Furnace Fang groaned as I strapped it onto my back. It still smelled like scorched copper and grudge. Glub chirped as he launched himself onto the shield and nestled into the dented top like a gelatinous baby bird claiming a nest.

  "Ready?" I asked.

  "Always," Glub replied, vibrating slightly. "Your back is warm."

  "Don't get weird about it."

  "Too late."

  With a final glance around The Pit Stop, I slung my pack over one shoulder and stepped back through the door that led to Room Two. The trash had settled from the earlier Rattlegrit swarm, and the tunnel I'd uncovered behind the storage rack still pulsed faintly. Not like a threat. More like a beacon. A beacon that could let us to god-fuckin-knows where. Some of the rattlegrit bodies now glowed faintly. "Ah yes, some of the fuckers I didn't get to loot the first time around." I said with a grin. "You wanna hop down and see if you can find anything valuable in this trash?"

  Glub happily rolled off the back of the shield into a pile of garbage. "This stuff is delicious!" it said with a mouthful of crunchy rust and wires. It continued to roll around from pile to pile, munching away. I went to the first couple of rattlegrit corpses and touched them to loot.

  [ Loot extracted ]

  - Rattlegrit Core x2

  - Copper wire x2

  The notifications were pretty much the same for the other few rattlegrit that I found. I don't know what I'd use the cores for, but they got tossed into my dimensional backpack like everything else. I found some other scrap tech and metal pieces that might come in handy for later, but nothing too great. I was hoping to find another shiny cube. The inert artifact was just chillin' in my bag, apparently attracting hostiles. That was just another wonderful thing I had going on for me. I made my way to the back corner where the tunnel entrance was. I hollered for Glub and it's head popped up out of a pile of junk, and it let out a smoky, sizzling burp. It rolled its way to me like a baby bowling ball, up my leg and plopped onto the shield once more. I crouched down and pulled the tarp aside. The opening was tight, half-obscured by ancient wiring and rusted conduit, but the same hum that had called to me last time was still there—stronger now.

  "If I get stuck, I'm blaming you shithead" I muttered.

  Glub made a bubbling sound. "Doug, you're built like a refrigerator with trauma. You'll be fine."

  I grunted, then crawled in.

  The tunnel narrowed before widening just enough for me to move upright again, though I had to duck under low-hanging pipes. The walls were different here—not just dirt or carved stone, but a fused mess of tech and mineral, like the mountain itself had been wired and then forgotten. Strange pulses flickered along the seams of metal-veined rock. My HUD stuttered and faded as we moved.

  [Signal Interference Detected...] [System Link Weakening...]

  "That's new," I muttered.

  "Hold please," Glub said brightly. A second later, I felt him shift on my back—and then something tall and skinny unfolded from Furnace Fang. A long, thin stalk rose from his body, warping into the unmistakable silhouette of an old military radio antenna. A faint electrical buzz filled the air.

  [Signal Boost Active - Companion Form: Relay Node] [Stability: 72%]

  "Great. You're an antenna."

  "I'm a majestic antenna," Glub said proudly, sparking gently.

  "Still better than the damn unicorn horn."

  "Function over form, Doug. Keep crawling."

  We pressed deeper. The first chamber we hit was half-collapsed. Looked like it used to be a raid prep room—or maybe a resupply checkpoint. Long-dead lights lined the walls, and broken lockers spilled their contents onto the floor like disemboweled metal corpses. I kicked one gently. It let out a rusty moan.

  "Well that's charming."

  The room felt... wrong. Sadness washed over me. I couldn't shake the feeling of being overwhelmed. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. My breath was hard to catch. I could feel my knees getting weaker. What the hell is going on??? I thought, wanting to burst into tears and breakdown crying. Then, it was like a light bulb shattered. I looked down at the little snot-goblin munching on what sounds like broken glass.

  Glub looked up and said with a mouthful of purple energy glass "What? It was one of those spirit-ball-thingys. Delicious!"

  "You're ridiculous, you know that?

  "Yep." Glub replied, matter of factly.

  I started looting. Old wraps. Frayed cables. A broken boot that was way too small. Some other shit that might be helpful but then I found it—a jagged piece of metal tucked behind a half-melted crate. It wasn’t just some broken-piece-of-whatever-the-fuck, it was a Scrapblade Fragment.

