A girl's walkies

An Uran fan fiction

Chapter 2

Machida Youth Hostle

10pm

Uran walked from the bathroom patting baby powder on her face. "There! Squeaky clean Uran and a squeaking clean kitty!"

She placed the kitten on her futon and rubbed its head slowly as it purred and rubbed against her. " I haven't thought of a name for it yet. I hope the Doctor and my brother will let me keep it."

Houdini sat on her head squawking with displeasure. "Looks like he wants to make sure he gets that two yen in before you even think of bringing that cat home." Miko said as she pulled the covers over her legs. "So are you going to seriously call that man tomorrow?"

"Of course." Uran replied smirking. "I see your jealously isn't slacking."

Miko snorted. "For a robot that mimics humans? I think your programming needs a serious overhaul. I'm only ten and even I know making blind calls is really stupid."

"Hmph!" Uran snorted back. "Will you change your tune when I become really famous?"

"I won't spoil your dreams." Miko said smiling. "But don't change your story if you prove me right ok?"

Miko clicked the light off. "Oh yeah…when you get that dream Oscar tonight? Don't forget to mention me?"

Suddenly Uran threw her pillow across the room. "Yeah right!"

Miko jumped up and threw hers back. "Fish lips!"

Uran threw it back. "Cootie head!"

From then on a wild explosion of feathers filled the room!

Old Mishu Toy factory

Machida

Morning

Grace sat at a table soldering wires and circuit boards to a mechanical arm when her cell phone rang…

"Good morning. Antiox Studios. This is the office of Mister Gluepinski, may I be of service?" Grace said as she motioned to a man sitting nearby.

Uran gave Miko a smirk as she wiggled the phone at her. "This is Uran. Mister Gluepinski asked me to call."

"Oh yes!" Grace replied. "He says you are a good prospect for one of his upcoming projects. Would you be available for a screen test around noon?"

Uran stuck her tongue out at Miko. "Of course I can! Where should I go?"

"It will be an on-site test." Grace said. "I'll let Mister Alibaba give you the details."

The short man standing next to the work desk took the phone. "We're going to hold the screen test at the ball field across the river from Tokyo Hands. Just look for the equipment, myself and my associate." He said as he turned to the larger man with the blonde hair and beard.

"Sure!" Uran replied. "I can't wait!"

"Nor can we." The short man said as he clicked off the phone. "Looks like we got her hooked boss."

Skunk came out of a side room with Hamegg beside him. "So….how much was that exactly?"

Hamegg dropped a roll of money into Skunk's hand. "Half to snag her. The other half when we have her here."

Skunk unrolled the wad and stood counting it. "You do realize how dangerous this is? I'm not going to get skewered by that miserable little rat again. This time he's your problem."

Skunk's short sidekick pushed his finger into Hamegg's chest. "You rat us out? And I'll make you my lead weight designer pin cushion."

"Hey, back off!" Grace said as she pushed the man aside. "Just don't screw up…unlike the other ten or twenty times you had your butts handed to you by Astro. By the way?" Grace said as she turned to Skunk. "How did he get you inside that big tennis ball the last time he caught you?"

Skunk snarled. "That's confidential information. Nosey little gossip factory."

Volks steak house

Machida

Morning

Uran walked out licking her finger tips. "Now that? That was good pancakes!"

"Lucky you." Miko said as she counted the money from her pocket. "My mother's a tyrant when it comes to food. And why should you even bother to eat?"

Uran stopped for a moment and thought. "You know what? I really don't know? I mean I learned it from my brother and now I'm like….what the?"

Miko gestured. "Seriously. Kinda earth shattering huh?"

"I've been drinking oil with flavor lacing for a year now. As a robot I shouldn't care what the taste is like right?" Uran said as she played with her lips. "I just ate twenty pancakes with a ton of maple syrup and now I'm regretting it."

Miko laughed. "Better shut up while you're ahead. You keep thinking about it and your head will blow up."

"Well anyway? What do we do this morning before my big debut?" Uran asked.

"Buy some barf bags in case I get sick?" Miko replied smirking.

Uran pushed softly. "Really silly!"

"I know!" Miko said raising a finger. "We can find a doctor to examine your computer brain for a virus!"

Miko ran with Uran right behind her and stopped in front of a video game house. "How about here?"

"You read my mind didn't you?" Uran replied smiling.

Doctor O'Shay's House

Morning

Astro sat slowly kicking his legs back and forth while Cora was toying with his insides through the chest hatch.

"These new heat syncs should be fast enough to keep up with your output under really messed up conditions so you'll have more of a buffer than you did before." She said. She put a finger to his nose and smirked. "That doesn't mean you can do whatever you want though. You mess these up and I won't play with you again."

Astro smiled back. "Awww…..you're breaking my heart. Can't you see the pain I'm in?"

Cora closed the hatch and patted his chest. "Don't get any funny ideas about chasing after your sister. I heard about this stupid bet you and Reno made, what makes boys do things that are totally dumb?"

