Things weren't exactly going well with this arrangement. Seems that after Darius made up an excuse about how he got past the old BRAD robots, Kash went and made a much scarier version. It looked much more like a robotic spider rather than a robot dog. Jeff was resting in Carla's lap while the woman was yet to wake up. Ever since she was injected by the SM-6, she hasn't really woken up. She has been resting from the injuries. Luckily, whatever it was in that serum, it indeed healed her injuries, and she was alive.
"Kash went to town on it, and it didn't even get a scratch," Kenji said.
"Not surprisingly, considering he likely enhanced the Vibranium dosage to make it stronger." Peter shrugged. "Might make it harder for Laura to pierce through it."
"Just because it's tough on the outside, doesn't mean it's tough on the inside too," Sammy said.
"What do you mean?" Laura wonders.
"It's just a robot, right?" Sammy asks. "Maybe we can shut it down or reprogram it to be good instead of evil."
"So if we can find one, we can hack it, and we can swap it out with Darius's." Yaz was following her plan.
"Who here can do that?" Mae wonders.
Peter cleared his throat, getting their attention as they looked over at him. "Head of the robotics club?"
"You were?" Sammy was surprised to hear.
"Not surprising," Brooklynn chuckled. "Let me guess, made yourself a little friend?"
"No!" Peter scoffed as he crossed his arms. He then turned and mumbled to himself. "I made that small BD robot from Star Wars."
Brooklynn snickered to hear that one. "Of course."
"We'd finally have a way to communicate with Darius!" Ben cheered.
"You can really do all of that?" Mae questioned in surprise.
"I can try," Peter shrugged.
"And Brooklynn did a few," Sammy stated. "NBD."
"No big deal." Ben translated for Mae.
"Well, it's kind of a BD…" Brooklynn admitted.
"Big deal," Ben said.
"Pssh! We've seen your videos." Sammy said. "You've got skills! Like that time you unboxed Silicon Valley, "AI, is it our future or our destruction?" Oh!"
"Or when you unboxed Cape Canaveral and built and coded your own rocket," Kenji said.
"It eventually came down…" Brooklynn muttered.
"Or when you unboxed Detroit and designed your own model electric car!" Yaz said.
"Personally, I'm a little surprised," Ben commented. "Not that you built an electric car, but that Yaz knew about it."
Yaz blushed a little, scratching behind her ear. "Okay, I may have seen one or two of your videos. The point is, you did all that cool stuff, you could totally crush this robot thing too!"
"Let's go hack a BRAD!" Sammy cheered.
Brooklynn still seemed hesitant on the idea. Peter walked over and brushed some hair out of her face. "Hey, we've got this."
"You sure?" Brooklynn asks.
"Between the two of us? What can go wrong?" Peter asks as they walk off. "Jeff, watch over them."
Jeff jumped up and gargled, complying with his orders.
They set up a trap for one of the BRADs, trying to take it down. But it was a lot bigger than they figured. When they tried to crush it, they saw the Vibranium that they enhanced actually improved it, allowing the BRAD to absorb the damage and walk it off.
Peter knew going in with the V252 wouldn't do any good, and it had too many vantage points for Laura to try and take it down herself.
"Okay, minor setback," Brooklynn said as they watched the new robot pick up the old BRAD robots. "Let's see where it's going."
They followed the bigger BRAD and made their way to this odd warehouse that was in the middle of the jungle.
"Something tells me we shouldn't go in there," Kenji said.
"Which means we're obviously going in there," Peter stated as he marched ahead. "Come on."
"Right behind you," Brooklynn said as they made their way inside.
Heading in, they saw dozens of boxes filled to the brim with old BRAD robots that they had crushed and smashed or were destroyed by the dinos themselves. Sneahing around the boxes, they looked and saw that there was a normal BRAD working on the newer BRADs.
"It's a BRAD-making workshop," Laura put together.
"Surprised you saw that," Peter admitted.
"Great. A robot that builds other robots." Ben sighed.
They watched the newer BRAD march its way outside to continue collecting other BRAD models from the field.
"Laura and I will keep watch outside." Sammy offered. "Come on, Kenji."
"I'll go check on Darius." Ben offered.
They then scattered, leaving Brooklynn, Yaz, and Peter alone to do their thing. Making their way over to one of the offline BRADs, they grabbed a toolbox and began to try and get into it.
"I wouldn't even know where to begin," Yaz commented, keeping an eye out for them. "Good thing you do."
"TBH, I've actually never done anything like this before," Brooklynn admitted.
"You've never hacked a robot to save a friend from a killer robot?" Peter asked sarcastically, trying to figure it out, and even playfully scoffed. "What have you been doing with your life?"
