There once was a lonely balloon in a tower far far away from any human life.

"woe is me"
sighed the lonely balloon. "I have not seen a man in forever, the lonely echos of my voice make
me feel even colder throughout the empty halls of this forsaken castle." The balloon looked at
her empty copper basin, as she felt her stomach growl. "Nay, today I shall not eat, for today is
the day that I get out of this place!" She went over to a hidden booth in her room, and grabbed
all of the goods she had been assembling for years. She placed out on her magic carpet a
Turret, a Hull, a Cannon, and Suspension. "Oh magic carpet, please grant my wishes and
make me free, make me free I say!" She placed down a pumpkin for good luck, as she always
loved their sight, and all of the sudden a bright force field of light shined all through her
bedroom, and she was teleported outside, floating next to her brand new Tiger Tank. The
Horses were spooked, but she couldn't have anyone hear her so she put the horse harness on
them, and calmed them down by giving them a pumpkin. "Knew that would come in handy,
hah." She watched as her tank stood still in nature, a caterpillar crawled on a small bunch of
bushes by her, and she tore them up and placed them on her tank as camouflage bushes.
"We mustn't be noticed, for here I've heard strange stories of a monster, a hamster in a wheel
that uses a telepathic link to make us wander into his elevator, and what lies in there, well I may
not tell yet, for it gives me the shivers just to think." She floated into the tank, started it up, and
followed the path leading her towards civilization." She traveled for hours, on that very same
winding road, everything was beautiful, but the same. She glanced over at her catapillar friend,
and noticed him sweating. It was hotter than a plasma reactor out that day, and it was even
starting to get to her. She placed the caterpillar inside of the tank, in the shade. Eventually she
saw something in the distance, a clearing! She was getting close! She put the tank in full drive
and got to the edge of the clearing. What she saw though, was just a field. Then, a spark flew
off of her tank as she drove further, she was under attack! Luckily she had installed Ricochet-O
ERA System that was very tough, and she bounced the next few rounds of Nano-Brownings
that was fired at her. She told the Caterpillar to man the guns, as he did, and she found the
exact location of the tank that was firing at them. "Fire, over by that tree!" The Caterpillar did not
hesitate, rotating the gun and loading a special Golden Shell. The caterpillar fired the gun, a
large booming noise as that large blaster fired, and it split across the field, knocking right into
the enemy tank. A direct hit! The tank pulled out of the brush, revealing itself. But there was
something odd about the tank… It wasn’t affected by the shot at all! Then they looked closer, it
was one of those damned T-34s, with a russian hat and stalinium armor plating! She needed a
new strategy fast, the ERA system couldn't last much longer. She thought of an idea once she
saw a small amount of buzzing in the tree above that T-34. She told the caterpillar to fire at the
tree, once she gave him the signal. She grabbed the powerful water pistol machine gun, and
fired at the hatch. She eventually got the hatch open and yelled “FIRE!” The caterpillar had to
calculate heavily for the aerodynamics of the shell, but luckily hit the branch holding the buzzing
patch. They watched as an angry hanging hive of hornets nest fell into the T-34 Driver’s hatch,
and they saw the tank go still. A victory for them! They scanned the area with their VR-Helmet,
and saw nothing. “We gotta be more careful Caterpillar, things aren’t as safe as they were back
home.” The caterpillar shook its head agreeing, and they went on. They drove around for a bit
longer, but night finally set in. They decided to make a campfire using an extra wheel, a useless
square wheel, and a barrel they found in the back of the tank. They set up the air cushion and
slept the night away. In the morning, as they rose, it was quite, and foggy. They knew they
needed to pack up quick, for nothing good ever came of dense fog. They splashed out the water
and pat it down with a crowbar to make sure they wouldn’t be followed. They hopped into the
tank and turned on the radio with their modified TV remote, and listened to the weather. It was
going to be another hot day, and they couldn’t risk their tank burning up, so they slathered a
tube of Anti-Overheating Gel onto the engine. The caterpillar grew nervous as they drove more
on the path, it felt as if they were being watched. They found an old abandoned shack on the
road, and decided to set up there for a little while. They parked the tank and came inside, but it
was looted with fine goods! Food, good food, inside of a fridge carton box. An astrolabe, to help
them find their way at night, and a door that lead to a basement. The balloon told caterpillar not
to go down there, and that she was gonna make some soup. She started to boil some water in
the steam boiler, since they didn’t have any pots or pans, and threw in some vegetables.
