FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As soon as the door closed behind them, there came smiles all round as Jack patted Barkclaw gladly.

"Hahaaaaaa nice WORK mister dino dude!"

"Well done Barkclaw," said Dronin patting his neck in turn, "that was exceptional."

"Th-thank you!" he squeaked with pride puffing out his chest. "I-i cannot believe we tricked them, they actually believed I was a stonebeast?!"

"Indeed they did because you played it so well."

"Heeheehaha!"

"Alright SO!" The gator clapped his hands with a devilish rub. "Let's get on down and find the real secret to this place."

"Do you suspect they have alerted security ahead of us?"

"If they have then we're going blind so I hope you guys aren't rusty."

"I apply lubricants every two days to make certain I do not rust."

The crocodile smirked as they travelled into the depths towards a long winding ramp that angled sharp in rectangles, almost like a smooth stairwell that made the going easier for them all as they soon found the third level of the base. Beyond the second door at the base of this which Dronin used the fingerjack to open, was a sight unlike anything they had seen.

"Woah...this is different," murmured Jack.

"A-a-are we...under the sea?" gasped Barkclaw.

"Not exactly," replied Dronin

Stretching out before them was a grand tunnel encased within glass, oval-shaped with a long walkway towards the end where another building waited for them with glinting lights and a deep shadowy presence. The waters gave a deep murmur as prehistoric beasts floated past oblivious to the scene of three strangers in a tube staring up at them. Some would notice and try to glance through or even attempt to attack the glass but to no avail, icthyosaurs and long-necked plesiosaurs casting shadows so wide that they blot out the sun ever beyond their reach above the surface, the pale orb fracturing into slivers beneath the watery mirror that rippled with each passing fin.

"I've never gone under the sea," whispered Jack opening his left eye to expose his shutter lens, "this is crazy, why even HAVE a separate base through a tunnel?"

"Perhaps in order to protect against invasions," said Dronin stepping forwards, "if they are committing criminal acts, they may have set this tunnel as a buffer of sorts against authorities that would expose them."

"You mean like us?"

"Possibly. We must tread caution, we are not supposed to be here."

"Yeah well neither is this place supposed to be here so I think we're all on equal footing."

"I LOVE this cave!" Barkclaw ran ahead almost dancing in his steps as he spun himself round staring up at the sea. "E-everything is so...beautiful!"

"Barkclaw be careful," Dronin headed up after him, "there are still enemies here, we must be prepared to fight."

"A-alright but...b-but LOOK at this cave, i-it is wonderful, y-you can see every fish! Ohhh, I wish, that, Fishclaw were here he would love this!"

"He would. But remember we are still in danger, do not let your guard down."

"Yes I know, we have to find the smallwings!"

But his eyes would roam all too easy to the roof of the sea, sunlight dappling across his features as his eyes twinkled sweetly, his scars leathering the right side of his face shining more than usual as Jack passed him by with a curious look. The long corridor beneath the sea was oddly empty of any guards for the time being as they strolled casually down the aquatic passage, taking their time to rethink and brace themselves for a future battle. Jack and Barkclaw could not help but become entranced by the ocean waves that split the sun in three, whilst mosasaurs chased after smaller lizards and devoured them with vicious teeth rending them apart in a crimson mist. There were also odd beasts that resembled an eel becoming crocodilian that the gator noticed agasp and looked bewildered by the sight of, a platecarpus scurrying across the rim of the tunnel with rounded fins instead of back legs beneath a large whipping tail that resembled his own.

"So this is...really back in the past," murmured the croc walking up to the glass, "damn...that's so weird like...you ever think about why you were made like this?"

"What do you mean?" asked Dronin.

"Like why you were created to look like an animal. I mean humans all LOOK like that, they copy each other, they mix the genetics from their parents but with us there's a conscious decision for someone to go 'yeah I'm gonna make you look like a gator, and you look like a bug', like why even do that?"

"I am not certain." The mantis looked up at the eel reptilian. "Humans both desire to worship nature yet also master it, so perhaps our construction is their means of performing both."

"You think so?" muttered Jack. "Sounds kinda philosophical for a bunch of fleshbags."

"I have discovered that organics tend to ponder deeply on their own existence. They postulate and theorise upon both themselves and their reason to exist when the simple fact is that all organic creatures exist by a means of evolutionary survival. Those who do not survive, do not exist."

"Damn." The croc reploid pulled back from the glass with a dazed look towards him. "I mean you're right but still that's pretty blunt."

"These are my own observations," said Dronin shaking his head, "you may not consider them to be fact if you so wish."

"Well fair enough, then again I've not been around most humans so I can't really like, call you on it."

"Nevertheless your question has merit. The fact we are in the shape of natural beasts is curious."

"Just that you have all the tools in the world and you wanna make me into THIS?!" He swept his hands over his body. "I mean they call me a shutterdile what was it for like a pun, cuz someone REALLY liked crocs, was it a design committee, I don't know!"

"I was developed with weaponry in mind," said the mantis patting his sword hilt, "the sword was one of my original limbs repurposed into a more suitable weapon."

"Seriously?! How the hell did that happen?"

"I do not know. My memory was wiped following a grievous incident and I was forcefully rebooted."

"Oof, that really sucks." Jack sucked through his teeth as they walked further down the glistening passage. "I never had my memory wiped or got rebooted but, jeez I can't even imagine what that's like."

"Had you been rebooted you would not be able to imagine anything."

"Uhhh...good point hey we better keep up or else dinoboy'll beat us to the party."

Heading after Barkclaw they soon reached the end of the tunnel as the great fortress loomed above them. The raptor sniffed at the door reeling from the cold acrid scent of industrial lubricants as Dronin took the severed hand from before to slip its fingerjack into the slot.

"I sure hope we can finger our way throughout all this base," said the shutterdile snickering.

"Let us hope further that they have not been alerted," said the mantis passing through the opened door, "the second facility seems larger than the previous."

"Yeah cuz that first one's a front, meant to look all legit for the news an' shit."

"I must however ask, what if we discover nothing illegal in this facility?"

"Huh?!"

"It is possible that, however dubious their staff may be, that this base may not be in error of any legal system."

"You startin' to doubt me, like, now when we're all in?!"

"It is a possibility we must discuss."

"Well, if nothing illegal's happenin' then why did they blow up my apartment an' kill my friend?"

"You are certain this is the same group?"

"Well...yeah, I followed the trail through their accounts and it came out here!"

"Very well."

An elevator appeared before them as they walked in to descend even further below the depths. Groaning shudders from hydraulics rumbled through as the raptor started to run around the floor in a circle to keep himself busy from the constant trembling under his feet.

"S-stonevoice?"

"Yes?" the mantis turned to him.

"Why does that stonebeast laugh and smile, but you cannot?"

"I cannot feel, Barkclaw. I cannot laugh, cry or be angry."

"But...but why?!"

"There is a part of your brain," he tapped along the skull above the raptor's left eye, "a part that can let you cry and laugh. That part is broken."

"I-it was? ...oh, th-that is awful, you never told me."

"You never asked."

"I-i am sorry." He gulped nervously and nuzzled against Dronin's chest with a soft thump. "Why would, s-someone take that from you?"

