Liz is already climbing down the open elevator shaft as we pull out our hoverboard, throwing it ahead and hopping on. We move downwards into the tunnel, using its sonic propulsion to slow our descent, finding the vent atop the elevator Fox must have used to enter and climbing in ourselves. With the rat in tow, we find ourselves in the first room and are greeted by a sudden red tinge, alarms blaring from what we can probably assume is Fox and Violet getting to work. Despite the sirens announcing our intrusion into the labs, we face no resistance moving forward, as the levers to each side are already busted by Violet, there being no means of opening them from the other side apparently. With the transport platform rising to meet us up here, we get a good look at the lava land below.
Every room is still, stuck in place without command for a moment, only for each to sequentially begin to jostle and move, seeing Fox’s rhythm at play through each flick of a lever and press of a button that moves the world around her. Music, Zee? You got it, boss!
The sounds of menuing bleeps through our headphones as the platform arrives before us and the rat, its door opening up to reveal a group of confused robots who were only half finished loading up the platform before the little camera rat we see waving at us had started the ride early. Reliable little guys.
Ooo, this song…Shall we dance, like this~?
Like that.
Our oversized sweater flows behind us like a cape, a flock of Navi Bots dipping out and cloaking themselves in an invisible stealth mode before floating up and flying about as the robots before us enter combat mode, their singular speaker-like eyes turning red. We step in as they charge towards us clumsily, their lack of fighting experience on full display, as is to be expected of civilians forced into synthetic bodies and slave labour.
The sight disgusts me.
Needles fan out of our sleeve and lodge themselves into the openings in the chassi of a few machines, others being caught in the air by our invisible Navi Bot’s magnetic rays. Half of my side is easily dispatched with a current of electricity overloading their batteries, unable to handle the power and crumpling over.
On the other side, Liz doesn’t even command her rats to fight, instead calling in a band of rats to carry her melody, letting her soul song blare electronic jazz, and another group to kick start the ride down. Each of her movements are synced up to the beat, her dash propelling her further, her heels screeching in time with the horns as she comes to a halt, and the crash of her bat against the chest of each robot punctuating the beat.
While she takes care of that, I kick ourselves forward, our board carrying us around our targets and coiling them in the wires attached to each needle magnetized in the air and releasing another charge, knocking them all out. Well, all but one, one which upon seeing Liz knock the screws loose out of her last target, simply faints and falls into a pile of metal. What a poor lot.
We arrive at our destination a moment later, the giant metal door ka-shunking open to reveal the first of our rooms on the way to Hal. Entering through the cube room’s sliding doors, we find what looks like a postal office scrambling to figure out what’s going on before all turning to see us, including the police bots pulling out their guns–
BANG– BANG– BANG!!
Okay.
“So much for not totallying them,” I sigh as the three police bots fall to the floor, having their shoulders blown off completely by Liz’s rifle, their guns clattering to the ground along with them.
“If dey oink, dey squeal, capisce~?” the rat smirks, spinning her gun before holstering it to her belt. “I ain’t got sympathies for pigs.”
No point in arguing with the Rat Queen, not here at least. Her strategy seems to be more effective anyways, fear overriding the red in the civilian bots’ eyes, each cowering and allowing us through to the next room.
In this next room, we find multiple assembly lines putting together various car parts and other mechanical bits and bobs with little care put into separating the two. They’re all so focused on their jobs, in fact, that it takes them a few moments to even notice us past the unforgiving pace of their conveyor belts. Some even choose to ignore us in favour of getting their work done, more afraid of missing their quota than disobeying orders, eyes going red still as the stress stacks on, making their metal shudder and shake. Maybe we can avoid direct conflict, actually…
Liz takes aim at the cop bots, a firing squad of rats blasting away to ensure they’re out of commission, while I aim needles at each of the generators powering the conveyor belts and letting electricity ripple into them. Each assembly line quickly moves at an even more unreasonable pace, getting faster by the moment, drawing the attention of the workers moving towards us, their code betraying them as they all seem to panic and faint from the ever growing workload.
“Oh, now dats just cruel~”
“I didn’t feel good doing it, trust me, but we can recuperate them afterwards.”
Onward we storm, actually having to wait for the next room to fit into place before hopping in, finding a much bigger room, something meant for testing products it would seem. The burn marks of tests gone wrong char the wood panel-like metal of the floor and walls, even some on the ceiling, mainly around the various stages with different faulty products standing proudly atop them…and center stage is our next roadblock.
