What's Left of the MagCave II: We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"... Well! That explains why you haven't taken this place back yourself!" Kathy says. Her blade switches to a high guard in order to parry incoming blows from above, "Magtok, go hide; if you have a ranged weapon to assist, do so from safety. The rest of you, take up vantage points and keep Magtok from getting attacked. Support where you can."

The mech pilot looks over the great purple ape curiously as she holds her blade before her. Hmm... can't let herself be hit directly by that thing; it wouldn't kill her, but it'd probably do some serious damage to the mech components, and that's bad news for a continued fight. Its skin likely isn't as armored as the shiverblade she's holding is, meaning both sides have much stronger offensive power than defensive in this engagement. Whoever scores the first real hit is likely to be the victor.

So, once the others are out of the way, a pair of speakers pop out of her shoulder's, and re-orient themselves in the direction of the damn dirty ape... and proceeds to blare a ludicrous screeching noise, loud enough to damage eardrums, make your eyeballs vibrate so hard you can't see, and in general cause a serious amount of pain for anything in the sonic attack's firing arc. Not a lethal attack on its own, at least against a creature this large, but it's definitely going to be disorienting and painful if it doesn't move out of the way.

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"A giant monkey!" Luuvat makes a rather grievous taxonomic error. The four goblins then scurry off to do as the person in the giant mech-suit suggested. Kuvesh takes a position in front of Magtok, keep his shield up... for all the good it'd likely do against this thing. Luuvat stays nearby, his staff crackling with electricity. Their two sisters are spread farther apart, with Zaalmin taking a moment to line up shots with both of her guns. She then fires each of them twice, aiming for the ape's right knee.

[Lord Magtok]

The Museum of Unnatural History

The enormous orangutan (pongo giganteus) howls in pain, pushing against the ground with both hands to propel himself back and reverse course. These things aren't prey; they're violent and strange monsters. The beast hadn't even gotten close enough to seize one of them with his massive arms, and somehow, he's already blind and bleeding and dizzy! The smart thing to do now is to admit defeat and flee into the wilderness. Pride means little to the beast; this region of the forest floor doesn't even have much to eat anymore, so temporarily ceding these grounds to the Small Things is no real loss. He'll go rejoin the rest of his pack and nurse his wounds. When he's feeling better, maybe they'll take the fight back to the small ones, but not today.

"Yeah, you better run, you BonziBuddy-looking ass! Go back to your library, the other wizards are looking for you!" Magtok shouts at the animal, confident that between the giant mech's speakers and his goblin entourage, there's not a single thing that could threaten him now. That was surely the jungle's apex predator they just sent scurrying away in defeat; getting to that circuit breaker will be no trouble at all! They just need to-

"He has no style, he has no grace! This Kong's g-Mmmpghf!" the cyborg's muffled screaming seemingly come out of nowhere, as a giant purple-furred arm takes advantage of the distraction made by its fellow ape to reach down, wrap its massive fingers around Faketok's stupid head, and try to pull him back up with it into the trees. The other Small Things might be monstrous and deadly, but not this one. It knows from experience that this kind of Small Thing is monstrous and weak. Breaking this one will be easy.

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"You just had to tempt fate!" Kathy calls out. Can't reorient the screamers with Magtok in the mix; at the kind of calibration-level needed to damage a creature this big, they'd just kill him, most likely. So, the speakers go back into the shoulders, and with a burst of the jets in her mech's feet and back, Kathy will soon be on a collision course with the beast, her sword ready to swing down through its torso.

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

The goblins all jump when the enormous primate emerges again, but they regain alertness quickly and spring into action. Zaalmin fires her guns rapidly above the arm, hoping to catch the rest of the ape's body. Meanwhile, Luuvat traces a pattern in the air, muttering something, before releasing the magic and sending a not particularly damaging but painful jolt of electricity at the orangutan's shoulder. Hoping that it will make the beast drop Magtok. The other two are holding back, since concentrating more fire on the thing just risks hitting Magtok instead.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rat Assisted Tour]

"Hmm, I don't know what he's referring to here. A lot of things could've got in his programming if he wasn't careful. And historically he's not been careful, but he's been better about that since I came back, sooo I'm thinking it probably is something quite bad."

Very useful commentary there, Rattok.

