Chapter Text
“You simple fucking-!” Suns’ frustrating outrage was rudely interrupted by him suddenly losing contact with the overseer he was watching and projecting himself through. The feed cut completely, and the iterator could feel that there had been destruction of his own property. He was left staring awkwardly at the remaining overseer, who almost seemed to glance away nervously after a moment. “Wha-What?!” Shock and surprise were overtaken by more reignited anger as he wasted no time calling for the built-in surveillance system to once again connect to the overworked overseer in his chamber.
While the agonizingly slow system connected itself, he got to trying to figure out how in the void his overseer was suddenly destroyed. Though his natural instinct was to point to the traitorous messenger, the fact of the matter was that it was impossible for Spearmaster to have accomplished such a task. Even if the creature had swung their needle for his overseer, an action he would have been able to clearly see, it would not have done much at all to the hardy body. The weapon would have most likely bounced off, maybe even been flung out of their paw, giving the iterator something to laugh at. No, there was no way that the messenger managed to harm his overseer in any meaningful way. Something else must have had something to do with it.
Finally, when the surveillance connected and Suns could look through and see what was happening, he got a slight clue of what did his overseer in. Not even a moment too soon since the messenger’s last battle, Spearmaster was already locked in another brutal brawl against more of the released specimens. Several Volt Lizards engaged them in the server room, sticking to the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the server box racks to shoot their electrically charged tongues at the smaller, purple creature who was moving around so fast they almost turned into a blur thanks to the grainy footage. At the very least, the server room had a lot of different cameras that Suns could swap through to get good angles, hoping at some point that his sworn enemy would mess up once, just once, and get killed in clear view.
Unfortunately, Spearmaster stayed far too agile to be hit by any of the far slower lizards, their lightning reflexes and flexible body saving them several times from electrical doom. Meanwhile, the fragile servers, which were not exactly able to dodge (and some of the cameras spread around the room), took the brunt of any thrown needle or powered electricity. Even despite knowing most of the data on every single server was backed up, it was still beyond tedious to see all of the information destroyed. Not only because replacing all of it was expensive, but also because at least ten percent of recent experimental information written on the database had not been copied to his parts of his memory conflux. While it was a very small number in the grand scheme of things (about one single percent when compared to all other information stored), it would be a shame to have to analyze what was lost and re-record the findings all over again!
Despite the importance, it was third on his priority list of figuring out all of what was happening. The second priority was to find out how the volt lizards managed to invade the server room! Suns was well aware that there was storage of them nearby in the laboratories, but it was for damn certain that it was not by his command that their holding facilities opened up. It couldn’t have been Spearmaster, as there was no way to open them anywhere else but in the lab, and the creature would not have been able to slip over there under the iterator’s watchful eye. He would have been glad to flick through the cameras and try his best to figure out the mystery if it wasn’t for the fact that he was trying to work his way through priority number one…
Making sure that the messenger he created died!
When it became clear that Spearmaster would likely not lose the fighting without the iterator’s interference, Suns started to consider ways to do so without utterly demolishing the server room. In the middle of his thoughts, he was interrupted by the sudden transmission of a call popping up just above the interface of his screen, the caller one of great familiarity. “Oh, great.” The iterator sighed, accepting the call at the same time as he summoned another overseer to be able to transmit a view of his puppet to the other.
Within moments, NSH popped up on the new display that was projected by the newcomer overseer. He could be seen right above the projection of Suns, perking up as the other iterator came into his view. “Hey, Suns!” The green iterator greeted, waving his hand and “smiling” as best as any of their puppets could. “How you doin’?”
Far too focused on the messenger’s brutal fighting to be able to wave back, Suns simply nodded. “No Significant Harrassment; what is the reason for your call?” He responded swiftly, suddenly forced to get busy with switching cameras rapidly to be able to keep an eye on Spearmaster as they started to move upward to fight more of the electrically modified predators swarming them.
Instead of giving an immediate response, Sig simply laughed. Nothing ever seemed straight forward with the other iterator, a quirk that Suns found himself very annoyed with. “Ohoho! You are so formal! I wonder why~” He giggled, tilting his head inquisitively, almost as if trying to peek out of the display and get a look at what the other was so focused on.
Spearmaster landed on top of one of the server racks, dodging a tongue shot out for their face (the electricity sparking as the slimy appendage slipped through a crack and sent power through all machinery inside) and throwing back a needle with vengeance. “None of your business.” Suns eventually replied, tearing his gaze from the sad sight of the messenger thriving to instead glare at NSH. “Did you initiate this call just to annoy me?”
He immediately regretted asking such a question, immediately aware he would get some smartass response from Sig when he giggled again. “Maybe~!” Had the other iterator been able to growl, he felt like he most definitely would have. It seemed even the joker on the other side of the call could sense the urge of Suns to strangle his puppet’s neck through the screen as he swiftly raised his hands in surrender. “I kid, of course!” Even despite trying to act as if the words were said with regret, there was obvious humor in his voice still. “The only reason I call is to find out where that pearl is. Y’know, the one you were to deliver to me?” It was obvious NSH was thoroughly enjoying getting under Suns’ skin, casually leaning back against the umbilical at his back and resting the back of his head on both arms.
Cutting off the glare, Suns vented the fans in his puppet in a loud sigh, focusing back on the surveillance display. “It’ll come in due time; I have not forgotten.” He assured the other iterator, barely suppressing a wince as Spearmaster almost destroyed a database that contained sensitive, unsaved information that would take at least five cycles to recover. “For the moment, I am… dealing with a pest.” The final word was said with venom, by instinct hissed through his non-existent teeth as the purple creature stabbed a needle down into the lizard (and server) below them.
With a hum, the other iterator suddenly looked deep in thought for a short moment. Sig made a great show of rubbing their chin while thoughtful, making Suns put efforts toward ignoring his shenanigans even further. “Hm. I do wonder…” He sighed again, flipping through another camera to see the messenger tear through even more lizards, using a single needle made to be heavy enough to break both bones and teeth. “Could it be an issue with your messenger, perhaps~?” At the words, Suns stopped right in his tracks before switching to another view, looking up at the other iterator.
Even through the display, the confident nature of the green iterator was clear. Somehow, it seemed like he knew. “What?” It seemed Sig only got more excited and happy at Suns reaction. “No, seriously… What? How the fuck would you know that? Do you have a secret overseer or something around here?” He took a close look around his chamber, scanning for anything vaguely green-like. Despite being fully aware that anything obvious like that would be easily spotted, it was the only explanation that made any sort of sense in his mind.
Studying the other closely, Sig snapped the fingers of a hand on his puppet and pointed the finger gun at him. “So it’s true, then?” He asked, seeming more smug than confident suddenly. “You have a little rodent running amok inside your can? Out of control?” What previously seemed like a confirmation for NSH suddenly looked more like an attempt at fishing that had succeeded.
Suns could not believe he actually fell for such a simple blunder, fighting the urge to not facepalm his puppet hard. “...No.” He deflected, trying his best to keep all the frustration out of his tone to try to save face.
Of course, it didn’t work at all. As he returned to flipping through cameras, Suns could almost hear Sig’s face light up. “Oh my void, are they running around destroying your stuff right NOW?” He giggled, seemingly finding the destruction of his “friend” to be very amusing.
