A/N: Looks like I'm back for not only UR, but also ToonSchool! Last time, the Runners got a mission involving a secret A.I. project being stolen from the space station. Will they retrieve it back before the robbery gets out of the world to hear it? Find out right now!
You, Robot: Part 2
At the Hilton LAX Hotel, the Runners are currently in a backstage tour as Jordan's mom promised.
"And here is where the models will prepare themselves before they strut their stuff," the tour guide explained to the kids.
"Nice!" Itzal said as the group continued with the tour.
"This is the place where the designer clothing that the models wear is kept."
"Wow," Jordan said staring at all of her mom's designer dresses. "These are amazing!"
"Yeah, and I bet you'd look just slimming in one of those dresses," Itzal said slyly.
"Itzal!" Jordan exclaimed with a blush.
"And this is the stage where the model bare it and the people snap and stare it."
"Intriguing," Zeus said. A young model then came from backstage and started practicing walking down the catwalk stage.
"Hey there," Zeus said to her.
"Hi," the model said as she continued to strut…right of the edge of the stage. The Runners and guide rushed to her aid.
"I'm really sorry," Zeus said as they helped her up. "I shouldn't have distracted you."
"It's alright," the model said. "I'm kinda new at this."
"This is Zoe," the guide said, "One of the rookie models. She's from Minnesota. These are Mrs. Waters' daughter Jordan and her friends Itzal and Zeus"
"Nice to meet you guys," Zoe said as she started walking with a slight limp. "Now would you mind helping me get backstage, I need to get some ice for my leg."
"Sure," Itzal said as the Runners took hold of her and helped her backstage to the models dressing room. Upon getting there, however they saw a person in a hooded sweater rummaging around a model's purse and table.
"Hey who are you?" Jordan shouted. The person quickly over their shoulder and then started to run.
"Hey stop!" Zeus shouted.
"I'll call security," Zoe said as she sat at her table and grabbed her cell phone. Jordan, Itzal, and Zeus ran after the hooded person, chasing them out of the dressing room, through the stage area, to outside the hallway and out of the hotel. The person then turned a corner, and when the Runners turned the same corner, the person was gone.
"Hey where'd he go?" Zeus asked in puzzlement.
"I dunno," Jordan told them. The Runners went back into the hotel to the model's prep area where Zoe was with several security guards.
"He got away," Itzal told.
"Well, do you kids know what he was doing here?" a guard asked.
"No just that he was in that purse over there," Jordan said pointing at the purse.
"That's Elly's purse," Zoe said as the other guard searched it. He then pulled out a bunch of small pieces of paper
"Looks like letters," the guard said curiously.
Curious, Jordan takes a closer look at the letters and noticing the designs on them.
"More like love letters to me," Jordan said.
"Someone's got a crush on her?" Itzal asked.
"Don't know, but whoever sent these is consider a stalker. We'll confiscate these for her safety," the guard said as he took the letters away, unknown to them that Jordan snatched one of them.
"Sorry about that, kids. You better meet up with Ms. Waters, she might looking for you," Zoe said to the Runners.
"Right, see ya Zoe," Jordan said as she and the boys left the backstage area and walked through the audience area. Mrs. Waters stood at the entrance waiting.
"Hey, what's going on?" she asked. "I was one the phone with the caterer and I heard that security was called."
"We caught some hooded dude was caught rummaging in Elly's purse," Jordan explained. "We chased him down but he managed to get away."
"Well, did he take anything?"
"Left something actually," Zeus explained. "Love letters."
"Security says it could be a stalker," Itzal said.
"Hmm, well sound to me like I'll have to beef up security for the show. In the meantime you guys best get home now, okay?"
"Sure, see ya Mom," Jordan said as the trio left.
At the lobby, the Runners were about to leave the hotel when Zeus notices something in Jordan's hands.
"Jordan, is that one of the love letters from earlier?" he asked in shock.
"Sorry about that, but something's not right about this," Jordan said in a grim tone.
"What's wrong about it? Maybe someone's in love with her," Itzal said in a casual, but serious tone. "Like the cops said, it's just a stalker."
