July 16th – Raptor attack – Part 3 of 3

Arnold had seen the blood flying and that the professor was in trouble early, but he couldn’t go back to help until he hid the pieces.  He had chosen a spot behind the concrete of the raising bridge.  

Through the broken window he heard the Professor call out his name.  He arrived at the ruined room and examined him first, he was bleeding profusely from many places.  The professor had a horrible scratch across his chest and his hands were missing flesh.  

Arnold reached for the medical supplies in his belt and armband, taking them out and setting them to the side for when he’d need them.  Thankfully he had been wearing them just in case something did explode.  He was going to stop the bleeding when Heliotrope gripped him and struggled to speak, despite his blood loss, “Get… a crowbar… rip out that… flywheel! Before it starts… starts up again.”

The machine clicked as its logic engine tried to get it back on it’s feet, Arnold looked about desperately, he didn’t have a crowbar but he had the pick ax the M Bot had used.  He ran over to it and picked it up.

He ran over to the struggling clockwork and struck the pick ax against the flywheel repeatedly.  Metal sparked as it his metal, and the flywheel bent evermore until it become utterly unusable.  The clockwork clicked and twitched uselessly until he finally stopped.

Arnold breathed a sigh of relief, and then belatedly realized he could have simply put the pick through the holes in the flywheel…like sticking a pole through bicycle spokes.  Shaking his head he put it in there anyways to be safe and turned to the professor.

Heliotrope huffed, “Don’t know if it’s… main drive… but will stop it… for now…need to sever the brain…keep it as… intact as you can.”  

Arnold disobeyed without a second thought as he went over and reached for his belt and arm bands.  His training as a nurse hadn’t gone to waste, he needed to get disinfectant, gauze, washcloths, and he needed to inspect him for internal bleeding.  But he would start with morphine. As he worked and told the professor to hold on the machine continued to click and twitch , unaware that it had no hope of moving.

“I’ll be all right… broken ribs, arm I think, fingers, flesh wounds… where’s that hospital when you need it, eh?”  The professor joked as he laid on the floor in the fetal position.  “Don’t worry, my metal… friend. You’ll be up… again soon. But hopefully… on our side.”

Arnold told him to brace himself and then after a moment he applied the morphine.  Heliotrope’s entire body jerked, surprisingly. “What did you… give me?”

Arnold was about to tell him when a warning klaxon deep in the machines body began to resonate.  Heliotrope and Arnold forgot their current problems as the horse rumbled a stream of unholy obscenities.

“Arnold… you’ll have to drag… that thing out… and toss it into… the ocean. Before…”  Heliotrope paused as a panel on its side unfolded and a timer began to count down.  

Helio swore louder obscenities while Arnold went to the robot and pulled on its tail.  The tiny cat grunted as his muscles began to strain against the raptors incredible weight, and his eyes began to bulge with the effort, but he was stronger than he looked even in a place like this…he was able to barely drag it across the floor as the metal left horrible scratches in it.

The timer counted down slowly, every second it became more desperate as he lost the precious time he needed.  He got outside the office and ignored the broken glass underneath his paws.  The black exhaust coming out the back trailed them as they inched their way towards the exit, and soon he only had about thirty seconds once he reached the door.

Arnold put everything he had into his struggle to get the thing to the canals.  He put the tail over his shoulder and redoubled his efforts using everything he had.  It was easier now that he was out of the asylum, and fortunately it was a short distance.  He reached the canal and then looked at the timer.  It had reached seven.

Arnold pushed the clockwork the rest of the way with his feet and then ducked for cover as the raptors timer finished.  The explosion rocketed water into the sky, and fell back down drenching the area and Arnold with the filth.

Arnold twitched, something which had begun to happen more and more frequently and was beyond his control.  He turned to the broken window near him and looked at the professor, “Well…I’ll need to BATHE…but at least we’re not dead.”  Seeing the professor clutching his chest Arnold entered through the window and went to the supplies he’d already removed and disinfected his hands.  “Yet.”

“What happened?”  The professor asked, his head wobbling side to side, and Arnold explained.  Heliotrope clutched his chest in pain, “That bastard hits harder than Astor.”

“Astor?” Arnold said as he began to work on cleaning the professors chest, removing his shirt, the bruises suggesting rib damage, “…nevermind, I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“Before you got to town… my luck with… rogue clockworks.”  Lionheart lifted his other ruined hand to his head, “I feel… dizzy. His claws may have been… poisoned…”

“Dizzy is normal…” Arnold replied.   “Between the blood loss and the morphine I gave you.”

Heliotrope looked at him, his head swaying back and forth, “Mor… morphine? You gave… me morphine?”

“Was that wrong?”

Heliotrope shook his head as he laid back, “I’m not… supposed to sleep… I can’t… control… “

Heliotrope Lionheart lost consciousness, and Arnold wondered what he had just unleashed or done…but he’d worry about it later.  For now he set to work bandaging the professors wounds.