The Tinkers Ballad

= The Tinker's Ballad =
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It's a little heartbreaking to leave a level so safe and secure, abundant with resources and people, but I know my purpose and I know my goals. I had left a friend behind, and if I were to ever see her again, we would need to meet right back where we started. The rooms were all connected, cramped little shops, disorganized and chaotic. There was a strong electric current running through everything. I looked down at my M.E.G. issued tablet. 26% battery and currently charging. I knew about this feature of level 89, but it was still fun to see personally. 
The nice thing about level 89 is the fact that there are no entities present in the level at all. Navigation, however, is an absolute pain. The ceiling is covered in high-powered wires; touching them is a death sentence. All the shelves are heavy, made of conductive metal and very difficult to move. The shelves often create mazes in the already cramped rooms, occasionally, the shelves will completely block my path. Speaking of...
I leaned against the table in the corner of the room. This is the third room in the last few hours of travel that's completely blocked off by shelves. I could retrace my steps and find a different path, but I would just run into the same issue, over and over again. I tapped on the metal shelving. There was a current, but it wasn't strong enough to cause me too much harm with a brief touch. I tried to pull the shelf to move it aside. It shakes, but barely. "I don't think I can move this."
The rooms are filled with items, most with an unknown use or function, though, despite the items' mysterious properties, mechanical principals are all still the same. Now in the frontrooms, I was a mechanical maintenance operator. I used to take apart pumps, motors, anything that moved and fix them. I was a tinker at heart and with all the junk here, I was completely in my element. "I should build something." I looked around and considered my options. "Honestly the sky is the limit." I looked up at the metal roof, seeing the occasional spark. "Well, maybe not the sky."
I picked up the strange device that was on the corner. It was a black, plastic box that had three metal tubes protruding from one side. Inside these tubes were air-tight, inner metal tubes. "Some sort of... hydraulic arms? Small arms..." I carefully inspected the device's box again. There were no controls, but there was an aperture on the other side. "I have an idea!" 
Excited, I cleared the table and placed the device in the middle. I'll need a manifold. I started searching the room along with all of the closest rooms for something strong, something rigid to put together. In my excitement, I felt like singing a little song, the words coming to me as I worked.
Seat in the dark, the performing arts
The phantom, sings us her tune.
A shift of the heart, a violent spark
We climbed and escaped her doom.
Bingo! I was maybe 6 rooms back from my new workstation where I found a mess of solid piping. "Galvanized steel, probably used for plumbing. Corrosion resistant. Rigid, strong. Yeah, this'll be perfect." I loaded my arms full of pipes and walked back towards my work desk, careful not to touch the ceiling with the conductive metal. "Alright, I need a way to put them together somehow. Glue? I wish I had my welding gear..." Okay, back to the search. 
Now all I have is time, here in 89
My friends, are all far away
I may be stuck in a bind,
But I'm doin' fine.
I'll look forward to... another day.
No glue to be found anywhere, but I did find some joints that should fit the pipes if I can find some tape or something to thicken the diameter a little. "Metal tape?" I was 10 rooms back where the first intersection was. If I went left instead of right, I would end up at the second dead end. Well, it's not a dead end, it's just blocked off. "What's this? No way!" It was a fully functioning, filled oxygen tank. "Better not weld near this thing!" I chuckled as I scooped up the tank. It was SCUBA sized and quite portable. 
Don't know where my heart is, I'm surrounded by darkness
I'm in danger, I'm all alone
Pillar after pillar, then across the fissure
It's 2 hours, then I'm gone. 
Now cutting the pipes to size wasn't easy, but with some searching in the many shops, I did manage to find a pipe cutter. It is a hardware store after all. Using the metal tape and the joints, I made a portable manifold with a handle on one end. The manifold was 3 pipes, arranged in a pattern so that I could wear it on my arm like a sleeve. I positioned the backs of the hydraulic arms against the pipes for structural integrity and wrapped them, along with the black box, with the metal tape. Pulling it apart, it would probably break, but pushing it together should hold pretty strong. 
Now all I have is time, here in 89 
My friends, are all far away 
I may be stuck in a bind,
But I'm doin' fine.
I'll look forward to... another day.
