A/N – Just wanted to once again say thanks to all you people out there leaving reviews, both new and old. They really mean a lot to me, and they make writing these fics worthwhile. So without further ado …
Betrayal From Within
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Six – Secrets Revealed
The mighty twelve-foot-tall silver robot struck an impressive pose, standing between Drew and Jenny, basking in the awe and admiration of the plant workers. The sunshine glistened brightly off of his perfectly polished chrome, and a cocky grin adorned his metallic face. He waved to the enthusiastically cheering crowd, even as the sirens blared from Cooling Tower One. Then he clutched a fist over his swelling chest in a melodramatic salute, and addressed the workers with a booming, heroic voice.
"Fear not, good citizens, your cries for help have been heard! I – the Silver Shell – shall save you!"
Drew was still blinking away the dizziness from the unexpected laser blast, but when he realized who it was, he smiled with relief. "All right, sweet! I finally catch a break! Hey, Silver Shell, I've seen your T-shirts down at the mall …"
The Shell held his hand up to Drew's face in a halting gesture, cutting him off. "Yes, yes, yes, whatever. Now, why don't you just slither along, amateur, and let a real hero take care of this!"
"Wha .. I don't slither!" The tone of the Shell's voice caught him by surprise. "And … and with all due respect, don't you think two against one gives us better odds? Look, I can help you out here …"
"I don't need help from the likes of you," bellowed the Silver Shell, rudely shoving Drew aside. "Oh, I'm onto your little game, mister. First you spend more time with Jenny, then you try to replace her … and now you're using this current time of crisis as an excuse to destroy her!" His eyes burned with righteous fury, and his voice dripped with condescension. "Boy, I've seen some pretty rotten things in my day, but you really take the cake, pal!"
"WHAT!?!" It took Drew a few seconds to digest an accusation that ridiculous. "Destroy her? Wait … look, dude, you don't understand! That's not really …"
"XJ-9 is obviously not feeling like herself," sneered the Shell. "So observe a master at work! With my superb mental abilities and negotiating skills, only I can guide Jenny back from the precipice of evil, to the side of truth, justice, and the American way!" Then he leaned down, and gave Drew a knowing wink. "Besides … heh-heh … she's got a thing for me."
Ignoring Drew's protests, the flamboyant hero strutted confidently towards Jenny, who was glaring at him with an annoyed frown. She had seemed concerned and confused when the Shell first arrived, but now she appeared to be hostile and impatient. None of that seemed to register on the Shell, however. He planted his hands on his hips, and flashed her a debonair smile.
"Now, XJ-9 … I know you're under a lot of stress these days," he grinned. "And I see you're trying to find an outlet for your aggression issues. But just because you can level a nuclear plant, doesn't mean that you should! Remember, XJ-9 … with great power … comes great responsibility!"
Jenny's arm flashed out in the blink of an eye, and grabbed the Silver Shell by the wrist. With a vicious heave, she pulled him off of his feet, whirled him through the air, and slammed his massive body to the pavement with a deafening crash. Then she yanked the stunned crime-fighter out of his asphalt crater, swung him back into the air, and over her head into another brutal body slam. The Shell bounced twice, then lay on the ground for a few moments, groaning in agony.
Drew slapped his forehead in disbelief. "Where do you get your negotiation skills from?!? Comic books?!? I tried to tell you, that's not really Jenny …"
"You are interfering with my mission," growled Jenny. "All opponents must be eliminated." She raised the laser cannon on her arm, and aimed it directly at the Silver Shell's chest. A look of horror came over his metal face, as her weapon crackled with a brilliant blue light …
But Drew had already catapulted himself into the air with a frenzied leap. His arms sloshed away from his body, and morphed into a pair of long, curved blades, with nano-thin edges a few atoms thick. Looping over the Shell's head, he swung his arm in a lightning-fast motion, and landed behind Jenny with an awkward slip and a clumsy roll. A perfect cut appeared below Jenny's left elbow – and then her forearm, laser and all, clattered to the ground.
The Shell's great jaw dropped in astonishment. The severed arm quivered for a moment … then liquefied into a silvery-red puddle of sludge. The shiny pool of liquid wormed its way back towards Jenny, and flowed into her leg, which absorbed it with a gurgling schhluurrrp.
