One single coin smacks against a purple-wielding robot’s chest. It blossoms into a shield that crushes it against the glass wall, shattering fragile metal into chunks that fall uselessly to the ground in a puddle of spiky purple slurry. I raise my left arm to block a hammer with my dagger’s projected armguard, then flick a projectile into a teal bot’s face. Destructive magic blossoms directly inside of the robot’s delicate parts. It collapses at my feet, twitches a few times, and dies.
I roll my left shoulder and take a deep breath as the aftershocks of the hammer tingle in my bones. And a slight throb in my brain. “So the shields don’t completely absorb the attack–they just soften it enough that I don’t get crushed into the floor.”
“Or flung across the tunnel.” Pearl adds helpfully. “So? How much Worth did you make off all six of these hunks of junk?”
I pull open my Class Card to check, but instantly there’s a huge problem. My debt hasn’t decreased by even one Worth. Which means I didn’t destroy a single one of these junkers enough to trigger the conversion.
“Absolutely nothing.” I sigh and send my Class Card away. “Guess I didn’t brutalize them enough, so now I have to go through the hassle of actually selling them.”
Pearl frowns. “That sucks.”
Indeed it does, my formless friend. I kick aside a rolling chunk of metal that I’m pretty sure was something’s shoulder, then bend down and press my fingers to the purple bot’s chassis. The thing is horrifically warm to the touch–like an overheating computer–and it smells a little like burning plastic. My projectile didn’t do that.
“Useless bags of bolts. Making me deal with your crappy design instead of getting completely destroyed.” I mutter as I deposit the junk. “You better be worth a good chunk for the trouble.”
Shambling Metallic Facade: Violet stored.
Predicted Worth: 68.
…Oh. That’s actually a pretty good chunk. Multiply it by five–no, six, actually–and it’s almost half of everything I need. Hell, if I flip every single Worth they give me, then I might actually be done when I factor in the quest reward. It feels… weird to be so close to done. I went for so long without seeing a single Worth, and since we ran into those turtle-bots the first time, I’m pretty much done with the thousand Worth requirement. Of course I still need to find the right place and complete the teleporter quest, but… it actually feels like we’re getting somewhere now.
“Sixty eight. Not bad at all.” Pearl notes as I swipe away the notification. “Do you think the purple one is worth more than the greys and teals?”
“Hell, I hope it’s worth a whole lot less.” I say as I shift to the other robot and deposit it as well, making space by shifting some other things into my backpack. “Hey, do you know anything about how the clearance levels work?”
She shrugs. “Other than the fact that they need more Worth every time, nope. And I only know that because I saw your Worth requirement go up. You can ask Illumisia, though; she probably knows more.”
I nod, then get to my feet and make for the other destroyed robots. We’ve still got a few hours before Illumisia wants us back, and if they’re going to hand out Worth paydays like this, then I can’t afford to waste them.
----------------------------------------
Shambling Metallic Facade: Teal stored.
Predicted Worth: 37.
Shambling Metallic Facade: Grey stored.
Predicted Worth: 74.
Shambling Metallic Facade: Aquamarine stored.
Predicted Worth: 28.
So, yeah, not all the bots are worth more than the purple. Grey definitely is–even if it isn’t by much–and the other two kinds I found were… well… one of them’s worth less than the great white dane I killed on my first day here. That should speak volumes about how hard that one was to destroy.
I snap my Class Card closed and look up at the black stain denoting this part of the wall as the part of the wall. Those last few hours really flew by, even more so because I had to spend almost half of them running back here. Pearl’s doing just fine, if not a little nervous, and she’s retreated to her shell to prepare her whole ‘push the pressure back’ magic thing. Leaving me all alone to see the fruits of Illumisia’s labor.
It takes a few seconds to gather my wits. This… this is the culmination of everything. Not that we’ve worked towards it all that long, but if this doesn’t work, I’m dead. Plain and simple. There just isn’t enough time to find some other option. Either we lure the teleporter in, complete my quest, and somehow use it to teleport close enough to the place the system wants me to be, or it’s the end.
