*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 18

Griffin Meets

The Protector

 

                "You're serious?!  Can't you call him back?!"

                Poseidon sighed over the phone, "No...he hung up, and when I tried to trace the number, it wouldn't register.  I think he used a pay phone."

                Sarah looked outside.  She could see a small explosion, and two figures hovering in the air.  The rockets wings on one of the two was sputtering on and off, "Get out of there Babe...you're losing!"  She went back to the phone, "I'll tell Babe...just make sure everyone else is inside!"

                "Sure..."  Poseidon hung up.

                Sarah ended her end of the call and contacted Babe, "Babe, Griffin says he wants to help you."

                Babe's voice came over.  It was partially blocked by some static but she heard enough, "Tell him to hurry up!  I......ing li--is!"  He probably would have said more, but the transmition suddenly cut short.

                Sarah saw another explosion...this time Babe was falling back to the ground.

 

                Griffin stopped the Protector from hitting the ground, then lowered him slowly.  The Protector glanced around wildly, "Do--oh...Griffin, right?"

                "You know Poseidon?..but I thought..."

                "Look, thanks.  You NEED to hide!  I know you want to help, but I don't see much you can do!!!"

                Griffin smiled, "Besides what I JUST did?  I can hold things in the air with a microchip in my head.  I can help you, if you'll let me."

                The Protector shook his head, "Not unless you can short-circuit that damn shield of his!"

                "I'll try..."  Griffin tried to get through Kain's wiring...he'd looked for programming, but he couldn't get past the main one...Kain's personality, "Wait...that's programmed in?"  Well, he had to get to the shield.  Thinking came later.

                The Protector flew into the sky again on one rocket.  Griffin winced, "Only one's working?..he isn't going to stand up very long..."  Griffin abandoned his attempt to break down Kain's shield and did a different search.  Interestingly enough, he found it only a few blocks away.  It took a few seconds to get past the programing and wiring in this robot as well, but at least this one functioned!  He brought it as close as he dared before firing.  The shot didn't do a thing to Kain's shield, "Hm...I've got an idea!"  He just hoped Kain wouldn't be able to destroy the robot before Griffin could do this!  He couldn't make the robot fly, since that's what he'd broken earlier, but he could try to get it closer..."But where at?  Those two are moving around a lot...I can't hope they'll stay in one spot long enough..."  He tried one more thing.  He'd been able to hold Kain in place once, maybe he could do it again?.."Well, I'd better try!"  He used his chip...the rockets were a hard thing to get past...he couldn't turn them off since Kain here knew how to block him enough...but he DID get Kain down.

                The Protector landed near him, "Uh...what're you doing?.."

                "Getting him lower.  That shield needs to go.  I figure a strong enough blast, at close range, should short curcuit it, but unless he's on the ground, there's no way to get close enough.  You're only using one rocket, and that other robot can't fly right now."

                "Wait...you're controlling the robot?!"

                "Long story short, yeah."

                Kain was hanging in the air and couldn't move, but his damn mouth still worked, "This isn't gong to work you know!!!  I heard you down there!  The last time the Protector did that to me was THE last time!  I've guarded against it!  Even if you get past my arm cannon, you won't be able to break down this shield!"

                "Shut up."  Griffin got Kain down the last few feet, still fighting the thrust of Kain's rockets.  Kain seemed to notice, because suddenly, it became harder to keep Kain down.  Griffin's face set in a grimace as he concentrated to keep Kain low to the ground, "Protector...tell that robot to attack Kain...I can't do it...too hard..."

                The Protector nodded and soon, it was at Kain's back, charging a blast of energy.  Griffin saw the Protector charging his own cannon up as well.  Griffin would have smiled, but it was all he could do to keep Kain on the ground..."You've got to run out of fuel sometime..."

                Kain laughed, "I came fully charged.  There is NO way you'll be able to keep ME down much longer."             The rockets blasted a bit louder, and Kain started rising off the ground!!"

                Griffin held his head with one hand and reached out with the other.  He grimaced harder and put every ounce of energy he could into holding Kain down.  He spared a quick glance at the Protector.  Both he and Griffin's newly aquired robot were just about ready to fire, "Anytime now!!!.."  He said through gritted teeth.  Splitting his concentration like that allowed Kain to raise a few inches, but Griffin held him down.  His muscles were straining...Griffin knew that, when this was over, he'd be too exhausted to move.

                But that didn't matter.  The next second, the Protector and the robot fired.  Griffin's eyes were squeezed shut.  When he dared to open them, he felt such a letdown that he lost conplete control of his hold on Kain.  Kain shot up and away, back into the sky, shield still on.  Griffin slumped to the ground, already falling asleep...

 

                Kain growled.  If he wanted to continue this fight at all, he'd have to land,  It had taken too much energy to resist Griffin's chip like that.  He could either fly home now, and refuel, or he could land, fire a few shots, and hope he could bring down Babe and Griffin.  The problem was, he would have to walk back.  That took time, which he wouldn't have.  He flew back to the factory.  He could come back tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and make their lives a living hell!

