Chapter Twenty-Five: Working on the Leg/Torch makes new Friends
Kokiri Yusaga landed too far north of California and decided to drive all the way down to Bodega Bay. He didn't mind, he knew Chug knew what he was doing. His brother had the best security system in the whole world. His guards were entirely animal. He had guard dogs, cats, birds, mice and rats. The spiders he had on the surveillance team were purely animatronic with sophisticated programming. Some were designed to be just cameras, others were for auditory sounds, those traveled in groups of eight. Others were big enough for cybernetic engineering and were for the battlefields.
Chug didn't only employ spiders, though. He had some other insects on the job as well. A whole army of crickets and ants served as communications and the social network for the animals. Chug also had some color-coded ants for different purposes. There were the green ants for medical, black ants for engineering and red ants for battle.
The crickets were also color-coded. There were brown leaf crickets that were solely for communication and the network and small green crickets for tracking. Grasshoppers were also included in this group. There were butterflies used as code messengers, each different species for different messages, and cockroaches for infiltration. House spiders and Daddy long legs were in this group.
There were scorpions also on the team but depending on their size, they varied in different field work. The small common yellow desert scorpions were in engineering, medical and science. The larger ones were for the armory and the largest ones of 12 inches and over were in the battlefields. They worked with the tarantulas.
Nonetheless, Kokiri had his laptop opened and was keeping an eye on the goings on at the Inn. He switched on the radio and relaxed.
0~0~0
Chug had gathered all the tools he needed for Blade's new leg. He decided to melt a titanium leg he had in storage and reshape it to fit Blade. He held pieces of yew wood for carving, a small bag of saw dust and his carving tool bag in his arms. He looked around for his computer and one other item he needed. It was a 3D scanner so he could scan Blade, take some X-rays and later fiddle around with the computerized image for his amusement. He might even do the same with the others and see how they turn out.
He found the last item, placed it in a large bag, along with the tools in his arms, put his computer in a carrying case, grabbed a few extra things and left to return to the puppets.
When he returned, he found all the puppets were asleep. He smiled down at Torch, put his things down quietly and carefully lifted him up like a toddler and set him on the couch. Torch barely stirred before re-positioning himself to get more comfortable.
Chug quietly removed the large scanner and set it near the coffee table. He put a metal slab that could shift into a chair in the middle of the table, a small clear tank that held four little scorpions and four little spiders was placed to the left of the slab. He put the spare titanium leg near the fireplace, along with the smelting tools, and a small black anvil. He placed a tank containing four red scorpions near the fireplace as well.
An easy-bake oven, some paint, colored pencils and over-all craft section was placed in a large area away from the work stations and piano but still within sight. He only had three computers with him and he was going to use all of them, besides, he might get hungry in the middle of the procedure so might as well let the other fellas occupy themselves with arts, crafts and making him small snacks. He left a How To: book there and instructions for the easy bake oven.
He switched on his computers, plugged in the tank that held the scorpions and spiders to one, the 3D scanner to another and the last one was hooked to the metal slab.
Then he headed over to the fireplace to start the fire, but there were no matches. He went over to Torch and woke him.
"Torch, I need your help." he whispered, gently shaking the metal one. "My wee bairn, up and at 'em." he cooed.
"Master?" Torch asked, sitting up and stretching.
"What have I told you about calling me that?" Chug gently chastised.
"Oh, sorry Boss." Torch said.
"Now, I need some fire power to melt some metal but there's no matches anywhere, could you start the fire for me, please?" Chug asked, setting Torch down on the ground and went over to the fireplace.
0~0~0
Night had fallen by the time Kokiri arrived. When he entered the lounge room he found a roaring fire, Torch stirring a pot of silvery liquid, Blade placed on the metal slab, Six Shooter reading through a book in a crafts section, Pinhead and Tunneler stirring something in a mini pink plastic mixing bowl and Jester posing in the 3D scanner getting scanned, his 3D image showing up on a computer screen, much to Blade's amusement.
Chug was pouring some melted metal into a smelter and then started carving on a piece of wood while the metal cooled.
"Ah, Kegs, you're back. Can you lend a hand with the cooling process?" Chug asked.
Kokiri walked over to the fireplace and placed a hand over the melted metal and soon loud hissing was heard and the room filled with hot steam.
The puppets panicked at the sudden coverage and took cover. Torch aimed his flamethrower in Kokiri's direction, thinking he was attacking his master. Jester climbed up to hide behind Blade, Pinhead stood as cover for Six and Tunneler, shielding his eyes.
The steam cleared up fast though because Chug had opened a window and turned on a fan. Torch still had his flamethrower aimed at Kokiri and was growling and his eyes were bright. Jester peeked out from behind Blade's chair, Tunneler and Six doing the same from behind Pinhead.
Kokiri brought the cooled metal rod out and handed it to Chug who gave it a pointe blank look from both ends.
"It's uneven, but shouldn't be a problem." Chug said and put it back on a rack over the fire and continued carving.
