J.M.J.
TITLE: "Cash on the Barrelhead" -- Part 3 of 3
AUTHOR: "Matrix Refugee"
RATING: PG-13 (subject matter, angst)
ARCHIVE: Permission granted
FEEDBACK: Pleasepleasepleaseplease!
DISCLAIMER: Nope, I don't own "A.I.", which belongs to DreamWorks, Steve, Stan, Warner Brothers, et al. If I had any right to the film, there would be a spin-off TV series of it now.
SUMMARY: Extracts from Frank Sweitz's journal, describing Joe and Cecie's reunion
NOTES: This last chapter was the hardest to write, since it underwent several revisions, which I rarely do with fanfiction... the voice was a challenge to get right. Plus, this fic also references the "A.I." Roleplaying Game also here on Yahoo!, and two fics of mine, specifically my "A.I."/"Minority Report" crossover "The Eyes Have It", and the last of the trio of fics I wrote regarding Henry Swinton, "Thinking the Unthinkable". Hobby tells Henry in "Thinking" that Joe disappeared from the Cybertronics building in Manhatten... but how did Joe disappear...?
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Part Three: Extracts from the journal of Francis J.X. Sweitz
May 9, 2162, 10:02 pm
... Cecie came to visit today, basically just to stop by the apartment to say hello while she was in the area, visiting her old boyfriend. I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit that my heart started to throb when I saw her, and I got a leetle bit jealous. I really should be happy for her, since she was able to reconnect with Joe, but that doesn't stop my heart from aching just a bit since I'll have to share her with him.
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May 10th, 2162, 8:15 pm
Pardon my French, but this entry is likely to contain some strong language: I cuss only when I'm really angry and no one can hear me.
The Goddamned Flesh Fair is here in town and they've hung posters up on the fence around the empty lot across from my apartment house. Consquently, I have them staring me in the face every time I look out the front window. I'm tempted to sneak out in the middle of the night and rip down the god-awful things.
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May 14th, 2162, 6:15 pm
Cecie came by visiting again, briefly, before she met up with Joe. I'd just gone down to meet her at the street door, when I spotted her across the street, calmly taking down the Flesh Fair posters. I told her she was daring, but she just shrugged and said she was doing it to protect Joe and every other Mecha in town.
Yep, you read that right. If you haven't figured it out from earlier entries, Cecie's boyfriend is a Mecha. She's gotten herself in a heap of trouble with her relatives on account of this, but she's happy with him. You'd expect I'd be sore that she's passing over a nice young guy like me and carrying on with a "fibrehead", but she chose Joe and I'd be the last person to try making her choose otherwise.
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May 14th, 2162, 8:15 pm
Later in the day, she came back, asking if it was all right for her to spend the night in my apartment: she doesn't like taking the train into Rouge City this late: she's had some nasty experiences with wierd guys bugging her.
She seemed annoyed, so I asked her what was up. She told me Joe's pager kept going off the whole time they were together, even though they were just talking. She never really had that problem much in Rouge City, but there he was a smaller fish in a bigger pond; he was popular, but there were a lot more Mechas for people there to choose from. This is a small town with less variety, so it's no small wonder that he's constantly on the go. Cecie admits she followed him after he left her for the next rendezvous, followed him back the Mirrored Room, a hotel where Joe's owner has her business.
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May 15th, 2162, 9:13 am
Burnstead called me late last night: he'd gotten a tip that something had gone down at the Shangri-La Hotel, over in the town's red-light district. Cecie was still up, so she begged me to let her come along.
We found the lobby of the hotel jammed with curious people, police officers, people from the SPCB and the homicide unit of the Haddonfield Police Department. Tom Williamson, the part-owner and night clerk of the joint, had found one of the guests, a Ms. Samantha Bevins, lying dead in Room 102, with her throat slashed. Some of the cops were sure the Mecha that had been seen going into her room some time before this discovery had. Of course Cecie asked what Mecha they meant; I almost fainted when they said it was Joe... But Cecie told them it couldn't have been him: she'd been with Joe about an hour before the incident.
I went upstairs to take a look: two detectives met me at the door. One of them, a slightly smart-alecky young guy with red hair, tried to keep me out, but his partner, a dark-haired fellow probably in his forties, but who looked like he was in his thirties, let me in, but he told me "We've already got one reporter in here." I couldn't spot him in amongst all the crime scene people in the room, milling around the bed off to the left.
