Episode 5: Hot and Cold Flex Off!

[fallers_npcs]

Today, the Class is off to the Hot Springs! Until Monday, they’ll be on a school trip to Mount Lanakila, where they will spend two days and two nights at the mountain. Here, the school will learn about the native Snow Pokemon. However…

Kukui frowned in worry at the Mountain which was… suspiciously barren of snow in this area. The ground was green with grass, and it was swelteringly hot. “Sorry everyone! It seems like we’ve got unseasonable weather!” Exclaimed Kukui. “Still, there’s no worry here! Unload your things, get settled in and we’ll still tour the Ice Caves at 2pm! Until then, try and relax. Maybe if you want a nice Heatwave, try out the hot springs!”

No worries everyone, there's plenty to see. Lots of Pokemon still. Though, the people at the Hot Springs could need your help, getting the springs back to working order. The Owner could use people with technical help to look at the pipes, people with strong backs to get the springs in order and at 2pm everyone will go to the caves unless you're helping the Owner.

[This is an event post, and all roads lead to the final thread! Feel free to make your choice where to go! Players can be students and chaperones!]

Comments

[revolutionhawk]

The teenager peers about and then pulls out his cards, quickly sifting through for something of an adequate size compared to the hallway. If getting to the boiler room is going to be hard enough as is, this seems like an appropriate time to start busting out...

... Ah yes, the solid holographic robot birds for hauling them and that toolbox along.

[blue_ice]

More strange new cards. Metal birds. Why not.

"...fine," he nodded tiredly. It did seem to help a little. And it wasn't as if he could call one of his dragons into this space, so it was really all they had.

He chugged some more water as they went, bracing himself against the wall of heat they were now passing through. They really didn't have much time.

"Ready?"

[revolutionhawk]

Well, at least they don't heat up or cool down as real metal would. The wonders of solid vision.

Shay nods even while it feels like any moisture is just sizzling off the both of them. "The sooner the better."

[fallers_npcs]

The boiler room is pretty hot, all things considered. And in the room, there's a mess of damp, matted hair as a girl is working hard at the boiler. "Ah geez!" She exclaimed, trying to work on it for some reason. "Can't believe it's being affected by this heat! Seriously. Do a good deed for some place passing by and look what happens. Emily! Where's that wrench?"

The large, spherical robot is literally sweating oil right now, as it hands her a wrench. Their backs are turned to the door, so they don't notice Shay and Seto coming in, but they do feel the cool air as the door opens. "Finally, a draft! Keep the door open, and help me out here! We need a number two wrench and a pipe wrench overhead, this boiler is going to go critical if we're not careful!"

She hasn't even turned around.

[blue_ice]

"....what."

Yeah, that was pretty much Kaiba's main word lately. He reluctantly unlatched his briefcase and approached, inspecting the mess at hand before carefully offering the tools.

"Do you know how this happened."

[revolutionhawk]

"Or what caused all of this heat?" Shay adds in a tone that somewhat veils his suspicion about the weather and her presence being much more than a coincidence. But the threat behind it is intentional.

... Despite all this and the police report, he's not being idle when they could all pass out or die in here- so helping it is.

[fallers_npcs]

"The heat is coming from that," she said, gesturing at a literal Ultra Hole jammed behind the boiler. There was heat boiling from it. "It's connected to an open volcano! Smell that peanut butter? We've been tracking its source for quite a while now, and I was here checking it out when I found this boiler ready to blow!"

Emily handed Shay and Kaiba some tools as Entrapta continued to work, moving over to let them in. "Give me a hand with this plating! If we're not careful, the whole springs will blow up, and this entire area with it! Lava will flow from the volcano into this area and it'll cause devastation! I'm a scientist, but I've seen this kind of cataclysmic damage before back home on Etheria. Believe me: you don't want to mess with portals we can't close by force. So help me cool this boiler down before it triggers a eruption!"

[blue_ice]

"I can handle a wrench, don't worry. But do we have a plan to close the portal immediately after?"

