*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 16

Malfunctions

"Why's he just standing there?" Kain landed a few yards away from RS-01, "A malfunction?" He started toward his creation, "State your problem." He commanded.

Silence.

"State your error! RS-01, give me the information!" Why wasn't he DOING anything?! Kain had scanned the robot, and found nothing wrong with him. There weren't any voice chip malfunctions, his limbs were all in fine order...he wasn't low on energy and trying to conserve anything..."RS-01, I gave you a command! State the error!"

"Don't say a thing, Babe...don't say a thing..." He tried to keep stone still, tried to fake a problem. His programming was fighting to respond to the command. It recognized what Babe had done to himself as a virus, and wanted that gone. He forced his mouth closed repeatedly, as it kept opening out of its own accord, "Keep silent! Let him get close to you so you won't have any trouble hitting him! Don't obey him!"

Kain took a step closer, suspicion starting to show on his face.

Babe continued to keep quiet...to stay still. It was hard...

A few minutes later, Kia woke. She panicked at first, but Ralph was still sleeping soundly right by her, and when she stood up, it looked as if Pik and his mother were unhurt as well...or at least, not injured even MORE...

Kia's mother cleared her throat, "Kia?"

"Mom...what was that?"

"I don't know...perhaps the doctors wanted to make sure we slept tonight?"

Kia looked at her mother. Had that been an attempt at a joke? That was...new, "But I don't understand...who would go through the trouble of making us sleep, and not do anything? The last time I was forced asleep, Ralph was kidnapped..."

"Well, they messed up, whoever they were." THAT sounded like the mother Kia knew.

Pik groaned in his bed, "Kia?..Hey...what'd we miss?"

Kia was by him in an instant, "Pik! Pik, are you feeling alright?"

"Huh? Why ask?"

"Well...it's nothing...nevermind." She gently handed him Ralph, "Here..."

He took their son, smiling, "Damn it feels good to see you again, Ralph. Maybe things'll get back to normal..."

"Uh...Pik?"

"What is it Josh? I wanna play with Ralph..."

"Hey, I'm not against that, but...isn't that Kia's mom in that chair?"

"Huh?..Mrs. Grey?! What are you doing here?"

Mrs. Grey snorted and leaned back in her chair, so Kia answered for her, "She came to check up on you...when she saw the news, she found out about Ralph..."

"She found out? That's not good, Pik."

"I know Josh...but she doesn't SEEM angry...annoyed, yeah, but not angry..."

"Wierd...isn't she like, the one who hates us the most?"

"Yeah..." Pik wondered what he could say..."Er...well, thank you for...your...concern, Mrs. Grey..."

"Pik, this is getting awkward."

"Shut up Josh. I KNOW." But, what could he do about it?..

"Babe!" Bill saw him and Kain...Kain was getting closer...but Babe wasn't doing anything...Kain kept giving him simple commands but Babe never answered...a programming error? Kain HAD reprogrammed him. Was BAbe back to himself?!! Oh..."That's why he's not doing anything. He has new programming, but HE'S still in there...he's trying to NOT obey Kain!" Bill turned to Ace, "Listen you two, get out of here as fast as you can. I'm gonna try to help the Protector..."

"What?! Bill, you're crazy! There's no WAY you can stand up to Kain!"

Bill nodded, "I'm kind of counting on that..." He shoved the two to get them moving, then watched for an opening. Why did he do these things? Seriously...he had to be crazy to think this would work! But it was the only idea Bill had right now, "Hey Kain!" Bill shouted. Ace and that woman were already out of sight. So long as Bill had Kain attention, those two might be able to get out.

"Bill, what are you doing?! RUN! Run before he catches you! No, don't come CLOSER!!!!" Babe wanted to shout. All of his strength was bent on keeping his mouth shut...Kain spun where he stood.

"How did you get out?!" Kain shouted angrily. He started toward Bill.

"C'mon Bill, move! You might still have a chance if you go now! You can hide behind trees and things! What are you just standing there for?! GO!!!!!" But Bill never budged. Bill MUST have lost it! Babe watched, feeling helpless, as Kain kept getting closer...why didn't Bill MOVE?!

Wait a minute, Kain wasn't paying ANY attention to Babe! Babe started charging his cannon. It took longer because of the self-made virus, but Babe managed to fully charge it. He raised his arm slowly. Once it was aimed, he fired...The shot exploded off of Kain's head, knocking him to the ground. Bill inched closer to Kain when the robot didn't move. After a moment, Bill seemed to smile wickedly and opened up Kain's chest cavity. He started messing with Kain's programming then and there. When Bill had finished whatever havoc he'd been making, he came over to Babe, "So...are you still in there Babe?"

"Help..."

Bill nodded. He opened Babe's chest cavity and fixed some of Kain's programming, but not all of it, "I can't do anything else without my lab..."

Babe sighed, "At least I have better control...let's get TO your lab..."

"But it was totaled when we left...Kain destroyed everything while we watched..."

"Yeah, and Anna, Michelle, and I have kept busy trying to clean it up. Most of it's back to normal...you just have a huge shortage of glass beakers." Babe smiled.

"What?! But all my..." He stopped, then started again, "Let's just go..." As they walked, Babe heard Bill mumble, "It's going to cost a small fortune to get back everything Kain broke..."

