CHAPTER III

My Life As...

"Perspective, time teaches this lesson best of all. Becoming the dusty mirror for us to reflect upon."

R.D.M.

Tremerton High

He once strolled the hallways as a King. He had even earned the respect of the ever critical Crust Cousins. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. It didn't take long, the rumors, the whispers in all the classrooms, the stares in the lunchroom. With each, his reputation diminished. He cleared his mind as he entered his locker combination and opened it. A folded piece of paper fell to the floor. He kneel-ed down, grabbed the paper and unfolded it as he stood again, "Robot Fucker" It read. He simply crushed the note and tossed it over his shoulder. The past few weeks had tempered his resolve. When news finally broke of his relationship with Jenny, the gentle current of high school popularity, quickly turned into a rip tide of hate from which he could not escape. Brad took a drink from his sports bottle then disrobed from his football uniform. He was sure to take his time, allowing his teammates to leave so he could shower in peace. The warm water felt relieving and relaxing on his sore muscles and washed away his thoughts, if only for the moment. As he lathered himself, a noise caught his attention. Faint, but he was sure it was the door to the locker room, "Whose there?" He asked over the roar of the shower, no response, "Most be my imagination..." He decided and continued. After a few minutes, another sound came from the locker room, no mistake this time. He cut off the water, grabbed his towel and covered his bare body. Stepping through the steam, he glanced down the locker rows. Nothing, he went to his locker to get his normal cloths when suddenly, he felt weak. His hands trembled as he fiddled with the lock and found that he could not read the numbers, "Why am I squinting?" He briefly pondered. He also noticed his heart rate begin to increase. Vision slightly blurry.

"Roofies..." An upscale British accent purred from behind. Brad spun to see Brittney Crust leaned against the shower doorway. "Bradley Carbunkle...Star of the Temerton Quakers...The coolest person in the entire school and...A robot fucker..."

"What...What did you do to me?" Brad drunkenly questioned.

"Just a little something to help you relax." Brad turned towards the exit only to take a few steps and lean against the lockers. Tiffany Crust was standing in his way wearing no more than bra, panties and a smile, "My dear cousin, however, added a little something extra..."

"What are you...talking about..." Brad sleepily questioned. He found his answer as he glanced towards the floor and seen his member at "attention". A hand entered his view as Tiff grabbed a hold.

"Looks like lil Brad's ready ta play!" Before Brad could react, she snatched away his towel and dropped it beside her.

"Don't be shy now Bradly." The Brit purred once more, "We want a grand show for our friend Jenny! After all...Her activation day is coming up..." Brad noticed something in the Louie Prada covered devil's hand. His eyes wouldn't tell him what.

"Dem pills said day last foe hours. We gonna get a show!" Tiffany, simultaneously, removed her bra and mutilated the English language, "An here's tha first scene!" Tiff knee-led down in-front of Brad, taking his member in hand,

"Tell us now Bradly, do you truly prefer cold steel to warm flesh?" Brittney added as Tiff's mouth enveloped him. His eyes grew dark as he felt the painful pleasure.

"Jenny I...I'm sorry"

The Himalayas

"YEEEAAAHHHH!" Gasping onlookers ducked as a mechanical bovine sailed overhead, crashing into a building side. The newly legless beast starred, confused at his assailant. A silent, blue laser through the left optic was all the clarification it received. The hero of the moment smiled at her good deed. Basking in the satisfaction of fulfilling her prime objective yet again. She scanned the area to see the admiration of the crowd. Her C.P.U. only processes a live stream of conflicting data. Blank stares, hasty glances, and looks of down right disappointment.

"I don't understand...I saved them..." The scene paused on the pedestrians judgmental faces, "Memory playback halted" The text appeared across Jennifer Diane Wakeman's optical lenses. She opened her eyes, taking in the view from the peak of Mt. Everest. This place was her Fortress of Solitude. The harsh cold did little more than allow her C.P.U. to operate more efficiently. With her external audio sensors deactivated, it was the perfect place for her to process, categorize and file the days data. She decided not to categorize this file, opting instead to add it to her hard drive under the sub routine, "Optional Storage" Not something she wanted to remember but, she felt it important to keep for the time being anyway. Her C.P.U. grew blank as she looked up at the blue heavens. This was the real reason she liked coming here, the view of the sky. She allowed a smile to creep across her face as another memory file began to play.

