[Sorry its a bit late! Thanku to Rikki for beta-ing 3]
7. The Cat and The Robot
Fridays were short days of school for Nana and Saiko; they only had four hours of class, so they could go home before lunch if they wanted. Today, however, they decided to stay for lunch so they could talk with their new teammate some more.
"You get to leave now? That's so unfair! I wish I was in the next year already." Gogo pouted as the two fourth-years approached her table. She was surrounded by a fairly large group of burly looking boys and girls. Nana recognised a few of them from her own class; these were all members of the boxing club.
Gogo waved goodbye to her friends as she walked with Nana and Saiko to a more deserted table in the corner of the cafeteria.
"You wanted to talk to us?" Nana asked. Gogo nodded as she straightened the blue ribbon on her collar and laced her fingers together on top of the table. Nana and Saiko subconsciously sat up straighter, looking to all the world as if the group was conducting a very important business interview in the middle of a busy high school lunchroom.
"I was wondering if you had a strategy, or any plans I should know about, now that we'll be working together."
For the past few days, the trio had little time together. Not only were they in different years, but there was little time to talk in between classes. Gogo's club duties after school further prevented any worthwhile communication. Ellie had, once again, kept quiet for a few days after her last attack, so there had been no proper Precure meetups either. While they did keep in touch on the phone, Cure Circuit never responded, much to Saiko's regret.
"We don't, actually," Nana answered. "If a Glitch shows up somewhere, we go there and purify it, but that's really all there is to it."
"It's only been a few weeks," Saiko added with a shrug.
Gogo relaxed her hands in front of her. "I suppose that's true, but it still might be a good idea to think of something soon."
"Well, as long as we protect people from Ellie's Glitches, we should be good, right?" Nana said. Saiko agreed. Bit had never spoken of any strategies, and he was the one who made them into Pretty Cures, so they should be fine.
Gogo shook her head.
"I know Bit says we're not fighting Hera, but eventually we'll have to, evil or not." She looked around to check if anyone is listening in. "Clairewood is cut off from the outside world, so that means no trade is happening. I know we have a pretty good amount of fields and farms on the outskirts, but eventually we're gonna run out of food."
Saiko looked at Nana, slightly startled. She hadn't thought of this at all.
"Maybe she'll lift the barrier once that happens? She's always talking about our well-being, and that she has the best intentions for us..."
Once again, Gogo shook her head.
"My brother's job is programming AI; I know how they function. Hera's programmed to protect everyone, Bit mentioned that. There's nothing about keeping us alive. And what's easier to keep safe than a bunch of starved corpses?"
Saiko clapped a hand in front of her mouth, while Nana looked defiant.
"You can't really think she'd do that! She's got to feel sorry for us, right? I mean," Saiko lowered her voice, "I know she does bad things, but Bit said she means well, she wasn't made with any ill intent."
"You don't understand," Gogo replied. "Clairewood might be really advanced when it comes to technology, but you can't program morality into a machine. You can give them rules to abide by, but they won't understand why they do and if it clashes with their main orders they might end up going rogue. Orders matter to them most of all, there's a reason why hospitals don't use AI for anything related to keeping people alive."
Nana leaned back a little, her eyes screwed up, like she was thinking very deeply.
"Why are we so certain Hera's acting on her own? Bit said she was made by someone. Who's to say that person isn't behind all this?"
"Why would a person put Clairewood on lockdown?" Saiko asked. This all sounded very confusing to her, and all the talk about how robots lacked a moral code didn't really help quench her fear of them.
Nana sighed and slumped in her chair. "I don't know. I guess there's really no reason to do something like that. I'm just not particularly fond of this theory that Hera's gonna let us starve to death."
"Which is why we should take the fight to her!" Gogo said, slamming her fist on the table.
Several students looked up.
"What?" Gogo shouted, an annoyed expression on her face. The students turned back, some of them looking a little bewildered. She folded her arms and turned back, though her head was down, eyes locked on the table.
"We don't know where she's run off to, which is an issue." She lifted her eyes up to look at the two fourth years, still keeping her head down, face skewed with a dark expression. Saiko had a feeling she wasn't going like what Gogo had to say.
