Yo peoples, wazzup? Sai is in the house with a new chapter from Steamrail74! So you all enjoy this and be sure to leave a comment in the form of a review. I want it, but Steamrail told me that it inspires him to write more when he sees people liking his stuff, so be a pal and leave something will ya.
Credit to Medabots for me and the other bots.
One last thing- bonus points to whoever knows the song that Sai sings in this chapter.
Data Log 2- Sai's First Mission
After Sai had exited the Guild-Master's office, Bad Hacker was there waiting on him.
"So?" He asked, "How'd it go?"
"Well I got myself in," Sai answered, motioning for his bandana, "After they invited me to join."
"That's amazing! How'd you do it?"
"Nothin' special, just showed off what an awesome bot I am."
"Well, I suppose now you're on your way to the Recruitment Room to get assigned a partner?"
"That's where I'm headed… If I knew where that was."
"Follow me, I'll take you there."
Both then started down the hall and made a left for another corridor. Sai looked around to see bots of all shapes and types making their ways for their destinations or chatting with a friend. He then looked over at Bad Hacker.
"So uh…" He started, "How long has this whole Guild thing been going on?"
"For a few years actually." He replied, "We just celebrated the seventh anniversary two months ago."
"How long have you been here?"
"Five years as of last week."
"Ever been on a mission?"
Bad Hacker sighed.
"I wish I was…" He answered, "But as you can see I'm not really a combat type. My model was designed for support more than for offense."
"So?! That shouldn't stop ya."
"I keep asking to get assigned to a field mission, but I only get stuck with navigation and Intel."
"That's gotta be something."
"Not really. Sure it's fun for someone that's designed for it, but it gets kinda boring after a while. I wanna be like the field agents that are actually out doing things…"
He looked down and sighed again as they neared the Recruitment Room. Sai couldn't help but feel sorry for Bad Hacker. All the guy wanted was to be on missions like the field agents, but his model type and specialty limited him to work around the headquarters. Bad Hacker showed him in and to the desk where a CAR-0 'Land-Motor' sat comfortably and reclined in his chair. Land-Motor's motif was based off of a car, so a lot of his bodily features included wheels, bumpers, and exhaust pipes.
"Agent Bad Hacker." He greeted, "Good seeing you."
"Same here Agent Land-Motor." The cockroach type returned, "This is Agent Saikachis, and he just joined the guild."
He looked to the yellow beetle type, "So you're here to be assigned a partner huh?"
"I guess. So how do I do that?"
Land-Motor handed him a book from a drawer in his desk.
"In that book are all the current agents that are not assigned to partners." He explained, "All you gotta do is look through there and pick one. I'll check and see if they're available, and if they are then they're your partner. Something to keep in mind though, keep an idea of what each candidate does and how they prefer to do things when looking for a partner."
Sai nodded as he headed for a seat to start flipping through the book, "Got it."
Several minutes passed before he started grumbling to himself. Bad Hacker had already left to return to his duty, and Land-Motor watched him casually as he remained in his seat. Sai had found no one in the book he'd even consider for a partner. They were either too serious with by-the-book traits or too lazy to get up and do anything. He didn't mind being lazy, but at the same time being too serious can really suck the fun out of the job. Some of the candidates didn't even want to consider the option of compromising a plan when on a mission and sticking straight to the book. Sai hated those kinds of people, and thought they were way too close-minded. Eventually he gave up and settled for a KZB-0 'Pirastar', until his mind flashed to what he heard Bad Hacker say earlier.
"Sure it's fun for someone that's designed for it, but it gets kinda boring after a while. I wanna be like the field agents that are actually doing things…"
Sai sighed, "The dude just wants to be a real agent, and I can't find anyone here in this book… So I guess he'll do."
He closed the book and walked back over to Land-Motor's desk.
"Make a decision?" Land-Motor asked as he took the book back.
"Yup." Sai answered, "I want Bad Hacker."
Land-Motor was taken aback a little, "Are… you sure about that? He's not a combat type."
"I don't care."
"He's really only good for navigation and Intel."
"So?"
