#guys I know t-counter's not a bot

[pattonsrbs]

bro got double botted

it’s quick, it’s easy and it’s free:  pouring river water in your socks

[heckthatbork]

I think we have a chance of actually winning this.

Ok, so I was talking with @the-barefoot-hatter about The PollTM. My main concern was Kirk beating Dean, and then it's Ford vs Kirk, and as much as I adore that old man, how are we going to get loser dork nerd Stanford Pines (so affectionate) to win against Captain James T. Kirk, sex icon and inspiration for modern fanfiction and fandom as we know it?

The Dean vs Kirk poll is running more tightly than I originally anticipated, though in hindsight I really should have. For a brief moment, Dean pulled again, and at the moment of me writing this post, they're currently running neck and neck.

Ford, on the other hand, has a comfortable lead against Hawkeye from MASH. Barring another round of botting, I think Ford will win that poll.

Then I noticed the actual poll numbers, and I wondered. Just how many people have actually voted for Kirk in the latest poll so far, and just how many people have voted for Ford? So with the help of Google, I ran the numbers. Both calculations were done at nearly the exact same time some twentyish max minutes ago.

This is currently Kirk's voters.

As you can see, nearly 3k people want to get the captain of the USS Enterprise pregnant. A respectable number! I respect you lot and your dedication to getting him pregnant with a quarter Vulcan baby.

But then I ran Ford's numbers.

He currently has nearly four thousand votes. Holy crap, guys. This is after the - does the math after finding the vote in question - approximately 10.6k votes he got against Megatron.

Kirk, on the other hand, is currently at his highest vote counter of approximately 2.8k, rounded up.

Captain James T. Kirk is the father of modern fanfiction and yaoi fanfiction, and for that I salute him. But if we Fordheads band together, we can win this tournament.

NOW, LET'S GET THAT OLD MAN BREGNANT!!!

(mild edits for grammar)

(Other mild edits because I straight up forgot Hawkeye’s name)

[bumblingapocalypse]

Morning Routine

The usual morning routine of the Sumdac Household during the apocalypse.

Warning: Somewhat Morbid talk about decapitated heads.

======== Bumbling-Apocalypse ===============

Sari yawned, rubbing her face as she exited her room, her alarm having woken her up. She could already hear Bee going around in the kitchen and smell breakfast already cooked, her first destination for the morning.

"Morning Honeybee." Her brother called out as she made her way towards the table, setting down a plate of eggs, cooked vegetables and a glass of milk. "Sleep alright?"

"Mhm, very warm. Didn't feel cold at all." Sari yawned again, stretching her arms for a moment before she finally noticed a somewhat new addition to the kitchen counter. "Oh, morning, Meggy!" She greeted the disembodied head.

Was it weird that her brother had the head of another of his species around? Kind of, but honestly, Meggy's been around just as long Bumblebee so it made him family.

The head said nothing, because it was just a head. Sometimes though, Sari thought he was watching her and Bee. "Are you cleaning your room again?" She asked before digging into breakfast, that was one the common reasons as to why Meggy would be out of Bee's room.

The yellow alien hummed, "Yeah, I've put it off long enough. Dust has been gathering on Meg's head so he's been cranky about it." He gave the head an amused look, again, the head said nothing. The bot snorted, reaching out to pat Meggy's head. "I always tend to forget a bit more often when it's winter Megs, too busy trying to survive and take care of our lil' gremlin!"

"Hey!" Sari complained, pouting at him and Meggy. "Meggy, Bee's being mean again!"

Bee laughs and Sari beams at the sound, winter has always been Bee's worse season. He's more quiet, less outgoing, a lot more serious.

Sari knows it's not the most sane thing for her and Bee to treat the head as if he were still alive, but he was one of Bee's people. Even if he was a bad guy once, according to her big brother. She wondered sometimes, on why he would keep Meggy around if he was so horrible but then she remembers that Meggy was one of the only things that Bee had of his home.

Sometimes, during the night when she's awake and has to get a drink or go to the bathroom. She hears Bee talking to Meggy through the door, she doesn't know what Bee talks to him about most times.

"Hey Megatron, do you think I'll end up like you someday? Just a fraggin' head? Morbid thing to ask I know, but... It's a thought that I keep having sometimes... I just hope it's Sari that keeps my head around. Who knows, maybe she'll keep your ugly mug too, hah. We could even share a shelf! Wouldn't that be something?"

Sari didn't try to eavesdrop on Bee again after that. The thought of Bee ending up like Meggy is... something she doesn't want to ever think about. At all.

After breakfast, she hops down from her chair. "I'm done! And! I finished my vegetables." She replied smugly.

"Oh yeah? Even the broccoli?" Bee questioned with a small smile.

Sari made a face before reluctantly nodding, "Yeah, even those gross mini-trees." She grumbled but preened when Bee's hand settled on her head- the only time she didn't really mind having Bee ruffle her hair was in the mornings before she tied it to her usual pigtails.

"Good! It's Monday today, if the snow isn't that troublesome, I'll take you to the settlement today after I clean my room. Alright Honeybee?"

"Yes!" Sari pumped her arms in glee, "Okay! I'm gonna go shower now!" She reached her arms up so Bee could lift her up close to his face. Sari pecked his cheek and smiled at Bee, waiting, her brother snorted before adjusting so she was facing Meggy. "Have a nice morning Meggy!" She pecked his cheek too, giggling as Bee set her down.

She gave Bee an expectant look and Bee rolled his eyes in familiar exasperation, leaning over to give Meggy a peck of his own. A habit she's made him do ever since she was young. Sari beamed before going off towards the bathroom.

Sari looked back once to see Bee gathering her finished plate and utensils to put in the sink, and she swore Meggy's eyes were glowing red for a moment. She blinked and the glow was gone. Shaking her head, she focused on other things; like finishing her morning routine.

============ Bumbling-Apocalypse =============

"Such a gremlin that girl." The mini-bot complained with no heat, a smile on his derma as he started washing the dishes. It was a very domestic thing to do for an Autobot. Then again, the mini-bot was a maintenance worker, or once was one. "Making me kiss the Decepticon Leader's cheek, what a little manipulator hm? No bot would ever believe it."

Indeed, no bot would. Yet it happened, but there were no other bots around at all.

Bumblebee leaned against the sink, venting heavily. "44 years Megs. It's been 44 years. That's- that's short for our us Cybertronians I know but... I guess I'm so used to thinking of it in human terms. Still haven't found a sign of my team. And with that weird field all around the planet, no signal could ever hope to reach Cybertron of all places... I'm really starting to think I'm gonna die here, alone." He whispers that last part to himself.

Unacceptable

Bumblebee shook his helm, "Ugh, no, shouldn't think that way. It's only been 44 years. Just- half a vorn. I've made it this far. 'Sides! It's too early to think such depressing thoughts, right Megs?" He glanced over to the head, staying silent for a moment as if to hear his reply. There was none, but the mini-bot nodded anyway. "Right. Okay! Chores first, I'll go clean my room now. Dust off your shelf so you can get back there." Absentmindedly, he reached out to pat Megatron's faceplate before he left.

Oblivious to the way the decapitated helm's optics flickered for a moment, following his movement before offlining.

One day...

[Prev]

[Next]

[gigagendergt]

NEW NOIR ROBOT G/T STORY LET'S GO

as of right now this is untitled. let me know if i should continue it!

The sun was orange in the smoke-haze of the slum chimneys by the time J-8 arrived at the crowded turnstile-filled entrance of the cellblock apartment building on Eleventh street. He, as always, brushed past the fee gates with impunity. The light on the turnstile he passed was broken and the bar only reached up to his thighs, but it still cranked its way in a jarred circle to let his metal lower half through.

The place was crawling with humans and they eyed him in suspicious tones or let out breath through their noses or, in one man's case, spit flavored tobacco on the floor as he passed by. Saffron and anise. The elevator was broken so he took the stairs as always, stepping up three at a time. The low ceilings of the place weren't up to code and he took care not to brush the metal lobe of his crown against the ceiling lest it damage it and cause one of the above occupants to fall through.

Everything human-built was fragile. If he was found of comparisons he might say it was like living with paper dolls in paper houses, but it had been Stell who came up with that one.

He arrived at the door a little past ten pm. It was painted a sad, peeling yellow. Stell's roommate Neely answered the knock. He was high and the smoke rolled past J-8 into the hallway. Behind Neely three or four others lay sprawled on blankets on the floor, watching the sticky TV screen. As Neely spoke they looked over. One, a girl with long blonde hair rolled into makeshift rag curlers, stood up violently at the sight of J-8.

"Oh, shit," Neely said. "Yo." He tried hard to extinguish the blunt he'd been smoking.

"It's fine, Neely," J-8 said.

"What the fuck is that doing here," the girl with the curlers shrieked.

"Hey," Neely said, raising his voice. "Chill. This is Stell's guy."

The girl grabbed a pastel pink bag from the counter and shuffled towards the window, keeping her body hunched towards the door in a suspicious C-shape.

"Hey, what the fuck," the man next to her said-- he was skinny, all angles and lines-- "that's a bot."

Neely looked back at them, looked back at J-8. His ineptitude was almost endearing. "Yeah," he said.

J-8 moved forward and Neely shuffled out of the way, cramming himself against the humming refrigerator. The room wasn't large and J-8 wasn't small and he had to move at unnatural angles to avoid touching Neely, whose heart rate had jumped at the sudden intrusion.

"I just need to talk to Stell," J-8 said.

"Well, fuck, man," Neely said, ducking under J-8's bent knee, "I'll go get her. Jesus. Betta, C-line, Mono, dip out the fire exit. We can chill on the roof."

The blonde ran over to the window and hauled it open, crawling out onto a metal terrace. As her bare feet vanished the skinny man glanced back at Neely.

"Yo," he said, "you good?"

Neely waved his hand frantically in the man's direction.

"All right," the man said, and followed the blonde. The last human, an androgynous figure with ripped-up jeans and a hook nose, stared at J-8 for a charged half-second before they moved to exit.

He ran records, ticking through the mental files. Mono. The alias rang a bell. A few counts of drug possession, distribution, forgery. J-8 had legal right to detain them but doing so would damage his relationship with Stell and he needed her more than he needed a petty conviction. Besides, drugs weren't this thing, or his AI's. He hadn't turned a dealer in for fifteen years.

Neely hobbled over the crowded floor to a thin stairwell: grabbed a tall orange bong with one hand as he went, stooped to sweep a few buds into his pocket with the other, and almost tripped over a number of ancient analog cassette players, which he collected. He vanished out of sight as he ascended the stairwell, and J-8 heard him rap on an unseen door and the answering creak of it opening. Stell emerged a few seconds later, Neely trailing behind.

She was descending the stairwell slower than usual and J-8 immediately clocked the broken rib she'd tried to hide by packing herself into a tall corset. It was looser than it should be, for one thing, and for another she was using it to immobilize her upper body, taking the corset's structure as support when she shifted side to side. She'd scrubbed off most of her makeup but streaks of black remained around the eyes where, J-8 knew, the cheap stick liner street girls wore lingered. J-8 connected Neely's earlier anxiety as his presence to Stell's injury and began redrafting his approach. Humans were complicated at the best of times. Scared and injured they were nigh unpredictable.

"All right," Neely said, waving his arms toward J-8 as Stell settled onto the floor and leaned back against the wall. "Have fun. Scream if you need me."

"Yeah, yeah," Stell said, pushing her palms against the linoleum and shuffling herself a bit higher so her back was flush against the cheap wallpaper.

Neely turned to head out the window and Stell watched him, pursing her lips. It wasn't until he shut the glass behind him that she turned to J-8.

"What do you want, big boy?" she asked. J-8 shifted, tucked his metal limbs into a cross-legged full lotus position.

"There's a new striker," he said. "Killed six in the past 48 hours."

Stell scoffed. "Well I know jack about that. Sorry."

"I know," J-8 said. "I came to hear about the humans."

Stell considered him with soft brown eyes.

"What about the humans?" she asked flatly.

"Did you know them, are there rumors, where did they live, who were they, what drugs did they take, why'd they sell out?"

"No I didn't know them, yes to the rumors, they lived out in the- well, two lived out in the brick building by Central, and the other lived I think over in Newsom, something like that- what were the other questions?"

"Who were they?"

"Oh, you know, street drags. One guy sold TV's. I think the girl was a busybody or something. I dunno about the big guy. Don't you have record for this stuff?"

"Had," J-8 said. "they got wiped."

"All of them?"

"Just the sellouts."

Stell let out a burst of laughter, then winced. "Fuck. That's funny. You got a rogue one huh?"

"It happens."

"Yeah, it sure fucking does."

J-8 inclined his head.

Stell yawned. "Fuck," she said. "Stinks in here."

J-8 said nothing.

"Are you gonna bust Neely?"

J-8 shook his head. "I don't do drugs."

"Oh, I forgot, you're a bleeding heart."

"I'm a tactician. Weed is harmless. Strikers aren't."

Stella pressed her lips into a suspicious line. "Except at the facility, right?"

"I don't have time for this, Stell."

Stella considered him, and some of the tension on her body eased. J-8 heard the smokers outside laugh through the thin wall of the apartment.

"I don't know," Stella said, pulling a thin glass vial from her pocket and smearing a white liquid onto her mouth with a finger. "That's the truth. Just what I told you already."

J-8 inclined his head. "Two in Central, one in Newsom, street drags, TV's, busybody."

"Yeah, that's about it."

J-8 pushed his weight up, unbound his legs. "Thanks, Stell. I'll check it out."

"Wait," Stell said. He paused. She leaned forward, rocked onto her feet with a wince, and slowly straightened.

"Knock 'em dead, cowboy," she said, and hobbled over to kiss his cheek. He permitted the action in tense silence, hyperaware of her broken rib, the fact she used sex as a connection to the unattainable, the way her infatuation with him would have to be discouraged if not broken entirely for her own safety.

She pulled back and he let his eyes drop to her rib. "I'll send a doctor by this afternoon," he said. "Confidential. No questions asked."

She sighed. "Fine. Be that way. I'll get you sooner or later."

J-8 left without commenting. It wasn't until he reached the stairway that he allowed himself to put a hand to his cheek and feel the metal chip she'd stuck there using her own saliva and, he'd guess, a sterile glue. It would have to be probed for malware before he could decipher it. He dropped his hand, tilted his head, sent one of his remote drones to monitor the apartment until his next return. That was a level of theatrics humans only went to when they felt unsafe. She must have stored the waterproof chip under her tongue for the duration of the conversation.

Smart girl, Stell. He would have to keep an eye more than usual. Smart and risky, and humans had a way of getting themselves killed.

[anawkwardperson22]

The Electric State WIP snippet

So I am all over the place with my writing for the Electric State. I wanted to take a break and hold off until I can get the book first. Unfortunately, I've been to 5 bookstores already and I still cant find it. I'm probably going to order it online. Until then, however, I decided to post a snippet from my wip, since there isn't much fanfiction written yet.

It's basically a mix of the movie and the book (from what I know so far). I own nothing except one OC, lol.

There was a random kid with a small little bot trying to break into Gabby's truck.

Perhaps the wise thing would be confronting the girl. Maybe even scaring them off with some shouting and threatening them with an (empty) shotgun. Instead, Gabby remained inside her home, staring through the window while drinking some tea.

Honestly, she wanted to see how far the kid will go.

It had been awhile Gabby seen another person; she lived far in a ruined countryside, littered with the remains of the war. Anyone still around is either wasting away with a Neurocaster, or  is overly hostile and trying to steal Gabby's crops. Now that's when she can use the shotgun. Not on some kid.

The girl in question jerked away from the truck, waving her arms in protest and threw something to the ground. Apparently the file she was using had broke. The bot - with its familiar yellow and black, cartoon-ish design - glanced between the girl and the file on the ground. It took a step towards the car and reached for the handle. In one effortless pull, the door jacked open. Stepping back, it exchanged a bewildered look with the girl.

They seem harmless enough, Gabby thought with a snort. She took another sip of her tea. 

Eagerly, they both climbed into the truck. The girl bent down and started fiddling with what Gabby suspected to be wires. She's trying to hotwire the car, she realized, an amused smile twitching on her face. Gabby almost felt sorry for them.

Almost. Maybe I should go tell them that the truck broke down years ago. Frowning, Gabby shook her head. Wait, no. It's not my problem. They want to steal a truck? Let them fail.

Taking her time to finish the tea, Gabby watched the strangers struggle to work the truck. However, Gabby soon found herself setting the mug in the kitchen counter, and unlocked her front door. She was then on the porch.

The air was chilly and sky gloomily. Looks like rain again, Gabby though, buttoning up her sweater. A loud swear caught Gabby's attention back to the strangers. The girl was now hitting the dashboard of the truck, shouting something unintelligent. Beside her, the robot was curiously looking through the cupholders and sleeves.

Now or never, I guess, Gabby thought, crossing her arms. Why am I even here again?  When had it been the last time she talked to someone? Civilly, at least. Not the weird guy trying to steal her carrots. Either way, Gabby had enough of people. There is no reason for her to talk to these weirdos trying to steal her broken truck. But I feel bad. That's why I'm here, I guess. Okay, fine.

Taking a deep breath, Gabby called out to them. "Hey!"

Both girl and bot froze. The girl stared at Gabby with wide eyes, while the bot slowly peered over her shoulder.

"Why are you trying to steal my truck?" Gabby asked.

Glancing back at the bot, the girl adjusted her position to hide it. Then she stared daggers at Gabby, as if she were the one stealing the truck.

"I'm not trying to steal your truck," she called back, haughty.

Ha, yeah right. "Really? Then what are you doing in my truck?"

"None of your business!"

"Are you even old enough to drive?"

The girl blinked. "Yes!"

"Do you even know how to drive?"

"Yes."

"Do you even have a drivers license?"

The girl deflated a bit, glancing away. "Yes?"

"Do you even know if that truck has worked in the last three years?"

"It's... broken?" the girl glanced at the dashboard. "It's broken. Great."

Gabby grinned. "You wanna come out of my truck now?"

Slowly, the girl climbed out of the truck. She reached in and pulled the bot out after her. Taking a step away from the truck, they stared at her, the bot grasping the girls arm as she stood protectively in front of it - an odd sight. Gabby hadn't seen a human and robot co-exist side-by-side like this since before the war.

"So, who are you?" Gabby asked. "I'm Gabriela, or Gabby for short."

The girl eyed her suspiciously.

"I'm not trying anything," Gabby said. "I just wanna know who's stealing my truck."

"I wasn't trying - " the girl stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Fine. Michelle."

"How about your friend?" Gabby asked, inclining her head towards the robot. "What's his name?"

The bot's head jerked up towards her. "I'm your pal Cosmo!"

At the same time, Michelle's said. "He's my brother!"

Blinking, Gabby leaned back to stare at Michelle. From her fierce expression and tensed body, she is telling the truth or she really means it. It reminded Gabby of before the war, a tv news channel shared a story of a woman falling in love with a cooking bot. Gabby laughed about it with a friend at the time.

"Your... brother," Gabby said, slowly. "Okay... Why is your brother a robot?"

"None of your business," Michelle snapped.

"We're escaping from the enemy's base!" said 'Cosmo'.

Turn her attention to Cosmo, Gabby's pondered. It wouldn't be possible for a person to become a robot - at least, not in any way Gabby knew of. However, a more likely explanation, Michelle's brother could be controlling the robot.

Gabby's heart sank at a realization. Neurocaster. During the war, humanity struggled against to fight the robots. However, a company, Sentre, developed a technology that allowed humans to pilot drones, helping humanity to eventually win the war. With the success of this technology, Sentre went out to sell Neurocasters to the public, letting people live in a virtual world. Very quickly, people got addicted. Before anyone could realize, people were soon stuck in their virtual lives, their bodies left behind and suffering, rotting.

Gabby use to have neighbors in the field over. But when the Neurocaster came out, they decided to try it out. When they stopped trading Gabby eggs, she went over to check on them, only to find her neighbors decaying on their porch. The chickens were scattered. 

Gabby couldn't eat that day. Does she realize? Gabby thought, glancing at Michelle. Realize?

"Look... kid, you shouldn't be here," Gabby said, glancing at Cosmo. "Both of you shouldn't. This place is dangerous; literally a no man's land from the war. Lots of bad groups of people. Lots of angry, decaying robots. Both can and will hurt you if they can."

"If this place is so dangerous," Michelle pointed out. "Why are you here?"

Fear and guilt stabbed Gabby, but she ignored it. "I'm trying to... avoid people."

"What people?"

"Just... people in general."

A smirk spread on Michelle's face. "Police?"

