Author's notes: Er...sorry about the delay. Since November of 2011 (written in early April of 2013). Er...yeah. Sorry about that. I had this sitting on my computer, but honestly I just forgot about it until I started going through my (paper) notes and found my writeup of how this story is supposed to go. Anyway, I'm guessing it'll have something like three chapters after this one before it's through. Again, sorry about the delay!
Gotokuji coasted the motorcycle up the ramp to the large roller door in the side of the building. He felt Ai trembling as she clung to him from behind. She was so frail; she tried so hard to give off the appearance of strength, to show the world she wasn't someone to mess with, but it was all an act. No matter what she did to convince others, she was still a young girl living in a boarding school in a strange city with her parents living miles and miles away. He gently eased out of her grip and got off the motorcycle. A few moments with the right tools, and the door's lock was no longer a problem. He eased the motorcycle into the building, gave Ai a flashlight from the supply bag he had thrown into the sidecar with the robot girl before fleeing his home, and moved to roll down the door.
Two police officers pulled up on a small side street in a run down, yet quiet section of town in front of a pile of rubble that had been, not too long ago, a house. The two officers got out of the car and stood looking at the ruins for a moment.
"Ever see anything like that?" one of them said.
The second officer shook his head. "Not since the earthquake that took out grandma's house ten years ago."
"What was the name of the family that lived here?" the first one asked as he stepped over the collapsed fence into the yard.
"Gotokuji," the second officer said, looking at a small notebook. "One resident in his twenties. I wonder what happened?"
The first officer approached the rubble. "Dunno." The east quarter of the house was still standing. "Hey!" he shouted. "Anybody in there?" he paused for a moment, listening for a response, before approaching more closely and trying to peer into the empty spaces in the rubble.
"I don't think you should get so clo-"
"Shh! I heard something," the first officer said, holding up his hand to quiet his partner. He leaned closer to the rubble. "Hello? Is anyone there?" This time, there was some definite noise from somewhere deep in the rubble. The first officer quickly turned to the other. "Get on the radio! We have someone trapped, possibly injured. Tell them—whoa!" the cop shouted as the whole structure shuddered underneath him. He scrambled back out of the way as a mostly intact piece of roof slid off the pile and smashed on the ground. The pile of rubble shifted noticeably again, accompanied by the sound of straining timbers from somewhere deep inside.
The second officer, a newbie still in his first week on the job, drew his gun in a panic and pointed it at the pile of rubble, his hands shaking. "W-w-what the hell was that?!" he screeched at his partner.
The other officer turned around stiffly and began striding toward the car. "Come on," he said, trying to make his voice sound calm. He was a twenty year veteran; he didn't want to let the newbie know he was scared half to death of what might be coming up out of that ruined house at any moment. He had worked Mahora for over twenty years; he was well aware of what might show up. "This is out of our jurisdiction."
"O-out of our jurisdiction?" the second officer asked, his tone incredulous. The pile of rubble surged upward a few feet and collapsed again, and his face, if possible, went three shades whiter. "A-ah, I-I-I-I see, o-out of our j-jurisdiction, yeah—kyaaa!" he screamed like a little girl as a fist battered its way out of the side of the pile, sending splinters and bits of cheap building material flying across the yard. Then a huge man with spiky blond hair and wearing ripped clothing heaved himself up out of the ruined house, stood up on what had been the front porch, and looked at the two officers.
"Come on come on come on!" the older cop hissed, but his new partner was frozen in place, looking as if a slight breeze could have knocked him over as the big man walked straight up to him, only stopping when the barrel of the young policeman's gun was against his stomach. He looked down at the newbie.
"I need your gun." After the officer stammered for a moment but didn't appear to be ready to hand it over, Tanaka reached up and gently pried the gun out of his hands, put it in his pocket, and walked over toward the police cruiser, where the older officer, quick on the uptake and easily recognizing that particular model of robot from his time doing security at the Mahora Festival six years before, was holding the door open for him.
"H-here are the keys; j-just try to take care of it, okay?" he asked pitifully. Tanaka just looked down at him for a moment, then took the keys and got inside the car. The older cop noticed with a bizarre sense of unreality that the giant stranger made sure to put his seatbelt on, and barely managed to step out of the way in time to avoid having his feet run over as the man drove off.
When he felt as if he could take two steps without wetting himself, the younger officer stumbled over to where the older officer stood looking down the street in the direction the cruiser had disappeared. They stood there side by side for some time before the younger officer managed to get his tongue in working order again.
"D...does that happen often?"
The older officer, upon hearing the younger officer's voice, recalled his position and straightened his back a little. He tried to appear nonchalant as he moved toward the sidewalk. "In this town? That'd be an M-1190."
"M-1190?" the younger officer asked.
"The code for Humanoid Robot. The 'M' stands for Mahora Special Code, to differentiate it from standard police code. 1190 is for 'cruiser lost, robot involved'. Anyway, in this town that's about the least exciting thing you'll see. Come on, the station's a mile away."
"There's a code for something as specific as a robot stealing a police cruiser...?" the young cop asked, bemused as the two of them set off down the street. "But...did you see? No way he was just some 'humanoid robot'! That had to be like, the Termina-"
"Don't!" the older cop said. "Don't say it."
"But-"
"Don't say it. Just...don't say it. You'll be happier that way. Let's go, we have a long walk ahead of us."