A giant humanoid robot with car headlights for eyes and carhoods for fists, wheels and all, shambling into a standing position and glaring at us with its blinding gaze.
“A Road Buster Prototype…” Zee mumbles, drawing Liz’s ire.
“Yous tellin’ me dis thing made it to da future?!”
“When you can replace your forces as easy as Hal does, it doesn’t matter if his creations destroy both sides. Just pump up the power without regard for collateral damage,” I explain, making the rat pinch the bridge of her nose and shake her head before reloadding her rifle.
“Bastard. Let’s scrap dis before it can hit production lines.”
“Now you’re speaking my language!” Zee says, grinning and turning our cap’s visor to the front.
Your turn, Zee!
Aye aye, lady! I hop up and release the wheels from our skates, our board splitting in half and moving out of the way before we can land on it, each side flying up as I pull our sleeves back so they can attach themselves to our fists, changing shape around our knuckles to form my gauntlets.
“Fuck ‘em UP!!”
With my declaration of war, I dash in, watching the hulk of a machine reel its fist back and throw a punch my way, zipping out of the way before it makes a horrible crashing noise against the ground, giving Liz an easy target to snipe, the rat blasting the beast in one of its glass eyes. With the enemy recoiling, I can grab that fist by the car bumper and pull, hearing the sound of a fishing line being reeled in as my gauntlets glow green, their sonic propulsors helping me heave this fucker, spinning them behind us and releasing them to crash against the wall!
The fight ain’t over though, the machine staggering onto its feet and letting its car hands detach from their arms, one speeding towards me, and the other towards Liz.
“Can I’s get some cover?!”
“You got it, boss!”
“Dat’s what I’s like ta hear!” Liz says with a dastardly grin, pulling her phone up to her ear. “We’s gots a truck load ‘a scrap ta collect, girlies!”
Aiming my fist at the second vehicle, Liz continues firing rounds into the main machine’s weak points, keeping it staggered while the sound of a rocket firing trails behind my fist as it’s launched away! Hearing it crash through its window and grab hold of the steering wheel, I focus back onto my enemy, listening to my wheels grind in time with our music before speeding off and away from my pursuer.
Thankfully, it’s not quite as elegant as we, continuing to crash into the mini stage presentations and getting a mouthful of explosions to char its hull as we dance circles around it, watching it slowly lose composure. We can hear it sputter and whine, the automobile struggling to continue moving as the other finds itself being steered towards us, having little time to correct its course as I recall my gauntlet through the front window and slow down to let the battered vehicle catch up a little.
All it takes is one hand, holding it between me and the car and catching it by the bumper as it tries and collides with us, hauling its ass overhead and SMASHING it over the other oncoming ride! It does explode, of course, throwing us back a good ways, but I get up as fast as I fall, skidding to a stop and dashing right back into action!
It seems Liz has a plan in mind, ceasing her fire and whipping her bat out, tossing it in the air and catching it before assuming a batter’s stance. Oh no. Oh ho ho YES.
No longer enduring her fire power, the metal beast attempts to step towards us as a team of rat mechanics scatter away, the machine suddenly realizing its plight as its feet had been disconnected from the rest of it, forcing it onto its front with a giant fall! With the enemy vulnerable, I grab it by the head and begin pulling.
“So long, gay buster!”
Oh for the love of Yom.
Disregarding my companion’s cringing, I begin spinning the entire beast around in a circle, preparing the pitch of a lifetime while a crowd of rats cheers Liz on, letting the enemy go and hurling it towards the rat!
SMASH!!
“HOOOOME RUUUUUUN!!”
My cheering is punctuated by the prototype crashing against the wall, its battery thoroughly jostled, knocking the big guy unconscious.
“Nice shot!”
“I’s nothin’ short ‘a da best batter in all ‘a Canada~”
We walk over and give the poor robot a solemn pat on the head before zooming over and giving the rat a high five, then turning back around and beginning to march towards the next room.
This one as well we find ourselves having to wait for, still sliding towards us a block away…from which we can see a shadowy claw punch through and shatter the glass doorway, reaching out to drop a cop bot straight into the lava below before Fox’s tail wraps around them and pulls them back into the room good fucking Goddess Violet.
“Cruel mother fucker…” Liz grumbles, the grip on her bat tightening. “At least I’s end it quickly.”
“Finally found something to be afraid of, huh?” Sue muses, the rat only gritting her teeth in response.
“Afraid, sure. For myself? Not da case.”
