Chapter 43: Final Preparations
As Malco had assumed, Curly was looking for her children. She could easily have picked up a sprinkler from the ground outside, but doing so would no doubt draw more attention to her than she wanted to risk. If not from the Mimiga workers (who continued to give her the cold shoulder), then from the Drolls which stood guard over them all. Quote had been knocked out by one of them, and she was in no hurry to suffer the same fate.
Tracking down the Colons in itself wasn't difficult. Something in her head could tell that they were nearby and subtly guided her toward them. It was probably another function in her receptors which Malco would be able to explain if she asked, but she decided to simply write it off as maternal instinct. That sounded better to her. The four small Mimiga were still tirelessly working in the Demon Flower planters, but they ran over to her when she beckoned for them.
"Hey guys, do you think you could help me? I need to get one of those sprinklers without anyone getting suspicious. It's important for our fight against the Doctor."
Nodding eagerly, they scurried off to do as requested.
"That was easy enough. I wonder how the others are doing…"
"I'm sorry, sir- come out please…"
Malco was standing beside one of the metal crates in Itoh's hideout. The man-turned-Mimiga was just as easily frightened as he had been when they'd first met, and he had hidden himself the moment Malco opened the door.
"I'm not going to hurt you! I was here before, remember?"
It took a bit more coaxing, but Itoh finally emerged from behind his hiding spot. Upon recognizing his visitor, he sighed loudly.
"Can't you robots come in here without trying to pull the door off its hinges? I swear the whole island could have heard that!"
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry," Malco replied rather impatiently. He understood his fear, but time was of the essence. "I am here on behalf of Doctor Sakamoto. She tells me you have a remote for the rocket she's building."
Itoh's face lit up.
"So she's safe after all! What a relief… she's much stronger than I am, you know. Yes, I have it right here."
He rummaged around in one of the crates and withdrew a small rectangular device. It was rather crude in its design, being little more than a light brown box with a green display screen and a few black buttons.
"It's not much to look at, but it was the best I could do. Having paws really makes you take thumbs for granted. Give Momorin my regards, and the Doctor a hit from me!"
Malco took the controller with an eager nod.
"I will, thank you. If you wish to see her yourself, the hideout is on the eastern end of the Plantation, to the left of the reservoir's far side. The password is 'yrots evac.'"
With that, he walked out to announce his successful mission.
Quote had been told to rest, but sleeping while his two companions were still working didn't sit right with him. He sat on a worn-out folding chair in a corner of the hideout, listening to the rescued Mimiga talk among themselves and Doctor Sakamoto working on the rocket. Eventually, she walked over to him and sat down in a second chair.
"I've done all I can for now. You can have the Booster back when you leave, but I can't do any more work until I have the sprinkler and that remote. I just hope your friends can get back here in time. Are they reliable?"
He gave her an annoyed frown. What kind of question was that? They were the most reliable people he knew on the island. He would have trusted them with his life, and already had on multiple occasions. Momorin, seeing his unamused expression, sheepishly cleared her throat.
"Sorry… again, Sue never mentioned them so I wasn't sure what they were like. She would leave notes on top of the hatch outside for me to find, this way we could talk without drawing attention. My brave little girl…"
Her faraway voice indicated that she was talking more to herself than to Quote, but he listened anyway.
"…she didn't want to hide with me. She said that if anyone noticed her missing then I might be found, and after that we'd never be able to win. I can't possibly thank you enough for saving her back in the Egg Corridor. Kazuma, too… he's always been on the timid side, but he'll come through for you in the end. They're the only family I have, and if I lost them I'd… ah, never mind."
Quote may have been fighting to save the world, but he was reminded of the personal lives he affected. Knowing that gave him yet another reason to succeed.
Curly beamed as the Colons returned to her, carrying a sprinkler as requested. It took all four of them to lift the device, but their dedication to their task never faltered. She took it from them once she was sure nobody could see their meeting.
"Thanks so much! You've been a big help," Curly praised. "Once the Doctor's been beaten, I'll come and find you right away."
"Good luck!" they called.
She wasn't far from the hideout, and made it back in less than ten minutes. Curly had run back as fast as she could, desperate not to be spotted carrying the sprinkler. Fortunately for her, no Mimiga were in her path as she returned to the metal hatch in the ground. When she knocked on the door to the bunker, a different set of eyes than Momorin's peered at her from behind the slot.
"Password?"
She giggled.
"Quote, it's me. You haven't forgotten me now, have you?"
He could be heard stifling a laugh, but repeated his question anyway.
"Fine… yrots evac."
The door opened for her. She walked in and proudly displayed the sprinkler.
"Here it is, courtesy of the Colons!"
Momorin took it from her with a grateful smile, then walked back over to the rocket and kept working.
"Quote, weren't you supposed to be resting?" Curly asked, noticing he still looked tired.
He shrugged.
"I didn't want to while you were still out there."
"Well, I'm back now. Go get some sleep while we wait for Malco to get back."
"There's a bed through that door in the back," one of the three Mimiga, wearing a thick vest and glasses, commented. "If you're going to fight the Doctor you could use the rest."
Not putting up any more resistance, he finally walked through the specified door and shut it behind him. Curly walked over to Momorin and the rocket.
"Anything else I can do to help?"
"No, thank you. You've done more than enough for me already…"
She wiped her eyes.
