CHAPTER VII

Forgotten Sins

"Judge not less we be judged...Our hearts beat with the same rhythm of sin, each thump a shovel full of grief to bury our demons. We may walk away from our past but, we carry our sins forever."

R.D.M.

Nora's Lab

"Twenty eight more minutes..." Nora nervously thought to herself as she pried her eyes away from the clock on the wall and back to her work, "Five times per second..." She's having difficulty staying focused on the tasks at hand. A fact not lost on her as she realized she was, once again, averaging her pens taps upon the desk. It's 6:38 AM. She hasn't rested for a moment since Axle burst in half deactivated, convinced her into allowing him to merge her daughters hard drive with his and then, requested to be submerged in a vat of oil. She dropped her pen and rubbed her tired eyes at the ridiculousness of it all.

"Mother?" XJ-8 asked in as gentle a tone as her vocal systems would allow.

"Hm?" Nora replied sleepily as she straightened her glasses.

"Your prolonged silence would suggest a troubled mind, most likely brought on by the lack of sleep, compounded by the situation at hand." XJ-8 stated.

"Thank you for your concern 8, was there something you needed?" Nora asked resting her cheek in the palm of her hand to look at XJ-8.

"I took the liberty of checking your calculations several times during your...processing...Little episode. I determined your results to be accurate, which leads to a conundrum. Did he lie to us?" XJ-8 asked. Nora glanced back to the clock on the wall and nervously began drumming her fingers on her work station.

"We will find out the accuracy of my result momentarily..." Another small moment of silence and XJ-8 spoke once again.

"What will our course of action be when he activates?" XJ-8 asked.

"I don't yet know. I just want Jennifer back safely." She replied in the midst of stifling a yawn.

"If it is of any relief, I believe Axle to be trustworthy. I received a...processing...good vibe from him." Nora mentally smiled at XJ-8's very human pontification.

"Well, that then begs the question, why would he lie?" She mentally sighs, "There is no denying the evidence collected on Sheldon's hard drive. I've even gone back and cross referenced the coordinates of his home-world to every known plain. Nothing. Just like Sheldon said. Then there's this..." She grabbed a piece of paper with a tangled mess of scribblings on it's surface, "The only significant connection I could find is to wave lengths of light, by cross referencing the wave's length, as indicated by the coordinates, to our own alphabetic system, the binary coordinates roughly translate into, "See no evil." Almost as if to mock us..." Nora tossed the paper to the side.

"What of the encrypted transmissions?" XJ-8 asked.

"Most were between Axle and Jennifer. They both were feeling the same strange connection and were discussing possible reasons. The others are encrypted beyond even my ability to break. I did, however, discover their point of origin." A few quick keystrokes and an image of a satellite appeared on her monitor, "Voyager 5. The deep space spy satellite deployed shortly after the Cluster invasion. It's preposterous I know, but it is true. Some one high up is either manipulating us all or the Hive is making a move towards Earth." Nora explained. XJ-8 stared at her creator for a moment before commenting on the subject.

"Neither possible threat would seem to have any direct connection to Axle." XJ-8 observed.

"Maybe...Maybe not. I haven't been able to contact Vega on this matter. All I know is that one of my children is inside the mind of a dangerous alien robot." Nora ran her hands through her hair. XJ-8 recognized her mother's anger at the situation.

"Jenny is technologically superior to her sister units. It is logical to assume she will be fine." Nora nervously sighed in agreement, "Besides, I am the physically superior sibling. If harm should come to my sister...processing...I will pop a cap in Axle's ass." Nora had to now stifle her laughter.

