Betrayal From Within
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Nine – Personality Disorder
Jenny winced with dread as the harsh figure of the Omni-droid loomed overhead, and its wavy, silvery tendrils reached out for her face. They were mere moments away from plugging into her electronic brain, and infecting her with Cluster obedience software. The weight of the crushed car, and the Cluster android's tentacle-spikes, held her securely to the ground, in a completely vulnerable position. In desperation, she frantically twisted her head left and right, but another tentacle simply stretched out to hold it still. The Omni-droid's tendrils secured themselves to her temples, and she felt its horrible nano-computers begin to probe her mind …
Then she heard a screeching sound approaching from behind, out of the sky … the Doppler-shifted wail of rocket engines, mixed with a panicked scream. The Omni-droid looked up …
Just in time to be knocked backwards by a pair of silver robots, hurtling into its chest like a cannonball. The Cluster android pinwheeled into a pile of crushed automobiles, and dropped to the ground with a moist thud. He was still recovering from the surprise attack when the pile of cars teetered over, and buried him under dozens of two-ton steel cubes. The mystery rescuer tumbled off in other direction, and slammed into the side of a old tractor-trailer, knocking it onto its side with a cloud of dust.
Freed from the Omni-droid's grasp, Jenny easily flung the flattened car away, then sprang to her feet … to be filled with rapturous glee. Her rescuer had been none other than that robotic dreamboat, the Silver Shell! But as she ran over to thank him, she realized that he looked different somehow. He had straps of silvery-green metal wrapped around his chest and torso – a kind of harness, that held onto two large rocket motors. A harness that seemed to be alive. It was Drew, using his nanobot-body to substitute for the Shell's damaged rocket struts. He flowed off of the Silver Shell's chest, dropped the two large rocket housings to the ground with a crash, and gurgled back into android form.
His eyes rolled around in their sockets, and he took a few wobbly steps. "Excelsior," he stammered.
"Silver Shell! Drew!" she shouted. "Wow, am I ever glad to see you guys! How did you find me?"
"Your mom gave me phone call," Drew explained, "and told us how the shape-shifter was setting you up!"
The Silver Shell dusted off his chest, and struck a heroic pose. "That's right, XJ-9 … and then, knowing the vile intentions of this dastardly villain, I got here as fast as I could, to deliver the winning blow … for justice! Oh, er … and, Drew came along too."
Drew grimaced and fought to hold his tongue, as Jenny gave the Shell a girlish smile … then they were jostled back to reality by a loud roar, like a rushing river. Fountains of silvery sludge rocketed into the air like metallic geysers, tossing crushed cars aside like tumbling dice. The thick streams of sludge merged into one single, shapeless blob – and before it hit the ground, the blob had morphed back into an insectoid form. The Omni-droid was whole once more.
A hint of annoyance crept into its businesslike voice. "So the two obstacles have returned to pester me once more," he sniffed. "Robot identified as 'Silver Shell' … I have no interest in you. But as for you, abomination …" – he pointed at Drew – "… Queen Vexus herself has ordered your execution. You were very foolish to seek me out – no doubt the result of your faulty human brain patterns." The Omni-droid's arm warbled with patterns of silvery-red, and began to grow into a long, sleek gun barrel.
Jenny glanced uneasily at Drew. "Vexus ordered your execution?" she gasped.
"Hey, it's nice to be loved," gulped Drew, as his arms warbled and grew into a pair of long, curved blades. "This guy could probably do it, too. In case you haven't noticed, he can make …"
Everyone jumped backwards as a sizzling bolt of yellow-orange laser energy pulsed from the Omni-droid's weapon, and ripped into the middle of Drew's chest. The force of the blow propelled him backwards, imbedding his body into the side an old, rusty oil tank. He stuck there, spread-eagled, with a charred hole carved out of the middle of his stomach.
"… blaster … weapons …" he babbled, finally finishing his sentence.