"You REALLY want him as a partner?"
"Well duh."
"Alright then." Land-Motor shrugged, "I'll call 'em in."
About five minutes passed before Bad Hacker returned to the Recruitment Room.
"So what's up?" He asked, "Something the matter?"
"Agent Saikachis," Land-Motor started, "Say hello to your new partner."
Bad Hacker may as well as turned into a rocket and exploded he got so excited.
I'm WHAT?!" He stammered.
"You're my partner." Sai nodded.
"REALLY?!"
"Mmhmm, that's right."
Bad Hacker started jumping for joy like an excited child, "THANK YOU SO MUCH! NOW I CAN BE A REAL AGENT!"
"You were always one before," Land-Motor corrected, "But now you're a field agent."
Land-Motor then leaned over to Sai.
"You may wanna watch 'em though," He whispered, "He tends to get excited about things rather quickly."
"Thanks for the heads-up."
"Well then." The car type began as Bad Hacker calmed down, "I'll go ahead and add you two to the system and get you squared away. In the meantime, since you both are field agents now, I would head over to the Client's Case Board and pick a mission to tackle."
"Right," Bad Hacker nodded, "Let's go Sai, time to go tackle our first mission!"
The cockroach type darted out the door, with Sai following at a slower pace, as they left a chuckling car type behind them in the Recruitment Room. Bad Hacker led Sai to the Client's Case Board in the main lobby as the two looked up at the numerous papers pinned and taped to it. Each piece was in a different style of writing, easily showing that each was a separate client looking for help. Each piece of paper was marked with either an HIT, RET, RES, ESC, or MISC in the top right-hand corner of the paper.
"So…" Bad Hacker started, looking over at Sai, "What's your choice?"
"Mine?" Sai asked, "I got no clue. Any idea?"
"Well, being first-time field agents… I would recommend staying away from Hit-Man Missions until we're a little more experienced."
"Hit-Man Missions?"
"There are five different types of missions that we Meda-Peacekeepers can do. They are Hit-Man, Retrieve, Escort, Rescue, and Miscellaneous. Hit-Man, or HIT, require us to defeat a Rogue Bot that's causing trouble and take them in. Retrieve, or RET, means that there is something that was either stolen or misplaced that we need to find. Escort, or ESC, means that we serve basically as bodyguards to help a client from point A to point B. Rescue, or RES, means that there is either a lost or kidnapped person or bot that we need to find. And Miscellaneous, or MISC, are missions that don't necessarily fit into the other four categories."
"So… What kind of mission would you suggest we try first?"
"I would suggest either Retrieve or Rescue missions since they're usually the easiest. MISC missions are usually a random choice depending on what kind of mission it is."
"Question, do we get rewarded for our work?"
Bad Hacker took a paper off of the Case Board and showed it to Sai.
"The reward is usually written at the bottom of the paper." He explained, "And for this one… it seems that we will be earning two hundred dollars for this Retrieve mission."
"Two hundred dollars?! And we get to keep it?"
"All the rewards go to keeping the Peacekeeper's maintained and keep everything in order. How else do you think we'd pay for all the power and appliances we need?"
Sai's head hung low at that comment. Bad Hacker had a point, but Sai wanted to keep that money.
"So I guess we'll take on this mission." Sai shrugged, "What's it say?"
Bad Hacker looked the paper over carefully, "It looks like it's from the museum curator. It says that the museum was broken into about three days ago and a few exhibits were stolen. He tried following the crooks but lost them early on. So far nothing's come up, and he needs help tracking down the fiends."
"So I guess we got some criminals to catch!" Sai began.
"Well that'll be more of a plus to the mission, since we only really need to find the stolen artifacts. But I guess it'll be something to aim for."
"Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!"
"Ok, but lemme note real quick that we're on this mission so no one else tries to take it while we're out."
Bad Hacker grabbed a marker from the nearby desk and wrote "Agents Saikachis and Bad Hacker" on it and out it back on the board. Sai and Bad Hacker then exited the headquarters as they looked down both sides of the street. It was at this point that Sai became confused.
