If this website keeps stopping me from editing my docs after uploading them for final editing, like last chapter, I swear I'm going to stop posting this on this site.
I do not own any of these characters. Except for some of the OCs.
1st floor, dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
11:40 A.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
Only ten minutes into the exam, Rock could already say that he was not a fan of this.
Almost immediately after the teacher began his 3 hour countdown, the crowd of students he was in had practically stampeded inside, carrying him and his friends down the linear stairway, before separating from the herd and entering the first room (chamber?) to his right. He knew that this was only the top level, but judging that the stairway had taken a good two, maybe three minutes to descend, Rock could tell that he was already at least 40 meters underground, likely deeper.
The good news: he was no longer being pushed/pulled/tugged/whatever-ed with the current of his fellow students, meaning he could now move around entirely of his own accord.
The bad news: in his quest to build himself an authentic son, Dr. Hikari had denied Rock any kind of night vision ability regular Sniper Joes had built into their optics. And because the room he was now in was pitch black, the robot couldn't see a God-damn thing.
Fun, he sarcastically thought.
Just then, however, his surroundings started to brighten up. Rock turned around, seeing a light beginning to pour through the exit stairwell. A few seconds later, two students walked into what Rock assumed was the nexus for the first floor. It was shaped like a cube, at least 10 meters long and wide. From what he could tell from his position, there were four exits from that room. The first, where the light-bringer had just come from, was the stairway to the surface; rock was in the room positioned to its right, and there were two other exits, one in each of the other two walls.
The witch holding the light was a girl with short, wild burgundy hair and a punk jacket with a teddy bear's face sewn onto it, while her companion was a taller girl, with red and orange hair that resembled a flame.
The burgundy-haired girl looked around, and quickly noticed the AGI boy standing behind the doorless doorway to her right, holding her wand (from which the white light was emanating). For a moment, the three of them stood there looking at each other, not making a move or sound. Eventually, though, the burgundy-haired stranger broke the deafening silence.
"Are you waiting for someone else?"
"A few people, actually," Rock nodded. "Though it seems the crowd pushed them down at least another floor. You?"
"Not really," the taller girl replied.
"We were kinda going to do this on our own," the shorter one elaborated. "Although…"
She approached Rock, but not in a confrontational way like how he'd met most people. Her body language suggested that whoever this was, she had no malicious intentions.
" …you do look like you need some help." She held out her hand, accompanied by a warm smile.
After a moment of hesitation, he took her up on her offer. "…well, I do need a light source right now," he admitted as his new acquaintance closed the remaining meter between them. "My name's Rock."
"My name's Sonia. Nice to meet you, Mr. …" she trailed off as she finally got a good look at him, now being close enough that her wand actually made his entire body visible. Of course, this worked both ways; the lab assistant could now tell that this Sonia was roughly 150 centimeters tall, which meant that he (165 cm) practically towered over the wild-haired witch, something that wasn't reassuring given her surprised and worried expression.
"…You're the robot." she finally said, her voice having a bit of surprise in it as she took a step back. "You're not going to…"
"What? No, I wouldn't hurt you," he quickly clarified, his voice quickly gaining an annoyed tone, "despite what a few British immigrants would claim."
"Diana?" the red-haired girl asked. "Pfft, she's so stuck up her own ass that she can go–"
"Amanda! No swearing around strangers," Sonia reminded her. She then faced Rock again. "Sorry about my friend, she's a bit… foul mouthed."
"Anyway, we'll trust that you won't hurt us or anything. Now, let's get some treasure and get out of here as soon as possible. This place is giving me the creeps…"
"Agreed," the red-haired girl, Amanda, agreed. "Let's get this shit over with." from what he could estimate given her size and distance, she was about Rock's height, likely a bit taller, and had emerald green eyes.
With that, the two of them began walking down the corridor…
Stairway between the ? and ? floors, dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
12:00 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
Whilst Rock was cautiously making some new friends, Simon was frantically trying to keep up with Akko as she ran after a short, 6 legged… thing the size of a human hand with the intent of killing it. They were running down a spiraling staircase made of polished stone, the rest of the exploration class having pushed them into some sort of false wall; not that the brunette witch particularly cared why there was a false wall, her mind was too preoccupied on the critter. At this rate, Simon thought, they'd reach the bottom floor in no time. The hard part, of course, would be the return trip to the surface, because of three things. First, gravity would be working against them instead of helping them, like right now. Second, the weight of whatever treasure they would find would further drag them down. And third…
…well, they were going to be exhausted if Akko kept this up for much longer.
Finally, Akko reached the bottom of the stairwell, leading into a large, cathedral-sized room with large statues of medieval knights and samurai lining the walls. Unlike the rest of the dungeon, which required an outside light source for the students to use to see anything, this room was lit up by touches along the walls roughly halfway between the floor and the arched ceiling. They were burning eerie blue flames, with the entire room being lit up in the same hue.
As she stopped to take in her surroundings, Simon exited the stairwell behind her, stopping and placing his hands on his knees as he tried to breathe.
"Damn…" he gasped, "… you're fast… can you please… stop for a moment…?"
"What?" she asked, confused. "You know I want to be a performer like Chariot, how did you expect me not to get some kind of athletic training?"
"…point… taken…"
He took a moment to catch his breath, before asking "What floor are we on? I reckon that the stairwell we just used was far too long for this to be the second floor."
"How should I know," she pouted, before going to explore this place. Not wanting to see his friend hurt herself, Simon quickly followed.
