AI Hunter Chronicles: Energized (Season 1)

Episode 55: Kiki

The Maw Universe 76823

For the last 16 hours or so, C4rry has been doing great on her own, well, great as you can imagine for someone lost in a universe where they don't belong. The robot seems to be very far behind from her after that escape, so she hasn't really been dealing with that, and there is plenty of water in this land evidently. Food is a different issue. A lot of the fauna in this world seems to be inedible, hostile, or both. The worm thing she managed to use as a float was something that she could eat, and she's found a little species of pea things that looked cute, too cute to actually put down to eat. So, she's stuck with worm food. When she got away from the robot, she saw a tower in the distance. It looked futuristic, but it's better than nothing, so she focused her journey towards the tower.

It was when she was about to make camp for the second time in this place that she saw them. In the distance, she saw two other figures, seemingly also setting up camp for the night. Eager to see some faces out there, she approached them. They were, of course, not anyone that she knew, far from it. They were these tall soldier-like people, wearing grey full body exosuits with their helmets having too many eyes on them, or lights that look like eyes, at least. Their base of operations looks a bit more advanced than C4rry's and looks like it is for a different purpose than hers as well. Alongside what she assumes are their needs are highly futuristic cases, some of them empty, others having animals that's she seen around here, and a few that she hasn't. It's then that she realizes that these guys are probably poachers or something. Nevertheless, she goes up to them and greets them.

C4rry: Hiya! Say, whatcha think you're doing?

The two individuals jump at the sight of C4rry, which is what she expected. What she didn't expect is a sudden cry out from one of the containers.

???: Ξƒιp ! gƒﾄ γᚢƒ ꝋ𐰜ﾄ ꝋf ξƒrƒ!

Being caught off guard herself, she looks over to the container to see who or what called out from all the commotion, to find that it was a girl, around fifteen or sixteen, who looked partially like a squid with her indigo hair and eye patterns, trapped within. One of the captors seemed to take advantage of this distraction and fires a shot at C4rry, which barely misses her. C4rry retaliates, and a firefight breaks out. On a normal two versus one, the two individuals would have surely won, but C4rry is a professional, and as soon as it started, the fight ended, with both figures dead on the ground. C4rry smiles in relief and goes over to the girl and frees her from her small prison.

???: ﾄξʌиг ꜿꝋ𐰜 ƨꝋ γᚢ𐰜ↄξ! ꜿꝋ𐰜 ƨʌvƒʋ γᚢꜿ ι⌶fƒ!

C4rry sits there, confused. She didn't understand a word that this teenager said.

C4rry: What? I'm sorry, I don't speak your language.

Now it is the squid girl that is confused.

???: Wξʌﾄ?

C4rry: Hold on for a second.

C4rry holds up her hand and then a finger as she goes around the deceased's stuff. She seems to understand that at the very least.

C4rry: Let's see...rations: keeping, grappling gun: yes, weird space slug: no, Aha!

C4rry finally pulls out something from the storage. It's a small case, labeled in English (thankfully) as translator earpieces. She opens the case, and takes out two small airpod like pieces, and gives one to the girl. C4rry puts one in her ear, and the girl mimics what C4rry does.

C4rry: There. Can you understand me?

The girl speaks, this time, C4rry understands her.

???: <Yeah! Yeah I can!>

C4rry: Awesome! I can understand you as well! Sorry for not knowing inkling. Didn't think I needed to.

???: <Huh? You don't know Squid Language? Those guys didn't seem to either, now that I think about it. Where are we anyways?>

C4rry: Honestly, really hard to explain. Anyways, what was it you said before?

???: <Oh! Thank you! Thank you Thank you thank you thank you!!!>

C4rry: Hey! No problem miss! Just here to help, that's all!

???: <I can't help but be thankful! I don't know what they would have done to me if you hadn't shown up!>

The Inkling girl jumps up and down countless times.

???: <I'm Kiki, by the way! Nice to meet you!>

C4rry: I'm C4rry! Nice to meet you to-

Suddenly, C4rry's introduction is cut short when a blast hits her in the shoulder, completely vaporizing it, and sending C4rry to the ground. Kiki turns around and sees a third one of those poachers, with a blaster in hand. It seems like he left while C4rry drew near and waited to get his shot in. Kiki panics, knowing that she is currently defenseless. She spots a weapon that C4rry dropped, which looks like a splatter, but shorter and less colorful, and aims it at the man. She pulls the trigger, and it fires straight into his head, killing him instantly. Kiki looks down as the man falls to the ground. It is weird for Kiki, even though she saw C4rry do the same thing to the other two captors. Now that she thinks about this, they haven't gotten back up yet, and this man isn't either-

C4rry: grunts Nice shot Kiki!

C4rry slowly gets back up onto her feet, the wound on her shoulder still present, but slowly regenerating the flesh and bone back together.

C4rry: And good aim as well!

Kiki: <He will get back up, right?>

C4rry freezes when she asks her this.

C4rry: Ummmm, how about we have a talk about this once we get away from these guys. You must be hungry. Got some worm meat if you want!

Kiki: <Worm meat?>

C4rry: Kidding! It's only for emergencies! We got rations for days. We'll cook up that.

Kiki: <Oh! That's a pretty funny joke!>

Kiki giggles as they make their trek away from the dead bodies of the poachers, and in the direction of the giant tower.