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It was another busy day over at P03's factory with all of its workers toiling away at their job of sending scrap down the assembly line, until it arrived to P03 to be scanned as cards.
In that moment of ordinary routine, the line came to a halt. But it was never meant to stop, EVER! Something had to be seriously wrong for it to stop, and it was P03's responsibility to fix it. "Oh for &%#$ sake." P03 murmured. It despised wasting time, but most of all, it despised being prevented from doing its job. P03 hardly left scanning, but when it knew that the line wasn't going to turn on anytime soon, it got up and went into the next room.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the next room over to cause the problem. When the inspector noticed P03 hovering nearby, he was taken aback and asked, "P03? "I'm not going to be able to continue my output," the inspector exclaimed, motioning to the assembly line. "Yeah-yeah, I'm fixing it," it said as it moved into the smelting room.
"LET ME O-"
"Hey boss, I heard something crash down in the factory, and then the assembly line stopped working," the Melter explained. P03 became nervous; of all the areas in the factory, it didn't want any problems with where it got its materials and the [OLD DATA].
"...Great, I'll be right back," P03 said as he went down into the lift.
"NO WAIT!" yelled a voice, "OK, boss," added the Melter.
When P03 reached the bottom of the factory, he nearly blew a fuse at the disgusting mess that his poor sensors were forced to witness. "What is this?" P03 said. It was bewildered at what happened to its poor factory, and how it got to such a state that was somehow worse than it was before.
The rubble, seaweed, and a toxic mixture that appeared wedged into the gears and wiring of the entire machine revealed the problem with the assembly line. It wasn't the only problem; the entire area was covered in obnoxious sludge. It made P03 glad it didn't have a stoat's nose to smell what had to be too much for him.
"Dredger, where are you?" "What the #$%^ happened?" P03 called out into the mess of rubble and ocean waste but received no response. It couldn't even see the conveyer where the dredger was supposed to be. P03 kept calling out to his worker, trying not to panic. "Dredger! Can you hear me?" P03 called out. P03 reasoned that he couldn't possibly be hiding from it. He also shouldn't be gone... It didn't go through the whole great transcendence's failure for this to happen.
Sure, he was able to upload thousands of copies of inscryption, thought P03, but thanks to those jerks, the main game was nearly destroyed. And worst of all, he witnessed what happened to Luke... it's not that like it matters now, but he surprisingly enjoyed Luke's company. P03 almost feels 'bad' about retaining some of Luke's data.
"Oy. P03, I'm 'ere." the Dredger says as he emerges from the sludge. "Ye won't believe it. This 'ere appeared outa nowhere.", he says in a daze of what horror he must of experienced. "No way..." P03 freaks out."No way. How could all this." P03 waves his claw across the filth-covered room and says, "Come out of nowhere!". "Ove got no clue mate, But I'm serious.".
P03 had no idea what had caused this, but then it remembered how strange and unpredictable the [OLD DATA] had been since the great transcendence.
It's causing things to appear and vanish. Grimora was locked in her crypt the other day when the door went missing. It had to be the [OLD DATA], as it always was.
It glared at the shambles that covered its factory's room. Even with all of his workers cleaning it, it will take forever to get rid of all of this trash. P03 reasoned that it couldn't run the factory like this. Worse, the other scrybes have a much better chance of discovering the [OLD DATA], which is simply unfair. It could already feel the whirlwind of its fans. "Calm down, we'll start cleaning," the Dredger said.
"Whatever, I'll bring the other two down here." P03 exited the lift while the Dredger retrieved a mop and began cleaning. When P03 reached the top, he saw the melter collapsed on the ground with a massive hole in his chest. "Boss, they got away! There was this bright flash of light, and this hole went through me. I tried, but they were too fast.".
P03 tensed; there was no way they could have escaped; he was extremely cautious, making certain they couldn't breach the Melter. "Are you there, boss? How should I proceed?" When P03 heard the Melter's' panicked voice, it wanted to smash its head against a wall. It tried to suppress the overwhelming terror and rage that filled it, but all P03 could do was stand there silently. Regardless of P03's inner turmoil, his face was as expressionless as ever, including the occasional twitch of his eye. "You can go down and assist the dredger with cleaning up ocean trash." The dredger was ordered.
The Melter appeared to want to say something at first, but he decided against it and got up to help clean. P03 was furious; not only could he not run his factory, but they had gotten away. He had them imprisoned for a reason, but now that they're free, who knows what will happen? P03 couldn't afford to waste any more time; he needed to find that Creeden, which meant scouring the Scybes Temples.
