Hi guys! Sorry for the wait, but I was busy finishing my last batch of homework before my term break. I'll hopefully be able to write more during my holidays so stay tune and enjoy :)
Alleywacks was right. She did find them, well more specifically, Alleywacks.
Aruno had wanted (more like needed) Alleywacks' help with his knowledge of robotic engineering. One night, the time doctor had found a mysterious robot arm that crashed into his desk. Only it wasn't an arm but instead, a gauntlet with the name, Timer 6-X, engraved on it.
He, Fei and Wonderba had been trying to open the fingers that were balled into a fist. They discovered that a piece of torn white sheet was being clutched tightly in the hand of the gauntlet and weeks on failing to do so, Aruno decided to call his friend over.
"Looks like it can't be open with the tools you have here Aruno," Alleywacks said, examining the gauntlet. They were in a middle of Alleywacks' explanation when Fei noticed the doors opened automatically and in came the same green-haired girl from earlier. She seemed calmer than their first meeting.
"Ah, Felix! Went to fix the caravan didn't you? Grazie!" Alleywacks had just noticed Felix. Unlike earlier, she donned a pair of leather gloves and goggles that rested atop of her head.
Felix nodded and surprisingly spoke in fluent Japanese, "It's not done yet. Parts of it were missing, probably from flying it too fast?"
She sent a menacing glare at Alleywacks and ignored Fei's perplexed face.
"I may need to pick up materials and new tools since the ones we had gone missing too."
"Going shopping?" Alleywacks guessed with a grateful smile.
"Because of I have too." She grumbled, folding her arms irritatedly, "Unless you're not busy-"
"Oh, I am. I'm going to need time to examine this piece of metal here." He showed the metal gauntlet to Felix who leaned in for a better look
"Steel... Looks like it's been ripped off from a body." Felix rubbed her chin thoughtfully, careful not to get the sticky, black oil on her. She shifted her gaze to the coloured wires at the end of the gauntlet, some of them sticking out and ripped, "What do you need?"
Alleywacks beamed. He snapped his fingers and a teal transparent screen appeared in front if him with a picture of a tool. With a swish of his hand, the screen flipped over to Felix's direction.
"I believe that this might help. It's not expensive if you buy the cheaper one."
The tool greatly resembled a Swiss army knife. Only it was bigger, some tools were replaced or newly added into the collection and was designed to be used for vehicle purposes instead.
Felix touched her hair clip with her index and middle finger. It glowed a soft aquamarine colour as it gave out an invisible flash, followed by a click that awfully resembled the sound of a camera when a picture's being taken.
"I thought this was for vehicles?" Felix asked, looking at Alleywacks skeptically.
"It is. But I'm confident it'll work on this big piece of metal." Alleywacks replied, mustering up the strength to lift the heavy iron gauntlet slightly higher. He flashed a toothy grin to show off his strength. Felix rolled her eyes.
"So... Where can I find this-?"
"I'm sure Fei will give you the directions, won't you Fei?" Aruno cut in with a swipe of his arm.
Fei's head shot up as he caught the green haired girl's gaze as he gladly accepted the offer with a smile, "Sure! Come on, I'll show you!" He made a move to grab her wrist and dragged her out of the room without warning.
"Hey!"
"I think they'll get along just fine." Dr. Aruno assured, but his buddy wasn't at the least worried who flashed him the same toothy grin he'd done earlier.
"No doubt about that Ari. Now back to this piece of metal." Alleywacks replied before scratching his head while slightly readjusting his hat by accident, "If only I knew where I put my handy knife..."
"I don't think we've introduced ourselves to each other yet. I'm Fei. Fei Rune." He extended his hand out for a shake while walking backwards.
"Felicia Grandas." Felix replied with a smile rather warmly. It opposed to her dark nature earlier, "But you can call me Felix." Her leather goggles and gloves had dissolved into particles, indicating that she had summoned them back into her inventory.
"Felix. You're from Italy right?" Felix nodded, "You speak really fluent Japanese. Did you learn it from someone?" He asked, continuing their walk through the hallway.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I learned it from Alleywacks."
Fei smiled warmly at the green haired girl. She seemed so fascinated with the architecture of the building inside, it made her distracted. Fei could see her turned her head at everything. The machines everywhere in the enormous lab, some working or broken, the translucent blue glass turning into the news broadcast you would see on your television and the different automatic doors that led to different rooms with different purposes. They weren't labeled, but it was enough to strike her curiosity to stare at one of it.
The door that Felix had her eyes on, stood out from the rest. To her, it looked like someone had stuck a large sticker of a van onto it.
"That's the garage." Fei noticed she had stopped walking and trudged all the way back to her.
"You memorized all these rooms?" Felix asked amazed. Her tone made it sound like a joke, but he decided to let it slide.
"Yup! I've been in Dr. Aruno's lab multiple times. You'll get used to it when you've stayed here longer. So that's how I've memorized almost of them."
"Almost?"
