Polycephaly was tapping his foot in the Titan’s hangar. It seemed an argument had started between a few different TV units as to who was going to spar with Brown next. Looking over at the small Cameraman, who was oblivious to the arguing as he was chatting with Titan TV, Polycephaly made a decision.
“Brown, you’d better start running...” Looking up at the Titan then teleporting, Brown squeaked as he realised what Polycephaly was doing. Dropping from the Titan’s balcony and starting a run towards the crates to try and get some more height, he felt the air move and a large foot land right next to him as Polycephaly teleports back into the room, his large wrist blade swinging down, just missing the Cameraman by a micron. Turning round to spot the little unit, Brown had already vanished, running and jumping like a squirrel. Listening and swinging his sub screens around to try and spot Brown, he started hissing in frustration. Spotting him hiding behind the group of TV units he lunges as they scatter with a collective shout. Brown started running again this time ducking under things low down to try and confuse the larger unit who couldn’t quite see what Brown was doing. Then all of a sudden flashes of light hit across his vision, sh*t he’d forgotten to put the lens protector in today. Stunned into a daze, all he could do was stand where he was, trying to shake it off. Feeling a sub screen push him over, he regained his senses and started running again, this time towards the storage that held the lenses. Mapping out exactly how many steps and which directions he would have to switch to to get there, Brown shut off his optics just as a purple light started to invade his senses. Still running, now unbothered by the light he could hear Polycephaly getting more frustrated at the fact he couldn’t seem to get his hands on the little bugger and the TV units present could tell. None of the TV unit’s had realised Brown had shut off his optics until Vestel, who was sitting up on a gantry rail watching, pointed it out as well as the fact Brown had no protective lens in. Hearing this just made Polycephaly get more frustrated, was he really out of shape this badly? Shaking his head, he teleported right in front of the main lens storage to see if he could get an advantage that way. Brown however had anticipated that and had made a little detour in his mind map for just this occurrence and Polycephaly was waiting for something that wouldn’t happen. Arriving at the smaller secondary lens storage Brown silently slipped in without being seen and turned his optics back on, throwing on a lens when he could see. Peering out of the storage, looking to see who was where, he silently left and scaled the side of the storage up to the gantry that Vestel was on. Staying low he went across until he was next to Vestel looking across the room at Polycephaly who looked to be getting anxious and annoyed at the disappearance of Brown. Swinging himself up to sit on the rail next to Vestel, he butted shoulders with the younger TV unit in affection.
“How long’s he been waiting outside that storage?”
“Since you shut off your optics.”
“And he hasn’t thought to check the other storage yet?”
“Nope. It’s a good lesson for me though, never underestimate you or anyone really.”
“That’s right. Don’t get co*cky even with a lesser opponent. Oh oops, he’s spotted me, gotta run.” Patting Vestel on the leg, Brown gets back up and starts dashing across the gantries again, with Polycephaly close behind.
Later on, the pair were going over a few tactics that Polycephaly could utilise and what exactly he had done wrong. With just how large Polycephaly was, he hadn’t really had anyone to safely spar with so all of his skills were from before he had been made into the large unit or from his experience with the Skibidi in the field. Luckily for him, Brown was very happy in helping him out and had already started making up a training plan for him and had agreed to spar when the larger unit wanted to, duties permitting of course. Vestel was also included in the training as it would help him too, Polycephaly had added in some teleport training in just for him, to hopefully help him start using his teleport skills with pinpoint accuracy. The three made quite the group when they were together and Titan TV was starting to consider maybe bringing up the possibility of the three clearing some of the smaller hideouts still on the list, just to give Vestel a chance to learn some things ‘on the job’ as it were.
The only problem for Brown was Polycephaly got rather handsy with him after a sparring session, not a major problem but enough of a one that he had to sometimes slap tendrils away when he was trying to concentrate on something. Just like now. One was creeping up on him while he was trying to read a report on one of the hideouts that had been raided recently, as he absent mindedly batted it away. Then a second tried on the other side. Polycephaly himself was reading some other reports, well he would be if he wasn’t getting slapped about so much.