"I do not know. But do not be sad for me." The robot brushed his cold finger across Barkclaw's cheek. "I am here with you, you are my friend and I shall always be at your side."

"But...but you are not happy."

"That does not matter, so long as YOU are happy." He raised the raptor's head to look up at his golden eyes. "Be strong for me, Barkclaw."

"L-like, my brother is?"

"No, stronger than him, you have come this far with us to below the sea and I am greaty proud of you. Come, let us go."

"R-right, yes!"

"Alright here's our stop," said Jack approaching the door, "best get ourselves ready."

"Barkclaw prepare yourself."

"Yes!"

Bracing their bodies the raptor and the machines stood firm together as the elevator stopped with a heavy thunk. The doors opened slowly to reveal a throng of robots in all shapes and sizes, bears, tigers, lions and other miscellaneous mimics to amass a good twenty beasts in what appeared to be a large break room with two floors of chairs, tables, books and consoles sitting around the place. Amongst the group was one venomous-looking hornet with lightning colours that buzzed towards them above her clique.

"I see we have found the intruders dead-handed," she started.

"What're you gonna do?" asked Jack. "Cuz either you kill us to cover up somethin' illegal, or you force us to leave for trespassin' if it's all legal."

"Do you honestly think that is how this works?"

"Uh yeah because I'm a reporter," he bowed with foolish grin, "I been trespassing enough times to know that if all was legit, they would not risk killing some doofus that walked on in if they had nothin' to cover up, right?"

"In that case you already know what we plan on doing with you." The sound of cracking knuckles turned a-dozen across the room. "The moment you planned to walk into this place, which may I remind you none have ever found-"

"Yet."

"-you signed your last MOT. You all know what to do, but leave the shutterdile's head intact so we can process him...appropriately."

"Ohoho I'll process YOU!" the croc grinded his fist into his palm. "You all ready to be on the front page news well COME ON, LET'S START THIS SHIT!"

"GET THEEEEM!"

The wasp hovered above her crew and watched the scene unfold as the horde of beasts approached the intruders, the mantis and croc stepping out the lift first with weapons free as Barkclaw lunged between them to immediately set upon a ruthless penguin that fired a cold block of ice towards Dronin. The mantis carved through the solid chunk cleanly, slicing two halves that whistled past his cheeks and shatter against the elevator behind him as he rushed straight for the offending birdbot that Barkclaw wrenched the flipper off of. Thrusting his sword clean into the penguin's skull he quickly pulled out and swung to his right for a hard decapitating swipe that sent a fox's head rolling across the floor. But his CPU was still active enough to control his body headless as he pummeled his fists straight into Dronin's hat, bashing with frenzy and kicking him relentlessly when the foxbody grabbed Dronin's hand to force his blade up against him. Barkclaw snatched up the head and lobbed it high for the mantis to shove the headless robot back and slice his skull in half like a melon amidst a screeching shower of sparks, the corpse of steel crumpling without its control unit as he turned and skewered through the leg of a bear that roared in furious reflex.

Jack was not so skilled at fighting as he tried swinging hefty at a hawk that buffed his punches with the shield of her wings, sliding the knuckles off across her pinions twice before she bopped him hard in the snout and slammed her talonfooot into his stomach. Gasping with a short wheeze he tried to back off and snap his flashing light to blind her briefly giving him time to pounce forwards with a leading punch, cracking the jaw of her beak straight up before grabbing her head and driving his knee twice into her chest of steel. A moose wrapped his hooves round his neck and started strangling him from behind viciously as he yanked back in surprise, leaving him open for the hawk to start slamming fists into his gut as the choking grip started to short out his signals, his eyes flickering with spasms of suffocation until he managed to lift both his legs and spring a kangaroo kick on the hawk that sent her reeling back.

The force of his doublekick threw his entire body against the moose behind him, forcing him to stagger backwards and overbalance with Jack slamming his head backwards to further stun his opponent and pull himself free to stand up and stomp his antlered face. The birdbot recovered fast and rushed at him with a hard tackle from behind, landing on top and slamming his head into the ground before he pushed his body up hard in a half-rolling motion to elbow her face and quickly pull himself up to grab a chair and swing it against her head, crushing her against the wall before a boot-thrusting kick crunched her further to a painful bent. The moose stumbled to try and charge him with his lethal horns but Jack launched himself onto a table and leapt onto his head, riding the bucking cervine and steering with the antlers like handlebars to drive him into the elevator and slip onto the melting ice with a vicious crunch, snapping his neck against one block he fell upon before racing back into the fight.

During this lasers came firing in from above as eight reploids lined up to take pot shots at them, ducking from the sound of charging blasts that speared through arm cannons and burned deep into the walls and tables with black-studded pockmarks. Jack struggled to dodge between punches and laser shots that would score across his back and shoulders leaving dark streaks, before Dronin stepped in front and deflected the plasma shots with his sword seamlessly. Bending the light and bursting energy across his blade the reploid gunners tried to shoot at him in turn but the mantis registered the speed of their rate of fire and sliced the air in front of them to deflect the plasma shots straight back towards two of the shooters, one getting shot through the core processor to fall back staggering whilst another got blasted in the arm crying out to clutch herself.

Dronin overall was much more successful having an actual weapon, having killed four more of the crew with a plunging stab that ripped two wolves in half, a slashing cut that chopped a third of a chameleon's head and an upwards strike that severed an arm and a leg from an anteater-bot. Staggering back with half his body left, the aardvark whipped his tongue towards the mantis who dodged fast as the tendril sliced through the corner of a table like a hot knife, the samurai cutting the long snout off along with the tongue to render the anteater-mech harmlessly screeching to clutch his broken face. A mecha-shark came lumbering towards Dronin but was halted by Barkclaw leaping upon his back and tearing into his shoulder, claws raking across the steel as the shark started roaring with fright to slap his thick tail around and frantically try to throw the raptor off.

"G-GET, OFFA ME YOU FREAK!"

"YOU WILL NOT HURT MY FRIEND!"

"A-AAAARGH AAAAAAAAAARRRGH!"

He did not last for long with Barkclaw's savage jaws crushing into the balljoint of the shoulder and twisting his arm free to send fluids spurting from his sinewy vessels. The stench of the unnatural liquid forced the raptor to leap off as the shark made a giant haymaker with his remaining arm to crush against Barkclaw's face and send him slamming into the wall with a shriek of rattling pain through his skull. The beastly robot stomped towards the raptor who tried to shake his head clear but a sword burst from his chest suddenly as the shark gasped in a foetid screech. Barkclaw went for the leg to trap the shark on Dronin's blade as the mantis wrenched upwards harder to create a horrid tear in his belly, leaving him a broken creature as both mantis and raptor got up to face two tigers that immediately lunged on both.

Dronin backed off in sudden step to block his sword on the tiger's fist, clashing blade against knuckle to test his strength the first few punches until the fourth jab he slanted off his sword to throw the feline off, bashing his shoulder against the catmech to drive his sword deep into the enemy's throat, burning with guttural snarl down his blade in a deep bass vibrato. Barkclaw stood against his own feline opponent who tried also to do swinging strikes, but this one was smarter and tried to finish on a handcannon shot with the fourth swing as his palm opened up to reveal a black spot. The raptor smelt a whiff of fire and dodged to the side before the shot, strafing round the tiger-mech to snap his jaws hard towards the metal wrist as the feline spun back towards him with a ruthless backfist that he resisted against, standing his ground fierce with a shriek as he lunged for the tiger's head and started crushing his skull with the fullest strength of his feral fangs. The other side of the hall however shook with fury.

