A Project Revived

Budoshi blinked at Papri, he thought it was pretty obvious that Dercattans were mostly water. “Well, duh, ninety-six percent and up, right?” Of course he knew, though his knowledge base was in the realm of combat against many opponents. He wasn’t a super book nerd but he was still a Tuffle. He stifled a laugh at Papri’s other comments. “A real man extends their help to all who need it no matter who it is!” Budoshi sounded awfully proud of that one. “The gal I’m kinda into tends to kick doors off the hinges herself, so I hardly get to open doors for people anyway.” He sounded proud of and open about that too, whoever he was talking about must be quite the lady.

Regarding Guara’s current status, the AI’s statements got Budoshi thinking that the professor was dead and gone to the Otherworld. Being gone for thirty years was no joke, there was no logic around that in Budoshi’s opinion. Whatever the case may be, there was almost no chance that Guara was still around, even if the AI bugged out and didn’t notice. “I’d prefer the ghost.” Budoshi chuckled, he’d hate to be a cyborg personally.

“Not even your grandfather mentioned something in that vein? Hm. We are not deterred from the theory either way.” All that remained was to find the truth, Nervan had faith in Prophos’ mystical book giving some useful if not totally accurate foresight.

When the AI changed it’s tune into an uppity one, Budoshi furrowed his brow. Before he could say anything about that though, Nervan placed a hand on his shoulder. “It is not worth your time. Let it be.” Budoshi shrugged lightly. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Some stupid degraded AI doorknob wasn’t going to stop them, but the drama less they had to deal with, the better. Budoshi decided to go along with Iondu’s bluff. “For sure. It isn’t looking good out there, I don’t know if you have access to any operational sensors, but they might have been degraded by constant exposure to Destron.” Nervan also decided to back up these notions. “Indeed. Our sensors are the most intact, to be fair.”

Seemingly free to do as they had intended, Nervan dislodged the dome of the greeting unit and began to inspect it, wanting to make sure if there was indeed some kind of small processor of sorts within the mechanism, a potential power source not connected to the rest of the complex. Even if there was nothing of note, Nervan would choose to keep this construct on their person; going so far as to ‘absorb’ it into one of their earrings, though in truth it was just for safe-keeping. There was also the chance that it was completely useless, but that was fine, it could potentially be repurposed— and that could likely only happen if it was taken from this depressing place.

The same could be said for this ‘Saiyan Bane’ entity. Nervan already had no plans of letting it rot out here, or fall into the wrong hands— those who would see it only as a tool and nothing else. To Nervan that was a fate comparable to death, but not as horrible as stagnancy.

Budoshi chose to say nothing about the secret project, caring little for the name, and less for the intent behind it. He instead rolled his eyes very slightly at Papri’s comment on it, but chose not to dwell on that. “We won’t be getting anywhere just standing around up here.” Especially not with the storm showing no signs of letting up outside.

Examining the doors as Papri ran with Budoshi’s idea to use paper, the Tuffle’s attention was drawn to the sealed door. “If someone wanted to keep anything safe in a hazardous environment, that’d be the kinda door I’d guess they’d use.” Paper couldn’t fit past it, and given the way it was built, it was probably watertight as well, airtight if whoever built this place meant business. “Smashing it open is probably pretty dumb, so hey, has anyone got anything on hand that could pry it open? Iondu, do you reckon your drones could do it? Maybe interface with what remains of the keypad or something?” As much as Budoshi had no intention of using such things himself, they had their uses, so may as well make use of them— this was a temporary arrangement anyway.

Unfortunately with little response to go on, Budoshi and Nervan decided to see what progress could be made by themselves. Eventually some amount of poking and prodding around seemed to have activated something. One of the doors that had been examined opened with what sounded like great difficulty as it scraped across the ground. “Oh finally!” Budoshi sighed with relief, briefly looking back at the others as he cautiously made his way into the new room alongside Nervan.

The two didn’t need to wait long for further points of interest— the large cylinder alone was obvious enough even before it opened to reveal its true form as an elevator. Nervan and Budoshi looked between each other and moved forward. They weren’t here to plod around, they were here to discover something in this ruined estate. The pair entered the elevator as the aged intercom began an automated message.

Budoshi frowned, assuming that the recording was of Guara, even the man himself assumed that he wouldn’t have lived. Sure, maybe Budoshi might not have gotten along with some old scientist but it was still a depressing fate considering the circumstances Plant happened to be under. Nervan on the other hand was far more concerned about the project hidden somewhere. It saddened and angered Nervan to know that the being was left without what was essentially their parent. The recording, however, did ease their growing anger after having heard that Guara at least seemed to care about an entity that he had given life to.

Nervan and Budoshi readied themselves to descend into the depths with the intent of freeing ‘Saiyan Bane’ from this lost tomb of science and keeping it out of the hands of those that would use them as a weapon...

Unexpectedly, at least to Nervan and Budoshi, the elevator’s descent was reasonably smooth— especially for something that was not only trapped within a Destron hellscape, but also unused for who knows how long.

Carefully disembarking from the elevator, the duo took note of the expansive laboratory revealed by the snap and hum of the automatic lighting. Walking along slowly, Nervan and Budoshi gave cursory examination to the various papers. Nervan considered even siphoning some of it into their earrings, but they had no real use for them. Budoshi on the other hand had little but passing interest unlike most other Tuffles, he only thought to get rid of any evidence of technology that could be harmful or misused by those of darker intent, but he didn’t really find much that fit such a criteria.

In fact, some of what he read over was... Actually quite alright, actually helpful or benign even.

One of the larger screens crackled to life, adding video to what was previously an audio-only recording. Nervan stared directly at the video, committing to memory the visage of Guara. “So that was him...” Nervan trailed off, still listening to the recording. “Looks like it.” Budoshi confirmed. Some of the projects mentioned by the recording were ones that Budoshi had come across papers for, so everything seemed to track so far.

At the very least, Nevan and Budoshi could agree with Guara’s opinion on Destron, though for varied and different reasons. Soon enough, the recording detailed ‘Saiyan’s Bane’, and as was theorized, it was indeed a creature, something that was alive, which meant it still had to be here... “Why is he dissatisfied..?” Nervan tilted their head, noting the change in Guara’s expression, in that he didn’t seem entirely pleased by his presentation.

“Probably something dumb like being ashamed of using Saiyan DNA? I dunno, it didn’t sound like he wanted to design weapons either, so maybe guilt as well.” Budoshi suggested. “I’m just hoping the Destron in the thing won’t be an issue.”

Moments later, a new recording would play— it went about as expected, Guara’s project was deemed pointless and Destron was given the go ahead instead, putting Plant in its current state. It made sense that Guara would be frustrated, the poor guy was almost reduced to tears it seemed. Budoshi’s heart sank, it was rough to listen to this guy talk about his creation like his own child. “Jeez...”

Budoshi stood there processing what he just witnessed. Nervan on the other hand immediately kept moving at the sight of the blinking light. “No use dwelling now.” Nervan spoke over their shoulder to Budoshi, who quickly stopped spacing out and promptly caught up to Nervan. “Sorry, it was just a lot.” The Tuffle apologized, and Nervan simply shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You heard Guara though, Bane was not given a chance. We can give them that chance.” Soon enough, the two reached the computer console with the blinking light and gave it a good look first.