Overdue Palace collab time!
Kazuma and Junkiro stood before the hulking wreckage, reasonably intact. Their only known way in was through the hole that Apex and Virod had come out of, and so they started there. The smoke had since vacated the area, though it was likely a great deal of the rest of the ship was still contaminated by it.
The interior was dark, but nothing they couldn't navigate through. From the outside, the two Palacians could see a number of windows along the hull, most of them shattered from the impact. There would be light inside, so long as they remained towards the exterior.
The place was relatively dark, dank, and just a bit destroyed-looking. Still, from what he could see, the place was a wonder of metallics and gadgets. Junkiro glanced about the airship, now cleared of whatever smoke that was causing the Second Winders trouble earlier. Could there be anything else in here?
"Ey, Kazzy. You oughta invent some sorta machine that makes things brighter. That'd make so much sense! Like, you could see stuff without a torch! New project when we get back, eh?" Junkiro nudged the exoskeleton of the engineer, a playful smirk on his face.
Kazuma smirked a bit, wondering how he'd achieve light without a flame. He was sure he could figure it out, he'd just need time. But, that would have to wait. There was so much new technology in front of him, and he couldn't wait to get his hands on it. For all they knew, there was an invention like the one Junkiro spoke of inside the smoking hull.
"Yeah, maybe I'll work on something like that when we get back. Or there could be something like that in there. All we have to do is go find it. Let's go."
The interior was dim, and a bit of smoke clung to the ceiling as it attempted to find a way out of the ship. Pipes ran along the walls, and Kazuma and Junkiro's steps rang out on the steel mesh floor. Along the way, countless objects stuck out, though the lack of familiarity with them warded either boy from trying to see what they did when touched. Gods only knew if one of them was, indeed, a self destruct switch.
Kazuma couldn't help but analyze each protrusion from the walls, wondering what each did. He dared not touch it, but he had to stop for ust a moment and analyze each one. He was confident that none were "self destruct switches," as having one would make no sense, but in the disarray that the ship was in, flipping a switch could activate a system that would then catastrophically fail. Worst case scenario, the failure creates a massive explosion, destroying the pair along with the ship. Best case scenario, the system destroys itself and Kazuma doesn't get to look at it. Either way, Kazuma was touching nothing yet.
"I wish I had a bit more knowledge about this craft. I would love to not have to fear messing with some of these."
"I'd like to see better!" Junkiro complained as he surveyed the metallic walls. All sorts of doodads jutted out in odd positions...what in the world were these things? How did this convoluted contraption even fly? Two questions Junkiro had no answer to. As they slowly made the rounds of the metallic behemoth, he only understood better and better just how confusing and complex this airship thing really was; it kind of made Kazuma's mech suit look like a toy.
"So...want to play the Pull The Lever game, Kazzy? You go first." Junkiro attempted to lighten the mood, as the dim, smoky atmosphere was beginning to give him chills.
Kazuma shot him a momentary glare before turning back to the lever in front of him. He was not frightened by the place as Junkiro seemed to be. Two champions were likely more than enough to handle whatever the ship could throw at them. Besides, a little challenge would let him test the capabilities of his suit in a real life combat scenario. He needed to truly learn what his limits were. But, his suit's limits were far from his mind as he explored the ship.
"How did they get this thing off the ground?" Kazuma mused, more to himself than to Junkiro. "
The entire thing seems to be made of steel, which seems too heavy to get off the ground. I assumed they would have some sort of synthetic material that we have yet to discover, but the fact that it's steel is astounding. The amount of force it must generate to maintain distance from the ground must be incredibe!"
The two came upon a turn in the hall, leading to a large, donut-shaped room. The sheer size of it compared to the narrow hallways was jarring, almost stunning. A path ran along the edge of the room, encircling an hourglass of steel panels at the center. The place was brightly lit, illuminating the entirety of its interior. A catwalk extended towards the center of the room with an array of buttons at the end. The hourglass at the center seemed to rumble on occassion, as if being shaken from the inside.
Now things were getting interesting. It looked like they had reached a control room of some sort; at any rate, it looked super important. Junkiro causually tossed an
"Echo!" down into the room's metallic depths, pleased to hear his word come reverberating back to him multiple times over.
"Big empty room 'cept for the center, huh? Looks like it's still runnin', too. But if it's still in working order....then why can' they just get back up and fly again? Something's broken 'bout this room...think ya can sniff it out, Kazzy?" Though he was no mechanic, weren't devices not supposed to move by themselves? Then what was up with that hourglass thing?
