"So where are we going this time?" Joey asked, standing around in Katie's room in his adventuring dress
"To a little facility my computers tracked down. From what I can tell, it seemed to be an automated manufacturing facility" Katie answered getting her outfit on
"Is it going to be like that last place with that idiot robot thinking it was a spider?" Joey asked
"No, this place doesn't have any advanced a.i like that, it seems to be all basic programming, running the machines" Katie answered
"And you're sure it's abandoned?" Joey asked curiously
"Yes, the facility was abandoned some time ago" Katie answered as she finished getting dressed
"So why was this place abandoned?" Joey asked confused
"Well it was all automated, no people at all once it was switched on. Apparently whoever owned the place stopped showing up to pick up the completed products. The loading docks there are packed with containers, it got to a point where the place started taking everything back in to disassemble and reassemble not knowing what else to do" Katie explained grabbing her portal gun
"So basically it's been left in a state of inefficiency?" Joey asked to make sure he understood it all
"Basically, so I want to go in there and see if the machinery there is still salvageable. Such things would make my life so much easier here, I could automate all my building and repair work, I could really expand on the things I could make with such technology!" She replies excitedly as she clasped her hands together in sheer joy
Joey just stood there, staring at her, "You really do love technology don't you?" Joey asked
"Well I am a big nerd, so yes" she replies poking her boyfriends nose
She presses some buttons on her portal gun to set the coordinates and aims it at a wall. With a pull of a trigger, a portal appeared on the wall as she motioned for Joey to follow her on through as she lept on through. Joey took a deep breath and followed her on through and found himself standing in front of a large factory, made of steel and concrete, in the middle of the night. Looking at it, he could see large automated shipping cranes moving all around picking up containers to bring them back inside, and others to bring out new ones to put down in place of the container that was just taken back in. Looking more, Joey could see painting that would have given the name of the place but time had worn it down too much to read.
"So why did people stop picking things up here?" Joey asked
"I dunno, I would like to figure that out myself, but if this place is abandoned then its free game, like they say, one man's trash is another's treasure" Katie replied looking for a way in
"I have a bad feeling about this place in my gut" Joey replied looking around, seeing large lights, illuminating the building and its shipping yard.
"In your gut?" Katie asked looking at him
"Yes, in my gut, and my gut has never been wrong before" Joey replied unsheathing his sword "I can't really describe it, but I'm getting some bad vibes from this place"
"Well it is dark out, and you did say at one point, you aren't a fan of the dark" Katie replied as she took notice of a large door on the side of the wall
Joey watched as she began walking towards it and followed her along closely.
"Yes, but that's not it! Well I mean....not entirely, the darkness does make this place feel creepier, but it's something else, I just feel like there's something here" Joey replied
"Well... there's likely security cameras, it's possible it's just that natural feeling of being watched cause you likely are" Katie replied walking up to a security keypad to unlock the door
"I guess... So what are you doing?" Joey replied focusing on Katie to get his mind off of it
"Well, normally one would input a code to unlock the door, but if it uses a code then it has to be connected to a security network, if it is, then I can hack into that network from out here and turn off as much security as I can and hopefully change the passcodes so we can have free reign of the place" She explained prying off the faceplate to the keypad
Joey just watched silently, observing his girlfriend, connecting her wrist device to the keypad and beginning her hacking attempts. Joey looked around, keeping an eye out for any possible trouble, as the night was filled with sounds of machinery whirring and moving around, buzzing from the lights around the facility and the beeping from Katie pressing buttons on her wrist. Joey shut his eyes for a moment as he quickly opened them and began turning his head around.
"That's...what?" Joey muttered to himself as he looked up at the lights, squinting his eyes, expecting to see swarms of bugs or at least some spider webs near the lights but saw nothing. "hey Katie?" he asked wanting to ask her about it before his train of thought was broken by the sound of the door whooshing open
"GOT IT!" she exclaimed "Well most of it, I got us as far as the main security office, if I want to unlock the rest of the place, we need to get in there to finish up this task, once that's done, we can explore around and mark some things for salvage" Katie replied "Hmm..seems like this won't be too much of an adventure, sorry bout that, will look for something more exciting next time" She replied walking inside, leaving the keypad uncovered
Joey ran inside, glancing behind him as he entered the building.