"HEY CROCOSHIT, EAT THIS!"

The gator felt a shadow come upon him whilst he was headlocking a wolf, punching the top of his skull violently when he saw a table being lifted by a bear and hurled towards him as he threw the wolf ahead of himself and dodged in a hard slide across the floor, kicking towards the ursine-mech's legs to try and knock him down but the bear stood solid as a rock and grabbed the gator by his throat, hoisting him up to hurl him across the room with a hard crunch against the wall as Jack groaned and curled up into a ball of shivering joints. The stomping footsteps alerted him to the bear's rushing charge as he scrabbled out of the way before a monstrous football kick crunched a dent into the steel wall, giving Jack just enough time to grab a plant by its stem and smash the clay pot against the back of the grizzly's head. The bear never flinched as he made a slow turn towards Jack and swung a hard haymaker towards his head forcing him to roll backwards across a table behind him, barely avoiding the crunching hammerblow from the beastly bot that crushed the table in half with a karate chop.

"J-JEEEEEZ LOUISE CALM YER BITS ALREADY!"

"SHUDDUP AN' DIE YOU BITCH!"

"EY-EY that's not productive in this work environmen-WOAH!"

Another grand crushing fist came sideslamming into the wall as the gator ducked, grabbing one half of the broken table to try and whallop into the bear's side with enough force to knock him off-hilt and stumble against the wall, giving Jack time to grab the other half of the table and crush the back of his neck with an overhead swing. Lasers continued to fire from above as two of the shooters took aim at Jack who quickly goaded them whilst in front of the stunned ursine mech, waiting to dodge at the last moment before they lit him up with half-a-dozen shots, charring wounds through the thick-armoured back.

"A-AAAARGH YOU-WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"WE WERE AIMIN' FOR THE CROC DAMMIT!"

"WELL AIM BETTER YOU SHITS-WH-WHAT THE-GET OFFA ME!"

"RAAAAAARGH!"

Barkclaw made a sudden rush towards the bearbot with a tremendous bodyslam against the wall, the mech grabbing the raptor by his waist and trying to crush his ribs with a hard actual bearhug amidst snapping screeching jaws that clamped over his head. Tightening his grip with a pneumatic groan he felt the raptor's snarls turn into screams of rising pain that brought vengeance upon him in the form of a cold steel blade that gouged into the side of the reploid's leg, causing him to drop Barkclaw in pain as he went down on one knee before Dronin. Barkclaw however had no time to rest from the lasers still firing down upon them as he leapt from a table and jumped to the upper floor where he grabbed a rail by his teeth. Scrabbling himself up, he only avoided being shot at when Jack started throwing objects at the shooters as well as blinding them with his flash shot, giving Barkclaw enough time to push fully onto the upper floor and start savagely mauling the remaining shooters.

First came the one whose arm had already been shot at, a beetle mech who soon became one-armed when Barkclaw grabbed her limb and twisted it off violently with hot sparks dancing across his face. Some of the gunners tried to turn and fire but the raptor was swift by launching himself off the beetle and piled head first into two panthers, one of whom he grabbed by the throat and ripped his head off with monstrous teeth gouging apart the cables. The other feline managed to crack him on the head with a hard whipping punch of his cannon arm as Barkclaw shrieked and turned to immediately grab his arm and swing him over the balcony, falling to the floor below as the remaining six gunners started running in panic towards an emergency door.

"SH-SHIT, SHIT HE'S TOO FAST!"

"DON'T YOU DARE RUN!" cried their superior hovering over the battleroom. "IF YOU ABANDON US I WILL DEMOTE YOU INTO SCRAP!"

"COME ON YOU WORTHLESS EIGHT-BIT PUNKS!" roared the bear down below. "THERE'S ONLY THREE OF 'EM DAMMIT!"

The grizzly hobbled his way towards the mantis in a charging slalom hoping to bulldoze him before he noticed. Dronin however heard the thudding stomps all too easy as he turned and struck for the other leg in a swiping cut when he rushed past him, severing the thigh's circuits but not enough to shut down the limb entirely. The bear grabbed a whole table and swung viciously at the mantis who ducked underneath, rolling forwards with a thrusting stab as the ursine stumbled back from the sharp point of the blade to counter with a hard metal chair that he swung like a club when Dronin stood up to guard against the impromptu weapon. Striking against the sword of steel with overhead swings the bear came down upon him thrice as the mantis pushed forwards with each blow to counter the force of his swing, turning his body to follow the strike of the chair in a strong deflect until the fourth attack came when he ducked under, spun and slashed the bear's throat with full velocity.

" GHHHHRRRUUUUH!"

Fluids scattered like petals across the room, spraying the wall beside them as the bear clutched his neck with fingers turning wet, clutching the chair still he made a desperate baseball swing that Dronin rolled sideways underneath before immediately slashing upwards. The bear's belly split open along with the fingers covering his throat that now severed from his hand, spilling more of the silvery water down his front as he gargled with frantic sputters until he fell on his knees.

" GH-ghuh...dammit, Queen I-gh-GHHHRKH!"

Collapsing in a puddle of hydraulic fluid, the bear was no more as the three intruders turned towards the Queen wasp floating above them, her wings buzzing rapidly with fury in her eyes before she turned and headed down a passage at the other end of the room.

"This is Queen requesting backup, I repeat we got intruders breaching past level three!"

"COME ON!" cried Jack racing forth. "WE GOT 'EM ON THE ROPES LET'S KEEP THIS UP!"

Dronin followed after with Barkclaw leaping down to join them, the passage beyond the break room opening up into a larger hall where solid crates were being stacked and processed for future shipping. The hornet raced past as workers started to scatter to their stations across open space of the cargo deck, lights shining upon the cold blue walls and floor as more gunners arrived to start firing on the intruders. Jack ducked behind a crate whilst Dronin stood forth with his sword to shield against their shots, plasma bursts reflecting across the hall with Barkclaw behind him as they pushed forwards. The croc unhinged the lid of a half-opened crate and guarded himself alongside Dronin, both of them protecting the raptor before the mantis saw his chance and rushed forwards with a cleaving thrust that lanced deep through a mecha-fox's throat.

Jack quickly headed straight towards a bull firing his hefty shotgun-blaster from his thick muscular arm, punching back the croc who fell underneath his shield and kept covered beneath the battering crunch of a plasma storm. Barkclaw leapt off the shield when the bull stopped to cool down his cannon, crashing down on the bovine's head and grabbing one of his horns in his teeth to wrench him violently to the ground with a judo swing, crunching the back of the bull's head against the hard steel-blue floor. The reploid however fought back and grabbed Barkclaw's neck, throwing him aside and readying to fire before Jack came slamming to the side of his face and relentlessly beat his head in with the metal shield, crumpling his snout to a fractured bent until his face had caved inwards to the point of non-functioning.

