Chapter 31: Plans Awry
Quote remained where he was, staring down at Curly's body without moving an inch. This wasn't happening. He refused to believe this was happening. Curly Brace, a reliable ally- and a close friend- who had rarely allowed herself to show any sign of weakness for long, was not dead before his very eyes.
"It… it can't be…"
Why had she given him the Air Tank, knowing that she would drown as a result? She could have saved herself, after all; the blast door had been destroyed. All she had to do was walk out and rejoin Malco, and they would have been safe.
"She had so much more to live for than me… she still had those children to look after, and I have nothing. Nothing except for her and Malco. Why did she save me?!"
Quote was practically fuming at the thought. This didn't need to have happened! She could have- she SHOULD have lived, and gone on to raise those four Mimiga!
His mental rant was interrupted when he realized that Malco was trying to contact him. Just acknowledging that thought seemed to accept the connection, not that the soldier cared much by then.
"Quote! Finally, I've been attempting to reach you two! What's going on in there? Curly isn't responding, is she okay?"
It took him a moment to choke out a response.
"We fought the Core keeping the island up. The Doctor appeared and tried to drown us, then Curly… gave me her Air Tank."
Malco was saying something in return, but he hardly paid attention to the other robot. His eyes never left his fallen partner's still form, and as more time passed the sheer reality of what he was looking at became apparent to him. She seemed too unharmed to be dead. Toroko's corpse had been bloodied and battered, but aside from a small rip on her false skin and her clothes being torn in a few spots, Curly looked to be in pristine condition. Even the rip on her cheek was slowly mending itself.
Wait, what? He was no expert, but he felt that shouldn't have been happening if she was completely offline. Unless that meant…
"Quote, are you listening to me? I just said she's alive! I'm still picking up her electrical signal!"
All of his motivation came back to him at once.
"There's still time to save her?!"
"Yes, but if she's been submerged in the water for as long as I think she has we'll need to act quickly. I'll scan through my memory banks to find the instructions on treating flooded robots and transfer them to you momentarily. In the meantime, you need to get her out of the water. Make your way back to me on the double, the teleporter's ready!"
With a burst of energy he didn't even know he was capable of, Quote scooped her up into his arms and tried to fit her body into the air bubble with him. He was willing to look past the odd discomfort of having her pulled so close to him, but the main issue with his tactic was it prevented the use of his arms, which he needed to climb out of the water by the hill of rubble. Still, he couldn't give up. If there was even the smallest chance to save her he would take it; there had to be some way to get her out safely.
Fortunately for him, a solution presented itself in the form of a long rope with metal clasps at each end. It was loosely coiled around the arm of one of the dead soldier robots, and although it had a fair amount of mold due to age it was better than nothing. Thinking quickly, Quote tied his and Curly's waists together, with her chest leaning against his back and her head nodding to the side of his. It wasn't much more of a comfortable position than what he'd just tried, but at least now his hands were free. He began to walk toward the pile of wreckage that could lead him out of the flooded chamber, feeling her bounce lightly against him with each step.
"Hang on, Curly… you'll be alright, I promise."
She was lighter than he'd assumed, which made clambering through the open blast door much easier. As he proceeded back towards the abandoned camp where Malco was waiting, he heard a distinct chime somewhere in his head.
"Transfer of file 'Tending to Waterlogged Soldier Robots' complete."
His legs still hurt from the last impact, the trace amounts of water that had yet to drain from his body continued to cause him immense discomfort, and his drenched clothes only weighed him down even more. But he pressed on with steadfast resolve, fighting through every step to save Curly.
When he finally made it back into the Labyrinth's rust-colored tunnel, he collapsed to his knees and panted loudly from his exhaustion. Quote had never been happier to be in that narrow cave.
"You're safe! Excellent, simply excellent!"
Malco was standing on his side of the lake as well, and rushed over to inspect him and Curly.
"You received the file, yes?"
"Yes… I did…"
"Good, you can access it from your own memory banks now. This may not be the most appropriate location, but follow its steps to drain her right here. I worry that if we wait any longer her internal systems will shut down for good. I'll get the teleporter warmed up."
Without waiting for a response, he ran back across the rusted bridge to Team 9's command post. Quote sighed again wearily but didn't hesitate. He untied Curly from himself and laid her down on her back.
"Access the file…?" he repeated to himself, wondering how exactly he was supposed to do that in his own head.
It turned out that just thinking about it sufficed, and soon enough the instructions were relaying across his mind. Quote didn't need to focus on anything in particular, as within seconds his electronic brain had processed the information completely. Now he could get to work on draining Curly.
Regarding the specific steps, though… he was beginning to wonder what had been meant by "appropriate location" for tending to her, and based on how personal some of the instructions required him to be, he had his suspicions.
"Malco, are you still connected to my receptors?"
"Yes, of course I am."
"You can see everything that I can?" he asked again for confirmation.
"Yes. Why?"
Quote stared down at his partner's limp body and swallowed his pride for what he needed to do.
"Do me a favor and disconnect for a few minutes."
Malco did as requested and severed the sensory connection to Quote, though he wasn't sure why he had to. The most likely explanation was that he wanted privacy when draining Curly's innards, but even then he couldn't fathom the necessity of doing so. Did it embarrass the soldier? He and Curly were of different robot varieties than Malco, so they could have been programmed with varying mental responses to certain subjects… that made sense to him, at any rate.