"It's fun?" Astro replied shrugging. "And I wasn't going to "go after" her. Just…just watch her from a distance."

Cora shook her head. "Your sister needs to learn things for herself. She might surprise you."

Astro rubbed his head then took Cora by a hand. "Come with me?"

"What?" She asked as he pulled her into the back yard.

"I just want to show you something." He said softly. "Just something I've been doing for a month. I need your opinion."

Astro took her into Doctor O'Shay's flower garden in a corner of the yard and put his hand over her eyes. "Close your eyes?"

Cora giggled. "What did you do?"

"Close em or I can't show you!" He said as he guided her around. "Now……look."

Cora looked around then downwards to the heart shaped formation of white rocks adorned with multi-colored flowers. In the center there was a picture painted on a large granite centerpiece. It was Astro hugging Cora with the word…"tranquility"….scripted below it

Cora gasped. "Oh my…..you? You did this?"

"Well…it took me a few tries. You know us robots, we're never satisfied because nothings totally perfect but…"

Cora snatched him and hugged him tightly.

"So….it works?" He asked.

"Perfectly." Cora replied.

Banana Splits Gamers

Machida

"Perfect robotic perception? Told you, you should have gone right." Miko said as she took the 3D video helmet off.

"I could have easily gotten out of it if you had just followed what I said." Uran replied pouting. "The sword swings are front, back, back, left, right, right….and left."

"Was that "right" after I turned around and faced backwards or…."

Uran scratched her head. "You know what? Now I'm confused."

Houdini was sitting on her head and he started rolling around and laughing. "I'm not a ditz! You take that back you silly feather duster!" Uran snorted.

Miko poked her. "I thought robots were supposed to be perfectly aware of direction?"

"Uh uh…" Uran replied. "In the real world we are but if you set up a fake 3D world well enough? You can make our circuits fry from the confusion. Just ask Astro. The only 3D game he can't play is Dragon Master V and he feels so left out when his friends play it."

"Conflicts with the real world huh?" Miko asked as she followed Uran to the batting cages.

"Between keeping track of the real world and the near-real feeling of the game? Astro had to be carried out the last time he tried it. The confusion corrupted all his navigational programming and fried his GPS chips. Reno's working to fix that though."

Uran grabbed a bat and put Houdini on the bat rack. "I want to play pee wee league this year. T-ball is soooo boring."

"Did you put in for it?" Miko asked as she put on a helmet in the next stall.

"Yup. All I have to wait on is for Doctor O'Shay to finish programming the fault and limits program so I can act like a normal kid. The last thing anybody wants to see is me sending a baseball through a parked car."

Miko watched Uran connect with the first baseball and almost break the target hanging on the net that ringed the roof of the game house.

"Or shatter a rib or two." Miko remarked bug eyed. "Look Uran, about this television thing? I don't think we should go."

"There's that jealously streak again." Uran replied pouting.

"At least let me call my Mom and see if she can be there?"

"Oh come on Miko." Uran said as she tapped the bat against her shoulder. "If you're that worried about it? You can hang back a little bit and watch. I've got like 50,000 horsepower in these arms, if anybody tries any dumb stuff I'll turn them into a pretzel!"

Miko huffed. "You can't hurt anyone silly."

"Oh yeah? My brother taught me his number one move, the supersonic atomic wedgie. Think anybody could do anything after being whipped around in a high speed circle from the tag of their underwear?"

"Giggles"…."Do you know how silly you just sounded?" Miko said gasping.

Uran smacked one last ball and took Miko by her hand. "Trust me, Nobody will dare touch us. Astro and me? We're cross fingers! He'll know the micro-second I'm in trouble and he'll be right there!"

Ministry of Science

Mid-Morning

Astro flew up to the window of Reno's lab and climbed through the sill. "Ok, I'm here!"

Reno took a moment to open Astro's chest panel and plug a reader box into a USB port. "Good! These new heat syncs are working fine."

"Swell!" Astro replied as he closed the panel and walked to the refrigerator.

"Wait…" Reno warned. "We have to run that test I was talking about remember?"

"No way…" Astro replied with a sigh. "Haven't I been tortured enough? Where's the sympathy around here?"

Reno smirked. "Remember "bucket-o-bolts" it's your fault you got side lined in the first place? We have to make sure these things will work under stress."

Astro chewed on an apple fritter. "You're gonna torture me aren't you?"

"I'm looking forward to it." Reno replied smiling.

Astro swallowed and gave Reno a scornful look. "You suck."

Reno walked over and gave Astro a friendly hug. "What would you do without your best friend? You need a little work out anyway…pudgy."

"Nothing from Uran yet." Astro said smiling. "Good for both of us."

"I'm confident." Reno said smiling widely. "By the way? I want my swim suit to be bright pink with white frills."

Astro snickered back. "How about I make you black with blue frills?"

