----
Chris frowned at all the fuss everyone made over
Max. He was being left out again! Anthros had come in
droves to see MAX, and only him. Chris
sat down a few feet away from the crowd, silently wishing that they would act
like that over him. Mitchel
popped out of the crowd, along with Jimmy.
They ran over and hugged Chris tight, causing him to cry. "Chris,
we missed you!" "I missed you
guys too..." He embraced them
for as long as they let him, sighing happily.
"Is this how Babe felt?" He thought.
Maybe this was the reason he hated being a robot... It dawned on Chris just exactly what Babe had
been through. The crushing realization
that he would live long past his friends suddenly weighed down on him. He was going to live for as long as his body
kept running... Mitchel
forced those thoughts away as he brought out some tools. "Chris,
can you deactivate yourself? I kinda
want to get rid of that tracer..."
Chris complied and laid down by Max, who had already turned his systems
off for Mitchel.
He could feel the hours pass. "This is what it all feels like... No wonder Babe hates it so much." His thoughts were the only things that kept
him company. "He never had a chance at a family, at a real life among the rest
of us. Max and I just lost that chance
in order to stay alive... Why did we do
it? Was helping Babe the only
reason? Maybe I should have just let us die..." He
jerked and forced himself to stop thinking like that. "Things
will be different for me and Max. We
won't have the same things happen to us that happened to Babe. We'll be able to enjoy this chance at
life. We won't be as lonely as he
was... Will we? Damn it, I NEED to stop thinking like
this! Right now we have to concentrate
on stopping the robots." Mitchel's voice broke through his thoughts. "Guys,
you're both finished. You can get up
now." Chris started
reactivating his systems. His eyes
opened, movement came back to him. He
sat up and stretched, relieved that the tracer was out for good. He started for the city, but stopped when no
one followed him. Mitchel
was bent over Max, looking worried. "Mitch, what's wrong?" Mitchel was working
frantically on Max, trying to get him to do something. "He
can't move! His systems came back
online, then shut off!!!! I can't find the problem anywhere!!!!" Curious, Chris came back over. By now the crowd had diminished greatly,
leaving only Jesse, Dana, Jimmy, himself, Max and Mitchel. The sound of rockets came overhead. Chris looked up as Babe landed on the
hillside. He ran over, laughing with
joy. The laughter was cut short as he
was told the problem.
"What can
we do?!" Babe asked,
fearful. "Is there a part or something that I can give him?" Mitchel sighed and
looked up from Max. "I'm not sure. I can't find
anything wrong with him. It's like he
had something extra added when he was made that I took out, but I can't figure ouut what it is. I
was about to try putting the tracer back in to see if that helped." Babe scanned Max's limp form, hoping to find
the problem. Like Mitchel,
he found nothing wrong. "Max, can you hear me?" He bent down closer to Max's head. "Max,
we'll get you back up and running. I
swear it."
Max heard every word they spoke. "Thanks
Babe, but Mitchel's my only hope. I can't--wait! Get one of the anthros
from the city trap! They should know how
I work!!!!" He wanted to shout
at them, but the only system he had online was his ears. He couldn't speak, couldn't see, couldn't move; he was stuck like this forever unless someone
figured out what he'd just thought of. Mitchel kept talking to him as he worked, perhaps as a
stress reliever, or for some other reason, but whatever it was, it felt good to
hear his voice. "Max, while I keep working, I want you to try to talk. Maybe something'll happen and I'll get it
right. Just keep trying to talk,
okay?" Of course, Max tried,
but he knew it was no use. It seemed
that Mitchel knew it as well, and his voice was
starting to break up. "Don't--don't stop trying Max. I'll find--find out what went wr--wrong. Just talk a--and everything will be
fine..." Mitchel
stopped talking and slammed a fist on the ground by Max's head. Max could hear him cry, wanted to comfort
him, but also knew that the only way to fix him would be to get another
anthro. Mitchel
sobbed on his chest. "C'mon Max... Don't stop...
Whatever you do, keep fighting..." Max wanted so much to reach up a hand and
hold Mitchel, but he couldn't.
Chris continued to stare at Max. "Guys,
what should we do? I mean--is there
anything we CAN do? He looks so weak and
helpless... What happened to him
anyway?" Chris turned to Babe
as he gasped. Babe's hand was to his
mouth, like he'd just realized something.
"Mitch, Max has a virus!!!!!" "What--" Mitchel sniffed. "What
do you mean?" "I had one a
long time ago that made me completely stop moving! I felt like I couldn't breath or
anything! Plug into Max's main core and
find the virus!!!!!!" The idea
brought Mitchel's hopes up. "You
mean like a computer virus?" "Exactly!"
