[AWAKEN, FOOL!]
Rocky jerked upright, inadvertently smacking his head into the bottom of the jail cell bed he’d fallen off of in the process. His hand reached up in response to the pain, although he immediately found himself distracted by a strange disfiguration in his stone skin. “Huh?”
His fingers traced around what appeared to be some kind of gash; a large crack in the rock of his forehead. “What the-? What happened….?”
His first instinct was to survey his surroundings for a mirror of some kind to get a better look at his head, although there was none to be found in the cell. He couldn’t even use the metal of the bars, walls, and bed as a reflective surface, as it had all been rusted red.
[YOU’VE BEEN IMPRISONED, OAF. THE SOLDIER WOMAN FELLED YOU IN ONE STRIKE.]
Rocky rubbed his eyes in an attempt to alleviate some of the dizziness still clouding his mind, though he did not find much success in the endeavor. “‘Soldier woman’…? You mean Captain C-?”
The gargoyle suddenly tucked his chin in order to aim his eyes at his own chest. More specifically, the glowing red key around his neck. “Rak! Long time no hear, buddy!”
[NOT LONG ENOUGH, MORTAL….]
“Hey, are you doin’ okay?” Rocky asked, fingers locking around the key as though the GODBREAKER were actually capable of feeling physical comfort through the act. “You got pretty banged up in that fight against the kaiju.”
[DO NOT INSULT ME BY IMPLYING THAT WRETCHED ANIMAL COULD POSE A THREAT!]
The first thought that popped into Rocky’s mind was the image of Rakshasa having had a chunk of his head blasted off by the tentacle kaiju’s mirror attack, but he decided not to press the issue. He was just happy to have Rakshasa speaking to him again, and didn’t want to ruin it by antagonizing the GODBREAKER. “How come you were so quiet? Were you resting or something?”
There was a brief pause.
[BAH! A GOD HAS NO NEED FOR REST.]
Surprisingly, not even one of Rakshasa’s patented unhelpful responses could hamper Rocky’s mood; hell, it even got a laugh out of the gargoyle. A fact which didn’t seem to please Rakshasa very much (but nothing ever really did, did it?)
[DO NOT BURN AWAY TIME AND ENERGY LAUGHING, YOU PILE OF PEBBLES. BREAK FREE FROM THIS WRETCHED PLACE ALREADY.]
“‘Break free?’” Rocky said. He snapped his fingers suddenly, turning his head around to look at the room again. “Oh, right! Am I in jail?”
[WHAT ELSE WOULD THIS ROOM BE, YOU IDIOT?]
Rocky moved over to the cell door, preparing to grab hold of the iron bars. However, before he could touch them, a red laser wall phased into existence, zapping the tip of his finger, burning off a chunk of rock and reducing it to dust. “Ow!”
Rubbing his finger, Rocky asked, “Oh, hey, Rak? Is there something wrong with my head?”
[THERE ARE INFINITE ANSWERS TO THAT QUESTION, MORTAL.]
Chuckling, he moved his hand back to his forehead, running his finger along the crack. It was right in the center of his forehead, and arced up and over his scalp. It wasn’t especially deep, but it was certainly large enough to catch the eye. “No, seriously. What’s this crack here?”
[IT’S OBVIOUSLY A WOUND FROM WHEN YOU WERE SHOT, FOOL.]
“Shot?”
Rocky’s mind played out the last memory it had saved before he’d fallen unconscious: the sight of Captain Carmine appearing before him, and aiming her pistol right at his skull. “Oh, right, she did shoot me, didn’t she? Surprised I’m not dead!”
[THE WEAPON WAS BUILT FOR KILLING ULTRANIANS.]
“Hm?”
[SHE DISCUSSED IT WITH HER COHORTS AFTER YOU FELL. YOU DO NOT HARBOR ULTRA FORCE WITHIN YOU, AND THUS SURVIVED.]
“Huh….Got pretty lucky then, huh?”
[BAH! A WEAPON THAT CANNOT KILL ANY FOE IS WORTHLESS.]
Rocky moved over to the bed, taking a seat. “I guess since she couldn’t kill me with it, she locked me up instead?”
[EXCELLENT DEDUCTIVE REASONING, STONE MONKEY. WOULD YOU LIKE A TREAT?]