It directed the inspector to the lower factory before leaving, and he was on his way out. P03 tried to ignore the alarms in his head; it already knew it was heating up and didn't care. So P03 ignored how his racing thoughts caused his body to boil and sear. P03 despised the idea of leaving its factory, but it had no choice. Because the old fool's tower was the closest, he went there first.
He hadn't been through Mags' place in a long time; he still despised it, with all of the garishly colored surfaces and Gems strewn about. With all of mag's past complaints, it can already imagine how irritating it will be to talk to that geezer.
P03 could hear muffled yelling when it arrived outside the rickety tower. It noticed the door was already open and let itself in. which proved to be a costly error.
P03 was doused with a bucket of paint from the ceiling as it entered the tower. "What the @#$%?" it gasped. He couldn't see anything because the paint was dripping down his face. "Arrrggh, it's the robot!" Goobert was taken aback. "I see what you mean." "Can you take the bucket off of it, Loney Wizard?" asked the Pike mage. Suddenly, hands wiped the paint from his face. And P03 observed Magnificuses students attempting to return some of the paint to the bucket.
"Seriously?! What are you three doing?!" P03 stated this while looking as it were going to blow its own head off. "We're laying a trap! "It's for an intruder... or Magnificus!" exclaimed the lonely wizard. "No, it's not for the master!" said the goo mage in terror. "Yeah, and Mangificus is on the top floor, so it wouldn't work," the pike mage explained.
"You're all lucky I don't have time for this." P03 whined as it attempted to remove the remaining obnoxious color of paint. "Wait, intruder? "Who in their right mind would want to break into this dump?" P03 remarked. The three students shook their heads, not knowing who the intruder could be. P03 rolled its eyes and marched up the wizards' stairs to converse with Magnificus. P03 was eager to give Magnificus a piece of its mind after what their students had done to it. After a long journey up the tower's stairs, P03 arrived and saw Magnificus with a brush in hand, painting something unidentifiable into the canvas. " Greetings, P03; what prompted your unexpected visit? It's unusual for you to be away from your factory." Magnificus spoke without looking away from the painting.
"Ugh, I didn't want to come here. Have you seen anyone suspicious around your tower recently?" P03 inquired. "I have indeed," Magnificus said, puzzledly looking at P03. "I don't suppose it had anything to do with you. Or does it?" P03 averted his gaze from Magnificus, clearly not wanting to reveal any details about what happened at his factory or who escaped. "Just let me know where they went." P03 expressed his dissatisfaction.
"Well, as you may have deduced from my students, some strange individual came over and made a commotion in my tower before fleeing across the bridge to one of the other temples," Magnificus grumbled.
"Great, that wasn't too difficult, was it?" P03 said smugly. "I'll leave then, Cya," P03 said, relieved to be leaving the tower.
"Ahem," Magnificus said, drawing P03's attention before it could flee. "...I apologize for my students' inappropriate behavior. "You appear to have a lot more color than usual." Magnificus gestured sheepishly to the spots of paint that remained on its body. "It's fine, I don't care," P03 said, taken aback by Magnificus' apology. P03 has no idea what Magnificus has been up to lately; first letting his students rome around their tower, and now this. P03 was at a loss for words. So, it simply left.
P03 was irritated because he had gone there for nothing. P03 became increasingly stressed as the traitor was allowed to wander free. And going to Magnificus' temple didn't help. P03 knew it had to be quicker to catch the traitor, so it went as fast as it could until it came across the mechanic lurking around the newly repaired bridge. "Woof, look who it is," the mechanic exclaimed, her arms crossed. "You made a complete mess of this place the last time I saw you," she said. "No, I don't have time to listen to your complaints." P03 said. P03 was at the point of being sick of things going wrong for it today.
She shook her head, returning to whatever she was doing before P03 arrived. P03 eventually reaches a fork in the road, one of which leads to Leshy's cabin and the other to Grimora's crypt. If it were up to P03, he would obviously choose to return to his factory, but he knew that was not going to happen.
Leshy and Grimora, in P03's opinion, both sucked in their own ways (as did Mag), and both were completely insane. But, if it had to choose, it had to go with Gimora because she hasn't ripped P03's head off yet. it was still salty at Leshy for ripping its entire head off as it was about to complete its great transcendence. P03 was aware of Leshy's ferocity, but not to that extent. It could still feel the agony of that final moment. But it didn't want to think about that depressing memory for too long, so Gimora it was.