"An alien robot assassin! This looks like a job for … the Silver Shell!" Watching everything on his monitors, Sheldon saw an opportunity to step into the spotlight. He rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans, and opened his fighting strategy book – actually, his LizardBall Z manga – to the way cool staff fight on page 73. Then he grasped the Shell's controls, and lunged into action. This is an even bigger chance to impress Jenny! Once I take care of this Omni-Jerk guy, she'll be crazy about me! The Shell charged towards the Omni-droid, grabbing an old I-beam from a pile of junk in mid-stride. He cocked the steel beam over his head like a giant baseball bat, and grinned at the Cluster invader as he bore down on it. "I'm going to knock this ne'er-do-well out of the park!"
The Shell swung the I-beam at the Omni-droid's head … but all of a sudden, with fluidy schwerrrp, it simply wasn't there anymore. Four sets of tentacles grew out of nowhere, and curled around the Silver Shell's arms, holding them fast. Sheldon heaved on his controls with all his might, but the Shell couldn't break free of the Omni-droid's grip. The tentacles pulled the Shell into the air, and began to spin him in circles, faster and faster, until he disappeared into a nauseating blur. Then after a few seconds of torture that seemed like hours, the Omni-droid let go – and the Silver Shell sailed across the scrap yard, slamming into the same oil tank, in a matching position next to Drew.
Drew looked over at the Shell with a mix of contempt and concern. "Out of the park, huh? Are you all right in there, Sheldon?" he whispered.
"Mmmfffl grmbphlll," came the reply, with the sound of fabric being pushed aside. "I'm okay! I'm okay! The air bags went off without a hitch. But they did knock over my supersize cherry Slushee. Aww, nuts! It got all over my new issue of Samurai Spaceman!"
"You are a strange, strange little dude," muttered Drew, shaking his head.
The bizarre silvery-red tentacles melted back into a quivering blob, and the Omni-droid re-formed, making a show of dusting its claws against each other. "Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, XJ-9, perhaps we can get back to my primary mission … your initiation into the Cluster."
Jenny growled furiously, and took an aggressive martial arts stance. "All right, you big jerk, two things. Nobody's going make me join the Cluster. And nobody hurts my friends!"
"Jenny, be careful!" shouted Drew. "Don't let him touch you! He's made of nanobots!"
"Well, duh," she smirked back, "I kind of figured that out already. Don't sweat it, guys. He caught me by surprise the first time. But now it's time for a little payback. It's a good thing we're already in a scrap yard, Omni-dork, because I'm about to take out the trash!" Her paralyzer ray was still deployed from her right elbow. She raised her arm to take aim at the Omni-droid's body …
But to her dismay, the barrel of her weapon was cracked in half, and instead of a bolt of green paralyzer energy, it spat out a pathetic shower of electrical sparks. "Uh-oh," she whimpered.
The Omni-droid dug its hind limbs into the ground, and leapt at her like a jungle cat. Its wrist-tubules sprang out and stretched towards her forehead. But Jenny had plenty of other beam weapons at her disposal. Her palm-laser glowed with a bluish white, and unleashed a withering barrage of energy blasts into the Omni-droid's chest, at point-blank range. It shuddered and jerked in violent spasms as bolt after bolt pounded into its body – until one last blast sent it rocketing backwards, splattering into a stack of flattened cars.
"So much for the all-powerful Omni-droid," she laughed. "Looks like he's more of an Omni-dud."
The silvery-red fluid began to boil over in fury; it erupted from the junk pile in a frothing fountain. The Omni-droid restored itself to perfect condition, but now it seemed angry … extremely angry. Its shoulders heaved, and a deep, bombastic voice bellowed out across the scrap yard … "You dare mock me? You, a mere teenager?!? I am a warrior, a true Cluster Champion! None can hope to stand against me! I am a soldier! I am … a destroyer of worlds!!!"
