SEND IN THE CLONES

"I am now here by myself, valiantly assisting fellow troubleshooters in trouble!" Cart spoke loudly as he picked up the multicorder to record where he was, where Brett-R and Will-O are relative to him, and then record the other three troubleshooters still standing by the door. As he did so he looked through the viewer to see if he could see more clearly the two dark forms circling. "Holy halitosis! There are two creatures in the water which might interfere with our mission. We must prevent them from doing so. I shall need to store this recorder in a safe place for the time being to prevent it from being damaged."

Cart placed the multicorder in his backpack, and assembled his laser pistol and also stored it. To Brett and Will-O, Do either of you have rope equipment with you or some climbing device? Without it, I'm afraid I would be dragged down to you in any attempt to lift you out. If not, we shall have to disable the creatures first before we can safely attend to your injury." Cart then picked up Brett's pistol and signaled for Brett to get ready to catch it.

I look hopefully at Cart-O-YRE-1, slowly getting more and more distressed. The new orange clearance guy not only mentioned creatures, I also have no rope... I look around, carefully and ready my blaster while I shout "Did you say... creatures?" as I try to see the shapes in the river. "I guess this is trouble and it is time for you to shoot!" I press the trigger, finally finding out if my barrel has a charge remaining.

Brett thinks back. "I'm afraid I too don't have rope with me... Alright, I'll try to catch my gun..."

With that acknowledgement Cart tossed the gun to Brett-R.

back near the doors two separate laser blasts are fired.

A moment later the tuneless whistling can be heard as the registered mutant, Wyatt, joins Cart on the walkway. He looks over the ledge and sees the other two in the sludge.

He looks over at Cart and says,
I've just been promoted to team leader, I've got a plan to get everybody out of the sludge, but my plan requires that you jump in there first.

He holds out his hands.

I'll hold the multicorder so that you don't damage it getting in.

"Inspirational innovation!" Cart looked over Wyatt's shoulder at the clearly malfunctioning clones behind. "I shall gladly assist the new team leader by ensuring that all equipment is safely stored away, as required of me by friend Computer. You needn't have to worry anymore about these lesser concerns such as the safety of the multicorder." Cart took out the recorder and turned it on.

Perhaps team leader can first explain what his plan is, and inspire us all by leading the jump into the sludge, to show us how to do it. I shall record your wise plan."

Upon grabbing the laser pistol, Brett aims it at the water, ready to pull the trigger at the first sign of movement.

After shooting the shadows in the river, I turn to Brett and discretely whisper "Looks like the mutant has a plan..." trying to contain my laugh.

No time to argue!

Wyatt pushes Cart attempting to knock him off the walkway and into the sludge.

Cart is now in the sludge, with the multicorder.

"You're alright?" I ask Brett as he blasts the second G8R-bot. I ready my blaster again and try to check if we're safe now as Cart splashes into the sludge.

"Jumpin' jackbots!" Cart was taken aback by Wyatt's sudden action, and made a grab for both the handrail on the wall and Wyatt's shoving arm. In the best case, he would hold on to the railing or to Wyatt to steady himself; in the worst, Wyatt would be dragged down with him.

Brett takes a breather and feels his chest. "I think I'll be OK... Hopefully no broken ribs..." He steadies himself and readies to fire if the bot comes up again, while being slightly distracted by the commotion up in the walkway.

Given that I am probably bleeding to death here and that there are hidden bots under the sludge circling us, I will shoot Cart-O-YRE-1 as he splashes in the water (Wyatt included if he also goes), getting paranoid about ninja bots sneaking on me

Just before going over the edge Cart gets a firm grasp on Wyatt. Wyatt grabs for the handrail in an attempt not to go over the edge with him.

"Killer kompanions!" Cart-O-YRE-1, barely ten minutes into his arrival, was stunned by the assault on himself by two of his team members. He pulled out his orange laser pistol and fired back at Will-O first in self defence.