Its singular eye lit up red.
"ORGANIC DETECTED. ELIMINATING."
"SADYA, UP! NOW!" Captain Long Legs' voice screamed through the comm.
The blast fired. Sadya barely dodged, the heat scorching past her.
Her communicator sparked. Died.
On the platform above, static filled their ears.
"Sadya! Sadya, respond!" Plemeton shouted into his comm.
Nothing.
Captain Long Legs rushed to the edge, his legs extending down toward the cables. The moment he gripped them, wind, massive, turbulent, slammed into him. He lost his hold, barely catching himself.
"The excavator's generating wind pressure!" Weaver grabbed him, pulling him back. "You'll be blown off!"
"Then we..."
"Captain, look!" Plemeton pointed.
Something was rising from below.
Sadya transformed.
Golden bubble gum erupted around her, forming Gumball Bear, six stories of sparkling, star-like gum. She stood inside its head, fear and determination fueling her power.
The robot fired missiles from it's chest "Toy Master."
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Gum Ball Bear's hands moved, creating bubbles that intercepted each missile. Explosions detonated inside the gum constructs, contained, harmless.
The robot fired again. More bubbles. More contained explosions.
Sadya focused. Gum Ball Bear's head hardened, compressed into a massive peppermint. She launched forward, head-butting the robot with devastating force.
Metal shrieked. The robot flew backward.
But it recovered, weapon ports opening across its body. Rapid-fire blasts filled the air.
Too many. Sadya couldn't block them all.
Gum Ball Bear's mouth opened. Cotton candy-like orbs formed, glittery majestic colors, fueled by every happy memory she had.
She fired.
The orbs slammed into the robot, denting armor, sparking systems.
The machine created distance between itself and Gum Ball, but Gum Ball was already on the move.
The robot's eye flickered. "TACTICAL WITHDRAWAL REQUIRED,ENEMIES ABI LEVEL EXCEEDS MY DURABILITY."
It disengaged from the cables and rocketed upward, away from Sadya.
"INCOMING!" Weaver shouted.
The massive robot burst through the clouds, flying past their platform in a blur of ancient metal and red light. It headed toward Gray Hawk's surface, disappearing into the island's underlayers.
"What was.."
"There!" Plemeton pointed down.
Gum Ball Bear was rising, slower now, the golden glow flickering.
As it reached the platform, the construct dissolved. Sadya collapsed onto the metal surface, pink smoke rising from her hands, her mouth, dissipating into the air.
"Sadya!" Plemeton rushed to her side.
She was unconscious, breathing shallow. Pink residue covered her lips—she'd inhaled too much of her own gum smoke during the transformation.
Captain Long Legs checked her pulse. "She's alive. Exhausted. We need to get her to medical immediately."
Weaver stared into the darkness below, then at the island above where the robot had fled.
"What did we just wake up?" he whispered.
No one had an answer.
They pulled the platform up, Sadya unconscious between them, as Gray Hawk continued its slow descent into the unknown.