♋

"Worry not, my friend," he whispered back to Karkinos. "We are on safe grounds tonight, so he cannot harm us." His own voice was small and quiet; he hoped the crowd didn’t drown him out. It wasn’t like Kar needed the encouragement anyway. He seemed plenty pleased with himself as usual.

"IT SLIPS MY BRILLIANT HEAD-BRAIN AT TIMES THAT I NO LONGER REQUIRE THE DIGESTION OF METAL TO SUSTAIN ME DURING MY MOLTS.. OR THAT I NO LONGER MOLT AT ALL. IT IS A GOOD THING TO HAVE FEWER NEEDS, YES, BUT MY HABITS TAKE AFTER MYSELF-- TENACIOUS AND INDOMITABLE. NO MATTER, I WILL ACHIEVE THE SAME EUPHORIC REWARD FROM NIBBLING THE INNARDS OF APOLLO'S BEHEADED REMAINS..."

"N…No, of course not…" Cecrops stammered. Needless to say, monitoring Karkinos wasn’t going so well. It didn’t help the Aquarian felt so stiff and uncomfortable in his suit. At the very least he felt proud for looking proper and "Earthly" tonight.

If only a certain comrade would act proper too.

You have literally screamed yourself from your own body, you are a copy of your former self thanks to it. With no plan and no loyal companions you were left to your fate. I will do what I must to save Capricorn, even if that means asking Megaman and his fellows for aide. I am not so prideful that I would allow it to consume me to the point I die before I complete my mission. 

I AM NO COPY! I AM REBORN! SUPERIOR! GODLY!!! AND I REFUSE TO LET US BE TETHERED TO THE LIMITATIONS OF YET ANOTHER MASSIVE BLUE BITCH!!!

FUCKING DUO!? ARE YOU LITERALLY AS STUPID AS I DISMISSED YOU TO BE?

WHO ELSE WOULD YOU HAVE INTERFERE WITH OUR AGENDAS, LEO!? MEGASHIT?

While docile on the outside, the Aquarian still knew how to read people and use it against them if needed. How else was he alive at this point? Leo could have all the leadership he wants, while Cancer had enough wrath for everyone. Aquarius was content standing in the sidelines, telling people what they wanted to hear.

He knew his limits, unlike a certain crab.

Kar ‘s only remaining claw reached around and pinched the loose neck-cable, yanking it out of the socket in his head and then letting the useless broken part fall to the ground. He avoided eye contact with Aquarius as they spoke— seeming not only ashamed, but a little disheveled.

"I DOn’T NEeD YOuR ASSISTanCE…" He hisses and gravels. This wasn’t just his mech OR his body anymore.. It became a little of both from Kar’s on-the-fly cannibalization of his own parts to survive during his fight with Ring… His desperation shows in the fact that he currently has a shoulder attached to a SECOND shoulder on his only arm. Anyone with an affixed sense of anatomy could feel disoriented by he analog rotations of one moving in unison with the oscillation of the other.

Kar avoided eye-contact with Aq for a moment, glancing away with a nervous look. In reality, he knew he wasn't ready to face Apollo again just yet-- not after having been made modern art out of that meager robot-master... He needed time, but the prospect of facing Apollo again so soon to retrieve Cap left him with few options.

He not only needed time to make a newer, better murder-mech, but to ensure that he was ready for battle with Apollo before that intergalactic menace knew of Kar's unannounced return to the realm of the living. If he participated in Cap's retrieval, Apollo would no doubt find him out sooner than the crab desired... But... His pride, he wouldn't dare show any fear or apprehension in the face of his remaining comradery.

".. s.. sO BE IT! EVEN AS A FAILURE, CAPRICORN IS ONE OF OUR ASSETS, AND FUCK ME IF I'D EVER LET APOLLO STEAL MY THINGS! I'LL RETURN IN A TIDAL WAVE OF GLORY, DRAG THE POOR FOOL GOAT HOME, AND GO BACK FOR SECONDS WITH THAT PIECE OF SHIT APOLLO!!"

Kar 's only remaining claw reached around and pinched the loose neck-cable, yanking it out of the socket in his head and then letting the useless broken part fall to the ground. He avoided eye contact with Aquarius as they spoke-- seeming not only ashamed, but a little disheveled.

