Chapter 4: Repairs
A/N: Just a bit of a smaller filler chapter between things. Not a big deal, but I hope you enjoy anyways.
After our little close call, we returned to the spaceship ASAP.
When we got back, surprisingly, Cooking Cat was there and waiting for us in the main hub.
She waved at us with a big smile, and we walked over.
"Hi, Cookie!" The kid exclaimed.
'Cookie'? What an adorable nickname.
"Hello, dears!" She greeted warmly, "All my students went home, so I thought I'd come pay you two a visit and see how things are going."
"How thoughtful of you," I said, "Things are going... fine."
She tilted her head.
"You don't sound too convinced," She responded, "Is something wrong?"
"Just seems like we've got a lot on our plate. A lot of things we have to do for a lot of people," I muttered, "Made a deal with Snatcher to do more work for him... gonna have to do more acting with the directors to afford things to live, and we also have to help The Empress with her stupid operations."
She seemed horrified.
"You two got tangled with her?" She gasped.
"Unfortunately, yes," I grumbled, "Now we have to help her with her stupid operations to satisfy her."
She shook her head.
"Well, I can only wish you two the best of luck with that," She said, "I'm sure those two old birds and the shadow will understand."
"Yeah, you're right," I said, nodding my head, "We'll be fine, right, kid?"
The kid nodded rapidly.
"Glad I could help!" Cooking Cat exclaimed, "While I'm here, I should cook up something special for you two."
"You don't have to do that..." I muttered.
"Of course I do! What better way is there to truly welcome you two to this planet?" She said determinedly, "It'll be a few hours though, so if you need me, just check your kitchen."
"Alright. Thank you very much," I thanked her.
She just nodded with a huge smile and went into the kitchen.
With that out of the way, I turned to the kid.
"What should we do now?" I asked.
"Let's get that vault fixed," She said, "Better now than later."
"Sounds good to me," I replied, "Not sure where to look for spaceship par-"
"The Moon?" The kid suggested, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world... which it kind of was.
"Uh... right," I replied, "Don't ask me why I never thought of that."
She smirked, shook her head, and dragged me into the machine room. Not long after, we were on the moon, in one of the larger cities.
With nothing else to do, we walked around for about a half an hour, looking for someplace that seemed like the right place to go, but I couldn't find anything.
"Should we start asking-"
"Found a place!" The kid shouted, "Let's go!"
She ran off towards what seemed to be a giant parts warehouse.
Oh... was I really that blind?
I took off after her.
Once we were inside, I let her do the shopping as she actually knew what she was doing. She picked up a bunch of random tools and whatnot that I had no idea what they'd be useful for.
And once we got to the counter, I paid for them all-
"That'll be 5000 pons, sir," The clerk stated.
What?
"Oh... should've paid more attention to the prices," I muttered.
The clerk shrugged.
"Allow me, darling."
We both turned to see DJ Grooves walk over and give the clerk a credit card.
"Well, fancy seeing you here," I greeted.
"Could say the same for you, darling. What brings you two here?" He asked.
"Well, we need equipment to fix something on our ship, so we came here," I explained, "And you?"
"I come here sometimes to browse for items that could be used as props. Just so happens that you showed up when I happened to be doing that," He answered.
The clerk handed him back his credit card, and handed me the equipment.
"You really got us out of a pickle here," I said, "Thanks a bunch."
"Anytime, darlings," He replied.
From there, we quickly said our goodbyes and returned to our ship, all sorts of equipment and whatnot in stow.
I hauled it over to the vault.
"So why do we need all this-"
She opened the vault, revealing a very confusing mechanism on the inside of it that I hadn't noticed before.
"Oh."
She giggled.
"Are you sure you can handle this?" I asked.
She nodded.
"I'll handle this myself, but stay here in case I need something," She said.
"Okay..." I muttered.
With that, we-er... she got to work.
I tried watching what she was doing, and she tried explaining, but it just sailed over my head. Talking about 'aligning' this, 'calibrating' that, and a bunch of space lingo I just didn't get.
"Why does a lock mechanism need to be this complex?" I scoffed.
"Because it's harder to break into," She replied.
"Oh... I guess that makes sense," I muttered.
There were some pretty confusing moments, though, involving part names.
For example...
"Can you hand me the stellarotor?" She asked.
"The what?" I replied.
I could hear her groan.