"Hey Katie hold up a second, didn't you notice something.... off out there?" Joey asked
"Off how?" Katie asked stopping for a moment
"Well.... While we were out there, the only sounds were the buzzing of electricity in the lights and the machinery moving the cranes, but that's it. There's no sounds of crickets or any kind of bugs, and even the lights that should be attracting swarms were free of insects" Joey replied "Doesn't that seem a bit odd?"
"Huh... now that you mention it, it does seem strange but then again we don't know much about this place, they could have some sort of advanced pest control we don't know about, but it's probably nothing to worry about" Katie replied "If we get to the security office i can do some digging around and find out what's up with this place, a place like that should have logs of events here"
"All right, I hope you're right, maybe I am just feeling a little jumpy from the dark but until I know for sure, I won't feel at ease" Joey replied not wanting to sheathe his blade, keeping it at the ready
"Well come on scaredy ott, I can hold your hand if will make you feel better" She replied trying to lighten the mood
Joey just chuckled and began to smile some and walked up alongside her, "I'll be fine, let's get a move on"
The two walked down a hallway before reaching a long walkway, with a large window stretching from the ceiling to the floor of the walkway. The two stopped for a moment, and gazed on through to see what was on the other side. Looking through the glass, the pair saw a series of conveyor belts, transporting parts through a large atrium, as cranes mounted to the floor and suspended from a sky rail, picked them up to transport them to other conveyor belts.
"Not a bad setup, though I could make it more efficient when i can get this all taken apart and brought back home" Katie commented
Joey looked at it all curiously, "wonder what its making"
"Well we might be able to figure it out if we go further in." She answered as she continued down the hall
Joey followed along closely, looking all around but could see nothing of interest. The halls were made of cold steel for the walls, floor and ceiling, lit only by fluorescent lights.
"So if this place is abandoned, why is the power still on? Seems so wasteful" Joey asked as he listened to the hum of the lights on the ceiling
"Well largely to deter vandals and thieves from stealing copper wiring" Katie answered "It sounds strange to ransack a place for wiring but it happens"
"Well I mean it can't be any stranger than coming in to loot the place of its tech" Joey commented
"Touche" Katie replied with a chuckle
The pair soon came to a large room with a single window and a glass door. Inside they could see a few computers, lockers, coffee maker, dead plant, and video screens displaying security camera footage.
"You said this place was fully automated right?" Joey asked looking inside through the glass
"Yes, why?" She asked removing the faceplate to the keypad next to the glass door
"Well this office seems like it was supposed to have someone in here all the time" Joey replied "I mean, there's still a healthy potted plant in there, why have a plant if there's no one to care for it?" He asked
"Well I mean it is automated but a place like this would still need inspectors to come in and check it for safety and what not, so there likely was someone here just to watch the monitors and allow inspectors through when they came by" She answered
"Yes, but, the coffee pot in that coffee maker is full, why leave something like that full?" Joey asked
"Okay I don't have an answer for that other than maybe it being the last day and staff not giving a damn. I can't imagine anyone liking this job, it would be boring as hell just staring at tv monitors for hours a day when nothing happens'' She replied getting the door open
"I guess, so, but something doesn't seem right" Joey replied walking inside
"Relax, we're almost done" She replied patting his head
Joey couldn't feel at ease as he probed around the office, approaching the lockers. Looking them over, he found the locks were still on them and looked over at the coffee pot and saw a small sink next to it. Joey walked on up to it and turned it on to get some water flowing out the faucet, and proceeded to use his magic to bend the water to the lock and freeze it solid. With a slash of his sword, the lock was shattered to pieces in chunks of ice, as they crashed to the floor, allowing access to the locker. As Joey was breaking into the locker, Katie was busy sitting down at a security terminal, trying to hack into the computer.
"What kind of operating system is this? I could have cracked this thing when I was a little girl, seriously, do they not care about security?" She asked herself as she cracked though some code and and gained access into the system "It's probably not worth my time but I should still give myself a backdoor just in case" She muttered to herself typing away at the keyboard
Joey opened the locker to find it was still full of things, a taser, casual clothes, a keycard, and a coffee mug that read 'world's greatest lover'.
