Ode to Oddity
By The Chronicler
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Chapter Seven
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With a thundering crash, the door slammed back on broken hinges, some of which hung from splinters in the wall.
Peggy Banzai frowned. "You know, I could of picked that thing." she mumbled.
"I know." Knuckles answered, swinging about the room, making sure it was clear before allowing her companion to enter.
"Then..." Peggy prompted.
"Bad week, getting only worse." Knuckles shrugged. "Call it pent up frustrations." She stepped up to the reception counter. "Huh." she offered, tilting a box so that she could see in it.
It was a hastily packed box with office this and thats tossed in.
Peggy moved behind the counter to a computer. She tapped the power switch.
Nothing.
With a sigh, she rapped her knuckles on the top of the so-called machine, leaving a dent.
"Props." Knuckles growled, tossing a stapler back into the box. "All place is filled with damn props."
"What the hell's going on?" Peggy wanted to know, looking around. "What the hell happened here?"
Knuckles was too busy investigating the place to answer. "Looked like they were still packing up." she mumbled, tracing her finger over the edge of a photocopy of a degree sitting on the edge of another box sitting on a chair. It looked just like her own... for the exception that she didn't know of a veterinary college in Grand Island, Nebraska. "They might still be here, somewhere."
"Good thing we made such a covert entry." Peggy grumbled, glaring at the bounty hunter.
When Knuckles' go-phone sounded, both women jumped, bring up their weapons as if caught. When they realized what it was, Peggy flashed a nervous smile and shrugged.
Irritated with being startled as much as being interrupted, Knuckles flipped her go-phone. "What?!"
"Just thought I'd let you know..." It was Rawhide. "Oddity is on the lose on property. Took off faster than a jack rabbit. And we have yet to find him... at least long enough to lasso the mutt... I know, I know... pure bread Silver Austrian Shepard. Anyway..."
"Try his locator." Knuckles suggested.
"We did. We're getting erratic signals which could mean a number of things." Rawhide answered.
Peggy nodded. "Every other building is sheltered, protected from everything other than go-phone activity. And a few lower levels block those out." she explained.
"Or it could of been damaged by the hit." Rawhide added.
"He has another locator. It's stronger. We just had it adjusted to the go-phone frequency so that we can use them to track his movements." Knuckles offered. "It's under the skin on the inside of his back hip. Use file H-76K."
"Got it." There was a moment of silence. Rawhide's tone took a sharp note. "Got it. Knuckles? He isn't here."
Knuckles and Peggy exchanged startled looks.
"Where is he, cowboy?" Knuckles asked slowly, almost not wanting to know the answer.
"According to this thing, he's there, very close to you."
"Then..." Peggy ran nervous fingers through her soft blond hair, "who, or what, did you take home?"
----------
The Banzai Intern smiled as he saw the dog sniffing and pawing at the ground. "Hey, Oddity, boy." he greeted, approaching the animal. "How ya doin', buddy?" Everyone had heard about the "accident" and everyone had been worried about their favorite playmate. Not a single Frisbee or ball game had taken place in the last six years that did not involve, at one point or another, a crazed chase after the dog who, so expertly, stole their toy.
Oddity glanced up at the intern, then quickly turned back to the ground, sniffing about to find a trail. He was standing on the cross roads of three trails, five leading to very specific, very well groomed gardens. The sixth leading back to the main house and compound.
"Hell, pup." the intern, a botanist, said, realizing what was wrong. "I just hosed this place down. Whatever you're following is lost." Funny how apologetic he felt. He reached out for a more personal "sorry": a pat on the head.
The dog's head snapped about, cold steel teeth sinking deep into tender unprotected flesh.
The intern's jaw dropped, shock momentarily over welming the pain as he watch as his fore arm was ripped down to the bone.
Teeth continued to chomp down until human bones snapped.
The intern screamed.
With a whip of his head, the thing tossed the man down on to the ground.
Panicked, the intern tried to take advantage of the release to roll over on his side and try to crawl away, what was left of his arm draggin behind.
But his attacker wasn't about to leave a witness. With a snarl, the creature slammed down on the intern's back. Before the victim could release a second scream, the steel teeth snapped down on his neck, snapping his spine. Just to be sure, it shook viciously and violently, nearly ripping the intern's head clean off.