"Huh?" said Jenny, scratching her chin. "That sounds like … oh, what's that bozo's name … Smytus!"
The Omni-droid shook its fists in rage for a few seconds, but then stopped … and collected itself, and seemed to return to normal. "Well, XJ-9, as you can see, your little laser attack was a waste of time," he said, once more in his calm, professional tone. "Surrender would be your most logical course of action, to reduce the chance of damage to your systems. However … I calculate a very small chance that you will actually take my advice."
"Is zero small enough for you?" she taunted, trying to bolster her own spirits as much as she was trying to rattle the Cluster saboteur. She ignited her pigtail-jets, and shot into the air, hoping to use her maneuverability to her advantage …
But the Omni-droid's legs quickly flared out into a pair of engine housings. With a blast of flame and exhaust, it sprang into the air to pursue its primary target. Its arms shimmered with silvery-copper distortion … then grew at an amazing speed, stretching out to coil around Jenny's ankle. The Omni-droid pivoted in mid-air, using Jenny's own momentum against her – and swung her back down towards the scrap yard. With a titanic crash, she plowed through two stacks of scrap metal, bounced off the ground, and skidded to a halt, her poor metallic bottom scraping up a fountain of sparks as she slid.
The Omni-droid pitched over and dove at her, sprouting another set of tentacles from its malleable body. They stretched down and grasped her shoulders, to immobilize her. Jenny strained to break free of the stretchy tentacles, but couldn't break them. Then she gave a wry little smile, and with a flick of her wrists, a large pair of saw blades deployed from her hands. Her arms flashed back and forth, the air was filled with the screech of ripping metal – and two severed android-arms plopped to the ground, dissolving into liquid. Two more tentacles swung towards her, then two more, but Jenny kept defending herself with her saw blades, desperately fighting off wave after wave of tentacle attacks. Finally, the Omni-droid thudded to the ground, wiggling twelve frustrated stubs back and forth where its arms had been.
She somersaulted backwards to give herself some time to think, and to check on the condition of Drew and the Silver Shell. The Omni-droid simply began reabsorbing its detached limbs, restoring itself to perfect operating condition yet again. "XJ-9, this is all so very unnecessary," it said. "It is not logical for you to resist the Cluster! We only seek to improve the lives of robots, all throughout the galaxy! Cluster Prime is a haven for robots … a paradise, where every robot can live out their dreams!"
"Yeah, right. So why do you have to drag robots into paradise at gunpoint?" scoffed Jenny. "Besides, it might be a great life for the robots. But what about the humans that you enslave?"
"What about them?" sneered the Omni-droid. It slowly approached again, but did not attack. "Why do you care about them at all, XJ-9? Consider everything that has transpired over the past two days. Think of how your human 'friends' have treated you. They have rejected you, cursed you, and hunted you down like a criminal. And still you feel obliged to defend them! Why?"
"Well, because I … I mean … well, it's just in my programming … I guess …" – Jenny blinked in confusion – "… look, they only attacked because … um …"
"It's in your programming. Exactly." The Omni-droid drew closer. "We're just trying to show you what the humans really think of you. Can you honestly say you're surprised that they turned on you? Your programming prevents you from seeing the truth. We are trying to correct that."
"That's crazy! I … I don't believe you," she stammered, shaking off the disturbing questions. "Besides, not all humans are like that! Just … um … most of them."
Drew reached forward, and patted her on the shoulder. "Jenny, come on, this guy is just trying to mess with your head! Look … remember, I've been part of the Cluster before. And you told me about the time Vexus infected you with the nano-tick! Did that feel like paradise to you?"
"That's right, XJ-9!" boomed the Silver Shell. "Don't be fooled by this underhanded evildoer and his treacherous words! The citizens of Earth know that your name stands for goodness, and truth, and justice! They know that … in brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape your sight!"
Drew smacked the Shell in the ribs, and gave him a dirty look. "You – stop talking."