Kazuma was too enraptured by the machines before him to care about the shout down the large room. Although, his fellow Palacian had a good point about the controls seeming intact. From this room, it all looked fully operational. But, this might not be the cause of the issues. The engines could be severely damaged, or the hull in such disrepair that the ship was unable to fly. There could be issues with any number of things, even something as simple as faulty wiring. But that still let the question of if the ship was actually broken. Which, Kazuma assumed it was. It crashed into the ground pretty hard, and he failed to beleve that the foreigners would do such a thing on purpose. Either way, he wanted to look at the controls.
"Let's check it out." Kazuma said to his fellow champion as he began to move across the catwalk towards the controls nestled in the center of the large room. As they trekked across the catwalk, a series of dull lights began to shine beneath their feet. Thin, glowing lines spread across the width of the walkway terminated at each end with circular orbs buried into the steel. It lit the walkway before them, despite there already being enough illumination in the spacious room already.
As they came closer to the center, a series of three tubular mechanisms became apparent high above, otherwise obscured by a series of steel plates nearby. They pointed inwards towards the center hourglass structure, and occasionally sparked with electricity at their tips.
Junkiro, easily impressed by technology, jumped when the floor seemed to light itself up in a manner he was not expecting.
"Speak of the devil, self-lightin' lights....do me a favor and steal one, that'd be awesome back home!" Junkiro laughed at his bad joke, then proceeded down the catwalk, inspecting all the various gizmos and gadgets adorning the area. It certainly put things in perspective; he did not belong here at all. But he ought to at least have a little fun...right?
After a little inspection, he found a large panel of various levers, switches, and buttons-the control panel. Taking a breath, he looked back at his fellow Champion, a playful smirk on his face.
"If you think you can tell me I'm gonna be here and NOT push a button....." His famous last words uttered, he closed his eyes, circled his finger in the air, and jabbed once, randomly at the controls.
In their short trip inside the airship, Kazuma had perfected the art of ignoring Junkiro's comments. While the more exuberant champion raced towards the controls, Kazuma knelt down to examine the lights in the foor, particularly the luminescent orbs at the ends of the glowing lines. What had turned them on? Were they powered by some sort of magic? Was there some sort of device on the inside that was causing them to light up, or was it some sort of stone that lit up when stimulated by a certain kind of magic? He was genuinely fascinated by the simple little glowing ball.
By the time he pulled himself away from the lights, Junkiro had found the control panel. Oh no. Oh no. No no no no no! Kazuma shouted for him to stop, but it was too late. He had already jabbed blindly at the panel, his finger pressing one of the buttons. Kazuma cringed and prepared himself for the ship to spontaneously erupt into flame or something of the sorts.
Instead of an apocalyptic explosion, Kazuma was met instead with a whirring as the hourglass at the center began to stir. The steel plating folded into itself, slowly sliding away to reveal a large glass tube within. Most peculiar, however, was what in turn inside the glass itself.
A black smoke permeated the interior of the tank, and it
moved about. The smoke literally slammed up against the glass from inside, rumbling it but failing to make even the tiniest crack. When the steel had fully peeled away, the smoke paused for a moment before sprouting a
head and face. The sinister visage looked down at Kazuma and Junkiro, its mouth bent into an angular smile.
"You two. Humans. You are not the sailors. Who are you?" it asked, vocie like crackling electricity.
Kazuma's jaw just about hit the ground as he gazed up at the sentient smoke cloud. What was this thing? Was it possibly the source of the magic that ran the ship? Assuming it was run on magic of course. The aetherial form surely intimidated Kazuma. The crackling voice was something he hadn't heard before, and its strangeness made Kazuma both curious and terrified. Then again, Kazuma was curious about most everything on the ship, so that wasn't really a surprise. Either way, Kazuma found himself too terrified to speak.
Junkiro knew something would happen, but this was about as far from what he had anticipated. So that smoke from earlier....could that have had something to do with this...thing? Junkiro, a bit more experienced than Kazuma, maintained his composure as the black mass took shape, and he did not quail as the thundercloud spoke in a crackling voice. It was....fascinating. New and threatening, yes, but yet another strange wonder the Secondwinders had brought over to them.
"Well...it's a bit of a tough situation to handle. I'm not sure how much you know, but...your ship crashed in our homeland, so we escorted them to our leader for the time being to figure out the details of what happened...we're just surveying the scene, is all. My name is Junkiro....an' my mechanized buddy is Kazuma. Would you happen to have a name yourself?" Junkiro may have a bit of a playful, carefree attitude, but he had learned that business was no time to be playing around. Especially when a thundercloud was talking to you.
