Under Construction

Subsaanik sat at its desk, hunched over a piece of parchment. The yellow flickering desk lamp was the one source of light illuminating its dark, desolate bedroom, if it could even be considered one (it had zero beds). In its right hand gripped a big worn-out pencil, and the parchment covered with messy sketches of a possible next invention. It had to be even more special and spectacular than anything it had ever done before; it had to actually be impressive. It tried to imagine something. Anything.

There was just one teensy problem: it had absolutely nothing. Zero concrete ideas, just vague ones that would sometimes cross its mind, to which it would try to cling on to and think it through, but by then the idea of a thought would have already dematerialized. Small sketches of eyes, hands, and other anatomical pieces filled the margins instead.

Why was this so difficult now? Back when it was younger, an abundance of ideas came a mile a minute, just like that, and it always had something cool and unique to share with the world every week: an automatic construction digger, robotic spider-leg house-vehicles, the orb of aklino, laser-powered security systems, and an infinite cookie generator (they weren't even that great), and that was just scratching the surface.

Back when it was younger, it felt achievement; it felt fulfilled. Every invention it devised and every structure it engineered was like a stepping stone towards true greatness, and the accomplishment it felt with each step was bountiful. They always felt as if that sort of greatness was within reach, and the outpouring of inventions would never cease. It shouldn't cease, yet. With the way things were going, that fulfillment should still be present, correct?

Nope. It was as if that faucet had been clogged up with dense fur, and no amount of physical persuasion would get the stubborn pipes to budge.

Defeated, it fell backwards and hit the floor, causing the metal to dent, and spread its entire body out across the floor, the string of electricity holding its limbs together becoming slightly thinner as its hands and feet reached each corner of the room. It was mostly empty besides that desk between its legs, boxes of papers near its eight arm, and piles of gadgets and materials cluttering the area. The Wubbox stared at the dark ceiling as if it would help any, but it only grew more agitated.

What would Galvana have done in this kind of situation? Surely it must have run into some difficulties while creating the Wubboxes, like the distribution of their weight in their proportions, or perhaps how to make them stronger. It probably also had to consider their level of sentience, as well, and if they would be intelligent. Galvana couldn't control the intelligence level of the Wubboxes, right? Not implausible, actually; the Colossals could possibly manipulate their monster's personalities through indecipherable magics only they knew. Galvana most likely had close connections with them with powers adjacent to their ability, and maybe its entire sense of self was predetermined?

Subsaanik tried to redirect its train of thought back to inventions, but its mind was so sick of the idea that it actively repulsed anything affiliated with it. The topic was like a really old, worn out toy, and Subsaanik had no problem chucking that toy aside for something exceedingly more enticing at that moment. A subject it fiddled with from time to time and never fully indulged in until now: creating its own life forms.

...

Meanwhile, under cover of night, a Reebro with sunglasses hid amongst the bushes of Subsaanik’s house. It was easily recognizable—a tall, rectangular metal structure big enough for a Wubbox with neon blue accents and spirals on the front, reminiscent of the Clubbox. Subsaanik wasn’t really one to want to stand out too much these days, but their eccentricity was noticeable in their architecture. The Reebro tried to stay low, crawling clumsily, careful not to set off any alarms or motion sensors that they knew were in certain areas while they sneaked to Subsaanik’s bedroom window, which was unfortunately on the first floor.

The Reebro chuckled to itself as it slowly held up its new-fangled Arctioid camera to the window. It's done this multiple times before. Sure, maybe it was caught a couple times, but it wasn't ever recognized. It was always dark outside, and the Reebro was sure to stay low.

The Wubbox lay sprawled across the ground, its orb's vibrant blue hue so candescent it put to shame the intensity of a thousand suns. The orb seemed to jitter in a subtle yet impatient manner, as if it were a Glowbe in a perpetual state of anxious desire for tantalizing trivia facts. It eagerly pressed it against the glass, and with a click of the shutter button then a split second of horrified realization, flashed the window with the subsequent burst of white light.

It forgot to turn off the camera flash. Subsaanik's eyes darted to the window, where for a trice it saw the illuminated face of a petrified Reebro.

...

“Shoot!” The creepy stalker muttered as it awkwardly sprinted behind the giant house into the nearby city buildings, tripping over its own extremities.

Subsaanik jolted awake from its thoughts while scrambling to stand up, and its initial shock quickly turned to fury.

They picked up a device from the floor and stomped out of the house, the ground rumbling with each step. It was a very powerful magnet gun they made a long time ago. They flipped the switch on the side and pointed it in the direction where they thought it ran off to. As the device powered on, a low hum radiated from the magnet. It progressively got louder, and the magnet got more powerful. Eventually the magnet garnered so much energy that it ripped a trumplite from the ground that nearly collided with its face.

