And here comes chapter 2! Finally got to play FusionFall today (ugh it's so fun and so very not-good-at-videogames-but-still-wants-to-try friendly), but that certainly doesn't mean I'm not still open to any and all suggestions you may have. I just sort of crammed this chapter with characters I liked, so feedback on them as well is greatly appreciated. Thank you to my wonderful reviewer, and enjoy~!
Time Until the End of the Earth: 4 Days, 20 Hours, 29 minutes
Concentration, complete and uninterrupted, was epitomized in that moment by two blue eyes looking out from behind black-rimmed glasses. A wrench much too big to be logical moved back and forth in a steady rhythm—tighten, release, place, tighten, repeat—ensuring a tight hold at the joint of a massive rabbit robot. A simple repair job, commissioned by one of the few KND Dexter didn't find completely ridiculous to be near.
Tighten, release, place, repeat—
Crash.
Dexter's grip on the massive wrench slipped, the oversized tool jerking free from the equally oversized bolt and clattering to the floor, taking a few of Dexter's toes out in the process.
"Deedee!" Dexter bellowed, a mix of pain and annoyance carrying his voice to the farthest reaches of his lab. Silence followed as his shout echoed about in the lab's deepest corners, and then—
"Not quite, Einstein."
"Wha—Kevin!" Dexter's gaze narrowed as he watched the teen osmosian sauntering towards him. "What are you doing in my laboratory?" he demanded. Kevin raised an eyebrow at the smaller boy before pulling something from his pocket and showing it to the redhead. It was an ID card, a green bar along the bottom signifying that he had clearance to enter the lab.
"You hired me, remember?" Kevin asked. Dexter's eyes narrowed.
"I do not," he said, which was not entirely true. He did remember updating the boy's access to allow him into the lab, as his expertise in alien technology and astrophysics had proven a valuable tool in the war against Fuse. However, Dexter wouldn't go so far as to say he'd hired the boy.
"You are not an employee of DexLabs," he stated, bending down to pick up his wrench. "You are simply an advisor to myself, here to answer any questions I might have concerning any unfamiliar alien technology we come across during our battles. Furthermore, as an advisor you are not granted permission to access my laboratory any time you wish, only when I call for your assistance, and then—are you listening to me?"
"Mhmm," Kevin hummed, clearly ignoring Dexter as he ducked beneath the robot the boy genius was currently working on. "This construction's a little rough looking for a DexLabs product," he observed, poking at one of the leg's hydraulic pumps, which looked as if it was held on with… "Is that taffy?" he asked.
"Yes," Dexter answered stiffly. "And no, this monstrosity is not one of my inventions. How could you believe I would ever create something so…girly?"
"Maybe it's your sister's?" Kevin tried, vanishing behind one of the rabbit's legs.
"Do not touch anything!" Dexter snapped, hurrying after the older boy. "And if you must know, it belongs to Numbuh Three." Dexter frowned when he got around to the robot's other side, only to find Kevin was already gone.
"Really?" the teen asked, reappearing at the front of the fluffy destroyer. He raised an eyebrow at the bunny's pointed teeth. "I think she's got her biology a little off," he said, tapping one of the canines.
"You think?" Dexter muttered.
"What's its name?" Dexter blinked.
"What?" he asked. Kevin pointed to the robot.
"You said it belongs to Numbuh Three, right?" Dexter nodded. "Then I know the thing's got a name. What is it?" Understanding dawned on Dexter, and he frowned with distaste as he answered,
"Hippity Hop." Kevin snorted.
"Why am I not surprised?"
"Because you have met Kuki?" Dexter tried, arriving at the robot's head only to find that Kevin had again vanished. Dexter sighed his aggravation. "Why must you keep wandering off?"
"What's this thing do?" Kevin shouted, and Dexter spun around, trying to pinpoint the boy's location.
"Whatever it is, do not touch it!" Dexter shouted, just as a hologram of Computress appeared, pointing to the right. Quickly thanking his computer, Dexter hurried in the direction she'd indicated, arriving just in time to see Kevin's body turn a metallic red color.
"Whoa," Kevin breathed, flexing one of his fists. "What is this stuff?"
"An experimental polycarbonate that you shouldn't be touching, let alone absorbing," Dexter barked. "All tests have shown that it will eventually begin breaking down and become radioactive. As counterproductive to protecting my laboratory as it may be, I would prefer you not begin decaying any time soon."
"I didn't know you cared, Dex," Kevin said as the red color faded from his body.
"Dexter," the boy genius huffed.
"Huh?"
"My name is Dexter." Kevin stared at the shorter boy.
"I know that. And mine's Kevin," he added. "Not Deedee." Dexter frowned at the jab. The frown deepened when Kevin wandered off once more. Dexter covered his face with a gloved hand, sucking a deep breath through his noise as Kevin shouted, "What's this thing?" Following after the teen, Dexter found the boy imitating his sister's favorite stance—brow furrowed, finger primed to push the bright red button that had caught her eye.
