Chapter 9

The sights that awaited him outside the building were worrying, but something he'd grown accustomed to at the hands of war. The square was chaos. Droid citizens fled the onslaught of enemy bullets coming from the entrance to the main sector. Troops hurried in the opposite direction to confront the attack. Glitch swiftly armed himself.

"Glitch, come in, soldier! Are you there?" Colonel Alloy came over his radio signal.

"Yeah, I'm here!" Glitch answered. "What's goin' on, Colonel? I just had someone die in my arms!"

"Didn't he tell you?" the Colonel demanded. "The Mils are back! We have no idea how, but they are. They broke through almost 30 minutes ago! Where have you been? I've been trying to reach you!"

"Uh, long story," Glitch replied.

"Well, what the devil are you waiting for?" Colonel Alloy snapped. "Get your rust bucket out there and blow those maggots sky-high! Move your axle!"

Glitch cocked his Scatter Blaster. "You ain't gotta tell me twice," he muttered.

The Milbots were pressing their way deeper into the main sector. Their familiar foul aura filled Glitch with anger the instant he laid eyes on them. It wasn't a particularly sizable group of Mils, but their colors indicated the potential of their arsenal: four red with SPEWs, four blue with Mining Lasers, two green with Rocket Launchers, two black with Rivet Guns, and two Troopers. 14 in total.

Glitch joined the rest of the squad in blocking the square. He stayed at their front and prepared to give orders. His most recent rank placed him at the head of the team. Most of his training over the past two months consisted of learning how to run a squadron. He learned quickly, and now he was ready to put forth everything he'd been taught.

The Mils stopped short once they saw the blockade. The two groups stood across from each other in a heavy silence, both with their guns trained. It was weird to Glitch. 14 wasn't very many. Why were they giving the Droids such a hard time?

He decided to get more information. "We only counted 14, Colonel," he said. "That's nothing. How are they causing such a hassle?"

"We just received more details. The grunts aren't the only ones according to our intel," Colonel Alloy informed. "It's the ones you can't see that you need to worry about!"

"Snipers?" Glitch looked around.

"We think that's what they are," Alloy said. "But they're using some sort of cloaking technology! And they do a great deal of damage, so be careful."

Glitch recalled the extensive wounds on the one Droid. He looked to his team. "Let's hurry up and take these guys out," he said. "Then we deal with the invisible snipers!"

The soldiers complied. Glitch pressed forward with his team, guns drawn. The Mils punctually opened fire; a few of them cackled as they expected their bullets to tear through their targets' yellow metal. The team, however, came prepared. The enemy assault was met by their shields. As soon as the Mils were done firing, Glitch gave the order to retaliate. They shot back, obliterating the first 12 Milbots with their ammo. The last two, the Troopers, took to the air in preparation for an aerial attack. Glitch and the group successfully destroyed them, just as they began their dive to deliver their assault.

A handful of the Droids in the group celebrated the small victory. But instead of joining them, Glitch tossed them all a stern glare. "Guys, focus," he snapped. "Now's not the time for that."

A nearby Droid soldier falling to the ground from an undisclosed bullet served as a stark reminder of the real threat. Glitch regrouped with his team.

"Don't worry, we still have our shields," he said. "Let's spread out, find cover, and work on picking them off one at a time."

"But aren't they invisible?" one of his men inquired.

"Just follow my lead," Glitch persisted.

They spread apart and took cover in various parts of the square. Glitch pulled out his scope and began scanning the area through the lens. He'd used it in a recent training exercise, where he made an accidental discovery. The scope wasn't just able to detect bodies, but also movements. He noticed this when it picked up a small wave of dust blowing in the wind out in an area they used for routines. The wind itself formed a noticeable outline around the dust as it moved across the feed. Whether or not this was an intentional feature of the scope, Glitch had a feeling he would be able to use the quirk to his advantage. As he continued scouring, his theory was soon confirmed. He noticed the outline of a robot positioned up high in the crevice of a rock face. He seemed to be uncomfortable as he adjusted his footing. The slight movement was all Glitch needed to know he was there.

