Chapter 12: The Fourth Stop (6)

Luna waited patiently at the entrance lobby of the lab as Carmina stood ever-so nervously, the sudden responsibility of being accountable for the lives inside this lab wrecked her nerves.

"Adapt to the UDPE field, chop off his head, put the chip on, and bring it to cell 108... adapt to the UPDE field, chop off his head, put the chip on, and bring it to cell 108... adapt to the UPDE field, chop off his head, put the---"

"Carmina, it is not that hard of a job. If it helps you feel better, I'll be trash talking the inquisitor the entire time."

"Isn't he a government figure?!"

"Yea, well, his authority is below mine. I can piss on him and he won't be able to do shit to me. It's only when it interferes with his job that things will actually get serious."

"But I'm suppose to 'accidentally' throw a punch in his direction to get him to activate his UDPE field. Doesn't that count as obstruction to his duties? Also, I'm made of steel! What about property damage!

"Don't worry~, accidents happen. So long as you don't actually land the punch, then you're fine! Plus, he's got a bunch of martial arts downloaded into his head, so he'll dodge it anyways. Also, don't worry about property damage, because if I did, then this whole lab would go bankrupt from the amount of distortion breaches we have each month."

"Like Fernando?! I can barely do shit against him if I don't have Theo by my side! And he can only do shit if I'm there to make a diversion!"

"It'll work out, but if you really feel unconfident about it, I'll give you this gun of mine that theoretically shoots fast enough to penetrate his UDPE field."

"...then what's the point of me adapting to it in the first place?"

"Because it's only in theory, Carmina. You don't see communism being so practical despite how theoretically good it is. Also, the UDPE field doesn't just end after you shoot the inquisitor."

"You have communism here?"

"Whatever, we're getting off topic here. You adapt to the UDPE field, you shoot the gun, you slice off his neck, you run like hell to cell 108, and boom! You've done your job, congratulations."

"...okay, alright, I think I'm getting use to it."

"Good, because he's right at the door."

"Wha---?!"

Carmina immediately snapped her focus from Luna to the front doors of the lobby, a humanoid figure dressed in an all-black suit stepping into the lab with rigid form and disciplined etiquette, just like a robot...

...because the inquisitor was a robot, his main defining feature as so having a tablet as a head with wires and metal framework running down from its head.

His pixelated face spoke in an electronic voice, [Hello! My friendly human name is Nemo, I will be your inspector for today under the pretense of 'terrorism' and 'rebellion' against the all-benevolent State. Is this true?]

"Whhhaaaaattttt????? No, whatcha mean? No terrorism or rebellion going on here!" Luna spoke with as much sarcasm as she could muster with her voice.

[This inspection will reveal the truth, Dr. Little, and I hope that it doesn't come down to suppression.] Nemo spoke as he immediately got to work, ignoring all the lustrous designs the ground floor lobby had to offer, Luna following right after as did Carmina.

Upon entry of the sub-one floor of the lab, Nemo only gave momentary glances to the distortion cells that he passed, regardless of any slaughter that might have been going on.

[Dr. Little, would you mind giving me a rundown on your production of energy here at Luna Labs?]

"Hell yea I do, piss face."

[If you do not give me an answer, I will take it as obstruction to my duty and will have military units come to---] Nemo spoke but had been abruptly cut off, Carmina's fist halting just a few inches away from him. [Explain this, Dr. Little, if this was by your orders and is an active attempt for rebellion.]

"Of course not! You see, my escorting employee over there had been struck with the distortion known as 'The Thing That Makes You Want To Punch Robotic Inquisitors Named Nemo' cursed Carmina and won't wear off until the inspection is over."

[That's sounds very hard to believe, Dr. Little. I'm going to require some form of evidence to prove that such a being exists.]

"Yes, right! When I always refer to 'The Thing That Makes You Want To Punch Robotic Inquisitors Named Nemo,' people are always like, 'oh my gosh! That's so specific!' and they don't believe me! But look! We're actually right next to that very specific distortion right now!" Luna spoke with an impossible level of bullshitery as she pointed to the cell room on their right, it being Duncan inside a very bloodied duck costume.

[That's... very interesting, to say the least. May you please excuse such an employee, in the case of an accident?]

"Woah now buckaroo, are you saying that I can't have some form of protection around government scum like you? Do you know how much shit you've put this lab into? I swear to God, I'll complain to your boss and have you dismantled in front of my eyes as you find another copy of yourself replace everything that you deemed yourself as valuable."