On the bed lay a beautiful girl in her late teens or early twenties, face down, a real knock-out, a classic brunette beauty with violet eyes like Elizabeth Taylor's. She was gorgeous if you could overlook the gash in the side of her neck and the running puddle of red underneath her.
That's when a light flashed and I looked up to see this short guy in a too-big topcoat with a fedora squashed down on his head, peering through a camera viewfinder. He looked up at me and smiled, giving me a crooked grin I knew well.
"Hey there, Sweitz," he said. It was Hal. Burnstead came in at this point and explained to me that Hal was working for him now, that it had to do with some deal Hal made with the SPCB.
So far, no one has been arrested in this case. But they better not have any funny ideas about Joe. He couldn't do something like this.
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May 15th, 2162, 11:15 am
The cops found Joe's license tag in an alleyway not far from the Shangri-La, but no sign of Joe. They're guessing he may be hiding in the woods. Cecie, who stayed over last night, is nervous now: the Flesh Fair's in Barn Creek and there's no telling what may happen to him now, since they tend to capture any stray Mechas that they run across.
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May 15th, 2162, 1.03 pm
Now there's news that some kid Mecha ran astray; it seems that one of the big companies was having somebody beta-test a new model, and the prototype got lost in the woods somehow. That makes two missing Mechas Burnstead's busy looking for.
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May 15th, 2162, 4.30 pm
Just been interviewing the people who lost the kid Mecha. Unfortunately, now that company that made the kid Mecha has put a gag rule on the press, though Hal told me I can refer to it here in this journal, as "Slobbertronics". It's quite a human interest story -- a lonely mom with a son in cryostorage, a child-Mecha to cheer her up, the flesh and blood kid getting better and coming home -- but I can't print a word of it anywhere.
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May 15th, 2162, 6.18 pm
Hal managed to get him and I an interview with Frazer Bevins, Samantha's father. I feel bad for the guy: his only daughter, the only family he has left, has been killed and he's desperate to find out who did it. But then Hal and I got a look at the books on the shelves in his living room... there's more to this case than meets the eye. I think he set our boy up.
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May 15th, 2162, 11.15 pm
Now there was a riot at the Flesh Fair: turns out that the kid-Mecha and Joey-boy got caught by the Hounds -- now whoever's reading this, please don't get excited, it's not what you think. They're both fine: in fact, they escaped. I spoke with a woman who'd been there. She says the kid-Mecha started begging the Flesh Fair goons not to burn him, so she stood up and told the ringmaster to let the kid go, that he was just a boy. The crowd attacked the ringmaster, and in the middle of it all, someone unchained Joe and the kid from the torture contraption they'd been tied to. Last time anyone saw them, Joe and his little buddy were running off into the woods.
Cecie deduced that Joe probably headed for Rouge City. So... we're off to see if we can catch up with him.
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May 16th, 2162, 3:20 am
Ouch...
We barely got back to the apartment alive. The SPCB traced Joe to Rouge City, so the police there tried picking him up. They were literally in tha act of arresting Joe when we showed up on Main Plaza. I had to restrain Cecie, to keep her from going after the cops and getting herself in trouble. But someone, maybe a CRF agent, I don't know swiped an amphibicopter and took off with Joe... welll, took off with him after making the 'copter lurch around the Plaza, sending everyone scattering and knocking over the transport containing Joe. Hal got some exclusive shots of the pandemonium: He's analyzing them just now, and from what he can see, the kid Mecha stole the copter.
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May 16th, 2162, 1:45 pm
Burnstead called just now: they traced Joe and the kid Mecha to Manhatten and the Slobbertronics (Gad, I hate writing that name like that) facility there. Slobbertronics's private police-force of sorts (they're a little more sophisticated than plain old security guards) picked up Joe and is holding him for questioning/cube analysis. Joe's in the corporation building somewhere... but no one can tell us anything yet. And Cecie is utterly beside herself: nervous, angry, sad... relieved... She wants to go there and find him, but there's no way anyone can get into that building unauthorized.