4th floor, dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
1:15 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
In the halls of the fourth floor, Diana Cavendish was busy keeping an eye out for monsters (or other students) as Hannah and Barbara were rapidly scavenging the room they were in for anything they saw as valuable. In the past hour, the trio had made a beeline for the bottom floor, since they figured this was where the most valuable pieces of treasure were located. Sure, they'd encountered a few monsters along the way, but the young Cavendish's skills and spell sets had disposed of them relatively quickly. However, she'd noticed that Hannah and Barbara had been unusually skittish ever since they'd entered the dungeon, which would probably explain why they were having her stand guard while they collected their fill of items.
The fact that the bottom floor was the only one that was well-lit didn't seem to make them any more comfortable.
"A gavel knife, a mythril rale, e-even a silver ring", the reddish-brown haired witch counted their findings. "I think this is enough for us to take up to the surface and win the most points."
"Those are all common drops, Hannah," Diana stated, unimpressed. "No-one would dare refer to those as rare treasures. There must be something worth more than those down here."
"But Diana," Barbara stuttered, "this place is totally dangerous!"
"I-I don't think I can handle it anymore!" Hannah added.
"Witches are supposed to be feared," the blonde prodigess stated in response, disappointed in her friends' lack of courage. "How could you be afraid of this place? Besides, my magic is invincible, you have absolutely nothing to fear."
Unfortunately, as she was saying this, a large, black shape appeared behind the British-descendant witch. It was growling. The two other witches noticed the looming threat and tried to warn their friend.
"D-d-d-Diana!"
"What is it?" she sighed, annoyed more than anything.
Hannah and Barbara pointed behind her, trembling. The young Cavendish turned around, and was quickly taken aback by the presence of a large minotaur looking down at her, its yellow, glowing eyes piercing right into her soul.
As Diana and her posse were being ambushed, Rock was on the floor above, following his new friends(?) as he helped her find anything they could. So far, they'd found nothing but a staff that looked like it had come right out of a maho shoujo anime. Sonia had passed that up because, in Amanda's words, it looked like trash. Currently, they were on their way down to what they were certain to be the bottom floor.
"These stairwells seem endless," he commented as they continued their descent into the Earth.
"That's the thing about dungeons," his burgundy haired companion replied, "they're set up like this to make things as hard as possible for intruders to find the best rewards… along with all the monsters and stuff."
"Well, they at least could've made things a little less annoying," Amanda pouted.
It was at this point that they noticed a growing light at the end of their spiraling path. "Hold up, I think we're near the end," she told her robotic acquaintance. They rapidly made the rest of the way down…
…only to be met by the sight of a minotaur charging right at them.
They had barely any time to react before the hulking beast was right on top of them, Rock pushing Sonia out of harm's way. The half-man, half bull sent the robot flying into the wall to his left, the impact creating a small crater on it before gravity pulled him back to the floor. Fortunately, his plasteel and titanium skeletal frame held up without as much of a scratch on his forearms, calves or feet. He looked up just in time to see a bunch of sharp objects– knives, swords, even a few katanas –fly into the back of the beast, which promptly turned around and began prepping to charge right back where it came from. Quickly getting up, he turned to see Diana firing all her best spells at the minotaur, barely dodging it when it charged back at her like, well, a bull when it sees the color red. As he saw this, Sonia rushed back over to him.
"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.
"I think I'm fine," he answered honestly, before gesturing to the trio of European witches in the short distance, "but I don't think they'll be fine for much longer!"
"Have you been sleeping through all our classes?" the burgundy-haired Japanese witch asked, momentarily forgetting that robots don't technically need sleep. "That's Diana Cavendish, Rock, she's the best witch in our school both in grades and combat prowess! She'll be fine!"
"Yeah, well it looks like she's not doing too well in spite of that," Amanda retorted, before rushing head-first into the battle before either Sonia or Rock could move to stop her. She summoned a fireball ("Murowa!") and flung it at the beast with her wand… which only put its attention squarely on her. The minotaur grabbed her with its right hand as she attempted to move out of harm's way. From what Rock could see, her arms were locked up in its grip, and she looked… uncomfortable. Sonia was at a loss for words.
"We need to do something!" Rock told her, alarm ringing in his voice.
"Well, blast that thing!" she shrieked back!
"How!?" he asked, panicking. "I'm unarmed!"
"What do you mean, you're unarmed!? You were based on a Sniper Joe from what I can tell!"
"Well, even if Dr. Hikari left the Buster in my arm when he built me, I wouldn't know how to use it!"
"There's no time!" she screamed, gesturing to the sight of the minotaur squeezing the living daylight out of the Irish-American witch.
Rock stood for a brief moment, slowing the various possibilities flowing through his processor and going through each and every one of them within seconds. "…fuck it," he said, raising his left arm and clenching its respective fist, thinking of his arm as a gun instead of a hand and hoping to high Heaven that it did something.
To their surprise, it did. The blue plasteel cylinder encasing his forearm split first in two, halfway down its length, then the front half split in two. His hand, still a fist, turned so that his palm was aiming downwards, then flipped down into the space given by his opening forearm. A short, gunmetal gray nozzle slid forward and out of the mechanical mess to replace it, and the various bits of metal came back together.
All of this happened within one and a half seconds.
When it was over, Rock's left forearm was one and a half times longer than he was familiar with it being. The middle third of it was colored a lighter blue to represent its extension, and had two details that stood out: a meter on the inner side of his arm, which Rock guessed was some ling of ammunition gauge, and a notch on the top side which aligned with a small slab of plasteel just in front of where the cylindrical part of his arm gave way to the nozzle, to form a crude sight. And although he couldn't see it, said nozzle had a deep, red glow coming from within.
