Two pairs of glossy eyes popped out of barely lit black waters. A set of flaring blue ones and a set of slick blacks ones, the black ones pupils made just visible by a single square shape light on the edge of a rough surface in front of them. As the set of blues ones continued to get out, the pool of blue tinted water summoned the head of an angular black CAST and a pair of thin arms reaching out so it could lift itself onto cement floor. With only its sleek legs remaining in the water, the head of a dolphin attempted to talk to the robot when it knew it could no longer follow. Sadly, CAST couldn’t understand it words and as a result, turned around to say,
“Thanks for the help. I’ll take it from here.”
On that, the two stared at each other in silence. Hearing these words, the dolphin had nothing more to say to the metal being. After a two second stare down, the dolphin uttered one final cry, sunk into the water and vanished without a trace. Once gone, Stamato scanned around for an exit and hummed. To his well hidden dismay, nothing seemed familiar. According to three different maps he downloaded, he should still be underwater; not in a quarter full box in the middle of nowhere.
“Stamato to Rio. I seem to be in need of your guidance,” the CAST calmly said with a finger near his left eye. As he spoke, his voice echoed in the mostly hollow room. As far as he could see, not a single object occupied it. Just him and the single soft light behind him.
“One moment, Stamato,” a man responded.
Like a statue, Stamato held his pose. Never moving, never blinking. After a moment of silence, Rio came back on to say, “You seem to be located in a recent addition of the building; one much closer to both the power core and the inner depths of the zoo. I assume it was added to tend to the dolphins, should they be unable to make it back to the surface. However, it could also be another means to get to the main power core, or power room if you will. Be careful down there, Stamato. The log says its heavily guarded by animatronics. One press of a button and who knows what you will do the rest of the facility.”
“Acknowledged,” said Stamato, finally moving towards the exit. “I’ll be heading there now to make sure no one is there. Are we allowed to use our normal equipment yet?”
“Negative. They won’t budge on their decision, but we’re still trying.”
“This is Yoshi,” said another man the next second. “I found a large group of civilians huddled in a room. It’s looking bad. Inanna, set this pole over there. I’ll set up the portable screens.”
“Bad doesn’t tell me anything, Yoshi. What’s the situation?” Rio demanded.
“A few of the animals have been tranquilized, but three of them had to be put down. As far as the civilians go, several wounded… eight confirmed dead. I’ll let you know if I find more. On the bright side, I found the president. Evidently, staying down here-”
“We need to get him and his family out of there immediately.”
“You sure we can pull a mass warp with these things?”
As if he knowing what Yoshi spoke about, Rio said in response, “They’ve only failed once during the testing phase. It should be okay. I’ll notify the others that a large group will be arriving very soon.”
As Stamato walked through a seemingly endless walkway, he began to focus less on the smaller pipes above him and more on the floor below. From what he could tell, the passageway first started as a narrow tunnel, then opened up into a large enclosed halfpipe. Visible under many red lights, which lie on each side of the metal floor, he could see a long just as seemingly endless grated panel bouncing around under every foot step. Stopping in his tracks, he dropped down onto one knee for a better look. With his mag there to light up the inside of the panel, he could see a transparent pipe filled with running water which flowed up from where he stood and all the way towards the end of the corridor. Eyes trailing from his feet into the hazy darkness ahead, he stood back up and placed a finger against his head.
“Rio, is the power core water cooled?”
“In the past, it was used as a backup cooling and heating mechanism. It should still be in place to this day. Why?”
“Are the tubes large enough for a dolphin to swim in?”
“Possibly,” Rio replied. “Normally there should be gates blocking any sort of aquatic life from entering. Even if a dolphin could fit into there, there is a small chance it would last very long once inside.”
The sound of an opening door and the cries of several people could be heard over the radio as Arron butted in, “Please, Yoshi barely gets down here and thinks he already go his-Oh. Oh I think I’m going to..,” he gagged before closing off his channel.
The cried of several people could be heard once again as Yoshi replied, “Listen, Arron. Now’s not to the time to act like a little… Look, take this and put it over there. After that I need you to regroup with the guards and go up with them to look for the others.”
Arron’s voice wavered. “Like I’m going to let you tell me what to do,” he rebelled before hurling.
“Inanna, regroup with Marisa. I’m going to say down here and make sure nothing wrong happens.”
“Are you sure?” Arethusa asked in earnest.
