Hoshi no Guu (Star Piece Quest) (M)

[Guu]

Guu landed safely at the bottom of the ladder and took a few steps forward to give room for the others. The long tube that encased the ladder opened out into a large room full of machinery, white countertops, and various scientific tools. Charts and graphs litter the walls and a chalk board is completely full of equations stood nearby.

Bani, Chuck, and Melani eventually appeared behind her.

“We should hurry, we don’t know when the guy will be coming up behind us.” Stated Chuck.

Suddenly, a blaster laser hit the ground mere inches away from Melani, causes her to jump several feet forward in surprise.

“As I was saying...” Chuck said.

Guu dashed back over to the tube and launched her fist up it. The old man’s yelped in pain as the fist collided with him. It quickly followed by an audible plop on the ground above.

“That probably bought us sometime.” Guu said casually.

After the group picked their jaws off the floor, Bani gets back to business.

“Do your senses work down here?” She asked.

The pink one focused. She could feel the lab around her, every curve and crevice. But what was concerning was she couldn’t feel anyone else there.

“Yes, but it says we’re alone.”

“So either they all have suppression or we just broke into an innocent man’s secret underground lab.” Chuck said, sarcastically.

“I’m sure this facility is breaking some sort of law...” Bani responded.

Guu tapped into her senses again, mapping out all the rooms of the place, dead ends and, locations. She could sense many robot turrets hidden away near the entrance, all of them deactivated. She guessed that old man must have turned them off so he doesn’t get himself shot on the way back down.

The facility was fairly linear, only reaching out to three rooms, one being an interconnecting hallway. If her friend was here, they didn’t have far to look.

“Okay, let’s get moving, the next room is that way.”


The group crowded through the furthest door and into a hallway lined with glass tubes. Melani jumps back in shock, Bani nearly threw up on the spot, Chuck was puzzled by what he was seeing. Each tube had human remains. Bodies, many of them dismembered, disemboweled, just floating inside a tube of an unknown clear liquid.

Chuck walked up to his rabbit companion.

“Welp, that breaking and entering was justified from the looks of it.” He said, patting her on the back.

The force of his hand was enough to unleash the vomiting, causing everyone to jump out of the way.


After Bani could regain her composure, the group continued down the hallway. More tubes, more bodies. However, as they progressed they noticed the corpses were looking more and more robotic in nature; Limbs replaced with prosthetics, organs clearly replaced with machines, the works.

“Why was he doing this?” Bani asked, a heavy concern in her voice. “What did he hope to accomplish?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chuck said. “To build cyborgs.”

“Well, yeah, that’s obvious but...yeah, nevermind.”

The group finally made it out of the hall of horrors and passed through the door. The final room looked like it belonged to a doctor. In the middle of the room was a surgery table with a very familiar figure laying on the mat.

“Pitchen.” Guu said, running to his side. But the closer she got, the more she saw it. He wasn’t the same moogle as he was before.

Both of his legs and one of his arms have been replaced with robot limbs, his chest was an encased metal vest of sorts, his head was capped in some sort of brain case. He was more machine now than moogle.

“What did he do to him?” Asked Bani as she grasped his metal right hand.

“Why did he do it to him?” Asked Chuck. “He’s kind of an odd choice for cybernetic enhancement.”

Melani slapped him in the hip which sent him flying into a nearby wall, punching a hole into the solid steal the structure was built of. Bani sighed.

“Melani, I know he had it coming but now we have to carry him.”

Suddenly, Guu shot her head around. The mechanisms above their heads were turning. She could feel gears clicking into one another, circuits flowing, something was happening.

She reached over and slid the unconscious Pitchen onto her back.

“We need to go.” Guu said to the others.

Before they could respond, a machine gun turret dropped down from the ceiling and took aim at the helpless group below.