"I doubt that" Joey muttered to himself grabbing the taser and keycard "Say, would they just leave a taser behind? Seems kinda dangerous to leave something like this behind" Joey asked calling out to Katie
"What?" she asked turning around to look at it "Well....I mean they really shouldn't but, I dunno maybe they were a little inept, they seemed to be using a really outdated OS, but I dunno" She replied shaking her head trying to not overthink it
Joey looked around before staring at an air vent in the ceiling and slowly began to back away from it slowly
"What on earth are you doing?" she asked confused
"Every fiber of my being is telling me something really bad is in that vent. I can't explain it, but its like every muscle in my body is wanting to run away as fast as I possibly can" Joey answered
Katie just looked at the vent and squinted some not moving from her seat, before jumping out of her seat, letting out a yell as she felt a paw grab her shoulder.
"What the hell!?" She asked, turning and seeing Joey beside her with his paw on her, "You almost gave me a heart attack, pretty sure you made me wet myself too!"
"I dunno what happened but that feeling is gone, like whatever was there is gone now. I don't like it here, I really think we should leave now" Joey replied feeling dread filling up his entire being
"Joey.. "She replied with a sigh "All right, we can head on out and return in the daytime, I put a backdoor in here and reset the door codes, we should be able to go straight to that atrium where i place down a marker to get a portal in there" she replied trying to calm her pounding heart
As she stood up, there was a sound of someone or something crawling through the vents.
"Are you hearing that?" Joey asked nervously hoping it was just his imagination
"Joey, just get ready to run and don't stop" She replied gripping onto his hand tightly
The sounds stopped for a moment, as Katie was making sure it was safe to move, before a piece of the ceiling crashed down to the floor violently, as metallic arms emerged from the hole, gripping onto the ceiling outside the vent. The pair watched, unable to make a sound, as a glowing red eye emerged , as well as a long slender, robot body. Joey aimed the taser he took at the machine reflexively, no longer in control of his body. The machine let out a sharp screeching sound, as long thin blades emerged from the hole as Joey pulled the trigger. Darts from the taser flew towards the machine, piercing into the eye, and striking into the arm joint before delivering a powerful shock. The robot fell to the ground convulsing and sparking, screeching loudly. Joey dropped the taser, to grasp his ears, as did Katie, both of them trying to block out the sound of its screech as it soon stopped and layed there motionless.
"What... the hell is that thing?" Joey asked backing up a few steps before holding his sword to it, not wanting to get too close yet
"I don't know, I think you might have fried its battery, but still please freeze that thing in ice and smash it or obliterate it or whatever you can do to make sure it stays down" She replies trying to stay calm.
Joey nodded his head and looked over at the faucet seeing it still running. Using some magic he bent the water to it and soon covered it fully in water, and began to clasp his hands together to compress the water, and increase the pressure on it. Sounds of creaking metal could be heard, as bits and pieces began to bend and crack as Joey continued to compress the water as hard as he could.
"I dunno if I can smash it though, never really had a chance to try this out. I only recently learned this trick" Joey replied doing his best
"It's fine, if you can just render it immobile that will be enough" Katie replied watching and observing as the machine was being crushed by intense water pressure
Sounds of metal bending and breaking could be heard, as its body was broken and mangled beyond repair. Joey released his hold on the water that enveloped the machine and slumped to the ground feeling exhausted.
"You okay?" Katie asked
"Yes, just need to rest for a bit, that took a lot more out of me than I expected" Joey answered as Katie walked up to the robot
She looked it over, finding the bladed arms coming from its chest and sides. She kept examining it, seeing how flexible its spine was to allow it to creep around inside the narrow vents, but saw nothing else of note visually.
"This thing is not something I would want to meet on my own, definitely a dangerous foe, it's possible we got lucky that it didn't dodge that taser of yours" She commented walking back the computer console "I need to check this thing to see if there's any info about that thing, hopefully there isn't more of them" She added
"I have a bad feeling there's more of them for sure..." Joey commented, keeping his eye on the robot wanting to be sure it was destroyed
Katie began typing on the keyboard as the clicks of the keys were all that could be heard as the robot remained motionless. Joey relaxed himself a bit and used his sword to prop himself up and get back onto his feet, to check up on Katie.