Flashback

Two weeks, five days, ten hours, eighteen minutes, thirty two seconds ago, a mere month and a half into Brad and Jennifer's awkward romance, the couple found themselves marooned on a remote island after a surprisingly rough battle with Killgore. Jenny had exhausted her energy supply in the fight with previously harmless toy, who had mysteriously managed to become an actual threat. He was babbling on insanely about Cluster Prime, the Hive and ultimate power. Unable to overpower him, she was forced to use an E.M.P burst, which drained most of her power. She deployed her solar panels to try and charge, but they knew they would have to spend the night. As night fell Brad had built a fire, the two sat beside each other, just as they had done before in the bed of his truck, starring at the stars. Brad always enjoyed the stars. He always told her she was lucky, because she could fly up there anytime she wanted. She processed that very file and smiled to herself. The cool night air brought Brad closer to Jenny. She could hear the unusually high heart rate she had gotten used to at these moments. She smiled as he placed his left arm around her shoulders, pulling himself as close as possible to her. She tilted her head to his shoulder to speak but Brad cut her off with his index finger on her metal lips. He looked into her optics with the same old eyes yet, they held something new in their gaze that the robot girl could not figure out but, she wanted to. He slid the finger down and caress her face with the hand and softly spoke, "Tonight...I want you to take me to the stars..."

End of flashbox

"Memory playback halted" The text once more appeared. "Filling under social interaction." Sweetest torture was the memory. Jenny could not physically feel the events of that night, but her C.P.U. had developed it's own way to stimulate such things. Her programs and transistors fired in a dazzling order as they copulated as best they could. She hated the fact that, she wasn't fully equipped. There's only so much a robot can do. News of their relationship, and actions, became public, society turned on them. Brad received the heaviest portion of the harassment, the world had come to accept XJ-9 for all she had done for them. She had become tempered to those who lashed out at her still but, Brad had a very hard time. Society's harsh treatment coupled with her inability to completely satisfy his needs, caused a major obstacle in there relationship. She mentally sighed to clear her programs, "Three days until my activation day...at least I'm not being deactivated." She spoke to herself, "I wonder what moms got planned? Her and Axle have been locked up in her lab and they wont let me in...Axle..." Jenny spoke to herself. It didn't help her relationship with Brad any that her and Axle had been talking through wireless transmissions. They had even co-operated a few times to stop various criminal activities. She loved Brad for all he's done for her but, like all good things, she knew from the beginning it wouldn't last.

Nora's lab

"Astounding..." Nora allowed the word to roll off her tongue softly, as she scrolled through the information on her monitor. One terabyte of data never seen by human eyes. Sure, she had to delete her hard drive to make room, but she had it all memorized anyway. The past few weeks had been one long chain of new discoveries, linked together with scientific breakthroughs not seen in a hundred years. Shortly after his run in with The Silver Shell, Axle decided to give Nora a copy of his blue print file. He told her he trusted her, he said it was an act of faith to try and earn the trust of all his new friends. Whatever his reasons, Nora was on cloud nine. Formulas for new longer lasting hydraulic fluids, detailed specifications of his processor operating speeds and a elemental table, graphing all compounds inside the super strong materials that made up his body. And she could not tell anyone, she swore on her Nobel Price that the information would never leave her lab. She was, however, allowed to incorporate whatever she could into XJ-10. Oddly, shortly after providing this data, Axle began to slowly remember how he was created. He couldn't explain it, "It just popped in my head..." He told her. Nora stood from her chair and strolled over to her newly built Hydrodynamic Electromagnetic Forging Tank. She gazed at the amazing machine Axle had helped her build. The machine took one week to assemble. Little more than a giant vat made from tempered glass with an electromagnet on its top. The construction was rather easy. It was the computer programming that controlled it's automated functions that required the most work. The tank was filled with a soup of metallic based substances; Gold, Nickle, Lead, Titanium, all brought to a boil. Within the soup, hung a very humanoid shaped arm not fully formed. The site reminded her of a certain movie series from a bygone era. The machine worked by hanging a thin wire frame of the desired shape in the tank. The the tank would then be filled with the metal soup. Once it reached the proper temperature, Electromagnetic pulses of various degrees, frequencies, and timings were applied in a complex sequence. Causing the metal atoms to merge into elements, bonding them to the frame simultaneously. This created an extremely strong, aerodynamic one piece structure. Once the piece was finished forming, it was removed to cool and the new frame went in. Piece by piece, the main structure, or skeleton, of XJ-10 formed over the past week. Anticipation grew as completion neared, not of success, rather for the sight of joy on her daughters face. Though technically 6 1/2 years old, Jenny had been a 16 year old for 6 years. XJ-10 would reflect an appearance of what Jenny should look like if she could age. Nora couldn't help but feel disappointed, her creation wouldn't be completed in three short days. Complications of reverse engineering Axle's nervous system. "Truly astounding...Fiber optic nervous systems...nanites that use carbon from petroleum intake to repair the host automaton...You are so advanced...Far beyond anything I have ever seen..." Nora turned back to her monitor, "I think I'll analyze this data a little closer, see if there are any clues to our mysterious guests past."

