"Are you ready yet?" Katie asked looking at a door
"You sure I have to wear this on the mission?"" Joey asked from the other side of the door
"Why not? It's like your little official princess outfit" Katie replied
"Well what if someone sees me and teases me?" Joey asked
"We are going to an abandoned lab. I have been doing work in there for some time now, there's no one there who will see you. Just wear it just this once, and if you really don't like wearing it on missions you won't have to anymore" Katie replied sounding slightly sad
"I-it's not that I don't like it, I just don't want to be teased about it" Joey replied opening the door some
"But we tease you about being a sissy otter bab" Katie replied looking as the door opened
"Yeah... but you all do it playfully and not in a mean way" Joey replied stepping on out
He stood there dressed up in a purple and white skirt and a pink fish print shirt with purple frills on the sleeves and collar. His scallop shell was clipped onto his hair, and had a purple wrist cuff on his left wrist and a pair of purple leggings. His Right arm had the little communicator device that Katie had made for him as he crinkled with each step as he had on a pink diaper underneath.
"So? With that outfit on, no one could tell if you were a boy or not unless they took your diaper off which isn't very likely" Katie answered
"Well...true" Joey answered as he looked over at Katie in her outfit
She stood there with her hair in a ponytail, bow missing a string strapped to her back as she wore blueish purple outfit, armored boots, a belt with a wrench strapped on to it, goggles and a gauntlet on her right hand.
"Plus it makes you look adorable, think of it as a junior princess uniform. If you get better with your skills maybe I can convince the queen to make you a newer outfit like what I wear" Katie replied
Joey didn't answer as he blushed some.
"What's the matter? Riola got your tongue?" Katie asked playfully
"I like this outfit plenty enough" Joey muttered quietly
"Can you repeat that? I didn;t quite catch that" Katie asked
"I like this outfit" Joey repeated speaking louder
"So you don't want another outfit?" Katie asked
Joey didn't answer but his blush said it all.
"Well in that case this will be your official mission outfit" Katie replied snuggling the otter boy
Joey smiled and watched the otter girl pull out her portal device and pointed it at a wall. With a pull of a trigger a swirling green portal appeared and Katie motioned for Joey to follow her as she ran through the portal. Joey dashed on through immediately after and found himself standing in the middle of a large dimly lit and derelict lab.
"This little lab is a place I have been salvaging for a while now. Been trying to find as many computer files that haven't been corrupted as well as any machines that are still in good condition" Katie began to explain
"Why files and machines?" Joey asked
"Well the machines are for me to reverse engineer and figure out how to incorporate them into my own inventions. The files are for research and data, knowing how everything works can be a big help in reverse engineering and it can help us learn what happened" Katie answered
"So why do you think this place was abandoned?" Joey asked
"Nine times out of ten its usually a rogue A.I that becomes self aware and decides that it doesn't need to serve its makers" Katie simply responded
"So they don't program safeguards so that doesn't happen?" Joey asked confused
"They do, but they use that silly asimov's rules of robotics" Katie replies
"Oh, so for smart people they sounds pretty dumb" Joey commented
"That or just too lazy to properly shackle their A.I" Katie replied walking up to a large console
She began pressing various keys as several menus began popping up on the large monitor before a large map screen appeared. Half of the rooms displayed were colored blue while the rest were either red or greyed out.
"The blue rooms are the ones I have managed to access and unlock" She explained"The red are still on lockdown, been trying to lift the lockdown on this place to get everything I can"
"And the greyed out rooms?" Joey asked
"Destroyed, they are beyond repair and and too dangerous so they are completely offline and unaccessible, no possible way to get anything from them." She answered
"So I'm guessing we are trying to unlock the remaining rooms today?" Joey asked
"Smart boy" She complimented "Yes, we need to get more of the facility opened up so I can finish up in here" She added
"So what happens after you get everything you can?" Joey asked
"Well it's usually a good idea to wipe everything off the computers and seal this place up for good. Too dangerous to leave open for anyone to wander in and get hurt. Then theres the worst case where a bad guy might get in and try to do what I'm doing, not a good thing to let an enemy get an edge over you." Katie explained
"Right, so one last question, you mentioned there are rooms on lock down, so what caused the lock down? I doubt they put this place on lock down for funsies especially when several rooms are in ruins" Joey asked curiously
"Not sure, most of the data logs regarding the lock down are corrupted, most of what i can pull up on it points to a malfunction. My guess is they built something that went haywire, possibly a robot or a weapon but don't quote me on that, I can't be certain" She answered
"I see then" Joey replied "Well lead the way and tell me what you need me to do"
Katie nodded and took the lead as Joey followed, they walked down a dimly lit hallway passing by an assembly line that no longer functioned. Several machines were broken or scrapped of their parts.