Babe smiled again.

Ace and Mary ran until both were too tired to keep going. They were already IN the city, thank god...and it didn't take long to hail a taxi. Ace made Mary come home with him, instead of her place, which was probably already rented out. Ace unlocked the door...when he saw the mess Razor jr had made inside, he was almost relieved. He hadn't known if the little pet would be able to take care of itself...this would take time to clean up, of course, but he was HOME. They both fell onto the couch, too tired to do anything but sleep.

Ace jerked awake for a moment to find that Mary had fallen asleep with her head on his lap. He lovingly stroked her hair until sleep claimed him again.

Griffy tried to sleep, tried as hard as he could...but thoughts of his mother kept running through his mind. He'd been gone so long...was she home?..did Griffy even have a home to go back to?..he started crying silently, as he had done every night here. Lance always fell asleep right away, so Grffy had no one to talk to...he continued to cry until he finally fell asleep.

Troy gently closed the door. He hadn't known Griffy was so sad! That settled it. Tomorrow he'd help Griffy find his way home again. It was odd though...something about Griffy made Troy think they'd met somewhere before...he couldn't say where. He had no idea. He was sure he'd never met the boy until just recently. Troy let the thought go, "I'll look into it more tomorrow, AFTER I've gotten him home."

The next day, Babe woke feeling better than ever. Bill had fixed EVERYTHING...and Anna had said that Michelle was safe. Babe asked where she was, and found out that James had her. He took off, already missing his niece..now that she knew who he was, he could VISIT with her...he could be near her again. They could be as close as they were before...Scanning...huh? What was this?..Match found. Preparing data back-up. What was found? Why did he need a data back-up?.."Bill?"

"Yes Babe?"

"What did you DO to me?"

"Oh...you found out?"

"Eh...I think so..."

"The back-up is so that Kain can't get to you memory banks anymore. Everything you remember is stored in a second memory bank that I firewalled. If Kain tries to get at them, he'll hurt his systems. Plus, the new little gizmo on your wrist is a scanner enhancer. I could only give you another mile for range without making any major changes. You like it?"

Babe looked at his wrist. He hadn't even noticed it before!.."Uh...sure...hey, can you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Call Sarah?"

"I already did, Babe. She'll want to see you as soon as possible. Her room is on the second floor...north wall. She and your mother are in the same room."

"Thanks Bill..."

"Hey, what're friends for?"

Babe chuckled and turned his concentration to flying, "What the hell?.." He swerved at the signal. It was Kain, no doubt about it. Nothing else on the island could move that fast, but something seemed wrong with the flight pattern...

"Out of my way! Out of my way!!!!" Kain didn't have TIME for his robot right now. His systems were in utter chaos. His voice module was coming through his feet rockets, his jets had needed to be activated by turning off the radar, power source had to be maintained by activating his arm cannon, then deactivating it, his arm cannon had no blasting power connected to it anyway, and the rifle on the other arm was jammed! No matter what he did, there was always another problem! Only ONE eye worked, and the other kept on channeling some wierd music station into his recievers! He couldn't contact anyone to help him get fixed!..and he hated admitting that he NEEDED the help. Later, much too late in Kain's mind, he found the secondary factory he'd set up. This one was more remote. It was located about fifteen miles out of the city. He broke through the ceiling, not caring what he did to the structure of the place, and found as many scientific types as he could. He had about five when the programs finally started to fry. He baremanaged to lay on the table before his systems completely shut off...

...

...

..."What?.." This didn't make any sense...he could see his body being worked on by the men...from above. He was looking down on them...his body...was...whole..."I...I don't--what's happening?" He didn't allow himself to think he might be dying for more than a few seconds. He wasn't finished here. He STILL hadn't managed to kill off any of Babe's friends OR family. Kain reached for the cold metallic body, intent on it and what he had planned. For a moment, he couldn't reach the table. He was stuck in the air, then, he was free. He came crashing back into his robotic body...

...

...

..."I'm awake! I--I'm..." He sat up, "I'm..." Kain glanced at one of the men standing near the table, "Well?"

The guy seemed pretty nervous, "S...sir?"

"GET ON WITH IT!"

He cringed before continuing, "We...had to...sir?" He paused for a moment to collect himself. When next he spoke, it came out in a rush, "We had to downgrade you to fix you sir." The man threw his hands around his head in anticipation of a blow.

Kain merely grunted, "So long as I'm fixed. What did you get rid of?" Nothing felt different...

It took the man another few minutes to get over the fact that he hadn't been thrown against the nearest wall, "Well...you're back to your original settings...before the kidnappings..."

He nodded, "It'll do." Kain stood up and checked his systems before taking off through the hole he'd made earlier. He stopped before leaving and asked one final question. He had to shout to be heard over his rockets, "HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO FIX ME?!!"

The same scientist called back...hesitantly, "Four days..."

"WHAT?!!!!!!!" FOUR DAYS?! DAMN!!!!!! Kain rocketed out of the factory. It was dark out, "Four days?! It CAN'T have been four days! He might--wait...four days have gone by..." Kain smiled cruely, "He might think I'm gone...I can catch him by surprise! This might not be such a bad thing!"