"Uhh…" He started, "Where's the museum?"
The cockroach type pointed down the left side of the street, "It's down that way and around the corner. We can't miss it once we get that far."
Sai changed into Drive Mode and was raring to go, "Well then come on already! We gotta get goin'!"
Bad Hacker hesitated a moment before climbing onto Sai's back and holding on tightly.
"J-Just be c-careful…" He stuttered, "I'm not used to going faa-AAAAAAAAAAST!"
Sai completely ignored him as he floored it and burned rubber down the street. As the two weaved in and out of passersby on both the street and the sidewalk, poor Bad Hacker clung onto Sai for dear life.
"SLOOOOW DOOOOWN!" He wailed.
"Go faster?" Sai returned, "Ok, you got it!"
"W-Wait, I didn't AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
"Rollin' around at the speed of sound," Sai started singing, "Got places to go gotta follow my rainbow! Can't stick around have to keep movin' on, just what lies ahead only one way to find out…"
Sai increased his speed as he roared through an intersection and made a hard drift to round the left-hand bend. After a grueling ten minutes for racing down the streets looking for the museum, Sai coasted to a stop in front of it when they finally found what street it was on. Poor Bad Hacker melted onto the pavement and lay there like a limp rag doll. He never experienced going that fast, so it was almost like a nightmare to him since he never even had the chance to work himself up to get used to it. In Sai's defense, he only had two speed controls that placed in his mind, and nothing in-between: Top speed, or No Speed.
"Dude," Sai shrugged as he changed into Robot Mode, "Live a little will ya? It wasn't that bad."
Bad Hacker was left to moan a reply before letting his medal catch up with his body. After about three minutes he was able to stand again as they made their way to enter the museum and look for the curator. The museum, like one would expect, was rather large and spacious, allowing for large exhibits such as dinosaur skeletons and giant statues to be places where they can be seen from anywhere. In the lobby was a T-Rex skeleton that looked rather menacing when up close. Sai was unaffected, but Bad Hacker shuddered a little from seeing it. Eventually they heard someone call out to them.
"Hey," The person called, "No medabots allowed in the museum."
Sai and Bad Hacker looked in the direction to see a man in a fine-looking suit walk up to them.
"Excuse me," Bad Hacker started, "But are you the museum curator?"
"I am," He replied, "And what business do you two have here?"
"We're here to help find the stolen artifacts." Sai answered, "But if ya don't want us around then I guess we'll take our business elsewhere."
He wrapped one arm around Bad Hacker's shoulders and led him back towards the front door.
"Sai, what're you doing?" The cockroach type whispered, "We're supposed to be helping him."
"Ever heard of playing hard-to-get?" He whispered back, "Just play along and this guy'll be eating right out of our hands before ya know it."
"W-Wait," The curator called, "I apologize for being harsh earlier. Please come back."
"See?" Sai chuckled to Bad Hacker quietly, "Works every time."
Both bots turned back around and walked back to the curator.
"The heist has been haunting me nonstop the last few days…" The curator sighed, "I'm sorry for snapping at you."
"No worries man," Sai shrugged, "So what can ya tell us about the guys that took the artifacts?"
The curator stroked his chin, "Hmm… I supposed I recall a little bit of what they looked like, but I can't remember a whole lot since they wore ski masks. I recall that one of them was a fairly tall man with a slouch, and an accomplice of his was a rather short man with broad shoulders."
"That's a start…" Bad Hacker mused out loud, "Do you mind telling us what kind of artifacts they stole? So as we know what to look for?"
"Certainly, right this way please."
The curator led them down the hallway and to a door that required a passkey. He unlocked the door casually and let the two bots in as the curator closed the door behind them.
"So uh…" Sai started, "Where's this?"
"This room is where we give the exhibits that come here a final cleaning before they're put on display." The curator explained as he picked up a book from the desk and showed a picture in it to the Agents, "We were getting ready to open a new Ancient Egypt exhibit here at the museum, and the night before we were supposed to open the exhibit, we were broken into and the artifacts were stolen."
"What kinds of artifacts were stolen?" Bad Hacker asked.
