"Dad,
stop! Let me go, please!" Jimmy struggled in the iron grip of the
robot. Where were they going,
anyway? Jimmy started trying to grab the
hand holding him, but the metal seemed to be coated with something that made
his fingers slide off. There was no way
to get a grip. Deperate,
Jimmy jerked and struggled to get out of the robot's grasp. He sat, dazed, when he fell out of his
shirt. The robot turned around and
reached out to pick him up again. Jimmy
panicked and ran. Up ahead, he thought
he saw something shine in the distance.
Unsure of what it was, Jimmy ran off in a different direction. The next time he looked back, the robot had
left him and was heading for the shining thing.
Jimmy grew curious and followed the robot as close as he dared. "Wait
a minute... That's Cleave!" Jimmy completely forgot about the robot in
front of him and ran up to Cleave's side. "C'mon
Cleave, wake up!
Cleave, please wake up!"
Jimmy hit the ground in frustration.
He couldn't do anything right!
Right then he remembered something.
"I wonder if Cleave will wake
up with sugar..." Jimmy pulled
out a little packet of sugar he'd kept in his pocket for Cleave. He didn't know if it would help, but he had
to try...
"Jimmy?" Babe could have sworn he'd heard Jimmy
speaking a second ago, but there was something else. "Jimmy,
look out! There's a robot behind
you!!!" Something with small
warm hands opened his mouth and dropped something in. Energy
levels at 25%
Beginning reactivation.
Babe felt his eyes open. "That was sugar!" Without waiting, Babe spoke the code. When he spoke it was a whisper, but he heard
it. "Activate
code: 626D-day..." Code
activated. Accessing
remaining energy resources.
Babe felt new energy start flowing through him. It would last long. "Jimmy,
get down!!" Babe shouted as he
jumped up. With one quick blast he
destroyed the robot that was walking near them.
Energy at 20% Code in action. Babe scooped up Jimmy and started
running. "Listen Jimmy. I
don't have much time. Go back to your
house and bring back as much sugar as you can carry. In a few minutes I'll deactivate again. Until then, I'll carry you as far as I
can." Babe calculated the
distance he would have to travel with how much time he would have. If he didn't use his cannon at all, he would
have enough energy to get Jimmy within fifty feet of his village. Energy
at 18% They were within a mile
already. Energy at 16%
Energy at 12% Energy at
Jimmy stared at Cleave before he went in. Cleave had stopped right in the middle of
running and just collapsed! "Cleave? Cleave are you alright?" Jimmy backed away, remembering what he'd been
told to do. He sped through the city
praying that no one had seen him. Inside
his house, he went straight for the cupboard and pulled out the canister they
had that was full of sugar. It was about
a fourth his own size, and heavy with the sugar inside
it! He started for the door, but stopped
when he heard voices. "Where do you think they went?" The first voice asked. Jimmy instantly knew who was out there. He slammed the door open and ran to the city
gates. The kid who had asked the
question shouted at him. "Hey!
Whoever you are, leave that sugar alone!
It's for Cleave!" Jimmy
stopped and looked back at his friends.
They gasped when they recognized him.
Jimmy held up the sugar and shouted back. "Why
do you think I'm taking it?!"
Without another word he ran away.
Back by Cleave, he started pouring the sugar into Cleave's
mouth.
Energy at 37%
Babe flinched when he saw the words pass over his
eyes. Jimmy had done it! Energy
at 64% Babe sat up and took the
canister from Jimmy. He poured as much sugar
in as his mouth could hold. Energy at 100% Reactivation complete. He gulped down the last of the sugar in his
mouth and smiled at Jimmy. "You did it, Jimmy. Thanks." He glanced at the canister. There was still about half a jar left inside
it. "I
wonder where we can keep this? I might need it again later." Still smiling, he grabbed Jimmy's waist and
flew into the sky. It felt wonderful
being up there again.
----
"Okay you
two, time for--" Max closed the door in a
hurry. "Wake up and put some clothes on!!!" He shouted through the door. That one moment HAD to be the most emberrassing in his life!
