Writer’s spot: Greetings friends! A late release that wasn’t supposed to happen today, but still did!

SO, we are coming to a close with this arc, some slight revelations about this slightly odd group, and probably some foreshadowing for what is about to come. (wink wink)

BESIDES, originally I planned on making this chapter the Yllivia’s/Sorius’/Ross’s POV during the fight, but I decided against it in the end so as to not drag things too much and I may do that later as an extra or something.

BESIDES(II), I have the feeling that I’m forgetting about something in this chapter. If you notice something blatantly obvious that should be but isn’t here, do tell me, ok? (Thinking is hard)

Beep, and enjoy your story!

-----

Gaz slowly made his way back to the group’s truck, being helped slightly by Mirage who kept pushing him whenever his motors threatened to fail. With him were the others who sent him some worried glances every once in a while, even when they weren’t so good themselves.

Now that he could take a better look at the others, he could see more clearly how Lunn and Volgoff were injured. The troll had a nasty bulled wound on his right flank, piercing all the way to his back, luckily, his regeneration stopped the blood from leaving his body soon enough, and now it was closing the wound at a slow, but noticeable pace.

Lunn, on the other hand, had many needles piecing her right arm, probably from the drone’s needle-launchers. But the elf seemed completely oblivious to such injury, as she patiently kept hugging a trembling Red, who had once again became scared after the adrenaline, if that is even what flows within her body, settled down.

Mirage and Red were mostly unharmed, with Mirage only having a few scratches on her armor. Different from Beepy who was barely keeping himself together with such a heavy damage.

Luckily, the damage didn’t reach his core, so he could still repair himself fairly easily as soon as he found some time for that. Even more now that he had convinced the troll to bring the two drone’s body with him.

[I think that… making a new body might… be easier…] Ekis said weakly in his mind as he told her his plans.

[Why? Can’t we just use their pieces to substitute mine?] He asked confused.

[No… Too different…] She said simply, and Gaz simply nodded in his mind, deciding to let her rest some more.

Stealing a glance at the two mercs he was following, he couldn’t help but think that after receiving the call earlier, they seemed to calm down, so they weren’t in such a hurry. Thinking back at the fight back at the trailer, he wondered whether it was already settled.

Stopping on the road to pick the body of the third drone, Volgoff grimaced slightly in pain as his wound ached. Looking at him worried, Gaz wanted to tell him that there was no need to pick more robots, but his beeper decided to fail him at the time, leaving him in an awkward position. The little robot caught a glance of Lunn looking awkwardly at the troll, and he wondered whether she wanted to heal him, but couldn’t for some reason.

Picking the third body and throwing it on his shoulder, the troll made a light gasp as the weight settled in before starting to walk back once again, only sparing a brief glance to the dwarves laying immobile at the road besides them.

“We should hurry up before they get more reinforcement…” He said briefly, and Lunn nodded wordlessly before she stopped hugging Red and grabbed her hand lightly.

The group picked up some speed, quickly leaving the area behind. It took them only a couple of minutes to reach the truck once again, and the scene around left Red and Gaz speechless (and beepless, respectively,) for a moment.

Thirty or so blacktrigger dwarves laid on the ground, agonizing in pain with bullet wounds or ugly looking gashes on their bodies. In the middle of all that stood Yllivia, who had a look of sheer fear and desperation in her face, and Sorius, who stood beside the Lynnian as if consoling her.

Volgoff and Lunn grimaced at the scene for a moment, but they looked more surprised than shocked. The elf let go of the Morfians hand and approached Sorius before whispering something to him so that the others wouldn’t hear. Thankfully, Gaz’s sensors managed to pick up the brief conversation.

“Did she have a relapse?” The girl asked.

“Yeah… The reinforcements got us by surprise and she lost it.” Sorius said while nodding. “But it was short. The shortest so far, to tell the truth.”

“How long?”

“Only three minutes.” He said while petting Yllivia’s back. “Besides, only four deaths and she didn’t even think of attacking me.”

“Thank the gods…” Lunn said with a sigh of relief. ”She is slowly getting better…”

“She is still in shock, though. Could use some help…” Sorius said with a serious tone. “She seems to calm down with Beepy. Is he here?”

“Oh… Well… You see… About that…” Lunn’s face suddenly cramped up as she smiled awkwardly, trying to think of an answer. Sorius raised an eyebrow to her before his eyes finally landed on the small robot some distance away.

“Bee…py?” Yllivia asked with a hoarse voice.

Lunn face went completely colorless at that moment as she noticed the cat-girl looking towards the small robot. Yllivia’s eyes widened in sheer shock before she left the elf twins behind and approached the small robot, getting on her knees and gently touching him.

Some small hints of tears formed into her eyes as she looked at him, and Beepy, who was caught by surprise, didn’t eve have time to react to her.

“Beep?” She said shortly.

Gaz tried to respond to her quickly, but with his beeper off, he simply stood there motionlessly as his motor decided to die down again. The girl’s eye grew even more worried as she once again tried to see whether he would respond to her actions

“Hmm… He is alright… I think.” Red said briefly, making the Lynnian turn to her in surprise. She blushed slightly before taking a deep breath and continuing. “His core… You can see that it’s still shining…”

Yllivia stared surprised at Red for a moment before turning her gaze towards the hole in Gaz’s chassis, and truly, as the young Morfian said, the spherical core glinted as lively as when the first time she saw the little robot first change bodies.

But when she looked a bit closer, she also caught a glimpse of his cable-tool squirming within the little robot, as if checking something. She looked at Beepy worried for a moment, before the robot’s single functional motor revved up for a brief moment.

