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Melany and GR-0-WL take on a job to help get Helios One power station up and running", "writing": "[u][center]Chapter 45: That Lucky Old Sun[/center][/u]\n\nDespite preferring to sleep in, Melany was grateful to be roused by the reverie and spend the entire morning fixing GR-0-WL and making minor repairs to her plasma rifle. It was nearly noon when the Stunky-woman dragged herself out of the barracks and dressed before she joined the camp for lunch. The mood was considerably more lighthearted even while the meal was somewhat sparse due to the camp’s limited supplies. After lunch, Melany and GR-0-WL went to the command tent and entered without fuss to see Zade standing with two Luxio-men soldiers geared up for march and Major Polatli.\n\n“Good afternoon, Zade,” Melany’s voice drew their attention as she approached, “What did you need my help with today?”\n\nZade turned to Melany, “We’re heading to Helios One to try and find the supplies that were sent for a couple days ago. I’m asking if you can help them try and get that place up and running. All the most qualified mechanics are at Gaiva Dam right now.”\n\nMelany folded her arms, “What’s the pay?”\n\n“$200 up front and whatever they can spare when it’s done,” Major Polatli reached across the table to Melany with the starting money in hand.\n\nMelany accepted and pocketed the payment, “Sounds good, I’ll do it. When do we leave?”\n\n“Now,” Zade checked his sidearm and grabbed his own pack, “Keep an eye out for any remaining Kogun patrols. The supplies will be back in three days but I won’t. I’ll send these two back when we find them and see about those communication problems then return to Camp Silverman.” He saluted the Major, as did the two Luxio-men.\n\nThe Rhydon-man Major saluted back. “It’s been good to have you with us, Sir. Thank you.”\n\nMelany wasn’t used to forced marching, but she kept her pace with the three soldiers and GR-0-WL all day. They stopped to make camp within sight of Helios One’s solar towers before the sun went down, then Melany was roused at sunrise to continue to march. The others let her grumble to herself as she walked, as she didn’t slow them down.\n\nThey approached the solar plant late in the morning. The place had been named Heliolisk One when it was established but the wear of ages had caused the second LI and the K to fall off, which left the sign to read HELIO S ONE.\n\nThe Glameow-woman in charge of the plant’s defense had her assault rifle at the ready as the four approached. “Halt! State your name and rank, soldier.”\n\n“Lt. Colonel Zade, from Camp Silverman and Camp Fornlorn Hope,” Zade saluted, “And this is Melany, a civilian being employed by the military, and the robot is GR-0-WL. I’m here to look into a supply shipment that was requested by the camp from here and see if we can get this place up and running at peak efficiency.”\n\nThe Glameow-woman gave Zade a skeptical look for a moment then warily saluted back, “Lt. Haggerty, Sir. Sorry but this place is understaffed so everyone’s a bit jumpy. They arrived a week ago so I gave them what we could spare. It wasn’t much but I’ve seen the looks on soldiers’ faces when they’re assigned there so they need all the help they can get.”\n\n“Must have been ambushed on the way back,” Zade sighed, “Alright, soldiers, let’s head back and scour the landscape. Keep your eyes open for ambushes.” He turned to Melany, “Will you be alright if we leave you here?”\n\nMelany smirked and jerked her thumb to the south, “I live near Cyllage, I’ll make it home just fine. Good luck, Zade.”\n\n“You too,” Zade motioned to the east, “Move out!”\n\nMelany watched the three electric types for a minute before turning to Haggerty, who was still eyeing her warily, “So, you need some help with getting this place up and running?”\n\n“No need. We already have an expert hard at work on it.” Lt. Haggerty sighed and finally relaxed, “Then again... our expert is an idiot. Hell, he might as well be a saboteur. I guess you couldn't do any worse. Have him fill you in on the details. He's in the back of the building. You'll know him when you see him. Keeps his sunglasses on all the time, even when he's sleeping. Idiot.”\n\n“Sounds wonderful. Alright let me at it,” Melany entered the building with GR-0-WL at her side.\n\nThe inside of the power plant was a little confusing to navigate, a sign of the paranoia from before the war to make it harder for saboteurs to find anything before they were caught, with most of the rooms she found being either offices or storage. Eventually, Melany found her way to the main control room which was occupied two Poke-people in lab coats: a Heliolisk-man with short pink hair and a Krokorok-man with messy hair and wearing sunglasses.\n\nThe Krokorok-man frowned and approached Melany which made her and GR-0-WL step back on reflex as he spoke in an accusing tone that devolved into panic, “Who the hell are you? They bring you in to replace me? They’re replacing me, aren’t they?”\n\nMelany gave the Krokorok-man a once over before she answered, “And why are you worried about that?”\n\nHis expression shifted to a grin, “Worried? Do I look worried to you? I’ve got this under control, baby. No one else can do what I do here.”\n\n“And what’s that?” Melany folded her arms and glared at him.\n\n“Fuck, man. Everything: I push buttons, I turn dials, I read numbers, sometimes I make up little stories in my head about the numbers mean,” the Krokorok man gave a creepy smile and rubbed his chin, “Like one time I imagined they were a code to get into a vault full of naked women. Man, how cool would that be?”