  [Gear Fragment: Scrapblade Core (Salvage) - Acquired] [Loadout Sync: 72%]

  My HUD flickered. I felt a small energy surge flow through my body.. "That’s one," I whispered. Then the lockers started rattling. Metal claws scraped against metal. Red eyes blinked into existence from the dark corners of the ceiling. Corrupted drones—old repair bots turned kill-happy by time and system rot.

  "Contact," I snapped, drawing Smashstick and swinging around Furnace Fang. Glub rolled and launched himself onto my shoulder, screaming the battle cry of a toddler warrior. The first drone dove—and I slammed into it with all my might. Its claws raking my shield, carving sparks from my shield. I feel Furnace Fang charging up... It opened the vents and spewed flames and caustic smoke at the crazy, evil-eagle-taloned attacker. The smoke seemed to thicken around the drone, its intake slowly being plugged up. In that moment, I swung Smashstick in an overhead arc, smashing down with a brutal CLANG, and sent it spiraling to the floor.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  It slammed into the rock, sputtering out.

  [Drone Terminated – XP gained]

  It was dead. But there were two more zipping towards me. “Oh, come on,” I shouted. “How many of these things are there!”

  “5 more to be exact,” Glub yelled from my shoulder. “Aim for the glowy bits!”

  “What glowy bits?! They’re covered in armor!” I yelled, exacerbated.

  “The glowy bits by their exhausts! Their poop shoot. The chocolate starfish, Come on Doug!” the little guy yelled in my ear. " I have an idea, hold out your shield!" Glub rolled down my arm and disappeared in the shield. I could feel a tingling in my shield arm. Two robo-fuckers were almost to me, I readied Smashstick and braced my shield. Furnace Fang began to glow as the drones closed the distance, and as soon as they were about to slam into me...BOOM! Two bolts of electricity shot out of the exhaust vents of my shield, downing the incoming drones. "That was cool as shit, Glub!" I said, surprised.

  [Drone (x2) Terminated – XP gained]

  The victory was short-lived. The next drone smashed into my back, sending me spinning towards a pile of garbage. Another drone swooped in, metallic claws ripping at my shoulder. A third zipped by and yanked my shield from my arm. I could hear Glub yelling curses from inside the shield but it's voice was getting farther and farther away. Every time I would try to get up I was smashed by another attack, I began scrambling to find some cover. There were some metal crates not far from me, maybe six meters away, towards the back corner of the room. As I scrambled, the drones would fly by, raking their claws across the back of my legs and ass. Luckily, my backpack kept them from doing too much damage there.

  I could hear Glub hollering again, and his voice was getting closer. Then two notifications popped up, one after another. I couldn't help but grin.

  [Furnace Fang: Flame Vent Activated]

  [Drone Terminated – XP gained]

  The drone shrieked as its carapace caught fire and it pinwheeled into the wall. I blinked. “Okay. That was awesome.” The shield clanged to the ground a few feet away from me. Glub crawled out, covered in soot. Glub squealed with excitement. “We roasted it!” Then he hiccupped like he was drunk. "That was one hell of a ride papa, can we do it again?" he said as he slumped over and slid back into the shield.

  "What a crazy little psycho..." I muttered as I grabbed some metal scraps to deflect the blows of the incoming drones. I had to get to a better position. Another drone came in faster—zig-zagging like it was trying to be clever. I didn’t give it the chance. I shot to my feet, twisted, and triggered the Junklash Grappler. THWIP–CLANG! The chain launched, wrapped around the drone’s midsection, and yanked. I might've yanked too hard. It slammed into my shoulder like a flailing lawnmower and knocked us both to the ground. “Worth it,” I gasped, pinning it with my knee then smashing it over the head repeatedly with the chain until the red in its eyes went out.

  [Drone Terminated – XP gained]

  [Damage Detected: Left Shoulder – Bruising, Minor Dislocation]

  “Ow. Ow. Ow. Everything hurts.” I winced, crawling over to the fallen shield.

  “Yeah,” Glub said as he peeked out from the edge of the shield. “But you looked really cool.”

  The last two dropped down—one buzzing, the other crawling sideways along the wall like a nightmare blender with attitude. I rolled to the side, raised Furnace Fang, and let the shield take the hit. The metal screamed, and so did I, but it held. Mostly. The drone tried to pry me open like a soup can. I kicked it in the face. The crawler lunged, but Glub flopped out of the vent of the shield, and splattered himself over the thing’s optic sensor like a possessed jello mold. “DON’T TOUCH HIM!” he shouted, static buzzing off his edges. The drone started spinning wildly, blind and shrieking. I didn’t hesitate. I tried my best to make the Spartans proud, stepped forward and kicked the shit out of that drone. It sputtered and spun, but Glub was just chilling. When the little guy put his mind to something, there was no stopping him, I'll give him that. In that moment, I ran and swooped up my Smashstick. I didn't stop running and crow-hopped into my baseball swing with the hammer pipe. CRACK! Its chassis snapped in half like a cheap toy, and Glub went spinning to splat on the floor.

