A/N: Second action scene…o.0
The Bots
Victor awoke suddenly at 6:00. Sitting up and looking around, he saw that everyone was still sleeping.
I-I heard a yell, he thought, getting out of bed and stretching.
On the floor, he found a note:
Victor,
This makes no sense to you now, but something will happen to you. You are of greatest importance to this group. Remember:
Tourniquet.
Blue Skies.
Theatre.
It wasn't signed.
Pebbles awoke, sweating, the next morning. After last night's events, she had slept soundly, but there were Shadows lurking on the corner of her imagination, baring their teeth and flexing their claws.
Erik jumped up from his place next to her bed.
"Oh good! You're up," he said, putting his hand to her forehead. "Temperature's fine…"
Pebbles sat up and rubbed her eyes groggily. "Whatimezit?"
Erik frowned. "I beg your pardon?"
Pebbles cleared her throat. "I said…What time is it?"
"It's only 6:00 am, Pebbles."
"Alright…"
She threw back the covers and got out of bed. She saw that Willy was okay.
He was sitting in the corner, chatting happily with Holli, a cup of hot chocolate in his hand.
"We found it!" Cricket said, waving a mug of the stuff herself.
"Dun spill!" Amanda giggled, taking a sip from her own mug.
But Victor wasn't with the group. He was sitting in the corner by Amanda's bed, staring at the wall. He looked unhappy about something, and Pebbles couldn't place what. Victor made a fist, crumpling up a bit of old paper that was sitting in his hand.
Before anyone could ask what was wrong, the phone rang. After checking the caller ID, Pebbles pushed the "Talk" button.
"Kristen, you dingbat! Its 6 am!"
Kristen giggled. "So? I couldn't sleep!"
Pebbles rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"
"Oh, just wanted to say that there's a herd of manic robots attacking my house…"
Pebbles yelped. "Are you serious!"
"Yes! Get over here!"
Without bothering to say goodbye, both girls hung up. Pebbles dumped Willy and Holli in the pen and pulled on her coat, boots, and gloves.
"Now there are robots, guys! See ya!" she yelled as she ran out of the door.
When she got to Kristen's house, she saw that she was right. There were small, round robots with long antennas zapping the house and plants. Kristen was cowering behind a tree in the yard across from her house.
Wonkabots!
"Willy and Holli!" Pebbles yelled.
Out!
Willy and Holli were out of the pen in a flash. Seeing what was going on, they looked around wildly for a weapon.
There were 2 silver blaster-type guns leaning against a bush.
"Perfect!" Willy said, reaching for one of the guns and clicking a lever. "These are Taffy Blasters! They'll jam the Wonkabot circuits!"
Holli shrugged nervously as she clicked the lever on her gun. "If you say so!"
Immediately Willy aimed the gun at a Wonkabot, and fired. The pink taffy whacked the robot, making it whirl around, but otherwise it was still "alive".
Holli, after a pause, fired, this time green taffy, at the Wonkabot. Its front drooped, and it exploded.
"Awesome," she whispered, smirking as she fired yellow taffy at a Wonkabot.
But now all of them were coming at her and Willy, and there was nothing she could do…
…but fight.
Flipping over a group, she stuck her arm out and single-handedly shot down 2 Wonkabots. They went haywire, zapping blindly but always missing Willy and Holli.
Willy scrambled up the tree and fired repeatedly, dodging the bolts of electricity and leaping from branch to branch.
Eventually Pebbles ran out, snatched up one of the robots, and hurled it across the street, making it explode about 10 feet away. Kristen ran out, too, and together, they both started plucking out Wonkabots and tossing them out of the way.
It was a strange scene: two girls throwing round, buglike robots out into the street, a man in a tree shooting them down with candy, and a girl running around and jumping into the air, letting out death cries as she fired the multicolored taffy.
After an hour, the group stood together in smoldering ruins. One Wonkabot rolled heartlessly over to attack them, but Willy, without looking around, shot it down.
As soon as the taffy met metal, all of the dead Wonkabots vanished, including the one that had recently been shot.
A paper airplane zoomed out of nowhere, landing at Pebbles' feet. It said:
J.S.
H.P.
H.C.
"HUH?" Pebbles exclaimed, handing the paper over to Willy.
"What the heck?" Kristen said, peering over Willy's shoulder.
"It makes no sense…"
Pebbles flailed her hands in the air. "Wait! If Erik got sick and got better right before Raoul came, and Willy got sick before the Wonkabots, then…"
Some way away, Victor let out an earsplitting wail.
A/N: The puzzle continues…
Don't worry about the letters, unless you're willing to do some extensive research and you want to spoil the story for yourself. :-)
