DRFB

Chpt 33: Not your day.
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"That should be the last of them, Skies old pal." Kaiya grunted as she tightened the last bolt in place, sliding out from underneath Skies metal torso.

Skies rebooted his system and his engine hummed softly, music to Kaiyas ears.

"Ahhh, I've missed the old smell of grease, sweat and metal that comes with the whole Mecha mechanics." Kaiya grinned as she sat upwards on her mechanics wheely-board, wiping her forehead down with the back of her hand.
"Mmmm." She hummed to herself as Skies slowly moved his legs and neck, checking out his new body design.

She'd spent a whole week of non-stop work on him and now he was ready and done.

Slowly she stood up, allowing the blood to rush to her legs, immediately filling them with intense pins and needles.

"Ah! That feels weeeirrrd!" She hopped from foot to foot while Skies watched her, finished with his system reboot.

Eventually the pain died down to an ignorable level and she busied herself with collecting up all the leftover pieces of metal from Skies armour.
She was planning on meeting her uncle Smelter today in the newly reconstructed forge, a day before its' unveiling and he'd be able to smelt the leftover metal for future use.

She'd installed and upgraded his self-conscious software, upgraded his basic emotions and his Artificial Intelligence Mental-Circuitry Software, or AIMcS, and changed his complete armour design.

The armour now carried less weight but is twice as durable as the last batch, was fitted with complete full-body sensors, was easily flexible and made out of a powerful metal alloy, partially infused with pressurized carbon atoms giving it the strength and durability of a diamond.

And all of this done in three days.

"Man, I'm glad Blakk didn't chew me out for the Slugball game," Kaiya chatted with Skies as she packed up her tools, "I was sure he was going to go nuts with the fact that I saved some of the Shane gang but no, he was pleased that I had interfered! Can you believe that Skies! Said that if the game had gone poorly, he would've been blamed for the whole mess! Even though the accident was clearly cheap faulty mecha beasts and lack of communication with team mates. A perfect example: Elina Shae the Heroine, whose always smooching over Elis face. Uggh, poor kid gets way to embarrassed when they're around each other, I'd never let that happen. Some brave Hero, huh Skies?"

She laughed and elbowed him as he was admiring himself in the reflective metal.
He just swung his head and looked at her, before nuzzling into her side.

"Atta boy!" She grinned and rubbed his head as he followed her out of her workshop and into the lounge.

Jet was busy watching and barking at the computer screen as two notification icons flashed, meaning she had two video chat requests.

One was Twist, which she declined. For some reason, she didn't feel like talking to him.

The other was Trixie.

Her hand hovered over the decline button but for some reason she didn't press it.

She looked up at the screen again, with Jet standing infront of the blue pixels and pressed 'Accept Call'.

Sound came first, though all it was was squee as Trixie saw her call had been accepted.
Kaiya laughed as she heard Trixie whispering to the rest of the gang she'd made a break through and how she'd film the screen.

Kaiya held back a laugh as she ducked out of sight and left Jet in the cameras main focus as Trixies pale face filled the screen, her trusty camera held over one eye.

"Kaiya! Thanks so much fo-" She broke off as she saw a confused canine staring back at her.

"Oh, well. This is awkward." She muttered as Jet pawed the screen.

Kaiya slowly slid to the ground, her insides bursting with contained laughter.

"What's wrong Trix?" Elis voice carried out from the speaker.
"Kaiya has a secretary." Trixie replied.

The high quality voices were heard by Skies, who was, again, admiring himself in the glass sliding doors. He quietly trotted over and nudged Jet aside, staring at the screen.

"That's one hell of a secretary." Kords voice came from behind them.

Kaiya could hear the red-head sigh, "Damn, I was hoping for an interview but it seems she lets her dog answer her call for her. Maybe some other time then."

There was a beep and the screen flashed to black.

Just in time too.
Kaiya burst, shrieking with laughter at the previous events while Jet whined and pawed the screen, eager to see Trixie again.

"HAHAHAHA*le gasp* HAHAHAHAHAHA!" She clutched her stomach as she kicked her legs out, struggling to breath with all the laughing.

