A Different Place

Chapter 40 - A Big Refractor

"All right, men," Glyde said to his Glyde Gang as they retrieved the third starter key for the forcefield above. "Now that we've received this key, that big refractor is ours!" Glyde and the Birdbots began making their way back upstairs.

Only two more refractors until the Garoona Klang was complete! And the first one of those was already within Glyde's grasp. It was a pity the Enarban Fell was too large to fit in the Ruins. Of course, it was still broken, after all. That was the reason Glyde was even on this perilous Dig instead of threatening to blow up the city's populace if he didn't receive all of their refractors.

And, assuming everything worked out according to plan, Glyde would be finally pulling one over on Barrel. Glyde owed that old Digger back for the many, many times Barrel had foiled the pirate's evil schemes, most prominently the Beef Jerky Jewel Heist, a caper which Loath and Glyde had cooked up to rob the citizens of Beouf Island and was too complicated to really analyze too deeply at the moment.

Glyde raised his beam rifle and obliterated a meandering Reaverbot as he made his way upward, ordering the Birdbots to remove its refractors. At times like this, he often reflected on what the greatest benefit of being a pirate was. After his look at the way the Kattleox Island government was run, he decided that it was the freedom from taxation. Of course, the flashy wardrobe and tons of money weren't bad, either.

"Errrrerrhhh!" squawked a Birdbot. "Sir, it looks like this door appears to be shut!"

Glyde groaned. "Well, then, open it, you moron! Do I have to think of everything myself?!"

"Errerrr, we can't, sir!"

Sighing, Glyde put a hand to his forehead. "All right, then. Let's all lift together, ready?" Glyde and the Birdbots slipped their fingers underneath the lip of the door. "One....two...three!" Despite the best efforts of the Glyde Gang, the door barely budged. Evidently, it was very, very heavy.

"Okay, everyone," said Glyde, stepping back from the closed door, "I'm going to ram it." Glyde steeled himself for the burdensome physical task ahead. Here he went...no, not yet. Glyde took a deep breath, and rushed forward---okay, for real, this time. Glyde flexed his leg muscles, then his arm muscles, and then charged the heavy steel door.

Unbeknownst to Glyde, however, the Birdbots had taken another shot at lifting the door, and a successful one. The short, irritable Birdbots had managed to heft the door upwards in spite of the absence of their master's human strength, and it was as they honked at each other in congratulations that Glyde took his run at the door.

Glyde roared as he tried to ram the solid door, then, as his momentum kept him going through the space where the door had just been, his roar changed to an exclamation of confusion, then apprehension. "Aaaaahhh!" Glyde yelled as he kept running, then fell off a raised platform. A Reaverbot clanked its way over to the svelte pirate. "Yahhhh!" Glyde yelled as he nearly came literally face-to-face with the large robotic guardian.

The Reaverbot raised its clawed fist and knocked Glyde backward. He felt a seriously painful twinge in his left cheek, which had better not have been a bruise! Glyde howled as he thought of this lifeless thing damaging his cosmetic purity. He grabbed his beam rifle off the floor of the Ruins, aimed, and fired, slicing off the Reaverbot's pointy head. "Heh," said Glyde, throwing back his head in a gesture of triumph, "you should have known better than to try to mar my magnificence."

"Sir," called a Birdbot as the others caught up with him, "are you okay, errrhhg?"

"Yes, no thanks to you all!"

The Birdbots cackled and flocked down to where Glyde was currently standing. Then, the well-dressed pirate led the avian robots back up to the highest level of the Ruins, where they continued back to the first chamber. Glyde took the Birdbots back to the power core. "You," Glyde said, pointing to one of the Birdbots. "Lower the force field while I procure the large refractor."

The Birdbot complied, and Glyde caught the yellow refractor just as the force field lowered. "Excellent!" the pirate remarked with pleasure. "Now, we need only one more refractor and we can complete the Garoona Klang!" He reared back his head and let out a huge, satisfied belly laugh.

"Um, keh!" one of the Birdbots pointed out. "Where are we going to get that, sir?"

Glyde thought about that for a unspecified period of time. "Uhhhh..."

Tron's armor actually DID look pretty good, MegaMan decided as the two continued through the Lake Jyun Ruins. That being said, the shark-like Reaverbots who were popping out of the water and attacking the three Diggers were taking the boy's mind off of Tron's new outfit, no matter how flattering it was.

"Ba---buu!" Bon said, smashing one of the aquatic Reaverbots with his fist.

MegaMan was firing a constant stream of Arm Cannon shots at a nearby shark. "Gaaaaahh!" he yelled. This thing's armor seemed to be impenetrable!

"Watch it!" Tron said, using her hydraulic boots to soar over him. She landed on the other side of the shark-bot, using her own weapon to help destroy it. She bent down to disassemble the Reaverbot and pocket its refractors.

"Let's keep moving!" MegaMan shouted. "There's too many of these things!" Indeed, several more of the Reaverbots were swimming towards the small air pocket within the chamber. MegaMan led the other two further forward, towards the faintly=visible door at the end of the watery corridor.

The three passed through the door to enter a large, empty room with an odd-looking orange-and-green tower standing in the center. "What is that?" asked Tron.

"I don't see anything unusual there," Teisel said through the voicelink. "If that's a Reaverbot, it may be inactive. Be careful what you do when you're around it."

"Let's just go around," said Tron, waving for Bon and MegaMan to follow her. The Diggers avoided the strange pillar and entered the power core of the Sub-Gate. A large red refractor was waiting for them.

"All right!" said Tron, lowering the force field with a nearby control panel. "Grab that thing, and let's split!"

Bon pocketed the large crimson quantum refractor, and the three dashed back out into the open room. "Uh-oh..." said MegaMan, looking at the now-mobile orange-and-green pillar.

Teisel explained. "I think you've all already guessed, but that Reaverbot is now active and giving off some really impressive power readings."

"Yeah, I kind of thought so," said Tron, firing at the huge beast without effect.

MegaMan also took his shot at the giant guardian, and the blasts bounced off the Reaverbot's body ineffectively.

"This thing must have a weak spot!" Tron shouted. "Find out what it is!"

MegaMan, Bon, and Tron began aiming their attacks at different areas of the robot. Finally, one of Tron's shots hit home, on the Reaverbot's tiny head, which was protected on three sides by armor. "Aim for the head!" she cried. "That's the spot!" She and MegaMan tried to focus their shots on the head, while Bon bounded up and off the wall, finally latching himself to the beast's back.

"Bon, get him!" Tron ordered.

"Baaaaaa-bu!" Bon called affirmatively, raining powerful blows down on the Reaverbot's head. The two other Diggers tried to land a few hits on it as well, but Bon was by far doing the most damage. Bon landed one final, major blow, and dismounted. The Reaverbot looked stunned for a moment, then exploded.

"Great!" Tron said encouragingly. "Let's head back up to the Gesellschaft!"

"Okay," MegaMan said as he collected some of the giant Reaverbot's refractors.

"Babu!" Bon added.

MegaMan grinned, despite the possible dangers still facing them on the way out. The Bonnes' part of this Digging contest was finished, and with success!