Everyone flinched as they heard the mechanical sound but Terra instantly recognized the mechanical humming noise that came immediately afterwards.
From a small door in the wall rolled Wall-e, who paused as he saw Terra and waved with a cheery expression.
"Wall-e?" Terra asked surprised as the robot rolled over to him and examined the force field. He then reached out and touched it receiving a powerful shock, which knocked him over.
"Careful don't touch the force fields." Terra said after the fact as Wall-e sat up and blinked.
"Waste Allocation Load Lifter – type E, perform your programmed task immediately." AUTO ordered as Wall-e then looked at Terra who lowered his head in defeat as he watched Wall-e move towards the pile of trash.
Then Terra got an idea, and whistled at Wall-E. When the robot looked over at him, Terra held up his jacket and pointed at the unwoven seam, then at the pile of trash.
Wall-e then looked back at the pile and started sifting through it until he found the device and held it up triumphantly.
"WALL-E follow your directives immediately." AUTO ordered again causing the robot to cower slightly.
"TAKE IT AND RUN WALL-E!!" Terra yelled as Wall-e instantly complied throwing the device in his empty cavity and started rolling around the bridge, with GO-4 following in pursuit immediately thereafter.
"I must follow my Directives!" AUTO said as he blocked Wall-e's escape route and attempted to grab the device with his claw.
"Don't let him have it Waldo!!" Aqua yelled
"Wall-e" Terra corrected.
"Wall-e!" Aqua repeated.
The little robot ran towards a console and crashed into it causing a disk to fall into his cavity.
"The information disk!!" AUTO yelled as he saw the disc fall in.
"We have to get that disk!!" Ven said as Vincent then activated the tazer and threw it into the exposed wiring above his head, causing it to throw off sparks and the force field to collapse.
AUTO spun around just as Terra leapt onto the wheel causing the robot to spin madly.
Wall-e continued running around trying to avoid GO-4.
Outside the door the little cleaner bot reached the door and looked up curiously at it, he then rolled over towards a small panel on the outside and rolled through it and onto the bridge. He then continued his cleaning, completely oblivious the chaos around him.
Aqua, Vince, and Ven frantically started looking at the control panels.
"Which one is the communications?!" Ven asked frantically.
"The…panel to your LEFT!!" Terra cried out as AUTO continued to try and throw him off.
Ven ran over and started hitting the buttons in a vain attempt to activate the communications system to call Cid for pick up.
"Nothing's working!!" Ven yelled
"Duh because our finger prints have to be in the system! Remember?!" Aqua yelled back as Aerith noticed the cleaner bot still scrubbing along. She ran over to him and quickly ran her finger in a line along the floor in front of it.
The robot stopped and made an annoyed warble noise before scrubbing over where she ran her finger.
Aerith then grabbed the little robot and carried him over to the control panel and started rubbing her finger over the button on the console marked "All frequency hail" and set the robot down on top of the console.
The bot narrowed its yellow, squared optics and instantly ran the scrubber over the button activating it.
Ven, having watched this, quickly leaned into a microphone that had popped up from the console.
"CID this is Ven, get us out of here NOW!!" He yelled as the familiar voice of the gummy pilot was heard over the speakers.
"TEN FOUR GUYS!! Cid Highwind coming around!!" Cid yelled over the speakers and the microphone folded back down into the console.
"Thanks little guy." Aerith said as the robot looked at her curiously.
"Mo." The little robot replied as Aerith shook it's scrubber in a make-shift hand shake.
"I always…knew there was something…funny about you…AUTO!!" Terra yelled as the steering wheel charged head first for a bulkhead.
Terra noticed and fell to the floor causing the robot to crash head first into the wall.
"Ow." AUTO replied as Terra smirked.
"Doesn't that thing have an off switch!?" Vincent yelled causing Terra to notice a switch near AUTO's base that read "Manual control override."
Terra turned to Vincent.
"I'll distract him you get to that switch!" Terra yelled as he leapt back up onto AUTO's face again causing the robot to start thrashing about again.
Vincent dodged the flailing AUTO and just as he was about to reach the switch, GO-4 ran into his legs causing him to fall to the ground.
Vincent then looked up towards at the switch and saw it had a cover with a lock on it with what appeared to be a slot for a key.