A flash of a gun on the back of Gabby's head made her freeze. No. She forced into a box and left it in the back of her head. I'm not answering that, Gabby thought, shaking her head to push the memory away. This kid is getting to me. Fuck it. Gabby took a step away. This isn't my problem. Just let them do whatever.

A distant booming of thunder grabbed Gabby's attention. Cosmo made a startled noise, grabbing Michelle's hand again, who turned back to whisper: "It's okay."

For the first time, Gabby took notice Michelle's dirty, ripped clothes. Her blonde hair looked in good need of brushing, and her face was a little pale with bags under her eye. The bot didn't look to good either: it was covered in dirt and scratches, as if someone ran it over in the rain.

The worlds in a shit state right now, Gabby thought. Of course everyone is going to look like shit. But comparing herself with these kids, it was obvious Gabby had it better off.

"You wanna come inside?" Gabby slowly asked. "I have some carrot soup."

"What?" Michelle asked, eyes widening.

"It's going to rain and I'm not heartless enough to send some kids out into the wilderness with... nothing."

"Woah, woah, woah! You could be dangerous," Michelle snapped. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

Crossing her arms, Michelle stared at Gabby defiantly. Beside her, Cosmo glanced between them in an unsure manner. Already Michelle's attitude was getting tiresome. Fine then. I don't know anything about this kid. I don't need to care.

"Alright," Gabby said, raising her hands in defeat and starting back to the cabin. "Then you can get out of here. Why should I care?"

As Gabby reached the door, Cosmo said: "We gotta take shelter from the meteor shower!"

She ignored it and went inside, closing and locking the door behind her. A moment later, the sound of rain pelted on the roof - a very soothing sound. It was followed by a knock at the door. Staring at it, Gabby considered not answering. But morals got the better of her, so Gabby opened it with a sigh.

"Fine," Michelle muttered, now drenched in rain and defeated gloom darkened on her face. Cosmo stood behind her, hands clasped together in a polite, patient manner.

By the time the thunder followed the rain, Gabby had warmed up the carrot stew and served Michelle at the small kitchen table. Michelle had insisted on giving Cosmo a bowl. Despite Gabby's better judgement, she gave him a bowl to be included.

Letting Michelle eat the soup, Gabby cleaned some older dishes and dried them. Before she could put them back in the cupboards, Cosmo appeared beside her, hands lifted up towards her. Tilting her head, Gabby gave him a mug. He carefully walked to a cupboard and put it away.

That's sweet, Gabby thought, smiling. At least one of the two had some manners. After they put the dishes away, she turned back to Michelle who finished the stew.

Deciding to try talking to her again, Gabby said: "Alright, listen: I'm going to be real with you, kid. I honestly haven't seen anyone in a long time and don't really know what to think about this. It really is dangerous here. What are you doing? Are you running from someone? Hiding?"

Michelle tensed and gritted her teeth. "None of your business."

"Is she always like this?" Gabby asked Cosmo.

The bot nodded, shoulders slumping in exasperation. 

"Why do you care so much?" Michelle demanded.

"Maybe because you tried to steal my truck and I won't to know why?"

Cosmo came to Michelle and patted her hand. They exchanged a look, Michelle's face softening. Maybe they are running from the police, Gabby thought. During the war, harboring a robot got many people arrested - even if it was a sentient Roomba. Now that the war was over and society was scattered, it could now be a death sentence. It didn't matter if Cosmo was being controlled or not, people will still destroy him.

"Are you in trouble with some police?" Gabby asked, nodding at Cosmo. "Because of your brother."

Michelle's hands curled up into fists. "Yeah," she said quietly. "But he didn't do anything wrong."

There we go. "I understand. Some people don't."

"Are you in trouble?" Michelle asked, finally looking up. "Because I didn't think anyone lived so far from the cities anymore."

Gabby considered her options. She could lie or refuse to speak. But, she's finally getting Michelle to open up. It would only be fair to give back.

"Yes," Gabby nodded. "I was in trouble. I don't know if I still am now, but I'd rather stay away anyways."

"What did you do?"

Gabby tapped the counter, wondering how much exactly to share. "Lets just say... I was a robot sympathizer."

Michelle frowned. "Robot sympathizer?"

"Before the war. I, uh, I was a robotic mechanic. I studied robot engineering and got a job at an amusement park, working closely with robots. When the protests started, I sympathized with the robots I worked with."

"Really?" Michelle leaned on the table. Cosmo also leaned against it, interested. "Everyone I've met hates them. You thought they deserved human status and rights?"

"Well... lets just say that once I had this teacher, and she made a comment that I think about sometimes. She said: 'if you're giving a robot artificial intelligence, aka, the ability to simulate human intelligence, don't be surprise if they start acting like a human'. And what happened? Robots started acting human. Too human. I literally saw a robot have a breakdown because he hated making hotdogs and wanted to be a pianist instead. Hold on."

Gabby left the kitchen and opened the closet in the hallway. Rummaging through the boxes, she took one out and brought it to the kitchen. Opening it, she pulled out some photos, passing one too Michelle. Cosmo peered into the box.

"They were my friends," Gabby said. "I knew them very well. Didn't you know any robots?"

"I was young," Michelle admitted, taking another photo. "My brother... we use to watch this show of Kid Cosmo."

Gabby glanced at Cosmo, finally regonizing where he was from. A cartoon before the war about a robot and his human pal, Jesse. It was popular until the whole situation of the robots.

"Is that..." Michelle's brows furrowed. "The robot that destroyed the memorial?"

Flinching, Gabby took the photo from Michelle and stared at it. It was a photo of Gabby and her coworkers, all smiling and hugging each other. Behind them, a giant blue, cat robot was peering down, waving. A mixture of guilt and fear swirled in her gut, but Gabby also forced it into a box and moved on.

She could easily remember coming to work that morning - she was running late and spilled coffee on the way. By the time Gabby got to work, she found her coworkers huddled over a small tv in the employee lounge. There, they all watched in horror at live footage of Big Blue destroying two helicopters while the vandalizes memorial was in the background.

Unsurprisingly, the park closed after that.

"I - we didn't think he'd..." Gabby waved a hand, gritting her teeth. "It was a surprise. No one thought he'd do that."

Michelle eyed her. "Were you still a robot empathizer then?"

"It was complicated."

Cosmo lifted up a little plush of the cat bot, looking at Gabby with what she'd assume as a quizzical look. Grimacing, Gabby took it from him and put it in the box.

"What about you?" Gabby asked. "What did you think about... the war?"

Looking away, Michelle took a deep breath. "I don't care. I'm just trying to find my brother." She glanced at Cosmo. "I thought he died a long time ago, but then he showed up as Cosmo and told me he was still alive. I'm looking for him."

Pieces fell together, making sense. "You think he's out there somewhere?"

"I know he is."

Glancing at Cosmo, Gabby's heart sank. "If he's controlling this little robot, wouldn't that mean he's using a Neurocaster - "

"No!" Michelle got up. "He's too smart for that!"

"Calm down. I'm just saying - "

"He's all I have left," Michelle said abruptly. "I'm not giving up on him!"

They stared at each other for a silent moment. Any civility they had, gone. Between them, Cosmo glanced back and forth. I better leave it then, Gabby thought, reluctantly looking away. 

Collecting the box, Gabby went back to the closet and put it back. When she came back, she offered Michelle the couch (the cabin didn't have an extra bedroom) and a towel to use the washroom. 

"You can stay for the night," Gabby told her. "At least until the rain stops."

Without a 'thank you', or even any word, Michelle took the towel and went to the washroom.

With Michelle in the washroom, Cosmo explored Gabby's cabin, taking interest in small robot parts that she collected over the years. Watching him made Gabby imagine a little boy, rotting away in some dark room with an oversized Neurocaster covering his head. Stomach turning, Gabby forced the image away and went back to the kitchen.

The situation is horrible. Unsettling. Sad.

It's not my problem, Gabby forced herself to think. Stay out of it. She leaned against the counter and watched the rain fall, taking moment to enjoy the sound of it hitting the roof. It's not my problem.

But she knew she was going to end up giving them food; she had more the enough carrots to spare. Maybe a jacket too. If Michelle shares where they are going, she'll give a map too. Maybe... Fuck. Groaning, Gabby rubbed her face.

By the morning, she knew she was going to end up leading them across this patch of land. But that's it. That's it...

[mimikyu-oli]

This is the only way I know to show you this @thesoupisburning

Rebranded Case

It was a day of work like any other. Nothing realy that impressive.

The only thing Michael has to do during the day was:

⦁ Stop Monty's outbreak and repair his casing. Specifically, his hands.

⦁ Distract Roxy so she won't destroy more of a teen's self-esteem. Again. (And we all know these thing can shattered easily. He has himself as an example.)

⦁ Digged-up Chica out of a trash bin and took her to a secluded place to unjammed all the trash she had eaten. (Seriously, who programmed her to do this? Who was the genius who thought that garbage was edible and nutritious enough to decide this was a proper all-you-can-eat buffet?)

⦁ Unstuck Monty's hands from a fence.

⦁ Taking care of Chica's craving round two. (No Lucas, you can't test if she would consume the packing peanuts. (She would. Of course she would.))

⦁ Taking out Freddy from Fazcade.

⦁ Unstuck Monty's hands from a brick wall.

⦁ Comfort Roxy from her inferiority complex. (And change her miror.)

⦁ Unstuck Monty's upper body from a concrete wall. (Do you have a personal vendetta to any surfaces blocking your path?)

⦁ And many more.

"MIIIIIIIIIKE!!!!! CHICA MADE A KID'S EARS BLEED AGAIN!!!!!"

That's why he prefered the night shift. Less problems.

He sigh. "Here we go again."

---

After taking care of the shrieking mother and giving the lawsuit to the ones in charge (While also dodging the Map Bot.), he took a well deserved rest at his desk in Parts and Service. He wasn't alone though.

"So yeah, I had to ch-change an arcade machine from the Wess Arcane. The West Arcade. Yeah. Some kid got access to the internal shircuit-" He scorf. "CIR-CUIT! YES!" He pumped his fist in the air for his success. "Superior Beebbinge told me to put it back. To put it in the back. Uhm… T-the big hallway with DJ's hole at the end. That one. A-and… uhmm… Ah! Yes! The guy has returned. You know the one who always says 'MUUUUUUUUUUSIC MAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!'. Yeah. He was back."

Lucas, his assistant, was pretty much the only one here he could have a decent AND unawkward AND complete conversation that he would feel fulfilling. Well, beside his husband.

"Again!?" Lucas fervently nodded at him."Wasn't he banned after taking one of the ovens from each kitchens? I still don't understand how he achieved that by the way." Michael ends while pointing his index at the other.

"The power of solving theories? I guess? I donno. The man hazz a crave that can riva-rivalise Chica's. Oh! And…" He looks up. "Banishment is PRObably inneffective against him." He paused to then point at Michael. "In fact! YOU should be the FIRST to know that." Lucas counters before taking a sip of his water bottle.

[...]

[the-resurrection-3d]

Was struggling with writing Roy until I printed the story off last night. My goal for November is just to write SOMETHING, even a sentence or two, every day. Ideally, I'll have this story finished at the end of the month since I don't think it needs to be a huge thing, but we will see.

Anyway, I think I'm finally getting a voice for Roy together. First scene below if you're interested. TW for self-multiation.

I wanted to cut my arm off so I did it. The why doesn’t matter—I have plenty of them, I mean, the whole Alexandria library of little embarrassments, a life that’s a whole movie of boring, dreary scenes punctuated by embarrassment, but in the end I know that whatever I was upset about last night doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I think my brain gets so bored sometimes it latches onto these small embarrassments—a rude comment to a girlfriend’s uncle, a typo in my presentation when I was being shadowed, etc etc -- and blows them up just to have something to be interested in.

So I ended up cutting my arm off instead of sleeping last night. Well, I mean I cut my arm off and then went to sleep, taking two doses of my monthly ration of sleeping pills, which admittedly I could have just done first but I was trying to look out for my liver, because I take them every day when I’m working. Anyway, I cut my arm off in the kitchen with my biggest butcher knife, both out of necessity and out of dramatics (am I using that word right?). I was going to bite my wallet—the Civil War guys biting leather as they get their legs sawed off, that was the image that reminded me to save my teeth, but I couldn’t remember if it was in my car or in the mess of chip bags and fresh-but-unfolded clothes on the couch, so I just balled up the little towel I keep hanging off the oven’s handle.

Around the second chop, I realized I needed more protection for my teeth, so I took a deep breath, wiped the tears off with the parts of the towel that weren’t damp from being in my mouth, and stuffed my tiny ghost-faced oven mitt into my mouth, too.                                         

That was Mel’s, wasn’t it?

And when it was done—I don’t know how many chops, I kind of lost count around ten—I let it clunk into the sink. Dark dots in my eyes, cool fingers in my hair, the world knock-down drunk—still, somehow I got wound sealant I’d set out and sprayed and sprayed. So now my I guess ex-arm looks like cottage cheese is growing out of it, what was crimson now dark brown around the base.

Probably should’ve used a tourniquet—there’s blood all down my T-shirt and briefs like I’d slept in a lake of it, and all down the counter and in the sink and spreading across the floor. I’d thrown some paper towels down, but— pfft.

Fuck, the smell of dirty-car pennies. You can imagine.

“Uh, Jenny!” I call. I didn’t like using the smart house bot, but sometimes it’s necessary.

Didn’t work. “Jenny!” My voice was real weak, so pathetic I could’ve winced. When Jenny finally woke up, I asked her to send the cleaner to the kitchen. I took my sleeping pills and the screwdriver I hadn't finish earlier and stomped the pills under its glass ass, tried to sweep the crumbs into my hand before I remembered I was missing one. So I grabbed the dust in my remaining hand and licked my palm and between my fingers and finished my driver and went to finally, FINALLY get some sleep.

XXXXXXXX

Jenny called the cops on me.

[lastofthirteen]

Primus, that was EMBARRASSING. Hell, the old mech just up and left! Despite how he'd made an effort to leave earshot in the process through the exit, Zeta wasn't a fool... and, okay, that was 'cause he found it funny, too, he knew why Kup had to go scuttling off like that! By the time Kup HAD returned, he was able to see the youngster also laughing his damn aft off. His servos had smacked onto his knee-joints now that the burn had gone away, giggling and chortling all the while as he tried to compose himself when Kup was returning. " N-No, no, it's okay! I-I know the face I made was-- was-- well, it was SOMETHING, I'll put it like that! "

Deep inhale. OKAY. Okay. VENT, Zeta. He managed a little exvent without devolving into little giggles again, letting his eyes close, " I-I'm not used to the heavy stuff, I try to keep my helm in the game, you know? "

Now that the conversation was continuing, though, Zeta was sure to quickly focus on what Kup was saying. He perked up a little-- the thought of a new life... sure, maybe things wouldn't be the BEST in a more military-based career, but... honestly, anything to get outta the Pits. Anything for Jackhammer. The younger mech rubbed the back of his neck, " Well, I bet I can handle the training... I guess it just depends what's a part of it, is all. " Wait, first round? His optics flicked back to the empty cube.

Before he could try to question it, the mic crackled to life, making Zeta grunt as Kup stood up to go sign them up for karaoke. But-- but-- auhhh, he didn't know much songs! Not... current-day ones, anyhow... he only knew some from some of the stuff he'd study... and the odd dreams he'd get at his berth. Considering how some of the people were around here, they certainly wouldn't be... very open to things like that. They certainly gave him trouble already 'cause of his manners.

But-- but he couldn't leave Kup DISAPPOINTED-- the guy went out of his way to get him drinks, and... he was even helping him GET OUT of the hole he'd been stuck in! He could handle this! Yeah!

Standing up himself, Zeta took the empty cubes in question and couldn't help but watch Kup head off to sign them both up for karaoke for a little bit longer before he made his way to the counter. He hunched a bit nervously, awkwardly sliding his shanix along the countertop. He'd pay for it. He had enough...! " Uh-- another round, sir? " The lack of confidence didn't really get him anywhere, though. But he couldn't stop now!

The bot straightened up a bit more instead of hunching over, and managed to adopt a stern enough voice, " I SAID-- another round, sir? " Formal, yes, but. Well. That could be menacing!

By the time Kup was-- hopefully- finished signing up, Zeta had successfully returned with drinks! Score!

He beamed up at Kup, " Uh-- they actually listened this time, sir! I... I don't think I'll take anything strong again, though. As funny as it was, I don't wanna have my functions going crazy. T-Thank you for your help with them, again! "

Kup noticed the scarring immediately as Zeta's faceplate retracted. The inkling to quip about having been attacked by a wayward drill screamed through his processor - yet he instead chose to nibble on the end of his cyg. He'd already put the lad through the ringer, and it was about to get worse - for him anyway.

A glimmer of mischief caught the old wrecker's optics as he watched Zeta's internal struggle unfold before him. Kup really wasn't sure if the youngin' had the lugnuts to go through with it, but he did. Like a fraggin' champ! But that reaction though...

As soon as Zeta hinted at the very first pucker, Kup took out the nub of his cyg. He bit on his lower derma as hard as he could to keep himself from dissolving into gales of laughter. Eventually he just couldn't contain himself. He held up his index digit and quickly scurried to his pedes - making a bee line straight for the exit. It was only once he was out of eye and earshot that he released a roar of laughter, bracing himself upright by pressing his servos to his thighs as he guffawed uncontrollably. After he was finally able to regain composure, he strolled back inside as if nothing happened and resumed his seat.

"Fergive me. You just... Yer what we call a cheap date kid."

He pressed the cygar between his dermas once more, but didn't engage it. Perhaps something about the habit had given him an oral fixation. At least that's what he's been told. But he'd been told a lot of slag (truths) that he idly disregarded as rubbish. Either way, he was finally capable of resuming their conversation.

"Anything's better than the pits. But if yer serious about it, there's gonna be trainin' involved. Can't just use ya as canon fodder. I've trained a lot 'o mecha, a whole damn lot. And if I can make soldiers outta them, don't see why it'd be any different. Don't make no promises tho, gotta see what yer made of. Obviously yer willing after that display. Consider that the first round. Ya want another?"

It was a joke. He wouldn't make poor Zeta endure another one of his preferred drinks. He'd simply order what the mech had originally wanted and leave him alone with the teasing. For now.

The sound of a microphone could be heard screeching with reverberation as it powered on. Some amateur was about to kick off the karaoke session.

"Ah good! There's that live music you were wishin' for! You get us another round, I'll sign us up."

There was no time for a retort, the relic was on his pedes and shuffling over to the DJ booth.

[bts5sosempire]

helloo(๑> <๑), can I ask app/website do you use to edit your fanfics, if it's okay with you? (I'm starting to write fanfics of my own and I couldn't find any app/website)

There are a lot, since I'm only using mobile version of the app(s) since it's more convenient for me to write on the get-go without bringing or opening my laptop all the time.

PureWriter (used to)

JotterPad (what I am currently using)

Grammarly Keyboard (what I am also currently using too)

Google Docs (used to)

Well, to start on PureWriter, I give it prolly a 7.5/10, I like the format and all, but the catalogs are a pain in the ass. Plus, you can't collapse a thread of your separate work, too, if you're writing for different stories. I hate trying to rearrange them in order so I kind of give up on that. It has a word reader to keep track of your word count and letters too. There are also constant updates on the app, so there are always new features being added, so I'm also not trying to keep up with that. I have the copy and paste thingy, as it double spaces my work and won't italicize or bold them correctly when needed.

For JotterPad, I give it an 8.5/10; it had its moment when I fought with it in the past. But there is an option for you to use the basic format, but you could also buy the add-ons if you wish. I may be biased, but I find it more convenient as you can link your account from Tumblr to JotterPad when transferring over whatever you're writing without the "copy and paste" type. Like PureWriter, it also had a word and character counter, so you can track how much you've written. It also gives you a statistics progress graph (like PureWriter, but in a different font, I guess). You can create folders (within another folder, again and again), which is a lifesaver, as I can separate my works into categories -> it almost works like a thread. I don't trust Tumblr enough to save in draft; the many times Tumblr ate my posts when I spend so many hours/days are agonizing.

Grammarly keyboard is a great way to use whatever app you use to write. Still, the hideous word recommendations are a thorn in the side at times when you're using an unfamiliar terminology or another synonymous that not the general audience knows. Like you fool, I'm trying to educate others and expand their vocabulary; let me do my sh*t. I say a solid 8/10, if for not the lagging it sometimes had. The app also had a desktop site, which I will not be talking about since I rarely use it. But if you do have your own words or terms, make sure to add them, or else this keyboard will auto-correct them for you.

Google docs, I'm sure I don't need to explain that here. No score.

