"Wait a minute...
WHAT'S his name?" He asked them. Jesse and Jimmy answered at the same
time. "Babe."
"Cleave!" He shook
his head. "Well, which one?"
Jesse slapped a hand over Jimmy's mouth and answered. "It's
Babe." "Okay... Why was he shouting like that?" "We were gonna ask him when he came back
inside. Max just went out to get
him. Why are you so interested in
him?" He shrugged. "He
just seems familiar is all. Don't ask how, he just does..."
Babe studied the fourth anthro as he walked in. It was a kid!
A brown mountain dragon that had a striking resemblence
to someone from one hundred and fifty years ago stood waiting for him... Babe didn't let himself hope. He calmly walked up to the child and
smiled. "So THIS is the mysterious anthro I was told about. What's your name, kid?" "It's Mitchel." Babe's smile grew. "The
name fits you perfectly, Mitch. I'm Babe
Cleave." The boy started
leaning closer to Babe, like he was trying to see his face. "The
helmet comes off, Mitch, if that's what you're asking." Babe unlocked his helmet and took it off
before Mitchel could say anything. Mitchel
gasped. "Except for those scars, you look just like the photo of my
Grandpa! I THOUGHT you looked
familiar!" Babe couldn't stop
the chuckle as it came forth. He forced
it to stop quickly and put a hand on Mitchel's
shoulder. "Listen Mitch. I'm
not your Grandpa. That is, not unless he
lived one hundred and fifty years ago, and even then it'd be impossible." Mitchel looked
impressed. "You've lived for that long?
So THAT'S where my Grandpa's stories came from..." "Uhh... Stories?" "Yeah. He told me his Grandma used to tell him the
same stories all the time before she died.
He died about a year ago..."
Babe cleared his throat. Hope was
starting to rise inside him. "May I ask what the stories were
about?" "Sure. They were about the Protector. My Grandpa said that HIS Grandma had seen the
Protector first-hand. She'd even goteen to give him sugar!" Babe shook.
That narrowed the choices down quite a bit. Mitchel
continued. "She even got to name him once, when she was a little girl." That clinched it. Babe got on his knees and hugged Mitchel where he stood.
Tears started streaming down his face as he squeezed the boy. He asked one more question. "You great-great-grandma. Was her name
Michelle?" "Yeah... How'd you know?" Mitchel asked
awkwardly as he stood in Babe's embrace.
Babe couldn't answer. THIS was
something he'd never hoped to dream to happen.
"I--I can't believe I've
found her again... Michelle, my little
angel, are YOU watching over me? Did you
want me to find him?..
Thank you..." He
whispered. There was a long moment of
silence, then Jimmy spoke up. "Hey! How come you never acted
like that around me?!!!"
Greg continued to study the filming from the
battle. He'd gotten all the corpses he
wanted, but something troubled him... "Steve, come here!" Steve approached him from another room. "What
is it?" "Look at this. Right after you and corpse one flew away, the
renegade collapsed. Look at how shocked
he is... What was it about the corpse
robot that made him do that?"
Greg turned to look at the corpse robot.
It was standing perfectly still, waiting for its next orders. Greg got an idea and stood up. He rummaged through the stuff he'd dug up
when he'd found her, and smiled when he found it. He carefully pulled out a large rock that had
letters engraved on it. "Let's see... Her name was Sarrah
Jovi." He tucked the rock under
his arm and sat down by a computer. "What can we find out about you,
girl?" He glanced at the dates
of birth and death that were on the rock as well. "Well
now... You've been dead for that
long? I wonder..." Steve stood behind him and watched what he
was doing. "Greg, why are you looking at the obituaries?" "I want to find out all that I can about
that girl. There has to be SOMEthing in here that'll tell us
why the renegade was so shocked to see her.
Hmm...
She was a biomechanical genious, worked with
Billy Brown... What's this? She had a boyfriend named Babe Cleave. Why would it mention something like that? And look here! It says here that Mr. Cleave's
family personally requested that to be put in... I wonder why?.." He typed in the new name. "Huh... This Babe Cleave guy died of a gunshot wound
at age twenty-two." Steve
grunted behind him. "I don't see what's so special about the kid. He doesn't--what the hell?.." Steve leaned closer to Babe Cleave's picture. "That face... I don't believe it!!!" "What?" "He's...
