Chapter Twenty One

The van finally stopped and Paul and John Smith stood up first in order to protect the women. The doors opened and they saw more guards with blasters aimed at them. The man stood behind the guards and beckoned to them.

"Come forward," he said to them.

"What is this about?" John Smith said.

"Come forward," the man repeated.

"Not until we find out what you want us for," John Smith said.

"Come forward and follow me and I'll explain everything," the man said impatiently. "Otherwise, I'll have my guards throw knockout gas in there and you'll be carried in. Your choice."

John Smith shook his head and beckoned to the women. They stood up and John Smith and Paul went first while they followed. They leapt out of the van and stood in the midst of the guards. The guards moved them forward a bit and then surrounded them. Flanked on all sides, they herded them around the van towards another large white concrete building. Paul took his wife's hand and squeezed it when they went through a pair of double doors into a large room. The room had several metal chairs and tables and a marble floor but the guards moved them past it and through another set of double doors down a corridor. They walked them to the end of the corridor to a door off to their left. One guard opened it and they went into a large laboratory. The laboratory looked like any standard laboratory except on the far left of the room; there was an assortment of metal robots of various sizes, shapes and colors. The guards herded them towards the right side of the room and held them there while the man walked into the room and closed the doors.

"Okay, mind tell us what this is about?" John Smith said.

"My name is Doctor Maxionius and I need you," he said to them.

"What for?" Paul said.

"See those robots over there?" Maxionius said, pointing to them.

All of them nodded.

"I need you to help model them for tonight's viewing."

Everyone stared at him quietly for a moment.

"You want us to be models for robots?" Paul said, not sure he heard that right.

"Yes. I have models I keep on staff but I'm bored with them and I noticed your ship coming towards the planet and I asked an old friend of mine who was in charge of the tractor beam to beam you in so I could see who was on board. I was looking for someone different, something exciting and you five have what I need, I think. After I make you over, of course. The way you look now you couldn't model a plate of snot and mucus but enough talk…tiny one, come here, I want to start with you."

Paul rolled his eyes when the guards looked them over in confusion.

"I think I'm Tiny One," he said to them.

They separated him from the group and Maxionius pulled up a metal chair for him and told him to sit.

"Now…" he said to Paul as he sat down, "first off, we will fix some of the flaws I mentioned earlier."

"Look, mate, I want to go back to my family and friends, I don't wanna participate in…"

"A girdle!"

Paul shut up and blinked.

"What?" he said.

"You're too fat, you need to wear a girdle, something that will slim the lumpy bulges."

"I am not fat!" Paul protested while his friends and family snickered.

"No wait, that's impossible. I'm afraid I'll have to live with the bulges," Maxionius said as he walked over to a drawer and rummaged through it.

"Here," he said, throwing him a pair of black Speedos, "take off your clothes and put that on, it shall be your outfit for this evening."

Paul stared at it in horror while Maxionius regarded him calmly.

"No, wait, surely you can't be serious," Paul said to him. "I'm wearing this thing out in public?"

"That and more. I need to change your wig into something more suitable," he said as he opened a cupboard and rummaged through it.

"Help?" Paul said, throwing his friends a helpless look as Maxionius looked through some boxes.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and what was left of his group located a police station and were trying to tell a bored policeman sitting behind a desk that Maxionius had kidnapped their friends.

"And you say he took them off your ship?" the officer said as he wrote down the information.

"Yes," the Doctor said, "and he gave us these."

He handed one of the brochures to the officer who perused it. He read through it and nodded.

"Yes, the pavilion isn't far from here," he said to them. "Thought of going myself. I need another robot for my home. The misses wants a Z-35, latest model…"

"Yes, yes," the Doctor said impatiently, "that's not the point. The point is our friends have been taken and we want them back. Can you go to his lab and arrest him."

"The man is harmless, sir," the officer said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Harmless, he brought a bunch of men onboard my ship and abducted people at blasterpoint," Pepa said angrily.

"Yes, but he does that, sir. He's a clever inventor but he's mad as a hatter, you see. He thinks he needs people to model the robots while he shows them off. Thinks it adds to the presentation."

"So he kidnaps people and forces them to model robots?" Rory said in disbelief.

"Yeah, he lets them go unharmed after it. He's just a vain little looney who likes putting on shows with models and robots. It's how he makes his money. He recruits people to assist them and then lets them go at the end of the show. I suggest you go see the show. In fact, I'm about to go off duty, you can go with me. Like I said, I wanna get a robot for the misses. I think I will get a Z-35, in fact. Just wait in the waiting room and I'll come get you when my shift's up."

He waved the stunned group away and the Doctor turned and beckoned for all of them to follow him to the waiting room while the officer went back to his paperwork.