"I shouldn't have to warn you but I'm just going to say it anyway, be careful of traps and alarms. This place might be ruined but the security was well built, it is still functional" Katie warned
"Don't worry, I'm following your every step and not touching anything" Joey replied
"I know, but just warning you just in case we get split up. I don't want you getting in too much trouble on your first little mission" Katie replied
"I'll be careful really" Joey replied
"I'm just saying be safe, you never know if there is a hidden camera scanning for facial recognition, a pressure sensitive floor, laser trip wires, motion detectors, all sorts of traps could be lying in wait" Katie continued to explain
Joey was silent as she continued to lecture him as they walked along. They approached a door to one of the rooms on lock down and Katie walked up a keycard reader mounted on the side of the door.
"Hold that thought for a moment, just gotta get the door open" She replied rummaging through her bag for something.
Joey walked up to the keypad on the wall and looked at the display. Joey saw it was asking for a password to unlock the door with a small flashing message underneath the prompt, to alert that there were only three tries remaining to input the right password. Joey looked at Katie who was still looking through her stuff.
"I know it's in here somewhere, I put it in here before we left" She commented looking through everything.
Joey shrugged and and held up a finger and pressed a few buttons on the lcd display. There was a loud beep as the screen flashed green and the door slid open with a whoosh.
"What the? How did you? What did you do?" Katie asked dumbstruck
"Well..... it said there were three attempts and didn't think you needed more than one so I just....kinda guessed the password?" Joey replied nervously
"You what? How?" Katie asked wanting to know how that was possible
"Well I just typed in the word guest, and it just opened" Joey answered
"Wait what?" Katie asked unsure if she heard that right
"I just typed in guest, and it was correct" Joey repeated
"Who in the hell makes their password, guest?" Katie asked face palming
Joey shrugged his shoulders as Katie sighed some.
"Just be careful. If you had gotten it wrong it might have malfuntioned and set off the alarms, best not to leave things to dumb luck" Katie replied
"Well you can't deny how effective dumb luck is" Joey replied
"Yes but it doesn't last forever" She replied walking up to the open door, "I'll take the lead, follow me and watch your step"
Joey just nodded as she walked on forward and set foot in the room. As she began to look around for light switch.
"Hey you know any magic to help light this room up?" She asked
"Yes" Joey quickly answered and held up his left hand.
Joey clenched his fist and built up his mana in his hand. Once the magic was built up, he opened his hand, releasing a ball of light into the air that followed the otter boy. The ball of light lit the room up allowing Katie to see into the darkness. The rooms looked like a large research lab, with several empty and broken containment tubes filled the room. Scattered all around the floor were old robots laying motionless. Katie walked up to one cautiously and began to inspect one of the dormant machines.
"Is it safe?" Joey asked
"Yeah it's fine, the battery in this thing is completely dead. Seems it never returned to its recharging station" Katie replied
"So what is it?" Joey asked approaching it
Looking at it, it appeared to be a four legged drone with what looked like a gun turret mounted on its back.
"Security drone, must have been released when lockdown was initiated. Looks like it used laser weaponry. Not a very impressive laser mind you, my guess is that this is a low level security drone. Guess whatever triggered the security must not have been considered too big a threat" Katie explained
"Well lets hope they stay dead" Joey commented
"I don't think we need to worry about these, but I do wonder if any other drones are lying in wait for reactivation" Katie began to ponder
"Well as long as we don't trip any security that shouldn't be an issue right?" Joey asked
"Correct" Katie replied "Now let's look for a light switch"
Joey nodded and scanned the walls for anything that looked like it would be a sciency looking light switch. Looking around, he mostly saw monitors that were mostly cracked and broken, not displaying anything along with whiteboards with various formulas scribbled on them.
"What's that over there?" Joey asked pointing to a wall
Katie looked and saw an lcd display panel with a display of a lightbulb on it. Looking at it more, she saw the display showed the light bulb in an off state.
"I guess you just tap the panel and turn on the light" She replied
"Dunno why a simple light switch can't suffice or even a dimmer switch but okay" She muttered to herself and reached out to touch it
As soon as her finger pressed the panel, the lights in the room turned red as alarms began to blare.
"What the hell!?" Katie exclaimed "Joey did you touch anything?" She asked alarmed
"I didn't touch anything" Joey replied
"Then what.... the light switch? But that doesn't make sense, why would a light switch?" Katie asked as she trailed off as a computerized voice cracked to life over the intercom.
"Alarm panel triggered in sector 4, room D. Initiating level one security forces to apprehend" The voice replied
"Alarm panel? Its a light switch" She replied staring at it trying to put two and two together
"Warning, level one security forces inoperable. Engaging level two security to neutralize" The voice once again replied
Joey looked around at the broken down robots as he quickly realized the ai in charge of the place assumes the lifeless robot drones were their doing.