Skies, studied her curiously as tears streamed down her face.
He'd probably never seen her like this and he was having a hard time figuring out what was wrong.

"HAHAHA! DID YOU SEE HER FACE! AAAHHAHAHAH! IT WAS PRICELESS! Ya hear? Priceless! Hah! Ahhh…priceless, heheh…" The flow laughter soon ebbed away to small chuckles as the novelty died down.

Kaiya slumped against the wall, free from the shrieking laughter that had shaken her body moments before.

Wiping away tears, she allowed herself a moment to recollect herself before getting to her feet, grabbing her leather jacket, ready to head to the forge and meet Smelter.

"Skies, come here!" She beckoned her robotic companion back into the workshop where she loaded him up with the metal scraps, kept safely in a Blakk Industries standard issue travel pack.

Mounting her faithful robot, she rubbed his neck as the metal pieces jabbed at her uncomfortably through the backpacks material.

"Righto! Off we go, old Chap!" She faked a posh British accent.
The silliness hadn't left her completely.

With Jet running beside them, her robotic legs newly tuned and repaired, the trio made good time making it to Envy Canyon.

A decently deep and winding canyon, spanned by numerous stone bridges and lit by numerous clumps of glowing white plant-things.

The most surprising thing though, was the dark purple and indigo rocks that created the natural landmark.

Envy Canyon Cavern was always dark and shadowy, Blakk hadn't bothered with taking this Cavern over, it was small and insignificant, merely a short-cut used by few.

And that meant it was one of the purest places you could find slug energy. It was small but bursting with fandangos, flaringos and the odd inkdevil.

Kaiya could see them popping curious heads out of their hidey-holes as they jogged.
They weren't as scared of her as the humans and trolls were, they knew she wasn't a threat to them.
Jet had stopped to sniff at a few Flaringos and was greeted by a few friendly chirps.

Since Skies was in the presence of so many slugs, his energy was being converted.
A high pitched hum, causing all the slugs to duck down and hide, quickly escalated until it was beyond human hearing.
Then, slowly, blue light began to leak and replace the red energy coursing through the visible veins of light.

The red dots on his shoulders, flickered out, only to be replaced moments later by a soft blue.

Kaiya whistled, "I haven't seen you like that in a while. You look…..less..threatening?" She tried.
The soft blue glow made Skies appear docile. It softened the points of his tusks and dulled the evil gleam from his robotic eyes.

The Mecha beast shuddered then continued forward at a good pace, slightly increasing the speed until they were at a full gallop and seconds away from the canyons proper entrance.

"Looks like we got a clear run. Lucky us!" Kaiya said to her canine friend who had given up trying to keep pace with Skies and was resting behind her.

Jet just growled in agreement.

Kaiya smiled and turned back to the path ahead of her, the wall on her left seemed to end further up ahead, but she thought nothing of it.
The wind rushed past her head, sending her hair streaming behind her as she approached the rockwalls end.

Out of nowhere, a huge lumbering T-rex mecha stepped out of the gap.
Kaiya yelled in surpriseand her and Skies swerved to avoid the huge dinosaur.
But the sudden act had caught Skies un aware and his foot caught on the huge Mechas foot, sending him, crashing to the ground, and Kaiya flying.
"Waa!" She yelled as she landed on the dirt, rolling to a stop, a softer change from the other rare encounters she had had when Skies braked.

Today was not her day.

She rubbed her head, slightly dazed, and tried to get unsteadily to her feet as a large gloved hand grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her up until she was stretching her toes to touch the ground.

Her eyes regained focus and she found herself staring into the cold teal eyes of one of Slugterras most feared Slug-slinging Veterans.

Harper Pine.

It could only be accident that the two were in the same place at the same time.
But that didn't mean Harper was going to pass up an opportunity to catch one of Blakks prized employees.
Especially since she seemed to be carrying a package of importance.

"Well, well. Kaiya Skye, hmm? Mecha guru an' one of Blakks best couriers just lands and ma feet," Harper leered at Kaiya, eyes flicking once to Jet, who was growling menacingly at her, bright white teeth bared "You're lucky there ain't a bounty on yer head or you'dve got what was coming for ya." Harper glowered at her slowly as Kaiya glared back at her, a fist clenched tightly around the calloused hand holding her singlet collar.

