The Curse of Day/Part7H

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5th Day, 9:30 AM
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The Chemical Plant looked fairly normal: full of pulsing pipes, pools of some odd blue substance, and platforms sticking off into nowhere for an unknown purpose. Whatever it was meant for originally, it wasn't accomplishing its purpose any longer. However, it was most likely serviceable for Kennedy and Lee to use in obtaining the Sol Emerald there, and would at least keep them from falling to the watery depths below the Plant if they were reasonably cautious.
Kennedy flew through the light smog with lowered eyelids. "How would an Emerald get in such a dirty place?"
Kennedy might not have seen (or cared) from his altitude, but some of the platforms joined together into a bit of a service ramp of sorts, allowing those who couldn't fly to get around. Some of these were functional, others were broken down, and a few were connected only by makeshift platforms that rode back and forth, but they would likely be both where Lee could see them and where he could use them...and, hypothetically, might provide some sort of guide to the Emerald's whereabouts.
Lee was testing any chemical pools he could reach by sticking his hand in them, and ingesting liquid from the ones that didn't burn. This was him finding out which pools he could enter and which ones were going to kill him. The pools didn't cause much trouble, though they did ripple as he touched them. Lee might notice that the ripples bounced off of a trail of small metal parts going through the liquid, pointing towards a distant platform.
Kennedy turned his arm into a purple energy arm-blade and stuck it into one of the pools, trying to see if he could... do whatever Lee was doing. "So, what's the plan?" asked Kennedy.
"I... I don't know?" He replied, looking at the metal parts. "I, um, suppose we could try using those...?"
Kennedy flew over, grabbing them. "Hm... what to do..."
At that exact moment, a fairly loud explosion went off in the direction that the trail of metal parts was pointing to. Some smoke could be seen rising from a platform about a block away (still in that same direction). Kennedy looked at Lee and yelled, "Should we go check that out? It seems awfully suspicious..."
"I guess... give me a minute, I'll be right over..." Lee responded, jumping into the chemical pool the metal pieces had been in and vanishing from view.
"I'm just worried that there are others that want the Emeralds," Kennedy said. "Even if Taglumo wasn't all too serious, his announcement might've roused others to want them for themselves." Kennedy kept flying slowing down for Lee. "Oh, and try not to get too close to me. If you can't handle Chaos Energy, you're almost allergic to my entire being."
Lee was visibly swimming through the chemicals. "Oh... It's uh, complicated... But, if we do face enemies here... Feel, feel free to give me some." He muttered.
"Careful now, that might be the other energy signature in you talking," Kennedy said with a chuckle as the duo arrived at the smoky platform. "Now, let's check this out..."
Lee climbed out, following Kennedy across the metal ground.
On the smoking platform, a metal robot like those that the group had encountered before could be seen. This robot differed from those before it in two regards: it was evidently highly damaged (having flame, smoke, and electricity coming out of it in random parts), and it had conspicuously just finished shoving the yellow Sol Emerald under its chin. Kennedy turned his arm into a blade, looking at Lee.
"I'm going to need a bit of help with this one," Kennedy said. "If I waste too much energy now, I could be a large liability later in our travels. It's the reason I had so much trouble with Mac. I could try stabbing it right now, but... it'd be much easier to take the Emerald with a partner."
"I... I can try and distract it..." Lee said.
"You do that," said Kennedy. "I'll stab it so we can get this rescue journey over with. I trust in you, Lee!" Kennedy continued before flying upwards, searching for the right angle to impale the robot at. Lee promptly started screaming phrases meant to be insults at the robot. The robot, which couldn't hear Lee due to having no audial sensors, started flying away, having finished doing whatever it had been doing.
Lee watched the robot fly away before coming up with a second plan. He slammed his left fist against the side of the platform until a piece broke off; he then threw the piece of metal at the robot's head. This worked perfectly, since the robot couldn't hear it coming; however, while this knocked the robot's head off, the robot promptly grabbed its head, stuck it back on (albeit at a somewhat smaller size this time, since Lee had knocked off some of the metal) and kept flying.
As soon as the robot was hit, Kennedy made his move, extending his sword-arm to try and stab through the robot. Unfortunately for Kennedy, his timing was such that the robot tried to put his head on when Kennedy's arm was in the vicinity, causing the robot to effortlessly (and unintentionally) bat Kennedy's arm out of the way while putting on its head without even realizing that Kennedy had been there at all.
"Oh, you must be joking," Kennedy said with a growl before lifting his sword-arm up into the air and causing it to grow in size. Then, he slammed it downwards. However, the robot kept flying, making his sword-arm miss its head and merely chop off a bit of its back. This didn't reattach, but instead went flying at Kennedy's arm, attempting to repeatedly whack him with its tiny amount of force. The robot's flight speed slowed noticeably as this occurred.
Kennedy tried using his free hand to catch the detached part (an effort that ultimately proved successful). "LEE! It's slowed down! Try grabbing the humanoid!"
The fox stuttered something, looking around, unsure of what to do. He quickly scrambled to get another chunk of metal. Fortunately, there was a conveniently-sized bit of metal lying around, which Kennedy had knocked off the robot's head earlier. Lee grabbed it, hurling the shrapnel at the robot as before. Lee seemed to be having a lucky streak, as the shrapnel flew over Kennedy's arm (against some odds), whacking the robot squarely in the head, and rebounding into the depths of the Chemical Plant.
Seeming somewhat annoyed (despite the incredible difficulty of doing so, given that the robot's face was fairly featureless), the robot turned around to face the two, pulled off a burning arm, flung it at Kennedy, and began rocketing backwards at high speeds. Simultaneously, the detached part that Kennedy held and the arm itself went limp; neither would resist if anyone tried to dodge or use them to deter the robot's speedy escape. Kennedy caught the flaming arm, wincing. The burns will regenerate... eventually. This will be worth it.
Kennedy inserted Chaos Energy into the arm, making it and its fire glow shades of purple. It grew sharper, and Kennedy threw it at the humanoid.
The humanoid shuddered as the Chaos Energy-loaded arm slammed into it, which hit perfectly despite the humanoid's best efforts to avoid it. After a few seconds of trying to stay in one piece, the humanoid apparently gave up and decided to cinematically explode, sending fireworks of metal and sparks everywhere (though fortunately not on Kennedy or Lee, as they were too far away to get hit).
Somewhere in the midst of all this, the yellow Sol Emerald fell out from under where the humanoid's chin had been when it was all in one vaguely lifelike piece. About when the fireworks ended, the Emerald landed on a platform—one connected to the one that Kennedy and Lee were on by a large pipe with a 90º bend pointing down to the Emerald's platform—and sat there, waiting for Kennedy and Lee to come pick it up. Kennedy flew over, holding it.
"I take it you're not going to be able to hold this?" Kennedy said, gripping it.
"Probably not..." Lee replied.
Kennedy's eyes glowed yellow, and a purple aura surrounded him as he smiled in satisfaction. This is exactly what I needed. Even if I was only able to siphon a bit of energy from it... that's enough to fully restore my stamina. Kennedy raised it into the air. "Aqua and Taglumo are a bit too far for me to teleport, but perhaps we can go to Skylor and Padparadscha? I have a lock on their energy signatures."
Lee nodded slowly. "I've heard worse ideas, I guess."
Category:The Curse of Day