So this is what a Buster looks like, he thought for a millisecond, before aiming at the minotaur's right-hand shoulder and turning his attention towards how to fire the damn thing. He squeezed his eyes shut, his mind screaming at his arm something along the lines of "open fire!" if one were to translate the coding flying through his mind right now.
What followed was the accumulation of yellow energy at the tip of the nozzle for half a second, coalescing it into a sphere of what was likely solar-type magic the size of a baseball. When it was done, the glowing ball of energy made a sound that was half-bang, half-bwip, and shot towards its target at a pace not too fast for Sonia, Diana, Hannah, and Barbara to see. Amanda caught a glint of its yellow glow for a second as she was being crushed to death, barely having the willpower to turn her head in time to see the ball of energy hit her captor right where Rock had aimed. The minotaur roared in pain, dropping her as it clutched its shoulder with its other hand. She quickly skittered away as their foe turned its attention to the one who just managed to hurt it.
Immediately, the beast ran towards the robot at full speed, only for the much more agile Rock to jump out of the way, firing his weapon a second time. It missed its mark. He shot his Buster a third time, this time striking the minotaur in its left knee as it was turning around, causing it to fall over onto its side. Rock fired a fifth time, aiming this time at the abomination's head to make this experience as short as possible – both for himself and for the beast he was about to kill.
He shot again.
And again.
And again.
Over and over, he fired, not giving the minotaur the smallest chance to get back up.
After about half a minute of continuous firing, he felt a hand placed on his right shoulder. "That's enough, I-I think it's dead now," he heard Sonia half shout, half stutter.
He stopped. Looking at where the minotaur laid just half a minute ago, all that was left of it was a smoldering heap of blackened flesh and bone. His Buster, meanwhile, was so hot from firing what basically amounted to countless miniature stars continuously, that it was glowing a faint red, like the red glow that continued to emanate from within the robot's forearm. Lowering his arm and aiming at the floor, Rock saw Diana and her cohort staring at him, understandably surprised and, in their leader's case, a little unnerved. Amanda, by contrast, had a glint in her eyes that was either amazed, troublesome, or both.
And then the floor gave out from underneath them all.
? floor, dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
1:20 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
"This place is a lot larger than I thought." Simon spoke his thoughts out loud.
After finding this place, Akko and her friend had been busy searching the large room for anything valuable. However, what they'd found was somehow more and less disturbing than that. Swords, guns that shoot beams of ice, fire, and lightning, this place seemed full of dangerous items lining the walls that, frankly, even Akko thought shouldn't be on school grounds at all, even if it was sealed away in a secret location.
"I don't think we're supposed to be here…" she spoke to Simon. "Everything here is either weird, or too dangerous for anyone sane to use."
"Well, maybe Mr. Robinson didn't tell us about this because of that," the goggled boy speculated, looking around. "Knives, swords, guns, sets of armor– what is this, a billionaire's collection?"
As he said this, Akko caught the glint of something out of the corner of her eye. She turned around and what she saw took her breath away. There, on a podium lining the wall, was–
"Uh, Akko?" Simon asked. "Why are you gawking at that weird staff?"
"Staff?" the brunette witch bolted towards the object in question. It was a medium-length staff, true, but it was beige, with a golden ornament at the end and seven crystals spread along its length. And Akko had seen it plenty of times before, on posters and videos of Shiny Chariot's performances. This…
…this was the freaking Shiny Rod!
However, before she could start to explain this, a loud rumbling noise echoed throughout the long, low-lit cathedral-like room.
"Akko, I think this can wait," the young Bonne told his friend. "If there's an explosion underground, that's never a good thing. Come on!" he promptly bolted off in the direction the sound came from. Akko stood there for a moment, before grabbing the Shiny Rod and running after him.
When Rock opened his eyes, he did not expect himself to be in a room lit up by blue fires along the walls. Nor did he expect to land on an expensive-looking vase, its pieces scattered on the polished stone floor after a piece of debris from the ceiling– well, the floor he was standing on moments earlier –knocked it over. Quickly, he got up, and surveyed his surroundings.
From under the large pile of rubble, Sonia crawled out and rubbed the back of her head. ""Ugh, what happened?" she moaned.
"I think I may have weakened the floor," Rock explained to the best of his ability. "As for where we are–"
"That was brilliant, you think-headed piece of junk!"
The two students noticed Diana and her posse standing up amongst the rubble, their faces and clothes dirty from all the dust a collapsing ceiling naturally produces, Hannah and Barbara were hugging each other in fright. The blonde witch, however, looked more angry than anything. "You could've gotten me killed!"
"My apologies for the sloppy rescue, Ms. Cavendish," he replied, "but that minotaur probably would've killed you regardless! Besides," he pointed at his left arm, "I didn't even know I had this built into me."
"Then do everyone a favor and NEVER USE THAT THING IN PUBLIC AGAIN!" she shrieked back, right in his face.
"I dunno, h-he did kind of just save your life, Diana," Barbara managed to squeak, which earned her a hard glare.
However, Diana then realized something. If the floor above was supposed to be the fourth and bottom floor, then why was there another floor beneath that, which Rock had just unintentionally revealed? Her scowl gave way to a smirk. "On second thought," she told her cohorts, "I think he just discovered the jackpot."
"Eh?" They both looked confused.