[...let's keep the employee around. I'll disengage the UDPE field from her body.]

Immediately, Carmina was unlocked from her punching stance and flopped to ground as Nemo move out of the way. 

"Oof! That was weird, to say the least. Felt like my entire body was just stuck in solid ice."

"Yea, it took me months to figure out what basis of science it even uses to function, and after that, I just gave up trying to understand it. Anyways, get up, we're gonna miss that golden opportunity if you don't."

Luna stretched out her hand to help Carmina up, but it was more so a gesture of kindness than an actual helping as Luna was much too small to help a hunk of metal like Carmina to get on her two feet.

[What would be that golden opportunity, if you don't mind me asking?]

"You know damn straight that isn't apart of your job resume to be asking people what their 'golden opportunity' is."

Carmina got up and threw a punch at Nemo, but the UDPE field had immediately stopped her.

[Yes yes, of course Dr. Little, of course. So, going back on topic, how do you exactly use these distortions to produce the energy you produce for your city? And what of the procurement of these distortions in the first place?]

"They come from 'donators,' although the exact process on how these beings come into existence isn't exactly known. The things we do know though are that they produce 'waves' and that we can capture those waves to make energy."

Nemo made stalled to make notes on his digital face as he dodged another punch from Carmina, using UDPE field to immobilize her, [And how does that produce energy?]

"Captured waves are put into capsules together and they clash against each other, in which the kinetic energy produced from the waves thrashing into each other are made in mass amounts."

[Is this an infinite energy source?]

"No, those capsules will soon resonate with each other and give no further amount of kinetic energy."

[Are they then subjected to disposal? If so, how?]

"We take the resonated capsules and put them into new capsules with other resonated waves, thus recycling the process until we have a single capsule's worth of resonate waves."

[I presume that resonated waves are incapable of making any amount of kinetic energy worth---]

"RAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" Carmina let out a war cry as she threw yet another punch, but was yet again stopped by Nemo's UDPE field.

[---using when clashing with waves that have not resonated with another?]

"Yea, thanks for thinking above the level of a child for that one."

[...right, so what do you do about the capsules that have grown too strong to be used for kinetic energy?]

"Store 'em in a storage unit, where else? Throwing them inside a dumpster could only prove to have unimagined consequences!"

Carmina, having been walking behind Nemo's back, suddenly jumped high above and began falling down to his position, and although her inner workings might have been frozen solid, the momentum and gravity would continue to move her.

Nemo promptly activated his UDPE field and side stepped, [That looked awfully looked like a non-punch kind of attack. Also, I meant to address that war cry from before. Are you sure your employee isn't, quite literally, a feral beast?"

"The distortion's name is more figurative than literal. Also, what the hell did you say about my subordinate?"

[Nothing, Dr. Little, my apologies, I should've known better."

"Damn straight! Now do your damn 'inspection' and get the fuck out of my lab!"

[Yes, yes, of course Dr. Little, it won't take much. All I want to see now is the storage unit used to store these absolute-resonant waves you possess here.]

"Oi, Carmina, did you, y'know, get your body to do the thing?"

Carmina got up from the floor, "Yea... I think I've cut the, uh, time for being, uh, yea, I cut it short by 85%."

[What are you talking about?]

"None of your fucking business, you fucking fed! Anyways, wow girl! I thought it'd take way more, but your, uh, flexibility is off the roof! I need you hired here forever, Carmina."

[...I don't get paid right for this. But anyways, could one of you two show me the way to the storage room? Kindly?]

"Damns straight you don't get paid right! Get a fucking slave wage, shit head! And can't you download a map on your fucking tablet head? Piss off and do it yourself!" Luna screamed at Nemo, giving him a thumbs down as she moved her head left and right.

"Haha, I don't think I could've imagined you to be... like that, when I first met you."

"Well, when the government kinda screws over your entire life by killing the people you love and manipulating you to think that they're in the right for doing so, you turn a bit... racist, if that's the right words."

"I think you just call that anti-government."

"That's a lame word, I think being called racist agains the government packs more of a punch for the unfiltered hate I have for The State. You catch my drift?"

"Hahahaha! Yea, sure, anything goes with Luna. You're too cute for that."

"Thanks! You also look pretty in your original body! I like your brown hair."

"Aw, thanks!" Carmina responded until a moment of realization hit her, "Wait, how do you know that?"

"Ah! That shithead of a robot went off without us! The fucking audacity! And that's the one room that he can use as evidence that we're plotting a rebellion against The State! Hurry, Carmina, before everyone is gonna slip down to hell!"

