Addiction
Chapter 2: In which I can't think up of a chapter name.
Danelle appreciated Harupia's...enthusiasm in beating the new hostage. She really did. But she wished that the robot would leave him conscious long enough for a serious interrogation.
Danelle sighed. "Harupia, I know I told you to hit him each time he cracked a joke, but did you have to beat him unconscious? It's hard to get information from someone who isn't awake to give it."
Harupia bowed down low, his voice apologetic. "I offer my apologies mistress. It's just that...well...this prisoner...he is rather annoying would you not agree? Each time he opens his mouth I have the strongest urge to close it with my fist."
Danelle couldn't help but chuckle. "I think we both have that urge. But it could have waited until he told us who is placing a bounty on me. It doesn't worry me too much, but it will pay to know who my enemies are."
Harupia bowed down again, muttering an agreement, but Danelle waved him off, telling him to throw Dark into a makeshift cell. With the way things were going, she was going to need a lot of extra defenses, and fast. If the Skull Unit invaded again with some backup, it would be trouble.
"Harupia." Danelle called out for him, causing him to turn around to face her. "Do we have any...drills?"
Harupia frowned at her question. "Of course Mistress. Why do you ask?"
"I'll be needing them. The biggest ones available." Danelle turned towards her television, staring at the image on it, making Harupia curious. He looked around her at the screen also, and chuckled.
"Really, Mistress? Don't you think that's overkill? Such a beast would be unable to restrain an attacker, only slay it." Harupia seemed amused with her idea.
"I'm aware." Danelle muttered. "But today the Skull Unit leader got close enough to possibly kill me. It would appear that special measures are beginning to be necessary."
Harupia bowed in the air, a feat that looked slightly uncomfortable to Danelle. "Of course Mistress. I shall let the Mini-Zaku's know to gather them for you."
- - - - - - - - - -
Dark awoke in a locked room, too dark to see anything, and heard the cluttering of metallic feet outside of it. He felt for his cloak and was disappointed to find it missing. It appeared she wasn't going to take any chances of him hiding anything.
Dark formed a small bit of chaos energy in his hands, using it to light up the area he was in, and sighed as he realized where he was.
"The laundry room?" Dark was amazed. "She can build an army of robots, give them abilities that even the most advanced military scientists can't even hope to do in this decade...and the best jailing she has available is a laundry room?"
Dark suddenly grabbed the back of his head and fell to one knee, rubbing it. "Yeesh..either the stupidity of this is getting to me, or Harupia hit me a few more times after I fell unconscious.."
The door then opened up, Harupia standing there looking slightly amused as he watched the injured cat stand up again. "Eh..a little from Column A, a little from Column B. Figured that if you were already unconscious, a few more blows to the head couldn't be that bad for you."
"Oh? What about Asimovs Three Laws?" Dark asked as he finally managed to drag himself back to his feet. "Aren't you supposed to be following those?"
Harupia chuckled as he motioned for Dark to step out and follow him. "Danelle decided not to program us with some asinine laws created by a dead author." Harupia then slowly started to rise, two energy blades extending out over his hands from his arms as he struck a dramatic pose in the air. "Now look at us! Living unbound by the rest of society, WE are the true rulers of this planet! We shall fight to rule this planet a-"
"Ahem." A voice rang out from behind Dark, causing him to turn to look, and Danelle was behind him, her arms folded. "Harupia, sometimes I regret programming you with your full personality."
Harupia bowed down in the air with a slight chuckle again. "I apologize Mistress. I shall do my best not to do my evil monologues around you."
Dark stared openly at both now, before he shook his head and glanced at Danelle. "What the hell do you place your robots personalities on?"
Danelle shrugged. "Most of the robots themselves, and their personalities are based on their video game counterparts."
"....Video games?" Dark twitched. "You...you build your advanced weaponry based on video game characters?"
"Sometimes anime characters also. I like to try to stay diverse." Danelle smiled.
"So..you're just a giant nerd?" Dark felt something rising up in his stomach. "I came here to try to capture someone wanted by the government for being a NERD?!"
"Geek." Danelle corrected.
"..Wha?" Dark was staring at her again.
"Nerds do nothing and sit around really. Geeks are sometimes antisocial and actually know how things work and get things done." Danelle smiled again. "Only a geek could get this robotic family done, not just some nerd."
Dark sighed as he shoved his face into his hands. "Oi...this is not a good day. I got captured by a nerd.."
"Geek." Danelle corrected again, her smile slipping.
"Whatever." Dark was beyond the mood for banter by now. "I wake up in a laundry room, and have to listen to your gigantic green birdman give his evil monologue.."
Harupia punched Dark in the back of the head.
"GAH! Stop fucking doing that!" Dark snapped.
Harupia shrugged.