"Camouflage has been compromised," she growled, "reverting to default settings." A ripple of distortion traveled from Jenny's head to her toes, and suddenly her entire body transformed into a shuddering pillar of silver-red sludge. The pillar grew over a foot in height, and pairs of shimmering arms and legs oozed off from the body, each flexing a set of claws with rounded talons. A harsh, curved face with dull red eyes bulged out of the top, and grew two long, thin antennae. Finally, the shimmering stopped, and an eight-foot tall silver-red insectoid robot stood where "Jenny" had been only seconds before.
Its eyes narrowed into a pair of slits, and glared at Drew with a smoldering fury. "Secondary target identified. Mission Directive – annihilate renegade nanobot-droid."
Fear gripped Drew's mind as the Omni-droid assumed an aggressive stance. "Those are nanobots," he shouted, "oh, geez, those are Cluster nanobots!"
The Omni-droid grew four long, flexible arms from its body; a pair of long, curved blades, like scythes, and a pair of cylindrical weapon barrels that looked like …laser blasters. It was only then that Drew realized something. This new android had imitated Jenny, right down to duplicating her laser beams and rocket engines. High-energy weapons and complex machinery – two things that he couldn't do. These nanobots were more advanced than he was.
A booming announcement from the plant's PA system echoed over the wail of the alarms. "Core temperature at maximum limit and rising. Meltdown in two minutes. Evacuate immediately."
The Omni-droid jumped towards Drew like a blast from a fire hose, churning the air with its razor-sharp scythe-arms. Drew flowed flat into a puddle on the ground, evading the attack. He re-formed behind the silver insect, and swung his arm-blades at its torso. But the Omni-droid's arms simply flipped around backwards, and blocked Drew's counter-attack. It pinned one of his arm-blades between two quickly formed claws, and with quick twist, it snapped off. Then the Omni-droid blasted the severed piece with a laser beam … reducing it to a cloud of fine gray ash.
Drew curled his body around and swung his blades again, striking the Omni-droid in the leg, but the blades stuck, as if trapped in thick tar. Long claws curled out from the Cluster droid's body, and suddenly Drew and the Omni-droid had pulled themselves into each other, beginning a surreal frenzy of close-quarters combat. Dueling pretzels of silvery goo thrashed against each other, flowed through each other, and hurled blades, spikes, and mallets at each other – but only one combatant could shoot lasers, and every laser blast would result in a chunk of silver-green sludge being vaporized. The Omni-droid was winning.
A silver-green blob grew out of the nanobot melee, and morphed into Drew's panicked face. "Acckk … Yo! Shell … dude! Little help!"
"Huh? Ooh, right!" The Silver Shell sprang to his feet, and his eyes glowed a deep blue. "Eat hot laser, evildoer!" His eyes flared a brilliant indigo, and a searing shaft of energy shot out of them …
Scoring a direct hit on Drew's head, which exploded into a shower of soot. The two battling nanobot droids split apart, and a diminished silver-green blob hurtled through the air, splattering against the concrete wall of the cooling tower.
Drew gurgled back into android form … with a furious scowl on his face. "Thanks a LOT!!!"
The Shell chuckled nervously. "Oops … heh-heh … my bad."
"One minute to core meltdown," boomed the plant's loudspeaker.
The Omni-droid turned its attention to the Silver Shell. "Unidentified threat … you have fired upon me. You will be eliminated ..." The robot began to advance towards the Shell, but suddenly paused … and something odd happened. The Omni-droid shuddered slightly, and its voice changed … from cool and calm, to a deeper, arrogant bluster. "… Tremble in fear before me! I am a warrior, a Cluster champion! I am a destroyer of worlds!"
The Omni-droid's behavior seemed a complete puzzle, but then just as abruptly, it switched back into calm, businesslike mode … and lunged directly at the Silver Shell.
Long, supple clamps flowed out of its body, and clamped onto the Shell's chest. Silver-coppery tendrils shot out from its wrist, and affixed themselves to the Shell's forehead. "Establishing interface," growled the Omni-droid. "You will be assimilated into the Cluster."
