The relatively small silver motorboat maneuvered relatively slowly through the blue waters of The Ocean. It had been about two hours, and the boat was still quite a ways away from the high mountain of Fort Titanium. The rain had let up a bit, and it was only slightly drizzling now. Oliver stood at the controls for the motor, steering the vessel whenever the waves pushed it off course.
"How long do you think it'll be before we get there?" asked Valerie, sitting down next to the Tech Guns with Shadow on her lap.
"Likely a few more hours," replied Oliver, steering the boat back from an unusually large wave. "We should be there by tonight."
"And what'll we do once we get there?"
"Well, we'll sneak inside of Fort Titanium, then we'll get the key, and--"
"No, I meant: how are we going to climb the mountain? It seems steep." Oliver glanced at it.
"Ah, yes it does."
"And?"
"And what?"
"And how are we going to climb a mountain that steep?" Valerie stood up and paced in what little room there was of the boat.
"I'm sure we'll be able to,"Oliver answered. "If we need some rope or a harness or climbing sticks or anything like that I'll likely be able to make a crude version we can use for the climb."
"I guess so," agreed Valerie, sitting back down. She jumped slightly when a flying fish darted out of the water right behind her, flew in an arc over the boat, and landed again in the other side. Shadow stared intently at the spot it had gone under, waiting for it to return.
"Why are there so many flying fish out here?" questioned Valerie.
"You know, I'm not entirely sure," said Oliver. "That is a little strange." A few uneventful minutes passed before Valerie suddenly noticed a quick gleam of silver rise from the water. It rose for only a second, then disappeared below.
"What was that?" she asked.
"What was what?" Oliver glanced at his surroundings before returning to the controls.
"A saw something the water-- a quick gleam of silver."
"Probably just the back of a flying fish."
"Probably." Valerie relaxed again. A couple minutes later she saw it again-- a quick gleam of silver. It was much bigger this time; too big to be a simple flying fish.
"I saw it again," she said. "It looks too big to be a flying fish. Do you think we should be worrying about it?"
"Not really."
At that moment it rose completely out of the water, and Valerie used all of her willpower to keep herself from screaming.
It was a giant, silver serpent. A mechanical silver serpent. It rose from The Ocean, water dripping from it's head, and it seemed to be, according to Valerie's estimate, about fifteen or so feet tall. It's eyes were glowing blue spheres, and another blue-glowing line was built across its face, forming a twisted smile. Valerie figured it must be waterproof-- there was no way it could be functioning properly if it wasn't. Shadow hissed and attempted to hide underneath the pile of tech Guns, but failed. The Serpent's scales gleamed as it waited there, examining the boat. There were words printed on its side: SERPENT #035.
A deep, distorted, mechanical voice sounded from the serpent. It was strangely unsettling.
"Wait a moment while the necessary scan takes place." Valerie, Oliver, and even Shadow simply stood there, dumbfounded. The serpent opened its mouth and produced a yellow scanning light, which swept over the group a few times before it closed its mouth and processed its newly acquired data.
"Subjects identified as Valerie Frostwell: escaped Visionary, Oliver Hilton: escaped Powerless, and Valerie's companion cat. Hostile subjects. HOSTILE SUBJECTS!" At this the serpent's body extended it's head and a portion of its body flew through the air and wrapped around Oliver's chest, trying to constrict him. Valerie immediately tried to pull the serpent off of him, but the swift movement brought the sharp pain back to her side injury, and she doubled over. Shadow leaped through the air, yowling, and managed to scratch one of the Serpent's eyes, causing it to let go of Oliver for a few brief seconds.
While the Serpent recovered, Valerie grabbed Oliver and pushed him down to the deck. She reached for the Tech Guns and grabbed two of them, one in each hand before she noticed the second Serpent.
This Serpent was printed with the number 078. It attempted to wrap Valerie in a crushing squeeze, but she shot its twisted smile and it lurched back. Serpent 35 had recovered from its eye injury and was now trying to bite Shadow. Shadow stared at almost in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe it would do such a thing to him. He then leaped onto Serpent 35's head and scratched both eyes with all of the power he could muster.
