Cortex…Uka Uka…Cortex…no, Dustrielle supposed that it was Uka Uka, raised his arm and lowered it again, repeating it with the other arm. It was as if he was adjusting, or warming up, to his takeover of Cortex's body. Dustrielle didn't breathe as he watched, and none of the others made a sound as Uka Uka continued to wiggle his fingers and take a few steps forward, then back to where he'd been.
Finally, he sighed, a deep rumbling sound, and closed his eyes. But it didn't sound angry.
Then Uka Uka opened his eyes again and looked around at every member of the team, lingering on each for a few seconds. As his gaze rested on Dustrielle, Dustrielle swallowed, his mouth dry, the movement without the action. An uncanny sensation… as was the sight of Cortex's body being puppeted around like this.
Uka Uka cleared his throat.
"I understand you have all had an… eventful… last few weeks."
His tone was measured, even. If he hadn't known that this visit, and subsequent shakeup in leadership, had been mostly spontaneous, Dustrielle would've assumed that Uka Uka had rehearsed the speech.
"It's become increasingly clear to me that Cortex has long outlived his usefulness. Incompetence is one thing… sabotage is another… subterfuge for vainglorious efforts is yet another. I initially chose to recruit Cortex, all those years ago, because I thought he had the intellect, fire and potential to execute our most daring and devilish of plans. And as I'm looking through his memories…"
He gestured to Cortex's…his…head.
"I don't see anything left worth trusting him on. I think this new role of his will be much better. An efficient one: I get to have a permanent body, for the first time in centuries and it keeps him from trying further harebrained ideas."
He smirked, muttering. "Yes… this arrangement works best… the only thing I should use him for is his body…"
If Dustrielle hadn't been bewildered, exhausted and terrified, he might've burst into a fit of immature giggles at that last statement.
Trophy, evidently either a braver or more insane man than Dustrielle was, spoke up.
"Uka Uka… forgive my intrusion… what're your intentions for our action plan moving forward? Picking up where we left off before the Elemental diversion?"
Uka Uka was quiet for a few seconds, before his face broke out into a wide smile, and shook his head and raising his hand, and waving it.
"Nefarious, please..."
Trophy raised an eyebrow, as if confused by the casual nature of the beginning of Uka Uka's reply. Uka Uka didn't react to Tropy's expression, instead chuckling and gesturing around him.
"Look around us. Do you honestly expect to get substantial work done in your lab with one of the walls destroyed? Do you really think I could just expect the team to immediately continue where they'd been after the events of tonight? No…"
He put his hands together, and smiled, a small twisted smile.
"We have enough Lab Assistants lying around that could repair the castle, correct?"
Trophy, Brio and Dustrielle all immediately looked at Gin. It was probably best to defer to the engineer's judgement on this.
Gin opened the hatch of Doom Mech 6, and started to climb out, shrugging.
"We should. It'd be a two week project to get it up to previous standards."
"Two weeks?"
Uka Uka narrowed his eyes, but after a couple of seconds of reflection, shrugged.
"Fine then. Each of you is taking a two week break. We need to start off fresh… and on the right foot."
Dustrielle's eyes went wide. "Wait, really?"
Uka Uka turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Do you wish to continue work immediately?"
Dustrielle swallowed. The last thing he wanted was for Uka Uka to think he was being insubordinate, and to turn on him next.
He shook his head. "Uh, no. Nope. Just wanted to confirm you weren't joking, I was just…surprised."
Uka Uka turned away. "If there's one thing you'll need to adjust to, it's that I won't be doing any joking."
He put his hand on his chest. "You can take me at my word. I should hope I can do the same for all of you. N. Gin, I will need you to periodically check in on the Assistants' progress, even through this break. I apologize for that inconvenience."
Gin shook his head frantically. "No, that's fine."
"Good. Now, all of you, get out of my sight before I change my mind."
Tropy raised his finger. "Er, we're in my space."
Uka Uka grit his teeth. "And one of its walls is completely knocked over. Do you intend to sleep in the freezing cold?"
Tropy cast his eyes downward. He seemed the closest to morose that Dustrielle had ever seen.
Uka Uka nodded. "I thought not. There are other bedrooms in this castle, yes? Use Cortex's, for all I care."
Tropy caught Brio's eye, then Dustrielle's, then Gin's. The message was unspoken, but clear.
They all moved away, towards the door, in slow, shuffling, tentative steps, each ready to look over his shoulder at a moment's notice.
