A/N – Two-thirds of the way there, folks. Once again, a big thanks to all you readers and reviewers – thank you tlegg13, Kraven the Hunter, BoneSatellite, Kar the Everblazing, Battybuddy, mpcp13, hyper monkey, Queenbean3, Specter Von Baren, La miseria y la muerte, Bohrok127, Randomessent, Paperwolf, Azurice, Saiya Woods, Zero-Nightmare, Vazura, Dark Rebel Master, EvilFairy42, and Rudy4 … and a special thank you to TehRindesayu, who just got out of the hospital after successful back surgery. It's not much, but I'd like to dedicate this chapter to you, little lady. Get yourself healthy!

Escape From Paradise

A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic

Chapter Thirteen – A Rude Awakening

Allison blasted through the doors of her apartment in a hurricane of emotion and tears, almost barreling into the thick iron chassis of her father, who was impatiently waiting for her with a stern frown of disapproval deployed on his face. She was hours past her curfew, and the glower in his eyes indicated that he was preparing to enter "lecture mode" – but she raced down the hallway, not even acknowledging either of her parents as she disappeared into her bedroom. Ignoring her father's orders to come out of her room right this instant, she dove onto the foam mattress of her bed-platform, burying her face in the soft spongy pillow. Then she turned the volume on her music-pad up to its maximum setting, and let the latest tune from Electric Discharge drown out the woeful sound of her heaving sobs.

But after a few minutes of wallowing in self-pity and despair, the music suddenly shut off, and Allison felt a smooth hand reach out to touch her on the shoulder. She rolled over to see the concerned eyes of her mother, who had quietly slipped into her room and now sat gingerly at the edge of her bed. "LSN-1482? Dear, your father and I were very worried about you. You're three hours late for your scheduled downtime. Please tell me what happened. Please … Allison?"

Allison smiled at the sound of her newly adopted name, and drug herself up to a sitting position. Her mother straightened out the wrinkles in her hair-foil, and deployed a squeegee from her wrist to dry the moisture from her daughter's cheeks. Then a warm, knowing smile came over her face. "There's only one thing I know of that can make a girl cry like that. It's the same thing that makes her act as giddy as you were when you left the apartment this morning. So … what's his name?"

A fresh waterfall of tears sprouted from Allison's fluid reservoirs. "I … I don't want to talk about it," she sniffed, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Oh, don't cry, my precious little clockspring." Her mother gave her hand a reassuring squeeze; she'd seen this little drama play out before. "You'll corrode your nice, shiny finish. Besides, any robot boy that would be nasty enough to make you cry isn't worth getting upset over."

"He's not nasty!" Allison snapped back in protest, surprising even herself. "I mean, he did make me cry … well, he didn't really make me cry, so much as he made me really upset and I started crying … but he really didn't mean to. I mean … you see, he said that … Mom, it's complicated!"

"Well, what happened, dear? Didn't he pay any attention to you?"

"No, he spent the whole day with me, then we went to the Festival," she sniffed, rubbing her left forearm.

"Was he mean to you?" A hint of anger crept into her mother's voice. "Did he make fun of your arm? Because if he did, oooooh, I'll hunt him down myself and grind him into …"

"No!" she shot back emphatically. "Mom, he wasn't like that at all! He was kind, and funny, and sweet … and a little weird, but good weird, and … and romantic … and he didn't even notice my arm until I pointed it out … and even then … sniff … he didn't seem to mind that much …"

Her mother raised a bemused eyebrow. "Wow, he sounds absolutely horrible," she chuckled.

"Mo-o-o-om! It's not funny! He's not like … he isn't like … you see, he isn't really … augghhh!" She flopped back onto her bed, crying into her pillow. "You just don't understand!"

"It's all right dear, it's all right. We'll talk about this in the morning, after you've settled down." She patted her on the back of the head and walked towards the hallway, pausing at the bedroom door. "Now try to get yourself a little time in sleep mode, dear. I know you're upset, but you'll feel a lot better after a good night's diagnostic and backup. Everything will be better in the morning, you'll see." Then she turned off the lights, and shut the door behind her. "Sleep tight, my little clockspring."