"But if we're all being honest here, then I gotta say I won't feel too bad for you, Magtok, and look forward to the look on that Magtok's face when he sees the price of my assistance."

[Lord Magtok]

Rat Assisted Tour

"I'm renting headspace to a former enemy turned artificial intelligence program in exchange for his assistance with Feia," Magtok scowls. Questions, questions, questions. Isn't it enough that he has graciously permitted them to act as tools for his righteous crusade? To be pawns in the greatest game of Auto Chess the Nexus has ever known? Their place is not to know, it is to trust, and to act. Anything more than that just stretches operational security, and exposes intel to whatever psionics the dragon might or might not have in her arsenal.

"No, it won't be an issue for any of you, and no, I'm not taking any additional questions on the matter. Okay listen, since it became clear that the fate of the world was at stake, I have spent every. single. day. building and preparing for this conflict. I've made sacrifices the two of you could scarcely fathom, plotted out contingencies and eventualities in the dozens, and wrote out so many schemes that Feia could be scrying the entire MagCave daily and still have no idea which kind of attack to prepare for. I can understand why you have all these questions, but believe me, I know what I'm doing, alright? But if words still aren't enough, if you're still doubting me, then-" Magtok reaches up and pulls his entire face off. By the time everyone's done freaking out over that, they might notice he doesn't have any of the things one would expect to find underneath a face. Nope, there's instead a rat-sized cockpit set up, with a teeny little rat throne, itsy-bitsy rat-sized neural interface helmet, and even a rat-sized motivational poster on a wall, with a rodent hanging from a confused cat's tail, and a 'HANG IN THERE' caption below.

"I've actually been waiting for the right time to have this talk, Rattok, to make the case for your recruitment and show how I've advanced your own designs. I wasn't expecting you to be the one to approach me, nor for you to already have a teammate for the mission, but life is full of surprises like that. Now, do you two have any questions you absolutely have to have answered, or are we nearly done here? My other bodies are busy with other important projects, and I can only focus on piloting so many of them at a time without melting my brain."

The Museum of Unnatural History

The ape might've gotten the drop on our team, but they turned around and took action a lot faster than it was expecting. Did the big metal one just fly? That lightning is nothing to sneeze at, either. The beast's arm jerks and twists as it courses with electricity, balling into a fist and making an unpleasant snapping sound before going limp and dropping its hostage. Oof, I don't think Faketok is going to be walking on those legs for a while. Still, the lightning made for an agonizingly painful distraction, which means Kathy has her sword in its midsection before the tackle can even finish sending them both tumbling to the ground, and the cybernetically enhanced orangutan can do little more than thrash and flail before the lights go out in its eyes. That's one giant orangutan down, with gods only know how many more out there. Hopefully they have the good sense to stay away after this.

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

Kathy makes sure that the massive ape's heart is punctured, slashing upwards to make absolutely certain it's dead before she moves over to Magtok, blithely ignoring the last, piteous movements the creature might be attempting to make. She sheathes her blade and kneels down over him, "That's not looking good. D-check?"

"... wait, you don't know what that means. I'm asking how much internal damage your legs have taken," Thankfully, this one's a robot, and definitely not the real Magtok, or this could have been a lot worse, "I can carry you the rest of the way if you're still operable, but I won't make that decision for you."

[Shadowcaller]

Rat Assisted Tour

Any thoughts Jaahlyn might have concerning this "artificial intelligence" renting space in Magtok's head (which strangely was all too familiar to her own situation) was lost the moment Magtok pulled his own face off.

She blinks, completely speechless for a moment. They had been talking to some kind of golem all this time? She wasn't used to this kind of artificial constructs. Maybe it was best, as Magtok's attitude suggested, to just keep your mouth shut now and just try to accept everything that was happening.

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"I've got some splints here if those will help," Olvisin says.

"I doubt that's the worst we'll meet down here, but maybe the other critters will be at least a little intimidated."

Their brothers seem to be examining the orangutan. Just how much of a machine is it? Entirely so, or partly?

