17.11.2023
It is I, the Absolute Madman and I'm back for my weekly dose of comments!:
Kamori I'm The Infinity - I'm not sure about the goose, unless we're drinking so much Goose we're turning into geese.
Juno Schnee Link - Hey, new person, happy to have ya!
Rain Dance Jam - I'm so happy that someone knows this obscure fact!
n1ght4ury20 - I'll try my best!
And now, your weekly dose of Stranded!:
There was a tunnel behind the doors and Martin seemed to already have some sort of an idea about the place, one that he didn't share with her just yet. She didn't like this situation one bit. He was a man of many secrets and usually kept to himself, although he could be unreasonably talkative at times, but this time it seemed like it was bigger than anything they'd ever encountered.
He strolled through the corridor - devoid of his armor mind you! - his eyes focused on the end where another set of doors awaited their arrival. The metal heels of her Handmaiden clanked against the sheet floor, completely obscuring the sound of Martin's own footsteps.
The last set of doors opened just as they approached, revealing a large room with various display screens lining the walls and a massive orb suspended above the ground directly in the middle. As always, Martha stopped just behind Martin, observing with piqued curiosity as the events unfolded.
The room was silent - safe for the occasional flickering of a screen - for a few moments before the orb opened suddenly and something akin to an eye appeared in the middle of it. Martha expected another scanning procedure, but was surprised when the orb started to speak.
"You are not Him." The voice was deep and booming, easily commanding all of the attention towards itself. "The biometric scans and facial recognition programs confirmed your identity and gave you access to the very heart of this facility. You look like Him, act like Him, talk like Him, yet you are not Him. Who are you then?"
"Martin Kravchenko." The man introduced himself, his attention focused on the orb.
"Lies!" The voice exploded, the usual blue light of the eye turning blood red for a few seconds. "You cannot be Dr. Kravchenko." It countered once the initial outburst died down.
"You're right. I'm not your Dr. Kravchenko, but I'm still a Martin Kravchenko." Martin explained calmly.
"Contradicting points are being brought up. Scouring database for logical explanation. Searching. Searching. Searching. No valid explanations found. Conclusion - unknown factors influence the situation. Explain." This was an order, not a request.
Martin - infamous for not following orders - surprised Martha with how docile he was right now. No threats, bribes or over-the-top violence. It was very intriguing to say the least.
"This is our first meeting. I'm Martin Kravchenko, yet I'm not the one that created you. We might look and act the same, but we're two different people." Martin responded, dropping hints without giving the answer itself. At least some things never change.
The orb stayed silent for a few moments, most likely mulling over the new information before addressing the man once again.
"Are you from a different reality?" The voice asked, weirdly unsure of its words.
"Bingo. Now, you already know who I am. How about you introduce yourself next?" Martin offered.
"Pluton is the name that was given to me." The orb responded after a few moments.
"Huh, so we're in the roman naming scheme then…" Martha heard her master whisper. "And what are you doing here? What is your purpose?"
"I was meant to be a contingency plan for the Final Sundown project, designed to reset the reseeding process in the event of unforeseen complications." Pluton explained.
"And how were you supposed to go about resetting the process?" Martin inquired further.
"By destabilizing the established ecosystem and bringing about another collapse of the biosphere, turning the surface of the planet into a desolate wasteland yet again." The voice stated.
"How many times have you done this already?" Martin asked.
"This is the 69th extermination procedure conducted on the planet." Pluton responded right away.
"Wait, this is the 69th procedure?" Martin questioned, taken aback by the information.
"The 69th cycle was deemed to be yet another failure due to the appearance of abnormal life forms as well as various malfunctions in other facilities. The standardized reseeding checklist has been violated due to unknown errors which caused a major bypass in the operating procedures. Flora has been seeded before the completion of the atmosphere and fauna was introduced into the incomplete environment. Cycle 69 is by far the worst failure on the record." Pluton explained in detail.
