Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me.

Chapter 21: Checkmate

'As of now, the Protector 5.0 droids are authorized to use lethal force for the good of society,' came the droid's voice over the comm. 'We will begin shortly with incarcerated super-villains and other felons.'

In the Guardians' headquarters Layla, Ethan, Denise, Magenta and Zach looked at one another in alarm. Even Matthew, sitting on Layla's lap, seemed to sense that something was wrong, and he looked like he was about to start crying. Layla tried to comfort him, the only sound in the room.

"This is insane," whispered Denise. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, they seem to be vulnerable to huge amounts of electricity. So how about we find some way to zap them with a few million volts each?" Zach suggested.

"The trouble is, we'd need to hit every single one at the same time," Ethan pointed out. "Any droids that weren't affected would attack whatever device we're using to deliver the shock. Plus, we don't have time to construct such a device. We need a solution now."

"We could dissolve them in Phyto's sap," Layla offered. "That's something else they're not immune to."

Ethan shook his head. "Again, we'd need to get them all at the same time. Also, the sap is quite slow-acting, so they might have time to find a way to combat it before they're totally destroyed."

"We need to find the kill-switch for those robots," said Magenta, staring blankly at the floor.

"I thought you looked for that before and didn't find one," Denise responded.

"Plus, wouldn't we still have to switch each one off one at a time?" asked Zach.

Magenta looked up. "No, I don't mean an actual switch as such. I mean a command of some sort that would shut them all down at the same time."

"But how are you going to find it?" asked Layla. "It can't be safe to go down to Royal Pain's lair anymore. They'll know you're trying to re-program them or something like last time."

"They're not down there anymore. Apparently they've taken over a number of factories and warehouses in downtown Maxville that they seem to be using as their HQ and production facility."

"That doesn't mean they're not using Royal Pain's lair as well," Zach objected.

"We don't have time to just sit here and over-analyze the risks," Maj replied, getting impatient.

"Is it worth it, though?" asked Ethan, concerned. "Do you think you've got a reasonable chance of finding what we need?"

"I really hope so," she answered with a sigh. "But I'm going to need a little help from a… friend."

It was a lot easier than they expected to get Royal Pain out of her high security ward on level 4a, where she was recovering from the surgery to remove her from her battlesuit. All they had to do was claim that they were taking her back to the Ultra-Max, sign the transfer papers and carefully exchange the Hospital's neutralizing bracelet for one of theirs.

As they drove off from the Hospital, Magenta mused privately that without the battlesuit, it was easier to think of her as 'Gwen' than 'Royal Pain'. She practically looked like a normal person again, with only some light scarring down the back of her neck, which was just visible above the collar of her hospital overalls. She probably wouldn't be wearing skimpy tops or swimsuits any time soon, but then again, as a convicted criminal she wasn't likely to be doing that anyway.

With Tessa in Washington in case Warren needed further transport, they would have to get to the underground lair by more conventional means this time, but that didn't mean that they had to go the long way, like the droid they'd tracked. Magenta pulled up outside the old Grayson residence and Zach, who was in the backseat with the villain, made a big show of loading his crossbow with a dart.

Gwen stared at the crossbow and then narrowed her eyes in recognition, evidently remembering at least that much from when she was under mind control.

Magenta made the most of the moment. "It's very simple, Gwen," she explained sweetly. "Unless you want to get zapped with the mind control drug again, you'll cooperate completely. Either way, we'll get what we want from you. It's your choice."

Gwen gave her a condescending look. "Doesn't the word 'antidote' mean anything to you?" she asked sarcastically, but there was an uncertain edge to her voice that suggested she wasn't completely sure about it.

"Yeah, it means what you had was an antidote only, not a vaccine," Maj lied smoothly, mirroring her tone and expression. Once again the bluff worked.

"Fine." Gwen scowled and looked out the window. "I suppose you want me to take you to my secret lair the easy way."

"Well, well. It looks like she's a genius after all," Zach jeered as Magenta leaned back to remove the villain's neutralizer. She would probably need her powers to get them to the lair.

Gwen muttered something that sounded like 'Lunatic' as they got out of the car and went up to the house, keeping an eye out for patrolling droids. Before they got to the front door, however, Gwen bent down and moved some overgrown plants aside. She lifted a paving stone and placed her palm on what seemed like blank concrete, but actually turned out to be a hidden biometric sensor. A moment later they heard a deep groan of large machinery moving inside the house.

When they opened the front door which was now unlocked, they stepped into a hallway that the NCS agents definitely did not see when they investigated the place all those years ago. It was, in fact, an elevator of sorts. Gwen placed her other palm on another hidden sensor on the wall, and used her powers to make the 'entrance hall' start sinking into the ground.

As they went down, Magenta explained to her that they needed her help to find a shutdown command for the droids. Gwen didn't say a word until they got to the lair, which was deserted as Magenta had expected, and she switched on the mainframe.

While it was booting up, she finally spoke. "Right, so what's in this for me?"