I'm not saying." Greg
scowled. "Didn't I make it clear yet?
You aren't allowed to disobey me anymore." He held up the control box. "Tell
me or else!" Steve gulped and
took a step back, but didn't say a word.
"Steve..." Greg pressed the button once, freezing Steve
in place. He held his finger over the
button again, threatening to press it. "Tell me what you know." Steve opened his mouth a little, then closed it. Greg started
to bring his finger down, but stopped when Steve shouted. "OKAY!!!!! Alright, I talk. That kid looks like the renegade robot might
without the armor. But if that's really
him, then..." Greg didn't wait
for him to finish. He typed in a new name,
gasping in surprise when an almost exactly same picture appeared. "Babe
Cleave is--was--is the Protector. If he
and corpse one were truly in love, then no wonder he acted like he did! Steve, we may have just stumbled upon the
renegade's weakness." Greg went
back to the files on Babe Cleave. "I wonder how many of his friends we
can find." "What?" "Think about it. If he were attacked by his FRIENDS, how would
he retaliate? He won't be able to hurt
them!!! Ha ha,
we've got him now!!!!!!"
----
Babe sat in a storage room by himself. He was in there to continue playing the
obedient robot thing, but he was also trying to sort things out in his
mind. "What is happening?"
He thought. "First, I find Sarrah as a robot, then I find my great-great-great-grand nephew. I just had something more horible
than I could have imagined happen to me, and then found out something so
wonderful I hadn't DARED to hope for it!
Who is doing this to me?.." There was a knock on the door, then Mitchel's face peered in. "Hey, Babe? Can we talk?" "Sure." "About what you did earlier today... Why were you
so... umm..." Babe finished it for him. "Upset? Crazed?
Mitchel, I like you and all, and I couldn't be
happier to know that I still have family alive, but there is NO way you are
going to hear why I was like that right now." He started to sit up, but one of the
transistors in his system froze and kept him where he was. "Damn
it. I wish I could clean that out
somehow." He fingered between
one of his knee joints and scraped out the dirt that had piled up in it. He did the other knee when he finished with
the first. Mitchel
watched him. "You know, Babe. I have
something that could help..."
Babe watched as he pulled out a long, thin tube from one pocket, and a
squirt gun from the other. Babe
laughed. "Thanks Mitch, but water'll make me rust
faster." "Then I won't use
water. Look." He picked a small can of oil and poured some
inside his squirt gun. "My dad is one of the scientists
here. He made this squirt gun for me so
that I could help out around the machinery.
Here." Mitchel squirted a bit of the oil into Babe's legs, then went around his entire body, cleaning out Babe's system
which had needed it for years. When he
was done, Babe stretched and thanked him.
He hadn't felt this good for a LONG time. Mitch smiled and walked out, saying that he
had to go oil the tanks. When he was
gone, Babe decided to take a walk. He
activated a small signal on the wristband he still wore, and waited for Max to
come. Max was there in about two
minutes. "Yeah Babe?"
"Max, could I go for a walk?
I need some fresh air."
"Sure thing, Babe. What brought this on?" Babe shrugged. "I
dunno. I just
don't want to feel so useless, I guess."
"Okay." Max pulled
out the control box and pressed a few buttons, pretending to make Babe
move. The few anthros
they passed thought that Max was just studying how Babe moved. Babe headed down to the tanks, going for the
widest posible area where he could fly around, while
still staying inside the fortress. He
stopped in suprise when he saw Mitchel
there too. Mitchel
was oiling the tanks, he was fixing them!
He had a box of wrenches and ratchets beside him, and was constantly
changing out old bolts and nuts and putting in new ones. Babe studied the tank Mitchel
was working on with his sensors, and grew more amazed by the second. If he didn't know better, It
looked as if the entire vehicle had been made from scratch! "Hey, Mitch!"
Mitch jerked when he heard Babe's voice, bonking his head on the tank
above him before crawling out. "Yeah?" He asked as he rubbed his head. "What's
up?" "What're you doing?" Mitchel blushed and
motioned to the tank. "That?
