Writer’s corner: GREETINGS FRIENDS! Here I am, with an only slightly off-schedule update!

SO, Not much about today chapters besides the fact that it’s a calm chapter to compensate for the long bandit-raiding arc. It’s kinda lighthearted and gives me the chance to introduce a new character from an older story I had but never got around writing too much about it.

BESIDES, if anyone finds the action over the top at the end of the chapter, just remember what is said about the character in earlier chapters. Add that a frustration from his shenanigans and you can guess why that happens. Anyway, the idea is for him to be an over-the-top character when it comes to certain things, and maybe even a bit gon-like at times. (What? I like crazy characters! They are fun to write!)

BESIDES(2), Crafting chapter will arrive soon. Within one or two if everything proceeds well.

Beep, and enjoy your story!

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Gaz patiently waited as the girls jumped off from the jeep-like vehicle before Yllivia picked him up and lowered him to the ground. Beeping satisfied at being able to move around again without worries, he stretched himself by doing a lap around the vehicle.

[Man, I didn’t expect that having to stand still like that would be so tiring.] He said energetically under the gaze of both Yllivia and Ruby, who looked at him with small smiles. [Yeah, I prefer the truck.] he said before spinning around and seeing as the Truck’s cab slowly made its way towards the empty parking lot besides them.

Since the travel was fairly short, the group didn’t feel the need to bring out the whole thing, so they decided that splitting the group in two and come with both the jeep and the truck’s cab alone.

As the large metal box stopped, they saw as both the dwarf and the troll hopped off, with Ross laughing loudly and Volgoff chuckling slightly. While he wondered what they were thinking about, he didn’t bother too much with it as another thing caught his attention.

Turning back to the building in front of him, he couldn’t help but whistle amused in his mind while seeing it stretch for a few good hundred meters to the sides and three floors tall. It certainly was a fairly big building. The fact that it was a government owned one didn’t make it any less impressive either.

[Are we really going in there?] Ekis asked surprised.

“Hmm… They’ll let us enter if I speak with them.” Ruby said out loud so that the others could hear them. “I… Think that he shouldn’t refuse a meeting…”

While everyone looked amongst themselves a bit dubious, no one discussed and let the small Morphian guide them towards the entrance, where a guard stood in his cabin. Approaching the burly and grumpy looking dwarf, Ruby exchanged a few words with him and saw as the guard nodded before heading towards an interphone of kinds.

He exchanged a few words with the person on the other side while putting on a very disdainful look. He quickly changed into one of surprise as he kept on listening to whoever was on the opposing side of the line.

After a few seconds, he finally nodded and hanged the interphone while visibly sweating coldly.

“Y-You can come… Ma’… erm… miss…” He said while opening the door besides him.

While receiving a surprise exclamation from the rest of the team, Ruby blushed and shrunk a bit under her usual hoodie before making a motion for them to follow her. When the guard offered to call someone to be their guide, she immediately refused and said that there was no need.

“I’m still getting used to the li’l miss status…” Ross said awkwardly. “It just feels so…”

“Odd?” Lunn asked in the same tone.

“I was going to say humiliating, seeing how she’s more important than all of us, but that also works.” The dwarf said with a shrug, earning some small awkward smiles from the people around him.

“Subtle as ever.” Volgoff said in his usual paternal tone.

“No use worrying about the small things.” The dwarf replied with a shrug.

Seeing as the group casually walked into the building while chatting like that, Gaz also quickly got into a cheerful mood as he noticed the sheer amount of people and technology that seemed to gather around them.

[Wow! What’s that?] Gaz asked as he saw a canine looking robot with what looked like a fur coat.

[That’s a Raven-coat coyote model. They use the pseudo-fur to absorb more light than the usual solar panels.]

[Waah. So pretty!] Ekis echoed seeing a small but extremely colorful squirrel like robot, whose whole shelling was covered in different colored plates.

[I’m still not entirely sure, but it seems that they use the variety in colors to attract mates.]

[What’s that? What’s that?] It was Gaz’s turn to ask again while looking at another interesting looking robot.

While the trio kept on talking about the robots that they found and so on, the mercs were a lot more composed. Already used to seeing a bunch of different robots thanks to their jobs, for them the biggest interest was in looking at the equipment that the government sanctioned guard-soldiers sported.

“Is it alright for us to be here?” Lunn asked a bit confused after noticing how little attention they were actually attracting.

“Hnn.” Ruby shook her head. “They usually have public tours here. To show new techs and such, so this floor isn’t actually that classified.” She explained, receiving a surprised glance from the others. “I… Erm… Came here before.” She said shyly. “When I came to talk to Evon…”

The group nodded in slight surprise before approaching an elevator on the end of an hallway. Two guards, a troll and a lynnian stopped them on their tracks by barring the way and making a motion for them to wait. Wearing full body bullet-proof armor and helmets that covered their faces, the duo was fairly intimidating.