“The mass warp only has a manual switch,” Rio added. “Not only will he have to stay there to activate it, but he may also need to be there should it need any more fuel.”
Walking further down the corridor, Stamato noticed that his marker now overlapped with Arron’s. As Yoshi close the channel, so no one would hear the two go back and forth over his commands, the CAST looked around for any sort of doorway and saw none. Once realizing that the walls remained solid all the way through, he looked up at the ceiling to see if any nearby maintenance shafts were installed. Much to his dismay, all he could see was just piping of several sizes. In the next few seconds, a similar but distorted warping sound could be heard not just over the radio, but through the entire building as well. When the warp began to go off, the ground began to vibrate and all the red lights around the CAST flickered on and off. Suddenly everyone could hear Yoshi uttered the word, “Oh,” before a loud explosion went off. The shockwave sent Stamato staggering backwards as he forced a finger on his head.
“Yoshi,” he cried.
Stamato didn’t get an answer. He repeated himself once, then twice. As he did, the sound of crumbling rock could be heard up above him. Almost like the crack of thunder, but slower, and in the next moment, the black robot would find his back turned against the ceiling as it tore itself apart. Out a random hole formed through the pipes, a lone body fell through along with the rest of the building. In the wake of the dust in his face, the CAST noticed a human male stand up from the rubble and carelessly dust himself off. Like nothing ever happened.
“Funny meeting you here, Stats,” the man causally said as he began to walk towards the baffled robot. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone wanted me dead.”
Once in arms reach, the CAST picked a piece of cement off from the man’s shoulder and examined it. “I must admit,” he said without taking his gaze off the multicolored object. “I am amazed with how calm you are about all of this.”
“Call it experience,” the man replied in a smug manner. “I’ve been through worse. Can’t say the same for the floor I burrowed through. I hate the sound of twisting metal.”
“Rio, it seems our presence has caused some plans to fast forward. Someone wanted those people dead. Yvonna, Yoshi and I will be heading towards the core. Is that alright?”
“Hurry it up, Stats,” Yvonna responded. “We don’t want another explosion like that to happen again.”
“According to Inanna,” joined a recovering Sia. “The room contained most of the explosion. Still, I would suggest you tread lightly around that area.”
“I think we should all pull out,” suggested Arron. “This place is toast. We already have a large crater on the side of the building. What makes you think anymore won’t happen?”
“We are ARKs, Arron. The guards can leave, but we’re not going anywhere,” said Yvonna.
“Yes, ma’am,” grudgingly said the man.
Without saying a word, a smirking Yoshi waved his arm forward and the two began to walk. Though the two said nothing to each other the whole way, in truth, both of them held a good number of questions from one another. Deep down inside, Stamato wanted to ask Yoshi why humans were so weird and why he was the most strange of all; willingly allowing others a position of leadership when any other human would rarely do the same. According to the history books at least. Meanwhile, Yoshi wanted to ask more about the building. What it housed, what it was made of, and the likely hood of their enemy’s escape. Since he knew next to nothing about the building’s layout, he felt it would be best to ask his friend. Since he has the entire building embedded in his mind. Or so Yoshi believed.
“So, Stats,” Yoshi began. “As far as I understand, the core doesn’t really use the facility’s tank water to cool the core does it?”
Stamato pointed a palm at the human and replied, “Enigma, as much as I would love to explain how its cooling system works, now is not the time.”
“Right, sorry,” said Yoshi in a low voice, facing forward again. “So, what do we do if the door is locked?”
“I have the bypass code. Do not worry.”
Both the CAST and the human pushed into jog.
“Pretty long hallway…” Yoshi commented. “Things to know when we get there?”
“Should the room be flooding or flooded, stand only in the marked areas of the floor. I feel our foe would move best in such an environment.”
The two shifted into a sprint.
“Right, only the marked areas.”
“Brace yourself, Enigma. We are approaching the door.”
Closing in, a circular doorway fitting the entire halfpipe slowly grew larger. From what Yoshi could see in the red light, the door frame was thick with metal and painted in yellow stripes. On the door itself he could see a large yellow sign that said warning. To the right of the door was a large key pad. To the left, a scrolling staff roster. Since Yoshi faced the unknown, he felt very tempted to reach for one of his three pistols. One of them being the gun issued to him by ARKS. The other two he owned for himself. However, since he was with Stamato, in the end he felt like he didn't need either of them.
“I’ll take point,” said Stamato as he punched in the code without hesitation.