Allison didn't answer, but fumed in silent self-pity for a while longer, sobbing in the dark for reasons she couldn't understand. She was confused. She was so confused. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. Drew had seemed so wonderful earlier, and seemed to genuinely like her … and her first kiss had been amazing beyond anything her imagination algorithms had ever conceived. He was different from any robot she'd ever met before, but at the same time, he had so much in common with her. Then … then he goes and says he used to be human. Human! She shuddered at the very thought.

Everything will be better after you back up. It's smart, it's safe, and it's the law.

She flipped over on her back and pressed a button on the side of her bed, activating the nightly backup function. She stared at her ceiling posters as the curved headband deployed, and rewound her memory tapes to the heated exchange with Jenny and Drew – and the talking humans. Incredible – I wonder how Jenny trained them to do that? Oh right – Jenny said that humans can talk and think, but that they're just being mind-controlled with collars to make them look dumb. And robot were being mind-controlled too, with the backup headbands! That just sounded ridiculous.

Of course it's ridiculous. Now back yourself up. It's smart, it's safe, and it's the law.

Then again, she never had seen a human without a collar – which was a good thing, because everyone knew that uncollared humans were very dangerous. Well, except … except that Jenny's friends had been uncollared, and they didn't seem to be dangerous … and Drew was kind of human too, and he wasn't dangerous … Drew … she gulped hard, as the memory of a magical evening came back to her …

Of course they're dangerous. Now back yourself up. It's smart, it's safe, and it's the law.

And when Jenny talked about being kidnapped, she was deadly serious – the same way she sounded when she told her about the backup headbands. Now as Allison watched the curved metal band slide into position over her forehead, she suddenly wondered – just why did she back herself up every night? Why did every robot in the Cluster back themselves up every night? Wasn't that a little excessive? If Jenny was right about humans, could she possibly be right about the headbands, too? Could she be right about Queen Vexus being evil? Why was this bothering her so much? And why couldn't she stop thinking about the feeling of Drew's smooth forehead pressed close against her face …

Stop being silly. Now back yourself up. It's smart, it's safe, and it's the law.

After all, would it hurt to actually skip a night and not back herself up? It's not like anything bad would happen. That would prove that Jenny was wrong …

Back yourself up, NOW. It's smart, it's safe, and it's the law. The law. The law! THE LAW …

That's what you've been programmed to think, echoed Jenny's voice. But I think you're all being reprogrammed, every night, to make sure you're obedient to Vexus! Allison, you've got to believe me …

The pumps in her chest pounded with panic as the headband clamped down onto her forehead, and her hands shook with terror as she fought to calm herself down. Something powerful was surging through her circuits, a mysterious overwhelming feeling, like a commanding voice telling her that she needed, needed, NEEDED to back herself up, right now. She stared up at the glowing headband, and a hypnotic glaze came over her large, oval eyes as the commanding voice whispered in her brain again. Back yourself up. Everything will be better. You'll feel happy in the morning. You'll forget all about your troubles. Back yourself up. Do it now. DO IT NOW. It's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the law it's the

The cyclone of voices, the haunting memories, and the conflict of churning emotions was driving the poor robot girl out of her electronic mind. She grabbed the backup headband by its thin flexible stalk, ripped it completely off of her bed, and threw it into the corner of her room in a fit of desperation. Then she grabbed a foam pillow and curled up into a ball, and cried herself to sleep.

A pair of worried robotic eyes peeked out of the tiny ventilation duct in the corner, watching two Black Mantis robots search the store with powerful x-ray scanning beams. Not only had the Cluster not given up on the search for XJ-9, but their efforts had actually intensified during the night. The Black Mantis were doing building-to-building searches now; and as the first light of daybreak trickled through the plate-glass front window, the hideous Cluster robots were on their third sweep of the city block in as many hours. Jenny uttered a silent prayer: whatever you jerks do, don't look down.

