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"There's atleast one or two hundred down there I'd guess"
"You think so?.. Jesus..."
The rest of the beta testers had ran off to find shelter, or left the level entirely; Francis, Arnold and Rez were the only ones who took the risk of sticking around.
The three boys were perched up on the side of the race track, staring at the mayhem that went on down below. Dinky little robots were tearing the place to shreds! They were small, with shark tooth-like cuts across their bodies, making them practically just mouths with little arms and legs!
Individually they weren't all that scary though, the only problem was just how many of them had spawned.
"Whadd'ya think they are?"
"Beats me, nothing I couldn't take on though!"
"I think I found something..." Francis muttered, he had been scouring the database looking for anything similar.
"Says they're called uh.. 'Tinker Toys'?"
"I feel like 'Terror-Toys' would be a better description" Arnold snickered, "I mean you saw the other players, they were running like their lives depended on it!"
"They just might," Rez countered "what does it say about their threat level?"
"Nothing." " What do you mean nothing??"
Francis shrugged "I mean there's nothing there. A name and picture is all the log has"
"Weird... maybe it's like the slinkits, where us players had to unlock the info about them ourselves?" Arnold grimaced at the memory of those awful creatures they found in the target section of Level 1. He didn't mind cats, but those things were down right evil.
"Maybe.. not sure how we'd go about info gathering thou-oOAH!!" Rez was cut off as the track under them suddenly dropped about a foot, swaying under the weight of itself.
"They're destroying the supports- we gotta run!" Arnold was the first to ditch, shoving Rez out of the way as he skittered down the quickly collapsing track.
Rez(with some scathing remarks) and Francis followed after, not all that keen on finding out what happened if the Tinker Toys got their hands on a player.
The three boys had run quite the distance through Level 2, panting and gasping for air as they slowed to a halt.
Francis sat down on the pavement while Rez and Arnold started arguing about 'sabotage' and 'sacrifice'. He rolled his eyes at their antics, focusing his attention on his tech manual, trying to figure out anything else he could about the strange new enemies. The two eventually settled down, shifting the topic to something a bit more productive.
"So what do we do? Try and make an escape to Level 3 maybe?" Rez offered, the main level didn't have much to do but the surrounding area was always a fun trip. "We could lay low for a while, see if the bucket bots get themselves crushed by the npc racers?"
"Or we could head for Robo-Con," Arnold countered "I'm sure those guys would love to hear about a bunch of scrap that needs to be kicked around!" he grinned at the thought, Arnold loved a good fair fight, but watching someone crush those Tinker Toys in a mech would be awesome!
With no input from Francis the two of them continued on, bouncing different ideas for what to do next. Unfortunately, as a result of their louder and louder banter, no one heard the faint clinks and clanks heading in their direction until it was far too late.
Arnold had stopped paying attention to whatever Rez was blabbering on about, his gaze drifting over the other boy's shoulder to see something... shiny, small, and... pointy?
"Oh shit"
"Ughh what's the problem now.. Arnold..." any annoyance in Rez's voice wilted away as he turned to see what his friend was looking at.
Francis had glanced up when the tone of their conversation changed, seeing even more of the little monsters behind his friends. "I think we're surrounded..."
"anywhere we could run to?" Rez mumbled, getting a rough nudge from Arnold in return "does it look like any of us can scale a building??" He hissed out, turning to face the Tinker Toys behind him.
"Think we could fight them? They seem small enough... might be too many for us to take on though" Francis worried as he pushed himself to his feet, manual stashed safely in his inventory. He once again retreated to the building closest to him, the other two taking defensive stances back to back.
The group of minibots around them was tiny compared to the swarm ripping up the level sure, but they had no idea how strong these things were.
"Only one way to find out" the other two teens could hear the grin in Arnolds voice as he cracked his knuckles. Francis shook his head, and Rez shrugged back at him, this was to be expected from the fighter of the group.
Unfortunately for the three beta testers, they were no match for the Tinker Toys, not without experience atleast. The little critters rushed in, overtaking them in less than a minute, trying to climb up Rez's legs as he kicked at them and piling on top of the two that had fallen to the ground.
Their panicked yelling slowly fizzled out as they realized the Tinker Toys... didn't hurt? Upon checking their life counters, there wasn't actually any damage being done.
"What the hell... are these just supposed to be some harmless nuisances??" Rez was perplexed, he had watched them rip apart stone and metal like it was nothing! Yet they seemed more like glorified kids toys as they 'bit' at his shins. One of them even jumped on his shoulders and started gnawing on his head to no effect.
"Beats me! Those things looked practically rabid before but this is just... I mean it's pathetic really." Arnold had kinda given up actually fighting, letting one of them chew his arm while he swatted the others off.
The sound of shifting fabric and metal clinking came from behind them, there was a soft thunk as well. They paid what they assumed to be the third boy casually shoving bots off himself no mind.