"Indeed. I also cross referenced XJ-9's blueprints to Axle's and there are noticeable similarities. Vexes had Jennifer's blueprints before her dethroning. The video and audio from Sheldon's hard drive confirms that the robot they encountered knew Axle, it also said he was involved in a war on Cluster Prime, which I will be investigating...Yet Axle seemed as though he didn't recall any of it and has made no hostile move towards the Earth. Hell, he's even helped save us, going as far as to put himself in harms way to protect Jennifer." She leaned back in her chair, grabbing the pack of cigarettes in her lab coat pocket as she did. A flick of her wrist and fire gave life to her terrible vice. A relieving wave washed over her with the exhale, "Then there is the matter of the connection Jennifer said she felt towards Axle. She said it was like all of her wireless connectivity was accessed at once and, at the same time, it wasn't any of them. She said it was...different." XJ-8 observed the entire scene.

"Tobacco is wacko if your a teen." XJ-* commented, "Have you modified existing or installed new hardware that could have caused the connection?" Nora thought asking where XJ-8 hear such an archaic saying but, she decided to let the comment slide.

"No. That's the thing. The only theory I can conclude is that her progressive learning annex has somehow developed it's own sense based off of her surrounding environment. Using various combinations of her current senses and emotions to write her own costume code. Perhaps, even mimicry of a human sense." Nora thought aloud.

"Processing...What sense would she be mimicking?" XJ-8 asked. Nora blew out a rather thick cloud of smoke before replying.

"My guess would be attraction...love. Jennifer's experimented before in the past with similar feelings. For example: Sebastian, The Silver Shell, YK-9...That blonde headed boy, the one afraid of machines, what's his name...Oh never mind. Even more recently with Bradly. The point is she has experienced these situations in the past and I believe that with each experience she...Learned. Correcting the code with every experience. She is maturing very rapidly." Nora explained.

"They grow up so fast." XJ-8 replied.

"Yes they do..." Nora thought quietly to herself. She glanced over at XJ-8 quickly with a slight smile.

"It would be logical to contact Skyway Patrol. They should be made aware of the possible satellite hacking. Considering the evidence, we may require assistance when Axle reactivates. Do you have any remaining secure links to Skyway personnel?" XJ-8 suggested. Nora had to think back.

"There was this one person. He actually trained underneath Bradly's father years ago..." She paused momentarily to suck in another breath, "Dale. He was kind of a nut like Mogg. We never could see eye to eye. He despised robots, more of a military man, he believed we shouldn't waist money on defense droids and focus on becoming stronger as humans. It's a long shot, but I'll try." Nora stood and made her way to her video communicator and began typing in an old familiar number.

Skyway Secret Base

Dale glanced down at his watch, a tiny, blinking, red light starred back. He looked to Melody and Brad, both were to busy to notice anything other than each other. He took the opportunity to slip into his office and take a seat behind his desk. A quick tap of the keyboard answered the call. Nora's face appeared on his computer screen, XJ-8 sat behind her on the ground, "Nora! It's been far to long! How have you been?" Dale's tone sounded as sarcastic as it did sincere.

"Let's cut the crap Dale." Nora flatly stated, "I have information about a possible satellite hacking, which may have been used to broadcast encrypted signals-"

"We know." Dale replied flatly, "Voyager 5. We've been tracking the signals for a while now, as well as, the Cluster Prime situation." The words enraged Nora.

"YOU'VE KNOWN? Why haven't you taken action? My daughter was destroyed by a Hive drone and you could have possibly prevented it! Why didn't you inform anyone?" Nora demanded. Dale smiled a little.

"Top secret info I'm afraid. Not my problem your defense droid couldn't handle the situation." He propped his feet up on his desk, "It's to bad really, Squad X didn't even get a chance at deactivating it or your little experiment..." Dale glanced at XJ-8 at the end of his reply.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT! You allowed that thing to enter Earths atmosphere! You allowed my daughter to be killed! And for what? Pride?" Nora's blood boiled, "You always opposed everything I did! Especially the defense droid program! You just couldn't accept that my creations were far more capable than yourself at protecting people!" Dale felt his temper rise but, remained calm, "The destruction of the XJ unit wasn't our intentions. I thought that with the Silver Shell, XJ-9, and Axle the situation was under control. My bad." Nora starred at him through the monitor with hate in her eyes, "By the way, I'm bringing Brad on board the team."