"I think I found something, it's not much, but it seems to be a logged report of product orders. Seems a military group ordered some robots that excel in hunting for use on the battlefield. From the looks of it, just four were ordered" She said to Joey as she clicked around the files, "There's also another log about the robots powering up while in storage, said a team was sent to go and turn them off, from there the reports stop" She added
"How long ago was this?" Joey asked
"I dunno, this stupid program doesn't have timestamps. This is why I hate using tech from other worlds, they build things so awkwardly" She commented feeling a little annoyed
"Does it say anything about what the robots can do?" Joey asked
"No, classified, apparently abilities were never logged, likely something discussed in person and not written down to not leave a paper trial, that or just bad filing" She answered "Either way we need to get back home, I need to make some kind of EMP gun to fight these things" She replied pulling out her portal gun and began setting some coordinates. She aimed it at a wall and pulled the trigger but the portal wouldn't appear. She pulled it a few more times but still no portal. "What the? Oh come on, not this, please tell me it's not what I think it is?" She mutters to herself with a groan
"What's wrong? Is it broken?" Joey asked
"No, if it was i could jury rig a repair, it's much worse than that" She replied walking up to the wall and felt it with her paw, "The gun can't create portals on some surfaces, I have yet to crack that flaw, the materials they used to build this place, won't allow portals to be used in here. We got here because outside was normal concrete walls but this, I don't know what they used without analyzing it in my lab but we need to get back outside to portal out"
"Well let's get a move on, I don't want to be in here a minute longer than we need to be" Joey replied
The two made their way to the door of the security when the lights began flickering. Staring up at the overhead lights, they flickered some more , before turning off completely as the place became dead silent. Gone was the hum of electricity in the lights, gone was the sounds of machinery, just silence. Soon though, back up emergency lights switched on, illuminating the halls in an eerie red color before the sound of a large metal door slamming shut echoed loudly through the halls.
"What the hell was that and why did the lights go out?" Joey asked not liking the situation at all
"I have a theory.... I don't like it though...." She replied feeling uneasy about this as well "When that thing let out its death screech, it was likely alerting the others. If these are military robots for hunting and destroying, then it's quite likely they killed the power to reduce our vision and make hunting us down all the easier" Katie replied
Joey raised a paw into the air and formed a ball of light in his open hand to help light the area and create some extra visibility but not much.
"Well, I'm not giving them the satisfaction of trying to blind us!" Joey replied not liking the idea of being hunted by robots
They made their way back where they came from, passing by the window to the atrium and saw everything was stopped, confirming that power was cut. They trudged on and soon returned to the main door they entered through only to find it sealed shut.
"I thought as much... I dunno if I can open it without power unless... Joey you don't happen to have electrical powers do you?" she asked looking at him
"Ermmm... no, I can't actually use that kind of magic at all, it's hard to explain and now's not the time to explain it" Joey replied "Can we get the power back on?" Joey asked
"Yes, but it won't be easy, we need to find the utility room that controls the building's power. Reset the breakers and switch everything back on is all there is to it hopefully." She replied
"Any idea where to start looking?" Joey asked
"Yes, thankfully I downloaded a layout of this place to my device, we can use it to find our way to the rooms in this place, hopefully we can find the right room" She replied
"What do you mean?" Joey asked
"There's three utility rooms, if I had to guess, one is for water and another for power, it would be a safe bet to say that the last room could be spare parts or possibly hvac" Katie replied trying to think of a solution
"Well lead the way" Joey replied
She nodded and walked back to the security room as Joey followed closely behind. As they returned to the window overlooking the atrium, Joey grasped Katie by the shoulder tightly, restricting her from proceeding forward.
"Gah! What's the big idea?" She asked trying to squirm out of his tight grip
Joey was largely silent as he felt the fur stand up on the back of his neck. nce he was certain of his feelings he looked all around the hallways for anything of use before seeing a sprinkler above him.
"Please work" He said to himself as he slashed the sprinkler with his sword, breaking it open, causing water to come flowing out from it.
Katie pulled away as water began to shower down on them, unable to figure out what he was trying to do. She didn't have to wait long for her answer as he extinguished his ball of light and began to bend water all over the glass and froze it solid, trying to make it colder and colder.
"Why are you trying to break the window?" she asked
"Somethings coming, we will be cornered if we don't get through here!" Joey replied, keeping up as best he could as the glass began to crack.
Seeing the crack appear, he thrust his sword as hard as he could into the frozen glass, breaking a large enough hole for them to jump through.