Once Tropy's lab's door was shut, and they were halfway down the stairs, Brio suddenly spoke, hushed and clipped.
"Team meeting. Doom M-Mech 5. Half an hour from now. Not a word to the boss. Are… are we okay with this?"
The sound that came in response was a garbled warble of multiple mumbled noises of affirmation.
Brio nodded. "Good. I need to shower first. I'll see you all there."
Once they'd reached the bottom of the stairs, Tropy and Brio split off. Brio headed towards his room, Tropy, presumably, to Cortex's.
Dustrielle reached his hand out, grabbing Gin by the forearm.
"I need to talk to you."
Gin raised his eyebrow. "Can this wait until the meeting?"
"No."
He'd had a lot of thoughts running through his head in the few seconds since the double shock of the Cortex betrayal and the new leadership structure. Every query, idea and realization that should've been in the forefront of his mind over the past hour had been jammed behind panic and adrenaline. Now that the dam had been unblocked, the flood was running its course, and he needed to get some answers.
Gin looked up into his face, opened his mouth, then closed it again, nodding.
"Okay. Here?"
Dustrielle shrugged. "Anywhere without other people. Or Lab Assistants."
Gin jerked his head towards the hallway. "Let's head to my lab, we can talk on the way there, too. Sound good?"
Dustrielle set his jaw, took his hand off of Gin's arm and nodded. "Okay."
He let Gin lead the way for a few seconds, while he gathered his thoughts.
"What do you think's in the cards for us after this break?"
Gin narrowed his eye. "You mean all of us staff, right?"
"Correct."
Gin sighed, closing his eye. "I don't know. I know Uka Uka well enough, but not as my direct boss. It looks like, for now, he's still trusting us. I don't know if that will change."
"Would Tropy or Brio know -?"
"They've got the same level of experience with him as I do."
"Fair."
Dustrielle stopped walking, sighing deeply. He locked eyes with Gin, praying he didn't take this next question the wrong way.
"When we were leaving for the Elementals… me, Cortex and Brio… you did something. I don't know if it was last ditch or planned, but you sabotaged Cortex. What did you do?"
Gin's face went pale, a light spurt of steam leaving his rocket. "I… no… what made you…?"
Dustrielle gestured his hand around as he explained his deduction.
"The lights flickering just before we'd left. I hadn't thought much of it in the moment, but the lights have never flickered in this castle before. Well, besides the power outage back in June. But you hadn't started testing the Slicer until weeks later. And if you managed to open the portal during those tests, without affecting power in the castle, what reason would there be for this activation to blow out the castle electricity?"
Gin swallowed deeply, glancing aside, and then back to Dustrielle.
"Consider… consider that the electromagnetic barriers weren't activated until Cortex's betrayal… that can cause a surge that could blow some circuits, provided that there's other power intensive resources in play -"
"Please don't lie to me, Gin."
"I'm not."
"You're grasping at 'maybes' to throw me off."
"It's still a possibility."
Dustrielle groaned and threw his hands up, though his breath caught as he caught sight of Gin's face.
His lip was trembling, his eye was wide, and his body was stiff. It looked hauntingly similar to the body language Gin displayed during Cortex's more demanding moments.
Dustrielle sighed, closing his eyes, exhaling slowly and deeply, and opening them again, looking Gin square in the face and dead in the eyes.
"I'm not on a witch hunt here. I'm not angry. I know why you had to do it. Well, at least I think I know your logic. I'm not offended. And I'd have done the same thing."
He paused. "I just want to know what exactly you did."
Gin seemed to relax, just a hair, but his lip still trembled. He opened his mouth and said, in a dry, high crackling voice.
"Do you promise…?"
And it was at that moment, that Dustrielle felt his darkened jaded heart break.
How many times had N. Gin had his trust broken, to the point where he had to ask this?
Dustrielle took his right hand, and crossed it over his heart.
"If I was two-faced, I wouldn't wear this one." He gestured to his head and chuckled, a hollow, uncomfortable sound. "Besides, what would I do if I didn't keep my word? Turn you in to Cortex?"
Gin tightened his lips and exhaled in a whistle. Though he wasn't laughing at the wisecracking, the jokes seemed to disarm Gin's defenses.
"I trust you. I should have better judgement… but I'll tell you… "
He reached into his lab coat pocket, pulling out a black oblong device, about 3 inches long and 4 inches wide. It had no adornments, no etchings, just one big red button on top of it, guarded by a layer of protective plastic.