Tanaka's thoughts moved rapidly as he drove away from the destruction of the residence belonging to the man subject Inoueai referred to as 'Gotokuji-nii-san. Gotokuji-nii-san and subject Inoueai had escaped with the other foreign unit; this was good. The foreign unit that had tried to attack subject Inoueai had also fled; this was bad. He felt that he could trust Gotokuji with the safety of Inoueai until he found them; however, he did not know how to find them. Therefore, he must find someone who would.
The answer came to him an instant later.
He hit the brakes hard enough to lock up the wheels in the middle of the busy street, put the car in reverse, and backed up until he had enough room to maneuver the car until it was pointed down a side street that led off in the direction of the university, put the car in gear, and floored the accelerator.
Prototype unit FX8-a, 'Sarah', staggered through the door and back into the decrepit laboratory where she had been created. She stumbled over the remains of the large male robot she had destroyed earlier and collapsed on the floor.
She found she couldn't get back up; there was no power in her elbows or knees.
This was bad.
She ran some diagnostics on various aspects of her system, and the results were not what she would have wanted. Joint damage was severe; Her false skin, plating, and the materials that supported them would be fine for the most part, but the artificial tendons and ligaments in her body had been overused and overheated in her fight with the foreign male robot and subsequent flight, and would need time to return to their normal states. Her scanning function hit an error and locked up for a moment, and when she came to again, more than thirty minutes had passed and several of her drones were standing around her, adding their processing power to hers. She marked her private scanning functions as untrusted and set her drones to carry her to a table where she could lay and recuperate. She waited impatiently as they picked her up and moved her over to the table top.
Her components were top of the the line, her processors blazingly fast, and yet here she was, barely able to move her body due to joint damage. She would have laughed had the situation not been so dire. Without her maintenance tech, the unit those...those humans had stolen, things would begin to get bad, very quickly.
Her optical devices scanned the room as she tried to come up with a suitable plan, and came to rest on the broken remains of the large robot. She looked at the remains and pondered over the newly hatched idea in her mind for a long, long time, long for a robot, anyway, and two seconds later sent the order to the drones standing around useless. The male robot was reduced to its individual components in a very short time, as was the ancient one on the ground by the makeshift charging station. Sarah used her network to inspect the pieces, and the best ones were quickly laid out on a table placed next to the one her body was currently lying on. She paused for a brief moment, wondering if this was the right thing to do, and then brushed the stray thought off as inconsequential and took control of the most advanced drone in order to perform the procedures herself.
The police car screeched to a halt on the sidewalk mere inches from the front door of the building that housed the main robotics laboratory at the university. Several security guards rushed out to confront the driver, but the enormous spiky haired man that got out of the car ignored them and walked quickly through the front door. He ignored anyone who attempted to speak to him and headed straight for the elevator, nearly knocking down a burly security guard who attempted to get in front of him. He pressed the button, waited for the elevator to arrive for a moment, and set off at a quick pace for the stairs when the elevator failed to show, leaving everyone in the lobby speechless. They were used to all sorts coming and going at odd hours, but this was more than they knew how to deal with; at least Chachamaru and Rally-chan had the courtesy to reply when asked a question...!
Tanaka's long legs allowed him to take the stairs three at a time and he did so at a very rapid pace, nearly bowling over a young intern who had the misfortune to run into him on the stairs while heading down with a handful of papers. Tanaka continued on until he reached the floor where a certain lab was located, and all but sprinted down the hallway, and nearly wrenched the door of the lab from its hinges as he opened it.
Hakase looked up from the cold cup ramen she was eating and raised her eyebrow as Tanaka barreled into the room and stalked up to her.
Hakase took the time to swallow the food in her mouth and carefully set down the old cup ramen before turning to Tanaka. "Well hello to you too," she said wryly. "Is something wrong?"
"Subject Inoueai is in danger," Tanaka said.
Hakase's expression changed immediately, and she pressed a button sending out a signal to Chachamaru to come back to the lab right away. "What happened?"
Tanaka just looked at her for a moment.
"Oh, right. Hang on a sec, let's see..." Hakase said as she slid open a drawer and rummaged around in it for a moment before coming up with a usb cable. "C'mere," she said. Tanaka knelt down, and she plugged it into his ear and then into the computer she had been working at. She set the computer to give control to Tanaka, and sat back to wait. She didn't have to wait long, however, as video captured from Tanaka's internal cameras filled the screen. Hakase leaned forward to watch.
By the time Chachamaru had arrived, Hakase was dressed up to go outside. She tossed Chachamaru a thumb drive. "Watch the video files in that, and find out what you can about the foreign units. I have to go check something out. Be ready to come to my position at a moment's notice. If I call you, it'll be important."
"Understood. Be careful, Hakase."
Hakase looked back at her and grinned. "Careful? Where's the fun in that?"
Haruna met up with Hakase and Tanaka at the remains of Gotokuji's house.
"Hey," she said, waving her hand as she strolled up.
Hakase glanced up at Haruna from where she was crouched down on the ground, putting something into a plastic bag. "Hello. Do you know where she went?" Hakase asked as she stood up and stuffed the bag into the pocket of her lab coat.
Haruna shook her head. "I lost track of her somewhere in the middle of all those warehouses over on the East end of town. She could be anywhere over there." She glanced up at Tanaka, who stood silently by her side and yet somehow conveyed the sense that he was incredibly impatient to be going after the girl he had somehow become attached to.
"We need to find that new unit and keep an eye on her too," Hakase said as she led the way back to the car. "I have Chachamaru on it, but I don't want her facing something like that without a lot of backup."
Haruna cocked an eyebrow at that. "You think the new one's that dangerous?"
Hakase paused in the act of opening the car door and looked back up at her friend. "Don't you?"
