(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #55 - Leave it to Lathar

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers,  are at the KIA Academy, successfully rescuing Charley Onyxhoof, and trying to figure out how to restore those affected by the Children's Alchemical Laser (CAL) 

================= 

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.  Very interested in a "Children's Alchemical Laser" he recently acquired.

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Previously "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies, but recently has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.  No Name has recently been fitted for a artillery device of the Ancients that chucks spears further than any human.  Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Former jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.  He's recently been struck by a weapon by a strange race of people and transformed into... something else.

RHA-9: A lab assistant piece of "Living Metal" that seems to have befriended the group... for now!  Currently getting repairs done by the Restorationists.

================= 

Staring at the re-transformed Lathar, Sonny was at a loss for words.  

"I'm leaving things to Lathar... if it eventually works, it works, but there's a chance for a devastating explosion."

"I like those odds," Squiggles quipped.

Lathar agreed, at least one more attempt before he would be resigned to live in whatever form he had been transformed into.

Sonny took the CAL back the TMS for a third look-over.  This time, the techs requested a two-day hold, as their work failed on the previous two attempts.  The sunflower agreed to the terms.

Sonny wandered KIA Academy before reuniting with his comrades.  Despite a very futuristic high-tech facade, the bars still served grog out of barrels, the lesser classes are still poorly dressed, and beyond the equipment used for road-building and the news channel on the monitors, things weren't much better than Riverbend.

Two days later, Sonny returned to the TMS.  A considerable amount of work had been done to the CAL, including removing the main 250+ selection dial and placing it in a clear bag, taped to the device.  The techs reassured him that the five settings he had requested, plus the return to normal/reset button.

The techs still had Sonny confused as a dandelion, but the sunflower left to find Lathar and an open field.  

With the first flakes of winter descending from the sky, a shivering Sonny aimed and fired.  A flash of light, followed by a blast knocked Lathar off his feet.  With steam coming off of his body, the barbarian sat-up.... revealing not his human form, but his green stone/mineral he had been..  The was a new crack, coming from under his right armpit, following under his right press, then stretching up towards his collarbone.

"It's kinda worked, although if I change Charley, I guess I can revert to a rampaging stone horse again."

Everyone decided to stay in the lower levels of KIA Academy, frequent the bars, and keep the wandering to a minimum.  

All, except Sonny.  Sonny couldn't access the true upper levels of the Academy itself, but he did wander the sectors with the well to-do, all the way down to the dregs of society no one wanted to talk about.  

He did find the source of the e-carts. "Wasteland  Wheels" was found on the first sub-level.  He only got to speak to "Tom" a pure-strain female who worked there, but it appears most of the personal transportation that's not completely under KIA's jurisdiction has come out of the shop, between their scavengers and tech guys.  

Sneaky Pete was true to his word, taking up all his time waiting while trying to not just read minds, but find people with abilities similar to his.  There were quite a few minds that Pete who couldn't penetrate, but no one obviously had a poor reaction.   Most mutations seemed to be physical, rather than mental. 

Sonny's first foray in the sub-levels motivated Pete to delve further in the sub-levels, looking for other weasels.  He didn't find any, but a number of smaller, smellier, unwanted cousins: an entire underground market run by ferrets. 

The Ferret Underground Market

Pete wanted little to do with his undeveloped relatives, but his adventure inspired Squiggles to venture down there the next day for an odd request:  a haircut.

The furry earthworm was definitely an interesting fellow walking into a barber/groomer on sub-level two.  

He had three barbers/groomers to choose from:

Felix, a polyamorously  confused snow cat with a lisp and an appreciated for Squiggles' body coif. 

Evelyn, a pure-strain human whose only oddity of note was a large pink bouffant hairdo

The third haircutter was behind a divider, the sounds of multiple scissors, and some general discomfort from possibly the recipient of the services.  With a name like Grizzle, Squiggles decided on the flamboyant cat.

Squiggles quickly learned that with no monitors below level 1, news from the outside rarely trickled down to here.  He quickly told the story of Charley, and other tales he caught on the monitors.  Intrigued by these stories, the patrons and barbers shared their own.

Their biggest fears seemed to big something they coined "The Big Three" :  Wizards, Sentient Living Metal, and Beings from Another Dimension, like the Blue People.  

"The Blue People are from another world?"  Squiggles asked incredulously.

"Obviously, they're blue!"  Felix quipped.  "We even had a few come down here.  Traded jewelry for food.  Pretty fabulous pieces if you ask me.  Didn't have a quibble or a quarrel with them, but I guess the folks upstairs do... and that's a problem for us."

The people in the sub-level did not want the fighting to escalate any further between KIA and the mysterious blue people.   Warfare meant that the agents of the academy would sweep down here and impress any able bodied person to fight.  KIA Academy wasn't a fighting place, so they simply sent the conscripts out to fight, wave after wave.   Veterans of these previous wars were a rare find in the sublevels, although a severely mangled.  The barber shop did have one in the crowd, a mutant wolf named Razorback missing an arm and most of his back paw.  Worse yet, he complained that he had left a place called the Walls due to fearing for his life, and he ended at KIA and nearly died in the process.

"And I've got nothing against Living Metal, we even have one of our one,"  Felix quipped while a small bot emerged from the back and tried to vacuum up the hair on the floor.    "It just can't have a soul."

In turn, Squiggles regaled them with the stories of the Living Metal they've encountered, deadly and benign.  They hadn't checked for souls, though...

A very deep voice came from the back of the shop, "Felix, he's not a wizard is he?"

"Do I look like a wizard?" Squiggles fired back.

"I don't know, boy. Let me get a good at you."   

With that an 8-foot tall mountain of a man with four arms emerged from behind the privacy screen, wielding razors and knives.

Grizzle + Two Arms...

Felix:  "Squiggles, meet Grizzle"

Squiggles:  "Okay, certainly not a wizard..."

Grizzle:  "You guys from the Hinterlands down come down the Academy, much less the underground."

Squiggles:  "Some of us prefer to be underground."

Grizzle harrumphed and returned to his chair.

The shop crew then descended on their hatred of the ferret posse, including chasing one away from the front door with a broom.  

After paying and tipping for his massive haircut, Squiggles got a few reputable locations to check out.  

The first place on the list was the "Time-Travelers Relic Gallery... and Saloon."   The walls of the establishment resembled that of the Restorationist's Aspiration Hall in Riverbend.    The bar had a number musical instrumets for sale, fewer flintlocks, but sitting above the hearth with a Ancient rifle:  

"How much for that?"  Squiggles asked, pointing at the rifle. 

"Out of towner?  8,000 Domars.   6,000 Academy Credits."  

Zara admits that she should work down to 4,000 domars with enough trade.   Squiggles promised to bring back friends with a lot of junk to trade. 

Squiggles did managed to acquire two thin books for Sonny,  The sunflower was delighted by this new knowledge, especially since it seemed related to mutant animals, and the entire group went back into the sublevels to look at the weapon.  

There was minimal haggling once Pete dumped the gold bars on the table, and despite the fact that they brought RHA-9 down with them (a very sentient looking living metal), they acquired the weapon.  Pete even made arrangements with vendors to hunt down four more piranha-bird feathers.  

In no time flat the energy cells were going to be completed, and the group needed to figure out what to do.

Winter was coming....

Next: #56 - Rumors and Razorback