Legends of the Halcyon Era

Episode 41 - Flashback: Travels & Tribulations, Part 2

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Eventually, the pair of Diggers arrived at the ruin. With their shiny new license, Fenix opened the gate, and they entered the dark, slightly damp cavern.

As they looked around, they ducked as a bat-like Reaverbot swooped over their heads. Nytetrayn fired back with his arm cannon, sending the Reaverbot crashing and burning to the ground. "Nyte-Buster, check," he said to himself.

"Ooh, nice shot," his partner noted.

"Thank you."

As Fenix began to check for holes in the walls that might contain something valuable, Nyte saw another Reaverbat coming at him from a distance. Two prong-like protrusions from opposite sides of the Buster extended outward, and a blade of energy extended from the barrel, allowing Nyte to slash the attacker in two before it could reach Fenix. "...Nyte-Saber, check."

Fenix chuckled, while Nyte held out his Buster and the two prongs retracted, and the blade disappeared with them.

The older Digger proceeded to the next door, and upon opening it, immediately opened fire inside before quickly shutting it.

"...the hell?" Nyte asked.

"We don't know anything about no little old lady. Run."

"Huh?" Nytetrayn asked, still confused. But as he saw Fenix hot-footing it out of there, he decided to follow.

"Run, damn you!" the masked Digger shouted back.

"I AM!" Nyte shouted back. "What are we running from?!"

"God, DUCK!"

And on that command, Nytetrayn ducked. He looked up, and saw Fenix shooing away a mechanical duck. "...we were running from a duck?" He felt disappointed, somehow.

"Those ducks are evil when they're properly agitated," Fenix said, before he continued on, shooting various cute Reaverbots along the way.

"I wonder what's with all of these Reaverbots," Nyte said, as he stopped to check a hole in the wall for refractors.

"Maybe it's Reaverbot mating season," Fenix suggested.

"No, I just mean in general. Where'd they come from? Why are they here?"

"The prevailing theory is that they were created by an extinct race with vastly superior technology."

"Interesting. I wonder how a race like that gets extinct."

"The other theory is that they're demons who've taken physical form, guarding the doorways of Hell."

"They don't do a very good job, do they?"

"That one's not quite as popular," Fenix said jovially.

Soon, the pair came across a large chest. "Hmmm... why don't you open it?" Fenix said.

Nyte nodded and stepped forward, examining the chest. He took a step around to its side, and raised the lid. A boxing glove whipped out of the opening and smacked Fenix right in the kisser.

As Nyte tried to restrain laughter, he asked, "Are you alright?"

After blowing up the chest, Fenix replied, "Dandy."

"Moving right along, then," Nyte said as they went down another corridor.

Fenix skulked along down the dark tunnel, looking about left and right for things he could potentially shoot. Nyte looked around as well, rather pleased with how the field-testing of his new weapon was going.

"So, I wonder what treasures await us down here."

Fenix slid around a corner, and took the head off a tall, skeletal Reaverbot.

Paying it no mind, Nytetrayn continued. "Maybe more of those magazines? Still not sure why those seem more valuable than refractors, though."

"God, I hope not."

Nyte shot a bat Reaverbot off the ceiling, which fell before Fenix and smashed to pieces on the hard flooring. Fenix let out an "eep!" and stomped on it repeatedly. "Sorry," Nyte said.

"'S okay," Fenix replied between panting.

Nytetrayn opened another door, and inside was a small troop of short, dwarvish-styled Reaverbots who were marching around, chucking metal spears at nothing in particular. That is, until they spotted the Diggers.

"This could be bad," Fenix said. Nyte nodded.

The whole troop turned towards the Diggers, and launched a volley of spears right at Fenix – right before Nytetrayn stepped in front with his Buster's shield-setting activated, which blocked the offensive.

"Got good news, and bad news," Nyte said. "The good news is, I think I can hold them off like this with the Nyte-Shield indefinitely. The bad news is, I can't attack while doing that, so it's up to you."