"Oh you can not be serious what dumb stupid idiot put the light switch display on the alarm panel?" Katie asked pressing the lcd display on the nearby7 alarm panel seeing the lights turn on and off in the room.
"Danger! Danger! Danger! All personnel please report to the safe rooms, Initiating level three security for termination. Initiating mark 4 sentry bot" The voice replied
There was a sudden shaking of the room as the sounds of clanging metal rang on out through the facility.
"What is that!?" Joey asked
"I dunno but we gotta move, hurry we gotta get back to the main console. I might be able to shut it down!" Katie exclaimed grabbing Joey by the arms and leading him on back in a hurry trying to not get caught up in whatever was coming
Running down the halls, they made their way back to the room they started in as another voice bellowed throughout the room.
"All intruders will fall before the might of Geoff, the spider king!" A robot voice exclaimed as a large quadrupedal mech lept down from the ceiling, landing on its back. "Not even an ungraceful fall can hurt the great king of spiders!" It replied rearranging its legs and long cylindrical head to be standing up right
"Umm... why is this thing calling itself a spider king?" Joey asked looking at the machine
The machine sparked some from its head, as six mechanical eyes on the sides of the robots head tracked the two of them.
"Intruders detected, engaging in combat!" Geoff exclaimed
A few turrets popped out from its front legs as laser dots appeared on them.
"Oh sh.." Was all Joey could say when there was the sound of clicking from the turrets.
"Ummm this is embarrassing, my spider guns are jammed. Summoning my spiderlings to deal with you two till repairs are made" The sentry replied
Immediately a series of pneumatic tubes dropped down from the ceiling as pieces of broken robot parts began falling on down in the tubes crashing onto the ground.
"You horrible fiends! You murdered my spiderlings!" Geoff bellowed out
"Okay this thing is crazy and very obviously malfunctioning" Katie replied "Maybe if we are lucky none of its offensive weapons are working" Katie replied
Just then, the machine turned around as a large cannon like turret emerged.
"Engaging web launcher!" Geoff exclaimed as an eclectic net shot out from the cannon.
Joey and Katie both dived out of the way as the net stuck to the wall behind them shocking the wall with the net. The two quickly scrambled behind cover of an old broken computer terminal to stay safe from the nets.
"The spider king has more webs where that came from, us spiders can make many webs" Geoff replied firing more nets blindly unable to see from behind.
"Anyway to take this thing down?" Joey asked
"Yes but it's hard to really focus on where to target if it wont stop shooting nets" She replies "Think you can freeze that net cannon?" She asks
"Yeah but normally I need water to freeze things, and water with all this electronic equipment won't end very well" Joey replied
"Yeah, wait normally?" Katie asked
"I do have one bit of magic that could work but I'm not that good with it yet. Not my affinity so it isn't easy to master" Joey answered
"Try anything, better than being shocked by an insane robot" Katie replied pulling out her bow, "If you can freeze that cannon I can strike at the back of its leg joints and immobilize it"
Joey nodded and peeked up from behind cover as he built up mana into his right paw. The mana quickly transformed into blue flames, forming into a ball in his paw.
"Please just let this work!" Joey yelled as he stood on up.
He pulled his right arm back, readying to throw the ball of fire as he focused on the cannon. The cannon was ready to fire another net just as Joey threw the ball of flames, Katie could only watch as the ball flew towards the sentry bot as it fired another net. The electrified net seemed to unfurl in slow motion flying right towards Joey's attack, as the fireball just barely flew between the small openings in the net and struck the cannon, while the two dived down back behind cover dodging the net just in time. The flames quickly began to engulf the net launcher, but instead of burning, the launcher was being frozen solid.
"What kind of magic is that!?" Katie asked trying to make sense of what she was seeing as she rose from cover.
"Freezing flames" Joey answered. "I have no idea how it works, it's inherited magic" Joey answered
"But your mom is a water magic user, I never knew she could do something like this" KAtie replied
"Thats because its not hers, its someone else's, Ryuchi's" Joey replied "He made it and I wound up inheriting it" Joey added "I don't know how it works so don't ask"
Katie just watched as the flames died out as the magic was depleted leaving the net launcher frozen solid in ice.
"Well can't argue with effectiveness" She replied readying her bow, using her own magic to draw an arrow, taking aim.
She released the arrow as it flew towards the robot striking the vulnerable leg joints, causing sparks to fly from it.
"You fiend! You are trying to kill a mighty and majestic spider, such heinous acts can not go unpunished!" Geoff bellowed out and immediately turned around to face them despite having one disabled leg.
The machines eyes focused on them not breaking their focus as Geoff seemed intent on not turning around to reveal his vulnerable exposed joints.
"Luckily for me my spider guns are working!" Geoff replied as the sentry guns on its legs took aim.