[Lord Magtok]

The Museum of Unnatural History

Faketok waves a hand dismissively. He doesn't need to be carried like some small child, or put in a splint like some sort of squishy broken human. "Legs are stupid and superfluous. I'll be fine, I just need to-"

Oh, that's right. This drone body doesn't have an anti-grav implant in its spine like regular MagClones do. All of that real estate was taken up by the neural receiver that allows our sleepy cyborg to pilot this body. That's why the anti-grav implant needed to be moved further south, and split between the two legs. The same two legs that are now utterly shattered and incapable of sustained flight, as Faketok discovers when his futile attempt to return to an upright position results in his legs leaking a blue ferrofluid, and his entire body doing a messy corkscrew spin before he's dumped facefirst onto the ground again. Oof, good thing this body doesn't feel pain, right?

"...The gods are punishing me for hubris again," he remarks blithely, trying to bury the indignity under a thick layer of forced indifference, as he flips himself over so he's no longer got his stupid nose buried in the dirt and mud. "Sure, I'll go for a ride, I guess."

As for the orangutan, it was actually mostly organic. The words BOOMERANGUTAN 3-A, MAGLABS LTD are engraved on the beast's shiny parts, in case anyone wanted to know what its name was, but aside from the purple fur, weird exposed brain, and bad teeth, it's really not much more than an oversized orangutan. Hrm, I can think of several good reasons to reject this thing and put it in the hall of shame, but I can only guess at which of those reasons might have been considered by the clones. Possibly none of them, given their eccentric nature.

[Halae]

[Museum of Unnatural History]

Kathy picks up the mangled cyborg gently, human-like hands ensuring that she's able to move him up to her shoulder with relative ease, so that her arms are free to manage her blade. That'll put Magtok right in front of her gun! I mean, it's not aimed at him, it's pointing upwards due to being in a standby position, but it's still right there. Faketok is also going to be able to feel the surprisingly comfortable fur of the pelt Kathy's wearing on her mech's shoulders. That should give him something to grip onto so that he doesn't fall off. it does mean his legs are going to be leaking ferrofluid all over the front of her mech, but she's a big girl, she can take it. This seated position should save Faketok some of his wounded dignity, since it gives him a high, respectable viewpoint.

"We should get a move on, before scavengers come to check out the corpse. The blood'll attract them pretty quickly," She says, and waves for the goblins to follow her as she makes good on that particular suggestion.

[Morty]

[Museum of Unnatural History]

The goblins shrug and turn away from the orangutan. It's not as interesting as they hoped, in any case.

"Right you are," Luuvat says. "Let's move."

"So, uh, what was supposed to happen here, instead of you falling to the ground?"

[Lord Magtok]

The Museum of Unnatural History

"I was supposed to stand upright, hovering over you, proving to everyone that I don't even need functioning legs to be amazing. Instead, I've been betrayed and left for dead by my lower extremities. When this is over, I'm moving the antigrav stuff into my torso and building Faketoks without legs from now on. I'll be ascending beyond you mere mortals with your primitive feet, and taking my rightful place as a floaty ghost robot and master of the skies," Faketok declares, with more than a little bitterness in his tone. He shifts his position atop Kathy's mech, to ensure his stupid limbs leak as little as possible. That wolf(?) pelt looks expensive, after all.

"Anyway, we should be nearly there. I don't remember this place being especially big," Mag promises, though I don't know if I would trust anything he says when it comes to the size of rooms. His foyer alone is big enough to fit an entire studio apartment. His 'dining room' is a cafeteria with enough seats for all of the clones who lived here. His museum of shame has turned into a jungle, with enough space to comfortably house and feed at least two gigantic cyborg orangutans. If Magtok had a middle name, it would probably be 'Extra,' because that's how he does just about everything.

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

Definitely not a wolf pelt, now that he's got a good look at it. Magtok may not know much about wolves, but whether or not he does, I feel fairly confident in saying that he knows wolved don't have black skin under the white fur. Ferrofluid also seems to sluice off of it as if it was a well-waxed metal, simply not clinging to the fur or skin. Just what did this come from?

Kathy takes point again, moving forward with her sensors alert, using her blade as necessary to cut open the path forward, "So, hey, Magtok, why do you work with so much biological stuff? Seems to me most of your best inventions are purely mechanical. Mechalomania, for instance."

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

The goblins march in silence, but if either of the taller folk are paying attention, they are listening very intently to Magtok's answer to the Kathy's question.

