Chapter 54: Zombies and Phosphorus
So, before anyone impales me for being four months late with this chapter:
1) My father died;
2) US politics (2016 was a shit year all around);
3) Mourning my father's death and dealing with the aftermath (which I'm still dealing with, to be honest);
4) College is a bitch
So, yeah, those are the reasons why I haven't updated in forever. No one's fault except truly unfortunate circumstances. BUT I have every intention of finishing this story, so updates should speed up a little. I should have the next chapter up in the next couple weeks, anyway. I wanna try setting up another schedule before things get out of hand again.
Also, some anonymous reviewers wanted answers about last chapter, but one of them got super long so I put them both at the bottom of the chapter. The super long one explains quite a bit of Valerie's actions from last chapter, so I think it might be worth a read.
Anyway, on with the chapter!
"Wait, Switzerland doesn't have an official language?" Valerie asked, blinking stupidly. Her fingers were still wrapped around the wooden chopsticks that came with the chilled soba; she had been attempting to dig out a portion of the noodles when she heard that little bombshell.
Kimiko nodded. "Yeah, I was surprised when I found out too. You'd think every country would have their own language."
"Well, America doesn't have an official one," Clay pointed out.
"But doesn't everyone speak English over there?" Raimundo asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't say everyone," the cowboy mused, rubbing at his chin contemplatively. Valerie just went back to eating her noodles. The taste was a bit odd for her- the sauce was sweet and tasted much like soy sauce, and the soba was mixed with scallions and nori with some wasabi. Valerie didn't particularly like the Japanese horseradish, but she was still weak and shaky from earlier and she desperately needed to keep her strength up. She couldn't let the others know about what happened, she just couldn't.
It was a mixture of pride and logic- Valerie had never had a panic attack prior to today and, considering the circumstances of how it happened, she doubted she would get one again. These things just happened, there was no point in worrying her friends unnecessarily. And there was a certain amount of shame pooling inside her, sending acid up her throat. Her own body had betrayed her, forced her to show weakness in front of someone who might take advantage of it- her pride felt bruised and frustrated.
But if the panic attack didn't happen, Valerie wouldn't have seen that side of Chase, the one that stayed with her and calmed her down before she hurt herself further. She had seen a human side to him, one thought forgotten after he had sold off his soul. But didn't that make things worse in the end? To know your enemy as something other than evil?
Valerie couldn't meet up with Chase again. She couldn't be alone with him, he wasn't her friend-
"How come you didn't know this?" Raimundo teased her, nudging her lightly with his elbow. Valerie slowed her train of thought and pursed her lips.
"I was only in Switzerland for a month," she protested, "and I was packing and finishing up school before I moved there. I didn't exactly have time to look up facts about the country."
"Oh? And you didn't try to find a Swiss-to-English dictionary online at some point?" he taunted.
Valerie glared. "You know I'm not exactly tech savvy."
"Which is probably just another way of saying that you looked it up but didn't find anything," Kimiko said smugly. Valerie just stuffed her mouth full of soba, puffing out her cheeks like a chipmunk and making everyone laugh at her.
"Hey, anyone notice how weird the workers are?" Dojo suddenly pointed out. The cafeteria they were in was filled to the brim with late night employees, all wearing the white hard hats and blue jumpsuits associated with the toy company. But their skin was an odd white-gray color, their eyes too wide and lifeless, and, most telling of all, they had their arms outstretched and shambled like one of the living dead.
"Maybe papa hired some new people," Kimiko said dismissively.
Valerie swallowed painfully. "Kim, they look like zombies," she croaked.
The all turned to look at her, and then slowly back at the odd employees. "You don't think?" Clay asked hesitantly.
"Man, I hope not," Raimundo said as he slowly lifted himself out of his seat. "Maybe we should find Omi. Where has he been, anyway?"
Later, outside the Tohomiko Electronics Skyscraper
It took a little while, but they eventually found Omi in the front of the building, looking frantic. The little monk had been trying to find them for apparently serious reasons, but wouldn't say what they were until they were just outside the building. Now, with zombie-like employees shambling about while they hid inside a dimly lit alley, Omi spilled the sordid tale.