\n\nMelany’s mouth fell open and her eye twitched. “I’m sorry… what?”\n\n“The what is that we’re getting power, because the guy running this place is Fantastic!” he pointed to himself with a thumb. “But the mirrors outside aren’t aimed right, so we’re running at one percent efficiency. And I guess that’s just not good enough for some assholes.”\n\nMelany had to rub her eyes to keep herself calm, “Why do you think you’re fantastic?”\n\n“Why? Baby that’s my name, because there’s only one Fantastic and he very much is,” Fantastic grinned. “But they won’t let me work my magic because they tripped some old security system up in the tower and got two guys killed, now they won’t go near it.”\n\nMelany shook her head, “How the fuck did you get this job?”\n\nFantastic kept grinning, “It was easy, man. They were going door to door asking if anyone knew any scientists: I said look no further. They asked me if I knew anything about power plants: I said as much as anyone I’d ever met. They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics: I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said ‘welcome aboard’.”\n\nEven GR-0-WL had to glare up at the Krokorok-man, “You have no idea what you’re doing.”\n\nFantastic snorted, “No, man. I know exactly what I’m going. I just don’t know what effect it’s going to have.” He pointed around the room, starting with the largest console, “Over there controls power in this building. That station has readout on the computer network. That big nob there makes a crazy noise. Sparks come out of that slot if you put stuff in it. And I’m learning more every day.” He froze then looked down at GR-0-WL, “Whoa, did that Pokemon just talk?”\n\nMelany grit her teeth for a moment, “It’s a robot and its name is GR-0-WL. If you took off those stupid sunglasses maybe you’d see that!”\n\n“Hey, the glasses are part of my aura, I can’t ditch them,” Fantastic ignored that Melany was fuming while GR-0-WL turned and walked over to the pink-haired Heliolisk-man.\n\nThe Helioslisk-man smiled down at the robot, “Hello there, what’s your name?”\n\n“GR-0-WL. Who are you?” GR-0-WL looked up at the Heliolisk-man.\n\n“Dr. Joy Rivas, from the Followers of the Apocalypse,” he crouched down to pet GR-0-WL’s head, “Your friend sounds like she’s going to snap.”\n\nGR-0-WL leaned into the pet, “She might, but she won’t shoot him at least.”\n\nFantastic was either oblivious to or unconcerned with Melany’s growing anger, “Hey, if you ever make your way to the tower make sure you send the power to the strip and Camp Silverman, that way I get paid for all my hard work. Per Kilowatt-hour, whatever that means Here’s the code for one of the mirror computers outside. I found it scribbled on the bathroom stall.” He handed a folded piece of paper to Melany.\n\nThe Stunky-woman took the paper then snatched the sunglasses off Fantastic’s face which exposed his bloodshot eyes. “You’re a chem addict!” she tossed the sunglasses away which made the Krokorok-man scramble for them.\n\n“Hey, don’t ruin this sweet gig, I got the whole NKR sucking at my teat and it feels good and I need my fix,” Fantastic retrieved his sunglasses and turned back to Melany, only to find she had already walked away. Fantastic just shrugged and returned to his facsimile of work.\n\n“I see you’ve met the man in charge.” Dr. Rivas stood up as Melany approached.\n\nMelany gave the Heliolisk-man a look up and down, “Followers of the Apocalypse? What brings you here?”\n\n“I’m here to oversee this power plant’s operation and hopefully get it running.” He paused for a moment, “Forgive me, who are you exactly and why are you here?”\n\n“Name’s Melany, and I was hired by the NKR’s Lt. Colonel Zade to try and get this place up and running,” she offered a handshake to Dr. Rivas, which he accepted, “Considering the other expert, I’d have to try to do any worse.”\n\n“I see. I’ve heard of the Lt. Colonel, he sounds more reasonable than half the soldiers out here.” Dr. Rivas nodded, “So you’re here for the NKR or on your own?”\n\n“I’m here for the payment, honestly,” Melany folded her arms, “me and GR-0-WL need all the work we can get.”\n\nDr. Rivas smiled, “I think I can trust you if you’re just here for the payment. The other reason I’m here is to investigate something the Brotherhood of Plasma was looking for.” Dr. Rivas saw Melany’s eyes go wide so he continued, “The Brotherhood occupied Helios One for some time, and I don’t think they were looking for power. From the little terminal information I was able to examine I keep finding references to ARCHIMEDES, but all the more critical info is probably locked up in the main tower on a private server. The NKR came and drove off the Brotherhood while looking for power stations. By some miracle, the NKR hired that idiot to try and get this place working,” he jerked his head towards Fantastic who was working at the huge control station, “He doesn’t realize that station he’s been working at for the last week controls the intercom, but he insisted that the biggest console had to be the most important. It’s only a matter of time before they stumble across it. Only thing keeping them from sending more qualified people in is the security system the Brotherhood activated and that every other expert is at Gaiva Dam.”\n\n“Any idea what ARCHIMEDES is?” Melany asked.\n\n“From what I could gather about this company’s work before the war, it’s some sort of pre-war weapons system.” Dr. Rivas pulled a paper out of his coat pocket, “Here’s the other code for the mirror alignments. Just be careful, the Brotherhood left some traps at them.”