"Doubt it. No one ever really can get near her since, as one of my mom's top models she always has a large security team where ever she goes," she explained. "Plus, she's a very private person, rarely talks about her personal life, is extremely private about whom she dates, and careful with who she meets."
"Wow, sounds like a real introvert," Zeus said. "And yet she's not afraid to flaunt her body infront of hundred of people and cameras."
"Hey the world of modeling is a mysterious place, even for me."
"Hmm... Maybe we can investigate more backstage with my spy gadgets," Itzal suggested.
"Uh, even I approved using WOOHP gadgets in our Runner missions, I reject them using them in personal ones," Jordan said in worry.
"Who says I'm going to using the ones from WOOHP?" Itzal said with a sneaky grin. "But let's do that AFTER we finish a personal mission for Ms. Tina's friend."
"But how do we even enter a underground robot battle club in ULO if we don't even know where it is? Although I know a lot of mini-games in ULO, I never heard about that battle mini-game," Zeus said. "Even I can't even search online."
As the Runners try to think up a plan to find the club that their target is in, Itzal suddenly have an idea and says, "Maybe my informer might know where it is."
"You have an informer?" Zeus asked in confusion.
"Don't forget, I'm a PKer. I sometimes need an informer to get to know my targets and enemies, maybe mine can track that underground club that Emilie just entered."
"Great thinking, Itzal!" Jordan said in excitement.
"Thanks..." Itzal said as he secretly blushes at her compliment.
"Until his informer finishes tracking the club, we need to log in to check our equipment for any surprise ambushes," Zeus suggested.
"Won't need to, Z. In fact, after we log in, I need to buy something from the secondhand store first," Jordan said with a grin, confusing Zeus and Itzal.
Meanwhile, back in the Mid-School Lounge at Fils-Aime Moffitt School, Calla was still trying to help Layla with getting Hatsune Miku virtual concert tickets.
"Okay, here we are in ," Calla said. "Now I happen to have a connection with one of the guys behind the scenes of the concert, and he uses this site all the time."
"What's your connection to him?" Layla asked.
"He's a techie-whiz who helped my parents with special effects for my grandmother's 80th birthday two years ago," Calla replied. "He then left to work for…"
"Well, well, well," a snide voice said out loud. Calla and Layla turned to see a 13 year-old boy wearing Hatsune Miku hat, shirt, pants, and shoes. "If it isn't Ms. Song-Stress."
"What do you want, Kevin?" Layla asked with an annoyed sigh.
"Oh, just was gonna rub the fact that I have the best concert seats in the whole venue in your face, so… haw-haw," Kevin said as he waved the tickets he had in Layla's face.
"Real mature Kevin," she said annoyed.
"What are you doing anyhow?"
"Trying to get tickets to the Hatsune Miku concert."
"They're sold out, remember?"
"Yes, but my friend Calla's got a connection," Layla stated.
"Even so, you'll probably end up sitting so far back, you won't be able to see the light show," Kevin sneered.
"Look Kevin, If your not gonna help, get lost," Layla growled.
"Fine. See you at the show I hope…not!" Kevin cackled as he walked away.
"Who was that?" Calla asked.
"Kevin McManus, Hatsune Miku superfan and class A jerkface," Layla said. "Man, he gets on my nerves."
Then, the girls saw Lena and her posse putting up a mocking drawings of Calla on the lockers, much to her frustration.
"Welcome to my world," she said in dismay to Layla before she left the lounge to remove the posters on the lockers.
At the city of Albus in ULO, Itzal and Zeus are waiting for Jordan at the Central Park, who are still confused at what she was currently doing right now.
"What's taking her so long?" Itzal asked in worry.
"She said that she's buying something to gain us access to that underground robot battle club?" Zeus answered. "But I'm more stumped than you, Itzal."
Then, they quickly saw Jordan running to them as she cries out, "Sorry I'm late!"
As she tries to catch her breath, Zeus asks, "Where have you been? Did you stop to do a secondhand shop's quest on the way here?"
