Steel Rising

Chapter 29: The CMG office

*Zap!* "AUWAAAAH!..." A certain silver skull named Persivale screamed in pain as Tina soldered the connections between his mothermatrix at the back of his skull and his new opticalspine. "... Little Lady! This clearly isn't working!"

*Zap!* "AUWAAAAH! Please, have mercy!..." Persivale pleaded, struggling in pain as his subcontinent began to calibrate his electric motors. "... Please, I'll be a good little AI and never again contact Mr. Purple! Just please stop torturing me!"

"STOP STRUGGLING!..." Tina ordered angrily, holding a soldering iron in one hand and soldering wire in the other. "... Or I might accidentally  solder your mouth shut."

"Oh, please no!" the skull while unintentionally moving his hands together in prayer.

*Zap!* The last bit of solder slipped into place, and a cute yet satisfied smirk appeared on the little genius's face. "There, all done!"

"Really?" the skull asked, now with a full skeleton, as he looked at his own hand movements  in fascination like a child rediscovering some long-ago-stashed-away candy.

"YES!..." the little genius confirmed as she carefully put  her tools away. "... How does it feel?..."

"Good, I think!..." Persivale replied before jumping off Tina's workstation, only to realize a rather obvious problem. "... Ahm, Tina... You sure this height is correct?"

Comparing the silver skeleton's height with her own and coming out about equal, Tina questioned, confused. "No? I think that this is all right. You might be a centimeter taller than me, but that's it!"

"Damned, shorty, that is the problem!..." Cursed Persivale, angry about the fact that he was the same size as a six-year-old. "... You didn't have to make me the same height as that towering gorilla, Tellius, but you could have made me the same height as that deadly beauty, Sarah!"

"Oh, so that's what you mean..." Said Tina and went deep in thought... for only a moment. "... No, I don't think that's a problem."

"WHAT?!" Shouted the skeleton in shock, just before some compactors inside his chest cavity exploded to the point that sparks started flying. **Zap!* *Bang!* *Zap!* *Bang!*

"AUWAAAAH!*" Yelping like a wounded animal, Persivale instantly lost control over his right leg and left arm like a stroke patient.

Unable to compensate for the loss of control, he immediately started tilting before toppling over. Caught by the little genius with an embarrassed smirk, the AI-controlled skull knew that his hours of suffering were far from over.

"Oops... Must have been the vault regulator..." Guessed Tina thoughtfully, checking the damage. "... Maybe, you do need a bigger body frame..."

"That's what I was saying!" Huffed Persivale self-righteously as the little girl pushed him back onto her workstation.

Noticing the anatomical skeleton that Tina had liberated from the operating theater on floor -13, the skull questioned as he pointed with his intact arm at it. "Hey, why don't you use that thing as a foundation?"

"Hm... that might be the first good idea from you..." reluctantly agreed the six-year-old. "... But it wouldn't be easy..."

...

Meanwhile, standing in front  of the massive CMG skyscraper that was only dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Big 5 in the station's commercial district, Tellius was surprised by its understated, minimalistic style.

Over half a kilometer tall and with over 100 floors, the Cerberus Mercenary Guild office had the basic shape of an eight-sided cylinder and, as such, looked like a child's toy in gigantic proportions. Entirely made out of dura-steel and concrete, buildings such as this were becoming a symbol of neomilitaristic architecture throughout the Milky Way.