The ominous robot loomed over the couple. It was the same height as Norm, and guns protruded from its arms. Heinz was already cowering behind an unimpressed Caroline, who had naturally moved back into a defensive stance. Norm peered at the humanoid figure.

"Chloe?" he asked.

"Hello there, Norm," Chloe confirmed. She took a step backwards so that she was no longer blocking the light overhead, bringing her into full view instead of being a dark, threatening shadow. She looked down at the group, Doof still quivering slightly. "I hope I didn't startle you all."

"Hey, I remember you now," Heinz recalled, coming out from behind Caroline, his cowardice just moments ago totally forgotten as he remembered who Chloe was. "You're that robot of Rodney's! Say, did you always have those guns on your arms?"

Chloe looked over her weapons."There is a robot competition later," she explained. "My father gave me these to make me appear more intimidating."

"Well you can tell him that it totally didn't work," Doof huffed. "Anyway, this is Caroline, my girlfriend. We've been going out for ages now, we're totally in love! Oh, and this hunk of junk behind us is Norm."

Cat shook Chloe's arm (as best she could given how chunky the metal appendage was) and Norm waved at her, his face displaying joy at seeing her as best as it could. Chloe smiled (sort of) and returned his wave, matching his gaze with her own.

"Anyway, if you're looking for Rodney, he stormed off in that direction," Heinz gestured, oblivious to the moment being shared by the two robots. "And take a fire extinguisher, because he got roasted!"

"I will go and pick one up," Chloe said seriously. "Now I must go, it was a pleasure meeting you all. Norm, we should interface again sometime."

With that, she curtseyed, then stomped off in the direction that Rodney had fled.

"Alright, who's up for seeing the Invisible Traps exhibit?" Doof said cheerfully, oblivious to the hearts in Norm's eyes following Chloe as she left. Doof was already pulling out the map from his pocket to see where the exhibit was located. After staring at it and turning the map at different angles for several seconds, he then abandoned the map entirely.

"We don't need this thing, my natural sense of direction will get us there. Follow me!" he said, strolling confidently in a direction he chose more or less at random. But Caroline grabbed his sleeve, and he turned around to see both Cat and Norm looking pleadingly at him, complete with puppy dog eyes (which, on Norm, looked more disturbing than pleading).

"I like Chloe, dad!" Norm implored of his creator. "Please let me spend some time with her!"

"Ugh, you're just like an annoying kid sometimes, Norm," Doof groaned. "But not my kid," he added quickly, before Norm could become too happy. He appeared to give the matter some thought, and Norm's eyes grew slightly wider as he dared to hope his dear father might give his blessing...

"No!" Doof said anyway. "I don't want you having anything to do with that robot of Rodney's," he added angrily, seething at the name of his true nemesis. "Now come on. I want to see those invisible traps." He turned to leave, but Cat was still clutching his sleeve. Heinz glanced at her, and was immediately caught in her puppy-dog gaze.

"Pf, you're just a sucker for a good love story," Doof said staunchly, carefully avoiding her eyes.

A moment passed.

"Aaand so am I," he relented, admitting his weakness for romance. "Alright, fine. Plus, it'll annoy Rodney. Norm, you can go out with Chloe."

"Yay!" Norm exclaimed joyfully. Caroline wrapped her arms around Heinz in a happy hug, and then Norm joined in, crushing the couple.

"Hey! Don't make me take it back!" Doof squeaked in Norm's overly tight grip, and the giant metal robot loosened his arms, an oily tear of happiness leaking from his eyes.

"Man, you've been having a lot of weird bugs today, Norm, but that's just what love does to ya," Doof smiled, in a rare show of genuine feeling towards his son-like robot. "Hey, now you can be like Romeo and Juliet! I mean, I assume that went well. I never saw the ending."

"I hope Rodney is as understanding as you, dad!" Norm said cheerfully.

But as soon as he said it, Norm's smile turned upside down. He, along with Heinz and Caroline, understood immediately that it wouldn't be the case. Rodney didn't want them together when he first found out about them, let alone now that Heinz and Cat had made even more of an enemy out of him.

Heinz growled in frustration, mumbling juvenile and Druselsteinian curses towards Rodney. "Man, just as I decide to do something, Rodney has to pull a dead moose in the road and be an obstacle for me once again!"

But Caroline had other ideas. "Well, if we can't get his blessing..." Caroline said slowly, a mischievous grin growing on her face, "We'll just have to do it without."

"Ooh, that sounds so sneaky, I love it," Heinz purred. "Hm… You know, I think I've got a plan!"


As Lawrence brought another anecdote to an end, a satisfied Caroline opened her eyes, to a ray of orange light streaming through the window, indicating the sun was preparing to drop below the horizon yet again.

What time must it be now? She wondered idly. What time is sunset today anyway? Not that long ago, she would've known what time it was to the minute. Caroline blamed a certain brown-haired gentleman.

The peace was interrupted by a high-pitched scream.

The OWCA agent's head turned sharply to the source of the noise and her hand instinctively rushed to whip on her fedora, but she restrained herself from doing so in the presence of Lawrence. "My word, what was that?" the man said in surprise. "It sounded like…"

The girlish scream had come from outside. Wasting no time, Caroline strode out to find out who was in trouble, Lawrence following not far behind. Their eyes fell on the terrified man looking up at the fire spreading over his house.

"Rob!" Lawrence exclaimed, rushing to comfort his poor neighbour.

"Oh, it's terrible, Lawrence," Collins panted. "I was tinkering with one of my inventions when- when it just went haywire and - BOOM!"

"That's awful," Lawrence said sympathetically. "I understand the feeling, I really do. I once bought a toaster that burnt the word "evil" into all of my toast for some reason, every single one! I must've bought one of those novelty toasters by mistake. Anyway, my point is you have to accept these things, and move on to the next part of your life."

Caroline smiled. That whole piece of advice was just classic Lawrence: zany anecdote combined with deep wisdom.

"Thanks Lawrence," Collins said gratefully. "You always know what to sa- well helloooo…"

His eyes had landed on Caroline, and were now stuck to her like glue. The secret agent's face fell in anticipation of what was coming next.

"What's a beautiful lady like you doing way out here?" he purred. "Hehe, that was pretty smooth," he then said to himself, self-high-fiving there and then.

Caroline twitched. Collins didn't recognise her without her fedora. This deeply irked her. How could someone so talented at creating evil devices be so deficient in everything else?

"Ah, Rob, this is Caroline. She drops by my place from time to time," Lawrence explained, obliviously. "Caroline, you've heard me rattle on about old Rob here."

"All good things, I hope," Collins grinned, bowing slightly.

This earned a look of distaste from the secret agent, which went unnoticed as his attention turned back to Lawrence, who continued consoling him. "Anyway, Rob, why don't you come inside. I've got some lovely little crumpets we can have while everything gets sorted out-"

Lawrence was interruptd by an earth-shaking explosion, as portion of Collins' mansion exploded. The force sent the trio staggering backwards. The mansion began spitting flaming debris around and they hastily retreated to the opposite side of the street, putting some distance between them and it. Then, a huge fiery ball, a conglomeration of wrecked evil machine parts, erupted through the flames with another explosion, rising high into the sky…

Before smashing squarely into Lawrence's flat.