"Do not touch that button!" Dexter shouted, quickly imposing himself between Kevin and the machine he'd been reaching for.
"What is it?" Kevin asked, amused by Dexter's knee-jerk response. Dexter frowned at him.
"If you must know, it is a teleporter. An incomplete teleporter," he added when he saw Kevin's eyes light up.
"Incomplete?" Kevin asked. Dexter frowned when this seemed to only piqué the boy's interest all the more. "What's wrong with it?" Dexter sighed, turning to look up at the machine.
"So far I've only been able to come up with one viable way of teleporting something—breaking it apart to its most basic parts, sending those where I want them to go, and then reassembling them."
"Sounds reasonable," Kevin said. Dexter nodded.
"In theory."
"But," Kevin supplied. Dexter scowled.
"I have discovered a fairly major…complication."
"Limited locations?" Kevin guessed. "A system like this would require two transporters, right, like the ones out in the field?"
"It would," Dexter agreed. "As you have seen, I have previously successfully constructed a teleportation machine of that kind." Dexter hesitated, cringing slightly at the memory of having a fly's head for his own. "For the most part successful," he amended. "This system, however, is different."
"Yeah?" Kevin said, eyeing the machine with new interest.
"I am attempting to eliminate the problem of needing two transport chambers," Dexter explained. "Using a system of satellites, I can direct the atoms to their new location, and even get them to reassemble, without the need for a second chamber or platform." Kevin raised an eyebrow.
"Reassemble correctly?" he asked. Dexter frowned.
"I have been testing it on apples for the most part." He sighed. "What I have been receiving post teleportation…let's just say calling it applesauce would almost be too generous. I haven't even considered moving on to living subjects."
"…Ew." Dexter nodded.
"Precisely." Dexter then grabbed onto Kevin's arm, stopping the boy before he could wander off any further.
"Yes?" Kevin asked, eyeing the spot where Dexter held his arm before staring at the boy genius.
"Before you go wandering off and touching something else you shouldn't," Dexter said, "how about telling me why you are in my laboratory in the first place."
"I already told you—"
"—because you work here," Dexter finished. "Yes, yes, I know that you mistakenly believe this. But I know that is not your real reason for being here." He eyed Kevin pointedly.
"Okay, okay," Kevin said, shrugging. "While I did kind of come down here to just to bug you—" Dexter scowled at him "—Mandy also wanted me to let you know that the shipment carrying your proto-cores was delayed. She was actually kind of surprised you hadn't noticed yourself."
"Mandy?" Dexter asked. "Why isn't Juniper handling my shipments? Last I checked she was in command of supply transportation."
"They moved her to the field," Kevin said, "Something about Special Operations and monster something or others. Actually, I think she's escorting your proto-cores home. Anyway, they tried to get Gwen to take over the transports but she's already covering her Blossom's work as it is, and that's on top of her own. I think they picked Mandy because of the whole 'Grim Reaper in her back pocket' thing. Helps them keep an eye on the area, what with all his reaper spot things, you know?"
Dexter, who had stopped listening to Kevin somewhere around 'They moved her to the field,' frowned as he considered Kevin's words. If Juniper wasn't handling his shipments, and Mandy had sent Kevin…
"Delayed?" Dexter asked, a different kind of frown creeping across his face. "Computress!" A hologram of Dexter's super computer appeared between the two boys. Kevin winked playfully at her. Computress looked less than impressed.
"Yes, Dexter?" she asked.
"What day is it?"
"Wednesday," Computress and Kevin chorused. The computer A.I. frowned at Kevin, who grinned back.
"Wednesday," Dexter muttered, ignoring them both. "That means…my shipment is late!"
"…Yes," Kevin agreed, glancing at the redhead and then back to Computress. "Isn't that what I just said?"
"Dexter?" Computress said, ignoring the older boy as she awaited instruction.
"Computress, what is the status of the most recent batch of Null-Void guns?"
"All two hundred and sixty four are as completed as they can be without the proto-cores."
"Which can't be finished without the components I'm waiting on," Dexter muttered.
"How much longer will the guns need once the components arrive?" Kevin asked, his demeanor suddenly infused with a seriousness that had been lacking since he'd first arrived in the lab.
"A few days," Dexter said. "Three if my staff worked non-stop. Assembling proto-cores is an exact and tricky science." Kevin frowned thoughtfully.
"Those Urban Ranger kids at Peach Creek are waiting on this shipment. They've finally been convinced that cardboard walls won't keep Fuse back forever. Not that they aren't exactly proving successful."
"A fact I find hard to believe," Dexter muttered, attention still mostly focused on working out production timelines.
"I had to see it to believe it," Kevin agreed. "So, what do we do about this?"
