The Outsider:

Chapter 38: The Reboot-Part Two

Sev carefully tampered with the locked door as he looked back to see the robot slowly burning his way towards where the group was gathered, leaving a path of destruction and mayhem in his wake. The arctic fox focused back and did his best to hasten his progress with his fingers fumbling slightly. It was the pressure that was getting to him was all, he had never broken into a business before, what if they all got arrested for corporate espionage? That sure would put them in a dire situation, not to mention the town as well. That and the crowd gathered around him was breathing down the back of his neck; it was not helping in the slightest as the fox continued trying to pick the lock with the bobby pin he was given, taking off his sunglasses off to see things better as he started to lose his cool.

"What's the holdup Sev?" asked Kelsey, impatiently as the red beam came closer and closer to being upon them.

"Shut up, I need to focus. I've never broken into a private company before," replied Sev in a frustrated whisper under his breath. "Why doesn't the old man have a key card for the doors, I'm sure if he did things would be much easier."

"Who do you think you're calling old, punk?" growled Glenn at the arctic fox who immediately fell quiet before the metallic click he was expecting reached his ears.

"Presto."

"Oh yeah, I'm very impressed by your magic trick," replied Kelsey sarcastically as she and others were ushered in by the arctic fox. "I thought the only thing you usually picked was your nose."

"Hey…"

"How do you know Sev?" asked Jake curiously as the fennec fox rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

"Well, we're family actually."

"Really? I didn't know that, now that you mention it, I kinda see the resemblance," observed Brian looking from side to side between the fennec and the arctic foxes.

"Yeah, we're cousins," said the arctic fox, leisurely placing his arm over her shoulder and giving her bunny ears with the response of a few chuckles from the others before the fennec fox nudged him hard in the ribs.

"We've got a job to do, let's not dawdle."

"It is strange being at work at this time," replied Glenn looking around the build before pulling his ID from his pocket from a lanyard. "This should be able to get us into most areas of the building, specifically the areas I've been working in."

The older gray wolf that had accompanied them finally spoke up from being in awe at the interior of Digiverse Tech.

"So, this is what Digiverse Tech is like, it's got top of the line equipment, Glenn, you don't mind if I have a look at some of the programs you run," said Gordon enthusiastically as he got a closer look at some of the computer monitors.

"Dad, we're here for a job, not to get sidetracked," said Brian deadpanned as he kicked the squeaky-clean floor with his foot.

"I mean, I would like to, but unfortunately there's a confidentiality agreement I signed saying I can't share company information."

"The end of Elmore is going to happen and you're worried about confidentiality agreements Mr. Wiley? Loosen up a bit, besides, now would be the perfect opportunity for me to snag some new tech," said Grif smiling and eying some of the 4k monitors.

"No looting, understood," said Gumball firmly, as Sev made a motion to pocket some computer parts only to have the back of his paw smacked by Kelsey. The arctic fox yelped and shook his paw delicately to make sure it wasn't hurt as the fennec fox glowered at him. The arctic fox eventually got the hint as he started to remove some of the objects he had snuck into his backpack back onto the white desks from where they had come from.

"I suppose I could show you some of our non-classified stuff, mainly data provided to customers and such," said the older coyote shrugging. "Though it would have to be after we restore Bobert to normal. Thankfully this place is running off backup power that's off the grid, though it won't be able to run forever, I suggest we work quickly."

"Fair enough then," replied Gordon, somewhat disappointed.

"Let's get going, it may take some time for me and Gordon to get set up, come find us when we finish, and try not to wander off," said Glenn, looking at Sev and Grif in particular.

"I'll be on my best behavior then," said Grif, putting up his hands defensively.

"I thought you wouldn't know what that means," teased Rhonda as the griffin shook his head.

The dusty brown coyote had quickly wandered away from the rest of the group. He realized that he wasn't the only one missing as he had seen Blockbuster wander off as soon as he entered the building, though the coyote had no clear reasoning as to why. Blockbuster was an enigma, from some signs he had what seemed like compassion or empathy letting Jake and Kelsey go, but this was contradicted by the fact he had disregarded others safety and his near dismantling of Bobert. Eventually, Jake found the robot, who had taken to welding something together carefully using his hand to guide it as the blue flame fused the metal together with ease and left the room stiflingly hot, even by the coyote's standards.