"Did you have to freeze it?" she asked "Seems you could have just smashed it with your sword and skipped the freezing part"
"Call it a hunch, it seems like it would make sense for the glass to be thicker and stronger than regular glass, so I needed to make a crack" Joey replied looking down the hall as red light could be seen moving closer to them, "Hurry, before it sees us!" Joey ordered as he tried to push her towards the hole and aiming his sword down the hall
Katie looked down the hall and saw the beam of red light, likely coming from the eye of one of the machines hunting them. She looked out the broken window and saw they were on the second floor of the atrium and lept on through. She landed on her feet and looked up at the window as Joey followed on through, clenching his hand into a fist as he did. Looking up at the broken window, she saw ice forming around the hole just as the red light could be seen on the other side of the sheet of ice.
"We need to get moving, we won't have long until the ice melts!" Joey replied, taking Katie by the wrist and began to run towards a door looking for a way out of the atrium.
"do you know where you're going?" Katie asked
"No, but i know it has to be better than being near that thing" Joey replied as Katie couldn't argue against that logic.
Joey ran to a door that thankfully had a handle on it, and pulled the door open. Joey ran on through with Katie and slammed the door shut, at least giving them some breathing room from the machine. The pair found themselves in the utility room that contained cleaning supplies.
"This is crazy,why are these things roaming around?" Joey asked catching his breath trying to calm himself
"I don't know, but if we don't deal with them we won't get very far" Katie replied
"Well that wouldn't be too big a deal but if we don't know what they can do, then it's kinda dangerous to fight them" Joey commented
"Well I can't argue that but honestly, fighting blind is something that can't be avoided" Katie replied, "But, if it can be avoided, then that's the best choice, this situation though... there's probably not much of a chance to figure out what they can do without facing off against them" Katie commented
Joey thought for a moment and stood up, "Mom has only told me the basics of using her water clones, never actually taught me how to use them yet, said she had some stuff to take care of first, but I can try to make a clone" Joey replied "If I can, we could use it to try and trick one of the robots into attacking to learn what it can do" Joey suggested
"Huh.... you know, that could work. These things aren't exactly smart and it's very possible they would attack them" Katie replied thinking to herself, "If you can make a clone then lets try it"
Joey nodded his head and looked around for a source of water. He soon spotted an eyewash station, and turned it on allowing water to flow out from the spray heads. using the water he began to bend the water into a ball on the floor and tried to shape it into a clone of himself. Katie just watched, eager to see if he could pull it off as the water clone began to take shape before her expression changed to one confusion as the clone appeared misshapen. The arms arms were different lengths and the legs were too short and the head too big, but it was holding together at least.
"Yeah.... you will need to practice with that one but then again, given it's your first time it's still a good attempt given it hasn't turned into a puddle of water" Katie replied examining it
Joey just looked at in horror, "I am so glad I am not in charge of creation. '' Joey replied put off by what he made "Normally I make stuff like this in games to be silly but when trying to be serious.... yeah, I dunno how mom does it so easily" he looked at it some more trying to figure out how to command it before opening the door. "Umm... go out there and stand in the open?" He replied questioningly, unsure how it's supposed to work
The clone's body wobbled some as it began to move, complying with his command, making its way outside into the atrium. Joey pulled the door closed some enough to remain hidden but still open to see the clone as the red light soon focused on the clone. There was a loud clang of metal as the robot jumped down onto the floor, as shards of glass crunched under its feet as it walked up to the clone. Looking at it, it had the same build as the first one they encountered but lacked any bladed arms. Katie watched as a red targeting laser appeared from its eye and focused on the clone as Joey tried to whisper to the clone to move away from it some. To their surprise it began to back away, wobbling a bit before it was blown up into a shower of water droplets by a powerful eye laser.
Katie pulled the door shut quickly after seeing that, "Okay so eye laser" She replied trying to think "This one didn't have arm blades, so I think it's safe to say they each have a different means of attack" She muttered to herself
"So they have only one way to kill us?" Joey asked
"Basically" She answered "I can take it down with a well timed shot from my bow, there seems to be a large energy build up, just before it fires, if i hit its eye with an arrow before then it should completely destroy its eye and eye laser as well as enough of its head to render it harmless" She added
"How are you gonna do that?" Joey asked
"I need a distraction, I don't think the water clones will be enough to keep its focus off of me since i need to be in front of it" She replied "And i don't think it will want to stay still so I can shoot it" She added
"So you need me to keep it in place so you can shoot it then?" Joey asked
"Do you trust me?" She asked
Joey looked at her and nodded "Yes I do, but it sounds like we only get one shot at this" Joey replied
"Yes, but if you can freeze it in place, we can have a better chance" She added
Joey nodded and bent some water from the eye wash station into a ball and carried it out with him into the atrium. Katie waited for a chance to dash out as he began throwing water at the machine, to get its attention. He ran around the room making it turn around from her so she could duck into position, upon seeing an opening, she ran out and ducked behind a box of spare parts and signaled joey to turn it around for her. Seeing the signal he dashed around as it aimed its targeting laser at him, staying locked on as it began to beep louder and faster indicating it was almost ready to fire. With the bot focused in Katies direction, he quickly bent the water around the bot and began to freeze it in place. It did nothing to stop the targeting laser though its arms started to punch the ice breaking it apart to free itself. There was a sudden loud beep as well as a glimpse of something whizzing by his head, before seeing the robot thrashing around. Joey took a closer look and saw its eye sparking as electricity was visibly zapping out of it, as it began to overload.