“That’d be great, honestly!” Rocky said, patting a hand across his stomach. “I could go for some grub! Is there a guard I can call for meal time?”
A militia guard poked his head just barely into view of the cell doors. “Not for another four hours.” And just as quickly as he’d appeared, he vanished back down the hallway.
“Four hours?!”
[JUST LEAVE ALREADY. I CARE NOT IF YOU HUNGER, BUT I WILL NOT ROT HERE.]
Rocky returned to his feet, stepping over to the cell door again, though he was careful not to come into actual contact with it. “Yeah, I’m glad I got to experience being imprisoned for the first time, but I’m kinda bored of it already. We should definitely leave.”
[NOW IS OPPORTUNE.]
“Hm?”
[THERE ARE NO MORTALS IN THE BUILDING. AN APE LIKE YOU COULD NEVER ESCAPE QUIETLY, BUT FOR NOW THERE ARE NONE WHO COULD HEAR.]
Rocky glanced down at the glowing red key. “Whoa, you can sense people in the area, Rak?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
[YES, YOU IDIOT.]
“Can you tell me how that wor-?”
[JUST LEAVE ALREADY!]
* * * *
ULTRA ROCK
* * * *
The team of engineers had managed to mostly repair the damage that had been dealt to the mech’s body, but as far as their investigation into the inner workings of the machine, they hadn’t made much progress at all.
When Captain Carmine rolled back into the Rosso Woods, the team braced themselves for her furious reaction to their failure, but found themselves pleasantly surprised when she remained completely calm.
“It’s alright. Mechs aren’t my field of expertise, but even I can tell this one is far beyond your run-of-the-mill robot,” she said, her eyes locked onto the mech’s own. “It’s a shame we can’t control it right now, but you’ll all have plenty of time to reach that goal.”
The team exchanged quizzical looks before one of them asked, “What do you mean, Captain?”
She sighed, eyes shutting in frustration and disappointment. “Mister Roran will no longer be permitted to pilot this mech. The city of Redvein is taking possession of it. We’ll be keeping it here in the woods on lockdown until we can safely transport it to the city.”
At the mention of Rocky’s name, images of the previous night flashed into her mind. The shock and anger that flared up within her upon seeing him inside the capitol building with her militiamen’s unconscious bodies strewn about. From hero to villain practically in the blink of an eye.
It had been enough to drive her to shoot him point blank. She’d known he wasn’t of ultranian birth, and thus wouldn’t be immediately torn to pieces by the forcepistol’s bullets, but she’d needed the catharsis of a headshot in that moment. To express what words couldn’t.
While the forcepistol hadn’t carried out its function properly on him because he wasn’t ultranian, it had been strong enough to down him, and she certainly could have killed him right after if she’d wanted to. A few more shots would do the trick, as would lighting him on fire or decapitating him with her spear. She could have dumped his body into the ocean to drown, or maybe brought him over to the industrial zone and ordered him to be crushed by some kind of heavy machinery.
But while she harbored anger at him for his betrayal of Redvein, she hadn’t quite reached the level of wanting to execute him. Perhaps it was because of his previous heroic deeds that he’d earned himself a lighter punishment, in a way.
Aren had also helped steer her away from that path. The big guy never believed in the death penalty, always wanting to give people a second chance to redeem themselves, to the point that Carmine kept her executions of wicked criminals out of any and all discussions on the topic with him.
“I don’t think he wanted to do anything bad,” he’d told her. “Maybe he just….wanted to see the forceveins? Ya know, see what the big deal is?”
Though a small part of Carmine was perfectly ready to imagine Rocky carrying some wicked ulterior motive, she had to admit that Aren was almost certainly right. From the few interactions she’d had with him, Rocky seemed to be the curious type, and his infiltration into the capitol building was likely just a trip to satiate that curiosity.
And so, she’d ultimately decided to lock him up for a few days, then kick him out of the city, sans mech obviously. There was no way in hell she could let him back into that thing after imprisoning him after all. Not when Redvein lacked the defenses to protect itself from a potential fit of vengeance.
She opened her eyes, once again aiming them directly into the monstrous face of the mech. She didn’t care how long it took the engineers, or how many resources would need to be funneled into the project; Redvein would learn to wield this mech, to keep it safe from-
A small red light danced across the mech’s eyes.