Dropping the lifeless form on the ground, the animal glanced around again, sniffing. Then, it took off down a trail, leaving bloody paw in the dirt.
----------
"Come on, hurry!" snapped Dr Smith, waving to his underlings to load the last of their equipment into the back of the truck.
"What about that?" one asked, waving a hand at the whimpering animal laying in the bottom of a cage.
Dr. Smith looked at them with big, blue eyes, completely helpless to whatever they chose to do.
Oddity might not have understood everything, but he knew these were bad people. His humans fought these people. He fought these people to protect his humans. And now they had him, hurt him. And he could not fight back. And he wanted his humans! Again, the dog whimpered.
"Kill it." Smith finally answered. "We don't need it. If the dupe doesn't do its job none of us will live to make a second attempt."
The underling nodded once. Drawing a pistol, he stepped up to the cage and leveled the weapon at the dog's head. "Shame. He'd be a lot of fun for the children in the nursery." he mumbled.
Oddity scooted back against the bars of the cage.
A gun was fired.
The man screamed as a .44 bullet ripped through his hand, spinning him about. He bent over clutching his wounded hand, dropping his weapon.
Peggy quickly ran up, kicking the fallen gun, keeping her own trained on the four other men.
Knuckles saved one breath to glance down at her wounded pet, before stepping passed Peggy and back handing the would be dog killer across the jaw with her gun toting had. Fuming, she stepped over the fallen man and head straight for Dr Smith. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING TO ME DOG?!" she yelled at him. Before he could react, her steel toed boot snapped out, cracking the man's shen.
"Don't try it!" Peggy warned when another underling started to move to interfere. "Knuckles is never in a great mood. You really wanna try her after messing with her one and only?" She motioned with her gun. "On your stomachs, hands clasped over your head, legs crossed. If I have to worry about you moving, I won't worry twice... if you get my meaning." To emphasize, she kicked the wounded man in the head when he started to rise up. Knocking him out, she assured that he would not be of any concern for a while.
All three men backed away.
Knuckles glanced over to make sure the gentle Banzai woman had her end covered. Then her mean, bright green eyes locked on the supposed vet before her. "What did you do to my dog?" she snarled, grabbing the man by the throat and pressing her gun against his nose.
Dr. Smith barred his teeth, knowing that he was dead anyway. Rather a quick death by crazed bounty hunter than facing the Lady Oran de Nathair. "James," he growled, "a gift from the Uilc Dochas Clan to the brainiest mongrel among your putrid kind."
The heavy barrel of Knuckles' gun slammed across his nose, breaking it. "What did you do to my dog?" she screamed at him.
"Knuckles... what is that?" Peggy asked, yanking the tarp back off of the bed of the truck. She had just yanked the rope free and had one of her prisoners tying up the other two.
Knuckles glanced at the rectangular glass box. All sorts of tubes and wires ran through the box. Some sort of computer was attached. She knew what it was. She had seen it before. "An incubator." she informed her friend, turning back to Smith. Knuckles knew that the only answer was that, somehow, they had made a dupe of Oddity. But, now, she wanted to know why. "Who's the target?" she demanded.
Smith just smiled, blood streaming down his face, dripping on Knuckles' hand that was still wrapped tightly around his throat.
Knuckles suddenly felt her stomach knot up. "The brainiest mongrel?" she repeated. "Banzai."
Peggy's head snapped up. "Can they do that? Can an Oddity dupe hurt Buckaroo?" Her voice had leaped in pitch, her fear for her husband coming through.
"If they can make a dupe of Tom that tried to kill all of you, what do you think they can do with an android of Oddity, with strength, claws, teeth, and trusted enough to go into every little corner of the Banzai Institute?" Knuckles slammed her gun up along side the man's head dropping him unconscious to the ground. Seeing that Peggy had successfully tied the others up, she went to the cage and freed her pet.
Peggy stood in horror, realizing just how vulnerable they all were touch a threat. "My god, Knuckles, we let Oddity sleep in our room at night when you aren't there! He guards the shower mat when Eunice is taking a shower. Howls from under Billy's desk when he's playing computer games. He's everywhere, close to everyone."
Oddity wined as his wounded shoulder was moved painfully when Knuckles picked him up. "Then lets go!"