"You got a minute?" asked the coyote as the robot held out a hand to signal for him to be silent as he finished his work. The robot eventually paused turning to the coyote as if interested at what he had to say.

"What is your inquiry?"

The coyote was taken aback that the robot had the ability to speak, his low synthesized voice had an air of elegance to it, despite his gruffer appearance for a robot.

"I was just wondering what you were doing back here, I figured you'd be with my dad trying to give him some useful pointers on how to reboot the system."

The robot remained silent this time, instead opting to turn around and continued working. Jake now understood that Blockbuster wasn't going to help them out as he didn't view working on rebooting the servers as important as what he was currently doing. He would neither impede or progress their work as he had his own agenda he was going to carry out. The coyote sighed as he started to walk away.

"Could you at least tell me what you're working on?" said the coyote as Blockbuster turned to show him what he was working on, it appeared to be some device and from the design, it looked to be something to shrug off the reset. "So, you don't want to be reset by the pulse?"

The robot shook his head, what was its real purpose?

"Why not go for a fresh start?" asked Jake, and the question seemed to linger with the robot for a time before he shook his head vehemently signaling that he was not willing to go along with that idea. Without another word or glance at the coyote, he stormed out, his metal feet clomping against the ground as he walked.

The coyote shrugged helplessly as a certain fennec fox walked up to him, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"Your dad has already taken to rewiring things in the facility, hopefully, it will have the power to knock out Bobert if we're lucky. You think you can talk Blockbuster into helping to speed the process up?"

"I already tried that, I wasn't very successful," said Jake in disappointment as Kelsey sighed.

"That stinks, he probably knows all the ins and outs of Digiverse Tech, he would make our job a lot easier."

"I know," said the coyote frustrated by Blockbuster's lack of cooperation altogether. "We'll just have to make do without him."

"Things are never easy, are they?" sighed Kelsey, just as annoyed that the robot was not being of any use.

"Not in Elmore, no."

Unparalleled destruction was the outcome so far as Bobert bulldozed anything in his path as he marched or busied himself with steadily blasting anything that was in his sights. The town of Elmore was almost unrecognizable. The robot had just made his way into a quiet residential neighborhood looking for how to ruin this area of town when a familiar and quite grumpy puppet stepped out onto his front porch. He was muttering angrily to no one in particular, complaining about modern music as he stepped off the porch.

"Well, at least things aren't so bad, I can run some errands, and hopefully I avoid those two Watterson boys," said Mr. Robinson to no one in particular as he tightened his hold on his keys, as walked ever so quietly to his car to avoid his odd neighbors as he prepared to enter his Cadillac, until suddenly a burst of red hit the car setting it into an orange blaze before exploding right in front of him. "MY CAR!"

Words could not describe how furious Mr. Robinson was as he flailed about in anger, taking note of the large white robot who continued on his merry way with his rampage.

"You better have insurance, this is the last time that someone wrecks my car, usually they get away with it or claiming that they'll pay me back in Watterson dollars, I've had it with this!"

But the elderly puppet's rant fell on deaf ears as the robot continued to carve a path back to Digiverse Tech, one of the few buildings in Elmore that was still intact miraculously. The police force, however, stood in the path of the robot, their cars lined up in barricade to stop the robot from going any further.

"This is your last warning, uh power down and stop all hostilities and I promise the Elmore Justice System will be fair," shouted a certain donut cop over a loud speaker, but to no effect as with one strong kick the robot sent the cop cars down the street like they weren't even a problem as the cops scattered to the sides of the street leaving a clear path for the robot to waltz down the street as the cops looked around at each other taken aback.

"Let's just say we let him off with a warning," resolved the Donut Sheriff over his loudspeaker as the cops tried to shake off the stunned expressions on their faces.

For a certain group of Elmore's residents gathered in the heart of Digiverse Tech's server room, the modifications were going abysmally. Hot flames shooting out of the computers backed up this evidence as Gumball and Darwin panicked trying to pull the fire hose from the wall to put out the flames licking hungrily at the tech. Unfortunately, the hose came up short and the two brothers were yanked back as a result of this as Gordon leaped in with a fire extinguisher to douse the flames.