\n\nMelany accepted the paper, then looked at the one she’d received from Fantastic, “So I guess the idiot’s paper is useless.”\n\nDr. Rivas shook his head, “No, it’s the real code. Don’t know how but he found the right one. One last thing: if you get the power working then send it to the regional grid, not just the most or least prosperous areas. It’s better to try and help as many people as possible.”\n\n“I’ll try to do that, the addict over there would probably steal credit for all my work if I did what he wanted.” Melany pocketed both codes then headed out the back door of the plant.\n\nThe field of solar panels momentarily blinded the Stunky-woman and she shaded her eyes then scanned the area until she found two fenced off sheds on opposite sides of the field. The first was guarded by two NKR soldiers who warned her about the landmines which GR-0-WL was able to disable by poking the disarm button with his metal claws. Thankfully, Fantastic’s password worked on the terminal behind all the traps and Melany was able to set the proper alignment for half the panels on the base.\n\nThe other control terminal wasn’t ay different, just a couple tripwires attached to rigged shotguns that Melany was able to cut and avoid getting blasted before she aligned the last of the mirrors.\n\nMelany wiped the sweat from her forehead and took a drink of water from her pack as she headed back into the main building, “Ugg, too hot out here with all the mirrors. You doing alright?” She looked down at GR-0-WL.\n\nThe robo-Growlithe barked, “Just fine. Be careful in here.”\n\n“Thanks, GR-0-WL. Now for the hard part.” Melany held the door for GR-0-WL so they could enter then headed up the stairs behind the control room to the tower.\n\nAs soon as they entered the first floor of the tower, the whirr of turrets hit Melany’s ears and she and GR-0-WL were forced to run into a nearby maintenance room to avoid the barrage of lasers from two ceiling mounted turrets.\n\n“Can’t this just be simple!” Melany groaned as she drew her plasma defender.\n\n“There’s more robots below,” GR-0-WL barked, “attack?”\n\nMelany listened for the sound of the turrets stopping and heard the sound of stomping below. “Now!” She jumped out and spotted the turrets then fired twice at each, the bright green bolts melting the housing and destroying them. GR-0-WL jumped down to a lower level where two protectrons were patrolling, knocking one over then jumping on the other as it tried to shoot it with lasers, and missed before its CPU was torn out.\n\nMelany fired another plasma bolt at the downed protectron just to be safe, “Having fun?”\n\nGR-0-WL tossed the wrecked computer core out of its mouth the actually grinned, “Yes. Now where?” It walked up the nearby stairs to where Melany was.\n\nMelany holstered her plasma defender and drew her plasma rifle, “This way, just keep your eyes and ears open.”\n\nGR-0-WL bobbed its head and followed Melany as she led the way to the main tower’s control room, then paused, “Big robot ahead.” It pointed at the door straight ahead.\n\nMelany paused and perked up her ears, there was something through the door and it sounded motorised. “Might be a sentry bot, be careful and don’t get yourself blown up.” She opened the door a crack and peeked through. Sure enough, the bottom floor of the room was being patrolled by a sentry bot… no wait there were two, one more on the platform above. “Two of them, shit!” Melany closed the door, “two-on-two, our best hope is that they were programmed not to shoot their missile launchers indoors.”\n\n“Do we go back?” GR-0-WL gave the Stunky-woman a look of concern.\n\nMelany shook her head, “Nothing to go back for, we just need to figure out how to get past them without being perforated, fried or blown up.”\n\nGR-0-WL crouched and wagged its tail. “Let me in first, I’ll distract them so you can shoot them. I can’t bite through their armor.”\n\nMelany gave the robo-Growlithe a look of concern, “Are you sure. Even if they can’t use missiles, they’ll tear you apart.”\n\nGR-0-WL smiled, “I’ll be fine, you’ll just fix me if I break.”\n\nMelany took a deep breath and held up her plasma rifle, “I’ll give you five seconds then I’m coming in guns blazing.”\n\n“Right!” GR-0-WL crouched as Melany took another deep breath and turned the door handle. GR-0-WL charged through and right past the first sentry bot.\n\n“INTRUDER DETECTED, LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED.” Both sentry bots turned and opened fire on GR-0-WL, the one on the ground with bullets the one above with lasers.\n\n“…3…4…5!” Melany burst through the door and opened fire on the Sentry bot on the ground, it took ten shots from her plasma rifle to melt through the Sentry-bot’s armor plating as it turned to face her, and two more annihilated its CPU. As she reloaded the one above her turned to fire lasers at her and Melany barely jammed the microfusion cell in place and opened fire as she was barraged with lasers and took several hits and burns before she blew its arm off with four shots then unloaded the rest of the cell into its torso and into its inside. With no time to reload she pulled out her plasma defender and plugged a full energy cell’s worth of plasma bolts into the hole in the bot’s armor plating just to make sure it stayed down.\n\nMelany panted as she reloaded both weapons and scanned the room for “GR-0-WL!” she dropped her weapons and ran over to where the robo-Growlithe lay in pieces. Tears sprang to her eyes as she picked up the torso and head and its legs fell off. “GR-0-WL! Talk to me, please!”