"There's about 4 identical doors at the far back of this hallway." He pointed straight in the direction they were heading, "I always get them wrong. You see, there are illusions of different doorknobs on each door. If you want to get into the room you want to go through, you have to remember the doorknob to the right door. The illusions change about 3 times, four hours a day. After the first four hours of unmoving illusions, the illusions "breaks" and the real doorknob placement comes to light before the illusion comes back again. Then the cycle repeats itself every day." Fei explained, hoping Felix would understand. To be honest, he thought he sounded more like a professor than his normal self.
"Interesting. I've got to try it." Felix said, rubbing her chin. She began to walk and passed Fei before he jogged up to her.
"Are you sure? It can be pretty confusing." Fei asked with a competitive smile on his face.
"It may be for you but I'll have you know I have a great memory. I could ace your puzzle as simple as learning robotics engineering!"
"We'll see about that!". Fei shot back before awkward silence fell upon them.
"So..." Felix began, "What was that holographic projection at the entrance about? Once I stepped through the doors, it came appeared right in front of my face."
Fei scratched his chin in thought before snapping his fingers, "Oh! You mean the map of the entire building! Don't worry, that happens all the time for those who enter the building." He waved it off dismissively, "Dr. Aruno invented it to help the newcomers know their way around the building."
On cuff of his shirt, a mini teal keyboard appeared. Fei pressed a button as a mini holographic image of the same map Felix saw appeared.
"Impressive." Felix complimented, edging herself closer to fascinate at the map. It was exactly the same when she first saw it. Fei turned pink from his cheeks to his ears, but thankfully the green haired girl didn't notice.
Fei coughed, slightly embarrassed, "You see, the way it works is that you have to input the number of the area you want to go to and it'll give you the fastest shortcut there." As he had instructed, he inputted the number of a certain area. A blue arrow stretched itself from where they were standing on the map and all the way to a corner in the right, meters away from them. Felix noticed there was an obvious blue dot, slowly blinking and moving around in a grey circle like it was enclosed in it.
"The shortcut will show on whoever has the map, like me for example. That's why the arrow didn't stretch all the way from the entrance. Like I said, it's not the only one with a map of the building." Fei continued with proud.
"Who's that blue dot over there?" Felix asked, partly ignoring his additional information. Fei was surprised she used the term "who" instead if "what". Maybe he misjudged her?
"That's Wonderba, he's probably working on the elevator right now. And as you pretty much guessed," Fei flashed a sheepish smile, "The dots on the map correspond to the colours of our hair. Come on, let's go meet him!"
Fei started to run away from the paralyzed greenette. Felix gawked at him before shutting her mouth in realization. Wasn't he supposed to take her outside and give her directions so she could go shop for whatever Alleywacks wanted. The green haired girl slapped her face in annoyance before proceeding to chase after him.
It wasn't long before she turned right at the corner where Fei and Wonderba were exactly at.
"I see you've already joined the party, Felix." A voice she didn't recognize called from above. Felix raised her head and gawked at the descending elevator with a blue robotic bear on it with his paw on a level. Felix assumed it controlled the elevation of the machine.
"Uh... hi?" Felix gave a small wave as she walked up to where Fei was to wait for the elevator to fully descend.
"Clark von Wonderba." Wonderba introduced as Felix shook his outstretched paw, "So, what brings you two here? Did Dr. Aruno send you?" His guess was partially right.
"I had to bring Felix out to do some shopping for Alleywacks." Fei explained.
"Fei... Shouldn't you bring her OUTSIDE?" Wonderba asked. Fei, who had an obvious smile on his face, frowned in realization.
"Oh my god Felix! I'm so sorry! I forgot I had to bring you to the entrance!" Fei cried hysterically. Felix was taken aback by his outburst.
"It's fine. I'm sure I can wait. After all, I am staying here for at least a week." Felix said. Fei stopped grappling at his hair and stared at her in confusion, "They didn't tell you? Alleywacks and I are staying here in Japan for about a week so we can solve that gauntlet problem."
"Never mentioned it to us." Wonderba spoke up, "Anyways! Why don't we bring you to the entrance? There's a teleportation machine, um... somewhere around here." The blue bear looked around with a paw on his chin, trying to search for the said teleportation machine.
"Where does this lead to?" Felix asked, curiously moving her head up to a small opening in the roof of translucent blue glass. Wonderba immediately turned to her, stars shining in his eyes with a huge smile, ready to impress her with his answer.
"This elevator was designed by Dr. Aruno himself!" Wonderba said, with his chest puffed out, "It leads to the roof of the building where there's a spectacular view-"
"Looks like any normal sight-seeing elevator to me." Felix said with a small smirk, making the blue bear stiffen on the spot with his mouth hanging in shock, "You can forget about the entrance. I think I've just found a new way out. Do you think you can get me up there?"
Fei didn't know what she meant by that but nodded as he walked over to the paralyzed bear, "Hey, Wonderba. Is it alright if we take Felix up to the roof?"
Instantaneously, the blue bear woke up from his shock, "Absolutely! Follow me!" With one sweep of his arm, he motioned the two assistants to the elevator. Before he could pull the level, Felix cried out.
"Wait! There's something coming!"