"Oh, the mighty Squad X!" Nora replied sarcastically, "Earth's greatest hope. Your a fool. What if the Hive were to attack today? Like it not, Jennifer was the best line of defense against-" Dale interrupted again.

"Look Nora, this isn't a dick measuring contest. Your a smart gal. Then you should have come to the conclusion that the Hive is responsible for this and that an invasion is highly likely. That new robot is proof that they're making a move and that they are getting stronger. Your lil' XJ unit wouldn't stand a chance. Derrick Carbunkle was an information collector on all things robotic before his death, monitoring the Cluster war. Going by what happened there, I have a strong feeling this is just the beginning."

"Is that what you call spying these days?" Nora folded her arms, "Information collecting?"

"He was in-charge of monitoring our deep space satellites, as well as, robotic situations on Earth. Let me finish. It was his duty to deploy Squad X if need be. Weather it was on Earth or in space. He noticed the signals coming from the malfunctioning satellite first and ,he's the first one dead. Shortly before his death, he intercepted a transmission. With the help of Melody Locust, we were able to decipher the message. It was a hit list. Your name was on it, along with all the XJ's, Brad's family, and others. We believe that the message was intended for Axle but, since he didn't receive it, they sent someone else to carry out the orders. I really don't like robots but, in the matter of planetary defense I'm willing make an exception."

"Are you suggesting that we should cooperate on this particular situation?" Nora asked with a slight sound of surprise in her voice, "What a coincidence."

"Yeah. Axle, as you call it, is a lot more powerful than you realize. Melody's father helped the Hive develop their new technology. From what she's told to us, DV-2 may just be waiting for a signal to go ape shit and kill us all. Measures have been taken to ensure that the satellite doesn't send anymore signals. YK-9 has been dispatched to destroy it, but Nora...If I were you, I would get as far away from that thing as possible." Dale's voice traded it's usual sarcastic tone for a deadly serious one. Nora glanced in the direction of the oil filled tank.

"That's going to be a problem. Jennifer's programming survived the fight. She is inside of him. He is here, in my lab being repaired as we speak. I wont make any action towards him until she is safely inside her new body, and neither will you." Nora ordered.

"So, what's your plan?" Dale asked.

"I want you and your team to meet me here for Ax...DV-2's activation. At the very least...We need to prepared...For the worst." Nora spoke sadly. Dale could hear the sadness in her voice.

"When do you need us?" He asked.

"ET...Fourteen minutes." She replied.

"God-da!...He's going online that quick? I'll send Melody right away." Dale ended the conversation at that. He ran outside to Brad and Melody, interrupting their conversation, "Up an Adam M, we got a mission. Wakeman residence. Twelve minutes." Melody sprang up, converting her feet into huge rockets as she did.

"Do I need to handle DV-2?" Melody asked. Her face telling him that she is ready.

"No. Do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Monitor the situation until I arrive." A quick nod from Dale signaled she was dismissed and with a loud clap of thunder Melody disappeared through a launch tunnel.

"Wait! Whats going on at Jenny's?" Brad asked, concerned.

"It seems your robot friend is still alive..." Brad perked a little at the revelation, "She's trapped inside the one you call Axle's C.P.U. he's going to wake up shortly and Miss Wakeman wants us there just in case." Dale explained.

"In case what?" Brad asked.

"In case he ain't as cute an cuddly as he usually is OK?" Dale replied with a sarcastic smile.

"So, what Melody told me was true. He's a spy for the Hive?" Brad asked.

"Looks that way." Dale grabbed Brad by the shoulders, spun him around, and guided him to a seat in front of a computer station and shoved him down into it, "I want you to set here and monitor the situation from your fathers station. This monitor shows YK-9's information, all these others show information about DV-2, the Hive and what not. Good luck." With that he turned to leave.