"What?! Oh, shit!" Carmina immediately panicked, getting up to run after Nemo along with Luna.

It wouldn't take long until they caught up with Nemo however, as he had been walking at a snail's pace because he didn't need a reason to rush his investigation. It also made Nemo subjectable to Carmina's flying punch, to in which he had easily evaded.

[Dr. Little, is there anything you needed of me?]

"There comes the realization that I have not, cannot, and will not trust you to walk around this lab without destroying something."

[I assure you, Dr. Little, that I will do no such thing.]

"Shut up."

[Uh, yes, Dr. Little.]

Nemo continued to walk forward in silence until he had reached a door tagged as the storage unit, attempting to open it before realizing he needed a keycard to open the door.

Luna gave a scoff and threw her identity badge, smacking Nemo square on his tablet face. He took the badge off his face and opened the door, immediately beginning his inspection.

It was a large room estimating to be about 600 square feet in size, filled with all sorts of preservatory equipment that shelved all the absolute-resonate capsules. The room was also freezing, but it seemed as though it didn't bother anyone.

[I thought there would only be a single capsule?]

"Even absolute-resonant capsules have different GMI values, you dumb shit." Luna criticized, with Carmina having long since been powered down in her brain.

[Yes, my apologies Dr. Little, but if I may ask about these capsules...

...why are ordered based on their TNT value for explosive potency?]

"Yea, alright, the gigs up, this bastard knew it from the beginning." Luna gave no further comment, pulling out a modified Glock and emptying its magazine at Nemo before the bullets stopped in midair. "Oh, shi---"

Crash!

Nemo acted without a single moment to waste, grabbing Luna's head and slamming it into the wall.

[Affirmed: Luna Labs are domestic terrorists and the order to execute them has immediately taken effect.] Nemo turned to Carmina, [Understanding that you were put under orders, surrender now and your sentencing will be much less severe. Do you agree to those terms?]

'What the fuck just happened???' Carmina's brain short-circuited as what had just transpired was done in a matter of seconds.

In one moment, Nemo had been inspecting the storage unit until Luna had suddenly said that he had known from the start, and in the next, she had her head smashed into the wall without any kind of warning.

Thus, Carmina acted with the little sense she had of the situation and said, "I, uh, fuck you!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Whipping out the gun Luna had given her at the start of the inspection, Carmina shot three supercharged bullets at Nemo, missing every single one of them as they whizzed past him.

[...I thought mass-manufactured employee robots like you were made with auto-aim?]

Carmina gave a smirk, "Who the hell said I was aiming for you?"

Immediately, a sense of urgency filled Nemo's digital eyes as he turned around to check what Carmina had truly been aiming for. In less then a millisecond, Nemo utilized his UDPE field to check everything within a 200 square foot radius only to realize that it was too late...

...because his sense of urgency ran out as he turned around to see Carmina trying to shoot her now-empty railgun pistol as it failed to shoot another supercharged bullet.

But that utter stupor in which Nemo had for the incomprehensible failure Carmina had just committed gave her the time to realize the gun was empty and threw it at Nemo's face, running in to tackle him down onto the floor.

In the few moments of that daze, Carmina balled up her fist and slammed it down on Nemo's tablet face, who in turn, came back to his senses and threw her outside the storage unit and into the hallway.

[...you're pathetic. How have your manufacturers failed the production of your model so hard?]

"Hell, now you're rubbing salt in my wounds. I'll admit that my aim sucks ass, but I'm the kind of person who gets better with time, alright?" Carmina spoke, manifesting her ID weapon to really start of the fight.

[Interesting.] Nemo spoke with indifference, his posture more than relaxed.

"Cocky bastard."

Carmina pushed herself off the wall and lunged her knife forward at Nemo's face, his head easily avoiding the predictable attack and thrusting his palm into Carmina's stomach to push her back into the wall.

Immediately after, Nemo followed it up with a winding punch towards Carmina's head, cracking the wall and almost certainly her skull if she hadn't weaved to the left.

"Holy---!" Carmina instinctively reacted to Nemo's raw display of power, soon realizing that she didn't have the luxury of conversation as he clawed at the wall to throw debris at Carmina.

With her line of sight blocked by the dust, Carmina swiped at the gray cloud in front of her only to reveal Nemo's hurtling side kick, narrowly bring up her forearms to block his fatal kick as the impact pushed Carmina back many feet backwards.