Dark glared at him, and kept his eyes on the robot before continuing. "Then I learn that the threat I came to detain is actually a woman who plays too much video games! You know what? I'm done. Fuck this bounty, fuck this base, fuck geeks or nerds, whatever the hell you are, and fuck you Harupia. I'm leaving."
Harupia grabbed Dark by the arm, lifting him up into the air. "Like hell you are. You're coming with m-"
"Chaos.." Dark started, his eyes acquiring a faint glow to them as light began to gather in his hands.
- - - - - - - - - -
The Mini-Zaku's just finished clearing out the remaining Skull Unit squad members, finishing it off with Spike.
"Well, that takes care of that." Zaku-1 said. "Lets go report to Harupia for our next mission."
"Roger that. Lets ret-" Zaku-2 was cut of by Harupia shooting through the wall, followed immediately by a rather large blast.
"Harupia!" Zaku-1 saluted him. "We have finished our assignment! We are ready for new o-"
Harupia ignored the two Mini-Zaku's as he blasted back through the wall, cussing rather vehemently as he did so.
"...So, take the rest of the day off?" Zaku-2 suggested.
- - - - - - - - - -
Dark hit the ground with a rather audible thud, and laid there silent for a few seconds. When he finally broke the silence, he groaned and rolled over, looking at Danelle who seemed speechless.
"You know.." Dark started. "That idiotic bird robot of yours really needs to know when to give it up. It was impressive that he threw that barrier up right before I finished, but it didn't do much to help."
Danelle blinked as she tore her eyes away from her bases new series of holes. "How...how much energy did you use?!" She was impressed. Not many living creatures could generate that much chaos energy and live.
"More than I should have.." Dark groaned again as he tried to stand up. "I'm pretty drained, but I still have more than enough to get out of this place you know."
Danelle smiled and rose her hand, making a simple waving motion. Almost instantly, the room was filled with a mixture of several dozen Mini-Zaku squadrons, her personal ninja robot, and a very angry Harupia who just flew back in through the walls he was blasted through.
"...Huh." Dark eyed the new robots that just flooded the room, and smirked a little as he saw Harupia's face distorted in rage. "Well, I always enjoyed a challenge."
He then dragged himself to his feet, using the remaining chaos energy he had to reinforce his muscles, and he ran towards the crowd of robots inbetween him and his escape.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Well you have to give him some credit," Danelle said to a still very angry Harupia. "I've never seen someone stupid enough to take on an army by themselves."
"I'm sorry Mistress, but he just blasted me through the damn base. I want him dead." Harupia was in the process of being restrained by fifteen Mini-Zaku's pinning him to the ground.
"And I want him alive." Danelle motioned towards the again unconscious cat on the floor, riddled with tranquilizer darts and bruises. "I still don't know who placed a bounty on me, and I would like to run a few tests on him. He can produce an amazing amount of chaos energy and survive it, it could prove to be helpful if I knew how he does it."
Harupia opened his mouth to speak. "..." Harupia closed his mouth.
Danelle motioned for the Mini-Zaku's to let Harupia up. "Now then, are we finished with our argument? Or can I trust you to take Dark to his cell?"
"..You mean the laundry room?" Harupia asked, his face showing heavy restraint.
"Yeah.." Danelle looked away. "We should probably do something about that."
"I'll look into it." Harupia bowed down low and turned away to walk off.
"By the way...Harupia?"
"Yes Mistress?" Harupia turned again to face her.
"If you really wanted to get the Zaku's off of you..why didn't you use your thrusters?" Danelle was now wearing an amused smile as she pointed out the obvious solution that had flown over Harupia's head.
Harupia opened his mouth to speak, but then closed his mouth instantly, as he thought on it. Slowly the unbridled rage he was wearing but a minute ago was returning to his face.
"SON OF A..." Harupia started.
- - - - - - - - - -
Zaku-1 and Zaku-2 were busy laying around doing much of nothing other than talking with eachother.
"....Well, we had no standing orders to help Lord Harupia, and as such we could have done something against his and Mistress Danelle's wishes." Zaku-2 finished explaining.
"..And?" Zaku-1 asked.
"And we're lazier than hell." Zaku-2 admitted. "But my point still stands. Unless we're told to check something out, it might be best for Lord Harupia, and the Mistress if we don't interfere."
"...BITCH!" Harupia's voice rang down the hall into the Mini-Zaku's room.
"...Like that?" Zaku-1 asked.
"Especially that." Zaku-2 replied.
"I'm fine with that." Zaku-1 said
Neither of them moved from their spot.
- - - - - - - - - -
Dark woke up in an unlit room. He sighed as he felt around and realized he was in the laundry room again.
"Mlaaaaaugh." Dark said. He stopped as he thought about what just came out of his mouth.
Funny... Dark made a face. "Mlaaaaaaugh" is not "Why am I back here".
"You know.." A voice behind Dark spoke. "It can be hard to speak after being injected with enough tranquilizer to down an elephant."
"Graalsssh?" Dark said.