[Lord Magtok]

The Museum of Unnatural History

"Funny, I've always thought the opposite. See, gods used to walk the streets, back in the day. Gods that could eat twelve Mechalomanias for breakfast. Those weren't pleasant times for a man like me, but even without an ounce of divine will or arcane power flowing through my body, I still made an impression upon that wretched town. I made my reputation in that world not by having the biggest guns or thickest armor armor, but by being the most unkillable roach infestation to ever live. People might not fear the death rays and robot goons, they might not think much of retail empires or the celebrity image I cultivated for myself later on, but what they did care about, what made them sick with fury, was that whether they be gods or kings or all the armies in the world, not a one of them could kill me. Not really, not in any way that actually mattered.

Maybe some of that aura of invincibility's gone away recently, since I've only been using one clone lately and I didn't have these drone bodies ready until a few weeks ago, but I'd argue immortality has had a bigger influence on my life than anything to do with steel and circuitry ever could," Faketok argues, pointing out which way to go and where to turn. At one point they actually find one of the museum's walls, or rather, what's left of it. The drone directs them through the massive hole smashed into it, clambering over ancient rubble encrusted with moss and lichen. Jeez, I hope the frayed and severed wires that ran through this ruined wall weren't attached to anything important, like the rest of the lair's power grid or something. It'd be a real pain in the butt to have to hike back here and find a way to both fix those wires and find a way to keep them from getting damaged again later.

"I'll admit the zoological stuff is more of a dumb hobby that got a little carried away, but the monkeysharks and tyranocopters were never really about power, Marley. Hardly any of this was. I just...you have to remember, for the longest time, Inside's military was utterly gargantuan. I don't know where Vyrn even found room to put all of that stuff, but I knew that if I ever did more than pay lip service to AMEN's goals, if I ever really crossed the line or even looked too threatening, he'd have this entire mountain brought down on my head. So instead of going to war, I chose to bide my time, keeping my prey wary but unwilling to make the first move, waiting for him to slip up, waited until the day backing AMEN would lead me to a throne, not the gallows. When he finally did vanish, his fractured successors were still too strong for me to count on AMEN for my protection, so I lost interest in conquest and games of power, grew disillusioned with AMEN and eventually quit altogether. I started spending more time fighting evil than plotting it, built up relationships for their own sake rather than what I could leverage out of them. I got so caught up in what I thought would be mere diversions, building up my affable villain persona, until suddenly I had half a dozen kids and was playing the role of father of the bride at a Remnant wedding.

It was over, I realized. I was never going to be that nefarious tyrant I was waiting to be. I put down my tools, turned off the lights, shut off the lab rat indoctrination programs...and then turned them back on again. So what if I was never going to rule the world? So what if I'd wasted years of my life waiting for a man to die? Making things was fun. Teaching fish how to read, building apartment-sized robot scorpions, giving sharks a sense of right and wrong was fun. I was no longer under any illusions that my works had any sort of practical application, so I spiraled into...I became a sort of-" Magtok stops, realizing he's been doing this monologue for a while, and it's gone somewhere pretty sad and personal and entirely unrelated to Kathy's original question. She never asked why he became disillusioned with his whole life and left the Nexus, she asked why he made stuff like boomerangutans. He also accidentally called her Marley without realizing it a paragraph ago, too.

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

Kathy slows to a stop around the word "Marley", though it's not a sudden enough thing to really interrupt the rambling. When her voice comes out of the mech's speakers, one can hear how tight her throat is, "I- you- you shouldn't call me that. It-It's not my name anymore."

She doesn't elaborate. It's another few moments of the mech feeling deathly still before she starts moving again, back to what she was doing. Her steps are less sure of their placement, sword swings a bit shakier. It'll take a few minutes for her to compose herself enough to continue forward with the same confidence as before, "How did you know it was me?" Certainly, the rest of that was interesting, if a little sad, but it's kind of fallen by the wayside next to some steep emotional impact. Kathy's not her confident self after that.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rat Assisted Tour]

Yeah that counts as unexpected-

Why though?

This is Magtok coming up with Magtok-esque plans, and if they're involving Rattok then surely that's a Magtok thinking like a Rattok while Rattok is trying to think like a Magtok. Is it really so surprising that they had the exact same idea about how best to proceed with this? Sure, Rattok's ideas were only some incoherent ratty scribbles on a few rat-sized pieces of paper, but it was still the same fudging idea!