"Think of it. Mr. Robinson must've not told us about this unless he wanted us to find it. Whatever's down there must have the most points out of everything."
"Y-you can't be serious," Hannah peeped. "I-I'm pretty sure we've had enough scares for today, we should head back now."
"And what if that bucket of bolts' blockheaded friends wind up getting the highest scores? Or anyone else for that matter?"
"…point taken…" the red-brown-haired witch admitted.
"W-we'll go with you," Barbara added.
"Good." With that, the blonde witch used her wand to start levitating down the hole into the space below, Hannah and Barbara following suit.
By that point, though, Rock, Amanda and Sonia had already left the scene, and getting the best grades in this unconventional exam was the last thing on their minds.
"I don't see any exits," Rock said, searching between the various items lining the walls. "You didn't happen to bring a broom with you, right?"
"I did," Amanda gleefully replied.
"Unfortunately, no," Sonia admitted. "I didn't think I'd need it, and Mr. Robinson said that flying in the dungeon wasn't advised."
So that's his name, the robot thought, before his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of rapidly-approaching footsteps on the polished stone food.
"Rock! Oh thank God you're here!" He turned around to find his blue-haired friend running towards him from the opposite direction from which they came.
"Simon!" he greeted him as he came to a stop. "What are you doing here?"
"Akko chased a critter down a stairwell at the end of the top floor and we wound up here. You?"
"I split off from the crowd just after the entry stairway, and teamed up with Sonia and Amanda since you guys were nowhere to be seen."
"Who?" he asked, only to then notice the girl with wild burgundy hair standing nearby. " …did you have to get the thief?" he asked, pointing at Amanda.
"Thief?" Rock was visibly confused.
"Hey, I don't steal stuff," the red-haired witch got defensive, "I just borrow it… permanently…"
The young Hikari's expression turned to disappointment. Perhaps he'd misjudged her character.
"A-anyway, we need to get out of this place ASAP, so we can get something with points and get back to the surface before the whole place caves in."
"Cave in?" Rock asked, concerned.
"Yeah, we heard something happening in your direction."
…
" … Don't tell me that was you."
"Kind of," Sonia explained. "We found Diana fighting a freaking minotaur, and hot-head here rushed in and nearly got crushed to death. So the big guy," she gestured towards Rock, "used his arm cannon to take it out. Granted, he fired way too many lemons at that thing, since the whole floor fell out from right underneath us, but…"
"There you are!" Akko interrupted them as she finally caught up. She immediately got up in the robot teen's face. "You won't believe what we found!"
"Um, did you… find something worth a lot of points, by chance?" he asked a little nervously. He'd never seen Akko this excited in the seven months he's known her.
"No," she answered, before whipping out a certain beige staff. "But I did find this!"
"Akko, why did you bring that staff with you?" Simon asked in a serious tone.
"Again, this isn't just a staff!" she countered, slightly annoyed. "This is the Shiny Rod!" she shouted triumphantly.
" … Nanni? / The fuck is that?"
It's at this point that everyone else remembered Sonia and Amanda weren't in the loop about their friend's idol, for lack of a better term. "We'll explain later," Rock told them, "for now, let's focus on finding that stairwell you used to find this place." He noticed that Akko looked a little disappointed. "What? I-I mean, it's great you found this, but I don't think it's the most important thing in the world right now."
She visibly deflated after he said this, only for her eyes to then widen. "Uh, Rock? What happened to your hand?"
Rock looked at his arm, and then realized that he forgot to deactivate his Buster. "Oh! Sorry, uh– I can explain." he apologized, before willing it into turning back into its original form.
"You know, I had a feeling you were armed," Simon said to his robot friend, "for emergencies, of course."
"More like he didn't know he had this shit!" Amanda corrected him. "But seriously, that was awesome! And… Thank you," she bowed. "I don't think I would've gotten out of there if you hadn't started blasing that beast."
The blue-haired boy could only stare at his friend with an expression that said 'are you freaking serious? You did that just to save a stranger?'
"Yeah, I'm going to talk to Dr. Hikari about this once this is all over." Rock stated. "So… besides finding your idol's weapon, what else have you been up to?"
5th floor(?), dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
1:30 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
Walking down the unfamiliar corridor, Diana couldn't help but wonder why, and how, the school hid all these valuable items down here. Sure, plenty of these things she knew were dangerous– even after their exile from England, the Cavendish family still had access to loads of information not available to the public –but if used properly, they could do lots of good to the magical community. Even the muggles could benefit, if the superior magic-wielding portion of mankind agreed to it, of course.
She never understood what was wrong with the viewpoint that witches were superior to those without the magic gene, because that was just the way the world is. All the materialist hedonists in Franco-Iberia and Acadia and their obsession over profit above the well-being of magic; all the hypocrites in China and their lack of a definition of what was natural; all the frauds and their optical illusions– except Shiny Chariot, though she'd never dare admit it in public –; all the supremacists with their demagoguing that technology was superior to all. They would be proven wrong someday soon. All of them. And when they were, the old, righteous ways would return the world to its pristine state.
But for now, she was busy searching through the various pieces and artifacts lining this hidden floor. Hannah and Barbara, of course, were trailing behind her like scaredy cats, but Diana was fine with that – for now. They'd need to grow up eventually, but given that they had the luxury of still having time to be childish, she'd tolerate it. Really, she was jealous that they didn't have to lose their parents at a young age and be the only true heir to the family name, which their aunt was tarnishing. But at least they weren't as irrespectful of the old ways like Akko and her gang were.
