[PMDU]Assault on Colossus: Disturbance (page 1)

My first morning in Andalusst was, to be frank, a mess.

The evening before, I found a compass node in a particularly good state just above the middle of the lake. I spent my entire night there, reorganizing my thoughts of that day, all the while powering myself back up. Nobody bothered me, and it was quiet as I hovered just above the surface.

“Um, question. What are these ‘compass nodes’ you keep talking about?”
“That is not important. They are weak points in the planet’s magnetic field. I use them as sustenance, in a similar manner to most pokémon requiring glucose or other forms of organic food. Now, if you’d please stop halting my momentum.”
“Sorry.”

My planning for that day was simple enough. I would use the morning to restock some more of my energy supplies, and at around noon, I would start exploring this peculiar place. I had a job to do, after all. Now that I was finally safe, I could get my bearings again.

Not that my planning mattered much. I got rudely interrupted before I even recharged completely.

It started with a mildly annoying rumble. I didn’t think much of it, at least not until the screaming started. Something was amiss, and it was close by. I looked over just in time to see one of the town’s buildings topple over and crash into a lovely flowerbed. Naturally, I decided to investigate.

“Now that you mention it, I did hear something like that once... Well, I hear screams about every day... Sorry. I’ll be quiet.”

Locating it was not a challenge in the least. A hulking creature of some sort lumbered around, smashing various constructions seemingly at random. A few pokémon were already working on putting a halt to this mindless monster, but with little luck.

“Don’t just stand there, come help me carrying this!”
The one who spoke to me was a swoobat.
“Excuse me miss, but would you mind filling me in on the current state of affairs?” I asked her.
“Nothing you can’t see for yourself,” she answered, “but we know how to stop it. We’re building a machine on the other edge of the town right now, but I can’t carry all the parts myself. So, I will ask again, could you help me?”
No gentleman would let a lady carry her luggage all by herself, especially if it was that heavy, so of course I did as she asked me.

“Isn’t that kind of odd? A huge monster is attacking and you carry some swoobat’s stuff?”
“Her ‘stuff’ was vital in vanquishing this threat. I could see by the parts she had with her that she wasn’t just messing around.”

I turned out that she had a lot of it, too. She led me to some sort of laboratory, and collected various gizmos and gadgets from around the place.
“We’ll have to do this in a few trips,” she told me, “but then Flint can get to work.”
“Don’t worry, dear. We can take this in one trip, I reckon.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. There’s only so many things two arms can carry.”
I always found it amusing to see someone’s reaction to the most mundane of my activities. I had already picked up everything she gathered, and attempted to move out of the laboratory again.
“It appears all these parts are ferromagnetic, miss. I don’t even require use of my hands.”

“So... wait, what?”
“I am a metang, miss. Our bodies are ferromagnetic by nature. It is how I control my movement.”
“So, you had like a bunch of screwdrivers and metal plates clinging to you?”
“Quite a few more things than that, but basically, yes.”

My movements were particularly sluggish, but this method still remained effective considering I took everything with me at once. The researcher lady, whose name was apparently Solstice, threatened to lose her patience on several occasions, but we arrived in a timely fashion nonetheless.

Flint, a little sandshrew engineer, was already present when we arrived. He already started tinkering with the few parts he had, and some passers-by assisted him in this task. His expression told me he didn’t expect a pile of parts and tools to casually float towards him.
“Did you, perchance, need any of this?” I asked him.
He quickly gave a bolt one last turn with his wrench before he answered. “Um, yes. Is... Who is that?”
I let go of my ballast, revealing myself to the outside world again. I carefully stacked it all up, with the most delicate machinery on top.
Solstice introduced me to the little lad before I could. “This is Morgan. He... just delivered everything from the lab.”

“But it looks like my purpose here is not yet fulfilled,” I added. “Are you building some sort of energy-redirection system? I noticed some double coils passing by.”
Flint sighed, as he added the part he’d been tinkering on to the machine next to him. “Yeah... I take it you saw the golem on the way here? We’re planning on stalling its engine with this.”

“Double coils... Golem... I think I read something about this. The researchers store most of their reports here, so I know they’ve been working on that machine.”
“So there’s no need to go into its specific workings, then. Good.”

“You won’t get this done in time,” I concluded.
Solstice sighed, while she picked up her own parts. “Tell me about it. We’re short on staff AND time right now. All we can do is just keep working and hope Luke buys us enough time.”
“As I said, my purpose here continues. Allow me to provide you with extra hands.”
The pressure finally got to Flint. “This is delicate machinery!” he shouted. “You’d just break it with those huge claws of yours!”
“It was a figure of speech, Flint.” I spoke calmly, in an attempt to calm him down as well. “I’m not utilising my hands for this task.”

I held a protective plate against the side of the device that already was finished. Screws trembled for a moment, before they shot towards its corners and started drilling themselves in in unison.
The other two volunteers, a jigglypuff and a grimer, watched with great interest as they inserted the last parts into another component.

We constructed the device in record time. Sona and Garlop, those were the jigglypuff and grimer respectively, fit together the smaller parts. Flint instructed them on how to do so, and handed them the tools necessary to accomplish this. I put their work together into the finished product, while miss Solstice ran tests to ensure the machine’s operation was satisfactory. It was quite simple once you saw the pattern; each of the six parts of the dome had an inside and an outside circuit. Since they were basically all the same, with coils, antennae and pistons all oriented in a symmetrical manner, we quickly got the hang of it after the first few. We finished the device soon enough, but the hardest part was yet to come.