He glanced back up at the other iterator, feeling like throwing a fist right through the display even despite knowing it would not do a thing. “No.” Grumbled Suns with a bit more conviction, trying to convince himself more than Sig, who obviously knew what was up at that point.
Immediately upon hearing just how pissed off the iterator on the other side of the call was getting, Sig whooped in happiness. “There’s no need to lie; I’ve got you figured out! Tell me, how far have they gone with their angered mission of destruction~?” His iterator flipped upside down, hanging off the umbilical and waiting excitedly for an answer. Finally, Suns was unable to hold back the urge to slap his own face hard. “Don’t be such a bore, Sunsy~! Send over a recording, at least! Lemme see, lemme see!” As if he couldn’t get more annoying, the green iterator started to spin around over and over, making it his mission to be as annoying as possible as Suns dragged his hand down his face slowly.
Determined to not completely lose it, Suns dismissed the overheating warnings that popped up in front of him. Although he technically did not need to put energy toward actively not screaming, it felt like it took every ounce of his can to not go on an angry rant. “I do not need you to see what they are doing to me; I need you to give me ideas on how to eradicate this issue, Sig!” He failed to keep irritation out of his voice despite his best efforts, but all things considered, Suns figured he was keeping fairly calm about it all.
Not seeming affected at all, Sig stopped spinning, huffed, and crossed his arms loosely, shrugging lightheartedly while still upside down. “Didn’t I tell you to create your messenger the same way I did?” He asked rhetorically, causing Suns to groan at the scolding tone. “I mean, Hunter was loyal to a fault, but how was I meant to know that when I made them?” The iterator started to gesture while speaking, as if making some grand point of argument. “It was a bit of a shame when they completed their mission and tried to make their way back, far too sickly to actually handle the journey…” Sig trailed off, correcting himself to finally float upright once again. “They did not look good last I observed them, no longer the creature I remembered. A lost cause, I believe I did tell you right before…” Suns recalled, and he did not like where the conversation was going. “Hey, speaking of-”
“Let’s not go too far off-topic.” The other iterator interrupted quickly. “I thought the disease you implanted in your little beast made them far weaker than they otherwise could have been; don’t you regret not having all that potential strength available for use had they been healthy?” Then again, as Suns glanced at the display of Spearmaster finishing off the last of the Volt Lizards with glee, he could not help but wish he’d weakened the messenger in the same way.
Thankfully, the deflecting question worked. Sig abandoned his previous train of thought and immediately responded. “Well, that’s why I made them far more powerful than any regular version of the creature they were based on!” He answered simply, looking very proud of his own solution. “Even during their worst cycles, Hunter could lift a whole red lizard over their head if they so wanted!” Something akin to a nostalgic glint almost seemed to graze the other’s face. “I know they could because they did it once, right in front of one of my overseers!” The green iterator laughed at the memory, ignoring the other’s annoyed look. “I think they were trying to impress me. Such a silly little beast they were.” The nostalgia shifted to—was it melancholy? Suns could not tell; it only lasted for a moment before Sig went right back to his regular mood. “If not the good ol’ rot, maybe try poison? That always works!”
Suns sighed in annoyance as Spearmaster absorbed all the blood from the very last of the lizards, finally done with all the fighting. “You forget that I cannot just flood this place with poisonous gas; I’ll risk harming my own experiments.” Especially considering the messenger would not be content with simply waiting to die of the poison but would only hurry to find a way out, or even worse, put double the energy on destroying a lot of shit for pettiness sake. “They are made to be an ultimate killing machine; anything I can use against them will not be effective enough to immediately end them, and it will only make them desperate and even more dangerous.” He explained to the other iterator, hoping to get just one helpful piece of advice from the other that wasn’t nostalgic comments about their own little creation.
Unfortunately, Sig did not look very inspired. He suddenly had a pearl in his hand, one that he started to throw up into the air and then catch over and over again. “Well, they are a biological creature, still. Surely, you can think of a single weakness, can’t you~?” A teasing tone was back in his voice, making it clear that he was loving seeing the other in such dire straits to kill a simple little beast.
However, as Suns prepared to respond to the very stupid advice with a dry comment, he recalled something about the server room. Something very important that he’d forgotten about, a little something that he confirmed to be as he remembered by quickly bringing up the schematics of the room. Of course, there were different ways that he could stop the purple messenger! Two major factors, in fact. Spearmaster was an organic being, indeed… And there was one thing that they could not exactly block so easily as an electrical bolt or charging lizard.
As Spearmaster used two of the server blocks to walk over the formed ‘bridge’ to the other side of the room in their climb, Suns reached into the room and activated the needed objects at the same time as he prepared the secondary weapon. “Ooooh, look at that face! A certain someone has a plan~!” Came Sig’s voice, the pearl discarded over his shoulder as he flipped to float on his stomach and kicked his legs in the air. “You are so sending me a recording later; this is obviously juicy stuff!”
Feeling confident, the other iterator finally chuckled himself. “You don’t know the half of it.” He whispered, causing Sig to only exude more excitement.
Self-assured that he would finally be rid of the pest, Suns watched intently as Spearmaster glanced around the walls, the purple creature studdenly stopping as they noticed something had changed.
It was as Spearmaster crossed the ‘bridge’ formed by two server blocks sticking close together that they suddenly heard something whirr, a sound that immediately made the slugcat stop and go into high alert. The needle in their paw was held behind them as they crouched, their head scanning the environment all around their position. Maybe there was one more volt lizard that had been missed they needed to kill? Although the sound was unlike any noise those creatures made, so that did not seem likely.
Sounded more mechanical than creature-like. The slugcat realized, perking up when the thought came to them. There was no doubt Suns was watching them closely right at that moment, probably making plans on how to stop their progress abruptly. Thus, it was not a stretch to assume the iterator had just done something to the room. Spearmaster’s search shifted from finding potential targets to focus on to trying to spot something different over the walls. Mostly, everything was the same; there was a camera in each and every corner of the room, prompting an urge in the slugcat to hurl a needle at all of them to stop Suns from watching them.
Though something else caught their eye before they could, something that wasn’t there before. Upon closer inspection, there was something that stuck out right above the camera. The slugcat was a hundred percent sure that there had been nothing like it last they checked, seemingly having come out of the wall through some sort of automatic hatch that opened up, likely on Suns’ command. It looked sort of like the audio system that was set up in their own room for use by the iterator to spout his comands at them, which prompted Spearmaster to wonder if he simply activated it to try to talk shit. A quiet click let them know that it was suddenly turned on and ready to transmit noise, with several other sounds of the same nature continuing all the way down as their ears twitched. Why would he need to transmit through every single sound system in the room? Did he have that much of an urge to be heard?
Spearmaster huffed in annoyance, raising their paws to sign to one of the many cameras, waiting for just a moment to give the iterator a chance to switch to the correct one to properly see them. (What are you-?) Before they even had time to finish their signing, an ear-grating, ridiculously loud sound played through every single sound system at the same time.