----------
Rawhide couldn't believe his ears. That thing had been in the seat beside him all the way back home and he never noticed a damn thing! He could of sworn that it had been Oddity. He remembered every little detail: the blue eyed grin, the wagging tail that swiped the dash clean, the expressive ears bobbing this way and that, the wet nose that had happily sniffed at his neck when he had picked the animal up... IT WAS ODDITY!
Or so he could of sworn.
And, damn, Buckaroo had gone off into one of the gardens for a little "me time" and they had no idea where he was.... just that he was on property... and it was a hell of a big piece of property to be lost on.
"Want to let the dogs lose?" Pinky wanted to know as he worked on the tracker.
"No." Rawhide answered. "One too many dogs running loose now. Don't want our people getting confused." Rawhide called as he caught the shotgun Reno tossed him "Mrs. Johnson, get on the horn to everyone, find out who saw what when and tell them to get inside and do not let Oddity in! And let me know if anyone's seen Buckaroo. Reno, Pinky, split up them men you have. Everyone with a partner. No one goes after this thing alone. Remember how much it took to take down the dupe of Perfect Tommy? This one has teeth."
"Speaking of Perfect Tommy...?" Mrs Johnson prompted.
"I'm going out to meet him now." Rawhide assured. "He's heading into the Tea Gardens." He was about to head down the trail, when Knuckles truck skidded to a halt in front of the house.
"Wait up." Knuckles called, lifting another Oddity out and onto the ground.
"Is that the real thing?" Rawhide wanted to know.
"We ran his paw through the dupe scan." Peggy assured.
Knuckles crouched down. "Okay, boy. I know you're hurt, but we need your help. Find the dupe. Got it, boy?" She rose to her feet. "Find the dupe, Oddity! Hunt!" she ordered.
The dog blinked up at her. Then, obediently, sniffed the air. After a moment, his tail wagged and he gave a barked. He found the scent. Limping, Oddity started down in the direction Rawhide was planning on going.
This changed things. "Reno, Pinky, with me. Peggy..." Rawhide started.
"Save it." Peggy snapped, grabbing a shot gun from Knuckles truck. "He's MY husband." And she and Knuckles lead the way after Oddity.
"Women with guns." Reno mumbled as the three men fell into step. Receiving a grunt from the other two, he knew no more needed to be said.
By The Chronicler
----------
Chapter Seven
----------
With a thundering crash, the door slammed back on broken hinges, some of which hung from splinters in the wall.
Peggy Banzai frowned. "You know, I could of picked that thing." she mumbled.
"I know." Knuckles answered, swinging about the room, making sure it was clear before allowing her companion to enter.
"Then..." Peggy prompted.
"Bad week, getting only worse." Knuckles shrugged. "Call it pent up frustrations." She stepped up to the reception counter. "Huh." she offered, tilting a box so that she could see in it.
It was a hastily packed box with office this and thats tossed in.
Peggy moved behind the counter to a computer. She tapped the power switch.
Nothing.
With a sigh, she rapped her knuckles on the top of the so-called machine, leaving a dent.
"Props." Knuckles growled, tossing a stapler back into the box. "All place is filled with damn props."
"What the hell's going on?" Peggy wanted to know, looking around. "What the hell happened here?"
Knuckles was too busy investigating the place to answer. "Looked like they were still packing up." she mumbled, tracing her finger over the edge of a photocopy of a degree sitting on the edge of another box sitting on a chair. It looked just like her own... for the exception that she didn't know of a veterinary college in Grand Island, Nebraska. "They might still be here, somewhere."
"Good thing we made such a covert entry." Peggy grumbled, glaring at the bounty hunter.
When Knuckles' go-phone sounded, both women jumped, bring up their weapons as if caught. When they realized what it was, Peggy flashed a nervous smile and shrugged.
Irritated with being startled as much as being interrupted, Knuckles flipped her go-phone. "What?!"
"Just thought I'd let you know..." It was Rawhide. "Oddity is on the lose on property. Took off faster than a jack rabbit. And we have yet to find him... at least long enough to lasso the mutt... I know, I know... pure bread Silver Austrian Shepard. Anyway..."
"Try his locator." Knuckles suggested.
"We did. We're getting erratic signals which could mean a number of things." Rawhide answered.
Peggy nodded. "Every other building is sheltered, protected from everything other than go-phone activity. And a few lower levels block those out." she explained.
"Or it could of been damaged by the hit." Rawhide added.