"If it hadn't been for you three, Sue and Kazuma might not have survived. Soldier robots have mostly been forgotten back on the surface, but I promise that all the things you've done for my family will always be remembered."
Curly scratched behind her head with a bashful smile.
"Thanks, but the credit should really go to Quote and Malco. I was the last person to join our group, and I've never met your children. By the way, where is their father? Is he here too?"
Suddenly Momorin was still. Curly flinched, wondering if she'd asked the wrong thing.
"He's been gone for a long time. He was… there was an accident one day, around ten years before we came here. Sue never even knew him that well, and Kazuma just… shut down for a while. I still don't know how I got through it myself. I'm sorry, I don't want to think about him right now. Not when there's still so much at stake."
An uneasy silence fell over the room. Curly shuffled where she sat and thought of a different topic.
"So, uh… your daughter's a Mimiga now. How are you handling it?"
"To be honest," Momorin replied in a less weary voice, "we were separated before I had much of a chance to spend time with Sue in that state. I don't know what to expect, or even how to treat her in case she doesn't change back once this is all over."
"Oh, I could give you some advice on that! I was living with four little Mimiga for weeks before the Doctor took them."
Looking up from the rocket with surprise all over her face, she clung to Curly's shoulders.
"Really?! Please, that would be fantastic! Tell me everything you know!"
She laughed brightly.
"Alright, I'll give you the basics for now. If Sue's really like a normal Mimiga, then her diet will probably consist of mostly plants. I hear any meat other than fish makes them queasy. Just about any plant-based food should do the trick."
Momorin was grinning.
"She never did like vegetables… heh, now she doesn't have a choice. Okay, what about her fur?"
"It's surprisingly good at not collecting dirt! I don't know how, but the kids I lived with never got too sandy even though we were practically swimming in the stuff. It would just flake out of their fur before long, so you won't need to worry about that. Plus it smells great too!"
The conversation continued in a similar fashion for ten or so minutes before Momorin had finished installing the sprinkler's battery in the rocket. As Curly educated her on how to care for Mimiga, she in turn received lessons on parenting in general. By the end of the discussion, both of them had reached sharing amusing stories about their respective children.
"For a soldier, you sure do seem to be a good caretaker based on what you've said."
She shrugged with a small laugh.
"Guess that came with only having those kids around me. They rubbed off on me a lot."
"I see… you should get some rest too. Once your other friend gets back the rocket will almost be finished, and after that you're all set to fight the Doctor."
Curly walked through the door to the back, where Quote was fast asleep. He had arranged himself to take up as little room as possible, with his limbs all tucked in close to his body and his position being so close to the edge of the bed that it was a wonder he hadn't fallen off.
Oh, right. The bed. Singular.
She'd forgotten that there was only one. As much as she didn't want to disturb the other soldier, she herself was feeling tired and sleeping on the floor didn't sound like the best idea to her. With an increasingly red face, she laid down next to Quote on the other side of the bed and tried to relax.
"Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, don't panic…"
They were up against a monster in human skin, empowered by a legendary evil artifact, and yet somehow being so close to her old partner like this was more frightening than anything the Doctor had thrown at them.
Malco had made it back to the hideout after about an hour of walking. Ideally he should have taken far less time, but the Drolls were ambling around the area and he wouldn't risk being caught. Worse still, many of the Demon Flower planters were empty all of a sudden, which could only mean that they were being harvested.
He knocked on the door a bit harder than intended, earning him a glare from Momorin when she came to the peephole and realized who it was.
"Password? Or were you just going to bust your way in?"
"Yrots evac. The flowers are ready."
Her expression shifted into worry as she let him in.
"If that's the case, we don't have any time to lose. Have you brought back the remote?"
Nodding, Malco handed it to her and looked at the rocket. It appeared to be nearing completion. As she knelt beside an exposed panel to continue her work, she spoke again to him.
"No offense, but you aren't a soldier, are you?"
"That is correct. I arrived here for the purpose of providing tactical and analytical support, but I myself am no soldier."
"I see," Momorin hummed. "I also see that you have a weapon of your own. Are you going to fight with your friends against the Doctor anyway?"
He beeped happily.
"Of course I am. Now that we're together I won't simply direct them from the sidelines if I can help personally."
"That's very admirable of you. Be sure to take care of them out there, got it? You're no less of a hero in my eyes than them."
Malco laughed.
"You flatter me, Doctor Sakamoto. I promise I'll keep an eye on them. Can I help with the rocket somehow?"
She waved a hand dismissively.
"Your blonde friend asked the same thing. Leave this to me and get some rest instead. There's a bed in the back, but since the others are already in there you three may have to take turns."
It was at that moment that his clanking footsteps suddenly became a concern for him. What if he woke the soldiers up? Their rest was more important than his, and if he disturbed them he would have possibly compromised their mission-
Once he opened the door to the bedroom, however, he realized that there wasn't a chance he would wake them. Quote and Curly had evidently decided to share the bed, sleeping rather close to one another. He could see traces of a blush on the latter's face, but neither of them seemed uncomfortable otherwise.
The robot cracked a smile, walking over to a corner to deactivate. He folded his limbs in toward himself until he was effectively cube-shaped and shut down on the floor. Not being able to sleep in the bed was fine with him; he couldn't fit and would have been uncomfortable anyway.
Besides, his friends appeared to be enjoying themselves.
