Mike was sitting awkwardly on his cot as he struggled to open the visual display screen installed in Cambot's side. The small spherical robot didn't struggle or even squeak as he patiently awaited for Mike to stop fiddling around with his systems.

"Um, Mike?" Crow wisely interjected. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Sure, it's just like programming a VCR."

"You know how to program a VCR?"

"Well... no. I never actually figured out-"

Tom butted in and pushed Cambot out of Mike's grip. "Would you stop! Cambot's been through enough, he doesn't need you hands of death all over him!"

"Hey!" Mike protested feeling offended. "I think 'hands of death' is a little-"

"What? Harsh? Extreme?" Tom sarcastically offered.

"What about... TRUE?" Crow joined in. "Mister 'Destroyer of Worlds'!"

"Hey! Well... okay, yeah. Fair enough..."

Dr. Jones didn't understand what was going. She was having a difficult enough time comprehending the four robots that were suddenly in the cell and clearly bonded as friends with Mike. "Can I help?" She finally asked, more confused than anything else.

"Uh..."

Gypsy spoke up. "Sure! Just press that button right there on Cambot's side."

Cambot hovered over to Dr. Jones and allowed her to hold him. "This button here, the blue one?"

"Yup!"

"Okay, here we go." Dr. Jones pressed the button and a descent sized view screen folded down from Cambot's side. The display was initially black, but once Cambot began to playback the recorded feed the screen filled with vibrant and bizarre images. "Wow..."

Dr. Jones was entranced by the footage as it ran backward at a fast pace. She caught brief glimpses of a kind looking, goateed young man in a red jumpsuit, but before she could ask about him the footage displayed the wreckage of the Satellite of Love, and the horrific crash that preceded it.

Joel inconspicuously positioned himself outside of the room he falsely labeled as inaccessible. Using a broom Joel kept himself busy sweeping the floors while keeping an ear open for any sign that maybe Mike was going to be taken away or that the bots had been discovered.

The two guards positioned outside of Mike's cell were speaking in low voices to one another, surely discussing the crashing sound of the vent grate, when Mr. White; the dark suited man who orchestrated Mike's capture, approached the patrolling duo.

"Report." He demanded in a deep, agitated voice.

"Sir, a vent grate had fallen and crashed on the floor." The first guard responded quickly.

"You've confirmed this?"

The second guard answered. "Dr. Jones was in the cell at the time of the crash, she is the one who informed us."

"But you didn't check the situation and confirm the status yourself?"

"Uh, no. Negative."

"Morons!" Mr. White reprimanded the inexperienced and lax guards. He motioned for them to stand aside so he could enter the cell himself.

Joel had overheard the scolding from the relative safety of the distant room, far down the hall from Mike's cell. Thinking quickly Joel reached over and pulled the nearby emergency fire alarm on the wall.

Red, flashing lights and sirens began blaring overhead as the sprinkler system automatically engaged and began dowsing all the rooms and all the hallways on the floors with cool water. Joel laughed a little to himself. 'We've got Movie Sign!'

Mr. White looked up angrily at the overhead sprinklers and swore out loud. "Son of a..." He turned his attention back to the lazy and startled guards. "You two, go find out what's happened and find out who pulled that damn alarm!"

"Sir!" The two guards marched off down the hall, becoming lost in the swarm of scattering scientists, engineers and other guards who were trying to shield themselves from the water while making their way to the front door of the building.

Soaked from the sudden deluge of the sprinkler system, Joel calmly and casually blended in with the rest of the crowd and easily slipped outside of the building unnoticed. After all he was just another face in a (wet) red jumpsuit.

From inside the cell Mike, Dr. Jones and the bots were trying to figure out what was happening. A single sprinkled overhead was more than enough to completely drench the small area in uncomfortably cool water.

"Mike!" The bots all whined together. "What's happening now?!"

"I'm not doing it!" Mike whined back, his good arm shielding his eyes from the torrent of water.

Dr. Jones tried to keep things calm as she tucked Cambot protectively under her white coat. "It's the fire alarm. Some joker must be playing a childish prank!"

"Or an ally!" Mike suggested. "Maybe that 'Robby' guy is trying to help us."

"Maybe."

Crow was very irritated. "Mike, I can't stand this! I'm wet, I'm cold and you smell terrible when you're wet! Like a dog or something..."

"You guys need to get out of this water before it damages your circuits." Mike suddenly realized. "Get back into the vent, you should be safe up there."

"Right!"

Tom hovered up and into the vent first. Gypsy gave Crow a lift with her nose and he in turn helped pull her up into the vent after him. Mike pushed her coil body up and out of the room as quickly as he could.

The three bots looked down from the vent and back into the cell below. "Mike?" Tom called out worried. "You coming?"

"I'm not going to fit in there! And even if I could, I'd be too heavy, and even I wasn't I wouldn't be able to move with my broken arm! And ankle! And ribs!"

"Geez Mike, you're so negative sometimes."

Cambot let out a squeak to indicate that he had finished compiling the footage. A small data disc was ejected from his side.

Dr. Jones took the disc and slipped it protectively into her pocket.

Cambot then hovered out of her grip and into the vents after his waterlogged brethren.

"Mike," Dr. Jones sat on the cot wrapped her arm around his side and helped him. "if we don't get out of here, too, the guards will know something is up!"

"But what about..." Mike looked up sadly at the four bots in the vent overhead.

Dr. Jones was insistent but calm. "I get the feeling that Cambot already has a plan. They'll be fine."

Cambot let out an optimistic squeak from the vent.

Reluctantly Mike agreed to leave the cell and without the bots. As Dr. Jones helped him to his feet, he gave one last order to his beloved robot friends above. "You four stick together, no matter what! Cambot, you're in charge until we're all together again."

"Awwww!" Tom and Crow whined in unison. "Not Cambot!"

"YES, Cambot!" Mike reaffirmed. "Now, Dr. Jones, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Lean on me."

In a very clumsy but effective manner, Dr. Jones and Mike exited the cell while the robots ducked away inside the dim vent.

...to be continued...