There's a visible internal conflict that runs through Rattok, one that Magtok is probably familiar with when another clone makes something really cool and it's hard to decide whether to remark on how cool that is, or hate them for making it first when you totally had plans to do the same thing, just like next week or whatever.

...clones being clones, maybe they'd skip any thought of acknowledging the invention's greatness and just stab each other in the back? Rattok does not have that luxury.

"Okay, so, this is exactly what I was thinking and I both like and hate that you've done it already, but we need to fix the eyes, the skin, and do a better job of faking that it's a living Magtok, so it isn't instantly recognised as a Terminator knock-off being piloted by the world's most intelligent rodent."

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

The four goblins listen to Magtok's story with mild confusion. This really doesn't sound like an answer to the question, more like a ramble loosely inspired by it... then something weirder happens and they just listen in awkward silence.

"What did we just step into...?" Zaalmin asks nobody in particular.

[Lord Magtok]

Rat Assisted Tour

The face in Faketok's hand raises an eyebrow. "Wait, what's wrong with the eyes? I know I went a little too pale on the skin, because getting a perfectly accurate skin tone on synthflesh is a bitch and a half, but what did I do wrong with my eyes?" He holds his disembodied face up to a mirror on the other side of the room (because of course an evil megalomaniac has at least one mirror available at all times) and frowns.

"Do they start bouncing around uncontrollably when I'm not focusing on anything? I thought I patched that out, made sure to stay out of REM sleep while operating these bodies. The shape, maybe? Color?" The brown one is too dark, Magtok. It should be a dark brown, but not that dark. Also, I hope ripping out the receiver that allows you to operate this body doesn't take too much work, because you know Rattok is pulling that thing out the first chance he gets, just to be on the safe side. If he's anything at all like you, he should be far too paranoid to trust you with remote access to his MagMecha.


The Museum of Unnatural History

"What? I-" Oh shoot, she caught that little mistake right away, didn't she? Knew we should've saved the memory file search for later, when things calmed down a little. Curse our constant need to know everything about everyone. I mean, was figuring out who was inside that mech really that important? We could've been doing research on the museum or something instead; it would've been way more productive. You might even still have functioning legs if you bothered with that, Mags.

"Well you mentioned we'd met before, and from that point on it was just a matter of combing through memories for a Kathy, not finding one, and then going with the next most plausible person in the records. I've only met so many mech pilots, so that narrowed it down, but it was your actions that clinched it. You called my bluff outside, didn't let it faze you one bit. 'The attitude on this young lady, what kind of parents would raise a child as rotten, reckless and flippant as this one?' I hadn't seen anyone just stride up to the MagCave like they own it since your half-sister came back to town." Oh no, is he saying stupid bravado runs in the family? Jeez, that's the one thing you were supposed to not pass on to the next generation, Magtok!

[Shadowcaller]

Rat Assisted Tour

The satyr looks between the two as they are having this exchange. She had only heard about Magtok before she came to his cave but yet nothing felt more Magtok-y than what she was seeing right now.

Still needed a long monologue and a convoluted plan before they could reach maximum Magtokery however. But it hadn't been too long since Magtok had a speech and this was a part of Magtok's plan to defeat Feia. So it all fitted together.

She does the stupid thing and comes with an opinion in all this madness however. "Maybe you could wear a hood to cover it up?" A beat. "Do Magtok's wear hoods?" It didn't seem too far off his aestethic considering the robe and everything.

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"Hah. Yeah, it's just like me to screw up because I was too confident," Kathy says, self-assurance creeping back into her voice, "For those present that don't know what the hell is going on, Magtok's my dad. I was gonna do a big dramatic reveal later - 'Magtok, you are my father!' - but apparently I botched that before I could even get to it."

Well, at least that explains why she's willing to help, right? Some level of familial obligation? "I don't quite look the same as when I left, though. Still look way too young for my liking, but I at least don't look like a teenager anymore." Of course, none of this actually explains why she felt the need to deceive them in the first place.

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"Yeah, we sort of pieced that together," Kuvesh says, resting his hammer on his shoulders. "But thanks for being upfront about it."

