“Gendross, excuse me?! Mark II?! That’ll only increase the risk of the engine room being damaged!” “I know, but please, bear with me on it! If you set it to only target and subdue Reggie instead of killing him, the Heavy Titan won’t be able to use its weapon systems!” Gendross shouts back. One of the members takes a moment to breathe, thinking about his reason; “Alright, I trust your order…” The member looks over his shoulder and commands the security team; “You heard him! Bring out Mark II!” “On it!” One of them answers while typing on a keyboard to send out the order.
May 31st, 2018. 7:30 PM.
Elio looks back as he’s making his way through the combat deck, seeing that Reggie is hot on his tail. “Damn! Reggie’s not letting up! Who knows how long he’ll be in this state for?! He could be in that state for hours for all we know! Come on, Elio, think! Think…” Reggie dives forward to pounce on him, but Elio quickly performs a 180 twist and drop kicks him in the face, staggering him. Elio’s eyes shoot toward the pond, he fires a gust of wind for the water, creating a splash, Reggie’s ears perk as he immediately dives for the water. Elio then hides in one of the trees; “Good! It’s nice to know he doesn’t understand how I operate when he’s like this. Now let’s see, what could I do to get him out of this state as fast as possible? Think back, what did Gendross say? Unfamiliar scents send the Nightmare into the user’s most primitive state. He didn’t attack Gendross, despite him shoving him back, so its only real target is this egg.”
“But wait, if that’s the case, then I could always try to get my own body to sweat, I could use that to mask the egg’s own scent with my own, and hopefully, with that being gone, Reggie will snap out of it. But… while I love my heat ability, this is the one time where it’s useless because I have trouble sweating, no matter how much water I fucking drink!” Elio sees Reggie coming out of the water; “Wait, the engine room! I’ll use that to my advantage!” Elio comes to realization and zooms out of the tree, sprinting to the balcony of the combat deck. Reggie follows suit, going through the open shutter. He catches up and is about to grab Elio, but he reacts by aiming his palm outward and crouches down, firing a burst of wind, propelling himself to roll backwards under Reggie. He quickly gets up and springs off the tips of his feet, shoulder bashing Reggie on the rear, knocking him forward as he faceplants and tumbles down the flight of stairs that lead to the engine room.
As Reggie tumbles, Elio hears the sound of giant metal footsteps clanging. He looks back and sees the Heavy Titan Mark II running around the corner; “Wait, what the fuck?! Bert?!” He shouts in surprise as Bert completely runs past him. “Shit, he’s after Reggie!” Elio turns around and speeds underneath Bert’s legs and spots Reggie running up the stairway. Reggie’s eyes focus on Elio; “Egg.” Reggie remarks in a primitive manner before lunging at him. Elio reacts by pivoting his right foot, he spins as he hops toward the wall, dodging Reggie and wall-jumping his way down the stairs, landing in the engine room. He turns around to face Reggie and quickly jumps backwards to make some space, he takes a deep breath to assess the area.
The expansive engine room is filled with towering machinery, metallic surfaces gleaming under the harsh glow of the overhead lights. Massive turbines him rhythmically, surrounded by a labyrinth of pipes and gauges. The air is thick with the scent of oil and the constant thrum of machinery creates a symphony of industrial sounds. “Alright, I think I get why they sent out Bert now.” Elio says calmly to himself. He sees Reggie turn around, getting on guard as he does so, Bert catches up to Reggie and grabs him with both arms from the back. Reggie roars, trying to escape from his grasp, Bert then takes a step forward and spins its torso to gain momentum, letting go and chucking Reggie. Elio quickly sees him hurling in his direction, in a flash, he rolls the egg to the side and rushes over to Reggie. Despite the much larger and heavier build, Elio spreads his arms and legs wide, letting Reggie land on him.
Elio braces for impact as Reggie’s body collides into him, he knocks over Elio, causing the two to slide on the floor; “PUTA!” Elio howls in pain from the weight. As their slide comes to a stop, Reggie gets off of Elio to attack Bert as his primal instincts have made him view him as competition for the same prey. Elio watches Reggie flailing to hit him; “Ok, so how do I make myself sweat faster so I can hide the egg’s scent?” He ponders quickly as Bert throws his arm toward Reggie, but Reggie reacts standing up and grabbing his arm with both of his middle arms, pulling Bert closer. Reggie lets go and roars as one of his middle arms swings itself, clawing at Bert’s chestplate. “Holy shit!” Elio shouts. He then closes his mouth; “Wait, if his claws can slice through metal just like that, then…” He looks over at the engines; “...that’s it! If I can just get Reggie to at least damage two of them, the increase in heat and humidity should be enough for me to start sweating!”