\n\nGR-0-WL twitched, “Legs damaged, but CPU and power cell intact. Did we win?”\n\nMelany hugged GR-0-WL close, not caring about the metal shards that jabbed her, “We did, and I promise I’ll fix you up once we get home.” She carefully set the robo-Growlithe down, “Just… lay there while I get this place up and running.\n\n“I will. You’re hurt!” GR-0-WL tried to move and only wiggled its detached servos.\n\nMelany winced and felt the laser burns on her skin, “Right, but not as bad as you.” She injected a couple stimpacks to help her recover, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”\n\nThe control room was mostly intact and on the upper-level Melany found the main control computer. “Alright, let’s see…” she checked the controls, “Circuit severed, repair to access distribution controls.” Melany stepped away and looked around to find a broken cable on the bottom level that sparked with electricity. Melany smirked and ran down the stairs to the broken cable, easily splicing and repairing it before she returned to the main computer.\n\n“Alright, let’s see… power grid distribution… ARCHIMEDES?” Melany paused. The name Dr. Joy Rivas had mentioned. Curious, she checked the system and balked when she saw the text on the screen, “Confirm power transmission to orbital weapon system ARCHIMEDES!” She hit ‘NO’ as hard as possible then stepped back. Orbital weapons? Still active? No that was too much, she had to make sure the power was sent somewhere else. She quickly inputted the distribution to the whole grid in the Kalos region then stepped outside to get the mirrors aligned. One blinding blast of solar light later and the solar power plant was up and running.\n\n“Mission accomplished,” Melany carefully gathered up GR-0-WL and his parts and loaded them into her backpack, then pulled it on which left GR-0-WL’s head poking over her shoulder.\n\nThe walk back to the control room was peaceful and Melany stopped to talk to Dr. Rivas. “Power’s on, sent it everywhere and…” she looked over at Fantastic to make sure he was out of earshot before she whispered to Dr. Rivas, “ARCHIMEDES is an orbital weapon system. I don’t know if it’s still around.”\n\n“And yet you sent the power to the right places. Thank you. I don’t have caps but here,” the Heliolisk-man gave Melany a handful of stimpacks and a repair manual, “From the state of your friend this might help.”\n\n“I’ll be right behind her all the way home,” GR-0-WL barked out a laugh.\n\nMelany smirked, “Since when do you have a sense of humor, GR-0-WL?”\n\n“Likely the aura machine phenomenon,” Dr. Rivas’ face lit up, “Robots with a sophisticated enough AI that are cared for by people have been observed to develop an aura of their own and even a soul. I’ve never seen one in person though. Perhaps you could drop by our outpost so we can observe him.”\n\n“Maybe swing by Gibson Scrap Yard. I don’t feel like a long trip without any chance of salvage.” Melany turned to leave but stopped when she almost bumped into Fantastic.\n\nThe Krokorok-man grinned, “Hey, guess you didn’t get the memo, the power had to go to the strip and Camp Silverman. No worries, I think I can rig something up with my genius.” Melany’s eye twitched as Fantastic continued, “You know, now that I’ve done such an incredible job, I bet I can swing this into chief of the whole damn operation, or dam operation.”\n\nMelany took off her backpack and turned away from Fantastic. He saw this and grinned, “Hey, no need to show me your tail. I can look you in the eyes and, huh?” He watched as Melany bent over and lifted her tail, before he could respond there was a blast of fluid and gas and a massive stink cloud enveloped him. “GACK! ACK! What’s that smell, hurk!” he turned and threw up in a garbage can as Melany turned back, fuming.\n\n“Stunky spray, all the stink you deserve you overpaid, chem-addicted, skilless, smooth-talking hack!” Melany grabbed up her backpack while Fantastic was still reeling then grabbed him around the collar and pulled him to her face, ignoring the smell, “You did nothing except waste everyone’s time and I’m NOT letting you take credit for my work!” She dragged the still gagging Krokorok-man with her as she left the building.\n\nThe NKR soldiers turned away from the stench until Melany exited and tossed the still stinky Fantastic to the ground, knocking off his glasses. Lt. Haggery was about to speak until Melany started shouting and jabbed a finger towards Fantastic, “Listen you fucking moron! I was the one who fixed the power plant, not you! If you try to take credit for my work then I will shove my plasma guns up your ass so far that you’ll vomit up radiation until I let GR-0-WL tear the rest apart!”\n\nThe Krokorok-man struggled to get up and flee as Melany took a deep breath and turned to Lt. Haggerty, “Power plant’s on, but I sent the power all over the grid.”\n\nLt. Haggery sighed, “I guess that’s better than nothing, and thanks for getting rid of that idiot.” She watched as Fantastic, sans sunglasses, stumbled away and took the stench with him, “I can’t offer any more work here, and I’m not authorized to pay if the job’s not done to what the general wanted, but the sharecropper farms further north might have some extra repair work for you.”\n\nMelany smiled, “Maybe, but first I gotta fix up GR-0-WL. Couldn’t have done this without it.”\n\nGR-0-WL barked from its spot in the backpack and then let its head rest on Melany’s shoulder as she headed south back to their scrapyard.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Chapter 45: That Lucky Old Sun