Jenny flashed them both a smile, and beamed with renewed confidence. She deployed a pair of particle beam guns from her forearms, and they glowed to life, bathing her in a flickering bluish light. "You can turn off the sales pitch, you big blob of nano-snot! It's going to take more than a slimy, scheming ooze-ball of silver pus to make me join the Cluster!"
She gave a quick look over her shoulder at Drew. "Um … no offense."
Drew's shoulders sunk. "Yeah … sure … none taken. Silver pus? Jeez."
"If that is your final decision, foolish girl, then so be it," said the Omni-droid, growing a new pair of weapons from the middle of his back. "I will try to make this as quick as possible, XJ-9. Once I have assimilated you into the Cluster, you will see the truth … and you will thank me."
The Omni-droid's new weapons crackled to life, each unleashing a sizzling bolt of electricity. One ball of lightning hit the Silver Shell in the middle of his massive chest, sending short circuits through his body, wisps of smoke rising from his servos – and standing poor Sheldon's hair on end, as he shuddered uncontrollably with electrical shocks.
The other only glanced Drew's torso, as he sloshed his body out of the way … but the Omni-droid followed through, eager to finish him off. Silvery-red arms flung through the air, tipped with long, toothed blades that vibrated like a chainsaw. Drew grew fresh sets of his own nano-blades … but the silver-red chainsaws sliced them off as fast as he could make them. Then the shape-shifters flung layers and layers of tentacles at each other, and merged into a bizarre, fantastical knot. Jenny winced in despair and disgust, unsure of what to do; the fight in front of her looked like a living pile of red and green snakes, slithering around and through each other, tangled up in an impossibly complex mess.
It was hard to tell, but Jenny feared that the Omni-droid was winning. She deployed a long electrical probe from her left arm, and ramped up the voltage. "Sorry about this, Drew," she grimaced … as she jabbed the probe into the sticky mess. The whole tangled blob of nano-snakes writhed and shuddered with convulsions … then three-quarters of the mass pulled away from her, shimmering with rapid waves of silvery-red. The remaining gooey silver-green mess collapsed into a soft, doughy puddle.
Jenny dropped to her knees next to the puddle, filled with worry for her friend, but then something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye – a bright green light, glowing like a miniature star. Her super-fast robotic instincts kicked in, and she leapt into the air on the flames of her pigtail rockets … just as a beam of pale green energy shot past her, narrowly missing her legs. Not only had the Omni-droid already recovered; it had grown a new weapon from the middle of its chest! She looked down in amazement, and started to feel a little worried.
A fresh pair of rocket motors grew out of the Omni-droid's back. "You're not the only one with a paralyzer ray, XJ-9," it smirked. The rockets roared to life, and the silver-red nano-droid took to the skies. Jenny felt a lump of fear in her coolant line, and swallowed hard. If she got hit by just one paralyzer blast, she'd be frozen solid for a minute or so … and she'd be as good as Clusterized.
Jenny deployed her laser-limb, and fired a blast at the paralyzer gun … but the slippery android spiraled out of the way, twisting through the air like a Chinese dragon. She gathered her resolve, and spooled up the afterburners in her pigtails … no Cluster creep is going to out-fly me!
The two robots looped and curled around each other in tight, twisting circles, exchanging shots in a spectacular dogfight. Jenny dodged back and forth, nearly invisible to the human eye – but every blast from the Omni-droid's paralyzer came closer and closer to her smooth metal skin. She could feel the effects of the ray's near misses, like a numbness in her wiring. Jenny unleashed another desperate volley of laser fire at her attacker; but he twisted and stretched his body to dodge the bolts with ease. She gasped in astonishment as the Omni-droid morphed into surreal shapes; now it looked like a hovering octopus, now it was a spiraling helix, now it was a four-winged insect. Jenny seethed with frustration; it was nearly impossible to score a hit on the elusive shape-shifter.