Dronin stepped into the middle of an all-out shooting spree as five gunners came out to rain down plasma shots upon him. The mantis dodged quickly to one side and struck his blade towards one shot to reflect it back, singing the side of a crate before he turned and struck against another laser that shot back into the shooter's leg, sending her down hard with a scream before he raced towards a third gunner trying to frantically recharge his weapon. He wasn't fast enough to stop Dronin's blade, foolishly trying to block the sword with his arms and so losing both his hands from a ruthless cleave. A fourth gunner tried to turn and fire as the mantis ducked under the searing shot, spearing the crippled enemy with his sword before using him as a shield to barge straight towards the other shooters.

One shooter ran whilst two tried to stay and fire, but were cut down swiftly when Dronin kicked the dying robot from his blade into one before slashing the other clean through before dealing with the last opponent. Jack hurried onwards catching sight of the wasp as she dodged through the towering crates with Barkclaw hot on his heels and Dronin following up behind with sword dripping of silver fluids. More enemies came out of the metalwork brandishing weapons of their own, pipes and blades that the mantis took head-on first in a brutal clash whilst Jack kept up his shield and repelled against the carving strikes that came down upon him. Barkclaw swerved beneath one sweeping club before lunging at the arm and tearing it off with a hard wrestle to the ground, taking the pipe in his mouth and hurling it towards another unsuspecting opponent that tried to sneak up on Dronin, clonking a parrot mech on the head with a shock as the swordbot turned and skewered her through the belly.

"HRRRRRKHH!"

"Thank you Barkclaw!"

"BEHIND YOU!"

Pulling his blade back out he struck against another sword that came down upon him from a boar, crossed together in a T-shape before he quickly slammed his foot into the opponent's gut and chopped his bowed head clean off to roll in an oily mess across the floor. Jack struggled in parrying against a lithely chameleon that swung and batted on the croc's targe trying to push him down hard enough for a mighty blow before Jack strafed fast and bashed the back of his head. He slammed his buckler down the back of the reptile's neck, crushing his auxiliary circuits to sever connection to the brain in a gasping shriek. Barkclaw almost got cut across his tail by another approaching mech, a salamander with a sword that chopped frantically before managing to slice some skin off the raptor's back, trickling blood as he screamed and barged into him with sudden frenzy.

Slamming his head into the lizard's chest, he crunched his jaws upon the blade as the two began a tug-of-war against each other, pushing with all their might before Barkclaw's feral strength overpowered him enough to wrench the sword free from his fingers and toss it aside to crush his snout between his jaws and twist half of his face, ripping the metal plate off before he tore at the inside circuits, shredding visual circuits and eviscerating the CPU with hot burns lancing across his teeth that made him shudder and tighten every muscle in his joints. The cargo floor was the scene of violence before long with no enemy left standing against, as the intruders ran towards a descending ramp that indicated the next level.

Level four came with it a new scent that both disturbed and surprised the raptor as they raced for a solid five minutes down the wide slanting passage. The smell of insects peculiar like leaves on the wind brought him closer to his own objective, but on discovering the end of it he wished again that he had not come.

"Wh-wh-what...wh-what are they DOING TO THEM?!"

Rows upon rows of cages could be seen across a factory floor, latticework covers spanning the length of a football field with each cage having a thin tube connected to it. A plethora of insects could be seen separated by genus in various stages of life from pupa to adult. The adults were alerted to by a sensor on each cage as a sucking sound could be heard from the tubes, pulling the insect through and upwards into a series of vats suspended against the walls. Each vat made a sound of minute grinding before creating a clear watery fluid that dripped down showing tiny fragments, broken wings and other remnants.

"Oh, jeez," muttered Jack biting his lip, "well this is a lot worse than I thought it would be."

"Wh-wh-...what...wh-what i-is THEY ARE KILLING THEM!"

"It appears so," said Dronin.

"N-NO! NOOOOOOO! NO NO NO STOP IT, STOP IIIIIIIT!"

The raptor rushed down immediately to start biting and tearing at the cage mesh, frantically trying to pull his teeth against the tightly-bound lattice whilst the bugs within scattered in fright instinctive. He struggled and failed to gain any purchase with his jaws, claws feebly pulling as he roared with increasing sobs to the point of bashing his head against the cages.

"S-STOP IT, STOP IIIIIIIIT, S-STOP KILLING THEM, STOP IT, STOP IIIIIIIIT!"

"EY-EY CALM DOWN COOL IT!" shouted Jack raising his hands. "Come on you just gotta turn this off!"

"How do we cease their production?" asked Dronin trying to restrain the raptor.

"Just...lemme think alright, I seen this kinda thing before on a documentary, there's like a console somewhere you can switch it off at, you handle your buddy there I'll go look."

The mantis nodded as he pulled Barkclaw to the floor, stroking his head and pressing his full weight upon the frantic kicking beast who screamed and raged with sobbing howls that resonated through the room.

"Barkclaw, Barkclaw please stop!"

"A-AAAAARRRRRRRRGH, AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIRRRRRRGH!"

"We are trying to help them, you cannot help them if you cannot control yourself!"

"H-h-HHHH, HHHHHH, M-MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP STONEVOICE!"

"I FOUND IT, OVER HERE!" Jack waved them over to a panel fixed to a wall. "THIS IS IT, JUST PRESS THE BUTTON!"

"BARKCLAW!" Dronin burst his voice at him. "I know how to save them, come with me!"

"A-a-aAAAAH, AAAAH!"

Struggling to pull himself up with pins and needles in his feet, the raptor followed him with a stuttering gasp and shaking head that rung with his burning screams he furiously swallowed within until his chest was pulsing with veins trembling out of his neck. The reploid stood at a panel where he was busy deciphering the emergency shutdown routine with four button pushes, pulling one lever and then three more as the big red button produced itself from beneath a fibreglass cover.

"Hurry, push it!" cried Dronin.

"Th-this one?!"

"Yes!"

Barkclaw jabbed the button with his nose as the sounds of machinery started to grind and stutter to a halting screech, Dronin immediately stuffing moss into the raptor's ears to censor the overload of sound that came after as even Jack cringed against the screaming end of the death machine. The farm turned silent after a long fifteen seconds of inutterable groans as if the earth had swallowed them full, the world churning to a stop as the room itself shuddered to a final point. The sound of fluttering wings could be heard across the room as Barkclaw felt peace for a moment, his muscles relaxing as he slumped on the floor with tears of relief.

"Th-they stopped..h-hoh thank you it stopped."

"They are safe," assured Dronin, "the smallwings shall be killed no more."

"ENOUGH!" a voice boomed from a dark door across the hall. "Just because you stopped one of our operations does not mean that you have won."

"The, TH-THE FAKEWIIIING!"

"BARKCLAW WAIT!"

The raptor ran towards the darkness by skirting around the cages and jumping into the abyss, the sound of a screeching fight could be heard briefly as Jack and Dronin hurried to his aid but before they managed to reach him, Barkclaw suddenly flew out of the darkness to crunch his scarred back against the cages.

"Barkclaw!" Dronin hurried to him. "Are you alright?"

"Th-the...f-f-fake...f-fakewing!"

"Now which one of you is next?"