Despite preferring to sleep in, Melany was grateful to be roused by the reverie and spend the entire morning fixing GR-0-WL and making minor repairs to her plasma rifle. It was nearly noon when the Stunky-woman dragged herself out of the barracks and dressed before she joined the camp for lunch. The mood was considerably more lighthearted even while the meal was somewhat sparse due to the camp’s limited supplies. After lunch, Melany and GR-0-WL went to the command tent and entered without fuss to see Zade standing with two Luxio-men soldiers geared up for march and Major Polatli.

“Good afternoon, Zade,” Melany’s voice drew their attention as she approached, “What did you need my help with today?”

Zade turned to Melany, “We’re heading to Helios One to try and find the supplies that were sent for a couple days ago. I’m asking if you can help them try and get that place up and running. All the most qualified mechanics are at Gaiva Dam right now.”

Melany folded her arms, “What’s the pay?”

“$200 up front and whatever they can spare when it’s done,” Major Polatli reached across the table to Melany with the starting money in hand.

Melany accepted and pocketed the payment, “Sounds good, I’ll do it. When do we leave?”

“Now,” Zade checked his sidearm and grabbed his own pack, “Keep an eye out for any remaining Kogun patrols. The supplies will be back in three days but I won’t. I’ll send these two back when we find them and see about those communication problems then return to Camp Silverman.” He saluted the Major, as did the two Luxio-men.

The Rhydon-man Major saluted back. “It’s been good to have you with us, Sir. Thank you.”

Melany wasn’t used to forced marching, but she kept her pace with the three soldiers and GR-0-WL all day. They stopped to make camp within sight of Helios One’s solar towers before the sun went down, then Melany was roused at sunrise to continue to march. The others let her grumble to herself as she walked, as she didn’t slow them down.

They approached the solar plant late in the morning. The place had been named Heliolisk One when it was established but the wear of ages had caused the second LI and the K to fall off, which left the sign to read HELIO  S  ONE.

The Glameow-woman in charge of the plant’s defense had her assault rifle at the ready as the four approached. “Halt! State your name and rank, soldier.”

“Lt. Colonel Zade, from Camp Silverman and Camp Fornlorn Hope,” Zade saluted, “And this is Melany, a civilian being employed by the military, and the robot is GR-0-WL. I’m here to look into a supply shipment that was requested by the camp from here and see if we can get this place up and running at peak efficiency.”

The Glameow-woman gave Zade a skeptical look for a moment then warily saluted back, “Lt. Haggerty, Sir. Sorry but this place is understaffed so everyone’s a bit jumpy. They arrived a week ago so I gave them what we could spare. It wasn’t much but I’ve seen the looks on soldiers’ faces when they’re assigned there so they need all the help they can get.”

“Must have been ambushed on the way back,” Zade sighed, “Alright, soldiers, let’s head back and scour the landscape. Keep your eyes open for ambushes.” He turned to Melany, “Will you be alright if we leave you here?”

Melany smirked and jerked her thumb to the south, “I live near Cyllage, I’ll make it home just fine. Good luck, Zade.”

“You too,” Zade motioned to the east, “Move out!”

Melany watched the three electric types for a minute before turning to Haggerty, who was still eyeing her warily, “So, you need some help with getting this place up and running?”

“No need. We already have an expert hard at work on it.” Lt. Haggerty sighed and finally relaxed, “Then again... our expert is an idiot. Hell, he might as well be a saboteur. I guess you couldn't do any worse. Have him fill you in on the details. He's in the back of the building. You'll know him when you see him. Keeps his sunglasses on all the time, even when he's sleeping. Idiot.”

“Sounds wonderful. Alright let me at it,” Melany entered the building with GR-0-WL at her side.

The inside of the power plant was a little confusing to navigate, a sign of the paranoia from before the war to make it harder for saboteurs to find anything before they were caught, with most of the rooms she found being either offices or storage. Eventually, Melany found her way to the main control room which was occupied two Poke-people in lab coats: a Heliolisk-man with short pink hair and a Krokorok-man with messy hair and wearing sunglasses.

The Krokorok-man frowned and approached Melany which made her and GR-0-WL step back on reflex as he spoke in an accusing tone that devolved into panic, “Who the hell are you? They bring you in to replace me? They’re replacing me, aren’t they?”

Melany gave the Krokorok-man a once over before she answered, “And why are you worried about that?”

His expression shifted to a grin, “Worried? Do I look worried to you? I’ve got this under control, baby. No one else can do what I do here.”

“And what’s that?” Melany folded her arms and glared at him.

