Legends of the Halcyon Era

Episode 33 - Genie in a Ruin

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Author Notes: I had a lot of fun with the ruin in this one.

Some time passed. Refractors were cashed in, repairs and preparations were made, and food was eaten. Soon, it was time to head off to the ruin Nyte had found.

Decked out in their armor, save for Janine, the group set out to meet up with Adam and Alpha-Red at the Sky Shark, which had now been fully repaired. Alpha scuttled around the ship, performing various tasks, while Adam handled flying the ship manually, as Janine lightly took a seat upon his shoulder.

"Hello, Pollywog!" he said. Janine waved back.

Elsewhere on the ship, Fenix sat apart from the others, and looked out the window as they traveled over the open ocean. Meanwhile, Nytetrayn sang, "Sail-ing, sail-ing, over the bounding main..."

About an hour later, the ship landed on a small speck of land not far from Monroe Island, and the group disembarked. As they approached the ruin's gate, Nytetrayn said, "And here we are!"

Fenix stood atop the ruin's dome, and stared up at the sky as his cloak whipped about him in a dramatic manner.

Nyte asked Celeste, "Will you be alright out here?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay," she said, gripping the straps of her backpack.

"Alright. Keep in contact with Alfred, in case anything comes up. He'll let us know if we need to come back up." Nyte turned his attention to his masked colleague atop the gate. "Hey, Fenix! Coming?"

Fenix leaped down, and nodded to his Digging partner.

Nytetrayn turned to Janine. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Sure thing!" she said, then goosed Nyte. Seeing his perplexed expression, she realized, "wait, that's not what you were talking about, was it?"

"No, it wasn't," Nyte said, as Janine opened the door and he waited for her to enter first. "Note to self: Never do that again..."

The rest followed Janine and Nyte in, and Celeste waved to the group as the last one entered. Then she went on about her refractor hunting.

Down beneath the surface, the descending elevator eventually reached its destination.

"Janine," said Nyte, "why don't you take point?"

"Sure," said Janine, as she did so.

The others followed, until they reached a fork in the road. Three paths stood before them: a left hallway, a right hallway, and a center hallway that continued along the way they'd been going.

"I say we go right down the middle," said Janine.

"I feel like there's something wrong with that, but I don't know what," said Nytetrayn.

Janine giggled.

"Okay, let's go, then."

As they continued along the corridor, they reached a corner, but Nytetrayn spotted a hole in the wall. He rustled around inside, and pulled out some old papers.

"What are those?" asked Adam.

"They look like some sort of blueprints," Nyte replied. "I'll look them over later."

No sooner than Nytetrayn had stowed the documents away than a terrible scream echoed throughout the hall of the ruin. Janine squeaked, and leaped into Nyte's arms, just before something dropped from the ceiling in front of them, splatting against the cold, hard ground in an unspectacular and painful-looking fashion.

Rolling over onto his back, Tom Morrow warbled, "I'm okay..."

"Damn," said Fenix. "He's okay."

"He's ba~ack," said Nytetrayn.

"HEY!" Tom shouted, as he leaped up to his feet. "You just... ditched me in that dungeon!"

"No we didn't," Nyte said. "You were carried away."

"I submit that you ditched us," Fenix added.

"That hand carried me for twelve hours! I did EVERYTHING to get away. I even bit the damn thing. It didn't do jack!"

"There can be no disobeying the will of the hand," Janine said, sagely, as Nytetrayn put her down.

Tom sputtered. "I had to threaten it with a mousetrap before it dropped me!"

"It happens," Nytetrayn said with a shrug. "So far, everyone we've ever seen carried off by a hand has ended up being okay."

"DON'T 'IT HAPPENS' ME!" Tom continued to scream like this for several moments, until he noticed Janine. Janine waved, and in the next second, found Tom right next to her. "...hi!" he said, cheerfully. Janine's right eye widened just slightly. Suddenly, Tom grabbed Janine and Frenched her, then calmly turned back to Nyte. "Now, where was I?"

Janine stood there, eyes wide, as the rest looked on in shock and surprise. "Fenix, the scary man molested me," she said with a puppy-dog look in her eyes. "...without asking. Please kill him."

Nyte took a long sidestep away from Tom.

"Aha! I was right!" Tom exclaimed. "You can dish it out, but you can't take it!"

Fenix leveled his plasma caster at Tom's head. "I hope you can take it..."

"Meep. Gee, how 'bout you?"

"Now, apologize to the lady and kiss her feet," Fenix said as he cocked the pistol.