Quietly as she could, she retracted her eyes back down the ventilation shaft to the building's sub-basement, where she was hiding out with the rest of her friends. The underground stockroom had proven to be an adequate hideout, but it was only a matter of time before the Cluster secret police made their way down here too. As her eyes clicked back into their sockets, she turned to the boys and raised a finger to her mouth. "Shhhh. They're right above us, guys! We can't stay here much longer!"

Brad slowly stirred from his restless sleep; he was exhausted from the previous day's ordeal, but hadn't been able to get comfortable on the hard, metal crates. He cracked open a pair of bloodshot eyes and stretched the cramps out his legs. "Mornin', Jen," he smirked. "So when's breakfast? I like my bacon crispy, and my eggs over easy so the yolk is nice and runny."

She shook a fist at him, then broke into an annoyed smile. Typical Brad, trying to lighten things up with a joke, although she wasn't in the mood to laugh just now. "Maybe tomorrow morning, if we're lucky," she whispered. "Let me see if the guys have found anything yet."

Drew and Sheldon were sitting against the far wall, next to a junction box for an underground data cable. Drew's silver-green fingers had stretched out and plugged themselves into the junction box; he'd grown a flat screen and a keyboard out of the nanobots in his back, turning himself into a computer workstation on which Sheldon was pounding away with stony intensity. It was essentially a repeat of Sheldon's idea from the night before, but this time it was working; the nature of Drew's nanobots, and the adaptive software in his computers, made him immune to Cluster infection. The combination of Drew's nano-computers and Sheldon's hacking skills had allowed them to gain access to the ClusterNet, the vast computer network that blanketed the entire Cluster Empire.

Jenny snuck over to peek at the blizzard of symbols and graphics on Drew's computer screen. Sheldon was concentrating so hard on his hacking that he didn't even notice her approach; his hands only left the keyboard long enough to shove another handful of algae-flavored Human Chow into his mouth. Jenny clutched her metallic tummy in disgust, and the soft clank of metal finally caught Sheldon's attention. "Oh, good morning, Jenny!" he grinned with a snort. "Isn't it great to be working together like this? Listen, I found the central files for the Stockyards, and I'm running a search on the ear tag numbers right now. Just a few more minutes, I should be able to tell you where the kids are! See, it's really just a matter of identifying a block of contiguous serial numbers that correlates to the population size of our class and our arrival time on Cluster Prime …"

"Sure, Sheldon, that's great," she said, cutting him off in the middle of his monologue. She didn't feel like listening to him ramble on just now – yes, he had worked nonstop through the night to find the students, and she was really grateful for that – but he had been even more eager than usual to impress her tonight, and while she didn't understand why, it was really starting to get on her nerves, figuratively speaking. She patted him on the head – even that small gesture was enough to bring a rosy glow to his pasty cheeks – and walked around to the android on the other side of the computer screen. Drew was hunched over on his knees, sulking off into space, grimacing like a silver-green gargoyle. He hadn't budged an inch in the hours since they'd moved down to the sub-basement.

She knelt down and looked into his scowling eyes. "Hey there … how are you holding up?"

For a few seconds, she thought he was simply going to ignore her and keep wallowing in his misery. It almost came as a surprise when he finally spoke. "Hey, I'm just sitting here on this crate like a glorified word processor. Sheldon's doing all the work back there, in geek heaven." Each word from his mouth dripped with bile and bitterness. "Glad someone's happy to have me around."

Jenny put a hand his silver-green knee, trying to provide some measure of comfort. It was obvious that he was still hurting – heck, she was still hurting – from Allison's rejection the night before. "Drew, she couldn't help herself. All the robots on Cluster Prime are brainwashed by Vexus, whether they know it or not. I guess … I guess that Allison just couldn't handle everything I threw at her, all at once." With a sad whine of her servos, her pigtails sank down to her shoulders. "Please don't be mad at her."