And she wouldn't even want to get started on that bucket of bolts, Rock Hikari-Nishizumi.
Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when her friends shrieked in terror. She whipped around, to see that they'd been frightened by what looked like an iron maiden, which had a hooded skull on top with glowing red eyes.
Now why would this be down here? She'd heard that iron maidens had been used in medieval Europe to drain witches of their blood. But to have it here, amongst a bunch of other stuff that could be used? That didn't make any sense. Unless…
Unless this was the big prize.
She scoffed. "Did whoever built this think they could use such scare tactics on a witch? Let's see what's really in here!"
With that, she aimed her wand at the device, shooting a ball of purplish-pink energy at it. The binds surrounding it broke, and the doors flew open, sending a cloud of dust into the surrounding area. When it cleared…
…Well, in another world, it would've been a small but deadly Red Briton Dragon. But in this universe, that is not what Diana and her posse found.
What they found instead was what looked like a man, who, judging by his face, appeared to be in his early 20s. I say his face, because the rest of his body appeared to be encased in a suit of black, gold and metallic gray armor that had patches and light streaks of rust all over it, with some kind of large jewel forming the center of its chestpiece. He also had two purple lines, one on each side of his face, running from his eye crevices (his eyes were closed) down over his cheeks, and continued down his neck until they disappeared under his "armor". And weirdest of all was his helmet, which was largely black but had some weird fins on its sides, behind where the ears would be, and at least the forwards sides of them were the same golden hue as parts of the rest of him.
…
" …Bloody Hell is this?"
Really, that's all Diana could say after what she assumed to be an ancient man locked up inside an iron maiden. Though in hindsight, she guessed this was less of a treasure chest and more like a makeshift coffin.
"Are you happy now, Diana?" Barbara asked, having never asked her to open the maiden in the first place.
" …No, but I'm not sure what to make of this–"
Cue the man falling out of his container face-first, making a loud, metallic THUD. Hannah and Barbara immediately shrieked and scampered behind the young Cavendish momentarily, before coming back out of her shadow.
Cautiously, the trio of witches approached the black and gold-armored man now lying on the stone floor. Upon closer inspection, they noticed what appeared to be a quartet of solar panels on the back of the upper torso piece, laid out in a 1x4 row between his shoulders. Below that was a glass meter, though what it measured was anyone's guess at this point.
Hannah tried lifting him up, but found that he was much heavier than she'd expected, Barbara coming over to help her friend. It was only when the two stooges finally stood him back up that they noticed just how tall he was – around 178 centimeters, Diana estimated, given that he was just short of a foot taller than her, and she was 167 centimeters tall the last time she checked.
"What do you girls think we should do with him?" the prodigess then asked her cohorts.
"Maybe we should just put him back in his box," Barbara suggested.
"In that thing!?" Hannah squawked. "Whoever this guy is, he deserves a proper burial!"
Barbara was quick to counter. "I hate to break it to you, Hannah, but I think this is a bot, not a boy. Seriously, solar panels didn't exist in the middle ages!"
…
…
…
…
…
…
…REBOOTING…
…
…
…
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS…
…
…
…
ENERGY SYSTEMS FUNCTIONALITY: SUBOPTIMAL; SOLAR CELL REPLACEMENT RECOMMENDED
GUIDANCE SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY: 203 ERRORS DETECTED
MOTOR JOINT FUNCTIONALITY: NO ISSUES DETECTED
AUDIO RECEPTOR FUNCTIONALITY: L: 83% R: 91%
VOCAL SYNTHESIZER FUNCTIONALITY: 79%
QUINTESSENCE CANNON FUNCTIONALITY: 52%
FLIGHT APPARATUS FUNCTIONALITY: 12%; CRITICAL NEED OF REPAIRS
INTERNAL CLOCK FUNCTIONALITY: 100%
TIME: 13:30, 8/3/2199
STASIS LOCK: ENGAGED
…
…
…
STASIS LOCK: DISENGAGING…
As Hannah and Barbara were arguing over what to do with the robot, the latter's insistence that it wasn't one now starting to get on Diana's nerves, they failed to notice the faint sound of said robot powering up. It wasn't until he opened his eyes– which had red irises with a crosshair pattern on them –that she realized something was up.
"…even if he is just like Dr. Hikari's soulless replica of a person, I still think we should at least scrap him."
"While I admit that's better than burying him in the actual ground, It's better if we just put him back in the iron maiden, put its binds back on, and leave it like we were never here, or else–"
"Or else what?"
At that point the three of them practically jumped in surprise, not expecting the robot to have actually heard them. His voice had some static in it, probably due to who knows how many years of disrepair, and had a slight but noticeable French accent.
"You're awake," the blonde witch bluntly stated, surprised, yet nonetheless trying to put on a stoic face. "We… apologize for disturbing your slumber–"
"Cut the crap, Cavendish," he cut her off. "I know my box looks like something out of the medieval era, and if there's one thing I know about your… I don't know what you are to Elizabeth, but she was always a sucker for old-time heirlooms and shit like that."
"You dare insult my grandmother!?" Diana yelled, aiming her wand right in his face.
"Looks like I struck a nerve," he smirked. "Tell you what, your grandmother and I were supposed to have a duel, but if my internal clock is correct, then I'm guessing she isn't around anymore. I suppose fighting you would be the next best thing."
As he said this, his left forearm flashed a bright purple for a second, then stopped, his hand having converted into some kind of gun barrel. He then shifted into a combat position. "I seriously hope you're as good as she was at combat, 'cause I don't wanna be disappointed."