"I don't believe it!" Kimiko protested. "My papa's a good guy! Maybe a little goofy," she admitted, "but he would never deal with an evildoer like Panda Bubba."
"That's so not like papa," Kimiko-bot said from Kimiko's curled up hand.
"Perhaps then it was someone who looked exactly like your papa I saw?" Omi said, clutching his little robot like a teddy bear. "Oh, I am so relieved!"
Val-bot, who had been sitting on Valerie's shoulder instead of clutched inside sweaty hands like the other U-Bots, piped up. "Maybe your father doesn't know about Panda Bubba?"
"Think about it," the human Valerie said. "Panda Bubba's a seriously rich crime lord. He probably had to cover his tracks electronically at some point and could literally hire anyone to do it for him. Maybe your father looked him up and couldn't find anything."
"Not to mention your dad seems pretty trusting," Val-bot pointed out.
"Not that that's a bad thing," Valerie quickly reassured, "but it's a trait awful people like to take advantage of."
"If that's the case, we'll just have to sneak inside and find out what's going on!" Kimiko declared right before a loud beeping sound screeched through the air. It was quickly followed by the sound of glass shattering, and everyone looked to see numerous Tohomiko employees looting stores on the streets of Tokyo.
"Does anyone else see where they're headed?" Clay asked ominously.
"Tohomiko Electronics," Rai-bot said. Raimundo just pursed his lips and furrowed his brow.
"Anyone have a plan?" Valerie asked the others.
Kimiko smirked at her and quickly kicked down a zombified employee. "Steal the stuff they stole and act undead!"
"…I was gonna suggest air vents, but that works too," Clay said.
Back inside the Skyscraper
It wasn't exactly hard to sneak back inside- considering the guards were also zombies, Valerie doubted they would be alert enough to notice five children carrying stolen merchandise inside the plant. What was more concerning was the fact that all of toy factory employees were storing the merchandise and building new toys, the assemblies running despite the time of night. It might as well have been a normal day at the office for them. Valerie's jaw dropped slightly, her eyes wide with alarm as a sick feeling settled in her stomach.
"These workers appear most focused on their work," Omi noted from over his package. "And their eyes…they have that same 'nobody is home' look as Raimundo does when he does his chores."
Raimundo scowled and sputtered, "Yeah, well, you're short! And you have a big head."
"Hey!" Omi cried out indignantly.
"Your insults are terrible," Valerie said flatly. And then her brow furrowed. "But still, these workers look like I do every time I wake up in the morning. And trust me, I've seen myself in the morning, it's not pretty."
"Ah." Omi nodded sagely. "Perhaps that is a more apt comparison." Valerie wanted to retort back, but she settled on an annoyed sigh instead. She was the one who offered the suggestion, after all.
"We have to find my father. Something strange is going on here," Kimiko declared, her voice trembling slightly. She quickly tossed aside the box she was holding and ran towards the elevators, the others in hot pursuit. The elevator ride up to the top most floor was tense, with the others looking at an increasingly distressed Kimiko and simply not knowing what to do. Her father was MIA and the company's workers looked to be enslaved; just what the hell were you supposed to say?
And Toshiro's office didn't have any answers to their problems anyway. It looked exactly like how the monks left it earlier, except cold and dark. Kimiko dragged herself up to her father's desk and looked out at the Tokyo skyline, her bottom lip between her teeth. Valerie mimed putting her hand on her friend's shoulder, but quickly drew back, unsure if this was the right call. She shot a look at the others, who were all looking at Kimiko with similar expressions of worry.
It was at that moment the office doors opened, revealing Toshiro Tohomiko, his hair a disheveled mess. Kimiko ran up to him with a tearful, "Papa," wrapping her arms around him in a bear hug. Which he didn't return.
Valerie's eyes glinted purple.
Kimiko suddenly let go of her father but still stuck close. "Papa, what's going on? What're you doing working with Panda Bubba?"
"You must all leave at once," Toshiro said, his voice robotic. He slowly walked towards his desk. "You are no longer welcome here."
The others immediately crowded around Kimiko, who was suddenly cowering in the darkened doorway. "I've never seen you act this way," she said, tremors racking her body. "Are you okay?"
"I must get back to work," Toshiro responded.
