Writer’s corner: GREETINGS FRIENDS! After a way too long Hiatus, we be back with much scene of action!
SO, after a long time having a slump with Beepy, I finally decided to muscle my way through it. It took me a whole weekend to write this chapter, that’s why the lack of updates. In exchange, it is pretty big for Beepy’s standard and have a very long action scene! As well as some more insight on the actual situation they found themselves in.
ALSO, I won’t guarantee to go back to the previous pace I had before. At least not immediately, but I will try to make at least one chapter a week. Which means that before next Monday, another chapter should pop up. Hopefully…
ALSO(2), on unrelated matters, it was found out within the den that, REAL LIFE DENSE CHARACTERS ACTUALLY DO EXIST! It is a fairly famous author here on the site, but I won’t tell any more than this, as this is privacy matters. I can’t guarantee that VRDraco or the other members of the Den won’t, though…
ALSO(3), I’m On board the hype train for MHX! NYANTA FOR THE WIN! (SO FRUFFY!) CHOO CHOO!
Beep, and enjoy your story!
----
Since it has been some time since the last time we saw Beepy and friends, let’s have a brief recap.
{Beepy and company found themselves in dire problems, for while Yllivia made a painting of Ruby, Lunn came and told them that money was lacking. With all of the men missing due to business, they decided to take a day off and simply do their own missions themselves.
While giving a quick trip to the nearby mercenaries headquarters, they decided to take on the job of bringing down a certain criminal organization that had been organizing a gearbox nearby. As luck had it, the girls managed to find the organization after using Ruby to trick an unlucky old man who kept swearing that the tournament was rigged.
After using Lunn’s seduction skills to get their way inside the said gearbox, they finally registered beepy as a competitor so that they could last until the finals and meet the boss.
Battle happens, Beepy beat the favorite of his category after being cheated to lose, but still is accused of cheating. After an epic verbal and physical humiliation of one of the bodyguards, Yllivia, Ruby, Beepy and the Hugger (Beepy’s new friend (subordinate?)) go on to have a talk with the boss, being escorted by the head body-guard who left very clear that there were traps protecting the boss.
After a quick discussion and seeing the man running away, a firefight started and Yllivia ran off to hunt the boss, only to meet the two odd announcers that seemed to hide something. Afterwards she found the boss who for some reason was asking for help from one of the participants on the tournament. The same one who seemingly was under heavy doubt of cheating.
Meanwhile, Beepy and Co returned and found themselves meeting with Lunn, who had left earlier when she noticed that things were getting complicated and came back with her brother, who came to give them a hand with figuring out the situation.}
----
Running through the corridor, the group quickly reached the last depot where they held the last of the robots. Using the same strategy as before, they quickly approached the guards, but they were a bit more cautious than what they initially expected.
Probably having received word from the other guards, they didn’t make questions before raising their weapons towards the group. But Sorius was faster than the guards, and with a quick movement he took aim with the pistol that Ruby took and shot their weapons out of their hands before approaching them and shocking the guards unconscious.
As much alert as they were, it seemed that they weren’t exactly focused on trying to keep the robots in check.
[I guess Yllivia is doing her job.] Gaz said.
[I just hope she doesn’t get hurt.] Ruby added with a serious tone, but her worry overflowed through the link.
Shaking her head, Ruby quickly changed her attention back to the task at hand, and with one quick look at the cages where the robots were found, she started frown.
“Different models…” The young morfian muttered while approaching one of the nearby cages. With a frown, she took a look at the cages. “Older ones…” She murmured. Approaching her, Sorius looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “These will need to be open individually.” She said with a sigh. “If you try to force all of them open, you might fry the locks.”
The male elf frowned slightly before nodding in an understanding manner. Immediately after, ruby tinkered with the console of the cage, opening it and removing a couple of components, once she was done, she pointed to a small battery-like device and moved on to the next apparel. Each cage she approached was dismantled at a frightening speed, lasting little more than three seconds under the girl’s hand.