Before the teal hair man knew it, the door dropped down like a heavy weight without anything holding it up. Stamato held an arm out In front of Yoshi.
“The door shouldn’t have done that,” he whispered.
“What’s going on?”
“Someone put the core into cool down mode. Brace for impact.”
Yoshi looked behind to see every single light shut off one row after another. In the darkness, he could hear liquid come rushing in though the path they ran through. Eyes widening in fear, he returned his gaze to the room and noticed only the core glowed inside.
“Inside, now,” Yoshi commanded.
“Quickly, to the yellow floor markers,” yelled Stamato.
Making it just in time, all the liquid from outside forced its way inside. Through the door, the two of them could hear the liquid crash into the core and slowly drain down the grates underneath. After falling through the grates in the floor, it then slowly made its way up the room and towards the ceiling. Finally, once the room had completely filled itself with fluid, the dolphin with the device in its head came rushing in.
Not bothering with Stamato, who it spotted first, it instead went for Yoshi instead. In self-defense, Yoshi summoned a block of earth and defended against the first attack. The nose bounced off. Yoshi almost left the floor marker. As the human recovered, the dolphin came around for another attack. This time it landed a hint. It hit Yoshi’s shoulder, forcing him to slam into the floor.
Stamato reach out and shouted, “Yoshi.”
Yoshi tried to get back up. The dolphin came around for the finishing blow. Seeing this as a life or death situation, Stamato decided to act. Shifting into overdrive, he jumped out of the cold spot and into the rest of the room. Just before the mammal could land its blow, the CAST came in just in time to tackle it into another direction, causing it to scrape its belly against the metal floor. Angered by the CASTs intervention, the once black eyes turned red with fury. As though shouting with all its might at the robot, a turret answer the mammal’s called and popped out of the wall. Bullets flew. Stamato picked up his fallen ally and made a run for it.
“Bitol, are you okay?” he asked, a bullet bouncing off his head.
“Don’t worry about me, Stats,” the man replied.
“And the turrets?”
“I’ll worry about the turrets. You worry about knocking out that dolphin.”
After that, Yoshi conjured up a small earth barrier above their heads. As Yoshi blocked the hail of bullets, Stamato dodged the violent blue creature and continued to run. One attack after another, the two kept clashing. Though the CAST managed to land a few hits onto it, it seemed to be unfazed by most of his attacks, and though the battle seemed to last forever, eventually the creature started to lose its patience. It stared the CAST in the eyes and emitted another one of its cries. All the turrets popped out at once and opened fire.
Yoshi winced in pain as he expanded the barrier. Though he knew his friend had them covered, Stamato didn’t know how much longer Yoshi could last. Stamato lifted his hand and stuck his fingers together. With a make shift blade in sight, the two looked at each other. Yoshi’s eyes widened and shook his head. Without saying a word, the robot and mammal clashed once more. Only instead of trying to knock it out this time, Stamato tried to stab his hand inside the head of the creature and pulled whatever part of it brain out of its skull.
“This is Stamato. The threat has been eliminated, and the experimental dolphin has been incapacitated. Appearently, it though it could use the emergancy power supply and it's resistance to temperature to have the upper hand over any soul it went up against.”
“Rio,” Yoshi butted in. “For Stamato’s sake. Put in the report that if the creature was killed, I did it. Not him. The last thing we need is a crisis breaking out over CASTs killing something.”
“Yoshi, that isn’t necessary. I know what I did. Though you prevented me from taking its life, I’m sure they will understand.”
“Whatever the case may be,” Rio sighed. “The deed has been done. We’ve done what we had to do. Zelatus, board the B-01 and get yourselves back to the campship. We’re heading home. Rio out.”
“How’s your shoulder?”
“It’s just dislocated,” Yoshi groaned, trying to shift it back into place. “Don’t… worry about… it.”
“Good work out there, Yoshi.”
“E-yeah, you too…”
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I'm thinking #4 might be Yvonna, #5 could be Yoshi(?), #6 maybe Tuhina, #10 could be Ijiraku, and #14 ummm... Arethusa? With all of these, some things seemed to fit while other parts could be taken one way or another, so I really have no idea!
I toyed with the idea of including something similar in my own story but haven't decided whether to do anything with it or not.
Actually, based on the title I thought it might be Ijiraku vs. Tuhina or something like that. Although I'm not sure you'd call Tuhina "dead," maybe just "changed"?
Also, why would a CAST need or want to eat cake?
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