“I take it that you are The Professor’s crew?” The lynnian asked.

“Y-Yes.” Ruby said with a nod.

“Then we need you to leave any weapons you have with us.” He said with a business tone while making a motion with his hand for the group to hand over the weapons. Already foreseeing such event, Sorius nodded while removing the bag he carried over his shoulder and delivering to the guards. “Is this all?”

“Eerm… Do Blow-torches count as weapons?” Ross asked a bit awkwardly, receiving confused glances from the guards and face-palms from the group.

“…Yes. It can be used as a weapon.” The lynnian said warily, and became slightly amused as the dwarf sighed and took out a blowtorch from some kind of deep pocket in his jacket.

“I’ll be back to you soon, Madelyn.” The dwarf said before kissing the gas canister gently.

[Am I the only one who is seriously curious about why the hell he have a blowtorch on his pockets?] Gaz asked wryly.

[No. You aren’t the only one.] Ruby replied in the same tone while watching the dwarf pass the tool to the guard.

“Ross. Don’t forget the screw drivers.” Volgoff added in his usual tone.

“Oh, aye. Thanks big guy!” Ross said surprised before searching his pockets and taking out a small set of screw drivers and other similar tools. “Here ya go!” He said while passing them, only to stop and nudge the lynnian. “Beware of Risky. From the quintuplets, the lass’ the most dangerous. She has claimed many toenails till today.” He said in a whisper that was only loud enough for the group to hear.

“…I’ll be sure to keep an eye out…” The lynnian replied curtly before sighing and turning to store away the tools.

“Well, now we’ll have to perform a body check on you.” The troll said, surprising Gaz who retreated for a moment, though it wasn’t due to the sudden speech, but the fact that the voice was clearly feminine. “The girls can come with me, while the guys can head to Holmes.”

[Wait, that was a girl?] Gaz said surprised.

[You speak like you have never seen a female troll before.] Ruby said surprised while following the towering woman into a separated room with the other girls.

[Well, I at least can’t recall anything of the like.] Gaz replied in slight worry before finally noticing something. [Ermm… What do I do now?]

Noticing that not only the girls, but also the men had been taken somewhere else so that they could be checked, Beepy found himself alone in the hallway, only to watch as another guard took on the place besides the elevator while waiting for his co-workers to come back.

Finding himself alone, it didn’t take much longer for him to become the center of attention, seeing how unique his tank-body was and the fact that he came here while following the visitors didn’t exactly help making him more subtle.

Seeing how many of the smart-looking people all gathered around him, crouching down and watching him in wonder. Some started to chit-chat amongst themselves while pointing towards him and others started to pull out notebooks or piece of papers to sketch something.

One of the more courageous scientist even tried extending his arms so that he could try and touch Gaz, who, amused with the scene, beeped the moment the hand was about to touch him, making the scientist fall on his bottom in surprise.

“Beep!” The robot said amused before rolling forward and bumping the man’s feet playfully.

The other watchers started laughing at their colleague’s situation before turning back to watching them.

Deciding to humor them instead of simply staying alone doing nothing, Gaz kept on fooling around with the scientists as they tried to note down whatever it was that they found out about it. Not unlike how Ruby had been the first time they met.

“Beepy.” Yllivia called out to him as she left the room.

Gaz quickly replied to the call with a beep and spinning around so that he could face the place where she was. The watchers let out a disappointed tone as they saw their new curiosity running away.

[I’m still not used to this…] Ruby commented on a slightly shy tone.

[Do I want to know?]

[NO!] She replied hurriedly, hearing as Ekis and Gaz giggled in synchro.

Following the lynnian, the elf and morphian followed suit with the trolless following them from behind. Ruby’s face was slightly blushing, but the two older girls seemed to be fine, as they were already used to this kind of procedure from working on their line of business for so long.

It didn’t take much longer for the boys to follow suit and come back from their check.

[I see that you had your fun here.] Ruby said amused while looking at the small crowd that had gathered.

[I blame boredom. It’s the most dangerous state of mind existent.] Gaz replied in a deadly serious tone before shrugging in his mind. [And it’s not like I’m doing anything bad, am I?]

[True… But be careful with how you act.] Ruby said suddenly serious, making Gaz react with a slight shock. [These are all experienced researchers in robotics. They might be able to see through your act if you don’t be careful.]

[I…I’ll be careful.] He said worried while following the group quietly.

