While the meeting was going on upstairs, Melanie and 505 were sitting on the couch while Sadie was waiting for her cue to dance, wearing her t-shirt and shorts from before with her bare feet poised on the ground.
"Ready?" Melanie asked, holding up the phone.
"You know it, sista!" cried Sadie happily. "Hit it!"
Melanie playfully rolled her eyes and played the song "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John on her phone.
Sadie swayed back and forth to the opening piano music.
The music attracted two Hat-Botlers who were rolling right outside the door. It had been so long since they heard that music that they couldn't help but roll to the door and let themselves in. Neither the girls nor 505 noticed.
"Blue jean baby! LA Lady! Seamstress for the band!"
Sadie bended over backwards until she was standing on her hands. Then she kicked her legs in the air and hand-walked in a circle.
"Pretty eyed! Pirate smile!"
Sadie laid on her stomach and started playfully voguing.
"You'll marry a music man!"
Sadie flew into the air to stand herself up and fluttered her hands playfully at her waist to simulate flying.
"Ballerina! You must've seen her! Dancing in the sand!"
Sadie balanced on one foot and twirled several times.
"And now, she's in me! Always with me! Tiny dancer in my hand!"
Sadie did a ballerina leap, waved her arms in a ska dance in place, and then pulled her arms inward while she did a split on the floor.
During the brief piano interval, Sadie held herself up on her hands, curled her legs under her, did a somersault forward, got to her feet, did a front flip, posed, did a back flip, and posed again.
"Quit showing off," Melanie teased.
Sadie stuck out her tongue at Melanie and continued dancing.
"Jesus Freaks! Out in the Street! Handing tickets out for God!"
Sadie held her hands together in a prayer gesture and strutted across the stage.
"Turning back! She just laughs! The boulevard is not that bad!"
Sadie backflipped on one hand, did a twirl, and did a fly girls hip hop dance move.
"Piano Man! He makes his stand! In the auditorium!"
Sadie did a piano playing motion with her hands and did a pirouette in place.
"Looking on! She sings the songs! The words she knows! The tunes she hums!"
Sadie leaped to the left and then to the right. Next, she rolled back onto the ground.
"But oh, how it feels so real! Lying here, with no one near! Only you and you can hear me! When I say softly, slowly!"
Sadie got on all fours and started stepping rhythmically with her legs. Her legs continued stepping while she telekinetically moved the upper half of her body so that she was standing up again.
"Hold me closer, tiny dancer! Count the headlights on the highway! Lay me down in sheets of linen! You had a busy day today! Hold me closer, tiny dancer! Count the headlights on the highway! Lay me down in sheets of linen! You had a busy day today!"
Sadie posed on one leg. Then she twirled multiple times in a circle and stretched her leg into a pirouette while allowing her puka eyes to glow red. Sadie's eyes then returned to normal as she leaped into an air split and landed on the ground on one foot. She then did a belly dance before she wrapped her arms around herself and laid on the ground again.
The dance repeated as the lyrics did while the two robots continued watching.
The two hat bots stared at each other. It wasn't long before other Hat Bots noticed the two distracted ones. Before anyone knew it, there was a whole audience at the open door.
The former henchmen and contractors watched Sadie dance in awe and in sadness.
The awe came from her skill as it had been years since any of them had watched a dancer in person. Demencia didn't count.
The sadness came as they remembered their own daughters, sons, nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, cousins, goddaughters, godsons, aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and friends they had seen dance in their own past lives that they would never see again.
Sadie posed as the music ended while Melanie and 505 clapped to the performance.
"How did you like it?" asked Sadie.
"I liked all the flips you added," said Melanie. "Even if you were showing off."
"Pfft!" Sadie spat her tongue. "You and your insults. Why must you insult me?"
"What?" asked Melanie. "I was teasing. I said I liked the flips."
"Sure, sure," Sadie said sarcastically.
505 then growled to get the girls' attention and gestured to the doorway.
The girls looked at the door and noticed the large group of robots watching from the doorway.