“Just wanna hold you while we’re reading this stuff.”
“It’ll start with just holding, then your tendril will slip under my top just so it can get close to my plating, then it’ll be fiddling trying to open up my chest plating so it can wrap up my insides. Neither of us will get anything done if I let you ‘just hold me’ as you well know. I haven’t got much left to go, you can wait a little bit longer.”
Hearing that Polycephaly grumbles a bit but reins in his tendrils, pulling them into his back to stop them wandering. Seeing Brown mark down that hideout to double check as it was cleared solely by the Camera Faction made him proud of the smaller unit, but then again he always was when it came down to it. Brown was definitely blossoming now he was allowed to do his own thing, not being forced into a mould of another’s choosing. Turning back to his own tablet he kept seeing things that looked out of place or expected things completely missing, something was going on for sure within the Alliance. Flagging up yet another report for the Titan’s attention, Polycephaly was shocked by the next document, a request from the Speaker’s for a private meeting, Titan to Titan, about some anomalies they had also noticed. He would have to make sure he got the details from Titan TV when that happened, marking that message with the highest priority for the Titan and sending it, he put down the tablet and rubbed his head casing as he felt a circuit ache coming on. Putting his arms out across the back of the couch, flinging his legs out and dropping his head back, Polycephaly was half lying down trying to relax while Brown carried on with his stuff. Spotting him do this, Brown finished off the report he was looking at, put the tablet down and started crawling up Polycephaly’s front to get a little higher so he could rub on Polycephaly’s head casing himself to try and help. Hearing the telltale snick snick, two of Polycephaly’s tendrils came snaking out and started coiling around Brown which he allows this time. Carrying on running his fingers across the underside of the scoop and running them up the sides a little, Brown felt himself being lifted up and placed on the scoop with his body pressed up against the screen. Figuring out what Polycephaly wanted, Brown started moving his hands across the screen gently, as if rubbing away the ache. Hearing Polycephaly sigh and feeling him relax, Brown knew what he was doing was helping as he carried on, adding in gentle rubs across the casing where he could reach.
A few days later, after chatting with Titan TV, Brown got equipped with some of the latest gear, headphones, jet pack, ray blaster, grenades as well as two upgraded plungers that had retractable spikes with the push of a button. He was the only one who needed this stuff so someone had obviously gone to grab the gear for him from somewhere else, hopefully from somewhere that didn’t know it was for him so it would actually work. He did test the jet pack a little and made sure the plungers spikes worked however. Joining the small squad that had formed to go check out one of the previously cleared hideouts, they all teleported and started the sweep, Titan TV connecting to Brown’s POV as he was wanting to figure out what on earth was going on. Polycephaly had already gone on ahead of the group, going straight to a place further in where it opened up to the outside. Hearing skibidi noises from where Polycephaly had gone made the squad speed up and they entered with Brown in the forefront just to see a massive black booted foot kick Polycephaly from the outside entry into the wall at the back of the large room where he lay still and smoking, the sound of glass falling on the ground. Brown instantly looked from him to what had done the kicking and what he saw burned into his circuits… the Camera Titan was stood with one of those damn Astro Toilets, looking all buddy buddy. The TV units with him instantly surrounded Brown to hide him from view, as well as protecting him from the smaller Skibidi that were there, as he kept recording everything, the Camera Titan giving the Astro Toilet a thumbs up and blasting off quickly as the Astro Toilet started making it’s way towards the squad to obviously eliminate them so they couldn’t go back to report on what they had seen. Then a roaring Titan TV came jetting in, he had obviously teleported in where the squad had and flown over the hideout to get to the Astro Toilet, who upon seeing the enraged Titan started to speed off as Titan TV chased after it. Letting the other TV units handle the smaller Skibidi that were in the room, Brown darted off towards Polycephaly who was lying there unnaturally still.
