I. At the entrance of Middle Zephyron, late evening…
"What do you mean we can't enter?"
Hogarth and the Giant had been halted by the Giant's own clones… two new ones.
His other two flight clones had been ordered back by two green-suited border guards.
"I don't understand," the robot spoke to them. He took a moment to raise his eyes to see the city he had left behind in it's earliest stage. Beautiful, colorful brick houses, roads that looked like something out of the Wizard of Oz and silvery metal structures that emanated white light on the city were behind the officials and their droids. "I've always had access."
"Things changed after you left." A brown-haired woman said. She was slim but well into her thirties or early forties. "Before the World Affairs Council retired they mandated that in order to be sure no more Kina clones were produced, only your droids were allowed into Middle to Upper Zephyron. It is a Zephyron ordinance that must be adhered to sir."
"You still have access to the North Atlantic." Her lanky friend suggested with a bored shrug. "Various spots in the world are currently uninhabited." he perked up a bit as he gradually noticed the outsiders' discontentment. "We have posers who claim to be the Iron Giant all the time, with retired people claiming to be Garth Hughes." He started smiling in remembrance. "I have even seen where they have aged their droid's metal."
"I've seen that too," the Giant added. "With the cars I work on, it devalues the-,"
"How do we get out of here?" Hogarth put an end to their chit chat. "Sorry, pal. But we've got to get out of here and find those kids. Um… how can we get out of here?"
"The Council decreed that Abba would have to be called forth for verification," The woman nodded to her droid. He took off on his jet feet. "I am very sorry," she turned back to them. "But you leaving, Garth Hughes, depends entirely on whether the Giant
can pass through or not. It's one of the few rules we were left to follow. I apologize."
"It's not your fault," the man past the two instantly wary guards and peered up at the
city. "It's those damn Council members. They almost cost me my trip home last time."
"Wait a minute…" The Giant stepped up to them more assertively. His eyes started to narrow and Hogarth was quick to be alerted to this; He loved it when his pal stopped being so humble and passive and took charge. "I don't remember the Council making anymore decrees after they commissioned for four new cities to be built around Earth,
and that was just a few days after Hogarth returned to the past." As the guards moved back he moved forward. "I also recall the Council retiring two years after the previous event I mentioned. So how could a new decree have been made after I left when there
were no Council members left to make any sort of ordinance or decree? Explain that."
He looked to Hogarth who nodded.
"You're boned. You're busted. You're bone-busting bozos. Now we want the truth."
"The truth…?" Brown-haired woman looked to her no longer bored friend.
He looked to her and then back to the suspicious pair:
"Regardless of factual words or events, you must wait for Abba."
"Let's go," Hogarth boarded the Giant's hand and he started to past them when his two clones blocked his way. He asked for them to move. They didn't. "What happened IG? I thought you of all people would have seen the need for change. Aren't we equals now?"
"Taylor was the one who saw the need for change," The Giant admitted to him. "I didn't get in their way, Hogarth. I was sure robots and humans would reach equality together."
"Alone?"
"Yes." He was ashamed.
"That did not go accordingly." Guard woman said.
The Giant and Hogarth turned back to them.
"You must wait for Abba," the male guard was now serious. "It could take all night."
II. – On the Iron Rails, ten minutes from Upper Zephyron…
In the cool atmosphere that was sustained by air specialists - first restored by the Robocity robots who performed an oxygen-restoring function thirty years earlier- a figure flew high in the night sky. The moon glowed at a normal height and size with occasional gray cloud wisps around it. Whatever was flying cast a fleeting shadow that ducked for the darkness.
On a long chrome track a single silver bullet part passenger, part cargo train sped along the sparse but occasionally flower-bedded countryside. The figure in the sky now moved closer to the Iron Rails and the moon reflected a strange orange gleam against it. As the three flashes of moon, chrome and creature lit up, a purple glow pulsed inside the train.
Whatever the sky flyer was caught hold of the gleaming box car and forced it back with it's bare hands. The sudden force caused sparks to fly up instantly, these were not from wheels as the train moved on air jets but the metal-to-metal of the other cars slamming into one another. Whoever was in charge of the train tried forcing it forward but all the
air power within the machine could not stop the creature who now bound it into place.
