The Esper of Algol: Protector

Sand and Sun

"Laerma nuts?" Yuji said when they returned to Bortevo and asked him about the strange seeds they'd found in the lab. "Never heard of them. Then again, Dr. Madd..." he hesitated to continue in the throaty growls of the Musk Cat, "Uh... I mean the inhumane poor excuse of a person, gods rest his soul... he never really shared his 'research' with anyone. I'm not a biologist, but my... um... friend is and we might be able to figure something out together, once he can get over the lava flow. How'd you guys do it on your way up, anyway?"

"We just walked over it and ate all our burgers to heal the minor burns afterwards," Myau told him.

"YOU rode on Odin's shoulder the whole time," Noah muttered to the cat.

"Wouldn't you if you were me?" Myau responded.

The chemist glanced down at everyone's feet. "Oh, right, you guys have shoes. That does tend to help." Yuji continued cautiously, "My friend just... um... got out of Triada..."

"Most people put in Triada don't belong there," Alis assured him, and he visibly relaxed.

"Wonder if your friend was one of the prisoners that escaped when we broke Dr. Luveno out?" Odin contemplated aloud.

"You guys were the ones who did the Triada break?" Yuji's eyes widened. "Wow. So, are you really going to try to kill Lassic?"

"No one said anything about killing him," Noah said, glancing sideways at Alis. "But we are going to try to do something to stop the suffering he's causing."

"It'd probably be best if you don't spread it about, though," Alis added. "It could cause problems if the robotcops are after us."

"Sure," Yuji whispered. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head quickly. "I'm trying to find something in some of these junk piles that will help my friend bypass the lava. Do me a favor and don't melt these few here with that polymeteral while you look for that robot, OK. I've already looked through the rest of them."

"Sure," Alis said as Noah responded, "We'll leave them for last." Alis raised her eyebrows at him. He inclined his head and furrowed his brow briefly back.

Yuji looked back and forth between them, but continued. "Once I can get him back, we can see what we can do for the poor animals, if they're still around. But he'll probably need a sample of those nuts. Were there any left in the lab?"

"The ones in the lab were all shriveled and rotted," Odin told him.

"Hmmm. That may be a problem." Yuji contemplated. "Well, it's probably better than nothing, but it would be helpful if we could somehow get some fresh ones. In the meantime, I could at least see about easing their pain."

Yuji contemplated sneaking back into Abion to see to the surviving chimaeras before continuing his search for whatever he was looking for. Meanwhile, the four of them proceeded to pour the polymeteral on every trash pile except for the ones they'd promised Yuji they'd leave alone. They were down to their last milliliters, when finally they found a haphazard looking pile of metal that refused to melt. After thoroughly washing both the pot and the metal pile at the shore nearby, Alis flipped a switch on its back and HAPSBY – the Handy Automated Pilot and Service Bot (the Y was to be cute) – unfolded and came to life.

They made their way back across the lava flow without sustaining too much injury finally returned to Gothic and Dr. Luveno, where a new space shuttle was waiting to take them to Dezolis, after a quick refuel in Uzo on Motavia.

***

"You lead us into another dragon den, watnoodle?"

They all stopped walking. Noah responded, "I know my way around this dungeon just as much as you do, flashfluff." That is to say, none of them knew the way around.