Chapter 16: Hey Riddle Riddle

The gang arrives at the prison where Carmen is being held, but first has to find a way to infiltrate it.

Just as we tried to pry open the door, however, we found it was locked, with a security panel positioned off to its side. Xavier took out a small, handheld gadget and held it up near the panel, before tapping the buttons and touchscreen a few times, presumably to hack the panel and let us in. But his efforts were ultimately fruitless.

"Huh. That's weird. There must be some higher security measures I've never seen before," he commented, before we all heard the sound of clanking metal behind us.

Approaching us was a steel, humanoid robot about as tall as Tequila. It had green wires acting as veins, alongside matching boxing gloves on its hands with brass knuckles poking out.

"Wait, what the hell?" Tequila asked. "Where'd this guy come from?"

Upon spotting us, the robot's neon-green eyes flashed as he charged at us, fists at the ready. I bent over backwards to dodge a swift jab aimed right at me, but before I could counterattack, Xavier swung in with a punch of his own, knocking him back a little. I then stood back up straight and decked his face and torso with a barrage of punches, while Tequila snuck up behind him and tripped him with a leg-sweep. With the robot stunned, I finished it off by switching my gloves to electric mode and gripping his torso, causing it to overload with power until it short-circuited, drooping lifelessly onto the ground after its head popped off like a champagne cork.

"What do you suppose that was all about?" Xavier asked.

"I have no idea, but-" I said, only to get interrupted as an antenna burst out of the robo-corpse's stomach, projecting a very familiar hologram above it.

"But of course... it's always the least traceable threat that pops up at the most inconvenient of times," Xavier sighed.

"So! How'd you like that little distraction I set up?" Garfield smirked, folding his arms. "Sorry about potentially getting in your way, but after all those other inept assassins failed, I felt it was time to try my hand at defeating you guys. And trust me, I won't go down as easily as they did."

"Talk is cheap, Nerdy McDorkinson!" Tequila spat. "If you say you can kill us, then prove it! Once we hunt you down, you'd better put up or shut up!"

"O-ho, and I will! Once you figure out where I am first!" Garfield chuckled, before the hologram dissipated.

"Alright, so now the question is, how do we track him down?" I asked. "I mean, we're kind of in a hurry right now, so we have to think fast."

"Just a moment," Xavier said as he scanned the remains of the robot we'd trashed. "Hmm, well I'm detecting a microchip in here, and the circuitry of this thing gives off an unusually high electrical signal. Now if I could just isolate it, I could- Ah, perfect! Two more signals just like it! And they're not too far away from our current location!"

"Well then let's get our asses moving! I'd hate to think what GG's planning to do with my mom," Tequila replied.

---

Upon figuring out what to do, we quickly hurried a good ways away from the prison, until we reached the edge of a small but steep cliff nearby. Looking over the edge, I was surprised to see what looked to be a muddy bank, right next to the river's rapids. The signal came from down there, leaving us with no choice but to brave the cliff. Thankfully the drop was only about six feet - far from dangerous, especially with our armor on. For a few moments, we trekked along the surprisingly dry and firm mud.

"So you said the signal came from down here, right?" I asked.

"Indeed. And it says the next robot should be right about..." Xavier replied.

"Aagh!" Tequila abruptly yelped as she was electrocuted.

This prompted Xavier and I to turn around and jump backwards, each of us landing in a fighting stance. Turns out that the second robot had snuck up on us. He looked identical to the previous one, but had stun batons for hands. He didn't hesitate to lunge at us again, dishing out several slashes and stabs with his hands as though they were swords, all in a desperate attempt to hit us. I quickly switched my boots to skate mode and attempted to perform a sneaky flip-kick to his face, but he swayed to the side and zapped the blade on my boot, electrocuting me as well.

Xavier then charged in and countered the robot's stun batons with some electrified punches. The two traded punches and chops for a while until the former managed to pin the latter onto the ground. He raised his right fist in an attempt to punch his tackled opponent, but the robot suddenly flashed his eyes right in his face, momentarily blinding him. This left him open to a knee to the face. Xavier slowly got up off the ground, his nose bleeding slightly as a small bruise formed on his left cheek.

This left me to get back up and sneak behind the robot, slashing him in the back of his head with my skate and effectively knocking him over. Now that his metallic body had been shut down, the signal vanished from Xavier's handheld.

"Alright, just one more left. Let's not dawdle any longer!" he said.

---

The third and final signal led us to the back of the prison building, where the docks were located. We didn't even need to wait for the third robot to show up, for he was already patrolling the area. He had a considerably taller and bulkier build compared to his comrades, and he had semiautomatic revolving guns built into both of his hands, as well as a miniature spotlight on top of his head.

"Okay guys, I think our best bet here will be to sneak up on him somehow," I suggested. "I know we each have guns of our own, but something tells me they won't stand a chance against all that metal."

With that, we proceeded to sneak around the docking area, hiding behind crates and quickly slipping through any gaps we found while the robot was facing away. Things worked out pretty well on our end until I accidentally stepped on a small pebble on the ground. The slight crunching sound resulting from that was just loud enough to alert the robot, who slowly started to walk over to where we were. We tried our best to avoid the spotlight that shone on the ground, but eventually it managed to catch a portion of Tequila's foot, prompting the robot to eventually leap towards us upon discovery.

"Run!" I exclaimed as my teammates and I quickly spread out.

The three of us made usage of flips, rolls, and cartwheels to avoid the rapid-fire bullets for a while, before the rate of fire eventually lowered a bit. Just enough so that I could fire my own gun right at the robot's face. As I expected, he brought up one of his hands to block it, but the bullets ended up jamming the gun on his hand. He attempted to pull the trigger again, only to have it explode, leaving him with just one remaining arm.

While the robot was still stunned from my admittedly clever maneuver, he was left open to another attack. Tequila took the opportunity to leap high and far into the air, front-flipping a few times before she whacked him in the head with an axe-kick, sending him keeling onto the ground. Xavier then rushed in with his boots in skate mode and stomped on his remaining arm, dislodging it and leaving him completely disarmed. That left the three of us to team up and repeatedly deck him with a flurry of punches and kicks until our adversary's steel body finally shut down for good.

Just seconds after we managed to do this, we all heard a faint beep nearby. Looking in its direction, we noticed a high-tech lock on one of the many large crates in the area. On it were three prominent neon-green lights arranged in a circle with two of them having already been put out. It was then that the last light died down, before some faint snickering could be heard from behind us. We all turned around once more, before we spotted a dirty-blonde young man in a sleeveless cardigan over a dress shirt, standing there as he slowly clapped, a cocky smirk on his face all the while.