"I'm not mad at Allison, Jenny," he mumbled back, his eyes still staring into the distance. "How could I be? She did something I didn't think was possible … she made me glad to be a robot. She showed me paintings that are only visible in ultraviolet, and music ten octaves too high for dogs to hear. I discovered a whole new robotic sense that I didn't even know existed until yesterday. Jenny, yesterday, for the first time since the nanobot accident, not once did I wish that I was human again. I'll never forget her, and I don't think I could ever be mad at her. No, I'm not mad at Allison, Jen. I'm mad at myself."

"Huh? Yourself?" She gave him a puzzled look. "Why are you mad at yourself?"

"For deluding myself into thinking that someone like me could ever be with someone like her."

Jenny blinked back a tear from her quivering eyes, unsure if she should give Drew a hug or punch him in the jaw to smarten him up. Fortunately, she didn't have to make that decision, because a sudden shower of algae kibble snapped her and Drew from their mutual funk. Sheldon jumped to his feet and punched the air in triumph, as if he had just won a heavyweight title fight. "Yes! I knew it! Those Cluster creeps think they're so clever, but their encryption codes didn't stand a chance against a guy who does six-dimensional calculus for fun on Friday nights!"

Jenny waved her arms frantically "Sheldon! Shhhh! Black Mantis! Right overhead! Remember?"

"But I found them! Jenny, I found the class!"

That got everyone's attention, and Jenny and Brad bolted to Sheldon's side, as he called up a map with a few taps on the keyboard. A graphic of the Cluster capital filled the screen on Drew's back, with a single building highlighted by a flashing circle. Sheldon relished his moment in the spotlight – but he wished he had better news to convey. "They were sent to a slave labor factory in the industrial sector – golly, that's all the way on the other side of the city!"

"Nice job, Sheldon!" smiled Brad, patting him on the shoulder. "Now all we gotta do is bust 'em out!"

"No, first we have to sneak past those Black Mantis creeps," Jenny reminded them. "And that's not going to be easy …"

Sheldon tapped a few more keys on his workstation, calling up a new set of circles on the map. "Not to worry, Jenny, this map shows every Mantis robot that's out patrolling the city right now. Heh heh, wow, this is just like playing the Gold Level of SpaceQuest Online! You know, if you give me a little more time, I might even be able to figure out how to issue them some bogus new orders …"

Brad pointed to a group of moving dots. "Hey, maybe our luck is finally changing, guys! A bunch of them are breaking off from the search. Looks like someone else issued them some new orders!"

"What kind of new orders?" asked Jenny, feeling cautiously hopeful.

It only took Sheldon another four keystrokes to call up the information … then the toothy grin faded from his pimpled face. "Uh-oh," he gulped.

Her internal timer ticked off the final seconds of sleep mode, and then Allison's data drives spun up to speed, booting her operating system as she slowly creaked her eyes open. She stretched her arms to let fresh hydraulic fluid flow into her valves, and swung herself out of bed, dropping her feet to the floor like a pair of lead pipes. The daylight streaming through her bedroom window seemed harsh and glaring this rotten morning. She slunk past her dresser, not feeling like wasting time by polishing off her stupid face. No doubt about it, she was just as miserable this morning as she'd been the night before. That was strange, because she was normally a morning robot. In fact, she couldn't remember ever feeling this lousy after waking up. Her sleep mode had not been as restful as usual for some reason, and that probably accounted for some of it … but she was also still troubled by the things that Jenny had said to her last night.

Allison stomped out of her bedroom with a snarl on her face, with eyes that looked like they could have burned their way through the door. Everything will be better in the morning, you'll see, dear. Shows what you know, Mom. Grumble grumble grumble. She clanked down the hall to the bathroom, debating whether or not to take an oil shower, then decided she couldn't be bothered. It's not like I need to look nice to plug myself into a stupid traffic computer, after all. Grumble grumble grumble.

Her father's voice called out to her from the living room. "LSN-1482, it is two point six minutes past your activation time. I need to see you out here immediately, young lady."