“Poly? It’s ok, I’m here now. Come on, get up.” Looking at his tendrils, the sub screens had been shattered on impact with the wall, all of them dead weight now to the large unit. Not wanting to but forcing himself, Brown looked up at Polycephaly’s main screen… the only thing left of the actual glass part of the screen were shards along the edges. “f*ck. Poly, please show me you’re still with me somehow. You’ve gotta be or I’ve got no hope left at all.”
Hearing a clunking noise, Brown looked as a tendril dropped a sub screen and shakily moving like it was looking for something. Grabbing hold of the clamp gently he let it wind around his arm as if it were making sure it was really him, then he had a flash of an idea. Opening the back of his own head casing and opening up a concealed port there, Brown detached the clamp part of Polycephaly’s tendril and inserted the open end of the tendril into the port and let it take him over. Hearing the communication between his systems and Polycephaly’s was downright WEIRD but right now, it was all he could think of to help try and get him home. The small TV units wouldn’t be able to teleport something as big as Polycephaly from what he could hear of their chatter and Titan TV was chasing down the Astro Toilet but as far as Brown could tell Polycephaly’s teleport circuit was fine, he just couldn’t see so in his mind he figured he’d let Polycephaly borrow his sight to get himself home. Feeling his head move around looking at different things, he knew Polycephaly was trying to figure out what was going on until Brown’s head turned enough to look at the large unit where it stopped, clearly processing things. Seeing how his head was turning to see the tendril that connected them both and then his hands suddenly bringing themselves up into view Brown could tell Polycephaly wasn’t happy at all with this situation. Seeing the other three tendrils disconnect from the rest of the broken sub screens Brown watches as they wrap themselves around him pulling him close to Polycephaly’s chest while the large TV tried to sit up. Seeing the other TV units rush forward to help Polycephaly sit up, Brown knew they would help guide him when they got to the void pathways, he just needed to see enough to enter and exit them which is where Brown came in. Connected as they were Brown could feel the pain radiating off of Polycephaly but at least he was alive, seeing him just lying there had been a terrible thing for Brown. Seeing some of the TV units vanishing into the void pathways, Brown could feel Polycephaly struggling to initiate the teleport then all of a sudden they were there on the void pathways, the rest of the TV units following behind. Seeing the group hold onto different parts of Polycephaly, they started zooming along on things Brown clearly couldn’t see, he was so so glad they could at least help with this much. Coming to a stop a short while later, the TV units positioned Polycephaly in a certain way and then all gave a clear thumbs up to signal he could enter back into the ‘real’ world. A few went ahead while the rest patiently waited for the large unit and Brown could feel the effort it took, Polycephaly really was at his limit with how hurt he was. When the fog cleared Brown could see they were in the Titan’s hangar, with a lot of engineers close by ready to leap in to start working on Polycephaly, obviously having been summoned by the TV units that had arrived before them. Feeling his arm come up and make a ‘one minute’ gesture, Brown felt a whole lot of information hit his systems as well as overwhelming feelings of love towards him as he was placed on the ground gently. Then the tendril in the back of his head removed itself gently and suddenly Polycephaly collapsed on his side, some of the shards of glass falling out of his head casing and his tendrils going limp. Making an effort to back away from Polycephaly so the engineers and medics could work on him without Brown being in the way, an especially hard task when all Brown wanted to do was hold onto him, Brown just stood there watching without noticing the crowds of TV units arriving in the hangar all angrily talking about what had happened as the squad filled more and more units in on the news. Then he felt something collide and wrap itself around his middle, Vestel. Wrapping his arms around the younger unit and placing his head on top of Vestel’s, they just held each other while everyone else just swirled around them as if they were a rock in the middle of a stream.
“He will be ok right? They can fix him?” All Brown could do was tighten his hold on Vestel, unable to speak as he continued staring at Polycephaly.
Not too much later the Titan teleports back frustrated that he hadn’t been able to get his hands on the Astro Toilet. Looking around and taking stock of what was going on in his hangar, he then spots just how much damage his favourite large unit had taken. Seeing Brown and Vestel, Titan TV gently picks them both up with not even a squeak out of Brown like there usually would be.