Nemo lowered his center of gravity and dashed forward to cut the distance made between them, winding up for another punch to the gut before Carmina could even recover...

...but it was a move she was already familiar with.

In a quick step forward, Carmina threw off Nemo's sense of timing and fire a punch herself, tanking a weakened blow near her solar plexus in exchange for chipping off the top of his tablet head.

Carmina's adaptability factor was kicking in, each thought running inside her head fueling its unending flame.

What followed soon after was an exchange of blows that began as a pummel---each hook punch Carmina threw returned a three-hit combo that devastated her inner machinery, each kick she swung high was heavily punished with a kick or a grapple.

It didn't help that the narrow hallways offered little to no room to evade but backwards, every back-step Carmina made having easily been caught up with a Nemo's monstrous strength.

Carmina made a jab for Nemo's neck, but in turn had sacrificed the valuable distance she had to dodge.

Nemo shoved her to the wall and threw yet another punch, scraping off a couple sheets of metal from Carmina's face as she barely weaved to his right.

Each and every attempt Carmina made at Nemo's life had done nothing but give him small scratch on his tablet head, all while risking an incredibly lethal counterattack that would undoubtedly end her in one hefty blow...

...but each and every attempt that Carmina did make, she grew to adapt towards Nemo's lethality.

What started as a pummeling in exchange for a little bit of breathing room soon became a small-hit combo in exchange for a measly hook punch as a counterattack, and that became a scrape of her metallic skin in exchange for a nick into Nemo's black suit.

Soon enough, Carmina had lasted long enough to entirely adapt to Nemo's move set, every bit of damage inflicted by his life-threatening strikes easily managed into reparable amounts with a weave or block as she returned the sentiment with a flurry of stabs and jabs into Nemo's body, nearly exceeding a one-to-one exchange of blows.

But, far into her fight with Nemo, a fundamental problem had presented itself.

Carmina's adaptability factor only enhanced the probabilities of her survival, so how was she going to decapitate Nemo with the little power she has?

Despite the fact that nicks and chips could easily be inflicted on his body, Carmina knew for a fact that the alloy that made Nemo's body was far stronger than what her dagger could cut through, especially his tablet head considering how essential it is for Nemo to function.

Thus, a sliver of worry crept inside Carmina's head---scratch that, many slivers of worries were creeping inside her head.

Taking in consideration that she couldn't keep up the regenerative factor of her adaptability, how long could Carmina keep it up for? Although she knew that her biological body ran on all sorts of chemicals to continue her adaptability, and that she passed out when pushing herself too hard, how long did Carmina have until she completely flopped in the first place?

Carmina's slow, but surely deteriorating mental state had began to affect her performance, uselessly sacrificing the bits and pieces of her body that Carmina could've easily avoided.

In a frantic hurry, Carmina began turning her attention from the battle to possible solutions she could use to solve the problem at hand---could she contact Duncan or Lady Boss for help? No, that was impossible to do. Could she try to shift her battle to somewhere she could get help? No, Carmina couldn't spare another thought doing something else.

'Then what the hell do I do?!' Carmina freaked out, suffering from a bizarrely-bent hand that was too ill-supported to block Nemo's heavy punch.

The only possible way Carmina could conjure up the fire power to behead Nemo was the way she had shaped her body to sling forward her dagger to save Theo, but such a method was entirely foreign to Carmina as it was something done on an unconscious level.

Not only was it something far too extraordinary to replicate, Carmina hadn't even begun to create a desire strong enough to even theoretically result in such an evolution.

The only reason she had even started this fight as because Luna...

'Luna?' Carmina imagined, Luna's emerging figure lying dead on the cracked floor as it was impossible for the human skull to withstand the force Nemo had used to slam her down.

The thought of the cute, but surprisingly vulgar-mouth scientist having brain matter splattered all over the pallid-white coloring of the laboratory killed any light inside Carmina's eyes.

To describe them most accurately would be like referring to the murky black eyes a dead fish might have, devoid of any life behind its once-colorful eyes.

Carmina was a person who held the few people that made their way into her heart endearingly close to her, no matter how short of a time she had known them. But fate had once again stabbed deep inside her heart, taking away the little she had to work the validity of her name...

...the name having long-been titled, 'The Lonesome Remains.'

And so, a murderous gaze was casted on the unrelenting Nemo as he continued to give a barrage of attacks, ignorant of the change of atmosphere as he, quite literally, has nerves of steel.

Without another second to waste, Carmina kicked Nemo back and made a considerable distance between each other.