Caterpillar, wanting to explore, betrayed Balloon and went downstairs, and turned on the lights.
What he saw made him gasp. It was an entire warehouse full of random parts! There were
catapults, and propellers, aerial machine guns, instrument panels, fuselages you name it.
Balloon called for caterpillar, and he quickly shut off the lights and came back upstairs. Balloon
filled 2 saucers full of soup. “Eat up buddy, it’s the best meal we will be having for a while.” They
sat down and started to eat, but caterpillar saw something rather strange. Every now and then
little ripples would start in his soup. They kept growing slightly bigger each minute, until Balloon
noticed it too. “What is going on?” The balloon began to look around, and noticed that it wasn’t
just the soup, many things were shaking. Then, just as the balloon got up, the door slammed
right open, and out of the fog came a loud, stomping, angry mech suit. It was clearly being
controlled somehow, it had fluent human motions. It saw them and in a loud booming voice,
yelled “WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOME?” Balloon and caterpillar screamed, leaving the
soap and running outside. The Mech followed them and cornered them in it’s back yard.
“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” The mech grabbed balloon and shook her, but it
didn’t noticed Caterpillar. He snuck around the mech, and studied it quick. It was a mech
chassis, but with a turret and catapult attached to it. He thought of a quick plan and ran
downstairs, using the parts down there to create a mech of his own. It looked similar but not as
well done. Whoever this was has had time to fool around with all of this stuff. He marched back
upstairs and got the other mech's attention by shooting it with a slingshot. The enemy mech
turned around, throwing Balloon on the ground. “WHAT, WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?”
Caterpillar did not hesitate, punching the enemy mech right in the turret. A big dent, destroying
it’s catapult. “You dare hurt Balloon, then you have to get through me first!” They threw punches
at each other, they kicked and they blasted with weapons. Caterpillar had enough, both their
mechs were reaching critical damage capacity. He jumped up on the roof, and body slammed
into the enemy mech, destroying them both in the process. Caterpillar got out, and watched as
something crawled out of the enemy mech. It was Hamster! The same one that they were
warned about in the myths. “You two, who are you? How are you so powerful?” Caterpillar just
shrugged and stumbled a bit, trying to regain his balance. Balloon piped up and asked Hamster
“The real question is, why do you have a mech? And why do you attack people in the forest?”
Hamster sighed, sore and in pain from the fight. “I just… was tired of people coming and
disturbing the peace of the forest. I used to be just like you two, wanting adventure, but
something happened and I lost control of how I feel and, well my anger just takes over. I’m so
sorry.” Balloon sighed as well, going and sitting over by Hamster. “Well, listen, me and
Caterpillar were on our way to civilization, to start a normal life. Would you like to come with
us?” Hamster sat in thought for a moment, before speaking up. “Alas, my days of mech
stomping should come to an end. Aye, I’ll join your quest to find civilization, it’s high time I start
a new as well. I have some spare parts that y’all could use on that there tank of yours, I’ll help
you put them on.” For the next few days, the three rested and spent time tuning up their tank.
They added a special Quantum Optical Emission Generator, for better aiming so that Caterpillar
wouldn’t need to calculate his shots anymore if they ran into trouble. Balloon lost the argument
to make it look like santa’s sleigh, so they decided to compensate and at least put snowflakes
on it for the upcoming winter season. They added a new VBFG >9000 blaster to the front, and a
big red button that activated a force field around the tank, in case of doomsday. They set off
back on the trail, wondering what encounters await them on their new journey, as friends.

The End.