Tremontine reached for the heavy switch to turn on the smelter.

A sudden crashing sound made her withdraw. At first, she thought her sister had dropped something, but a shower of glass raining down in the center of the room proved that to be false.

“Clemontine, what…??”

Tremontine whirled around to face her sister, but was surprised to see a strange green and white robot descending from above. It bore what looked like an angry expression in its pink LED eyes.

“An…iron v, v, valiant?” Clemontine stammered from across the room.

“Alright, nuts and bolts, I think you’re a little lost…” Tremontine growled.

“Release the gholdengo!” ordered the iron valiant.

“Not going to happen,” Tremontine replied plainly.

She reached for the switch again.

“RELEASE THE GHOLDENGO!” the iron valiant repeated, louder.

Tremontine groaned and turned back toward the robot intruder.

“Metal-man, you are making me very mad…”

The iron valiant stepped up to the smelter and unlocked it. The robot dragged out the drooling, vacant gholdengo and began to move toward the middle of the room.

“Oh no! You put that gholdengo back!” Tremontine snarled, “Look here!”

She hopped down from the controls, slid up her sunglasses, and looked the iron valiant in the eyes.

“Wait, wha…?!”

In a frightening moment, Tremontine realized one could not mesmerize a being with LED eyes.

In one swift motion, the iron valiant swung a glittering, double ended blade.

Tremontine’s fronds were neatly severed at the base. The palmkind didn’t scream; she silently reached for the stumps where her fronds had been. She looked at her fingers, which were covered with a clear substance that was filled with glittering, golden specks.

The very second the palmkind’s fronds were severed, Dib the gholdengo snapped out of his trance.

“WHAAA!! NO! DONT SMELT ME NOOO!!”

Dib began to thrash, but stopped once he realized he was being held by the iron valiant.

“Omega? You…came to save me…” Dib said softly, “After what I did?”

“You were in danger. Not being partners is an invalid reason to ignore the situation,” Omega explained.

“Tremontine! Oh no!” Clemontine cried, applying gauze to the fronds stumps on her sister’s head.

Tremontine motioned silently toward the robot and gholdengo, face contorted in a look of quiet rage.

The fronds on a palmkind were what allowed them to fully connect with someone’s mind…it was also what allowed them to use their telepathic speech. Tremontine was unable to talk!

Omega grabbed Dib in both arms and together, they rocketed away from the smelting facility, up into the night sky.

(The fronds grow back, but it takes a few months. It’s considered extremely rude in palmkind society to speak with your mouth, so Tremontine is likely not to speak at all until her fronds grow in.)