“Brown, I know it’s hard but I need you with me right now. I need some information from you. I know you’re worried for Poly but they WILL fix him, it will just take some time.” Watching the little Cameraman listlessly lie there in his palm with Vestel trying to encourage him to respond, the Titan decided to do something he wished he didn’t have to do, he used his commanding presence and voice on the small unit. “Brown, serve your faction. Give me what I need to sort this mess out. If Poly dies, then he died in service to us which is what he was created to do. Snap out of it, I need soldier Brown right now, tend to your duties and give me the data NOW.”
Being forceful seemed to do it. Brown stood up suddenly then used the jet pack to get to the Titan’s shoulder. Twisting his hand on his wrist, it came away to reveal a connector that he then thrust into the port on the side of the Titan’s head, downloading the footage from the raid right into the Titan’s memory as well as letting the Titan’s systems synch with his. Titan TV could see, hear and feel everything Brown was right at that moment and also the confusion Brown had over the information that Polycephaly had sent him but not being able to make sense of it. Sending Brown a private communication through their current connection Titan TV started to explain what that data packet really was, one last message from Polycephaly to Brown if his signal were to be permanently terminated, something a TV unit did for a loved one if they knew they might die in the near future. It could only be accessed if Polycephaly was no longer with them. While Brown processed this information, Titan TV watched the footage back to himself. When he originally saw Polycephaly being booted he had disconnected and teleported right away, seeing the Astro Toilet and chasing it. He hadn’t seen that it was the Camera Titan kicking the large TV unit that had caused so much damage to Polycephaly. Watching the rest of the footage Titan TV turned to the gathered TV units in his hangar while also receiving some more intel from Brown about the Camera Titan and some potential weaknesses he had, Brown was now fully past caring about his old faction. As Brown disconnected from the Titan, clicking his hand into place and jetting back down to where Polycephaly was still being fixed, the Titan started showing the raw footage to everyone assembled. Vestel watched from his place still in the Titan’s palm and the white hot rage seeing what had happened to his Uncle took over. Teleporting down and shattering the installed paddle knives so they were lethal shards he had to be grabbed before he teleported and got himself killed. Hisen was there and took the youngster aside and got a nearby engineer to start taking the remains of the paddle knives out. Seeing the youngsters reaction, the Titan knew he couldn’t stop Vestel coming when they all went so made the engineer give him proper wrist blades as well as some armour to protect his body, Hisen helping with that as he had already been making some clothing especially for Vestel as he knew the youngster had been joining Brown and Polycephaly on a few missions and he also wanted to keep Vestel safe. Hisen quickly went to get the clothing and as soon as he got back, Vestel was stripping off his former clothing and putting on the new gear. Instead of the usual getup all TV men wore on missions, Vestel had on all black leather which had some armour plating in between layers. Under the jacket was some more armoured padding, along the seams on the arms and shoulders were some spikes to catch any blades used on the youngster. The pants having similar things added including more spikes along the outside seams, the boots having hidden knives so if Vestel kicked the blades would pop out and do a ton of damage to whoever he decided to use them on. The rest of the adult TV’s all doing similar, making sure they were all fit and ready to go out to fight if they had to.
First things first however, Titan TV had an important meeting appointment to keep… with the Sound Titan. Teleporting to the agreed meeting place with the assembled and ready fighters, Vestel and Brown on his shoulder, the TV Titan waited. Seeing the Sound Titan flying towards the group, as well as some of the stereocopters carrying a lot of the Speaker units. The first thing out of the Sound Titan was 4 words… “We have a problem.”
“No sh*t, you first.”
“I think the Camera Titan has a parasite or something. He’s not acting right, he hasn’t been since he got upgraded the first time. I just put it down to stress but now? We’ve been noticing more and more anomalies in reports and also how he and some of his units are acting. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d gotten some of his smaller guys infected as well. I have a theory that when I got infected, it was to throw us, well you really, off the scent of his well hidden parasite and to make sure they had time to do whatever it is they are planning on doing. Only problem is, I can’t prove any of this. It’s just a gut feeling I have right now.”