The voice sighed. "Okay, seriously. I don't even have a brain and you're making it hurt. Stop talking."
Dark tried to stand up, and discovered that he couldn't. He decided to try to roll over. That wasn't doable either. As a matter of fact it seemed like all he could do was twitch, drool, and speak incoherently.
Alright. I thought I might earlier, but now it's official. I hate this place. Dark's sigh came out as a mass of kept up spittle spilling out of his mouth. I need to get out of here.
As if to answer the voice in his head, the door opened and Dark found the barrel of a rifle straight in his face.
"Lord Harupia!" A rather uninteresting voice sounded out. "Mistress Danelle has sent me to get you. She believes you have had a long enough time out in the cell!"
The voice behind Dark sighed. "Well then, that's good and all, but I can't MOVE you idiot. Power my limbs back on."
"Ceeeeearmsash?" Dark asked.
"...Er..." The new voice seemed to have no words.
"Oh don't mind him." Harupia seemed to be enjoying himself some. "The other Mini-Zaku's filled him with tranquilizer darts. He probably won't be coherent for a few hours."
"I...see." The new voice seemed to be unconvinced. He walked over to Harupia and Dark heard a few clicks.
"Thank you Zaku...?"
"Zaku-27 sir!"
"I see." Harupia walked past him and Dark. "And where is the Mistress?"
"Her workshop Lord Harupia. She called for you to help her with a new robot she's working on." Zaku-27, whether it was deliberately or not was now standing on Dark's back.
"ARRRGHBLEASH!" Dark shouted, throwing his spittle everywhere.
"I shall report over there immediately then." Harupia bowed down, and as he did Dark saw his face, grinning. "Say, 27, do you have any standing orders now?"
"No sir!" Zaku-27 seemed to jump a little on Dark's back as he did what Dark could only imagine was a salute.
"Good." Harupia chuckled a little. "Then I order you to power down right there for the next two hours and then report back to me for new orders."
"WHALISUSGH?!" Dark shouted again, tearing up a little from the pain of the Mini-Zaku standing on his back.
"Will do!" Zaku-27 jumped a little as he saluted Harupia again, then powered down.
"Heh...enjoy your stay Dark." Harupia chuckled again as he turned away to walk off. "It'll be a long one."
Dark whimpered as the door closed, knowing that the next two hours were going to be the longest he ever had in his life.
- - - - - - - - - -
Danelle was sitting over a barely started project. It seemed to be a massive old scuba outfit, with a gigantic makeshift drill.
"..Well, if I run the wiring to meet in the head...no too obvious." Danelle sighed. The original design left much to be desired in terms of making a robot.
Harupia entered the room and bowed. "I have arrived Mist-"
"Yeah yeah, that's great Harupia. Get over here." Danelle motioned for him, still focusing
on her new robot. "I'm trying to work out where to place the power core on this big guy. Any ideas?"
Harupia walked over to the new robot and grinned almost instantly. "Well...his butt might be a good spot to put it."
Danelle turned towards him and blinked.
"W-what I mean is..." Harupia bowed down to her again, lower than usual this time. "You're asking me which means you want a place that isn't obvious..I don't think anyone would check his...rear. Don't you agree Mistress?"
"...Harupia." Danelle turned away from him. "As disturbing as some of your ideas are...they are effective. But I never imagined there would be the day where I imagined powering a robot through it's ass."
Harupia chuckled some as he straightened himself up. "I didn't think I'd see the day where you had me tossed in the laundry room for a time out."
"So we're even?"
"Indeed Mistress."
Danelle laughed a little and turned around to face Harupia, a huge smile on her face. "I should have programmed you with less intelligence. It gets annoying to have a robot that gets the better of me in some conversations." She patted him on the shoulder playfully.
Harupia smiled back at her, and bowed down again, not as low as usual this time. "I'll keep that in mind Mistress. Do you require me for anything else?"
"Yes. I would like to see Dark in about twenty minutes.." Danelle turned back towards her new project, starting to work on the placement of the power core. "Please bring him here by then."
Harupia frowned. "Can it wait for...about...an hour and a half Mistress?"
"I would prefer for it to be around my time fr-Harupia what did you do?" Danelle looked over her shoulder, shooting a suspicious glare towards him.
- - - - - - - - - -
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP ME!" Dark had discovered he could talk five minutes ago, and spent the entire time screaming, for help.
Unfortunately, the only source of possible help nearby was the Mini-Zaku's. And they had no orders to help him.
Dark struggled as he tried to get Zaku-27 off his back. "WHY DOES NO ONE ANSWER ME IN MY TIME OF NEED?!"
- - - - - - - - - -
"Would you believe me if I said..nothing?" Harupia gave a hopeful smile.
"No, not really." Danelle shrugged. "But as long as he's alive, I suppose it's fine."
Harupia bowed down low again as he lifted up off the ground. "I shall keep that in mind Mistress. Very close in mind."