"Maybe they only go for weak points? Now that I think about it, I saw them pulling at screws and bolts in the legs of the track!" Arnold nodded along seeming to think that was a reasonable assumption.
"Why're they after us then? It's not like they can take us apart righ-" he was interrupted by a strange sound, something between a yelp and a whimper?
The two of them turned to Francis, to see him still struggling against the Tinker Toys that had latched onto him. He was squirming quite a bit, trying in vain to shove them off with one hand, the other covering his mouth.
Arnold and Rez gave each other a look, "are... you okay dude?" Their leader asked hesitantly, furrowing his brow as Francis continued struggling, stifling some weird noises.
"You- you know they cant hurt you right?" Neither of them really caught on, mostly baffled at why their friend was having such a hard time. That is until it was much too obvious to ignore, a grin spreading across their faces at the realization.
"Francis... are you serious?" Rez shook his head, trying not to laugh "I mean c'mon, it's not that hard to pull the things off"
Arnold made no such effort for niceties "are you kidding me?? You're sooo ticklish you can't fight off a couple dinky bots, thats embarrassing dude!" They assumed the teasing wasn't helping, although it was hard to tell with Francis already trying so hard not to react.
Said lack of reaction lasted about two seconds longer, when one of the Tinker Toys started biting at his side and he lost it, breaking down into a fit of giggles. "Shihit- shitnonono no!"
He stopped trying to keep quiet but it was much too late. "nnehahhehahha!!" He couldn't really push any of them off, his arms felt flimsy and while he involuntarily kicked his legs, there wasn't much strength behind it.
"Nnh get of- ah! Off mehehe!!" Francis was trying desperately to keep himself together but it was really no use, there were way too many of the damned things for him to handle. He could barely think straight, let alone fight them himself.
Rez and Arnold were doubled over in laughter at their friend's predicament, they had no clue he was ticklish! And so badly too, I mean sure the bots were relentless but they're also clunky and not exactly precise.
"Ohhhmy fucking gohohd! This is priceless!!" Arnold cackled "they're barely even doing anything!"
The stuttered, whiny "shuhut uppp ah-asshohole!" He got in return was entirely unexpected, and only sent Arnold further into hysterics.
Rez wasn't doing much better, having had to lean against a wall for support while he watched Francis getting his ass handed to him by some kid's failed science project. Putting no effort into concealing his constant snickering.
"Fffuhuhck!" The poor boy let out a squeak as one of the Tinker Toys started grabbing at his upper leg "help me yohou jerhehehherks!!" His writhing and kicking did very little, the bots were unphased by just about anything Francis did to try and stop them.
His panicked pleading seemed to strike a cord with Rez, somewhat.. "fiiine fine I'll get them off you~" he lilted, oh so casually making his way over, in absolutely no rush to help his friend what so ever.
"Fucking- I sweaheheher Rez I-" quite a few many curse words left his mouth as tiny claws dragged across his ribs, trying to pull at his armour. "NAHAHHEYHNONONoOno!!" Francis wriggled away, snapping his arms down to defend the area but the robot just picked a different spot as he curled in on himself, trying to turn away as he slid further down the wall he was sitting against.
Rez finally decided the poor guy had enough and started picking up the Tinker Toys, chucking them over to Arnold(he had finally composed himself enough to help) who drop kicked them far enough away that they went after a new target to destroy.
When the final hunk of scrap was gone Rez and Arnold gazed down at Francis, curled up on the ground, out of breath and twitchy. His giggles had softened as had his posture, though he was covering his face with his hands.
"Awhh, you awright buddy?" Arnold chuckled, snapping out a "hey!" When the other tester elbowed him.
"Really though, you good?" He asked again as Rez knelt down infront of Francis. "You're not like, down a life or something right?"
"N-no, just... just my pride" he mustered, trying and failing to stifle any remaining laughter, the aftershock making his skin tingly.
"Ah so nothing important" Rez nodded sagely, now that he was satisfied their third member was unharmed he had no problem teasing him to Level 5 and back. "You obviously wont be needing it now that we know you're ridiculously ticklish"
"Wh- no! You better not!!" Francis sat up quick at the notion, he was clearly flustered already but they got to watch as his blush darkened, shifting away from the other two warily.
"Well not right now obviously,, some other time though!~" the playful malice in his voice was hard to miss, and combined with the sinister look Arnold was giving him? Francis already knew he was doomed.
"Now, come on! We should get moving somewhere else. As much as that was hilarious, those things are seriously annoying..." The two boys pulled Francis to his feet, he stumbled slightly, swatting at Rez as he poked him in the side. Once they were mostly done messing with him they set off, Arnold joking about re-naming them 'Tickle Toys', laughing off the still weakened punch he got for it.