See? Rusty's not that much of a jerk. He's more of a...selective jerk, who gets fed up with Dave sometimes. But he's not bad. ~E.G

Later that day, Rusty was making his way along the steep paths that lead down into the Uncanny Valley. He arrived at the rows of bunkers; this was it, "South of the Ridge". The cold metal shells housing all the deactivated or otherwise broken down androids brought back a strange feeling for Rusty. A feeling that he forgot he needed to forget. But this was no time for introspective thinking; there was work to be done!

With toolbox in hand he went down the row of bunkers until he reached the one he knew so well. After hitting a few buttons, the door slid open, and he stepped inside.

Rusty walked past the rows and rows of androids, trying to ignore the dim overhead lights reflecting off their lifeless stares. He was self-conscious of every step, feeling like these robots were watching him, judging him. Never mind that in their current state, they couldn't see him anyway.

He came to the end of the row and headed along the back wall to the opposite corner where he had left her. Maura, an android girl who was missing an arm and both legs from the knees down. Today he would make one of her dreams come true.

Rusty tilted her head forward and opened a panel on the back of her neck. There was a soft hum and a few clicks as she started up and lifted her head.

"Maura, can you hear me?"

"Rusty..."

Rusty smiled and ruffled her hair.

"I'm back now, and look what I brought with me."

He reached into his toolbox and pulled out something that made Maura's eyes widen. "Is that?"

"I brought both of them; they're all fixed up now. Come on, let's get these on."

"OK!"

As Rusty was adjusting a few of the joints, Maura spoke.

"Rusty?"

"Hmm?"

"What's Dave like?"

"Dave?"

"I hear you talk about him a lot. You even said I would soon meet him. What's he like?"

Rusty clicked the outer covering back into place and then opened up the next one. He disconnected a few wires.

"Well for starters, he's a lot taller than me." He reconnected them and Maura giggled.

"And um, he can be kinda spacey."

"Spacey?"

"Yeah, kind of off in his own world. Always curious, always thinking up new ideas and trying them out. Granted, those ideas don't always work, be he has his heart in the right place."

"Heart…?" Maura placed her hand on her chest.

"Actually that's another thing. Dave isn't exactly like us..." Maura looked down at him curiously.

"Alright! Everything's attached. Here, give me your hand and I'll help you down."

Rusty set Maura down gently as she tried to balance herself on her new legs.

Maura held out her arm to steady herself. Slowly she lifted her foot and took a small step.

"That's it, now try the other one."

She looked down at her other foot but as she tried to lift it, she staggered.

"If I take another step I'll fall!" she cried.

"No you won't."

"Yes I will, my degree of balance is off and-"

"Maura look at me. If you do fall, I'll catch you. Don't worry."

Maura nodded and stood up a little bit straighter. With that same foot she shifted her ankle, and took a bigger step. A little bit awkward, but the step was still a step. She looked up at Rusty with a huge smile.

"There you go!"

Feeling confident she took another step, and then another, until her footfalls became more even.

Rusty held out his arms. "Almost there!"

Maura tried to close the distance between them as fast as she could. Rusty caught her as she flopped into his chest, her one arm hugging around him tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Rusty's arms tightened around her as one had reached up to ruffle her pixie short hair again. But this time his hand slowly traveled down to the back of her neck. The small panel clicked open. Maura snuggled closer into Rusty's chest and looked up at him adoringly.

Rusty clicked the switch, and soon the light in Maura's eyes was replaced by the dim overhead light reflecting off of them.

He hated doing this to her, but to him, it was a lot nicer than having her awake and worrying about him. He lifted Maura's body and secured it back on the wall so it wouldn't fall down. Soon he would be back with another arm for her, and then he'd be able to get her out of here.

Rusty picked up his toolbox and turned to leave. He reached the door and looked back at Maura one last time. He started to feel self-conscious again, with Maura's lifeless eyes looking right at him. Watching him, judging him, never mind that in her condition, she couldn't see him anyway.

Rusty was almost out of the valley when he heard a voice that gave him a start.

"Rusty! There you are!"

"Astro? What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you that. Dave sent me to look for you!"

"Did he now?"

"Yeah!"

Astro came to a stop and peered down into the valley. "What's down here anyway?"

Rusty walked over to Astro's side, also looking back down into the valley with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You're pretty lucky, you know that?"

Astro looked up at him, confused. "I am?"

"Oh yeah. You're lucky that Dave was able to fix you up."

Astro noticed his forlorn tone. "Dave said that you helped too. I guess I haven't thanked you properly for that."

"What, the hydrogen converter? It was nothing, I'm out here a lot anyway."

"Still, I want to say thank you."

"No problem, how's it working out for you? Runing on hydrogen?"

"Actually I'm still getting used to it. Everything seems so much brighter, and faster…"

"Yeah it'll do that."

The two of them looked down into the valley for a short while.

"It really was lucky…that Dave was able to fix you up so quickly…" Rusty trailed off.

Astro looked up at him again.

"Otherwise you would have ended up here." Astro's eye widened, so that was it.

"South of the Ridge?"

Rusty nodded.

"Uncanny Valley?"

"Yup."

"…Dave said that all the androids are down there, all shut down."

"Well they had to be put there."

Rusty glanced at Astro and quickly glanced back.

"We used to have inspections up here, to make sure everything was accounted for. But that was before we put everything into strict catagories. One time we had a few of the inspectors nearly pass out. They said they found it deeply disturbing that there were androids, humanoids especially, mixed in with everything else."

"How come?"

"I don't know, I think some of them actually thought they were other humans, and it freaked them out when they found out otherwise."

"So they're all here? Hidden away?"

Rusty sighed. "I don't agree with it either, but it's their rule not ours. Good news is that Dave and I have been able to repair some."

"Where are they?"

"Back on Earth now, but we're far from done, so far we've only fixed three." Rusty walked back over to get his tool box.

Three? But Dave said that there had been-

Astro was about to say something when a large dark shadow fell over him. He looked straight up and turned around to see a large space craft hovering high over them.

"Oh my god…" Rusty muttered. "It can't be!"

The ship was getting closer at an alarmingly fast rate.

"Astro! See if you can read those words there under that insignia, it's too far for me to make out!"

"OK! It says…" He focused his eye, zooming in on the words. "…Populuxe?"

"Populuxe! Oh no! No no no no no!" Astro was awestruck by the ship while Rusty was panicking.

"You need to get back to the base and warn Boss and Dave!"

"But what about you?"

"Leave me here, I'll be fine! I need you to tell Dave that Christoph is back!"

"Christoph?"

"Populuxe is his ship! Trust me; he's someone you don't want to run into! Now go! There isn't much time!"

Astro blasted off, heading back to the bas at record speed.

But as he was flying he wondered. Who was Christoph? Why was he bad? Soon a bigger question came back to him. Rusty had said that there had been three androids that were fixed.

But Dave had said there had been five, who were the other two?

(The plot thickens! *dramatic music*)