"Yippy skippy," Fenix said, as he hopped up onto Nyte's shoulders. Nyte winced at the awkward setup as Fenix started to mow down the Reaverbots. One by one, they fell to the Diggers.

"You okay down there, junior?"

"Yeah, no problem." Nyte paused, then added, "...senior." Fenix chuckled.

When the last Reaverbot fell, Nyte deactivated his shield, and Fenix flipped down from his shoulders to land in the middle of the room with a "woohoo!"

"Nice. Now, let's get those refractors," Nyte said. He started gathering the shards from the corpses of the fallen Reavers, and Fenix quickly joined in.

Nytetrayn spotted a chest in the corner, and told his partner, "You can have it."

Fenix took a look at the chest, and promptly blew it up, much to Nyte's surprise. "No, thank you."

Nyte looked at the shattered fragments of a Smith & Wesson scattered about the now-smoking rubble, and shrugged. "Eh, looks like it was just some old junk, anyway." Fenix's eye ticked, before he stomped on the rubble in a fit of vengeance. Nyte asked, "You really don't like chests much, do you?"

"No."

"I'll just take the next one," Nyte reassured him as they went back out into the hallway. "And any others you don't want."

As they walked, Fenix studied the walls, and noted the fractal curves carved into the mortar.

"I wonder what these places were once used for," Nyte said.

"Probably dungeons. That's what the Reaverbots are for. Torture devices."

"Really? I thought you said they were some sort of demons. Or something else."

"I also said there are numerous theories."

"True. So, that's one of them, then."

"It's the one I find most plausible. I mean, hell, what else could they be?"

"Who knows? Maybe they were meant to be some kind of robot exterminators."

"Exterminating what?"

"I dunno. Rats? Bugs? Door-to-door salesmen?"

Fenix paused at that, then died laughing, but stopped short and said, "Do you hear something?"

"No... do you?" A sound like a small freight train could be heard growing louder. "Wait, now that you mention it..."

The noise seemed to be coming from behind them. Nyte turned to look, and saw something just shy of a meter tall heading towards them at incredible speed along the ground. The Diggers leaped to the side of the corridor as a giant mechanical centipede rushed past.

"Good lord!" Fenix cried out.

"Oh-kay," Nytetrayn said, as he watched the really long insect-like machine pass by them. After a second, it reared into the air and doubled back on itself, its mandibles clicking as it headed for the Diggers.

"Uh-oh," said Nyte. "Aim for the head!"

"Aim for the legs!" Fenix shouted back.

"Do you have any idea how long that would take?!"

The pair opened fire on their respective marks, and the centipede-bot screamed as a blast smacked it right in the face. It took exception to this, and lunged right at Nyte, nicking his breastplate. "Ack!" Nyte shouted, before he grabbed it around what he thought might be its neck, and slammed it down into the ground, making a wave go down its long body from its head to its tail.

It screamed again, and doubled back for Fenix this time, increasingly crowding the tunnel with its body all the while. Fenix stabbed it through the head on approach, and it let out a long, drawn-out screech and whipped back from whence it came at breakneck speed, leaving behind a whole bunch of refractors.

"Thanks!" Fenix said.

"No problem," Nyte told him. "Stupid, ugly centipede..."

"Hey, now," Fenix protested. "Real centipedes are cute." Looking at the shards left behind, he added, "and it did leave us nice presents."

"Ah, jackpot. And whatever you say, Feeny."

As they gathered up the refractor shards, Fenix said, "Call me that again, and I'll rip your arm out of its socket and spank you with it." Nyte paused to look at him, but said nothing as he resumed his gathering.

Once they finished up, they headed for the next room. Fenix watched the shadows carefully, as Nyte entered the next chamber and looked around, finding nothing but emptiness. Nyte turned to his comrade. "Looks like nobody's home."

"Indeed," Fenix said, as he prodded at a hole in the wall, finding nothing of interest.