"Chris, could you go get my laptop that has the blueprints for my
tank? It has a cleanser on it that might
help. I think Babe's right." Chris glanced at Babe, who was on the verge
of biting non-existant fingernails. The sight made him chuckle as he took
off. "Some
habits are hard to break I guess..."
An hour later, Max was back to normal. He blinked his eyes open and smiled. "Way
to go, guys." Everyone cheered
when he spoke. He sat up and stretched, wondering
what the virus would've done to a normal computer. He chuckled at the thought and turned to
Babe. "So that really happened to you?" "Not so drastically. It came on me sorta
slow, gave me time to find Billy and have him find the problem first. Annoying side-effect of being a robot, isn't it."
Max stared at Babe. There had
been a look in his eye. It had seemed
like he'd meant it was only an annoyance, nothing more. Like he'd have been able to
cope with it. It made Max shudder
to think there were worse things out there.
They walked into the village, where the mayor was smiling and
waiting. Max smiled. He wasn't wearing as large a cast anymore,
and limping everywhere, but without crutches.
The cast was in fact only wrapped around his foot. "Max! We all thought you were dead!" "So did I,
until Chris helped me out. I--augh!!!!" He fell to his knees, holding his chest. His system was shutting down! This time Mitchel
was prepared. "Max, don't fight it! Let
it take over. I'll fix it in the welding
shop. Hell, I'll make you a body like
Babe's." Max's
hearing started to fade away too as Mitchel turned to
Chris. He faintly heard Mitchel tell Chris that he would get one as well. After that, he couldn't even tell when he was
being moved.
Babe helped as much as he could, handing
Mitchel parts and tools when he asked for them,
basically dreading every second. Once,
while they were working, he saw the owner of the welding shop leave. Before he could see where the anthro went, Mitchel asked for another part. Babe gave him a robotic hand and waited for Mitchel to ask for something else. Hours passed without notice. They attracted a crowd that went beyond those
who were still trying to learn how Mitchel built
things. Before long, they had to ask
some to leave, just so they could have room to work. Jimmy broke through the crowd and sat down by
Mitchel. "Can I help?" "Jimmy, could you hand me that
wrench?" Mitchel
pointed to one sitting on a counter.
Jimmy brought it over and sat down by Babe. Babe handed him the foot he was about to ask
for and leaned back to grab the next leg piece.
Mitchel was sweating and getting ever more
covered in grease. He finished upgrading
Chris by midnight, and started working on Max.
"Babe, since Chris is here,
you can go now. You need some
rest." Babe frowned. "And
you don't? Mitchel,
if you don't get some sleep, you'll fall over while you work on Max. How do you plan to stay awake?" "I was able to do it when I worked on
you, and I can do it now. Chris, hand me
that energy core, would you?"
Chris obliged and reached for it.
Babe grabbed it and handed it to Chris before he left. It felt colder outside than it normal should. His sensors said it was fine, actually being
a little warmer than normal. He still
couldn't stop the chill, though. His
advanced hearing picked up a faint conversation. "I'm
telling ya, the kid took apart our robots and made 'em like that renegade!" "And I'm telling YOU that there is no
way he could have. NONE of our robots
act like the renegade. It's not possible
for them to. The programing
is too complicated for such a thing to happen." "BUT IT HAPPENED! I watched him do the first one! Look, just start making the robots out of the
super metal I sent ya. I tested it myself, and it's much stronger
than any we've got." "I have
tested it as well, and I must say I'm pleased with the results. It's perfect for the project we've got going." "Take To, huh?" "Yes, that one. That robot was our most effective tool in this
war. With the metal you sent us, it's
bound to be unbeatable."
"That's what ya claimed last time, but
the renegade beat it the third time it came.
I was even able to get the scematics for the
kid's robots!" Babe thought
back to his battles. There hadn't been
many robots he'd had to fight more than once...
He crept around a corner to see who was talking. Thanks to his new vision, he was able to make
out the figure speaking into his phone.
It was the owner of the welding shop!
"Who are you talking to?!!!" Babe shouted and started walking toward the
anthro. As he came closer, he activated
his cannon and shot to the side, hoping to make the anthro fall. Instead, the anthro's
leg came off, revealing small wires... "A robot... You're a robot!!!!" He started shooting to kill, but the anthro
was too fast. It took to the sky in a
rocket pack, pumping wings that now looked unbelievably fake. The griffin was going faster than any other
robot Babe had seen, and when he scanned it, he found out that the robot had no
weaponry hidden inside it, only wires that made it function. Because of all the weight it didn't have, it
was able to outfly Babe as he took chase. Babe returned to the village at sunrise,
defeated.
--