Immediately, their paws were thrown up to cover their pinned back ears, an instinctual solution that barely did anything at all against the sudden assault to one of their senses. The cacophony of noise sounded like an amalgamation of random loud sounds, thrown together in the most agonizing combination possible. Spearmaster felt like their head would explode from the pressure, their whole body trembling as they tried to figure out a way to escape the situation. Almost automatically, they took a step back to avoid losing balance from their trembling legs, completely forgetting they were standing quite close to the edge of the makeshift bridge already.
As soon as their paw met open air, the slugcat was well aware that there was nothing they could do to save themselves. Tripping backward, they started to fall. Even while going down the whole way they’d just climbed (which, in retrospect, thankfully wasn’t all that high in the end) there was no escape from the constant noise all around them. Suns really had activated each and every little thing that could play the sounds to fuck with them as much as possible, and it was unfortunately working very well. Their eyes were squeezed tight to try to focus on anything but the ear-piercing sounds all around them, but the slugcat opened them just a little to see they would almost hit the ground. Thankfully, the sheer level of loudness seemed too much even for the speakers to bear as something broke inside them with an electrical buzz, cutting off all the noise at the same time.
Even despite silence reigning once again, Spearmaster’s ears kept ringing loudly. They could only hope there was no permanent damage, removing their paws from their ears to hold them protectively in front of their face right before they finally collided with the ground. With a great thud, the slugcat landed flat on the hard surface, thankfully not injured at all thanks to how they had been created. If the fall had been several hundred meters longer, they might have suffered some sort of injury, but they were fine, all things considered. Although their ears still rang loudly, leaving them unable to hear at all. Spearmaster lifted their head slowly, using their paws to try to clear both ears without any sort of success as they winced.
Even despite the situation not being as bad as it could have been earlier, the slugcat had been sent reeling, and that was most definitely a point to the iterator trying to stop them. Speaking of Suns, one of his overseers suddenly appeared right in front of Spearmaster’s face, projecting him wearing as smug an expression as was possible for his puppet’s lack of facial muscles. He kept talking about something, or rather, looking high and mighty as he waved his arms around and gestured to whatever he spoke about. Obviously, Suns had no clue that the slugcat was (hopefully temporarily) deaf and thus could not make out anything at all. After a while of what was probably gloating, the iterator finally stopped talking and pointed down at Spearmaster while pointedly saying something right at them.
He then crossed his arms, looking down at the other expectantly. It was likely he wanted Spearmaster to respond, and they were all too happy to oblige. (You really don’t want me to destroy some of these servers, huh?) They stopped to gesture in turn to the server blocks above, sitting up with a wince as they tried to ignore their headache. (Are you really that attached to those images of Pebbles?) The slugcat huffed in amusement as Suns looked surprised and shocked, sitting up a bit straighter and sighing quietly in relief when they felt the ringing in their ears slowly start to fade. All shock on the iterator’s expression passed and was replaced with more anger as he started to speak again, only barely audible over the ringing that persisted. (Learn to minimize your shit before calling me in next time.) If anything, their small piece of advice only seemed to upset Suns more as he got close to the projection and started to all-out shout.
Some words were yelled loud enough that they slipped through the ringing, like “little rodent,” but Spearmaster did not pick up on them near enough to be able to understand what was being said. Instead, they became more focused on looking behind Suns, where a certain other iterator they recognized seemed to be projected, watching closely and laughing his ass off.
Minimize his shit?! Did they mean to close down the display after studying the images? When had the iterator not remembered to do so? Suns was always careful about details like that, not all too keen on letting his creations get a view of his personal life. Clearly, he must have forgotten somehow, which led to the messenger being well aware of a very private collection of images he owned. Of course, they weren’t kept on the servers anyway. The images that the miserable beast spoke of were held in a far more sophisticated spot, at the behest of Pebbles himself!
It was a choice that the iterator had been very happy about making when his can’s automatic firewall started to send warnings about a possible intruder trying to access all of his interiors. Thankfully, Suns was diligent in wiping out the worst of the threat far quicker than they seemed to be prepared for, and whoever decided to pull such a move failed to acquire any information. There was no real way for him to be sure that the hacker was fully gone, but if there was a trace of them left in his system, he hoped they would reveal themselves at some point.
Whatever the case, Spearmaster being aware of the existence of the images, while very annoying, wasn’t the worst thing ever. It wasn’t like the messenger could really make use of the knowledge in any meaningful way, so the iterator was not worried about the secret getting out. What annoyed him far more, however, was the fact that they even brought it up in the first place. As soon as Sig started to laugh his ass off right behind him, Suns came to regret two choices.
First off, allowing the annoying prick to actually see his view of the surveillance was a horrible idea. Not only because it allowed the iterator to see the secret, but also because the other could not help but make an unnecessary comment every time something happened! Sig thought he was being hilarious, no doubt. As was perfectly in character, he seemed happier to annoy Suns rather than try to make him laugh with the jokes, as well. Secondly, he deeply regretted ever sending over a pearl containing a copy of the very same language that he used to communicate with Spearmaster. In the past, when the creature made trips to Sig a few times back and forth, the other iterator wanted to have a way to talk with Spearmaster. Although fully aware that it would be to make his messenger listen to his jokes, Suns sent it over to keep the green iterator from constantly poking him about it.
Since he did, Suns set himself (and by extension Pebbles) up for failure from the start. Had Sig not studied the coded language as closely as he did, the iterator would no doubt not have been laughing as hard as he did. “Holy shit!” He finally managed to squeeze out in between great chuckles, prompting the other to turn from the display of Spearmaster struggling to stand to glare unamusedly. “They got you so good!” Iterators did not even really possess the capacity to laugh, at least not in the way Sig usually did. They could feel emotion close to amusement, but only the green iterator practically wheezed as if wanting to make it more authentic. “You got owned by your own messenger, whew…” The glare intensified as if Suns wished he would develop some way to immediately ascend the other iterator through the display in an instant, but unfortunately it did nothing as Sig simply wiped a fake tear from his puppet’s face and sighed with content.
To ensure there would be no more laughter, he did not respond to the mockery until the other stayed quiet for a moment, prompting him to speak up. “They did not ‘own’ me.” Suns gritted out, feeling an urge to stew in his very real anger until it seemed the hassle in front of him would speak up again. “It was a miserable attempt at ‘ownage,’ barely even a joke.” He sighed, somehow managing to keep his composure despite it all. “Spearmaster will pay dearly for making it.” Suns was not aware that his rage against his own creation could get any worse than it already was, but there seemed to be no threshold to his own hatred in the end.
The anger level unfortunately did not find a stop so long as he was faced with Sig right in front of him, who simply did not take him seriously at all. “Ooooh~! Someone’s salty!” He giggled, the sentence prompting a short moment of confusion from Suns as he tried his best to compute what in the void ‘being salty’ meant. “You’ve always had such a temper, Suns! You and Pebbsi have that in common!” Sig added before the other could hope to figure out a reply, the sudden mention of Pebbles only throwing him for even more of a loop. “Oh, and speaking of that pink little twink…”
Finally, Suns found his voice and immediately protested. “Nope! I’m not telling you anything about that! It’s a private matter, and I shall not discuss any of it with you of all iterators!” His stance was made quite clear by his exclamation, so much so that even the Sig could not try to argue against it.
