I was sitting between Ryan and Spyder on the couch.
"So this is what little red ooze we could salvage from when Grey was holding Harper." Harris said, motioning to a jar of red ooze.
"We've been analyzing it to help us create a weapon to destroy it. Liz helped us weld it together." Leo said
"I was your human blowtorch." I summarized
"And bam!" Harris said, revealing an arm cannon.
"Ohhhh! It looks explodey." Spyder said
"That's because it is explodey." Harris said, aiming the weapon straight at me. I ducked and Ryan and Spyder moved out of the way.
"Easy, tiger." Leo told Harris
"We figured if we could hit it with the right frequency, we could turn it from red ooze..." Leo paused to put on goggles. I grabbed some from under the table, just in case.
"Do we need goggles?" Spyder asked
"I have." I said and handed Spyder and Ryan goggles
"From red ooze..." Leo said. I shielded my eyes as Harris fired up his arm cannon. "To no ooze." The entire jar just disappeared too.
"The beaker also disappeared." I pointed out
"it's not perfect." He said
"I want one!" Spyder said
"We all need one." Ryan pointed out
"oh really. That's too bad cuz I only made 4 exact replicas of this." Harris said, one of the walls flipping around. I ran and grabbed one. I experimentally fired it at the air next to the couch. It had a jerking motion back like shooting a gun or something and I staggered back as it hit the couch.
"I'll replace that." I said. The arm thing was heavy.
"If that's the case, I'm out of here!" Leo said, picking up his bag. "We've been fighting way too many flying monsters and I'm gonna pick up a few things to repair the robot's flight mode."
"We didn't - we didn't already fly?" Spyder asked
"No! We just sort of leaped through the air, like a ballerina." I said
"Can we not compare the robot to a ballerina." Ryan said and I just shrugged
"I have to keep a low profile now that Harper's back so if you need me, my secret name is Constantine Del Montevideo (I used the subtitles for that one). The third. Esquire. Thank you. Okay. Good luck. Goodbye!" Leo said. Mark walked in and passed Leo, who then told Mark "Hi! My name is Constantine."
"Guys, I was just checking the sensors and it looks like Traeger is just outside Bay City." Mark told us
"Why though." Harris asked
"Who cares?" I scoffed and then elaborated. "Look he's expecting a giant robot and he knows nada about me. We have the element of surprise with these cannon thingies. We can take him down. You ready?" I asked, hyping them up
"Ready!" Harris and Ryan confirmed
"Yea gimme one of those." Spyder said. I handed everyone an arm cannon and we sat down in our respective seats
*timeskip*
We were just leaping along in our robot.
"See! Leaping!" I said to Spyder
"Just saying, if you read the message boards, it says we can fly. It also updated on the loss of your flight superpower." Spyder told us
"We have message boards?" I asked and Spyder nodded.
"We're getting closer to Traeger's location. But if these readings are right, it says that he's 20 feet underground?" Harris said, in a questioning tone
"So we go down." I said
"Are you sure you're okay to go into battle?" Mark asked Harris
"Absolutely son. Even a one armed Harris is still dangerous." Harris said
"Nerdo's got guts." Mark said
"You knocked yourself out in a fight a couple months ago." I told Harris and he glared at me. Harris winced as Mark fist-bumped him.
We landed by the rock. I grabbed my arm cannon and so did everyone else and we all left the robot.
"Where are we?" Mark asked as we walked
"No fucking clue." I commented
"I think it's some kind of secret weapons facility." Harris said
"I'm getting high-tech smart weapons and random and weird energy signals." I said, using my Mech Link
"This place is filled with dangerous stuff. We can't let him leave with any of it." Ryan told us
"Yeah no, but if we save the place, we can take stuff, right?" Spyder asked
"But of course, Spyder." I said, in a British accent, mockingly sweet, patting him on the back. There was a boom. "Traeger. Let's go." I said and jumped into the hole after Ryan. I flew down.
"There are stairs!" Ryan shouted at me as I fell down, passing him in a rush. In hindsight, it wasn't the smartest move, but it was fast. I fell down on top of Spyder, he broke my fall.
"Thanks." I told him, getting up off him and brushing myself off.
"Ow..." Spyder groaned. "You owe me for that." He said, getting up.