"Oh well, this is just going perfectly!" yelled Gumball frustrated as he tried to get up only to get a mouthful of smoke leaving him coughing and spluttering for air as Darwin ducked beneath the curling black smoke.

"How are we going to pay for all this?" asked Darwin, mortified by the damages they had caused thus far.

"Yeah, do you have an employee discount or something to pay for all this?" asked Gordon to the older coyote who scowled with annoyance.

"It'll probably be coming out of my paycheck at this rate," replied Glenn dryly as he did his best to salvage and pull away untarnished tech from the flames that were drawing ever closer.

Flashes and blurs signaled they weren't entirely alone as Cato jumped from spot to spot pulling out salvageable tech and trying to splash water on the electrical fires only to be stopped by Glenn who was now sweating greatly due to the heat.

"Not on an electrical fire Cato!"

"Thanks for the heads-up Mr. Wiley," said Cato rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "If Mr. O'Quinn gives me the extinguisher I'm sure I can battle the blaze."

Before any of them could make a move, however, the door to the lab was knocked ajar to show Blockbuster his red eye gleaming against the orange flame as the assessed the situation before activating his weapon systems and targeting the tangle of the five of them as his weapons charged up.

"That no-good back stabbing-" started Glenn, fuming with anger as he quickly pushed the kids underneath the desks as the robot fired his weapons at full blast as tan foam quickly covered the room extinguishing the fires that had been crackling. The older coyote and wolf's faces had both been covered in the substance as they wiped it off as the screen of the robot flashed with a smiley face on it as a result, and the robot walked off without another exchange or remark.

"I suppose we should thank him," said Glenn, wiping away the last of the goo as the others got up from the floor.

"He still doesn't seem like he has much interested in what we're doing," observed Gordon as Glenn scooped up the materials he needed returning them back to the lab bench.

"Let's just get working and worry about Blockbuster later. Cato, do you think you can keep an eye on him without being noticed?"

"I sure can, as long as I stay out of range of his sensors, and what do you reckon the range of those things are?" asked Cato abruptly as Glenn pondered on it.

"Ten or fifteen feet sounds about right," answered Glenn as he started to take apart some of the components laying at his feet with a screwdriver as the white humanoid nodded and took off to find the elusive robot.

For Grif and Sev their salvage operation was not going to plan as the eyes of Rhonda and Kelsey kept a close watch on them as the fox and the griffin made sure only to pick out parts that were essential to rebooting the system. The arctic fox was particularly troublesome as he had gotten quite skillful at sneaking stuff into his pockets leading to his cousin having to walk over to him and ask him to empty his pockets again and again. On about the fifth check the fennec fox was starting to lose her patience with him.

"Yeah, but how do you know it was stolen?" argued the arctic fox defensively as she scowled at him.

"I actually saw you slip it into your pocket this time, come on cough it up."

"Do you know how many hard drives look like this? I could have had this before you came over here and continued to monitor me," said Sev putting an innocent look on his face that made the fennec fox less convinced as she flicked him in the nose causing the arctic fox's eyes to water. "Hey!"

The fennec fox took this opportunity while the other fox was distracted to snatch the hard drive from his hands before waving it in front of him.

"No stealing!"

"I can tell that you're just the white knight in all of this," replied the snowy fox who took a lunge at the amber fox's paws hoping to get it back as she yanked it back.

"It is forever beyond your reach," said Kelsey mocking her cousin, by sticking out her tongue as he swiped at it desperately hoping to catch it as she continued to hold in out in front of him tempting him to go for it.

"That's just cruel," said Grif, finally speaking up as he chuckled. Sev continued to jump at the fennec fox before grabbing her around the waist to stop her from moving, though she easily lifted it up putting it once again well out of reach of the arctic fox, who groaned in annoyance.

"Now you're just making things difficult for me cuz," responded Sev with of almost a sibling-like bond as the fennec fox finally managed to throw him off.

"Here Rhonda, make sure he doesn't try to steal it back."

The fennec fox tossed the piece of tech over to the yellow mouse who caught it and placed it on the table a good distance from Sev and as an extra precaution fashioned a piece of duct tape over it to deter the fox, who merely gave a quirky smile suggesting that it wouldn't be much of an obstacle for him, the fennec fox notice this and shook her head in disappointment as a result.

