain.
"Lifeup: Alpha." he had his doubts on whether or not Ninten was truly capable of using psychic abilities. After all, his Telepathy might have been a fluke. But as Lloyd watched as Ninten's hand glowed and his cut was closed and healed as if had never happened, Lloyd believed.
And just like that his whole world was thrown on its axis. Everything with him had rules. The world was made on science, logic, everything could be explained by regular means. But aliens? Psionics? Are bullies suddenly being friendly? It was like a Traveller game come to life.
"You feeling better? That thing healed a bullet wound so it should be a-okay." Lloyd snapped out of his thoughts by Ninten talking to him.
"Y-Yeah, thank you. I'm fine. I just can't believe that you just got rid o-of it. It's amazing!"
"Eh, you get used to it. Anyway, you know the layout of this place. Let's get those bottle rocket supplies and cheese it. I hate to know what evil force has settled over this place thanks to the alien force threatening the world."
Lloyd ignored Ninten, checking dilapidated boxes for supplies. All he need was some gunpowder and his science project would be complete. Of course, bottle rockets don't normally use gunpowder, but his was a little special.
"-And to kick the villany from my home like a mangy cat from my leg! Oh yes, it will be amazing. How are you coming with the supplies, man?" Ninten asked, causing Lloyd to freeze. 'Man'. No one had ever called him that before. Other kids called each other 'dude', or 'bro', and called other kids 'groovy'. But no one had ever called Lloyd that. The epithet giving him pause made Ninten uncomfortable.
"Hey, uh…you okay there? I've heard of spacing out but you look as if you're in another galaxy."
Detaching from his brief pause, Lloyd nodded.
"Fine! I mean, I'm fine. J-Just gotta keep looking for ingredients, er, supplies, and I'll be done."
Ninten merely nodded, looking away idly as Lloyd continued searching. He was still wondering why now he wanted to apologize to Lloyd. It was the right thing to do, of course, but all those times of watching him get bullied and never doing anything, why now had he decided to talk to Lloyd like a regular person? Why now did he decide to apologize, to get the guilt off his chest?
'...Heh. Maybe it's these powers. Maybe they're making me super nice or something.' he thought. He quickly dismissed it but found himself coming back to it. It made some amount of sense; ever since he had realized he could use PSI, he'd done things he possibly wouldn't ever do. Help the canaries, save Pippi, go to the zoo and fight Starman Jr. Hell, he agreed to go out and save the world on a whim and promised to find 8 Notes to a song. If he was asked to do all that a week ago in just a few short hours?
"I would say yes." Ninten muttered to himself. But he knew he was lying to himself.
"Ah ha! I knew there would be some in here!"
Lloyd held up a small tin of something that looked like dirt. Ninten figured it was the gunpowder he was looking for as Lloyd stashed it away in his pocket.
"Alright, I have it. I-I just have to get back to my house and make a bott-"
Lloyd was suddenly thrown up into the air, a flock of wild boxes following with him. Ninten quickly dove to catch him, getting knocked to the ground with him as the boxes fell over them.
"Holy-What was that?" Ninten looked over Lloyd, searching for the origin of this encounter.
A tall, thin, almost malnourished-looking robot was standing, long thin arms ending with three sharp fingers. Its eyes bulged out from its head, reminding Ninten of a frog.
"What the-"
"Barbot model number EL09KAV, reporting for duty." it spoke, touching its hands together. Lloyd looked in confusion.
"...What is th-that?"
"It must be another one of the alien robots! But…the last one was much cooler."
"Incorrect. The Starmen line pales in comparison to the Barbot line. We are superior."
Ninten and Lloyd glanced at each other, rising to their feet. The batter held his bat proudly, walking closer to the extraterrestrial entity while the inventor hung back, not reaching for his stun gun.
"That's what you think, slim jim! I fought a Starman once, and he looked scarier than you. A swift breeze could knock you over." Ninten joked, Lloyd muffling his giggles. Barbot was not amused, raising its hands.
"Have at you, foolish children." an all too familiar yellow energy began to build up, as Ninten stood still.
"You shall await your demise? Such stupidity will not go unnoticed, filthy earth child."
