Work Text:
Whirrrr.
The electric screwdriver whined to a stop. Belle wiped a smudge of black grease from her cheek with the back of her wrist, leaving a dark grey streak across her nose. And she didn't seem to notice it.
"All done!" She announced, slamming the tool onto the cutting mat. "The Special Smoke Bomb! SSB-Mk Two is officially sealed. Dangers of the Hollow, prepare to be mildly inconvenienced by non-toxic particulate matter!"
Wise didn't look up from the clipboard. His thumb ran down the legal pad, ticking off items with a cheap plastic pen.
Click. Click.
"Casing secured?" Wise asked.
"Double-checked."
"Ignition wick aligned with the primary pressure plate?"
"Aligned, calibrated, and tucked in like a baby~."
Wise flipped the paper over to check the total tally. He froze. The paper made a sharp crinkle in the back room.
On the reverse side of the sheet, hidden beneath a coffee stain from three days ago, was a single unchecked line written in their late note's messy handwriting.
Ether-neutralizer compound...DO NOT omit the secondary stabilizer ring.
Wise slowly lowered the clipboard. He stared at Belle. Belle was busy lifting the palm-sized metallic sphere, admiring her own handiwork under the harsh light of the desk lamp.
As the device left the rubber surface of the workbench, something caught the light. A small, silver screw, no larger than a grain of rice, rolled out from the shadow where the bomb had just been resting. It made a tiny tink-tink sound as it settled against a metal ruler.
"..."
"..."
The room went completely quiet.
Belle stared at the screw. Wise stared at the screw. Eous, sitting on a low stool next to the bench, tilted its entire upper body forward, its eyes expanded and contracted with the visual of a leftover screw.
"Wise." Belle said, her voice dropped.
"Belle." Wise replied, his voice was equally flat.
"Tell me that's a spare from the schematic."
"We didn't buy spares."
"Then tell me it fell out of your goggles."
Wise reached up, adjusting the bridge of his protective eyewear with a finger.
"My goggles are made of rubber, not silver hardware. Try again."
Belle groaned, letting her forehead drop straight onto the cool surface of the workbench with a dull thud. Her arms dangled over the edge like two limp noodles.
"We've been at this since four in the afternoon. My fingers are tired, Wise. Tireeed."
"It's currently seven-thirty." Wise noted. He tapped the pen against the clipboard. "Which means we spent exactly three hours and thirty minutes building a potential fire hazard."
"It's a smoke bomb! It doesn't fire, it smokes!" Belle’s voice was muffled against the rubber mat. She lifted her head, her eyes wide with a dramatic, exaggerated pout. "And besides, look at it. It's beautiful. It's a masterpiece of modern Proxy engineering. What's one little screw between siblings? It’s probably just extra weight."
"Extra weight doesn't usually prevent the inner compression chamber from detaching during high-velocity deployment." Wise said.
"Just say throw, bro."
He picked up the tiny screw with a pair of tweezers from the tool rack. He held it up to the light, turning it slowly.
"This is a stabilizing thread. Without it, the pressure plate doesn't have a secure base to hold the spring in place. If Eous drops this in the Hollow, the casing will burst sideways."
"Neh-nah!?"
Eous let out a worried, low-pitched beep, its small robotic hands coming up to cover its digital eyes.
"It's not that bad, Eous. Don't be scared by his words." Belle sighed, sitting back in her stool and spinning the metallic sphere on her palm. "So, what now? Do we rip the whole thing open and start from scratch, or do we trust my divine intuition?"
Wise set the tweezers down. He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.
"We take it apart." Wise decided. "Divine intuition doesn't stop a mechanical failure inside a Hollow. If this thing jams while Eous is trying to blind a pack of Ethereals, we lose the visual feed. Then we’re blind, too."
"You have zero faith in my craftsmanship." Belle said, rolling her eyes dramatically as she picked up the metal sphere again.
She tossed it a few inches into the air, catching it effortlessly with her right hand.
"Look at this balance. It’s perfect. It feels like a solid, well-behaved piece of tech. I say it's qualified to be Eous's new gadget."
"Belle, put it down."
"I'm just saying. If we take it apart now, we have to unthread the ignition line, re-grease the internal gears, and scrape out the sealant. That's another two hours, Wise. Two hours we could spend eating dinner or catching up on that indie marathon we talked about."