"That's not Toshiro," Valerie whispered, shaking her head slightly. "That's not your real father."
"Go." Without even bothering to turn around, he pointed at the door.
"I'm not leaving without an explanation!" Kimiko yelled.
Toshiro slammed his fist on the desk. "I want you all out of here now! GO!"
Kimiko's mouth moved once before she bit it once more, heavy tears spilling out of her soft blue eyes. Clay put a hand on her back and gently led her out of the room. The others crowded around her reassuringly, with Valerie giving one last calculating glare at Toshiro's back. She turned to see Kimiko hugging herself, attempting to make herself smaller, and Valerie felt the nearly unstoppable urge to break something.
As the door slid shut on its own accord, Omi declared, "Kimiko, there is much evil at work at your papa's company, but I believe it was not your papa who is evil." He gave her a soft smile, the lines around his eyes crinkling slightly. And even though Kimiko looked like she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and cry, she still gave him a watery smile back.
Valerie gritted her teeth and stepped slightly away from the group. "Omi, you said Panda Bubba was here?" she asked, her voice steely.
Omi gave her a firm nod. "I did."
"Which means that he's most likely responsible for all the crime happening inside the building," she continued. Val looked Kimiko right in the eye and said, "I don't know your father that well, but it's obvious he's a great man. There's no way he would willingly treat you like that." Kimiko seemed surprised at the speech, but then a beauteous smile broke free and Valerie couldn't help but smile back.
She then took a deep breath through her nose and said, "Besides, you have a great relationship with your father. I'm not going to let that go up in flames because of some over-hyped crime lord." She jerked her head towards the end of the hallway. "Come on gang, we've got a mystery to solve."
A short while later
Like the group from the famous Scooby-Doo cartoon, the five of them creeped down the dim hallways of the building. They didn't see any workers, which wasn't a surprise. What was surprising was the reappearance of Omi-bot, who had been casually waddling around.
"Omi-bot!" his human precursor exclaimed. "Where have you been?"
"I've got something that will knock your shoes off!" the little robot said excitedly.
"I think you mean, 'knock your socks off,'" Raimundo corrected him.
Omi-bot, who had been walking further down the hall, merely said, "That too!" And then, his eyes glowing golden, he projected an image onto the wall, showcasing the final scene between Toshiro Tohomiko and the infamous crime lord Panda Bubba (with Jack and Wuya in the background).
"You lied to me about who you were!" Toshiro said scathingly. His back was to the audience, but Valerie figured his expression mirrored his brutal tone. "If I had known you were the infamous Panda Bubba, I never would have let you into my company."
"Your company?" the crime lord said condescendingly. He let out an odd ugly laugh. And then he shouted, "Zing Zom-bone!" The five of them let out loud gasps as they saw Toshiro's skin grow increasingly gray.
The movie shut itself off, and Raimundo, bug-eyed, exclaimed, "He turned your old man and all your workers into zombies!"
For a second Kimiko had a devastated look on her face, but that quickly morphed into a tranquil fury that Master Fung would have been proud of. "Come on guys," she said, throwing a fist into her open palm. "I think it's time to go kick some Panda Bubba butt!"
Following Kimiko's lead, the five of them ran down towards the assembly line, tumbling down staircases like the martial artists in the movies (which was really inefficient due to the wasted time and energy, now that Valerie thought about it). Kimiko then threw open the doors to the assembly room and, lo and behold, Panda Bubba was still watching over the zombies like he had been in the video.
"Panda Bubba!" Kimiko called out, hands on her hips, her friends in a protective circle behind her. "You messed with the wrong monks."
Holding up the glowing Zing Zom-bone, Panda Bubba commanded, "Zombies, attack!" And they did so, shambling over and groaning.
"Fighting them is gonna be a problem," Valerie pointed out grimly.
Omi, the dots glowing on his head, gritted his teeth before shouting, "DRAGON X KUMEI FORMATION!" Valerie turned her head away from the glowing light and narrowed her eyes. She leaped into the fray, landing on a few hard hats and kicking them away. She then took a hard hat off someone's head and threw it like a discus at another zombie worker. The person trying to sneak up on her fell to the ground with a loud groan.