[I feel kind of useless right now…] Gaz said with a sigh, and Ekis seemed to agree with him.
[Why don’t you keep an eye out there.] Ruby said briefly. [Lunn looks like she needs some help.]
Gaz sighed deeply in his mind while looking at the elf who looking dispirited on the door, having her secret revealed, she suddenly became extremely quiet and distant. Seeing that it was as much of a good idea as any other, Gaz made his way towards the girl. Surprisingly enough, although the elf did look down, she still kept a serious look out for any possible guard that was coming to the room.
“Beepy…” She said with a slightly distracted tone.
Gaz simply approached her and stood besides Lunn, looking on the opposite side that the elf was watching out. While doing so he felt as the elf lowered her hand to gently rub his head.
“It’s good to see that at least one girl is here to support me… EH? WHERE ARE YOU GOING? BEEPY? NOT YOU TOO!”
[I’m going to take a patrol nearby.] He said briefly.
[Aren’t you a bit too sensible about that?] Ekis said with a wry tone.
[Well… We can’t really blame him, can we?] Ruby added with a slightly sympathetic tone. [I personally don’t like being called a boy either...]
Ignoring their bickering, Gaz quickly started to make his way through the nearby corridors, taking peeks at the corners before going back his way. After all, he only needed to keep an eye out for possible bandits approaching.
[Gaz… Something have been bothering me, but… Isn’t this place a bit too big?] Ekis suddenly said while highlighting something on his vision. Taking a look at it, Gaz noticed it was something akin to a map.
[What?] He asked confused. [Is this a map from this area?] He asked confused, seeing that there were some parts that resembled a bit the arena where he fought and the path to the boss, as well some that were clearly open ended, probably unexplored areas. Much alike RPG’s mini-maps.
[Well…] She seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying. [doesn’t it looks like a bit too big compared to the building we came in?]
Gaz blinked surprised for a moment while thinking. Now that she said it, he stopped to think for a moment. For a place in the slums, wasn’t this area surprisingly big? This whole underground complex could easily be a lot bigger than the size of the houses in the area.
While looking distracted at it, Gaz heard the sound of gunfights coming from nearby turn, and after grimacing, he turned towards the sound and slowly made his way through the corridors while hearing Ekis pass on her doubts to the professor.
[Now that you said it…] Ruby said in a pensive tone for a moment. [Even if the building itself is in the slums, something this size shouldn’t be able to pass on without no one in the higher ups not knowing.] She stopped for a moment. [Maybe they have a hand on the higher ups?]
[What do you mean?] Ekis asked confused.
[Well… If something this size was built, people would surely have heard about it.] Ruby said in a serious tone. [Either the commotion or having been directly removed from their houses, something this size clearly occupies a lot more space than it should. This would have cause an uproar in the city, no matter the fact that this is the slums or not.] She said briefly.
[So… You think that they had the helps from above to throw all this under the cover?] Gaz asked as he heard the sound of battle getting closer.
[That’s what I would guess, but…] Ruby hesitated for a moment before saying. [Wasn’t this supposed to be a small gang?]
[Now that you mention it…] Gaz said with a mental frown.
[Hmm… I’m a bit lost here…] Ekis said with a pouting tone, making Gaz smile a bit awkwardly in his mind.
[Well, what we mean is… This place is far too big for just a small gang.] Gaz explained briefly. [So Ruby is thinking that there is a chance that someone with high political power is, for some reason, backing these guys up.]
[And why would it be strange?] Ekis asked confused, and Ruby was the one to explain.
[You see, small gangs usually don’t offer any real motif for the higher ups to cover up for them. They would be more trouble than profit, so it would be better to level them while you can.] She said in a serious and pensive tone. [But for a gang like this to grow so much without backing shouldn’t be possible…] With her words, their link went to a deep and slightly bothersome silence as they all thought on the possibility.