Oh, nothing."
"Seriously, Mitch.
What are you doing?" Mithel's blush deepened.
"Would you believe I was
making my own tank?" "WHAT?!!!"
Max and Babe said in unison. Mitchel hung his head.
"It was supposed to be a
secret. My dad doesn't want anyone to
know how good I am at mechanics..."
"Why not?!!!" "Well, he doesn't want me out on the
battlefield. He says he'd rather see me
safe with him, in the lab."
"Mitch, you're just a kid!
Of COURSE your dad wants to make sure you're safe. If you had a son, wouldn't you?" "I guess... But it's so unfair! Everyone I know gets to go out and fight off
the bad robots, while I have to stay inside and watch it all! I want some of the action!" Babe tried to say something; he wanted to
convince Mitchel that he SHOULD stay where it was
safe, but nothing came out. He sighed
and let it drop.
Greg scrolled through the files with growing
interest. "Steve, when you brought back those bodies, did any of them look
like these anthros?" He brought up a file of five long-forgotten
rock stars. Steve looked at the
names. "I think so... I recognize
the girl and the water dragon, but the griffin doesn't look too
familiar." "But you found
some?" "Yeah. Hey, what about this
one?" He pointed to a
picture of a muscle-built dragon. Greg
smiled. "I did some research on that one.
It seems he vanished for a while before they found his body. And get this.
We found it years ago. Factory
one is in the finishing stages of making him into the ultimate killing
machine." "What d'you mean?"
"I mean we found him, but we didn't know it at first. Do you remember the rumors that started up
about three years ago?" Steve
nodded. "About the gargantuan?" "Yup."
Steve pointed to the green dragon's photo. "That's
him. He's going to be ready for his
first battle inside a week. I'll call
the other factories and have them search for the rest on my list. That renegade is done for!"
After a few days had gone by, Dana found herself and
Jesse accepted like they were heroes. It
turns out that Babe had been making quite a name for himself. That night, they were finally given a room to
themselves. Jesse and Dana made the most
of it without hesitation, both that night and the next. The day after their second night alone was
one neither would forget. It had started
out so nicely... They had woken in each
others arms, they visited with Babe, who was just starting to calm down from
his ordeal six day ago, and Jimmy had started hanging out with Mitchel. At about
Babe wanted so much to get out there. "Max,
I'm going." To Babe's surprise,
Mitchel stopped him.
"Wait
Babe!" "What is it?" "I wanted to give this to you before you
went out there..." Mitchel handed him a small metal orb. Babe smiled. "Uhh...
Thanks... Mitch, what's
it do?" "It'll short-curcuit any robots within fifty yards." Babe gasped and dropped the orb. Mitch picked it up and smiled. "It
won't hurt YOU Babe. You're wearing one
of the wristbands my dad made. The wristband will short-curcuit, but
it'll stop the bomb from getting you. I
figured the bomb would help you... I've
got some other things for you as well. I
was working on them over the week."
Babe examined the bomb as he followed Mitchel
down to the tanks. Babe and Mitchel walked up to the tank Mitchel
had been building. It looked finished
now. "I
figured you'd be able to use this better than me. Get in!" Babe did as Mitch asked, and noticed a palm
ID unit in the cabin. To the left of it
were five small plugs that looked like they could be turned left or right. To the right were five more that looked like
they could be moved up or down. Babe
slid his fingers into each of the plugs as Mitchel
told him to. Mitchel
quickly explained what to do and how to fire the cannon, then smilled and closed the hatch. Babe slowly pushed the right hand control
forward, and the tank started moving. He
was soon traveling at over seventy mph toward the thousand robots that waited
for him. He was speeding toward them
when he heard someone shout over his radio.
