Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 14
Dwarven Ingenuity
As the mutants continued down the ramp-like hallway, they avoided several more trap-triggers, having seen the previous trap, they didn't want to trigger anymore in case there was something worse waiting for them.
Reaching the bottom, they arrived in a very large cave that was walled off by a huge wall, reaching ten meters in height. There was a short tunnel in the middle, but instead of a set of doors or a drawbridge, there were numerous metal spears coming from the sides, top and bottom, effectively forming a lattice with no sign of how to open it and there were several more, spaced out inside the tunnel.
"Okay, now what?" Mikey asked.
"We have to find a way to open this, so we can continue. Anyone see any switches or keyholes?" said Leo.
"There's a lever on the far side of the wall, and it looks like its open on the other side." said Raph. "If we only could get to it."
"Then we have to get over the wall, but can any of us jump that high?" said Mona.
"Doubtful, but we could try to make a human... er reptile ladder, then someone could get high enough to make the jump." said Donnie.
"Or I could just walk over to the other side." said Sephie, taking a few steps up the wall.
"Yeah... that works too." said Donnie.
"Be careful, babe. There could be all kinds of dangers on the other side." said Tyroth.
"I promise I'll be careful." she replied and started walking to the top of the wall. Once there, she climbed over the battlement and looked around. The wall was roughly six meters thick with a couple of staircases on the inside, breaking through such defenses would be very difficult. But it was what lay beyond the wall that left Sephie speechless.
It was a giant chasm that was at least a hundred meters deep from the floor. Hanging from the ceiling of the cave were a dozen or so towers connected by stone bridges and platforms, whether they had been carved out of the mountain or built piece by piece, it was still a breathtaking sight. Some towers were a bit damage and some bridges had collapsed, but there were still many ways to get around. On the far side of the chasm was what looked like another cave. Sephie wasn't sure where it lead, but like before, it wasn't as if they had much choice.
Walking down the stairs, she walked over to the lever and pulled it. There was a clicking sound and shortly after, all the spears retracted into the wall and floor, allowing the others safe passage.
"Good work, Sephie." said Leo, while they walked through the tunnel.
"It was nothing. But, just wait until you see this."
Just like Sephie, the rest of the team was awestruck by the sight they saw when the arrived on the other side of the wall.
"Whoa! Is this, like, Atlantis, but underground?" said Mikey.
"Your guess is as good as mine, but it sure is impressive." said Tyroth.
"There's a tunnel of some sort on the other side of the chasm. I hope that it leads out." Sephie explained.
"Then that's where we're heading, but first we check out this place a bit. There might be something of use to us, or even inhabitants." said Raph.
"Agreed, but we need to be careful none the less." said Leo.
Walking over the bridge to a center platform, the group split in two. Leo, Raph, Mona and Mikey headed to the first tower on the right, while Donnie, Tyroth and Sephie headed to the first on the left side. There were three more bridges leading to other platforms and towers, between these paths were two of the same kind of arch that held the ancient robot in place outside the ruins, one was empty while the other had a robot suspended in it.
Opening the door of the tower, Leo and the others looked around inside the square room. It seemed to be some kind of forge as it had a large furnace, forge and anvil, and it hadn't seen any use in a long time. Spread across the room was various metal items, some seemed to be parts of something larger, like the robots, while some were weapons and some could have been used as some form of decorations. Whatever the usage, all objects were heavier than they looked, apparently the metal was very dense and durable.
"Man, I've heard of heavy metal, but this is even heavier." said Mikey.
"No kidding. If we were to use weapons made of this metal, we wouldn't be as fast as now, but the damage they could cause would be a lot more." said Mona.
"But only if we can wield them properly, which I doubt. Our fighting styles focus on swift, precise strikes over brute force, those kinds of weapons would require something in between." said Leo.
"Sounds like it would fit Tyroth better than us then, he's strong enough to swing that large blade of his fast enough to keep up with us. Heck, I bet he could even wear an entire armor made of this stuff and still give us a run for our money." said Raph.
"Tyroth in a golden armor... That would be awesome!" Mikey half cheered. "Beware evildoers, beware the mighty Dragon Knight of Justice!"
"Sigh... sometimes you're just too much Mikey." Raph said, shaking his head, but he couldn't help but smile at the idea. Leo and Mona laughed a little.
Meanwhile, Donnie, Tyroth and Sephie checked their tower, but to their disappointment they only found an empty room. There were a few shelves but that was all.
"Empty, what a bummer." said Sephie.
"This might have been some kind of storage room once, but has obviously been cleaned out. Question is, was it by the people that lived here or by looters?" said Donnie.
"Whoever it was, they had to leave through either that tunnel Sephie spotted or another path near by, seeing as how the grids were closed and only could be opened from the inside, at least as far as we know." said Tyroth.
"I hope that they left something that we can use. Come on, let's...!" Sephie stopped mid-sentence when she heard numerous metal-clad feet outside the room. But something was off, it didn't sound like several persons walking, more like... a large bug with steel toes. Tyroth and Donnie also heard the strange footsteps and all three mutants turned towards the door.
Stepping through the doorway was a robotic spider, or possibly a crab. The body was roughly egg shaped with six legs at the bottom and two arms with small pincer claws mounted closer to the top. On the top was a gyro with some form of small crystal in the center. The steampunk construct reached just above the knees of the mutants and didn't seem to even notice them as it walked into the center of the room and simply stopped.