Elio continues to let the two brawl as he stands up and starts stretching; “I feel bad about this plan, I don’t wanna bust those engines after seeing how friendly Gendross has been, despite how I duped him. Sadly, there’s no other real way to get him to stop attacking, so this is the only way to speed up the primitive timer, as well as ensure nobody gets hurt.” He keeps stretching until he feels a sharp pain in his back, he grunts; “I shouldn’t be surprised… that’s what I get for trying to catch a walrus.” He chuckles to himself as he puts his hands on his lower back, he leans backwards, arching his body, he then stands normally and twists his body, feeling a pop. The sensation reverberates down his back, releasing all the tension that had built up the whole day. A wave of relief sweeps over him, as if knots were unraveling in his muscles. His once-stiff joints now felt supple, and a newfound sense of ease envelops his body. It was as if each vertebra had found its perfect place, leaving Elio with a profound sense of well-being and a lighter, more energized posture.
“Woooo! Fucking factory reset!” Elio does a few more stretches before putting on a serious face; “Alright, I’m ready!” Elio picks up the egg and runs up to Bert, jumping on top of him. He presents the egg to Reggie; “Hey fuzzbutt! We know this is what you’re after!” Elio taunts. Without a second of hesitation, Reggie reaches his head forward to try and bite the egg, Elio weaves by stepping to the side off of Bert, landing on the floor.
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Reggie follows as Bert attempts to grab him, but is too sluggish to grab him in time. Elio jumps on a pipe, holding the egg out again, Reggie leaps up to go for another chomp, but misses as Elio falls backwards and lands on the floor. Reggie bites the pipe, puncturing a few holes through it, Elio smirks; “Yes! Let the water vapor fill the air!” He shouts in excitement. He darts back to Bert, looking up to see a security camera, Elio climbs on top of his shoulder and yells to the camera; “Hey! I figured out a way to stop Reggie from continuing his rampage! I need you to close the shutters for the engine room! “Huh? Close the shutters?!” Elio jumps down as Reggie gets close, Bert lands a punch on him, releasing a shockwave and sending Reggie hurling toward a wall.
“Just trust me on this one, alright?!” As Elio shouts it, Gendross interrupts the line with his communicator; “Just do as he says! From what I’ve seen, Elio’s knowledgeable with physics, so I’m sure he has a plan!” He orders. The security member listens; “Right, if you say so!” All the entrances to the engine room begin to close. “Thank you, Gendross!” “Of course!” As Elio checks to see how the egg’s doing, Gendross stays on the line; “By the way, what’s the status of the engine room? How’s it faring?” One of the security members checks; “Looking at each camera, there’s a pipe with holes, causing steam to erupt. It appears there’s also a good amount of dented machinery, possibly more, but the camera lenses are getting fogged up by the vapor.” “I see, alright then. I’ll go over to the engine room myself and check the damage once the situation’s dealt with. In the meantime, contact the pilots! Let them know that I’m giving the order to activate the landing systems!” Gendross answers while rushing to an elevator, disconnecting from the line.
Elio starts channeling the heat that he’s been generating into his lungs. He begins exhaling, expelling the heat through his breath to increase humidity, his lenses get foggy, so he moves his visor up. His eyes widen as he feels his head start to drip a tiny bit; “Ok, this is good! Just some more heat and soon I’ll be able to put his rampage to a halt!” He keeps exhaling, but Reggie slips away from Bert as his metallic surface begins to condensate, his sensors also fail to track him as easily due to the thick steam cloud forming. Reggie follows his nose and pinpoints Elio’s position, he races to him and grabs Elio by the head with one of his front arms, pinning him to the wall. As he’s still holding the egg, Reggie reaches with his middle right arm to grab it, but roars as Bert comes back for him and grabs Reggie by both of his left arms. Forcing Reggie’s body to face a position where he can’t reach the egg, Elio keeps exhaling more and more, while doing so, Bert’s forearm becomes a cannon, charging up a blast. Reggie sees it being prepared and quickly looks back at Elio, seeing that he’s directly in the path of the blast. Despite his goal being to grab the egg, his instincts surrounding Elio make him let go of his head.
Reggie growls as the charge gets larger, he lashes out his primal rage on Bert as Elio falls to his feet. Elio catches his breath as he watches Reggie attacking Bert, Reggie swipes forward with his front right claws, tearing out some circuits before swiping with his front left claws, removing more parts. “Wow…” Elio watches in awe as he wipes his forehead, he keeps watching before his eyes widen. He looks at his arm, seeing it shine from how much sweat it's covered in; “Oh! It worked! Hell yeah! I didn’t even notice!” Elio runs his palm along his forehead and hair, gathering sweat, quickly wiping it on the egg.