"We?" Dexter repeated, raising an eyebrow. "We do not do anything. I will go and speak with Mandy concerning this problem. Computress!" Dexter barked, turning on his heel, "Please see to it that Mr. Levin makes it out of my laboratory without incident. And without touching anything," he added, glancing over his shoulder just in time to see Kevin pulling his hand back from the teleporter.
"Yes, Dexter," Computress said, disappearing and reappearing beside Kevin, who jumped.
"Good luck, Dex!" Kevin called after the retreating scientist.
"I do not need luck," was the redhead's response. When he was out of sight Kevin glanced up at Computress.
"If he were talking to June, maybe not," Kevin said. "But Mandy…"
"Does this require luck?" Computress asked. Kevin snorted.
"A lot of luck."
Juniper Lee sighed, lounging back against the raised curve of the semi-truck atop which she currently sat. She could just make out the shape of Sector V's tree house floating over Hero's Square in the distance. Almost home, she thought, smiling to herself. The smile faded though as she thought of the report she would be writing up, especially the worrying information she was planning to write within it. She looked down at the truck beneath her, eyeing one of the half dozen scorch marks it now carried. It's like they knew we were coming.
June and her team had set out almost two weeks previously, taking a two day S.C.A.M.P.E.R. flight out to the literal middle of Nowhere. It turned out Providence had a super secret manufacturing base there, situated only a short distance from what seemed to be the only house for miles. The base had been working on preparing components for Dexter's proto-cores—work considered a little to explosive to be carried out in the heart of DexLabs. It was the duty of Juniper and her team to transport these components back to Dexter, so that he could finish construction on his most recent batch of Null-Void Guns.
Unfortunately, the components had to be stored in a ridiculously specific way (Dexter's orders) which required the kinds of space and temperature control that even a small squadron of S.C.A.M.P.E.R.S. couldn't provide. And so they'd instead relied on trucks for shipment—a much more dangerous and time consuming form of transportation.
"And predictable, apparently," Juniper muttered to herself. At least, that was one of the only explanations she had for how, five days into the journey—exactly half way to their destination—they'd been surprise ambushed by a mass of fusion monsters. Dozens of Wild Skeeters had kept them in constant combat for almost an entire day. Juniper had been terrified that every single wild shot from either side would send their trucks up in some kind of radiated explosion.
Luckily, they'd managed to hold ground, although random Skeeters continued to appear for the next few days as they hurried to put space between themselves and the impromptu battleground. It wasn't until they'd gone almost a day without an enemy attack that one of the soldiers with them, a young boy named something along the lines of Silver Wolflord, had chanced voicing his opinion on the strange incident.
"Does anyone else think that was really weird?" he'd asked as the team sat around a tiny campfire. A few curious gazes looked up from cleaning weapons and checking maps, prompting the operative to continue. "I mean the Skeeter attacks," he mumbled, uncomfortable under all of the attention. "How did they know where we'd be?"
"They didn't," one of the older boys said, rolling his eyes. "The whole world is swarming with fusion monsters. It's not that surprising that they happened to stumble across us."
"Seriously," another agreed.
"You're just over thinking it," the girl beside the young soldier said. She placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. Don't worry yourself making more out of a coincidence then you have to." Wolflord looked less than convinced, but he let the matter drop. However, not everyone was so eager to simply let the matter go.
"You know, that kid had a point," Numbuh Six-Eighty-Three, the group's K.N.D. ambassador, said later that night as he and Juniper sat up together as the first watch of the night.
"Hmm?" Juniper asked, glancing over at the boy. He was an older operative, one Numbuh One himself had personally assigned to the mission.
"Earlier, what that kid said about the Skeeter attack. Most of the others thought it was nothing, but I have to agree with him—how did Fuse know where we were?"
"You don't think it was just dumb luck?" Juniper asked. Six-Eighty-Three shook his head.
"If it was just something basic we were transporting, like clothes or less important equipment, maybe." He shrugged. "I could be over thinking it myself, but the fact that we're transporting the final components needed for Dexter's guns? It just makes sense for Fuse to come after us."
"And stop us from increasing our power," Juniper said, continuing the thought.
"And the timing of it all," he added, realizing Juniper was on board with his thinking, "don't you think it's strange that an attack just happened to occur at the exact midpoint between our destinations? The place where we're it would take the longest to receive backup?"
"You're right," Juniper agreed. "It makes the most sense to attack us then. We're starting to wear out, we're half depleted of resources, backup is almost a day's flight away." Numbuh Six-Eighty-Thee nodded as she spoke.
"Not painting a very pretty picture, is it?"
"No," Juniper agreed. "But that means either Fuse is an incredibly lucky alien, or…" Six-Eighty-Three's expression was grim.
Even now, a day and a half later, Juniper's grip on her weapon tightened as she thought about what her teammate had said, about what she was going to have to tell the others.
"Or he already knew we'd be there."