"GLADLY! I mean...okay," Tom said. "Sorry. And I was kidding."

Fenix glanced at Janine, who shrugged. "We don't want to have to clean him off the walls," she said. Fenix holstered his gun, but continued to glare at Tom.

"But seriously," Tom said. "Digging?"

"What else?" Nyte replied. "Reaverbots' free home inspection?"

"Meh," Tom said. "Mind a tagalong?"

"Yes," said Fenix.

"...Janine, mind a tagalong? It's your rights."

Suddenly, another hand – or perhaps even the same hand – reached out of the wall, and grabbed Adam, dragging him in. Screams of "Not the face! Not the face!" could be heard, followed by "AAH! NOT THE CROTCH! NOT THE CROTCH! ... ah, the face... that's more like it..."

As Tom stared at the now-vacant spot in disbelief, Nyte said, "I think we just got a vacancy."

"Threaten it with a mousetrap!" Tom shouted.

"I don't mind," Janine said, unphased by the event, "but next time ask before you stick your tongue down my throat, or you'll lose it, 'kay?"

"...kay!" Tom happily agreed. "Anyway, money time."

"Bite it off," Nyte said.

"That's what I meant," said Janine.

"Kay. Should be an interesting sight."

"A disembodied tongue?"

"No, a Tomorrow who can't speak."

Tom shrugged, and held out his twin-barreled Buster through his cloak, and marched merrily down the hall.

"Well, hey ho, let's go," Fenix said as he followed, with Jan floating along, attached to his shoulder.

"So! What's new?" Tom asked.

Nyte shrugged.

"Nyte is questioning his sexuality," Janine said. Nyte just gave her an unpleasant look in response, as Tom snrk'd.

"Jan's is in question as well," Fenix said. "She's taken to assaulting young girls in the middle of the night."

"I am NOT!" she protested.

"Wha..." Tom said, eyes bulging. "I have an urge to die...t...diet. Yeah, I gained weight."

"It was a joke," Janine said tearfully.

"Okay! So, what about Sir Chromedome here?"

"I'm still straight, though I enjoy shoving the barrels of guns up the anuses of people I don't like."

Nyte let out a small chuckle at that.

"Really? And how does Nyte feel about it?"

"He likes to watch."

"...damn."

"I'd just prefer if they kept it to their room..." Nyte said quietly, exasperated. Fenix chuckled darkly, and Tom let out a small laugh of his own.

At that moment, a spider-like Reaverbot, smaller than one's hand, dropped onto Tom's head, and crawled down his face. After a moment's pause, he bit one of its legs off, to the shock and surprise of the others.

"Timmy!" Janine shouted, as she grabbed the spider-bot and stroked it with her fingers, soothing it.

Tom calmly spit the legs out. "Okay, she scares me more than helmet boy."

Janine looked smug, while Fenix cracked his knuckles. "We can work on that."

"You... know that one? Of the thousands made?"

"No, not really," Janine said, as she set it aside and sent it on its way. "I just made up the name on the spot, it seemed to suit him."

"Ah, well then," Tom said. "Now all we need is for riches to rain down!"

"Right on your head," Fenix said.

"Sure. More for me."

At that moment, a tiny refractor dropped from the ceiling, plunking Tom on the head.

"Ow... yay!" he said, as he pocketed his riches. "Gonna throw it at things! Now, all we need is a thousand!"

Then Tom heard the sound of something crumbling, right before the ceiling above collapsed onto him, and he was soon covered in thousands of tiny refractors. The others couldn't see him shortly thereafter.

"Banzai!" said Fenix, as he started collecting the tiny refractors.

"And to think," Nyte said, as he began pocketing some. "All this time, all we had to do was ask."

Tom soon emerged from the pile, and shouted, "No fair!"

Janine chuckled and grabbed a few, only able to fit so many on her.

As Tom collected as many as he could, he said, "Now all we need is pure bliss!"

"Be careful what you wish for," said Fenix.

Tom looked up into the hole, and a white piece of cheese with holes in it fell through, and landed on his face. "Cheese!" he exclaimed. "IT IS THE ANSWER! Now, any good places to rent a house? Or good lotto tickets?"

Nytetrayn pulled a small bit off, and took a bite. "Swiss. Apparently, our 'genie in a ruin' has a hearing problem."

"Wait, stop complaining..."

"I'm not complaining, I'm observing."

"I wish I knew the meaning of life!"

At that, a dictionary fell on Tom's head. "Ow. Okay... I wish Janine would dance for us," Tom said, before breaking into a run.

