I stopped pag, and squinted my eyes a little. “Of course I have purchases I want to make, the problem is deg what to prioritize. I really want to upgrade my creation engine, but I still o gh and purchase the other blueprints to make that worth it. That wait until downtime. I want something that’ll be useful right now.”
Gng around my eyes fell upon Bandit, who stopped firing every on a while to gnce around. “Hey Nyx, if I unlock the Css II Robotisor Modules catalog will Bandit be able to detect Model Nines and Twenty Ones like Bright Eyes?”
I doubt he’ll be able to outlihem like she had, but with some improvements he should be able to detect them sistently, and identify the general area.
“Good enough, I’d rather have that than walk into one unaware again. I assume I upgrade him on the fly.”
For the most part, I provide you with another nanite applicator that’ll update most of his sensors, but his acoustisors will require a remodel.
I grinned. “Bigger ears?”
Bigger ears
“Excellent,” I held my hand out, “Do it, and gimme the applicator.” Bandit wandered over as soon as the rge syringe fell into my hand. After iing the capsule for a moment the little bot held out his arm.
Uhe applicators I was used to, which made a hissing noise when they ied their payload, this one made a deep ‘glorp’ noise. “Nyx… was it supposed to do that?”
It’s fihe bots don’t o worry about things like bursting veins if the nanites are administered too quickly, so a single massive iion is more effit.
“Are you sure?” I asked, waving my hand in front of Bandit’s face. The bot’s eyes were flickering on and off and it’s head twitched occasionally.
Pretty sure.
I frowned, “Nyx, pretty sure isn’t good enough. If something happens to Bandit you and I are…” I didn’t get a ce to finish my threat, because Bandit lurched frabbed my arm, and pointed. I looked down at the little bot, ed that somethi wrong in the upgrade process. Bandit looked back at me for a moment, only to return to pointing, in addition to sending multiple pings to my augs.
I finally gnced up, trying to figure out what was so important, only to find someoerally standing over one of my bears on the east wall waving some sort of device. The figure was dressed in dark clothing and their outline was indistinct, like they were behind some sort of heat haze.
“Hey! Who are you, and what are you doing?” I yelled as I rushed ay little pound, Bandit at my heels.
The figure looked up at me, and waved. “Hello! Hi! I came to iigate the steam p out into the streets topside, found one of the farms boiling and then I saw your adorable little fort here, ahat I had to iigate."
With a single bound I jumped up onto the barricade, to warily ihe intruder. On closer iion it was definitely a woman in something that looked like a bination of light armor and a wingsuit, almost certainly Samurai made. “And you decided to, what? S my bots instead of introdug yourself?”
“Introduce myself?” The woman’s head tilted to the side for a moment, like she didn’t uand. “ht! Sorry, I get so excited when I see eo one around here was willing to try hings, it’s sooo.” The woman reached up and pulled off her helmet, revealing a semi familiar face. “My name is Maggie Artell, aka Magpie.”
I pulled off my ow, showihe same respect she showed me. “I’m Evelyn Cire, also known as Teddy.” My eyes narrowed, “You know, you were reported missing. Celestia and Atntica were looking for you.”
“Psshhh… those worry warts, I was busy fighting Antithesis.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Too busy to evehem a quick text message?”
Maggie paused for just a moment, which was odd because the woman had not stopped moving since I had spotted her earlier. “I fot ok, I was so excited to unloany new catalogs that I got carried away. Guess I didn’t even check my messages.” Maggie's eyes unfocused for a moment, then she flinched, “Two hundred and seven messages, guess I did get carried away.”
“Well, you tact them now. o help them take out the rest of the hives located in the farms, assuming you have a way to get past the Antithesis out there without getting mauled.”
“Plenty!” Maggie’s eyes lit up, “I try my new Sensory Disruption Catalog, or the Localised Distortion Catalog, or maybe even the Sonic Disassembler Catalog. So many choices!”
“Did you use one of those to sneak in here without me notig?” I asked.
“No, that robably my Presence Dampening Catalog, b.”
“Wait, how many catalogs do you have?”
“I’ve unlocked an additional one hundred aeen Css I catalogs sihe Incursion started,” Maggie smiled, “It’s been good times.”
I stared at the woman for a long moment, “Why…?”
“Well, I used to work in reverse engineering, so I inally bought a bunch of catalogs to try and figure out how they worked. After a while I realized I didn’t have time to disassemble everything, but I still wao test things, so I kept buying new catalogs. A lot of people, the twins included, think it’s a waste of points, but I’ve tried so many devices and catalogs that I have an ao pretty muything the Antithesis throw at me.” The ulled a pouch off her belt, then started pulling various things out of it aher throwing them on the ground or stuffing them into other pouches. The process went on WAY lohan it should have.
“A gift for a new friend!” She said, holding the pouch out.
I took the pouch cautiously, “Thanks?”
“It’s a dimensional ste, one of the few things I bothered to unlock Css II for. Useful for carrying a lot of stuff around.” Maggie gnced down at the various devices on the ground, “And don’t worry about those, most of them are harmless.”
I was stunned for a moment, which gave Maggie time to put on her helmet. “What do you mean most…” I started.
“Welp, I better go help the twins, ahem know I’m alive. Nice meeting you Teddy. Bye!!!!” She spread her arms out, revealing webbiween her arms and her body, then a miniature jetpack ignited on her back, propelling her into the air. After a few seds she was gone, s towards the kelp farms.
I stared down at the miniature pile of devices located at her feet, “I really hope none of you explode.”