"Hold up! I don't know what the hell I'm doing!" Brad exclaimed.

"Just-just monitor the damn things! Your father had a nack for this stuff and I have a feeling you do to." Dale turned around and ran towards the elevator that brought them down with his cell phone plastered to the side of his head. Brad looked back at all the monitors in front of him.

"Well...Not the kind of measuring I was looking for..." Brad spoke to himself.

Inside DV-2's C.P.U.

Jennifer Diane Wakeman was in cyber heaven. She had spent a large portion of her time testing the limits of Axle's processing power, changing her body into various configurations of the female form. After playing around with a few different designs, she rummaged through Axle's data and found access to his memory information center. Inside, she came across a few megabytes of info on her new body's design. Enough to conjure up a close match. She figured she might as well try it out before she was put into the real thing. The new design was much more streamlined than her last. Rounded curves replaced the sharp edges of her old body. Same skirt, same top except made from a metallic fiber which, although much stiffer than normal clothing, somehow moved with her body. She now had the form she always wanted. The legs of a human female, as well as, a high B cup. Her trade mark pigtails and round head remained but, showed more humanism, and her face now showed the appearance of a young women. She spent nearly two hours in front of a full length mirror wearing nothing but her panty plating, dancing and admiring her new figure. After she was satisfied with her new appearance, she spent the majority of her time conjuring up villains from her memory files to fight. To her surprise, they all were defeated with relative ease. Her new body was amazingly powerful, "Ten more minutes..." She spoke aloud, checking on the repair timer, "Might as well go one more round." An alphabetically categorized list of images appeared in a window in front of her. She began flipping from left to right through all the pictures in the window with a movement of her hand, until she rested on one, "Vexes. Out of all my enemies you were the most deadly, not because you were strong...Because, you were smart. I could have easily dismantled you but, you always had something up your sleeve." She brought the image out into an exact replica of Vexes, "You knew all about me before you disappeared but I still don't know anything about you." She squinted her optics at the hologram and took a offensive stance. The virtual Vexes matched her stare and took a defensive position. Just then, a search bar appeared on top of the image of Vexes.

"Search Vexes?" It asked. Jenny relaxed and the hologram faded.

"Huh, my superuser privileges most have kicked in." She reasoned, "What would Axle know about her?" With a mental command, she proceeded to run the program. A vast list of programs and protocols with different configurations of the search terms letters appeared before her. She quickly scrolled through them until one particular result caught her eye.

"CURRENT MODEL IDENTIFICATION: DAMIAN VEXUS MARK TWO"

"Damian Vexes mark two? What the hell does than mean?" She tried to search further through his systems.

"ACCESS DENIED" The words appeared, big bold and black in front of her.

"Access denied? He said I could access all of his operating systems." Immediatly, a large portion of his systems where blocked off. The only information she could obtain, was a comparison chart of stored data versus available free space, "Just as I thought, huge quantities of data are inaccessible. Visual, audio, long term memory...Even selected communications systems. Some files have been completely erased altogether..." As she tried prying further, the vast white void suddenly shifted to pitch black. A gigantic metal door materialized in front of her, the words "ACCESSED DENIED" brightly blazed red across them.

"Someone wants to keep their secrets..." She pointed her right arm straight out and formed a large laser cannon and fired an intense beam at the door. Moving in circular motion, she melted a large enough hole to crawl through, "Hacking is so much easier when your just a program." The door dissolved away revealing a window covered with binary flowing from top to bottom, resembling digital rain. Jenny quickly began scanning the window. Gigabytes upon gigabytes of data, "Starbirth technology beta systems? Axle is a prototype? He's only been online for nearly a year..." The more she scanned, the more questions she had, "Wait...recorded data...He's-he's been recording information about all of us...My god...He's been transmitting the data into space!" With every byte of data her oil boiled more, "You...You son of a bitch...I actually thought I might..." She silenced the process as she sped up her processor to the max to take in all the information. In a nano second she found his video and audio transmitters and hacked the signal, trying to identify the source. A new window popped up on her right she turned to it to see a very rustic enormous room filled with mechanical architecture. As she looked from left to right, the camera panned to where her eyes pointed. Suddenly, she heard a voice in the distance.