"Hello. Testing, testing... Is this the prototype tank?" Babe answered hesitantly. "Yes... Who is this?" "Turn around for a second." Babe swung around and looked. He saw twenty tanks approaching behind him,
which were gaining pretty fast. Two
heavy Medium tanks were moving just a bit slower, but they managed to keep
up. Babe smiled and turned back
around. "Thanks. I'll meet ya after this is over." Babe started firing the cannon at the robots
in front of him and gasped anew as the blast took out what looked like a tenth
of what he faced. "WOOHOO!!!!" Someone shouted over his radio. "What
a shot!!!!! Hey, prototype! What your name?!" "Babe Cleave, sir." "Babe?! Hey, Babe, where'd you get the tank?!! That was incredible!" Babe chuckled. "Someone
built it for me. I'll introduce him to
you later." "Do it! We could USE that type of firepower! The name's Chris. I'm the red and yellow water dragon. My tank has the same colors, so look for me
while I guard your back. Man! What a tank..." Babe laughed and coninued
to destroy the robots. His laughter died
off instantly when he heard it.
Max blanched at the image on his moniter. It shouldn't be possible! He fumbled for the walkie-talkie he had that
was tuned into the tanks' radio frequencies.
"Attention
all units! RETREAT!!!!
I repeat, get back here before you die!" There was a bit of static, then Chris' voice. "But
sir, we're winning!" "That was
an order, Chris! The moniter
just picked up something NO weapon we have can handle!" Silence, then Babe's voice. "What
is it, Max?" "Babe, we have a
giant on our hands."
Chris watched as Babe's tank sped back to the
fortress. "Babe? Babe, what's wrong?" Babe said one word. "Move."
Chris wondered what Babe meant. "What did Max mean when he said a
giant?" "He meant that we
needed to get back NOW! I only know of
one anthro big enough to call a giant, and I pray that I'm wrong." "Babe?" "Chris, you're the only one still
out there! COME ON!!!!!!!!" Suddenly, a huge metal foot landed right in
front of him. The shock waves from the
footfall were actually big enough to short out his tank! His radio still functioned. "HEEELLLLLP!!!!!!!!!!" "What the--Chris, I told
you to move it!" Babe shouted
over the radio. "Hang on, I'm coming."
Babe's tank zoomed up as Chris jumped from his tank. He grabbed hold of the hatch, knowing that
there was no time for him to climb in.
He hung on as Babe shot back toward the fortress. When they were about half-way there, the tank
stopped. Chris could hear the radio
where he stood. "Max, I'm getting out."
"Babe?!!!
Babe, get back here!!!!"
"Negative, Max. I still have
the bomb Mitchel gave me. I might be able to stop James right
here." Chris slowly started to
open the tank hatch. He fell off when he
saw the robot inside. The robot jumped
out of the tank, holding a metal ball in his hand. Chris watched as he flew off. He came to his senses and jumped into the
tank, speeding the rest of the way back.
Babe squeezed his eyes shut as he flew toward
Player's Gigantic form. "I
can't believe this. I have to destroy
one of my closest friends if I want to win this battle. How did they find you, James? How?!" He opened his eyes and flew above Player's
head. Player looked up at him and
reached a massive hand up to grab at him.
Babe activated the bomb and let it fall from his hands. He watched as it fell down, bounced on
Player's hand, then continued to fall until it landed
on Player's nose. Babe counted down the
seconds until the bomb would activate, steeling himself for the electrical
surge. Half-way through the count, the
bomb dropped off of Player's nose and plummeted to the ground. It exploded in mid-air, short curcuiting at least thirty robots before it hit the
ground. Babe looked at Player, expecting
to see him about to fall, but he hadn't changed a bit. "The
bomb didn't work. THE
DAMN BOMB DIDN"T WORK!!!!!!!!!!" Babe turned around and blasted back to the
fortress. He was nearly there when he
saw the eleven robots slowly advancing from the side. He changed course and landed in front of
them. His cannon was
out and charged before he even glanced at the robots. When he looked, his arm dropped. It changed back into a robotic arm and hand,
and Babe knew he would never be able to use it so easily again. Before him were ten frighteningly familiar
faces, each one from the time before he'd become the Protector. Sarrah was among
them. Babe laid
where he was, waiting for his friends to kill him, wanting them to kill him
now, before he had to suffer anymore.