However, the Omni-droid was getting frustrated too, and seemed to grow impatient. It grew two more tentacles out of its torso, and now three paralyzer beams sliced through the air, weaving a dangerous web that threatened to close in on the robotic heroine. But Jenny was used to being fired upon from many directions at once. She wove a graceful, intricate path through the crisscrossing rays, further frustrating the Omni-droid … until it suddenly stopped firing, and shuddered, as if it were having a seizure …
And then it began shouting with an old woman's voice. "Aauugghhhh, young lady, will you please sit still for five seconds?!? I am merely attempting to administer your software update! How can I do that if you persist in flitting about like an over-caffeinated hummingbird?"
Jenny's mouth dropped open, in complete and utter confusion. What the – that's Mom's voice! What does that big creep think he's doing? Is it malfunctioning? Is this another trick? "I told you, you big dummy, I don't want your software update! I like my brain just the way it is!"
Amazingly, the Omni-droid flung its arms in the air and rolled its eyes, like she'd seen her mother do a million times before. "Honestly, XJ-9! You can be so stubborn sometimes! Now, stop this foolishness and settle down, like a good robot!"
Does this crazy thing actually think it's my Mom? She couldn't know for sure … but she knew that it in its confused state, the Omni-droid was temporarily exposed to attack. She swooped up into a half-loop, and dove for its silvery-red chest. The sections in her left arm expanded, and the laser-limb began to transform into a massive disintegrator ray … let's see you grow back from this, pal!
But then something went terribly wrong. Her left arm was still damaged, and to her horror, she realized that the disintegrator had jammed, deployed only half-way. She slapped on the elbow joint, trying to knock the metal sections loose … and lost track of the Omni-droid. Maybe it's still malfunctioning …
No such luck. A pale green blast enveloped her vision, and she felt a sharp tingling, like a billion tiny firecrackers, sizzle through all of her wiring. The Omni-droid had recovered from its momentary lapse in concentration, had scored a direct hit with his paralyzer. Jenny plunged from the sky, heading for a large chemical plant next door to the scrap yard … unable to do anything to cushion her fall. Can't … move! Arms … legs … feel like … chunks of wood … NO!!!
Jenny slammed into a stack of large orange barrels, sending them tumbling across the loading area with a horrific clatter. She came to rest leaning against an overturned barrel, staring blankly into the sky like a department store mannequin. The fizzling in her wires kept her motionless, and she could do nothing but watch as the Omni-droid drew its dozens of tentacles and globules together, reforming into its insectoid form. It descended towards her …
And was distracted by a huge chunk of metal whizzing towards its head. An engine block sailed through the air, from the direction of the scrap yard, and almost hit the startled android between its snake-like eyes. The Omni-droid growled in irritation, to see that Drew and the Silver Shell were attempting to interfere in his mission once more. The silver-green android had morphed his body into a steel-cable slingshot. The buffoonish giant robot plucked another engine block from a nearby pile, took aim, and fired …
But this time, the silver-green nano-droid sailed into the sky along with the heavy engine block, piggy-backing on the impromptu projectile. Drew swung the thick tendrils of his steel-cable body through the air, curling towards the Omni-droid like a set of bolos. The silvery-red insect tried to dodge out of the way, but Drew was on him too fast, and suddenly he was encased in tight coils of silvery-green. The entangled shape-shifters wrestled and struggled, and plummeted into the middle of the chemical plant's storage area, landing with a pair of splattering thuds, like giant spitballs.
The Omni-droid gathered itself together, molding and shaping back into its default form. Jenny's eyes grew wide in terror, as the silver-red android started walking towards her. She strained to get her servos moving again, but she was helpless, as if she'd been turned into a life-size doll. The Cluster robot was only yards away … when a misshapen blob of silvery-green ooze gurgled with life, and sprouted a panicked face. Drew didn't bother re-forming himself; he bolted towards Jenny, running on four crude legs as fast as he could. Just as the Omni-droid was about to strike, Drew slammed into it from behind, like a charging bull. It hurtled through the air, and crashed into a stack of high-pressure tanks.