Omi, despite his efforts to take charge, had immediately been hoisted into the air by two zombies. Raimundo took down the zombie that was attacking him with a small air attack and then kicked a hard hat at one of the two workers, sending him crashing into a pile of boxes. The other fell to the ground in a boneless heap, and Omi just did a three-point landing.
Falling from the sky, Clay yelled, "Seismic Kick: Earth!" Aiming at the platform Panda Bubba was standing on, he cut it from the foundation, sending the right half it crashing to the ground. The people standing on it went careening through the air, Toshiro being the only one soaring towards them.
"Careful, partners," Clay gently admonished them as he easily caught Toshiro. "The zombies are just innocent people…" He lifted a leg and held the foot against the gut of a worker. "…who happen to be zombies."
"Jack-bots, attack!" came the evil boy genius's telltale cry.
As the new robots swarmed them, Wuya commented, "Let's hope they fight better than your lousy fish-bots!"
"You're sucking all the fun out of this!" Jack whined.
Said new robots were already firing Gatling-like lasers at the good guys, forcing them to run and jump and cartwheel away from impending death. The only one left standing was Omi-bot, who immediately leaped into action. With a fearsome war cry he kicked the newest fish robots in their faces, making them explode on impact.
…except they didn't actually die. They just fell to the ground, their bronze-like casings falling apart to reveal the koi-bots underneath.
Flabbergasted, Jack stated, "Those are my old koi-bots! Just reskinned with new teeth! I've been ripped off!" His red eyes showed angry flames. "Double-crossed by Panda Bubba!"
Kimiko leaped off some boxes and dodged the arms of two zombies. Looking around, she spotted the Zing Zom-bone on the assembly line. Except Panda Bubba saw it too and cried out, "Shroud of Shadows!"
No longer seeing the crime boss, Valerie shouted, "Empyrean Drive: Aether!" and threw her arm out in a slicing motion. A large purple crescent soared through the air, cleaving half the staircase clean off and brutally destroying a large part of the upper level, forcing charred bits of debris to fall to the ground. Panda Bubba gave a cry and fell to the ground, the Shroud falling off him.
"Get the Wu! NOW!" Valerie ordered, watching as Kimiko jumped over zombies and stole the Silk Spitter from Clay's hat in just a few fluid motions. Valerie ran towards the Shroud and picked it up, trying to run away before Panda Bubba got his bearings.
Except something grabbed her by the hair and savagely ripped her back. Something stifled her shriek of pain. Something grabbed her neck and slammed her bodily into the ground. A large hand was pressing against her throat, cutting off her air and forcing black spots to dance before her eyes.
"Think carefully, little girl," she could hear Panda Bubba sneer at Kimiko. "Your papa or your dangerous little friend."
Valerie gritted her teeth and tried to pry his hands off her throat, but her brain was fritzing and the black spots were getting larger, her gasps for air too loud for her ears. Kimiko needed to save her dad, not her, but everything hurt and she couldn't breathe and there was a bright light coming from her hands and she just wanted him to let go-
UsephosphorusAntimony
Valerie slapped her palm against Panda Bubba's face and felt his face contort. He let go of her neck as he screeched in pain, smoke billowing out from her hand. She then used her free hand to grip him by the collar and throw him into the assembly line. The metal shattered, smoke still erupting from his forehead as he lied there.
Valerie turned to Kimiko and saw the remaining look of horror on her face. Voice scratchy from the abuse, Valerie shouted out a brutal, "End this, Kim! Save your dad!" She then watched as Kimiko's face screwed up in rage.
Making sure Panda Bubba had the Shroud, Kim forced his hand to touch the Zing Zom-bone along with her own, making it glow. "Panda Bubba, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown," she snarled.
Shaking himself out of his stupor, the alchemical sign for phosphorus branded on his forehead, Panda Bubba growled, "Fine, name your silly little game. Then I can deal with your friend and father later."
Lip curled, Kimiko declared, "My Silk Spitter against your Shroud of Shadows. The game is Goo Zombies. High score wins."
"LET'S GO: XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN!"
A bright flash of light, then darkness, then a pixelated landscape with a red sky and graveyard popping out of the gray earth. Also, because cartoon logic, the combatants were literally inside a video game controller. Valerie gave the writers props for creativity.