"The boss did warn us, I guess," Zaalmin adds. "He said that drama follows Magtok around like a molerat that smelled a sausage. But I don't think any of us expected a wayward daughter in such a machine."

[Lord Magtok]

The Museum of Unnatural History

"Everyone's been coming back a little different than when they left," Magtok nods. "If I knew it was going to be a thing, I would've badgered the MagCollective into letting me change up our aesthetic a little before coming back. Install some robot spider legs to skitter around on, strip the outer layer of chrome off my arm, maybe get a new scar or a beard." Magtok, a beard would look terrible on you. You'd only be able to grow half of one; your face would look ridiculous. An actual hairdo has been considered once or twice, but you know everyone would assume it's a wig or hairpiece, so that idea didn't go anywhere either.

"Did I mention Renee has a chainsaw arm now? I have no idea where it came from and she's not ready to talk about it yet, but it looks amazing. I don't know if that's related to the ambiguous medical concerns you hinted at, but-" Hold that thought for a moment, Magtok, because we're finally here! An enormous switchboard contraption, with countless cables that are roughly as wide as a grown man's arm, all plugged into an endless array of holes in the twelve meter high wall. A surprising number of these massive cables are still intact, though with vines entangled around the whole wall, it's hard to tell exactly how much is still intact, and what needs to go where. Still, the hard part is over now, right? Magtok just needs to tell them what needs to get fixed and which cable needs to go where, and then they can retrace their steps through all the foliage Kathy carved through, and hopefully get out of this awful green hell in time for dinner!

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

Kathy runs a hand along the holes in the wall, metallic fingers clicking over the various points, "Yes, well, I was actually hoping to avoid drama on my way here. What I said at the entrance was true - I thought this place was still abandoned; figured I'd get some of your tech, shore it up to my standard - no offense, some of your designs are just ridiculous - and see what I could do with it. I'm running a corner cybernetics shop these days, and having extra tech on hand tends to make developing new tech easier. The bargaining at the entrance was me sorta panicking 'cause I didn't know what to do with you. Alright, time to show you guys what I look like, I suppose. Need to get out to pull one of the fuel rods."

First, Kathy will gently lower Faketok to the floor to seat him against the wall, where he has a reasonable, upright position, even if he can't move from it. Then she steps away from the group, and with a hiss of compressed air, the front of the mech opens up. Kathy inside may or may not be what they expect - Magtok at least will recognize the face of the girl he met so long ago, still covered in freckles, with hints of her natural read hair peeking out at the roots of her dyed-green hair. Her left eye, however, has a horrific scar around it, that those more versed in torture techniques may recognize as caused by a balling spoon. Her left eye glows a light blue, showing to all that it's a cybernetic replacement... and not her only one, as they look on. Her cockpit, too small to host a fully grown(ish) woman inside the torso cavity, proceeds to lift her out on a metal harness, which unplugs her shoulder and hip sockets from the mech, leaving her as just a torso and head with cybernetic limb ports, dressed in a body-hugging leotard made of some kind of matte black material.

It's only a moment later as side-compartments to the cockpit open up, and out come cybernetic arms and legs, all of which hook neatly into her exposed cybernetics sockets. That, at least explains how she was controlling the mech so fluidly - it literally was part of her body while she was inside it. This is a stark contrast to what Magtok will likely remember, what with the whole being a quadruplegic now, even if she's followed in his footsteps by cybering up to make up for it. Of course, he might also be a bit disgruntled by the fact that that's clearly not the only implantation she's gone through - when she said she didn't look like a teenager anymore, she wasn't referring to her face.

With her normal-sized limbs now attached, she steps off the harness that came out of the mech's torso, and moves around to the back of the machine, "I spent some time working on as universal a power source as I could figure out; I actually got the idea from one of your blender designs in MagMart, Dad," she opens up a compartment on the machine's back, and withdraws a small blue cyllinder that doesn't glow at all, "I call it the A-13 Fusion Power Source, essentially a tiny, contained star smaller than a marble that can burrow into anything you put it on, seek out the power cables, and start pumping juice into them. Waaaay too expensive for mass production, but I've got four in the mech, including this one, so I can spare it for the MagCave. Safe too - if it gets breached it won't melt down, just give everything in the vague vicinity of the breach the mother of all sunburns before it shorts itself out. Dangerous, but not catastrophic."