"I DOn'T NEeD YOuR ASSISTanCE..." He hisses and gravels. This wasn't just his mech OR his body anymore.. It became a little of both from Kar's on-the-fly cannibalization of his own parts to survive during his fight with Ring... His desperation shows in the fact that he currently has a shoulder attached to a SECOND shoulder on his only arm. Anyone with an affixed sense of anatomy could feel disoriented by he analog rotations of one moving in unison with the oscillation of the other.

"Preferably without causing more damage," he murmured quietly as he waited for a response.

Luckily for Karkinos, his destruction had exposed a shortcoming among lawful Earthbots. By ripping through buildings, humans were now in danger. Even Aquarius could hear the helpless shrills as walls came bursting down.

> *huff* *hiss*

> FINALLY..

> SO BE IT, YOU INCESSANT NINNY. *huff* I WILL ARRIVE SHORTLY..

And so he does. Shortly after entering teleport-range, he takes off into the sky as a red bolt of amorphous energy, touching down moments later at the site of the C-Droid camp. He stood a little hunched, the weight of the one arm offsetting his balance, his servos shuddering with both unsettlement and relief. A loose shard of his broken, glasslike, crown-mounted antennae-eyes breaks off and shatters on the ground behind him, and the occasional electrical spark fizzles and pops from the ends of the severed wires hanging out of his slashed shoulder-cable.

Staying humble yet pensive, Aquarius knew he had to be firm. He couldn’t afford to be silenced right now.

>N-no, this isn’t a frivolity! Apollo has Capricorn! His ship was destroyed and we must to rescue him. Is… Is there any chance you can escape? I need you back here.

Where was Karkinos anyway? The background of his call was filled with sharp, metallic churning. 

Kar skid around a corner and entered a back-alley, thinking for a moment that he might have lost Ring-- but when he looks back to check, he squeals in terror as that red menace comes charges around the bend. Nearing what would be a dead-end to the alleyway, Karkinos spins around on his treads and swings his massive claw-arm like a hammer, crashing through the brick wall, making a path of destruction through the laundromat on the other side of it, and smashing out of the glass doors and bee-lining down the street again.

He hyperventilates, checking back again for Ring. HOLY SHIT Earth robots are scary! Is he still close behind!?

> CAPRICORN? DON'T WASTE MY TIME, I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT THAT!! HE INSISTED I NOT INTERFERE AND SO I DECIDED TO CUT HIM AS A LOSS. I HONORED THAT SHITBRAINED GOAT BY GRANTING HIS WISHES, I CAN BE A BENEVOLENT GOD WHEN I SO CHOOSE!

> I'M TRYING TO ESCAPE YOU FOOL!--

> I MEAN--

Karninos’ words increasingly lost value as the cop’s sharp eye caught a moment of weakness in his target. The alien prattled on about his shortcomings, thick neckcables exposed to the outside world. 

Mouth sealed behind his mask, Ring shot boomerrangs right at Karkinos’ throat with no warning.

"--P--PAAAAAAIIIINNNN!!!???" Kar experienced, for the first time, a robot's perception of physical anguish. Errors cloud his electronic vision, static and garbled warning texts for a brief moment of screaming and hot sparks, until suddenly--

-- His left claw-arm explodes clean out of the rotary socket shared by the additional two cannon-arms, scattering in burning chunks as it collides withe the pavement, hot metal rapidly cooling as it rolls away from his shaking body. Instantaneously, his head retracts again to hide his face and cables, spinning and twisting around in its tank-like hatch as he writhes away the remainder of this very new type of pain. "YOU FOOOOOOOOL!" He hisses violently, gradually regaining himself and facing Ring again, snapping the massive clamp pincers on his other hand threateningly. "HOW DARE YOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!"

Why such a violent reaction to a half-severed control cable? Because Karkinos-- especially now as an "Earth-Robot"-- is far more susceptible to electric damage now than ever, so much that even the electricity in his own body will fry him and cause complicated machinery to burn and explode if its electric wiring is compromised. This is why the huge, thick shell was important-- each of those delicate wires inside him will react catastrophically if it's severed when even moderate amounts of power is running through it... and Ring just sliced through everything wired to that smoldering arm-socket.