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May 18th, 2162, 7:38 pm
Hal's on to something: Years and years ago, he and a hacker friend of his, who'd "gone white-hat" (ie, stopped hacking computers for the heck of it and went into working as a computer security analyst) helped the company that's holding Joe test the SmartSecure system in the Manhatten building. He's planning on tapping into the security system and seeing if he can't pinpoint Joe's exact location. Now Cecie has some grand scheme to apply there for work, as a janitor or something, and use that as a way to get Joe out. Hal reminded her that this company makes janitor Mechas: she'd never pass. So she argued, "Maybe I can disguise myself as a Mecha", though in her next sentence, she realized the implausibility of that stunt.
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May 21st, 2162, 9.09 pm
"Well, that beats the hell out of me", were Hal's words after scanning a certain place's SmartSecure system. He searched every room that had a camera, every room except Room 323: no sign of Joe anywhere. His guess is that Joe is in Room 323, and security on that building is so tight, a fly can't even creep in under a door without being detected. I don't like the sound of that one bit. So you can only imagine how desperate Cecie is. In her words: "If Joe were surrounded by pieces of broken glass on the floor, I'd crawl over it without my clothes on, just to get to him!"
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Entries from May 21st, 2162 to August 28th, 2163 excised for brevity and relevance.
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August 28th, 2162, 1.03 pm
It's been a while since I updated last on the saga of Cecie and Joe. She got more deeply involved with the CRF, but she parted ways with them in a manner of speaking. It seems the "Coalition for Robotic Freedom" was involved with some wierd experiments on Mecha memory cubes. And Cecie being who she is, she couldn't stay involved with a group that had done that even though it claimed to be doing it in the name of science, and especially in light of the fact that they otherwise have claimed to be trying to help Mechas.
I can't say much about them, since they're a bit on the secretive side, but she's gotten involved with the RLF, the Robotic Liberation Front, a group which has similare convictions as the CRF, but without the hypocrisy. They kinda split off from the CRF for reasons a lot similar to Cecie's reasons for pulling away from the CRF. In fact, they've had a hand in helping some Mechas escape from imminent torture and destruction in some of these research labs.
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August 30th, 2162, 4.03 pm
It's official! The David and Darlene line of Mechas from Cybertronics goes up for adoption today! They're hosting a big shindig at the New Jersey plant, up in Camden. And guess who gets to cover the story? Right! Sweitz and McGeever. I've specifically gotten the assignment to interview Dr. Allen Hobby himself. Hot dog!!! Cecie wanted to come along, but she started fuming about Hobby holding Joe, so we both decided it was better she stayed home, much as I'd love to have her along for the trip.
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September 1st, 2162, 6.03 pm
You'll never guess just who I saw today at the Cybertronics shindig....
No less than our Joe in the silicon. It seems that Hobby has been holding Joe as a personal assistant. Joe might seem content with his place, but when I spoke to him alone for a moment, he asked me how Cecie was doing. I told him she misses him dreadfully and that she'd give her right arm just to see him again. He gave me his email address and asked me to give it to her, that she could contact him any time she needed to. I made a promise to him that I would give it to her; that seemed to lift a weight off his shoulders.
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September 2nd, 2163, 9:05 pm
Cecie was relieved to hear that Joe's doing well, but she sure got angry when she heard Hobby's keeping him. In her words: "That man can have any Mecha he wants, or build any Mecha that he needs; why does he have to pocket Joe?!" I felt bad for her: she's come this far trying to get Joe back, once their paths had finally crossed, now this had to hit her high up unde the ribs where it hurts.
She's a good girl who deserves a lucky break once in a while. This is one of those times.
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September 10th, 2162, 11:07 pm
The RLF had a few tricks up its sleeve, regarding Joe. Cecie's supposed to be going with them on some kind of mission to Cybertronics. I never saw her doing the action heroine thing, but there again, she and Joe and I pulled off that hero stunt in Rouge City when that murderous Mecha was on the lam.
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September 14th, 2162, 10:09 am
I can't go with her on this mission. I'm really not on the inside track, and for another thing. . .
I'm still in love with Cecie.
She had feelings for me at one point, but she herself slowed down the relationship; I have to respect that, as painful as it is. She admitted to me that part of her feels as if she cheated on Joe when she and he were seperated and she started turning towards me. And there's that little voice that tries to insinuate itself into my head, asking me, "What's the matter with you? why are you letting her throw you, a flesh and blood man, over for a mere living toy like him?"