As they spoke, a mysterious form appeared from out of the darkest reaches of the room. A Reaverbot not unlike a knight on a horse approached them with a surprising degree of stealth, the horse seeming to hover quietly over the ground as the knight drove forward a long jousting lance towards Nytetrayn's back.

Fenix caught a glimpse of their assailant, and jumped to push Nytetrayn out of the way. He let out a loud shout as the lance ran through his cybernetic arm. "Sweet mother of God!"

"Oof!" Nyte grunted, as he hit the ground. "Ack, you bastard," Nyte said, before firing a few rounds at the horse and knight duo, before going to check on Fenix. "You alright?"

"Yeah... good thing the pain receptors in this thing are rudimentary, at best." Fenix let out a pained grunt as he ripped a shard of metal from the wound, and it released a spray of circulatory fluid.

The knight, unphased by Nyte's shots, turned around at the far side of the room to have another go. Nyte turned back towards the Reaverbot, and glared at it with harmful intent. "My turn. Fenix, get clear."

"Go for it," Fenix said, as he moved out of the way.

Nyte activated his Nyte-Saber as the Reaverbot knight readied itself, and headed for the young Digger once again. At the last minute, Nyte leaped away and brought his saber up behind him, knocking his opponent from his steed, which simply hover-trotted back into the shadows.

The knight got to its feet, and with a shield and shorter sword in hand, went after Nyte. Fenix pulled a handgun from the holster in his leg armor, just in case.

Nyte kicked the shield away, and the knight tried to swing its sword at its opponent, who sidestepped and batted it out of its hand. Stunned, the knight looked back at the Digger just in time to see a big, black gloved fist get driven right through its optic sensor. Fenix winced at the sight.

The Digger called out to his partner. "Hey, Fenix, want what's left?"

"Uh... sure."

The knight stumbled a bit, and Nyte planted his boot right on its rear, and kicked it towards Fenix as the masked Digger let loose a shot at its groin, causing it to flip over onto its back. "Booyah," Fenix said. The knight twitched a little, until Fenix shot it again. The twitching stopped, but Fenix shot it again, just to be sure.

"Are you finished yet?" Nyte asked.

"Yup!" Fenix replied, as he hefted the knight's short sword. "Interesting... this thing looks pretty decorative. We might be able to sell it."

"Cool," Nyte said. "What about the shield?"

"Grab it, too. I need to buy a new arm."

Nyte nodded, as he grabbed the shield. "That thing be okay until we get back?"

"Sure," Fenix said.

"I wonder if there's anything else for treasure in here. This was the last room from the hallway."

"Maybe... hey, wait, where did his horse go?"

"I dunno, I was more focused on the rider."

Fenix held out his good hand, with a lump of sugar in it.

"Where did you get that?" Nyte asked.

"Breakfast," the older Digger replied.

"You stuffed sugar into your pockets?"

"It was free, wasn't it?"

As the two spoke, the Reaverbot horse slowly emerged from the shadows, and sniffed at the sugar. "I can't believe it fell for that," Fenix said. "Shoot it."

"...huh?"

"Shoot it, you dork."

"But... it's not doing anything. Except licking at your sugar-filled hand."

Then the horse finished the sugar, and bit Fenix's hand. The masked Digger let out a small scream.

Nyte looked on in surprise as Fenix said tearfully, "It's eating me!"

"Maybe that's because you killed its rider?"

"You're the one who punched him in the face."

"Yeah, well..." As the Reaver-horse began to venture back into its hiding spot, Nyte went after it, and said, "let's just follow it."

"...I hate you..." Fenix said, as he followed anyway.

The horse led them through a portion of the wall that turned out to be a hologram, which opened up into a larger, brightly-lit room with a large refractor floating inside. "Now, that's more like it," Nyte said.

"Indeed," said Fenix. "Grab it, in case there are any traps."