But these are just my opinions, tho; you could try and see if they're to your liking or not; I'm sure there would be others who are willing to help you if they write a comment under the post or interact with you. Suppose I'm missing something or forgot to add.

Words of advice: block any porn bots on sight too, they could be liking and reblogging your stuff with a pfp of a hawt woman. So no hesitation. Also blank blogs.

Taggings: make sure to tag many things related to your content too. Thus, this will lead your content to be more exposed to others who like the stuff you put out that is related to their interest. You can check the "the tyrant" series I'm working on atm to see how the tagging(s) goes.

Taggings (tw): the "tw" stands for trigger warning, so if you happened to write any sensitive content that could potentially be in your series/ work, make sure to add them in your tagging if possible or add them at the very beginning of your list of content. Ex: tw frogs, tw cooties, or tw pink guy. If you don't put it, some people might stumble upon your work and unleash hell or politely tell you to edit and add tw to your work.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

how about a little scenario where the prophesy trio(kris, susie, and ralsei) find out sweet, cap'n, and k_k have a shy chubby tv head girlfriend cause she takes over the shop while they're gone

"Dang, kinda wish we got those cool weapons at that junk place."

"Oh? Is your axe busted up a lot, Susie?"

"Nah but it could use an upgrade in case we gotta fight Queen."

As much as Ralsei didn't want to repeat the past, he knew that if the group were to face Queen again, violence may be necessary. She wasn't too keen on destroying them immediately, opting to battle them in an silly arcade game instead. But they couldn't let their guard down.

Kris shared the same sentiment as they led their friends back to Sweet Cap'n Cakes' junk shop, sparing whoever they came across along the way.

When they opened the doors, they didn't see the usual trio of robot rebels but instead you: a female Darkner with a TV for a head. You were just sitting at the counter, checking the wares, when you realized you had customers.

Not only that, but they were Lightners.

"O-Oh! Hey, uh, welcome!" Your screen flickered to life, showing a blushing emoticon. "Please do look around, Lightners. T-Take your time."

Kris approached the counter, looking at you curiously. They've never seen you here before. Unlike the others, you spoke much softer and didn't seem too hyperactive. Instead fidgeting with your antennae and the jar of glow wrists beside you.

*Talk

"H-Huh? You wanna talk?" An exclamation showed up on your screen for a second, although you sighed and shook it away. 'I really need to chill out...'

You were surprised they wanted to know more about yourself than the wares, but you talked to them anyway, telling them things like your name, your job at this rebel base, and your three boyfriends who were in the city trying to spread word of-

Oops. You said too much.

"Now what's with that look? Nothing to be ashamed of." Susie snickered, seeing your blush emoticons glitching out. "We're just surprised they never told us anythin' about you. You're a lucky chick."

"Th-Thanks.." You stammered.

"Well we did fight them for a short while." Ralsei muttered to her. "So they probably didn't-"

"Wait..you..y-you didn't hurt them...did you?"

"Oh--oh no, no!!" The goat waved his paws frantically. "They attacked us thinking we were with Queen, but we won by dancing to their music. We didn't hurt them at all."

Kris nodded in agreement, and that confirmation relieved you.

"Ah, I see..s-sorry. I was just worried. Dancing always distracts those goofs from their jobs. I'm glad you resolved that peacefully."

After that, the human Lightner put a hefty stack of dark dollars on the counter, buying a mecha saber, an auto axe, and a glow wrist. You were pleased they were willing to buy so much, and you got them the requested items.

Your boyfriends were certainly going to be happy when they get back. This was the most profit this shop has made in a few days.

When group equipped their respective items, they said goodbye and left to continue their journey. Not long after that, Sweet, Cap'n, and K_K returned.

"Babes!!!" Sweet jumped over the counter to hug you, head squished against your stomach as the other two bots hugged you and kissed both sides of your head.

"What's shakin' bacon?"

"You doin' okay? Queen didn't come around here, did she?"

"Nope. Only some friendly Lightners. You guys never told me about your encounter with them, so I was uh..pretty shocked seeing them walk through the door." You awkwardly chuckled.

"Awh sorry 'bout that, toots." Sweet let go of you, only to spot the money and gasp. "YO!!! This is a ton of cash!"

K_K was gawking at it, too. "Wowie, we're makin' bank today!"

Cap'n shared the same expression as he glanced at you. "How's you doing better as a shopkeeper than any of us???"

All you did was shrug, wondering that same question yourself.

Maybe you ought to be the new shopkeeper here in the fields.

[thedreamcrosser]

Dark Neon is going to be continued ;)

Read the first chapter here 👇

What an adorable bot.

The first I saw him I thought he was just like any other guy. Doesn't wear anything too out there: a light sweater and basic pants. But when I went to look at the selection of plants in the front window I did a double take when I saw his reflection. The color that adorned his frame, admittedly, made me glitch a little. It was the most beautiful shade of purple I have ever seen. Come to think of it, not many companions came in purple. He was a gemstone alright.

I stared a bit longer than expected. Respectfully, hopefully. But I reminded myself that I was there on a mission, so I plucked up the flower that I knew would be a surefire cheer-up for my sister and made my way over to his counter.

I am going to be honest, I was a bit put off when he mistook me for a guy. But as he saw his mistake I couldn't help it. He was so cute when he was flustered.

Might as well forgive a common mistake.

And forgive I did, and in a way, I did not normally do with guys. I flirted with him. I grabbed a book on my favorite artist and I compared him to the artwork. He stammered and I saw that as the perfect opportunity to leave him to his thoughts and I walked out flawlessly. It took all of my control to not pump my fist into the air and lose my cool as I made my way to my motorcycle. It was a win in my book that day.

After that, I could not stop thinking of him. This had to be stupid right, falling for a guy you just met? Not to mention I don't know his name. It was a good thing his store was the perfect excuse to get the reference material for my job. Had the Festival of Neon coming up, and the boss had been asking for the best in art.

Being an artist in Midtown was competitive, and being a girl from the slums I had an incredibly slim chance of making it. That is, if my boss did not hand-pick me to work for him, I would have not been chosen to be the head hologram director for the event. It was a miracle that I chose not to waste, and I loved every minute of it.

But who said that I could not have fun while on the job, right? And I had a budget for supplies, so might as well use it. I spent almost every day going into that bookshop. The routine was a delight. I would go in, browse his art selection, and bring it to the front counter while he would stammer like a dork. After his stammering he was still shy and did not make much eye contact, but he did talk a bit.

I probably shouldn't have seen it as a good thing though. It was not until near the last day of the festival that I realized my mistake. While I trying to squeeze my bike through the crowded streets full of festival preppers I saw his shop was still open. My internal clock told me I still had an hour until his shop closed.

In the front window was an adorable sight, a child with her screen in a book. She had made herself comfortable on some cushions where the plant selection used to be. Parking my bike not too far away from her I gave her a small wave. Peaking up from her book she stared at me, her yellow face shining like a grow lamp. She did not wave back but offered a flower from the pages of her book instead. My processors melted.

The cute bookshop owner was not far away as well. But as soon as he saw me he  was quick to put his hand on her shoulder. And that was when he closed the blinds, and the neon open sign turned off.

That was his kid.

Oh no, he has a kid.

His kid.

There is probably someone else in the picture.

I stood there dumbfounded. All of that stammering was not shyness but fear. I was scaring the poor man because he had a child to protect, not to mention the possibility of someone else he loved. Defeated I leaned my head against the window. How could I have been so stupid?

[pokedash55]

Acronix X Coffee Robot Crack AU

SUGGEST READING MY ECHO MEETS ACRONIX FIC BEFORE THIS

IT BUILDS ON THIS WACKY WORLD OF MINE

Click for Echo Meets Acronix Fic

To summarize//TL;DR: Acronix falls out of the time vortex at the light house a befriends Echo Zane, learns empathy and put Echo on Social media so everyone knows he exists now. 

-After he leaves echo zane with a borg watch he finds himself back in Ninjago

-Stalks borg and his fam like a creep

-Jay introduces Echo to the dyer family

-Echo and unagami are siblings now

-Acronix is kinda like Echos big brother

-But no one else accepts this

-Zane and Pix give skeptical and menacing, “if you touch him” glares

-Unagami is confused babi and likes their new brother echo

-So Like One day it’s Borg, Pix, Zane, Jay, Unagami, Echo, and Milton dyer, and Acronix in a room together  (Fic on that later :3 )

-The whole fam

-Nixie just lingers around borg tower saying random junk sometimes

-Acronix : “You either die a villian or live long enough to see yourself become…”

-Pix: “A very annoying customer who is about to be escorted out of the building?”

-“UH NO. Wrong answer Pix (“dont call me pix”). REDEEMED. Cause I’m like… totally redeemed now”

-Just holds up a high five for the room and left hanging by everyone

-Jay’s like :Yeeeoree not part of our group”

-So like Acronix and Echo Zane are bro’s now cause I said so??

-Everyone: Nix is part of the Borg Family

-Me: Well YES, but actually no

-This isn't really a Future thing

-In this they're mostly frenemies kinda??

-But Acronix does really like him and borg tower and Borg is too nice to throw him out XD

-Acronix has zip money and doesn’t FEEL like looking for Krux rn

-Gets his morning coffee everyday bro

-Starts crushin on the Coffee manager (naming her shannon after the voice actor)

-His routine is basically wake up, coffee, Shannon, stalk borg, watch memes, think about looking for kux than fall asleep on phone

-Posts bout his lil bro alot (echo)

-Posts about Shannon ALOT

-Many many selfies of him an his coffee

-Realizes he may need to get someplace to live since he had yet to venture for krux

-Shoot money is a thing he doesn’t have

-Borg be super kind like, “You can stay at my Newly renovated highly advanced Borg Hotel but you must get a job.”

-Acronix gestures at being one of those technology intern clerks at borg industries. “Is for me?”

-”Must get a job AND leave my family alone…. For now… please?”

-Borg is too nice to the guy who kidnapped him and is infatuated with living at borg tower

-Does borg live in borg tower?

-Gunna say he does

-Cause Acronix just LOITERS in borg tower 24/7

-Like its like hours after closing of the downstairs shop and Pix is like getting her suit on and forcefully escorting Nixie out of the premises

-So anyway Nix has to get a job

-Ugh entry level Jobs are SO beneath him.

-Pouts uwu

-Gets a job as a barista to at least have fun with someone cool

-Ronin notices that sales have gone up in the coffee shop since Acronix has started hanging around there, because the girls think he’s pretty and he posts a lot on social media.

-Ronin wants this, but doesn’t want to have to actually pay Acronix for being a faceman.

-Hires him “as a barista”. Basically he hires Acronix to sit at the counter and look pretty, while giving the joint free advertising.

-Acronix totally doesn’t notice this and is fine with being completely exploited and underpaid.)

-Acronix X Coffee Bot! (In this she’s named Shannon)

-Shannon is like… chill and rude, but never offensive

-Cheats in chess

-Smug about it too like deamn she mean

-Epic moves (Both spinny sign and juggling. And makes epic coffee)

-Unflinching at a fire

-Complete apathy

-Throws "Floyds"  teapot plan away immediately cause she doesn’t get paid enough for this sh*t

-Says she doesn’t drink coffee but than is seen drinking coffee that lier

-Bad habit of Ignoring stufft. Ignores the upgrade, ignores her lie detector, ignores the fact the -machine is literally ice frozen

-She wears a miniskirt and a crop top/bra thingy to WORK. On the clock! savage

-Nixie is confirmed to get crushes easily and like powerful/ mean woman (Machia)

-Also he has no shame in liking nonhumans

-Love technology so would totally vibe with her

-Robotsexual for sure

-Powercouple

-Since she is still A.I, so Nix’s outgoing and I don’t care i'm great loud personality would really surprise her and she’d be inspired/impressed by his lack of chill and lack of care

-She has a bit of sass and goth hot topic to her but also still has that robot innocence that would blend nicely with Acronix since he is also Abrasive and rude on the outside, but is a tad of a softy coward (He hugs his bro and cowers behind him and gets adorably defensive when he snarks at him)

-He’d teach her so much about being more alive… maybe a bad influence but she’d dig it

-He calls her Shay almost constantly

-He hates being called Nix

-Like he is a prideful warrior who expects people to use his full name in respect

-But Shannon is too cool for that

-Calls him Nix sometimes anyway

-Respects her boldness

-The audacity to do so without permission!

-Shannon owns a motorcycle because come on

-Ridin home on a sick bike together

-Stealin stuff when people aren’t looking

-Banned from Ronin thrift shop for sure (they're lucky they weren't fired after that night. But he literally can't fire shannon)

-Chill on friday nights at Laughys karaoke.

-Not singing, just laughing at how stupid other people look singing drunk kareoke

-So a jock dork egotist and a apathetic punk bot walk into a bar

-Dareth honestly doesn’t know this guy was the one sending snakes after his trophies so he just treats him like a normal costumer

-Neither of them care about Dareth’s attempts at small talk.

-Too busy loving themselves like idiots

-She kicks his ass in strategy video games and he destroys her in battle royal stuff

-Both are equally bored by like Animal crossing and other fake life games YAWN so much work

-Shannon enjoys the thrill of racing games

-Nixie plays em but it’s not his best game

-Both GEAMMERS (but in a frighteningly cool way. They somehow both avoid nerd status… nixie still a dork tho. Jock dork)

-She makes coffee art of her hubbies face.

-He gives her so much social media attention

-Acronix gives her coffee shop media rep and he loves the petty feeling of beating Wu at something

-She doesn’t quite get his excitement in it (cause she’s on neutral terms with Wu) but loves the media attention

-She doesn’t get his phrases and he finds that both aggravating and endearing

-“Um I’m Aconic”

-Shannon: “So you’ve been lying about your name this whole time?

-Acronix: “...?”

-“That's honestly sick”

-Acronix “… “

-One day they joy ride on a motorcycle

-End up loitering around borg tower

-Borg officially meets Shannon and is interested in her origin

-Her design is not like he has seen but it also seems familiar

-She says she doesn't remember much other than working for ronin

-"Ronin" borg mutters spitefully

-He has a history of y'know.. Messing with his tech (dismantling pixal and selling zane hmmm)

-Does a diagnostic code scan

-Acronix worried bout his bae and hyped he was actually invited in for once.

-Progress on that "friendship"

-He discovers her model and general code is similar if not almost exactly the same as pixal’s code

-Ronin scrapped together with some mechanical help from his friends the walkers to make a functioning robot manager with borg tech he scrounged up and a stolen copy of pixal’s blueprints ( maybe he took pictures of them when he sold her to chen) and specs so he wouldn't have to pay for multiple employees. Just having the one really efficient one would save him thousands

-So shannon is pixals sister

-And her parents are The walkers, Ronin, and borg

-The family tree only grows people

-So Acronix is apart of the ninja family now if he marries Shannon

-Here's a chart if you're as confused as I am here:

-Anyway Shay doesn't really care much

- Her expression doesn't change

-She had never really gone out of her way to worry where she was from so it wasn't a huge revelation

-It was to nixie tho

-As the extravert he was (and has extensive experience of being a sibling) he had to make sure she got to know her new family NOW

-Like in the middle of the night now

-He never waits for things to happen

-Pix is first and she is about to power down for the night when...

-DOOR SLAMS OPEN

-"Hi SIS!!" Acronix just screams

-"hey. I'm like your sister now." Obvi shannon is more lowkey about it

-Shannon and pixal mildly get along

-Questions her taste in men alot

-Acronix chills in the back already bored and ready to move on.

-Although he's annoyed by them, the ninja were next up

-Zane and Jay are both family now

-Shannon starting to think he's using all this to fill the void of his brother being gone.

-Cause she has no interest for or against meeting these people but Nix sees it as urgent

-But he seems happier than usual so she'll let him throw her name around for a while. She did mooch off his social media so it was only fair

-Anyway eventually Acronix does find his brother, and tries to explain this whole mess to his less-than-thrilled twin

-God once Krux gets back tho

-“Hey bro! I married a robot she’s amazing!”

-He’s just taking selfies with her in hot topic outfits both of them

-“God no my brothers Robotsexual. My worst nightmares have been realized”

-Krux can only stare in horror at the people his brother now considers “family”

-Wu’s students?!, Robots!?, what EVEN IS AI?!?!?

-He eventually gets over it

-eventually maybe

-At least he can admire her attitude

-Will still mess with his bro tho.

-This is the worst timeline imaginable.

-But I can't apologize for art

[maergheritas-moved]

S L A Y E R S, a novel by margarita p. g.

CHAPTER 00 - OLIVER

For being under Marco’s wing for a few weeks now, Oliver still hasn’t managed to master “the art of repair” even a little bit. He’s realized, instead, that he really isn’t good at this, that his nimble hands that once, in his younger years, served him for pickpocketing, for dumbkres with his mates, don’t work for handing tiny bot parts. It sucks, really… Marco thought Oliver would be of some use. And Oliver did, too. A part of him, a small part, maybe hoped that this stay would be permanent. 

But, like all things in his life, it soon proved to be nothing but momentary. He realized this on a burning hot summer morning, when the sun was high and the sulfur in the air even higher. He was only getting used to the life in Bajo then, trying to find a place amongst the renegades and runaways, and the many generations and cultural legacies found within the ancient walls of his new tiny town. The locals knew him as escurridizo, a nod to his late night appearances literally anywhere in town… he had the ability to slip out of where he was and be somewhere else in what looked like seconds. Lightning speed. Faster than a teleporter. Some people even thought he was one. He very much was not. That much he knew. 

Oliver woke up late that June morning, to the high-pitched whirring of centuries-old engines. He had hoped to get some rest after his rendezvous with Rory last night. But, as the heroes in video games would say, duty called. So, he got himself out of bed, put his sandals on, helped himself to burnt toast and already cold coffee, and headed to the taller. 

There lay Marco, working on his new project: the restoration of a humanoid bot found by some archeologists a couple of miles from here. It was clearly a very, very old model, and Marco had been promised a very large sum of money if he restored it back to working condition. Maybe the archeologists were planning to take it to a museum or a college or something like that, Oliver thought. 

It was very large, probably over three meters tall, and had a masculine shape. To Oliver, it looked like the military droids he saw on films. 

The military humanoid death machine thing lay with its stomach part open on the table, and by the smell of coltan in the air, Oliver knew Marco was dealing with the motherboard. It was definitely from the 22nd century, maybe early, when they still put moderboards on the torso and not the head. Marco had his microglasses on, and was very intently working on opening something really really small. There was soft jazz music playing somewhere, which, mixed with the birds chirping and the sound of schoolboys close, painted a picture in Oliver’s head that resembled a time when everyone was still together and life was easy. He let the memory wrap him under. 

An order from Marco pulls him back to reality. “Hey, nene,” he says, not even a hello beforehand, “can you check this wiring for me please?”

Without a word, Oliver walked over to the table, where the chemical smell is almost uncomfortable, and looked at the tangle of loose wires on the open motherboard. They were color coded, thank god. To Oliver, non-colored coded wires were the reason God left the Earth. Marcus and him always took hours to set them right. Almost instantly, he got a vague idea of how the circuits should go. They were like magnets, and he could feel where one ended and the other began, the many channels of energy running through the bot’s body, like blood rushing down veins. He had an instinct for this sort of things, a sixth sense, and it was hardly ever wrong. Oliver knew this wasn’t exactly normal, he knew it since he was a kid and could feel the many forces coming onto him way more than other people could, but he was not a might. Or at least, not a bolter (he’d already tried; sparks never came out of his palms). Whatever he was, he never gave it much thought. It would not do him good, especially not in this country.

Trusting his weird instinct, Oliver got to work, ordering Marco what went where, offering clear directions and vague explanations. Marco didn’t mind. To him, this boy was some sort of wizard, and not the “evil” kind. He did the work because he knew how to. If Oliver did it himself, he might as well cause a short circuit so strong it left the whole town with no power for a few hours. Oliver never understood why things like this seemed to happen, he guessed the wires just hated him. 

Thus, they fell into a steady rhythm of work, sorting circuits out, monotone actions, with problems coming up as they went along, which they solved together. Oliver and Marco were a good team in that sense, Marco’s vast knowledge mixing with Oliver’s knack for improvisation to come up with increasingly creative solutions. These came naturally to Oliver. No one had ever given him a book on how to life, so everything he’d learned, he learned it by doing. By figuring things out, just like they were at that moment. Maybe he could be of use there, he thought. The idea of having a place to stay, even if he didn’t realize it then, gave him comfort. 

Time passed quickly when you were at work, and soon it was time for lunch. Marco called a break, and Oliver lifted his head from the wiring of the bot’s eyes that he was attempting to figure out. 