"You never change, do you?" asked Kelsey seriously as the arctic fox gave a helpless grin.

Cato finally caught up with Blockbuster who was now fiddling with design of the device that he was fashioning, which he examined tampering with it only slightly using his gauntlet to weld a few more spots and joints as the humanoid approached him.

"So, seems like you're quite handy, especially with fixing things. But I have to wonder why did you infect Bobert in the first place?"

The robot turned around and appeared to contemplate the question for a few seconds before pulling up some of his old audio logs as the memories began to come back to him.

"The unit is failing to perform to expectations, I don't see how we'd be able to get this product out by the time that the deadline rolls around."

"Don't make excuses for yourself, this unit will have to be rolled out at the deadline."

"I… understand sir."

"If you really need to get this done at a faster rate, then look over the plans for that Bobert unit for reference."

"Sir, wouldn't that be stealing patented designs."

"I don't care, get results," answered the voice coldly.

The next audio log cycled through as the robot remember the icy cold and barren room that his metal frame was once stored in as the researchers tamper with his systems and parts to some effect improving the robot.

"General analysis shows he is about seventy-two percent complete and the rest is coming along quite smoothly."

"And what of his comparison to other models?"

"Uh, he falls behind significantly behind the new Bobert unit."

"Make sure that he does not by the time you finish him."

"I'm sure if we had better tech we could-"

"That doesn't matter, alter his programming for extreme hostility towards other robots, especially the Bobert units."

"Wouldn't that make it dangerous if a person ever comes between a Blockbuster and Bobert unit."

"I care not if there are no Bobert units left then how can it be a problem?"

The robot felt admittedly sick, that was the first time he had cycled through those logs since he was first programmed. He was a piece of hardware that was disposable and was assembled to keep up with the competition and destroy it or make it look bad whenever he got the chance. The unknown head of research had crafted him into a weapon without his own say in the matter, the words of the coyote and fennec fox seemed to echo as he remembered they had questioned whether he was a person or a machine. Was he a drone or was he self-aware? Did he have the choice to choose his own path in life rather than having it being dictated by others who had told him so long that anything different was an enemy, whether or not it truly was? The visor of the robot flashed blue before the red light faded from it leaving it a new vibrant blue. He had the choice to make a difference, to finally amend the bad blood between his unit and the Bobert unit he had grown to despise, perhaps they were not so different after all, they were built of the same parts and even the same schematics.

"So, will you help?" asked the voice of Cato finally snapping the robot out of his trance of self-reflection.

"I will."

Glenn was struggling to rewire things as Gordon began coding the computer to release a pulse that would reset all Digiverse Tech and hopefully wipe out the coding that was afflicting the robot, as the room began to shake with the force of Bobert approaching ever so nearer.

"How are we looking?" asked Gordon as he typed away at a furious pace trying to keep up with all of Glenn's rewiring of the tech as the older coyote lay on his back trying to make sense of all the madness.

"So far so good, we've got only about twenty minutes before we're done," answered Glenn as he began to plug in the last few wires. "And-"

The older dusty brown coyote was cut off by the sound of an explosion as the entire facility shook causing the kids to fall to the floor as the power cut out suddenly.

"Bobert knows where we are," said Jake looking at the ceiling as dust began to shower on them from above as they stood up shaken, but quite alright.

"This is bad, no power and how are we going to reboot the system now?"

The arrival of a white and blue visored robot changed all this as he entered the room opening the front panel on his chest as he plugged in the cords that were supposed to be going to the generators into his power core as it began to glow a brilliant blue.

"Blockbuster, what are you doing?" asked Jake perplexed and frightened at what the robot was doing.

"He's powering our equipment, we now will be able to use it to charge up the pulse."

"That's risky, do you think he'll be able to handle it?"

"There is a risk that the core could overload the circuitry and cause the whole facility to explode when the pulse fires," replied Glenn as he adjusted his sleeves nervously with uncertainty.

"Great, that sounds wonderful."

"Go!" replied the strained voice Blockbuster as he began to singlehandedly began to power the facility the lights beginning to turn unbearable bright so that they could not even see.