"If we destroy Elleanor instead of just purifying the next Glitch she creates, it might bring Hera to us."
Nana opened her mouth to answer just as the bell rang, stopping her words in her throat. Gogo quickly got up and grabbed her bag. "I've got a test this next class, I gotta go now, I'm sorry."
As she walked away Nana called after her: "I don't agree with that plan-" but she trailed off as Gogo turned the corner. "I don't think destroying a robot who behaves like a pouty teenager is a very righteous thing to do," she sighed.
Every wednesday afternoon Saiko helped her parents in the animal shelter, cleaning the cages and feeding the animals. She also showed people around who came in to look at the animals or who came to adopt. This was a little scary to Saiko as she wasn't particularly fond of interacting with strangers -it's just so hard to say the right things when you don't know someone- but she would usually be fine after a few minutes. Seeing people's faces light up when they talked about the animals helped calm her nerves a bit.
Today, two people were scheduled to come by to pick up and sign the papers for two dogs, though they wouldn't come by until later that afternoon. This was nice, Saiko found, as it gave her some time to mentally prepare for their visits. As she was looking over the details of the dogs on the computer at the visitor's desk, the door suddenly opened. She looked up, and saw a girl dressed in a Clairewood High uniform standing there. That's strange, shouldn't she still be-
"Elleanor!"
Saiko instinctively grabbed the computer as it was the only visible piece of electronics in the room, as if to shield it from Ellie.
Ellie walked over to the desk, looking around curiously.
"Hello. Oh, you're one of my classmates!" She smiled.
"Ah, y-yes," Saiko stammered.
"I haven't been to school in a while, I hope the teachers aren't mad," Ellie continued. "It's just that something bad happens to be whenever I go."
Saiko just nodded, afraid of saying anything that would set Ellie off.
"You have cats, right?" Ellie looked at Saiko expectantly.
"Y-yes, we do. Would you like to see them?" Ack, why did I say that? I want her to leave!
Saiko immediately regretted that thought when she saw Ellie's eyes light up. Saiko hadn't ever seen her so excited before, she didn't even know Ellie was capable of it.
"Yes! Please, I'd love to see them!"
Saiko got up from behind the desk and waved Ellie to follow her.
"We have several places where we keep cats, would you like to see the kittens or grown ups?"
Ellie stared at her with a blank expression on her face. "What's the difference?"
Saiko's stomach turned. Every time she had seen Ellie flip out, it had been related to her thinking someone was mocking her for not knowing something.
"Kittens are babies, while grown ups are adult cats," Saiko said as she tried to hide her trembling hands behind her back.
"Oh," Ellie said, "I know grown ups are adults, I'm not stupid!"
Saiko grabbed at her phone, thinking she had angered Ellie, but the other girl had a big smile on her face.
"So kittens are babies? Can I see them?"
Saiko nodded, relieved. "Just follow me."
She went through a door and held it open for Ellie. A chorus of small mews greeted them.
"Wow, they're really noisy," Ellie noted.
"They do that when they're still small," Saiko said. She knelt down next to a glass window that looked into a room full of boxes, scratching posts, bells, balls and other toys designed for cats. Ellie sat down next to her and looked into the room.
"They're so cute! They're a lot smaller than the ones in my book," Ellie's eyes darted around the room, trying to take in as many kittens as she could.
"When do they start wearing clothes?"
Oh god.
How could she possibly respond to that without sounding condescending?
"Generally, they don't," she said, voice barely reaching above the mewling of the kittens.
"They don't? But in my book there was a cat wearing boots and a cape. He even had a hat!"
Oh.
"Did that book happen to be Puss in Boots?" Saiko asked carefully. Ellie nodded enthusiastically.
"It had a lot of pictures of a fluffy cat in it and I thought it looked cute, and mom told me they really existed so I wanted to see real ones. These are even cuter than the cat in that book was."
Saiko studied Ellie as she looked at the kittens. She looked to be absolutely fascinated with them. When a small grey kitten came up to the window, Ellie put her hand up to it, which the kitten thoroughly inspected through the glass. She giggled as it stood up on two legs and rubbed its head against the glass.
Saiko hesitated.