All I can do is swallow my pride and stand by her in spirit as she goes out tonight to do what has to be done...
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September 17th, 2162, 7:54 pm
I got a call from Cecie, in Rouge City, first thing this morning. I figured once they freed Joe, they'd have snuck over the border into Canada, where Mechas have a lot more rights than they do here in the States, but Rouge City is such a crazy place, anyone can hide there. And there's so many Mechas, Joe would blend right in. Best place to hide something is in plain sight, and the "Silicon Babylon" of the east coast can't be any plainer sight if you're a lover-Mecha.
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September 19th, 2162, 1:03 am
Cecie and Joe came by this evening: he's been re-licensed to her. She tells me the RLF has a contact on the Rouge City Mecha Licensing Registrar, Aristide Schindler; let's say he has a practise of straightening out flooky licensing records for some Mechas...
I've asked Cecie what she plans to do next; she says she's going to find a room in Rouge City where she and Joe can settle down. They still have a few little things to work out first, but they have each other now.
Hal came by as well. I've got a funny feeling he had something to do with the big escape, since he was kidding Cecie about "the romantic snatch-and-grab rescue of the dark gentleman locked in the tower", but I can't get him to tell me about it. Maybe he's not at liberty to say anything. After his involvement in the great Mecha Massacre a couple years back, I found it a little odd that he'd be helping rescue a Mecha, but his prison sentence probably made him start thinking a little differently. Then again, he was dropping hints about some Mecha-manufacturing corporation getting what was coming to it.
Cecie tells me that she and Joe spent the last three days getting reacquainted. I won't say he's like the same old Joe: he seems a little sadder, but a lot wiser from his experiences. I thought I'd test this just a little, so while Hal and I were washing the supper dishes, I put on one of my old jazz records, "Moonlight Serenade", the song the band played for the last dance from my wedding reception.
Joe's ears pricked up at the tune. "I remember that song," he said, his eyes going to Cecie's face. He stood up and bowed to her, asking her if he could have this dance? She stood up and let him draw her close to him... And for a moment, I was back three years, spotting Cecie and Joe on the dancefloor at Bernie and my wedding party
They ended up staying the night in the guest room. Hal spent the night as well, on the couch in my room. He said something odd to me, but then again, he likes asking odd questions:
Hal: "Why isn't it buggin' you that Joe's back with Cecie?"
Me: "He's in his rightful place with someone who cares about him, not what he can do for her."
H: "Yeah, but didn't you take a shine to Cecie?"
Me: "Yes, but that was a while back."
H: "I take it that means you're over her."
Me: "No, not really... but if you really love someone, you want them to be happy. And if she's happy with Joe and he's happy with her, I'm happy for them both."
Hal fell silent; I realized he'd dozed off. After a few minutes, I got up and went to the guest bedroom to check on our two lovebirds.
They lay snuggled together under the bedcovers, Cecie with her head against Joe's chest, fast asleep. As I got closer, Joe looked up at me, his eyes tracking before he lifted his head to look right at me. He smiled up at me and laid a finger over his lips, asking for quiet. I reached down and laid one hand on Cecie's head, the other on Joe's shoulder before I turned and went out, leaving them to their contented reunion.
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September 21st, 2162, 4:03 pm
... Joe and Cecie called, just to chit-chat. They told me that Cecie intends to write a book about him and David, the little Mecha-child who saved Joe's brain (It's safe to mention the little guy's name now, since Cybertronics is releasing this new line of Mechas). I'm looking forward to reading that... It'd make a great movie!
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The End.... and a new beginning....
AFTERWORD: I'm starting to draft the next segment of the "Cecie Martin" series, currently going by the working title "Rouge City Rising". I'm writing it in the form of the script for a manga, and since ff.n won't allow script format fics, I'll be archiving this next one on the AIFFOA, as well as posting it here. If there's anyone who's an artist who'd be interested in drawing the artwork for this,
let me know and I'll send you the drafts of the chapters. Right now,
it's playing like a cross between (of all things) Max Allen Collin (of "Road to Perdition" fame) and CLAMP (who wrote the "Chobits"
series, which remains one of my favorite manga/graphic novels).