The Shell swiped frantically at his chest, trying to knock away the giant silver-red insect. "AAIIGGHH! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"
The Omni-droid hung on tight, but a touch of confusion registered on its face. "No electronic brain detected. Internal computers must be heavily shielded. I will access directly." A new arm sprang from the middle of it back, with a claw that grabbed onto the Silver Shell's head … and pulled it off. The metallic mask dropped to the pavement with a loud clang. With the reflexes of a jungle predator, the Omni-droid flowed into a liquid stream, and poured itself inside the massive hero's chest.
A hair-raising scream snapped Drew back to full alertness, and he saw the last of the Omni-droid flow into the Shell's body. Oh, no, that poor idiot's gonna get eaten alive! Literally! With two long, arcing jumps, the silver-green android liquefied himself in mid-air, and plunged down the Silver Shell's neck, in hot pursuit of the Cluster intruder.
The headless body of the Silver Shell staggered randomly around the parking lot, waving his arms in a blind panic. Crashes and rattles echoed from the Shell's huge chest, which spasmed chaotically from side to side, as the nanobot-androids did battle inside of it. And rising above everything came the Shell's shrill, piercing scream … "EWWW!!! Get it out! Get it out! Get it out!"
"Core temperature exceeding failure threshold," blared the PA. "Thirty seconds to core meltdown."
Suddenly the Silver Shell's right hand start to wiggle … then it popped off, and a fountain of silver-red sludge gushed out of his wrist. The Omni-droid flowed back into his insectoid form, and sprang a pair of tentacles from its body, with clamps in place of claws. Drew tried to follow him out … but the Omni-droid grabbed onto the Shell's arm, and crushed it flat at his elbow and his wrist – trapping the silver-green android inside of the forearm.
An ominous rumbling came from the bowels of Cooling Tower One. There were only seconds left until all of Spruce Ridge was laid waste with radioactive fallout. The Cluster robot stood at attention, waves of silver-red washed over its body, and it began to change shape, streamlining itself. In seconds, it had morphed into a ten-foot rocket, and its engine screeched to life with a brilliant flame. It climbed into the sky even as it grew a pair of swept wings, then leveled off like a cruise missile.
The Silver Shell was still panicking – he knew there were still nanobots inside of his arm, and he didn't care who they belonged to. He swung his right arm frantically, desperately smashing it into the pavement. "Icky! Icky! Icky!"
He swung so hard that his damaged arm broke off at the elbow, and streaked through the air …
And sailed right through the hole in the cooling tower's concrete wall. The severed metallic arm, with Drew still inside, ricocheted off a pair of water pipes, punched through a cloud of superheated steam, and landed against a high-voltage power line … FFRRZZAAAAPP. The electrified arm bounced away from the cable … and landed directly on the manual shutdown handle.
The wailing sirens cut off, and a calm voice flowed from the loudspeaker. "Emergency Crash has been activated. Reactor One is shutting down. Core temperature decreasing. Have a nice day!"
A chorus of cheers and applause erupted from the workers, as they threw their hard hats into the air in jubilation. "The Silver Shell did it!" "He chased away the saboteur!" "He saved the reactor from melting down!" "Hurray! Hurray for the Silver Shell! He did it!"
The Shell stumbled around the parking lot, looking for his detached head, when he finally became aware of the applause. He located his head and twisted it back on, with a look of bewilderment on his face. "I did? Um … er …" – he struck another heroic pose – "… I mean, yes! Of course I did! Ha-ha, never fear, good citizens! Evil never stood a chance, against the might of … the Silver Shell!"
As the applause continued, few people noticed the frazzled silver-green form inside the tower. Drew staggered into view, looking haggard and exhausted, with a disgusted look on his face. He crawled out and wobbled across the parking lot, with the Shell's damaged arm slung over his shoulder – the arm he had been briefly imprisoned inside of. He stumbled up to the Shell's chest, held the arm out in front of him, and stretched his neck up a few feet to speak to the great hero, face to face …
"I think this belongs to you ... Sheldon."
The silver cruise missile streaked through the sky, puncturing the clouds with swirling spirals in its wake. The Omni-droid was evaluating its most recent sabotage attempt; if it had been displaying a face, it would have been frowning. Its sensors detected no trace of radioactive explosion or leakage from the power plant. It consulted its mission directives, then it grew an antenna, and made a radio call.