The thundercloud was quiet for a second, floating in his tank before speaking up again, suddenly boisterous. "Ah those assholes! They were supposed to come and get me when we landed! The cowards left the ship without me! I've been stuck in here for
hours. Where are they?!" The cloud was seemingly so angered over his comrades' abandoment, he neglected to reply with his own name.
Interesting. Much like Apex, it seemed the initially strange and different being had a rather human personality. It even seemed to understand and despise abandonment...Junkiro briefly wondered what lifeform he could even be speaking to that took the shape of a thundercloud and spoke like it were throwing lightning. Best to keep this guy under control for the time being.
"Was there anybody in particular you were looking for? The group split up amongst our factions (and he immediately regretted saying that word),
but I don't know who went where. The two I know are Apex and Virod...we could show you to them, if they're who you are looking for..."
Kazuma gradually got over the terror of the moment when the thundercloud adopted a more human tone and personality. Knowing that it held human emotions made it much less difficult to comprehend. This being was an surely some sort of power for the ship. Kazuma could think of no other reason for its existence aboard the vessel. If it was there to defend the ship, it wouldn't be put in a cage. If it were there as one of the crew, it wouldn't be in a cage either. The only reason it would be in a cage other than acting as a power source were if it were a prisoner. For some reason, Kazuma found it hard to believe that one could imprison a cloud. So, it must've been here voluntarily.
"Him! I'll give him a piece of my mind! The both of them!" the cloud said, "Take me to
whichever. They'll feel my wrath enough that they all know my anger!" The cloud rumbled in the tank, electricity crackling against the interior. "You've gotta get me out. That larger lever there. Take me to them and I'll ensure any enemy you ever have is smitten where they stand, for life! I am a thundercloud elemental, after all. I can do that sort of thing," it explained.
Kazuma admired the power held by the elemental, but was cautious of it as well. The ability to obliterate any enemy could just as easily be turned against Palace as it could towards their enemies. However, the thundercloud elemental would have reason to be grateful to Palace for freeing it. So long as no one angered it, it had no reason to attack Palace. Then again, it seemed like it was very easily angered, which was bad for obvious reasons. Junkiro seemed to be handling himself well in the discussion, so Kazuma decidede to stand back and let the man speak with the massive cloud of impending death.
Hmm....this behemoth appeared to want to...give Apex and Virod a piece of its mind? Somehow, Jun wasn't buying it. This being had already proven itself to seem vengeful and easily angered...Junkiro wondered if it would stop at just 'talking' to the newcomers. Not to mention...something else was bugging him. Two things, actually. He had heard a promise of good things in exchange for services provided once...and had nearly been labeled a traitor. This seemed oddly familiar....
"Let me ask you a few questions first, Mr...um...Thunderhead. I'd like to know why you're in this hourglass. Are you powering this ship right now? Or does this...serve a different purpose? It looks awfully indestructable, and you were trying really hard to just up and break it..."
"First of all, my name is Zikix, secondly, I
was powering the ship, until it
crashed!" The cloud looked upwards, "See those sparking things up there? Normally I'd be channeling into those through this tube, but they must have been put out of alignment during the crash. So now the ship is without power, though it doesn't matter anymore! It's supposed to be indestructible to prevent the damn thing from melting from my lightning strikes! That's what powers the ship! But now they left me in here, so I can't get out! Damn humans, thinking that just because I'm an elemental I can wait indefinitely!"
Indestructible. They were supposed to be indestructible. Kazuma looked longingly at the tubes above his head. He wanted to take them apart and find out why they could be called indestructible. The rest of the elemental's talk fell on deaf ears. Indestructible material. What was it? How could Kazuma make it? Could he impliment it into his suit somehow? He realized that this wasn't the most productive questions to be asking at the moment, and that he should be paying attention to the cloud, but the idea of an indestructible material was just too tempting.
Junkiro's brow furrowed in thought as he watched the rapidly angering elemental spout at Junkiro's accusations. It almost sounded like he were trying to turn the situation around...he wasn't asking for help anymore, he was demanding it. Junkiro didn't like where this was going.
"Hmm..." He paused for a minute, thinking to himself. "
If you actually power the airship, wouldn't you be in here...pretty much all the time? And from the way the Second Winders were talking, you've been in here quite a while....Don't you think you're being a little..well...over the top? They DID crash...actually. Hang on....how come you guys crashed? You're the power source, maybe you might have an idea?" Junkiro was trying to steer the conversation away, distract Thunderhead for a while to ease his rage...and keep him in his confinement a while longer. Junkiro didn't trust the cloud, and hopefully Kazuma was picking up on his doubt by now. Something just wasn't right, but he couldn't put his finger on it...
