Dawn came and went effortlessly, the sun drifted towards noon. The Terra fell more or less silent with exception to the sparse wildlife and the muffled machinery inside the Terradon labs.
In particular, Beaker struggled with Hoerk's skimmer. After a night of blueprinting and pressing a new computer chip, Beaker laboured over the engines themselves, more specifically, their cooling system. Thrown in a pile behind the rear wheel was the old pipes and radiators, all of which either rusted out, dented, or otherwise mangled. The clicks of a socket wrench regularly rung out inside Beaker's workspace, until the very last nut was fastened. She grunted as she lifted herself away from the skimmer. Aside from the areas she worked on, the skimmer as a whole was rather dirty. Dust and grime covered most of the front and underside of the bike, with a smattering of dead insects covering the windscreen. Beaker inspected her work and found herself confident that it should start, ride, and even fly.
Dragging her away from her hard work, the tannoy inside her workspace sounded. It was Oppensaur, asking for Beaker to go and see who had just approached the gates to the lab. Beaker sighed, and with one last proud look at the skimmer, left her workspace. The workshop she had been using was on the part of the corridor closest to the gate, its door opposite the main entrance to the facility.
Exiting the facility and crossing the moat, Beaker was met by Hoerk, perfectly timed to check on his bike. 'How is the scrap heap going, Squeaks?' He asked with an annoyed tone. His arms crossed, and with no other Raptors or vehicles around. Beaker could easily tell he had walked back to his base last night, and then walked all the way back.
'You won't be calling it a scrap heap when you see what I've done with it' Beaker replied with a excited grin on her face. She immediately turned around and paced back into the labs. Behind her, Hoerk's expression changed to mild interest as he unfolded his arms and followed her into the facility. Reaching the workshop door, Beaker forced open the door and held it open for Hoerk to enter as well. Hoerk's eyes widened as he saw his Skimmer, stood on its kickstand with a pile of scrap metal behind it. He approached it with a sense of heightened interest, and one could even argue, a sense of mild excitement.
'What did you do to it?' Hoerk asked, inspecting the freshly worked bike, the grills sparkled and shined of unpainted steel, the underside now held in placed with a more regular arrangement of nuts and bolts. Beaker listed off the major things she had worked on, Hoerk paying little attention to it, and instead continue his inspections. After Beaker finished listing off the work she had done, Hoerk looked at her as he grasped one of the handlebars. 'So you're telling me this can fly?' Hoerk asked, checking that it was indeed finished. Beaker nodded proudly. 'Then let's finish the map thing we were doing yesterday' He said, throwing his leg over the centre of the bike, and sitting forward on the seat, allowing room for Beaker. She walked over to the wall next to the door and cranked a lever attached to it. The opposite wall clunked with a loud thud, and slowly clacked as it levered down like a drawbridge, opening the room to the outside Terra. Beaker then approached Hoerk's skimmer and clumsily climbed on, still not used to riding skimmers just yet. Checking Beaker was sat steadily in place, Hoerk kick-started the engine, and the bike immediately burst into life, the engine running a clean pitch with little other noise. the exhaust throwing smokeless flames. Hoerk grew a determined smile, he leant forward, revved the engine and launched the bike at full throttle towards the dropped wall.
The bike's engine let out an intimidating roar, and the pair rapidly reached the exit. the front wheel nearly lifting clean off of the floor.
Clearing the labs and charging through the savannah, Hoerk found himself riding much faster than normally expected to take off. Riding off of the adrenaline, Hoerk pulled his wing release mechanism, and jerked the controls up and to the left. The skimmer immediately spat its wings out straight and pitched upwards, pulling him and Beaker into an anticlockwise aeleron roll. Hoerk felt a thrill from the G forces, the acceleration proving to add to his excitement. Beaker didn't find such thrill seeking very entertaining, however, instead holding onto Hoerk in terror and letting out a frightened yelp. Before long, Hoerk climbed to a cruising altitude and straightened out to a stable flight pattern. 'Now that's a job well done!' He called out, his face in an adrenaline fuelled grin. He looked behind him to check on Beaker and saw her still clamped to him, nearly paralysed in fear. 'Uhhh, you okay there, Squeaks?' He asked, with a voice of slight concern. Beaker nodded frantically whilst slowly uncoupling herself from him. 'Good. You remembered everything?'
