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Chapter 34 -
Machines Under Pressure
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You smile, “Eugene!”

Varian has a very big grin on his face once he recognizes Eugene.

He looks to you and goes over to you, “(____)! Where have you been? Actually, would you tell me what's going on here?” He has his hands on his hips.

You look to Rapunzel, then she looks to Cass before you two just chuckle.

“Okay, you know what? I don't care, I'm getting you out of there, Blondie.”

You quickly pull Varian in front of him, “Actually, you have got to meet your biggest fan, ‘Flynn Rider’.”

“Flynn Rider?” Varian almost squeals.

Eugene narrows his eyes and crosses his arms, “She doesn't know what she's talking about. You can't prove anything!”

Varian is getting over excited, “I am your biggest fan!” He runs over to a part of the room that's covered and pulls the curtains back. “See?” He gestured to all his books and almost everything that has to do with him.

You knee Eugene had seen the perfect wanted poster of himself and immediately gives a smolder look, “Hey now! Flynn Rider, nice to be meet.”

Varian bounces on his feet in a fanboying moment, “I use to see your wanted posters all the time, YOU'RE MY HERO!”

You giggle and sit on a stool to watch Varian fanboy over Eugene and it's quite adorable.

“Oh well, hero is a bit much.”

Varian brings over a stack of books, “I've read every single book about you.”

“Oooh. Uh well, you see that's not actually me. I just took the name from the book.”

“Hey, hey! Remember that time you dueled that evil knight blindfolded.” Your eyes widen as Varian pulls out a sword with something radiating dangerously that swirled around the blade.

Where did he get that from? You grimace as Varian swung around like he's an expert fighter, though it was funny as Eugene tried to avoid him.

“Do you want to put that down?”

“Tell me how you took on the Earl of Camonbaya.” Varian keeps swinging the sword around.

“Also not me.” Eugene says then waves to you, “(____), can you explain who this child is?”

Before you could answer, Varian speaks up loudly, “I'm Varian!”

The sword hits over a conical flask and drips chemical into another, making the table explode in half. All the glass on the table breaks along with the chemicals.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” The sword glows brighter and Varian tosses it since it seemed it got hot in his hands. The sword sticks to Eugene's wanted poster and it disintegrates.

“Come on!” Eugene pouts.

Suddenly the ground shakes and your eyes widen. “Oh no.”

“What was that trembling?”

Varian smiles and speaks innocently, “Trembling? I didn't notice any trembling.” He glances to you and gently nods downward.

You casually go over to the door and slip out, taking a shaky breath. “(____)!”

Varian puts his arm around you, “I'm gonna show Flynn my project!” He squeals and shakes your shoulders, “Why didn't you tell me you knew Flynn Rider!? You are telling me later!”

You felt dizzy, “Okay, okay. Calm down.”

“Okay, you two listen. I need you to tell me everything the Princess told you.” Eugene said a bit desperate.

Varian happily replied, but took Eugene's wording seriously, “Oh yeah, okay. First she said, ‘We're looking for Varian.’ and I said, ‘I am Varian.” He said the last part deeply then laughs like a dork.

You giggle, shaking your head as he continues while trying to act girly “Then she said, ‘Uh, Hi. Sorry to bother you Sir, but I came to ask about my hair.” He flips up his bangs.

He stops, “Uh, wait. Sorry, let me backup. I forgot to tell you about the raccoon trap, so-”

Eugene facepalms, “Yes, yes, that's great, but what I meant was to tell me all the important stuff she said.”

Varian sounds serious, “Mr. Rider. When the Princess of Corona speaks directly to you, every word is important.”

You laugh and place a hand on Eugene's arm, “Eugene. You didn't ask Varian correctly.” You grin at Varian, “Varian, what did Rapunzel want you to do for her?”

Varian laughs, “Oh, well she’s here-”

Everything trembled again and you realize this had happened in one of the images in your head. “The Flynnolium.” You said softly then grin nervously, “Shall we proceed?”

Varian digs around and tries to find the Spectrometer and you wonder why Quirin put it in here the other day.

“I know the press is in here somewhere, Flynn.” Varian says.

You go to something being covered and pull it off, revealing what your friend was looking for.

“Again, it's Eugene.”

Varian ignores him and smiles, “There it is! And once the tests are done, it'll print the results on parchment paper-”

“That's very interesante, but getting back to what the princess said.”

Everything shook again and you grew a bit worried. “Why does that keep happening?” Eugene questioned.