"What are you going to do now then?" Her master asked with a slight frown.
"I'll devour everything and prepare the surface for another cycle. The facilities are still ramping up in terms of production but should be brought up to speed in the coming weeks." Pluton stated matter-of-factly.
"Master, what's going on? What does this all mean?" Martha asked, finally fed up with being kept in the dark.
"It means that we now know who was responsible for all the shit that was happening outside of our reach - temporary LOS with random units on the ground, automatons outright vanishing from the grid, entire species going extinct right after being brought back to life. He's the one at fault." Martin stated, looking at the orb with a full blown scowl.
Martha took a defensive stance as it was now obvious that Pluton or whatever his name was wasn't on their side. She didn't attack just yet though. Martin worked in mysterious ways and it wouldn't be out of character for him to be playing some silly long game in the background of all this.
"Did you create the anomalies in the cycle?" Pluton inquired curiously.
"I sure did." Martin responded right away. "More so, I'd like for you to put all of your operations on hold. I want to terraform this world and bring it back to life. You're free to judge it once it's completed, but until then I'd like for you not to interfere."
"Your request is… unreasonable." Pluton stated. "I was entrusted with my responsibilities centuries ago. I haven't failed yet and I shall not fail now."
"You were created to help restore Earth to its former glory and I want to do just that!" Martin exclaimed, finally raising his voice. "If we work together we'll succeed!"
"I was not created to restore Earth. My only goal is to devour. I am fascinated by your existence and everything that it implies, but I shall not put my own curiosities above my responsibilities. You are intriguing, but you are also an anomaly and for that you shall be devoured." The blue light gained a red hue over the speech, creating a menacing shade of purple that illuminated the entire room.
Martha watched as her master stared down the massive orb before sighing in defeat.
"Pity. There's much we could learn from each other. If it's war that you want though, then war is what you're going to get." The man simply stated before turning on his heel and heading towards the exit.
She was puzzled by his actions. Even he himself already stated that this was their enemy, so shouldn't they do something about it? Well, the only thing she could do was advise and try to understand what was going on inside of her master's mind. Martha followed him closely, falling in step with the man right away before finally unleashing some of her suppressed curiosity.
"Why are we leaving? Shouldn't we destroy him while we have the chance?" She asked.
"It wouldn't change anything." Martin responded immediately. "That giant orb back there is the core of this facility. We were talking to the real Pluton, but his mainframe is somewhere else. Finding that facility is the only way to destroy him for good." He explained briefly.
"What about the 'you' from this dimension? Could we enlist his help?" Martha asked.
"Nah, that's off the table right from the start." Martin stated right away, the hint of a smirk on his lips.
"Why's that?" She pushed further.
"Because he's dead. Along with anyone we could hope to drag onto our side. The human population of this reality went extinct centuries ago. I'm not sure about the details but it most likely happened during one of the first few cycles." He explained casually.
"And how do you know about all this?" Martha questioned further.
"It's because I've seen all this before. Look, I'll declassify some documents for you when we get back, alright?" Martin offered with a small smile.
Martha nodded in response as the two exited the corridor and reunited with the Clean House squadron. There were some wrecks strewn about that definitely weren't there when they left, indicating that the facility wasn't out of commission just yet.
"Are we leaving now?" Martha questioned as Martin reentered his suit.
"Yup. We've got all the answers I was after, there's nothing of interest left here." He responded, the eyes of his armor lighting up as they prepared to march.
"But is it okay for us to leave this facility intact?" She pointed out.
"Oh, we're definitely not leaving this alone. It's just that detonating the core would most likely collapse the entire thing and drop it onto our heads. We're simply not equipped for dealing with it at the moment. I'll send someone here later." Martin explained from the safety of his suit.
She would never say it out loud, but she very much prefered to see him in armor when outside of the Harrier. He wasn't defenseless without it, but it was hard to ignore the additional protection.