The wasp spoke again as she stepped from the darkness, the sounds of heavy feet clanking rhythmically to reveal she now sat within the exposed heart of an old machine that resembled a giant bipedal scorpion around nine feet. The head was lifeless, devoid of sight by a large gash that had raked across its bronze features with a long pneumatic tail curving round its body to reveal a loathsome stinger upon its tip, a wicked dagger at least seven inches long.

"So you're the Queen huh," said Jack strolling forwards, "where's the King?"

"Somewhere that you'll never tread," she said stomping forwards with huge fists swinging from her sides, "I have no intention of letting you pass beyond this level."

"Well that's too bad," the gator cracked his fingers, "cuz I was really hoping to get an interview with my faaaavourite chief."

"Oh you'll get your interview...I'll take your head to him personally."

"He alright over there?" Jack looked back to Dronin.

"He is fine," said the mantis, "wounded but he can still fight."

"Alright well nothin's stopping us here so let's go Queenocchio, show me how good you are without yer strings!"

"Very well," she spread the arms of her mech into a wrestler's stance, "I'll enjoy making you my next puppet, Jack."

She came forwards with the first strike, hard swinging with a haymaker that whooshed past their heads as they ducked and tried to attack the exposed core that she sat within. The large robot was decaying in some parts, rusted from desiccation but it still moved with a grinding screech of force that belied its power in crushing a cold fist against the floor that Jack had once stood on. Dronin swerved to the other side and tried to slash at the other arm, but the tail stinger kept him at bay with a plunging strike that blocked his sword fast and pushed him away before coming down for a repeating stab. The mantis parried the first two strikes but the third came at a sharp curving angle that surprised him with such speed to scar his face and gouge across his throat, dropping his guard enough for a crushing punch that sent him into the wall.

"S-STONEVOICE, NOOO!"

Barkclaw leapt to attention with blood dripping off his tail as he launched straight into the chest of the Queen's mech, but an arm swung in front to guard herself which he grabbed onto hard and clenched with jaws and talons upon the crumpled steel wrist. She tried to shake him off to no avail as he scrabbled to climb up and jump for the head, ripping the top off its corrugated iron scalp to try and dig out the insides finding nothing actually active within. Too late did he realise his error when the scorpion's sting came looming up to stab him, the raptor jumping off quickly to avoid its tail but not before a giant punch clipped the top of his head and sent him stumbling hard against the cages. Jack dove between the monstrous legs and tried to grab at the tail to pull it down, but the stinger shook ferociously against his grip with reckless abandon in trying to curl as tightly as it could to attack the gator who kept trying to dodge and pull at the appendage to restrain it.

"S-STAND STILL!" she roared trying to turn and swing her fist behind her.

"NAH-UH, OVER HERE-WOAH YOU MISSED!"

"GET, OFF YOU PATHETIC BUG!"

"Naaaah I ain't a bug, but he is!"

"WHAT, G-GUH!"

Stumbling back as she turned to see Dronin rushing for her, the Queen tried to block him with a hard thrust kick as he made a running slide underneath and scarred along the back of her thigh above him. Not deep enough to sever the nerves but enough to gouge open a fluid leak, the Queen struggled to step back amidst the porous ooze that trickled down her ankle as she swung her fist downwards to crush the mantis. Dronin swiftly dodged but her retort was much faster than he expected, pulling back to swing her other fist straight towards him from the side as he blocked her giant bronze knuckles with the scape of his blade, sparks shimmering off of each hit to try and deflect her hammering thuds as best he could before an almighty double fist from above came tearing down like a gorilla stomp. Dronin hopped back sharp before launching forwards on one of her fists to drive straight into the wasp, but she managed to wrench her tail free from Jack's grasp and curve it straight over her shoulder to block his thrust by the venomous sting at its tip, slapping him back off with a monstrous recoil that sent him skidding with a light gash across his front.

Barkclaw jumped in and pulled him away quick before her stinger came back down, striking fast to punch the floor with a hole cracked in as the raptor rushed past and launched up at the tail, grabbing with a hard pull to keep it in front as he yanked it powerfully forwards to have it struggle and wrench itself against. Dronin quickly came forth with his sword to try and cut the stinger tip, but the armour was thick and the first two cuts would barely manage to carve through at least half of its width until Jack came through to pile on the tail and keep it pinned even further. The hornet was furious as she grabbed at both gator and raptor, crushing them in her hands tightly as she could as they struggled and squirmed with the larger Barkclaw managing to push himself free with his mass alone and lunge for the exposed chest.

Forced to drop her other captive the wasp punched Barkclaw against the wall hard enough to stun him, the feral gasping with a blinding headache that had him crumpling after four steps with ringing ears as Dronin leapt forth to guard him against another stinger strike. The tail swung out from behind with a launching thrust as he parried sharp, forcing it to miss and divert into the wall with a puncturing crack as the mantis soon had an idea waiting for Barkclaw to recover enough to limp to safety.

Sheathing his sword he made a beckoning taunt to incite the Queen as she swung her fist to him, the badnik hopping on top of it before the second one came swinging fast in a blurring haymaker that he leapt directly over, waiting for her tail to come down once again as he dodged and leapt over and under the cold rusted fists. Then his chance came when frustration built up enough, her tail launching out straight into the wall behind Dronin with such force that it buried deep and became stuck. The mantis jumped upon the scorpion's head and brought a hand to his blade waiting for the recoil to bring her sting towards his face. The snap-back of her tail met his strike, with one autonomous movement he cleaved through the tail as two forces met of equal speed with the sharper length cutting straight through in its purest velocity.

"AAAAAARGH, D-DAMN YOUUU!"

She turned fast to slam her back against the wall to try and crush Dronin, but the mantis leapt off fast enough to instantly strike at the leg with a crippling wound tearing alongside the side of her limb. She staggered with weakening legs trying to whirlwind with ruthless arms hoping to crush at least one of her opponents and failing to do so. Jack grabbed the circuits within her damaged leg and ripped them asunder, whilst Dronin went for the other and so they brought her to her knees. She only had so much room to move before she took one swing too far and Dronin was on top of her, blade shining as he plunged straight into her abdomen.

"_GRRRRHHHAAA AAAAARGH! _"

"Desist."

"GHHHUUUUUH! Gh-ghnhhh...s-so...you managed to beat me."

"That's right," said the leaping onto the body, "now where the shit is your boss, queenie?"

"You can f-find him...yourself, Jack."

"How do you know my name?"

"Because we've been waiting for you...I'm sure you- ZHHRRGHTH-...k-KHHH...you shall make a great...friend, to the flock."

"Flock, wait, no, what are you say-"

" E-ehhrnnn..."

She powered down with eyes closing as her body slumped within the faded husk. Jack snarled with a weary swing of his arms to rotate the joints as he stepped off the metal corpse with a sigh.

"Damn I haven't fought like that since the copper rally jeez...you alright there Drone?"

"All vitals are functioning," he said nodding, "shall we continue?"

"Yep, ready when you are."

"Are you coming Barkclaw?" Dronin asked the raptor.

"U-um, wh-what about the smallwings?!" he chirped at the cages.

"They are safe now, we have stopped them from being killed."

"But...b-but they are still trapped!"

"Jack, a moment please."

"What's up?" the gator turned standing at the fifth level's entrance.

"Will the insects be safe now that the extractors are turned off?"

"Oh yeah they'll be fine now don't worry about it."