"Okay, I'll be down at the beach fishing." Kokiri said and left.
"Ok, bye." Chug waved and took the metal rod out, set it down on the small anvil and started hammering away at it, the loud ringing too loud for the puppets sensitive ears.
"Sorry, head over to the coffee table and I'll put a shield up." Chug said and they all obeyed, and relaxed when the shield silenced the noise to a dull bong.
"I don't think I've ever heard anything so loud!" Jester groaned and slid down to the floor.
"Torch is lucky. The sound doesn't seem to bother him much." Six grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at Torch who was the only one not with them.
"Oh, don't count on it, Six." Blade called from above. "The kid just put ear muffs on him and himself."
"I can see that." Six growled, gripping his arms tighter and glared harder at Torch. He didn't like Torch for a reason, beside the fact that he had animal brains, Torch was completely made from scratch. Torch was a true life form brought to life from scraps of metal and, man, Six did not like it! Dead Toulon had managed to create actual life from nothing and it burned. Torch would have made an excellent general!
Blade had told him about Torch's lack of emotion when he made his first kill and never questioned what was asked of him when given an assignment. He sounded perfect for the battlefield and it all went to waste!
.
"Nearly done with the bone." Chug mumbled and gave it one more slam with his hammer then dipped the metal rod in a bucket of water, steam hissing out of it. "All done! Now, Torch, I'm gonna do some slight adjustments to your flamethrower so you can help me some more, ok? Let me know if it hurts." Chug said, holding up a thin silver hooked nozzle. "This is so your flame can burn at a faster rate and make it even hotter, would you like to see that?" he asked.
Torch jumped up and down, clapping his hands and held up his flame arm.
"Eager little lad, aren't you?" Chug smiled and added the nozzle no problem and added an adjuster. "Now, light 'em up, big boy." Chug said, placing Torch between himself and the coffee table.
Torch lit his flame at full bast and it was a straight stream of blue fire that was longer than his old one, scaring the other puppets and himself and he immediately shut it off and hid behind Chug.
"I'm sorry, my wee bairn, but you need to light it up again so I can adjust it to a smaller flame." Chug said, putting Torch in his lap this time. "Okay, light it up again."
Torch looked up at him with uncertainty but did as he was told. Once the fire was lit, Chug adjusted the little knob on the side and the flame shrunk to a smaller blue flame.
"There we go. That's my wee bairn." Chug said, petting Torch on the head and brought up the metal rod in front of the flame. It took a few seconds for it to burn through the metal and the metal rod was cut in half. Chug set the metal rods back on the anvil so he could remove the nozzle off Torch's arm.
"Ok, you go sit down by the fire and keep busy, I've got to concentrate now, ok?" Chug picked up the rods and examined each one carefully before selecting one and then started to shave it with a steel scalpel.
Torch walked over to the open window next to the fire and looked out. He spotted a chocolate Labrador walking past and locked eyes with it. The Labrador came up and started sniffing him.
Hello
"Hello."
Thou understands! it barked and wagged its tail. Dost thou be kin-not-kin to The Generous One?
"Huh?" Torch tilted his head.
Art Thou-
Oh, there he goes again. came a female voice.
Aye, you can take an actor out of the theater but you cannae take the theater out of the actor. said an accented male voice.
Torch saw two more dogs approach. One was a brown haired crossbred retriever and the other was a small Scottish Terrier.
What our friend is saying is have you been adopted? asked the small one.
"'Dopted?" Torch questioned.
A-dopted, young one. You pronounce it with an 'A'. said the female.
"A-dopted? What's a-dopted?" Torch asked.
Adopted means you're now family with non-related siblings. said the Scot, wagging its tail.
"Non-related?"
The three dogs looked at each other.
How old are you, young one? asked the female.
"Uh, . . . I don't know."
Do you have any family? the Scot asked.
"Um, one, two, three . . . Four, five brothers." Torch answered, mentally calling out their names.
Och! Four, five brothers to compete with! A lot of rough housing then, eh wee bairn? the Scot said, wagging its short scraggly tail.
"No, no rough-housing. We're puppets."
Puppets? the Labrador asked.
"Carved from wood. Well, they were, I'm metal. I'm Torch." Torch said lit a small flame.
Torch? Seems more like a lighter. said the Labrador.
"I heard that Coco! Stand aside and Torch will give you a reason!" Chug said from his spot, still shaving the leg bone.
The dogs stood to one side and Torch lit his flame at full blast. The dogs stepped back and looked at Torch with new interest.
Ooh, did he make you? the Labrador asked, wagging his tail.
Did you not just hear him? He has four brothers and therefore was made by another's hand. the female clipped.
"Children, introduce yourselves. I taught you better than this." Chug said and finished with the leg and approached the window. "Torch, the small scottish terrier is Cmmdr. Scottie, The brown-haired one is Brenda and Coco is the last one. Doggies, this is Torch. Now away with you and continue with your patrolling. I'm busy." Chug said and closed the window.