Pressing a finger against the start button, Valerie quickly sent another crescent like slice at the koi-bots chasing Omi, cutting them cleanly in half. She then sighed and put her head in the juncture between Rai's neck and shoulder, melting into the warmth of his side as one arm held her against him. The other was holding up the console, Clay holding up the other end.
"How is she doing?" Omi called out as now faced against zombies.
Valerie watched as Kimiko threw her purple baseball cap like a Frisbee and destroyed two green skeletons, forcing them to pixelate and disappear entirely. Unfortunately Panda Bubba was using the Shroud to invisibly barrel through numerous zombies, the cloak a protective layer against the skeletal assault. His tactics lacked refinement but they worked, and the score indicated it plainly.
"Pretty good so far, but that Bubba is turning out points faster than a henhouse turning out eggs," Clay commented before he and Omi swapped places. Now Clay was chasing down zombified workers while Omi watched the battle.
"Valerie, how did you know to cut down the stairs?" Omi asked curiously. "I thought you could only do Kamehameha blasts and shields."
Valerie shrugged her shoulders. "No idea. Just did it," she admitted, her voice barely above a croak. She gingerly turned her head to the sliced apart staircase. "I think I almost killed Panda Bubba that time. Would explain why he tried to kill me back."
"You gotta stop putting yourself in danger like that," Raimundo admonished her gently.
Valerie's shoulder shook as she gave a light snort of laughter. "Comes with the job description, spatzi. Besides, I told Kim I wasn't about to let her relationship with her father go down in flames. Doesn't matter how that happens."
"Uh, I think it does a little," Rai muttered under his breath.
"And the zombie apocalypse is still upon us," Jack Spicer noted as he wandered over to them. He glibly kicked one away from him as he took the game controller. "Not gonna lie, I like this Showdown more than the others," he said conversationally. Valerie took the other end as Rai stood up to help Clay and Omi. Jack sat down beside her, crossing his legs and hunching his shoulders as he concentrated on the game.
"Considering you like Mind Creeper, I'm not surprised," Valerie said as she saw Panda Bubba barrel into the green skeletons that were about to kill Kimiko.
"Hey, don't knock the classics- Here we go, level 2!" Jack said excitedly, practically bouncing in his seat. Valerie flicked an orb of white energy at a zombie that got too close and went back to the game.
The zombies looked more humanoid, with gray skin and hair and tattered clothing. Kimiko quickly wrapped two of them in a spider web and flipped over, hitting them in the face before landing in a three-point stance. But then she moaned in pain and nearly collapsed to the ground, her points and health bar decreasing.
"What? Why is that happening? That should not be happening," Valerie said indignantly, ignoring the throbbing of her throat.
"You're not supposed to physically touch the goo zombies," Jack said in a condescending tone. "Guess the magic spider web didn't help."
"That is such bullshit!"
"Rules of the game, sweetheart."
"Don't call me sweetheart," Valerie said flatly. She turned back to the console. "No, don't drop your Wu, Panda Bubba's gonna- he found it," she groaned.
"Hey, at least Kim's using the environment to win," Jack pointed out. "She just lifted a door over her head, how awesome is that?"
"Okay, true," Valerie easily admitted. "But now Panda Bubba's using the Shroud to make the zombie invisible while he goes around winning. At least Kim has the Shroud of Shadows," she added wanly. Though now that she thought about, hadn't the Shroud of Shadows been on the Xiaolin side before now? Valerie honestly couldn't remember for the life of her.
With most of the zombies cleared up, Raimundo let himself be chased by the last of them as he prepared a counterattack. "Talk to me, how's she doing?"
Omi, from his perch around Val's shoulder, shook his head sadly. "Don't ask."
From over Jack's side, Clay sighed heavily. "Really hoping she gets her revenge this time around."
"I didn't nearly get strangled to death for her not to get it," Valerie growled as she watched Kimiko side sweep the invisible zombie, finally killing it. But at that point Panda Bubba was in the lead with two hundred points to Kimiko's measly one hundred twenty.
Valerie looked around to see all the zombified Tohomiko workers defeated, some collapsed on the ground, others underneath piles of heavy boxes. Raimundo gently wrapped his arms around her and drew her in close, his chin atop her head. "This is it," he said ominously. "The last level."