"Barkclaw wishes to free them," said Jack stepping towards him, "that is the primary reason he came with us."

"Aww...jeez but," he rubbed his neck, "I mean where they gonna go, outside through all the machines above that are still on, they'll still get crushed it's dangerous."

"I agree, but he must be reassured that we shall save the insects."

"Alright uh, hold on lemme think. Well, they don't belong in this world right, I mean if we let them get out they might do damage...hhhnnnngh okay could you translate for me?"

"Of course."

The croc stepped over towards the raptor who stood purring gently to the creatures trapped in their prisons, crawling and fluttering in circles lost within the endless void of steel hives as Barkclaw gazed intense with his brown eyes and his nostrils breathing across the larvae within.

"Uhhhh, hey, Barkclaw right?"

"Y-yes?" he turned slowly to Jack.

"Your friend Dronin told me that you really care about these little guys."

"Yes, I do, I want to help them, c-can we free them?!"

"We can when we're done fighting the real problem, the guy that caught them in the first place. If we let them go now, they'll fly off into all the machines up there an' get crushed all over again, so we need to stop them an' turn them all off."

"Ah, r-right of course, how do we free them then?"

"We find and catch the boss," said Jack sweeping his hand over the cages, "once we've got 'im we force him to turn off all the machines and THEN once we get this base back to my world I'll free all of your little friends back to where they originally came."

"Y-you will?!" gasped Barkie waving his tail. "Promise?!"

"Absolutely," the gator nodded crossing his chest, "cross my core an' four-oh-four, I don't break a promise. Even as a reporter."

"A-alright...thank you." The raptor licked his face with a soft nuzzling for a moment. "B-but, can I stay with the smallwings please?"

"You're not coming with us now?"

"I...I must protect them, what if more stonebeasts come?"

"Ehhhh, alright I can see that, well if you wanna stay here I got no objections what about you Dronin?"

"I agree," said the mantis to Jack before turning to the raptor, "protect the smallwings whilst we hunt the alpha of the stonebeasts."

"Yes, yes I will stay here, I will protect my friends!" The raptor sat himself straight in front of the cages like a guard dog proudly. "Nothing, nothing will stop me, I will keep them safe!"

"I know you will." Dronin patted his head. "I trust you. We shall return soon."

"Be careful...please."

The raptor nuzzled him sweetly across both cheeks, licking calmly over the pinched face as Dronin headed with Jack to the lower levels of the mysterious base, through the darkest passage as they felt an abyss swallow them full which to most living creatures would be frightening. But to the robots they simply turned on their own in-built night-vision visors to find another ramp descending that turned sharply twice and reach another room.

"Huh...this is kinda weird," murmured Jack.

"Were you expecting something different?" asked Dronin.

"Well yeah I mean...besides this."

He gestured faintly towards the rather basic room of sixteen PCs lined up on desks in rows like a classroom in the dark, monitors glowing teal with radioactive lustre from beige carbon screens that looked oddly bulky for the technology around them with cables running the length of the walls and ceiling. The room felt ominous yet dull, a place where the Gigeresque met the mundane as Jack carefully approached to see if there were any possible exits by feeling along the walls.

"Well this is weird, cuz I know there's like another level at least."

"Does the memory from the rook tell you more?" Dronin asked.

"Just there's like six levels, maybe seven, no six it was definitely six, I mean what else COULD there be, you can't tell me there's just a circuit chip factory an' a lube farm here!"

"The power in this room is too great for these monitors." Dronin looked above seeing the cables disappear into holes in the walls. "There must be a server room at least."

"Right exactly, now what do we got here-hellooooo!"

The terminals showed a basic GUI with files and system settings, yet there was no mouse or keyboard connected to any of them. But then he saw with a crafty grin a rectangular block sitting beside the PC with an odd lumpy indentation.

"Hahaaaaa I knew this would come up, my intel was right!"

The croc opened his hips showing hollow compartments where he produced what looked like two large flip-open mobile phones at least half the size of one's arm, with visual screen and keypad as well as a handle that one held like a gun.

"Yanno what these babies are?" he offered one to Dronin.

"I do not," the mantis turned it over in his hand.

"That's what we call a PET, Personal Terminal basically. They're fresh on the market, basically allows you to enter the world of digital information, not many places do it but it's growing!"

"And this base allows such too?"

"Well it makes sense, the more difficult an' less public the technology the more likely some criminals are gonna use it when it's harder to work through." He brandished his PET towards Dronin. "This baby's got a feedback function so it'll allow our own CPUs to enter the network without all that second-party nonsense."

"Would it not be prudent for one of us to remain here and guard the other infiltrating?"

"Isn't that what your friend is for?" He pointed above. "I mean he wanted to help, we can't digitize fleshies but he'll make a good guard for us."

"That is true. He will keep us safe."

"Alright uh, hold up lemme check yours first."

Dronin handed his PET back as Jack started to tap in some commands with the sound of loading configs for the next two minutes. Once he was done he gave it back to the badnik.

"Now we both gotta enter the network here, so let's do it right, stand over here at the monitor next to me."

"Understood," he did as asked.

"Now raise your hand up high with the PET and click that button by the keypad."

The tap of a finger set the device a-trembling.

"Now, you ready Drone?"

"Yes."

"Put that down on that indent thing on your PC...because, it's time to JACK IN!"

With a mighty slam from the heavens the reploid slotted his device straight onto the drive's indented shape as Dronin did the same almost immediately Suddenly the world began to slip away from him in a crackling of white and blue that converted three dimension into two, melting and twisting the landscape into lines and grids that traced his outline then sucked him deep into the world within. Ones and zeroes became living beings that crossed his vision, phantoms of a dozen calculations that wrapped around his mind and pulled it towards an abyss with a strange sense of gravity as if he were falling. Light consumed him fully to flash through the bleak dark, dispelling the void to reveal a new world completely different in its shape and texture.

"Welcome to the Cyberworld."

The room was almost unchanged for having the same terminals and desks, but the walls and ceiling had now disappeared entirely with the floor become an entire pastiche of digitised renderings almost oblique to the visual circuits. Platforms of teal spread out in all directions suddenly materialising beneath his feet, walls now replaced with a constant kaleidoscopic view of white moths on a blue background that changed into shields before changing back again. Dronin was confused, moreso than he ever had been as his central processing struggled to clock everything around him.

"You alright?" asked the croc.

"Scanning...no anomalies detected, all vital functions are...I cannot confirm."

"Yeah it's kinda weird gettin' digitised the first time but you'll get used to it." He patted Dronin's shoulder with his other arm sweeping down his chest. "This is all your ones and zeroes my good dude, that is all your information rattlin' around in your CPU that makes you become you."

"My coding?"

Dronin looked down at his virtual self to see millions of binary strands clustering together to form his body shape.

"I have never observed it in a syntactic build, where is my sword?"

"It's still on you," said Jack, "you just won't have it out when we're not in attack mode, we gotta make sure we look non-threatening."

"Understood. Is this the usual process of digitisation?"

"Nah, normally you send out a navi then they get processed like a dot-EXE file to be part o' the network, but I added a couple things to sneak us in since well, technically we're not EXE files an' we don't got navi programs ourselves."

"What are we then?"