TITLE: "Cash on the Barrelhead" -- Part 3 of 3
AUTHOR: "Matrix Refugee"
RATING: PG-13 (subject matter, angst)
ARCHIVE: Permission granted
FEEDBACK: Pleasepleasepleaseplease!
DISCLAIMER: Nope, I don't own "A.I.", which belongs to DreamWorks, Steve, Stan, Warner Brothers, et al. If I had any right to the film, there would be a spin-off TV series of it now.
SUMMARY: Extracts from Frank Sweitz's journal, describing Joe and Cecie's reunion
NOTES: This last chapter was the hardest to write, since it underwent several revisions, which I rarely do with fanfiction... the voice was a challenge to get right. Plus, this fic also references the "A.I." Roleplaying Game also here on Yahoo!, and two fics of mine, specifically my "A.I."/"Minority Report" crossover "The Eyes Have It", and the last of the trio of fics I wrote regarding Henry Swinton, "Thinking the Unthinkable". Hobby tells Henry in "Thinking" that Joe disappeared from the Cybertronics building in Manhatten... but how did Joe disappear...?
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Part Three: Extracts from the journal of Francis J.X. Sweitz
May 9, 2162, 10:02 pm
... Cecie came to visit today, basically just to stop by the apartment to say hello while she was in the area, visiting her old boyfriend. I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit that my heart started to throb when I saw her, and I got a leetle bit jealous. I really should be happy for her, since she was able to reconnect with Joe, but that doesn't stop my heart from aching just a bit since I'll have to share her with him.
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May 10th, 2162, 8:15 pm
Pardon my French, but this entry is likely to contain some strong language: I cuss only when I'm really angry and no one can hear me.
The Goddamned Flesh Fair is here in town and they've hung posters up on the fence around the empty lot across from my apartment house. Consquently, I have them staring me in the face every time I look out the front window. I'm tempted to sneak out in the middle of the night and rip down the god-awful things.
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May 14th, 2162, 6:15 pm
Cecie came by visiting again, briefly, before she met up with Joe. I'd just gone down to meet her at the street door, when I spotted her across the street, calmly taking down the Flesh Fair posters. I told her she was daring, but she just shrugged and said she was doing it to protect Joe and every other Mecha in town.
Yep, you read that right. If you haven't figured it out from earlier entries, Cecie's boyfriend is a Mecha. She's gotten herself in a heap of trouble with her relatives on account of this, but she's happy with him. You'd expect I'd be sore that she's passing over a nice young guy like me and carrying on with a "fibrehead", but she chose Joe and I'd be the last person to try making her choose otherwise.
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May 14th, 2162, 8:15 pm
Later in the day, she came back, asking if it was all right for her to spend the night in my apartment: she doesn't like taking the train into Rouge City this late: she's had some nasty experiences with wierd guys bugging her.
She seemed annoyed, so I asked her what was up. She told me Joe's pager kept going off the whole time they were together, even though they were just talking. She never really had that problem much in Rouge City, but there he was a smaller fish in a bigger pond; he was popular, but there were a lot more Mechas for people there to choose from. This is a small town with less variety, so it's no small wonder that he's constantly on the go. Cecie admits she followed him after he left her for the next rendezvous, followed him back the Mirrored Room, a hotel where Joe's owner has her business.
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May 15th, 2162, 9:13 am
Burnstead called me late last night: he'd gotten a tip that something had gone down at the Shangri-La Hotel, over in the town's red-light district. Cecie was still up, so she begged me to let her come along.
We found the lobby of the hotel jammed with curious people, police officers, people from the SPCB and the homicide unit of the Haddonfield Police Department. Tom Williamson, the part-owner and night clerk of the joint, had found one of the guests, a Ms. Samantha Bevins, lying dead in Room 102, with her throat slashed. Some of the cops were sure the Mecha that had been seen going into her room some time before this discovery had. Of course Cecie asked what Mecha they meant; I almost fainted when they said it was Joe... But Cecie told them it couldn't have been him: she'd been with Joe about an hour before the incident.
I went upstairs to take a look: two detectives met me at the door. One of them, a slightly smart-alecky young guy with red hair, tried to keep me out, but his partner, a dark-haired fellow probably in his forties, but who looked like he was in his thirties, let me in, but he told me "We've already got one reporter in here." I couldn't spot him in amongst all the crime scene people in the room, milling around the bed off to the left.