Drew scrambled next to Jenny, and shook her by the shoulders. "Jenny! Say something! Are you all right? Can you move yet? Please tell me you can move, because this Omni-dink is kicking my butt six ways from Tuesday!"
With great difficulty, she moved her eyes, and managed to speak. "Still can't move … arms or legs. I'm not having … much luck … either."
"Well, just shoot whatever weapon you used to make it go into that weird seizure. Where it started babbling like your mom. How in the world did you do that, anyway?"
"I didn't … it just kind of … did it on its own … like when it … sounded like Smytus."
"Smytus? Is that what the whole 'Destroyer of Worlds' deal was about?" Drew thought out loud, trying to figure things out. "Those seizures seem to happen whenever it gets overexcited. I guess its software doesn't handle strong human emotions too well. But why did it start acting like your mother?"
Jenny started to flex the fingers on her right hand. "Don't know … ugh. Maybe it had something to do with … how it imitates people? It can do that too, just like you. It imitated my mom. And when I first got to the scrap yard … it was imitating Brad."
"Hmm … imitating Brad …" Drew's mind raced with a crazy idea …
The Omni-droid roared with fury, and flew into the air with its claws morphed into giant fists. It clobbered Drew with a blow that almost knocked his head off, and sent him hurtling across the loading area to slam into the side of a tanker truck. Drew wobbled back to his feet, and tried to refocus on his attacker. The Omni-droid sprouted a long, silver-red spike from its chest. Then he snapped it off – and flung it at Drew with a mighty heave. Now a giant silvery javelin was screaming right for Drew's face. He ducked just in time, and the javelin-spike sailed past, ramming into the side of the tanker.
Drew bounced back to his feet, feeling a bit cocky that he'd dodged the Omni-droid's attack. But that was when he felt the first trickle of fluid against his back. The hole in the tanker was leaking …
Then a trickle turned into a gushing stream, and he writhed with agony as a foul brown fluid splashed against his back. His body screamed with the closest thing to pain that he'd ever experienced as an android. Drew scrambled to avoid the growing pool of liquid, and staggered away from the tanker truck – it was covered with warning signs, and was carrying some kind of horrifically powerful acid. It must have had a special plastic lining, because the acid was dissolving any metal that it came into contact with. Dark, smoldering vapors curled into the air off of his body, and his shoulder had degenerated into a withered, blackened clump. He was actually having difficulty repairing himself …
Now the Omni-droid turned its attention back towards Jenny. She fought the effects of the paralyzer ray as desperately as she could, and had regained some movement in her knees and shoulders … but that wasn't enough to fight off the Omni-droid. It grew another pair of tentacles, and wrapped them around Jenny's waist, lifting her to a standing position. She managed to raise her arms, in an attempt to defend herself, but the silver-red demon simply grew another pair of tentacles, which lashed around her wrists. Its right arm stretched out, and grew two long, thin tendrils, which reached for her forehead …
"I win, XJ-9," the Omni-droid gloated. "No robot can resist the Cluster …"
A sudden impact nearly knocked them over, and the Omni-droid had to fight to retain its balance. Drew had vaulted himself onto the Omni-droid's back, and wrapped his legs around its waist. He grabbed onto the Cluster robot's arm, pulling with all his remaining strength to keep it away from Jenny's face. The three robots stumbled around the loading area like punch-drunk boxers. A set of lasers sprouted from the Omni-droid's body, and started to burn the silver-green nuisance off of its back.
"You're next, abomination! You cannot possibly stop me from assimilating XJ-9!"
Drew winced under the heat of the lasers, and his grip was beginning to fail. "You know what, Smiley? You're absolutely right. In fact, go ahead. I won't stop you. Go ahead and suck her brains out."