Carmine’s inner thoughts came to a screeching halt. What was that? She looked over her shoulder to the team behind her as they worked on putting the area into lockdown. None of them appeared to be holding anything that might have made that red light, like perhaps a laser pointer or sensor or something.
Her brow furrowed. Had it just been a reflection of something moving in the forest? Everything in it was red, after all; it certainly wasn’t an insane notion or anything like that.
But something told her it wasn’t that, either. No, her gut was telling her that it had come from the mech. She wasn’t sure how, given that it was shut off and lacked a pilot, but-
She had no time to dwell on those thoughts. The ground beneath her feet trembled, just a bit. But it was a distinct kind of tremble; one that could not be mistaken for the falling of a heavy tree or the rumbling of the earth below.
Each and every member of the Redvein Militia turned their attention to the captain for confirmation, which she immediately provided. “Another kaiju attack. Prepare for defense!”
She looked back over at the slumped-over mech. No red light….
Whatever. She didn’t have time to compete in a staring contest with the thing right now. Another kaiju had awakened to attack, and they were going to have to find a way to combat it without the help of Rocky and his mech….
* * * *
ULTRA ROCK
* * * *
“….How exactly am I supposed to get out?”
[ARE YOU AN IMBECILE?]
With a huff, Rocky replied, “I guess so! Look, you wanna get out too, so just tell me how to leave!”
[BAH. HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE TO BEG FOR HELP.]
“….”
[….]
“You don’t know either, do you, Rak?”
[SHUT UP.]
The gargoyle sighed, moving closer to the laser-enforced cell door. He reached his finger out, barely nicking the edge of it against the beam, which sent a burning shock up his arm.
[WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING THE LASER DOOR, YOU MONKEY?!]
“I wanted to test it out!”
[IT ALREADY BURNED YOU, IDIOT MORTAL!]
Rocky glared down at the key on his neck. “Well what else am I supposed to do? This is the only way out, so I’d have to figure out some way to get through the door! And you know what? You’re talkin’ a lotta shit for a guy who doesn’t have any ideas and also can’t actually do anything!”
[I WILL END YOU!]
The gargoyle flicked at the key with his finger. “Dude you can’t do shit to me. I could just flick you like this over and over and you can’t do anything.”
[I CARE NOT. I DO NOT FEEL PAIN, YOU BUFFOON.]
“Well then maybe I’ll do somethin’ else with the key,” said Rocky. “Like poke it into the lasers. Sell it at a pawn shop. Throw it in a sewer.”
[I. WILL. END. YOU.]
“You know, my ass is kinda itchy right now. Maybe I’ll just this key and-”
[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!]
In the midst of their childish arguing, neither Rocky nor Rakshasa happened to notice when a key slid through the opening in the cell door, completely bypassing the laser grid. It came in at about knee level, skidding to a stop on the floor beside Rocky’s foot.
It wasn’t until a few more insults from both parties had been flung at each other and Rocky decided to turn back towards the door to continue observing it that he finally managed to notice the key after stepping right on it.
“What the….? Was this always here?”
[YOU ARE STUPID.]
“Love you too, Rak,” the gargoyle muttered as he knelt down to retrieve the key from the floor. He lifted his head up and checked the hall in either direction in an attempt to see who had given them the key, but it was to no avail.
Use the key….I can get out of here….
Rocky hesitated as his thoughts overpowered Rakshasa’s current grumblings about Rocky not being strong enough to simply blast a hole in the wall like Rakshasa would have done in his situation, but he agreed with them. Whatever the reason, the key to the cell had been given to him, and not even he was stupid enough to not use it.
Sure enough, it worked like a charm, and he was able to slide the cell gate open without getting his hand zapped off by the lasers.
From outside the cell, he took another look in all directions, hoping to find the person who’d given him the key, but there was no one to be found, not even within the other nearby cells.
“Hey, Rak? You sense anyone?”
[NO.]
Rocky’s hand stroked at his chin. “Were you checking while we were talkin’? Did you sense anyone when the key got dropped off?”
[I SAID ‘NO.’ I WOULD HAVE MENTIONED IT, YOU CLOD.]
“Yeah, I guess so….Huh….Well, whatever! We’re free now! Let’s blow this popsicle stand!”
[THROW ME TO THE SEWERS. I AM DONE WITH YOU.]