"Bollocks!" cried Sadie, flying in the air as her Irish accent got thicker. "What are you langers doing? Good God, the heads on you! The sea wouldn't give you a wave! Why don't ya pups just get?"
Despite only having understood about half of what she said, the robots scattered.
"Sadie, why would you say that?" asked Melanie.
"What? There was an ocean of those things. What did you expect me to do?" asked Sadie.
"I want to be nice to them, Sadie," Melanie chided before walking over to the open door. "Guys, wait. Come back!"
All the hat-botlers rolled down the hallway, except for one at the front who paused and let the others roll past him.
"What do you need, miss?" the hat-botler asked.
Melanie let an awkward pause pass before she stepped into the hall and found her words, "Uh…I don't need anything now, thanks, but I'd like to…uh…talk to you? Is that okay? You don't have to call me miss. It makes me sound like a teacher."
The hat-botler didn't have eyebrows, but Melanie could've sworn she saw him raise one.
"Alright…miss…what do you want to talk about?" asked the hat-botler.
Melanie paused again, took a deep breath, and said, "Well…okay. I just wanted to say that I know what Flug did to you and all the other hat-botlers and I'm sorry."
The hat-botler paused and rolled a few inches closer.
"Okay?" he said skeptically. "Did the doctor put you up to this?"
"Oh, no!" Melanie reassured him. "He doesn't even know we're talking right now! I swear!"
The hat-botler crossed his arms and asked, "Uh, huh. Then how do you know our secrets? Did Doctor Flug tell you? Does he want us to be involved in conducting some kind of psychological experiment again? Because I ain't volunteering for that…"
"I know your secrets because I read Flug's logbook when he wasn't looking!" Melanie interrupted out of annoyance. "I am not here by choice! My parents are villains. I am a Nunja hero. Black Hat and my Papi are 'brothers'. I've been imprisoned here because I refuse to be evil. My friend Sadie is here because she tried to save me. Neither of us are here because we want to be! None of us want to help Flug torture anybody either! All I wanted to say was that I read what happened to you and I'm really sorry. There's no way we can fix it, but I wanted to let you know you can hang out with us if you want to chill and forget about your miserable lives for a while. That's all."
The hat-robot let his arms fall to his side and said, "I see. Listen, kid. I need to make one thing clear. No matter how nice you are to us, we cannot help you. I'm sorry Black Hat has made you the doctor's latest reformation project. I really am. I've seen what he's done with rebellious kids before you and you have my pity. But none of us want to be heroes. We've lived through hell already and none of us want to go through it again. You and your friend are on your own."
"Oh, I know," Melanie said nonchalantly. "We don't expect you to break us out. We can't really help you either. We just want you to hang out with us and forget your troubles for a while."
The hat-botler's demeanor lit up and he looked back at her curiously.
"Why?" he asked.
Melanie thought for a moment and replied, "This will sound so weird. But I'm doing it because God loves me and you. He's brought me his presence, his love, a new family, friendship, redemption, salvation, a way out of this broken, depressing path my family is part of, and so much more. I know I can't do much for you, but if I give you even a little break from it, it's like I'm paying it forward. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, that makes sense," the hat-botler replied. "I used to be religious. I've given up on it for a while. I stopped praying a long time ago."
"There's no reason you can't start again," Melanie said before stopping herself. "Look, I don't want to sound like I'm forcing you to do anything you're not ready to do. God knows you've probably dealt with enough of that already. I'm just saying God is there and he's not like Black Hat, Flug, or Demencia. I know. I've seen him a bunch of times. He loves you and will welcome you if you come back to him. But no pressure. I'm not trying to be a Bible-thumper."
"You don't need to worry," said the hat-botler. "I don't peg you as one of the villains. You don't have to keep backtracking over what you say, chica."
"Oh," Melanie said, taking a breath to calm down her anxiety. "Okay."
"What's your name, kid?" asked the hat-botler.
"My name's Melanie," said Melanie. "What is yours?"
"Roberto," replied the hat-botler. "I know. I'm Roberto the Robot. It rolls off the tongue."