"You, to your left overhead!" He made the nearest Droid aware of the sniper close by. He managed to pick him off. Glitch continued with the strategy, telling the other Droids where the snipers were and neutralizing them accordingly, one by one. Once they had all been cleared, Glitch and the group emerged and came back together. He notified Colonel Alloy over the radio. "We got the last of 'em," he reported.

"Nice work," Alloy praised. "Now hurry back to base for briefing with the rest of the troops. We'll have first responders on standby to follow up on the cleanup."

"Roger that." Glitch ended their transmission and turned to his team. "Good job, guys!" he said to them. His words were genuine. He was proud of the others' performance, but also of his own after successfully leading a brigade in the field for the first time. Only months ago, he was the one following orders from a higher-ranking member. Now he was the one in charge, essentially.

They started their journey back to the command center. Their shields were only temporary, so they had just finally disabled after holding out through the fight. It almost felt too easy, Glitch realized, though he didn't think too much of it. It was his first battle as a leader, and a successful one at that. He walked along at the front of the group with newfound esteem in his steps. He was more confident than he had been in a long time.

Still, one question relayed itself in his mind.

...

"They're back. But how?"

Colonel Alloy asked the question aloud for Glitch during the briefing. He sat at the table with Krunk and several high-ranking Droid Rebellion members. The Colonel stood at the head of the table in front of footage of the last moments any Milbots were seen alive. It was difficult to believe that their downfall was two months before. The feed was from a camera located in an outer Droid Town sector. A gang of Mils had a group of civilians surrounded when they dropped to the ground upon their deactivation. The footage was rewound and studied a few times as everyone worked to decipher any possible connections. They moved on to more footage collected from all over Iron Star of Mils deactivating and collapsing, becoming nothing more than empty metal husks.

"Welp, can't think of much," Colonel Alloy admitted. "Except maybe one thing."

"Exavolt."

Everyone looked at Glitch upon him speaking up from farther down the table. The Colonel gave a nod. "Precisely," he agreed.

"Well that's all fine and dandy," said Krunk, "but what the hell was the point of the invasion? It seemed pretty random, if you ask me."

"Or maybe not," Glitch proffered. "It was probably a warning or a scare tactic, or a distraction from something way bigger he's got in store."

"The kid might have a point," Colonel Alloy said.

Glitch stifled a slight huff of annoyance. It was a while since the Colonel referred to him as a kid. The last time he did had to be before his most recent promotion. He hoped Alloy might've dropped the term after he'd begun moving up in rank. Glitch could admit he was a young Droid, but certainly not a juvenile. Though, he wasn't exactly sure how old he was, in all honesty. While repairing him, Krunk wasn't able to find a creation date in the serial files of his ID chip, which would normally be used to calculate an age in robot years. But based on Glitch's maturity and intelligence, he was determined to likely be in his late twenties at most, no older than some of the other Droid soldiers. He looked down at the table. It was nothing more than another reason to discover his true identity. He felt that to do this, he had to tell the truth. No more hiding anything, he firmly instilled. It was time to open up about what really happened to the Morbot gateway. Nothing else could get accomplished until then. The other gateways couldn't be found, and Exavolt couldn't be stopped, until Glitch was completely honest.

"Well, our intelligence division will continue their research." Colonel Alloy signaled for an assistant Droid to switch off the projector. The room briefly went dark until the lights were turned back on. "For now," Alloy went on in conclusion, "we'll continue keeping the citizens as safe as we can. The meetings over, so everyone's free to return to their regularly scheduled shifts."

Glitch rose from the table to join everyone else in leaving, but not without the Colonel stopping him in his tracks.

"Not you, though, son."

Glitch looked at him over his shoulder. Colonel Alloy gazed back at him steadily from in front of the projector. Glitch froze slightly. It almost felt as though his mind had been read somehow. Was the Colonel going to question him further about the gateway? Or did he only want him to stay behind to discuss the matters of the meeting further? Glitch wasn't able to tell. He was preparing to make his way toward him, until he was suddenly joined by two discreetly mannered personnel. They came from behind the projector and quietly stood with Alloy, one on each side of him, and joined him in staring piercingly at his prodigy soldier from across the table. It made Glitch pause. He watched the two bots begin their journey in his direction. They moved in a swift cadence, collecting Glitch by the arms before he could even think of escaping. He quickly looked around. He hadn't even realized the room was already cleared out, leaving just the four of them. They had wisely waited until everyone else had gone. Glitch couldn't help but flash a glare at the Colonel. There was only one thing this could be. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded. "You arresting me?"