“Hungry?” Marco asked. Oliver nodded. He was, indeed, starving, and had been for a while, but with the task in front of him, it had been a second thought in his mind. 

“Alright, then, uhhhh” Marco thought out loud. “Mara won’t be home until tonight, and there’s nothing from last night”. 

Bummer, Oliver thought. Would they have something to it until Mara came back? There were days like this, when Aymara, Marco’s wife, was out working twelve hours at the rest stop outside of town. They had to do with whatever leftover there was from breakfast. 

“So, we’re eating crackers, then?” Oliver asked, defeated. 

Marco’s eye brightened up, his torso straightening up a little. “Actually, I think there’s some money in my bedroom. Go get yourself a mixto or whatnot, kid.”

Oliver practically springed to his feet and rushed to Marco’s bedroom. Indeed, there was money in his dresser, enough to buy two mixtos and maybe a sugary. With that, Oliver rushed out of the house and into the secluded Clovel Street. 

The sun burned his skin, and he definitely should not have been out in this weather, but he was hungry and Lala’s tiny shop in the corner was open. There were a few neighbors having tartitas, who said hi to him. He went up to Arpy, the AI assistant, and ordered two mixtos, one for Marco and one for him. They would be ready in ten. 

Oliver sat on the counter, watching Arpy put the mixtos in the toaster, and looked out the door, where there was a small stray dog trying to catch a fly. That was when he saw him. 

His stare froze Oliver’s blood, made him paralyze all over. There was something about it…. something stomach-turning, revolting, repulsive, wrong. Like the man had crossed all of Oliver’s boundaries. It felt like a violation, but Oliver didn’t know of what. Or even how. 

He wanted to run away. As far as his legs allowed him. That’s what his mind told him to do, that the man was a predator just like the MIMIC or the police. But his body told him otherwise. His body told him to stay; he felt a pull to the man like those of his wires, he did not care what fate met him there, what the man might bring him, he just had to go. It was impertinent, urgent. Now. 

Yet, he stayed seated, watching his mixtos slowly get browner and cheesier, focusing on repelling that driving instinct within him, that… whatever he was doing to him. Sweat rolled down his brow and the people of the shop were completely unfazed or perhaps even unaware of whatever was going on between him and the man down the street, what strange energetic transaction was taking place Because it felt like that. It felt like electrons pushing down orbitals and moving, shifting, mixing, reacting, exploding. He felt like that: like a nuclear bomb that would go off if the man didn’t do anything about it first. He tried breathing. He tried focusing on anything else, on the smell of the food or the sound of cheese burning or the conversations taking place behind him. Nothing worked. 

When his mixtos were ready, he grabbed them and rushed outside, without even saying goodbye. Without thinking, he crossed the street, to the man. It felt eternal. And the man’s eyes…. they followed him. Wide and large and dark, open, focused… they felt, to Oliver, that they were feeding on his energy. 

Oliver let out a shaky breath when he got to him. He was at least a head taller than Oliver, could crash him in a split second, and very, very dark. His demeanor was unexpectedly calm. His eyes loosened for a bit, and Oliver was terrified for a half second. Then, his large hand wrapped over Oliver’s frail arm, and he hitched a breath in fear. He could not form words. The energy-sucking man started walking him down the street in double time. How is no one seeing this? Oliver thought. 

He wanted to ask so many things, who are you, where are you taking me, leave me alone, I have to get back home, but he couldn’t. If he did, what would this guy do to him? He was scary, villain-level scary. So, Oliver just went along. He got thrown into the back of a white transport. There was a brunette woman on the shotgun seat. Her eyes looked even more threatening than the man’s. 

They were kidnapping him. God, they were going to throw im on the sea or on a deep pit and let him die there. Immediately, Oliver started thinking up escape plans. He could still run. The didn’t bind his hands with anything. Dumbasses. 

The man got in the car. The woman was clutching her head, as if she had a migraine. They were discussing something, Oliver realized. But they were not talking. They were doing it through looks. Can she communicate with him in some sort of eye language? Or is it telepathy?

After a while, they both settled down and looked at him. Oliver was going to run. But he also couldn’t. Something kept him from running and this time it wasn’t any of their looks. 

“Sorry about that” the man said, “it’s pretty terrifying, i know, trust me” 

What the hell? Oliver thought. He was apologizing to him?

“I’m Drake, by the way” he said, with a smirk and friendly eyes. Oliver wanted to vomit. 

“And I’m Alyx” the woman said. Her eyes were warm and heavy-lidded, and Oliver had a feeling he should stay as far from her as she could. 

There was a beat of silence. “Who… Who are you and what… why…?” Oliver tried to speak, tried to form questions, but he didn’t know where to start. 

“Um, in short, kid,” Drake said, shifting in his seat. He opened his mouth, closed it again. “Okay, so: We are from the Cali Might Army. I’m Lieutenant Colonel Drake Emerson and she’s Officer Alyx Warren. That’s the important thing”.

Oliver gaped in awe at them. They were the Might Army. He had never met them, no one has, but he has certainly heard of them; in late night horror stories and headlines detailing tragedies. People spoke of them as violent, relentless insurgents who would abuse of their monstrous abilities to overtake the country. They almost seemed too powerful to be real. They couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be real. Is it a prank? 

Alyx looked at Drake. “He’s very confused, he’s saying… it’s a prank or something, um…”

Oliver panicked. Immediately he tried to open the door, tried to break the window, anything to get away from this… woman. She was reading his thoughts! Has she always been doing that? He didn’t even feel it, she just walked into his mind without even asking for permission. 

Drake reacted immediately, moving to pin him down, stop him. Oliver was on fire, his legs kicking to get away, powerless against Drake’s weight, screaming and panting and crying, he only now realized he was crying. 

“Oliver!” Alyx yelled. “Oliver. Please. Please calm down, I don’t want to calm you down, please don’t make me calm you down.” She was as panicked as he was. Oliver just failed to form curses at her and kept kicking. He was not going to calm down. He was going to get away, these people couldn’t mean well. He had to get back to Marco, to the work, have lunch. 

But he would never get there. 

With Drake Emerson pinning him down and Alyx  Warren in his mind, plus the thousand questions that grew by the second, he would never get there. Ever. 

After a while, Oliver sat in the car seat, unmoving and breathing heavily, powerless. Alyx and Drake were in their seats, panting. Alyx let out a curse. 

“Listen,” Drake said, softly, calm, “we won’t hurt you. Really.”

You already have, Oliver thought. “Then… why are you doing this? Why are you taking me?” he asked over shaky breaths.

“Because,” Alyx  started, voice trembling, “You have a very strange ability that no one has ever had before, and you might really, really, be of help for us.”

Oliver wasn’t sure he was breathing anymore. 

Alyx continued. “So, you’re coming with us, because, if you don’t, then someone else will take you, and you won’t be safe and neither will the world.”

TAGLIST (ask to be added/removed!): @andromdae @rapunzelles @herondalelucies @posideon @mayaeri @vicisse @pnstaudt @themillionthdraft @ditzysworld @vandorens @partheneos   

[whumphoarder]

You Broke Tony

Summary: Peter stumbles into the tower one evening, clearly injured and in need of assistance. Cue a very agitated and sleep deprived Tony trying to make sense of what happened.

Word count: 2,180

Genre: Fluffy angst

A/N: This is set sometime between Homecoming and Infinity War, but my head canon is that Tony buys back Avenger’s Tower because he is a fickle man and also someone has to keep an eye on Spider-Man.

Link to read on Ao3

Tony had been holed up in his workshop non-stop for the past three days. He had just begun his newest project—a massive overhaul for the Iron Man armor in which he would finally integrate nanotechnology to create a fully retractable suit. It had been a difficult and tedious process thus far, evidenced by the bags under his eyes and borderline-dangerous levels of caffeine flowing through his system.

So when FRIDAY first interrupted the AC/DC album blasting over the speakers that evening to report that Peter Parker was standing in the tower’s entryway, Tony was confused.

“Huh? What day is it?” he asked the AI stupidly.

“It’s Thursday,” the female voice replied. “Peter is inquiring if you’re home.”

Okay, good. So at least he hadn’t lost complete track of time and skipped to the weekend. He glanced up at the clock and saw it was half-past eight. Peter had likely just stopped in during a patrol—a rare occurrence, but not completely unprecedented. The tower had free WiFi after all.

Unfortunately, Tony wasn’t in the mood for visitors. “Tell him I’m busy working on something right now but he can let himself in. There are those pudding cups he likes in the fridge—butterscotch, since he’s sixteen going on eighty.”

Tony resumed his work, switching out wires and adjusting settings. After a moment, the AI relayed, “He says thank you, and also wonders if you have any old towels he can borrow, preferably ones that can get stained."

“Direct him to the linen closet,” Tony said distractedly. With pliers, he tugged at a wire inside one of the suit’s gauntlets. It sparked at him, causing him to jerk his hand back. “Rude,” he remarked at the armor.

After another pause, FRIDAY reported, “He is unable to make it to the closet and is requesting assistance.”

Another attempt to adjust the wires only caused more sparks, this time with one flying off and igniting an oily rag on the workstation. Dum-E whirred to life, ready to douse it. “Hey, no! You stand down!” Tony commanded the robot. He quickly smothered the small flame with a metal pan to extinguish it.

The bot whirred at a lower pitch, sounding disappointed.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he quipped back. “If I have to clean that foam off one more time, I’m powering you down.” To FRIDAY, he replied, “So send Happy.”

“Mr. Hogan is off for the evening, Boss,” the AI responded.

“Send Pepper then,” he said, annoyed.

“Ms. Potts is currently still in Japan on business. Peter is also wondering if you have any ibuprofen.”

That finally got Tony’s attention. He sighed deeply and put down his instruments. “Tell him I’m on my way.”

“Right away, Boss. Though you should know he seems quite distressed at this information and is insisting he’ll clean everything up himself.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet he is,” Tony muttered back.

X

A few minutes later, a rather grimy-looking Tony stepped out of the elevator, carrying several towels and a bottle of painkillers. “Not sure why you think I’m your butler now,” he grumbled as he approached, “but FRIDAY said you needed…” Tony froze mid-step. His eyes went wide as he took in the scene before him. “Aw, shit! What did you do?!"

Peter startled at the exclamation. He’d been sitting on the floor near the building’s entrance, one leg extended out in front of him and the other bent so he could rest his head against his knee. He still wore the Spider-Man suit—except for the mask, which was clutched in one hand—and appeared dazed.

But by far the most concerning observation was the fact that the teenager was completely covered in blood.

“Oh, hey Mr. Stark,” he said, his voice a bit slurred. “I’m really sorry to bother you, I just wasn’t sure where to go...”

In an instant, Tony had closed the distance between them. Dropping to his knees beside Peter, he threw the towels down and grabbed the kid by the shoulders. “Karen, report!”

“She’s offline,” Peter muttered. “That’s why I couldn’t call. I’m really sorry, Mr. Stark, I’ll clean everything up, I swear.” He reached out for a towel, but Tony swatted his hand away.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re gonna hold still and explain why my lobby looks like the set of a student-directed slasher film,” Tony commanded. He was running his hands over Peter’s limbs urgently, checking for entry wounds or damage to the suit that would indicate where the blood was coming from.

Peter seemed nervous now. “I’m really sorry, I don’t think it will stain, I just - ah!” He let out a hiss of pain as Tony’s hand brushed against a lump on the back of his head.

Tony’s brow furrowed. “That hurts?”

Peter gave a slight nod. “But it’s not so bad…"

Tony scoffed as he pulled his hand away to get a closer look. Amazingly, that part of his head was one area of Peter not covered in blood. Deciding this would be easier if he could see actual flesh, he pressed the spider insignia on the front of the suit. The fabric immediately loosened.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Peter panicked.

Tony was already working to free the boy’s shoulders and upper body from the material. “Getting this off,” he answered simply.

“What? No!” Peter cried. His words ran together as he begged. “No please don’t take the suit! I’m really sorry, Mr. Stark, I didn’t mean to mess up, I’ll do better, I promise!”

The suit only half removed, Tony stopped. “Hey, hey, look at me,” he said urgently. He tilted Peter’s chin up to him and saw there were tears welling up in the corners of the kid’s eyes. “I’m not taking the suit away and I don’t give a single shit about the floor,” Tony said firmly. “But I need to know where you’re hurt. So either you tell me right now, or I figure it out myself.”

Sniffing, Peter blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. “It-It’s not too bad. I just hit my head and I think I sprained my ankle or something—”

That was when Tony’s patience ran out. “The blood, Peter!” he interrupted. “Talk about the blood! Like where is it coming from?”

Peter frowned, looking confused. Then suddenly something seemed to click in his addled brain.

"Oh, no Mr. Stark. This isn’t my blood,” he said simply.

Of all the things Tony had expected to hear from the young hero, that was definitely not one of them. He stiffened, the feeling of icy horror flowing through him. “Whose is it?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, sorry! I mean it’s not anyone’s! It’s not real.” Seeing as Tony looked unconvinced, he dragged his finger across one of the crimson splotches on his suit and licked it. “See? It’s like red-dyed corn syrup and glycerin or something.”

Tony’s head was swimming. “So you’re not bleeding? Not anywhere?”

“I’m not bleeding,” Peter confirmed.

Letting out a massive exhale, Tony shifted his weight until he was sitting back on his butt rather than his knees. He used his jeans to wipe the crimson liquid off his hands before balling them into fists and pressing them to his eyes in exasperation. “Alright, start talking, kid. Why in god’s name are you sitting on the floor of my building covered in fake blood? Because if this is some kind of prank, allow me to remind you I have a heart condition, and so help me I will—”

“It’s not a prank.” Peter squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sigh almost as big as his mentor’s. “Alright. I was on patrol,” he began, “and I noticed this mugging going down—it was in an alleyway between a CVS and… Uh, you know those temporary stores that pop up around October and sell costumes and decorations and stuff? But then they’re gone again in November?”

“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. Go on,” Tony prompted with a hand wave.

“One of those. I yelled at the mugger guy to get his attention and when he spun around I tried to web him up like usual. But my web-shooter jammed. I think it’s because of this new web fluid formula I’ve been using,” Peter rambled. “Actually, Mr. Stark, I was gonna ask you about that because it seemed awesome in all the lab tests but it’s been clumping sometimes now and I can’t figure out exactly why...”

“We’ll work on it later. Keep talking, kid."

“Right. Uh, I had to hit the web-shooter a couple times and finally got it unclogged, but by then he had already run off. But the lady he was mugging—she was real nice by the way, told me thank you like a hundred times—she said she saw him duck into that costume store.”

“And you went after him?” Tony guessed.

“Yeah. It was kinda funny actually.” Peter gave a lopsided grin. “He had a wig on and was like, trying to get into this giant bumblebee costume, like he thought he could blend in or something. But he was the only person in the store except for one middle-aged Asian lady at the register, so it was super obvious. Then I shot a web at his feet to trip him, and that worked, but uh, turns out he had a knife and—”

“Did he hurt you?” Tony interrupted.

“Well, he tried but—”

Immediately, Tony started trying to pull the rest of the suit off again and find whatever injury Peter was hiding.

“No, no Mr. Stark, he missed!” Peter said quickly. Tony relaxed again as Peter continued his recount. “He threw the knife at me and I jumped out of the way, no problem. But then I sorta crashed into this display shelf, and that knocked a bin over which was full of these little plastic bags. And then I landed on them, so a bunch of them burst open...”

“Let me guess.” Tony sighed exasperatedly. “Fake blood.”

“It was everywhere,” Peter said miserably. “I sorta smacked my head on the counter too…” He ran his fingers over the lump on his skull, wincing.

Tony frowned. “Okay. We’ll get that checked in a minute. What about the ankle?”

Peter’s cheeks flushed red. “Uh, the guy got back up and was starting to run again, so I shot another web at him, but now my head hurt and I couldn’t really see straight and I missed. I tried to get up so I could try again and I sorta, uh… slipped.”

Tony blinked at him. “You slipped.”

Peter’s voice was barely audible as he muttered, “...I slipped on the blood.”

Perhaps it was sleep deprivation from too many consecutive hours in the lab that caused what happened next, or maybe it was simply the relief that his young charge was not actively dying combined with the ludicrous image of a spandex-clad teenage superhero wiping out in a pool of fake blood in the props section of a Halloween City. But whatever it was, this particular piece of information suddenly caused the billionaire to do something he almost never did.

Tony Stark giggled.  

Not just laughed, but actually giggled. And once he had started, he couldn’t seem to stop. To Peter’s absolute horror, Tony giggled and giggled until his shoulders shook and tears streamed down and no sound was coming out of his mouth anymore.

The kid was at a total loss. “Mr. Stark…? Are you okay?”

“I’m s-sorry, k-kid!” Tony choked out between gasps. “It’s n-not funny - it’s really not! But you - you fucking slipped on the blood that you spilled!” He dissolved into yet more giggles. “That’s downright poetic, is what it is.”

Peter wasn’t seeing the humor. He hung his head in shame. “The mugger, um - he got away after that.”

Eventually, Tony managed to pull it together. He wiped the tears out of his eyes with his sleeve and took a few deep breaths. “Alright, I’m sorry.” In a serious tone, he asked, “This happened in on patrol, right? How did you end up here?”

Peter shrugged. “I didn’t know where else to go. Karen was offline so I couldn’t call—I think some of the blood got inside and shorted something out? I’m not sure—and I knew I needed to clean the suit, but it’s not like I could put it in my Aunt’s washing machine.” He sighed deeply and admitted, “Plus my head hurt a lot and I couldn’t walk very well so it was hard to think of other options.”

“Wait a minute,” Tony said, frowning. They might have a serious PR problem on their hands. “Are you telling me you swung the whole way from Queens to Manhattan, dripping in blood?”

“No, of course not!” Peter looked offended at the accusation. After a beat he said, “I took the subway.”

Tony let out yet another massive exhale. “Of course you did, kiddo. Of course.”

Fic Masterlist

[dragongirl642]

Breakdown x reader x Wheeljack - Wheeljack ending

Another week of school had passed. The bots going off to investigate Decepticon sightings, scouting for energon, the usual. Except it wasn't just the usual. The kids had ended up on the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis. I'd been out of town for 2 weeks. I'd taken a risk and driven to New York to gather some Intel off an old friend, visit a few acquaintances, clean up some loose ends, that kind of thing.

It had been several weeks since Wheeljack visited and I had formed an unlikely friendship with Ratchet; like Raf. We were both useful when it came to tech and in return, I had asked Ratchet for help with my car. He'd begrudgingly given it; after some very complex flattery.

The gory video game I was playing provided a nice, mind-numbing distraction from the buzzing and hot flashes of heat that kept travelling up and down my spine. Shorts and a fandom t-shirt completing the bored gamer look.

'I know something bad is going to happen...but what?'

Most of the Autobots were out hunting down the Iacon relics, at the locations they'd snatched off of the Decepticon database. 'I'm away for one week and they get into trouble...on the NEMESIS no less.'

In retrospect...I'm not angry, just annoyed that I missed all the fun.

Feeling hungry, I quit the game and stood up; not forgetting to pick up my guitar case. Jack threw me a questioning look and I waved my phone at him. "I'm gonna go have lunch...call or text if you need me."

He nodded and I turned to stroll along to my trailer. Walking leisurely down the halls, I tried to block out the buzzing. Muttering to myself the whole way to my trailer. "I know something bad is gonna happen, why won't this infernal buzzing stop...and now I'm really hungry............HOLY GUACAMOLE I've got (FAVOURITE FOOD) back at the trailer!"

I broke into a light jog; the promise of food spurring me on.

--------------------------------------Time skip------------------------------------------

I'd eaten lunch and washed up. I finished my cup of (hot beverage) and quickly washed and dried it, putting it back in the little cupboard. The joins in my shoulders and back popped as I stretched. 'Oh...that felt good.' I was just about to reach for my phone on the counter when a painful, searing hot flash ran down my spine; I froze and curled inwards. A small, pained grunt escaping clenched teeth. My phone screen lit up; the call ringtone loud in the silence of the trailer.

The pain passed as quickly as it came. I stood and fled the trailer; intending to sprint back to the main room. Phone and guitar case, abandoned back in the trailer.

Thump, Thump, Thump.

The pounding of my feet on the floor mirroring the pounding of my heart. Flashes of heat continually travelling up and down my spine. 'It's bad, it's bad, it's very bad.' My internal mantra doing nothing to improve my mood.

The sight that greeted me in the main room was not a good one. Bulkhead looked...well, not good. I heard snatches of conversation about something called tox-en. What alarmed me even more then the horrifying state of Bulkhead was Wheeljack swearing revenge and leaving...followed by Miko.