"Unless we can get the droids shut down, they're going to start executing criminals," Magenta snapped, "And that includes you. How's that for motivation?"

Back at the Guardians' HQ, there was more bad news.

Layla closed her phone and shook her head sadly. "That was Kate's mom," she told the others as she took Matthew back from Denise who'd taken him when Layla's phone rang. "She said that Josie and Steve tried to get Will and Kate released, and it turned ugly. They were arrested too."

"We really need to shut those droids down," Ethan said.

"We also need to warn Warren to behave himself or he could end up the same way," added Denise.

Ethan nodded and switched on the comm.

Warren acknowledged the warning with a silent nod, even though they wouldn't be able to see him. He hadn't actually been participating in the outraged debate that had erupted after the first stunned silence following the droid's announcement. He could see that the emotional and possibly irrational responses of the President and his advisors were not swaying the droid in the slightest.

All he could do was hope that Magenta could find out how to shut them down.

"I really don't know what I was doing here," Gwen complained as she worked on her computer under the watchful eye of Zach and his crossbow. "I mean, it's not like I can remember much, and now you people just expect me to be able to instantly find what you need. If it was that easy, you could have found it yourself."

Magenta rolled her eyes from one of the other computers where she was also searching. "Gee, thanks for your confidence in me," she said sarcastically.

"That was not a compliment," Gwen snapped, shooting her a glare, and then she carried on grumbling. "And the irony that I should be helping the good guys fixing up their mistakes – you should really be embarrassed to even ask me. By the way you can see that this whole thing was cooked up by a paranoid madman. Everything is so totally encrypted there's no way I'll be able to find… oh wait, here's something."

"What?" asked Maj eagerly.

Gwen looked up. "The droids are programmed with a shutdown command, but Arnolde is the only one who knows what it is."

"Are you sure it's not there somewhere?"

"Yes, I'm sure, damn it. I'm not stupid, you know. And you could be a little more grateful, because it's more than you've managed to find."

Magenta didn't answer that. Instead she activated her comm and passed on the information to the others, along with her decision to keep looking despite what Gwen had said.

After a few minutes of strained silence, she said, "Uh, good job, by the way."

"Thanks," replied Gwen hesitantly. "And, um, thanks also for organizing Dr. Chaodai to operate on me. They said that she never works on super-villains and she only did it for me because she was asked by a close family friend, so, well, thanks."

"Thank Warren," Magenta shrugged. "It was his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Wu from the Paper Lantern, who know her and he managed to make a case for you. Though, I have to admit, at the time I didn't know why he bothered."

"Me neither. It's not like I'll be needing to look normal in public much for the rest of my life anyway," said Gwen, still trying to look sulky, but she seemed to be almost touched by the effort Warren had gone to for her sake.

Layla walked down one of the long corridors of Darkham Asylum, wishing she hadn't been so quick to volunteer for this. The walls, floor and ceiling were spotless white but the lights were so dim that it all appeared gray. Her footsteps, and those of the orderly guiding her, echoed in the corridor amid the faint sounds of muffled screams and moans.

As she was ushered into Arnolde's ward, she was quite relieved to see that he was in a straitjacket, which would keep him from being able to use his powers on her, or anyone else for that matter.

"Hello, dear," he greeted her pleasantly, quite out of character for the whole situation. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Layla got straight to the point. "I need the shutdown command for the Protector 5.0 droids."

"And why should I give that to you?"

"Because they're acting beyond their original parameters," she answered, remembering the phrase Ethan had used the previous night. "They've just decided that they're not going to answer to the President anymore, and they've given themselves permission to kill."

Arnolde looked entirely unconcerned. "I fail to see the problem with that."

"They're arresting innocent people!" Layla exclaimed.

"You might think those people are innocent, but if the droids have arrested them, it's for a good reason."

"All they were doing was defending themselves and their loved ones."

"In an unacceptable manner, apparently, if they were arrested for it," he answered.

Layla sighed and tried a completely different tack. "They're starting to execute prisoners. Pretty soon, that's going to mean you too."

"If it is for the good of society, then so be it," he replied serenely. "That, Ms. Williams, is the true nature of heroic self-sacrifice."

She just stared at him, shaking her head. Was there any way to get through to him?

Meanwhile Warren was also feeling like he was talking to a brick wall. The droid seemed to be willing to participate in debate with the President and Joint Chiefs without threatening to arrest them, however irate they got, so he decided to climb in as well. After all, while he wasn't much use to Will and Kate if he got arrested, he was also not much use to them if he just sat there and said nothing in their defense.

So, when there was a pause in the argument, Warren brought up the topic of Will and his family, finishing with, "Self-defense is legally justified, you know, and it's not like the intruders were seriously harmed."

"Yet it was more violent than the situation required," answered the droid. "And this was not the first occasion that your friend has used more force than was required. Analysis of his records shows that it is too great a risk to allow him to continue operating in this fashion."

"Well, we believe in giving people another chance," stated Warren.