"Incredible." said Donnie as he looked closer at the machine. "A seemingly fully autonomous mechanical arachnoid. Same design as the humanoid robots we've already seen. I wonder what its purpose is, and how it's programed."
"Careful, Donnie. I'm not sure that you should mess around with that thing." Tyroth cautioned.
"I highly doubt that this little fellow is more dangerous than Stockman's mousers. Hold on, it seems to have been damaged right by the crystal, there's a... I think it's an arrowhead wedged next to it. Let me see if I can remove it."
"I wouldn't do that, Donnie." said Sephie.
Reaching in after the arrowhead, as soon as Donnie managed to remove it, the spider shook and staggered backwards a few feet. Out of nowhere, it shot a lightningbolt at Donnie, hitting the purple-masked turtle in the plastron, knocking him on his shell.
"Donnie!" Sephie cried out.
The spider reared back, preparing for another attack, but Tyroth beat it to the punch, kicking it as hard as he could and sending it flying onto the platform outside. The machine hit the floor with a large clang and broke into pieces.
Hearing the commotion outside, Leo and the others hurried out to see what was happening. Seeing the scattered remains of the mechanical spider and Donnie leaning against Sephie with Tyroth in front of them, they knew that something had gone wrong.
"What happened? Donnie, are you alright?" Leo asked concerned when they reached the platform.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Seeing spots though, and I feel a bit tingly."
"That thing attacked him with a lightningbolt." Tyroth said, pointing at the wreckage.
"Even the robots are working? This ain't good." said Mona.
"No, we really have to be careful. There's no telling how many more of these there are." said Leo.
Hearing a noise behind them, Mikey turned around and saw that the giant robot suspended in the arch behind them, released some steam and started to move.
"Eh... guys..."
By now, the others had also seen that it was moving. The robot stepped forward and reared its massive arm mounted weapons, the joints creaking from standing still for who knows how long.
"RUN!" Mikey shouted, as he, Leo, Raph and Mona threw themselves away from the swings of the robot. Leo immediately drew his swords and lunged at the construct, slashing at its knees to try and stop it, but his swords left little trace of his attack, the strange metal was simply to tough. Jumping back, Leo avoided another swing from the machine.
Donnie leaned himself against the doorway of the tower, so that Sephie could help the others, while Tyroth was already on his way. Taking aim with her bow, Sephie ready one of her electric arrows and released it. The silver colored arrow struck the robot on the side of its head, the flat tip clinging to the metal, but no electricity was released, the robot didn't even notice the attempted attack.
'Shit. My arrows must have lost their charge when we got transported here, just like our shell-cells. I can't risk using one my explosive arrows, I might hurt my friends or damage the platform so much that we get trapped here, but I have to do something.' Sephie thought to herself.
Tyroth tackled the large automaton, forcing it backwards a few feet, and continued to punch it several times, each hit forcing it yet a little more towards the edge of the platform. His fists got sore from hitting the hard metal over and over, but he knew that they wouldn't be able to harm the robot with their weapons, and he seriously doubted that his fire would do much better. His magic on the other hand could potentially beat it, but he worried about the damage that would be caused to the surroundings. The easiest way that he could come up with, was to throw the walking piece of scrap into the chasm below.
After numerous punches, the robot stood on the very edge of the platform, a few more hits would be all that was needed to send it plummeting to the bottom of the deep chasm. But before Tyroth could continue his attacks, the machine's plates around the head shifted slightly and it let loose massive amounts of scalding hot steam in Tyroth's face, causing the dragon to flinch and cover his eyes. With an opening, the robot lifted its hammer arm high.
Seeing this, Sephie, filled with fear for her mate's life, dashed towards the robot, and jumping, she landed on the hammer when it was at its highest. Her momentum, along with the extra weight she added, was enough to make the robot loose what little balance it had, sending it over the edge, with Sephie still on it.
"Sephie!" Tyroth cried out, seeing his beloved go down with the machine. Seconds later, he heard the giant construct crash against the cave floor deep below.
The mutants all rushed to the edge and looked down, but they couldn't see anything, only Tyroth saw through the darkness at the bottom and he could only see the remains of the machine. But where was Sephie?
"I'm okay, guys!" they heard her say from underneath.
"Ahh! The ghost of Sephie!" Mikey exclaimed, only to get a quick whack on the head by Raph.
"Don't be such a dunderhead, shell-for-brains."
Looking down, the team saw Sephie walking onto the side of the platform from the underside of it. It didn't take long for her to get back topside.
"You almost gave me a heart-attack, hun." Tyroth said, hugging her.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just, when I saw that thing ready to hit you, I didn't think, I just reacted. Once it fell, and I regained my senses, I jumped off and grabbed on to the bottom of the platform with my gecko-grip."
"What's important is that you're alright." said Mona.
"What about you, big guy? That steam attack looked rather painful." said Raph.
"It stung a bit, mostly that that hit my eyes, but I'm okay."
"Like I said just a little while ago, we need to be really careful around here. I doubt that this was the last defenses in this place." said Leo.
Bit of a close call for our heroes, especially Sephie, but they survived. However, they're not out of the caves yet, and there's more dangers lurking around in the depths.
Note: I'm going on a two week vacation together with my girlfriend, so I won't be working on this story during that time. Hoping that you'll have the next chapter in three weeks from when I publish this, give or take.
See you around, some of you sooner than the others.