"Would... Would you like to hold one?" Ellie gaped at her.
"Can I hold this one?" she pointed at the kitten standing up.
"Y-yes, I think that would be okay." Saiko got up, her knees shaking slightly, opened the door to the room and went in. As she picked up the kitten she looked down at Ellie, who was still crouched in front of the window. Ellie waved at her. Saiko gave a quick, nervous nod.
Gogo's words shot through her head.
"If we destroy Elleanor instead of just purifying the next Glitch she creates, it might bring Hera to us."
She opened the door again and walked out, the grey kittens claws now firmly embedded in her shirt as it meowed up at her. She sat down next to Ellie and carefully untangled its nails from the fabric.
"Now you have to be really gentle, kittens are very delicate," she said.
Ellie's expression changed from wonder to slightly pained. "Maybe I shouldn't hold it, then."
Saiko looked up at her, surprised.
"I can't actually feel as well as humans do, Mom says. I'm afraid I might break it if I hold it too tightly. Normally I'd ask you to just fix it, but kittens are really cute and I'd feel really bad. Can cats feel pain?"
Saiko nodded quickly, clutching the kitten a little tighter to her chest. She was relieved Ellie showed some self-awareness for once; she dreaded to think what would've happened had she just handed her the kitten without thinking about it.
"If we destroy Elleanor..."
Ellie looked totally dejected. Saiko hesitated once again.
"You could pet it, if you'd like. If you're afraid of hurting it, you can pet my arm first and I'll tell you if it's okay."
It felt a little weird to have Ellie's smooth, cold, inhuman hand petting her arm, but she was surprisingly careful.
"If you do it like that, you should be fine," she smiled at Ellie.
Carefully Ellie moved her hand to the cat's side and stroked it. Eventually she ended up stroking its face.
"The eyes are sensitive, it's best to stick to the top of its head or it's back. Cats like that." "Oh, oops." She gently patted its head.
"Why is it buzzing?" she asked after a second. "Is it getting a phone call?"
Don't laugh, Saiko. "Cats do that for a number of reasons. But right now, he's letting you know he's happy you're petting him!"
"That's very convenient. I like this kitten. Can I take it home?"
"Actually, there's a process bound to adopting animals from the shelter. You can submit a form to tell us you'd like to adopt it, but I wouldn't be able to let you take it right now," Saiko said.
"Aw, that's too bad. I guess I should ask Mom first, too. And learn how to hold a kitten, of course." Ellie laughed, and Saiko couldn't help but laugh with her.
"Is it okay if I come by to look at the cats every now and then?"
"Yes, of course!" Saiko replied with a smile.
"If we destroy Elleanor it might bring Hera to us."
Ellie left the shelter feeling both happy and a little sad. Happy she got to see real cats, but sad that she couldn't take one with her. What made her even more sad was that she wasn't even sure if she'd be able to take care of it properly. She wondered if there was an alternative. Hadn't she seen a shop in the city that sold little robots; maybe they'd have a catlike one?
It wouldn't hurt to take a look.
When she reached the shop, she hesitated at the door, staring at the store sign. "If it has a face, it's probably Mori's"... Cats have faces, she figured.
She walked inside and was greeted by another one of her classmates. She had tan skin, just like the man in the suit behind the counter, and rather untidy, short, blond hair. She was wearing a big, pink sweater with a little yellow owl on the front. Her green eyes widened in surprise when she saw Ellie.
"Hey! You're one of my classmates!" Ellie said cheerfully.
"Am I..? I-I mean, yes! So what brings you here today, Elleanor?" the girl said, seemingly unable to compose herself.
"Oh, just call me Ellie. I was wondering if you sold any robots who look like kittens. I want a real one but I think it's better if I get one that's a little more like me, first." She smiled at her classmate, hoping she'd be able to help her find what she was looking for. When the girl didn't answer for a moment, Ellie's face fell.
"What's wrong, do you not have them?" She narrowed her eyes. "Or did I ask something strange..?" If she's gonna make fun of me for asking for a robot kitten, I'm gonna be so mad.
"N-no! I'm just surprised to see you here, that's all. Um, we have a few kitten robots, they're in our virtual pet collection." Her classmate -what was her name?- walked over to a shelf, and Ellie followed her.