"We're all getting out of this okay, right?" asked Rhonda shielding her eyes as the robot's frame began to strain as his battery began to drain.

"We're not leaving you!" yelled Brian determined as the light continued to burn brighter and brighter. "There has to be another way!"

"Believe me, it has to be like this," answer the robot his voice beginning to wear down as he looked at Sev in particular, perhaps a grin?

Their path was blocked by pieces of rubble as the building began to crumble all around them, they had little choice but to turn around and run as the facility behind them exploded violently as the pulse that they had been counting on finally dispersed and the titan Bobert stopped in his tracks, his body leaning over in a powered down state. The clatter of metal as the head of Blockbuster landed squarely at the feet of Glenn. The robot's visor had been cracked and scorched with his antenna being bent at an odd angle. The older coyote picked it up carefully before putting it carefully on a slab of concrete.

"What's that in your pocket Sev?" asked Kelsey curiously as the arctic fox pulled it from his pocket to examine it.

"It's some sort of storage device."

"Isn't that the thing Blockbuster was working on?"

"It's a memory capsule," observed Glenn as he got a closer look at it. "Did you take this?"

"What? No, he must have snuck it in there while I was helping everyone rewire."

"So, Blockbuster isn't truly gone?"

"I guess not, but the capsule appears to be hard locked, it doesn't seem like we'd be able to crack it anytime soon. Especially with the disaster that went on at this place," replied Glenn nodding towards the ruined building.

As they all silently contemplated the fate of Blockbuster a familiar sheriff in the shape of a donut came up to them.

"Did that pulse stop that evil robot?" questioned the anthropomorphic donut as they all looked at each other.

"Yes, we triggered it hoping that it would stop the robot, unfortunately, we couldn't save the facility."

"Well it doesn't matter that Digiverse wasn't saved, most of the town was ruined. Fortunately, no causalities, a few injuries, and a lot of property damage, however," said the sheriff overjoyed wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"It wasn't without cost," said Glenn firmly pointing at the head of Blockbuster upon the concrete.

The sheriff nodded understandingly as he turned his gaze to the other robot.

"What will we do with him though?"

"He was bugged," insisted Darwin quickly. "The pulse fixed him, we made sure of that."

"If you say so then" replied the sheriff as he walked off.

"Well, looks like my whole career went up in smoke," said Glenn looking at his now ruined workplace. "Out of a job, and I was sure I was going to be named the employee of the month. Better start looking through the papers, I hope I can manage to find and keep a job this time."

"I don't think you have to do that," replied Gordon as the coyote gave him a quizzical look.

"Why's that?"

"Because I have a proposition for you, why don't you work at my place, at least until they rebuild the building."

"That's a tempting offer, I may as well take it, and who knows, maybe I'll stay."

"I sure could use someone of your talents."

"Then you have yourself a deal!"

I made a few cutbacks so only eleven chapters and an epilogue, plus I'm making quite a few sacrifices (like waking up at 4 A.M. to edit this XD). But it has to be done to finish this story sooner rather than later, I hope you all had as much fun reading this one as I had writing it, and the march to the ending is continuing. Leave a review or follow and favorite this story if you think it deserves it. In the meantime stay cool, and hang loose! Nomad going silent.

Next chapter- The Courageous

Penny tries to convince the rest of her family to come out of their shells, will they though?

Steelwall's Notes:

-It was nice to see the relationship between Kelsey and her cousin Sev. He's quite the hand full. It's a shame Blockbuster had to sacrifice his body to save Elmore, especially since he just came to the realization that he can choose his own path in life. I'm also sure Elmore will recover in no time, after all this isn't the first time it's been wrecked.

Nomad's Notes:

-Admittedly, I had to rush through this chapter to get it up in time, but it must be done before I go to college. So if there is a slight dip in quality of the chapters than you know why. XD

-There were a lot of characters to juggle in this chapter, though I feel I did give enough of them roles to at least have them feel like they belonged in the chapter. Also, Gordon, like Brian and Rhonda is not owned by me instead he is owned by the talented NeoNimbus and Cato is owned by Fitroz777 who are both just really cool guys, so check out their stories when you get the chance.

-I figured I should give Penny a major role as she's only had a few in the story so far, but this one will focus exclusive on her and a few other non-OC characters.