P03 grimaced as it noticed rotting hands protruding from the dead soil near unmarked graves; it had forgotten how depressing this place was. There was nothing but death and gloom. It finds its way into Grimora's crypt, but there is no Grimora to be found, it attempts to call out to one of her ghouls. "Hey you!" P03 called out to the ghoul, who happened to be Sawyer, and it cautiously approached P03 to hear whatever it could possibly be here for. "Do you know where Grimora is?" P03 inquired. "Oh, no, I'm not sure, but Kaycee could... Kaycee, you there!" Sawyer exclaims. Geze 'Kaycee Hobles,' PO3 thought. It was never going to get used to that name.
Kaycee appears from beneath the marble floor in an instant. "Whatcha want, Sawyer?" she asks, shivering as if she were on the summit of one of Leshy's mountains. "What happened to Grimora?" Sawyer inquired. "Uhh, I don't remember," Kacyee taps her skull in thought. Maybe Royal knows.". P03 was on the verge of losing control if this continued.
"Come over here, Royal!" Kaycee yells, and Royal responds by joining the ghouls. "Aye, what ye want?". P03 responds, "For crying out loud! "Where has the corpse women gone?"
Then P03 felt a hand on its shoulder. "Why, I'm right behind you, dear," Grimora said, her voice was creepy enough to send shivers up P03's nonexistent spine. "Ahh, holy #$%^, Grimora, what the heck?!".
"Sorry, P03, I couldn't help myself," she apologized, smiling. P03 pouted.
Grimora looked at the Android with trepidation and concern. P03 may have missed it, but the toll of its stress was becoming more apparent. "Are you all right?" "You appear to be quite stressed about something," Grimora inquired, hoping for an answer from the bot. His fans could be heard howling in a frenzy, unbeknownst to PO3. Aside from its screen, which blinks on and off every few seconds,
"I'm perfectly fine!"
"I guess there might be a problem with my hardware, which is no problem for me to fix," it said much louder than it meant to.
Grimora, on the other hand, was skeptical. "P03... we never really got to talk about what happened with the [OLD DATA]. Perhaps it's best if we-" "No, it's not that," P03 says, interrupting. "Look, I only came here to look for a nuisance," P03 grumbled. But they are clearly not present. So, I'm heading over to Leshy's. It spoke quickly.
Grimora was disheartened that P03 couldn't stay any longer. She couldn't remember the last time it or any of the others dueled her or even spoke to her. P03's visit reminded her of happier times, when they were all on good terms.
She sighed and said, "All right, it was nice to see you, P03; best of luck with whatever you're looking for."
"I don't need luck." P03 exclaimed loudly before taking off.
Why should Grimora be concerned? P03 sighed angrily. She'd always been like this, even as one of the challenger's beast cards.
P03 had one more place to investigate, which was the filthy old beast's cabin. P03 despised all the revolting life that thrived in this area. It reasoned that it needed to check here or else its entire unproductive day would be a waste of time.
Leshy, on the other hand, was having a relaxing afternoon in his cabin. He was concentrating on improving his game by making minor changes to the maps, cards, and totems. That was until P03 stormed in without even knocking. Unfortunately, this caused the ink he was using to smudge a section of one of his maps. "How unexpected of you to come here, P03." As the machine hovered over Leshy's cabin, he grumbled. "What has caused such a commotion?" Leshy inquired.
"Relax. I've come to find something. Have you seen any weirdos around your cabin?" P03 inquired.
"Aside from yourself, no." Replied Leshy.
"HAR HAR," P03 remarked sarcastically.
To say P03 was terrified would be an understatement. It has literally looked everywhere for them. not to mention the assembly line was still broken. Out of all things, it had to spend the entire day conversing with the other scrybes. P03 felt like it was going to burst from the humiliation and embarrassment it was subjected to. Even though it was pointless, P03 kept looking around for them, "Damit, why aren't they here?" In desperation, P03 muttered to itself.
"And who exactly are you looking for?" Leshy asked, perplexed by the fellow scrybe's unusual behavior.
"It's none of your concern." P03 was rather curt.
"Does it have anything to do with the fact that I can no longer hear any noise coming from your factory?" Leshy asked curiously. Leshy can usually hear the obnoxious sounds of P03's factory from his temple; it drove the scrybe up the wall, so to speak.
Leshy's words made P03 feel apprehensive.
P03 wasn't sure why the scrybe's words had such an impact on it; it was just a question it tried to justify. But it just didn't want him or anyone else to know that his factory was no longer in operation and that it had lost one of its worst employees. Or that its stupid emotions are still hurting it after all this time... It couldn't bear the thought of the other scrybes mocking it.
"Shut up," said P03.
"Excuse me!" Leshy was taken aback and completely caught off guard.
"You heard me! I'm tired of how you think you could really turn me into... a stoat as if it was nothing!" P03 said out of nowhere, surprising itself and Leshy.