Subsaanik caught their volume and quickly shut it off. It never actually got it patented, so it didn’t put much effort into working out the kinks. It settled on the slim chance that nobody was woken up by that.

Somebody was woken up by that. “Hey Sub, you good?” Pomona poked its head from the front door of its tiny cabin, which was next to Subsaanik's.

The Wubbox put its arms up beside each side of its face, facing the Rare Oaktopus. “Oh my Gal, apologies for waking you up at this hour.”

“Not to worry, I’m usually up past midnight,” Pomona yawned. It's voice was even more gruff and low, and it looked like it was still tired. “The monsters in this neighborhood sure are heavy snoozers. 'Slept through an entire accidentally summoned ghost party, so you're most likely fine.” It slithered over to Subsaanik with a concerned look, now noticing how it was holding a weird device with an uprooted trumplite on the ground. “Mind tellin' me what exactly happened out here?”

“Ugh,” Subsaanik leaned their back against the dark, metal wall of its house. In a suddenly loud, artificial voice, it exclaimed, “It’s that weird stalker, again. They keep taking pictures of me from my house!”

“Freaky!”

“I could never make out who that monster really was,”

“Yuh-huh.”

“But today I caught a glimpse of their face, and it was that Reebro who repeatedly pesters me for pictures of my ORB!” It threw its arms in the air to emphasize that last word.

Pomona shook its head. “The lows a Mon can stoop to, y'know?”

“I knooow,” Subsaanik heaved an exasperated sigh. “I have just about had it with this toob-goo. I don't even enjoy what I was doing before, anymore, I doubt even do now, and you know what?” It took a deep breath, stood taller, and stated firmly, “I am LEAVING this island!”

Pomona took a double-take. “Lea-leaving, yeah? Where?”

Subsaanik's frustration quickly gave way to ideative enthusiasm “Yeah! I'm leaving! I actually want to move somewhere else! Someplace new and exciting! I want something that'll actually stimulate my newfound interests, really revivify that drive! I really do miss that drive, haha. Oh! Wubhaps Psychic Island! A real unconventional place filled with the brightest minds, and just coursing with the powerful cerebral energies of the Psychic Titan! If only I could wubcall its name..." As they rambled, the agitation in their voice decreased significantly.

Pomona was glad that it was feeling happy again. Sure, it could be a bit emotional at times, but it always meant well. They thought about what life would be like without Subsaanik living next to them. It’ll be lonely, for sure, but they reassured themself with the thought that they could still write letters to each other. Subsaanik could tell them about its new discoveries and such, and it could even be catalogued!

Then it reconsidered. What if they didn't use normal letters anymore? Subsaanik always spoke about new technologies allowing for faster communication. Something about "phones", which were devices they could use instead. They would probably teach it how to use those, no big deal.

"So what do you think?"

Pomona was redirected from its thoughts back to Subsaanik.

“I understand,” Pomona told them. "Might be difficult, however. Ever since that hooman-monster world internet project you did 'round a month ago, it was like the entire Monster World knew about you! It’ll be hard to find a place where no one really knows you yet, maybe some parts of Bone Island, or maybe the Sea of G’reen…”

A blue Glowbe suddenly appeared over Subsaanik’s head, then floated away. “That's it! I’ll move to the bottom of the ocean!”

“Oh, Sub,” Pomona placed a bony hand on their torso, which was about as high as their hand could go, even when it was kneeling down. “Hate to break it to you, but that’s quite literally impossible.”

“No it isn’t,” it retorted. “All those G’joobs are able to hibernate at the Sea of G’reen, and that’s around essentially the wubottom of the Living Ocean.”

“Yeah, ‘cause they have some sort of platform to rest on, and I doubt that there’s any kinda' land down there that’s in any way flat or comfy, especially for a mon your size.”

“Then I’ll just make my own island!” The Wubbox rushed into their house to pack their belongings in preparation for their move.

Pomona thought it was the sleep deprivation getting to them. It recognized their eccentricity from the day it met them at college. The mon did some strange stuff, like building a scream-powered machine that generates cookies, giving its house legs on multiple occasions, setting up a Bom Alone-esque defense system in its dorm hallway (Pomona saw that film a few months ago from the mouth of a Rare Wubbox. The similarities between Bomvin's traps and Subsaanik's was uncanny), and calling the ghost of a dead millionaire to help pay off its student loans, but it would never think about moving to a different island!