Dustrielle raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
Gin smiled, weakly, trembling. "My nuclear option. Pocket EMP. One press of the button and anything in a 30 meter radius relying on circuitry or other electromagnetic energy sources would be fried."
His voice wavered less as he continued to talk about it. Noticeably so. It was his comfort zone for conversation, after all.
"I keep it in my pocket at all times, just in case I'm in a real bind and this would be the best solution. I couldn't let Cortex come back with the Elementals."
He paused, sighing. "I just couldn't. That would be game over, neither Nefarious nor I could overpower them, even with time to prepare. I couldn't stop you all from going inside once. But I could keep him from having a second chance to retrieve them, should this one fail. Plus, if we knocked out the tractor beam and ray gun, Cortex couldn't get them even in the one attempt. And I also knew that once the portal was activated, sabotaging the Slicer wouldn't mess with it. You see, the Slicer only activates the portals, it doesn't maintain them. Once they're generated, they would shrink at their normal rate, regardless of if I destroyed the portal. So you all could still go inside, and… hopefully come back, but without the ammunition Cortex wanted."
He stopped, his eye starting to water, and Dustrielle felt a hollowness in his chest.
"When you all left, Nefarious and I came up with a ploy. We knew that Cortex's ray gun and tractor beam were fried, but he still might have another ace up his sleeve. But the EMP also knocked out the electrical barriers, so I could leave the room. So, I untied him, but he would remain seated, to distract and keep suspicion from Cortex to a minimum, when he returned. I got into Doom Mech 6, flew it up outside the tower, punched in the wall, and kept its hand just out of view of the portal."
"So when Cortex came out - "
"Snatched him up. He dropped Tropy's arm, thank goodness. I would've hated to deal with that. But then… you and Brio didn't come out… "
"So when Cortex came out - "
"Snatched him up. He dropped Tropy's arm, thank goodness. I would've hated to deal with that. Or any Elementals. But then… you and Brio didn't come out… "
He cast his eyes to the ground and shuffled his foot.
"To give him credit, Tropy went into action right away. He asked me how to fix it, and gathered the tools he needed."
"If Brio and I hadn't figured out a way back, would you two have found a way?"
Gin winced. "I'm not going to say no. We would've cracked it at some point. But there was going to be enough rewiring and replacement parts involved that it would've taken hours. Maybe even a day or two. No guarantee you two wouldn't have wandered off or died of thirst."
Dustrielle nodded. "Fair."
The men were approaching the door to Gin's lab at this point, and Gin turned to Dustrielle. "Any more questions?"
Dustrielle opened his mouth, and shut it again, feeling his face burn.
"I… no."
Gin raised his eyebrow, then furrowed it.
"I stopped lying to you. Do the same."
Dustrielle felt the corner of his lip twitch. That was a direct and verbal refute, something he'd never heard from Gin before. He vaguely wondered where that had come from.
"Um… well… I guess you're right… It's not really a question though… "
"Well?"
Dustrielle darted his eyes around. "Can I say it inside the lab? I really don't want to be interrupted."
Gin tilted his head, but opened the door, gesturing for Dustrielle to come inside. As the two walked through, Gin locked the door behind them.
"What is it?"
Dustrielle almost stopped himself. He almost lied. He almost chickened out.
But Brio's words from between dimensions rang in his ears.
"Gin… ugh, look… " He swallowed deeply, willing himself to keep his eyes on Gin's face, despite how much his instincts were screaming at him to run.
"...when we… me and Brio, were trapped between the wormholes… we were talking. And, well, I thought about what would happen if we never returned. What your final impressions of me would be. And I'm so grateful to be alive. For many reasons. But I want to make sure that, Uka Uka forbid something like that happens again, I get to tell you this."
Gin's eye narrowed, as if he was deep in the throes of analyzing every one of Dustrielle's words. Then it went wide, and he opened his mouth. But before Gin could say anything, Dustrielle continued.
"I'm grateful to get to work with you. Collaborating with you has been one of the most awesome experiences I've had in a long, long time. I… well… I know we don't exactly have an HR department here, but… "
He swallowed.
"What's the standard operating procedure if I was to want to pursue a relationship with you?"
Gin's mouth remained open for a few seconds, before he started to laugh uproariously, closing his eye and tilting his head back with the mirth.
Dustrielle felt his face burn even more.
Well… I've faced worse rejections, I suppose…
Gin wiped a tear from his eye and composed himself.
"Dustrielle, before we discuss 'standard operating procedures'..."
He mimed air quotes.