Harper suddenly let go and dropped her to the ground, the sudden act knocking her feet from underneath her and leaving her sprawled on the dirt.

Definitely not her day today.

"What the hell?" She yelled after the long blonde plait as she propped herself up on her elbows. A weird green and grey slug stuck its bottom in her direction as Jet slunk over, fur still spiked up.
Harper was heading towards Skies, who was having trouble yanking his tusks out of a large sticky mushroom trunk.

Kaiya scrambled upwards, "I wouldn't go near him if I were you." She warned as Skies sensed Harper walking towards him.

He uttered a low mechanical growl, instantly repeated by the T-rex.
Skies growled again and lashed is tail out at Harper before yanking his tusks out of the giant glowing fungi.

Both tips were bathed in the glowing blue goo that was leaking out of the trunk, adding to the blue haze from both machines, staining the dark canyon.
Skies easily towered a metre taller than Harper, the blue goo dripping down into puddles.

Harper stepped back, "I think ah'll trust ya on that."

Since Harpers full attention was on Skies, who was stalking closer towards her, Kaiya took the opportunity to sneak over to the workbag and pick it up.
Even though it was just metal, she wasn't in the right mood to have some blondi-locks slinger sniff around her personal items.

"Hey! Whaddya think you're doing!" Harper had glanced backwards to see Kaiya swing the bag up onto her back, about to take off.

Kaiya quickly tucked her arms through the straps and drew two long, laser-edged knives out.

"Don't come any closer." She threatened.

Harper stopped and chuckled, "Oh, I won't need too."

Kaiya had to stop and think what she was doing before she remembered the gaint blaster the lady had had in the recent Slugball tournament.
Harper was a slinger. She didn't need to come within stabbing range, she could just shoot her down her and now.

Harper whisked out her blaster, spinning it on her finger, "Do ya feel lucky today Tin?"

Kaiya had the impression she wasn't the one being addressed. Her thoughts proved correct when a Speedstinger hopped up on Harpers shoulder.

"Oh great…" She muttered as Harper loaded the slug with a deft flick, took a brief aim and fired.

Kaiya jumped as the slug rebounded at her feet, its quick angles and sharp movements to hard for the naked eye to keep track of.

Luckily, she had her glasses.

Hanging from her collar.

She quickly fumbled with them, trying to get them on before the Speedstinger found the correct angle.

She felt a cool breeze whizz past her ear, a second before something hard hit the back of her head, knocking her down twice in a row.

"Ahhh…" She muttered as her head started its rhythmic throbbing.

Harper walked over, surprised clear on her face.
"I thought you were tougher, a lot tougher, from what I've heard of you. I guess its just your mecha that gets you along, huh?" She said as she bent down holding out a hand.

Kaiya watched as her Speedstinger hopped up and was carried up to the slugtubes hanging on his owners waist, carefully brushing her fingers across the backs of her gloves.

"Nah, just today's not my day, if you know what I mean?" Kaiya managed a weak grin.

Harper nodded, slightly distracted as she reached for the bag on Kaiyas back.

Kaiya smiled an evil grin, "And soon, it won't be yours either."

Harper froze, unable to get a clear understanding from the sentence until the slug on her shoulder squeaked in alarm.

Harper threw herself to one side instinctively, just as well too.

A huge metal paw slammed down next to her, spreading a web of cracks through the dusty ground.

Kaiya grabbed the metal tusks and was thrown into the air as Skies launched her upwards.
Completing a double back flip, she landed neatly on Skies back, feet on the pedals and hands gripping the steering handles.

"You know what you said about my mecha being the only thing keeping me afloat?" She yelled down at Harper, who was standing up again and loading a Hop-Rock into her blaster.

Harper paused, waiting for an answer.

"You were right! Skies is my weapon and my friend, so no matter where I am, he'll always be by my side! You can never catch me without him!" She laughed as she swung Skies head towards Harper, who, again, had to duck out of the way to avoid getting skewered, then dashed off through the canyons, leaving a blue neon trail behind them.

Harper got up and dusted herself off.
"Two can play at that game, missy."