Reggie continues tearing Bert to shreds as he grabs his torso with his middle arms, using his front arms to swipe his arms off. Reggie lets go of the torso and throws his head forward, taking a chomp out of Bert’s core and spitting it onto the floor, putting him out of commission by spinning with all four of his arms out, performing a lariat and ending off the fight by slicing the torso into pieces. Bert runs out of power and falls backwards. Elio finishes wiping as much sweat as he can on the egg, sitting down with it in his lap as his back rests against the wall. “I’m tired, I can’t remember the last time I ever sweat like this.” He mutters, breathing slowly. Reggie approaches him, his head tilts in confusion as his ears twitch. He leans up close and personal to Elio, smelling him and looking down at the egg. He sniffs it for nearly ten seconds, but can’t find where the egg has gone as all he sees is Elio.
“El… io…” Reggie utters as he slowly regains his senses, his body beginning to limp as it feels the boiling heat wash over him when the shock leaves. He falls over on his stomach, the Nightmare deactivates and he returns to his normal form. “Good… it worked…” Elio smiles and stands up, scooping Reggie off the floor with one hand, he begins walking toward the shutter he came through. “Hey!” He shouts, looking at the camera; “It’s done, Reggie’s calmed down! Open up the doors so this room can air out!” The security team hears him, and the shutters begin to open. As they open, Elio and Reggie feel a cool breeze coming from the corridors and the stairway up to the combat deck; “¡Maldita sea, está helando!” Elio shouts as he shivers from it, his teeth chattering. “Oh, that feels so much better, but I could totally use some water right now.” Reggie purrs as Elio walks up the stairway, he hears the sound of clopping. As he gets to the top, he sees Gendross was the one approaching, they both smirk as Gendross sees that Reggie’s back to normal; “Nice going Elio! How’s The Heavy Titan doing though?”
Elio looks at Reggie; “Hey Reggie, you should tell him since you did all the work.” He teases, Reggie’s ears perk up. Not wanting to admit that he totaled Bert, he meows. “He… thrashed it, didn’t he?” “Thrashed is an understatement! Bert’s become a damn salad for Pica patients!” Elio retorts quickly, he then slumps over, still tired. Gendross just stares at Elio; “Not everything needs a reaction. Just have no comment.” Gendross thinks as he gives Reggie a quick glare for trying to avoid telling the truth. “Well, I can’t really complain too much. We’re still alive since the engine room wasn’t destroyed. While it’s a shame we won’t be able to reach Ganymede, it beats not dying. So when the Levacean lands, we’ll just stay here on Earth until the engine room is fully repaired, as well as being restocked on thorium.”
Elio smiles in surprise; “Oh no way! For real?! You actually use thorium instead of uranium?!” “Yeah! We were originally going to power the Levacean with uranium when we first got to work on it, but then one of the engineers mentioned thorium and how it’s more abundant, produces less radioactive waste, and has a lower risk of nuclear proliferation.” Gendross answers. “Don’t forget it also lasts longer!” Elio adds onto his point. “Oh for sure! Plus, this vessel’s been running like a dream since ‘98, the first year it needed a recharge.” Gendross pridefully boasts.
“Twenty years?! That’s sick! I-” Elio stops nerding out as he breathes heavily, unable to finish his sentence. Gendross takes notice of the unsteadiness; “Elio, are you ok? You were fine just a second ago.” “I’m just…” Elio responds with lameness as he falls backwards. Reggie quickly jumps down and activates the Nightmare form, catching him before he hits the floor. “...tired.” Elio finishes his sentence. “Reggie! Is he alright?” “Yes, he’s ok. It’s rare for him to get heated like that… literally. He usually just absorbs hot air, but he’s not actually used to feeling it as his body passively absorbs heat, but fails if he goes over the limits. Seriously, you’d have a better chance of being struck by lightning than seeing this a second time.” He explains. “So… heat exhaustion. Alright then.”
Gendross adjusts his hat before continuing. He grabs Elio with one arm and holds the egg with his other; “Come, Reggie. We’ll have him rest up on the couch in my quarters.” He orders. Reggie turns back to normal and perches on his shoulder; “I like the sound of that!” He starts licking his paw. “Good! Plus, you must be thirsty after that whole ordeal. I’ll pour you some cold water when we get there.” “Thanks, Gendross.” Reggie answers. Gendross chuckles a little bit; “Don’t mention it.” Gendross then walks toward the elevator.