As the group began searching around for quicksand, they found themselves confronted by Ferham as she swooped down. "You've come quite far, boys and girls," she offered teasingly. "But I'm really not supposed to let you get any further." She lashed her energy whip. "So...which of you big strong boys wants to play?"
"Mine!" Cinnamon and Marino both snapped immediately as they grabbed onto Axl, making Octavia facehoof.
"Taken," X and Zero both supplied immediately.
Spider was mysteriously absent.
Massimo stepped forward, bracing himself as he pounded his fists together. "I'm not going to let you hurt my friends," he growled dangerously.
Ferham looked Massimo over curiously. "My, aren't you a big fellow," she purred. "I'd almost say...massive."
"I'm not called Steel Massimo for nothing!" Massimo insisted.
"Big all around?" Ferham inquired seductively.
Massimo flexed. "Just try and find something small on this body!"
"Oh, I'd love that!" Ferham taunted, floating forward and idly cracking her whip.
"Don't think you can intimidate me!" Massimo proclaimed, the excitement of battle in his voice. "I can take plenty of punishment!"
Ferham chuckled as she shifted swiftly to one side, Massimo slowly turning to follow her. "Having trouble keeping up?" she chided throatily.
"I may not be fast, but I'll never stop!" Massimo declared confrontationally.
"A great deal of...endurance, then?" Ferham purred wickedly.
"Indeed!" Massimo confirmed. "It's a matter of pride!"
Ferham let off a throaty chuckle, lifting the short metal tube that was the base of her energy whip to her mouth. "Oh, I'm going to have fun with you," she purred, giving it a suggestive lick.
"Anywhere, anytime!" Massimo declared intently.
Ferham suddenly let off a girlish giggle. "Gimme a ring sometime then, handsome!" she purred, blurring forward to slip something into Massimo's hand before flying off, blushing.
Massimo blinked, glancing down at the contact card in his hand. He then turned to the others as Spider disengaged his stealth mode. "Uh...what just happened?"
Spider chuckled softly. "Looks like you just got yourself a date, big guy," he teased, punching Massimo on the shoulder. He then paused, realizing he hadn't needed to reach up to do so.
Massimo blinked. "Am I...missing something?"
Spider glanced down, then up. "Uh...I'll explain later. For now, it looks like you found the quicksand."
Massimo glanced down, seeing he'd already sunk up to his knees. "Wha!" He started to struggle.
"Just relax," Octavia told him as she hopped into the quicksand alongside him. "Remember, we wanted to sink."
"R-right," Massimo stammered nervously as the others moved into the pool to be dragged down.
After a time of passing through the sand, the group dropped heavily down into a wide open chamber of metal walls. As they all held their breath and kept their eyes closed once they were enveloped by the sand, they were able to recover from it rather rapidly. "Guess you were right, Octavia," Massimo gasped in relief. "We found the facility."
"No need to sound so relieved," Octavia pouted petulantly. "Didn't you trust me?"
"I don't like being enclosed to the point I can't move!" Massimo whined worriedly.
"Ferham would certainly find that interesting," Spider teased.
"Why were you hiding from her, anyway?" Zero asked curiously.
"...bad first impression," Spider answered evasively.
"The first time they met, he tried to hit on her and she whipped him somewhere painful," Marino elaborated.
"Did you have to bring that up?" Spider whined.
"You tried to pick her up with fried chicken!" Marino snapped irritably. "Yes, I did."
"It was my first time trying to pick up a girl!" Spider complained. "And my attempts weren't helped when you 'took pity on me', came back to my place, slipped me a knockout, and stole everything that wasn't nailed down, pried up the nails to steal everything that was, and then put the nails back!"
"Can we keep it down and get going before we set off an alarm?" Axl pleaded before anyone could laugh too hard. After a few more chuckles, the group moved off into the facility.
Past that first open room, the path was a maze of narrow, twisting corridors leading to hidden switches to unlock sealed doors. It was patrolled by bat mechanaloids and some of those from the desert sands above. Thankfully, the same narrow corridors that caused problems for the group's maneuverability also hampered the larger mechanaloids, making it that much easier for Marino, Axl, Octavia, and Spider to slip around them and strike at their weak points.
Finally, the group found their way to an elevator, taking them up to higher floors with wider corridors and less sand. "Thank goodness!" Marino sighed happily. "Finally get to get some sand out of my armor. It's managed to get into some very uncomfortable spots." She turned her back to the group and began to futz with the clasps keeping her armor on.
"Uh...is this really the best time for that?" X asked worriedly.