Beaker scrambled in her pockets, and thanked her past self for not removing any of the items from yesterday's excursion. 'I'm set, let's chart the rest of the Terra' She asserted, with risen confidence. Hoerk looked ahead of him, and started to bank the skimmer gently, heading towards the Terra's edge.
Hoerk flew his skimmer over the large ravine that stretched from the Terra's edge to about halfway through its diameter. Beaker asked him to slow down a slight amount, and as hje did so, she pulled out her notepad, notating in regular intervals along the ravine's length until they finally reached the Terra's edge. Hoerk started to bank starboard, and Beaker scanned their surroundings. She started to focus on the mountain that was also to their right hand side, and after poking Hoerk to grab his attention, pointed to the mountain's summit. without response, he pitched upwards and aimed for the mountain top.
Hoerk saw the summit of the mountain as a perfect spot to stop the bike for a while. His mind telling him that Beaker would focus better without to motion and the balance and the constant juggling of materials. A more grounded approach would speed the operation up. Watching Beaker work with the map unfolded across the floor, a compass in hand, and a noticeable zoom on her goggles, Hoerk's suspicions seemed to prove correct over the couple of hours she worked on the summit. Giving her the space to work her own way seemed to have a positive effect on her. Seeing her scribble onto her notepad one last time, Hoerk watched Beaker fold the map back up, stow her equipment, and climb back onto the bike. 'I still have a few blindspots from the map' Beaker started, 'One last ride should be adequate'
'As you wish' Hoerk replied, climbing back onto the skimmer himself.
the rest of the afternoon had been spent with Hoerk flying at a leisurely pace across the harder to traverse and otherwise strategically adventagious locations on Terra Bogaton. Beaker found herself getting more comfortable flying, as well. Hoerk found her squeaking less and less at the random jolts and rocking that the winds can cause.
Soon enough, afternoon faded to evening, and the pair found themselves well travelled across the Terra. The Terradon labs came back into view, and Hoerk slowly entered a dive. The dive became a swoop across the savannah floor, and Hoerk folded his wings in. Dropping the skimmer onto the floor in a surprisingly smooth motion. He pulled up alongside the base's drawbridge, and waited for Beaker to dismount. 'H-hey. uhh, thanks for the fix. I owe you one' Beaker looked back at him and smiled sincerely.
'It's no problem, really' Beaker responded. 'You've really helped me out, too. So, I guess this is it, then?'
'Umm, yeah. I guess it is' Hoerk awkwardly replied. The two stayed in place, both feeling uneasy at the lack of words, paired with an expectation to say something.
'Well, I'll see you around, Muscle' said Beaker, breaking the silence. Hoerk took a second to think about Beaker's little nickname for him. He smiled and revved the engine of the bike.
'Yeah' He replied, waiting until the bike's noise died down. 'I'll see you around, Squeaks' His last words were abruptly met by his bike revving once more. He spun his rear wheel, using the few scraps of grip to rotate about himself before speeding off into the distance.
Behind Beaker, the labs' gate opened, and Oppensaur walked out to meet her. She walk towards the labs and met him in the middle. 'Did you finish noting the best places for our defences?' He eagerly asked.
'Here's everything I've noted and found' Beaker replied, deadpan voice, but still with a smile. She handed Oppensaur her notepad and the map before walking around him and entering the labs on her own. Oppensaur opened the notepad and studied the notes up close. he mumbled to himself in revelation at the writing enclosed.