"Aw, sprockets," she huffed, heaving her shoulders. On top of everything else, she was still going to be punished for missing curfew. She tossed her rivet powder into the sink, and stormed out of the bathroom. Hopefully, she could count on her mother for a little support. Might as well get this over with …

"Geez, Dad, can't you even wait until after breakfast before grounding me …"

Allison stopped in her tracks, and felt the oil run cold in her veins.

Four Black Mantis robots, members of the queen's personal guard, were standing in her living room next to her parents, all staring at her with unnerving sneers on their cruel insectoid faces. Allison clutched her hand to her chest in an irrational moment of fear, then felt silly for it. She knew, like everyone else, that the Black Mantis were her friends; they kept all robots on Cluster Prime safe, just like Queen Vexus did. Still, she couldn't understand why they were here in her home this morning. And there was just something a little … spooky … about those glowing red eyes …

"This is our daughter, Commander," said her father, looking glum and downcast. "She's the one who's been malfunctioning and … and saying horrible things about the queen. She's the criminal."

Allison's antenna nearly shot off of her head. "WHAT?!? Criminal?!? Dad, what are you talking about?"

Her mother dabbed a stream of tears from her cheek. "Oh, sweetheart, I don't blame you; it's not your fault for falling in with the wrong crowd. Commander, she's been acting strangely for the past couple of days, and we just didn't know what to do with her. We had no idea she was committing crimes and vandalizing Cluster property and spreading lies about the queen. She used to be such a good girl! She used to … oh, LSN-1482, how could you do this to us?"

Allison gasped in disbelief, as her parents collapsed into each other's arms. "Wait a minute! Mom, Dad, I didn't do any of that stuff! This doesn't make any sense! I didn't …"

Her father slowly shook his head at her. "Don't make it worse by lying on top of everything else, young lady. Your mother and I have both heard you spreading lies about the queen. And we know that you spent all day yesterday spray-painting crude slogans on the buildings downtown. An LSN droid, defacing public buildings like that … you should be ashamed of yourself, LSN-1482."

Two Black Mantis robots suddenly materialized at Allison's sides, and looped their powerful claws around her arms, lifting her into the air. "But I didn't! I would never … wait, stop! I didn't …"

Mantis-6 glared down at Allison with an arrogant smile. "But of course you did, young robot. Your mother and father remember it … very vividly too, I might add."

An impossible, horrific realization crashed down on her, as her processors digested Mantis-6's remark. A shudder ran through her wires as the sneer on the elite soldier's face intensified. "Th-They were given new memories, weren't they? My parents … they were reprogrammed when they backed themselves up last night, weren't they?"

The Black Mantis robot didn't answer her, but allowed a cruel chuckle to come from his vocal processor as they dragged the bewildered robot girl out of her apartment. Terror gripped Allison's circuits like a cold fist, and she realized that Jenny's warnings were looking less and less like nonsense, and more and more like the nightmarish truth. She began to struggle frantically, trying to wriggle free from the tall black-and-crimson robots, but to no avail – they were far too strong. She was being taken away from her home and her family for being a criminal … but she hadn't done anything wrong at all! She twisted around to plead to her distressed parents. "This is all a mistake! I didn't do anything! Mom, Dad, please help me! Daddy, please, don't let them take me away! I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't do anything wrong …"

"Perhaps you should let me be the judge of that, young robot," purred a cold, female voice.

Allison's face snapped back to the front door – and to the wasp-like robot standing majestically in the hallway, flanked by a pair of her private guards. An involuntary gasp left her trembling mouth, and she felt like her CPU was going to overload. "Y-Y-Your Majesty?"

Queen Vexus, the supreme ruler of the Cluster herself, was standing outside of her humble little apartment in the residential district!

Vexus gave Allison a wicked smile, and wagged a twisted finger in her face. "Tsk, tsk, tsk … someone's been a naughty little robot, hasn't she? I was waiting for you to back yourself up last night, child, but it appears that you never actually did. An LSN droid, resisting her own implanted backup command? I do believe that's the first time I've ever seen that happen."