"Quiet!" Harris snapped. I brought out my arm cannon and held it in front of me in defense. I quietly yelped when I saw all the unconscious guards and prayed they weren't dead.
"Sorry unconscious dude." Spyder said, bumping into someone on the ground. I scanned him with my mech link.
"He'll live." I finally concluded
"Now that we know they're alive, where's Traeger?" Ryan asked
"Good question. Harris?" I asked
"He should be right..." Harris was interrupted by a noise. We all whipped in that direction and I shot a warning blast.
"Whoa... it's just me, Spyder. S-Spyder." He told us. I noticed something on the ground. I bent over and picked it up.
"The tracking dart fell off." I said
"Alright! Let's get hunting." Harris said. He lifted his arm cannon and made a pained noise
"Hey! You good? You can stay and guard and the rest of us can go look." Mark told Harris
"No! I can handle this. We can cover more space if we split up!" Harris said and walked away.
"Mark, Ryan, you guys are a good team, you go that way and Harris, Spyder and I will go that way." I said. The four of us nodded and Spyder and I ran to catch up to Harris. We finally caught up to him walking alone through what looked like a storage area.
"Harris. HARRIS!" I said, getting his attention.
"Sh." He whispered
"What are you doing running off without thinking, that's my thing!" Spyder said
"You okay?" I asked
"I'm fine!" He said
"No you're not! You're acting crazy, what's up with you?" Spyder said
"Look, I need a win. I'm the one who lost Grey when we freed Harper. If we'd stopped her, Traeger would've never been born. This is all on me." Harris said
"No one blames you. Besides you would've been out of there way faster if I hadn't been kidnapped so if anything, it's actually all on me." I said, trying to shift the blame
"You're right. I blame Lizzy." Spyder declared
"Well, I blame me! Look, let's just focus on finding Traeger, okay? I don't need your pity." Harris said, aiming that last comment at me. He walked off, leaving me and Spyder behind.
"Alright. Okay.'" I muttered
"I don't actually blame you, you know that, right?" Spyder whispered. I rolled my eyes and caught up with Harris. After a little walking we saw Traeger choking Ryan.
"Don't do anything impulsive." Harris warned me. I darted in front of Traeger and saw Harris facepalm.
"Hey, Traeger. You want someone with power, try me!" I called out. He threw Ryan to the side and I winced. I aimed a kick uhhh... below the belt. It did nothing to him. "Alright! Let's try this again." I muttered. I ran at him. He held up a hand and held me back. I was stuck running in place. It was almost comedic. He then picked me up and just before he could choke me, he was hit by the arm cannon, from Harris. Spyder then blasted him. He dropped me to the floor. I quickly held up my cannon and blasted at him too. Ryan and Mark later joined in. Traeger let out a yell of pain
"how?" He asked us
"Science!" Harris yelled. Traeger blasted a circle of energy around him, knocking me to the floor along with everyone else. Traeger jumped through the ceiling. I quickly scrambled to my feet and grabbed my arm cannon.
"Let's go." I said. We ran in the direction Traeger may have gone. We found him in a room with some crystal thingy.
'What's he doing in here?" Ryan asked
"Something bad?" Spyder stated, sounding like a question.
"No shit Sherlock." I told Spyder
"Sh!" Ryan whispered
"That must be what he's here for." Mark said
"So we won't let him leave alive." I summed up. We surrounded Traeger
"Hi! I don't believe we got to properly introduce ourselves. You're Traeger and I'm Elizabeth and you're surrounded and I have a weapon that can hurt you. We all caught up now?" I asked
"You hurt me, I respect that. I will never underestimate you again. Just like you won't underestimate me again." Traeger said. I registered what he said a split second before everyone else did and put up a shield around me to protect me. I forgot about the others in that moment, a survival instinct. He turned into a monster.
"I thought he was gonna attack us for a minute." I muttered. He sang his arm at me and I was hurled across the room and landed on Spyder.
"Thank." I told him.
"You. Owe. Me." He said, emphasizing each point.
"Here's an idea. RUN!" I yelled. I grabbed his arm and pulled him along as we caught up to the others. The debris was about to fall on us.
"Hugs, everybody!" Spyder yelled. I was confused. He pulled me under his bounce belt shield. I extended the shield with a shield of my own.
"We're good." I said, retracting my shield.