She'll slam the bottom of the cylinder into the wall where the switchboards are held, and then a wire protrudes from her neck, to jack into the power system directly. She'll then go about running a simple diagnostic system with it - where can the little power source send its energy? What wires need to be repaired? What systems need to be booted? this of course won't tell her where they are, given how rudimentary this whole setup is, but that's what Magtok's for, right? "I should have a diagnostic in just a moment. Hold still a second, Dad," If Magtok doesn't protest (she'll stop if he does) another wire will jut out of her neck and try to connect the two of them together, so that Magtok gets the same information feed Kathy is getting in regards to the wiring problems.

[Morty]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

The four goblins have little to comment about the Magtok family drama. They focus on Kathy's cybernetics and her mech instead. They seem to be deeply awed by all the technology involved. Zaalmin is elbowing her sister and pointing at Kathy's limbs as they attach to her body... it's kind of rude, really. They do manage to focus on the switchboard as well, to be ready to assist when it's needed.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rat Assisted Tour]

Rattok glances at Jaahlyn and nods, perhaps a little too eagerly. "Hood is good. It's a bit more "classic" Magtok than he tends to be these days I guess, part of trying to make himself a little less edgy-" Rattok, he's right there. Well not directly, but he's hearing you talking about him like he once had an emo teen phase or something. "But the hood will help if we can't work out all the kinks with the synthflesh." There's another pointed look at fake-Magtok. They're going to work on this some more. And fix the eye. "But we can definitely get the colour of the eye correct, right? Use a normal mirror instead of that one that makes you look buff, I guess the colour must be off on it a bit."

[Lord Magtok]

Rat Assisted Tour

"Do Magtoks wear hoods?"

I swear to gods, has nothing of our legacy remained intact? Do the filthy plebeian masses remember nothing of our greatness? If even the hooded robes have fallen into the murky depths of obscurity, we really need to do something drastic before it's too late. Reopen MagMart, start our own television network, maybe even conquer the city of Inside like we've always dreamed of doing. Something big, before the name Magtok fades entirely out of the public zeitgeist, before they can't even remember if we were a cyborg or a robot anymore.

"We'll get it fixed and go with the hood. And when this is all over, the both of you can go jump off a bridge," Faketok scowls. How does Rattok even know about that mirror?


The Museum of Unnatural History

"I'm fine with it this once, but nothing's getting plugged into me or my fake Magtoks again after this," Faketok insists, visibly uncomfortable with the stream of data coursing through his mind. Between the the countless schematics and floorplans and cave records he's forced to recall, and Marley Kathy stepping out of the mech with her quadriplegic torso and her shiny new implants, there's just far too much for the mech pilot's father to process at the moment. He closes his eyes and shuts the whole world out for a moment or so, finding just one thing to concentrate on, letting the rest of it pass him by like water off a duck's back.

"That one," he says, pointing to one hole in particular, half-covered in vines and with no giant cable plugged inside. "We plug that red cord in there, and then the telewarp network is back online. Fixing other stuff matters too, but that will jumpstart this place's reconstruction efforts like nothing else. I'll be everywhere again. There's several important rooms in the MagCave that don't actually have any doorways in or out, rooms I couldn't have possibly reached without spending way too much money on drilling the whole place apart." There's an excited gleam in the cyborg's eye. He was expecting to get a few lights turned on, maybe get the foundry buzzing back to life so he could build a hundred new Magbots or something, but this? Oh, this is so much better than that!

[Halae]

[The Museum of Unnatural History]

"Kuvesh, could I get you to take care of slotting the wires in?" she asks the muscular goblin, "My jacks don't extend quite that far, and I don't want to unplug - gotta monitor the energy flow as it starts up, just in case there's a problem that comes up," Kathy says. Faketok can't do it, since his legs are currently crippled until they get repaired. She's aware of her father's displeasure with the situation, but is more focused on fixing said situation right now - this wouldn't be necessary if he wasn't already in a mess of a situation in the first place.

Connected as he is right now, though, Magtok may realize that Kathy didn't actually remember the goblin's name; she has an ID marker connected to her eye telling her which one is which with a list of names floating over their heads. Clever girl.