This time, however, Nemo chose not to pursue Carmina in favor for observing a very unusual phenomenon occurring inside her body.

As shown before, Nemo's UDPE field could be used for sensing the his perimeters regardless of obstacle, taking witness to Carmina's adaptability formed from her desire as intricate wires and complex coding warped to an incomprehensible degree.

But Carmina's desire for Nemo's death didn't shape her adaptability to amplify one limb in sacrifice for another and instead, Carmina's adaptability had shaped itself to fuel her need to find a fitting execution for Nemo, thus enhancing her eyes instead of her body.

Thus, with those very eyes, Carmina discovered a very peculiar characteristic of the lab, remembering Luna's earlier words on how the laboratory didn't have a single worry about reconstruction of the building despite the breaches the laboratory had on a monthly basis; in fact, it held especially true as Carmina looked both ways of the corridor to find an inconspicuous amount of cleanliness as though no fight had been fought here ever.

And so, Carmina glanced to the roof above her and then back at Nemo, gripping her dagger upside down as she put herself into a stance.

[I'll have to admit that you had far exceeded the expectations I initially had for---] Nemo spoke before getting abruptly interrupted by Carmina and her thrown dagger, serving him the justice she had patiently waited for since the beginning of the fight...

...the battle began once more, but this time, it was all fisticuffs and knuckle sandwiches.

Carmina sharply focused her eyes like a cold, meticulous hunter as she walked in an even pace, one foot after another.

Nemo, who stood observant of the situation, understood Carmina's approach and took a stance, utilizing his right hand as defense and his left for offense.

Step after step, Carmina calmly walked up to Nemo, attentive of each and every shift in his clothing with her newly-adapted eyes. It didn't take long before they were almost in arm's reach, as the distance she made wasn't a lot, but the moment that invisible line was crossed, Carmina took the initiative and threw the first punch.

The second battle had officially started; this time, however, it was done in a more professional subtext than the feral close-quarters combat they had farther down the narrow hallway.

[...hm?] Nemo curiously thought, deflecting the punch with ease as Carmina steered off course, putting far too much weight into that one attack than necessary.

But, as a robot, Nemo didn't get far into speculating in such a decision and simply identified Carmina's mistake as a failure to keep up with his computing power.

And so, without the waste of another pair of ones and zeroes, Nemo sharply rose his right knee into Carmina's robotic gut. As a result, Carmina shot upward like a firework and crashed into the roof.

[That lasted far below the expected time frame compared to our previous skirmish, but abnormalities will stay abnormal, certainly] Nemo almost spoke with disappointment, looking up to the hole he made by kneeing Carmina into the roof, crushing vital machinery.

Nemo made sure of her demise too, emitting his UDPE field to track Carmina's electric signals, waiting for her to use all the power she has left in order to survive.

Soon, with a spark and a zap, all signals referencing Carmina's livelihood had ceased.

[I will be sure to report this to upper echelon, considering the possibilities AI can advance if The State could understand how she---#@%$%$^%!$#@!!!!---] Nemo spoke as he followed his coding, abruptly ending his sentence short as a small chip landed on his head and locked firmly on its metallic exterior.

In the midst of Nemo's extreme malfunction, Carmina fell from the hole with many cut wires held tightly inside her hands. 

With her flexible body and efficient mind, Carmina twisted herself around Nemo's body like it was a monkey bar, tying strong knots of wire around his lower body with disturbing speed.

After a solid minute of tying up the twitching robot, Carmina kicked herself off of Nemo and patiently waited for his demise.

Although the wires seemed inanimate in the beginning, much to Carmina's displeasure as Nemo slowly worked his way around the hacking chip, they suddenly snapped together and pulled him into the roof without any sound other than Nemo's body crunching and fusing together.

[!*@&$^%#&@*$$&@$&---___...] Nemo made an incoherent screech that was just as visceral as any other animal could make, ending in a short second as the laboratory roof repaired itself with his body.

With his body now gone, Nemo's head plopped onto the floor with a sharp cut through his neck, free for Carmina to grab and carry to her next destination.

"Ugh, I don't like feeling this way, everything feels so bummed out..." Carmina groaned, squatting close to the floor as she messaged her face from the icky feeling she had on her body, "...oh, get over it, Carmina. Not the first time, won't be the last time."

And so, following her gloomy attitude, Carmina picked up Nemo's decapitated head and went on her merry way to 'The Portrait Of God' so she can do a drop-off delivery.