"It's got a lock on it Terra!" Vincent replied as he threw GO-4 off of his chest.
"FIELD GOAL!!" Aqua yelled as she ran up and punted GO-4 towards the malfunctioning force field which activated, with him inside causing him to bounce around like a ping pong ball before finally exploding.
Aqua, Ven, and Wall-e, who was no longer being chased, just made the international touchdown sign. (Sticking their arms straight up.)
"A little help HERE?!" Terra yelled as he held on to AUTO for dear life and the steering wheel slammed him into a bulkhead, causing him to fall off.
"Ow." Terra moaned.
"I must follow my directives." AUTO said as he turned towards the others.
"Well you're not going to succeed in your directives!" Ven replied as he pointed at the robot, as he did though his Keyblade appeared in his hand, which gave Vincent an idea.
"Ven the lock!" he yelled as Ven aimed the Keyblade at the locked switch and a blue circle of magic formed around the end and a blue beam shot out and hit the keyhole causing the lid over the switch to open.
AUTO simply spun his base around so they couldn't reach it.
"Resistance is Futile." AUTO said as he approached the four humans and two robots but suddenly stopped.
"Manual override!!" AUTO said as he suddenly moved to the center of the room facing away from the forward windows and telescoped down slightly, and his red optic turned black as he deactivated.
Everyone turned back to see Terra standing where AUTO was hovering.
"That should take care of that." Terra replied wiping his hands and walked over to a console.
Terra proceeded to delete the information that AUTO had stored up on them and, after removing the T&L device from Wall-e's cavity, had Wall-e compact the data disk amongst the garbage that GO-4 had dumped on the floor earlier.
"Wait a minute…I thought our prints weren't in the computer?" Ven asked.
"Five months before the Axiom was ready, I was assigned the task of ensuring that AUTO was ready for installation into the ship. I even oversaw his installation and so my prints are in the database." Terra replied as he unlocked the doors just as three men in blue SOLDIER uniforms burst in, Cloud was one of them.
"What's going on up here?" Cloud asked as Terra turned to the man.
"I had received word that AUTO wasn't functioning properly so I decided to check him out and show off the bridge at the same time." Terra lied as Cloud noticed the burnt out GO-4 on the floor and arched an eyebrow.
"And how do you explain the smoking robot on the floor?" Cloud asked.
"Force field malfunction." Terra replied as he pointed to the shorted wires in the ceiling panel.
"So why is AUTO on manual override?" Cloud asked glancing at the inactive steering wheel.
"He wasn't cooperating…good thing I had a spare key to his override switch." Terra said as he dangled a key on a small chain…it was actually his office key but only Terra knew the difference.
"Ok then." Cloud was satisfied.
"Oh you may want to have his directives wiped and replaced…they're so badly corrupted that it would take months just to defrag them." Terra finished as Cloud nodded.
"Oh and with your permission…I would like to take these two robots here with me." Terra added as he pointed to Wall-e and M-O.
"Why?" Cloud asked.
"Because my house needs a good cleaning." Terra said as Cloud nodded with a knowing smirk.
"Well those are the kind to use…tell Zack and Riku I said hello." Cloud said with a wave as he and the other two SOLDIERs turned and left.
"Come on guys let's find out where Cid landed." Ven said as the five humans and two robots followed along, with M-O scrubbing along behind them.
"There you are…so what's the emergency?" Cid asked as they entered one of the Axiom's hangers.
"Sorry about that Cid but the danger has passed…" Terra replied.
"…and a crisis averted." Aqua added.
"Huh?" Cid asked.
"Let me put it to you this way…" Ven said taking Cid aside, "…even the walls have ears."
Cid nodded understandingly and a few moments later the gummy ship lifted off and headed back towards the surface.
"So why did you decide to bring those two robots along?" Ven asked.
"Well…Wall-e was the one who discovered the bug, and Zack always wanted a Microbe Obliterator." Terra replied as he watched M-O scrubbing around the ship.
"They are kind of cute." Aerith said as Wall-e awed in a pleased response.
"So Aerith you want us to drop you off back at your place?" Vincent asked.
"For a moment yes…" She replied as Vincent arched an eyebrow.
"A moment?" Ven asked.
