When the foundations shake, so does the structure built on top of it.
That fact doesn't change when that structure becomes a mega one.
Feeling the tremors shake them from underneath, Junk Bunk's inhabitants reacted in all sorts of ways.
The most common one was to grab the nearest thing for support.
Even if it was something fragile that would tremble and crack at the slightest touch, instincts weren't so easily denied.
On the top floors where the Dumper was being repaired, a cyborg experienced exactly this.
Fully stretching out to grab the hem of the hood that they were already reaching for, it didn't help her in her fall to the ground.
What it did do was reveal the head underneath it.
The grey hair that trademarked one as the heir of the Gravesmith pooled out of the hood as blank eyes lacking in clarity stared at the ground with abject resignation towards the entire situation.
The leader of the Beforetimes leaned forwards and pressed against the chains holding the body to the seat, an amazed voice clearer than ever before echoed out of the speaker. [So that broker wasn't lying?]
Looking up at those words, the blank eyes suddenly regained their clarity as he looked directly at the camera lenses, a question raised. "Someone sold us out? But who would- Ah"
Ester blinked before he realized. "That Ashtown guy."
Then the megastructure shook again, the tremor sending every single one of the unprepared stumbling.
Ester wasn't one of the unprepared.
Taking the window of opportunity given to him, Ester slipped out of the fallen woman's grasp before making a dash for the door, his footsteps slapping against the concrete floor.
[Stop him!] Instinctively straining against the chains that bound his body, the bound man fell to the ground in the next moment, sparks scattering as the antenna connecting the Leader of the Beforetimes to this place snapped.
White noise filling the air as sparks flowed ceaselessly from the bound man lying against the ground, Ester barely spared the man a glance as the cyborgs belatedly tried to react to both their leaders falling and their leaders orders.
The MG-102 didn't have such problems to process in the span of a few seconds.
It only had a few parameters it was required to do, one of which was to prevent anyone unpermitted from leaving.
If only it wasn't so predictable it might've fulfilled its directives.
'Thank you that one pit of discontinued Stalker models for forcing me to... On second thought I shouldn't be grateful for that'
Scrap laden beast leaping towards him with 250 pounds of pure metal, even if it wasn't trying to do so, he would gain limbs like the man with a lisp.
Broken ones.
Motioning to jump over it before slipping underneath the giant leap that it made in response, Ester shoved a piece of scrap straight through the little gaps in its chest plating that it exposed during the leap.
Instantly slamming mere inches from his head spasming all the way, it would deter any pursuers not confident enough to dodge the flailing 250 pounds of angles and pain currently gouging holes in the concrete.
Rounding the corner of the hallway as the malfunctioning robot blocked any pursuers, Ester recalled the path he took on the way here whilst pulling up his hood.
Info took time to disseminate when the net was as slow as chud so no use in advertising to everyone who the Void he was the heir of.
'I have no idea what that paranoid old man was thinking when he only took in kids with grey hair.'
Adjusting his hood so that it wouldn't fall off as he ran, he recalled the vision that prevented him from reacting to the hand that grasped him.
At first, he couldn't tell what it was that this particular vision was warning him about, only seeing the situation for what it was.
A man hitting on a woman.
On second thought Ester thought this woman was Eva, but he didn't need to wait long for him to be proven wrong.
Honestly, the fact that this woman had black hair should've clued him in on the fact that it wasn't Eva, but if he didn't realize it then, he certainly realized it when her hair began to pick off the number of arrows clinging to her body.
Clothes parting to reveal that they were in fact long pitch black strands of hair mimicking the form of clothes, the woman stretched out unnaturally as the rest of their body mass hidden within legs seemingly made of liquid revealed themselves, six long arms, one for each finger and an additional one for the main bone that should've held it all together writhed on each end of its shoulders.
It was a Corrupted, one of those folk who didn't eat their blues properly in this toxic environment and ended up turning, that much was instantly made obvious as he stared.
The problem was that he recognized it.
That void like pool of swirling black was unmistakable.
Another problem was that besides its mask of swirling black, it was unrecognizable from when he last saw it.
'It's at least a High 2nd to Low 3rd stage now.' Ester thought worriedly as he rounded another corner. 'I don't like those mechaphiles but they better not let it go.'
A chill crawled up his spine as his mind jumped back to the time he had just entered the Rift and it began 'Her' hunt. 'Architects I don't want to be a meal.'
Hurriedly ending his train of thought there as he slowed his steps at the sound of someone approaching from afar, Ester slowed his steps, rolling up his right sleeve to show off his modded arm before steadying his breath.
Adjusting his hood with his free hand so that no hint of grey hair even poked out, Ester took a few shallow breaths before walking into the hallway where he heard the set of heavy footsteps.
It was a short woman modded top to bottom in metal.
Carrying two large boxes with strength that seemed unbefitting for her size, it seemed that was her limit as she barely spared him a glance before she returned to balancing the number of metal items clattering and jangling against each other with every step she took.
Passing by with calm steps, he nicked a screwdriver from one of the boxes without her noticing, shoving the flat head into his pockets where they could serve a purpose he didn't know yet.
It definitely wasn't because he stole the screwdriver on impulse and didn't think ahead.
*Boom
Feeling his movements get interrupted by a dull boom that echoed from underneath, dust fell from the cracks in the ceiling as a woman's curses echoed from afar.
'How about we stop thinking about uses for the Screwdriver and focus on getting to the Driller where Eva's at Ester?' Ester mentally addressed himself.
Another dull boom shook lose dust and a barrage of curses.
'Let's do that.'
Looking towards the ceiling before he hurried his steps towards the floors below, in the depths of the Megastructure, awakened by the Corrupted's ground floor rampage, eyes opened and teeth gnashed.
Chaos would soon find itself quite at home in Junk Bunk.
---
*Crackle
With the sound of lightning sparks, the giant figure snapped away from the computer screen.
Red eyes flickering wildly as the giant recovered from having their connection to the drone severed, after several moments contained within the black silence lit up only by the lights of the screens and their eyes, the flickering red regained a state of calm before a mechanical voice leaked out of the speakers built into his large body.
[Us huh?]
Seemingly tasting the word as the gears audibly turned in their head, the large cloak covering their towering figure shifted with them as they turned to look at the screen now showing nothing other than white static.
[The word us usually involves more than one person allied with them.]
A skeletal limb of bone wrapped in wires reached out to the touch the screen gingerly, the light from the screen reflected off of the bones made of metal.
The towering figure pulled back their hand as the recording of a certain man began to spread across the darkness. ["Someone sold us out? But who would- Ah. That Ashtown guy."]
Listening to those words again and again as if searching for any errors in hearing, once they confirmed that there was absolutely no problems with their hearing, a shudder of delight passed through their large metal frame.
[So more than one Heir survived...]
Metal clattering against itself as the towering figure shook with jubilation, the joy ended suddenly, a flash of coldness passing through their red optics.
Another hand reached out from underneath the hood, this one connected to a more normal steeled out limb.
Pressing down onto a button which lit up a small yellow light in response, the towering figure's voice spoke low and heavy.
[To all the Beforetimer's currently active, there is new information on our grand mission.]
---
25 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
13 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
13 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
+++
Tree that has entered a FOBISIA competition that might mess up the already schedule who was already taken out the back and shot fifty times with a knife.
-Edit-
It spat onto its grave before exploding it not so gloriously
-Edit2-
It also gave this tree sore throat, stuffy nose, phlegm and sixteen hour nap
-Edit3-
It also apparently wiped the databanks containing the chapter (I forgot to save)