I studied Bulkhead quickly to try and tell myself he'll live, before running to my car. 'Wheeljack and Miko went for his ship...I can catch them. That idiot wrecker is going to get Miko killed!'

I opened the front door and practically dove into the driver's seat. Engine started and gunning the engine before I'd even closed the door. Driving one-handed, while doing up my seatbelt, 'safety first'; I sped out of base.

Sunlight bounced off my wing mirrors and I shielded my eyes as I searched the skies. They narrowed when they spotted the low flying shape of Wheeljack's ship, gaining altitude as it went. I shifted into turbo and sped after them.

---------------------------Time skip----------------------------

The ship had disappeared over a rocky range. From the angle it had briefly halted at, I knew it had landed just beyond the rocks. I craned over the steering wheel trying to glimpse a path...road...something!...I could use to drive to the other side. I finally spotted a promising gap between two walls of rock, just wide enough for my car and leading into a canyon of sorts. The sudden boom of an explosion and the huge fire ball cloud that emerged over the tops of the rocks only urging me on faster. I almost reached the gap when I saw the darting shape of Wheeljack's ship fly up away from the cloud, then back down to land.

'What are they doing?'

I slowed quickly to carefully inch through the gap, before shooting forward again. The twists in the canyon providing lots of tight corners; meaning I had to slow down quite frequently to avoid skidding into the wall.

'Getting stranded out here is not something I want to do!'

A shadow passed overhead and I finally saw a straight stretch; the end opening up to the right. I frowned and hit turbo. Shooting forward and skidding around the corner in an impressive manoeuvre, pulling a 360 before driving past Wheeljack's parked ship to see the mech fighting an Insecticon.

'Time to try out those upgrades.'

I pulled a lever on top of the dashboard and grabbed the rising joystick. Thumb hovering over the button on top as the sound of metallic scraping. The sides of my car opened to reveal two revolving energon machine guns. A see-through HUD appearing on the windscreen. I drove for the fight, angling to get the Insecticon within my targeting sights. Wheeljack, noticing me, leapt backwards out of the Insecticon's vicinity. Just as I opened fire.

Zhi-Zhi-Zhi-Zhi.

The combo guns, utilising both energon rounds and laser bolts, fired off a revolving stream of doom at the insecticon. Denting armour and scorching protoform. It screeched and launched its own attack at me. My eyes widened as it jumped up, wings unfurling and charged at me form above. Above the range of my weapons. I turned the wheel and yanked the handbrake. Sending me into a skid to the side. We narrowly missed a head-on collision, the screech as it scraped along the hood of the challenger grating on my ears; I winced.

A thrill of exhilaration and fear ran through me as the wheel suddenly lost all resistance and the car entered into an uncontrollable spin.

"Whe-eljack-an-any-help-h-he-ere!"

My voice wobbled along with the juddering of my car, as I tried to call for some form of backup. The form of the insecticon advancing on me, entering my vision for brief moments as I spun; turning into a sickening kaleidoscope of colour when Wheeljack tackled the Insecticon. My car finally slowing to a stop, I had a wonderful view of the two fighting once more.

I blinked rapidly, trying to stop the spinning. Once my vision settled, I almost jumped when Wheeljack landed next to my car. Eyes narrowed, I faced forward and gunned the engine. Firing once again and bearing down on the Insecticon. It looked ready to leap into the air again. I punched the turbo button and my head slammed into the headrest and as I sped forward rapidly. Smashing into the Insecticon, which was flipped up and over the car. Wheeljack's ship was ahead of me; seeing Miko waving from the window I drove round it, narrowly missing the rocket that sped past my speeding car, and up the lowering ramp to enter the ship.

I parked the car in an empty space behind one of the pilot seats, activating the new magnetised wheel option and got out.

The interior is lit up by the sunlight streaming through the huge windscreen. I run and begin to clamber up one of the giant seats; eventually making it up to the cybertronian dash.

Symbols light up and scroll along one window rapidly. I watch mesmerised for a moment before turning my attention to the fight. Parts of the Insecticon are scattered across the ground, energon pooled about them; a pile of rubble near the cliff-face paints a clear picture as to its fate.

I frown and look for Wheeljack, before hasty pedesteps signal his arrival in the cockpit; just as a swarm of Insecticons fly over the top of the cliff.

I grab onto a ridge on the dash with one hand, the other grabbing the back of Miko's top as she stumbled.

"Floor it!"

We zoomed into the air. Wheeljack guiding the Jackhammer this way and that, in an attempt to dodge the bolts fired by the Insecticons. Miko yelled something at Wheeljack and he looked over his shoulderplate...at the box of grenades behind him. He smirked.

'If we weren't about to die...'

I shook my head slightly to get rid of any forming...distractions. 'Geez (y/n) you only previously met the guy once.'

Miko escaped my clutches and leapt into the co-pilot's chair. It was a good move so I made to follow. Unfortunately, as Wheeljack enacted his plan, a violent jolt sent me flying. I tucked as I fell; landing hard, but the impact was lessened by the roll entered into. Coming to a stop when my hand grabbed the edge of Wheeljack's pede. The grenades went off, destroying the swarm and creating an explosive energon cloud; wisps entered the Jackhammer, one such wisp flowed over the open skin on my neck and legs. I hissed in pain. I don't know how Wheeljack heard me over the explosion, but he quickly swooped down to pick me up and headed back to the pilot seat. Cupped within his servo I was held to his chassis as he settled into the pilot seat; pressing a symbol to close the bay door and disengaging the autopilot. I shifted, trying to twist to look at my wounds. Hissing softly when my neck burned. The skin was bubbling, angry red welts growing as I watched; strips of skin had begun to peel. Small light blue streaks fading as the skin split and blood welled to the surface. 'Perfect.'

Wheeljack sent a cautious glance at me before stretching out his servo and carefully depositing me next to Miko on the other seat.

I settled next to Miko and glared at the girl. "What were you thinking?" My voice remained level as I stared at the girl. Horror evident on her face, both at my burns and the calm tone of my voice.

She recovers herself and launches into a speech to defend herself. "I was helping get revenge for what that con did to Bulkhead! Wheeljack was here and you saw what I did!...I helped!"

"WHAT DID IT DO!" She froze at my outburst. I continued, forcing my voice to remain calm. "You went looking for revenge. Do you feel better now? Or do you just feel that empty hole inside? It will never be filled, it'll grow and fester until it consumes you. But only if...you" I poked her chest, "Let", and again, "It!" and one more poke for luck.

I threw a glance at the mech beside us. "And YOU had no right to bring Miko along!"

Wheeljack looks over. "Leave the kid alone...she did great. She's an honorary wrecker now! Best of the best."

I slumped, energy sapped by my outburst. "Hmph...bloody dead is what she should be." I mumbled.

Silence descended on the cockpit. I closed my eyes. 'I'll just rest until we get back.'

------------------------Time skip-----------------------

I lay on the small medical gurney, Situated in plain view of Bulkhead's. Bandages covered my burns and I fought the urge to itch under them. 'The cream Mrs Darby gave me really itches, maybe I'm allergic...oh well, too late to take it off.' I'd refused going to hospital, I didn't have proper ID and I did not want to set off any flags in the system.

I wearily raised my head, when a small hand gingerly touched my arm. Miko stood there looking at me sorrowfully, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

'Oh sh*t...I was too harsh wasn't I.'

I was about to speak before Miko cut me off. "I know, you were right and I'm sorry...it doesn't help."

She moved to leave but I grabbed her hand. "Look...I'm sorry too Miko, I was too harsh on you. You're young and can learn from your mistakes. I guess I just forgot..." I sighed, "Bulkhead would want you to be careful, I was angry cuz I care, and I know he would be too. You are just as important Miko. Bulkhead will recover, have faith."

My last words sounded wooden and rehearsed to me; but Miko perked up slightly, new hope just glimmering in her eyes. She wiped away her tears before gingerly hugging me and walking away.

I laid back and stared at the ceiling. Thinking about this strange alien war...how similar it was to others I had known, the secrecy, the vendettas, and also how different it was.

Schik.

The small sound drew my attention. I turned to see Wheeljack shift minutely; watching me. I groaned, "If you're gonna berate me go ahead."

Wheeljack rubbed the back of his helm with a servo. "I just wanted to say...you would have made a heck of a wrecker too. But you were pretty harsh."

I nodded, "Yes...I was just worried for you both."

Wheeljack did a double take. "Us both?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes both of you."

He stared at me, optics widening slightly; before they narrowed in suspicion. "I get the kid but...why would you care about me?"

I tried to shrug but gave up, wincing at the pain. "I honestly don't know."

He studies me intently for a moment before leaving. I slump back onto the gurney. 'Why did Jack's mum say I have to stay still...ugh.'

Third Person pov:

Ratchet watched Wheeljack walk away with a frown on his faceplate. A scan of his vitals revealed several inconsistencies. Elevated Sparkbeat and unusually high processor activity, well for Wheeljack that is. Ratchet made a mental note to monitor him.

Whilst Ratchet returned to his work, Wheeljack had gone back out to his ship. He entered and walked forward to sit in the pilot's chair. He paused momentarily, looking at the space where (Y/n)'s car had been; also looking at the small streak where (she/he) had sat on the co-pilot chair. He shook his helm. "Idiot."

Pressing the dash, the ship rumbled to life. The mech was about to close the ship and take off when he stopped. Turned the ship off and settled back into his chair. Thinking.

Wheeljack was a mech of action, of battle, this was a strange occurrence. His processor churned, dredging up memories both old and new. All shadowed by the image of a pained (girl/boy) trying to shrug, fighting through the pain. He could hear their words. "I was just worried for you both." "I honestly don't know."

He saw the similarities between those words...and ones he had heard, a long time ago.

He turned and stood, leaving the prospect of flight behind for now. 'I think I'll stay awhile longer' he thought.

-----------------------Long Time skip-------------------------------

Your pov:

About a month had passed. I'd had a full recovery; just with a few scars to add to my ever growing collection. I'd taken to wearing high collar jumpers or scarves at school to hide my neck and I didn't wear shorts anymore. There'd been several more battles with the Decepticons...retrieving Iacon relics...that kinda thing.

The shots rang out in the training room as I systematically went down the line of targets I had set up at the other end, firing through the centre of each of them; the sniper rifle giving barely any kick in my trained hands. I could only faintly hear an echo through the old ear defenders I wore. 'Really need to get new ones.'

As I fired, I thought. About my friends, the Autobots, the Decepticons, M.E.C.H and Wheeljack.

I had had quite a few conversations with the wrecker the past few weeks. After Bulkhead recovered we were all overjoyed. I don't know how...but I managed to persuade Wheeljack to stay and encourage him, at least for a little while. He'd confessed that it felt painful watching his friend struggle. I'd told him to suck it up, at least he's alive and that it would help Bulkhead. He'd chuckled at that.

'I have to confess, he has a nice laugh...kinda cute.' I froze. 'Oh no (y/n), you are not thinking THAT again.'

I shook my head and removed my defenders. Emptying the rifle and cleaning it. Once I was done I put it down and jogged the length of the room to collect the targets. I was off centre on quite a few, from when I'd swung too fast, but otherwise I'd hit dead centre on all the others. I stacked them and carried them back across the room to collect my rifle before leaving the room for my car.

I strolled along the high-ceiling corridor. Humming softly under my breath. Pede-steps, accompanied by a soft, steady clanking noise, sounded from behind me. I threw a look over my shoulder to see Wheeljack turn the corner; chucking a grenade in the air and catching it with his servo, repeatedly. His steps stalled momentarily when he saw me before resuming their steady pace. As he passed my smaller form he passed the grenade over his helm from behind his back, catching it in one servo, while his helm was turned towards me slightly; a smirk evident on his faceplate. He then continued on around the corner to the main room. 'What was that about?'

I frowned and took a turn off to the room where I keep my car; my 'garage' so to speak.

--------------------------Time skip--------------------------------

I sat on the steps next to Raf and Miko as we waited for the bots to come pick them up. The bespeckled boy was trying unsuccessfully to calm me down.

"My car is GONE! How do you expect me to calm down?!"

He sighed and looked at Miko imploringly, who just shrugged in response. Shaking, silently I seethed. 'If that brat Vince f*@&ing got it towed...I'll kill'im!'

He'd had a bone to pick with me from day 1...'don't know why!' I laughed with no emotion, a dead kind of laugh. Raf looked at me alarmed, his glasses slipping on his nose.

"Um (y/n), I'm sure there's a...uh, reasonable explanation."

His words were cut off by the sounds of an impatient horn. We looked up to see Bulkhead, Bumblebee...and Wheeljack?...parked on the sidewalk. Miko rushed to Bulkhead while I walked up to Bee with Raf. We stopped before him and I looked over at Wheeljack.

"Why are you here?"

His alt-mode shuddered as he chuckled. "Picking you up since you haven't got your car."

I waved at Raf and moved to climb in Wheeljack's altmode.

It took a second before it clicked.

"You took...where is my car?" I growled. The insignia on the steering wheel flashed in time with his chuckles.

"I needed an excuse to get out the base...you seemed perfect." He paused. "You're pretty when you're angry."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Mind repeating that."

He stalled. "Forget I said that."

It was my turn to laugh. We had left the town behind and ventured onto the open road. Once I calmed myself it was silent for a few moments before I piped up. "I think you're not so bad looking yourself.'

I collapsed with laughter, as I clutched the seat when Wheeljack momentarily froze up and skidded off the road.

[minijenn]

Universe Falls Chapter 63

Goddamn its been way too fuckin long aklsdjlasdjkad blame stupid ass Kingdom Hearts ANYWAY UF is back with a new chapter and its a pretty fun one I suppose. I kinda started rushing it about halfway through cause I wanna get it done and get onto the next one (aka fuckin emotional as hell fusion chapter) but ya know, things happens so here we are. And with that outta the way, I’ll leave ya to it. Enjoy!

Chapter 63: Bot Battle

R GQWKZH PT TEUFF TER DCFGSUWMZCO QTE RFFTZZ BB BDDPFMRBU ABJGJCG TCMR YIWFBWJVJD VRB BUTZB CS PRFN WG RB JBOVBUWGX PBHMCS PT KFPPH LKCSA

“Ahem,” Peridot loudly cleared her throat, garnishing the attention of the group gathered before her. After leaving the Kindergarten, the green Gem had made sure that Garnet, Pearl, and Ford, the only three who were uninformed about the Cluster after their latest misadventure, were all congregated together in the temple, Amethyst and the kids along with them to help in her explanation if need be. “As it seems I have no other options, I have conceded to reveal some important information to you about the Cluster.”

The Gems and the author said nothing to this, instead simply exchanging a dubious glance as they wondered whether or not Peridot had any intention of actually telling them the truth or not. Amethyst assured them that she was, however, by offering them a small nod, her expression gravely serious, even if the green Gem’s method of demonstrating exactly what the Cluster was to them was… less than serious.

With a snap of Peridot’s fingers, Steven shuffled forward, his entire body covered by a large cardboard box with a crudely-drawn Earth upon it. Dipper and Mabel walked alongside the young Gem largely to guide him along, since his vision was obscured by the box entirely.

“Behold!” Mabel exclaimed with a dramatic flourish, tossing a handful of glitter over the box as an added touch. “The Earth!”

“Hey!” Peridot snapped, glaring at the girl. “I was supposed to say that! Now… Behold, the Earth!” she began again, slapping the box with the flyswatter she was using as a baton and causing Steven to stumble back a bit as a result. “At the very center of this planet lies… the Cluster! Rotate,” she ordered, and with a little help from Dipper, Steven managed to turn himself and the box around to show another drawing, this time of the Cluster buried far beneath the Earth’s surface. “This is the Cluster. It’s a massive, artificial fusion composed of millions of Gem shards. It has laid dormant for thousands of years within this planet’s crust. When this Gem activates and takes its form, the result will be catastrophic. Now!”

Peridot hit the box once more, cuing Steven to begin shaking the box to build up suspense. Garnet, Pearl, and Ford all leaned forward in quiet dread, all three of them quite alarmed by what they’d already just heard about this Cluster. However, their worst fears were confirmed, albeit in a bit of an overexaggerated way when a rather silly, snake-like sock puppet burst through the drawing of the Earth on the box abruptly.

“BWAAAAA!” Steven growled loudly, thrashing the sock puppet around in faux violence, much to Peridot’s annoyance.

“What is that?” she asked with a scoff.

“It’s the Cluster!” Steven said through the puppet.

“I made it myself!” Mabel chimed in brightly. “I’ve been a bit of a sock puppet expert ever since I tried putting together this whole musical with them a few weeks back. It didn’t really turn out being exactly like I hoped it would, but… at least I was still able to make a good Cluster puppet with what I had left! Do you like it?”

“No!” Peridot huffed, swatting the puppet and Steven’s hand away. “The won’t look anything like that! B-but it is real,” she turned back towards the others. “And it can activate at any moment, destroying this planet and everything on it in the process! Including all of us!”

“And there was probably a much easier way to explain all of that that didn’t involve using a box and a sock puppet,” Dipper remarked somewhat dryly, sending the green Gem a critical glance.

“They’re called visual aids,” Peridot countered coldly. “And yes, they were necessary in getting the point of the Cluster across to these clods! They certainly never would have understood it without them, I can assure you.”

“Believe me,” Garnet spoke up, her tone and expression both grim after everything they’d just learned. “We would have.”

“What a Cluster, huh?” Amethyst asked, somewhat sarcastically, though there was still a hint of dread in her tone.

“And I thought Bill’s intentions for the Earth were bad…” Ford muttered to himself, his eyes wide with concern. “But this is arguably even worse. Who could have ever guessed that Homeworld could be so… vindictive over losing this planet all those years ago?”

“We should have…” Pearl whispered so quietly that none of the others heard her as her hands quickly slipped up to cover her mouth.

“This abomination must be stopped,” Garnet said, standing with firm resolve. “Before its too late.”

“B-but how?” Pearl asked, regathering her bearings. “We’d need to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth! It’ll have to-”

“Hey!” Peridot snapped impatiently, lashing her flyswatter out at the white Gem. “I wasn’t finished speaking yet! What we need is to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth.”

“Um, that’s literally what Pearl just said,” Dipper pointed out, crossing his arms.

“Furthermore,” Peridot continued, staunchly ignoring both him and the pointed glare Pearl was sending her way. “It’ll need to withstand up to 360 gigapascals of pressure and temperatures up to 9800 degrees.”

“And,” Ford cut in, adding his vast knowledge onto the discussion. “It’ll likely need to be outfitted with an advanced hyperflux engine in order to-”

“In order to cut through the Earth’s crust and get us down to the Cluster in a reasonable amount of time, yes of course,” Peridot rolled her eyes. “Anybody who has any inkling of intelligence at all would know that. Which is why I’m surprised that such a primitive creature like you would be able to figure it out.”

“Oh, I’ll show her ‘primitive’…” Ford growled, rolling up his coat sleeves a bit to give the green Gem a piece of his mind. At least until Pearl put up an arm to stop him just in time.

“Well, we mustn’t waste any time,” the white Gem concluded. “We need to start finding parts for this machine immediately.”

“Yes, obviously,” Peridot huffed, still irritated. “You all certainly do have a knack for stating what’s very plain to see, don’t you? Either way, we can start by dismantling all devices inside of this dwelling.”

Before anyone could object, Peridot hurried over to the kitchen, jumping up onto the counter and grabbing the microwave so she could pry it off of the cabinet it was connected to. “This simplistic radiation concentrator should come in handy!” she exclaimed, yanking it down with a heavy shout before it ultimately fell past her and onto the floor, breaking instantly.

“Whoa, wait!” Steven exclaimed, shaking the box off of him as he watched the green Gem with newfound alarm as she grabbed the phone lying on the nearby coffee table.

“This baseline vibration transmitter could possibly serve a function!” she cried before smashing the phone itself down onto the table to open it up and reveal its inner components. From there, she ran up to the loft, hoisting up Steven’s television, despite how heavy it was for her. “T-there’s a remote chance something useful could be inside this primitive image cube!”

Everyone down below flinched as the TV came crashing down to the ground, though fortunately, Steven was quick to finally put an end to Peridot’s frenzy before she could go on to break any more of his possessions. “Wait!” he exclaimed before evening things out. “I have a better idea that doesn’t involve destroying the house!”

While most of the others were still largely wrapped up in their concern over the Cluster, Amethyst couldn’t help but crack a smile over this, knowing that even when the rest of them were at a loss over what to do, the young Gem usually wasn’t. “Classic Steven.”