"Approximately eight urns, five etched tablets with hieroglyphs on them, and a burial mask was all they were able to get away with before I spotted the crooks in the act."
"So they made off with a pretty good amount?"
"Easily around fifty thousand dollars' worth at the minimum."
"Wow."
"So can you do it? Can you find the lost artifacts and bring them back?"
Sai and Bad Hacker looked at each other before nodding.
"You can count on us Mr. Curator-guy." Sai responded.
"Oh thank you." He replied, "I cannot tell you how thankful I am."
"Well we better start looking for clues." Bad Hacker chimed in, "Would you mind letting my partner and I look around?"
"Of course, you're free to look where you need."
"Thank you."
Both bots then were let out of the backroom to begin their investigation. They first went to inspect the door to find anything out of the ordinary, though outside of some leftover shards of broken glass and some straw the once stuck to the now-missing artifacts, nothing out of the ordinary could be seen. The tedious work was getting to Sai, and eventually he started grumbling to himself after an hour and a half of investigating.
"Stupid crooks…" He growled, "Why can't ya just leave a name card here or something that we can follow?"
"Well then they wouldn't be crooks now would they?" Bad Hacker chuckled, "I'm sure there's something here if we look hard enough."
His visor then caught sight of a little stain of red on one of the shards of glass and went to inspect it.
"Hmm…" He mumbled, "Blood perhaps? Maybe one of the perpetrators got cut on his way in or out…"
It was then that the museum curator walked into the lobby to check on their investigation.
"Any clues?" He asked.
"Possibly…" The cockroach type answered, "Hey, have the halls been cleaned or swept yet?"
"Not yet. We left everything as it was so as to not interfere with anything that could be used as evidence to catch the crooks."
The curator then took off his suit coat to expose his white button-up shirt underneath while he proceeded to smooth out a small wrinkle. Bad Hacker at that moment noticed a stain of red on the curator's arm. The cockroach type immediately pointed it out.
"Hey," He said, "What happened to your arm?"
"Huh?" The curator responded, and then saw the stain on his shirt, "Aw shoot… I guess I forgot that this shirt had that…"
"What do you mean?" Sai asked as he entered the conversation.
"When I chased the criminals the night of the heist, one of them attacked me in order to keep me down. I guess I didn't clean the shirt when I thought I did. Ah… Why won't this nightmare go away? Why can't I be dreaming?"
"No worries, we'll catch the thief before ya know it."
"I can only hope."
The curator walked away when he put his suit coat back on and left the beetle and cockroach types alone in the museum lobby.
"Hey Sai," Bad Hacker started, "Let's head back to Headquarters real quick, I think I may have found something to have check out."
"And that would be?" Sai retorted, "Cuz I didn't find nothin'."
Bad Hacker held up the shard of glass with the stain of red on it. Sai understood as he and Bad Hacker raced back to Headquarters and to the Research Sector. Since Bad Hacker was a researcher and analyst, he had automatic access to enter, though Sai was forced to wait outside.
"Here's an idea," Bad Hacker suggested, "Go back to the museum and see what else you can find while I work here and see what I turn up. If we find anything, we can message each other via server addresses. I'll send you mine real quick."
Sai's mainframe then received a server exchange requested as he accepted and titled it 'Bad Hacker' and nodded.
"Ok, He finished, "I don't wanna say what I found out loud, but I'll message you what I'm thinking about this case while you head over to the museum."
"Sounds good." Sai agreed, "Laters."
"Best of luck."
Sai headed back to the museum and grumbled to himself. They JUST got back to Headquarters, and then he was asked to GO BACK to the museum. Things like this always got on his nerves, but since he was on a mission, he had to keep his musings to himself. Not long into his trek back to the museum, he received a message from Bad Hacker.
"Sai," It read, "I have a feeling I know who's responsible for the heist.
"And?" The yellow beetle responded.
"You remember the stain of red on that glass shard I brought back with us?"
"Yeah."
"And the stain on the curator's shirt?"
"Get on with it already!"