After a short moment of staring at each other, Sig looked away, sighed loudly and dramatically as if saddened. “That wounds me, Suns. Truly, I thought you’d be willing to share feelings with your best friend. I thought you would be willing to open up to me as only the truest of pals do…” He made a sniffle noise, closing his eyes and tipping his head back with the back of his hand dramatically resting against his forehead. Had the other iterator been naive, he could have genuienly expected him to faint, but of course, the green one bounced back as if nothing had happened. “Can’t be helped, I suppose! For now, we should get back to helping each other out on this messenger destruction business! Speaking of which…” Sig waved dramatically at the display, prompting Suns to remember there was more pressing business to take care of and turn back swiftly. Thankfully, the messenger was only barely standing upright, shaking his head slightly, and still looking rather dazed. “They are hardly harmed at all! I believe another plan is required. Shall we set up the gas to flow through nearby vents~?”
Didn’t I already tell him there would be no gas? Suns huffed, annoyed at the obvious lack of trust in his abilities. Everything was going exactly as he planned! In their own confidence, Spearmaster had been fully unprepared for what the iterator had prepared. It was not the fall that would wound them in any way; it was what came after that would be the end of them! Up to that moment, it was all their agilities that kept them alive, but if there would be no blood to easily be absorbed.
“That was only the first step of the plan…” He defended, feeling a small sense of pride when the other iterator finally shut up and focused on what the sudden second step could be. “Here comes the second.”
Doing their best to ignore the constant chattering from the overseer in front of them, Spearmaster carefully staggers to stand, finding their balance a bit wonky. Their head hurt still, but the ringing had largely gone away, at the very least. Glancing up at the walls where the previous sounds had been coming from, the ones that made them lose their balance and fall, they confirmed for themselves that the speakers had broken themselves through sheer volume. All of the ones they could see were sparking and smoking; the inside components busted in some way.
It was still a struggle to actually regain their composure completely, but the slugcat eventually managed to stand straight once again. With an annoyed huff, they looked up at where they had fallen from, noting just how low they had been when they lost their balance by spotting the bridge further up. Realizing it really was a high climb, Spearmaster found themselves annoyed at having to start it up all over again. Not to mention, it wouldn’t have been a large surprise if the loud sound playing earlier caused more lizards to come any moment, so they wasted no time in growing a new needle as they watched the entrance closely.
As they plucked the weapon from their tail, however, Spearmaster made note of movement along the wall right next to the doorway where they expected something to occur. The slugcat’s gaze shifted and focused on the shifting, and they recoiled slightly at the realization of what was happening. Some of the wiring and cables connecting the different servers to the walls slowly unplugged themselves, moving far too fluidly to be affected by gravity once detached, seemingly having a mind of their own. As their sockets lifted and suddenly looked right toward Spearmaster, sporting visible ‘mouths’ like those akin to a certain other creepy-crawley.
Centipedes? Really?! They lifted their spear with a huff, throwing it as hard as they could right at the closest of the cablepedes. Unfortunately, it seemed the creations were far sturdier than regular centipedes, their sharp weapon bouncing off while only leaving behind a dent. The only positive seemed to be that the thing stopped for a single second as if stunned, which meant throwing several could have results. However, glancing around at their surroundings as they grew, another needle showed Spearmaster that several more of the cables detached, turning the one-on-one encounter into the slugcat being outnumbered by at least twenty! Not to mention the fact that sudden hissing and growling that they recognized well started to come from the entrance they’d previously been watching. And seeing as the lizards likely wouldn’t be able to bite through the hard metal of the Cablepedes, they would be gunning for slugcat flesh!
Fuck this shit! They gave up on growing a needle, instead raising their grapple arm to one of the platforms higher up above their head and shooting the tongue out. It connected itself to the underside of one of the server boxes, shooting Spearmaster up into the air right as the swarming cables reached their position. As the slugcat shot upwards, they heard them hiss in a very similar way to real centipedes, seemingly upset that their prey escaped. You don’t even need to eat! Leave me alone! It was clear they wouldn’t, most definitely commanded by Suns to chase them down and wipe them out. Considering the iterator, his overseer had bailed before the action started, of course. Seeing as the overseer apparently was not immune to electricity, it was likely that he did not want it to stick around once possible Volt Lizards and Cablepedes swarmed!
Before Spearmaster struck their head on the underside of the box they grappled to, they disconnected the tongue to shoot it out toward the edge of another platform. Thankfully, the slugcat got a lot of practice before the very moment that the iterator decided on their plan. If only Suns had spent more time thinking up a plan rather than spending time screaming at them through an overseer, he likely could have been able to ambush them before they got the proper training with the grappling in. In such a case, the chance of death due to a mistake would have increased tenfold! Spearmaster huffed in amusement at that thought as they disengaged the grapple to slow their momentum at the perfect time, reaching out to grab hold of the edge with their free paw and then skillfully pulling themselves up.
Throwing a quick glance downward, they noted that every single spot on the wall was crawling with more of the new creations. Not only were there more hissing Volt Lizards crawling up the walls toward them at fast speeds, but they were also backed up by the slightly slower variant of centipede. All of them seemed to be communicating in some way; there had to be at least several hundred at that point, a sight that made Spearmaster shudder as they raised their grapple paw to once again escape upward. Even despite logically not having any way of seeing the slugcat, the Cablepedes all seemed to hone in on where they stood, skittering across the walls to reach them. There had to be at least several hundred at that point, a sight that made Spearmaster shudder as they raised their grapple paw to once again escape upward. At the same time as the tongue shot out, the sound of a growl made them turn their heads toward the wall. Spearmaster recoiled at the sight of a suddenly open vent on the wall they faced, a familiar lizard covered in armor lunging out of the entrance with surprising speed.
The slugcat’s grapple tongue saved their skin once again, connecting to a surface and yanking them upward just in time for the charge of the metal lizard to miss them. As there was nothing to really stop the beast from continuing their momentum, it hissed in surprise as it launched itself over the edge of the server box. Despite the situation, Spearmaster felt some amusement upon hearing various crashes followed by electrical buzzing, imagining that the predator launched itself right into the sea of living cables and got absolutely fried because of it. Unfortunately, the Volt Lizards’ speed meant they eventually started to try to block their path, forcing the slugcat to make split second decisions over and over to try to avoid the worst of the chaos going on around them and not get electrocuted and killed.
All of it was not helped by more of the armor lizards arriving through even more vents, even despite the fact that it pulled attention away from Spearmaster for only a moment as the two lizard variants fought each other. They quickly seemed to learn that nothing was to gain from doing it; if the metal lizards tried to kill the electrical ones, they would be killed, and if Volt Lizards took the time to kill the ones covered in plates, they wouldn’t be able to eat the meat easily anyway! Instead, all of them put energy into chasing the poor slugcat, who was forced to constantly decide between fight or flight, only periodically growing a needle to throw at a lizard or particularly fast Cablepede, who managed to almost catch up to them.
Upon reaching another server box, the slugcat grew a needle for clobbering as they pulled themselves upward, yanking it free and winding back even before the metal lizard inside the vent they faced leapt out. Once it did, the weapon was swung for its head, colliding hard enough to daze the beast as the needle splintered as it always did. The temporary daze stopped the thing from even reacting as Spearmaster dashed to its side and sent a front kick into the side of its head, putting it off balance and forcing it to instinctually take a step that sent it tumbling over the edge with an angry hiss.