"Not yet." Colonel Alloy's voice was an octave lower. It highlighted the suspicion and betrayal he was clearly experiencing for some reason. "Take him to the interrogation room." He directed the two personnel. They promptly did as they were told, pulling Glitch out of the briefing room and down the corridor in the opposite way the others had left.

Everything was happening so fast. Glitch was in a different room in another part of the building before he could blink twice. The two personnel, who were agents or officers of some kind, plopped him down into one of the cold, hard chairs at a small table placed in the center. The Colonel casually came in after them and went to the window in front of Glitch. He made sure the blinds were down. Only a few slithers of sunlight managed into the otherwise dark space. The only other source of light was from the corridor. Glitch took note of the mirror to the right of him. It spanned the length of the wall, reflecting the rest of the room. He understood it wasn't just any mirror. He was about to be listened to.

He saw one of the personnel close the door. The room instantly grew darker. Now the only light apart from the sunbeams peeking through the blinds was from their optics. The click of the door's lock made Glitch certain that he wasn't leaving anytime soon. Colonel Alloy eventually took his seat across from him at the small table. One of the agent-officer bots stood at one end of the two-way mirror, basically in the corner, while the other stood by the door. Glitch felt as though his internal temperature had plummeted. He somehow managed to keep himself from shaking despite becoming more uneasy by the second. He couldn't believe he was in the middle of some military interrogation. There must have been other reinforcements aside from the two in the room present that he couldn't see. He knew what this was about, but it couldn't really be happening. He longed for it not to be real. Maybe he was still dreaming. Maybe he was still down in the bunker a month before, and he was in the Morbot dream realm after having finally fallen asleep. Void must have been showing him a vision of the future, of what might happen if he never told them about the Morbot gateway. Maybe the past weeks had been nothing more than a fantasy his mind programmed up somehow.

Glitch wished he was that good at fooling himself.

He was left with no other choice but to ground himself in the reality he was facing. He decided he may as well get comfortable. This was gonna be a while, that he knew. When he tried adjusting his right arm, though, he realized he could only move it so far. Something had been tightened around it, keeping it restrained. When'd they cuff my wrist to the table?! Glitch gave a frustrated grunt while rolling his eyes. "You're joking." He angrily looked across at the Colonel. "You're jokin', though, right? You're yankin' my chain, you're playing a prank on me. For the love of Iron Star, that better be what the f* this is!"

The Colonel continued glowering straight at him, saying nothing.

"Or no, wait, hol' up, lemme guess," Glitch scoffed. "It's an exercise. Yeah, yeah, that's it! A pop quiz typa deal. You're testin' me on bein' interrogated by the enemy or whatever. Here's my answer: kiss my ass!"

The Colonel ignored his quips. He gave a motion toward the two-way mirror. Glitch briefly followed his hand. He was cuing whoever was on the other side. It must have signified the official start of the interrogation. Colonel Alloy motioned for the officer in the corner to bring him something. He handed him a set of files, which the Colonel proceeded to lay out on the table facing Glitch.

Glitch warily looked them over. They were pictures, specifically still shots taken from surveillance footage.

"You know there are cameras located all over Droid Town," the Colonel stated, still solemn. "24-hour coverage. Cutting edge facial recognition. Our systems can pick up the markings on a pebble from miles away."

Glitch kept his head lowered. He didn't take his eyes away from the images.

"So tell me…" Colonel Alloy's voice was more menacing than ever. "…How in Sam Hill did you think you could escape it?"

Glitch lifted his head finally. "I. Didn't." The two words left his mouth slowly, emphatically.

"So what was your goal that night?" Alloy demanded. "What possessed you to destroy the Morbot entrance?"

"It was an accident." Glitch's gaze didn't waver from the Colonel's hardened face.