"Well I have a feeling that the curator's the thief. As another piece of evidence, he let us into a room that only HE apparently had access to. So if the artifacts were stolen, they had to have been stolen from someone on the inside."
"Say whaaaat?!"
"It's just a feeling, but my feelings are usually correct. I'm running a DNA scan on the stain on the glass now, so it's cross referencing it with all the currently registered citizens of the city. I'll let you know when the results are in, but in the meantime try and keep that curator in your sights."
Sai didn't have to look far, as he found the curator with a fairly weighty bag in his hands and hastily making his way for a car parked across the street. This was Sai's chance, and he wasn't going to miss it.
"HEY YOU!" He shouted, "STOP RIGHT THERE!"
The curator froze in his tracks and panicked as he scrambled into the car and floored it. Sai could see covered boxes in the back of the car, but he could swear he saw something shiny that looked like a mask. The curator WAS the thief! And Sai had just caught him in the act. Just as he started after the car, Bad Hacker messaged him back.
"Sai!" The message read, "The results are in, and it's the curator! HE'S the thief!"
"Well duh!" Sai responded, "I caught the guy makin' off with a bag full of soethin' from inside the museum."
"Don't let 'em get away!"
"I'm chasin' 'em now!"
"I'll see if I can follow your server's location and see if there are any ways to stop this guy, just bear with me."
"Take you time," Sai returned sarcastically, "It's not like we're on a timed schedule or anything."
The car took a hard left through a stoplight as Sai remained in hot pursuit; dashing through the light himself and weaving around cars that got in his way. Sai attempted to shoot the tires flat and reduce his target's speed, but the car kept swaying in order to throw him off. After several failed attempts of trying to shoot the tires, Bad Hacker returned with a plan.
"Alright Sai," He read, "Very likely he's trying to escape to the county line where you won't be able to chase him. But there's an alley coming up on your right that you can use to cut him off at the city bridge on the other side of town. If he crosses that bridge with the artifacts, then it's all over."
"Got it," Sai returned, "Don't let 'em cross the bridge."
"Just be careful Sai, I'll meet up with you when I can."
The yellow beetle ignored the message as he floored it into the alley Bad Hacker mentioned and weaved around dumpsters and trash and back onto the street. Just as Bad Hacker had predicted, Sai had caught up with the car and was now side-by-side with it.
"This is it Sai," He thought, "I gotta catch his guy before he crosses the bridge! I gotta do something, but what? I can't attack the car since it's got the artifacts in it… and I don't wanna be responsible for breakin' any… But I think I may not have to…"
Sai veered away from the car and screeched to a stop as he aimed directly ahead of his escaping target.
"Here goes nothing…" He mumbled, "MISSILE LAUNCH!"
He fired off a pair of homing missiles that screamed right past the car and onto the road, detonating and blasting chunks of the asphalt into piles on the bridge. He stopped traffic on both sides cold from his attack, but his target rammed into one of the asphalt piles and ceased its escape with a harsh recoil. Seeing his target stop moving, Sai took a breath of relief. It didn't last long as a group of cops darted in his direction intent on taking him down. Sai saw this and changed back into Robot Mode and pointed at the curator.
"You're goin' after the wrong guy!" He yelled, "That dude's the museum thief! He made off with the artifacts and made it look like a break-in."
"When in fact it was a ruse." Bad Hacker called as he flew in from the direction of Headquarters and changed into Robot Mode to meet them, "He wanted to make some money by selling those artifacts to the highest bidder. In fact he's not even a museum curator, and the people he described to us were just to keep us of his scent. The museum never even HAD one since the last one retired about a month ago! That man is an imposter!"
The cops looked over to see that he was scrambling out of the car intent on making a break for it. The cops charged after him and caught up relatively quickly. They cuffed him and forced the man back into a police car as the two bots watched in silence. Finally one officer met up with them.
"On behalf of the museum AND the police force, I'd like to thank you for your help in catching his guy. He's been involved in several thefts in the past few months, but we never were able to catch him since he hid his face and blended into the crowds so easily."
"Well he's all yours dude." Sai answered.
"And what about the artifacts?" Bad Hacker asked.