"So be it," the gold-blond haired teen growled back. She then faced Hannah and Barbara. "Stand back, I don't know how messy this is about to get."
"Y-you're really going at him alone?" the black-haired witch asked.
"I'm the one who woke this thing up, it's my responsibility," she told them.
"My name is Bass, aristocrat," the black robot sneered in response.
"Not as terrible of a name as Rock," she mused to herself. "I accept your challenge of a duel!"
As Hannah and Barbara ran for cover, they hoped their friend would brevail, but deep down, even they knew that Diana was probably biting off more than she could chew this time. This fight would not – could not – end well for her.
5th floor(?), dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
1:45 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
As Rock and co. were making their way towards the stairwell that led directly to the first floor, there was a loud BOOM, which echoed down the halls from where the band of friends were headed.
Then, there was another.
And another.
"Rock," Simon asked curtly, "did Diana and her posse follow you down here?"
"…maybe?" he shrugged. "I was too busy making sure neither Sonia nor Amanda was hurt during the fall."
"Even if they did," Sonia pointed out, "I'm sure they can handle themselves."
This gave her several confused and/or exasperated expressions.
"What? They were the ones fighting the minotaur before we stumbled in on them," Sonia tried to defend herself and her new acquaintance. "Besides, I think she's smart enough to recognize anything dangerous and not mess with it."
BOOM
"What about everything that is dangerous, but doesn't look dangerous?" Simon asked in response.
"Um… uh, well–"
"Exactly," the goggled teen replied. "Now come on, I don't want to have this place cave in on us…"
5th floor(?), dungeon, Setsuri, Japan
1:55 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
When Diana had accepted this Bass's challenge, she thought he'd be an easy opponent, so cocky and arrogant that they'd quickly fall to her superior skills and prowess. However, now it seemed that his comments about being able to take on her grandmother (may she rest in peace) head-to-head weren't just hot air, as he was firing bolts of pure quintessence at her with remarkable speed and precision. So much, in fact, that Diana had no choice but to admit that she was having trouble keeping up with dodging them all. She wasn't sure what this so-called "Quintessence Cannon" Bass bragged about did to a human being, but she sure as Hell did not want to find out first-hand.
BOOM
He fired another shot from his cannon, which she narrowly dodged once more.
"What's the matter," he mocked, "did you not learn to never bring a wand to a gun fight?"
The blonde witch was too focused on staying out of his crosshairs to respond. She shot another heat blast spell at the black bomber, only for him to dodge… though not flawlessly. For as good as this machine was, it was at least a century or two old, thus not working in its tip-top shape. Even so, it was still too fast, too strong to beat. Even for someone the likes of Diana Cavendish…
It was at this moment that she could hear footsteps approaching, followed by some familiar — and annoying — voices.
"Come on, they're right behind this corner."
"Are you even sure this is a good idea, Rock? You know she didn't even thank you,from what you said."
"Hard to appease or not, she could barely handle a minotaur. Odds are, whatever Diana's facing is considerably worse than that."
"Sonia, have you ever seen what she's like in class, towards people like us? People who don't exactly fit in?"
"Don't blame me! I never had any classes with her–"
At that moment, that doofus Akko and her blockheaded friends, including the bucket of bolts Rock, came around the corner to the sight of her getting her rear end handed to her by a freaking machine, of all things.
"It appears we have an audience," Bass noted.
"What the bloody Hell are you doing here!?" she asked, infuriated. "Can't you blockheads mind your own business!?"
"It's kinda hard not to hear the sound of a tank firing when it's this close to us," Amanda pointed out. "Or a tank gun mounted to some kind of fighting robot."
"Some kind!?" Bass yelled in response, apparently taking offense to that comment. "I am not 'some kind' of fighting robot, punk! I am the greatest fighting robot there ever was!" he pointed at himself egotistically. "I advise you to stay out of my way."
"Ego, much?" Simon asked the others.
"Listen," Rock spoke up, "I don't know who you are, or why you're fighting miss Cavendish, but I think it's time we cool off and —"
*BOOM*
The robot teen was suddenly sent flying by a shot from the black bot's Quintessence Cannon, leading him to crash into a set of armor with a loud, metallic clanging noise some 50 yards from where he was standing just moments earlier.
"I said, stay out of my way!" Bass yelled before the others could react. "Now, if you excuse me…" he turned to face Diana again, only for him and the other students to notice that she wasn't there anymore.
Of course she ran off when things didn't go her way, Akko thought. Everyone else but Sonia had similar thoughts, with Simon outright facepalming.
The black bomber looked around, before catching sight of the English immigrant witch reaching a doorless doorway – the same one where Akko and Simon had entered this place over an hour ago – and running inside, presumably up the spiral stairway that led back to the first, top floor of the dungeon.
"GET BACK HERE YOU BLONDE BITCH! OUR FIGHT ISN'T OVER YET!" Bass screamed as he dashed after her, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. There was a moment of silence as the four students processed what just happened.
"… this…" Sonia broke the silence, " …isn't good…"
"At least it isn't the minotaur we need to worry about."
"Amanda!" Simon chastised the Irish-American-descendant witch. "That asshole just shot Rock like it was nothing! Sure, it's not world-ending, like you said, but still, not exactly great news! What the crap are we supposed to tell Mr. Robinson about this!?"
Akko, for her part, had sprinted back to where Rock had landed, pieces of the armor set scattered on the stone floor around where he laid.
