Captain Long Legs stood beside her, cloak shifting in the wind, eight powerful legs braced against the stone. Weaver and Plemeton remained just behind them, the marketplace now a distant panic echo carried through the air.
Weaver stepped forward quickly.
"Sadya, wait."
Sadya didn't turn. Her purple eyes stayed locked on the endless drop below.
"Wait?" she said quietly. "There is no time to wait. It's now or never. The island is flooded with pink smoke."
A distant rumble rolled through the floating landmass as another wave of smoke curled over the outer districts. Citizens shouted somewhere behind them. Web-lines trembled overhead.
Captain Long Legs shifted his stance.
"Sadya," he said calmly, voice steady despite the chaos. "You stay up here and support the others. If the pink smoke draws something... dangerous, they'll need you."
He stepped closer to the edge, massive spider legs adjusting, digging into the stone.
"I'll go. I'm the only one with legs strong enough to pierce into the earth."
Plemeton's eyes widened slightly.
"Captain... the air density alone will likely tear you apart," he said, voice controlled but urgent. "You'd last a second down there."
Weaver cursed under his breath, gripping a small drone controller in his hand. Several hovering drones flickered uselessly in the smoke-filled distance before losing signal one by one.
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"Damn it," Weaver muttered. "Even the drones can't see anything through this pink smoke."
The wind howled louder.
Below them, the toxic haze churned like a living ocean, swallowing everything beneath it.
Sadya grinned "Captian, you don't have to risk your own life, remember I'm an artists, it's my job to get creative and Iv'e got a new trick."
The wind blew as she awakened her whimsical art.
Sadya clenched her jaw, staring into the descending abyss as Gray Hawk Island continued its slow, terrifying fall. Sadya's bubble gum glowed faintly pink, providing light.
Captain Long Legs nodded "Just becareful. He handed her an ear com. "Let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary."
"There," Weaver pointed to his controller screen. "Just below, although the drone has no vision, I'm getting a major blue signifies a massive electrical current just beneathe the island."
Sadya floated just below the island, pink smoke carefully through a collapsed section. The temperature rose. Machinery hummed, deep, old, wrong.
"That's not island tech," Sadya Long Legs muttered.
She emerged into a massive chamber. Sadya's breath caught.
Enormous gears, easily fifty feet tall, rotated slowly. Thick cables stretched downward through holes in the floor, disappearing into darkness below.
"What is it?" Captain Long Legs said through the com.
Sadya floated forward, using a light fan from her bubble gum sphere to guide herself while blowing the pink smoke away. She could hear a loud clanking sound, as if something was being yanked.
Sadya: "What is that?"
Plemeton: "Sadya, what is it?"
She floated.
Down.
Down.
Down.
She moved closer to the light.
Something erupted from the pit, metal, sleek, ancient. A robotic form floated upward, a massive chain hurled over its back, jet boosters blazing at its feet. It was pulling the island down.
Sadya: "What the hell!"
Captain Long Legs: "What is it? What are you seeing?"
Sadya: "It's a mech, a mech is pulling the island down."
Red eyes focused on the Webguards.
"X2 VOSS ONLINE," it announced in a voice like grinding gears. "ENEMY DETECTED. ELIMINATING."
"Oh no," Sadya said.
Then the robot attacked.