Hajime shuts off his end of the communicator before turning the dragon mech around to face the still smoldering Broom Man and Mop Man, using his Force Metal Generator to heal what little damage he gave them.
"Alright, what's going on between Strength and Bin Man that you felt the need to spill in front of the Doc?" he sighed, sounding irritable.
Both brothers shook the daze from their systems before standing to attention, "We're sorry, boss! We tried to stop them, but Bin Man's so obsessed with the debris left behind by that fight earlier, he's manipulated himself into thinking you'll let him snack on them if he gets the Refractor Crystal he claims has drifted into the Sex Station!"
"We know you wouldn't care as long as the Star's back up and running, but if the Resistance see him there, they might capture him and make him work for them without so much as a threat!"
The dragon's head almost butts the two sweeping robots in their stick bodies, "And the reason you came back to tell me this instead of going after them is...!?"
The two almost hugged each other at the thought of being burned alive. With WilyII constantly calling him for status reports, and them and World almost spilling the beans to his ever scheming minds, just asking him for permission to go back to Junkyard and search for a spare crystal may as well be asking for the rest of the day off...in pieces.
"Right...." Mop Man mutters, drifting further back, "We'll just...go after Bin Man and drag him back here...."
"Sorry to bother you, Boss...." Broom Man mutters as well while following his brother's drifting distance.
World, meanwhile had moved back to where the core room for the Wily Star II would be, using her third eye to observe the whereabouts of the cards still running lose on RPM.
"Well, that settles it!"
Judgment proclaimed while tapping her trumpet against her shoulder, "Those kids are better off not knowing the type of trouble we're about to cause by fixing this Star."
"I suppose you're right...." World sighs, "Even if we get attacked by the Resistance, Hajime probably wouldn't want them getting involved even if they understood who they're fighting against."
She then raises her fingers towards her third eye, "Still, I believe it's best to materialize the rest of the cards hiding in that ruined lab so they can defend themselves if Dr. Wily II does catch onto our separation and send some of his robots to capture them."
"Oh no you don't! We're not falling for that again!" Empress explodes as she jumps out of the deck and grabs World's hair, jerking her head back just as she was getting ready to fire her materialization beam.
"Eek! Stop it, Empress! Not while I-!"
But it was too late, the pupil of World's third eye glows and fires a rainbow beam back towards RPM, missing the Ruined Lab and straight into WDS.
Hierophant eventually found a doorway leading to a flight of stairs; most likely in case of emergencies that elevators couldn't solve. He quickly slips into the stairwell, moving towards the downward slop while sticking his head out the card to see where the door might be, finding it two levels from the room he came out of.
But as he was nearing the slop of the ceiling, a rainbow beam hit the back of his card, causing the screen to flash before ballooning him out to his actual, teenage size while leaving the back of the card stuck to his back. With his full weight outmatching that of the card, Hierophant could no longer stay situated against the ceiling and falls onto the sharp edges of the stairs, tumbling head over heels until he slammed against the wall near the bend of the stairwell, upside down with his lower body dangling in front of his face and his priest hat rolling in circles near the bottom of the stairs.
Heavily dazed and in a world of pain, Hierophant coughs a strain while struggling to get back onto his feet with his senses reconfiguring themselves from the shock and surprise.
Judgment grabbed Empress and pulled half of her out of the card, shaking her dizzy.
"Why you overzealous dimwit!" she exclaims, "Why couldn't you just switch to your motherly side and let things be!? You atta be lucky there aren't any other cards running loose in there!"
World decides it was best not to correct Judgment, given the mood everyone was currently in just going against their tarot characteristics. The High Priestess pops out of the deck, floating beside World.
"Just let the cards be," she said, "As long as Chariot's with them, and Sun is out of her card, they'll be just fine."
World looks over to High Priestess before sighing again, "I suppose you're right. And it's not like Sun is a baby at heart; she only remains in that form to conserve energy."
High Priestess pulls out a book and begins reading it, "Let's get back to helping the Robot Masters fix up this Star. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can focus on getting the other cards back."
World nods as she heads off to check on the other Robot Masters, leaving Judgment and Empress to bicker among themselves of what had just happened.
Fix-It Man eventually looks out the window, seeing the Joes making their way into the lab.
"Hey look! There's a bunch of robots heading into the lab!" he exclaims while pointing towards the moving robots.
"What do they look like?" The paint bucket robot asked.
"Well...they look like Joe models, but they're bulkier and I think one of them's painted red."
The paint bucket robot scratches where his chin would be while thinking, "So...you say they're Joe models; only Wily would know anything about creating Joes. So either he's aware of the hacking and sending the robots down here to attack us, or he knows who we are and are sending the robots here to help his friend fix the Wily Star II."
He runs over to Fix-It Man and grabs his hands, "This is perfect! All we have to do is talk to those Joes and let them know we're on their side, and they'll know to help us find the coordinates and travel with us to where the Star is!"
"But...what if they're the shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of robots?" Fix-It Man mutters, "Our CPU is the only thing keeping our brother sane and humanly. If either one of us are destroyed, the Wreck-All virus activates and he'll be running loose, bashing every single object that comes into view!"
The two immediately turned towards Chariot, who was still hiding under the console.
"Hey, Mr. Knight Guy! Can you come with us and act as a shield in case they're the shoot-first-ask-questions-later type of robots?" the paint bucket robot asked.
Chariot pokes his head out from behind the console, "What makes you so sure they won't deem you a threat just because someone who's obviously not made by Wily is standing nearby?"
"You don't have to stand in plain sight if you're that frightened," Fix-It Man said, "Just stay in the shadows and wait until they start shooting, then rush out and save us!"
Hearing the word "frightened" felt like someone had stabbed ten swords into his spine. Everything he had been doing up to this point has been going against what he, as a tarot card, represents. But at the same time, he didn't want to aggravate Hajime or anyone else who didn't want to humor a side they obviously weren't meant to serve.
By the time he got his mindset straight, the two Wily I robots had already left the control room, making their way towards the entrance of the ruined lab. He fakes a growl while rubbing his hands against the sides of his helmet before crawling out from under the console and following after the two robots, staying hidden near one side of the entrance while the other two ducked behind the other side and slowly poked their heads out to get a better look at the army of Joes.
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) topple loudly onto the floor.