Allison fought to keep her composure in the face of the queen. "Is th-th-that why you're here? Because I didn't back myself up? Oh, I'm sorry, Your Majesty … I'm so, so, so, sooooooooo sorry …"

"Oh, it's not for anything as minor as that, my dear," chuckled Vexus. "You see, it's come to my attention that you and your classmate Dot have made a couple of new friends over the past few days. In fact, I believe you've run into an old pal of mine – a darling young Earth robot named Jennifer. And if you had simply backed yourself up last night, then I could have gotten the information I needed directly from your mind, with no bother to you or your family at all. But now it looks as if a more personal approach is called for. I need you to tell me everything you know about Jenny, my dear girl."

The queen's eyes glowed a dull, threatening yellow. "Everything."

Brad leaned over Sheldon's shoulder, reading the flashing yellow text on Drew's improvised computer screen. "Arrest warrant issued for LSN-1482, for failure to perform nightly backup. Also wanted for aiding escaped Earth robot XJ-9. Hey, Jen … do you know somebody named LSN-1482?"

"That's Allison's serial number … oh, no …" Jenny clasped her hands to her mouth. "The robot girl who was here last night. Somehow Vexus found out that she was with us …"

Drew's head popped up, and twisted around to look for himself. "She … she didn't back herself up?"

"It says here that the Black Mantis is at her home right now," said Sheldon, "and they have orders to take her back to … gulp … Queen Vexus' palace!" A shiver ran through his clammy skin at the memory of his stint in the secret lab underneath the palace complex. "She's scheduled to have her mind downloaded and … yeesh … reformatted. Wow, that doesn't sound very good."

"They're going to hurt Allison?" Drew mumbled. Waves of silver-green began to ripple over his body.

"No way. That's not going to happen," said Jenny, balling her hands into fists of righteous fury. "Allison was there for Drew and me when we needed help, and now she's the one who needs some help. She's still my friend, guys, and we're going to go after her."

"But how are we supposed to do that, Jen?" protested Brad. "You said yourself, first we have to worry about sneaking past those Black Mantis creeps upstairs …"

Suddenly Brad and Sheldon were knocked on their backs, as a river of silver-green fury blasted past them like a stream from a fire hose, launching itself into the ventilation duct. Before Jenny could say a word to slow him down, Drew's liquid body shot straight up the duct, and moments later she heard the clatter of a metal grate falling onto the floor. Then the Black Mantis robots shouted out warnings for him to freeze, quickly followed by the sound of high-speed laser fire. Jenny got the boys to their feet and bolted for the stairs, rushing up to the main level as fast as her servos would move her. Even at super-speed, it felt like it was taking forever to wind her way up the narrow service passage. She heard a series of loud crashes, and the sharp clang of metal striking metal, and the sounds of debris being thrown in a thousand different directions. It sounded like a tornado was roaring over their heads. She finally burst through a small hatch and spilled onto the floor, rolling on her shoulder into a ready combat position. With a lightning-fast snap of her elbow, she deployed her laser-limb …

But she didn't have a target to shoot at. The store looked like the aftermath of a biker brawl; not a single shelf was left standing, and smashed merchandise was scattered all over the place. The walls and the floor were pock-marked with impact craters and splattered with hydraulic fluid, and a light fixture dangled from the ceiling by a single, fraying wire. In the middle of the floor, Drew silently stood with a look of cold rage chiseled into his face; his body was shimmering with frenzied patterns of silver-green, and four scythe-like blades had grown out of the middle of his back, their tips softly dripping pools of oil onto the floor. Jenny wondered briefly where the Black Mantis robots were, until she nearly tripped over a piece of leg housing that had been neatly sliced in half. It turned out to be the largest intact piece of Cluster robot left in the entire place.

Drew retracted the blades back into his pliable body, and glared at Jenny with a look of intensity that she had never seen in his eyes before. "Two Black Mantis creeps, taken care of," he said. "What are we waiting for?"

Continued in Chapter Fourteen / Five Days to Cluster Dawn