00120. Searching for Scrapper 142 (Patreon)

New chapter for the week. I am still working on my next set of chapters for my other story. I might have them posted this weekend.

A silver lined portal opened up in the massive junkyard of Sakaar and out stepped a handful of people. Once through, the portal snapped closed behind them and the group took a quick glance at their surroundings.

Ezekiel grimaced slightly as he said, “This place smells like a dumpster fire.”

Only two people nodded in agreement, Sanhildr and Darren. The latter of the two quickly used his helmet to help block the smell.

Ezekiel glanced at the other people in the group and said, “Let's get to work. Spread out and collect anything that looks useful as we head towards the city.”

Everyone nodded before they vanished from view. Sanhildr tensed slightly at how quickly they disappeared and the fact she couldn't hear them move at all.

Darren glanced around for a moment before he asked, “Will I be able to disappear like that one day?”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “Ya, once you get proper training….”

“Holy shit!”

Ezekiel and Sanhildr turned to look at what gained Darren's attention. Behind them hovering in the sky was a massive gray swirling cloud that covered half of the sky. In the eye of the clouds vortex was a jet of red color shooting out objects onto the planet's surface.

Darren pointed at it in wonder as he said, “That looks like a collapsing neutron star inside of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge!”

“You mean a wormhole?” asked Sanhildr.

Darren chuckled before he said, “Ya…”

“The local’s call that one The Devil’s Anus.”

Darren and Sanhildr both turned to look at Ezekiel, who shrugged as he said, “Don’t look at me, I didn't name it.”

Ezekiel glanced around for a moment before he said, “Let’s move out, we're here for a reason.”

As they started to move Ezekiel glanced at Darren and said, “Keep your eye out for anything interesting. If you find something, let me know and I'll collect it for you.”

Darren nodded in reply before he said, “That thing over there looks like some kinda engine, let's grab it.”

A few hundred feet ahead of them was a large thruster like thing attached to a broken wing. As they moved closer to it, Ezekiel and Darren picked up a bunch of smaller objects which Ezekiel sealed into a scroll. Once they reached the engine, Darren shrunk it down with a shrinking disc before Ezekiel sealed it away.

For about an hour, Darren, Ezekiel and his clones collected tons of items as they moved towards the city. Once they got closer to the city, Ezekiel, Darren and Sanhildr wrapped themselves up in some trash looking clothing to blend in. While all of the clones used their skills to remain hidden around their group.

After another ten minutes, they made it to the outskirts of the city. It was nothing pretty to look at, mostly half collapsed shacks made of junk. The people living in the area were malnourished and kept to themselves. Only a few of them cast a fearful glance at the group of three walking past them.

Ezekiel didn’t like what he was seeing, but they currently couldn’t do much to help. Maybe after they set things straight on Earth and cleaned it up. Then he could come here and help everyone out… It had nothing to do with the fact the wormholes above the planet littered the planet with free resources. Nope, he just wanted to help the people here…

After making it through the slums they came to, slightly better slums. The houses were still made of junk and pretty much pieced together. But none of the houses were collapsed and the people looked a little healthier in this area.

As they were walking down one of the larger empty streets Ezekiel whispered, “Monkey scout ahead and find me a terminal I can hack into. Whitefang scout near the city center and report back with what you find.”

Darren glanced over to Ezekiel for a moment as if expecting something to happen, before Ezekiel said, “They already left.”

Darren nodded slightly in response as they kept heading deeper into the city. After ten minutes or so, someone spoke next to Ezekiel and said, “I found a terminal that should work, it’s half a mile ahead inside of a building.”

“Good, show us the way.”

A man in all black tactical gear with a white and red monkey mask appeared in front of Ezekiel and said, “Follow me.”

Both Darren and Sanhildr jumped back when the man appeared, but Darren was more from fright, while Sanhildr was from her reflexes. Ezekiel cast a smirk at both of them as he said, “Don’t worry, no one will hurt you with me around.”

“I don’t need your protection midgardian.” Sanhildr said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Darren just nodded as he said, “Thanks. Hank’s only given me a crash course with the suit. I’m not sure if I could properly protect myself with it.”

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “Sorry about that, lead the way Monkey.”

The group made faster time as they followed behind Monkey, who quickly led them to the building he was talking about and the terminal he found. Once there Monkey disappeared from view and Ezekiel started looking at the terminal for a few moments, before he pulled out a scroll and removed a set of tools from it.

As Ezekiel used a pry bar to rip off one of the terminal’s panels he said, “Make sure no one interrupts me. This will take me a little while.”

Sanhildr nodded along with Darren who moved to stand somewhat in front of Ezekiel as he started to pull wires out from under the terminal. He took out his tools and started to test different wires looking for which ones were for data. After five minutes he was able to find three different data wires, so he stripped them and plugged them into one of his docks.

