"Cleave? Cleave, what's wrong?" Jimmy asked
him. He was crying! "Cleave?" Cleave sniffed and looked up at Jimmy as he
wiped his nose. "It's nothing Jimmy. I'll
be fine soon." Jimmy watched
his friend try to stop crying. "He's crying!" Jimmy thought. "He
really is like the rest of us... my
heart worked!" Jimmy got on the
couch and sat by Cleave.
"I'm
telling you, he helped a robot!"
Steve shouted at them. "He's a traitor! I said we should have killed it when we had
the chance, but he listened to the boy!
He's not on our side anymore!"
The dragons and griffins around him just ignored him. Steve kept shouting what he thought to be
true. "Shut up, Steve! Jesse
happens to be our best fighter! He'd
never betray us!" A dragon shouted
back at him. Steve searched the small
crowd to find who had spoken, and saw a red mountain dragon lowering his
hand. "No, you listen, Max! Jesse
took the robot back to the kid's village!
He willingly aided a robot! You
can call him on his comm. unit and ask him!" "Alright I will." Max pulled out his comm. unit and tuned into
Jesse's signal. "Jesse. Come in Jesse. This is Max, over." "Jesse here. What's the problem?" "Steve says you helped a robot. Is this true, Jesse?" There was a moments silence, then Jesse
answered. "Affirmative. The robot is
the property of Dana. I brought it back
to her. I'm coming back right now, Max. Ask me when I return. Over and out." Steve smiled.
"I told you. He even admitted it himself. He helped a robot!" Max scratched his head in thought. There was complete silence while everyone
waited for what he would say. Steve grew
a bit impatient. "Make a decision, Max! You
weren't elected leader for taking your time!" "I'm thinking, I'm thinking! Jesse must have a damn good reason for what
he did. He'd never help a thing unless
he was sure it wouldn't hurt him. I say
we wait until he gets back and hear the full story. Let's not judge him before we hear his
side."
Jesse had gotten back into the tank right when he'd
recieved the call. After answering them
and telling them what did, he started the engine and left. Thoughts of Dana followed him while he drove. "I
wonder what she thinks of me?.. Does she
even remember my name? Maybe I'll call
her and see how Cleave is doing..."
Jesse fingered his comm. unit. "Naw.
She's got a lot on her right now.
Most of those villagers didn't look like they approved too much about
him..." He drove on, oblivious
to the things happening around him.
There was a loud explosion behind him that knocked the engine out. He cursed and slowly opened the hatch. There was nothing out there... A robot jumped him and shoved him out of the
tank. He scrambled to his feet and
started running, shooting his pistol at the robot while he ran. He absently noticed that the robot had been
an electric female dragon before being mechanized, and that the bullets he shot
at the thing did nothing to faze it.
Babe heard an explosion outside before he knew what
it was. When he stepped outside, most of
the villagers had already prepared themselves for an attack. Babe took to the sky and scanned the
area. Scanning... One life form
detected. Babe flew to the
coordinates that moved across his vision, and saw Jesse running from another
robot. A quick shot took care of the
thing.
Whamm!!!!
Jesse flinched when the first explosion blew right by
him. Somehow, the robot had missed. "Maybe
I damaged it a bit more than I thought.
Hope my luck holds out!"
He thought as he heard another explosion. He looked back, expecting to see the robot
setting itself for the final blow. What
he saw instead was Cleave landing above a heap of metal and flesh. He slowly got to his feet. "Thanks
Cleave. I would have been a goner if you
hadn't shone up right then."
Cleave just stared at him. Jesse
cleared his throat. "I'm gonna call my HQ right now...
Tell them that I'll be a bit later than expected." Cleave shifted. "You
can't. My sensors indicate that your
communicator isn't functioning at all anymore.
Dana has a spare at the village.
You'll need to head back. I can
fix your tank if you want."
Jesse tried to smile. "No--no thanks, Cleave. No offense, but I'm not ready to trust a
robot yet." "None taken." Jesse watched as Cleave shot into the sky and
flew back to the village.
"I'm still
rejected!" Babe thought as he
flew. "After all this time, after helping so much, after trying time and
again to proof I'm not like the other robots, I'm still thought of as a
threat! Only the children can see me as
a friend... Why is everything so
different now?! Why can't things be like
they used to..." Babe forced
these thoughts back as he landed in the village. Children swarmed around him when he landed,
laughing themselves silly while others tried to show him a picture they'd
drawn. Babe couldn't stop his
smile. "At least the children like me...
Where's Jimmy?" Babe
looked around for the child, and his closest friend among the children. He asked the kids around him where Jimmy had
gone. None of them knew, of course, so
Babe walked to Dana's house to ask her.
She wasn't inside. Silence seemed
to fall all around him then. He turned
around to see the entire village, save Dana and Jimmy, all staring at him with
hatred. Some of them sneered; most of
them frowned. One threw a rock at
him. After the rock came more and
more. Each stone seemed to make the
villagers hate him more and more. He
shielded himself against the rocks, even though they didn't hurt. Shouts rose up from the villagers. Every one of them telling him to get out, to
leave. Babe broke a wall in Dana's house
and ran inside. The crowd of villagers
chased him in. He searched the entire
house, with no sign of either friend anywhere.
Thump
thump... Thump thump...
Babe jerked to a stop.
Thump
thump... Thump thump...
He looked down.
He was standing on a trapdoor.
When he opened it, he found Dana and Jimmy shivering. "What
happened?" Dana pulled herself
out of the trapdoor and hauled Jimmy out before she started answering. "The
villagers threw us down here right after you left. We've been knocking on the door ever
since. I'm not tall enough to open it,
and I can't hold Jimmy long enough for him to." The sound of many feet carried into the
room. Babe smashed down another portion
of the house. "We'd better leave.
C'mon. I can carry both of
you." "Carry us? Why?"
"We need to fly if we want to get away fast enough. Hurry!
the rest of the villagers are almost here!" He reached out a hand. Dana took it and watched as Babe wrapped his
other hand around Jimmy's waist. "Hold on tight!" He made sure he had a firm grip around Dana
before he took off. They rocketed into
the sky, leaving the villagers far behind.
Babe scanned the ground, hoping to find shelter somewhere. His sensors picked up Jesse's life
signs. Not knowing of anything better to
do, he dropped down and left them with Jesse.
He almost didn't hear Dana shouting at him to stay with them as he took
off into the air again.
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