Understandable. Anyways, the two rooms connect, allowing us through into what looks like a storage area of sorts, various worker bots laying limp against the wall and boxes, or just on the floor. Fox seems to be taking care of one more machine with a windy boxing glove, smacking it loudly against their chest piece and sending them flying into a wall, knocking them out.
“Heh. Kay– Oh! There you all are!”
The girl rushes over and picks us up into a hug, earning a giggle out of us as we hug her back.
“Someone’s excited to see us!”
“Aww, no love for your gracious Rat Queen~?”
“No,” Violet answers bluntly from Fox’s tail, the rat shaking her head with a smirk in response. A moment later, we’re released, and Fox gestures onward with her thumb.
“Shall we? One more room before our mark.”
We all nod and move along, Fox leading us forward into one last room…one which happens to be devoid of any life aside from us. Instead, we’re greeted with a single large computer at the end of the room, and upon approaching it, it springs to life, displaying a question about…some obscure video game?
“Really?” the rat groans, hands on her hips as she shakes her head. “Da last trial is a fuckin quiz.”
Liz steps on up and starts typing, using a single digit on either hand but doing so incredibly quickly.
“Luckily for yous all, yous gots a gamer on ya side~”
Ugh.
“Ugh.”
The rat cackles, speeding through answers until finding herself stumped on one, a bar in the corner of the screen slowly filling with each second that passes.
“...Is…is it me…” Fox starts, sounding exhausted all of the sudden as she sweats and tugs at her scarf, “...Or is it getting hot in here…?”
…Shit. She’s right! With each tick of the clock, the temperature rises!
“Might wanna speed it up, Liz!”
“I’s sorry I ain’t too keen on stage plays, toots!”
“Move.”
Even Fox looks confused as Violet takes control of their arm to shove Liz aside and onto the ground, then ushering the vixen towards the keyboard in her place.
“Uhh, what exactly is your plan here, Vi?” Fox asks, turning to look at the maw on her tail.
“Don’t forget your roots. Where do you think that suppressed theater kid went?”
Oh. My god. Fox’s face becomes much redder than usual before turning black with Violet’s shadow, the wolf taking over and using Fox’s smaller claws to type in her answers, very, very slowly. Meanwhile, Liz joins us by our side, dusting herself off before squinting at the computer screen.
“...I’s knows a cheat when I sees one. Dis ain’t gonna have enough time.”
Well that figures. Leave it to me, Zee.
Have at it, Sue!
Pulling our sleeve back, we get our hands on our watch once more, a single Navi Bot taking action and opening up its eye to reveal a small satellite dish. With this, we can take a deeper look at the internals of the computer, eyes scanning its code as fast as they can as the temperature quickly approaches unbearable levels of hot.
Ah ha, there! Changing a few values here and there, and suddenly the clock jumps back, its new maximum value being set way higher than anyone would ever need, and the room cools with our grace period extended.
“Guess all dat vent crawlin’ paid off, eh~?”
“Heh. Heheh.”
Don’t laugh at that, Zee.
“How’s the quiz coming along, babes?” I ask, moving attention back to the fox and wolf who step aside and point at the screen.
“Computer questions. I’m certain the whole thing would explode if we tried answering any of these.”
Yikes. Looks like it’s our turn then. I’d say these questions are no big deal for us, but really, they’d be no big deal for any novice coder…Hal’s been all show since the beginning, huh? Regardless, a single keystroke more, and the quiz drops us off…on a password screen.
“You’s gotta be shittin’ me.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Liz and Violet glare at one another, but we already know the answer to this, told to us a long time ago, even if it’s a time that’s yet to happen now…Thank you, Coyotl. We know being named after an ancient Ascended hero was a big burden to bear, but you’ve gotta be a big damn hero for your actions to have echoed through the past to save our present the way yours have. With a few more keystrokes, we enter the password that got us to the past, and the one that’ll get us back to the present.
[MOONLANDING]
At last, the last of our time has been wasted, and the screen flashes triumphantly before closing, a crease forming down its center for it to split from, the door to Hal’s room opening up. This is it. Ten time loops later, the deaths of more loved ones than any soul should ever bear witness to, and we’re finally here, staring into the dark room, back at the glowing eye that we endured it all to find. Our hand reaches up to touch the cat pin atop our hat, while the other reaches for Violet’s claw, the wolf squeezing it firmly and comfortingly. We don’t know why it took until the last loop for her to show up, but we’re glad she made it for this moment.
The very last moment we’ll have together.
“Oh, shit– Welcome, harlots!”