"Guys, he just ripped out a weapon, he damaged the whole system." Harris said
"It's overloading. Mark and I may be able to fix this, you guys get to the robot." I told them
"If it explodes it'll kill everyone in this facility." Harris said
"I have a shield that can protect us and heat resistance. We'll be fine." I told them.
"We can find a way to shut off the power." Mark told me and we ran to the control panel. I assessed it
"Okay, so that's the on button and that's a lever to increase power." I said
"What do the other ones do?" He asked me
"Hmmmm... DO I LOOK LIKE A GENIUS TO YOU?" I yelled.
"Kinda."
"Okay, ummmm.... Just try fiddling with the wiring." I said, opening the control panel.
"Couldn't just be an off switch, could it?" Mark asked
"Nope!" I said and we started fiddling with wires.
"Have you guys found a way to cut the power?" Ryan asked us
"We're working on it. I think maybe if we can recalibrate-"
"New idea!" I told Mark and ripped out a bunch of wires, cutting off the power.
"That works too." He muttered.
"On our way." I said, high-fiving Mark. We started running through the area and made it to the ladder when I felt a sharp pain in my back, from the robot.
"Oh god! We have to help them." I told Mark. We started climbing up and I felt like I'd just been flipped and tossed around. When we both got out we saw the robot on its back.
"That explains that." I muttered. Traeger had leaped away in his monster form. We got into the robot and ran to the med-bay. We saw Harris on the bed.
"You good? Dumb question. Are you gonna be okay?" I asked
"We could've won this battle if I had two good arms. I'm sorry." Harris blamed himself for this.
"No! It's not your fault at all! We probably still would've lost if you had two good arms. No one blames you." I reassured him
"And I looted the armoury." Spyder said, holding up a bag. We all gave him weird looks.
"Save that for later." He said
"Harris you gotta stop beating yourself up. I used to do that all the time for every little mistake and believe me, it just took a toll on my mental health. So NO! It's not your fault and no one at all blames you but yourself and you need to let that go!" I told Harris.
"But we can't be operating until I'm at 100%." Harris said
"So we wait." Spyder said
"Yea, and in the meantime we can see what that guys gonna do with the weapon." Ryan said
"We can't wait, Ryan." Harris said
"I have an idea, and you're all gonna hate me for this, but it's an idea." I said.
"As much as I hate it, I think I know what you mean." Harris told me. We helped him sit up.
"Here's the plan. We're gonna go to Veracity's house, me and Harris. You guys wait in the robot so we're prepared to pick her up. She matches and exceeds Harris's intellect, no offence, and it'll be nice to have another girl in the robot." I finished
"Fine." Ryan agreed.
Harris and I left the robot and went to Veracity's house.
"Hey Eliza, what's up hair bear." Veracity said, when she opened the door.
"we have something to tell you." I said a bit nervously
"This better be about that thing you did at the tech fair. You used magic, and I don't understand how." She told me
"Not magic but uhh powers." I said
"Okay." Then she noticed Harris's injuries. She gave a short laugh. "Wow. What kinda math have you been doing?" She asked Harris.
"Ha! Always hilarious. Got a sec." Harris asked her.
"Yea, I'll be out in a sec." Veracity said and grabbed me and pulled me inside, shutting the door on Harris
"Okay! What's going on, and tell me all of it?" She told me
"Okay! So Ryan, Mark, Spyder, Harris and I kinda pilot Mech X4 and I have powers and I'm the superhero that fights alongside them. We kinda defeated Harper because he framed us for blowing up the school and we thought he was dead but he's not dead he's actually alive and wants us all dead. Ooooh and our principal created this monster called Traeger who banged Harris up, pretty badly, the day I got drunk so yea and on top of that, we have to manage school." I said, really fast
"Okay! Uhhh Harris is waiting so let's go." She said, a little shaken up.
"Alright so we've been rivals since-"
"Save it!" Veracity interrupted Harris, "Eliza told me basically everything."
"Wow, alright." Harris said
"It's time, Ryan!" I said into my Mech Link. "Do yourself a favour and don't move." I told her.
"Wait what... why would I AAAaAAAAAHHHHH." She screamed as the robot whooshed us up the elevator. The doors opened and she gasped in awe.
"Welcome to Mech X4." Ryan said and she looked around in amazement.