"Get behind cover!" she replied grabbing Joey and pulled him behind the box and ducked down
Joey instinctively covered his ears as a loud explosion was heard as the robot's head was blown up from the overload and laid there lifeless in the ice.
"Well that's two down" Katie replied before sniffing the air "Do you smell gas?"
They looked around some before gazing up only to see the third one having been watching them as it clung to the ceiling. This one had a bulkier build to it, and had tanks of fuel attached to it before it let out a stream of fire from a flamethrower on its right arm. The two barely dodged in time as it dropped down onto the ground, crushing the box of parts they were hiding behind.
"I got no idea how to fight this thing" Katie commented looking for a place to run
Joey said nothing as he stared down the machine as it held out its left arm and launched an incendiary grenade at them.
"Look out!" Katie shouted as Joey quickly bent the water splattered around from his water clone into a whip, smacking the grenade out of the air.
It went flying into one of the conveyor belts exploding into flames setting its surrounding area on fire. Katie waited for the fire suppression system to kick in but nothing happened.
"Joey if you are hoping for sprinkler water I don't think you are going to get any, they don't use water around electrical equipment like this" She replied
"Don't need water" He replied, holding out his right arm as the machine readied to fire another incendiary grenade at them. "Burn" He replied as the grenade blew up in front of the robot as a bright blue flame appeared on its arm.
Katie just watched, confused some before remembering the blue flame from the spider bot. She watched as the fire from the grenade began to consume the robot and the blue flame quickly spread, overtaking the regular fire, as the robot began to freeze solid.
"What in the?" She asked not sure what was going on
The robot used its right to fire out some more fire to thaw itself out but soon found the blue flames swallowing up its right arm as it was being consumed in ice.
"I learned how this fire works, it attacks heat, the hotter something is, the brighter it burns and the more it spreads" he began explaining as the robot shrieked unable to escape its icy fate "It sucks in all heat around it, leaving behind nothing but sheer cold, it attacks with fire, so it will not be able to escape from this fire" Joey replied
Katie watched and readied her bow as its eye was still exposed as ice was quickly forming around it struggling against the ice and flames. She pulled an arrow against its string and aimed it at the eye and let gow, watching the arrow fly and smash its eye, blinding it and rendering it unable to to fight back any further as it was engulfed in ice.
"That is a scary power, you'd definitely give Nina a run for her money with fire like that" Katie replied
"Yes, but it's hard to control, I can summon it and extinguish it but I can't control its spread, it's possible it could cause some collateral damage if I'm not careful. But seeing a foe with fire weapons, I had to try it out for real" Joey replied
Katie nodded as Joey used some water from the ice that froze the laser bot in place to extinguish the fire burning hotter around the machinery.
"So we know this is the chemical room, so where's the next room?" Joey asked
Katie looked at her wrist trying to read the map of the place to find the next one.
"We need to go further down, hopefully we find it soon, I can't wait to get out of this place" Katie replied
Joey nodded his head and followed Katie through a door that led to a mostly dark hallway that had flickering emergency lights.
"Oh wonderful, flickering lights, just like in the horror movies" Joey replied with a bit of sarcasm as he conjured up another ball of light into his left hand
Katie walked on forwards, following down the hall with a bit of ease thanks to Joey. They both passed on by several locked doors needing power to open up as Joey could hear her muttering about how she is hoping the electrical room isn't locked. Katie soon came to a stop as they stumbled upon some damaged walls that were scorched up and torn up to expose some electrical wiring that had been torn up.