"Don't tell me you think she's gonna lose," Valerie said.
She could feel the laugh in Rai's chest. "Hell no," he said. "Kimiko's got this."
"You always did have faith in her," Valerie said warmly.
"How could I not?"
Panda Bubba was on a platform, using the Silk Spitter to shot away at zombies, but there were just too many of them. The green-skinned undead were piling on the descending platform, swamping Panda Bubba and coating him in a thick layer of glowing ooze. They lifted up their arms to finish the job only to suddenly pixelate and disappear.
Panda Bubba looked up at the changing life points and health bars, his points dramatically dropping. And then the Shroud of Shadows was tossed aside, revealing Kimiko standing before him.
"Hell yeah!" Valerie cheered along with the others.
Kimiko pried the Silk Spitter from Panda Bubba's hand and sneered, "You won't be needing this." The descending platform finally stopped, and she turned around to see the sign "Monster" with arrows pointing to the exit hallway. And then she ran down it without looking back once.
"You'll never defeat the creature now, your health bar is too low," Panda Bubba shouted after her. "And I'm glad! Do you hear me? GLAD!"
"Hombre needs to shut his yap," Clay muttered under his breath.
Kimiko slid into an oversized laboratory where a reptilian monster was strapped to an enormous operating table. Frankenstein-esque rods hovered above and around it, sparking with too much electricity. And then electricity hit the metal straps confining the monster; instead of electrocuting it, it instead freed the abomination. Kimiko quickly slid under the Shroud of Shadows just as the monster stood, revealing spindly brown legs, a gargantuan torso with matching arms, foul razor sharp teeth, and pink brain mass covering its eyes.
The monster roared and dragged its yellow claws against the door frame, forcing Kimiko to crouch and reveal herself. It made a rash swipe at her, leaving a crater where the warrior once was. "Silk Spitter!" Kimiko cried out from the side, only for the monster to easily dodge.
It roared again as it thrust its arm out, hitting one of the electric rods instead of Kimiko. Lightning swarmed its arm, but the abomination merely lifted it again and turned around. Kimiko was quick on her feet but she had boxed herself into a corner, the laboratory too filled with junk to maneuver in. She slid towards the wall, dodging another attack but too weak to do much more than send ineffectual spider webs at her enemy. She was completely helpless, and from the look of things she knew it.
The monster loomed over her once more. It lifted its gargantuan arm. It opened its mouth and let out a screech.
And suddenly Kimiko was glowing purple, energy humming around her. The monster turned to see his health bar being taken over Kimiko's, its vile green fading into violet.
"JUDOLETTE FLIP: FIRE!" Kimiko shouted, red flames shooting out her fists. They whirled around the monster like runaway fireworks, growing larger and hotter in ferocity. The monster shrieked in pain, its brown skin crumbling to black ash as the blaze seared into its skin. Kimiko thrust her arm out and sent a third fireball at it, and the monster screamed even louder as it was bathed in flames, falling backwards onto the operating table as a charred skeleton.
And then, in bright green letters, the hovering video game text said: LEVEL 3 COMPLETE. WINNER: KIMIKO.
And so the world was washed in white once more, and Kimiko held all three Wu in her outstretched hands. Her friends were cheering around her, but Valerie merely told her in a quiet tone, "Save the day."
"ZING ZOM-BONE!" Kim shouted, opening the shell-like talisman. In an instant the workers became human again, disorientated and tired. Toshiro lifted his head and looked around.
"Kimiko? What's going on? Why am I wearing an apron?"
Kimiko just pulled him into a hug and said, "It's a long story papa. Welcome back."
And then they all heard Jack cry out in pain. Everyone turned to see Panda Bubba and Jack Spicer attempting to flee up the stairs, only the evil boy genius had tripped on one of the steps. "Not so fast," Kimiko declared, running and sliding to a stop below them. "Zing Zom-Bone!"
And with that Jack Spicer and Panda Bubba became gray-skinned, empty eyed zombies… who then tried to eat each other. "Zombies, huh?" Floating nearby, Wuya crossed her arms. "It can only be an improvement."