Nyte stopped for a moment and looked at Fenix.

"What?" Fenix asked.

"What do you mean, 'in case there are any traps'?"

"I've already lost one arm, you can spare one of yours."

Nyte grumbled as he approached the refractor, while Fenix chuckled. After carefully checking for traps and triggers, Nyte removed the refractor. This seemed to freak out the Reaver-horse, who butted the young Digger and sent him flying into the wall. Fenix threw a lump of sugar into the corner, distracting it. "Quick! That won't hold it for long! Run!"

The younger Digger got to his feet and decided that yes, getting away would be wise. The duo bolted for the surface, with Fenix leaving a crimson trail of circulatory fluid behind them. As they got on the elevator, Nyte said, "Ah, easy money."

"Yup. Easiest I ever earned," Fenix said, as he slumped against the wall, breathing heavily.

Nyte noticed that, plus the trail of red liquid left in their wake, and asked his partner, "You okay?"

"Yeah... sure... just need to visit... my old friend... the emergency room."

"You have a friend at the emergency room? I'll bet that's convenient."

Fenix chuckled, then broke out into laughter before they reached the top of the elevator ride. Up on the surface, he walked slowly but steadily out of the gate, carrying the Reaverbot knight's sword and shield, while Nytetrayn carried the refractor.

"Now," Fenix said groggily, "where is the museum...? Or should we hit the parts shop first...?"

"How about the hospital for you?"

"Money first, health later!"

"...fine. I guess the museum, then."

Fenix pumped his arm, and let out a yowl as it squirted blood. "Y'know, maybe we should go by the hospital. Just in case."

Nyte rolled his eyes. "Alright, have it your way."

They went to the hospital, and Fenix was promptly admitted and taken into surgery, which left Nyte alone with a nurse.

"That was really strange," said the nurse.

"What was?"

"His arm. It's a type that's directly hooked up to his circulatory and nervous system."

"Uh... cool?"

"I'm surprised he wasn't screaming or fainting. The pain had to be terrible, and to lose so much blood..."

"Oh, he did the screaming earlier."
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"Ah, I see."

***

After a while, the nurse came back, and took Nytetrayn to Fenix's room. As they walked, the nurse told him that the surgery was successful. In Fenix's room, the now-unmasked Digger was hooked to a machine and looked paler than usual, but seemed to otherwise be okay.

"Say, that's a nice job with the arm," Nyte said. "Is there anything you can do for his face?"

"Smartass," Fenix replied.

"Um... there's not really a lot we can do to improve his eyes, if that's what you mean."

"Ah, okay," Nyte said.

Fenix grumbled, "Sure, that's what he means..."

"Ah... I'll leave you two alone now," the nurse said, before scurrying off.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Good, good... Told ya, the arm doesn't hurt much, since it's made of metal, and all."

"Okay. They mentioned it was tied into your circulatory and nervous systems, so I wasn't sure."

"...did they, now?" Fenix glanced down at his new arm, which now sported a hand, and flexed it slowly.

"Say, that wasn't there before, was it?"

"Nope. Gonna take some getting used to," Fenix said, as he stared at the hand with a loathsome expression.

Noting this, Nyte asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Nah, everything's just fine. They'll let me go in the morning... we can sell our stuff then and decide what we're gonna do next.... you should probably get a motel room or something."

"Well, I can head back to the one we paid for before..."

"Yeah... forgot about that.... that's cool," Fenix said, still sounding a bit out of it. "See you in the morning then, I guess..."

"You sure, now?"

"Yeah, sure," Fenix said, before giggling to himself at the movement of the fingers.

"Alright, then. I'll come by for you first thing in the morn," Nyte said, as he seemed to be making rapid progress in adapting slightly more slangful language.

"Cool. See you then."

"Seeya!"

Fenix chuckled, and waved with his good hand, and Nytetrayn headed back to their hotel room. There, he decided he could pass the time by seeing what this "television" thing was all about.

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