It looked like a shitty, weird interpretation of a child's kinect necklace from ages past. The tips were a pair of computer chips, CPUs if Alex had to guess, that had once lived in some tiny electronic toys. They were crusty, rusty, cracked, and the gold pins were bent to hell. The thing that stood out the most was the palstic kinect toy string binding them together. It looked like a chain of multicoloured plastic toys that were held together by some sort of magic. When Neuronium had heard Alex's inquiry about the potential of the kinect ferris wheel in the gift shop, the lizard had been immediately worried.

As it turned out, the empty box of the kinect ferris wheel was a ruse. An empty box that would have chomped his head off. The Professor had explained that he had harvested the plastics magic and Essence years ago and used it in his own creations. Still, it was nice that a small piece of it would be used by the boys.

Beepy held it up on Mary's coffee table and wondered at it. He didn't have eyebrows, but Alex could tell he was managing a dramatic stare. Zippy had already hovered over beside him, with his camera eye audibly zooming in and out. He circled and extended his claw hand to prod at the artifact with one of his pincers. Alex finished the last bite of pasta and [Investigated] the Relic tip.

[Neuronic Neuronet Kinect Sync]

"That," Alex said, swallowing. "Apparently let's you…uh…unlock mainframatic processing threads and parallel agression heuristics'...Whatever that means and according to the Professor."

The boys made 'oooooooh' sounds and looked at each other. Mary bumped Alex again. "I thought you said it was two tips?"

"It is two tips? I think? No idea honestly. Professor said they'd help the boys though."

"Bah! Machinery!" Grasswhistle declared from the cushion where he sat that was covered in sauce and coconut oil. "Gnomes rely on soil," he smacked his chest. "The soul of the world propelling us!" He leaned in anyways. "...Yet I am curious."

Emilio agreed and meowed. It sounded like approval, or like a warning. Kind of hard to tell with a cat.

Beepy looked at the Relic, then at Alex. "THANK YOU. TWO UPGRADES. WOW. LET ME TRY." Zippy floated in closer, and Alex could feel a prickle along his arms.

What the hell is that? He thought and toggled just a little whisper of his [Burrow Sense]. Alex hadn't used it in the Dungeon and on his runs. Too risky, is what he figured, especially since he didn't really understand how to completely control it. Mr. Mystical's sage advice helped a bit, and in the comfort of Mary's room, he felt he could risk it.

It felt like the whole damn room lit up across every sense. Invisible light he couldn't see but could feel flowed into Emilio. The most overwhelming smell was coconut oil and Mary's shampoo, which smelled nice. The loot bag to his left was like a prodding bruise. Somewhere behind him, a thin stream of cold water trickled through the drywall, crawling up his spine like a centipede of ice. True to its name, [Burrow Sense] found all of Mary's little cubbies. Lockboxes with Monster Cores for a rainy day itched his eyeballs and back dimples. And the Relic from Professor Neuronium felt like cold metal mixed with a shattered martini glass with gumdrops as an accoutrement. He snapped it off, and came back too.

Damnit that Skill is tough to control. I do not want to smell Mary's skin and Gravewhistle's…But what was that prickle on my arms?

Beepy planted his new mech feet, lowered his stance, and…flexed. It looked like a flex at least. His little metal hands squeezed. His whole body tensed, and you could hear the servos in his frame whirring at a higher pitch.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". The Relic didn't react, so Beepy flexed his metal body harder, and little puffs of steam poured from his new vents. Nothing again. Once more, dramatically this time, with the Relic held to the sky. "COME ON. PUUUUUUSH." Still nothing.

Zippy flew around his brother, scanning the chips and chirping uncertainly. His pincer poked the silver strand as more and more steam begun to billow out of Beepy's vent.

"I mean…I think he's pushing Essence into it? You're definitely flexing hard enough, buddy." Alex said.

Beepy dropped his hand with the Relic still in hand and kicked his feet dejectedly. "WHY. WON'T. YOU. WORK." He kicked the table. "A DUD. I AM A DEFECTIVE MECH."

Mary leaned forward. "Maybe it needs both of you? The two chips are linked right?"

Emilio chirped a couple meows at, and Gravewhistle looked at his liege as if he could understand the cat. Then Petal Gravewhistle nodded seriously while Emilio went back to licking his paw. The Garden gnome rose to his feet, one hand over his heart and the other raised in a fist.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"It is in TOGETHERNESS that our power blooms! Just as the first Garden Gnomes once did, and heeded the call of Allen of the Garden, where we joined to forge the GnOpal! United under one trowel. One hedge! One dream! Like we always say…All will be ours under the sun and shade." He looked at Beepy and Zippy and banged his chest. "And so too must you, Brother Beepy and Zippy, unite. Or try together."