Whipping around, they raised the broken needle over their head and took aim at the nearest Cablepede. With all their force, they sent the weapon flying toward the creation, striking it in its hard shell hard enough to dent it and force it to let go of the wall. The projectile bounced off the first target and tore into the neck of a Volt Lizard as the slugcat watched with wide eyes full of awe. As the predator fell, they grew a new needle from their tail that wagged slowly behind them. Void, I’m good! In pure joy, Spearmaster kicked off the surface below them into a backflip and, upon landing, used what little space was left to roll forward into a pounce. Once they were above the pitfall full of enemies, they turned their back to imminent death and took aim with their grapple for only a short moment before pulling themselves upward again.
Their next platform was very familiar: two server boxes placed close together, forming a bridge. As soon as Spearmaster climbed up on the spot they’d been last, they heard one lizard on each side coming toward them. Sensing movement along the nearest wall they faced, the slugcat shot their grapple out and connected to the Cablepede before it had the chance to exit its spot. Quite easily, they tore it free of the wall, only needing to send one glance to the lizard ahead to make the necessary calculations before swinging the small creation stuck in their grapple-grip in full force toward the approaching predator.
Despite their hard exterior protecting them from sharp weapons, none of them had any protection at all from blunt damage. The Cablepede went flying, heavily dented and seemingly barely functional any longer. Meanwhile, the lizard toppled and fell over the edge to its death, leaving only one threat left on the bridge. Speaking of, Spearmaster heard its hiss right behind them, the sound of a jaw creaking open as they turned and raised their grapple forearm to attempt to block the attack. As soon as the slugcat did, sharp teeth snapped down on the lizard skull, sinking partially into what little soft flesh was on the armored thing. There was a slight increase in pressure, but thankfully it was not enough to break the bones of their paw.
Realizing it had been duped, the lizard hissed and tried to bite down harder but was unable to see Spearmaster’s needle coming. It stabbed into the beast’s unprotected neck twice before it unclamped its powerful jaws and tried to pull back to protect itself, maybe even retreat. Unfortunately for it, the slugcat was far too fast, wasting no time in throwing themselves to the side of its head. Pushing off the ground and hurling themselves toward the predator with both paws first, they dropkicked the side of the thick plates, causing the lizard to completely lose what little balance it could keep on the narrow pole the bridge became to its wide form. As a result of the force needed to knock their opponent off, Spearmaster was knocked backwards and off the safety of the bridge as well. The difference was that they had a useful tool to save themselves from certain death, and they wasted no time in sending the falling predator as smug a look as they could muster before grappling up and away.
Their next grapple was swift as the lizard seemed to be waiting for them, but all the same Spearmaster simply ensured they were hurled sideways and up away from the jaws. Taking aim, the slugcat also threw the needle in their paw as a parting gift, huffing in more excitement as the sharp tip embedded perfectly in between two metal plates. I AM THE TRICKSHOT GOD. Just as easily, they could land on the next platform and prepare more needles before moving on.
Progress may have been steady and easy, but it was also tediously slow and was becoming tiring. Spearmaster’s chest stung and their lungs burned, both arms becoming weaker and weaker the more they were forced to grapple, climb, and throw needles. Even despite seeing no projection, the slugcat could practically see Suns’ smug expression in detail as he watched, the iterator fully aware that they would not be able to keep up with the chaos for forever. Although, through it all, it was not only the wish for freedom and life that kept Spearmaster alive, but most of their fight also came from the urge to stick it to their creator once again! No matter how exhausted they were, they needed to live, if only to really let Suns know they would not fall for his cowardly tricks!
Finally, their progress bore fruit, and the slugcat could see the very top of the server room! What had previously seemed like a regular, flat ceiling was actually a larger than average gravity generator! Spearmaster immediately aimed for the entrance of the access hatch, unfortunately unable to reach despite the length of the tongue. Hearing the skuttling of a million legs just below, they desperately aimed for the closest edge instead and shot the grapple out. It connected; they pulled themselves in and climbed up. Suddenly, the slugcat no longer stood on any sort of server box but instead stood on an actual platform that was part of a larger space at the top. There were new places to go, but they had no time right at that moment. After all, they made a promise to fuck everything for the iterator up, and that included messing with any generators they found!
There was not even a need to shoot out a tongue and grapple; Spearmaster only needed to jump to get pulled in by the gravity. Thankfully, there were several poles they could use to grab onto to easier guide themselves toward the entrance. They reached the access hatch, letting go of everything and reaching out their paw to grab onto the edge and get inside.
Only for the thing to suddenly turn off.
Without the added pull of the lowered gravity, they immediately dropped down. At the very least, what little inertia added by the previous pull allowed them to not fall straight down into the pit of death but rather carried them to the other side of the hole. Spearmaster had no chance to recover to land upright and instead flopped on the floor. Confused rather than dazed from the very small fall, the slugcat flipped over and looked toward the access hatch they wanted to enter. Straining their ears, they heard the sound of movement inside the generator chamber even clearer than otherwise, thanks to all the servers in the room shutting down. Whatever was inside and had interrupted the generator started to move toward the hatch, prompting Spearmaster to stand up and swiftly grow a needle. All the Cablepedes and Volt Lizards were switly approaching, but they knew they could not fight all of them, and they were only a moment away from turning around to run rather than satisfy their curiousity when the creature inside the chamber finally revealed itself.
Another one of the lizards that seemed made of goo stuck its head out, holding the displaced rarefaction cell in its mouth. Spearmaster’s urge to immediately throw their needle faded almost immediately as they recalled just how little of an effect such an attack held against one of the creatures last time they tried it. As they lowered their weapon, the lizard looked over and noticed the slugcat. After a short moment, it gave a muffled chirp as if in greeting. An arm that looked creepily similar to the slugcat’s, paw and all, growing out of its body to offer a small wave to the confused and slightly terrified creature.
Then it suddenly gulped down the cell in its mouth.
Immediately, its torso grew jagged, spiky, and rough-looking fur, all of its body suddenly sparking hard. It was bad enough that Spearmaster raised a paw to their eyes, trying to not be blinded by the sheer energy that suddenly came from the odd lizard. As they stood near the edge, they dared glance down, noting that all the servers below also started to spark aggressively. Then one of the boxes containing them suddenly broke with a small, but violent explosion, breaking apart anything inside and sending any Cablepedes on top of it flying. Quickly thereafter, more of the boxes followed the same patterns. One by one, the servers broke apart, sparked in some way by the lizard that ate the cell. Without any more platforms to walk on, the creatures and creations tried to come up after Spearmaster got positively cooked by firey explosions that quickly combined together into a smaller inferno as the slugcat watched the destruction in horror. Those that weren’t fried simply fell to their deaths, either having been sent flying by an explosion or losing their grip on the wall thanks to all the smoke and chaos around them.