All Alloy could do was coldly laugh at Glitch's response. "Ha! An accident!" he repeated, amused. "You must think we're idiots. Do we seem like idiots to you? Huh? Do we?!"

"I was after Dr. Exavolt!" Glitch angrily insisted. "I was trying to shoot him, but he moved out of the way, and the rockets hit the gateway instead!" He looked down again. "He tricked me," he muttered.

Colonel Alloy gave an icy chuckle. "Dr. Exavolt, you say!" he mocked. "Where, Glitch, where? Show 'em to me. Go on, point 'em out. Point 'em out, I said!"

Glitch scanned over the pictures. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "He should be there, too, plain as day." He continued looking the images over. His oil ran cold from what he noticed. The scene was partially obscured by the roof of a building. Glitch and the RAT, however, were perfectly visible, as well as most of the Morbot gateway. Dr. Exavolt should've been visible, too, but he wasn't. Glitch softly shook his head. "Wait, no…," he breathed. "No, he was there!" He looked back up the Colonel. "Dude, I'm not kidding! He was there!" He repeated himself more firmly when Alloy obviously didn't believe him.

He kept studying each photo. He realized Dr. Exavolt wasn't visible in any of them, no matter the angle. This couldn't be right. The cameras must have been tampered with, or the footage itself, at least. Why in the world didn't he appear in any of them? Glitch slumped back into his chair, feeling lost. He framed me. Exavolt frickin' framed me.

The Colonel's hardened disposition didn't fade. "You know, I don't think we need to proceed any further," he said. "I think we already got this story pretty straight. You've been in cahoots with the bastard this whole time. That's how ya knew as much as ya did. You're a spy. How long have you been serving as his eyes and ears, hm?"

Glitch didn't bother trying to argue.

"I never took you for a traitor, Glitch, son." Alloy shook his head in disbelief.

Glitch nervously met Colonel Alloy's gaze. He had never had such a difficult time looking his superior in the eye until today in this moment. "You gotta believe me." It was all he could say.

"Believe yourself into a cell," Alloy muttered.

The two officers or agents or whatever they were made their way up to the table. They arrived at Glitch's side and proceeded to remove the cuff attached to the leg of the table. They placed the opened cuff onto his left wrist, restraining both. They had to help him out of the chair. He looked down at his feet. "When the hell was I shackled?!" he exclaimed. "Where'd you find these guys?!"

...

He spent the next several hours in a cell, just as Alloy promised. He'd been transferred to a jailhouse completely separated from the rest of the base. In fact, it was located some miles away on the outskirts of Droid Town, just barely straddling its borders. It darkened out before long. Glitch's cell had no windows, no light, not even from the moon surely hanging overhead in the sky by then. He considered using his headlight, but didn't want to waste energy. His forlorn sigh was audible from his place in the dark corner opposite the charging bed and toilet. He already hated the idea of having to empty his reserve in front of possible prying eyes. Glitch hadn't been in there that long, and he was already hoping he'd never have to live out the rest of his half-life as an inmate. Even his time participating in colosseum fights for the Mils' enjoyment was more preferable. Prison time was just something he never thought he would have to face.

Glitch barely lifted his head at the eventual sound of footsteps coming his way. He wasn't even interested in shuffling up to the cell door in his shackles to see who it was.

"Glitch?" A Droid grunt spoke to him through the door's bars. "You have a visitor."

The news was enough to finally make him look up.

Before long, soldiers were escorting him down the corridor to a small visiting area. There were other detained bots speaking to visitors of their own already. Glitch, albeit not intentionally, overheard some of their conversations. The jail kept military Droids mainly, with the faculty mostly comprised of active-duty soldiers and reserve members, but it didn't turn away civilians, either. Some were hoping to be released soon, while others were certain they were heading off to prison. A few of the visitors were overwhelmed with sorrow as the news was broken to them. They mostly appeared to be figures and mentors the young Droid inmates looked up to. "I messed up," one young Droid wailed. "I'm screwed." Glitch found himself averting his eyes after hearing that. It hit way too close to home.