"Let's see... cell 108, cell 108, cell---oh, here it is."

It didn't take much for Carmina to find the room, considering her chanting ritual at the beginning of the inspection to drill her orders into her head. With a simple ID swipe at the door, Carmina entered the transitional hallway and soon entered the actual room.

 The cell itself was nothing grandeur, more so bland than anything else despite its class 4 category.

It was a wide, squarish room painted with a white so pure that it was hard to spot the room's corners. The only thing worth noting was the small painting that hanged on the opposite wall's center.

Namely, it was 'The Portrait Of God,' and it naturally took all of Carmina's attention, though understandable due to the fact that there was nowhere else worthy to look at.

The painting itself was nothing short of peculiar---the color palette was had a beautiful consistency of yellow and pink, the background was a wondrous splash of golden olive branches and fuchsia butterflies, and the focus of the portrait, that supposed God...

...she was nothing short of the divine presence that her title so demanded of her to hold.

"Agh! Shit, I wasn't suppose to look at it." Carmina snapped out of her mesmerization with a slap to both of her cheeks, a clang resounding throughout the empty room.

Carmina put Nemo's head upright onto the floor, leaning him against the wall to look at the direction of the painting and turning towards the cell door to exit. With a quick twist to the knob, Carmina-/-looked at God's beautifully painted existence, as though light itself had been sculpted into a picture frame.

She was girl whose mute majesty was spoken louder than Carmina's thoughts, facing away from the portrait as she held onto the frills of her pink dress to spread it out wide while walking through the field of golden olive branches.

Her flowingly long black hair were like dark rivers of a loving night sky, flying so high in the air that it left the picture frame from above, orange begonias and yellow sunflowers adorning her hair in bewitching fashion.

Click.

Carmina's mind snapped into place, although not in the sense of her sanity turning right again, but her mind snapping into bits and pieces as they loosely stood in their positions.

In a manner of horror that sourced itself from a movie, Carmina found herself closer to the painting than ever before, yet infinitely distant as though that even the image of God was unobtainable.

It was like an eternally unfulfilled promise of a better in life, to the always better in life, where its blinding light marched those who ever dared to live in a never-ending parade. Those that fell to their mortality were trampled by their brethren and those that flew above the rest lost their ground as they fell into the air, every single one of them marching with cooked feet to keep them running headless into that very promise.

Slowly, reality began to warp around Carmina little by little, the 'Portrait of God' blurring and meshing together into a hue of color completely foreign to her mind.

Even light itself was not spared from the distortion's bizarre phenomenon as Carmina's sense of sight began distorting and warping, though it felt consistent to her that such a thing was happening in the midst of her unyielding focus on the portrait.

Yet it didn't matter to what Carmina did see or didn't see as the rays of light that bounced off of God's portrait into her eyes began splintering, even peeling off like string until they snapped apart.

Suddenly, as the last rays of light snapped, a multitude of people were walking next to Carmina as she joined the parade, stepping towards that very promise in a desperate march to keep the little hope she had of the future, that tomorrow will hopefully hurt less than today.

Carmina stared ever-so deeper into God's portrait, tears of oil and tar dripping down her face as she ran on the burning floor that kept her in a manic dash for that promise.

To her, it felt like it was the only path that Carmina could take, the only continuity that could be traveled on as though there was no other direction of mind to guide her other than that horrible light.

"....aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" A gradually growing voice yelled in the far background of Carmina's mind, completely unaware of the sound in the first place.

Slam!

Luna bursted forth from the cell door with the ripped fabric of her lab coat wrapped firmly around her eyes, peaking outside the blindfold to look at the floor in order to spot Carmina as well as to not look at the portrait.

Immediately, she got to work, heaving at Carmina's metallic body using her own small one like a kid trying to pull their parents out of their bed.

"Stupid! Sonuva! Pony! I told you not to look at the darn painting, you muppet! Arrgghhh! I spent all that time tryna weld my face together for nothing! All for you just up n' dope out of your mind to see!" Luna pulled and pulled, tugging away at Carmina's limp body until they made it to the transitional hallway between cell room and corridor.

"ARGHHH!!! So much wasted effort too! That bum skull of a fish already called reinforcements! And now I'm here because to cover your ass! Because I care about you! Ugh, I knew that pissy priest said too many sweetsies to be true! How much time do I have?"

Luna did some quick calculations in her head as she took out her work phone, "Shittles! Vint! We got a big fudging emergency! Get off your bum shuckle and start powering up the darn teleporter!"