[What about back up… From another group?] Ekis said when the silence threatened to last. Feeling the other two surprises she quickly went on. [I mean… What if another group gave them protection for some reason?] She asked a slightly innocent manner.
[That…] Gaz said slightly surprised but stopped once his gaze passed from the following corner. [This is the moment where I say crap, isn’t it?] He said in a sarcastic tone.
[Uwaaa…] Ekis said shocked.
[Beepy? Ekis? What happened?] Ruby asked worried.
[Huggy… You might want to hasten up whatever you are doing.] Gaz said with a dry laugh. [We have a LARGE problem incoming…]
…
Having quickly crossed the gap between her and her assailants, Yllivia started with landing a heavy kick on a nearby victim’s stomach, making him bend over in pain. Before the other goons could take aim, she circled behind the guy’s back and stole the pistol on his hand while ditching the assault rifle she brought with herself.
Holding the man by the neck, she put him between the other goons and herself, shamelessly using him as a shield to protect herself. However, she didn’t expect the others to actually stop shooting altogether, knowing how goons like these were, on the other hand, they did hesitate for a brief moment, which was enough for the lynian, who unloaded the pistol’s magazine on two of the closest goons’ legs.
Afterwards she kicked away the improvised meat-shield towards two of the remaining goons while throwing the empty pistol at the third who had just taken the aim with his own weapon, a small sub machine-gun. Luckily, the few bullets he managed to squeeze out were sent off-track by the impact of the weapon to his face.
With a quick movement, Yllivia knocked the air out from the goon before taking the weapon for herself like before. A slightly familiar feeling came from the weapon handle, as it was a similar model to her own, although still somewhat different.
Turning back to the two that were tangled with her first victim, she squeezed out the trigger for a brief moment, not wanting to risk being caught off-guard. Although she did avoid any possible fatal shots, they wouldn’t bother her any time soon.
“Damn, almost didn’t have the time.” A haughty and obnoxious voice came from besides her, and she turned to see the large built Athlian holding something in his hand. “Luckily, I was prepared for something like you.” He said with a slightly annoyed grunt.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
The white haired cat-girl took aim with the sub machine-gun, but the Athlian used whatever was in his hand, throwing it high into the air and dragging her attention for a brief second.
Then, the grenade exploded.
“GAAAH!” The Lynian shouted in pain as she dropped the gun and covered her ears.
The loud sound blasted through her ears at a painfully high volume, throwing her sense of balance off and making her ears ring. However, the girl was seemingly the only one who was affected by the grenade, as the Athlian smirked before taking a couple of steps and slamming his heavy fist on the girl’s body.
Feeling the air escape her lungs, Yllivia flew with the impact, crossing almost the entire room before finally falling back to the floor. Raising herself with much difficulty, she noticed that at least one rib was now broken after the impact, as a sharp pain flared up in her body when she tried to breath.
She frowned slightly before finally ignoring the pain. It wasn’t the worst she had before, so she was more than used to something of this level. However, the sole fact that the athlian managed to punch her so far using only brute strength was worry-some. The fact that she had also dropped her weapon at the surprise attack was bad news.
A sound grenade, a weapon aimed solely against Lynians. How long had it been since the last time she saw one of those? Still, being caught unaware… Was she getting rusty?
While such thoughts crossed her mind she slowly got up once again, taking a fighting pose against the large man, she also reassessed the situation she found herself in. All of the goons wouldn’t be a problem for the time being, and the boss was hiding in the corner of the room while holding a weapon. But the Athlian is in the way, so he couldn’t take aim. The broken rib did hinder her movements a bit, but nothing she couldn’t work around with.
However, the cage that was close to the man worried her. It was far too big to be something inoffensive, and being covered in that cloth didn’t help much either. While worrying about what it could be, she saw as the athlian took out a pistol from his hip and took a couple of shots at her.
