WALL-E jumped on the back of the cart with the cargo, and then they were on their way. Telly decided to stay behind with Rose, waving once the three of them were almost out of sight. Chibi was captivated by all the technology on the Axiom, just looking at all the lights and moving patterns. There wasn't a lot actually going on, but he imagined that this used to be a bustling metropolis. Leah led the cart to a room labeled, RESEARCH LAB in bold letters, and began loading the robots off the cart. WALL-E helped out a little, but he was mostly looking over Chibi, curiosity evident in his eyes.
Chibi instead turned his attention to Leah, who moved the robots through the scanner on the machine in the room. She worked quickly and efficiently, her eyes sharp with concentration. Chibi was frozen in silent awe as she typed on the computer so fast her hands were just a blur in Chibi's vision. It nearly made his head spin. After one final click of the keyboard, she hovered back to the cart, "Alright, you two! Let's head back!"
WALL-E gave Chibi a strange look before jumping back on the cart. Meanwhile, Chibi was mystified. He made a typing motion with his arms.
"Oh, that." Leah smiled sheepishly, "I'm a programmer. I word with code like an artist with paint."
Chibi widened his eye as the cart pulled out, then he glared at her.
"What?"
The cart wheeled through the ship while Leah returned Chibi's incredulous stare, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Chibi didn't break eye-contact while he retrieved the notepad from before. He finally looked away so he could write, talant speceal!
"Oh...oh, um..." Leah scratched the back of her head nervously, "Plenty of robots can program, it's not that special a skill..."
Chibi just narrowed his eyes again before drawing a picture of a flower and another of a computer. Then, he put an equals sign between them.
Both are special. Both are important.
Leah sighed, "Chibi..."
He waved his arm in the air to shush her, then he put away his things. The rest of the ride back was quiet.
Leah was thinking. She had never told anyone her insecurities before, not even Rose, who she considered her closest friend.
Well, she wasn't super close with anyone really...
She didn't understand why she trusted Chibi with such information. Sure he was quiet, but that didn't mean he couldn't communicate. Maybe she was tired of keeping those thoughts to herself, or maybe she just knew that Chibi would understand and tell her that she was actually special.
She admired him.
Maybe a little more than she was fully aware of.
"More and more of them are appearing out of nowhere." EVE was talking about the attackers, "If this keeps up, we might have to halt construction!"
"Well, what do we do about it?" Rose asked.
"Well, Wall-E actually noticed something that I can't believe I missed!" EVE massaged her forehead, "But all the robots are coming from the same place...A7-B2-CAS."
"That ship!?" Leah exclaimed, trembling, "Oh no..."
Chibi noticed her distress, using his Chibi-Radar to grab her attention.
"Oh, Chibi..." Leah seemed startled, but she didn't comment on it, "That ship declared war on us!"
He felt as though he'd been punched in the gut. They declared war!?
"Yeah. I know." Leah watched EVE console the humans, "It was really hard on all of us...so many people and robots died...it'll take a long time to recover from that tragedy..."
Chibi didn't know how to respond to that.
"That sounds horrible!" Telly told her, "I'm sorry for your loss..."
"It's fine, it happened years ago..." Leah shook her head, "Nevermind. I wonder what EVE is thinking of...?"
Whatever it was, Chibi was ready to help.
"Oh! Leah!" EVE jumped to her, "Your hacking skills will come in handy here. Everyone else, back to work, protect the humans and each other, blah blah, okay, let's go."
Leah lagged behind EVE so she could whisper to Chibi, "Yeah, she doesn't mess around..."
He couldn't suppress a mute laugh.