BYTE
"Byte my boy, run me through your suit" Tinkerer said, leading us through the robot filled city. As I looked closer around, I saw other people looking at us out of windows. It seemed this place did have a human population, but was mainly run by robots. "What is this place?" I asked
"It's name is The Palantia. I made it myself. Biggest man made structure in the world as far as I know, but I may be wrong. The very first flying city. 400 square miles, population of around 2 million, Hovers in place just above the cloudline using Auto Repulsors. Comes with a cloaking device, autonomous labour, air filtration, water filtration, auto synthesising food, teleportation tech, hangar for vehicles and none of it with any strings attached. No currency. Everyone helps everyone. And all running on its own power"
"It's..amazing" Innocence said"
"I wanna eat ice cream!" Sky said, pulling Innocence by the hand towards to stall with a robot in it
"How do you get so much power to run all
this?" I asked
"I perfected solar panel technology to the point where they produce as much electrical energy per square meter as a nuclear powerplant, then I covered the roof with them. We have infinite electricity here and enough back up power to keep everything running for 36 hours" Tinkerer explained to me. It was all very impressive. As I looked round, I noticed small tell tale signs of my dads handiwork
"My dad helped with this?"
"He did. He is the leading mind in robotics after all. All the robots AI systems were designed and made by him, as were the cloaking device and the repulsors. But back to the original point, tell me about your suit" Snapping back to the previous conversation, I answered Tinkerer
"right now I have four suits, The Wolf Beater, that's the one you saw earlier, the Protecter, my best creation, the Lynx, a stealth suit, and Zeus, A suit my dad gave me" Tinkerer kept walking, listening. He whistled when I was done
"I'd like to see all of them." He said
"I could call them now if you want" I said "they just need a way in"
"Come to the hangar" Tinkerer replied. He then took a turn and led me down a main road as self driving cars it seemed zoomed part us. Tinkerer took me down some stairs and suddenly it opened out to a huge open space filled with vehicles and one wall was just a huge door, about 40 meters tall. Tinkerer pressed something on his head set and the huge door started slowly opening, splitting in half. I selected all of my suits icons on my wrist monitor and pressed the order "Come to Location". Wolf Beater was the first one in. A few moments later, Protecter and Lynx both landed. I flexed my shoulders and Zeus started forming around me. Tinkerer watched, then circled me and my other suits
"They're very well made, but may I ask a quick question?"
"Go ahead" I replied
"Why have different suits?"
"For different situations. "The Wolf Beater is made specifically to combat a certain person in case he turns on us. He has a temper. The Lynx is for stealth situations. Protecter is my default suit and used for normal combat. The one I have one is Zeus. It's my most powerful suit so I use it in desperate combat situations". Tinkerer nodded then said
"Why not have them all in one suit?"
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Why not have just one suit that can alternate and adapt to your needs?" I opened my mouth to reply, then closed my mouth as I realised I didn't have one
"Is that even possible?" I asked. Tinkerer shrugged
"I have no idea my boy. But you might as well give it a go. Oh, and while we're talking about giving it a go, follow..." he said, then turned and pointed. I looked at what he was pointing at and saw a huge airship sitting in the hangar. "If you can fix that up, you can have it" Tinkerer said.
"It can turn into a huge land, sea and air vehicle with bedrooms, an armoury, and it's own hanger big enough for about four small vehicles. The perfect mobile base. The same goes with all the other broken vehicles in here. No one wants them so you can strip them, or rebuild them for your own uses. Have fun" he said walking away.
"Wait" I said "how will I get materials to fix them? Or the tools? Or the power?" Tinkerer stopped, turned and walked back to me.
"We have a machine in the most top level of the Palantia called the Materialiser. It's a machine from my own design that not many people here know about. It makes any material you want it to for nothing. You want bread, it makes a loaf of bread out of thin air. However it's against city law for you to see it or use it. You leave me a list of what you need, and I'll get it for you. I'm allowed to use the Materialiser" I nodded my thanks. The Materialiser. Sounded like magic. It's not possible. Making matter out of nothing? Either Tinkerer is lying, or he's broken the laws of basic science. I turned back to the wreckage of the huge ship, then at my suits. I had a lot of work ahead of me.
"We're back!" I heard Sky shout as her and Innocence joined us, Sky with a cone of chocolate ice cream and with it all over her mouth.
"Anything happen while we were gone?" Innocence asked
"Just nerd stuff" I replied. I'd fill him in on specifics later.
"Precisely" Tinkerer said "Nerd... stuff. Anyway, now that you know what to do Byte, how about you..."
"Innocence"
"Innocence. How can I assist you?". Innocence thought for a minute, then said
"You said something about a Fusion?"
"I did. I want to try to fuse you with that Blast Gaia you fought earlier. Only problem is that it has to be dead." Ah. That was a complication.
"How strong exactly is the Blast Gaia?" I asked
"You and your friends already killed the first Gaia correct? Fox?" We both nodded.
"Well physically the Blast Gaia isn't as strong as Fox. And Fox was armoured while this Gaia has natural armour. Then again, that is still weaker than Fox's and has weaknesses. Additionally, this Gaia is tiny compared to Fox. Only 25 meters tall"
"So its way weaker?" Innocence asked
"Well the one upside is it's power to suck in huge amounts of air through those holes and release said air at a highly pressurised state. It's quite deadly and can be used to propel the Gaia so it's most likely faster and more unpredictable. All together, it is possible for the two of you to kill it... in theory. And as soon as you do, I will harvest it's genes and we can start a Fusion"
"Alright" Innocence said looking at me
"Let's go kill a Gaia"