Dodging to the side right before the trigger was pulled, Yllivia managed to avoid the bullets and find cover behind a nearby couch that the goons were using before she came in. As she took cover and started to think of what to do, she heard the Athlian clicking his tongue.
“How can she move like that?” He asked surprised.
“Look, she defeated Jay’s second in command in less than ten seconds.” The boss said, his composure back now that things were going back to his way.
“Huh? That guy?” The athlian asked confused.
“Yeah. Don’t go thinking that she is weak just because you cornered her.” He said while slowly walking around the couch.
“Hmmm…” The big man said before sighing. “If you say so, I guess that I shouldn’t try my luck too much. Even if this is expensive as hell…” He had a slightly bothered tone. “The boss is going to kill me because of thiss…”
Upon those words, Yllivia peeked from the couch briefly, seeing as he took another sound grenade and threw it in the air above the couch. The Lynian frowned seeing that weapon once again, but didn’t seek for cover, and instead leapt out from behind the couch.
Even though they were surprised, they weren’t all that bothered, because soon the grenade went off. Although neither of them looked affected, they knew that the grenade had a painful effect on her sensitive hearing.
Something that was proven correct when the girl slightly stumbled during her charge, her body leaning to the side almost falling. However, the duo didn’t even have the chance to commemorate, because the Lynian’s body suddenly twisted and her leg went straight to the athlians body, hitting him at full strength.
Her head flaring up in a sharp and unbearable pain, Yllivia could even feel as some blood dripped down through her ears and down her cheeks. She winced lightly in pain, but on the other hand since she wasn’t hearing anything right now, she wouldn’t need to worry about the sonic bomb any longer.
As long as she wasn’t caught by surprise, she was fairly confident in her ability to simply muscle her way through the pain, but losing her hearing might not have been a very good trade for that. Lunn is surely going to scold her later.
But now, she had other things to worry about, as the large athlian didn’t receive much damage from the attack, thanks to his needlessly large muscles, which absorbed most of the impact.
But the momentary stun was enough for her to move away from him and towards the morfian boss who stood behind him. Caught by surprise, he didn’t have time to react before the girl snatched the gun away from his hand, circled behind him and used him as a meat shield.
“You little…” The big goon said in an angry tone, but once he stared at her holding the man, he looked surprised. Then he laughed. “What? Do you think using him as a hostage will get you somewhere?” He asked. “We don’t care all that much about him. Just throw someone else to lead and all is good.”
“Huh? Hey… What…” The morfian said, but Yllivia cut him short.
“You want the alloy. You need the key. Can’t kill.” She frowned. Although she couldn’t hear what they were saying over the ringing sound, she could somehow make sense of their words from their expressions and lip movement.
“Ohh… No need for that. I’m sure we could muscle our way through somehow.” He said with a shrug and raising the pistol.
“N-No! It’s made with Thumpster’s back armor! It can’t be broken easily!” The boss said in an hurried tone. “There’s no way that…”
“Oh… Only a Thumpster?” The man said with a disappointed tone. “Then we don’t even need to get the big-guns. Brutus here should be able to deal with it…” He said while pointing to the huge cage behind him. “And since you got yourself in this mess and all… I guess there shouldn’t be a problem if you were to suffer and accident, I guess?”
“Huh?” The man said in a surprised tone while Yllivia frowned.
Right as those words escaped his lips, a bulled flew through the air. More out of sheer instinct rather than reflexes, Yllivia caught sight of the goon who rose his weapon from the ground and shot a bulled at her. Barely dodging the bullet that grazed her leg, it still ended up hitting the boss’s own leg, making him shout in pain.
Clicking her tongue, Yllivia quickly turned back and ran away, carrying the man together with her. She didn’t really have the need to fight the larger man, and only needed to pick the boss so she could get the password.
Seeing that she had already completed her mission, she decided to retreat.
While running away, she could somehow make out some people shouting something, but she didn’t really have time to bother with it, so she escaped from the room while dragging the morfian behind her, his sudden lack of resistance a welcome fact.