Still, it thought, this may be the best course of action for Subsaanik’s situation. They could really use a break, and maybe their passion for inventing will spark once more.

Suddenly Subsaanik sprinted from out the tall front door, with a suitcase nearly as tall as them trailing behind.

“C’mon, I’m gonna rent a skyship.”

…..

Pomona stood at the steering wheel of the rickety skyship. The wood creaked and the gunwale was covered with scratch marks, but it was otherwise just like any other public skyship it had been on. And to think they simply rented this thing without a second thought. It muttered rich mons to itself, not out of reproach, but an observation of slightest amusement.

Subsaanik leaned over the gunwale, its upper half of its body leaning dangerously far from the ship. The middle of its torso was just hanging on the edge, and its feet were planted firmly on the deck while spread far apart. Such a posture would have been detrimental to a monster with securely attached extremities.

The Wubbox held out a big map that crinkled in the wind, and said, “I'm aiming for somewhere near Psychic Island, which, judging from our current area, should be approximately 1,400 kilometers from here."

“Psychic island? That's on the other side of the Monster World! This trip's bound to take a couple days at the very least, and I didn’t bring much food.” The Rare Oaktopus looked down at their single bag of fertilizer.

“That’s because this skyship isn't traveling nearly as fast as it should,” Subsaanik said as it got up from the edge and pulled out a rocket blaster from the giant suitcase. “This should shorten the trip by about at leaaast five days.”

It secured the device to the back of the skyship, black straps ending in metal hooks clasped on the edges of the wood.

Pomona turned around. “What’s that—AAAHDHDHEJDGSJHWHUEUIWGSHSJWISAAQGHGQH—“

The skyship suddenly jolted forward. Both travelers held on for dear life as they accelerated at speeds beyond monster comprehension. In just the span of two minutes, they were already at their destination.

Their vehicle halted to an immediate stop as they both slammed to the back of the ship like ragdolls.

After about 20 minutes of stunned silence at their destination, Subsaanik finally said, “That was even faster than I expected. How are you not dead?”

Pomona shrugged weakly. “I ‘unno,” they whispered. It felt like the entire world was spinning around it, and nausea overtook any ounce of fear it was supposed to be feeling. It closed its eyes and lay on its side. It just wanted to be at home in its bed. Why on world did it agree to Subsaanik's antics? Surely it must know what it was doing, or maybe it wasn't. Pomona sure hoped they did, but it was hard to tell with them most days.

...

Subsaanik saw that their ship was right in the middle of nowhere. On all sides the ocean appeared to be stretched to infinity. Perfect.

It jumped to its feet and grabbed the suitcase, which was teetering haphazardly on the edge of the gunwale. “Well, we're exactly where I wanted to be! Thanks for flying me here, I'm going to jump into the ocean now!"

"Wait," Pomona held its hand out, still on the floor. "You'll find a way to keep us in touch, will ya'?"

“Uh, sure.”

“Right. I’ll just land the skyship onto the water so you can—“

“BYE SEE YAAAAAAAAAAAAA…....” The skyship rattled with the sudden loss of heavy weight, the imbalance almost making the Rare Oaktopus bounce off the deck. Subsaanik's booming voice trailed off as it fell, suitcase in hand, while the vehicle was still 5,000 feet in the air.

The ground was cold and rough. In the air was the persistent odor of concrete, metal, and smoke. Dark green vines and foliage spread about the entire lab like snakes, intertwining with the hundreds of cords along the ground and on the walls.

A Wubbox sat with its legs spread out on the floor, surrounding the giant chink of bubblerite it chipped at with a pick and hammer. It started to resemble a shape similar to what it vaguely imagined, but not quite.

The giant green machine kept flickering behind the Wubbox. It yelped when one of the sparks zapped at its core, and it promptly scooted away from the apparatus. Still, even with its back turned away from it, the faint green glow of the generator shone everywhere.

It reached its hand over to somewhere in the corner, groping around for one of its books. Even in the dim lighting it could still make out the four other statues it made in the corner—imaginary monsters from the inspiration of those books it was looking for.

There were only two sources of illumination down in that room: electricity radiating from the Wubboxs’ body, though it wasn’t very bright; and little flashes of electricity that sparked from the generator, leaving the wooden support beams above it charred. The vines recoiled away from the apparatus and drew back to their dark corners, if not tangled up in the mess of wires. They would rather not get burnt to a crisp.

One of the vines tried to wrap around the Wubbox’s arm, but was shooed away. They felt around the corner but couldn’t feel any of the books. Not bothering to get up, they crawled to the corner, only to see that the books were gone.