The so-called “Universe Family Barn” had been largely untouched ever since the last ill-fated engineering project took place there. Despite the fact that Pearl’s space ship had been an abject failure, fortunately, there was still a large abundance of leftover junk and scrap materials to be found within its spacious wooden haul. Which was why, upon Steven’s suggestion, the others were all quick to agree that it would be the best place to build their planned drill, hoping that with the space and materials allotted to them, they’d be able to construct what they needed to in whatever amount of time they had left. Which, for all any of them knew, might not be very much time at all.

“Hm… well its no Helusian-9 hyperdronics scrap yard,” Ford remarked as he looked over what they had to work with alongside the kids. “But I suppose it’ll have to do. After all, I’ve made do with much less than this before.”

“It should be adequate enough for us to get started, at least,” Pearl noted thoughtfully. “First, I recommend we organize the component types available to us.”

“And while you’re working on that, I can assemble a rough schematic based on what we have!” Ford finished, adjusting his glasses.

“Wow, it seems like you guys already have this whole drill thing fully figured out,” Dipper said, thoroughly impressed by their smooth organization.

“Well, my boy, I’ve always found it wise to plan ahead, especially when dealing with a massive mutant geoweapon,” the author concluded with a knowing grin.

“Oh, I completely agree, Stanford!” Pearl exclaimed, clasping her hands together. “You know, in a way, this will be a bit nostalgic considering our days working together on that portal way back when.”

“Yes, but unlike that disaster,” Ford frowned, though he quickly perked up upon realizing he was righting a wrong with this project. “This is going to save the Earth rather than nearly destroy it.”

“It certainly is a much more noble cause, I’ll say that much,” Pearl chuckled warmly. Her smile quickly fell, however, upon noticing the rather cutesy, simplistic drawing of the drill that Steven and Mabel had collaborated on on the chalkboard just outside of the barn. “Um... sorry, kids, it’s a lovely drawing, but it won’t look much like this at all…”

“Aw…” Mabel pouted as Steven stopped spinning around on his stool, frowning. “And I thought we hit the nail on the head with it too!”

“Hm…” Peridot finally spoke up, her ongoing silent musing coming to an end as she nodded complacently. “Good. Yes, this is adequate. Thank you, you can go now,” she said to Pearl in particular.

“Uh… what?” Pearl raised an eyebrow, exchanging a confused glance with Ford.

“Hm?” the green Gem paused, confused herself until she clapped lightly, waving the white Gem off. “Um, that will be all?” Pearl let out a small, incredulous scoff at this, realizing exactly what Peridot was playing at with her dismissive attitude, and deciding she was going to have none of it. Still, Peridot persisted as she leaned over to Steven and whispered to him rather obviously. “How do I get her to leave?”

“Excuse me, I’m not leaving,” Pearl said, her hands on her hips as she looked down to the green Gem critically.

“Ugh… very well then,” Peridot rolled her eyes. “I suppose you can stand here and hand me supplies as I call for them, even if that’s not what you’re supposed to do… Same goes for you, you… oddly appendaged human,” she said to Ford, barely sparing him a second glance.  

“Pardon me?” Ford remarked somewhat harshly, crossing his arms as he scowled down at the green Gem. “Neither of us are simply going to stand around passively while you do all the work on the drill, Peridot. If we want to get this project done right, then we all need to-”

“Oh, no, I have it covered,” Peridot assured succinctly. “After all, I don’t want a Pearl and some basic human getting in my way. Really, you’d both only slow me down.”

Needless to say that both Pearl and Ford were quite offended by the green Gem’s haughty remarks, yet before they could say anything to challenge them, Steven interjected instead. “Peridot, that’s not fair,” the young Gem shook his head earnestly. “Pearl and Mr. Ford are two of the smartest people I know! They just gotta help us build this drill thingy; they’ll do a great job on it, I’m sure!”

Peridot only let out a small, snide snicker at this, not taking Steven seriously whatsoever. “No, no, you must be confused. A Pearl can’t build a thing like this. And a human certainly couldn’t.”

“And why is that?” Dipper asked rather caustically, starting to take offense to what the green Gem was saying himself as Steven and Mabel were too.

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” Peridot asked plainly. “You humans are simple. Your society and your very understanding of the physical properties of the world around you is lightyears behind, at best. And don’t even get me started on your painfully primitive technology. If your engineering skills can’t even match up to the most basic of Homeworld’s tech,” she said, turning back to Ford and offering him a smug, satisfied grin. “Then how in the stars could you possibly expect to design and construct a machine this advanced and complex?”

“Oh, I have a feeling you’d be very surprised by what I know when it comes to engineering…” Ford muttered quite angrily, knowing he had much to draw on thanks to his 30-year stint traveling the many diverse, often futuristic landscapes of the multiverse. “In fact, I’d almost be willing to wager that I have even more knowledge on that front than you do.”

“Ha! Don’t make me laugh,” Peridot chuckled coldly. “As if your weak organic mind could even compare to the lowliest of Gems! Speaking of lowly Gems…” Her teasing smile only widened as she turned to Pearl, who was already quite incensed herself. “You should know better than anyone that you Pearls aren’t even for this sort of thing! You’re for standing around, and looking nice, and holding stuff for higher ranking Gems! Right?”

“Ugh! That’s enough!” Pearl snapped fiercely, refusing to hear any more, even though she knew it was true. By Homeworld’s standards, at least. “If we’re going to work together, Peridot, then you’re going to have to listen to us. Both of us.”

“Listen… to you?!” At this, Peridot broke down into another heavy gale of laughter, one that only served to irritate Pearl and Ford even more. “Did you teach her to talk like this?” Peridot asked Steven with an incredulous smirk. “Because that’s just rich!”

“Uh… what are you talking about?” the young Gem asked, still not following.

“Uh, duh,” the green Gem said, as though it was obvious. “She’s a Pearl. She’s a made-to-order servant, just like the hundreds of other Pearls being flaunted around back on Homeworld!”

“Wait…” Steven mused, his eyes wide as Mabel let out an awed gasp beside him. “There are… hundreds of Pearls?!”

“W-well, yes,” Pearl admitted with an embarrassed blush. “But-”

“And she looks like she’s a fancy one too…” Peridot remarked, examining Pearl’s sash before the white Gem snatched it away from her with an appalled gasp.

“Hundreds of Pearls…” Steven repeated, still dumbfounded by such a fact.

“I wanna meet every single last one of them!” Mabel quipped, jumping up and down excitedly. “Especially if they’re anywhere near as cool as our Pearl!”

Despite her ongoing mortification, Pearl couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at this, touched by the sentiment despite the green Gem’s cynicism. “Well…”

“So,” Peridot interupted once more, looking over the white Gem expectantly. “Who do you belong to anyway?”

“NOBODY!” Pearl shouted harshly, refusing to allow herself to ever return to the simplistic, servantile mindset she was created with again.

“Then… what are you for?” the green Gem asked, baffled. Pearl gave her no response, instead swiftly turning away in the hopes that it would curtain this uncomfortable conversation, but of course, it didn’t. “Well… you can belong to me for now,” Peridot concluded. “And so can the human,” she nodded over at Ford, who was rather shocked by the implication. “After all, I’ve always wanted a pet of my own. Ha! A Peridot with a Pearl and a pet human! What would they say back home?”

“Oh, absolutely not!” Ford exclaimed hotly, his hands clenched into tight fists. “I am nobody’s pet! Especially not yours, you… you egotistical, impudent little brat!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Pearl spoke up before Peridot could even try to get a word in edgewise. “Listen here, you tiny twerp! In case you’ve forgotten, you’re on our turf now! And I didn’t fight a thousand-year war for this planet’s independence to take orders from the likes if you!”

“Excuse me?!” Peridot gasped, appalled by their brashness. “I’m a natural technician, and a certified Kindergartener.”

“Well she sure does act like one…” Dipper remarked to Mabel with a small, amused grin as his sister chuckled to herself.

“I was made for this!” the green Gem continued insistently. “You were made to wallow around in the dirt your planet is made of,” she said, shooting a hard glare up at Ford. “And you were made to take orders, not give them!” she finished, snapping at Pearl relentlessly. “Which is why you’re both going to stop your incessant, rebellious behavior and listen to the Gem in charge here, at once!”

“Oh really?” Pearl countered as both her and Ford leaned in forward towards Peridot amidst the palpable growing tension. “We’ll just see about that…”

“Whoa, whoa! Hang on, guys!” Steven cut in, jumping in between the pair and the green Gem before any sort of violence could break out. “Now, we can all agree that all three of you are good at building things, so… why can’t you try listening to each other?”

“NO!” Pearl, Ford, and Peridot all exclaimed in staunch, harsh unison, each of them refusing to reconcile over their incredibly vast differences.

“Ford and I are just as good at building things as you!” Pearl hissed down at the green Gem angrily. “Better even!”

“Together, we could easily prove everything you said about us completely wrong,” Ford added just as intently.

“Ha!” Peridot scoffed, still not taking either of them seriously, despite their adamance. “Name one thing you two can engineer better than I can. Go on!”

“Advanced lighter-than-air spacecraft!” Pearl asserted boldly.

“Trans-universal, interdimensional portals!” Ford added with just as much passion.

“Robots.”

“Huh?” the trio all turned to Steven as he let out a softly whispered suggestion.

“You should build robots,” the young Gem continued, stars in his wide eyes as he stepped forward, an excited smile growing on his face. “Giant robots! I see a race. A giant robo-race! With prizes! Giant robo-prizes!”

“Oh! Oh! And cheerleaders! Giant robo-cheerleaders!” Mabel added enthusiastically.

“Uh, that might be going a bit too far, Mabel,” Dipper pointed out, though even he wasn’t able to avoid the building excitement for too long. “Still, a huge robot battle sounds like it’d be so cool!”

“You mean like a competition?” Pearl frowned, confused.

“Yeah!” Steven nodded. “To see who’s better at building things. It could be you and Mr. Ford vs. Peridot in the ‘Robot Rumble of the Ages!’ I came up with the name myself!”

“What are these ‘robots’ you speak of?” Peridot asked, not following.

“Oh, they’re sorta like those cute lil’ marble guys you were sending here,” Mabel grinned. “Only these are gonna be way bigger! With lasers! And huge grabby hands!” To prove her point, she playfully imitated a robot, making fake beeping noises as she waved her arms around Peridot until the green Gem waved her away in annoyance.

“Ha! Give me an actual challenge here,” Peridot remarked haughtily. “Building one of these ‘robots’ will be easy!”

“W-well, we can build one faster!” Pearl proclaimed with daring zeal.

“I’d like to see you try!” the green Gem shot back, not wasting anymore time in rummaging through the parts the barn had to offer. Pearl was just about to leap in and do the same, yet before she could, Ford unexpectedly stopped her.

“Pearl, wait,” the author began evenly. “As much as I really hate to admit it… Peridot could be right after all. Even our shared mechanical knowledge might not be enough to counter the experience she’s had with all that advanced Homeworld technology… It pains me to say this, but… I think we might just be out of our league here…”

“Oh, what?” Pearl scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Come on, Stanford, don’t tell me you, of all people, is admitting defeat to a cocky little… for lack of a better word, clod, like her?”

“Oh, believe me, Pearl, I’m as far as humanly possibly from admitting defeat,” Ford smirked, his hands behind his back. “But I do think we’d do well with a little extra help on our side. And fortunately for us, I just so happen to know someone with a rare and brilliant knack for robotics in particular.”

“Um… and who might that-” Pearl gasped, her eyes widening with alarm as she realized exactly who the author was thinking of. “Oh, Stanford, please don’t tell me you’re talking about-”

“That’s right,” Ford nodded, his smile finally fading into slight apprehension as he briefly thought back on the past. “We need Fiddleford. H-he… wouldn’t happen to still be living here in Gravity Falls after all these years… would he?”

“Uh… I guess you could say that…” Mabel spoke up with a small frown.

“Um… Mr. Ford?” Steven said with a sympathetic frown. “Mr. McGucket, well… he’s…”

“He’s… not exactly like you remember him anymore…” Pearl said softly, looking down with remorse. “Let’s just say that…”

“B-but… he’s still… around, isn’t he?” Ford asked, growing steadily more concerned with the unknown fate of his old friend.

“Yeah, he is,” Dipper nodded. “But… its been a few weeks since we’ve seen him. I wonder what he’s been up to since that whole Blind Eye thing…”

“Blind Eye?!” Ford exclaimed, aptly alarmed. “Those robe-wearing freaks are still around?! They only just started popping up around here right after our portal went wrong, what could they-”

“They were still around,” Pearl interjected, crossing her arms. “Until we took care of them once and for all.”

“W-well then… what of Fiddleford?” the author pressed anxiously. “Is he alright? Where can we find him?”

Pearl and the kids exchanged something of a worried glance, knowing that Ford would certainly revile the truth once he learned it. Not that they intended to keep it from him anyway, since his desire to reunite with his old partner seemed to run deeper than just wanting another hand in helping them beat Peridot at her own game.

Which was why Pearl stepped forward, carrying plenty of regret of her own as she decided to take the author to exactly who he wanted to see, no matter what might happen as a result. “You’re not going to like this, but…”

“I-I… I can’t believe it…” Ford shook his head, the shame in his tone unmistakable as they all stood before the entrance to Gravity Falls’ dump. Pearl and the kids had spent the entire trip there explaining McGucket’s rather disheartening story to the author, who could only really react to it with shock and guilt that he was far too ashamed to hide. “I… I knew that Fiddleford had taken his… horrific experience with the portal harshly, but I could have never imagined he would have used that infernal memory gun to…” Ford trailed off, letting out a sad sigh as he shook his head and looked back to the ramshackle shack Pearl and the kids had told him McGucket now called home. “If what you all have told me really is true… then this is all my fault…”

“Oh, Stanford…” Pearl frowned, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. There’s no way you could have known; there’s no way any of us could have known… Because believe me, if Rose and Garnet and Amethyst and myself had known, then we certainly would have done everything in our power to help him…”

The most Ford could offer in response to such a solemn sentiment was a small, but weary smile. However, upon noticing the palpable remorse between the pair, Steven was quick to step in to try and alleviate it. “Maybe you guys weren’t able to help Mr. McGucket back then…” he began with a frown that soon turned into a reassuring smile. “But the good news is you can still help him now! Heck, we already have by helping him get back his memories!”

“Yeah!” Mabel chimed in enthusiastically. “Which is why I’m sure he’ll totally down to help you guys out with building your super-cool giant robot!”

“Wait, that’s why you clods dragged us all the way out here to this disastrous waste depository?” Peridot asked, baffled as she finally tuned into the conversation. Since the green Gem still needed to be watched carefully lest she run off on her own again, Ford and Pearl agreed that they had to bring her along with them to the junkyard so they could keep an eye on her. Of course, the green Gem had protested, especially when they more or less forced a leash on her to keep her from escaping. Still, she ultimately had no choice in coming along, and was clearly appalled upon learning exactly what the point of this outing really was. “I can’t believe you’re wasting my valuable time that I could be using to build my machine that will no doubt pummel yours into the ground just so you can find this ‘McGucket’ creature! This is completely asinine!”

“Well, its not any more ‘asinine’ than you thinking you can actually take Pearl and Great Uncle Ford on in an inventing battle and win,” Dipper remarked with a rather sarcastic smirk that succeeded in eliciting a frustrated growl from Peridot.

“Well… I suppose we should head inside…” Pearl said with a hint of apprehension in her tone. Without any further deliberation, the group approached the hillbilly’s shack as Mabel went on ahead to knock on the door.

“Old Man McGucket! You in there?” she called. “We have something we need to…. Ask you…?” she trailed off as the brittle wooden door slowly creaked open on its own accord, allowing everyone to peak in to see the rather ruinous state the shack had been left in.

McGucket’s home wasn’t usually the cleanest, given its spot right in the heart of the junkyard, but now it certainly seemed to even more of a wreck than it usually was. What few actual possessions the hillbilly had were strewn and scattered all over the tiny shack in a chaotic, disorganized mess. And even more mysterious than the hectic state before them was the fact that McGucket himself was seemingly nowhere to be found within it.

“Whoa, it like a hurricane blew through here…” Dipper noted with a worried frown.  “I wonder what could have happened?”

“Its strange…” Pearl nodded fretfully. “It almost seems like the place has been entirely abandoned, and in quite a frantic rush at that… But if Fiddleford isn’t here, then were could he-”

The white Gem cut herself off as a sudden clamor sounded from the small window on the far side of the shack. Startled, everyone tucked away behind a rather large pile of garbage to see exactly who was apparently breaking into the shack for some unknown reason. Though, ironically enough, said perpetrator just so happened to be the very hillbilly that called it home.

McGucket let out a loud cry of alarm as he haphazardly slipped in through the open window, landing hard on the other side of it into a pile of miscellaneous scraps. “Aw, conswarnit!” the hillbilly huffed, clearly exasperated as he picked himself up off the ground and began hurriedly picking through his scattered possessions. “Now where’d I put those darn things? They’ve gotta be around here somewhere! I can’t spend all day ‘round here lookin’ for ‘em! I gotta skedaddle outta here again before that confounded portal blows this whole town sky high!”

“The portal?” Ford whispered with a concerned gasp as he leaned out from behind their hiding spot a bit. However, in doing so, he accidentally happened to knock over a stray empty can from the pile, which of course, garnished McGucket’s attention the instant it hit the ground.

“Whazzit?! Who’s there?!” the hillbilly exclaimed fearfully, swiping up a nearby frying pan off the ground and brandishing it as threateningly as he could. “I got me a cast iron skillet here, and I ain’t ‘fraid to use it! I’m warnin’ ya!”

“Whoa, hey, its ok!” Steven assured as him, Dipper, Mabel, and Pearl stepped out first. Ford nearly joined them, but decided to hang back at the last second, both to make sure Peridot was restrained and out of fear as to how McGucket might react to him after so many years. “Its just us! L-long time no see, huh, Mr. McGucket?”

“Oh!” McGucket gasped with apt relief as he lowered his pan. “W-well howdy, kids! A-and howdy to you too, Miss Pearl…” he said, inclining his head in respect for the white Gem.

“H-hello again, Fiddleford,” Pearl greeted somewhat awkwardly, mostly since she know fully remembered the rapport herself and the other Gems used to have with him. “How have you been since… well, since your memories were returned to you?”

“I… gotta admit I’ve seen better days…” McGucket frowned, scratching the back of his neck as he looked down fretfully. “B-but I’m afraid I don’t got time to stand around here and catch up. I only came back here to get my handy dandy whittlin’ spoon,” he said, holding said very old, very bent up spoon up. “I gotta hightail it back to the bunker in the woods, and I reckon ya’ll do the same! It’s the only place where any of us has a chance at bein’ safe once that darn portal opens up and-”

“Uh… actually… the portal sort of… already opened,” Dipper pointed out.

“…W-what?” McGucket asked, his eyes wide with growing fear. “B-but… but that’s impossible! If that confangled portal opened up, t-then none of us would even be standin’ here right now! It would have blown us, this town, maybe even the whole entire world to smithereens! It would have started the end times, the apocalypse! And worst of all, it would have let that… darn, dastardly demon out to terrorize us all!”

“W-well, then, we certainly were lucky. It didn’t destroy everything and it didn’t let him out, thank goodness,” Pearl clarified with a sigh of relief. “But… it did bring someone else back instead…” At this, the white Gem glanced over at Ford, who still really had no idea how exactly he intended on facing his old partner, much less what to even say to him. Still, the author knew that it was either now or never, which was why he took in a deep breath to steady himself before finally stepping out of hiding to face his former friend for the first time in over 30 years.

“H-hello… Fiddleford,” Ford said with a small, bittersweet smile as he took in just how hard the passage of time had apparently been on the once youthful inventor before him. “It… certainly has been a long time… hasn’t it?”

The very moment McGucket saw Ford, his spoon and his pan instantly fell to the floor in a crash that seemed to rattle the entire shack before things quickly fell into a heavy silence. For what seemed like ages, the hillbilly simple stared at the author, his jaw dropped in apparent stunned shock and also hints of confusion, as if he was still trying to process exactly who his old friend was. None of the others really thought to interject, not even Peridot, who simply stood by the kids, completely uninvested in the ongoing situation entirely. Even so, the atmosphere between the author and the inventor was tense, yet unreadable, neither of them really knowing what to say or do next. That is, until McGucket slowly, cautiously, decided to break that silence and his own shock.

“S-Stanford…” the inventor whispered, his voice barely audible as he placed a ginger hand against his head. “I… It… it’s all comin’ back to me now… T-there were still a few gaps left in my memory b-but now… seein’ you… I… reckon they’re startin’ to fill in again…”

“Oh, w-well, then that’s good!” Ford said with something of a forced smile, one racked with hidden guilt over the fact that McGucket had lost those memories in the first place. “I… I’ve heard… Pearl and the children told me everything. A-and I’m…” The author trailed off, glancing down as if a sudden conflict had filled him before he shook his head, almost as if to clear it. “It’s… a shame what happened to you, Fiddleford, truly it is. B-but I am glad to know that you’re on the steady road to recovering from it all.”