"Look kid. I'm just here to power the ship. I don't always have to be here, because the ship has a power storage unit, but since we got hit by some attacker and the lifting devices were compromised, they needed me in here the entire time to make up for the decrease in lift and the hit our storage took. I couldn't tell you exactly what got hit beyond those two things, honestly. I'm no engineer like some of them! I just power the ship as I'm asked!" Zikix explained with a frustrated but contained tone.
"Okay...." Junkiro nodded at this new information.
"Could you tell me about the attackers? Were they in our airspace, or was this before you entered Drisbane?" While he was considering this next question, his attention was drawn to the sparking things Zid....Thunderhead had mentioned before. Looked like one or two were hanging askew a bit...
"You said those things up there are how the ship gets power? If we fixed 'em...could the ship fly again? Or at least give us more light to explore the damage?" It seemed Junkiro was starting to steer the conversation away from whatever was making him angry, but he was still on his guard.
"I'm sorry...I've never been inside this airship thing before...I've got a lot of questions, and I've never heard of a living power source..."
Someone attacked them. That fact dug into Kazuma's mind and stuck there. He needed to be focused if there would be an attack. Someone took this airship out of the sky. From that fact, one could assume that the attackers were as advanced as those who built the ship. If not, they were more advanced. Either way, it was a scary thought. However, Kazuma wanted to know the whole story before he took sides in this fight. If their shipwrecked friends were the cause of the issue, then Kazuma voted on kicking them out of the city before they bring trouble to Drisbane. However, if they were in legitimate trouble and Drisbane stood a chance against the assailants, Kazuma would gladly assist them. Kazuma would speak up and ask something, but Junkiro was already asking all the right questions. It seemed he was more competant than the mechanized champion first thought he was.
"Drisbane? I'd assume it was outside of the reclusive city unless you've been taken over by another empire recently!" Zikix laughed, "They're the only ones who've got this airship technology besides my fellow flyers, so it stands to reason it was
them or one of their constituent peoples that felled the ship." The elemental looked upward.
"Did you not hear what I said? The lifting devices were badly damaged, and the power storage itself compromised! Even if I could get this ship charging again, it wouldn't do us much good besides drag the bottom of the ship along the ground a few feet!"
This wasn't the first time someone from the airship had skirted exactly who
they were. First Apex had brought it up in passing, now Thunderhead, as he decided was infiinitely easier to say, was dodging it too. He needed more information; if they were after the Secondwinders, then Drisbane was also going to be a threat.
"Hang on a second. Just who are these other people with airship technology? Everyone's so dodgy about it....but if they're after you, we NEED to know, because they might come after you guys, and therefore us!" Junkiro's eyes suddenly flared with emotion; if these enemies hurt them...hurt HER.....
Kazuma couldn't help but wonder if his motion-to-magic technology would help the ship at all. He had made multiple advances in the amplification of magic, and that may help the airship be more efficient in power, therefore letting it travel without need of the battery. However, this was under the assumption that they could get the lifts fixed. And the assumption that Zikix's magic was compatible with Kazuma's technology. And various other variables that the mechanized champion didn't know.
"Ha! You think that just because you stumbled across this airship that you're privy to that sort of information?" Zikix chuckled. Still, he eyed Junkiro, and ultimately seemed uncaring of discretion or secrecy. "An empire by the name of the Eudasti exists outside your enclosed walls. If your city were more outgoing, you might have gleaned their existence."
Junkiro sighed quietly; the thunder god still didn't quite seem to understand what he was getting at.
"That's not important right now. What IS important is your situation with them, and their weaponry. Are they going to pursue you? Just how strong are they? Do we need to prepare ourselves for battle?" Junkiro had finally stumbled into an important crux of the situation; was Drisbane headed for war if they gave refuge to the Secondwinders?
Kazuma still couldn't help but be desperately curious about the Eudatsi. If he had been speaking, he would have asked about the same questions as Junkiro had. But he would definitely have to expand upon most of the questions. Asking about how strong they were wouldn't be enough for Kazuma. He'd need to know their weaponry, their battle tactics, their preferred combat field, everything.
"Hell if I know. I've got no beef with the Eudasti. But if they shot down this ship, I can imagine they did so for a reason. They may or may not come searching for it here," the elemental said. "You done with the pointless questioning? I'd like to get out of here!"
Junkiro sighed; he had hoped the elemental would have forgotten that he was still in that big dome. He still had his suspicions, but he just couldn't find a real reason to leave him in there beyond mere speculation; in short, he couldn't decide. "
Well, we've learned something really important here...Drisbane might be dealing with an unknown force sometime soon. But...." Junkiro turned to Kazuma, who had been extremely quiet this whole time.