"Incoming transmission from DV-2." An all to familiar voice spoke.

"Excellent! Tell me, what new information does are little experiment have?" Jenny clenched her fists tight. A huge figure came into view and sat in front of the camera. Jenny watched the robot closely. Its design matched her memory files yet it was heavily damaged. Cracked orbital lenses, missing teeth, dents, scrapes and rust covered the thing. She watched as it began typing on a keyboard.

"That's Smytus alright. He can't even type without looking at the keyboard." She thought quietly to herself. Immediately the typing halted. Smytus slowly looked up from the keyboard to his monitor with a blank look.

"Uuuuhhhh, my Queen? We have a problem..." Jenny quickly shut down the optic transmission and embedded a data loop code in the transmitter, causing anyone trying to reactivate the transmission to be greeted with a continuous video and audio loop.

"Oh man...I can't believe this. It's all so confusing...I got to get out of here pronto...Axle...You and I are going to have a loooonnnggg talk when you wake up." Jenny spoke aloud to the white void.

Nora's Lab

Nora fell on to her ass as her entire home suddenly shook violently. Before she could even swear, Melody burst through the roof and landed in her lab, "Melody? For the love of Jobs! I do own a door!"

"Sorry ma'am, but I can sense his activation is close and I just can't allow anything my father helped to create hurt anyone!" Her skin and uniform began to flow as a liquid into a compartment in her abdomen. When it finished, Melody was a completely nude bronze colored female robot. Metal plating in key areas kept her essentials out of sight. A red glow, only slightly visible, surrounded her as she stood ready for anything, "XJ-8 you might want to cover your mom, just in case."

"Where is Dale?" Nora asked.

"On his way. He's contacting the rest of the team." A familiar hum emitted from the tank followed by an audible click and silence. Tension filled the room. Melody readied herself, anticipating the worst. "KIIISSSSHHH!" The glass tank suddenly shattered and Axle fell to the floor in the poodle. Melody charged a ball of red energy in the palm of her hand and pointed it at him. Slowly, he pushed himself up with his arms, still starring at the floor.

"Nigh...Nightmare...Oil and fire everywhere...I...I think I did something terrible..." His voice trembled as he spoke.

"You will cooperate with us and remove Jenny's programming or you will deal with me." Melody demanded. Axle looked up at the ball of energy pointed at him, his vision flickered between what he was seeing and images of dark red fire feed by the oil of countless robots. Suddenly the image of a razor toothed smile flashed across his optics and he freaked out.

"VEXES!" He screamed before slapping Melody's hand, sending the energy ball through the wall of Nora's lab. He sprang to his feet and tried to punch her in the stomach. She countered quickly, catching his fist and using his own momentum to throw him straight through the ceiling. He landed in the kitchen. Melody jumped through the hole and landed in front of him.

"Don't! Move!" Melody demanded. Axle didn't listen. He sprang up once again with the look of a wild animal.

"Your own daughter! How could you kill your own daughter!" He screamed, "Your a monster." He made a move towards Melody yet, stopped mid attack. Melody looked closely at him, he was shaking, like he was fighting with something. Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out of Axle's mouth,

"Melody! I can't hold him for much longer! Get me out of here!" A USB port appeared on Axle's forehead. Melody knew what she had to do. She shot out one of her fingers, connecting it into the port. She then jumped back through the floor and quickly rushed to the new XJ-10 and connected her left hand into the back of the new models head. A second later, and the eyes of the new body sprang open. Another second and Jenny's face twisted into an expression of pure hate, "Now...Now it's time to end this." The words were as cold as ice. At speeds that Melody had a hard time calculating, Jenny hopped to her new feet. She plowed through the lab's ceiling, slamming into Axle and carring him through the roof.