Sometime later, in Toshiro's office
Valerie tugged at the bandages around her neck, feeling them itch and chafe the skin underneath. Clay gently pulled her hand away, letting it drop at her side. She sighed silently and listened in on the reunion happening next to her.
"My darling Kimiko," Toshiro was saying, "you have made this papa most proud."
"I'm just glad things are back to normal," Kimiko said gently. "And I hope you pick your business partners more wisely."
"Thank you so much, brave warriors," Toshiro told them rest of them. He gave them a respectful bow. "I owe you my eternal gratitude." He stood back up and backed away slightly, gesturing with his arms. "And to show my appreciation, I'm giving each of the bots a free upgrade."
Omi lifted up his U-Bot and held him close. "But my Omi-bot doesn't need a free upgrade. He's already perfect."
Omi-bot blushed (somehow). "No, you are the perfect one."
"Perhaps we are both right," Omi said, giving the little robot a kiss on its head.
Here are the answers to those anonymous reviews:
1) The Mr. Robinson reference is actually a play on Mrs. Robinson, a character in the 1967 film The Graduate. It's a pretty iconic movie, and since Valerie's been known to enjoy old pop culture things like the Beatles and the original Doctor Who, making a reference to this movie fits her character. And I'll be honest, Valerie doesn't really know a whole lot about current pop culture- it's a lot better now thanks to Kimiko and Raimundo and Clay, but it's still not a whole lot. She would probably mix things up like you do too. XD
2) I know the fic plays up how smart Valerie is, but that's in regards to her genre savviness. She reads a lot, so she can spot a thread in the craziness that is her life and act accordingly. And she just generally figures things out quickly, which people her age mistake as intelligence. That being said, there is such a thing as genre blindness or wrong genre savvy, both of which are TV Tropes terms and can be easily find online (the website does a better job of explaining what those things mean than I ever could). And she has been wrong before, the earliest example being chapter 8. Honestly, I think a lot of Val's instances of stupidity can be traced back to the fact that she's fifteen years old and has been told by a lot of people that she's smart. Wouldn't you have a slightly inflated ego if that happened to you? And let's face it, when you're a teenager you have this sort of suicidal overconfidence that absolutely nothing bad is going to happen to you. Why wouldn't Valerie exhibit that same mentality?
As for Valerie not telling her friends about Chase being in the toy factory, think about her backstory. Val's been hopping around countries all her life, never staying in a single place for very long. She was always the new kid and a foreigner at that, so she didn't have any real friends prior to the story. She's used to keeping things bottled up inside (or at the very least only ever telling Eric about her problems) so she never confides in the other monks about anything. Remember when she was having nightmares? Remember when she realized she had a crush on Rai? In both instances her friends had to pry the information out of her (though in the second case Valerie was going to talk about it to Kimiko, but only on her own terms). Valerie's someone who's slow to trust and keeps her cards close to her chest- she's only ever had one real person to confide in her whole life, she's not suddenly going to spill every little secret to the monks. That's not a habit you change easily.
Another reason is that Chase Young hasn't really been openly hostile to Valerie. Sure they've fought, but only when Valerie was the one instigating the fight. In his first appearance Chase never made a move against anyone first- he only attacked after they showed their intent to hurt him. That stays true if you ignore what happened with Master Monk Guan (Chase was in his reptilian form, and in the show it seems like he becomes more dangerous and irrational and overall less human while he's like that). In his second appearance Chase was trying to teach her something and have a civil conversation with her. And Chase Young doesn't normally use Wu, so there was a good chance that he wouldn't use the Zing Zombone on her. With all that in mind, Valerie probably felt that she could talk to Chase one-on-one and end up all right.
Now, should Valerie have told her friends about Chase? Most definitely, and her keeping secrets like that is gonna bite her in the ass big time. But now you hopefully know why she didn't do so in the first place. And there's really no reason to keep harping on this, Valerie's gonna be keeping a lot of secrets bottled up and have them all eventually blow up in her face. All in all, I think this is just character development. And let's be real, this is fiction, and in fiction all the main character's problems blow up in their face spectacularly.
And for the rest of you who somehow made it this far: if you know where "Antimony" comes from, I will love you FOREVER.
So, thoughts anyone?