“BEeeEeEEppPP!” He said after some time, surprising the Lynnian.

“Beepy?”

“BeeEp…” He said again, his beeps gaining a bit more of the consistency from before. “Beep… Beep!”

[Beeping hell. It was only a bad connection! It still works fine!] He said cheerfully to no one in particular.

Suddenly he was hugged by the Lynnian, who looked extremely relieved. He let out a confused beep, not really understanding for what reason she was so relieved. Rather, he wanted to know the reason why she was so shocked in the first place.

“So… How did things go here?” Volgoff asked while dropping the drones in the trailer. “And where’s Ross and his friend?” He asked noticing the lack of snarky remarks.

“They went on to the forest mid-battle…” Sorius said while pointing towards a trail of broken trees. “And, as you guessed, we did have some problems here.” He said with a sigh. “That Dorran guy went and revealed Ross’ identity to his henchmen, and they became confused. I left Ylli to hold them while I charged a shot. Not enough to destroy the armor, but enough to take it down to the retard’s level, even when injuried.”

“And then, reinforcement arrived?” Asked the troll while grimacing at a few dents in the trailer.

“Yeah… Took us by surprise. Surrounded Ylli… The rest you can guess.” He said with a sigh.

“I would feel pity for them… But they damaged my truck, so they can go to hell for all I care…” The Troll said angrily.

“Err… Why would Ross’ name leave them confused?” Red asked the same question Gaz had in his mind. Sorius eyes widened a bit as he noticed that he may have spoken a bit too much. Luckily, Red wasn’t as insensitive as one would think, so she didn’t pry any further.

“That’s cause they didn’t know what to do with their old boss.” A rough and hoarse sounding voice came from the forest.

Ross was approaching them, looking even more roughed up than before, but otherwise fine. He limped a bit with his right leg, but from the looks of it, he wasn’t really bothered at all. His revolver was holstered back into his leg and his shield nowhere to be seen, probably broken in some place behind him.

Sorius looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but he simply shrugged it out like it didn’t matter before turning back to a confused Red.

“Name’s Ross Blacktrigger. The one and only founder of the blacktriggers. Pleasure to meet ya.” He said with a mocking grin, leaving both Gaz and Red staring at him wordlessly. “Meh… Long story short… I got pissed off with ‘em, they tried to kill me, little misstep, my sworn brother died in my place, now I’m off for revenge. Fairly normal stuff.” He said with a shrug.

“But… But… Aren’t the Blacktriggers a Dwarf extremist? Then why… With them…” She looked at Sorius and the others. Ross gave a wide smile at this while Sorius face-palmed, his face going into a surprising red tone.

“That’s a story that involves drinking, women, bets, bad decisions and getting drunk.” Ross said while starting to laugh loudly. “And fer the first time, it’s not ME I’m talking about!”

Lunn held back a laugh while looking at her flustered brother while Ross simply burst out laughing. Yllivia seemed indifferent to the story while Volgoff looked slightly confused.

“Anyway, we better get the hell out of here before even more reinforcement comes. As much as I would like to sort my tab, I don’t think I have the gear nor the energy to take on another titanium plus!” Ross said getting serious.

“Did you sort everything out already?” Sorius asked just to be sure.

Ross smiled widely while opening the shell compartment on his chest plate, revealing that a single slug was missing from it. Sorius raised an eyebrow before nodding. But before he could turn back, Ross flipped open a compartment on his armguard, revealing a row of red buttons. He pressed the leftmost one with a wide grin.

A loud explosion echoed on the forest, and from far away they could see as some pieces from the armor flew all around, some of them even landing a short distance away from them.

Gaz stared at the scene in sheer shock.

“Beeeeeep!” A beep so full of desperation that it left a hole into whoever heard it. Okay, not so much. [SO MANY PIECES! GONE! AND HE EVEN HAD A SPEAKER! I COULD HAVE USED THAT YOU RETARDED DWARF!]

The poor Beepy was left to grief on his own as the others started to head towards the trailer, but with his steam motors completely out of fuel and his solar-powered auxiliary engine unable to generate enough power to move himself away.

Seeing his state, Yllivia went back and made some effort to carry him back to the trailer. He couldn’t help but notice that she trembled slightly while carrying him, but it didn’t seem to be due to the effort.

“Is Beepy going to be alright?” Yllivia asked when she laid the broken robot on the ground and started to gently pet him.

“I think… He did ask us to pick these drones on the way here, so maybe he can repair himself using them?” Lunn said confused as she started to distractedly remove the needles in her arms and close them using her esp.

The girls turned towards Beepy, who simply laid there unmoving.

[What? My designer is on a sick leave. I can’t go around making bodies without her, you know?] He said in his mind without much expectation from the others hearing it.

Seeing as he didn’t seem to want to move, the two looked at each other worried. For a moment only silence reigned as the truck’s engine started rumbling loudly.

“Hmm… Maybe I could help him?” Red said suddenly, receiving surprised gazes from the other people, she blushed with the attention and hid herself behind the notebook.

“You… How would you help him?” Yllivia asked worried.

“Hmm… I have some tools… On the city and… I could… Help him?” She said shyly. The others looked at her in confusion and shock, but they were clearly holding back their curiosity. “I’m.. Kind of good with robots?” She said shyly as the cat in her lap yawned lazily and its form shimmered into existence, revealing itself to the others.

“Optical camouflage? How is that even possible?” Even Sorius was shocked now, as he stared at the girl.

“Geez Lass, just what the hell are you?” Ross asked the question that all the others were holding back.

Red simply hid herself behind the notebook once again.