2025-05-20 11:04:53
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Ch. 69 A Night on the Beach
With Maverick and Stingray in the water, and George and Starstorm in an orange rubber life raft (a color that Starstorm felt compelled to voice as far less pretty and appealing than his own bright yellow life raft), they got themselves to the beach as quickly as possible. The Untamed Seas were in the tropics, so the night was warm. They didn’t think they’d need a fire for warmth. They had taken the liberty of assuming that it was ok to “borrow” some of the sub’s dried military rations as “complimentary”.(“After all, how’s it gonna stop us?” Starstorm had asked. George had replied, “Just hurry up. Let’s not find out.”)The beach extended about one hundred fifty yards inland. Beyond that was a treeline that would be better explored in daylight. George thought, too late, of course, that he should have thought to ask the sub’s AI how many hours it would be until daylight.Maverick powered down to conserve what little energy he had left. He had not recharged since before his scheduled fig
Ch. 68 Nereia's Letter
“Where are we going, Pilot?” George asked the AI. It was morning, an honest-to-goodness morning. The sub was cruising at a shallow depth that was sunlit. For George to wake up from a long sleep and see sunlight through the sub’s front viewport was a subtle, yet powerful reminder for George that Wonderdome was gone. Wonderdome had had the Three Periods: Work, Family, and Sleep. The surface world had day and night. “We are headed to an island in what surface world maps refer to as the Untamed Seas.” “Why? What’s there?” “My files do not contain that information. I apologize for any inconvenience that may cause.” Well, that’s a dead end, George thought. “Maybe this will help,” said Stingray as he rose from his own bunk area and stepped over to the front viewport with George. He brought with him a scroll made from Wonderdomian sea grass paper. “Nereia made me promise to give it to you. She had already written it out before I arrived. She called me to her deathbed.” “Deathbed?” “W
Ch. 67 Beyond Wonderdome
George had always known the dome was not glass. It was a magical see-through metal. So, when a piece of it broke off the main body of the dome, it did so with a metallic groan, as metal bending and snapping rather than glass shattering and breaking. The piece that broke off and fell first was the size of several city blocks combined. It fell with enough force to crush buildings beneath it and to vibrate the very earth under the city. Screams filled the air as the ocean, held back for so long, sought to reclaim the volume of the dome. At first, water rushed in through the original hole opened by the twin krakens’ relentless battering for several long moments, but then, with its original structural strength so greatly compromised, the edges of the hole started to bend inward under the unimaginable pressure. As the edges of the hole lost their resilience against the impossible pressure, the hole widened, letting in even more water, accelerating the dome’s impending, eventual total colla
Ch. 66 "Thank you, George."
What else could go wrong? George thought. Suddenly, a very welcome voice came into his Robot Jockey helmet. “I’m safe, George! Starstorm got me out of there. He used a Wand of Illusion to make the cultists think they were being raided by General Crabshell’s men, creating a diversion. We took the elevators down to the first floor lobby. I found a learning pad that was already running so I didn’t need the owner’s password to call you. I’m safe!”“Thank the gods!” he responded.He took just a moment to look away from his helmet’s presentation of a Maverick’s-eye-view of the world and look down from his balcony and across the plaza from his own viewpoint. Sure enough, he could see a lone figure running out of the first floor entrance at the front of the building. Fortunately, there weren’t any Mother Kraken tentacles covering that door. From this distance, without Maverick’s magnification enhancement, he wouldn’t be able to see a tiny, flying p’ckit dragon, or Starstorm could be riding in
Ch. 65 Double Trouble