"Trojans," he waved his hand, "fake software that infiltrates a system to access its stuff."

"What is the possibility of us being detected?"

"Judging by the security I'd say about thirty-seven-percent, so long as we don't do anything stupid we should be good."

"Was this network connected outwith?"

"Not legally," Jack started walking as the platforms lit underneath his feet, "that was how I found this place, through the darkweb but I only wanted to know the location soooo we may have to dive deeper."

"Dark web?" Dronin followed with soft hums in every step.

"Sort of an...under-internet, one that normal people can't access without special programs."

"A black market internet?"

"Basically yeah! Alright we need to figure out where to go, this is a closed network so it shouldn't be THAT hard but it's a pretty expansive network from what I was readin'."

"What are we searching for?"

"Some sorta HTP, any one'll do."

"HTP?"

"Hyper-Transfer-Portal come on dude keep up."

"I have never experienced digitisation," said the mantis as they walked out of the terminal "room", "nor have I ever accessed a local network."

"Seriously?" Jack scoffed shaking his head. "Damn you must be old-school."

"I encourage you to keep me educated on digital practices."

"Alright, I mean it's only fair since you wanted to come help me."

Following the one passageway that exited their hub region, the gator reploid explained as best he could the basics of internet technology. Moths and badges kept flickering through the ethernet, constant sounds of information whizzing past Dronin's auditory feeds as a mix between garbled clicks and faint static screeches. The walkway looped around and out of the terminal "room" like an @ symbol before heading in a straight line to another larger area almost resembling a digital valley of hexagonal pillars that crowded around them. A doorway had been set up between the cliffs, with two bull reploids hovering on legless torsos as they blanket-scanned the two approaching newcomers.

"Please step through the gate."

Jack took a silent deep breath and walked through first, clenching all of his muscles in hope as the gate parsed his data in passing. The light went green as he smiled and turned to Dronin who did the same. When he passed through however, the light did not go green but went amber instead.

"Stop." The bulls approached him as Jack bit his lip. "Identify yourself."

"I am a slicer-class badnik," said Dronin calmly.

"You are not a reploid?"

"I am not."

The bulls put their hands on the mantis' shoulders and started scanning him deeper, vibrating through his being as Jack struggled not to panic, pulling out his hand to charge up something discreetly in case trouble would emerge. Five excruciating minutes later the bulls stopped with a satisfactory nod.

"No anomalies detected. Apologies, your program is unlike anything we have encountered."

"Understood," said the badnik, "may I pass?"

"You may, please cause no trouble."

Dronin nodded and went onwards with Jack, passing through the valley where shadows never cast themselves across the sweet candy-blue digiscape.

"Hooo," he muttered out of earshot, "I really thought they were gonna detect you."

"Your trojan appears successful."

"Yeah, but now it makes me realise I gotta tell you something about our chips."

"Chips?"

"So, if If we end up fightin' any mooks you gotta learn that out in cyberspace things work differently in combat."

"Elaborate," Dronin tapped his chin.

"Round here we all use chip data, you can't just attack all you want, you have to compile your data and time your attacks for the right moment."

"Because we are now actual data-forms our processing speed is much more precise?"

"Right, see ya got it already!"

The croc tapped Dronin's arm to reveal a set of five chips, four of which were swords in various configurations with extenuating letters attached to each one by a colour specific to each.

"Each type of chip data's got a code attached to it," said the gator, "you can only use one type of code per round SO, if you got two chips that have an M and an S, you only get to use one or the other, BUT if they both got an S code, then you can use 'em together in a turn, got it?"

"Understood," said Dronin, "allocation of data requires a finite process of as little coding as possible in order to streamline the battle most proficiently."

"Yep you got it! Now, lucky for you I scrounged up a good ton o' data and well, considering you got a sword already I hooked you up with some sword data that'll be in your PET."

"How many chips did you obtain for this mission?"

"Oh about a hundred-fifty, just in case, I mean I had to go cyberhuntin' out on the dark web before so yanno, gotta be prepared to take on these punks if we get caught an' I knew that these guys had a network of SOME sort."

"Understood."

The valley soon stopped at a series of bluffs, large solid cubes formed into a clean pastiche of cliff-edges.

"Hehey, look at that this is perfect!" Jack rubbed his hands. "Alright so lemme load up a chip."

Jack tapped his arm to bring up a set of 10 chips, clicking one as he felt the bubbling tremor of something under his feet. Dronin stepped back by instinct as the croc felt a geyser blast him suddenly upwards, huge gushing waters in digital form surge him up the cliff before he landed safely at its peak.

"ALRIGHT, NOW YOUR TURN!" he cried back.

Dronin looked through his chips in turn, seeing many sword types and a few attacking stances. But one seemed different from the rest, and it was only then he realised he didn't have a second arm to press anything with. However his cyber-body understood what he wanted and picked it for him, the chip loading to create a scattering of winds coiling around Dronin's feet. A whistling wind picked up to rake across his thin legs, before he felt a storm consume him with a small tornado, spinning him upwards in a fluke of dark grey clouds that vomited him up the cliff with a heady jump and land.

"Niiiiice ya did it!" Jack clapped his back.

"It has only occurred to me I do not possess a second hand," said the mantis standing up, "yet I did not require touching the chip selection."

"Yeah I realised that when I was putting in your chips, so I made an access-friendly input on account of your one-armedness, you just have to think the chip you want and it goes, I just like to touch them with my finger cuz it feels nicer."

"Understood, thank you for your consideration."

"No problem bud."

Heading further they found another set of cliffs that they scaled with their separate chips, water and wind aiding them further before they reached another long straight passage. The walk felt much shorter than it looked which confused Dronin when he had the sense of almost warping through it, leaving trails behind him as Jack smirked.

"Some lines here got faster connection," he explained, "you'll get used to it."

"I hope our mission will not take too long," the mantis said, "Barkclaw is not patient."

"Oh don't worry about that we're runnin' on nanoseconds here, what feels like hours for you is gonna be seconds for Barkclaw, by the time he even starts wonderin' where we are we'll have finished all of this."

"Understood. What is our mission exactly?"

"So my intel told me that there was a network in this place, after some rootin' around I found that there was a backdoor in a security program they use someplace here. Normally it would be weird for someone to want to have a backdoor in ANY security program, which makes me think that it's for hidin' something deeper in the network."

"We must find this backdoor then?" Dronin asked staring up at the void of moths.

"Exactly," said Jack looking downwards rubbing his long chin, "I have the file we need to access it, dark web trades an' all that, we just have to find the system so we're gonna have to go through every part of this network until we find it. Oh also we should use different names, just in case."

"Understood."

Soon the hallway ended to open up into a wider hub of various connecting portals. The portals themselves were a set of rings placed into the floor like a teleporter, six of them lined up in rows of two.

"Hi there!" A rabbit-faced robot hovered towards them with the body shape of a carrot ending in a point. "Welcome to MaltPort, my name is Kerr!"

"Uhhh hi there!" Jack waved. "We're kinda new and we're still trying to figure out our way around the system?"

"That's no problem, welcome to the team, may I have your usernames please?"

"Yeah uhhh I'm Roy, and this is uhhh-"

"Ryouma," the mantis bowed, "we are pleased with your acquaintance Kerr."