"Currently we only have three types. This one's really realistic, as you can see, but it takes quite a bit of maintenance because it has a lot of gears in it and it gets rather noisy when moving after a while," she pointed at a tabby cat who looked to be asleep on a pillow.
"Wow, it looks almost real," Ellie said in awe.
Her classmate nodded. "It's an older model, before my brothers decided to focus on making cute robots instead of ones that look like real animals and stuff." She pointed at the next robot.
"This one is kind of an in between model. It's got fur and it's really soft! But its fur is pink which uh, real cats don't have." Her classmate looked up at Ellie expectantly, though she wasn't sure why. Ellie nodded to urge her on, so she did, still looking a little nervous.
"It can meow and it purrs when you pet it, like actual cats do. It comes with an app for your phone that you can use to feed it and make it go to sleep if you're done playing with it, but it goes asleep by itself if you stop interacting with it after a while as well. Do you have a phone?"
Ellie shook her head. "Oh, well, that's okay, you don't really need the app, it's just a little addon really. Oh, it's also really sturdy! You can drop it or whatever and it'll be fine!"
"Could you take it off the shelf? I'd like to have a closer look at it," Ellie said. She liked the pink kitten, even though it wasn't really shaped like an actual kitten. It had slightly exaggerated features to make it cuter, but she kind of liked how it was a robot, just like her.
Her classmate took the kitten off the shelf and flipped a switch on its belly, then put it on the ground. Ellie crouched down to have a better look at it.
It looked around and got up to walk for a bit. When Ellie held up her hand, it walked up to it and rubbed its head against her palm. She ruffled the fur on its head, less afraid of hurting it than when she'd pet the real kitten.
"Oh, it looks like it's dragging one of its hind legs," her classmate noted. "I'll go ask my brother if he can fix that, just give me a moment!" She got up and walked to the register where the man in the suit was standing.
Ellie studied the kitten. It did appear one of its back legs wasn't moving… She wondered if she could fix it herself. She did her own maintenance; she could probably manage taking care of a little broken robot kitten leg. It might take a while to figure out exactly how to do it though. She wondered if…
She held up her hand and produced one of the many little chips hidden away in her wiring. As she held it up to the kitten, it touched its nose to it, and a ripple of blue letters and numbers surrounded it.
What happened next wasn't quite what she'd expected.
"Oh good, you made it!" Spark said as Volt and Static approached her. All three were hovering in the air. Bit was floating next to Static.
"What's happening?" Volt said. Spark pointed at the roof of Mori's. There sat what looked like a giant, animatronic panther. It growled as it studied the Cures, looking primed to pounce.
"Ellie came in looking for a kitten robot," Spark explained, "and when I turned my back on her she turned one of them into… That. I have no idea why, she seemed really happy before!"
Volt spotted Ellie inside of the store, staring up at the Precure, surrounded by a few people. There was a giant hole in the window next to where she was standing. There were several large gashes in the street in front of the store, and a few stories up the windows were either scratched or had holes in them.
"I don't know if I'm comfortable hurting it," Volt said in a small voice.
"Why not? It's not a real animal. And look at all the damage it's done!" Static pointed out.
"It still looks like a cat," Volt replied quietly. Spark flew over to her, turning her back on the panther.
"It's okay, Volt. If you don't want to fight it, we'll-"
"Spark no, don't turn your back on it!"
Volt didn't have time to interfere as the Glitch leapt at Spark, but Static jumped in front of it just in time, grabbed the beast by its middle, and threw it to the ground with all her strength. The asphalt cracked under its heavy weight. The panther still growled, though it made no attempt to get up. On closer inspection, Volt saw that its middle was caved in from the impact, making it unable to move its hind legs.
Volt could see Ellie shouting from inside the store.
"Phew, thanks for that," Spark said to Static, as she flew closer to the ground. Volt landed in front of the Glitch.
Ellie stumbled outside. "Stop hurting it!"
Static landed in front of her and gestured at the storefront.
"Look at all the damage you've caused with your stupid toy," she shouted at her. "This city isn't your personal playground, you know? You're causing problems for everybody!"