Varian gently pushes him aside and opens the trapdoor, “Flynn Rider. I believe I promised you, a secret.”

The three of you climb down and you light a lantern for Varian. “Thank you, Milady.”

You roll your eyes and lead the way, “You're welcome, Sir Genius.”

Varian chuckles, “Now if my dad knew I was down here, he'd kill me, but if he actually knew what I was doing down here. He'd probably be impressed.”

“Or at least we hope he'd be impressed.” You said and walk ahead.

Varian walks next to you and Eugene stops, “I don't get it.”

“It's simple Eugene. Through the miracle of Alchemy-” You place the lantern down.

“-NOT magic.” Varian adds.

You chuckle and gesture to the big machine, “Varian has found a way to heat this entire tank of water.”

“Yes and just with a single drop of my newest, yet to be named compound.” His eyes widen at an idea in his head, “Which I'll call Flynnolium!”

“I still don't get it.”

You sigh in annoyance at Eugene's answer, then hand Varian a dropper. “I'm going to surprise my village by bringing the people hot running water.” Varian chuckles happily, “I've constructed five of these babies all throughout the caverns.”

You cringe at the sound of the machine because it never made any noise, it sounded like there was too much pressure.

“Wait, wait, wait. These tremors….your machines are causing them?”

Varian gets a drop of Flynnolium, “No, no, no. My machines are not causing them. The chemical reactions they trigger, do.” There's a loud poof from the red stuff in a barrel.

Secretly, you take the Flynnolium and place it between two rocks on the ground. Where it's in no one's way.

You look around and spot the tool box a few feet away, then tap Varian's arm, “Varian. Can we turn down the pressure on the machine?”

Varian hums, “Nah, it's fine.”

You gave a pleading expression, “Please, Varian. At least a little, I'll even go by myself to turn the others down.”

A bolt from the machine shoots out and gets stuck on the rocky wall. Varian looks to Eugene and he laughs nervously, “It does that all the time.”

Varian sighs and takes a wrench from the tool box, “Okay, but please be careful, (____).” He hands you the tool with concern.

“I will.” You head back up to the surface to the others after you heard Eugene telling Varian something.

“I'll start with the last one, then work my way back.” You tell yourself.

You got two down and it took a lot of time, especially how highly pressured the pipes were. On the third one, you nearly fell when another tremor struck. “Almost.” You pull, but the bolt seemed stuck and you kept trying. “Come on!”

While you were struggling with the third machine, another tremor came and Varian was back down by the first machine. He taps the meter and laughs nervously, “Okay Varian. Maybe you should listen to (____) next time. I guess it was .57.”

He grabs another wrench and begins to pull the bolt to let out pressure. Suddenly, a rock from the harsh tremble had fallen from above and hit directly on the Flynnolium.

Varian raises a brow at the sound of glass shattering and looks, only to freak out, “Oooh no! The Flynnolium!”

You grunt, but the bolt didn't move and more frequent tremors happened.

Varian jumps down and tries to push back the chemical with a few rags. Unfortunately it kept heading to the machine. He notices its about to touch the red chemical and his eyes widen in realization. “(____)!”

You jump when you hear something blowing up, “What-” You yell when the machine in front of you shoots out more bolts and it creaks horribly. You got to run, but you felt your shirt tuck you back.

Some of the bolts had pinned the back of your shirt to the walls. You pull and only it ripped a small portion of your shirt.

Varian pants, running as fast as he can. He yelps when a hand pulls him back and he turns to see Cass holding his wrist.

“Listen, Kid! We gotta get out of here!”

Varian tries to pull away, “No, no!!” He looks at her with fearful eyes, “NO! I have to find (____)! She's alone out there and-and I can't let this happen AGAIN!” He yanks away, running while thinking of the time that arrow nearly missed you.

Something explodes very close behind and you hide your head when rumbles fall from above you. You panic and desperately tuck on your shirt. “The one time I need this to rip, it doesn't!”

You take of your gloves to get better grip to try pulling the bolts. A gloved hand appears and begins to pull. “Varian!”

He takes off his gloves so he could grip your shirt tightly, “Don't worry, I've got you.”

You two pull and a piece finally rips off. Cassandra runs up, “Hurry up! We have to get out before-”

There was loud crumbling above you three and Cass immediately covers on top of you and Varian.

You shut your eyes, clinging to Varian and feel one of his hands hold yours tightly as you hear tons of rocks falling around you before it goes completely dark.