"You're not welshing already are you?" Reno snorted back as Astro pulled a can of oil from the fridge.

"Absolutely not!" Astro replied. "I'm gonna have Cora sew up your girl scout uniform just the way it should be. It'll accent your ugly butt just perfectly!"

Noon

Metsushima Elementary Ballfield

Machida

Miko followed a few steps behind Uran as they walked through the fence gate and onto the ball field. "Are you being a slow poke on purpose Miko?" Uran asked with a snort. "I told you there's nothing to worry about."

"Well I see nothing wrong with playing things safe." Miko replied. Even Houdini seemed to side with Miko as he flew around Uran chirping up a storm of worry.

"You two are just a pair of scardy cats. Don't worry, you can stand back if you want to but you might regret it if I end up being discovered by Hollywood!"

Miko sighed back and rubbed her head. "Ok! Ok! I'll go with you or I'll never hear the end of it!"

They could see three men around some filming equipment, a large gorilla looking guy, a short slim man wearing a fedora and the man they met yesterday who walked up to the girls with a real toothy grin on his face. "Good, god you decided to come, fantastic!" Hamegg said as he shook Uran's hand.

"Yeah but is this gonna be quick? My friend here is a little impatient." Uran said as she gestured to Miko.

"No problem." Replied Hamegg. "Trust me, it should take two quick shoots and then we'll be done." He directed Uran and Miko to the home plate circle and stood by the camera. "If your friend doesn't want to try out, she can go over to the side with Mister Shima."

Uran looked at Miko. "Your last chance to be a big star?" She said smirking.

"No thanks." Miko replied. "Knock your socks off." She walked over and stood next to Shima as he adjusted dials and levers on a sound board.

Uran stood on the home plate and dropped the short script Hamegg had given her. "Ok, I'm all set!"

Hamegg smiled at her. "Good! Now in this scene kido, you're arguing with your father about a school dance. He absolutely hates your date! Now I wanna to see some emotion, some fire from the feminine belly! Rip your old man apart!"

"Am I doing a drama or a slasher pic?" Uran asked with a smirk.

"Combination, make it interesting, ok! Here we go.....ready......set......shoot!"

Uran interupted. "You mean lights....camera......action!"

Suddenly a flash of light flew from the camera, hit Uran in the chest and threw her against the home plate backstop with a terrible thud! "I KNEW IT!" Miko screamed as she kicked Shima square in his privates and made a run for it!

"GET THAT LITTLE....ow....." Shima withered as he toppled over in pain.

The big flunkie..."Moose"....threw a spinning haymaker at Miko's legs and tripped her up before she could get to the ball field gate, "LET GO OF ME! HELP! HELP ME!" The girl screamed as she tried to fumble with her cell phone only to have it rudely snatched away by Hamegg...

"Oh no my dear, we can't have that now can we?" He said waving the phone in her face. "Don't worry kid? As soon as we get what we want with your little robot friend over there, you can go home."

Miko screamed out. "HOUDINI! GO GET HELP!"

Hamegg turned around to see the small plump bird sitting in the grass behind him. "Hey...gents? GET THE STUPID FEATHER DUSTER!"

Shima and Moose ran and stumbled after the small bird as Houdini ran, jumped and flew around, dodging their silly dancing moves as they tried to catch him. He flew up and found a hole in a tree to coward into till he watched Uran and Miko brutally tossed into a van.

As the vehicle spun out and passed below him, Houdini dove and glided down to the rear door where he rapped his wing around the hand grip. The van vanished into the crowded Saturday shopper filled streets.

1pm

Weapons Test Chamber

Ministry of Science

Astro skittered on his hands and knees behind a busted up car to get a reprive from the insanity Reno had unleashed on him! A 20mm chain gun was chewing sparks in the steel lined floor and chasing him around like a rabid dog!

"I thought this was test, not a suicide mission!" Astro snapped as he jumped to narrowly avoid a rocket bomb that exploded on his heels! He flew up, whipped his backside around and unleashed a stream of 9mm cannon shells at the offending gun turret on the ceiling!

"Nice shot!" Reno yelled. "These syncs are working just great."

"Well if they're working great then....GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Astro demanded.

Reno answered by firing another grenade that exploded behind Astro and threw him into the control room glass, pressing him against it with a contorted dumb look on his face. "If you decided to accept defeat and do your side of the bet, I might think about it?"

Astro smirked back. "Never."

"Alright, you've been tortured enough for today anyways." Reno said as he stopped the test and opened the control room blast door. Cora walked in just as Astro was picking up his clothes...

"Nice tush." She said smiling.

"I'll nice tush you!" Astro snorted back. "What's the big idea of letting Psyco here handle the test? He almost killed me!"

"Quit your whining?" Reno chirped back. "I warned you we had to stress you out to make sure those new heat syncs worked didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah..."Astro joshed. "So anybody want to do something today?"

Cora