What? Wait, if they disappeared, what happened to their other possessions? They reached out to the cup of coffee on the desk next to them, but it somehow phased through the table and then the floor before they could catch it.

Oh yeah, unintended side effects. They forgot to fix that.

All because of that connection device.

Tired and hacked off, the Wubbox chucked the table across the room, only for it to uncontrollably glitch though surfaces it wasn't supposed to phase though. Its jerky movements shifted across the room and crashed into various items; the minecart, the shelves of books, some lamp, and the bubblerite; causing them to also glitch uncontrollably throughout the room.

"Oh shoot, no no no no no no no,"

Through the cacophonous mess it tried to find the generator's control switches. Barely identifiable objects flew past each other and threatened to hit it. The apparatus roared with loud sparks and an irritating buzz as it grew brighter.

This situation has occurred countless times before, but now the vines had overtaken most of the wall's surface area, and along with the darkness and its muddled thoughts at that moment, made it considerably more difficult.

The Wubbox tried to feel around for the switch box when it was struck right in the back with one of its bubblerite statues. It was the heavy ovoid creature with horns protruding from its head. Ouch.

At that point it just fell to the ground, laying face down, resigning to its fate. Objects continued to hurtle across the room and crash through solid surfaces, thankfully never actually going beyond those soild borders, but just teasing their escape.

The clamor was deafeningly constant, making it slightly easier to tune out. The Wubbox shifted its face and torso so that it faced upwards, lying on its back. It closed its heavy eyelids. A lamp torpedoed towards it, to which it was caught by one hand and carelessly flung to the side.

Galvana probably would’ve laughed at the sight.

…

“Hi, Zerkett!”

“You don’t come out too often!

“May I get your autograph?”

“Can you give me orb photos? For research!”

Zerkett was swarmed with monsters in lab coats the moment it took a few steps outside. The glaring orange sunlight hurt its eyes. Poor Wubbox just wanted to get 17 sacks of coffee and sugar from the store.

“Hey, uh, not right now guys.” It stepped over the monster wall around it being careful not to squish anyone. “I’m trying to do something super important. See you never.”

“Bye!”

“Have fun!”

“Love ‘ya!”

“Get back quick.”

Zerkett made its way to some new indoor market eight-ish kilometers away from its house, which wasn’t hard considering that average height and speed of a Wubbox. It ducked through the wooden doors and unfortunately, half of the scientists in the city there turned to stare at it. Some were giddy, some more reserved, but the attention was on Zerkett either way. Other monsters noticed their staring and followed suit, wondering what was going on. It just stared straight ahead, trying not to make any eye contact. Mon, its eyes felt terrible.

“What’s up, Dr. Zerk?” a rare Oaktopus waved at Zerkett from the coffee area, which was weirdly close to the entrance. Its eyes were large and round, with heavy eyebags that suggested at least 48 hours of sleep deprivation. It had bony, crooked twig arms and two spiky leafstalks sprouting from its green head.

“Oh, hey Pomona.” Zerkett answered.

“Excellent work on the internet connection project between the Hooman world and the Monster world. This is literally revolutionary. With a positively easier kind of communication with the Hoomans, who knows what kind of, like, discoveries and breakthroughs we could make in the next centuries, am I totally right?”

They continued to blabber on at Zerkett, who tried to politely reach past them to grab a bag of coffee, careful not to zap the tree monster. They did not have the time nor energy for this.

“…but anyways, have you SEEN how expensive bakery items have gotten in the last few months?”

“Uh huh, yeah, now can you just—“

“Prices on cookies alone have spiked, like, 15.7% since February, and Attmoz knows just how much it’ll increase by 2016!”

Zerkett’s patience was growing increasingly thin. “Yeah yeah I KNOW inflation exists, now will you please mo—“

“Probably because of the sugarcane shortages ever since that darned digger—“

“JUST GET OUT OF THE WAY.”

Zerkett whisper-yelled impatiently at them with the voice thry only used for singing. Their sudden outburst left Pomona stunned. They stared at the smooth tiled floor. Zerkett immediately felt horrible.

“Uh….sorry….” Zerkett whispered.

No one was in their vicinity when it lost its temper, so thankfully no one heard.

“Um, nahh, I totally understand,” Pomona replied, still looking down at their roots. “Doing-, uh, the stuff you do seems really stressful. I can’t even imagine making up some new and unique invention every week and sitting some musty dirty lab all day, working.” It knew something was up with Zerkett. It wasn't speaking like it usually did.

“I appreciate the sympathy,” Zerkett responded. “But it’s not really like that. I still very much enjoy making things, I really do. It’s just getting kinda boring, sometimes.”