With it's two hands the creature broke the box car apart as easily as breaking a piggy bank and plucked the contents from inside. Yelling and angered comments in Ominish made the creature raise it's head. Green eye lights roved from the back of it's big face where it had been hiding them. Once it realized that the conductors were coming the creature flew off.
"What was that?" A crippled, white-haired man in the standard Zephyron uniform asked.
He and his friend were one of the few who had resisted forced retirement.
"You will not believe this, but it looked to be a giant… metal… woman."
…
It was early night and the two boys were snuggled up next to Pygmy. After complaining about being hungry, crying and then fighting over who was going to be the guardian and watch out for everyone, they had finally fallen asleep. Ivan found that even after so many years of being in hibernation he needed rest too, so now he sat inside of a blue force field.
He would start first thing in the morning and find Abba, than he would procure what he needed to take back to the past for his mother - the memory box - and then leave these utterly useless beings behind. The boy-appearing man would need to take Pygmy so he could travel fast and efficiently but that was it. That was all this droid could do. In the heaps of junk surrounding them Ivan Grant could make out the city he sensed his half sister was in. She would have the object he required and would be a great participant.
"That is more then can be said for these infidels," He muttered.
"You are looking for Abba." A female voice spoke.
He immediately looked up and the force field blitzed away from him.
"Who." The child man backed away across the dirt floor he sat on. "Who are you?"
"Someone seeking to restore their loved one…" A droid stepped out of the shadows which arched around them. "… Someone who needs help in doing so." She stomped
up and didn't seem to be bothered that a rival female droid was awakened. "And, my young dear, someone who can take you to Abba. I know her. I can explain every last detail to the both of you." The bot bent down. "I also hold the item you are seeking."
Ivan's eyes went wide as the blue of his markings came alive underneath his clothes. It seemed to light up his dead soul and brighten up the blue irises he had inherited from
his father. Jean and Taylor awakened now as the purple of a strange box and stone in
the robot's hand glowed as well. In that instant Pygmy and the droid connected eyes.
"If you want my help," she brought the items back. "You will take control of Pygmy."
"Or how about I just take control of you?" Ivan spun his silver rod around like a baton.
When it stopped the serious glimmer in the droid's green eyes caused him to stop as well.
"I know far more than you, boy." She said in a chilly tone. Her eyebeams weren't bright enough to light up their surroundings as Pygmy's light yellow ones were. "I suggest you take control of Pygmy and trace my whereabouts down to the center of the city. If I find you have not followed my command by morning, you will never again see your mother."
"Why are you so mean?.!" Taylor cried out. "Ivan didn't do anything to you!"
His brother cupped his mouth.
"Jean." He complained from under the older boy's palm.
"I reiterate," The female droid turned back to Ivan sharply. "You have until morning to take hold of Pygmy and meet me in the center of this city or none of you shall ever see your families again," She melded back into the shadows, "I will not hesitate to destroy."
They waited until the deep green of her eyes were gone and she took off on silent jets.
"So how 'bout now Ivan?" Jean asked his speechless second cousin, "Do you still know everything or is the real world startin' to suck paint balls? Hurts to be bullied, doesn't it?"
"Are you gonna hurt Pygmy?" Taylor whimpered as he clung to his brother.
He was silent for a moment, his back stood solemnly to them. "No," Ivan Grant turned to face the two. "My mission is now null and void," his eyes - alive but still slightly robotic - rose to meet Pygmy's. "It appears I was wrong. Please, I do not wish for the young boys to die. Take them far away and back to the wormhole's opening. I will go solo for this."
"No." Pygmy knelt down as the boys boarded her hands. "We can do this as siblings."
Ivan's face grew wary. "We are not equals or siblings, please take these boys home."
"No," the droid argued defiantly, "I am not taking them home. I want to see Abba too."
He considered this a moment. "Fine. We will travel together and face our fate as a unit."
Jean and Taylor exchanged looks of uncertainty at this.
"Uh… don't we get a say in this?" The oldest of the brothers asked.
"No." Ivan said.
…
There was a light rap against the window of Abba's room… on the fourth floor. At the prospect of what a knock at such staggering heights might mean, the woman spread her arms out and the motion sensors lit up the room from the silver poles running along the ceiling. When someone made the sign known as "Wing Blades" the metal fan generators beneath the homes would send beads of air to seventy indoor electricity-free light globes.
"I love Crystal Lighters," Abba said to herself. "But Globe Lighters work too."
