Chapter 21
Wanda dialed her phone, "Skull. Get you brothers to the lab, you have 20 minutes." She hung up the phone without waiting for a response. She knew they would be there, they always were, they were too afraid of the consequences. Thaddeus had trained them well. She set off with a smile to her hidden lab, where her robots would be waiting.
She referred to the becile bots as her own, she was the only on who ever took interest. She was very careful to be cold and unfeeling while talking to Nathaniel, but in truth, they were almost a family to was a different kind of family though. Not the warm and fuzzy feelings of the Walters, this was far more cold and calculated, one of necessity rather than comfort.
Between The Skull and Hare, she had learned everything she had ever needed to know about the world. They had laughed when she fell and kicked her when she was down, but she had lived, and was all the stronger for it. Looking in the mirror she could sometimes still see the big eyes of the frightened little girl before they steeled over into that of something far more sinister.
"Michael?" Paige called down the hall, searching for the missing engineer. "Michael, we need some assistance."
Michael wiped his eyes, trying to hide the tell tale tear stains on his cheeks. "What do you need Pai-" He stopped his sentence short looking down at the floor, turning the corner his eyes locked with Rabbit's for a moment.
"Rabbit needs some assistance, I think he broke his voice box."
"How'd he manage that?" He addressed Paige partially because he couldn't speak, but mostly he was too ashamed to look at the bot too closely.
"Didn't you hear him earlier? The way he screamed?" She flinched at the memory.
"Wow, must've been louder than I thought if he broke his voice box." He signaled her to follow, with Rabbit in tow, they went to the basement to get him fixed up.
Wanda passed them on their way, a dark smile dancing on her lips with a mumbled pardon me. Her combat boots hit the floor lighter than expected, stealth was one of her many skills. The robots had taught her well, their father had taken it upon himself to teach her brother, the next man of the family, he would never learn.
She strode into her lab with purpose and took in the sight of the robots. "Boys." she acknowledged.
"Wanda." The Skull growled in response.
"Any progress in breaking into Peter's safe?"
"Almost got it open, we can have it in a day." Hare chimed in impulsively. The Spine smacked him on the back of the head, which resulted in an eruption of psychotic giggles from The Jack.
"Calm yourselves boys. I talked to Nathaniel today." She stopped with a cryptic smile, she loved to tease.
"Well?" The Skull growled with impatience.
"We're cleared to begin work, bring it down here." The robots turned to walk away. "One more thing… Don't get caught." She added, they never did, but she always said it.
"We won't. We never do." hare said with a sinister grin.
"Cheeky bastard." She muttered under her breath as she set about clearing off her work table. She set out her regular tools along with a few new ones,. Her fingers brushed across the shiny metal scalpel, so foreign to her, and yet so familiar. She had never worked on a robot with synthetic skin before, no one had. She needed to be prepared.
The Spine walked out of the graveyard. Holly. he wondered where Paige and Brianna might have taken her. She hadn't been in the house that he could tell, so he decided to search the massive yard first.
When he finally found Holly and Brianna by the pond he couldn't help but smile. Holly was resting her head on Brianna's shoulder quietly, it was so… peaceful. Brianna noticed The Spine's arrival and said something to Holly he couldn't quite hear. Holly sat up, eyes still locked on the pond as Brianna got up. Brianna walked by The Spine with a smile before leaving them alone.
The Spine walked over to the pond and sat down where Brianna had once been. Holly looked at him with mild surprise before resting her head on his shoulder.
"Hey." She said quietly.
"Hi."
They sat in silence for a moment before he said, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer.
She snuggled in closer placing a hand over his blue matter reactor, feeling the steady energy pulses. They didn't say much after that, just quietly watched the pond.
Michael fished a screwdriver from his tool box and opened Rabbit's vocoder. He had shaken a wire loose when he had screamed, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of solder and was fixed quickly. "Rabbit can you say something for me?"
"I'm sorry." Rabbit said, his voice barely a whisper.
Michael looked closer at the vocoder, "Maybe I need to adjust the volume." He said to himself, not having heard what Rabbit said.
"I'm s-sorry ." Rabbit said louder.
"Rabbit if anyone should be apologizing its me. I should have told you, he's your brother after all." Michael said, meaning every word.
"Yeah, but Spine musta had reasons just like you."
"I'm sorry Rabbit."
"I-I-I-I'm sorry too Michael."
Michael hugged Rabbit. "I'm glad you're okay buddy."
"Thanks Mr. Reed….. Now could you finish fixing my neck?"
"Sure thing."
Hare and The Skull snuck into the basement with ease. They had The Jack hiding outside, he was far from stealthy. They moved quickly, picking up the robot with ease. They positioned it by the window they came in from. The Skull climbed out first, as Hare pushed the robot through he heard someone coming down the stairs. There was no time to hide as The Skull pulled the robot through, leaving Hare to fend for himself.
"Rabbit is that you?" Paige called out to him.
