As Xander came to he clutched his head, and looked around, finding himself lying on a soft bed in a dark room, the only light coming from a rectanguler source by the door. Feeling something on his forehead he reached up and removed the sensor of the neural pad, before pushing himself off the bed. He walked over to pick up what he now realised was the tablet of the neural pad, as he reached down he noticed that it had been placed on a piece of paper, picking up both he used the light from the tablet to examine the paper; Written on the paper in Gnomish script that seemed to be grown onto the page, was
"Xan sorry 'bout swapping drinks, but don't worry the gizmo chamber and parts will be ready by seven, gonna need more hands for the other thing, Maisie, P.S if you're reading this, it isn't seven yet, P.P.S I'll be back at seven."
Chuckling slightly at the letter Xander walked back to the bed and sat down, deciding it would be wise to check his equipment and confirm everything still worked, he started removing items from the many pouches, pockets, and slots located all over his suit.
About 4 hours later and Xander sighed as he put the last of the devices that still worked back in its pouch and looked at the moderate pile of unusable tools all in their storage form, every single one of them was in lockdown mode, Xander mentally listed the few that were still usable, the neural pad, the throne, and his panic button, hadn't needed checking but Xander was being thorough, which was just as well as the panic button only had one vial, which though annoying was important to know, back to the list four other devices weren't locked, a pair of support drones equipped with forcefield projectors, one repair/construction drone set up for lab construction, a medical scanner, and his multitool, it was annoying to be so limited, but if Maisie got the materials and lab ready, then it would be enough. Xander stretched before grabbing the neural pad from its pouch and noting down everything that had occurred since he had arrived in this place, glancing at the battery life the pad had left, Xander realised with a chuckle that it was five past seven, if time was the same here as at home then Maisie was late.
After a few minutes the door slammed open revealing an out of breath Maisie.
"Sorry... i'm... late..." She gasped out before Xander cut her off.
"Catch your breath first, I've only just woke up."
He smiled it was obvious she was trying to make up for last night, not that she needed to, if the dwarves matched up with their fictional counterparts like Ol' Sid seemed to, it was more than worth it.
"You just woke up, really?"
Xander smirked before answering her question.
"No I've been up for hours just sitting with my hands in my pockets."
"No need to be sarcastic Xan, I got you a gizmo chamber and the materials should be there by lunch, But we need to get it ready first."
Grabbing Xanders wrist she dragged him down the corridor and in to the main room of the inn, as she stopped to grab a satchel hanging from a suit of armour by the door, Xander coughed to get her attention.
"We may need to hurry but I don't think dragging me will help, I do have legs after all"
Maisie released his wrist with an embarrassed smile.
"Okay then, just don't blame me if you get lost."
She slipped through the door leaving Xander no choice but to follow after.
As they made their way through the city, Xander set his mind to his current goals, one, find out, what locked his equipment, two, locate the equipment, although not much of one it was a start, next would be figuring out a long-term goal, of course getting back to Touchstone City was the focus, but he couldn't forget Bevelgear booking him a trip to see the dwarves, definitely best to avoid that, the politics of this world was not something he had time for. Lost in his thoughts Xander failed to notice the tunnel open to a rope bridge across a massive chamber, his foot, catching between the wooden slats bringing him to a stumbling stop with a stifled yelp. As he righted himself Xander looked around, he was amazed, this room was a perfect sphere, the smooth stone walls so far apart that the room dwarfed both the audience chamber and the market square, crisscrossed by rope bridges connecting the many tunnels that pierced it seemingly at random - each swarming with gnomes, save for the bridge they were on. The three largest tunnels, which were all at the same height, about half way up the wall, connected to what appeared to be, from Xanders perspective, a large floating stone platform which was home to an equally large stone tablet, Xander strained to see what was written on the tablet, but without jumping down that would have to wait. An annoyed cough drew Xanders attention back to Maisie, giving an apologetic nod he followed as she turned and continued onwards.
Xander had been growing increasingly concerned, since they had left the bizarre spherical chamber about five minutes ago the tunnels had become almost completely dilapidated with only one in four light fixtures sporting their floating lights, and the walls and floors a spider web of cracks, deciding it best to just ask he increased his pace to bring him beside Maisie.
"Would I be right in assuming your Uncle chose our lab?"
Maisie gave him a wry grin.
"That he did, you angered him more than I thought possible, in the day you've been here, at least we won't be disturbed."
As if to spite her, the end of her sentence was punctuated by raucous laughter, from around the next corner.
Sighing as they rounded the corner Maisie gestured to a door directly ahead that was slightly ajar.
"Shall we meet our squatters then?" Xander asked with a grin walking up to the door and swinging it open and striding straight in as Maisie slightly surprised by this followed after.
The sight that greeted him in his new lab was somewhat surreal, leaping between the worktops trying to catch each other, were three young gnomes, the words Xander had been preparing died on his tongue, as his hand slipped from the door, it's momentum carried it in to the wall with a thunk causing the three gnomes to freeze, their eyes locked on Xander, he tensed, after so many battles with Ultimax, he knew what was coming, and as the tallest of the three started pointing he was diving to the side, eye closed he heard a young girl's voice.
"Get 'im!"
Barely a second later as Xander rolled to his feet, there was a crash, he turned to assess the situation only to burst out laughing at the sight of the three young gnomes hanging from Maisie who was cursing as she spun on the spot trying to dislodge them.