After two hours, the officer came and got the Doctor and his companions. All of them had been sick with worry but they gave up trying to get anyone to help them after the Doctor went around to others, explained the situation and was told the same thing the officer told them. The man was harmless and his friends would be returned unharmed at the end of the evening. Once the officer came into the waiting room, everyone jumped up from their chairs.

"Name's Dougan," he said to them. "Just come with me. We can borrow a black maria for the evening and that way I can bring your friends home as well."

The Doctor muttered curses under his breath as they followed Dougan towards the front door. He walked out to the car park and unlocked a black maria. He ushered everyone into the back of it and they sat on benches bolted to the sides as he shut the doors and walked around to the passenger side. He got in and drove off. Fifteen minutes later, he reached the Argos Pavilion and turned the van off. He got out and let everyone out of the back. The Pavilion was a huge glass structure that resembled a circus tent. They saw through the glass that there were benches sat up around the interior that were facing a wooden stage with a long wooden catwalk. At the back of the stage was a huge purple curtain that prevented them from seeing the back of the structure. They could see people walking around, mingling while they sipped tea and ate crumpets. Most of the people were dressed up in evening wear, evening dresses and black tuxedos but there were others like the officer who was wearing casual dress. They went inside and walked over to two trolleys to get the tea and crumpets. After they got the tea and crumpets, they went ahead and sat down on the wooden bench that was directly in front of the catwalk. One by one, others slowly did the same thing until the benches were filled up. The show didn't start until the sun started going down and then suddenly techno music began to pulsate through the room making the glass walls vibrate. Tia looked around in fear as she sat on Bill's lap and Bill soothed her, kissed her head and made her doll dance to calm her down. Then spotlights focused on the purple curtain and Maxionius stepped outside with a microphone.

"Is this on?" he said as his voice reverberated around the room. "Good. I am Doctor Milus Maxionius and this is my 56th Bots viewing. I hope you like what you see and I'll be sure to get any orders you have for robots after the viewing. But for now, let the show begin! First up, we have the R-56 modeled by Paul!"

The Doctor and everyone leaned forward in anticipation as Maxionius stepped to the side of the stage and the curtain opened. The Doctor and his companions stared slack jawed and then laughed hysterically when they saw Paul. Paul was wearing the black Speedo and nothing else. Someone had thrown glitter on his body and it sparkled in the spotlights. He had eyeliner around his eyes and black lipstick on his lips. But what made them laugh was someone had replaced his hairpiece with an enormous black beehive that was piled up two foot high on his head. Stuck into the beehive were purple and white flowers that looked like daisies. The robot beside him was a purple and white robot that looked like R2-D2. The robot moved forward and the Doctor and his group laughed in spite of themselves when Paul moved with it down the catwalk, wiggling his hips and strutting alongside it. The robot stopped and Paul ran his hands all over it, modeling it for the crowd while Maxionius gave out statistics about it. He spotted his friends and family sitting mere feet away from him. His eyes narrowed when all of them laughed and waved at him.

"Ya look great, Paulie!" John yelled over the techno. "You need to keep that look for the Beatles!"

"Shut up, John!" Paul yelled back as they laughed hysterically.

Mortified, Paul was forced to model the robot and dance around it, wiggling his hips and his butt while the Doctor and the others roared with laughter. When Maxionius finished, Paul sprinted back to the back of the stage far ahead of the robot. When the robot was backstage, Amy came out and they laughed when they noticed she was dressed in a neon purple dress that had swirling pink neon lights directly over her breasts. Her hair had been teased straight up above her hair like a ginger dagger and ivy had been wound around it. She had on neon purple eye shadow and lipstick and she also had to dance, wiggle her body and model the humanoid robot while it walked with her down the catwalk. She spotted her friends and family and gave them a look of death while they laughed uncontrollably. After she was done, she sprinted backstage and then John Smith came out. He was dressed as a goth with jet black hair, makeup and eye shadow and had on leather trousers, shirt and jacket with chains everywhere. Jane had her hair teased up and had a metal platter affixed to the top with a wooden duck glued to it. Her dress was tight, strapless and white with brown ducks all over it. Michelle was last and her hair was teased so it was sticking straight back away from her face like The Bride of Frankenstein. She had on a tight hot pink dress with hot pink bunny slippers and she was wearing white glitter eye shadow and white lipstick. The Doctor and the others roared with laughter, knowing the others would kill them when they were finally set free but they couldn't help themselves. After Michelle went off, Paul came back on with another robot and the Beatles hooted and hollered and cheered while Paul shouted at them that they were dead when he was set free.

"Damn, it's time like this that I wish I had a camera with me," John said to George and Ringo while Paul danced and strutted around his robot and flipped them off when they made kissy faces at him.