"Are you alright?" she asked. Inspecting her friend closer, she noticed that the ball of quintessence shot by Bass had burnt a hole through his jacket and synthetic skin, revealing some of his internal machinery inside, and letting some kind of black liquid to bleed out. She recoiled, icked out by the unusual type of gore before her. "I-is that supposed to be blood?"
He did not respond. Looking into Rock's eyes, she could see they were still open, but something about them was… different. Lifeless. Artificial.
Akko didn't know what to make of this. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as the prospect that she had just lost a friend– permanently –stared her right in the face.
Simon caught up with her, soon followed by Amanda and Sonia. "Akko, is Rock okay?"
"…he's fine," she lied to them, but mostly to herself, "Rock-kun is fine… he's just… he's just sleeping for the moment…"
"Akko," Amanda replied, "the blue boy doesn't look what counts as "fine" to me… What's going on with your staff?"
"Eh?" She looked down, away from her surely-not-dead robotic friend, and noticed that the Shiny Rod was glowing, the seven crystals emanating a green hue. Then, an idea popped into her head.
"Sonia, do you think we can use the repair spell to fix him?"
"Not without any material to fill in that hole in his torso," the burgundy-haired witch clarified. Akko immediately eyed the dismembered set of armor scattered around their feet, which was metallic purple in color.
And from there, everything clicked into place in her head…
…
…REBOOTING…
…
…
…
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS…
…
…
WARNING: SKELETAL DAMAGE DETECTED!
WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED FOREIGN MATERIAL TRANSPLANT DETECTED!
…
…
…
…
…
…
ENERGY SYSTEMS FUNCTIONALITY: OPTIMAL
GUIDANCE SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY: NO ERRORS DETECTED
MOTOR JOINT FUNCTIONALITY: NO ISSUES DETECTED
LIGHT CABLE OPTIC FUNCTIONALITY: L: 100% R: 100%
AUDIO RECEPTOR FUNCTIONALITY: L: 100% R: 100%
VOCAL SYNTHESIZER FUNCTIONALITY: 100%
VARIABLE TOOL SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY: 100%
PLASMA CANNON Mk17 FUNCTIONALITY: 100%
INTERNAL CLOCK FUNCTIONALITY: 100% NO ERRORS DETECTED
TIME: 1:59 P.M., 3/8/2199
STASIS LOCK: DISENGAGED
…
…
…
WARNING(S) DISMISSED…
…
…
…
RUNNING …
Dungeon entrance, Setsuri, Japan
2:00 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
Rock reawoke with a startled jolt. The last thing he remembered, he'd been sent flying to the Moon (metaphorically, of course) by some black and gold robot Diana managed to wake up. Was it just him, or did the prodigess only create more problems than she solved? That would have to wait until later, as his internal monitors were streaming at him about an unauthorized transplant of foreign material into his body, which was concerning.
However, his attention soon shifted to the sight in front of him. Namely, all of his friends were standing before him, looking at him as if he'd grown a second head. All of them except for…
"Rock, you're awake!"
…except for Akko. Of course.
"Ugh, what happened?" he groaned as he sat up. "I feel like I got hit by a truck…"
"More like a cannonball," Amanda commented. "That black bot chased Diana out of this place while you were out, just so you're aware."
"Figures. So… how badly was I hurt?"
"Pretty horribly," Sonia admitted. "But thanks to that magic staff Akko found–"
"For the last time, it's the Shiny Rod!"
"…as I was saying," the burgundy-haired witch continued, "thanks to this rod, we were able to fix you… sort of."
…
"…What do you mean by that?" he asked in a serious tone and expression.
It was at this moment that Simon came over, pushing a full-body mirror in front of him.
"Okay, this thing was a bitch and a half to move over here," the blue-haired teen exhaled. "I hope it's worth it…"
Figuring that his friends wanted him to look into the mirror for the answer to his question, Rock got on his feet and moved to look at himself.
To say he was surprised would be an understatement: he was clad in the mythril armor set that Bass had blasted him onto only minutes ago. However, it was apparent to everyone that the Shiny Rod had made some modifications. The armor had also become more streamlined than it originally was, fitting his body shape more closely.
It was also made the same shade of blue as his forearms and lower legs. Said parts of the armor were notably missing, as they were too small for Akko, Sonia and Simon to fit onto him, leaving his metallic robot hands completely exposed like normal… although somehow Akko's repairo spell had managed to make them and his forearms larger than they were supposed to be, making them resemble gauntlets of sorts.
Lastly, the helmet had been completely overhauled; the visor and mouthguard were gone, leaving Rock's face clear for everyone to see. It had a stripe of the same light blue shade as his normal body's highlights down the helmet's middle, and there was a red, diamond-shaped jewel in the forehead area, just above its crest.
"Before you even complain," Amanda preemptively stated, "we aren't roboticists like your dad, okay? We're sorry if you don't like it, but we could only use what was available."
"…you made me look like a superhero from the 1960s, but with a medieval twist," he bluntly stated in response, shrugging his shoulders. "Could've come out worse."
"I was thinking more like a knight and RoboCop, but…" Sonia muttered, as the blue knight turned around to face his friends.
"So, where's that black robot that shot me?"
"Seriously," Simon asked. "That's the first thing you think of? You know that blonde bitch doesn't care–"
"Yes she's a bitch," Rock quickly admitted, "but that robot's out to kill her for all we know. What's her family going to think if she dies, and we did nothing about it? Hell, what's Mrs. Finnelan or the Headmaster going to think if that happens?"