"Could this have been the cause of the power outage?" Joey asked
"I doubt it, if it was, there'd be sparks of electricity flowing out of the torn wires, the power was indeed cut from the main breaker" Katie answered
"So did one of those robots do this?" Joey asked
"Unlikely, that first one went down from a taser, it's possible the others were weak to electricity as well" Katie answered
"So it's the fourth and last one then?" Joey asked
"That's the only logical possibility, but if it is, then its one built to be resistant to electricity" she answered
"Why only this one then?" Joey asked
"My guess? It likely uses electricity to attack, so it would make sense that it would be insulated against electricity to avoid self destruction" Katie answered and continued on
Joey followed along looking at the destruction to the walls, "But why not build them to have all those abilities into one machine?" Joey asked
"Prototypes if I had to guess, test and see how well they perform individually before making them into an all in one, so let's consider ourselves lucky. I doubt we'd be holding up so well against ones with all manner of abilities'' Katie replied
"I just hope we don't run into it, I got nothing to fight electricity with" Joey commented sticking close to Katie
"Honestly? Neither do I, if I could portal out, I could get to my lab and make something for it, but not an option right now" She replied
They stayed silent as they continued down the ruined hallway before reaching a set of stairs that were completely dark with the emergency lights destroyed. Joey led the way, using his ball of light to guide their way down the flights of stairs, going deeper and deeper into the facility as they soon found the walls replaced by pipes for water and steam, and cables running along the walls, as they were greeted by the flickering red glow of the emergency lights once again. Continuing forward, they could hear a hissing sound coming from around a corner and both readied themselves in defense for the worst case scenario. Rounding around a corner they saw some steam pipes that were split open releasing steam into the maintenance tunnels.
"Think we can pass on through here?" Joey asked looking at all the moisture on the walls
Katie checked her wrist device, to get a read on how hot the steam was, "Hmmm, doesn't seem too hot. Should be able to pass through safely enough, but it is just water that's hot, can't you just bend it around us?" Katie asked
"Well.. Kinda, sorta? I dunno it's hard to really explain right now" Joey replied rubbing the back of his neck unsure how to describe it, "All I can say is, it's due to my blue flames, I can control cold but not heat" Joey answered
"So because steam is heat?" Katie asked
"It's hard to control, I can sorta control the water vapor, but not enough to bend it all around us, maybe..... i dunno, half at best" Joey answered
"Your magic is really weird, butany amount is better than none" Katie replied "Just do your best"
Joey looked forward to the steam filled hallway in front of them, "Any way around?" Joey asked
"Well no, not any way we can go, the vents down here are too small for us to squeeze through, and there's no branching paths until we get past all of this" Katie answered
Joey took a deep breath and walked on forward, bending some of the steam away from them, enough so that they avoided most of it. Halfway on through though, there was a crackling and buzzing sound.
"Katie what is that noise?" Joey asked nervously trying to see around in the cloud of steam
"I don't know but maybe we should pick up the pace" Katie replied pushing on Joey's back
Just then, a bolt of electricity came flying past them from behind, startling the two to move faster as Joey stopped trying to bend the steam.
"Why did you have to be right about it being electric!?" Joey asked
"Don't ask stupid questions just run!" Katie yelled on back at the otter boy
Heavy footsteps were heard as the robot pursued them through the steam as electricity began to arc around its body, building in charge. Once it had built a sufficient charge it stopped in place and stretched its arms out, pressing its limbs against the moist walls of the tunnel, electrifying the tunnel. Katie and Joey began to hop into the air in between each step trying to avoid as much of the electric charge as they could, but luckily it wasn't quite wet enough for the charge to be too dangerous. Upon seeing it's attack being ineffective it ceased electrifying the tunnel and resumed its chase.
"Can we do anything to shake this thing?" Joey asked as they got through the steam filled tunnel
"Maybe, there's a split in the tunnel" Katie replied as bolts of electricity shot past them both again, but getting more accurate now. "Just run and follow me!" She shouted running as fast as she could
Joey charged forward as fast his legs would allow, not wanting to get hit by the attacks, coming from the robot. They soon came up to the split in the tunnel as the hall continued forward and another path split off to the left in a completely darkened tunnel. Joey extinguished his light as they hid in the tunnel using the cover of the dark so they could catch their breath, as they could just barely see the robot stomp by, as it began to decide which way to go. The pair could only watch as it stood there before raising an arm seeing a sort of claw, as electricity arced between the two points of its claw, brightly lighting up the area around itself a bit. Reaching its claw out against the wall, it carved the metal lining in an almost menacing way, as if trying to intimidate the pair to scare them into revealing their position. Joey and Katie both managed to stay calm despite the attempt, as it started to walk forward continuing down the lit path.