"Could you help me with mine, Axl?" Cinnamon asked innocently as she moved to join Marino.
Octavia chuckled as Axl moved to assist as requested. "Dad, they're just feeling a little territorial after meeting Ferham. Leave them be. It's not like we're in a hurry or anything."
"And...if there are security cameras?" Zero asked softly.
Octavia smirked. "Then whoever's running this place is going to be very distracted..."
poor massimo he had two conversations and was only aware of one them.....that poor naive boi.
*mad CACKLING*
Meanwhile, the guard on duty calmly hooks the feed up to his laptop and starts to stream the entire thing... This was too good for the world not to see.
Oh Massimo, so machismo and yet so clueless.
8056030 Well in the end he did have a sinking filing he missed something.
Oh no it's spreding. SAAAAANNS!!
8056064 You called with that bone rattling yell?
Let's hope Ferham isn't too massively disappointed later on.
Cinnamon might not have a good clasp of the situation but it's definitely helping.
Oh Spider, way to Scout out your first date with fried chicken of all things. At least Marino nailed the point home that that was a bad way to pick up girls.
8056110 Don't spread your funny bones to the rest of us.
My jokes are bone dry as it is.
8056190 I usually have a massive pun bank, but today I got nothing.
Oh my god, Massimo.
It does seem like sand would be really annoying to a race of androids.
Priorities, am i right?
Hey, Tats, how old was Vinyl at the end of the previous story? I'm asking because of something I just realized.
God Massimo was a xxxtra large ham on that one.... let's hope he can keep up...
Massimo, you lovable dolt I thought this chapter was gonna be nothing but innuendo mixed with naive retorts.
8055980 Beat me to it. She's not one of your fried chicken tramps! She is a woman! She likes her men dangerous! Mysterious! Or in Massimo's case, too pure for this world...
8056493
Seduce me!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/7/5/667979.png
I fell that pour mammiso is gonna get something carzy at the end. & nice call octy.
8056284
Fully mature. Her canon age.
8056928 And Tavi is a couple of centuries old, correct?
8056284 What did you realize?
8056941 Well...... we know that the two are going to return to Ponyville in a separate story. However...... there's a serious age difference between Tavi and Vinyl. If the ship is going to happen, I am honestly curious as to how he'll write it to work.
8056945
Chronologically, she's a couple centuries old.
Physically, she's the same age as Vinyl because of the slowed aging thing that was explained way back in the first arc.
Mentally and emotionally, she's 'experienced', with no real number assigned beyond 'mature'.
Vinyl's the same in all areas but chronologically.
8056950 Well, then I'm a dunderhead, and my worries for nothing. Good on you, Tats. ^^
8056958
Hey, I'm just glad you care enough about the characters and the stories to worry. It shows I'm doing a good job.
And it's easy to forget details from chapter 2 when I'm on chapter 130.
...*looks at second number* Meep!
8056977 Well, here's to a nice grand finale to close off this story, and see how our two musical geniuses make their way home!
8056945 Should be interesting then.
So... Massimo just fought off an opponent by unintentionally flirting with her, and Spider subscribes to the "Scout School of Picking Up Girls," TM. Certainly an entertaining chapter.
Massimo...
8056190 And probably old enough to be such. Hint, hint.
I'd say that's the Nobby Nobs approach to theft, but Nobby wouldn't leave the nails, either.
8057091 The Scout School of Picking Up Girls™
Garunteed to never get you a date or no money back!
8056977 Meep indeed. You've come pretty far from the early days!
Massino... prepare for a very interesting date. I can just picture Ferham getting a piggy back ride from him if she gets to tired from dancing or something.
If there is a perving security guard watching Cinnamon and Marino strip to clean themselves from the sand... I hope they get to catch and punish him.
8057252 I'm below 30, so no.
8058804 Once again, hinting at the picture. That character is over 600 years old.
Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
8060274
I hate myself for thinking this but I imagine her later saying, "I found something small."
Either way, one was think of wrestling while the other was thinking of Wrestle Mania.
8056241 Especially if your name is C3-PO or Anakin Skywalker
I'm getting the feeling that him and Aile are butt buddies...
Huh, I knew I'd find a way to reference that series somehow, and I did.
... I kind of love this. Massimo's just doing some innocent trash talking while Ferham's doing innuendo, but it's all so filthy...
Wait, am I... liking two characters' romantic dynamic... in a Tatsurou story?! But that never happens!
Wait, I thought the idea was that you sink the more you strug- oh, right, video game logic.
Oh, Massimo. Massimo, Massimo, Massimo...
the thus masimo get's a date... and the group enters further into the base.