On the bed lay a beautiful girl in her late teens or early twenties, face down, a real knock-out, a classic brunette beauty with violet eyes like Elizabeth Taylor's. She was gorgeous if you could overlook the gash in the side of her neck and the running puddle of red underneath her.
That's when a light flashed and I looked up to see this short guy in a too-big topcoat with a fedora squashed down on his head, peering through a camera viewfinder. He looked up at me and smiled, giving me a crooked grin I knew well.
"Hey there, Sweitz," he said. It was Hal. Burnstead came in at this point and explained to me that Hal was working for him now, that it had to do with some deal Hal made with the SPCB.
So far, no one has been arrested in this case. But they better not have any funny ideas about Joe. He couldn't do something like this.
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May 15th, 2162, 11:15 am
The cops found Joe's license tag in an alleyway not far from the Shangri-La, but no sign of Joe. They're guessing he may be hiding in the woods. Cecie, who stayed over last night, is nervous now: the Flesh Fair's in Barn Creek and there's no telling what may happen to him now, since they tend to capture any stray Mechas that they run across.
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May 15th, 2162, 1.03 pm
Now there's news that some kid Mecha ran astray; it seems that one of the big companies was having somebody beta-test a new model, and the prototype got lost in the woods somehow. That makes two missing Mechas Burnstead's busy looking for.
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May 15th, 2162, 4.30 pm
Just been interviewing the people who lost the kid Mecha. Unfortunately, now that company that made the kid Mecha has put a gag rule on the press, though Hal told me I can refer to it here in this journal, as "Slobbertronics". It's quite a human interest story -- a lonely mom with a son in cryostorage, a child-Mecha to cheer her up, the flesh and blood kid getting better and coming home -- but I can't print a word of it anywhere.
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May 15th, 2162, 6.18 pm
Hal managed to get him and I an interview with Frazer Bevins, Samantha's father. I feel bad for the guy: his only daughter, the only family he has left, has been killed and he's desperate to find out who did it. But then Hal and I got a look at the books on the shelves in his living room... there's more to this case than meets the eye. I think he set our boy up.
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May 15th, 2162, 11.15 pm
Now there was a riot at the Flesh Fair: turns out that the kid-Mecha and Joey-boy got caught by the Hounds -- now whoever's reading this, please don't get excited, it's not what you think. They're both fine: in fact, they escaped. I spoke with a woman who'd been there. She says the kid-Mecha started begging the Flesh Fair goons not to burn him, so she stood up and told the ringmaster to let the kid go, that he was just a boy. The crowd attacked the ringmaster, and in the middle of it all, someone unchained Joe and the kid from the torture contraption they'd been tied to. Last time anyone saw them, Joe and his little buddy were running off into the woods.
Cecie deduced that Joe probably headed for Rouge City. So... we're off to see if we can catch up with him.
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May 16th, 2162, 3:20 am
Ouch...
We barely got back to the apartment alive. The SPCB traced Joe to Rouge City, so the police there tried picking him up. They were literally in tha act of arresting Joe when we showed up on Main Plaza. I had to restrain Cecie, to keep her from going after the cops and getting herself in trouble. But someone, maybe a CRF agent, I don't know swiped an amphibicopter and took off with Joe... welll, took off with him after making the 'copter lurch around the Plaza, sending everyone scattering and knocking over the transport containing Joe. Hal got some exclusive shots of the pandemonium: He's analyzing them just now, and from what he can see, the kid Mecha stole the copter.
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May 16th, 2162, 1:45 pm
Burnstead called just now: they traced Joe and the kid Mecha to Manhatten and the Slobbertronics (Gad, I hate writing that name like that) facility there. Slobbertronics's private police-force of sorts (they're a little more sophisticated than plain old security guards) picked up Joe and is holding him for questioning/cube analysis. Joe's in the corporation building somewhere... but no one can tell us anything yet. And Cecie is utterly beside herself: nervous, angry, sad... relieved... She wants to go there and find him, but there's no way anyone can get into that building unauthorized.