The Next task was to make a ram. I needed to be connected to the ends of the hydraulic arms. Preferably the ends would be nonconductive. I searched around the second path towards the next dead end. The only thing I could find was something that looked to be a crutch, but just the bottom part. It had a thick rubber tip and I think I could make it work if I could drive a rod through the middle. "Plenty of metal poles and rods, I'll take this one..." Using a lot of string and that crutch-bottom-thing with that metal rod, the one I had to cut down to size, I put the symphony of materials together. "That'll hold."
I made my escape, now I'm feelin' great.
The water, it's nice and warm.
Kind of monotonous, but I think I've got this
A little calm before the storm
Now for the mechanism. The hardest part will be to find tubing that will fit the aperture in the back of the black box. Lucky for me, the hole on the box was a similar size to the release valve on the oxygen tank. "In fact, I think it's the same size." I made a little measurement on a piece of scrap using a marker I had found in the desk. I went back about 20 rooms to the second intersection where I could travel to the third dead end. Traveling down that path, I found a garden hose with a spray nozzle. Comparing it to my measurement, it would fit, but I wondered if I could use the nozzle somehow. Looking at the nozzle, the mechanism's water pathway narrowed before flaring out into the sprayer. "I bet I could cut this to the right size and directly attach it to the box."
Now all I have is time, here in 89
My friends, are all far away
I may be stuck in a bind,
But I'm doin' fine.
I'll look forward to... another day.
Attaching the tubing from the tank to the box on the manifold wasn't easy, but like my little song said, "all I have is time." It took some hours of cutting, shaping, squeezing, molding, and tweaking, but I got it all together. I twisted open the valve on the O2 and heard a hiss. "Shoot, this definitely isn't airtight." I squeezed the leaver on the nozzle and the hydraulic arms slowly extended. "Well, I won't be able to use this in combat, that's for sure." I put the manifold on my sleeve and wedged the back of it against a shelf adjacent to the shelf that was blocking my path. After placing the business end on my current barrier, I activated the leaver. 'PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF' the hissing grew louder. I closed the valve on the tank. "I'm going to need more power."
Present your ticket, don't want you to miss it
Have a water-filled, fun kind of day
Gets pretty scary, sharks and insanities
The Fish men will stand in your way
Well, I reached the end of the third dead end. Still no glue, but I did find some nice turn-key hose clamps. "If I could find some plumber's tape, I bet I could get a better seal." Now that I think about it, these things could strengthen the entire manifold too. "Hmm..." I grabbed as many as I could and started to head back when I saw a large duffle bag tucked behind one of the small desks that I usually found in the corners of each room. "Now that I would like to have." I could cut a little hole in the top and feed the hose through it. Then I could wear the tank like a backpack. I went back to the third dead end and filled up the bag with more of those hose clamps. 
Now all I have is time, here in 89
My friends, are all far away
I may be stuck in a bind,
But I'm doin' fine.
I'll look forward to... another day.
"Well, it's not plumber's tape, but it might be just as good." I looked down at the bottom shelf of my main workroom. Silence was golden, but duct tape was silver. I picked it up and stretched out a nice long piece. The sound of duct tape stretching was so satisfying. I took a lot of time and care reassembling and fortifying my entire build. Time to test it out. I opened the tank valve and squeezed the leaver. No hissing this time. The hydraulic arms sprang into action, punching the air with ferocity. "That'll do. That'll do." I wedged the manifold against the shelves, just like I did before, but this time, the shelf groaned and turned, just enough for me to get past. "Jackpot! Nothing can stop me now!"
I've made a good deal, sat down for a meal
Stopped by Atlantis for a spell
Despite how I feel, I need to get real
My friends await, I bid them farewell
I burst through the threshold, sporting my new mech arm. Any problems? I'll punch my way through them. It wouldn't be long before I achieved my goal. It was a large room; much larger than the other shops I had seen. It still had all of the same properties as the other shops, running electrical current, heavy shelves, tons of items of odd origins. I found it on the corner table of this large room. It was my key to getting out of here and back to level 444 where I started. I looked down at my M.E.G. issued tablet. 100% battery. I was looking at one of the only few exits for level 89, at least according to the database. I gleefully reached for the harmonica beautifully displayed in front of me. "I'll see my friends very soon." 
Now all I have is time, here in 89
My friends, are all far away
I may be stuck in a bind,
But I'm doin' fine.
I'll look forward to... another day.
I'll look forward to... another day.
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Credits
Author: TheDadams
GIF background: Free from https://i.gifer.com/8YLu.gif
Category:Tales
Category:The Wanderers Toolbox