"No, but I got something better," she said as she pulls out something from her inventory screen. "Ta-da! A robot of my own!"
Seeing the homemade robot like Bren's in the real world, but better, Zeus then remarks, "You let us wait to let you buy a robot?!"
"Hey, it's an underground robot battle club! If it's an underground club, then I have a feeling that the members in it will take robot battles very seriously."
"She might have a point there," Itzal said to Zeus. "Reminds me of the time I infiltrated a underground racing circuit to investigate sabotage."
Seeing that he has no other choices, Zeus sighs and said, "I'll take your word for it. But the question is, did your informer found the club's HQ?"
"Yeah. As the name says, it's at the hidden underground area of the Albus subway," he explained.
"Then that's where we're headed, come on!" Jordan said as she and her friends head off to their destination.
Back in the Mid-School Lounge, Calla and Layla had been searching for Calla's connection with the concert tickets.
"Okay here we are," Calla said as she pulled up the person's profile.
"Now ask him if he can score those tickets," Layla said excited.
"Hmm," Calla said as she looked at his status. "He's offline at the moment."
"So we wait…however long it takes."
Back in you ULO, in the Albus subway, the Runners came across an elevator. Itzal pressed the button to go down. A mechanical eye poked out of the ceiling and stared at the three.
"Password?" a techno-like voice said.
"Saw Cut," Itzal said.
"Password Accepted."
The elevator doors opened. The Runners walked in and rode the elevator down several floors. When the doors opened, the trio found themselves in a large arena-like area with a bunch of other avatars surrounding a pit. Inside the pit, two robots were doing battle as the avatars cheered them on.
"All right, yeah," a girl's voice shouted. The Runners looked and saw the girl who shouted and noticed just like Emilia. Jordan walked up to her.
"Um, Emilia?" Jordan asked.
"Actually in here I'm known as Rini. Who's asking?" the avatar replied.
"I'm Crystal Aquilla. In the real world, I'm known as Jordan Waters. I'm a friend of Dr. Taylor's."
"Dr. Taylor, huh? Cool. How is she?"
"Well she sent me and my friends here to find you. She needs help regarding Dr. Brown…"
"Not Cool," Rini said as she started acting hostile. "No way will I have anything to do with that hack Harold Brown. BEN!"
The Runners heard loud stomping. They turned to see a large hulking avatar carrying a robot, causing them to gasp in horror.
"Who the heck is that?" Itzal asked.
"My boyfriend, Ben," Rini said.
"Are you here to talk or bot battle?" Ben said.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to greet us like normal people?!" Jordan said in annoyance. "Plus, although I'm really annoyed that this battle robots thing really gets serious like in some toy animes, but can't you guys have fun and be happy with your robots the way they are?"
However, Ben angrily glares at her as he says, "Listen, missy. This is a battle royal for dignity and honor of your robot's heart and soul, so if you don't like this, I suggest you leave and go back to your pretty princess club around here."
Upon hearing this, Jordan is now enraged by those nicknames.
"Uh oh, I know that look anywhere," Itzal said with little fear. "I saw it from my sister."
"So let me ask again, do you want to talk or battle?"
"Battle, duh," Jordan as she pulled out her newly bought bot, now completely enraged, much to Itzal and Zeus's dismay.
A few minutes later, in the battle pit, the two had set their bots up to battle.
"Are you sure about this, Jordan?" Zeus asked anxiously. "You've never bot battled for real, remember?"
"Come on, how is the real different from the virtual?" Jordan confidently asked. "Besides, nobody calls me missy and mocks me right in public!"
"I'm afraid I'd asked," he said in dismay, remembering several times she's been enraged, especially before she was a Runner.
An alarm sounded and Ben's large bot sprung into action, springing a saw blade from its arms. Jordan's bot quickly took off at high speed in the other direction, with Ben's bot following close behind trying to smash it. Jordan, using what little expertise she had, managed to avoid every strike.