"I'm gonna leave the choice to the rookie-do we let 'im out or not?"
Kazuma scratched his chin as he thought about the options. Obviously, Zikix was a very powerful being. This would make him either a strong ally, or a tough enemy. Kazuma never liked gambling, and was never one to gamble on anything. He preferred to know all the facts before making decisions. He wanted to know all the outcomes possible, and the probability for each of said outcomes. The elemental's quickness to anger made Kazuma a bit wary of letting him loose. It wouldn't take much to anger him, and Kazuma wasn't sure how quick that anger would turn to agression. However, that meant that the elemental would just as quickly turn it's anger on Drisbane's enemies.
After taking a few moments to decide the options, Kazuma decided that Zikix would get out of his dome eventually, so they might as well let him out now. That way, in case he became a threat, they could deal with him, then the Eudasti instead of both at once. Additionally, if they left him where he was and the Eudatsi released him, he would have even more reason to turn on Drisbane. So, it appeared to Kazuma that the best of the two options was to release the beast. "
I say we release him. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty damn sure I don't want him as an enemy." As Kazuma spoke, he motioned to the lever that would release the sentient storm cloud, signalling for Junkiro to pull it.
"Finally you mortals get the picture!" Zikix grumbled, spinning in the tube as what seemed like bolts of electric happiness shot from his blackened form. "It took you long enough!"
"Well, you made the call, bud. Out it is!" Junkiro, though his demeanor was pleasant, kept a very close eye on the thundercloud as he moved back over to the control panel. If he was lying...they'd be toast. Junkiro's gum was of very little use against an ethereal, electrical enemy, and if lightning had taught him anything, it was that metal was NOT something to be around when it struck. Being in the metal airship was not a good fighting ground if Thunderhead went back on his word...but who was he to turn back on his word?
Hoping for the best, Junkiro tightly gripped the large lever marked 'release' and threw it, waiting to see what would happen...
Kazuma thought it through again as Junkiro pulled the lever. Zikix had no reason to turn on them. So long as the storm cloud was rational and reasonable, he wouldn't turn on the pair of champions. Still, Kazuma couldn't help but wonder whether or not his bullets and katana would work on the sentient cloud.
As soon as the lever was pulled, the glass cylinder which surround Zikix began to drop, sliding into a slot beneath the room. With a mere sliver of an opening at the top, the elemental quickly slipped out as a thing sheet of dark mist before spreading out at the top of the room.
"Ha ha ha! Finally! I would be tempted to smite you incompetent mortals for your slowness, but in the end I'm free. Learn to be more trusting of that which is unfamiliar to you! Your city could stand to reach out more, I'm sure!" Zikix laughed heartily. With a wild cry of delight, the stormcloud darted off through the entrance Junkiro and Kazuma came in from earlier, disappearing as a trail into the dark.
Kazuma watched the cloud leave, a bit disappointed that the elemental wasn't going to turn into an ally of Drisbane. But, it's not like they came here expecting a new ally anyway. They came to the ship because of the mechanized champion's insatiable curiosity. Sure enough, now that the storm cloud was gone, Kazuma found himself staring up at the sparking tubes above him, wondering how they were supposed to be indestructible. Kazuma shook his head, changing his thoughts to the troubles that would soon be approaching Drisbane. The Eudasti. They would need to be prepared for them. Kazuma couldn't shake the feeling that they would be coming to the city soon, and that Drisbane was hopelessly unprepared for it.
"Let's go back to the city," he told Junkiro,
"We have to make sure they know about the Eudasti, and that they might have followed the airship here."
Well, it seemed that Thunderhead wasn't necessarily out for blood...theirs, anyway. Apex and Virod might not be feeling so great afterwards, but he couldn't be certain anymore. What mattered was they weren't dead. Thunderhead had taken off from the airship, but Junkiro wasn't fully convinced that the skies were safe quite yet...
"Let's follow that elemental. I want to make absolutely certain he won't hurt anyone. And besides, he's headed for Drisbane to show Apex and Virod a lesson, right? He'll need directions!" With a short laugh, Junkiro took off after Zix...Zid....Thunderhead, motioning for the rookie to follow.
Kazuma nodded at Junkiro and took off after him, pulling himself away from the "indestructible" tubes. He so desperately wanted to know more about them. He so desperately wanted to know more about the glowing lines in the floor that he was stepping over. He so desperately wanted to know so much more about everything on the ship. However, Junkiro was right, people still might be in danger from Zikix. Plus, the Eudasti posed a problem as well. So, his curiosity would have to wait.