Smack.
She tossed it again, a little higher this time.
Wise didn't reach out to grab it. He simply sat still, his eyes tracking the silver blur as it rose and fell in the space between them.
"Look, every time you gamble on a shortcut, we end up spending twice as much time fixing the mistake. Put the bomb on the mat."
"It's not a gamble if I know I did a good job." Belle insisted, a bright, stubborn grin spreading across her face. She flipped the sphere from her right hand to her left, her movements casual and loose. "Phaethon has always been capable. Besides, we make custom modifications on the fly. This is just a streamlined version. Less hardware, more efficiency."
She tossed it one more time, intending to catch it behind her back to prove a point. But her grease-stained thumb slipped against the smooth, polished casing. The metal ball spun awkwardly off the side of her palm, flying straight toward the edge of the workbench.
"Ah—!"
Belle lunged forward, her chair scraped against the floor with a loud screech. Her outstretched fingers missed the casing by a fraction of an inch.
The sphere dropped off the table.
Before Wise could even move his hands from his chest, a blur of orange and black fabric darted across the floor.
Eous, driven by pure panic-induced reflex, threw its small bouncy body forward. The Bangboo tumbled across the rubber mat, its short arms extending toward the floor like a goalie stopping a championship penalty kick.
Thwack!
Eous caught the smoke bomb perfectly against its padded chest, rolling onto its back with a triumphant, high-pitched squeak.
"Nice catch, Eous!" Belle cheered, dropping to her knees beside the little Bangboo. "See? I told you it was fine! Teamwork makes the—"
Click.
The sound was tiny, but it echoed clearly in the back room. The sudden, uneven impact against Eous’s chest had pushed the loose, screw-less pressure plate directly into the internal spring.
Fisssssssssssss.
A sharp, high-pitched hiss cut through the air.
Eous’s eye instantly changed from a cheerful curve to a massive, flashing red exclamation point. The Bangboo dropped the sphere and scrambled backward on its hands and knees, letting out a series of frantic "Eh-Nah!".
"Uh oh." Belle said, her optimism vanished in an instant.
Pfff-FOOM.
It wasn't a violent blast, but the sheer volume of the release was immediate.
A massive, dense cloud of thick grey smoke erupted from the casing, expanding like a balloon in a matter of seconds. It hit the underside of the workbench, curled around the legs of their chairs, and surged toward the ceiling in a heavy wave.
Within five seconds, the entire back room was completely blanketed. The harsh light of the desk lamp was reduced to a faint, ghostly white in the middle of a thick fog.
Cough! Cough!
"Okay..." Belle’s voice drifted out from somewhere near the floorboards. "The...the distribution rate is definitely higher than the Mark One."
Wise still sat in his chair, his arms still folded across his chest. The chalky layer of smoke obscured his vision. He didn't move. Neither did he panic. He slowly reached up, took off his protective eyewear and used the hem of his shirt to wipe the thick layer of grey powder that had instantly settled over the lenses.
"Belle."
"Yeah, Wise?"
"The instruction sheet said harmless."
"It is harmless! Your lungs feel clean, don't they? It's practically an air purifier."
"My goggles are covered in residue, I can't see the clipboard, and I'm fairly certain Eous and Six are currently hiding inside the empty storage crate."
A low, muffled beep from the corner confirmed his suspicion.
Through the smoke, Belle’s silhouette finally appeared, waving a cardboard folder around in a useless attempt to clear the air. Her face was entirely covered in grey dust now, except for two clean circles around her eyes where she had blinked.
She looked at the empty workbench, then turned her dusty face toward Wise, offering a weak, lopsided smile.
"Well~~~." Belle said, tapping her foot against the floor to shake off the powder. "Look on the bright side. We don't have to spend two hours taking it apart anymore. It successfully deployed."
Wise stared at his sister's funny expression through the smoke. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back against the headrest of his chair, and let out a long, slow, deep sigh that blew a small clear tunnel through the chalky layer directly in front of his face.
"Just open the door and turn on the exhaust fan." Wise muttered. "We're going to clean the workbench."
"Fair enough." Belle laughed, her voice was warm and cheerful despite the mess. "But you're still gonna watch that indie marathon with me, right?"
"Sure."
/