Emilio let out a gut vibrating MRAAAOOOW that boomed through Mary's cramped room. Beepy and Zippy stared at Gravewhistle, then turned to each other. Something passed between the two drones. Alex guessed they were talking to each other through their link through Mary. She was stone still as she watched her creations work it out for themselves. Zippy hovered closer, and Beepy lifted the Relic again. He didn't strain this time, but instead held it up. Zippy grasped one rusty chip in his pincer while Beepy held the other in his fist. They looked at eachother, with that silvery spider chain between them, and went in together. Not as bots, but as brothers.

—

Zippy didn't have a mouth, and his camera eye was always on. He didn't have a heart that beat. But something inside his drone body pulsed.

He hovered by his propellers that were tough to use well, with his pincer wrapped around the chip. Zippy hadn't let his brother know that he was jealous of his upgrade. Of course he was happy for him. He just wanted to get an upgrade too. Ever since that Dungeon disaster where he'd made that mistake and ruined everything, a little Core was forming in him. He told Beepy, and Beepy confirmed the same had happened to him. Mary knew too, even if she pretended she didn't. He could just tell in the way she poked their connection on them both.

Beepy was watching him, and his usual chaotic code was dialed in. He could feel his brother's processes along the thread that Mary had spun between them all. One to her, one to him, and one to himself.

It's okay, Beepy was telling him in code. Beepy believed in him. Zippy didn't understand the wide world as much as his brother did, nor did he understand the Relic. But through their language, Beepy believed it would work. That was enough.

Zippy turned inside himself. He'd never tried to touch it before. He was scared it would go out. But Beepy wasn't scared. So he reached in and pulled a little thread of that light inside him. It was strange to not work with code. The glowing tendril pulled out and he tried his best to guide it towards the Relic in his hand while his brother did the same.

The Relic trembled in his pincer. He pulled the thread of Essence into the chip then the plastic kinect band before he accidentally dropped it.

—

The group watched, Emilio included. The kinect thread between the bots began to glow. It got brighter, and brighter, until it was gleaming. A buzz filled the room, like something being charged with electricity, and it vibrated Alex's molars. Emilio meowed once seriously. Somehow, Alex knew at that moment to throw up an arm to shield his eyes. Every single hair on his arm stood up, and Gravewhistle's porcelain beard puffed out.

FWOOOOSH.

A blast of light blared in the room. Zippy and Beepy vanished in the miniature nova, swallowed on the coffee table in a sphere that flashed white.

"TA-DAA~~~" A sound came from somewhere. The sound wasn't from someone in the room. It just happened. The light faded.

Alex lowered his arm and squeezed the floating dots in his vision. Gravewhistle did the same, and Emilio meowed surprised. The Relic was gone, and the two bots stood there next to each other. They looked the same.

"Alex?" Mary asked and bumped him. "What the hell was that?"

Gravewhistle just rubbed his beard and pulled out his coconut oil, watching the boys. Emilio purred and settled his head back down.

"I have no idea what just happened or what it's going to do…but I think it's going to be awesome." He said.

The night went on with chatter and laughing as Zippy and Beepy were hounded with questions. Gravewhistle demanded to know what had changed and what offensive strategies they had gained. Mary was just happy and told them to be careful as they grew up. At one point, Emilio let the two bots ride on his back. Gravewhistle nearly had a heart attack and declared it sacrilege. Mary teased an aghast Gravewhistle about his coconut oil. No one could figure out what the Relic had actually done, but Alex figured it would just take time. Some things needed to Settle. Just like the Core from the Carrot Cardinal.

With the chaos winding down, Alex left Mary and the bots and made his way downstairs. Emilio padded behind him and Gravewhistle trailed while dragging the loot bag. He felt good. Tired, but good. The loot tips were solid, tomorrow they would go visit Allen Gardens to question the Krusher's the gnomes had captured, Snu was probably fine if a bit miffed, Beepy and Zippy got something shiny and mysterious. He had a feeling the Professor was holding his own against whatever the Krusher's were trying to do.

Petal made himself comfortable in one of the cat condos after scanning the backyard and signalling to the watching garden gnomes. The Garden gnome quickly applied his nightly coconut oil, and was snoring before Alex finished brushing his teeth. Emilio was flopped on the bed like a person. Alex used him as a body pillow. He checked his phone, saw no updates, and promptly passed out after a long day.

Five minutes after he slept into Emilio's warm back, Alex's phone buzzed twice.

New message from: Professor Neuronium

New message from: Britanii DO NOT CONTACT

Emilio's tail twitched. Gravewhistle snored like a train. In the backyard, a single gnome adjusted his stolen goggles and looked for interlopers. Alex slept like a lamb. On the third floor of the house two robots dreamed for the first time.

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