Not Alone

Hide and Seek (Part Two)

"Does he think that I'm a wizard who can just pull all the picric acid he needs out of my bowl?"

Two Skibidis with yellow toilets shuffled through the outer chambers of the weapons complex. An older bald one in glasses and a goatee was muttering furiously to his companion, a scruffy young male in a beanie.

"White, he told me, calculate the amount of acid it would need to kill Titan Cameraman and triple it. Triple it. Does he actually realize that— hey!"

The bald Skibidi crossed two pairs of metal arms over his toilet, narrowing his icy eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Monstrous metal drums loomed in the dingy space behind him, each bigger than a factory chimney.

"No Agents in the workshop!" the bald one said coldly.

"We will not be harassed at work, bitch!" his beanie-wearing friend chimed in.

"But I'm a Glitch..." whined Jellybean.

"Even worse," said the bald Skibidi (Brown thought he looked vaguely familiar). "This complex of full of dangerous chemicals and fragile equipment. Get that thing out at once. Does the Professor know where you are?"

To Brown's surprise, the Parasite made him lower his head and walk away.

It waited less than a minute before coming back.

After the two Skibidis had turned away, Jellybean took a flying leap, moving so fast Brown's body was rendered invisible, and landed atop one of the towering metal drums, where it could use his lens to survey the room unseen.

The two yellow Skibidis were moving away below, the bald one still complaining. The Parasite hopped to another barrel, and another, making its way across the room.

"It smells awful," it complained.

Brown was glad he couldn't tell.

The thin metal lid of a barrel creaked and buckled in protest under his feet as the Parasite landed.

Liquid sloshed below.

Acid.

Brown was standing above a weapon made to kill his own Titan.

If Jellybean made one careless move...

...it would be good the Alliance, if very painful for Brown.

But the Parasite was being unusually quiet and careful, considering the passages that led into the depths of the complex.

It dropped to the ground and chose the door with the most garish warning signs.

There's probably an alarm, Brown thought involuntarily.

The Parasite, hearing that, waited until a scientist toilet with a mean face let himself through with an eye scan, and shot invisibly after him, leaving the perplexed Skibidi looking over his shoulder, frowning and wondering why the clipboard had been ripped out of his claws as if by a blast of wind.

The Parasite made its way through corridors, staying out of sight, occasionally using Brown's hand to slap a Skibidi across the back of the head or knock something out of the back of one's claws.

A Forklift toilet carrying a small barrel went past, looking like he was in a hurry.

Jellybean followed him silently, until he turned a corner and disappeared into a red-lit workshop. Someone beyond was speaking nasally Skibidi in the room beyond, the voice punctuated by hammering and fire.