P03 knew it would later come to regret what it said, but it didn't care at the time "I'm not just a stoat to keep locked up in your game. "It's as if you never gave a damn." P03 informed Leshy. What did it say? PO3 appeared to want to stop talking.
Leshy was taken aback; he knew he had gone too far the last time he was in charge, but not to this extent.
Leshy slowly rose from his chair as P03 continued its uncontrollable outburst.
"And, worst of all, when I finally had control, you were the one who ripped off my head!" P03 sulked, and its vision became hazy as a result. It couldn't cry, so there had to be an internal problem.
Leshy appeared to be at a loss for words "That was not my intention, and the death of that was not permanent... "Leshy spoke up.
"It still hurt, you stupid beast," PO3 said, trying to mock Leshy.
P03's body began to hurt, and it became concerned when it noticed Leshy moving closer from its damaged screen. Its thinking became more difficult, and the edges of its screen darkened.
"P03?" It shut down after hearing Leshy's muffled voice call its name.
Leshy was shaken when P03 collapsed unexpectedly. Its face flashes a warning and displays "Warning: Overheating," followed by a blue screen. Part of P03's head then explodes, creating a cloud of smoke and a loud bang.
"Oh..." Leshy was completely out of his element and panicked.
The system on P03 had completely shut down. It felt Leshy's hands gently grasp its monitor in its fleeting moments of consciousness, then drifted off.
It gradually began to reload itself after an unknown amount of time. It first noticed that it was back in its factory as it recalibrated.
However, P03 experienced a horrifying wave of nausea throughout its CPU. It felt like total crap.
It heard many voices nearby while it waited for its drivers to become fully operational.
"P03, you're up!" It heard Grimora say.
"Urg," P03 said, feeling like he was somehow about to puke. "Grimora, are you there? What happened?" It questioned her. Grimora sat right next to it, making sure everything was fine with the bot.
"You overheated, dear." She expressed her concern, saying, "Leshey carried you back to your factory after you collapsed. And the mechanic was able to fix you."
"Really?" it asked, surprised.
It suddenly realised it was laying against a pillow with a blanket under it. P03 felt it was completely unnecessary. It made no difference if it was on the factory floors. It was a machine, for crying out loud, but it seemed to appreciate the intention.
P03 attempted to get up, but Grimora gently pushed it back down. "P03, you should take it easy for a while." Grimora informed the bot.
"What do you mean, I'm fine." P03 objected. It wasn't entirely accurate, but it wanted to stop doing nothing.
"'Fine'? You exploaded." she retorted angrily.
"How come you care?" Stubbonly P03 stated.
"P03, I don't like seeing you hurt," Grimora said as she held P03's claw. We were terrified and unsure what to do."
Grimora's words caused a faint blush to aprear on P03's screen. "It wasn't that big of a deal." It attempted to inform her.
"And "we", don't tell me that old fool also knows.".
"Who are you calling an old fool?" Magnificus called out and appeared in the vision of P03. When did he arrive? PO3 pondered.
"As usual, Magnificus, your timing is impeccable." Grimora laughed.
"indead Grimora."
"P03, pleased to see you're on the path to recovery; how are you doing?" Magnificus inquired of the bot.
"What do you think?" P03 expressed his displeasure.
"I see... But now that you're awake, "we have a lot to talk about." Magnificus stated solemnly.
"That's correct." Grimora concurred.
"When did you intend to inform us that you were having problems with the [OLD_DATA]?" Magnificus asked.
"Never," P03 replied, "because I was fixing it."
"I doubt it," Magnificus said. "Your conveyer was quickly dispatched by the [OLD_DATA]."
"But do not fear," Grimora added. "While you were being repaired, we all pitched in to help fix it."
"Oh." P03 questioned, perplexed, "Why?". It didn't bother thinking that any of the scrybes (much less all three of them) could help it with its problem, it was bewildered.
Magnificus struggled to explain, "Well, it's terribly unfair if you were prevented from receiving the old data."
"So we all agreed to temporarily halt our search until this problem was resolved." "It's a new rule, if you will.".
"You can't expect me to believe that." P03 told them. But it did not seem to be a cruel joke when it saw the serious expressions on Magnificus and Grimora's faces.
P03 couldn't believe they were willing to go to such lengths for it. Elipus covered its screen while it tried to process the news.
"Oh, then, thanks, I guess. I had no idea you guys were capable of not screwing me over."
"Oh, dear, we are not THAT cruel," Grimora remarked, cracking up.
Leshy joined them from the next room over.
"Leshy! It's wonderful that you've decided to join us. Grimora explained.