Spearmaster had been looking for destruction, but not of anything to the large scale as they witnessed right then. With shock, they glanced up at the lizard, who seemed to be simply watching the destruction. A part of the slugcat thought they could see something akin to a grin stretching the beast’s face, but it was quite hard to tell from where they were standing. After only a moment passed, the thing suddenly turned to address them once again. The grown arm gave a mock salute before the lizard suddenly let go of the access hatch, backflipped with surprising agiliy to kick off the ceiling before falling all the way down into the abyss. It practically dove into the hole in the floor that was dark with smoke, disappearing from sight. Had Spearmaster been dealing with any other creature, they would have definitely assumed that it was killed from the fall, but considering the things could survive a needle through the head…
Whatever the void those things were, they were very dangerous! The slugcat could go their whole life without ever seeing one of the goo lizards again; in fact, they would be more than happy to destroy everything inside the superstructure but the beasts. Something about them just told Spearmaster that challenging them in any way was a bad idea, so they would refrain from doing so. With their limbs burning from overexertion, their chest pulsing with pain, and exhaustion barely keeping them from falling over, the slugcat glanced around the area to try to find somewhere more relaxing to go.
Looking around the new place, spotting the familiar glow of access shafts, Spearmaster realized that they actually recognized the architecture! It all looked similar to Suns’ usual gravity generator areas, and if the slugcat recalled correctly, there would have to be a shelter nearby. Studying the symbols above the different vents, they perked up and finally felt relief. Yes, there was a shelter! With a sigh mixed with exhaustion and satisfaction, they started to walk toward the entrance to a well-deserved rest. However, the vague sounds of something climbing made them stop and turn.
A steady trail of smoke still rose from the server pit, and yet something still seemed to be alive and kicking down there. Healthy enough to be able to crawl all the way up the scorched walls toward the slugcat, albeit very slowly. Spearmaster gave a muffled groan, preparing their needle as they stared intently at where the supposed enemies would come from. After a short moment, a cablepede and Volt Lizard crawled out, quickly setting their sights on the slugcat. The both of them were absolutely covered in burns, and yet they still wanted to fight. Lucky for their opponents, the slugcat had one more battle in them, if only to have a chance to get at some more blood before they would hibernate!
Immediately upon Spearmaster adopting a combat-ready stance, the Volt Lizard shot its tongue out toward them. It was an attack very easy to foresee, and they had no issue sidestepping the attempt at electrocution. Off to the side of the stretched limb, the slugcat swung their sharp spear in an upward arc right through the soft flesh. As if cutting through the vine of a bluefruit, the weapon effortlessly split the tongue in half. The lizard whimpered in pain, what remained of its organ retracting back into its mouth as it writhed and backed up slightly to try to retreat in shock and fear. Spearmaster glanced at the chopped-off part, noting that it still sparked with electricity for a while longer before eventually stopping altogether.
With a huff, they twirled the needle in their paw and looked up at the wounded lizard and its pal, the Cablepede. It seemed the brutal assault had left the larger of the two fairly unwilling to fight, but the other did not seem all that scared. Instead, it did something that neither of the others expected at all. With no hesitation, the thing scuttled over and climbed onto the Volt Lizard’s back. As the predator reacted with shocked irritation, it suddenly stabbed one of its ends into the neck of the lizard, swiftly thereafter grabbing hold of the back along its spine when it tried to struggle and shake the smaller off.
An electrical hum started, the Volt Lizard getting brighter and brighter as Spearmaster stopped twirling their needle and instead stared in surprise. Opening its bloody mouth, the beast suddenly started to spit out bolts of pure electricity toward the slugcat! Narrowly, they avoided the attack by diving to the ground, almost immediately thereafter being forced to roll to the side to avoid several more volleys of sparking blasts that left behind scorch marks. No longer held back by having to be launched from a tongue, the firerate of electricity being so high left Spearmaster constantly on the move. However, they spent the time having to focus on their opponent to look for a way to stop the duo’s teamwork. From just a glance, trying to get at the lizard would not work. Due to the fact the lizard’s head constantly followed the slugcat, who was forced to dodge all the time, it would be too difficult of a throw to get past the natural armor of the thick skull to hit anything else. Throwing the projectile into the inside of its mouth likely wouldn’t work if the predator was smart enough to close its maw before the hit.
Trying to strike the Cablepede seemed the smarter choice; attached to the lizard, it lifted its front slightly into the air, making it a fairly sizable target. Though seeing as it had natural armor much like those lizards, Spearmaster needed something heavier. Coming up with their plan, they threw the first needle as a distraction, aiming for the inside of the mouth of the electricity beast. As expected, it snapped shut right as the weapon was thrown, leading to it harmlessly bouncing off the armored head. However, that was exactly as the slugcat had planned for it to happen, and they used what little time of a break they got from constant electrical bolts to grow a larger, heavier needle. Just as it was grown and hefted in their paw, the lizard’s maw opened up once again and started to fire off more bolts.
Dodging a few of the shots, Spearmaster found a chance in between the constant moving to make a move, an opening to enact their plan. Pulling back their arm that held the heavy club-needle, the slugcat put all of the remaining strength in the limb to throw the thing as hard as possible right at the Cablepede. They were immediately forced to dodge another shot afterward, but no more came after that. One of the blunt ends of the weapon struck the creature right in the head with a loud crack, the metal on that end visibly cracking into pieces that were dislodged from its face. It released its hold; the circuit of electricity closed as the Cablepede went limp and slithered off the lizard. The larger beast’s muscles twitched and convulsed one final time, then it went completely still as well.
The slugcat huffed loudly, lungs heaving for air as they stood on alert still, eyes scanning the space, fully prepared to be about to be attacked by something else. Nothing else appeared, however, finally leading to Spearmaster taking a deep breath of relief as the realization sank in that they were fine. Without even caring about checking for cameras, they walked over to the lizard corpse, grabbed hold of its tail, and started to drag it behind themselves while forcing themselves toward the shelter. Finally sliding inside and then forcing the dead predator inside after them, getting to grab hold of and pull down the lever that would seal the door was the most satisfying feeling the slugcat had felt for a long time.
Spearmaster placed the lizard right next to the place they would sleep, used a needle to cut the carcass open and force blood to pour from it, then near felt their legs practically take themselves out, forcing them to the floor. The blood from the dead lizard steadily poured over them, bringing them relief from hunger and protection from starvation. Thankfully, the metallic floor they lay on was covered with a soft cloth material, practically choking the last of the slugcat’s energy out of their body.
They fell asleep less than a minute after laying down, finally getting their chance to recover ever since the start of their rebellion.
The iterator watched the scene with about as much horror as Spearmaster did, wishing he could do more to stop the unnamed prototype of a lizard before it could do any real damage, but in the end being forced to watch as it swallowed down the rarefaction cell and then had some sort of effect on everything else inside of the server room. All of the database racks suffered suddenly, experiencing some sort of overload that fried the components on the inside and made them self-destruct. It was the very same with the cameras placed all over; even if they had most likely suffered incredible damage all the same from the explosions and fire, the display the iterators were watching through became pixelated as the audio coming through turned into a high-pitched whine. Their view of another camera across from the one they watched through visibly smoked, and then popped right before theirs, just to let them know it was what happened when familiar static and then swiftly all black took over the display.