Janine's eyes started to glow, but Fenix grabbed her shoulder. "Now, now, hun. He's not worth it... yet."

"Give him time. His value as such will only continue to grow, I'm sure..." Nyte said.

"Hell, I can make piles of Zenny appear. That's worthwhile." Tom thought for a moment. "I wish that we had Mother Lode!" Then realization struck. "OH CRAP, NOT ON MY HEAD!"

Fenix sighed, as he and the others started to move on. But before Tom could follow, a rather large woman fell on him, face planting him into the floor. "Ow..." he said. "She broke... my armor."

"Dag-nabbit," the woman said in a rough voice, as she got up and dusted herself off. "I've had enough of these cockamamie ruins, I'm outta here..."

"Losing... consciousness..." Tom said, his face still in the floor.

"Who are you?" Nyte asked.

"Name's Ma Lode. I'm a Digger. 'S good meetin' ya', but I'm gettin' outta here now..." With that, she started towards the exit.

After a stunned pause, Fenix looked at his friend. "Nyte, this ruin is a place of madness."

"Still not as bad as The Devil's Yard."

"I wish... I had some aspirin. My back HURTS."

"Tomorrow should probably just stop talking," Nyte said.

Tom held his hands over his head, but nothing came. "No aspirin?" he said, tearfully. Then, a package of cough drops finally fell, landing by his feet. "Close. I'll take it," he said. As he bent over to pick the package up, he felt a tremendous pain in his back. "OW..."

"Okay, so do we continue on, or do we leave now?" Nyte asked. "With all these refractors, there's not much more we can carry."

"Aspirin," Tom continued. "Please... one last request."

A moment later, a donkey-like Reaverbot came by, hind-kicked the bent-over Tom in the butt with a loud cracking sound, and trotted off.

"Although, this place does have its perks..." Fenix said.

"OW!" Tom said. "Hey... it fixed my back!" He did a little dance, unaware of the hoof-shaped dents in the seat of his armor.

"Let's make a note of it," Nyte said. "We can come back, it's not far."

"Sure," Fenix agreed.

"I got a good haul... wait, are we going?" asked Tom.

"Why not?" said Nyte. "I think our encumbrance levels are maxed out, if you will."

"Ah, all right," Tom said with a sigh.

"Why? Want to keep pressing your luck?"

"I got a thousand refractors. But, okay," Tom said, as he trudged along ahead.

***

Back up on the surface, Tom walked out into the light with a heavy sigh. "I hate leaving ruins, it's so... so..."

"...so good to not worry about being killed?" Fenix suggested.

"That was a nice, relaxing dig," Nyte said.

"Hi, guys," said Celeste, as she walked up to the others as they exited the gate.

"Heya, Cel," said Nyte.

"Hey, kiddo," said Fenix.

"Hi, honey!" Janine waved. "Get a good haul?"

Celeste nodded.

"Hello," said a noticeably quieter Tom.

"Hi," said Celeste. "Who's this?"

"Tom Morrow," Tom said.

"Tomorrow, this is Celeste," said Nyte.

Before anything else could be said, it suddenly grew very, very dark.

"Nice t'meet you... what the?"

"What the monkey?!" said Nyte.

"DAMN THAT MONKEY!" added Fenix.

Nyte gave Fenix a glance for a second, before looking up with the others to see what was blocking out the sun.

Tom asked, "Is that a... ship?"

Indeed, a large – and to some present, familiar – airship was hovering overhead. It began to slowly descend upon the group.

"Nuts," said Fenix.

"Isn't that...?" Celeste began to ask.

"It looks like..." Janine added.

"You know who that is?" Tom asked.

"Looks like you get to meet Xenos, too," Nyte said.

"Pirates," Tom said, his expression hardening.

"Sorta," Nyte said. "He's a friend of ours, actually."

"I LOATHE pirates... almost as much as that strangler guy I read about. Can I shoot him off deck?"

"Probably best if you don't."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Fenix said.

Standing tall atop the ship's deck was indeed Xenos Geist, in all his purple and green pirate glory. "Alright, hand over the refractors and nobody –"

"Hey!" said Janine. "It's Xenos! Cool!"

"...what the?"

"Hi, Pookie!" Janine shouted as she floated up, and landed on the deck next to him. "Hey, wait – hand over our what now?"

"H-h-hi, Janine!" Xenos said, as he backed about ten yards away from her. Fenix let his head sink into his hands, and sighed.