Fei and Wonderba instantly became alerted. "What's comin-" A loud swish silenced Fei and came hitting Felix square in the chest with her arms opened like she was warmly welcoming whatever had hit her. Fei noticed her arms were wrapped around a backpack, but what really caught his eyes was the exact same hairclip Felix was wearing, glowing a bright turquoise.
He felt the elevator shake underneath them and knew Wonderba had pulled the level. Fei averted his gaze to Felix, who was busy looking for something in her bag with her hand. Her hairclip was glowing as equally as bright in aquamarine instead.
Not a second too soon, Felix's eyes lit up and pulled out a blank, blue transparent glass. Fei would have expected the bag to fall when she let it go, but it floated by her side as light as a feather.
"Hey Felix, your hairclips are glowing."
Felix looked up from examining the blank glass.
"Hairclips? Oh, you mean these!" She pointed to her hairclip which continued to glow, "Call it whatever you want. I would have thought you'd see them as jewellery since they're made out of turquoise and aquamarine stones."
"They're called the Twin Marine. It carries a different role, depending on its colour." Felix explained, "For instant, the one I'm wearing is aquamarine, or as I call it, the Controller. The Controller controls the other half of the Twin Marine, to whatever it's stuck to, through my thoughts." Felix made the bag move left and right, showing the ability of the Controller, "See? The other one stuck on my bag, is called a Follower and it's controlled by the Controller."
"But there's a catch." Felix continued before Fei could ask if he could look at it, "The Twin Marine can only be taken off or stuck to by the owner themselves. Anyone else who tries to do so, the Twin Marine won't budge or move an inch from its spot. It's literally glued."
Fei was amazed, "Wow, that's amazing! Hey, is it alright if I take a look at it?" Felix looked at him with uncertainty.
"Uh... sure." Fei didn't notice her discomfort as she controlled the bag to float into Fei's hands. Fei glanced at the glowing half of the Twin Marine. The turquoise light was bright, but he was too fascinated to care.
"Did you make it yourself?"
"Someone else did." Felix answered blankly. Fei was eager to ask who before being interrupted again, "Can you show me the nearest shops with that brand new tool?"
"Oh, sure!" The mini keyboard reappeared again in the cuff as Fei's fingers flew on the keyboard. A holographic image appeared with a map of the closest city and the locations of the different shops with the new tool.
"I've found 5 different shops where they sell the tool." Fei stated, indicating to the 5 targets points hovering above the shops.
Felix beamed, "Great, now hold your arm out so I can get a closer look."
Fei obeyed and stretched his arm out to her, but he instantly regretted it. He pulled his arm away when he saw Felix about to hit his arm with the blue glass.
"It's a good thing I got it before you pulled away." Felix said casually, showing the petrified boy the image of the map on the blue glass, "You didn't think I was going to hit you, were you?"
"Of course, I did! I thought you were going to whack me!" Fei exclaimed, clutching his arm close to him and away from the greenette.
Felix chuckled as Fei glared at the blue bear beside him flashing a broad grin. "Even if I intended to hit you, it'd be your arm, not the face."
"But still..." Fei looked at his arm, especially the cuff with the mini keyboard still there, but the hologram wasn't there, "How did you do that?"
"Steal your map?" Felix joked, "Easy- the glass is called a panel by the way- it grabs any holographic image shown and all you have to do is hit it like you're hitting a ball with a bat."
"Did someone else make it for you?" Fei asked with a hint of jest.
"No. I did."
"Here we are you two!" Wonderba called out, reaching the peak of the ride. The sight was spectacular like Wonderba had described it to be. Buildings high and touching the sky and the glass reflecting of the sun's rays.
The Controller beamed the same image of the tool Alleywack's had shown. And with a swipe of her first two fingers, the image was transferred to the panel. Felix caught Fei's gaze.
"Don't worry, it only copies the data." Felix felt the wind with her saliva covered finger and smiled, "Alright, looks like I'm good to go."
"Go? Where are you going?" Fei inquired as Felix slid into her backpack.
"Shopping. What else?" And with that, Felix climbed onto the railing while Fei and Wonderba panicked, wanting to pull her away from jumping to her death. Before either one of them could seize her wrist, she clicked her right buckle with her boot and began glowing brightly in white. Making a small jump, a snowboard like hoverboard formed underneath her feet. The hoverboard hovered slightly above the railing with Felix perfectly balanced on it; the board was white and had black markings.
"Woah." Fei breathed in awe while Wonderba had his mouth hanging open again.
"I'll see you two later! Ciao!" Felix took off at lightning speed, leaving the assistant and robot in a dust.
Something suddenly clicked in Wonderba head, "Fei! Your soccer practice!"
"Soccer? I forgot!" Fei exclaimed as he and Wonderba rushed themselves out of the building while bidding the two adults goodbye as they passed the room. Fei and Wonderba ran all the way to where the soccer practice was already starting without them.
I'm not sure if you guys understand this part "I could ace your puzzle as simple as learning robotics engineering!", but it basically means that Felix is taught and trained in Robotics Engineering and Science Technology by Alleywacks.
And I really hope you guys understood my descriptions of the different technologies introduced here, if you don't understand some, feel free to ask.
And please leave a review :)