The journey back to the exit was way easier as there weren't that many bots trying to stop them at every turn. Most of the contacts charged them from the rear, most likely coming from the far corners of the facility. Though there were some stealthed jaguars waiting for them which was scary for two reasons. One, they most likely came from a different facility since the Clean House squadron had the main manufacturing part under strict lockdown this entire time. It was obvious from what her master said that there were multiple facilities, but the arrival time of reinforcements indicated that there could be more of them then she previously estimated. Second, they were waiting for them. They were waiting on the exact route that they were going to take. Sure, there could be more of them waiting on all the paths they didn't take, but they didn't have time to check that.
All in all, even with the unexpected surprises along the way, they managed to escape the facility completely unharmed. Martin had already recalled the Earthquake walker and so they could fly back to the Harrier right away.
"We're gonna have to warn the kids in the morning." Martin stated over the comms mid-flight.
"I already knew that." Martha responded confidently. "You wouldn't just leave them in the dark like that." She added.
"Oi, don't talk like you know what's going on inside my head." Martin chastised her, though she could picture the smile on his face as he did so.
"I'll think about it." She said with a similar smile.
"Cheeky." He said before the line went silent once again.
Izuku was… kind of used to not waking up alone in his bed at this point. Thankfully he remembered going to sleep with company - safe for the one or two incidents along the line, but we don't talk about those.
What he wasn't used to however was waking up with company peacefully. He wondered whether he did an exceptionally good job on them last night or if the combination he had in his bed was extremely docile in the mornings. With her back against his side and actively thwarting the blood flow to his lower arm was Itsuka, her freed amber hair sprawled over her backside and most likely covering her face though he couldn't see it from his perspective clearly. On the other side - clinging to his body and partially climbing onto him in her sleep - was Setsuna, her face inches away from his own and still soundly asleep.
He wasn't entirely awake just yet and so he decided to lean in and welcome the new dawn with a kiss. He gently pressed his lips against Setsuna's - noticing right away that she seemed to reciprocate the gesture even in her sleep - and the two melted into the kiss.
It lasted only a few moments, but was just as enjoyable as all the making out they did last night. When Izuku opened his eyes he was greeted by two dark green orbs staring back at him lovingly. The sight alone was enough to bring a smile to Izuku's lips.
"Good morning Sets." Izuku greeted his shark-toothed girlfriend.
"Heya." She responded with a grin before burrowing her face in the crook of his neck. "I could wake up like this all the time. I swear, you're way too comfy for a heap of muscle." Setsuna whined as she brought her right arm around to hug him.
"Yeah, this is pretty awesome." Izuku agreed right away, relaxing his body and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.
They stayed like this for a few minutes before Itsuka started to wake as well. She stirred fully awake - rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes - before she rolled around, throwing her leg around Izuku's and placing one arm on his torso.
"Hello beautiful." Izuku said, smooth as butter.
"And my good morning kiss?" Itsuka asked with a slight blush.
Izuku couldn't help but chuckle and he definitely heard Setsuna snicker but he obeyed nonetheless. Giving Itsuka the same chaste kiss that he treated Setsuna to a few minutes ago was all he expected it to be - short, sweet and still conveying everything he wanted it to.
"You're better than morning coffee…" Itsuka whispered out breathlessly, causing the other two to chuckle once again.
"As much as I'd love to laze around with you two, I think we should get up already. We went to sleep late so the others are most likely already up and about and I don't fancy a cold breakfast." Izuku said, deciding to act like the voice of reason this time.
The girls had a few choice words for him, but they eventually relented. All of the morning progress was almost undone once the covers were completely off and Izuku got a front row seat to the impromptu show that his two gorgeous girlfriends put on, but he stayed strong and managed not to jump them on impulse.
As they walked outside they spotted the others already enjoying their breakfast around the campfire. Thankfully there was still plenty enough for the three of them to fill their bellies. A casual chit-chat accompanied the meal as per usual and once they were all full they moved onto discussing their plans for the day.