Hare was still faced away from her, and partially hidden by shadows. A puff of steam escaped, he hated to be compared to that bot, much less being confused for him. He didn't respond.
"Let me guess you didn't let Michael fix your voice box."
Hare nodded, keeping the thin masquerade alive, he had been caught, but it was the only way to keep from being caught, hiding a body would be too messy.
"Fine, don't get fixed see if I care." She said with a huff. "I'm going back upstairs, are you coming?"
Hare shook his head. The moment he clambered out of the the window The Skull threw him up against the wall, a hand clamped around his throat in an iron grip.
"Give me one good reason not to kill you right now." His tone was flat and unchanging, somehow more frightening than his growls.
The Skull wasn't joking and Hare knew it. He had taken severe beatings for offenses far smaller than this. "I've got some new information about Rabbit."
The hold around his neck tightened." "What kind of information?"
"Voice box broken… won't get repaired." Hare choked out, his own vocoder being crushed under The Skull's grip.
The Skull released him, and he fell to the ground. The Skull kicked Hare hard in the stomach, leaving him spitting oil. "Get up you miserable piece of scrap metal. We've got to get this thing to the lab."
Hare spit more oil and got up without protest, he had gotten off easily. He didn't question The Skull, he never did, he learned that lesson a long time ago.
The robot was dumped unceremoniously. "Carefully," Wanda said displeased. "We can't risk damaging it. We'll never find another like it."
She looked at the bot on the table, it looked almost human. The first time she had found it, she had thought it was a body, until she saw its face. Her gasp of horror turned to one of awe. A portion had torn free of the face, exposing the silver metal of an automaton. "I'll call you back at the end of the night to take it back to the basement. You can go now."
Hare's eyes narrowed. "You mean to tell me that we brought this piece of junk all the way over here just to take it right back?!" He exclaimed before he could stop himself.
Before The Skull could smack his head again, Wanda turned around. "I'm sorry did I ask your opinion? Did I ask you to talk back to me, and to disobey a direct order." Without waiting for an answer she said, "You're watching The Jack tonight, and the vault isn't an option."
The punishment was harsh, most nights they locked The Jack into the vault, letting him out only when his ear splitting screams of insanity faded, but tonight he was Hare's responsibility. He ground his razor sharp teeth together and walked out of the room, leaving Wanda alone with the robot.
Paige could hear Rabbit yelling again, from the sounds of it he had tried to play a game with Hatchworth, and it wasn't ending well. She found it strange that only half an hour ago he had been skulking in the basement refusing repair, but she followed the voices all the same.
"You cheated Hatchy!" Rabbit shouted, throwing a tantrum.
"I did not cheat Rabbit." Hatchworth protested to no avail as Rabbit kicked the game board sending pieces flying.
" 'ts a stupid game anyway." He pouted.
"You shouldn't do things like that Rabbit." Paige chimed in.
Rabbit perked up immediately. "Hiya Paige! Mr. Reed fixed my voice box!"
Paige giggled, "I can tell. I'm so glad you changed your mind about getting it fixed."
Rabbit was confused. "Whada ya mean?"
"When I talked to you in the basement earlier, you hadn't gotten it repaired yet, you didn't even want to come upstairs."
"I haven't been in the basement all-all-all day."
"Right, and I wasn't talking to you down there 30 minutes ago. You can stop now Rabbit, its not funny anymore."
"Rabbit has been up here with me for the last hour Miss Paige." Hatchworth interjected.
"But…" Her eyes widened, full of fear, she pointed at Rabbit. "If that wasn't you…. then who was I talking to?"
Insert dramatic music. Yep the Becile boys are back, Paige had a brush with Hare and doesn't know it. What's Wanda up to? What's going on with The Spine and Holly? I guess you'll have to wait to find out. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. I have no way of knowing unless you tell me!
Chapter Dedication: I promise there won't be one at the beginning of every chapter but I find this one to be rather important. This one's for Nate. Thank you for the role plays, the brain dumps, the character Nathaniel, and the courage to keep going when I felt like I hit a wall. without you there would be no Chapter 21.
Becile Bots Credit: The Becile Bots (The Skull, Hare, and The Jack) all belong to neckreductionsurge-ry
Nathaniel credit: Belongs to my good friend Nate
Playlist I listened to while writing this
(I Know my musical taste is sporadic, but someone wanted to know, so here you go. Some songs such as Sorry, Getting Away With Murder, and Leave Out All the Rest fit in some places, not necessarily in that order, but for the most part it's just songs I like)
Buckcherry - "Sorry"
Three Days Grace - "Never too late"
Papa Roach - "Getting Away with Murder."
Linkin Park - "Hands Held High"
Three Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
"Let the Bodies Hit the Floor"
Disturbed - "Voices"
Van Halen - "Panama"
Theory of A Deadman - "Say Goodbye"
Linkin Park - "No More Sorrow"
Bare Naked Ladies - "One Week"
Linkin Park - "Leave Out All The Rest"
Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir"
Hinder - "Get stoned"