"You'll figure it out," Yaz said, her voice steady as she offered an encouraging smile. "You always seem to find a way."
Peter paused his work, glancing up from the mechanical chaos of gears and wires to observe Yaz and Brooklynn. A playful smirk began to form on his lips as he noticed the rosy blush creeping across Brooklynn's cheeks. Yaz, too, bore a faint flush of color that she seemed oblivious to, lost in her own thoughts. It sparked a flicker of curiosity in Peter's mind; perhaps the bond forming between them was more than just friendship, much like the connection he shared with Brooklynn. He couldn't help but wonder what that might signify.
"You know, I've been meaning to have a chat with you both," Peter said, drawing Brooklynn and Yaz's attention away from their shared moment.
Brooklynn narrowed her eyes in mock concern. "Uh, shouldn't we be focused on the BRAD right now?"
With a playful shrug, Peter yanked a sizeable chunk from the robot's torso and held it up dramatically. "I hope that wasn't crucial," he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, tossing the piece over his shoulder, where it clattered against the floor and rolled away. "But seriously, we've been through a lot—running for our lives and everything. It's high time we laid it all out in the open."
"Are you sure this is the right moment?" Brooklynn asked, a hint of hesitation in her voice.
"What, you got something better to do?" Peter shot back, determination etched in his features. "This is important."
Yaz's brow furrowed in confusion. "Someone wanna fill me in?"
Peter's gaze softened, his tone becoming more earnest. "I heard everything you both said during the Scorpios Rex incident, Yaz," he admitted, his cheeks tinting slightly. "What you said… and what you almost said."
Yaz's face flushed even deeper, a rush of warmth flooding her cheeks as she instinctively tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, as if hoping to shield herself from the sudden spotlight. "Oh. Uh... you heard all of that?"
"Yeah," Peter replied, a knowing smile creeping across his lips. "And I think it's about time we talked about it. I spoke with Brooklynn about what she shared with me, and... it turns out it has a lot to do with you."
"Me?" Yaz echoed, her voice barely above a whisper, confusion dancing in her wide eyes.
Brooklynn leaned closer, a playful grin lighting up her face. "Turns out, neither of us was the only one smitten by the Spectacular Spider-Man," she revealed. "And I suggested something."
Peter, unable to contain his excitement, added, "A bit of a double-date scenario," before hastily dismantling another component of the BRAD. "Okay, that one might have been important."
"Double date?" Yaz asks.
"Brooklynn offered a solution, but I started to notice the looks the two of you have been sharing." Peter explained. "Brooklynn and you seemed interesting in going out with me. Which my itself surprised me." He then got zapped by the BRAD. "Ow!" He waved his hand, getting over the shock. "That hurt." He then got back to work, and focused on the girls. "But I was thinking... Yaz, are you perhaps..."
"Perhaps what?" Yaz asks.
"Playing for both teams, as it were?" Peter tried to be a bit nice with what he was asking.
"Wait, what?" Yaz was shocked by the question. "I mean, I know how I felt when I had crushes on boys before, but..." She kept playing with her hair. "But I don't know if I feel that way about Brooklynn. I mean... maybe?" She then started to blush and walked off. "I'm gonna go check on Laura and Sammy."
Peter and Brooklynn watched Yaz leave, and Brooklynn gave Peter a bit of a stare. "What?" He asked.
"Pushing a little fast, aren't you?" Brooklynn asks.
"In my defense, we are trying to get the heck out of here, right?" Peter reminded her. "Feel like we should try and get everything out in the open so that we can have an easy way of discussing how this is going to work once we get out of here. Or did you think it would be better if I waited until the last second to spring all of this on her when we finally get to go home and see our loved ones?"
Brooklynn had to admit she was starting to understand his point. "Okay, but you did spring a lot on her pretty fast."
Peter thought about it and sighed. "Sorry, I've just got a lot going on. I'm worried about Darius. I might just be trying to fill that void with other drama."
"Calling us drama now?" Brooklynn asked with a smirk, understanding what he meant and messing with him.
"Seriously?" Peter asked with a chuckle. "Of course not. I just... don't want things to go unsaid when we finally get off of this island."
Brooklynn was starting to understand what he was saying. "I guess that makes sense."
That was when the BRAD robot finally fell apart on them, causing them to moan. "Yep, I knew that looked like a leg joint," Peter said, holding up the part that he ripped out. "Yeah, I think there are too many safeguards in these guys to hack."
That was when they looked over to the older BRAD and they both seemed to have the same idea as they grew a grin. The BRAD was working on creating the newer models when suddenly Peter used the V252 to slam it into the ground. Keeping its mouth shut as to not make any loud noises that would annoy the V252 like last time.