He pushed aside those thoughts and began the teleporter's startup procedure. Such details weren't important, what did matter was that Quote and Curly were safe. Retrieval Team 9 may have been gone, but Malco still had friends to accompany on their mission. He felt a subtle buildup of frustration somewhere inside him, which he attributed to learning that his old allies had been destroyed… but he brushed it off. Having such good new ones made up for it in full. At last, they could escape the Labyrinth and bring the fight to the Doctor.
It didn't take long for Quote to conclude that whoever had built Curly had a very twisted idea of designing robots.
The process of draining her wasn't difficult, and in fact only took about three minutes to complete. Those were the most uncomfortable three minutes he'd experienced in all of his time awake, however, as the procedure had unwittingly taught him that the female soldier was built very nearly anatomically correct. Quote spent those dreadful three minutes getting far more familiar with Curly's figure than he'd ever wanted to, and by the end he felt both relieved at watching the water drain from her body… and ashamed with himself at seeing it drain via an orifice he didn't want to dwell on. He briefly checked under his own clothes to find that, like her, he'd been constructed to be anatomically correct. Something about knowing that made him feel nauseous. Nevertheless, it had saved her life. That was more than worth the discomfort for him.
To Quote's delight, within moments her body stirred and she groaned softly. He watched her eyes open, adjusting to the brightness of the tunnel (relative to where they'd just been, anyway) and looking around in a daze. Curly brought a hand to her forehead and rubbed it, all while he let the relief that she'd survived sink in.
"Ugh… what happened?"
She sat straight up, almost smashing her head against his in the process, and glanced around her with a look of panic.
"Quote! Where's Quote?"
The soldier almost laughed at her concern; he was sitting no less than a yard behind her. She noticed him soon enough, turning to look at him with an odd expression on her face.
"Relax, I'm right here. You had me worried for-"
Quote was sharply cut off when Curly launched herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and squeezing him tight.
"You're… you're safe…" she whispered in a shaky voice.
"It's alright, everything's fine now."
Despite having been underwater, she still smelled rather strongly of Mimiga fur, but by then he was beyond caring about that. He returned the hug with as much affection as he could muster- how much that was exactly didn't matter. After a few seconds, Curly pulled away from him with a smile and even a blush.
"I-I thought you were a goner in there… after I woke up from being knocked out, I saw you unconscious and panicked," she said quietly. "You didn't seem like you had much time left before drowning, so I gave you the Air Tank."
"Why did you do that?" Quote asked. "You deserved it more than me, since you still have those kids to go back to…"
Her smile faded somewhat, making him wonder if he shouldn't have asked.
"You're a better fighter than I am," Curly said in reply. "You know more about what we're up against, and I thought you should be the one to live and stop the Doctor."
Quote wasn't sure if she was right about him being the stronger one or not. In every skirmish they'd been in together, they had seemed roughly on par with one another.
They finally released each other from the hug to have more space.
"Well," he said, "I'm flattered you think that much of me. Even so, you're pretty good in a fight too. I can't beat the Doctor without your help, you know."
"I'm not sure about that… but I'll do everything I can to back you up anyway."
"Ah, you're awake!" Malco blared into their heads together. "Fortune has smiled upon us after all! It's a shame you were unconscious; I've never seen Quote so motivated as when he saved you!"
Curly suddenly looked confused.
"Wait a second, how did you save me?"
He picked up the rope and showed it to her.
"I found this in the water and tied you to me so your whole body was in the Air Tank's bubble."
"Oh… maybe I should've thought of that myself. But wait, wasn't I totally flooded? I thought that was supposed to shut us down."
"It was," he continued, "but Malco sent me some instructions on how to, uh… drain your body. So I did."
She gave him another odd look, but didn't pry any further.
"Sounds like a story for some other time. Can we get to Mimiga Village now?"
"Yes we can! The teleporter is operational and its coordinates are set! I'm going in now, hurry over here when you're ready!"
Malco's connection to them was cut off when he warped away, finally escaping the Labyrinth and moving out of range to contact them. Standing up, Quote offered a hand to Curly.
"Do you need help walking?"
"Oh, since when were you such a gentleman?" she teased.
Frowning, he pulled his hand away.
"I guess you're fine. Come on, let's catch up with him."
He started to walk back across the decrepit bridge toward the old camp with Curly following closely behind him. They had escaped certain death together, and now they would teach the Doctor a lesson.
"What?! Q-Quote, move!"
Her shout caught him off guard, but not as much as the bridge suddenly groaning under their weight. Realizing their predicament, he sprinted the rest of the way and practically dove onto the ground past the lake. Behind him, he heard a loud metallic screech as the bridge collapsed and sank into the dark, murky waters. His heart (if he had one) stopped when he realized that Curly hadn't made it with him. The last thing he saw was a brief flash of blonde hair as she was completely submerged.
"NO!"
He had just nearly watched her drown, and he wasn't about to do it again. Even if it meant having to go through that procedure to drain her a second time, he would not lose her. He couldn't.
Without hesitating, Quote dove into the lake after his friend. It was difficult to see, but the Air Tank she'd given him certainly helped. The device kicked in immediately and allowed him to breathe and move without being restricted by the water pressure, which greatly aided his search. Soon enough he spotted Curly being sucked into some kind of intake pipe. Their eyes locked for a split second, but it was enough for him to see the pleading, frightened look on her face as she passed through the tube and out of sight.
Quote followed as quickly as he could, getting caught up in the same current as her and being swiftly carried through the underground waterway. He propelled himself with the flow, trying desperately to catch up. Despite his best efforts, nothing could have prepared him for when a sharp turn in the pipe led to a branching path, and all he could do was hopelessly reach for Curly as she was sucked in a different direction than him.
There was no telling where either of them would end up. This time, he had really lost her.