From skyscrapers, sea elves screamed, clutching loved ones as the Kraken Mother’s tentacles cast shadows over their homes. Maverick placed George on a balcony from which the teen sciencemancer would have an unobstructed view of the action to come that was hopefully far enough away to not become part of that action. Then, taking the Spear of Sasa with him, the last of Wonderdome’s gladiator bots leaped away to seek battle with an ancient eldritch horror of the deep.Once Maverick entered the plaza in front of the Genetics Institute Building, George initiated direct piloting mode. “Initiating manual pilot controls now.”“Manual pilot mode is set, George. You’re in charge.”As George took over Maverick’s movements, Maverick stood fully erect for the first time since he’d been cut into by the Manta Ray bot.“That feels much better, George.”“I can’t promise it’s all going to feel good. You’re probably going to get damaged a lot in this fight.”“Fair enough.” George was looking through t
Ch. 64 The Spear of Sasa
“You remember that word I used before, kid? Kaiju?” asked Yörg. “Yeah,” George responded. “She’s big enough to be one now,” he said, indicating the Kraken Mother, Sirena’s true form. “I see why you called the gladiator bots just wannabes.” Sirena, or the Great Kraken Mother at that moment, had wrapped herself around the Genetics Institute building, taunting the forces Wonderdome had mustered to confront her. With half a million sea elves, and being the center of their civilization, Wonderdome was home to many powerful sea elven mages who had arrived on the scene to do what they could against the eldritch horror that had been hidden amongst their citizenry, disguised as a geneticist working in the very building she now clung to, for several years. The Kraken Mother shared the same magic resistance that the goo-infected gladiator bots had, so the mages of Wonderdome were not having as much effect as they had hoped. George, Maverick, and Yörg surveyed the scene. In addition to the
Ch. 63 Manta Bot's Return
George was very glad the Robot Jockey equipment was waterproof. Waterproofing was a basic element of sea elf Wonderdome technology, otherwise the civilization wouldn’t have gotten very far. Although the gigantic airlock had been closed, the streets in the neighborhood were still covered in quite a bit of water. If the visor hadn’t been down on the Robot Jockey helmet at the time, the sciencemancer teen would have gotten a faceful of water. After Maverick had pushed him, he’d hit the ground and splashed into the still shin-deep layer of water there. Then he’d heard something massive strike Maverick as the gladiator bot took a hit that had been aimed at George. Not knowing whether it was safe to stand up yet or not, George did anyway out of concern for Maverick and an irresistible desire to see what was going on for himself. Maverick, being quite close nearby, was easy to spot. He had taken quite a bit of damage on his right side. Something had sliced deeply into his chassis. Maveric
Ch. 62 Blood and Ice
George had learned at the Science Academy that Wonderdome’s population was about half a million sea elves. There had never been so many sea elves in existence in the oceans of Zorethea as there were at that time. Wonderdome was what had made that population explosion possible. Within Wonderdome, the capital of elven culture, magic, and science was impregnable and unassailable and had been for over a millennia. There were still other non-domed cities of the sea elves in other places in the ocean, living as the elves originally had before the erection of the dome, as many elves in the Wonderdome suburbs outside the dome did also, but within Wonderdome, the elves could develop inventions, technologies, and magics without the interference of the shark people or any of their other traditional enemies in the ocean. Since Wonderdome was unassailable by force, the Kraken Cult had had to infiltrate it from within. They had eventually corrupted even Prime Minister Moray and other officials in
Ch. 61 Water, Water Everywhere!
George broke his gaze away from the thunderous booming above. Hopefully, Crabshell’s submersible navy could be scrambled to deal with the two krakens and their makeshift battering ram. George looked for some way that he could contribute to making something better inside the dome. He looked down from his perch at where the Sea Spider bot was struggling in vain against Maverick’s grapple cord. He noticed something disturbing. “Mav, where is that water coming from? The dome doesn’t have any visible leaks…yet.” “Unknown.” The robot gladiator looked down at his feel which were covered in flowing water. “It seems to be flowing into this plaza from the next neighborhood over nearer to the dome. Shall I investigate?” “Come get me. We’ll investigate together.” “As you wish.” Maverick collected George from his rooftop view of the Spider bot battle.The two of them began heading down the street, the water still at the level of Maverick’s feet and up to George’s shins. If the water got much
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