Janine tilted her head. "Xenos? What's going on?"

"Sorry, Xenos!" Nyte shouted up from the ground. "Wrong ruin! It's just us!"

"Oh, I get it!" Janine said, cheerfully. "You just mistook us for someone else! No biggie, then."

"Err, uhh..." Xenos stammered, as he sweated bullets.

Nyte looked over at Fenix, who was loading up his plasma caster. "What's up?"

"I. Don't. Like. Pirates."

"Me. Freaking. Either." added Tom.

"You never had this big a problem with him before."

"He never tried to rob us before."

"Well, he probably didn't know it was us."

Celeste looked on at the proceedings with uncertainty.

Janine sighed. "S'okay, Xenos, he'll calm down. It was just a nasty shock, is all."

"Judging by his nervousness," Tom said, "he's still gonna pull something."

"Why would he do that?" Nyte asked. "After all we've been through?"

"Nah," added Fenix. "He's a thief, but he's not stupid."

"We took down the Reanimator in The Devil's Yard together. That's just the sort of thing that kinda binds people, y'know?"

Tom's Buster makes a clicking sound. "Let's find out."

"Xenos?" said Janine, "Tom's just being a jerk, right? You just didn't know it was us, right?" Janine didn't look very intimidating at the moment, but rather had her puppy dog eyes on at full blast.

"I really didn't," Xenos said.

"There, see?"

Celeste looked a little uneasy.

"Didn't know, maybe," said Tom. "But are you still gonna pull something, pirate?"

Janine floated down to Tom. "Stop it, you're just being silly."

"Yeah," said Nyte. "I mean, we even had Christmas together!"

"I don't think he knew it was us," Tom said, "but look at his nervousness. I've seen it before."

Janine's demeanor changed. "Don't piss me off. I'm not in the mood, dammit."

"You think I care?!" Tom snarled back.

Fenix winced. "Relax, she can cut you in half..."

"I've seen crap from pirates that really makes me sick," Tom said, as he narrowed his eyes.

"And in all fairness, Xenos is a relatively genteel pirate... so far as we know."

"Yeah," said Nyte, "he's not like the run-of-the-mill pirate."

"Pirates is pirates," said Tom. "But fine. I'll think about it..."

Xenos sighed, and shook his head. "Regardless, I don't think I can stand to be anywhere near that guy for another minute." He turned to the bridge, and shouted, "We're pulling out!"

As the ship lifted off again, Tom smiled darkly, and Nyte raised an eyebrow at him. "I've had some times with pirates," Tom told him.

"That was strange," Nyte said, as he watched the ship lift off.

"Hrm," was all Fenix would say on the matter.

Tom gradually became quiet again, and stopped wearing an angry expression across his face. At least, until he looked down, and noticed something hissing by his feet: a bomb. After getting blasted back, he pointed a hand up from where he landed, and shouted "SEE?! I owe that ass..."

"Hmm," said Nyte. "Guess we should've seen something like that coming."

"Yeah," Fenix agreed.

"So, what do we do now?" Nyte asked.

"Hunt him down?" suggested Tom.

"We go home?" offered Fenix.

"We should probably tell Alfred about Adam," Nyte said.

"Go find your friend," said Tom. "I'll stick up here."

"If the hand got 'im, looking won't do any good," Fenix said.

Just then, a sound like a cannon firing off could be heard, and Adam came flying out of the ruin's gate, yelling the entire time, or at least until he landed face down in front of the group.

Nyte paused, then poked at Adam's unmoving body.

"Well," said Tom. "Can I follow you guys? I have no ride. I had a guy ferrying me, but I'm late."

Nyte shrugged. "Why not?"

"Why, thank you."

"I guess we should get Adam onto the ship," Nyte said, as he picked up Adam and handed him off to Tom. "Here, you carry this."

Tom raised an eyebrow, but accepted the load. He stopped short as he walked into the Sky Shark and saw Alfred. "WHOA! A Reaverbot?!"

"Easy," said Nyte, as he and Celeste boarded the ship, with Fenix and Janine right behind them. "It's Alfred. He's a good-guy assistant of Adam's."

Tom shrugged, hobbled over to a soft-ish looking bit of floor, and collapsed with Adam on top of him. "And this is why I hate the outdoors. Stupid bomb, stupid lady crunching me, stupid refractors..."

The rest of the group took care of Adam, who just seemed to be knocked out, and Alpha-Red took the ship back to Monroe Island. There, they departed, and told Alpha to let them know if he needed any help.

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