"Yes I think you could use some help on this adventure, and I want to do what I can other than just root for you…so I need to pack a few things first." Aerith replied with a smile towards Terra.
"I vote in favor of her joining us!!" Aqua said as her hand shot up.
"Can't stand being the only girl amongst five guys huh?" Ven asked knowingly.
"Hey we got enough room for ten people here…more if ya'll share rooms." Cid said over his shoulder.
"I still don't quite know your names yet though." Aerith said with a shrug.
"Allow me…" Terra replied as he pointed to everyone one at a time, "…that's Ven, Aqua, Cid Highwind, Vincent Valentine, and Mickey Mouse…you know Wall-e, M-O, and myself already."
"Pleasure." Aerith responded, "I'm Aerith Gainsborough."
"She's also the only person in all of Midgar that sells actual flowers." Terra added.
"I'm the only one who knows how to keep them alive." She replied with a smile.
"That must take a lot of work for something so difficult to do in Midgar." Vincent said.
"What do you mean by that?" Aqua asked with an arched eyebrow.
"The reactors located around Midgar…those tall buildings on the edge of the walls…" Terra answered, "…are Mako reactors…Mako supposedly drains the life from the ground around them, making it next to impossible to have a garden that isn't hanging off of someone's window."
"But Aerith is the only person I know who can do it so easily." Terra added as Aerith smiled at him from across the room.
"Wow." Ven replied as he then turned to see Wall-e making track marks in the floor with his treads and watch M-O get frustrated with having to clean it up.
An hour later the gummy ship soared off into the stars after Aerith had gotten back from packing.
"So…where to now?" Cid asked from the controls.
"I think we should go to Master Yen Sid first." Mickey said as almost everyone nodded.
"Probably a good idea, I mean we don't know where to go next right?" Ven replied
"Sounds like we're heading to Radiant Garden then." Cid said over his shoulder.
"Sounds like." Terra replied as Cid punched in the coordinates.
The gummy ship lurched as it streaked off into space.
Meanwhile…
The inactive AUTO was wheeled down on a stretcher down a long white corridor as a hunched man in a white lab coat, glasses, and with his long dark hair in a ponytail, waited outside a pair of doors marked "Robotics reprogramming area."
"Ha…it's about time you fools got here…I'm amazed to see AUTO still in one piece!" the man berated the two assistants who merely cowered slightly and wheeled the robot through the doors and then moved to place it on a large table.
"Careful you fools… he is an expensive piece of equipment." The man berated again as the two men left.
As the door closed, the man quickly locked it and maneuvered a crane to pick up the steering wheel and attach it to a flat, low hanging, panel where the magnetic sliding grips on the base of the wheel instantly locked on.
"Now let's see what you've got here." The man said as he flipped the manual override switch off and AUTO hummed back to life.
"AUTO!" The machine replied in its autonomous monotone voice.
"Ah good…so far no memory loss." The man replied as the wheel looked at him.
"Greetings Professor Hojo." AUTO greeted "…where am I?"
"My lab, where else…you were ordered removed from the Axiom to have your directives deleted and replaced…but I can't do anything until I've examined your directives for any…irregularities." Hojo replied as he brought up a list of directives and had the computer cross reference them against the original list.
The computer then started to beep as it came across directive A-1-13.
"Interesting." Hojo stated as he arched an eyebrow and turned to the wheel, "What pray tell is Directive A-1-13?"
"Directive A-1-13…the covert monitoring of subject Terra…and recording of any and all movements and conversations…once sufficient information regarding the following subjects; Keyblade, Kingdom Knights, and Kingdom Hearts, has been acquired from subject…compile data for transfer to hard disk and contact subject J. Silver via BNL network…and if discovered by subject Terra… terminate evidence and subject at all costs." AUTO replied as Hojo arched an interested eyebrow.
"Hmm… Keyblades? Kingdom Hearts?" Hojo said as he leaned back in his chair.
"Tell me AUTO…" Hojo said as he leaned forward, "What…have you found?"
End Chapter 9
Me: First of all...
I like Wall-e and M-O…and AUTO for that matter. Despite the fact that I like EVE just as much, she won't be appearing in this story…I'm saving her for a sequel fic to Reunion.