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May 18th, 2162, 7:38 pm
Hal's on to something: Years and years ago, he and a hacker friend of his, who'd "gone white-hat" (ie, stopped hacking computers for the heck of it and went into working as a computer security analyst) helped the company that's holding Joe test the SmartSecure system in the Manhatten building. He's planning on tapping into the security system and seeing if he can't pinpoint Joe's exact location. Now Cecie has some grand scheme to apply there for work, as a janitor or something, and use that as a way to get Joe out. Hal reminded her that this company makes janitor Mechas: she'd never pass. So she argued, "Maybe I can disguise myself as a Mecha", though in her next sentence, she realized the implausibility of that stunt.
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May 21st, 2162, 9.09 pm
"Well, that beats the hell out of me", were Hal's words after scanning a certain place's SmartSecure system. He searched every room that had a camera, every room except Room 323: no sign of Joe anywhere. His guess is that Joe is in Room 323, and security on that building is so tight, a fly can't even creep in under a door without being detected. I don't like the sound of that one bit. So you can only imagine how desperate Cecie is. In her words: "If Joe were surrounded by pieces of broken glass on the floor, I'd crawl over it without my clothes on, just to get to him!"
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Entries from May 21st, 2162 to August 28th, 2163 excised for brevity and relevance.
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August 28th, 2162, 1.03 pm
It's been a while since I updated last on the saga of Cecie and Joe. She got more deeply involved with the CRF, but she parted ways with them in a manner of speaking. It seems the "Coalition for Robotic Freedom" was involved with some wierd experiments on Mecha memory cubes. And Cecie being who she is, she couldn't stay involved with a group that had done that even though it claimed to be doing it in the name of science, and especially in light of the fact that they otherwise have claimed to be trying to help Mechas.
I can't say much about them, since they're a bit on the secretive side, but she's gotten involved with the RLF, the Robotic Liberation Front, a group which has similare convictions as the CRF, but without the hypocrisy. They kinda split off from the CRF for reasons a lot similar to Cecie's reasons for pulling away from the CRF. In fact, they've had a hand in helping some Mechas escape from imminent torture and destruction in some of these research labs.
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August 30th, 2162, 4.03 pm
It's official! The David and Darlene line of Mechas from Cybertronics goes up for adoption today! They're hosting a big shindig at the New Jersey plant, up in Camden. And guess who gets to cover the story? Right! Sweitz and McGeever. I've specifically gotten the assignment to interview Dr. Allen Hobby himself. Hot dog!!! Cecie wanted to come along, but she started fuming about Hobby holding Joe, so we both decided it was better she stayed home, much as I'd love to have her along for the trip.
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September 1st, 2162, 6.03 pm
You'll never guess just who I saw today at the Cybertronics shindig....
No less than our Joe in the silicon. It seems that Hobby has been holding Joe as a personal assistant. Joe might seem content with his place, but when I spoke to him alone for a moment, he asked me how Cecie was doing. I told him she misses him dreadfully and that she'd give her right arm just to see him again. He gave me his email address and asked me to give it to her, that she could contact him any time she needed to. I made a promise to him that I would give it to her; that seemed to lift a weight off his shoulders.
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September 2nd, 2163, 9:05 pm
Cecie was relieved to hear that Joe's doing well, but she sure got angry when she heard Hobby's keeping him. In her words: "That man can have any Mecha he wants, or build any Mecha that he needs; why does he have to pocket Joe?!" I felt bad for her: she's come this far trying to get Joe back, once their paths had finally crossed, now this had to hit her high up unde the ribs where it hurts.
She's a good girl who deserves a lucky break once in a while. This is one of those times.
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September 10th, 2162, 11:07 pm
The RLF had a few tricks up its sleeve, regarding Joe. Cecie's supposed to be going with them on some kind of mission to Cybertronics. I never saw her doing the action heroine thing, but there again, she and Joe and I pulled off that hero stunt in Rouge City when that murderous Mecha was on the lam.
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September 14th, 2162, 10:09 am
I can't go with her on this mission. I'm really not on the inside track, and for another thing. . .
I'm still in love with Cecie.
She had feelings for me at one point, but she herself slowed down the relationship; I have to respect that, as painful as it is. She admitted to me that part of her feels as if she cheated on Joe when she and he were seperated and she started turning towards me. And there's that little voice that tries to insinuate itself into my head, asking me, "What's the matter with you? why are you letting her throw you, a flesh and blood man, over for a mere living toy like him?"