There was a bit of a scuffle on the other side as they realized someone
had seen them. After about five minutes,
Max knocked on the door. "I'm coming in. You had damned well better be dressed!" Jesse was just pulling his shirt over his
head when Max opened the door. "It's morning, Jesse. I'm afraid I can't let you live any
longer... I wish there was some way I
could help..." Jesse did his
best to smile. "You're just doing your job, Max.
I did what I did. No
exceptions." Max signaled for
the guards to come and took Jesse and Dana outside.
Jimmy watched the ground zoom by while they flew in
the clouds. As he watched the ground, he
started to let his mind wander. "Wow...
So this is what flying is like..." He thought as yet more trees shot past
them. "I wish I'd had wings! This
would be so cool if I could do it every day..." He looked back up at Cleave's
helmet. "Cleave, what was it like?
Before you were a robot?"
Cleave shook a bit, then headed for the ground. When they landed, Jimmy asked him again. This time he got an answer.
Babe blinked back more tears. He couldn't afford thinking about back
then! "Do we have to talk about it, Jimmy?" "Please?" There was no way Babe could avoid that
pleading stare. "Alright, Jimmy. Just
promise you won't tell anyone."
"Okay!" Babe sighed
and began. "For starters, Jimmy. I'm
not Cleave." Jimmy smiled. "I
know that. I just think it's a cool
name. Can I keep calling you that?" The question made Babe chuckle. "Okay. From now on, only you get to call me
that. Now, about me--I've lived a long
time, Jimmy." "How long? Are you a hundred?" "No.
I'm a hundred and fifty."
Babe waited to see Jimmy's reaction, but there was none, so he
continued. "I'm like this mostly because I made some bad choices. Because of those choices, Jimmy, I lost
everything you take for granted. Have
you ever had pizza?" Babe's
mouth watered at the thought of it. "The only food I can have now is
sugar." Jimmy shrugged. "That
doesn't sound so bad..."
"Yeah, maybe not now, but try eating it for as long as I have and
tell me if you don't miss the days when you were normal! Wanna know a secret? Have you ever heard of the
Protector?" "He was one of my
favorites! I wish I could have met
him..." Babe smiled a little
brighter. "You've been living with him for months now, Jimmy. Before they figured out how to make robots, I
was made. The Protector was a robot in
everything except, well, everything!"
"What?!"
"You know what I mean, Jimmy. Think about it. I'm still me.
I have a robotic body, yes, but I'm still Babe Cleave inside. I'm a dragon more so than a robot, 'cause
robots don't have feelings of any kind.
I'm still like you..."
Jimmy wiggled around in Babe's lap, trying in vain to find a more
comfortable position. "So you had a family?" "Yeah, yeah I did. I even had a girlfriend! I just--I just wish I could have died with
them... I want so much to see my family
again, Jimmy. I want to be with
them... If I could hear their voices
just one more time..." Babe
couldn't help himself. He broke down
into tears again.
Jimmy waited until Cleave stopped crying. Night had fallen, and it was starting to get
cold. "It's okay, Cleave. I miss my dad too." Babe looked up at him. "He
died?" "Yeah, but he stayed
dead. You had to stop him before he shot
us..." Cleave jerked. "You
mean... That robot back there was
him?! Oh Jimmy, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to..." Jimmy rubbed Cleave's
eyes to get rid of more tears. "It's okay,
Cleave. You didn't have a choice. I'll be okay." "But I destroyed him..." "Look.
He was killed by robots a long time ago.
All you did was help him leave here.
That was all he really wanted."
Jimmy shivered. "Can we find someplace warm,
Cleave? It's cold now!" Cleave sniffed once and smiled. "Sure thing, Jimmy. If you want, I can take you to your mom
again. I think I know where she
is." "Okay, but can we walk? I want to get warm, and I don't have a shirt
anymore."
Babe found himself carrying Jimmy by morning. The poor kid hadn't been able to stay up for
an hour after they'd started walking! He
gently shook Jimmy awake. "Jimmy?
Jimmy, I think you'd better go in without me. I doubt they like robots in there..."