I swallow hard, straighten my posture, and swap out the knife for the coin holster. No piddly armor’s going to save me from a teleportation beam, and there’s a good chance I’ll be rapid-firing spells in a frenzy just a few short minutes from now. I pat it a few times with my left hand, straighten it even though it was already perfectly straight, and walk through the glass with as much confidence as I can muster.
Illumisia pops out of the hole the moment my feet touch textured glass. “System-born. Right on time, as I requested. Come–I have done what you have asked, and I have contained the pressure to the best of my abilities.”
“Really? Then why’s Pearl getting ready to do exactly that?”
“Because mine is containment, not protection.” Illumisia says as if that clears everything up. But the look on my face must show the contrary, since she sighs and jumps out of the pit while continuing. “I have contained the pressure from entering the room and damaging all of us. But it also isolates the sand from being affected by us. If you wish to put your feet on it and trigger the teleporter’s vibration sensor, you will have to engulf yourself in the pressure. Though your body is now far more pressure-resistant than it once was, it will not be able to sustain this.”
I raise an eyebrow and look down the hole. All I can see is sand on the bottom–no hint of the metal that used to be there. Not a hint of it in the rest of the room, either. Almost like Illumisia evaporated the stuff. She steps right up beside me and joins me in staring at the sand.
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“Is something not to your liking?” She asks with a mild veneer of annoyance. “I did exactly as you asked. Were your specifications lacking?”
“Nope. Just a little overwhelmed and worried.” I chuckle and stick my hands in my pockets. “One way or another, this could end up being my last chance. I don’t want to screw up all the good work you’ve already done.”
Illumisia huffs and turns to walk away. “The schematics showed a kinetic sensor system. The system gave you a reliable source of information in the form of a quest–which cannot be falsified. And you enlisted Pearlescence and myself to aid you. If this is a failure, it will have absolutely nothing to do with your own actions or competence.”
Yeah, that doesn’t help the anxiety at all. It isn’t causing the failure that I’m scared of–it’s the failure itself. No matter whose fault it is. But I nod anyway to try to convince Illumisia that her words had the intended effect, then tap on Pearl’s shell to get her attention.
She pops right out and holds up two fingers. “Give me two minutes. I haven’t done this for a long time, and I don’t want to get anything wrong. Shelby, don’t forget that you’re going to have to touch the power core to the teleporter so I can access it. Otherwise it’ll keep running on whatever auxiliary power is keeping it going.”
“Gotcha.” I say and summon the power core from my inventory. “Anything else I should know about the teleporter before I do this?”
It’s only for a second, but it’s completely unmissable. Pearl hesitates. She tries to keep going like she didn’t just double my anxiety, but from the look on Illumisia’s face, she isn’t fooling anyone. Not even herself.
“Nope. Definitely nothing at all.” She says quickly, then starts to duck into her shell. “Uh, I’ll be ready in two minutes. Did I already say that? I think I did. See you!”
With those parting words, she disappears once again. I dig my fingernails into my palm and wince at the sharpness, then glance down at the weirdly pointed things that are definitely longer than they should be.
“She… I…” Illumisia sighs and shakes her head. “I wasn’t aware there were potential complications, but obviously there are. Ones that Pearlescence does not wish to share with us for whatever reason. Now I did not want to offer this option, but in light of this new lack of information, I feel the need to speak it into the world.”
She turns and locks eyes with me. “If I do anything to this teleporter beyond what I have already done, your quest will fail due to outside help that greatly overpowers your own. So if I have to step in at any point–for any reason whatsoever–it will be exactly the same as if I disable the teleporter entirely by myself. Do you understand?”
I nod in confirmation and shake the droplets of blood from my palm. “I do. But something tells me whatever Pearl’s hiding from us isn’t about how dangerous this thing is. If it was that simple, she would’ve fielded the exact same option you did instead of pulling away. Since, you know, it only involves me losing some Worth and some skill points.”
“You think she is hiding something far greater.” Illumisia states. “Something that could lead to you failing to get out of here, even if every other aspect of your plan plays out flawlessly.”
A small, tense smile crosses my lips. Illumisia nods wordlessly and circles my feet, then glances back at the broken teleporter. Some kind of strange expression crosses her face, but it’s quickly replaced by a blank look.