"Omni-droid to Commander Smytus. Commander Smytus, come in. Mission to destroy nuclear plant has failed. Plant is damaged, but not destroyed. Also, secondary target was encountered, element of surprise was lost, and secondary target is also damaged, but not destroyed."
There was a brief pause on the other end before Smytus replied. "Blast it! We'll just have to accelerate the schedule, then. Omni-droid, proceed to Phase Two, effective immediately. You are ordered to focus on capture of primary target. There is no higher priority for this operation than to capture XJ-9, and assimilate her into the Cluster."
"Your orders, Commander?"
"We've been monitoring all Earth broadcast frequencies," radioed Smytus. "XJ-9's creator, the human 'Wakeman', has been released from custody and is being returned to her home dwelling. I can think of no better way to get close to that foolish teenager than by using her own … 'mother'."
"Understood," replied the Omni-droid. The antenna retracted into its body, and it banked its wings sharply, taking a direct heading towards the city of Tremorton. It had the co-ordinates of XJ-9's home base of operations stored in its memory. It morphed into a stealth configuration, like a flying arrowhead, and changed its color to blend into the sky. It was now virtually invisible, and it would arrive at the Wakeman house in just over two minutes.
There was fresh activity in front of the old Wakeman house; spectators looked on with curiosity, but kept their distance. Three large black vans from the FBI had just pulled up to the curb, not ten minutes earlier. By now, everyone in the neighborhood had heard the story about the eccentric old dingbat and her robotic daughter, and how they had been arrested for the wave of mysterious sabotage attacks. The news was saying that the robot girl was still on the run, evading the authorities. So it had sounded like their guilt was a foregone conclusion. But new rumors were buzzing back and forth this afternoon. The rumor was that old Dr. Wakeman had proof of her innocence, and was now was going to assist the authorities in finding the saboteur, by using some kind of goofball invention. At least, that was the rumor.
The middle-aged jogger glanced casually over his shoulder at the spectacle, and laughed to himself as he made his daily circuit around the block. That old screwball Wakeman … there's always some kind of circus going on at that place. He didn't give it a second thought, and returned his attention to his jog, trying to keep up a good sweat. He checked the lap timer on his wristwatch as he turned the corner …
A pair of silver-red tentacles shot out from the hedges and coiled around his chest. Before he could scream, another tentacle clamped around his mouth. With a lightning motion, they snatched the jogger off his feet, and he vanished into the bushes. Then there was an electrical shock.
Moments later, the jogger re-emerged, and slowly walked out onto the sidewalk. He quickly inspected his jogging outfit, and saw that his shoes were the wrong color. With a quick wave of rippling silvery fluid, the shoes turned red, matching the jacket. Then the jogger turned back towards the Wakeman house.
He strolled across the street, scanning the area intensely, and took note of the three black FBI vans parked in front of the house. He counted a total of six agents in suits and ties, standing idly by the hoods of their vehicles, chatting amongst themselves. The van closest to him had only one agent, standing behind it, a young blond man in a navy blue suit. He was assembling a mobile satellite dish. The jogger calmly walked up to the young FBI agent.
"Excuse me … I live just around the corner," said the jogger, in an emotionless voice. "Is everything all right with Dr. Wakeman?"
The agent gave him a polite smile. "Nothing to worry about, sir. The doctor's fine. Our men are just escorting her inside, while she …"
He collapsed to the ground, spasming from electrical shocks. The silver-red tentacle that had sprung out of the jogger's ribs was tipped with a taser gun. He gathered up the young agent's limp form, lifted him into the back of the van, and quietly closed the doors. Then, with a moment's concentration, waves of silver-red distortions coursed over the jogger's body, with a soft gurgling noise. He began to change shape.
Now the jogger was gone. A young blond FBI agent in a navy blue suit strutted towards the Wakeman house, giving his colleagues an indifferent wave. Somebody asked him if wanted a coffee, and he declined with a solemn shake of his head. The blond agent paused briefly in front of the door, and casually looked over the layout of the house with his infrared vision. There were two agents downstairs with a short woman - that would be the doctor. One agent was leaving an upstairs bedroom, and was walking down the stairs to join the others. Soon they would all be together in one room. A most efficient arrangement.