She stepped over to the square pane of glass as a large shadow loomed outside.
"Hello?" the woman gently pushed the thin barrier - which acted like a revolving door - to the center. "Is someone out there?" A pair of familiar green eyes glowed dimly in her face.
"Abba," her mother spoke.
She gasped and fell to her butt.
"Now, now." Gold slipped a single finger into the opening and stroked Abba's cheek.
The woman sucked in air and laid her hand against the spot her mother had touched.
It was wet.
"No need to be afraid, my dear. I have come back for you."
"Mother." Abba said urgently and pressed the brass-colored finger to her cheek.
"I suspect you wonder what I am doing here?"
She nodded.
"Why, I am here to help you with the Android Marketer's project of course."
Something wasn't right, Abba moved away from her touch. "Where's Father?"
"He will come," Gold was loving but oddly coaxing, coercing, "In the meantime we must reconnect. Do you wish for this too?" The woman nodded again like the little girl she felt like, sniffed, then climbed into her mother's hand. She ignored the intent care and almost forced calmness the maternal droid seemed to exude. "Let us speak of the project, dear."
"How do you know of it Mother?" She realized that they had left the ground.
Gold calmly floated back down to Earth on her afterburners. Her eyes took on more of a passionate look as she gazed along the row of brick buildings they both knew housed an instrument of incredible power. Abba was blindsided by how much desire Gold had for it.
"Mother." She asked in concern. "Do you not care for me?"
When the droid turned to her again there was only love and devotion in her eyes. "Abba my dear, I have always cared you. I had to return with your father to bring Ivan along. He is your half-brother, as you have been told. This young man holds the blueprints we need to make our dreams come true." Gold turned excited and lifted her mandible so that her lower lids caused her eyes to appear smiling. "In the morning we will see your father, all of the droids will become human and we will all be a family… we will be human, Abba."
"You and Father?" She asked in amazement.
"Yes," Gold bent her head forward to rest against Abba's. "Human. Both your father and I will become human and we can be the family we couldn't be before." The droid swerved her eyes around. "I am well versed in this project, did you know that dear?" Abba gave an innocent shake of her head. "I was there when it was first made." Gold stepped over to the rooftop of the building directly in front of the one Abba had been in and placed her on top of it. "There is a trial version, Abba. A small test we can run before doing it tomorrow…"
Her green eyes swerved over to the side again just as a blue light flashed in the distance.
"Mother, who is that?"
"He is giving us permission to perform the trial version, Abba."
An orb of blue appeared before them both and a podium rose out of the building.
"It's transmuting…" The reddish-brown haired woman said in awe as the iron box formed fully in front of her and a dual-chambered canister of a more slick, silver metal opened. "I am to activate this Mother?" she turned to the droid who nodded. "Are we to view them?"
"No, my dear." Gold cupped her back. "Not until morning. The process of change is not yet known." She used her other hand to deposit a gray, red and yellow banded rock with what looked to be a veined box into Abba's. "Ironstone on top, memory box on bottom."
"Does this vessel contain the memory imprints?"
"Yes," The droid said. "Of course. All of the imprints of the elderly humans here are in that box and is powered by your father's raw iron material. Now, it will not work to it's fullest extent without your half-brother and all of the humans and his clones present but this crucial preview will help determine if it's safe. We will see another flash of blue for success." Abba stalled. "Go on, Dear. This is your time, your goals and dreams. Right?"
Her hesitation passed. "Right." She placed the items in and pushed the canister down.
A surge of blue light lit up underneath the buildings like an X-ray room. The light zapped away and zigzagged down an odd structure. The ground rumbled as an unholy machine up to this point only known as the Android Marketer's project came roaring to life. Abba had to fight to hang on as her "mother" backed away, not even sparing her old partner's only daughter a single glance. The blue light of the enormous metal machine grew brighter as the machine pulled itself from the ground. It ripped the metal fans and lights from every single home of Middle Zephyron and expanded to a towering height with white globes draping off of it like Christmas lights. Finally the giant sapphire sphere fizzled out and took off like an electrical charge to the entrance of the uprooted city for the preview Gold had spoken of. The ones targeted were Hogarth and Giant – It was a direct hit.
To be continued…
AN: Yes, I'm going somewhere with this. lol
~ Lavenderpaw ~