McGucket flinched upon hearing this, his surprise filling in with something else. Something that seemed akin to hurt rather than shock. “Is… is that all?” he asked, arcing an eyebrow.

“I… yes?” Ford frowned, confused. “I suppose it is. Why do you ask?”

The inventor simply let out a small, almost harsh chuckle at this as he shook his head sardonically. “You haven’t changed a bit, have ya, Stanford?” he asked. “Looks like you’re still ridin’ on that high horse of yours’, just like you were all them years ago.”

“Wha—high horse?” the author repeated with a baffled scoff. “And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?”

“It means, you’re still just as full of pride as you ever were, Stanford,” McGucket remarked, his tone turning a bit sourer. “Even after all these years and everythin’ that happened, you still won’t admit that you were wrong about that gosh-darn portal of yours! You still won’t admit that you made a mistake!”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, Fiddleford,” Ford countered evenly. “I-I will admit that the portal was a complete and utter disaster in retrospect. It was something we never should have built which is why I fixed it by dismantling it altogether. At the very least I did my best to right the wrongs I had caused, unlike someone else I happen to know.”

“W-who, me?” McGucket asked, caught off guard by this accusation.

“Yes, you,” the author clarified, crossing his arms. “After our mishap with the portal, you were the first to rush out without even sparing a second thought towards helping me stop the damage it could have potentially caused! Even Rose came back to lend a hand after she quit, but you never did, Fiddleford! From what I heard, you were far too busy essentially burying your head in the sand by using that awful invention of yours to wipe your own memories than to help fix a problem that you were just as responsible for as I was!”

“I would’ve never had to do that if your cockamamie plans hadn’t gone as far off the rails as they did!” McGucket shot back just as harshly. “I tried warnin’ ya that portal was gonna end in disaster, Stanford, we all did! But the only ones you ever listened to were yourself and that confounded ‘muse’ of yours! You were as stubborn as a springtime mule back then, and you’re every bit as stubborn now since you still can’t see just how wrong you really were!”

“I’m stubborn?” Ford gasped, appalled by such a claim. “You’re the one who’s stubborn, Fiddleford! You had so much talent, so much potential to make a name for yourself, but you always held yourself back, even as far back as when we were in college! You could never see beyond just yourself, you never dreamed of anything greater, and that’s where you always fell short! You were content to spend the rest of your days toiling away in mediocrity, and look where that’s gotten you? Even lower than that! You may blame me for the sorry state you’re in now, but as far as I can see, you did this to yourself.”

“Alright, that’s quite enough from both of you!” Pearl suddenly interjected, quickly placing herself in the middle of this brutal confrontation. Likewise, the kids also stepped forward, none of them wanting to see such an intense fight between such close former friends, even if none of them really knew how to intervene in a situation none of them really had any parts in. “Believe me, I know just how upset both of you are over this… mess. We were all very upset over it too but… its over now… Like Stanford said, the portal is gone now. M-most of our worries from all those years ago are over. We need to move on. We have to move on. After all… we have much bigger things to worry about now.”

“Yeah, like the Cluster!” Mabel exclaimed boldly.

“And the drill,” Dipper added, a bit more seriously.

“And finding out who’s going to be in charge of building said drill,” Peridot spoke up haughtily. “Which, just in case you all forgot, is going to be me!”

None of the others bothered to argue with the green Gem at this point, knowing that they had more important matters to attend to at the moment than trying to deflate her obviously massive ego. Instead, Ford collected himself, letting out a long sigh as he calmed down to address McGucket evenly. “Ah yes, that’s right. Fiddleford, the real reason why we came here was-”

“We need your help,” Pearl cut in, deciding that this would likely turn out better if she was the one to ask McGucket for his aid as opposed to Ford. “We have to construct a robot for this… competition, so to speak, and Ford and I thought we would ask you for your help on it. After all, Fiddleford, if I recall correctly, you do have quite a knack for engineering projects of this scale, and certainly your vast skill and talents would be invaluable in helping us-”

“I’m sorry, Miss Pearl, but I’m gonna have to stop ya right there,” McGucket shook his head, holding a hand up to interrupt. “I love buildin’ me a giant, rampaging robut as much as the next feller, and if it was just for you, well, I reckon I’d be more than happy to help. But I just don’t think I’m willin’ to work on another lil ‘project’ with Stanford again, ‘specially after how the last one turned out.”

“Oh, why am I not surprised?” Ford huffed crossly. “There you go, limiting yourself all over again. So much inventing and mechanical talent, and for what? For it to all go to waste while you hunker down here in the middle of a literal dump? We’re offering you a chance to assist us with what would most likely be the first worthwhile thing you’ve done in years and you’re just turning it down out of spite?”

“Believe me, Stanford, you’d know if this was outta spite,” McGucket rolled his eyes as he walked past the baffled author. “I’m turnin’ ya’ll down ‘cause I think I’ve wasted enough time puttin’ my inventing skills towards your hairbrained schemes. I reckon my so-called ‘talents’ would be better used elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere, hm…?” Peridot muttered to herself, having become gradually more intrigued by this conversation as it went along. While the green Gem still didn’t put much stock in humans and their technical abilities, she couldn’t help but think that perhaps this McGucket human could be some use to her after all, even if it was for nothing more than the sake of leveling the playing field in her favor. “In that case, I might just have an interested proposition for you, you… McHuman or whatever your name was,” she began with a knowing smirk.

“Huh? Peridot, what are you-” Steven was cut off as the green Gem suddenly shoved him back by his face so she could approach McGucket herself.

“Well, golly, take a gander at you!” the hillbilly exclaimed in amazement upon spotting the green Gem. “And who’re you supposed’ta be? Some sorta lil’ green space alien?”

“Ugh, why do all of you simple-minded humans insist on calling me that!?” Peridot huffed, annoyed.

“Probably because you actually are one,” Dipper remarked with a bit of a wry smirk.

“Ugh, Fiddleford, this,” Pearl interjected, nodding over at the miffed green Gem. “Is Peridot. She’s supposed to be helping us with this drill project, but she’s so hung up over who’s going to lead the project that she insists that we compete in some sort of… ridiculous robot battle!”

“But I thought the robot battle was your idea, Steven,” Mabel whispered over to the young Gem aside.

“Huh, you know, I thought it was too…” Steven frowned, confused.

“W-which is why,” Pearl interjected evenly. “We came to came to ask for your-”

“Which is why I’m asking for your… assistance in helping me build my own ‘robot’ device, y-you… human,” Peridot interjected quite awkwardly and completely unexpectedly at that.

“What?!” just about everyone else in the shack asked in completely baffled unison as they all turned to the green Gem with wide eyes.

“W-what do you mean you want his assistance?” Pearl asked, looking down to Peridot with apt shock. “Just awhile ago, you were claiming that human technological skills were ‘inferior’ to your own. So why would you suddenly want to team up with one now?”

“I recall saying no such thing!” Peridot huffed, putting on a front of appalled innocence really only for McGucket. “And besides, according to you two, this one is quite adept at building one of these robots, so why not have him on my side?”

“Huh, you know, she does kind of have a point…” Steven noted. “After all, 2 vs 2 is much more fair than 1 vs 3 when it comes to just about anything, from fun little minigames, to huge, intense robot battles!”

“Y-yes,” Peridot agreed staunchly as she turned back towards Ford and Pearl. “And besides, he’s already made it very clear that he has no intentions of working with you, isn’t that right…. You?” she asked, glancing back over at McGucket.

However, before the hillbilly really had a chance to say anything for himself, the author was quick to intervene. “Please, don’t be ridiculous,” Ford scoffed, crossing his arms. “Even if he doesn’t want to work with us, there’s not a single, solitary chance in the multiverse that Fiddleford would ever team with the likes of you. Why, the very thought of it is-”

“Isn’t as plum-crazy as ya’ll might think it is…” McGucket spoke up, his tone surprisingly thoughtful, though rigid determination filled it as he turned to address Peridot. “Ya want yourself a robut buildin’ partner, greenie, well, ya got one.”

“YES!” Peridot cheered, completely ignoring the hand McGucket was holding out for her to shake as she heralded her victory over Pearl and Ford. “Ha! In your soon-to-be-very-upset-because-you’re-about-to-lose faces!”

“What? Fiddleford, tell me you’re not serious about this,” Ford said, pressing his way past the green Gem to address the inventor, who simply turned away from him crossly. “You can’t work with Peridot, she’s not-”

“‘Not to be trusted’?” McGucket finished, giving the author a critical glance over his shoulder. “Well, golly, Stanford, ain’t that the pot callin’ the kettle black. Still, just ‘cause I lost just about most of my memories doesn’t mean I lost all of my senses. I know what I’m doin’ here. Do ya think I’d go around dressin’ like this if I didn’t?” he asked, adjusting his large, hole-ridden hat.

“Does he really want us to answer that?” Pearl muttered to the kids, cringing somewhat.

“Augh! Enough talking!” Peridot interrupted with an impatient groan as she broke her way into the conversation. “The sooner we get these robots built, the sooner we can decide which one of them is the better one! Which will of course be mine.”

“I think ya mean ours,” McGucket corrected firmly before sending Ford a rather knowing look as he passed by him. “Unless you’re thinkin’ you can actually keep up, Stanford. Iffin’ I recall correctly, which I’m hopin’ I do what with the whole memory erasin’ tomfoolery I went through, ya never really did have a knack for robuts like I did…”

“O-oh yeah?” Ford retorted challengingly as he followed after them, flustered. “Well we’ll just see if your so-called ‘inventing prowess’ are really just as sharp as you think they are, McGucket! Come along Pearl, children. We have a robot to build…”

“Oh my…” Pearl sighed to herself, sending a concerned glace over at Ford and McGucket in particular as they left along with everyone else. “I have a feeling this is going to be a bit of a-”

“BOT BATTLE!” Steven and Mabel cheered in excited unison, already running on ahead so they could prepare themselves for the aforementioned, no-doubt spectacular bot battle that was about to take place.

For the next several hours, the barn was alive with the sounds of buzzing saws, pounding hammers, and whirling drills. Both of the stalwart teams had plenty of materials to work with amongst the various scraps and scroungings the barn had to offer and Pearl and Ford and Peridot and McGucket alike made sure to utilize just about every piece they could get their hands on to their respective advantages. Pearl and Ford were already more than used to working together on projects such as this, though their usual team rapport was somewhat shaken by the author’s intensive drive to beat his former partner at his own game. As a result, Pearl was quick to pick up on the hectic, almost frantic pace Ford seemed to be working it, disregarding any sort of careful planning in order to complete their bot as soon as possible, a sentiment that the white Gem adopted herself whenever she so much as entertained the thought of Peridot goading her possible victory over their heads.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Peridot and McGucket were a rather scatterbrained team themselves. The concept of “teamwork” was all but lost on the pair as they each carried out their own respective tasks in their own respective ways. The green Gem was methodical in her approach, her expertise in Homeworld tech giving her an advantage as she adapted to what she had at her disposal to build with. The hillbilly’s approach, however, seemed much more random and all over the place, to the point that it frustrated his Gem partner several times over. Needless to say that several small arguments broke out between the pair throughout the construction of their robot, yet even despite those skirmishes, progress on it carried on steadily, even if the technical vision behind it was rather mixed at best.

All the while, Steven, Dipper, and Mabel hung out around the entrance of the barn, all three of them eagerly watching the dazzling array of inventing at work before them. The kids were all unanimously excited to see what the outcome of this contest would be, even if they were largely rooting for Pearl and Ford to win. Still, they knew they were going to have to be the impartial judges of the competition to come, and together they had already thought up several challenges to put both bots through to see which team would come out on top.

“This robot contest is gonna be so cool!” Mabel exclaimed, gripping the side of the barn tightly. “Oh my gosh, you guys, you know what would be even cooler? If we built a giant robot just for us!”

“Oh, come on, Mabel,” Dipper rolled his eyes. “That’s… huh… you know what, that actually sounds like it would be pretty amazing, not gonna lie.”

“Yeah!” Steven exclaimed, enthused. “We could suit it up with all kinds of lasers and lights and we could paint it any color we want, and we could put a ton of stickers on it to make it look nice!”

“Yeah, like the one I gave Pearl and Grunkle Ford for their robot!” Mabel grinned, motioning over to the pair who was, ironically enough, fixing said colorful shooting star sticker to the side of their bot.

“Heya, kids,” Stan greeted as he, Garnet, and Amethyst made their way over to the barn. “I can’t believe you three and the ‘wonder nerds’ are still out here. What are you even doing anyway, working on building another rocket? Cause you better not be, if Pearl and Ford know what’s good for ‘em.”

“They’re not building a rocket,” Garnet clarified. “They should be working on the drill so we can stop the Cluster.”

“Well actually… we’re building robots now,” Steven shrugged with a small smile.

“Uh… why?” Amethyst asked, not following.

“We’re gonna have this huge robot contest so we can decide who’s gonna be in charge of building the drill!” Mabel informed brightly. “Its Pearl and Grunkle Ford vs. Peridot and Old Man McGucket in the Robot Rumble of the Ages! You guys gotta stick around and watch it with us!”

“Wait, what?” the purple Gem asked, still confused as she peeked into the barn. “McGucket? What’s he doing here and what’s he doin’ working with… Peridot? He used to be part of the Nerd Squad with Pearl and Ford way back when, what happened?”

“Um, its… kind of a long story…” Dipper said apprehensively. “Let’s just say McGucket and Great Uncle Ford didn’t really have the… smoothest reunion after what happened between them all those years ago.”

“Dang, I bet,” Amethyst crossed her arms. “Dude must be pretty miffed over that whole portal mess if he’s willing to pair up with Peri just to get back at Ford for it.”

“Aw, that can’t be why Mr. McGucket decided to work with Peridot,” Steven shook his head. “Can it?”

“I dunno, if I were ol’ whackjob and had a chance to take Sixer down a peg or two, I know I’d definitely take it,” Stan concluded, shrugging.

“We’ve all seen just how much McGucket went through because of Ford’s mistake with the portal,” Garnet added rationally. “In a way, I can see why he’d want to see some sort of justice for it, even if its in a small way like this.”

“Well that’s… kind of sad when you think about it…” Steven frowned as he looked back towards the barn. “If Mr. Ford and Mr. McGucket used to be such good friends, then they should be working together instead of fighting each other…”

“Don’t worry,” Garnet assured, placing a comforting hand on the young Gem’s head. “I’m sure they’ll patch things up sooner or later.”

Steven smiled halfheartedly at this, though before he could offer his thanks to the Gem leader, the sound of roaring engines rattled the entire barn. Everyone was quick to step out of the way as the first of the two robots, piloted by Pearl and Ford, gracefully rushed out of the barn and onto the lawn. The bot was sleek and elegant in its design, with thin, long metallic appendages, wheeled legs and six-pointed grips, and a small, repurposed, two seated cockpit forming its base. Overall, the machine seemed to built for speed and mobility as it swept a quick lap around the barnyard, with both the author and the white Gem controlling it in tandem before it made its swift stop before the amazed group still gathered near the barn.

“So, children,” Ford said as he stood within the cockpit, Pearl doing the same to show off her familiar blue spacesuit. “What do you think of our highly advanced automaton here?”

“Whoa…” Dipper gasped, awestruck as he stared up at the robot alongside Steven and Mabel. “So cool…”

“GIANT ROBOT!” Mabel squealed in delight. “And I love how the sticker looks on it! I told you guys it would be a nice touch!”

“Yes,” Pearl chuckled. “It certainly does pull the whole thing together, doesn’t it?”

“Ha! You think that’s a ‘robot’?” Peridot’s loud taunt sounded all the way from inside the barn as the ground began to rumble with uproarious footsteps. “Pathetic. Now… behold! My vision of ultimate power!”

With a thunderous crash, Peridot and McGucket’s bot stormed out of the barn, instantly showing just how much more bulky and sturdy it was. Its overall color scheme, dictated by Peridot, was green, and its appendages were stout yet strong, with massive pinching claws and a sharply pointed cockpit where the pair sat side-by-side to control it. Both the hillbilly and the green Gem let out their own rowdy, wild gales of laughter as they paraded their hulking machine around freely.

“Now this is what I call a robut!” McGucket proclaimed proudly as he leaned out of the cockpit a bit. “What do ya’ll think about our lil’… whazzit?”

“Hey!” Peridot shouted, equally as baffled as she realized just how much Pearl and Ford’s bot towered over their own.

“Ours is taller!” Pearl quickly exclaimed, raising the robot’s hand. “We win!”

“Ladies and gentle-Gems!” Steven announced, stepping up onto a small box beside the chalkboard where a scoreboard was already set up for the oncoming contest. “Welcome to the first annual Robolymics!”

“Woo!” Amethyst cheered as her, Garnet, and Stan sat along on the sidelines to watch the competition unfold.

“Psst, Garnet,” Stan whispered over to the Gem leader. “You wanna place a bet on which one of these nerd teams is gonna take home the prize? The smart money’s on the munchkin and the hillbilly over there.”

“Hmph,” Garnet smirked, adjusting her shades before shaking the conman’s hand. “You’re on.”

“This competition will test our robo-engineers’ skills of robo-construction and robo-piloting,” Steven continued on in explaining the rules.

“There are several rounds you all will have to go through,” Dipper added. “And whoever wins the most of them gets to be in charge of building the drill. Understood?”

All four of the competitors nodded firmly, even if they were more focused on seizing up the competition rather than really listening to the rules. “Great!” Mabel exclaimed, holding up a checkered flag before throwing it down dramatically. “Then let the robo-games begin!”

And with that, the competition kicked off without any further delay. The kids made sure to spell out the rules of each successive round to the teams, each of which was conceived to prove which group was better at designing and building the more functional machine. The first several rounds were largely standard fare, testing various aspects of the robots including balance, jumping capabilities, weapon capacity, speed, and strength. However, in order to fully prove which robot was better and which team was more up to the engineering task, the kids had devised a few non-sequitur categories to see which bot was the more well-rounded of the two. The robots had a chance to test out their artistic sides when it came to the dance and painting categories (the latter of which Amethyst gladly volunteered to be a model for and the result of which ended up being subjective overall). Other rounds were a bit more random, from jumping jacks, to yoga, to tug of war, to a game of ‘robo chess’, yet each game was indeed completely designed to prove who was the best of the best when it came to engineering and inventing. However, by the time just about every category had been decided, it seemed as though the contest overall would be destined to end in a tie, even up to the final, supposedly deciding category.

“Alright, everyone, this is the final event!” Steven announced, still stationed beside the chalkboard with the twins as the robots approached the pair of trucks there were supposed to toss to test their strength even further.

“You got this, P!” Amethyst cheered, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

“Get it, girl!” Garnet added just as supportively.

“Uh, y-yeah, but try not to win too much out there, ya nerds!” Stan taunted, remembering the bet he had made with Garnet.

“Ok, ready…. Set… CHUCK!” Steven shouted, and on that command, both teams’ bots tossed their respective trucks forward as hard as they possibly could. The vehicles sailed swiftly through the air, soaring high and far before they both disappeared over the mountain ridge countless miles away. All of the spectators were aptly stunned by such a powerful, incredible display, even if it really gave them no indication as two who might have won this final challenge.

“Um… well, looks like you both get a point on that one!” Mabel decided, marking a tally down on the chalkboard for both teams.

“Hm,,,,” Steven mused, looking over the final results as both teams waited eagerly to hear the outcome. “Well, it looks like our final score is… a tie! That settles it; everyone gets to lead the project together!”

“Aw, man, well that’s anticlimactic…” Amethyst pouted, leaning back on her seat.

“Yeah, it is!” Stan grumbled. “If the stupid contest ends in a tie, then who wins the bet?”

“Just wait,” Garnet advised, nodding back to the bots themselves.

“NO!” Peridot suddenly shouted, enraged by these unsatisfactory results. “This isn’t over! I demand that we have a tiebreaker!”

“Y-yes, so do I!” Ford exclaimed quite suddenly.

“What?” Pearl asked, completely baffled by her partner’s impulsiveness. “Ford, why-”

“We need to have a definitive winner here!” the author quickly cut her off before glaring down at McGucket in particular. “We need to decide who’s right and who’s wrong…”

“Aw, conswarnit, Ford!” McGucket snapped in apt frustration. “It’s a dog-gone tie! Just let it go already!”