"Oh, this isn't stupidity…"
The blast from its hands flew towards Ninten, and this time Ninten got to watch as it swiftly change directions to the Franklin Badge around his neck, absorbing into the medallion and pushing to Ninten's chest.
"It's a nice gift from a friend. But, here's your gift back!" puffing out his chest, Ninten let the blast fly back at the Barbot, grinning wildly. His grin faltered as the beam of energy was easily dodged by the robot thanks to its thin frame.
"Processing comeback…result: Unfunny. Commencing second attack." Barbot raised its hands again, this time electricity building up in its hands. It began to spread across its body, coating it in electricity.
"Uh oh," Ninten mumbled, taking a step back as Barbot advanced.
"Indeed." Before Ninten could react, Barbot broke into a sprint, getting close to Ninten in seconds. He held up his bat to defend himself, closing his eyes in fear.
"L-Look out!" he felt two weak and spindly hands push him away, sending him crashing to the ground. Lloyd was now in the way of the Barbot's warpath, and all he could do was raise his arms for defense.
"W-Wait! Why are you-" Without replying, Barbot rammed into Lloyd, sending electricity coursing through him. Lloyd was tossed to the ground right near Ninten.
"LLOYD!"
Ninten got to his feet, laying his hand on Lloyd.
"Lifeup: Alpha!" The familiar glow appeared, but Lloyd was still twitching and sputtering.
"What?! C'mon, C'mon…Healing: Al-" Before Ninten could finish, Barbot reached over and took hold of his shirt, holding him up like a kitten.
"Usage of PSI is erroneous. Healing: Alpha cannot cure paralysis. Such power is wasted on a child, especially an earthling." it responded, raising its sharp fingers, ready to slash at Ninten. The human frowned, raising his bat.
"If PSI is wasted on me…" He raised his other hand, placing it over his heart.
"Defense Up: Alpha!" He stated quickly, right as the Barbot slashed at his cheek. Reeling back, Ninten was silent for a moment, before smiling. A slash like that would normally cut deep and produce blood. But it only felt like he had tripped and skinned his knee.
"Then why am I so amazing at using it?" Barbot dropped Ninten as his bat connected with its arm, breaking it clean off.
"Wow. You know, the Starman Jr was able to break my bat. But you…the aliens must be using pretty terrible material." he smirked, sending its leg flying off with another smack from his bat.
"Why you-" Another attack and its legs were sparking with electricity in the corner, the Barbot raising its only hand left to reach for Ninten.
"Foolish child. You might have defeated me, but I am one of many. My master, the Universal Cosmic Destroyer himself will continue to produce more and more of my kind. This planet is on its last legs. Earthlings will be destro-"
"Yeah, yeah. Loud and clear, I hear you. And unfortunately for you and this 'Universal Cosmic Destroyer'," Ninten, with one final swing of his bat, sailed the Barbot's arm across the factory, hearing it crash into a wall.
"I'm a damn good batter," he smirked, turning from the Barbot still hurling insults at him. Lloyd had come down from the Paralysis, shakily standing up as he looked to Ninten.
"J-Jeez! You destroyed it! And you smacked it with the bat and it went YEEEEEOR! And then it shot you with a laser, but then it went SHHHHOOOM! Back at it! And then-"
"I know! Man, I don't think I'll ever get tired of doing that. But you've got a bottle rocket to make, right? Lunch ends pretty soon, let's leave slim pickings here and get going!"
Lloyd quickly nodded, following Ninten through the window, taking one last look at the Barbot.
"Insufferable humans. My master will soon leave this planet as nothing more than a husk of rocks! We shall sing praises as you earthlings-"
"Sh-Sheesh, he does talk a lot. No wonder Ninten says the Starmen are better." Lloyd said, loud enough for the mech to hear him as he dropped from the window, leaving Barbot alone.
"The Barbot line is powerful. The Starmen pale in comparison. Soon, you shall see the might of the Barbots. Just you wait humans…" dozens of Lil Saucers flew from under boxes, sending mini-tractor beams at Barbot. Barbot was lifted as the Lil Saucers flew up, carrying it with them.
"Just. You. Wait…"