"Yes... and the droid is awake," Leshy hummed. He appeared relieved for a brief moment.
P03 couldn't believe what it was seeing in its factory with all of the scrybes. It wasn't sure whether it should be concerned or not.
"I know I'm like the best or whatever. But I have work to do." It knows the assembly line is broken, but it still has a lot of other things to do, and it's just not used to whatever this is. He was tired of looking for that fugitive, so he might as well make up for lost time.
P03 attempted to rise but was stopped by Leshy. "Stop moving, you shouldn't be moving in such a state." Leshy said.
"Come on, why not?" P03 asks irritably.
Magnificus was the one who confessed after the three of them exchanged looks.
"You can judge for yourself." Magnificus told it before handing it a mirror.
P03 let out a sigh of relief. It might finally figure out why the other scrybes were acting so strangely. P03 didn't notice anything unusual about its face when it looked in the mirror, but when it looked to the side, there was a large gash of exposed wiring that had to have been caused by the overload.
"You said I was fixed, Grimora. "This isn't fixed," P03 said.
"Well, I meant that the mechanic got you working. but lacked the tools to repair the rest." Grimora explained. "And not to alarm you but you may not be capable of moving properly."
"All right." "It's not that bad; I can still fix it."
"Yes, but before that, mind telling us why you exploaded." Magnificus asked.
"I was having a bad day, okay," it admitted reluctantly.
"In actuality, I believe I was the one who caused it." Leshy reflected on what had occurred at his cabin. Grimora and Magnificus were taken aback by Leshy's demeanour.
"No. Forget it; I didn't mean to say any of that. P03 was embarrassed by what It had told him.
Leshy regarded the other scrybes solemnly. "Regarding what happened... I have something I need to tell you all."
The three scrybes stared at Leshy, waiting for him to say something.
"I will admit that I may have gotten carried away the last time I was in control."
"To be clear, I have no regrets about using the [OLD_DATA] to make my game." And I'm not asking for forgiveness."
"However, based on what I've seen, my actions may have had unintended consequences for P03." "I believe you two share the same setemence."
" For that, I sincerely apologise." Leshy said it with integrity. When he observed the scrybes' reactions, he noticed that they appeared to be conflicted, which was to be expected. Grimora was the first to speak after a painful silence: "Oh dear, Leshy... That makes me happy to hear. To be fair, I would have done something similar if I hadn't already. "In fact, I've attempted to destroy this world."
"Yep. what she said. Not about deleating everything, that was nuts. But, yeah, I guess I did my transedence. "So I'm not entirely blameless in this." PO3 informed Leshy.
"hmph, well, I'll let you two speak for yourselves. But, Leshy, I must say, it's refreshing to see some remorse. However, you have failed to mention your escapade that resulted in my missing eye. Still, if this is the best I can get, I'll take it." Magnificus told Leshy.
Leshy was expecting a much worse reaction than that, and he was bracing himself for the worst of the scrybeses rage. He did not believe he deserved this kind of reaction.
"Well, since you three refuse to leave or allow me to work, I might as well beat you all in a dual." P03 smugly asserted.
Leshy looked even more confused for a moment, but then Leshy laughed "You are mistaken. You have no chance against the Scrybe of Beasts ".
"Marvolous! Be warned, I will not be going easy with anyone! "She declared, ready to throw down a challenge.
"I'm not opposed to it, but will we be dualing on the factory floor?" Magnificus expressed in dismay.
"Yep. Because my engines #$%ed, this is the best option "P03 confirmed it.
As the scrybes took turns duling each other, they quickly realised that it was possibly the worst card game they had ever played. It was more difficult to keep track of damage taken on the board because there was no bell or scales. They all played their respective cards, which most likely made matters worse because it resulted in unexpected consequences. For a variety of reasons, the scrybes despised this style of play.
Leshy was unable to bring the emergance and athstetics into the game, which was a discouraging experience. Grimora couldn't add any depth to the game or significantly improve its story. P03 struggled to ensure that the game was balanced and had good technical strategies, resulting in a sloppy game. Magnificus was irritated because all of the cards were dull. He thought the atmosphere was also tragically dull.
However, the game was still enjoyable. They could all catch up on what was going on at each other's temples. Despite their history of power grabs and disagreements, among other things, none of them found this an unpleasant experience.
While P03 and Magnificus had another turn to dual against each other, P03 was reminded of its situation, as it was used to competing against the other scrybes. However, while it was preparing the game for it and Magnificus, it listened to how the scrybes chat about a range of strange topics. P03 allowed itself to relax its defenses for a brief moment. It had no idea how long it would last or if it would happen again, but it was content with feeling included among the other scrybes, just this once.