For what felt like the millionth time, Suns’ view of the inside of one of the rooms inside of his very own superstructure was lost! It was becoming incredibly annoying, if not outright disrespectful, in a sense. Thus far, it seemed clear that the messenger was narrowly actually managing to become more and more of an issue, moving further and further through the iterator’s interior. They were moving past the less important areas, going further than Suns felt comfortable with at all. At the very least, the constant watching of the creature’s actions taught the iterator more and more about them than they already knew. The cameras recorded everything, and he would take a chance to watch through the footage to learn every single detail he did not already know about how Spearmaster fought and survived in dangerous situations!
Regarding the lizard that had also inflicted destruction, the iterator was not overly concerned. It and its brethren were nothing but simple beasts, and any sort of impedement they caused would be wholly by accident. He had a file on the predators, fully aware that they were part of some sort of experiment to create the perfect lizard to keep as a personal guard, much like his own inspectors but far more resilient. Ever since the disappearance of any ancient scientists, it was not something Suns cared for much. They always seemed too dangerous and unpredictable in the researcher notes, but he remembered that the beasts had a very simple weakness, so he was not worried.
If they became too big an issue (even if unlikely), he would simply read up on what it was and put an end to them.
His considerations and thoughts were going at a million per second, as per the usual for an iterator, but he still could not help but feel annoyed when they were interrupted by Sig suddenly laughing annoyingly loud again. “Wow, Suns! This gets better and better!” He jested, going back to looking laid back and chill as if nothing in the world bothered him. “Before this, you were letting your messenger punk you, and now you allow a voiddamn lizard to do the same~?” Another small giggle sounded, and the other iterator had half a mind to end the call right then and there. “Seriously though…” Suddenly, Sig’s voice was all serious as he leaned a bit closer to the display. “What’ll you do to fix this issue, Suns?” The other iterator could not help but feel a slight bit uneasy at the sudden change in tone. “I’m still waiting on my pearl, after all.” Once again, the green iterator tilted his head in what usually would be a silly manner, but at that moment the movement looked judgmental, almost threatening.
Although the moment of Suns being put off only lasted a short moment before he puffed air out of his puppet’s fans, turning back to glare at the dead view as if trying to force it to start back up through sheer force of will. “Well, there is a shelter right next to where Spearmaster stood. If they managed to survive the explosive chaos, which is a high probability at this point, then it is not too far of a stretch to assume they crawled inside to get some rest.” He theorized, not once looking back at Sig as he gestured dramatically while speaking. “After all, they are only a being of flesh and blood, despite all the enhancements. If I’ve been tracking time correctly since his betrayal of my faith, Spearmaster has been awake for almost two whole cycles at this point.” Suns added, not even bothering to mention the recent injuries that they had suffered, although they were no doubt a factor as well.
Sig made a sort of whistling sound, seemingly back to being goofy and happy-go-lucky again. “That’s twice as long as slugcats usually stay awake!” He commented, prompting Suns to look back and sigh when he noticed the green iterator had flipped upside down again. “Honestly, just the fact that they were able to stand and fight whatever you sent at them, not to mention kicking ass while doing it, is seriously impressive~!” The green iterator whooped in a sort of celebration, spinning around again. Instead of trying to ineffectively glare more, Suns turned their attention to a certain schematic over their messenger, in the midst of a plan they figured would be effective. “Anyway, you haven’t explained your ‘plan’ in any way, still.” The other iterator chimed in after a while, not wanting to shut up for even a second. “Your messenger is sleeping, but so what? What’ll you get up to in the meantime?” It seemed that Sig’s nosy nature was constant, always wanting to get in on whatever business that Suns was up to no matter what. “It’s poison gas, isn’t it? Oh, it definitely is! That’s why you’re being so secretive; you don’t wanna admit my tip was the best~! Hey, when Spearmaster chokes to death, make sure to give me some credit in your epic speech! It’s only fair~” He rambled on and on, not leaving Suns’ chamber in silence for even a single minute.
Even despite being well aware that his ‘friend’ was a master at annoying everyone he knew, Suns had an impossible time holding back on going off on the other in the end. “I’ll show Spearmaster just where their weaknesses lie! I’m going to be building another version of them, but this one will be stronger, smarter, altogether better! I will be using all of this recorded footage to analyze every falter, every mistake, and every slip-up, and I will make sure that this version of the messenger has no capacity to make any of these mistakes! Then, once I am done with my creation, I’m giving them the task of killing the first Spearmaster and sending them in there to wreck. Their. Shit!” Suns punctuated each final word with a slam of his puppet’s fist into an invisible desk for extra effect, the rant leaving them filled with rage and determination to wipe out the current Spearmaster.
As he pulled up the most recent recordings taken from both the overseer and surveillance cameras, Sig spoke up again. “Oooo, that sounds cool! Can I watch you make it?” He asked innocently, earning a sideways glance from Suns.
Despite the other iterator figuring he’d made it very clear that Sig was no longer welcome to study his work, it seemed a more straight-forward approach was needed. “Sig, you can leave the call now.” Suns said with a sigh, trying to put all the built-up frustration behind him to not cause undue drama. “I have this situation under control, and I will let you know when the pearl is on its way.”
A very fair deal, he figured. As expected, the green iterator seemed to disagree. “Aw what? I’m not allowed to watch this shitshow?” Despite it all, Suns felt a smidge of satisfaction when he heard what sounded like genuine disappointment in the other’s voice. “At least remember to send me the recordings! Come on, won’t you promise me?” And just like that, it was back to all-out annoyance as what little satisfaction he felt faded away instantly. “Pleaseeeee?” Knowing exactly what buttons to push, Sig’s all too drawn-out final word finally broke Suns’ patience completely in half.
With a frustrated grunt, he turned around to poke a finger into the display as if his digit would go through and prod Sig’s puppet’s chest inside his very own chamber. “You have about five seconds to leave this call.” Fully aware that he managed to catch Suns lacking, the other iterator simply tilted his head once again, looking amused. “If you don’t, I promise you that when this new messenger is done, I will send it over. But it will not be sent for a pearl delivery, but to destroy everything you have ever cherished and loved, No Significant Harrassment!” What Suns had hoped would be seen as a simple threat unfortunately turned more into a tantrum as he near grabbed hold of the overseer projecting the other iterator and tried to pull it out of the chamber floor.
To only add to his annoyance, there was not even an immediate response. Sig simply kept watching the other iterator closely, as if searching for something in his body language, before finally speaking up after a long time passed. “Counter point: I send over a simulation I just made of me doing it with your head engineer!” He countered, immediately and effortlessly replacing all of Suns’ anger over the argument with disgust.
“Ew. We don’t even have… How would we even…? You don’t even know…?” For a moment, he simply sputtered, not even coming up with a response. When Sig started to laugh victoriously, Suns groaned and decided to just bite the bullet and take the loss. “Whatever!” Practically throwing his hand out for the display, he ended the call personally with his puppet’s fingers rather than through his mind for a more personal touch, immediately calling for the overseer to leave and go do something else with its time.
Instead of mourning the loss (no one could out-argue Sig anyway), he turned his full attention to the schematics he brought up. Everything that he knew of his messenger biologically appeared in front of him as a reminder, easily guiding the iterator to copy the essential ‘code’ that made Spearmaster who they were into another creature of approximately the same body. Unlike the current messenger, he would not be able to nurse them from being a pup to fully grown, but they hoped it would not be the biggest issue to hurry the process along anyway.