Katie let out a sigh of relief and looked at Joey "Okay, I might have a plan" Katie replied as a bolt of electricity shot past them as the bot soon glared down the darkened hallway
Katie let out a shriek as the bolt grazed her hair coming ever closer to hitting its target. Joey watched feeling a mix of fear and anger at this thing, especially with how close it got to hitting Katie. He began to growl angrily, showing his teeth at the robot and held his sword with both hands and began to step toward the robot having had enough of running from this thing. Katie turned around and was about to stop the otter till she saw something glowing through the back of his shirt as he raised his sword high in the air attempting an all or nothing attack fueled by his anger.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Joey yelled slashing his sword at the robot
The robot quickly jumped back and raised its arm to fire another bolt at point blank range before stopping. Katie could only watch as the two stood in place not sure what was going on, as the glow on Joey's back faded away. Joey stood there breathing heavily as he started to come back to his senses and realized what the heck he was doing and quickly stumbled on back, dropping his sword, mumbling and muttering various swears at his stupidity of getting that close. Almost instantly after dropping his sword the bot began to fall apart in two halves diagonally, as it began to let out a screech collapsing on the ground as a crashing sound could be heard as a large slash appeared on the wall behind where the robot once stood.
"Oh crap oh crap oh crap!" Joey muttered scooting away from the top half of the robot as it began to drag what remained of itself with its still functioning right arm, building up another electrical charge
Katie got up and readied her bow and aimed at the robot's eye, before letting the arrow fly, piercing its eye and shutting it down for good. Upon seeing the robot laying there lifeless she turned and looked at Joey in confusion, then the wall, the robot laying on the ground in two halves.
"Joey, what the heck was that?" She asked confused by what she saw
"I don't know! I saw it nearly hit you, and then I got so blinded with anger and then next thing I knew I was standing in front of it, and then it split in two" Joey replied in a panic
"You don't know?" Katie asked confused
"No, I never used such an attack before, I had no idea I could do such a thing, whatever that thing was" Joey replied
Katie let out a sigh of relief and walked up to the otter boy and hugged him tightly before smacking him across the face.
"Don't you ever do something that stupid and dangerous again! If whatever that was, that you used didn't work I could have lost you!" She replied scoldingly before holding him tight in a hug once more
Joey just hugged her back "I'm sorry, I just lost control of myself, I promise to try and control myself better from now on"
"Please do! But I'm just glad you are all right" She replied calming down not letting go
Joey just held on as they both tried to regain their composure.
"Come on, let's get the power back on so we can leave" Katie replied letting go of her hug but held his paw tightly
Joey nodded as they walked together, no longer having to worry about anything else hunting them. They made it to the breaker room only to find that it had been torn up some by the robot to siphon electricity to charge itself, but luckily Katie was able to jury rig a repair to bypass a lot of the damage and restore power to most of the facility, enough so they could leave out the entrance they came from. They used the keycard Joey found in the locker to use a service elevator to return to the atrium where they were about to make their way back up to the shattered window, until a piece of machinery snagged part of Joey's outfit. The sound of fabric, ripping and tearing could be heard as the otter boy wrestled with the machinery to free himself as it began to pull him along as his outfit tore further till it ripped the skirt and shirt apart, tearing it up but freeing Joey in the process. After making sure Joey was okay she couldn't help but burst out in laughter as the otter boy stood there half naked as half his outfit was torn up with only half his shirt and skirt left exposing his diaper underneath.
"Well I guess I need to make you a new outfit it seems" She replied as Joey blushed bright red
Joey just groaned trying his best to cover up some.
"Oh stop being a baby, there's no one here to see" She replied giving a play pat on the butt, "Besides the new outfit will be way better, now stop being so blushy , not like I haven't seen you like this before
Joey just blushed more but nodded as he stopped trying to cover up, "Okay"
Joey made some steps out of ice up to the broken window and the two made their way out of the facility, where it was still dark out. Being outside, Katie was able to finally use her portal gun once more to return back to the castle putting an end to this adventure.