The Pacific Seafloor

"What's wrong with me..." A slightly digitized voice asked the inky abyss, "All systems functioning normally at 100%" The text appeared in his H.U.D. across a black canvass. He knew something was wrong, weather his systems check indicated it or not. No memory files of who he actually was or where he's from. Not a single byte of data describing his home world. Then, two weeks ago, new files suddenly appear in his memory banks. He felt a slight vibration from the back of his head, at the base of his C.P.U. housing, just before he detected them. It was the same feeling he got when he received a transmission from Jenny. Axle reached back and rubbed the spot. That wasn't the only thing troubling him. Since he arrived, at random points, his optic and audio sensors would record and store data in an encrypted that file even he could not access. Worst of all, he would always get the same vibration feeling after, "Why can't I access my own files?" Another question cast out into the briny deep, if Poseidon heard he did not respond. He pointed his right arm out in front of him and held his hand vertically, letting loose a bright ball of yellow energy. It struck the sea floor a few hundred yards away like a cruise missile, sending a plume of silt high into water. The only knowledge he had of his home world was it's location. He hacked into various government satellite systems of the past few days, trying to examine the coordinates himself. Much like where he stood, he found nothing. He did, however, discover information about the Hive. It seems that, after the fall of Queen Vexes, at the hands of Jennifer and her mother, Cluster Prime was divided. Vega became ruler by oil line and choice of the people, but the military remained loyal to Vexes. With the citizens of Cluster Prime having their golden chips once more and the military their numbers, equipment, and combat programming, an oil stained line was drawn through the planet. According to documents, no clear leader of the Hive was ever discovered. Axle knew. The big one with a horn, he looked like hell, pieced together with scrap metal held together by crud welds. The one that came to his world. He concentrated on the image, opening up what few memory files he had, layering all information together. He began to notice a pattern in the data. Like pieces of a puzzle scattered throughout his hard drive. He managed to locate all of the bytes and piece them back together. What he was left with was a brief video file. He immediately played the clip, hoping answers would lay within. "Memory file playing" Axle opened his eyes and glanced around at his surroundings. He was strapped, vertically to a wall of some sort, "DV-2 is online Smytus." A small voice squeaked. Axle turned his head in its direction to see a roach drone speaking to a giant robot. The big one, called Smytus, simply spun around and looked him directly in the optics with a smile, "I'll inform the tru-" The memory file stopped. Axle stood bewildered. The file showed him in a lab of some kind. No planetary explosion. He tried to search for more information, only to feel the vibration once more and receiving an access denied message, "FUCK!" He cursed the sea. Something was definitely wrong. He quickly scanned for Jenny's signal. Maybe she could help, and for some strange reason, he suddenly felt he had to be near her.