“Well, hopefully you know Brown here?” The Cameraman waved at the Sound Titan.
“I had heard you stole a Cameraman from their faction and indoctrinated him into yours.”
“f*ck that! I left of my own accord! They treated me like trash! And now that f*cking Camera Titan has possibly killed the guy I love by kicking him into a damned wall! If he is infected then fine, we need to save him but if this is him with no parasite? He needs to be put down, HARD .” Brown was angry, but he quickly outlined to the Sound Titan key points as to how and why he had left one faction to join another. Then came the footage from the raid and what Brown had recorded. All of the TV units present had the footage up on their screens looping the playback so all of the Speakers there could see just what had happened and why they were all dressed ready for battle. There was going to be payback one way or another.
“Considering your theory and the footage we have. It is very possible the Camera faction is under the Skibidi’s influence. Thanks to Brown here however I do have some small intel on what could be possible weak points we could utilise to our advantage.” Titan TV was keeping a few things to himself, just in case the Sound Titan was only here to get intel for the Camera faction but considering the guy did in fact look worried about a possible parasite on what used to be his best friend, well Titan TV just had to hope the guy was being genuine.
“Look, I know you want to go in, all guns blazing right now. But please, do me a favour and wait a day. Let me get my guys equipped and in place. It’s not so far fetched that my lot go visit the Cameramen, they all hang around the Camera base all the time any way so just give me a day to get everyone in place. It’ll also mean the Camera Titan can’t just fly off as soon as you teleport in as I’ll be there, I can grab and hold him then you can do whatever you need to do.”
“I want to punch that smug f*ck in the head at the very least for what he’s done to Poly. You know he’s my only large unit unlike you guys having a few. My engineers are trying to save him but those injuries he received? His life right now is literally on the line. Even when you stabbed just my main screen, that was bad enough, he had all of his shattered. Just imagine what it would be like if you lost all of your speakers and couldn’t speak?” As Titan TV said this the Sound Titan held up his hands in a pleading gesture.
“I get it, I really do. If there’s anything we can do to help just say the word. We will back you in this and do what we can. Like I said, just give us a day to get in place, then we can finally find out what the hell is going on. I am sorry Polycephaly was caught up in this and got so seriously hurt I really am. Brown, when you said about the guy you love?”
“Yeah, Poly and I are together. He’s helped me so damn much and all this… Even if it is a parasite controlling my old Titan, I won’t ever be going back to them. The TV faction took me in, looked after me and I’m very happy with them, Titan TV is my Titan now.” Bringing up his head torch to full brightness to show off its purple colouring, the Sound Titan noticed and just nodded his head.
“We will give you your day to prepare. It might help us to cool off some of the more hot headed ideas and actually let us think a bit clearer as to what we need to do. We will arrive at the Camera base exactly twenty four hours from now so be ready.” After exchanging a few more pieces of intel and data the TV faction teleport back to the Titan’s hangar to start discussions on what they needed to get done to make sure they were in better shape than they currently were. Both Brown and Vestel going right down to Polycephaly’s side to see how he was currently doing. After the engineers told them they would be working in shifts overnight to try and get him stabilised, Vestel tried to persuade Brown to at least go and charge for a bit but Brown stubbornly refused to move.
Going off to find Hisen to get his help, both of the TV units grabbed up Brown between them and teleported him right into his and Polycephaly’s quarters, stripping the gear off of the Cameraman and forcing him into a recharge sleep mode on the bed. Vestel also stripping all of his own gear off and curling up against Brown for some comfort as Hisen also plugged the youngster in for a charge. Leaving the two there, he goes back to the hangar to let the Titan know where both were and that they were asleep, just in case anything were to happen with Polycephaly. Emotions were running high in the hangar and everyone dreaded what would happen if Polycephaly didn’t make it.