"So, would you like to hang out with us?" Melanie asked. "We know where to watch the VVV episode where Flug had to wrestle with the Mask."
Roberto perked up excitedly and said, "Why didn't you lead with that? Lead the way."
Melanie excitedly hopped in place and said, "Yay! Right this way!"
Roberto followed Melanie back into the main room where Sadie and 505 were hanging out on the couch.
"Welcome back," Sadie said before noticing the robot behind her. "Did you convince one of those poor souls to hang out with you?"
"This poor soul has a name," Roberto retorted. "I'm Roberto and I don't want pity from you."
"Ooooh, you're sassy. I love it!" Sadie cried, floating off the couch and over to Melanie and the robot. "Anyone who holds onto their pride in the darkest of circumstances is a cool person in my book. Good to meet you, Roberto. My name is Sadie."
"Not too bad yourself, kid," said Roberto before directing his attention to 505. "Hi, bear."
505 gave Roberto a friendly wave back.
"Looks like you know each other already," said Melanie.
"Not very well," said Roberto. "But we talk sometimes when we run into each other in the halls. The bear is the only decent person in this place. Now, you said you had footage of Dr. Flug getting beat up?"
"Oh, yeah!" Sadie twirled excitedly before she grabbed the remote and sat down on the couch. "It's only the funniest wrestling match ever! You'd laugh your ass off if you had one, me boyo. You're gonna love it."
Roberto chuckled out loud, hopped on the couch, and curled his robotic mouth into a grin, "Well, that's one hell of a recommendation, kid. Bring it."
"Gladly," Sadie said with a smirk as she pulled up the match.
"I still think it's funny, but I find it a bit hard to watch since Flug and I are kinda friends now," Melanie admitted.
"Friends?" Roberto asked skeptically. "Kid, anyone who holds you prisoner is not your friend."
"I know, but I feel like we might be starting to understand each other," Melanie explained. "That kind of makes us friends. Doesn't it?"
"Even if that was true, that doesn't mean you can ever trust him, mija," said Roberto. "Take it from me. That insane man is loyal to Black Hat first and foremost. He has gotten where he is because of his ingenuous ability to invent, deceive, and be as cruel, sadistic, and ruthless as his master asks him to be. If he needs to, he'll turn on you at a moment's notice. There are few things he cares for besides himself, that bear, the lizard woman, and his dear jefecito. Beyond that, anyone else he 'cares about' is disposable."
"But…I still feel like I feel some connection with Flug…" Melanie protested meekly.
"It's a ruse, kid," Roberto interrupted. "The mad doctor's most likely just trying to draw you in to make your 'reformation' easier. But even if I'm wrong and he does care about you, that doesn't mean he'll ever put you before doing what his master commands. He can never be trusted completely. Never tell the mad scientist all your secrets, mija, for your own sake and the sake of everyone you care about."
"You don't have to worry about that," Melanie replied, curling up into a ball and resting her head on top of her knees. "I've grown up in this organization my whole life. I can't tell anyone all my secrets. I couldn't tell anyone all my secrets until I found Sadie, God, and the Nun-jas. I know better than to completely trust anyone who's devoted to Black Hat."
"It sounds like you have been just managing to keep your head above water for too long, Mija," said Roberto. "You should never have had to deal with this alone. I'm sorry."
Melanie smiled warmly at his compassion and said, "Thanks."
505 moaned lowly, feeling conflicted about how everyone seemed to suffer because of his dad.
"I got it!" Sadie cried, sitting down on the couch next to Melanie. "Okay, now let's watch something to cheer us all up during these crappy times!"
Sadie flipped on the video and the quartet watched the Flug get beat up in the wrestling match with a Mask-possessed Demencia.
It didn't take too long for Roberto to start laughing hysterically.
"Oh, my God! This was hilarious!" Roberto cried when the match finally ended. "I've gotta call the other guys to see this. Do you mind?"
"Of course not, boyo," Sadie said.
"The more the merrier," added Melanie.
"Okay," said Roberto, opening a side compartment on his chest and pulling out a mobile phone. "Let's bring them in."