"...as an engineer, you always want to make sure you fully understand the problem before you craft your solution. For instance, a relationship is a two way track, right?"
He stopped, the smile diminishing from the mirthful cackle, to something smaller, but very present. And almost sweet, despite the flush in his cheeks and the smoke streaming from his rocket.
"...yes… I feel the same way."
Dustrielle exhaled heavily, and then wheezed, his relief having taken all of the air from him. He coughed and gasped, holding his hand to his forehead before composing himself.
"...okay… okay! Alright… cool! So, what do you think is the… play… here?"
He distinctly chose to change his choice of words, since he knew damn well that half of Gin's laughter came from Dustrielle's very formalized language in the initial ask.
Gin sighed, shrugging.
"I don't think there's been anything like this here before. Though I'm pretty sure Tropy and Brio messed around once, a bunch of years back, after the holiday party. They didn't look each other in the eye for weeks."
Dustrielle smirked. "Good to know."
Gin chuckled. "Yeah. Don't tell anyone I told you that. But yeah… if Cortex was still our leader, I wouldn't be open about it, at least initially. And we'd have to limit any public affection, even if he knew and approved."
"Obviously. But… with Uka Uka?"
Gin shook his head. "I don't want to do or say anything about this in his view… or the rest of the team's… before we get more of an idea on how Uka Uka wants to run things."
Dustrielle nodded, unable to hide his wince.
"Yeah, figures, I'm good with that. But… for us, out of view, how do you want to take this?"
Gin didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then he inhaled deeply.
"Slow. We have a lot to process besides this. Can we keep our comms and expectations open?"
Dustrielle snorted. "You, officially, never get to make fun of 'standard operating procedures' again."
"Can you do that though?"
Dustrielle tightened his lips. Disappointment, even slight, understanding, disappointment, was something he was never great at hiding. But he nodded.
"You have my word."
Gin narrowed his eyes, his expression darkening. "I don't like to take people 'at their word.' But you haven't broken it yet. Don't give me reason to revoke that trust."
Dustrielle held his hands up. "I will do no intentional thing to do that."
"I'll take that."
The two didn't say anything for a few seconds, looking at each other. The silence was harmonized with the heat rising in every cell of Dustrielle's body.
Gin was the first to break the silence.
"The others will be here soon… are there any other questions, or things to talk about?"
Dustrielle glanced to the door, unsure if anyone was behind it yet, but looked back into Gin's eye.
"Just one question."
"Sure."
"Can I kiss you?"
The smell of smoke became far more present immediately after Dustrielle asked that question. Gin's face was as red as Dustrielle imagined his own face probably was.
Dustrielle immediately held his hands up. "If the answer is no, that's fine!"
Gin held his arm out, shaking his head "No… no that's not what…!"
Gin stopped midsentence, and the two looked at each other for a moment.
And Dustrielle couldn't tell whether it was him or Gin who started it, but both men started to laugh. Not the cynical chuckles or maniacal cackles that they usually shared, but pure ringing laughter. And with the laughter seemed to lift away Dustrielle's worries, and insecurities and fears about this new development.
And in the silence after the two had composed themselves, Dustrielle felt a small smile come easily to him, as he leaned down a couple of inches, gently placed his hand on Gin's cheek and placed his lips on Gin's.
It was a little odd, having his face against Gin's. Partially due to the cool metal on Gin's mask that contrasted with the warmth of Dustrielle's skin. And partially because this wasn't something he'd expected to do.
He felt Gin's posture relax slightly, and a deep exhale come from him. Dustrielle detected Gin's gauntlet raised up, slowly rising to Dustrielle's neck, as if to return the sentiment to Dustrielle's cheek…
…but instead, a loud banging on the door made Dustrielle jump and Gin's gauntlet fly up and smash Dustrielle's nose.
"Owww."
"Oh God- I'm sorry!"
"Gin! Are you in there? Or d-did you lock yourself out?"
"He wouldn't hear you if he locked himself out, he'd be elsewhere."
"I f-figured I'd ask!"
Dustrielle brought his hand up to his nose, and winced, seeing a small trickle of blood.
"I'm fine. Just need to take care of this."
Gin pointed into the back corner of the lab. "Supply closet. Should have some tissues. I can't help you prepare an excuse, though."
With that last sentence, Gin chuckled a little.
Dustrielle smirked back. "I've got some ideas. Let 'em in."
Gin sighed. "This should be one hell of a team meeting. Let's hope they don't ask us too many questions."
"Gin, I have a feeling we're not exactly the highest priority here."
"You're not wrong."