Oliver laid on the deck, his breath returning to him after his near-death experience. He glanced up; saw Serpent 78 trying to bite Valerie and he lunged forward, punching the Serpent right in the glowing eye. He cradled his hand afterward, the blow having felt like he was punching Titanium. The thought then occurred to him that perhaps he might've. The blow of his hit shattered the eye completely, and Serpent 78 sunk back into the ocean, retreating in its defeat. Valerie stood up, turned around, and shot two spheres of energy into both of Serpent 35's eyes, and it quickly retreated as well.
Suddenly the sea seemed unusually calm after this sudden, unexpected fight.
"That was crazy," panted Valerie, leaning against the side of the boat. She let the Tech Guns drop to the ground.
"Yes," agreed Oliver. "Yes, it was." He stood up and continued to steer the boat away from waves. Shadow didn't seem to disturbed by the encounter with the Serpents-- he had fallen asleep, lying down happily next to the Tech Guns. Valerie sat down next to the peacefully sleeping Shadow and massaged her side, which had been damaged even more so by the Serpent's constricting squeeze.
They traveled for a few more uneventful hours. The rain came and went, and the mountain of Fort Titanium grew ominously closer with every few minutes. Finally it was a normal, sunny day with no trace of stormy clouds, and the small boat approached the mountain.
"We're almost there," said Oliver. "Just a few more minutes now."
"Finally," Valerie replied. Shadow woke up and gazed out at the mountain with his bright yellow eyes. As they approached, hundreds of silver gleaming objects slowly rose out of the water, slowly and ominously. hundreds of FAMILIAR silver objects.
Valerie stared at them in disbelief. "Oh no no no no..." Hundreds of Serpents rose from The Ocean, surrounding the mountain. They all stared blankly and disconcertingly ahead with their blue, glowing spheres and twisted smiles.
Oliver maneuvered the boat slightly closer every few seconds, and the Serpents stood still, seemingly unheeding. As soon as the small boat was about ten feet away from one of the Serpents, it tilted its head, gazing at them. Its deep, unsettling voice sounded.
"Do you have authorization for the President's Fort Titanium?" Its yellow scanner waved over the boat for a few seconds. "Subjects identified as Valerie Frostwell: Escaped Visionary, Oliver Hilton:
However, it never finished its sentence. Two energy spheres flew from Valerie's Tech Guns onto both of The Serpent's eyes, and it sunk into the depths of The Ocean, never to be seen again. Unfortunately, this alerted all of the other Serpents, who didn't need a scan to realize they were intruders. Oliver steered the boat as fast as he could into shore. Valerie held Shadow and one Tech Gun as they leapt from the boat onto the rocky shore. Oliver followed quickly after, wrenched the boat from the grasp of a Serpent, and followed Valerie to the bottom of the mountain, where the Serpents couldn't reach them.
"What are those things?" Valerie asked, setting Shadow down next to her.
"My guess," theorized Oliver, "would be that President Weatherford created them and left them in the ocean to provide an impass for intruders. Some were scouting Serpents, like the ones which attacked us; and the others guard the mountain of Fort Titanium."
"Wow," was all Valerie said. "Thomas told me that President Weatherford made some human robots, and was going to start letting them protect the city with the human guards. He also said that Sir Rent seemed worried about it, which wasn't a good sign."
"It definitely isn't a good sign," Oliver agreed, inspecting a particularly unusual rock. "After what we've seen of these Serpents, just imagine what human robots could do."
***
Paul sat in an old, wooden chair in the underground warehouse. His plan had backfired-- although not completely. The loss of the chameleon band was quite the hindrance, but he was fairly certain he could still do it. He had Tech Guns-- three of them, exactly. Having the whole warehouse would be considered an advantage to someone like Kresco, but Paul had no experience whatsoever in mechanical crafting.
Another annoying problem was the fact that he was now a wanted man. This is where the chameleon band would've come in handy. Now, Paul had to sneak around the city, careful that no one figured out his identity.
Ed was sitting on another chair, trying to put less weight on his burnt leg. Coward. If Paul had been the one with the burnt leg, he would've still gone on. Pain was almost a weightless thing when distracted by something else important.
Yes, Paul still had the basic needs for his plan. Project Midnight's Wrath would be rebooted-- and soon.