Telly Vision was talking with Mrs. Sanderson as she scrubbed dishes in the sink. She said the chore was easier with a friendly voice nearby, and Telly was happy to talk both her ears off, sometimes inquiring about things he saw on TV. He only stopped his mindless chatter when Mrs. Sanderson asked a basic question;
"Telly, have you seen Chibi-Robo around here?"
He was about to answer cheerfully, saying that he was probably just around finding and cleaning up messes as usual, but then he actually thought about it. Normally, one of his sensors could tell him where Chibi was and a general idea of what he was doing around the house, but that sensor came up blank. He felt his eyes shrink to reflect his sudden shock and worry.
That could only mean one thing.
Chibi-Robo was not in the house.
"Telly?" Mrs. Sanderson turned to the tiny robot when his chatter ceased, "What's wrong?"
"Ch-Ch-Chibi..." Telly stammered, trying to think of a reason his Chibi-Sensor was blank. A malfunction? An error? A virus in his system? No, they were working fine, they just couldn't find their target.
Oh no...
How far away was he?
Was he ok? Was he lost and alone?
Was he...
broken?
Tiny sweat marks flew off of Telly as he shouted, "I have to find Chibi-Robo!"
And he was gone before Mrs. Sanderson could inquire further.
Chibi-Robo did one more sweep of the room before he lay on the ground, putting one foot on his knee. It was now just past evening, when he would normally hear Telly cheerfully announce the end of the day. Oh, how he missed his old friend. Since he was first built, Telly was always there, encouraging him. He was annoying sometimes, but Chibi's job and life would be very dull without the constant chatter of his best friend. What was the human term? Maybe they were even like...brothers...?
Ugh...Chibi couldn't stay in one place for too long. He had cleaned the classroom from front to back - that would be a nice surprise for the teacher in the morning - for lack of anything else to do. The teacher had a lamp on her desk, with a cord extending down to the outlet below, so Chibi was able to climb up on top of the desk. He even spent two minutes scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain. What was that anyway, coffee?
His logic was that if he stayed in the classroom all night, Jenny would come back in the morning and he could go home, but there was a fear tugging at the back of his mind. What if Jenny didn't come back? What if she only needed this class one day and then she would head somewhere else? And what if someone else found him and tried to take him to their home? He might never see his family again!
He couldn't take it anymore. He needed to get out.
He found that earlier, the teacher had closed the blinds, so it would be tricky to climb out the window. He couldn't fit under the door, though, and it was locked, so the only other way out was the window. He looked up at it. It was so high! How could he get to it?
After a bit more thinking, he got an idea. He managed to climb up the back of the chair closest to the window, (it was very tricky) and got up to the seat. He crouched a moment to "catch his breath", so to speak, then he looked up. He was closer now. He just needed to reach the cord for the blinds and he would be home-free.
It was so far away, though...
He thought that if he could get up here, he would be able to use his Chibi-Copter to hover to the cord, but from this view, that seemed impossible. Even from the edge of the seat, the cord was nearly four feet away, and it was two feet higher than him. Even with all the luck in the world, he wouldn't be able to reach it. Then he got another idea.
He reached up as high as his arms would allow and scrambled up onto the wooden plank connected to the chair that acted as the desk. He nearly fell, but he used all the strength of his thin metal arms to hoist himself up. He was a bit closer, but it was still too far.
It was then that Chibi's vision began to flash red.
Ugh! His power was low! He had received an infini-battery from his alien friends, but he had broken it in a dangerous episode a few months ago, so it had to be replaced with a normal battery. He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to charge before his dangerous climb.
He only had 20 watts to get out the window and find another outlet, or else use the outlet near the floor and have to climb the desk all over again. Why didn't he charge beforehand!?
He reasoned out that the building must have an outlet outside somewhere, so he decided that climbing the desk twice wasn't worth the certainty. He hoped he was right. After he made that deduction, he pulled out his blaster and shot the cord. It swung back a bit. Once it swung in his direction, he shot it again. He continued this process until the cord was scraping against the wall, swinging back and forth somewhat violently. Because of this, it was just out of Chibi's reach. Frustrated, he shot again and again, until small dents began to form on the wall behind the swinging cord. Finally, Chibi simply jumped when it was close to him.
He realized his mistake a second too late. Why didn't I use my copter!?
He grabbed the cord with one hand, (his blaster was still in his other) sliding down until he was at the bottom. He clung to it and squeezed his little eyes shut, fearful of hitting the ground and having to start all over. When he felt the jostling subside, he found that he was only a couple inches off the ground. It seemed that when he slid down the cord, it opened the blinds. Huh.
By this point though, he only had 2 watts left, and the nearest outlet was a few feet away.
He carefully climbed down and stepped forward.
2.1
Closer...
1.7
Almost...
1.2
It was there, so close, but Chibi already felt his system shutting down...
0.3
0.2
0.1
It was too far. Chibi couldn't make it to the outlet on time. He would simply die here, or someone else would find him and take him away.
0
He hoped at the very least for the latter option...