Jordan eventually lead Ben's bot to run right into a wall, destroying it's buzz saw blade. It soon recovered and the chase began again. Jordan then tried the same trick again, but this time, the robot grabbed the wall and flipped itself over.
"Whoa, the robot learns as it rumbles," Itzal said astonished. ''It's practically…"
"Artificial intelligence," Jordan finished for him. As she said that, Ben's bot suddenly hit Jordan's bot, sending it flying into the pit wall and smashing it and putting it out of commission.
"Aw, geez," Jordan said as Ben's bot picked up and waved hers all around in victory.
"Your bot can think for itself," Jordan asked Emilia. "Where'd you get it?"
"Not the Space Center if that's what you're inferring," Emilia replied.
"Are you calling Emilia a thief?" Ben asked, getting angry. "Nobody insults my girl."
Ben's bot then hands Jordan's bot back to her.
"Goodbye," he said as the other avatars, now angry, surrounded the three.
"Get out, get out, get out!" they chanted as the three backed away and slipped out through the door.
"Now what?" Itzal asked in dismay.
"I got a suggestion," Jordan said as she quickly pulls out both of her sword and staff, still enraged from the battle. "Aqua Freeze Bla-"
However, Zeus stops her from calling her strongest skill as he says, "Okay! No destroying virtual underground clubs, please! We're going to be in big trouble for this. Plus, it will take a while to rebuild this area's data if you did. We have no choice but to log off and think up a strategy to recover the prototype later."
"I guess you're right," Jordan said, upset. "Man, this is even more frustrating than the fashion show mystery."
"Why's that?" Itzal asked.
"Well all I know is, the letters found in Elly's purse were from a guy named Ace."
"So she's having an affair with this guy," Zeus said.
"It's rumored. But Elly refuses to comment on it since she's very private."
"Well that certainly doesn't help her much," Itzal said.
"I know. I say we have another look at this," Jordan said. "Let's get out of here."
Having no choice but to log off for now, they disappeared in data as they returned to the real world.
Back at the lounge, the girls are snoring to sleep, due to waiting for Calla's friend to log in. Until they quickly heard some construction noises, startling them awake. When they turned around, they noticed it's actually Bren and Andre working the robot earlier.
"Seriously, repairing a robot in a lounge?!" Calla said in annoyance.
"Hey, it's not repairing! It's modifying!" Andre protested.
"To be specific, modifying it for more bad boy weapons for the bad boy royal!" Bren added as they do a fist bump.
"Well do you mind keeping it down," Calla said. "We're waiting for a friend of mine to come online."
"Oh he came on about twenty minutes ago," Andre said.
"What?," the girls said. They look at the page and saw that Calla's friend was now online.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE US?!" they screamed.
"Cause you two looked so cute when you were asleep," Andre said.
The girls are flattered by this as Calla says, "Aww, that's so sweet! We're flattered by that compliment."
Then she quickly grabs a fighting staff from a nearby wushu kid who is practicing in the lounge, which she spins it in anger before aiming it to the boys.
"And angry for not waking us up sooner!" Calla said in anger.
Before the boys knew it, they were running from the lounge before the girls can get out of their seats.
In the hallways of Hilton PAX Hotel, some security guards are guarding the entrance of the function room where the fashion show takes place when Jordan, Itzal, and Zeus appeared in the corner of the hallways.
"Why are we sneaking inside the function room again?" Zeus said in confusion.
"Because, tonight is where the fashion models go home after dress rehearsals except Elly, who is having a private photo shoot right now," Jordan explained. "But, he's right, you know. Sneaking into a model's dressing room? My mom's going to kill me if she finds out about this."
"Don't worry, we'll just go in and out without anyone noticing us," Itzal said to his friends.
"Okay, but what's you're plan to get in there? Like I said, WOOHP gadgets will get us in trouble instead of helping us like in your missions."
"Did you forget that I'm not using them this time?"
He then pulls out some kind of RC helicopter from his bag and with a push of a power button from his remote, Itzal flies the helicopter to the guards, causing them to notice it and starts chasing the flying helicopter, leaving their posts in the process.
"RC helicopters, great subsitutes for spy gadgets."
