Monstercat: Origins (Part 1)

Chapter 20: The Mangle Factory

Savant stood from his computer. He snatched up a blueprint paper and began drawing a 3D variation of the deathly plumber known as Vario. After an afternoon of sketches, Savant had scrapped together the structure for the robot. He slipped out into the hall with the blueprint and ran to the elevator.

Camon and Dr. Raven were in the laboratories as usual. Dr. Raven was studying the chemical composition of twistwood. Camon was sitting on a post, reading a training journal... mentally. Camon had studied so long he didn't need the journals anymore. He had them memorized down to the color of the pages. Camon was thinking about balance. He had been balancing his position on the post for quite some time. A slam rung through the entire lab. Camon stood up from the post, his legs asleep. Dr. Raven put down a sample of twistwood and liquid nitrogen. They both walked to their balconies. Savant rode up through the middle of the corridor on a vine hand. "Good News!", he exclaimed, "I have decided to restart Project Galactopoly! I have already designed a new robot as well!" Dr. Raven and Camon both went cold. Savant brought the blueprints straight to Dr. Raven. Dr. Raven kept eyeing Camon while he took the blueprints. Camon bit his lip and nodded. He turned back into the training lab and thought about what he was going to do. He needed to be ready. This robot was probably smaller, and more agile, like the last one wasn't. Savant explained the plan to Dr. Raven, "Well, this robot is different then Megaboy. A lot different. This robot will not be around to destroy planets. Oh no, this robot is to get rid of that pesky bug that destroyed Megaboy if he shows up. The purple bandana idiot. This robot is small and agile, fast and powerful. I call him, Vario!" Dr. Raven stared down at the blueprints, a strange, chubby, purple... plumber? He was so confused. There was many attachments and attack methods put on. Dr. Raven could definitely build this, but with all the guided artillery it would be difficult for Camon to defeat. He remembered that Camon had trained hard for this day, perfected his agility, motor skills, and even his muscle strength. Camon was a tough 15 year old. Dr. Raven believed he could throw any obstacle at Camon and he would overcome it. He looked up at Savant after much contemplation and said, "Alright, you have a deal." Savant cheered and gave him a hug. Then he skipped over to the vine hand and disappeared onto the elevator balcony. Camon heard the doors to the elevator room slam and he came out onto his balcony. He tugged the calling vine and down came the vine hand. The vine hand grabbed him and carried him up to Dr. Raven. "So, what now?", Camon questioned, slipping out of the vine hand onto the platform. "Well, I've got interesting news... I have to build a new robot. A very hard to fight robot. He's small and loaded with lots of guided artillery. So, you will need to have lots of perfectly timed dodging skills. You will also use Stert... ugh... to use as a... shield? You could figure it out, I'm sure. I'll get working on this robot.", he replied. They once again went their separate ways, for two weeks. Two weeks later, Vario was completed. Dr. Raven and Camon stood in front of his platform. Dr. Raven walked up and flicked the on switch. The robot wasn't able to talk, but it immediately knew who the enemy was. He turned immediately to Camon and drew out a machine gun. Camon ran backed up, but Dr. Raven quickly turned him off. However, the next day, the robot went missing. Camon looked in the kitchen to question Dr. Raven, but he wasn't there. Instead, there was a note on the refrigerator."HEAD TO THE EAST WING", he heard Dr. Raven yell before he dove off the balcony, tugging on a vine hand. The vine hand shot out and grabbed Camon around the waste, gently carrying him down like a bird to the elevator platform. He got into the elevator once again. As the elevator slowly headed towards Zion, Camon heard a loud thump and the elevator began to sink fast, like a spring clenching up, until "BOING", the elevator shot up, and began once again slowly descending. Finally, he had made it to the library. He slid past the bookshelf to find the shelves were all straightened and not fallen over, and the books were placed in random order on the shelves. He walked through the slightly organized library to the door, nicely fixed up with new windows and clean glass. He opened the door to find himself on a newly fixed balcony, with new concrete and a diamond pattern. He walked over to the end and sure enough there was a newly fertilized patch of grass so the vine hand could grow. Unfortunately, it had just been planted so it wasn't quite useable yet.
Camon jumped down to the main level, squatting at the bottom to prevent fall damage. It worked, he barely felt anything at all. He walked along the nicely redone paving of the main level. He looked into the distance, Workbots all over the abyss and hotel like ants doing their best. He kept walking to the hall where he had first come to Zion. He stared at the purple LED tube. It had been cracked and worn from the constant flow of attacking Mangles. Camon pulled a vine and the big vine hand that had first brought him shot out of the tube towards him. He stepped in and it closed it's grasp. They started moving through the tube, over the sea of Mangles in the abandoned halls of the ship. They were tearing apart aliens and throwing them into tubes to be turned into Mangles. Camon finally went into a tunnel so he could no longer see the terror below. The vine hand started to slow down and stopped at the end of the tunnel. It took Camon to the center of the abduction chamber, where he first boarded Zion. There were two other tunnels in here, a red and a blue one. The red one was where he needed to go to get to the Mangle factory. He walked along the edge of the giant circular floor, staring at the mossy ball above that spawned the Mega vine hands. He pulled a vine near the red tunnel and he was picked up once again. He was sent down the red tunnel, and back above the hallway, where no Mangles resided. This hall was filled with tubes that went into the wall. Camon guessed the Mangle Factory started on the other side of that wall. The tunnel stopped and so did the vine hand. It slowly lowered him onto a platform made of grid iron. Yellow and black striped tape lined the edges of the grid iron, and guard rails stuck up from the tape. He walked to the guard rail and saw the giant tubs of alien parts being filled from the tubes. He gagged and turned to walk across the grid iron platform. He walked to the edge once more to see larger tubes, some filled with a white substance... bone, and some filled with... crushed alien parts. It was like a disgusting meat factory. The bone was sent into a hole in the wall and the alien parts were sent elsewhere. Camon continued to walk down the bridge until he reached a set of huge iron doors. He heard bouncing and hammering going on inside. He pushed the doors and entered.