“Oh of course you would tell me to simply ‘let it go’, Fiddleford,” Ford scoffed coldly. “Just like how you let go of all your own memories just because you couldn’t find a better way to cope with them!”

“But I got ‘em back, ya stubborn ol’ fool!” McGucket countered every bit as harshly. “And I’m tryin’ to move on, which is what you oughta be doin’ instead of clingin’ onto the past just cause ya think there’s somethin’ back in it that’ll prove you didn’t build a machine that could’ve destroyed the world even though that’s exactly what ya diddly darn did.”

“Ugh, enough of this!” Pearl interupted sternly, tired of being stuck in the middle of this constant conflict. “Let’s all just give it a rest already! We don’t need any other final competition to decide anything. This is it, we tied. We’re the same, we’re all equals here. Let’s finally just move on already.”

“No!” Peridot cut in fiercely, gripping her robot’s controls tightly. The bot lurched forward and before McGucket could even make a move to counter the green Gem, its claws latched onto one of the other robot’s tall legs tightly, holding it in place. “You’re just a Pearl and a human! You both are beneath me! I’ll always be better than you, and nothing I’ve seen today will ever change that!”

“Oh, for crying out loud, not this again…” Ford groaned, exasperated.

“Well, have you ever seen a Pearl do this?!” Pearl exclaimed, suddenly taking full control of the bot as she swung it’s leg around to kick the other robot back hard. Peridot and McGucket’s bot landed hard and flat on its back as the others all gasped in shock, all of them quite intrigued and somewhat alarmed by the rather violent twist this contest had taken.

“Ohoh, so you wanna fight, huh?” Peridot asked challengingly as McGucket maneuvered the robot back up. “Good! We should have done this from the beginning!”

At this, their robot slammed into the taller bot, tackling it with an immense amount of force. Pearl and Ford managed to hold their own as they pressed it back, neither side making much edgeway as they struggled against each other.

“Whoa, looks like things just got a heck of a whole lot more interesting!” Stan grinned, perking up in his seat as he watched all of the action unfold.

“STOP!” Steven cried fretfully as Ford and Pearl’s bot landed a brutal punch on Peridot and McGucket’s. “Giant robots shouldn’t fight!”

“Yeah! Not unless its in some sort of cool action movie or cartoon or something!” Mabel added just as worriedly.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” Stan and Amethyst cheered in delighted encouragement, thoroughly invested in the ongoing battle. Of course, their cheers soon stopped as Peridot and McGucket’s bot suddenly hoisted Ford and Pearl’s up and tossed it towards the spectating crowd, forcing them all to scatter away from the brutal crash landing.

“Pearl!” Steven cried upon spotting the damage done to the bot and the pair within it.

“Great Uncle Ford!” Dipper exclaimed, also quite alarmed.

“It’s alright, everyone!” Pearl assured as they pulled the robot back up. “We’ve got this!”

“Be careful!” Mabel urged fretfully.

“Kick ‘em in the butt!” Amethyst quipped daringly.

“O-or ya know, don’t do that!” Stan countered. “Especially since I’ve got good money on the line here…”

The moment Pearl and Ford’s bot was back on its feet, Peridot and McGucket wasted no time slamming their robot’s claws into it once more. Several more brutal blows were passed back and forth between the two bots, sustaining damage to both, but taking neither of them down in the process. Needless to say that tensions were high between both teams, especially as they locked hands once more, though it was clear that the brute strength of Peridot and McGucket’s bot was starting to win out against Pearl and Ford’s much more lanky, feeble one.

“Stanford, this is a bunch of cockamamie nonsense and ya know it is!” McGucket exclaimed over the din of battle. “Why can’t ya just admit that you were wrong and be done with it!?”

“Because I’m not wrong!” Ford argued, pushing the robot’s controls harder. “At least not anymore! I already told you, I fixed my mistakes! I’m still fixing my mistakes and I’m not going to stop until I’ve fixed them all!”

“Well, then I reckon, you’ll likely never stop then,” McGucket said with a bitter, hurt scowl. “Cause there’s still one mistake of yours that you ain’t even started tryin’ to fix yet!”

“W-what are you-” Before Ford could even finish, McGucket pushed hard against the controls of his and Peridot’s bot out of sheer anger alone, shoving Pearl and Ford’s back hard. In the back seat of the cockpit as he was, Ford in particular reeled back, his loose grip on the controls costing him as he ended up falling backwards out of his seat entirely.

“Stanford!” both Pearl and McGucket gasped in sudden alarm as the author fell out of the rather tall bot towards the ground below. Unfortunately, the white Gem wasn’t quick enough to maneuver her bot to catch him in time, and as a result, Ford landed hard, the blow easily sending him into a daze and greatly startling just about everyone present. Though, surprisingly enough, the one who seemed the most fearfully concerned was none other than McGucket himself.

“Ford!” the inventor cried, not even hesitating to leap out of the robot, leaving Peridot to control it alone and all but abandoning the battle entirely to rush over to the fallen author’s side. Still, the green Gem was hardly upset by this as she instead gained full control over the robot, ripping Pearl’s attention away from Ford as the robot’s clawed hands landed a brutal punch against hers.

“Good,” Peridot sneered challengingly. “I’m glad we finally got those pesky humans out of the way. This is between you and me anyway, you Pearl!”

Before Pearl could even say anything, the green Gem shoved her back again, keeping her from seeing if Ford was alright or not. Fortunately, McGucket was already on that case as he ran over to Ford and wasted no time in checking him over for any sort of serious injuries. “S-Stanford!” the hillbilly exclaimed, his tone rife with concern. “Ford, a-are you alright? W-wake up! Say somethin’ to me!”

Fortunately, the author wasn’t out of it for too long as he let out a small groan at this, placing a hand against the side of his head as he slowly opened his eyes to meet the hillbilly’s worried gaze. “Mm? F-Fiddleford?” Ford asked in rather bleary confusion as he struggled to sit up on his own. “W-what are you doing? What about the robots… and the contest? I thought you-”

“Aw, forget about that silly ol’ contest,” McGucket shook his head. “I needed to come over ‘n make sure ya didn’t knock that big ol’ genius brain of yours too hard after I… ya know, knocked ya outta your robut and all…”

“W-what…?” Ford frowned, still bewildered, especially as McGucket offered a hand to help steady him. “I… I don’t understand. You only teamed up with Peridot b-because… because of what I…” The author paused, trying his hardest to collect his thoughts and how he wanted to say them, only to fail completely. “I… I just… I didn’t think you still-”

“Cared?” McGucket finished with a small, but knowing smile. “Aw, hornswaggle, Stanford. I may have forgotten ya for almost 30 years, but deep down in my gut, I don’t think I could have ever stopped carin’ about ya.”

For a moment, Ford simply stared at his old partner in complete and utter baffled silence, unsure of how to even react to such a warm, kind sentiment after just how much he had wronged McGucket in the past. So, instead of saying anything, he simply let out a small chuckle of acceptance as he finally accepted the hillbilly’s hand to help him up and lead him to somewhere safer away from the bot battle still raging on behind them just as violently as ever.

“This is pointless!” Peridot shouted as she pressed her bot roughly against Pearl’s once more. “There’s no way you’re gonna beat me! You’re an accessory! Somebody’s shiny toy! Where do you get off acting like you’re your own Gem?!” At this the green Gem’s bot finally managed to get the upper hand over the white Gem’s, as its clawed hand completely pride one of the thin arms off of the lankier bot in a single, swift yank. “You’re just a PEARL!”

Pearl winced back at this, this singular reminder of exactly the kind of Gem she was made to be much harsher and more painful than she knew it should have been. The white Gem knew, and she had always known, that her lot, at least according to Homeworld’s standards, was to stand by and serve and little else. Her caste wasn’t meant to think or to act or to do anything for anyone other than whatever Gem they were given to. There had indeed been a time when Pearl herself had been exactly that; just another piece of empty, thoughtless property in Homeworld’s rigid, unfulfilling system. And yet… the Earth, humans, her fellow Crystal Gems, they had all shown her she could be so much more than that. She could go beyond what she was made for, she could be her own person, her own Gem. She could think and feel for herself and she could take pride in who she was and what she did and she had. And so, that’s exactly what she planned on showing.

“That’s right!” Pearl proclaimed, rising up a bit out of her seat as she faced Peridot fiercely. “I am a PEARL!” With that, the white Gem swung her first hard, striking Peridot squarely in the jaw and catching her completely off guard.

“WHOO-HOO!” Amethyst cheered loudly on the sidelines as everyone else gasped in amazement at such boldness on the Pearl’s part.

“Whoa, who knew Pearl could pack a punch like that?” Stan remarked, unable to hide the fact that even he was genuinely impressed with the white Gem.

“I think we did…” Ford remarked, exchanging a small smirk with McGucket as they both silently recalled just how resilient Pearl could be when she needed to be.

As a result of the white Gem’s blow, Peridot’s bot stumbled back a bit, allowing Pearl time to pick hers’ up off the ground to pick the fight right back up where it had left off. “What you’re saying may be true,” the white Gem said as her robot sprang high into the air above Peridot’s before it began coming down in what would certainly be a hard and heavy kick. “But it doesn’t matter! I’m still gonna kick your butt!”

By this point, just about everyone was cheering Pearl on as she came in for what would possibly be her final blow against the green Gem. Or at least it would have been if Peridot’s bot hadn’t managed to catch one of the long legs of Pearl’s bot at the very last second.

“…Uh oh,” the white Gem muttered, though she had no time to break free from the hold. Immediately, Peridot’s robot slammed Pearl’s hard into the ground, repeating the action several times over until she finally plowed the taller robot down hard, more or less completely breaking it beyond repair as its pieces went flying.

“Pearl!” the others all exclaimed in apt concern as they collectively hurried over to check on the fallen white Gem. Despite the harsh, defeating blow she had suffered, Pearl was only mildly stunned by it, even if she did look much worse for wear as she lay against the wrecked remains of her robot.

Peridot hardly paid them any mind however as she leapt out of her robot, her face still bruised from the punch Pearl had landed on her, though her expression was bright with the satisfaction of her triumph. “Victory is mine!” she proclaimed proudly. “Now I’m the one in charge! Praise me! Praise me!”

“Pearl, are you ok?”

“Huh?” Peridot blinked, caught off guard by the fact that the others were all surrounding the white Gem rather than her.

“A-ah yes… I’m alright…” Pearl smiled as she allowed Steven to help her up.

“Yeah, P!” Amethyst exclaimed, giving the white Gem a sudden congratulatory hug. “Aw, that was awesome! You were so hardcore!”

“Oh really?” Pearl chuckled, rubbing her arm with a flustered smile.

“Oh yeah,” Garnet readily agreed.

“Yeah, Pearl, you were the best!” Mabel exclaimed excitedly.

“Seriously, you were,” Dipper added firmly. “And you punching Peridot in the face like that has to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”

“It was indeed a very impressive display,” Ford nodded with a smirk.

“We couldn’tve done it any better ourselves, Miss Pearl,” McGucket said, tipping his hat in respect for the white Gem.

“Eh, it was passable,” Stan shrugged, unconcerned as he leaned over to Garnet. “So uh… you gonna pay up or what, shades? Cause it looks like greenie just won our bet for me.”

“Did she?” Garnet countered, her arms crossed as she smiled somewhat mysteriously.

“Uh… yeah?” the conman frowned, confused. “Pretty sure she did, right?”

“Y-yes, I did win!” Peridot spoke up, frustrated. “So why aren’t any of you listening to me!? I’m the natural leader here! She’s just a common Pearl! A-and those two!” she snapped, pointing at Ford and McGucket. “They’re just simple humans! I’m the one in charge here, not any of them!”

“You’re wrong!” Steven argued readily. “If Pearls are really like you say they are, then Pearl isn’t common at all! She trained herself to fight! She learned how to build things! And she works hard every day to be greater than she already is!”

“And while we’re at it, your pretty much completely wrong when it comes to humans too, especially when it comes to McGucket and Great Uncle Ford,” Dipper said knowingly.

“Yeah! Both of them are like total geniuses!” Mabel agreed earnestly. “They’ve built all sorts of crazy neat stuff like big huge futurey portals or mind-erasing laser guns, and yeah, maybe those things weren’t always used for good reasons, but they’re still pretty amazing on their own and so are the guys who built them!”

“Seriously, how do you not get it by now, Peridot?” Dipper finished as he smiled back towards the white Gem, the author, and the inventor. “There isn’t anything ‘common’ or ‘simple’ about anyone here.”

Needless to say that Peridot was just about completely baffled by such a thought, to the point that, for perhaps the first time ever, she was completely speechless.

“Come on, everyone,” Garnet said, turning towards the nearby wreckage. “Let’s clean this mess up.”

“Yo, Pearl, you should come wrestling with me some time,” Amethyst joked as they all began to walk away.

“Mm… I dunno…” Pearl frowned, rubbing the sore spot on her arm as they began to pick up the scattered robotic wreckage.

“You know, I bet if we combined the sturdy base of the robot you and Peridot built,” Ford began, speaking to McGucket. “With the speed and agility of our robot, then we could certainly build a force to be reckoned with!”

“Now you’re talkin’!” McGucket exclaimed, enthused by the idea.

“B-but I won!” Peridot argued hotly, not moving from her spot. “What about the rules?!”

None of the others so much as even acknowledged the green Gem, save for Garnet, who simply turned towards her and shrugged simply. “Welcome to Earth.”

Peridot was once again stunned into silence at this, the harsh realization hitting her that even though she technically “won”, she really had no victory to claim at all. After all, the possibility that she could have ever been wrong was something the green Gem couldn’t have ever anticipated and yet… her experiences during her brief time on Earth so far had already proved her wrong about more than she could have ever thought possible. So… perhaps, as ludicrous as it might seem, there was a chance she could have been wrong about Pearls and humans alike as well.

Though it took some doing, eventually everyone had managed to gather up all of the scattered pieces of Pearl and Ford’s robot and organize them back in the barn with the rest of the parts they were likely to use for the drill. Despite his best arguments against the Gem leader, Stan never did end up getting his money from his bet with Garnet, though considering the circumstances, he didn’t really mind as much as him and Amethyst were invested in asking Pearl about her defining blow against Peridot, something that still greatly amused them both. By the time the work was all finished however, the conman returned to the shack for the evening, leaving Ford and the twins behind to help the Gems out with the drill in whatever way they could in the following days of its construction. And though McGucket knew he wasn’t really obligated to stay either, he did hang back for a bit before heading back to his home at the dump, supposedly for the sake of analyzing the robot him and Peridot had made for any possible further invention ideas. Ford, however, had a feeling the inventor was sticking around for some other reason, and, picking up on that reason, he decided that now was as good a time as any to speak his piece to his former partner.

“Fiddleford?” the author began as he stepped up beside the hillbilly.

“Yes, Stanford?” McGucket asked with a bit of an amicable smile as he looked up towards his old friend.

It was a smile that Ford was hard pressed to return as he awkwardly averted the inventor’s gaze, taking in a deep breath as he tried to figure out exactly what it was he wanted to say. “I… um… well, you see I… erm… you know what? Here,” Ford took pause as he reached into his coat and pulled out a small, colorful square, which he handed off to McGucket, who took it with wide eyes of wonder.

“I-is… is this…?”

“Y-yes, that’s right, it’s a Cubic’s Cube,” Ford nodded. “I… remembered how much you used to enjoy working on them years ago, and… I just so happened to find one of your old ones lying around the old lab so… I figured I’d give it back to you as something of a-” The author cut himself off as McGucket presented the cube back to him, all of its scrambled colors perfectly lined up again in almost no time at all. “Well then,” Ford remarked, impressed as he looked over the cube. “Seems as though you really are just as sharp as I remember you being, Fiddleford.”

“Eh, its all that newfangled muscle memory or whatever it is the kids are callin’ it these days,” McGucket shrugged humbly. The pair shared a brief laugh before the author let out something of a small, sad sigh as he looked away from the inventor yet again.

“Fiddleford, I… I should have said this earlier but… I’m sorry,” he finally relented, hanging his head a bit in genuine shame. “I truly am. You were right back then and you’re still right now; I was wrong the entire time and I was far too blinded by my own pride and my dreams of grandure to see that. Honestly, if anything I should have apologized to you 30 years ago. Maybe if I had it would have spared you from… well, you know…”

“Aw, shucks,” McGucket shook his head. “Y’know, Stanford, I thought all I wanted to hear outta ya was an apology, but now that I’m actually getting’ it, I can’t help but feel as though you were actually right.”

“A-about what?”

“About how I up and did all this to myself,” the hillbilly said, sighing himself this time. “You weren’t the one who made me erase all my memories, I did that all on my own. I’ve spent so long forgettin’… Maybe I should try forgivin’ instead… C’mere, old friend.” With this, McGucket opened his arms out wide to offer the author a hug, and though Ford wasn’t often physical when it came to showing affection, it was an offer he couldn’t possibly turn down.

“Hm,” Ford grinned as their hug disbanded a moment later and their sights turned back to the robot before them. “You know, despite everything, this machine really is quite impressive… It’s sort of embarrassing to admit this, but… it looks like your engineering skills still far surpass mine. Which is why I’d be honored if you’d help the Gems, the kids, and me out with the drill. We’ll need someone adept at the craft as you to help us make sure the job’s done right.”

“Well, golly, Stanford,” McGucket smirked knowingly. “I think I’d be downright honored to work with ya’ll again, especially on somethin’ like this that’s gonna help people instead of hurtin’ ‘em for a change.”

“So it’s a deal then?” Ford grinned, holding out his hand to his former, now-returned partner.

“It’s a deal,” McGucket gladly agreed, shaking the author’s hand to solidify his desire to help.

As this touching exchange went on, Pearl couldn’t help but smile softly to herself as she watched it from afar. In truth, she had always enjoyed building and inventing alongside both Ford and McGucket back in the day, and the thought of getting the change to do so again brought genuine excitement and delight to the white Gem. But even more than that, she was glad to see that peace had finally returned between the author and the inventor, and with that peace came the chance to let go of the painful memories of the past and creature better, happier memories in the future.

“Ahem,” Pearl’s train of thought was interupted, surprisingly enough, by none other than Peridot. The green Gem had come to stand alongside her, an upside down drill in hand as she averted the taller Gem’s gaze sheepishly. “I-I have to admit, its… remarkable that a Pearl such as yourself could become such a… knowledgeable technician. Mm…” Peridot hesitated, still clearly swallowing her pride as she presented the white Gem the drill she was holding. “Why don’t we get started?”

Pearl couldn’t help but smile in slight amusement as she knelt down and took the drill from Peridot and turned it around. “You’re holding it upside down,” she informed before handing the tool back to the green Gem.

“Y-yes, of course,” Peridot remarked, flustered. “You know… those round appendages on your machine could be useful for something.”

“They’re called wheels,” Pearl said, still smirking. With this, the white Gem stood and led Peridot over to Ford and McGucket so the four of them could begin planning out their ideas for the drill together. Though the green Gem was still somewhat uncertain about the thought of working with a Pearl and a pair of humans, she decided that it was something she was just going to have to get used to for the sake of the greater good. After all, just about everything on Earth was strange to her, so how was the prospect of working with unlikely allies such as these any stranger than anything else she had already seen thus far?

As the four technicians met up and began throwing drill ideas back and forth, they were all largely unaware of the kids watching them from afar at their spot near the barn. Needless to say that all three of them were more than glad to see that peace and acceptance had won the day, even despite how intense the preceding bot battle had been. “Well, you guys,” Steven began, offering a smile to Dipper and Mabel. “It looks like we’re well on our way to stopping the Cluster.”

“Its about time too,” Dipper said with a bit of a grin as he crossed his arms. “The sooner we stop the Earth from literally imploding from the inside out, the better. And who knows? With Pearl, and Ford, and McGucket all working together, maybe building this whole drill thing could be kinda fun.”

“‘Grrrr, fun for me you mean!’” Mabel roared playfully, taking on a gruff tone as she held the Cluster sock puppet up.

“Oh no!” Steven cried in faux dramatics. “It’s the Cluster!”

Mabel kept playing along as she growled once more, this time pouncing on both boys and easily knocking them both to the ground, all three of them laughing all the while. “‘You think you can stop meeeee?!’” she taunted, more or less tickling both Steven and Dipper with the puppet by this point as a way of ‘attacking’ them.

“Aw, c-come on, Mabel!” Dipper laughed, struggling to get away. “Cut it out!”

Mabel simply roared through the puppet once more as the impromptu game continued, though needless to say all three of the kids were having a great time through it. “Ah! We’re doomed!” Steven chuckled breathlessly, even though they really weren’t.

And yet… if they failed to finish the drill and truly stop the Cluster on time, then there was no telling just how true that statement just might turn out to be.

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