Thoughts of Jimmy and Mitchel came
unbidden. Horrific images of them, Dana,
Jesse, and Max all dead and robots themselves wound their way through his
mind. There were loud shouts as men from
the tanks that had followed him jumped out and ran back into the fortress. Right then, Babe could hear every anthro in
the base, above them all he could hear anthros
screaming. The robots had broken
through. The sound of a cannon being
charged, followed by nine more, drowned out the screaming. "I
can't win. I can't shoot at my
friends. I tried and it failed! James wasn't affected at all by the blast! I'm finally going to die..." Babe could hear Dana's voice right then. She was shouting at Jesse to fire at the
robots surrounding him. He glanced in
her direction and saw Steve's robotic form flying toward them. "NO!!!!!!!!!" He jumped up and activated his wings in
mid-air. Steve was closing in on them
fast, and no one except Babe had seen him so far. His arm cannon activated instantly and fired
a single shot before Steve fired one of his own...
Whammm!!!!! Whammm!!!!!
Babe's shot hit right after Steve's. Steve grunted when the shot hit him, but
didn't move except to whirled around and snarle at
Babe when he saw him, then lunge. Babe was shocked to see how little of an
effect his cannon had made on Steve, but was more shocked by Dana. She had seen Steve's shot just before it had
exploded, and had managed to dive to safety before it would have gotten
her. When she'd stood back up, her arm
had a huge gash in it that went down to the bone. She winced at the pain, but didn't let up her
gunfire as more and more robots started to swarm around her. Babe wanted to fly over and help her, but
Steve slammed into him and brought him to the ground. He fought against Steve with as much force as
he could, but it was no use. Steve was
too strong. Steve was smiling at
him. "It's
all because of YOU that I'm like this, robot.
I've been wanting to do this ever since I woke
up in this damn body." Babe
struggled as Steve brought out his arm cannon and pointed it at point-blank
range right at Babe's face. There was a
loud boom right behind them, which was enough to shake Steve's grip, enabling
Babe to break free. "GET AWAY FROM BABE, YOU DAMNED ROBOTS!!!!!!" Babe recognized the voice and turned to see
Chris zooming toward them. Steve
twitched and pressed a button that had been hidden in his other arm. Instantly, all of Babe's friends that had
been turned into robots flew into the sky, along with the tremendous roar as
Player's rockets boosted him up as well.
Steve grimaced one last time. "I still won't forget you, robot. We have a score to settle." With those specific robots gone, Babe was
able to quickly destroy the remaining robots still there. The dust settled enough for Babe to see what
kind of damage had been done. His first
thought was to help Dana, but when he went to look for her, Max stopped him and
said they had her in intensive care.
Babe sighed and flew back outside to thank Chris. He found Chris talking with Mitchel, who was beaming with pride. "YOU
built THAT?!!!!" Chris shouted
and pointed toward Mitchel's tank. "How the hell did YOU know what you were doing?!" Babe laughed and landed behind them. "Hey Mitchel, thanks for the tank. That
thing is incredible." Chris
smiled. "Yeah, that's what Chris was saying until he found out that I made
it. Now he can't get over that
fact!" Chris wanted to say
something, but he was trying harder not to stare at Babe. Babe's smile vanished. "Chris,
I wanted to thank YOU as well."
"What did I do?"
"What did you do?!!"
Babe couldn't believe that Chris had asked that question. "Chris,
you are the first adult anthro that's even spoken to me! I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever be
noticed!" "I don't get
it..." "Chris, when we were in
those tanks and you didn't know who I was, you talked to me like I was a real
person. The ONLY ones who did that
before you were the ones who had taken time to actually try talking to
me!" He smiled down at Mitchel. "I have a family again because of one
kid's interest in mechanics... I had a
friend while we were in battle."
He turned back to Chris. "Can we be those friends again? I would like it so much if we could..." Chris was already smiling. "You
mean that? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!"
Chris walked away, feeling happier than he had in a
long time. "Finally!" He thought.
"Someone
who's as different as me! Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't laugh at my
colors..." Chris busied himself
by helping get rid of rubble, then building back the
pieces of wall that had been destroyed.
They had been lucky this time. No
one had been killed, though there were more than double the
number of anthros in intensive care than
usual. He checked on his tank after a
while and was able to get it running again.
He brought it back to the base and searched for Mitchel. When he found him, he showed Mitchel his tank. "Whaddaya
say? Can you make mine like
Babe's?" Mitchel
just smiled, crawled under Chris' tank, and started working on it.
----