“Fuck, man. Everything: I push buttons, I turn dials, I read numbers, sometimes I make up little stories in my head about the numbers mean,” the Krokorok man gave a creepy smile and rubbed his chin, “Like one time I imagined they were a code to get into a vault full of naked women. Man, how cool would that be?”

Melany’s mouth fell open and her eye twitched. “I’m sorry… what?”

“The what is that we’re getting power, because the guy running this place is Fantastic!” he pointed to himself with a thumb. “But the mirrors outside aren’t aimed right, so we’re running at one percent efficiency. And I guess that’s just not good enough for some assholes.”

Melany had to rub her eyes to keep herself calm, “Why do you think you’re fantastic?”

“Why? Baby that’s my name, because there’s only one Fantastic and he very much is,” Fantastic grinned. “But they won’t let me work my magic because they tripped some old security system up in the tower and got two guys killed, now they won’t go near it.”

Melany shook her head, “How the fuck did you get this job?”

Fantastic kept grinning, “It was easy, man. They were going door to door asking if anyone knew any scientists: I said look no further. They asked me if I knew anything about power plants: I said as much as anyone I’d ever met. They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics: I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said ‘welcome aboard’.”

Even GR-0-WL had to glare up at the Krokorok-man, “You have no idea what you’re doing.”

Fantastic snorted, “No, man. I know exactly what I’m going. I just don’t know what effect it’s going to have.” He pointed around the room, starting with the largest console, “Over there controls power in this building. That station has readout on the computer network. That big nob there makes a crazy noise. Sparks come out of that slot if you put stuff in it. And I’m learning more every day.” He froze then looked down at GR-0-WL, “Whoa, did that Pokemon just talk?”

Melany grit her teeth for a moment, “It’s a robot and its name is GR-0-WL. If you took off those stupid sunglasses maybe you’d see that!”

“Hey, the glasses are part of my aura, I can’t ditch them,” Fantastic ignored that Melany was fuming while GR-0-WL turned and walked over to the pink-haired Heliolisk-man.

The Helioslisk-man smiled down at the robot, “Hello there, what’s your name?”

“GR-0-WL. Who are you?” GR-0-WL looked up at the Heliolisk-man.

“Dr. Joy Rivas, from the Followers of the Apocalypse,” he crouched down to pet GR-0-WL’s head, “Your friend sounds like she’s going to snap.”

GR-0-WL leaned into the pet, “She might, but she won’t shoot him at least.”

Fantastic was either oblivious to or unconcerned with Melany’s growing anger, “Hey, if you ever make your way to the tower make sure you send the power to the strip and Camp Silverman, that way I get paid for all my hard work. Per Kilowatt-hour, whatever that means Here’s the code for one of the mirror computers outside. I found it scribbled on the bathroom stall.” He handed a folded piece of paper to Melany.

The Stunky-woman took the paper then snatched the sunglasses off Fantastic’s face which exposed his bloodshot eyes. “You’re a chem addict!” she tossed the sunglasses away which made the Krokorok-man scramble for them.

“Hey, don’t ruin this sweet gig, I got the whole NKR sucking at my teat and it feels good and I need my fix,” Fantastic retrieved his sunglasses and turned back to Melany, only to find she had already walked away. Fantastic just shrugged and returned to his facsimile of work.

“I see you’ve met the man in charge.” Dr. Rivas stood up as Melany approached.

Melany gave the Heliolisk-man a look up and down, “Followers of the Apocalypse? What brings you here?”

“I’m here to oversee this power plant’s operation and hopefully get it running.” He paused for a moment, “Forgive me, who are you exactly and why are you here?”

“Name’s Melany, and I was hired by the NKR’s Lt. Colonel Zade to try and get this place up and running,” she offered a handshake to Dr. Rivas, which he accepted, “Considering the other expert, I’d have to try to do any worse.”

“I see. I’ve heard of the Lt. Colonel, he sounds more reasonable than half the soldiers out here.” Dr. Rivas nodded, “So you’re here for the NKR or on your own?”

“I’m here for the payment, honestly,” Melany folded her arms, “me and GR-0-WL need all the work we can get.”

Dr. Rivas smiled, “I think I can trust you if you’re just here for the payment. The other reason I’m here is to investigate something the Brotherhood of Plasma was looking for.” Dr. Rivas saw Melany’s eyes go wide so he continued, “The Brotherhood occupied Helios One for some time, and I don’t think they were looking for power. From the little terminal information I was able to examine I keep finding references to ARCHIMEDES, but all the more critical info is probably locked up in the main tower on a private server. The NKR came and drove off the Brotherhood while looking for power stations. By some miracle, the NKR hired that idiot to try and get this place working,” he jerked his head towards Fantastic who was working at the huge control station, “He doesn’t realize that station he’s been working at for the last week controls the intercom, but he insisted that the biggest console had to be the most important. It’s only a matter of time before they stumble across it. Only thing keeping them from sending more qualified people in is the security system the Brotherhood activated and that every other expert is at Gaiva Dam.”

“Any idea what ARCHIMEDES is?” Melany asked.