"We contacted the REAL curator and told him the problem just a moment ago." The cop explained, "So he's on his way over to inspect the artifacts and help take them back to the museum."
"And our reward?" Sai asked.
"We'll have a check made to the Meda-Peacekeepers within the week. We thank you for your help in apprehending another criminal and ensuring the safety of the stolen artifacts."
The cop saluted them and left, as Sai and Bad Hacker agreed to head back to Headquarters to check off the Case as completed. Sai changed into Drive Mode as Bad Hacker climbed on, after he made Sai promise to take it slow, as the two started back and left the rest to the cops.
"Tell me…" Sai began, "How'd you know that guy was a fake?"
"Well I researched the museum's history as I waited on the DNA scan to finish." Bad Hacker answered, "And I found out that the original curator for the museum retired about a month ago after twenty or so years of service to that museum. So after I read that, and brought into mind the blood on that shard of glass, and the stain on that guy's arm, AND the fact that he had access to the backroom, it only screamed to me that he was the one that did it. And the DNA scan verified it for me when the result came in."
"So this case is solved?"
"It sure is… Hey… WE SOLVED OUR FIRST CASE! WE DID IT! BE COMPLETED A MISSION!"
The cockroach type started bouncing for joy on Sai, but the yellow beetle type calmed him down quickly.
"Whoa hey," He said, "I know you're excited, but cool it a little will ya?"
"Oh… sorry…"
When they made it back to Headquarters, Guild-Master Metal Beetle was there waiting for them with their case in his hand. Sai at this moment thought that they were either going to be praised for this efforts, or that they were going to be out of jobs for destroying public property; and he feared the latter.
"Guild-Master Metal Beetle," Bad Hacker greeted, "What a surprise."
"Likewise Agent Bad Hacker." Metal Beetle returned as he watched Sai change into Robot Mode and meet them, "Would either of you two explain why you blew up a chunk of the bridge?"
"Well uh… We had to in order to catch the criminal before he escaped. And by the time we found out who it was, he was already making his getaway."
"And it was me that blew up the bridge…" Sai mumbled as he hung his head, "I had no choice… I had to do SOMETHING… So if we're in trouble, just lemme have all of it, cuz Bad Hacker wasn't at the scene when I did it…"
Both Bad Hacker and Metal Beetle were left silent as Sai hung his head low. Sai was expecting that he was going to hear "You're fired!" somewhere in the Guild-Master's next sentence, and he prepared for it. Metal Beetle however looked over at the cockroach type, and then at the yellow beetle type, before speaking.
"Well then…" He started, "Since you owned up to your efforts and what you did, I suppose I'll let it slide this time… as long as you remember that destroying public property isn't an option. After all, the missing artifacts were found, were they not?"
Bad Hacker nodded.
"AND you even went as far as to catch the crook responsible for the heist, right?"
Sai nodded.
"Well then I see no reason to punish you two." The Guild-Master shrugged as he handed the paper to Sai and turned to head inside, "Nice job Agents, keep up the good work."
He left Sai and Bad Hacker alone in front of the Headquarters as they were left to look at one another in disbelief. They weren't getting punished? They were praised for a job well done? Sai was in complete surprise, and Bad Hacker may as well have been crying.
"I… can't believe it…" The cockroach type stuttered, "I… I did a good job…"
"That we did pal." Sai nodded as he wrapped one arm around Bad Hacker's shoulders and led him in, "Cuz you and me are partners!"
"Partners… That's right! We're partners!"
They entered the Headquarters and the Client Case receptionist took their paper and stamped "MISSION COMPLETE" on it and stored the paper in a file marked 'Agents Saikachis and Bad Hacker'.
Well it seems that Sai did a good job bringing the chapter to you guys like I asked. And as he said, please leave a review, it motivates me to write more and therefore get chapters out quicker.
Anyway, looks like Sai and Bad Hacker's first mission was a success, but what will be down the road for them? What kind of missions will they face in the coming chapters? Leave a review with your answer and you'll help with the storyline.
Until next time,
MORE MEDABOTS! MORE POWER!