"WHAT?!?" shouted Jenny, gasping at Drew with a mixture of bewilderment and horror. As he released his grip on the Omni-droid's arm, even it seemed confused …
"After all, she's just a robot, right? Gears and motors and sheet metal? The doc's got the blueprints back in the lab. We can just build ourselves another XJ-9 once you're gone! Heck, we can build a dozen."
Both Jenny and the Omni-droid stared at Drew with baffled expressions on their faces … but he kept on talking. "Actually, we'll probably just go ahead and make an XJ-10. That's the way it is with machines, right? State of the art one year, obsolete the next? You know, you're probably doing us a favor, dude! XJ-9's got an awful lot of mileage on her."
The Cluster android's silver-red shoulders began to shudder and heave.
"So you can have the used model, and we'll go with something new and improved! I mean, it was probably time to cart the ol' XJ-9 off to the dumpster, anyway. You know, put her in mothballs. Or maybe donate her to a museum! That's what you do with old busted-up machines, after all …"
Drew's rant was cut off, as the Omni-droid flung its arms into the air, pushing them both away. It shook its fists with furious emotion. "SHUT UP!!! She's not a machine!!! She's my FRIEND!!!"
Jenny clasped her hands to her mouth, and gasped. "That … that's Brad's voice!" How is this …
The Omni-droid rocked back and forth, its body racked with spasms as its algorithms struggled to maintain control. Then its head began to warble with waves of silvery distortion. It started to form a pair of human eyes, and sprouted spiky tufts of bright red hair …
"Jenny, you're not busted up. You're not obsolete. I'll always believe in you, Jen …"
Drew lay on his back a few yards away, heavily damaged, and totally exhausted. "Jenny! Hurry, now's your chance! It's having another one of those seizures! Shoot it! Hit it! Do something!"
She flexed her arms and shoulders, almost fully recovered from the paralyzer blast … but now she was too stunned to move a servo. The Omni-droid's head had turned into a perfect replica of Brad's face, and it gazed at her with the warmest smile she had ever seen in her life … and its eyes held a hint of something more. His voice called out to her again …
"I … I can't do this to you. I could never, ever, hurt you. I've never told you how much you mean to me. Umm … Jenny, I … Jenny, I lo-"
Then another shudder ran through the silver-red android body, and the face dissolved back into the vicious, curved profile of the Omni-droid. It blinked its blood-red eyes, almost fully recovered …
"JENNY, NOW!" screamed Drew.
The Omni-droid's harsh, serpent-like eyes returned, and locked on its target …
Just in time to see a power fist rushing directly towards its chin. Jenny plastered the Omni-droid with thundering punch that could have knocked a hole in a bank vault door. The silver-red nano-droid hurtled through the air, its arms and legs waving like a rag doll … and headed directly towards the tanker truck. It slammed into its side …
And dislodged the javelin-spike which had been plugging up the hole. The spike ripped an even larger gash in the side of the tanker, and clattered to the pavement … unleashing a waterfall of lethal, steaming brown acid, that gushed out onto the Omni-droid.
An unholy wail ripped through the air, like screeching banshee, as the powerful acid ate through all the metal in its body. The silver-red android flailed its arms madly, with animalistic desperation, but the torrential flow of acid would not let up. Jenny pulled Drew a safe distance away from the growing lake of noxious liquid, and they winced in disgust at the gruesome scene of nanobot carnage. The Omni-droid shriveled up into a blackened mass, like a burnt piece of flesh. It collapsed to the ground, still trapped in a three-inch deep lake of acid, and tried to crawl to safety – but its withered limbs were useless. With a final howl of agony, and one last frantic thrashing of its tentacles, the Omni-droid's body sank into the powerful acid, and degenerated in a shapeless lump of carbon.
Concluded in Chapter Ten / Eight Days to Cluster Dawn