"My fault...A planets worth of oil stain these hands...Oh god...Jenny, you unlocked a digital barrier in my C.P.U. I swear I didn't know..." Axle sobbed out the words as they streaked into the stratosphere.

"Liar! Your just another drone sent to kill us! Can you hear me in there you bitch?" She yelled at him, "Watch closely, because your next!" Jenny held Axle at arms length by the throat, pulling her hand back into a tight fist. Blue electricity crackled around her hand as she swung. The others heard the clap of thunder as her fist impacted. Axle's vision blacked out. When it rebooted he found himself floating in space. He felt a hand on the back of his head, his accelerometers told him that he was picking up speed. The Earth appeared in front of him, growing rapidly. With little time before impact, Axle contacted Jenny wirelessly, "Jenny, please believe me, I didn't know! Jenny I would never hurt you...I...I-"

"BOOOOOMMMM!" The sound was deafening. Sand from the Sahara desert erupted a quarter mile into the sky with their impact, "WHAT? You what? Say it! Tell me what this connection I feel is!" A blue aura formed around her as tears dripped from her eyes. She stood, straddling Axle as he lay at the epicenter of a massive crater, teeth clenched tight as she spat the words out and formed her left hand into a sword with glowing red hot edges. She dropped to her knees onto his abdomen and rammed the sword into Axle's right pectoral plate. Pinning him to the crater floor.

"GGGAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Axle screamed in pain, "You-you have to calm down. Jen-Jenny get control of your emotions!"

"So help me I will shut you down right now if you don't answer me!" Jenny formed her right hand into an identical sword and lunged at the center of his chest were his power core was housed. Axle barely avoided deactivation by catching the hot blade with both hands.

"I...I love you! The moment I activated I felt a connection to you. That's what the connection I feel means to me. I love you and I know it's crazy but it's true!" The hot metal and sizzling oil caused the blade to slide through his hands and jab just an inch or so into his chassis, "UUHHHMMM It-it's the power...Don't let in overwhelm you...I can teach you to control it...Please...Trust me..." Axle pleaded with her as he struggled to keep the blade from piercing his core.

"Love! LOVE! When you love someone you don't keep files on them and you DAMN sure don't beam that information to my most hated enemy! You say you love me, but your just another DRONE!" She forced down hard on her sword as she yelled her last word. The hot blade slide through Axle's oil covered hands again. This time, however, when the blade inched inward they both heard the sound of cracking glass. Axle gasped when the alarms signaled in his C.P.U.

"Co-containment field...Breached." Jenny detected the increasing radiation, "Critical mass in...Ten minutes...Jenny...My power source...It's going to turn in to a supernova..." Axle weakly informed.

Meanwhile at The Hive

"What's the problem Smytus?" The large robot cringed at the sound of his superiors voice.

"It would seem that...XJ-9's program, rather easily...Penetrated the firewall I put in DV-2's cortex. She managed to activate his communication systems and open a live feed of us for thirty six seconds. She knows where we are now, she knows...Everything." Smytus walked on his feeble crab like legs to his Queen and hung his head in sorrow, "Our plans have been discovered. What will we do now?"

"Don't beat yourself up to badly. I wont be able to prolong her suffering like I wanted so, we will have to do what they least expect. Strike now! My new commander is ready to lead my army to Earth! To exact his revenge upon the cold heart-ed harlot that shunned his love and denied me my victory so many times in the past! Go to the cargo bay and activate the new war bots. I'll go, hm hm...Warm up the commander." Vexes smiled mischievously. Smytus smiled and bowed down.

"As you wish." He then dismissed himself.

Vexes seductive strolled towards her private chamber, "The world you so love will be brought to it's knees by your own image Jennifer. There will be suffering the likes of which you have never seen and...In the end...You will bow to me and beg for me to spare your humans and I...I will smile."