"Nice job!" Jordan complimented him. "Where did you get that helicopter anyway?"
"Toy stores. Along with RC vehicles, I usually use toy spy gadgets like Spy Bag to substitute them as my gadgets when I'm investigating as a -Dark Reaper-," Itzal explained.
"Impressive, you are a boy wonder, you know," Jordan said with a blush.
"Thank you," Itzal said, blushing in return. "Now let's get in there."
The three Runners quietly entered the function room, while the photo shoot was going on and snuck backstage, catching a glimpse of Elly's photo shoot in the process. Once backstage, in the dark, Itzal handed them all Night-Vision Goggles, to enable them to see. He then handed them each an Evidence Kit. They then crept towards Elly's desk and started looking for clues.
"Well, nothing on the ground," Zeus said, searching the floor.
"Nothing on her desk either," Itzal said, looking through her desk.
Jordan looked through Elly's purse and found a bunch of pictures. Looking through the pictures, she found a recent one of Elly with a handsome-looking man. Written above on the picture was, Me and my Ace.
"Hey guys I thin we found a face for Mr. Ace," she said. The boys looked up and saw the picture.
"Good-looking dude, if you ask me," Itzal said. Jordan looked through the pics again and found another one a few years older, with Elly and another model hugging.
"Looks like a BFF here too," Zeus pointed out.
"That's Victoria Breaux, one of my mom's old top models," Jordan recognized her. "She was a real perfectionist, I remember. With her everything had to be just right, especially her figure."
"What happened to her," Itzal asked.
"I can't remember. She left several years ago for some reason, can't remember what though."
Jordan then shifted through the pics again and saw one with Elly, Victoria, and Ace, but this time, Ace was embracing Victoria instead.
"Whoa, this dude knows both of them," Itzal said as he snapped a pic with his Capture Cam.
"He's probably seeing them both at the same time two," Zeus pointed out. "Or one of the girls is knowingly going behind the other's back with their man."
"Well I can't recall when this photo was taken, but it looks recent, so it's possible… but Elly would never…"
"HEY YOU, KIDS!" an angry voice screamed. The lights went on, and the kids turned to see several guards looking very peeved. "What are you doing back here?"
"Just, uh, trying to help, with the investigation of the recent break-in," Jordan said as they all grinned sheepishly. Next thing the three knew, they found themselves being literally thrown out of the function room by the guards.
"Leave the police work to the police, okay!" the head guard said.
"Well, that was a lot of fun," Itzal said.
"Big time," Zeus agreed. "But sneaking into the function room gives me an idea. Let's get back online and recover that A.I."
"I hope it doesn't involved bodyguards this time," Jordan said in worry and she and Itzal followed Zeus.
Back in Albus, it's already nighttime and in the underground subway, the three familiar avatars sneak in, avoiding the NPC guards and arriving the same door they gone earlier.
"Password?"
"Saw Cut?," Itzal said
"Password Denied."
"Aw man, they must have changed the password," Jordan
"Okay, so how do we open the lock?" Zeus asked.
"With this," Itzal said as he pulled out a cell-phone like device. "The Portable Code Breaker. Built by my informer. Illegal in the game, but useful for me and right now, this."
He then attached it to the door and activates it. The code breaker zipped through the complex security system and soon cracked the code, opening the door.
"Sweet," Jordan said as they walked in and rode the elevator down several floors to th battle club. Once exiting, they discovered the battle club empty. They silently snuck around the club, glancing around at all of the offline robots.
"Be careful, guys," Jordan said. "Know these guys this place could be laid with…"
Suddenly, Itzal accidentally stepped on a hidden switch, triggering an alarm.
"Traps!" Jordan finished. At that moment, all of the robots in the club came online and remotely advanced on the three Runners, weapons ready for extermination.
"Robot attack!" Zeus shouted in panic.
The Runners huddled together as the robots surrounded them.
A/N: Yikes! Virtual robots now have the Runners surrounded! Will they ever get out of there in one piece? Find out in the last part of You, Robot!