"The stellarotor. It looks like a rotor, but it's star shaped," She said, "Stella-rotor."
I locked eyes on a funny star-shaped part and picked it up.
"This thing?" I asked.
"If it's star-shaped, that's probably it," She answered.
I quickly passed it to her.
... And that was just the first confusing thing. How was I supposed to know what a zaplatch was? Or a zenihibitor? Is that even a freaking word?! Was this kid just screwing with me?!
She also had problems reaching some of the mechanisms because of her height, so combine that with my incompetence and...
It took hours.
But when all was said and done, she hopped out from inside of the vault and closed it.
"Should be good!" She said gleefully, "Let's see..."
She suddenly climbed on top of me to reach at the vault, causing me to stumble.
"You know, you could've at least asked," I said.
She just giggled.
I watched her attempt to yank the vault open, to no success.
"Good!" She shouted, "Now let's see..."
She inputted some sort of code into the clock-looking center of the vault, then tried opening it. It opened.
She clapped rapidly and hopped down.
"Perfect!" She exclaimed, shutting it again.
"Good job," I congratulated her, "Wish I could've understood what you were doing back there, though."
She shrugged.
"I guess we're all good for her to move in, huh?" I asked.
She nodded rapidly, a huge grin on her face.
"Now let's go see how Cooking Cat's doing," I suggested, "Should be getting around dinnertime anyway."
We entered the kitchen, and were greeting by a beaming Cooking Cat.
"Perfect timing!" She exclaimed, "I just finished cooking. I even set the table and everything."
She then got behind us and pushed us forward and sat us down at the table.
In front of us were two plates of what seemed to be fish, but covered in butter? Or something that looked like butter... as well as some greens on the side.
"Sadly, I won't be able to stay to see if you enjoy, but I hope you do," She said, walking toward the doors, "You dears have a good night, alright?"
"We will," I replied, "You do, too."
She nodded, then waved and walked out.
Without further ado, we dug in.
Well. That cat earned her name, alright.
I could say with certainty that that was the best meal I'd ever had in my life. I'd explain what was so good about it, but I don't even know where to begin. Everything was just... perfect.
Afterward, we both sat in the main hub. I didn't know about her, but I was tired.
... Actually, it only took one look over at her to make me think: yeah, she was pretty tired too.
"You ready for bed, kid?" I asked.
She nodded.
"In that case, let's get you tucked in," I said.
As I was tucking her in, I noticed that she seemed puzzled or worried.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Just wondering where Moustache Girl is," She muttered, "If she's safe."
"She's fast, she's smart. I'm sure she's alright," I reassured her.
"But where is she?" She asked.
"Probably busy," I guessed, "I'm sure she'll show up later in the night."
"You're sure?" She questioned.
"Absolutely," I replied without doubt.
Slowly, she smiled.
"Okay," was all she said.
I smiled back and pulled the covers over her.
"Now get some sleep," I said, "You know you'll be needing it."
She nodded slowly, and I got up and walked toward the door.
"Good night, kid," I wished her.
"Good night-" She said, and once again, she said something afterward that I couldn't make out.
And again, when I turned around to ask her, she was already sleeping.
I shrugged my shoulders and exited the room.
I meandered over to the attic, called the lift, then took off my sweater and climbed into bed.
This marked the end of our first day as permanent residents of this planet.
And for the first day, I couldn't have expected anything better.
A/N: Hat Kid, Cat Kid, now... Mechanic Kid? Doesn't sound right, does it? Well, she would've been Poor Kid if it wasn't for DJ Grooves.
After the last chapter, I recieved quite a few private messages about suggestions for future arcs and chapters, so thank you all very much! I'm super hyped to see what we as a group can make here.
Heck, I'd even try making a discord server but... uhhh... I don't know anything about discord.
Anyway, got another review from Xenuro:
What kid wouldn't be in awe at a pillow mountain? Hehe. And yes, I thought him not reacting to the jumpscare would be quite comical indeed. Thank you very much.
And for your question... I'm honestly not 100% sure. I think we're planning something for later...? I'm not too sure. I hardly talk with the other authors, except when I plan on using their characters in a chapter.
All I know is, for now, we're just gonna keep randomly having our stories intersect like we've done so previously. But if you want to know more, ask them, cause they'd probably give you a more cohesive answer.
Hope that clears some things up. See you all next chapter.