"Spiders don't have guns you dumb stupid machine!" Joey yelled out trying to grab its attention
"Of coarse us spiders have guns, if we didn't then I wouldn't have these!" Geoff bellowed out as he unleashed a volley of shots into the ceiling to prove his point.
Katie looked at Joey for a moment before catching on to what he was up to and drew another arrow quickly across her bow. She let the arrow fly as it shot straight into one of Geoff's eyes, smashing and destroying it.
"That's not going to work, spiders have many eyes!" He exclaimed, unleashing a volley of shots as Katie ducked back down behind cover.
Joey looked and watched seeing what Katie did and realized that she had the right idea to try and blind the robot. Joey drew his blade and charged at the distracted robot and threw his sword at another of its eyes, piercing and destroying another of its optics.
"Okay you two can stop doing that now. I'm pretty sure I made it perfectly clear that I have many eyes!" Geoff replied starting to sound annoyed
"Not for long!" KAtie exclaimed poking up from behind cover and shot off a couple more shots taking out two more of its eyes.
Geoff was turning its head all about having trouble keeping up with the two now down to only two working eyes. The two otters began to dart around all over the place as the leg mounted turrets couldn't pivot and turn fast enough to keep up with their movements.
"Hey could you do a spider a favor and hold still? My spider guns can't up with you two" Geoff asked trying to turn around having difficulty with one broken leg
"Do you honestly think we would say yes?" Katie asked firing an arrow at the sword lodged in one of its eyes.
The blade was sent flying on out into the air as Joey jumped up and grabbed the blade now standing behind Geoff.
"Hey now what are you doing back there, spiders can't see behind them" Geoff asked almost worried trying to turn around
"Don't forget about me" Katie exclaimed shooting another arrow, taking out yet another eye leaving it with only one working one.
Just as Katie struck another eye, Joey charged forward with his sword striking another of the vulnerable leg joints. There was sounds of creaking metal as Geoff struggled to stay standing.
"No the king of spiders can't die like this. Activating spider self destruct!" Geoff exclaimed in desperation.
"Self destruct!?" Katie asked in shock "Over my dead body your destroying all my hard work!" She growled as she fired off several shots to try and shut it down.
Joey watched and wondered how they could stop it. Joey pondered some on it wondering if freezing it could stop it or not. Katie kept up her assault firing everything she had at the robot striking its neck and body doing everything she could to stop geoff as he began his thirty second countdown.
"Surely dumb luck can't work here as well can it?" Joey asked himself "Hey you big dummy! Spiders don't self destruct!"
Geoff stopped counting down to face Joey with his one good eye, "Says who?"
"Says every sane person in existence" Joey answered
Katie just blinked some watching as she began to put things together. "Is this thing seriously that dumb that it isn't using an automated countdown timer?" she asked herself before realizing that the countdown didn't actually count unless he said the numbers aloud.
She sighed as she walked over to the terminal while Joey argued with the machine, buying her as much time as she needed to work on shutting down the security alert. It took only a few minutes before Geoff shut down and collapsed on the floor lifeless as the voice replied over the intercom once more.
"Threat has been neutralized, shutting down security. All employees please return to work immediately" The cold voice called out
"Well that was an experience" She replied sitting down in a swivel chair.
"So mission complete?" Joey asked as he walked on up
"Well didn't exactly get any new data from the computers but we stopped this thing. I will need to scrap it so it won't wake up again in the event we trigger another alarm in the future" Katie replied
"How long will that take?" Joey asked
"A while, I don't even have the tools with me anyway to disassemble this thing anyway so let's call it a day and head home and rest" Katie replied suggestingly
"Yeah giant death machines aren't very easy" Joey replied
"So would you rather be fighting this big dummy or sapphire?" Katie asked with a chuckle
"Definitely the king of spiders, least we had a chance against this thing" Joey replied
"Fair point" Katie replied getting on up
She whipped out her portal gun and opened up a portal back to the castle.
"Come on, let's get cleaned up and then we can rest" She suggested
"Gladdly, a warm shower sounds really good after all of this" Joey replied as he walked on through the portal.
Katie followed him as they emerged out into the great hall just as Esmerelda and Sasha were walking on by. Everyone just stood there silently as Sasha looked over at Joey in his dress and diaper.
"Ummm son, any particular reason you are dressed up like that?" She asked
"Uhhh..." Joey replied standing unable to think of anything before throwing his hand towards the ground "SMOKE BOMB!" He exclaimed despite there not actually being a smoke bomb and ran on off as fast as he could to dodge the subject for now.
Katie just chuckled nervously as she waived at Sasha. "Nice to see you again Mrs. Finisra" She simply greeted before running off after Joey.
Sasha just sighed and shook her head as she and Esmerelda walked on off to continue their discussion as the queen tried her best to not break out into laughter.