It's taking all his willpower to fight through the heat and keep his hands steady, but he's doing his best thus far. If only he had a nice gust of arctic air...

"Do you have any ice monsters in your deck? It wouldn't be entirely effective, but it'd be better than putting real Pokémon in danger."

[revolutionhawk]

Peanut butter??? A freaking volcano?!? What a day this latest trip is turning into.

"No, I don't have any of those in my deck." But the next best thing is just barely something if at all since it'll only circulate the already superheated air- Shay taps at his disk and the Raidraptors already still out start radiating bursts of wind.

... He tried. For all of them.

[fallers_npcs]

"The boiler needs to be cooled first, then we'll worry about the portal. I've got a system that'll close it, but we need to move fast. Give me a hand here!"

Entrapta pulled at the steam release valve. "Pull that one over there," she said, gesturing at the other two release valves. "We need to open them slowly one at a time. All at once will cause an explosion."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba took the highest one, pulling on it as carefully as he could. It was difficult, he was swaying a little...but he held on, gritting his teeth. It was releasing more heat, which really didn't help.

"Got...it..."

[revolutionhawk]

And on the next one, Shay is ready to pull after Kaiba manages the first. Waiting for a few heavy tense breaths before slowing pulling that lever down as well.

"There."

[fallers_npcs]

With the steam hissing, the room got hotter and hotter but the boiler temperatures began to drop steadily. Entrapta wiped her forehead. "Emily! Turn down the temperature on your end!"

Emily, the round robot, started adjusting her own valve as they released the final valve and there was a hissing steam somewhere in the pipes. Entrapta held her breath as the heat got incredibly hot.

But then, it started to cool down a little more, as cooler air started to pipe in a bit. "Better," she said, wiping her forehead with a lock of hair. "Okay, now for that Ultra Hole. I'll need a few minutes to calibrate the machine to get it warmed up. In this heat, I'm surprised it didn't break!"

[blue_ice]

It was terrible, horrible heat and Kaiba wanted to die...but they still had work to do. He made the final adjustments to ease the release, and then backed up, tools at the ready to help.

He approached the hole, though he remained at a somewhat tolerable distance from all that heat. More water bottles emerged from his briefcase, carefully passed out to one and all, and he looked over the machine with a sharp nod, leaning in to help where he could. He understood the theory well enough, after all.

"Won't be long now. It had better not be, anyway."

[revolutionhawk]

Apparently the increased heat still doesn't phase Shay one single bit, probably because he has plenty of experience running around in a trenchcoat while a city was on fire with purple flames.

... So far so good on having to trust this girl.

Then after a gulp of water- "And you just happened to be around the area when an Ultra Hole randomly opened up here? With exactly the tech for closing them?"

[fallers_npcs]

"Actually I came to find what's THROUGH the Ultra Hole from this end! But when I saw the boiler about to blow, my natural scientific autrustic nature kicked in before I could complete any mission. Besides: I wanna work on an old boiler anyhow and this is the best chance for me to do it!"

PRIORITIES.

Entrapta laughed as she added, "The tech behind an old steam boiler is so fascinating. We've got nothing like this in the Fright Zone where I'm from. It's all high tech and energy based and last time I hacked the planet, we had a lot of trouble getting it all back in one piece. Literally!"

"But you know... hacking the planet was a big whoopsie, and I needed a better job. So when Hordak lent me out to Team Rainbow Rocket, I couldn't say no, you know? More tech, more science, and better things to do than to just knock my knees around."

Entrapta tightened a bolt and patted the casing of the boiler with a wince. "There we go, good as new even if it's a little bit too hot. Okay, let's get that thing closed. You two, stand in the middle of the portal. We need a couple of anchoring bodies to close it. My usual bodies headed out to the Ice Caves to check that side out, so they're not around here."

[blue_ice]

Fair point. Kaiba's gaze whipped right over to her in the hopes of hearing that explained. The words were fair enough, but her orders after that...well...