"Hurry!" Peter told Brooklynn.
Brooklynn rushed over and began to try and hack the robot. "Hypothetically, the older model should be easier to hack, and we know it can send commands, so…"
"We can get this BRAD to command Darius's BRAD-X to listen to him!" Peter was happy to see how well they thought alike. "Knew we were thinking the same thing!"
"I just hope Darius can hang in there a little bit longer," Brooklynn said, working on hacking it.
When they started to hack it, they managed to get into it, and Peter was able to get off. He looked, and Brooklynn got a visual on Darius with a chip about to put it in the Spinosorus.
"Stop," Brooklynn called. "You don't have to do this."
"Uh… I don't?" Darius asks.
Brooklynn rolled her eyes. "It's Brooklynn. Long story short, I hacked a BRAD. We hacked a BRAD."
"Destroy the chip, and I'll have this guy tell Kash you injected the Spino with it." Peter called in. "He'll never know the truth."
Darius grunts as he did just that. "Brooklynn, I… Thank you. You too, Pete."
"I can't control its weapons or anything yet, but you are so not alone, dude," Brooklynn promised.
"Thanks, guys." Darius smiled. "Hey! I know what Kash is up to. He's working on a big demonstration for Mantah Corp investors. It's going down in six days. Now, if we can figure out a way to mess it up…"
"We could put an end to Kash's dino-fights and take Mantah Corp down for good." Peter smiled.
Yaz stepped outside, the crisp air wrapping around her like a cool embrace, but the chill in her heart was far more consuming. She hugged herself tightly, unease swirling within her as she replayed the conversation in her mind. She had finally admitted to herself that she harbored deep feelings for Peter—there was no denying that. But Brooklynn? The thought left her in a fog of uncertainty. How could she navigate this intricate web of emotions? Since that cozy, late-night talk before they embarked on their yacht adventure, something had shifted between them, a crackle of electricity that she could no longer ignore. The notion of having feelings for two people at once felt alien and bewildering; it was a conundrum she had never faced.
"Yaz?" The soft, curious voice of Sammy cut through her turbulent thoughts. She turned to find her friends, Laura and Sammy, watching her with concerned expressions from a distance. "Are you alright?"
Taking a deep breath, Yaz decided to seek their perspective. "Uh, I need an opinion on something," she said, her tone uncertain as she tried to keep things vague. "Say you like someone…"
Sammy's eyes widened, her interest piqued in an instant. "You like someone!?"
"Not me!" Yaz hurriedly lied, anxiety creeping into her voice. "Just… someone. If they like someone else, how do you… know?"
Sammy pondered for a moment, her brow furrowing as she considered her answer. "Well, I think it's a feeling," she began, her voice thoughtful. "It's like being friends, but there's this deeper connection that pulls you closer."
As Laura listened intently, her heart drummed in her chest. While she wasn't exactly a maestro of human emotions, having been raised in a sterile lab environment, something stirred within her. She glanced at Sammy, who had been a beacon of kindness throughout their harrowing journey. Unlike anyone else, Sammy sees her as a person, not merely a product of science. Every moment they spent together had been illuminating, making Laura question her own feelings. Did she truly cherish Sammy as just a friend? The warmth that enveloped her when Sammy smiled suggested something more—a gentle tug at her heart that rivaled her ties to the others in the group.
Meanwhile, Yaz was ensnared in her own emotional tempest, grappling with the tender yet confusing feelings she had for both Peter and Brooklynn. With Peter, love felt like a vibrant, swirling tapestry woven with threads of warmth and familiarity, yet she hesitated to label it outright. And with Brooklynn, a fierce friendship thrummed at the core of her heart, complicating her perception. Could it be that the blushes, the butterflies of nervousness she experienced around both of them indicated something deeper? With those thoughts swirling, Yaz found herself spiraling further into contemplation, exploring the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, she had fallen for both of them.
"Thanks, I guess," Yaz said, walking away, trying to clear her head now. "I'm going for a walk. I need to clear my head."
What was she going to do? Turn them down? Just explain that she wasn't interested in this kind of relationship. She wasn't sure if she could turn back on either decision. A walk might just help clear her mind so that she could decide whether or not she could be in some... throuple. A normal relationship wasn't even on her mind when she came to this camp, and now, she basically had to choose between two partners.
(A/N) Yeah, like I warned you guys. Expect the next few to be more focused on character interaction rather than the story. Likely gonna be like this up to the finale. The good news is that, FINALLY, they managed to have the talk with Yaz without interruption. Now, all that's left for her to get her head on straight after this bombshell.