The two guards made a motion for them to enter the elevator after opening the door with a key and password. Leaving the troll behind, the lynnian followed the group and also entered the elevator before pressing the floor button.

As the metal casing started to lower upon the ground, the group quickly noticed how the small morphian was starting to feel uncomfortable, as she fidgeted a lot.

“Is everything alright, sweety?” Lunn asked while pulling gently caressing the girl’s hair.

“Hmm…” She nodded before taking a deep breath. “Ermm… I guess I should warn you… But Evon… no, Syche is pretty strange. So he might do something weird…” Upon her words, the group could see how the guard gave a wry smile under his helmet. Confused, they all looked to Ruby.

“Erm… How exactly would you define strange?”

“Well…” She started, but the elevator dinged.

Blinking surprised, she turned back and saw as the door opened right before them. She decided to explain while walking with them, so she quickly took a step outside while preparing to tell them what to look out for.

But not even did she take a step back, a pair of hands quickly grabbed her and pulled the girl right off from the doorway.

“Took you long enough pipsqueak! Come on, I need your help with something!” They heard a man’s voice echoing, sounding strangely annoyed and hurried.

“WAAAAAAAH?” Ruby shouted in surprise while being carried away.

Beepy, Yllivia and Ross reacted quickly, running off from the elevator and looking to the side where the hands had appeared, only to watch in shock as a brown-haired lynnian ran through the corridor while carrying a squirming Ruby on his shoulder.

“What…” Yllivia said confused before frowning and preparing to run after the man.

“P-PUT ME DOWN SYCHE!” Ruby shouted with a tinge of fear.

“DO I LOOK LIKE I HAVE TIME FOR THAT? I HAVE SCIENCE TO MAKE!” The man shouted back before suddenly skidding to a halt and opening one door down the hallway. Not forgetting to shut it closed on the way in.

Silence fell upon the group as they saw the scene in shock. The first one to react was the large troll, who finally asked.

“What… Was that?”

“That’s the guy you came here to see.” The guard said with a sigh. “I guess I don’t need to say where his laboratory is, right?”

“ARE WE GOING TO STAND HERE AND WATCH WHILE MY SWEETIE IS TAKEN AWAY?” Lunn asked angrily before preparing to dart towards the door, however, a voice stopped her.

“Ahh… No need to worry. Syche is surprisingly harmless despite his methods.” A woman’s voice came from the place right besides the elevator. Blinking, the group turned to the side and met with the sight of a black haired elf who held her forehead with her hand. Wearing a get up similar to the guard, she didn’t look like the researcher kind. “Ah, where are my manners. I’m Flora, Evon’s squad-mate.” She said while extending her hands towards a shocked Lunn, who absentmindedly shook it.

“Ah, Flora, can I leave them to you from now on?” The guard asked with a relieved tone.

“Sure Holmes.” The elf replied with a nod. The guard gave a brief nod before passing her a bag where all the group’s gear had been stored. Exchange done, he entered the elevator once again and left the floor. “Anyway, I guess you guys want to take a look at your friend, right?” She asked before walking forward without waiting for an answer.

While the group quickly jogged to catch up to her, they were all a bit too stunned to question about what had just happened, with the exception of Lunn, who was simply too furious to care.

However, the moment they reached the door, even Lunn’s rage was nothing compared to what happened.

Taking a deep breath while resting her hand on the doorknob, Flora face suddenly contorted into a grimace as she jolted the door open and stormed in.

“EEEEEVOOOOON!” She shouted from the depths of her lungs while starting a mad dash forward, where the lynnian and the morphian stood in front of a whiteboard filled with equations.

Ruby blinked surprised for a moment before taking a step back, leaving a clear line towards the lynnian, with no one in the middle to protect him, the brown haired lynnian stared at the girl for a moment before slumping his shoulders.

“Goddamit.” Was all that he said.

Not a second later he was caught in a lariat, his body flinging backwards as the elf hit him right on the neck, making the lab-coat wearing lynnian fall to the ground with a dangerous sounding ‘thump’.

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO NOT LET SYCHE OUT WHEN WE HAVE VISITS?” The elf shouted angrily at the still stunned researcher who looked dangerously close to passing out.

[…Waaaah…] Gaz said surprised.

[Is he okay? That looked painful! Shouldn’t someone do something?] Ekis asked worried.

“Ha… ha ha…” Ruby laughed dryly, gathering the stunned group’s attention. “I-It’s always like this. No need to worry… I think.” She said.

However, even with the morphian’s words, they couldn’t help but wonder whether the lynnian would survive or not, seeing how the Elf started dragging him by the legs before he even got up, all while grumbling something about teaching him a lesson.