  [Drone Terminated – XP gained]

  “Glub, I take back every mean thing I said about you this morning.” I said in between breaths, a smirk spreading across my face. My lungs burned, my legs were tore to shit, my shoulder was screaming in pain, and my stomach was growling so loud. I had to find a place to sit, or lay on my stomach, since the back of my legs were so fucked. “You said I was a gremlin in a poop suit.” Glub retorted, seeming just as weary. He let out a long sign, and started eating the bodies of the destroyed drones. I didn't care. The adrenaline of the battle was wearing off, and the pain and fatigue was settling in. I checked my status tab to see how much HP I had left.

  [HP: 19%] [Status: Bleeding – Minor] [Bruised – Severe] [Muscle Strain – Moderate] [Left Shoulder: Misaligned] [Fatigue Level: Dangerous – Rest Recommended]

  Fantastic. I was basically a walking ouch wrapped in duct tape and spite. I dropped to the ground beside the shield and let my head fall back against a chunk of broken piping. My vision pulsed. Not in the dramatic, cinematic way. More like a migraine wearing a strobe vest. “That’s it,” I groaned. “No more fights today. I’m out.”

  “I can help,” Glub chirped from a pile of garbage..

  I didn’t even have the energy to argue. “What are you gonna do? Sing me a lullaby?”

  “Nope.” he said as he scuttled his way over to me. He squelched up my arm, slithered beneath my collar, and without warning—attached.

  “AGH—GLUB—WHAT THE FUCK—”

  “Shh,” he whispered. “Healing.” A strange, cold-warm pulse spread from where his goo touched my skin. It fizzed. Tingled. Then burned like hell for a second before settling into a soothing numb. I stared up at the ceiling, completely unsure if this was a medical miracle or biological betrayal.

  “Is this... gonna leave a scar?”

  “Probably not. You’re too squishy for good ones.”

  “Thanks, I think?”

  As the minutes passed, my body started to unclench. The sharp pain dulled. Bleeding slowed. Muscles stopped spasming. And the alerts on my HUD began blinking out one by one.

  [Bleeding – Stopped] [Bruised – Reduced] [Muscle Strain – Eased] [Shoulder Alignment – Partial Correction Achieved]

  “You’re a gooey little first-aid kit,” I mumbled.

  Glub giggled. “I’ve been digesting healing protocols.”

  “You what?”

  “I ate some drone firmware. And a trauma-bandage dispenser. And a broken stim canister. Now I’m medicinal!”

  “You’re horrifying.”

  “And efficient.”

  I let my head fall back again. Too tired to argue. “Alright. You win. Keep doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing.”

  He purred like a radioactive cat and resumed squelching around the room, inhaling everything that wasn’t nailed down.

  [Glub: XP Gained – Drone Parts, Ambient Scrap, Enemy Core Fragments]

  [Companion Level Up: Lv. 2 → Lv. 4]

  [Size Increase: Glub is now approximately Baseball-sized]

  [New Trait Acquired – Adaptive Digestion: Glub can absorb and process salvage for minor benefits. May generate buffs, healing effects, or temporary traits.]

  I cracked one eye open. Glub now looked like a baseball-sized jelly bean wearing static electricity. His glow had intensified slightly, and his voice sounded... just a bit deeper.

  “Glub?”

  “Yes, Doug?”

  “You... kicked some serious ass today. Are you...Growing?”

  “I am evolving. Like a sexy mold.”

  “I hate how proud you sound.”

  “You love it.”

  I sighed and curled up beside the now mostly-devoured pile of drone corpses. My shield leaned nearby. Smashstick rested across my chest like a heavy metal security blanket. We were alive. Barely. But alive.

  “Get some rest, Glub,” I muttered.

  “You too. You earned it, Trash Ninja.”

  The forge chamber was quiet again—quiet and full of grease and victory. I drifted off, surrounded by scraps, soot, and one very smug blob.

  [Rest Mode Initiated – Temporary Safe Zone Established]

  Tomorrow, we find the next piece.