"I just wanted a cat!"
Ellie sounded so distraught, Volt was certain she'd be crying if she had been able to.
Volt looked at the panther. It seemed to be regarding her, its ferocious electric blue eyes slightly less bright as when it had looked at them from the rooftop. The low rumbling tone that resembled a growl was still sounding from its maw.
"That's not a cat, that's a monster! Can't you hear it growling at us?!" Static continued.
"You're a monster, look at what you did to it!" Ellie retorted.
"It's not growling."
"Volt, what are you doing?" Spark said, a note of concern in her voice. Volt slowly extended a hand to the Glitch. It moved its head up ever so slightly as she did so, but did not react in another way.
"Volt, I don't think-"
"I know what I'm doing," Volt replied sternly. Spark backed off a little. I know you mean well, Nana, but this one time, you don't have to worry about me.
As she moved her hand closer to its head, the Glitch moved its head down, still rumbling. She placed her hand down on its large, cold head, and pet it. The sound it made became just a little bit louder.
The other Cures looked at her in complete silence, as did Ellie, and the people in the shop.
"It's not growling," she said, still stroking the giant beast's head.
"It's purring."
"It's in pain. We should purify it," she said after a second, looking at Bit, seeing if the Glitch was ready to be purified. The little robot fairy nodded.
Ellie looked on as the Pretty Cure did their job. She had never seen these three work together before. She still disliked them -even hated the purple one for being so mean!- but she didn't want to run away like she had every other time they had destroyed her creatures. I want my kitten.
A bright flurry of colours covered her Glitch, and after a few seconds it dissipated. The giant panther had disappeared, leaving behind only a chip and a small, broken, little machine.
Bit, the Cures stupid little "robot fairy", quickly took the chip for himself. Ellie didn't care. The chips were no good to her anymore after the Cures had messed with them, anyway.
The purple one waved goodbye to the others and left together with Bit. The ones who stayed stood next to the broken robot.
"Just go already! You're done!" Ellie yelled at them.
The green one was about to take a step towards her, but the pink one grabbed her arm and shook her head. The green one nodded, and the two of them flew away.
Ellie hurried towards the tiny robot lying on the street. "Oh no," she gasped. Its hind leg had almost completely come off. That horrible purple one, Cure Static…
She scooped it up and took a closer look at the damage. I should be able to fix this, she thought to herself.
She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there cradling the kitten, when somebody patted her on the shoulder. It was her classmate. "You can have that little 'bot, if you'd like," she said, a sad smile on her face. Ellie's eyes widened.
"Really? Thank you so much!"
"But please don't...turn it into a panther again," she said, face turning a little red.
"I won't, that was a mistake. I didn't know what would happen," Ellie replied, getting up.
"I'm really sorry for all the damage I've caused, I really am! I'll ask Mom to fix it, and… And I'll remember how kind you were to me!" She said, dashing off.
She wasn't sure, but it seemed her classmate had looked rather melancholic when she said her goodbye. She couldn't think of why.
"What's that you've got there?"
Ellie had put the kitten on her bed, an array of different tools spread around it as she tinkered with its leg.
"It's a kitten. I got it from Mori's."
"How kind of them! But, what's wrong with its leg?"
"The Precure came and they broke its leg off. But I think I can still fix it," Ellie replied, re-connecting a pair of wires.
"I've got such a smart, resourceful daughter. It's a good thing robots can be fixed like that! Humans are very difficult in that regard. Do you need any help?"
Ellie shook her head. She replaced some small screws with a few of her own.
"You've really taken a liking to cats, haven't you? First you ask for that book, and now you bring this one home. Where does this fascination come from?"
"I don't know," Ellie replied absentmindedly as she very carefully reattached the leg to the body.
She took all the tools off her bed and placed them neatly back into her maintenance box, and shoved it under her bed. She then flipped the kitten on its back, and flipped the switch, like her classmate had done. She set it back down, its legs in a sitting position.
It turned its head to look at Ellie, and greeted her with a cheerful "mrrrrreew". Ellie smiled at it. When she pet its head, it purred. It sounded just like the kitten in the shelter.
I need to think of a name.