“The teleporter is your contingency plan.”
“That’s one way to put it, yeah.”
She walks over to it and nudges it with her nose. But before she can get another word out, Pearl bursts out of her shell. Her entire body glows with speckles of a single colour–a marigold so vibrant that it hurts to look at.
“Okay, I’m ready!” She stretches her arms and completely leaves her shell, standing on my shoulder instead. “This’ll last for ten minutes once we actually trigger it, so we’ve gotta be really careful with the time we have. Are you good to go, Shelby?”
I take one last look back at Illumisia, then run my thumb across the coins in the holster. Half skeletons, half regular ghost quarters. All set up to replenish themselves the second I use one. This is about as ready as I can be, and it still doesn’t feel like enough. I’m going to try and fight a teleporter for goodness sake; my shields will do less than shit.
“I’m ready.” I confirm with a shaky grin. “Illumisia, you count us down.”
“No countdown. Go.” She orders with sincerity and severity. “One last time–do you want me?”
I shake my head as I sit and dangle my legs into the pit. “No. But feel free to ignore me if it looks like I’m actually going to die.”
With that, I shove forward and fall into the pit. I bend my knees to brace myself for impact, fully knowing that it won’t be enough. My feet hit the ground, and the shockwave rips through my body, but… it’s barely there. Feels more like jumping off a swing, and less like falling fifteen feet to Illumisia’s barrier. I grunt with effort and stand up straight as Pearl’s marigold light extends over me–just in time, too, as Illumisia dismisses her barrier. Letting me fall the last foot to the sand below.
Instantly, everything hurts more. My joints creak, my head aches, and it feels like I’m wearing a compression bodysuit over literally every inch of my body. I blink quickly to try and get the sensation out of my eyes and snort to clear my sinuses, but it stays. And this is with Pearl’s protection.
“Okay, ten minutes starts now.” Pearl says seriously. “If the teleporter doesn’t show up, then we have to–”
The ground rumbles beneath my feet. I breathe a ragged sigh of relief that expels every single breath I’ve ever held in one long exhale. Previously hard-packed sand swirls and moves like it’s alive, making way for a ring of tooth-like shells that form a perfect circle.
“Hello again, you.”
I flick a few projectile-filled coins into the sand, then activate all of them at once. They shear large holes into the easy to move material, digging around where the teleporter’s main platform is. A harsh metallic whine builds up in the back of my mind as jet black starts to climb the shell spikes, informing me that the teleporter isn’t pulling any punches this time.
“Shelby?” Pearl asks nervously. “What’s the plan?”
“Nothing much.” I say with a shrug, then throw shield-filled skeletons into the holes I made before they can fill in. “Just trying to get it out of the sand first.”
With a simple gesture, all the shields activate at once. Shield-made wedges cut through the sand and converge towards the center of the teleporter, pushing it up and out of the sand–and taking me with it. Sand pours off the main platform to reveal a pristine version of the broken one we dug out, with lines and patterns of black shooting through the glass and wood structure.
It makes a strange noise as it’s ripped completely free of the sand, save for the long tail that’s still stuck deep below. But it isn’t moving the thing at all–I can see it through the glass, extending down into the sand like an anchoring rod, pulsing with black magic and some kind of electricity. Electricity that feels like a much weaker version of what I’ve got tucked under my left arm.
Pearl laughs in disbelief as I bend down and press the power core to the teleporter. “I didn’t know you could do that! I’ll start up the–”
Authority not recognized.
Access denied.
She waves off the notification. And it somehow disappears without me doing anything. “That’s fine, I’ll just do the same thing that I did to the power core. Look away so you don’t get another invasive bout of censorship.”
I nod and look away. The memory of that horrible event is more than enough warning. Pearl runs down my arm as the spikes continue to arm themselves, albeit at a slightly slower pace than before. Maybe the warmth of the tunnel is doing something to it. Or maybe the tail needs to be submerged in sand to work. Or, you know, it could just be the power core I’ve got pressed to it that’s bleeding frosty lines of magical electricity into the thing.
System-controlled devices unable to be commandeered, regardless of authority.
“I knew it.” Pearl whispers, her voice on the edge of breaking. “The system locked me out.”