“From what I could gather about this company’s work before the war, it’s some sort of pre-war weapons system.” Dr. Rivas pulled a paper out of his coat pocket, “Here’s the other code for the mirror alignments. Just be careful, the Brotherhood left some traps at them.”

Melany accepted the paper, then looked at the one she’d received from Fantastic, “So I guess the idiot’s paper is useless.”

Dr. Rivas shook his head, “No, it’s the real code. Don’t know how but he found the right one. One last thing: if you get the power working then send it to the regional grid, not just the most or least prosperous areas. It’s better to try and help as many people as possible.”

“I’ll try to do that, the addict over there would probably steal credit for all my work if I did what he wanted.” Melany pocketed both codes then headed out the back door of the plant.

The field of solar panels momentarily blinded the Stunky-woman and she shaded her eyes then scanned the area until she found two fenced off sheds on opposite sides of the field. The first was guarded by two NKR soldiers who warned her about the landmines which GR-0-WL was able to disable by poking the disarm button with his metal claws. Thankfully, Fantastic’s password worked on the terminal behind all the traps and Melany was able to set the proper alignment for half the panels on the base.

The other control terminal wasn’t ay different, just a couple tripwires attached to rigged shotguns that Melany was able to cut and avoid getting blasted before she aligned the last of the mirrors.

Melany wiped the sweat from her forehead and took a drink of water from her pack as she headed back into the main building, “Ugg, too hot out here with all the mirrors. You doing alright?” She looked down at GR-0-WL.

The robo-Growlithe barked, “Just fine. Be careful in here.”

“Thanks, GR-0-WL. Now for the hard part.” Melany held the door for GR-0-WL so they could enter then headed up the stairs behind the control room to the tower.

As soon as they entered the first floor of the tower, the whirr of turrets hit Melany’s ears and she and GR-0-WL were forced to run into a nearby maintenance room to avoid the barrage of lasers from two ceiling mounted turrets.

“Can’t this just be simple!” Melany groaned as she drew her plasma defender.

“There’s more robots below,” GR-0-WL barked, “attack?”

Melany listened for the sound of the turrets stopping and heard the sound of stomping below. “Now!” She jumped out and spotted the turrets then fired twice at each, the bright green bolts melting the housing and destroying them. GR-0-WL jumped down to a lower level where two protectrons were patrolling, knocking one over then jumping on the other as it tried to shoot it with lasers, and missed before its CPU was torn out.

Melany fired another plasma bolt at the downed protectron just to be safe, “Having fun?”

GR-0-WL tossed the wrecked computer core out of its mouth the actually grinned, “Yes. Now where?” It walked up the nearby stairs to where Melany was.

Melany holstered her plasma defender and drew her plasma rifle, “This way, just keep your eyes and ears open.”

GR-0-WL bobbed its head and followed Melany as she led the way to the main tower’s control room, then paused, “Big robot ahead.” It pointed at the door straight ahead.

Melany paused and perked up her ears, there was something through the door and it sounded motorised. “Might be a sentry bot, be careful and don’t get yourself blown up.” She opened the door a crack and peeked through. Sure enough, the bottom floor of the room was being patrolled by a sentry bot… no wait there were two, one more on the platform above. “Two of them, shit!” Melany closed the door, “two-on-two, our best hope is that they were programmed not to shoot their missile launchers indoors.”

“Do we go back?” GR-0-WL gave the Stunky-woman a look of concern.

Melany shook her head, “Nothing to go back for, we just need to figure out how to get past them without being perforated, fried or blown up.”

GR-0-WL crouched and wagged its tail. “Let me in first, I’ll distract them so you can shoot them. I can’t bite through their armor.”

Melany gave the robo-Growlithe a look of concern, “Are you sure. Even if they can’t use missiles, they’ll tear you apart.”

GR-0-WL smiled, “I’ll be fine, you’ll just fix me if I break.”

Melany took a deep breath and held up her plasma rifle, “I’ll give you five seconds then I’m coming in guns blazing.”

“Right!” GR-0-WL crouched as Melany took another deep breath and turned the door handle. GR-0-WL charged through and right past the first sentry bot.

“INTRUDER DETECTED, LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED.” Both sentry bots turned and opened fire on GR-0-WL, the one on the ground with bullets the one above with lasers.

“…3…4…5!” Melany burst through the door and opened fire on the Sentry bot on the ground, it took ten shots from her plasma rifle to melt through the Sentry-bot’s armor plating as it turned to face her, and two more annihilated its CPU. As she reloaded the one above her turned to fire lasers at her and Melany barely jammed the microfusion cell in place and opened fire as she was barraged with lasers and took several hits and burns before she blew its arm off with four shots then unloaded the rest of the cell into its torso and into its inside. With no time to reload she pulled out her plasma defender and plugged a full energy cell’s worth of plasma bolts into the hole in the bot’s armor plating just to make sure it stayed down.

Melany panted as she reloaded both weapons and scanned the room for “GR-0-WL!” she dropped her weapons and ran over to where the robo-Growlithe lay in pieces. Tears sprang to her eyes as she picked up the torso and head and its legs fell off. “GR-0-WL! Talk to me, please!”