A silence fell over everyone else present. As much as they hated to admit it (except Sonia), he had a point. And there was another, unspoken implication to consider: if something bad happened to her she or her family could easily use their influence to get them all expelled.
Amanda was the one who broke the silence, grumbling. "Alright, ever wanted to ride on a broom?"
Dungeon entrance, Setsuri, Japan
2:20 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
Mr. Robinson looked at his digital stopwatch, which indicated that roughly 50 minutes were left until his exam was over. So far, only a handful of students had returned, and their loot didn't have that many points. Still, he'd give them passing grades, by value of having gotten out of the dungeon unscathed.
As he patiently waited, however, an exhausted, haggard Diana came out of the dark entrance.
"Time, two hours, twenty-one minutes," he monotonously called, "no points from what I can see. I'm pretty sure everyone heard me when I gave directions, so why haven't you gotten any valuable items, Ms. Cavendish?"
"I was running to get out before he got to me."
"…Who?"
The answer quickly became obvious, as a certain black, gold and gray robot bolted out of the entrance, quickly stopping themselves after noticing his opponent. However, instead of pressing on with their fight...
" …Pathetic," he stated. "For all your gloating, you seem to bark more than bite." As he said this, "I'm going to take pride in finishing this feud once and for all."
"I'd think twice before you do that."
Annoyed, he turned around to see who was interrupting him this time. To the surprise of everyone still present, it was Rock, in his blue-cladded upgrade.
"Rock? What's with the knight getup?" Mr. Robinson asked, completely missing the point of his question.
"That can come later," he dismissed, "right now I advise everyone to step a good distance away for your own safety." The exploration teacher looked at him confused before he deployed his Buster once more, and that was all Mr. Robinson needed to see to know that 1: Rock wasn't biting off more than he could chew, like he could tell Diana did when she apparently fought against this black robot, and 2: shit just got real.
Once the teachers wisely backed away (Mr. Robinson helping along an exhausted Diana), the two robots opened fire on each other. For the next five minutes, Bass shot repeatedly at the blue knight, but Rock was too fast and too agile to hit, and unlike that blonde brat, he wasn't tiring out that easily. Between dodging balls of concentrated quintessence and the occasional punch to the face or gut, the armored blue robot took potshots at his opponent with his Buster, about half of them hitting their mark on the century-old super fighting robot.
…and then they both heard several high-pitched sirens fast-approaching.
"Tell you what," the black and gold robot said to his foe, "why don't we finish this up another time?" Before Rock could respond, he bolted into the wilderness, leaving the blue robot alone as several police cars drove off the pavement and straight towards the entrance to the dungeon – straight towards him. He retracted his Buster and put his hands in the air, as several heavily-armored cops, Sniper Joes (painted blue and white instead of the usual green), and some Policebots came out, immediately opening fire on the armored bot. Their bullets bounced right off his mythril and plasteel armor, but their actions were enough to tell him that this was no ordinary police squad.
This was a cybersquad.
Bet you didn't expect Bass to appear this early, did you?
Honestly, neither did I.
Originally, this was supposed to include Red Briton Dragon of the original OVA, and had an entirely different ending from the one I wound up writing (I'm not going into details, but it didn't involve Rock coming under fire from the police at the end). But when I started writing this chapter, I couldn't figure out a plausible way for Rock to take it down without relying on some BS relying on the Shiny Rod, which I've relegated to Akko for reasons that'll become clear within the next few chapters. Then I remembered that Bass exists as a character, and decided to completely change the backstory I had planned for him and substitute the dragon with this ball of anger and pride. Everything that happens after Diana unwittingly releases the Black Bomber from his container sort of fell into place from there.
Bass' weapon was something I came up with whilst putting together his new backstory. It occurred to me that Busters did not exist back when he was first built, so the in-universe logic would be that his creator (who will remain nameless for the time being, though this version of Bass is too old for it to be Dr. Wily) used the most destructive mobile weapon available at the time: a tank gun! More specifically, a shortened version of the Ordnance QF 2-pounder, retrofitted to fire balls of pure quintessence instead of metal shells. His gun can't be too ludicrous, after all. (Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Bass' creator stole it off of the Matilda II in Britain's Tank Museum :D)
Anyway, Bass won't show up again for a few chapters, but the Black Bomber will return, and in a way you probably won't expect.
Aside from that, we also get how Rock got his knight-esque armor; it was a set of mythril armor inside the "vault" our heroes have found, and Akko and Sonia fused parts of it to him using the Shiny Rod as part of their improvised repairs. To give you an idea of the end result, it would be equal parts Classic Rock and Legends/DASH Volnutt, with a medieval twist to spice things up. Also a red gem on the helmet, as a nod to X.
And we get the debut of the first elements of the Cyberpunk franchise into the story. I was planning on adding this into the story midway into my overall story revisions. And it's not that out of place: severe climate change and a disastrous war with aliens tends to leave things a bit screwed up. In addition, everything Rock's seen so far hasn't included anywhere within the city of Setsuri itself; he's going to experience quite the culture shock when he first ventures into the actual city.
But who called in a cybersquad on our blue hero? That will have to wait until the next chapter releases sometime in the next two weeks, depending on my workload at college.
Until then, thank you for reading, and stay safe.
–NuclearAlchmist
P.S.: Before anyone complains, the fight between the Black and Blue Bombers was supposed to be anticlimactic, for the sake of comedy (and a reference to a certain film by Monty Python).