The Lee residence

A trail of Blue Bull energy drink bottles lead from the kitchen into the garage. Sheldon was hunched over in a chair, typing away on his laptop. He had become a recluse since his run in with Axle in Hawaii. The news of Jenny and Brads romance destroyed him. He truly considered Brad a friend, so he aimed all of his anger at Axle. He had become obsessed with proving that Axle's true intentions were sinister. Even now, he was busy compiling his evidence, "1.( Virtually no memory files of his home world or life. 2.) Conflicting background data, no evidence of a planet at those coordinates. 3.) Randomly causes interference with audio and video signals. 4.) Radioactive..." Sheldon stopped typing. He couldn't think straight anymore. He hadn't slept in days. To busy hacking Nora's private computer network, looking for evidence of what he knew to be true. He found Axle's blueprints. There wasn't enough time to download the entire set without detection, so he copied as much as he could. He rubbed his red eyes as he leaned back in his chair and allowed his head to hang over the back rest. He opened his eyes to see his Silver Shell suite starring back at him. Big, bold, intimidating...Everything he's not. He set back up straight in his chair and spun around. He's misshaped reflection starred him down from The Silver Shells chest. Both his greatest success and biggest failure, Sheldon frowned back, "You were supposed to make everything better...You were supposed to win Jenny's heart..." Sheldon's frown turned to a grimace as he grabbed a near by wrench and threw it at the suit. It merely bounced off, not even scuffing the high gloss finish. Sheldon smiled at this. It was a new polymer, scratch resistant. He made it from the element table he found in Axle's data. Another reason why he hadn't been seen by his friends, to busy repairing and upgrading the Silver Shell. "Next time Axle...I'll be ready..." The new Silver Shell was bigger and stronger than the last model. It was loosely based off of Sheldon's second favorite hero, The Invincible Bulk. Thanks to Axle's data, the suit was much more streamlined, more human looking with muscle like definition. The head changed as well, no more mouth, no more small antenna. His eyes slanted into a judgmental stare. A low beeping sound caused him to turn to his laptop. It was his radar, it was detecting a signal moving fast in his general direction. Jenny was on the move, heading towards Brads house. Another beep, something was following her. Sheldon scanned the energy trail, "Radiation level confirmed" scrolled across his screen, "Axle..." Sheldon said coldly, "He's after her! I can't let anything happen to her.!" Sheldon typed in a few commands and closed his computer as the Silver Shells eyes lit up.

Cluster Prim: Two months before Axle's arrival

Queen Vega's optics hinged open as her palace walls shook violently enough to free ceiling paneling which slammed to the cracked floor. The Clusterquake stopped as suddenly as it began. Vega flung back her royal silicon sheets and hopped out of bed, wearing no more than her under-paneling, she ran to her communication station, "Shell! What the hell just happened!" Vega demanded.

"I-I'm not sure!" Shell answered back hastily, "Scans indicate, the entire planet just experienced a massive seismic event! It originated from a single point...Hive base!" Vega gasped, "Oh my...Radiation levels are off the charts...The data indicates, for a brief moment, there was a star present inside Hive base!" Shell replied.

"What! That's impossible! Just...Just continue to monitor the base and keep me posted, I'll contact Drab and have him ready the militia. I don't know what their up to, but we must be prepared." Vega killed the com link. She rubbed her head trying compose herself, most of her systems were still in a low power state from sleep-mode. After a moment she typed in Drabs video link code. A short loading symbol appeared then Drabs face.

"Vega! Thank Jobs your...Your...In your under-paneling!" Drab said startled. Vega's optics grew wide as she realized her folly. Her now boiling coolant caused her cheek plates to turn red hot.

"Oh well..." She thought to herself, "We have more important matters at the moment, have you heard from Tuff?"

"Uh, no...No he's two cycles past his report date." Drab said as he looked away typing on his computer to bring up Tuff's last report, "Last update was nine cycles ago...His report states that the Hive is working on some kind of secrete weapon...A broadcasting array of some sort. He couldn't ever get anything concrete as far as why their building it. It also says they have captured an unknown life-form for experimentation. Their body's are made up of energy."

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" The Queen asked in a sharp tone.

"I apologize. It's my fault. I've been so busy dealing with the militia's training..." Drab tried to explain.

"It's to late to worry about it now, prepare them. I want a perimeter set up around Hive base before dawn. Nothing goes in or out without my knowledge." Drab hung his head, feeling terrible for his mistake, "Oh and Drab?"

"Yeah, Veg?" He answered in a worried tone.

"When this is all over, you owe me one for this little peep show..." She spoke with a devilish grin and coy voice.

"Is that a direct order my Queen?" Drab questioned with a grin of his own.

"High priority." Vega replied as she turned off the monitor.