The blond agent walked through the front door, and came upon a loud scene of shouting and confusion in the doctor's laboratory. Mrs. Wakeman was energetically arguing with the three FBI agents, who were pawing through stacks of computer paper and going through thick binders of lab notes. The lead agent, an older, heavy-set man with a gray mustache, was inspecting the drawers in the workbench.
Though the lead FBI agent was a good two feet taller than her, Mrs. Wakeman smacked the back of his hand, as if he were a naughty child reaching into the cookie jar. "Now see here, gentlemen!" she barked. "I will not stand to have my important scientific notes rummaged through, like paperback novels at a garage sale! This is critical scientific research!"
The lead agent rubbed his hand, and glowered back at her. "Dr. Wakeman, your release is dependent on your complete and total cooperation with our investigation! Now, what's in this container, here?"
"Gaaahhh!" screamed the doctor. "Those are petri dishes, and they're very sensitive! They haven't been swabbed since yesterday! Oh, the poor dears …"
Another tall, barrel-chested agent was taking photographs of objects around the lab. He grabbed a clear glass from the coffee table, and inspected the residue of fluid that lined the bottom. "Doctor, what can you tell me about this suspicious mystery chemical?"
Mrs. Wakeman snatched the glass from his hand, sniffed it, and groaned in frustration. "Auugghhh! If I have told XJ-9 once, I have told her a thousand times … put the glass in the sink, after you finish drinking your anti-freeze! How difficult is that? Honestly, you'd think she was assembled in a barn."
"Well, what about this boiling solution, in this beaker here? Over the Bunsen burner?"
The doctor folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "That's my tea."
The lead FBI agent slapped his forehead in aggravation. "Wakeman, we don't have time for …" Then he noticed the young blond agent, standing silently in the entranceway to the laboratory. He folded his arms with a grunt, and his mustache bristled into an intimidating scowl. "Johnson, what the devil are you doing in here, you idiot? I told you go out to the van, assemble the field scrambler, and wait for me!"
The blond agent looked over the laboratory with an intense, emotionless gaze.
"You three are the only agents inside the house?"
"Do you see anyone else, Johnson?" snarled the lead agent, waving his arms in a theatrical fashion. "Now get your sorry butt back out …"
The young agent interrupted him. "And you are Doctor Nora Wakeman, creator of the XJ-9 robot?"
"Well, of course I am," huffed the doctor. "Who do I look like, Marie Curie? Honestly, what kind of people do you have employed in your little G-man club?"
The lead agent slammed a stack of papers on the bench, and marched towards the young blond man with fire in his eyes. "Johnson, if that satellite dish isn't working in ten seconds, you can kiss …"
Three thin, silver-red tentacles flashed out from behind the blond agent's back, snapping through the air like whips, each tipped with a crackling taser probe. Each one struck the chest of an FBI agent, and a split second later, tens of thousands of volts raced through their bodies, overloading their central nervous systems. Before any of them could utter a word, or make a move to defend themselves, the three physically intimidating agents dropped to the floor, like sacks of wet flour.
Mrs. Wakeman's jaw dropped in consternation, and the color drained from her face. "Oh my … er … I don't suppose I could … interest you in a spot of tea?"
The tentacles retracted into the agent's body, which started to pulse with rippling waves of silvery, coppery distortion. The blond FBI agent shuddered like a living block of gelatin. Then he changed form and color, sloughing into a pillar of silvery sludge. The doctor stumbled backwards in fear, towards the back of her laboratory, cut off from escape by the amorphous blob. Then the blob grew solid again, and the Omni-droid assumed its default, insectoid form. Its curved, beak-like head flowed out of its neck, and glared at the old woman with faintly glowing red eyes.
It raised an arm towards the doctor, and its wrist began to bubble and gurgle with nanobot activity. Two thin tendrils blossomed out of its wrist, and wriggled in the air like two silver earthworms. In desperation, Mrs. Wakeman looked around for anything that might serve as a weapon. She grabbed a desk lamp, and wielded it over her head like a club …
But the Omni-droid's interface cables had already leapt through the air. A pair of silver-red connectors latched onto the doctor's temples, her arms fell limp at her sides, and her face blanked out into a zombie stare. Mild seizures shuddered through her body, as the Omni-droid ran a new, special program to create an interface to a human brain.
It executed one command … Download.
Continued in Chapter Seven / Eight Days to Cluster Dawn