"Oh wow nice to meet you!" the rabbit bowed in turn. "I detect you only have Pupa clearance so unfortunately I can only direct you to one HTP for the time being."

"Understood. Is there a means for us to obtain higher clearance?"

"If you can find an administrator in the area, you can request them for such."

"Aw cool," Jack grinned clapping his palms, "so, where do we go next?"

"Right this way please." Kerr floated on his balltip-point towards one teleporter. "This is the orientation hub, if you can find an administrator you can then negotiate means to upgrade your clearance."

"Awesome thanks, you have a great day, come on Ryo."

"After you, Roy."

The two nodded as they stepped on one after the other, wrapped in a blinding light not unlike the one that Dronin had seen upon entering the cyberspace. The world shifted in a flash, showing a much wider area with candy pink floors and a backdrop of mint green diamonds twisting into double-helixes. The orienteering hub was much more populated than they expected, as reploids of all shapes and sizes cloistered around simulations of bistros down an artificial street that resembled a Parisian walk. Crabs conversed with lemurs whilst falcons drank tea that their processors only thought they could taste, the various eateries all marked by floating signs indicating their true purpose as meeting rooms for various flavours of newcomer.

"Huh, classic neocities set-up," said Jack shaking his head, "this must be like the acceptable face where they pull in new recruits."

"How are they here when we are separated from your world?" asked Dronin.

"They must already be the working staff, hopefully nobody tipped them off about us so let's go into one place an' just get a feel."

Wandering through the digistreet they eventually slipped into a small cafe titled "JET BAKERY" where the synthesised smell of bread hit them with such force that they staggered back with surprise, mostly for the fact that neither of them had olfactory sensors to begin with. The walls were a cool azure shade with bronze-tinted tables and a blackstone floor where a few other reploids were conversing and laughing with each other.

"Hi there welcome to Jet Bakery," said a shark reploid in a chef outfit, "can I get you something?"

"Yeah hi we're new so," Jack shrugged looking over the counter, "anything that you'd recommend?"

"Well I could make you both some nice croque monsieurs, actually we just got some real fresh paninis with some ham and melted gouda, throw in some iceberg lettuce."

"Sure thanks!"

The two sat themselves down before they were almost immediately presented with two plates containing two very large paninis piping hot. The taste was exactly as expected if one knew what a cheese-and-ham panini tasted like, but to the robots it was an incredible new sensation of lean lightly-textured ham wrapped in sticky cheese with a crunchy lettuce to set it all off.

"Wow this tastes AWESOME," said Jack chomping with his huge snout, "I mean I never tasted ACTUAL food so this is incredible."

"Glad to hear," said the baker shark, "don't worry it's on the house, orienteering's free round here."

"Aw thanks, so uh we heard about this place an' we wanted to yanno, get involved cuz it seemed a pretty cool venture."

"Alright well what do you know about it?"

"Well I mean wanting to export goods all overseas, it sounds a great way to travel, I always wanted to travel more but in my old job it was so boring I couldn't get anywhere."

"Yeah what was your last job?" The shark pulled up a chair and sat backwards on it. "I mean I've always been a chef so this is just me moving branch."

"I was a street monitor," said the croc eating a third of the panini, "basically I was a traffic light with legs, just keeping watch and directing traffic, I guess more like a crossing guard than anything."

"Yeah that does sound boring jeez, what about you?" he turned to Dronin.

"I was a gardener," said the mantis whose mandibles somehow pulled bread pieces into a nonexistent mouth, "specialised in pest control and topiary."

"Ahhh, so why are you here?"

"I am a friend of Roy's and he convinced me to change careers for the pursuit of travel opportunity."

"I'm Roy by the way sorry," Jack offered his hand, "this is Ryouma but I just call him Ryo."

"Well nice to meetcha," the chef shook both their hands, "I'm Todd, there anything else you want to ask?"

"Well uh, how do we get started even?"

"I guess you'd have to prove your skills first, at the end of the street there's an office where you can apply once you've gotten a good feel of the place, but we are gonna have to quiz you on a few things."

"Alright an' then what?"

"After that you get given a few basic tasks just yanno, to see how you do, and if you do well enough then we'll put your clearance up to Larva."

"Cool, alright uh Ryo what say we finish this an' head on down?"

"Well now hold up," the shark put a hand out to Jack, "you don't have to rush off, take your time, make some friends, we're all pretty relaxed here."

"Ehhh alright then," he shrugged finishing up his plate, "you got any drinks?"

"Sure do, coffee, tea, soda?"

"I will have soda," said Dronin still nibbling through a quarter of his panini.

"I'll have one too."

They decided to take their time, drinking up the virtual soda and experiencing a new sensation of bubbles through their noses and sugar down their throats, or at least the closest approximation of such that still kept them reeling with new delights. Thirty minutes after absorbing the local scene they decided to head out towards the end of the street that the chef indicated to them, a large hexagon building that almost strangely resembled a police station by its sky-blue visage and blinding title upon the front that screamed MALTPORT towards the small crowd of entrants filing their way into the double doors. the inside was much less sparse than they expected, giving the appearance of a doctor's office with plants and ergonomic chairs all circling each other in small sunken pits of the floor whilst a reception desk stood at the very centre of the room.

"Hi there," a leopard grinned at them from the desk, "welcome to Maltport offices, how can I help you?"

"Hi we're lookin' for job opportunities," said Jack sliding his arm across the desk, "you got any open spots?"

"Mmmmm well what qualifications do you have?"

"I used to work in street monitoring, Ryo here was a gardener."

"I see...well," she started typing into a holokeyboard bringing up a screen, "we don't have anything for monitoring at the moment OR gardening-"

"Ohnono I mean we're up for anything, we can do any kinda work that requires three hands."

"Alright well we DO have an opening in cybercargo, we're always needing new hands down there, would you like to try a test period?"

"Sure, watcha think Ryo?"

"I agree," the mantis nodded, "let us work for you."

"Okay doke." The leopard tapped a few more buttons and then produced two stickers. "Here you are, just wear these and get on the HTP at the back, it'll take you down to cargo level and you can get started."

"Nice, thanks a lot!" Jack slapped his digisticker on with Dronin doing the same. "Alright you have a good day!"

"You too, and welcome to the MaltPort family!"

They walked past the desk and stepped into a large lift shaped like a giant blue cylinder. There was no door, instead it was a permeable surface that recognised their new badges with a curious beep and let them melt into the tube which suddenly shot them through into the deeper sections of the building.

"That was easy," he muttered stretching his fingers together as their bodies remained static, "now we just gotta infiltrate our way up to the top."

"What do you propose?" asked Dronin as the hyperlift thrummed around them.

"We work ourselves as good bots, then crawl up the ladder until we can find some access to more areas and THEN we start lookin' for that backdoor."

"Let us hope we find it soon."

"Didya hear that receptionist being all like 'welcome to the MaltPort family', like come on who are you kidding, they don't care about nobody here!"

"I agree that their familiarity is facetious. I am impressed by the speed of which these devices measure."

"Hope you can keep up," Jack nudged him jokingly as he looked at his sleeve without watch, "damn this is taking a while, must be some server lag round here."

"Perhaps there is a channel using more power," said Dronin looking around at the etherspace.

"Maybe...hope we find out what it is."