He was plopped down into the next available booth with his shackles. He shuffled about to get a more comfortable position. Shooter came up to the other side of the glass a moment later. "Five minutes," he was told.

Shooter nodded. The same thing was said to Glitch and he nodded, as well. They looked at each other through the glass with a sad sort of warmth. Glitch was rebellious at times, but he never, ever expected to be seen this way.

"Uh, hey!" Shooter gave a small, awkward laugh. "How's it going?"

"I'm all right, I guess." Glitch tried to sound hopeful, but it wasn't working out. "What've you been up to these days?" he asked, attempting to brighten the conversation.

"I was supposed to start my new job today." Shooter suddenly lowered his eyes, appearing crestfallen. "But the town was invaded, so…"

"Oh." Glitch winced inside. That must have really sucked for Shooter. It was difficult to hear, knowing that his friend came to Droid Town for the opposite reasons. "What about Tank?" he went on. "And, uh…Vex." He still found it hard to think about Vex without their argument tainting his memory all over again.

"Tank's doing great!" Shooter said. "He's hanging in there. He's having a nice time at the senior facility. And Vex went out of town for a drag race."

"Nice." Glitch listened. He remembered they didn't have much time, however. "They tell you what I'm being held for?"

"Dr. Exavolt. And, uh, the Morbot gateway." Shooter's voice faltered a little. It made Glitch wonder how much he already knew, and believed.

"I didn't do it, Shooter." He said it right away. "Well, yeah, I did," he corrected himself.

"Huh?" Shooter tilted his head, confused.

"No! I-I mean I didn't. I mean I did, but not on purpose!" Glitch began to fumble. "I did it because of Exavolt. I mean, because he moved. I shot and he…"

He struggled to keep everything straight. It was all coming out in a rush, like gas from a burst pipe. The story became jumbled. He saw Shooter grow more visibly confused as he went on, so after a while he gave up. He couldn't believe how messy things were. He couldn't believe how everything was falling apart.

"It's okay, Glitch."

Shooter's accepting response surprised him. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You're a great robot." Shooter's optics remained respectful. "You always do the right thing. I know it, Tank knows it, and Vex does. Who knows? Maybe everything will fall in your favor somehow! Maybe the Colonel will see that you're not guilty and he'll have them let you go."

Glitch sighed. "I dunno, dude. The Colonel's never come down on me this hard. He's not just gonna let me live this down."

"Yeah, you're right," Shooter agreed.

"Say, look, you're good with gadgets and codes and stuff." Glitch suddenly had an idea. "Maybe you can get a hold of Droid Town's surveillance footage somehow."

"What for?"

Glitch shifted his glance left and right, making sure no one was close enough to hear him. He leaned in, and Shooter did the same on his side to hear Glitch well. "The cameras were messed with," Glitch whispered.

"Really?" Shooter dropped his voice to a whisper, as well.

"Yeah," Glitch answered. "Alloy showed me photos of the footage from that night. Dr. Exavolt didn't show up in any of it. It's like he was erased from it. And some of the cameras looked like they'd been turned. They were adjusted just enough to show me shooting the Morbot gateway. Someone tampered with the evidence to make it look like I did it on purpose."

"Who do you think it was? Someone Exavolt sent?"

"More like Exavolt himself," Glitch specified.

"What about the Mil grunts? And the snipers?" Shooter proposed.

"That might be what Exavolt wants me to think," Glitch reasoned. "That was the whole point of the invasion. It was a deterrent, a front. The snipers were positioned up in the rocks, where the cameras are in the square. They were doing a lot of moving around, like they were pretending to mess with them. The snipers were just meant to be scapegoats. But Exavolt had to tamper with the surveillance footage himself that night. He had it planned all along!"

"Holy scrap," Shooter breathed, only barely remembering to keep his voice down. "My bad," he hissed to Glitch.

"It's cool!" Glitch whispered to him. "Just see if you can get your hands on that footage. Look through it and see what you can find!"

"Time's up. Let's go."

Glitch peered up at the Droid grunt. It was the same one who sat him down before the five minutes started. He quickly told Shooter goodbye before reluctantly being hauled back to his cell.