"Yes, that is a human weakness."

"Forgiveness is a weakness?!" he exclaimed.

"You allow people 'another chance' despite the risk that the person will again commit the same or worse criminal act. That is illogical."

'Great, it's Mr. Spock now,' muttered Zach on the comm but he was ignored.

"What about the risk of denying someone the chance to actually be a better person?" Warren argued.

"Statistics show that this is not the case in sufficient instances," replied the droid. "Therefore the risk is unacceptable."

He heard Ethan sigh, 'It's like playing chess with a computer. It's already worked out a dozen counter-moves to any possible move you can make.'

It was time to stop playing by their rules then, Warren thought. He really, really needed that shutdown code.

But Layla had no idea how she would be able to get it. Arnolde was still refusing to see her point, and he was trying even harder to convince her that he was right.

"Don't you want your friends' children, and your own, to grow up in a society that is safe?" he asked earnestly.

"If the droids carry on like this, they might not be able to grow up at all," she replied tartly. Last month the droids were about to arrest a six-year-old for arson, when all he did was start a fire by accident." She sighed again and shook her head. "People aren't going to just accept this, you know. They're going to start fighting back, and then the droids are going to be killing people who are actually law-abiding citizens whose only crime was to desire freedom. And, and Will's parents, they were fighting back against the injustice of their son and daughter-in-law being arrested. Lots of other people will do that too."

"It is understandable that there will be those who perceive some of the droids' actions as unjust," Arnolde replied evenly. "But, ultimately, despite what those people think, the droids are programmed to act for the purposes of peace and justice."

"They're going to be killing anyone who stands in the way of that 'peace and justice'," Layla countered, "And in the end, the only humans left on the planet will be cowering in fear, hiding out in isolation. Is that your idea of a safe and peaceful society?"

"That's a grim outlook for someone who's supposed to be an optimist," he observed dryly.

"That is the optimistic forecast," she shot back, and then went on with growing sarcasm, "You want to hear the cynical one? It goes like this. Human population: zero. Oh, and in the last great human-droid war, they pretty much wiped out all the natural resources, so the planet's almost dead. But the droids have a very peaceful society."

After a moment's contemplation, Arnolde asked very quietly, "Do you truly believe that could happen or are you just trying to make a point?"

"Judging from what I've seen the past few weeks, I don't think any doomsday scenario is too impossible."

"I don't understand," he murmured, looking more and more horrified as he seemed to think it over. "I don't understand, this is all wrong. This is not how it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be for the good of mankind, not the end of it." He looked up and whispered in dismay, "What have I done?"

For a moment she was tempted to spell out how big a mistake he'd made, but for the first time she actually felt pity for him. He really had been trying to save the world; he really did want to help. "You can still fix it," she said more gently than he probably deserved. "Give me the code."

Arnolde nodded sadly. "I'll give it to you, but from what you've said, it's probably too late."

'I've got the shutdown code, but there's a catch,' said Layla over the comm. 'They will only obey the command if it comes from someone whose authority they accept.'

Warren closed his eyes as a sense of hopelessness washed over him. He barely heard the rest of the conversation.

'But they're not accepting anyone's authority anymore, are they?' said Zach, sounding as dismayed as Warren felt.

'It's probably a failsafe, just in case some criminal hacker got hold of the code and tried to use it to get out of trouble,' put in Magenta.

'Yeah, that's pretty much what Arnolde said,' Layla answered.

Warren gave a deep sigh. As he could see from the scene playing out in front of him, there was no way the droids would accept human authority again. They were just too convinced of their own superiority.

"We are programmed to not make mistakes," the droid responded to a question from the Vice President, which pretty much proved Warren's point.

'Wait a minute,' said Ethan, suddenly sounding excited. 'That's not technically possible. They were programmed by a human, at the command of a fanatic. So they are actually just as fallible as the person who created them.'

'Ethan, you're a genius!' exclaimed Magenta. 'That's absolutely true. Everything they know and understand was programmed into them, according to Arnolde's own warped ideas of right and wrong.'

With a renewed sense of hope, Warren walked up to the droid. "Newsflash, can-head: you were programmed by a human. How do you know that human didn't make a mistake in your code somewhere?"

This seemed to take the droid by surprise, and for once it didn't have an immediate answer.

Taking advantage, Warren went on intently, "Your entire concept of right and wrong come from a man you recently arrested. You're programmed to think you're flawless, but how do you know you really are?"

There was an extremely long pause, during which the droid remained absolutely motionless.

Finally, it spoke, almost seeming reluctant. "We concede your point. Your conclusion is correct: our programming is at risk of being flawed. Therefore we cannot consider our reasoning to be automatically superior to human thought."

Warren breathed a small sigh of relief. "Then will you accept human authority again?"

"That depends on which human it is," replied the droid. "Our concept of right and wrong is still superior to that of many people."

"Okay, how about, for instance, the President?"

"No," answered the droid simply. Warren was beginning to fear that they were back to square one when it added, "But we will accept yours."