After connecting his tablet into the dock, a couple people walked into the room they were in. The one in the front said something in a language no one could understand before him and his companion dropped to the ground with a thud. Monkey stood behind their bodies and nodded before he disappeared again.

As Ezekiel was typing on his tablet he said, “Darren, move their bodies out of the way in case more people show up.”

Darren hesitated as he asked, “Did Monkey kill them?”

Ezekiel glanced up as he said, “Why would he kill them? They weren’t really a threat.”

“Oh… Okay.” Darren said as he moved closer to the two people on the ground. It took him about a minute to move both bodies out of the way and kinda hide them out of sight from the doorway. Afterwards he moved back in front of Ezekiel.

After another five minutes Whitefang appeared next to Ezekiel and said, “I found a few terminals near the city center. I also scouted out part of the palace and coliseum. Inside the palace is the main ship hanger, we should be able to collect some space ships from there.”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “Good, let's head that way then. This terminal is only for this building and doesn’t hold much information.”

Ezekiel quickly disconnected his hub and tablet before placing it in his storage scroll. After collecting his tools Ezekiel said, “Lead the way, Whitefang.”

The group left the building and made quick time through the city towards the palace area. They passed a few different areas on the way and everything shared one thing in common. It was all pieced together from many different parts. Even when they arrived near the palace and coliseum.

The two buildings definitely looked better than everything else, but they were still pieced together from scrapes. Whitefang led the group to one of the side entrances of the palace where a couple guards stood watch.

As the group approached one of the guards glanced over before he said, “That's far enough. State your business here.”

It didn't sound exactly like English, but it was close enough. The guards most likely had some kind of translation device with them or at least that's what Ezekiel thought.

Ezekiel smiled at the guards as he said, “Don’t mind us, we're just passing through.”

“What are…”

Both guard’s eyes unfocused before the lead one stepped out of the way and said, “Sorry sir, your group is free to enter.”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “Thanks and keep up the good work.”

The guard smiled as he said, “Thank you, sir.”

Ezekiel and his group moved past the guards and within a few moments were out of sight of them. After a few minutes both guards came out of the genjutsu and looked around for a moment, slightly confused. When they saw no one around them, they moved back to their post.

By that point Ezekiel was already in a room and working on connecting to a new terminal. The rest of his group was watching the door to the room, in case someone came in.

As Ezekiel was working Sanhildr asked, “Are you sure Brunnhilde is living in a place like this?”

“Pretty sure. I mean there's a small chance that she isn't here. But I'm ninety nine percent sure she's currently living on Sakaar.”

“Why would she choose to live in a place like this?”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Well the main reason is you can’t really leave this place. As for how she got here, I have no idea.”

About ten minutes passed as Ezekiel worked on his tablet before he said, “Found her. She lives in a building close by on floor twenty, room two-zero-three-seven.”

Sanhildr looked at Ezekiel as she asked, “You're positive it's her?”

Ezekiel lifted up his tablet to show a picture on Brunnhilde’s ID in the computer system. It displayed her picture, the ship she used and her name as Scrapper 142. As he showed it to Sanhildr he asked, “You tell me, does this look like her?”

Sanhildr’s eyes were locked on the picture as she nodded. Ezekiel smiled as he started to disconnect his tablet and connection hub as he said, “Good, let's go meet her. The system said she was currently located in her room.”

As Ezekiel stored his equipment away in a scroll he said, “Darren, I want you to go to the hangar with Whitefang and Yellow Flash to collect some ships. You can just shrink down and one of them will carry you to the hanger so you don’t have to deal with security.”

Darren nodded as he asked, “What ships should we get?”

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “The best ones of crouse.”

Darren nodded slightly as he asked, “And how exactly am I going to figure out which ones are the best or better then others? I don’t know what or how I could even compare them for that matter.”

Ezekiel waved him off as he said, “Just use the rule of cool.”

“Rule of cool?”

“Ya. If it looks cool, it probably is cool.” Ezekiel said as if that explained everything.

Darren shook his head as he said, “That doesn’t make any sense. What I define as cool, won’t necessarily be what you consider cool.”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “It doesn’t need to, just grab all the ships you can and make sure they look cool.”

Darren let out a tired sigh before he asked, “How many should I grab?”

“How many shrink discs do you have left?”

Darren looked into a pouch he wore on his hip before he said, “About twenty.”

“Then get about twenty ships.”

“Won’t the alarms go off after the first ship disappears?” Darren asked.

“Probably. So just plan ahead and be fast about the whole thing. Once you're done, Yellow Flash will take care of the rest.”

Darren nodded as he said, “Alright, anything else before we leave?”

“Make sure the ship’s are clear of people before you shrink them, I don’t want any guests when we get back home.”

Ezekiel glanced at everyone once before he said, “Alright let's move out.”