Chapter 15: Three Robots

"Uh… Quote? You okay there? You're kind of spacing out right now."

His attention snapped back to the present, where Curly was looking at him with a confused expression.

"Hm? Sorry, I was just thinking about something. I'm here to find the red flowers and destroy them. Do you know where they are?"

The female robot gave him an apologetic look.

"I can't say I do. If they are around here, I'll be sure to keep 'em away from these children. Tell you what, though: further up the tunnel is a really old-looking house. A woman named Jenka lives there, and she claims to be a powerful witch. If anyone around here knows where to find these flowers, she's probably your best bet."

Quote was about to thank her for the advice and leave when he realized just how drained he felt. He'd spent so much time running back and forth across the various caverns and getting into fights that it had taken him a while to notice his own fatigue.

"Whoa, are you okay? You look dead tired, buddy. I think you should take a break to power down and recharge."

"I'm fine. If I take too long, the Doctor could get his hands on the flowers."

Despite what he'd said, he was clearly not fine. It took an enormous amount of effort just to remain standing, given how much work his legs had been through already.

"I must agree with Miss Brace," Malco chimed in unhelpfully. "In your current condition you're not likely to succeed. Just power down for a half hour or so, and you'll be much better."

He was about to protest again, but to his surprise Curly was already half-dragging him toward a door in the corner of the room. She all but threw him in with a cheerful smile and promised to leave him alone.

"Rest as long as you need to, got it? It's the least I can do after attacking you like that."

Quote, once again, couldn't get a word in before she closed the door behind her. He was in a small chamber with little more than a row of three worn beds lined up against the back wall. A dresser stood opposite them, covered in dirty clothes.

"She seems nice, doesn't she? Go ahead and shut down, I will be waiting for when you're ready to go."

By that point, he was tired enough to not care so much about how his two fellow robots had essentially forced him to take a break. He climbed into one of the beds and laid his head back, promising himself that he'd make up for the lost time after waking up. Quote didn't know how exactly to "shut down," but it seemed to come to him after a minute or two. His inner systems adjusted to the resting position, and he felt the world go dark around him.

As he was drifting off, he vaguely thought that somehow, Curly Brace seemed familiar.


Satisfied to see his new ally resting, Malco allowed his own senses to return to normal. Up until then he'd been using one camera eye to see through Quote's vision while the other kept track of his surroundings in the Bushlands. The same could be said for his "ears," resulting in his internal systems being forced to monitor two areas at once. Even for a robot, it was rather overwhelming.

Unlike Quote, he wasn't tired at all. Having been offline for an uncertain amount of time before his activation, Malco was fully energized and ready to work. He set about tidying up the abandoned town, where Retrieval Team 9 had set up their base camp. Of course, if what Quote's ally Professor Booster had said was true, then the war had been over for a decade with the other robots from the team completely gone.

Malco didn't let that possibility discourage him from maintaining the supplies he'd been left in charge of. After all, he was still around. Quote and Curly, while different kinds of robots than him, were also present despite the long gap in time. Surely there was a chance of his companions still being alive and finding their way back to him! And when they arrived, he'd have more people to keep him company.

"Ten years… has it really been that long?"

His internal clock had malfunctioned during his dormancy, so all he had to go on was the word of Professor Booster. Malco busied himself with trying to repair the busted wall of the Power Room and taking inventory on what few weapons remained in the hopes of not feeling so lonely.

It didn't work. He let out a low beeping sound in dismay, suddenly anxious for Quote to wake up. While the much less talkative scout robot wasn't the best conversation partner (in fact, sometimes he gave the impression that he didn't like Malco's chattering), just having someone to speak with helped ease his sense of isolation. Activating the other four robots he'd been locked away with was out of the question due to a technical issue with the power generator. From what he could tell, fixing it would be a long process. For the time being, his only companion was the red-hatted soldier who wasn't even awake.

There was also Curly Brace, though… she seemed more conversational, if only he could contact her. He needed Quote's help for that, leaving him at another brief impasse.

As he set aside the metal sheet he had been attempting to weld back together, Malco reflected on his own background. Vague memories of being sealed away in the Power Room with his four identical brethren came to him. From what he understood, they were assigned to stand guard until Team 9's combat force returned. How long they'd waited before deactivating was beyond him, as well as where exactly said force had even gone. There had to be files containing this information somewhere in his systems... finding them could wait, though. Quote would be ready soon, and Malco was eager to continue helping him in his search for the red flowers.


"Okay, gang. Our guest is sleeping, so try not to make too much noise."

Curly watched with a satisfied grin as her four Mimiga children- the Colons, they called for themselves for reasons she couldn't exactly remember- nodded in understanding. They went back to playing with each other or eating whatever snacks they could find; food wasn't exactly plentiful in the Sand Zone. By herself for the time being, she sat down in an old wooden chair to think.

She'd never imagined that her first visitor since waking up there three weeks prior would be a robot almost exactly like her. Quote had the same pure white "skin," a similar outfit, comparable and even superior combat skills… everything down to the metallic ringing of his voice seemed parallel to her. Other than gender, his only notable differences were his apparent difficulty at expressing himself personally and his much more severe amnesia.

Brushing a lock of fake blonde hair out of her face, Curly tried her hardest to recall more about her past. Just like all the other times she had done so, there was nothing certain that she could remember. Nothing more than flashes of unclear battles and noises came back to her, frustratingly.

She entertained the possibility that before losing their memories, she and Quote had known each other somehow. The odds of that being true were difficult to determine, but with how many similarities the two shared it couldn't have been completely unlikely. A part of her wanted to accompany him on his mission to destroy the red flowers, not only to secure the safety of Mimiga everywhere but also on the off chance that she could learn something about her past. Nevertheless, she couldn't leave. She had to look after the children.

Another smile graced her lips as she watched them play. Curly couldn't help it; they'd captured her heart not long after she woke up to the sight of them lost and homeless. The Colons looked up to her like a mother, and she returned their affection in full. While life in the barren Sand Zone wasn't easy, they somehow managed to get by with scavenged desert plants for food and hydration. Curly had no need for either, being a robot, and instead contented herself by just observing them happily eating. Life was simple, but fulfilling all the same. If she had one complaint, it was that the children had a tendency to roughhouse fairly often.

THUD.

Speaking of which…

"Hey! Didn't I say to keep it down?"