"And you're sure you're not ejecting us into the middle of that volcano?" he groused.

[revolutionhawk]

"And it HAS to be us?" Shay says with an agreement toward Kaiba's inquiry, glancing toward his monster holograms.

Team 'Rainbow Rocket' is clearly something he shouldn't forget.

[fallers_npcs]

"Do you see any other bodies anywhere? Go on, shoo, shoo!" Exclaimed Entrapta, flapping her hair at them as she pulled a device out of her pouch. "I need to work on the calibrations. Cross-dimensional physics is wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey work!"

She also looked up and added to Kaiba, "Don't worry about dropping you into the lava, there's a 0.0000100010100101010101010101010101010101010101010110 percent chance of that happening! Repeating of course!"

[blue_ice]

"Fine. But we're not going unprepared."

Kaiba really, really hated the idea, but he took his position, one Blue Eyes card in hand and ready to slam onto a disk in case an emergency evacuation was needed. He doesn't trust...at all.

[revolutionhawk]

Same. Begrudgingly Shay does the same, but not without having one of his goto monsters to ride on at the drop of a hat after putting the main deck birds back with the rest of his cards.

[fallers_npcs]

"Okay, I've got it fired up!" Exclaimed Entrapta as the Ultra Hole bloomed to a large enough size for the pair to step through. "Go go go! I've got it open enough! Have fun storming the castle!"

The pair would be immediately pulled through, and through the Ultra Hole, they would find themselves emerging into a stifling hot cave. Lava flowed from a pit far to the size. While it didn't immediately burn their faces off the magic of pokeani it was still frightfully hot. Across the way, Team Flex Off was having their epic flex-off against the King Buzzswole.

It's here, on the other side of the room that Kaiba and Shay would discover that they were in the literal middle of a FUCKING VOLCANO. And in the middle of the FUCKING VOLCANO was a goddamn Pokemon GYM, or at least a derelict one. Maybe whoever used to use this place, used to battle in here.

What kind of insane maniac battled inside a Volcano?

On Cinnabar Island, Blaine sneezed three times, knocking his wig off. "Someone's talking about me in the third person," he said, staring right at the 4th wall at the head mod accusingly.

But moving back to Shay and Kaiba, it seems there's ANOTHER Ultra Hole, one of these ones, appearing on another big ledge, leading to what appears to a glowing Ice Cave, or it would be, if it wasn't feeding dripping melting ice into the Volcano. It seems, the Volcano -- is on the verge of eruption because of geothermic instability because of the hot-and-cold situation.

[blue_ice]

"Aargh!"

Of course that happened. Kaiba slapped the card to his hastily reconstructed disk as he fell, the dragon appearing in a shimmer of light and safely catching him on the other side. He clambered onto her back, staring at the two holes...the one they'd come from, the one feeding them arctic air...and he knew enough to know that was Bad.

Then he looked across the way to see a horde of half-dressed Fallers...flexing their muscles at a giant muscled...bug thing.

"Are they...communicating with it?"

[revolutionhawk]

Because it's exactly their luck, Shay is just as prepared, slaps a random one of his Xyz cards onto his disk- hey it's Rise Falcon again.

"Hopefully it's something useful because I just see bodybuilding jocks flirting with each other from here."

His gaze turns toward the hole leading to the melting ice caves. "You can go see for yourself down there what's going on, but I have a bad feeling about who else might be in those caves," he says as if the previous sentence did not come out of his mouth whatsoever.

[blue_ice]

"That's not how battles are meant to work. Even as an attempt to impress it..."

Yes, they were strong, but he really wanted to forget that he'd ever seen this. He nodded.

"I'll warn the muscleheads, but be ready for anything in there. And take this."

Was that...concern for another human being? Maybe the slightest bit. Kaiba pressed a handful of defense cards into Shay's hand---Ring of Defense, Negate Attack...and Vorse Raider, for emergencies. He nodded gruffly and pointed Blue Eyes at the mass display of muscle.