All I can do is swallow my pride and stand by her in spirit as she goes out tonight to do what has to be done...
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September 17th, 2162, 7:54 pm
I got a call from Cecie, in Rouge City, first thing this morning. I figured once they freed Joe, they'd have snuck over the border into Canada, where Mechas have a lot more rights than they do here in the States, but Rouge City is such a crazy place, anyone can hide there. And there's so many Mechas, Joe would blend right in. Best place to hide something is in plain sight, and the "Silicon Babylon" of the east coast can't be any plainer sight if you're a lover-Mecha.
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September 19th, 2162, 1:03 am
Cecie and Joe came by this evening: he's been re-licensed to her. She tells me the RLF has a contact on the Rouge City Mecha Licensing Registrar, Aristide Schindler; let's say he has a practise of straightening out flooky licensing records for some Mechas...
I've asked Cecie what she plans to do next; she says she's going to find a room in Rouge City where she and Joe can settle down. They still have a few little things to work out first, but they have each other now.
Hal came by as well. I've got a funny feeling he had something to do with the big escape, since he was kidding Cecie about "the romantic snatch-and-grab rescue of the dark gentleman locked in the tower", but I can't get him to tell me about it. Maybe he's not at liberty to say anything. After his involvement in the great Mecha Massacre a couple years back, I found it a little odd that he'd be helping rescue a Mecha, but his prison sentence probably made him start thinking a little differently. Then again, he was dropping hints about some Mecha-manufacturing corporation getting what was coming to it.
Cecie tells me that she and Joe spent the last three days getting reacquainted. I won't say he's like the same old Joe: he seems a little sadder, but a lot wiser from his experiences. I thought I'd test this just a little, so while Hal and I were washing the supper dishes, I put on one of my old jazz records, "Moonlight Serenade", the song the band played for the last dance from my wedding reception.
Joe's ears pricked up at the tune. "I remember that song," he said, his eyes going to Cecie's face. He stood up and bowed to her, asking her if he could have this dance? She stood up and let him draw her close to him... And for a moment, I was back three years, spotting Cecie and Joe on the dancefloor at Bernie and my wedding party
They ended up staying the night in the guest room. Hal spent the night as well, on the couch in my room. He said something odd to me, but then again, he likes asking odd questions:
Hal: "Why isn't it buggin' you that Joe's back with Cecie?"
Me: "He's in his rightful place with someone who cares about him, not what he can do for her."
H: "Yeah, but didn't you take a shine to Cecie?"
Me: "Yes, but that was a while back."
H: "I take it that means you're over her."
Me: "No, not really... but if you really love someone, you want them to be happy. And if she's happy with Joe and he's happy with her, I'm happy for them both."
Hal fell silent; I realized he'd dozed off. After a few minutes, I got up and went to the guest bedroom to check on our two lovebirds.
They lay snuggled together under the bedcovers, Cecie with her head against Joe's chest, fast asleep. As I got closer, Joe looked up at me, his eyes tracking before he lifted his head to look right at me. He smiled up at me and laid a finger over his lips, asking for quiet. I reached down and laid one hand on Cecie's head, the other on Joe's shoulder before I turned and went out, leaving them to their contented reunion.
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September 21st, 2162, 4:03 pm
... Joe and Cecie called, just to chit-chat. They told me that Cecie intends to write a book about him and David, the little Mecha-child who saved Joe's brain (It's safe to mention the little guy's name now, since Cybertronics is releasing this new line of Mechas). I'm looking forward to reading that... It'd make a great movie!
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The End.... and a new beginning....
AFTERWORD: I'm starting to draft the next segment of the "Cecie Martin" series, currently going by the working title "Rouge City Rising". I'm writing it in the form of the script for a manga, and since ff.n won't allow script format fics, I'll be archiving this next one on the AIFFOA, as well as posting it here. If there's anyone who's an artist who'd be interested in drawing the artwork for this,
let me know and I'll send you the drafts of the chapters. Right now,
it's playing like a cross between (of all things) Max Allen Collin (of "Road to Perdition" fame) and CLAMP (who wrote the "Chobits"
series, which remains one of my favorite manga/graphic novels).