"He has another locator. It's stronger. We just had it adjusted to the go-phone frequency so that we can use them to track his movements." Knuckles offered. "It's under the skin on the inside of his back hip. Use file H-76K."
"Got it." There was a moment of silence. Rawhide's tone took a sharp note. "Got it. Knuckles? He isn't here."
Knuckles and Peggy exchanged startled looks.
"Where is he, cowboy?" Knuckles asked slowly, almost not wanting to know the answer.
"According to this thing, he's there, very close to you."
"Then..." Peggy ran nervous fingers through her soft blond hair, "who, or what, did you take home?"
----------
The Banzai Intern smiled as he saw the dog sniffing and pawing at the ground. "Hey, Oddity, boy." he greeted, approaching the animal. "How ya doin', buddy?" Everyone had heard about the "accident" and everyone had been worried about their favorite playmate. Not a single Frisbee or ball game had taken place in the last six years that did not involve, at one point or another, a crazed chase after the dog who, so expertly, stole their toy.
Oddity glanced up at the intern, then quickly turned back to the ground, sniffing about to find a trail. He was standing on the cross roads of three trails, five leading to very specific, very well groomed gardens. The sixth leading back to the main house and compound.
"Hell, pup." the intern, a botanist, said, realizing what was wrong. "I just hosed this place down. Whatever you're following is lost." Funny how apologetic he felt. He reached out for a more personal "sorry": a pat on the head.
The dog's head snapped about, cold steel teeth sinking deep into tender unprotected flesh.
The intern's jaw dropped, shock momentarily over welming the pain as he watch as his fore arm was ripped down to the bone.
Teeth continued to chomp down until human bones snapped.
The intern screamed.
With a whip of his head, the thing tossed the man down on to the ground.
Panicked, the intern tried to take advantage of the release to roll over on his side and try to crawl away, what was left of his arm draggin behind.
But his attacker wasn't about to leave a witness. With a snarl, the creature slammed down on the intern's back. Before the victim could release a second scream, the steel teeth snapped down on his neck, snapping his spine. Just to be sure, it shook viciously and violently, nearly ripping the intern's head clean off.
Dropping the lifeless form on the ground, the animal glanced around again, sniffing. Then, it took off down a trail, leaving bloody paw in the dirt.
----------
"Come on, hurry!" snapped Dr Smith, waving to his underlings to load the last of their equipment into the back of the truck.
"What about that?" one asked, waving a hand at the whimpering animal laying in the bottom of a cage.
Dr. Smith looked at them with big, blue eyes, completely helpless to whatever they chose to do.
Oddity might not have understood everything, but he knew these were bad people. His humans fought these people. He fought these people to protect his humans. And now they had him, hurt him. And he could not fight back. And he wanted his humans! Again, the dog whimpered.
"Kill it." Smith finally answered. "We don't need it. If the dupe doesn't do its job none of us will live to make a second attempt."
The underling nodded once. Drawing a pistol, he stepped up to the cage and leveled the weapon at the dog's head. "Shame. He'd be a lot of fun for the children in the nursery." he mumbled.
Oddity scooted back against the bars of the cage.
A gun was fired.
The man screamed as a .44 bullet ripped through his hand, spinning him about. He bent over clutching his wounded hand, dropping his weapon.
Peggy quickly ran up, kicking the fallen gun, keeping her own trained on the four other men.
Knuckles saved one breath to glance down at her wounded pet, before stepping passed Peggy and back handing the would be dog killer across the jaw with her gun toting had. Fuming, she stepped over the fallen man and head straight for Dr Smith. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING TO ME DOG?!" she yelled at him. Before he could react, her steel toed boot snapped out, cracking the man's shen.
"Don't try it!" Peggy warned when another underling started to move to interfere. "Knuckles is never in a great mood. You really wanna try her after messing with her one and only?" She motioned with her gun. "On your stomachs, hands clasped over your head, legs crossed. If I have to worry about you moving, I won't worry twice... if you get my meaning." To emphasize, she kicked the wounded man in the head when he started to rise up. Knocking him out, she assured that he would not be of any concern for a while.
All three men backed away.
Knuckles glanced over to make sure the gentle Banzai woman had her end covered. Then her mean, bright green eyes locked on the supposed vet before her. "What did you do to my dog?" she snarled, grabbing the man by the throat and pressing her gun against his nose.