“How so?”

"I just- I dunno, monotony." Zerkett lightly but rapidly and repeatedly tapped the tip of its foot on the ground, creating faint rumbling in that vicinity. It kept spinning its arm gauntlet 360 degrees with the other hand as its eyes flickered toward its left.

Pomona leaned on the table of coffee sacks next to it. “It became routine. Most monsters don’t like doing the exact same things everyday, even if it’s something they like. Too much of a good thing, y’know?”

“Huh, yeah, I guess so.”

“Have you tried doing something totally different to neutralize that? Like, maybe gardening, or something.”

Zerkett’s eyes lit up. It quit fidgeting and leaned down closer to the Rare Oaktapus's height. "You've heard of bubblerite, correct?"

"Yeah? Why, you makin' paths or something?"

"Why would you think I'd do that?" Pomona shuffled slightly backwards in response to its rhetorical. "Sorry, I mean, my focus is directed towards something more ambitious. You know the Colossals, don't you?"

Pomona responded, "Well, totally. What do those subject matters have to do with each other?"

"I'm glad you inquired," Zerkett smiled, got to its knees and whispered as quietly as its voice could go, "I if wubcall correctly, the first ever monsters in the world came into existence from their previous forms as bubblerite statues."

Pomona's eyes somehow further widened with intrigue, placing its hand just below its pale beard. "Really!"

"Precisely. These statues were most likely created by the Colossals, and, according to my sources, were able to summon the ultimate Spark of Life. Just one strike and WUBBAM!" The volume of its voice raised multiple decibels on the last word as it stretched out its arms. Monsters turned to stare. Pomona and Zerkett looked back at them and they promptly turned away. In a hushed tone, the Wubbox continued, "After all that, an entirely new species is brought to fruition!

"Do you think the electricity in my body is sufficient enough to achieve that? I am making statues of my own, after all, why not put to the test my capabilities of animating life like that?"

Despite Zerkett leaning down on its knees, Pomona still had to look slightly up to meet its eyes. They didn't have eyebags, but one could easily tell that it hadn't slept for a while, and yet, under the yellow lighting of the store's lightbulbs, its eyes beamed with energy and ambition.

Its initial curiosity melted into doubt and concern. There it went again, rambling about crazy hypotheticals like this one, Pomona thought. Yes, it did a whole lotta' crazy stuff, but it was probably just toying with the idea of making monsters. Then again, it's seen Zerkett do crazy crazy things, so perhaps playing Colossal wasn't off the table.

But even so, doing such a thing could be very dangerous.

"You did say you were, like, bored with all your inventing because it was, 'monotonous', yeah?" Pomona asked, putting stress on every syllable that wasn't usually supposed to be acknowledged. "So, why don't you switch things up in a merely completely different manner? Like, an even crazier kind of invention uncharacteristic to your usual stuff?" It had its doubts, but better to be safe than sorry.

Zerkett's eyes lost their glimmer, but it didn't look disappointed. “Very well then, it's worth a shot.” It proceeded to pile nine bags of coffee beans and eight sacks of sugar on its left and right hands, respectively. "Wubhaps a brand new invention is in order. Like, something truly impressive-something that might even surprise me! As for those statues....wellll, I'll sleep on it."

Seeing outside the rectangular windows that the sun was nearly ready to set, it tried to leave with more haste. "It seems I gotta go, now," it said.

Even if it was just a bit, Pomona felt relief wash over them.

“Of course,” Pomona replied. They knew Zerkett. They always had something they wanted to do. They often felt tired in public. They had always known them best, they thought. Plus their neck must hurt from ducking inside the store for so long. This place was not built for bigger monsters.

“Bye.”

Zerkett heaved all their bags to the checkout area. No one really paid attention to Zerkett while they were there, besides a couple glances and some whispering, “Hey, look, a Wubbox”. Most of their popularity came from the scientists, and there weren’t a whole lot of scientists in that store besides them and Pomona.

A bored Mammott employee stood at one of the wooden posts, adding up the price of each bag in its mind while the impatient Wubbox in front of it fidgeted with the discs that held their limbs together and eyed the bags exasperatingly.

"82,680." Zerkett said. "It's 82,680 diamonds."

(Woah, my first ever chapter of my fic! This was supposed to a sort of prologue to chapter 1, mostly to sorta introduce Zerkett, their personality, relationships, the like. The pacing was pretty off because I intended to combine the events of the prologue with what happens in chapter 1. Even if it isn’t the best, I’m still super excited and pumped about future chapters!)