Now, came the problem. She had no idea how the man would give chase to her, and having to drag around another person was already troublesome enough. But she also had no idea where to take him. Initially, she thought about taking him to Ruby, as she always seemed to know what to do, but she also had no idea where the hell she was, so it was a bit of a tight spot.
As she tried to get a feel of her surrounding, suddenly the man she was dragging started to squirm and try to get her attention. Turning behind to see what was happening, the lynnian widened her eyes in shock.
Not even having time to ask what was happening, she dived around a corridor just in time, as a massive bronze being crossed the place where she had been, only stopping when it hit the wall on the very end of the corridor, bringing it down with scary ease.
Staring wide eyed, she saw as a huge robot walked it’s way out of the wall, shaking out the rubble from it’s body with a quick movement. After moving out from the broken wall, the robot turned it’s massive head towards the Lynian and her hostage, staring down at her with a cold look as Steam built up from its body.
Towering at two meters high even when walking on all it’s legs, the huge metallic body was sustained by four powerful looking legs that still leaked steam from its last charge, each one easily twice the thickness of a normal human leg. Its’s body had a bulky build , with a large back where it held a pair of massive stakes, built as pile drivers. It’s head, squarish in shape, finished in what looked like a snout, but two massive horns with spiral railings lay atop of it.
On each of its side, marked as a way to flaunt his position, was the name: Brutus.
The bull like machine, which easily weighted more than two tons looked at Yllivia for a moment before lowering it’s head and started to kick the ground with it’s front legs.
Suddenly, it shot forward. The fifty meters separating them crossed in a little more than four seconds, an unthinkable speed for something that size.
Yllivia almost didn’t manage to dodge the attack, as the robot speed was something unexpected, but instead of stopping, the robot simply went on, making a wide arc around the girl while it brought down all the walls in its path. Understanding its plan, Yllivia quickly moved away just as the wall besides her broke down, the bull flashing through for a moment before crashing towards the other room.
Noticing that standing around would only lead to being caught, the cat immediately started running once again, thrusting only on her instinct to avoid the huge robot whenever it came.
Besides, she was doubtful whether if she still had her weapons she would be capable of stopping that robot, as it was clearly leagues above the others she had fought up to now.
More feeling than seeing as the bull broke down a wall right behind her, she gave a quick look back to see it making a curve down the corridor to aim straight at her. Throwing aside the baggage she had with her, she jumped away at the last moment, her ribs exploding in pain due to the sudden movement.
The pain, being sharper than expected, left her without breath for a moment as she scrambled back up to her feet, just in time as the bull stopped and turned to her once again, raising its body on the hind legs and bringing it down on her.
Rolling away on the ground, she managed to avoid the attack, but left her open, as it lowered its head and prepared to charge ahead, its horn almost level with the ground.
The lynian grimaced as she noticed that there wasn’t a way out of this unscathed, as not only was she in a bad position, she also was still breathless due to the sudden spark of pain. Grimacing, she quickly but her arm before her as she prepared to roll out from the attack in exchanged for her arm.
However, the moment it was about to hit her, something silver hit the bulls head, throwing it off its track. Although not enough to make him miss the lynian completely, it was enough to give her an opening to get away without great injury.
“Beepy…” She said while seeing the wolfish robot landing besides her.
He looked at her for a moment and seemed to be in shock before turning back to the bull, it’s bladed teeth showing from beneath within its mouth.
Suddenly, the lyinian saw herself being lifted from the ground with the help of the twins, both of who seemed shocked with her state. She turned to Lunn in a daze as she saw her saying something to her in anger, but seeing that her ears still were busted, she simply shrugged.
The elf scowled for a moment before dragging her away. The lynian knew she was in for a long scolding, but right now it didn’t matter.
She couldn’t waste much time before going back to help Beepy and Sorius. Because, besides the bull, it was only a matter of time before reinforcement arrived.