GR-0-WL twitched, “Legs damaged, but CPU and power cell intact. Did we win?”

Melany hugged GR-0-WL close, not caring about the metal shards that jabbed her, “We did, and I promise I’ll fix you up once we get home.” She carefully set the robo-Growlithe down, “Just… lay there while I get this place up and running.

“I will. You’re hurt!” GR-0-WL tried to move and only wiggled its detached servos.

Melany winced and felt the laser burns on her skin, “Right, but not as bad as you.” She injected a couple stimpacks to help her recover, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

The control room was mostly intact and on the upper-level Melany found the main control computer. “Alright, let’s see…” she checked the controls, “Circuit severed, repair to access distribution controls.” Melany stepped away and looked around to find a broken cable on the bottom level that sparked with electricity. Melany smirked  and ran down the stairs to the broken cable, easily splicing and repairing it before she returned to the main computer.

“Alright, let’s see… power grid distribution… ARCHIMEDES?” Melany paused. The name Dr. Joy Rivas had mentioned. Curious, she checked the system and balked when she saw the text on the screen, “Confirm power transmission to orbital weapon system ARCHIMEDES!” She hit ‘NO’ as hard as possible then stepped back. Orbital weapons? Still active? No that was too much, she had to make sure the power was sent somewhere else. She quickly inputted the distribution to the whole grid in the Kalos region then stepped outside to get the mirrors aligned. One blinding blast of solar light later and the solar power plant was up and running.

“Mission accomplished,” Melany carefully gathered up GR-0-WL and his parts and loaded them into her backpack, then pulled it on which left GR-0-WL’s head poking over her shoulder.

The walk back to the control room was peaceful and Melany stopped to talk to Dr. Rivas. “Power’s on, sent it everywhere and…” she looked over at Fantastic to make sure he was out of earshot before she whispered to Dr. Rivas, “ARCHIMEDES is an orbital weapon system. I don’t know if it’s still around.”

“And yet you sent the power to the right places. Thank you. I don’t have caps but here,” the Heliolisk-man gave Melany a handful of stimpacks and a repair manual, “From the state of your friend this might help.”

“I’ll be right behind her all the way home,” GR-0-WL barked out a laugh.

Melany smirked, “Since when do you have a sense of humor, GR-0-WL?”

“Likely the aura machine phenomenon,” Dr. Rivas’ face lit up, “Robots with a sophisticated enough AI that are cared for by people have been observed to develop an aura of their own and even a soul. I’ve never seen one in person though. Perhaps you could drop by our outpost so we can observe him.”

“Maybe swing by Gibson Scrap Yard. I don’t feel like a long trip without any chance of salvage.” Melany turned to leave but stopped when she almost bumped into Fantastic.

The Krokorok-man grinned, “Hey, guess you didn’t get the memo, the power had to go to the strip and Camp Silverman. No worries, I think I can rig something up with my genius.” Melany’s eye twitched as Fantastic continued, “You know, now that I’ve done such an incredible job, I bet I can swing this into chief of the whole damn operation, or dam operation.”

Melany took off her backpack and turned away from Fantastic. He saw this and grinned, “Hey, no need to show me your tail. I can look you in the eyes and, huh?” He watched as Melany bent over and lifted her tail, before he could respond there was a blast of fluid and gas and a massive stink cloud enveloped him. “GACK! ACK! What’s that smell, hurk!” he turned and threw up in a garbage can as Melany turned back, fuming.

“Stunky spray, all the stink you deserve you overpaid, chem-addicted, skilless, smooth-talking hack!” Melany grabbed up her backpack while Fantastic was still reeling then grabbed him around the collar and pulled him to her face, ignoring the smell, “You did nothing except waste everyone’s time and I’m NOT letting you take credit for my work!” She dragged the still gagging Krokorok-man with her as she left the building.

The NKR soldiers turned away from the stench until Melany exited and tossed the still stinky Fantastic to the ground, knocking off his glasses. Lt. Haggery was about to speak until Melany started shouting and jabbed a finger towards Fantastic, “Listen you fucking moron! I was the one who fixed the power plant, not you! If you try to take credit for my work then I will shove my plasma guns up your ass so far that you’ll vomit up radiation until I let GR-0-WL tear the rest apart!”

The Krokorok-man struggled to get up and flee as Melany took a deep breath and turned to Lt. Haggerty, “Power plant’s on, but I sent the power all over the grid.”

Lt. Haggery sighed, “I guess that’s better than nothing, and thanks for getting rid of that idiot.” She watched as Fantastic, sans sunglasses, stumbled away and took the stench with him, “I can’t offer any more work here, and I’m not authorized to pay if the job’s not done to what the general wanted, but the sharecropper farms further north might have some extra repair work for you.”

Melany smiled, “Maybe, but first I gotta fix up GR-0-WL. Couldn’t have done this without it.”

GR-0-WL barked from its spot in the backpack and then let its head rest on Melany’s shoulder as she headed south back to their scrapyard.
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