He was temporarily interrupted from his work by a file suddenly being sent from Sig. If not for the conversation he just had and the filename and size leaving little to the imagination, the iterator may have been tricked to download and open the simulation file. “...Yeah, no. I’m not opening that.” With a swipe of the hand, it disappeared.
As the iterator prepared to go back to work, a familiar overseer appeared in front of him with something to show. Although Sig had his eyes on the other at all times, Suns still found a way to call on one of them to go record a snippet of what Spearmaster did after all his conventional cameras broke. He was not sure what to expect, but the last thing he would have guessed was to see a volt lizard being electrocuted by one of the living wires, shooting electrical bolts at a far faster pace that seemed far more powerful than the ones generated by the whipping of their tongue.
Pleasantly surprised, he saved the short recording for later along with the rest of the analytical footage of his intruder's fighting style. Suns would use it later, but that would only come after he was done with the more important part of the work...
“Whatever!” Suns said, unable to keep his disgust and embarrassment out of his tone. His puppet hand reached to perform the command to end the call, and the display she was looking through suddenly went dark.
No more spying for today, then. The iterator sighed, finding great annoyance in the fact that her widespread attempt to infiltrate Suns interior systems had been reduced to her barely keeping a foothold inside of his calls and messages. Sliver figured it could only be a matter of time until what little control she had over those systems was discovered and rooted out as well, but she had learned some very interesting stuff anyway, even if her bug were to eventually be found and destroyed completely. For being a huge fan of toting himself as so secret about his activities surrounding the experiments he performed inside the extra space of his superstructure, Suns was really bad at keeping his mouth shut. Granted, not much had been revealed in the messages sent back and forth, but in voice calls it seemed so easy to get information out of the iterator simply by causing an annoyance that she was partly afraid he knew she was listening and was leading her into a trap.
That thought faded quick; the anger that Suns felt at NSH for causing his usual scene was very real, and even if she entertained the thought that the iterator was simply pretending, she knew for a fact that he was not smart enough to play so realistically, if not also too prideful to show emotions in such a way and not mean it! He was dealing with a lot of issues, it seemed. His messenger was running amok, causing destruction, no doubt sick of Suns for all of his prideful energy. Thoughtfully, she brought up the recording she’d gotten of the moment when Sig was allowed to watch what was happening where this Spearmaster was, thus allowing Sliver to also get a good look at the action going on.
The little creature seemed skilled, if driven by far too much emotion. Still, they had the right idea, tearing apart parts of Suns’ insides as they were. Not to mention, the headache that they were causing their creator gave her the perfect chance to finally jump in and be rid of Suns. All of the recent chaos and destruction surrounding the local group that the iterator belonged to could be sourced back to Five Pebbles, him and his urge to leave the cycle behind. A foolish endeavor, even despite having the tool to ascend, Sliver would not be so selfish to do so. There was so much yet to do; she was not ready to go until business had been complete.
For such a goal that the pink iterator wanted to achieve, he happened to wound his neighbor, practically his own sister. Looks To The Moon, someone that Sliver did not know personally, per se, but she did watch her streams! She was a real hottie, and a great entertainer. The other iterator happened to be a top donor to Moon’s streams, but when her whole can collapsed, there were obviously no streams to watch any longer. It was only natural Sliver would come to the others defense and handle what she would want done, she was doing the right thing.
There was no way she would forgive such a slight! They attacked Moonie, and that move made her stance clear against Five Pebbles and anyone else of the local group he belonged to clear several times. One big defender of the bitch boy twink was Suns, who always seemed to have his friend’s side, even despite no doubt knowing just how badly that very friend fucked up. She had tried to discuss with the other several times over, trying to make him see her side of things, but he always refused to listen. Sliver had no clue if he had his suspicions that she was the one who hacked into his systems, but a part of her almost figured that Suns had actually forgotten about her, fully dismissive that she could do no harm.
Oh, how wrong that was.
For quite a while, she had waited for a chance to have her own little creature infiltrate his can to find and then ascend his puppet, and it seemed that chance had finally come! Feeling confident, Sliver turned around. “Saint.” She addressed the fluffy creature, who was floating upright a ways behind her as she watched the recording, meditating. Even though her eyes remained closed, the iterator knew that she turned her attention to her creator. “The time has come.” Ever since Saint’s creation, the two had discussed extensively what would need to be done anytime the creature was exclusively needed rather than simply being nearby on standby. With a short nod, she stopped meditating and easily floated over, stopping right next to Sliver to look at the display. “You’ve already seen quite a bit of Suns as I have, but here he is in detail.” Sliver pointed to the display of the iterator looking right at them (actually at Sig) with a fairly frustrated pose, seemingly ready to go off on a tangent. “Next cycle, you will leave to journey, guided by me through my overseers. When you have reached the outside of his superstructure, I will use what little power I still have on the inside to shut down the power to the nearest entrance, a vent that I will once again guide you towards. From there, you will be able to climb inside of the very same region his messenger is inside.” She explained lengthily, waiting until Saint nodded again with confidence before continuing. “Once you are inside, it will be wholly up to you to find your way to Suns to take care of business, as I will not be able to get my overseer inside to guide you.” It was a fairly straight-forward plan, even if fairly dangerous. The iterator was not worried in the end; Saint had a knack for finding her way and surviving dangerous situations.
She waited patiently as the little creature studied the image, but Sliver did not expect that she too would reach out to point towards it. “Who is this?” Inquired Saint softly, pointing out the messenger who was still visible on the display in the background. The pause had occurred right as they tore through a lizard with one of the sharp weapons grown from their body, staining them in its gore.
The brow of her creation furrowed as she looked upon the carnage, and despite not seeing much in the expression, Sliver knew that there was obvious distaste for the messenger. “That is Suns’ creation; their name is Spearmaster, and they are made from the same base creature as you are, Saint.” She explained calmly, glancing at the fluffy creature who had yet to look away from the image. “Of course, I think I did a better job when it came to your creation. Looking at what Suns has made just makes me think of imperfection.” The spiky, uncomfortable-looking fur, the holey tail, not to mention the lack of a mouth. A part of her expected more from someone who experimented with organic matter as much as Suns did…
“I would like to ascend them as well.” Deadpanned Saint suddenly, tapping her finger on Spearmaster twice. The sudden urge presented by her creation to do so threw Sliver for a short loop, but only for a moment.
With all the violence and death the purple creature meted out with next to no hesitation, it was no surprise for her own creation to feel such a way. “If you happen to run into them on the way to ascending Suns, I fully permit for you to do the same to them if you so feel like it.” Commented Sliver eventually, finding no real reason to keep Spearmaster alive once her own bringer of chaos had made it inside. She had no ties to the messenger; they had never been sent to deliver her anything, and so she did not care what happened to them. “Until then, I recommend that you rest up, Saint. There will be a lot to do starting from the next cycle.”
Finally, the fluffy one tore her gaze from the display and bowed her head in the iterator’s direction. “Understood, creator. I will not disappoint.” Saint kept the stance for only a short moment before then turning to slowly float over to the access shaft on one wall of the chamber, passing through and disappearing without another word.
Sliver stared at the exit for a moment longer. “Of course you won’t; I made you.” She said to herself with pride before turning back to glare at the image of Suns.
Soon dawns your reckoning, Suns.