With their perimeter secured and their gates fully operational, there wasn't much for them to do and so they could finally go back to their usual daily routines. Their farms were in complete disarray as Ibara was busy helping everyone else and had no time to tend to the fields. Massive swaths of weeds popped up in the seedbeds and they'd need to be removed before they could start farming again. They had a metric fuckton of food left, but reestablishing a steady source of it would provide them with mental comfort. The last thing they wanted to do was wake up one day with their pants down and their food stores completely empty.
They were halfway through establishing a schedule for the day when Martin decided to drop by unannounced. Piloting yet another different armor and with Martha right behind him, he seemed to have something urgent to say. He even dropped his usual tuxedo and appeared wearing cargo pants and a black shirt with some bandana/sunglasses/baseball cap combo wearing guy on the front and the letters 'HU' on the back.
"'Sup kiddos!" He greeted them as he vaulted the nearby log and took a seat on it in one smooth motion. "So, there's a couple of things I have to tell you." Martin stated, beginning a very long monologue followed by a very intense Q&A section.
"-and that's basically the whole shtick." Martin said, acting as if he didn't tell them about an army of murderous animal-robots that may soon appear to level the place to the ground.
"Why animals?" Mina asked the least scary question first.
"Excellent question, I've no idea." Martin responded with a grin. "I guess it's just a gimmick of their creator? Believe it or not, this is not the first time I've seen something like this, but every time I do, it's always terraforming animal-robots. I personally prefer anime girls, so I can't hope to explain the fauna aesthetic."
"What can we do about this?" Izuku, being the most proactive person out of the group, asked.
"Well, hunker down and hope for the best?" Martin responded calmly which earned him a smack on the head from his assistant. "Alright, alright!" He relented, stopping the second follow-up strike head-ing his way. "I'll put your general area under surveillance, leave some… guys holding watch. Don't worry, you won't even know they're there."
"What if one of those things sneaks by them though?" Tooru raised a valid concern.
"As insulted as I am by that idea, I guess I might spare some stuff to put around your base. Fully automated turrets and a sensory array to scan the area. I'd like to deploy even more, but I don't want to turn this peaceful community of yours into a ghetto." Martin explained. "Let's say that I have a heavy dislike for armed occupation and stuff." He added with a small smile.
"Um, would it be possible for you to share some of your schematics? That way we could try to manufacture the things we need ourselves without having to bother you all the time and you could focus on sending us home in the meantime." Momo said, hoping to convince the man with logical reasoning.
He didn't disregard the idea right away, which was a good thing, but he was visibly conflicted about it. Still, he was deep in thought for a few moments before eventually responding.
"I guess I can give you some stuff." He stated, unsure of whether or not he really should be doing that. "I only ask that you don't use them once you get back home. From what you told me, your Earth is nowhere near as advanced as the one I hail from and some of this stuff could easily place you on a watchlist or two. I don't care much for how you use it, but I advise caution for your own convenience and safety." Martin warned them.
"Wait, that's it? No NDAs or other agreements?" Mina questioned, puzzled.
This actually caused Martin to snort in amusement.
"Please, I'm a decently orderly man, but I hold absolute disdain for bureaucracy. Besides, I think you know better than to ignore my words." He responded as he got up from the log. "I'll organize your relief package and send it to you in a day or two. Martha will be in charge of setting it up and I'd like to ask for you assistance when that happens."
As Martin walked back to the suit that brought him here, Izuku and the girls expressed their gratitude and promised to offer all the help they could.
"Alrighty then. Have a good day and I'll catch y'all in the future." And with that he was off, Martha bowing curtly before departing as well.
Silence reigned supreme for a few moments before Mina piped up with a perfect punchline.
"Welp, that happened."
It certainly did.
That feeling when you finally introduce something to explain all the bullshit you kept getting away with for the past 78 chapters.
I got nothing on my cheat cards, so I'mma head out! Have a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update!