 

                "He got away!!!"  Griffin sat bolt upright, "Where'd he go?!!  He got away!!!!!!"

                "Griffin...calm down...you've been asleep."

                Griffin glanced over to see a white dragon watching him, "Who?..how do you know my name?.."

                "Well, she told ME what your name was."  The Protector walked in, helmet OFF!!!.."I brought you back here..."

                The white dragon leaned against him, "I'm Sarah, and you've met the Prote--..."  She glanced at the Protector, "Should we tell him?"

                The Protector smiled, "He's trustworthy...go ahead."

                Sarah smiled, "This is Babe Cleave...the Protector of Yann city."

                Griffin leaned back a little and smiled, "Pleasure to meet you...um...either of you know Poseidon?"

                "Him?..the one who knows Sargasso?"

                "There's more than one?"

                "Probably.  Yes, we know him...why ask?"

                "Well, between the near slips you and he have made, I figured he knew, I just never said anything...so...you're made of metal too?"

                "Yeah..."  Babe scowled, "And I hate it.  Kain's the one who did it to me...I can't BELIEVE that bastard's still alive!"

                "You've killed him before?"

                "After he nearly killed Sarah, then almost made ME kill her!!!"

                Griffin nodded, "The two must be lovebirds..."  Something he wasn't sure he was ready for, "Have you ever considered that you destroyed a fake and not him?"

                "No.  Each fake didn't have a personality of any kind.  The real one is the ONLY one who showed some form of emotion."

                Griffin frowned, "I have some bad news then...I think that Kain we faced off was a fake..."

                "What?!  But he had a personality!!!  He had KAIN'S personality!!!!"

                "Can't it be possible that the real Kain just programmed his personality into one of the robots?"

                "No!  It's impossible to program complex personalities!  It's IMPOSSIBLE!!!"

                Griffin started getting out of bed, "Not really...Father could do that all the time...he just copied someone's personality and put it into a robot.  I've watched him do it...I used to help!"  He stopped when he realized he wasn't wearing anything, "Uh..."  His cheeks instantly began to burn as he got back into bed and wrapped the blankets around himself.

                Sarah laughed, "Sorry...your clothes were pretty dirty.  I had them washed."  She winked at Babe and laughed a bit more.

                Babe's eyes went wide, "You got him to do it?!"  He suddenly started laughing too!

                Griffin could hardly see what was funny, "What?  Where'd you put my clothes?"

                She calmed herself down, "Billy Brown took them to a Laundromat.  He should be back soon, but you should have seen him when he left!"  She chuckled to herself.

                Griffin shook his and sighed, "Um...have I been out very long?"

                They nodded.  Sarah answered, "Two days.  How'd you spend so much energy?"

                "A microchip in my head.  I--what?"

                "A microchip?"  Sarah looked interested, "Don has one too.  Babe told me what you did...how could you do that?  From what I've seen, Don can't hold much more than a few little things at one time.  You held Kain down while he was trying to fly off!  How did you manage it?"

                Griffin groaned, "A lot of practice...before I came to this island...all I ever did was train...um...do you know any good gyms or some place I could get a weight set?"

                Babe laughed, "Stay here and Bill will get you anything you want.  He's been trying to examine you ever since I brought you in!"

                "Do what now?"

                Babe explained, "He's a scientist.  The guy loves anything that's weird or just plain crazy.  I'm one of his usual experiments...James Elias...I think the two of you already met, is another one...Don is another because of that chip in his forehead...and if you stay here, you'll probably be the next."

                "That's a good thing?"

                "Well, if you can get used to Bill wanting to know absolutely everything about you, it's okay.  He treats you like anyone else otherwise."

                Sarah glanced outside, "I think Bill's back...I'll get the door."  She left.

 

                Sarah waited at the door until the person she'd seen had landed, "No Julie, you can't see him."

                Julie yelped when Sarah opened the door.  She'd been just about to knock!..then she heard what Sarah had said, "What?  How come?.."

                Sarah rolled her eyes, "He's not seeing anyone until AFTER Bill gets back, and I'm sure he's not going to want any visitors anyway."  She crossed her arms and stood in the doorway.

                "Oh...but can you tell him I wanted to see him?"

                "Sure..."  Sarah looked away from Julie.  She HAD seen Bill coming, and he was just landing, looked very cross, and had the basket of laundry in his front paws.  Something moved in the corner of Sarah's vision but she didn't notice it.  He touched down and went into anthro form, still looking upset.  Bill was grumbling to himself as he walked past Sarah, into the lab.  Sarah just smiled and closed the door.

 

                Julie had snuck inside, "I wonder where he is..."  She followed Sarah and Bill until they came to Griffin's room.  As luck would have it, she caught a small glimpse of Griffin in a bed before the door closed on her.  She sighed contentedly and waited until they would let her in the room.