Dr. Smith barred his teeth, knowing that he was dead anyway. Rather a quick death by crazed bounty hunter than facing the Lady Oran de Nathair. "James," he growled, "a gift from the Uilc Dochas Clan to the brainiest mongrel among your putrid kind."
The heavy barrel of Knuckles' gun slammed across his nose, breaking it. "What did you do to my dog?" she screamed at him.
"Knuckles... what is that?" Peggy asked, yanking the tarp back off of the bed of the truck. She had just yanked the rope free and had one of her prisoners tying up the other two.
Knuckles glanced at the rectangular glass box. All sorts of tubes and wires ran through the box. Some sort of computer was attached. She knew what it was. She had seen it before. "An incubator." she informed her friend, turning back to Smith. Knuckles knew that the only answer was that, somehow, they had made a dupe of Oddity. But, now, she wanted to know why. "Who's the target?" she demanded.
Smith just smiled, blood streaming down his face, dripping on Knuckles' hand that was still wrapped tightly around his throat.
Knuckles suddenly felt her stomach knot up. "The brainiest mongrel?" she repeated. "Banzai."
Peggy's head snapped up. "Can they do that? Can an Oddity dupe hurt Buckaroo?" Her voice had leaped in pitch, her fear for her husband coming through.
"If they can make a dupe of Tom that tried to kill all of you, what do you think they can do with an android of Oddity, with strength, claws, teeth, and trusted enough to go into every little corner of the Banzai Institute?" Knuckles slammed her gun up along side the man's head dropping him unconscious to the ground. Seeing that Peggy had successfully tied the others up, she went to the cage and freed her pet.
Peggy stood in horror, realizing just how vulnerable they all were touch a threat. "My god, Knuckles, we let Oddity sleep in our room at night when you aren't there! He guards the shower mat when Eunice is taking a shower. Howls from under Billy's desk when he's playing computer games. He's everywhere, close to everyone."
Oddity wined as his wounded shoulder was moved painfully when Knuckles picked him up. "Then lets go!"
----------
Rawhide couldn't believe his ears. That thing had been in the seat beside him all the way back home and he never noticed a damn thing! He could of sworn that it had been Oddity. He remembered every little detail: the blue eyed grin, the wagging tail that swiped the dash clean, the expressive ears bobbing this way and that, the wet nose that had happily sniffed at his neck when he had picked the animal up... IT WAS ODDITY!
Or so he could of sworn.
And, damn, Buckaroo had gone off into one of the gardens for a little "me time" and they had no idea where he was.... just that he was on property... and it was a hell of a big piece of property to be lost on.
"Want to let the dogs lose?" Pinky wanted to know as he worked on the tracker.
"No." Rawhide answered. "One too many dogs running loose now. Don't want our people getting confused." Rawhide called as he caught the shotgun Reno tossed him "Mrs. Johnson, get on the horn to everyone, find out who saw what when and tell them to get inside and do not let Oddity in! And let me know if anyone's seen Buckaroo. Reno, Pinky, split up them men you have. Everyone with a partner. No one goes after this thing alone. Remember how much it took to take down the dupe of Perfect Tommy? This one has teeth."
"Speaking of Perfect Tommy...?" Mrs Johnson prompted.
"I'm going out to meet him now." Rawhide assured. "He's heading into the Tea Gardens." He was about to head down the trail, when Knuckles truck skidded to a halt in front of the house.
"Wait up." Knuckles called, lifting another Oddity out and onto the ground.
"Is that the real thing?" Rawhide wanted to know.
"We ran his paw through the dupe scan." Peggy assured.
Knuckles crouched down. "Okay, boy. I know you're hurt, but we need your help. Find the dupe. Got it, boy?" She rose to her feet. "Find the dupe, Oddity! Hunt!" she ordered.
The dog blinked up at her. Then, obediently, sniffed the air. After a moment, his tail wagged and he gave a barked. He found the scent. Limping, Oddity started down in the direction Rawhide was planning on going.
This changed things. "Reno, Pinky, with me. Peggy..." Rawhide started.
"Save it." Peggy snapped, grabbing a shot gun from Knuckles truck. "He's MY husband." And she and Knuckles lead the way after Oddity.
"Women with guns." Reno mumbled as the three men fell into step. Receiving a grunt from the other two, he knew no more needed to be said.